#150 - Brewing Grit & Growth: Darrel Grumman, CEO of Bubbles Tea Company | Mark Perkins, The Necessary Entrepreneur

0:00 If you want to go into this world of operating a business, you have to have massive grit. There's no one coming to save you. There's no one coming to give you kudos on the things that you actually should behind the scenes. They don't care about that. But everything that happens is definitely your fault too. Today on The Necessary Entrepreneur, we're joined by Darrell Grumman.

0:40 Darrell's the CEO and franchiser of Bubbles Tea and Juice Company. I'm pumped about the conversation today about this business. Since acquiring the brand in 2024, Darrell's expanded its presence across central Ohio, introducing innovative concepts like mobile units and a revamp menu. Today we're gonna delve into his journey of franchise ownership, the evolving beverage industry, and his vision for the future of Bubbles Tea. Basically, this is a really nice guy who's busting his ass in entrepreneurship. So welcome to the party. So we were talking a little bit, but welcome to Cincinnati. And we were talking a little bit about the evolution of just business and entrepreneurship and where you guys are. And some days it feels like it's all worth it. And some days it feels like what the hell am I doing?

1:23 Totally. uh Yeah, mean we're about a year, a little over a year in, we took over last year in July the bulk of the stores. Before that we had one of our own and we had another one in the works. um so to your point, being a year in, we're like in the throes of, you hear a lot of stories about entrepreneurs and like the hardships and like the long days, the long hours and they'll talk all day about that stuff and. I feel like we're, me personally, guess I'll speak for myself is that I feel like we're right at that inflection point of feeling a lot of that. And it's starting to get heavy, right? Like, I mean, we're just at the point where it's starting to get heavy, where you're starting to, after 12 months and you're starting to see the onion peel back and you're starting to see some of the layers and uh gaining an appreciation, I guess, for.

2:18 what it is to operate an organization that's, you know, we're at like about 70 people right now. We came from like 104 when we took over and there's a lot of that, I think, and talking to the founder, who we're really good friends with, known for many years, coming out of COVID, that there was a lot of complacency built. I feel like across the workforce, especially in the hourly employees, folks that the younger generation that doesn't necessarily need a job, they can always move back in with mom and dad. So they're like, whatever, I don't need this anymore.

3:00 it was like a weird shift that he experienced um from they need us to get a job and now we need them. And it's like a weird dynamic. so when we took over, had about a hundred people or so and we found that there was just a lot of fat if you will and there was just a lot of people standing around waiting for the ball to drop and the balls didn't drop very often and so it was just a lot of cleanup effort. What's been your guys' to, I think it was Warren Buffett or Charlie Munger that said, show me the incentive, I'll show you the outcome? So, what's incentive look like as you guys build this?

3:43 You've gone from 100 employees to 70 employees. I don't think everybody necessarily wants to be an entrepreneur and they definitely shouldn't. But they're always looking for personal and financial and business and job growth all the time. So what's the incentive look like for these employees as you grow? What's that look like for these 70 people in all the future? Employees that come to work for you Yeah, I think something that has come from some of the coaching and an EQ work that we've done in the past pops up a lot for me uh in the process of being a leader. uh And I see a lot of potential in our people at different levels.

4:23 to answer your question, guess, for managers, see For instance, there's a lady that's been with the Bubbles for a while. She manages multiples of our locations and she's phenomenal. She's committed to it. She's dedicated to it. She puts her life into it. uh for her, like I never want to see someone stay at Bubbles, right? Like when it comes to, we're making smoothies and boba tea. Like I don't want you making boba tea for the next 50 years of your life. That's crazy. But what I do want is I want you to come in and I want you to learn something. Like whether it's learning how to mop the floor and sweep, or if it's learning to lock the door when you close at night. Like simple things like that that you can take foundationally into your life and create something greater or just show up prepared at whatever you're doing.

5:13 ah I tell people all the time that my experience and the things that I do now are so dependent on the foundation that I built in a customer service electric company call center, like the first four years of me out of high school. I started as an intern in high school, I went to a career center, and then I worked at the power company for four and a half years or so as a customer service rep. Coming out of high school, you deal with all kinds of shit. I had an interesting ... upbringing, uh know, single mom, five kids, and it was rough sometimes for sure, but you dealing with other people that are irate or, you know, as somebody right out of high school, you're dealing with some complex issues, and being able to keep your cool and still talk to people, meet people where they are, and uh bring some comfort to them in some kind of way, uh depending on what the situation is, that's some valuable shit.

6:17 And it's applicable to any walk of life, feel like. so, to my point is, for a lot of our employees that are under 18, the bulk of them, uh for them specifically, I just want them to learn something that they can take with them. I don't want them to be a uh career bubble tea person, but I want them to be able to say, I'm ready for the next thing. What's your approach to help them learn and teach them? ah Caring. think meeting them where they are and showing them that you actually care.

6:59 ah I've never been the type of person to ever ask somebody to do something I wouldn't be willing to do myself. ah And so getting my hands dirty, ah working alongside them, showing them that we're not just some, I guess, company that's going to like We don't have some C-suite that everyone's sitting up in, like, cracking the whip at these kids to make tea at the end of the day. It's like, no, it's not that at all. It's like, my hands are going to get as dirty as your hands, if not dirtier, and we're going to do it together. uh And so, you know, a lot of the mobile events and stuff like that, I mentioned it before, is that we brought that on this year, and so we do a lot of work on that uh alongside them.

7:46 uh I mean, shit, if it's ... I think when we took over one of the stores that we did up north near Cleveland, there was a day that we had uh my daughter, she's my youngest daughter. She's she was 11 at the time. But we went up there and there was a barista working and uh we went up to kind of clean up the place because it was a mess. It terrible. And uh so when we got up there, I brought a flathead screwdrivers and we had like a steam cleaner. And boy, we were for about three hours on our hands and knees scraping. Taco Bell grease from the previous tenant out of the floor in the back. That is a nasty job. And I finally, if I could tell you like the dirty looks that that barista gave me, she's like, why the hell are you doing that?

8:30 I'm like, look around, who else is gonna do it? Are you gonna do it? Let's do it together. Like, cause you get to have a clean environment to work in. uh You matter. Like that's, they matter. Pretty important culturally. Yeah, I think so. I think some of the people that I look up to as mentors um carry the same sort of grit and um kind of ruthlessness to what they do. And I think on some levels it's necessary in a lot of ways. What those mentors, I don't usually say, you have to name them or who are they, but em what I know is it's really hard to do it on your own, anything.

9:15 You need a good team. And if you have to figure out on your own, it's going to take you longer and you're going to need more runway and you're going to have to have more grit and probably more discipline because you're going to have to make sure you're going to see it through and it's going to feel tougher every day. if you can find a mentor, there's a challenge in that is Who should you pick as a mentor or do you wait for them just to show up? So as you reflect on yours, how are you impacted them? How did they show up? How did you connect with them? Was it intentional or not? Yeah, um I think a lot of it was subconsciously intentional uh for most of the people that I consider to be mentors.

9:57 uh Were they guys? Did they go back to being raised by a single mom? Not a dad and your wife probably as much? I definitely had a dad in my life uh They got divorced when I was young so it was like the whole you know every other weekend kind of thing and um But I'll say as I got older that relationship didn't percolate into the things that you know what you're gonna do Yeah exactly I think uh Yeah, I don't yeah It's a good yeah, I mean uh I don't regret the things and also every now and then you might have a moment where you're like man, you know, that's really cool.

10:38 I'm really happy for that kid or you'll see a kid with his dad. I'm like man Yeah, what could have been cool, Sure, but you know what we get to do but to your point I think that when it comes to mentors, one of them I would have to say is And I don't mind mentioning it's it's my wife's grandfather I'm gonna get emotional talking about but uh When we got married, I didn't have a lot of guidance, I guess, in life. No, it wasn't pointed at all.

11:19 I was making some random good decisions, and I had made some bad decisions, too. um And there was never really a North Star, if you will, to say like, that's where I want to go, that's what I want to do. to be clear, he was a uh lifelong um is, a lifelong engineer. worked for the state of Ohio and made his career that way and had a beautiful family and uh a beautiful career in life uh and financial, really responsible, something I had no clue about. so actually when we got married, one of his stipulations was that we...

12:00 He came to me and it was a green binder. It was a one inch binder that he showed up with and in that binder was a number of things that was talking about, you know, uh things that have made him successful in his life. And one of them was the Wheel of Life. And it was like a literal wheel. And I think it had, I'm gonna get this wrong. So I hope he never hears this, but like, uh it probably had eight or something spokes on it. But the point was, is like you had your marriage, you had children. You had your family as a whole, had your career, you have your faith, you have all these different spokes. And the whole point of it that he was trying to deliver was that if you're going to be a leader in this family, uh you get to have a good handle on all of these things.

12:45 And they all get to be in sync. And sometimes they're going to fall out of sync, but know that someone's here to help you. Like someone's here to support. And never really had that. Yeah, it was it was awesome, and it took me probably ten years to really Which sounds crazy, but it took me ten years to really own it and understand it and start to benefit from it like oh on in those 10 years because I think what can happen on these podcasts, I try not to make it entertainment like we're all growing and learning together. What was happening in those 10 years of failure and not doing the right thing and not balancing stuff, what's that look like and how do you keep it together for 10 years so you put yourself in a spot where you can do these business and entrepreneurial things?

13:31 Yeah, so my wife and I got married when we were 20. We dated for six months ah and then we were engaged for six months and then we got married. So we are coming up on 20 years now. um that during. you. Yeah, it's cool. ah I love I love her. She's my best friend. Like we we we do life. It's great. ah She keeps. she does for sure. Yeah, Shout out. I love you, baby. ah So the 10 years where you thought you were learning from 20 to 30. I mean they say that in men our frontal cortex doesn't even form until like 25 to 28. So by default you were still a kid.

14:13 For sure. And yeah, so I was fortunate that I, you know, in that customer service job, I stayed with that electric company ah for 17 years. So all through my 20s I was there, I was progressing through uh different jobs. I I went from the customer service stuff to I was an administrative associate for like 40 engineers, which was like so cool and so boring and weird at the same time. It was nuts. Because if you've ever been around engineers, man, like they have a way of doing things and like I was more of a They're system people. You're more like, let's throw it to the wind, dude. Shit, who cares if they did it all that way? Just come on.

14:53 But no, so I did that for a while and then I got into some compliance stuff. I did some cyber security things. uh So I stayed in that path, I guess. So it was kind of uh an umbrella. I always felt like, because I saw a lot of people, a lot of friends of mine that would go in and out of jobs and in and out of different things. it was like, at some point, from what I understand, it was cool to like. be with a company for two years and then go to a different company for two years and because you're gaining experience. I remember some people talking about that and I was like, shit, I'm probably going to retire here. Like this is going to be my forever. And then during that time I started getting curious. I actually did some woodworking and it started very oddly.

15:37 I made my daughter a little bed for her American Girl doll. We had our first child when we were like 25, think. And so I made her this little bed, I guess that was my first cut at entrepreneurial activities, I guess, if you call it that. But I made her a doll bed, and my wife posted it, everybody wanted a doll bed, so I started making doll beds. then somebody was like, hey, can you do a desk? And I was like, yeah, probably, in my apartment, sure. And so I made a desk, and then I did the dining tables. And so for about three years, I did, as a side gig, I made like 40, 50K a year. It's a side hustle. in revenue and sales, uh margin though because you were the one doing the work.

16:19 It like 70 % margin. and it was killing me. yeah. so with that, I hit a point where it was like, I'm building and doing these things. I start at 8 a.m. or 8 p.m. when the kids go to bed and I'll go until 1, 2 in the morning and then I got to be up at 5 30 ah and go to work. And so it was I did that for about three years and it hit a point where it was like, you just got to stop and um or go all the way in. And at that point, I just wasn't ready eh in hindsight. I just wasn't ready for it. And we hadn't financially prepared ourselves to even attempt it at that point in time.

17:00 so um right about the same time, I got a job offer to do some consulting work down in Texas. And so we moved to Texas for two years. That was uh right around COVID, which ended up being a blessing. And um we went down to Texas. It was, I would say, a little bit more lenient down there than was in Ohio during that time. So we had a little bit more freedom, but it was also like a pain in the ass because like all of a sudden nobody wanted to meet you, nobody wanted to go out of their house. So we were there for about two years and then our girls collectively overrode my position and were like, we get to go home. So consulting, how did that arrive, that opportunity?

17:43 Yeah, I had been doing, I met a guy at a conference, a utility conference in Baltimore actually. uh Really great guy, still know him, fantastic family. him and I just clicked like when I saw him and uh I was trying to do more so I won't name the company that I was with before for the 17 years but I hit a point when I was there, I was going out doing a lot of advocacy for the company. I uh was in the compliance field, was em doing a lot of audit activities, like that, industry interactions. I had applied for a few positions internally to get to management, because I knew I wanted something else.

18:23 I was getting stale. When I met this guy, I told him, was like, hey, here's what I'm doing, here's what I've been doing, here's some of the ideas I had, and I got shot down. I don't think that this company's going to be for me forever. He goes, just hold the phone. I'm gonna call you on Monday and we're gonna get something going because I'm looking for you. Like I'm looking for that. so ah yeah, that Monday we had a call. uh And I think I made the decision, wife and I had the conversation about it and we almost didn't do it, but we did. And I think it was like 35 days after that, something like that, that we were down in Fort Worth and living life.

19:07 When you reflect on it, was it good or bad that you did that? It was exponentially good. There's not a piece of that experience that both my wife and I have this conversation every now and then that we would not be where we are today had we not done that. um Because as a family, it created a situation where she is very close to her family, where I'm a little bit more distant, not for a lack of love, it's just a different mentality, a different family dynamics. um So for her it was like going out on an island because we didn't know anybody down there Her closest family was in Houston, which if you're familiar with Texas Four states away, but like um and so when we down there All we had was each other.

19:54 It was the four of us and we grew uh Tremendously in that time like I mean we were able to get very close together I we had like nerf gun fights in the house like through kovat we had you know, Marvel movie marathons I remember doing and different things like that. But um we are in a lot of ways, we also contribute that growth to our girls because both of them being in school, being in the situation with COVID and stuff, there weren't a lot of opportunities to meet people and try to make it normal, if you will, to like try to make a home down there. And um it's just so happens that our kids are They just like to talk to everybody and so they go to school and they're making friends and like You know 12 months into that thing It was like all these people that were starting me the only reason we met them is because our kids put their neck out there Not because we did we were too busy ah and so we started to make some really good friends and but it was an attribute to them and what they were kind of creating in the world which in hindsight was really cool after having done all the EQ stuff that we've done together and ah It was like, wow, we made some good decisions.

21:07 What advice if any employees come to you or you find yourself in a mentorship role, um did you seek out advice when you were thinking about going to Fort Worth? Did you talk to people or was just you and your wife's conversation? We did talk to a couple people. um There was uh a colleague that I worked with at the time. uh He had done some consulting himself. He worked for Cardinal Health and a few others. ah He traveled a lot internationally and stuff. so when I talked to him about it, he was like, freaking go, man. He was like, you've got to go. And so even when we talked to some of our personal friends, was like, guys, I hear what you're saying, but this is a crazy opportunity for you guys to go and.

21:48 try something and if it doesn't work like we knew very well like we talked about it like you know God forbid we got in a situation where we you know we went down there and it failed because my wife's parents they had moved to Hawaii at one point early on and um and they got there the job wasn't what he thought it was and they just had a freaking container bring their whole life down there and they lost like some of the stuff and it was crazy that expensive as hell the job didn't work through and now they're stuck on an island and it was like And so was like, honey, it's not an island, it's Fort Worth. There's a lot there. It was very, I will say the actual decision to pull the trigger and do it was very difficult to say, yes, it's happening.

22:32 uh But the idea around it was like, we gotta do it. So what advice do you give to folks and do you think in the future when they bring things like that to you? Because it's easy to be a person that you could find all the problems with it, right? Because really the only positive is, well, what could happen? It seems like a great opportunity, what could happen? You could come up with all the things that could happen that may, right? There's a lot more of those. So what do you garner and learn from the experience that you would tell others when they're evaluating something like that? Do you just always go? No, not always, but I mean... It's a weird thing though, because...

23:13 Yes, actually I'm gonna say yes, I would tell them to always go because here I am sitting I'm trying to think of reasons not to write but I would say go I mean unless you have some Compelling health reason, know or something that's like really stopping you because to be clear my wife was I would say Tremendously dependent upon her grandparents and her grandparents are you know like her parents? They they serve that role in her life for a very long time and they're getting elderly And there was a huge conversation of like we might not have another Christmas with them like they can't travel down here on an airplane like they can't do it and so ah There were a lot of real complications around us going and to your point we had every reason in the world not to The paycheck was nice.

23:59 That was a big positive But it was like at the end of the day the question that I was asking and that we had to ask ourselves is like are we gonna regret it if we didn't and I That would be the question that I would ask. Like, are you more afraid of regret or are you more afraid of failure? Because if you're more afraid of failure, get your ass on the plane and go. Because regret will eat you for life. But if you don't try it, like, you know, you gotta try it. Yeah, in this mastermind I was talking about, if you... There's all these studies, we're trying to figure out how to live our lives.

24:41 What's the purpose? What are we all doing here? Because then you hear people like, one thing I know is we're all gonna die. Okay, I get it. You consistently hear the majority of the things that people regret when they get to the end of their life are the things they didn't do. You hear that they don't dwell on what didn't work if they gave it their all. They don't dwell on usually the mistakes. No, they don't dwell on those things. That's a part of life. But you consistently hear the two or three things that they didn't do is what they regret because I think it's like, well, what could have been? You don't have the answer. And you'll never will. And I think also to double down on that is like how much it hurts when somebody else stepped in and did it.

25:28 And I think that uh actually, I we might get into this, like the bubbles, know, uh what we're at now is uh the situation that we were in was we had opened a store and we had talked to Eric Ling. He's the founder. He's like 20 years ago. that he founded the company and he was getting to the point where he was just kind of tired and just wanted to get out of operations. He and I had talked even before we went to Texas about doing something and so when it came back it was like, he approached me and I know you're opening the store or you guys, but I got some people that are potentially interested and what do you want to do?

26:14 And I was like, yeah, yeah, buying the business. And I was like, there's no fucking way I'm going to let somebody else. That was my just off the cuff, like no way. Um. I saw it as my you always I guess I always hear like em People talk about opportunities and sometimes an opportunity will hit you in the face and You regret not taking it or it's like, you know I'm going through life and I feel like this is my chance like this is my chance to do something that could be huge and I think that like just subconscious Some conscious feeling that I had was like, I loved the brand.

27:01 I thought the branding was, was fantastic. ah The following is there. I could clearly see through my communications with him about, about the business was like, there was a lot of things that weren't happening that ah I think was a symptom of COVID, but also I think it was a symptom of him just like, you know, being where he was with the business and kind of tired. and from a day-to-day energy standpoint, that I felt like I was fresh and ready to roll. Like, was ready for an opportunity. We had just come back from Texas. I was still working for a company that was based out of Texas and ah doing cybersecurity stuff, and it was like, this is good.

27:44 And the consulting stuff, I feel like in hindsight, prepared me in a lot of ways to take that jump. even though I knew I wasn't fully ready to do it. ah There were definitely some gaps I knew that I had, it was like, if I'm ever gonna try to do something massive, this is like handing to me on a silver platter was kind of the mindset around it. And I was like, there's no fucking way I'm gonna like open this one store and then let somebody take over the rest and then I'm gonna be kicking my ass for the rest of my life saying, man, you should have jumped in and taken the reins of that thing. seen a year and a half later that that was the right approach.

28:25 uh Yeah at times. I mean I'll be honest I mean at times right like there are times that I just want to throw my head through a window to be honest and and that's often I see a lot of like motivational podcast different things like that that I that I catch and read and get snippets of that were like people like man entrepreneurs are sick like There is a disease there's something wrong with you and and I I laugh about it, but also There's a real piece to that because you have to be willing in hindsight and again I'm only you know, I did the woodworking thing that was like, you know what it was ah But I'm a year half a year and a half or so into it I'm like, yeah, man I get excited to wake up in the morning get kicked in the nuts.

29:15 It's exciting and it sounds ridiculous to most people Uh, but it, it's something, but it hurts massively, man. You get your bank account down to zero. Like I heart, I had never had an anxiety attack in my life until about eight months ago. And it was like, uh, I felt like I was going to die. coming out of the winter. Oh, not for bubble tea at all, Yeah, and it was like, oh my god, were supposed to have built this big bank up in the summer. That didn't happen because of a number of circumstances that no one foresaw.

29:55 I mean, it was crazy. went, actually, from when we purchased the company, we had a total of 10 locations when we purchased it. There was a franchisee that was up north that had had some problems and was on getting evicted and things. You air compression is like, do you want to do that too? And I'm like, bring it on. Like, let's do this. I mean, my adrenaline still pumping, you know, a couple of months in I'm like, yeah, we could do whatever. And, uh, and so we took it on and good God, that was like my first, like got hit by a car overnight. That was one of the scraping the floors. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, at South park mall, actually, or that was a Eastwood mall in Youngstown.

30:39 If you've never been out there, um, it's an interesting town. uh It's not much going on but uh that that mall man, it's they they keep it pristine. Yeah, it's pretty cool. But but yeah, so we went actually from from one store to 10 to 14 and Then back down to I think we're at eight right now How's that feel? It feels liberating in some ways. I struggled with some I'm not one to really have an ego about it. Like I kind of don't care. I don't say I shouldn't say I don't care but like it's I It is what it is man.

31:21 I'm a numbers guy like I look at it if it's right is right I who am I to argue with it and I have emotions about it, but I sidelined my emotion about it pretty easily I like one of my I guess Attributes and flaws would be my ability to box things out and and like I'm lot of mental eyes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah and like it's like hey I like a moat I did this with emotions before the IEQ stuff we did like I mean I hadn't cried in probably 25 years before we did that EQ stuff and like let out like this big, you know thing and ah But I still I feel like over time. I've I'm starting to learn and learning Healthy way to compartmentalize things versus the unhealthy way to compartmentalize things like So like I would say a healthy version of that right would be if Headed to a manager's meeting in the morning and You know It's it was a rough week for the business right and so it's like a rah rah kind of thing that I got to bring to the table that morning and you know got two teenage daughters, so Every morning is a little rough but like you know if I let that get to me because I'm pissed off about something or if something bad happened at home my wife and I if we were arguing like I can't bring that in I got to compartmentalize I got a turn I got close that door and I got to open another one and I can't even think about that door and That's the healthy version the unhealthy version is like uh I mean gosh It all goes back to emotions for me because I would

33:01 turn off emotions to people and turn off people. like if I felt like something was hurting me or holding me back, instead of talking to the person, not necessarily to get a response, but to get, I guess closure maybe of the issue, I would just turn it off and walk away. Like, you're not working for me, we're just door closed, done. We're just Just done, not gonna. it serves to a degree right i think i think it comes like we're talking about before the comes with a lot of regret uh... i can be built in the air A of failure, a lot of failure and lot of losses through learning and growth.

33:45 Sure. So this journey you're at now with these eight locations, do you feel like you have a grasp on the business now or are you still getting that? I'm still getting it. definitely feel like we've... I mean, so when we took over, the company was in a really rough place. ah You wouldn't notice it because sales were decent, know, things like that. ah on the back end, things were rough. There were a number of managerial issues that were tough. had people just kind of around waiting for the ball to drop, like said before. um And so we went from... they were running something crazy like 40 % labor and like plus 30 inventory percent.

34:30 Like it was insanity. And it was like, came in, was like, it took me a couple of weeks and I was like, oh my God, like I am not a professional in running a business yet, but I can tell you right now, shit ain't gonna work. And so we gave the, my brother and I, cause he has done operations for a long time, retail operations. So he's got a mind for the operation side. I've got a mind for the business side, which is we work really well together. uh And uh I told him I was like dude we got to get it to 20 and 20 And he goes there's no fucking way we can't do that and I was like well We either do that or this ain't gonna work. Yeah You had to cut, like 40 % out of it. It's crazy. And so I had a lot of people pissed off at me for a while at first.

35:11 Like it's like this guy came in, he bought the stores, he's firing people, he's cutting this inventory. Like we can't have our store rooms full of product. How are we ever gonna serve the customer? ah We went from four people in the shop to two people, sometimes one person in the shop. Like how am I supposed to close the shop on my own? And fast forward to now, I mean, we are hovering around 20%. labor, 19 % labor in and out. uh Our inventory, fully loaded, I guess we're like maybe at 25%, 26 % labor, but uh in the stores, we're having around that 20 mark and uh our inventory hovers right around 22%. We do, we do.

35:55 And some of that is, some of that's calming. And I think that's some of the optimism that I have is I recently took over uh... the management operations of the franchise and so not only do we have our stores as a franchisee but also now serving on that franchise or model role because there are two other franchisees in ohio uh... and i have good relationship with them there for their fan near their fantastic operators and uh... they're feeling same struggle i am uh... in a lot of ways it's what's been natural to be able to support them uh... and we're just at the beginning phases of it but like to to have i guess honest and transparent conversations with them versus like I'm the franchise or franchise or you know and I'm telling you you got to do this and they don't have there weren't uh any corporate stores so it was just office people so like a couple of these franchisees they're like including myself right it's like the fuck are you telling me what to do you don't know like you're not operating a store right now you have no idea what I'm dealing with was valid or do you think the operations of the franchisor that they had some valid perspective?

37:04 they definitely had valid perspective. I won't I won't say that they don't and I think it was Communication was a huge problem ah There wasn't a lot of back-and-forth it was like hey we did this for the long time and you came in here changing these things and so like Sales went down. That's your fault and I was like well Sure, maybe I'll take some of that and I also will take the fact that you know Going from four people into us in a shop to one person in a shop, you're gonna have some growing pains with that. Like that person's now accountable for a lot more. And I think that's one of the things we've struggled with is uh for a long time, people that were in the organization were getting paid to do a job.

37:49 uh And that job is probably 25 % of what it is in most organizations. Should you pay for jobs or should you pay for outcomes? gotta pay for outcomes like yeah I mean like that I've always been of the mindset and I'm I bring the mindset to you know this and I with my daughters too is that I'm I don't you don't get paid first that's not the way this works like you get to show me what you got and I will I I will put you up on a mountain but you got to show me because especially now and I hate to use COVID but like I mean it's real I think that like you know post COVID and the the complacency the uh like the you need me sort of mentality and and it's it's more important than ever right now to like in my opinion to double down on that because it's like you you don't just get that's not the way life works and that's definitely not the way life is going to be.

38:50 uh That's the biggest thing. They could always go find another job. And I say they as people who are employees. I was an employee for a big part of my life. You were too, right? And so you could always go get another job. But what's that leading towards? If it's just another job that's going to be easier, if it's another job that the manager is going to let you do what you want to, but you're not challenging yourself and developing attributes and skills, what's that leading to? That's tough to be the person, though, that has to instill that mindset in folks if they didn't grow up with it, if they haven't been around it. That's a challenge that you're operating a tea company and they're making juice and making drinks and you're trying to tell them there's a bigger picture here. I'm sure that's a battle.

39:31 It is every day. and this could your wife better like you're right Yeah, you're gonna feel so good about yourself after you ace that tea, ah You know, there's so much truth to that, and I think that uh the, I actually am like halfway through the book right now, but I'm like glued to it, uh what is it, the hospitality, unrelenting hospitality? Will Godera. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think, That has landed with me so hard because I think it's something that we struggled with with some of the changes that we've made is keeping stellar customer service and uh I think to your point it comes back to ah It comes back to the customer and what you're doing for the customer and what you're making someone else feel so in in our EQ stuff that we did one of the things that has stuck with us and Sucked for me.

40:29 I guess is when in doubt focus out like because a lot of us speaking for myself, definitely. We get so caught up in our own shit and woe is me, somebody cut me off or I stubbed my toe on the bed or I burned that tea or I screwed up that smoothie. at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. And then you start doubting yourself and all that thing. And what has worked for me... Through those trainings and and the experiences I had with it and coaching it and and things as It you can't ah It's very difficult to get down on yourself when you make someone else smile is Really hard to feel bad when you're the source of someone else's joy Like I haven't met anybody yet that has had Like, you know, like you, you.

41:31 Yeah. Yeah. And it's not about, it's not about making yourself feel good. Like that's probably not the healthy way to look at the perspective. Isn't that a balance? A balance is we have these goals. We have these big goals that are our goals. We have this vision for our life that's our vision, but the only way to really achieve it is providing significant value in a marketplace and doing things for others. Sure. ah put that together. If you know it and you fundamentally believe it, that's good. So you're like, okay, I know for me to get what I want. This is back to the Zig Ziglar days. For me to get what I want, I got to help a lot more people get what they want.

42:13 Once you understand it, it's easy. But before you do, it doesn't make any sense. It's like, these are my goals. This is what I want. You're not doing that for me. You have to help me live my life better. Yeah, it's tough. It is tough. I you know, I think we try to Emulate I've been trying to emulate in some ways My daughter my 15 year old daughter and I were talking about this the other day as I said, you know It's really easy because she actually because she works for us like she does some work and she's probably one of the best baristas we have actually and she's fantastic even on her own and She said something about the culture and she goes because I have been focused a lot about culture been talking about a lot and um and she overhears these things and and she's like dad Why don't they just get it like if I don't get it?

43:05 She's like, why don't you just like and I I said you have to understand your perspective is different because you're my child and These are people that come from different families different value structures different and not that there's anything wrong with it, but it's just different and I said uh the Who you are today is because your mom and I facilitated that That reality for you like right we we we hold you accountable like if you don't do the dishes I'm gonna be on your ass I don't care if it's 11 o'clock at night like you know it had to get done So you're get it done and you it's about what you do when we're not here That's that's who you be ah And I said it's easy to do when you're my kid because I'll just ground you like you know I can't ground these kids.

43:55 it's also, it's the environment that she's around all the time that's even unintentional, right? It's when she's around you hearing about culture, you're just constantly breathing fire about it because it's your entire professional world. And what you know is, if you don't solve this and fulfill the vision that you have, you can't connect it to giving your family the life that you want either. And so I bet, what I remember as being a kid, and what adults lose track of is they're always listening. I was always listening and I heard everything.

44:36 And so the culture that you give her at home by default, she's being impacted by that every moment. And so even though you put her in the environment, it's what you go home to. It's a struggle with education these days. get in battles with people about this and I'm like, Hey, listen, at the end of day, when you go home at night, if it's important for those kids in that house, I don't care the reason why it's not or whatever, but if it is, doesn't matter, you can be poor, you can be destitute, if when those kids come home at night, that it is important, it's an important part of your family to make sure they do their work, that they learn. If that is, they're gonna be a better student. It's not the school's fault, it's not the other kid's fault they're around, and so she has the opportunity and the benefit to be around it all the time.

45:19 That's somewhat to your point, right? It's as if... your business is also a school. But when they leave you, they go back to the environment that they were born in, that they choose to be around, and who they're impacting. And usually, that's going to have a bigger influence than the four-hour shift they clock in for you. Totally it and it was the same thing going back I price I sound like a broke record but the same game going back to those the trainings that we did like the EQ stuff because it was a situation where And to be clear when we started it It was like a you go through different phases, right? like you there's like a three a three day thing and then you go through a four day thing and then uh there's like a six month thing where you go for multiple weekends or something and uh and so to that point like you have the first three days I thought it was bullshit.

46:10 Yeah yeah yeah it was and and I thought was bullshit I wasn't going to share my feelings I hadn't cried I was like I don't but like through it I was like my god this is like valuable and there's something here for me and blah blah blah blah and down the road and like uh but those those people that were in that myself included like. The the whole point was to take that first course and then quickly get to the next one and then quickly get to the next one me I thought it was a pyramid scheme at first and I was like this is bullshit like you just want my money like you just want me to be here fill a seat and in hindsight the reality is exactly what you said and it's even worse when you're an adult because like you already have that learned structure of life and expectations and your environment that You go through those three days and it could be the most beautiful three days.

47:00 You could feel most acknowledged you've ever felt in your life. Like, uh, you can feel like you're on top of the mountain and then you go home and your rent's overdue and the electricity gets turned off. You're late for work. And then what the fuck do you real? And, and so, but to that point is like when, when the kids go home, uh, it is a challenge and it's a real challenge. And I do not have the silver silver bullet for it. I think. the I think the uh I think meeting people where they are whether it's a teenager or whether it's a uh five year old or or you know somebody that's retired and and you know in their elder years uh there's value to that to understand where they are so that you can support them and creating a different result because Yeah, give them a different narrative for life, man.

47:55 Yeah. About what's possible and what they could do. But you have to hear them. You can't judge them in the moment, right? You got to say, hey, listen, I don't know how this happened. The reality is it did. And I got your back while you're going through it. But just so you know, it can be different. Yeah, it can be different like I mean having a clean store for instance right like you come you you know had a lot of friends though when I was younger their houses were a mess man and even in my own experience I didn't have the best I Mean it's pretty bad, man. I'm just kidding You're going to have judgment right on the other side of there. my gosh. But I mean it's like You know them being able to come into a clean environment and say hey, I feel safe here like maybe it's not like you know I'm not in danger of my life But I feel safe in the sense that like I have a spot for my things I have I can come in I can lay my jacket down Nobody's gonna mess around with it.

48:46 I can uh you know, I have a snacks. I have a microwave I have a clean place to sit and take a break like There's music playing it's uplifting like and but that translates to the customer too like It's all cyclical like I think something I've heard on on one of your talks before they were just talking about like that customer experience But it starts with the it starts with the employee experience because if your employee experience sucks I got news for you. You ain't ever gonna get a customer in that door. That's gonna ever come back It's never gonna happen So, how the hell do you grow this thing from one to 14 down to eight? What's the, what's just give you a million bucks and you're good to go.

49:31 uh Let's just do that. Yeah, like, my god. ah I mean from here, right? I think there is a reality of it's not hidden to anybody that like brick and mortar is tough. It's really tough right now. ah The economy is not kind. Money is not cheap. ah And it's something that, you know, everybody I think at every level struggles with uh right now from business owner or if you're just living your life and Something that we're learning I would say through this year adding a couple mobile trailers to our to our our portfolio has been that Well, let me let me go back for a second the the previous when we took over everything the the intention and the Idea was that you needed foot traffic and the most possible place to get foot traffic is the mall Whether it's rain or shine doesn't matter cold 100 degrees outside doesn't matter people go to the mall and so I think what's kind of changed in what I had to enroll the you the previous owner in uh was that uh That's not necessarily a case.

50:43 You got to bring this shit to them like because now look at malls the malls are dying not all of them, but most of them are struggling big time and Like I said brick and mortar stuff, but our intention of opening like a few of the brick and mortars we had was like trying to bring it out of the mall and closer to the customer. Like how can we get like, you got the door dashes and the Uber eats, but how can I get our business integrated into their life? Like because in closer to their front door, if you will, because like it has to be an easier decision because the reality is, is whether you're bubble tea or whether you're coffee or like some kind of spice store or something like that, you're an extra, extra purchase.

51:27 Like people are still gonna eat, they're still gonna go to... or seven bucks, Yeah, it's extra. That's beyond the dessert. That's a different category of a Exactly, you have to consciously make a decision that hey, I'm gonna go get tacos and then I'm gonna go over I'm not gonna get a drink I'm gonna go over to bubbles and get a bubble tea or I'm gonna get a smoothie and it you know, you're you're probably doubling your lunch cost at that point and so um And so that you know, that's real and and I so bringing the product to them and making it more of a hey, this is This is something you can't live without that thing. That's what I've told the employees and our managers our team members is like We get to make this non-negotiable like especially with our managers my brother and I have this conversation often is like Bubbles gets to be non-negotiable like you have bubbles in your life Because it's great and you have a fantastic experience you come and there's music playing like people are happy people are smiling like you feel good like you have to there's like There's a thing that we talked about a long time ago where it's like in your mind you get like the serotonin or whatever it is.

52:41 I'm going to sound silly for a second, but like you get the dopamine effect and like it's it's it's subconscious and it just it's like the feel good. Like you come into something and it feels good. ah We have to be that. But that that's what we get to be. ah It's not easy to create. But. ah But we get to do that and I think through the trailers it's really cool and exciting to see because you are going out to, you know, like soccer tournaments, go to softball tournaments, go festivals and fairs and stuff like that. But it's cool because we've had, there's been a lot of people asking for a long time to get bubbles out of the mall, even in drive-throughs and things like that, which we haven't tackled yet.

53:24 And so I think, like the trailers are just a low cost entry. And it allows us to test out environments more adequately. Like if we wanted to move to Dayton or Cincinnati or Cleveland or something like that, it gives us the opportunity to, we can drop a trailer in and find out how it's gonna do. Great question. uh We did have a truck uh and the problem with it was I can't work it all the time. So from an insurance liability perspective, would say that was our biggest driver for it is that Most of our employees are teenagers and so logistically speaking having 18 year olds, 16 year old, whatever driving an RV for lack of better description.

54:15 Yeah, well, and yeah, and the idea was like if we are going to grow the business, I can't be working at festivals all weekend and all night. Like it just doesn't work. And my brother, you know, at that point, he can't either. But it's like... I feel like it's a stepping, you know, stepping process where, you know, you're gonna, you know, I'm gonna do it at first and really heavy and figure it out. How does it work? You know, all these things. And then, and then he's going to take over some of that and he's going to worry. then like right now, I would say we've in a really good spot where we have through the attrition period of our employees that we've been able to identify some rock stars and people that are doing really great work. Uh, and so working on the trailer is almost kind of a reward because, know, from like a tipping perspective and it gets you out of the shop usually they're going to pay that the folks are going to tip a little better uh...

55:04 it's more concentrated so like you're on there on your own sometimes and you're just humming man i mean you'll go uh... margin's just been way better with these trailers. But you gotta put it at the right spot. I'm sure you've learned like, there's a few events don't work well. The worst thing ever is to pull up to it a bit and like you're like four hours annually I've sold four drinks like what the fuck am I doing here? That's happened a lot man, and I you know I've actually there's a couple companies in Columbus that have food trucks. There's one in particular I don't mind mentioning her name dose Hermanos. uh They're fantastic. They have delicious food, but they in my opinion have done a phenomenal job of uh Operating their mobile operation like they that's where they started and right picking the right location their logistics Are fantastic.

55:55 They have a really great team uh The the CEO over there she's amazing uh Very involved in the community and I think just from a culture perspective It you know, everybody has their skeletons in the closet for sure, right? But uh I would say in my experience that uh they're they're doing it right and so We've been able to take a lot of cues from them and kind of learn because the mobile operations is the food truck industry is like a massive thing in itself. Like it's a whole nother universe and kind of cracking your way into it. I mean, I thought we did pretty good this year.

56:36 We had a good number of events and the schedule was pretty busy and we ended up adding a second trailer midway through the summer just because we needed it. And so I had some experience in that, like just building out trailers. And so now I know, like, you know, from insulating them to run and plumbing, I know what it takes to get it done ah and how fast we can do it. And, ah We haven't even cracked the surface like there's so much out there still available to us like yeah and but to your point it is very calculated risk and and it takes a lot of time and energy to scroll through and be present to the opportunities that exist to make sure that You know you're not putting yourself in shitty situations and missing out on opportunities that are much bigger than you know where you decided to park it this weekend it will happen, but It's definitely going to take some time to kind of grow through optimizing what it looks like to operate.

57:37 Do you see that's your growth? Big time. Is because of mobile ops? Big time. I think even from a franchising perspective, uh like I said recently, you know, moving over into that, putting that hat on. uh What I my vision for bubbles, I guess from day one is I said I want 50 stores from day one. That's that's and I still have that vision. Looks a little different because I think now my brain is like, OK, I've seen what I've seen. You know, we're we're growing and I'm still learning. I have a shit ton to learn still. but the way that the economy is going and, and, um, I think the demand from the customer and the explosion and popularity of food trucks and just, you know, the nostalgic of, you know, having that, I think it would be short-sighted for us not to consider mobile operations to be a pivotal part of our business.

58:37 and, I, to that extent. we're working to figure out, you how can we get in a Sprinter van? Because I mean, you know, I see, I see the potential of accessibility to people. think uh I, to the budding entrepreneurs that like want to do something, I think what came to mind for me was a conversation with my oldest daughter. We talk a lot, apparently. But the She wanted to do a pizza trailer and I was like, oh, yeah, we can do that That's cool. And it's like but what does it cost to get into that? Right? Like and and we kind of went through the numbers and had the conversation about and she's still interested in you know, we're gonna do something with it, but What what sparked my mind though is like how many people are out there?

59:27 I don't care if you're 18 or if you're 30 Like you're trying to figure some out like me with the woodworking, you know doing that like I tried to figure something out and it almost worked almost and ah if we can make this more accessible we have a stellar product our branding is great uh the the system works well and uh you know a three hundred thousand dollar SBA loan to get a brick and mortar that ties you down to a five to ten year lease agreement that ain't helping anybody right now like that that's tough and not you know, just an extra, you know, kick in the pants is like having to go through the grueling process with some of these landlords to prove yourself and you're like, dude, I'm just trying to, I'm just trying here.

1:00:20 I just want to get something started and it's almost impossible. Like some of the... They want see history. It's like, don't have any. I'm trying to make this happen. They want to see financials. Like, I don't have any. my god, I went through this like a couple months. I mean months ago. We just opened our newest location in Grandview uh It's a brick and mortar we opened in January, but you know as we were going through that process It was like well, we want to see tax returns, you know soon. I'm like, don't have that and they're like well, sorry Yeah, I'm like, what are you talking about? Like I have we have a cash flow. I could show cash flow I can show you you know these things is it great? No, but here's also why like here's the story why and and He had to the story like you have to uh...

1:01:01 but there's a lot of things that i want to listen Yeah. Did you have to pay for the build out? Were you able to borrow that? The landlord probably didn't participate in it too much. No. They don't in retail. No, not in retail. Usually like in a mall or something they usually give you some, you know, something or another. But I mean, you can always like negotiate like some free rent or something. whatever. the sales you think you're gonna take. Yeah, the sales you think gonna have yeah, but uh, I Was borrowed yeah, yeah, so we're you know, I mean oh My god beat my head in the table. Yeah, it's not pretty man and It's tough. I you know not to sound well as me cuz I I don't I don't go There's not yeah, it doesn't matter care.

1:01:48 Just make me your tea and shut up. Make sure it's good. make sure it's good. It better be fresh. and you hopefully you priced it enough and you're selling enough. can pay your bills. Yeah. I want to come back here next week and get another. Yeah, that's when I'm a customer and I walk in there, I have questions. I don't give a shit. to run it. Sell me the thing. Make me feel a certain way. yeah and don't don't make it expensive because you make it expensive like you should you don't deserve to make that dollar like you kidding me at some of the best laughable moments I think that I've had entrepreneurial wise is the the criticisms that come in and I think I'm I don't know if I do you do with them?

1:02:31 You're not supposed to read the comments. my god, it's not even reading the comments. It's like the face to face. Like sometimes people are bold man and it kind of makes you chuckle. You know, going back to kind of, know, maybe what it takes like entrepreneur wise, what I've learned is like you got a thick skin, man. You get no credit, You have to give all the credit to everyone else. This is the reality. If you want to go into this world of operating a business, and it's going to be anything more than just you doing something. If you're going to interact with customers, if you're going to have employees, get ready because you get none of the credit until one day it looks like you're an overnight success and you're making millions of dollars and they all want to give you all the awards.

1:03:13 That is the only one moment in your entire history of being an entrepreneur and it's like what about the 22 years? No, it's about everyone else. And you have to be okay with that and you have to develop this ability also to be very humble in the moment but you have to have massive grit. There's no one coming to save you. There's no one coming to give you kudos on the things that you actually should behind the scenes. They don't care about that but everything that happens is definitely your fault too. 100 % right own it. no bitching about it. There's no crying in it. Now I will tell you though actually uh you say there's no crying and I'll challenge you on that. Okay cares about you're crying about they're like suck it up and come back from They're like, you're doing fine, I bought four tees from you last week.

1:03:59 And so and you can't here's thing this is an only environment because even some people hearing this like I'll stop bitching about it No, we're talking about the reality of running a business. That's the loneliness Yeah, and those moments where no one can help you Yeah, and that's the moments that you decide if you've got what it takes to keep going to make this shit So I have had a number of speaking on that specifically, uh like that moment, right? And I've had a number of those moments over the last year where I have like this aha moment where I'm like, this is it. This is where like, you cried three times in your car, you know, a week because you just got to get the frustration out and it's like real. but I had these moments where it's like, yeah.

1:04:42 This is where people give up. is it. This is it. Like this is the moment. And like you said, nobody gives a shit. And you know what? They don't have to because they have their life. You're the one who said you wanted to do it. Yeah. So suck. it up and it hurts man and it's like uh but it goes back to what I said about I feel like uh it's a disease like entrepreneurialism is a disease and it is yeah it is right I don't know how do you say that entrepreneurism Earl yeah whatever yeah there you go uh have to be able to say it like that. If not, this thing's a bust. Yeah, I mean it's it's a thing ah and it's addictive too uh Because you know for the people that are in it and and that are committed to it.

1:05:29 There's no other way What's that look like? So all the brilliant people, the me's and the us, and all the people that are going to start businesses and carry our economy forward when we're gone. um Why do we do this? Uh, one of the, one of the things that the first thing that comes to my mind is something I saw a couple of months ago. There, uh, somebody that said, uh, being an entrepreneur is chasing something and giving up your entire life for a thing that you have no idea is ever going to create anything. Like you have no idea, no guarantees of the outcome.

1:06:11 There, there is zero guarantees, but for some reason. For some reason, you are willing to put everything on the line and commit yourself to it because it's possible. And ah it resonates with me ah massively because there are a lot of things you got to give up. There's a lot of things you gain, but there's a lot of things you give up. And uh yes, what does it look like? I would say, I mean, it's. Family wise, we've had a lot of challenges with it, just time. I also think that though we've been able to create some flexibility as an entrepreneur.

1:06:52 I get to have breakfast with my kids every day. I didn't get to do that before. ah I can go have lunch with them. Didn't get to do that before. can make it to most of their events and things like that. Didn't really have that flexibility before. ah And so the pull on life is hard. You never turn it off. You're working seven days a week ah You're taking you know your computer will of course be attached to you when you call on vacation. There's no real vacation ah and it's being okay with that because You're committed to something that's bigger than you know Then what you're currently up to that vision is there whether you have a clear whether you have a clear picture of what it is or not Doesn't fucking matter.

1:07:36 It's it's just something that's inside of you that you're like it's right there and I'm gonna keep grinding until I see it. I'm still, you know, it's still pixelated and that vision is coming together and it's a hunger, I guess, I don't know. What do you wish that someone would have told you before you jumped out on this endeavor? something that somebody told me? What do you wish that somebody would have told you? What do you wish reflecting back? like, damn, I wish I knew that. I wish someone would have told me that.

1:08:27 The emotional and physical toll that I think that it takes that I did not expect because I was I I mean I before we did this I mean I again back to like the time right I was able to spend my time in different ways and I mean I was going to the gym five six days a week for like four or five years and I felt good man like I was it was it was nice and and I got into this and I'm like at first I'm like yeah I keep going to the gym it's fine like I'm going to go and then you know It's just start to get real and then stuff starts to squeeze and you start to feel like the pressure and you you get close to a couple situations where like I can't pay payroll and the next thing you know, like your anxieties are through the roof and you those feelings in those moments like as an employee, you'd never ever get anywhere close to feeling that in my experience.

1:09:19 Like I mean, because it's not only, you know, in that moment, it's not only for those, you know, that might be listening to this like. probably know what I'm talking about. like, you, it's not just payroll. It's, uh, it's your mortgage. It's your kids lunch. It's your, your car payment. It's the electricity bill at home. It's the electricity bill at every store. It's, uh, and then, you know, where my brain goes is like, well, shit, I can't miss payroll because there are people depending on this. Like they're there. It's their life. Like even though they're teenagers, like it's important to them. And uh That kind of stress and strain is I was not ready for that like that hit me like a like a brick wall man like a Mack truck like And I but in hindsight, I don't think anybody could have You could tell me about it ah but I there was there's no way that I could have appreciated the the level of Accountability and responsibility that comes with it.

1:10:19 You just don't know I feel like What also did you, what's something that you believed strongly, previous to acquiring Bubbles and previous to going out and being a true entrepreneur? What's something you believed really strongly that now you don't? ah Yeah, no I was I what what comes to mind is called is like the culture push right like uh in in my previous corporate roles I Believed that all that was just garbage Like I never and I was like man.

1:11:06 We gotta go to these These big parties and the company spending all this money like why don't you just give us bonuses? Like what the fuck are we doing here? Like this is crazy you like though They'll rent out like the zoo, right? Like, and you go to the zoo, like, my God, like, I got work to do, like, what the hell are we talking about? And then like the emails that you would get about like mission vision, you know, all these things, and uh these are our core values, and like, eh, whatever, doesn't feel like it, right? uh I used to think that that was just fluff and just like human resources are just there to you know give somewhere to bitch about somewhere to bitch you know and now There's no way that we steer this ship without it.

1:11:56 Like, it's impossible. Like, you can't. It's not lasting. It will never propagate into anything. It will never grow. Because where are you going? I mean that that's to me What I've learned is in this process is simple and and silly as it might sound if if you don't have a map You ain't going anywhere. Somebody told me the uh analogy of like being in the taxi cab like you get a taxi and the taxi will drive you around wherever the fuck you want to go It'll take you all day long. You know you ride day and night, but until you give them a destination You're just circling the city.

1:12:41 Like there's nowhere to be. so, and I'll be perfectly transparent. We're still working on mission, vision, strategies, all of those types of things. We've iterated it a couple of times and I think it's still very much in the building stages. But I think being transparent with our employees and our teams is that like these things are important to us. Not sure what it looks like to like carve that message in stone yet, but these are the things that are really important to us and these and here's why like it's not just you know, corporate propaganda. Yeah, man.

1:13:21 I'm not just like, you know sitting in bed at night just thinking of things to make your life a pain in the ass. um And but it's so true though, like having that North Star, which sounds so cliche to me because I remember being in a meeting at the utility I worked with that they kept saying North Star probably a hundred times in this meeting and I wanted to just throw up but it's true like you have to have something that you're shooting for yeah and and this is what we believe is gonna get us there oh there's no doubt there's no that that's that's one thing I guess I've learned too is is that the result is non-negotiable You have to be defiant in the face of everything.

1:14:08 You gotta be ruthless. I had this conversation with our daughter recently, both of them. It's something I saw Joe Rogan, think, made this comment and was like pasted everywhere. But he's like, your generation right now is the weakest generation that's ever been. All you have to do is be a little bit ruthless. Just be ruthless and you will lead everyone. You'll crush it might even been a day in the life because they're buddies. It might have been him. I think that's what it was. He's like the opportunity that this next generation has and what I would do is I would even frame it for us because I don't think it's just them. you know it's that whole thing about you know strong people, great weak people but yeah yeah right and so you're all's goal.

1:14:54 I don't have kids. You're all's goal was just to make their life a little bit better. That was your mom's goal for you. It's your goal at some point you're going to take all the advice all of the adversity out and they wouldn't have developed any of the strengths to meet life when it truly gets hard. That's the problem. So it's admirable that parents say, just want them to level up. I want their life to be a little bit better than mine. All the tough parts of my life that were massive struggle, let me take that out because it sucked. That's a bad part of life. And even though you don't say it, that's what you're trying to do because you're always worried about them and what's going to happen to them when they're sad and upset and stuff. But the reality is, They got to go through it.

1:15:35 And by going through it, that's who, that's because so many people think it's about making money or it's about the position or it's about the company. It's about the person you are. Because the person you are and you become that equates to what you can accomplish in life. Well, and the person you want to be like, right? mean, if you are the person you want to be in, in, in your traveling down the path that creates happiness for you, everything else will come. And it's not. It's because if you're a person that believes that we can almost do anything we put our mind to, like there are a few limitations. I'm not 6'6", I'm not the most athletic specimen, but when it comes to these business endeavors, when it comes to getting a promotion at work, when it comes to further education, if you need to get another degree to do the thing, pretty much all of us now have a shot at that.

1:16:23 If we're on the IQ spectrum, if we're born and fortunate enough that we don't have these disabilities, we all have the same opportunity. And if you believe that and understand that, That's the person I'm talking about that says, I want to take it from eight stores to 50. have to accept there's gonna be massive struggle. You don't know how you're gonna get there. You know you've learned all this stuff, but what you learn is not gonna get you to the next 42. But you're like, our snort star is 50 and I believe we can get there. And then you design the business plan and then you get busy. So many people just are waiting. They're just waiting. Well they're trying to design the plan before they come up with the destination. oh So it doesn't hurt. Let me get the perfect plan so it's not hard.

1:17:04 Let me take all the adversity out of it. Let me take all the pain out of it. No, that's what the journey's gonna be. So it's the person that you become that's willing to travel the journey that makes that commitment. You get to 50. Oh, All that. mean, I think 50 now, I started to say before, think, that 50 now looks like, mean, maybe that's maybe that's 25 stores and 25 trailers. I don't know. That's fine. And it's But we get there through scaling and like in the way that uh do the right things and the money will come that that's where where my brain goes is as I'm cash flows king of course but do the right things and the money will come right do it be good to the people and and your system will grow like make a good product be consistent uh I think some of the things that we're still working on that I think uh is gonna help substantially in the in the short term uh is some of our approaches to customer service and the way that we handle the customer.

1:18:21 um Like I said, we've gone through lot of attrition and I feel like we're finally honing in on what it is to, whether it's scripts or whatever it is that's registered to just reinforce what the expectation is and those kinds of things that I think that is first. Tell me if this isn't simple and I've never worked in your stores. I've never had one of your Well, I don't what the hell you're doing here and you did So so here's that here's I'm assuming I could be somebody come through the door. This would be my mindset This is where I would start if I was starting a company or had a franchisee I was a franchisee Every customer that walked through the door say what can I do to make sure this drinks takes taste the best it possibly could for Say your question again.

1:19:09 Oh God would I would say that this would be my mindset What can I do to this drink and for you to make sure that this drink tastes exactly the way that you wanted it to yeah? It's an awesome experience. Yeah, like that. That's all that has to be done It is very simple actually I tell them a lot man like we almost made it our mantra jokingly is like It's just fucking tea How can I make it taste the exact way you want to and you're pumped about it? Yeah. Just ask them. Give them exactly what they want because you have the ability to. And we have every option that they could possibly ever want. you know. I have almost smile. I mean, God.

1:19:52 Smiling is so underrated, man. Like, you know, we actually, had our company picnic. We did like an end of the summer thing and something that they'd never done before. And so ah it was a, I'm embarrassed to say that it was a pretty meager turnout. Who cares? Was there like 15 of you? Hardly. And I was one of our managers who, again, the one I was talking about before, she was there and she was quick to remind me that like, she goes, this is first time we did it, she goes, Darryl, and she was like, she's like, I actually enjoyed myself. And she goes, so like, you know, like, this is good. She goes, this is step one. And it's one of those moments where, you know, you're surrounded by people that you're hoping are gonna be influential in the way that we grow to scale, right?

1:20:40 You actually do want her to be with you for life. think earlier we might have said the wrong thing that you didn't want her to. We were talking about employees. You do want Oh that one specific yes she gets to stay with us for a wife yes she doesn't have options yes yeah no um yeah she doesn't have options Do you learn from her? Um... Man. That's a great question. Um... I don't apologize putting you on Front Street. No, it's okay, man. It's good. Uh... Because... She actually was the one that trained me when I came in. ah when I came in, ah it wasn't required, but I was like, I get to do this for two or three weeks and make tea and figure out what the freaking crap is going on behind the register before I go in here and start telling people what to do.

1:21:29 That's stupid. ah And so she trained me and She was the one I think that instilled in me the most that it's just, we're just making tea. It's not hard because my mindset, right, coming into this is like, I'm about to take over a hundred employees. The biggest team I've ever led prior to this is like 15 people. uh And those people were seasoned professionals, like uh consulting, going around to some of the biggest energy companies in the world and, you know, taking care of cybersecurity stuff. Like... This is a very different thing. And so to me, it was like this massive mountain and she calmed me in a lot of ways and like those first couple of weeks to be like, do it, just make a tea.

1:22:15 It's okay. Like just cool it. And, um, the thing that I love that she brings to our team is in any of the teams, cause now she went from just managing one store to we have her over three and you know, there's a, she will be a critical role. uh critical part to our training process going forward but like uh Where She's no bullshit like she will call a spade a spade and if you're ain't gonna show up like she won't let you know and uh It rains true even for me today like she'll call me on my shit uh Yeah, yeah, like, you know, you were gonna fix that refrigerator three weeks ago where you at and ah I appreciate and love it.

1:23:01 And at the same time, she loves her teams like no one else. And when people are doing what they're supposed to be doing, she makes them feel appreciated. She makes them feel like they have a home. They have a safe place to be. You know, some of the people that we do have on our team, like, you know, they don't have the best home environment or what have you. And so a lot of them, like me, when I was growing up, started where when I was 14, ah you know, And I had to pay for anything that I wanted right the things I want and so a lot of these kids They're in that same situation. And so uh she is like as Much as I don't like to bring family like the word family.

1:23:43 I I don't like using that word in business uh Get used to it though because if you operate this business the right way, you can eliminate the word, but it needs to feel the gotta feel the same. does, It does, it does. uh Family's overused, the reason is because for you to run something the way that you want to run it, it's got to feel that way. Because what happens is in life, family's the one that you show up for. Like you say, that's a blood relative. Even if they're not your best friend, when the shit's down, you show up for them. That's the way a great company has to run. Exactly, exactly. And she does that and she creates that and ah I was not prepared, I will say, to support the team in that way.

1:24:28 Like a group of teenagers, right? I wasn't ready to, in hindsight, to give that level of support. I think um she brings that and um it's rare, I would say, in the, I'm gonna, I mean, because I guess we're fast food category, whatever is like, it's rare to find those types of people, I think. And I have a good friend of mine who has a friend of his that owns Chick-fil-A and I've talked to him a couple of times about some of their culture. Dude. But yes, so right. And I will say my conversation with him was was revealing.

1:25:15 Some ways because to me I thought you know looking at them and the way that they operate things is a god lord like they're They've got to be so flexible with their employees man like cuz because like they're just the employees are happy like people are good to be there ah Yeah, you don't have if you leave people to operate they the way they want you will not have the brand that they have. I know there is no joke that place does not play. Nah, dude, they don't play at all. And that was one of the first things he told me is like, cause I was talking about some of the issues we had with employees and he goes, nah, dude, he said we fire him day two. And I was like, what do you mean? That's crazy. Don't you have to document who you are in your process so then you can honestly and fairly hold him accountable to it? Exactly you gotta have and that's where the vision right the North Star this is what we're headed to and this is what the team is bought into right and this is and so like ah What do you say about that a little bit more though because we don't know who he is.

1:26:07 Yeah. Yeah, sure sure sure sure sure uh... no no no no uh... It was it was weird because he kind of looked at me like I was an alien in a way He's like what do you mean? You would just let him stay and I was like, well, you know, maybe like this and that and he said no no, no He goes like you that person It would become very clear if you have a strong culture if your people are committed to your brand and the store in each other And they're holding that way and they're doing it that way then he goes that person will be They'll ruin it. They'll ruin it. Well, but you'll see it so fast. Constricized themselves. That's what I think right you don't have to worry about it because they're gonna realize they don't fit in real quick Yes, and it gets uncomfortable and he said that you know He said he's they had had a couple instances where somebody lingered and he said it took months to like what to write the ship and He said yeah, we don't will mess around and I was like I was just kind of blew my ears back or my hair back because I was like well shit I I just had this assumption that like well, you know you hire somebody and you kind of let them work their way into the culture now, dude like You hire them and you make it super clear when you're hiring them.

1:27:20 This is what we're up to. This is the expectation. Our customers deserve nothing better than exceptional. You get to be ruthless with your with your with your delivery to the customer. You like get to. It's your company and your vision, Yeah. That's it. That's the truth. There's nothing wrong with that, right? You have to establish what that is and then tell everybody, here's what we're going. Get on board. I'm going to treat you amazing if you get on board, but if not, that's okay. You can't do this. us. Yeah, and I think that was really... that was harder for me to land with myself over the last year. Yeah, I had to go through that. Man, that's hard, because it's like... I care about people. And I was that kid a lot of times growing up where, like, I knew I wanted it, but I kind of just wanted somebody to challenge me.

1:28:06 But you know what? needed to to help you redirect yourself to say this isn't okay. We think we're actually doing people a service by being nice to them and pleasing them. are not. No. You are actually doing them the biggest disservice by not looking at them and say you got to take this more serious. Yeah. You want a better life, you got to earn a better life. You want to be a part of something big, you want to be valued, you have to value this place. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta treat it like, like, you know, better than your home. Uh, yeah, like, I do college football. I do, I do NFL to the extent that my fantasy football team is three and O shameless plug, but yeah, you know, just. you where i'm at my business? i had to give it up yeah, even the league i started and they still play it but i had to quit playing two years ago because i don't like doing anything i can't do well and it took too much time Man, I hear you.

1:28:53 So that's golf for me right now. started... Oh my God. Is that true story? Oh my God. Only the back tires were able to save it. That's good. I can only imagine the strain on your face is trying to yank that baby out of it. Eight people had to come and help us. That's fantastic. during a golf outing too. my god. The company golf outing. I love that. 20 people saw it. So anyway, back back back to sports. I I'm becoming less of a fan because fans are fanatics. Yeah. I'm enjoying watching it as much uh more than I ever did.

1:29:36 But I think everybody watched The Last Dance, Michael Jordan. That was a really good documentary if you watched it. A lot of principles in life can be taken away from it. I'm not, I said that to say, when I was a huge NFL fan, we like our Cincinnati Bengals, but I wasn't a big Dallas Cowboys fan because anything that's like the other thing, like America's team, it's like, out of here, you're not America's team. So I wasn't a Dallas Cowboys fan. However, their documentary came out a few weeks ago and I think it's on Netflix. And we were talking about leadership styles. um There is a massive distinction throughout that four or six part documentary.

1:30:17 They interviewed Emmett Smith. Michael Irvin was on there. Aikman's there. Jimmy Johnson, Jerry Jones, Barry Switzer. I it was everyone. It highlights a massive distinction between Jimmy Johnson's style that got them two Super Bowls. And then when him and Jerry Jones couldn't get along and he left or got fired and they brought in Barry Switzer, there is an extreme distinction because here was Barry Switzer's approach and he says this, said, Hey, you're professionals, you're professional football players. I accept the fact that since you're a professional, that if you know we have practice and we have practice, you're going to be there. If for some reason you're not there, there's a reason why you're not there. And so that's what set in on that team and you get to the end of it.

1:30:58 And those players said, we liked playing under Barry Switzer more. It was more fun. It was easier. The environment was great. However, one of them said, however, If Jimmy Johnson would have remained the coach, we probably would have won five Super Bowls. So what we have to understand is what's your job? Your job is to get that thing to 50 locations. If there's 10 people that aren't on board with your thing, even if it's your fault, they gotta go. They gotta go. Right? And it's time to reset the thing. I would love to have everyone be an elite human being that comes to work for the companies I'm running and they really buy into it in a big way and take responsibility and take ownership.

1:31:44 I would love that because then guess what? Then you can have a great, perfect relationship. But I've learned that's rare. And since it's rare, you're the one at the helm that's building the damn thing that said this is what we're doing. You unfortunately have to hold everyone accountable. Yourself, them, the brand, the culture, that's your job. Yeah, and that's it yet and It's a ride, man. It's a roller coaster. uh it fuels me in a lot of ways uh to know.

1:32:25 There's this weird pull and energetic burst of, I guess a burst of energy when I think about it because it can be either super heavy or it can be like a rocket ship, just spooling its engines. And I feel like that's where we are right now is, you know, whether it's the conversation with the Chick-fil-A guy or whether it's, you know, bouncing stuff off my neighbor who's also an entrepreneur and some other people that are close to me. There's so many things that we went through like the first six or eight months of just sort of catching everything and we were just like sponging it up, right?

1:33:07 Like me, I speak for myself, is just sponging it up and just figuring it out, taking it. of data and know hounding over spreadsheets you know going through you know talking to employees doing reviews different thing and uh and then I hit a point where I've actually I actually said this I said I think the game is slowing down you know I think it's slowing down ah and boy was I fucking wrong like I slowed down for maybe a month and slowing down mean it mean it felt like you were getting into the zone where you understood Yeah, I felt like yeah, I felt like I had my hands wrapped around what I thought to be true financially and what I thought to be true about Culture and people and some of the people we had in leadership and stuff like that.

1:33:55 I thought that it was I was like man We're in a good spot like and we're only eight months in like this is cool. Like I had that moment for a second to hell if reality doesn't just have a way of of letting you know you're wrong, or letting you know not there yet, right? It's not that it was wrong. It's like, it's not there yet. ah But it's, like I said, I feel like we're spooling our engines. That clarity that I had, that I thought I had, or whatever the situation was, it's still there. I mean, it might sound silly, but my anxiety attacks have, you know, they're not what they used to be.

1:34:38 I've learned actually it was Chris Hemsworth, I saw a thing, Chris Hemsworth recently where he was talking about how he had anxiety attacks like crazy when he was doing a couple of the first Avengers movies and he was like, he's like my chest, my heart, he's like I feel like my heart was gonna pound out of my chest, he said I would sweat and just be like a mess mentally and emotionally and he's like so I had talked to the therapist and all those things and he's like there's a bunch of studies done or whatever that basically the people that are experiencing those like panic attack symptoms, he said half of them were You were in a state of joy were excited he said the other half of them were fearful like that was the general sense that they had and he was like so through his therapy is like, you know, I realized that it's It's me retraining my mind to say when I wake up at 2 in the morning and my heart is racing and I can't catch my breath like I'm on point I I am like in this moment.

1:35:44 I am a aware to everything that's going on around me and like I'm in my best position to make a decision or to dive into something and get something done and I think for me like hearing that it was kind of like a whoo interesting because I've been approaching that from fear and when I have those moments it's like it's just a wave of uncertainty and doubt and all these things and so like when I'm going into that it's so easy to just want to beat yourself up and just be in it and um and it was kind of refreshing to hear that it just resonated with me in the moment and it still does today and I've I've actually been able to kind of harness those thoughts to slow myself down and like nah dude like this is actually the moment that you get to decide something like this is there is something that's pending right now that that you get to make a decision on and make a difference with What have you found in those moments, works to, not just the thoughts, what have you found that helps to ease that?

1:36:47 ah Something that my wife's grandfather has said, he's a big Ben Franklin guy, loves Ben Franklin. And I believe this came from Ben Franklin, somebody's gonna fact check that I'm sure. But ah he says often, you are where you are when you were when. And basically what it means is, who you are and where you are in life and the experiences that you're experiencing and the things that are happening around you are happening for a reason. It's just where you're supposed to be. That's it. And so, you know, to be totally transparent, you know, recently we've we struggled financially big time and made some questionable decisions.

1:37:38 And it was one of those moments where. I was like, I started to feel it, you know, come up and it was like, uh, I was like, nah, man, this is, this is happening for a reason. I created this because I decided to do that and that and that, and there's a way out. Like, I mean, there's always a way out. And so it was like just telling myself that and making a couple of phone calls, of course, right? Like, I mean, cause you got to solve the problem. It's like identify the problem and, and, and solve it. Um, And it might not be easy to solve it. It might be messy to solve it, but you can solve it. There's a study around here, the book, Everything is Figureoutable.

1:38:21 Marie Forleo, it's a great book. Her mom taught her that. And she used to have massive anxiety and stress and I think it was depression, but it's like, Hey, just calm down. Everything is figureoutable. Everything. If you understand and buy into that, it's like, so for me, what I know in those moments, it's like, all right, what do I just need to take action on? What's the thing? Yeah. That's it. Just, I got to do something. I need to try to fix the problem, let's find a solution. What's the thing? Instead of worrying about it all damn day long, just get to work on the thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Because whatever the outcome is going to be, it's going to be. I figured that out in 17 years of business here. Whatever it's going to be, it's going to be. Now, I want to have the greatest chance and possibility that I can make a positive outcome here.

1:39:04 But whatever it is, if I can't, I'm not going to be able to. What do I need to focus on? What's the problem I need to solve? Let's just get to Man, that's so hard though. ah Well, I will say for me was hard because I never really considered myself to have an ego about shit because I'm you know, I'm just kind of like it is what it is kind of guy and but man like in those moments that Ego wants to creep in like nobody's business because it's like now I can wrestle this out I can I can manhandle this thing and it'll be fine. No, dude You can't manhandle it. It's that's that that's not the answer. Like you can't fight your way out of some of these things just have to not care about what people think man and that is tough to get there.

1:39:45 It is tough to get there. mean, you know, just even taking feedback from from Eric, you know, as he, you know, visits the stores uh like, you know, he'll call me up and be like, hey, you know, that sink, dude, you got to wipe that sink down because he's like, hey, the you know, somebody forgot to turn on the light like you got him in the first thought that comes to my mind is like, come on, man, the fuck you like, what are you calling me for? And the reality of it is that uh You want that. You want that. He cares. Yeah, man. Right. Like that's aren't going tell you that. They're just going to see it and not say anything. They're gonna see it not say anything and then the next time they come around like it's and then if something else let's say the cooler lights off or something's out of stock then they're in their brain like it's like oh It's going downhill Yeah on downhill I don't know why we can't be honest with ourselves that that's the way we would perceive establishments too.

1:40:39 It's so personal we think we're better in all this. We still haven't said um some people can do it just not many well. Not many do it well. Some can but not many do it well. Yeah I'm like you have 50 grand on the table how'd that feel? Yeah. You got mad over that 20,000 you're gonna pay me? It seems like a bad business decision I'll put 30 more in your pocket. That's okay don't let the professionals handle it. What um Is there secret sauce about how you're gonna get to 50? Do you not see it yet? Do you see it? Like how are gonna get there? Is it through franchisees? Is it? I think it's a mixture of both. think franchisees is going to be big piece of it. ah Do I see it? Mostly, is the honest answer. see, ah I'm starting to see, I guess I should say, ah the path forward.

1:41:25 And um like I said before, I think a big portion of it is going to be introducing mobile into it and finding a way to franchise mobile operations. And there's a lot of, like if you look at the Kona ice trucks, things like that, that are just kind of everywhere. Figure out they figured it out. Yeah, dude. I mean, yeah, like it's I Will tell you building the first two trailers was like a really interesting weird experience because it was like how do you take and it was also kind of a duh because we had a Couple shops that are like 500 square feet or so and then we had a couple shops are like 1400 square feet. So it there wasn't a real like Now no, it was just kind of we made the items fit that needed to fit and you know, we did it And so when you move it to a truck, mean you got, or a trailer, it's like 16 by eight or something, and so you're packing it all in there.

1:42:18 But here's what I would say, this is what's good about having people come before us. They had to do the same thing. They sure did, They sure did. uh good part of, I guess to answer your question partly is like. How do we get there? mean, we're gonna get there through through people We're gonna get there through our systems and processes continuing to be honed I mean like, you know, we're already looking at a couple of new locations and we're already uh Looking at and trying to design trailers and put together a franchise packet so that we can uh Make it more accessible for someone to be able to have a bubbles franchise. Like I think it's uh I don't I don't want it to be an onerous thing like Yeah, because right now what do they have to come to the table with?

1:43:02 They got to come to the table with 150 grand. Like net worth. Sure. Yeah, you got to have 150k sitting there. And then to build it out you have to be able to go and get uh a huge SPA. Easily. you're a half million dollars really commitment. Realistically, if you're gonna do it right, because then you need operating cash, right? I because that was a mistake that we had, right? We did not have the operating cash that we needed. And so that was another lesson learned, but. How do you make that less painful? Maybe it's a truck. Maybe it's the truck. Maybe you could sell a truck for 125 grand to them and here you go. Yeah, exactly, and I think it's the same mentality of bringing the product to the customer, I feel like.

1:43:43 We're bringing somebody that wants to be an entrepreneur, that wants to spend something up, but maybe isn't ready to commit their entire life. How can you finance it for him? There's a lot of money in the financial piece. Sure, that too. Making it more accessible I think is going to be key. Working around the brick and mortar so that we're not dependent on that anymore. um I think we actually are looking at an opportunity right now in Florida. oh say, it seems like somewhere that's good weather 12 months out of the year, that has to be a restriction with our weather. Almost it is a huge restriction and I almost actually opened when we were in Dallas or in Fort Worth and um it was so close and we didn't do it we decided not to but but there is a franchisee that's operating the the northern stores that they actually live part-time down in Florida and so um They're very much wanting to do something similar with the with the trailer type operations So we're going to that now and I think it's going to be it will be our first If everything works out, of course, it will be our first try to say like, does this really work?

1:44:52 Because the conversation that we've had internally was like, man, because there were some people that were like, I don't really, you know, that's kind of weird and they don't know how to operate a store. Like they haven't been in a store. Like they have those up North, but like they're not there every day. They don't know how to operate. And my point is like, well, hang on a second. If we're saying that mobile trailers is going to be our future. It's gonna be people who have never done it before. I never done and you know we got it We're working on the distribution front with a couple other suppliers that is gonna make a huge wave for us I think and like how we get our products and things like that ah in the near future and You know being able to dropship do different things like that is critical I think to be able to grow but I mean if this the inventory.

1:45:38 Yeah, yeah, because right now and there's been a lot of challenges with like, you know waste product and stuff like that because we're on a container every few months come from Taiwan and you're talking to the for flavors and all that stuff and everything. yeah for yeah, but the tariffs that are hitting everything and making it a little bit strenuous and so Actually, yeah, so that was one of the great things that he did uh Eric when he you know Was operating everything uh he got stuff private labeled through some of the more traditional companies that were down in Taiwan So our products to be perfectly honest itself say a shameless plug but like I truly believe our products are the best out there like uh I mean when you're talking You know, milk teas, the flavored teas, the popping bobas uh most specifically.

1:46:25 If you go to some other places that serve lots of coffee, I'll say, I won't name any names, but a lot of times when you get popping bobas, they'll be hard casing shells. It's almost like a crunch when you bite into it. It can be kind of fleshy is one of the ways that people use to describe it. And then when you get in the inside, it's supposed to be like a burst of flavor. But a lot of times it'll be like a thick syrup. and it's just kind of weird. it's in a flavor tea is like water, right? With flavored water, basically. And so when you pop into it, it changes the complete texture of the drink, which a lot of people get weirded out by. Our popping bubbles are that way.

1:47:05 They are what would be traditional popping bubbles in that it's a very, it's a lot less viscous, I don't know to say, like liquid. It's it's it shares the consistency of the tea I guess is what I'll say and so as you're drinking you you're literally just changing the flavor of the tea as you're drinking it like which is interesting and You're not getting like weird textures to throw you off in the midst of having your drink Which is kind of cool a lot of people appreciate that but but yeah, That was one of the things he did was he got a private label, which is really cool ah and so But with that of course like you know you got your shipping uh woes and like I said with tariffs and stuff like that they kind of It's been fun.

1:47:48 dude, like I mean you go from a container, the container, you haven't changed what you're ordering, but the container now today versus a year ago is gonna cost you three times the amount just to get the container to the states. uh And so like, you know, and we've done it without increasing price, which you know, obviously hurts a little bit, like, um but you gotta bump the volume. Yeah, and I think through some of the changes, I mean, I've only been on the franchise side for two weeks now. And to be fair, some of this stuff was already in the works, but it was taking a really long time. And my mentality when I came over, was like, what's holding us back here?

1:48:32 Let's just make some phone calls. Like everybody just kind of spins on this. And I'm like, nah, like I'm just, I'm to talk to this guy directly and we're just going to get it going right now. Like let's get this moving now, because as a franchisee, like wearing both hats, like I'm on the other end of this. And I'm like, ah, like. Our costs are pretty high, man. Like we gotta feed this out. Yeah. So now you're on the side, you gotta help him, you gotta figure it out for him. Right, which is weird. uh Because sometimes in the conversations I'll have with my brother, like I said, does our operations, ah I'm like, yeah, I'll franchise this or the franchise that. And he'll like, hey, you're the franchise. Tell him to do it. And I was like, shit, yeah, that's right. And ah so it is kind of a weird thing uh to do.

1:49:15 uh Could you get the T anywhere else? Could for sure. I mean like there's good tea all around the world ah For sure, and I think well that and that's one of the things that we're looking at is like I think a lot of that stuff is still coming from uh Not within the US but uh the way that you get it can greatly change your cost I mean like so, you know if you're going through a Supplier or distributor that has distribution methods here already logistics and stuff then you there's an opportunity you lose some of that private labeling perhaps uh... you price to keep some of it maybe but At end of day, even though you like it, might not.

1:49:57 It might not matter uh and you know, we've done some testing and stuff and so like the products are Damn near what we have today. And so it's Yeah, whatever it is. Yeah, and and I mean You know trying to cut some of that out makes a huge difference because the franchise gets to be healthy and the franchisees get to be healthy And that's how you grow right now. We've had the problem where we don't have a really good story to tell ah Like if you would have come to me eight months ago and said, uh hey, Darrell, I want to start a franchise. Like what's bubbles doing? I was like, go back home. You don't want to do this. um We're figuring it out.

1:50:38 And there was some people that were hired at the franchise level that were doing some marketing efforts and stuff like that, that were just kind of misguided. They weren't local. They didn't really know the brand. They didn't have an appreciation for kind of the culture and what we were trying to create. And so they were constantly just trying to sell franchises. And I was like, what the hell are you doing? Like you're posting on LinkedIn and and like Instagram nobody's gonna buy this franchise and they're like well we need you to do a Testimonial and I was like no, you don't want me to do that like ain't gonna be real And so now though I would say I Feel confident that like we're moving in a good direction and I still feel like we're in that growing phase and I Putting the timeline to myself that you know within 12 months we get to we get to be franchising and growing because we have a tremendous following in Columbus and the surrounding area.

1:51:31 We have a store in Athens actually as well on campus and um people love it, man. I think that was one of the hardest things coming in was like I came out and I started branding everything when I came in and like uh I was one of the brand whores, man. Like so when I worked for my last consulting company, I always had all the shirts on like right. I always had the polisher or whatever. And um so when it came over to this, I was like, hey, it's marketing. I'm very clear. You know, it's not about just having a bubble shirt on it's the brand it's like getting the brand out there putting it on our trucks so like my brother and I have it on our business trucks or whatever and um I Remember Eric saying why would you do that? Like why would you put that other? He's like that is so silly.

1:52:11 I'm like dude. It's marketing I was like people love it. I was like, why aren't you selling shirts in the stores? And he's like nobody wants to buy that like nobody what he's like he was so like down on his Not down on his brand, he is not the kind to go out and do this. Be here talking to you. You don't want to do that. He just wants to give a good product and make some people happy and not really be acknowledged for it. And that's unfortunately a trait that we both share is we don't take acknowledgement well. to me, when I came in, I was like, well, we have to put the brand everywhere we can. So I started stamping the shit on everything. I put stickers on everything. We're insurers. I'm buying shirts for the team.

1:52:52 What it is there's nothing bad that happened from it. No! bad at all and in fact like it's actually I mean we haven't started selling merchandise in the store yet We're still working on that piece of it, but like We're working with a company right now through a marketing company that we're working with is to do like be able to do like drop ships and stuff like that of Merchandise and start selling it online, but um there's some clever things you can do with the brand and I think it's like that's one of the things that I'm excited to bring to the brand now that I feel like we're starting to Like I said, the game is starting to slow down a little bit. There's still a ton to learn. We still have so much growing to do and the vision is so big that, you know, there's still a of stuff to do.

1:53:32 But I feel like it's slowing down to the point where we can focus on some of these more intangible things that they're not going to, they're not going to change the business tomorrow, but it's an opportunity to put us out there and be a constant reminder that if you want something to drink, You're having a bubbles and that's what you get to do. That's like a yeah. If you take your, um, you can't give away all the trade secrets, but if you take your trailer somewhere, selling how many drinks makes it a good event. Not great, but like you're like, yeah, this is what we need to hit. uh Ummm... I think... If we hit 100 to 150 cups, it's a day.

1:54:16 Yeah, we feel good about it. It's a good day. About 10 bucks. Is that what it is? Eight to 10 on the mobile. I mean, when we're doing mobile stuff, we mark it up a little bit just because, like, you know, in my opinion, there were some others that didn't share this at first, but in my opinion, food trucks are kind of novelty. And I think that there is a value to us bringing the product to you. Like, You know, I if you're at a soccer tournament, I think one of the worst things ever I was never a soccer parent but like when we go to some of our dance stuff with my daughters and stuff there's nothing there right like it's it's like hot dogs and and Hard pretzels, right and so I think you know, it's a novelty for us to be there and supply to you and it's a familiar brand You know what you're get and so, you know, we have a little bit of markup on it, but we do our we do We don't do our whole menu.

1:55:12 We do a compressed menu. normally we have a dozen, you know, milk teas and flavor teas each. And then we have like four bowls and we started doing waffles recently as well. And so we're doing those bubble waffles. But but in the trailer, we'll do five milk teas, five flavor teas and one bowl. We just do acai bowls um and we haven't figured out the waffle yet because we pull a tremendous amount of electricity. with all the heating elements and everything. But it's been really successful, I would say. This summer kinda surprised us in a way. ah We've gotten a lot of requests, we've had to turn some stuff down, which has been beautiful.

1:55:53 ah And we're gonna build out at least another trailer over the winter to take us into next summer. We're already starting to build the schedule out. And like I said before, with the food truck stuff, it's just a weird environment. It's very, very different. um It just trying to get connected to the right people and the right channels to to maximize the effort and to make sure it's like how do you Dude, it's so weird and God in Columbus specifically they have I mean, I'm sure this is true anywhere else But you have your Columbus Health Department and Columbus is inside of Franklin County So like you can do your Franklin County health license and your Franklin County health license is good inside of Columbus as long as you're doing a private event Now, if I wanted to sell on the street, then I gotta go and get additionally a Columbus license and all this.

1:56:45 And so like, it's this. selling on the street versus the private event because sometimes it's crossover probably it's like is it a private event but then people are coming off the street is it a clear distinction between them Yeah, yeah, it has to like it's a private property basically it's kind of the way that it lands Yeah, yeah, yeah like Yeah, if I wanted to park on Broad Street downtown and just sell you just have to like a special permit for that and stuff like that but But yeah, that was kind of a wake-up because I like my brother's like hey I'm just gonna take this like downtown blah blah blah and I was like, you can't do that You can't do that. Don't do that. You get some big trouble, but uh it's uh Yeah, man, I think Trailers are a huge benefit and low cost entry even for us, not even just for future franchisees.

1:57:31 But my point, like I think is I want to, I believe in the brand. I think it's a tremendous opportunity uh and I think the growth potential is there for us. Like I really think the market is kind of, it boomed a lot, like with the Bova Tea stuff boomed and I think one of the things that I ran into I know I'm like just my brain is kind of just scattered at the moment. But like one of the things we ran into was um like he had never done he being Eric had never done much marketing before. Like he's like, well, actually one of the comments he made is before COVID, I didn't spend a dollar marketing ever. And I had some of the best years I ever had. And he's like, so why do I got to spend it now?

1:58:12 And how do know I'm even going to get any money back on it? And I was like, well, you don't. Yeah, we got you here is probably not going to get you there. That's what I'm Yeah, you just gotta just gotta do it do it. Yeah, and so one of the challenges right though is that now You can get popping bubbles anywhere. I mean like not anywhere but like I mean your starboard you go to wherever you they have it available So it's no longer the novelty that it was pre-covid um You know just looking at the calendar like pre-covid it wasn't it wasn't wildly available and So now we just have like these other things and that's I talking about before is just We have to press in order to be successful. We have to press to the customer and be everywhere.

1:58:56 You just have to blanket the market. Is this a replacement for somebody getting a coffee? that where you're honestly competing? where I'm I think that's where we're going. Yeah is like uh No, right no, no you're not and I think that a lot of people Because you know some of the things that we've talked about doing which we haven't done yet but like, know looking at caffeine and stuff like that that we currently don't do but um Yeah, because you know, we've gotten those requests and I think it's a reasonable thing to add and I You know, it doesn't mess with our flavors or anything like that depending on which direction you go and um But yeah, I think that was one of the earlier conversations that I had with Eric was uh That it gets to be a destination a lot of times uh my kids love to go to the mall like uh I got some bougie kids man, and they like to spend money it's just what kids like to do and So when they go to the mall like the first thing that they want to do is they want to go get Starbucks?

1:59:56 that's first thing want to do and uh I've seen it already a number of times over the last year where people have told me I had somebody at Easton Town Center actually come and they were from Toledo and They had drove down for the husband's birthday because he wanted to go Experience the movie theater there and get a bubble tea from our company because he had had it before and he hadn't had it in like two or three years and that was like that was why they came there and uh You know why we have no idea what you're talking about? You didn't bring any. Damn it. I'm like, I'm just, I know, know. the experience that he was looking for that he drove all the way.

2:00:37 don't get to have. We don't even know what it is. It's like corporate propaganda. yeah it is huh. Yeah, exactly exactly. Yeah, but it I've heard a number of times and it just put off a light bulb in my head like man We we get to be the destination and that means that man There's some heavy-ass hitters like I mean just you know Speaking of all the coffee chains and stuff like that They're heavy hitters and you know, some of the challenges is that some of those brands are actually uh To my knowledge have re renegotiated a lot of contracts to include exclusives that you know, frankly make it almost impossible for other brands to even get close and and you know, that's business and that sucks right like No, I mean like at like all location like their locations.

2:01:32 Yeah, so let's say I'm Yeah, like an outlet mall you have like somebody like a Starbucks that's there and they're like, hey, you know We want to we have an exclusive on coffee, but we should probably have an exclusive on tea because we sell it and you know a brand like that you know if it was them like you know, they have the pull to be able to make that change and make it happen and uh You know when you talk about like an outlet mall that would be like an outdoor outlet mall that makes it read That's tough man like less than 10 % of your sales are tea and you're telling me you're do So I mean that's this one of the challenges we have and to your point is I definitely consider those types of things competition uh for the For the dollar, yeah. It's not even the, I mean, you know, even like the pretzel shops and stuff like that.

2:02:14 It's still a choice where somebody's not eating a meal and they're choosing something extra. Where are they gonna put their money? What about these pop-up drive-thrus that some of these coffee companies are going up with? I love those things. You know, they're super small modular um and you can get them for a pretty decent, I mean, for what you would build out a store and do like your whole remodel and everything, you can get them pretty decently priced. The challenge that I've seen so far is your, um lot of it just lies in relationships and like, Because I'd love to drop one into like a grocery store parking lot and just like I've Big B coffee is one that I've seen in Columbus growing big time.

2:02:59 Yeah. okay. Cool. Yeah and They're doing a great job. That's sad to hear ah Yeah, that's tough, We forgive you we forgive you But uh, but yeah, I mean it's a great model and I think it could There's Dutch Brothers, there's 7 Brew, there's all these things blowing up. Do 7 Brew is fantastic too. I love. What is their thing? Cause they opened one in Newport. It has caused traffic problems. That is, I don't even get it. What is going on with that? It's just damn coffee, isn't it? It's just coffee. So their stick if because I've been there a number of times and even we were in South Carolina we went and my daughter's had to had to go like they just love it and um I think they have something like in the thousands of Combinations of what they can do with their drinks I mean the drink drink menu is endless like I mean they have something like 40 different syrups and like all these different things that they do and They do phenomenal.

2:04:01 I mean I would honestly in my experience as a customer of theirs, I would say that it's very similar to a Chick-fil-A sort of level of service and experience that you get. Like because they are coming to you ah in your car, know, you're, it's an of course attitude. uh I, it's interesting. I don't know. I guess what I'm thinking is, uh It's one of those things that I'm trying to crack that code. but a brand envy. I'll say it you. don't have. Dude, it is. It's completely and it's like, how did you do that?

2:04:43 Like, how did you take a well, a coffee and a seemingly normal teenager, right? Whatever that means. Convince them that it's cool and fun to hold an iPad and walk in the rain sometimes in a raincoat or when it's cold and walk over to somebody's car, smile at them and take their order. I think all they did man, said this is who we are. Yeah. I think that's what it is. I do think it's that simple in hindsight. I, I have struck, you know, I wrestled with it. And like I said before, I think I've had a lot of realizations lately and it's like, damn it.

2:05:24 Like you said earlier, it's just you. Like it's what you decide to do and do it. What you have to be scared of? It doesn't work like all the other shit that doesn't work too. Yeah Yeah, I mean just go for it yeah, and I think if if I had a if I had to um Man if I had to sum up anything if I'm like the last year I just say just fucking go for it like They're gonna make really bad decisions Let me let me retract that you're gonna make some really ineffective decisions and you're gonna make some really awesome decisions um And I have a lot of both of those still ahead of me.

2:06:10 Neither one are no, because you can always pivot. You can always pivot, man. There's always like I said, there are always another way out or around or through. And it's not it's not final. I mean, as long as you're just still. Yeah, nobody's quit. Yeah, so here, that's good. So one of these days, maybe Cincinnati, Ohio, maybe North Dakota, maybe we'll have an opportunity to experience what that gentleman experienced. I don't know. I'm just wondering. Maybe we will. uh If you ever get here, we'll be one of the first people to pull up and get one, man. Thank you for coming. Do we go to like, I don't want to just assume it's like bubbles, whatever.com.

2:06:53 Is it bubbles tea company calm? That's it. Yeah So yeah, we're on LinkedIn Instagram tick-tock ah Now we recently started tick-tock and that's why I say man the marketing company's been super helpful for us They've been phenomenal with that stuff oh really started to make a change on it and and steer a different direction which has been fun and cool ah but Yeah, we have order online now. We even got an app going, which is exciting and cool. um But DoorDash overheats all the fun things. We're doing it. One parting shot, this is an advice, but I was wondering when I was gonna get to this.

2:07:36 You had the tear up with your wife's grandfather, and he gave you the green binder about the wheel of life and all the important things. What about the Bubbles green binder? great yeah If it made that much of an impact on your life, maybe that's the thing that you could lay to your customers and for you guys and for all your employees to say like, here's the wheel of the things are important. uh You could take that from him. could be his legacy that you carry it forward. Yeah. Okay. Bubbles tea company.com. Thanks for coming from Columbus, man.

2:08:17 Thank you.