BeTempered Episode 67 – 9 out of 10 startups fail. Mine didn’t. Justin Bayer of Welcome to College explains why. - BeTempered

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt.
This is my dad, Dan.
He owns Catron's Glass.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Thanks, Allie.
Things like doors and windowsgo into making a house, but when
it's your home you expect morelike the great service and
selection you'll get fromCatron's Glass Final replacement
.
Windows from Catron's come witha lifetime warranty, including
accidental glass breakagereplacement.
Also ask for custom showerdoors and many other products
and services.
Call 962-1636.
Locally owned, with localemployees for nearly 30 years.

(00:26):
Kitchen's class, the clearchoice.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hey, do you want to catch every episode live as it's
being recorded?
Log on to patreoncom slashbetempered for exclusive footage
, behind the scenes photos and alive recording as it takes
place.
Go to patreoncom slash betempered.
Welcome to the Be Temperedpodcast, where we explore the
art of finding balance in achaotic world.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
Join us as we delve into insightful conversations,
practical tips and inspiringstories to help you navigate
life's ups and downs with graceand resilience.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
We're your host, Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr.
Let's embark on a journey tolive our best lives.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
This is Be Tempered.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
What's up everybody?
Welcome to the Be Temperedpodcast, episode number 67.
67.
Six-seven.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
Six-seven.
What is this Listen?

Speaker 5 (01:17):
Dude, I have a 15, 17 , and 20-year-old.

Speaker 4 (01:20):
I don't know what it is and it drives me nuts, so it
is a song, and it'll be theworst song that you've ever
heard in your life.

Speaker 5 (01:27):
But I feel like there's a meaning behind it,
because when they do it they alllaugh and I'm like, well,
what's so funny?
And then they laugh more.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
I don't know.
I think it's just because itreally doesn't make sense in the
song either.
It was my son's walk-up songfor like two weeks two weeks for
baseball.
Yes, it was Jude's.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
So what did he say?
He didn't pick it.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
Well, he didn't pick it out, they picked it out for
him.
But every single time, the wayteam, everybody would yell six,
seven, the same exact time.

Speaker 5 (01:51):
There's something underneath it.
And then it also that lastyesterday we got talking and I'd
learned to something new.
Yesterday at a monk oh are you?
That's a new one that I'venever heard.
What is that?
If you're unk, it means you'rewashed up.
That's a new slang of beingolder You're washed up, You're
unk.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
I've never heard that one Watch.

Speaker 5 (02:11):
I'm going to go home tonight.
I just found that one out.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Unk and 6'7".
So any of you younger kids outthere listening.
Let us know what those mean.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
And this should be your favorite episode because
it's you know, 6'7".

Speaker 3 (02:24):
That's right.
67.

Speaker 4 (02:25):
And I don't know, because with Evie they taught
him the hand motion, so he hasto go.
They're like Evie say 6'7", sohe'll go 6'7", he's 4.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Oh, that's great.
Well, since we've lost all ofour viewers, we don't have a
clue what we're talking about.
No, they all do, and they'relaughing.
They are.
They're like these guys are.

(02:56):
What are we?
I'm still watching.
Yeah, thanks, that's good.
So the voice you're hearing inthe background is an old friend
from back at the University ofDayton.
We reconnected here a coupleweeks ago, a month ago maybe,
and, um you know, on on thephone it was just like being
back in school.
So Justin Bear came up heretoday to Richmond, indiana, from
Cincinnati, ohio.
Justin, welcome man.

(03:16):
Fantastic to be here.
I'm pumped.
Yeah, it's great to have you.
It's great to feel that energy.
I remember from 20, some yearsago that we're what 46, 47 years
old Three she, he, baby.

Speaker 5 (03:29):
We lived on the same floor, stuart Hall.
These guys brought it dude,they were the.
Brad and Dan were like the like.
I will call them the anchors ofour floor.
They were right in the middle.
They were right in the middleand I lived down by a couple of

(03:49):
guys that I would I would calllike uh, they were definitely
not anchors, uh, they were likethat crew that definitely didn't
finish the university of Dayton.
So I'm glad I had some anchorsin the middle of the hallway.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
There might've been a little smoke coming from those.

Speaker 5 (04:01):
Maybe some scorpions, because you know the, the, the
or the crickets.
My roommate actually had ascorpion and there were crickets
.
Remember, jay?
yeah he had a scorpion.
How's he doing you know what?
I hadn't seen him in a longtime.
I was at 50 west in cincinnatimaybe about a year ago.
I'm just hanging out and hewalked by and we were both like

(04:24):
like hadn't you know?
And it was.
We had a really cool reconnect.
I hadn't seen him in a longtime but he he looked like great
, looked like he's doing wellGood, so that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
Yeah, yeah so.
So Justin and I go way back,kind of reconnecting here now,
but, um, you know you've done alot of things in the past 20
plus years from being graduatedfrom the university and I don't
know your entire story we talkedabout.
You know, with social media wecan stay somewhat connected, but

(04:55):
there's so many peaks andvalleys in life that I don't
know about and I'm excited tohear.
So how we start every episodeis from the beginning, so talk
about what life was like for yougrowing up as a kid.

Speaker 5 (05:09):
Love that.
1029 North Buell Farm Drive wasthe address we grew up.
Uh, right next to a park inSharon, pennsylvania was where I
was born, western Pennsylvania.
Um, my dad was an architect andworked literally I built
himself a little like studio outback, um, and and he was an

(05:31):
architect so his office was likeat the house.
We grew up next to this parkcalled Buell park, phenomenal
park, so literally had trailsfrom next to my house that would
go into the park.
So grew up just with like areally awesome spot to live and
play and you know, I think backto those early years I had a

(05:53):
really core group of awesomefriends that I grew up with.
Still very close today to mybest friend from kindergarten
named Corey Djokovic.
He was in my wedding, I was inhis wedding.
He's got a young family Justasked me to be godfather for
their uh oldest son and theynamed him his.
His dad has passed away.
When we were in probably likeseventh or eighth grade we were,

(06:15):
we were young and his dadpassed and, um, they named their
son after his dad that passed,but they spell it a little bit
differently it was MylanM-I-L-A-N was his dad and the
son they named Mylan M-Y-L-A-N.
Um, but just when I think ofchildhood, I think growing up, I
think of of, you know, I thinkof Buell Park.

(06:38):
I think my, my brother,youngest brother, was two years
younger and we were thick asthieves, like the.
We kind of ran that park, youknow, and uh, uh, all the
playing outside we did, and, um,I was one of four, I have an.
I have an older brother, jason,who's 10 or eight years older
than me, a sister that's fouryears older than me, and then my

(07:01):
younger brother, kevin, is twoyears younger, so I'm three or
four and, um, those early yearsjust are are are great memories.
Um, my dad, in 1988, so I wasabout 10 years old he took a
position with Apple computer inCincinnati when Apple was like
starting to kind of, you know,gain momentum and the reason why

(07:24):
he took a job with Apple, hewas one of the first architects
to use the Macintosh in likearchitecture work.
So when I was a kid so anothermemory I have as a kid was going
out into my dad's office andlike seeing the first iterations
of what are now Apple computers.

(07:44):
Like he, he had his hands onthe earliest ones, like, and I
remember there was a program andI still remember it to this day
, like watching this.
It was like almost like abumblebee, just like dancing on
a screen, type of thing, but.
But those days that was likereally cool.

(08:04):
Yeah, yeah, and like littlethings.
Like he, I think I call him hewas a pioneer of fantasy
football, because before therewas fantasy football he was
operating a league with hisbuddies called the MSFL, and the
MSFL was a software thatsimulated games.

(08:26):
So it wasn't real fantasy where, like, the players actually got
points based on their stats,but there was like a league and
it simulated.
You had a team and it wouldsimulate the game that kept
stats, it would pit you upagainst, but but all through the
computer.
Wow.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
So seeing some of those early things now and the
computer was probably the sizeof this table, right, yeah.

Speaker 5 (08:46):
Huge.
Actually some of the earlyearly ones were were they were
smaller but they were just theselike boxes, just these like
boxes with a little screen, yeahyeah, one thing with my dad is
I feel blessed Like he alwayswas on the kind of front end of
new technology stuff.

(09:06):
And so I do feel like, you know, even as a kid, we had
Commodore 64.
Did you guys ever have that?
No, I mean it was like floppydisks but there were games like
Bruce Lee and Montezuma'sRevenge and like he always had
kind of some fun things thatwhen friends would come over.

(09:27):
You know, in those early years,like we kind of had like these
fun games.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
Fun games and toys that nobody else had yes, yeah,
that's pretty cool.
So how long did he work forApple?

Speaker 5 (09:38):
So he was with Apple.
He took it was like in businessdevelopment and I want to say
it was like five years, five orsix years, and then Apple went
through a big downsizing andactually I'll never forget it
because it was the first time Isaw my dad cry.
I came home one day and he wason the sofa.

(10:01):
I'm like what's going on?
And they had got a downsizingand he was let go.
And I remember, uh, I remember,like you know, cause when he
took the job I mean it was a Iknow he had a phenomenal year
run with them and they he wastraveling the world, you know,

(10:22):
doing these programs for them.
Um, so I know it, it uh, it waslike a day that I'll I'll
remember from the standpoint oflike I think that was a day I'll
remember from entrepreneurship,to be honest, because he he
ended up creating a companycalled architect technology in
Cincinnati that that he operatedand a couple of my brothers

(10:47):
worked for him.
I mean, basically he was anarchitect and what
Architechnology did wasbasically build these renderings
of homes and fields or schools.
Basically, he would be able totake the plans and then build
this into a video or a renderingso that the people could see it

(11:09):
before you know it's, it'sbuilt way before it's time way
before it's time and actually Ithink it's funny, I mean that
stuff all still exists now in somany ways.
But I mean he was doing it earlyand I and I think carved a
little niche many ways.
But I mean he was doing itearly and I think carved a

(11:29):
little niche and I was actuallyout of my three uh, actually out
of all my siblings, um, but mytwo brothers did work for him
for a while.
I was the only one that never,you know, went that route, um,
but I do think what I watchedand what I saw happen from the
Apple day and then what hecreated was like always this
like you can build something.

(11:49):
Yeah.
There's a lot of stuff,opportunity that exists.

Speaker 3 (11:55):
You saw that, you saw him probably at one of his
lowest moments, Right, right,and I can tell it's impacted you
, because you can.
I can see it in your eyes.
Yeah you because you, you can.
I can see it in your eyes, but,um, I can also, knowing the
kind of person that you are.
You don't forget that and youprobably use that on a daily
basis on challenges that youfaced that.

Speaker 5 (12:16):
And there's a early, early thing I saw on social
media before I launched welcometo college, and I think of this
every single day nine out of 10startups fail and, honestly,
it's the one little stat that Iknew going into it.
You know what I mean.
This is not going to be easy,but 15 years later we're still

(12:40):
operating and there's aheartbeat and it's never gone
the hockey stick path that Ithought it would.
I still think we're only in thesecond inning, though Do you
know what I'm saying?
Like there's still a hockeystick and I believe that.
But it's been 15 years of ofchallenge, of yes, Ups and downs

(13:06):
and downs, and the ups are upand the downs are down.
Um, and it's real.
And my wife's always like I,I've flirted the idea of one day
I would love to write a bookand there's some momentum kind
of building on it.
But it's like I think what'salways prevented me from doing
the book is like I've what's thegoal of the book?
I, you know, I think what'salways prevented me from doing
the book is like what's the goalof the book?
You know, I've read Shoe Dog byNike, right, and it's a book

(13:30):
that really impacted me becauseit took Nike a long time to
become Nike.
A lot of people don't know that,right, but it took close to 20
years for that thing to go.
And it's like do you write thebook once?
You're Phil Knight and you'reNike, or there's a part of me as
I look at my kids right nowthey're 20, 17 and 15 and

(13:56):
there's a part of me that's likethe book doesn't need to just
be about a home run, but thebook could be about how do you
get knocked down 15 times andget back up 15 times, 16 times,
Um, and that's.
That's the piece that I'm like.

(14:16):
It's not been an easy path, butI would much rather be doing
this than anything else in theworld.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
Yeah, that's powerful man and that and that that's
true entrepreneurship, right Is?
You know everybody like youtalk about Nike, which is a good
example.
You know, all people see nowwith Nike is it's everywhere,
Yep, right, but it took 15, 20years for them to to, to get to

(14:50):
where they're at, and you knowthe sleepless nights, the
struggle, the.
You know all the challengesthat that they faced.
And then there was one littlething that happened, right, and
then from that the next thinghappens, and the next thing
happens lots of ups and downs.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
I got a good one for you.
This is an untold one that noone knows and honestly, I was
thinking about this because I'mlike I got a lot of stories that
I tell a lot on these workshops.
But there's one that, as Ithought about the book when I
started this, my first company,which is welcome to college um,

(15:35):
let's just say, from a financialperspective, what you would
typically do to start something,you would think you would give
yourself a decent amount ofrunway that you could just give
yourself the time and space tokind of build and let this thing
grow.
Well, that runway never reallyhappened and it came in like,

(16:01):
instead of going after a biground of money, it basically
came in like chunks of likewherever I could get it to, to
get going, and there's a I'llcall them angel investors or
family.
You know friends, people thatknew me at the time, you know
what I mean that that helped inthose early years to just fuel
trying to get this thing off theand running years to just fuel

(16:25):
trying to get this thing off theand running.
And, um, there was a few thingsthat I did in those early years
that I look back on that I'mlike man if I ever do this again
.
This is not the way to do it,but in the time you're just
trying to go.
Yeah, and one of the things Idid in the story I'll share that

(16:45):
I have not really um, but I wasabout a year into launching the
company and we wanted to dosome marketing, and do some
marketing in a very differentway that you traditionally would
think about marketing.
And I worked with a group in inDayton and, um, they pitched an
idea that was let's take thisold RV and we'll turn this into

(17:11):
an absolute spectacle for youwhere you could take it to
universities, engage kidseverywhere.
And when they pitched me thisidea, honestly I was like I
could spend all this money onmarketing.
Or I can spend this money anddo this, and I'm like I could
spend all this money onmarketing.
Or I can spend this money anddo this, and I'm like I want to
do that and I did not have themoney, but I'm like we're going
to do this and we'll figure itout.

(17:31):
Like let's just go.
Well, if you ever decide toretrofit a 1970s RV, come talk
to me.
Please come talk to me, becauseI'm not even a big car person,
but I literally in my mind,though, I had a whole plan.
We were going to do this roadtour.

(17:52):
I'm going to hire recentgraduates, young people that are
going to be in the RV to marketthis thing and go.
I'm not going to be the one inthe RV, I'm not going to be the
one in the RV.
So this project, though, waslike a big defining project for

(18:14):
Welcome to College, because itwas either going to work and we
were going to keep going, orthis thing, if it doesn't work,
could potentially kill it.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, if this doesn't work it'sprobably over and the plan was
we were going to do this bigroad tour literally across the
country.
We made t-shirts.
The road tour was incredible.
This was social media.

(18:36):
Twitter was big then and whatwe did is we took 20 of the
nation's biggest rivalries andstarted it with Ohio state,
michigan, being based in Dayton.
We knew Ohio state wouldprobably win, so our first stop
is going to be Columbus, youknow.
So we we pitted all therivalries.
The biggest, literally likethis thing was going nationwide

(18:57):
and we were going to end, Ithink, um, I mean, we had
Harvard, yale, uh, northCarolina Duke.
I think we ended with USC, uclaor something.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (19:09):
West.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Coast?
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
We had this whole shirt.
We had the road tour built outLike everybody got the vote.
Users got the vote.
Where does Marv go?
The RV was Marv.
It stood for mobile automatedresearch vehicle, which again
I'm like that's amazing, right.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Like I'm going to absolutely do this.

Speaker 5 (19:31):
So this project, though, taught me so many things
, and the first piece of thisproject that, again, I haven't
really talked about this a lot,piece of this project that you
know I haven't really talkedabout this a lot, and I'm not
going to use names, or, or Idon't want to, you know, uh, I'm

(19:51):
not doing this in a in a uh away that I this is just real
life stuff, and the project wasa significant investment.
The project was a significantinvestment, a six-figure
investment to do this and toretrofit the vehicle, and this
road tour was going to be asignificant investment to do

(20:12):
this and to push this 1970 thingaround the country, like it got
like five miles a gallon, Imean like this, but it I'll have
to send you some photos if youcould splice in some photos.
I'll have to send you somephotos if you could splice in
some photos Like this thinglooked when they finished it,
though you can't make up whatI'm about to tell you.
This thing had confetti cannons.

(20:36):
This thing had a screen on theback that was digital and it was
an Xbox Kinect, so it was trulyautomated.
Like kids, we could gosomewhere, turn it on and it
would.
It would engage and know whensomebody's behind it and then go
into like a uh, uh, literallyconversation.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
It would talk to you and this was what year?

Speaker 5 (20:55):
This was roughly 2011 .
So no, AI so no AI, but it waslike AI.
It had like it looked likeKnight Rider was talking to you,
like the way it looked on theback and then it would go in to
ask you questions about yourschool.
So there was a researchcomponent to Welcome to College,
we could take it to a campus,set it up and it was collecting

(21:17):
data about why these kids pickedthat school.
So the concept behind it wasgreat and it was exactly what,
again, was going to separate usfrom these other tech companies.
It also, in my mind, was likethis could be our booth at the
big national admission show.
It was like a.
It kind of became a mobileoffice.
We can be anywhere.

(21:38):
Well, in addition to confetticannons, it had switches so that
it would dance, so it wouldplay music and actually like,
like it would play black eyedpeace, boom, boom pow.
And it would like boom, boompow like the whole thing, the
whole mute.
Oh yeah, this was a spectacleand it was made.
The goal of it was, like, thereason why we did it is that we

(22:01):
were at a conference once thatsaid if somebody can engage and
feel, physically, touch yourbrand, their likelihood to
remember you goes way up.
So one of the goals of thisthere were three buttons on the
back so when it would talk toyou you had to push a button
answer questions and then itwould shoot you either confetti
out and say thank you or itwould say reach in my license

(22:21):
plate for a prize and it hadprize shoots and drop a prize in
the license plate and peoplehad to reach in and it was
always hilarious because therewas always this like they were
waiting for this to be like kindof camera like you know what I
mean, like what's gonna happenand they would have to reach
into the license plate and thenit would actually sometimes even
giggle like you would reach in.

(22:41):
It was the.
The creative behind it wasgenius, like it was truly
something.
It actually earned us.
Uh, uh, later on, and once wegot things worked through, but
it, it.
We won a fast company awardfrom the project and again I I
credit that to these geniusminds that that did it yeah but
this is the story.

(23:03):
So I share all that.
And it was awesome.
The day we were supposed togain access to the vehicle we
were having a launch party withthe media, big hoopla.
I'm talking you know we'regonna have 80 to 100 people.
I'm talking you know we'regoing to have 80 to 100 people.

(23:29):
Ohio State we had already linedup it was going to be on the
Oval the next day, like that'sas stop one, and Ohio State was
pumped like Marv was going tothe Oval on like a Friday.
So this is say Thursday.
I mean everything you wouldthink is lining up, perfect and
I go no joke at the event.

(23:49):
Maybe it started earlier in theday, I can't exactly remember,
but that day the company wasgetting down to the wire having
it ready to go, like I mean, youknow, I remember the days
leading up to it.
I'm like this thing is notgoing to be ready and they were
working probably 24-7 to getthis thing ready to go.
So the day of the launch comesand I'm literally there at the

(24:14):
thing and I cannot enjoy onesecond of it because there's a
document in front of me thatthey want me to sign before I
take the keys to the vehicle.
That we never discussed andbasically it was a document that
was saying for me to give youthese keys, I have to agree that

(24:38):
I'm not holding you accountablefor anything.
Basically is what the doc saidLike any anything like like,
like I'm signing this and when Isign it?
it's all everything, not notjust their work of like all of
the updates and there and therewas a ton of technology in this

(24:59):
thing to do this Right.
And it was basically like thatday this document comes up and
I'm like I can't sign that.
And I remember talking to myattorney and he's like you can't
sign that.
There's people, media.
I'm thinking I'm not how what'shappening here.

(25:23):
The owner and me, like it wasliterally like a, a stalemate,
was like they were not giving methe keys to take this vehicle
unless.
I signed it.
And I'm going to be dead honest, like I was Really like, like

(25:47):
everything we had lined up,right.
I'm like and my attorney sayingdon't sign it, I had to sign it
, I had to sign it.
Yeah, you didn't have an option.
I didn't have an option, like Ihad to sign it.
But I also was like dude, Iwish we could have discussed
this.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Yeah, instead of dropping on me now.

Speaker 5 (26:06):
So, so, and, and, and , and.
I will say that I signed it andI I never felt like they were
just going to like you know, and, and, and, and, and.
Let me tell you exactly whathappened and that this is again.
You can't make this up.
We sign it, party happens, weload up the guys to get to Ohio

(26:30):
State, we are on our way, thisthing, we are, let's call it.
There's that interstate thatgoes to 675, I think it is in
Dayton that you take to get to70.
I think we were on 675.
We got on 70.

(26:51):
It died.
I'm on the side of 70.
I call the owner of the firm.
I'm like dude.
He's like dude.
I'm so sorry.
One thing we might've forgotwith everything that's going on.
It might have been empty.

(27:12):
On fuel, you might need fueland I'm like okay.
I actually was a little bit likeokay, like, yeah, like okay, so
, so we, we managed to get to,uh, the fastest gas station and
dumped $150, which was, I think.

(27:33):
I think it probably could havebeen a $300 fill up every time.
We filled this thing, butanyway, filled that bad boy up.
And like, and we're on our way,and like, literally, you know,
again, ohio state's waiting forus.
And like, and we're on our way,and like, literally, you know,
again, ohio state's waiting forus.
So we are on I-70 now but we'recruising now and it's
everything's good.
Like, and again, I'm not, I'mnot thinking about anything that
I saw, I'm just like we're,we're going to Ohio state, this

(27:55):
tour is happening, we're rollingand we're probably 45 minutes
to an hour on I-70.
And probably 45 minutes to anhour on I-70, and broke down
again and this time I'm likethis is a problem, it's full gas

(28:20):
, we're on the side of I-70.
I have to call Ohio State,we're going to be late.
So already I'm like, okay, thisis so.
This time they come to help us,try to figure out the situation
and they're like, I mean,everybody's at a loss of why

(28:40):
it's, you know whatever.
So we have to get it towed.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
To Ohio State.

Speaker 5 (28:48):
To literally.
There was like a thank goodnessnot too far away there was a
mechanic.
So we got to get it towed to amechanic.
The mechanic has to look atthis thing.
I have to call Ohio State andliterally tell them we're not
going to make it for the program.
And I'm like, can we do thistomorrow if we get everything
situated?

(29:08):
And they're like, yeah, but theproblem is tomorrow you can't
be on the oval, like we can haveyou set up, but it's going to
be, you know, whatever.
And I'm like, okay, so mechaniclooks at everything and figures
out what's going on.
Basically, what happened was the, the, the, the RV had sat for

(29:30):
so many years somewhere and whenwe poured all that fuel in, it
kicked up all kinds of stuff andit clogged our fuel filter,
this tiny little piece goinginto the carburetor again, which
I'm, at this point in time, Idon't know anything about cars.
I did have to learn a littlebit because you know I had to
learn how to like start changingthis, because this would this

(29:52):
started to happen.
Like it wasn't a one-time thing.
This guy just said look, you're.
You're going to have to keep aneye on this part.
If something gets in there,it's going to shut you down.
I'm like, okay, anyway, we'veagain x a couple hundred bucks,
whatever, figured out what itwas.
We could buy a bunch of fuelfilters and, yeah, whatever,
like figure this out.
But it was the first like likesetback in a big project, right,

(30:17):
and I can go on and tell you,dan, um, we got got to Ohio
State the next day.
This is where things evencontinue to go downhill.
I had four guys that I hadhired to be the team.
Part of our visits to thesecampuses included a campus tour
where these guys would go on acampus tour.
It was going to be at 9 am thatnext morning.

(30:39):
Well, when the RV was finallyfixed, we did stay in Columbus
that night and the guys the roadteam decides to go out and have
a grand old time in Columbus.
They show up late and visiblyhungover hungover so much so

(31:04):
that the ohio state peoplecommented on it to me.
Okay, let's just say that roadteam had a very short stint.
And guess who's now driving?
Marv, you are Marv.
You are.
So again, like the, the storydoesn't get better,

(31:26):
unfortunately for a little bit,because that road tour made it
through four, four visits.
We did Ohio state, we make itto Pittsburgh, we did pit, uh,
penn state, pit and pit one um,or no, he's pit west virginia.
And then we did, uh, we got toboston and it was harvard, yale

(31:48):
and harvard, one um, and we wereon our way to like dc, for like
georgetown, and I can'tremember who we did in dc, um,
that thing broke.
We were changing fuel filterslike every three hours and
finally it broke down somewhereand I literally was like we got

(32:13):
to end the tour, you know.
I mean like we got to get thisfig, like this is this?
I'm putting a lot.
I literally at one point therewere three of us, a couple
people that I hired to help me,like a blogger we were pushing
the RV off of an interstate inConnecticut with like semis
flying at it.
I'm like this is becoming aproblem, like I'm putting lives

(32:35):
now, not just my own, you knowwhat I mean and at this point
I'm trying not to showcase anyof that right, like we're just
pushing out all this greatcontent when we show up in these
places, but like underneath itall was a complete nightmare,
right and um, long story short,that road tour was a bomb, like

(32:56):
totally failed, like massivefailure.
But the interesting thing was,when that thing was actually
turned on, though, people lovedit.
So it was like I didn't want to, just I couldn't just scrap it,
you know what I mean.
Like there was a heartbeat hereof something really good and it

(33:16):
would engage people inbeautiful ways, like one time we
stopped somewhere this wasafter we had it in a much better
shape and I wasn't the onedriving it, and that was
something that comes later.
But this trip I actually was,now that I think about it
because we were in Shreveport,louisiana, at a shell station

(33:36):
and somebody came over andthey're like what is this?
And I started telling them itwas a family, young family, they
had kids, and I'm like do youwant me to turn it on?
They're like yeah, so I turn iton.
In this gas station.
It attracted like a little likeimpromptu, little like crowd,
crowd, and then they keptshowing up Like they were people
would see it.
There was like a legit.
We created a little montage ofthis where it was like this

(33:58):
thing could just like it did itsjob.
Right.
Um, but where it?
There's a point to this, Ipromise you, cause it's a key

(34:18):
part of the story.
That scrap, that idea of theRotora just didn't work Right.
But the next thing was like weneeded it as our booth for the
big admissions conference, causeI'm like they even told me as I
got this set up they're like noone's ever had a vehicle on the
floor as like a booth.
I was like this was going to becool, it's going to be
different.
This would get our and that'swhat I needed the most at that
point in time.
I needed the universities tosee us as a, like, innovative

(34:46):
thought partner doing differentstuff to engage kids, and like
this this is.
We just got to get it and,ironic enough, the conference
that year was in new orleans andthis was before I had any.
I honestly, this might havebeen my first trip ever to new
orleans.
This was in 2013 and actuallyno 20.
Actually it was it was 2011 or2012, 2011, probably.

(35:08):
The road tour was this summer,this would have been in the fall
of 2011 and similar thing I hadsome people working for me.
I was going to drive it down.
I had a friend helping me andwe were going to hit stops along
the way engage high schools.
At this point in time, we werehitting to hit stops along the
way.
Engage high schools.
At this point in time, we werehitting high schools and
colleges.
So, like we hit a big highschool football game in

(35:30):
Birmingham, alabama.
Then on Saturday we were hittinga Alabama uh tailgate for a sec
game, which was great, um, andthen we're heading to new
Orleans and on our way to newOrleans.
And then we're heading to NewOrleans and on our way to New
Orleans, one of the fuel thingshappens in the middle of
Mississippi and we get off theexit and again, I know what we

(35:53):
need to do.
We've been fixing them.
You know we're kind of expertsat this now, right, and the guy
that was with me, it was, let'scall it like 9 o'clock at night
and we get into the engine tofix the fuel filter and honestly

(36:16):
, I could still see it vividlyin my mind.
I don't know what we were doingexactly, but whatever we were
doing was cranking something thecomplete wrong way and I saw
the little fuel line starting toalso crank and I'm like and I
before I could even like getwords out of my mouth it snapped

(36:37):
and like legit like fuel, likewe just now.
This wasn't anybody's fault,but like this was total, like we
F this one up bad Like to thepoint where I'm like we just
snapped the fuel line and I Iliterally thought that's when it

(37:01):
was, like that's when it was.
I'm like what.
We had to have this thing inNew Orleans on a date to get it
Like they had it all lined up toget it into the show.
And I'm literally like we'redone and I remember pacing in
this.
It was, there were two gasstations at this exit.

(37:22):
Neither one of them had a uhlike a, a name of a station that
we would like.
The signs were like just likeblank.
You know, like that's the typeof exit I was yeah, yeah like
this is where it all is, nowhereno and the best.
I'm not even kidding you.
The closest town was quitman,mississippi, and I remember like
, literally in my head I'm likequit man, just quit, just

(37:47):
freaking quit, that's your sign.
Like what are we doing here?
And I remember being like Iliterally thought it was over
and my buddy that was with mehad to be somewhere.
Like the next day he had aflight out of New Orleans.
He's literally more worriedabout getting to new orleans in
an uber so he can catch hisflight.

(38:07):
Like, and I'm I'm literally nowlike by myself.
He ended up getting an uberthat night somehow, I don't know
what he paid for it ubered fromlaurel, mississippi down to to
new orleans, like three and ahalf hour ride, um, but but now
I am, I am by myself in the RV.
I remember talking to my wifethat night.

(38:29):
She was not happy and, uh, youknow, I had one thought to do to
, to potentially salvage this,to do to, to potentially salvage
this.
When I got the RV, the folksthat did the RV recommended I

(38:57):
joined this club called the GMCmotor home international and
it's it was legit a club andcommunity of all the owners that
own 1973 to 1978 GMC RVs.
And when I signed up it waslike 25 bucks or whatever, but
they sent you the directory ofall these owners across the
country and that night,literally like at 10 o'clock at

(39:19):
night, I'm scouring thedirectory because the only
thought I have is that if I canfind somebody that like has one
or knows what to do in thissituation to fix, you know, I'm
like that's the most, mostmechanics I would take it to.
If they would see this thingand be like we're not touching

(39:40):
it, we don't work on that right,you know what I mean Like, like
most, most places, it was notalways like the welcome site to
see this thing come rolling Like.
So I scour the manual andliterally find the closest
people to where I'm at.
And the closest people to whereI were like was that located in

(40:05):
in we're, in Birmingham,alabama, or outside Birmingham
there was a town called Bessemerand I looked it up and I'm like
Bessemer's probably like like atwo and a half three hour ride,
and there were some peopleSouth in Mississippi.
But like I'm like and I'm theguy's name was Mark Creel and I

(40:30):
will never forget that phonecall.
First off, he picked up thephone at 10 something at night,
complete shot in the dark here,picks up his phone.
I explain to him the situation.
Mark says after hearing this,he's like alright, whatever you

(40:58):
do, don't tow it.
He's like they'll jack it allup.
Don't, do not tow it.
He's like I know some people inMississippi because it's too
late to call them now.
But give me the morning and letme make a couple of phone calls
.
I'm like, brother, you areliterally my only shot in the
world.

(41:18):
That, that, that, that, thatthat I have Right and I will
never forget it, because I meanclearly I'm not sleeping Right,
I'm not going to.
I mean I did call the, I didhave the.
Somebody maybe my wife,somebody said like you should
let the local police know you'restuck.
You know what I mean, or justknow you're there.
So I did Quitman.

(41:38):
The Quitman police showed up atone point and I talked to the
guy and he's like, yeah, well,he's like you're fine, like
there.
There was this semi across theother way, though you know what
I mean, where I'm like it waslike RV, and then he's like big
old semis.
And I'm like, oh, what am Idoing?
But anyway, stayed awake most ofthat night, clearly, and was on

(42:00):
pins and needle waiting forthat phone call in the morning
from Mark.
And when Mark called, he's likeI got good news and I got bad
news.
What do you want first?
And I'm like Mark, I don't carewhat you're, you're my only
news.
So, whatever he goes.
Well, bad news is I called thepeople in Mississippi that I
know, and it was, uh, whateverday it was, he's like there it

(42:23):
was a Sunday because we were atthe Alabama game on Saturday.
It was Saturday night.
We had to have the RV byTuesday to New Orleans, so we
had a buffer day.
He's like bad news is thepeople in Mississippi are big
church-going folks.
They're not going to be able tohelp you on a Sunday, he's like
.
But the good news is my buddy,the big guy, and I are getting

(42:47):
in my RV and we're going todrive down and help you get this
thing on the road.
I'm not kidding you.
Wow, I said Mark, are youserious?
He goes these things are likebabies to me.
He said you called and foundthe right.
Like babies to me.
He said you called and foundthe right.

(43:09):
You know, right, guy.
He not even kidding you.
Him and his buddy, three hourslater on a Sunday, showed up to
where I was stuck.
He brought all the toolsnecessary and he fixed the fuel
line.
Brother, I remember, as he wasworking, like sitting there
thinking like what can I givethis guy Like this is, this is

(43:29):
out of.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
It's above and beyond .

Speaker 5 (43:32):
Beyond, like literally to the point of like
you don't know me, but literallyhave come out of nowhere to
save me in this like wholebusiness basically.
And maybe he could hear it insome way shape or form.
I don't know if he knew.

(43:54):
If I don't get to New Orleans,it's probably over, because the
investment we made and theeverything into that show and it
also was the show that fastforward we got there, he fixed
us, we make it there and thatshow like literally put us on on
the map and we got client.

(44:15):
You know it's like it was likea people still talk about it,
like I still run into people inhigher ed today.
That they talk about that show.
So people have angel investorsin their entrepreneurial
journeys.
I call Mark Creel, my angelmechanic that literally saved

(44:36):
our company, and I still againtalk about friendships that are
formed.
I mean I have multiple.
If I'm passing throughBirmingham, I'm stopping and I
see him in the big guy.
The best part is the big guy islike seven foot tall.
So like when they showed up tohelp me, the big guy walked out
first and I'm not kidding you.
He's saying he goes here we areto save the day.

(44:58):
The army guys are on their way.
I'm like what is this?
And the coolest thing is Idon't even know the big guys
full story.
Um, and I have had multipletimes where I've hung out with
them when I'm passing through,and I've taken Mark and his wife
to dinner multiple.
It's just like.
It's like I will never be ableto fully repay them.

(45:21):
In fact, he stayed with me onetime in New Orleans when he came
and visited.
It was beyond his help, but ithas connected us and in fact
that's where the RV is right now.
So, mark, if you're listening,thank you for keeping an eye on
Marv and keeping him safe, butwe still have the darn thing and

(45:42):
Mark's kind of keep restored inBirmingham.
It's going to come back.
I'm going to use it again, butit'll have to be the right.
It's going to have to be theright exact, you've got some
scars for Marv.
Oh, and my wife, when you bringMarv up to me, it's like not a
great topic, but again, I wantedyou to because, like when you

(46:05):
ask about stories, like that'sone, I don't talk about a lot,
but the amount of times we gothit in the face and we're laying
on the ground to figure out howthis is going to work, and not
just those, those weren't evenfinancial struggles, like that's
just like real life, just stuff.

(46:26):
And then, uh, you add in all ofthe other factors and so many
things and it's like again, as Igo back to that, nine out of 10
, though I think about that andit's a driver for me.
Cause I'm like I keep, I keep.
there's too much into this nowRight.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
So to back up a little bit kind of kind of give
an explanation of of whatwelcome to college is and does,
yeah, so people understand that.

Speaker 5 (46:51):
So it was originally started as a um, um let's just
sum it up a Yelp for collegetours, and the plan was high
school kids could go and ratetheir college visits and other
people could see what they sawand they can give feedback.
And we were collecting all thatfeedback and we're selling it
as data to the university tobetter improve their campus

(47:13):
visit.
Well, that lasted about fouryears, that model, and then we
went through quite a bit of anexperience, and this is actually
where the New Orleans pieceenters the equation.
We got accepted to be part oftheir entrepreneurial cohort
called the Idea Village, and yougot to work with a lot of
mentors and people that reallygot into your business to help

(47:34):
you figure out what's going on.
And we were very much still invery rocky waters of those first
couple of years of figuring outexactly what this was, and we
didn't have a real I would callit product market fit yet.
You know it was like we, we hadsomething and we were getting
users and we had clients, but itwasn't totally going, and I'll
never forget this story.

(47:55):
They put me in a room once,though, and we had to do those
Madlib uh problem, user solutionkind of fill in the blanks, and
they were like, write thethings that you're doing right
now for Welcome to College.
And I had like 22 things on thewall, and they said, okay, come
in the room.
They're like we're going toleave, you have to erase 21.

(48:18):
And you have to have one on thewall that you feel like you're
most qualified and likepassionate about salt, like like
which is what are you doing?
And that was an amazingexercise, because, you know,
just wiping the things off, itfelt like this, like relief,

(48:39):
yeah, and and it was hard, Ithink I had three or four on
there and then like figuring outlike what is the one that I
feel like we can do and besuccessful at doing this?
And there was one on the wall,and it basically was the one
statement, and I don't rememberexactly, but it was something
the effect of like like ourniche in the world is to help

(49:02):
admissions offices make theirambassador program the best that
it can be, you know, andwhether it be training the
ambassadors or giving them thesoftware to manage all of the
behind the scenes stuff that'staken up all this time.
A lot of places would use seven, eight different tools Excel
when to work, google meet or youknow all these tools and then
we basically built a platformthat universities could use, one

(49:25):
platform to manage all of it,and so it's a very niche product
, um, really geared to a campusvisit program at universities.
But we still have many, manygreat clients university, north
carolina, chapel hill, emoryuniversity in atlanta, two lane,
new Orleans, elon in NorthCarolina, carnegie Mellon in
Pittsburgh, cornell in Ithaca.

(49:47):
I mean there's a sound group ofuniversities that leverage it
and it's niche, so you've got tohave a specific type of program
.
We're still pretty unique inthe space and I still feel like
I said that's why we're in thesecond inning like there's still
growth opportunities with it tocome.

(50:07):
Yeah, yeah, um.
So that's what it is.
Marv interesting twist back tomarv um, as I shared, it stood
for mobile automated researchvehicle when we were going
through a really pivotal likeall this change I'm talking

(50:27):
about with the software and thedirection.
Somebody also told me to do acouple of things, and one was to
watch Simon Sinek start withwhy, and the other was to read a
book called flourish by a guynamed Martin Seligman.
Called flourish by a guy namedMartin Seligman and the Simon
Sinek start with wise Uh, it'sone of my all time favorite.

(50:48):
I I kind of go back to it a lot.
You know, people don't buy whatyou do, they buy why you do it,
and that was a big kind of ashift of thinking for me.
And then flourish was the firstbook I read where after I read
it, I wanted to like email theauthor and like be like OK, like
this, this hit and I think whatyou're writing about is

(51:13):
something that could reallyimpact the whole campus visit
experience.
And in fact I did email a guy.
He's a professor at theUniversity of Pennsylvania and I
didn't know this at the time.
I just emailed him, right.
I finished the book and I'mlike I literally want to email
this guy.
So I emailed him and I got thestock email back and this dude
is a world renowned Ted talkeryou know what I mean.

(51:35):
Like literally founded thewhole positive psychology
movement that's in higher ed.
Like this dude like is the guyand I'm just like email, like
thinking I'm going to meet him.
But the funniest part about thiswhole story as a flyer, as you
know, like this is this, is thiswould have been, uh, early
January and the flyers had agame in like versus LaSalle in

(51:57):
Philly in a couple of weeks, andso I used to do fundraising for
dayton and I got to travel withthe basketball team a little
bit in one of my roles and sowhen I emailed seligman I was
like I'm gonna be in philly in acouple weeks.
You know, if you have time tograb coffee, I would love to
meet you, type of thing.

(52:18):
And I'm thinking, after I gotthe stock email, i'm'm like I'm
never going to just get a coffeewith that guy.
But about a week later I had anemail come in, on a Friday.
It was from somebody from Penn.
I opened the email and her namewas Peggy Kern and she goes hey

(52:42):
, justin, marty passed alongyour email, I have time and I'm
available to meet with you onTuesday when you're going to be
in Philadelphia.
And I was like I rememberreading this and I'm like, holy
shit, I'm going to Philadelphia.
So I ran up.
I remember going up to tell mywife.
I'm like I got to, I'm bookinga flight, I'm going to meet
somebody from Penn, like I mightget an email or a meeting out

(53:05):
of this, and like I just I can'tpass that up.
Right, I got a flight probablywas the last money I had.
It was one of those where, likeI'm going, I don't know what,
where this is going, but I'mgoing to go.
And I showed up to meet Peggyand when we got there, she took

(53:27):
me and we, we chatted for alittle bit and she's like do you
have time to stay for lunch?
She's like we're having acolloquium today and there's,
you're more than welcome to stayand have lunch with us, and you
know.
So we had this great meetingand I basically was kind of
sharing with her how I wanted touse the principles of the book
to use in our trainings, and sheloved the ideas and invited me
to stay for lunch.
I go to lunch.
I'm standing at a little tableabout this same size.

(53:51):
I'm going in to get whatever itwas like some sort of like a
Asian fusion thing.
Anyway, I hear this voice I'mnot even kidding you.
Right behind me he's like oh,this looks great.
I hear this voice I'm not evenkidding you right behind me he's
like oh, this looks great.
The voice was like I turnedaround.
It was Martin Seligman and oneof the guys in the room is like
Marty, this is Justin.

(54:11):
He's from Dayton, he has ideasof how he wants to apply perma
into the college experience.
And Marty's like oh, that'sgreat, nice to meet you now.
Like sitting shaking with theman and we'd chit chat for a
minute.
And he's like how long are youin town?
And I'm like I'm, you know,here for the day and we're
heading back tomorrow.
He goes.
Well, do you want to sit in myclass at 3 30?

(54:33):
And I'm like, I'm like,absolutely.
I'm like like this was thewhole reason why I came long
story short of all of that.
When I left the meetings withPeggy, she said to me use
whatever you want of this.
Like.
This is why you know what Imean Like, but you should apply
it and use your own acronym thatworks for what you do with.

(54:55):
Welcome to college is how shesaid it.
And I'm like so basically, Iwas like in my head I'm like I
have the creative license tobasically do whatever I need to
with this content and she's like, yes, she's like we want like
this should be get it out asmuch as we can.
I go back to my hotel that nightand I remember sitting.
I was at an aloft and I remembersitting in like the lobby bar

(55:17):
area and I was brainstorming howto use these elements of perMA
which he talks about to flourishin your life.
You have to have these fiveelements operating to flourish
and they were positive emotion,engagement, relationships,

(55:40):
meaning and accomplishment,relationships, meaning and
accomplishment.
If all five of those arerolling in your life, you're
flourishing.
And the interesting part for meof why it was so powerful with
the college visit is thateverybody talks about gut
feelings when you're on thesevisits, like I just felt it and

(56:03):
I hate that because I'm like Ihate that Cause I'm like what is
that?
What do you mean?
Like what, what do you?
What do you mean?
And when I read the book, I'mlike it brought me back to my
tour of Dayton, cause I did notwant to go to Dayton.
It was not really on my radarscreen.

(56:24):
My guidance counselor keptnudging me just go on the tour
going.
So I'm like I'm not going toDayton, like it was not up on my
list of, say, top five.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
Right.

Speaker 5 (56:34):
Why am I going to go to a smaller city?
I wanted a big school.
I want college basketball.
Like I'm not going to Dayton.
I finally listened to him,though, and went on that one
campus tour, and I call thatcampus tour the turning point of
the rest of my life, becauseChris Woodard, who was my tour
guide, knocked this thing out ofthe park, and not because he

(56:59):
did the normal things tourguides do, but I felt at the end
of his tour I could call him ifI went to Dayton.
And literally we built aconnection that I felt like he
was from Cincinnati.
It was more of a conversation.
It wasn't the typical walkingbackwards and telling you about

(57:20):
the buildings.
It was literally like foreverand forever for me, like that's
the origin story of why Icreated Welcome to College.
Somebody said like you got todo something you're passionate
about.
That campus tour never happens.
I never go to Dayton, nevermeet my wife.
Yada, yada, yada.
Ripple effect right Like thatcampus tour was a game changer

(57:42):
and so my big thing has alwaysbeen like I want to work in that
space and help peopleunderstand the importance of how
big that little moment of timecould be.
Fast forward back to the PERMAand Seligman and the acronym.
So the MARV thing.
We already got that back story.
You know the debacle and lovehate that has been.

(58:05):
But this is where it getsreally interesting and I've
never actually told it in thisway and how this is going to be
interesting to figure out howyou cut this all up around with
acronyms.
In perma you have three lettersof marv meaning accomplishment

(58:30):
relationships.
The only one we didn't have inperma was v, and then I'm like
oh my gosh, marv, marv's theacronym.
Marv is the acronym Marv is thereason of all of this, meaning
accomplishment, relationshipsand vitality and basically,

(58:55):
combined positive emotion andengagement to get to vitality.
Marv becomes the core of ourwhole curriculum, of how we
train campus tour guides, whichis do you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 3 (59:11):
Yeah, like it's amazing, it's amazing.

Speaker 5 (59:15):
And it and the best part about Marv is that I think
it's a progression.
It starts with meaning You'vegot to have that, the why You've
got to have the roots of foryou.
Whatever that is, and if youhave that, accomplishment is

(59:39):
actually not.
You hear this, it's not astraight line.
Accomplishment is actually thegrit, the resilience, the
adversity, the obstacles.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
It's the journey.

Speaker 5 (59:52):
It's the journey, but to get?
I'll ask you both when you'reknocked down, how are you
getting back up?
How do you get up?
Just get up, yes, but whathelps you get up your hands?
yeah your feet yes, therelationship yeah people yep

(01:00:17):
yeah faith people really I'm notjust saying in an individual
relationship, but likeaccomplishment is surrounded by
meaning in relationships.
If those three things arehappening now, you can freaking
feel fully alive.
Yeah and um, I push people onlike if you want to feel fully

(01:00:52):
alive it.
These.
It's a you're feeling, marv,because you're feeling all of it
Right.
So, um, yeah, you're getting megoing.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
I have never told it in that way, but so let me ask
you this, because I see theemotion on your face and
everybody, I think, feels thepassion from your voice.
Where are you at now with allof this?

Speaker 5 (01:01:13):
So, man, that's a really good question.
One of the things that, like,I'm actively pursuing is it's
hard to share what I just sharedwith you guys, absolutely.
To get to where we just got to.
It took I don't know how longwe've been sitting here talking,

(01:01:35):
but it's hard.
I truly don't even think mykids fully understand what I do
or try to do or the.
I also think it's it's, it'sbeen, it's something that I know

(01:01:57):
sitting there that's reallygood and has a potential to
impact a lot of people.
So one of the things that'sreally top of mind is is is
finally getting the book done,so that in a, in a maybe not a
long book, but like somethingthat like a student 20 to 15 to
20 year old could read and feela little bit of a roadmap to

(01:02:20):
like those four things.
Yeah, and I feel like a bookcould accomplish that.
And again, it's not going to bea book about I've hit the home
run of business, but it's a bookabout, I think, a story that
kids now need in our day.
Right now, after COVID, I feellike, with technologies rise, I

(01:02:47):
feel like with you know what Imean?
It's like there's there'ssomething in this that I think
could help a lot of people, andso my goal is like, if I write
this for my three kids to helpthem, I think it could help a
lot of people, and so the bookis out there as like, something
that's starting to drive me aslike just get this thing out,

(01:03:07):
just do it now, right, just justget something out and
potentially build a littlesomething around the, the the,
the acronym, um.
I think it could help not onlyjust with, obviously, the higher
ed side of the world, but it'sfunny when I talk about it and I
have spoke about it at certainevents and I've had parents like

(01:03:31):
parents.
I'm there to talk to the kidsand parents will come up to me
and they're like dude, I needMarv.
You know what I mean Like orlike.
There's elements of it that Ithink can span and connect with
a lot of different types ofpeople.
So that's kind of definitelysomething that's top of mind.
The other thing that I'verealized New Orleans taught me

(01:03:54):
something when I moved there.
There's a culture difference inNew Orleans around just like
they truly live life differentlydown there, and what I mean by
that is like they are very mucha present tense, living kind of

(01:04:19):
culture, like it's now, likethey're, they're living in this,
don't take any day for grantedmentality.
You know what I mean Like, like, like they live and enjoy life.
There's a French, a couple ofFrench saying you know what I
mean Like, like, enjoy life.
Or there's a saying life ismeant to be lived, not endured,

(01:04:41):
and I I think a lot of times, um, it's, it's easy to go through
the phases of you just feel likeyou're enduring life and it's
like you have one shot and it'slike, when I think about that,
that's where I go back to, like,man, I just want to be doing

(01:05:02):
stuff that could help beinspiring others to to really go
after what you're passionateabout.
You know, be around people thatbring you up.
Um, and this, this ride, andNew Orleans was big on again

(01:05:24):
like little things, like Ishared earlier, like Mardi Gras
is not like Mardi Gras.
The media side of Mardi Gras, ofportraying what Mardi Gras is,
is so far off base.
It's truly for family,community and for kids.
To be quite honest, I mean likewhen my kids were young and we

(01:05:46):
were there.
Like you have a ladder, likeevery home has a ladder, because
you roll out your ladder to theparade so that your kids are up
top and you stand behind themon a ladder and all the throws
that these floats are doing.
It's for the kids.
I mean, yeah, do the adults andpeople get into it and have

(01:06:07):
just as much fun?
Absolutely, but like it'sreally a family, communal thing,
like all of the stuff that youthink of and imagine when you
hear Marty go.
I mean, if you go down to theFrench quarter you'll see that,
absolutely, don't get me wrong,but that's not the point of
Mardi Gras at all.
Like it's.

(01:06:28):
It's truly a it was.
It was like UD homecoming forlike 10 days every February and
I think it's a beautiful thingand it's like um, um, living
there and meeting the peoplethat lived there.
I I shared a brief story of patpat green, who was 90 some
years old, and when I got toknow pat she's like I I moved to

(01:06:48):
new orleans from key westbecause I wanted to die by the
birthplace of jazz music andwhere jazz was formed.
Like what wait, what just the?
The interesting people anddifferent experiences that that
that culture kind of exposed meto was something that I will

(01:07:11):
always kind of cherish andfigure out like man, whatever I
do, that kind of there's ahospitality down there, that
Southern feel that like whateverI do next, like it's also going
to be infused in some way, uh,cause it really kind of uh, I
grew a lot living down there.

Speaker 3 (01:07:30):
So let's let's talk about your family.
Let's talk about your wife andyour kids.
You kind of briefly mentionedyou met your wife at at UD.
Um, talk about them and and um,you know that that life
together when you, when you getmarried, and then you have kids,
and how that, how that changes.

Speaker 5 (01:07:45):
So this is a I'm glad that you asked, because I, this
morning, first day of school,of high school for my son and
he's kind of the benchmark forme because, um, when I was
starting the company, somebodytold me some advice that babies
bring good luck.

(01:08:05):
And my son was born on July 3rd2010 and welcome to college was
launched on September 28th 2010.
So my son is literally like, asI see him now is 15 years old,
heading to high school.
I'm like that, that, that'sthat that's how long this
company has been in our life and, um, but on the on the family

(01:08:31):
front, um, it's the driver forme.
I mean honestly, um, I meanhonestly, you know, it's the why

(01:08:51):
of, like, I think the constant,like, figuring out whatever I
got to figure out to make thisthing go.
And you know, there's beentimes throughout the journey
that I have done other projects.
I figured out like, ok, I thinkfor a while it was like my soul
, everything I had to just focuson it.
But as it's kind of evolved andit is what it is, um, you know,
I think I realized like I cando other.

(01:09:17):
There's things that you knowit's what keeps me, keeps you
going, looking at that nine outof ten stat that I told you of
like, don't be that like, I gotit.
This, this has to work becauseit's it's feeding and growing

(01:09:37):
and, you know, doing everythingthat we need to do to kind of
keep this all together.
Yeah, and my wife let me justgive her the shout that she
deserves, because she's alwaysthe one like.
If I talk about a book, she'slike I should write the book.
I'm like you should, but she'svery a private person and

(01:09:58):
wouldn't like, doesn't she doeslike I don't know she's like,
but I will say like, ifanybody's ever thinking about
being an entrepreneur, theyshould talk to me.
I'm like you should, you shouldlike she, um, I'll be like
without her stability and faithand care of like holding down

(01:10:22):
the home front as strong as shehas, you know, and me being as
like ADD and out, doing themillion things that I do, and
and and and for it to work.
You know, like it, it, it.
If I didn't have her, I don'tknow.

(01:10:44):
I mean, this would have nevermade it this this far.
Yeah, um, but but she, she also, though, like you know, is a
very much realistic, and I'm thedreamer, you know it's the yin
and the yang, like, like.
If.
If I was with somebody that waslike me, this would not work.

Speaker 3 (01:11:01):
And she kind of she, she, To keep you grounded.

Speaker 5 (01:11:04):
Totally.

Speaker 3 (01:11:09):
Yeah, so obviously, as an entrepreneur, ups and
downs constantly, sometimes inthe same day, sometimes in the
same hour, right?
How do you handle doubt whendoubt creeps in in in your mind
with whatever you're doing, allthe things you've got going on,
how do you handle doubt?

Speaker 5 (01:11:32):
Address it as quickly as possible and move forward.
I guess what I mean by that isyou can't sit and dwell on it,
because if you do, it will bringyou down, and I think I've
learned that it is a mindset andyou can crush doubt if you

(01:11:52):
believe and put the things inyour mind that you need to to
crush it.
Yeah, um, it's not easysometimes, but you have to have
a mindset, and I'll call it uh,it's the word I'm looking for Um

(01:12:15):
, not just like a growth mindset.
I guess, um, I'm going to usethis story as a, I think, an
example of what I mean by it,because when, for me, doubt, um,

(01:12:36):
if I doubted any of this thatI'm talking about, I would have
probably never have done any ofit.
And so the other thing that Iconnect with doubt sometimes is

(01:13:01):
money, and I somebodyrecommended to me early on, when
I was starting they, they said,uh, and I remember at the time
I'm like I shouldn't do this,but it was like one of these
executive coaches and, um, I didit for a little bit and it was
good for the most part, butthere was, there was definitely

(01:13:23):
something that he gave me toread that I think really hit and
kind of when you said doubt inthat word but it was it was a
basically a mindset around moneyas it relates to either
scarcity or abundance mindset.

(01:13:46):
And if you look at money from ascarcity mindset, to me that's
where doubt's going to live, andif you're there, it's hard to
be there if, if, when you thinkabout money it's abundance, it's

(01:14:09):
there, it's all all over um,and and I don't think money has
to be the only driver of this,everything I'm talking about I
mean we could substitute it withso many things, but I truly

(01:14:31):
think on when I heard you saythat word doubt.
To me it all goes back to amindset and you can't let the
doubt side of your mind win.

Speaker 3 (01:14:43):
No, you can't.

Speaker 5 (01:14:44):
In anything.

Speaker 3 (01:14:44):
No, yeah, you got to keep going.
It's going to come, right, it'sgoing to come, but you got to
keep going.

Speaker 5 (01:14:50):
It's always oh, dude it's.
And I think I read somethingsomewhere, Dude, it's there.
It's a big part of who we areas human beings Like.
Our minds are kind of geared togo there, but you have to learn
to train and shift and not letit bring you down.
Yeah, that's right, and I alsothink that's where I mean faith

(01:15:14):
comes in in a massive, massiveway.
From the standpoint of yeah,like if you don't have that, I
think it's really hard to.

Speaker 3 (01:15:31):
You're right to keep going, so talk about faith
because you know my faithjourney.
I was raised in the church.
You know we go off to theUniversity of Dayton and I never
stepped foot in the church andyou know was living the college
life and having a good time, geta job, same kind of thing.

(01:15:51):
Meet my wife.
She's very strong in her faith.
Things start to change a littlebit but I never really had that
true connection really untilthe past two, three years, to be
honest.
I mean, we go to church everySunday, we're very involved, but
really have made thatconnection in the last two to
three years to where I actuallyreally lean on my faith and try

(01:16:19):
to in everything that I do.
So talk about what faith meansfor you, because it's different
for everybody.

Speaker 5 (01:16:24):
Totally.
I've had an interestingupbringing as it relates to
faith religion, grew up Catholic.
Very, I will say my folks very.
I will say my folks are veryconservative Catholic.
They still go to a church thatdidn't change in the 70s when

(01:16:47):
most of the Catholic churchchanged.
So they and brought us up inthat.
So even when I went to MoellerHigh School I was the first one
in my family to go to privateCatholic high school the masses
at Moeller felt very differentfrom what I was used to and I
remember actually I struggledwith it because, like my parents

(01:17:07):
would um, like their church,like when you would receive the
Eucharist, like you received iton your tongue.
And I'm going to these masseswhere everybody's walking up and
they're putting their hands outand I'm like, what do I do?
And I remember reallystruggling with that, like as a

(01:17:30):
14, 15 year old kid, you don'teven, because I'm like, wait,
it's all the same, it's allCatholic, right.
And.
I'm like is God, is God watchingout?
And like, if I take it in myhand, like that's a like I'm
getting, like you know what I'msaying?
Like, like, like no, like I waslike this is it kind of messed
with me for a little whileactually, and I finally hit a

(01:17:52):
point where it was like this isthis is a person.
Like I get it, my parentswanted to do that and that's
their beliefs.
Great.
Like this is also the Catholicchurch.
So, like in my mind, I'm likenot doing anything.
Right, like so, long story short.
I share that as like, evenwithin the Catholic faith

(01:18:15):
there's been like a uh, uh,attention, if you will, of like,
and we get into debates all thetime, really, really, and I try
to not go there much anymorebecause I've just realized, like
you can believe what you wantto believe.

(01:18:36):
Just my only thing is like justrespect.
Like you gotta have respect forothers to believe what you want
to believe.
Just, my only thing is likejust respect.
Like like you gotta haverespect for others to believe
what they want to believe.
Right and um, long story short.
So so faith has always been avery, very key part of who I am.
Um, and I would say attendingmolar and then go into the

(01:18:59):
University of Dayton, both ofwhich are Marianist institutions
, like the Marianist philosophyreally resonated with me as it
related to like everything thatthey're about, which is things
like community hospitality, youknow, table of equals,

(01:19:22):
spirituality, you know, table ofequals, like things that their
devotion to Mary, very much abig part for me, became.
Like I connect, I think, withmy faith and Mary's always been
a very prevalent person that Ifeel like it's more easy for me
to pray, communicate, obviouslystill with the goal of her
connection to Jesus.
So Mary's always been aprevalent figure for me.

(01:19:48):
Um, when I proposed to Megan, um, I orchestrated this whole.
This is actually a good story.
I don't know if I've ever toldthis.
This whole, this is actually agood story.
I don't know if I've ever toldthis.
When I proposed to her, we wereliving in Cincinnati and I had
the old dean of students, drSherman, from Dayton, basically

(01:20:11):
make up this some award that Iwas getting and we had to go to
this event at Dayton.
I wrote the letter, he put iton UD Letterhead and mailed it
to me.
This is great.
So, like she thought we weregoing up for this award, award
and I my whole plan.
If you recall, like outside thelibrary there's that statue of

(01:20:33):
Mary in the uh kind of aprominent position not far from
the chapel, and but anyway, Ihad this whole plan laid out and
I had my not far from thechapel, but anyway, I had this
whole plan laid out.
My brother was up there.
He was like hiding in thebushes.
And we're supposed to be goingto this award night and then I
actually proposed to her rightthere at that spot, because I

(01:20:55):
used to always pray there atDayton.
Okay.
And I would pray for thingslike finding the right wife and
uh and um, that was the spot,that's cool.
And so, uh, she had no, like I,no, I definitely got her.
Like she didn't know that thatwas coming.
And um, she's the one that gotthe award right, she, exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
So that's a yeah, oh, that's good man.
This is great stuff.
I want to finish this up with acouple of questions.
So you've obviously being anentrepreneur and we've seen it
here you telling your story upsand downs, peaks and valleys.
I mean it's it's.
Being an entrepreneur is notfor the faint of heart.
I mean it's, it's um, being anentrepreneur is not for the

(01:21:40):
faint of heart.
I mean it is, it is.
It is challenging.
You live it um, sleeplessnights, just just a lot of a lot
of ups and downs, a lot ofperseverance.
So when you're in those moments, when you're in those times of
maybe it's doubt, um, and you'renot feeling worthy of whatever
you're doing, why did Marv breakdown?
Again.

(01:22:01):
Like is there a Bible verse?
Is there a quote?
Is there something that youfall back to on your mind and
you say this to get you throughit?

Speaker 5 (01:22:34):
That's a good question.
I would say that's a goodquestion.
I would say I can't remember ifI said this earlier when we
chatted or not, but it's a quotethat I do think about it a lot.

(01:22:59):
People will not remember whatyou said and not remember what
you exactly do, but people willalways remember the way you made
them feel and I think, nomatter what I try to do is do it
from a standpoint of kind ofempathy and that servant
leadership mentality of likemaking them like in late,

(01:23:25):
leaving somebody else feeling alittle bit better about their
day because of the interactionthat you had with them or
experience that you had.
Or if something is so simple aslike in these last couple months
, like like service people andhospitality people, like
mentioning their name whenyou're getting something from
them.
It's amazing when you seesomebody look at you differently

(01:23:48):
when you say their name.
Um, and again, I think thoseare like really little things,
but it's big things, yeah, interms of how we treat each other
.
And I think, in the end of youasking me that question, I think
what's driving something in meright now is just like people

(01:24:14):
talk about all the stuffhappening in the world, all this
stuff going on and all thisnegativity, all this stuff
happened in the world, all thisstuff going on and all this
negativity.
And I'm like, if we just arekind to each other and do the
little things that we should bedoing, and if everybody did it,
you know what I mean Like weactually live in a freaking
amazing country.
We do.

(01:24:35):
Like incredible country and Ithink sometimes traveling and
for me this summer, getting outof the country for a little bit
you really realize we live inthe greatest country in the
world and I think again it'ssome of those just little things
about how to treat each otherand realize like we have

(01:24:56):
everything that more than everwant yeah.
And we still try to screw it upor like it's but it's easy, and
and and saying it, it's onething, but it's like those
little things.
So I think it's in the littlethings If you just keep doing
these little things.
I agree, people, uh, you canmake that impact, yeah, so

(01:25:19):
that's a great answer.

Speaker 3 (01:25:20):
Last question If you could sit on a park bench and
have a conversation with someone, living or deceased, who would
it be and why?
Mm.
Mm-mm-mm.

Speaker 5 (01:25:40):
Oh man, I have so many thoughts in the head right
now.

Speaker 3 (01:25:50):
Who's the first person you think of?

Speaker 5 (01:26:04):
I'm going to give you the first person that came to
my mind, honestly, after thewhole train of everything that
we've been talking about andrealizing how big of an impact
it's been in my life, is FatherChaminade, from the Marianists
and, after just being in France,kind of being in some of the
areas that like thinking aboutsomebody who basically built a,

(01:26:27):
a whole kind of religious orderof people that have given their
lives and you know to to againand you know to again help
others to also experience and dowhat they've done.

(01:26:48):
He's somebody that popped in mymind on like the faith and the
spiritual side of it and to gothrough the persecution and the
revolutions and all the stuffthat happened and to kind of
persist and to build, persistand build.
The other person, um, uh, manit's.
He's passed away as well, buthe's an entrepreneur that left a

(01:27:09):
really big mark on on me.
Um, and honestly, withoutmeeting this person, I would
have never moved my family toNew Orleans, because it was
through him and his connectionsthat I met somebody that
introduced me to New Orleans,but it's the former and the late
CEO of Zappos Shoes.

(01:27:30):
His name's Tony Hsieh.
Unfortunately had a very tragickind of I'll call it a downfall
tragic kind of I'll call it adownfall and died in a fire.
That was potentiallypurposefully and like this dude
had everything going, when I sayeverything like

(01:27:52):
multi-billionaire, what, and howhe was kind of building what he
was building.
There was a lot of stuff in itthat I seemed to kind of
resonate with me, but there wasalso a lot of elements that
didn't.
And the reason I bring him upas somebody that I would love to
talk with because I never hadthat chance but I did have
questions for him that I wantedto understand how he would

(01:28:13):
answer Um, and we'll never havethat opportunity.
And some of it had to do with Iwanted to push him on.
I didn't feel the faith orreligious part of what he was
doing, but I also wanted tounderstand a little bit of that

(01:28:34):
and obviously we'll never havethat opportunity in this life.
See, we'll never have that,that opportunity in this life.
But, um, he, I, I really was ona path of like thinking like
this guy's, got it figured outas an entrepreneur and then
realized actually, no, yeah.
And it's that type of stuff,that like yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:28:57):
Yeah, it's pretty powerful.
Yeah, yeah, ben, you got anyquestions um not really question
?

Speaker 4 (01:29:04):
well, I guess not really questions, but comments
right.
First off, I think you're inthe exact place you're supposed
to be, like just sitting here,listening, like your passion,
like everybody needs in any partof their life, like I hope that
hope that parents that are outthere let their kids listen to
this and encourage it to listen,especially the ones that are in
high school, about to go tocollege.

(01:29:24):
Because the Marv thing like I'mglad you told that whole story
because you know you see thepassion on your face and if you
can't see cause it had a hat onlike the passion on your face,
like I'm watching your eyes,like Dan said a couple of times,
you can see it just well up, um, and just with passion.
But it's that thataccomplishment, right, and it's
about what I feel like the bigpart of it is.

(01:29:45):
It's, it's what thataccomplishment meant, cause when
people hear accomplishment,what it's immediately what they
think of, it's like the end goal.
How do you get there?
What do you accomplish?
And that's not whataccomplishment is for you.
The accomplishment is like whatMarv was, like Marv is that van
, that the struggle, the wholeprocess and the whole thing.

(01:30:06):
Like I always tell the boyslike embrace the suck.
You know what I mean, becausethat's, that's, that's the part
right.
Like it is playing sports, likemy favorite memories are the,
are the suck right.
Like, the water tower runs likeyes, all of us throwing up
because you know, coach, is likewe're gonna run till we puke.
Like those are the memoriesthat I have.
It's not the great five andfive seasons we had in new

(01:30:26):
lebanon.
It was, yeah, it was theaccomplishment of the process.
Like, what I gain out of it.
I gain brothers, therelationships in it, right, yep,
like I buy into your marv allthe way and I feel like, no
matter where you're at in life,like that that's how we all
should live, I mean.
But especially those kids thatare in high school.
And you know, the welcome towhat is it?

(01:30:47):
Welcome to college, welcome tocollege.
Like that's just off of onerelationship that you built when
you're on UD campus.
Right, you wanted that forother kids.
So when they step on campus,they can feel that and then
that's going to drive them, yep.
So you know, be the one out of10, not the nine out of 10.

Speaker 5 (01:31:06):
That fails, but the one out of 10 that succeeds, and
I just yeah, I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:31:11):
I appreciate it, man.
No, I appreciate you coming onhere Cause it's got me juice.
I'm not even an entrepreneur,I'm too scared to take any
chances.

Speaker 5 (01:31:18):
Well, I'll be honest, I didn't think to put a ton of
thought and I just again, I waslooking at this as like man.
It's been a long time since Icaught up with this guy and just
watching what you guys aredoing.
I also want to commend and justsay keep going.
I think it's it's awesome to dowhat you're doing on the show
and I feel honored to be hereand be part of it on the six,
seven.
My kids are going to love that.

(01:31:42):
My kids are going to love thatwhen I tell them I'm going to go
back, I was six, seven.

Speaker 3 (01:31:49):
And we have no idea what it is.

Speaker 4 (01:31:52):
And you can tell them that we think you're not an unk
, so just let them know.

Speaker 5 (01:31:56):
Correct, I love that I was like I'm repping Obie
today.
That's right.
Actually it was either Obie orI did throw on.
I have a Dayton jersey.
I thought about repping thejersey and then, I'm like.
You know what I'm going to go.
Obie, I'm going to Indy.
I'll be in Richmond.

Speaker 3 (01:32:08):
Oh, it's awesome, you know it takes me back to that
three she three she here, orfive she Three, Three she here.
You were at the end of thehallway.
Yeah, you know it takes me backto watch.
I was telling Kevin, was it WWEor WWF?
Oh yes, it was WWE I think Wasit E Like Monday Night Raw, or.

Speaker 4 (01:32:30):
Sunday Night Raw or something.

Speaker 5 (01:32:32):
Yeah, I never watched big time wrestling, and you, I
completely forget.
Mr T still exists, dude, he'salive.
No, like so listen, I forgotthat was at Trader's World.
We got that during freshmanyear, right, yeah, okay, Mr T is
now an award for our fantasyfootball league.

(01:32:52):
It's still alive.
It's the.
Horseman Award.
It's the team that like I'm thecommissioner, so I get to kind
of pick but it's usually likefor the team that just either,
you know, has the worst season,make some of the worst move,
like whatever.
But I give it out every yearand somebody there's and it's
the same Mr T.

Speaker 3 (01:33:08):
It's the Mr T that we had from three seasons.
Yeah, I was going to say forthose listening, it was just a
Mr T head, it's a bust andthroughout college it would be
stolen and taken to differentplaces, correct and then it
would show back up.

Speaker 5 (01:33:20):
Dude, it has a beautiful life.
Man, it goes and it's passedaround.
Dude, I actually have picturesI'll send you.
Like sometimes the guys thathave it will like take it to
random spots in New Orleans andsend me a picture Like no it
legit, has a life.
Oh, that's awesome and it'sstill getting passed around.

Speaker 3 (01:33:38):
That's awesome.
Yeah, those are the memoriesman.
Long time ago, but great, greatmemories.
So thank you again.

Speaker 5 (01:33:45):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:33:46):
Thank, you guys, very very much, appreciate your
passion, appreciate yourenthusiasm.
I think everybody who'slistening can feel it and see it
and, man, it's awesome.
So everybody continue to likeand share and do all those
things and go out and betempered.

Speaker 1 (01:34:01):
Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt.
This is my dad, Dan.
He owns Catron's Glass.

Speaker 2 (01:34:05):
Thanks, Allie.
Things like doors and windowsgo into making a house, but when
it's your home you expect morelike the great service and
selection you'll get fromCatron's Glass Final replacement
.
Windows from Catron's come witha lifetime warranty, including
accidental glass breakagereplacement.
Also ask for custom showerdoors and many other products
and services.
Call 962-1636,.
Locally owned, with localemployees for nearly 30 years.

(01:34:27):
Catron's Glass the clear choice.

Speaker 3 (01:34:37):
Hey, do you want to catch every episode live as it's
being recorded?
Log on to patreoncom slash betempered for exclusive behind
the scenes photos and a liverecording as it takes place.
Go to patreoncom slashbetempered.

All Episodes

BeTempered Episode 67 – 9 out of 10 startups fail. Mine didn’t. Justin Bayer of Welcome to College explains why.

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}BeTempered Episode 67 – 9 out of 10 startups fail. Mine didn’t. Justin Bayer of Welcome to College explains why.