Ep. 32 - Crafting Connections for Business Breakthroughs in the Entrepreneurial Hub with Josh Saffran - Big Talk About Small Business

Episode Transcript
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Eric Howerton (00:04):
Hello everybody and welcome to another episode
of big talk about small business.
I am your co-host, because ourhost is actually out for today
dealing with some sickness.
He got the the vid.
Yeah, he got the vid early thisweek, mr grand opening for the
podcast video.

(00:24):
Yeah, and he was supposed to behere interviewing with the
media as well, and so was MrSaffron, who is my guest.
We have guest Josh Saffron, thegreat, the one and only the one
, and only Mr Josh Saffron, andyou came by the grand opening
yesterday.
It was cool.
It was cool, wasn't it.

Josh Saffran (00:44):
Yeah, I'm, I'm proud of you.
I know you a long time.
I don't want the tears to flow,but but to see what you built
here and the people that camethrough and watching you in your
element last night, I mean it.
It was a problem for me as agood friend of yours, but just
to see what you're doing hereand you have all these visions
you operated 80,000 feet Then towatch it come to life, live and

(01:04):
see the people interacting here.

It was super cool for me to say Well, you know,
it really does come down to theteam, right?
I mean, we have a good team offolks here that I mean big event
and they took care ofeverything.
I mean they rocked it out.
They're the ones that made ithappen.
So that's really cool to see.

And I saw your daughters working here.
They were, and I saw her friend, molly was working here, so the
whole basketball team.
I'm like we're rocking theshirts and I'm like, what are
you guys doing here?
I feel like, oh, we're workingfor Mr Howard to work for you,
it's so cool.

Yeah, it is cool.
I mean it's cool to see youngfolks engage in business.

Yeah.

You know, and I think that you know on that,
because we do have some younglisteners that get in there
trying to start up a businessand whatever thing.
But you know, I think the bigthing for young people is is you
got to show up?
You know, honestly, if you justshow up and you stay involved
and you're actually I meanbecause I can tell you that a
lot of entrepreneurs or evenbusiness owners are looking for
people that just show up andmake things happen, yeah, and

(01:56):
that's a good lesson to learn.

Well, this community and I tell my son,
who's graduating high school,how this community there's a lot
of who you know.
Obviously you have to put inthe work for the what you know,
but he goes to school, he'll geta degree and he focuses.
But by knowing people likeyourself and being able to get
themselves networked here, thisis a great place for young
people to start their careerbecause there's lots of
opportunities with a little bitof hard work but knowledge of

(02:20):
the ecosystem and the people init.

Mm hmm, yeah, a lot of times it's just about and
you know this and we'll getinto your story but I mean it's
just about getting you know,just taking that step forward,
having that confidence.
I mean you can't plan inbusiness to have everything
figured out.
That's one thing that I'velearned is like there's a
there's a nice balance betweenstrategy and action.
Yep, and there's.

(02:42):
I've seen so many folks juststrategically put themselves
into a corner and they neveractually get anything done.
Then I see a lot of folks thatjust take action without
thinking about the long term.
But you've got to find thatnice little balance and you've
done that with actually a coupleof things I mean.

Well, first of all , I I chuck I'll do say this
because I was telling somebodythe story last night.
You and I operate supervisionary and and you and I try
to get stuff done.
And now we've got to a pointwhere, like, I'll bring my wife
to a meeting just so we couldactually put together follow ups
and things Cause.
Right, if you have twovisionaries in a room together,
we're spewing out amazing ideas,but the action doesn't follow
through with it.
So you have to surroundyourself with the right people

(03:17):
that are balancing out all yourvisionary ideas, with people
that can take it and run with itand execute the vision.

Well, let's get one thing straight though my, my
ideas are good, Yours I meanyours are amazing, mine are just
if they're just half as good asyours.

I mean, I just shoot to be average some days.
You should be happy foryourself All right.

So, josh Saffron yes, sir, so I know that you,
you're an entrepreneur.
You started up the gents placehere in Northwest Arkansas, yep,
and we actually interviewed the, the main franchise owner,
right CEO and founder, ben Davis.
Ben Davis, john Alstom, benyeah, yeah, that was a fun
episode.
Mark was here for that one.
But you're you're one of thefranchisees and you got involved

(03:54):
in that.
I mean, I think that that's acommon, interesting business,
because I mean, how did you?
Okay, let's, let's, can we gointo that?
Why did you do that and whatdoes that mean as being a
franchisee?
How is that helpful forstarting the business?

Yeah, I, I I had moved here from bigger cities
and when I came down here and alot of people are I almost view
it as an expat community wherepeople are coming in from New
York, chicago, boston, and Ididn't like the haircutting
experience here.
To me it was like this Saturdayto-do list go to Walmart, go to
Home Depot, get your haircut.
Check off the box on thetransaction Sounds like
something that's what you wouldhave done before we came here

(04:29):
and I'm watching the women on aSaturday go and they're getting
their nails done, they'rewearing robes and they're
drinking champagne and I said sowe have to figure out that
aspect of the men's grooming.
But also, being in a suppliercommunity so long, I didn't love
what I was viewing as a lot ofthis forced networking of hey,
there's this big charity eventthis weekend, my buyer's going,
so you need to go, and he didn't.

(04:50):
He wanted to wave to you or sheand you're waving, but not
neither of you wanted to bethere.
Yeah, so I said how do wecreate this?
Networking meets grooming, andthat's really what we've done
with the Gents place.
Here it's like Barbershop meetsSpeakeasy meets Country Club
and there's a huge networkingaspect with lockers for members
and then member lounge wherewe're doing really interesting
meetings with folks in thecommunity.

So let me get this right.
You came from a bigger city butyou probably had those
experiences available there.
You come to a new geography.
You see something missing inthe market right,
entrepreneurial thinking.
And then you were.
Did you see that vision?
And then you found the Gentsplace Like you discovered it and
brought it.

I knew what I wanted to do.
Okay, I knew I didn't know howto mess with POS systems and
when the right retail productwas having a distribution
network.
And so I started doing a littlebit of research and said do we
do this on our own or do I findsomebody who's got similar
vision and values that I do?
And we found Ben, went to visithim in Frisco where their
headquartered, met him and hiswife, lauren and Emily, and I
felt it was a good pairing, goodmatch, both on the strategy,

(05:52):
the vision and, most importantly, the culture, on the way that
the business runs and operates.
And so here we are, six yearslater and through COVID, with a
business that my wife has lefther nursing job to go operate
and run.

So I think that's a really cool point, like for a
lot of those aspiringentrepreneurs out there.
You kind of like honestly startoff a business.
I mean you know this.
Like it is insane, right.
Like either there's so much todo you can never get all the
check marks done for the day,but being able to basically buy
into a franchise like that Imean the things you talked about
, the culture, the vision POSsystem a lot of those tops of

(06:27):
things are already set up andgoing.
Yeah.
It allows you to actually get tobusiness a lot faster, doesn't
it?

Yeah, I mean, and I think you know when you have,
when you're a franchisee workingfor a franchisor.
I used to phrase a lot seeingthis movie, you know how it ends
.
You know he has opened and runsix of them on his own.
So how do you recruit people?
Well, here's what we've donesuccessfully and here's what we
failed at and learned from this.
Here's how we get members tocome in the door.
Here's how we advertise andmarket to them.
Don't do these things thatdidn't work for us, but try to

(06:55):
utilize this strategy.
And so that's a lot easier fora franchisee as an entrepreneur,
because you're seeing thesuccesses and failures from Ben
and some of the other franchiseeowners that I can, I can say
all right, that makes sense forBentonville, let's follow that
lead.
Or this may be a different way.
We want to do it, but I'm usinghis guidance for support.

Yeah, because you can like take some of those,
those positive learnings at work, and then they're about not
working in your geography, right, yes, and your community, and
so you had those experiences too.
Do you have an example of whenyou might have put a little
polish on something or make alittle angle to kind of fit this
, this specific audience?

Yeah, I think.
I think for us, a great examplewas when they're in bigger
markets Dallas, vegas.
They're in Austin, san Antonio,houston and the airports are
enormous.

Yeah.

We market here in at XNA, and it's there's better
foot traffic, smaller, it's aneasier airport to navigate, and
so we've had success inmarketing the Gens Place brand
at the airport here.
But I don't know that thatwould be successful at a DFW,
for example.

Yeah, because it's just too.
I mean, it's so big.

It's awesome.

It's an awesome big point, Correct.

So here I mean, we had giant poster boards up at
launch and we had some stuff atbaggage.
There's two baggage claims here, perfect example.
And so you're forcing 50% ofthe people to one or the other
DFW.
If you're going to market atthe baggage claim, I mean,
you're catching a differentaudience, larger numbers, but I
think here you're segregatingpeople right where you want to
see them.

That's pretty cool man.
So whatever you've seen, that'sreally like like whenever you
did those adaptations, like, didyou come up with a new pricing
or any new programs for the areaspecifically, or how does that
work?

I mean, that is one of the things with the as
the franchisee is, you reallyhave to stick to the brand
status and the guidelines, andso the example that Ben used
while we're opening is hey, ifyou think you can make a lot of
money selling hot dogs, great,but you can't do that because
it's not what, it's not core towhat we're trying to do.
So we're figuring out right now, I think, the member lounge and
the locker space and thenetworking aspect and trying to

(09:01):
figure out how to become biggerthan what just a barbershop is
and figuring out how to utilizethat space.
Had a coffee meeting yesterdayat heroes, next door, and
there's people and there's noiseand there's bustle and all the
things happening.
But in the Gents place you havea better environment where you
can start to have conversationsand talk numbers and financials
and angel investing in an areawhere you can kind of control it

(09:24):
, as opposed to in town here ata coffee shop where there's just
so much hustle and bustle andoh, you see you sitting over
there.
So we're trying to figure outthat aspect of it, which I think
is the next generation, ofwhere the Gents place is going.

That's really cool.
So that's kind of like as anentrepreneur, entrepreneurial
thinking you have this space,you already got all your core
stuff going right, and then youstart finding ways to basically
amplify or take advantage of thestrengths that you have in your
spot.
Maybe the rest of the marketdoesn't.
So it's not just about theoriginal idea right, which you

(09:56):
brought to the market.
You saw the need, but then asyou get in there and you start
working the business, you staytuned.

Well, and it clicked for me like a couple of
times, because with through plugand play, we do a lot.
We'll talk plug and play in abit, but we do a lot of stuff in
the investing and startup spaceand so we brought in a really
hot startup in the area into themember lounge that you
presented in the barbershop inthe member lounge.
Too much of an angel investorsI think you were actually in
that meeting right, you wouldn'tdo that in a traditional

(10:24):
barbershop, not at all.
I don't even think about it.
It doesn't make sense, right?
It's like you bring somethinginto a barbershop.
I'm getting my haircut, but nowyou're able to utilize that
space for entrepreneurship.
I think my favorite story thatI may have shared with you is I
was meeting with the chieftechnology officer from a
startup and he goes where do youwant to go?
Let's go get coffee.
I go, let's go sit in themember lounge at the Gens Place.
So we walk in.

(10:44):
It's like four o'clock on aThursday.
We have a glass of bourbon andsitting across from us is Sam,
the CEO and founder owner of theButter Biscuit, which is the
hot one of the hottest places intown.
Super cool dude member there.
We're chit chatting and nowwe're talking about business.
We're talking about thecommunity, we're talking about
the region, and then who popsdown sitting next to us?
But Asa, oh, are you serious?
Former governor running forpresident at the time.

(11:05):
So now we've got the four of ussitting there and all of a
sudden we start talking theeconomy.
We're talking COVID, we'retalking about what's going on in
the elections, we're talkingabout Afghanistan, and you go,
we're in a barbershop.
Yeah, but, it's brought thisentrepreneurial spirit and this
ecosystem around, the way thatpeople are networking here in
the community, and that was areally proud moment for me.
But none of that was scripted,it all just happened.

I think this is kind of actually just kind of
hits me the value of thisconversation for an entrepreneur
, right, because we again,there's so many things to think
about.
I mean, heck, even the tax part, getting licenses from the
local and state government andfeds, all these different things

(11:48):
that come in if I'm wanting tostart a business.
But the most important thing, Ithink you and I both believe in
this network Building, thatnetwork showing up right, and
what you're kind of doing is isyou're creating a place for that
.
But if I'm trying to start abusiness, I mean it would
probably be pretty valuable forme to join, you invest into the

(12:10):
Gents place, to become a memberthere.
Now you're introduced into thisnetwork opportunity.
But then what do you have to do?
You have to show up and then,when you show up, then you have
to talk to people.

Yep, I mean, it's this like-minded Gents, right?
And so I'll tell you the funnystory which you could appreciate
.
It's just happened yesterday.
So there's a guy that I havegotten to be friends with solely
through the Gents place and hehas a big HR job at a big
company in the community and soI've known him from there.
Hey, how are you Good to see you?
And then so he's hearing metalk and seeing me do some

(12:44):
podcasting.
So he reaches out and says I'dlove to learn more.
He shows up last night at thegrant opening and now it's a
connection for you aboutpotentially podcasting.
He doesn't realize how muchwork I'm doing in my day job
with plug and play, so he's nowintrigued in what we're doing
and interviewing me, so to speak, to get him connected within

(13:05):
his company.
And then he brings me a friendof his who works for another
company in the supply chainspace.
So it's valuated for himthrough the networking to you
and potentially doing podcasting.
I have now leads with twodifferent companies that I could
influence on the plug and playside, all because of this
networking that started by mespending 10 minutes with him at
the Gents place.

That's crazy, isn't it?
Yeah, and I think here's what'sgreat.
What I like about you and Ihaving this conversation now is
because I know that we bothunderstand the value of it.
But then I've been to so manyevents like where folks just
close up when they get around tothe people.
Do you have any perspective oradvice, like how?

(13:47):
Like, okay, you go to an event,there's a lot of people there.
What I mean?
That there's this emotionalbarrier that a lot of people
face, but you break through itevery time like you're good at
it.
So there's probably a lot ofentrepreneurs that aren't good
or comfortable in that situation.
But how do you overcome yourown self barriers?
Because you've definitely hadto do that.

There's not anything magical about I think
it's a couple of things.
I mean, I get invited tolunches, coffees, networking,
and so you sort of pick the onesthat you wanna go to.
Otherwise you're gonna burn outsuper quick.
But I think one thing I'velearned in being here in this
community for 12 years is youdon't wanna be overbearing on
the sale.
It needs to take a little bitof time, and so yeah, that's

(14:28):
good.
And you agree with that.
And so what I mean by that ishad somebody showed up with this
in a new individual Iintroduced last night and said
hey, you want a podcast?
Here's the pricing.
I wanna sign you up.
It would have been such a turnoff.
But if you're talking about thevision and how it could help
him in long term and maybe youdon't close the sale on that
moment, but over a period oftime your equity with this
individual is growing so much.

(14:50):
I had a great meeting the otherday with a guy and I've chatted
with him a couple of times Goodto see you.
We just got some funding forplug and play in the healthcare
space.
That's great.
Let's grab coffee.
I'd like to work with him.
So he reached out to me andgoes hey, we'll grab coffee on
March 4th.
So I didn't sell anything inthe moment, but it's set up an
authentic relationship where Iknew that down the road, as
trust is built and equity isbuilt, there's an opportunity

(15:13):
that he is now more interestedin me as opposed to I'm selling
something on the fly and I'm soturned off by it.

It's so funny to me because it's simple, right,
like this whole economy, all thetechnology and all this stuff
is moving so fast and there'sall these pitches going on.
You got investors that areinvesting this and that, but at
the end of the day, if you saidit, establishing that
credibility, right, and how doyou?
And you can't go into it with aquick sell mindset, like you

(15:41):
and I.
Actually, like when we firstmet, I mean it wasn't like hey,
man, buy this from me.
It's like hey, I'm Eric, thisis what I do.
This is where I was born, whereI was raised, what I've been
doing all my life, and I want toknow this about you.
And then, because I think it'sreally important, like you need
to be able to trust who you'reworking with.
At the end of the day, itdoesn't matter how big the
company is, that sign on thecheck.
They want to know and peoplelike doing business with people

(16:05):
that they like and that theytrust and they can believe in.
They're not gonna fail them.

Yep, but here's the challenge that comes along
with that is somebody that'sworking for somebody else in
many cases has a quota, has anumber, has a sale that they
have to hit for the day, and sothey have to figure out how to
balance that I have numbers andKPIs and results and bonuses and
commissions versus the longterm.
I always talk about relationalselling versus transactional

(16:31):
selling.
I love the relational selling.
It does take time, but I thinkthose are the ones that you want
to partner with longterm,understanding that you still
have to sell stuff today to paythe bills tomorrow.
It's gotta be a good balance,but I prefer the relational
piece quite a bit.

Well, and I think that too, when you look at
sales so I'm gonna make thispoint as an entrepreneur, maybe
you'll agree with this I mean,ultimately, your biggest job as
the entrepreneur is sales.
No doubt you have to be thenumber one salesperson.
You're campaigning, all thistype of stuff, so you're
involved in everything, but youcannot ever let go of that sales
.
You always have to know thatyou're spotting that and what I

(17:08):
kind of like about the wholesales thing and you're a little
bit more of a mathematician thanI am.
I know Two plus two that is.
But I mean, like if you were,if you talk about KPIs or you
have sales quotas that you gottameet because you gotta drive
revenue, especially if it's yourown business and you're
thinking that way.
But if I were in that spot, Iwould say, okay, if I start out

(17:30):
with zero connections in thecommunity, the first thing that
I'd be doing is I know that Imust show up.
I've got to go, start buildingrelationships, shaking hands,
kissing the babies, right, allthat stuff, just like you're in
politics or something.
You have to be in those placesand show up and then, as you
start building that network andthat community, you've shaped
all these hands, then you'regonna start getting meetings of

(17:51):
where you can actually go in anddemonstrate your capabilities
and et cetera.
But I'll see a lot of peoplethat go fill that bucket up of
relationships and they drop itoff and now they get over here
in this transactional mindsetwithout ever nourishing over in
the relational mindset.

Yeah, I think it's being your authentic self and
understanding it.
I think what's interesting isEmily, as a great manager who
runs Emily, and I have a greatmanager who runs the Jens place
and we never talked to her abouthow much did you sell today or
what did you sell today.
And the model is unique is ifyou bring in and have a culture

(18:28):
where you have happy peopleworking there, they come to work
with a smile, they provide agreat service.
On Eric Howerton Eric Howertonleaves feeling empowered,
confident, and then Eric isgoing to spend money right.
So when you build it that wayand you create something that's
real and tangible, where it'senjoyable to go to work and you
feel valued at work but thenthis is the relational side of

(18:51):
stuff those things end up payingthe transactional element of
the bills that are due for rentand payroll and everything else.
So it's a really interestingway to do it, but that brings
credibility to you and yourbusiness because you're creating
an environment that people wantto be a part of.

At the end of the day, people buy things because
they're getting value from it.
In your business with the Jensplace, it's the experience.
I come there, I come as amember and I have an experience
and I leave with that confidence.
I leave with that goodexperience and so it's not a
question if I'm going tocontinue membership or I'm going

(19:27):
to come in, or even when Ileave, and there's all these
products on the shelves there,like it's there in front of me,
and I just had a good experiencewith professionals and these
are the products that Jens placeis selected, and so I'm
actually expecting the samevalue of those products that I
got, just with the service inthe bag.

Yeah, and the way that we try to explain it.
And they get very intimidated.
When Eric Howerton comes in,successful business person, they
get a little intimidated of howdo I sell to Eric?
And we just explain it to them.
Think of yourself as the doctor, right.
Think of yourself as the nursethat's prescribing Eric.
You went to the doctor and theygive you this prescription.

(20:09):
Thank you To fill out, and youdon't go get Advil.
You get the prescriptionbecause that's what you're
telling.
So if Shelley or Maggi orwhoever is cutting your hair and
says, eric, in order for you tomaintain this look at home, you
need to take this, you're gonnago, okay.
Okay, right, you guys, youdon't know any better.
That's not where you may be abusiness executive that's
closing multi-million dollardeals, but they're an expert in

(20:31):
this space that's educating youon the way to recreate this.
Look, it's the same thing.
You're not gonna go get Advilwhen the doctor's prescribing
this prescription to you.
That's right.

It's simple, it's really simple.
I think we overcomplicate it.
Yes, very much so.
And then when, as a companygets bigger, they start
overcomplicating becauseeverybody's watching the numbers
, everybody's got these quotas,all these things to meet.
But at the end of the day, Imean, it is about that
one-to-one relationship.
I mean, and you can do aone-to-many right.
That just happens, like ifyou're selling to a bigger
company and you have one contactthat can then control bigger

(21:04):
things, that's a good thing.
But that's still thatrelationship is so critical to
that.

Absolutely 100%.

You and I think very much alike in this space,
so on at Gents Place.
What's cool that you guys arekind of innovating right now,
like on the service product side, or whatever you might be doing
.

I think the biggest thing that we have done
in the last two years is reallygo back to the focus on the
community and Emily, my wife andbusiness partner.
She started 501C3.
Oh really, and we've hosted twoevents now in the community to
give back and as you know howimportant that is here, and so
we've done two bourbon tastings,steak dinners, and we've raised

(21:45):
.
Last event last year we netted$50,000 to charities in one
evening and so again, it's sortof hubbed through the barbershop
but it's a 501C3 that isutilizing the networking from
there and the events have beenjust what's the nonprofit that
she's?
So it's the 501C3 that shestarted and the charities that

(22:08):
we're focused on.
One are veterans based and oneis pancreatic cancer.
So every year we have a.
Half goes to a veterans charityand then half goes to Pancan.
And when these people come inthe first year we did it the
lady from Pancan came in and shewas expecting like 1500 bucks.
And we walk in and we hand hera check the first year for
15,000 and she started crying.
And this is all through oneevening, one event in town,

(22:31):
where again we talked about theauthentic networking 80 dudes
hanging out, drinking bourbon,eating steak and bidding on
things for local charities.
It's wonderful.
So it's been a big passion andthe ability for us to give back
in the community is reallyimportant.

You know, when you research a lot of the
successful entrepreneurs, youknow wealthy individuals,
whatever it might be.
I mean, if they didn't, whatmakes them gives them
satisfaction is helping others,you know.
And so I mean I think thatthat's awesome that you guys are
doing that, and I mean it'sfantastic to do that.
It gives you personal value andbeing able to help other people
out.
That.

Well, you've been in this community a long time.
I mean, you see, there's folksthat are very fortunate, knock
on wood.
And then there's others thatare less fortunate and I know
that you came up similarupbringing to me, that you
didn't have what you have today.
Yeah, and I and you have theopportunity to make this
community better and do thingsfor others in a great area that
we live and super important, andit means a lot.

(23:27):
Emily, last year, through theGens Place, she went and
purchased, procured like 80turkeys that she went and
delivered to Title III schoolsand walking in with turkeys for
Thanksgiving and watching these,the principles, the tears, as
we're giving turkeys.
We don't give cash because younever know where the cash is
going to end up.
You give somebody a turkey thatcan make a Thanksgiving meal

(23:47):
through the Gens Place.
How rewarding is that.
And, by the way, it's abarbershop, right.
But we're doing all these othercool things.

You know, I think that that same mentality of
like, if you can set up abusiness and this is kind of my
philosophy these days I don'tknow about you, but I like
starting businesses that I knowis going to help people, whether
it's in business or even folksthat might have, you know, might
have less fortunatecircumstances, but also just
people that are trying to dobusinesses right.

(24:14):
I mean like having that visionof where, ultimately, your
product or your service thatyou're developing and selling is
helping somebody else, continueto achieve and just do better
for them.
I mean, I think that's theright approach period 100%, 100%
, 100%.
Yep, so talk to us a little bitabout Plug and Play.
So you got Gens Place that youown, right, you're a busy guy.

(24:35):
Gens Place that you own, wejust talked about that and then.
But you also work with Plug andPlay.

Yeah, gens Place we opened six years ago and this
kind of like you, it was mystrategy and vision idea.
We worked with Ben.
Emily left her job at nursingand she sort of runs the
day-to-day operations and wehave a great manager.
So I can kind of watch what'sgoing on from 30,000 feet and
sort of swoop in when she has amarketing requester and needs
help with some strategy andvision.

(25:02):
Plug and Play is my job.
Plug and Play is what I'mspending my time on.
It's an interesting businessmodel.
It's a VC out of Silicon Valley.

ACB in venture capital.

Capital.
Yes, thank you, and the CEO,who you had met up with when he
was in town.

He's such a cool guy.

He's like the second investor in Dropbox and
some of these companies.
He's writing 50,000 checks,turning them into tens of
millions of dollars, and he saidthere's something there about
the startup ecosystem andhelping mentor these folks.
Plug and Play does.
Here in Northwest Arkansas wehave a team of five that's
focused in the supply chainvertical.
We have 20 plus verticals allaround the world focused on

(25:40):
insure tech, fintech, supplychain, crypto, and we started a
sports tech one in Frisco,working down there by the Cowboy
Stadium, and we mentor andaccelerate startups.
But what we do that's unique iswe then partner and marry them
up with corporations that arelooking for help to solve
challenges.
So give you an example we do alot in the robotics space, so

(26:06):
folks are looking to figure outhow to automate the entire
supply chain network.
There's not a lot of peoplewhen you stand up at a
conference and say who grew upwanting to unload trucks by hand
or who wanted to case pick orpiece pick on a line, and so
there's a labor issue laborshortage there.
So we're spending a lot of timein the robotics space helping

(26:28):
figure out how to automate inthe supply chain, and the
startups we're working with allaround the world can help solve
these problems quicker andfaster for these corporations.

So, if I get this correct, plug and plays is the
more of it is.
I guess it's kind of a half andhalf job, Like you're
constantly working with the bigcorporations and really just
trying to understand theirbullet point of problems that
they're facing, because I meanthere was a really big problems
for them and it's hard for bigcorporations to probably
innovate and to beentrepreneurial right.

(27:02):
I mean we see that a lot butit's kind of that's a hard nut
to crack.
I think very, very few majorcorporations have really done
that.

They all say they do, they all have teams to do it
and some of them do it verywell.
But when you're a cruise ship Ialways use this example right
and you're going due East andyou wanna turn the big cruise
ship, it's hard to do.
But you have a speed boat or amotor boat, which is what the
startups are, and they can turnand move on a dime and super
entrepreneurial fast thinkingand so they're trying to solve a

(27:32):
specific problem.
And when you could marry thatup with a corporation that's got
money to do a pilot and then acommercialize it, it's really a
good match.
But you have the most importantthing for plug and plays
working closely with thiscompany to understand exactly
what they're trying to solve.
We worked with somebody thatsaid, hey, I wanna solve, I'm in
a robotics space, I'm like dudethat's at like 6 million feet

(27:55):
up in the air and I need you topull that back to a level where
I can digest it, because there'sso many things happening in
that space right now.
What are you really trying tosolve?
How early of a startup are youlooking for Meaning?
Are you like pre-seed and seedlike really early?
Or do you need case studiesfrom somebody that's been doing
years and years and years ofwork with other companies, and
what is your tolerance for risk.

(28:16):
And then let's bring themtogether for you in the form of
what we call a deal flow, orsitting down and doing
formalized introductions.

That's so cool, Such a huge value to the
entrepreneur too.
Because I mean a lot of timeslike as if you're an
entrepreneur, start up in thatspace, I mean you're like man, I
got a great solve here, I cansolve this problem.
Then it all of a sudden becomesI can solve a hundred different
problems.
And if I'm trying to go out andbuild my business and then
you're talking to all thesemajor corporations or even other

(28:44):
businesses like you're now theone that has to crystallize that
and that takes significantamount of time, yeah, and
expertise.

Well, well, here's what I love.
So if a startup is saying thatthat we work with, whether we
invest in them or don't investin, so we invest in a small
percentage of the ones that wekeep within our global network.
Some of them we think we wantto, we want to invest in and
partner with, and other oneswere just networking and
introducing.
But imagine that you're EricHoward in a startup A, b and C.
You have this really coolproduct and you say, geez, I

(29:14):
love an introduction to Maersk,I love an introduction to
Procter Gamble, I love anintroduction to Nike, I love an
introduction to Mercedes, butyou don't know how to do that.
Do you think they're taking aphone call from you?
Or are they taking a phone callfrom folks like us who have
this global network where therewere 550 companies like that
that we're working with, acrosstheir entire innovation team?

(29:35):
And that's the value, one ofthe main values that we provide
to the startups is making theseintroductions.

Yeah, because, like if I was a big corporation
and I know I can talk to oneperson or one company that's got
multiple opportunities, like mytime is valuable at the High
High Corporation, right, andI've got this problem or these
problems I have to solve, it'dbe great to have five problems I
need to solve, talk to onecompany like Plug Play, and then
you have this network and youcan kind of help you're helping

(30:02):
me marry that as well as acorporation.

Well, think about this for a second.
Add a good chuckle, because wewere in front of a potential
customer and somebody at asenior level in the organization
said we need to get ourselvesmore embedded and understand the
robotics space.
Great, okay, so that's a topdown request.
So this guy tells me he's onGoogle all day Googling the top
robotics companies.
So now he's outreaching tothese companies.

(30:25):
Oh yeah, I can do that.
Oh yeah, so I offer pennies onthe dollar.
So now he's like this is toogood to be true.
But so he doesn't know what hedoesn't know.
And, of course, this company isgoing to say I got a call from a
big corporation, sure, I coulddo.
What we do is we source andvent all these companies and
then we go I, yes, you calledcompany A and they're good, but

(30:45):
I have four case studies withcompany B and C that are
probably more relevant and I'veseen their work and I could tell
you this is a better fit foryou than this company.
So we're finding the companiesfor them, we're vetting them out
and we're makingrecommendations as to who the
best one is for you and why, asopposed to you Googling startups
in the robotics space andpicking up the phone and making

(31:07):
calls and not knowing what'sgoing to be on the other end of
the phone.

You know all right, so let's get into the
entrepreneurial side, like thesestartups.
If so, if I was listening tothis show right now and I was a
tech startup, I'd be likegeeking right now because I'd be
like man, I need to get tappedinto plug and play because here
they have they have all theseconnections with these
corporations Super greatopportunity.
But I want to connect with youas a startup, like how do how do

(31:32):
I approach you Like and how canyou help me?
Or I mean, do I need to?
What kind of?
What kind of credibility do Ineed to have?
Do I even approach you?
What's that process look like?

I think I get lots of requests on this stuff, and
so I am the guy that's managingthe corporate relationship here
in Northwest Arkansas, and so wehave a team, a venture team,
solely focused on startups inthe supply chain space.
So I'll get people in thecommunity coming to me with
ideas and I'll say not the rightfit for plug and play, you're
too early.
You know.
You have an idea that you wrotedown on a piece of paper.

(32:06):
Okay, come back to me when youhave a business plan.
And you have a business planand you have a little bit
further out.

So what is what is that?
That?
When you say a business plan alittle bit further out of the
ideation, so the first thing iswhat problem are you trying to
solve?

Okay, right, that's the most important thing
to me is there's an issue thatI'm trying to solve Okay, that
makes sense From a fountain.
Then I want to see who thefounder is like.
What's your?
And?
I'm brand new, but I have threeor four different mentors.
One graduated from Harvard andhas three exits, you know one.
One's a robotics expert insupply chain.
So, okay.
So now I see you got a group ofpeople that are giving you

(32:42):
guidance, that are believing inyour product and your brand
Because they checked you out,correct, okay, so you want to
understand that too.
Those are the like early thingsto me.
What problem are you trying tosolve?
Who are you and kind of who isbacking you from an ideation
standpoint?
Um, and then then the nextpiece is like what is your
launch plan and how are youtrying to get out to market and

(33:03):
what's your competitive playingfield look like?
Okay, so you may have a reallycool idea, and I can go into our
proprietary software calledPlaybook, and, and, and type in
what you're trying to do.
Hey, there's 37 startups thatare doing this and they're all
further ahead than you.
You may want to tweak, or youmay want to think about
something else.
Uh, you may want to find a waythat you're going to

(33:23):
differentiate yourself than theother 37.
So those are the earlyconversations that I like to be
a part of, and if I findsomething that I find of
interest here, roland parsedthat off to our venture team and
say do you want to have aconversation?
And at that point they then sayJosh, I think it's investable
for us.
Remember, we're pre-seed andseed, so we're very, very early.

(33:43):
Okay, let's have a meeting, or?
Probably not investable.
And here's why.
Well, let's put them into ourPlaybook, where a corporation
may then get an introduction tothem from anywhere around the
world, because a company likeAvalvo may be looking to solve
this.
And we find them in our, in ourdatabase.

Yeah, that's so cool, so I'm getting kind of
excited about this.
For, for any listener, right,like so do I have to hit if
you're pre-seed and seed, likelike first of all, for an
entrepreneur like I was talkingto somebody about this the other
day, this little little littlesidetrack here.
But I was at an investorgathering a couple of months ago
and we had a bunch of investorsin the room, right, really

(34:24):
smart people, you know, and theygot, and all these investors,
you know investment groups havea lot of investment capital and
they're looking to invest.
You know, as an investor, youwant to be able to place money
and make it work.

Correct.

Right and you want to make multiples on that.
It's just the way the shit goesQuickly, quickly and with
highest returns possible.
That's what all of it's about.
The problem that I saw in thatroom was is okay, I remember me
being an entrepreneur, you know,or as an entrepreneur, I don't
know anything about raisingcapital.

(34:58):
I don't know anything about theway all these, this, this other
world, works in the wholefinancial industry.
I just know I have an idea, Ihave a market need that I will
solve.
I can go solve that.
And so what I did not know,especially in the early days,
was how to even raise capitaland, to be honest with you, a
lot of the the VC firms, privateequity firms, all these

(35:21):
different ways to access capitalwas really intimidating.
There's so many acronyms,there's so many levels, and you
said pre seed and C, thenthere's series A and B and
there's all these things goingon and I felt like in that room
it kind of dawned on me.
It was like where are thefounders?
The founders weren't in theroom.
That's kind of like one of thebig problems, right, because a

(35:42):
founder can be from so manywalks in life and I think that
there are some professionalfounders out there, right yeah,
that are going down kind ofMultiple exits, yeah, with
multiple exits.
But then what about this genius?
Because a lot of times I seethe founders that really like I
mean, why didn't Bezos right, orwhy didn't Sam Walton or any of

(36:02):
these other, or Elon right,like in the very beginning they
didn't know anything about allthis stuff.
But, man, I mean, wouldn't youlove to have been one of the
first investors on those folks?

But this is where, when I talked earlier with you,
I said that when you and I sitdown, we need somebody else to
be in it, Because you and I arevery similar in the way that we
think you and I, if we founded acompany together, it would not
go well, because we both havethis similar thinking, similar
mindset.
So I was just mentoring astartup company through one of
the programs here recently andthese guys were good.

(36:34):
They had a really good idea andthere were three founders and
they were all the exact same.
They all were the sales guyeach of them.
And I said guys, I said I loveyou and I love your idea.
Yeah, and they said whatmentorship advice can you give
me?
I go bring in somebody thatunderstands the investment in
finance space.
Yeah, bring in somebody thatunderstands the marketing space.
They don't have to be anemployee, but you guys are all
really good, but you're all inthe same lane, yeah.

(36:55):
And so bring in a diverse team,whether they're where somebody
that you're hiring or somebodythat's mentoring you, or
somebody that's a paidconsultant, somebody that's an
infractional role, but bringsomebody in that rounds you out
so you can get through all ofthese things.
Because, to your point, if youdon't know the investment space,
don't try to figure it on yourown.

(37:16):
Bring in an expert that canhelp.

Yeah, no, absolutely.
And so, all right, let's goback.
I'm sorry I sidetracked alittle, matt, but are you
telling me that if, if I am afounder and I have an expertise
and I see a market need inrobotics or whatever it might be
, I could literally have just aplan that I've kind of written
out about the problem, themarket need, and I've done my

(37:38):
thinking.
You need, you need thesefounders to do their thinking
right and do homework, look atthe competitive landscape.
They do their own Google, theydo all this.
They need to spend the time tobasically build out this plan of
what they see that the solve ofthe market is, have their
network of advisors with themand so putting that on the
resume.
But I could literally bring yousomething that has zero revenue.

(37:59):
I haven't even gone out to themarket or selling, but I could
go and say hey, josh, here's myidea, here's how I think it's
going to work.
Do they need to perform a twoLike say, hey, look, I'm if I
get X amount of dollars, or thisis kind of my revenue scale
here and this is what I see, themarket opportunity.
So they need to come with thattoo, right, yeah?

You have to have.
I mean you can't just have anidea.
It's just too early.
I mean that's the first place Iwant to start talking to
somebody.
But you actually have to havesome revenue, you have to have
business, you have to have sohumors.
You do have to have all of thatstuff.
You have to be yeah.
I mean to be that's.
That's really investable.
Otherwise, you're just a reallycool idea.

Glad we, I'm glad we touched on that.
No, no, no, no, it's fine.
I mean the deal is is like.
I mean I think this wasvaluable about this podcast,
right?
Is that if somebody's sittinghere listening to this that
you're not getting, or even anyinvestor is not getting, or even
a bank, or getting phone callsof where you're having to spend
that time?
It'd be so great if you hadfive founders that came to you,

(38:54):
already had the pieces in placeto talk to you, you know, and
they need to understand thesedifferent investment groups
right, like you wouldn't do thesame thing to a private equity
group, correct?

Right.

You want to have like years of business and it's
got all this stuff and they'regoing to help take it to another
level.

Yeah, One of the things I'm seeing a lot of
momentum on in the community isexactly this there's a lot of
smart founders that don't knowhow to start, where to go, who
to do?
Do I talk to startup junkie?
Do I talk to plug and play?
Do I talk to endeavor?
How do when do I talk to NelsonPeacock and Seraphino at
NWCouncil?
How do I get my funding throughthe Arkansas Economic

(39:30):
Development Council?
When do I reach out to theWalton Family Foundation?
Yeah, I hear the Walton familyhas RCC, and when do I go see
them?
New Road Capital there's a lotof noise.
Angels 412.
There's a lot of spaces.
So I think that the communityis trying to do a better job in
helping put together a roadmapof where you start, how you move

(39:50):
.
Some companies are starting toput that stuff in place to make
it easier, as you come up withyour idea, follow these steps.
So there's a lot of work beingdone in that space right now.
Where's that?

resource at today .
Or is it live, or is it comingoff?

Endeavor is doing some work in that space.
They did a lot of interviewslast year.
They recently launchedsomething.
I don't know how widespread itis.
Ok, the U of A has spent a lotof time in this space as well,
so I think it's done.
I just don't know that it's outthere as it needs to be shared
right now.
Ok, I could be wrong on that,but I know there's been a lot of
thinking and work that's goneinto this space.

Well, I can say, if you're listening to this
podcast, I think what would helpus here if you shot us a note
and say you're interested inthis, because I think that
there's opportunity here todemystify the roadmap.
I mean, you can be a founder,there is a founder or there are
founders, but then there's theway to get capital and grow and

(40:47):
scale a business and fund thebusiness.
Do you meet all this stuff likewe need that roadmap right and
be cool to have another podcastwhen we kind of start to mystify
on that and and how can you getthis thing launched?
Much the right ways to go.
I think they could be heck offreaking podcasts of its own.

Yeah, I mean, if there's a program called gore up
the greenhouse outdoorrecreation programs, yeah,
that's a Phil Schell hammer.
Yeah, and you're familiar withthat for some of your passion
work, it's great.
And so what they do is they'rethey're starting this stuff.
Really, he's works for theuniversity.
Yeah, they're catching theseguys early with ideas, they're
putting him with mentors,they're they're trying to get,
they're getting them through anaccelerator.
And then, when they get throughwith the program, what are the

(41:24):
next steps?
Well, is it a?
Is it a plug-and-play?
Is it a startup junkie?
Like, where do you, where doyou go?
Once you've sort of beenthrough this program and it's a
great question, like, yeah, what, what is next?
And and where do you go?
There's a company in town calledlives in.
Andrew is a fantasticEntrepreneur.
He does some great outdoormen's clothing.
Hmm, it's a fantastic story andhe's investable.

(41:46):
People have now written himchecks in the community, hmm.
And he's a local guy with abrick and mortar and an
e-commerce business over on 8thStreet.
You got a great brand, greatproducts, and people are now
writing checks to him in hisprogram.
All right, here in Benville.

That's fantastic, man.
So Plug-and-play like, is it?
So if I'm a founder, I got anidea.
All this stuff we talked aboutin the tech space, some of the
things you mentioned Can I go toa resource with plug-and-play
to understand?
If you're the right folks, Ineed to reach out to do my
homework before I Ping JoshSafran.

Yeah, I mean there's.
There's in-bound email throughour website.
You know we're plug-and-playtech center, so there's ways to
find us.
You could find me directly herein the community Cool you kind
of and when you go out to thewebsite, figure out which
vertical that you're looking tosolve we again are you in a
sustainability space foodaverage, new materials and
packaging and look at some ofthe areas that we're focused on

(42:38):
and solving.
It's all out there on thewebsite, okay, and then reach
out to me locally and I couldfunnel you into things.
Additionally, on the supplychain specifics up front, we do
a major event here every year,yeah, and we've great event to
co-host it, thank you.
We're co-hosting it with theUniversity of Arkansas on the
supply chain school, nice, andit's April 25th at the momentary
and we already have two amazingkeynote speakers and we have

(43:01):
over a hundred people signed upOver two months out.
So this will be a 400 personevent and if you want to see
plug-and-play live in action,come to the event register it's
no charge on April 25th.

Well, I'll keep you a VIP seat.
Thanks bro, I appreciate thatit's pretty cool anything, for
you had to put the two on thespot on the biggest podcast in
the networks right now, just soyou could give me an invite.
Done, I appreciate, so that'sreally cool.
I think that what I'm alsotrying to get across to any
entrepreneur is do some homework, like you, like in your late

(43:34):
nights or whatever you're doingright.
Do your research, look on thesites, understand who you're
about to approach.
If you're trying to erasecapital, or if you have an idea
and you need that capital, oryou need to understand what
stage you're at and, even whenthere's not a roadmap available,
build your own roadmap.
Understand this a little bit.
And then you need to startinvesting your time, yep, so

(43:57):
that I can have a goodconversation with you when I
meet.
Because, in all honesty, if Ihave a shot at meeting with Josh
Saffron right, it would be muchbetter if I came, and I'm new
about plug-and-play what you'retrying to do, what's your
mission, your values, who you'reconnected with and I can align
my problem, salute my solutionto a problem With you.
You're gonna be impressed inthat meeting, right?

(44:18):
Yeah, and I'm a soul it kind ofgo back on our previous
conversations.
I, as a founder bring JoshSaffron value.
That's a good way to start arelationship.

Absolutely.
And I'm not talking aboutbuying me coffee, right, I must
not just coming.
You come to me.
And the two things again.
If you're bootstrapping, right,you don't need any funding
whatsoever at all.
But you have an idea and youwant to get in front of Nike or
Walmart or General Mills or likethat?
Like great, bring me thatavenue.
If you're looking for an earlyinvestment, come to me.

(44:49):
So I almost like two pitches.
So, yeah, one is an investablepitch and one is a pitch that I
can then share with corporationsas to why you're gonna help
them solve problems, and I don'treally care which one or where
you're looking to go.
And when we invest in companiesalso, we don't take any equity.
So that's another really zero,okay.

How the hell does that work?
Sorry for my bad language.

No, no, I mean some, some accelerators.
They'll, they'll, they'll askfor a piece of the company.
We are gonna invest and and buyParts of the company, will be
an investor and preceding seed,but but to go through our
program as an accelerator, wedon't ask for any, any equity in
the company.

So there's two levels, right, like you can get
into what you called that.
We would you call this thesoftware, the network playbook,
playbook, yeah, so to get in theplaybook.
You're not, you're not gettinganything out of that, this zero.

I mean the start, the start something.
So it's too good to be true,but but our business is one,
we're investing in you and we'regonna make money on the exit.
Or two, we're gonna get ourcorporate partners to to
contract with us, yeah, and sothen we're gonna introduce you
to corporate partners.
So the startups are almost likeit's too good to be true and
the answer is it is.
You get to come through us, getinto our network, learn, grow,

(46:02):
mentor and then be pushed outinto the real world to get you
either the investments that youneed or Relationships and
introductions to corporatepartners.

So all this is a side's business model they set
up for yep, did he's?
I'll load it.
We gotta have a mama shows heis.

I tell you he is incredibly smart.
Like, yeah, his brain, thestuff that goes on.
We had.
We had a company that I hadintroduced, introduced him to,
and we were just walking throughour corporate headquarters in
Silicon Valley.
He didn't know that thesepeople were here.
He didn't know who they were.
I introduced them to him and hegoes oh, I almost invested in
something that you invested inyears ago.

(46:37):
And they go, oh, yes, it'sdoing very well for us.
And he goes it's worth X today,right, and they go, yeah, like
to the penny.
So this is a company that, likehe didn't know, was walking in
the door.
He didn't know the startup thatthat they had invested in.
Like he had done no homeworkand he knew that specific
company, what it was worth, andhe was almost like, say, I wish

(46:57):
I'd invested in them.
How did he know that?
I'm like I don't know how.
He like it was amazing.
No prep work, nothing.

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, man.
It's just what here's.
Here's the thing, josh, what Iwould say to any entrepreneur
founder and you're thinkingabout getting into the
entrepreneurism space.
If nothing else, it'sfantastically fun and you get to
meet some of the coolest peoplethat are out there, the movers

(47:24):
and shakers, people that arewanting to make a difference,
add value, make changes, makethings better.
I mean it's great to be in thatgroup of folks.
It's energizing, you know, andI look at it as like it's an
honorable experience To lookback at my career and just see
the hundreds of people,thousands of people that have
met along the way and been ableto provide value back to, and

(47:46):
then I mean it's just, it'srewarding, it's absolutely when
I would tell you, having comehere almost 13 years ago as a
CPG selling to Walmart Untilabout two to three years ago, I
didn't realize how vast theentrepreneurial startup
ecosystem is here in NorthwestArkansas.

There's so many things happening with Walmart,
from buying and selling as aClorox and a Coli and all these
other ones but and it'sfantastic and it's what built
this community to where it isbut watching the innovation and
watching what's going on,whether it's in the outdoor
recreation space, whether it'sin some of the stuff we're doing
in supply chain, all the healthtech stuff that's going on
right now, with what AliceWalton is doing and involved in

(48:29):
there's a whole other world outthere, above and beyond,
incremental to what's going onin buying and selling at Walmart
and all the great stuff thatTyson and JB Hunter doing I am
so blown away by all thethinkers, all the entrepreneurs
and all the visionaries.
They're continuing to evolvethis community versus where it
was 10, 15 years ago man.

I'd even say that , even like in the last few
years, and plug-and-play was oneof the originators of
Initiating this investment.
You know we brought togetherthat bridge right.
You can now be an entrepreneur,founder with an idea and you
have somebody that you can goapproach to help fund and
Capitalize that and get thatnetwork.
You were talking about thatnetwork to me.

(49:11):
I would say, like what I'm?
I'm almost I'm super interestedin that network, right, if I
would have had that back in theday I could have fast-forward so
much of my six, you know, myany success that I had, you know
, by the years, you know painful, painful experience, a lot of
circumstances, trying to getconnected with the right people.

(49:31):
That Time is the most preciouscurrency in the world.

Yep, and that's as that, and you're amazing at it
and it's one of the things Ilove best if I can introduce
somebody to somebody that canhelp further the individual, the
economy, the community.
Everybody in Northwest Arkansasis really focused on that so
many people, and it's amazingwhat this group can solve
together.
Right, everybody getting out oftheir own amount of coffee

(49:55):
meetings I'm having, and I knowyou do the same thing, where
you're trying to Network withsomebody to somebody else and
figure out what they can do, andthat person that introduces you
to someone and then they Shouldhave someone else and you go,
wow, right, like, it's likealmost like the Kevin Bacon six
degrees of separation here.
Oh, you know Eric Howard's in.
Oh yeah, how do you know them?
Yeah, this is how he can helpyou, or I can help you, or he
can help this whole ecosystem.

(50:17):
You go wow, like, and thisstuff doesn't happen in New York
City, right, it's just so bigand vast.

Yeah, this community is perfect for this
whole thing man, I just want toState on record Thank you for
everything you do, because Imean you really live this out
like I mean you're I mean justeven yesterday You're helping me
and I appreciate that and Imean I think that anybody that's
listening to us, that's tryingto get off the ground and get
going, getting to know you,approaching you, getting

(50:43):
connected with you, is gonna behighly valuable for them and I
appreciate you doing that.
For what, for everybody aroundhere, really do well.

Thank you.
That means a lot and Iappreciate it as well.
I mean, it's it's stuff whereyou want to pay it forward.
You want to help others.
Others had helped same thingwho I had.
Others helped you earlier on.
You to been much further alongand I look at it Like, like, how
do you continue to play thisthing forward and get people
connected?
There's a lot of cool thingshappening right right in this
community and it's just a matterof really one person being

(51:09):
introduced to somebody else.
That's gonna solve a lot ofthese challenges.

And I would say that anybody that's listening
it's not in this community.
You have a community like it'sreally about community.
It really is, I mean it.
I think one of the cool thingsabout ours is that Sam Walton
really initiated.

Who was an entrepreneur?
Right, you look at water and gothis is a massive company, but
he had an idea.
Yep, and that's where it camefrom.
Same thing with Tyson, samething with JB Hunt, same with
Arkbest all these companiesstarted out of an idea from an
entrepreneur, and people don'tthink that way about those
companies they're they're huge.

Yeah, started with an idea and their founders
were connected and they werecivic leaders around here and
they were charitable giveers,very focused, very community.
I mean all of them, all of them, everyone else.
And so if you're, if you're afounder and entrepreneur and you
are really going to try tobecome rich, you're really
putting yourself in a vulnerableposition to be disappointed.
Yes, but if you're coming as afounder and you're like I want

(52:03):
to improve the market and helpother people and provide a
service or product thatamplifies the economy and helps
all these people around and Iwill receive the value back,
then you're on the right trackand people will flock to you.

In the latter of what you just said and the front
one, people will see throughyou Hell yeah and not be
interested in working with you.

I've seen it happen so many times.

Yes, example of example it's painful to watch
and, by the way, it may be thebest idea in the world, and it
doesn't get traction for exactlythat reason.
People don't wanna be here tosee a check.
They wanna be here for the bigecosystem, and so some good
ideas fail.
Another average idea succeedjust because of the way that
they go about doing it.

So true.
Anything else you wanna sayabout Gents Place, plug Play or
any last advice to theentrepreneurs founders out there
.

Be courageous.
If you have an idea, talk tosomebody about it.
Don't worry about somebodystealing your idea.
I mean, if you want people tosign had.
Somebody approached me andasked me to sign an NDA before I
had any further conversationsand I was happy to do so and I
was able to point him in theright direction and move.
But if you're at a job todaythat you don't love and you're
super entrepreneurial, I wouldalso recommend doing a

(53:13):
personality study andunderstanding what motivates you
.
It clicked for me when I joinedPlug Play how important variety
is in my work life and I wasrealizing I didn't love the same
line review every year withdifferent items, like I just I
realized that variety inspiresme and not doing the same thing
every day, and that's proved tome how entrepreneurial I am.

(53:33):
So if you're somebody that'slike that and likes a variety
and you have an idea, you'll bekicking yourself 10 years down
the road.
I wish I had talk to somebody.
Sit down with Eric, sit downwith me, schedule time and have
those conversations.
They may go nowhere, but it maybe the greatest thing that
you've ever done in your lifebecause you had the opportunity
to talk to somebody about whatyou're trying to do.

I want to have you back.
I want to have you back andlet's get down to that a little
bit, because, at the end of theday, entrepreneurism is, I would
say, majority emotional.

And it's scary.
It's yeah, it's scary Like do Ileave my job where I got a
paycheck coming in every twoweeks?
It's safe, it's comfortable.
I don't love it.
It puts food on the table.
But if I left my job and wentto do this, it may be amazing,
but I may not be able to affordmy rent.
I made it before my mortgagepayments, but I think it's the
greatest thing ever and I loveit.

(54:25):
So how do you find that?
How risk averse are you?
And how do you then figure outwhat's right for you?
Do you take a partner Right?
Do you bring in investors?
This is the stuff that's reallyimportant, but don't sit on an
idea.
If you have a really good one,figure out what to do with it.

All right, we're gonna do another episode, maybe
a few more, to kind of get intothat, because I'm very
passionate about thatconversation, because that's I
mean, I was not.
I would not put myself as asuper, super smart person, but I
did have a tremendous amount ofpassion, still do.
I mean, there's something thatdrives and I know there's just

(55:04):
so much to uncover there as towhy.
And I think that I'm with theguys actually talking to
somebody last night that hasalways had ideas, but it didn't
even self-proclaim that he isnot an entrepreneur and I'm like
you don't really know that, bro.

Yeah, well, to your point.
The last thing for me.
I mean when you surroundyourself with the right people.
We've talked about it a fewtimes my plug-and-play team here
.
There's five of us and I cancall us the fab four and Josh
right, and I've surroundedmyself with the right people
that are rounding out the thingsthat I'm not very good at and
the accumulation of the five ofus is a really good team.
Josh has his role, but theother guys and gals are doing a

(55:42):
tremendous amount of work andwe're getting our brand out
there in the community.
But again, it's the group andputting yourself, understanding
your vulnerabilities and whereyou're not good at, and bringing
the right people to support youand take care of your blind
spots.
People want to help you.

They do All right , Josh, so I'm gonna make any
last pitch for you.

Just thank you for having me here.
The podcast studio is gorgeousand amazing.
Thanks, man.
If you're an entrepreneur andwant to do some podcasting, this
is the place to be in NorthwestArkansas.
I'm so proud of you and whatyou've done here, and this is
just the beginning.
This is a great, great spot andI'm real excited to see where
you take it.

Yeah, man, it is exciting.
I love the team too.
Man, the team's geeked out.
That's one of the mostrewarding things.

But also I know all of them.
They also round out your right,like the stuff that you're not
great at, they're fantastic at,which is why it's a great team.
Hell yeah, that's one thing outthere Even.
Parker Even or shoot.

Definitely even Parker, hey.
So our last pitch here for bigtalk about small business hey,
listen, folks, get online, go toour site, sign up for our
newsletter, reach out, say hi,get connected, pitch the idea of
coming on the show.
We love that stuff and don'tforget to like, subscribe all
that fun stuff, because we needmoney, like everyone else needs

(56:58):
money.
Everybody needs money.
Everybody needs some money.
But we do appreciate you alllistening.
I'm really stoked out about ourlisteners here in this podcast.
I think it's gonna be reallyhelpful.
Josh, we're gonna have you back, man.
Always a pleasure.
Good combo, bro.
Thanks for everything you do.
Again, appreciate you.
Thank you, eric, you got it,man.

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Ep. 32 - Crafting Connections for Business Breakthroughs in the Entrepreneurial Hub with Josh Saffran

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 32 - Crafting Connections for Business Breakthroughs in the Entrepreneurial Hub with Josh Saffran