Ep. 33 - The Flavorful Journey of Risk and Reward in Business with Trent Brock

Ever encountered a crossroads that seemed insurmountable until a chance meeting changed everything? That's the story of Trent Brock, a Shreveport native whose initial pursuit of a medical career was upended by a challenging MCAT, propelling him towards an MBA and an unexpected foray into the corporate world with Accenture. As we sit with Trent, his narrative unfolds, offering a blend of personal trials and professional conquests that embody the resilience and adaptability every entrepreneur needs. His journey is not just about the transitions but also about the moments of serendipity that can lead us to our true calling.

Imagine trading the security of an IT career for the aroma of kettle corn and the hustle of farmers' markets; this is precisely the pivot Trent made. His tale of popcorn entrepreneurship is a savory mix of risk and reward, detailing how a partnership formed in a New Zealand boxing gym seeded the growth of an international venture. Trent relates his evolution from setting up a single tent to commanding over 2,500 market events, illuminating the grind and gusto necessary to make such an audacious shift. Whether you're a small business owner or dreaming of your own entrepreneurial leap, Trent's experiences shared here are as inspiring as they are instructional.

Episode Transcript

Mark Zweig (00:04):
All right, everybody .
Uh, this is Mark Swig and we'reback with another episode of
big talk about small business.
I don't have my co-host with metoday, eric Howerton.
He's decided he had to gosomewhere.
Um, I don't know where he isright now, but the guy's a busy
guy.
But I do have in the studiotoday a very special guest and

(00:30):
that is Trent Brock.
Thank you, pleasure to be here.
Uh, I just met Trent a fewweeks ago at the cancer
challenge lunch where he was oneof our featured speakers, and
Trent's got a great story totell about both personal
survival there's some of that,there's a little bit of that,

(00:51):
yeah, yeah, there's a lot ofthat and business, um, the guy
is is one impressive guy who hasovercome a lot of challenges
and still keeps a great attitude, and that's what we need more
about there in theentrepreneurship and small
business world.

Trent Brock (01:08):
Well, um, on the outside, on the outside, yeah.

Mark Zweig (01:11):
On the outside.

Trent Brock (01:11):
You do a job.
Hey, fake it till you make it.
That was always our philosophy.
Hey, that's right, I learned.
I learned that from a valuable,valuable business partner, did
you?
Yeah, it worked a lot.
It worked well for a long time.
Still working.

Mark Zweig (01:26):
Well, we'll come back to that.
Um so, Trent, um, just for thepurpose of our guests, or our
our listeners rather out there,tell us a little bit about
yourself, Where'd you grow upand and what's your story Gosh.

Trent Brock (01:41):
Um, well, I'm originally from Shreveport,
Louisiana, and, uh, you knowthat's just a regular city in
the South, I wouldn't sayanything special about it.
Um, you know, has the comfortsof life and all the normal
things.
Went to, uh, Louisiana TechUniversity graduate.
Well, I got a, got a degree inbiology and chemistry.
I wanted to do the doctor thing.

(02:01):
Oh, so you were going to go tomed school.
I thought I was Okay and uh, Icouldn't.
I couldn't pass the MCAT.
Yeah, yeah, Bombed it twiceFirst time.
First time I took it.

Mark Zweig (02:13):
Yeah.

Trent Brock (02:14):
I, you know I took it to to just try it out Second
time.
I studied all summer, took thebig course, did all the thing,
thought I nailed it, got theresults same score.

Mark Zweig (02:27):
Well, you weren't meant to be a doctor.
No, I wasn't.
No, I wasn't.
But you were sort of, in a way,kind of prophetic about your
own health situation, right.

Trent Brock (02:36):
I guess, I guess, yeah, it's come back around,
that that's for sure.

Mark Zweig (02:40):
So, so, anyway.
So you didn't go to med school,obviously, yeah.
So then what happened?

Trent Brock (02:44):
Well, something really cool happened.
I was.
I didn't know what I was goingto do, right, so I'm kind of
struggling.
How am I going to get a jobwith a biology and chemistry
degree?
So I was talking to my flatmateand he said look, man, go talk
to this business professor.
He's a he's a good guy.
Yeah, I just went in and talkedto him one day.
By the end of the conversationI was his graduate assistant.
I was going to MBA school, thatand I did that for two, two and

(03:07):
a half years, did you?
That's what happened.
So I got my MBA and and and didthe IT thing with it, which was
the hot thing at the point.
And then and off we went so.

Mark Zweig (03:17):
so what was the IT thing for you?
It?

Trent Brock (03:20):
was just the IT emphasis with an MBA and you
know that was a really catchydeal.
So it's kind of my minor.
So you got you got that out ofthe way.
Then what happened Then youknow, what I wanted to do is I
wanted to travel.
I wanted to, I wanted to makegood money and I wanted to
travel and I wanted to do it onsomeone else's money and so I
joined Accenture, which used tobe Anderson Consultants.

Mark Zweig (03:44):
Sure yeah, that was the biggie.
I mean, they were number oneand and awesome.

Trent Brock (03:48):
Yeah, Awesome, I don't, I don't.
I've lost touch with all thatnow.
You know cause.
I've been, you know, thepopcorn man for 14 years.
Yeah, but, um, man, it was agood gig.
I really enjoyed it.
I traveled, I learned.
You know, I traveled on theirnickel and, um, you know, I saw
the country on their money.

Mark Zweig (04:06):
I know the guy who changed Anderson Consulting into
Accenture.

Trent Brock (04:10):
Really.

Mark Zweig (04:11):
Yeah, seriously, he's a marketing guy in Chicago,
michael Krauss.
Okay, Okay but uh, yeah,fortunately they did that before
the Anderson, uh, arthurAnderson, accounting meltdown.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
So it was very lucky.
I think, that they had sort ofdisassociated themselves from
the name before that whole thingimploded over the uh, yeah,

(04:34):
over over the uh.
What was it?
The um, oh, the, you know thecompany that um uh, enron, enron
, yeah, enron, enron and Dynagy,that's right.

Trent Brock (04:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I own some Dynagy stock, did you?

Mark Zweig (04:48):
I don't know anything about Dynagy.
I one of my friends brother wasthat one of my films was a
partner at Arthur Anderson,though, and I and I lost his job
in the course of all that.

Trent Brock (04:59):
Uh, I wouldn't be surprised A lot of people did
yeah, I lost my rear end on somestock.

Mark Zweig (05:03):
I bet you did so.
Anyway, you did Andersonconsulting.
And where did you travel withthem?
Or, excuse me, accenture?
Yeah, I was.
I was all over the.

Trent Brock (05:10):
States, really, and the thing that was really cool
was, um, you know, we had abudget to travel back to, to our
home base every every week, andif we booked a ticket, or, or,
or had expenses that were lowerthan what that would cost, it
was a win for the company.
Sure, so you know, me and andall my you know um, coworkers,

(05:34):
you know, young people in theirmid twenties, early thirties,
kind of thing, we would, wewould, you know, do something
for the weekend.
We would go fly somewhere, orwe would go to Key West, or you
know.
So we traveled and did that alot, cause most of us, you know,
you're in an in between life.
Sure, You've got a few days,you got a few days during the
week and you're at home, andthen you got a few days you're

(05:54):
away, and it's really kind ofhard to to cultivate.
So people that are in thatlifestyle normally migrate
together.

Mark Zweig (06:01):
I did that, yeah, family, um, so it was hard.
I was hard.
I mean I would go home everyweekend, but I traveled during
the week and I know what that'sall about.
So that reentry and and gettingback into the home life was
always stressful, you know,especially if you didn't have
more than a couple of days to doit, yeah, yeah, and then have
to head out again.
That's right, so you weren'tmarried or anything at that time

(06:23):
.
No, no, that's good, not at all.

Trent Brock (06:25):
Not at all.
I mean, you know, I'll, I'll,you know, had a significant
other you know, along along theway but never got serious.

Mark Zweig (06:31):
Right yeah, never got married.
So you, um, did that.

Trent Brock (06:35):
For how many years I did that for about five, six
years, okay, and then I gotburned out, yeah, and I took a
break, yeah, and, uh, I took asabbatical.
That was the whole thing to do.
Then I take a year off.
Hope you can do it.
Yeah, more power to you.

Mark Zweig (06:48):
That was the plan I I so were you about 30 then, or
what?

Trent Brock (06:51):
no-transcript.
Yeah.
And you know, I'd built up a fewkind of personal goals over the
years.
I wanted to try to.
I thought, potentially, youknow, do I want to maybe be a
professor or a teacher of somesort?
I didn't want to teach kids,but I thought, you know like,
why not?
You know like, if you want tocome to class, come to class.

(07:11):
The kids would come to classfor the ones that want to learn.
If you don't want to come, godo whatever.
Right, you know, I don't wantto fight that.
So I thought maybe I'd do that,yeah.
And then I wanted to try tolearn Spanish.
Okay, and then, and then I kindof started doing my research
and I thought, well, Spain's theplace to go, Because that's
where.

Mark Zweig (07:29):
Spanish started.
Right, that is.
That's a Spanish speakingcountry.
Well, they're out, and then youget Europe with it, you get.
Europe and they got goodweather there.

Trent Brock (07:36):
Not too bad.

Mark Zweig (07:37):
Not too bad, yeah, depending on where you are, I
guess.

Trent Brock (07:39):
Yeah, I was in Madrid.
Okay, it would be pretty hot.
It'd be pretty hot, didn't snowa lot, but gosh, you'd get hot,
you know.
Yeah, but I'm used to thatbeing from.

Mark Zweig (07:46):
Louisiana.
Yeah, you are, you got that inthe humidity Land of the swampy
people.
Yeah, so so, anyway, so you goto Madrid.
What did you do there?

Trent Brock (07:57):
So I got my English teaching certificate and I
taught English.
Okay, so I had this cool nichewhere, you know, I had this
graduate, you know I was an MBAand I had business experience.
So I was teaching some businesspeople Okay, you know, business
English and stuff like that andthen some people for
proficiency what is that?

Mark Zweig (08:13):
business English, where you use a lot of buzzwords
and like say, at the end of theday, and I'm gonna lean into
that, and then we pivot, or what?
Oh my gosh.

Trent Brock (08:22):
Those kind of things.
These guys were just trying tolearn English, okay, okay,
really, it was just a catchything for a niche to say I've
got some business experience andI can talk with these people,
all right yeah.

Mark Zweig (08:34):
Well, that's.
Good to hear.

Trent Brock (08:35):
Yeah, so you taught English for a while, yeah, and
I tried to learn Spanish.
Disaster, absolute disaster.
That's the second hardest thingI ever tried to do in my life.
That's cool.
And then learning Spanish, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know.
Big goals, big goals, yeah,yeah.
So the Spanish thing I didn'tknow a lick of Spanish, really.

(08:57):
I had taken a couple of classesright In college.
Sure, the professors like, amen, you could really excel at this
.
And they thought, well, what doyou do?
You?
Immerse yourself.
That's what everyone's doing.
No way, it doesn't work likethat.
Okay, I got over there the firstday I was there.
Okay, I'm in the airport.
They've lost my luggage.
They can't even speak Englishin the airport.

(09:19):
Oh, no, okay, I was in thecolors, pointing at bags,
pointing at sizes, and I thoughtto myself I have done it, I
have done it.
So I did.
I got a gig.
I did get a gig where I wasteaching English, teaching
English, and then they hadassociated Spanish classes, so
they were teaching a lot oflanguages in the school.
So I had a thing where I couldteach some English, and then I

(09:41):
got my Spanish classes for free.
So I was taking Spanish everyday.
Well, I got better.
Yeah, what was it like livingover there, like where did you,
where did you live?
I lived in Madrid and man it'sEuropean, man it's laid back.
Is it your apartment?
I just I flat it man.
Okay, yeah, I mean.
What does flat it mean?
It means you roomed up with,you roomed with people.

Mark Zweig (10:02):
I see yeah.

Trent Brock (10:02):
Okay, yeah, you know, in the US it's a roommate.
A roommate in another countryis literally a roommate in your
room.
A flatmate is someone that youshare a flat with.

Mark Zweig (10:15):
I see, so you have your own room.
But then you got some comments,yeah.

Trent Brock (10:19):
Man, we're not gonna get into everything,
because I mean, this is thewhole story, because I lived
with three Bulgarian guys, okay,okay, one of them spoke Spanish
, one of them spoke English andthe other one couldn't speak
anything.
So then you can imagine us alltrying to sit around and talk.
But these guys were awesome,man, they were like my brothers,
they protected me.
You know, we hung aroundtogether and you know, you learn

(10:40):
to communicate with people whenyou can't even talk to them.
Sure, you know, and you pick upon the vibe of people and who
they are and how they are.
And you know these guys wererough, they were tough, they
were construction guys.
But you know what?
We were friends.
That's good and it worked.
It worked, you know, and so youknow the weirdest thing ever
you moved to Spain and you livedwith Bulgarians.

Mark Zweig (11:00):
Three Bulgarian construction guys.
Yeah, man.
Well, what happened after that?

Trent Brock (11:05):
So, you know, I did a year of that and that was
kind of that.
And so, you know, I was prettymuch broke and I was like, well,
I'm going back into IT, but I'mgonna do something
international.
That's what I wanted to do.
I kept wanting to go on aninternational project with
Accenture and they just kept youknow, it was all US based,
which was fine, you know.
And so I was like, you know,I've got the skills and I'm

(11:27):
gonna be a contractor, I'm goingfor the big money, you know.
And so that's what I did.
I started out and I startedgoing worldwide and I got on
some projects and I worked inNew Zealand for most of the time
and then I got on some projectsin like Australia and Indonesia
and Little Thing in England andall that.

(11:47):
And then I kept ending up backin New Zealand.
Okay, well, one week I was inthe boxing gym.
I used to do, you know, be inthe boxing and kick boxing and
stuff like that Training, notfighting.
Okay, I don't want anybody tohit this face, not at all.
So I met these American guysthat they'd come in and they
were there for several weeksgetting ready for matches.

(12:09):
I met their manager.
This guy's a serialentrepreneur man, I mean all
sorts of stuff, has his hands inall sorts of small business and
one of the things was they werefrom the home state of
Washington and he did kettlecorn, you know, during the
spring and the summer and he'slike it's a great business, do
they have it here?
We got to know each other, youknow, over the several weeks

(12:32):
that they were there and wewould take training together and
then we'd go eat dinnertogether and we decided we're
starting a weekend business.
Okay.
So we got some money together.
We had some primitive popcornmakers made and got some tents
and started going out to localmarket.
So I was doing IT during theweek and then I was doing the
popcorn on the weekends.

(12:53):
I would say about eight monthsthe money was good enough.
I quit the IT.
I wanted out.
I got tired of sitting behind adesk.
I wanted to do my own thing.
Back then the definition ofsuccess was you'll never be what
you want to be unless you doyour own thing.
Sure, so you know, that's whatI went.
Popcorn was popping and thething was it wasn't in New

(13:14):
Zealand.
They didn't have it.
They didn't know what it was.
All they had was like butterpopcorn and caramel popcorn.
They didn't have the middle.
And I just knew, you know, youknow, when you have those
feelings, sure, just know thatyou know, yeah, and you know,
and I knew that this thing wasgonna work.
Now, how good it was gonna workI didn't know, but it worked
good enough for me to quit myjob in eight months.

Mark Zweig (13:35):
Yeah, that's impressive.
Yeah, on what happened.

Trent Brock (13:39):
Well, so then we were doing the markets, right.
So we started out and the waythings were, we had two setups
made, so we were doing one and Ihad my buddy going out to the
market with me on the weekendand I mean, just crazy stuff was
happening.
Like you know, I had this oldbox truck and all our gear was
in it.
And you know, I mean it's yourragged kind of riches, so to

(14:00):
speak, story.
I moved in with these guys andI said, look, the deal is I'm
not taking the room unless I canhave the garage.
So I put half of my junk in thegarage.
I had an old box truck that wehad all the gear in, and I
started going out with my buddy.
And on the weekend, one weekend,man, I go inside to grab him.

(14:22):
You know it's five o'clock inthe morning, right, so I go in
to grab him on a Saturdaymorning I come out the fricking
truck's on fire Underneath, yeah, so I get a rag, I get the fire
out and he's like we're notgoing.
I'm like, yeah, we're going, wetook the truck anyways, man, we
went and you know it was justthose kind of things that would

(14:43):
happen, and we got to where westarted with two setups, then we
went to four and we were likeyou could pop in these trucks
and stuff.
Wonderful.
What we did is we would takethe setups and then we would
have a tent.
You know.
So it's like where you go to atypical farmer's market, right?
You know you set up a tent, youget all your gear out, you know
an hour or two before everybodyshows up and you know you start
popping that popcorn man.

(15:04):
Oh, so you made it right there.

Mark Zweig (15:06):
Oh yeah the smell.
Oh yeah, it drags people overto you.

Trent Brock (15:10):
You're right, kettle crack, I'm telling you.
Telling you it was money forjam, you know, and it was a
great cash business.
You know we made really goodmoney doing that and that was
kind of the plan.
You know, that was kind of theplan, you know it was.
My weeks were kind of backwards.
It was like, you know, fridayto Sunday and then during the

(15:31):
week I was getting ready andtrying to find markets and man,
I'm just man, I'm a dog, youknow, I'd go for anything.
So, just to give you an idea,we would run like four setups
and man, I would do anything andeverything I get my hands on.
So we got contracts, like withthe rugby stadium, you know, we
would do weddings or nonprofitsor school gallows, and we did
the weekly markets.
We did about six or sevenweekly markets a week, in the

(15:53):
morning, that night, all thetime, you know, and in seven
years we did over 2,500 marketevents, holy cow that's a lot,
all right.

Mark Zweig (16:03):
I mean, that's more than one a day on average.
Yeah, of every single day.

Trent Brock (16:08):
Right, yeah, oh yeah, man, I mean that's just.
I mean that's, I was like well,we, you know, and the thing
that happened and that was yourentire distribution.
That was the start.
That was the start.
That was the start.
That was the start.
Yeah, that was the littlebrother thing.

Mark Zweig (16:23):
Got it Okay, then what happened?

Trent Brock (16:25):
Then.
Then we were at a market andthe lady from one of the cinemas
tried our popcorn and she saidwe want this.
We can't make this sweetpopcorn in our machines.
We want your popcorn.
So that moved us.
That's the start of themanufacturing.
The retail Got it All the stuff.
So you know it was just westarted out, so you know we're

(16:48):
making everything by hand.
And then so these guys we don'twant.
You know we can't have this ina plastic bag.
We need this in a real potatochip retail looking bag Right
Like this.
Okay, that right Something likethat Yup.
And so that's where everythingstarted.
You know, learn about packagingand distribution.

(17:10):
And we would use the.
We would pop by hand with ourpopcorn makers, we would dump it
out, we would sift it by hand,then we would take the popcorn
right, and we would take thescoop and we would have a bag.
We didn't have all the machine.
We had a little scale, you knowlike a little foot scale, yeah,
and we had a little hand sealerthing.
And that's how we started.

(17:30):
And the first day we had likefour or five people who worked
like eight or nine hours, man,and we made like 400 bags of
popcorn.
It's like this ain't gonna work,right.
Well, we launched and welaunched into about six cinemas
with about three or four boxesin each one, and we went out and
sold out.
Yeah, man, it went crazy.
We started we would send peopleout, we would send our see, our

(17:53):
, our weekend.
People wanted something to do,right.
So I had a few people that wereannual with Sure, they wanted
something to do.
We send them to the, to thecinema, to do samples.
We're selling out, we'reselling better than their stuff.
They're like you know what?
The profit margin isn't wherewe want to be, I mean, if you
know how movie theaters operate,yeah, sure they don't call
their money on concessions.

Mark Zweig (18:12):
Yeah, period, exactly.

Trent Brock (18:14):
Yeah, they kicked us out and said you know, we
aren't making the money.
We need to on you guys, and youguys are showing us up, we're
done.
So we kind of had to, you know,rejig the plan and it was like
you know what?
This is a supermarket product,this isn't a cinema product, and
so that's what we did.
So we started going outpitching to distributors and we
got one, and that's where it allbegan.

(18:36):
You know, we started with the,with the sweet and salty popcorn
, and you know, over the years,the things you know with, for
example, let's see, just to kindof give you an idea on size, so
we started in a one car garageRight, then a two car garage,
then about 2000 square feet, andthen, and then like, and then
like six to 8,000.

(18:58):
And then like 15,000.
I mean, it's just gettingbigger and bigger and bigger,
right.
And we got to the point where,you know, each time we would do
this, we would upgrade as wellwith the machinery.
So we'd take out a manual step,sure, and we would add in
something that would Automation,yeah, and we would add in a
human part, sure, human elementwas the thing.
And so, you know, over time wegot to that point and we got to

(19:19):
where we were serving.
You know, we had, we hadseveral hundred supermarkets in
New Zealand.
We're still kind of doing thisby hand halfway.
So we went for it, man, we gotto.
You know You're funding allthis internally.
Most of it was fundedinternally, okay.
Okay, because we were using themoney from the weekends, yeah,
to buy the stuff Right, to buyour manufacturing, and that's
the big boy Right.

(19:40):
So, to give you an idea, ittowards the end what would
happen was we would go out allweekend, right, and I was
working, you know, 12 days onthe weekend Friday, saturday,
sunday, whatever In one day,making popcorn is what we would
make in all 12 of those days.
And I was just like you knowwhat I'm sick of killing myself.
This is silly.
So we just kind of stoppeddoing the markets and I
eventually sold that off to amom and pop deal and that was

(20:02):
cool, you know.
So they still had advertisingstill out there, still getting
our brand and everything for usand all that.
That's good.
But we moved to themanufacturing.
So, you know, and at that pointin time, you know we weren't
making a lot of money.
We were making some money.
We borrowed some money as well,you know privately, and it's
like well, are we gonna?
Are we gonna buy one piece?

(20:24):
We need about 12 pieces ofmachinery, you know cookers,
conveyors, sifters, weirs,baggers, all these checkwares,
all this stuff.
Right, what are you gonna do?
You're gonna buy one piece ofthe machinery from the US for a
half million dollars or are yougonna buy the whole thing from
China for 200?
Everything?
So we found this guy that hadbeen recommended by, you know, a

(20:44):
fellow that had been ourengineer and kind of with us the
whole way, and he said look,I'm retiring, I'm getting old,
but I'm handing this guy to mybusiness, handing it over.
And why don't you go for the?
You know, try it with this guy.
It'll be his first import, youknow, his first big deal.
So you know, we went for it,man.
So we got the whole line.
We got the whole line ofkicking caboodle and you know we
didn't need something like aFrito-Lay.

(21:05):
Sure, I mean, we're running 24,seven lights out every day, 500
bags a minute or somethingcrazy.
Yeah, we're just eight hours aday, more, five days a week.
You know 15, 20 bags a minute.
You know we're making money,we're good.
So you know, and you know,eventually the plan has had been
the whole time.
We would upgrade as we went.

Mark Zweig (21:25):
And that's what most manufacturing businesses though
I had limited experience, butsome just seems like, no matter
what you do, you're trying topush to get your volume up and
then, as soon as you do, you gotto invest money and more
equipment.
It's a you know, it's a neverending cycle of investing Yep,

(21:46):
and it's hard to get on top ofthat.
That takes a lot of capital.

Trent Brock (21:49):
It does.
You know, there was never abalance.
I was always in an unbalancedstate.
It was either we had, you know,we had more machinery and we
wanted to run it more, or moredemand than you could yeah,
exactly.
More, you know, not enough staffor too much staff, sure, you
know that it was always one ofthose kind of things, just
trying to always find that sweetspot, right.

(22:10):
Well, hey, it is what it is,right, sure.
And so then you know, we gotfrom one line that we could just
do kind of one size on, andthen we're out on another line
where we could do little bags,and then we're about another
line where we could domulti-packs and we started
expanding our sizes, yep, andthen they're wanting, then they
want flavors.
So every year or every sixmonths, when you go in to see
the buyer, they want the newthing, they want a new flavor,

(22:31):
they want a new size, they wanta new product, they want product
development, they just want new, new, new, right, you know,
like- Gotta keep the marketinterested All the time.
New is what it takes All thetime, man, you know, and I'm a
little guy, you know, I'm just alittle guy selling a couple
bags of popcorn, where you know,and you got these potato chip
guys, you know, coming in withdifferent seasonal flavors and
blah, blah, blah, and so I'mtrying to, you know, keep up

(22:53):
with these guys and do that kindof stuff.
And so we got into it.
You know where it was like.
Once we had a meeting and wesaved that skew for the year.
We still had it, we had ournumbers.
It was like what are we gonnado next year?
You start on something already.
So that would start.
Man, I was starting the kitchen.
Yeah, just experimenting.
You got it, uh-huh, yep.
And then you know, we do tastetest with all our friends and

(23:15):
then we do it, you know, then wedo it out somewhere public and
so, and then we take it in andwe hang it all out and say, well
, making a zillion of theseright.
Yeah we looked at the numbers,we looked at everything.
What do you think?
So you know, a couple of themdidn't work, a couple of them
didn't work along the ways and acouple sizes didn't work along
the way, and that hurts.
That hurts a lot.

(23:36):
Yeah, put a lot of money intoit, put a lot of you know
research and you know R&D andyou know marketing behind it,
and then it flops Mm-hmm.
And it could flop for manyreasons that you have no control
.
And so we had a few of those,you know.
Like, we had a sour cream andchives.
Sour cream and chives is thesecond most popular potato chip

(23:56):
flavor.

Mark Zweig (23:57):
Right, but didn't translate to popcorn.

Trent Brock (23:59):
I think it would.
I think it would in America,but with the New Zealand culture
, they are not into variety,they are not into, you know,
adventure and experience.
They just like what they likeand this is what we like and
this is what we're gonna buy.
It's the British influenceAbsolutely is.

Mark Zweig (24:17):
You know it's boring .

Trent Brock (24:18):
It's boring man and I was like.

Mark Zweig (24:19):
I used to carry on salt and pepper and Tabasco with
it what living in England youmean Living living in New
Zealand man.

Trent Brock (24:26):
Everything was just different now, sure, yeah, yeah
, man, back in the day.
You know, it's like threeoptions of food, uh-huh you know
that's funny, yeah, so thenwhat?
happened Gosh.
So we kept growing and we gotbigger and bigger.
And then it was like, well,we've kind of thought of like
we've tried kind of all theflavors we could do, We've kind

(24:46):
of done all the sizes we coulddo.
We're starting to get saturatedin the market and that's one of
the things in a small country,you know, in New Zealand New
Zealand is small, yeah.

Mark Zweig (24:54):
A million man.
It's a state.

Trent Brock (24:55):
It was state.
Sure you know it's like Noteven a big state.
Yeah, exactly.
So it was good from a marketingperspective and a, you know, a
popularity perspective, becauseyou know we could saturate the
whole country, you know, withminimal marketing dollars, but
you know you only have so manysupermarkets, sure, and so then
we had to start goinginternational Right, so

(25:15):
Australia would be obviously thenext logical.
That was the next logical?
I would think it was the nextlogical.
But you know what meant.
They're tough, they're meanover there, their percentages
are higher, their requirementsare meaner and you know we had a
couple of opportunities andeven with the exchange rate and
everything never worked out.
So we figured out we're gonnago where people want us instead

(25:36):
of where we gotta try to fight,sure.
So I did a show in Singapore.
That's really the gateway toAsia.
Like a lot of the stuff comesin there and whatever the trends
are, they kind of blow out to alot of the other places.
And I did a lot of, you know,r&d and work with it's that
fluent.
They won, yeah, yeah, sure.
Multicultural Interest Padcommunity you know that deal,

(25:57):
sure, and they're very wide opento try all sorts of different
things.
And so I went to a show thereand we got our popcorn in a
couple of stores there and thenwe kind of started, you know,
growing and we started going to.
You know we got into Taiwan andHong Kong and Malaysia and some
things like that, and theneventually the Middle East.
But it was still this pressure,still this pressure.
What's next?
What's next?
So then we started a microwavepopcorn company and so, yep,

(26:22):
this thing really took off.
It's crazy, man, it's crazy, Imean.
You know from.
I mean, and you know when wedid the markets, you know, not
only were we doing popcorn, butthen the cotton candy guy got
tired of his business, so Ibought that.
And then there was a side thingto do toffee apples or caramel
apples.

Mark Zweig (26:41):
So we started that.
You are what I would call anopportunistic entrepreneur, not
somebody that sits there anddoes a lot of research and goes.
The next step in my plan is tobring a toffee apple company in.
Instead, you just responded toopportunities that came your way
right, never had a businessplan.

Trent Brock (26:58):
My business partner flies by the seat of his pants.
It's not kind of, it's notreally my style, but you know, I
learned.
I learned to live in thatenvironment and do it.
So you did have a partnerthrough this whole.
Oh, yeah, yeah, I had abusiness partner.
Yeah, I had a business partnerthrough the whole thing.
You know, he was kind of thebrains behind the whole, like I
know the black magic to make thepopcorn and he, you know, he'd
run several businesses.

(27:19):
So were you equal owners?
Yeah, we were equal owners,yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I was on the ground, Iwas kind of on the ground guy
and he would do a lot of theback end stuff.
Yeah, your front end, sales andmarketing, yeah, and on the
ground, operations and all thatkind of stuff.
And he'd do a lot of the stuffon the back end where, you know,
somebody wasn't present, youknow, like the invoicing and the

(27:40):
accounting and the collectionsand all the stuff I, you know,
didn't have time to worry about,right, so it worked well.

Mark Zweig (27:46):
Yeah, it worked well .
Sure, different skill setsusually is a good requirement.
You're not treading in eachother's territory.
That's it.
That's it, Yep.

Trent Brock (27:55):
So now we got the microwave popcorn, so we got the
microwave thing.
And you know about our popcorn.
The reason we're different isI'm going sales on you here.
All right, that's fine, I canhandle it.
We had to have a.
You know, if you, if you wantto do something in the market,
you got to have something that'sdifferent.
You got to do something better,different, Sure.
And then the other guy, right,Right, and so New Zealand is

(28:17):
very green, they're veryenvironmental, they're very,
they're very all natural, they.
You know there's a big push forthat.
They have a lot of that highorigination.

Mark Zweig (28:25):
I can't just keep expanding their bounds.
Right, that's right, that'sright.

Trent Brock (28:30):
Limited resources Correct, yeah.
And so we had the veganvegetarian thing.
You know there's a lot ofIndian people that live there,
okay.
And then on top of that, justyou know people that you know
are concerned about their dietand holistic or whatever, sure,
and so you know we had the veganand vegetarian thing going on
for us.
And then we had the allergyfree deal.
There's a lot of allergies inNew Zealand.

(28:51):
People all one out of one infour people have something Corn
allergies are fairly common too,aren't they?
Yeah, well, not corn, not corn.
Okay, gluten, dairy, soy,peanut nut, those are all common
.
But note, the corn thing isn'tvery much and it's not anything
that like if somebody has areaction they're not gonna kill

(29:12):
them, sure, you know.
So I think peanut allergies arecommon.
Oh, yeah, I mean, that's youknow.
Deal with that.
Sure, we got a great deal,cause we serve the schools as
well.
We got into doing schoollunches and we would serve.
We got into a governmentcontract and we were serving the
schools and things like that.
And man, I'm telling you, likeyou know, something happened to
one of the kids and it was yourproduct.
Not good, yeah, not good.

(29:32):
So you know, I mean, we weretrue.
You know we were true to whatwe had and what our claims were.
And instead of your market youwere serving yeah, absolutely,
and you know the whole allnatural thing.
And then it's New Zealand made.
And you know, one of the thingsthat I knew living there was
the New Zealanders.
They are very proud of whatthey have and what they have.

(29:54):
So, like their rugby team, yeah, and they have a couple of food
dishes that they've said thatthey've invented, or you know
some of the things along the waythat they've done, sure, and so
we named this thing New ZealandKettle Corn.
Yeah, like they owned it andthey loved it and they supported
it.
It was a New Zealand madeproduct.
Sure, and they love supportingNew Zealand made stuff.
Yeah, so you know we had allthose things I mean.

(30:15):
New Zealand made is.
You know, we're all sick, man,we're in the back.
So you know that was kind of ourwhole marketing plan and we
were more expensive.
You know we were handmade, butI'll tell you what, man.
You know I'm a bit partial, butit's the best popcorn on the
planet.
You know it's made by hand.
Sure, it's all made with thatblood, sweat and tears deal.
And you know, you just can'tbeat it, man.

(30:37):
You can't beat it putting it inthat market, in that kettle and
making it from scratch the oldfashioned way, you know, were
you gonna eat grandma's cookies,or mom, or the ones from the
supermarket?
Right, what do you like aboutit?
Yeah, grandma.
And so I win.
I win every time, you know.
So that was kind of our thing.
And we grew, we grew from, youknow what we were, to the number
two manufacturer in the country, and then we had to start

(30:58):
expanding out.
You know like we kind of talkedabout internationally.
So then what happened?
Well, in the middle of workingon the neck and kernel thing
yeah, the microwave popcorn Igot hip bone cancer.
How did you find out you hadthat?
Oh man, what a story, yeah this.
So I started limping around thefactory.

(31:20):
You know, I'm very active.
I leave from the front, show myguys how to do things.
You're a new kickboxer.
Well, I just, you know, I mean,I knew how to do everything,
cause I started from the groundup.
Sure, so you know, when we werea small business, we didn't
have the money to hire anengineer to pay somebody to do
this.
So, you know, I did everything.
And I'm limping around thefactory and I go to a couple of

(31:40):
doctors and they say, man,you've torn your butt, you've
torn a butt muscle.
I'm like, okay, and I,eventually I had to go into the
hospital for some blood work andthe hematologist said Trent,
something's wrong.
You're getting an X-ray.
Okay, whatever, I get an X-ray.
A week later, that call, getthat call, that one that changes
your life, and it was that youhave hip bone cancer.

(32:02):
It's extensive, it's aggressive.
You have a quarter inch of boneholding your leg on and every
step that you take you couldbreak your leg.
We're surprised you haven'tbroken it already.
If you break your leg, we'retaking it off.
Come to the hospital right now.
Oh my God, yeah.
So I went straight to thehospital and checked in.
And it's public there, man,it's a public deal.

(32:25):
So we know that anything youdeal with the public, nothing
happens quickly, and thatincludes healthcare.
So I check in for the weekendand they start running tests on
me.
You know it's an anomaly, man,this thing is not normal.
What happened?
And so you know I stayed overthe weekend and I'm like you
know what I'm out of here.
I'm running a business.
You guys call me when you needme to do a test, I'll be here.
Oh geez, yep.

(32:46):
So I checked out.
I checked out and I said, look,I'll be here for anything, but
I'm not laying here in thehospital bed.
I got business to run, I gotthings to do, and so back and
forth in and out of the hospitalfor six months.
What they would do is theywould do the x-rays, they do the
scans, they would create theimplant.
By the time they were ready todo the implant, the cancer
progressed and the implantwouldn't fit.

Mark Zweig (33:08):
Oh my God, Are they giving you any kind of cancer
treatment?
Not at this point.
They're just gonna cut it allout.

Trent Brock (33:13):
No chemo no radiation, no nothing, we're
just cutting it out.
We're cutting it out, we'reputting in an implant, oh my God
.
And you know, like back then,you know, I mean we're five
years from that now.
So I know the things now, butI've never had a health issue,
man.
I've broken ankle a couple oftimes.

Mark Zweig (33:30):
Right, yeah.

Trent Brock (33:30):
I get it.
So I mean, you know, I'm justdoing everybody's business,
that's an equipship for thiskind of a deal right?
Oh my God, no way.
I mean goodness gracious.
So third time through, the doccame in and said look, it's
progressed too far, we'recutting your leg off.
Oh my God.
And you know, after six monthsof everything of in and out of
the hospital and in and out of adementia nursing home, that

(33:52):
they put me in for a while andthey thought I had dementia and
all this craziness and you know,the nut farm and all that stuff
.
I just lost it, you know.
And my parents, my parents,would be on the phone with me at
that time.
Finally, my folks would get onthe phone with me and they'd say
, you know, I had them as mysupport group.
Sure, because what happens alot of times with these kind of
things, but you're kind of theglobe, it's hard.

Mark Zweig (34:12):
Exactly.

Trent Brock (34:13):
But at least they're the sanity on the phone.
Because what happens is you'relike I'm gonna talk to the
doctor about this and he comesin and he says something and you
blank out, you talk for 30minutes, right you?

Mark Zweig (34:21):
need to have somebody else there to process
it and remember what they'resaying to you.
That's exactly right.
Yeah, no one would like that.
No one would like that.
Yeah, my wife has me go withher sometimes.
Yeah, If it's something bigSure.
Yeah, just so I can listen.
That's it.
That's it man.

Trent Brock (34:38):
So God, so.
So my dad stepped in and saidyou're not cutting this guy's
leg off.
You're not doing that.
He's a fighter.
He's not a quitter.
He's never quit on anything.
If anybody can make this legwork, he'll make it work.
And he said well, his life willbe better and easier if we cut
it off.
My dad said leave it.
He said if you don't leave it,I'm flying him home tomorrow.
So the doctor left it.
And so just to give you an idea, I don't, you know, just to

(35:02):
give you an idea.
So they removed.
You know, I don't know if wecan, if we can see that.
You see that, yeah, sure,that's how much, that's how much
, that's a lot.
They took out, they took outall that.

Mark Zweig (35:13):
Right, okay, they're getting awful near your spine
there.

Trent Brock (35:17):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
And so to give you an idea,this is what my spine looks like
.
So this is a regular pelvis,this is the regular side.
So anything from this side overgone, yeah, okay, and well,
that eventually, you know, Imade me handicap.
My leg was shorter than theother several inches Right.
And then on the next scan, youknow, I thought we were done,
you know, you know, got out fourmonths in the hospital, all the

(35:39):
thing back at work.
The next scan lung and pancreas.
Lung and pancreas cancer.
I couldn't believe it.
So the pancreas was the nextbig deal and obviously that's
like less than a 5% chance.
Okay, so I've survived all yoursurgeries, correct?
Yes, that's some five.
Yeah, oh my God yeah.
So on that deal, we had thesurgery, covid hit.

(36:01):
Everybody's locked down.
You know it's so lonely, you'reall by yourself, no one's in
the hospital with you, it's allthat kind of thing.
Had the surgery went fine, gotthe debrief report misdiagnosis
Cut out half my pancreas andspleen.
It was ended up being amistaken blood clot.
Oh my God, yep.

Mark Zweig (36:21):
It gets better.
How can you lie?
It gets better, Mark, I mean itgets me going.

Trent Brock (36:24):
It gets me going absolutely.
I like therapy, man line oftherapy.
Oh my God.
Yeah, that was tough.
You know it's bittersweet,right.
The thing is, the thing is Iwas like, well, I dodged the
cancer.
But you know, now you know yougot health issues Right For the
rest of your life.
Sure, because you don't havepart of the stuff that you're
supposed to have Right, and youknow you can't do anything about

(36:45):
it because it's public.
You can fill out a complaintform when they throw it in the
rubbish, right?
Okay, fine, let's get past that.
So then we had the lung thing,had the lung thing, had the lung
cancer.
That's okay, that got infected.
Oh yeah, by the way, the hipwas infected from the start,
since the very first you know,removal yeah.
So that was infected for a while.
Doctor decided we're gonna goin, we're gonna take out this

(37:08):
little wire that we've put in tokind of help hold the leg.
That's the reason the infectionBotched up.
The surgery messed me up, gaveme a surgical hernia, bladder
issues, and removed the wire andwhat it caused was where the
hip began to come upwards.
Okay, so it had nothing to holdit here.
Here you have a little.

(37:29):
You had this little wire thing,yeah, okay.
So then the wire was gone.
So then over time it justcontinues to go up.
It's like Jell-O Leg is justshorter and shorter.
Yeah, yeah, nothing to yeah yeah, so this is the kind of shoe
that I ended up having to wear.
Well, so, four and a quarterinch lift, man.
Okay, told me I'd never walkagain, I'd be on crutches and a
wheelchair for the rest of mylife, be handicapped that would

(37:49):
be my life.
Yeah, still, man, still.
You know what I'm running mybusiness.

Mark Zweig (37:54):
Yeah, still running my business.
How the heck were you doing atall?

Trent Brock (37:56):
You know what I've had a lot of people ask me that
and you know what it just I wasreally worried in the beginning.
That's why I kept checkingmyself out of the hospital.
These guys can't do it on theirown.
Eventually, you know what, Igot to the point where I
couldn't Sure, and so you knowwhat.
It was good for me from thestandpoint of I had something to

(38:17):
focus on, had something to workon, had something to deal with
besides laying there looking atthe wall waiting until the
doctor come talk to me every day.
Yeah, because I was in thehospital nine months, over two
years, dude.
But I ran my business, man, youknow, I put the laptop up on
the on the Little table yeah, onthe table, man.
And you know my suppliers wouldcome in and meet me.
I wouldn't even get, I couldn'teven get out of bed, yeah, I

(38:39):
couldn't even roll over, right,I couldn't even meet me.
My staff were coming in, we'rehaving meetings, we're doing our
thing, we're still working.
So, a couple hours a day, man,I'd get away from it, you know,
and I think it kind of saved me,to agree, saved my sanity to a
bit.
And you know, my team got towhere I couldn't do everything.
It couldn't depend on me toshow them how to do everything.
They had to go learn how to doit and say, look, I'll tell you

(39:00):
how to do it.
I'll never leave you, always behere, but you have to go do it
yourself now, yeah, and if youmake a mistake, come back, we'll
fix it.
Yeah, fix it together, you know.
And so I had some guys that youknow they stepped up, they grew,
they became unbelievable.
You know, some of them moved onsince then, but you know, they
just they wanted to.
You know, I mean, I'm a goodboss man.

(39:20):
Yeah, I'm a good guy to workwith.
You know I treat my staff likefamily.
Sure, you know I've done allsorts of things.
I've done all sorts of things,man.
You know, have their car fixed,give them money on the weekend
by their Christmas presents.
You know, do whatever man.

Mark Zweig (39:34):
Yeah.

Trent Brock (39:34):
And so they wanted to keep their job.

Mark Zweig (39:35):
That's good you know .
So.
So that got you through that.
But then what?
Now you got lung cancer.
Yeah.

Trent Brock (39:40):
So that's not good.
So I had the lung surgery.
Yeah, I had the lung surgeryand that got infected.
And then they came inno-transcript there's the hip
thing again when I was justtotally out of my mind with, you
know, being on drugs from thelungs.
So they just kind of told methey were doing it.
I was all alone, no one to, noone to, and I was kind of like,
okay, so they did that and sothen that really messed the leg
up Right and it didn't fix theinfection either.

(40:03):
So I still had the infection.
Okay, man, two and a half monthsin the hospital two supposed to
be a couple of weeks turnedinto two and a half months.
Get out all over again, justtrying to get back to life and
do my thing and work.
Next scan no, you do havepancreas cancer.
For real, this is for real.
For real.
I'm like, well, you wouldn't doa biopsy last time, let's do a
biopsy this time.

(40:23):
So a couple of months and mearguing back and forth with the
pancreatic surgeon when theyfound the cancer.
It was the size of a couple ofnickels.
Okay, that's how big it was.
After four months arguing withthe doctor, getting a biopsy and
everything.
It was the size of a tennisball.
Okay, poor guy Was growing intomy stomach lining.

(40:46):
I had a scan, went into aprivate radiologist because
these guys were dragging theirfeet and I figured out what was
going on.
Later they were just waiting meout.
They were waiting me out.
I mean, it's public, it's abusiness.
They're like I can do anythingfor me.
And so I went to a private guyand I had a serious talk with
him.
He said look, it's too far, wewon't do anything for you.
You know, we won't do surgery,it's too risky.

(41:09):
We won't do radiation, that'stoo risky.
So you can go home.
And I'm like and wait to die.
And he's like well, you can gohome.
And I'm like man, I know thestats.
With treatment, it's less than5%.
You're telling me to go homeWith no drug treatment.
And so you know, there was thisthing the whole time I was like
am I gonna come home and be withmy parents or am I gonna run my

(41:30):
business?
So I've got free healthcarehere.
I don't have it in the States.
What am I gonna do?
You know, I haven't lived here15 years or whatever.
Sure, well, my dad and Istarted talking.
He's like you know, thehealthcare rules have changed.
You know you ought to checkinto it and see if you can still
get something with preexistingconditions, if it's affordable,
cause I wasn't gonna come homeRight and die on my parents and

(41:52):
bankrupt them Right, bankruptthe whole family, and die.
I'd rather just die and be sad.
You know, like that's practical, okay, approach this thing like
a business Uh-huh, like justnothing but facts and
practicality.
And that's how I think I gotthrough it.
You know, I just these are thefacts, this is what's gonna
happen.
Try to take your emotions outof it.
Even though Just accepted yourfate, I mean, you know I'd go to

(42:13):
the hospital, you know, andthey tell me I was dying and I'd
go back to the factory an hourlater and I didn't have to work
for seven or eight hours until Igot home at night, mm-hmm, you
know.
And then you kind of just fallapart when you get home by
yourself.
But you know, that's what I did.
You know that's what I did, man.
And so I decided I was cominghome.
I decided I was coming home.
They'd given me a year.
They said you got a year tolive.

Mark Zweig (42:34):
Coming home here to Arkansas.
We're talking about Correct Tobe with my folks Right For the
final year, and they lived here.
Then they moved from Louisiana,right, yeah.

Trent Brock (42:43):
My dad was a supplier to Walmart for a long
time Got it and so Okay, yeah.
So I came home and I decidedyou know what, I've drug them
everywhere.
They've been all over the worldwith me with this stuff.
You know, down in New Zealandit was hard on us all, very hard
being away from home.
I'm just starting at the localclinic.
I'm not going to MD Anderson,I'm not doing all this big stuff

(43:03):
, let's just start local.

Mark Zweig (43:05):
So we fortunately have a pretty good cancer clinic
.
You have a lot of those doctorsor personal friends of mine
over there.
Excellent yeah.
It's a great place to be, soyeah, I mean Chardo Smith is one
of them, brooke Brander I don'tknow if you know either of them
.

Trent Brock (43:20):
I don't know all those guys yeah.

Mark Zweig (43:20):
But yeah, brooke's a woman, but yeah, okay, okay.
And Hershey Garner, I know youHershey.
I mean, I don't know Hersheywell.
I know his wife better than andI don't really know her that
well either, but Denise, my wifecertainly knows him.

Trent Brock (43:35):
Hershey saved my life.
Hershey and his team literallysaved my life.
Obviously, you're here and youlive here, I'm here, man, I'm
here.
I'm a less than 5% here andclear, that's right.
Yeah.
So then, by the time you know,we decided the day I got off the
plane.
I know it's a big story, isn'tit?
Yeah, it's tough, it's got agood ending, yes.

Mark Zweig (43:57):
Yeah.

Trent Brock (43:57):
We're still here, man.

Mark Zweig (43:58):
Exactly God love you .

Trent Brock (44:00):
Yeah, you know this bulldog man, bulldog baby, and
that's all I can say is, youknow, it's never quit on
anything, uh-huh, and by thattime it's a good quality in
business and in life, right.
It is, it is.
So we're one softball less inthis world, because I had a
softball zapped out of me.
Man, oh my God, that's the sizethe sucker was when Hershey got
it, uh-huh.
And so then, you know, I had toscan it.

(44:23):
We're clear, it's amazing, it'sa miracle, really it is a
miracle.
And then Were you doing thingslike change your?

Mark Zweig (44:28):
diet all through this.

Trent Brock (44:30):
You know I had an epiphany moment.

Mark Zweig (44:32):
Because you know my dad was a cancer survivor, ok,
ok, in 1969, he had really badcolon cancer Right and um 20,
let's see, 17 of his lymph nodeswere affected.
I mean, I got five physiciansin my family.
Basically, my brother told themhe got one to five years to
live, yep, and he used to gethis chemo.

(44:53):
He'd get on a clinical trialand he'd get chemo and then he
would work out for hours afterthat.
Yeah, of course he wasexhausted.
You know which it takes, but Ithink that worked it through his
body, yep, he lived to be 96.
Unbelievable Cancer-free afterthat.
I love it, I love it, man, Ilove it.
But he did watch his diet andhis exercise was extreme.

(45:15):
I did all that.

Trent Brock (45:16):
I did all that stuff, yeah.

Mark Zweig (45:17):
And Matt Waller at the U of A also had a similar.
You know experience with cancer.
And.
I know he really worked out andwatched his diet and got
himself in good shape.

Trent Brock (45:30):
Yeah, I think you have to, and the biggest thing
really is your mindset.

Mark Zweig (45:34):
Yeah.

Trent Brock (45:35):
That's what you really got to change.
That's what I really had towork on was.
You know, I've got thispractical mind.
I've got four or fivephysicians telling me you're
going to die.
I got a report, but I'm goingto beat this.
Yeah, I'm going to beat this,and so you know that's what I
did.
I changed all those things Ireally did, yeah.

Mark Zweig (45:50):
And sure it was helpful to have your mom and dad
here and all.

Trent Brock (45:53):
Yeah, wouldn't be here without them.
Yeah, you know it was a teamdeal.
Right, you know we're alltogether.
You know I'm definitely agingthem a bit with all this stuff,
you know, but they got to beproud of you though.

Mark Zweig (46:03):
Yeah To see.
So you got through it all.
You're here Now.
What the heck happened to thepopcorn?

Trent Brock (46:08):
business.
Well, yeah, and so then I hadthe.
So then you know I have thiship thing.
Let me tell you about that realquick.
So I have this hip thing, right, right.
And I was told I'd never walkagain.
So I had that.
I had the infection, had an IDdoc, local guy here.
Ok, we worked together.
We beat the hip infection thatI had for two years Couldn't get
rid of, wow.
So we beat that.
Had to beat the infection, towork on a hip implant.
Found this who was that?

(46:30):
By chance here, that was DanYoung.
Ok, dan Young, yep, yep.
Infectious disease of NorthwestArkansas.
Got an awesome man.
Man, he's a bulldog too.
Man, he's like first day I wentin there he's like we're going
to get this, we're going to getit, we're going to get it and
I'm going to give you a chanceto get that leg, yep.
And so, because you know, whatI want to do is I want to be off
the crutches.
Sure, you know it's like beatthe cancer, beat the infections,

(46:51):
off the crutches, yep.
So I have a orthopedic advisorguy, dr Montgomery, down in
Arkansas, down in a little rock,and you know, I catch up with
him and I said, man, I want towalk again.
And I said I've been going toeverybody all over the country.
No one will do anything to thisleg.
Uh-huh, I said you know, theytold me there's not enough real
estate left to do anything,right?

(47:12):
And he said look, I got a guythat worked under me.
He's at Mayo.
I said I've been to Mayo.
He say I'm into this guy, hedoes these things.
So we're in the middle of thelargest, most complex hip
implant ever done in the world,with proprietary procedures that
have never been done, and Idon't think any pig.
And so this is what this thinglooks like right now, man.

(47:35):
So just to give people an idea,like this is kind of what a
normal hip implant would looklike.
Right, yep, yep, and this iswhat the largest, most complex
infant plant in the whole worldlooks like.
Wow, seven or eight screws,three rods in my spine, all the
way to the other side, all overthe place.
But, hey, man, structuralintegrity, baby, that's hey.

(47:56):
All this is.
It's a construction project Ona human.
That's all this.
Is they just a big project?

Mark Zweig (48:01):
You're a totally bionic man.
I'm going to try, I'm going totry, man, I'm going to try.

Trent Brock (48:06):
So when are they going to do this for you?
So that's in right now.
Ok, so that didn't give me thewhole length, that's in.
So, and you saw, man, I came inon one crutch today.
So I'm getting closer, closer,closer to walking.
And then down the road, we cando what they call bone
lengthening procedure.
I know what that is.
Sure, yeah, so that would bepretty gnarly.
So that's an option down theroad.

(48:27):
Let's just get through thisfirst Right, and in the middle
of this, you know.

Mark Zweig (48:32):
Getting through that .
I mean that's the hard part,right there, I'm sure.
Oh, yeah, right, I mean that'sthe trickiest part going near
your spine and everything withall that.

Trent Brock (48:40):
Well, that's when no one want to touch me.
They're like, man, if you thisinfection and you get to start
getting into everywhere else,you just die and die in a minute
.
You know, I'm like well, I'vehad two pulmonary embolisms,
I've had cancer three times,I've had like 15 surgeries.
Just I mean over and over andover man.
It's like the, you know, a campof nine lives man, but so
you're going to.

Mark Zweig (49:00):
I mean, you're obviously on your way to getting
yourself completely back tofunctionality here.
That's what I'm working on.

Trent Brock (49:06):
Yeah, I you know I'm not going to run a marathon,
but I just want to have myhands back.

Mark Zweig (49:10):
Yeah, yeah, I get it .
That's it, great attitude.
So what happened with thepopcorn?

Trent Brock (49:15):
business.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sothe whole time, you know.
So that was a whole challengein itself, right?
Yeah, moving back here andhaving to run it remotely I've
done that for three years.
Yeah, I don't know how.
They have no idea.

Mark Zweig (49:26):
It's a long way away for sure, no idea.
You know a different time zone.
You're completely out of sync.

Trent Brock (49:31):
Scheduled backwards , mm-hmm.
You know my week starts onSunday midday afternoon, yeah,
and you know it just is what itis, you know.
So I made it work.
Whole different set ofchallenges, had cameras, had
good staff.
You know, we paid the bills, wemade the orders, we did our
stuff.
But you know, I knew, I knew itwas, it wasn't going to be a

(49:53):
long term deal for me to go back.
Sure, and so my businesspartner, I'd agree that we were
going to get rid of it, and soyou know it took us about a year
and a half year and a half, twoyears to do that, but we
successfully completed thetransaction over Super Bowl
weekend.
And who'd you sell it?
To A Kiwi guy.
Ok, yeah, a Kiwi guy that hadbeen in the food business.
He had been in, he had, he hadworked as a account manager

(50:16):
nationally and within thechicken industry, so he knew the
supermarkets, he knew the food.
Yeah, I know he wanted to dohis own thing, and so it was a
good transition.
Good.
It was a good move over to himand you know you just want to
see your baby, you know, seethat thing, just carry on.
And so your partner, he got outat the same time.
Yeah, we got out together.
We got out together and he'sgot several other things that he
does and this was my primaryfocus.

Mark Zweig (50:36):
So just out of curiosity, did you have to
finance it to the buyer?
Is that part of your deal?

Trent Brock (50:42):
Oh no, no, no, we didn't.
No, he bought it outright.
That's good.
Yeah, he bought it outright.
So I don't know what he did onhis end.
But you know, we got all themoney at once, good, which was
kind of part of the deal.
You know, I didn't want to haveto deal with that.
Sure, you know, because I'mready.
You know, it's like it's been achapter in my life.
It's time to move on to the newthing.

Mark Zweig (51:01):
As they say, whether you're buying or selling, the
price is only one consideration.
The terms may be more critical.

Trent Brock (51:07):
Very true, you know very true, very true, that's
exactly right.

Mark Zweig (51:11):
So yeah, very true, very true.
Well, good, so you're out ofthat.
Now, what are you going to do,trent?

Trent Brock (51:16):
You know, gosh you know I am looking for something
to do.
Ok, I really am, and you knowwhat I've done in the last year
or so is, you know, kind of fellon me that you know people
would ask me oh well, weigh oncrutches, and I kind of shortly,
you know in a 36-minute tell mystory and they're like that's
amazing.
So they're like you reallyshould write a book or you
shouldn't be on podcast orsomething Sure.

(51:38):
So I started doing podcast andso now I'm kind of moving into
the public speaking thing a bitand I'm looking at kind of Sure,
well, you're inspirational.

Mark Zweig (51:47):
Well.

Trent Brock (51:47):
I'm trying to be, I'm trying to be man.
You know, it's like you knowthe story is you can do it, yeah
, you can do it.
Just never quit, just neverquit, you never quit, you never
fail.
It's so true, isn't?

Mark Zweig (51:59):
it.
It really is.
I hate failure.
You know this whole idea thatyou'll see a lot of it in sort
of the pop business mediatesFail early, fail often, fail
forward.
I'm like avoid failure if youcan.
If it happens, learn from it.
I don't like it.
It's hard to get out of thehole.
Yeah, but there's a differencein total failure and failing at

(52:23):
an experiment.
I love experiments.
We are fail experiments, likeyou said, some of your flavors
or sizes.
They don't work, okay.
But the key is, if it fails,then you move on to the next
thing.
It's not like you go oh itfailed, my whole business is
crap, I'm done.
You know it's that experimentfailed, but we'll try something

(52:44):
else now.
That's it.
That's it, you know.
And it sounds like you knowit's the same thing with your
healthcare.
It's like well, you get thewrong answer from somebody, I'll
try something else.

Trent Brock (52:54):
That's what we do.
You know, I figured out, that'swhat I figured out.
It's like I'm the quarterbackEntrepreneurship applied to your
health.
You got it.
Yeah, you know, that's reallykind of I got a thing, was a
business tried to apply it in abusiness setting.
Just think of yeah, it's sohard though, oh, I mean you're,
you know.

Mark Zweig (53:09):
I mean, when your survival is on the line, it's
hard to maintain your setting.
I'm sure, oh, it was, butyou've done an amazing job.

Trent Brock (53:16):
I don't know.
Man's been some long days.
I've been some.
You know loneliness.
You know it's very lonelyduring COVID.
Oh, I'm sure I'm dealing withall this all by myself.
My past, this couldn't come.
No one could come in thecountry.
Yeah, you couldn't go anywhereRight To do anything.
I mean Sounds horrible.
It was rough.
It was rough.
It was like hell on earth itwas.
And you know, you appreciatejust the simple things in life,
like walking around, yeah, Ibelieve it.

(53:38):
Yeah, in the sunshine, yeah, Imean really, you know, yeah, you
know everything's.
You know we're so gratified nowand everything's so instant.
You know it's just.
You know a married human beings, you know they, just they do
that we don't appreciate stuffuntil we don't have it.

Mark Zweig (53:54):
That's exactly what's, and we're so spoiled in
this country with so many goodthings that we have and I.
It is distressing, you know.

Trent Brock (54:03):
I've been to a lot of countries, I've lived in a
lot of countries and I'm tellingyou this is the best place.
I believe it, it is hands downI this is the best opportunity,
it's the best place to live.
Nothing in the world's perfect,but you know, there ain't
nothing better.
Yeah, you know, and so I'm back.
Yeah, I'm here now.

Mark Zweig (54:19):
Well, I hope you do well with your speaking and
inspiring people and and youknow, my guess is, knowing guys
like you, it'll be a littlewhile you'll be starting
something else.
Okay, it happens all the time.

Trent Brock (54:33):
I've already worked like 30 hours this week, I've
already put in like 30 hoursthis week and I don't even have
a job right now.
But that's hey, man, I've doneit a lot.
I need some time.

Mark Zweig (54:42):
I know, yeah Well, I'm glad you can, I'm glad
you're in a position where youcan take that, but I but I also
know that once you get your headin the game, it's hard to stop
doing it.
You like to build, you like tocreate good jobs for people.
You know these are the thingsthat business ownership does for
you.
Yeah, you want to do somethingbetter than what's out there.

(55:05):
That's right.
That's right and it's just.
It's a basic need and it's whenit works.
It's very gratifying.

Trent Brock (55:12):
Yeah, it is.
It is.
That was one of my stipulationswith it.
With the new owner is likeyou're taking everybody.
You know I've supported theseguys who've been with me, you
know, and you know they gotfamilies and mouths to feed and
things like that, and so youknow you need to offer everyone
on my contract or we can't makethe deal happen.
So everyone on you know we'restill there.

Mark Zweig (55:33):
That's awesome, you know.
Yeah, well, it's been greathaving you here today and I look
forward to having you comespeak to my students as we
discuss.
That's gonna be awesome.
Yeah, they'll.
They'll appreciate your story,for sure.

Trent Brock (55:47):
Yeah.

Mark Zweig (55:49):
I love bringing in people who've been successful
Pretty soon.
And you've been successful,yeah, not just in business, but
in life.

Trent Brock (55:57):
Well, you know, I just you know it's.
I just hope you know somebodythat hears it says you know what
man, you know, if that guy, ifthat guy went through all that,
I can get through what I'm goingthrough, absolutely you know,
yeah, so Well, we like to keepthis, this podcast, on a happy
note.

Mark Zweig (56:14):
Yeah, and, and this has definitely been one of those
good stories that hopefullywill make people feel good.
I hope so too.
No, do you have any jokes forus though?
Oh my God, jokes.

Trent Brock (56:25):
That's a, that's a random one.
No, no, I don't really have any.
I don't have really any goodjokes for you.
No, Shoot.
Well, yeah, Lee, you know Ishouldn't have like a popcorn
joke.
You know I should have a coupleof those, but I'm just gonna
blank at the moment.
Next, time.

Mark Zweig (56:41):
Yeah, okay, next time you better bring a popcorn
joke along with you, all right?
Well, listen, trent.
We appreciate you being herewith us today.

Trent Brock (56:49):
Yeah, thanks for letting me share my story.
I appreciate it, yeah.

Mark Zweig (56:51):
No, it's great.
It's a great story andmeanwhile, if any of you have
any questions for either EricHowerton or myself, please feel
free to get on our website, bigtalk about smallbusinesscom, and
send them in.
If you have any suggestions forwho should be on the show,

(57:14):
we've got an extensive list offuture guests coming up, but
we're always interested to hearabout people who've been
successful, people who hadstruggles and overcame them, and
people who are doing greatthings right now.
We love to hear from you andotherwise this has been another

(57:34):
episode of you.
Got to say it along with me now, since Eric's not here Big talk
about small business.
Thanks, everybody, awesome.

Narrator (57:52):
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of big talk
about small business.
If you have any questions orideas for upcoming shows, be
sure to head over to our website,
wwwbigtalkaboutsmallbusinesscomand click on the ask the host
button for the chance to haveyour questions answered on the
show.
Stay connected with us onLinkedIn at big talk about small

(58:13):
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