July 28, 2025 • 53 mins
In this inspiring episode of Palm Harbor Local, host Donnie Hathaway chats with Kelly Cloward, the owner of two Crumbl Cookie franchises—one right here in Palm Harbor. Kelly opens up about his unconventional path from construction management and door-to-door sales to running one of the most buzzed-about cookie shops in the country.
Originally from Utah, Kelly shares how his entrepreneurial spirit was sparked by a childhood friend’s business-owning family and strengthened by years of life experience, a mission abroad, and even a failed first venture in construction. That path ultimately led him and his cousin to bring Crumbl Cookies to Florida, where they’ve made Palm Harbor their home.
In this conversation, Kelly gets real about the challenges of entrepreneurship—like quitting too soon, starting from scratch, and the trade-offs of running a franchise. He also talks about building community through business, the importance of mentorship, and why Palm Harbor quickly became the perfect place to live, raise a family, and grow his brand.
What You'll Learn:
- Why Kelly traded a steady job in construction for the uncertain life of a franchise owner
- The pros and cons of buying into a franchise vs. starting your own business
- How a failed construction company helped prepare him for success
- What it takes to thrive in the early stages of a franchise
- The value of community, support systems, and choosing the right location
- Why Palm Harbor stood out as the ideal place for his business and family
Links & Resources:
- Visit Crumbl Cookies: crumblcookies.com
- Learn more about Palm Harbor Local: palmharborlocal.com
- Join the weekly newsletter: Sign Up Here
- Follow us on Instagram: @palmharborlocal
Stroll through the laid-back streets of the Palm Harbor community with this informative podcast, proudly brought to you by Donnie Hathaway with The Hathaway Group, your trusted guide and local expert in navigating the diverse and ever-changing property landscape of Palm Harbor.
Work with me + FREE Resources
Would you like help buying a home in Palm Harbor? - Buyer Consultation
Would you like help selling your house in Palm Harbor? - Seller Marketing Consultation
Download our free buyer's guide today - Buyer's Guide
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Palm Harbor Local, the podcast
dedicated to building communityand sharing inspiring stories
from the heart of Palm Harbor.
I'm your host, donnie Hathaway,and today we're joined by Kelly
Cloward, who's the owner of theCrumble Cookie franchise in
Palm Harbor, florida.
Palm Harbor Local is all aboutspotlighting individuals and
businesses who are making adifference, overcoming
challenges and fosteringconnections right here in our
(00:22):
hometown.
If you're passionate aboutgrowing together, getting
involved and celebrating thepeople who make Palm Harbor
thrive, you're exactly where youneed to be.
In today's episode, you'lldiscover how the Crumble Cookie
franchise got its start, whyKelly decided to open up the
Palm Harbor franchise, and we'lltalk about the differences
between starting a franchise orstarting your own business from
(00:43):
scratch.
Now don't forget to connectwith us on Instagram at
palmharborlocal for behind thescenes highlights, and join our
weekly newsletter atpalmharborlocalcom.
Now let's dive in and buildcommunity together.
Kelly, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you, glad to be here.
Yeah, this is.
This will be fun man.
Glad to be here.
Yeah, this will be fun man.
(01:03):
So you are the owner of twofranchisees of Crumble Cookie
Yep, crumble Cookie.
What got you started with thiscompany?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So Crumble is a gourmet cookiebusiness and my wife and I I
grew up in Utah, my wife grew upin Minnesota and we both went
to college at BYU in Utah andUtah is where Crumble kind of
(01:39):
originated and at that timethere were several other cookie
businesses there popping up andwe would try them out.
They were really good cookies,but Crumble kind of stood out
above the rest.
They're kind of the ones thatshot up and so you know, we were
consumers and we liked it.
But I was studying constructionmanagement actually, and my
(02:01):
wife was studying social work.
We graduated, I got a job inTexas building homes and we
moved out there and we weredoing well doing that.
But I've always had kind of anentrepreneurial desire.
I've always kind of thoughtthat the kind of life that I
wanted was the kind of lifewhere I would be a business
(02:24):
owner.
The kind of life that I wantedwas the kind of life where I
would be a business owner.
And so I kind of always had, inthe back of my mind, my sights
set on that.
But I was building homes forthis company and I was enjoying
it.
I didn't love everything aboutthat company and then we had our
first kid.
You know your priorities startto shift when that happens, so I
(02:44):
decided that that was when wewere going to go for it.
I just started a littleconstruction business.
I wanted to just start withsmall end remodels, things like
that in Texas, and I found outreally quickly.
I was just so naive that Ithought that I could get that
thing going and support myfamily really fast and so I quit
my job.
I started that business andthree months later we're
(03:07):
starting to get nervous becausewe weren't quite making enough
to survive.
And I guess I'm going into alot of.
Gave me a taste of the salesentrepreneurial kind of
(03:32):
lifestyle.
And I loved it, we were doingwell.
But my now business partnerhe's my cousin he called me up
one day and just said hey, Ihave an idea, I want to run it
by you.
And he said have you ever heardof Crumble Cookies?
And I was like, yeah, of courseI love, I know, crumble Cookies
(03:52):
, we love Crumble Cookies.
That's the place where my wifewants me to go and spend $20 on
a box of cookies or whatever.
Actually, at that time I thinkit was only $10.
He's like, well, I think it'dbe really fun to do it.
He's like I've got a couple offriends that have franchised
with them and they're doingreally well.
So I said, okay, well, let'slook into it, Despite it being a
(04:18):
totally different industry thanwhat I was used to.
I've never done retail.
I've never done food, In fact,in high school and stuff.
I worked all my way throughhigh school, college, everything
, but I refused to do food.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, Never a server or anything like that.
No.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I just never wanted.
I don't know what it was, Ijust never wanted to have to do
that.
But I really liked Crumble andI loved the concept.
They have a rotating menu.
That just seemed so smart andcool that you know every week we
have new cookies on the menuand that keeps people coming
back.
It kept us going back becauseevery week we want to try the
(04:53):
new cookies, um, and rarely wasthere one you didn't like but um
.
So you know, despite they weredoing really well in roofing
sales, I was making more moneythan I ever had in my life.
But we prayed about it andknowing that, like you know,
(05:15):
even in roofing sales, someone'smy boss, someone could wake up
the next day and I could look atthem wrong and they could let
me go and I'd be trying tofigure out what's next wrong,
and they could let me go and I'dbe trying to figure out what's
what's next.
And this desire to to be anentrepreneurial and entrepreneur
and kind of guide my own life,we, we decided to go for it.
We prayed about it and decidedthat this was, this was the
(05:36):
right, the right move, and fromthere we could kind of choose.
You know where we wanted to go.
Of course we had to go throughlike the interview process to
become franchisees andeverything like that but um,
yeah, it's been a really, reallygreat decision for us and for
our family.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And how long have you been um with the company now?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Three years Well, actually a little longer.
We, we, um, we built the PalmHarbor store.
That one opened, uh, little, alittle under three years ago.
We opened august, uh of 2022,okay, um, so, leading up to that
, there was probably a yearworth of prep to get us to that
(06:17):
point.
So we've technically been withcrumble for like four years yeah
, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Where, where does your entrepreneurial spirit come
from?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Oh, that's a great question.
I think growing up I I hadwonderful parents, really great
parents, and they both workedjobs.
My dad went to work at, youknow, nine o'clock, came home at
five o'clock.
My mom was a nurse.
(06:45):
She she part-time while we werein school and stuff and we did
well.
But I saw, like one of my bestfriends growing up, his dad was
a business owner and I just sawthis kind of lifestyle that they
had and I thought that thatwould be really cool and so that
(07:05):
was kind of where it opened thedoor to entrepreneurship.
How old were you when you firststarted this firm?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Because they were.
He was my best friend like mywhole life.
They moved in when I was liketwo years old.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Oh okay, and so I kind of just grew up with them,
Grew up okay, but I also watchedtheir business grow.
So some of your earliestmemories are with this family.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And I would go on family vacations with them
sometime Not that my familydidn't have great vacations and
stuff.
I kind of saw this possibilityand I kind of honed in on that.
And then I would notice, as Iwas getting older, other
business owners, they're livingthis other lifestyle that I was
(07:52):
like that would be really cooland not just things and toys and
blah, blah blah, but freedom.
They're going on vacations,they don't have to ask someone
for time off, they don't have togoing on vacations.
They don't have to ask someonefor time off.
They don't have to, you know.
So, um, I just kind of alwayswas like man, I hope I can make
that happen, but I felt verymuch like that wasn't something
(08:14):
I'd be able to do.
I, I didn't have good grades inschool.
I I severely add, you know, andI remember like some of my
earliest school experiences werethat of, just like I can't do
school, I'm not smart enough todo this.
So, for a long time I justthought my future is to be a car
(08:35):
mechanic or something like that.
But I think where that startedto change was when I was 19.
I'm a member of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and I went on a two-yearmission and I went to England
(09:02):
and basically knocked on doors,had some wildly successful
mission where I baptized a wholeton of people or anything like
that.
But I think my belief in myselfstarted to change and I think
my faith had a big part in that.
I believe I can do a lot morethan I ever thought I was
capable of, and then I was ableto start applying that too,
(09:23):
because the mission is kind oflike sales.
You're going around and talkingabout Jesus.
You're trying to get people toaccept you and accept what
you're teaching.
Sometimes your only successwhen you're teaching about Jesus
Christ is that no one slammedthe door in your face that day.
(09:44):
But yeah, I think I just reallystarted to get this belief in
myself that maybe I could domore than I thought.
And I also learned how to study.
We spend hours every daystudying scriptures and
everything like that, and so Ididn't think I'd ever go to
college.
I didn't think I'd ever go tocollege.
(10:04):
I came home, I applied for BYUand I got into BYU.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And then I was able to.
I can't say I got great gradesin college, but your skill set
improved at that point, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, exactly.
And so then I start looking atdifferent possibilities of a
career.
I had no idea what I was goingto do up until I was.
I think I did two years ofcollege before I realized I
could actually studyconstruction and the whole
reason I ended up studyingconstruction.
I had a little bit ofconstruction experience just
(10:40):
from working through college andhigh school and stuff, yeah,
right from working throughcollege and high school and
stuff.
Yeah right, and what really gotme into that is I had a really
good friend that was studying itand he said school doesn't even
suck anymore.
And I was like what?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
You found a way to make school not suck, and I was
like I'm doing it.
I'm all in, yeah and it wasgreat.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I loved studying construction.
Byu had an amazing program withamazing instructors, and what
was really good for me is itwasn't just construction.
You know, there was a lot ofconstruction theory, but there
was a lot of business theory aswell with that and I got like
there was one class that I'llnever forget is I can't remember
(11:23):
exactly exactly, but it wasjust business development and
like the whole, the whole class.
You know, you started from dayone and you started developing a
business, um, and we likedeveloped a hypothetical, uh,
car wash business oh, cool andand you take it from and you go
as realistic as finding a realplot of land that's for sale,
(11:43):
and then you develop this uh,hypothetical, whatever it is
that you're doing.
So we developed a hypotheticalcar wash and you know, you, you
drew up plans, you, you made abudget, you know all, you did a
marketing plan, all that kind ofstuff.
So those kind of experiencesare what kind of helped me see
that like I could probably dothis, and so I think those all
(12:06):
accumulated into at least givingme enough confidence to pull
the trigger on something asrisky as as starting a new
business.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Your story like reminds me.
Did you ever read the book ofrich dad, poor dad?
I did.
It's like to a T, almost likeright Like you have this family
friend that you know has thisdifferent lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, that's true, the rich dad yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
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Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah that's true.
Yeah, I've never actually putthat together, but yeah, it kind
of is.
Yeah, yeah, that's interesting,like I mean I grew up great
Like we had everything we needed.
My parents were very much likea live below your means type of
family.
So, we never struggled foranything, but I think I did grow
(13:50):
up looking at what other peoplehad, and when you're a teenager
that's important to you.
So I was kind of like man.
I need to make more money thanthat.
But I look back and I'm reallygrateful for what my parents
have instilled in me, forteaching me to value money and
everything like that.
So I feel between those.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I think I've been well-rounded, but I still have a
lot to learn For sure, and Ithink I kind of grew up similar
Both my parents kind of workedmy dad retired Air Force, but
went to work every single day.
And my mom, you know, kind ofworked my dad retired Air Force,
you know, but went to workevery single day.
And my mom same thing.
And there's value in havingthat structure and stuff, yeah,
(14:34):
you know.
But yeah, same way, Like Igrowing up and I don't know
where mine came from, but Ialways, I just always wanted to
own my own business and I justremember having that thought and
that kind of stuck with me.
And same thing I went throughschool not knowing what I wanted
to do, end up getting a degreein biology because I thought I
(14:54):
wanted to do something else youknow.
And then, um, and now I'm inreal estate for the last eight,
eight plus years.
So, um, yeah, but the, the likeyou touched on it, like having
the, the belief in yourself, Ithink that changes everything.
That that, realized you know,gives you that, that, um, that
thought of like oh, I can, I cando this, like I can do more
(15:17):
than afford a risk, you knowright, yeah yeah, I think that's
awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I think I think about that a lot too, especially
where, or now, what I do is, um,most of my employees are under
18, you know, um, and they'rethey're on the cusp of making
these big decisions, and that'ssomething that I love most about
what I do now, um, although I'mnot in the stores as much as I
(15:43):
used to be, but helping them,like I feel they probably hate
it because I probably offer waytoo much unsolicited advice, but
like I want to help guide themand make those decisions and
help them remember, like, knowthat, like, hey, it's okay not
to know what you want to do,because I felt a ton of stress
from the time I was probably.
(16:04):
I probably started way tooyoung stressing out, but at
least from the time I was like15 until I was 25, like, what do
I do?
Like how do I make the rightdecisions?
What if I make the wrongdecision?
And you studied biology, you'rein real estate, I studied, I
started out.
I thought I was going to dophysical therapy.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Oh, that's what I was going to do with my biology,
yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
I found out very quickly that I did not want to
do that and we did, like ahospital tour.
We went and interviewed aphysical therapist and I didn't
know that physical therapistssome of them, like especially
the ones in hospitals take careof like unhealing wounds.
And they went and they showedus some videos and I almost
(16:49):
passed out and I was like Idon't want to do this and it's
fun.
My mom, my sister, you knowlong line of nurses in my family
, in fact even my businesspartner now he's a nurse, um,
but I just like blood pus takingcare of people.
Yeah, no I can't.
So I've always known that thatthe doctor was not my, not my
(17:12):
path.
But I thought, you know, Iliked exercising, I thought
physical therapy would be cool,but yeah, um, but yeah.
Then then basically I went intoconstruction, just because I
didn't want school to suckanymore.
And then now I'm doing cookies,you know, and it's not that I
actually loved construction andmy goal is someday to make it
back into it.
(17:32):
But I think, like I mentioned,like I think you can't take your
.
Your decisions are almost neverfinal.
You know you can, you canchange and you can't be scared
to make the wrong decision,because you probably will and
you'll probably be just fine.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah, You're going to make the wrong decision.
Yeah, and I think that's likeyou have to like you, you, you
have to make those, you have tomake decisions, yep.
And then, whenever it's wrong,you just learn from it and move
on.
And then, whenever it's wrong,you just learn from it and move
on.
Exactly what did you learn fromstarting your construction
business when you took that leap?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, so the biggest thing I learned from that was
don't quit your day job.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, so you quit before you even started.
The company started, you quityour job.
Yeah, I have kind of like aone-track mind I think, and so
to me the thought of
Speaker 2 (18:28):
the start the thought of starting a construction
business while also havinganother full-time job and you
know, we just had a baby I waslike there's no way.
But I was like, but if I quitthis job and I just go in full
faith, 100 start this business,like I believe in myself enough
to make this happen.
Well, that's a good belief.
But also maybe I could havedone it a little smarter to
(18:52):
where there wouldn't have beenso much stress.
But to the point we just made,was starting a business and
quitting my day job the smartthing?
No.
A business and quitting my dayjob like the smart thing?
No, but it led to great thingsdespite it being not the smart
(19:15):
decision.
Like I don't know if I wouldhave done that.
I don't know if I would havegone ahead for Crumble.
If you didn't have thatexperience Right, and I think I
may have even think it may havebeen a confidence thing, like,
okay, I started a business, Iwent through starting an LLC and
I went through starting amarketing plan and things like
that and I kind of saw theconception of a business.
(19:35):
But I think there was an itchinside me that really wanted to
start a construction business.
And had I not just tried it, Imight have been like, well, let
me try to start thisconstruction business.
And had I not just tried it, Imight've been like, well, let me
try to start this constructionbusiness first, thinking I may
still have that naivety of likeI can get this going If I go all
in.
I can, I can really, I canreally do well.
Um, I thought it was prettygood at construction.
(19:56):
I probably forgot everything Ithought I was good at at that
point but.
I really thought I could.
I could get it going and get itgoing fast.
How long did you have thatcompany?
For?
Not long, I mean, because onceI my plan.
So the way I got into roofingwas, I was like I need something
that I can be flexible with andI thought sales would be really
(20:20):
flexible.
By the way, I didn't mentionthis, but in college I also did
door-to-door sales and so thatkind of gave me some of the
confidence to go into sales andstuff like that.
Yeah, that's tough, yeah, pestcontrol.
There's a lot of thosedoor-knocker guys that we
despise, but it was a greatexperience for me.
(20:42):
I did that for three years andit kind of really shaped my
business mentality.
But anyways.
So, knowing that kind of sideof sales, knowing the
flexibility of it, I was like ifI could do sales then if I get
into roofing too, because inTexas it's kind of like Florida
(21:03):
I know roofing is big in Floridabut in Texas it's even more so
because they get so much hailit's all covered by insurance.
And so it's honestly kind of aneasy sale too there, but you get
a lot of roof rats is what wecall ourselves.
So anyways, yeah, so I got intoroofing because I thought that
(21:24):
I could do it and and continuebuilding my business, yeah, yeah
um, but I found out as I gotinto roofing I was like man.
Actually, if I focus on this, Icould make as much as any
business owner and I've gotpretty good flexibility being
you know, my office was my truckand we drove around and and, uh
, looked for bad roofs, knockedon doors um and as long as
(21:46):
you're selling and making money,no one really jumps on your
back.
yeah, but um, but that was, likeI said, always in the back of
my mind, like I do have a bossand and he, he's actually a
mentor to me still to this dayum, but he was known to be
pretty um, I don't know what theright word is hard-headed, I
(22:07):
guess.
Oh yeah, like you know, he'snot going to give you a second
chance if you do something wrongin his eyes, you know.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
So I kind of felt I was always on borrowed time.
But I mean, still to this dayhe's a great mentor, cool.
But I think in a lot of waysyou have to be a little bit that
way as a as a business owneryou know, the longer you let a
problem stay quick to makedecisions.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, but um so would you, would you go back, Like,
if you um today, like would youmake that same decision quit
your your construction job?
Make that same decision quityour your construction job and
start a new company, or wouldyou?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
you?
I wouldn't want to, I wouldn'twant to trade the lesson I
learned.
So, if I like, but if I couldgo back today and know all the
things I know now, I would do itdifferently?
Obviously I would.
I would, I would have kept my,my job.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
So let's say you're gonna start start another
company.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
You keep Crumble and then yeah, and Crumble's
different too, Because if I wereto tell my boss back then, hey,
I'm going to go start a, I'mgoing to moonlight and I'm going
to go build houses on the side,they'd probably be like, OK,
don't come back to work tomorrow.
That's true to work tomorrow,that's true, but with Crumble
(23:30):
it's totally.
What process do I have in placeto where I can open?
Speaker 1 (23:32):
up my time and do another thing.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
So, yeah, we'll never get rid of Crumble.
It's been a huge blessing forus.
But yeah, that was a big lessonI learned.
You have to take risks as anentrepreneur, but that's one of
those things.
You can also juggle more thanyou think you can.
(23:58):
I think, but I don't know.
Everyone's different, but forme that's proven to be true.
I can.
I can juggle more than I thinkI can.
In fact, I find that I thrivemore when I have more, when I'm
more busy, when I'm when life ismore chaotic, I can stay more
focused.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Okay, that's what I was gonna ask you.
Like, what, what?
Like, why do you think you cando that Right?
Is it like focus, like you'rejust like locked in because you
have to?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
be like there's no time for there's no distract.
You can't, yeah, can't bedistracted, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
And then I find that too, like, yeah, when, when
things get busy and chaotic andstuff, it's like there is no
wiggle room in the conversationsyou have and the time you're
meeting people and stuff.
It's like it has to be.
You have to be very disciplinedin that you know, and it's
almost like when you're, whenit's not chaotic, like if you
(24:48):
can translate that to thosetimes too right Like, have that
discipline and focus and stuffLike that's a huge skill.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yes, yeah, for sure, and I still that's probably one
of my biggest weaknesses todayis like when you get that free
time, oh, you just want to sitdown and relax.
Yeah, but like, my mind evenfeels more healthy when it's
busy and I can focus like that,because I'm not just like, oh,
(25:16):
I'm bored, let me open my phoneand scroll through this.
It's like I need to do this.
How do I make sure I get thisdone and all this?
And then, at the end of the day, your head hits the pillow and
you sleep like a baby becauseyou're exhausted and you're
focused instead of beingdistracted all day.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Do you think you have to have?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
that sort of mindset to be an entrepreneur?
I don't know.
I think there's differentdegrees of entrepreneurship.
You can be a lazy entrepreneur,that's true, and you might find
a golden nugget that allows youto be lazy, but I do think you
have to be able to do that, atleast sometimes.
(26:03):
Like for example yeah, like withcrumble, um, right now where
it's, it's not necessarilypassive, I stay.
I try to stay pretty activewith all the you know,
background operations and stufflike that.
But I have a phenomenal generalmanager who runs both of my
stores and, and that enables meto spend more time with my
(26:27):
family.
And I could totally be thatlazy entrepreneur if I wanted to
.
But for me, I'm more healthy ifI'm busy and active and things
like that.
So if I wanted to, I could bethat lazy entrepreneur.
But I do think you have to havesome degree of high discipline,
(26:47):
especially when you're startingout.
Because when I started Crumble,I had no idea what I was doing.
I'd never done retail, like Isaid, I'd never done food, and
so I knew that I was going tohave to be the general manager.
So we just hired a bunch ofemployees and I was the general
manager and I was figuring itout every day.
(27:08):
um, those first few weeks,especially with our first store,
um, I was putting in probably80 hours, you know every week,
um, and and I loved it too,because I was learning so much
and and the business was doingwell um, but if you're not
willing to to grind for anindefinite amount of time, yeah,
(27:29):
being an entrepreneur it'sprobably not gonna work out.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, that's true.
Um, I listened to like nickbear's podcast and watch some of
his content or whatever, and heowns, uh, like a supplement
company nutrition supplementcompany and he talks about, like
he calls it, sprints, likegoing through sprints of of time
where you like your businessgrows or whatever, and there's
like certain times where youneed to put in.
(27:53):
You know you just need to bedialed into your business to to
really help it grow right andit's and that's how you I think
for him, like that's how hefinds the balance in it, because
it's not 80 hours for years onyears on years, it's just for a
couple of weeks or a couple ofmonths, whatever that timeframe
is, and then you can dial itback and then maybe you got to
(28:16):
pick it back up again at anotherpoint.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah, that's very true.
Yeah, I agree with that yeah,it was that.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
What have you, um, since we, since you know,
opening up your franchise with,with crumble?
What have you learned aboutbusiness, like if you had one
big takeaway about business?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
um, it's not.
I think being a business ownerhas a ton of like it's sexy,
right, like everybody thinks,like a business owner is really
cool.
Like, going back to how I grewup and saw, like anytime I saw
like a wrapped truck, I justthought like, wow, they must be
doing really well, that's socool.
(28:54):
And um, and then you, you findout that like there is such
thing as being over leveraged,yeah, and and, and you might
have a lot at risk.
And, uh, you've got to makesome smart decisions and you've
got to make some big sacrificessometimes in order to, um, make
(29:14):
it happen for us.
We took actually a huge pay cutto come and do crumble, um and
um.
And you know we're, we're in asmall, a small home that you
know.
We in a small home that we rent.
We're still in it, actuallybecause the market's crazy.
But, yeah, we have tons ofbusiness debt right now and like
(29:36):
there's no guarantee,especially with crumble, you
know questionable economy thatwe are kind of in right now.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Most people are going to cut out desserts, the first
thing that that's to go out ofthe budget, you know.
So you kind of have to livewith this, like what happens, if
, like what, if you know, andthen I, and then I have to
totally pivot.
So you have to be willing tolive with a certain degree of of
, and uncertainty is probablythe scariest thing that there is
(30:08):
especially when you have afamily and mouths to feed and
stuff like that.
So you're constantly, alwaystrying to figure out how do I
make sure my business continuesto do well, or how would I pivot
?
If I don't, will I have to goget?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
another job.
So what goes into opening up afranchise?
Right, because I think there'sbenefits.
If you're going to go intobusiness, do you start your own
company from scratch, like youdid with your construction
company, or do you buy into afranchise that has this proven
system and you just plug intothat.
There's benefits and drawbacks,plug into that.
You know there's.
There's benefits and drawbacks.
(30:46):
I think to both scenariosDefinitely.
But what have?
What have you enjoyed about thelike buying into a franchise?
And then that's what I want toask you too is like what is that
process like?
Like you, you said like there'slike a year-long process before
you're even opening up yourstore.
Are they?
Do you get like a small salaryduring that time or how does
(31:07):
that work?
Yeah, um.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
So franchising is interesting, um and and many
friend, not not all franchisesare the same right.
There's not really any rules towhat they do and don't do.
But I mean, the big obvious oneis you have to pay a lot more.
You know, even to getconsidered.
You know you have to put up thefranchise fee, there's net
(31:34):
worth requirements andeverything else.
They want to make sure thatyou're a good fit.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So they're investing in you as the individual, right
yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
And they don't want somebody who doesn't fit the
brand, who's going to just getit started and then tank it.
So I think franchising.
(32:08):
I look back now and I'm supergrateful, mm-hmm.
Um, we love palm harbor, welive in palm harbor.
Um, I, I've learned a lot aboutlocation selection, um, because
, like this, this store is kindof hidden away in the target
boot ranch plaza, um, and Ithink that's cost us quite a lot
(32:29):
, but it it does okay.
But, like, there was times umcrumble when we opened palm
harbor.
Our palm harbor store is thetop of the the crumble trend and
we just killed it.
But since that day, like forthe next year, year and a half,
every month, revenue is down,revenue is down, revenue is down
.
We're letting employees go leftand right.
(32:50):
And then I was like looking andI was like man, with these
franchise fees, they're makingmore money off my store than I
am.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
And so.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
I was like, just so bitter for a long time.
So that's the downside offranchising, right, is you?
There's, however, much red tape.
The franchisor decides andcrumbles very particular about
their brand Rightfully so.
It's a it's a great brand, butyou know, for a long time, like
(33:22):
you, you had to get approval foralmost anything, even probably
to do this podcast.
They probably would have wantedapproval.
They've.
They've loosened their grip alittle bit since then.
I think they're like we talkedearlier they've only been open
since 2017.
That was their conception andthey're still learning too.
But yeah, you're like man, Ican't do any marketing on my own
(33:50):
.
They want to approve everythingthat they possibly can, the
materials they have.
You can do a ma uh program andsend out a bunch of mailers to
everybody, send some coupons out, but crumble wants you to use
theirs and it's, you know, likea dollar, a flyer and you're
like there's no way, I'll sendit to five people, I guess um,
(34:12):
so those are the frustratingthings.
Um, and sometimes it would benice to be able to just say like
okay, like I, this is mybusiness, I will decide how I
spend my marketing dollars andthings like that.
But the the, the the upside ofa franchise is is huge too.
Um, you know, crumble does avery good job marketing.
(34:32):
You know, anyone who's oninstagram or tiktok has probably
come across the Crumble ad.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
And they have phenomenal infrastructure.
Our apps and everything are allin-house, and so marketing is
not something I have to reallyeven think too much about.
Locally, I do a little bit.
We live in Palm Harbor.
I want to be, you know, part ofthe community.
(35:02):
I want crumble to have acommunity feel to it.
Most people just see crumbleand assume, like you know,
national brand, not local,whatever.
But yeah but, yeah, we are.
But but then, yeah, like toopen it.
They, they, they give you theplaybook, they give you
step-by-step support and for methat was really important and I
(35:24):
think that's what also made meopen to it.
To pull the trigger is becauseI did start that construction
business that I I think I didn'tget to answering your question
when you asked me how long I wasdoing that but I only did it
for about three months and thenI kind of just let it fizzle out
because I was doing well inroofing and I could do more
there.
So I consider that a failure,but it's a failure forward.
(35:50):
But I was like man, you have tohave someone open the playbook
to me and I'm very much like abusiness noob, like I didn't
have anyone really in businessin my family.
I didn't really have any likebusiness mentors.
Everything I've kind of learnedI've kind of just picked up and
and learned about on my own,yeah, um, so I always kind of
(36:13):
felt like at a disadvantage thatway and so like having a
franchisee to support mestep-by-step all the way through
felt huge to me and it's provento be.
You know, how do you get alease?
How do you find the rightlocation, how do you build out
your store, all those things thefranchisee is like here's your
(36:36):
support person, ask them anyquestions and they step-by-step
get you there, and so that, Ithink, is a huge benefit to
franchising.
So I think like there'sdifferent ways.
You know, if you're, if you'rewanting to be an entrepreneur or
start your own business,franchising can be a great way
If you have the money to investor have a partner that can
(36:59):
invest with you and you'rewilling to operate.
That's the situation we were in, as my partner kind of put up
all the startup capital and Iwas the operator.
So for me, it was honestly thebest thing to go into
franchising and I think it makesme more willing to try another
(37:26):
thing on my own eventuallyBecause now someone has shown me
the way and I've learned somuch.
Now I can do it on my own, butalso I've got the huge benefits
of franchising, like not havingto to worry too much about you
know your marketing, um, becauseit's all taken care of and
(37:47):
every franchisor is different.
You might not.
You might not have themarketing support that crumble
does at a different franchiseefranchisor, but um, but that's,
that's great.
You know, that's something mostbusiness owners have to spend a
whole ton of thing.
Uh, time worrying about um ishow to market well, and for me,
I I just have to spend time inthe community.
(38:10):
That's all I'm trying to do, um,but uh, yeah, that's a long way
to answer your question.
But I think there's pros andcons to both, like you said, to
going out on your own orstarting with a franchisee.
I think starting on your ownyou need less money.
(38:31):
You can find hundreds ofcompanies you can start for
almost nothing, but then you'vegot to pay that ignorance tax is
what they call it.
You know, like you're gonnamess up, you're gonna make
mistakes.
Uh, you're probably not gonnamake money for a long time yeah
but the payoff is, you get tokeep a whole lot more of what
you make.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
So yeah, um I think there's, yeah, um, there's
almost like a thrill to, I mean,if you have like the capital to
like make those mistakes andlike struggle through, however
long it takes.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Like your construction business probably
would have been successful, likeif you just had the ability to
give it more time.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
And you know there's for me there's some excitement
about doing that, likestruggling through that and like
figuring it out on your ownsort of thing too, you know.
But then there's also like the,you can just shortcut it and
and I so getting into realestate, like I, um, I was that
(39:31):
way, I wanted to figure it outon my own and I didn't want to
join a team or anything likethat.
And, um, I joined, you know,berkshire Hathaway when I first
got started, because they hadtraining and support and all
that, and I thought that was theway to go.
And looking back, like if youwould have joined a team, it's
kind of like buying into afranchise, like they have their
systems and everything in placetheir playbook and you get to
(39:52):
see all that from day one as anewbie real estate agent versus
you're just making a ton ofmistakes and you keep failing.
You try to figure out yourmessaging.
Who's your ideal client?
Who you're marketing to?
How do you market to them?
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Like all these things that you have to work through,
I think to do that too, like youcan do it, but you have to be
able to like get, because thatcan be very discouraging right,
oh, 100%, oh man.
I'm failing, I'm failing, I'mfailing.
Like what am I even doing?
And you want to give up, like Ithink your mindset has to be
(40:26):
okay with making those mistakesand and continuing on, um,
because, yeah, it's discouraging.
I think that's a something Ilearned a lot from, from being
having done door-to-door sales.
Is you learn?
very quickly how to overcomethat discouragement you know you
get a lot of no's yeah, you gotto get through 300 doors of
people saying no before you finda yes.
You know, um and and so likethat.
(40:50):
I think for people who want toget into business but they don't
know how, I think getting intosome kind of sales, uh, is a
great way to get your, to getyour mind right, build
confidence.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah, so you're new to Palm Harbor?
Yep, you came here for Crumble.
Yep, how did you guys settle onPalm Harbor?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Yeah, that's a good question.
So once we decided to doCrumble, most franchisees had an
area they wanted to go to andit was usually where they lived
and everything like that.
I mentioned earlier that when wegot into it we were at the top
of the trend.
So almost everything where wewanted to go was, or where we
(41:41):
initially thought we wanted togo, was, sold out.
Um, but um, florida was stillpretty open, like so we wanted.
We would have stayed in texashad we um had the option to, but
when we got it with crumblethey were like yeah, there's not
really anything anywhere youcan go here.
um, where else would you want togo?
(42:01):
And we're like, well, honestly,like we'll go anywhere.
We will prioritize a good areaover where we want to be.
Um, and they you know, they hada guy that was over, um, I
can't remember what they callthem, but it was he helped all
the franchisees select theirlocations.
Um, he's like, well, florida'spretty open, there's some good
(42:24):
spots over there.
And we're like, well, living inFlorida would be cool.
And we had a couple friends thatlived here.
So we called them up and, hey,do you think Crumble would do
well in Florida?
What do you think?
And at that time there was onlyone.
There was one up in um Wesleychapel.
(42:44):
Okay, and people here ourfriends lived in I think it was
Newport Richie at that time Okay, and they're like, we drive,
you know, 45 minutes to get tocrumble.
And they're like, and when wego we'll take orders of all of
(43:06):
our friends around here and pickup all this.
So I was like, okay, like it'sgoing to do well, like let's go.
And so we, we decided to settleon Tampa.
We loved what was important tous as having somewhere that was,
you know, family friendly,decent schools, decent, decent
living.
The thing that I had againstliving in Dallas, uh, was there
(43:30):
was no recreation Like there is.
if you wanted to go on a hikeanywhere around Dallas, you were
like going to some neighborhoodnature trail you know, even to
go to the lakes around there,you've got to pay to get in and
go to the pay, the state parkfee, and then you know, if you
don't have a boat which wedidn't have a boat, you know
(43:50):
then you're just kind of likehanging out at the lake, which
was fine.
But I grew up in Utah whererecreation is right in your
backyard.
You know, I grew up pretty closeto the mountains and we could
literally walk and be on theRocky Mountains.
It was amazing, that's amazing.
So for me that was a hardtransition.
So the idea of coming toFlorida where there's all these
(44:11):
natural springs, you've got thebeach and the ocean, I was like
that sounds a little bit morelike the lifestyle I'd want.
Um, but all those thingscombined and and to to get us
here, and, and we really lookedat where's the?
Where's the place wherefamilies want to be, where, um,
where's the good schools?
Where's, you know, all thatstuff?
(44:33):
Where's the tight communities?
And, um, we kind of knewlooking for for crumble
locations.
We were going to be like thesaint pete, um, north pinellas
area, north tampa, those kind ofareas, um, and it turned out
there was a lot of franchiseesthat had the same idea I did and
there was already tons ofterritories sold oh wow, um,
(44:56):
palm harbor, and it just seemedlike just the perfect little
community, and so our firststore was here in Palm Harbor.
And then we moved into PalmHarbor just because we thought
this would be a great place toraise a family, and we quickly
fell in love with it.
We're now at a point finally,there's another point about
(45:20):
being a business owner is youdon't qualify for anything If
you want to get a loan.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
You're 1099, man.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
You don't qualify for anything.
It doesn't matter how muchmoney you even made, you don't
qualify.
Yeah.
But now we're kind of gettingto that point where, okay, we
can look around and try to finda home and make ourselves a
little more permanent, but likewe just love the Palm Harbor
East Lake area, we don't want toleave.
(45:48):
So you know, we plan to stayhere because we just love it so
much.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, what is it that you love about Palm Harbor?
Like once you've been here,like, what have you settled on?
Yeah, what is it that you loveabout Palm Harbor, like once
you've?
Now that you've been here, like, what have you settled on?
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Yeah, First of all, I think we've got a church family
.
That's just amazing.
I mentioned earlier we go tothe Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
That building's in Dunedin, butall of our church members are
all kind of in the Palm Harborarea that meet there and they're
just so supportive.
(46:23):
Um, and I think that is a goodsample of the Palm Harbor area
as a whole, like everyone's.
Just, you know, people lovetheir families and then it's
great to be close to the beaches.
Um, you know, you go to thebeach and it's very family
friendly.
At the beach the kids can playin the water, you can relax.
The things to do here there'stons of stuff to do for the kids
(46:48):
, tons of parks, tons ofcarnivals, you know all that
kind of great stuff.
Um and um.
To amplify that fact, like wejust had twins I mentioned to
you earlier.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
Yeah, literally like three weeks ago we had twins.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
So now we have four kids?
Are you sleeping Like?
You look well rested.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
Oh, I do Great, yeah, no, not very much.
Yeah, we they're.
They're kind of gettingsynchronized a little bit better
now.
But for a while one would sleepand the other one would be
awake.
But our families my wife'sfamily and my family have both
been in town so they're helpingout with that.
Energy drinks go a long way too,but having that support was
(47:33):
really important to us.
As we've doubled the size ofthe kids in our family, we're
like, okay, we need a biggerhouse.
And we're like, okay, we need abigger house.
Yeah, um, and we're lookingaround and, um, the easy thing
would be to go way north and gofind a house in lando lakes.
That's a little more affordable, you know, whatever, um, but um
(47:54):
, we're like you know what wereally like it here.
We can make it work.
We live in a littlethree-bedroom house.
We can make that work for awhile, and so you know, that's
kind of the sacrifice we'remaking to be able to stay in the
area.
And the point I make with thetwins is that, like people
really came out of the woodworksto show us support.
(48:15):
You know we've got people.
There's not enough days for allthe people that want to bring
us meals, which is amazing.
You know, anyone that's had ababy knows, like having some
meals, not having to worry aboutdinner and dishes and all that
other stuff is huge, massive.
So yeah, we just really feelthe sense of community here and
(48:37):
since opening Crumble and sincetrying to get more involved in
the community, just we just havesuch a great community here.
Like you know, I'm a member ofthe chamber of commerce, um, and
anytime I go to an event thereit's just, you know, you worry
going into something like that.
Will I be accepted?
Will, uh, are people going tobe friendly?
Am I going to make any friend?
(48:58):
you know you know it's just anatural thing you worry about,
but like they're so welcoming,um, everyone in the community
has been nothing but but awesome.
It does help.
That crumble is such a funbrand because when I mentioned
crumble, people are like oh,crumble the cookie guy you know,
and that's been fun, um, but uh, but yeah, we just, we just
(49:20):
really like being here.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
Yeah, I think that's something that's unique about
Palm Harbor, like you mentioned,is the community.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
That it's just different than some of the other
cities around us.
Like, I think there's more of acommunity vibe and community
sense here in Palm Harbor.
Maybe it's because of theschools, maybe it's because
there's more families and stuff,you know, compared to some of
the other cities.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
You know Part of it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
But it is unique.
So you have locations in PalmHarbor, and then where's the
second location, in PinellasPark.
Pinellas Park, yeah, okay.
Do you have plans for anotherthird?
Speaker 2 (49:57):
location we do have, so we do have.
So when we started Crumble, wepaid to have rights to three
locations.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
Our third one was supposed to be in Bradenton, but
part of the learning process isyou learn what a good location
looks like and what one doesn'tlocation look like.
And as cliche as it is forlocation, location, location,
you know it's very true.
And so with our third one,we're pretty picky.
We found a really good location.
There's a brand new costco downin bradenton.
But uh, they've, they've kindof stonewalled us because, um,
(50:33):
first of all, construction downthere's there, it's a brand new
shopping center they're tryingto build.
They didn't know when theywould finish, construction costs
were going crazy.
But then in the meantimethey've they've had some other
uh like big box stores come inand they kind of pushed us out
of that yeah so now we're kindof looking for other areas, but
we're we're picky enough thatyou know we're not going to
(50:55):
desperately just get anything wecan.
we're looking for an, a pluslocation to put our third store,
and so far we haven't found it.
So we'll see what happens there.
Yeah cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Yeah, we'll see.
I think that's part of thebusiness entrepreneur mindset.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
It's just kind of be patient, right Like you've
learned what works and you justgot to wait till you find that
right spot.
Yeah, I like that.
Yeah, and what like.
Then another point to to palmharbor.
Like our palm harbor store islike the biggest thing that
determines what we've seen sofar.
How well a crumble does is howclose it is to other crumbles.
(51:37):
Obviously because there are theonly competition we have is
other franchisees, and here inpalm harbor we have stores all
around us.
There's a store in clearwater,trinity and west chase, and so
really palm harbor is unique inthat we really only get people
from our community to come to us.
(51:58):
We really only serve people inpalm harbor, a little bit of
dunedin, old smar and tarponsprings, which I think is kind
of unique in that, like we'reonly serving members of this,
this community, so it really isa community store.
But that goes back to the pointof, like, we don't want to put
up another store that's tooclose to another crumble, that's
(52:20):
not good for another franchisee, for one, it's not good for us.
So, um, yeah, it's kind of atricky, a tricky thing to figure
out.
But, um, but it's that's.
That's like you said, that'skind of part of the exciting
part of being a business owneris trying to figure out that.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
It's almost like monopoly or game of chess yeah,
and then it's like, once youfind it, you're're like, oh yeah
, this is it, we got it, we didit.
Yeah, yeah, that's cool.
Awesome man, kelly.
Well, thanks for being here,thanks for kind of sharing your
story and highlighting Crumbleand stuff.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
So go buy yourselves a box of cookies.
Yeah, yeah, thanks man, Iappreciate it.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Donnie, thank you so much for tuning in to another
episode of Palm Harbor Local.
We are incredibly grateful forour sponsors who make this show
possible.
Jake, with Roadmap Money, besure to support your local
businesses and keep buildingcommunity together.
Until next time, stay connected, stay involved and keep making
Palm Harbor an amazing place tocall home.
Welcome to Palm Harbor Local, the podcast
dedicated to building communityand sharing inspiring stories
from the heart of Palm Harbor.
I'm your host, donnie Hathaway,and today we're joined by Kelly
Cloward, who's the owner of theCrumble Cookie franchise in
Palm Harbor, florida.
Palm Harbor Local is all aboutspotlighting individuals and
businesses who are making adifference, overcoming
challenges and fosteringconnections right here in our
(00:22):
hometown.
If you're passionate aboutgrowing together, getting
involved and celebrating thepeople who make Palm Harbor
thrive, you're exactly where youneed to be.
In today's episode, you'lldiscover how the Crumble Cookie
franchise got its start, whyKelly decided to open up the
Palm Harbor franchise, and we'lltalk about the differences
between starting a franchise orstarting your own business from
(00:43):
scratch.
Now don't forget to connectwith us on Instagram at
palmharborlocal for behind thescenes highlights, and join our
weekly newsletter atpalmharborlocalcom.
Now let's dive in and buildcommunity together.
Kelly, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you, glad to be here.
Yeah, this is.
This will be fun man.
Glad to be here.
Yeah, this will be fun man.
(01:03):
So you are the owner of twofranchisees of Crumble Cookie
Yep, crumble Cookie.
What got you started with thiscompany?
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, that's a great question.
So Crumble is a gourmet cookiebusiness and my wife and I I
grew up in Utah, my wife grew upin Minnesota and we both went
to college at BYU in Utah andUtah is where Crumble kind of
(01:39):
originated and at that timethere were several other cookie
businesses there popping up andwe would try them out.
They were really good cookies,but Crumble kind of stood out
above the rest.
They're kind of the ones thatshot up and so you know, we were
consumers and we liked it.
But I was studying constructionmanagement actually, and my
(02:01):
wife was studying social work.
We graduated, I got a job inTexas building homes and we
moved out there and we weredoing well doing that.
But I've always had kind of anentrepreneurial desire.
I've always kind of thoughtthat the kind of life that I
wanted was the kind of lifewhere I would be a business
(02:24):
owner.
The kind of life that I wantedwas the kind of life where I
would be a business owner.
And so I kind of always had, inthe back of my mind, my sights
set on that.
But I was building homes forthis company and I was enjoying
it.
I didn't love everything aboutthat company and then we had our
first kid.
You know your priorities startto shift when that happens, so I
(02:44):
decided that that was when wewere going to go for it.
I just started a littleconstruction business.
I wanted to just start withsmall end remodels, things like
that in Texas, and I found outreally quickly.
I was just so naive that Ithought that I could get that
thing going and support myfamily really fast and so I quit
my job.
I started that business andthree months later we're
(03:07):
starting to get nervous becausewe weren't quite making enough
to survive.
And I guess I'm going into alot of.
Gave me a taste of the salesentrepreneurial kind of
(03:32):
lifestyle.
And I loved it, we were doingwell.
But my now business partnerhe's my cousin he called me up
one day and just said hey, Ihave an idea, I want to run it
by you.
And he said have you ever heardof Crumble Cookies?
And I was like, yeah, of courseI love, I know, crumble Cookies
(03:52):
, we love Crumble Cookies.
That's the place where my wifewants me to go and spend $20 on
a box of cookies or whatever.
Actually, at that time I thinkit was only $10.
He's like, well, I think it'dbe really fun to do it.
He's like I've got a couple offriends that have franchised
with them and they're doingreally well.
So I said, okay, well, let'slook into it, Despite it being a
(04:18):
totally different industry thanwhat I was used to.
I've never done retail.
I've never done food, In fact,in high school and stuff.
I worked all my way throughhigh school, college, everything
, but I refused to do food.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, Never a server or anything like that.
No.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I just never wanted.
I don't know what it was, Ijust never wanted to have to do
that.
But I really liked Crumble andI loved the concept.
They have a rotating menu.
That just seemed so smart andcool that you know every week we
have new cookies on the menuand that keeps people coming
back.
It kept us going back becauseevery week we want to try the
(04:53):
new cookies, um, and rarely wasthere one you didn't like but um
.
So you know, despite they weredoing really well in roofing
sales, I was making more moneythan I ever had in my life.
But we prayed about it andknowing that, like you know,
(05:15):
even in roofing sales, someone'smy boss, someone could wake up
the next day and I could look atthem wrong and they could let
me go and I'd be trying tofigure out what's next wrong,
and they could let me go and I'dbe trying to figure out what's
what's next.
And this desire to to be anentrepreneurial and entrepreneur
and kind of guide my own life,we, we decided to go for it.
We prayed about it and decidedthat this was, this was the
(05:36):
right, the right move, and fromthere we could kind of choose.
You know where we wanted to go.
Of course we had to go throughlike the interview process to
become franchisees andeverything like that but um,
yeah, it's been a really, reallygreat decision for us and for
our family.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And how long have you been um with the company now?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Three years Well, actually a little longer.
We, we, um, we built the PalmHarbor store.
That one opened, uh, little, alittle under three years ago.
We opened august, uh of 2022,okay, um, so, leading up to that
, there was probably a yearworth of prep to get us to that
(06:17):
point.
So we've technically been withcrumble for like four years yeah
, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Where, where does your entrepreneurial spirit come
from?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Oh, that's a great question.
I think growing up I I hadwonderful parents, really great
parents, and they both workedjobs.
My dad went to work at, youknow, nine o'clock, came home at
five o'clock.
My mom was a nurse.
(06:45):
She she part-time while we werein school and stuff and we did
well.
But I saw, like one of my bestfriends growing up, his dad was
a business owner and I just sawthis kind of lifestyle that they
had and I thought that thatwould be really cool and so that
(07:05):
was kind of where it opened thedoor to entrepreneurship.
How old were you when you firststarted this firm?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Because they were.
He was my best friend like mywhole life.
They moved in when I was liketwo years old.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Oh okay, and so I kind of just grew up with them,
Grew up okay, but I also watchedtheir business grow.
So some of your earliestmemories are with this family.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
And I would go on family vacations with them
sometime Not that my familydidn't have great vacations and
stuff.
I kind of saw this possibilityand I kind of honed in on that.
And then I would notice, as Iwas getting older, other
business owners, they're livingthis other lifestyle that I was
(07:52):
like that would be really cooland not just things and toys and
blah, blah blah, but freedom.
They're going on vacations,they don't have to ask someone
for time off, they don't have togoing on vacations.
They don't have to ask someonefor time off.
They don't have to, you know.
So, um, I just kind of alwayswas like man, I hope I can make
that happen, but I felt verymuch like that wasn't something
(08:14):
I'd be able to do.
I, I didn't have good grades inschool.
I I severely add, you know, andI remember like some of my
earliest school experiences werethat of, just like I can't do
school, I'm not smart enough todo this.
So, for a long time I justthought my future is to be a car
(08:35):
mechanic or something like that.
But I think where that startedto change was when I was 19.
I'm a member of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and I went on a two-yearmission and I went to England
(09:02):
and basically knocked on doors,had some wildly successful
mission where I baptized a wholeton of people or anything like
that.
But I think my belief in myselfstarted to change and I think
my faith had a big part in that.
I believe I can do a lot morethan I ever thought I was
capable of, and then I was ableto start applying that too,
(09:23):
because the mission is kind oflike sales.
You're going around and talkingabout Jesus.
You're trying to get people toaccept you and accept what
you're teaching.
Sometimes your only successwhen you're teaching about Jesus
Christ is that no one slammedthe door in your face that day.
(09:44):
But yeah, I think I just reallystarted to get this belief in
myself that maybe I could domore than I thought.
And I also learned how to study.
We spend hours every daystudying scriptures and
everything like that, and so Ididn't think I'd ever go to
college.
I didn't think I'd ever go tocollege.
(10:04):
I came home, I applied for BYUand I got into BYU.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And then I was able to.
I can't say I got great gradesin college, but your skill set
improved at that point, yeah,yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, exactly.
And so then I start looking atdifferent possibilities of a
career.
I had no idea what I was goingto do up until I was.
I think I did two years ofcollege before I realized I
could actually studyconstruction and the whole
reason I ended up studyingconstruction.
I had a little bit ofconstruction experience just
(10:40):
from working through college andhigh school and stuff, yeah,
right from working throughcollege and high school and
stuff.
Yeah right, and what really gotme into that is I had a really
good friend that was studying itand he said school doesn't even
suck anymore.
And I was like what?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
You found a way to make school not suck, and I was
like I'm doing it.
I'm all in, yeah and it wasgreat.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I loved studying construction.
Byu had an amazing program withamazing instructors, and what
was really good for me is itwasn't just construction.
You know, there was a lot ofconstruction theory, but there
was a lot of business theory aswell with that and I got like
there was one class that I'llnever forget is I can't remember
(11:23):
exactly exactly, but it wasjust business development and
like the whole, the whole class.
You know, you started from dayone and you started developing a
business, um, and we likedeveloped a hypothetical, uh,
car wash business oh, cool andand you take it from and you go
as realistic as finding a realplot of land that's for sale,
(11:43):
and then you develop this uh,hypothetical, whatever it is
that you're doing.
So we developed a hypotheticalcar wash and you know, you, you
drew up plans, you, you made abudget, you know all, you did a
marketing plan, all that kind ofstuff.
So those kind of experiencesare what kind of helped me see
that like I could probably dothis, and so I think those all
(12:06):
accumulated into at least givingme enough confidence to pull
the trigger on something asrisky as as starting a new
business.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Your story like reminds me.
Did you ever read the book ofrich dad, poor dad?
I did.
It's like to a T, almost likeright Like you have this family
friend that you know has thisdifferent lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yeah, that's true, the rich dad yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
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Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah that's true.
Yeah, I've never actually putthat together, but yeah, it kind
of is.
Yeah, yeah, that's interesting,like I mean I grew up great
Like we had everything we needed.
My parents were very much likea live below your means type of
family.
So, we never struggled foranything, but I think I did grow
(13:50):
up looking at what other peoplehad, and when you're a teenager
that's important to you.
So I was kind of like man.
I need to make more money thanthat.
But I look back and I'm reallygrateful for what my parents
have instilled in me, forteaching me to value money and
everything like that.
So I feel between those.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I think I've been well-rounded, but I still have a
lot to learn For sure, and Ithink I kind of grew up similar
Both my parents kind of workedmy dad retired Air Force, but
went to work every single day.
And my mom, you know, kind ofworked my dad retired Air Force,
you know, but went to workevery single day.
And my mom same thing.
And there's value in havingthat structure and stuff, yeah,
(14:34):
you know.
But yeah, same way, Like Igrowing up and I don't know
where mine came from, but Ialways, I just always wanted to
own my own business and I justremember having that thought and
that kind of stuck with me.
And same thing I went throughschool not knowing what I wanted
to do, end up getting a degreein biology because I thought I
(14:54):
wanted to do something else youknow.
And then, um, and now I'm inreal estate for the last eight,
eight plus years.
So, um, yeah, but the, the likeyou touched on it, like having
the, the belief in yourself, Ithink that changes everything.
That that, realized you know,gives you that, that, um, that
thought of like oh, I can, I cando this, like I can do more
(15:17):
than afford a risk, you knowright, yeah yeah, I think that's
awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I think I think about that a lot too, especially
where, or now, what I do is, um,most of my employees are under
18, you know, um, and they'rethey're on the cusp of making
these big decisions, and that'ssomething that I love most about
what I do now, um, although I'mnot in the stores as much as I
(15:43):
used to be, but helping them,like I feel they probably hate
it because I probably offer waytoo much unsolicited advice, but
like I want to help guide themand make those decisions and
help them remember, like, knowthat, like, hey, it's okay not
to know what you want to do,because I felt a ton of stress
from the time I was probably.
(16:04):
I probably started way tooyoung stressing out, but at
least from the time I was like15 until I was 25, like, what do
I do?
Like how do I make the rightdecisions?
What if I make the wrongdecision?
And you studied biology, you'rein real estate, I studied, I
started out.
I thought I was going to dophysical therapy.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Oh, that's what I was going to do with my biology,
yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
I found out very quickly that I did not want to
do that and we did, like ahospital tour.
We went and interviewed aphysical therapist and I didn't
know that physical therapistssome of them, like especially
the ones in hospitals take careof like unhealing wounds.
And they went and they showedus some videos and I almost
(16:49):
passed out and I was like Idon't want to do this and it's
fun.
My mom, my sister, you knowlong line of nurses in my family
, in fact even my businesspartner now he's a nurse, um,
but I just like blood pus takingcare of people.
Yeah, no I can't.
So I've always known that thatthe doctor was not my, not my
(17:12):
path.
But I thought, you know, Iliked exercising, I thought
physical therapy would be cool,but yeah, um, but yeah.
Then then basically I went intoconstruction, just because I
didn't want school to suckanymore.
And then now I'm doing cookies,you know, and it's not that I
actually loved construction andmy goal is someday to make it
back into it.
(17:32):
But I think, like I mentioned,like I think you can't take your
.
Your decisions are almost neverfinal.
You know you can, you canchange and you can't be scared
to make the wrong decision,because you probably will and
you'll probably be just fine.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah, You're going to make the wrong decision.
Yeah, and I think that's likeyou have to like you, you, you
have to make those, you have tomake decisions, yep.
And then, whenever it's wrong,you just learn from it and move
on.
And then, whenever it's wrong,you just learn from it and move
on.
Exactly what did you learn fromstarting your construction
business when you took that leap?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, so the biggest thing I learned from that was
don't quit your day job.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, so you quit before you even started.
The company started, you quityour job.
Yeah, I have kind of like aone-track mind I think, and so
to me the thought of
Speaker 2 (18:28):
the start the thought of starting a construction
business while also havinganother full-time job and you
know, we just had a baby I waslike there's no way.
But I was like, but if I quitthis job and I just go in full
faith, 100 start this business,like I believe in myself enough
to make this happen.
Well, that's a good belief.
But also maybe I could havedone it a little smarter to
(18:52):
where there wouldn't have beenso much stress.
But to the point we just made,was starting a business and
quitting my day job the smartthing?
No.
A business and quitting my dayjob like the smart thing?
No, but it led to great thingsdespite it being not the smart
(19:15):
decision.
Like I don't know if I wouldhave done that.
I don't know if I would havegone ahead for Crumble.
If you didn't have thatexperience Right, and I think I
may have even think it may havebeen a confidence thing, like,
okay, I started a business, Iwent through starting an LLC and
I went through starting amarketing plan and things like
that and I kind of saw theconception of a business.
(19:35):
But I think there was an itchinside me that really wanted to
start a construction business.
And had I not just tried it, Imight have been like, well, let
me try to start thisconstruction business.
And had I not just tried it, Imight've been like, well, let me
try to start this constructionbusiness first, thinking I may
still have that naivety of likeI can get this going If I go all
in.
I can, I can really, I canreally do well.
Um, I thought it was prettygood at construction.
(19:56):
I probably forgot everything Ithought I was good at at that
point but.
I really thought I could.
I could get it going and get itgoing fast.
How long did you have thatcompany?
For?
Not long, I mean, because onceI my plan.
So the way I got into roofingwas, I was like I need something
that I can be flexible with andI thought sales would be really
(20:20):
flexible.
By the way, I didn't mentionthis, but in college I also did
door-to-door sales and so thatkind of gave me some of the
confidence to go into sales andstuff like that.
Yeah, that's tough, yeah, pestcontrol.
There's a lot of thosedoor-knocker guys that we
despise, but it was a greatexperience for me.
(20:42):
I did that for three years andit kind of really shaped my
business mentality.
But anyways.
So, knowing that kind of sideof sales, knowing the
flexibility of it, I was like ifI could do sales then if I get
into roofing too, because inTexas it's kind of like Florida
(21:03):
I know roofing is big in Floridabut in Texas it's even more so
because they get so much hailit's all covered by insurance.
And so it's honestly kind of aneasy sale too there, but you get
a lot of roof rats is what wecall ourselves.
So anyways, yeah, so I got intoroofing because I thought that
(21:24):
I could do it and and continuebuilding my business, yeah, yeah
um, but I found out as I gotinto roofing I was like man.
Actually, if I focus on this, Icould make as much as any
business owner and I've gotpretty good flexibility being
you know, my office was my truckand we drove around and and, uh
, looked for bad roofs, knockedon doors um and as long as
(21:46):
you're selling and making money,no one really jumps on your
back.
yeah, but um, but that was, likeI said, always in the back of
my mind, like I do have a bossand and he, he's actually a
mentor to me still to this dayum, but he was known to be
pretty um, I don't know what theright word is hard-headed, I
(22:07):
guess.
Oh yeah, like you know, he'snot going to give you a second
chance if you do something wrongin his eyes, you know.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
So I kind of felt I was always on borrowed time.
But I mean, still to this dayhe's a great mentor, cool.
But I think in a lot of waysyou have to be a little bit that
way as a as a business owneryou know, the longer you let a
problem stay quick to makedecisions.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah, but um so would you, would you go back, Like,
if you um today, like would youmake that same decision quit
your your construction job?
Make that same decision quityour your construction job and
start a new company, or wouldyou?
Speaker 2 (22:51):
you?
I wouldn't want to, I wouldn'twant to trade the lesson I
learned.
So, if I like, but if I couldgo back today and know all the
things I know now, I would do itdifferently?
Obviously I would.
I would, I would have kept my,my job.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
So let's say you're gonna start start another
company.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
You keep Crumble and then yeah, and Crumble's
different too, Because if I wereto tell my boss back then, hey,
I'm going to go start a, I'mgoing to moonlight and I'm going
to go build houses on the side,they'd probably be like, OK,
don't come back to work tomorrow.
That's true to work tomorrow,that's true, but with Crumble
(23:30):
it's totally.
What process do I have in placeto where I can open?
Speaker 1 (23:32):
up my time and do another thing.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
So, yeah, we'll never get rid of Crumble.
It's been a huge blessing forus.
But yeah, that was a big lessonI learned.
You have to take risks as anentrepreneur, but that's one of
those things.
You can also juggle more thanyou think you can.
(23:58):
I think, but I don't know.
Everyone's different, but forme that's proven to be true.
I can.
I can juggle more than I thinkI can.
In fact, I find that I thrivemore when I have more, when I'm
more busy, when I'm when life ismore chaotic, I can stay more
focused.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Okay, that's what I was gonna ask you.
Like, what, what?
Like, why do you think you cando that Right?
Is it like focus, like you'rejust like locked in because you
have to?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
be like there's no time for there's no distract.
You can't, yeah, can't bedistracted, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
And then I find that too, like, yeah, when, when
things get busy and chaotic andstuff, it's like there is no
wiggle room in the conversationsyou have and the time you're
meeting people and stuff.
It's like it has to be.
You have to be very disciplinedin that you know, and it's
almost like when you're, whenit's not chaotic, like if you
(24:48):
can translate that to thosetimes too right Like, have that
discipline and focus and stuffLike that's a huge skill.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yes, yeah, for sure, and I still that's probably one
of my biggest weaknesses todayis like when you get that free
time, oh, you just want to sitdown and relax.
Yeah, but like, my mind evenfeels more healthy when it's
busy and I can focus like that,because I'm not just like, oh,
(25:16):
I'm bored, let me open my phoneand scroll through this.
It's like I need to do this.
How do I make sure I get thisdone and all this?
And then, at the end of the day, your head hits the pillow and
you sleep like a baby becauseyou're exhausted and you're
focused instead of beingdistracted all day.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Do you think you have to have?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
that sort of mindset to be an entrepreneur?
I don't know.
I think there's differentdegrees of entrepreneurship.
You can be a lazy entrepreneur,that's true, and you might find
a golden nugget that allows youto be lazy, but I do think you
have to be able to do that, atleast sometimes.
(26:03):
Like for example yeah, like withcrumble, um, right now where
it's, it's not necessarilypassive, I stay.
I try to stay pretty activewith all the you know,
background operations and stufflike that.
But I have a phenomenal generalmanager who runs both of my
stores and, and that enables meto spend more time with my
(26:27):
family.
And I could totally be thatlazy entrepreneur if I wanted to
.
But for me, I'm more healthy ifI'm busy and active and things
like that.
So if I wanted to, I could bethat lazy entrepreneur.
But I do think you have to havesome degree of high discipline,
(26:47):
especially when you're startingout.
Because when I started Crumble,I had no idea what I was doing.
I'd never done retail, like Isaid, I'd never done food, and
so I knew that I was going tohave to be the general manager.
So we just hired a bunch ofemployees and I was the general
manager and I was figuring itout every day.
(27:08):
um, those first few weeks,especially with our first store,
um, I was putting in probably80 hours, you know every week,
um, and and I loved it too,because I was learning so much
and and the business was doingwell um, but if you're not
willing to to grind for anindefinite amount of time, yeah,
(27:29):
being an entrepreneur it'sprobably not gonna work out.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, that's true.
Um, I listened to like nickbear's podcast and watch some of
his content or whatever, and heowns, uh, like a supplement
company nutrition supplementcompany and he talks about, like
he calls it, sprints, likegoing through sprints of of time
where you like your businessgrows or whatever, and there's
like certain times where youneed to put in.
(27:53):
You know you just need to bedialed into your business to to
really help it grow right andit's and that's how you I think
for him, like that's how hefinds the balance in it, because
it's not 80 hours for years onyears on years, it's just for a
couple of weeks or a couple ofmonths, whatever that timeframe
is, and then you can dial itback and then maybe you got to
(28:16):
pick it back up again at anotherpoint.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah, that's very true.
Yeah, I agree with that yeah,it was that.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
What have you, um, since we, since you know,
opening up your franchise with,with crumble?
What have you learned aboutbusiness, like if you had one
big takeaway about business?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
um, it's not.
I think being a business ownerhas a ton of like it's sexy,
right, like everybody thinks,like a business owner is really
cool.
Like, going back to how I grewup and saw, like anytime I saw
like a wrapped truck, I justthought like, wow, they must be
doing really well, that's socool.
(28:54):
And um, and then you, you findout that like there is such
thing as being over leveraged,yeah, and and, and you might
have a lot at risk.
And, uh, you've got to makesome smart decisions and you've
got to make some big sacrificessometimes in order to, um, make
(29:14):
it happen for us.
We took actually a huge pay cutto come and do crumble, um and
um.
And you know we're, we're in asmall, a small home that you
know.
We in a small home that we rent.
We're still in it, actuallybecause the market's crazy.
But, yeah, we have tons ofbusiness debt right now and like
(29:36):
there's no guarantee,especially with crumble, you
know questionable economy thatwe are kind of in right now.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Most people are going to cut out desserts, the first
thing that that's to go out ofthe budget, you know.
So you kind of have to livewith this, like what happens, if
, like what, if you know, andthen I, and then I have to
totally pivot.
So you have to be willing tolive with a certain degree of of
, and uncertainty is probablythe scariest thing that there is
(30:08):
especially when you have afamily and mouths to feed and
stuff like that.
So you're constantly, alwaystrying to figure out how do I
make sure my business continuesto do well, or how would I pivot
?
If I don't, will I have to goget?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
another job.
So what goes into opening up afranchise?
Right, because I think there'sbenefits.
If you're going to go intobusiness, do you start your own
company from scratch, like youdid with your construction
company, or do you buy into afranchise that has this proven
system and you just plug intothat.
There's benefits and drawbacks,plug into that.
You know there's.
There's benefits and drawbacks.
(30:46):
I think to both scenariosDefinitely.
But what have?
What have you enjoyed about thelike buying into a franchise?
And then that's what I want toask you too is like what is that
process like?
Like you, you said like there'slike a year-long process before
you're even opening up yourstore.
Are they?
Do you get like a small salaryduring that time or how does
(31:07):
that work?
Yeah, um.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
So franchising is interesting, um and and many
friend, not not all franchisesare the same right.
There's not really any rules towhat they do and don't do.
But I mean, the big obvious oneis you have to pay a lot more.
You know, even to getconsidered.
You know you have to put up thefranchise fee, there's net
(31:34):
worth requirements andeverything else.
They want to make sure thatyou're a good fit.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So they're investing in you as the individual, right
yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
And they don't want somebody who doesn't fit the
brand, who's going to just getit started and then tank it.
So I think franchising.
(32:08):
I look back now and I'm supergrateful, mm-hmm.
Um, we love palm harbor, welive in palm harbor.
Um, I, I've learned a lot aboutlocation selection, um, because
, like this, this store is kindof hidden away in the target
boot ranch plaza, um, and Ithink that's cost us quite a lot
(32:29):
, but it it does okay.
But, like, there was times umcrumble when we opened palm
harbor.
Our palm harbor store is thetop of the the crumble trend and
we just killed it.
But since that day, like forthe next year, year and a half,
every month, revenue is down,revenue is down, revenue is down
.
We're letting employees go leftand right.
(32:50):
And then I was like looking andI was like man, with these
franchise fees, they're makingmore money off my store than I
am.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
And so.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
I was like, just so bitter for a long time.
So that's the downside offranchising, right, is you?
There's, however, much red tape.
The franchisor decides andcrumbles very particular about
their brand Rightfully so.
It's a it's a great brand, butyou know, for a long time, like
(33:22):
you, you had to get approval foralmost anything, even probably
to do this podcast.
They probably would have wantedapproval.
They've.
They've loosened their grip alittle bit since then.
I think they're like we talkedearlier they've only been open
since 2017.
That was their conception andthey're still learning too.
But yeah, you're like man, Ican't do any marketing on my own
(33:50):
.
They want to approve everythingthat they possibly can, the
materials they have.
You can do a ma uh program andsend out a bunch of mailers to
everybody, send some coupons out, but crumble wants you to use
theirs and it's, you know, likea dollar, a flyer and you're
like there's no way, I'll sendit to five people, I guess um,
(34:12):
so those are the frustratingthings.
Um, and sometimes it would benice to be able to just say like
okay, like I, this is mybusiness, I will decide how I
spend my marketing dollars andthings like that.
But the the, the the upside ofa franchise is is huge too.
Um, you know, crumble does avery good job marketing.
(34:32):
You know, anyone who's oninstagram or tiktok has probably
come across the Crumble ad.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
And they have phenomenal infrastructure.
Our apps and everything are allin-house, and so marketing is
not something I have to reallyeven think too much about.
Locally, I do a little bit.
We live in Palm Harbor.
I want to be, you know, part ofthe community.
(35:02):
I want crumble to have acommunity feel to it.
Most people just see crumbleand assume, like you know,
national brand, not local,whatever.
But yeah but, yeah, we are.
But but then, yeah, like toopen it.
They, they, they give you theplaybook, they give you
step-by-step support and for methat was really important and I
(35:24):
think that's what also made meopen to it.
To pull the trigger is becauseI did start that construction
business that I I think I didn'tget to answering your question
when you asked me how long I wasdoing that but I only did it
for about three months and thenI kind of just let it fizzle out
because I was doing well inroofing and I could do more
there.
So I consider that a failure,but it's a failure forward.
(35:50):
But I was like man, you have tohave someone open the playbook
to me and I'm very much like abusiness noob, like I didn't
have anyone really in businessin my family.
I didn't really have any likebusiness mentors.
Everything I've kind of learnedI've kind of just picked up and
and learned about on my own,yeah, um, so I always kind of
(36:13):
felt like at a disadvantage thatway and so like having a
franchisee to support mestep-by-step all the way through
felt huge to me and it's provento be.
You know, how do you get alease?
How do you find the rightlocation, how do you build out
your store, all those things thefranchisee is like here's your
(36:36):
support person, ask them anyquestions and they step-by-step
get you there, and so that, Ithink, is a huge benefit to
franchising.
So I think like there'sdifferent ways.
You know, if you're, if you'rewanting to be an entrepreneur or
start your own business,franchising can be a great way
If you have the money to investor have a partner that can
(36:59):
invest with you and you'rewilling to operate.
That's the situation we were in, as my partner kind of put up
all the startup capital and Iwas the operator.
So for me, it was honestly thebest thing to go into
franchising and I think it makesme more willing to try another
(37:26):
thing on my own eventuallyBecause now someone has shown me
the way and I've learned somuch.
Now I can do it on my own, butalso I've got the huge benefits
of franchising, like not havingto to worry too much about you
know your marketing, um, becauseit's all taken care of and
(37:47):
every franchisor is different.
You might not.
You might not have themarketing support that crumble
does at a different franchiseefranchisor, but um, but that's,
that's great.
You know, that's something mostbusiness owners have to spend a
whole ton of thing.
Uh, time worrying about um ishow to market well, and for me,
I I just have to spend time inthe community.
(38:10):
That's all I'm trying to do, um,but uh, yeah, that's a long way
to answer your question.
But I think there's pros andcons to both, like you said, to
going out on your own orstarting with a franchisee.
I think starting on your ownyou need less money.
(38:31):
You can find hundreds ofcompanies you can start for
almost nothing, but then you'vegot to pay that ignorance tax is
what they call it.
You know, like you're gonnamess up, you're gonna make
mistakes.
Uh, you're probably not gonnamake money for a long time yeah
but the payoff is, you get tokeep a whole lot more of what
you make.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
So yeah, um I think there's, yeah, um, there's
almost like a thrill to, I mean,if you have like the capital to
like make those mistakes andlike struggle through, however
long it takes.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Like your construction business probably
would have been successful, likeif you just had the ability to
give it more time.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
And you know there's for me there's some excitement
about doing that, likestruggling through that and like
figuring it out on your ownsort of thing too, you know.
But then there's also like the,you can just shortcut it and
and I so getting into realestate, like I, um, I was that
(39:31):
way, I wanted to figure it outon my own and I didn't want to
join a team or anything likethat.
And, um, I joined, you know,berkshire Hathaway when I first
got started, because they hadtraining and support and all
that, and I thought that was theway to go.
And looking back, like if youwould have joined a team, it's
kind of like buying into afranchise, like they have their
systems and everything in placetheir playbook and you get to
(39:52):
see all that from day one as anewbie real estate agent versus
you're just making a ton ofmistakes and you keep failing.
You try to figure out yourmessaging.
Who's your ideal client?
Who you're marketing to?
How do you market to them?
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Like all these things that you have to work through,
I think to do that too, like youcan do it, but you have to be
able to like get, because thatcan be very discouraging right,
oh, 100%, oh man.
I'm failing, I'm failing, I'mfailing.
Like what am I even doing?
And you want to give up, like Ithink your mindset has to be
(40:26):
okay with making those mistakesand and continuing on, um,
because, yeah, it's discouraging.
I think that's a something Ilearned a lot from, from being
having done door-to-door sales.
Is you learn?
very quickly how to overcomethat discouragement you know you
get a lot of no's yeah, you gotto get through 300 doors of
people saying no before you finda yes.
You know, um and and so likethat.
(40:50):
I think for people who want toget into business but they don't
know how, I think getting intosome kind of sales, uh, is a
great way to get your, to getyour mind right, build
confidence.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah, so you're new to Palm Harbor?
Yep, you came here for Crumble.
Yep, how did you guys settle onPalm Harbor?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Yeah, that's a good question.
So once we decided to doCrumble, most franchisees had an
area they wanted to go to andit was usually where they lived
and everything like that.
I mentioned earlier that when wegot into it we were at the top
of the trend.
So almost everything where wewanted to go was, or where we
(41:41):
initially thought we wanted togo, was, sold out.
Um, but um, florida was stillpretty open, like so we wanted.
We would have stayed in texashad we um had the option to, but
when we got it with crumblethey were like yeah, there's not
really anything anywhere youcan go here.
um, where else would you want togo?
(42:01):
And we're like, well, honestly,like we'll go anywhere.
We will prioritize a good areaover where we want to be.
Um, and they you know, they hada guy that was over, um, I
can't remember what they callthem, but it was he helped all
the franchisees select theirlocations.
Um, he's like, well, florida'spretty open, there's some good
(42:24):
spots over there.
And we're like, well, living inFlorida would be cool.
And we had a couple friends thatlived here.
So we called them up and, hey,do you think Crumble would do
well in Florida?
What do you think?
And at that time there was onlyone.
There was one up in um Wesleychapel.
(42:44):
Okay, and people here ourfriends lived in I think it was
Newport Richie at that time Okay, and they're like, we drive,
you know, 45 minutes to get tocrumble.
And they're like, and when wego we'll take orders of all of
(43:06):
our friends around here and pickup all this.
So I was like, okay, like it'sgoing to do well, like let's go.
And so we, we decided to settleon Tampa.
We loved what was important tous as having somewhere that was,
you know, family friendly,decent schools, decent, decent
living.
The thing that I had againstliving in Dallas, uh, was there
(43:30):
was no recreation Like there is.
if you wanted to go on a hikeanywhere around Dallas, you were
like going to some neighborhoodnature trail you know, even to
go to the lakes around there,you've got to pay to get in and
go to the pay, the state parkfee, and then you know, if you
don't have a boat which wedidn't have a boat, you know
(43:50):
then you're just kind of likehanging out at the lake, which
was fine.
But I grew up in Utah whererecreation is right in your
backyard.
You know, I grew up pretty closeto the mountains and we could
literally walk and be on theRocky Mountains.
It was amazing, that's amazing.
So for me that was a hardtransition.
So the idea of coming toFlorida where there's all these
(44:11):
natural springs, you've got thebeach and the ocean, I was like
that sounds a little bit morelike the lifestyle I'd want.
Um, but all those thingscombined and and to to get us
here, and, and we really lookedat where's the?
Where's the place wherefamilies want to be, where, um,
where's the good schools?
Where's, you know, all thatstuff?
(44:33):
Where's the tight communities?
And, um, we kind of knewlooking for for crumble
locations.
We were going to be like thesaint pete, um, north pinellas
area, north tampa, those kind ofareas, um, and it turned out
there was a lot of franchiseesthat had the same idea I did and
there was already tons ofterritories sold oh wow, um,
(44:56):
palm harbor, and it just seemedlike just the perfect little
community, and so our firststore was here in Palm Harbor.
And then we moved into PalmHarbor just because we thought
this would be a great place toraise a family, and we quickly
fell in love with it.
We're now at a point finally,there's another point about
(45:20):
being a business owner is youdon't qualify for anything If
you want to get a loan.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
You're 1099, man.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
You don't qualify for anything.
It doesn't matter how muchmoney you even made, you don't
qualify.
Yeah.
But now we're kind of gettingto that point where, okay, we
can look around and try to finda home and make ourselves a
little more permanent, but likewe just love the Palm Harbor
East Lake area, we don't want toleave.
(45:48):
So you know, we plan to stayhere because we just love it so
much.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, what is it that you love about Palm Harbor?
Like once you've been here,like, what have you settled on?
Yeah, what is it that you loveabout Palm Harbor, like once
you've?
Now that you've been here, like, what have you settled on?
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Yeah, First of all, I think we've got a church family
.
That's just amazing.
I mentioned earlier we go tothe Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
That building's in Dunedin, butall of our church members are
all kind of in the Palm Harborarea that meet there and they're
just so supportive.
(46:23):
Um, and I think that is a goodsample of the Palm Harbor area
as a whole, like everyone's.
Just, you know, people lovetheir families and then it's
great to be close to the beaches.
Um, you know, you go to thebeach and it's very family
friendly.
At the beach the kids can playin the water, you can relax.
The things to do here there'stons of stuff to do for the kids
(46:48):
, tons of parks, tons ofcarnivals, you know all that
kind of great stuff.
Um and um.
To amplify that fact, like wejust had twins I mentioned to
you earlier.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
Yeah, literally like three weeks ago we had twins.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
So now we have four kids?
Are you sleeping Like?
You look well rested.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
Oh, I do Great, yeah, no, not very much.
Yeah, we they're.
They're kind of gettingsynchronized a little bit better
now.
But for a while one would sleepand the other one would be
awake.
But our families my wife'sfamily and my family have both
been in town so they're helpingout with that.
Energy drinks go a long way too,but having that support was
(47:33):
really important to us.
As we've doubled the size ofthe kids in our family, we're
like, okay, we need a biggerhouse.
And we're like, okay, we need abigger house.
Yeah, um, and we're lookingaround and, um, the easy thing
would be to go way north and gofind a house in lando lakes.
That's a little more affordable, you know, whatever, um, but um
(47:54):
, we're like you know what wereally like it here.
We can make it work.
We live in a littlethree-bedroom house.
We can make that work for awhile, and so you know, that's
kind of the sacrifice we'remaking to be able to stay in the
area.
And the point I make with thetwins is that, like people
really came out of the woodworksto show us support.
(48:15):
You know we've got people.
There's not enough days for allthe people that want to bring
us meals, which is amazing.
You know, anyone that's had ababy knows, like having some
meals, not having to worry aboutdinner and dishes and all that
other stuff is huge, massive.
So yeah, we just really feelthe sense of community here and
(48:37):
since opening Crumble and sincetrying to get more involved in
the community, just we just havesuch a great community here.
Like you know, I'm a member ofthe chamber of commerce, um, and
anytime I go to an event thereit's just, you know, you worry
going into something like that.
Will I be accepted?
Will, uh, are people going tobe friendly?
Am I going to make any friend?
(48:58):
you know you know it's just anatural thing you worry about,
but like they're so welcoming,um, everyone in the community
has been nothing but but awesome.
It does help.
That crumble is such a funbrand because when I mentioned
crumble, people are like oh,crumble the cookie guy you know,
and that's been fun, um, but uh, but yeah, we just, we just
(49:20):
really like being here.
Speaker 1 (49:23):
Yeah, I think that's something that's unique about
Palm Harbor, like you mentioned,is the community.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
That it's just different than some of the other
cities around us.
Like, I think there's more of acommunity vibe and community
sense here in Palm Harbor.
Maybe it's because of theschools, maybe it's because
there's more families and stuff,you know, compared to some of
the other cities.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
You know Part of it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
But it is unique.
So you have locations in PalmHarbor, and then where's the
second location, in PinellasPark.
Pinellas Park, yeah, okay.
Do you have plans for anotherthird?
Speaker 2 (49:57):
location we do have, so we do have.
So when we started Crumble, wepaid to have rights to three
locations.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
Our third one was supposed to be in Bradenton, but
part of the learning process isyou learn what a good location
looks like and what one doesn'tlocation look like.
And as cliche as it is forlocation, location, location,
you know it's very true.
And so with our third one,we're pretty picky.
We found a really good location.
There's a brand new costco downin bradenton.
But uh, they've, they've kindof stonewalled us because, um,
(50:33):
first of all, construction downthere's there, it's a brand new
shopping center they're tryingto build.
They didn't know when theywould finish, construction costs
were going crazy.
But then in the meantimethey've they've had some other
uh like big box stores come inand they kind of pushed us out
of that yeah so now we're kindof looking for other areas, but
we're we're picky enough thatyou know we're not going to
(50:55):
desperately just get anything wecan.
we're looking for an, a pluslocation to put our third store,
and so far we haven't found it.
So we'll see what happens there.
Yeah cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Yeah, we'll see.
I think that's part of thebusiness entrepreneur mindset.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
It's just kind of be patient, right Like you've
learned what works and you justgot to wait till you find that
right spot.
Yeah, I like that.
Yeah, and what like.
Then another point to to palmharbor.
Like our palm harbor store islike the biggest thing that
determines what we've seen sofar.
How well a crumble does is howclose it is to other crumbles.
(51:37):
Obviously because there are theonly competition we have is
other franchisees, and here inpalm harbor we have stores all
around us.
There's a store in clearwater,trinity and west chase, and so
really palm harbor is unique inthat we really only get people
from our community to come to us.
(51:58):
We really only serve people inpalm harbor, a little bit of
dunedin, old smar and tarponsprings, which I think is kind
of unique in that, like we'reonly serving members of this,
this community, so it really isa community store.
But that goes back to the pointof, like, we don't want to put
up another store that's tooclose to another crumble, that's
(52:20):
not good for another franchisee, for one, it's not good for us.
So, um, yeah, it's kind of atricky, a tricky thing to figure
out.
But, um, but it's that's.
That's like you said, that'skind of part of the exciting
part of being a business owneris trying to figure out that.
Speaker 1 (52:37):
It's almost like monopoly or game of chess yeah,
and then it's like, once youfind it, you're're like, oh yeah
, this is it, we got it, we didit.
Yeah, yeah, that's cool.
Awesome man, kelly.
Well, thanks for being here,thanks for kind of sharing your
story and highlighting Crumbleand stuff.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
So go buy yourselves a box of cookies.
Yeah, yeah, thanks man, Iappreciate it.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Donnie, thank you so much for tuning in to another
episode of Palm Harbor Local.
We are incredibly grateful forour sponsors who make this show
possible.
Jake, with Roadmap Money, besure to support your local
businesses and keep buildingcommunity together.
Until next time, stay connected, stay involved and keep making
Palm Harbor an amazing place tocall home.
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