S1,E5: Thirst Drinks - Ethan Cisneros - Small Lake City

Episode Transcript
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Erik Nilsson (00:00):
What is up everybody and welcome back to
the Small Lake City podcast.
I am your host, eric Nilsson,and here we are on episode five.
So our guest today is probablyone of the most energetic people
I've sat down with so far andabsolutely loves being an
entrepreneur and has been sincehe was in middle school, and now
he takes on the personalresponsibility of making sure

(00:20):
everyone in the Salt Lake Valleygets their soda and sugar fix.
And I'm talking none other thanthe one and only Ethan Cisneros
, or sometimes known better asEthan from Thirst.
So sat down with him and talkedabout his experience of
starting Thirst drinks, how hebecame an entrepreneur, some of
the successes and setbacks thathe's experienced through this
process.
So really excited for you tohear and get motivated by his

(00:43):
story.
So, yeah, let's jump into itand hope you enjoy.
Welcome everybody.
This week we have a superimportant and special guest here
.
We have Ethan Cisneros, thefounder of Thirst Drinks, who
helps supply so much of ourdaily supply of our sugar
addictions that we all have.
I fundamentally and firmlybelieve that Salt Lake is the

(01:08):
capital of sugar, the drug ofchoice, of sugar sorry, of Salt
Lake and it's been so fun to seehow all of these different
businesses have come to be thecookie empires, the soda empires
, the dessert empires of it all.
And yeah, I did want to sitdown with you, kind of
understand how I mean the storyall started how you started,
here in Salt Lake.
I can go from there, sodefinitely stoked to have you

(01:30):
here.

Ethan Cisneros (01:30):
Yeah, man, grateful to be here.
This is sick.
I'm really excited.

Awesome, man.
Well, I mean, without furtherado, let's jump into it.
So let's do it.
I know you are, I mean, a SaltLake native, not a transplant
like some people we have on thepod.
But talk to me a little bitlike where in the area you grew
up, what that was like for you.

I was actually born in California.

Oh, interesting.

So I came here when I was 10, I think so just
elementary school.
My dad got a job here and thefamily moved over.
So yeah, I've been here sincesince elementary and yeah, I
grew up over in holiday, so,like Olympus High, High School.

What part of California were you in before?

Southern California, Orange County area.

The typical.

Typical yeah.
It's a place called Diamond Bar, but yeah, so yeah, I moved
here and just went to work andgrowing up in Utah, so primarily
, like most of my memories arehere in Utah for sure,
definitely.

Yeah, so I actually moved.
So I'm from Utah born andraised, but I moved when I was
10, two different neighborhood,which I mean at that age In Utah
yeah, in Utah.
So I was living up in theavenues before parents got
divorced and then we moved downto like Harvard Yale area Just
me, my two sisters and my mom.
And I mean at that age you havesuch little comprehension of

(02:46):
the world around you that italmost feels like you're moving
to another state.

Like all my friends are gone, have to meet
new ones.
What's the difference Exactly?

Totally.
But when you moved here,because obviously, like when
you're older and you moved toSalt Lake, it's like oh, this
place is different in a lot ofways.
Did you feel any of thatdifference when you came here,
or what was your initialimpression of Salt Lake when you
arrived?

Yeah, no, we were kind of already in, like we
had a family here, and so Ifeel like we were already sort
of Utah people before we camehere.
Maybe not fully, but it wasn'ta huge shock, especially when I
was that young.
It was just kind of like whatit was.
I think my older siblingsprobably my parents more so got
that like okay, like we're inMormon town or in the soda shop

(03:26):
on every corner type of town,but yeah, and I didn't get as
much.
This is kind of like what I'veknown from the beginning For
sure I would say.

And growing up, I mean your formative years.
I mean, was there any sports?
You played a lot in theactivities that tend to frequent
.

Yeah, I mean, I was a all the sports type of kid
played football, baseball,rugby, race, dirt bikes and my
family.

She did everything .

Yeah, we did a lot.
I was always an entrepreneurkid too Like as my lawn mowing
business, probably one of themost money I've still ever made.
So it's literally the best wayto make like cash as a kid is to
freaking the mow lawns Like Iwant to go do it on the side
still.

So talk to me about that Like what was the
first?
Way that you heard about that,or like that aha moment, you're
like wait a minute.

Yeah, I think I found out about it through like,
like one of my buddies orsomething like his, his dad had
mowed lawns or something.
So my buddy Zach shout out tomy buddy Zach after a momentary
we started Zach and Ethan'slawns.
We just flyered every dooraround the neighborhood and
finally we got we talked to oneguy in his lawn 20 bucks a week
or maybe it was like 15 a weekto start and, dude, we both

(04:32):
lived like a half mile or a milein either direction.
I freaking put my mower or mytrimmer and my blower on top of
the mower and push that thinglike up by myself.
We met there, mowed the lawn anddude, we did that and we just
like slowly started to buildlike we would.
I think we had like 25 lawns,like at our peak and like all of

(04:53):
our buddies worked for us, wegot to and this is this.
One was 11, 25 was later on,but when I was maybe 15, like
still couldn't drive, we hadlike legitimately 20 lawns a
week or something like that.
Some of them are big ones and webought this trailer.
We couldn't drive, but webought this trailer and our moms
both had suburban's and so ourmoms would take turns, like

(05:15):
picking us up and then droppingoff the trailer, and like a
central location in aneighborhood where we could go
like walk max a half mile to adifferent lawn with, push them
over there and then, like at theend of the night, they'd pick
us up.
We had done all our lawns anddude, we just hustled like every
day after school.
We do that every day in thesummer do that.
So it's legitimately still someof the cause.

(05:38):
There was no like entity set up, there was no sales tax.

You're not getting your LLC, you don't have your
accounting, you just cash oncash.

That was like right into the pocket, split it
50, 50.
It was awesome.
But no, that was a I will saylike.
With that business I learned alot of like the basic mechanics
of business, though yeah, Iremember one thing was we I
don't remember who his idea itwas, but it was just like this
is how we would do it.
We would take care of customerslike crazy.
Like we made these little cardsthat were like like we would put

(06:10):
them on the knob after we left,cause you don't always talk to
the person.
You kind of bill them at theend of the month, like get
everything in the month.
We would put cards on there.
We like, hey, just letting youknow you got service from Ethan
today or exact today.
Like make it all personal andthen like leave the car If you
need anything at all, likehere's our number.
Like we're so grateful for yourbusiness.
And I always remember that,cause it was like I learned how

(06:31):
to really take care of thecustomer.
On that business I was like aprime example the first time I
ever did that and I saw it worktoo, because people would be so
appreciative of the where othercompanies just mow it and they
dip.

They don't ask if you need anything else but send
you a bill at the end of themonth and call it a day.
Yeah, dude.

But yeah, the lawn mowing business.
Shout out to Zach and Ethan'slawns.
Oh, I love it.

So I mean, every person I talked to always has
those memories of like okay, somy mom picks up, your mom will
come get us and we'll do it.
But like it's usually likeskiing or like going down to
gateway when I was a kid, notlike hey, mom, we're going to go
make a couple hundred bucksmowing these lawns all afternoon
, I think see you later.

It was crazy, we had some adventures, but it was
a good business, it was fun.

No, that's awesome .
I love that you've put togetherso many of those because, like
I'm a sucker for like a greatcustomer experience.
Yeah, like I'd have.
I have a buddy that started hisown golf apparel brand and I
mean like the amount, like, andthis guy is so detail oriented
and just it's like there's anote with every package and the
branding is always perfect,everything's laid out, and I'm a
sucker for that.
Like if everything like isperfect and there's this like

(07:30):
hitchless experience, I'm like,oh, like chef's kiss.
Yeah, the details, all of thedetails.
But that's awesome.
So you have these summers yourmowing lawns like a fiend.
You're hiring all your friendsmaking real money Like it's not
like it was real.

It was real Like thousands of dollars, but like
it wasn't insane, but it was.
It was real Like we werebreaking mowers and buying stuff
and you know, we were like not,we were spending our money on
whatever we wanted to.
But yeah, and then when I was16, you've ever, where did you
so?
Where did you say you grew up?

I grew up in like the yellow.
Yes, I went to East High.

So did they have any shaved ice shacks around
there?

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, so there was this one in downtown
holiday called Island Flavor.
This was the spot I don't knowabout yours, like this.
So you were 15, 16, 16, youjust starting to want to hang
out with girls and friends likeall the time, right, so there
was the and you just get yourlicense, you like pick each
other up, drive around.
So we would go to this IslandFlavor spot and it was.
It became very clear to me.

(08:29):
I was like okay, people aren'tcoming here just to buy snow
cones.
This is the hangout spots.
The cool people are hanging outhere and all the cute girls are
working the snow cone shack,like all the girls that, like I,
would like try to be gone,dates with their flirting with,
and like trying to go in theshack and like see what's going
on.
But this spot, it was like itwas popping.
It was called Island Flavor, ifyou know.
You know it was Dopeville spotand I was like man, I could

(08:50):
totally do this.
And then so, yeah, I guess Iwould become friends with the
girls and then literally, likeit would just be them, sometimes
on shift, all day, so I wouldjust go in there and they'd show
me how to make all the stuff.
I would like seeing how it,like this is all working and I
was like I can do this.
Then I would like do the mathon, like okay, this is ice and
sugar.

Yeah.

And they're charging like six bucks for it.
It's insane.
So I want I was like I want todo this when I was 16.
And so I started going to workon that.
I first you need a buildingright Like a shack, and then you
need like a spot to put it andyou need a lease, essentially
with the landlord to put thisshack there, and you need a

(09:33):
business license, all this stuff.
And so that's how I did.
I figured all that out.
I found a.
I've found a spot, negotiated aspot with the landlord for the
lease.
I went into the city hall, askedhim how do I, how would I do
this?
And started.
It was called Limpas ice.
I wanted to be like the spotfor Olympus high kids.
So it was like a few blocksabove, like a quarter mile above

(09:55):
Olympus ice.
I called it Olympus ice andthat's what it was.
Man, we freaking, oh.
And then I got a shack off.
It was on KSL, it was like acoffee drive through shack, yeah
, but, and it was like 15,000 or10 or 15,000.
I didn't have, I had a littlefrom the lawn mowing but not
that much.
And and but, like she put on thead.

(10:15):
This is like this lady owned itup in Heber.
My name is Sierra.
She put on the ad open tobusiness inquiries, and so I put
together.
My dad is in finance and so hehelped me put together like
basically a projection.
I was like I'm going to sellthis many snow cones going to
cost me this much.
I'm going to put it here.
Here's my lease and here's howmuch money we're going to make,

(10:37):
and if you give me the shack touse for free, then I'll give you
50% of the business.
So that was my first businesspartner.

This lady, she's just lady off KSL.
She's like sure, come grab it.

So yeah, and then so she ended up being my
co-founder in thirst actually.
So she had like owned a bakeryup in Heber and she had this
shack that she was selling onthe property and yes, basically
I ran it for three summers andhired employees.
This one we did legit like hadto pay sales tax to inventory
because we'd been like 50,000 asummer or something like not

(11:11):
crazy, but like felt crazy.
It was felt crazy at the timeand yeah, man, so we did it limp
as ice for three summers andthat's what I did 16 17.
Basically I kind of created in16, opened when I was 17, did it
from 17, 18 and part of when Iwas 19 Three summer.

So I totally hope that's so funny because, like I
remember when you said like oh,like they're there like shaved
ice places around, like yes, andone specific like, and I
actually went there earlier thissummer.
It's on this, by the old.
It's not shopco, but it's notlike the.
By that McDonald's on Highland,not Highland 21st South and
21st East.
By that Albert sins.
There was always one in thatparking lot, for I think it's an

(11:54):
anytime fitness now, but Iremember in high school.
So when I say Salt Lake's thecapital of sugar, I could easily
be the mayor, like when I likemy biggest vice is sugar like.
I remember.
Do you remember to spoon me?

So spoon me on for South.

Yeah, so I had two friends that work there, yeah,
and so I would always show up.
You like, hey, like Let me getsome, like like throw you.
They're like, well, listen,they count the cups.
So you have to buy a cup, butwe will fill it up as many times
you want, and so I would likesit there and hang with them,
and you have like two or threeFillings of it, which is a lot.
And the same thing with snowcones, though, because of that
snow cone shack there was a sameas Chris Brown from Highland,

(12:29):
not to get mistaken with one ofmy best friends, christian Brown
, but he would work there.
I don't like the hang, was it?
There would be tons of guysthere, there'd be tons of girls,
would always be working andyou'd be like oh, how does this
work?
Can I come back?
Oh, you're putting like creamon top.
This is unreal and yeah, like,totally love that and like even
to the point where, like, like Isaid, I have this electric
scooter that I used to use more,but I was like I'm gonna

(12:51):
scooter ride and get a snow cone.
Felt like a 16 year old kidagain.

It was amazing, but it's always all about the
spot.
Yeah, we can shave dice.
I want to go back.

Oh, let's start one up.
But like also, I remember I wasdriving back from Think it was
like Southern Utah's down toEscalante earlier and I was when
I was going past or throughUtah County there was on the
side of the road a snow coneshack for sale and I was like
Wait a minute, like totallyunderstand, seeing that being
like I can make this work, this,this, we could do this.

(13:21):
Yeah but now you have like allthe Hokuleas and all like this
has been like so, likecommercialized, and it's like
Opportunity would slap right now.
Oh it's any snow cone?
Right now it's not.
So you have.
So you started this mowingbusiness.
Yeah, then you're like snowcones at the jam.
You create the hang for theOlympus kids, yeah.
So then I mean, you graduate,and then what?

(13:43):
So those three summers are over, and then you go to college.
Up to you.
And was your entrepreneurialspirit still Flourishing, or
were you kind of focusing onschool, or what was your mindset
at that?

point.
So, yeah, I.
So I Graduated.
I still owned a limp at OlympusI so I did it for another year
and that's when I went to theyou.
So all my friends went onmissions right out of high
school.
I didn't want to go on amission, so I yeah, I was going
up to the you, I was running myshave ice business.
I was in my frat, the you, andI mean, I was not focused on

(14:17):
school at all, like I was notreally going to class, I was
just running my business andhanging out with my friends.
I was using the you for forsocial, for sure.
But yeah, I did that.
I did one semester at the youjust running Olympus ice.
And then I I knew I wanted todo something else, like pretty
quick on an entrepreneurial gameand like do something new.

(14:39):
Swig, this is, you know, swig.
So this is when, this is eightyears ago.
So this is seven, eight years.
This is almost eight years ago.

They were just in Provo, st George at the time,
because I was going to St Georgea lot during this time because
I was dating Someone down there.
Yeah and I mean we drive fast.
What do you want to get?
A soda?

I'm like yeah, it's like the thing you do and
oh, yeah, like it's again thehang.

It's what you do.

Yeah, just part of it, it's a part of the
culture and Swig is the culturein St George.
Still it's crazy, not wrong,but Anyway.
So yeah, they hadn't come hereyet, and my business partner so
the lady that I did theshave-dye shack with, she had
worked, watch me work hard for afew summers.
We made some money on not crazy, but made some money on the
shaved ice and, like I said, shehad a bakery up in Hebrew so

(15:24):
she kind of knew like the smallbusiness game too.
And we saw Swig blowing up andNothing had come to Salt Lake at
all yet.
There was a couple little shops, but like so delicious, around
but mostly nothing had come.
And then I Stumbled upon thisdrive-thru space, 13 South, just
west of state, by the B Stadium.
We still have it.
It's our downtown store but itwas drive-thru space and Like

(15:49):
just one thing led to another.
We're like we think we can do.
One thing we did really goodOlympic size was we made it that
hangout like Swig thirst.
We sell a brand, we sell anexperience.
We don't so much although wesell products and sometimes,
like we can even be known forthose products.
More than anything, we sell thebrand, we sell the experience
to the customer, where otherbusinesses are More

(16:10):
transactional, based on theactual product, like this is the
.
Just like I learned, like whenpeople were going to that island
flavor, they weren't going forthe snow cone, they're going
because it was cool to do that,you know, to go there and be
there, and so I was like thatI'm already doing that in my
shaved ice business.
This is just an advanced forfull-time advanced how?
Larger scale, bigger menuversion of that?

(16:31):
Yeah.
And so, yeah, I came up withthirst, just created the brand
from scratch and we wanted to bean experience through the
drive-thru, and it's honestlychanged a lot, like the menu and
other things like the way wepresent that experience.
But that's what we Started, aswhat we always have been,
probably always will be, is wesell an experience.

(16:52):
So, yeah, we found we wanted todo that.
We found that first drive-thruin downtown Salt Lake.
It was I mean, it still is arough area.

There's almost yeah everybody.

It's like you know, at the ballpark area.
But and it was like failingother other failing businesses
before, like multiple, like itwas like do what they were.
Okay, it's like big kahoonaswas in there freaking.
The one right before was thisold.
It was a spaghetti shop, adrive-thru spaghetti shop.
That Signed me up like no, we,literally, when we went in, like

(17:24):
pull, we're pulling down themenu and like we peeled off one
and there was another foodbusiness.
We peeled off and there wasanother one.
It was insane, like threefailed menus.

And you're just like great and is mine.
The next one on this.

This thing is I didn't think that at all, though
I was just like I was 18 when Iwas like remodeling that
building.
So I was young and I was just.
I was just stoked and knew Iwas positive, was gonna work,
but yeah, so we created thirstand we open.
We had a fun grand opening but,dude, we were slow for a couple
years.

So what?
What year was that or when wasthat grand opening to remember
the date or year.

It's September 2016.

September 2016.

So, you.

You start the soda shop.
There's been some similar ones.
I mean, what's going throughyour head at this time?
I mean, I mean just from yourtone of voice I can tell you're
super stoked on it and like justGassed and know it's gonna work
.
But was there anything that Imean made you a little
apprehensive or kind of cautious, or you just mostly all steam
ahead?

Dude, I was all at the time.
I was one like just blindly allsteam ahead.
I had no idea what I wasgetting into.
Like just like the amount oflike, just Responsibility, that
Cuz.
I've run these businessesbefore but this is talking every
day.
You're open at eight and youclose at ten and someone's got
to be there every day.
I didn't really have that asthe shaved ice is, sees and all

(18:41):
the lawns, like you kind of dothem when you want to some
degree.
So this is like big step.
But yeah, we opened in.
Like like I said, we had like afun grand opening.
All my frat brothers came, Ibought some, whoever was left
from high school came to support, but legitimately no one came.
Like I think the first dayafter the grand opening we did
like $100 and sales, like $100and sales.

(19:04):
So we went, I and I had hiredall these employees, yeah.

And they're just sitting there like dude.

I literally like I thought it was going to be so
busy that like I was going toneed to be doing office work,
like I got, like I was so wrong,it was insane.
But I literally ended up firinglike all but like, too, I had
to let everyone go.

Yeah, I can't pay you with $100 I made today.

Yeah, my co-founder, like we invested,
like she had just sold a houseand like a house that she had
she's not wasn't like rich oranything, but like just sold a
house watched me work reallyhard for three summers on this
shaved ice and she put likeliterally like $70,000 into
building out this restaurant.
And that was it, like we didn'thave any funding after that.

And so, like money's gone, yeah, start
generating something or it'sgoing to be another one of those
menus on the.

Yeah, it was like dude.
I'm grateful for it, though,because, like, I literally had
to figure it out or I was goingout of business.

Ships were burnt.
Ships were burnt.
Yeah, you had to make it work.
There was payroll.
You got to pay your vendors,and so so so it talks to me
about that process.
So because I think a lot ofpeople, I mean, and myself
included they think that, okay,I have this idea for this
business, obviously they thinkit's amazing.

Yeah.

But then they go and launch it and they go to
market and they're like, oh,wait a minute, this isn't the
kind of like overnight success Ithought it was going to be.
So how did you go from like Imean, I don't want to call it
like a low, but like that pointbeing like what was your next
step?
To say, okay, what do I do nowto make this successful?
Or what do I do to get thetraffic that I want?

Yeah, it was one .
It's definitely one of the mostlike clear correlates.
Entrepreneurship one of myfavorite parts about it is it's
definitely one of the most clearcorrelations of I put in this
much, I get out this much, and Ilearned that a lot at the
beginning of thirst because,like, like I said, there was
there's no boss to turn to,there's no more money, and so I

(20:54):
learned how to do all thesethings, like I learned how to
manage my labor, how to manageinventory, how to manage
colleagues and, particularly,how to do marketing and drive
sales.
All because I absolutely had nochoice, because I had to pay
rent and employees, and so, dude, I just figured it out.
I basically worked every shiftfor two years.
I literally work up and I closeevery single day and in between

(21:15):
every car.
I was this is like right.
When Instagram was coming outand it was like it was.
It was like from Facebook snapand like this is Instagram was
peaking, becoming the next thingand I was post.
I just went all in on it, allin.
Like I was posting like 50stories.
Right when stories came out to50 stories a day on the first
page, I was DMing literallyeveryone that was posting in the

(21:39):
city and I was personallymessaging them and being like yo
.
My name is Ethan.
I have this business downtownlike because I knew the business
is good and I knew I was doinggood customer service, the
products are good.
I just like I gotta spread theword about this.
And so I would literally DMthem and I would say come get a
free drink on me, check it out,let me know what you think.
I wouldn't ask them foranything or to buy anything and

(22:00):
I just freaking did that till Ifell asleep every night.

Over and over, and , over and over and over.
I did that yeah.

So I started to bill, bill, bill, bill, bill,
little by little, like there wasno jump, there was no big jump,
like we did a hundred dollars.
Oh, couple months later we wereup to 200,.

Couple months later, like, I'm talking Just
brick by brick.
There was no like oh, I didthis one thing in this change,
or I reached out to this oneperson and that change, it was
just the hustle.

So yeah, I did that and then started to build.
And then another big win it hadearly was the Viv and Irina.
You remember like five, sixyears ago.

It's actually about that.
How did that come?
To like did you approach them?
Did they approach you?
He was getting rebuilt.

I remember like six years ago now they was
getting rebuilt and so I knewall the contracts were gonna be
up in there, probably becausethey're remodeling the whole
arena, putting new vendors inthere, and SWIG was in there.
Swig was in there at the timeand so I was going into the
concessions group that like ownsand runs all the concessions
it's called Levy.
I was going in there andwriting personal notes, dropping

(23:04):
off treats like multiple timesa week, like emailing, trying to
call anyone.
If I could just get a meeting,Cause I was positive that I
could convince them that likethey should be all about the
local businesses.
I'm gonna do better because I'ma local brand just down the
road and like, does that nobusiness doing it, but I totally
will just send it.
Of course, and I got a freakingmeeting with the head of

(23:27):
concessions there and I pitchedthem on it and they liked me, I
guess.
But yeah, they kicked SWIG out,dude, that's built as a brand
new thirst in there, cause theywere building everything anyways
.

Yeah, I mean it's all like I can't remember the
term but when it's like, you canbuild out however you want to,
it's not like you have to gointo the whole one.

Yeah, yeah, so I got, so we still have that
first one, so we have two now.
But the time like Two in Vivint, itself In Vivint yeah, Delta,
thank goodness I still couldsave Vivint every day.
But yeah, so it was.
You know, it's like the secondlevel back, but I was stoked.

Oh yeah, but you're there, you're there.
It doesn't matter what your jobis on the rocket ship.
As long as you have a ship onthe rocket, you can go from
there.

Yeah, and so they built us a sweet thirst in
there and it did awesome.
Like I've always made money onthat since it opened.
Like they take a huge cut inthere, but like it's great for
the brand.
Like you have to charge a lotof money.
Like the arena prices are done.
So, yeah, we've always made alittle money, spent good, and
then we actually got a secondlocation a few years later on
the main floor, like right infront of the main door.

So obviously they liked you.
It wasn't just that he keepswriting me notes.
Can you please just get him tostop?

Well, I kind of kept that same spirit up.
Where I would do anything, Istill will do anything for the
jazz guys, like they wantfreaking soda bar at their
corporate meeting Done.

You're there.

No questions.
Yeah, if they need, I'll bendover backwards because the
little favors that I can do justas a vendor.
But I've always done thatbecause, yeah, like I think it
just makes sense.

Are there any other like anecdotes that you
have where you're?
I mean personalized kind oftaking care of the customer or
doing whatever it takes ended upin.
I mean getting what you wantedor opening a door for you.

Yeah, I mean, I think that that second location
in Vivint is a prime example,like I would literally do
anything, but I don't know, Idon't think anything
specifically, but I think ofthings like that in the long
game, all like that's the onlyway I think about things is like
like how can I help this person?
Because it's like one of thoseself selfless to be selfish,

(25:30):
things Right, like by being soselfless, like it's almost you
get what your selfish wants areat the end of the.
Maybe they're not selfish, like, have bad intent, but like
whatever you want typically willcome around if you're more
selfless, you know, yeah, and sonow I've always kept that
strategy.
You know I do things for people, but yeah, vivint was our
second Store and so we had thatthose two for and we did

(25:55):
catering to.
We still do ton of catering,yeah, but we've done that for
like we're open for four years,just those day.

And then, because one thing I love about the
Vivint, and I'll say this reallyquick, but I was in Austin
earlier this year going andvisit a friend and Yada, yada,
yada, we met up with one of thepeople that lives in his
apartment to go to this othersocial club when they had like a
simulator and we're just gonnago hit balls and watch the
Masters because it's thatweekend.
And I was just I mean, talkingto him bullshitting, and he was

(26:23):
like, oh, are you from?
Like oh, I'm from Salt LakeCity.
He's like, oh, you ever go tothe Venerable, like the Delta
Center?
But I was like, yeah, it's likethat is a weird place.
And I was like what do you mean?
Like there's the unpack thatfor me.
He's like, well, I had a vendorthat was giving me, I mean,
he's like I had, course I,tickets.
And then I went up just kind ofgo walk around and look at the
place and I went to go grab abeer and there was no one in the

(26:45):
beer line and I turned my headover and there's literally this
line for soda like Wrapped allthe way through the queue and I
was like, yeah, like welcome toUtah, like the sugar capital.
And he's like I've never, everseen that.
Like, yeah, most, most haven't,but I'm I get so awesome that
you got that and like Especiallyhaving those experiences early
on in your lawn business, whereit's like oh hey, like we wrote

(27:06):
personalized notes yeah we tookcare of people.
We made this customer experienceour priority.
Yeah, and how that's justcascaded into these times where
I mean, if you didn't do thatand if you were just like, well,
I'll email them, or all I'lltry to see.

Like it probably wouldn't have worked.
It wouldn't work for sure.
Yeah, no, I had a percent agreeand just like, do you just like
point being literally just niceand friends to everyone, just
put pays off such Big time?
Like all, for example, like allthe other vendors in the arena,
like Always I'm going like if Idon't know someone, 100% going
up to him introducing I'm liketalking about how things been

(27:40):
going in the arena.
Like that stuff plays out.
You know whether it's a collabyou do down the road, there's
some piece of advice, or youknow connection they can make
for you.
Like I don't even ever worryabout it because it's always
plays out.

You know totally and then like can you never know
?
And like this is part of likewhat I do for, like work, work
is Like operationalizing, likesales teams and like one thing
we always talk about.
It's like do your cold calls,reach out, do the hard things,
because it'll work out.
There's always like those, likeLike one source was like.
I on the last call I made of thelast day they reached and they

(28:13):
closed that day.
Blah, blah, blah.
But it it's so funny because,like the older I get, the more I
realize how important those are.
Like even the other day I wasasking someone for a referral to
do something and they're like,oh, like I know this person that
comes to mind.
Or I know this person.
I don't know him well, but Iknow that they do it.
Yeah and so who knows how manyof those conversations like, hey
, like we have this event comingup, we really want it, like

(28:33):
they want to have, so it a kid.
Like, oh yeah, you got to go toEthan.
He's the man.
He always talks to me when I'mat working at the chick filet
and like a vivid and like he'salways so nice and like we like
working with nice people who canhelp solve our problem like
it's all of those things,business move hundred percent.
Yeah, without a deal, likewithout a doubt.
And it's so funny when I liketo me I was running into people
who are just I mean for lack ofa better term Just like assholes

(28:55):
for the sake of being assholes,and I'm like, how do you like
you think he's gonna play out?
You think people just be like,hey, this guy's seems kind of
cool.
He's a little bit yeah,absolutely not, yeah, I agree,
so all right, so let's, let's goback to it.
So you have your store, the one, the original one on 13 South,
the one.
I remember when I went therethe first time Because it was
when you were launched in 2016 Iwas living in Seattle at the

(29:16):
time but I could always see onInstagram like, oh, my friends
would go through the drivethrough like first, like a new
swig, yeah.
But I was like, okay, thirst,interesting, and I kept seeing
it over and over and over againon stories because it became
again Like this experience thatpeople want to share and then
that makes other peopleinterested.
And I remember the first time Iwent, I won it was actually I
won an Instagram giveaway, hedid and I got like a $25, like I

(29:38):
was like all right.
And like I always go throughthese like ebbs and flows of
like my soda addiction, yeah,where, like I won't have soda
for like two months but thenI'll be like golfing or I'll be
doing something like no one.
A coke sounds really good rightnow and then for the next like
two weeks I'm having a cokeevery other day and then it
stops and then my anyway, up anddown, up and down, and I

(29:59):
remember that kicked off apretty hard soda ditch in,
because every time I would go byon 30 because I was living, see
, then I was in the avenues, ish, and but I was always trying to
be going from.
I mean there's always a reasonto go from, like when I'd live
before, like Yelkras area, orlike avenues, getting to them,
like Target, costco, I meananywhere over on 3rd West.
I'd be like Going down 13.

(30:19):
So I might go over.
Like the thing that blew mymind the first time I went is
like there's like 30 cars inline here like this isn't, like
I'm just going through, andthey're like smile, like there
was just Consistent traffic andso it's cool to see and hear
like that story of like itwasn't always that way and you
just grew it all.
So you have.
So you had the Salt Lake store,mm-hmm, you had.

(30:40):
You got the places in Vivint,what I mean from then, what was
there?
What was your plan?
What?
was the next, the next stage.

So we open our Mill Creek store was our second.

Like brick and mortar and that's the one over
by some 33rd and yeah aroundthere, yeah it used to be that a
shoe.
What was it before?
She ever yes, I remember shewas because that was the first
time I ever that first place Iever got like a dirty diet coat.

Yeah, Good going through.

Yeah, they did have them yeah and so it's funny
that they paved the way theywalked so you could fly.

Yeah, yeah, but now that thing that's like it's
probably still like our premierstore.
It's got a big dine in.
It's our busiest store usually.
It's just right in the perfectyear it's also right in the hang
grew up.
Yeah, it's right where I grew up, so I went to Olympus.
It's like right up from there,it's right up for from where
Olympus ice was, yeah, so it'sjust a sick store.
I love that store and so, yeah,we open that one.

(31:29):
And then we opened West Jordan.
We open one out West Jordan,open one out in bountiful To
Willa as I was telling you, Iwas just coming from there
training a manager tonight.
And then we opened one in stGeorge last July, so, but a
little over a year ago.
And then we have, we have abakery production bakery that we

(31:51):
one of the biggest things.
We sell soft pretzel bites andbeignets.

So good.

Yeah, so we have a basically a bakery that
produces all those every day.
So there's a team in theremaking beignets, making cookie
dough, making pretzel dough mixall day, every day, and then
once a week we ship them out tothe stores.

Yeah, and then the stores make them up fresh and
serve them and just I didn'tknow you guys had it or you did
it yourself.
I always assumed it was acouple years ago.

We weren't always Couple, we were buying
them from other bakeries,basically, and just reselling
them.
But obviously, as you canimagine, there's no margin like
margins, like fractional,compared to doing it yourself.
So I bought, I saved up, boughtthe recipes from the beignets,
I bought, like I literally Idon't know, I'm not a baker at
all, but like that's all I dofor business.

(32:33):
But I bought my pretzel recipe,I bought all the recipes.

I should say like.

But I'm as funny because, like I just bought
them from a different place.
Like this pretzel, this localpretzel place that was like
super little popular Instagrampretzel place.
Like they went out of business.
I bought their pretzel recipe,bought my beignet recipe from
from a bakery, just like hereand there, like I'm up with all
these recipes and yeah, justopen a bakery.
We now we do more like we'llcome up with new products and

(33:01):
everything that gets served atthe Thurstories comes out of
there.
So it's fun to have.
But yeah, so we have basicallysix drive-thru retail locations
drive through and walk in diningareas.
And then we do the jazz arena,we do the Maverick, we're doing
the Maverick Center this year,so I'll go up the hockey and
stuff will see how that goes.
And then we do catering.
We have a location just forcatering that everything comes

(33:22):
out of, to the wedding, tons ofweddings and corporate events.
So we have like just a kitchenwhere that all runs out of.
And yeah, it's been a heck of aride.

What's your favorite part?
Like if you broke down your Imean day to day or week to week
or month to month things you do.
What's the thing like okay, Ican finally do this.

Yeah, I mean my fort a is marketing.
Like I'm best at that for sure.
Being the face like content,it's really what's made us will
like get to where we are.
For sure, like I'm also do allthe operations.
Like I kind of wear almost allthe hats right now cool but I
would say I'm best at marketingthem.
That's like why I find my mostenjoyment, but I do a lot of

(34:01):
operations to I'm them.

I have 200 employees, so like I mean, I'm
sure you have it down, mean cuztrying to do the math in my head
.
So you have Salt Lake.
You have what's called Vivint,one bountiful West Jordan to
Willis, st George, mill Creek.

I miss one and then just the production, the
production facility yeah, it'slike there's eight.

I mean, would you say by now you have Like a
playbook?
If you were to open one up nextweek that you would go through,
or is it?

Yeah, I mean like I Definitely I put in the
work.
We've had lots of processes andmanuals and things like that.
But no, I think like one of thethings I see like crumble, and
I see you know a lot ofearly-stage business is all find
a little bit of success andthen go, oh, franchise out
really quickly which creditwhere credit is due, crumbles

(34:46):
like the fastest growingfranchise there is.
It's dope, yeah, yeah, likethey're bomb.
But I think also a lot ofbusinesses make a mistake of
like finding a little successand then Franchising everyone in
the business really wasn'tready, everything wasn't figured
out yet, it was still a baby.
And so I think about that a lot, like we've been open for seven
years and I'm still tweakingthe processes and like I want to

(35:09):
sell franchises everywhere oneday but Not yet.
Like I'm still, like I'm stillmaking all those manuals, I'm
still dialing and profitabilityand scaling to like just
Handling, chewing everythingI've bitten off at this point.
So trying to be patient, butalso I mean I want to keep
growing For sure.

Yeah, no, I love that you have.
I mean, you're still a studentto your craft.
You're still saying, where canI get some more profitability,
where can we get a little bitmore efficient?
And I'd love that.
You have always stepped in thisrole of being the face of it
all, so I remember when I firstsaw started following on
Instagram.
We're seeing repose like it wasyou front and center, being you
like, just Unabashedly and andit's I truly do believe in like

(35:53):
energies resonate with peopleand like if you put out this
positive energy, saying, hey,come here, it's cool, it's
awesome, you know, like it againlike trying to message this
experience that you're trying tocurate.
Eventually they'll line up, yeah, and then people come through.
So I love that you have that,but then also that it wasn't
this Instantly.
Okay, there's success, time tomake as much success as possible

(36:13):
, but instead being like youknow, there's there's other
things I can do, there's otherthings I want to perfect.
Yeah, focus on the customers,focus on the experience.
I mean, obviously, all theoperational metrics and
components that go into it aswell.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, I Mean to address.
The second point that you haveis like I'm balancing like
everything I like to do, butalso running a practical
business like I have to makepayroll every other week, which
is crazy.
It's a lot of.
My payroll is like a lot ofmoney now and we're talking
about multi millions of dollarsof revenue, and so it's like a

(36:44):
very serious job.
Lots of salary people's familysalaries are on the line, and so
I take it super, superseriously.
So, yeah, like it's a balancefor sure.
But I mean to your first point,me being front and center, I
think it's just the greatestmarketing strategy of all time
to be authentic.
You know.
So like no one wants to buy fromsomeone that they don't know

(37:05):
the story behind it.
You know no one on survive fromthe corporate replace, right?
Yeah, that's always the thing.
And so like the most originalStory and like tagline that we
all have is our, ourself, likethat's authenticity.
So that's what I do in content.
I'm front and center in it.
I don't edit things a lot.
I don't like try to makeperfect stuff.

(37:26):
I just post as much as possibleDocumenting the business.
I tell the I call him thethirsty nation, as our followers
Like there's nation, what up?
I'm out here today Like this issome stuff we're working on.
Like well, I know you guys arelike saying the line's moving
slow, we're working on it.
Here's what we're working onlike, just like, talk to them,

(37:47):
just be authentic.
That's always my strategy.
So, yeah, I'm front and centerEthan from thirst at the grocery
store.

People ever stops.
You've been like, hey, are yousure?
Yeah, it's awesome.

I love it.
It's like it's fun.
So it's kind of a weird thingto be like spotted for a lot.

But it's working if the people are notice you
know it's fun.
So From the path of beginningto now in one.
What is something that happenedthat you didn't anticipate,
that through you for a world, ormaybe like a Difficulty or head
when you ran into that kind ofmade you sweat for a little bit.

I mean I just went right now, I'm like in the
thick of Entrepreneurship rightnow.
Like I'm like I got that five,five to ten million dollar
revenue mark, like you're notlike a huge business but you're
not a small business anymore.
Yeah and uh, dude, it's, it's.
They say that's the hardeststage of at least in restaurant

(38:42):
growth and no question that'sthe case.
Like just figuring out scale,people management, like when you
and I'm I'm really self likefunded from the profit of
business Mostly so.
Like when do I quickly quiteafford to hire this next
position and which one do you donext?
So like I'm in the thick of it.
So I would say I mean I'm stillfiguring out what that hardest

(39:05):
challenge of you I'd say one ofthe hardest things is just
People management and scaling.
Good, how do I say and that'ssomething I just think about a
lot is like how do I say thecertain, how do I say this thing
a certain way to this person tomake them feel a certain way so
that they'll go, ultimately Goto do the job that I want them
to do?
You know, yes, other than thatsome managers or base level team

(39:26):
members or corporate corporateteam members, like that is the
game.
That is so much different thanRunning a soda shop.
You know, like the first fouryears I was learned how to
manage cost of goods, managelabor, do inventory and run a
speed of the GM of the store.
Now I'm Multiple tiers backfrom that level, like I'm

(39:48):
teaching the person who's gonnateach the person and holding
that person accountable forholding.
Yeah, so it's a totallydifferent game, and so I feel
like the last couple years I'velike, had to.
I'm restarting on learningsomething.
It's like I learned how to runthe food business.
Now I'm learning how to Getsomeone else to run a food
business is totally differentgame.
So, now I'm in the peoplebusiness and I work through my

(40:11):
team members, so it's a totallydifferent game.
I'd say that's the biggestthing is like making that for me
, has been the shift of I cancontrol everything to now I need
to affect the people that cancontrol everything.
And yeah, it's quite the puzzle, dude for sure.

Do you have any employees that have been there
either since the beginning orfor a really long time?

pretty close.
I got a couple, yeah, but wehave pretty high turn turnover
just because it's high schoolkids a lot, and college kids or
like or or not, but a lot ofpart-time and you know we
probably have like 50 Do 75 likefull-time for 40 hour weeks and
the rest would be just like youknow, really take a shift, yeah
20 30 hours a week.

So no, that makes sense.

Yeah, but yeah, it's been a puzzle to figure out
for sure.

I'm right in the middle of it still, but I'm sure
it turns from like a jigsawpuzzle to like a trying to think
about, like those like a Metalpuzzles where you have to like
push things in the right way.

Yeah same idea, just different shape type of
thing.
You still got to figure it out.

But still learning every day.

Yeah, that's been good and we're like I said,
we're right in the thick of itand it's fun.
That's what I do All day, everyday.
You just.
I'm just at that point in mylife, for I'm single guy, I
don't have kids to take care of.
I don't have a wife.
Like I don't need anything.
Like I have, I share anapartment with my body.

(41:33):
Like I don't need to make a lotof money so I can put all my
money back into the business togrow and it's fun.
I won't do it forever.
But it's fun now in this placeon 26, like I Like doing it
right now, so I don't thinkthere'll be another time where I
can go this all in for thislong amount of time, and so

(41:54):
that's right.

It's so cool, like I I love that point of view
that you're at right now,because I've had Some a little
older than you and I've hadenough friends go through kind
of like the period you're inwhen it's like, hey, everything
in my life right now is this,everything I'm making is going
back into the machine, yeah, andlike there's time with friends
I'm like, like, but I don't wantto be the one be like hey, man,
stupid idea, get out of here.

(42:16):
Yeah, but the, the, the amountof them that.
And I'd be like, I mean the Ihate to be the naysayer, but
like I'd be like I don't knowman, why don't you just enjoy
things more?
You're only young one and butthen fast forward and it worked,
and now they, then they cankind of take their foot off the
Gassle, the more kind of stepinto a different phase of things
.
Yeah, but I mean I totallycannot Understand and see, it is

(42:38):
not miserable either.
No, I mean you're having, I'mlike.

I gotta work a hundred hours a week, literally
because I'm doing, because workfor me is my hobby plus my work
plus Anything else I do in myspare time.
You know, like, combine that,combine someone's job plus their
hobby plus what they do inthere, I don't know like another
hobby or something like that'sall of my stuff.

Yeah, it's all wrapped in.

Like it's not, like it's not, like feels like a
huge sacrifice, sometimes likeI'm like, yeah, but honestly,
when I want to go hang out withmy friends are going out with my
friends like it's them, so II'm gonna get spots good.

No, that's awesome .
I love that story.
I love that, just like the thesheer grid of building it brick
by brick.
But I guess, as you're in thisstage of Kind of in I mean that
revenue space, it's becauseyou've gone from validating the
product, validating how to run asingle one, to scaling those.
But I mean, where do you seefrom now?

(43:38):
What is the next one?
Three, five years, look like.

Yeah, so really, really perfecting the model.
I'm, like I said, I'm reallyfocused on that, so priority for
me is to nail it like.

Nail it now before you scale and what does that
look like to you?

I mean.
To me that looks like.
Well, I'll give you an example.
Like my problem almost rightnow I'm trying to solve, is,
whenever I do marketing the opslike will will fail.
It won't hold up to the hype,right.

Yeah.

Or if I'm so focused on ops, then you know
the sales are to weigh down andso, like I'm fixing that bubble
right now, so doing a lot ofhiring and infrastructure around
ops so that we can drive a tonof sales and the experience will
be perfect.
So quick moving lines,consistent product, having every
Piece of the operations berunning smooth and profitable,

(44:25):
like profitable.
Like I'm really hot on how much, not how many units do you have
, but how much profit are youmaking from each unit.
So is is something I wish Iwould have thought about like a
couple years ago, before I wasjust clicking a mob opening a
bunch of them.
It's cooler to make.
It's cooler to make more moneyoff to units than no money off

(44:45):
six.
You know what I mean.

Oh yeah.

So I think I'm out a lot.
But yeah, nail theprofitability, nail the
experience.
And then I want to openprobably three to four more
units in Utah, but to the placesthat are just begging for us.
Like Utah County is a huge one,I think I could have two in
there.

Oh yeah, they could be across the street from
each other.
Yeah, just as busy.
I love northbound one,southbound yeah.

I love to be in Provo norm.
I've been begging since westarted.
That's where it all started, sowe definitely want to do battle
up in there.
But like Saratoga daybreak,some of these like really
growing cities, and then maybenorth, like Ogden or Leighton
too.
Yeah but at that point I feellike I mean where, as far as St
George and everywhere in thevalley.
So we kind of got the statecovered at that point.
I think I want to do that overthe next couple years.

(45:27):
And then I get couple emails aweek to buy a franchise, and so
I just kind of mark them allbecause not quite ready, but one
day I want to, and I think in acouple years, once we're all
set up for that and I'm owningall the stores that are running
really well, then I want to sellfranchises throughout the rest
of the country.

Yeah.

I think we could sell them everywhere really
quickly.
But uh yeah.
So we're gonna be everywhereone day, but Indu time for now
you got to perfect it all.

Yeah, no, it's like it's always interesting too
, because you look at a lot ofthe bigger brands.
I mean I think McDonald's islike one of the easiest one.
I mean it's not so justspecifically, but I mean fast
food drive-through and I meanthe amount of ones that I mean
McDonald's owns.
It's like a third, I think, ofall the locations and the rest
are franchise.
Yeah, and it's like such a Imean probably future in the
choir, but like the way to getinto a market.

(46:16):
I mean that's one of theeasiest ways to do it the least
amount of investments, like hey,we'll give you the idea, We'll
give you the product.
Yeah, you go fund this andthey're like oh, this is working
in Colorado.
Yeah, guess who would know isbuilding more locations in
Colorado?

I am yeah, go means guys, pros and cons, right
like, and I'll even I don'teven know, because I learned
like, and I'm so like quick tochange my mind, dude like I'll
change completely like my wholegame plan like quickly, if I
think it's the right move.
But this is what I think rightnow.
But, yeah, I've heard lots ofpeople why don't you ever do the
franchiser out?
I don't know, I'll figure itout.

I know everything else.

I don't know it'll go, but I will say you
can't argue with what crumblesdone.
It's insane.
It is insane what they've done.
Who knows how sustainable it'llbe, but I think it's truly
exceptional, I mean it's great,like just the other day.

So I had a friend who's moving back to Michigan
and I can't remember how it cameup.
We were talking about crumbleor some cookie I think it was
crumble and she's like, well,there's no way, there's no way.
There's one over by my hometown.
I was like there's, look it uplike there's three, and she's
like, no, there's not like fullit.
I'm like there's literallythree.
And then we zoom out on the mapin it they're everywhere.
Yeah, it's crazy, but it's so.

(47:27):
It's fun to see that peoplehave an appetite for it.
There's value in it, there'sgrowth in it, yeah, and so it's
a good place to be cool.

Yeah, we'll see how sustainable it is.
I don't think that it won't be,I'm just saying is it would be
impressive if it's a long, ifit's a long lasting business,
that'll be cool for sure.

Yeah, so thinking about, I mean saw like this
itself, I mean what, what do youlove about being here?
And I mean makes you gratefulthat this is the place that you
Started at all?

Yeah, I think I think Salt Lake is super.
It's entrepreneurial in myopinion, like I think it's.
It's.
It's the place to be dude inUtah for sure, specifically Salt
Lake, because I feel like it'sgot more of a mix of different
kinds of people, especially likethis, like my favorite.
My office is in the downtownstore still because it's just

(48:16):
the best place to be, I thinkthe best vibes in Utah.
But no, I think it's a.
I've been the restaurant toursthat I know here, the
entrepreneurs that I know here,like it's a collaborative people
are stoked on your success, Ithink a lot of the time.
And so, yeah, man, it's beenfun to be an entrepreneur here,

(48:36):
just because the city supportive, it's a, it's a dope city and
like there's other people doingit that'll help you out.
So I just think it's been goodit's been.
I'm glad I'm a business ownerhere.
I just first started totallylike it's.

It's so interesting to see, cause, like
I mean, right now in the US,it's been interesting to see how
cities have changed so much,and a lot of it's because of the
pandemic.
Where I mean pre pandemic likeoh, if you want to live in a big
city in the US, it's like oh,san Francisco, new York, la, I
mean Seattle, blah, blah, blah.
But then, like all of a sudden,because of pandemic, a lot of
it's driven by tech.
But like you start to see theselike kind of like I mean

(49:09):
tertiary cities, kind of likethese Nashville's, these
Charleston's, the solid citieskind of go from like these
smaller places to all of asudden people like, oh, if I can
work from anywhere, like mightas well be here, yeah, and
especially when you look atsilicon slopes, that's all
entrepreneurial spirit spirit.
You see.
I mean I'm finally the pointwhere, like, the food is
starting to show up in solid,because I got lived in Seattle

(49:29):
before, where I mean therestaurant scene there is is
unreal, and so now I'm finallylike, okay, like things are
happening, and it's all thisentrepreneurial spirit, these
people that have this idea andwant to make it happen.
And it's so fun to see SaltLake be such like a forefront of
that footprint of like, hey, wedon't necessarily need to do

(49:49):
All of these huge things thathave this economic growth.
Let's just remove theseroadblocks and let's get people
in these ideas and theseentrepreneurs the road that they
need in the path to make ithappen.

Yeah, it's like the key to success, right like
having booming businesses, likethat's the economy right?
No, I think it's 100% even justlike a place like we're sitting
right now, like it's just likesick that you know this place is
here like to bring like mindedpeople together, so I think it's
been dope.

No, totally and like until, for context, we're
Edison house recording hereagain and I mean, again, it's an
idea.
People saw an opportunity andthey made it happen and it was
well received and people love itand I think there's it's only
the tip of the iceberg, I mean.
I think I mean might be on thenose, but like podcasts are the
same way.

(50:37):
Yeah, I mean people, whenpodcasts first launch, people
can't even start up like there'salready hundreds of podcasts.
Why would you do that?
And then fast forward fiveyears later, something I'm gonna
start up like, but there'salready thousands of podcasts.
Why would you do that?
And like it just kind of keepsgoing.
And there's always room forentrepreneurs, there's always
room for improvement, there'salways room for, I mean, making
something better, moreprofitable, and we see that

(50:59):
every day here and I mean yousee it even more every day and
everything you do for sure.
But I guess, like thirst andbusiness and entrepreneur side,
and what are your some of yourfavorite things in Salt Lake?
Places to go?
Yeah, food, eat, yeah.

So I'm like I like to support my fellow
restaurant buddies for sure.
I'll say I mean I like it likeI grew up like went to college
here.
You know like hang out with mycollege friends, so I like the.
I think the bar scene is funhere and it's like well, it's,
it's all like just part of likegrowing up for me, so I love
hanging out down here.
But Favorite places set up alow.

(51:35):
My favorite place to go todinner, no question.
I think region streets prettycool, so I like honest eatery on
region street.
I don't know if you've beenthere.

Yeah, I like the bodies on there.

So honest is in like Vivina and they're down
there and they're on region andthey're in Foothill.
So you just like cool local andit's all about just like
homegrown stuff or I see you andlike like health food stuff
like that, so I don't know.
Just like local businesses.
Like that I think is sick andand supporting local and yeah

(52:07):
yeah, lots of opportunities indowntown to do it for sure.

And I like the because, like, nightlife is
something that I think isfinally like getting to a point
where it's really fun.
And I'll say like with thisbecause, like, when you go to a
lot of bigger cities, likethere's so many cool like niches
or kitchens or just like theselittle things that they put a
spin on.
Like, for example, one of myfavorite Bars from when I lived
in Seattle was this place calledMontana, and everything in that

(52:31):
bar was from Montana and soyou're like I feel like I'm in
Montana, but they also had theseMoscow mules on tap.
There was like fresh made, likewith some sort of ingredients,
like there's one time that islike blueberry Moscow mule on
tap, fresh.
It was amazing, yeah, and soit's fun.
And Salt Lake now you'restarting to see a lot of that
like I mean, I mean why key is agood example, where it's like
upstairs it's drag shows and inthe basement it's going to be

(52:54):
silent disco, and then, but youjust had the oh shoot, what's
that new Japanese bar?
But it's just like I meanlittle quick Japanese bites and
Japanese drinks like this, likewe finally have something better
than.
Yeah, well, we have twist,that's for the college kids and
then you can go to bourbon.
That's for people who justgraduated, like it was so much
more.
Just like.
This is the bar that thesepeople go to yeah and like
restaurants, things keep poppingup.

(53:16):
It's, it's fun, I love it.
Being in Salt Lake right now,like and I don't know if you
know this, but like.
So last year I spent six monthstraveling around the country
and I always had this idea thatI was going to find this perfect
place, that's going to be theperfect fit.
But after I mean almost 30states and six months, I was
like, oh, this actually justmakes me appreciate Salt Lake.
I'm gonna go home, yeah.
Yeah, no and so it's cool.

(53:38):
I mean, it's not perfect, but Ithink of all the things that
make it imperfect.
You can avoid a lot of them andthen when you kind of I mean
head to head against otherplaces, like I'll take this over
, that yeah, like any day.
So it's super fun.
So I guess we could wrap up withtwo questions I always like to
end with.
First is where can people findyou, either on social media or,

(54:03):
I mean, we know locations,website where we find you.
Where can we find yourmarketing that you post every
day?

Yeah, I mean so thirst drinks on all the social
platforms.
That's our business.
And then I do I basicallydocument all of entrepreneurship
.
It's a basically my personalbrand, but you know, I would say
it funnels into the businessbut the main sales for the
business, but the main priorityis just the documentation of
entrepreneurship.

(54:29):
So I do that on Instagram,ethan from thirst, I do on my
podcast, which is, which iscalled learning by doing,
because that's how I learnedthings and then I do a weekly
vlog on YouTube Just aboutrunning the business behind the
scenes, just like I have acamera girl that comes and does
a blog with me once a week.
and then, yeah, man, ethan fromthirst and thirst drinks.

(54:52):
But I'm just trying to pump outthe story of my business.

It's a great story and I love that we live in the
time where we can document itthat much.
Yeah, I get so funny now, likeI mean we're in the golden era
of TV and now we have like adocumentary coming out every day
that something like superfascinating and like, but
there's so few ones that it'slike oh, and here's this footage
from that like, and I don'tknow why, but like the Kanye
West documentary comes to themost, where it's like he just
happened to have this friend whohappened to have a camera, who

(55:20):
he believed his friend was goingto be the next big thing, so he
just started filming.
Yeah, where now it's like Imean you could have someone
follow you around every day andliterally pay them.
Or do you have a phone with acamera?
You can, and it's just so mucheasier.
And accessible.

Yeah, think about, like if we could have the
playbook that like of anyone welook up to, like if I wanted to
be a successful entrepreneur.
I go watch Mark Cuban whilehe's a kid you know, like while
he's my age or whatever.
That's crazy, that would beinsane.
And so yeah, if nothing else,my grandkids will like it.

Oh, without it, yeah.

I'm gonna go watch Grant possible.

And then the last question I have for you is if
you could have someone on thispodcast to hear about, I mean,
their story and what they built.
Who do you think you would wantto have on here?

As a guess for you.
Yeah, I would probably go.
I would probably go with, Iprobably go with Lauren Warner
from Honest Cedar.
Hmm, I would go with HonestCedar, but just another local
entrepreneur super good guys,he's a lot, of, a lot of things

(56:24):
the way I do an entrepreneurspace, but I just think like
restaurant tours business owners, such a sick market and like
such a sick at least for meintel of how they did it and
what they're up to in the city.

So no, I'm with you.
I love, I love entrepreneurshearing their story because,
like them, I'm someone who overthinks everything and so if you
give me enough time, I can talkmyself out of anything and but I
find I'm most happy, mostsuccessful, like, hey, ignore
that voice, keep moving forward,make it work and make it happen
.
So I always love hearing thosestories of it's like another
data point of like yeah, it canwork, especially in restaurants,

(56:59):
where I mean you look at thestats of like restaurants that
fail or like how hard it is orhow low money and like there's a
million reasons not to, but thepeople like, hey, no, but I
think I can make this work andthis is idea and I'm just gonna
do it, and then they do Yep, soit's awesome.
But I mean, ethan, thank youagain for coming to hang out.

I love the vibe.
Wish you all the best with thepodcast adventures much
appreciate.

As you said, it's all about putting yourself out
there, having the right vibe andbuilding it break by break, and
it goes from there.
Heck, yeah, man, good luck.
Good luck, hasley.
Thanks, boss.

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S1,E5: Thirst Drinks - Ethan Cisneros

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