Vault Episode 5: Thirst Drinks - Ethan Cisneros - Small Lake City

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What is up everybody, and welcome back to another
episode of the Small Lake CityPodcast.
I'm your host, eric Nilsson,and here this week we have
another Vault episode coming upfor you Now.
This one is with the founder ofThirst, ethan Cisneros.
Now, I've known Ethan sincecollege and it's been really fun
to see how he has grown Thirstfrom one store in Holiday to now

(00:22):
many locations across theWasatch Front, especially in his
story of becoming anentrepreneur early in high
school to continuing to do so tothis day.
Great episode with a great guy.
You're going to love this one,whether you've listened to it
already or this is the firsttime you've listened to it.
So let's jump into it and hearfrom Ethan and his story himself
.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
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
capital of sugar, the drug ofchoice, of sugar sorry, of Salt

(01:05):
Lake.
And it's been so fun to see howall of these different
businesses have come to be, Imean, the cookie empires, the
soda empires, the dessertempires, of it all.
And yeah, I wanted to sit downwith you kind of understand how
I mean the story all started,how you started, here in Salt
Lake and go from there.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
So definitely stoked to have you here.
Yeah, man, grateful to be here.
This is sick.
I'm really excited.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Awesome man.
Well, I mean, without furtherado, let's jump into it, 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 bitwhen are you.
Talk to me a little bit aboutwhere and the area you grew up,
what that was like for you.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
So I was actually born in California.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Oh, interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
So I came here when I was 10, I think so just in
elementary school.
My dad got a job here and thefamily moved over.
So yeah, I've been here sinceelementary and yeah, I grew up
over in Holiday.
So, like Olympus High, my highschool.
What part of California wereyou in before?
Southern California, OrangeCounty area.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
The typical.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Typical, yeah, place called Diamond Bar.
So yeah, I moved here and justwent to work and growing up in
Utah.
So primarily most of mymemories are here in Utah, for
sure, definitely.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
So I actually moved.
So I'm from Utah, born andraised, but I moved when I was
10 to a different neighborhoodyeah 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, uh, like, harvard yale
area.
Um, just me, my two sisters andmy mom, and I mean at that age,
you have such littlecomprehension of the world

(02:40):
around you that it almost feelslike you're moving to another
state like all my friends aregone, have to meet.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
What's the difference ?

Speaker 3 (02:45):
exactly totally.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
But when you moved here because obviously, like
when you're older and you moveto salt lake, it's like, oh,
this place is different yeah, ina lot of ways yeah did you feel
any of that difference when youcame here, or what was your
initial impression of salt lakewhen you arrived?

Speaker 3 (02:58):
yeah, no, I, we were kind of already in, like we had
a family here, and so I feellike we were already sort of
utah people before we came here.
Maybe not fully, but it wasn'ta huge shock, especially when I
was that young.
It was just kind of like whatit was.
Um, I think my older siblingsprobably my parents more so got
that like okay, like we're inmormon town, we're in the soda

(03:20):
shop on every corner type oftown, but yeah, and I didn't get
as much as kind of like whatI've known from the beginning,
for sure I would say and growingup.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
I mean your formative years.
I mean, was there any?
I mean sports.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
You played a lot, any activities that tend to
frequent yeah, I mean, I was, uh, all the sports type of kid
played football, baseball umrugby, raced dirt bikes with my
family she's everything yeah, wedid a lot.
I was always an entrepreneur kidtoo, like I was.
My lawn mowing business isprobably one of the most money
I've still ever made.
It's just so.

(03:50):
It's literally the best way tomake like cash as a kid is to
freaking mow lawns like I wantto go do it on the side still so
talk to me about that like whatwas the first way that you
heard about that or like thataha moment, you're like wait a
minute yeah, I think I found outabout it through like.
Uh, like one of my buddies orsomething like his, his dad had
mowed lawns or something.
So my buddy zach shout out tomy buddy zach from elementary we

(04:14):
started zach and ethan's lawns.
We just flyered every dooraround the neighborhood and
finally we got uh, we talked oneguy in mow in his lawn 20 bucks
a week or maybe it was like 15a week to start, and, dude, we
both lived like a half mile or amile in either direction.
I freaking put my mower or mytrimmer and my blower on top of
the mower and push that thinglike up by myself.

(04:36):
we met there, mowed the lawn and, uh, dude, we did that and we
just like slowly started tobuild like we would.
I think we had like 25 lawns,like at our peak, and like all
of our buddies worked for us, wegot to.
And this is, this is when I was11, 25 was later on but when I
was maybe 15, like stillcouldn't drive, we had like

(04:58):
legitimately 20 lawns a week orsomething like that.
Some of them are big ones and webought this trailer.
We couldn't drive but we gotthis trailer and our moms both
had suburbans and so our momswould take turns like picking us
up and then dropping off thetrailer in like a central
location in a neighborhood wherewe could go like walk max a
half mile to a different lawnwith, push them over there and

(05:21):
then, like at the end of thenight they'd pick us up, we'd
have done all our lawns and dude, we just hustled like every day
after school.
We do that every day in thesummer do that.
So it's legitimately still someof the because there was no
like entity set up.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
There was no you're not getting your llc, you don't
have your account, you're justcash on cash that that was like
right into the pocket.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Split at 50 50, it was awesome, but no, that was uh
.
I will say like, with thatbusiness I learned a lot of like
the basic mechanics of business.
Though, yeah, I remember onething was we I don't remember
whose idea it was, but it wasjust 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

(06:04):
put them on the knob after weleft, because you don't always
talk to the person.
You kind of bill them at theend of the month, like get all
everything in the month.
We would put cards on there.
We're like, hey, just lettingyou know you got service from
ethan today or zach today.
Like make it all personal, yeah, and then like leave the kind
of if you need anything at all,like here's our number, like
we're so grateful for yourbusiness.
And I always remember thatbecause it was like I learned

(06:24):
how 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 be so
appreciative that, yeah, whereother companies just mow it and
they dip.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
They don't ask if you need anything else but send you
a bill at the end of the monthand call it a day.
Yeah, dude but yeah, the lawnmowing business, shout out to
zach and ethan's lawns man Ilove so I mean, every person I
talk to always has thosememories of like okay, so my mom
picks up yeah, your mom willcome get us and we'll do it, but
like, it's usually like skiingor like going down a gateway
when I was a kid not like hey,mom, we're gonna go make a

(06:56):
couple hundred bucks mowingthese lawns all afternoon, I
think see you later.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
It was crazy, we had some adventures, but it was a
good business, it was fun no,that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
I love that you've put together so many of those
because, like, I'm a sucker forlike a great customer experience
.
Yeah, like I have a buddy thatuh started his own golf apparel
brand and I mean like the amount, like, and this guy is so
detail oriented and just it'slike there's a note with every
package and the branding isalways perfect, everything's
laid out, and I'm a sucker forthat like if everything like is
perfect, and there's this likehitchless experience, I'm like,

(07:25):
oh like chef's kiss yeah yeah,the details, all of the details,
but that's awesome.
So you so you have these summers.
You're mowing lawns like afiend, you're hiring all your
friends.
Yeah, making real money likeit's not like it was real.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
It was real, like thousands of dollars, but like
it wasn't insane.
But it was real.
We were breaking mowers andbuying stuff and we were
spending our money on whateverwe wanted to.
But yeah, and then when I was16, so where did you say you
grew up?

Speaker 2 (07:58):
I grew up in East High.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
Do they have any shaved ice shocks around there?

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Oh yeah.
So there was this one in uhdowntown holiday called uh
island flavor.
This was the spot.
I don't know about yours likethis.
So 15, 16, 16, you juststarting to want to hang out
with girls and friends like allthe time, right.
So there was the and you justget your license.
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.

(08:23):
I was like, okay, people aren'tcoming here just to buy snow
cones.
This is the hangout spot.
The cool people are hanging outhere yeah and all the cute girls
are working the snow cone shack, like all the girls that like I
would like trying to be goingdates that they're flirting with
, and like trying to go in theshack and like see what's going
on.
Yes, but this spot, it was likeit was popping.
It was called island flavor, ifyou know.
You know it was dope littlespot and I was like man, I could

(08:44):
totally do this.
And then so, yeah, like I said,I would become friends with the
girls and then literally, likethere, it would just be them
sometimes on shift all day, sojust go in there.
They'd show me how to make allthe stuff.
I was like seeing how, likethis 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'recharging like six bucks for it.

(09:06):
It's insane.
So I want I was like I want todo this when I was 16 and uh, so
I've started going to work onthat.
I first you need a buildingright like a shack, uh, and then
you need like a spot to put itand you need a lease,
essentially with the landlord toput this shack there, and you

(09:27):
need a business license, allthis stuff, and so that's how I
did it.
I figured all that out, I founda spot, negotiated a spot with
the landlord for the lease, Iwent into the city hall asked
him how would I do this?
And it was called Olympus High.
So I wanted it to be like thespot for olympus high kids.
So it was like a few blocksabove, like a quarter mile above

(09:49):
, olympus ice.
I called it olympus ice andthat's what it was.
Man, we freaking, oh.
And then I got a shack off.
Uh, it was on ksl, it was likea coffee drive-thru shack, yeah,
um, but, and it was like 15 000or 10 or $10,000 or $15,000.
I had a little from the lawnmowing but not that much.
But she put it on the ad.
This lady owned it up in Heber,her name was Sierra.

(10:12):
She put on the ad open tobusiness inquiries, and so I put
together.
My dad is in finance and so hehelped me put together,
basically a projection.
I was like I'm going to sellthis many snow cones.
It's going to cost me this much.
I'm going to put it here here'smy lease and uh, here's how
much money we're going to makeand if you give me the shack to

(10:33):
use for free, then I'll give you50 of the business.
So that was my first businesspartner this lady, just lady.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Lady, off the ksl.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
She's like sure, yeah , I'll drive it and then so she
ended up being my co-founder inThirst actually.
So she had, like owned a bakeryup in Heber and she had this
shack that she was selling onthe property and yeah, basically
I ran it for three summers andhired employees.
This one we did legit, like Ihad to pay sales tax, do
inventory, because you knowwe've done like 50 000 a summer,

(11:07):
yeah, or something like notcrazy, but like it felt crazy.
Yeah, it was felt crazy at thetime and uh, yeah, man, so we
did olympus ice for threesummers, um, and that's what I
did 16 17.
Basically I kind of created itin 16, opened when I was 17, did
it from 17 18 and probably whenI was 19 for three summers.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
So I totally hope that's so funny because, like I
remember when you said like, oh,like, they're like shaved ice
places around, like yes, and onespecific like, and I actually
went, there earlier this summer,uh, but it's on the by the old,
um, it's not shopko, but it'son like the by that mcdonald's
on highland, not highland um21st south and 21st East, by
that Albertsons, there wasalways one in that parking lot,

(11:47):
for I think it's an anytimefitness now, but I remember 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.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Like I remember.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Do you remember?
Spoon me.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Oh yeah, so spoon me like on four south.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
yeah, so I had two friends that work there, yeah,
and so I would always show up,be like, hey, like let me get
some, like like fro you.
They're like, well, listen,they count the cups, so you have
to buy a cup, but we will fillit up as many times you want,
and so I would like sit thereand hang with them and you have
like two or three fillings of it, which is a lot, yeah, and the
same thing with snow cones,though, because of that snow
cone shack there was uh, hisname was chris brown, from

(12:23):
highland, not to get mistakenwith one of my best friends,
christian brown, but he wouldwork there like the hang, was it
?
There would be tons of guysthere, there'd be tons of girls,
girls would always be working,and he'd be like oh, how does
this work?
can I come back?
Oh, you're putting like creamon top.
This is unreal and yeah, Itotally love that and like, even
to the point where, like, likeI said, um, I have this electric

(12:43):
scooter that I used to use more, but I was like I'm gonna go on
a scooter ride and get a snowcone.
It felt like a 16 year old kidagain.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
It was amazing, but it's always all about the spot.
Yeah, freaking shaved ice.
I want to go back.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Oh, dude, let's start one up.
But, like also, I remember Iwas driving back from I think it
was down escalante earlier andI was when I was going past uh,
through utah county, there wason the side of the road a snow
cone shack for sale and I waslike wait a minute, like totally
understand, seeing that beinglike I can make this work, this,
this, we could do this yeah butnow you have like all the, the

(13:16):
hokalias and all like it's beenlike, so, like, commercialized
that.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
It's like oh like opportunity might not be that
anymore.
Would slap local spa.
Would slap right now.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Any snow cone right now would slap.
So you started this mowingbusiness.
Then you're like snow cones arethe jam you create the hang for
the Olympus kids.
So then you graduate, so thosethree summers are over and then
you go to college.
Up to you, was yourentrepreneurial spirit still
flourishing, or were you kind offocusing on school, school or

(13:47):
what was your mindset at thatpoint?

Speaker 3 (13:48):
so, yeah, I.
So I graduated, I still ownedolympic, olympic size.
So I did it for another year,um, and that's when I went to
the?
U.
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 tothe?
U, I was running my shave icebusiness.
I was in my frat, at the?
U in the frat, and I mean, Iwas not focused on school at all

(14:12):
, like I was not really going toclass, I was just running my
business and hanging out with myfriends at the?
U.
I was using the?
U for for social, for sure.
But, um, yeah, I did that.
Uh, I did one semester at the?
U just running olympus ice.
And then, um, I knew I wantedto do something else, like
pretty quick on in theentrepreneurial game and like do

(14:32):
something new.
Swig, this is, you know, swig.
So this is when.
This is eight years ago.
So this is seven, eight years.
This is almost eight years ago.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Um, they were just in provost st george at the time
because I was going to st georgea lot during this time because
I was dating someone down thereyeah and I mean we drive past
like do you want to get a soda?

Speaker 3 (14:50):
like yeah, it's like the thing you do.
Oh yeah, like it's again thehang.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
It's what you do.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, just part of it , it's a part of the culture and
swig is the culture in stgeorge.
It's crazy, not wrong, but umanyway.
So, yeah, they hadn't come hereyet and my business partner so
the lady that I did the shavedice shack with, she had worked,
watched me work hard for a fewsummers.
We made some money on not crazy, but made some money on the
shaved ice.
And uh, like I said, she had abakery up in heber so she kind

(15:19):
of knew like the small businessgame too, and we saw swig
blowing up and nothing had cometo 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 a drive-thru space.

(15:41):
And just one thing led toanother we think we can do.
One thing we did really good atOlympus Ice was we made it that
hangout Like Swig Thirst.
We sell a brand, we sell anexperience.
We don't, although we sellproducts and sometimes like we
can even be known for thoseproducts.
More than anything, we sell thebrand, we sell the experience

(16:01):
to the customer, where otherbusinesses are more
transactional based on theactual product like this is the.
Just like I learned, like whenpeople were going to the island
flavor they weren't going forthe snow cone, they were 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, a lot

(16:23):
larger scale, bigger menuversion of that.
Yeah, and so, yeah, we came upwith thirst, just created the
brand from scratch and we wantedto be an 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,

(16:44):
probably always will be, is wesell an experience.
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 homeless, oh
yeah everywhere dude, it's likeyou know, at the ballpark area,
but uh, and it was like failingother other failing businesses
before like multiple, like itwas like two, they were okay.

(17:06):
It's like big kahunas was inthere freaking.
The one right before was a old.
It was a spaghetti shop, adrive-thru spaghetti shop.
That signed me up like no,literally, when we went in, like
to pull, we're pulling down themenu and like we peeled off one
and there was another foodbusiness behind it, we peeled
off and there was another one.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
It was insane like three failed menus and you're
just like great is mine the nextone on this, this thing is?

Speaker 3 (17:32):
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 I was
positive it was gonna work.
But yeah, so we created thirstand, uh, we opened.
We had a fun grand opening but,dude, we were slow for a couple
years so what?

Speaker 2 (17:51):
what year was that or when was that grand opening?
Do you remember the date oryear?

Speaker 3 (17:54):
it was september 2016 , sept.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
September 2016.
So you started the soda shop.
There's been some similar ones.
I mean, what's going throughyour head at this time?
I mean, just from your tone ofvoice I can tell you're super
stoked on it and just gassed andknow it's going to work.
But was there anything thatmade you a little apprehensive
or kind of cautious, or are youjust mostly all steam ahead?

Speaker 3 (18:14):
At the time I was just blindly all steam ahead.
I had no idea what I wasgetting into, just the amount of
responsibility, because I'verun these businesses before.
But this is talking every day.
You're open at 8, and you closeat 10, and someone's got to be
there every day.
I didn't really have that.
The shaved ice is seasonal.

(18:35):
All the lawns, you kind of dothem when you want to some
degree.
Um, so this is like a biggerstep.
But yeah, we opened and, like,like I said, we had like a fun
grand opening.
All my frat bros came, I boughtsome, whoever was left from
high school came to support, butlegitimately, no one came.
Like I think the first dayafter the grand opening we did
like a hundred dollars in sales,like a hundred dollars.

(18:58):
So we went, I and I had hiredall these employees, yeah, like
and they're just sitting therelike dude.
I literally like I thought itwas going to be so busy that
like I was going to need to bedoing office work, like I got,
like I was so wrong, it wasinsane, but I ended up firing
like all but like two.
I had to let everyone go becauseI can't pay you a hundred

(19:19):
dollars I made today yeah, myco-founder, like we invested,
like she had just sold a houseand, um, like a house that she
had, she's not wasn't like richor anything, but like just sold
a house watched me work reallyhard for three summers on the
shaved ice and she put likeliterally like 70 000 into
building out this restaurantyeah and um, that was it, like

(19:42):
we didn't have any funding afterthat and so like money's gone
gotta start generating something, or pretty gonna be another one
of those menus on the yeah, Iwas like and dude.
I'm grateful for it, though,because, like, I literally had
to figure it out or I was goingout of business.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Ships were.
Ships were burnt.
Yeah, I had to make it work,that was payroll.
I gotta pay vendors, and so so,so talk to me about that
process.
So, because I think a lot ofpeople, I mean, and myself
included, would they think that,okay, I have this idea for this
business.
Obviously they think it'samazing yeah but then they go
and launch it, they go to marketand they're like, oh, wait a
minute, this isn't the kind oflike overnight success I thought

(20:16):
it was gonna be.
Yeah, so how did you go fromlike maybe I mean, I don't want
to call it like a low, but likethat point being 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?

Speaker 3 (20:28):
yeah, it was one.
It's definitely one of the mostlike clear correlate
entrepreneurship.
One of my favorite parts aboutit is it's definitely one of the
most clear correlations of Iput in this much, I get out this
much, and I learned that a lotat the beginning of Thirst
because, like I said, there's noboss to turn to, there's no
more money, and so I learned howto do all these things.

(20:49):
I learned how to manage mylabor, how to manage inventory,
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, um dude, I just figuredit out.
I basically worked every shiftfor two years, literally work up
in the clothes every single dayand in between every car.

(21:10):
I was this is like right.
When instagram was coming outand it was like it was.
It was like from facebook snapand like this was instagram was
peaking, becoming the next bigthing, and I was post.
I just went all in on it, allin, like.
I was posting like 50 stories.
Right.
When stories came out to 50stories a day on the first page,
I was dming literally everyonethat was posting in the city and

(21:34):
I was personally messaging themand being like yo my name is
Ethan, I have this businessdowntown Because I knew the
business was good and I knew Iwas doing good customer service,
the products were good.
I was just like I got to spreadthe word about this and so I
would literally DM them and Iwould say come get a free drink
on me, check it out, let me knowwhat you think.
I wouldn't ask them foranything or to buy anything and

(21:54):
I just freaking did that till Ifell asleep every night.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Just over and over and over and over.
I did that yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
And just built, built , built, built, built, built,
little by little, like there wasno jump, there was no big jump,
like we did a hundred dollars amonth.
A couple months later we wereup to 200.
Couple months later.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Like I'm talking brick by brick.
There was no like oh, I didthis one thing and this changed,
or I reached out to this oneperson and that changed.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
It was just yeah, it was slow and so, yeah, I did
that and then I started to buildand then another big win I had
early was the vivin arena, asyou remember, like five, six
years.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
So talk to me about that.
How did that come?
To like did you approach them?
Did they approach it was?

Speaker 3 (22:33):
getting rebuilt.
Right, like six years ago nowthey was getting rebuilt and so
I knew all the contracts weregoing to be up in there,
probably because they'reremodeling the whole arena,
putting new vendors in there,and swig was in there, so it was
in there at the time and so Iwas going into the concessions
group that like owns and runsall the concessions it's called

(22:53):
levy.
I was going in there andwriting personal notes, dropping
off treats like multiple timesa week, like emailing, trying to
call anyone.
So if I could just get ameeting, because I was positive
that I could convince them thatlike they should be all about
the local businesses.
I'm going to do better becauseI'm a local brand just down the
road and like just had nobusiness doing it, but I totally

(23:17):
just sent it of course, and Igot a freaking meeting with, uh,
the head of concessions thereand I pitched them on it and
they liked me, I guess.
But yeah, the kick swig got dudefreaking.
That's built as a brand newthirst in there, because they
were building everything anywaysyeah, I mean it's all.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, um, I can't remember the term, but when it
like, you can build it howeveryou want to.
It's not like you have to gointo the old one.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, so I got, so we still have that first one, so
we have two now.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
But the time like Two in Vivint, itself In Vivint
yeah, delta Center.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
Thank goodness I still can save Vivint every day.
But yeah, so it was.
You know it's like the secondlevel back, but I was stoked.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
You're there, You're there.
It doesn't matter what your jobis on the rocket ship, as long
as you have a ship on the rocketyou can go from there.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah, and so they built us a sweet thirst in there
and it did awesome.
I've always made money on that.
Since it opened, they take ahuge cut in there, but it's
great for the brand.
You have to charge a lot ofmoney.
The arena prices are a ton.
We've always made a littlemoney to spend good, and we
actually got a second location afew years later on the main
floor, right in front of themain doors.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
So obviously they liked you.
It wasn't just that he keepswriting me notes.
Can you please just get him tostop?

Speaker 3 (24:31):
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 you're thereno questions.
Yeah, if they need it, I'llbend over 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 anyother like anecdotes that you

(24:52):
have where you're?

Speaker 2 (24:54):
I mean personalized kind of taking care of the
customer or doing whatever ittakes ended up in?
I mean call it getting what youwanted or opening a door for
you.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
Let's take a quick break.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Hope you're enjoying the episode so far.
One big announcement is thatMerchandise is live.
Go ahead over to the websitesmalllakepodcom to check out the
merchandise.
We have great shirts, hats andsweatshirts.
I went through a rigorousprocess to make sure I had the
right person creating my merchand the right t-shirts and
sweatshirts to do it.
So go check it out.

(25:29):
Go cop some gear and look greatthis season in your new Small
Lake City merch season in yournew small lake city, merch?

Speaker 3 (25:41):
yeah, I mean, I think that that second location of
event is a prime example.
Like I will literally doanything, but I don't know.
I don't know anythingspecifically, but I think of
things like that in the longgame, all like that's the only
way I think about things is likelike how can I help this?
Because it's like one of thoseselfless to be selfish things
right, like by being so selfless, like it's almost you get what

(26:04):
your selfish wants are.
At the end, maybe they're notselfish, like have bad intent,
but like whatever you wanttypically will come around.
If you're more selfless, youknow, and so, no, I've always
kept that strategy, you know, tothings for people.
But yeah, vivint was our secondstore and uh, so we had that
those two for and we didcatering too.

(26:25):
We still do ton of catering,yeah, uh, but we've done that
for, like I think we're open forfour years, just those dang.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
And then, because one thing I love about the vivint,
and I'll say this really quick,but I was in, uh, aust Austin
earlier this year going to visita friend and, yada, yada, yada,
we met up with one of thepeople that lives in his
apartment to go to this othersocial club where they had like
a simulator and we're just goingto go hit balls and watch the
Masters, because it was thatweekend.
I was just talking to himbullshitting and he was like, oh

(26:52):
, where are you from?
I'm like, oh, I'm from SaltLake City.
He's like, oh, you ever go tothe Vivian Arena?
I'm like Delta Center.
But I was like, yeah, he's likethat is a weird place.
And I was like, what do you mean?
Unpack that for me?
He's like, well, I had a vendorthat was giving me.
I mean, he's like I hadcourtside tickets grab a beer,

(27:13):
and there was no one in the beerline and I turned my head over
and there's literally this linefor soda, like wrapped, all the
way through the queue and I waslike, yeah, like welcome to utah
, like the sugar capital.
And he's like I've never, everseen them.
Like, yeah, most, most haven't.
But I'm like it's so awesomethat you got that and like
especially having thoseexperiences early on in your
lawn business where it's like,oh hey, like we wrote

(27:35):
personalized notes, we took careof people, we made this
customer experience our priority, and how that's just cascaded
into these times where I mean,if you didn't do that and if you
were just like well, I'll emailthem or I'll I'll try and see
like it probably wouldn't haveworked.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
It wouldn't have worked for sure.
Yeah, no, I 100 agree.
And just like dude, just likebeing literally just nice and
friends to everyone just paysoff such big time.
Like all, for example, like allthe other vendors in the arena,
like always I'm going like, ifI don't know someone, 100 going
up to him, introducing him, liketalking about how things have
been going in the arena.

(28:10):
Like that stuff plays out.
You know whether it's a collabyou do down the road or there's
some piece of advice, or youknow connection they can make
for you.
I don't even ever worry aboutit because it just always plays
out.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
Totally, and you never know.
This is part of what I do forWorkWork is operationalizing
sales teams, and one thing wealways talk about is do your
cold calls, reach out, do thehard things, because it'll work
out.
There's always those one sourcewhere it's like do your cold
calls, reach out, do the hardthings, cause it'll work out.
And there's always like thoselike um like one source where
it's like I um, the last call Imade at the last day they

(28:42):
reached and they 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 likeoh, I know this person that
comes to mind, or I know thisperson.
I don't know them well, but Iknow that they do it.
And so who knows how many ofthose conversations are like hey
, we have this event coming up.
We really want it.
They want to have someone tokind of like oh yeah, you've got

(29:05):
to go to Ethan.
He's the man.
He always talks to me when I'mworking at the Chick-fil-A and
he's always so.
We like working with nicepeople who can help solve our
problem.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
Like it's, it's all of those things, business move A
hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Without a doubt, like without a doubt.
And it's so funny when I like Imean you always run into people
who are just I mean for lack ofa better term just like
assholes for the sake of beingassholes, and I'm like, how do
you like you think this isabsolutely not?

(29:40):
Yeah, I agree.
So all right, so let's, let'sgo back to it, so you have your
store, the one, the original oneon 13 south, the one I remember
when I went there the firsttime, because when you launched
in 2016, I was living in seattleat the time, but I could always
see on instagram like, oh, myfriends would go through the
drive-thru like thirst, like anew swig, yeah.
But I was like, okay, thirst,interesting.
And I kept seeing it over andover and over again on stories
because it became again likethis experience that people want
to share and then that makesother people interested.

(30:01):
Um, and I remember the firsttime I went I won it was
actually I won an instagramgiveaway, you did, and I got
like a 25 gift card and I waslike all right and like I always
go through these like ebbs andflows of, like my soda addiction
, yeah, where, like I won't havesoda for two months but then
I'll be golfing or I'll be doingsomething like you know what A
Coke sounds really good rightnow, and then for the next two

(30:22):
weeks I'm having a Coke everyother day and then it stops and
then, anyway, up and down, upand down, and I remember that
kicked off a pretty hard sodaaddiction, because every time I
would go by on 30, because I wasliving let's living.
See, then I was in the avenuesish, but I was always trying to
like I mean going from, I meanthere's always a reason to go
from, like where I lived before,like Yale Crest area, or like

(30:43):
avenues getting to, I mean likeTarget, costco, anywhere over on
third west.
I'd be like, well, if I'm goingdown 13, some I'll 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 smiling.
There was just consistenttraffic and so it's cool to see
and hear that story of.

(31:03):
It wasn't always that way andyou just grew it all.
So you had the Salt Lake store.
You got the places in VivintFrom then.
What was there?
What was your plan?

Speaker 3 (31:13):
What was?

Speaker 2 (31:14):
the next stage.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
So we opened our Mill Creek store.
It was our second brick andmortar.
And that's the one over by it'son 33rd and I mean it might be
Kind of by REI.
It's like Hector's Salty Peak,salty Peak, yeah, all around
there, because it used to bethat, oh, shoot.

(31:42):
What was it before diet coke?
Yeah, going through.
Yeah, they did have them.
Huh, yeah, and so it's funnythat they paved the way they
walked so you could fly.
Yeah, there you go.
Yeah, but no, that thing that'slike.
It's probably still like ourpremier store.
It's got a big dine-in, it'sour busiest store usually.
Um, it's just right in theperfect area it's also right
where I grew up, yeah it's rightwhere I grew up, so I went to
olympus.
It's like right up from there,it's right up from where where
olympus ice was.
So it's just a sick store.
I love that store and so, yeah,we opened that one.
And then we opened, uh, westjordan, we opened one out west

(32:02):
jordan, opened one out inbountiful to willa so I was
telling you I was just comingfrom there training a manager
tonight, um, and then we openedone in st george, slash, delhi,
so a little over a year ago.
And then, uh, we have, we havea bakery production bakery that
we one of the biggest things wesell is soft pretzel bites and

(32:23):
beignets yeah, so we have abasically 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 pick them up fresh andserve them.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
I didn't know you guys had it or you did it
yourself.
I always assumed it was Acouple of years ago, we weren't
always um.

Speaker 3 (32:45):
we were buying them from other bakeries, basically,
and just reselling them, butobviously, as you can imagine,
there's no margin.
Like the margins likefractional compared to doing it
yourself, so doing it yourself.
So I bought, I saved up, boughtthe recipes from of the
beignets I bought, like Iliterally I don't know, I'm not
a baker at all, but like that'sall I do for my business, but I
bought my pretzel recipe.
I bought all the recipes Ishould say like.

(33:07):
But I'm it's 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.
Uh, bought my beignet recipefrom from a bakery.
Just like here and there I cameup with all these recipes and,
yeah, just opened a bakery.
We now we do more like we'llcome up with new products and

(33:31):
everything that gets served atthe first stores comes out of
there.
So it's fun to have.
But, yeah, so we have basicallysix drive-thru retail locations
, drive-thru and walk-in diningareas, and then, uh, we do the
jazz arena, we do the mavericks,we're doing the maverick center
this year.
Oh cool, the hockey and stuff.
We'll see how that goes.
And then we do catering.
We have a location just forcatering that everything comes

(33:52):
out of, to the wedding, tons ofweddings and corporate events.
Uh, so we have like just akitchen where that all runs out
of and yeah, it's been a heck ofa ride what's your favorite
part?

Speaker 2 (34:02):
like if you broke down your I mean day-to-day or
week-to-week or month-to-monththings, you do.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
What's the thing like , okay, I can finally do this
yeah, I mean my forte ismarketing, like I'm best at that
, for sure.
Being the face like content, uh, it's really what's made us
will like get to where we are.
For sure, like I'm, I also doall the operations.
Like I kind of wear almost allthe hats right now, cool.
But uh, I would say I'm best atmarketing and that's like where

(34:27):
I find my most enjoyment.
But I do a lot of operationstoo.
I mean I have 200 employees, solike I mean I'm sure you have
it down.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
I mean because I'm trying to do the math in my head
.
So you have Salt Lake, you havewhat's called Vivint, one
Bountiful West Jordan, tooele,st George, mill Creek.
Did I miss one?

Speaker 3 (34:44):
Yeah, and then just the production facility.
The production facility slashcatering.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
So it's like there's eight.
I mean, would you say by nowyou have like a playbook.
Were to open one up next week,that you would go through, or is
it so different?

Speaker 3 (34:55):
like I definitely put in the work.
We've had lots of processes andmanuals and things like that.
But no, I think, like one ofthe things I see like crumble
and I see a lot of early stagebusinesses I'll find a little
bit of success and then gofranchise out really quickly,
which credit where credit's due,crumbles like the fastest

(35:17):
growing franchise 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.
The business really wasn'tready, everything wasn't figured
out yet, it was still a baby,um, and so I think about that a
lot.
Like we've been open for sevenyears and I'm still tweaking the
processes and like I want tosell franchises everywhere one

(35:39):
day but not yet.
Like I'm still.
Like I'm still making all thosemanuals, I'm still dialing and
profitability and uh scaling too, like just and and handling,
chewing everything I've bittenoff at this point.
So so I'm trying to be patient,but also I mean I want to keep
growing for sure?

Speaker 2 (35:59):
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 love that you have alwaysstepped in this role of being
the face of it all, because Iremember when I first started
following you on Instagram orseeing reposts, like it was you
front and center, being you like, just unabashedly and and it's

(36:20):
I truly do believe in likeenergies resonate with people
and like if you put out thispositive energy, saying, hey,
come here, it's cool, it'sawesome, you don't like it again
.
Like trying to message thisexperience that you're trying to
curate, eventually they'll lineup, yeah, and then people come
through.
So I love that you have that,but then also that it wasn't.
This instant, like, okay,there's success, time to make as

(36:41):
much success as possible, butinstead being like you know,
there's there's other things Ican do, there's other things I
want to perfect yeah focus onthe customers, focus on the
experience.
I mean obviously all theoperational metrics and
components that go into it aswell.
Yeah, I mean I mean I?

Speaker 3 (36:56):
I mean to address the second point that you have is
like I'm balancing likeeverything I like to do, but
also running a practicalbusiness, like I have to make
payroll every other week, whichis 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
very serious job.
Lots of salary people's familysalaries are on the line, and so

(37:18):
I take it super, superseriously.
So, yeah, like it's a balancefor sure.
But, um, I mean to your firstpoint, me being front and center
.
I think it's just the greatestmarketing strategy of all time
to be authentic, you know, solike no one wants to buy from
someone that they don't know thestory behind it.
You know no one wants to buyfrom the corporate place, right?
You know that's always thething, and so like the most

(37:41):
original story and like taglinethat we all have is our, our
cell, like authenticity, and sothat's what I do in content.
I'm front and center and I don'tedit things a lot.
I don't like try to makeperfect stuff.
I just post as much as possibledocumenting the business.
I tell the I call them thethirsty nation, as our followers

(38:04):
like thirsty nation, what up?
I'm out here today like this issome stuff we're working on,
like I know you guys are likesaying the line's moving slow,
we're working on that.
Here's what we're working on,like.
Just like, talk to them, justbe authentic.
That's always my strategy.
So, yeah, I'm front and center,ethan from thirst at the
grocery store.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Have people ever stopped.
You've been like hey, are yousure, dude?
Yeah, it's awesome I love it.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
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 peoplenotice you.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Yeah, no it's fun so from the path of beginning to
now in one.
What is something that happenedthat you didn't anticipate,
that threw you for a whirl ormaybe like a difficulty or a
head when you ran into that kindof made you sweat for a little
bit I mean I'm sweating rightnow, dude, I'm like in the thick
of entrepreneurship right now.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
Like I'm like at that five, five to ten million
dollar revenue mark, like you'renot like a huge business but
you're not a small businessanymore.
And uh, dude, it's, it's.
They say that's the hardeststage of at least in restaurant
growth and no question that'sthe case.
Like just figuring out scale,people management, like when you
and I'm really self like fundedfrom the profit business mostly

(39:23):
.
So like when do I, when can wequite afford 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 the hardest
challenge would be.
I'd say one of the hardestthings is just, uh, people
management and scaling.
Yeah, like, how do I say andthat's something I just think
about a lot is like how do I saythe certain, how do I say this

(39:46):
thing a certain way to thisperson to make them feel a
certain way so that they'llultimately go to do the job that
I want them to do?
You know, yeah, other than thatsome managers or base level
team members or corporate teammembers like it, that is the
game.
That is so much different thanrunning a soda shop.
You know, like the first fouryears I was learned how to

(40:07):
manage cost of goods, managelabor, do inventory and run us
be the gm of the store.
Now I'm multiple tiers backfrom that level, like I'm
teaching the person, who's goingto teach the person and holding
that person accountable forholding that person.
So it's a totally different gameand so I feel like the last
couple years I've like, had to.
I'm restarting on learningsomething.

(40:29):
It's like I learned how to runa food business.
Now I'm learning how to getsomeone else to run a food
business.
It's totally different game sonow I'm in the people business
and I work through my teammembers, so it's a totally
different game.
So now I'm in the peoplebusiness and I work through my
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

(40:50):
to affect the people that cancontrol everything.
And yeah, it's quite the puzzle, dude For sure.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Do you have any employees that have been there
either since the beginning orfor a really long time?

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Pretty close.
I've got a couple, yeah, but wehave pretty high turnover just
because it's high school kids alot, and college kids or like or
not, but a lot of part time.
And you know, we probably havelike 50 to 75, like full time
for 40 hour weeks and the restwould be just like you know,
really take a shift, yeah 20 to30 hours a week, so weeks and

(41:25):
the rest would be just like youdon't really take a shift.
Yeah, 20 to 30 hours a week, sono, that makes sense.
Yeah, but yeah, it's been apuzzle to figure out.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
For sure I'm right in the middle of it still, but I'm
sure it turns from like ajigsaw puzzle to like uh trying
to think about like those likeuh like metal puzzles where you
have to like push things in theright way and yeah same idea,
just different shape type ofthing.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
You still gotta figure it out.
But still learning every dayyeah, that's been good and we're
, uh, like I said, we're rightin the thick of it and, uh, it's
fun.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
It's what I do all day, every day, you just I must
at that point in my life where I, I'm a single guy.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
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 buddy.
Like I don't need to make a lotof money so I can put all my
money back into the business togrow um and uh, it's fun.
I won't do it forever, but it'sfun now, when I'm in this place
on 26, like I.

(42:15):
I like doing it right now, so Idon't think there'll be another
time where I can go this all infor this long amount of time,
and so that's where I'm at.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
It's so cool, like I, I love that point of view that
you're at right now, becauseI've had uh, because I'm a
little older than you and I'vehad enough friends go through
kind of like the period you'rein where it's like, hey,
everything in my life right nowis this, everything I'm making
is going back into the machine.
Yeah, yeah, and like, there'stimes, friends, I'm like I don't
know if this is a good idea,like, but I don't want to be the
one to be like, hey, man,stupid idea, get out of here.

(42:45):
Yeah, but the, the, the amountof them that, and I'd be like I
mean the, I hate to be the fastforward and it worked, and then
they can kind of take their footoff the gas a little more, kind
of step into a different phaseof things.
But I mean I totally canunderstand and see the joy of it

(43:08):
and it's not miserable either.
No, I mean you're having fun.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
People think.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
I'm like I got to work 100 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 intheir I don't know like another
hobby or something like that'sall of my stuff, yeah, and it's

(43:31):
all wrapped in one little thinglike it's not like it's not like
it doesn't feel like a hugesacrifice, sometimes like I'm
like, yeah, but honestly, when Iwant to go hang out with my
friends, I go hang out with myfriends, I'm going to get spots.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
That's awesome.
I love that story.
I love the sheer grit ofbuilding it brick by brick.
But I guess, as you're in thisstage of that revenue space,
because you've gone fromvalidating the product,
validating how to run a singleone, to scaling those, but where
do you see from now?

(44:07):
What does the next one, three,five years, look like?

Speaker 3 (44:10):
Yeah, so really perfecting the model.
Like I said, I'm really focusedon that.
So priority for me is to nailit.
Nail it before you scale it.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
What does that look like to you?

Speaker 3 (44:20):
I mean.
To me that looks like well.
I'll give you an example.
Like my problem almost rightnow that I'm trying to solve is,
whenever I do marketing the opslike will will fail.
It won't hold up to the hyperight, yeah or.
But if I'm so focused on opsthen you know the sales are way
down and so, like I'm, I'mfixing that bubble right now, so
doing a lot of hiring andinfrastructure around ops so

(44:43):
that we can drive a ton of salesand the experience will be
perfect.
So quick moving lines,consistent product, having every
piece of the operations berunning smooth and profitable
profitable, I'm really hot onhow much?
Not how many units do you have,but how much profit are you
making from each unit?
Totally Is something I wish Iwould have thought about like a

(45:06):
couple years ago, before I wasjust clicking them off, opening
a bunch of them.
It's cooler to make more moneyoff two units than no money off
six.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
So I think about that a lot.
But yeah, nail theprofitability, nail the
experience.
And then I want to openprobably three to four more
units in Utah to the places thatare just begging for it.
So Utah County is a huge one.
I think I could have two inthere.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Oh yeah, they could be across the street from each
other and they'd both be just asbusy One northbound, one
southbound yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
I'd love to be in Provo and Orem have been bagging
since we started.
That's where it all started.
So we definitely want to doBattle Up in there, probably
Saratoga, daybreak, some ofthese really growing cities, and
then maybe North, like Ogden orLayton too, but at that point I
feel like we're as far as StGeorge and everywhere in the
Valley, so we kind of got thestate covered at that point.
I think I want to do that overthe next couple of years and

(46:02):
then couple years, and then, uh,I get a couple emails a week to
buy a franchise and so I justkind of mark them all because,
uh, not quite ready, but one dayI want to.
And I think in a couple years,once we're all set up for that
and I'm owning all the storesthat are running really well,
then I want to sell franchisesthroughout the rest of the
country.
I think we could sell themeverywhere really quickly.
But uh, yeah, so we're gonna beeverywhere one day, but in due
time for now you got to perfectit all.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yeah, no, it's.
It's like it's alwaysinteresting too, because you
look at a lot of the biggerbrands.
I mean I think mcdonald's islike one of the easiest ones.
I mean it's not sodaspecifically, but I mean fast
food drive-thru and I mean theamount of ones that I mean
mcdonald's owns it.
Third, I think of all thelocations and the rest are
franchised and it's like such aI mean probably preaching to the
choir, but the way to get intoa market, I mean that's one of

(46:46):
the easiest ways to do it theleast amount of investments,
like hey, we'll give you theidea, we'll give you the product
you go fund this.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
And then you like and I'm so quick to change my mind,
dude Like I'll changecompletely my whole game plan,
like quickly, if I think it'sthe right move.
But this is what I think rightnow.
But yeah, I've heard lots ofpeople like why don't you ever
do figure it out?
I know everything else so farit'll go.
But I I will say you can'targue with what crumble's done.

(47:25):
It's insane.
It is insane what they've done.
Who knows how sustainable it'llbe, but I think it's truly
exceptional.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
I mean it's great, like just the other day.
So I had a friend who's moving,uh, to Michigan and I can't
remember how it came up.
We were talking about crumbleor some cookie I think it was
crumble and she's like, well,there's nowhere, there's no way.
There's one over by my hometown.
I was like, look it up, likethere's three.
And she's like no, there's notlike full.
And I'm like there's literallythree.
And then we zoom out on the mapand it they're everywhere.

(47:55):
Yeah, it's crazy, but it's soit's.
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, it's cool.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Yeah We'll.
We'll see how sustainable it is.
I don't think that it won't be,I'm just saying it's.
It would be impressive if it'sa long, if it's a long lasting
business, that'd be cool.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
So thinking about Salt Lake itself.
What do you love about beinghere and makes you grateful that
this is the place that youstarted it all?

Speaker 3 (48:25):
Yeah, I think Salt Lake is super.
It's entrepreneurial in myopinion.
I think it's the place to be inUtah for sure, specifically
Salt Lake, because I feel likeit's got more of a mix of
different kinds of people,especially like this, this, like
my favorite.
My office is in the downtownstore still, because it's just

(48:45):
the best place to be, I think,the best vibes in utah, um, but
no, I think it's a.
I've been, I've therestaurateurs that I know here,
the entrepreneurs that I knowhere, like it a collaborative
people are stoked on yoursuccess, I think a lot of the
time.
And so, yeah, man, it's beenfun to be an entrepreneur here,

(49:05):
just because the city'ssupportive, it's a, it's a dope
city and like there's otherpeople doing it that'll help you
out.
So I just think it's been goodit's been.
I'm glad I'm a business ownerhere.
I'm glad this is where itstarted.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Totally and like it's it's so interesting to see
because, like I mean, right nowin the us, it's been interesting
to see how cities have changedso much.
A lot of it's because of thepandemic.
Where I mean pre-pandemic, it'slike, oh, if you want to live
in a big city in the us, it'slike, oh, san francisco, new
york, la, I mean seattle, blahblah.
But then, like all of a sudden,because of the pandemic, a lot
of it's driven by tech.
But like you start to see thesekind of like I mean tertiary

(49:39):
cities, kind of like theseNashvilles, these Charlestons,
salt Lake cities, kind of gofrom these smaller places to all
of a sudden, people are like,oh, if I can work from anywhere,
I might as well be here.
And especially when you look atSilicon Slopes, that's all
entrepreneurial spirit.
You see, I mean I'm finally atthe point where the food is
starting to show up in Saltbecause I got lived in seattle
before where I mean therestaurant scene there is unreal

(50:02):
, it's insane, yeah.
And so now I'm finally like,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 salt lake be suchlike a forefront of that
footprint of like, hey, we don'tnecessarily need to do all of
these huge things that have thiseconomic growth.
Let's just remove theseroadblocks and let's get people

(50:24):
and these ideas and theseentrepreneurs the road that they
need in the path yeah, to makeit happen.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Yeah, it's like the key to success, right, like
having booming businesses, likethat's, that's the economy,
right so like no, I think I 100even just like a place, like
we're sitting right now, likeit's.
It's just like sick that youknow this place is here like to
bring like, like minded peopletogether.
So I think it's been dope.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
No, totally, and like , and so, for context, we're,
we're at Edison house recordinghere again 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 and I think there's it's
only the tip of the iceberg, Imean.
I think I mean it might be onthe nose, but like podcasts are
the same way.

(51:06):
Yeah, I mean people whenpodcasts first launched, people
are like, hey, I'm going tostart a podcast, like there's
already hundreds of podcasts.
Why would you do that?
And then fast forward fiveyears later, someone's.
So there's always room forentrepreneurs, there's always
room for improvement, there'salways room for, uh, I mean,
making something better, moreprofitable and and we see that

(51:28):
every day here and I mean yousee it even more every day and
everything you do for sure um,but I guess, like thirst and
business and entrepreneur side,I mean, what are your some of
your favorite things in saltlake places to go?
yeah, food eat, yeah.
So I'm uh like I like tosupport my fellow restaurant
buddies.

Speaker 3 (51:42):
For sure your favorite things in Salt Lake
places to go food to eat, yeah.
So I like to support my fellowrestaurant buddies.
For sure I'll say I mean Iliked it.
I grew up, I went to collegehere.
You know I'm a college friendso I think the bar scene is fun
here.
It's just part of growing upfor me, so I love hanging out
down here.
But favorite places Sotabello,it's my favorite place to go to

(52:06):
dinner, no question.
I think Regent Street's prettycool.
So I like Honest Eatery onRegent Street.
I don't know if you've everbeen there.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Yep, I like it a lot, my buddy's on there.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
So Honest is in Vivint Arena and they're down
there, they're there.
So honest is in like vivinarena and they're down there and
they're on regent, they're infoothill.
So just like cool local andit's all about just like
homegrown stuff or acai and likelike health food stuff like
that.
So I don't know, just localbusinesses like that I think is
sick and and supporting localand uh yeah, lots of

(52:38):
opportunities in downtown to doit for sure.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
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

(53:01):
bar was from Montana, and soyou're like I feel like I'm in
Montana, but they also had theseMoscow mules on tap that was
fresh, made with some sort ofingredients.
There was one time they hadthis blueberry Moscow mule on
tap fresh.
It was amazing, and so it's fun.
In Salt Lake now You're startingto see a lot of that.
I mean, waikiki is a goodexample where it's like, oh,
upstairs it's drag shows and inthe basement it's gonna be um,

(53:23):
uh, silent disco, yeah, and then, but you just 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 bourbonthat's for people who just
graduated like it was so muchmore just like.
This is the bar that thesepeople go to yeah and like
restaurants, things keep poppingup.

(53:45):
Uh, it's, it's, it's fun.
I love being in salt lake rightnow, like and I don't I don't
know if you know this, but likeso last year I spent six months
traveling around the country andI always had this idea that I
was going to find this perfectplace, that's going to be the
perfect fit.
But after I almost 30 statesand six months I was like oh,
this actually just makes meappreciate Salt Lake.
I'm going to go home.
And so it's, it's cool.

(54:07):
I mean it's not perfect, but Ithink of all the things that
make it imperfect, you can avoida lot of them.
And then when you kind of Imean head to head against other
places, you're like, oh, I'lltake this over that any day,
it's super fun.
I guess we could wrap up withtwo questions I always like to
end with.
First is where can people findyou Either on social media we

(54:32):
know locations website.
Where do we find you?
Where can we find yourmarketing that you post every
day?

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Thirst drinks on all the social platforms.
That's our business.
And then I do.
I basically document all ofentrepreneurship.
It's basically my personalbrand, but I would say it
funnels into the business, butthe main sales for the business,
but the main priority is justthe documentation of
entrepreneurship.
So I do that on Instagram,ethan from Thirst.

(55:00):
I do it on my podcast, which iscalled Learning by Doing,
because that's how I learnthings.
By Doing of course, and then Ido a weekly vlog on YouTube just
about running the businessbehind the scenes.
I have a camera girl that comesand does a vlog with me once a
week.
And then, yeah, man, ethan fromThirst and Thirst Drinks.

(55:22):
But yeah, I'm just trying topump out the story of my
business pretty much.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
It's a great story and I love that we live in the
time where we can document itthat much.
Yeah, it's so funny.
Now we're in the golden era ofTV and now we have a documentary
coming out every day.
That's something superfascinating.
But documentary coming outevery day, that something like
super fascinating and like, butthere's so few ones that it's
like oh, and here's this footagefrom that like, and I don't
know why, but like the kanyewest documentary comes the most.
Where it's like he justhappened to have this friend who

(55:48):
happened to have a camera, whohe believed his friend was going
to be the next big thing, so hejust started filming.
Yeah, where now it's like, Imean, you could have someone
follow you around every day andliterally pay them, or you could
have a phone with a camera.
You can, and it's just so mucheasier and accessible.

Speaker 3 (56:00):
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, Igo watch mark cuban while he's
a kid, you know, like while he'smy age or whatever.
That's crazy, that would beinsane.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
And so, yeah, if nothing else, my grandkids will
like it oh, without a doubt, I'mgonna go watch, watch Grandpa's
vlogs, and the last question Ihave for you is if you could
have someone on this podcast tohear about their story and what
they built.
Who do you think you would wantto have on here?

Speaker 3 (56:31):
As a guest for you.
Yeah, ooh, I would probably go.
I would probably go with, I'dprobably go with um.
I'd probably go with LaurenWarner from honest eatery I'm
going to go with honest, cause Imentioned that earlier but just
another local entrepreneur,super good guys.

(56:52):
He's a lot of, a lot of thingsthe way I do in the entrepreneur
space, but I just think likerestaurant tours, business
owners, such a sick market andlike such a sick uh, at least
for me, intel of how they did itand uh, what they're up to in
the city.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
So no, I'm, I'm with you.
I love, I love entrepreneurshearing their story, cause, like
I'm, I'm someone who overthinkseverything and so if you give
me enough time, I can talkmyself out of anything and but I
find I'm most happy and mostsuccessful.
And but I find I'm most happyand most successful.
I'm like, hey, ignore thatvoice, 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 like in

(57:28):
restaurants, where I mean youlook at the stats of like
restaurants that fail, or likehow hard it is or how low money,
and like there's a millionreasons not to.
But the people like, hey, no,but I, I think I can make this
work and there's this idea andI'm just going to do it, and
then they do, so it's awesome.
But I mean, Ethan, thank youagain for coming and hanging out
.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
Thank you, ethan.
Awesome, I love the vibe.
Wish you all the best with thepodcast adventures Much
appreciated.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
As you said, it's all about putting yourself out
there, having the right vibe andbuilding it brick by.

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Vault Episode 5: Thirst Drinks - Ethan Cisneros

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Vault Episode 5: Thirst Drinks - Ethan Cisneros