April 21, 2025 • 46 mins
Ever wonder what happens when purpose drives a business more than profit? In this captivating conversation, Bill and Sheila Ford, founders of Ozark Mountain Bagel Company, reveal how a chance question – "Hey, you want to open a bagel shop?" – transformed their lives and the Northwest Arkansas food scene.
The Fords share their remarkable journey from careers in oil refining and education to becoming beloved bagel entrepreneurs. After running a successful bagel shop in Oklahoma for eight years, they relocated to Northwest Arkansas in 2017, seeking a new adventure where they could continue their mission of "spreading joy, love, and cream cheese." What they discovered was a business community unlike any they'd experienced – collaborative rather than competitive, where even potential rivals reached out to offer help.
At the heart of their story is a leadership philosophy that treats employees as partners rather than subordinates. With roughly 75% of their workforce being teenagers in their first jobs, Bill and Sheila focus on developing future leaders, challenging them to think beyond themselves and find purpose in their work. This approach has created a culture where employees feel valued and customers experience genuine warmth with every visit.
The Fords' business acumen shines through as they discuss their growth from a single location to six stores across Northwest Arkansas, including one in Walmart's new food hall. Their expansion strategy balances opportunity with purpose – they're developing a franchise model but emphasize finding the right people who align with their values rather than growing for growth's sake.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned business owner, or simply someone who appreciates authentic leadership, this conversation offers valuable insights about building a business with heart. Subscribe now to hear more inspiring stories from local entrepreneurs who are shaping Northwest Arkansas and beyond.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Retail
Journey podcast.
I'm one of your hosts, charlesGreathouse.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And I am James Harris , and today we're talking to
Bill and Sheila Ford.
Bill and Sheila are thefounders of the Ozark Mountain
Bagel Company, located in townsall throughout Northwest
Arkansas, and I can personallyvouch for the bagels because I
had my weekly dose yesterday andit's amazing.
Welcome to the retail journey.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Thanks for having us.
Yeah, thank you for having us,it's exciting.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Thanks for traveling all this way.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yes, it's a beautiful day From your central kitchen.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
You're warming me out .
Yeah we are.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
For those that aren't aware of our location, we're
right next door to each otherand how we kind of got to know
each other how I at least got toknow Bill, Tell us a little bit
of your story.
We talk a lot about retail here, but we also talk about
Northwest Arkansas.
Everybody loves a good founderstory.
Wherever you want to start,let's dig in.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Okay, well, james, we grew up in north central
Oklahoma.
I was a horrible, horriblecollege student I can relate and
basically went to college oneyear.
My parents insisted they theyhad raised themselves kind of
(01:32):
out of poverty by by education,and so they insisted I go.
And so I had to go and provethat I shouldn't be there, and
which I did well I did very well.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
well, I bet you could succeed in that.
That's great.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
But this was early 80s in Stillwater, oklahoma, and
there was a bagel shop thereand it was guys from Brooklyn.
You could go in and you'd havethis magnificent bagel but you'd
have, you know, just the banterback and forth.
They, you know some good EastCoast people that would just
(02:10):
snap at you and I love that.
And so we had children, reallyyoung, and so I went to work,
but kind of always had a dreamthat I'd like to do something
that interacted, you know, withthe community.
And so I worked in an oil andgas refinery for 30 years and
(02:33):
somewhere maybe in Oklahoma, yes, north central Oklahoma and
somewhere Gosh, I've been doingthe oil gas for 20 years.
Been doing the oil gas for 20years and just out of the blue,
someone speaking to Sheila saidhey, would you guys like to open
(02:56):
a bagel shop.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
How'd you know Exactly that sounds?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
a little providential Well.
They had been in Stillwateraround the same time.
She was a grade schoolprincipal and her husband worked
in the same time.
She was a grade schoolprincipal and her husband worked
in the refinery and sheactually, you know, kind of
bridged the idea to Sheila andyou can kind of expand on that.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Well, so I was a teacher and Shelly was her name,
my principal good friend, andwe were just out on a run and
she's like hey, you want to opena bagel shop with me, principal
good friend.
And we were just out on a runand she's like hey, you want to
open a bagel shop with me and Isaid no, not at all.
She said no, really, there'sthis new bagel shop in Oklahoma
City by my parents and I want totalk to them about bringing
bagels back to Stillwater,because the bagel shop that he's
(03:37):
speaking of when we were incollege was no longer there.
It was New York Bagel and theyhad sold out and so there was no
bagel shop in Stillwater.
So I said, well, when we getback to the house, ask Bill.
He's always wanted he's talkedabout open restaurant before
just you know, wanted to dosomething in the service
industry.
So I said ask him, you know.
(03:58):
And so when we got back, he hadjust gotten up off of working
nights at the refinery and wewalked in and she's like, hey,
you want to open a bagel shopwith me.
And he goes like, yeah, sure,and she's like, no, really,
there's this new bagel shop,blah, blah.
And he's like, no, I'd love to.
She's like, no, I'm serious, Iwant to go talk to these guys.
(04:19):
And it's like all of them, whatdon't you understand about?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
yes, that's three yeses.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
When you get the yes, stop talking, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
They called them and, I think, went down the next day
and those guys were like well,you come work for a week, let's
see if this is something youreally want to do.
So Bill and Shelly went downthere and worked a week, did
literally every part of thebagel business, stayed up all
night, learned how to bakebagels, and that was, I think,
(04:54):
in February.
And in August we opened OldSchool Bagel in Stillwater,
oklahoma, so that was in 2009.
So, that was our first bageling, and then we've bageled ever
since then.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
We had it open in 2009 and then sold it in 2017.
And I was kind of on the end ofmy 30 years in the refinery and
we were thinking, gosh, what dowe want to do?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
What do we want to do ?
We'd always lived in northcentral oklahoma and just
thought we wanted to movesomewhere.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
New start, a new adventure in our lives as we
were retiring and I still havebuddies that will text me from
the refinery and say so, you'restill working a lot more hours
for a whole lot less money.
Yes, yes, I am so we had looked.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
I mean we had both written down like places we
thought would be cool.
We love to run trails and so wewere like looking in Oregon,
north Carolina, and he didArkansas Traveler, which is a
100-mile race down Around LittleRock, yeah, and met some people
(06:09):
from here and that was.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
It's a race like in a car.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
No, no, that's running 100 miles.
Yeah, it's running 100 feet,yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Golly.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, yeah Again.
I'm not the sharpest tool inthe shed.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Well, you know how to work.
Yeah, I do that.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I do miles.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Come on, that I do, yeah, but anyway, they, you know
, we're talking about all thetrails that were being built
around here, and so we startedcoming over from stillwater over
here and just fell in love withit.
And we moved over in january of2017 and thought, well, we
already know how to do bagels,we'll just do bagels again.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So we opened our first location may of 2017, here
there wasn't much of a bagelpresence here which we were
really surprised by um, and itwas the one off a rainbow curve
yes, sir, right, yes I lived incave springs when you guys
opened yeah and so I was afrequent uh visitor at that
stage nice I remember like athing maybe you don't think
(07:08):
about when you're opening a newplace is like, uh, the new, new
smells of the things oh right,right that you, you use.
Um, I just remember that like,wow, I guess some got a lot of
plastic totes here, don't youguys?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yes, like yeah, yeah, and they're all new yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
But I remember that and it was a cool spot and you
guys are doing a lot of thingsconsistently.
I feel like it's from a placeof purpose.
Is that assumption right?
Is this wrong?
What drives you to do all thethings that you do?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Well, we've always said mission over money and
we've always had a mission andthat is to serve people and love
on people and bagels were kindof just the vehicle that let us
do that.
I love it.
We're from Oklahoma.
It's not like we had thispassion for bagels and so that
(08:16):
is like our driving force.
Yeah, and of course we want tohave good bagels.
We want to have I mean, you gotto have good food too, but I
got to feel loved.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
It's your bagels, right.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Terrible.
Good bagels we want to have.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I mean, you got to have good food too, but you're
not gonna feel loved if yourbagels right, they're even
mediocre.
Great time it was horrible,yeah, yeah they sure were nice
but, you know if you've been toozark mountain bagel, if you're
in northwest arkansas, andyou've been there, I don't think
it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Uh, that's held uh quite consistently yeah, I've
been in the your original onemaybe only two or three times.
It wasn't near where I lived orworked, but since moving in
here like I said, I'm a weekly.
I'm a type 1 diabetic.
I probably shouldn't have morethan one bagel a week.
Gotcha but something I'venoticed from the first visit to
(08:59):
the last and all the ones inbetween.
You're always met with a smileand a verbal hello how are you
doing?
And then after that there'ssome intangible Are you the guy
next door or have you been inhere before?
There's a conversation thingthat happens, which is nice.
And then I notice on yournapkins you always have like an
(09:21):
inspirational quote of some sort, and I love those things.
Oh, I do too when I was a lotyounger, I would scour.
You know, different people thatI knew were like gk chesterton,
cs, lewis, winston churchill,ronald break all the different
people that were really good atmaking one to three sentence
things that stuck impactful,yeah, yeah.
(09:42):
So what?
What's your?
What?
What's your story there?
Like, what do you what?
What cause?
That's a unique element thatyou all bring.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
You know I've always loved quotes and I've had some
great mentors through through mycareer that also just had some,
some things that they love toshare.
Had a gentleman that JohnMaxwell.
(10:11):
He loved John Maxwell and JohnMaxwell had like the 19 rules of
leadership and he was justpassionate about sowing into
other people and so that kind ofstirred my love of quotes and
they've just always meantsomething to me and I thought,
(10:32):
you know, if we can just putsomething out there, then it
just, you know, can kind ofsomebody slow down and just
Makes you think.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
She contemplated a little bit I like Yogi Berra too
.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Well, some of his are so incredibly funny that
they're they're brilliant.
They're brilliant.
You know so, but uh, uh.
So we started collecting quotesand try to change them out.
We have customers that willgive us suggestions and love
that as well.
When you know for quotes.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
What are some other elements that you all have
intentionally incorporated thatare?
This is just kind of part ofwho we are, our ethos, Got any
ideas.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Well, I mean, we've been so fortunate to have
amazing employees and we try totell them they don't work for us
, they work with us.
And then try to translate anygood review we have, we take it
to them and say this is aboutyou.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
You're making a difference, right, and I would
say something else, because heactually helped lead leadership
training for philip 66, the oiland gas company he worked for,
and it's amazing, the leadershipskills that he used and taught
(12:01):
in the refinery translates toanything, and so it's been
wonderful because we, you know,probably 75% of our workforce,
their first job 16, you know,even 15 year olds, and just the
leadership qualities that he'sbeen able to impart, you know,
(12:24):
to them.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
And that's a great experience for them.
You rarely get that in yourfirst job, your first five jobs
maybe.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Right, and we know they're not going to bagel
forever.
Obviously, you know this is ashort term job, but it's amazing
how many of the parents comeback to us and, just, you know,
say yes and how.
I mean it is stuff that willtranslate no matter what they do
.
So and I feel like that's, youknow, has always been part of
(12:49):
our mission as well.
You know, what can we do umhelp grow these young kids?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
you know you know one thing, um, for us, just all of
this is eventually rust and dust.
Yeah, it really doesn't matter,it's the relationships that
matter.
And again, we've been sofortunate with our employees and
one of our first young menamazing, amazing.
He was an all-state footballplayer at Bentonville, like
(13:20):
second or third in his class,and we told him don't care that
you have these greatscholarships to go away to
school.
You got to find yourreplacement before you can go.
And he really set the standardof taking it really seriously.
And so we challenge all of ourkids.
(13:42):
You know, think beyond you.
Who could we grow?
Who could you see could growinto this?
And so it's been really fun.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
And the kids are amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
They're amazing.
You made the comment aboutrelationships and I'm just in my
mid-40s, but it feels like whenI was a lot younger it was the
things I wanted to do, right,the things I wanted to achieve.
And the older I get, it's Iwant about 10 people and then I
want to.
You know, that's my core,that's the thing that I feed
into them, they feed into me,and then it's those sometimes
(14:19):
random even relationships thatyou have with the person that
gives you coffee or whatever,that you can be some kind of a
light.
Yeah, right, and that that whenit when I've started trying to
think more about that life isabout that versus the things I'm
doing or the things I have todo, the obligations kind of
makes the obligation stuff a lotmore fun and easy to do.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
It does, it absolutely does.
And our wifi password is do,does, it absolutely does.
And our Wi-Fi password is dotoday.
Well, yeah, just because youknow, if you go squandering away
today and tomorrow, you justsquander away your life.
Just try to make every dayspectacular in one way or
(15:02):
another.
And unfortunately, in therefinery I had a fatality under
my watch that just so changed,kind of, my perspective Amazing,
great young man that lost hislife through no fault of his own
.
Somebody else made a mistakeand in the end it was really
(15:23):
truly a failure of leadershipbecause we let a bad employee be
a bad employee, hoping theywould change, and it was a
failure of leadership because weallowed it to happen So-.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
In that entrepreneurial journey, even
especially restaurants, there'sa lot of courage necessary to go
from not starting to starting,let alone in a new town, which
is pretty incredible.
2017, pretty big year.
What would you have to sharefrom that experience that you'd
want, you know, our listeners tolearn from?
Speaker 4 (16:04):
listeners to learn from.
Well, one thing I can say andthis may be a little unique to
Bentonville and NorthwestArkansas, but having done the
exact same thing in Stillwaterfirst and we loved Stillwater
Great college town you know itwas fun.
But coming here, the communityhas been so impactful in our
(16:27):
lives and we didn't have thatthere.
I mean they were supportive, itwasn't like that.
But just the way I mean justpeople in the community, both
our customers, but also justother business owners how much
they I feel like have fed intous, has been amazing.
People and businesses that youwould think are competitive.
(16:51):
You know those are yourcompetitors.
I mean, I feel like from theget-go they have just reached
out.
How can we help?
How can you know?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
just it's so much more cooperative and it's very
unique yeah, stillwater is avery transitional town, just by
the nature of the college, um,so that was, that was certainly
different, but but she's soright and um, you know, when
covid happened, um, there were,we had so many people buy gift
(17:24):
certificates that they neverused, wow, and I mean it was
amazing.
It was amazing and I always say, I always feel like we receive
more than we give, and just it'samazing.
The people here and thecommunity so it's amazing.
The people here and thecommunity, so it's been
(17:45):
wonderful.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So there are a lot of restaurants start and a lot of
restaurants fail.
Very high failure rate, right.
What are some pieces of adviceto some young or middle-aged or
older entrepreneur that wants tostart a restaurant retail?
We didn't plan any of thesequestions so I'm putting you on
(18:09):
the spot.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
You know, understand you can't do it by yourself.
You have to have a good team.
I think you have to listen topeople's ideas about doing
things, maybe a little differenttoo, being adaptable.
And I think a good leader isalmost like a chameleon that can
(18:32):
change a little bit.
But I think it takesdetermination and hard work.
But I think it takesdetermination and hard work.
For me it takes an unbelievablepartner that you know I'm a
very.
Let's leap out of the plane.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
We'll figure out the parachute on the way down.
We heard the story for thefirst bagel shop, yeah, which
was I don't know.
No, if you want a yes I know aguy, yeah, go ask Phil.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
And.
I'm back there packing theparachute, while I'm hearing him
say yes, we're going, okay,it's going to be good.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
I love that.
It's going to be good.
That's your line.
I say it's going to be great.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yeah, but I always say that somehow I break all
these things and she makesbeautiful stained glass windows
out of them.
Yeah, and surround yourselfwith people different than you.
That's one thing I often loveto do on a super busy Saturday
(19:39):
to have those high school kidsat the end of the day just say
look around you, these are notnecessarily who you'd hang out
with at school.
Around you, the, these are notnecessarily who you'd hang out
with at school, but comingtogether, you guys did so great.
Yeah, and surround yourselfwith people different than you,
you know, and so um, but ittakes a lot of hard work and
determination and adaptability,and finding a niche too is kind
(20:04):
of key.
That's key, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
There is a temptation , when you start something,
especially when it's small, tothink you want a bunch of you's.
Right, right Because you knowwhat has made you what you think
you are right.
So you're like if I could justclone and there isn't another
you right.
Everybody's different.
The key is to make them thebest they can be right and to
(20:27):
give them what they need, and itmight be something you didn't
need.
You needed something.
That's right.
Study the people around you, ifyou're a leader, to figure out
what it is they need from you.
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Absolutely To figure out what it is they need from
you Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Can we talk about customers, absolutely
Understanding customers?
You know we're in retail.
You're in retail.
Retail's a little different,although I do hear there's some
Walmart campus maybe stuff goingon.
I'm not sure if that's outthere.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, we do have a location in the new food hall at
the Walmart.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Which is so exciting.
Yes, that wasn't my originalquestion.
I got distracted by myself.
I look forward to hopefullygetting to visit that with some
friends that are associates.
But when you think aboutunderstanding customers, what
advice would you have for folks?
You know I worked at Walmartfor a long time and you know the
customer is king.
(21:24):
You're who's number one?
The customer always huh.
Have you heard the cheer?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
You haven't heard the cheer.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Probably, as we're walking through, maybe We'll
work through.
You're going to hear the cheer.
Yeah, at eighth and plate,that's going to happen.
But, you know customers whatthe focus is and, with the scale
and size of Walmart, customerunderstanding tends to happen
with data, Because you can'ttalk to 130 million people every
week that are in a Walmart.
You guys have the benefit ofbeing pretty close, but no
(21:53):
longer just one location, sothere is this sort of
understanding of customer thathas to expand.
I'd love to hear your thoughtson early days feedback.
How important was that and howhas that evolved?
The journey of Ozark MountainBagel.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
I kind of think from the word go.
I mean, the customer is alwaysright.
We never really bought intothat.
Right is always right.
So we would do all we could totry to please a customer.
But we're not going to do wrongto make someone happy.
(22:31):
And I've said that some people,if you gave them a bag of money
, they'd complain it's too heavy.
Some people just, you know, Idon't know what it is, they're
just not going to be happy.
But we did.
We got great feedback frompeople, suggestions, and you
know, I think you have to haveyour core lane, but I think you
(22:56):
can sway a little bit and changeyour course a little bit.
And most of our customers havebeen wonderful, right, wonderful
, wonderful.
I can, you know, probably nameon one hand people that are
memorable in a poor way.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Do you have their pictures up somewhere?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
I'd rather not say yeah, I did a lot of restaurant
work and and you know, as a kidand then in college age and
things like that, and I enjoyedit.
I love the rush, I love thechallenge of like making it
happen and then feeling goodabout it when you when you got
it done.
But in in those environments,in any kind of retail, you're
often meeting people at kind ofa bad time.
(23:37):
No, not all the time, butsometimes somebody's having just
they're having the worst dayand you're the intersection that
they're angry at something elseand now they're talking to you
and that's a I mean.
And for a teenage kid, it's onething for an adult to kind of
see that I've had those days,like you can relate a little bit
for your teenage kids.
(23:57):
How do you talk to them at allabout that, about you know what
may be a difficult or an angrycustomer.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Well, we always say.
You have to remember, though,the way you react to someone
says more about you than it doesabout them.
So if no matter how they'retreating you, it's how you treat
them back, and it's I mean,it's hard.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
We've all been in those situations, and we like to
ask them okay, the next personthat comes in, can you tell me
what's going on in their world?
And they're like well, no,you're exactly right, you just
don't know.
You just don't know, becauseeverybody's struggling with
something, everybody is battlingsomething.
(24:41):
They just may hide it very well, or not, or not?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
yeah or not?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Another thing we try to really reinforce with them is
on those Saturdays that theline goes all the way to the
door.
Never look at the back of theline.
There is absolutely nothing youcan do to help somebody that's
at the back of the line.
There is absolutely nothing youcan do to help somebody that's
at the back of the line.
The back of the line willeventually be there.
You just focus on that personin front of you, engage them
(25:11):
well and that'll all come aroundand then try to turn it to life
that sometimes in life we worryabout things we can't control
instead of worry about thethings we can.
And they're so receptive andagain, it's just almost
generational with the kids tosow into the next group, and
(25:35):
Sheila came up with just somekind of leadership things where
they'll will, as you know,elevate someone to a shift lead,
give them some moreresponsibility.
That they'll, you know, reallywork with the, with the newbies,
and and really make adifference and teach them
(25:55):
responsibility and and so it'sbeen really fun.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I mean my daughter works at a cookie shop and she
recently got the supervisedsupervised, the shift supervisor
, so we have to drop her car offto get some stuff done.
I'm going to give her a rideand she goes.
I got to be there 10 minutesearly because I'm a shift lead
and I want to be ready.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Love it To the right person you know, brings them up
to have a little bit moreresponsibility.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
So how many locations do we now have To the right
person?
You know it brings them up tohave a little bit more
responsibility Yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So how many locations do we now have?
Ozark Mountain, bagel.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
So four of our locations and then two that are
license agreements basicallyfranchise type.
So that's the downtown Rogersone type.
So that's the downtown Rogersone.
And that one is owned by theDobson family who, um, Nicole
(26:51):
Dobson, was our manager at thesquare for four years, so I mean
someone who totally buys intoour mission.
Um, and two of her kids workedfor us as well.
So, um, and then we have theWalmart location at eighth and
plate.
Yeah, Is it open?
Now?
It is open.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
And then we have the Walmart location at 8th and
Plate yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Is it open?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
now it is open, and that's just for like it's behind
the curtain, so to speak.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
It is, it is there will be a public-facing.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
There'll be several public-facing places to go.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
This is just right now part ofthe food hall.
That's just employees.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
And then the other four are downtown Bentonville,
technically Northwest, 11thStreet.
Right, we call North Walton,which is North Walton Boulevard,
which is, you know, James saidearlier, we're right next door.
We're in the same building.
(27:45):
That's how next door.
So, our starting address is thesame.
Our suite number is differentthan your suite number, which is
pretty great, if you reallylove carbs.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
We do get each other's mail and packages 100%.
Got a package for you today.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Thank you.
You guys are the best, but yeah, so if you love carbs and
analyzing data and helpingbrands grow at Walmart, you can
work here at High Impact.
Or if you really just preferthe bagels and just want to be
near people who love data, youcan work at Ozark Mountain Bagel
(28:20):
.
So those two, and then RainbowCurve, which is the OG original
location, and the fourth JohnsonMill.
Johnson Mill.
Okay, great yeah, there's a.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Down by Pizzeria Ruby and Pale Mellow.
Yes, okay, we're just at theother corner of the building.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Awesome, a culinary destination.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
That's right, there you go, there you go, breakfast,
lunch and whatever.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
All right.
And then from a trendstandpoint, because I love
trends, what's the tried truefaithful?
This bagel, everybody lovesthis bagel.
And what's the this one's?
We're starting to see it takeoff.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Well, the everything bagel is definitely the most
popular bagel flavor, no doubt.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
How about that?
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Trending, I would say the rosemary salt, which is a
new flavor for us.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Introduced by Sheila yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
All right, yes.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
And the consumption's more than Sheila Other people.
You said trending, I wasn'tsure if this is like.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Yeah, I might be Sheila's trending.
She's hoping that the trend gotto sway Rosemary salt.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Rosemary salt.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
I like that.
I'll try it.
You haven't tried it.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
You should try it.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Have you tried our new gluten-free bagels?
I have, yeah, I tried it thefirst round and probably the
best gluten-free bagel that I'vehad which, if you don't get to
have gluten, which is me rightnow bagels aren't really my
primary destination Right.
Understandable, but as agluten-free bagel.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
That was the best one , for sure yeah, that's matt, uh
, he's, I guess his.
Is it his daughter?
That's gluten-free yes okay,yep, and so she.
She's become a big fan of thegluten-free bagels, so I love
that.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yeah, yeah I remember he walked by the other day
carrying a bag.
So Matt's our chief operatingofficer here and as neighbors do
.
I think he got a whole bag ofthose.
That's right, that's right,which is awesome.
Yeah, I guess when you run youknow you got to have some good
source of carbs, and he's gotsome runners in his family.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Nice, nice, nice.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
And you do a little running.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
I do, I do.
I'd like to get back to muchmore of it, but business takes a
little time.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
3 am.
Wake-up call doesn't allow muchrunning in the morning.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yes, is it night running?
When does it transition fromnight to morning?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I don't know, sometimes my watch says good
evening instead of good morning.
When we get up yeah, goodevening.
I worked rotating shift workfor 28 years, so I switched days
to nights.
So I've always kind of astrange bird.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
One of my favorite things in business is vision.
I love to think about thefuture and I like to kind of
have an idea of where we'regoing and kind of where I'd like
to land.
And you may not be able or wantto talk about it, but what's
the vision for Ozark Mountain,Bagel?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Well, I think kind of our saying too is spreading joy
, love and cream cheese.
You know, we'd love theopportunity to grow, but we want
to be purposeful about that andnot just grow for the sake of
growing.
We'd eventually we're workingon kind of a franchise package
(31:52):
for so it'd just be a cut andpaste for new franchisees, but
really work on vetting them hard.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yeah, totally.
Just so the feel is the same,that you could go in and just…
it's just cream cheese and youdon't have joy and love.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Yeah, it's just….
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Chick-fil-A has been very successful with that model
making sure they have the rightperson come in to lead a store
model, making sure they have theright person come in to lead a
store.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
We want it to be a blessing to that family.
That you know person too who'sopening it, because it I mean it
can be a burden, and we don't.
You know, we don't want to dothat because we know how hard it
is.
So it's not just vetting them,as far as you know, are they
right for Ozark Mountain Bagel,but we want to make sure Ozark
Mountain Bagel is right for themas well.
But that's kind of our growthmodel.
(32:51):
We are done opening.
Get that please.
We are done opening ourselves,um ourselves.
We would like to, uh, actuallyretire at some point in our
lives because we are getting old.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Yes, so um Retire.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Retire to just run hundred mile races.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
That's what I would like to do.
That's what I would like to doBe a different kind of tired yes
, yes, yes.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
So that's kind of the gross model.
Right now we're really workingon this franchise model.
You know, we know there's somany more places in even just
northwest Arkansas that I mean30-something people a day settle
here, right, amazing, amazinggrowth, yeah, and so many areas
are growing.
You know, pea Ridge, centerton.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Farmington yeah, there's just so many.
Yeston yeah, there's just somany.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
So, yeah, that's kind of what we're working on right
now.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
That's beautiful, that's awesome.
Well, thank you.
You want to go to lightning?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Let's do it All right .
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Lightning round.
Hold on, we have some zingers.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
You know, we try to have a culture here where it's
okay to make a mistake and, infact, if you're not making
mistakes, you're probably notpushing real hard.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
If you can't make a mistake.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
You can't make a mistake.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Fail fast frequently.
So what's a big failure in yourbusiness or previous business
or whatever that you learned alot from, and it's kind of
something you've incorporated,that learning, into how you
operate today.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Probably trying to be a leader that micromanaged
everything initially, and one ofmy favorite quotes is the
legacy of the leader is theleaders they leave behind.
And yeah, again, I had somegreat mentors and one lady one
(34:51):
day came down and we were havingproblems in the refinery and
she said, okay, tell me whatwe're doing.
I said, well, we did this.
We hope that helps, we're doingthis.
We hope that did it, we'redoing this.
She said hope's not a plan.
Make me a plan.
And I was like, wow, that's apunch in the gut, but it was it
(35:14):
just allowing people to do theirjob and grow and thank them for
what they do, you know, andtell them that you truly
appreciate them, and I thinkthat's kind of.
(35:38):
I thought I had to be too gruffand be something I wasn't, and
so that was a big learning forme.
You got a zinger for that.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Oh, I would say for me, I get really wrapped up in
details and I'm very introvertedand I would be more than happy
just to be in the back of thehouse working on my to-do list.
This is where the us togetheris good, because he's very
(36:06):
extroverted and he's out theretalking to people.
I've lost my to-do list.
It says to-do.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
And that's as far as you got.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
And so it's kind of been a learning experience for
me having to be out theretalking to people, and I
thoroughly enjoy it, but it'suncomfortable and so, yeah, just
being comfortable with beinguncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
I've just had to learn how to do that.
I guess what about you all.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Failure.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Oh, we'll be asking the question.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
No, I, um, I.
I was the hub of this thing forfar too long.
When you start a businessthat's just one person and then
kind of goes to three, four,five people, there's a period of
time when I had about seven oreight people that you know.
If you picture a wheel and ahubcap, and I was the hubcap and
everything had to come to mebefore it went out and I became
(37:08):
the log jam.
I became the reason we couldn'tgrow.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
But it was with good intentions that you were doing
that Sure good intentions cantake you to heaven or to hell.
Oh right, right, right, oh,well said, well said.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
So it was making that transition to I need to do more
leading than doing, which waskind of the first phase, and
then eventually I need to justdelegate, elevate and lead.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Well, that's kind of three years before I started
doing the leadership trainingfor Phillips 66.
I had someone that put me on aperformance improvement plan and
gave me real honest feedbackand they told me feedback is a
gift and you know if they'rebeing accurate it's going to
(37:58):
sting a little bit and you knowthe same stones can either be
stumbling blocks or buildingblocks and it was great.
You know it hurt.
And it was great.
You know it hurt and it wascompletely accurate and I needed
to make yeah come on, I thoughtI was perfect, but it was
(38:21):
really good for me to hear thatI was not as good as I perceived
I was and be willing to change.
So and then, three years later,I'm asked to be part of a team
that designed this training andand led the training for all of
field.
Oh, it was, it was, it was, and, but it was other people that
(38:45):
that, again, were the steppingstones for me to get, get where
I needed to be.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
So, yeah, well, I guess I can answer uh, a failure
.
I think probably the mostrecent um would be I.
I get pretty passionate.
Uh, you know, I think you've.
You've got a lot of passion inyou there's.
I get excited about differentthings, I've got ideas.
(39:11):
Sometimes my brain's prettynonlinear and a failure to
recognize that that enthusiasm,when it turns into talking over
someone, does nothing but justmake them feel talked down to,
disregarded, not listened to.
Disregarded, not listened to.
(39:35):
And I'm blissfully ignorant ofthat impact on anybody around me
, just grateful that we'removing and we're shaking and
we're getting somewhere and soI've gotten that feedback.
And the failure is the factthat it has happened and I do
that and I'm so grateful forfeedback.
It is a gift.
Does it feel good to realizelike, oh no, I made you feel
that way, like, oh darn, yeah,yeah yeah, I wasn't trying to do
(40:00):
that um and I think you knowthey knew that, but um, that's
been a a most recent, like uh,point of failure that's been
brought to my attention andreally what it does is it makes
me want to sit back and be likewhat is someone not telling me
so that I make sure that I'mactually creating the space for
(40:22):
feedback and doing that in a waythat's going to be productive
for them and everybody feelssafe to do that.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Again.
One of my mentors said you know, on the feedback as a gift to
people, you say I want yourfeedback, please give me your
feedback.
It does a couple of things.
One, it gives them permissionto give you that, but it also
kind of changes your attitudethat you're prepared to get that
(40:54):
feedback, and so you'rereceptive to it, and you know.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, super grateful for it.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Frankly.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
My example was in business.
I have some real humdingers inthe personal life, oh nice, go
from zingers to humdingers.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
We're going to be rhyming all afternoon.
I love it, okay.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
All right.
And lastly, all our attentionalpeople.
You like quotes.
What are you reading, listeningto, kind of taking in right now
, and it can be for fun, it canbe for something else.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Do you have something ?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Do you even have time between the business and the
running?
Speaker 3 (41:34):
No, we sit and do devos every morning and hers are
deeper than mine, but I love,like Bob Goff and just some of
his simple um things that he,that he you see in life, that he
can somehow transform into agreat lesson Um, and I love that
(42:00):
.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
That's love.
Does right, yes, love does.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
And then I, I have one that's a um, just a every
day.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Oh cool.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Yeah, just every day through the year and just some
of the things that he says, itjust really strikes home with me
.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
So what about?
Speaker 3 (42:20):
you.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
Oh, besides that I mean we're doing reading through
the Bible and Bible recap we'renot really doing anything.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
What are you in right now?
Speaker 4 (42:34):
Well, we did the old Testament last year and started
the new Testament and then justkind of quit, and so we're
started over with the newTestament this year yeah.
We're in Luke right now.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Cause it's a chronological, so you do some
jumping around're in Luke rightnow.
Yeah, because it'schronological, so you do some
jumping around, all right, which?
Speaker 3 (42:53):
is pretty interesting .
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
Do you all have any suggestions of some great reads?
Speaker 1 (42:59):
I mean love, does it's such a good one?
I say we, I read a book.
I say we, I read a book.
It was actually given by one ofour other you know, suite mates
here called the Go-Giver.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
That's just about.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
you know it's a play on go-getter.
You know we've got a lot ofdrive to go accomplish things
and what's it look like to,instead of going and trying to
get, look intentionally to go togive, and it seems like your
ethos is exactly that.
It's a short read.
That's a great question.
I have read it.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
I've read it multiple times.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
And it's written by a great author.
It's one of the books that wegive all of our new employees
when they join us.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Love that.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
That's why I said we, because James has read it and
lots of the team have, and it'sjust that mindset mission over
money.
There's a deep irony.
The motivation is for theimpact on the individual, but
the reality is you have animpact on someone, then they're
happy to return again and so itends up making a great business.
(44:11):
And it's like if you miss thepoint and you went to go get,
you're not going to have deeployalty and relationships that
are authentic.
But if you have authenticrelationships, then you do the
right thing, because you'refocused on the right thing.
Then it will naturally create alot of benefit.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
I love that.
The go-getter, the go-giver,go-giver.
I got it, she's got it.
Yeah, you got to have a Sheilain your life.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Yeah, absolutely, oh, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yeah, most recent one .
For me that kind of stood out.
I do a lot of fiction, so Iwon't go into that.
It's a book called the FourAgreements and if somebody
recommended it I probablywouldn't have read it otherwise.
But you ever, like you, findyourself where, like things just
aren't clicking, you're notconnecting with people the way
(44:58):
you want, you're more frustrated, aggravated, you know, it's
just that it's not gelling.
And this book says there's fouragreements that if you make
them with yourself, you kind offall out of those situations of
expecting things from otherpeople, of expecting them to
serve you in some way in arelationship.
And it was useful for me.
(45:18):
Well, thank you so much forjoining us.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
Thanks for having us Such a pleasure.
A great deal, I reallyappreciate it.
And nice to learn more aboutyou all.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Yeah, and we should chat more over bagel sometime
and some some good coffee.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
That sounds great.
I love it yes.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
And thank you all, as always, for listening.
You can check out any of ourpodcasts on our website, high
impact analyticscom video audio,as well as on YouTube and
anywhere you download yourpodcasts.
Thank you very much for joiningus.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Retail
Journey podcast.
I'm one of your hosts, charlesGreathouse.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And I am James Harris , and today we're talking to
Bill and Sheila Ford.
Bill and Sheila are thefounders of the Ozark Mountain
Bagel Company, located in townsall throughout Northwest
Arkansas, and I can personallyvouch for the bagels because I
had my weekly dose yesterday andit's amazing.
Welcome to the retail journey.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Thanks for having us.
Yeah, thank you for having us,it's exciting.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Thanks for traveling all this way.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yes, it's a beautiful day From your central kitchen.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
You're warming me out .
Yeah we are.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
For those that aren't aware of our location, we're
right next door to each otherand how we kind of got to know
each other how I at least got toknow Bill, Tell us a little bit
of your story.
We talk a lot about retail here, but we also talk about
Northwest Arkansas.
Everybody loves a good founderstory.
Wherever you want to start,let's dig in.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Okay, well, james, we grew up in north central
Oklahoma.
I was a horrible, horriblecollege student I can relate and
basically went to college oneyear.
My parents insisted they theyhad raised themselves kind of
(01:32):
out of poverty by by education,and so they insisted I go.
And so I had to go and provethat I shouldn't be there, and
which I did well I did very well.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
well, I bet you could succeed in that.
That's great.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
But this was early 80s in Stillwater, oklahoma, and
there was a bagel shop thereand it was guys from Brooklyn.
You could go in and you'd havethis magnificent bagel but you'd
have, you know, just the banterback and forth.
They, you know some good EastCoast people that would just
(02:10):
snap at you and I love that.
And so we had children, reallyyoung, and so I went to work,
but kind of always had a dreamthat I'd like to do something
that interacted, you know, withthe community.
And so I worked in an oil andgas refinery for 30 years and
(02:33):
somewhere maybe in Oklahoma, yes, north central Oklahoma and
somewhere Gosh, I've been doingthe oil gas for 20 years.
Been doing the oil gas for 20years and just out of the blue,
someone speaking to Sheila saidhey, would you guys like to open
(02:56):
a bagel shop.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
How'd you know Exactly that sounds?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
a little providential Well.
They had been in Stillwateraround the same time.
She was a grade schoolprincipal and her husband worked
in the same time.
She was a grade schoolprincipal and her husband worked
in the refinery and sheactually, you know, kind of
bridged the idea to Sheila andyou can kind of expand on that.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Well, so I was a teacher and Shelly was her name,
my principal good friend, andwe were just out on a run and
she's like hey, you want to opena bagel shop with me, principal
good friend.
And we were just out on a runand she's like hey, you want to
open a bagel shop with me and Isaid no, not at all.
She said no, really, there'sthis new bagel shop in Oklahoma
City by my parents and I want totalk to them about bringing
bagels back to Stillwater,because the bagel shop that he's
(03:37):
speaking of when we were incollege was no longer there.
It was New York Bagel and theyhad sold out and so there was no
bagel shop in Stillwater.
So I said, well, when we getback to the house, ask Bill.
He's always wanted he's talkedabout open restaurant before
just you know, wanted to dosomething in the service
industry.
So I said ask him, you know.
(03:58):
And so when we got back, he hadjust gotten up off of working
nights at the refinery and wewalked in and she's like, hey,
you want to open a bagel shopwith me.
And he goes like, yeah, sure,and she's like, no, really,
there's this new bagel shop,blah, blah.
And he's like, no, I'd love to.
She's like, no, I'm serious, Iwant to go talk to these guys.
(04:19):
And it's like all of them, whatdon't you understand about?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
yes, that's three yeses.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
When you get the yes, stop talking, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
They called them and, I think, went down the next day
and those guys were like well,you come work for a week, let's
see if this is something youreally want to do.
So Bill and Shelly went downthere and worked a week, did
literally every part of thebagel business, stayed up all
night, learned how to bakebagels, and that was, I think,
(04:54):
in February.
And in August we opened OldSchool Bagel in Stillwater,
oklahoma, so that was in 2009.
So, that was our first bageling, and then we've bageled ever
since then.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
We had it open in 2009 and then sold it in 2017.
And I was kind of on the end ofmy 30 years in the refinery and
we were thinking, gosh, what dowe want to do?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
What do we want to do ?
We'd always lived in northcentral oklahoma and just
thought we wanted to movesomewhere.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
New start, a new adventure in our lives as we
were retiring and I still havebuddies that will text me from
the refinery and say so, you'restill working a lot more hours
for a whole lot less money.
Yes, yes, I am so we had looked.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
I mean we had both written down like places we
thought would be cool.
We love to run trails and so wewere like looking in Oregon,
north Carolina, and he didArkansas Traveler, which is a
100-mile race down Around LittleRock, yeah, and met some people
(06:09):
from here and that was.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
It's a race like in a car.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
No, no, that's running 100 miles.
Yeah, it's running 100 feet,yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Golly.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, yeah Again.
I'm not the sharpest tool inthe shed.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Well, you know how to work.
Yeah, I do that.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I do miles.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Come on, that I do, yeah, but anyway, they, you know
, we're talking about all thetrails that were being built
around here, and so we startedcoming over from stillwater over
here and just fell in love withit.
And we moved over in january of2017 and thought, well, we
already know how to do bagels,we'll just do bagels again.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So we opened our first location may of 2017, here
there wasn't much of a bagelpresence here which we were
really surprised by um, and itwas the one off a rainbow curve
yes, sir, right, yes I lived incave springs when you guys
opened yeah and so I was afrequent uh visitor at that
stage nice I remember like athing maybe you don't think
(07:08):
about when you're opening a newplace is like, uh, the new, new
smells of the things oh right,right that you, you use.
Um, I just remember that like,wow, I guess some got a lot of
plastic totes here, don't youguys?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yes, like yeah, yeah, and they're all new yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
But I remember that and it was a cool spot and you
guys are doing a lot of thingsconsistently.
I feel like it's from a placeof purpose.
Is that assumption right?
Is this wrong?
What drives you to do all thethings that you do?
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Well, we've always said mission over money and
we've always had a mission andthat is to serve people and love
on people and bagels were kindof just the vehicle that let us
do that.
I love it.
We're from Oklahoma.
It's not like we had thispassion for bagels and so that
(08:16):
is like our driving force.
Yeah, and of course we want tohave good bagels.
We want to have I mean, you gotto have good food too, but I
got to feel loved.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
It's your bagels, right.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Terrible.
Good bagels we want to have.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
I mean, you got to have good food too, but you're
not gonna feel loved if yourbagels right, they're even
mediocre.
Great time it was horrible,yeah, yeah they sure were nice
but, you know if you've been toozark mountain bagel, if you're
in northwest arkansas, andyou've been there, I don't think
it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Uh, that's held uh quite consistently yeah, I've
been in the your original onemaybe only two or three times.
It wasn't near where I lived orworked, but since moving in
here like I said, I'm a weekly.
I'm a type 1 diabetic.
I probably shouldn't have morethan one bagel a week.
Gotcha but something I'venoticed from the first visit to
(08:59):
the last and all the ones inbetween.
You're always met with a smileand a verbal hello how are you
doing?
And then after that there'ssome intangible Are you the guy
next door or have you been inhere before?
There's a conversation thingthat happens, which is nice.
And then I notice on yournapkins you always have like an
(09:21):
inspirational quote of some sort, and I love those things.
Oh, I do too when I was a lotyounger, I would scour.
You know, different people thatI knew were like gk chesterton,
cs, lewis, winston churchill,ronald break all the different
people that were really good atmaking one to three sentence
things that stuck impactful,yeah, yeah.
(09:42):
So what?
What's your?
What?
What's your story there?
Like, what do you what?
What cause?
That's a unique element thatyou all bring.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
You know I've always loved quotes and I've had some
great mentors through through mycareer that also just had some,
some things that they love toshare.
Had a gentleman that JohnMaxwell.
(10:11):
He loved John Maxwell and JohnMaxwell had like the 19 rules of
leadership and he was justpassionate about sowing into
other people and so that kind ofstirred my love of quotes and
they've just always meantsomething to me and I thought,
(10:32):
you know, if we can just putsomething out there, then it
just, you know, can kind ofsomebody slow down and just
Makes you think.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
She contemplated a little bit I like Yogi Berra too
.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Well, some of his are so incredibly funny that
they're they're brilliant.
They're brilliant.
You know so, but uh, uh.
So we started collecting quotesand try to change them out.
We have customers that willgive us suggestions and love
that as well.
When you know for quotes.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
What are some other elements that you all have
intentionally incorporated thatare?
This is just kind of part ofwho we are, our ethos, Got any
ideas.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Well, I mean, we've been so fortunate to have
amazing employees and we try totell them they don't work for us
, they work with us.
And then try to translate anygood review we have, we take it
to them and say this is aboutyou.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
You're making a difference, right, and I would
say something else, because heactually helped lead leadership
training for philip 66, the oiland gas company he worked for,
and it's amazing, the leadershipskills that he used and taught
(12:01):
in the refinery translates toanything, and so it's been
wonderful because we, you know,probably 75% of our workforce,
their first job 16, you know,even 15 year olds, and just the
leadership qualities that he'sbeen able to impart, you know,
(12:24):
to them.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
And that's a great experience for them.
You rarely get that in yourfirst job, your first five jobs
maybe.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Right, and we know they're not going to bagel
forever.
Obviously, you know this is ashort term job, but it's amazing
how many of the parents comeback to us and, just, you know,
say yes and how.
I mean it is stuff that willtranslate no matter what they do
.
So and I feel like that's, youknow, has always been part of
(12:49):
our mission as well.
You know, what can we do umhelp grow these young kids?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
you know you know one thing, um, for us, just all of
this is eventually rust and dust.
Yeah, it really doesn't matter,it's the relationships that
matter.
And again, we've been sofortunate with our employees and
one of our first young menamazing, amazing.
He was an all-state footballplayer at Bentonville, like
(13:20):
second or third in his class,and we told him don't care that
you have these greatscholarships to go away to
school.
You got to find yourreplacement before you can go.
And he really set the standardof taking it really seriously.
And so we challenge all of ourkids.
(13:42):
You know, think beyond you.
Who could we grow?
Who could you see could growinto this?
And so it's been really fun.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
And the kids are amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
They're amazing.
You made the comment aboutrelationships and I'm just in my
mid-40s, but it feels like whenI was a lot younger it was the
things I wanted to do, right,the things I wanted to achieve.
And the older I get, it's Iwant about 10 people and then I
want to.
You know, that's my core,that's the thing that I feed
into them, they feed into me,and then it's those sometimes
(14:19):
random even relationships thatyou have with the person that
gives you coffee or whatever,that you can be some kind of a
light.
Yeah, right, and that that whenit when I've started trying to
think more about that life isabout that versus the things I'm
doing or the things I have todo, the obligations kind of
makes the obligation stuff a lotmore fun and easy to do.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
It does, it absolutely does.
And our wifi password is do,does, it absolutely does.
And our Wi-Fi password is dotoday.
Well, yeah, just because youknow, if you go squandering away
today and tomorrow, you justsquander away your life.
Just try to make every dayspectacular in one way or
(15:02):
another.
And unfortunately, in therefinery I had a fatality under
my watch that just so changed,kind of, my perspective Amazing,
great young man that lost hislife through no fault of his own
.
Somebody else made a mistakeand in the end it was really
(15:23):
truly a failure of leadershipbecause we let a bad employee be
a bad employee, hoping theywould change, and it was a
failure of leadership because weallowed it to happen So-.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
In that entrepreneurial journey, even
especially restaurants, there'sa lot of courage necessary to go
from not starting to starting,let alone in a new town, which
is pretty incredible.
2017, pretty big year.
What would you have to sharefrom that experience that you'd
want, you know, our listeners tolearn from?
Speaker 4 (16:04):
listeners to learn from.
Well, one thing I can say andthis may be a little unique to
Bentonville and NorthwestArkansas, but having done the
exact same thing in Stillwaterfirst and we loved Stillwater
Great college town you know itwas fun.
But coming here, the communityhas been so impactful in our
(16:27):
lives and we didn't have thatthere.
I mean they were supportive, itwasn't like that.
But just the way I mean justpeople in the community, both
our customers, but also justother business owners how much
they I feel like have fed intous, has been amazing.
People and businesses that youwould think are competitive.
(16:51):
You know those are yourcompetitors.
I mean, I feel like from theget-go they have just reached
out.
How can we help?
How can you know?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
just it's so much more cooperative and it's very
unique yeah, stillwater is avery transitional town, just by
the nature of the college, um,so that was, that was certainly
different, but but she's soright and um, you know, when
covid happened, um, there were,we had so many people buy gift
(17:24):
certificates that they neverused, wow, and I mean it was
amazing.
It was amazing and I always say, I always feel like we receive
more than we give, and just it'samazing.
The people here and thecommunity so it's amazing.
The people here and thecommunity, so it's been
(17:45):
wonderful.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So there are a lot of restaurants start and a lot of
restaurants fail.
Very high failure rate, right.
What are some pieces of adviceto some young or middle-aged or
older entrepreneur that wants tostart a restaurant retail?
We didn't plan any of thesequestions so I'm putting you on
(18:09):
the spot.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
You know, understand you can't do it by yourself.
You have to have a good team.
I think you have to listen topeople's ideas about doing
things, maybe a little differenttoo, being adaptable.
And I think a good leader isalmost like a chameleon that can
(18:32):
change a little bit.
But I think it takesdetermination and hard work.
But I think it takesdetermination and hard work.
For me it takes an unbelievablepartner that you know I'm a
very.
Let's leap out of the plane.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
We'll figure out the parachute on the way down.
We heard the story for thefirst bagel shop, yeah, which
was I don't know.
No, if you want a yes I know aguy, yeah, go ask Phil.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
And.
I'm back there packing theparachute, while I'm hearing him
say yes, we're going, okay,it's going to be good.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
I love that.
It's going to be good.
That's your line.
I say it's going to be great.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yeah, but I always say that somehow I break all
these things and she makesbeautiful stained glass windows
out of them.
Yeah, and surround yourselfwith people different than you.
That's one thing I often loveto do on a super busy Saturday
(19:39):
to have those high school kidsat the end of the day just say
look around you, these are notnecessarily who you'd hang out
with at school.
Around you, the, these are notnecessarily who you'd hang out
with at school, but comingtogether, you guys did so great.
Yeah, and surround yourselfwith people different than you,
you know, and so um, but ittakes a lot of hard work and
determination and adaptability,and finding a niche too is kind
(20:04):
of key.
That's key, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
There is a temptation , when you start something,
especially when it's small, tothink you want a bunch of you's.
Right, right Because you knowwhat has made you what you think
you are right.
So you're like if I could justclone and there isn't another
you right.
Everybody's different.
The key is to make them thebest they can be right and to
(20:27):
give them what they need, and itmight be something you didn't
need.
You needed something.
That's right.
Study the people around you, ifyou're a leader, to figure out
what it is they need from you.
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Absolutely To figure out what it is they need from
you Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Can we talk about customers, absolutely
Understanding customers?
You know we're in retail.
You're in retail.
Retail's a little different,although I do hear there's some
Walmart campus maybe stuff goingon.
I'm not sure if that's outthere.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, we do have a location in the new food hall at
the Walmart.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Which is so exciting.
Yes, that wasn't my originalquestion.
I got distracted by myself.
I look forward to hopefullygetting to visit that with some
friends that are associates.
But when you think aboutunderstanding customers, what
advice would you have for folks?
You know I worked at Walmartfor a long time and you know the
customer is king.
(21:24):
You're who's number one?
The customer always huh.
Have you heard the cheer?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
You haven't heard the cheer.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Probably, as we're walking through, maybe We'll
work through.
You're going to hear the cheer.
Yeah, at eighth and plate,that's going to happen.
But, you know customers whatthe focus is and, with the scale
and size of Walmart, customerunderstanding tends to happen
with data, Because you can'ttalk to 130 million people every
week that are in a Walmart.
You guys have the benefit ofbeing pretty close, but no
(21:53):
longer just one location, sothere is this sort of
understanding of customer thathas to expand.
I'd love to hear your thoughtson early days feedback.
How important was that and howhas that evolved?
The journey of Ozark MountainBagel.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
I kind of think from the word go.
I mean, the customer is alwaysright.
We never really bought intothat.
Right is always right.
So we would do all we could totry to please a customer.
But we're not going to do wrongto make someone happy.
(22:31):
And I've said that some people,if you gave them a bag of money
, they'd complain it's too heavy.
Some people just, you know, Idon't know what it is, they're
just not going to be happy.
But we did.
We got great feedback frompeople, suggestions, and you
know, I think you have to haveyour core lane, but I think you
(22:56):
can sway a little bit and changeyour course a little bit.
And most of our customers havebeen wonderful, right, wonderful
, wonderful.
I can, you know, probably nameon one hand people that are
memorable in a poor way.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Do you have their pictures up somewhere?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
I'd rather not say yeah, I did a lot of restaurant
work and and you know, as a kidand then in college age and
things like that, and I enjoyedit.
I love the rush, I love thechallenge of like making it
happen and then feeling goodabout it when you when you got
it done.
But in in those environments,in any kind of retail, you're
often meeting people at kind ofa bad time.
(23:37):
No, not all the time, butsometimes somebody's having just
they're having the worst dayand you're the intersection that
they're angry at something elseand now they're talking to you
and that's a I mean.
And for a teenage kid, it's onething for an adult to kind of
see that I've had those days,like you can relate a little bit
for your teenage kids.
(23:57):
How do you talk to them at allabout that, about you know what
may be a difficult or an angrycustomer.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Well, we always say.
You have to remember, though,the way you react to someone
says more about you than it doesabout them.
So if no matter how they'retreating you, it's how you treat
them back, and it's I mean,it's hard.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
We've all been in those situations, and we like to
ask them okay, the next personthat comes in, can you tell me
what's going on in their world?
And they're like well, no,you're exactly right, you just
don't know.
You just don't know, becauseeverybody's struggling with
something, everybody is battlingsomething.
(24:41):
They just may hide it very well, or not, or not?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
yeah or not?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Another thing we try to really reinforce with them is
on those Saturdays that theline goes all the way to the
door.
Never look at the back of theline.
There is absolutely nothing youcan do to help somebody that's
at the back of the line.
There is absolutely nothing youcan do to help somebody that's
at the back of the line.
The back of the line willeventually be there.
You just focus on that personin front of you, engage them
(25:11):
well and that'll all come aroundand then try to turn it to life
that sometimes in life we worryabout things we can't control
instead of worry about thethings we can.
And they're so receptive andagain, it's just almost
generational with the kids tosow into the next group, and
(25:35):
Sheila came up with just somekind of leadership things where
they'll will, as you know,elevate someone to a shift lead,
give them some moreresponsibility.
That they'll, you know, reallywork with the, with the newbies,
and and really make adifference and teach them
(25:55):
responsibility and and so it'sbeen really fun.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
I mean my daughter works at a cookie shop and she
recently got the supervisedsupervised, the shift supervisor
, so we have to drop her car offto get some stuff done.
I'm going to give her a rideand she goes.
I got to be there 10 minutesearly because I'm a shift lead
and I want to be ready.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Love it To the right person you know, brings them up
to have a little bit moreresponsibility.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
So how many locations do we now have To the right
person?
You know it brings them up tohave a little bit more
responsibility Yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So how many locations do we now have?
Ozark Mountain, bagel.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
So four of our locations and then two that are
license agreements basicallyfranchise type.
So that's the downtown Rogersone type.
So that's the downtown Rogersone.
And that one is owned by theDobson family who, um, Nicole
(26:51):
Dobson, was our manager at thesquare for four years, so I mean
someone who totally buys intoour mission.
Um, and two of her kids workedfor us as well.
So, um, and then we have theWalmart location at eighth and
plate.
Yeah, Is it open?
Now?
It is open.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
And then we have the Walmart location at 8th and
Plate yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Is it open?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
now it is open, and that's just for like it's behind
the curtain, so to speak.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
It is, it is there will be a public-facing.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
There'll be several public-facing places to go.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
This is just right now part ofthe food hall.
That's just employees.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
And then the other four are downtown Bentonville,
technically Northwest, 11thStreet.
Right, we call North Walton,which is North Walton Boulevard,
which is, you know, James saidearlier, we're right next door.
We're in the same building.
(27:45):
That's how next door.
So, our starting address is thesame.
Our suite number is differentthan your suite number, which is
pretty great, if you reallylove carbs.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
We do get each other's mail and packages 100%.
Got a package for you today.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Thank you.
You guys are the best, but yeah, so if you love carbs and
analyzing data and helpingbrands grow at Walmart, you can
work here at High Impact.
Or if you really just preferthe bagels and just want to be
near people who love data, youcan work at Ozark Mountain Bagel
(28:20):
.
So those two, and then RainbowCurve, which is the OG original
location, and the fourth JohnsonMill.
Johnson Mill.
Okay, great yeah, there's a.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Down by Pizzeria Ruby and Pale Mellow.
Yes, okay, we're just at theother corner of the building.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Awesome, a culinary destination.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
That's right, there you go, there you go, breakfast,
lunch and whatever.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
All right.
And then from a trendstandpoint, because I love
trends, what's the tried truefaithful?
This bagel, everybody lovesthis bagel.
And what's the this one's?
We're starting to see it takeoff.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Well, the everything bagel is definitely the most
popular bagel flavor, no doubt.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
How about that?
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Trending, I would say the rosemary salt, which is a
new flavor for us.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Introduced by Sheila yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
All right, yes.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
And the consumption's more than Sheila Other people.
You said trending, I wasn'tsure if this is like.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Yeah, I might be Sheila's trending.
She's hoping that the trend gotto sway Rosemary salt.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Rosemary salt.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
I like that.
I'll try it.
You haven't tried it.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
You should try it.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Have you tried our new gluten-free bagels?
I have, yeah, I tried it thefirst round and probably the
best gluten-free bagel that I'vehad which, if you don't get to
have gluten, which is me rightnow bagels aren't really my
primary destination Right.
Understandable, but as agluten-free bagel.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
That was the best one , for sure yeah, that's matt, uh
, he's, I guess his.
Is it his daughter?
That's gluten-free yes okay,yep, and so she.
She's become a big fan of thegluten-free bagels, so I love
that.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yeah, yeah I remember he walked by the other day
carrying a bag.
So Matt's our chief operatingofficer here and as neighbors do
.
I think he got a whole bag ofthose.
That's right, that's right,which is awesome.
Yeah, I guess when you run youknow you got to have some good
source of carbs, and he's gotsome runners in his family.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Nice, nice, nice.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
And you do a little running.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
I do, I do.
I'd like to get back to muchmore of it, but business takes a
little time.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
3 am.
Wake-up call doesn't allow muchrunning in the morning.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yes, is it night running?
When does it transition fromnight to morning?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I don't know, sometimes my watch says good
evening instead of good morning.
When we get up yeah, goodevening.
I worked rotating shift workfor 28 years, so I switched days
to nights.
So I've always kind of astrange bird.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
One of my favorite things in business is vision.
I love to think about thefuture and I like to kind of
have an idea of where we'regoing and kind of where I'd like
to land.
And you may not be able or wantto talk about it, but what's
the vision for Ozark Mountain,Bagel?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Well, I think kind of our saying too is spreading joy
, love and cream cheese.
You know, we'd love theopportunity to grow, but we want
to be purposeful about that andnot just grow for the sake of
growing.
We'd eventually we're workingon kind of a franchise package
(31:52):
for so it'd just be a cut andpaste for new franchisees, but
really work on vetting them hard.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yeah, totally.
Just so the feel is the same,that you could go in and just…
it's just cream cheese and youdon't have joy and love.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Yeah, it's just….
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Chick-fil-A has been very successful with that model
making sure they have the rightperson come in to lead a store
model, making sure they have theright person come in to lead a
store.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
We want it to be a blessing to that family.
That you know person too who'sopening it, because it I mean it
can be a burden, and we don't.
You know, we don't want to dothat because we know how hard it
is.
So it's not just vetting them,as far as you know, are they
right for Ozark Mountain Bagel,but we want to make sure Ozark
Mountain Bagel is right for themas well.
But that's kind of our growthmodel.
(32:51):
We are done opening.
Get that please.
We are done opening ourselves,um ourselves.
We would like to, uh, actuallyretire at some point in our
lives because we are getting old.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Yes, so um Retire.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Retire to just run hundred mile races.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
That's what I would like to do.
That's what I would like to doBe a different kind of tired yes
, yes, yes.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
So that's kind of the gross model.
Right now we're really workingon this franchise model.
You know, we know there's somany more places in even just
northwest Arkansas that I mean30-something people a day settle
here, right, amazing, amazinggrowth, yeah, and so many areas
are growing.
You know, pea Ridge, centerton.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Farmington yeah, there's just so many.
Yeston yeah, there's just somany.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
So, yeah, that's kind of what we're working on right
now.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
That's beautiful, that's awesome.
Well, thank you.
You want to go to lightning?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Let's do it All right .
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Lightning round.
Hold on, we have some zingers.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
You know, we try to have a culture here where it's
okay to make a mistake and, infact, if you're not making
mistakes, you're probably notpushing real hard.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
If you can't make a mistake.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
You can't make a mistake.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Fail fast frequently.
So what's a big failure in yourbusiness or previous business
or whatever that you learned alot from, and it's kind of
something you've incorporated,that learning, into how you
operate today.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Probably trying to be a leader that micromanaged
everything initially, and one ofmy favorite quotes is the
legacy of the leader is theleaders they leave behind.
And yeah, again, I had somegreat mentors and one lady one
(34:51):
day came down and we were havingproblems in the refinery and
she said, okay, tell me whatwe're doing.
I said, well, we did this.
We hope that helps, we're doingthis.
We hope that did it, we'redoing this.
She said hope's not a plan.
Make me a plan.
And I was like, wow, that's apunch in the gut, but it was it
(35:14):
just allowing people to do theirjob and grow and thank them for
what they do, you know, andtell them that you truly
appreciate them, and I thinkthat's kind of.
(35:38):
I thought I had to be too gruffand be something I wasn't, and
so that was a big learning forme.
You got a zinger for that.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
Oh, I would say for me, I get really wrapped up in
details and I'm very introvertedand I would be more than happy
just to be in the back of thehouse working on my to-do list.
This is where the us togetheris good, because he's very
(36:06):
extroverted and he's out theretalking to people.
I've lost my to-do list.
It says to-do.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
And that's as far as you got.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
And so it's kind of been a learning experience for
me having to be out theretalking to people, and I
thoroughly enjoy it, but it'suncomfortable and so, yeah, just
being comfortable with beinguncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
I've just had to learn how to do that.
I guess what about you all.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Failure.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Oh, we'll be asking the question.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
No, I, um, I.
I was the hub of this thing forfar too long.
When you start a businessthat's just one person and then
kind of goes to three, four,five people, there's a period of
time when I had about seven oreight people that you know.
If you picture a wheel and ahubcap, and I was the hubcap and
everything had to come to mebefore it went out and I became
(37:08):
the log jam.
I became the reason we couldn'tgrow.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
But it was with good intentions that you were doing
that Sure good intentions cantake you to heaven or to hell.
Oh right, right, right, oh,well said, well said.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
So it was making that transition to I need to do more
leading than doing, which waskind of the first phase, and
then eventually I need to justdelegate, elevate and lead.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Well, that's kind of three years before I started
doing the leadership trainingfor Phillips 66.
I had someone that put me on aperformance improvement plan and
gave me real honest feedbackand they told me feedback is a
gift and you know if they'rebeing accurate it's going to
(37:58):
sting a little bit and you knowthe same stones can either be
stumbling blocks or buildingblocks and it was great.
You know it hurt.
And it was great.
You know it hurt and it wascompletely accurate and I needed
to make yeah come on, I thoughtI was perfect, but it was
(38:21):
really good for me to hear thatI was not as good as I perceived
I was and be willing to change.
So and then, three years later,I'm asked to be part of a team
that designed this training andand led the training for all of
field.
Oh, it was, it was, it was, and, but it was other people that
(38:45):
that, again, were the steppingstones for me to get, get where
I needed to be.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
So, yeah, well, I guess I can answer uh, a failure
.
I think probably the mostrecent um would be I.
I get pretty passionate.
Uh, you know, I think you've.
You've got a lot of passion inyou there's.
I get excited about differentthings, I've got ideas.
(39:11):
Sometimes my brain's prettynonlinear and a failure to
recognize that that enthusiasm,when it turns into talking over
someone, does nothing but justmake them feel talked down to,
disregarded, not listened to.
Disregarded, not listened to.
(39:35):
And I'm blissfully ignorant ofthat impact on anybody around me
, just grateful that we'removing and we're shaking and
we're getting somewhere and soI've gotten that feedback.
And the failure is the factthat it has happened and I do
that and I'm so grateful forfeedback.
It is a gift.
Does it feel good to realizelike, oh no, I made you feel
that way, like, oh darn, yeah,yeah yeah, I wasn't trying to do
(40:00):
that um and I think you knowthey knew that, but um, that's
been a a most recent, like uh,point of failure that's been
brought to my attention andreally what it does is it makes
me want to sit back and be likewhat is someone not telling me
so that I make sure that I'mactually creating the space for
(40:22):
feedback and doing that in a waythat's going to be productive
for them and everybody feelssafe to do that.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Again.
One of my mentors said you know, on the feedback as a gift to
people, you say I want yourfeedback, please give me your
feedback.
It does a couple of things.
One, it gives them permissionto give you that, but it also
kind of changes your attitudethat you're prepared to get that
(40:54):
feedback, and so you'rereceptive to it, and you know.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, super grateful for it.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Frankly.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
My example was in business.
I have some real humdingers inthe personal life, oh nice, go
from zingers to humdingers.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
We're going to be rhyming all afternoon.
I love it, okay.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
All right.
And lastly, all our attentionalpeople.
You like quotes.
What are you reading, listeningto, kind of taking in right now
, and it can be for fun, it canbe for something else.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Do you have something ?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Do you even have time between the business and the
running?
Speaker 3 (41:34):
No, we sit and do devos every morning and hers are
deeper than mine, but I love,like Bob Goff and just some of
his simple um things that he,that he you see in life, that he
can somehow transform into agreat lesson Um, and I love that
(42:00):
.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
That's love.
Does right, yes, love does.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
And then I, I have one that's a um, just a every
day.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Oh cool.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Yeah, just every day through the year and just some
of the things that he says, itjust really strikes home with me
.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
So what about?
Speaker 3 (42:20):
you.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
Oh, besides that I mean we're doing reading through
the Bible and Bible recap we'renot really doing anything.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
What are you in right now?
Speaker 4 (42:34):
Well, we did the old Testament last year and started
the new Testament and then justkind of quit, and so we're
started over with the newTestament this year yeah.
We're in Luke right now.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Cause it's a chronological, so you do some
jumping around're in Luke rightnow.
Yeah, because it'schronological, so you do some
jumping around, all right, which?
Speaker 3 (42:53):
is pretty interesting .
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
Do you all have any suggestions of some great reads?
Speaker 1 (42:59):
I mean love, does it's such a good one?
I say we, I read a book.
I say we, I read a book.
It was actually given by one ofour other you know, suite mates
here called the Go-Giver.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
That's just about.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
you know it's a play on go-getter.
You know we've got a lot ofdrive to go accomplish things
and what's it look like to,instead of going and trying to
get, look intentionally to go togive, and it seems like your
ethos is exactly that.
It's a short read.
That's a great question.
I have read it.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
I've read it multiple times.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
And it's written by a great author.
It's one of the books that wegive all of our new employees
when they join us.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Love that.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
That's why I said we, because James has read it and
lots of the team have, and it'sjust that mindset mission over
money.
There's a deep irony.
The motivation is for theimpact on the individual, but
the reality is you have animpact on someone, then they're
happy to return again and so itends up making a great business.
(44:11):
And it's like if you miss thepoint and you went to go get,
you're not going to have deeployalty and relationships that
are authentic.
But if you have authenticrelationships, then you do the
right thing, because you'refocused on the right thing.
Then it will naturally create alot of benefit.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
I love that.
The go-getter, the go-giver,go-giver.
I got it, she's got it.
Yeah, you got to have a Sheilain your life.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Yeah, absolutely, oh, man, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yeah, most recent one .
For me that kind of stood out.
I do a lot of fiction, so Iwon't go into that.
It's a book called the FourAgreements and if somebody
recommended it I probablywouldn't have read it otherwise.
But you ever, like you, findyourself where, like things just
aren't clicking, you're notconnecting with people the way
(44:58):
you want, you're more frustrated, aggravated, you know, it's
just that it's not gelling.
And this book says there's fouragreements that if you make
them with yourself, you kind offall out of those situations of
expecting things from otherpeople, of expecting them to
serve you in some way in arelationship.
And it was useful for me.
(45:18):
Well, thank you so much forjoining us.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
Thanks for having us Such a pleasure.
A great deal, I reallyappreciate it.
And nice to learn more aboutyou all.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Yeah, and we should chat more over bagel sometime
and some some good coffee.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
That sounds great.
I love it yes.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
And thank you all, as always, for listening.
You can check out any of ourpodcasts on our website, high
impact analyticscom video audio,as well as on YouTube and
anywhere you download yourpodcasts.
Thank you very much for joiningus.
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