April 9, 2025 • 30 mins
Entrepreneurship is borne of passion and inspiration. We have a ton of it here, for you. Dive into the entrepreneurial journey of Jack Wright, from London editor to Cape May's creative force behind Exit Zero Magazine & more! Discover how a T-shirt idea sparked a local phenomenon in our latest episode. Catch it now! #Podcast #Entrepreneurship #ExitZero
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Episode Transcript
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(00:10):
Welcome to the Water Troughwhere we can't make you drink,
but we will make you think.
My name is Ed Draws to the SmallBusiness Doctor, and I'm really
excited you chose to join mehere as we discuss topics that
are important for small businessfolks just like you.
If you're looking for ideas,inspiration, and possibility,
you've come to the right place.
Join us as we take steps to helpyou create the healthy business
that you've all.
Always wanted.
(00:43):
Welcome back to the WaterTrough.
This is Ed DRA to the SmallBusiness Doctor, and today I'm
pleased to be joined by JackWright.
Jack was a newspaper andmagazine editor in London and
New York before moving to CapeMay, New Jersey in 2002 when he
wrote and designed the coffeetable book, Tommy Folly, A
History of Congress Hall,America's oldest Seaside Hotel.
(01:04):
Shortly after he founded ExitZero Magazine.
In 2008, he wrote and designed awild ride, the official history
of Maury's Piers.
He was also commissioned todesign and publish the Lucky
Bones Cookbook plus historybooks on the Shelf Hunt Hotel
and the boroughs of Stone Harborand Wildwood Crest.
He created the Exit zero fillingstation restaurant in 2015.
(01:25):
Hey, man, you got a lot of stuffgoing on.
How you doing, Jack?
I'm doing good, ed.
It's a pleasure to talk with youagain.
It's a pleasure for me as well.
let me just jump right in hereand ask you a little bit of a
question about the origin ofExit Zero, the name.
So, I came here 2002 I quit myjob as an magazine editor in New
(01:49):
York, something on a whim.
I came down to Cape Me theinvitation of Curtis Bashaw, the
owner of Congress Hall.
I worked in his pool bar.
I managed the pool bar at theswimming pool at the hotel for
the summer.
I had never worked inhospitality before.
I'm sure it was probably prettyawful.
but in the course of that, Istayed, in Cape Me through that
(02:12):
fall.
I.
I was researching the historybook that Curtis commissioned me
to write about the hotelCongress hall, and I came across
an old magazine calledPennywise, which you know, a
long time Cape Me.
People know a lot about greatlittle magazine that was
published from the thirtiesthrough probably the seventies
or early eighties, and.
I thought, well, it'd be greatto bring that magazine back.
(02:35):
so what would it be called?
We would redo it.
And, you know, I had done somet-shirts for Congress hall that
said, meet me at Exit Zero.
And it wasn't a phrase that wasreally used.
I think a couple of peopletalked about Exit Zero, the
number I was trying to get thedesign of the t-shirt to work.
And so I made it exit zero ZEROand it was a name that, that
(02:57):
Curtis and I bandied around andwe thought, that's a great name
for a magazine.
because Cape May is at the verybottom of the 172 exits of the
Garden State Parkway.
So it's the phrase that wasn'taround much.
A couple of, locals would talkabout it, but, It wasn't used.
And so the first iteration wason those congress hall t-shirts,
but then it became the name ofthe magazine that was launched
(03:18):
July 4th, 2003.
And on account of your effort toput out a t-shirt, the state of
New Jersey took you up on it andmade it, in fact, exit zero.
Yeah.
So some people don't believe mewhen I say this in 2008.
We got a call from the GardenState partway authority, who
operate that road.
(03:38):
And they said that they weregoing to put up a sign that said
Exit zero.
And we said, so why are youdoing that?
And they said, well, yourmagazine has really kind of
publicized this name.
And we thought it would be a funthing for the locals and the
visitors to put up the sign.
So it wasn't for any.
Like highway standards.
It was just done on a whim,which seems like a strange thing
(04:00):
for something like the state ofNew Jersey to do.
So they did it.
But what's odd of course, isthat the sign points to North
Cape May, it doesn't pointstraight on to Cape May.
So I don't know.
Why they did that.
it doesn't really make anysense.
as I said, people don't believeme, when I say that that sign
was inspired by us.
(04:21):
That's just a fact.
And, you know, it was nice thatthey did that.
I think it's fun, but it doesn'treally serve any purpose.
But hey.
It's fun.
Well, every time I come down tothe end of the parkway and I see
the sign.
I first and foremost, think ofthe magazine Exit Zero.
Yeah.
And you're right, it does pointoff to the ferry and beyond.
So I admit it is kind ofpeculiar it's not going down
(04:44):
town, but, well, you know what,It's funny though.
I guess you could say that itdoes take you to West Cape May,
which is where.
our building is, it'stechnically in West Cape Main,
and anybody knows when you gointo Cape May, if you want to go
to West Cape May, you don't gostraight over the Lobster House
Bridge.
You take the back bridge.
So I guess, you could say thatthe Exit Zero sign does take you
(05:08):
to Exit zero in West Cape May.
So I don't think that's what theGarden State Parkway had in
mind, that I'll take it.
Or it takes us to Jack's house,which in that case, of course,
yeah.
Yeah.
So either way.
Either way.
Well, I think it's fantastic.
I have to tell you, as somebodythat's been coming to Cape Maye
since 1965, I will tell youthis, that's the year I was
(05:30):
born.
Uh.
Well, okay.
Let's not get into that part.
That's all right.
Okay.
Enough said End of story.
we're done now.
Happy Birthday.
anyway, the site of Exit Zeroalways, always, always is,
proceeded by the countdown.
Usually starts somewhere aroundOcean City.
(05:52):
We start chopping off.
Blocks of five miles.
And then as we get closer, it's,in the last 10 miles we're going
like, ah, nine miles, eightmiles, seven miles, zero.
it is such a big deal.
But Cape May is a lovely placeand Cape May has really
benefited a lot from the effort.
That you have put in with ExitZero with the filling station
(06:13):
and so on and so forth.
Tell us about how things evolvefor you when you got down here.
As you said, you were an editorin, in New York City and a
magazine editor.
I believe it was Men's Journal,if I'm not mistaken.
I.
Yeah, that was the most recentone.
Yeah.
Okay.
And so you come to Cape May andas you say, you're working at
the pool bar.
And by the way, I don't recallyou ever serving me at the pool
(06:35):
bar, but that's probably'causethey wouldn't let me, ibe at the
pool bar.
But that's another story foranother day.
So you came down here and yougot this idea for a t-shirt,
which led to this, magazine oractually Pennywise, which led to
the magazine, but.
Where was your head at?
are you a natural bornstoryteller?
What's going on here?
(06:55):
Well, I think I'm an accidentalentrepreneur, first of all.
I only ever wanted to be ajournalist from the age of 12 or
13.
Well, journalists are longdistance truck driver, I wanted
to be a long distance truckdriver for about 15 minutes.
I grew up in Scotland and Ithought it'd be really fun to
drive long distances tocontinental Europe and sleep in
the cab.
(07:15):
It just seems like a veryromantic thing to do.
But, more than that, I wanted tobe a journalist and so I did, I
was a journalist in Scotland andin London and then New York.
I don't know if I can callmyself a journalist for putting
Exit Zero out every week, buthey, I still write.
So that's journalism of a sort.
I think that when I came to CapeMay, I had the little fancy that
(07:36):
I was gonna do, like an earnestHemingway, leaving the city and
going to the Florida Keys.
So that was the kind of romanticnonsense that was in my head.
When Curtis Barau asked me tocome down, I thought, okay.
I'll leave New York City and Iwill come down to the beach and
maybe I'll write a novel.
And I will enjoy, you know, Idon't drink daiquiris like
(07:57):
hemming weed does, but I'llenjoy some cocktails by the
beach and A I'll have a fabuloussummer fling, a romance or two.
Boy, wouldn't that be fun?
And then I just assumed that I'dcome back to New York after the
summer and find another magazinejob.
So that was where my head wasat.
I guess Kate may very quicklygot under my skin and after the
summer was over, I didn't wantto leave.
(08:19):
I had no plans.
I had no preconceptions.
And when Curtis asked me tostay, and work on this book, and
he gave me a little basementapartment where I hunkered up.
and those were the days of theinternet was a little 57
kilobyte modem that took about20 minutes to connect.
And, researching then wasinteresting compared to what
(08:41):
it's like now.
I did that book over the courseof the winter, not knowing.
Again, what would happen next?
I really didn't know what I wasdoing next.
I was just basically living inthe moment, without really a
plan.
at one point I thought I mighthave to go back to the UK
because my work visa wasattached to my previous
(09:01):
engagement in New York.
It's not as if I had a permanentvisa or citizenship at that
point.
So I think, uh, looking back Iwas probably a little bit all
over the place, very much day today thinking, what will happen
next?
And I ended up sponsoringmyself.
I.
To stay in the country to getwhat was an oh one visa, they
call it the genius visa.
(09:22):
I don't know why they call itthat, but, I think it was
probably easier to get visasthan it is now.
God bless America.
and so I sponsored myself to getthat visa that kept me in the
country.
And then I thought, okay, I'mhere now.
I have to somehow try to make aliving that's not in New York.
And so I was here, Helped me tobuy a house.
(09:42):
This was the days when you couldget a no Doc mortgage.
And, somehow I got a mortgage.
I don't know how that happened,but I got one and, exit zero was
launched and I thought it wouldlast one summer.
I thought people would be sickof seeing the picture in the
paper after one summer, and thatwould be it.
And I would have to come up withplan B.
Seriously, you thought that?
(10:03):
Yeah.
I thought it would be a one anddone.
it launched at 24 pages.
I think by the end of the summerit was four, eight pages.
And then next year it was,double that and it just kept
going.
it eventually stopped growingbecause social media happened
and, newsprints been in declinefor like 40 years.
I remember growing up and beingtold there wouldn't be
(10:23):
newspapers in my future.
there, still are of course, butit's been in decline.
So, the magazine, it was a bigsuccess and, still didn't really
regard myself as anentrepreneur.
I've never made a businessdecision because it was a
business decision.
I make decisions based on whatexcites me.
And you know what?
This would be fun.
Let me try it.
I've never done cost analysis oranything like that.
(10:45):
Maybe I should have, a littlelater on, but, two years into
publishing the magazine, I livednext door to a lady who owned a
t-shirt company called SueLuozzo Flying Fish Studio.
And I said, Hey Sue, I'd love toget a couple of t-shirts made
that say exit zero.
You know, we have this nicelogo.
So she did that.
And me and a couple of thepeople who were helping me with
(11:06):
the magazine, including thephotographer Alexa, we wore exit
zero T-shirts.
And this was in my house.
We were doing the paper for myhouse, and one day this lady
drives in and she wanted to.
have someone come and takepictures and she saw a t-shirt
and she's like, oh, I'd like tobuy a t-shirt.
Do you sell them?
And I said, um, yeah, yeah, wedo.
(11:27):
Um, what, size are you lookingfor?
And she says, oh, um, I thinkI'm looking for three mediums.
I was like, yeah, yeah, we cando that.
And that'll be$15 each,$45.
And at the time I was trying togo on a date with a girl, in
Philadelphia.
And I had no money.
I had no money.
This was the early days of exitzero.
And this lady, she left.
(11:49):
I looked at Alexa, thephotographer.
We were a lot younger andthinner back then.
I was a medium.
He was a medium I.
And I said, okay, get thoset-shirts off.
I'm going to put them in thelaundry and I'm going to wash'em
and dry'em and I'm going to dropthem off at this lady's house in
North Cape May'cause she paid me$45.
And so I laundered those threeT-shirts, dropped'em off in
North Cape May borrowed$50 frommy friend Mark Chamberlain, who
(12:11):
owned North Beach Gym at thetime, and drove up to
Philadelphia for this date.
armed with, just enough money toget there and back and buy
dinner, and I literally had like$1 50 left at the end of it.
So that gave me the thought, ifsomeone wants to buy my
t-shirts, maybe I should open ashop.
So I spoke to Curtis Bau, whohad sort of like a broom closet
(12:33):
at the end of Congress Hall, andwe decided to turn that into the
first Exit Zero shop, and thatopened in February of 2005.
And, we were there for a fewyears and then we opened a shop
and office on Sunset Boulevardin 2009, and then we doubled
that in 2012.
We took over the shop next door,and then in 2000, 15, the
(12:57):
landlord said, the tea shop.
Next to your store is available,it's up for rent, you know, all
the restaurant owners in town.
Would you tell me if there's anythat you think would be
interested in taking that over?
I went home that night and Isaid to my wife, Diane, I would
love to do a Curry restaurant.
There's no curry in Cape May.
There's no curry anywhere nearhere.
We have to go to Egg Harbor 45minutes away.
(13:18):
And she was like, mm-hmm.
A restaurant.
She was over my dead body.
I worked in the restaurantindustry.
It's brutal.
Uh, so the nicotine, I said tomy landlord, I'd like to open a
curry restaurant next door.
And he said, okay.
he had faith in me, I suppose.
I think a lot of the localrestaurant owners thought it was
crazy.
My wife certainly thought it wascrazy.
Three months later, we opened itto zero Cookhouse.
(13:40):
I basically research probablyevery night until four in the
morning.
'cause I knew nothing aboutrunning a restaurant and that
terrified me.
And so I threw myself into it,every aspect of it.
We couldn't afford to buy awalk-in cooler, so I figured out
this thing that you could buyfor$300 called a robo cooler, I
(14:00):
think it was.
And deer hunters use them.
You buy it.
And you buy a digital AC unitand it tricks the AC unit to
going down to like 35 degrees.
And it worked beautifully.
You have to insulate it, and itworked like a treat.
We passed the county health examand it worked really well as a
walk-in cooler.
so that was how the restaurantopened.
And I think by July, we were.
(14:22):
Top restaurant and Cape Me onTripAdvisor because everyone
gave us five stars.
And I think everyone gave usfive stars because their
expectations were so low.
'cause they were like, what thehell does Exit zero know about
running a restaurant?
This is gonna be really bad.
And they would go in and it wasgood.
maybe sometimes it was very goodand we'd get five stars.
So at one point we were numberone rated restaurant in Cape
(14:44):
May, which was kind of surreal.
and so we had a nice little runthere.
The restaurant did fine, itdidn't, make anybody rich.
It barely made money, to behonest.
But it was fun.
I really enjoyed it.
Right.
As a result of that, Kurt Bashoagain bought the gas station
across the road and said, Hey,would you like to have your
restaurant and your office andyour shop all in one spot?
(15:08):
'cause I'm going to buy it andwe'd like to rent it to you.
And I said, sure.
And I said, we'll take the gasstation as well.
He's like, why would you dothat?
I said, well, I don't wantsomebody running a gas station
right next to our business.
I don't know what theiraesthetics will be.
I don't know what their customerservice will be.
It might look really dowdy nextto a nice restaurant.
(15:29):
I'd like to do the gas stationas well, and that was
terrifying.
Um.
Running a gas station withoutany experience of running a gas
station.
This big giant truck would comeand then you would get a giant
invoice a day later, for like$15,000 for gasoline.
And, twice we had this kind ofthe worst case scenario for a
gas station.
(15:50):
We had gas tenders put in dieselinstead of gas.
That happened to us twice.
And One of the times wasactually to one of Curtis B's
company Vans.
Oh, he was fairly understanding.
more noteworthy was, the couplefrom upstate New York who came
by here in a convoy.
(16:13):
the husband had a big pickuptruck, and in the back were
cages that they had their dog inthere.
They had weasels, or ferrets.
his wife had a Subaru car withtheir four kids, and I.
We had a Turkish G one studentwho maybe never understood them
properly, was working there forthe summer and he put diesel in
(16:34):
the guy's truck.
And this guy was a big dude.
He was about six four.
This was midday or just beforemidday on a Saturday.
They were about to leave CapeMay to go back home to upstate
New York.
This guy wanted to rip the kid'shead off.
I sent the kid home.
I said, you need to leave.
And I said to him, I can't tellyou how sorry I'm, this is a
nightmare.
and I said to him, please, yourwife, your four kids, your dog,
(16:56):
your ferrets, you can bring themupstairs to a restaurant.
in my office, I was working thatSaturday.
I will take care of you, we'llgive you a food and drinks.
we will get your, gas tank takenoff and we will get it, stripped
and emptied.
And cleaned out.
'cause this has happened to usonce before.
I said, we know what to do.
(17:18):
He kinda gave me a look ofhorror.
So he goes upstairs, the dog,this beautiful dog that I hung
out with all day.
It was so sweet.
It was like a white pit bullmix.
I then spent the next few hourstrying to find a mechanic on a
Saturday afternoon who would dothat, right?
And it took about three or fourhours to find one.
Thank God I did I think it wasChuck at Sunset, Otto.
(17:40):
I still, he was amazing and theycame and they did it.
but that couple were here forseven and a half hours on a
Saturday, on a roasting hot,July or August, Saturday, just
desperate to get home.
And I have to say that by theend, they were tooting their
horn and saying, this is one ofthe most funny experiences we've
ever had.
We'll, never forget this.
You guys took such good care ofus.
(18:01):
It was a nightmare, but.
Really, it just turned into astory that we'll tell for the
rest of our lives.
So that, was one of the, funparts of running a gas station,
a bit of a roller coaster.
and then Covid happened ofcourse, and, we converted that
sort of gas station forecourtinto outdoor dining, and for a
while people would roll up toget their gas.
(18:21):
And then at five o'clock peoplewere drinking margaritas on the
other side of those gas tanks,those pumps.
And that was quite surreal.
people were like eitherhorrified or like, this is
genius.
This is amazing.
You know, it was interesting.
We closed the gas station atfive so that people could then
eat, but there was a little bitof an overlap with someone
standing there getting their gastank filled while someone's
(18:42):
having a drink literally likethree feet away from them.
that kind of got us in the newsthat got us talked a lot.
About, and I think it reallypropelled our restaurant to the
next level.
we got the old vintage trailersthat people could, safely dine
in, and that became viral.
We were on a, b, c news.
we were everywhere.
And, the restaurant became ahuge success.
(19:03):
So much so that, we were invitedto go for the concessions at the
Cape Mill Lewis Ferry terminal.
Long story short, we took over.
A huge operation there andoverreached, overreached quite
dramatically.
And we had to cut short, aftertwo and a half years because we
were basically David playing inGoliath Sandbox.
we were a little company thatcrashed through our own glass
(19:25):
ceiling, but I think it allhappened too quickly.
We became the most talked aboutrestaurant in the area.
We went from having maybe 40employees to having 200
employees between all of ourvenues.
And it was too much, it was toomuch for me to handle.
it was just too much money.
I borrowed too much money goinginto too much debt.
And, we'd had deeper pockets,but we didn't have deeper
(19:49):
pockets.
And it reminds me of magazines.
a lot of magazines fail, justlike a lot of restaurants fail.
And the reason that magazinesfail is.
It's not necessarily becausepeople don't like them.
it takes a while for people tobecome, loyal fans and to become
subscribers.
And all the research I read wasthat most magazines got business
because they just didn't haveenough money to get past three
(20:11):
years.
And that three years was kind ofthe litmus test.
Like if you can get past thefirst three years, then you'll
probably build enough subscriberand reader loyalty to make it.
But if you don't get past thosethree years, but you're gonna
get business because it costs alot of money to print.
if you're printing a glossymagazine and you're printing
half a million copies, it'sgonna cost you about$600,000.
(20:32):
That's a lot of money.
So we had a great concept andpeople liked it, but we just ran
outta money and, couldn'tcontinue anymore and it
definitely had a negative impacton the filming station and all
other aspects of our business.
So it's been a tremendouslychallenging 18 months.
the backwash from that, thefallout from that.
(20:53):
it's definitely been.
A rollercoaster ride where thislittle exit zero climbed and
climbed and kinda got to the topof the mountain, and then we're
kind of falling all the way backdown the mountain again.
And this time, we're not gonnaclimb to the top of the
mountain, or if we do, it'll bea different size mountain.
It'll be more of a hill.
I saw what it was like at thepoint where you have 200
(21:14):
employees and you're dealingwith those stakes, and I don't
want to go back to that.
I want to, go back to mypublishing roots.
I did love doing a restaurantand we are still in the
restaurant business and I dostill enjoy it, but it is a
tremendously difficult I.
Industry, I don't think thepeople who go out to eat
(21:34):
understand how difficult it isto get that food on your plate.
It takes so much.
It takes a lot of work.
It takes a lot of resources and,the staffing issues since Covid
have not really abated, therestaurant industry famously
became horribly affected byCovid.
in terms of staffing, a lot ofpeople left the business and
have not returned.
(21:55):
I think in general, Americans,eat too cheaply in restaurants.
Restaurants in other countriestend to be more expensive.
People don't go out to eat.
I.
Four or five next a week, theway that they sometimes do in
America, especially in resorttowns.
Mm-hmm.
it's a tremendously difficultbusiness.
If you enjoy having friendsaround to your house and pour
them drinks and making themfood, then the chances are there
are things about the restaurantbusiness that you enjoy.
(22:17):
And so I enjoy that.
But the tremendously difficultthings as well.
So we are still in the magazine,in the restaurant business, in
the retail business.
Just not to the extent that wewere two years ago.
Oh, I appreciate the fact thatyou have scaled a large
mountain, recognized perhapsthat your, ambition outpaced
(22:37):
your resources and are nowlooking at it from a different
perspective.
So many entrepreneurs fall intothe same camp, but I do have to
point out, it seems like yourapproach to it was.
Gradual despite the fact that Ithink your last effort, the
ferry, which was certainly a lotof things simultaneously, was a
(22:58):
big undertaking.
it still seems you went therepiece by piece by piece, would
you say that you were open-eyedwhat you were getting into, or
did it surprise you when you gotthere to find out just how much
it entailed?
Yeah, I mean.
It was that gradual, as you say,we started publishing, we did
(23:18):
retail, we added a restaurant,and then we kinda did it all
together.
I think I knew when I took onthe ferry that it was a huge
undertaking.
I did get some experiencepartners in to help, but they
were expensive.
And I think maybe the mistakewas that we tried to open.
With all guns blazing, becausewe wanted to make an instant
(23:38):
impact, because firstimpressions are important.
We wanted to have an instantimpact, but the cost of having
that instant impact was huge.
It was also during covid, so thecost of the renovation were
probably 30% more than theyshould have been.
The cost of plumbing andelectrical work.
Back then was hideous.
(23:59):
it really just was exponentiallylarger than it that would've
been before.
but instinctively, everybodytold me when I was doing the
ferry that you're gonna crushit.
This is such an amazinglocation.
And it was.
And it is.
And everybody thought I wouldcrush it.
So there weren't really anyconcerns.
I thought it was gonna be a lotof work, but I thought we would
crush it.
(24:20):
I think nobody.
expected the costs, the expensesto be so enormous.
That was really what did us, wedoubled the sales that the DRBA
had done the previous year.
Sales wise, we did well.
it was really just our expensesthat killed us, the payroll, the
utilities, the rent.
(24:40):
It was extraordinary burden.
And so I probably still for thefirst year or year and a half, I
thought we could get through it.
And then after, two years, Irealized that, I probably had to
get out because I sort of wantedto get out before I was forced
out, if you know what I mean.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
so yeah.
did I learn a lot?
Yes.
do.
(25:00):
I always think that thingshappened for a reason.
I'm not sure about that.
I wish that we hadn't done thevery, I, I'm really not going to
sugarcoat it and say that.
Well, it was an interestingexperience.
Yes, it was an interestingexperience that I wish I'd never
had.
I could think of some otherinteresting experiences that I
would prefer.
I still feel excited about beingin Cape May I still feel excited
(25:21):
about Exit Zero.
my wife perhaps doesn't sharethat same excitement.
The funny thing is that when welaunched the ferry, it was also
literally the same month that myson was born.
Mm-hmm.
so it's certainly been a lot.
At one time, trying to be a,good father in the midst of, the
(25:42):
kind of biggest chaos andcertainly the most stress I've
ever endured in my life.
so that was definitely aninteresting coming together.
your story is a wonderful storybecause I think it showcases
pretty much the entire spectrumof what entrepreneurs experience
Going from a stable place whereyou've got a paycheck and
(26:02):
somebody's got certainexpectations of you to this
rather tumultuous place where,everything and anything is
possible, but there's just somuch that one can do.
I think you've run the gamut andI think it's really important to
note that.
Being an entrepreneur iscyclical.
That is to say that yes, you canindeed scale the mountain, while
some don't quite make it to thetop, you certainly did, but
(26:24):
getting there does not mean onestays there.
You have scaled back, butthere's another mountain to
climb and although it's not fairfor me to ask you the question
of what that mountain might be,I just want to put the bug in
your ear, which I'm sure isalready there.
that there's gotta be somethingelse out there that's on Jack
Wright's mind.
Yeah, I mean, what's perverseactually is that to my wife's
(26:47):
horror, I have not got therestaurant bug.
Outta me, despite everythingthat happened.
I remain quite, allured.
it's very alluring, therestaurant business.
I think.
I love creating things.
I love the design aspect.
I love creating a concept,creating a brand.
Perhaps I should do morecreation and not operation.
'cause creation's a lot morefun.
(27:09):
I would love to create thingsfor other people.
And so I'm probably gonna bedoing a little bit of.
Consulting, maybe marketingconsulting and things like that
for companies down here whilestill running the magazine and
the restaurant.
which would allow me to.
One, hopefully be useful toother people while earning some
(27:31):
money for it.
And also kind of scratched mycreative itch that I constantly
have.
I don't want to retire.
I don't have any, ambition toretire.
I also don't think I have anyresources to retire.
I like being creative.
I like coming up with ideas andI like executing ideas.
so I think, probably the rest ofmy Cape Me story is probably
(27:52):
going to be wrapped up in that,might I end up opening some
little 30 feet somewhere, maybe,or maybe I'll help someone else
do it.
I think I've, I.
In the last few years, I've hada lot of operational, management
experience at the sharp end thatI probably didn't have before,
which has been interesting,interesting and chaning.
(28:14):
Mm-hmm.
But, you know, I think it, itkind of leads me better prepared
for what comes next, butwhatever comes next, I want it
to be full of creativity andbeing able to come up with ideas
and actually see them put intooperation.
I hear you.
Well, Jack, our time is up here.
I wanna ask, is there anythingyou'd like to leave us with
before we part company?
(28:37):
I think the old saying, alwaystrust your instinct.
I don't know about that.
I think trust your instinct andthen sleep on it.
Sleep on your instinct.
Sleep on your instincts.
I like that one.
Okay.
Don't, jump at the sight of thefirst shiny penny.
Yeah.
(28:57):
That's fantastic.
Jack, I want to thank you somuch for being here.
I find your story veryinspirational, as I'm sure that
our listeners will as well.
And I want to thank you for allthe efforts in Cape May because
Debbie and I have been the,grateful recipients of many of
those as well.
And so, thank you for that.
This is Ed draws to the smallbusiness doctor, and again, I
(29:19):
wanna thank my guest, JackWright.
The, exit zero and the Cape MayWizard, I shall call him.
I think that's fair enough, atleast in my opinion.
I wanna thank you all forlistening, and until next time,
I wanna wish you a healthybusiness.
Welcome to the Water Troughwhere we can't make you drink,
but we will make you think.
My name is Ed Draws to the SmallBusiness Doctor, and I'm really
excited you chose to join mehere as we discuss topics that
are important for small businessfolks just like you.
If you're looking for ideas,inspiration, and possibility,
you've come to the right place.
Join us as we take steps to helpyou create the healthy business
that you've all.
Always wanted.
(00:43):
Welcome back to the WaterTrough.
This is Ed DRA to the SmallBusiness Doctor, and today I'm
pleased to be joined by JackWright.
Jack was a newspaper andmagazine editor in London and
New York before moving to CapeMay, New Jersey in 2002 when he
wrote and designed the coffeetable book, Tommy Folly, A
History of Congress Hall,America's oldest Seaside Hotel.
(01:04):
Shortly after he founded ExitZero Magazine.
In 2008, he wrote and designed awild ride, the official history
of Maury's Piers.
He was also commissioned todesign and publish the Lucky
Bones Cookbook plus historybooks on the Shelf Hunt Hotel
and the boroughs of Stone Harborand Wildwood Crest.
He created the Exit zero fillingstation restaurant in 2015.
(01:25):
Hey, man, you got a lot of stuffgoing on.
How you doing, Jack?
I'm doing good, ed.
It's a pleasure to talk with youagain.
It's a pleasure for me as well.
let me just jump right in hereand ask you a little bit of a
question about the origin ofExit Zero, the name.
So, I came here 2002 I quit myjob as an magazine editor in New
(01:49):
York, something on a whim.
I came down to Cape Me theinvitation of Curtis Bashaw, the
owner of Congress Hall.
I worked in his pool bar.
I managed the pool bar at theswimming pool at the hotel for
the summer.
I had never worked inhospitality before.
I'm sure it was probably prettyawful.
but in the course of that, Istayed, in Cape Me through that
(02:12):
fall.
I.
I was researching the historybook that Curtis commissioned me
to write about the hotelCongress hall, and I came across
an old magazine calledPennywise, which you know, a
long time Cape Me.
People know a lot about greatlittle magazine that was
published from the thirtiesthrough probably the seventies
or early eighties, and.
I thought, well, it'd be greatto bring that magazine back.
(02:35):
so what would it be called?
We would redo it.
And, you know, I had done somet-shirts for Congress hall that
said, meet me at Exit Zero.
And it wasn't a phrase that wasreally used.
I think a couple of peopletalked about Exit Zero, the
number I was trying to get thedesign of the t-shirt to work.
And so I made it exit zero ZEROand it was a name that, that
(02:57):
Curtis and I bandied around andwe thought, that's a great name
for a magazine.
because Cape May is at the verybottom of the 172 exits of the
Garden State Parkway.
So it's the phrase that wasn'taround much.
A couple of, locals would talkabout it, but, It wasn't used.
And so the first iteration wason those congress hall t-shirts,
but then it became the name ofthe magazine that was launched
(03:18):
July 4th, 2003.
And on account of your effort toput out a t-shirt, the state of
New Jersey took you up on it andmade it, in fact, exit zero.
Yeah.
So some people don't believe mewhen I say this in 2008.
We got a call from the GardenState partway authority, who
operate that road.
(03:38):
And they said that they weregoing to put up a sign that said
Exit zero.
And we said, so why are youdoing that?
And they said, well, yourmagazine has really kind of
publicized this name.
And we thought it would be a funthing for the locals and the
visitors to put up the sign.
So it wasn't for any.
Like highway standards.
It was just done on a whim,which seems like a strange thing
(04:00):
for something like the state ofNew Jersey to do.
So they did it.
But what's odd of course, isthat the sign points to North
Cape May, it doesn't pointstraight on to Cape May.
So I don't know.
Why they did that.
it doesn't really make anysense.
as I said, people don't believeme, when I say that that sign
was inspired by us.
(04:21):
That's just a fact.
And, you know, it was nice thatthey did that.
I think it's fun, but it doesn'treally serve any purpose.
But hey.
It's fun.
Well, every time I come down tothe end of the parkway and I see
the sign.
I first and foremost, think ofthe magazine Exit Zero.
Yeah.
And you're right, it does pointoff to the ferry and beyond.
So I admit it is kind ofpeculiar it's not going down
(04:44):
town, but, well, you know what,It's funny though.
I guess you could say that itdoes take you to West Cape May,
which is where.
our building is, it'stechnically in West Cape Main,
and anybody knows when you gointo Cape May, if you want to go
to West Cape May, you don't gostraight over the Lobster House
Bridge.
You take the back bridge.
So I guess, you could say thatthe Exit Zero sign does take you
(05:08):
to Exit zero in West Cape May.
So I don't think that's what theGarden State Parkway had in
mind, that I'll take it.
Or it takes us to Jack's house,which in that case, of course,
yeah.
Yeah.
So either way.
Either way.
Well, I think it's fantastic.
I have to tell you, as somebodythat's been coming to Cape Maye
since 1965, I will tell youthis, that's the year I was
(05:30):
born.
Uh.
Well, okay.
Let's not get into that part.
That's all right.
Okay.
Enough said End of story.
we're done now.
Happy Birthday.
anyway, the site of Exit Zeroalways, always, always is,
proceeded by the countdown.
Usually starts somewhere aroundOcean City.
(05:52):
We start chopping off.
Blocks of five miles.
And then as we get closer, it's,in the last 10 miles we're going
like, ah, nine miles, eightmiles, seven miles, zero.
it is such a big deal.
But Cape May is a lovely placeand Cape May has really
benefited a lot from the effort.
That you have put in with ExitZero with the filling station
(06:13):
and so on and so forth.
Tell us about how things evolvefor you when you got down here.
As you said, you were an editorin, in New York City and a
magazine editor.
I believe it was Men's Journal,if I'm not mistaken.
I.
Yeah, that was the most recentone.
Yeah.
Okay.
And so you come to Cape May andas you say, you're working at
the pool bar.
And by the way, I don't recallyou ever serving me at the pool
(06:35):
bar, but that's probably'causethey wouldn't let me, ibe at the
pool bar.
But that's another story foranother day.
So you came down here and yougot this idea for a t-shirt,
which led to this, magazine oractually Pennywise, which led to
the magazine, but.
Where was your head at?
are you a natural bornstoryteller?
What's going on here?
(06:55):
Well, I think I'm an accidentalentrepreneur, first of all.
I only ever wanted to be ajournalist from the age of 12 or
13.
Well, journalists are longdistance truck driver, I wanted
to be a long distance truckdriver for about 15 minutes.
I grew up in Scotland and Ithought it'd be really fun to
drive long distances tocontinental Europe and sleep in
the cab.
(07:15):
It just seems like a veryromantic thing to do.
But, more than that, I wanted tobe a journalist and so I did, I
was a journalist in Scotland andin London and then New York.
I don't know if I can callmyself a journalist for putting
Exit Zero out every week, buthey, I still write.
So that's journalism of a sort.
I think that when I came to CapeMay, I had the little fancy that
(07:36):
I was gonna do, like an earnestHemingway, leaving the city and
going to the Florida Keys.
So that was the kind of romanticnonsense that was in my head.
When Curtis Barau asked me tocome down, I thought, okay.
I'll leave New York City and Iwill come down to the beach and
maybe I'll write a novel.
And I will enjoy, you know, Idon't drink daiquiris like
(07:57):
hemming weed does, but I'llenjoy some cocktails by the
beach and A I'll have a fabuloussummer fling, a romance or two.
Boy, wouldn't that be fun?
And then I just assumed that I'dcome back to New York after the
summer and find another magazinejob.
So that was where my head wasat.
I guess Kate may very quicklygot under my skin and after the
summer was over, I didn't wantto leave.
(08:19):
I had no plans.
I had no preconceptions.
And when Curtis asked me tostay, and work on this book, and
he gave me a little basementapartment where I hunkered up.
and those were the days of theinternet was a little 57
kilobyte modem that took about20 minutes to connect.
And, researching then wasinteresting compared to what
(08:41):
it's like now.
I did that book over the courseof the winter, not knowing.
Again, what would happen next?
I really didn't know what I wasdoing next.
I was just basically living inthe moment, without really a
plan.
at one point I thought I mighthave to go back to the UK
because my work visa wasattached to my previous
(09:01):
engagement in New York.
It's not as if I had a permanentvisa or citizenship at that
point.
So I think, uh, looking back Iwas probably a little bit all
over the place, very much day today thinking, what will happen
next?
And I ended up sponsoringmyself.
I.
To stay in the country to getwhat was an oh one visa, they
call it the genius visa.
(09:22):
I don't know why they call itthat, but, I think it was
probably easier to get visasthan it is now.
God bless America.
and so I sponsored myself to getthat visa that kept me in the
country.
And then I thought, okay, I'mhere now.
I have to somehow try to make aliving that's not in New York.
And so I was here, Helped me tobuy a house.
(09:42):
This was the days when you couldget a no Doc mortgage.
And, somehow I got a mortgage.
I don't know how that happened,but I got one and, exit zero was
launched and I thought it wouldlast one summer.
I thought people would be sickof seeing the picture in the
paper after one summer, and thatwould be it.
And I would have to come up withplan B.
Seriously, you thought that?
(10:03):
Yeah.
I thought it would be a one anddone.
it launched at 24 pages.
I think by the end of the summerit was four, eight pages.
And then next year it was,double that and it just kept
going.
it eventually stopped growingbecause social media happened
and, newsprints been in declinefor like 40 years.
I remember growing up and beingtold there wouldn't be
(10:23):
newspapers in my future.
there, still are of course, butit's been in decline.
So, the magazine, it was a bigsuccess and, still didn't really
regard myself as anentrepreneur.
I've never made a businessdecision because it was a
business decision.
I make decisions based on whatexcites me.
And you know what?
This would be fun.
Let me try it.
I've never done cost analysis oranything like that.
(10:45):
Maybe I should have, a littlelater on, but, two years into
publishing the magazine, I livednext door to a lady who owned a
t-shirt company called SueLuozzo Flying Fish Studio.
And I said, Hey Sue, I'd love toget a couple of t-shirts made
that say exit zero.
You know, we have this nicelogo.
So she did that.
And me and a couple of thepeople who were helping me with
(11:06):
the magazine, including thephotographer Alexa, we wore exit
zero T-shirts.
And this was in my house.
We were doing the paper for myhouse, and one day this lady
drives in and she wanted to.
have someone come and takepictures and she saw a t-shirt
and she's like, oh, I'd like tobuy a t-shirt.
Do you sell them?
And I said, um, yeah, yeah, wedo.
(11:27):
Um, what, size are you lookingfor?
And she says, oh, um, I thinkI'm looking for three mediums.
I was like, yeah, yeah, we cando that.
And that'll be$15 each,$45.
And at the time I was trying togo on a date with a girl, in
Philadelphia.
And I had no money.
I had no money.
This was the early days of exitzero.
And this lady, she left.
(11:49):
I looked at Alexa, thephotographer.
We were a lot younger andthinner back then.
I was a medium.
He was a medium I.
And I said, okay, get thoset-shirts off.
I'm going to put them in thelaundry and I'm going to wash'em
and dry'em and I'm going to dropthem off at this lady's house in
North Cape May'cause she paid me$45.
And so I laundered those threeT-shirts, dropped'em off in
North Cape May borrowed$50 frommy friend Mark Chamberlain, who
(12:11):
owned North Beach Gym at thetime, and drove up to
Philadelphia for this date.
armed with, just enough money toget there and back and buy
dinner, and I literally had like$1 50 left at the end of it.
So that gave me the thought, ifsomeone wants to buy my
t-shirts, maybe I should open ashop.
So I spoke to Curtis Bau, whohad sort of like a broom closet
(12:33):
at the end of Congress Hall, andwe decided to turn that into the
first Exit Zero shop, and thatopened in February of 2005.
And, we were there for a fewyears and then we opened a shop
and office on Sunset Boulevardin 2009, and then we doubled
that in 2012.
We took over the shop next door,and then in 2000, 15, the
(12:57):
landlord said, the tea shop.
Next to your store is available,it's up for rent, you know, all
the restaurant owners in town.
Would you tell me if there's anythat you think would be
interested in taking that over?
I went home that night and Isaid to my wife, Diane, I would
love to do a Curry restaurant.
There's no curry in Cape May.
There's no curry anywhere nearhere.
We have to go to Egg Harbor 45minutes away.
(13:18):
And she was like, mm-hmm.
A restaurant.
She was over my dead body.
I worked in the restaurantindustry.
It's brutal.
Uh, so the nicotine, I said tomy landlord, I'd like to open a
curry restaurant next door.
And he said, okay.
he had faith in me, I suppose.
I think a lot of the localrestaurant owners thought it was
crazy.
My wife certainly thought it wascrazy.
Three months later, we opened itto zero Cookhouse.
(13:40):
I basically research probablyevery night until four in the
morning.
'cause I knew nothing aboutrunning a restaurant and that
terrified me.
And so I threw myself into it,every aspect of it.
We couldn't afford to buy awalk-in cooler, so I figured out
this thing that you could buyfor$300 called a robo cooler, I
(14:00):
think it was.
And deer hunters use them.
You buy it.
And you buy a digital AC unitand it tricks the AC unit to
going down to like 35 degrees.
And it worked beautifully.
You have to insulate it, and itworked like a treat.
We passed the county health examand it worked really well as a
walk-in cooler.
so that was how the restaurantopened.
And I think by July, we were.
(14:22):
Top restaurant and Cape Me onTripAdvisor because everyone
gave us five stars.
And I think everyone gave usfive stars because their
expectations were so low.
'cause they were like, what thehell does Exit zero know about
running a restaurant?
This is gonna be really bad.
And they would go in and it wasgood.
maybe sometimes it was very goodand we'd get five stars.
So at one point we were numberone rated restaurant in Cape
(14:44):
May, which was kind of surreal.
and so we had a nice little runthere.
The restaurant did fine, itdidn't, make anybody rich.
It barely made money, to behonest.
But it was fun.
I really enjoyed it.
Right.
As a result of that, Kurt Bashoagain bought the gas station
across the road and said, Hey,would you like to have your
restaurant and your office andyour shop all in one spot?
(15:08):
'cause I'm going to buy it andwe'd like to rent it to you.
And I said, sure.
And I said, we'll take the gasstation as well.
He's like, why would you dothat?
I said, well, I don't wantsomebody running a gas station
right next to our business.
I don't know what theiraesthetics will be.
I don't know what their customerservice will be.
It might look really dowdy nextto a nice restaurant.
(15:29):
I'd like to do the gas stationas well, and that was
terrifying.
Um.
Running a gas station withoutany experience of running a gas
station.
This big giant truck would comeand then you would get a giant
invoice a day later, for like$15,000 for gasoline.
And, twice we had this kind ofthe worst case scenario for a
gas station.
(15:50):
We had gas tenders put in dieselinstead of gas.
That happened to us twice.
And One of the times wasactually to one of Curtis B's
company Vans.
Oh, he was fairly understanding.
more noteworthy was, the couplefrom upstate New York who came
by here in a convoy.
(16:13):
the husband had a big pickuptruck, and in the back were
cages that they had their dog inthere.
They had weasels, or ferrets.
his wife had a Subaru car withtheir four kids, and I.
We had a Turkish G one studentwho maybe never understood them
properly, was working there forthe summer and he put diesel in
(16:34):
the guy's truck.
And this guy was a big dude.
He was about six four.
This was midday or just beforemidday on a Saturday.
They were about to leave CapeMay to go back home to upstate
New York.
This guy wanted to rip the kid'shead off.
I sent the kid home.
I said, you need to leave.
And I said to him, I can't tellyou how sorry I'm, this is a
nightmare.
and I said to him, please, yourwife, your four kids, your dog,
(16:56):
your ferrets, you can bring themupstairs to a restaurant.
in my office, I was working thatSaturday.
I will take care of you, we'llgive you a food and drinks.
we will get your, gas tank takenoff and we will get it, stripped
and emptied.
And cleaned out.
'cause this has happened to usonce before.
I said, we know what to do.
(17:18):
He kinda gave me a look ofhorror.
So he goes upstairs, the dog,this beautiful dog that I hung
out with all day.
It was so sweet.
It was like a white pit bullmix.
I then spent the next few hourstrying to find a mechanic on a
Saturday afternoon who would dothat, right?
And it took about three or fourhours to find one.
Thank God I did I think it wasChuck at Sunset, Otto.
(17:40):
I still, he was amazing and theycame and they did it.
but that couple were here forseven and a half hours on a
Saturday, on a roasting hot,July or August, Saturday, just
desperate to get home.
And I have to say that by theend, they were tooting their
horn and saying, this is one ofthe most funny experiences we've
ever had.
We'll, never forget this.
You guys took such good care ofus.
(18:01):
It was a nightmare, but.
Really, it just turned into astory that we'll tell for the
rest of our lives.
So that, was one of the, funparts of running a gas station,
a bit of a roller coaster.
and then Covid happened ofcourse, and, we converted that
sort of gas station forecourtinto outdoor dining, and for a
while people would roll up toget their gas.
(18:21):
And then at five o'clock peoplewere drinking margaritas on the
other side of those gas tanks,those pumps.
And that was quite surreal.
people were like eitherhorrified or like, this is
genius.
This is amazing.
You know, it was interesting.
We closed the gas station atfive so that people could then
eat, but there was a little bitof an overlap with someone
standing there getting their gastank filled while someone's
(18:42):
having a drink literally likethree feet away from them.
that kind of got us in the newsthat got us talked a lot.
About, and I think it reallypropelled our restaurant to the
next level.
we got the old vintage trailersthat people could, safely dine
in, and that became viral.
We were on a, b, c news.
we were everywhere.
And, the restaurant became ahuge success.
(19:03):
So much so that, we were invitedto go for the concessions at the
Cape Mill Lewis Ferry terminal.
Long story short, we took over.
A huge operation there andoverreached, overreached quite
dramatically.
And we had to cut short, aftertwo and a half years because we
were basically David playing inGoliath Sandbox.
we were a little company thatcrashed through our own glass
(19:25):
ceiling, but I think it allhappened too quickly.
We became the most talked aboutrestaurant in the area.
We went from having maybe 40employees to having 200
employees between all of ourvenues.
And it was too much, it was toomuch for me to handle.
it was just too much money.
I borrowed too much money goinginto too much debt.
And, we'd had deeper pockets,but we didn't have deeper
(19:49):
pockets.
And it reminds me of magazines.
a lot of magazines fail, justlike a lot of restaurants fail.
And the reason that magazinesfail is.
It's not necessarily becausepeople don't like them.
it takes a while for people tobecome, loyal fans and to become
subscribers.
And all the research I read wasthat most magazines got business
because they just didn't haveenough money to get past three
(20:11):
years.
And that three years was kind ofthe litmus test.
Like if you can get past thefirst three years, then you'll
probably build enough subscriberand reader loyalty to make it.
But if you don't get past thosethree years, but you're gonna
get business because it costs alot of money to print.
if you're printing a glossymagazine and you're printing
half a million copies, it'sgonna cost you about$600,000.
(20:32):
That's a lot of money.
So we had a great concept andpeople liked it, but we just ran
outta money and, couldn'tcontinue anymore and it
definitely had a negative impacton the filming station and all
other aspects of our business.
So it's been a tremendouslychallenging 18 months.
the backwash from that, thefallout from that.
(20:53):
it's definitely been.
A rollercoaster ride where thislittle exit zero climbed and
climbed and kinda got to the topof the mountain, and then we're
kind of falling all the way backdown the mountain again.
And this time, we're not gonnaclimb to the top of the
mountain, or if we do, it'll bea different size mountain.
It'll be more of a hill.
I saw what it was like at thepoint where you have 200
(21:14):
employees and you're dealingwith those stakes, and I don't
want to go back to that.
I want to, go back to mypublishing roots.
I did love doing a restaurantand we are still in the
restaurant business and I dostill enjoy it, but it is a
tremendously difficult I.
Industry, I don't think thepeople who go out to eat
(21:34):
understand how difficult it isto get that food on your plate.
It takes so much.
It takes a lot of work.
It takes a lot of resources and,the staffing issues since Covid
have not really abated, therestaurant industry famously
became horribly affected byCovid.
in terms of staffing, a lot ofpeople left the business and
have not returned.
(21:55):
I think in general, Americans,eat too cheaply in restaurants.
Restaurants in other countriestend to be more expensive.
People don't go out to eat.
I.
Four or five next a week, theway that they sometimes do in
America, especially in resorttowns.
Mm-hmm.
it's a tremendously difficultbusiness.
If you enjoy having friendsaround to your house and pour
them drinks and making themfood, then the chances are there
are things about the restaurantbusiness that you enjoy.
(22:17):
And so I enjoy that.
But the tremendously difficultthings as well.
So we are still in the magazine,in the restaurant business, in
the retail business.
Just not to the extent that wewere two years ago.
Oh, I appreciate the fact thatyou have scaled a large
mountain, recognized perhapsthat your, ambition outpaced
(22:37):
your resources and are nowlooking at it from a different
perspective.
So many entrepreneurs fall intothe same camp, but I do have to
point out, it seems like yourapproach to it was.
Gradual despite the fact that Ithink your last effort, the
ferry, which was certainly a lotof things simultaneously, was a
(22:58):
big undertaking.
it still seems you went therepiece by piece by piece, would
you say that you were open-eyedwhat you were getting into, or
did it surprise you when you gotthere to find out just how much
it entailed?
Yeah, I mean.
It was that gradual, as you say,we started publishing, we did
(23:18):
retail, we added a restaurant,and then we kinda did it all
together.
I think I knew when I took onthe ferry that it was a huge
undertaking.
I did get some experiencepartners in to help, but they
were expensive.
And I think maybe the mistakewas that we tried to open.
With all guns blazing, becausewe wanted to make an instant
(23:38):
impact, because firstimpressions are important.
We wanted to have an instantimpact, but the cost of having
that instant impact was huge.
It was also during covid, so thecost of the renovation were
probably 30% more than theyshould have been.
The cost of plumbing andelectrical work.
Back then was hideous.
(23:59):
it really just was exponentiallylarger than it that would've
been before.
but instinctively, everybodytold me when I was doing the
ferry that you're gonna crushit.
This is such an amazinglocation.
And it was.
And it is.
And everybody thought I wouldcrush it.
So there weren't really anyconcerns.
I thought it was gonna be a lotof work, but I thought we would
crush it.
(24:20):
I think nobody.
expected the costs, the expensesto be so enormous.
That was really what did us, wedoubled the sales that the DRBA
had done the previous year.
Sales wise, we did well.
it was really just our expensesthat killed us, the payroll, the
utilities, the rent.
(24:40):
It was extraordinary burden.
And so I probably still for thefirst year or year and a half, I
thought we could get through it.
And then after, two years, Irealized that, I probably had to
get out because I sort of wantedto get out before I was forced
out, if you know what I mean.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
so yeah.
did I learn a lot?
Yes.
do.
(25:00):
I always think that thingshappened for a reason.
I'm not sure about that.
I wish that we hadn't done thevery, I, I'm really not going to
sugarcoat it and say that.
Well, it was an interestingexperience.
Yes, it was an interestingexperience that I wish I'd never
had.
I could think of some otherinteresting experiences that I
would prefer.
I still feel excited about beingin Cape May I still feel excited
(25:21):
about Exit Zero.
my wife perhaps doesn't sharethat same excitement.
The funny thing is that when welaunched the ferry, it was also
literally the same month that myson was born.
Mm-hmm.
so it's certainly been a lot.
At one time, trying to be a,good father in the midst of, the
(25:42):
kind of biggest chaos andcertainly the most stress I've
ever endured in my life.
so that was definitely aninteresting coming together.
your story is a wonderful storybecause I think it showcases
pretty much the entire spectrumof what entrepreneurs experience
Going from a stable place whereyou've got a paycheck and
(26:02):
somebody's got certainexpectations of you to this
rather tumultuous place where,everything and anything is
possible, but there's just somuch that one can do.
I think you've run the gamut andI think it's really important to
note that.
Being an entrepreneur iscyclical.
That is to say that yes, you canindeed scale the mountain, while
some don't quite make it to thetop, you certainly did, but
(26:24):
getting there does not mean onestays there.
You have scaled back, butthere's another mountain to
climb and although it's not fairfor me to ask you the question
of what that mountain might be,I just want to put the bug in
your ear, which I'm sure isalready there.
that there's gotta be somethingelse out there that's on Jack
Wright's mind.
Yeah, I mean, what's perverseactually is that to my wife's
(26:47):
horror, I have not got therestaurant bug.
Outta me, despite everythingthat happened.
I remain quite, allured.
it's very alluring, therestaurant business.
I think.
I love creating things.
I love the design aspect.
I love creating a concept,creating a brand.
Perhaps I should do morecreation and not operation.
'cause creation's a lot morefun.
(27:09):
I would love to create thingsfor other people.
And so I'm probably gonna bedoing a little bit of.
Consulting, maybe marketingconsulting and things like that
for companies down here whilestill running the magazine and
the restaurant.
which would allow me to.
One, hopefully be useful toother people while earning some
(27:31):
money for it.
And also kind of scratched mycreative itch that I constantly
have.
I don't want to retire.
I don't have any, ambition toretire.
I also don't think I have anyresources to retire.
I like being creative.
I like coming up with ideas andI like executing ideas.
so I think, probably the rest ofmy Cape Me story is probably
(27:52):
going to be wrapped up in that,might I end up opening some
little 30 feet somewhere, maybe,or maybe I'll help someone else
do it.
I think I've, I.
In the last few years, I've hada lot of operational, management
experience at the sharp end thatI probably didn't have before,
which has been interesting,interesting and chaning.
(28:14):
Mm-hmm.
But, you know, I think it, itkind of leads me better prepared
for what comes next, butwhatever comes next, I want it
to be full of creativity andbeing able to come up with ideas
and actually see them put intooperation.
I hear you.
Well, Jack, our time is up here.
I wanna ask, is there anythingyou'd like to leave us with
before we part company?
(28:37):
I think the old saying, alwaystrust your instinct.
I don't know about that.
I think trust your instinct andthen sleep on it.
Sleep on your instinct.
Sleep on your instincts.
I like that one.
Okay.
Don't, jump at the sight of thefirst shiny penny.
Yeah.
(28:57):
That's fantastic.
Jack, I want to thank you somuch for being here.
I find your story veryinspirational, as I'm sure that
our listeners will as well.
And I want to thank you for allthe efforts in Cape May because
Debbie and I have been the,grateful recipients of many of
those as well.
And so, thank you for that.
This is Ed draws to the smallbusiness doctor, and again, I
(29:19):
wanna thank my guest, JackWright.
The, exit zero and the Cape MayWizard, I shall call him.
I think that's fair enough, atleast in my opinion.
I wanna thank you all forlistening, and until next time,
I wanna wish you a healthybusiness.
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