June 6, 2024 • 60 mins
Ever wondered how the disciplined life of an airborne infantryman could translate into culinary success? Join us as we explore the incredible journey of Chef Thom Favorin, a former paramedic and firefighter who overcame extraordinary health challenges to become a thriving food entrepreneur. You'll hear about his transition from military life to founding Crab Island Seafood Company with Chef Carl Riding, navigating the highs and lows of starting a family-owned business. We promise you'll gain invaluable insights into resilience, consistency, and the relentless pursuit of culinary excellence. Chef Carl will be on a future episode-stay tuned!
Thom shares his gripping story of overcoming a debilitating injury and a massive heart attack, which ultimately led him to follow his true passion for food. From securing capital to adapting during the COVID-19 pandemic, hear firsthand the grit and determination it
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Thank you for listening to the Walk-In Talk Podcast, hosted by Carl Fiadini and Company. Our show not only explores the exciting and chaotic world of the restaurant business and amazing eateries but also advocates for mental health awareness in the food industry.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Thank you.
We're recording on-site at IbisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
First things first.
Last week on the show we hadChef Rosanna Rivera and her
hubby, chef Ricardo, in-house.
Can they cook, my goodness, canthey throw down?
(00:42):
Great episode, and it's aboutsocial media and food and how
they work well together.
Go back and listen.
Today it's how do you start abusiness?
Do you have the know-how, theinternal fortitude, the money?
Well, many of us have enduredthe rocky road.
Some of us are still on thatroad Hashtag, walk and talk.
(01:05):
Our guest this week is a goodfriend of mine, chef and
entrepreneur Tom Favren,co-owner of Crab Island Seafood
Company.
This story is one of struggle,brick walls and a steady diet of
belly kicks.
It's incredibly persistent,this guy, and he's a great
person.
I know him a long time, gooddude.
So with success it all comes.
(01:27):
Chef Tom is on deck and there'sChef Carl, the other co-owner,
in house as well.
He's watching from the greenroom.
Chefs, we've been using Metrohot boxes, shelving and even
their mobile prep cart aroundthe studio and couldn't be
happier.
If you're planning onreorganizing your kitchen, well,
(01:48):
be sure to contact our friendsat Metro, your partner in
organization and efficiency.
Jefferson, you're a smallbusiness owner, small in general
, no kidding, you've beenthrough it, we still are.
And managing this kind ofpressure it's not for the faint
of heart and you know, you haveto.
(02:09):
You kind of have to give theprops to anybody who kind of
throws their hat in the ring ofentrepreneurship.
Starting a business, owning abusiness, you know, even
investing, whatever it's a bigthing business owning a business
, even investing, whatever.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It's a big thing.
There's so many avenues, man,you can't even just pick one
where to start when you have theidea, but then you have to have
the money behind it to do it,to bring it to fruition, and
then you have to have man guts,you have to have what we call
chutzpah.
You know webons.
(02:48):
You have to get out there anddo it.
And then when you're doing it,you have to make connections,
you have to make sure thatyou're speaking the right
terminologies to people Like, Ithink, one of the things that
especially we're talking aboutthe restaurant industry when
you're a chef and then you leavethe kitchen to go start your
own thing, to go back into thekitchen to talk to chefs wow,
you're a leopard, you.
You have just gone the the.
You're not supposed to talk tohim.
(03:08):
Good god, there's no way I'mgoing to talk to you anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I don't know what it is well see.
In my opinion, a leopard neverloses its spots true leprosy.
Yeah, there we go.
I know what you meant.
I was trying to save you.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
You didn't have to do that, I know, but I you know,
when I speak and I mess up, Iown it, just like I did with the
flan, I own it, so okay.
So just everyone, everyoneknows I did a smoke flan today.
We are not taking pictures ofit because dingling took
cupcakes, uh tins, the foil tins, and I had paper in it and I
put the caramel in there and thecaramel stuck to the paper.
(03:41):
You know what it's called firstattempt in learning hey, listen
, I mean it.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I mean it's okay.
I think we should take picturesof it anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
No, john's not going to do that, because he doesn't
want his name on that.
I'll take pictures of the showon my iPhone.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So again, I feel like there should be some
photography on it and maybe onthe.
Hey, this is what you don't do.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, I think there's a lot of times and we're
talking about owning somethingand starting a business I think
one of the things you need to dois, when you mess up, you have
to learn from it.
You can't beat yourself up toit.
I mean, yesterday when I did itand I took it out after it
cooled and I realized what I haddone, I started going what are
you doing, you idiot?
That's so like rookie.
And then I caught myself andwent wait, you've never smoked
(04:25):
fun, not the steps that I didthe first time.
I didn't have creme bruleebowls, I didn't have the right
equipment First of all to do it,no comment.
And when I got done with it, Ijust was like hey version 2.0
coming up next.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well, I will tell you , because I had a bite.
Taste is right on.
Oh, yeah, thank you.
Yeah, I mean I'd eat it.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Well you would be going like this with the paper
afterwards.
Yeah, I mean sure, but you haveto realize that when you're
doing something, you have aversion of it.
Here's the other thing too.
And I guess when Chef Tom comeson, when you do something and
you think it's perfect, thegreat chefs will always tweak it
.
They want to keep on.
What can I do better?
How can I make this better?
(05:07):
What can I do to make itdifferent every single time?
And that's what I'm like.
The first thing I did was likeI told john I even told carl off
, uh, with it, with a c, not a k.
I told carl, I'm like the bestthing I could have done was use
the molds.
I have silicone molds, didn'teven think about that.
I was so fixated on the chinaand I didn't have that look,
we're not mad at you.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Um, so is that where you went wrong?
So here's the thing because wedon't have a lot of food today,
there's some.
You made some bread, made somefocaccia made some shabbat of
sticks, right?
Yeah, so uh, but I'll tell youwhat, though, without there
being any cooking, there's a lotof food in this house, right, I
mean so?
a lot of smoke dip.
There's a, there's a ton ofsmoke dip and uh, and our good
(05:47):
friend al, uh, he came by andyou know you can make a mention
of that in a minute and drop offa bunch of really cool stuff
with that said um, you, you madeit error, you're talking about
it on air.
Um, give it like a give, likethe steps one, two, three, right
.
Take a minute and just say whatyou should have done and then
(06:08):
kind of get a little bit moreinto detail and and where the,
where the mistake came oh yeah,I mean one.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I probably should have used a thermometer candy
thermometer because when you gopast a certain time with when
you're candying sugar to make acaramel, there's a certain point
where you're getting more of ataffy structure.
Then Then you're getting candywhich is like way over and it's
going to be rock hard, it'sgoing to crack and it's going to
snap, which is good.
But when you're doing flan it'sa little bit different, plus,
because you're also cooking itand that cooking process went
(06:36):
over an hour.
So there was that problem.
The other problem having thepaper in there in the tins.
I would have just pulled thepaper out and had the foil.
Probably would have been alittle bit better.
Maybe spraying it down.
These are all things that Iafterwards what I was doing
Silicone mold done.
That's what I'm going to dowhen I get home.
I actually have a quart leftover.
So when I get home, I wasactually thinking about should
(06:57):
bring it over there butding-a-ling, froze it Because I
didn't know what I was going todo with it, so I didn't want to
lose it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Don't be so hard on yourself.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well, here's the thing when you're doing things
and you mess up, you want tomake sure that you do it.
Yes, you do thisself-deprecation of it and you
want to stop doing it.
I get that, but you learn fromit.
It's the first attempt and nowyou've got to keep on doing when
you get to the perfection partof it.
(07:24):
That's the different story.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
I actually love how this is going to tie your error
on your production.
There ties into how, when yougo off into business, the error
and you get kicked in the belly,as I was mentioning in the
monologue.
Belly shot after belly, shotafter belly shot, and if you,
and if you stay with it, learn,pivot, make the adjustment.
(07:50):
You know you can find yourselfon the other side.
I think it's actually aproposit.
This fits perfectly, um, withthe, with the day-to-day,
although I do wish that you hadso.
So what I'm going to do when Iget home is I'm going to go to
my mother-in-law and.
I'm going to say, mom, do me afavor, taste this.
No, no, make a flan.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh, and then you're going to take a picture of it
and show me.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Well, what I'm going to have her do is I'll have her
make a flan and I'm going tobring it next week.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
don't do it today no, of course not.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I'm gonna tell her when I'm.
You know she knows what she'sdoing, okay I know she knows,
but do you?
Uh, I don't have to know that'swhat I mean I show up with the
spoon.
You know I'm saying like thatthat's the silver spoon for
right now.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Right, it was golden this until rack sends him a gold
spoon.
Yes, so tina's gonna send you agold spoon now tina from rack I
.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I want my gold spoon set.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Just a huge shout out .
They just sent.
How many plates?
Four cases, how many?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
30 plates.
It's amazing how we waste themic on him.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
You know what I mean when he does talk.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, we can add Carl over here.
I know it looks pretty.
It's a pretty mic.
You got there bud.
There you go 30, please.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Now we're talking.
Okay, okay, write that down.
That's the fifth time John spokeon the podcast Seriously Silent
, john, indeed, yeah, so it's socool that they're they're
they're doing this and and youknow, listen, I think you know
there's a, there's a good chancethat, uh, you know, rack comes
on board as a, as a vendorpartner or, you know, top tier
(09:31):
sponsor, and that'd be.
That'd be terrific guys.
Um, again, tina, thank you forsending everything you do, send
we.
We appreciate you very much andher energy, by the way, is, god
, ridiculous, second to none.
(09:51):
I mean, it's so awesome youmeet her and you just like, wow,
so people, um, I've had, I'vehad folks come to me and say,
you know how come, everythingyou always talk about is like,
oh, this person's greater, thatcompany's awesome, but I never
hear you're talking aboutanything negative.
I don't speak about anybody oranything negative really on the
show.
That's not where I want to gowith it.
Right, it's not a bashing sortof a you know, you know
framework with what we're doing.
So when you hear me talk about,oh, you know, chef Tom is a
(10:11):
great guy, he's a great human,yeah, I'm not going to, I'm not
going to bring a dirt bag on andand promote that person or that
(10:35):
company.
Right, so everything's positive.
Right we were.
We fed everybody.
I mean like Al when he cameinto the studio.
Al's a broker works for B&A.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
He manages lines from all these different
manufacturers.
He's got guacamole in a Phillycheesesteak.
He bought mascarpone cheese indifferent cheeses from Schulman,
so it's going to be great totaste them.
Did you mention the Guac Cups?
Yeah, I did mention the GuacCups, but I didn't mention the
company.
I don't remember the name of it.
I know it started with a G, butI don't remember of it, but it's
frozen in a cup, so you can'tgo wrong with that.
(11:01):
I mean, as far as here's thething, when you're talking and
chef will get involved in thiswhen he talks about his product
the difference between shelfstable, refrigerated and a
freezer, because when you'redistributed, going for
distribution, distributors don'tlike things that are
refrigerated because that meansit has a shelf life that's short
.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
For the most part.
They also don't like thingsthat are going on in the freezer
, because when things are in therefrigerator that can go in the
freezer, that real estate getseaten up.
They love things that are shelfstable.
So there's a big balance thatwe have to do as far as
distribution, and people don'tunderstand that.
It's great from being from bothsides because I can play that
field Chef's learning that wecan probably talk about that,
(11:41):
because that's going to beanother huge obstacle can
probably talk about that,because that's going to be
another huge obstacle.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Well, it is, and you?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
know he and I have known each other for at least
five years.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Sorry, and he's been so sorry at least, and, and he's
been, um, he's been.
He's had some major ups anddowns.
He'll get into it, uh, but, um,you know what.
All right, enough about this,chef Tom.
Welcome to the program.
Well, thank you for having me.
You know what Our pleasure.
We've been talking about thisfor a long time, like you being
(12:12):
here.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
About five years.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Almost five years.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Well, Waka.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Talk started in 2020.
Yeah, coming up, so five years.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah, almost my goodness.
All right.
So before we jump intoeverything, uh, why don't you
give a?
Um, you know, take 30 secondsand do an airplane view of uh,
who you are, what you do and howyou got there?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
um, so tom favorite, that's my name um, so we uh
started out being airborneinfantry, got hurt on just a fun
training day and totallychanged my life around, and then
put out the military medicallyand then had to get a job, you
(12:59):
know, not trained in anythingother than infantry.
So I went back into what I knewparamedicine and firefighting,
did that for 20 years, got hurthealth-wise massive heart attack
and it totally changed my lifeand it came back to really what
I should have done when I gotout of the service was food and
(13:23):
got into selling shrimp and fromthere in the crab dips and fish
breads and saw that flavorprofile just launch and I wanted
to be part of that and bring aproduct that I actually loved to
market.
And that's where we're at today.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Now, well, you know again, to reiterate, we don't
trash anybody on the show per se.
You have had ups and downs inthis thing.
You have come so cause I knowwe've spent hours on the phone
together and you know, hearingthe stories, it's, it's
remarkable, and you're stillhere and now you're still here
(14:05):
and now you're actually makingthings happen.
Give a little bit of insight asto some of the challenges that
you've had.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Really, just on the health side, ups and downs
health-wise had really impededthe work I was doing trying to
get things started.
And then you brought it upearlier money getting capital,
getting that set up.
We have been blessed so far.
We had some great donations toour facility and making what we
(14:37):
can do today.
But COVID, when I was in thebeginning of COVID we had 60
restaurants we were sellingfresh shrimp to and COVID
totally knocked that down.
But from adversity comestriumph.
Really, to beginning to wherewe are today.
(14:58):
I still think of it as atriumph.
To where we started out, havinga product that we have today.
To where we started out havinga product that we have today,
just being able to go out thereand see people's faces when
you're doing tastings or sellingit going.
Oh my goodness, this is amazing, this is the best I've ever had
.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
What makes your product so well?
How does it come off?
You're saying everybody'sloving it and I've had it, it's
delicious.
But why?
Why is product so well Like?
How does it come off?
You're saying everybody'sloving it and I've had it, it's
delicious, but why?
Why is it so delicious?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Well, the biggest thing is my partner, Chef Carl.
He takes the time to get thethat recipe to where you want it
and then mass producing it andthat is a key right there is
(15:53):
being able to mass produce, timein, time out, the same exact
recipe and getting the sameflavor profile at each batch.
And Carl has been able to dothat, not you the other, carl
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So the biggest thing when I went to culinary school
Peter James the Dean who becameDean of students he always said
the one thing that therestaurant industry doesn't do
as a whole is consistency.
And I kind of went above thatand said the restaurant industry
consistently is inconsistent.
And he said if you wantconsistency in the restaurant
industry, go work for McDonald's.
So it's probably the hardestthing.
(16:26):
What he did Wendy's, wendy'syeah, I did.
Wow, he worked at Wendy's.
So consistency, right.
So the hardest thing to do ishow do you get things
consistency when you're talkingabout a restaurant, but when
you're talking about that's hugebecause that's bulk.
So when talking about arestaurant, but when you're
talking about that's hugebecause that's bulk.
(16:47):
So when you're talking aboutone cup, you know finished
product, but you're doing thaton a scale that's so large yeah,
a pallet of ours.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
One pallet of product is 1288 ounce tubs it's a lot
and that's what you're doingtoday.
Yes, right, and before you weredoing it like small batch,
probably what?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
20 at a time, 20 to 30 at a time, yeah, and each
batch, each flavor.
We have seven different flavorsright now, so five different
crab dips and then a smoked mahiand a smoked salmon.
So just a little bit of timeand growing and growing.
And really one thing I have torevert back on is something that
(17:26):
was very difficult was I'm verytrusting.
So I've learned over time notto be as trusting and to put
that wall up.
To begin in the beginning,before I get to know them,
because we have been burnt andin this industry, people taking
(17:46):
ideas, paperwork is key.
Getting that nondisclosure yeah, I was going to say NDA and
non-competes yeah, it is becausethere's people out there and
they'll take your idea and runwith it.
So, unfortunately, we learned,but it happens.
(18:06):
We learn, we move on, we shoot,we move and we communicate and
that's my military backgroundthat has helped me get to where
we are right now and it'll getme to where we want to be.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I want to point out that something that's very
wonderful about his company it'sveteran-owned and I think
that's the biggest thing.
So if you want to help somebodythat's not only local trying to
grow their business, you wantto help somebody that serves and
try to protect our countryveterans Hello.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, my pleasure man .
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Well, so, with that said, where do you find it?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Well, so, with that said, where do you find it?
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Right now we do farmer's markets on the weekends
all through St Pete,hillsborough County, a little
bit in Tampa and, to keep itmilitary, that's real grunt work
right there.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
You're really doing it from the bottom up.
Yes, yeah, hustle, let's callit hustle.
Yeah, big time, really doing itfrom the bottom up.
Yes, yeah, hustle, let's callit hustle.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yeah, big time so what that does for us is that
covers our basically ouroverhead yeah, our kitchens, our
insurance, everything like that.
That covers our overhead.
And then we have branched offinto wholesale.
So we're in several differentlocations a couple of
restaurants, a couple of barsHeights Meats, southern Steer
(19:25):
Butcher.
We just got into RiverviewFresh Market, so we're branching
out.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
And Heights Meats is a good outfit.
Are you in all the locations?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
So we're in the clear water in tampa and we'll be
hopefully here in the next twoweeks, be in the brandon and, uh
, the lakeland.
Okay, so all, all locationshere within the next couple
weeks and then um with southernsteer.
We're in two locations clearClearwater and St Pete, but we
are looking to branch off into.
(19:58):
They have six locations.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So we're going to be branching off into them.
So this is really your, this islike your moment, your front of
the house jumping off point.
Oh, most definitely, Right,100%.
For the last few years it'sreally just been like okay, how
do I get this thing moving?
Because you still work fulltime.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
No, no, actually, Carl and I have left, did you?
Yeah, we were over at theBirchwood Inn and we both left
in August of last year and wesaid, okay, we're all in.
So we're doing what we have todo to survive and build this as
much as we can, as fast as wecan.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Man, that's, that's, um, yeah, when you don't have
the floor under you anymore,it's, it's scary, it's nonstop.
Yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I don't think it's really scary.
I think it's more of one of howcan I?
Well, it's, it's a legit fightor flight, A hundred percent
Right.
I think you've got to look atit, that you know I'm going to
fight, especially him, becauseof what he's been through.
He's been fighting when youwere talking.
I have this image of thate-grid or that bird and he's got
the frog and the frog'sgrabbing the throat and it says
(21:11):
never give up.
Yeah, I mean, that's the mottothat we have to be as an
entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
You have to be wired differently to start your own
business, no matter if it's inthe restaurant industry or not.
I think, like I alluded toearlier, being a chef.
In the kitchen, chefs talk toyou, but when you step out of
the kitchen and try to sell theproduct, you're looked at as
less than in person.
They don't talk to you anymore.
It less than in person theydon't talk to you anymore.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
It's like weird, yeah , especially with like with our
product.
It's it's a pre-made productand a lot of the higher end
restaurants will and I wouldn'tsay higher end, but people that
wouldn't want to make it theirown and they're like well, I can
do better.
Right and that attitude doescome across when you, when you
talk to them and you're like,when you talk to them and you're
like listen, let's look at yourman hours, okay.
(21:56):
Your costs, yeah, but your manhours to make this and how long
is it going to last?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, but sometimes it pays to have a product like
that as your base right.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
You bring it in, your base product is ready and now
you chef-y chef it and dress itup yeah but a lot of times and
I've said this before the wayyou need to talk to a chef,
cause you know he can talk thatlanguage, and that's what I was
alluding to we took we speakdifferently than salespeople
unless you're a chef, butthere's always have to be that
translation.
When you walk into a chef,you've got to give them the
(22:30):
three team, three things how areyou going to give me my time
back?
How are you going to increasemy profitability and how are you
just going to make it anincredible product that I can
put my name on it itself?
If you give those three answers, chef's going to buy from you
because that's how they're goingto.
That's the mindset that thechef works.
Like what chef just said.
Chef Tom, like what's their manhours?
(22:50):
My best thing was when somebodywas like I make my own ravioli.
I'm like well, what do you payyourself?
She goes oh, it's free becauseI do it myself.
Oh, you want to come work forme?
No, well, what's the difference?
She didn't understand thedifference between it's your,
you own the company, but youhave to have a price on your
head for what you do, because ifyou're not, then you shouldn't
be in business.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Exactly, yeah.
So right now we we don't lookat it.
We look at it that way, but wedon't look at it that way as
we're building because we wewant to make the company as big
as possible and get our productname out there and a cost to it.
Right now we're not puttingthat into the company.
But we know, I mean, when Iworked EMS I was working 100
(23:45):
plus hours a week.
Now I'm probably 99?
Yeah, 99.75.
But it's something that I love,so it's not.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
It's not working.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It's not working.
It's not working right now.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
My wife would say otherwise right, it's a hobby
they always do and and at theend of it, um, it's, it's
something you're building, youknow, for yourself, for carl,
like you guys are doing legacy,it's, it's your thing.
Yes, right, so that changes thewhole dynamic of your time.
Right, it's one.
It's like I look at it that way.
It's one thing.
If, uh, you know, if I'm givingmy, so that changes the whole
(24:19):
dynamic of your time.
Right, it's like I look at itthat way.
It's one thing.
If I'm giving my 70 hours aweek to somebody, okay, but
they're getting my 70 hours aweek.
If I'm putting 70 hours a weekinto something that was created
in how it's our thing, my thing,our thing, that's different.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
It is a different.
It's it's self gratifying toknow what we're doing and
actually, when you, when you dothings wrong, you learn from it
and you move on, but you havethat instance of going, oh great
.
I screwed up, okay, now we know, and it's really it has great.
I screwed up, okay, now we know, and really it has been that I
(24:59):
mean we are on the ground,fighting every day and learning
every day.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
What has been one of your biggest stumbling blocks,
like, what did you trip on mostCapital?
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Like everybody else, it's capital is the hardest
thing to procure to find thatbacker to say, okay, this
product is what we want to backand be able to grow from there.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
And how did you find finance?
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Working with people over the years that have looked
at the product and said, okay,yeah, this is a great product we
want to get behind it, but isit something that you stumbled
on, or somebody fell into you,or you went out and you said you
know what?
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I'm going to go out and I'm going to find that
person.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
It was a working relationship.
Um, our backer is in the fishindustry shrimp guy from georgia
, um, and he saw this product.
He has a whole product linehimself.
He sees the opportunity that itcan grow and he uh gave us the
the opportunity to get startedso well.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
So when you, what you have coming up next is going to
be something to the effect ofdistribution.
That's your next big thing.
That's our next big thing.
That's our next big thing.
Yeah, okay, how are youtackling that?
Speaker 3 (26:40):
We are in talks with, I guess I could say, the Chaney
brothers.
We're in talks with them rightnow to have them start
distributing.
We have actually partnered withthem, I could say with getting
all the ingredients through themand then we're able to make it
(27:00):
and they're going to market anddistribute through it.
We have a couple locations thatthey are through Cheney they do
take our crab dips and fishbreads.
That are actually doingstupendous.
I mean it's amazing how fastthey're going.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And that well so Cheney's.
So for me, broad liners, youknow US Cisco, cheney, those are
probably the top three, and youknow maybe coming here in
Florida, yeah, in Florida.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yeah, right, you know , maybe then after that you have
like a PFG or Gordon eventhey're a great outfit and they
look for things like this yeah,they do, and that's what's nice
about it is they're family ownedand they see what we're trying
to do and trying to stay withthe family and build it up and
(27:51):
build a legacy for my family,for carl's family, um to be able
to grow together and make greatproduct and push it out.
And it's a nice thing becauseit's not just.
I know some of the otherbroadliners will okay, I want it
across the states tomorrow andit's nice that in talks Cheney's
(28:13):
like well, okay, we'll start ithere and we'll grow together
which is they're not trying todestroy your capacity Right.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Well, he couldn't like if he went to a Cisco,
let's say, and they said we wantto in all 50 states.
He can't ramp up the.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
That's what I'm saying, you know, because they
have.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Unless you want to donate some, they can donate.
I'm not going to donate.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
They can donate.
I'm not going to donate.
If I had that cash, it would bedonated to the baking cartel.
The walk-on.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
No offense, Jeff, We'd bring it in, don't worry.
So at the end of it, yeah,they'd come in and they would
say something to the effect ofwell, we need X amount of
capacity product for X amount ofwarehouses in the state
whatever or states plural, andthat can kill somebody Like
that'll absolutely destroy youAbsolutely destroy you.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
You don't want to grow too fast, you know too big,
too fast.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
A lot of companies do that.
I mean, listen, there's a majorcompany that made an $11
million mistake and they'reabout to close down.
Yeah, so everybody makes youdon't know who I'm talking about
.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I do Darden know who I'm talking about I do darden,
oh yeah, sure, well, no theyweren't owned by darden.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
No, yeah, they're.
They're separate now, right,yeah, so that's I mean you.
You mentioned it like.
Here's the prime example you,you do something, you mess up,
you mess up that big in 11million dollar loss.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
That's huge yeah, and then you get uh, bought and
sold, bought and sold, boughtand sold, sold, sold, sold,
broken down, sold for parts.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, we can go on and on andon about the different
restaurants that were thriving,that bought something that
didn't end up doing so well.
I mean Hopps is a prime example.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I mean, that can go as simple as buying the space
next door, can go as simple asuh, buying the space next door.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
You know, and uh, how many times you see a restaurant
where they're like they go oh,we got to expand, and they
expand.
The next thing, they know thattwo months later they're closed.
You know, six months later, ayear, they're closed because
they just didn't have them.
Or they open a second spot,yeah, and they end up closing.
So it's again, it's, it's areally, it's a type rope walk
when we're talking about therestaurant industry, because I
don't think your margins areabout the same as the restaurant
(30:18):
industry margins, correct?
Yes.
So a lot of people think, oh, Ihave a cousin that actually cuts
shoes for Steve Madden.
The markup on shoes isridiculous.
We can't do 155%.
Some people like to.
On chicken, think about thatfor a second.
If you buy chicken at $3,you're going gonna go buy
chicken in a restaurant for 50.
So that's a tough thing toswallow.
(30:38):
So the margins people don'trealize.
Yeah, he owns his own company,he's got a manufacturing plan,
he's doing the crab and shit.
I think people are gonna be oh,you're rolling in dough.
No, you're not what is it likefive?
five to ten percent is yeah,yeah, so it's not.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Yeah, we, uh, we want to make it competitive, we want
to make a little bit of money,and ours is a little bit
different because the way we doit, we can freeze ours and you
were talking about that earlier,about freezing and fresh.
With our recipe, we're able tofreeze it for six months, so
that takes more space than wehave to do.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Not only that More cost.
Here's the other problem.
The raw ingredient you'regetting is a commodity
ingredient, so that fluctuatesmore so than the other guys
because of what they're using astheir ingredient.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Yeah, it's gone up about 40% in the last about two
months.
So you know it fluctuates.
We try to lock in prices butit's you know the way it is, so
we have to go with the flow sowhen we?
When people are like okay,what's your, what's your price
(31:45):
here?
It is well, you don't knoweverything that goes behind the
scenes to to get that there.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
I mean you use Mahi right.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
So Mahi, back in the day when I was first starting
out, was like $2, $3 a pound.
What is it going now?
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Mahi's not that bad.
Right now Mahi is actuallyabout $4 a pound.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Oh okay.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
So, it's the crab.
The blue crab is through theroof, and also our, our smoked
salmon, because we use a wildcaught Chilean salmon, so it's a
little bit higher grade.
It's considered a sushi grade,so when we get it in it's pretty
pricey.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
So basically, you're you.
The differentialdifferentiation from you to the
other guys that are doing smokedfish dips or smoked dips is
that you're using a betterquality product, better
ingredients.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, we're using a higher quality of blue crab and
actually the mahi.
A lot of people when they dotheir mahi dips, they're using
scraps, the bellies, whatever'scut off.
We use loins.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
So that makes a different huge difference and
also some people, when they dofish, specifically fish dip, not
mahi or a specific fish speciesthey use jack or king right.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
So what they'll do is they'll take the mahi, say it's
a mahi spread, and what they'lldo is they'll take the mahi,
say it's a mahi spread, and whatthey'll do is they will put a
percentage of mahi so you'regetting that flavor, and then
cut it down with whiting fish,right, and so no one really
looks at the ingredients.
They'll see mahi and then acouple lines down the road there
(33:34):
was then your whitefish,whitefish, whitefish.
So we're 100% through andthrough all mahi and salmon.
So we don't cut anything down.
So our costs are a little bithigher, but you're getting a
much higher quality fish spreadand crab dip.
We use all fresh ingredients towhere we can the mahi, the
(33:57):
jalapenos, the green onions,everything is the spinach,
everything is fresh.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
So you're using fresh jalapenos?
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Okay.
The reason why I'm shocked isbecause each jalapeno is
differently.
When you're doing a sauce perse because I have that PTSD
that's a mash, so I can controlthe amount of heat with the mash
that's coming in.
When you do what he's doing,you know everything.
It's almost like one of thoseones that were the shishito
peppers.
You don't ever know what'sgoing to be the spicier of the
(34:26):
two, the spiciest of the two.
So how do you control the heat?
Speaker 3 (34:30):
on that.
That's Chef Carl's littlesecret there, carl's little
secret there.
We have it down, that we can.
You know, basically everysingle batch is the same exact
batch.
The key is fresh jalapenos, youknow, a couple days old.
You're going to get that.
That heat level is going toactually come down and that
(34:52):
flavor profile is actually goingto change because you don't
have that fresh ingredient inthere.
So when we make things it'sfresh off the batch boom.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
So at the moment, your current product list, how
many different flavor profilesdo you have Currently?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
we have seven different flavors.
I like when he says currently,because I think Carl's got some
others in the Carl's got like hejust rolled his eyes.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Carl's got like an encyclopedia of all these
different recipes that he'swanting to try.
I have to turn it back a littlebit Wait, wait, wait, no no.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
He just said encyclopedia Half the people we
just lost.
What is that?
It's Google and books.
It's a Google and media.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
It's New Times Roman.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Single spaced.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
But yeah, we have seven different flavors.
We have our smoked mahi, oursmoked salmon dill, and that's
fresh dill.
And then in our crab dips wehave have our smoked mahi, our
smoked salmon dill, and that'sfresh dill, you just put it in
um.
And then in our crab dips wehave um, a buffalo blue cheese,
a mexican street corn, ajalapeno popper, a spinach,
(36:13):
artichoke, parmesan, and I thinkthe biggest and newest is it's
really taking off is our crabragu that one, that one I've had
, I'm down for that.
I'm down for all those, but youknow I'm a sucker for uh crab
right we're actually having alot of customers cup toast say,
oh, this is what we did when,like, one of our customers
(36:36):
bought a whole mess of you knowlike five pounds of my I mean
from the ragoon and they cameback and said, oh, we made
stuffed shells with it.
Okay, put a little vasca vodkasauce on it.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
And they said it was amazing don't look at me, I'm, I
was.
I was thinking.
Here's where I went with itGrouper or Mahi filet Encrusted
with the crab, rangoon and pankowith a sherry reduction.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Okay, yeah, okay yeah .
Speaker 1 (37:14):
We don't have.
Can we do this today?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
We don't have the fish to do it.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
I mean we'll make the fish happen.
My goodness, yeah, stop.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I haven't eaten yet.
You sound like Carl.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Today, this is a.
This is a weird day today.
All right, the.
Our food situation today isjust like a.
Is it it day to day?
Our food situation today isjust like a it just worked out.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
It's just bread.
We have the dips, we have allseven.
You're going to try them all.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Well, you brought some stuff that's frozen too Is
that experimental.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
It's all thought out.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
No, I'm talking about in the bag that I put in the
freezer.
That looks like you have to frythis.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
We have a Mexican street corn empanada.
So what we try to do is we makea couple different things to
show that they're just not dips.
Right you know you can cookwith them, you can make
different things with them, andso we brought a buffalo blue
cheese croquette and a Mexicanstreet corn empanada.
(38:14):
You can, we can, air frada.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
You can wake them.
Yeah, I'd be on a croquette youhad me on a croquette.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
He needs an air fryer .
He's got one.
He actually has a fryer too.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Oh really.
Oh, okay, yeah, you could do iteither way.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I think air fryer is nice.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
All of a sudden, you're watching your waist.
It's healthier.
Well, you yes, Because of theheart attack issue.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Well, yeah, are you going to show everybody your
zipper?
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
You already should.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
I was going to.
You know it's funny.
I was going to say the longeryou know, tom, you're going to
see the scar, You're going tosee the zipper, you're going to
see the scar the one of manyscars.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
But yeah, that actually changed my life more
than you.
Before my heart attack, theonly thing I would eat were
clams Meat, no, just clams.
Seafood-wise I would eat clamsand I'd have to have like 40
pounds of butter on them.
But because of the heart attackand the anesthesia it actually
(39:14):
totally changed my palate.
So now I can do hot things.
Before, pepper was spicy for me, but now I can do hot things.
What?
Yeah, it totally changed mypalate.
Hot things before pepper wasspicy for me, but now I can do
hot things.
Uh, and what?
Yeah, it totally changed mypalate.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
My wife's palate from giving birth.
She can't have certain things.
She was a pescatarian.
She couldn't eat fish foralmost five years.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Okay, childbirth, we know she had an epidural.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
It was just anesthesia, so that could have
affected her.
Yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
But everything weird happens to a female.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Were you pregnant.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Did you have a baby?
Speaker 3 (39:48):
I love pregnant but if I was pregnant and I'm a male
, there'd be more money.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
There's all sorts of things that happen to the female
body, that changes internally,all sorts of stuff.
But the fact that this happenedto him, and whether it was
anesthesia or the actual, youknow, heart attack.
That's insane.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Literally like caviar I can do.
Caviar, now I can do.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Were you in the business.
At that time you were still a.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
I was still a paramedic.
I was working contract work inIraq and I was home on vacation.
It was my last weekend incountry here to go before I went
back and I was actually underthe knife when I was supposed to
be on a plane back to Iraq.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
They still wanted you there at the time too right
Like every other employer.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Oh yeah, they wanted me so much that I woke up a
couple days later after mysurgery and everything like that
, and they said oh, you're outof a job.
So I was actually let go fromthe contract work while under
the knife.
Wow, yeah, that's it's contract.
It's government contract work.
Don't get me wrong.
I love what I did and I willnot give that up any, you know,
(41:02):
because it's such.
It's a part of me.
You know 20 years doingmedicine, then working overseas.
Great job, Loved it, but youknow, he has other plans, so
this is what he's led me to, sothis is what I'm excited to do,
but yeah, it was surprising.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
And you don't want to fight what he has planned for
you either, right, yeah, it'sfunny he went from being in
battle to now battling gettinghis product into places.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
It is a lot like the military.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Oh, and the kitchens are always.
That's why I think we're thelighthouse for ex-military.
I find out more kitchens haveex-military.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
It's either ex-mil x cons yeah, it's x something.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Yeah, because we, we are the catalyst for this
structure and I think that's oneof the reasons why because when
you don't have it, and you havethat hierarchy, obviously with
this executive chef all the waydown, but there's structure,
there's standard operatingprocedures.
I guarantee you, looking atcarl and looking at chef,
they're, they have sops, whetherthey're written down or not.
It's probably another differentthing, but they're, they
(42:08):
definitely have.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Yeah, it's basically chef carl going, don't touch it
it's.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
It's also looking at chef carl and chef tom and you
go.
I don't want to meet him in ain a dark alley either, you know
they you know they could.
They can go both sides of this.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
True story.
True story, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
And you were Army, right?
Oh yeah, Because we weretalking off.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
Yeah, they're my real branch.
So that's just a little joke,Little joke guys.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
By the way, chef Gaston over here in Tampa, yeah,
when is?
Speaker 2 (42:36):
he coming to come on.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Soon.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
I know he's a busy man.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
He is Well before he moved into the new spot, which
I'm so mad I didn't get a chance.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Which is a great spot .
Speaker 1 (42:47):
I know.
Well, he invited me to say, hey, man, come to the grand opening
, and I was tied up.
Anyway, long story short, wewere talking about him coming on
the show before he got the newspot, and now everybody's just
been slammed.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Yeah, it's funny because every time I would see
him, or when I would see him, itwould be at Restaurant Depot in
the cooler, when we're runningin and grabbing something and
getting out because I forgot myjacket.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Yeah, Well, anyway, you know, Chef, I was sticking
up for you here because Tom was,you know you know ribbing on
you for the coastie thing.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
I'm just saying you know, you know I appreciate
everybody that they do.
Everybody in each branch isamazing, but if you were in the
army, it is.
And today is more so becausetoday is June 6th and it is the
anniversary 80 years, 80 yearsof D-Day.
Yes, so, um, thank you foreverybody that's lost their
(43:43):
lives because of this nation andgreat nation.
And you know, even everybodythat's still serving, I
appreciate everybody.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
We had the honor in Dallas to cover and judge the
Air Force against the CoastGuard for an MRE challenge and
it was just amazing to see theteam we actually I don't know if
I told you, but at the NRA show, right next to Chris Steve Lee,
woodworking diagonally fromthem, was the Coastie.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
They actually had a booth, the same gang.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, there was three of the guys there the guy with
the glasses, the black hair, andthe other guy that was in
competition, the bald guy.
They were there with one of thegirls they were like were like,
hey, what's going on?
I'm like, oh my god, it's greatto see you.
It was great to see thembecause there they are, in their
element, trying to get you knowpeople to come in and
understand.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
yeah, I was there last year and those guys, they
had like 12, 12 coasties thereand they were just rocking it
yeah they had people signing upand young kids, young students
that were coming to the NRA showand they were flocking to the
Coast Guard which is awesome.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Yeah, but you said something about puddle jumpers.
That's what you said.
That was the joke.
No, no, tom said that.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
No, you did it, DM.
When we were at the Dallasthing, that was something about
the puddle jump.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
No, it's pirates or something.
Listen, we'll listen back to it.
Yeah, what I did.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
One of the coasties is going to email you and be
like no dude.
This is what it is.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
I asked them.
I know you did.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Yeah, I got permission.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
I said, listen, I want to do a joke.
What's a good branch versusbranch thing I can do to you
know, kind of um you know, justspark a little energy or
whatever.
So the the the actual ribbingcame from the coasties.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
They said oh yeah, they know they told me what to
say about themselves innerbranch, even within the branches
, like if you're you know,infantry or artillery yeah uh,
eod, you know eod, is you justplug your ears up and stomp on
the ground to find those bombs?
I mean, it's just, razzing ispart of the job, and you get
(45:50):
that in the kitchen too.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
I was just about to say that.
That's where it comes from too.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
And this is the part where today it is changing.
It's changing in the militaryand in the kitchens and I hope
it doesn't 100% change Becauseyou have to have that it's in
the kitchens and I hope itdoesn't 100 change because you
have to have that.
It's part of building thecamaraderie man you need to have
that.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
I think the only thing that needs to change is
the hours we work and theglorification of it.
And then I think the razzingstill has to happen, because if
you do stupid stuff like I mean,how many times did you send
somebody to go get a bucket ofsteam in the basement in florida
?
I mean all the time leftLeft-handed screwdriver.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
I didn't send anybody , they sent me.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Or the bacon stretcher.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
Yeah, I mean, you do those crazy things.
In the Army.
We had the nuclear time clockwhich you had to get in your
chemical suit and you would sendsomeone to the company and then
the company would send abattalion and the goal was to
see if they could get them up todivision in their full chemical
suit.
You know little things likethat.
(46:51):
You know, and that happens inthis kitchen and I it's
absolutely great.
I mean, you have to have alittle bit of tough skin.
Nowadays you don't see it asmuch, no, um, but you have to
have tough skin and you just gotto move on.
You're gonna shoot, move,communicate and that's that's,
that's the key.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
that's a great segue into like having thick skin.
As an entrepreneur starting abusiness, you have to have
alligator skin on you becauseyou're, like you said, get
kicked in the in the stomachevery turn, like you're gonna
talk to somebody, yeah, and theygive you the oh, it's great.
And then you're like, oh great,I'll call you, call me on
Tuesday.
You call on Tuesday, they don'tknow you.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
You have to learn to be able to accept the word no
and not take it personally.
And that's the key.
If you learn to do that and say, okay, let's move on, you
didn't like it, there's going tobe 50 other people that do like
it and you just push on andpush on, and push on.
(47:54):
You just say, okay, you don'tlike it, fine.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Do you know what no means?
Speaker 3 (47:59):
It's an acronym.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
No, next opportunity there you go.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Yeah, I like the word pivot.
I, you guys hear me say pivot alot.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
I hate that word because of COVID.
I hate the word because offriends.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
Pivot, pivot.
I like it.
He doesn't remember the episode.
I don't.
Amy he's going to call you nowbecause you don't remember it,
Cause she's a fan friends letter.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
She's gonna call you.
She probably sends you theactual um episode.
Amy, send me the link.
So you don't know that.
Come on everybody, I don'tremember, I, I don't remember,
but I do like it in, just in howI approach challenges in what
we're doing.
And you, there's probably been30 pivots in this.
You know, john threw up on themixer yeah, there's been so many
like changes and stop thisdirection, stop this direction.
(48:59):
Stop.
You know it's crazy, yeah, butyou have to roll with it.
You just have to like, okay, noproblem, and take it and then
go in another direction.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
Yeah, and it gets to me.
You know, because the militaryand actually because the EMS too
, I have some issues and theyget to me.
But I have to sit there andtake that time to meditate and
go back through my mind and say,okay, it's just not, it's not
me.
Things change, we have to goand it takes a little bit
(49:32):
sometime personally, but it's alearning process every single
day.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
I have an in-law that you, you, you need to, you need
to meet.
He was in the army.
It's actually a little bitolder than me, probably your age
.
He was in the Army Also, youknow paramedic and all that
stuff, and he ended up he stillworks.
He's a what do they call the atthe post office postmaster?
(50:03):
He's a postmaster.
General, cool cat.
You guys are like the sameperson.
Legit the same person.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
Yeah, it's basically what you get right here from 20
years of EMS and 10 years of theArmy.
It's just very cold.
I joke a lot, but deep downdown I care.
So I want to be able to usethat and push this new product
(50:32):
out with the caring and learnhow to you know and take, like I
said when he's, when someonesays, no, I gotta, I can't take
it personally.
I gotta be able to say, okay,not you.
And we see that the farmer'smarket too.
People come up and taste ourproduct and they're like oh, no.
And the person behind them aregoing like oh my God.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
But that's where you are.
I said it before.
You're like a ground zero, foryou know you're looking for
trouble at those farmer'smarkets.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
No, it's not necessarily that, because I was
thinking about as we're talking,and I was thinking about and
one of the things as anentrepreneur that we always miss
is that we think with ourfriends they're going to buy
from us and they don't no, theywant everything for free oh, you
got that, let me get that forfree.
But yet, on the same token, youwant to go ahead and support
nike and it's just a brand.
(51:20):
Great, you like to, but youdon't go in there and go.
Can I get that?
Oh it's 50.
Can I get it for 25?
You go in there and spend.
You go into apple and you spend1200 on a new phone.
You don't even blink an eye.
But you go to someone like tomand be like oh, can I get that
for in a farmer's market?
Can I get?
Oh, it's 10.
I'll give you nine.
No, it's, it's not.
Let's make a deal.
(51:40):
You know I have prices andstructures and you would think
friends would.
That's my biggest thing.
When I took off and when Iopened up my own restaurant with
my partner, I thought, oh man,we're going to be busy because
we've got all these friendsgoing to be coming in Crickets.
They weren't there to support,so you have to.
You know, that was my biggestthing.
My biggest thing when I openedthe restaurant was how do I get
(52:00):
people in the door?
Because I thought I was goingto have people come in the door
and that was my naive self.
Speaker 3 (52:05):
Oh yeah, yeah, because you're sitting there and
it's your baby, yeah, and youknow that you love everything
that you're doing and youautomatically think that
everybody else is going to do it.
They're going to love it andyou're just going to walk in.
And that's been one of ourchallenges is marketing and
getting our name out there tohave people try it.
(52:28):
But once they try it, I meanour markets are going crazy.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Now you talk about marketing, Social media.
Do you have a social mediapresence?
Yeah, we have a websiteCrabIslandSeafoodDipcom.
Speaker 3 (52:40):
We're on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.
Speaker 1 (52:43):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (52:44):
Crab Island Seafood.
Just to make sure I broughtCrab Island.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
Seafood.
Don't look at me like that.
I thought you would know.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
Like you don't know.
It's not about me.
No, Do you know his labels?
Do you know who made his labels?
Speaker 1 (52:58):
Yeah, this guy, yeah, I'm giving you that this is
like your nod to go and promoteyour stock.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Well, I'm giving you that this is like your nod to go
and promote your stock.
Well, no, I wanted to bring upthe social media aspect of it.
Not so he would announce it.
It was because of what wetalked about with Rosanna and
the presence, that's so required.
Speaker 3 (53:13):
Now it's his time though, to put it out there, and
that has been really a strongstruggle for us.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
Well, you're how old Social media I'm 29.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
Okay, yeah, 53.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
Okay you're social media.
I'm old 20, 29, okay, yeah, um53.
Okay, well, he's our age, carl43.
So you don't have that balanceof having somebody that's a
millennial that can say, hey,you guys need to do it this way,
um, do you have people, thatresources you can talk to that?
This is your acf chapter mydaughter.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
There you go, yeah, my daughters, and but you 20.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
Dad, I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
Yeah, exactly, you need millennial or less.
Speaker 3 (53:48):
Yeah, yeah.
And what is that millennial?
What is that so Gen?
Speaker 2 (53:51):
Z and now they changed.
Now it's the alphabet is thenext.
My daughter's grid generationis called the alphabet or
something like the alpha orsomething.
I don't know what it is.
Speaker 3 (54:02):
I think I'll get my five-year-old niece to hook us
up and set up the whole socialmedia.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
I'm serious.
Speaker 3 (54:08):
These kids nowadays?
I can't believe.
I just said that these kidsnowadays, when I was using the
ringer with the dial.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
You messed up the phone number on the rotary phone
.
Oh man.
Speaker 3 (54:22):
The kitchen phone with the 15-foot 25-foot cord.
Speaker 1 (54:27):
Yeah, I remember that .
Yeah, we all remember that.
Again, this is when everybodyjust shut it off.
Literally everybody just shutthe episode off.
Speaker 3 (54:35):
I mean there's so much out there that you can do,
and constantly, every single day, you're okay, I got to post
here, I got to post here, I gotto post here.
That's one of the things, whenwe get to that point to be able
to is have a company come in andhandle.
It's because it's all aboutdelegation.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
Look tom, here's the thing, it's ours, it's the
manpower to do.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
And carl, all right, here's the thing you guys are
doing big work, you're doingawesome stuff and if you I know
that you specifically, and nowthis guy you guys are gonna push
forward and keep going andyou're now gonna hit.
You're gonna hit the.
You're actually gonna hit the,the jackpot.
What I mean by jackpot is not,like, you know, tons of cash,
(55:18):
hopefully tons of cash, butyou're, you're gonna get to the
next, the next phase here yeah,and that's.
Speaker 3 (55:23):
That's what it is.
It's all about phases, yeah youwant to you going to get to the
next phase here.
Yeah, and that's what it is.
It's all about phases.
You want to get to yourobjective, complete that
objective and move to the nextobjective.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
I love when you talk like this.
Speaker 3 (55:33):
I know isn't it, but we're doing it.
So thank you for having us,because this has been amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
We've been talking about it forever.
I'm so glad that you came today.
Guest on South Down Deck.
I'm also happy that you broughtfood.
Yeah, that's really what it is.
I just want to make sureeverybody knows that the
pronunciation is lychee.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
The Mandarin pronunciation is lychee or
lychee, you guys go ahead andsay whatever you want to say.
Gravy sauce, lychee, lychee orlychee, you guys go ahead and
say whatever you want to say.
Gravy sauce, lychee, lychee.
It's sauce Tomato tomato.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Lychee, this is not potato potano.
Speaker 3 (56:11):
Some say potato.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
No, this is not that.
All right, my goodness.
Chefs out there check out Metroand others.
Go to our website See who we'reworking with, okay, and others
Go to our website See who we'reworking with, okay, gentlemen,
silent John, my boy, jefferson,the other, carl With a C With a
(56:33):
C, the real Carl.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Don't forget, evan, that wasn't my God.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
All right, evan, back there Doing the good video.
We are out.
Thank you.
We're recording on-site at IbisImages Studios, where food
photography comes alive and Iget to eat it.
First things first.
Last week on the show we hadChef Rosanna Rivera and her
hubby, chef Ricardo, in-house.
Can they cook, my goodness, canthey throw down?
(00:42):
Great episode, and it's aboutsocial media and food and how
they work well together.
Go back and listen.
Today it's how do you start abusiness?
Do you have the know-how, theinternal fortitude, the money?
Well, many of us have enduredthe rocky road.
Some of us are still on thatroad Hashtag, walk and talk.
(01:05):
Our guest this week is a goodfriend of mine, chef and
entrepreneur Tom Favren,co-owner of Crab Island Seafood
Company.
This story is one of struggle,brick walls and a steady diet of
belly kicks.
It's incredibly persistent,this guy, and he's a great
person.
I know him a long time, gooddude.
So with success it all comes.
(01:27):
Chef Tom is on deck and there'sChef Carl, the other co-owner,
in house as well.
He's watching from the greenroom.
Chefs, we've been using Metrohot boxes, shelving and even
their mobile prep cart aroundthe studio and couldn't be
happier.
If you're planning onreorganizing your kitchen, well,
(01:48):
be sure to contact our friendsat Metro, your partner in
organization and efficiency.
Jefferson, you're a smallbusiness owner, small in general
, no kidding, you've beenthrough it, we still are.
And managing this kind ofpressure it's not for the faint
of heart and you know, you haveto.
(02:09):
You kind of have to give theprops to anybody who kind of
throws their hat in the ring ofentrepreneurship.
Starting a business, owning abusiness, you know, even
investing, whatever it's a bigthing business owning a business
, even investing, whatever.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It's a big thing.
There's so many avenues, man,you can't even just pick one
where to start when you have theidea, but then you have to have
the money behind it to do it,to bring it to fruition, and
then you have to have man guts,you have to have what we call
chutzpah.
You know webons.
(02:48):
You have to get out there anddo it.
And then when you're doing it,you have to make connections,
you have to make sure thatyou're speaking the right
terminologies to people Like, Ithink, one of the things that
especially we're talking aboutthe restaurant industry when
you're a chef and then you leavethe kitchen to go start your
own thing, to go back into thekitchen to talk to chefs wow,
you're a leopard, you.
You have just gone the the.
You're not supposed to talk tohim.
(03:08):
Good god, there's no way I'mgoing to talk to you anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I don't know what it is well see.
In my opinion, a leopard neverloses its spots true leprosy.
Yeah, there we go.
I know what you meant.
I was trying to save you.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
You didn't have to do that, I know, but I you know,
when I speak and I mess up, Iown it, just like I did with the
flan, I own it, so okay.
So just everyone, everyoneknows I did a smoke flan today.
We are not taking pictures ofit because dingling took
cupcakes, uh tins, the foil tins, and I had paper in it and I
put the caramel in there and thecaramel stuck to the paper.
(03:41):
You know what it's called firstattempt in learning hey, listen
, I mean it.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
I mean it's okay.
I think we should take picturesof it anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
No, john's not going to do that, because he doesn't
want his name on that.
I'll take pictures of the showon my iPhone.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So again, I feel like there should be some
photography on it and maybe onthe.
Hey, this is what you don't do.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, I think there's a lot of times and we're
talking about owning somethingand starting a business I think
one of the things you need to dois, when you mess up, you have
to learn from it.
You can't beat yourself up toit.
I mean, yesterday when I did itand I took it out after it
cooled and I realized what I haddone, I started going what are
you doing, you idiot?
That's so like rookie.
And then I caught myself andwent wait, you've never smoked
(04:25):
fun, not the steps that I didthe first time.
I didn't have creme bruleebowls, I didn't have the right
equipment First of all to do it,no comment.
And when I got done with it, Ijust was like hey version 2.0
coming up next.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well, I will tell you , because I had a bite.
Taste is right on.
Oh, yeah, thank you.
Yeah, I mean I'd eat it.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Well you would be going like this with the paper
afterwards.
Yeah, I mean sure, but you haveto realize that when you're
doing something, you have aversion of it.
Here's the other thing too.
And I guess when Chef Tom comeson, when you do something and
you think it's perfect, thegreat chefs will always tweak it
.
They want to keep on.
What can I do better?
How can I make this better?
(05:07):
What can I do to make itdifferent every single time?
And that's what I'm like.
The first thing I did was likeI told john I even told carl off
, uh, with it, with a c, not a k.
I told carl, I'm like the bestthing I could have done was use
the molds.
I have silicone molds, didn'teven think about that.
I was so fixated on the chinaand I didn't have that look,
we're not mad at you.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Um, so is that where you went wrong?
So here's the thing because wedon't have a lot of food today,
there's some.
You made some bread, made somefocaccia made some shabbat of
sticks, right?
Yeah, so uh, but I'll tell youwhat, though, without there
being any cooking, there's a lotof food in this house, right, I
mean so?
a lot of smoke dip.
There's a, there's a ton ofsmoke dip and uh, and our good
(05:47):
friend al, uh, he came by andyou know you can make a mention
of that in a minute and drop offa bunch of really cool stuff
with that said um, you, you madeit error, you're talking about
it on air.
Um, give it like a give, likethe steps one, two, three, right
.
Take a minute and just say whatyou should have done and then
(06:08):
kind of get a little bit moreinto detail and and where the,
where the mistake came oh yeah,I mean one.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I probably should have used a thermometer candy
thermometer because when you gopast a certain time with when
you're candying sugar to make acaramel, there's a certain point
where you're getting more of ataffy structure.
Then Then you're getting candywhich is like way over and it's
going to be rock hard, it'sgoing to crack and it's going to
snap, which is good.
But when you're doing flan it'sa little bit different, plus,
because you're also cooking itand that cooking process went
(06:36):
over an hour.
So there was that problem.
The other problem having thepaper in there in the tins.
I would have just pulled thepaper out and had the foil.
Probably would have been alittle bit better.
Maybe spraying it down.
These are all things that Iafterwards what I was doing
Silicone mold done.
That's what I'm going to dowhen I get home.
I actually have a quart leftover.
So when I get home, I wasactually thinking about should
(06:57):
bring it over there butding-a-ling, froze it Because I
didn't know what I was going todo with it, so I didn't want to
lose it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Don't be so hard on yourself.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well, here's the thing when you're doing things
and you mess up, you want tomake sure that you do it.
Yes, you do thisself-deprecation of it and you
want to stop doing it.
I get that, but you learn fromit.
It's the first attempt and nowyou've got to keep on doing when
you get to the perfection partof it.
(07:24):
That's the different story.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
I actually love how this is going to tie your error
on your production.
There ties into how, when yougo off into business, the error
and you get kicked in the belly,as I was mentioning in the
monologue.
Belly shot after belly, shotafter belly shot, and if you,
and if you stay with it, learn,pivot, make the adjustment.
(07:50):
You know you can find yourselfon the other side.
I think it's actually aproposit.
This fits perfectly, um, withthe, with the day-to-day,
although I do wish that you hadso.
So what I'm going to do when Iget home is I'm going to go to
my mother-in-law and.
I'm going to say, mom, do me afavor, taste this.
No, no, make a flan.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh, and then you're going to take a picture of it
and show me.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Well, what I'm going to have her do is I'll have her
make a flan and I'm going tobring it next week.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
don't do it today no, of course not.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I'm gonna tell her when I'm.
You know she knows what she'sdoing, okay I know she knows,
but do you?
Uh, I don't have to know that'swhat I mean I show up with the
spoon.
You know I'm saying like thatthat's the silver spoon for
right now.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Right, it was golden this until rack sends him a gold
spoon.
Yes, so tina's gonna send you agold spoon now tina from rack I
.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I want my gold spoon set.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Just a huge shout out .
They just sent.
How many plates?
Four cases, how many?
Speaker 1 (08:54):
30 plates.
It's amazing how we waste themic on him.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
You know what I mean when he does talk.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, we can add Carl over here.
I know it looks pretty.
It's a pretty mic.
You got there bud.
There you go 30, please.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Now we're talking.
Okay, okay, write that down.
That's the fifth time John spokeon the podcast Seriously Silent
, john, indeed, yeah, so it's socool that they're they're
they're doing this and and youknow, listen, I think you know
there's a, there's a good chancethat, uh, you know, rack comes
on board as a, as a vendorpartner or, you know, top tier
(09:31):
sponsor, and that'd be.
That'd be terrific guys.
Um, again, tina, thank you forsending everything you do, send
we.
We appreciate you very much andher energy, by the way, is, god
, ridiculous, second to none.
(09:51):
I mean, it's so awesome youmeet her and you just like, wow,
so people, um, I've had, I'vehad folks come to me and say,
you know how come, everythingyou always talk about is like,
oh, this person's greater, thatcompany's awesome, but I never
hear you're talking aboutanything negative.
I don't speak about anybody oranything negative really on the
show.
That's not where I want to gowith it.
Right, it's not a bashing sortof a you know, you know
framework with what we're doing.
So when you hear me talk about,oh, you know, chef Tom is a
(10:11):
great guy, he's a great human,yeah, I'm not going to, I'm not
going to bring a dirt bag on andand promote that person or that
(10:35):
company.
Right, so everything's positive.
Right we were.
We fed everybody.
I mean like Al when he cameinto the studio.
Al's a broker works for B&A.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
He manages lines from all these different
manufacturers.
He's got guacamole in a Phillycheesesteak.
He bought mascarpone cheese indifferent cheeses from Schulman,
so it's going to be great totaste them.
Did you mention the Guac Cups?
Yeah, I did mention the GuacCups, but I didn't mention the
company.
I don't remember the name of it.
I know it started with a G, butI don't remember of it, but it's
frozen in a cup, so you can'tgo wrong with that.
(11:01):
I mean, as far as here's thething, when you're talking and
chef will get involved in thiswhen he talks about his product
the difference between shelfstable, refrigerated and a
freezer, because when you'redistributed, going for
distribution, distributors don'tlike things that are
refrigerated because that meansit has a shelf life that's short
.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
For the most part.
They also don't like thingsthat are going on in the freezer
, because when things are in therefrigerator that can go in the
freezer, that real estate getseaten up.
They love things that are shelfstable.
So there's a big balance thatwe have to do as far as
distribution, and people don'tunderstand that.
It's great from being from bothsides because I can play that
field Chef's learning that wecan probably talk about that,
(11:41):
because that's going to beanother huge obstacle can
probably talk about that,because that's going to be
another huge obstacle.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Well, it is, and you?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
know he and I have known each other for at least
five years.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Sorry, and he's been so sorry at least, and, and he's
been, um, he's been.
He's had some major ups anddowns.
He'll get into it, uh, but, um,you know what.
All right, enough about this,chef Tom.
Welcome to the program.
Well, thank you for having me.
You know what Our pleasure.
We've been talking about thisfor a long time, like you being
(12:12):
here.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
About five years.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Something like that.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Almost five years.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Well, Waka.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Talk started in 2020.
Yeah, coming up, so five years.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah, almost my goodness.
All right.
So before we jump intoeverything, uh, why don't you
give a?
Um, you know, take 30 secondsand do an airplane view of uh,
who you are, what you do and howyou got there?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
um, so tom favorite, that's my name um, so we uh
started out being airborneinfantry, got hurt on just a fun
training day and totallychanged my life around, and then
put out the military medicallyand then had to get a job, you
(12:59):
know, not trained in anythingother than infantry.
So I went back into what I knewparamedicine and firefighting,
did that for 20 years, got hurthealth-wise massive heart attack
and it totally changed my lifeand it came back to really what
I should have done when I gotout of the service was food and
(13:23):
got into selling shrimp and fromthere in the crab dips and fish
breads and saw that flavorprofile just launch and I wanted
to be part of that and bring aproduct that I actually loved to
market.
And that's where we're at today.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Now, well, you know again, to reiterate, we don't
trash anybody on the show per se.
You have had ups and downs inthis thing.
You have come so cause I knowwe've spent hours on the phone
together and you know, hearingthe stories, it's, it's
remarkable, and you're stillhere and now you're still here
(14:05):
and now you're actually makingthings happen.
Give a little bit of insight asto some of the challenges that
you've had.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Really, just on the health side, ups and downs
health-wise had really impededthe work I was doing trying to
get things started.
And then you brought it upearlier money getting capital,
getting that set up.
We have been blessed so far.
We had some great donations toour facility and making what we
(14:37):
can do today.
But COVID, when I was in thebeginning of COVID we had 60
restaurants we were sellingfresh shrimp to and COVID
totally knocked that down.
But from adversity comestriumph.
Really, to beginning to wherewe are today.
(14:58):
I still think of it as atriumph.
To where we started out, havinga product that we have today.
To where we started out havinga product that we have today,
just being able to go out thereand see people's faces when
you're doing tastings or sellingit going.
Oh my goodness, this is amazing, this is the best I've ever had
.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
What makes your product so well?
How does it come off?
You're saying everybody'sloving it and I've had it, it's
delicious.
But why?
Why is product so well Like?
How does it come off?
You're saying everybody'sloving it and I've had it, it's
delicious, but why?
Why is it so delicious?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Well, the biggest thing is my partner, Chef Carl.
He takes the time to get thethat recipe to where you want it
and then mass producing it andthat is a key right there is
(15:53):
being able to mass produce, timein, time out, the same exact
recipe and getting the sameflavor profile at each batch.
And Carl has been able to dothat, not you the other, carl
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
So the biggest thing when I went to culinary school
Peter James the Dean who becameDean of students he always said
the one thing that therestaurant industry doesn't do
as a whole is consistency.
And I kind of went above thatand said the restaurant industry
consistently is inconsistent.
And he said if you wantconsistency in the restaurant
industry, go work for McDonald's.
So it's probably the hardestthing.
(16:26):
What he did Wendy's, wendy'syeah, I did.
Wow, he worked at Wendy's.
So consistency, right.
So the hardest thing to do ishow do you get things
consistency when you're talkingabout a restaurant, but when
you're talking about that's hugebecause that's bulk.
So when talking about arestaurant, but when you're
talking about that's hugebecause that's bulk.
(16:47):
So when you're talking aboutone cup, you know finished
product, but you're doing thaton a scale that's so large yeah,
a pallet of ours.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
One pallet of product is 1288 ounce tubs it's a lot
and that's what you're doingtoday.
Yes, right, and before you weredoing it like small batch,
probably what?
Speaker 3 (17:05):
20 at a time, 20 to 30 at a time, yeah, and each
batch, each flavor.
We have seven different flavorsright now, so five different
crab dips and then a smoked mahiand a smoked salmon.
So just a little bit of timeand growing and growing.
And really one thing I have torevert back on is something that
(17:26):
was very difficult was I'm verytrusting.
So I've learned over time notto be as trusting and to put
that wall up.
To begin in the beginning,before I get to know them,
because we have been burnt andin this industry, people taking
(17:46):
ideas, paperwork is key.
Getting that nondisclosure yeah, I was going to say NDA and
non-competes yeah, it is becausethere's people out there and
they'll take your idea and runwith it.
So, unfortunately, we learned,but it happens.
(18:06):
We learn, we move on, we shoot,we move and we communicate and
that's my military backgroundthat has helped me get to where
we are right now and it'll getme to where we want to be.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I want to point out that something that's very
wonderful about his company it'sveteran-owned and I think
that's the biggest thing.
So if you want to help somebodythat's not only local trying to
grow their business, you wantto help somebody that serves and
try to protect our countryveterans Hello.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, my pleasure man .
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Well, so, with that said, where do you find it?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Well, so, with that said, where do you find it?
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Right now we do farmer's markets on the weekends
all through St Pete,hillsborough County, a little
bit in Tampa and, to keep itmilitary, that's real grunt work
right there.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
You're really doing it from the bottom up.
Yes, yeah, hustle, let's callit hustle.
Yeah, big time, really doing itfrom the bottom up.
Yes, yeah, hustle, let's callit hustle.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yeah, big time so what that does for us is that
covers our basically ouroverhead yeah, our kitchens, our
insurance, everything like that.
That covers our overhead.
And then we have branched offinto wholesale.
So we're in several differentlocations a couple of
restaurants, a couple of barsHeights Meats, southern Steer
(19:25):
Butcher.
We just got into RiverviewFresh Market, so we're branching
out.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
And Heights Meats is a good outfit.
Are you in all the locations?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
So we're in the clear water in tampa and we'll be
hopefully here in the next twoweeks, be in the brandon and, uh
, the lakeland.
Okay, so all, all locationshere within the next couple
weeks and then um with southernsteer.
We're in two locations clearClearwater and St Pete, but we
are looking to branch off into.
(19:58):
They have six locations.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
So we're going to be branching off into them.
So this is really your, this islike your moment, your front of
the house jumping off point.
Oh, most definitely, Right,100%.
For the last few years it'sreally just been like okay, how
do I get this thing moving?
Because you still work fulltime.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
No, no, actually, Carl and I have left, did you?
Yeah, we were over at theBirchwood Inn and we both left
in August of last year and wesaid, okay, we're all in.
So we're doing what we have todo to survive and build this as
much as we can, as fast as wecan.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Man, that's, that's, um, yeah, when you don't have
the floor under you anymore,it's, it's scary, it's nonstop.
Yeah, yes.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
I don't think it's really scary.
I think it's more of one of howcan I?
Well, it's, it's a legit fightor flight, A hundred percent
Right.
I think you've got to look atit, that you know I'm going to
fight, especially him, becauseof what he's been through.
He's been fighting when youwere talking.
I have this image of thate-grid or that bird and he's got
the frog and the frog'sgrabbing the throat and it says
(21:11):
never give up.
Yeah, I mean, that's the mottothat we have to be as an
entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
You have to be wired differently to start your own
business, no matter if it's inthe restaurant industry or not.
I think, like I alluded toearlier, being a chef.
In the kitchen, chefs talk toyou, but when you step out of
the kitchen and try to sell theproduct, you're looked at as
less than in person.
They don't talk to you anymore.
It less than in person theydon't talk to you anymore.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
It's like weird, yeah , especially with like with our
product.
It's it's a pre-made productand a lot of the higher end
restaurants will and I wouldn'tsay higher end, but people that
wouldn't want to make it theirown and they're like well, I can
do better.
Right and that attitude doescome across when you, when you
talk to them and you're like,when you talk to them and you're
like listen, let's look at yourman hours, okay.
(21:56):
Your costs, yeah, but your manhours to make this and how long
is it going to last?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, but sometimes it pays to have a product like
that as your base right.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
You bring it in, your base product is ready and now
you chef-y chef it and dress itup yeah but a lot of times and
I've said this before the wayyou need to talk to a chef,
cause you know he can talk thatlanguage, and that's what I was
alluding to we took we speakdifferently than salespeople
unless you're a chef, butthere's always have to be that
translation.
When you walk into a chef,you've got to give them the
(22:30):
three team, three things how areyou going to give me my time
back?
How are you going to increasemy profitability and how are you
just going to make it anincredible product that I can
put my name on it itself?
If you give those three answers, chef's going to buy from you
because that's how they're goingto.
That's the mindset that thechef works.
Like what chef just said.
Chef Tom, like what's their manhours?
(22:50):
My best thing was when somebodywas like I make my own ravioli.
I'm like well, what do you payyourself?
She goes oh, it's free becauseI do it myself.
Oh, you want to come work forme?
No, well, what's the difference?
She didn't understand thedifference between it's your,
you own the company, but youhave to have a price on your
head for what you do, because ifyou're not, then you shouldn't
be in business.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Exactly, yeah.
So right now we we don't lookat it.
We look at it that way, but wedon't look at it that way as
we're building because we wewant to make the company as big
as possible and get our productname out there and a cost to it.
Right now we're not puttingthat into the company.
But we know, I mean, when Iworked EMS I was working 100
(23:45):
plus hours a week.
Now I'm probably 99?
Yeah, 99.75.
But it's something that I love,so it's not.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
It's not working.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It's not working.
It's not working right now.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
My wife would say otherwise right, it's a hobby
they always do and and at theend of it, um, it's, it's
something you're building, youknow, for yourself, for carl,
like you guys are doing legacy,it's, it's your thing.
Yes, right, so that changes thewhole dynamic of your time.
Right, it's one.
It's like I look at it that way.
It's one thing.
If, uh, you know, if I'm givingmy, so that changes the whole
(24:19):
dynamic of your time.
Right, it's like I look at itthat way.
It's one thing.
If I'm giving my 70 hours aweek to somebody, okay, but
they're getting my 70 hours aweek.
If I'm putting 70 hours a weekinto something that was created
in how it's our thing, my thing,our thing, that's different.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
It is a different.
It's it's self gratifying toknow what we're doing and
actually, when you, when you dothings wrong, you learn from it
and you move on, but you havethat instance of going, oh great
.
I screwed up, okay, now we know, and it's really it has great.
I screwed up, okay, now we know, and really it has been that I
(24:59):
mean we are on the ground,fighting every day and learning
every day.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
What has been one of your biggest stumbling blocks,
like, what did you trip on mostCapital?
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Like everybody else, it's capital is the hardest
thing to procure to find thatbacker to say, okay, this
product is what we want to backand be able to grow from there.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
And how did you find finance?
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Working with people over the years that have looked
at the product and said, okay,yeah, this is a great product we
want to get behind it, but isit something that you stumbled
on, or somebody fell into you,or you went out and you said you
know what?
Speaker 1 (25:52):
I'm going to go out and I'm going to find that
person.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
It was a working relationship.
Um, our backer is in the fishindustry shrimp guy from georgia
, um, and he saw this product.
He has a whole product linehimself.
He sees the opportunity that itcan grow and he uh gave us the
the opportunity to get startedso well.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
So when you, what you have coming up next is going to
be something to the effect ofdistribution.
That's your next big thing.
That's our next big thing.
That's our next big thing.
Yeah, okay, how are youtackling that?
Speaker 3 (26:40):
We are in talks with, I guess I could say, the Chaney
brothers.
We're in talks with them rightnow to have them start
distributing.
We have actually partnered withthem, I could say with getting
all the ingredients through themand then we're able to make it
(27:00):
and they're going to market anddistribute through it.
We have a couple locations thatthey are through Cheney they do
take our crab dips and fishbreads.
That are actually doingstupendous.
I mean it's amazing how fastthey're going.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And that well so Cheney's.
So for me, broad liners, youknow US Cisco, cheney, those are
probably the top three, and youknow maybe coming here in
Florida, yeah, in Florida.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yeah, right, you know , maybe then after that you have
like a PFG or Gordon eventhey're a great outfit and they
look for things like this yeah,they do, and that's what's nice
about it is they're family ownedand they see what we're trying
to do and trying to stay withthe family and build it up and
(27:51):
build a legacy for my family,for carl's family, um to be able
to grow together and make greatproduct and push it out.
And it's a nice thing becauseit's not just.
I know some of the otherbroadliners will okay, I want it
across the states tomorrow andit's nice that in talks Cheney's
(28:13):
like well, okay, we'll start ithere and we'll grow together
which is they're not trying todestroy your capacity Right.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Well, he couldn't like if he went to a Cisco,
let's say, and they said we wantto in all 50 states.
He can't ramp up the.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
That's what I'm saying, you know, because they
have.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Unless you want to donate some, they can donate.
I'm not going to donate.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
They can donate.
I'm not going to donate.
If I had that cash, it would bedonated to the baking cartel.
The walk-on.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
No offense, Jeff, We'd bring it in, don't worry.
So at the end of it, yeah,they'd come in and they would
say something to the effect ofwell, we need X amount of
capacity product for X amount ofwarehouses in the state
whatever or states plural, andthat can kill somebody Like
that'll absolutely destroy youAbsolutely destroy you.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
You don't want to grow too fast, you know too big,
too fast.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
A lot of companies do that.
I mean, listen, there's a majorcompany that made an $11
million mistake and they'reabout to close down.
Yeah, so everybody makes youdon't know who I'm talking about
.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I do Darden know who I'm talking about I do darden,
oh yeah, sure, well, no theyweren't owned by darden.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
No, yeah, they're.
They're separate now, right,yeah, so that's I mean you.
You mentioned it like.
Here's the prime example you,you do something, you mess up,
you mess up that big in 11million dollar loss.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
That's huge yeah, and then you get uh, bought and
sold, bought and sold, boughtand sold, sold, sold, sold,
broken down, sold for parts.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, we can go on and on andon about the different
restaurants that were thriving,that bought something that
didn't end up doing so well.
I mean Hopps is a prime example.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I mean, that can go as simple as buying the space
next door, can go as simple asuh, buying the space next door.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
You know, and uh, how many times you see a restaurant
where they're like they go oh,we got to expand, and they
expand.
The next thing, they know thattwo months later they're closed.
You know, six months later, ayear, they're closed because
they just didn't have them.
Or they open a second spot,yeah, and they end up closing.
So it's again, it's, it's areally, it's a type rope walk
when we're talking about therestaurant industry, because I
don't think your margins areabout the same as the restaurant
(30:18):
industry margins, correct?
Yes.
So a lot of people think, oh, Ihave a cousin that actually cuts
shoes for Steve Madden.
The markup on shoes isridiculous.
We can't do 155%.
Some people like to.
On chicken, think about thatfor a second.
If you buy chicken at $3,you're going gonna go buy
chicken in a restaurant for 50.
So that's a tough thing toswallow.
(30:38):
So the margins people don'trealize.
Yeah, he owns his own company,he's got a manufacturing plan,
he's doing the crab and shit.
I think people are gonna be oh,you're rolling in dough.
No, you're not what is it likefive?
five to ten percent is yeah,yeah, so it's not.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Yeah, we, uh, we want to make it competitive, we want
to make a little bit of money,and ours is a little bit
different because the way we doit, we can freeze ours and you
were talking about that earlier,about freezing and fresh.
With our recipe, we're able tofreeze it for six months, so
that takes more space than wehave to do.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Not only that More cost.
Here's the other problem.
The raw ingredient you'regetting is a commodity
ingredient, so that fluctuatesmore so than the other guys
because of what they're using astheir ingredient.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Yeah, it's gone up about 40% in the last about two
months.
So you know it fluctuates.
We try to lock in prices butit's you know the way it is, so
we have to go with the flow sowhen we?
When people are like okay,what's your, what's your price
(31:45):
here?
It is well, you don't knoweverything that goes behind the
scenes to to get that there.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
I mean you use Mahi right.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
So Mahi, back in the day when I was first starting
out, was like $2, $3 a pound.
What is it going now?
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Mahi's not that bad.
Right now Mahi is actuallyabout $4 a pound.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Oh okay.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
So, it's the crab.
The blue crab is through theroof, and also our, our smoked
salmon, because we use a wildcaught Chilean salmon, so it's a
little bit higher grade.
It's considered a sushi grade,so when we get it in it's pretty
pricey.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
So basically, you're you.
The differentialdifferentiation from you to the
other guys that are doing smokedfish dips or smoked dips is
that you're using a betterquality product, better
ingredients.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, we're using a higher quality of blue crab and
actually the mahi.
A lot of people when they dotheir mahi dips, they're using
scraps, the bellies, whatever'scut off.
We use loins.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
So that makes a different huge difference and
also some people, when they dofish, specifically fish dip, not
mahi or a specific fish speciesthey use jack or king right.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
So what they'll do is they'll take the mahi, say it's
a mahi spread, and what they'lldo is they'll take the mahi,
say it's a mahi spread, and whatthey'll do is they will put a
percentage of mahi so you'regetting that flavor, and then
cut it down with whiting fish,right, and so no one really
looks at the ingredients.
They'll see mahi and then acouple lines down the road there
(33:34):
was then your whitefish,whitefish, whitefish.
So we're 100% through andthrough all mahi and salmon.
So we don't cut anything down.
So our costs are a little bithigher, but you're getting a
much higher quality fish spreadand crab dip.
We use all fresh ingredients towhere we can the mahi, the
(33:57):
jalapenos, the green onions,everything is the spinach,
everything is fresh.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
So you're using fresh jalapenos?
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Okay.
The reason why I'm shocked isbecause each jalapeno is
differently.
When you're doing a sauce perse because I have that PTSD
that's a mash, so I can controlthe amount of heat with the mash
that's coming in.
When you do what he's doing,you know everything.
It's almost like one of thoseones that were the shishito
peppers.
You don't ever know what'sgoing to be the spicier of the
(34:26):
two, the spiciest of the two.
So how do you control the heat?
Speaker 3 (34:30):
on that.
That's Chef Carl's littlesecret there, carl's little
secret there.
We have it down, that we can.
You know, basically everysingle batch is the same exact
batch.
The key is fresh jalapenos, youknow, a couple days old.
You're going to get that.
That heat level is going toactually come down and that
(34:52):
flavor profile is actually goingto change because you don't
have that fresh ingredient inthere.
So when we make things it'sfresh off the batch boom.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
So at the moment, your current product list, how
many different flavor profilesdo you have Currently?
Speaker 2 (35:11):
we have seven different flavors.
I like when he says currently,because I think Carl's got some
others in the Carl's got like hejust rolled his eyes.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Carl's got like an encyclopedia of all these
different recipes that he'swanting to try.
I have to turn it back a littlebit Wait, wait, wait, no no.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
He just said encyclopedia Half the people we
just lost.
What is that?
It's Google and books.
It's a Google and media.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
It's New Times Roman.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Single spaced.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
But yeah, we have seven different flavors.
We have our smoked mahi, oursmoked salmon dill, and that's
fresh dill.
And then in our crab dips wehave have our smoked mahi, our
smoked salmon dill, and that'sfresh dill, you just put it in
um.
And then in our crab dips wehave um, a buffalo blue cheese,
a mexican street corn, ajalapeno popper, a spinach,
(36:13):
artichoke, parmesan, and I thinkthe biggest and newest is it's
really taking off is our crabragu that one, that one I've had
, I'm down for that.
I'm down for all those, but youknow I'm a sucker for uh crab
right we're actually having alot of customers cup toast say,
oh, this is what we did when,like, one of our customers
(36:36):
bought a whole mess of you knowlike five pounds of my I mean
from the ragoon and they cameback and said, oh, we made
stuffed shells with it.
Okay, put a little vasca vodkasauce on it.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
And they said it was amazing don't look at me, I'm, I
was.
I was thinking.
Here's where I went with itGrouper or Mahi filet Encrusted
with the crab, rangoon and pankowith a sherry reduction.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Okay, yeah, okay yeah .
Speaker 1 (37:14):
We don't have.
Can we do this today?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
We don't have the fish to do it.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
I mean we'll make the fish happen.
My goodness, yeah, stop.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I haven't eaten yet.
You sound like Carl.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Today, this is a.
This is a weird day today.
All right, the.
Our food situation today isjust like a.
Is it it day to day?
Our food situation today isjust like a it just worked out.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
It's just bread.
We have the dips, we have allseven.
You're going to try them all.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Well, you brought some stuff that's frozen too Is
that experimental.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
It's all thought out.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
No, I'm talking about in the bag that I put in the
freezer.
That looks like you have to frythis.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
We have a Mexican street corn empanada.
So what we try to do is we makea couple different things to
show that they're just not dips.
Right you know you can cookwith them, you can make
different things with them, andso we brought a buffalo blue
cheese croquette and a Mexicanstreet corn empanada.
(38:14):
You can, we can, air frada.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
You can wake them.
Yeah, I'd be on a croquette youhad me on a croquette.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
He needs an air fryer .
He's got one.
He actually has a fryer too.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Oh really.
Oh, okay, yeah, you could do iteither way.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
I think air fryer is nice.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
All of a sudden, you're watching your waist.
It's healthier.
Well, you yes, Because of theheart attack issue.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Well, yeah, are you going to show everybody your
zipper?
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
You already should.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
I was going to.
You know it's funny.
I was going to say the longeryou know, tom, you're going to
see the scar, You're going tosee the zipper, you're going to
see the scar the one of manyscars.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
But yeah, that actually changed my life more
than you.
Before my heart attack, theonly thing I would eat were
clams Meat, no, just clams.
Seafood-wise I would eat clamsand I'd have to have like 40
pounds of butter on them.
But because of the heart attackand the anesthesia it actually
(39:14):
totally changed my palate.
So now I can do hot things.
Before, pepper was spicy for me, but now I can do hot things.
What?
Yeah, it totally changed mypalate.
Hot things before pepper wasspicy for me, but now I can do
hot things.
Uh, and what?
Yeah, it totally changed mypalate.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
My wife's palate from giving birth.
She can't have certain things.
She was a pescatarian.
She couldn't eat fish foralmost five years.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Okay, childbirth, we know she had an epidural.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
It was just anesthesia, so that could have
affected her.
Yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
But everything weird happens to a female.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Were you pregnant.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Did you have a baby?
Speaker 3 (39:48):
I love pregnant but if I was pregnant and I'm a male
, there'd be more money.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
There's all sorts of things that happen to the female
body, that changes internally,all sorts of stuff.
But the fact that this happenedto him, and whether it was
anesthesia or the actual, youknow, heart attack.
That's insane.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Literally like caviar I can do.
Caviar, now I can do.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Were you in the business.
At that time you were still a.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
I was still a paramedic.
I was working contract work inIraq and I was home on vacation.
It was my last weekend incountry here to go before I went
back and I was actually underthe knife when I was supposed to
be on a plane back to Iraq.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
They still wanted you there at the time too right
Like every other employer.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Oh yeah, they wanted me so much that I woke up a
couple days later after mysurgery and everything like that
, and they said oh, you're outof a job.
So I was actually let go fromthe contract work while under
the knife.
Wow, yeah, that's it's contract.
It's government contract work.
Don't get me wrong.
I love what I did and I willnot give that up any, you know,
(41:02):
because it's such.
It's a part of me.
You know 20 years doingmedicine, then working overseas.
Great job, Loved it, but youknow, he has other plans, so
this is what he's led me to, sothis is what I'm excited to do,
but yeah, it was surprising.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
And you don't want to fight what he has planned for
you either, right, yeah, it'sfunny he went from being in
battle to now battling gettinghis product into places.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
It is a lot like the military.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Oh, and the kitchens are always.
That's why I think we're thelighthouse for ex-military.
I find out more kitchens haveex-military.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
It's either ex-mil x cons yeah, it's x something.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Yeah, because we, we are the catalyst for this
structure and I think that's oneof the reasons why because when
you don't have it, and you havethat hierarchy, obviously with
this executive chef all the waydown, but there's structure,
there's standard operatingprocedures.
I guarantee you, looking atcarl and looking at chef,
they're, they have sops, whetherthey're written down or not.
It's probably another differentthing, but they're, they
(42:08):
definitely have.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Yeah, it's basically chef carl going, don't touch it
it's.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
It's also looking at chef carl and chef tom and you
go.
I don't want to meet him in ain a dark alley either, you know
they you know they could.
They can go both sides of this.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
True story.
True story, yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
And you were Army, right?
Oh yeah, Because we weretalking off.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
Yeah, they're my real branch.
So that's just a little joke,Little joke guys.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
By the way, chef Gaston over here in Tampa, yeah,
when is?
Speaker 2 (42:36):
he coming to come on.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Soon.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
I know he's a busy man.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
He is Well before he moved into the new spot, which
I'm so mad I didn't get a chance.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Which is a great spot .
Speaker 1 (42:47):
I know.
Well, he invited me to say, hey, man, come to the grand opening
, and I was tied up.
Anyway, long story short, wewere talking about him coming on
the show before he got the newspot, and now everybody's just
been slammed.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Yeah, it's funny because every time I would see
him, or when I would see him, itwould be at Restaurant Depot in
the cooler, when we're runningin and grabbing something and
getting out because I forgot myjacket.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Yeah, Well, anyway, you know, Chef, I was sticking
up for you here because Tom was,you know you know ribbing on
you for the coastie thing.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
I'm just saying you know, you know I appreciate
everybody that they do.
Everybody in each branch isamazing, but if you were in the
army, it is.
And today is more so becausetoday is June 6th and it is the
anniversary 80 years, 80 yearsof D-Day.
Yes, so, um, thank you foreverybody that's lost their
(43:43):
lives because of this nation andgreat nation.
And you know, even everybodythat's still serving, I
appreciate everybody.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
We had the honor in Dallas to cover and judge the
Air Force against the CoastGuard for an MRE challenge and
it was just amazing to see theteam we actually I don't know if
I told you, but at the NRA show, right next to Chris Steve Lee,
woodworking diagonally fromthem, was the Coastie.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
They actually had a booth, the same gang.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, there was three of the guys there the guy with
the glasses, the black hair, andthe other guy that was in
competition, the bald guy.
They were there with one of thegirls they were like were like,
hey, what's going on?
I'm like, oh my god, it's greatto see you.
It was great to see thembecause there they are, in their
element, trying to get you knowpeople to come in and
understand.
Speaker 3 (44:30):
yeah, I was there last year and those guys, they
had like 12, 12 coasties thereand they were just rocking it
yeah they had people signing upand young kids, young students
that were coming to the NRA showand they were flocking to the
Coast Guard which is awesome.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Yeah, but you said something about puddle jumpers.
That's what you said.
That was the joke.
No, no, tom said that.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
No, you did it, DM.
When we were at the Dallasthing, that was something about
the puddle jump.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
No, it's pirates or something.
Listen, we'll listen back to it.
Yeah, what I did.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
One of the coasties is going to email you and be
like no dude.
This is what it is.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
I asked them.
I know you did.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Yeah, I got permission.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
I said, listen, I want to do a joke.
What's a good branch versusbranch thing I can do to you
know, kind of um you know, justspark a little energy or
whatever.
So the the the actual ribbingcame from the coasties.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
They said oh yeah, they know they told me what to
say about themselves innerbranch, even within the branches
, like if you're you know,infantry or artillery yeah uh,
eod, you know eod, is you justplug your ears up and stomp on
the ground to find those bombs?
I mean, it's just, razzing ispart of the job, and you get
(45:50):
that in the kitchen too.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
I was just about to say that.
That's where it comes from too.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
And this is the part where today it is changing.
It's changing in the militaryand in the kitchens and I hope
it doesn't 100% change Becauseyou have to have that it's in
the kitchens and I hope itdoesn't 100 change because you
have to have that.
It's part of building thecamaraderie man you need to have
that.
Speaker 2 (46:08):
I think the only thing that needs to change is
the hours we work and theglorification of it.
And then I think the razzingstill has to happen, because if
you do stupid stuff like I mean,how many times did you send
somebody to go get a bucket ofsteam in the basement in florida
?
I mean all the time leftLeft-handed screwdriver.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
I didn't send anybody , they sent me.
Speaker 2 (46:29):
Or the bacon stretcher.
Speaker 3 (46:31):
Yeah, I mean, you do those crazy things.
In the Army.
We had the nuclear time clockwhich you had to get in your
chemical suit and you would sendsomeone to the company and then
the company would send abattalion and the goal was to
see if they could get them up todivision in their full chemical
suit.
You know little things likethat.
(46:51):
You know, and that happens inthis kitchen and I it's
absolutely great.
I mean, you have to have alittle bit of tough skin.
Nowadays you don't see it asmuch, no, um, but you have to
have tough skin and you just gotto move on.
You're gonna shoot, move,communicate and that's that's,
that's the key.
Speaker 2 (47:09):
that's a great segue into like having thick skin.
As an entrepreneur starting abusiness, you have to have
alligator skin on you becauseyou're, like you said, get
kicked in the in the stomachevery turn, like you're gonna
talk to somebody, yeah, and theygive you the oh, it's great.
And then you're like, oh great,I'll call you, call me on
Tuesday.
You call on Tuesday, they don'tknow you.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
You have to learn to be able to accept the word no
and not take it personally.
And that's the key.
If you learn to do that and say, okay, let's move on, you
didn't like it, there's going tobe 50 other people that do like
it and you just push on andpush on, and push on.
(47:54):
You just say, okay, you don'tlike it, fine.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
Do you know what no means?
Speaker 3 (47:59):
It's an acronym.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
No, next opportunity there you go.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
Yeah, I like the word pivot.
I, you guys hear me say pivot alot.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
I hate that word because of COVID.
I hate the word because offriends.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
Pivot, pivot.
I like it.
He doesn't remember the episode.
I don't.
Amy he's going to call you nowbecause you don't remember it,
Cause she's a fan friends letter.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
She's gonna call you.
She probably sends you theactual um episode.
Amy, send me the link.
So you don't know that.
Come on everybody, I don'tremember, I, I don't remember,
but I do like it in, just in howI approach challenges in what
we're doing.
And you, there's probably been30 pivots in this.
You know, john threw up on themixer yeah, there's been so many
like changes and stop thisdirection, stop this direction.
(48:59):
Stop.
You know it's crazy, yeah, butyou have to roll with it.
You just have to like, okay, noproblem, and take it and then
go in another direction.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
Yeah, and it gets to me.
You know, because the militaryand actually because the EMS too
, I have some issues and theyget to me.
But I have to sit there andtake that time to meditate and
go back through my mind and say,okay, it's just not, it's not
me.
Things change, we have to goand it takes a little bit
(49:32):
sometime personally, but it's alearning process every single
day.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
I have an in-law that you, you, you need to, you need
to meet.
He was in the army.
It's actually a little bitolder than me, probably your age
.
He was in the Army Also, youknow paramedic and all that
stuff, and he ended up he stillworks.
He's a what do they call the atthe post office postmaster?
(50:03):
He's a postmaster.
General, cool cat.
You guys are like the sameperson.
Legit the same person.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
Yeah, it's basically what you get right here from 20
years of EMS and 10 years of theArmy.
It's just very cold.
I joke a lot, but deep downdown I care.
So I want to be able to usethat and push this new product
(50:32):
out with the caring and learnhow to you know and take, like I
said when he's, when someonesays, no, I gotta, I can't take
it personally.
I gotta be able to say, okay,not you.
And we see that the farmer'smarket too.
People come up and taste ourproduct and they're like oh, no.
And the person behind them aregoing like oh my God.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
But that's where you are.
I said it before.
You're like a ground zero, foryou know you're looking for
trouble at those farmer'smarkets.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
No, it's not necessarily that, because I was
thinking about as we're talking,and I was thinking about and
one of the things as anentrepreneur that we always miss
is that we think with ourfriends they're going to buy
from us and they don't no, theywant everything for free oh, you
got that, let me get that forfree.
But yet, on the same token, youwant to go ahead and support
nike and it's just a brand.
(51:20):
Great, you like to, but youdon't go in there and go.
Can I get that?
Oh it's 50.
Can I get it for 25?
You go in there and spend.
You go into apple and you spend1200 on a new phone.
You don't even blink an eye.
But you go to someone like tomand be like oh, can I get that
for in a farmer's market?
Can I get?
Oh, it's 10.
I'll give you nine.
No, it's, it's not.
Let's make a deal.
(51:40):
You know I have prices andstructures and you would think
friends would.
That's my biggest thing.
When I took off and when Iopened up my own restaurant with
my partner, I thought, oh man,we're going to be busy because
we've got all these friendsgoing to be coming in Crickets.
They weren't there to support,so you have to.
You know, that was my biggestthing.
My biggest thing when I openedthe restaurant was how do I get
(52:00):
people in the door?
Because I thought I was goingto have people come in the door
and that was my naive self.
Speaker 3 (52:05):
Oh yeah, yeah, because you're sitting there and
it's your baby, yeah, and youknow that you love everything
that you're doing and youautomatically think that
everybody else is going to do it.
They're going to love it andyou're just going to walk in.
And that's been one of ourchallenges is marketing and
getting our name out there tohave people try it.
(52:28):
But once they try it, I meanour markets are going crazy.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
Now you talk about marketing, Social media.
Do you have a social mediapresence?
Yeah, we have a websiteCrabIslandSeafoodDipcom.
Speaker 3 (52:40):
We're on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.
Speaker 1 (52:43):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (52:44):
Crab Island Seafood.
Just to make sure I broughtCrab Island.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
Seafood.
Don't look at me like that.
I thought you would know.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
Like you don't know.
It's not about me.
No, Do you know his labels?
Do you know who made his labels?
Speaker 1 (52:58):
Yeah, this guy, yeah, I'm giving you that this is
like your nod to go and promoteyour stock.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Well, I'm giving you that this is like your nod to go
and promote your stock.
Well, no, I wanted to bring upthe social media aspect of it.
Not so he would announce it.
It was because of what wetalked about with Rosanna and
the presence, that's so required.
Speaker 3 (53:13):
Now it's his time though, to put it out there, and
that has been really a strongstruggle for us.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
Well, you're how old Social media I'm 29.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
Okay, yeah, 53.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
Okay you're social media.
I'm old 20, 29, okay, yeah, um53.
Okay, well, he's our age, carl43.
So you don't have that balanceof having somebody that's a
millennial that can say, hey,you guys need to do it this way,
um, do you have people, thatresources you can talk to that?
This is your acf chapter mydaughter.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
There you go, yeah, my daughters, and but you 20.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
Dad, I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
Yeah, exactly, you need millennial or less.
Speaker 3 (53:48):
Yeah, yeah.
And what is that millennial?
What is that so Gen?
Speaker 2 (53:51):
Z and now they changed.
Now it's the alphabet is thenext.
My daughter's grid generationis called the alphabet or
something like the alpha orsomething.
I don't know what it is.
Speaker 3 (54:02):
I think I'll get my five-year-old niece to hook us
up and set up the whole socialmedia.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
I'm serious.
Speaker 3 (54:08):
These kids nowadays?
I can't believe.
I just said that these kidsnowadays, when I was using the
ringer with the dial.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
You messed up the phone number on the rotary phone
.
Oh man.
Speaker 3 (54:22):
The kitchen phone with the 15-foot 25-foot cord.
Speaker 1 (54:27):
Yeah, I remember that .
Yeah, we all remember that.
Again, this is when everybodyjust shut it off.
Literally everybody just shutthe episode off.
Speaker 3 (54:35):
I mean there's so much out there that you can do,
and constantly, every single day, you're okay, I got to post
here, I got to post here, I gotto post here.
That's one of the things, whenwe get to that point to be able
to is have a company come in andhandle.
It's because it's all aboutdelegation.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
Look tom, here's the thing, it's ours, it's the
manpower to do.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
And carl, all right, here's the thing you guys are
doing big work, you're doingawesome stuff and if you I know
that you specifically, and nowthis guy you guys are gonna push
forward and keep going andyou're now gonna hit.
You're gonna hit the.
You're actually gonna hit the,the jackpot.
What I mean by jackpot is not,like, you know, tons of cash,
(55:18):
hopefully tons of cash, butyou're, you're gonna get to the
next, the next phase here yeah,and that's.
Speaker 3 (55:23):
That's what it is.
It's all about phases, yeah youwant to you going to get to the
next phase here.
Yeah, and that's what it is.
It's all about phases.
You want to get to yourobjective, complete that
objective and move to the nextobjective.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
I love when you talk like this.
Speaker 3 (55:33):
I know isn't it, but we're doing it.
So thank you for having us,because this has been amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
We've been talking about it forever.
I'm so glad that you came today.
Guest on South Down Deck.
I'm also happy that you broughtfood.
Yeah, that's really what it is.
I just want to make sureeverybody knows that the
pronunciation is lychee.
Speaker 2 (55:58):
The Mandarin pronunciation is lychee or
lychee, you guys go ahead andsay whatever you want to say.
Gravy sauce, lychee, lychee orlychee, you guys go ahead and
say whatever you want to say.
Gravy sauce, lychee, lychee.
It's sauce Tomato tomato.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Lychee, this is not potato potano.
Speaker 3 (56:11):
Some say potato.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
No, this is not that.
All right, my goodness.
Chefs out there check out Metroand others.
Go to our website See who we'reworking with, okay, and others
Go to our website See who we'reworking with, okay, gentlemen,
silent John, my boy, jefferson,the other, carl With a C With a
(56:33):
C, the real Carl.
Speaker 2 (56:34):
Don't forget, evan, that wasn't my God.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
All right, evan, back there Doing the good video.
We are out.
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