May 31, 2022 • 21 mins
In this episode, Dr. Anne Prisco talks about ice cream with Dan Kilcoyne, the president and CEO of Mini Melts USA. Mini Melts are a unique ice cream treat sold in thousands of locations nationwide, including sports stadiums, amusement parks, Wawa, Walmart, and even the Philadelphia Zoo. Dr. Prisco talks with Dan about his rise from ice cream salesperson to CEO just five short years after graduating from Holy Family in 2004.
To learn more about Dan and Mini Melts Ice Cream, please visit www.minimelts.com
To learn more about Holy Family University please visit www.holyfamily.edu
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Hi,
I'm dr am frisco president of Holy Family University and you're listening to asked and answered our shared humanity and collective responsibility to each other and our neighbors and community is at the core of who we are at Holy family University and asked and answered.
(00:25):
I talked with influential leaders in philadelphia and beyond,
including faculty members and alumni who are making a major impact in the community.
I'm excited to launch this podcast series with three special guests in this episode.
I'm excited for you to meet dan Kilcoyne Holy family class of 2000 and four alumnus and the president and ceo of mini melts usa mini melts ice cream is sold in thousands of locations nationwide,
(00:55):
including stadiums,
amusement parks,
wa wa walmart and even the philadelphia zoo dan has been named an entrepreneur of the year by inc magazine.
Congratulations dan and thanks so much for joining me.
You started your professional career as a high school freshman and father judge high school right down the block from Holy family,
(01:15):
owning a small ice cream stand.
What first sparked your entrepreneurial spirit.
We come from a pretty entrepreneurial family but more of a bootstrapping entrepreneurial family.
My my dad was a crane operator on the Camden waterfront and then he and his brothers started a small hardware store on Frankford Avenue.
(01:38):
So when I was in 2nd 3rd 4th grade I was going to the hardware store with my dad,
showing us that owning a business was possible,
which I think for growing up like me,
a kid in Northeast Philly when you don't have the experience to see that you don't always understand that Oh yeah,
that is something that we can do when you get older.
(01:58):
So you weren't that old,
you were 27 when you became Ceo.
So what has that been like?
The interesting thing was starting young,
we started as teenagers right?
Originally,
when we were in high school,
when I was 13 years old,
when we had opened our first store,
when I was a senior holy family,
(02:19):
that's when we started the mini melts business.
So titles really didn't matter because when you're a company of one or two,
you're pretty much every title.
So whether it said president,
Ceo delivery driver,
we were doing all of the jobs,
we were fortunate to be able to build the business that we were,
but we never really gave any thought to the titles or positions because it was just you know,
(02:43):
wake up and and grow the business each day.
What I love about that story is,
and it's something similar to what I sometimes share with the staff and the faculty is that I've held many positions including entry level positions.
When I first entered university life when I was a college student,
I was a work study student in an office,
(03:04):
so to just be able to say,
yeah,
I know what it's like to crawl under desks to find files back in the days before computers,
it helps them understand that,
you know how the sausage is made,
You know,
you're just not hovering from above.
So I'm gonna turn a little bit too,
are the Holy Family experience.
One of the things that we like to tell our students is from our own experiences starting to hold leadership positions early on.
(03:29):
Even if you don't even think about yourself that way,
really,
really helps build your abilities,
right,
in ways that I don't think we appreciate our students.
So very grateful that when you are a student and very busy student working and going to school,
you also found time to be the student government president for a couple of years.
What do you think you take away from that experience?
(03:52):
Yeah.
You know,
one of the things,
if I could do it all over again or if I was talking to anybody that is in Holy Family university right now,
you're 100% correct,
right?
The more you get involved in,
the more you get out of the experience and that doesn't always feel like that when you're so in the weeds,
(04:14):
right?
When you are working a job,
you're,
you know,
studying for finals,
you're juggling all the pressures that the students and holy family do today.
But the experiences that you learn in just soft skills,
hard skills,
people,
skills,
you can really build on that foundation and you're in a position right now where it's okay if you mess up,
(04:35):
it's okay if you don't do something,
right?
Because Holy Family is,
you know,
an incubator that allows you to create and to try things that normally maybe you couldn't do in a structured 9 to 5 job.
One of the things that we've been so fortunate in starting our business as young as we did,
we didn't always have profitable days or years,
we didn't always make the right decision in terms of the way we took our business,
(04:58):
that's a lot easier when you don't have a mortgage payment and three kids to worry about and while they can seem really stressful,
I think the more that you take on now,
it's just the higher dividends that pays for you long term.
So I want to pick on that idea a little bit because one of the things that I found my,
I would talk to my students about who chose to be student leaders is the idea of why do you want to be in a leadership role,
(05:24):
right.
So especially in in higher ed catholic,
ira,
we talk about the notion of servant leadership,
the idea of so what I would ask my students is to think about,
why are you coming to this role?
Are you doing it because you want power or because you want to serve,
you want to make a difference,
You want to make things better,
right?
Or you just want to be able to control it and have the power,
(05:47):
you want to talk a bit about that because I don't think as young people,
we think enough about that,
right?
Like why do we put ourselves in these roles where you're right,
you're juggling 34 major commitments at the same time.
Yeah.
And,
and,
and sometimes,
you know,
it may be a little bit of,
you're just looking for disruption.
You're just looking to change things outside of that status quo.
(06:11):
You know,
for me before Holy family,
you know,
I was involved at father judge and you know,
I served in a lot of,
you know,
student leadership capacity there.
But again,
going back to the earlier comment,
I think sometimes people just don't understand how powerful they can be that they tend to let life kind of go by be bystanders a little bit and well somebody else will take care of that or that's just the way that it always has been.
(06:38):
So sometimes you can maybe get labeled as a troublemaker.
I can't say that I was maybe labeled a troublemaker back in my day sometimes that holy family,
but it was weird the right reasons and,
and I think that you see a lot of the students today that want to make a difference.
You know,
they may sometimes come off like they're just trying to control things,
but I think we're really what they're trying to do is to just change the perspective,
(07:01):
change the norm of how things normally are done.
Let's talk a minute about while you were at Holy family,
you studied,
you know,
you earned your bachelors in,
in management and marketing,
you want to speak a minute about sort of how that in class experience coupled with the role you were playing outside the classroom,
still motivate you or what you carry from that.
(07:23):
One of my biggest disappointments is that I did not have a greater focus on accounting as I was going through the holy family,
you know,
I was so focused on business is business and you know you you can grow the business and I was I was really interested in the marketing perspective and maybe did not take into account how necessary Accounting is and and especially as you know,
(07:49):
we've been fortunate to grow our business to nearly 200 employees at this point,
you know,
if the balance sheet is right,
everything else is right,
but it would have been better to take a little bit more fundamental dive into the accounting world.
While I was there,
I was so focused on the building the business,
building the brand that I didn't appreciate the nuts and bolts of the business side too to be honest.
(08:12):
Yeah,
well that makes two of us in terms of,
that's why I went back and got an MBA in finance and accounting,
right?
I realized I better learn how to read a balance sheet.
I'm going to be involved with just the details of little details.
Um As long as the bottom line is black,
not red,
Right.
We'll do it.
Okay.
Exactly.
Any I know you met,
(08:34):
you're one of my favorite people.
Your wife Michelle well at Holy family.
I don't know if she,
if you could think of a maybe a memorable experience.
You have a good takeaway.
So that,
that makes two of us.
She's also one of my favorite people.
So thank you for that.
Yes.
So my wife and Michelle graduated her undergrad at another university and got her Master's at Holy Family University.
(08:56):
She was a special education teacher and then there was,
she's a year younger than me.
So there was one year where we had overlapped where she was.
I was still there and and she was there as well.
So Michelle's brother Tommy also played basketball at Holy Family is really good basketball player there.
So,
you know,
for us,
we,
(09:16):
we spent a lot of time my senior year there,
the basketball house and and going to games and,
and things like that.
So yeah,
you got,
you got two tigers in the house here.
So right.
And three little cubs.
So talk a little bit about how do you juggle all this.
You've got Owen Manan and Devon and I understand devon rules the roost around there.
(09:41):
That my meanings while you're on the soccer field.
So yeah,
how do we balance or maybe not make it look like we're juggling it.
All right.
I'm fortunate that,
you know,
for one,
I have an extremely understanding family traveling is kicked back up.
You know,
prior to Covid,
I was on the road just about every week through Covid for as challenging as Covid was for so many.
(10:07):
It also did allow you to kind of reevaluate,
you know,
what we're doing and why we're doing certain things now.
Post Covid,
the business is growing exponentially unfortunate that you know,
we,
we make ice cream.
So the kids like our business,
right?
We're not making widgets or something like that where you know,
it's not super exciting to the kids.
A lot of our customers are trampoline parks and theme parks and stadiums.
(10:30):
So it is,
we can tie some fun into when we have to go to work.
My two older sons own and matt and are eight and nine years old when I can there at trade shows with me,
there are conferences unfortunate that you know,
because we had started so young that they can kind of see the business build with us,
which is probably the most rewarding thing that we have.
(10:51):
You know,
it's a,
it's a family business.
You know,
my mom still works in the office to be honest with you.
We have a ton of holy family alumni that work in our office over here in tree boughs,
but then when we're traveling and we have 22 offices across the country.
For the most part,
my,
my wife and kids are coming with me,
which,
which,
which is a really neat experience and what great exposure for them,
(11:12):
right?
You talk about experiences early on and with all of that,
you're serving on the board as a trustee of Holy family.
So why?
And I think this isn't important.
It's important for young people to understand that the university,
the college you attend really should be part of your life forever.
And I think,
(11:32):
you know,
we don't as first gen kids,
sometimes we don't even understand that that really is a resource to you your whole life.
But then how do you get back what Holy Family offers to not just the students,
but the community is something that's probably really hard to measure.
And if you look at what is going on right now in society in the city of philadelphia,
(11:55):
there needs to be some beacons for hope.
You know,
we've had some horrific stories in the news,
both locally and internationally.
The pressures that compound on today's student is something that quite honestly I can't even appreciate,
right?
I graduated in 2000 and 4,
18 years,
feels like a million years ago at this point.
So what the Holy Family students of today is dealing with is,
(12:18):
is nowhere near what I dealt with or you know,
classes that came before me.
So if you look at Holy Family and what it offers and the stability that it offers to the students into the neighborhood.
I think it's really important.
I still live in Northeast philadelphia.
You know,
I intend on staying in Northeast philadelphia,
but when you have an anchor university right in your backyard,
(12:39):
you know,
that's important.
And I think that I was the first generation college graduate,
right?
You don't know what you're doing a lot of times,
right?
You're just kind of showing up and hoping somebody tells you what to do.
But as you build on that career,
their Holy family,
I think he tend to appreciate it a lot more.
(12:59):
And then once you're out,
you look back and go,
wow,
that that went by really fast.
What did you pick up in terms of,
you know,
we talk a lot about family,
Holy Family university.
Were there any particular values or takeaways from that experience that continue to inform the way you live now?
Yeah,
I I think going back to how Holy family serves that first generation type student,
(13:26):
right?
If you don't have somebody in your family that is able to show you the way now,
whether that's the first time in business.
The first time serving in the leadership capacity or looking at colleges or universities,
You need somebody,
you need a trusted ally to help guide you through that process,
right?
Holy family isn't hard sell,
(13:48):
right?
We're not trying to get 10,000 people through the door.
You have a situation where you're looking at the individual one on one and saying what is the best thing for this person and what's the best possible outcome.
So I think that when,
when you look at that and you know,
nobody should be naive,
right?
A university is a business,
(14:09):
right?
We we need to,
we need to exist so we can continue to serve future generations,
but you have some schools that do this in a not so great way,
right?
They sign you up to get you in the door and then you know,
you're kind of left on your own.
I don't think that's the case of Holy family,
I think you're,
you're there and you know,
you're,
you're there for life and you know,
(14:30):
as you graduate,
you have the opportunity to continue to serve in capacities and to build on the alumni and and really grow your career from there dan.
If you think about it and I know it's always hard to say one thing,
but if there was one,
you know,
one thought or sort of one recommendation,
you would give your 18 year old self looking back anything strike you.
(14:53):
Yeah,
but you know,
besides getting deeper involved academically,
especially in the accounting side while I was heavily involved in different,
you know,
activities and things that Holy family looking back now,
I think I realized that I probably could have done more,
you don't realize how quickly the time flies by you and you tend to push things off and off and then the next thing,
(15:15):
you know,
you're graduated with three kids and running a business.
So I think if if I could do it over again,
I would like to get more involved with different activities and things at the university touche right?
And then and balancing all of that,
right?
And somehow managing to do that and do successfully dan when you were attending Holy Family.
(15:38):
I know that preceded us developing a resident's life program and having students actually live on campus.
So do you want to talk a little bit about?
So what is it like to be a commuter student?
Yeah.
You know,
for me being a Northeast philadelphia resident and and having some difficulties going on with the business at the time.
(15:59):
You know,
we chose to be a commuter at Holy Family.
I had just missed out.
The only family really kind of grew the campus life and and the dorms a couple of years that I left after that.
I think what's nice now,
what you have with Holy family and the campus that we're building up there.
You have a lot on campus and then you have a lot of good options outside of campus.
(16:21):
Right?
My my personal favorite is three monkeys.
That's right down the road from Holy Family.
I I don't think that there's a time that I go in there.
I don't see some Holy family students obviously in between classes.
I'm sure but I think that from a commuter lifestyle.
It's nice of what Holy family has built because you get the best of both worlds,
(16:42):
They're right for those that can't afford the dorms and you know,
they just,
you know,
not in a position where they want to live on campus.
Holy Family provides you an opportunity of the college experience,
but you can commute to it and then if you choose to live on Holy Family's campus,
I think there's so many things just recently that point to such a great experience,
(17:03):
right?
The new turf fields and the facilities that were building there.
And then to be honest with your new town is such an underutilized campus up there.
It's a beautiful area up there.
There's just so many things within a stone's throw of the campus.
So for me it was,
you know,
having something close to home as we were building,
the business was important,
but in today with with so many different options on campus,
(17:25):
I think it's great.
What holy family is built.
Yeah,
thanks.
So we don't tend to write,
we tend to talk about the original campus which is in Northeast Philly,
but you may be happy to hear that we're actually bustling up in Newtown.
So um we have lots going on,
lots of nursing programs,
lots of grad programs up there as well and I think people are just really happy to be back.
(17:46):
Of course we still do a lot of remote learning,
especially at the graduate level,
but you know,
those nurses are back in the resource center and the counseling psych folks are busy.
So just yesterday we had a town hall meeting and I think people are just so happy to be together again and yeah,
the field is really popular.
So everybody shows up now for the games,
(18:06):
They're loving it and you know what dr Prescott,
that's such an important point because one thing that I don't,
I think as well understood is that when people are graduating from college today,
this is the normal,
right,
you know,
going through zoom having things virtually,
but there is a tremendous,
(18:27):
tremendous skill set and having the interpersonal skills,
having the in person ability.
That's why,
you know,
you and I have spoke about why internships are so important and showing up physically showing up and and being there and and understanding that while sometimes it may feel a little uncomfortable,
sometimes it may feel like,
well,
hey,
I don't actually know what I'm doing.
(18:47):
So it's,
it's easier just to pretend it away or avoid it.
The interpersonal skills and the in person is something that I think is so important for today's graduating classes to understand that,
you know,
sometimes you just have to get there and yet while zoom is easier,
sometimes being in the room is half the battle.
So I think that that's something really important for the holy family university graduates and that opportunity to interact as we said,
(19:15):
and you know,
we're a midsize school and our classes tend to be under 15.
So it really is the opportunity to develop all those communication skills.
We always talked about,
right,
the ability to speak well hold the position,
be understanding so that you're willing to listen to someone else's position.
And how valuable is that in this day and age when um we're certainly not learning from the grownups in the room,
(19:40):
so to speak.
Especially those we see on tv and our politicians.
So I'm new to Philly and I couldn't be more thrilled to be living here as I've always had a great respect for the city's history,
culture and diversity.
Right?
I always talk about the Rodin Museum is one of my secret spaces and of course we always have to talk about food.
(20:01):
So I'm gonna ask you to indulge me and I'm gonna do a lightning round of your personal feelings preferences.
Okay,
here we go,
cheesesteaks or soft pretzels,
cheesesteaks,
pat's or geno's,
I would say steve's,
if I'm being honest,
I'm going to say steve's,
but I'll say Gino's since there was only two options there.
(20:22):
Okay and steve's is steaks on commonly,
but I grew up in Mayfair.
So there's one closer to my house but commonly is not too far from where I am now.
Betsy ross of Ben franklin,
the man or the Academy of Music,
I would say the man,
yeah,
I got to go to a few concerts there last summer.
(20:43):
It was really beautiful.
What a beautiful space in intimate space.
It's very nice.
Rocky or six cents.
It's got to be Rocky.
I mean,
without a doubt,
I mean one of the greatest movies of all time and flyers and Sixers.
Sixers.
I have a big sixers family here.
My son just got his James,
Harden Jerseyan.
(21:03):
So sixers all the way.
Yeah,
we're doing they're doing quite well this year and don't tell my son because we're diehard knick fan.
So I'm not allowed to say I actually can root for the 70 sixers now.
Well,
I hate to,
I hate to say this,
but I went to a flyers game and they're not having a really great season this year anyway,
so I think you have to go with sixers.
There you go.
(21:24):
Thank you so much for joining me on one of my inaugural episodes and your continuing involvement with your armor,
murder.
I look forward to our future work together To learn more about Down and mini melts ice cream.
Please visit mini melts dot com and to learn more about Holy Family University.
(21:44):
Please visit Holy family dot e.
D.
U Armenian Prisco.
Thank you for listening.
Hi,
I'm dr am frisco president of Holy Family University and you're listening to asked and answered our shared humanity and collective responsibility to each other and our neighbors and community is at the core of who we are at Holy family University and asked and answered.
(00:25):
I talked with influential leaders in philadelphia and beyond,
including faculty members and alumni who are making a major impact in the community.
I'm excited to launch this podcast series with three special guests in this episode.
I'm excited for you to meet dan Kilcoyne Holy family class of 2000 and four alumnus and the president and ceo of mini melts usa mini melts ice cream is sold in thousands of locations nationwide,
(00:55):
including stadiums,
amusement parks,
wa wa walmart and even the philadelphia zoo dan has been named an entrepreneur of the year by inc magazine.
Congratulations dan and thanks so much for joining me.
You started your professional career as a high school freshman and father judge high school right down the block from Holy family,
(01:15):
owning a small ice cream stand.
What first sparked your entrepreneurial spirit.
We come from a pretty entrepreneurial family but more of a bootstrapping entrepreneurial family.
My my dad was a crane operator on the Camden waterfront and then he and his brothers started a small hardware store on Frankford Avenue.
(01:38):
So when I was in 2nd 3rd 4th grade I was going to the hardware store with my dad,
showing us that owning a business was possible,
which I think for growing up like me,
a kid in Northeast Philly when you don't have the experience to see that you don't always understand that Oh yeah,
that is something that we can do when you get older.
(01:58):
So you weren't that old,
you were 27 when you became Ceo.
So what has that been like?
The interesting thing was starting young,
we started as teenagers right?
Originally,
when we were in high school,
when I was 13 years old,
when we had opened our first store,
when I was a senior holy family,
(02:19):
that's when we started the mini melts business.
So titles really didn't matter because when you're a company of one or two,
you're pretty much every title.
So whether it said president,
Ceo delivery driver,
we were doing all of the jobs,
we were fortunate to be able to build the business that we were,
but we never really gave any thought to the titles or positions because it was just you know,
(02:43):
wake up and and grow the business each day.
What I love about that story is,
and it's something similar to what I sometimes share with the staff and the faculty is that I've held many positions including entry level positions.
When I first entered university life when I was a college student,
I was a work study student in an office,
(03:04):
so to just be able to say,
yeah,
I know what it's like to crawl under desks to find files back in the days before computers,
it helps them understand that,
you know how the sausage is made,
You know,
you're just not hovering from above.
So I'm gonna turn a little bit too,
are the Holy Family experience.
One of the things that we like to tell our students is from our own experiences starting to hold leadership positions early on.
(03:29):
Even if you don't even think about yourself that way,
really,
really helps build your abilities,
right,
in ways that I don't think we appreciate our students.
So very grateful that when you are a student and very busy student working and going to school,
you also found time to be the student government president for a couple of years.
What do you think you take away from that experience?
(03:52):
Yeah.
You know,
one of the things,
if I could do it all over again or if I was talking to anybody that is in Holy Family university right now,
you're 100% correct,
right?
The more you get involved in,
the more you get out of the experience and that doesn't always feel like that when you're so in the weeds,
(04:14):
right?
When you are working a job,
you're,
you know,
studying for finals,
you're juggling all the pressures that the students and holy family do today.
But the experiences that you learn in just soft skills,
hard skills,
people,
skills,
you can really build on that foundation and you're in a position right now where it's okay if you mess up,
(04:35):
it's okay if you don't do something,
right?
Because Holy Family is,
you know,
an incubator that allows you to create and to try things that normally maybe you couldn't do in a structured 9 to 5 job.
One of the things that we've been so fortunate in starting our business as young as we did,
we didn't always have profitable days or years,
we didn't always make the right decision in terms of the way we took our business,
(04:58):
that's a lot easier when you don't have a mortgage payment and three kids to worry about and while they can seem really stressful,
I think the more that you take on now,
it's just the higher dividends that pays for you long term.
So I want to pick on that idea a little bit because one of the things that I found my,
I would talk to my students about who chose to be student leaders is the idea of why do you want to be in a leadership role,
(05:24):
right.
So especially in in higher ed catholic,
ira,
we talk about the notion of servant leadership,
the idea of so what I would ask my students is to think about,
why are you coming to this role?
Are you doing it because you want power or because you want to serve,
you want to make a difference,
You want to make things better,
right?
Or you just want to be able to control it and have the power,
(05:47):
you want to talk a bit about that because I don't think as young people,
we think enough about that,
right?
Like why do we put ourselves in these roles where you're right,
you're juggling 34 major commitments at the same time.
Yeah.
And,
and,
and sometimes,
you know,
it may be a little bit of,
you're just looking for disruption.
You're just looking to change things outside of that status quo.
(06:11):
You know,
for me before Holy family,
you know,
I was involved at father judge and you know,
I served in a lot of,
you know,
student leadership capacity there.
But again,
going back to the earlier comment,
I think sometimes people just don't understand how powerful they can be that they tend to let life kind of go by be bystanders a little bit and well somebody else will take care of that or that's just the way that it always has been.
(06:38):
So sometimes you can maybe get labeled as a troublemaker.
I can't say that I was maybe labeled a troublemaker back in my day sometimes that holy family,
but it was weird the right reasons and,
and I think that you see a lot of the students today that want to make a difference.
You know,
they may sometimes come off like they're just trying to control things,
but I think we're really what they're trying to do is to just change the perspective,
(07:01):
change the norm of how things normally are done.
Let's talk a minute about while you were at Holy family,
you studied,
you know,
you earned your bachelors in,
in management and marketing,
you want to speak a minute about sort of how that in class experience coupled with the role you were playing outside the classroom,
still motivate you or what you carry from that.
(07:23):
One of my biggest disappointments is that I did not have a greater focus on accounting as I was going through the holy family,
you know,
I was so focused on business is business and you know you you can grow the business and I was I was really interested in the marketing perspective and maybe did not take into account how necessary Accounting is and and especially as you know,
(07:49):
we've been fortunate to grow our business to nearly 200 employees at this point,
you know,
if the balance sheet is right,
everything else is right,
but it would have been better to take a little bit more fundamental dive into the accounting world.
While I was there,
I was so focused on the building the business,
building the brand that I didn't appreciate the nuts and bolts of the business side too to be honest.
(08:12):
Yeah,
well that makes two of us in terms of,
that's why I went back and got an MBA in finance and accounting,
right?
I realized I better learn how to read a balance sheet.
I'm going to be involved with just the details of little details.
Um As long as the bottom line is black,
not red,
Right.
We'll do it.
Okay.
Exactly.
Any I know you met,
(08:34):
you're one of my favorite people.
Your wife Michelle well at Holy family.
I don't know if she,
if you could think of a maybe a memorable experience.
You have a good takeaway.
So that,
that makes two of us.
She's also one of my favorite people.
So thank you for that.
Yes.
So my wife and Michelle graduated her undergrad at another university and got her Master's at Holy Family University.
(08:56):
She was a special education teacher and then there was,
she's a year younger than me.
So there was one year where we had overlapped where she was.
I was still there and and she was there as well.
So Michelle's brother Tommy also played basketball at Holy Family is really good basketball player there.
So,
you know,
for us,
we,
(09:16):
we spent a lot of time my senior year there,
the basketball house and and going to games and,
and things like that.
So yeah,
you got,
you got two tigers in the house here.
So right.
And three little cubs.
So talk a little bit about how do you juggle all this.
You've got Owen Manan and Devon and I understand devon rules the roost around there.
(09:41):
That my meanings while you're on the soccer field.
So yeah,
how do we balance or maybe not make it look like we're juggling it.
All right.
I'm fortunate that,
you know,
for one,
I have an extremely understanding family traveling is kicked back up.
You know,
prior to Covid,
I was on the road just about every week through Covid for as challenging as Covid was for so many.
(10:07):
It also did allow you to kind of reevaluate,
you know,
what we're doing and why we're doing certain things now.
Post Covid,
the business is growing exponentially unfortunate that you know,
we,
we make ice cream.
So the kids like our business,
right?
We're not making widgets or something like that where you know,
it's not super exciting to the kids.
A lot of our customers are trampoline parks and theme parks and stadiums.
(10:30):
So it is,
we can tie some fun into when we have to go to work.
My two older sons own and matt and are eight and nine years old when I can there at trade shows with me,
there are conferences unfortunate that you know,
because we had started so young that they can kind of see the business build with us,
which is probably the most rewarding thing that we have.
(10:51):
You know,
it's a,
it's a family business.
You know,
my mom still works in the office to be honest with you.
We have a ton of holy family alumni that work in our office over here in tree boughs,
but then when we're traveling and we have 22 offices across the country.
For the most part,
my,
my wife and kids are coming with me,
which,
which,
which is a really neat experience and what great exposure for them,
(11:12):
right?
You talk about experiences early on and with all of that,
you're serving on the board as a trustee of Holy family.
So why?
And I think this isn't important.
It's important for young people to understand that the university,
the college you attend really should be part of your life forever.
And I think,
(11:32):
you know,
we don't as first gen kids,
sometimes we don't even understand that that really is a resource to you your whole life.
But then how do you get back what Holy Family offers to not just the students,
but the community is something that's probably really hard to measure.
And if you look at what is going on right now in society in the city of philadelphia,
(11:55):
there needs to be some beacons for hope.
You know,
we've had some horrific stories in the news,
both locally and internationally.
The pressures that compound on today's student is something that quite honestly I can't even appreciate,
right?
I graduated in 2000 and 4,
18 years,
feels like a million years ago at this point.
So what the Holy Family students of today is dealing with is,
(12:18):
is nowhere near what I dealt with or you know,
classes that came before me.
So if you look at Holy Family and what it offers and the stability that it offers to the students into the neighborhood.
I think it's really important.
I still live in Northeast philadelphia.
You know,
I intend on staying in Northeast philadelphia,
but when you have an anchor university right in your backyard,
(12:39):
you know,
that's important.
And I think that I was the first generation college graduate,
right?
You don't know what you're doing a lot of times,
right?
You're just kind of showing up and hoping somebody tells you what to do.
But as you build on that career,
their Holy family,
I think he tend to appreciate it a lot more.
(12:59):
And then once you're out,
you look back and go,
wow,
that that went by really fast.
What did you pick up in terms of,
you know,
we talk a lot about family,
Holy Family university.
Were there any particular values or takeaways from that experience that continue to inform the way you live now?
Yeah,
I I think going back to how Holy family serves that first generation type student,
(13:26):
right?
If you don't have somebody in your family that is able to show you the way now,
whether that's the first time in business.
The first time serving in the leadership capacity or looking at colleges or universities,
You need somebody,
you need a trusted ally to help guide you through that process,
right?
Holy family isn't hard sell,
(13:48):
right?
We're not trying to get 10,000 people through the door.
You have a situation where you're looking at the individual one on one and saying what is the best thing for this person and what's the best possible outcome.
So I think that when,
when you look at that and you know,
nobody should be naive,
right?
A university is a business,
(14:09):
right?
We we need to,
we need to exist so we can continue to serve future generations,
but you have some schools that do this in a not so great way,
right?
They sign you up to get you in the door and then you know,
you're kind of left on your own.
I don't think that's the case of Holy family,
I think you're,
you're there and you know,
you're,
you're there for life and you know,
(14:30):
as you graduate,
you have the opportunity to continue to serve in capacities and to build on the alumni and and really grow your career from there dan.
If you think about it and I know it's always hard to say one thing,
but if there was one,
you know,
one thought or sort of one recommendation,
you would give your 18 year old self looking back anything strike you.
(14:53):
Yeah,
but you know,
besides getting deeper involved academically,
especially in the accounting side while I was heavily involved in different,
you know,
activities and things that Holy family looking back now,
I think I realized that I probably could have done more,
you don't realize how quickly the time flies by you and you tend to push things off and off and then the next thing,
(15:15):
you know,
you're graduated with three kids and running a business.
So I think if if I could do it over again,
I would like to get more involved with different activities and things at the university touche right?
And then and balancing all of that,
right?
And somehow managing to do that and do successfully dan when you were attending Holy Family.
(15:38):
I know that preceded us developing a resident's life program and having students actually live on campus.
So do you want to talk a little bit about?
So what is it like to be a commuter student?
Yeah.
You know,
for me being a Northeast philadelphia resident and and having some difficulties going on with the business at the time.
(15:59):
You know,
we chose to be a commuter at Holy Family.
I had just missed out.
The only family really kind of grew the campus life and and the dorms a couple of years that I left after that.
I think what's nice now,
what you have with Holy family and the campus that we're building up there.
You have a lot on campus and then you have a lot of good options outside of campus.
(16:21):
Right?
My my personal favorite is three monkeys.
That's right down the road from Holy Family.
I I don't think that there's a time that I go in there.
I don't see some Holy family students obviously in between classes.
I'm sure but I think that from a commuter lifestyle.
It's nice of what Holy family has built because you get the best of both worlds,
(16:42):
They're right for those that can't afford the dorms and you know,
they just,
you know,
not in a position where they want to live on campus.
Holy Family provides you an opportunity of the college experience,
but you can commute to it and then if you choose to live on Holy Family's campus,
I think there's so many things just recently that point to such a great experience,
(17:03):
right?
The new turf fields and the facilities that were building there.
And then to be honest with your new town is such an underutilized campus up there.
It's a beautiful area up there.
There's just so many things within a stone's throw of the campus.
So for me it was,
you know,
having something close to home as we were building,
the business was important,
but in today with with so many different options on campus,
(17:25):
I think it's great.
What holy family is built.
Yeah,
thanks.
So we don't tend to write,
we tend to talk about the original campus which is in Northeast Philly,
but you may be happy to hear that we're actually bustling up in Newtown.
So um we have lots going on,
lots of nursing programs,
lots of grad programs up there as well and I think people are just really happy to be back.
(17:46):
Of course we still do a lot of remote learning,
especially at the graduate level,
but you know,
those nurses are back in the resource center and the counseling psych folks are busy.
So just yesterday we had a town hall meeting and I think people are just so happy to be together again and yeah,
the field is really popular.
So everybody shows up now for the games,
(18:06):
They're loving it and you know what dr Prescott,
that's such an important point because one thing that I don't,
I think as well understood is that when people are graduating from college today,
this is the normal,
right,
you know,
going through zoom having things virtually,
but there is a tremendous,
(18:27):
tremendous skill set and having the interpersonal skills,
having the in person ability.
That's why,
you know,
you and I have spoke about why internships are so important and showing up physically showing up and and being there and and understanding that while sometimes it may feel a little uncomfortable,
sometimes it may feel like,
well,
hey,
I don't actually know what I'm doing.
(18:47):
So it's,
it's easier just to pretend it away or avoid it.
The interpersonal skills and the in person is something that I think is so important for today's graduating classes to understand that,
you know,
sometimes you just have to get there and yet while zoom is easier,
sometimes being in the room is half the battle.
So I think that that's something really important for the holy family university graduates and that opportunity to interact as we said,
(19:15):
and you know,
we're a midsize school and our classes tend to be under 15.
So it really is the opportunity to develop all those communication skills.
We always talked about,
right,
the ability to speak well hold the position,
be understanding so that you're willing to listen to someone else's position.
And how valuable is that in this day and age when um we're certainly not learning from the grownups in the room,
(19:40):
so to speak.
Especially those we see on tv and our politicians.
So I'm new to Philly and I couldn't be more thrilled to be living here as I've always had a great respect for the city's history,
culture and diversity.
Right?
I always talk about the Rodin Museum is one of my secret spaces and of course we always have to talk about food.
(20:01):
So I'm gonna ask you to indulge me and I'm gonna do a lightning round of your personal feelings preferences.
Okay,
here we go,
cheesesteaks or soft pretzels,
cheesesteaks,
pat's or geno's,
I would say steve's,
if I'm being honest,
I'm going to say steve's,
but I'll say Gino's since there was only two options there.
(20:22):
Okay and steve's is steaks on commonly,
but I grew up in Mayfair.
So there's one closer to my house but commonly is not too far from where I am now.
Betsy ross of Ben franklin,
the man or the Academy of Music,
I would say the man,
yeah,
I got to go to a few concerts there last summer.
(20:43):
It was really beautiful.
What a beautiful space in intimate space.
It's very nice.
Rocky or six cents.
It's got to be Rocky.
I mean,
without a doubt,
I mean one of the greatest movies of all time and flyers and Sixers.
Sixers.
I have a big sixers family here.
My son just got his James,
Harden Jerseyan.
(21:03):
So sixers all the way.
Yeah,
we're doing they're doing quite well this year and don't tell my son because we're diehard knick fan.
So I'm not allowed to say I actually can root for the 70 sixers now.
Well,
I hate to,
I hate to say this,
but I went to a flyers game and they're not having a really great season this year anyway,
so I think you have to go with sixers.
There you go.
(21:24):
Thank you so much for joining me on one of my inaugural episodes and your continuing involvement with your armor,
murder.
I look forward to our future work together To learn more about Down and mini melts ice cream.
Please visit mini melts dot com and to learn more about Holy Family University.
(21:44):
Please visit Holy family dot e.
D.
U Armenian Prisco.
Thank you for listening.
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