95 Years of Entrepreneurial Experience

Right Thinking with Steve Coplon | Guest: Henry Smith

This week's show is called 95 Years of Entrepreneurial Experience" with guest Henry Smith. Tune in and hear Steve and Henry, founder/owner of Smashers Burgers & Fries, have an engaging conversation on what it takes to operate a small business. With over 95 years of combined wisdom to draw from, Steve and Henry will benefit you greatly. Whether you are already in business for yourself, going to someday operate your own business, or just want to learn more about how to give yourself a better chance of success in your life, this show is for you.

In this episode of Right Thinking with Steve Coplon, I speak with Henry Smith, the founder of Smashers Burgers and Fries. We explore the realities of running a small business in the food industry, drawing from our combined 95 years of entrepreneurial experience. Henry shares his journey into restaurant ownership, highlighting the importance of understanding costs and making strategic decisions.

We discuss his innovative use of social media for marketing, focusing on video engagement to build brand awareness. Key themes include the significance of hard work, persistence, and customer feedback in enhancing the business. The conversation reflects on personal growth and resilience, emphasizing that the entrepreneurial journey is as crucial as the financial outcome.

https://www.talknetworkradio.com/hosts/right-thinking

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
There must be lie starning brighter somewhere.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Got to be birs.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Why I am higher to the sky four of blue.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good morning, welcome to Right Thinking with Steve Copeland. I'm
your host, Steve Copeland, and thank you for tuning in.
Let's have a great day.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Good morning everybody, glad to be with you well. Today's
episode number four hundred and fifty seven, Right Thinking with
Steve Copeland is very pleased to announce that this week's
show was called ninety five years of Entrepreneurial Experience with
guests Henry Smith. Tune in and here Steve and Henry,
founder owner of Smashers Burgers and Fries, have an engaging

(01:03):
conversation on what it takes to operate a small business.
With over ninety five years of combined wisdom to draw from,
Steve and Henry will benefit you greatly, whether you are
already in business for yourself, going to someday operate your
own business, or just want to learn more about how
to give yourself a better chance of success in your life.

(01:26):
This show is for you. Henry, You are a pleasure.
Thank you for wanting to do this with me this afternoon.
Oh it's an honor. Thank you. I'm glad to be back. Hey,
you know, I made my first broadcasting mistake there. These
are live shows, but they're recorded before I air them.
And since they're going to be like Evergreen on you know, forever,

(01:49):
you can go to any episode you ever want, I
say good morning, because they start to air on Monday
mornings at ten o'clock, and I never, I always, no
matter what time I recorded, I act like it's money
morning and it's live to you. But I said good afternoon.
And so hey, everybody. You know, life's kind of like that.

(02:10):
We're living in a world of AI now and that's
one of the reasons why I'm enjoying Henry so much.
I don't really know where to start, Henry, other than
I've been living off your burgers now for a couple months,
and everybody knows about, you know, my medical issues, and
you know, I had a lot of side effects with
my cancer, my chemo, and I'm on a lot of

(02:31):
restricted diet. But your burgers are keeping me alive. And
I love your burgers not just because they're keeping me alive,
but because they are absolutely the best smash burger I've
ever had. Last time I saw you a couple of
weeks ago, I told you that my wife and I
had gone on a little couple of days up to
see the changing the leaves up in Skyline Dry Blue

(02:53):
Ridge Parkway, and we went to a place that was
selling smash burgers. All they saw was burgers and drinks.
They had kind of a ball atmosphere. Well, their burger
was very good, but it was frozen. Because I wanted
to know, could they leave off some of the spices
in the season on it? And the guy said to me,
and he was the owner, he goes, no, they're already

(03:13):
pre made. Well, yours aren't pre made. Yours, yours are
made fresh. We'll get back into that. Hey, before I
go any further, I want to turn this over to
Henry in a second, because I've been enjoying Henry this afternoon.
I'll tell that story after I let Henry come on board.
I keep talking about I want Henry come on. Then
I've surprised him. Episode number four forty nine, just eight
weeks ago, is when I did a show called a

(03:36):
Smashing Success, and that's when I brought Henry on for
the first time and we talked about just how how
he got started, and I don't like to say this
to embarrassing because there's nothing to be embarrassed, but in
fact it's the opposite. Henry's twenty one years old, and
Henry's got three restaurants right now looking for his fourth location,

(03:58):
and number four forty nine. He talked about how see
if you never would have done said what you're saying
about me being impressed with me a couple of years ago,
and he told his story about he was kind of
like his parents were worried about him. They ought not
be worried about him anymore. But anyway, go back and
listen to episode four forty nine and get Henry's background,

(04:19):
And now we wanted to talk again about what it's
like to be running your own business, what it takes
to be you know, motivate it, get it going. Management's
not easy. You got a lot of responsibility. You know,
you've got a lot of responsibility. You got a lot
of employees. So Henry, let me just not even ask
you a question, just kind of go where you want

(04:39):
to go for a minute or two, and then I'll
get excited and jump in.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Gotcha.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Yeah, first thing I do want to correct you. You mentioned
I have three restaurants. Working on the fourth, We're going
to get to that point. I only have one brick
and mortar right now, in one food truck. I don't
know if the last podcast I mentioned that I had three.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Okay, let me let me explain that, because I don't
want anybody think that I'm exaggerating, because I'm not. You
started with a food truck in Eastern Shore, yes, sir.
And then then you came over and got your first
brick and mortar, the one that I go to at
Norfolk Premium premium outlet outdoor mall in Norfolk, Yes, sir.

(05:17):
And then you opened up a food truck in Hampton, Yes, sir. Okay,
let's add those up my mask. Good you got. Are
you still in business on the Eastern Shore? It's seasonal, correct.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
I just saw that business actually about a month and
a half ago.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Okay, time out. We were eight weeks ago. Two months ago.
You didn't tell me you sold it, but so I
added that as your first. And then, because this is good,
you've already you've already started and sold the business. That's good.
That makes it even better because you're an entrepreneur that's
buying and selling businesses already. Okay, So you started with
a food truck on the Eastern Shore and then you

(05:57):
came to Norfolk and have some It's called Premium Outlet Mall,
but it's a very successful outdoor mall and it's called
Premium Norfolk Premium Outlets. It's an outdoor mall, but they've
been building a food court and they're building a hotel
next to it. Now you've got space right there. And
every time I've been in there, i'd say maybe twelve

(06:18):
times now in the last couple of months, it's packed.
I was in there the other day and people drove
all the way from Suffolk, which is twenty five thirty
minutes for a surprise birthday party for an eighteen year
old young man. His name was No. I want to
say no, but I'm not sure. I can't remember his name.

(06:40):
I sent you a text about it about twenty five people.
And when I got there, all these people were lined
up along the hallway between where the food comes out
and the condiments in the bathroom, and I thought they
were looking at me, because all these young faces were
just staring and it was kind of neat The first
person pulled their head back. The next person pulled their head,
and I thought they were saying, hey, look at this

(07:01):
strange guy sitting there, well about fifteen or twenty people,
one at a time. First he had moved, next head
moved thirty, and then all of a sudden the door
opened and everybody came out real quick by me, and
they all yelled surprise. And I asked, somebody, where you know,
where are y'all from? But we live in Suffolk, and
I said Suffolk. Y'all came all over there said yeah,

(07:22):
because we know the burger is the best, and that's
his favorite burger kind of thing. So here they are. Henry. Yeah,
you had a food truck in Eastern Shore. You got
a restaurant in an Awfolk. You had another food truck
in Hampton. So that's three. So used I stand corrected,
good conversation. You've already sold the one in an Eastern Shore.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
So I didn't sell the business. I just sold the trailer.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
Unfortunately, with Kate Charles and the labor that I grew
up with, which was my best friends, they're all graduating
college doing internships and are not.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Available and the sales. It doesn't make sense for.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
My time allocation to go to Kate Charles in the
summertime when the sales are medi school relative to the
restaurant and the new food truck over here.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Last summer, it was kind of a little bit of
a job rather than a business for me. So that's
the reason why I made the decision.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
However, we're gonna do multiple events in Kepe Charles with
they hip the roads food truck. We're just gonna have
to pay that toll and pay a little bit more gas.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
That's pretty good business management. That's one of the secrets
of business. You know your costs, you know your overhead,
you know if you're making a profit. You want to
talk about that theme for a minute, because that's fundamental.
A lot of people that I know go into business
because it's their dream. They want to be in business
with their operating and losing money and they don't even
know a lot of them. Some of them think it's

(08:38):
going to turn the corner tomorrow and it doesn't. Before
you know, if they lose everything. But you've already recognized
that it's not profitable if you'd operate that business, and
it was your first one, so it must have been
a little bit hard for you to sell what you
sold the trailer, but not the business out what you said.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, I don't think I would ever.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
I may consider franchising within the next five years, but yeah,
just the trailer. It was a guy who had a
funnel cape business. He had multiple trailers and he was
looking to expand. So we actually met at an event
and exchange information and went from there.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Okay, so you can go back over there anytime you
want if you want to get another truck and promote yourself.
But you're going to go over there anyway with the
truck you have in Hampton.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
So, like Fourth of July is major in Cape Charles.
For example, we're about to do Festive Fridays. It's called
so every Friday leading up to Christmas. Cape Charles has
sort of a the town gets decorated. It's very beautiful
hometown scene and we're we plan to cater that very nice.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Now, I said, you're going to use your Hampton truck,
But are you going to pull your Hampton truck and
take it all the way back over to Eastern Shore
and not do Fourth of July and Hampton.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yes, so we plan to do for July and Kate Charles.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Okay, Well, that's in your mind. I know you run
numbers and that's where it's going to be, and you'll
promote yourself accordingly.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
Even on that sort of day, though, Like I would
be willing to take a little bit of a profit
loss if there was a more prosperous opportunity in Hampton
to show out on a Cape Charles for July, just
out of tradition. You know, we're always very loud and
we have a lot of fun in the parade in
the morning.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
It's just great.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
So yeah, all right, you gave me the first real
introduction to when I can jump in real quick here. Okay, Henry.
So one of the things that I'm so impressed a
byt you, and I went on and on on about it.
Told your parents what a polite young man you are,
and you told them that, and I told him to
take the message that you've done a great job of
raising your son, and you passed it on. Well, I'm

(10:32):
almost embarrassed at what you told me today. I got
a friend, very close friend's named Zach and he's never
eaten at your restaurant. But since this afternoon when I
first called you to see if you want to record now,
I talked to Zach and he says, I asked him
about Smashers, and because I was getting ready to go there,
I said, you want to go to Smashers? And he goes, oh, no,

(10:55):
I can't write now, but you know about Smashers. And
I'm like, oh, yeah, you know all the time. It's
the best smash burger in the world. You know, it's
great Henry's Henry's a friend of mine. And he goes,
I said, how do you know about Smashers? And he said, oh,
I watched I watched the reels that he does. They're hilarious.
That's the word he used, hilarious. And I said okay.

(11:17):
And I didn't ask him how you found out, but
I asked this afternoon. I said, okay, Zach, you were
telling me about you watch the reels and I said,
I just watched about forty of them myself, and you
warned me not to You said, you'll find completely different
me Steve, and I went, what do you think I'm
a choir boy? And because he said to me, he said, uh, well, yeah,
they're a little uh what's the word he use. They're

(11:39):
a little nasty. It's a nasty what's the word.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
He used, I would probably say, I'll describe him as audacious.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Probably, Oh they're nuts, They're great. So I asked you.
You said, well, you know, you weren't sure you want
me to watch them? And I we'll go back to
the title for a minute, ninety five years of entrepreneurial experience.
I'm seventy four, Henry's twenty one. Ninety five years. That's
our experience level here. But I told you, Henry, the

(12:04):
reason that I like you so much is because you
can't be successful as a young person in today's world
unless you've mastered social media. I haven't mastered social media.
It wasn't it wasn't what I came up along with.
I know the principles of business. I know. I know
a lot about business, I'll say that, but you know
marketing advertising through social media, and I'm not. I'm not

(12:26):
into that so much. And so I couldn't start a
business right now without understanding social media. So we're going
to come back to that. So, Henry, I watched forty
of them and I said, well, how many of them
are there? And you went, there's a tumue me. I
do one every day. So I didn't know a thing
about what I was getting into. So for the last
hour before I hooked up with you just now, I
scrolled all the way through through my Facebook account. So

(12:51):
it's it's smat where you're how do you get it again?
If you're just going it's it's on Facebook, and it's
also on Skype.

Speaker 4 (12:58):
So we are on faceboo Book, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
And we just started posting on Twitter. If you type
in just Smashers, we should pop up. If you recognize
our logo, it'll be much easier to find. But Smashers,
Burgers and prize it should come up yet.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Okay, so I have Facebook. I'm not a social media
kind of guy, but I needed Facebook for my foundation
and so forth, and so I have Facebook. So I
started going through them and there were tons of them,
I mean hundreds, and so I decided, well, you know what,
instead of just being random and checking out one here
and there, I went all the way to the very

(13:34):
first ones. So I did about fifty of the first ones,
and they're all you told me seven seconds twenty five seconds.
I watched a ton of them. They were hilarious, but
not just hilarious, they were brilliant. They were brilliant in
my day. There's a thing on television commercials called subliminal advertisement.

(13:54):
Everything's not so subliminal anymore because it's right in your face.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Now.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
You want to say something you ain't got, hold it
back and make it kind of kind of whatever. You
make me want another burger? I mean, I'll get one
tomorrow with Willie Williams in town. We're coming tomorrow. So
bottom line is is that, well Saturday, Okay, we'll come
on Saturday. My day's mixed up here anyway. They were wonderful,
but you keep leading people toward your burger, your restaurant,

(14:24):
and the people you've got on there, man, they are
like Hollywood professionals, all your friends and people that you
got on there doing things, craving your burger and just
doing their dance and doing things, some pretty good stuff,
some really great stuff. So I like that. But Zach,
though said, I said, so how'd you find out? And
he goes, well, a friend of mine up here and
it was in northern Virginia, he said, he told me

(14:47):
about it. So I started watching. I'll watch them all
the time. So you're attracting people that don't even have
never even been to your burger all the way in
northern Virginia. So that's a true sign of success as
far as I can tell, how you going to can
that into growth?

Speaker 4 (15:02):
So yeah, fortunately majority of my following is within Virginia. Unfortunately,
I would say around forty percent if you take my
Instagram demographics for example, around forty percent or people out
of state or even out of country. Now we do
occasionally have people traveling from out of state, which is
pretty crazy. But this kind of marketing is to squeeze

(15:24):
the fruit fully. If I was a national brand, right,
you know, if there was a smash, was within thirty
minutes of somebody at all times. However, through local marketing
adding hashtags, you can sort of afford to people's feed.
If you put like hashtag Norfilk Virginia or something, people
in Norfolk will be more likely to see it as
opposed to somebody in California who I can't capitalize on.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
But yeah, like I said.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
This brand, this branding and marketing, the whole idea behind
it is I want to be more visible to customers.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Right.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
My main goal as the owner is to not only
train my team and management on the proper systems and
making sure every person gets the smasher's food, the smasher's way,
and the smasher's experience, but also to get people in
the doors for people to even know about us. So
that was really the big push of social media as
well as another income source.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
So if you are popular on social.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
Media, you have opportunities to get money from these platforms
like Facebook, Instagram and all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
And I'm not.

Speaker 4 (16:28):
Really the biggest steve. I do have to pause for
just two seconds. I'm so sorry. Now take time, I
can edit it out. Gotcha, what's going on? Most it's
three Well, let me say it a little bit differently.
I think the biggest reason for the social media push
is just to have access to more opportunities, whether that

(16:49):
means getting more income from the different platforms or if
I do decide to franchise, I want my brand to
be known.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
I want it to be visible to franchise ease.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
I want to be confident in that, regardless of the
location I decide to pursue on my next one, that
I'm confident in my marketing skills to make it known
and to make sure that customers come in through the door,
because more times than not, when people come through the doors.
Fortunately they tend to return, so you know, restaurant business
is all about reoccurring customers.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
So okay, that's great. When I was watching some of
your reels, they were they were very, very not just hilarious.
They answer a lot of questions for me. On your menu,
you got a thing that I that I haven't ever
ordered because because of my I haven't graduated back up yet.
You know, my burger. The ease of your app is unbelievable.

(17:41):
It's one of the few things that I can eat
without having any issues from it. And so when I'm
out in the bout and sometimes I just crave your
burger because it's it's it sits well with me, but
it's so delicious. But I got your app, and all
I got to do is press a. I got the
app on my homepage. I just hit the app. It
opens and it goes right to order again. And I've

(18:03):
got my standard order in there. And I don't do
it justice because all I get I get the smash
burger with mustard and lettuce. It's just perfect, the whole
thing about it. I love your bun I love the
way they do everything and so but on your menu.
You got a lot of items in there, and the
one that is the the cheese, the cheese, chopped cheese,

(18:25):
chop cheese. Now, look, maybe that's just because I'm not
out in about enough, but I didn't know what chopped
cheese was because you do a grilled cheese and I'm thinking, okay,
what's the chop cheese? Well, you had two people eating
a chopped cheese and one of them said, it usually
comes withsh smashed sauce on it, but she said she
left it off and she put mustard and ketchup on it.

(18:47):
But the other one, Your chopped cheese is probably about
a fifty pounds sandwich. You can tell the details in
a second. But you had this one guy ate it
in three or four bites like he could, like he died,
you know, first three ever had after he came off
the desert or something, and it looks so good. What's
what's your chop cheese all about?

Speaker 2 (19:06):
So chop cheese? It's sort of our play on a
cheese steak.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
It uses the same ingredients as a burger, but it's
on a toasted hogy roll Martin's. And we're actually trying
to work on it a little bit more so it's
more customer friendly. The reason it's it's one of the
higher priced items and that deters people, and then when
people purchase it, they don't realize actually how much food
is in the chop cheese. It's a it's a big sandwich,

(19:30):
and you can you can play around with it. You
put whatever topics we have on the menu on the
chop cheese. But it's turned out to be a fan favorite,
and I didn't have that in the original food trailer.
It was actually inspired by social media. It originated New
York delis, but Diegas. Actually there was a bunch of
viral videos about the chop cheese and I happened to

(19:51):
play around with it at my home kitchen and I
loved it, and especially that Martin's toasted hoy roll.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
You know, there's just something about that so got.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
All your brand's relationship. I've told you in the past
about my buddy Dennis, and I'd like to just put
in a shout out to Dennis. Dennis. Dennis had an accident.
He fell off his hat a ladder cleaning leaves two
months ago, and uh, you know, we just didn't know
what was gonna be with Dennis and he got out
of the hospital yesterday and I brought him into your

(20:19):
restaurant and he just loved everything about it. But his
all time favorite, his all time favorite is like a
Philly steak. He's from Philadelphia, and he didn't know about
the chop cheese. So next week I'll be bringing him
in to get a chop cheese because he's not driving yet.
He had a miracle recovery and we thought he was
going to be just we just didn't really know. But

(20:40):
I'm going to bring him in because he loved your
food already, but he going to go crazy off your
chop cheese. I mean that video I watched on that
reel was sensational. Okay. So, so we were talking about
social media and and just how important it is from
my viewpoint, and then you're talking about how you're using
it and you're developing quite following with that, and it

(21:02):
is you know, it's going to be bringing a lot
of business. Yeah, No, you're you're doing a lot of things. Right.
I'm going to read five or six quotes here that
I got get some of your thoughts. I'm going to
read them fast, because I got seventy of them and
every one of them, it's wonderful. I'm going to read
seven or eight maybe fast, and then you just talk

(21:23):
about this theme. One of the things that I fully
believe in if you're going to be in business for yourself,
no matter even if you're not in business for yourself.
One of the things I teach everywhere I go is
be the world's greatest employee, because every one of us
we live in America, has got freedom of choice of
where we want to work. And you know, if you

(21:44):
don't like where you're working, then go work somewhere else,
you know what I mean. But you should be viewing
your life as you're like an entrepreneur. Every one of
us is responsible for ourselves. So an employee shouldn't just
be someone that goes in in does something they're told,
get a paycheck. They ought to be a person that
knows I'm working because I'm gonna I'm gonna do the

(22:06):
best I can be successful with where I am so
that I can do better for my family, be better
for myself. So the principles of an entrepreneur and the
principles of a w twoter worker should be the same.
For giving it your very best, working hard, and if
they're not. You're not going to be a success in
your life, even if you're just an employee that thinks

(22:27):
you have a stable job, because you're never gonna go far.
You're gonna you're gonna get to a place where, you know,
maybe you're expendable because you don't really make a lot
of contributions. That's just my word for anybody that's listening
that might not ever be thinking they're going to be
an entrepreneur. But I'm into the work ethic. That's one
of my key foundational things in my life that I teach.
Everything I do is based on character, integrity, and a

(22:50):
good work ethic. So now I'm going to read to
you seven or eight quotes and just get your thoughts
because I know you've got them. I'm convinced that about
half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non successful
ones is pure perseverance. That's steam jobs, the co founder
of Apple Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates

(23:12):
the talented individual from the successful one is a lot
of hard work. Stephen King, the author determine never to
be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of
the want of time who never loses any It is
wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

(23:33):
That's from Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United
States and the author of the Declaration of Independence. We
often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks
like work. That's Thomas Edison, most famous inventor we've ever known.
The minute you get away from fundamentals, whether it's proper technique,

(23:56):
work ethic, or mental preparation, the bottom can fall out
of your game, your school, work, your job, whatever you're doing.
That's Michael Jordan, arguably the best basketball player in the
world's ever known. Hard work pays off. Hard work beats
talent any day, but if you're talented and work hard,

(24:18):
it's hard to beat. That's Robert Griffin id the football player.
The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.
One more. Oh, that's Henry Golden writer. Plans are only
intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. Peter Drucker,

(24:38):
manager and author, man that just controlled the stock market
for years. I think out there, you know, I gotta
do one more because everybody knows this young man here.
Success isn't always about greatness. It's about consistency. Consistent hard
work leads to success. Greatness will come. Dwayne the Rock Johnson,

(25:01):
Professional wrestler and Entertainment. Okay, I could have taken these
one at a time and let you just talk about
your thoughts, but I gave you a whole bunch of nine.
To be exact, I'm talking about hard work. I'd love
to hear you talk about hard work because you work hard.
Let me let me give it to you in a
simple way. How hard do you work?

Speaker 2 (25:22):
I don't really do anything else. If I do, it's
spending time with my parents.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
It's funny that you mentioned all those quotes because it
was sort of a general team with my food truck manager.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
There was a small situation that happened Today's.

Speaker 4 (25:36):
An employee called out and the feud truck was unable
to operate.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
It was a two hour just event.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
It wasn't going to be extremely prosperous, but they had
to turn around because they were short stopped. There was
only a single person out there, and she was out
of town and got very emotional and very stressed out.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
And I could tell she was, you know, sort of
getting sick of it.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
And I had a conversation with her, I said, your
perspective on stress is quite literally how it affects you,
and boredom sucks.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
When I'm stressed, I feel good. I'm problem solving is
challenging its growth.

Speaker 4 (26:08):
I think a common theme in all those quotes were
persistence and if you never quit, you'll never fail. You'll
fail along the journey, but you don't you know, giving
up is the only true failure.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
But as far as work ethic goes, like I said.

Speaker 4 (26:24):
I don't if I had a piece of advice, especially
for young people, don't focus on building, just focus on sculpting.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Like, take a week in your life, break down to
the days.

Speaker 4 (26:35):
What do you do on a day to day? What
time do you wake up, what time do you go
to sleep? Or two of those days spending times at
a bar with friends that you're not the closest with.
How much of that time is just spending on your
phone scrolling Instagram or social media.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
You sculpt all those things away, you start to develop focus.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
And that remaining time will turn into boredom, and you
won't want to be bored, so then you can shift
that towards work. And that's really what sort of revolutionized
my life was I had all these distractions instead of
like trying to do them all at one time.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
You know, it's sort of a it's a snowball effect.

Speaker 4 (27:12):
So maybe you start waking up earlier on weekdays and
then you can start transitioning to weekends. Maybe you stop drinking,
you cut out any drugs that you're sort of doing
in your life, and just focus. And you know, you'll
be amazed at what you can do when you just
have an extra two hours a day that you're not
distracted by.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Enter you're pretty focused. You got wisdom beyond your years.
And so I'll just say one thing about being an entrepreneur.
It's a perpetual It's like a treadmill. It's a perpetual situation.
You you can't really ever stop until you get real
far down the road and learn to have your money

(27:51):
work for you. But when you're when you're getting established
and you're creating your your wealth, it comes in stages.
First after to learn us to support yourself and and
meet meet all your obligations and your needs, and and
that that takes an awful lot of hard work. But
you know a lot of people there's a hey, I'm
a hard work guy. But let's not We're gonna end

(28:15):
this show in a few minutes because I think I
think I'm learning something from you already. It's probably better
to do shorter segments where people can really concentrate on
a little bit that we're throwing at them and then
come back again and throw some more instead of like
giving them heavy, heavy doses that are overwhelming. Next time,
we're I'm gonna come back and give a corollary to

(28:36):
what we're talking about. Hard work is great, but work
and smart's probably even better. Okay, So we'll we'll we'll
pick up on that because I'm not here to say
that you know, you can just yeah, I'll give I'll
give the difference between Eastern thought and Western thought as
it comes to using your mind or just using your
your brawn to move forward. You're not just using your brawn.

(28:59):
You know, you're strong guy and all, but no, you're
you're a very very You're using your mind, which is beautiful. Uh.
I love what you were talking about. I'm going to
give five or six more quotes and then we'll hit
those real quick, and then we'll then we'll kind of
kind of take a break for a week or two
or three whatever we feel like doing it, and maybe whatever,
and we'll do a bunch of these because you've expressed

(29:20):
an interest in me in your last show, in as
I've known you to help other people, and you are
a phenomenal role model. And and one of the reasons
that I just really enjoy hooking up with you is
because my gosh, my Loven, your old grandson. You know,
you're like, uh, you know, he wants to work for
you already. He's kind of arguing with me about he
doesn't know why he couldn't come in eleven years old

(29:40):
and run your register. He says, he knows how to
run a register, you know, but.

Speaker 4 (29:44):
If if he could, I would, Uh, you've be on
the team tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Oh yeah, no, you know, will Willie is uh, you know,
maybe by the time you got your franchises going well,
you'll cut us some good slack for Willis Willie's store,
you know, does he gets started? But okay, let me
let me do a couple more, because these are all
so good. Nothing in the world is worth having or
worth doing unless it means effort, pained difficulty. I have

(30:09):
never in my life envied a human being who led
an easy life. I have envied a great many people
who led difficult lives and led them well. That was
Theodore Roosevelt, twenty sixth President of the United States, and
he's one of my favorite presidents. You know much about
Theodore Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt.

Speaker 4 (30:30):
I should know more. He's not the one that took
us off the gold standard.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
That was next thing. Craig, you're smarter than me. That
might be true, But let me tell you this. Teddy
Roosevelt started the National Parks. Teddy Roosevelt grew up in
New York and he started the National Parks. He was
Teddy Roosevelt, and the rough riders he had he had.
He was frail, he was asthmatic, He was kind of
kind of underdeveloped as a youth, and he wore like

(30:56):
very very coke bottle thick glasses. He had turble eyeglasses.
But he didn't let that hold him back, and he
just became one of the greatest presidents of the United
States in my mind. But for all of those people
that are young and old. He started the National Parks
and set aside land that could not be developed because
he wanted to preserve the beauty of this country in

(31:17):
our natural resources, and so great great guy there. I
love Teddy Roosevelt. I won't even get into his politics
or anything else like that, but he did say he
was really big on what he called speak softly and
carry a big stick. I love that. Okay, So anyway,
that was Davey Roosevelt. Enjoy your sweat because hard work

(31:39):
doesn't guarantee success, but without it, you don't have a chance.
That's Alex Rodriguez baseball player. Now. I'm a New York
Yankee fan, and he's one of the greats. He had
some rough years in there because of some of the
steroid issues that came out, you know, but Alex, he's
a phenomenal human being, a great baseball player. And I'm

(32:02):
sorry that he had about with the steroids. But other
than that, he's he's an incredible person.

Speaker 4 (32:10):
Sorry, I was just going I saw him hit a
home run live. I was on third baseline. That was
at the Oriel Stadium. It was a pretty crazy moment.
I was like ten years old. Okay, you saw Alex
Rodriguez hit a home run. M that's a big moment.
That's a big that's a huge moment. It was Oriol stadiums.
Everybody was going. But you know, still crazy.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Oh I love that. I love that. I've been to
Oriel Stadium a lot. And you sit in the outfield
and Joba Chamberlain was one of their relief pictures. That
was phenomenal. He's the picture that becush. He came in
and won like ten games as a rookie right off
the bat. You know, he was just crazy good. And
but he had an awful time when we went in
the playoffs against Cleveland. They had the they had the

(32:52):
the mosquitoes or whatever it was, come out there on
the field. They should have stopped the game because they
were a swarm of like million in the mosquitoes out there,
and poor job Chamberlain was the picture during that game,
and it rattled him terrible. I mean, his whole uniform
was covered with mosquitoes. It was. It was just terrible. Okay,
So do not give up, for that is just the

(33:15):
place and time that the tide will turn. Harriet Beecher
Stowe abolitionist and author. You know, her famous book Uncle
Tom's Cabin, you know, was an amazing book about you know,
the slavery in the movement. But she was a great
American all the work that she did. But don't you
love that. You know, success is just around the corner.
Do not give up? You like Napoleon Hill, I know.

(33:37):
And there's a book that napauland Hill found actually put out.
That's that's Greg read and oh and there was co authored.
I'll give you her name in a minute. But it's
called three Feet from Gold, and it's a true story
about a guy that had one of the wealthiest gold
mines ever and he was three feet from hitting the

(33:59):
main vein when he stopped, and then he sold it,
and then another guy bought it and got the right
engineers came in there, saw the vein and it was
one of the wealthiest minds ever. It was called three
feet of Gold because he gave up. But the guy
went on to become one of the greatest insurance salesmen
and formed huge insurance companies. But yeah, you know, if

(34:22):
you put in all that hard work, just find a
way to revive yourself and keep going because you know
it's perpetual. I said, You've got to keep moving yourself forward,
always making adjustments. And that's that's how I do it.
Through perseverance and taking care you gotta thought.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
I know, oh yeh know for sure.

Speaker 4 (34:40):
Like I said, giving up in those moments, you got
to dig deep and whatever your fuel sources. Mine in
the beginning was in security, but now that mindset has
just shifted to just me being self critical. But now
in the dark times, I think about my parents. You know,
they've done the most for me. So you just got
to dig deep. I you know, like you said, think

(35:03):
about all the work you put up to get to
this point.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
Imagine game of giving up.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Now good, We're we're going to try to keep it short,
like I said, because that's that's one of my faults
is that it just kind of goes on too much.
I'm going to I'm going to stop on the quotes.
I'll give you more of those another time with you.
They're good, But I do want to share this. There's
a there's a person in history named Marcus Aurelius. Do

(35:29):
you know who Marcus Aurelius is? You're ahead of the game.
Marcus Aurelius was a Roman general and he was a
contemporary in Julius Caesar's day. Just, you know, an incredible person,
and I think in the world of philosophy, you could
probably get with all the scholars out there in philosophy,
and Marcus Aurelius probably is one of the top ten

(35:52):
men of wisdom in the history of the world and
one of his main main books. His main book is
really Meditations, and I got a copy of it. I've
been reading it my whole life, but I picked up
a good translation of it last year, and the other
night I couldn't sleep, and I was reading chapter six
in this edition, and it started off saying, if you're

(36:16):
thinking that you ought to sleep in to day and
just call in sick and not go to work today
because you just feel like sleeping more need rest, you're
never really probably going to amount to much, he said.
The animals, the birds, the beast, everything out there, they
don't ever have a chance to call in sick. They

(36:37):
get up every day no matter how they feel. If
they feel like, oh, I'd just rather take it easy
day and take a day off. But in life sometimes
it's okay to call in sick. Don't get me wrong, people,
if you're not feeling good. But what I'm trying to
say is life isn't like that. You can't just stop
and wish it was better. Sometimes and when you're an entrepreneur,

(36:59):
the buck stops here if you don't get done what
you've got to do, because it's all up to you basically.
So the number one thing I talked about if you
want to be an entrepreneurs, you've got to believe in yourself.
But you've got to maintain good health. Because without good
health and you're running your business, and you don't have
a big organization yet that can run it for you,
if you need to take a break, it's not going

(37:21):
to move forward. And so that's critical. So you've got
to take care of your health. You've got to take
care of your health. Now. With that said Marcus Aurelius,
though this chapter starts off talking about if you're one
of these people that just want to sleep in take
a break, you know, well, you've got to understand this

(37:42):
about life. Life is all about You've got to accept
your nature. If people are telling you things that you
don't agree with you, and you're being honest and hard
working and not breaking laws and not injuring other people,
then it's okay to ignore them. Because everything has its

(38:03):
own nature. Marcus Roius gets so deep into it. Trees
have a nature, birds have their nature, in other words,
things were created to be what they are. And for humans,
our nature is to is to do the best we can.
But he brings it down to just two simple things.
Our nature is to always strive for good. And he

(38:26):
spends a lot of time defining what good is. And
once you get your arms wrapped around what good is,
you know, good character, you know just all this kind
of stuff, And I'll say kindness is part of that.
The second thing is, in other words, accept your nature,
honor your own nature, strive for good, and get out

(38:49):
of being selfish, and always try to do for others.
Marcus urous and this chapter said that. But the reason
it really stood out to me this chapter about two
weeks ago, when I lay in bed in the morning's
because of my constant fatigue because of medications and just
you know, different cancer and everything else I go through.
I generally take about a half hour to forty five

(39:11):
minutes to kind of wake up. I wake up, but
I don't have the energy to get up and start moving.
I don't drink coffee as a stimulator, and it kind
of takes a while. And so I lay there and
I compose my mind, I pray, I think about things
and I get my day in order. Sometimes I'm listening
to a book while I'm in the middle of the night,
and I want to listen to it some more because
I'm really engaged in the book i'm listening to. I'm

(39:33):
listening to James James Mentioner's Alaska right now. What a
phenomenal book, phenomenal human nature, history of Alaska, you know
the whole story. But two weeks ago, I made a decision.
And this is in line with always trying to modify,
and it jus to keep yourself going even though it's
not easy. That's what we're talking about. This perseverance is whatever.

(39:56):
And what I did was, I said, you know what,
right there in the room now next to mine, where
my son Andrew used to have his room, I got
exercise mats. I got a treadmill. I got two different bicycles.
One of them's got the programs where you can just
the resistance changes the more as you peddler goes to
whatever program you're on. And I've got stretch bands, you know,
I've got equipment, And I said, you know what, the

(40:18):
best time to stretch anyway, is when you're relaxed and
you want to keep yourself relaxed. So I decided to
start waking up by going in there and riding the
bike through twenty thirty minutes and then doing stretches for
another twenty five thirty minutes. So I get in forty
five to fifty minutes of riding the bike to get
myself going and stretch him. The difference in my life

(40:40):
the last two weeks, I just want to thank the
Lord for this. I'll tell you the same foods that
I couldn't handle a couple of weeks ago. I think
my metabolism is adjusting now. They wanted me to gain
weight through muscle mass, not through not through just ice
creams and triggers, and all of a sudden, I'm eating better.

(41:01):
And I gained seven pounds in the last week and
a half, which was and I feel so alive again.
But it's because I'm coming back to my own basics.
You know, I've got my martial arts, I got my stretching,
I'm getting my muscle tone, I'm gaining weight. I'm getting
energy again, but instead of wasting my time. But I
couldn't let it think I was wasting time because I

(41:23):
was not rushing to get up in the morning because
I have phenomenal fatigue. But I found a new way.
And so what I'm trying to say is learn yourself
and always be thinking about these basic principles that govern
our lives, helping other people, working hard, being honest, never

(41:43):
quitting the things we talked about today. And if you
can do all that, you're gonna do really well in
this life. And you're gonna be amazed at the people
that are there for you, that are rooting you want
and encouraging you and going to be there for you
if you need them. So tell me about anything you want,
and I'm gonna pull up something here and we're going
to end the show. It went, It went not much
longer than what I thought it should. So Henry summing

(42:06):
up for a few minutes here while I pull up
something that I wanted to share if you could.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
I mean, first of all, that was a beautiful note
and piece of advice and I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
And also congratulations, that's awesome to hear. I'm glad you're
feeling better.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
And also I do want to mention congratulations to dentists
on is a great recovery. I'm glad you gave me
a follow up on that, that's great.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
Hey, I'll bring him in and you'll get a chance
to shake his hand and thank him for loving your food.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
I guess my last note would be I believe it
was Roosevelt's quote when you talked about sort of something
along the lines of journey and becoming somebody through that
journey and it builds character.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
I keep thinking.

Speaker 4 (42:49):
About, you know what, I actually want to win the lottery,
and that sounds so ungrateful. But if I was just
blessed with a billion dollars and I didn't have to
work for it, I would still be the same person
as I am currently now. If I was to work
for it over the next twenty years, if I ever
hit a billion dollars, the person I would have to
be calm to hit that sort of goal is that's

(43:11):
the whole point of life, you know, that's the journey
build's character. You get resilient, makes you sharper, it makes
you stronger. So I do want to touch on that.
You know, that's and I use money as sort of
a you know, money is great, don't get me wrong,
it's awesome to have. But the striving to hit that
certain mark is really where you're going to see the

(43:31):
beauty in life in that journey of getting there.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Essentially, that's beautiful. Well, I had I had a proverbit
pulled up earlier, but I lost it in the in
the in the file here, But basically it just talks about,
you know, when you honor the Lord through hard work
and toil for the Lord, you're gonna have everything in

(43:56):
life that you want. And in some of the proper
are talking about you know, the wise man works hard
and earns his money, but the fool squanders it and
never works hard. You know. It's the books full of
those kind of things. But with all that said, Henry,
next week, I'm gonna bring Zach into me you if
you'll put it on your calendar. He lives out of town,

(44:19):
but he's gonna be here Wednesday, so I'll try to
coordinate with you. But so next Wednesday around four o'clock
or so, I'm gonna bring him in. If you're in
town Wednesday around Wednesday at four, will coordinate that. But
we're just gonna keep networking. We're just gonna keep talking
to people, trying to do the best we can. And
so I have the end of the show, we're here,

(44:39):
I did something today. It's like one of these one things.
So in all my four hundred and fifty seven episodes,
when he gets up to seven hundred episodes, I always
have a consistency that I always wear a white shirt
and the same tie. And that's because of a thing
that happened in prison where where I tried to tell
the ladies up at Brunswick Woman's Work Center once that

(45:00):
I said, you know, I just want to say something
all I'm not after being a GQ kind of guy here.
I know y'all were wondering about me because I will
always wear the same brown suit, the same white shirt
and the same tie for that suit, or or a
charcoal suit with a white shirt and the same tie.
And I said, because I don't want to be a GQ.
I said, because y'all need consistency and I want y'all
don't know. When y'all see Steve, it's it's consistent, and

(45:23):
you know his message is going to be like that, okay.
And so a woman in the back been I've been
there one hundred some times and I just love being there.
I still go. But woman in the back says, that's okay.
Mister Copeland, we wear the same clothes every day too. Yeah.
So anyway, I broke my tradition just kind of as
a funny thing. Now we're on radio, you know, podcast, Internet,

(45:46):
but you're looking at me. I cleaned out all these
neckties that I had, and I always wear the same
thing when I record, but I changed my tie just
for you. This is a Tasmanian Devil the Looney Tunes collection.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
Oh yeah, I did it just with you. Kind of
is like people might go back if I ever get
these shows out there, you know, they go you know,
there was one show that Steve wore that different tie.
I want to tell you. This tie has got a
label on it from the Looney Tunes stamp collection. It's
it's the Tasmanian Devil and he's licking a stamp of

(46:22):
bugs Bunny. Okay, that's all. And this tigers all the
way back to trademark on it is nineteen ninety seven.
I had about six of these Leaning Team ties. I
wore them all the time back in the day. My
wife said, get rid of those ties. Sadly enough, I
kept the one, you know, I got rid of the others,
but I want to. I want to tell you my

(46:43):
very first employee. I've been an entrepreneur for years and years,
and I never wanted to have employees because of payroll
taxes and making sure I had money for them, and
it's hard sometimes and being a consultant, I didn't always
have to have employees. But I had a marina and
I that wasn't just a I had partners, you know,
so it was a company with different people. But when

(47:04):
I left the marina and I formed a development company,
d Paige was my first employee. She was my administrative assistant.
She was also with me in the marina. She worked
with me when she was younger in the tribal business
and was a manager under me. And then she got
married and had kids, and she called me years later
when she wasn't working for me, said that she had

(47:26):
got divorced and she wanted to She wanted to know
Diami Leeds I could help her get a job, and
I said, I'm going to get you a job. So
I called electrical contractor and they brought her on and
they couldn't thank me enough. She did great things running
running their office type stuff. And then then years later
when I formed a Marina. She came there. Well, d

(47:48):
was the funniest person you could ever do, ever know,
and my wife Donna worked with her in the office
at the Marina. We had a ball down there. But
Dan could do thirty or so impersonation. She could do
all the Looney Tune characters, and she was just like
you know, she could do Elmer Fudge. She could do everybody.

(48:09):
She had you rolling. Her best one was a dinosaur
impersonation that she did. What if you're eating dinner with her,
she put her arms her elbows like their glued to
her ribs, and her arms would get really short, and
she'd act like she was a Tyrannosaurus rex because they
have short arms. She go, would you pass the mashed potatoes?
I can't reach them. I just wanted to bring this
up because she passed away, gosh, fifteen years or so ago,

(48:34):
and we loved her so much, and she had a tragic,
tragic hard time with cancer, and I just thought about
her when I put this tie on. That's why I
brought it up to you. Anyway, let me just end
it right now with you know, God bless you. You're
doing great things. You're taking on more and more responsibility

(48:58):
supporting other people. Now you've got unlimited success and I'm
glad to know you. Henry. You're amazing. Thank you, Deve.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
It's a one hundred pleasure every time. We can't wait
for the next one.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
We'll be here soon. I'll see you next Wednesday. Yes, sir,
sounds good, good, Okay, everybody, have a wonderful time. I
hope you got something at the data show. We look
forward to the next time we get Henry back on. Thanks.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Thanks for listening to Right Thinking with Steve Copland. I'll
look forward to being with you again next week. And
remember it, don't quit, plan ahead. It will get better.
God bless you and have a great week.