#666 - Jayson Edwards - Founder of J-Dawgs Builds Food Empire from Selling Hot Dogs - The Jimmy Rex Show

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Jason, good to be here with you.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Man, It's good to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:02):
So I remember back in two thousand and three, I
ended up in Provo. That's when I first got there,
and shortly thereafter, probably I don't know, within a year
of being down there, I started hearing about this place
right off campus. And I don't know how you did
this right away, and I was what I want to
start with this. I'm captivated because I have never seen
so much buzz about a food place, let alone. I

(00:24):
go there and there's one item and it's hot dogs.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Right, it's wild. Well, thanks for having me. That whole
story is just crazy. It's over twenty years ago now
that I started that. I was at BYU's college student.
Wasn't really kind of yeah, we got a fan in
the back, we got a few BYU fans. Wasn't really
driving with school. I just got home from a mission
in Toronto. I spoke Chinese. I was like, man, I'm

(00:48):
going to be a lawyer. I'm going to be a diplomat.
And then I was just just lying to myself and
like trying to like get into these classes and I'm
just bored out of my mind and it just knew
deep down this wasn't for me, and so just walking
to school one day, I came across this little shack
and I was like, man, that would be a great
place for a hot dogs stand, because I had these
all over downtown Toronto. And I figured out who owned it,

(01:11):
I struck a deal with him. I had no idea
what I was doing. I didn't have any money, but
I had this old Fender Telecaster guitar and I pawned
it to my dad and like when I say pwn,
I like, I kind of knew in the back of
my head that I was going to get it back,
but I wasn't sure. And I just love this thing.
But he gave me six hundred bucks for it, and
I used that to start Jade Dogs.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
And I originally didn't call it Jade Dogs. I originally
called it Wana Wiener. Mmm.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
So I had So I had my first business. And
when I was in Provo, I had a meat business,
and I also had a inappropriate I did. It was
steak and chicken. I'd sold it out of the back
of my truck and my catch line was nobody beats
Jimmy's meats. And so also had an inappropriate tagline.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Jimmy, my sixteen year old daughter is in the crowd here.
So I was like, my son was looking up your podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
He goes, ooh explicit because he saw the.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
E and I'm like, every now and then, every now
and then, you know, yeah, it was just kind of
like this tagline. It was like wanta wiener with a
question mark, and I think it would just got people
like the Pavlov response.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
It was like the word wiener and then Apple beer
was on it, and I think, just like the suppress BYU,
mind was like, oh gotta have this. So literally, I
had no idea what I was doing.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well, that's what I love. I love that we were
there at the same time, and I feel like we
were kind of on the same trajectory of life. I
didn't fit in in school, same thing. I'm like, I thought,
I want to be a lawyer, and then I'm like, wait,
they read paper all day, Like that's not me.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
And I started a TV show, you know, it was
called Not on the First Date, and we were just hustling.
I didn't know what I was doing. I remember the
first business I set up. I had to go meet
with my buddy's dad, who was my old baseball coach.
He was a lawyer, and he showed me how to
do the paperwork. I mean, that's what we had to do.
But you're just hustling, you're just making it happy. So
what was the key to success for Jay Dogs?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Of Why?

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Why, in your opinion, was it so successful so quickly?
Because it was it's just it's one thing to get
a good piece of food. But it became like before
there was what you would call a viral sensation. I mean,
that's really what it was.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, that's a great question if I think back on it.
I mean, I love the product, for one, but there
was just so much passion and hustle coming to that
little ten by ten shack. And it's just kind of
the story too, is like there's this guy selling the
hot dogs out of a shack off the south of campus.
I mean, it's just kind of a fun story. And
so that's kind of the key for me, is like
I got to keep I got to keep the shack

(03:27):
and everything that I do because you like, you know,
this is going off topic a.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Little bit, but you like, as you.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Grow, you can the stores get bigger and bigger and
nicer and nicer, and it's just it doesn't it doesn't
mean anything. All that kind of stuff is like that shack,
that like that constraint, that just kind of scrappy model is.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Like for me, that's just that's been the key.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Well, and I remember when I saw your first store open.
Maybe it wasn't your first, but the one on University. Yeah,
and it was at your first store front, I mean
like the store outside of it.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Well, we went from the shack, which was my first storefront, Okay, yeah,
I know it's right, and then we went we went
next door into that inline building that's there to south
of campus. From there, we then went up to University. Yeah,
that was technically our second.

Speaker 4 (04:11):
Well.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
It's funny because I call me a nostalgic guy, but
I remember the first time I saw it and I
was like, I ain't going to that, I'm going to
the shack.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
But you've got to be honest, it's nice when you
need to go to the bathroom that there's a bathroom. Well,
and for me, it's not like you have a whole
lot of people like excuse me, just wait, I'll be
right back, and then you're like running up the campus
to use the bathroom.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
I mean that's the worst. That's not ideal.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, No, I mean I've had probably one hundred j
dogs since that moment, and I have not had one
at the shack since. So it's yeah, it because convenience
does end up mattering.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
In the shack's defense, though, about five or six years
ago we like fixed it back up again and we
opened it in the summer. No one wanted to stand
outside in the heat. Everybody wanted to be in the
ac So I think there's something to that.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
But it served its purpose.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, And the best thing about the shack is that's
where I met my wife.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
She came in order to hot and I asked her
out on a date. We went out. On the date,
she started asking me all.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
These questions of how much time do you spend there
and blah blah blah. I was like every waking moment.
In fact, after I drop you off, I have to
go back there and prep for the next day because
I just closed the door, went and took round on
a date and she.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Goes, i'll help you.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
She changed her clothes and she scrubbed the floor on
the first date and we were married in like three
months later.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, okay, well for nothing else, it
cuts the overhead. Yeah, yeah, you know what. You know
why I think it was so successful. Obviously you had
a great hot dog, But the thing I remember is
how your energy was. That's what I remember. It was
just like I couldn't. You were serving hot dogs all day,
every day, I mean no matter what time you went there,
and the amount of you just were happy. You were

(05:44):
just you had this energy to you and it was contagious.
You would go out of your way ten twenty minutes
to get the hot dog just because it made you
happy to go there and have the experience. You'd wait
in line for twenty minutes because you wanted to have
that experience.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
I appreciate you saying that.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
It's like you kind of get in these roles now
where you get farther and farther away from that that
original role that originally brought you in there, and you
kind of sit there in the corporate office You're like,
there's nothing I would want to do more than just
to be standing behind a grill, right, And I still
do that from time to time. But like that that
love of people and that love of the product, and

(06:18):
that just that hospitality side of me is just was
a big part of it. But like I can say
that the people that we hire are as good or
better and they're really the driver of the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Well, you probably I've had this experience a little bit
with growing businesses, and you know, with my real estate company,
I throw big events. Once a month, I throw a
big client party, And there's something about that beginning stage
when you're just hustling, like when I was throwing. I
have a firework event that I did every year for
seventeen years and it kept doubling in the size every
year because I'd go all out. And it started out
me driving to Evanston trying not to get arrested coming

(06:52):
back to Utah, like, and I would light them all myself.
And one time one fell over and went under, you know,
into the crowd, and that's like, yes, it's the stuff
you remember, you know, and yeah, stuff they remember too totally.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
And they got shot in the face. I was like,
who did it hit? Are we good? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (07:10):
But it's so much fun when you're in that part
of it. And I think what people miss a lot
is they want to expedite that part of it, But
that really is the part that when you are sitting
behind a desk and looking at spreadsheets and dealing with minutia,
that you go, no, this is the thing.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
I love.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
This is why my heart is in this because you
have to build it that way. You have to go
through those moments to really appreciate getting the business when
you're past and you kind of miss it. I missed
that part where I was just hustling.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
I do too, and you kind of, you know, you
hit on something there, Like I think a lot of
times people thinks these things happen overnight. I mean that
was twenty one years ago, and it's just a.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Grind this day after day. And if I look back
during that time, I'm.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Sure you know, twenty year, you know whatever, two thousand
and six, two thousand and seven.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
J we'd be like, wow, I would love to.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Be sitting in a corporate office, you know. So it's
kind of like a perspective thing. But yeah, it takes
so much time to build a company, to build a brand,
and there's so much blood, sweat and tears, and so
many times people.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Have like topped me off the ledge. I'm like, I'm
just going to sell this thing. Be done well, you know,
every day.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
I'm just, oh, I freaking hate this, you know, Like,
but it's just it keeps you going. And you got
to have like a passion about the product and the
people that keep you in the game.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Well, and you know, one of the things that is
so important to the food business is you have to
keep that quality right. You can't jeopardize it. I you know.
I one that was around back when you started was
Teraioki Sticks. And you know the guy that originally founded
that with his brother as a friend of mine, and
I talked to him about this one time and I said, dude,
what happened to that place?

Speaker 2 (08:41):
The quality just went to garbage.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, and they sold it to a VC company and
they were trying to save money, and within two three
years it was done.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
It was out because the food.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Product went down so far. One thing I love about
Jade Dogs is it has always been the exact same
hot dog. And on top of that, you didn't try
to get too cute. So many places they try to
expand so much. You know, I tried doing it with
Weird to day. I people kept saying, dude, you need
to do something for kids. So I opened up a
kids program and They're like, you should do something for
women's So I opened up women's program. Right, I'm losing

(09:09):
money left over right on both. Nobody's happy because I'm
not given the effort that it needs. But I can't
because I can't afford to next thing. I know, I'm like, okay,
I'm going back to one thing that I do great.
Is like I'm gonna run a men's group, and it's
and I got happy again. I was revigorated into the business.
But you know, were you tempted to expand and do
other things or how did you know I was so genius?

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Most people don't do it.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Most people over expand or they try to go to
wide instead of going deeper.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
I think originally that's where kind of the shack kind
of like as I said, we had we had we
designed jade dogs around a ten by ten scheck, right,
So there was not a lot of room for inventory,
there was not a lot of room for employees. There
was not a lot of room for extra equipment. I mean,
there wasn't even a bathroom. That wasn't a dining room.
There's nothing, right, and so that kind of mentality you're

(09:56):
forced to kind of like, what are the basic things
that I need to to function and then figure those
out and just do them very very well. So I've
always been partial, like in and out Burger things like that,
where they just like do one thing, and they do
one thing really real they will, I've found when I've
like tried to add or try to get fancy or
cute or go you know. I remember my first store

(10:16):
in downtown Salt Lake. I'm like, wow, I'm going to
show these people I've made it. I've arrived, and then
all of a sudden, you're spending like four or five
times what a normal store would cost and it didn't
bring in four or five times to people, and you
just kind of like in.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Your brain you're like, why did I do that?

Speaker 3 (10:31):
And I've had that like a dozen times over my
twenty years, like what was I thinking? But it's just
kind of the natural man, you know, to want to
kind of try things different or like not I don't
know what I'm trying to say, but.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Just like you know, like it's one of the reason
I love doing this podcast though, is you can learn
from somebody like you that we made these mistakes. They're
expensive and they're so expensive.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, Like that was a.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
Second home, or my wife will go, oh, that was
the pool that I've always wanted to.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
You know, things like that.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
It happens and it's just you just and I got
to roll with it and just know that that's just
part of the place.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
It's so true.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Well, I was at a Halloween party a couple months
ago and our good friend John Pistana, and he does
this thing where he turns his house into either Jurassic
Park or Harry Potter World or whatever.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Jurassic Park it was, yeah, And I got.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
There and it was funny because I knew I remembered
he had food, but I couldn't remember. I got there
and they're like, yeah, we're serving jade dogs. So I'm
like super pummed. This is a guy's backyard, so I'm like, okay,
so we're gonna get some ja the line it was
like one hundred and something people waiting for the line,
and I'm like, oh, it's cold out. I don't know
if I got a hundred, but it was so funny
because every person there just wanted the hot dog.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Is like, John orders those dogs, but he has this
guy's grillaing himself.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, it's not.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
That's the problem.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Well it's cool.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
It's like, why not just have us come and grill them?
But you know, they grilled him. I was like, good
on you man. That was like how many dogs did
you do? And He's like, oh, only like seven hundred.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
I was like whoa. But anyway, yeah, well no, And
that's the thing that like, you know, I've had, I've
been to so many baseball teams. I'm a huge base nerd,
and one thing that frustrates me so badly is there's
not a single baseball stadium that serves a good hot dog.
They don't have good hot dogs. The Dodger dog is
the worst piece of food. Have you guys ever had
a Dodger dog? It is the most worthless, thirteen dollars

(12:14):
piece of shit you've ever had in your life. It's
a horrible hot dog. I'm like every time I eat
when I'm like, can I just get a Ja Dogs?

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Like?

Speaker 1 (12:20):
What do I got to do to get a Jay
Dog's in here? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (12:22):
We have We're now with the Bees very well okay,
but again it's like they have their fancy food and
then they put like the hot dog like way out
in the outfield, and I'm like, I think people sometimes
just forget about people just want like an honest food
and chicken strips and Mexican food at a baseball game

(12:43):
is not No.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
It just seems like such an obvious thing. It's right
in front of them, you know, it's like this hot
dog's terrible. I don't they must do it on purpose
because they.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Could fix it so easily.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
I don't know. I don't know if they got to
deal with the guy's brother at every stadium or something.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
Right, but we are are our spot out at the Bees,
baseball is out in the outfield and we got like
a brand new and it was batting practice and someone.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Just right on the sign blusted the sign. It was
it's so great. But yeah, it's it's fun to be
involved with all the sports and stuff.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Well, you guys are in the Delta Center now, and.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
We're in the Delta Center, which is so good. It's
so exciting what Seg and Ryan and Mike Mann are
doing for downtown and the sport. It's just we're at
in the Mammoth have just been incredible. Have you guys
been to a Mammoth game. I mean it's unbelievable the
energy there. In fact, like we did a catering job
for the WNBA All Star Game.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Like I went out to Indianapolis.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
He and I first, well first kind of properly met
at the All Star Game here in two thousand and two,
and the owner of the Pacers just absolutely loved jadadd
So we've just taken dogs out to him.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
We overn eyed him, and.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
So they called in like we need three hundred dogs
for the Allstar gam And like, guys, this guy's a billionaire.
But I'm like, you're not going to want to overnight
three hundred dogs and buns. That's just going to be,
you know, a huge, huge costs. So I just made
it a road trip with my boy and we drove
out there. Anyway, I'm taking dogs into the owner's suite
and who's standing there Adam Silver. Oh right, So I'm

(14:07):
just kind of like I'm star stuck a little bit.
He's like, come eat with us whatever, and so I'm
talking to him. I'm telling him about my affiliation with Ryan,
you know, or pals, and then he goes, you just
got to tip Ryan to stop messing around with hockey
and just focus on basketball. And I said to Adam Silver,
I'm like, have you ever been to a hockey game.
There's so much fun, so much fun.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
So I'm just stoked for Salt Lake. In general, well
it's cool.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
I mean, one thing about Utah's it's a very loyal state.
You know, people here have more loyalty than anywhere else.
There's something there's pride in being from Utah. There's pride
in our sports and everything else. And I don't think
there's a team that's had a worst record over the
last couple of years in the Jazz as they rebuild,
and yet they sell out every game. I go to
the hockey game.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
It's sold out.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Before You're like looking at tickets and I'm like, wait,
what is going on, Howard tickets this expensive for some
random Tuesday night hockey game. But people in Utah are
very loyal and that's part of the charm of like
somebody like yourself that you into that and the loyalty.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
I mean, how many hot dogs that you sold me?
It's part of the experience. How many hot dogs have
I sold? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (15:07):
You know, like in general, like over since I started,
I found an article and it was like seven million
hot dogs. I'm like wow, And then I looked the
articles in like twenty fifteen.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
We sold a few, but I'll tell you we sell
pound for pound hour per hour.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
The most out of the Delta Center. I mean, I
sure destroy Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
So it's it's a lot of fun and it's heartwarming
to see the connection between people come and they go
into a game and Jade Dogs is just a part
and that's that's the best part for me. I mean,
before we started the podcast, people just came up and
I told me they're like personal story and it's it's touching,
you know, and I feel very grateful to be a
part of a brand. And like, if if I ever
met like the owner of like Taco Bell or Carls Junior,

(15:46):
I wouldn't go, you know.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
And telling my Carls Junior story because I don't really
have one. It probably didn't end well right, but started
better than it. I do, I do, I do, love
I do.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
I don't go there very often, but it's like there's
something about Jade Dogs and there's something about Utah that
people just they just love the brand.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
And I'm just I'm grateful for it because I.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
Can literally think of multiple times of where I was
eating a Jay Dogs. That's so weird that doesn't work
with other foods. So I've really I've actually studied you
more than you think, because I'm a branding marketing expert,
Like that's what I really am so interested in it,
and you just have done certain things to get people
to know that, just to crave your food, to want it,
to have the experience of eating a hot dog, and

(16:28):
to me, that just fascinates me and me too from
a branding standpoint, I'd love to hear if there was
anything like any insights or anythings that you purposely did
just knowing how to do that or how because you
built a brand out of a hot dog that is
literally every person in Utah knows exactly what it is
when you I.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Always tell people the blind squirrel finds an acorn every
now and then, And I just feel like I don't
have a background in marketing. I just wanted I just
wanted to treat people right, and the food had to
hit And I think there's something between, Like you get
a bund that's made fresh every day. I mean that's
proprius and the meat and the bun is proprietary, so
we make we have that made for us.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
That's just not something.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
We're grabbing off the shelf, just the combo of it,
but just I just like to think about how you
feel when you leave. And granted there are days that
we absolutely miss on that, but most of the days
we try hard to make people.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
How did you get it right so quickly with the
hot dog, the bun and the sauce, because again, like
so many places, they have to go through all these
you know, literations to get something great. I mean, it's you,
that bun is it's soft, and that dog is like
no other dog. It's you know, in the saucet. Who
even knows where that things comes from?

Speaker 2 (17:35):
It? Do you want to know?

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yeah, I'll tell you.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
I'll tell you a sort. You want to know where
the hot dog?

Speaker 1 (17:39):
I want to hear all of it? Yeah. Out doors
with John of course, that was like a mighty show
growing up.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
With the raccoons. They're like, don't eat that, you know? Yeah,
like the lips and assholes, you know.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
That's what's inside the dude that keeps getting hit by lighting.
I never laughed so hard.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
When I was like five years old.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
I lived just south of campus and there's this fabulous
bakery down there called Provo Bakery. It's a little tiny
and they do breads, they do donuts, and it's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
I found a bun there that I really really liked,
and we originally started out with Provo Bakery. The dog.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
I just tried every single dog I can find, and
at that time, this brand was selling at Sam's Club,
and so I would buy the dog at Sam's Club
because none of the like Cisco or US Foods or Nicholas.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Would even deal with me.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
I didn't have any credit and I didn't have any money,
So those are somewhat important start a business.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
And then the sauce. Actually I started jad dogs without the.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
Sauce and so ketchup and mustard back then ketchup and mustard,
which I still like to put on it.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
I do too. Yeah, but I went so I had
the bun from Prova Bakery.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
We're getting the It was a dog made up in
Salt Lake, but it was sold through just local Sam's
Clubs and whatever in grocery stores around here. Started with that,
and then I went over Christmas the first year that
first year, and my mom was like simmering little smokies
in barbecue sauce, you know, in like croc pod. I
was like, holy cow, like this would be like it

(18:58):
was in the sauce. So that's also was like originally
my grandmother clipped that recipe out of a newspaper during
the forties when my grandpa was in flight school in
World War two. S it's a wow story. And then
she shot showed my mom how to make it. My
grandma at that like shortly after, like she had no
recollection of even remembering how to make it. So that

(19:19):
was good for me because it was this one less
source that knew, like the actual sauce right that we
had to like take out eventually.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
But my mom would like make it for my mom.
My mom would make it.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
For just whatever, barbecue or whatever, and so I in
my mind I was like, oh my gosh, that would
be great. So then when I came back, I started
brewing that just on my own in a little pan
every morning, you know, when I would open. So but
since then, like Prova Baker, as we grew and grew,
it just became a little bit more than they wanted.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
To tackle, which is cool. I mean, they make a great.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
Product, but it was like we don't, we don't have
the means to grow with you. Grateful for the time
we had with them, but they ended up selling me
the recipe. And then that dog company in Salt Lake
actually went out of business without telling me. I called
it like place in order, and they're.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Like, uh, we're closed, oh.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Geez, and I'm like, I mean clothes closed, or they're
like clothes closed. So my wife explains it as she
thought I was having a stroke when I like hung
up the phone and I was just kind of like catatonic,
and just I couldn't process what I was hearing. So
I called my partner justin I'm like, okay, you go
south and I go north, and we hit every grocery
floor in every Sam's club and basically got like five

(20:32):
or six days worth us all. And in that time,
I went to the family that owned this company, we
negotiated a deal, paid them way too much.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
After they'd already shut it down, after.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
They already shut it down.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
And then I also got I know, none of the
vendors would work with these guys because they weren't paying them.
So I went and bought like twenty pounds of meat,
a bunch of spice, got hobbled a crew back together,
and got them to make one more Megabatch and then
we used that and then during the time I went
out and was just going to city to city to

(21:03):
city trying to find the manufacturers.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Wow, it was wild. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
They wouldn't bring it to you because you were doing
so much volume with them to try to sell.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
It to you before they just went under. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
They it was like a family run and it was
all this fighting and I was just like, Okay, they're done.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
So I bought. I bought all their ip I bought.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Everything, and then I I've since we've bounced from like
three to four. But the one we're in now they're fantastic.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
So you own each part of it. Now I own everything. Yeah, amazing.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
One of the things that captivates me about you is
like I still just remember you in that shack, and
I think so many people probably hear you're a hot
dog guy and kind of like almost don't give you
the credibility of the business entreprene Now you're on boards
and you build this giant you know, really mini empire.
Is it ever kind of funny to you just the
idea of like you go into the hot dog guy,
but really you're this highly successful entrepreneur that you're, you know, businessman.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
I think I think that's kind of like if I
get in my brain a little bit too much, it'll
bother me.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
But then I'm just like, wait, it's what I do.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
I excel hot dogs, and I don't need to shout
from the rooftops of like all the other stuff that
I think I am that I'm maybe I'm not. At
the end of the day, It's like, who cares, man,
I'm like just telling hot dogs, which I love, and
like that's just the stuff that affords me to like
spend time with kiddos and the real good stuff.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah, have you ever been tempted to start another food business?

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Something else? That maybe would?

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Sometimes when I get pissed at the employees, I'm like,
I'm gonna start my own hot dog company.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
I'm gonna put you guys.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Out of business.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
I call it like our Dogs or something.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
I don't know, Like I have these fantasies of like,
you know, you think the business has gotten a little
bit too complex or too far away from kind of
it's the core, And I'm like, screw you guys, I'm
gonna start my own thing and put you down. But
uh no, I'm always interested I love the hospitality. I've
had some like really cool opportunities to like help other people.
You know, you had Corey Steven's on here from tap Shoes.

(22:58):
He started a protein popsicle now it's called Tough Pops
and able to help him and invest in that and
just in little ways, you know, but see that we
actually office together, so I kind of scratch that itch
a little bit of like being involved and kind of
watching him and his wife build this brand and just.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Help other people. But I do, I do. I don't
know what else I would do if I wasn't doing food.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Yeah, it is kind of the scary thing because it's
like this is like probably the hardest business to run
is the food business. The margins are so tight, and
then like the people aspect is awesome, but sometimes it's
just you know, you get these calls like weekly going
what did they do?

Speaker 1 (23:41):
My op sky is.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Like trying to explain to me what some DRABBRONI did
in the back of the kitchen and.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Come again, what did they do?

Speaker 1 (23:48):
You know?

Speaker 2 (23:48):
I get those a lot, and I just kind.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Of asks you, You're like, how am I dealing with
this today?

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (23:52):
And then it's like, wow, the tech business sounds so
good with like no inventory and like three or four
people in an office sounds amazing. But now we have
over three hundred employees now, and it's just it's pretty
it's pretty cool to think that they a lot of them,
it's like their first jobs, and it's like, that's that's
pretty cool to put on the resume that and I
hope that it's a good experience for them.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah, it's amazing. They learned some some cool skills wout there.
I didn't realize you had that many employees. That's incredible.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, well so you probably get asked to mentor a lot.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
You know.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
One of the reasons again we do this whole event
is so that people can learn from other people. And
what advice do you give when you have entrepreneurs or
people that are younger they want to start a food
product or a restaurant or I don't do it? I
do you really believe that?

Speaker 3 (24:34):
Sometimes sometimes I do, But no, I can't tell people
not to chase something that they're passionate about. Because, you know,
when I wanted to start, my dad actually told me,
who's my biggest fan and my you know.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
We're tight. He's get your guitar back. I did get
it better.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
Yeah, and my little my youngest son's learning how to play.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
He's like, Dad, can I play your lexic guitar.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
I'm like, not yet, you know, because it's too special.
But uh yeah, my dad, my dad was like my parent,
my parents. My parents didn't go to college, right, so
to have kids go to college is a big deal, right.
But then when you tell your parents I'm dropping out
of school to start a hot dog stand, there's this
moment of panic, rightfully, So, I mean, I have kids now.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
My oldest is on a mission right now.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
She's going to Indonesia and she was at BYU and
she can't Dad, I'm going to drop out of school. Secretly,
I probably would go yes, you know, like do it.
But you know, my parents were a little bit worried
about it, rightfully. So and then my dad was like, well,
I don't have to worry about you because you never
finish everything.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
You never finish anything you start. Oh wow. And so
it was kind of like one of these, dad, right,
Jay Dogs was kind of one of these.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
And uh there come also twenty one days.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
You know, you know, we laugh about it now, but honestly,
that was kind of like the impetus. So for me
to say, now, that's not going to work. And I
had so many people when I was pitching the idea,
especially like in the BYU like Entrepreneur Center, They're like, no,
that's not a great idea, you know, and I'm just
like okay. So I feel like I feel like I'm
not a judge of someone's idea because it could be unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Well, and even if it doesn't work out, you learn
so many lessons. You get the you know, the life lessons.
It's like that's what I had the gift early on
when I did my meat business. It ended up failing
because I you know, I ended up partnering with a
guy and he was from the Netherlands. He ended up
stealing all the money and I was stuck with all
the debt and I didn't know what I.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Was doing and maybe you were selling it out of
the back of the van we were I went out.
Part actually worked pretty good. Yeah, it's like the Phil
Knight of meats. Literally.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Well, actually funny, George.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
I was listening to an interview with Jordan Bellfort recently,
who became the Wolf of Wall Street guy.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
That's how he started out.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
I'm like, oh great, But what I was going to
say was is, you know, I ended up with a
huge amount of debt. I had to pay the banks back.
I had to pay all these different suppliers back. And
it became the gift of my life because I was
in debt one hundred and twenty thousand dollars at age
twenty two, twenty three. And I mean I had my buddy,
my roommate at the time was my best friend from
high school. He worked at the hat store at the mall,

(26:58):
and that guy had a one hundred nineteenth, nine hundred
ninety dollars more than me.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
Because I was dead up to my eyeballs.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
I remember just being jealous of his situation, just like
he just goes to the mall and comes home. But
what was cool is from there I got into real estate.
And because of that failure, my back was against the
wall so hard that I had to come out in
full force. So the gift of my life, truly was
that I had this failure in my meat business because
it was the impetus to get me to go work

(27:24):
so hard I was. I mean, I'm sitting here going
to the you know, the ward. The singles ward and
they're saying they're given a lesson, and the girl asked
a question. She's like, I'm supposed to get engaged with
this guy, but he's got two thousand dollars credit card debt?
Do you think I should still do it?

Speaker 2 (27:36):
I'm over here with.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
One hundred and twenty grand going I need to pay
this off now, totally. So I really felt that pressure.
I felt, you know, I needed so it really was though,
So even when things don't work, it truly was like
the greatest thing that could have happened to me in
that case.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
I believe it one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
I still wake up every morning thinking about what I
need to get done and stuff hanging over my head.
And that's just how I motivated a little bit by fear.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Right.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
I don't want this to fail. I've got three hundred people.
You know that I'm responsible too. I wouldn't say I'm
responsible for I would say I'm responsible too, But yeah,
for me, I'm the same way. I like it really
really in one hundred and twenty.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
That's that's a small one, man, I know, no, I
felt like hundred thousand dollars one.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Then I'm just like Oh that sucks, man, that hurts.
But I mean, it's just how it is.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
But I firmly believe that if you if you have
a safety net, it's very, very possible, then you're not
gonna agree.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Well, it's one of the reasons why I discourage people
from taking money or if I'm gonna invest with somebody,
I want to make sure that owner already is plot
committed with his own money. Now, I will not invest
with somebody it's not putting their own money in because
there is just a different element of like when it
gets hard, because it's going to it's gonna get impossible,
and you're going to be like, there is not a
single reason I should keep doing this. It's kind of
nice to have a couple hundred grand on your own

(28:50):
money at it or whatever that.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Needs to be so that you keep pushing through.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
And I will never invest with somebody that's not in
it themselves because it just is that hard and you
need somebody to make sure that they pushed through that.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
I agree one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
So you said something about a partner. Did you take
on a partner or how did you have.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Got My guy justin with he has been almost from
day one.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
It's been sweat equity, he's got some phantom stock and
it's just been a really good relationship. But yeah, he's
he's been probably the you know us together. I couldn't
have done it without him. You know, he could probably
have done it without me.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
I don't know, but I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
How hard was it to let go of? He's another
problem that you know, entrepreneurs have is to have a
really hard time allowing it to grow sometimes and allowing
other people to take that role that you've been doing
it only you can do, right.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
It's so hard, Well we think it's the only That's what. No,
that's why I laugh about it. I see what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
Uh yeah, I don't want to be the one that's
like getting in my own way and the boat anchor
of the company. And I feel like we've gotten to
a point where maybe somebody else could do it a
little bit better or just kind of run the day
to day better, But right now it's me, and I
still feel grateful that I'm doing it, But I I
do feel that there there is a time that you

(30:02):
just have to be honest with yourself and go is
truly what I'm best at and do I want to.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Do this for another twenty years in this role?

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Well, it's going to ask that. I mean, you seem
to still be passionate about it. How do you stay
passionate about you? Because some people they can't keep passionate
about anything about a family or about a thing that
they've been living for their whole life, or a business
they're trying to build that can change the world. You
stay passionate about hot dogs, and so like, what is
the secret there or what have you been able to
do to keep that passion and to keep that energy

(30:30):
for something as simple as selling hot dogs?

Speaker 3 (30:33):
Well, honestly, at Ebbs and Flows, I mean, if my
wife are here, she would tell you that there are
some pretty high highs and there are some pretty terrible lows.
And COVID was an absolutely terrible low. And like I remember,
like when everything shut down, it was like, I don't
know what I'm gonna do. And I remember sitting there
at our kitchen table, and from our table out the window,

(30:54):
we have this great view of squat fee pro vot
excuse me, kiev.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Kaive whatever we can switch it squaky, it's right out there.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
And we had just mandated we had to close the
store the dining rooms down. So COVID for me was
not this break of like, yeah, we could stay home
and work and this is great.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
This is like I don't know how I'm gonna do.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
So I'm looking outside and it's snowing. I'm like, okay,
now I have to work outside because we had like
a trailer, were sitting up canopies with these grill and
then I just all of a sudden just start crying.
I was like sobbing, like uncontrollably, so loud that it
like woke my wife up.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
And this was at four thirty five o'clock in the morning.
She's like, are you okay? And I'm like, I don't
know if I'm okay.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
And then and then we went down this might be
getting a little too vulnerable. We went down to this
place where I the storaguned down South Provo, where I
keep the trailer, and I don't know if you guys
remember we.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Had an earthquake.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, I'm like I felt like everything was falling.

Speaker 3 (31:53):
It's happening, and like my downtown store, like the facade
in the outside like fell off and they had to
like close it down. And basically like condemn the building,
and there's all these like streams of income were.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Like drying up, and I thought my world was ending.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
But you know, so if like I can, if I
can get through that, I feel like I got through
just for love of for people, and I just I
felt like, you know, I don't I didn't lay anybody off.
We kept everybody. If they wanted to work great. If
they didn't, they would honestly they would choose to leave.

(32:29):
But we didn't fire anybody. And that just taught me of, like, man,
if I can get through this, there must be something
here with the brand. Because the community really rallied hard
man like people showed up, they bought like the grill
kits and we went on like tour all over the
state of Utah, man and we were like selling these things.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
Out of that what probably helped you get even more
dialed in on how to cater and work events differently
and do individual kinds of things to kind of help
with that.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Secretly, like COVID was really really good, you know, not financially,
I just got kicked in the teeth, but it was
really good to kind of like get back to the basics,
but to get back to your question of like twenty
one years singled on one thing. I mean, for me,
there's there's some different outlets or some creative outlets of
like I love designing the stores. I like the kind

(33:15):
of the dance of the negotiations, like working with the architects,
the attorneys and kind of like making these things happen
because it just like it's all the dopamine fired in
my brain. So I feel like I'm just like I'm
a really good like wartime general, but like peacetime, I'm
not great, you know, because I do like the chaos
a little bit. I do like the ks, I do

(33:36):
like the challenge. Yeah, but yeah, it's a long time
to be doing one thing, and it's kind of a rarity.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
I'm kind of learning.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
So yeah, and that's why, you know, I think I
was quite so interested in that because it is rare
that somebody stays that focused, and it really is. I
have a buddy that he was an entrepreneur. He is
an entrepreneur, but he bounces about every three or four years,
and he ends up selling his company for five hundred grand,
four hundred grand, six hundred grand, just enough to start
the next one, basically, And there's successful exits. But he

(34:04):
said something to me. You know, a couple of years ago.
He said, you know, as we've all been friends for
fifteen years now, and the one buddy went all in
on crypto literally twelve fifteen years ago.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
He's moved to Puerto.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Rico to not pay his taxes because he's worth a
couple hundred million.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
One of those guys.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah, the other guy went all in on a trailer
dealership and he's you know, millions of dollars coming through
and I've had my success with real estate. And then
another buddy that did it with financial planning and he's
got where of the biggest firms in Utah.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Now he has his own plane.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
And he said, what I realized was that every one
of you guys got laser focused on one thing and
you stuck to it.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
And I was like, shiny object syndrome. I think so many.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
People live in a world where attention is everybody's number
one commodity they're trying to sell, and so it's really
hard to keep your focus more than ever. And so
if you can do that, if you can laser in
on something and not fall for that temptation to bounce
to the next sing or the Higher Deal or whatever
it might be. Just it needs time to simmery. You
have to put that ten fifteen years in. At the
end of that you're going to be at the wealth

(35:02):
position you want to be in.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah, I would agree. I would agree with that.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
I think there is a temptation in Utah because there
is massive success, or there appears to be massive success.
And I remember I would like I would walk into
like deliver dogs to the company I'd walk into like Introtta,
or I'd walk into Quadrats or walk into Vivient or whatever,
and I I'd have this like internal dialogue like what

(35:27):
am I doing wrong? Like right, like I've been at
this like ten years and some of these companies were
just like overnight, and I was like what am I
doing wrong? And then I would i would think about
like wow, they have all these things, and I'm like,
You're such an.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Idiot, right, you have an idiot?

Speaker 3 (35:45):
Like if if if twenty years ago Jay looked at
and I'm not saying any like worldly success, but just
said just a wife and kids and like a like
a home, a comfortable home, and like I literally in provo, I.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Take my golf cart to work I work so close.
My office is so close. If I have to go farther,
then I'm going to run out of battery. I'm like,
I don't want to go.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
So this was like big for me to drive the
lehigh because I just I just I've got my own
little thing. I got the gym, the rec center, I
go to plunge, and then I go to office.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Just repeat. I do that every day, and I think.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
That's part of the excess, too, is like getting into
like a rhythm, totally getting into I'm very schedule oriented
and almost like wear the same thing every day.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
I don't want to have all these.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Choices, but we also knowing what to say no to
and not getting caught up as to you know, that's
a mistake I made, you know, over and over again
and finally kind of narrow that back in I'm nine,
notas for every one, yes now you know it used
to beat it way.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
It's every temptation.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
The temptation is real, and so for me, it's just
like I have to just say I'm I'm okay, I'm
doing fine. You know, there are some things that kind
of like you think that you want or you deserve,
and you don't.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Need that stuff.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
Yeah, I be honest, Like a lot of times when
you hear those stories of like guy, if they have
the plan, they have this, and then you see him
in the news like a year later of like.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yeah, a lot of them playing on my dime.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Yeah, or they.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Didn't have a life.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
It's just you know, it's just like if I would
get a part any wisdom, it's just learn how to be,
learn how to be comfortable in your own skin right,
and know what it is that you've been put on
the earth to do.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Right for me? Is that hot dogs?

Speaker 3 (37:28):
I don't know, but it's just what I'm doing right
now and it makes people happy and honestly makes me happy,
and it's an honest living. So it's like, find something
that you can do that's an honest living that you
can contribute to the society and just learn how to
be because there's there's so much out here and your
brain just starts playing all these tricks on you.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
It's like, wow, if I had that, if I had that,
if I it's like stop.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
Right, it's like enough right now, you're enough. You don't
need it, and just just try to like make the
world a little bit better and just you know, grow
your planted and just just enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Yeah, it's such good advice. I had a mentor the
way he said it to me, I say this every day,
at least one time a day, I'll think of it.
He said, be careful trying to be happier than happy. Yeah,
And I was like, damn, that's deep because so often
like we forget, you know. Chris Williamson came here last week.
He's been on my podcast and he talks about this.

(38:24):
He said, most people sacrifice the thing they want happiness,
thinking that if they sacrifice long enough, they'll get this
place where they can then be happy. Yeah, but they
sacrifice the happiness to get it. And it's just fascinating
to me. And it's you know what you just said.
It's find something that makes you happy and be content
with that thing, and that is the secret to being happy.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
I would agree. I just have this.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
My daughter and I were driving up and a friend
of mine called. He's in his sixties, an executive with Nike.
He had this great career and I was like, well, Michael,
what are you up to? And he's like one driving
to a funeral. He's like my sister in law, passed
away like uninspected, and he's like, he's like, you've never known.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
You got to live like there's no tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
And you know, that's kind of the one of the
things that I get kind of caught up into is like, well,
at some point you're gonna sell and then you're gonna
have all this time. But you never want to sacrifice
the stuff that's like really important now for stuff, you know,
and put it off for things down the road. So
if like there's something you can do now, just do
it and enjoy it and be the be with the

(39:28):
people that you love and be present. And that doesn't
have to be expensive or extravagant. I'm just saying, you know,
my my son, his name's.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
Calvin, he's fourteen.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
I have these I have this meeting out in New
York City with these private equity guys, and I knew
nothing was going to come of this meeting.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
But it like they was set up. They wanted to
meet me.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
And these guys are your typical Wolf of Wall Street
guys and you know, very successful, and uh, I brought
my son with me and his name I told you,
his name is Calvin, and my wife books the hotel
and you know, if I'm going to stay in New York,
I would not want to stay at Times Square. But
of course it's like the most you know, price friendly

(40:10):
place is actually in Times Square.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Like it's still like four hundred a night for kind
of like your low end Marriott, you know, yea. And
I love Marriott, by the way, I invested Mary, I love,
I love you Marriott. I don't worry.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
That's like that's a good Marriyout for New Year's though,
I got a nice rooftop bar.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
But I just I don't know. I don't know about that. Jimmy, Like,
I don't know. I'm down in the basement. You're in
the penthouse. I don't know what's going on.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
I just knock up there.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
I took my son with me and he, uh, you know,
we're doing these meetings, and you know.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Like three years later, he's like, Dad, do you remember
that trip to New York? That was the best trip.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
And I'm like, why, buddy, He's like, well, we went
and found that pizza place that I love.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
And then that one night.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
We just we just went back to the hotel room
and you remember we just sat around us and ate
pizza and watched Uncle Buck, and I'm like, yeah, I
actually I do remember, dude, that is the greatest memory
of his life.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
Do you remember when we watched Uncle Buck and we
ate pizza in that hotel? Dad, I'm like, yeah, I do.
It's just something like that. It's so meaningful to me.
I was like, yeah, this is okay, but it was
like this is incredible, you know. So just to have
more experiences like that and bring people on that.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
That's incredible, And it really is the secret. I mean,
it's funny as you're saying that. I was dating a
woman a couple of years ago. We went to New
York and her favorite thing was the last night. We
were tired, so we ordered pizza and sat there on
the bed watching a movie. And it was like, there's
something about that, right, but just.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
The woman that had two thousand dollars in debt or whatever.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
No, no, no, well awesome. I would make this podcast longer,
but I think everybody's starting to get anxious for the
Jade Dog. So we'll do a quick little Q and
A if that's okay, absolutely, guys, Can we first give
it up for Jason? Raise your hand if you got

(42:07):
a question that's let's hear it. Who has a question
for Jason?

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yeah, Jared why my mom.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Was appalled at the name, and so in honor of
my mom, somebody actually came and stole the sign to
I think she might have like paid somebody to she was.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
She was appalled.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
So would you be offended if I started a rival
called Wanaers too?

Speaker 2 (42:29):
Only if you sell them out the back of your van?

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Jimmy doing that again?

Speaker 2 (42:34):
You've had I think you've had your share of meat business.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Yeah. The hardest part for my business is it was
you couldn't find any good guys to sell it, and
so I think we took three of our nine sales guys.
They had to get a drug test every morning before
they could head out. I was like, I'm not dealing
with this anymore.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
So you were selling like like you were like cases
of stage. My boss gave me permission to.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
So what I would say is they didn't like lying.
So I would say, hey, I've got twelve cases of meat.
As soon as I get rid of it, I get
to go home. If you'll help me with one, I'll
give you two for free. That was my pitch.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
It was that's a pretty good pitch.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Pretty good. Yeah, there was this pretty there. Yeah, yeah, anyway, that.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
Was horse horse meat sells. Man, it's good.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
I wasn't eating it. No, I'm just kidding. No, it's funny.
I got all my salespeople in Prova. We would throw
barbecues and I'd serve steak and chicken where everyone else
would eat like a shitty hot dog normally before you
came along.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
You know, maybe that's what that's what you should call
your company, a shitty hot dogs.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
We'll see. It just served Dodger dogs. We'll see, we'll
see how it goes.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
All invest You wouldn't put us out of business immediately.
So yeah, who else anybody got some?

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (43:39):
Sorry?

Speaker 5 (43:40):
And almost small just like.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
Yeah, like a like a Franklin barbecue that sells out
at you know, two o'clock every day.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
That's that's originally how it was.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
I mean, we're only open limited hours and on Saturday
it was only twelve to four. In fact, my daughter
was commenting on this old picture. He's like, you were
only open twelve to four. She works there at the
Provos store now and she's like comes home at eleven.
She's like, oh that sucked so late, you know, But yeah,
there's something to that I really think there is, and
that I think that was part of like what drove
the initial demand. And I do think that maybe maybe

(44:26):
we're making it too available and too much of a commodity.
So I wrestle with those questions. But it is nice
to like when you want something to go and then
they have it, but there is something too, Sorry, we'll.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
See you tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
We're sold out, you know, so and then and we
do deal with that because everything's fresh.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
So it's like you run out of bread.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
There's no more bread, and you just have to wait
until they make it again that night and deliver it
the next day.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
So I want to ask a question real quick. I
meant to did you ever were you ever tempted to
sell out to for you know, it's like a VC company.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Yeah, And I always feel like when those guys come around
is when I'm the I was frustrated and so it's
just kind of I I I literally, I literally have
a couple of people that I call.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
One of them. I remember I call Case Lawrence. You
know Case.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
I've had him on my podcast yeah with the Case.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
Yeah, He's like, dude, just give yourself some time, Like
you just went through COVID it has been hard.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Don't do it, and like the vultures come out, you know, like, yeah,
we want to we want to invest, we want to grow,
will help, We'll give you all this.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
And I'm just like, he's like, dude, don't do it,
and I I I give case for that very reason.
I'm like, dude, you'd like you'd like save me because
I could have. I could have made a really really
bad decision, emotional decision.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Well that's awesome. It's the power of it. That's what
I want. This whole program is to build community. I
you can count on men to help you when you
need it, and you know, and when things are getting tough.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Who you just want to say that I depend on
women too.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
Correct, But I know what you're getting at. Yeah, but
I'm a I'm a free I'm a gender. I'm a
free I'm any gender.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Works for me. There's like, well, I'm from Portland, so
I'm like, I don't care. I just like I would say,
for things, go to your woman and she can help.
But for that ten percent, we don't want to collapse.

Speaker 5 (46:03):
No.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
I my honestly, my wife is so freaking smart and
she has agree in accounting and her dad like ran
the Entrepreneur Center funny enough at BYU, so like it's
like in her blood and like if if she was
running the business.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
We would have five hundred locations right now. I swear
on my life we would. That's fair. She's a general man,
she is. She's impressive.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
But uh yeah, I credit Case too the fact that
we still have jadobs right now.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
But I've never told him that.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
But if you're listening, Case, yeah, I'll let him know.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
He was on the podcast a couple of years agohen
he was running for office, and yeah, I had a
really cool, really wish he would have won. Yeah, we
need the wrong people, won't I would say, So, Yeah,
that's all I.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Have to say.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Yeah, I had a few of them on during that time.
Who else has a question?

Speaker 2 (46:47):
You had a question?

Speaker 3 (46:58):
I went and saw seeing a therapist. That's no joke,
that's serious. I talked to one. She calls herself a
life coach, but she's a therapist. She's literally like turned
my life around. I just carried a lot of crap
that I didn't even know I was carrying, and just
had all these knots tied up in my brain that she's.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
Helped me unravel. I re recommend everybody.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
She's unbelievable. But yeah, I went and saw started to
see her. But for me, it was just like I
just for me, I just put my head down and
I grind and that's just how I deal with things,
healthier or not, and that just kind of got me through.
But the greatest thing about that whole situation is like,
you really found out who are the eagles and who

(47:39):
are the turkeys? And we had so many My friend
Chad Lewis is like, you got to figure out who
your eagles are and who the turkeys are. You know,
he played for the Eagles, so maybe there's a little
play on words there. But we had so many people
within our organization that just came out and lifted hard
and got us through it. But those those first those
first three weeks pretty dark, like pretty dark.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
We tried our friends group locally. We uh, we got
about fifteen of us all bought ten thousand dollars worth
of gift cards to the local restaurants to try.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
To help the love that time.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Yeah, I still haven't in my truck. I'll find them
all the time. I'm like, oh, ivy juice bar to
forget a free juice.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
There.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
There were so many people like that.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
I remember the first day that I was out in
the trailer on the driveway, Ryan Smith came up and
he was petrified about getting sick, but he just came up,
drove up to the outside of the store. He texted me,
He's like, I need three hundred dogs from my He
was a y SA Bishopric. And then he just took

(48:39):
his credit card. He just pressed it up against the
window and I like took a picture of it, and
I'm like, and uh, you know, I haven't bought anything,
you know.

Speaker 2 (48:48):
With it. It was just it was just kind of
keep it in your emergency file. It was just it
was just kind of that and that.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
And that was just one.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
But he was the first. It's awesome, and that was
just one of the there's so many. I remember being
so touched.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Uh it's funny that we're talking about this five years later,
but it's just Ingrain.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
It's like our it's our pearl harbor.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Well, entrepreneurs, we get it.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
It's just that was you know, we needed each other
in that time.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
Yeah, And I honestly, I feel like I haven't even
processed it yet. Because it was like, Okay, we're back open.
It's like keep grinding. There was no kind of downtime
for me. But I was walking around the block and
I saw one of the shut ins.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
In our ward.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
I was actually like, our ministring brother, if you know
what that means, ask a missionary. They'll tell you.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
You know. But there's uh.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
I was like, they've changed the name. Since they've changed it, yeah,
it's been a while. I was a home teacher.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Yeah, it's kind of the same thing, but just marketed
in a different way.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
Like branding sounded good, very progressive. Ministry sounded a lot.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
It's a higher, holier way. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
I could see myself falling for that. It is like
the ministrying brothers are coming up.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
I'm like, let them in.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
They're like there's a teachers Like, oh, I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
Yeah, but there we go. We'll talk, we'll get you,
we'll get you. I'll get you out to speed. She
had she had these, uh she had. I saw these
ziploc bags taped to the outside of.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
The screen door, and I got up a little closer
and she was like thinking the FedEx driver and inside.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
The zip block bags where Jadox gift certificates. That was
so cool, so amazing. It was fun, very cool.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
We got time for probably one or two more questions. Yeah,
over here, go ahead, everything.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Don't screw this up.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
I don't really, you know, there is a quote that's like,
if you wanna, if you wanna, if you want to
build a boat, don't like get a bunch of people
and yell at them to gather wood and gather cloth
and got all this stuff. It's like teach them to
learn to yearn for the sea. That kind of thing
is like, so I I I think about that, and like,
I don't want to give my people a list of

(50:54):
a checklist to do this and do that and do
this and become like robotic for me.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
It's like teaching them to love people. And then all
those things kind of naturally happen. So and then the
other one is like, don't screw this up.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
It's like the Office when Dwight He's like, I always
think to myself, what would a stupid person do?

Speaker 2 (51:11):
And if I think of that, I don't do that thing.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
That's that's basically, but I'm honestly I don't. I don't
really get that deep and Uh, I just I just
try to I try to do my best every day
and move the needle just one little bit every day,
kind of like the James Clear you know, book of
Atomic Habits.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
I just try to get better a little bit every.

Speaker 3 (51:32):
Day, and sometimes I closs of just fail terribly.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
But I feel like over over time, you know, I'm
trying to get better. Yeah, amazing.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Yeah, And one last question, anybody else got a go ahead.

Speaker 4 (51:47):
What's your methodology for when you grow? Because it was
a very expensive business.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Absolutely, you know, I invested.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
I invested heavily in employees from the get go, and
that's honestly why I didn't let anybody go during COVID too,
because I just knew when things bounce back, we're gonna
need people. But for me, like I've always been kind
of a shoot from the hip guy for better or
for worse.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
But I feel like put.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Some data behind it and then be led by the data.
But for me, I get when I get into trouble,
I'm just always shooting from the hip. And I was like, yeah,
come on, you can come work for me. Just find
somebody that's awesome, whether we can afford them or not,
I bring them on because I was like, Wow, this
is like to have this kind of personality and this
expertise is awesome.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
And I usually like I.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Will be the one that like to make less or
like go into debt to like bring these people on,
and sometimes that works and sometimes that doesn't. But I
would just I would be really like kind of mindful
about it and hire. My father in law always told
me higher slow and fire fast. And I don't know
if that even like begins to answer your ques question,
but I would. I think there's a lot of analytics

(53:03):
that go into it, but there's just kind of that
gut too, of like making sure there are going to
be a good like culture fit and you know fit
in your tribe use that word tribe. I just I
just work that in Boom. But yeah, I as I said,
I'm just, I'm just I'm just trying to figure it
out too. But I'm drawn to people with like good
attitudes that are enthusiastic and are willing to learn, and

(53:26):
if I I feel like I need them, I'll bring
them in.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
But as as as as it is now.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
I'm just I'm trying to be a little bit more
professional as we grow and go outside of Utah. So
there are some metrics that we kind of look at.
I'm just kind of learning now. Interesting you ask, because
I'm kind of going through that process right now, But yeah,
it's a it's.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
A learning game. Man.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
I wish I had a more technical answer for you,
but I don't, and I'm not gonna lie about it.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
I just what's figuring it out.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
The great advice that you know, higher slow and fire fast.
And it's hard when you love your employees and you're
trying to help them and me too. It's my least
favorite thing. And I can't think of a time I
fired somebody and wished I had held on more. But
it's so hard to let somebody go that you love.
And it's you know, a lot of times you have
the wrong person in the wrong position or the right

(54:13):
person the wrong position, but it doesn't fit for your
company at that time, and you do have to fire them.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
I get like sick to my stomach. Same, It's the worst.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
It's the absolute worst. And then the HR director is like,
you don't have to pay these people, so I'm like, yeah,
I do.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Like no, you don't like, but I do.

Speaker 3 (54:30):
And so that you just you just have to remember
that people are people and this is not like you're
not Donald Trump on the whatever, the Apprentice, that's just
a bunch of bull crap and don't get me started on.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
Don't get me started.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
But no, it's good.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
I feel like you really need to just remember that
everybody's trying their best and I have made I've made
some mistakes in knee jerk of like yeah, we're done,
when I should have been more patient with people.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
Guys, let's give it up. Okay, thank you,

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#666 - Jayson Edwards - Founder of J-Dawgs Builds Food Empire from Selling Hot Dogs

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#666 - Jayson Edwards - Founder of J-Dawgs Builds Food Empire from Selling Hot Dogs