BEYOND IMPOSSIBLE: Episode #1 - Mr. Potato

Welcome to Beyond Impossible, where we sit with some incredible hard working figures in the Australian sphere, who achieved the impossible by means of hard work, dedication and relentless action. In today's first episode, our host Joseph, sits with the founders of Mr Potato, Jess and Tyson.

Mr Potato creates a modern spin on your traditional baked potato. Prepared with the freshest of ingredients, customers have the ability to construct their loaded potato in whichever way they please or choose for our famous pre-loaded menu.

Produced by Ten Pieces of Eight

Mr Potato Socials and Links:
https://www.mrpotato.net.au/ 

https://www.facebook.com/MrPotatoAus/

https://www.instagram.com/mrpotatoaus/

https://www.tiktok.com/@mrpotatoaus?lang=en

Transcript

Welcome back to beyond impossible. I am quite excited to have these two guests on with us today. I've got Tyson Hoffman, Jess Davis. Hello?  the founders of Mr. Potato. Yeah, flesh . Now, if you haven't heard of Mr. Potato yet, you will be hearing of it very, very soon. Mr. Potato is a, how can I best put this the.
 
 Funnest way to make a potato. . Absolutely. It's pretty much just a modern spin on the good old traditional baked potato. Um, so we just, yeah, spiced it up a little bit.  so to give some background on Jess and Tyson, they opened their first store in Adelaide in 2018. Yep. And December, December, 2018, right at the end.
 
 So technically nearly 2019  and if I'm correct in saying this, it started on a. Yes. So Tyson and Jess were dating for a couple of weeks. It was a week, I think at tops, honestly, legit was the first, I think it was like maybe three days in. I mentioned it. So during the first week of ever meeting this fabulous girl, I said to her, look, I would love if I knew how I would love to start a healthy.
 
 Potato place. I have no idea how to do it. Um, but I just told her about it. And then that's how it stemmed. Yeah. So he was playing basketball and was cooking sweet potato and chicken kind of every day after training. And then yeah, he ran the idea past me at the time. It was funny, cuz I didn't even eat potatoes.
 
 I was on like the no train . So I was like, well I don't eat carbs, but it's a great idea because I know that, you know, everyone else would want to eat that and you know, there wasn't really anyone else doing it. Um, so we knew we had an awesome opportunity and yeah. So I think maybe a few days later I sent him the first, um, essentially I just finished a session.
 
 Yeah. And um, taking my laces off from basketball, check my phone as you do. And I get a text message. It's this potato with sunglasses on it, with like a smile and she's called it Mr. Potato. And I. Showing like creaky and my mates, I was like, dude, what? She's half. I don't know. Was she being serious?  and then she like sent me half like a business plan.
 
 I was like, wow, she's getting like pretty serious. And I went to see, I went and saw her that night and it was like, she's like, there's a gap in the market. This will work. And I was like, you don't even eat potatoes, but anyway, so  so yeah, I think, I think that's one of my favorite stories ever. I am a big, big fan of flexible dieting.
 
 Yeah. And also being able to enjoy what you eat. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. For a period of time. Um, I suffered from body dysmorphia. Yeah. Because I stayed away from potatoes. Yeah. And, um, I've got photos of myself from when I was 79, 81 kilos. Yeah. Where I've got this skinny, fat body can't put on muscle properly.
 
 I'm putting on more fat than I'm actually putting on muscle because I'm under eating at that point. Yep. Yeah. And that's because I wasn't getting enough carbohydrates in. Yeah. And that's because there's just this negative stigma. Ah, no. And it was around for so long, you know, probably like 20, 30 years.
 
 And I think it all stemmed from, you know, about 30 years ago and all the low carb diet kinds Atkins, the Atkins south beach diet. Yeah. You know, all those American kind of. That came. And I mean, even now, you know, we've got the keto diets and things that are like no carbs, but it was funny because when we first opened this door, you know, I actually started then eating potatoes on a daily basis as like my staple food.
 
 And I was like, wow, like I feel great. I've actually got energy for once in my life. And my body actually got improved. Like in that time, you know, I actually started to look better. Um, you know, I was able to build muscle and, you know, lose that, you know, like you said, you know, skinny, fat look so , but yeah, her body's better than it's ever been from eating our food, which is awesome.
 
 People will come in and say, Oh, this can't be good for you. You guys don't eat it. And we're like, we eat it two, three times a day.  and you're like, they're like, really? I was like, yeah, we do like, carbs are good. You need energy. Like, it's just not too much here carbs. So, so we're really missing out right now because obviously the store in Sydney isn't open, we're still waiting for new town to open its doors.
 
 So we've been probably like five months now without our full on missed potato fix, you know, we've had it here and there when we've gone back to Adelaide or visited Queensland stores. Um, but yeah, we're used to eating it. You know, I am jealous like four times a week. I am so jealous that Adelaide and Queensland have gotten it before we have, well, we had to start somewhere.
 
 So yeah. Okay. So starting somewhere, this is what I wanna do. Yeah. We need to get the full story of two and how you two met as well. Yeah. So I'm, I'm gonna start off with Tyson. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Former basketball player. Yep. NBL development league. Am I correct? Yep. So I was with the 36 S on the list for four years.
 
 Um, as a develop as a development player. So I suited up for about 10 different games, got some court time here and there played for them overseas in China. When we played a Chinese Shong Providence. Yeah, it was awesome man, to, to be a part of that and the culture, and also just the friendships you get from that experience.
 
 You become brothers for life, which is just awesome. Can you tell me about how you grew into basketball? Because as we know at, in that period of time basketball, wasn't, you know, as nationally dominant in Australia, definitely. We weren't that excited about it. Definitely like to be, not to my own tour, but to even get to a list for NBL there's only eight, there was only eight teams.
 
 There's only 14 people on a list and you compare that to AFL there's. 20 teams. And there's 50 people on a list. It's just like, I probably picked the harder one to try and make it, but, um, um, did didn't regret it? So when I was, um, nine years, 10 years old, my auntie was a coach in Loxton, which is a town three hours from, um, Adelaide, a little country town with 2000 people in it back then.
 
 And she was coaching the local basketball team and she said, Tyson, you're pretty tall. I was like, maybe five 10 at that age. Um, and she's like, do you wanna come play for us? And I was like, nervous. And I went there and I started playing and had, couldn't make a lay. Couldn't do couldn't really dribble the ball when I just fell in love with it.
 
 I just started to see that this is like something that I like I enjoy doing. I started waking up every morning and training by myself, out the back with the hoop shooting before school I'd during lunchtime, I'd go and just shoot in the gym as much as possible after school I'd play basketball. And that's how I kind of fell in love with it.
 
 And then when it got to, um, it started getting seriously, like under sixteens. I started playing for the, at the state level. But, um, living three hours from Adelaide when the main heavy, like the main competitions in Adelaide, it made a little bit difficult. Wow. My mum's single mom three. We have, I have two other siblings to get their finance wise.
 
 We had to miss a few games here and there miss a few things cause of money, but we made it work. Mum, shout out to mum for doing a good job. But when, um, when I got to, when I got to under eighteens, I was playing, um, between under eighteens and seniors in Adelaide. Um, and then I got, I moved to Melbourne and played for diamond valley Eagles.
 
 Two years. And then I, um, I was actually crazy story, how I got to the 36 S in the first place. It was one of the worst times of my life, but also the best time. And by that, I mean, when I was in Melbourne, my mate, my best mate at the time his mum got hit behind, got hit from behind by a drunk driver. Oh my God.
 
 And they had, um, they had a normal car, but they put the gas bottle, um, in the boot to like, make it so you can switch between them. And he hit them from behind and he pushed the car off the road. And unfortunately his mum passed away from that. And I was really close to him. So when I was in Melbourne, I was playing with Diane valley.
 
 He was right in the middle of the season. I was like, I've gotta get in the car, drove straight back to spend time with him. And when I was back in Adelaide, spending time with him, um, just with their family and obviously the grieving stage, his older brother was in the car as well. He was in a coma because he, his whole body was, um, burnt.
 
 And he was like in life support and he ended up pulling through, but we were going through that at the same time. And I wanted to do something to get the mind off of like my trying to help myself, but also make kale. I wanted to help him get through it. I was like, what, what can we do? Like to, rather than sitting around the house all day, I was like, let's just go for a shot of basketball.
 
 And we went for a shot of basketball. Um, and he recorded me dunking the ball and I put it onto my Instagram and Mitch Creek. Um, who's now the captain for Southeast Melbourne. Phoenix. You might have heard of him. I'm I know Mitch. Well  yeah. Oh, that's good. Yeah. So then he reaches out to me and says, Hey mate, we're short on numbers.
 
 You seem, I don't know him at all at this stage. I'm like, kind of like, oh man, this is awesome. He's even messaged like, Hey mate, we're short on numbers. Do you wanna come out? You seem like a big body. And I was like, it was like the last thing I felt like doing, but also what I've always wanted to do in my whole like basketball career was get to the BL level, at least, you know?
 
 So I was like, emotionally not ready, but I was like, I gotta do it. And I said to my mate, like, look, I'm gonna do he, of course. And I was like, I went out there and I, we trained with, um, creaky. It was like a, and so, and Hodge and DIC. And we were all just doing, um, runs at Ville bus with stadium ad. And the coach Joey rip was there.
 
 And after a few sessions, he said, mate, I'd love to have you as development player for me. Do you wanna move here in like two months? And I was like, and when the season, when the, uh, preseason starts and I was just like, what? This is just crazy. Like, I've just got this random, like a dream from yeah. From the worst thing that's happened.
 
 Like one of the worst things that has ever happened is something really good came from it. And, um, it was hard to be hyped about it when you're around the family. That's grieving as well. So it's like just a really, really funny stage to me in life. I.  um, drove. We had the funeral, I drove back to Melbourne, got all of my stuff in the car.
 
 Didn't have much, my whole life was in the car, drove back to Adelaide and lived at my mates that, um, that I'm talking about his, um, auntie's house lived there. And we, um, and we, yeah, I started training with the Adelaide 30 Sixers and that's how it started. That's how I got the spot. That's it was just, it was nothing to do with game tape or anything.
 
 Joey just seen me play like two or three times and thought he's athletic. He's coachable. Like maybe, maybe he can do it. And that's how it started. It was, yeah. It's one of the best stories I've ever heard.  so I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's mother, but yeah, that's just, uh, You just reminded me of something, uh, a famous Les brown quote, where he says, uh, luck is just opportunity meeting preparation.
 
 Yeah. A hundred percent agree with that. It just kind of, because at that time I was with diamond valley. I didn't know how I was gonna get to the NBL. You always, if you're a basketball, you're looking for the break. You don't know how you're gonna approach these teams. If you don't have a strong network. I didn't.
 
 So I just, I was training like still six hours a day doing like maybe two on court sessions of two hours and hitting the gym for like two hours. I was doing it, but I was only playing for diamond valley. I didn't know how, when the opportunity came up in Adelaide, I was fit and ready. I was in the best shape of my life.
 
 I was, I, I was just was prepared if that was gonna happen and just thank God I just kept doing it. But there were mornings where I was like, why am I even trying this hard? I don't know where I'm going, but yeah, luckily I kept doing it. So how old were you at the time? So I was, um, 20. 20. Yeah. 20 years old.
 
 So 20 years old, around about 2012. Yep. You would've crossed paths with, uh, Ben at one point Simmons Ben Simmons. No, Dante. I did. Yeah, but Ben, he, I have had a shoot around with him. He shot Joe Engels. I have, but not so much, Ben. Yeah. Oh, okay. Don't know him. Personally, Joe Engles. I do. Um, don't Joe's a great guy.
 
 I slow Joe. He's the man, man. Like he's from Adelaide. He's just a laidback guy and he's just down earth. I love it. So, but just the stuff that him and his wife are doing together, you know, all the charities and everything. It's amazing, man. He, he's an amazing guy. We have a lot of time for him. He, yeah, that's, that's a remarkable story.
 
 And then segueing, I would, Jess  whole up because, cause I, I, I need to hear where the cross point was where you guys met. That's that? That's where I'm kind of building up towards this now. Okay. So yeah, so Jess's funny because we actually had met a few times before we actually, prior to that. So your career.
 
 Yeah. So you had a career in modeling, am I correct there saying? Yeah, so I from probably like the age of eight years old, my mom took me into my first modeling agency in Adelaide. Um, it wasn't until I was about 14 that I started to get work, you know, on a more regular basis. Um, But, you know, the work in Adelaide, you know, is, is not that much, you know, it's a small industry.
 
 It's better than the rest of Australia. Yeah. And there's some amazing, you know, models down in Adelaide. Yeah. There's some really beautiful people from there. So you got, you know, a, an industry full of models, but no work. So, um, I got to the age of about 15, 16 and knew that I didn't wanna be in school. Um, I also, so I actually suffered an eating disorder myself.
 
 Um, I ended up in hospital for about a month. Um, sorry to hear that. Yeah, that's okay. It was self-inflicted at the time, you know, my parents went through like a really heavy divorce, so. Uh, they separated when I was about 10 years old and I was the youngest, but I was kind of the go between in their relationship or the breakdown of their relationship.
 
 So, uh, that took a toll on my mental health and yeah, it, it eventuated to become into an eating disorder. Um, so when I got admitted to hospital, I weighed 46 kilos. Um, so I'm 179 centimeters total. So you can just imagine that, like, I was literally nothing but skin and bones. Um, and it took me a long time to, you know, kind of get control over my mind and, and my eating and things like that.
 
 Um, and wanting to be in the, in the modeling industry, you know, it also plays that pressure on me cuz you know, you're looking at other girls and you're like, oh, they're so thin. And they look like this. Um, and so anyway, about 15 years old, you know, I'd gone through all this transitional period of trying to get back into school.
 
 And then I just decided like I don't wanna be at school. You know, I felt like I. Another life that was waiting for me. Um, regardless of whether it was modeling or something else, you know, I just, I never felt like I fit into that, um, kind of school education system. So a lot of us don't yeah.  so I dropped out at 15 and then, uh, it was probably about six months later I went and, uh, my auntie was living in the Northern beaches, uh, for a little while.
 
 And, um, I came and stayed over here with her and I wanted to, you know, get signed to a modeling agency. So I remember I got on the bus one day to get into the city. It's like 45 minute bus ride, you know, so excited. Oh, I'm gonna get signed to an agency. And I went into the first one, got rejected.  second one got rejected.
 
 Third one got rejected was like, well, this sucks. Um, and you know, um, and there's. Uh, I'm just assuming back then. We weren't using Instagram yet. My oh, to promote my God. No, this is way before. I don't even think Facebook existed then. So with door knocking, this is like my space day . So like, there was no way of yeah.
 
 You know, like sending someone a message on there and going, Hey, um, and anyway, so I go back on the bus, took the bus ride home, you know, just feeling really, um, you know, unaccomplished and feeling like a value, like, you know, this is what I wanted to do, but I'm just being told no by three people, you know, is this the right choice for me?
 
 But, uh, it was a few days later. And, um, I was with my auntie and we ran into a local photographer friend of hers in the cafe and, and they said, you know, you've got a great look like, I don't understand, you know, why these agencies would've said no to you. My friend has an agency. I want you to set up an, an appointment with them and go and see them.
 
 so I did like three days later I went and yeah, I got signed to my first agency when I met with them. And, you know, they were kind of, I was in the agency, um, talking to the head Booker and he was looking through my book and he is like, look, to be honest, like you're Adelaide photos and things, you know, they're not that great, but you know, I can see the potential.
 
 I can see you've got a unique look. And then he said, I can tell by the way that the owner's looking at you now that, you know, she wants you to be a part of the agency. So yeah, I got signed and then, uh, I went back to Adelaide and was like, okay, well, the condition of me getting signed was that I had to move to Sydney.
 
 And my auntie in that short period had actually then moved back overseas for work. So I was like, oh, I got no family there, no friends. And I remember going to my dad's house. How old were you at the time? I was 16 at this time now. Okay. Uh, so yeah, I. Went around to my dad's house. I said, look, dad, uh,  I, you know, I'm going to move to Sydney.
 
 I dunno where I'm going to live yet, but I booked myself into a hostile, uh, for a week. And then, you know, I'll try and find permanent accommodation once I'm. Yeah. And he's like, he basically said, well, you've got one week to find yourself a permanent place to live while you're coming home. And I think about, you know, three or four days later, I got on a plane and yeah.
 
 Literally moved to Sydney, completely alone. Uh, I managed to find an apartment and I was living on Oxford street, uh, Darlinghurst. Yeah. Like the bad part of Oxford straight. So I literally saw things that a 16 year old, like really shouldn't see, but, and it was funny because. I mean, the, the apartment that I was living in was no better than a host.
 
 There was literally like probably 10 people living in this three bedroom apartment. It was hilarious, but I met so many people from all around the world that were all kind of living there. And, um, it was an awesome experience. So you both, uh, you both had serendipitous situations to kind of lead you to your careers.
 
 Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I guess so. Yeah. Um, it's just kind of crazy to hear, you know, your basketball, your modeling career. It's just, yeah. And the funny thing is, is when we first initially met each other, like, we didn't like each other, we'd met maybe two or three times over two, a two year period. Yeah. And I was like, oh, this guy.
 
 And he was like, oh, this girl,  the first time that we actually sat down and had a conversation like properly. We were able to share these journeys with each other. And we were like, oh wow. You are nothing. Like what I thought you were like, you know, you've actually been through definitely guilty of just stereotyping her into.
 
 This thing, which is definitely wrong, but like a model that's materialistic and yeah, we'll only care about ourself. We won't be able to have a conversation with her. And I was like, I was just trying to work out my stuff in my life and I wanted to make sure. Like this was like a, she was gonna add value and I could add value to her and blah, blah, blah.
 
 And then when I finally got to speak to Jess, she was nothing like that stereotype that I had put her in. I'm like, I just always thought that you were not the person that I would ever spend time with. It's funny, because even the times that we had met in the previous years, it wasn't the right time for us to meet.
 
 So it wouldn't have worked out anyway at that time. So, you know, I think the world has a, you know, funny way of working and introducing us to people when they're right for us. Oh, I'll make you laugh. My partner and I are very, very similar. Yeah. In that situation. Uh, we met 10 years ago. Yeah. 10 or 11 years ago now.
 
 And the first time I met her, I actually started fight with her mom.  oh, wow. Wow. You went there.  so her mother and I, it was just a bit of a verbal altercation. Let's just call it that. Yeah. And then, uh, I basically. Didn't realize Alison, my partner, yeah. Was her daughter at the time. And so I found Alison on Facebook, I added her on Facebook and everything.
 
 And then two years later when we first tried to date, okay. Her mom walked up the stairs and I realized at that point that the mom and the daughter oh wow. And the mom looks at me and I look at the mom and I go, oh no. . And she goes, I think I know you from somewhere. And I'm like, oh, do you remember that wedding?
 
 And she's like, oh yeah, she's got this smile on her face. And I'm just like, oh no, no. And then even then Allison, at the time, she. You know, we, we tried didn't work. Yeah. We moved on from each other. Yeah. Okay. And then a few years later we bumped parts again. Yeah. Moved on from each other. And then last year was really when we hit it off and yeah.
 
 Wow. Third time. Lucky. Yeah. It's just, but it's just kind of crazy how you go through those stages just when, yeah. Maybe not ready at the right that time. So, absolutely. But it's just kind of cool to hear your story as well. Yeah. At the same time. So fast forward now a little bit. Yeah. Okay. So we've, we've got a model we've got that.
 
 We've got the NBL development league player. Yep. Yeah. We've started talking. We've got Mr. Potato graphics. Yeah. How did you find your first. So how we found our first site was your friend cow. We, so we started looking at leases, right. And we were kind of just looking here and there, but we didn't wanna spend a huge amount on, you know, a lease and pay a big bank guarantee.
 
 Of course, we didn't have an amount that's like, Jess is talking, was this abundance of money? We had no money. Cause it's extremely difficult. Yeah. The, the initial capital to get going is the hardest part. We didn't really like, that was, that was the hard part, trying to find places that we could afford on a no budget pretty much.
 
 So, so it ended up being, it was like a friend of a friend had, um, this like storage warehouse at the back of their restaurant that they hadn't used for like years. And he'd been trying to par it off to my friend for ages to put something in there. And then, yeah, so he basically said, you know, do you want to use it?
 
 So it was literally a storage. Filled with junk . Um, and there was there's there was no, no doors or windows. Yeah. So we basically cut out a hole. So that was facing like the back road behind and yeah, that we. Folds and a window in there. And, and that was our first store. Which suburb was this in? Glen. Glen.
 
 So down on the beach. Yes. Yeah. Yes. But our, this, when we're talking, it's facing this little road, it's like an alleyway road. It's a one way road that no one really goes down. We were just, we did, like, we thought it's in amongst it kind of, but yeah, it was facing kind of the bit of a quiet way. So yeah, so we literally cut out two holes, one for BI folds, one for a door, and that was our shop front
 
 And so we. Had planned to get someone to do the fit out. Right. And we asked someone to come in and give us a quote, you know, said, look, we've got a really small budget. We've got about 30,000 to spend. And I don't know if you know food fit outs, but that's like nothing that'll cover your floor.  I'll cover the fridges.
 
 And it won't cover that either.  yeah. So anyway, it got to the point where we were like, look, I, I said to Tyson and I was like, let's just do it ourself. Like I had had some experience with renovating from, you know, my parents or like ex-partners and things. So I was like, yeah, like we're capable. Like let's do it.
 
 He had, oh my, so when the builder came in and gave us a quote, say it was, I think it was 120 grand or something to build the store and we are like, can't do it. Jess goes, let's just build it ourselves. And I'm. I have never even changed a drill bit. There's absolutely no way we can do this. He was hopeless.
 
 Like I'm not kidding. Yeah. I was, I was just spend half the time on videos, on YouTube of how to even get the drill bit into the drill. Like that's what I'm, that's where I was at. And she's saying we're gonna build the whole store. I'm like, fuck, it would be so frustrating. Cuz I'll have this image of my mind of what I wanna build.
 
 So I'd be going. Through Bunnings and pulling all these things off the shelves, like all these pieces of timber and things. He's like, what are you doing? I'm like, we're gonna meet it, build a counter or like a shelf for the fridge with this. So I start like, and he, the whole time would just be like, frustrating me.
 
 Like, oh no, that's not gonna work. I'm like, but yeah, it is. And then I just couldn't see how possibly, like, this is gonna work out. She's gonna build a counter. She thinks she she's saying she had the experience, but she's never built a counter before. And I'm like, yeah, well how, how is that gonna work? And it's like, now I know it's like, transferal, know what to do here and there.
 
 But yeah, we built the entire store beside the electrical and the plumbing and then got the rest ticked off by a certifier. And it was look just scraped through. But, um, we got it through, we got it there.  we built, we did get it through. Yeah. We took that shop and in, within two weeks we had it completely built, ready to trade.
 
 So we just, yeah. Wait, in two weeks you completed a fit out, completed the whole fit out. Yeah, we drove to, we drove five hours away. Was it. To get the fridge. How far? Yeah. Oh, we drove to Mount Gambia, which is yeah, about a six. I haven't even five. And up until this point, I've never even towed anything on the back of a car.
 
 It's like, you gotta understand. I come from a family where there is, I have a single mom, two sisters I have about 30 female cousins. Yeah. Two, two male cousins. I have five aunties and two uncles. It is all female. So like, yeah. When it comes to like this handyman stuff, it just wasn't around me growing up.
 
 I don't know how to do any of it. So. But it was funny. I remember cuz we were trying to find the main salad fridge that we needed. Right. And a brand new one was I think about 15 grand. And we were like, well, we can't buy that. Let's find a second hand one. And then the, this perfect one came up, but it was in Mount Gambia, which is yeah, like a six or seven.
 
 Was it on Gumtree eBay or I think it was Facebook marketplace. Okay. And so I called the guy and I was like, look, is it available? He's like, yeah, but you'll have to come and pick it up. I. We didn't have a towbar bowl on our car. So I've called my mom up and said, Hey mom, I just need to borrow your car. We just gotta go and pick something up, um, with the trailer, if that's cool.
 
 And I didn't tell her that we were driving to Mount Gaia because I knew that she would've been like, what the hell? Like you can't take my car for a 14 hour drive. Oh my God. And then also just to paint the picture, this bridge, where for people are listening, it's like a subway style fridge. You know, when you walk in subway, you work your way left to right.
 
 That's how ours is set up. So we need a big, massive fridge. And I'm still thinking like, you'll probably weigh like a hundred kilos. I'll be able to pick it up.  I'll be able to pick it up with the guy and put it on the back of the trailer. We, we roll in. He's got it on the forklift. And I'm like, what's forklift for it's like, mate, it weighs 500 kilos.
 
 Yeah. I was like, Shit now, how are we gonna get it off of the trailer? Then we, we get it on the trailer and we've literally drove the whole way back at probably 60 kilometers an hour. This trailer was it's like, it's the whole fridge is like going like this kind of, you don't know if it's just gonna topple one way.
 
 So it took you 20 hours to get home. Oh, it took forever to get back. And then the next dilemma was when we got closer, like now, how the hell are we gonna get this fridge off of the trailer? That's the trailer. No one we know owns a forklift. So we're sitting there like thinking like, what should we do? And we call up the local fruit and bed shop that was like maybe 500 meters down the road.
 
 I was like, mate, this is a long shot. But do you reckon you could get the forklift.  and get the, um, get this fridge off for me. I need to get it off. I've got it on the back of the trailer. He's like, man, we can't do it. When cars around, I'm gonna have to do it at like 4:00 AM in the morning to make sure we, because it's a busy road.
 
 Yeah. Make sure I get the forklift down there and get it off. And like, so we're not like holding up any traffic. And I was like, all right. So we went down there. I think it was 4, 4 30 in the morning. Yeah. And he's just zipped down the road in his, in his he's got it. We've got no straps on either side.
 
 We're holding the fridge, like contemplating, like getting close to death because if it slips off with death yeah. If it falls on you, you like, that's it. But that's like, no, it's 500 kilos. That's our baby. We're like, just don't break it. And he gets it off and we got like two Dolly and we put it on these $2 and still was not stable.
 
 And um, he had to go back cause he was starting to get light now and cars start coming. So he left. He just put it on the ground on these dollies and. Then Jess and I were stuck with these dollys on like an awkward like hill. We're trying to push this bloody fridge up. We had some people walking by trying to help us.
 
 It was so funny. It was, it was hilarious. So how'd you end up getting it in? Well, we managed to slide it in. Eventually we had some helping hands and then we like, did you call the, the NBL squad down or like it's too early for them, man. They're still sleeping. Yeah. So, um, yeah, no, we had to, we had some, yeah, we ended up getting up the hill and someone else, one other person helped us push it in.
 
 So we actually never took it off the Dolly though. We were like, we, cause if we got off the Dolly and it never come back out, we're never gonna get it out because this French is usually come with wheels. Um, like one have wheels, this one didn't have wheels and hence the cheap price. And like, there was a few things motor needed, like fixing and little things.
 
 But no, that's actually a big thing, but yeah, we didn't know that until after we got it. Um, but we couldn't, we couldn't get it. We couldn't get it off. So we're like, all right, well then let's just build around it. So it's. It's off of it now, we still got the same. Uh, yeah, we're actually still using the same one.
 
 Yes. It's still going. So like, um, there's nothing wrong with it. I think it's still on the Dolly  yeah. So these Dolly just it's become part of the fit. Yeah. So we actually moved that store so day one came. Right. And we didn't think that we so opening day. I mean, when I say day one, we didn't think that we'd be busy.
 
 We thought we'd have like three customers a day. That's what we predicted in our cashflow prediction. Just because realistically, we hadn't spent any money on marketing at all. We tried to tell our friends and family about it. Of course. Yeah. Did you put anything up on Instagram either of you got a following?
 
 Like Jess had Jess had a, like a, I think like she has 11 K follows or something fat. I did. I did have more before times as a guy there, it goes down. They hit the unfollow button they're oh, I think that would've helped for sure. But I was like, realistically I was doing the cash flow predictions and kind of working out how many customers I think we'll have for how much stock we should order.
 
 And I'm thinking no one really knows about it. It's we're opening on like a Monday. We should have maybe three to five customers the first day, maybe five, the second, maybe five, five, like continue like that. Get to the weekend, maybe have 15. So we started ordering stock enough for that. And um, by ordering stock, I mean, going to Kohl's and buying absolutely everything from Kohl's and Woolworths crazy times.
 
 Yeah. We didn't really know what we were doing. Didn't know. There was never been in food before never been in food. We didn't know. There was suppliers that delivered this stuff to you. We were like, we've gotta go to Cole's and get it all. So that's how we were not even the fruit and bed shop down the road.
 
 The guy that gave you the forklift. Yeah. So we were getting the fruit, the vegetables and stuff from him. Oh, okay. We had a potato supplier. We weren't actually getting the potatoes from Kohls and mal. Okay. A lot of the other stuff like we just, yeah. Cause we cuz at that time we, we cooked all of our, um, proteins in store, like slow cooked chicken, slow, cooked beef.
 
 We had bacon, we had, we have so much sour cream. We had cheese. We were getting, oh, do you know? I know what happened. We, so we actually did get a supplier in, but the quote that they gave us for the product. Were just like enormous. And we didn't know that we could barter with them and we that's. Right. Like, oh, you need, need to get the price downs.
 
 So we were like, it's cheaper to buy it from Cole. That's how it started. That is right. That's that's true. That's that's actually what happened? I remember getting a quote and thinking everything's cheaper from Cole's. We're just gonna get it from Cole's, but we never barter with them and we were so, yeah, we'll get back to the predictions.
 
 I was like, maybe we have five people, five people, maybe 15 on the weekend day, one rolls around. We've got like just enough stopped probably for maybe 10 people. We have a hundred people come through, ran out of absolutely everything. I'm grabbing the potato out the oven, turning around like this, giving the potato.
 
 Giving, like we take it out, chop it up, take it out, chop it up, take it out, chop it up. So it was just a phenomenal it's first day, but it's first day I'm taking it out, taking out. I go to take out a potato, no potatoes left, no potatoes, cooking. And now it's like, and there's hour weight and there's a line of people and I'm like awkwardly, like, uh, we don't have any potatoes left and it's gonna be, I'm like getting angry.
 
 I'm like, babe, like you had one job to like load the potatoes. Like make sure I'm potatoes. I'm so nervous just serving these people, like trying to work out how to even go about anything. This is like a trial day. And we had, I said to the people in their line thinking they'll be so mad that don't get wrong.
 
 There was a few that just had no sympathy. They were like, how are you out of potatoes? And I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing.  but there was other ones they just sat down. They just sat on the spot and waited for 50 minutes to eat the food. I was. That's if they crazy that, and it just made us being like this, maybe there is actually a gap.
 
 I know Jess believe it, but I'll still like coming around to it. There actually is a huge gap in the market. People wanted this, which was awesome. And yeah, I, I just, I love when we talk about this story all the time, I just think there are so many reasons, like, even from day one that we just should have thrown in the towel and be like, this is too hard.
 
 Like let's just give up. And we just, I guess we've just never stopped. And that's been at like every process of the business, you know, I think for us, especially the journey that we've had has actually been really difficult. Um, not just being, you know, in food, but the like COVID happening as well. Um, and there's been so many times and I feel like the average person would've just, well, and people literally told us, like, what are you doing?
 
 Just give up, like, it's enough, like family, like, you know, things have gotten tough and it's like, yeah, well just, you know, just go and get a normal job. Like, how do you, so this is one of my. Favorite questions to ask, but just how did you get through to the other side? You just, we always had the same vision, uh, and you know, we just remember why we started and that's the reason that we've been able to keep going and keep growing and keep evolving and get through all the hard times that we have had, you know, we just remain focused on that vision.
 
 Um, we really do, because it doesn't matter how you get there, right? It's just, you gotta keep that same vision, you know, definitely everything will work out. That's so helping our personal relationship as well. That same vision, that we're all we are working towards the same thing. We think this can be. The next, like the, our worldwide brand we're trying to, he was going say the next subway.
 
 So no, no, I was gonna say the next, I was gonna say next I'm gonna, I'm just gonna claim that, like I do, that's like that's in our mind, in our minds. That's, that's what we say. We're like, we, we're gonna be the next subway. Yeah. That's all. That's our thinking to learn what they've done. Well, what they haven't and just kind of like come a hybrid of it.
 
 That would be awesome. Like if we can even get to have over 45,000 stores, number one franchise in the world. That's awesome. Um, if we can do it a bit better and smarter than what we would for sure. Um, because you know, the people that started subway were just two average people as well, that had an idea, you know, why, why can't we achieve that?
 
 Why can't, you know, anyone can do that. You know, anyone, if you put the, if you put the amount of effort and time and passion into it, you know, you can achieve anything that you want to in your life. It's just a matter of like going out there and getting it. And yeah. That's so look, I, I love the story of the first day.
 
 Yeah. Um, I've worked in hospitality before, so, and I've worked on a first day of hospitality too. Yeah. My story. I'm not gonna get fully into it, but we had an elevator breakdown. The air conditioners stopped working the post mix. I don't know if you guys have post mix at your place. No, we do, but I know what it's but yeah.
 
 So the post mix machine breaks as well. Oh my God. Okay. All on the same day. And then we've got, I think a thousand people to surf. Oh, wow. So I'm just sitting there. I'm 19. I don't know, miles from my head at this point, you know? And I'm just like, okay. Do something, like just figure it out. That's yeah, that is crazy.
 
 And I feel like a lot of people get in to their own head where they just, I can't do it. And they just convinced themselves they can't do it without even acting in the first place. But just the story of, no, you guys did the fit out yourselves. You're like, no. Yeah. We'll figure it out. Let's just start doing stuff.
 
 That's true. That's true. That that's a massive barrier that I think most people would give up with. Yeah. And look, to be honest, if I had, if me back then, I probably was. I thought, how the hell are we gonna do it? Like, I don't know how to build a store because Jess is like, look. This is gonna be like the next number one brand in the world, this, and we gonna do it all.
 
 I don't know how we're gonna build the source, but we'll do it. And it's like, it's contagious, her creative, like, yeah, gene, which is awesome. I it's, yeah, I've just always been a believer in, you know, the quote that goes, you know, you don't have to see the whole staircase. All you have to do is take the first step.
 
 Nice. So as long as you're just getting one foot in front of the other, it doesn't matter. Like you just, you don't have to see the bigger picture or, you know, see it as it's unfolding, you know, you just keep going. She never one at a time, just, I've never seen her to, to this day, really get disheartened or think that it's not gonna work.
 
 I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes I start second guessing things. I'm like, like, this is so hard. Like, I don't know if I could do it. Like, I don't know. Jess is always like, no, why not? Why can't we just try and try and be like this? It's it's going to work. It's going to work. And I'm like, and that gives me confidence.
 
 I'm like, yeah, all we're back like that. This like straightens me out, which is awesome. How did you develop that mindset? Honestly, I have no idea. There's no secret recipe. I wish I could say that. Um, but no, it did. I felt like I always had this instinct in me from a young kid, you know, I did, I grew up on, I spent most of my time growing up on kangaroo island, which is a small island off the coast of south Australia.
 
 So I had very much like a country style, um, you know, childhood. Yeah. Uh, I was also tomboy at heart, so I was always, you know, playing with my brother, um, you know, things that, and I never wanted to, I guess, take no for an answer there. You know, I was always looking for that thrill. Like there's a story that I like to tell.
 
 And, um, you know, we used to ride our bikes on the hill that would go down the side of the house. Um, it was a main, was a road, a main road in the, in the town of kangaroo island, the American river that I was, um, growing up in. And, you know, on one day we decided that our bikes weren't enough, you know, it wasn't a bigger thrill.
 
 So we went looking, I can't remember this story. I just, what this, I don't think I've ever told you this. Yeah, I just, I just, okay, just go. I just know something's coming. Yeah. So well, so we start rumbling, run rummaging through the garage, right. To look for something. And we find this old, like rusty prem  and we're like, perfect.
 
 That that'll be great. So we rolled this old rusty prem up to the top of the hill. Oh, I've never heard this story. And then like, I think my brother and I actually argued over who was going to be the first to ride in it. How old were you? I would've probably been about maybe. Five or six at the time, , don't ask where my parents were.
 
 no idea where they were just take your island. You let the kids do whatevers. True. Yeah. The rule was just, you know, we had to be home before it was dark unless they knew. So, yeah. And this is, you know, this is back before the days of, you know, where all these, you know, crazy. Yeah. I know. I'm yeah. Yeah. So, um, so yeah.
 
 Anyway, my brother won this time, which was, I was super disappointed in, so he gets in first and we let go. Right. And he  so quickly starts traveling down the hill. Like he would've been going maybe like 30 kilometers from maybe 40 kilometers or more. And then one of the wheels is buckled  and he's just gone flying.
 
 We've gone flying out of the, out of the pre and it was like rolled down the hill and we've kind of like stood back in disbelief and then just waited for him to see if he's kind of stood up and we're like, okay. He is okay. Like everything's okay. And it, from that point on, like I just realized, you know, all that I had to be worried about then was my parents coming out to yell at us.
 
 I was like, so, you know, we didn't get hurt. And I think I always just had this fearless attitude instilled into me and it hasn't always been a good thing cuz I have gotten myself into a lot of trouble, but that was, I, you know, that was a lot of the reason why, you know, I jumped on a plane and just went overseas for modeling.
 
 Like it, it, it's just never, I've never had this thought in the back of my mind or something might go wrong. I've just, no, I think it, I think what it is from my perspective is it's a mindset of like positive and negative mindset. Yeah. Jess never sees the negative side to situations or things that are gonna.
 
 whereas Tyson sometimes will like calculate all the good things, all the bad things and weigh up if it's a good thing to do or not. Yeah. Jess, just Jess won't even ever think of, oh, maybe this won't work or maybe I might get hurt. It's like, it's just crazy. I haven't met too many people like that. That just don't even think of the negative or the risks that are involved.
 
 It just do it. Yeah. I can't say it's always like, I, I know, I can't say it's always a good thing. And having Tyson it's a really good balance because I'm the one that. Got all these crazy ideas and oh, we can do anything. And he's more, the more logical one that's I'm like, yeah, babe, but okay. We can do it, but let's see how we actually can achieve that.
 
 Like with putting things in place to do it. Yeah. It's definitely a good combo.  yeah. So let me give you guys a flashback. I I've had had a similar moment like that and it was in Adelaide. Oh really? Oh really? So I, 2016 flown down February 26, I believe. And there's a festival that happens in that period of time.
 
 I can't remember exactly which one, but they had these massive, massive roller coasts. Okay. Mm-hmm  I'm terrified of flying. Okay. Yeah. And I, yeah, so I'm scared of flying, um, not anymore, but like, it used to be a proper phobia, scared of jumping out of planes. Scared of roller coasters. Yeah. And I'm looking at this.
 
 Right. And it's that big one that they always put next to the budget ball. Do you know that one that flips you and spins you around and everything multiple times? Yeah. About do you know what one it is? Cause I didn't, I've never really been to a fair or anything in that there, but you're not gonna tell me it's.
 
 When it actually crashed? No, no, no, no, no, no. That was fine. No, no, no. I remember when that happened, Mickey mouse, like, were you one of those people? No, no, no, no, no, no, that wasn't me, but I just remember I had that same mindset. I was like, yeah. And at the time I had just flown back from the states too. I'd just flown back from Detroit.
 
 Yeah. Minus 18 degrees, all that kind of stuff. And I'm sitting there and I'm going, looking at this roller coaster, I've got the nerves in my stomach and I'm gone. You've just flown from Detroit. You landed Sydney. Yeah. You you've traveled on your own. You went all across America. Detroit's not a safe place.
 
 Yeah. Um, you're looking at the roller coaster. Thousands of people have gone on it and all of a sudden you're not gonna be the one that goes on it. Yeah. It's just, and when you kind of realize that things kind can't hurt you, that's when yeah. You know, you, you get a bit excited. Exactly. Yeah. It's, it's awesome.
 
 I'm starting to get like that. Starting to realize even. If something doesn't work out, that's not that bad and you get through it and there's ways to overcome certain things that go wrong. Yeah. So yeah, I'm getting there, but Jess  yeah. Jess is still, it's almost kind of frustrating though, because we spend so much time together that his logical side wears off on me.
 
 So sometimes I have to like snap myself out of it. And I'm like, no, like you don't have to question everything like sometime, but you know, it's probably a good thing cause ah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Well, as a teenager, I was like very reckless. So  so take me through, so 2018 you've opened the first door.
 
 Yeah. Was December. What was the date December? It was like, I think it was the fifth or something first, first week. Pretty much. Yeah. So you've got in the massive Christmas rush. Everyone's off work. They're all gone to Glen Oak. Cause it's hot summer beach, everything. Yeah, by the way, we didn't have an air con either in there.
 
 Oh no people on our day. It's 40 degrees and there's no air con in the store. We got one, we bought one, as soon as we could afford it from trading, we bought an aircon for the, the customers. And so we could only, like we could have bought a massive one, but the budget wasn't there, we bought a little one for the customers lineup.
 
 And then we we're in front of these ovens. I'm talking about drip sweating. I'm trying to like rub my forehead one I'm serving people. I'm so I'm so sorry. I'm a hot person as it is these ovens. So bloody hot. There's the two of them like right there, radiating here. As soon as we could afford it, we put another one above us, which was awesome.
 
 That was like two a month later or something. So how did we strategize the second location?  we, so from day one, we always knew that we wanted to franchise. We wanted to turn it into a national brand, as much as we were just running like a little mom and dad operation at the time. Um, you know, we, we did have big plans to become, you know, national or a global brand mm-hmm  so we kind of put it.
 
 Started putting in the work from almost day one to really start writing our systems and procedures. Yeah. We, we knew without the systems and procedures, there's no consistency and the, and the team don't know what they're doing and the customers won't have the same experience. So Jess, like literally we'd work in the store and then Jess would like, I'd help her with it.
 
 But mainly Jess would write down all of the processes for each problem that we've had and just print it off and have it there for the kids that, for the kids, like, and the team to follow. Yeah. So, and then, um, that's what, once we started getting Glen pretty self-sufficient yeah. That's when we thought, well, let's do number two.
 
 Dunno how as well, like no idea. We don't have the finances to do it, but yeah. Let's look at doing number two and we went and we went and started looking at shops with no idea how we were gonna fund it. We just started looking. Yeah. Yeah. We just literally wanted to plant the seed and just see what happened.
 
 So then we did. Yeah. Go. Yeah, we did store number two and then another one. And in that time was, so you did store and two and three at the same time? No, no, no. There were about probably nine months apart. So store two is in 2019. Yeah. 2019. So yeah, so six, six months after we opened Glen, we opened one and then six, pretty much six months after that, it was closer to nine months.
 
 Yeah. We opened another one. So yeah, three in that timeframe. And these are three that you guys owned personally. Yeah. Yeah. These are company owned. Yeah. So by. Store three. We're talking January, February, 2020. Am I correct? Yeah. Yes, that's right. Yeah. When, um, and that was when COVID hit. Well, that was gonna be my next question just as, yeah.
 
 Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Time frame. Wow. Yeah. So then we get to three, we've got, we got a loan for one of them and we are like, we, well, it's gonna work. We've picked a great spot. We got great spots. Trading was pretty healthy. Like it honestly was, was really healthy. And then Kobe come around and just for one month, everything dropped like to 10% of sales and we were like, shit.
 
 Yeah, we are bugged. What are we going to do? Yeah. Um, it wasn't. Stressful uncertain time where you just, you have no idea what's going on and it's at the hand of someone else, you know? Um, there's nothing you can do to control it. So we didn't have any backup of cash. Like a bigger company. Would've had, we still had suppliers to pay.
 
 We still had a bunch of things to pay and it just like put a massive stress on the business. And we were like, seriously, like fire out. This is hard. And it wasn't that Lala had strict lockdowns. It's that? A lot of the Adelaide people got scared because of COVID and they didn't spend, because they were like, they didn lose.
 
 They just weren't leaving their homes. You know, they were just that. Yeah. They were just afraid. So it was, it was really hard for probably two or three months. And then we started. To, you know, the country started to open back up and then the sales started to pick up again. And then it was like maybe a two or three month period when all, you know, the job keep payments and things like that started to hit in people's accounts.
 
 And I think they realized that they were gonna be okay. And then we sales spiked. Like they went because when the money came back in, like the money from the job keep started hitting these people's accounts or yeah. Um, from the, from the government, they started spending more and all of a sudden we were doing Christmas numbers in like July or whatever it was.
 
 Yeah. Middle of winter. We were like, thank God for that. Cause we needed it to cover the costs. Wow. And so during that COVID period as well was when we actually wrote our franchise manual. So  like, I most people through COVID, you know, wine making tos, which we definitely did a bit of as well.  just on the back of that.
 
 You wrote the manual selves. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. We, I mean, we had some help, but the procedures and everything in there, you know, that has to come from you because if you're getting someone else to do it, they don't know your business. Like, you know, definitely. So there is a. And one, the second thing is getting someone else to write the franchise manual two.
 
 Like what, like Jess is saying, definitely like they don't know it as well as you, you should write it yourself. Yeah. But the other thing is it's over a hundred grand at least to get a manual written up. So that's, that was the other thing that was like another little barrier for us. We're like, yeah, well, one, we wanna do it ourselves anyway, but second of all, we can't really afford to get someone else to do it.
 
 So let's just do it ourselves. A thousand dollars is a lot of money. Yeah. It's like what we could build a store with. And we were like, look, we wanna do it. So we. All COVID. We wrote this franchise manual. It's 286 pages long, and we wrote it together and we checked over every, we wrote it, printed it off, checked over everything, just fixed all my spelling, mistakes  then we ended up putting it online.
 
 And then yeah, then we were ready to go. By this point we had had 20 or 30 applications for, or, sorry, not applications. We didn't have a system in place. We had 20 or 30 people email say, I want to buy a franchise at Mr. Potato. And we were like, wow, well, we can't, we don't even, we didn't even probably two months of opening our first ever Glen location.
 
 We had interest shout out to Amy and age. That was the people that they now, our opening one in broad beach. They were the first ones to ever ask to buy one. And, and that was one of the reasons why we're like, we need to get a hurry on this because people are interested and they've actually. Well, they're about to open their location in like three months in broad beach Queensland and, yeah.
 
 Awesome. And like, they've just been extremely patient and yeah. Waited until they were ready. And then, yeah, it's, it's awesome. Then fast forward to now we've had over 220 applications, um, and we're just like taking two or three calls a day to try to find the right people to like, come on this journey with us.
 
 And it's, that's been the hardest thing. So, I mean, like Tyson said, we. Over 220 applications come through now. We've only sold 16 now. Yeah. Yeah. In total six. Yeah. 16, 17, 16 people this morning. We got another deposit. So 17. Yeah. Total  well, you lose track of it now. It's like, it's crazy, but it's a blessing, but yeah, it is a blessing, but we've been so particular with who we want to bring on this journey with us.
 
 We don't get us wrong. We would've loved to have had 220 stores there out operating. No, but you gotta be careful. Yeah. A hundred percent. It's our baby. And you know, one person can destroy your brand, you know, if they don't have the same passion and energy as used. So we've really been particular about bringing people on, you know, what are their values, what do they stand for?
 
 Do they fit with. With our group, you know, can we see ourselves working together for the next 10, 20 years, however long it is? Cuz you're pretty much marrying these people. That's how we look at it. Um, did you, this might sound cliche because we're talking about franchising. You guys ever see the movie founder?
 
 Yeah. Okay. A thing I've watch it. It regularly  maybe five or 10 times  yeah, but I just remember a. Where he goes to one of his locations and they're selling fried chicken outta McDonald's and everything. And you just, you do have to be quite careful to be. And the thing is to the franchises. They are there every day.
 
 They're trying to think of innovative ways to try and get sales up. So you're trying to find people that can be coachable, likable and fit into our values because at the end of the day, if they come to Sydney and have a bad experience, you lose lifetime customers because they've never been there before.
 
 So we have to make sure that they're doing it well, and they're gonna follow what's working in our brand, which is what we have written down, not their like selling fried chicken, like that can't, that won't happen. And we have things in place for that. But, um, yeah, making sure that every experience is a good experience and because we're so new, like I said, if you lose a lifetime customer, they tell two or three people about it, then it just ripples like that.
 
 Yeah. You've now like you've killed, you could kill the brand straight away and all of new south Wales just from that one store. So that's why, yeah. These people, these people who are opening in new south Wales, we've had maybe a hundred of those applications have come from new south Wales. Yeah. But this was the only couple that have got through.
 
 They have. They're awesome. Um, they've their experiences the best probably they, um, they're really, yeah, it's true. But they're just great people. You know, when we get on our weekly calls with them, you know, it's enjoyable and that's what we want. You know, we want everyone to have that same experience, you know, with our brand and we wanna be able to, you know, give them the best opportunity, but also we wanna enjoy that time as we all grow together and do things together, we wanna make sure that they're coachable likable and that they can succeed personally and do really well personally with the brand and just, and hit whatever goals they want through Mr.
 
 Potato. And that will benefit the brand as well. Just having them happy and doing well. That's what we try and make sure those people can achieve that. They're happy. We're happy. So, okay. So , we're three years into this journey. Not even, yeah. Well, three and a bit three and a half now. No. So what's it. 2019.
 
 it's 20, 22 now. Nah, it's it's not even three years. Yeah. It's two years in about months. 2020. Yeah. I always, I always have this debate with my partner. So you, you gotta tell me me. No, no. It's because you always count 2018 as a whole year. Oh. But it was the end of that. So now just to say you started from 2019.
 
 Yeah. 20 19, 20, 20, 20, 20. Oh, I think we're wrong. No, no, no, no. Yeah. 20 19, 20, 20, 20, 21, 3 and a half years. You're right. That's right. We're wrong? Thank you. Three and a half. Thank so. Yeah, no, that's right. Three and a half. So you're the finance guy here. I'm I'm working. I said it wrong. I started with 2019 from the start.
 
 Okay. So that was my bad, but no, that's okay. He should know. I should back you up bro. Come on, man. I'm just deflecting. Now this he's rolling with. Um, yeah. What was the question?  so something about that. No, that's okay. So it's, it's pretty remarkable. Like we've started from 2019, we've got 17 local 17 sold, just to be clear, like, I don't know if I can get them open before the end of the year and I've I communicate with them, but we've sold 17.
 
 Yes. No, but it's still remarkable Fe like don't don't this is, this is what I, this is what I love about entrepreneurs. This is what I love about me. People like yourself is you get the, they've done things that are near impossible. Yeah. You know, you've you, you went to Mount, Mount Gambia.  yeah. That's right.
 
 Pick up, picked up a fridge, drove back for 20 hours, you know, like the trailer's going everywhere that could have crashed a thousand times. It didn't. Yeah. Safe driving. You got a forklift at four in the morning. Yeah. Okay. This guy comes in, he picks it up, puts it on a Dolly for you. You're sitting there and you're pushing this thing in.
 
 Okay. And. You've fast for three and a half years. Yeah. You've now got 17 potential locations and you're like, ah, yeah, you know, it's, it's 17. No, give yourself a pat on the back. I, I, honestly, I don't wanna look like I don't appreciate it. I get caught in this bubble of trying to these people have invested money.
 
 I want to get them open for them and you get caught and what's happening right now. Then the times when we do reflect, we're like, shit, we have actually done so much in such a little period of time, but it's always right now the head office is made up of two people. It's like, or like a few others, a bit two and a bit.
 
 And it's like, you get caught up in your bubble, but don't get me wrong. I'm so grateful that people believe in the brand and that we have 17. Awesome. Some are couples, some are by themselves, but yeah, we are very, very grateful for what we have so far. All right. So you guys are gonna have to start selling me.
 
 what's the secret sauce behind  Mr. Potato. We'll never tell . We'll never tell you. You have to, you have to tell me the.  what has separated your product from everyone else? Cause I, I remember young age. Yeah. Going to Westfield Miranda. Yeah. Mum used to always get these spuds. They were cooked in foil. Okay.
 
 Cut up. Okay. Uh, sour cream in it. I don't like sour cream. I never tasted these things. I never wanted to have them or anything. Yeah. Okay. And I just remember looking at it and I was just like, it never, never, it never appealed to me. Yeah. Okay. Yet you guys have thousands of people waiting outside of your, your door.
 
 Yeah. You know, you've sold out. Yeah. Number of times. Yeah.  what, what was the combination that you guys go? You know what, this is, this is the essence of it. Yeah. What was the first one? Like the first look, I honestly, I think it just comes down to branding and, you know, being authentic and, you know, a lot of people knew our story and the sooner that we could share that with people, people then understood the journey and then they appreciate it more.
 
 And I guess when people come and visit our stores, they feel like they're a part of something more. Um, so it's more than just the food it's, you know, it's the way our team members are. It's um, you know, my headphones are full . Oh, sorry. It's more than, yeah. It's, it's more than just the food, you know, it's the customer service that we give, you know, it's the overall feeling that people get when they, when they come in store and it's the same with our franchisees now we've literally had.
 
 over what? It's probably 50% of our franchisees that have now bought into the brand had never even tried the product, which is just crazy. They're paying for something and opening a store that they've never tried before. Can't believe it. I'm like, do you wanna fly and try it? Like, no, we love the brand. We love the concept.
 
 You guys are awesome. Let's let's do it. You're making me want to put an application in  but you need to talk about the product a little bit. So the product, if I could just like simplify it, we. Bake. We have white potato or sweet potato. Our white potato has a high water content than your average white potato.
 
 So it has 25% less carbs and a normal white potato. Okay. It's actually best for mashing. So it's like, it's like, the texture is amazing when you chop, we chop it up and use it as a base. Don't give away too many things.  and we also, we also have, they won't be able to replicate you ever. Oh yeah, no, you can.
 
 But the, the, the strength people will try. No, and they have no, yeah, yeah. People have tried. People can go home and make this as well. The key to us is that you don't wanna wait an hour for the potato to cook. That's like, no one has that time and you really done it. Some people, yeah, we have it readily available.
 
 The, the product is not complex. Um, at all, I wanted simplicity instead of going to work, um, going to like examples or something and using a burrito, we use potato going to subway instead of using bread, we use potato and you load it as you go. So we chop, we take the potatoes out, we chop them up, use them as a base and you load it as you go.
 
 So you can have butter. Um, you can have cheese and then you load up the proteins. There's slow, cooked chicken, there's slow, cooked beef. There's a bunch of vegetarian and vegan options because that's nearly 40% of our customers these days, which is awesome. Shout out to the vegans, Jess. Vegan. Um,  um, how are you?
 
 Uh, I'm a lot more plant based than what I used to be. Yeah. If I've got to entertain, sometimes I do have to, you know, delve into fish or chicken, but you know, majority plant plants, I'm exact same as that. Yeah. That's exactly what, how I roll. So then yeah, we chop it up, use advice, put it some, put some butter on it.
 
 If you want it, you don't, everyone has to have it. And then you get, um, a choice of protein and then you get cheese and then you get, um, if you want it, and then you get there's 21 different salads you can choose from. So you kind of, you choose four and you load the potato up. And it's kind of like this awesome box of goodness right now, like a tower.
 
 And then you choose your sauce on top and then you can choose the extras, um, which is like fried lots, chili flags, salt, and pepper. And then that's it. It's just like. Pyramid of stuff that we've like, uh, made and put it in a box. And if you were to put it out onto a plate, it's pretty much like a home cooked meal.
 
 You've got your potatoes, you've got your proteins and you've got your salads. And that's what that's probably what no one else is really offering. And did it originally start off like this? Like this is the actual concept. Has the menu changed much over the last couple of years? The, the protein, the salads we've chop and change here and there it's basic salads.
 
 Like shredded lettuce says shredded carrot. We got coleslaw. Of course we could have coleslaw. Um, we got like red onion and stuff. What has kind of refined and changed is the proteins. Because when we first started five to 10% of our customers were vegan or vegetarian. Lactose and intolerant. They don't, they don't like to come in and say lactose tolerant.
 
 They'll just say they're vegan. Um, yeah. And then cuz you don't wanna say that. And then we, it was mainly five to 10% of our sales now to date, like I said, it's 40%. So we've added more. There's there's a vegan option to absolutely everything we have. We have eight proteins for a vegan for are not vegan, so.
 
 Wow. Yeah. So we, um, yeah, plus like I also just wanna eat my food all the time. So the thing is it's like vegans, we love them. We actually are a hundred percent gluten free as well. So it's so the celiac accent come in and choose whatever they want and not, and know there's no cross cross contamination, which is awesome, but it's not just having the vegan options for just the vegans.
 
 There's a bunch of, um, like me and you like you and I, we want to reduce our meat intake a little bit. So they, maybe one time they come and get the slow cook beef and the next time they get. The Moroccan tofu cauliflower, and they switch it up. So it's just having those options for those people as, as it keeps grow, keeps growing Yu.
 
 Yeah. I'll give you guys a little bit of a reference. I was on Uber eats today. Just trying to look for a vegan restaurant around here and everyone. No like no one here. I mean, Alexandria, the part of, you know, my first story, the young culture and everything, and I can't, I can't find, couldn't find a single vegan place, so I can't wait for new town to open up.
 
 Well, I've actually found it really difficult. So in Adelaide, there are a lot of options out there when it comes to, you know, being vegan and a lot of, you know, the hotels have adapted a vegan menu. Coming to Sydney. I feel like you're a little bit behind, which is really bizarre because I thought Sydney would've been, you know, the first to kind of adapt to it.
 
 The is I always say Sydney is similar to Los Angeles, just on a different kind of like it's, it's a different map where it, Sydney, you have to go find the pockets. Yeah. It's not properly set out. Adelaide's a lot more set out. It's a little bit more of a grid. Same Melbourne, Melbourne. You look at it. It's a proper, proper grid.
 
 It's a lot easier to navigate it stuff. But with Sydney, for example, for me to go to a vegan burger place, I know of one that's just, just before Koji. I'm pretty sure it's in Ranwick and, but that's the only one that I know of near here. And it's it's you gotta go find the small pockets. So I'm so excited for you guys to open up in Newtown.
 
 Yeah, because it's are you guys along king street? King street? Yeah. King street. Yeah. So. For me personally, it is now much easier to be able to go find myself a good meal in the middle of the day, just in case I'm ever non prepared. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's great. That's awesome. Now we can't wait to open up, so yeah, we're excited.
 
 There's, there's a lot of hoops and hurdles to jump through opening in new south Wales. It's not like the old Jess tide and just get behind the anymore and whip something up. You know, Sydney's been really a lot of difficult. There's a lot more work with the certifiers now. That's that's, that's all I was referring to the counts on the certifiers.
 
 It's um, just it's busy here, so everyone's trying to do something and things take time and, um, yeah, it's just a bit longer build. It's funny because we have a look at like some of the food businesses here and. How the hell did you get certified? Like, but I don't know. I guess cuz we're new and it's a new building, so they have to kind of make, is it brand new building?
 
 It's not, but it has been redone. Fantastic. So, uh, yeah. Yeah. It's exciting. Yeah. That's awesome. It's an empty shell right now. So yeah, we gotta get certified putting walls and stuff into. Yeah. Okay. So you two are quite positive people and I like, I have to say. Love hearing every single word. And I've just gotta get a little bit more out of you guys.
 
 Okay. Yeah. Sure. Tell me a little bit about the morning ritual because I'm a strong believer in morning routine morning ritual that sets you up for the day mm-hmm . That will keep you going. Okay. Um, do you guys share the same ritual or is it a little usually? So usually we all, we talk for both of us. We both wake up every morning before five, so like about, so I have my alarm set for 4 55.
 
 I like to see the four when I wake up. So like this morning, I'll run you through it. So woke up at 4 55 straight in the car. I actually went to Pilates this morning at five 30, come home, got the dogs, went down to the park and took, took the dogs to the park and then, um, come home and Jess, you woke up read your, so  what this is.
 
 You can't explain. So today I was having a day off from my morning routine  so I just love that you've tried to like. Slot in there. So, no, I don't know what you did this morning. That's what I was gonna say. I literally had one of those mornings where I just needed to sleep in. Yeah. So I literally, I slept until eight 30, which is sleep in for me.
 
 And because normally I'm the same. So both up definitely she's before five or at five she's usually with me, when we go to Pilates, the thing is our phones, uh, ring off the hook from like when trading time is like, not because of like it's cause of the stores, there's suppliers, there's new suppliers.
 
 There's things happen, things go wrong. So between nine and five, we never used to really have, I never used to have a morning ritual at all. I kind of just like get everything would start at 9:00 AM. And I was just finding no time for me personally. And. Five 5:00 AM till eight 30 is, is at me time like Jess and I.
 
 So we, we get up, we do our own thing. The phones on do not disturb. We make sure that no, we don't speak to anyone and we wait until that time to have time for us. And then that's makes us a lot happier. And that means we can lead the team and be a lot better business owners than what than before. So for me on a normal day,  not today.
 
 um, I get up same time. Our alarms are set at the same time. Yep. I usually get out of bed at five. Um, I meditate first thing in the morning. I give my dogs a quick cuddle and they have to go to the toilet obviously. So they get, let out. I have a lemon warm lemon drink. Um, no coffee, no coffee. I actually gave up caffeine probably about two years ago now.
 
 Wow. So I have, yeah, I have my lemon in, in warm water. And then I, this is the weirdest thing ever and people always pay me out about it, but I have a lemon and ginger tea with milk or Mond milk in it. You gotta try asking what these at the cafes. They're like, wait, you want milk in that tea? I was like, yeah, she has it, man.
 
 It's really weird. But that's what she gets . Yeah. So I just have herbal tea now with, but I like the creaminess from the milk anyway. Um, just, just, I just need to track back a little bit. Is there a particular type of meditation that you do? Uh, all types, depending on what I feel like sometimes it's just breath work.
 
 Other times. It's like a manifestation Wim hop. No, you haven't touched on Wim hop yet. Okay. No I haven't. But I do, you know, I've looked at some of his cold therapy stuff as well that he does. I'm obsessed with him. So like, I, I cannot, have you heard of women? No, I have heard of him. Okay. I have heard heaps about him and I should know more about him, but yeah.
 
 Okay. So basically it's like, you know, through the diaphragm, everything 30 times, hold your deep breath in for as long as possible. My longest is about two minutes, 56. One of the guys that works in here, he's done a six minute one. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, you know, it's, that's awesome. Sweet holding the breath for six minutes or.
 
 Wow. Yeah, that's crazy. And then after that, you just immerse yourself in cold therapy. Yeah. So either an ice bath. Oh, that that's what I've heard of. Yeah. Cold shower. Yeah. And then cold shower every day. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm just little bit of a tip. Try the whim off next time. Okay. If you want, she will. For sure.
 
 We love trying all new stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. So we have the lemon and the, and the milk. Yep. Yeah. Lemon, ginger tea with, uh, with salmon milk. Doesn't turtle. By the way. I know everyone's thinking that right now they're like, would that be curdling? No, it doesn't. Um, little bit, no
 
 anyway from there. So we usually head straight to either Pilates or yoga. Mm-hmm  if we, if we don't do that, then we run or we go to the park with the dogs. Um, try to get it like an hour in of some sort of exercise in the morning with the heart rates up. Yeah. Uh, I try to do 30 minutes of reading every morning.
 
 So about a year ago, I set a goal to read a book a week. I'm not quite doing a book a week every week, but most weeks I most weeks pretty phenomenal. Yeah. Mm-hmm so, um, I, I love my reading. I was never a reader. It literally, it took me until the age of 30 years old to be able to pick up a book and finish it mm-hmm which is now she's buying life.
 
 And now, Hey babe, I'm going the bookstore. I'm like, cause I listen to audio books. I'm not a much of a. I love listening to audio books. Yeah. So any book she reads, I might try and look and see if it's as an audio book, but she's gone to the bookstore all the time to buy a new book by any book. I like, I don't know where the love of it came from.
 
 And it was just like, I had to push through this barrier because, and I think it was, I never found a book that I enjoyed reading or authors that I enjoyed reading and that now I, I mean, I've got my genres and I know what I'm into, but, so, so what are we reading right now? Right now? We are reading good vibes.
 
 Good life. Haven't been that one yet by vex. I'm listening to the greatest salesmen. Hey, I'm trying to think. I've got the image of the book in my mind. It's on the table right now with the bookmark in it.  I know. So straight into the pages. Um, yeah. And any particular tidbit you can give me from it? Well, I'm literally only.
 
 10 pages in at the moment. All right. So all we got is good vibes at the moment. Yeah. But I love it anyways. That's good life. Well, it's funny because the story that he tells in the start of his book is very similar to, uh, so he talks about how he finds the secret in his life. Um, have you heard of the secret?
 
 I've read the secret multiple times. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Love it. That's one of my favorite. Oh, I've got mixed opinions on it. Yeah. Oh really? So why? I, I, I, I like the secret, but Casey, my, one of my best mates he's he doesn't believe in it. Oh, you've gotta believe in it. No, no, you can, you know? No, no, no. I'm, I'm very, very big on you gotta goal.
 
 Yeah. And like, Energy in the universe. I call it God will move heaven and earth to get it for you. Yeah. If you apply not the law of attraction. Ah, the law of action. Yeah. True. So for you two, I see the law of action everywhere. You guys wanted this first store, you did everything moved to heaven and earth for, you know, so that's, that's law of action for me.
 
 So when people say to me, but I'm gonna. Do it. And I sit in a room and I manifest, you know, oh no, definitely lucked it. I don't. Yeah, no, no. You do have a point. Yeah. People just thinking this shit's just gonna appear like that's, that's the bad, like you can't just be positive and think everything's just gonna come to you and you have like a mansion or something like that.
 
 You do, you need, there needs to be a sense of working for it inside. It comes back to being prepared at that time for when the things do happen and putting yourself in the best possible position to succeed. Like that's the, that's the key. Well, we go back to your story. It was yeah. Yes. Yeah. That, that's what, that's what I learned from that.
 
 Like just being ready and putting yourself in that position to do well, if it ever arises. So just being prepared, um, yeah. And working towards you goal. I didn't know how I was gonna get there, but I was ready if in case something did happen and I did randomly get a call up for an NBO team. I was ready.
 
 So like, yeah. It's yeah. Pretty amazing. Now I talk about it. I haven't talked about that in like two years, so it's crazy.  where was the hardest player you played against or the Dante or was a Joe. Joe makes the game look so easy. Yeah, he, he wasn't, I wouldn't say he is the hardest player. I've played one on one with him.
 
 I scored like once he scored like a hundred times, it's not that it's how, how easy he makes the game. Look, he'd come and train with the sixes. And while I thought this player was here, Joe comes out and it doesn't even look like he's sprinting or breaking a sweat, and he's killing everyone, making ripples off the plays.
 
 And he doesn't even know the plays at all. And I'm. This guy is his next level. That's why you start for a NBA team. It's just crazy. Well, he's I, I just remember watching him play for Utah and his ball IQ. He's he's so smart. He's just hype. He hyper intelligent. I remember meeting him. He's he's, he's hyper he's hyper.
 
 He doesn't have to exert himself and, and be an athlete because he's well, he's athletic still, but he knows how to he's too smart for everyone, man. It's just awesome. I, I just remember meeting him and he was just so yeah, I'm I'm Joe Engles and he, he was just. He was proud that he was Les, but he also was like, he wasn't no, he wasn't walking around wearing a flashy, no watch or flashy t-shirts he was wearing a rip curl.
 
 T-shirt quick silver hat and some jeans, you know, that's what I expected when I first ever met him. And he was just like the most laidback guy. And I didn't even know he was from, um, Morfa and Adelaide. And he's like bra Adelaide boy, man. Like we grew up, he used to party hard and all this stuff. I was like, really?
 
 That's crazy. Like it's awesome then. Yeah, I met, I met someone that, uh, you, well, he, he played for the 36 S recently I've met Josh giddy. Yeah. Yeah. So Josh, I know personally, he, he would come after he's really down to earth too, which is really that's good. Um, the basketball stuff just goes . I'm so sorry.
 
 We're just so excited talking about it. I know you should have got, you should have just done a catch up for you too. Start the basketball podcast.  so for my final part, final thing, what do we have to look forward to. Outside of the new town store. Oh, just life  right. Are you actually talking about specific things that are happening or yeah.
 
 Yeah. Specific things for Mr. Potato and specific things between you two. Yeah. Okay. Uh, we. For us, we are finally getting married. Woo. Third time. Lucky. I know we've had Jess. I'm gonna say we, we had it planned Jess fully planned the whole thing, particularly with like a, like a handbook on how to do absolutely everything.
 
 Yeah. And then a week out, sorry, the first time was like a month out, the venue canceled. Then we got all GED up again. We're like, all right, we're gonna get married. We tell everyone's like, can we book our flight's like, yeah, book it it's all happening a week out from the wedding, the venue cancels again.
 
 And this is like, wait, was it cause of COVID or yeah, it was COVID yeah. They were scared in case someone got COVID they were just afraid that it might affect them. Yeah. But yeah, we're, we're excited for that. It's coming. Finally. I feel like this is the, this is the one for us now. Fe, February. Um, yeah, we're gone for round three, so it'll be fine this time.
 
 yeah, business wise. We're excited. We're just excited to, you know, grow our brand awareness across Australia and just have everyone love our product. Hopefully it's still, it's still, I love it. Haven't tasted it yet. I'm so excited. Yeah, I know. I'm gonna be the first one over at king street.  yeah, that's awesome.
 
 Now we've got a lot of work to do. We haven't opened in new south Wales yet. We haven't opened in wa yet they're coming, but we got to get them trading trading well, and. Probably exciting thing we're looking at doing before the end of this financial year is opening up a drive through. So we wanna test, test the drive through concept with miss potato.
 
 We do believe it can work. Um, uh, we do believe that it will work. We've just gotta find the right site, finding a drive through site. It's a difficult part. Yeah. It's not as easy as just finding a rental on the street, you know, or in the shopping center. Um, people fight for these sites and put, put down 20 year leases and stuff for these sites or they buy it outright.
 
 Um, so yeah, we want to test the drive through concepts and start to roll out drive throughs, um, over the next couple years. And then we're really excited to do the us market where it's been on the cards since day, one of kind of planning and, and going, you know, overseas as well. New Zealand will probably be our first kind of test market just cuz they're so close and we've had a lot of interest already.
 
 Yeah. Well we had a franchise application. How was it? Three, maybe three weeks, three, three days ago, three weeks, whatever it was that from New Zealand in Auckland, we're like this could work, so yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. And when does king street open? Do we have a date yet? Oh, look, it's running. It's running a little bit behind schedule, but it should definitely be open in four weeks time.
 
 Okay. Oh, I think you're still pushing it saying four weeks. The build hasn't started as yet as of today. So the equipment's there. Yeah. The certifications just got complete two days ago. We had to go back and forth a little bit, but yeah, it's gonna, I'm gonna say maybe six weeks from now. Just law of action.
 
 Yeah. Yeah. Will make it happen. Well, unfortunately it's not us. I know. Not up to us anymore. Otherwise we would've already built it, but you know, it's, you know, it's different now because we are relying on so many different, you know, people that are involved. So it's a lot harder to get things done when you're not doing them yourself.
 
 Unfortunately. You know, we, we, we realize that we have to give up. It's our first time in new south Wales, dealing with this stuff. Next time, be a lot quicker. We know what to expect, how to get through it. So, um, yeah. Should be open in six weeks or reckon six weeks open and trading. Hopefully fingers crossed.
 
 you you'll hear about it. You will. I'm very excited. Trust me. Trust me. I'm very excited Tyson, Jess. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on. Thanks so much for having us