Say Yes And Show Up | Greg Gordon — Party Machines | AO 44

Greg Gordon is unfiltered, unpredictable, and one of the most original operators you’ll ever meet. From renting margarita machines across Texas to running for Austin Mayor and accidentally building a global foam business, Greg’s story is a masterclass in saying yes, showing up, and figuring it out later.

Greg Talks About:
 🔴 Growing up with chaos, grit, and resilience — and how it shaped his operator mindset.
 🔴 The ninth-grade moment that taught him to ask, risk, and show up.
 🔴 How one impulsive “yes” turned into a worldwide foam business.
 🔴 Scaling Party Machines from garage mixing to Amazon, Walmart, and global demand.
 🔴 Why mistakes are fine — but never the same mistake twice.
 🔴 Planning every year with ruthless clarity and protecting his time.
 🔴 Why not every customer is your customer — and why consistency beats everything.

Real stories. Real ownership. Real lessons from the field.
This is American Operator.
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• Newsletter: https://americanoperator.substack.com

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:16
Unknown
Hey, y'all. We just finished talking with Greg Gordon, founder of Party Machines. To say he's an interesting, unique human would be an understatement. This guy started off slinging margarita machines all across Texas while running for Austin Mayor. As he was doing both those, he realized that margaritas were for the birds and it was actually about bubbles.

00:00:21:18 - 00:00:32:03
Unknown
So if you've had bubbles at a party, you probably have Greg to thank for it. This guy's lives the life that says, I only do what I want to do, and here's how I go about doing it. Let's jump right in.

00:00:32:03 - 00:00:45:15
Unknown
All right, team, we're here with Greg Gordon. Gosh, man, this is such a crazy story. How you're even in this seat. Let me tell the story real quick. Five seconds. We're in Colorado visiting with a lot of owners, visiting with, doing some content out there.

00:00:45:15 - 00:01:09:07
Unknown
Podcast, everything. And Greg is from afar watching us down in Vail area, and I think just clicks with what we're doing. It's so funny how just like right time, right place, recognizing that after a while that, hey, it just it shouldn't surprise me that you run into good people. But what you've built with everything from party machines and foam and all that, we're going to get into it.

00:01:09:09 - 00:01:23:07
Unknown
But the fact that we met not through some formal introduction or nothing, is I am running and getting with the camera and the team, and you're in the background, man, right below a ski lift. What are the odds that man. So, so good to have you here in Austin, Texas and thanks for making the trip out. My pleasure Joe.

00:01:23:07 - 00:01:40:17
Unknown
So this is as I said, this is home. Yeah. I say this is home. This is where I'm from. Home is now Breckenridge, Colorado. Not a bad place to be. Yeah, yeah. Not a bad place to be. Well, you graced us with some really cool things on the way in May and some. Everything from what we owe, like our team always loves.

00:01:40:17 - 00:01:57:12
Unknown
Good. Well, we get to benefit from as being American operator. But we also get did like sport everybody else's brand. So everything from the stickers you gave us to the bath bombs and the, what was the other thing you called it? It was it's a bath bomb for the shower. The shower, steam shower. Steamers, man. Well, I appreciate all that.

00:01:57:18 - 00:02:16:18
Unknown
We got some things here, I actually. Okay, since you're a brand guy, I'm curious. Open that up for me. This is all for you. I'm curious what you think about that. I think the Marlboro man get good, man that is become a fan favorite. That is fantastic and cool. And I like a t shirt with a pocket on it.

00:02:16:18 - 00:02:37:19
Unknown
So, man. Well, that's for you, man. Everything else out here, we that's become quite the favorite not only around the team here, but all our owners. Like if you see one around town now, wherever you are in the world, we're giving that. We prioritize giving that to our owners. Part of it's just like the design behind it is, we wanted something Americana, but also kind of a throwback to like the grittiness of, well, you know what I mean.

00:02:37:21 - 00:02:59:09
Unknown
Yes, I do, I see dust, I see dust, yeah, exactly. Right man. Well, Greg again, man, stoked to have you. Yeah, look at that. Come on, my man. Man. Look at this. I got this. For those of you just listening in the audio right now, Greg's just. He's repping our hat. Which the hat you came in was pretty legit, but thanks for doing that.

00:02:59:09 - 00:03:16:18
Unknown
Yeah, I got this. Well, let's talk about you, man. Look, we're going to get. You've made an entire empire with foam machines, which is crazy, but before we get there, talk to me about Greg, the guy growing up. How did you. I mean, what were the beginnings of your life that led you ultimately think about getting into business yourself?

00:03:16:20 - 00:03:44:21
Unknown
I have to start with, thank you for asking me to talk about my favorite topic of conversation. Okay. Which is me. The, my mother is an enabler. Okay? My father was an gambling addict. If you know anything about an alcoholic, replace the word alcohol with gamble. My dad did not drink. He did not do drugs. He went to Vietnam in the late 60s for a year, and he came home and my mother said, that's what ruined him.

00:03:44:23 - 00:04:03:16
Unknown
I know my dad was mean. Paul is two years older than me. My older brother Stephen's two years younger, and we were tight, the three of us. And we all did live in Austin till I moved to Colorado. And they're still here and, growing up, my dad sucked. And I can tell you now that my dad sucked.

00:04:03:16 - 00:04:38:10
Unknown
And if my dad didn't suck so bad, I would not be so successful today. I'm not angry. I'm not bitter. I'm grateful because I can scratch my own head. I'm grateful because I experience failure and rejection regularly. And that makes me the success that I am. You asked about talk About me, because anything that I did as a kid was not good enough.

00:04:38:12 - 00:04:57:08
Unknown
I tried harder, and now today, I don't. I can't play chess, I don't play chess. But I think a good chess players 12 moves ahead in my brain. I'm 12 moves ahead. It's a blessing and a curse, but I am not wired to work for the next guy because I work harder than the next four people. I wake up running.

00:04:57:08 - 00:05:15:20
Unknown
I'm excited to figure out the puzzle. I can tell you that now. I used to not understand, and starting at age 23, fresh out of college when all my friends graduated, I stopped going and I got told several times, hey man, you didn't graduate. I'm like, that's okay, don't tell anybody. 11 years ago, I went on and off for about four and a half years.

00:05:15:20 - 00:05:40:10
Unknown
Okay. I can tell you now also that I actually wanted to learn. And I know very specifically several things that are incredibly helpful. And every single thing that I do today that I learned in college, the teachers didn't understand that I really wanted to learn, so I would just move on and get my BS and C's and D's and the occasional F, and I was just good and then I started self-employment.

00:05:40:12 - 00:05:52:13
Unknown
But what makes me tick is the upbringing. And then I got lucky or I created my own luck. The harder you work, the luck you get. You hear that all the time. True.

00:05:52:13 - 00:06:12:19
Unknown
Hey, y'all. Quick break. Here at American Operator, we believe that small business is the backbone of this country. But more and more Main Street getting swallowed up by big corporations, wall Street or some of them are just shutting down. If you've ever thought about building something of your own, or just being a part of saving the American dream head on over to American operator.com.

00:06:12:21 - 00:06:22:23
Unknown
It's your one stop shop for inspiration stories, and you'll get to join this really great community of patriots that believe our country still worth fighting for. All right. Back to the show.

00:06:22:23 - 00:06:33:17
Unknown
Did you know that about yourself that you had, like, did you did any of that early childhood stuff prevent you, or did you always just kind of accept it and move on, or did it take some like beaten up to figure out, you know what I mean?

00:06:33:17 - 00:06:59:09
Unknown
Like, were you stuck for a while or were you always, never, ever, ever, ever stuck for a while? Okay, I love that question. The early childhood stuff. I didn't know what was happening. I know now because I got plenty of time to reflect. What I don't do is feel sorry for myself. I don't dwell on the negative because I believe I'm, video games in the 80s, and I'm sure they still exist today.

00:06:59:09 - 00:07:15:04
Unknown
The punching games. You only had a certain amount of energy, and then we can get to the time in May of, November oh one, when I came in third out of eight in the Austin mayor's race, my dear friend Adam Tait said to me, Greg Gordon, you only have a certain amount of energy. Then you run out.

00:07:15:04 - 00:07:35:10
Unknown
And I put the analogy of the boxing game in the 80s. You run out of energy. So I consciously think every day, all the time, oh, nope, can't put that energy into that because I can put my energy into this. I cannot waste my time putting tape on boxes, but I take the exact same energy making videos that turn into a gazillion dollars.

00:07:35:10 - 00:07:56:04
Unknown
Yeah, so that Boy Scouts, as a kid, my high school job working at a women's shoe store in Beaumont, Texas, and then the Macaroni Grill in college for right into three years. Those are my three big, big, big, learning things and then the making mistakes. That was the boy Scouts. You mess something up and you keep going.

00:07:56:04 - 00:08:12:07
Unknown
And if you do something right, I was taught early you do something right, then you just imitate it. But if you make a mistake, you get to analyze and you go back and then you crush it later because you can figure out how not to make the same mistake twice. It's cool to make a bazillion mistakes, but don't make them twice of those three places.

00:08:12:07 - 00:08:32:12
Unknown
The, you said the Macaroni Grill women's shoes. I worked at a women's shoe store in high school for night through 12th grade. Okay, those. And what was the last one you said there? Boy Scouts. Oh, and Boy Scouts. Of those three things, what would you say? I'm just curious. And maybe it's not just one thing. Yeah, but if you pull a major thing that you still use today from those experiences, what are the goal setting?

00:08:32:14 - 00:08:55:18
Unknown
Boy Scouts? I do it all the time. Every December I make my goals for the next year. Okay? I write things down and I'm incredibly focused as I may come across as, like squirrel, but I, incredibly like the boots. I bought a pair of boots. They're nice. Yeah, I've been thinking about it for years. I walk in there like, oh my gosh, that's the easiest sale I've ever.

00:08:55:18 - 00:09:13:15
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. And whoever's near me there are like my wife Lindsay, she's like, oh, I love, I love, I love shopping with Greg Gordon because he is quick. He's not a shopper. You're a buyer, correct? Correct. Because I think about it. But on the surface when you see it, you the next person. It is quick because I've been processing it for a while.

00:09:13:16 - 00:09:37:16
Unknown
Yeah. So goal setting Boy Scouts, that's the mistakes too. And then Macaroni Grill, macaroni grill was sales was control the conversation. Words have meaning. Be deliberate. I do not ask you how you're doing because everybody else does. I ask you something more specific and more personal, and I listen and I ask a follow up question, and I have a, creepy good memory at a high school reunion.

00:09:37:16 - 00:09:59:11
Unknown
I'm full on creepy because I remember everything. You see, it is a fun game. And then when I if I don't remember, I get you to think I remember it, and that's good enough. And if you want it, you want I know you want an example. So I used to go about 13 years in a row. I'd go between 3 and 10 industry specific trade shows to cell phone machines, to people who use phone machines for a living.

00:09:59:13 - 00:10:17:00
Unknown
And the big one was the amusement park related one in Orlando in November 13th, 14, 15 years in a row. And I'd see the same people each year and everybody's got a name tag on, and they come up to the booth and there would be somebody working with me that works multiple years in a row, and somebody new would come up and say, hey, what's up?

00:10:17:00 - 00:10:32:15
Unknown
Joseph from Burnie, Texas, and like, oh, you're at the nametag. I said, yeah, I know, I read the name tag, but I told you, Joseph is one of my favorite people. He and I used to work together Macaroni Grill and you'll be like, oh my gosh, that's what you said. Yeah, because I say that to everybody named Joseph.

00:10:32:15 - 00:10:52:01
Unknown
But you don't know that. And that doesn't matter. Oh my gosh, Paul, I told you my older brother's name is Paul. Yeah you did. That's what I said. It's it's not insincere. You don't have to be insincere. And that stuff makes money. It's, you're making people feel like that's the thing that I find with great entrepreneurs, but also just great humans.

00:10:52:03 - 00:11:09:00
Unknown
They found a way to make sure that individual feels like they're not feels, or really feels the most important thing at the moment. Yes. Right. Not just to your point, sweeping statements. And it jogs my memory. And I do remember stuff. Yeah. Which is I just could I care like, I can talk to you about dead presidents all day long.

00:11:09:02 - 00:11:25:16
Unknown
Like, how do you know that? What's your favorite dead one right now? Lyndon Johnson. Oh, real central Texan. Well, true. Oh, yeah. Mr. Austin. Oh, yeah. We could talk about him, that's all I'm going to talk to you about. Talking about yesterday. We wanted to change the topic. The podcast. Yeah. Oh my gosh. What a okay. When what about selling lady shoes.

00:11:25:16 - 00:11:45:10
Unknown
So the women's shoe store this is this is the most powerful one. It's called the Tammy Carnahan theory. So Mike who's still a dear friend, my skin tingles when I talk about Mike specter and his dad, Max and his brother, Ronnie. Two things, but the Tammy Carnahan theory. Ninth grade. I am quiet, I'm deathly shy, afraid to talk to girls.

00:11:45:12 - 00:12:03:03
Unknown
I can talk to the adults, but can't talk to the girls. So ninth grade, Mike says to me, I've told the story 2000 times. Greg, who are you taking to homecoming? I said nobody, why not? Anybody you want to ask? Yeah. Tammy Carnahan, he picks up the phone book in Beaumont, Texas. Not a lot of people. Yeah.

00:12:03:03 - 00:12:21:01
Unknown
He goes down, he dials the number, puts the phone in my hand. Hello? Yeah. Tammy? Yeah. Hey, it's Greg Gordon. Yeah. Hey, do you have a date to homecoming? Yeah. Okay. See you tomorrow. Click. Fast forward. The story gets it. Didn't matter. Didn't change my life at all. Whether she said yes, I have a date. Yes, I'll go with you.

00:12:21:02 - 00:12:41:00
Unknown
I didn't, nothing changed, so I only had to gain. If she said yes, there was nothing to lose. It was all in my head. And he whispered that. And he said that to me for years, years and years. Fast forward to ten year high school reunion. Ten years after ten year high school reunion. Renee, who I grew up with, moves to Austin.

00:12:41:01 - 00:12:58:04
Unknown
She's, unloading into her apartment and she's got a picture with Tammy Courtney. And I said, oh, my gosh, let me tell you about Tammy, because at this point, I'm 28, 29, five years self-employed. And I told her the story that I just told you. She goes, oh my gosh, I'm going to call her. I'm overdue for a phone call.

00:12:58:04 - 00:13:16:05
Unknown
So she tells me, she calls me after the phone call, she goes, he remembers me. Okay, here's the lesson. Biggest deal in the world to me. Tammy didn't even think I remembered her. Oh my gosh. He asked me to homecoming. Did I go with him? Mike, you can't scripted this good, Joseph. This humongous, monumental thing to me in my life.

00:13:16:05 - 00:13:35:17
Unknown
That was just. Oh, I was so scared. So scared. The she didn't even remember the the lesson was, what is such a big deal to me as they say in, Central Texas, it don't matter none. She didn't even remember. She was flattered that I remember her. And that was so, so powerful. That was from Macaroni Grill.

00:13:35:21 - 00:13:53:09
Unknown
I mean, from the Guaranty Shoe Store in Beaumont, because Mike taught me that. And number two was his dad, Max. Max. I watched a lady walk in the store, and I listened to her say, I want some high heel black patent leather shoes. I watched her walk out with some flat white shoes for the sake of the story.

00:13:53:09 - 00:14:10:10
Unknown
This is the big. That's close enough to the story. Max. Max, I got to go up to him. I said, hey, man, you didn't sell that lady what she wanted. He goes, what are you talking about? This is a women's shoe store. She came in with money and said, take my money, give me shoes. That's exactly what I did.

00:14:10:11 - 00:14:33:05
Unknown
Fast forward, I'm, January 2002. I been moving soda machines around and frozen margarita machines, barely scraping by, working my butt off. Run for mayor. Sold my house, moved in an apartment, barely getting by it. Hey, Greg. It's such and such fraternity. University of Texas, July 2002. We're going to need two more frozen margarita machines like we got last summer from you.

00:14:33:05 - 00:14:51:19
Unknown
I said great, 180 bucks for the two of them, and they each weigh 185 pounds each. One of them cost $2,600, and there's $150 cart they sit on, and they need a five gallon bucket and a half a gallon of gooey sirup, and I need a pickup truck to move them around. I said, super two on two margarita machine.

00:14:51:19 - 00:15:08:17
Unknown
Hey, by the way, can you run? It's a foam machine. Also, I said, yeah, I've got a foam. Both he goes foam from. I said, that's what I said. The reason I did that is because Max said that lady walked into my store and money said, take my money. That guy called me on the phone and said, Greg, take my money.

00:15:08:18 - 00:15:29:22
Unknown
He said, what do you charge to rent the foam machine? I said, what did you pay last year? He said, $1,400. I didn't fall on the floor, but I fell on the floor. Hey man, that's exactly what I charge. Let me, get a contract to you. And then I was in the foam business. The foam machine cost me 2200 bucks to buy the very first one, which is 400 less than a margarita machine.

00:15:29:22 - 00:15:50:22
Unknown
Yeah, it weighed 40 pounds, not 185 pounds. And I was in the foam machine rental business just because of an ask. Because of the ask because Max said you say yes. You say yes. When I write my book, it's going to be say yes and show up on time. That's the title. Give me a man that makes a person rich.

00:15:50:22 - 00:15:57:21
Unknown
Well, I just like something that I think breaks people's brains. Thinking about how much.

00:15:57:23 - 00:16:18:21
Unknown
The way I with the way I describe great business owners, entrepreneurs, those kinds of thing, those kind of folks, they're like really good at their their walk into the dark and everybody behind them on the team, they make the team believe they know where they're going. And the reality of it is they don't really fully understand that. But what ends up happening is, is really special thing because of their confidence.

00:16:18:21 - 00:16:36:07
Unknown
It manifests what ends up happening. Teammate picks up a light flashlight on the way they start shining things around because I will break and say, well, then maybe I should be able to see. And what's weird is you start manifesting yes thing, but a lot of folks don't have the guts, the courage or maybe the swagger to get there.

00:16:36:09 - 00:16:53:06
Unknown
I can see why it's easier for you to do that. Why do you? If you're going to give someone some advice today about leaning into that, whatever you want to call it, that confidence, it's not quite baked yet. That thing that the reason you just said yes. What can you give somebody some connection just to start exploring that more?

00:16:53:08 - 00:17:13:16
Unknown
It's the same exact words on Sunday nights in Beaumont as a kid. They at Mario's Pizza, they had free sodas or as you and I call it, free Cokes. Free Cokes? Yeah, when you get your pizza. So my mom and dad in the in the two brothers and five of us would go into Mario's Pizza and there's a television room and you walk up the middle.

00:17:13:16 - 00:17:32:00
Unknown
I vividly remember this. I don't tell the story enough. You walk up the middle after getting your coke to go sit down at the table with the family, and everybody's looking at you. And I used to walk in that room and I would say in my head, with drink in hand, trying to shrink and not be seen. Everybody's looking at me.

00:17:32:02 - 00:17:58:05
Unknown
I don't know why, but I something one day clicked and I walk the same exact path and say the exact same words. My shoulders are back, my head is high. I'm smiling from ear to ear and I say, everybody's looking at me. It's the exact same words. I don't know how. It's because I tried once and it worked.

00:17:58:07 - 00:18:21:20
Unknown
When I worked at Macaroni Grill, I remember vividly saying new lines of the word likewise. Hey, nice to see you. Likewise. Nice to meet you. Likewise. It didn't sound natural to me at first. I watch David Letterman or Conan O'Brien, whoever on TV, when they meet people, they say, nice to see you, nice to know you. When Governor Bush, we used to have a governor in Texas named George Bush.

00:18:21:22 - 00:18:38:12
Unknown
And I remember meeting him, he says, good to see you. I hadn't met the guy before, but I learned from the people at the top. They were successful in their field, meaning they meet a bazillion people and they're not going to say, nice to meet you because everybody says, nice to meet you. They're going to be unique and better.

00:18:38:12 - 00:18:58:08
Unknown
So I want to be unique and better. So I'm going to say mine is looking at me and I watch the next guy, and we would drive down Thomas Road, my dad, we would drive down Thomas Road in Beaumont from our house and he'd make noises. Oh, but these houses must be nice, must be nice. And the people had really nice houses, and I don't know why it went into my head.

00:18:58:10 - 00:19:14:21
Unknown
This must be nice. Yeah. I'm a I'm going to be able to give me these houses whenever I want and I can now, but I don't need to live in Beaumont, Texas. Yeah. And there's just so many of those stories. It's why the people are, what if that doesn't work? And my reply always is, what if it does?

00:19:14:23 - 00:19:36:13
Unknown
It's it's. And then it's all coupled together. The goal setting is humongous, humongous, humongous. I had the Lake Austin house that was on my goals, and it evolved into the house in Breckenridge. Yeah, and I got it. And I found a list of my goals from 2016 and I had it have a lake house. I get the downpayment from a Lake Austin house and I got it.

00:19:36:13 - 00:19:55:18
Unknown
I'm there. I've been there for years now. Breckenridge I think that's like those are the thing. I think what you've captured there I was is something that I think a lot of folks struggle with. It's that, they're more almost, afraid of the, the going wrong, the. No. Because I'm thinking about your margarita story, and I'm thinking about how that transitioned in the film.

00:19:55:18 - 00:20:12:05
Unknown
I want to get all in the film here, but I'd like it seems to me I'm not Greg Gordon, but it seems to me you're, like, the worst that could happen is that I got to get this guy's money back because I can't find a phone machine. Right. You started it. You ready? I don't say this often. I gave him half his money back.

00:20:12:05 - 00:20:29:17
Unknown
The machine I bought wasn't big enough. Oh, really? I had to give him half the money back. I still had $700. Yeah, which was more than the 180 I had for the two margarita machines. There you go. You got. That's the scoop I did, Jim have some money back. The machine. One big enough. Woops. Yeah. Who cares? Yeah.

00:20:29:18 - 00:20:46:14
Unknown
Now you know, he had a lawyer call me. Hey, here's your money back. You don't need to have a lawyer call me. Yeah, it was fantastic. Did it slow me down? Yeah, not at all. I think he's just a way of being. I think that's something that as we as I, as I talk more and more, we we run into owners all the time.

00:20:46:14 - 00:21:04:23
Unknown
There is a part of me that wonders if that can be taught. Like, do you have it in you, or can someone learn to be that way? Yes, you can learn it. I was, I was, we were all bullied. We were all bullied. These kids. Right? Right. Yeah, I was bullied, I was bullied. So I'm in I'm in middle school and the kid would always come up to my face and make noise.

00:21:05:01 - 00:21:27:13
Unknown
And one day I don't remember. I pushed back and they stopped. Oh my gosh, that was easy. And then from then on, I just push back and then they'd stop. And if they did not punch them in the nose and then they stop. It was fascinating. It's like, wait, why are you why why not me? Yeah. It's cool.

00:21:27:15 - 00:21:46:21
Unknown
I think it's it's, it's like you break out of the matrix like you start to understand the way the world kind of actually is. It's not complicated. And also another one is was the drugs. I never, never, never smoked, never inhaled a cigaret. None of that. I remember in college, in the early 90s in Austin, I had all these friends that would smoke pot in the early 90s.

00:21:46:21 - 00:22:08:12
Unknown
There's this guy named Michael Dell selling computers. And yeah, yeah, you might have heard him, but my reply was, they're like, hey man, we're going to go smoke pot or we're going to go get drunk this week. And I said, do you think Michael Dell's doing that? Because that's where I wanted to be my goal. I was focused that I mean it's and they didn't they they want nothing to do with that.

00:22:08:13 - 00:22:24:00
Unknown
After I said that, I was yeah, I'm like, wow, right on. That was easy. So you're fine. If you hang out with drug dealers, you're going to be a drug dealer. So I chose not to hang out with the people that didn't want to be able to go snowboarding every day in the winter. Yeah, man. I think that's the that's the end.

00:22:24:00 - 00:22:38:22
Unknown
Like, it's something that I wish folks had more chances to experiment with. And there's a lot of ingredients and factors that lead to it. How your parents are, what they aren't, all that stuff. Your experiences around you or whatever. So you're in the phone business now? Yes, I am in the phone business now.

00:22:38:22 - 00:22:54:07
Unknown
Greg, what is foam? I mean, like, what is a foam machine? A party machine? This thing you do, I hope I understand that absolutely. Instead of filling up the bathtub with bubble baths, it's a device that fills up the entire yard or room with the same bubbles.

00:22:54:07 - 00:23:24:04
Unknown
Think of a water hose. Except 20 times the size it dumps out. It's. It's not soapy water. It's bubbly water. When you brush your teeth, there's a bubble in your toothpaste. That is a marketing bit. This is only it's called a surfactant. It's a surfactant blend. It's the bubble out of your shampoo or your toothpaste pushed with air and water through a mesh like a screen on your window or a lawnmower bag material.

00:23:24:06 - 00:23:47:23
Unknown
It's pushed with air and it dumps out and it's bubbles. It's a bubble blower on steroids, and kids go berserk playing with it. And my grandmother, who died in 2012, was the only person I ever came across that said, I don't get it. Everybody else is like, it's bubbles and it's nostalgic. My friend Stephen Shallcross says. Greg, it's nostalgic because, Sydney's his daughter's birthday the other day.

00:23:48:04 - 00:24:04:23
Unknown
They did bubbles for her 10th and, foam and more foam, more bubbles. It was cute. It was so fantastic. Foamy. Wait a minute. Real quick you said that bubbles in your toothpaste market is marketing its mark just to prove your wash. You're like getting clean,

00:24:04:23 - 00:24:33:10
Unknown
So you get that first phone machine, give the guy half his money back, and then are you immediately going, all right, I guess I'm trying to sell this service again. Like what happens after that? In 1999? I am a year and a half into the margarita machine rental business in Austin, Texas. My roommate and friend at the time, Brian, worked in technology at the governor's office and he said, Greg, you need a website.

00:24:33:15 - 00:24:52:03
Unknown
I said, okay, so I get a website. My first website was Presidential Hyphen service.com. I like the dead presidents stuff, and it was too long and I had no and I could have gotten greg.com, but I didn't know I didn't have that vision. I didn't dream as big as I've gotten, which is that's, that's that's the you got to have tears.

00:24:52:03 - 00:25:18:02
Unknown
And so I don't know, six, eight, ten months in, I looked for another website and I found Party machines.com, and there was exactly zero people who said, that's a good idea because I was renting frozen margarita machines in Austin in central Texas, and party machines didn't say any of that. To this day, you will hear people you can read on the internet about margarita party machines and that's because of me.

00:25:18:04 - 00:25:39:02
Unknown
So along the way, I rented out the frozen margarita machines and I had bartending service, and I tried to do a little bit of catering, and then I got the foam machine thing in order to rent five margarita machines. And one day I had to have a, long bed pickup, full size pickup truck, and I five carts and five machines and drive around when I needed six.

00:25:39:02 - 00:25:59:19
Unknown
I needed a second truck. My market was central Texas, where I could drive. When I got the phone machine rental that only weighed 22 pounds or whatever. 40 pounds, 40 pounds, 40 pounds, that would fit into a UPS box. I knew that immediately. And party machines.com about that time randomly one of my neighbors. You create your own luck.

00:25:59:20 - 00:26:18:02
Unknown
You say yes and you show up. Stephanie, my neighbor, worked for National Instruments. She lives in the apartment upstairs for me. She was cute. Hey, Greg. Hey, Stephanie. Hey. What are you doing? I told her about the website and all this, so she gave me a bootleg copy of Dreamweaver, which was a program that made my website. And I paid these two brothers 500 bucks, and she goes, you could update it yourself.

00:26:18:04 - 00:26:37:06
Unknown
Then somebody from Microsoft be central about that January or February of 2002 called me and they said, hey, search engine optimization. And they sent me an email. And the third time they called my credit card worked for 100 bucks. They wanted, because I could simply call about please call back. And then so I learned how to do search engine optimization in 2002 for Pho machine.

00:26:37:06 - 00:26:59:06
Unknown
So I'm getting these calls from Georgia and Florida and Alabama and Mississippi. I'm driving my margarita machines around, make 9000 bucks a pop in Central Texas, and I started immediately building these phone machines because they were fans with lawn mower, bag material, PVC parts, and a water pump. There was nothing to them. I'm putting building these phone machines in my garage, in my house, because I always owned a house.

00:26:59:06 - 00:27:18:16
Unknown
From 25 on, I've owned house because that helped me. I could have roommates and that made living easier. So I'm building these phone machines in my garage, putting in UPS boxes, and I'm, going to the Home Depot to buy the parts after 2:00 scratching a check. The money clears the bank account. I mean, I'm getting by barely.

00:27:18:18 - 00:27:48:15
Unknown
And, dropping them off at the UPS or the Fedex store. And these phone machines at 12, 13, $1,400 rental are going out of state, and then they come back and they're paid for, and they go out again. I saw really quickly that my margarita machines had a ceiling. I could only rent so many as quickly as I could drive my one truck, but there's tens of thousands of UPS and Fedex trucks, and they go all over the world, and you just put them in there, and.

00:27:48:19 - 00:28:07:23
Unknown
And I just put them in there and send them and they send them back to you. Most of the time they send them back. And if they didn't, I didn't care because they were paying me more than. But yeah, they sent them back okay. Back then and then I realized I hate, I didn't dislike, I didn't strongly dislike, I hated my customers because they're attorneys and they're not the most pleasant people in the world.

00:28:08:00 - 00:28:24:21
Unknown
So I realized I was wondering what the clientele was at the time. It was fraternities. It was fraternities. It was. It was bro's and dudes and, and I did and I did foam. I did not like they were just weren't nice people and Schlitz and whatever, they're right. They weren't nice people. And so, but they paid.

00:28:24:23 - 00:28:44:02
Unknown
So I realized I could, I like to figure out the puzzle. I could sell the foam machines or give them away for free when they bought certain amounts of foam to, I could give them sell the foam to somebody local near them, and then my market would grow, but grow exponentially because I could keep selling the foam.

00:28:44:04 - 00:29:00:14
Unknown
And I had a margarita machine rental customer in Central Texas who was a cleaning supply company, and they're like, hey, we can. And I'm, I'm a talker. So I'm talking to these people, the South, Austin, some of the hey, we could sell you the foam. So they sold me the 55 gallon drums, this liquid stuff, and I'm dumping it out in my driveway.

00:29:00:14 - 00:29:17:21
Unknown
And I crafted this, the system to put it into buckets and mix it up, and then they're overcharging me. And then I passed them up and found somebody else. And then I found somebody else. And then my price kept going down. And then I'm selling 20 gallons, four buckets of liquid foam for whatever. And then they get a free machine.

00:29:17:23 - 00:29:33:04
Unknown
And then I discovered going to industry specific summer camp trade shows, and then the next year and they're like, oh my gosh, Greg. I'm like, yeah, I know, you know, I, I didn't know him and there weren't a lot of customers. And like, we're making our own Foamer why are you making your own foam? Because it's cheaper. You're charging too much.

00:29:33:06 - 00:29:55:05
Unknown
Noted. So then eventually I turned the liquid into a powder. And that's what the deal like that then like. Well, yeah, that in the packaging machine. Well, going back to the frat bros. Oh yeah, about them was tough as a customer. They weren't reasonable. They wanted to negotiate for over nothing. I'm like, that's not the business I'm in.

00:29:55:08 - 00:30:15:02
Unknown
Yeah. And they wouldn't take no Mike. Move on. I was too busy doing everything else that they they must. They all read the same manual, the book. Oh, no. Whatever the price is, you got to pay last. You I mean and I was, I was also it had to be some me because now there's no negotiating yesterday I'm not allowed.

00:30:15:07 - 00:30:31:22
Unknown
I have Molly that I work with and I'm not she and I don't allow me to reply to emails or phone calls. And I read one yesterday. She forwards it and now she'll right back to this one. It's similar to the attorneys. She'll simply say, hey dear customer, dear potential customer, it appears that you're not our customer.

00:30:31:22 - 00:30:55:09
Unknown
Best of luck to you. Yeah, because we're nice and we are reasonable and we don't deal because we don't have to. And my mother, who was in sales for 50 years. So, baby, everybody is not your customer. And that was powerful. Yeah. And I say to people all the time, Joseph, baby, everybody is not your customer. It gets you kind of like I think in the beginning you just got you thinking about survival.

00:30:55:09 - 00:31:22:21
Unknown
But after you kind of it's odd when you start to understand that piece of it. So you're finding more your people. You say survival. I go further and say, in the beginning, I just wanted to make enough money to buy groceries to eat. Survival. Yeah. But it was that primitive and I couldn't see past making enough money to buy groceries to be able to eat.

00:31:22:21 - 00:31:57:03
Unknown
And I wouldn't change a thing. It's the straps I think it's the, the scars you gotta earn along the way. Those are not you can't pass go without doing those things first. You can't. Right. You can't. And the level of success which I have reached is not normal. It's because it's freeing. I don't have to do much. It's really cool.

00:31:57:03 - 00:32:17:20
Unknown
And with that, I have all this extra energy and free time to even get my processes even more efficient. Yeah. What is what has changed today from when the early days of what Greg Gordon now does the most? Oh my gosh, I used to sweat on the front of my legs in the warehouse because I did. I remember driving around in the truck.

00:32:17:20 - 00:32:40:07
Unknown
Oh my. And I stopped doing I stopped doing the, soda machines. I started self-employment, Ju 98, soda machines, moving them around fun locations 9096 June 96th October 98th I was started with the Margarita machine Rentals Halloween 98 first rental. And that was scary too because it worked out. But it was still it was a bad rental because I didn't know.

00:32:40:09 - 00:32:59:01
Unknown
And, I quit the soda machines at that time. I took a beating on them, but that's okay. Charge up a bunch credit cards. I always had good credit. I've always pay my bills. Always, always, always, always. And then in November oh five was my last margarita machine rental. Sometime in oh seven was my last phone machine rental.

00:32:59:01 - 00:33:18:09
Unknown
And I went strictly to selling. And I can tell you confidently, in 2025 we are that I'm done selling the phone machines. It's just the solutions. We'll give them away for free. But I'm done selling the phone machines. Yeah, because there's they're coming out of China, for and they're much better than I can make them and the prices lower.

00:33:18:11 - 00:33:34:21
Unknown
So your question, I interrupted. What was your question? No, I just would. What are the main things you're focused, it seems like. Oh, what are you doing now? Oh my gosh, I did everything, man. I answered the phone. I replied to emails. I created the email drip campaign system. I did the accounting and I did all the data entry.

00:33:34:23 - 00:33:51:16
Unknown
Yeah. For the, I, I built the website and I don't man, that was not fun. I did it because I had to make money to buy groceries to eat, and I did everything I had. Then I scheduled the UPS or Fedex pick ups and that was life changing. Then I got the system to the email drip campaigns.

00:33:51:16 - 00:34:14:13
Unknown
That was not till 2017, but maybe that was ahead. And then I got the, The I used to run the packaging machine. I used to build the machines. I used to go to work every day. When I say every day, I went to work every day. For a few years. I went to China between 2010 and 2013, after I bought my warehouse out in Lockhart in oh nine to learn how to do manufacturing.

00:34:14:13 - 00:34:30:15
Unknown
So I had a guy at the shop, but I was still over in China learning, figuring things out. And I came home and then I went to really, really, really, really went to work. And then I was going to the trade shows. Oh my gosh, trade shows are exhausting. There were seven weeks of my life each year, and about 100 grand.

00:34:30:17 - 00:34:48:14
Unknown
And that was good. It got me to this point. I was always on the social media from Facebook, know from Myspace. And then I got TikTok before it was cool. I got all of it before it was cool. Yeah. And I got the year oh six, I think, or oh seven. I got, YouTube and I'm still cranking those out.

00:34:48:16 - 00:35:07:18
Unknown
So today what I do, I work on the Amazon because a big percentage of my sales come via Amazon and Walmart.com, which is awesome because the distribution in the reaches is worldwide, and I've been selling of all over the world for quite a while. And I go to China, so I enjoy going to the factories in China.

00:35:07:19 - 00:35:30:22
Unknown
I enjoy doing the video editing and creation, and I enjoy big picture stuff, strategy, which is funny to say. I, I don't think it sounds arrogant, but it's, I only do what I enjoy doing. I'll. I don't even have to fire customers. Molly I'll do that. And we don't fire that many anymore because we've got the weed themselves out.

00:35:30:23 - 00:35:43:15
Unknown
Define that. That's, That could not have been, though. Something you did in the early days. Oh, no, we did. Strategy guy. No no no no no no no no no, I did everything. I just hear a lot of folks say that, like, hey, like, I don't like I want to do my own business, but I'm not just the strategy guy.

00:35:43:15 - 00:36:00:04
Unknown
I got to find other people to do the work. No, because I didn't. You don't know what you don't know. That's right. Yeah. So I learned it. You got to fall, you got to get cut. You got to have the bruises. You got to get punched in the face. I did some everything. I mean, I, I it I have to get, something to poke in my head and like.

00:36:00:04 - 00:36:17:21
Unknown
Oh, that too, I mean, we, I built, man, I used to I would sit there with a saw and cut the PVC pieces for hours to. And I did the, primer and the glue, and I just, I was funny, I would walk into this place. Yeah. I need to buy some water pump. So how many do you need, how many you got?

00:36:17:23 - 00:36:36:22
Unknown
And I'm like, well, how many need I need 550. Whoa. And then that's when I learned to go to China. Yeah. And, I used to go to Tractor Supply and I'd go to Harbor Freight and I'd buy them out. And then I went to China, and I get like, I've got a container load of, bubble envelopes come in 164,000 of them come in in a few weeks.

00:36:37:00 - 00:36:50:15
Unknown
It's fun. The quantity of stuff that I buy, I just giggle. Yeah. Getting away in a way that probably seemed like make the laugh in the early days. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The warehouse. Everything I've done. And I know I'm doing something right when I'm when somebody is telling me don't do. And all along the way don't do that.

00:36:50:15 - 00:37:06:10
Unknown
Don't buy the warehouse. It's out in Lockhart. That's too far. Why do you need 90 500ft²? Yeah. Why do I mean, whatever it is? Oh, the liquid foam is working. Why are you putting that into one gallon or one quart things? The five gallon jugs are working powder. It's not as good as the liquid. Nobody's going to buy that.

00:37:06:14 - 00:37:24:14
Unknown
You know the liquids better. Well, you can't give the machines away for free. Yeah. You're right. And I and I've gotten real good. I used to take them out of my phone, and now I changed their name to nope. And I block it, so I don't even know who it is. Do you talk about that? Some kind of going.

00:37:24:14 - 00:37:38:16
Unknown
It sounds like going against the grain. Trust in your gut. What is that from? How do you know? Because there's probably things you do want to listen to and that is from my parents. That was from childhood. You can't do that. My I would they would say clean your room and I would clean my room. Joseph. It was so clean.

00:37:38:16 - 00:37:56:17
Unknown
I'm so proud. And and they come in and say, this is horrible. It was just it was I don't anymore. It's been, during the mayor's campaign, I learned quite a few things. You let the people go, but that's when the energy thing got into you. Only a certain amount of energy. You use it on something that's important.

00:37:56:19 - 00:38:21:08
Unknown
If. And I learned that the next guy that's telling me not to do something, they're talking to themselves. They're not talking to me. And also a if I, I take suspicious white powder, put it into plastic bags and sell it all over the world, make a really good living. That doesn't make sense. So I get it when the next guy says, hey man, I don't believe you, I get it.

00:38:21:08 - 00:38:38:11
Unknown
I wouldn't believe me either. I'll start. Sometimes they'll say, what do you do for a living? Can we talk about something else? Because I'm going to monopolize the conversation because I'm incredibly interesting. Yeah. They're like you, man. You're arrogant. Oh, I said, I did not say I'm arrogant to. Okay, I'm arrogant and incredibly interesting. And by that point, they're either my friend or they're not.

00:38:38:13 - 00:38:57:01
Unknown
It's real fun. It's real, real fun. Every single bit. I only do stuff now that I enjoy. I could floss more. Yeah, I can floss my man. I didn't, you know, there's some people out there. Never floss. Do you know that? Yeah. Not because I'm not talking about, like, oh, just good genes or that just. They just don't know.

00:38:57:01 - 00:39:18:04
Unknown
They just don't. That's wacky. It's weird. Right? I could read more. I could floss more, but otherwise I'm pretty rocking and rolling. Man, those are the top two things on my annual list of goals. Floss. That's a good that's at least four times a week. Well, that's a good like spot to be in if those are the things that maybe keeping you up more than that, go okay.

00:39:18:08 - 00:39:46:05
Unknown
Go back real quick to trust in that intuition. That's another thing that's important that go check. So so Tammy, the Tammy Carnahan theory. Yeah. She didn't ten years, 15 years later, she didn't even think I remembered her. That is so powerful. It's remember I remember how painful middle school was. And when I got picked on her, I thought, oh, my gosh, I got a can't tuck my shirt under.

00:39:46:05 - 00:40:05:21
Unknown
I don't don't talk. I shouldn't have don't talk, I'm sure. Oh, what is somebody at school going to say. Man, when I went from everybody's looking at me to everybody's looking at me. It is so powerful. It is I genuinely because my parents were so mean to me as a kid, and it had nothing to do with me.

00:40:06:01 - 00:40:29:14
Unknown
It was because my dad is in his gambling addiction, and my mother should have divorced the guy and took me and my brothers and gotten him away from us, that they were dealing with their own stuff. It has nothing to do with me. It's not. You have enough challenges managing what's in your own head. I have enough challenges managing what's in my own head.

00:40:29:16 - 00:41:02:23
Unknown
It doesn't matter what the next guy thinks. A million lessons from running for mayor. Here's a good one. It was a special election to replace the Kirk Watson, who's mayor right now, which is wacky. But he quit halfway through a second term to go get on the, primary to run for attorney general on the Democrat ticket against a guy who was, was a judge named Greg Abbott, who eventually became who beat him in the general election a long time ago, for attorney general.

00:41:03:01 - 00:41:23:02
Unknown
And so it was a special election before the spring when they were going to have all these elections coming up. So it was exactly one thing on the ballot. The city of Austin at the time had $100. I might put you to sleep. I'm going to try not to know you. I'm wide awake. The city of Austin at the time had a campaign contribution limit of $100 per donor.

00:41:23:02 - 00:41:39:23
Unknown
The state of Texas is unlimited, and at the time, and probably still today, you don't go anywhere from being mayor. You want to be mayor. You actually want to do something. All I ever wanted to do as a kid, I want to run for office, work for myself and never be told what not to do. And those and travel.

00:41:40:01 - 00:42:03:12
Unknown
So it the opportunity came for me to become, candidate, a major party candidate in a nonpartisan race for mayor of Austin. And I had nothing to lose. So I'm the big signs all over town television commercials, radio interviews. And I'm this young whippersnapper against Gus who became the the the winner, who was a 67 year old I not icon, but, staple in the community.

00:42:03:12 - 00:42:22:06
Unknown
I've been on council, been on school board. Cool neat guy. I got to have lunch with him twice after he became mayor and, after Friday, after the Tuesday election, where I, we'd spent tens of thousands of dollars, television and all that stuff, I'm bartending a wedding with my margarita machines out in Salt Lake with my buddy, and I'm showing off.

00:42:22:06 - 00:42:40:22
Unknown
I said, watch this. My signs were all over town. I said, watch this. Two women come up for drinks. Hey, where are y'all from? We live here in Austin. Oh no way, no way. Did you vote? Vote what? In the election. For what? For mayor. For what? Austin. Mayor's election. When was it? It was Tuesday. Really? The lesson?

00:42:40:22 - 00:42:57:03
Unknown
I couple that with the Tammy Carnahan theory. I put my heart, my sweat. My friends moved in with me. We ran for mayor. I was a candidate. They didn't even know there was an election. Fast forward. I've got a nasty margarita machine rental customer two, three, 4 or 5 months later, you're the worst. You got to pay for this.

00:42:57:03 - 00:43:11:17
Unknown
And you ruined my party, and you got to give me my money back and that and, and I I'm I'm ready. Because I just had that talk with the two women at that thing. I said, oh, yeah, you're probably going to tell all your friends about me. This is me on the phone with her. If I don't give you my back, I'm going to tell all my friends about you.

00:43:11:17 - 00:43:29:17
Unknown
And I'm having fun. And you got a lot of friends. I got a lot of friends. You're just playing along. And she was hot. I said, oh, and you're going to ruin me. I'm going to ruin your business. Oh, it was just I was having fun. I said, what's my name? Hello? Hello? She hung up. No idea who she was talking to.

00:43:29:19 - 00:43:53:12
Unknown
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. That's where it doesn't matter. One in my mom says, baby, if one person's going to ruin your business, you shouldn't be in business anyway. One person's not that powerful. People used to say things like, oh, give me a bunch of cards, I'll pass them out. Now I say, I don't carry cards. My replies, I don't have any cards or oh, I got too much business, actually.

00:43:53:14 - 00:44:11:20
Unknown
Can you stop telling people about me? Because what they're saying is I want something for free. No thank you. It's so powerful. These lessons, they're all. Everything's a lesson. Every, every, every everything's a lesson. And nobody is more special than the next person. So you ask where it came from. The am I, am I answering your question? Yeah.

00:44:11:22 - 00:44:31:02
Unknown
It's in the real life lessons and allows me to sleep better at night. Oh, a bad review on Amazon. Oh my gosh, when I was new at that am I? Oh wait, no that way. Didn't even know my name. All this crazy cool stuff. It doesn't matter. We now I mean, what Costco, H-e-b, they give you your money back, right?

00:44:31:04 - 00:44:49:18
Unknown
I don't like it. You get your money back at party machines.com. You get your money back, Molly, before she writes the email back. I've already refunded your card. Here's return shipping labels. If you don't send it back to us, we won't harass you because we're too busy making too much money from everybody else. You're one person and we got lots of customers.

00:44:49:20 - 00:45:15:18
Unknown
And this isn't the way we do business and we're small compared to big business. But what we're doing works. It's pretty cool. It's it's you sleep better at night and I've, I've said that if you paid with your credit card, even if I didn't give you your money back, you'll win the dispute. I'm not allowed to talk on the phone, but back when I was, I would say that.

00:45:15:20 - 00:45:40:06
Unknown
And then, I don't care. You go tell Chase, or you go tell Wells Fargo they'll they'll let you win the dispute. Yeah. Like why? And nothing. And also another one is you don't want and you can't write anything nasty you because you visualize it on a big monitor and a courtroom. You don't want to do that. Even if it is, you're still it's not going to change your life.

00:45:40:08 - 00:45:57:03
Unknown
One bad customer. And every day there's more people. It's so, easy at this point, 20 some odd years into it. Yes, it's it's cool. And there's some lessons learned along the way, man. Yeah, you it's not just I don't hear you just saying kill them with kindness, but this is actually like, you know, focus on the right things, right?

00:45:57:03 - 00:46:18:02
Unknown
Focus on what makes. Yeah. What what makes you money to buy groceries in order to eat. And along the way, I bought my house. I got, roommates when I needed it. I cut out the yucky ness. The yucky. This today is cell and phone machines. I cut out the, Yeah. The bad employs the. Oh, I like this one.

00:46:18:04 - 00:46:25:09
Unknown
Do you know when the best time to fire somebody is? The first time you think about it?

00:46:25:11 - 00:46:47:09
Unknown
Because you're going to think about it again later and you're like, man, why didn't I fire them a year ago? Whatever it is, whether it's a customer or an employee or whomever in your life, just go let them go because a lot of things that you subscribe to, momentum above almost the forward momentum, forward momentum. Absolutely. Yes. Oh, you didn't like it.

00:46:47:09 - 00:47:09:10
Unknown
Move on. Yeah. Hey we'll get the email sometimes. And they said a bit of sinned a long long thinking about within this isn't working for us. Yeah. This film set up I've already refunded your money. Keep the stuff. Yeah. We used to say this thing in the service because in the Army especially, you can get one of the things we're really great at in schoolhouses, teaching people how to plan.

00:47:09:12 - 00:47:29:04
Unknown
You know, really complex operations and stuff. But at some point, one of the things you can do just through, like, you know, analysis paralysis, that kind of stuff, you should tell folks all the time, young folks kind of going 70% plan executed violently wins every day, you know, which just means like just make it good enough and then go hard.

00:47:29:08 - 00:47:50:17
Unknown
I love good enough. Yeah, I love good enough. The foam powder is not as good as the liquid foam, but it's one sixth the cost. Yeah. And on a scale of 1 to 100, the liquid is 100. The Patterson 89. Yeah. That'll work. You get six times as much. So what are people doing? So you all shifted. You not sell any more machines anymore.

00:47:50:17 - 00:48:09:04
Unknown
You're going out there and saying we're just selling you the supply we are making. We? I make the videos, I enjoy it and I get help, but I enjoy making the videos. The video says, which is the marketing and the advertising. It says, I don't care what machine you bought because we used to sell you 15 $1,600. With the foam, you get a free machine.

00:48:09:06 - 00:48:34:00
Unknown
Now you buy the same 1500 to 1600 for the foam. Send me proof of your receipt of a purchase of a foam machine on Amazon, and I'll give you a discount code on my website for $400 off of the $1,600 foam. So you've got no risk. You pick whatever machine you want to, I'll give you the foam because you're going to use it.

00:48:34:02 - 00:48:52:19
Unknown
And when your machine breaks we've still got inventory. Even the one you didn't buy from us. We'll send you one of ours. Oh interesting. Until we run out is it mainly do you think most of you customer do you think who are most of your customers on the foam side of the house? Are they businesses that are also renting these foam machines out, or are they used to be businesses?

00:48:52:19 - 00:49:18:23
Unknown
It used to be the bouncy jumping moonwalk company. Yeah. But they're but I have so many because the cost of the machine, there's one for 130 bucks on Amazon. This rocket. So I speak in analogies. You can rent an inflatable from Joseph's Bouncy House company in South Austin that Joseph bought for 3500 bucks, and you can pay $370 for the weekend.

00:49:19:01 - 00:49:46:04
Unknown
Or you can go to target and buy a less or quality inflatable that you own for 379. So the 379 equivalent on an foam machine now exists on Amazon. So every day there's more and more of those. Wow. I still have the equipment rental companies who are getting busier because the more foam machines that go into the market, the more foam machines and the more foam solution that goes into the market.

00:49:46:06 - 00:50:08:10
Unknown
And every day, because of my TikTok, with over 1.2 million followers that happened during the pandemic, from 0 or 12 followers to over 1.2 million, now there's more people in the US and there's more people in China. The Chinese vendors are going straight from the factory to Amazon warehouses, which makes me do backflips because they've got the 139, the 239, the 330, and they're so much better.

00:50:08:15 - 00:50:32:14
Unknown
And I'm sure it's just coincidence if you believe in and I don't, that the machines that are coming out of China are pretty much exactly like the way when I go to the factory, like, I tell them how to make them, because I go over there because I speak enough Chinese from my time over there, and I go eat with them, and I do all the stuff you're supposed to do, I tell them how to make foam machines better and what they want.

00:50:32:15 - 00:50:54:18
Unknown
The US. And then six, eight months later, there's 3 or 4 new listings on Amazon, which is fantastic. And you got them because frequently bought with their machine is always the doctor party foam powder packs. And I'm making videos about that too. And that's the best advertising for what happens beyond foam. Oh wait, before you answer that, who is the frat bros?

00:50:54:18 - 00:51:09:06
Unknown
What are the other uses for Foam Party? Oh, there's a haunted house, haunted house tries to scare you during the month of October. So they have the gooey that whatever they get dark, they'll fill. And I walk through it. A 20ft long hallway. Fill it with foam. You get in there, you can't breathe. You think you're going to drown.

00:51:09:06 - 00:51:28:09
Unknown
It just bubbles. You can breathe fine, but it's scary. It's in the dark. So haunted houses are good. Amusement parks, resorts, summer camps. Because summer camps need activities generally. Can't take the kids easy. Now they're doing, the bouncy, jumping moonwalk companies. They're doing it for whatever. Yeah. And then what am I missing? I said summer camps and then equipment rental companies.

00:51:28:09 - 00:51:44:23
Unknown
Yeah, those are the big ones. Okay. And that they'll the attorneys will rent from those guys. All those folks they'll rent from, like, my stuff doesn't say that. We we sell the solution. They're going to call their local rental companies because a Google searches, you know, it's not going back to what happens to be on foam.

00:51:45:02 - 00:52:04:02
Unknown
What happens be on foam is I work on an exit strategy because I made enough money. And then along the way, my, my, the guy that sells me the foam talked me into buying some bath bombs and shower steamers, so I need to work on that. Oh, and also, more different options, cause I have a foam powder.

00:52:04:06 - 00:52:23:20
Unknown
I'm working on a foam pod, and I'm working on a foam puck the size of a hockey puck with sodium bicarbonate. You drop it into the, tub full of water. And that'll be another version of foam, because you can buy Coca-Cola and all these different versions. A 3 or 2 one liter, a half liter, 16 ounce, a 12 ounce can, an eight ounce can, an eight ounce bottle.

00:52:24:01 - 00:52:43:10
Unknown
So foam is going to come in different varieties because it's growing. There's a gazillion bubble blowers, and they're down at $19, 12 bucks at Walmart or Walgreens. So foam is foam is growing like it didn't exist for the kids market when I started it in oh two. And they now call them. That's another one, is all the new quote unquote new folks that come in, they call it foam party machines.

00:52:43:10 - 00:53:04:06
Unknown
And I have the trademark for party machines in relation to foam, which is which helps me on Amazon. But just like margarita party machines, because the party machines.com and that was not planned. Yeah. Foam party machines. It's like no, I appreciate the people copying because if they're not copying you you're not trying hard enough. So what's next? The more bubble products because I love a consumable love love love a consumable.

00:53:04:08 - 00:53:25:21
Unknown
They're going to call you about the machine with 9000 parts in it. They're going to consume the consumable. Yeah. And get more. Well, I think the thing that I know, folks we all can get caught up on is call it passion, call it like your purpose, those kind of things. I could be wrong, but I imagine young Greg Gordon didn't daydream about a foam empire.

00:53:25:22 - 00:53:52:12
Unknown
Like, I just don't think he thought about that. You kind of. The way you're living your life. Reminds me of a guy named Wade who rents a square cow. He goes, don't follow your passion. Follow the profit, he guys. And then you end to become passionate about it. And I don't know if that resonates or not with you, but I'm curious when most folks are thinking about pursuing whatever business they want to get into, whatever endeavor, especially as an owner and operator, I feel like a lot of things admire them is like, but yeah, but what am I into?

00:53:52:12 - 00:54:09:02
Unknown
I'm into airplanes. I'm into these things. And I don't know, that foam would have hit you. It came out of a conversation. You said yes to. How were you? What advice or what insight would you give to somebody who might be trying a little too hard to find the perfect thing to get into, where maybe the obvious thing is standing right in front of them?

00:54:09:02 - 00:54:33:13
Unknown
What would you tell somebody about doing that? I say say yes and show up. Hey, Greg, everything I do, I mean this this one's fun. I'm, just turned 19, living at the dorm. Paul Gordon, my older brother, says, hey, my girlfriend Sherry works at Chili's. They're opening this new restaurant in North Austin called Macaroni Grill. I know you're going to need a job.

00:54:33:13 - 00:54:49:17
Unknown
Why don't you come with me? Because I didn't have a car, and I went and got the job being a host. And the cappuccino person. And then I became a back waiter. And this is Jeff Chino versus. I was that guy. And near the end of the phone, man, that's. That's how I didn't think about it. Well done.

00:54:49:19 - 00:55:09:11
Unknown
Well done. Yeah. And then so so I took I said yes and I got the job. And from there I went to I waited on John Sharp, who at the time was a statewide elected official like my politics stuff. I look at his credit card and this cracked me up. I mean, that politics and phone were in the same kind of oh yeah, oh yeah, I love I can't it's personal to me.

00:55:09:11 - 00:55:30:00
Unknown
So John Sharp and his wife, another couple and I'm waiting tables after about three, three years and John Sharp I said John Sharp, he goes, yeah. I said and I asked somebody before I walked over there to the table. I said, he's a comptroller, someone else, because he's a railroad commissioner. And so I walk over there.

00:55:30:03 - 00:55:42:07
Unknown
So I got to in my head, I said, you. I said, yes, railroad commissioner. He goes, I used to be. I said, you're the comptroller. They're like, yeah, he is. I said, I'm registered voter. I vote I'm gonna run for office one day. Do you have some advice? He goes, yeah, Mary Rich, or use your parents money.

00:55:42:07 - 00:56:02:06
Unknown
I said, seriously, he said seriously, and his wife shaking her head like, wow. So I said, well, can I have a job? He goes, Greg, because they know my name. I think you know me well enough to know they know my name. Yeah. And I said, yeah. He says, give me a pen. He's paper. He goes, how much money do you make here?

00:56:02:06 - 00:56:17:16
Unknown
And it's time I said, 12 bucks an hour. He goes, you're going to school? I said, yeah, he goes, you worked part time. I said, yeah, he goes, wait, I'm not going to be there. Ma, call Libby. She's my assistant. She'll be waiting for your call. So I'll finish the story. But you could write. So I call the next day.

00:56:17:18 - 00:56:37:06
Unknown
Hey, Libby. She's not in. Can I take a message? Greg. Gordon, hang on, Mr. Gordon. I'll make, patch to Tom Duffy, Mr. Sharp's chief of staff. He's been waiting for your call. Tom Duffy. Hey, Tom. Greg Gordon. Hey, Mr. Gordon, been waiting for your call. Mr. Trump speaks highly of you. I'm thinking, who are these people? So we talk on the phone.

00:56:37:06 - 00:56:59:23
Unknown
He goes, yeah. So I show up a month later and they start working me half time at some place at the state of Texas where nobody works half time. And I'm answering Taxability questions for 18 months. And then I go back to waiting tables. And this is when I start going to college. Yeah. And then I, go to a, graduation lunch with, Candice, an old family friend, and her Uncle Butch from New Orleans sits next to me.

00:56:59:23 - 00:57:15:01
Unknown
And he's he has a vending business in, New Orleans. And he goes, what are you doing? I said, I'm about to start my own business. What are you gonna do? I said, man, I don't know. He goes, I'm got a vending business here. Take my number. You can buy a, vending machine, a soda machine for $3,000, and then you get a second and a third and fourth.

00:57:15:01 - 00:57:29:20
Unknown
I said, great. So I go to the find three use Pepsi machines for the exact same price as his one. So I'm off to the races. And then somebody that I'm waiting tables to support my soda machine habit, they said, hey, you should, rent frozen. Margaret. A guy's name is Archie Schaefer at the Oasis. I moved out there.

00:57:29:22 - 00:57:45:08
Unknown
You should buy some margarita machines. I got buddies in DC, and they rent ten of them every weekend. And so I did it. So I bought a margarita machine, and then I was off to the races. It's somebody. It was someone else's idea. And I said yes and showed up and it worked out. Yeah. You got to say yes.

00:57:45:08 - 00:58:01:21
Unknown
And I mean, it's oh, and then some I discover the foam. So I build my own. I call my friend Steven, who now owns a bunch of restaurants in town, and I call him, he, I said, I've got this flier made for my foam machines. He goes, we need to go to this conference for event planners because Stephen's a Carter.

00:58:01:22 - 00:58:14:12
Unknown
It's in Vegas. And it was January. I said, he goes, I'll go with you. So we go to this trade show and we see this attractive woman in the booth, and she's got a phone machine and a snow machine, and I walk up. Hi, I'm Greg Gordon, and, her husband zips around because. Hi, I'm Francisco. I know who you are.

00:58:14:12 - 00:58:40:14
Unknown
I've seen your website. You need to come to Alabama. I'll give you a ride on my helicopter. I was 32. I said, how old are you? He said, 36. Stephen and I looked at each other. We looked at Francisco was this guy's name, and Stephen and I said, I need to go to Alabama. So I went to Alabama to see this guy because he had a helicopter at 36, and he makes these snow machines, and he turns me on to the snow machine rental business, and he sells to Disney and all this neat stuff.

00:58:40:14 - 00:58:58:07
Unknown
And I'm standing in his kitchen like four months later and his wife looks at me, she goes, what are you doing here? I said, I'm making some shit. No, no, no, what are you doing here in Alabama? I said, your husband invited me. She goes, he invites everybody. You're the only person who's ever showed up.

00:58:58:09 - 00:59:17:00
Unknown
So then he proceeds to tell me, he goes, hey, do you have a passport? I said, yeah, I'd never left the country yet. He goes, I don't know when, but I'm going to get a trip to China. Going, so you'll get an email. So it was August oh five or like June, hey, I'm going, me and all the 40, 50 other people going to China.

00:59:17:05 - 00:59:34:13
Unknown
So it's me and Francisco and one other guy. I go to China because he said, show up. And that was my first introduction to China. We get back, he goes, hey man, I'm going to this trade show for amusement parks in November in Atlanta. I said, I got a buddy that lives there. He's doing a fellowship for his, anesthesiology.

00:59:34:14 - 00:59:56:22
Unknown
Cool. He goes, you come stand in my booth and I learn trade shows, and then I got my own booth. I mean, it was somebody else's idea. They said yes. They gave me the suggestion. I said yes and showed up. And that's what. That's why I'm here with you. Yes. Why is that right? No, it's truth man. I think this is one I think too many times if you trying to connect the dots too hard, it's just hard to do.

00:59:56:22 - 01:00:13:21
Unknown
It's almost impossible. I can connect my dots. I think for a lot of folks, it's it's it's not even about the next thing you say yes to. It's a this gives you permission for four steps from now to say yes to this thing. But if you don't say yes to this thing right now, that thing doesn't happen. I've, I've every single thing.

01:00:13:21 - 01:00:31:13
Unknown
I mean, I don't know how much time you got. My friend Craig calls me in June of, oh nine and says, Greg Gordon, what are you doing? It was a Sunday. I said, nothing. He goes, I'm going out to Lockhart. I said, Where's Lockhart? He goes, shut up. I'm picking you up. He goes, we're on the drive out.

01:00:31:13 - 01:00:52:13
Unknown
We're looking at this building I want to buy to do art out of. Great. And at that time, I was renting a 150 square foot building, for $800 a month. So the building we looked at for him didn't work. The realtor shows up, he goes, I got the building around the corner, and Craig goes, oh, and I don't get four feet inside the building.

01:00:52:15 - 01:01:08:07
Unknown
And it was 190 grand, 90 500 square foot natural spring water out back, a huge parking lot for 15 cars. I don't get four five feet inside the building. It was ugly. It's a block and a half off the square. I said, we'll take it. Craig goes.

01:01:08:09 - 01:01:26:08
Unknown
I said, write it up. And Craig's like, yeah, I'm in. I'm in for a half. They call me that night, Greg. I'm out. I can't do it. So it ended up me buy in the building. Couldn't get a loan. The owner goes all over Finance City. I did my research on you. You're good for it. So then I go to China because I was scared about my $1,600 a month.

01:01:26:08 - 01:01:44:04
Unknown
It was 800 more. Then I'm like, I don't even know how to pay this. I had a guy work for me and I went off to China, spent no money for three years. But when, the reason I went to China is because that, January 2010, after I bought the building in August or nine, I go for the month.

01:01:44:06 - 01:02:02:19
Unknown
Some other guys take advantage. I mean, American in China and I'm in Beijing and it's miserable. But after the August when I bought it, I went to a wedding in October oh nine, my two different friends, one of them got married. The other one is living in Cambodia. I said, what? She goes, you're going to Beijing in January?

01:02:02:22 - 01:02:27:05
Unknown
It's an hour and a half plane ride. Come see me one weekend. So now it's January 2010 and I go to the airport to go to Cambodia to see my friend randomly meet some girl who was born and raised in Beijing. She introduced me to a woman who introduced me to this hiking group. So all of a sudden I had 20 to 30 every Saturday, hiking friends that were all Beijing natives that had gotten U.S. and Canadian passports.

01:02:27:05 - 01:02:43:14
Unknown
And they were rock stars. I mean, they weren't wealthy. Their pinkies were wealthy, and all of them had exactly. To this day, they have exactly one American friend because they weren't making friends with non-Chinese people. And I know why after living there, it's just different culture. But I'm like, I don't care, let's go hiking. And I went to the Great Wall all these times.

01:02:43:14 - 01:03:00:04
Unknown
But anyway, so I, I see another buddy randomly, my state comptroller, one of the supervisors, I go to a University of Texas football game at seven in the morning. And this random guy friend of a friend, the slimy guy, introduces me to and his name is Chris. And Chris is like, Mr. Gordon, what are you doing here? What are you doing here?

01:03:00:04 - 01:03:18:07
Unknown
So we hang out, he goes, man, you got to move here. So I got Chris and I got this hiking group. So I moved to Beijing for three, three months and that was that. Somebody gave me an opportunity to do something. I said yes and showed up every single time. I think that's a it's that part you call back, making your own luck.

01:03:18:09 - 01:03:30:23
Unknown
Yes. I got back from China after 33 months. I owned the warehouse. I had owned it for zero 40 months. I paid it off so I didn't have to pay $1,600 a month. Again. How?

01:03:31:01 - 01:03:47:10
Unknown
Greg. Man, it's been a rock, rock and time chatting with you. I got one last thing to ask you about, and then I guess we'll call it good for today. But I have a feeling you and I are going to keep talking at some point. I just feel like that's not going to. This is therapeutic. Well, I've been having a rockin time.

01:03:47:10 - 01:04:05:23
Unknown
And plus, I love meeting when somebody idles at 7000 rpm. Not so excited at 500 rpm, you idle at 700. So it's been, it's been it's been great, man. I dig it when you think about this thing we call the we talk a lot about. I talked a lot about the American dream. It's something I grew up around.

01:04:06:02 - 01:04:26:03
Unknown
I got to watch my parents do it. Got to watch other folks do. It's all their different versions of it. But a lot of them, I think the essence of it, there's probably a lot of definitions. The way I captured in my brain is similar. What you said, it's like having agency over your own life, like you get to take the credit and the licks for the things that you do, but there's something fulfilling about that.

01:04:26:05 - 01:04:40:21
Unknown
And at the end of the day, no one is going to tell you what you can't give back to you or whatever. My father in law is a really good example. Somebody who, like he doesn't think about helping his community twice. They need extra excavating, need extra dirt gear, whatever. He's going to do it. You don't have some person.

01:04:40:21 - 01:05:03:03
Unknown
He's got to ask permission to do whatever he's going to do. It's the right thing. He goes hunting with the folks at the end of the week with him that everybody's good. I think there's just something about that that's really fulfilling to my. My last kind of thought here for you is, as you think about the possibility of folks pursuing their dream, still, being able to do a Greg Gordon move today, is that still as possible as it ever has been?

01:05:03:05 - 01:05:29:15
Unknown
Yes. Okay. Why is it easy? No, it's never easy. Yeah. The I am my own worst enemy. You are your own worst enemy. My, one of my many goals is to be a little bit less of your own worst enemy. Every day. I aspire to own 92% of my time. The other 8% is stuff happens and I'm real close.

01:05:29:17 - 01:05:46:06
Unknown
Taxes. Yeah, I love I don't love paying taxes, but I'm proud. It means you did something, right? Yeah, because there were so many years I didn't. Yeah, but talk about your worst enemy. Like, for folks right now, what are the things that they can get in their own way of pursuing this? I'll tell you what I did this morning.

01:05:46:06 - 01:06:09:07
Unknown
For 40 minutes. I scrolled on my phone. That was not productive. I mean, just don't listen. I don't I try to listen. I'm pretty good about those voices in my head. I make my bed every day. But I've been doing that since I was yay tall. And that's you. I mean, it's it's I live it. I don't care what you think of me.

01:06:09:09 - 01:06:34:17
Unknown
I want you to like me. I don't care because that's just the statistics. There's, you know, the plus or -2 or 3. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Or is Curtis the smartest guy in two counties next to my shop? And Lockhart says it don't matter none. Yet there is something freeing about that man. It is. A lot of it is a lot of, living up to other people's expectation.

01:06:34:17 - 01:06:56:05
Unknown
They don't even know what you're about. It. They don't. They don't think about you. It is so powerful. It's there's a million. Yes, there's a million comebacks or call them the wrong name or say you've got something in your teeth, or put your hand up over your mouth and suck your breath, or ask them someone. I mean, it's just powerful.

01:06:56:07 - 01:07:11:22
Unknown
It's. And, you know, I don't need to do that. And those are rare cases. There's there's a phrase that people near and dear to me, they'll say, oh. Did you go Greg Gordon on them? No, I hope I didn't. Now I think there's there's something we can all learn from that. And I think it's just being focused on the right things.

01:07:11:22 - 01:07:26:14
Unknown
You look at the wall, you're going to crash into it. Look. Look at where you want to go snowboarding or skiing. You go to the trees. You never, ever, ever. I'm going to use that one. Thank you. I got that was a good one. Yeah, yeah. If you look at the wall. Yeah. You don't you go to where you go to where you look at.

01:07:26:14 - 01:07:56:18
Unknown
And I think good hard core drivers, they just know how to keep it on the road. In my business there's always other people that do what I do. I don't spend any energy thinking about, talking about or saying their names. You will never, ever, ever hear me say the name of somebody else who sells foam machines or foam because that's I'm Greg Gordon, that's free advertising.

01:07:56:20 - 01:08:12:17
Unknown
Well, Greg Gordon, man, thank you for coming in today, brother. Appreciate you. I'm so glad we ran into each other in Colorado. Mountain tastic. Well, I'm glad you decided to say we're out there filming, and I'm glad you decided to say something. Yeah, well, part of it, I mean, just for anything. Get it? Well, I get it.

01:08:12:19 - 01:08:27:23
Unknown
And you know what? Like, I think it maybe takes one to know one, I guess, like, if for me, I was actually tinkering with these weird, for anybody who's been to a town that that is into biking mountain, I saw, I saw it on the instance I was tinkering with the tool set that they give you as a public tool set.

01:08:28:01 - 01:08:47:22
Unknown
And Greg had the kind audacity to say to, to come flag us down. So thank you for doing that. Thank you for coming in here. I'm looking forward to learn more about foam. But more importantly, I think it's a good reminder. Focus on where we're going. Focus on where you're going. Don't worry about the noise. You've got 24 hours in a day.

01:08:47:22 - 01:08:57:13
Unknown
You spend ten of them eating, getting ready and sleeping. You got 14 hours left, man. Yeah, and I live it. Greg. Thanks, brother. Cameron.

01:08:57:13 - 01:09:23:19
Unknown
Thanks for tuning in to the American Operator Podcast, where we celebrate the backbone of America small business owners and operators like you. If you've enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe so you'll never miss out on more of these stories and insights from people who keep our community strong. Until next time, keep building, keep operating, and keep America moving forward.