The Secret Sauce Behind a Pizza Empire with Joseph Ciolli

Build a global pizza empire without selling out, that’s the story of CEO, Joseph M. Ciolli, behind 50+ Grimaldi's locations and a clean-label sauce brand sold on Amazon, Walmart, and 5,000 stores worldwide.

We dive into heritage, franchising internationally, keeping quality over shortcuts, and scaling retail without losing the soul of the brand. 

He also shares a personal health reset with trigger point work, herbal protocols, and blood-guided decisions that turned a scary resting heart rate into athletic numbers.

From smart supply chains to wild horse rescue, this episode blends business, integrity, and personal wellness.

Listen, share, and comment with the one takeaway you’ll use to scale smarter.

Chapters

• 0:05 First Podcast Jitters & Health Kick
• 1:43 Hyperbaric, Blood Work, And Biohacking
• 3:19 Grimaldi’s Origins And Brooklyn Roots
• 6:35 Franchising To UAE With Lulu Group
• 10:22 From One Store To A National Brand
• 13:06 Systems, Coaching, And Scaling Ops
• 15:45 Biggest Financing Mistake: Mezz Debt
• 18:21 Leadership, HR Storms, And Vision
• 21:10 Wild Horses, Giving Back, And Values
• 23:04 Airports, Expansion, And Unit Economics
• 25:05 Refusing To Cheapen Ingredients
• 27:07 Clean-Label Sauces: Sourcing And Standards
• 30:14 Retail Strategy, Capacity, And Growth
• 33:06 Health Journey, Shaman Work, And Metrics
• 36:20 Mold, Air Quality, And Home Remediation
• 39:16 Family, Parenting, And Daily Routines
• 41:22 Pricing, Margins, And Service Model
• 44:10 Travel, Legacy, And What’s Next

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Okay, so welcome to our podcast. This is a little bit different today because this podcast is a spin-off of our radio show. You said uh in the parking lot, this is your first podcast?

SPEAKER_02: 0:26

My first podcast. Uh I think if you I thought a podcast was just vo a voice. It used to be. Since you're on uh on the uh radio, I figured it's just voice. So I'm like, okay, I'll do a voice thing. And then all of a sudden I look at your I went on there because I've never looked at it. I don't watch podcasts. Right. So I went on and all of a sudden I saw a couple friends of mine on there and I'm like, I'm like, oh, it's it's a visual.

SPEAKER_00: 0:45

Well, podcasts were just audio, I think. Well, maybe not, because that Joe Rogan used that. But anyway, this water is like real healthy water.

SPEAKER_02: 0:51

Is it?

SPEAKER_00: 0:52

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 0:53

What do they do different than everything else?

SPEAKER_00: 0:55

Well, they put hydrogen in it. It's supposed to be healthy. So I I'm in I'm totally like in this health kick right now. Well, actually for a long time. It's good. Yeah, did you see that? That article in the New York Post?

SPEAKER_02: 1:05

Which one?

SPEAKER_00: 1:06

I was in the New York Post a couple hours ago. Staying healthy.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09

And the post? Yeah. Post is always negative stuff. They turn a good article in. It's like saving it. I mean, it depends.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15

I don't look at it. It's funny because I don't think I'm one of those guys that doesn't believe in negative press. You know, so any press is good press.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20

I hear, yeah. Wait, so so what did they talk about?

SPEAKER_00: 1:23

They talked about like how I do hyperbaric and I just did this blood. I went to your brother-in-law's place. That was trip when I'm at your I'm getting the blood transfer, and then somehow your name came up, and he's like, That's my brother-in-law. Yeah. I was like, No way. But I had already booked you on the podcast. Isn't that why? Yeah, yeah. You were booked first before him, and then I interviewed him last week. Well, you said did oh you you interviewed Jack? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, because he was he was fascinating with the fact that he lives in a tent. It's a whole other story. Yeah, I know, no, we got into it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50

Oh, did he go into all the mold and all the things that they're dealing with?

SPEAKER_00: 1:53

You got into all of it, man. That's cool. Yeah. So you're married to his wife's sister.

SPEAKER_02: 1:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 1:58

Right? Okay, yeah. That was uh he was really interesting. So that when I had him on here, well, I was getting the tr blood transfer, whatever you call it, I was getting this thing.

SPEAKER_02: 2:05

What do you look what do you what do you do? You do spin the blood and put it back in, like at the platelets.

SPEAKER_00: 2:09

What are you doing? They uh they take the platelets out and they put something else in. Took like three hours, and your brother-in-law just sit sat there with me for three hours. We talked. Really?

SPEAKER_02: 2:17

You should have the podcast while you're sitting there doing a book.

SPEAKER_00: 2:19

I know. Well, I was just sitting for I didn't have the equipment and I didn't know he was gonna be there. He just showed up. And then we just started talking, and then the New York Post is doing an interview with me about what I was doing, and then they turned it into what else do you do? And I do like uh hyperbaric sessions, I do IV drips, I go to Cancun and I get stem cells. So the whole article's about Yeah, I spoke to you about that.

SPEAKER_02: 2:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:39

And and and then uh well you and I have known each other for a couple years now, and I remember one of the things, one of the reasons that stuck with me was the shaman talk. Yeah, now you're like, I don't want to talk. I mean, I want to talk about all this stuff, and I'm gonna try this salsa, sauce, sauce or salsa?

SPEAKER_02: 2:52

Sauce. Salsa's more like chips and chips and salsa, but this is more pasta, you know, la uh lasagna, you know, anything else you could think of that you know.

SPEAKER_00: 3:02

I I had an Italian neighbor I lived in Houston for a while and she called it gravy. You ever heard of that? I heard gravy, of course. Um more like Midwest. Yeah. So okay, well, let's I'm gonna this podcast is very ADHD. We go all over the place.

SPEAKER_02: 3:16

I see that.

SPEAKER_00: 3:16

All right, so Grimaldi's is yours.

SPEAKER_02: 3:19

Yes, correct.

SPEAKER_00: 3:20

How many are there?

SPEAKER_02: 3:21

Uh 50 Grimaldies across the country. We just opened up, I literally just got back from uh Dubai. We open up Abu Dhabi and Dubai. So what? Yeah, really exciting. So I'm really looking to push the you know the east, you know, Europe, and we're trying to get all over the country. How does that happen? How do you who calls you from Dubai? You know, the uh the gentleman that runs the group went to our New York store.

SPEAKER_00: 3:44

That runs your group?

SPEAKER_02: 3:45

Oh no, that runs he runs the group called Lulu Group, huge, huge international group. They have about 550, they call them Lulu soup uh like supermarkets, so like uh about 750,000 square feet. And they have their grocery store in there, the Lulu grocery store, and they have uh they sell everything. So it's like uh Walmart, Costco Together on steroids. That's pretty much what these guys do. They have about 500 of them across the 19 different countries. They're out of India originally, but they're they're based out of uh Adobe Abu Dhabi. Uh phenomenal group, and uh the guy fell in love with with our brand, so he decided to franchise our brand out there in in UAE and he's gonna expand it you know across the different countries. But they do a thing called Lulu Exchange too. So they're like the Western Union of the Midwest, Mideast, if you Middle East, if you will, where they're just moving monies for you know workers moving at a home. It's it's pretty pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00: 4:37

So you get a call, hey man, we want to put a Grimaldi's here in uh in uh Dubai. They called me, right? That's what I mean. You're like, okay, yeah, and then what you send them the paperwork, do you have to fly out to the street?

SPEAKER_02: 4:46

Well, they've they they all they flew out, they all their group they all flew out. There's like eight of them. They flew out, we did a tour, they love the brand, then then it goes paperwork, and we go back and forth on you know FTDs, because you have to do international FDD, different than uh than the United States, so it's different kind of paperwork.

SPEAKER_00: 5:00

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02: 5:00

But you know, that took a while, and then and then we're in we're in we're in business. And so they've been great.

SPEAKER_00: 5:05

Are you open already?

SPEAKER_02: 5:05

Yeah, their second store opened up.

SPEAKER_00: 5:07

I was like, so from phone call to open, how long did that take?

SPEAKER_02: 5:10

From phone call, about a year. Wow. About a year.

SPEAKER_00: 5:13

And how many times have you been out there?

SPEAKER_02: 5:15

Uh probably four times. No way. Yeah, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00: 5:18

And what's the longest amount of time you spent there?

SPEAKER_02: 5:21

I went with my family for a week, and then we went to the Maldives, which was amaz another amazing place. Jeez. Uh, but I just went out there for the opening uh in uh Dubai, and it was about a five-day trip. And I literally just got back in Costa Rica. So I was like, I was exhausted.

SPEAKER_00: 5:36

So are they like uh is pizza big there? Are there other pizza franchises there?

SPEAKER_02: 5:40

Yeah, yeah. There is uh they have the uh which ones they have? They have like two or three different franchise pizza places. You know, you have the PF Chang's, a lot of American brands are there. Okay. I mean, that's their big their big shtick. And then uh fast food is another one.

SPEAKER_00: 5:54

So when did you start this? Because it you're I mean, you're not a Grimaldi, right? You bought the Did you buy it from the Grimaldies?

SPEAKER_02: 5:59

Yes. How did that happen? That's a really long story. Okay, hey man, but I'll start. I'll so my dad's best friend, and I call him my uncle since I since growing up. So my uncle Patsy, his family's been in the business since 1905. So his uncle worked for Lombardi's. When it was Lombardi, it was John, Tortone, and Lombardi. That's that ran the Lombardi's in 1905. Accredited first pizzeria in New York. Wow. They then all broke off and they opened up Tortones, John's, Patsy's, uh, and that's how they they streamlined. Patsy Grimaldi, who's who we bought from, he opened up his own store in Brooklyn. And we and when he wanted to retire, he contacted my dad, he said, Hey, I know you guys are in the business of the restaurant business. Would you be interested in coming in? I was living in Arizona. I moved back to New York, took over the restaurant, bought the restaurant, took over the restaurant, ran it for five years, met my wife, Ivy.

SPEAKER_00: 6:53

Wait, how many were there? Just one and you took you so you took it over one restaurant, and now there's over 50 all over the world.

SPEAKER_02: 6:59

Yeah, expanded across the country, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 7:01

What were you doing in Arizona? I'm sorry? What were you doing in Arizona?

SPEAKER_02: 7:04

I went to Arizona State originally.

SPEAKER_00: 7:05

So you just got out of you, you just you're living in New York.

SPEAKER_02: 7:07

I lived in New York, came out to college, was in college, got into the bar restaurant business here. So I bought I bought a concept, if you don't remember, called Minderbinders. I don't remember that. And Bum's Theater. There were college bars. Okay. And I ran those for five, six years, and then the opportunity came up with my uncle Patsy. I flew back to New York, loved everything I saw, shifted, moved to moved to New York, spent five years in New York, took, took it from one of the it's been a great pizzeria, but we we we moved it to the next level. We brought it to number one Sagat, which back in the day, Tim Zagat had a magazine, a little booklet that everybody used to look at for the ratings, and we got a 28 out of 30, which was the highest rating, top rating, and no pizzeria has ever received that. So is that pizzeria still there?

SPEAKER_00: 7:53

The original? Oh yeah, the original one's still there. So how often do you have to go back there? I was just back there a month ago. So if you have 57 restaurants, are you are you going to as many of them as you can?

SPEAKER_02: 8:02

Do you have to, or do you have people now that we we have full corporate office, but I visit a lot. I was just in Vegas last week and I visited, you know, I did a road tour of the four roadshow of the four stores in Vegas. I fly to Reno December 9th or 7th, and I'm having been there in a couple of years since the pandemic, I haven't been there because we took during the pandemic, we took a road trip and we just drove around the west coast down and we visited all our restaurants across the top across the country. It was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00: 8:25

So you go to Brooklyn and you take over. Was it Brooklyn where Grimaldi's was? That's where it is. Yeah, under the Brooklyn Bridge.

SPEAKER_02: 8:31

Literally under the Brooklyn Bridge.

SPEAKER_00: 8:32

Okay, so you go there. Yep. You take you take over for your dad, right?

SPEAKER_02: 8:35

Or your No, we we bought, we bought to we my father and I partnered up for the first door.

SPEAKER_00: 8:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 8:40

I ran it.

SPEAKER_00: 8:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 8:41

It was just an investment for my dad. It was me. It was my.

SPEAKER_00: 8:43

So then when does it go from there to the second location? And what was that?

SPEAKER_02: 8:46

Second location came up where I came back to Arizona.

SPEAKER_00: 8:49

So the first location after New York was Arizona.

SPEAKER_02: 8:52

It was Arizona and Scottsdale in Old Town.

SPEAKER_00: 8:54

Oh, is it the same one? The original one. Oh, it's a little bit.

SPEAKER_02: 8:56

23 years ago. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00: 8:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 8:58

Holy smokes, man. That's a crazy story. Yeah. And you've never done a podcast to talk about this? I don't like being a face person. I like being behind the scenes. That's just who I am. I, you know, a lot of people like influencers and stuff, I'm stuff the furthest thing from it. I don't want to, I don't want anybody to know who I am. I don't want to see anybody. I just want to be not bothered and enjoy my life. And if I need something, I know the right people to call.

SPEAKER_00: 9:21

So when you were going to go all the way to Arizona, were you like because you lived here, you were like, I love this place. I need to bring this pizza place here.

SPEAKER_02: 9:27

Well, you know, it's funny is so I met my wife in New York in 2001, right before September 11th.

SPEAKER_03: 9:34

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02: 9:35

So we literally bonded it and it was like phenomenal. And then she's from Arizona. So she moved to Arizona to New York. She had a year contract. She met me. Never know what she's gonna met a guy, you know, me and a person living in Arizona in New York. Right. So I moved back to Arizona and then she followed back, and then, you know, now 20 some odd years together, 24 years, married 20.

SPEAKER_00: 9:56

So when you opened up the Old Town Scottsdale one, was that like uh did you did you personally go scout and find it, or did you have a team of people go find it?

SPEAKER_02: 10:04

No, no. I we I was we were hitting the streets. I I hired these two a broker firm, uh, they're no longer together, but these guys we were we were beating streets looking for the right location. I had uh the right perfect spot.

SPEAKER_00: 10:14

Are you looking at Old Town? Like you're like, I want Old Town Scottsdale because of the bar scene, or what like how I I wanted Scottsdale Road, right?

SPEAKER_02: 10:20

I don't know where on Scottsdale Road, but back then it didn't like you know, Scottsdale quarter where we are, right? And Kerolin was really not right something going on 23 years ago. So what is out of all the locations you have, which is your number one producing store? In Arizona, you mean or all over? Oh god. I I had probably say the woodlands in in Houston, Texas. Oh wow, yeah, that storage is unbelievable. But New York too. New York, you know, it breaks all kinds of numbers. I used to live in Houston.

SPEAKER_00: 10:43

I remember we go to the woodlands for concerts.

SPEAKER_02: 10:44

I love West. The woodlands is one of my favorite places. I used to tell my wife, you drive over the bridge, you come in, it's like, you know, the steward wives. It's like, where did this come from? Everything's in circles, there's no big signs. It's just really amazing place if you've never been.

SPEAKER_00: 10:57

So now you have these locations and you're still frantic, still very involved.

SPEAKER_02: 11:01

Very involved. Yeah, yeah. So I'm I'm I'm the CEO and president. I have, you know, my COO, I have my corporate office, I have my regionals. I, you know, we have about 2,800 employees right now.

unknown: 11:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 11:11

Is your dad still around?

SPEAKER_02: 11:12

Uh no, no. My dad's he's been retired for a long time.

SPEAKER_00: 11:14

But he's still alive. He's still alive.

SPEAKER_02: 11:16

I moved him to Arizona a couple years ago. He lived with my sister, which has been my sister's been a blessing. She's been taking care of. He's getting the dementia, you know, he's gonna be 85. So uh, but he's doing great. He's doing really good, he's doing really well. How about your mom? Mom's still in New York, lived in the house I lived in since I was one year old.

SPEAKER_00: 11:31

Okay, so that takes me because if when you and I were talking one time, we were at a at a convention. I remember uh I don't know a couple years ago, maybe a year and a half ago, and you were telling me about the shaman. Okay. And if I remember correctly, you said the shaman helped your mom and her calcium score, your cal your mom's cancer, something.

SPEAKER_02: 11:51

So I I like like you, you're on your health journey. I I've been on a health journey, you know, since I actually met my wife. She's uh, you know, actually, you know, Jack and his wife Heather, yeah, you know, it it runs in the family, all chiropractor family. Right. Uh my wife's all about health, and and she got me to understand health. And I was like super unhealthy, like crazy unhealthy. You know, I grew up on fluff and Pop Tarts and just McDonald's Burger King and all the fast food. And I I had and and and going out to the bars and the scene and having a great time for you know the first 37 years of my life before we got married. So it, you know, it adds up, it ages you quick and it adds up. Things started breaking on me, and I'm like, okay, how do I how do I fix this? And it just so happened that a good friend of mine introduced the the gentleman that saved my life that went over there and introduced my wife. And because of that, my wife worked with him, and she's like, This is a lot of work. Uh, it's just too much for me. I know you would love it. And and literally that, you know, he saved he literally saved my life, changed everything. I introduced him to all my closest friends, they swear by him.

SPEAKER_00: 12:55

This is the guy you told me about that lives up north that comes down, that guy. Correct.

SPEAKER_02: 12:58

Yeah, he actually just worked on me earlier this morning.

SPEAKER_00: 13:00

So, like, what did he do this morning?

SPEAKER_02: 13:02

So when so what happens is you create a thing called a trigger point. So let's say you're working out and you hurt your shoulder, right? In order for your shoulder not to like tear a muscle, you would a trigger point would form like a uric acid. It's like it called it forms a little point in there. And these these points hold your arm in certain positions so that you wouldn't rip your your muscle or hurt yourself, right? But these points cause you all the pain. So you don't know where the pain's coming from. So most people are on medication, they're taking everything, you know, adevils, tyanols every day, which is banded, it's just covering up for them. This guy comes in, he gets rid of the trigger points. So he literally works on you, gets rid of the trigger points, so that you're you no longer have the pain and the points are gone. And then what he's working on me today is he's doing the fascia. So after he works on it and gets rid of the point, about three to five days later, your body creates fascia. So it tightens up like a rubber band. He comes in and smooths it out. So then no longer are you in pain, whatever space you're you're in.

SPEAKER_00: 13:54

So that's not just uh that's not shaman stuff, that's like physical therapy stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02: 13:59

That it's beyond physical therapy. This this this like he can work on your feet, like he'll sit here for two hours, work on your feet, and give you until you everything going on your whole body. Does he work on your feet hard?

SPEAKER_00: 14:08

Because I had a guy one time work on my feet and he was painful. Bro, this it's brutal. That's what I mean. Okay, so it might be the same.

SPEAKER_02: 14:13

It's it's brutal. It's like there's nothing pleasurable about it. It's not like it has to be just machash. This is like this is like about life, right? This is you want to be healthy, this is what you do. Right. So, you know, I have my I have him that helps me. Uh, he literally puts me on protocols, puts me through uh I've done 50, 60 cleanses.

SPEAKER_00: 14:30

I've got to talk to me about the cleanses, like what? Because I I'm I do that too.

SPEAKER_02: 14:34

I'm I'm doing it depends on what's going on in my body at the time. Right now he's working on my stomach. So he's he's building back all the probiotic and stuff in my stomach. Uh-huh. Because your stomach is what creates the whole body.

SPEAKER_00: 14:44

All the bacteria. Right.

SPEAKER_02: 14:45

So now he's working on my stomach. I traveled, you know, for a month through Asia. We, you know, we're in Coast River, a lot of different countries outside the United States, and you pick up different micro, you know, microbiomes or biomes and whatever, you know, floras and stuff. So now I'm working on my stomach. But depending on what goes on. It's not a medication. He gives me the like the Chinese herbs. So he's a he's he's like like an herbist. Okay, if you want to call it or uh uh I call him a medicine man, but he puts together different herbs and makes it different tinctures. So I take these tinctures. So now I'm doing like four different powders in my in my water in the morning and some pills, but he it's always changing. So depending on what's going on for you at that time, like when COVID was going on, he had a whole bunch of different protocols to help you get over COVID. And I'm like talking about ivomectin and any of that stuff. I'm talking about like you know, no pharmaceuticals, he doesn't do any pharmaceuticals.

SPEAKER_00: 15:32

And did you ever get COVID?

SPEAKER_02: 15:34

Probably about seven times, six times. Are you serious? Oh yeah, wow. Yeah, I traveled a lot. I didn't stop, I was on the road, I was catching it all the time. But you know, thank God for my guy. He was always kick making sure that it passed through pretty quickly and putting me on whatever protocol.

SPEAKER_00: 15:47

So he's been with you for over 20 years?

SPEAKER_02: 15:48

He's been working on me now. Let's see, my son's 16, so uh probably about 17 years. Wow. Yeah, and and uh just to give you an indication how bad I was, I'd wake up in the morning, my heart rate was 132 in the morning waking up.

SPEAKER_03: 16:01

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02: 16:02

I had I was having I felt like someone was I was in a straitjacket, like they were holding me in a straitjacket. When I'd fly back from a trip for for the restaurants, I'd be pushing on my chest because it hurt so bad, and I'd wake up the next morning I had bruises, fingerprint bruises from pushing so hard.

SPEAKER_03: 16:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 16:15

So going from 132 heartbeat in the morning now, I'm at 58, 62.

SPEAKER_00: 16:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_02: 16:21

And but it's just a life, again, it's it's it's what you do in your life.

SPEAKER_00: 16:24

But are you also seeing a Western traditional doctor as well?

SPEAKER_02: 16:28

No God, I haven't been to a doctor in 20 years. I I yeah, I don't just You see this guy, he's in charge of it. I see him, and and and I should take that back. I go to my brother-in-law Jack. Oh, yeah, okay. So he does my blood work, you know, he steers me on the way. He he he tells me, okay, here's I mean, look, you go to a cardiologist, and they'll they'll say, Oh, you need stints, you need uh, you know, stat uh statins and all that stuff. You know, Jack's totally opposite from that. You know, he believes in you know nutrition, health, physical, physical, physical fitness, yeah, the things that we follow anyway, and we eat super clean. Uh again, that's why I created my sauces because there's nothing out there that's super clean like we do, but we can go into that later.

SPEAKER_00: 17:05

I'm gonna get into your sauces.

SPEAKER_02: 17:06

Yeah, but that's that's that's my lifestyle. So, and then in regards to my shaman, I have I have a I have a shaman friend that uh works on more my family. So he'll work on me, my family. I have a lot of uh coaches, life coaches. Uh I probably put my people through coaching. I have coaches working with them. It's super important for people.

SPEAKER_00: 17:25

Local coaches, like uh local or or national coaches.

SPEAKER_02: 17:28

Who are some of them? Oh god. The last coach I had, I actually he actually passed away a few years ago. He uh I don't know if you guys ever read the book called EMyth by Jeff, what was his name? His name was Michael Gerber. Phenomenal. So Jeff Burroughs is the gentleman I brought in. Jeff Burrows uh helped the e-myth, the approach to it. So you read the book and it tells you about a small business and how they make things systemized. So I read this book and I and I looked for this guy and I found him, and he was actually here in Arizona, and he he helped taught us how to systemize our whole company. So, like they call it uh they call it the like instead of doing a they call it position agreement instead of like a mission statement for your business. So if you're looking to hire someone, you write like a little paragraph, this is what I'm looking for. No, we have a whole strategic objective and a whole position agreement, which people sign off on and explains their job full from A to Z. So that's the kind of stuff that we created early on in our company. So that's what made us able to be a franchise because people could then buy into our concept and they have from A to Z of exactly what they need to do.

SPEAKER_00: 18:27

When you have uh all these franchisees, do you let them do their thing or do you have to go over there as well every once in a while and participate?

SPEAKER_02: 18:33

We have trainers. We have we have trainers, they we bring they come here, they go for a full, depending on the chef could go for six weeks, uh the managers go for three weeks, the four weeks. So it's a full training course. What did that start? I did you have to have somebody come in and teach you how to do a franchise or how to No, this is this is the stuff you learn as you go through life, just like I'm learning on the retail side, which I've never been in. So yeah, these are the things you learn and you ask questions, you make mistakes, and you try to hire the best of the best to get you where you need to be. And that's where Jeff Burroughs comes in. I had another guy named Graham Forbes that was a life coach for me for 20 years. And literally he he learned he taught me, you know, different like relationship with my family, relationship with myself, relationship with business. How do you separate those relationships?

SPEAKER_00: 19:12

So he'll come in and work with your whole family at the same time.

SPEAKER_02: 19:14

He'll work with my family, but he'll work like I'll he'll he'll literally come in and we'll work on the whiteboard in my office and we'll just be documenting and going through things just to get through. I mean, come on, everybody's been damaged as a child. You don't even know the damage you that you were gotten as a child until you're older and also like, geez, where the hell did that come from? Yeah, why am I acting this way? Why am I doing this? And you don't know why. And this is what he helps understand is going back to your past to figure out where'd that come from and then how do you fix it?

SPEAKER_00: 19:38

Because you you're you got you're a guy that goes 100 miles an hour. Like I don't see you with an off switch, right? So do you drink coffee?

SPEAKER_02: 19:45

Like I you know, I I enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning. Jack has a great coffee that I mean. He gave me some. Yeah, his coffee's great, you know, no mold, the chest scrolls stuff. So I'll have this coffee in the morning of one cup, and I'll sit there and I'll just read my emails. You know, you see about 5 30 in the morning. I'm up, my wife's up at 5 30. I'm usually up at 5 30. I'll drink my coffee. We'll get the kids ready for school, or we'll walk the dogs first and get the kids ready for school. And then now my son's driving, so it's great. So I don't have to drive to school anymore.

SPEAKER_00: 20:09

What about exercise?

SPEAKER_02: 20:11

Yeah, I'll go to the gym. So I'll leave it around 7:30 to go to the gym. I get back around 8:45, shower up, and then and then I drive to the office after rush hour's gone.

SPEAKER_00: 20:20

So I can't. When you said you make mistakes, what's one of the biggest mistakes you think you've ever made in business?

SPEAKER_02: 20:25

Oh God. Been a lot of mistakes. But my biggest mistake I made, and this is what I talk to people about when I like I go to a lot. Like I said, I don't do podcasts, but I get invited by like Wells Fargo or different different banks or you know the Goldman Sachs's or Merrill Lynch's. And I'll sp and I'll speak to a group of people, you know, 100, 200, 300 people. And what I like to do is exactly what we're doing. I don't like standing up there and giving a spiel. I just don't feel like it gets it crossed. I think doing what we're doing and then answering questions is really all right.

SPEAKER_00: 20:51

So you'll do this and there'll be an audience.

SPEAKER_02: 20:52

Yep, and they'll that and he'll just ask me questions and we'll just and I'll give my honest answers. That's exactly what we do. My biggest mistake, I I brought in a mezzanine group. So I own 100% of my company. I don't want any partners. That's just the way I've always been. I have a bank that I've been working with, Weston Alliance. They've been with me 17 years now, the best bank ever. I brought in a mezzanine group because the Lions couldn't go any further with debt in order to, you know, they have these regulations, FDIC. So I brought in a mezzanine group. And what's the interesting thing about mezzanine, which I didn't know? They always say it's uncollateralized, it's unsecured. That's their big word. It's unsecured, you're unsecured. But what you don't know is that they work with the bank and they do a thing called an intercreditor. So it becomes really more secure than you think. So they have a lot to say. And even though the bank's in first position and they're technically way below, they still have an intercreditor that connects you. So you're stuck. No matter what, if you blow a covenant, you do something, they own you. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 21:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 21:46

And that's where and that's where it can, and that's my biggest mistake I made is not understanding that. So when I go around talking to people, I tell them, hey, be careful. If you're doing something, bank's the best way to do it. If not, maybe bring in some outside investors.

SPEAKER_00: 21:59

Did you get out of that deal?

SPEAKER_02: 22:00

I got out of the deal, but it took me five years. It took a lot of time off my life to, I mean, it was it was it was brutal.

SPEAKER_00: 22:06

Did the bank tell you not to do it?

SPEAKER_02: 22:07

No, that's that's not their business. They don't tell you not what to do or not to do it.

SPEAKER_00: 22:10

Is there one guy you've been working with at the bank forever? Or do you have a cat a handful of people?

SPEAKER_02: 22:14

You know what? I I I I'm good, I'm friendly with the chief credit officer who I've been with from the beginning. So he's been there, so I know him well. The CEO of the bank I knew really well. So it's the relationships are like I said, bank relationships are the most important. So I recommend going to a small bank or a regional bank that you could have a relationship with. So when bad things happen, they're on your corner as opposed to a big bank where you know they don't care, they're foreclosed and you're and you're not in business anymore, or you don't own your company.

SPEAKER_00: 22:38

Right. Does your wife ever has she ever worked in the restaurant?

SPEAKER_02: 22:42

Yeah, she worked in the restaurant before we had children. Uh she, you know, she she's been in the restaurant business her life too. So she was a hostess. She worked. Do you remember Eddie, Eddie Bobby McGee's Bob McGeez? Oh my god, we were Bob McGee.

SPEAKER_00: 22:55

The cups with the toilets on it.

SPEAKER_02: 22:56

Yeah, so she worked with Bob McGee's. Her dad was best friends with, I can't remember the guy's name that was the owner of the company. So she worked there and she was like a hostess and did, you know, did everything. She laughs now because it takes me four hostesses to do like what my wife did as one hostess.

SPEAKER_00: 23:10

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02: 23:10

Yeah, that's the way it is nowadays. You can't, you know, if you notice, it's a lot more difficult to get help now, or at least people that could do the job like one person used to be doing. Now you need four to do the job.

SPEAKER_00: 23:21

You know, and the salary's a lot higher. Being a kid, I remember when I was a kid, whenever that something great happened in our family, we'd go to dinner at either Black Angus or Bobby McGee's. That was our big thing.

SPEAKER_02: 23:30

That's that was but back then there wasn't that many restaurants, right? So and then we had minor miners. That was 1971. So it's you know, you have the heritage of it, but then you have there's all this money coming in. So next thing you know, they're building nightclubs, and you know, they're redoing nightclubs every three to five years, they're dumping millions of dollars in. How do you compete? You know, how does a Bobby McGee's compete with that kind of stuff? Or restaurants are spending five to seven million dollars on restaurants where people want to be seen or have that, you know, ritzy glamour. That's the difference of what's going on now compared to the Bobby McGee's mind of binders days.

SPEAKER_00: 23:59

Do you think do you see a time where you're gonna step down and let someone else take over?

SPEAKER_02: 24:04

Great question. Do I you know what? I like I told you earlier, I'm the person that either have to be out. So if I if I get out, it'd have to be some equity firm that comes and takes me completely out, or I went public and I was a public trading company and I'd put as someone as a CEO and I'd be like a non-voting chairman of the board kind of thing. I think those are the only two options for me. Uh I have a lot of energy, like you said, and I'm and I love what I do still. I I I the industry is getting very difficult. It's not like it used to be 20 years ago. It's a lot more challenging, but most businesses are, you know, between the red tape and all the other issues. So it's not as fun that way, but I still try to make it a lot of fun. And and again, I like to work on the business, not in the business. So most people get confused. They're in their business, they're like, why can't I get out of this business? Because they're in their business. I like to be on the outside looking in and be able to fix things. I'm a good fixer, I'm a good person putting the right people in the right seat of the bus and directing the bus. That's what I do really well, and that's what I enjoy. And as long as I can do that and not be swamped, but you know, lately I'm in my office and HR is coming in nonstop, and I'm like, oh my God, another issue. It's like this is what's going on now. And when times get tough, which they are right now, people start having more issues. It starts more infighting of people, it starts more lawsuits, more misery, people aren't happy, and that's when you start seeing more problems.

SPEAKER_00: 25:18

Is it stressful like that when you another HR issue? I gotta deal with it. What's the craziest HR issue you've ever had to deal with?

SPEAKER_02: 25:24

I I couldn't even discuss that. You can't. No, I couldn't even discuss that. There's there's been some crazy stuff. I mean, there's the the you the it I go as far as your mind can go and then add a little more. So put it that way. But I tell you, uh, that's that's been my biggest challenge. The landlords on the landlord side, commercial real estate's in the whole right now, and these landlords are just very difficult to deal with. It's no longer the way I used to feel like deal making when you meet with the leasey and you know, the the person in charge of leases, now it goes to the background, it goes to the NBA people that don't have maybe any life experience or do you have to deal with that?

SPEAKER_00: 25:57

Or do you now you have a like there are things that can happen where you don't even know about it, right? Or do you have to know about everything?

SPEAKER_02: 26:02

No, I just I have to know what I need to know, right? So meaning it it'll float up to me if what when it gets to me, if I have to know, then I'll I'm I have to sit there and discuss it and make decisions. But it's usually I have enough levels where they can make decisions, but I I don't want to be in the know I'll I'll lose my mind if I'm a no of everything. Right. I just need to know, hey, where it what's the liability part of our company? What's your what's your sign?

SPEAKER_00: 26:22

Nothing at all.

SPEAKER_02: 26:23

I'm Aquarius.

SPEAKER_00: 26:24

So is that a very Aquarius thing, the way you're what you're doing? The way you're acting I'm a visionary.

SPEAKER_02: 26:30

I think that's the Aquarius part. So I'm a visionary, I'm an optimist, returnal optimist. So maybe sometimes, you know, the the glass is always full to me, not half empty. Yeah, that's right. And and yeah, yeah, I I like going through life that way. I you know, I'm a big person, a big believer in giving givers gain, and I give back a lot to to the community, to people. I I I spend I keep like two hours open a week for people to come in and have conversations with me that not in my business or in my business or other businesses that that want mentoring or entrepreneurship. I really try to give back to people uh all the time because I just think it's really important.

SPEAKER_00: 27:02

That's good.

SPEAKER_02: 27:03

Yeah, so I'm always working on trying to be the best I could be goal-wise and helping other people attain their goals.

SPEAKER_00: 27:09

Well, I remember one time I was talking to you uh and your wife somewhere, and I th I thought, did she say you guys had a rescue in Austin or something like that?

SPEAKER_02: 27:15

No, we we bought a we bought land in Austin. My my wife's ultimate goal is she loves animals, right? All animals. But wild horses are her biggest that's her biggest one. So my wife wants to have a wild to have a ranch where she can save all these wild wild horses, which are getting slaughtered. I mean, it's it's just total craziness what goes on in this country where they're collect they're they're they're collecting these wild horses with helicopters and doing and forcing them into pens where the they're the family's getting separated. They they're spending a hundred million dollars a year to feed these animals all in the name of they're eating the props that the farmers have. It's it's complete utter BS. It's it's just a money grab for the farmers and people are trying to grab money to do this thing, and it's destroying these wild, beautiful animals, the Mustangs and the wild animals. It's destroying their families, destroying everything. So my wife's super passionate about it. So we do a lot of stuff to help that, but she wants to get a ranch where we could bring these animals and keep the families together.

SPEAKER_00: 28:09

That's great. Yeah. I just had dinner with a handful of people, and one of the guys at dinner table is is uh is building a horse rescue in I don't know if this is Prescott Fly or Cave Creek, I think. Really? Yeah, something huge.

SPEAKER_02: 28:22

You probably gotta definitely help my wife up with that because where she's very involved in it, but to the extent that she wants to, she doesn't want to do 10, 20 horses, she wants to do thousands of horses. Right, no, that's just and that gets expensive. It's not it's not cheap. So, you know, something that I've been working on. It's my goal. Yeah, you gotta meet this guy.

SPEAKER_00: 28:35

Um, what the hell is his name? Oh my god. I did literally, it was like three weeks ago.

SPEAKER_02: 28:40

You'll think of it offline, but definitely get me posted up on that because again, I think it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00: 28:44

He was doing it because of his wife, and he bought all this stuff, but man. Um, how about restaurants at at the airport? Because I've seen you you're in a couple airports, right?

SPEAKER_02: 28:52

We're not in any airports yet. We've been working on airports. The problem with the airport is we run with anthrocyte, which is coal, right? So it's not like running gas, it's it's a little more difficult and getting through with with the airports. We also have to run our flu straight up. We can't go sideways or out the side. We have to go straight up. So wherever you just that's the rule for fossil fuels that they have, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 29:12

I swear I thought I saw you at a it was at a at a airport or something. I was like, oh look, Grimms. Yeah, we're working on you have a few, but that that's also a license agreement. No, I have a friend. I was gonna get this a friend of mine has a couple restaurants, and he had put one at the airport, he said it was the biggest pain in the ass.

SPEAKER_02: 29:25

It is because you get a license agreement, you get a small amount of money from it, and but it's nice exposure for your name. But again, I I I I don't work that way. I do things what's best for the brand. Right. And and and that, you know, and that's that's how I run it. But I like to, if I get the right re right deal in the right airport, I'd be, you know, 100% interested in doing that. So we're working up.

SPEAKER_00: 29:44

Well, so when you had the expand to open up 50 restaurants, do you in that process did you ever have to like buy cheaper tomatoes, buy cheaper whatever because you're so huge? Like the product never went down.

SPEAKER_02: 29:55

I less one committed pass, he passed away uh earlier this year, which is a shame. Uh great guy, lived great, great life. But one thing I committed to him and the brand is I'll never cheapen. If I do anything, it'll be better. So I never looked for anything cheaper, only better.

SPEAKER_00: 30:10

Yeah, because we had that, you know, when my show expanded, my radio show expanded, it was like, okay, we're on in all these cities. I felt that we had to sacrifice local stuff so that everybody cared. And then and after about five, ten years of doing that, then I was just like, forget it. I'm doing exactly what I think is the right thing to do. And that's kind of what we've been doing. But there was a point where people get in your head.

SPEAKER_02: 30:31

Yeah, but you have to listen, you have to listen to your guy and you have to listen to yourself and you're right. So they self be true, right? You're right. And and for me, it's it's about the the my the customers, you know. I'm saying I want them to have the best quality product I can put out there. And I'm always working on being a keeping the best, keeping, you know, from employees up to up to the you know, up to the C-suite. So it's super important to have the best quality. Now, again, you know, people want to compare us. We're not the cheapest by far, but I'm telling you right now, you're gonna get the best ingredients, it's gonna be the cleanest you're gonna have. Did I say I own two pizza places? Did I tell you that? I think you did before. Yeah, I mean I you're my competitor.

SPEAKER_00: 31:05

I lost him, I got rid of him. No, I was like, I was my son was playing basketball, and it was right before COVID, I think. And and I remember I was in this little room overlooking the basketball court, and this dad was on the phone and he goes, he's talking really loud and he looks over and goes, I'm so sorry. I go, it's fine, whatever. So I watched the basketball practice. He gets off the phone and goes, sorry about that. He goes, I'm trying to buy a pizza place. And I was like, trying to buy a pizza place. And he goes, Yeah, and I go, with dude, I don't even know this guy very well. And I go, hey man, you need an investor? I said, I said, I'd love, I'll go. He tells me about the pizza place that I'm in. I said, I will go in. I go, but I don't want to have to work in the restaurant, I don't want to have to deal with it. I'll just be the kind of the money behind it. Yeah, yeah. And he was like, Great. So I go tell my wife, and my wife's like, What did you do? So check this out. So we opened up a pizza place, it was Rosotti's.

SPEAKER_02: 31:55

Oh, yeah, franchise.

SPEAKER_00: 31:56

Yeah, great guys. We open the one in there was there's two, there's like the family split.

SPEAKER_02: 31:59

Yeah, it's a it's that's a that's another that's in a whole nother.

SPEAKER_00: 32:01

So we opened we get to build one in Casa Grand next to the movie theater. Okay, right? So I'm like, I'm all in, we're doing the money, and we're making it local, putting up you know, posters of the radio, showing and doing all, and I'm hyping it up on the radio, ready to open, we're gonna open like in September. But then Rosati reaches out and says, Hey, the one in Awatuki is doing terrible. Would you guys like to take it over? Like, sure, man. No, I'm a professional, I know what I'm doing. Take it over. So we take over Awatuki before we even overcast a grant. Okay. And I'm like, and and then the guys that are running it, the the the partner, he's like, hey man, we need uh we need 12,000 for payroll this month. I'm like, what? Bad sign. So throwing in 12,000, then next month, same thing, next month, same thing. And then all of a sudden they're like, we don't want to do this anymore. Yeah. What'd you lose? Yeah, what did I lose? What'd you lose altogether? Take a guess.

SPEAKER_02: 32:51

Depending on how big a partner you are, but I'm saying you probably are anywhere at 250. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 32:55

That's exactly the number. That was terrible.

SPEAKER_02: 32:59

That's yeah, well, look. He nailed it. Uh but you know what's funny is it's not, it's really not even funny. The industry right now is changing so dramatically that there's gonna be so many bankruptcies coming. It's the best operators are gonna win. That's it. Bottom line. The biggest and the best operators because uh the mom and pops are going away like crazy, just like if you look at every all the other businesses, right? Home Depot took over, Lowe's, all the mom and pops are gone. You got Ace, you know, there's three or four that you're buying, right? Yeah, yeah. Same thing going on in the restaurant industry. It's you know, I it's great when everybody thinks, rah-rah, let's get minimum wage up to$20 an hour,$20,$22. But that causes everything else to go up in price. So when they really getting$20, no, they're probably better off making their$750.

SPEAKER_00: 33:39

And back in the day, I was paying$15,$18 an hour, and McDonald's was paying$20. And I was like, I can't. It's unsustainable. I didn't even want to know these numbers. I didn't want to deal with it. That was in my point. Not in this business.

SPEAKER_02: 33:50

This business is, you know, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, it really is. And to, you know, with food cost inflation, labor inflation, rent camps, all this stuff's going up. The margins are getting squeezed more and more. I read an article, listen to this one. If a restaurant in 2019 was doing a million and a half dollars, they were making 10%, they said on the bottom line. So they're making like$75,000. Okay. If they didn't raise their prices from 19 to 25 to 2025 by 30.3%, 30.3%, doing 19.5. 1 million nine hundred, 1.9 million, 500,000. Or 50,000, right? 1.95, yeah. They would have lost$400,000. Wow. So think about that. To make the same amount of money they made in 2019. Right, they gotta raise that 33%. 30 percent.

SPEAKER_00: 34:40

Is that what you guys did?

SPEAKER_02: 34:41

No, we didn't. I I I didn't raise it. I raised prices in for in in those, what was that, six years? I've raised prices three times.

SPEAKER_00: 34:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_02: 34:50

Yeah, I haven't raised prices now. We're going to be raising prices, but I haven't raised prices in almost three years. You have to, though. You have to. But I but I let everybody else go ahead and push it. They they they gunned it, they brought the price up, they that you know, they destroyed themselves, and I'm I'll come in from behind now. And I'll be like, okay, we'll raise price a little bit just to absorb some of it. But I did it, I did it right. So we do a thing called sales per labor hour. Perfect example. Most restaurants, if you go to, you notice they cut their weight of profits. So you're getting there, you're sitting there, you're waiting five, 10 minutes, you can't get a refill. It's like the worst service, and you're like, I'm not going back here. Food might be good, but you're not going back. We did the opposite. We added people on, but we expect them to sell more. So we watch our sales per labor hour, and that's how we were successful. So you're getting better service, filling your drinks. But I but I want to push you. Hey, instead of getting that 16-inch, what about that 18-inch? How about an extra topping? How about a jar of sores?

SPEAKER_00: 35:41

So you've never had a year of lot of negative, you're you've always been pushing through.

SPEAKER_02: 35:45

No, we've always we but that's operational excellence.

SPEAKER_00: 35:48

Well, your brand is fantastic, man. It's a great brand.

SPEAKER_02: 35:51

We work really hard at it. And and and again, that's like I said, people are like, oh, you're it's expensive. I'm like, compare it to what? Like, you know, acid reflux brands? I I'm anti-antireflux.

SPEAKER_00: 36:01

Wait, so I gotta tell you, so I've done just like you said, you've done all these cleanses, I've done all kinds of diets, right? And I read this thing one time that tomatoes are really good for you. They got lycopenes, and it's supposed to be really good for your prostate. So I created my own diet, it was a tomato sauce diet, right? So I was going to like Whole Foods. I thought Whole Foods had the best, the healthiest stuff. Right. So I'd go to Whole Foods and I would buy tomato sauce, like people buy Gatorade. Uh-huh. And I would drink a can or two a day just right out of the jar. Like, of course, I was just doing tablespoons, then I'd start chugging it. And to me, there was a couple of random brands. I can't remember the brands that I thought were really, really great at Whole Foods. Now, this is 10 years ago. Then I, to me, one of my favorites, simple go-to was Paul Newman's, right? I know because you you're like, You obviously don't read labels. No, I don't. I was going for taste. But then you brought me some before you even had a label on it. And I thought it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_02: 36:52

Listen, the difference of what we've done and that other people do, and again, it's it's not gonna be the cheapest out there. It's gonna be we're a high-end brand. The difference that we have is that we're using San Marzano region tomatoes, right? So most people are using California tomatoes. Completely different, right? And even the organic California tomatoes can't even hold a stick to what we do for the San Marzano. San Marzano has the like they they the region tomatoes, they don't spray herbicide pesticides, they don't use any of the sprays on on the it's not even worth certifying because the restaurants and in this? Yeah, all over. All my tomatoes are San Marzano, San Marzano tomatoes. But where is that from? From Italy, from San Marzano region. Oh, wow. Yeah, so that's where we buy our tomatoes. I have to bring them in. So taps, right? They want to raise tariffs 10%. These all affect our brand. Our peccarin Romano comes from Italy. It's that's our our cheese. We make our cheese special. We make our cheese. We pull out all the all the oil and butter like from the cheese so that it's clean.

SPEAKER_00: 37:44

Do you put it in a store, or do you have a place that you do it, a main place, and you ship it out to other people?

SPEAKER_02: 37:49

Yeah, we have a we have a f we have a facility that we that we in in New York and then it ships out to we PFG, which is Roma. We use them and they ship all the stuff across the country to all our stores. But you know, but we're really But it's your stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 38:00

Nobody else gets your stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 38:01

No, and it's all it's all trademark, it's all our stuff. Wow. So when someone someone does franchise, they get to use our products. Okay. And they have to buy our products, and and that's what we do. But we we do we go as clean as we possibly can. You know what I'm saying? This like when when the reason I came up with the the pasta sauce is we since Lombardi's days, right? 100 years, we have these formulations that we we've been using, but but in my restaurants, I don't serve pasta because to get the all these other, like if I'm going to, for example, Scossa Quarter, give you an example. I'm a pizzeria. Why? Because there's already an Italian restaurant in there. So they have these exclusives, they block you out. Okay. So if I had pasta, now I'd be a full pasta, a full, full Italian restaurant. And I can't get into half of the places I was able to get into. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 38:40

So you just pizza.

SPEAKER_02: 38:41

So pizza, pizza, salad, calzone, dessert. But I'm going back and I'm changing leases now that they're running out and doing things in different companies and restaurants are closing all over the place. So now I have better chances of going out and renegotiate with the landlord to get that exclusion out. So now I'm adding probably out of 50 stores, I'll probably get 40 stores, I'll get the pasta sauce in, which I'm working on now. Pasta sauce, and then you're gonna have pasta. Yeah, pasta, yeah, yeah. So we'll be serving our pasta sauce. So all these years we had we had the pasta, I just didn't know the best route to take it. Now that I I saw what's out there in the pasta sauce industry, there's nothing great out there. So what we did is we, you know, everybody's reading now about seed oils, right? How bad seed oils are? Well, they they've been out of our life forever. Extra virgin olive oil. We use organic extravagant olive oil. That's what we eat with. We use uh coconut oil for cooking. We never cook with olive oil. We only cook with crocon oil because it gets rancid. So you've been doing this for years. Oh, forget, yeah, forever. This is how we cook. Like we I I buy bison instead of cow because bison's leaner and we we buy it that it's it's farm raised bison eating eating in the in the grass meadows and they they they they put 'em down in the meadows, so it's not like they're going to a trauma. You know, people always say, Do you think if the if the animal's getting killed, do you think it's trauma goes through their body and you're eating that? Yeah. Does that affect you?

SPEAKER_00: 39:52

Who knows? I was talking to your brother in law about because he's got these vitamins from the bison. Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 39:56

Same we same same bison we're buying that w that I cook at home. Wow. But like I said, in like you when you're looking at mass production, you know, these are small productions, right? It's the it's small farm. When I'm talking about mass production, when I look at what's out there, there's so much garbage out there that people aren't reading. You're like, oh, this tastes good, right?

SPEAKER_00: 40:14

Yeah, but that was before I was way into into the side.

SPEAKER_02: 40:17

But most people aren't looking at most people looking for taste. They don't know. If you're looking to be healthy, you want to eat the right stuff. So I decided, you know, no seed oils. That's one thing that's that we took out. No seed oils. Uh extra virgin olive oil. I use sea salt instead of sodium, right? Regular salt, which is horrendous for you.

SPEAKER_00: 40:33

Yeah. I made it.

SPEAKER_02: 40:34

I certified it. No one's certifying because I can't. I certified it. So we're like, we we have like nine of the uh of like soy free, uh peanut free. How many kids have peanut allergies now?

SPEAKER_00: 40:44

This is this is pure goodness. Everything in here. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_02: 40:48

Before you do that one, that's the marinara. Do you want to taste something you haven't tasted? Sure. Uh you should try the vibe. We just came out the we did the marinara. Yeah, try to uh is that the one with the cream or no cream?

SPEAKER_00: 40:57

Oh, I don't want cream. You don't want cream? I mean, I'll take cream home, but I don't want cream.

SPEAKER_02: 41:00

The cream's that look at that one. I think it says no cream. I think that says wood cream. This is with cream. Try that. It has a little bit of kick to it. Shake it up a little bit, but it's freaking out.

SPEAKER_00: 41:08

I drink this like Gatorade.

SPEAKER_02: 41:09

It's off the charts.

SPEAKER_00: 41:15

This is fantastic.

SPEAKER_02: 41:16

I I'm telling you, no one else is doing what we do. This is fantastic. It's it's the best. And when you and you're drinking it cold, you heat it up, you put it on, you put it on the pasta or lanzagna or whatever Italian dish you're making at home, and it's just amazing.

SPEAKER_00: 41:29

But you see what I'm saying though about health, like as far as a diet goes, wouldn't this be a good diet? Like doesn't it make sense? Like a bit of a big thing. I I think I think salute.

SPEAKER_02: 41:36

Yeah, I think too much uh uric acid from tomatoes is not gonna be 100% great for you. So I wouldn't, you know, this is something I wouldn't be like living off of. But pasta, like I'll make my children in the morning, I'll make them probably twice a week. They love the extra the tomato basil, so I'll make that for them. I'll I'll cook the pasta. We do gluten-free. So I'll cook gluten-free pasta for them, I'll put the pasta sauce on there, I'll put them in one of those little thermoses that they take to school, they'll eat them if they'll eat it for lunch. Twice a week they do it.

SPEAKER_00: 42:03

So uh I had no idea that it was so healthy that you made you took care like that. That's it.

SPEAKER_02: 42:07

But that's what we do at our restaurant. We we do everything healthy. And again, I I don't certify organic because it's the the certified organic now, I think is just garbage anyway. But we get the bet we put the best love and care into it. And I do the the it's there's nothing else like it. And again, I certify all these things. I made a kosher because there's so many people that want that are kosher that need kosher food. I made a kosher, you know, gluten-free, non-GMO. Uh uh I have like nine.

SPEAKER_00: 42:31

So you can get you can't get these yet.

SPEAKER_02: 42:33

Yeah, yeah. You you can buy it right now on AJ's. Oh, you can locally here. Okay. Uh, but we're we're in about I launched this March 1st. Well, I signed with the gentleman that's helping us sell these in the in the retail. That we we signed the contract March 1st. I launched this like last Thanksgiving, right around the same same time last year. It's when I when I came out with it. I sold it only in my stores and online, right? Now we're on Amazon, we're a Walmart, we're in Walmart's uh marketplace. Uh we're in over a thousand retailers. We'll be in five thousand retailers committed by the end of this year. Uh we're in Air One, for example, in California. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll be at 5,000 stores committed by the end of this year, which will take about three to four months to get them into all the places. And then my goal is to you know to keep growing this, you know, exponentially.

SPEAKER_00: 43:19

So I'm this will take over and be the be the moneymaker instead of the restaurants, you think?

SPEAKER_02: 43:23

This like I said, restaurant business is really tough. Dealing with landlords, space, people. I this this I don't have many employees that have to run this. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 43:33

You make this all in New York?

SPEAKER_02: 43:34

This is all my action in Philadelphia. Oh, it is. So I I found the facility that is peanut-free. Uh, they they certified everything for me, like did everything for me because know how strong our brand is. They literally drop majority of their brands just to do our brands. We're also coming out with our salad dressings. So our salad dressing has no preservatives, it'll be like extra virgin olive oil. It's gonna be the it's gonna be the cleanest thing on the like it's it'll be it will be the cleanest thing on the shelf. Wow. Yeah. So we're doing that. It's in our store. So it's taken me forever to make that in in a in a concentrated to make enough that I can make enough. Right. Like our store, our salad dress we're making in our store.

SPEAKER_00: 44:09

I had to take the formulation, then I had to duplicate it in a mass production, which you know So like is this being made in giant tubs and fill out?

SPEAKER_02: 44:17

No, they're making them small batches, but they make it a lot, they make a lot of smaller batches when they run it.

SPEAKER_00: 44:21

So how many what's what what's their output? Are they making all the biggest?

SPEAKER_02: 44:24

Oh, well, they'll they can make they can make for me, you know, 30,000 jars a day. Holy smokes. Yeah. So it it that's for me. So my projection is in the next five years, I'll be at max capacity running two ships there. And then I'll and then I'll then I'll run it, then they'll expand for me. They'll open up the they'll expand the facility.

SPEAKER_00: 44:42

Wow, damn.

SPEAKER_02: 44:42

That's my goal. Like I said, that's my my vision is five years is to be is to is to max them out.

SPEAKER_00: 44:47

You're gonna be the tomato sauce uh captain of the year, or what do you call it? You know what?

SPEAKER_02: 44:50

I it's retail is been a fun is phenomenal. Uh branding, it's phenomenal. You got your name out there in front of everybody instead of just you know brick and mortar. And literally, what it's gonna cost me to do this is compared to what I opening stores, it's it's it's this is a far better way of going. And I can hit the masses, yeah, which is what I want with healthy food.

SPEAKER_00: 45:09

You know, my father-in-law, my father-in-law was a car dealer, and he had uh Oldsmobile, Honda, Jeep, he had all kinds of dealerships. And I said it one time when I first started dating his daughter, I was like, How come you don't have like Mercedes or BMW? And he goes, he goes, you know, I'll never forget the way he said he goes you target the elite and you dine with the masses. I think it's he goes, you target the masses and you dine with the elite. Those are the words he said to me.

SPEAKER_02: 45:33

Sell to the masses, eat with the eat with the classes. I was just like, whoa. He's right, though. Yeah, he's right. But the difference from what I do is I'm selling, I'm selling, I'm trying. This is my goal, is to sell the Mercedes for the Hyundai. You know what I'm saying? So when you when you when like it for my pizza, I'm uh I'm my pricing's the same now as the average pizzeria. And I'm 10 times better quality, taste, flavor, and how we make it. We make it old school way, 100 years of of tradition of making it.

SPEAKER_00: 46:03

What about your uh your shaman? Does he want advertising? Does he need new clients?

SPEAKER_02: 46:07

No, he I don't advertise them all. That's why I didn't mention his name on here.

SPEAKER_00: 46:10

Oh, this is well. I remember when I said that thing. You look at it. You guys texted to me. You were because uh I remember you telling just again, we uh the first question I asked you was like, didn't he help your mom with some sort of cancer? He helped he helped my whole family.

SPEAKER_02: 46:20

Uh look, you had Joe Polish on here the other day. I I had him work with Joe Polish. Oh, you did? Oh yeah. Because Joe is all about held. But I said, Joe, I go, if I connect you with him, you make a you make a blood commitment with me right now, you don't share him with anybody. And he and he says, done. So all the people I share him with, they cannot share him with anybody because he's so busy.

SPEAKER_00: 46:38

I think you text me his information, didn't you?

SPEAKER_02: 46:39

I I did.

SPEAKER_00: 46:40

I tried to share it with you, but they you know, again. Because you were like he's come when he comes down, he'll do a bunch of your friends.

SPEAKER_02: 46:46

He well, that's that's that doesn't sound too good, but yeah. He'll work on it, he'll work on my friend uh on a lot of my friends, and a lot of them now take him for a day. So they'll come in, they'll bring him for the day. He's he's really not cheap, but he'll work for the day, but they'll do the whole family. So I have a friend that has six kids who works on the whole family for the day. Wait, are you part of Joe Polish's uh Joe Polish's thing? You know what? I I went to his genius network quite a few times. Uh look, at my age right now, I I'm like, I'm on the back. You're already there. Like, you know, they said the back nine. I think I'm on the back like seven. Right. You know, it's like I I that's why the podcast thing, like, I'm not, I don't, you know, they said who's gonna be the face of the brand? I go, not me. I don't I don't want anything to do with it.

SPEAKER_00: 47:24

I'm great for the podcast. You're because we're pals. So you've got to be a good thing.

SPEAKER_02: 47:26

We've been friends a long time, and you you said to me and you kept asking me and asking me and asking me, and I'm like, finally, like you just asked me again, and I'm like, all right, I'll do it. But then I little did I know it's a it's face, it's a face video. So I was like in a big thing. You're like, I'm gonna be out. I'm like, no, I can't. I can't do that. But this wasn't so bad, was it? No, no, it's not bad. I like I told you, I don't I just don't like being in public eye. I I I'd rather like I said, I'd rather be behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_00: 47:48

You know, you know what's funny is that someone sent me a video when we were at the Suns game the other day, and that Frankie Munez was sitting back there and something. You said, Yeah, well, you this room. Right. So I was when when your brother-in-law tells me he's your brother-in-law and I'm getting the transfer, I go, I have a video of him because you had you had just like hit my stomach on the baby. You tap my stomach, Frankie Munez is there, and I posted it on Instagram.

SPEAKER_01: 48:07

Oh, was you to post it? Because my son said.

SPEAKER_00: 48:08

Someone sent it to me and I just posted. That's it.

SPEAKER_02: 48:10

My son says it to me, he goes, Dad, look, I go, John, John dissed you. I I said, What do you mean he dissed me? And we were talking the whole time, and then Frankie was there, and we and he we we said hello to him. Oh, that.

SPEAKER_00: 48:19

Yeah, no, Frankie came up and you and I were talking.

SPEAKER_02: 48:21

It was a right, because I I guess when I was looking, you were looking at him. So I was my son's like, dude, they said you your my friend said you he dissed you. I go, What? No way. I didn't diss you. No, we had already talked about it. We had already talked like like 10 times before that. I know that, but it but that's what my son said. At that game, yeah. It was but I thought it was funny. And that's why, again, I don't want to look like you mentioned the New York Post, right? I I read the post every morning when when I'm having my coffee. And it's all it's all like the fluff or like all about the celebrities and all this stuff, what they're doing. I who cares what they're doing. I really don't care. I I care about me, my family, my and my inner circle of the people that I can help and have and I can help.

SPEAKER_00: 48:58

Well, the post article, it was supposed to be. I mean, the headlines come up, but the but the article is a really good article, I think.

SPEAKER_02: 49:05

Oh, I you have to share them, I want to read it.

SPEAKER_00: 49:07

Yeah, okay, I'll send it to you because I was sure. I thought it was great.

SPEAKER_02: 49:09

But we we've been in the post so many times for a lot of the wrong reasons. Oh, really? When my dad was back in New York, yeah, yeah, it was pretty funny.

SPEAKER_00: 49:15

Uh I see I don't think there's such things as bad marketing or bad press. I I just don't believe it.

SPEAKER_02: 49:19

I I don't know. I I'm mixed. I'm mixed. I I usually say that any press is good press.

SPEAKER_00: 49:25

They use it unless you're Jared from Subway.

SPEAKER_02: 49:27

Yeah, but anything like that, like anything comes up nowadays. You're like, look at the Me Too and all the different things were coming up. I mean, you don't want to be that pressed. I mean, that people haven't got out of that, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 49:36

Well, that Bart. Yeah, I guess they took bad press to a new level. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 49:39

So again, being in the press is cool, but I'd rather like be behind the scenes and not have to be out there.

SPEAKER_00: 49:44

Do you right now feel great after the shaman today?

SPEAKER_02: 49:46

Uh he's we're not done. When I'm done here, I go back home and I finish up.

SPEAKER_00: 49:49

So he's been chilling at your house waiting for you?

SPEAKER_02: 49:51

Well, he's working on my my family. He's working on my daughter. She she came out of school to do a project, so he worked on her. He's working on my son at 3 30, and then he works on my wife, and then he'll work, he's working on my wife right as of right now.

SPEAKER_00: 50:00

He's expensive too, right? He's really expensive.

SPEAKER_02: 50:02

But like I said, my kids never been to a doctor.

SPEAKER_00: 50:06

Okay, wait. Again, wait, this is I remember I thought you said he did something. Like you, I thought you said you had calcium in your heart too, and now it's gone.

SPEAKER_02: 50:14

I had I listen, uh like I told you, this Thanksgiving, you know, it's this is like 13 years my brother passed away at 39, right? From from from a heart massive heart attack. And my brother was in the most the best shape. Like this guy, he looked like he could bounce a quarter off a six-pack, right? That's how that he was in great shape. He looked in great shape, right? My my guy says to me, I'm surprised he died before you. I was like, Whoa, that was like a revolution for me. I'm like, what the hell? So he used to travel with my family. Like, I'd take him on trips with me when we go to the summer away for this, you know, in California. He'd go with me and be working on me all the time. And then I said to him, I said, Hey, you're working on me all this time. I'm spending God knows how much money on this stuff. What what gives? And he said, and he and he looked at me in the eye and he says, Are you ready to get serious about your life? And I'm thinking, man, I I was getting serious about my life. I have you working on me nonstop. And I said, Yeah, I I'm I I want to feel amazing. And he says, Enjoy your last meal. And that's the last time that and that that was what uh 13 years ago, right? And I had I didn't eat meat for 12 years. I became vegetarian. I was raw for three years, and then I became vegetarian for another 12 years, and I started eating meat again, meat and fish. But not because I wanted, because my wife wanted me to cook for it and she forced me.

SPEAKER_00: 51:29

I did the vegan thing for a couple years.

SPEAKER_02: 51:31

I I but I'm telling you, I I slimmed down, I feel great. You what you do want to carb up a little bit because you don't feel like you're you're still hungry. That's the only negative about it.

SPEAKER_00: 51:39

I missed meat and fish on chicken a lot.

SPEAKER_02: 51:41

But people that do the vegan, they don't understand they eat a lot of soy, right? A lot of tofu, like these, all the all they're no.

SPEAKER_00: 51:47

I bet you your brother-in-law's not a fan of the vegan thing.

SPEAKER_02: 51:49

No, no, he's he's a big meat person. You know, that's that's that's their deal. They believe in the in the the caveman diet, right? Berries and those kind of things. I am that way too. We're that's the way I eat now. So the bison, I'm really clean eating that way.

SPEAKER_00: 52:02

But the shaman said, enjoy your last meal. And so you're surprised that you didn't die before your brother, and so he's been working on you, and now and now you're healthy.

SPEAKER_02: 52:11

Like for good like beyond, beyond. But how do they test that? How does he test that? Well, I go to my bro-in-law, right? I do my blood tests, I do all this stuff, and and and and he tells me, okay, this you're looking good, and you know, I do my life insurance. I do life insurance every couple years.

SPEAKER_00: 52:23

Oh, so they come in and they come and do it. Well, you haven't had an MRI on your chest or any of that stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 52:27

Uh well, I did that one time with my which jacket really mad at me. I did a cat scan because he got really upset with me for doing it. But my calcium score was like 12. Right. You know what I'm saying? That's not true. So, no, so the whole point is before I it probably would have been like 800 or whatever the hell the score would go up to. But uh, because I was I was definitely all jammed up like my brother. And again, he he passed and gave me the sign of what of older brother, younger brother. Younger brother. Yeah, hard. Yeah, yeah. And he had two little kids. So it was, you know, this time of year we get together with a family, so you know, celebrate his life. That had to be really rough on your parents, too. Oh, forget it. It was like, you know, parents never get back to normal after after the death of a child before them. It's that's not supposed to be. I know too many people that this happened to. Uh and and the the parent just never gets back. That's why I'm like, I hate to say like a helicopter parent, they say, right. But you know, my wife got the 360. I'm looking at my son, he's driving now. He had that Suron thing for a while that scared the bejesus out of us. And, you know, I'm up at night to wait until he gets home, make sure he gets home safely.

SPEAKER_00: 53:26

You had the 360 app. It's yeah, it's kind of wild how we lived without a 360 app. Crazy, right? Did you feel bad for the parents?

SPEAKER_02: 53:31

I laughed. We were going to the Suns game yesterday. I'm bringing my daughter and her two girlfriends because they were dancing in the halftime show yesterday at the Suns Game.

SPEAKER_01: 53:39

And uh, and I'm driving and we're late, so I'm I'm on the freeway, and I'm like, I'm like, you girls have 360 on your phone because they showed you how quick you're going. I'm like, I wonder if the parents are looking at the 360 right now.

SPEAKER_00: 53:48

The 360 is something else, man. Like, I feel bad with my parents because like they would just wait up and not know where you were or what you were doing.

SPEAKER_02: 53:55

I my dad, no joke, now I get it. He's asleep in my bedroom and he's to lay across the bed. So when I used to get home, I have to wake him up. Like, move over or go get your that's what he used to do to make sure I got home. I never thought, you know, and he says, you'll see what happens when you're an older, when you're a parent, when you're a and he's 100% right. And you know, my I that's my big argument with my son. But he's but he's been great. He's very respectful of understanding. Uh, you know, he'll push his envelope, he'll he's a negotiator already. Be home 11, 12, 10, 15, or at 11:30.

SPEAKER_00: 54:23

On school nights? Can he go out to school?

SPEAKER_02: 54:24

No, no, school school night is 10 o'clock latest, but he's really, you know, he he's not. My daughter's a lot of times dancing, so like 9 15.

SPEAKER_00: 54:32

I mean, she's 13. She's dancing, she's at a place doing stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 54:36

She's doing yeah, but she's busy. Like that girl's so busy. I don't know. I she so motivated. I said to her, I said, Brooklyn, why are you so motivated? What makes you so motivated? She goes, Dad, I never want to be homeless. That got me. I'm like, oh my god, my daughter's worried about being homeless. You know what I'm saying? I'll do everything in my life to make sure that she is not homeless. But here's that's that's something that goes on with her. Where that came from, why it came from her, or where it's inbred in her, no idea.

SPEAKER_00: 55:02

That's a good drive, though.

SPEAKER_02: 55:03

But what are drivers? So she's out there. So my son, now talk about drivers, he's now picking her up at 9.15. Oh wow. So so okay, go ahead. Stay up, pick her up. My wife and I want to be in bed by nine. So he's getting an of course. I'm waiting home to hear the chirp from the from the alarm when he comes into the house.

SPEAKER_00: 55:18

Wait, so your brother-in-law, I interviewed last week, he lives in a tent, right? He says him and his wife, your sister-in-law, live in a tent with their two girls, and then their his two sons are in the next tent. So do you guys ever go over and visit in this?

SPEAKER_02: 55:30

No, you know what? We we visit him twice uh on their trips. Uh, you know, his wife Heather has a really hard, really bad issue with mold. It's it's really it's it's just you know they're going to Costa Rica and they're building that house. Yeah, they're so and again, I I I I said to her the other day at my daughter's bot, Mitzvah, I said to her, if you figure it out, I'm coming. Because I just don't know how you can figure it out. You know, especially where they're going. It rains a lot. And so it mudslides all kind of rain. How do you build something that just is not gonna have mold? Mold's outside, it's all over the place. So I I just don't know how they're gonna do it. I I give you a cool kind of freaked me out.

SPEAKER_00: 56:07

He was like, mold's everywhere, molds in your house.

SPEAKER_02: 56:08

That's their big thing. But you know, before it was the gut, that was the big thing that she used to preach about the gut. She doesn't talk about the gut anymore, but it's true, the gut is a big piece of it. That's a big thing. But the mold is the second big thing, or it could be vice versa. It could be mold and then gut. I don't know. Yeah, but all I know is these are the two things we work on. So I spent ungodly amount of money having my house tested, uh, bringing in different companies coming and test my house to make sure that there's no mold, or if there is, okay, what do we-ever? Uh we had, yeah, well, the mold tests we come in, there's always something coming in. But what I was smart about this time is I went outside and had them test the outside. I said, Hey, do me a favor, rub this thing on the outside, the Swiffer test, and then test it and see where comes in. A lot of the stuff from outside was inside. Well, how do you control that? You really can't. I have people cleaning my house 24-7. You can't control it. But one thing I did notice was, and it's really important if people listen to this podcast. So inside the the ceiling is the intake manifold for the air conditioning. So your out air conditioner sits outside. Inside, the inside manifold brings it in, right? The air in and shifts it through, right? What I didn't know, I put all new AC in, I brought a all new AC is A season, and I closed off all my attic everywhere, and I did a whole, they took out all the insulation, they took out all the the the uh piping, whatever they call it, um what's it called for air conditioning? Um losing the terrain of so thought on that. Yeah, uh fiberglass stuff. Yeah, just the just the insulation that you know, just the piping that they do that that brings the air. What I found out the the vent, not the vents, but the the the vent shaft or things that that take that pump the air through. So, anyway, the most important thing I learned was every six months you have to clean the inside of the intake. So it's sort of like a radiator, like in your car. They clean the ducts, isn't that what that is? No, that's that's the word ducts. Yeah, but no, not just clean the ducts. The ducts you should do definitely every six months you have. But not even the ducts, it's the intake. So what happens is the air is pulling, it's taking the air in, right? There's like there's like a radiator in there, and it gets coated with dust and everything else, and it causes black mold and molds. So if you don't clean that, they come in with a chemical, they spray it, it gets rid of all the stuff off. Who does that?

SPEAKER_00: 58:09

Who do you hire to do that?

SPEAKER_02: 58:09

The air cushion company. Okay. But but I in my my house, I've been there 12 years. I'd never done that before. I didn't know I was supposed to do that. When I put when I spent all that money on new ACs and the new ductwork and all that stuff, now I clean it every six months. They come in and they clean that out, which is important for everybody. Yeah, I can't remember. I think quality AC I used. Uh, but uh, you know, uh it's super important. No, you're right.

SPEAKER_00: 58:33

I'm gonna go check on that one.

SPEAKER_02: 58:34

But but do that because most people don't know, they don't check that, and then and they don't realize that all these and it has that doesn't be black mold, it could be there's penicillin, blah, blah, blah, blah, that comes that you're that you're breathing in. And when I tested that, that was like 500,000 like particles of that one mold spore, not the black mold, uh, the the really hazardous one, but that, but that can affect anybody that has any kind of mold sensitivity. Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_00: 59:00

So see, you're freaking me out too.

SPEAKER_02: 59:02

But but but we tested all that stuff, and I did everything I can to to be clean as I can, right?

SPEAKER_00: 59:07

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 59:07

But again, there's molds outside you. Right. So I'd be curious to see if Heather figured it out. They're building the special house with glass and metal, cement, no inside plumbing, no outside plumbing and stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 59:19

Yeah, that's what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02: 59:20

And and I'm curious to see if that's gonna be her her, you know, if it's gonna happen in a tropical area like Costa Rica. Right. So I'm I'm I'm I'm really I'm I'm praying for him and I'm hoping for him. And I told her, if you get it, I'm coming. You're coming because uh, you know, it's it's I I don't want to do anything to hurt my children, hurt my you know, my the family, and you want everybody to be helpful.

SPEAKER_00: 59:38

You're doing everything right, it seems like you would think, yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02: 59:41

But you trust in doctors, you trust in people to tell you stuff, and unless you do the research yourself and really trust, like you told you, your gut, you can make the mistakes.

SPEAKER_00: 59:48

I was talking to your brother in law about stuff because, like me, I'm going through a thing right now where I tend to pee two or three times a night, and I you would mention that to me. Yeah, and he says he doesn't.

SPEAKER_02: 59:57

He doesn't? Yeah. Listen, I just I drink probably three to four quarts of water a day. Right. Okay. I'm going to the bathroom all the time. Me too. And at night, I'll go to the bathroom probably two or three times a night. I'll go to the bathroom. Yeah. For me it is.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:10

When do you stop drinking? I stopped dr I start stopped drinking water at 5 30, 6 o'clock.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:14

I I don't. I'll drink till, you know, I go to bed at 9 o'clock. I'll have I'll have water.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:18

I go to bed at 8 and I wake up at 3. Well, yeah, because you're doing the show. Right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:22

But I'll still go to the bathroom, you know, depending. Some nights I won't have to, other nights I'll go. It depends how much I I'm okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:27

So what you're telling me makes me feel a little bit more normal. But Jack's like, I don't know, I never pee.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:32

I ask him how much water he drinks. He drinks, I guarantee he drinks more coffee than he does water. Jack drinks a lot of coffee. Yeah, he drinks a lot of coffee. I'm not a big I don't drink that much coffee because I don't need it. But he's got a lot going on in his life and he he needs it. I don't I don't feel like I need the coffee, and I try not to drink coffee any kind of thing late, like after two o'clock. I don't want to have any any coffee.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:50

All right, Joe. Thanks for coming to the podcast, man.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:52

I'm done? Yeah, well, we'll admit it like an hour and a half. It's like a four-hour podcast. Come on, are you serious? But I'm taking all this home. Time flies when I'm having fun. Yeah, I brought those sauces for you. You better let me know your honest opinion on the code. I will.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:02

So far, the vodka sauce is fantastic.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:04

And by the way, we the I made the bolognese with grass-fed meat. In the meat's in there? In the meat's in there. It's already in there, and that's amazing. So yeah, I love it. And great seeing you and uh spending time and see at more of Sun's games and out of the room. I'm actually we're leaving for Costa Rica tomorrow. Oh, you are? That's why I picked today, because I leave tomorrow morning. Our flights at 6 a.m. So I gotta be at the airport like 4 30 to bring the bags. And I'm back Tuesday. I cut yeah, because it's you know, I it's again, my brother passed on a day. I like to do something either celebrating him or to think about him, something to that extent. So that's what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:38

I haven't been to Costa Rica yet. I want to uh set that up.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:40

I told you we we bought a great place down there if you ever want to be down there. Oh yeah, I'd love to check it out. It's like magical.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:45

It's it's oh my god.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:47

I sit on the patio and I watch the ocean and the rocks. What's the best time of year to go? Any time of year is great.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:52

I mean Well, because I want to do we do a family trip. We just started this last year because now my kids always had sports. Now the sports is the summertime, we have free. So we did Amsterdam and London over the summertime, and it's my turn to pick where we go.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:03

I'm telling you, Costa Rica. So we travel every year, we travel like far. We do like Asian trip last year. We did uh South Africa, we did Safari, we did, you know, we went to Maldives. We I I the kid, my son's been to 12% of the country, of the world. You believe that? 12%, and he just turned 16. That's pretty impressive. But we just bought the place in Costa Rica and we love it. So we get we have a place in Flora Farms in Cabo, which we go to. So we spend two weeks down there, then we'll come back, and then uh my wife wants to go to London. My daughter's gonna go to Sweden or something like that. I'll probably go visit my friend Matt over in Green Bay and go on the lake with him. And and you know, he that's his only time he gets off is a couple weeks, so I like to spend some time with him. And then I will go to Costa Rica and we'll spend like a month and a half down there. Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:45

But that's good to Cabo, you gotta do. There's a great stem cell clinic there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:48

I don't I don't know. I haven't felt I needed. I'd feel I feel like I feel great. You know, no, all natural.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:54

No, that's good. That's good. I am not. I'll send you the article and we'll post your soon. All right, brother. Thank you. Appreciate it, brother. Thanks. Okay, so welcome to our podcast. This is a little bit different today because this podcast is a spin-off of our radio show.