REAL AF with Andy Frisella - Size Matters, with Andy Frisella

00:00:00.020 Hey guys, this is Vaughn Kohler and you're listening to the MFCEO Project.

00:00:04.220 Your small business is getting bigger. That's a good thing, right?

00:00:07.500 Well, it's also challenging and at times stressful.

00:00:10.240 Today, Andy is joined by good friend and fellow entrepreneur Jillian Tedesco of Fit Flavors.

00:00:15.640 The two of them, and yours truly, talk about how to manage the growth that comes with success.

00:00:20.500 That's today's podcast.

00:00:30.000 Hey guys, what's up? You're listening to the MFCEO Project.

00:00:46.360 I'm Andy. I'm your host. I'm here with my co-host, DJ God. DJ, DJ God.

00:00:51.680 I think my favorite is Vaughn the Impaler.

00:00:53.400 Of course it is.

00:00:54.120 Yeah.

00:00:54.680 I'm here with my co-host, Vaughn the Impaler, producer Tyler in his salmon shorts.

00:01:00.160 What's up, dude?

00:01:01.200 What's up, guys?

00:01:02.200 And we have a special guest today, Jillian Tedesco, one of my good friends and a fellow entrepreneur.

00:01:07.200 Hello.

00:01:07.700 Hey, everybody.

00:01:08.920 So today, the term entrepreneur has become like this sexy, cool thing to do.

00:01:15.500 Now everybody's an entrepreneur, you know what I'm saying?

00:01:17.380 They think entrepreneurship is like about running down to the Starbucks with your hipster beard and your fucking coffee,

00:01:24.760 chilling with your Mac in the fucking, you know, in the lobby of Starbucks with your triple venti bullshit.

00:01:32.660 You know what I'm saying?

00:01:33.700 I love it. Triple venti.

00:01:35.100 Yeah, man.

00:01:35.820 Whatever, dude.

00:01:36.580 I don't even fucking know what they serve there.

00:01:38.140 I'm just making that up, clearly.

00:01:39.660 But the point is, no, it's got to be pumpkin now, right?

00:01:42.580 Pumpkin, right.

00:01:43.040 That's the thing, right?

00:01:43.360 Pumpkin spice.

00:01:43.920 Like Uggs and pumpkin spice.

00:01:45.820 Pumpkin spice latte.

00:01:46.820 So, dude, so the thing is, is like, you know, 20 years ago, being an entrepreneur, you know what that meant?

00:01:54.260 That meant you fucking lived in your mom's basement.

00:01:56.020 It meant you were a loser.

00:01:56.860 It meant you didn't have a fucking job.

00:01:58.080 Right.

00:01:58.420 You know what I mean?

00:01:58.840 How are you paying your bills?

00:02:00.020 Right.

00:02:00.500 I'm an entrepreneur.

00:02:01.220 Like, if you wrote entrepreneur on a credit app, they fucking laughed at you.

00:02:04.000 That doesn't even count.

00:02:04.700 That's not a real job.

00:02:05.720 Like, seriously.

00:02:06.460 That's what it used to be.

00:02:07.300 Now it's like become this sexy thing that everybody wants to be one.

00:02:11.080 And they don't really realize what it takes.

00:02:15.340 They hear these stories of, you know, Uber, 2010.

00:02:18.880 Now it's a multi, multi, multi, billion dollar company.

00:02:22.460 Right.

00:02:22.640 You know, Instagram.

00:02:23.580 They hear all these stories, especially in the tech world of these companies that raise massive amounts of money and then go into business, you know, and then become successful.

00:02:34.940 They don't.

00:02:35.860 It's just become over glamorized.

00:02:37.900 You know what I mean?

00:02:38.400 And so what I want to do and the reason I wanted to bring Jillian on, because we've had a lot of conversations just in person about business.

00:02:46.860 Talk about some of the real things that you think about and go through as starting a small business.

00:02:51.640 It's not, you know, I mean, Jillian, you didn't get to raise $400 million to start your startup, did you?

00:02:57.700 No, I did not.

00:02:58.480 Yeah.

00:02:59.200 You know, people get into this with the idea that it's not a difficult thing to do.

00:03:08.400 Right.

00:03:08.700 You know, and the reality is, is there's a million little things that happen along the way that quite honestly drive you fucking crazy and you have to come across.

00:03:20.200 So with that being said, you know, why don't we just talk about your story and how you came up with the idea for what tell people what you do and then, you know, how you came up with the idea and then where we're at now.

00:03:31.160 And then we'll just kind of get into it.

00:03:32.820 So I don't have any professional background.

00:03:35.200 I actually didn't even graduate college.

00:03:37.000 I started personal training when I was 18 years old.

00:03:39.720 I loved fitness, loved health.

00:03:41.420 I was like, this is what I want to do.

00:03:42.580 So I just was like, why not just get certified and start working?

00:03:45.100 So that's what I did.

00:03:46.340 Did that for 12 years.

00:03:48.940 I actually opened my own personal training studio when I was 22.

00:03:51.940 I was working at a place and some of the guys were leaving to opening their own studio.

00:03:55.820 They're like, hey, do you want to open this with us?

00:03:57.780 And I was like, yeah, sure.

00:03:58.620 Why not?

00:03:59.020 I always wanted my own place.

00:04:00.240 So I went home to my husband, Jason, who I'd been with for three months at the time, told him the idea.

00:04:06.460 He liked the idea.

00:04:07.740 We decided let's put up a bunch of money.

00:04:09.600 We put it in.

00:04:10.540 Did that for two and a half years and one day went into work, had this blow up with my partner and it's actually a really shitty story what went down.

00:04:19.620 But bottom line, I left that day and I did not look back.

00:04:23.560 I couldn't go back there.

00:04:24.780 It was volatile.

00:04:26.360 It was negative.

00:04:27.180 And he was an idiot.

00:04:28.780 He was not a good person to do business with.

00:04:31.580 And I learned that now.

00:04:33.180 I look back and I'm like, we all go through this.

00:04:34.740 Why would I do that?

00:04:35.580 I was 22.

00:04:36.240 I put so much.

00:04:37.060 We put so much of our hard earned money.

00:04:39.280 Jason helped liquidate part of his savings so I could go do this.

00:04:42.960 Yeah.

00:04:43.080 But see, here's what I want to point to you guys.

00:04:44.760 OK, we're going to talk about the process of being an entrepreneur.

00:04:46.940 Most people will fucking quit right there.

00:04:50.040 They said, dude, business isn't for me.

00:04:51.840 Right.

00:04:52.260 You know what I mean?

00:04:53.020 They say, oh, man, I just got screwed up in this bad business deal.

00:04:56.280 I lost my savings.

00:04:57.540 It didn't work out.

00:04:58.740 Fuck it.

00:04:59.180 I'm not an entrepreneur.

00:05:00.440 And guess what?

00:05:01.220 If you quit right there, you aren't.

00:05:02.900 So sorry to interrupt.

00:05:03.740 No.

00:05:03.880 I just want to make a point as we go.

00:05:05.140 That's all right.

00:05:05.720 And you know what's funny is like I always kind of worked for myself being a trainer.

00:05:09.380 You never have to like punch a clock.

00:05:10.900 You make your own hours.

00:05:13.040 So when I left, I'm like, what do I do now?

00:05:16.000 So where do I go?

00:05:16.940 Around the corner to some mom and pop gym.

00:05:18.740 I, hey, can I bring my clients here?

00:05:20.400 And started working and felt like a loser.

00:05:23.180 I'm like, I'm better than this.

00:05:25.300 You know, like I'm not going to work for somebody else at the bottom.

00:05:28.220 Like I'd been at the top, you know, but here I thought I'd lost everything.

00:05:31.720 And I kind of like started having anxiety.

00:05:35.580 It was crazy.

00:05:36.900 I couldn't sleep at night.

00:05:37.920 I'd wake up.

00:05:38.600 I just freaking out.

00:05:39.660 I didn't know what was wrong with me.

00:05:42.400 And actually one night I had a nervous breakdown and I went to the hospital.

00:05:47.760 And she's like, you know, I'm like, I had a, I think I had a heart attack.

00:05:51.880 And she's like, well, you know, tell me some things that you've been going through.

00:05:55.180 I actually told her what happened.

00:05:55.980 She's like, no, I think you just had a panic attack.

00:05:58.540 And right there at that moment, I realized, oh shit, what am I doing with my life?

00:06:03.200 Like, I don't know.

00:06:04.980 And, you know, I was always really passionate about food.

00:06:08.420 And it's something I always spent so much time counseling clients on.

00:06:11.800 I would go to the grocery store with them, go to their house, show them how to cook,

00:06:15.540 send them home with recipes.

00:06:16.720 And the clients who would listen would get the most success.

00:06:19.720 And the ones that wouldn't, I knew their lifestyles or their love for cooking just wasn't there.

00:06:25.420 Or, um, and it didn't allow them to get the results they wanted because they couldn't put

00:06:29.740 the time in to cook the food.

00:06:30.960 So I actually started cooking food for clients on the weekends when I was working at this

00:06:35.220 gym because I had this time.

00:06:37.440 I wasn't spending every week and hour at, at, at my, my so-called business.

00:06:42.180 So I basically was like, I'm going to start another way of getting some income in.

00:06:46.280 And so I started cooking food, um, started with like, I don't know, 30 Tupperware and

00:06:51.140 then I would bring it to you at the gym.

00:06:52.940 And within a couple of weeks I had like eight people I was cooking for.

00:06:56.180 It was pretty cool.

00:06:56.840 And I actually remember this because remember whenever this is kind of funny because I

00:07:01.600 didn't know you remembered that.

00:07:02.580 Yeah.

00:07:02.880 Because this is like back like six years ago, six, seven years ago when, when, before we

00:07:08.360 even had first form even going, we had this little bitty shithole office in the back

00:07:13.160 of one of our retail stores and she came in one day with samples of her food, which was

00:07:17.160 awesome by the way.

00:07:18.080 Even back then it was awesome, but it was funny because that's like, I remember you

00:07:21.500 starting out that way.

00:07:22.440 Yeah.

00:07:22.660 You know, just, I'll make your food and, and, uh, I'll bring it to the gym or I'll bring

00:07:27.280 it, you know, it was just a, just kind of cool to like remember it back then.

00:07:30.560 Yeah.

00:07:30.740 Like I, anybody I could meet, like I wanted you to know what I was doing and I just wanted,

00:07:35.560 I would do anything to get business.

00:07:37.040 So it was like, I just had to put myself out there.

00:07:39.180 And, um, I said, you know what?

00:07:41.100 I got this time at night.

00:07:42.020 I go, Jay, I'm going to go to culinary school.

00:07:43.960 Like something I always wanted to do, like I might as well do it.

00:07:46.760 I get the credentials as a chef and make myself a little more marketable with a nutrition

00:07:50.800 background, training background.

00:07:52.040 I could be a chef.

00:07:52.740 So I did that for a year, um, trained all day, went to school all night and then did

00:07:57.860 the business all weekend.

00:07:58.840 So it was seven days straight, no breaks.

00:08:00.920 And I didn't take any weekends off because people wanted their food every weekend.

00:08:04.760 Um, and I had my husband, he was cooking at home with me.

00:08:08.020 I mean, we would cook the food, package the food, deliver the food.

00:08:11.340 And it's slowly grew really rapidly to where I had like nine refrigerators in my house.

00:08:17.920 I was cooking 600.

00:08:19.520 Tell them like, like they literally had like refrigerators in their living room.

00:08:23.560 Yeah.

00:08:23.760 Like in my front room, which would be like your formal living room.

00:08:26.720 We had a big, huge piece of plywood on two horses and we would lay out all the containers.

00:08:31.940 It was my husband.

00:08:32.580 He packaged all the food.

00:08:33.980 I would cook it all and he would package it and then we'd label it, separate it.

00:08:38.300 And then I'd drive all over St. Louis out to Butler, down to Butler Hill, all the way

00:08:43.180 out to like Lake St. Louis to make deliveries.

00:08:45.660 Which is an hour away.

00:08:46.680 She's talking about just, just a lot of, a lot of radius.

00:08:49.920 And I put together my whole delivery route and then I'd have to coordinate with you like

00:08:53.260 when you were going to be home or when you were going to be at work.

00:08:56.020 And if you weren't at home, I would get your garage code and go in your house and maybe

00:09:00.000 I'd let your dog out just because it'd make it as convenient for you.

00:09:03.140 I wanted to get that sale.

00:09:04.100 So I was doing all kinds of crazy stuff.

00:09:05.680 Dude, I love that.

00:09:06.600 I love hearing this because this is the shit that people don't see.

00:09:09.660 People see Fit Flavors and guys, if you don't, you're not from the Midwest, Fit Flavors

00:09:14.600 is going to be a national level brand in a very short amount of time.

00:09:18.460 They've got an awesome concept.

00:09:19.840 They have an awesome product.

00:09:20.960 They have awesome branding and they have awesome people.

00:09:23.100 People behind it that care.

00:09:24.600 And when people come in, they see like the growth that you guys have had or they see

00:09:28.420 the storefronts and they see how awesome it looks and how, how, you know, professional

00:09:33.120 everything's done now.

00:09:34.540 Like going through your kitchen is like super impressive.

00:09:36.780 You know what I mean?

00:09:37.760 And to hear, to hear it like how this is like, this is a shit that gets me excited.

00:09:42.500 You know what I mean?

00:09:42.960 And this is, this is what people don't see.

00:09:45.900 They don't see this shit.

00:09:47.440 They don't see them with a house full of fucking refrigerators making the, making the meals

00:09:52.920 on a, on a fucking sawhorse table that they made.

00:09:55.540 You know what I mean?

00:09:56.460 Absolutely.

00:09:56.840 They don't see that.

00:09:57.700 They see, Oh, I, they hear the shit on the internet.

00:10:00.440 Oh, we raised $30 million.

00:10:02.180 And by the way, we sold our company for 7 billion in six months.

00:10:05.100 You know, this is awesome, man.

00:10:07.040 This is what entrepreneurship is about guys.

00:10:09.240 This is what hustle is about.

00:10:10.600 This is what it's about to start something from zero with no guarantee that you're going

00:10:16.260 to ever actually make it anywhere, you know?

00:10:18.740 And that's the biggest thing I see, especially, you know, I'd call them the young bucks, but

00:10:22.540 you young bucks out there.

00:10:24.200 This is how it goes, guys.

00:10:25.520 This is normal.

00:10:26.120 This is behind every successful business.

00:10:28.620 There is a story like this.

00:10:30.840 All right.

00:10:31.780 Yeah.

00:10:31.980 And speaking of stories, there's a great, you have a great one that kind of shows your passion

00:10:35.920 for food and the, the comic, uh, the comic interaction between you and your husband the

00:10:41.980 night that you challenged him to cutting.

00:10:44.820 Oh, the potato cutting contest?

00:10:45.820 Yeah, the potato cutting contest.

00:10:46.800 Okay.

00:10:47.040 I'll tell you that story real quick.

00:10:48.220 Okay.

00:10:48.880 This was, this was during this timeframe where actually my husband was traveling for work

00:10:53.480 all week.

00:10:54.080 He would, he would leave early Monday morning and he would always take the early morning

00:10:57.660 flight.

00:10:57.920 Cause he's like, if I can take the early flight, I can get there to do an eight o'clock meeting.

00:11:01.080 So he'd be up every day, four 30, get to the airport at six, take that early flight.

00:11:05.160 And he wouldn't come home till like Thursday night.

00:11:07.480 So the only time I, Thursday or Friday, the only time I'd see him is on the weekends when

00:11:10.640 I was cooking.

00:11:11.320 So I made him cook with me and make all the deliveries with me.

00:11:13.760 And one, one, one day we were kind of no cutting potatoes.

00:11:17.620 I was like, let's, let's have a race.

00:11:19.040 And, uh, he's like, that's not fair.

00:11:20.440 You're like a ninja with a knife.

00:11:21.460 And I'm like, well, I'll give you a head start and you can cut less potatoes than me.

00:11:25.740 So, you know, we go and I'm timing us.

00:11:28.000 And, um, I was doing other stuff too.

00:11:30.220 I'm like blanching, I'm like cooking Turkey meatloaf.

00:11:32.820 I think I had some stuff on the grill and we go, you know, we're chopping.

00:11:36.820 He's like, Oh shit.

00:11:38.080 And I'm like, what?

00:11:38.900 He's like, I just cut my fucking thumb off.

00:11:41.400 And I'm like, what?

00:11:43.020 I look over and like his thumb is like hanging off.

00:11:46.520 And I'm like, Oh shit, you really did.

00:11:48.700 I'm like, you should probably go to the ER.

00:11:50.200 And he's like, you got to take me.

00:11:51.380 And I'm like, I can't.

00:11:52.540 I got Turkey meatloaf in the oven.

00:11:55.760 And he's like, no, really?

00:11:56.800 I'm like, boy, you can't drive yourself.

00:11:58.380 Like you're good.

00:11:59.300 That's hardcore.

00:12:00.420 And I was, I was, I was really dead serious cause I had a lot of fucking food to cook.

00:12:04.420 And you know, it's probably like, I don't know, seven o'clock at night.

00:12:08.080 And you know, so I had to stop driving there.

00:12:11.620 I dropped him off.

00:12:12.400 I turned around and went back.

00:12:13.400 I said, call me when you're ready.

00:12:14.420 I'll come get you.

00:12:15.200 Did he really make you drive them?

00:12:16.960 Yeah, he did.

00:12:17.640 Oh, I'm going to bust his balls when I see him next time.

00:12:20.120 Jason, I know you're listening.

00:12:21.320 You're a pussy.

00:12:23.780 That's awesome.

00:12:24.640 Oh, that's awesome.

00:12:25.380 No, it's real though.

00:12:26.260 Jason is a huge part of the business.

00:12:28.200 You guys, Jillian's the, uh, Jillian's the face, but Jason is very, very involved in

00:12:34.600 the business to pick up where you left off though.

00:12:36.560 Let's go from like where you're making the shit running around to like bridge the gap

00:12:42.000 to where you guys are now.

00:12:42.900 Yeah.

00:12:43.160 Okay.

00:12:43.420 So when I, um, so one of the things I did within that timeframe was I go, I think I should

00:12:48.200 join lifetime fitness.

00:12:49.500 There's a lot of people there that could use this business, this service.

00:12:52.640 And you know, I just got to start talking about it.

00:12:55.440 So I joined there, I was cooking about 200 meals out of my house.

00:12:58.680 When I had joined lifetime till the end of the year, which was about seven months, I

00:13:02.760 grew it to 650 meals.

00:13:04.640 Wow.

00:13:05.000 So at that point when we had nine refrigerators, I had about two or three other girls in the

00:13:09.280 house working with me, cooking food and packaging.

00:13:12.000 One of the girls who's with me today, Jackie, she started at, we make this joke.

00:13:15.780 She was my dish bitch.

00:13:16.800 She come over and she would wash dishes from 7am till 11pm and scrub the kitchen floor.

00:13:23.040 That's all she did.

00:13:24.240 And I don't.

00:13:24.900 Every fucking weekend for me.

00:13:26.180 And she never bitched about it.

00:13:28.100 And she's my general manager right now.

00:13:30.820 She's like the main, she's like, she knows more about the business than everybody.

00:13:33.700 She's done everything from making pancakes to packaging to grocery shopping.

00:13:38.640 And Jackie's pretty young, right?

00:13:40.460 Yeah.

00:13:40.720 She's really young.

00:13:41.560 Right.

00:13:41.980 Well, how old is she?

00:13:43.560 Jackie's at 23.

00:13:45.120 Okay.

00:13:45.440 So, all right.

00:13:46.800 So I want to make a point about this because I see you and Jackie together all the time.

00:13:50.540 All right.

00:13:51.080 She's basically Jillian's right hand person.

00:13:53.920 Yeah.

00:13:54.240 I mean, well, actually I have two other people I would consider my right hand people too.

00:13:57.300 Yeah.

00:13:57.740 I mean, it's in different aspects.

00:13:59.100 Let's talk about this though, because I want to talk to you guys about this because we have

00:14:02.020 a lot of young listeners.

00:14:04.120 You're, you don't understand that age doesn't matter.

00:14:08.840 It doesn't matter how old you are.

00:14:09.820 It doesn't matter what your qualifications are.

00:14:11.500 It doesn't matter when you're in a company and you create value, you create opportunity.

00:14:16.540 And now Jackie has put herself in a position to be in a great position for a company that

00:14:22.480 is exploding in growth at 23 years old.

00:14:24.780 But yeah, she, um, she was in school kind of, kind of at the time, like she was taking

00:14:28.500 classes and she's like, well, I'm going to go to college.

00:14:30.900 I'm like, for what?

00:14:31.500 What do you want to do?

00:14:32.020 Wolf?

00:14:32.300 Like you're working 40 hours a week for me.

00:14:34.160 Like, fuck it.

00:14:35.260 Let's just do it.

00:14:36.060 Come on.

00:14:36.560 Like what?

00:14:37.620 I'm paying you more now than you're going to start making out of college.

00:14:40.280 You don't even know what you want to do.

00:14:41.220 Like you, I know you love this.

00:14:43.040 Like taking away that debt too.

00:14:44.440 She was just so scared to like, let go.

00:14:46.380 But when she did, she, she has never looked back and she's like, head down, fucking go

00:14:51.800 like sense, you know?

00:14:53.800 And that's, I mean, that's what you guys, you know, listening who might be working in

00:14:57.700 a position for a company, you know, and you might be thinking, oh, well, you know, I don't

00:15:02.720 know where this is going or I'm like looking for the next thing outside the walls of where

00:15:06.740 you work.

00:15:07.280 Well, how about looking inside the walls of how you could become valuable?

00:15:10.460 Because that, this is how it works guys.

00:15:12.660 This is, this is what, this is how people become presidents of companies from the person

00:15:17.960 who used to wash the kitchen floor and wash the ditches, dishes.

00:15:22.020 You know what I mean?

00:15:22.760 That's, this is how it happens.

00:15:24.720 I mean, I, I don't know how to make it any more clear than that.

00:15:28.080 Yeah.

00:15:28.400 You know what I mean?

00:15:28.820 You create value, you become valuable.

00:15:31.120 And this is not, this is what like whenever we talk about being an entrepreneur, it's not

00:15:35.240 just about the person that owns business.

00:15:37.000 It's about the people that work in the business have to have entrepreneurial mindset.

00:15:40.460 You know what I mean?

00:15:40.980 That's so true.

00:15:41.600 Especially if you're growing bigger, like you can't do it by yourself.

00:15:44.360 No, but, but people who are in a company having that entrepreneurial mindset of how can

00:15:49.640 I help?

00:15:50.160 How can I provide value?

00:15:51.700 How can I solve problems?

00:15:53.320 You create value to the people who own the company, which commands more pay.

00:15:58.020 This is how it works guys.

00:15:59.520 It's not hard to understand.

00:16:01.640 Yeah, that's true.

00:16:02.380 Absolutely.

00:16:03.180 Okay.

00:16:03.460 So going back to being in the kitchen, outgrowing my house, Jason's like, Jillian, what are you

00:16:08.380 doing?

00:16:08.600 And this is like a serious operation.

00:16:10.400 Like, you know, I think I was collecting people's money when I would deliver to your

00:16:13.920 house in an envelope and I had it in my visor.

00:16:16.120 I'd be driving around with thousands of dollars in my fricking car.

00:16:19.280 Jason'd be like, you went to the gym.

00:16:20.520 Where's the envelope?

00:16:21.420 I was like, I don't know.

00:16:22.260 I left it outside.

00:16:23.100 I still got to deliver food to a couple of trainers.

00:16:25.020 I was like food dealing bags of food outside the gym after I went to work out all over St.

00:16:30.700 Louis.

00:16:30.880 But, um, so we decided to rent a kitchen.

00:16:33.700 So when we got out of my house, which was actually nicer than the rental kitchen, that

00:16:39.320 thing was awful.

00:16:41.400 Like I could talk about all the shitty stuff that happened to us when I was there.

00:16:45.440 But, um, when we were there, we put together the plan that it was time to open like a brick

00:16:49.880 and mortar.

00:16:50.240 Like, okay, we're going to do this.

00:16:52.000 Let's offer this to St.

00:16:53.380 Louis.

00:16:53.540 It was, it was scary, but I'm like, we have to do it.

00:16:56.360 I felt like responsible in a way because I'm like, here, I have this great product.

00:17:00.740 People love it.

00:17:01.480 Like if I don't do it, like, like you said, I'm pussing out because I have to believe,

00:17:06.560 like I believed up until this point, it's working.

00:17:08.700 I felt like I couldn't take a weekend off because I knew people needed the food.

00:17:11.820 So it was like, I had to do it.

00:17:13.840 So we, we decided to make the decision to find a store and hire a staff and, and, and go

00:17:21.760 with it.

00:17:22.100 So my next biggest step was finding an executive chef because Jill, uh, my, my husband's like,

00:17:27.180 Jillian, you can't be in the kitchen every day, cutting vegetables.

00:17:29.900 Like you're going to have to do so much more run a business.

00:17:32.840 Yeah.

00:17:33.340 So I was relinquishing the, one of the most important is roles at the company.

00:17:37.540 It was actually the, the product of food.

00:17:39.500 And that's what you always say when we have conversation, cause we talk a lot about this

00:17:42.620 outside of this podcast.

00:17:44.720 Um, I mean, they're, they're good friends of ours.

00:17:47.200 We talk about this.

00:17:48.720 That's what you always say, dude, it's the food.

00:17:50.820 It's the food.

00:17:51.420 You can't fuck with the food.

00:17:52.800 That's a quote by Jillian, man.

00:17:54.760 And I love it because it's so true.

00:17:56.780 If the, if the food sucks, people are not going to come back.

00:18:00.000 So if the product sucks, no matter what business you're in, you're fucked.

00:18:04.260 Especially with food.

00:18:05.080 I mean, I mean, you have one opportunity.

00:18:06.780 Well, I guess that's with everything, but like they taste it.

00:18:09.380 They're either going to love it or it's all right.

00:18:11.460 Okay.

00:18:11.800 You know, so, so that raises a central question.

00:18:15.260 We'll go ahead, Jillian.

00:18:16.240 I was just going to say, so with our product, it's a consistent product that you, our customers,

00:18:20.920 a lot of them shop regularly.

00:18:22.260 They're in there every week buying meals.

00:18:23.960 So if they like the beef enchiladas or the peanut chicken over Asian slaw, it's got to taste the

00:18:29.600 same every time they get it.

00:18:30.980 So then it brings in factors and variables of consistency, the way it's looks, the amount that's

00:18:36.980 in the container.

00:18:37.540 It all has to be the same every time.

00:18:39.400 So all those steps of putting that product out there has to be executed, right?

00:18:43.080 And, you know, having new people that you hire, getting them trained so where the product is,

00:18:49.160 it doesn't come out messed up.

00:18:50.640 So let's talk about that for a second, because you mentioned a couple points that I think are

00:18:54.560 important.

00:18:55.080 One, you only have one chance to make an impression on customers.

00:18:59.140 Okay.

00:18:59.420 So if you're going out with, if you launch it, like a lot of people will say this, they

00:19:03.600 say this shit.

00:19:04.640 I think Zuckerberg says this, um, that, uh, done is better than perfect.

00:19:10.300 I don't agree with that.

00:19:11.780 I think that dude, if your product is not so good that people, the first time they use

00:19:16.440 it or try it because we're both in consumable type products, they've got to say, holy shit,

00:19:21.320 this is the best thing I've ever tried or you're not getting another chance with them.

00:19:24.580 Right.

00:19:25.060 You know what I mean?

00:19:25.620 So if you're launching a product that could actually be better, wait.

00:19:29.220 And launch a product when it is better, my personal opinion.

00:19:32.560 Um, second thing that you mentioned there, and this is the big, this is a big, huge thing

00:19:36.740 for all entrepreneurs is jumping from level.

00:19:42.580 I call it leveling up.

00:19:43.580 Right.

00:19:43.900 All right.

00:19:44.220 So like when you're in the, when you're in the kitchens or the, the makeshift kitchen at

00:19:49.180 your house and you're going to open up your retail store, you got to level up.

00:19:52.500 Right.

00:19:52.680 And there's a lot of things that go to that.

00:19:53.940 There's, there's the mainly fear.

00:19:56.100 Right.

00:19:56.440 And, and trust, like, who can I trust that's going to do this job the way I would do this

00:20:02.600 job?

00:20:03.240 You know what I mean?

00:20:04.120 And, and, and will this work?

00:20:05.980 And am I ready to open a store and are people going to like it?

00:20:09.780 And I think that, you know, that is the biggest bridge that most people cannot fucking cross

00:20:15.820 in their mind.

00:20:16.400 They can't get from like, you know, here to there because of the, all these what ifs

00:20:21.720 right.

00:20:22.260 But what you guys have to understand is that entrepreneurship is not about guaranteed success.

00:20:27.040 It's about going and not knowing, going forward and not knowing.

00:20:31.260 And then whatever comes your way, you fucking deal with it.

00:20:34.660 That's what entrepreneurship's about.

00:20:36.340 It's about solving fucking problems as they come.

00:20:39.300 It's not saying, Hey, I'm going to go down this path and there's not going to be any problems.

00:20:43.020 It's about saying, all right, I feel confident about what I do and these problems are going

00:20:47.540 to come and I know it.

00:20:48.460 And when they come, I'm going to fucking kick the shit out of them.

00:20:51.000 Am I right or wrong?

00:20:52.020 Yeah.

00:20:52.200 It's like a game.

00:20:52.940 It's like you're trying to win.

00:20:54.260 If you, I don't want to lose, I don't lose at anything.

00:20:56.540 Even if it's something I'm not like superly knowledgeable on, like I got to find someone

00:21:01.720 on my team that is, and together we're going to make a game plan.

00:21:05.000 And you know, so how did you get over the fear from like, cause from going from, uh,

00:21:09.960 like your, your house, right.

00:21:12.560 To open up the first fit flavors.

00:21:15.480 Jeez.

00:21:16.180 Um, it, it's scary.

00:21:18.540 It really is.

00:21:19.180 I mean, you don't know you're, you're freaking out.

00:21:21.760 I mean, we used to talk about, Oh my God, what are we going to do the first month in sales?

00:21:24.680 Like it would have nobody comes, you know, and you just have to believe if you, if you

00:21:29.760 truly believe in your product and like, like I've heard you talk about, you know, you're

00:21:34.040 helping people.

00:21:34.940 I believed I was providing a resource.

00:21:36.720 Like I question that you are, people need to eat better.

00:21:40.300 They don't have the time to cook the food that they know they should eat or they don't

00:21:43.840 make the right choice because it's not readily available.

00:21:46.360 So I knock out both of those things with our product.

00:21:49.460 So it's like, duh, why wouldn't you open it?

00:21:52.260 So, yeah, I mean, just, I mean, how having a team behind you as well that also are like,

00:21:59.980 yeah, let's do this.

00:22:00.740 Right.

00:22:01.060 Let's fucking kill it.

00:22:01.800 My husband, he's always like, you got this.

00:22:03.840 Why can't you do this?

00:22:04.900 You're better than them.

00:22:05.700 You know?

00:22:06.180 And he's a bad-ass too.

00:22:07.280 Like I was joking earlier whenever I said that, like a little bit about him for people

00:22:12.800 that wondering, he used to work for, he used to work for somebody pretty famous back

00:22:16.700 in the day.

00:22:17.160 Oh, oh, um, oh God.

00:22:18.500 He killed me for not knowing this.

00:22:20.160 Jordan Belfort.

00:22:21.000 Yeah.

00:22:21.220 The movie.

00:22:21.840 The Wolf of Wall Street.

00:22:22.760 Yeah.

00:22:23.080 Jason used to be.

00:22:23.940 In that office.

00:22:24.660 Like, you know, in the office where everybody's cheering?

00:22:26.780 He worked there.

00:22:27.180 That was fucking Jason.

00:22:27.880 When he was like 21, 22 or something.

00:22:30.120 Yeah, it's hilarious.

00:22:30.460 He's like, it was so scary working there.

00:22:31.960 Like, oh my God.

00:22:32.960 It was insane.

00:22:33.600 But dude, he has good stories about it.

00:22:35.140 He's a bad-ass, man.

00:22:36.200 I mean, he's.

00:22:36.760 He is.

00:22:37.140 He's got a great accent.

00:22:38.060 Yeah, he does.

00:22:38.400 Because he's from Brooklyn, isn't he?

00:22:39.780 No, he's from Queens.

00:22:41.020 Queens.

00:22:41.600 Oh, I'm sorry.

00:22:47.160 The need to create or the need to prepare more food.

00:22:50.900 Obviously, that's something that's faced by all businesses is the demand is great.

00:22:55.300 You start having to produce more.

00:22:56.960 How do you keep quality?

00:22:58.600 How do you keep the same quality that you started with?

00:23:00.960 Andy, I'm sure that's an issue with you too.

00:23:03.080 So what are the things you have to do?

00:23:06.000 So, I mean, consistency.

00:23:08.640 So consistency of the product.

00:23:10.400 Like, I've been talking to my chef about this and we're currently in the process of developing

00:23:15.700 like a training program for all the new chefs and prep cooks that come in because, yeah,

00:23:22.280 it's one thing if me and Tucker cook the food.

00:23:24.020 I mean, we know it and we really care.

00:23:25.960 And the staff we have right now, they know the product.

00:23:28.540 But anybody new we bring on when we open another location is going to get thrown into the fucking

00:23:33.240 fire when we're moving fast.

00:23:34.900 And we're going to expect them to produce the same quality product.

00:23:37.840 We have to train them.

00:23:39.700 So, like, down to what size the butternut squash is cut for every meal makes a difference

00:23:45.220 because if so-and-so here fires it in the oven for five minutes and it's small dice versus

00:23:50.040 large dice, I mean, the product's either overcooked or undercooked.

00:23:52.900 So it needs to be trained how to cut the product, how to cook the product, how to marinate the

00:23:57.480 product, how to slice it before it's finished.

00:24:00.020 So, like, if you can create that, so process and procedure for everything that you can do

00:24:04.540 in your company and make it, what do I want to say?

00:24:07.640 Uniform.

00:24:08.300 Yeah.

00:24:08.840 And train people on it, you're going to create consistency.

00:24:11.440 So, like, I've already kind of done that in the front of the house with our training program

00:24:15.880 that we have in place.

00:24:16.700 I've had a lot of my employees help me build this program.

00:24:20.040 I mean, I can't take the credit for myself.

00:24:21.540 I said, look, we've got to train our staff the way we want them to work.

00:24:25.000 And the team that we have now love how it is and how we work and the culture we have

00:24:30.380 there.

00:24:30.660 And I said, everybody we bring on, let's show them what we expect and lead by example.

00:24:35.300 So, everything we do from every little how to run the cash out at night to how to count

00:24:40.180 inventory, it's all done through training.

00:24:42.680 Even, like, how to educate the customer on when they come in, what to say to them when

00:24:46.820 they come to the cooler.

00:24:47.800 Like, explain the food, the product, the packaging, all of it.

00:24:51.380 So, they're trained on everything.

00:24:52.580 There's a 60-day training program just to be an associate at our store.

00:24:55.860 Wow.

00:24:56.180 Yeah.

00:24:56.560 And then if you want to be a manager, you have to be chosen to go through a training program

00:25:00.760 to work as, like, we call it our manager training program where, basically, I get to work with

00:25:05.340 you for two months and teach you how I want you to work.

00:25:09.640 Because if I don't like the way you work and communicate, you're not going to be a good

00:25:13.140 manager for whatever you're going to be managing.

00:25:14.920 So, we try to train everybody on everything and really push them to the max and see what

00:25:20.620 they're capable of doing.

00:25:21.620 You learn a lot about a person.

00:25:22.900 You talk all the time about the importance of education.

00:25:25.020 Yeah.

00:25:25.440 And that's a tough thing.

00:25:26.720 You know, developing the systems on the back end to train everybody to become, I call

00:25:33.660 it paddle in the same direction, all right?

00:25:35.440 If you've got everybody, you've got everybody, this is the analogy I literally use all the

00:25:39.360 time with our own company.

00:25:41.020 You're in a boat.

00:25:42.020 You're in, like, picture one of these big, long Viking ships, right?

00:25:44.780 And you've got all these dudes rowing, all right?

00:25:47.560 If everybody's not rowing the exact same pace in the exact same way, what happens?

00:25:52.000 You're not moving as efficiently.

00:25:53.240 No, the boat fucking goes in circles.

00:25:54.660 It doesn't go anywhere, all right?

00:25:56.580 So, you've got the guys.

00:25:57.800 Eventually, it's going to turn into a circle, whether it be a small circle or a big circle.

00:26:01.120 You've got the guys on the left rowing at, you know, three-quarter speed.

00:26:04.440 You've got the guys on the right rowing at full speed.

00:26:06.260 The boat's going to go in a circle.

00:26:07.720 We can't go in circles.

00:26:08.720 We've got to go forward.

00:26:09.900 So, developing the concepts on the back end to train your people is, I mean, it has been

00:26:17.020 for me, and you say what you want, but I think it's one of the most challenging aspects

00:26:21.600 of being in business, personally.

00:26:22.880 Okay, so just to go back to that, like, so, like I said, I have no business degree or

00:26:28.820 marketing degree, and it's like, I'm trying to develop this training program.

00:26:32.800 I'm just making it up as we go.

00:26:34.180 Dude, that's the whole point, though.

00:26:35.320 Just start doing it.

00:26:36.600 I got to jump in.

00:26:37.580 This is the point I'm trying to make, guys.

00:26:40.500 Nobody fucking knows.

00:26:42.240 Like, you figure it out as you go.

00:26:44.060 You know what I mean?

00:26:44.480 I don't fucking know when I started doing it.

00:26:46.320 I didn't have somebody saying, yeah, Andy, you're doing the right thing.

00:26:48.980 No, I fucking made it up.

00:26:50.880 Yeah, and like, do you ever get people email you, and it's like, you know, I'm wanting

00:26:53.980 to start this business.

00:26:55.480 Can you give me some tips on, like, you know, how to do it?

00:26:59.000 I'm like, just start doing something.

00:27:00.900 Just go fucking do it.

00:27:01.360 Just start doing something.

00:27:02.540 Like, you know, I look back, and I was like, just cook the food and deliver it to every

00:27:06.260 person, and answer every email, and give the best 100% service, because once you do

00:27:10.700 that, and you can capture more and more clientele, look what you've already created.

00:27:14.420 Like, but, yeah, it sucked for four years.

00:27:16.900 I was at Shop and Save every Friday night at 9 p.m.

00:27:20.040 That sucked.

00:27:21.060 I mean, but it is what it is.

00:27:22.700 I mean, I did it because I had to, and, you know, I mean, now I'm not at Shop and Save

00:27:27.340 on Friday nights, but, you know, like, you just sometimes, you just got to start doing

00:27:32.260 it.

00:27:32.680 Right, right.

00:27:33.680 Guys, I'll take a second just to say that if you want to check out the show notes for

00:27:37.080 this episode, go to themfceo.com forward slash p27, and you can check out the notes

00:27:43.480 from the conversation that we're having with Jillian Tedesco of Fit Flavors, and, of

00:27:47.260 course, the MF CEO himself.

00:27:49.900 You can also get links to our social media accounts, connect with Andy on Instagram,

00:27:56.840 Twitter, actually, he doesn't do Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, all that good

00:28:01.680 stuff, and, yeah, I don't know what else I'm saying, but, you know, whatever.

00:28:05.780 So, here's the coolest thing about having a guest, which we don't have that often, and

00:28:11.720 we need to start doing this more, because what I like about it is that you get a true

00:28:17.480 snapshot of what people have to go through to start a business, because one of the things

00:28:21.820 I get asked about on Instagram and Periscope all the time is this, Andy, I don't have any

00:28:28.580 money, I don't have any resources, I don't have a bank, I don't have rich parents, I don't

00:28:32.700 have this, I don't have that.

00:28:33.940 How can I start?

00:28:35.820 Well, dude, you start just like she's talking about how she started, or how we started.

00:28:41.700 You have a job, you live below your means, you figure out how to create a product, you

00:28:47.360 go around and you hustle, and you take that money and you reinvest it, and it takes a long

00:28:52.220 fucking time, you know?

00:28:54.060 So, when you're one of these people saying, how do I start?

00:28:57.820 Unless you have the ability to raise capital, unless you have the ability to have somebody invest

00:29:02.420 in you, this is how you do it.

00:29:04.640 You know, Gary Vaynerchuk talks about going around to a garage sale, and actually, he just

00:29:07.800 posted a really cool video last week.

00:29:10.080 I don't know if anybody caught it, but it was him going, like he always says, I firmly

00:29:15.240 believe that my backup plan is go to a garage sale, buy shit, and go sell it on eBay to raise

00:29:20.560 profit.

00:29:21.480 And like, he said this, right?

00:29:22.880 And people, and you know, people were like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's bullshit.

00:29:25.760 Because that's what they think.

00:29:26.600 When entrepreneurs say things like what I'm saying now, like, hey, get a fucking job and

00:29:30.920 live below your means, take that money, create a product, and reinvest, they're like, yeah,

00:29:34.380 whatever, dude.

00:29:35.220 That's not how you did this.

00:29:36.680 No, motherfucker.

00:29:37.360 That's exactly how I did this.

00:29:38.940 Right.

00:29:39.120 And what was cool about him is he says this all the time.

00:29:42.840 Dude, so he went out and he made a video of him going to a garage sale.

00:29:46.040 Like, literally going to a garage sale, putting his words, you know, into action, bought a fucking

00:29:50.980 super soaker water gun for like 25 bucks, sold on eBay.

00:29:53.740 Literally, three seconds later, like, took a picture, posted on eBay, sold it for like

00:29:58.620 250 bucks.

00:29:59.540 And he's like, boom, that's how you fucking do it.

00:30:02.080 And that's how you do it.

00:30:03.240 It is.

00:30:03.480 You hustle.

00:30:04.460 Yeah.

00:30:04.680 You know, and that's what's great about hearing your guys' story, you know, is that, and

00:30:10.780 eventually, guys, you know, you'll get to a point.

00:30:13.200 Some businesses will stay, you know, self-funded.

00:30:17.160 Some businesses will get to a point where they attract investors.

00:30:19.840 But you've got to prove to people that, like, dude, going to somebody and saying, hey,

00:30:23.600 man, give me a hundred grand to start my business.

00:30:25.940 I promise I won't let you down.

00:30:27.840 Yeah, I'm fucking right.

00:30:28.840 Yeah, right.

00:30:29.140 Says everybody else that asked for a hundred grand.

00:30:31.540 Okay.

00:30:31.760 You've got to prove yourself to a point.

00:30:34.340 Nobody's just going to give it to you.

00:30:35.620 So are you willing to do what it takes with 500 bucks, you know, or less?

00:30:42.180 You know what I'm saying?

00:30:43.240 Absolutely.

00:30:44.000 It comes down to time.

00:30:45.160 People just want everything now.

00:30:47.240 Same thing with, like, the weight loss.

00:30:50.220 Like, just give it time.

00:30:52.040 Like, you know, got to let it run its natural course, you know, and it takes work both in

00:30:57.520 everything you do.

00:30:58.340 You know what I mean?

00:31:00.160 It's something you say all the time, Andy, which is it's, it's, this isn't rocket science.

00:31:04.160 Do the work, grind it out, and you're going to be successful.

00:31:07.720 And be patient.

00:31:08.700 I think part of it is I think there have been people, you know, in positions of influence

00:31:12.540 who have maybe taken advantage of the average entrepreneur and convinced them that you have

00:31:16.780 to know some complicated secret.

00:31:18.340 Of course.

00:31:18.660 And those people are always trying to sell them something.

00:31:20.080 Right.

00:31:20.400 Exactly.

00:31:20.640 Like a program.

00:31:21.300 But I think what people, what most people who are maybe lazier than they need to be,

00:31:25.500 if they complicate this situation, it gives them an excuse.

00:31:28.460 If they say, oh man, this is just really complicated and I can't figure it out, then that gives

00:31:32.520 them an excuse for not, not going forward.

00:31:34.020 Okay.

00:31:34.140 Well then don't talk about how you're an entrepreneur.

00:31:36.380 Right.

00:31:36.660 Because you fucking aren't.

00:31:37.460 Right.

00:31:38.080 Right.

00:31:38.220 You know what I mean?

00:31:40.020 Simple as that.

00:31:40.980 Right.

00:31:41.380 You know, but the reality is, is dude, I call it aggressive patience.

00:31:46.280 Okay.

00:31:47.760 Aggressive patience.

00:31:48.900 What does that mean?

00:31:49.860 It's because it's like almost like a contradictory phrase, right?

00:31:54.020 Aggressive patience is the ability to do every little thing that you could possibly do to

00:31:58.700 move forward, but also understanding that those actions take time to materialize.

00:32:04.080 Okay.

00:32:04.980 So people, a lot of people will be aggressive, but they lack the patience part or they are overly

00:32:12.460 patient without being aggressive.

00:32:13.980 Aggressive and the shit never happens.

00:32:15.100 For you to be successful in business, you got to be aggressive and you got to be patient.

00:32:19.660 And while you're being patient, you could be a hundred percent aggressive.

00:32:22.560 Am I making sense here?

00:32:23.800 Absolutely.

00:32:24.420 Every single thing that you do that you can do every opportunity that you can take to move

00:32:31.320 your business forward, how clean your store's floor is, how clean the counter is, how clean

00:32:37.720 your fucking toilet is, that shit all matters.

00:32:40.920 Everything matters.

00:32:41.980 And you have a choice to do shit the right way or do shit the wrong way every single day.

00:32:47.380 Okay.

00:32:47.940 And people who succeed do shit the right way.

00:32:52.880 Every little thing, they don't say, oh man, it doesn't matter.

00:32:55.360 That was just this one time.

00:32:56.380 That's loser shit.

00:32:57.660 Okay.

00:32:58.200 What they do is they're aggressive, they're particular, they're perfectionists, but they

00:33:02.360 also understand that this takes time.

00:33:05.180 All right.

00:33:06.100 Aggressive, aggressive patience.

00:33:07.700 It's something that every single entrepreneur I know has in common.

00:33:10.520 Every single one.

00:33:11.340 There's that paradox though, where you are doing everything you can to have a clear conscience

00:33:15.080 that you're really killing it.

00:33:16.240 Yes.

00:33:16.560 But then also realizing that some things are going to take some time.

00:33:20.300 Somebody made a comment on my page yesterday.

00:33:22.080 He's like, I'm in the first year and I'm still at a standstill.

00:33:24.080 I'm like, no brother, you're moving, you just can't see them moving.

00:33:27.100 Right.

00:33:27.520 You know, you're moving an inch at a time and an inch at a time is what wins.

00:33:31.380 You know what I mean?

00:33:32.360 Not these big, and that's the problem with what I talked about in the beginning, like

00:33:35.460 Uber and all this shit.

00:33:36.740 People glorify the success that can be had when 99.9% of us have to do it this way.

00:33:44.080 You know what I mean?

00:33:45.000 Yeah.

00:33:45.240 So let's get back into this because I'm like having a good time hearing her talk.

00:33:49.080 You guys hear me bullshit enough.

00:33:50.380 So you're working in your house, you open your own store, you've got to go, it's going

00:33:56.300 well.

00:33:56.960 Okay.

00:33:58.300 What happens next?

00:34:00.100 So we stayed open for a year and obviously our goal is to open several Fit Flavors locations

00:34:06.940 with inside St. Louis was to get that second store open, you know, get another store open,

00:34:12.480 get a third store open.

00:34:13.760 So we opened our business in September 2013 in Chesterfield, Missouri, and we had plans

00:34:21.640 to open the next one.

00:34:23.680 We started planning for it in the following like spring, summer, and it took forever to

00:34:29.480 get all the logistics ready for the second store.

00:34:31.240 You don't, you know, you're just so like not prepared for any of this stuff when you

00:34:34.080 do it.

00:34:34.480 And, you know, you're still so short staffed and you're trying to just do the day-to-day

00:34:37.800 operations of running the business.

00:34:39.140 And when we opened our second store, it's in Brantwood, it's actually in the same plaza

00:34:44.720 as your superstore.

00:34:46.000 And we opened in January, didn't actually open until January.

00:34:50.560 It was so busy the first month.

00:34:53.880 I would say most of my, most of my girls were working 50, 60 hours a week, just working the

00:34:59.640 storefront.

00:35:00.240 It was insane.

00:35:01.220 I want to bring it back.

00:35:02.700 Do you remember how nervous you were about opening that second store?

00:35:06.060 Scared.

00:35:06.540 Okay.

00:35:06.820 Shitless.

00:35:07.180 Were you, let me ask you something, because we talked about this, I know at least three

00:35:10.840 or four times where you and Jason were talking about opening that store and I'm like, fuck

00:35:14.840 yeah, do it, do it, do it, do it.

00:35:16.120 I remember that.

00:35:16.580 And they were like, no, I don't know.

00:35:18.880 You know, I don't know.

00:35:19.560 We should, what do you think of this?

00:35:21.240 I'm like, fucking do it now.

00:35:23.000 And eventually they like did it, you know, but they had to overcome that fear.

00:35:27.620 And I know for me personally, opening the second store from the first store back in 2005,

00:35:32.640 six for me was the hardest thing I ever did in business.

00:35:35.360 I think it was almost harder for me and my husband personally, because, you know.

00:35:38.800 Than opening the first store, right?

00:35:40.520 That's what you're saying?

00:35:41.280 I mean, we have a lot on the line personally.

00:35:44.340 And, you know, it was just a, okay, here, we're all in, you know, you just deal, do yourself

00:35:50.440 in, you know, we're like, we don't, if it doesn't work, doesn't work, but it's going

00:35:54.100 to fucking work.

00:35:54.860 We're going to make it work.

00:35:55.500 Like, dude, fuck you.

00:35:56.640 I mean, like.

00:35:57.380 That's what I'm talking about.

00:35:58.180 You just, we always, we have this joke, me and him, we just look at each other.

00:36:02.200 I like to win.

00:36:03.020 Yeah.

00:36:03.200 Like, we like to win.

00:36:04.340 You work at Fit Flavors, it's cool, because Jillian, she likes to fucking win.

00:36:07.960 So does Jason.

00:36:08.680 So, like, that's kind of like our joke, because, you know.

00:36:11.480 Dude, I fucking love that so much.

00:36:12.860 Right.

00:36:13.200 Because that's just so the truth.

00:36:14.420 The truth is, is people who become successful entrepreneurs, they look at the failure side of

00:36:20.000 it and they say, fuck that, we're going to win anyway.

00:36:21.800 It doesn't fucking matter.

00:36:22.520 And the people who aren't entrepreneurs, look at all the shit, like, you know, the personal

00:36:26.780 guarantees on the leases, all, dude, because here's the reality.

00:36:30.180 If your business fails or my business fails, I mean, I'm fucking growing my own produce

00:36:34.760 on somebody else's yard, you know, under the cover of night in a ninja costume.

00:36:39.160 You know what I'm saying?

00:36:39.920 Right, right.

00:36:40.300 Like, that's how I'm eating.

00:36:41.540 So, every entrepreneur that is successful has these things on the back end that nobody

00:36:47.180 really gets.

00:36:48.440 Like, dude, if you fucking fail, I mean, literally, you're homeless.

00:36:52.520 You know, I mean, I've got family that might take me in.

00:36:54.860 I mean, most of my family thinks I'm fucking ridiculous, but somebody would take me in.

00:36:59.480 But the point is, is that's what it would come to.

00:37:01.340 And like, to look at that other side and be able to say, fuck that, we're going to win.

00:37:05.160 That's what it's about.

00:37:05.960 You just have to have that mentality.

00:37:07.540 It's like, if not, then your team can see it, you know?

00:37:10.740 And it's like, honestly, I truly believe it.

00:37:12.820 I mean, it was hard probably the first year to even recognize where we had came because

00:37:17.860 it happened so fast and it was all I did.

00:37:20.800 Not to mention, two months before we opened the store, like, I was about ready to have

00:37:25.080 a baby.

00:37:25.720 Like, I was seven months pregnant.

00:37:27.520 I mean, we opened Fit Flavors and I-

00:37:29.500 You mean you opened a business and had a baby at the same time?

00:37:33.000 You're kidding.

00:37:33.640 Yeah, like, I was seven months pregnant when we opened the doors and I, like, wanted to

00:37:39.380 take, like, a little maternity leave.

00:37:40.820 So, like, I took a couple weeks and, you know, here I was at home nursing this baby every day.

00:37:46.540 My mom would drive up to the store.

00:37:48.060 I would go feed him in the back office and then I would go back out to the kitchen or

00:37:51.340 package food or make a delivery.

00:37:53.780 I mean, whatever.

00:37:54.640 I mean, but I had this little baby and then-

00:37:57.000 But before that, though, you got to tell a story about what Jason called you when you were

00:38:00.860 being wheeled around.

00:38:01.700 Oh, he didn't even use it in the right term, but they used to, like, get so aggravated with

00:38:06.320 me because I would never stop.

00:38:07.880 And they're like, Jillian, you need to sit down.

00:38:09.240 You're, like, eight months pregnant, you know?

00:38:10.520 You're going to have this baby in Fit Flavors.

00:38:12.300 So, they made me wheel around the kitchen in a chair on wheels.

00:38:15.900 Like, they-

00:38:16.800 Seriously.

00:38:17.240 Everybody.

00:38:17.940 Right.

00:38:18.240 So, she was, like, in a wheelchair.

00:38:19.600 Like a wheelchair or a chair that had wheels on you?

00:38:21.060 No, just like a chair that had wheels.

00:38:22.220 So, they started calling me Magneto.

00:38:23.600 Which is funny because-

00:38:24.560 Which is funny because I think what Jason was trying to say was Professor X, right?

00:38:29.260 Yeah, yeah.

00:38:29.780 So, he used that context, but he's like, Magneto sounds way cooler.

00:38:33.100 So, like, there's this joke that, like, I'm Magneto and, like, I don't know.

00:38:36.960 That's pretty funny.

00:38:37.980 You know, to your point earlier, though, Andy, because recently you delivered a gut check

00:38:41.580 to our listeners saying, you know, are you an entrepreneur or not?

00:38:44.620 Well, one of the things that I think is so good, like you said, about listening to Jillian's

00:38:48.000 story, is that as you're talking, Jillian, if you're a listener and you're going, yeah,

00:38:52.820 oh, yes, yes, yes.

00:38:54.320 That's a way for people to say, okay, I am an entrepreneur.

00:38:57.920 I'm resonating with what you're saying, your whole attitude.

00:39:01.260 But if you're not, maybe it's time to get out.

00:39:03.900 Dude, it's almost like for me, and it could be different for you, but I think it's going

00:39:07.260 to be the same.

00:39:08.060 For me, it's almost like an addiction type thing.

00:39:11.060 Like, you see other people who, like, gamble and, like, they do all these, like, things.

00:39:15.680 Like, this is my, like, little drug.

00:39:17.220 Like, all right, I got all this risk.

00:39:19.120 Let's bet on this.

00:39:20.200 Let's fucking go.

00:39:21.200 Like, dude, that's where my adrenaline, like, my little adrenaline fix comes from.

00:39:24.920 But you've said this before.

00:39:25.900 You have to have that because there's so much, you know, time without a paycheck.

00:39:29.460 There's so much struggle.

00:39:30.320 There's so much downtime being an entrepreneur that if you don't enjoy that, if you don't look

00:39:35.940 at it like a drug or like an addiction, how are you going to persevere?

00:39:39.840 I mean, right?

00:39:40.940 Dude, most people are going to think you're fucking crazy.

00:39:42.940 Yeah.

00:39:43.160 I mean, they don't get it.

00:39:44.060 Well, you are crazy, but.

00:39:45.640 Yeah, a lot of people see the success of your business, and they think you're rich.

00:39:48.740 Yeah, they don't get it.

00:39:49.720 They're like, oh, he's so rolling in the dough.

00:39:51.600 You know what the truth of the matter is?

00:39:52.480 And I don't have a problem saying this because it's the fucking truth.

00:39:55.280 Dude, I've been, we're level, I call it leveling up.

00:39:58.620 Just like when you guys opened your second store, it's leveling up.

00:40:00.860 Now you're opening multiple stores after that, it's leveling up.

00:40:03.480 Dude, we're in a leveling up phase in our business.

00:40:05.260 I haven't got a fucking paycheck in 14 months.

00:40:07.800 17 years in.

00:40:08.860 14 months, I have not gotten paid.

00:40:11.560 I fucking put all my money back in because we're leveling up.

00:40:14.860 This is part of being an entrepreneur.

00:40:17.180 You see what I'm saying?

00:40:18.020 Absolutely.

00:40:18.560 But that also goes back to what you've said again and again.

00:40:21.300 For you, it's not about the money.

00:40:23.600 The money is the byproduct.

00:40:24.980 It's about winning.

00:40:25.880 It's about success.

00:40:26.720 Yeah.

00:40:26.760 I want to be the fucking best.

00:40:27.740 Yeah.

00:40:28.480 Yeah.

00:40:28.960 Do you, Jillian?

00:40:29.600 I want to be your first choice in healthy eating.

00:40:31.420 Like, literally.

00:40:32.060 I'm not fucking joking.

00:40:32.960 No, I know.

00:40:33.440 I don't know why.

00:40:33.940 I want people to think about Fit Flavors when they think about going somewhere and getting

00:40:37.620 something healthy.

00:40:38.200 I mean, where do you think about going?

00:40:40.080 Nowhere.

00:40:40.580 Other than Fit Flavors?

00:40:42.540 Yeah.

00:40:42.840 I mean, where do you think about, like, if that wasn't somewhere that you could think

00:40:46.360 of, where would you think of to go get something healthy?

00:40:50.080 The only other, I can only think of one other competitor in the area and I don't really want

00:40:54.380 to say the statement.

00:40:55.600 Well, she's not asking that.

00:40:56.920 She's not asking that.

00:40:58.480 Those people will resort to like a subway.

00:40:59.980 Right.

00:41:00.180 Exactly.

00:41:00.840 They'll resort to subway.

00:41:01.980 They'll resort to like going to Outback and getting a fucking chicken breast and some

00:41:05.180 broccoli that tastes like shit.

00:41:06.000 So like, I'm just trying to get the name out there to let people know, look, no, you can

00:41:09.600 come in and just get a meal here.

00:41:11.020 Like, let us provide you with a product you can trust, not only the product, but the portion

00:41:16.100 and then the flavors there too.

00:41:17.680 So, I mean, that's our mission.

00:41:20.560 Yeah.

00:41:20.880 So, so here you are, you guys have everything invested.

00:41:25.760 You started literally making meals in your house, you know, moved to nine refrigerators

00:41:31.100 in your house, you know, reinvest the money, get your set, get your, your first real store

00:41:35.620 open.

00:41:35.920 The first real store is slammed.

00:41:37.420 You're killing it.

00:41:38.520 Okay.

00:41:38.920 You're developing these systems and how to grow your business.

00:41:41.980 You open a second store.

00:41:43.660 Okay.

00:41:44.580 Now you guys have the second store open.

00:41:48.740 It's killing it.

00:41:50.660 I mean, what at that point in time, and I think I know the answer here, but I want to

00:41:55.000 hear it.

00:41:56.080 What do you think at this point in time is your biggest challenge?

00:41:59.420 Because you guys are not, it's no longer, Hey, we're trying to open one store.

00:42:02.520 Now we've got a company.

00:42:03.680 Now we're trying to grow this company.

00:42:05.340 Now we're trying to open multiple stores, maybe even get it ready for franchising down

00:42:09.240 the road.

00:42:09.840 We have these big plans, big visions, but we need people.

00:42:14.620 Right.

00:42:15.240 So.

00:42:16.900 Yeah.

00:42:17.300 You know, I mean, I kind of answered the question.

00:42:20.040 Just, just growing rapidly.

00:42:21.540 You want to, you want to maintain the culture that you had when you ran it out of your house

00:42:25.680 and you cared so much about every customer and the product so much.

00:42:30.280 So how do you get everybody else to care as much as you?

00:42:32.780 They, they have to see, they have to see through you.

00:42:35.680 So, so getting my, getting everybody that works there to see, see my vision and, and come

00:42:41.400 through with the same charismatic delivery, I guess you could say, you know, passion, yeah.

00:42:46.740 So, um, that culture that we have is something that, you know, me and Jackie and Tucker, my

00:42:53.060 chef and one of my other girls who have been here for a really long time that have been

00:42:57.140 running this company have brought on these other, other people to join us.

00:43:01.580 I believe they have the same vision as us and we're growing and the, the circle is growing.

00:43:07.080 I guess you could say, I call it like the circle, you know, when they've decided, okay,

00:43:09.980 I'm ready to commit.

00:43:11.380 I'm in.

00:43:12.180 You can tell by their attitude, they're willing to work.

00:43:14.640 They stay late.

00:43:15.700 They come early.

00:43:16.560 They do things extra for you.

00:43:18.200 It's not even in their job description, but they do it.

00:43:20.960 I mean, thank God for them because if they didn't, I mean, you wouldn't be moving forward

00:43:24.620 as quickly.

00:43:25.360 So how do you, how do you replicate that over and over and over?

00:43:28.280 Well, we do an extensive interviewing process, you know?

00:43:31.580 And not only do I interview them, but Marcy interviews them.

00:43:34.960 And then another girl on the team interviews them.

00:43:36.640 Cause I want there to be like three yeses.

00:43:38.680 It's not up to just me.

00:43:39.880 It's up to the team.

00:43:40.680 Right.

00:43:40.980 Because if you don't sell three of us, I mean, if one of us says no, I mean, that's

00:43:45.980 not good.

00:43:46.620 Right.

00:43:46.820 You know what I mean?

00:43:47.560 Right.

00:43:47.760 So once you come on and we, we spend the time investing, training you, you can see it

00:43:53.440 through everybody that works there.

00:43:54.820 And then we try to do things.

00:43:56.220 I mean, just have fun.

00:43:57.480 I mean, from day to day, I mean, it was our chef's birthday about a month ago and it was

00:44:01.260 Jackie's idea to have this like surprise balloon, balloon, uh, what do I say?

00:44:06.540 Balloon fight outside.

00:44:07.740 He literally walked out the back and we were all outside and we just hammered him with water

00:44:12.140 balloons and super soakers.

00:44:13.720 Somebody dumped him over the head with a bucket of water from the roof.

00:44:16.620 And like, it was just chaotic.

00:44:18.780 And it was, it lasted maybe like five, 10 minutes, but it was awesome.

00:44:22.060 And we all talked about it for a week, you know?

00:44:23.760 So something stupid like that.

00:44:25.240 Or anytime someone leaves for college, we pie them in the face.

00:44:28.820 That's awesome.

00:44:29.460 So Jillian, I do have to ask you though, cause you talked about that's the way things are

00:44:32.940 now.

00:44:33.300 But I know that you and I have talked before, like when you were first starting out, you're

00:44:36.620 kind of, everything was messy.

00:44:38.040 You didn't know what you were doing.

00:44:39.100 You, you even said like, we'd hire people just being glad that they work for us.

00:44:42.520 So when, when did you make the transition from just trying to get warm bodies in to work

00:44:47.060 for you to, to realizing that you were at a place where, okay.

00:44:50.180 When I realized other people were talking to the customers besides me and I'm like, oh shit,

00:44:54.860 you know, I better trust these people and like, you better walk the walk and live the

00:44:58.960 lifestyle and, and, and like, I want people to believe you and trust you that you give

00:45:04.340 a shit because if I'm just hiring someone cause they need to work, like they're not going

00:45:08.120 to care about our brand, you know?

00:45:10.000 So it's like, I'd like to see that there's some vested interest within themselves outside

00:45:14.260 of Fit Flavors that they, they're interested in food or fitness somehow.

00:45:18.040 So when they come in, they are excited to be there because if they're not, then it's going

00:45:22.400 to show and the customer is going to feel that.

00:45:24.520 So how do you plan on taking the culture that you naturally organically built?

00:45:29.980 Because you're a passionate person.

00:45:31.620 You've got the electricity about you.

00:45:33.100 I think anybody that knows you will say that, you know, you've got one of those electric

00:45:36.800 personalities that kind of just rubs off on people and you can do that at this point

00:45:43.000 in time because you have, you know, um, what, 60 employees, right?

00:45:46.160 Yeah.

00:45:46.340 Something like that.

00:45:46.780 Down 60, how do you plan on growing that whenever you have, let's say stores in Minneapolis

00:45:54.160 or stores in Florida?

00:45:55.700 How do you keep that?

00:45:56.880 I mean, what we talked about this, you and I off the show.

00:46:00.400 So, I mean, I'm, you know, I'm interested in hearing what your strategy is for that.

00:46:04.520 And let's talk through that because I think that's a, that's another leveling up issue that

00:46:08.600 most companies can't do.

00:46:09.740 It's all about leveling up guys and solving problems as they come and creating a culture

00:46:14.640 that you can grow your business with outside of just one or two or three stores.

00:46:21.360 But whenever you have stores 400 or 500 or 5,000 miles away is important.

00:46:26.380 So, and we just, we just talked about this on Halloween at my brother's party.

00:46:29.480 But I mean, what, what are you guys thinking for that?

00:46:32.740 I mean, I just, well, one, I want to create an awesome place to work at.

00:46:36.340 Like it's fun to go to work.

00:46:37.700 You're going to like where you work.

00:46:38.880 Um, I'd like to offer benefits to people and, you know, provide them a great life.

00:46:44.760 You know, maybe we're not there right now, but I would love to have that, you know?

00:46:48.140 And, um, I think when people, as we continue to grow and more people step up to the plate

00:46:53.460 and step in a role of responsibility and become a manager or a leader at a company,

00:46:58.220 you're kind of pulling them in and, and they're, they're almost like an extension of you and

00:47:03.220 your passion and they're going to purvey that to the people that work for them.

00:47:07.400 And then it starts to spread.

00:47:09.620 And, you know, if it, if it comes down from the top positive and through the chain of

00:47:14.360 people, it's positivity amongst positivity and people build people up.

00:47:18.660 It, it's kind of like contagious, but once there's, you know, somebody that gets in there,

00:47:23.660 somehow they get in there and something doesn't work and they create like a negativity.

00:47:27.540 It can, it can affect the whole company, maybe making somebody else cry or, you know,

00:47:34.640 talking shit about someone behind their back.

00:47:36.600 And then I hear about it.

00:47:37.820 I don't ever, I don't ever normally am the one that gets to see it happen because everybody's

00:47:42.440 on their best behavior.

00:47:43.340 I guess you could say when they, they're in front of you, they don't want you to think

00:47:46.120 you're, they're an issue, but they'll talk about things and you just got to nip it in

00:47:50.280 the ass, like literally and get rid of it.

00:47:52.200 And it's so hard to do it because you're like, you got to go because of your attitude.

00:47:56.920 It's, it's hard to like.

00:47:58.060 An attitude that you didn't even see.

00:47:59.660 You're used, you know what I'm saying?

00:48:01.240 A lot of times you don't see it.

00:48:02.300 But you know what?

00:48:02.960 I will sit down with you and I will talk to you and I'll tell you straight up, like,

00:48:06.620 this is an issue.

00:48:07.940 Please fix it.

00:48:08.680 We don't play that.

00:48:09.480 Yeah.

00:48:09.940 You know, because I want to give them an opportunity because maybe they can't see it, you know?

00:48:13.000 And if they take it and grow from it, great.

00:48:15.980 But if not, I mean, they just probably read themselves out.

00:48:19.120 Okay.

00:48:19.420 Humor me.

00:48:19.900 I've got a question for both of you because you're talking about personnel.

00:48:22.480 One of the most common things that business owners say is how hard it is to find good

00:48:26.360 people.

00:48:27.200 So suppose you have two options and option number one is a, is a, is a team player who

00:48:32.380 is objectively good at what they do, but their heart's just not in it.

00:48:37.860 The other option is somebody who maybe is not super competent.

00:48:41.700 They're trying, they're, they're maybe getting a little bit better, but man, they are on

00:48:45.640 fire into your, your culture and into the vision.

00:48:49.480 You take that guy every time.

00:48:50.800 Okay.

00:48:51.300 Every time.

00:48:52.280 Take culture over everything.

00:48:53.760 Heart over everything.

00:48:55.100 See what we're talking about here and we went through this too.

00:49:00.080 Um, and I was glad to hear that you're reading delivering happiness by Tony Hsieh.

00:49:04.100 Yeah.

00:49:04.260 We're actually next Friday.

00:49:05.700 We're taking everybody out who read it just to kind of like talk about it, I guess, you

00:49:09.920 know?

00:49:10.160 Right.

00:49:10.360 Let's talk about what you guys liked about the book and why, like, why can't we do these

00:49:13.760 kinds of things at our company?

00:49:15.300 Let's, let's just start doing them, you know?

00:49:17.560 Um, so talking a little more in depth about core values.

00:49:20.560 Yeah.

00:49:20.700 If you don't know the story, the story is about Zappos, which is one of the best customer

00:49:25.960 service experience based companies on earth.

00:49:29.020 Tony Hsieh, brilliant man, took the company from zero to a billion dollars in sales in less

00:49:35.840 than 10 years.

00:49:36.520 They ultimately were bought out by Amazon.

00:49:38.340 Um, awesome book.

00:49:41.080 If you own a business and you're, and you're at this level that we're talking about, how

00:49:44.900 are we going to grow from, you know, me, the CEO actually touching every employee with,

00:49:52.340 with the passion and the drive and the culture that I want to instill that same passion drive

00:49:58.840 culture over the course of a thousand miles or 500 miles.

00:50:03.940 Okay.

00:50:04.380 How do you do that?

00:50:05.280 Because the reality is I have employees that work for me.

00:50:07.740 I've never fucking met.

00:50:08.580 So how do you, how do you do that?

00:50:11.620 And that's a big thing for people at a level of like where you guys are at, where you're

00:50:15.880 trying to grow, but you want to keep everything the same.

00:50:18.520 You want to keep it uniform.

00:50:19.720 And it's all comes down to the answer of how do you develop a great culture?

00:50:23.580 And that starts with core values.

00:50:25.180 Okay.

00:50:25.500 So you have to identify what your company is about.

00:50:28.820 You have to define that.

00:50:30.280 You have to get everybody to understand that, buy into that, understand what it means to your

00:50:33.940 business and you have to basically live and die by it, you know?

00:50:38.160 And that's where you and I were talking about when we were at sales the other night about,

00:50:42.020 you know, I guess like when you asked, you know, how do you find good people?

00:50:48.620 It's not find good people.

00:50:49.960 It's, it's manufactured great, make good people.

00:50:52.880 Right.

00:50:53.000 Yeah.

00:50:53.380 So like reinvesting in my current employees to create a manager who already knows the system.

00:50:59.280 I've already watched them work.

00:51:00.460 I know that they're going to make the commitment.

00:51:02.100 And you know that, you know that their heart is a hundred percent in to this.

00:51:05.980 It's into fit flavors.

00:51:07.120 It's into the growth.

00:51:08.220 It's into the company and they might not have the skillset, but you'll teach them the

00:51:13.020 skillset, you know?

00:51:14.000 And like you said, how to, which to hire the guy who's, uh, skilled or the guy who has

00:51:18.380 heart, dude, you take the fucking heart.

00:51:20.340 Yeah.

00:51:20.840 Every time.

00:51:21.800 Yeah.

00:51:22.120 You know what I mean?

00:51:22.860 Yeah.

00:51:23.100 That makes total sense.

00:51:23.980 Yeah.

00:51:24.500 And a willingness to learn makes up for a lot.

00:51:26.240 Because dude, here's the thing.

00:51:28.540 When you're an entrepreneur, you're going to have people come.

00:51:32.740 And this is just a, this is a side of the business.

00:51:34.660 It's tough because you're going to have people that come in.

00:51:37.840 They're going to, you know, they're going to see what you have.

00:51:43.080 You're going to do a meeting and you're going to talk about the vision of where the company's

00:51:46.080 going.

00:51:46.380 And they're going to think in their head, yeah, bullshit.

00:51:48.380 Yeah.

00:51:48.860 Okay.

00:51:49.640 And they're, they're going to continue to come to work and they're going to say, yeah,

00:51:53.380 right.

00:51:54.040 That's not going to happen.

00:51:55.000 That's not going to happen.

00:51:55.660 And then what they're going to do is they're going to turn to other employees and they're

00:51:57.540 going to say, yeah, I think they're full of shit.

00:51:59.900 I don't think they're actually going to grow the company.

00:52:01.500 I don't think they're going to actually do this.

00:52:02.780 I think they're in it for themselves.

00:52:03.820 They're just lying to us.

00:52:05.020 You get a lot of that kind of stuff, right?

00:52:06.960 And you got to end up cutting that out.

00:52:08.540 And what'll happen is, is if you develop a strong enough culture, like what'll happen is, is

00:52:13.920 the employees will weed that shit out.

00:52:15.760 Like one employee, a new guy will come in.

00:52:17.780 He'll say that shit.

00:52:18.940 And then other guys will say, dude, fuck you.

00:52:20.520 If you don't like it out, you know what I mean?

00:52:22.700 It's, it'll happen on its own.

00:52:23.940 It's self-regulate.

00:52:24.820 So that's the benefit of having a strong culture is that they protect the, the, the culture

00:52:29.200 of the company on their own without you having to, you know, deal with it.

00:52:32.620 But I mean, you know, I can't tell you how many people, and I, and I don't want to like

00:52:38.860 throw anybody under the bus here and be, be like, Hey, you know, I'm just stating the

00:52:43.160 facts.

00:52:43.560 I mean, I've had hundreds of people over the course of our business come in, do a

00:52:48.800 good job for us, become disenfranchised with the company because most of the time, because

00:52:53.180 they're not patient or they can't see the vision the right way.

00:52:57.600 Um, you know, they have bills they got to pay.

00:52:59.700 They've got things they want to do.

00:53:01.240 They've got, you know, and a lot of these guys are fucking 21 years old.

00:53:05.280 And I'm like, bro, you are, you have a seat on the fucking rocket ship, dude.

00:53:10.140 Like I would rather be you than me.

00:53:12.300 You know what I mean?

00:53:13.540 You're 21.

00:53:14.900 I'm 36.

00:53:16.320 Like they don't get it.

00:53:17.520 You know what I mean?

00:53:19.340 And they come in, they do a great job.

00:53:21.120 They started developing the attitude of, you know, Oh, well this, you know, that doesn't

00:53:24.940 really matter.

00:53:25.420 I know, I know the system so well, like that's not a big deal.

00:53:27.740 This is not a big deal.

00:53:28.500 This is not a big deal.

00:53:29.520 They start having performance issues.

00:53:30.760 You have a conversation and it goes south.

00:53:33.340 And then all of a sudden you're letting this person go for, for a number of reasons.

00:53:38.300 And then the company continues to go the direction it's going.

00:53:41.180 And then they come back and they say, Andy, I, you know, I apologize for the way I acted,

00:53:46.280 you know, and, and we ended up making up and being friends.

00:53:49.160 But I mean, a lot of people ruin great opportunities for themselves by just being impatient or being,

00:53:53.920 you know, frustrated with, with how slow it goes.

00:53:58.220 You know, I mean, fuck dude, I want shit to happen now too, you know?

00:54:01.360 And a lot of times, and I failed like as a leader, I failed in this aspect before because

00:54:07.060 I've said things were going to happen now or things are going to happen right now or

00:54:11.440 things are going to happen in this amount of time.

00:54:13.140 And I'm, I'm somebody who's aggressive and I want shit to happen now.

00:54:16.360 And I've spoke out on that.

00:54:18.020 And then, you know, it takes 10 times longer than what I thought it would.

00:54:21.240 And then the, and it makes me look like an ass.

00:54:23.200 You know what I mean?

00:54:23.900 Where I'm like, it's not that I'm like telling the guys not lying to them or it's just that

00:54:29.640 dude, it's taken longer than I thought it would.

00:54:31.420 You know what I mean?

00:54:32.340 And that ends up making you look like a liar.

00:54:34.800 You know what I'm saying?

00:54:35.760 Absolutely.

00:54:36.160 So you have to be careful what you say to employees, because if they say, you know, if

00:54:42.500 you say, Hey, we're going to do this.

00:54:43.760 And a year later, you still haven't done it, dude, they're going to think you're a piece

00:54:46.880 of shit.

00:54:48.140 So, you know, I don't know, man, it's, there's a lot of things I've learned and I'm still

00:54:51.840 learning every day, but I can tell you one thing.

00:54:54.320 The best thing that we ever did in our companies is under learn and understand about culture

00:54:58.360 because it allows you to expand on, you know, an infinite level.

00:55:02.680 If you understand how to build the culture the right way.

00:55:04.760 I want to go back and ask you to tease out a point that you made.

00:55:07.800 But before I do that, um, I know that, that there are some elite programs in college football,

00:55:13.720 college basketball, where part of the recruitment process is not just did the coaches want these

00:55:19.240 players, but when the recruit comes, the current players have to sign off on, on, on that recruit,

00:55:25.380 like the key, like captain and everything.

00:55:27.300 And if a captain, right.

00:55:28.680 So my question, but that's like a formal thing in your, in both of your companies, is it formal

00:55:34.260 or is it informal?

00:55:35.180 In other words, when you, do you ask for the feedback?

00:55:37.460 Like, how do you, how do you, how do you ask for the feedback?

00:55:40.480 I don't even hire people anymore.

00:55:42.660 I don't have anything to do with hiring people anymore.

00:55:44.740 I let my guys hire the people because the reality is, is they're the ones that have to

00:55:48.840 work with them.

00:55:50.120 Okay.

00:55:50.480 They have to work with them.

00:55:51.660 If they don't want to work with them, I sure as fuck don't want to insert somebody in there

00:55:55.280 and then have them be like, dude, I didn't pick this guy because a couple of things happen

00:55:58.640 there.

00:55:58.880 One, you know, they, they know that they're valuable because they're the ones picking the

00:56:03.220 people.

00:56:03.740 So, and they also know that they're responsible.

00:56:05.680 So if a guy doesn't work out, it's not, Hey Andy, you fucking stuck this guy with me.

00:56:09.680 Right.

00:56:10.220 Dude, you picked them.

00:56:11.540 You know what I mean?

00:56:12.440 Absolutely.

00:56:13.060 So I love the empowerment and the trust that's going on.

00:56:15.940 You have to, because I'm not working shoulder to shoulder with these dudes every day.

00:56:20.580 You know, I see these guys twice a month.

00:56:23.120 You know, I want these guys to be happy with who they work with.

00:56:26.880 They're going to know if they fit in the culture more than me, you know, and I trust them and

00:56:30.620 you pick guys you trust to let them do that.

00:56:32.720 Now I think you guys are, you know, we're at a little bit more mature level, I think than,

00:56:37.500 than what you guys are at.

00:56:38.740 No, I mean, when you're saying that I'm, I'm still in every interview, very active

00:56:42.420 in that, but I've brought in, I've started to bring in other people because, um, yeah,

00:56:47.440 just like you said, I want them to feel a part of it.

00:56:50.460 Right.

00:56:50.740 And I want them to have a voice and be picking these people with me.

00:56:53.600 Right.

00:56:54.060 You know?

00:56:54.320 Well, and that way, whenever you make, you know, whenever you get a bad seat, it's not

00:56:57.540 like, Oh, Jillian, you screwed up.

00:56:59.300 It's like, Hey, that guy fooled all three of us.

00:57:01.740 What the fuck?

00:57:02.300 So the flip side, I'm curious though.

00:57:03.560 Have you ever had a situation where you're like, guys, what were you thinking hiring

00:57:06.440 that guy?

00:57:07.000 But then one of your guys said, Andy, I know he's rough around the edges.

00:57:10.820 Dude.

00:57:11.080 Yes.

00:57:11.540 Yes.

00:57:11.760 That's a hundred percent.

00:57:12.760 Yeah.

00:57:12.900 One time we, uh, one time, one of my guys got many, or, um, Tyler's raising his hand.

00:57:18.720 He's like him.

00:57:19.420 No, like, dude, you're still horrible, dude.

00:57:22.580 When the, I'm waiting for you to fucking pay off, but let's be real.

00:57:26.340 You know, I had, uh, I, yeah, I, I did have that situation.

00:57:30.480 I had a situation where, um, uh, one of the, my main guys I trusted promoted a guy to a

00:57:35.960 management situation.

00:57:37.420 I called him and I said, yes, dude, I found out about it on fucking Facebook.

00:57:41.020 Like I saw like, Hey, congratulations for making manager.

00:57:44.160 I'm like, what the fuck?

00:57:46.040 So I like call this dude, not the guy who got promoted, but his boss.

00:57:49.380 And I said, Hey, what the fuck are you doing?

00:57:50.820 There's no way.

00:57:51.920 And I'm like, you better call him and tell him he's not the manager.

00:57:54.520 And he's like, dude, are you being serious?

00:57:57.180 I'm like, yeah.

00:57:57.720 He's like, what do you pay me to do?

00:57:59.780 He's like, you pay me to make these decisions.

00:58:01.800 And I'm like, yeah, well, that's a fucking wrong decision, dude.

00:58:05.360 Well, so he goes, well, give him, give him 60 days.

00:58:10.480 Let's give him 60 days.

00:58:11.860 And then if he's not good, I'll, I'll demote him.

00:58:14.640 And I'm like, that's fine.

00:58:16.040 Because you know, you can't just like, I don't know.

00:58:19.000 I didn't want to just take the wind out of this dude's sails.

00:58:21.540 And you know what I mean?

00:58:22.280 Like, I don't know.

00:58:23.160 I was like in a weird spot.

00:58:24.920 Did he work out?

00:58:25.880 Fuck yeah.

00:58:26.260 He's one of my best guys.

00:58:27.580 You know what I'm saying?

00:58:28.460 So like the guy ended up working out and ended up being a great guy.

00:58:31.100 He's a huge addition to the team.

00:58:32.560 Um, I love the guy personally.

00:58:35.160 He's got a fucking family now.

00:58:36.500 He's killing it.

00:58:37.420 And like, dude, it's been, it's been like a good lesson for me.

00:58:40.200 Like, Hey dude, sometimes you're not always right.

00:58:43.960 And, and I'm not, you know what I mean?

00:58:46.540 I've got to trust the people that, that know, you know what I mean?

00:58:50.120 When you and I first met, you told me that that was one of the hardest tasks to learn,

00:58:54.080 to trust people, to learn to delegate and to turn things over.

00:58:57.280 Yeah.

00:58:57.660 Letting go.

00:58:58.300 And then God, you know, for me, I was talking about this with my mom this morning.

00:59:02.660 I'm like, I have this one employee.

00:59:04.100 I just, I really want them to step up and feel like they have a voice.

00:59:06.820 Like I trust them to help manage more.

00:59:09.960 Like, I don't want them to feel like they work for me, but with me in a sense that what

00:59:13.860 you do, I will support.

00:59:15.040 Like you've proven yourself to me.

00:59:16.700 I know you're going to come early and stay late.

00:59:18.520 Like I need you to be making more calls and making more decisions.

00:59:21.660 Like that's a hard thing, man.

00:59:23.720 And I develop in that way at different rates.

00:59:25.780 Yeah, no.

00:59:28.200 I mean, that was it.

00:59:29.360 So what are some ways to encourage people to do that?

00:59:32.280 Empower them, you know, support them on their decisions.

00:59:34.900 Let them do things.

00:59:35.760 Don't ride their ass.

00:59:36.880 You know, I think I'm pretty good about not riding your ass.

00:59:39.100 I like to know what everybody's doing because I have a lot of ideas.

00:59:43.840 So if I can share with you, you know, an idea I have and you could start working on it,

00:59:49.140 then I can go to him and start with another idea that he's good at and he can start working

00:59:52.840 on it and then I can come back to you and where are you?

00:59:55.280 Let's where are you and keep the thing moving.

00:59:57.120 And then you're actually doing the work of something you're really good at and I'm just

01:00:01.080 helping managing it along.

01:00:02.180 And I feel like get more stuff done that way.

01:00:05.100 Look, I'm going to tell you something my dad taught me, you know, and it's one of the most

01:00:09.720 effective things that I've ever done as a leader.

01:00:14.520 And you kind of have to force people to make decisions sometimes.

01:00:18.600 And so the most effective thing that I've I've come up with, and I say this under the

01:00:25.060 context of like, obviously, you're not going to let somebody crash and burn with a mistake

01:00:29.320 that's going to ruin your business.

01:00:30.440 OK, because I know when I say this, people are going to be like, well, what if he makes

01:00:33.420 a mistake and your business closes?

01:00:35.340 Well, you're not going to fucking do that.

01:00:36.940 That's not going to happen, right?

01:00:38.000 You're going to you're going to almost like like the way I look at it is like, you know,

01:00:41.960 when you're teaching a little kid to ride a bike, you're like right behind them, like

01:00:45.520 getting ready to catch him.

01:00:46.460 But they think they're doing the fucking work.

01:00:47.840 You know what I'm saying?

01:00:48.420 So it's like you're running behind the bike and the kids pedaling and you might fall and

01:00:52.460 he might not fall and you're there to catch him.

01:00:54.520 But they don't know that you're there to catch him.

01:00:55.820 So it develops confidence.

01:00:56.940 You see what I'm saying?

01:00:57.620 Absolutely.

01:00:58.100 So like that's how you have to look at it.

01:00:59.800 And one of the most effective things that my dad taught me and I was fortunate, you know, my dad

01:01:03.860 never like gave me money to start a business, but he was a business owner.

01:01:07.340 So I had somebody I had a really good mentor, you know, as if you look at the podcast, you've

01:01:11.600 heard, you know, the MFC dad bring his heat.

01:01:14.380 That's right.

01:01:14.960 But the reality is, is that it's a simple question.

01:01:18.460 When people come to you and they say, Andy, I don't know what to do here.

01:01:23.060 What do you think you should do?

01:01:24.920 What do you think you should do?

01:01:26.360 What would you do?

01:01:27.080 What would you do?

01:01:27.820 What would you do?

01:01:28.480 You've said that to me before.

01:01:29.580 Dude, it is the most effective.

01:01:31.140 It's the most effective personal development question you can ask somebody because it forces

01:01:35.820 that it sounds stupid, but it forces them to make a decision.

01:01:39.100 Yeah.

01:01:39.300 Like if the person comes back and they make like they have like like you're hoping, OK,

01:01:43.180 this dude, I have faith in him.

01:01:44.780 I think he can do it.

01:01:45.980 He's what would you do?

01:01:46.860 And the guy comes back with something totally wrong.

01:01:48.780 You don't say, no, that's fucking wrong.

01:01:50.280 You say, well, have you thought about it like this?

01:01:52.980 And then and then usually like just like a little probe will get him on the right track.

01:01:56.840 Dude, it's and that way you're not dictating to them or like holding their hand or micromanaging.

01:02:02.400 They walk out of the office thinking, fuck, dude, I'm I did it.

01:02:06.420 Yeah.

01:02:06.660 They're having a beer when they get home.

01:02:08.220 You know, it's it's a it's it's a way to like get them to have that confidence to to

01:02:13.360 make decisions, you know, and very simple.

01:02:15.780 You know, what would you do?

01:02:16.860 Yeah, what would you do?

01:02:17.540 That's great.

01:02:18.160 It's very, very simple.

01:02:19.280 You should do this for a living.

01:02:20.860 Yeah, exactly.

01:02:22.020 So, guys, you know, we've covered a lot of ground.

01:02:24.160 We're getting long on time here.

01:02:25.960 I you know, this has been fun.

01:02:27.800 This has personally been one of my favorite podcasts that we've done because I love hearing

01:02:32.080 stories.

01:02:32.580 I love hearing.

01:02:33.580 I love hearing like the hustle, man, like from from making meals to the you know, in the

01:02:39.720 kitchen, you know, cutting thumbs off, getting all ninja and shit and then coming all the

01:02:43.860 way through to like, you know, a year from now, they're going to have five or six stores

01:02:47.400 open in three years from now.

01:02:48.980 They'll probably have 30 stores or 40 stores.

01:02:51.700 This has personally been one of the most effective and fun podcasts I think we've done because

01:02:57.140 it shows you guys being an entrepreneur is not about this like golden fucking railroad

01:03:04.020 track that you get to ride.

01:03:05.180 You know what I mean?

01:03:05.920 It's like going off road and like a truck with no suspension and your Aspien store for

01:03:11.260 the rest of your life.

01:03:12.100 That's what it's about.

01:03:13.140 OK, and when you hear the stories of like, you know, cooking meals in the kitchen, cutting

01:03:19.620 fucking thumbs off, you know, and then growing and having a first store, then a second store,

01:03:23.980 then, you know, grow into where we're going to create a concept and a business and grow

01:03:27.620 a culture.

01:03:29.360 Guys, this is this is how it goes, man.

01:03:31.380 You know, get out of your mind that it's going to be this easy thing or it's going to be

01:03:35.540 this thing that it's like, you know, somebody comes along and hold your hand the whole way.

01:03:40.420 No, man, it's like it's like being in the wild, wild west and like just kind of it's

01:03:44.660 organized chaos is the best way to describe it.

01:03:46.880 You know, I mean, is that I mean, is that the phase that you guys are in?

01:03:51.360 How how fast can you get all the stuff done and still do to like just life?

01:03:56.200 I mean, there's so much that goes on with life.

01:03:58.260 Like you talk about that, like five things to get accomplished in a day.

01:04:01.160 It's fucking hard sometimes to get five things accomplished.

01:04:03.940 Right.

01:04:04.300 I mean, but but if you can, I mean, just just trying to get this on this end and this on

01:04:09.380 this end and it's just a little bit closer in the direction that you're wanting to go.

01:04:13.820 And by the end of the month, you can look back and be like, oh, wow, you know, I actually

01:04:16.180 made ground.

01:04:16.740 I closed that project, that project, and I started three new ones.

01:04:19.600 Right.

01:04:19.840 And people, you know, I say this a lot when I speak, people severely underestimate the amount

01:04:24.860 of progress they can make and they overestimate the amount of progress they can

01:04:29.440 make in like six months and they underestimate the amount of progress they can make in like

01:04:33.200 10 years.

01:04:34.080 You know what I mean?

01:04:34.800 And you guys listening, you know, thinking about starting a business or in a business or

01:04:39.280 working for a business, the entrepreneurial mindset of always moving forward inch by inch,

01:04:44.340 day by day and hustling to do that.

01:04:46.540 That's what's going to get you there.

01:04:47.760 And it's going to take some time.

01:04:49.520 It's not going to be something that you snap your fingers, say, oh, yeah, just like Drake

01:04:53.240 says, oh, we started from the bottom and now we're here.

01:04:55.360 Where the fuck are you?

01:04:56.840 You know what I mean?

01:04:57.440 There's there's a million.

01:04:58.920 Dude, I've been doing this for 17 years.

01:05:00.780 I don't feel successful.

01:05:01.780 I feel like we're still figuring it out.

01:05:04.440 It's I don't know what the fuck I'm even doing.

01:05:06.600 That's the truth.

01:05:07.400 And so like you guys who are like, you know, Andy, I don't know what I'm doing.

01:05:11.040 Well, fuck, I don't either.

01:05:12.240 Just go do some shit.

01:05:13.600 You know what I mean?

01:05:14.540 So that's the point of being an entrepreneur, guys.

01:05:16.960 It's like move forward and have faith in yourself, develop confidence in yourself day by

01:05:22.380 day, step by step, mile by mile, and eventually good shit happens.

01:05:26.640 You know, Jillian, I just want to say thanks for being on the show.

01:05:31.660 I love to have you back and talk more about some things like you guys marketing, how you

01:05:35.280 know what the most effective thing is and some of the other struggles that you and I have

01:05:38.080 talked about.

01:05:38.640 We just can't talk for seven hours.

01:05:40.320 I mean, we could.

01:05:41.080 Right.

01:05:41.740 You know.

01:05:42.000 Well, if you want to check out the show notes of this episode, you can go to themfceo.com

01:05:47.520 forward slash P27.

01:05:49.600 And Jillian, I just want to give a shout out to your social media connections for Fit Flavors

01:05:53.220 so that people can investigate your food because it's really good food.

01:05:58.320 All these creepy dudes are going to be stalking her now.

01:05:59.920 Well, that's well, this is this is the company, the company social media connections.

01:06:03.900 So it's Fit Dash Flavors by Jillian, J-I-L-L-I-A-N on Facebook, Fit Flavors underscore by Jillian

01:06:11.700 on Instagram, and then Twitter is at Fit underscore Flavors.

01:06:16.560 And of course, I assume your website is just.

01:06:19.200 www.fit-flavors.com.

01:06:21.960 Dot com.

01:06:22.620 Right.

01:06:23.160 So, yeah, it's been great having you.

01:06:24.880 Thank you.

01:06:25.920 Guys, there's really not much more to say.

01:06:30.640 You know, you could think, you could talk, you can.

01:06:32.440 You can conceptualize, you can meet.

01:06:35.680 But at the end of the day, this is all about doing shit.

01:06:38.300 So go out and fucking do something.

01:06:56.240 All I do is work.

01:06:58.380 All I do is work.

01:07:00.240 All I do is work.

01:07:01.540 All I do is work.

01:07:03.400 All I do is work.

REAL AF with Andy Frisella - November 10, 2015

Size Matters, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO27

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