Founders & Friends

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Then we just went right into pretending like we were a foregone conclusion.
Speaker 1 00:00:05 , I didn't know
Speaker 0 00:00:08 You realized that. It comes so naturally
Speaker 2 00:00:10 To you, you probably don't even realize how much bullshit.
Speaker 0 00:00:16 Welcome, John, the founders and friends first episode.
Speaker 1 00:00:20 Thank you for having me,
Speaker 0 00:00:21 Me brought to you by Tally Kids, the product yet to be launched, but that takes up so much of our time. So yeah, as you said, I just got back from a, a colonoscopy pickup with my friend, which was interesting because makes me feel old. Man makes me feel old. I I'm this kid since high school and then all of a sudden, um, I'm picking him up from the hospital from having a colonoscopy. So that
Speaker 1 00:00:46 Tells me he's doing all right.
Speaker 0 00:00:47 Yeah, he's doing fine, but it's just like, okay, I'm 35 now, I guess we're doing colonoscopies,
Speaker 1 00:00:53 ,
Speaker 0 00:00:56 So it's all good though. Um, how's your day going?
Speaker 1 00:00:59 Good, good. Busy. Always, uh, always things to do. 18 hours a day. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:01:05 Yeah. Do you really work 18 hours a day? I
Speaker 1 00:01:07 Know that. I really, it's, I really do. .
Speaker 0 00:01:10 So, I mean, your email sta stamps don't lie, so you must be, but I, I am, I guess curious. You wake up at what time?
Speaker 1 00:01:24 I wake up at six. Okay. And I'm working till one,
Speaker 0 00:01:30 One in the morning.
Speaker 1 00:01:31 Every day. Every day. Six days a week. She's
Speaker 0 00:01:34 Louise.
Speaker 1 00:01:34 Five, five days a week. Well, you know what? Elon Musk, Elon Musk says, it's a proven fact. I mean, you know, the average person works 40 hours a week, right? But the one that works more hours achieves more. And that's absolutely true.
Speaker 0 00:01:52 The one that works more does what? More
Speaker 1 00:01:56 Achieves faster. Uh, so, so someone was gonna work 40 hours, right? And you, and, and, and you're working on a project, right? Mm-hmm. , it, it, it's, it's basically gonna go faster if you're going to, uh, work instead of 40 hours a week, you know, 70 hours a week, right? So, mm. Uh, that's the, that's the mentality that, not that I got from him, but, but by, by doing that actually was, was listening to his, uh, interviews and, you know, uh, it makes sense. I mean, I'm doing the same thing.
Speaker 0 00:02:25 Yeah. He just built, uh, bedrooms in the Twitter offices, and he's getting like in trouble for that because it's like a commercial real estate building. You're not supposed to sleep. You're not supposed to sleep where you, uh, have an office legally.
Speaker 1 00:02:41 I love it. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 0 00:02:43 But like, you're also an efficient worker, which means that your output is high. Because I've worked with a lot of people all my life. Like, and like, I wouldn't always say that working more is better if you're not working on the right thing, but you just feel like you have so many tasks to do every day that that's like what keeps you up? Or are you working on like, strategy stuff till 1:00 AM Like what do you
Speaker 1 00:03:08 It's, it's a combination of a, of, of everything, right? So basically the, the day before I, I put in writing basically everything that I'm gonna do for the following day. Everything when it comes from like, you know, uh, you know, I have my list right here, right? So basically everything as far as your , it's a little old fashioned. It's, it's handwritten. Still .
Speaker 0 00:03:30 I
Speaker 1 00:03:31 Love it. I'll give you a quick glance at it, but this is what it looks like. So you
Speaker 0 00:03:35 Write this, you write this every night?
Speaker 1 00:03:38 I'm, I'm kind of neurotic. Yeah. I, I, I write it every day. It takes me about a good hour to regroup my, my thoughts on, on, on every topic, such as like, you know, important things that need to get, uh, paid basically. As far as like, yeah, collections, as far as like people's job functions that I, that I work with, right? As far as buying, as far as selling, as far as, uh, you know, anything design, work and co-pack related. So all that stuff I write and I execute the next day, right? Like, like, uh mm-hmm. , it's like a mission. So basically, uh, you know, that that's what it is. Had everything outlined in writing and just execute day after day. And every day those notes accumulate and you take those notes for the next day until you, you know, you accomplish and achieve what, what it
Speaker 0 00:04:30 Is. That's the key. That's absolutely the key. Like, it's called bullet journaling. That's what the cool kids call it. And, uh, you've been doing it for years. But yeah, it's the notion of like, so I, I use my journal here, and then you always push tasks forward that you don't accomplish. That's, that's the key to productivity. That's it. I mean, if you don't do the task, you have to have a, a, um, a system in place where that task gets pushed forward. And then once it's pushed forward in your bullet journal or how whatever you do with these pages, you'll only cross it off when it's done.
Speaker 1 00:05:07 Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.
Speaker 0 00:05:10 So you come in every day at 6:00 AM organized, ready to fire off against your mission
Speaker 1 00:05:17 After every
Speaker 0 00:05:18 Day, going to every day after going to bed at 1:00 AM
Speaker 1 00:05:22 Literally. Yeah. See, and, and also get, get an hour's worth of exercise every day. That's, that's key. Because that stimulates the mind.
Speaker 0 00:05:30 It does. What do you do for that? When do you sneak that in?
Speaker 1 00:05:34 Uh, around around five o'clock. Okay. 5:00 PM Good.
Speaker 0 00:05:39 Same. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:05:42 What is your workout? I'm,
Speaker 0 00:05:44 I'm the same man. I'm an, I'm a evening workout person. Um, before we decided to go broke and launch Tally, I had like a really expensive gym membership, which I miss a lot. F 45, um, was my go-to, uh, four days a week, five o'clock class. It was just the best. And now I work out of this cave, basement cave, and then I have my, I'm like, my Peloton is like right next to me, so
Speaker 1 00:06:11 That's all you need. But
Speaker 0 00:06:12 John, we're so broke that, um, I had to cancel my Peloton membership. So it's so sad. , I literally talk to you all day, talk about Tally, and then I go and I got on this bike, and I don't have like the classes. It just says just, I, my only option is like, to do the free, free ride. And, um, it really hammers home
Speaker 1 00:06:38 , like
Speaker 0 00:06:40 The entrepreneurial journey
Speaker 1 00:06:43 Get used to it. It's, it's, it's, it's gonna continue this way for, for a little bit.
Speaker 0 00:06:48 Yeah. It is amazing how, like, my spending has gone down tremendously since like, getting off of the W2 lifestyle. Like, I never thought I could just like eat lunch for free every day. And now I do. I haven't bought lunch in like two months. Cuz we don't, I don't have an income. I know that you have Simply Egg list, but I don't have an income. But we're making it work, man. It's, it's, it's all right.
Speaker 1 00:07:15 It's, you know, it's sacrifice. But you, you, you know, you're the opportunity and, and, and what you got yourself into. So at the end of the day, uh, it's gonna be good. It's just a matter of time and, and, and fighting every day until we get there. Right?
Speaker 0 00:07:32 Exactly. Just fighting every day before we leave the workout thing. What, what's your workout? You, do you do a stationary bike as well?
Speaker 1 00:07:40 No, so what I do is I do, so I do basically, I do four days, four days, four to five days a week. Workout. Those five days I do a thousand calories. I burn on the elliptical and
Speaker 0 00:07:53 Nice. That's a good, that takes a good 45 minutes.
Speaker 1 00:07:57 Exactly. It takes anywhere from 40 to 45. Right. That's impressive. And on day four, I do 800 pushups,
Speaker 0 00:08:07 No,
Speaker 1 00:08:07 800 pushups. My brother-in-law tells me to do a blog in one of those men's journal magazines. But you know, I, you know, me, I'm not the type person that does that stuff, but basically I do, uh, it takes me two hours to do it. I do that. And then day five I do about, uh, 200 pull-ups. I just started that.
Speaker 0 00:08:27 That's crazy. So you're in like, pretty good physical shape then?
Speaker 1 00:08:31 I I, I, I keep myself in good shape. Yeah. I, I, you know, stay in a good diet, uh, keep, keep working out every week. So thank God it's very important for, you know, entrepreneur to, to be able to, to do that. Plus I'm a type A personality, you know what I mean? So
Speaker 0 00:08:49 Mm-hmm. type A. Which one is that? I always get 'em confused.
Speaker 1 00:08:54 Um, the neurotic type, I think.
Speaker 0 00:08:56 Okay. So you're neurotic. So
Speaker 1 00:08:59 ,
Speaker 0 00:09:00 I think we've accomplished that in the first seven minutes of founders and friends, but, you know, you're productive, you're neurotic, your neuroticism is productive. I didn't realize you that you worked out that much. I I thought you were one of those like zero workout people, to be honest. Not that like, you look bad. I just, first of all, I haven't seen you in person since March, but I just thought that you were like, work all the time. And then Titos or hurry, . I, I thought that, I, I thought that was your release
Speaker 1 00:09:28 tt working out is for sure, but Titos is number two. But now my new thing is Haku. Haku is really amazing. The one you also
Speaker 0 00:09:37 Bought. That's the, that's the rice vodka. Yes. It is sad how I'll be in the Peloton and I'll be like looking forward to like the drink after
Speaker 1 00:09:45 The Peloton .
Speaker 0 00:09:47 Do you do the same thing? Because like, I'm not impressing anybody. No one's gonna see me. Like I'm doing it for my mental health really, and clearing the cobwebs. And I do think better when I'm, when the, when, when the brain goes into that fight or flight mode, like amazing thoughts definitely come through.
Speaker 1 00:10:05 Absolutely. And
Speaker 0 00:10:07 It creates like a deep hunger. And uh, cuz like, the hardest thing is like for entrepreneurship for me is like, like the, the solo, almost like lethargic journey through the day where it's like there's no paycheck waiting for us at the end of the day. And so, like, sometimes the work can feel meaningless, and some days it's good. Some days the work feels very meaningful. Like we accomplish something today. And then some days you're like, dude, I just Instagram messaged like a hundred allergy moms. And like, one of them wrote me back, like, what am I doing with my life? You know what I mean? And so the exercise, at the end of the day, I'm like, yep, that's what I gotta be doing. Stay sick on the path. It's okay. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1 00:10:56 So what you're doing is, is grinding and that's, you know, that comes only passion makes you grind. Right? You can't do it outta force. So, but at the end of the day, that's, that's what's gonna make, make us win, right? So I, I, I, when I launch a new product, I basically send an email to, you know, uh, one of the distributors list of buyers, which is like 500, 600 buyers. I'm, it takes me eight hours to do it, literally. But at the end of the day, I may get 10 responses back and I do it again the following week. You know, you get, you get 30 responses, but then once those guys take it, basically another 30 take it. So, you know, you have to start somewhere. And that's, that's the key to entrepreneurship, right? You have that idea. Uh, you know, you have to execute. So you have to start somewhere. And that little seed becomes a, a flower, a tree, right? And you have to keep mm-hmm. , you have to keep, keep it push, keep pushing it forward.
Speaker 0 00:11:53 Yeah. You have to keep pushing it forward and being like motivated every day and be, and being organized, honestly
Speaker 1 00:12:01 Must
Speaker 0 00:12:01 Like, it's, it's been a while for you, but like, I used to just roll into work, like some days motivated, some days not, right. And if you're not motivated that day, like you would just end up talking with your friends, . Or like, or the other thing is about work that I've realized is total BS is like meetings. Like meetings are inherently like not productive. Like, just cuz you met about something doesn't really accomplish anything. And that's one thing since being an entrepreneur with you that I've realized is just like, nothing matters unless you like actually do something about it. Like, you can talk about it and like, but like action is like the only real work that there is. Like
Speaker 1 00:12:42 That's right. That's right. It's,
Speaker 0 00:12:43 It's, it's very easy to work for a company and like go to a meeting or like do one or two things and call it a day. And with this, it's like every day you have to be, be grinding
Speaker 1 00:12:54 Ev every day, every day. And there's not one day for me. And you'll see also once things start going to the market as far as the products mm-hmm. mm-hmm. , you're gonna see that there's not one unproductive day. The only unproductive day that I have is if I drink too much the night before. Right. And I can't focus that next day. So Yeah. Yeah. You hundred percent. What I mean by drinking too much, I'm become old now, so if I have five shots as opposed to my limitation of three, I'm pretty much shot the next day. So, uh, yeah. That makes me unproductive. But you'll see every day you're gonna be productive. And you'll see, I told you before we started that. Yep. You know, you're, you're, you're gonna be working at nights and now you are I'm getting emails from you
Speaker 0 00:13:39 That time. Yeah. Everything. Yeah. Everything that you said is pretty much come true. So that's a good and bad thing cuz a lot of the things you said were were more o omens than they were like blessings. They were like, hey, uh, your life's about to change. But, um, yeah, with the drinking too, like yeah, I've been trying to drink less as well. And, uh, and yeah, for me it's five as well. , coincidentally, it's like I can have a couple glasses of wine, but if I have three or four, and the other thing John, I'll say about like alcohol or, or just really like lethargy you, whatever might be caused, uh, by, is that we have to be so creative every day. Like if you show up to this job, this self-assigned job, like without your A game like you just described, like nothing happens and then your anxiety is 10 times worse cuz you're like, I just ruined a day.
Speaker 1 00:14:37 There you
Speaker 0 00:14:37 Go. You know, like every day matters for us.
Speaker 1 00:14:40 Hehe. Hearing that and hearing that. I know. You're, you're, you hit the true preneur entrepreneurial mindset. You're absolutely be be because you have to be on your a game every second of the day. Right. And most importantly, like you said, creativity, that's what that leads, uh, you know what I mean? Your, your, your daily mm-hmm. success, right. Talking in meetings with buyers, with, with whatever, you know, figuring out to do things differently if, if the dilemma comes up. Right. Uh, so so you're you're on point.
Speaker 0 00:15:12 Yeah. It's, it's that you have to create your own spark. You have to create your own magic. Um, and I think that when people do their best work within a company, they're honestly doing the same thing, which is just, they're not accepting the what's given to them as being the only facts in play. And they are going out and creating their own facts. Like they're going out and cr like today, like we had a meeting with Brennan, a new PR potential partner for the company. And like that came because I was like, reached out and like went and found her. Like, same thing with a bunch of things that you and I have done. It's like, you literally have to create your own magic. Like, no one's gonna be like, Hey, I, um, I I wanna do your PR for you. Like no one even knows about us. Like, we have to create every last thing.
Speaker 1 00:15:57 Exactly. Everything. Exactly.
Speaker 0 00:15:59 We, we create . Um,
Speaker 1 00:16:02 That's right. There's no, there's no road, there's no roadmap. Right? There's no no one, there's no nothing that's gonna tell you go this way, go that way. Right. So basically you have to find
Speaker 0 00:16:09 No roadmap,
Speaker 1 00:16:10 Right?
Speaker 0 00:16:12 There's no roadmap. And luckily with your experience, like you've created a roadmap for us. But I'm sure that you've had painful mistakes in the past that you learned from, that we're avoiding that I don't even know about. So that's a great part of our team is like your experience. Um,
Speaker 1 00:16:28 Ab absolutely, definitely have many years, 20 years since I started entrepreneurship where I, I've, I've learned a lot in life and, you know, I apply that, uh, you know, to, to future, uh, opportunities that I, that I embark on.
Speaker 0 00:16:44 Well, I guess that was a long way, a long intro, uh, listener of what we're doing, which is, this is the Founders and Friends podcast. Um, I'm Kyle Watts and this is John, uh, I always forget how to say her last name. , John G. Just go with that .
Speaker 0 00:17:03 Um, and uh, so yeah, we're the founders of Tally Kids and we're just friends as well, you know, and that's why we wanted to call this Founders and Friends. You're talking to two people who have been in the business for a while and decided to launch their own plant-based milk brand called Tally. And with that we've learned a lot and we have a lot to share. And so we're gonna talk from anything from entrepreneurship in general to plant-based entrepreneurship cuz we're launching a plant-based milk called Tally Kids, um, to life and surviving and sort of just how you become a successful entrepreneur or like us hope to be successful soon. So the way I look at entrepreneurship, um, then I'll let John go is like, you're just trying to prove a thesis, correct or incorrect as quickly as possible, ideally, and with as least amount of pain, um, as possible.
Speaker 0 00:17:57 But there's really no way to control for either, honestly. Cuz you're at the whim of the world, right? Like, if you have an idea and you wanna pursue it, it, it'd be great if you could know if it was gonna be successful like immediately, right? It would save you a lot of time and pain. But unfortunately that's not how it works. And so, like John and I, after I left my last company, you know, we were frand before we were founders. And, uh, we had this idea right, of like, hey, like what about a nutritious plant-based milk for kids? And literally ever since then, it's been six months, five months since late August, we've just been trying to prove that hypothesis. True or not. Absolutely. And we're just now getting to the point, right? We're just now getting to the point of like being able to produce the product and, and release it in January to the online stores and then hopefully grocery stores to see if we have something. And how do you, how do you view entrepreneurship, John?
Speaker 1 00:18:59 Uh, you know, I never really thought about that. I just do it. Yeah. Right. So I think I was innate born. I mean, I , I'm, I'm lost the words here. , honestly. Yeah. I, I, I personally, you know, I I I've been born an entrepreneur. I never worked for anyone in my life. Never. Yeah. I, I always, that's
Speaker 0 00:19:21 Crazy. Really? Never, never had w2.
Speaker 1 00:19:23 Never. You've
Speaker 0 00:19:24 Never had w2.
Speaker 1 00:19:25 Never. Never. That's crazy. So I mean, I, I, I, I, you know, have a, have a vision, have an idea, take that, uh, make it to a from, from, uh, from from concept to tangible product to, you know, to, to market. So that, that's what I've been doing.
Speaker 0 00:19:45 Yeah. Your, your background's. Interesting. Um, you were born in Iran and then you left with the fall of the Aya, or am I getting that right? Yeah, that's right. The eighties. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:19:59 Yeah. So I was born in February 79 in Tehran, Iran, uh, Jewish, Iranian family. Yeah. Uh, you know, basically at that time there was, there was, uh, a revolution going on and, uh, Shaw, who was basically, uh, uh, uh, ruling at the time, uh, was being basically pushed out. And he left. And my, my family basically at the start of the revolution, at that basically time, February of 79, uh, uh, my mother actually was giving birth to me. She would tell me that, uh, in her, in the hospital, basically, there was gunshots in the windows. So, uh, there was a lot of, yeah, turmoil. Uh, you know, there was a lot of problems with religious, uh, persecution. So our family basically was one of, uh, many Jewish Iranian families that left. And my father basically smuggled us out. He chartered, uh, air France jet and flew his family members out.
Speaker 1 00:21:05 Uh, some extended family too. Went to Amsterdam, and from there, got our visas, went to Israel for six months. And basically my father knew of this happening in 78 because things were getting bad. He bought a house in New York. So, uh, you know, we came to New York from there and been here since. But, uh, Iran, Iran was a beautiful country. It was basically a free country. And, uh, you know, people, entrepreneurship was huge then. Uh, people had the liberty to, uh, walk freely, women, especially without wearing hijab. Uh, it's, it's mandatory still right now. And you know, obviously what's happening now is, is people are, so, so going back to 1979, when the revolution occurred, there was a baby boom. And at the time, the population was like 25 million in Iran. There was a baby boom. And, uh, you know, up to 2000, 20 2009, uh, there was a green revolution. At that point, 40% of the population was, uh, below the age of, uh, 30. And you know, today, uh, roughly 60% of the population is below the age of, uh, uh, you know, 40, 45. And these people are the ones that want
Speaker 0 00:22:32 Wow. 60% is below age 45.
Speaker 1 00:22:36 Yeah. So these are the people that want the revolution. That's crazy. And, and then right now, as you see, there's a lot of turmoil and hopefully sooner revolution to overthrow the governments, uh, the Islamic Islamic Republic. And hopefully if that happens, you know, it's, it's big for Iranians all around the world.
Speaker 0 00:22:56 But that is, that's
Speaker 1 00:22:58 Go ahead. No, no. Crazy. I mean, you know, my family, as long as, as well as other Iranian families, left everything there. You know, my, my family had real estate businesses, basically an empire. They, they had to leave it all literally one day and just come here because of, uh, the, you know, freedom. They were, they were families were wealthy, you know, they had everything. They, they were, my father had the largest, one of the largest paper companies there, actually the largest there. Wow. He started at, you know, at 16 years old, he leveraged his mother's jewelry. They were very poor. And, you know, he bought a bankrupt, uh, paper business. He grew it to the second largest in Iran after Kimberley Clark. And basically, uh, you know, uh, I got my, my, my entrepreneurship from him, basically. Right. My, my, uh, everything that I learned was from him.
Speaker 0 00:23:55 Yeah. And so he had to literally, your, you said your uncle went to Amsterdam, and then you guys came to New York and your, and he had to leave that business behind, like
Speaker 1 00:24:06 Left it literally, literally literal, literally, the government actually came one day,
Speaker 0 00:24:10 Like, gimme paint a picture.
Speaker 1 00:24:11 Yeah, sure. One day the government came and they interrogated him, and, you know, basically, uh, the Islamic Republic was taking over all the businesses owned by, you know, Jews. So, you know, whoa,
Speaker 0 00:24:25 Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back it up. So you guys were targeted because you were Jewish?
Speaker 1 00:24:30 Yeah, for sure. Wow. For sure. Yeah. I mean, you know, my father had a thousand employees, you know, he was only at the time, 30, 33, 33 years old. He had a empire there. And basically the, you know, the, the, the revolutionary police came and they told him, you know, asked him certain questions, and it was getting dangerous. And my grandfather told my father that you, we gotta leave tomorrow. Literally, like within that week, left everything, furniture, house, jewelry, left, left, left the country. Me.
Speaker 0 00:25:06 Holy smokes. Yeah. Because the alternative was knock on the door at 2:00 AM your dad's gone. And he's, he's interrogated, tortured, killed,
Speaker 1 00:25:14 Right? Potentially. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:25:17 Holy smokes. Try not to swear on this podcast.
Speaker 1 00:25:21 .
Speaker 0 00:25:21 Golly g golly, G whiz, John. That is a, that's a story. The Iranian team was in the World Cup, um, protested. What are they protesting exactly?
Speaker 1 00:25:38 Uh, Iranian team was in the World Cup, and they didn't sing the national anthem on the first game. And because basically they were, they were supporting the protestors in Iran by doing that. They were the voice, international voice, uh, for the Iranians. But that backfired on them because basically the Irg c which was the inter, uh, Iran, Iran Revolutionary Guards Corp, which is the most powerful organization behind the, uh, Supreme leader, basically threatened their families in Iran, that if they don't sing the anthem on the next game, they're going to be, uh, tortured their, their families in Iran. So they actually went to the next game and had to sing the anthem. But basically, uh, they're, they were doing that to support the protestors that are protesting Iran. Now,
Speaker 0 00:26:34 What do you wanna see for your home country?
Speaker 1 00:26:36 A absolutely every day looking at the news throughout the day, seeing what's, what's what's happening. I mean, what we want everyone around the world, you know, Iranian of all religions, that that, that actually left after the revolution is, uh, they wanna, people want a revolution now. People wanna topple the current regime. You know, we, we want, we want freedom for them, and we wanna be able to go back to our homeland. I, I, I can never go back. My family was blacklisted since we left. And, you know, we've had family or people that went back that were kept by the government and, you know, basically, uh, they were jailed. So it's very dangerous to ever go back. So we all wanna see this regime out, right? And we want, we wanna basically, uh, a free Iran.
Speaker 0 00:27:25 Wow. Makes sense. That, um, is so tangible for you, like in the sense of you could literally not travel to, cause I know that just a month ago you were in Israel and we were chatting and stuff, and on a crazy time delay, but we still got work done and everything. And you had a great trip. I didn't realize you couldn't go back to Iran.
Speaker 1 00:27:47 No, no. That's, no. And, and you know, even, even, even when you fly to Israel, we only fly ll uh, because any other airline would fly over Iran. Right. And it's very risky because there, there's been instances where, you know, literally when I was in Israel, there was a flight going to Uzbekistan from, uh, to, to to, to somewhere. And the flight had to emergency land in Iran. There was an Israeli on the plane, but because of international law that not allowed to do anything, but it's very dangerous. So we fly only a lot. It's a, it's a very dangerous country.
Speaker 0 00:28:26 It is. And I hope that you know, that, that obviously I support you and your family, and I hope that it can work out for the best for, for that beautiful country. I've heard nothing but great things about Iranian ingenuity and music, and they like culture and books and movies. Like I was, it was a couple years back, but I remember I was listening to a podcast and they had a Iranian guy about your age on, and, um, he was just telling all about the tech. And he's like, we get such a bad reputation as being conservative. He's like, we're not conservative. We're very liberal in our views and in our attitudes and in our desire to explore the world. Right. And I think in the us all we see is right. That supreme leader that, and we think Iran is bad.
Speaker 1 00:29:14 You're, you're,
Speaker 0 00:29:15 You're right. Nuclear.
Speaker 1 00:29:16 You're
Speaker 0 00:29:16 Right. Wait, wait. And it's like the youth of Iran are so, you're so,
Speaker 1 00:29:19 Go ahead. No, no, no. You, you see what I'm saying? Absolutely. Right. What, when there's, when, when this revolution's toppled, when this government is toppled, there's, there's a revolution. You are gonna see, Iran will be one of, become one of the, one of the richest countries in the world. They're gonna rise quickly. The the youth are smart. They're, they're hungry, they're energetic, and they'll make things happen, right? Iran is a country with rich resources besides oil, and it's just, everything's sleeping right now, right? So, uh, mm-hmm. , this regime has to go fast.
Speaker 0 00:29:49 Let's talk about what you brought over to the US with you, which is, let's talk about food, which is what our business is. And so, you know, you, you, you, there are some things that don't leave, right? Just because you're in a different country, um, and I'm, I'm sure a lot of your traditions with what your mom and cooks or your dad cooks is probably still traditional meals and the best, the chickpea, right? They're probably the best. I have no, what is Iranian cuisine? , tell me before I sound, sound stupid. Trying to
Speaker 1 00:30:21 Guess. So, so when, when you're in New York, uh, you'll, you'll, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll, uh, treat you for a home cooked meal, but, uh, you mentioned a chickpea that that is Yeah. One of the, you know, it, it's, it's, uh, uh, it's one of the most important foods in, in the Iranian culture. So, you know, Friday nights for the, the Shabbats with the Sabbath, every Iranian Jewish household makes something called Godi. And that's basically chickpea balls, right? So it's just chickpea balls with veal, and it's the most delicious thing in the world. And, uh, it's like a soup also with chick pull chickpeas in it. And, you know, it's, it's, it's in a lot of cuisines, the chickpeas. So that's where the idea for the chickpea came from for the chickpea milk.
Speaker 0 00:31:19 I remember when we met, and I remember you mentioning, oh, no, I remember what it was, John. I, it was that it was hemp. It was first we talked about hemp and we were like, first it was lu in actually, because you use lu in your Simply Egg list product. Go to try simply egg list.com to check out John's amazing, um, egg, egg free egg product that's competing out there with just, he has it in Trader Joe's stores nationwide. Um, and also in, um, Wegman's. And, uh, where else do you have it, John? It's, it's mostly in the east coast, right?
Speaker 1 00:31:54 We're, we're in about 4,000 stores across, uh, 11 countries around the world. We just, uh, we just got another 500 launching in January in Canada, Loblaw, but basically, oh, you got Loblaw. Nice. Yeah, Loblaw nationally in Canada. But, uh, I mean, we have a variety of, uh, uh, egg, egg, plant-based egg products, liquid egg. We have patties, we have, uh, egg sausage, cheese, all plant-based and uh, egg sausage cheese sandwich as well. Uh, so, you know, we have, uh, retail food service and you know that that brand is, uh, two years old. It's really flying right now.
Speaker 0 00:32:33 Um, you guys should get that in a Costco. I think that'd be, I think that the, the, the bag you showed me of the egg bites, like the ready to eat two ounce little egg bites, like those sovi egg bites you get at Starbucks, you have that bag and then you also have the bag of the sandwiches. I think that's perfect. For Costco,
Speaker 1 00:32:49 We are launching a, what do I know? We are launching a liquid in Costco and q1. So, uh, that that is happening. Nice.
Speaker 0 00:32:56 Nice. The poor, the poor liquid is nice. Yeah. Yeah. So what what powers yours is, is the lupin bean, um, which allows his simply egg, endless eggs to like fluff better than the main competitor out there. Um, just who uses a mung bean, right?
Speaker 1 00:33:17 That's right. UNG bean, right?
Speaker 0 00:33:19 Yeah. And so John and I were talking, I had left my last company and I was just kind of rambling and ranting. I was like, man, it really pisses me off that the plant-based milk market has like zero nutrition in it and like, doesn't even try to deliver any nutrition. Whereas like, the main reason people drink milk is cuz they, they like the taste, but the reason that people drink it is because it's nutritious. And I remember just telling you about that and you immediately, of course going to problem solving mow and you're like, well the lupin, like we should do a lu in milk. Like lupin is the future. And I was like, what the hell is lupin? And I, I looked it up and it's like, there's like purple looping and luine and I, I, I mean, I'm not, I think we tried it too. And it wasn't bad. The luin milk, you did whip up a batch from me, I believe back in, back when we first started chatting, right? Yeah. And then we switched
Speaker 1 00:34:17 To hemp.
Speaker 0 00:34:19 Hemp, yeah. Yeah. You wanted to do allulose, which is a very up and coming sweetener with hemp. Cuz hemp was extremely white as I recall. Yes. The hemp was like, impressively like, guys, if you actually, listeners, if you actually, um, drink plant-based milk and like you pour it into a glass, like it's not white at all, but this hemp milk was
Speaker 1 00:34:45 Yeah, hemp hemp, hemp protein is bone white.
Speaker 0 00:34:48 It's bone, white
Speaker 1 00:34:49 Bone. It's beautiful. Yeah, it is. It was beautiful. It is. But then we decide we,
Speaker 0 00:34:52 And it tasted pretty
Speaker 1 00:34:53 Good too. Tastes amazing. But then again, the problem is mother's feeding their kids hemp. Right? I know. Problematic. I
Speaker 0 00:35:01 Know. It, it would, it wouldn't have
Speaker 1 00:35:03 Worked. It wouldn't have worked. So
Speaker 0 00:35:05 Then maybe in California or something, but
Speaker 1 00:35:08 even there, I don't think a mother wants to feed their, their precious child. Uh, you know, something that they, they don't know much about. Right. Mothers, they don't know hemp protein, whether it has any, any, I don't know, thc, whatever you call it. Right. That gets someone high. Right. So Right. You know, it's a risk for them. So it's a question mark for them. So after that, uh, we landed on the, on the, on the beautiful chickpea chickpea milk.
Speaker 0 00:35:35 And I cannot remember, I have a horrible memory, so probably a terrible podcast host, but you Okay, that's good to hear. So you, you were telling about an Israeli company called Chick P, shout out to Chickpea. Great, great company. Nice people over there. Um, and you were able to corral a sample,
Speaker 1 00:35:57 Actually,
Speaker 0 00:35:57 You're pretty good. And honestly, John, I think it all just went from there. I think you just got your hands on some chickpea. And this is actually where I wanna talk about starting a business real quick. Cause it's like, this is what I've always admired about you, John, and this is why, this is actually like, when I realized that I could do this, like, so everybody has an idea. Yeah. The the magic of John is that he will immediately take action against that idea and find the next actionable step to take. So for example, and I recommend anyone who wants to do anything, and Kobe Bryant actually said this as well, he said, break things down to the smallest possible piece and just focus on that piece , and then move on to the next smallest possible piece. And what he's basically saying is, break the problem or the, the timeline down to what you have to do now. And don't get stressed about the future. Just do what you have to do now. And that's how you get a business off the ground. That's what you taught me. Because what you did is you, we talked about chickpea and then the next day you had ordered chickpea, like you, you had purchased it and were like, Hey, Kyle, yep. Got got the chickpea. It comes in next week. And I was like, oh, all right. I got, I got, I guess we're doing this, you know what I mean? And it was so cool to see
Speaker 1 00:37:17 That that's why people are successful. You don't procrastinate, you take action. Right? You follow through and that's, that's what makes people successful. And, and, and, and, and, and it's No, no, no. That's, that's really what it is. Uh, I, I've done this, you know, with many, many products where the suppliers, you know, from a baby company that I had, you know, when I was doing yogurt or even before Egg List, and basically, you know, these suppliers support entrepreneurs in getting 'em free samples and getting 'em what they want. So never did I ever get a no, I'm not sending it to you. You know, maybe you have to send emails twice, three times, four times to get a response. And that's also the other thing. Be persistent and just keep pushing and pushing until you get a yes. But b basically, uh, you know, that, that that's what it is. Uh, just, just keep, uh, you know, pu push pushing, uh, suppliers and they get, you get, you get samples. So never, never did they never, was it because of what I have now where they supported it? Interesting. Never.
Speaker 0 00:38:24 I, so that's just a learning for me. I had no idea, you know, I had just no idea how I assumed, like seriously, like I, I assumed that I was so used to working for bigger companies. I think that I just assumed that the minimum order quantity was ridiculous and like,
Speaker 1 00:38:45 No,
Speaker 0 00:38:45 I didn't realize that they would like play ball with you. And like, these are great suppliers that we talked to, like these people are brand names. And four months ago when we started this thing, I just still couldn't, I thought it was cuz of your credibility, but you're saying
Speaker 1 00:39:01 No, no, no, not at all. I mean, it, it, it's basically these, these suppliers also keep in mind, Kyle, that they know a company that starts out, doesn't have capital, doesn't have, you know, the demand for their large MOQs. So they built, you know, smaller volume, uh, brackets as well where, where startups can, can afford it and, and, and, and make it work. You know, to this point also, two people came to me, this was last, last summer. They said they wanted to start a, uh, bar, right? They gave me an example of the bar in market and they said, uh, uh,
Speaker 0 00:39:40 Like not a, like an alcohol bar. Like a, like a, a like a snack
Speaker 1 00:39:44 Bar. Snack bar. Yeah. And, and, and they, they showed me the, the product that they like and they want a copy mm-hmm. . And, uh, they said, I don't know where to start from. I put form. Yeah. I put a formula together for them. Okay. And I told 'em the suppliers to go to, they went to 'em and I said, you know, they didn't respond. What should I do? I said, keep emailing them, getting a response after 2, 3, 4 emails. They all responded, they all sent them samples. I taught these guys how to formulate and now they have a bar they're going to market with. Right. That's cool. Literally, uh, anyone can do it. It's just a matter of having that idea, that vision and following through.
Speaker 0 00:40:24 But it's hard to have that if you think, if you assume something is like impossible or if it's just hard. I, I mean, I think a lot of people can real kind of relate to my repetitive, I'm repeating myself, but I think a lot of people can relate to that. Like, sometimes you need someone to tell you, oh no, just email them like a fifth time. Like, that was helpful for me from you. I don't know where you learned that, but it probably was probably 20 years ago. But like, I,
Speaker 1 00:40:49 Yeah, my, my, that's great. My, my prob my problem is I, I I can't stand a no, so I just keep, keep bugging someone until I get a Yes. So that, that's just persistency when it comes to like, you know, harassing these people to get samples or to get at a sales account or whatever it is. Right. Just keep going till you get that, that, yes.
Speaker 0 00:41:07 One thing I've learned through this process since um, we started in late August, early September to now is like, and it goes with what you just said, it's being persistent and then like, you have to put yourself out there to the extreme. Like you have to be all in. Like I'm 100% convinced of that now. And it's so, so much so that like I've raised tens of thousands, thousands of dollars now from my friends, like from my friends, I have asked them for money and I wasn't asking for it like ashamedly and I wasn't asking for it, like just without offering them anything. It was like a, a great investment in this company, but I wouldn't have had that confidence if I just wasn't all in about it. And like, just so persistent with what I believe what we're doing. And so I think that like, that attitude that John describes of like, I won't take a no, like that also that same attitude gives you the confidence to like do things you never thought you would do. That's like raise $50,000 from your friends.
Speaker 1 00:42:12 That's right.
Speaker 0 00:42:13 It's, I dunno if it's like hubris or what I, it's, it's a mix of both. Right?
Speaker 1 00:42:18 I I I I appreciate the where, you know, where you, where you came from and where you are as far as, you know, working at, at companies to having that entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial mindset and that risk that you, you know, you basically took from, you know, you know, you, you quit your job. You were looking for something and we spoke and basically, you know, you said, I I you did it. Right? Most people, they're scared, right? People have have to pay their bills tomorrow. Right? I mean if you, if you're going to, if you're gonna do something like this Yeah. You don't know when you're gonna get to get a salary back again. So I, I commend you for basically taking that, that leap of faith and that that risk. You got balls ,
Speaker 0 00:42:59 I ah, I, I appreciate it. Yeah. Before, yeah. I appreciate it. I, I'll tell the listener or I'll tell the, I'll tell you exactly what happened, man or girl or whoever's listening. Like, so before you quit your job, take out a loan with the bank because you will not have, um, or you can be rich and that's good for you, but I'm not rich, right? So I took out a huge loan from a bank because I still had W2 income. So that's a little tip for you guys. Like, if you are gonna start your own thing and you want just a loan, and remember alone, if you don't spend against the loan, all you'll end up paying is interest, right? So it's like if you take out a, let's say you wanna start a company and let's say you're like, John and I, you started in September, right?
Speaker 0 00:43:48 And you think you'll start getting revenue in January. So you need like six months of, of, of immediate cash runway before you quit your job. I would recommend looking at taking out a personal loan and don't spend it, like, treat it like it's a backup and you'll be able to sleep at night. You'll be able to feel so much better. Just having, like for me, I took out a $50,000 loan. I haven't really used it, but just knowing it's there has given me the confidence to like move forward, right? And gives me some room to operate. Now if I had not done that, if I had quit, started tally with John and then applied for a loan, wouldn't have got it. It would've been like you have zero income, right? Because I don't have a, they pull your, your, um, credit immediately and see that you don't have a job.
Speaker 0 00:44:38 So founders, if you're looking to quit, seriously, look into a loan. Um, also make sure that your housing situation is straight. And I, I'm serious, like John and I are fortunate enough to live in houses that we have purchased. Cause we're a little bit older, but like, if you're looking to buy a house, like keep that in mind guys. Like, it's really gonna be very hard. Like we're looking to move from Denver to Michigan in the spring. Um, we live in Denver now, Hailey and I, um, and it's gonna be interesting. I mean, we might have to rent, right? Like, I don't know if we're gonna be able to buy a house there because I won't have like a traditional income. So like, just keep that in mind. And also like if you have, you know, looking for an apartment and they wanna see income, like when is your lease up?
Speaker 0 00:45:26 Like if you have a lease coming up in two months, like you might wanna wait to like quit your job until you lock that lease in. So those are some tips. Just keep your life events to a minimum. Um, another tip would be like medical insurance. Like hopefully if you're not, if you're not married, just you know, think about it. Have a plan for that. Take care of yourself. Take care of your body. Take care of your spirit. Um, you don't wanna be getting sick. You don't wanna be like, I wouldn't recommend like that trip to Mexico, right? Like without medical insurance. Like what if you get sick and montezuma's revenge and you have to go to the hospital and you got bills. Like that can totally derail an entrepreneurial like journey. And uh, I feel like the entrepreneurial journey is extremely fragile in the beginning, like John said earlier, it's like a seedling, I would say. It's not even that strong. Yeah. It's like a, it's like a piece of, it's like an ornament, you know, like a Christmas ornament that you just have to sort of hold in your hands and like, just, you have to be serious about it. You have to treat it like a precious baby. You cannot be going on crazy ski trips, risking a leg break. Anything can derail you in those early days, wouldn't you say John?
Speaker 1 00:46:41 Well said. Well said. Absolutely. Absolutely. It is. That's what it is, a baby, right? You have to treat it like a baby, nurture it like a baby. And, and that's why, you know, when you own it, you, you, you, you, you are worried about it all day until mm-hmm. It's, it's, it's running right? And it's, and it's solid. So maybe that's, that's the reason why I work a lot. .
Speaker 0 00:47:03 Yeah. I think a lot of it is Yeah, paranoia. Yeah, for sure. And, and just want, yeah. I think everybody gets it. We both work a lot because we wanna be successful with the company and you gotta be on it. You can't just, it's not a w2. Right. Let's talk about the beginning of, of Tally. The very first thing we did, cuz this is something I'm passionate about. Every, this is sort of like a thesis, right? It's like a Kyle Watts like thesis coming at you, John, like, and you can agree or disagree, but this is the first thing we did. And I'd be curious to know if it's the first thing you did in every one of your companies. Once we had the chickpea. Well first of all, once we decided we wanted get into plant-based milk, which we'll talk about in a future podcast, like all about plant-based milk and I, I'll go on my soapbox about that.
Speaker 0 00:47:47 Um, but once we sort of knew we wanted to do a plant-based milk for kids and a very nutritious one and then John found the chickpea, the first thing we did was design the brand. Is that the same? We literally talked to Nick Longo, great designer outta California and we didn't do anything. If you think about it, accept, focus on the look and feel of the brand. And it was really just a p and g file. Like we were just like looking at different fonts and different colors and we designed the package first. And I would recommend that to anybody. If you have an idea, get it on paper, look at it, tweak it, modify it, and make sure that you can like, are proud of it and like wanna like make this your life. That is, at least that's what motivates me. I know that you said at the time, John, that you didn't think the brand name really mattered. Do you still feel that way? Or
Speaker 1 00:48:41 So so anything your first point? Uh, for me it was formula. So one, once we basically, uh, confirmed the chickpea at that point then I was, was first thing for me was getting the formula done, right? So, uh, that was the first priority and uh, definitely, uh, in conjunction packaging with that as well.
Speaker 0 00:49:04 Yeah, those things went in conjunction, you know, like that's the thing. Um, cuz I think what you're suggesting is sort of not true. Like, it wasn't like you were work like the tally name and the packaging design and everything that the public will see in a month, that was all being worked on while we had a formula that like didn't taste great and like, so you were like constantly working on the formula to make it taste better. And then we were all working on the, the brand look and feel at the exact same time.
Speaker 1 00:49:37 Correct? Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:49:38 And
Speaker 1 00:49:38 You asked the question I didn't answer, sorry, regarding the name of the company. I, I'm, I'm, I'm happy with the name. I think it's, it's, it is important. Uh, I, I, I'm, I'm, I didn't, I don't emphasize too much on that. My forte is not necessarily, uh, you know, the, the, the, the branding, right? I'm more on the formulation, uh, side in my opinion, in my, in my expertise. So, uh, that really came from you, the tally name.
Speaker 0 00:50:08 Yep. Yep. Me and Nick, right? Me and Nick Longo. And that's where I think it's important for other founders, and I'm sure that's probably an obvious point, but I just wanna repeat it, that like, make a great product. But like the first thing you should do is like, make a great brand and a beautiful brand, a beautiful package, um, that yeah. You make, you can be proud of
Speaker 1 00:50:33 That. You make a good point, Kyle, that, that I never realized it because probably that's routine for me. But that package motivated you, right? As a, as a first entrepreneur to, to to own that brand, to love that brand, right? And, and, and make you think about the opportunities that, uh, uh, uh, that what can be may, may come about, right? So if you think about it, that makes total sense. That is the first step.
Speaker 0 00:50:59 It's kinda like what you said earlier where you kind of like don't take no for an answer and you kind of fake it till you make it. It's like if you let, let's say Tally wants to get into Costco. The, the, the way we're gonna get into Costco in two years is through a p and g file. We're literally going to show, I promise you, cause we've, I've done this before and you just did it, I'm sure was simply egg list, John. And we did it for Tally. It's, you create a concept of what you're gonna make and you need to like illustrate it and get a designer and show it. And we're just gonna go show that to Costco and then if Costco accepts it, we will go make it. We'll figure out a way to get that thing made.
Speaker 1 00:51:38 You know what I mean? You just said the magic words and I want everybody to hear this. We'll figure a way to make it. This is where some people fail. And let me explain this to you and I want everybody listening to understand this and hear this and repeat it, repeat this over and over and over and over again. Figure a way to make it most people right? You can't see beyond or, or, or, or comprehend that, right? Sometimes it's hard to put the cart, what's the expression? ? The, the, the,
Speaker 0 00:52:10 It's hard. Uh,
Speaker 1 00:52:11 The hard cart before the cart before the horse. Yeah. Yeah. So in this case, that's what I do in my, my businesses and people disagree with me. But that's the risk that I've taken that that took us to 4,000 stores, right? That, that, that grew ourselves for x from last year basically. Right? You have to, you have to be able to take that risk and, and, and do these kind of things. Uh, and figure, you know, my, my father always says, uh, you know, uh, you walk the way, the way the way will find you, right? The way will come. Hmm. Walk the way, the way will come. Uh, it's a Farsi expression. Uh, it sounds better in Farsi, but basically, you know, it is the same logic here. And I'm, I appreciate that, that you, you understand that as well. It's very, very important for success of a company.
Speaker 1 00:52:58 Cuz you can't, you know, say, oh, we don't have money today, therefore, you know, we can't launch into Costcos tomorrow or Wegmans or whatever. Let's wait till exactly, let's wait till we raise 2 million, right? That could be two years later. What's gonna happen? You can have two, three or four other people competing, making the same product by then and you're gonna lose your chance. Yep. Freaking do it now. Yep. Right? Get it and figure a way to raise that money or figure a way to make that product if you don't have a co-packer. So you have to, you have to take these kind of risks to be successful. There's, there's no, you know, you can't be by the book every time that, that makes people fail. Also, honestly, when, when you're big, when you're doing tons of sales and you have an organization you can operate by, by, by, you know, organization. But now you have to, you have to, you have to, you have to do all these things. Take these risks.
Speaker 0 00:53:47 You always have to be a half a step or ideally a full step ahead of yourself. Like, like I remember like when we had no money, we still don't have any money, but we each put like, I don't know, 10 grand into this thing, right? And we called up the number one plant-based milk co-packer in the country, . And I was sitting on my back porch listening to you pretty much act like we were the shit
Speaker 1 00:54:21 .
Speaker 0 00:54:23 You were like, Hey, my number one co-packer that everybody knows we're gonna be big, look at, oh, this is, goes back to another point, John, look at our packaging. Remember? Yeah. We said, Hey look, look at our package. Look at this shit. This shit looks good, right? And people were like, yeah, you know, look at this, we're gonna be big. And then we just went right into pretending like we were a foregone conclusion.
Speaker 4 00:54:51 ,
Speaker 1 00:54:54 I didn't know you
Speaker 0 00:54:55 Realized that. It comes so naturally to you. You probably don't even realize your how much bullshit you actually spew
Speaker 4 00:54:59 Sometimes .
Speaker 0 00:55:02 But I was sitting on my back patio, it was like early September, we had just deposited money into the account and you were talking to Mr. Ko Packer, who's extremely, has a much better thing to do than talk to us. And uh, we were like, yep, we're gonna produce in December. Yep. Mm-hmm. . Yep. Okay. Can you guys, you guys can get us line time in December? Yep. Okay, cool. Hey, you better . And you were like, you better, you were like, send us the agreement, we're gonna hold you to it. And I was like, Jesus, John is just laying it down. . And then we secured that line time for December back in September and then we raised the money.
Speaker 1 00:55:38 That's right.
Speaker 0 00:55:40 And then, and then we had the serious conversations of, Hey Kyle, you know, I really need you to tap into your network and I'll do the same and we gotta go raise some money to make this happen.
Speaker 1 00:55:53 And, and,
Speaker 0 00:55:54 And we didn't sit around and wait to like,
Speaker 1 00:55:57 Kyle, remember
Speaker 0 00:55:58 You gotta go create the action and then catch up to it.
Speaker 1 00:56:01 There you go. Well said. Do you remember when, when, when we, uh, had to, I, I, I always would tell you, Kyle, it always works out. I I, Kyle, don't worry, it always works out. And you, I you would ponder that, but now I think you, you see it too. It always works out, right? What I mean by that is you figure a way to make it happen, right? You, you, you put your, you put deadlines in every, every project that you do, right? And, and you make things by that timeframe happen even such now, right? That we got the line time, we're making sure that everything arrives prior, right? That, that, that we make sure that all, all, all of what we have planned with the website, with, with, uh, whatever it is, is gonna be, is gonna be live by that time. Right? So that's the key.
Speaker 0 00:56:46 Yeah, that's a good point, John. You create you by having that mentality of cart before the horse as a principal, you create deadlines for yourself that you will not miss. You will personally never miss them. That's right. Cuz that, cuz that would be like insulting your co-founder and like, insult. Like, why would I miss that deadline? I'm not gonna be the one that causes the, I'm, I'm not gonna be the one who didn't do my job. So that does help a lot to create deadlines. Um, we gotta wrap it up for this episode. I, I always wanna end these podcasts with you, John. It's just you and I with like, what's going on like right now. And like we can keep filling in people with the history of the company, but like, I just, I I'll lead, I'll lead and it's just kind of fun I think.
Speaker 0 00:57:26 So today is December 8th. Um, book recommendations I have is definitely, uh, founder brand by Dave Gerhardt. I read that this week. It's all about building a brand, um, and using your expertise as a founder to sort of like reach out and like not just always talk about the product, like talk about yourself, which is kind of what we're doing with this podcast, to be honest. So founder brand, I read that this week. John, did you read any good books this week? Or seeing interesting articles and then we'll talk about what's going on with the business.
Speaker 1 00:57:58 Unfortunately. Uh, I did not read a book this week. No, but I'm gonna focus for the next time to read one.
Speaker 0 00:58:05 No, you're good. You're good. You're good. So, um, what's going with the business right now? It's December 8th. As I said, we have a delay in one of our ingredients. Um, monk fruit is one of our ingredients. Um, I won't, can't disclose like who the supplier is, whatever, but, um, but our chickpea, uh, is gonna arrive at the plant tomorrow or the next day. It just got in from, it just got, uh, it's on the, it's, it's on the road to the plant right now. Uh, our packaging arrived to the plant. I posted that to our Instagram drink underscore tally. Um, very excited about getting that beautiful package that we've been talking all about. You guys can go to our Instagram and look at it and our website, drink tally.com that arrived at the plant. John, you've organized everything else is there, right? We're just really waiting on this damn monkfruit,
Speaker 1 00:58:54 Huh? That's it.
Speaker 0 00:58:56 Cool. All right guys. Have a good rest of the week. Um, John, we will catch up again later pod tonight over tally stuff and then we'll catch up over podcast again. Hopefully, uh, at least one more before
Speaker 1 00:59:07 The holidays. Absolutely. It
Speaker 3 00:59:08 Was a pleasure.