The LoCo Experience
The LoCo Experience is produced and sponsored by LoCo Think Tank - and sometimes others! Our mission is to uncover as much business education as possible while getting to know the founders and leaders of amazing organizations. You'll feel like you really know our guests after each episode, and if we're doing our job well, you'll learn business principles and tips from them along the journey and be both inspired and entertained. Episodes feature a range of local and regional business and community leaders as guests in a conversational interview format. The more interesting the journey, the better the experience!
The LoCo Experience
EXPERIENCE 139 | Indentured Servant to CEO with Marc Torres of Cheba Hut “Toasted” Subs
Marc Torres started his journey with Cheba Hut in perfect “cheba” fashion - a failed drug test foiled his job prospects with the City of Fort Collins, and a snarky friend said “you should go work at Cheba Hut, I bet they don’t drug test!”. Marc started on the front line (and claims he remains an excellent sandwich maker) and worked his way up in the ranks to store manager, and eventually became the primary trainer for new franchisees. He managed a premier location owned by the founder of Cheba Hut, Scott Jennings, and developed many of the systems and training processes that allowed the chain to grow and provide a consistent experience in new locations. The stories of LoCo Think Tank and Cheba Hut are long intertwined - it was Scott that famously told your host in 2015 - “Bear, you should park that F&$%in’ food trailer in your backyard and go get a job”.
A few years into his time with Cheba Hut, Marc got a DUI, and a year later - another one. This began the “indentured servant” phase of his career, when Scott sent him to live and open a new location in Greeley - and where he reconnected with his now-wife. He continued to bring value to the franchise, moving to Arizona for a few years to work on (mostly unsuccessful) West Coast expansion efforts, and then returning to Fort Collins as Director of Operations in 2010. He became COO in 2014, and partnered with Scott and another franchisee to build an HQ-supported super-franchisee designed to open new locations and grow the brand and systems for further growth - and it’s been working. They’ve recently been among the fastest-growing franchises in the industry; now boast 55 locations and expect to bring 5 more online before year-end, and open another 12-15 locations in 2024!
Marc has been a LoCo Think Tank member almost as long as LoCo Think Tank has existed, originally part of the Thinkers Too chapter and a founding member of our first Next Level chapter. He’s a driven and authentic leader, a first generation college graduate, and you’re going to love his heart - so please join as we share the special journey of Marc Torres and Cheba Hut “Toasted” Subs.
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Mark Torres started his journey with Chiba Hut in perfect Chiba fashion. A failed drug test foiled his job prospects with the city of Fort Collins, and a snarky friend said, You should go work at Chiba Hut. I bet they don't drug test. Mark started on the front line, and claims he remains an excellent sandwich maker, and worked his way up in the ranks to store manager, and eventually became the primary trainer for new franchisees. He managed a premier location owned by the founder of Chiba Hut, Scott Jennings, and developed many of the systems and training processes that allowed the chain to grow and provide a consistent experience in new locations. The stories of Loco Think Tank and Chibahut are long intertwined. It was Scott that famously told your host in 2015, Bear, you should park that freakin food trailer in your backyard and go get a job. And I did. A few years into his time with Chibahut, Mark got a DUI. And a year later, another one. This began the indentured servant phase of his career when Scott sent him to live and open a new location in Greeley and where he reconnected with his now wife. Mark continued to bring value to the franchise, moving to Arizona for a few years to work on a largely unsuccessful West Coast expansion, and then returning to Fort Collins as Director of Operations in 2010. He became a COO in 2014 and partnered with Scott and another franchisee to build an HQ supported super franchisee designed to open new locations and grow the brand and systems for further growth. And it's been working. They've recently been among the fastest growing franchises in the industry, now boasting 55 locations and expect to bring five more online before year end and open another 12 to 15 locations in 2024. Mark has been a LocoThinkTank member almost as long as LocoThinkTank has existed, originally part of the Thinkers 2 chapter and a founding member of our first Next Level chapter. He's a driven and authentic leader, a first generation college graduate, and you're going to love his heart. So please join me as we share the special journey of Mark Torres and Chiba Hut Toasted Subs. Welcome back to the Loco Experience. I'm here today with Mark Torres. Mark is the Chief Executive Officer of Chibahut Toasted Subs. Thanks for being here, Mark. Thank you. Good afternoon. Yeah. So, um, I guess let's just talk about Chibahut. Uh, tell me about Chibahut operations as they are today. I haven't checked in for like six months or a year, so it's probably changed since the last time even. Yeah, I mean, uh, One word is busy. Um, staying, staying very busy. We, uh, we have 55 stores. Wow. Um, we are kind of, Entering a new phase of growth at this point where we're actually gonna open five more stores between now and the end of the year. Okay. And then probably another 15 next year between 12 and 15. So we're accelerating an accelerating rate. Correct. Indeed. It's, it's interesting. It's, it's a lot of fun but definitely a new set of challenges and You know, we, we kind of think that, you know, a few years ago, and I'll, I'll go into it, but a few years ago, we kind of set ourselves on this path and now it's like, it's happening. It's for reals. Yeah. And, uh, and so we're, we're, we're, we're staying ahead of it. All right. But definitely, like I said, some challenges. Plenty of work to do. Yeah. Tell me about the, kind of the scope. You were, you're Colorado centric headquartered here in Fort Collins. Um, what, how many stores in Colorado and then what, how many other states going on? Oh, let's see here. You don't have to tell me exactly. You forget your notes back at the office. We're 15 or 16 Colorado stores. Uh, we just opened a second one down in Colorado Springs a few weeks ago. I think that was number 16. And, uh, in Colorado. We started in Arizona. We have 7 stores down there. We're in 15 total states and, uh, we actually were in 16 states up until last month and, uh, I'm sure we'll talk about that a little bit, but, uh, yeah, um, really, uh, let's talk about it now. What happened? Okay. Got it. Um, so, uh, we, We closed a store in Cincinnati. You closed them. We didn't terminate them, but, um, you know, the writing was kind of on the wall the last, um, nine months especially since the beginning of the year. And so, we had been working with them on you know, I think a popular term these days is a soft landing. So, we had been, you know, kind of working with them on that. Um, unfortunately it didn't work out for them. Their ownership group, uh, Um, market location, several different factors. Um, so this was not a longstanding, no, it opened in 2021. So it was about almost exactly two and a half years and they had a decent run. And then about actually this time last year, um, they turned over some leadership at the store and from there, it just really kind of spiraled out. The owners didn't have, um. The, they needed good management hired because they weren't necessarily in there. Yeah. And so, I mean, they were in there limited, but you still need that, uh, what we're kind of terming and what we've been talking about a lot as a, as a company over the last little, little bit here is consistent leadership. And, uh, we really feel like that's ultimately what leads to the success of a franchise or even probably a business in general. And so, um, they, they didn't have that for a little while. And, and I mean, they were. Double digit 20 percent 25 percent year over year growth at this time last year and just took a nosedive We're talking within nine months this you know The way I've kind of described it is it feels like we lost the locals. It was a college centric Location and it feels like word on the street Kind of with the canvas was that like, Hey, you just don't go to Chiba Hut anymore. And because they were getting a poor experience, that's hard staffing, you know, couldn't have consistent employment. Correct. You know, it's everything I couldn't deliver on the Chiba promise. Exactly. And, uh, you know, it was not a, it wasn't what we have as a standard and it definitely, you know, it, it took less than a year for it to completely spin out and be in a bad spot. So, It happens quickly. Sorry to start on a soft topic. But also, I mean, that's a valuable set of lessons. Probably. I mean, you'll make a number of adjustments earlier or things like that, I suppose, to help people recognize that challenge. Yeah, I mean, we're meeting as we've been meeting as a leadership team. How do we one deal with the just the actual logistics of that situation? We haven't shut a store down like that since 2014. We've done transfers, we've moved locations, we've not shut things down. Had owners sell to other owners. We've done things like that, but we haven't just straight up closed a store down since 2014. So, um, kind of relearning how to, how to do that and how to do it better now, um, as far as de branding and protecting as much as we can on the, on the out and And also, taking care of our partner, you know, we wanted to do right by them. I mean, they believed in us, we believed in them, and it didn't end up working out. And it was working, it sounds like. Yeah. That's the hard part. And, you know, the relationship was, was solid, and it just, it just didn't make sense to continue fighting it. So, of these, uh, 15 other states, so are a lot of those then solo locations and, and working on, you know, building, kind of a collection of. stores in each state, does it make a difference if they're far flung from one another? Yeah, I mean, we are definitely focused on trying to consolidate our stores, not by closing them or anything like that, but just by our franchising efforts. So, for instance, we have four franchisees in our Dallas market, Dallas Fort Worth market, and so that was intentional because it's such a large market and we wanted to have a Uh, a quicker presence, not just open one store and then three years later, open a second store, you know, we wanted to make sure we were going to open up that market pretty aggressively. And so we've done things like that. Um, we definitely have a few other kind of single store markets. Um. Little Rock, Arkansas. We're actually getting ready to open in Fayetteville this next year, but That's kind of an island one and then holy shit, Florida Tough tough market. I mean for us, it's just it's it's a challenging market and just because there's a lot of competition For I think it's more You know for us in particular it's So they have weird liquor licensing laws out there. And so, um, the criteria to be able to have a liquor license and how expensive it is, is, is crazy. And, uh, it's based on seating capacity. And so one of our competitive advantages is that we have is we have really high average unit volumes, um, with a relatively small. footprint. Our average store is about 24 or 2, 500 square feet. Well, the liquor license laws in Florida are based on, it's really easy to get a full liquor license if you have seating capacity for 150 people. And so then we have to start building 3, 500 square foot Chiba huts, and that's not our model. And so it's created some challenges out there that to me is kind of an example of the challenges that we've had out there. Um, but ultimately, you know, as we've moved further from. The West Coast, it's, I mean, the East Coast, even if it's Florida is a completely different type of place than Colorado and just the way that everybody's on the move out there, this kind of like hospitality piece isn't necessarily prioritized. And so. You know, we thought we were going to stand out because we did prioritize it, but it turns out, no, no, it actually wants, yeah, they just want to go 65 past your restaurant. And, uh, you know, if they do come in, uh, interesting, we do have fans out there for sure, but, um, it's not going to be a focal point for us to grow in that market. And so, you know, we'll still continue to support those stores and if they want to continue growing, then we'll be there for them. But, uh, um, we're not. aggressively or even actively looking for. We've learned some lessons, we're not looking to learn any more real quick out there yet. Correct. And then we have awesome one off markets like, uh, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, kind of a random one there, but, uh. Is that Collegetown too? Collegetown, LSU. Is that part of your, part of your special sauce is a lot of Collegetowns or? You asked me pre COVID and I'd say, absolutely. Ask me now and, uh, college markets are incredibly difficult. Um. Interesting. I think they're great as, uh. Um, so kind of going back a little bit, we, um, we relaunched our franchising efforts in 2018. Um, and, uh, part of that was we only do three store deals, so we don't sell one store deals. We sell three store deals. And so as far as college markets are concerned, it's great to have one of those in your three stores. You don't necessarily want it to be your first one because, uh, um, the way we kinda, I, the way I term it I'll say is, uh, we've got growers and showers, and, uh, and, and true Chiba Hutt culture. That's right. And college markets are typically grower markets. It just, you know, they start off not super high and they, and they grow over time. Kind of build reputation over time. Yeah. And, uh, we call it the Rite of Passage. So if you go to school here in Fort Collins at CSU, it's a Rite of Passage. You go to Chebahut, you know, it's part of the college experience. That takes a while to get there. And so, you know, down in LSU, they've been open just over two years. I think that it's getting there, but it's not a, I mean, you wouldn't say like, Oh yeah, if you go to Ellis, you go to Chiba Hut, like it's not there yet. Um, and so, uh, you know, that, that makes it a little bit more challenging, but, but that store, uh, it's got two owners in there, um, husband and wife, and they're in there all day, every day. And so the experience that customers have when they come in is a really cool, really unique experience. You know, you're coming into a place and. You're talking with the owner and you're getting that one on one, you know, very knowledgeable conversation about everything from, you know, the, the weather today to also business ownership. You know, you get a very cool conversation that I think takes place there. I'm actually going to be out there tomorrow. And, uh, um, Yeah. It's a, uh, it can be really cool, but you definitely, you know, our model is not a one store model. It is a three store, three to five store. We call them honeycombs. It's a three to five store model. And, uh, you know, that way you get to leverage the support from those other locations. Right. And you can have enough critical mass kind of to have maybe a really good GM over all three stores and store managers that we each one or something like that. Correct. Yeah. We call them district managers and they would oversee, you know, between three to six locations. Yeah. So you can pay. You know, a handful of people really well. I mean, ultimately it's restaurant industry. So you're going to have a lot of turnover and there's only, you know, there's, and there's, um, you know, at times single digit margin at best. And so, um, especially as you're growing because you're investing in a lot of infrastructure and support and things like that, but, um, but. We know that if you've got three stores, you can make a really cool living. If you want to be your own owner operator and oversee those three stores, and it's that much better. But a lot of our folks tend to have, um, our franchisees, our owners have other gigs that they are engaged in that they're. primarily responsible for and that's, again, that's a whole nother set of challenges as well because, you know, maybe they're not so there's people that maybe have built some wealth in something else, had a construction company or real estate or whatever, this or that. And they're like, you know, I want some continuing income and put some capital in, have a, have a manager and have cheap ahead, print me a bunch of money. Yeah. And, uh, I know we haven't. Introduced, uh, him yet, but, uh, Scott Jennings is our founder and I've been working with him for a long time and, uh, um, whenever we're sitting across the table with a potential franchise owner, they come to what we call discovery days and they come in and see our team and we meet them. So on and so forth before we sign an agreement with them. And he wanted his one line that he uses every single time is as we're sitting across the table from him, he says, uh, You know, there's a lot easier ways to make money than in restaurants. What are you, what are you doing? What's your why? Yeah. What do you know what you're getting yourself into here? And, uh, you know, restaurants are incredibly challenging and they're getting more challenging as new, you know, laws are getting passed and minimum wages heading north and just, you know, what get passes and what gets passed in California tends to work its way out from out there. You know, 12 week Leaves and different things. Oh yeah, and they just passed 20 an hour minimum wage. Follow, uh, comes into place, uh, uh, April 1. So... No, in California. Well, they've been talking about local minimum wage changes too. I don't think they've done anything yet, right? Like I kind of yanked... Yeah, I don't think so, uh, here, but, uh... But that's not your biggest problem. problem is the bleeding of California policies. Yeah, well, I mean, even down in Denver right now, it's 1860, I think, minimum wage. And so, you know, it's, we're selling 12 sandwiches, you know, so it's hard to, you know, make that work. You need, you need volume, which is something that we're pretty good at, we have really solid, we call them AUVs, average, average unit volumes. And so, but, you know, that's Uh, half the battle, you gotta also pencil out the bottom line. So for the listeners, uh, Scott Jennings is a former Loco Think Tank member and, uh, when he departed he nominated Mark and said you should put Mark into one of your chapters and Mark's been ever since, really. So it's been eight years or something now? Seven? I don't know. It's been a while, yeah. Um, but, uh, Scott also is the person that when he was in my chapter way back when, I told this story a lot, uh, finished a conversation with I was asking if I should expand my mobile food business. And, uh, I had a second trailer, because I was working too hard and whatever, and you probably heard this too, but, and Scott finished it with, uh, Bear! You need to park that freaking trailer in your backyard and go get a job and get out of this food business. You're not really cut out for it. Yeah. That sounds about right. And he was right. You know, I'm not really a detail oriented person. I'm not really very good at managing people. You know, there's a lot of failings that I have that weren't good markers for success. Opportunities, Kurt. Opportunities for growing. Yeah, there you go. Or just stay on my strengths. I can have podcasts and do, you know, interesting conversations all day long. Yeah. So, um, I noticed on your, uh, LinkedIn profile that you're a political science major. I don't know if I ever knew that before. Yeah, um, so, came to school up here in Fort Collins, 2002. Um, Absolutely. I had no idea what I wanted to do. Well, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but that was just because I liked the show, Ally McNeil. Um, but, uh, anyways, um, Um, it just ended up being something that I could kind of fudge my way through in college. So it, it held anything that was challenging, like a, a Spanish minor that went by the wayside. And so, um, kind of just focused on that. So you didn't really get your hard, hard ass work ethic until a little later in life? No, I mean, I think I grew up military, so my dad, my dad was military, so, uh, he kind of instilled the work ethic pretty early on. But, um, as far as the polysci is concerned, you know, I, it was, It is what it is, but I did learn a lot from it. I'd vote for you. I appreciate that. Yeah, for sure. I feel like I would have to really earn people's votes. Like, they wouldn't just look at me and be like, Oh yeah, I wanna vote for that guy. The Chibahut guy. Yeah, I think I would have to be really, uh, my, my, platform would have to be really solid. Um, and so, yeah, I, uh, I tend to go on the fly quite a bit. So I don't think that's great for politics, but, um, Hey, maybe catch my little lot easier. Yeah. It, it comes off as genuine, I think, but who knows? But I, I mean, what I like to say about my political science degree is that what it really taught me was to see the other side of the equation. So that was one of the things through some of the, um, kind of educational piece of it was, you know, anytime somebody is making a decision or anything's going on, like there's a reason for it. You just have to look at the other, the other side of it. Right. Which is what I think is a huge challenge in our current. Environment out there, whether it's social media that feeds you the same algorithm, feeds you the same shit that you want That you're staying. Affirms what you already think. Yeah, it's crazy And so my wife and I we battle a little bit on it because you know It doesn't matter what she brings up to me I immediately go to the other side of the coin and kind of like start advocating for it. Not great marriage advice, but But yeah, I enjoy that too like I was in debate in college and like if you can't argue both sides of Challenging topics Then you probably don't understand the topic well enough. Yeah, honestly, absolutely, or you're just not yeah You're just not listening to the other side or just thinking that there's, you know, another point of view out there that may not be yours. Like, people don't like hearing that and tend to, tend to, I think, shell up a little bit. And so, um, so that was the main thing that I got from Poli Sci. Also, just, you know, it was challenging for me to graduate. It wasn't necessarily an easy thing. I definitely, you know, every single paper I wrote was at 5 a. m. at the library that was due at 9 a. m. And, you know, I've been historically good at, uh, very good at procrastinating. When you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute. Exactly. And I always got it done. It was always a C and, uh, you know, but it got through. But, uh, you know, ultimately, um, it was a challenge and, um. So it was good for me to, to work through it. And, uh, it's, I was the first person in my family to, to go to a four year college and get a degree. So, um, yeah, I mean, I think there's, uh, You know, a lot of support that happened, uh, for that, but, uh, Well, also, they didn't really know how to guide you and support you and stuff, because it was all new. Yeah. You know, my dad was like, well, if you're going to apply to college and stuff, I, you'll have to, they send you letters and different things and applying for scholarships. I don't know about any of that stuff either, you know. Yeah. So. Yeah, I, uh, I almost failed my, I almost flunked out my freshman year. Really? Because we were living in Newsome. Uh, it was like the dork, dorm or whatever. So it should have been easier to like stay on target. But, um, I would walk out every single day from Newsom and the intramural fields are right outside of Newsom. And my political science track was different than my best friends who were in like more of, uh, Uh, like a science oriented, uh, titering school. So their, uh, schedule was completely opposite of mine. So every time I was going to class, they were like out there, like throwing Frisbee or screwing around, doing whatever. And so every single time I'd go out to like, go to my class, I would, uh, be like, ah, fuck it. I kick off the Birkenstocks and run over there. And, uh, I had a similar experience. I went on probation after, uh, three semesters. And my, my trick actually was I quit buying textbooks. Uh, because I always thought I could catch up, you know, for skipping class. And then I just, my rule was I couldn't skip class. Okay. And just go, go to every class and take good notes. And then studying for tests became reading my notes. And I pretty much got A's and a few B's after that. That's pretty good self awareness. And saved a bunch of dough. Yeah, I can imagine. And picked up weed instead of, uh, There, well, that was an impediment to me as well. They came into that, yeah. Which, speaking of, can we, can we spark this? Sure. I'm gonna spark it anyway. I know you told me you're pretty lightweight these days, but maybe you'll join me for a puff. Alright. Um, but uh, but anyway, that was my own experience, and not too dissimilar. Uh, were you not a good student, like in high school and stuff? I mean, it was the same thing. You were fine. I mean, for all the way up until probably, 10th grade, I didn't have to study for anything. Because it just, whatever, it's like relatively intuitive stuff and so I, you know, here are a little bit through class and, and be fine to get somewhere between an A and a C. Um, then like, uh, junior year, 11th grade and on, like I actually had to study. And so that was really hard. Like it was challenging for me to kind of figure that piece out. Um, but you know, again, I just always was able to kind of. Just procrastinate and put it together at the last minute. And it'd be minus or a C. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Uh, it's funny. I had a webinar and owner webinar. We do them every quarter with our owners and, uh, uh, this morning, and this was like the first one, or we have a chief of staff and she's finally getting us like in the shape here and like making us submit our leadership team, like submit our content, like at a certain time. And then like. We're kind of like finally falling in the line. So today was like the first owner webinar that we've been doing. We've been doing them every single, we were doing them like weekly during COVID, but it's like the first one where I actually had my content and my slides together. Like yesterday, I still added a slide, like literally 10 minutes before, but you know, it just like, uh, that's just how I've always felt. Kudos to, uh, your person that's, that's willing to step up and make you step up. You know, it's so hard for junior staff to, kind of help their bosses get whipped into shape. Alma does that great for me. I mean, she's gentle about it, but hold me accountable. Yeah. And we're, uh, uh, she's only been on, she's a little bit less than a year now. Um, but, uh, we are definitely, um, You know, we're growing up as an organization. She's getting more comfortable. But the way that our folks have typically come into the organization, especially over the last three years, has been just like literally thrown in. Wearing several hats. Like, immediately. You're growing so fast. Several hats, yeah. We needed this person six months ago, but we finally found the person. Exactly, or just Or we lost somebody. We are so close to being completely maxed out over capacity that, like, if we don't do this now, like, we're gonna be in really bad shape. Yeah. So, um. Yeah. I mean, uh, that's a good little segue here. I mean, uh, pre COVID I actually looked at it last night. I had to dig it up. Um, not good things to do right before bed as I, uh, didn't sleep. Uh, I'm good. Thanks. Okay. Uh, as I didn't sleep too good, uh, last night, but, uh, um, I, I dug up an old payroll from 2019, uh, cause I was curious how many, I was, I was like, I think we had like seven or eight employees back then, um, at the office. And, uh, so I dug it up and I was kind of, Trip down memory lane there, but yeah, we had eight employees in July of 2019 and I just approved payroll last week and we're at 35 employees, so Nothing crazy, but man a total whatever. That's a lot. It's like it's a lot of four times in four years Yeah, and it's and it's come you know and With its challenges for sure. I mean, I know we haven't talked too much about it, but I mean, I came up through the stores Yeah, I was working at Chiba and we'll backtrack soon. I think we'll jump in the time machine here and Start fresh, but but yeah, I mean I came up in the store I was running shifts and making sandwiches and doing that kind of stuff. And so, you know to actually Manage an office of professional, you know, we have directors and right stuff like that and they're all probably more experienced and business in some ways than you. Absolutely. Or many of them. Not all of them, but some. Yeah. We've, we've tried to recruit it or whatever, develop internally as much as possible, but we've definitely brought in some outside folks. We just hired a director of construction. We have VP of marketing that we hired from the outside VP of finance. You know, some roles that definitely are, you know, high end roles and, uh, um, Yeah, tell me about that. What's that look like from a, because I mean, you're talking about the franchise or a company basically. So you're, you're sales and support of your 55 and growing list of franchisees and you get whatever, seven, 9 percent something of their gross something. I don't know. You don't have to tell it the deals, but some percent between five and 10, I suspect. Uh, and uh, And then just help make them stronger and find more of them. And that's kind of the task at your hand, right? Yeah, I mean, um... And how do you guys do that? What do you do? It's training, like what does a VP of Construction do? That's for building corporate stores or just helping your... Supporting our franchisees, yeah. So, um... You know, for that one specifically, I mean, it's, uh, you know, they literally work with, uh, with the owner, their general contractor, they, they go find their own general contractor. We make recommendations. We have a couple of national contractors that they can use if they don't have somebody local. Um, but, but almost like a shared owner's rep. Correct. Yeah. We, we help them, uh, from every, every step of the way we help them write their letter of intent on their real estate side of things. We help them execute their lease. We don't read their lease, but you know, we make sure that the LOI components are covered in the lease on the construction side. We have a set of brand standards that, you know, we have to uphold. AchievaHut's got to look a certain way and, uh, even less than look, it's got to function a certain way. So we, we have it pretty locked down in the kitchen side of things like that. Has like, those are all right. There's a standard set of equipment that you must have if you want to have toasted subs properly and just in every piece of equipment back there. And even wall coverings and lighting, like everything is standardized pretty much in the kitchen. Um, They might function a little differently, but out in the lobby and in the bar, like we really allow for a lot of flexibility, um, outside of that. So we have several design packages that we offer up that are kind of just like a base. And then they can choose between one of those design packages or they can, you know, I don't care what kind of table you have in your lobby. So long as it's a solid wood table, it could be whatever material you want. It could be whatever stain you want. Yeah. If you're at Ohio State and you want to have Buckeyes in epoxy on top of your tables, that's fine. Go get it. Yeah. And, uh, so again, out there in the lobby where, you know, it's really just more of that, um, enjoying piece. It's, uh, a lot more flexibility. Uh, in the kitchen where the work's getting done and, and we're down to biz, it's, it's definitely a more. That's even part of your value add is like when you learn something new from one of your franchisees about. This way works better than that's tell others to that's one of our key roles in our entire organization So I actually just sat down so I do a what's called a HQ 101 sesh with each new hire that we have okay, come on and I'd spend an hour one on one with them and I Tell them about where we've been and where we're going and I also give them a little bit like at the franchise or or All the way down. Just the company in general. And, uh, and then, um, I also, I share two models with them. One is an inverted pyramid with HQ, you know, at the tip, at the bottom. And then, uh, our owners. Um, and then our crew and our customers at the top, you know, everything we do at headquarters is in support of our owners, our crew and our customers. So that really kind of sets the stage for them on that. But kind of what you just alluded to is what we call the iceberg principle, which is, you know, at the base of that iceberg. That's where all the information is. That's where all the real time, you know, Intel is, and you know, we're all the way, we're at that little tip of the iceberg that's above the water, like that's headquarters. And so our job is to, one of our key jobs is to get down into the restaurants, get down to the bottom of that iceberg where all that information is, which is not with the owners. I mean, it is in some cases, but in certain cases. Um. Not necessarily with general managers. It's like with the frontline workers, they know what's going on. They want, they know what it feels like when we roll out a new SOP and it's like, Oh, we got to start doing this now. You know, they know how that feels. And they also know how customers are responding to it and their other crew members. And so, you know, if the. closer we can get to that information, the better we're going to be. And so, um, no doubt what we're trying to do is harvest those best practices from the system, get them up to HQ, and then out to the rest of the system as quickly as possible so that everybody can take advantage of it. And, uh, that's a key part of, sounds like you're super involved. Like I hear about some franchises where they're like, yeah, we pay such and such 7%. And, you know, we hear from them once a year at the. Yeah, annual franchisees meeting. Yeah, and to be honest, you know, I think it's We probably go over the top I mean one of our core values is it's it's the hustle but it's also go above and beyond is kind of like the defining little thing below it. But, um, yeah, I mean, we go above and beyond. I feel like we go above and beyond as a franchisor and pretty much every single thing. It's a, it's a constant issue we're battling. We just talked about it in our leadership meeting on Monday. Well, in some franchisees are like, if you didn't go so above and beyond, maybe you could charge me a percent less. Yeah. Well, right. A lot of them don't want it. Right. But then a lot of them do. And, uh, you know, talking about how do we continue to scale? Right. I mentioned we're going to open 15 restaurants next year. Right. But, you know, my construction guy, actually my chief development officer, um, was approving an equipment order on Monday for, you know, a store, you know, and it's like, we have standard packages, but he was in there like literally going item by item, like helping approve this equipment order for a new store. It was a new owner, right? So they're doing it for the first time, but it's like, holy shit. We cannot continue to like, we already have the program, it's got to be on them to like go through and check the boxes and approve their order and, and things like that. So not to say that we would ever get away from like completely not supporting in that capacity, but we're going to have to pick and choose our battles. There Yeah, that makes sense. Um, should we, like, I want to definitely talk about like your transition from like, front lines virtually to the store management to all the way up to the franchise and such. But does it make sense to jump all the way in the time machine and just roll back through? Or is there other things we should talk about present day? Yeah. No, I mean, I think it's helpful to go through, you know, how we got here. I mean, that's, again, that's how I set it up with my, my HQ 101 sessions. Right. And, uh, you know, it helps paint the path of where we're going, I think. Yeah. And so, um, yeah. I mean, so. Chibot started in 1998. Uh, this year is our 25th year anniversary. So, um, a long time in, in the sandwich business. And for those of you guys out there that don't know, we are a marijuana themed sandwich shop. So, and have been since day one. So, uh, Scott, our founder has been kind of whatever, not breaking the rules, but kind of pushing the envelope. Yeah. That's one of my kinships with him, I suppose. I brought, exactly. Yeah, a lot of people, uh, is how they relate to him. Um, but, uh, I've been doing it a long time, and so it was really, really edgy back in the day. Um, and obviously now, as, as we call it the green wave has, uh, taken on, it's, it's a little less edgy, especially depending on the market. Um, but, uh, yeah, so it started in 1998. Uh, Scott had basically opened a few stores down in Arizona. We started at the ASU campus. And, uh, had opened a few stores. He wanted to start raising his family. This is like 2001. And, uh, he's originally from Omaha, Nebraska. And so... He had made it out to Arizona. Um, he was getting ready to raise his family. Wanted to be closer to family, but didn't want to go back to Omaha. So he landed here in Fort Collins. Seems like a pretty good logic to me. Yeah, right, right. And uh, so, um, When he did that, he sold those three stores. He basically started Chibahut Franchising. Oh. To then set that up, and then he sold those three stores down in Arizona. Oh, I see. I didn't know that even. Okay. So that's kind of how it started. And uh, to be honest, that's... Kind of a, been one of our growth models throughout the years is, uh, Scott or the company will, um, open stores and then we'll make them successful, make them successful, set them up and then refranchise them. And so we, he's been doing it kind of, I mean, he knew what he was doing, but like, as we've kind of repeated that method in the future, it's like, oh yeah, I guess we have been doing this pretty much forever. And so. But that first one wasn't really by plan necessarily, it was just by like, well, I want to move to Fort Collins, but I got these three restaurants here, and it's silly to completely start over after I built this brand and stuff. Oh, and he is, he's always plotting and planning. Yeah, he's an idea guy for sure. Yeah, um, so it's, uh, You know, 2001, he makes it back here to Fort Collins and kind of starts doing the same thing. He opened up a, um, store here in Fort Collins. He opened one down in Boulder. Uh, Boulder one, uh, it was kind of a pain in the ass for him to support. Boulder, especially back in the early 2000s, it was different than Boulder is today. Like it was actually pretty grungy and pretty, like you had to be legit down there. Otherwise they'd bounce you. Um, and so, uh, He put in the tough work down there and then brought in franchisees to pick up that store. Actually, one of the guys is in our office. He's one of our partners at Chiba. FraNChiS. Oh, he was the original franchisee. Uh, is that Dave Boulder? Oh no, that's actually Seth Larsson. Okay. Um. And so, uh, he and I actually, we, we joined Chiba Hut in the same summer of 2005. And so, we've been with the company 18 years. And, uh, and yeah, we're kind of the partners with Scott on this thing now. We've gone through a weird journey to get here. But, uh, but yeah, so, um. Again, uh, I started in 2005, but, uh, I was just making sandwiches, uh, you know. You were just a dude with a political science, uh, aspiring path. Yeah, who failed a piss test at the city of Fort Collins. Oh, no shit. To get a, a job, uh, at the city of Fort Collins. Failed my piss test. My buddy who had taken me there was like, I know where you should go, uh, whatever, apply. I saw the window of Chiba Hut. Exactly. And, uh. Yeah, I went in, uh, got hired on the spot and whatever. The rest is history. But, uh, so that was 2005, 2007, an interesting time. Um, so Scott actually partnered up with, uh, a guy in 2007 who had been with Cold Stone during their heyday in the early 2000s. And so he was the guy that was supposed to like. So kind of like a semi private equity kind of thing? No, he was, he came in, um, just a single dude. Experience and some money. And kind of bought in a little bit and then, uh, again, he was supposed to be the guy to take it national. Um, well, you know, so we, you know, we did some branding stuff. We, um, went out and solicited for some, some new franchisees and some different ways. And so, um, I don't know this part of the story. Cool. Yeah. So 2007, I graduated with my political science degree and, uh, through an epic party at the Eastside location, um, back in the day. But, uh, anyways, graduated in 2007, stayed with the company. Um, Scott, basically, we were getting ready to open our second store here in Fort Collins, and he, uh, said, you know, I had graduated with my poli sci. I'm like, no, I absolutely don't want to do anything with poli sci. I don't want to leave Fort Collins. So I'll, I'll, I'll hang out here. And he was. Just getting ready to open the second store here in Fort Collins, and so I went over there as their first general manager in 2007, and that's when I kind of made the commitment, like, hey, alright, I'm gonna, I'm gonna kind of stick with Chiba, and I'm gonna stick with Scott, and see where this goes. By the way, before we get into too many more chapters, can we jump to, like... Military kid and first grade Mark and like, uh, hear a little bit about your family and you have brothers, sisters. I think I want to inform that journey just a bit more. Okay. Because this is Mark's story and Cheapa Hood's. Alright. Scott's scared, by the way, just to call him out publicly. He's scared he'll say something he regrets to have public. That's the most, uh, whatever. He probably would. Aware thing that I think he's done there. He probably would. Um, so yeah, I grew up, uh, my dad was Air Force, uh, so he was an enlisted, uh, person. So he, he, you know, we didn't, I know a lot of people think like, oh, you're in the military, that means you move every four years or whatever, top gun or whatever it is. We, we were pretty stable. So, um, I was born out in California in the Mil, Mojave Desert Edwards Air Force Base. Oh, wow. Um, and then, uh, was there for 10 years. My dad, who was working on f fifteens at the time, like as a, like basically a mechanic. He was doing electrical, changing oil, whatever. Yeah. Um, somehow, like, worked a deal. He, uh, he had grown up in, in Colorado. In Colorado Springs. And, um, somehow worked a deal to get, Recruited on, I guess, uh, to the Air Force Academy as the, uh, Lab Director of Behavioral Sciences. So he went from F 15s to Lab Director of Behavioral Sciences, literally teaching cadets coming through school, uh, about, you know, um, basically... Psychology stuff. Correct. 100 percent psychology stuff. And so, pretty crazy there. He had no background, no education there? I don't think so. He didn't have a degree or anything, so... He's always been extremely well read and has done those kind of things, um, to kind of... That's cool, though. That was a big career shift for him. Maybe he got pictures of some guy with a cadet over the desk or something. That might be true, actually. But, you know, it was before the internet, so I don't even know how you, uh... Right, how do you blackmail somebody before the internet? It nearly isn't easy. Yeah, so... Anyway, I digress. Somehow, by God's providence, you land in... Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy, which is a beautiful spot. Yeah, way better than the Mojave. Yeah. I mean, it's hot out there, I hear. Much, much, much different setup. Um, but, uh, you know, landed there, um, kind of finished out of high school, all that. Kind of lost my train of thought there, but anyways. You got to Colorado Springs. Yeah, I was down in Colorado Springs, um. How did you like Colorado Springs, and when were you there? I grew up there, so, basically from when I was 10 until I graduated high school, and then I came, 2002. Okay. So between 1996 Okay, yeah. And uh, kind of did most of my growing up. I was seven, my wife and I were. Okay. We don't, I don't think we ever talked about it really. Yeah, um. Nice town. It's, it got huge during the time that I was there, me growing up. Like 35 minutes to get to where you wanted to go. Yeah, it was unbelievable from when we first moved there to when I left for high school. That's, you know, growing up, it was fine. You know, you got Pike's Peak there, you got Garden of the Gods, all that kind of stuff. It's beautiful. Um, but man, when I graduated from high school, I could not wait to get the hell out of there. And I had no idea why people stayed there. I was like, it's cause it got so big and it was so like. Um, military and Christian and just like very like, if you didn't fit in those books. And tech and Broadmoor and railroad. You know, it was like, it was clicky. Yeah, it was a crazy spot. And so, um, I definitely I like Old Colorado City. Yeah, my dad actually used to live right by there. And so I think he terrorized that place, but, um, yeah. So when I graduated high school, I was, I was ready to get the hell out of there. And, uh, my cousin, uh, he'd gone to CSU and he had always worn this CSU golf hat for some reason. I was a golfer. I golfed in high school. Okay. And, uh, I just, Always, for whatever reason, I just always wanted to go there, so I like did the obligatory. I, I, we definitely couldn't afford, uh, CU, so I didn't go to college, go to state. Yeah, I did not go to even check out CU, but, um, my parents were like trying to get me to go to UNC because it was cheaper, you know, than CSU, but like, I couldn't have been more disengaged at any, you know, college visit when I went to UNC and funny because I ended up living in Greeley a little while later, but, uh, um, yeah, so I came up here to Fort Collins, like I said, almost failed my freshman year at a 1. 7 GPA my freshman year. They almost bounced me. Um, and then, uh, Got it back on track and, uh, yeah, I kind of finished out my college, my college days. Yeah. Um. Wanted to work for the city of Fort Collins. Yeah. Got bounced. Yeah. Was that, uh, like, were you surprised or, like, were you? When I failed? Yeah. No. I mean, I had taken the drink, whatever that was. Right. Yeah. Or whatever. Something, Golden Seal was what they told us when I was young, 10 years later. Yeah. It, uh. Uh, I'm not really sure what I, all I know is it was not like a, oh yeah, you kind of failed. It was like a full on failure. I mean, we were pretty, we smoked quite a bit in college and, uh, um, yeah, it, uh, whatever. I think it was. So it goes. Yeah, it was in there pretty good. So anyways, um. And then we can resume with our. Yeah, then we come to Chiba Hut. Chiba Hut, sorry. Yeah, I, uh. I had actually worked at the subway on the, in the Laurie student center for a long time. You came with experience. Yeah. I'm pretty sure they like, let me go for the summer and, uh, they're like, yeah, we, you know, so I had to go find another gig and, uh, again, failed the piss test. Ended up at Chiba Hut. Um, and, uh, yeah, I worked through college. Um, I had a couple of jobs. I worked at the Ramskeller on campus as well. So I worked two jobs, finished up school, did all that. And, uh, um, yeah, I forget if I was talking about this earlier, but I actually got fired from Chiba Hut, um, in I think 2006, um, like three or four years in before you got made manager. Oh yeah. And the manager tried to fire me because. We used to cut our cheese bread this stupid ass way. We used to cut this whole big cheese bread into like four big ass sections. And that was like the, the protocol or whatever. And I had been working the line that day and uh, there was a family that came in. And I knew that this cheese bread was for the kid because I had helped them. Right. And uh, and I was like. You really didn't want this huge chunks. So I was like, and I talked to the manager. I'm like, hey. I want to cut this, this into smaller pieces and he was like, no, you can't, you have to cut it this way. And I, I cut it in smaller pieces anyways. And the next day he calls me, I worked a shift at the Ramskeller during the day and I was going to work a shift at Chiba Hut that night. And, uh, and he calls me and he's like, Hey, yeah, don't bother coming in. He's like, you know, because of your subordination yesterday or some stupid shit like that. Right. And I looked at the phone and it's funny because this is when I used to drink like. I had two mugs of, you know, those are 25 ounce mugs we had around, so I think I had two of those before I was going on my shift at Chibaha and, uh, cause, uh, whatever. Um, but, uh, yeah, that's a different story for a different day. Um, but, uh, either way, uh, do you not drink at all anymore? No, I do. Um, I just not at two 30 or three 30, but uh, of course, if I start that early, I'm in trouble. Um, anyway, but uh, yeah, so, uh, he calls me and I'm like, and he says, you know, I'm going to fire you subordination, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I looked at, I'm like, absolutely not, you know, I'm like, I'm headed there right now. You are not firing me. You're not firing me. I got on my longboard and I went down and she got With two mugs of beer in you. With two mugs of beer in me and I was like, dude, there's no way that you can fire me. I'm absolutely your best employee. Like, Whatever, like, you can't outfire me. And, uh, so he let me back on, quote unquote. And did you know Scott by this time? I mean, kind of. Barely. He was always kind of the behind the scenes owner. Yeah, he'd come in and his big thing is he'd pull you out of the shop. He'd take you to the front and he'd walk the dog. the shop with you, right? That was his big thing, right? Okay. I actually still try to do this as much as I can with my owners and managers when I'm out in the field. Um, and uh, so you pull them out of the store and then you walk the shop with them. You're like, you know, customer experience starts right here, right? You know, like you got to pick up the cigarette butts and you got to do this and you know, they're, they're, uh, There's fingerprints on the, on the glass and you go in and what does the music feel like, or sound like, and is it cold in here? Is it hot in here? You know, and just really get that customer perspective and, um, you know, some of the early training that I had from him. But, um, yeah, uh, that definitely is still very useful today, but, uh, yeah, he was always around, but, uh, very limited. And, uh, you know, it gives me an idea that like, I don't walk the shop very much. You know, I put excellent facilitators into place in my chapters and stuff, and I sub time, sometimes substitute or visit, but not that much. I should, I should walk the shop. It's just, it's valuable information. I mean, it's just like, if you can really open your eyes on something like that, right? Like, I mean, there's, there's no doubt there's things that I was doing as I was walking up to your place today and I'm just like, you know, checking it out. And I know that I probably see things that other people don't see because I've trained, I'm trained, you know, like I saw the signs on the fence as I was coming in that showed the, uh, what is it? Mountain vacation properties. Uh, yeah. So I know Moses. He, I know he was starting his vacation real thing. So I'm like, okay, I figured that's his thing. And it was the parking thing over there. And then I can figure out that obviously there's, there's a, there's a VRBO somewhere in this facility somewhere. So directly above us, directly above us. Yeah. They have two French bulldogs too. Okay. Yeah. So, but I, I, I met the gal earlier and I said, just so you know, we're having a podcast down here later. Okay. So, um, but anyway, so I think that's part of the early trainings and, you know, uh, so you go in there and this guy's like. I told you not to come in. Oh yeah, and so I just, uh, you know, I told him, you basically can't fire me. He said, Alright, fine, you can stay on. And, uh, it's funny, um... Because he, he ended up obviously leaving a couple years later, whatever. And, uh, and then, uh, he, he actually is from Arkansas, made it back to Arkansas. And actually he, uh, uh, hit us up a few years ago to be a franchisee out there. And is he? He's not. Um, He's too much of a dick. But, you know, he was like, you know, it was interesting because he had to hit us up. Yeah, yeah. I think I was COO at the time. Right, right. And it's just like, oh, well. The tables have turned. Yes, let's see how high you can jump. Yeah, I don't like the way your, uh, franchise submittal, uh, was positioned or something. Yeah, so, um, so you get to this new store. This is still the one over off of, like, uh, whatever, Taft and Elizabeth? Yeah, correct. Is that right? Yeah, it used to be only about 1, 200 square feet, I forget the name of the old place that it was. It was an old sandwich shop. And so Scott, I think he converted it into a cheaper hut for like, under a hundred grand for sure. Right. Got it up and running. And so there's a lot of things that were carried over. Was it like a silver mine or something over there? It was the other one. It wasn't a silver mine. It was, D something. It was, it was something just like, yeah, there's a blockbuster was one off LeMay. There was one like that too, right? Yeah. I can't remember the name of it. Uh, I remember I'd been there a couple of times before. But, um, it was a Cost Cutters to the left and a blockbuster to the right. Yeah. Um, and so we were right in between. In the heyday of Blockbuster. Yeah. I mean, we Actually, Blockbuster was probably just starting to get dinged by that time. It was doing okay. Like, while I was there in Fort Collins, while that, while I was around that location, is you could feel the demise happening. Right. Cause we had all the, all the people that worked at Blockbuster came over to Chiba to eat and hang out and everything. And so, um, yeah, we were friends with all those folks. And so were you the manager on, on Laurel before you moved over to Elizabeth? Yeah, it was more like a, I don't think I was the general manager. I think I was just like a shift leader or something like that. And so again, Scott had kind of made the offer to me as I graduated and headed over there. And, uh, yeah, just kind of worked over there for, for summer. And, uh, by. Uh, right about that time, I guess, to pick the story back up, Scott had partnered up with, uh, dude from Coldstone. Oh yeah, yeah, back to the Coldstone guy. Yeah, and so, between 2007 and 2008, great time to be trying to grow your business, um, he, you know, had brought in some new franchisees, and so, I had been running, uh, the Taft Elizabeth store, um, and then over that year or so I started kind of bouncing between the two of them and I was kind of running both of them to a certain degree. And then we had these new franchisees came, coming in. And so that was the first time, and we would do all the training out of the Eastside store. Right, right. So, de facto, since I was running the stores, I basically started doing all the training for new franchisees coming through. It's like, oh, I haven't had to really train. People before because I just sold them already trained people. Correct. Yeah, and now we have folks coming in that I mean we had I I hadn't actually thought about this before we started talking here, but, uh, like we had an attorney out of Phoenix that was getting ready to open a store in Flagstaff. And so just trying to teach this guy who was a relatively successful attorney. Yes. Uh, he had capital and a lot of things you like, and then he's 22 year old like pinner, uh, looking dude, uh. You know, trying to tell them what to do and hold them accountable to like meeting training expectations, stuff like that. So it was, it was interesting. That was my first like real, uh, you know, step into the quote unquote corporate side of things, right. As the franchisor doing the training and building systems and training materials and everything like that, which I kind of had developed with the Goldstone guy. Like he had a basis for it, but it was all not Chibahut stuff. Right. And so I would Chibify everything. kind of get it going. But, uh, yeah, kind of just did that between 2007 and 2009. And, um, you know, went out and helped open some of these stores. We opened, uh, Albuquerque during that time. We opened Flagstaff. We opened, uh, uh, our store down in Denver, um, for the first one out of like a traditional college market. And so, and, and I was the own I was the only trainer, right? So I trained them on the front side to teach them here. And then I would go out to their market and be there for 10 or 14 days. Oh, wow. By myself. You're a single guy at this time, I'm assuming. Single dude, yeah. But so that's not a big deal. But man, I mean, talk about the grind, right? I mean, we're talking 20 hour days. Yeah, work to have 20. Yeah. I mean, well, you'd work for 16 and then you'd go out and drink for two or three hours with the crew and then, yeah, rinse and repeat for 10 days straight. Um, and so, yeah, and now I get all pissed off or not pissed off, but whatever. I kinda, we sent five people out now for opening. So I'm like, holy shit, we sent five. Now it was literally me by myself for 10 days out there. And, uh, yeah. So anyways, I did some of that and kind of learned quite a bit. Um, 2009, um. I got the offer again from Scott to go open up a company store down in Greeley. And so, um, I know one of the... So you were working effectively for the franchisor already because you kind of slipped into this training mode and stuff right away. Because I was working for Scott's stores. Yeah. Scott's stores, so all the training was coming through there. So yeah, I mean, I was just, I was just the guy in those stores. Yeah, he was kind of the lead franchisee in a way, the training franchisee. Correct. Of the franchisor. Yeah. And you were the franchisor. And we, you know, we just call them company shops. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I was, I was the, the guy that knew the most at the store at that time. And so de facto, I'm the, the trainer and all those things. So, learned a ton though. Good thing you stuck around cause you could have disrupted his. Path quite a bit by departing when you still had almost all the knowledge. Yeah, maybe well, I think I was more valuable a couple years later, but What he kind of got me with and I don't have my notes with me But I know you asked for like the the loco moment like the craziest thing that ever happened Yeah, and it usually comes at the end, but you can put it in right here. Well, I think it just kind of fits into the story here, which I do not tell very many people about this at all for a good thing. We don't have too many listeners. Well, uh, but, uh, so I actually got two DUIs in 2007 and 2008. So I got them almost exactly one year apart from one another. And this is in your heydays of these trainings and stuff. Correct. Yeah. And, uh, um, we don't need to go in that story. We can save that for the end, but I mentioned it because basically Scott. uh, save me, right. Yeah. And so it didn't fire me, could have done all those things and he stuck with me. And so basically it's somewhat made me an indentured servant for, for another decade and a half. Uh, finally outside of that indentured servant to CEO, Mark Torres of Chiba Hut. There you go. That's pretty spot on actually. Um, But, uh, yeah, so it shows a lot though, like he was loyal. Oh, in that respect. And yeah, but a lot of loyalty back. Exactly. And, uh, yeah, I mean, there's nothing I wouldn't do for the guy. And, uh, yeah, um, he's, yeah, a big part of why I'm on this couch today. So, um, but, uh, yeah, I mentioned it because again, we were getting ready to go open the store. He was getting ready to open one in, in Greeley and, And I didn't really have a choice. He's like, you're going to fucking Greeley, dude, Mike. Uh, so I had to call it. And he, he actually People ask you why you moved to Greeley, and you're like, well, because God is making me. This is my punishment. Um, and uh, you know, he likes to To say that, uh, I went, I, I did my time in green, right? I didn't went out and did, I did a year's time out there. And, uh, but I mentioned that one obviously for a few different reasons, but another thing that I learned on this one was, it was the first one that I got to like get involved in on a project. middle construction. So I got to be part of that store opening experience. I got to see, you know, how the general contractors worked, how to place electrical outlets when they weren't necessarily drawn in plans. And, you know, basically the inner workings of the Chiba hut, uh, to make those receipts print out in the correct location. And then, uh, yeah, all this stuff, all those things. Right. And so, um, So I did a year out in, uh, in Greeley actually at that time. Uh, so my wife, Ashley, um. Hi, Ashley. I'm sure you'll listen to this one. I guarantee you she and my mom will listen to this. I'm not sure if anybody else from my group will. But, uh, um. She, I had, I had met up with her here when I was up in Fort Collins, and uh, we dated for a while, and then She stuck with you through the two DUIs too? No, she came in on the after side, so I believe I broke up with her, or whatever, we, we kind of, like, cause we were just hanging out. Uh, but we decided not to hang out anymore, exclusively at least, uh, probably in like 2006 or something like that. And then, uh, and so we'd hang out every once in a while, uh, between then and when I moved down to Greeley, but, um, I don't know. Um, she had moved back to Greeley or LaSalle, just south of Greeley and, uh, and was down in Greeley at the time. She had a car and a driver's license. Yeah. She could. Sorry, Ashley. Very accurate. Um, and so when I moved out to Greeley, I was like, Oh, I know who lives in Greeley. And so we immediately, you know, started hanging out again when I moved to Greeley. And, uh, um, and so I spent a year there. Uh, Uh, and in 2010, um, the guy who was the Coldstone guy, um, was still in there, he was trying to make it happen on his end too, so he actually had opened, he was opening a store down in San Diego. Oh. And he needed a general manager. And so, I, he actually recruited me to leave Greeley and move out to San Diego. Oh wow. I feel like, yeah. Um. San Diego sounds pretty nice. Yeah, to go open that store. Ashley, do you want to come? And, uh, I get ahead of people sometimes. No, it's spot on. And, uh, that's, you know, that's how she kind of stuck with me. And my, for my second Chiba Hut move, I've, I've moved for the company several times and that was the second one. And, uh, yeah, we went out there summer of 2000. Oh, yeah. Was it 2010? Yeah. 2010. And, uh, um. They brought me, uh, the Cold Stone dude, he brought me in at the very beginning of the project. So I almost GC'd that entire project. I did everything in that place. I mean, I stained and sanded every... Was this a new build or an existing strip down and refit? It was a new build for the most part. It was a retail... Uh, center before, so turning it into a restaurant was totally new, but I pretty much ran the, you know, I ran the, uh, the GC, I did a lot of the physical work in there, painted the walls, I, I stained the concrete, I poured the epoxy floors, I did all of those things, uh, from like literally the start of the project all the way through, and really gained a super unique experience, um, especially with being on the franchisor side still, cause that was technically because the Coldstone guy was a partner in the company. Sure. Sure. It was a company store, you know, so, um, so anyways, uh, just learned a ton on that and, and really kind of set me up to be, uh, yeah, not just training, but also. Correct. It made me more, uh, it made me a little bit, uh, more indisposable, you know, like, you know, there just were very few people, especially at that time that just had that information. Sure. Yeah. Um, so yeah, when, uh, we actually, uh, so the Coldstone guy, um, had, basically convinced Scott at the time. We were still, uh, technically headquartered in Fort Collins. Um, but 2010, ColdStoneGuy convinces Scott, like, he's like, hey, he, cause ColdStoneGuy was down in Phoenix. I'm sorry if I didn't mention that earlier. Okay, no. He was based out of Phoenix, um, and so kind of where CheapHut started. And so he had convinced Scott in 2000, basically the beginning of 2011, to, uh, open up. Headquarters down in Arizona. He was like Like Cali in Arizona where it's at. There's enough people in Colorado. Yeah, the only thing out there is Scott. And so, you know, bring it down here where I've got all these franchise connections and I'm gonna help take this thing national by bringing it down here. Right. And so, we actually opened up our first actually physical... You know, office, um, not just one extra space in the back of one of the stores. Yeah. Scott used to have it in a garage and his, uh, uh, the behind, like it's 600 South Shorewood right over here. I think the total, the main house was like maybe 700 square feet. And then there's a garage. It was almost bigger than the house out back, but it was a one car garage. And that was the offices of Chiba franchising for a long time. And, uh, So this was our first legitimate office. And so, um, I basically got hired on cause he, he set up shop. We opened, I think in November of 2010. And so I opened up the San Diego store in July, July 5th of 2010. And basically in those four or five months, I. Got it up and running, trained up a replacement, and then got it going and handed it off and moved from San Diego. I had a whole, like, nine, not even nine months in San Diego, um, before I got shipped back to the desert, uh, to Phoenix and, uh, to Tempe. And, um, And open up the first office there So it was basically just me and the Coldstone guy for a little bit not a store or nothing there We had the the franchise stores there, but no company stores. And so Yeah, that was a whole nother little chapter this 2011 to 2014 where We, again, had another round of franchising, we opened up some, some markets, um, that, uh, you know, we opened Eugene, Oregon, we opened Iowa City, Iowa, RIP, uh, we opened Corvallis, Oregon, RIP, we opened up, uh, um, Madison, Wisconsin, um, And a couple others probably in there, but man, we were just, we were blown and going, but it wasn't working that great. We were spinning our wheels. I, that's what I like to describe that timeframe, 2011, 2014. We just spun our wheels down there. We'd open one, we'd close one, we'd open one, we'd transfer one, we'd open one. It just was really frustrating. And, um, you know, but I, I learned a shit ton. So I was working directly with the Coldstone guy and for whatever, like a lot of people maybe didn't, I mean, a lot of people, but some people weren't big fans of his, but, uh, I learned a shit ton because he had all like, Scott was the idea guy, the culture guy, the concept guy. This guy was more operations focused. He was more of the replaceable, repeatable systems that kind of stuff. Yeah. You know, so I learned all of like basically the corporate systems from. This dude down in Arizona in those three years. And, uh, you know, he trained me basically to be able to, you know, hopefully set this thing up to scale one day. And so, um, Scott by no means is, you know, is, is like the guy to scale it necessarily, but he's the guy to keep it cool as we scale. Right. And so, um, so I like to think that I got a really good balance of both that cultural component early on in my early years with Chibahut and then went out and learned a shit ton. How to keep it chill. And make it work. Correct. Well, at least, at least to have a foundation to get better at it. Cause by no means are we, even to this day, like awesome, awesome at it. We're like, we're still pretty good. We know we can get better. Yeah. But it comes in, you know, it comes in cycles and uh, yeah. I'm going to call a short break as the chapter turns here and get a fresh drink and, uh, maybe a potty break and go from there. And we're back. That was refreshing. It's starting to rain outside. Oh, is it? Fall is here. Oh, good. That's nice. As we speak. Um, so we left off, uh, approaching, I'm guessing the move back of Chiba Hut to Colorado and the Cold Stone separation from, from Scott somehow. And that must have been a little... Awkward, I guess or yeah, I mean it was it was uh, I think it was fine on the chiba hut side Um, it was it was a little awkward personally Uh, we had set up some roots down there in arizona and we bought our first house down there and you didn't really want to come back Uh, my wife didn't want to come necessarily. I mean she's glad I think she's glad we did over time here, but uh, I remember Uh, we were driving we'd gone down to tucson for Um, a football game and we stayed down there the next day we were driving up and I'd kind of been putting off this conversation with her and uh, we got to move back to Colorado and, uh, it, it just, again, we had a house, we had a pool, we had a, we had a pretty good setup. Uh, she is a teacher, an elementary school teacher. And she had just that. Were you guys married already? No. Um, we, uh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Shoot. Maybe we had just gotten engaged in August of that year 13. Um, and then, uh, and then this was probably in like October or so. And what was the dynamic on the, like the, the partnership separation side? Was it just, you were spinning your wheels and tired of spinning your wheels? Yeah. And, and Scott can be really challenging to work with sometimes, you know? And so I can, I can imagine. I mean, I've, I'm definitely, you know, I sit. On that receiving end every once in a while and I'm like Holy shit. Like not very many people can, could, would be equipped to deal with some of the challenges there. And, uh, if you had any kind of like really big ego and, uh, you know, hadn't necessarily been mentored by this guy and, and, and. Uh, developed for 15 years. I could see it being very, you know, it could be really, really challenging. The other dude was like, I don't really need this shit. Correct. Look, I can sell the place. I can spend my effort and my money. I think there was probably a combination of that and a combination of, Hey, you know, it's just not working down there. And Scott just saying, Hey, what do I got to do? He didn't move down there? Or did he move down there? No, Scott stayed up here. Oh, okay. So, he stayed up here and just kind of let, uh, ColdStoneGuy run it just kind of go implement the plan. Yeah, just go hit it and bring him in as needed. And, uh, you know, I think that's how, uh, ColdStoneGuy tried to get Scott to take a backseat. But then, we were spinning, you know, spinning our wheels. So, he's like, basically, hey, you know, we're not doing, we're not getting it done. Um, and, um, And then put it together, you know, put a deal together to buy him out and get him out of there. And then, uh, yeah, and then I had the combo with the wife. Here we go. And we sold the house and moved out here, um, in, uh, yeah, the first part of 2014. Uh, back to Fort Collins. Okay, okay. I'm thinking that's probably... Cause I started Loco Think Tank in February of 14, and Mike Labate referred Scott to the group probably by that summer, maybe that June, July. Yeah, so we, we have the Volkswagen buses, right, for Cheetah Hut, and I'm sure we were... Yeah, Rocky Mountain Westie, uh... Yeah, you know, he had known him, I think, for a while, and then, uh... Uh, you know, all of a sudden the company's back here, um, in Fort Collins and, uh, yeah, I'm sure that... I entertained, uh, working at the Forks, uh, for Scott when I decided to shut the, uh, food truck business down. Yeah. I'm sure he's glad he didn't hire me for that job, too, and I'm really glad I didn't take it. Yeah, that is a challenging setup up there, but, uh, Um, yeah, Scott's always had his, like, little side gigs that he's done, and so, especially when, you know, the company was down in Arizona, for the most part, he had picked up the forks, which you were referring to, which is all, uh, Uh, kind of like a trading post, trading posting in between here and Laramie. And, uh, he, not only did he, you know, take the convenience store that was at the base, well, he added a sandwich shop that was, uh, confusingly, uh, similar to sandwiches that he was selling out of there, but we made sure he couldn't sell our signature subs there. Yeah. Um, So he had the sandwich shop in there and then he had like a full bar and full restaurant upstairs. Yeah, with pool table and what not. Yeah, it was a total beast of an operation and you know, the only people that live up there are like 60, 70 years old. Right, so getting help, you gotta like hire people from Laramie or Fort Collins that wanna drive to freakin the forks for work. Or what ends up a lot of time is you're just doing it yourself. Right. And so he was, he was in there quite a bit and then um... You know, trying to get it built. Uh, he's a self proclaimed builder. He, he builds things, right. He's not great at necessarily maintaining them or scaling them, but he's really good at building them. And so he's historically taken on those types of projects. Uh, he did the forks and then, um. And the Forks is a lot better operation than it was before he got it. Oh yeah. And it's beautiful. I mean, he had it, I mean, he, he totally gets in and spruces it up, makes it look great. He improves the property. And we talk about this at Cheap Out all the time, you know, like people don't necessarily have, I don't think the best expectations when we're coming in and, you know, as a, as a potential tenant of their shopping center. And, uh, You know, so we have to have really good marketing collateral to say, Hey, like, here's what a G bud actually looks like. I know you have what it might be in your mind. Um, but here, you know, we, we do nice. And that's kind of built from Scott. He's, uh, you know, it takes a lot of pride in, in the things, a lot of stuff's hand done and, uh, and still continues to be. And, uh, so yeah, when he went into the forks, I mean, he took it from really rundown, you know, very, very, very antiquated and, you know, he put in a commercial kitchen and a bad ass bar and, you know, all these cool kind of historical artifacts and, and things like that. And just, uh, You know, definitely improved the space and he continues to kind of do that in each of his endeavors, which is an art gallery. Now I'm supposed to go look at art gallery. Yes. Uh, in between that he did the still whiskey steaks was the, uh, the, uh, the steakhouse and, uh, then sold that off, uh, to a couple of guys that worked for him. And, uh, I'm pretty sure he holds onto like a little piece. He like owns the rights. And then if there ever ends up being a hundred of them or something like that, and then, uh, he gets a little piece of the action over there, but, uh, but yeah, he sold that, I think in 2018 or 19, which was good timing. And then, um, and then this past year he bought an old, not an old, it was a, it was a functioning art gallery in the building that it was in. And, uh, and that's his current project. So he's basically. Yeah, I need to get down there sometime. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's. Pretty friggin cool. It's just a massive project, and he tried to cut a couple corners in the city of Loveland, uh... Called him on it. Yeah, so, um, but, uh, you know, and so, that's something that, you know, uh... I don't know when we'll introduce the, the other guy, uh, Dave, uh, actually we're in 2014. Might as well introduce him now. Right now. Uh, but, uh, he likes to say, you know, Scott's the only one that could ever get away with certain things that, you know, he gets away with. And, uh. I think some of that might be running out a little bit because, uh, yeah, I think the, as we, as we say, that might fly in Fort Collins, but you're not going to do that around here. And I think just the target on our back is getting bigger. And like, you know, he actually has, you know, Chiba has a reputation. Scott has a reputation. First time you get sued, you know, you've made it because you've got enough money for somebody to try to squeeze you or even just cities, you know. Loveland's infamous for trying to squeeze McWinnie's for this or that. Stuff like that, you know, and uh, Yeah, and so he tries to, you know, um, Because he didn't, he didn't do anything crazy in there, Like, uh, minor, uh, upgrades, uh, and uh, Yeah, so, anyways, he's still trying to get that thing, uh, all the way operational, But we just held our, our annual franchise meeting, Which is where we bring all of our franchise owners, And general managers, and everything like that. We held that in Fort Collin. Um, we held, oh, I've to one of those every year in Fort Collins. I served one with my food trailer up at the Forks. Ah, yes, absolutely. Yeah. Meatball. That was probably a barn sliders and stuff. Yeah, it was a hoot. Yeah. Um, so we're still doing that. Yep. And, uh, there probably wasn't that many people at that one. No, not nearly this one we had a hundred and, oh, my 75, I think there was like 30. Yeah. And so all the owners, GMs and everything like that. And so we had, we had it at the Marriott here. And that's where we do a lot of our, our content and panels and stuff like that. Um, but, uh, we had a party down at his art gallery. We kind of, uh, uh, uh. Take it back to the good old days of, uh. Yeah. And, you know, just throwing parties in general, right. Is something that's been a big part of the brand. But, uh, yeah, we kind of did the unveiling. We'll call it, um. for his art gallery down there where he kind of threw his first big party. So he likes to say, cause it's an art gallery as well as a venue. So there's like a stage out there and he's got some cool things going on there. So he wants to be able to utilize it as well for like, I don't know if it's weddings necessarily, but like large company get togethers or whatever. And there's all these. Cool sculptures and stuff like that in the courtyard. And it's a, it's a very much a Scott property. Uh, we should have a local social down there. Absolutely. I mean, it is perfect for that. The courtyard is great. It might want to wait until spring at this point. But we'll have nice days in November too, but, um. Anyways, uh, yeah, so, Scott's always happy. If you got a 430, we better kind of move through a little bit. Cool, yeah, we can go pretty quick here, because this is when it starts getting good. Yeah, let's do it. Um, so 2014, we moved the offices back here to Fort Collins. At the time, we had 15 stores. We had kind of gotten stuck at this 15 store mark, and so we were opening one, closing one, like I said. That was down in Arizona. Um, but, uh, 2014, I guess the next biggest thing here is obviously we moved the offices up here. We, you know, we, there's two of us that moved from there. So when we got back here to Fort Collins, it was Scott, me, and another, and I had an ops guy at that time, a trainer dude. And so there was three of us at the time. And so we, uh, hired in a, you know, front house admin person and maybe another ops person or something like that in turn, um, but small, super small team. Um, I mentioned earlier, Iowa City and RIPR Iowa City. So, um, our original franchisee from Iowa City, his name is Dave Timmons. Enter Timmons. Um, he, uh, had opened up the store originally in Iowa City, I think 2011 ish. And, uh, had a, uh, a partner that the partnership didn't work out. So, store opening, uh, was pretty busy, but then kind of settled in pretty quickly. It was a mediocre location, no bar, which we now know you need in Iowa City, obviously. Um, and so, uh, he was the original franchisee there. Partnership issues fell apart. The other partners didn't want to go. So they ended up buying Dave out of that store and they took on the Iowa City store. Okay, two years later. It was closed Dave left went to move to Hawaii with his buddies for a year okay, like a sabbatical thing right like the shit kicked out of him at Chiba and went back to went out to Hawaii and spent a year working at Red Lobster and And surfing in and hanging out and, uh, he hit Scott back up and I believe what must have been 2012 or 2013, maybe early 13 and said, Hey, you know, what's going on? I want to get back in. And, uh, so he actually ended up coming back and buying the two, four calling stores from Scott. And so those were still company owned stores, Scott owned those stores and, uh, he came in and bought those two stores from Scott. And, uh, um, and so he was back in the system again, maybe 2013, give or take. And, uh, and then he and I had always had a good relationship. We, again, it was a team of one going out to open these stores. And I was the only one that knew anything about opening these stores. And so he and I, during the buildout process and the opening and everything were just. He'd, he'd call me 10 times a day, you know, and so, um, before he came back into Chiba, he called me up. I remember exactly where I was in, in Arizona and he said, Hey, uh, you know, are you still involved? And I said, yeah. And he's like, okay. I wanted to make sure before I came back in. And, uh, so he cut a deal with Scott 2013 again, we moved back, uh, out there and Scott sold the stores because he was trying to maybe free up some capital to. Build on the franchise company a little more, you know, he's always looking, he's a builder. He's not a keeper. Correct. You know? And so that's just historically how it's gone. And, uh, so I come back in 2014, Dave Timmons is here in town running the two stores here. And so he's always over at the office and in our pocket, you know, when we're always hanging out and stuff. And, uh. And, uh, 2014, mid, uh, summer of that, uh, our Madison, Wisconsin store, the owner just wasn't cutting it. He was having all kinds of issues and we were going to lose that store. So again, enter Dave Timmons, Hey, Mark, I got this great idea. Let's buy the store and save it. And so he convinced me in 2014, you know, previously I was just, you know, Chiba Hut franchising, quote unquote, corporate, you know, employee. And, or I had been since 2011 when I went out to Arizona. And so this was the first time. Well, that's how I first knew you was more as a... store owner that kind of, I thought you kind of came in as an owner and then into the corporate. I was backwards came up through corporate. Yeah. And then, uh, again, to hats off to Scott because he allowed me to, um, have a side hustle as a franchisee, but also a good perspective of how it looks to be a franchisee. Well, I think it's a big part of the value that I offer our system now is, is, you know, the, the, uh, so it's funny cause we were talking about pinners. Uh, so the name of our LLC, um, was two pinners LLC. So it was Dave Timmons and myself, we were 50, 50 partners out there. We took out a small SBA loan. He had some buddies with a little bit of money. We borrowed a little bit of personal money. Uh, as well. And I think for a total of 160 grand, we bought this store and then had some money to reinvest in it. We built a patio and did a couple of things out there. Um, but it was the first time I was on the franchisee side and had, you know, I just signed my house away for an SBA loan and kind of do those owner type of things that, uh, are much different than an employee side of things. And so, um, I like to say I did five years, uh, out in. Uh, Wisconsin, we got, uh, I mean, we got our shit kicked in out there. I mean, absolutely. You didn't live there. You just were the owner. Correct. And that's, you know. Just take some of your salary and put it into the medicine store. Oh, I should have brought them in. I have all the checks that, uh, Dave and I wrote. We each wrote personal checks into that store. 500, 1, 000, 3, 000, 5, 000, uh, just, I mean, I have a stack of, I have a freaking stack of them and I keep them on my desk. Boys and girls, this is sometimes what it feels like to be a business owner. Yeah. Oh yeah. And nobody else knows that unless you've had to cut those checks across. And to keep the store open or keep your business open and have to dip into your personal and stay up late at night and stress about those things and, you know, worry about how you're going to make payroll and how you're going to fix the AC or whatever it is. Like if you haven't had, like it is. That is a dividing line between the world. So did you figure it out eventually? Five years it took. Um, probably three different general managers out there. Uh, Dave and I would go out there. I'd work my day job with franchise, you know, Monday through Thursday. Then I'd fly out there on Friday, work the late night. We were open until 3 a. m. So you don't get out of there until 5 a. m. Wow. Back in there at 8 a. m. I was the handyman out there. So I was fixing everything. I was wiring lights. You didn't have any budget for maintenance. So I was like literally everything we were doing, we were doing on our own out there and, uh, you know, just, uh, absolutely got, um, our asses hand to us for about four years, um, out there and, uh, eventually sold, um, That store to an incoming franchisee who had just opened the Milwaukee store. And, uh, and then they bought that store from us, I believe in 2021, we actually crushed it out there during COVID. Oh, good. And, uh, so you kind of finally got all those checks back. Well, we got consistent leadership in there. And so he righted the ship, the consistent leadership. And then, um, that just kept a consistent experience in there. And then, uh, COVID hit out there and, uh, everywhere. And, uh, They shut all the bars down out there. Oh. Well, we were a sandwich shop that had a bar in it. And so, we were able to stay open. All the bars shut down, but we still were one of the only places in town that you could go and, like, hang out at the bar. And, uh, and get drinks and everything like that. I'm not wearing my mask because I'm eating, bitches. Yeah, exactly. Or I'm drinking this drink here. And so, it was... And the guy that we have out there, Dick Jones, uh, he held it down for us and, uh, and just crushed it. And so we got it to a point where it was actually doing really well. We got some of those checks back, maybe not all of them, but we got some of them back and then, uh, and then sold it. And that was, uh, that's another thing Scott actually talks about is it's one thing to be able to get into a business, uh, it's a whole nother thing to be able to sell it. Right. To have somebody that will actually buy this thing from you when you're done with it. And so that's a whole nother kind of like, I would say business threshold or line as well as, okay, yeah, you can buy a business or get into a business, but can you make it into something that's actually sellable? Well, and not just like Chiba Hut, Chiba Hut, right. The franchise or company that, that you're managing now and running, but also each of those little stores, if they can be somewhat liquid and people want to buy those stores. Well, that's because they're working good at making money. That's great for everybody. And that's where our IP Cincinnati because yeah It wasn't in a good spot sales were going in the wrong direction And so she couldn't get rid of it, even if it wasn't hardly anything and it's in Cincinnati So it's really challenging to get to you know, maintain which is why we didn't pick it up as a company store, right? Because normally we would be the first in line to pick that store What do you mean is challenging to get to like it's hard to fly to there or something? Yeah It's just like I mean you can't just go in like You can't just go in one day, like in the morning and be out that night. Like it's like a three day commitment out there, you know? And, uh, um, so yeah, so some challenges there, but yeah. So Madison, uh, ate your lunch for a long time. Oh my gosh, dude. I can't even tell you like, yeah. Well, I will say this because it, I think gives a little bit of light to Dave, which I'm probably going to spend the next 20 minutes that we have here talking more about him, um, than anyone else. Um, so back in Madison, we had a, we had rented an apartment for our GM and we would send people out there for like big game day weekends or whatever from Colorado to help support. Um, and, uh, yeah. We had an apartment of like a 400 square foot apartment that we had like three people living in and then me and Dave when we were out on the weekends. We would stay there too. We would stay there too. And I would sleep on the floor in front of the couch there. Um, and then he had a cot in, that he would have in one of the closets that was there. And the dudes that we had running out there, like everybody was big, like we were all drinking quite a bit. Oh, even still. Uh, back then, yeah, then especially, yeah, just, I mean, we would, cause you're closing up the shop at three in the morning, you're drinking beers as you're closing up, then you're staying up for another hour, and drinking, sleep until noon, no way, we were up at seven o'clock, you know, the managers were sleeping until noon, maybe, but, uh, um, you know, me and Dave were only out there for three days, so we had to get all kinds of shit done, but, we would be in this room with like, One GM's in the one room, the other person on the couch, me on the floor, Dave in the closet, and these two dudes are just like the biggest, loudest dudes ever. And so they'd snore like crazy. It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You're like, I was... Like, like this, my job was this, and now I'm here. Yeah, like, I mean, it just And both of you, Dave and you're staring up at the ceiling on some of those nights when you get back at 4, 3, or 5 in the morning, and you're just like, what the fuck am I doing? What am I doing? Like, what This is crazy. And so we talked about burning that store down, like legitimately talked about burning that store down many, many, many times. I'm sure Ashley is also like, what are you doing? Yeah. I mean, thank goodness. Uh, you know, it was back before we had like, you know, we're just starting to try to raise a family or anything like that. Cause I don't think we would have been able to do it. Um, but, uh, um, Yeah, but anyway, so that was so there's that chapter. Yeah, that's that chapter during that chapter Dave and I actually went in and we bought the Greeley store from Scott as well Okay, so we were 50 50 partners in Madison 50 50 partners in Greeley Basically all the money that we'd make in Greeley we'd send out to Madison and not that it was a lot But it was a pleasure at least yeah kind of funny side story Probably three years into Dave and I's partnership. Like, we didn't pull any money out of the business, um, out of Greeley, but we actually went to a gun show and we each bought pistols. And that was the first time that I had really taken quote unquote, like a dividend, a dividend of some sort from, from either of these businesses, right? Cause Madison was just constantly putting in and then we got Greeley, it was constantly putting in to save Madison. And then, uh, I just remember we went to this, uh, uh, This show and bought pistols and we paid for it out of the company. And we're like, yes, and he was doing okay. Cause he had the stores in Fort Collins for me. I was making maybe 55 or 60 grand a year on the franchise side, barely cutting it and then not making anything on this other side hustle. So it was, uh, yeah, but anyways, I like to tell that story, but, uh, yeah, we bought the store in 2015. You still have the pistols. I have my pistol. Yeah, I'm sure he has his too. Yeah, seems likely. Yeah, we've got a couple cool kind of mementos. A lot of sentimentalism in that. Yeah. For sure. And we're going to have to have you for a part two or something. Uh, because it feels like we could go two hours more if we wanted to. Potentially. I mean, it is kind of where it starts getting good. But I'll give the short version here, which is, uh, Basically, you know, when we moved the offices back here in 2014, uh, so back to this, the franchise side of things, uh, we made a commitment at that time that we weren't going to do franchising anymore. We'd allow our current franchisees to keep doing their thing. If they wanted to open additional stores, they could, but, um, we put franchising on hold from 2014. We said, we're going to get, we're just going to start doing some company stores. Um, Way easier to manage, you know, blah, blah, blah. So we basically get better at it. Yeah. Well, that ended up being, we weren't necessarily thinking about it, but that ended up being one of the biggest, uh, Things that we gained from it. So put it on hold. Uh, we said, Hey, we're gonna start opening company restaurants. Um, we opened one store in, uh, Denver on Colorado Boulevard. A second store up in Dylan and Silverthorne. And then we were in the process of opening a third store here in Longmont. And that project just got scope creep like crazy. And, uh, and we ran out of money. Okay. So middle, uh, or maybe, maybe early 2017, we ran out of money. And, uh, so 2015 to 2017, we had opened up these two and a half stores. And, uh, and so Scott, very creative, um, he comes up with this idea to, to basically do a merger. And so we merged and created what was called, uh, JTT. Yeah, Scott Jennings, Dave Timmons, Mark Torres, uh, JTT. And uh, we combined six stores that were in the market. So we combined the Fort Collins stores, the Greeley stores, and a couple of them down in Denver, up in and up in Silverthorne. And we created this new entity. We, we treated them like company stores.'cause Dave's got cashflow and equity. Correct, yeah. I'm like crazy. And so we divvied up JTT based on kind of what all was there and what made sense. And then, uh, and we still had franchising going, but then we had this other entity that then we were then. That was your corporate store brand. Treating those stores as our company stores, correct. And so between 2017 and 2020, we actually opened 10 more stores. Oh, okay. Wow. Uh, throughout Colorado. And we actually went down to Vegas and opened up, uh, three stores down there. And so. Again, that's kind of proving the three set and stuff like that. We had the three pack out there in Vegas. We learned how to build them again. We, I, you know, I built all the design packages. I built all the, you know, we got our architectural drawings straight. We got our training. We had brought in an ops guy. that's really part of your value proposition now is it's not just a franchise and a brand. It's awareness of how to build a team, how to help build consistent leadership, how to. Yeah, it's crazy. It's, it's literally, it's, it's, it's crazy. I mean, we, we are partners with our owners and helping the success of their business. And so, um, so basically we opened up these company stores. We've relearned how to do everything between 2017, um, and 2000, whatever, 20 is where the kind of story changes. But, uh, meanwhile, um, so me, Dave and Scott are just on the, JTT side. You're the owners of JTT. Correct, and then me and Scott are over on franchise. You've got the chores. I had purchased 10 percent from Scott earlier on, maybe twenty eighteen or something like that. Okay. And uh, we made the decision in 2018, we're like hey. We got this down pretty good over here. We got the systems figured out. We got some decent support. Let's open up franchising again. And so in 2000, middle of 2018, we relaunched franchising again. And at that time we'd opened up all these stores. Everything was going good. Every, you know, everything was on the up and up. The brand was fricking really hitting on all cylinders. Marijuana culture was spreading across the country, like wildfire, like green wave, right? Yeah. We were just absolutely like, we were. We were just set up nicely and we had all these new company stores to show off and, all right. Show financials, all the cash flow from them and all those things. Yeah. And so we brought in an outside franchise sales team who was also really good. And so combination between them selling. It's our brand and with all of their marketing assets and us, you know, bringing them up here and meeting our team and meeting Scott and everything like that, and being early on in this up and coming franchise. We ended up in about a year and a half. Um, we sold 15 three store deals. So we brought in 15 new owners. They're all committed to three store deals between mid 2018 and the end of 2019. Well, the sales team, they were really good, but they were also really expensive. So they were taking between 50 and 70 percent of the total commission that we would make off a franchise fee. So we sell, we sell a three pack for a hundred grand. They would take the 30, correct. If it was a broker deal, we'd get 22%. If it was one of the deals that they did, an organic deal, we would get 50. So it's unsustainable. Right. Um, so we cut them off at the end of 2019. Got you on the map, but just couldn't really deliver for your franchisees with that limited resource to support them. And at that time, all the JTT stores were company stores not paying in royalties to the franchise. So, you know, we had a decent store count, but... You didn't have any revenues for that franchise company. Correct. And so that kind of starts the, the uh, Collision of interests? Yeah. And just so you know, I can go a little later than 430. Okay. I don't want to like awkwardly shut it down here. Well, cause you're going to become the CEO here somewhere. Yeah. This and that. Like there's a lot of stories still left, so. Yeah, I feel like it goes quick, but maybe not when I start talking. Um, but uh, yeah, so um, we brought on these 15 franchisees. We cut off the, uh, the sales team at the end of 2019. And we said, all right, love you guys, but see you later. We've got these 15 new owners that we have to get up and running. Right. Um, and then that was in the 2019, boom, it hit. And so we'd only gotten one of those 15 open prior to. And one three pack, or one one pack, one single store, one single of the 3 1 1 pack. One. One pack of the three pack was open. And uh, it was in St. Augustine, Florida. And they got open in maybe October of 2019. And then, uh, and then we opened up our second one in ar on arguably the worst day to open a Achieve Hutt in history. which was. Uh, March, uh, 17th, uh, 2020. And, uh, that Sunday prior is when everything shut down and then we opened on the Monday, the 17th. And, uh, yeah, well, we didn't yet because yeah. I mean, it just, yeah, it was, it was kind of crazy, but, um. God, there's a couple more stories I got to tell really quickly. So we had our annual franchise meeting. We used to hold it in March. And so we had our annual franchise meeting in March, the first week of March, 2020 down in Denver. And so we'd like to call that like One, the last huge party, uh, that took place prior to everything shutting down and two, the biggest super spreader event probably of all time down there. Um, but, uh, we had this awesome thing. And, uh, I remember we were getting prepared. This is when I knew the shit was about to hit the fan. We were getting prepared for AFM and, uh. You know, we kind of heard this COVID thing was, well, the NBA started freaking out and stuff. It was very interesting times. Right. And so we, um, I was out, uh, I was out trying to get a hand sanitizer for the AFM. Cause we were like, Oh, we're going to have all these people. We want to have some hand sanitizer around. And I drove all over Fort Collins. And there was no hand sanitizer. I went to Walmart. I went to Sam's club. I went to, you know, everywhere that you think. And I was like, what the fuck? And I actually went and I have two funny photos from that day prior, like whatever, early, early March of 2020. At a picture of the empty racks at Sam's for where every other self is full. The hand sanitizer is empty, hand sanitizer and a Clorox wipes all gone. And, uh, and then the second one is a picture. I actually went to the gun store afterwards. I bought a bunch of ammo and so I just have this. Funny picture, like segueway of the, this is the empty shelves and, and ammo. And I'm not a again guy, by the way. Uh, it might sound like it from this, but, uh, I rarely fire, uh, the thing, um, right. And I wanna make sure I have a gun and enough ammo if the shit hits the thing. Yeah, it, it's just, it's just kind of funny. But, uh, anyways, we ended up doing really well through Covid actually. Um, we were, we had already been set up with, uh. Um, third party delivery, we had contracts with them already. Yeah, they had a nice app. App was already there. Things were kind of in place. We just had to lean into it really hard. Yeah, but you probably didn't open all of the things that you thought you were gonna, right? Because you were just talking about that 15 contracts for three. Yeah. Yeah. So we ended up opening the second one, Little Rock. They ended up making it. They're still doing all right today. Um, uh, and then. Again, we responded really quickly to COVID. So once it locked down, I definitely, some of Scott's leadership right away. We, we had, uh, been working with EOS since the end of 2019. So we had a solid structure in place where we were able to really lean on some of that. Um, and, uh, and it really helped us through it. And so we were able to get. stores, you know, up and running curbside, all these things really quickly. We had, you know, the, uh, benefit of technology to be able to, we were holding daily. So it actually helped you. You were one of the, not that that was any fun COVID, but it actually didn't hurt your business ultimately. No, I mean, a lot of our stores actually got busier during COVID because we were able to execute on these orders. Like people, we weren't crazy expensive. I mean, and, uh, so, uh, we, we had good food that was consistent that. You know, gave people a little bit of an inch of, uh, a full bar, yeah. But, uh, yeah, so, so we ended up actually opening six stores in 2020. So these owners that were definitely spooked, um, they ultimately saw, you know, how we were supporting the system and that their construction projects were still moving on because we had construction management and all these things. And, uh, um, and so we ended up opening six stores in 2020 and actually doing pretty damn well. Um, uh, Another reason why I've got to continue talking about Dave is, um, by the end of 2019, um, Scott, we were, we were still opening the company stores, but the JTT was huge, not huge, but for us huge at that time. Yeah. We had like 400 employees. It was a beast of its own to manage. It was an absolute beast. And so, um, Dave and I had, and Scott basically at the end of 2019, he's like, He was the majority owner. Um, and so, uh, He was like, I don't want to put my name on any more leases and I don't want to take on any more debt. We weren't, we didn't have a lot of debt, but we were taking on some debt. 60 or 55 or something, you know, I don't know. 50 at that point. Oh, is that all? Okay. You look way older, Scott. Just kidding. I thought he was older than me. I'm 50. Yeah, he's 50, I believe, 4. Okay, okay. I don't know if I'm in trouble for saying that. He's so much wiser than I am. I thought that he was older. Yeah. It's the, the school of hard knocks that he went through, um, but, uh, but anyways, so he's like taking out some debt. We're growing crazy, but yeah. Yeah. And he was like, I don't want to deal with this anymore and, uh, I don't want to take on any more debt. We don't, I don't want to sign and put my name on another lease. And so at that time, this is kind of mid 2019 Dave and I were like, okay, well let's start working on a plan to buy Scott out. And so, um, we had had a plan, um, to execute, I believe it was April one of 2020, we were supposed to get this deal done to buy Scott out. And so, um, And you'd been negotiating and this and that, whatever. You had all the details. Yeah. Brought in a fractional CFO. And then March 14th. Yeah. And then everything. Yeah. Got absolutely sidelined. So we actually ended up getting the deal done on July one. So again, we responded really quickly. We got it figured out. We were in pretty damn good shape. And so, um, July one, we got the deal done. We had to finance it differently. We were originally going to do it one way and ended up doing it another way. But, uh, either way, um, Dave and I, at that point, I believe there was 16 Chiba huts. And so of, of the JTT ones, and so we bought out the, the J and, uh, we basically became overnight, the largest franchisee in, uh, in the system. And, uh, and then also, uh, we're set up to start paying royalties for the first time ever. And so we had six months where we didn't have to, but then, yeah, we had to, um, you know, to start paying and I believe. April 1st of 2021 and so that was really the game changer, uh, so, Oh, and that's what gave Chiba Hut franchising so much more revenue as a boost of revenue. That's what gave us the horsepower to go from eight to 32 people or four and be able to actually support the size of the organization. So these are things that Scott. Like, I think was thinking about, even though it was my idea, uh, to buy Scott out, uh, he kind of spun around his idea to be able to help support, you know, the franchise growth and everything like that, which is definitely true. But, uh, um. Well, it all, you know, I like to say around Loco Think Tank, we look for the win, win, win, win. But we'll settle for the win, win, win if necessary. And, uh, you know, I'm, I'm hearing a lot of win, win, win. So is Scott still got a piece of it? If that's anybody's business? No, no J on the TT side. And actually there's only one T left. So, so we bought out Scott in, uh, July of 2020 and then. Again, franchising, we opened six stores, uh, in 2020. We opened nine in 2021. And then I think eight in 2022. And, uh, so franchising just got big, right? Yeah. All these new owners coming in here, I'm splitting my time between JTT still and franchise. And it's just, you know, I'm on both leadership teams. I'm trying to be strategic on both sides. Uh, sometimes there's competing interests. Oh, there's. Yeah, all the time. Conflicts. Yeah. And, uh, at least for prioritization and, you know, things like that. And, uh, and so, um, I put a deal together at the beginning of... God, it must have been 2022. Yeah, uh, 2022, uh, for Dave to buy me out. Yeah. And so I basically, that's when I that's kind of his sweet spot anyway, really, is some of the operations. Just operating existing stores and doing that really well. Yeah, and he absolutely crushes it and is an amazing franchisee. They've got 20 stores now and are definitely by far our biggest franchisee, are, they want and strive to be and are our best franchisee. They're great partners. Yeah, they're the model to look up to for all these other franchisees. Absolutely. Unfortunately for them though, it's going to take a really long time to get the tools, right? So, um, And a while to learn how to be as good an operator as David and the rest of his team. They're unbelievable operators over there and just a great team and great partners. And, uh, we still, you know, I go to his kid's birthday parties and we hang out and. And stuff like that. So really good relationship there. And, uh, yeah, you know, again, that was kind of the, the end of that one. They're still growing their largest franchisee, but yeah, it kind of switched over to what you alluded to, which is now, okay, we've got our largest franchisee paying in royalties. And so that's really when we started to not only expand our offices up here in Fort Collins and take on additional space, but then also really invest in our team. So going again from that eight employee count up to now. 35, um, Scott had bought that building after he sold the Forks. He 1031 the Forks building into the offices that we had bought, that he had bought at the end of 2018. Yeah, where I was, uh, located at Loco Think Tank until I got moved out, or nearly until. Yeah, um, and so, you know, the total building's 14, 000 square feet, and I think we occupy about, uh, about 12, 000 of it. We have one other tenant. Uh, when we first came in, I think there were six or seven tenants and now, yeah, there's just two of a little bit at a time. Taking it over. Yeah, so, we've taken over. It's definitely our campus now. We've got kind of a cool courtyard there, um, great meeting space, a good little party. Um, and, um, yeah, it has been great. Um, definitely over these last couple of years, when it ended up happening was, you know, we brought in all these new owners, um, and you know, some of them are great restaurant operators and some of them are not. And so it's been really challenging to try and get these folks into being really good restaurant operators because. Yeah. Not only are, is operating restaurants tough, but operating Chiba Huts is really tough, because we're not just a sandwich shop, we've got this whole frickin full bar as well, and we have real, our shops are really busy, so, you know, our average store is sellin Shit. Um, we sold 125, 000 sandwiches last week between 55 stores. So, you know, we're doing a couple thousand sandwiches a day or a week out of these stores. And so it's like, it's a big operation and 25 and 40 to 50 employees per location. I mean, it's just, it can be really challenging. Why do, uh, why do people. Come to work for Chiba Hut and stay nowadays like our our HQ staff No, no at the at the front lines Because you're talking about an experience where people come in bust ass. They have harder than normal job Yeah, cuz it's busier than most places etc. Yeah, and I was kind of talking about it from the owner side No, I don't even from the employee side. Absolutely. And so You know, I do think that we got a couple cool cultural things going for us. I mean, obviously the, the brand is exciting. The weed theme. Yeah. And stuff like that. You can find potheads everywhere. But we've got really good core values. We've got really good. You don't drug test still. We don't drug test We don't make you wear uniforms. Right. You get to come in and be yourself. Um, you know, uh, one of our, I I was actually preparing for one of my keynote speech, uh, at, at the annual franchise meeting this, this year. Hmm. And I asked my wife, I was like, you know, what is one of the, like, what do you think of when you think of this Hibaha culture? Like, what, what, what is the, what are the words that come to mind? And, uh, and she said it and she was like, she was like, individual, individualistic, you know, you can be yourself, not only as a frontline worker, but as an owner, as a store. And I choose to be a part of this. Because I get to be myself. I get to be my true self or whatever you want to call it. And, uh, I get to put my stamp on it. I get to bring my personality. You know, there's no scripts, right? At Chibaha, you don't have to come in and say, hi, welcome to Chibaha. If you go to Firehouse, holy shit. I don't know if they still do that anymore, but the welcome to fire, like, I, it's so cringy. It's unbelievable. Or if you think it's like the cold stone where you got to sing a jingle anytime somebody tips, right? If you've heard that Aziz Ansari, uh, It's pretty funny on it, but, uh, yeah, you know, uh, so I think people come because they can be themselves and they don't have to put on a front and they can have their tattoos. They can have their gauges. They can talk the way that they talk and be themselves. They can be them if they want to. Yeah. I mean, well, and we have a. of, um, a lot of employees that, um, you know, come to us because we are open to a lot of those situations. And so Scott likes to say, um, we're kind of the island of misfits, so, you know, um, we, uh, we take all comers and so, and we like to think that we, uh, not only bring them in, but we help them and respect. them and, and then coach them into being, you know, better folks, whether they stay with Chiba Hut or not. You know, we like to, uh, what Scott told me for a very long time, uh, still might be true a little bit, uh, is you're going to learn more than you're going to earn. And uh, that's something that, uh, is I think with the indentured servitude, but it's still a little true. It is. And, um, you know, I think that's what the restaurant industry should be about, is kind of those entry level opportunities. Yeah. And then if you're a real restaurateur, you're gonna stick with it. You know, if you're gonna be one of those lifelong of, or, or, or bar, uh, bartenders, you know, it's a, it's a certain type of individual and, uh, that. Sticks around those environments. And it's because it is extremely hard, but it's also extremely rewarding. I mean, I bet it's a real family environment because especially for the misfits, when they find their tribe, they appreciate it more in some ways, you know, the jocks and the cool kids always have people that want to be around them. You, you've freaking nailed it there, man. When our folks find us, that's why they are so loyal to us, and why, you know, it's not to us, it's like, to their shop, is because, you know, they get to finally be themselves, right? They get to open up. I remember, uh, this girl Grace, who I hired, uh, she was a freshman, this was when I was out in Greeley doing time, and, uh, Uh, she was a freshman and she came in, I think she was on like the softball team or something like that. And so she came in to UNC, uh, working at Chiba, you know, got a job at Chiba Hut and, uh, you know, super clean cut, straight off the farm. Grace, you know, and, uh, I, I wish, and this is something we should still do is take a picture of people on their first day of Chiba Hut and then like two or three years later, cause two or three years later, you know, she's got the dreads going and she's, you know, just totally happy, gauges, all those kinds of things. And again, you know, it's a place where you can come and then actually, you know, you get to explore who you are. Yeah. And that's definitely what I did with Chiba Hut. That's how I found my voice. That's how I found my leadership. That's how I found my, um, my, my grind mentality. I mean, I was definitely raised with it by my dad, but you know, the Chiba grind is, it's a fucking real thing. And, uh, um, we actually, yeah, are just now changing our, our core, one of our core values statement is, uh, so our number one core value is the hustle. Yeah. And, um, we had the, the kind of, yeah. The little note below it, uh, that said go above and beyond and also never stop grinding. Because that was part of how Chibaha grew, you know. And so, but on, in today's day and age, you know, like, it's not necessary. Not everybody wants to be a grinder. Well, and it's, it's can be really, um, divisive. Mm. And, um. And there's something that we call like, uh, like a toxic culture, uh, hustle as well. Right. The toxic hustle where you're hustling so hard and you're sacrificing so much, both on your body and everything like that. Cause when you work in the restaurants, you know, you're, you're closing at 10 PM or midnight and then you're there until, you know, 1 AM or later, and then almost all of us freaking drink afterwards, you know, so you're staying up till two or three and then you're doing it again the next day and it's a fucking grind. And so, um, but we changed our core value. We updated it, um, to, uh, never stopped growing because that's a, you know, obviously a more positive spin on it and you, and you can grow through the grind, no doubt about it, but it's just, uh, you know, something that's, I think a little bit more, well, my sense is that. Like, you've grown through the grind, like, you don't really find that same value in the, you know, two o'clock, uh, bar close time, and, and drinking like you used to, and, and things like that. And I imagine there's... People all around your organization are, they're kind of the same. You grow up. Even if you're growing up in the cheeves. Exactly. And, uh, that's something we like to be, uh, uh, you know, kind of shepherd that growth. Right? And so that is a little bit of the learn more than you're going to earn. And I think I kind of started talking about it, but, uh, um, that's, I think what restaurants are really good for, you know, you get to. Figure out who you are. You have to have a voice. You have to be a certain, you know, you have to be service minded. Um, and for some people like myself, like I absolutely, I love, and I don't get to do it very much anymore, but I love. being in the shop when it's busy and you're working and you're out there and you're talking to customers and you're wiping down tables and cleaning stuff and wiping windows and making sandwiches. I mean, there is no better vibe for a guy like me, you know, especially where, you know, just feels like it's hitting on all cylinders. And I think that's a, uh, a unique thing that she had has and a lot of other brands have it as well. Um, but you know, for us, uh, you know, it really hits home with. Just, you know, the vibe and the culture and the destination of it and all that. You can see what you did. I'm a farm kid. And so, like, when you plow a field or dig up a field or whatever, you might change it from kind of brown to black. Yeah. Or something, and so you can see the progress. When you're done eight hours, you're like, oh, I did that whole field. You know, I turned it from brown to black. Oh, yeah. And when you have a room full of people, you can like, oh, I turned them from hungry, frustrated people to relaxed, Full belly people. Yeah, you could feel that vibe just happening. Yeah. And something that Scott says is, you know, you can fill your belly with, you know, rice, you know, people choose to come to Chiba because, you know, they don't just want to fill their belly. They want that experience. They want that vibe. They want that, um, that thing. And no doubt. I mean, when you crush for us, it's tickets, right? We still have paper tickets. It's crazy. Um, but during busy rushes, you'll pull out of, four foot, you know, section of tickets that you got to execute through there. So that's kind of the, the, the farming thing, right? Like you got to turn that from brown to black and then, uh, yeah, you know, it's a really rewarding also the same thing with building these restaurants. I mean, it starts as an empty shell and then it just turns into this. Beautiful, living, breathing, really cool thing, because at Chiba, like, they're all different. Well, and sometimes it loses money for a while, and it's annoying as hell, you know, like a toddler might be, and then later it starts making money, and it's like the eighth grader you're proud of. Absolutely. And, yeah, I mean, and, uh, I haven't gotten quite there yet. I still have a toddler. Let's, uh, yeah, exactly. Um, we're gonna do the Faith, Family, Politics and Breezeway. I have two more business questions for you. I was sensing maybe that That EOS had a lot to do with identifying, like, right time, right person, right place, right seat, right funding model. Is that true? Yeah, I mean, for us, EOS has been great. I do think the size of our business now, we are starting to stress some of those, um, kind of way, the methods, I guess, uh, still great foundation, but we're probably gonna have to build on it a little bit. I just want to preface with that, but no doubt did it. I mean, from what I would say, if you're, you know, a million dollar, revenue person all the way to a 10 million revenue. I think it works really well. I think it just absolutely hits on a, on a lot of fronts and can help you identify your gaps and help you, you know, put some, just some structure in place. And yeah. Again, that structure is only as good as, you know, when it gets tested. And so for us, COVID, you know, really tested that structure. At that time we had both JTT operating and the franchise side. And so we got hit on both fronts and, uh, yeah, you know, and it, and it stresses it, and so that's when you really get to see the value, um, and now, especially, you know, even as we are entering some, I think some, some challenging environment, you know. Uh, economic environments potentially as well here. It feels like it's coming a little bit. Um, You know, we're going to see again, because now we have all these new markets that aren't as established, you know, when COVID hit, we were mostly in our established markets. Well, now if there's another disruption, we'll be kind of outside of that. And so we're doing some things to protect against it. We've got now a franchise advisory council. So six, six members from our franchise. Some intentional listening. Yeah. That represent the franchise interest. And it's not just JTT or whatever it was. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they have a seat at the table, no doubt. But, um, but yeah, uh, trying to be collaborative there, trying to hear from our franchisees in other states directly on what those challenges are. Yeah. And again, trying to do the iceberg thing right. Where all that information's down below, we gotta get it up. Yeah. To, to hq. And so that's a, that's a great vehicle for it. Um, but yeah, E US has been great. And then, um, local think tank. I mean, you're like an eight plus year member, probably. What, uh, what would you say that's been at different chapters, especially in this kind of long... journey that you've had with Chiba. Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, uh, I'll just say I'm very appreciative for Loco Think Tank. I think, uh, you know, it's, it's one of those that, again, when in times of need, you see the, the real value. And so I've gone through quite a few things. You know, I've, I've, uh, Between Madison and... Yeah, between, you know, uh, I think... So I don't think I was on Think Tank prior to making that decision. Yeah, but I know as far as, uh, making the decision. They watched you write a lot of checks, I guess. They 100 percent did, and then they were with me, my groups were with me as, uh, you know, I bought the Greeley store, they were with me as we built out JTT, they were with me as we as I bought out the, you know, the founder and sold a Madison store and I would run all of these scenarios, you know, through them and be like, Hey, do you think this is a good deal? Um, I guess I should say that on the backside of me selling anything, I was always buying more Chiba hut. So, um, you know, when I sold out of the JTT stores, um, I purchased more equity from Scott out of franchising. So, so, um, I've always kind of kept it, kept it moving a little bit, but, uh, so I've always been not only presenting things to think tank about, you know, uh, you know, Purchases or exits, but it's, it's, it's very strategic moves. It's like, okay, well, is it time to take chips off the table from Chiba Hut and reinvest in something else? And then you get that valuable insight where it's like, you are not going to get, you know, a return on your dollars anywhere else, like you're going to get. Well, and your passion is, is building this franchise company. I mean, ever since you were the, the one trainer for the whole thing with a coat closet to work from. Yeah, kind of, absolutely. Is my observation, you know, that's been your passion the whole time is making that part of it better. Yeah. Now we're. You know, again, we moved here, uh, offices back here in 2014 at 15 stores. Now we're at 55. We'll be at 60 by the end of the year and 75 by the end of next year. And so when you're looking back at that, um, you know, that plot of land that you just plowed, you know, it's cool to see it, you know, it's, it's kind of coming together and uh, you know, I've got a note on the, uh, my computer at the, at my office and uh, um, it says, you know, make Scott's dream a reality. Um, now, unfortunately. He's not super specific on what he wants this dream to be like, like, we know we don't want it to be thousands of stores by any means, but you know, it'd be helpful to know roughly a store account so we can work to it. But we're at 55 stores now where our goal, we set a 10 year goal with when we first started EOS in 2019. So at 20, uh, 20, 29, we basically set a goal to, uh, to have. We termed it, uh, 420, 000 interactions per week. Uh, which is basically, interactions is our term for, like, uh, A customer, virtually? Yeah, a ticket, basically, uh, a transaction. Uh, but we're more about the interaction than the transaction. Sure, fair. Um, but, uh, If I just drive through the drive through and ask a weird question and don't buy anything, does that count? No, it does not. You have to buy something. Um, you would be more like the creeper at the bar, not the drive thru guy. Just sits there drinking water out of the free dispenser. We don't have any peanuts for them to eat, so that's good. Um, but, uh... So how many stores is that? Yeah, so it's equivalent to 200 stores. Okay. Yeah. So basically our goal is to open 15 stores next year. Uh, and then by 2025, we want to be opening about 25 stores a year. And we feel like that's a good clip. It's, you know, one every other week, but they all come at the same time. So it's 25 a year ish. And then, uh, and that gets us to 200 by the end of 2029. And, like, have you talked about what, like, do you want somebody to buy you? Some private equity firm or something like that? Or do you want to just keep growing it? Do you have a next chapter in mind? I mean... What I would say is I went to a great conference this summer, um, and, uh, and what it, they were taking these large franchisees and basically saying it was, they were putting them in front of franchisors and saying, here's what we as large franchisees want from you as franchisors. And one of the things that I kind of pulled from that was, uh, uh, one liner was, uh, you know, basically. You need to never operate the business as if you are selling it or you're trying to you know, just keep your path that you're going. And, uh, you do it good enough, somebody will want to buy it. Exactly. Like if you're angling for something, then you're not going to get there. So, um, what Scott and I are. what we talk about and Seth, our other partner, we talk about is just, we want to be in the best position possible whenever something were to come up. And so no doubt, do we have folks that hit us up, you know, weekly saying, Hey, what's going on over there, sandwich boys. This political science guy is running this shop. He didn't even go to Harvard. Yeah. And that's funny. Cause I, you know, we've got a guy that's an MBA now and I'm like, what is, is that even a thing? Like it just wasn't even part of my journey or thought process in my journey. Um, but, uh, but, um, yeah, so, uh, you know, we want to be in the best position possible. When something were to come up that makes sense and, um, that's actually, uh, you know, something that we talk about a decent amount because, um, you know, Scott's where he's at in his career. Yeah, he doesn't want to take any extra risk along this journey either at this point, I imagine. Yeah, I mean, no doubt he's taking some chips off the table. He's taking some chips off the table and, uh, now knows, you know, he's got a handful of other moves that he can make before the Chiba journey is much more limited. Um, but, you know, I think, uh, chairman of the board, a seat for him. Coming in, helping influence our, our leadership team a little bit and mentoring still. And, and he actually does a really great job. Uh, he goes and attends a lot of our store openings. And so he's the founder, you know, at the opening. And then, and I hope I can have that job for local think tank someday. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I mean, it's, uh, reasonable to try, you know, for that. I do it a little bit, but, uh, I'm, you know, it's just, Scott is Scott Scott. He's a celebrity. He's the founder. Yeah. So, um. And so, yeah, uh, that puts him in a good position. And the other thing that I will say, he spends a lot of time working with our frontline folks. You know, those are the people that he immediately gravitates to. You know, he goes and he says, how's it going? What's broken? What's not working? You know, he, he wants to know where the weaknesses are. In your office. In our offices and in the stores. Oh, really? That's cool. Um, you know, that's where he is comfortable. That's how he's gathering the iceberg information. Yeah. And then he brings it to us. And so, uh, one last thing I'll say about Scott, cause I wanted to mention it is, uh, or maybe it's not the last thing, but, um, is that, uh, um, he, what, the way I describe him is he had like, he's kind of like. He understands people's caveman instincts, so like what really drives people, you know, what really motivates people, what really excites people. He's like, he keys in on that. He's got it very tuned. And so like you can put anything you want to read, anything you want in a book or anything like that. I have to learn this stuff, right? I have to do things like EOS and strategic coach programs and things like that. Yeah. And get feedback from smart people and local for years. He is just like... It's like one on one for him. He's just basic, you know basic there and so it's it's awesome to see him connect with folks and when he's in a room and just like it's you know, obviously something that I'm very Attracted to as he's mentored me throughout the years and just yeah, he just again he understands those like fundamental things that drive people. And so something small, like we're actually rolling out a half a crispy. So if you've ever been to a Chiba, we have a big old rice crispy bars. He's like, people don't want that. They want that. They don't want to eat that much. You feel like a fat fuck. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. You know, they'll say stuff like that. Cause I feel like a fat fuck. Yeah, exactly. And so, and then, you know, instead of being like, Oh yeah. And explain it away, which is something that's very easy to do. Um, you know, he's like, no, I don't care if we ended up losing money on it. Like I want to cut those things in half. And so. It turns out you can charge like Yeah. And then you charge a better margin, you know, 30 percent less for a half size one. Yeah. And then it's, you know, it ends up being this great idea that everybody loves. And I was fighting it for freaking two years or something like that, because you're going to make people buy less. You know, they're going to, your ticket average is going to go down and it's like, no, they ended up buying two. And those two of them are actually more expensive. And so the two friends each have one instead of, you know, yeah. It's just, again, he like understands that desire from our customers as well as our crew members. And so, you know, he kind of helps funnel that up. And so I'm trying to absorb as much of that as I possibly can so that I can, you know, carry that torch and, and focus on that stuff in the future as well. Um, let's touch briefly on, uh, our mandatory faith, family and politics. Yeah. Uh, would you ever consider, uh, uh, if you. 15 years from now as the right offer came along, you're wealthy, don't need to work anymore, but you feel like you want to make our country better, would you, would you run for political office? Well, actually, good question. I don't think so. Um, cause one, they'd find those two DUIs in my past and that would not be too good. You'd be like, dude, I was the CEO of Chibaha and I smoked. Um, no, I don't think so. I think I'm, I like to be, I mean, in my position I have to be front of house a decent amount. You know, I got to do the state of the unions and I got to do the face of the owner webinars today and everything like that. But I feel like I am more like kind of behind the scenes, which is why Scott goes out to the store openings. I usually go out two or three weeks after their store open and say, Hey, Now that you're open, what do you need, you know, and I like to fill that kind of void. And so, you know, I think for me, uh, if I was going to contribute my time, it would be kind of on the builder side of things. I'm a builder as well. Um, and so, you know, maybe habitat stuff or whatever, some give back like that. But, um, I feel like that'll be in, in my future. Um, what do you think about our political environment in the moment? Um, who you're excited about, Trump or Biden? Uh, obviously neither, right, is the, I mean, it's just crazy where we're at these days where, so first and foremost, I don't, I really don't pay a whole lot of attention. I mean, I pay enough to, uh, and this is one of the things is, I don't do a lot of like personals like focus other than my family. Like how do minimum wage laws affect me? Correct. It's like more, how does it impact my business? Right. So if I'm looking at it in terms of how does the decision impact my business, then obviously Trump is much more business friendly. And so if something's going to push me over the fence, if it ends up being those two very unfortunate, uh, choices, then yeah, I might, you know, have to do that. How about RFK Jr. He's a independent running. Do you see that? See, that's how disengaged I am. I have no idea. Because the democratic party was blackballing him all over the place. Fine. If you're going to. Got it. Well, you know, I feel like there's gotta be a better, just somebody that's more in the middle. Come on, you know, 80, which is great. Yeah, it's just, it's unbelievable and, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's unfortunate because, you know, I think I read something, um, that, you know, You know, the candidates that we have, it's like the, the far, like 6 percent on each end of the spectrum are who drive a lot of these, you know, decisions, nominees and choices and everything like that. And it's like really the 6 percent over here in the six over here. And they overrule the 78 in the middle because they're, you know, they're, they're really good at, you know, manipulating it and everything. And it's just, it's crazy to me. So, you know, I kinda stay on the sidelines a little bit and, and, um, you know, it's, it's. Hopefully something happens where we get somebody that's just a little bit more like, I think. Cause you, I feel like in your leaders, you want to see a little bit of yourself. And so I think, you know, for people like myself, um, I saw that. I think the president should be a hero. Yeah. And for me, like. Or the first woman president, a hero for young ladies. Yeah. Something right. It's got to like, there's, it's got to feel like a representation of your country. And that, to me, is one of the biggest issues that to be a hero. There aren't that many heroes, right? But yeah, that's one of the biggest issues I have with Trump is I'm like, Fuck, you know, it's just kind of embarrassing, you know? And from a, on the global stage, you know, it's just kind of embarrassing. That was the biggest thing that I don't like about him. It's like, okay, the politics, whatever, like I'm Right, you don't want your city mayor to have like this big, huge beer belly. Yeah, it's, it's just kind of, you know, embarrassing, but I think that's why Brock, you know, for people like me was very excited because it's like, Oh sweet, you know, he's, he's intelligent. He's well spoken. He's fit, you know, he's like some color to the office. Finally. Yeah. Like he's who I want to be, you know? And so, um, you know, unfortunately with the two that we have now as options, like I don't see a lot of myself in either of them. And so it makes it challenging to get like really excited about either of them. So I'm hoping that somebody comes up that I'm like, okay, like, Yeah. You know, you understand me a little bit, you know, and so, but, you know, it's hard to have faith that that'll happen. It doesn't seem, uh, a well designed system for it right now. Yeah. Um, doesn't, the outcomes are, the outcomes are what the system is designed for or something like that. Anyway, uh, family or faiths, do you prefer to talk about? Um, I'll probably go family, um, I've got a two year old right now, so we're in just an awesome spot. Two year old mode? Yeah. And my wife is... That's like walking, talking, right? Oh yeah, full on walking, talking, telling, oh man, she's just the coolest, cutest thing in the entire world. My wife is an absolute, like, um, I'll tell this quick story, cause I don't even know if I've ever told her this story. Um, so, uh, when we ended up going out to San Diego... Okay. You know, I'd asked Ashley, Hey, do you want to, you know, she had just graduated from UNC. She got her teaching degree. And, uh, um, I was like, Hey, do you want to come with me? And then we had a couple of folks, uh, a couple of my buddies were like, they described it as bringing sand to the beach. Right. Like you're going to bring a girl, you know, bring sand to the beach out there and, uh, you know, bring this girl with you. And I remember even back then, this is 2010. We didn't have our kiddo until 2021. Um, so even back then, I just remember saying to them, like, I know she's going to be the best mom ever. And that's why I. That's why I was committed to this, right? It was one of your strongest, uh, appreciations of her. Yeah, I just knew she was going to be the best mom ever. And then in these last two years to see it come together. But, you know, all the way from pregnancy and we had a challenging, you know, time to have a kiddo. Yeah, We did, uh, we ended up doing IVF. And, um, very fortunate that we were able to do that. But, um, you know, all the way from the start of that process through. today. I mean, she's just the absolute best mom ever. Look at what Ashley is doing with our daughter. Yeah. I mean, she's turning her into just, um, cause we're fortunate enough to where Ashley's staying home with her and just like being there with her all day, every day. And she's just the best like person in the world to be able to, to mold this new person. And, uh, and I see it come out all the time. And it's, I took, uh, Georgie is our daughter. I took her out on a date night to to Eastside where it all started last night in 2005. And, uh, cause mom had book club. And so me and Georgie went and, uh, had dinner at Chiba Hut. And she just, she's like, Chiba Hut? Charming the whole restaurant. It's just unbelievable. She had her tutu on and it was just, it's just amazing. So for me, it's. It's, it's definitely family and uh, um, Georgie can't get enough Georgie, Georgie Sue. Yeah. And, uh, we, we often do a one word description of the children. Do you have a one word description for Georgie, Georgie Sue? It's hard. Wasn't the easy ones amazing is the, the first one amazing is the first one, but I would say just kind of quirky, you know, she's just so funny. Like I took a video over this morning, uh, Ashley, my wife, she goes out for a run with our dog in the morning, right when Georgie's kind of getting up. And so she'll be out for a run and I'll go in right after and wake Georgie up and, uh, I'll be like, I'll be like, guess where mom and Griff are? And she goes and she goes into this whisper thing. She's like, let's go find them. You know, like, let's go find them. Like, cause we go out and we find mom and Georgie on the run and we like kind of walk around with. with the other dog that doesn't go and we go, we go find mom and she's just so, it's just, everything is so funny and awesome. Yeah. And just, uh, such a quirky little personality. So, um, yeah, that's great. Um, so you and Ashley spent like Quite a few years not married. Uh, when did you get married? Uh, 2014 when I came back to Colorado. Okay. So you've been spending a lot of years married too. Yeah. Yeah, do you, do you talk about like that journey of trying to make babies sooner and stuff? Is that... Yeah, it ended, I mean... Our journey was pretty, it was pretty natural. Cause we had like all like the Chiba Hut stuff at first. We got married when we were 30, uh, or right about 30. And, uh, and then I had a lot going on with Chiba. We had just bought the Madison store and the grillie and there was all kinds of stuff going on there. You're bleeding money into that thing. Yeah. So it just didn't, well, it didn't even really come up and we, you know, during that time, we, yeah, we were grinding, but, um, cause she was a kindergarten teacher, she was doing elementary school and everybody that knows elementary or. Teachers in general, you know, they work from 7am till 5 and then they come home and they work for another three hours at night, you know, and so Um, you know, we were both grinding and uh, she had the opportunity through her school to get her master's program And so now she's getting education on top of that. So then yeah, so she was going to school as well as teaching and uh, And so that kind of put everything on hold for another couple years And so we didn't really start trying until we were like 35 ish, 36. And then it didn't happen for us right away. We tried for a couple of years and it didn't happen for us right away. And then again, we were fortunately in a position where we could, you know, do the IVF thing and, uh, we had an awesome doctor and clinic. Uh, I don't, it doesn't seem like it. We have a couple, yeah, um, without getting into too much detail, but one is awesome. You know, she's just, she's just awesome. We can take her anywhere. She's, you know, and we're, the complexities increase it too. And you're over 40 years now. Almost 40. Almost 40. So it's our, our last year, we're both 39. And so it's just like. You know, the one's kind of nice and, you know, we get to kind of screw around still and play around. Well, maybe just, uh, you know, leave the goalie out and see if something happens. Yeah, maybe. You don't have to push the IVF button, but, you know, you could keep practicing. Yeah, right. We're not aligned on that one right now, so. Um, do you care to talk about faith at all? Um, you know, I'd kind of do a deflect there. I'm a big, I'm a big space guy. And so it's hard for me. I'd say I'm spiritual. I don't know if that's a cop out or something. Is there a creator of the universe? I think that the odds are much more in favor of there being a creator than all of this just being happenstance. So, you know, to me, when, again, I'm a space guy, so I look out and I, I, it's, it's unbelievable for us to be here in this moment right now, you drinking this and sitting here with this table and this couch and everything is just like, it's just, the odds are so unbelievably stacked against this. Well, and some people think that there's. A million universes that me and you are having one of these conversations just like this in one of them. Well, because there's better odds of that than there are of, you know, anything else, right? Because it's so massive. And so, that to me, when I start, you know, getting into the scope and So as far as us being like God's special favorites. That you would discount if there's a creator. I don't really know what that like even story looks like. Um, but for me, it's just like, I'm thinking more like Matrix style, right? Where it's like, you know, there, that we're one experiment kind of thing. One little, little, little thing. Yeah. Or maybe it's like from, uh, Men in black where what the cat has the, the, the universe on its, uh, collar or whatever it is. Right. Like, I feel like that could be our universe or something like that. The answer is 42. Yeah. And so it's, uh, that to me feels like it's more likely that, that, you know, there is something that kind of put this all into motion and, you know, um, that feels to me more likely than just. Everything happening, coming together from a big bang or something like that. Well, that's what, uh, I just had a conversation about this, that like, when I was a kid, it was like either God or the big bang. Yeah. Like if the big bang happened, but now they're like, well, based on all the information that had to have been there to make this shit come off, right. It seems like it had to have had kind of a design before it popped. Yeah, like it was, that's why I say experiment, right? Like they, they started it and pop, you know, sent it off. And yes, all of these things happened. Like it was created through, you know, all of these. The blueprint was there and a big burst of some sort of energy. Yeah, and I do think it took, you know, in the way we think about time. You know the billions of years to come together like I think that's all to me feels accurate But I feel like if you think about you know, the the galaxy on the cats And you know neck thing is being like that's a whole galaxy and it's in this tiny little thing, right? Right isn't if you can get out of it Like it's not that crazy to think about and that we're just that small or whatever So as far as the universe is that big and so in that time would move at a different Right. Um, and so 4 billion years sounds like forever, but if you were just in that little thing, you could have time going at a different rate at there than it is maybe in the outside universe, the matrix or whatever it is. And so those are the kinds of things that I think of that like make more sense to me than just, again, we just happen to be here with all these things made out of molecules. So How about is there is there like thoughts on active involvement of this creator planner thing in the Me and you sitting here right now today or whatever No I think for me what it does is it just really makes me really try to appreciate every little thing right like just really try to take advantage of all the opportunities that I have in front of me and You know, go to Steamboat like I did this past weekend and enjoy the fall colors. Like it's just, and especially with the daughter now, like just, you know, a lot of people, somebody told me one of the best parenting piece of advice, uh, that I heard was just, you know, enjoy every, every moment, right. Cause every moment is amazing, right. Or every, or every phase, right. Every age phase, like you said, like walking and talking kind of thing. Like that's new now, but then it's the only time it's going to be relatively new. The rest of the time is just going to be like, ah, he's walking and talking. Yeah, just doing what. Kids do. And so, uh, so I'm really trying to just, like, really enjoy each phase and, uh, And every new store. And every new store. Right. Every new owner. Every, you know, and just, and every new challenge, right? It's like, you know, I used to maybe think it was, you know, end of the world when we'd have issues or we, you know, we didn't live up to our end of the bargain. Yeah. RIP Cincinnati. Yeah. And so, you know, and now I'm like, you know, it's like, okay, well that's part of, you know, the business and, and what we're doing. We're going to learn from it. We're going to get better, but it also, you know. Um, there's not, we're not gonna bat a thousand either, so. Yeah, yeah, that means you're not trying hard enough things. Yeah. Um, the loco experience, do you wanna go back to the DUI story on that, or other stories pop up? Yeah, I mean, I'll just, I mean, cause, For me, it just, there's a couple defining moments in my life, I think, where I could have picked one road or the other. And so, you know, I got my first one at a CSU football game that got rained out in 2007. I was out at, uh, uh, Hughes. Hughes, and, uh, I had a rear wheel drive Lexus that my mom gave to me as kind of a graduation gift. And, uh, we were out there, well, we were out there tailgating cause we were going to go into the game. Right. So those tailgates at Hughes back in the day were amazing. They'd start early and, uh, and so we weren't planning on driving or anything. Right. We're going to go to the football game. Well. Storm came through, postponed it, postponed it. We camped out in the car for a little bit, doing whatever. And, uh, and then they finally blew the horn and said, Okay, we're postponing it for like three hours. And I'm like, okay, well, we were going to go to our buddy's house. It was right across the street from Hughes and one of those apartments right across there. And I would, I drove there. And so I was like, Oh, just everybody pile in, we're going to drive across the street. Well, there's like three main exits and entrances at Hughes and so I stupidly got in the middle one and it was stacked up I looked to the north one and it's like wide open and so I'm like, oh I'm gonna slide over there and my rear wheel drive Lexus while it's raining and I spun out in the middle of this field in front of thousands of people that are exiting this game and Sounds a pretty Pretty easy, easy target on that one. Um, and then, you know, after I got that first one, I actually didn't drink for a really long time. I, that was, uh, in 2000, after that, uh, 2007, I was doing a bunch of indoor rock climbing. I was in the best shape of my entire life. I was biking everywhere, obviously, um, working at Chiba HUD and, uh, you know, working long hours there, going to the gym. I was in like the best shape of my entire life. And, um. And then 2008 I fucking let my guard down one time went out It was a I had been I'd worked all day shift at Chiba Hut and then I was part of this like afternoon climbing club So I went to the climbing club right after it was a busy Friday So I didn't eat any lunch because it was busy shit And and then I went and climbed for like two hours after and then rode my bike back home and then and then Uh, it was somebody's birthday, and so we started at Cheba Hunt, had a couple, you know, frickin 90 shillings back in the day, pints, on an empty stomach, and then didn't eat, and then we went to Elliot's after, Elliot's Martini Bar, and I had like two martinis, and then just was totally frickin spun out, and uh, somehow made it, I'd biked down there, so I was on my bike, and biked down there, and uh, but I had my Lexus still, um, and so, So, uh, I made it back home and I was starving. Still no food. No DoorDash, right? Back then. Right. And so I called a couple places to like have food delivered to the house and it was like two hour waits back then, right? Cause there was no DoorDash. And uh, and it was like whatever, 11 or 12 o'clock on a Friday. And so I hop in the car to go get food and uh, yeah, I got the second one. So um, Ouch. That was probably like a year with no license or something. Oh, it was, it was full meal deal. And that's when I got shipped out to California. Greely, right? And I, uh, had like 30 days of work release, and, you know, it was just a really, you know, it was a tough time, and then On top of that, you get saddled with all this community service and all these classes that you have to take. Insurance bills are way higher. Yeah, all those things, you know, start adding up. And, um, you know, I can see why a lot of people, when they're going through it, they just say, Fuck it, I'm not going to do all those classes. I'm not going to do community service. And then they bail on and they never have a license ever again. And they're just, they then live on that side of the world. Yeah, I like to speed too much. Yeah, you know, so, yeah. And so, um, So, you know, I grinded it out, I had the support of Ashley, I got it all done while I was doing my year in Greeley, I got all my community service done, I got all my classes done, I got all those things done, but, you know, it really, you know, kept me in check, I think, uh, definitely keeps the ego in check when something like that happens. Well, and you just call an Uber now, because it's way easier. Yeah, and just, I mean, and now, you know, my stakes are really high now for having any other issues, you know, absolutely. Exactly. You know, it's, it's, it's not a, not a good thing. That's why you're here with the bubble water. Correct. And, uh, you know, I try to, you know, I, I still struggle with, I mean, it's something that's in my family. It's something that is definitely something I will continue to battle with until one day I probably just call it quits completely. So you like struggle not to have that second or that third one or that kind of thing a little bit? Absolutely. I mean, if I have a beer at three o'clock here in the loco lounge, then. I'm likely gonna have another one probably here and then, you know, another couple and then all of a sudden maybe I, you know, have five or six beers for the day, but you know, I'm, I'm flying out to Baton Rouge tomorrow morning at five and it wasn't good. I just don't want it to be a thing. So, um, you know, I think that's kind of where I'm at now is it's like, okay, you If I'm going to drink them, that usually means that I'm drinking, yeah, and so I try to limit how often that happens. Some weeks it flares up a little bit more than others or some months for sure, but, uh, um, but yeah, it'll be something wise to have that self awareness though. Yeah. And that's definitely something that, uh, you know, I've actually had that for a little while as I had to battle out of it and, you know, I had, you know, it just, it was, it was a hell of a battle. So, um, to just get everything accomplished and continue growing professionally and everything like that and, and those damn things stick with you. You know, I, every time I apply for a liquor license at a, um, you know, uh, every time for, for a new store, they, I gotta put the, the, right. Yeah. I got two in North Dakota during college, one, my second year, one, my fifth year. Yeah. And, uh. I still hang around. Oh yeah, now, even 20 years later, now I'd still go, you know, to spend some time in jail and spend at least a year without a driver's license. Yeah, if it happens again. So yeah, it's just, uh, you know, mindful and, uh, and aware and, uh, um, you know, appreciative of my spot and not wanting to put that in a bad spot. Yeah. Well, um, I think we can probably wrap it up. Is there anything else that you want people to know about? If they want to become a Chiba Hut franchisee? Are you entertaining new people? Are you kind of on pause for now? No, we actually, we have it on pause. We paused it in June. Okay. Um, we currently have, as I mentioned earlier, we have about 30, I think we have 37 stores in our current pipeline. Where they have either sideways. The various three packs or whatever. Well, no, I mean, talking like, Oh, just, wow. Getting ready, that will open in the next 18 to 24 months. Wow. And so... Um, so we've got a lot in our plate right now, and so we paused franchise sales. So we're not allowing anybody new into the system right now. And, uh, um, also kind of reevaluating what that, what that great franchisee looks like when we do reopen it. Because, um, over the last few years, some have been great. Some of them have learned a lot and, uh, you know, restaurant operators are restaurant operators. And if you're, if you're not a restaurant operator, you probably. Should not operate restaurants. It's really challenging. Uh, you can turn into a restaurant operator if you're not one already. Yeah. But it is a hard journey. Have to have the right kind of blood. Yeah, and it is not for everybody. And so, um, for us, we probably won't try to like, continue grooming, uh, uh, restaurant operators. Um, we'll probably, uh, go out and actively, you know, be looking and recruiting specific restaurant operators that know what they're doing to, you know, to make it less painful for everybody. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. This means like somebody that's operating a different franchise maybe, or even just, even a local restaurant, something like that? Yeah, just, you know, some kind of, uh, operating experience, um... That, uh, you know, so right now what I'd say is kind of our ideal franchisee. We've got a guy He was actually the original fuzzies franchisee. He's out of Dallas. And uh, so he has seven or eight fuzzies down there Right, and so he's only got the one concept He appreciates Chiba hud and what we have and how we differentiate But he also knows how to run restaurants and how to run teams knows how to run bars. Yeah He can come in and really, he's going to open two stores in the next year because he has the capacity and the bandwidth to be able to do that. And so, uh, And he can pull some of his skill people out of fuzzies. Yeah. To run chibas. Yeah, so he's kind of like our ideal type of situation I think we'd be looking for because if they're too big, then they're just kind of like portfolio guys because there's a lot of people that have like, whatever, 50. Right. Wendy's or... But they're not really operators. They're just owner or whatever. Yeah. I mean, they're, they, they operate a company that operates restaurants. Right. And so, um, we like our owners to still be involved in, on the day to days and, and part of, you know, the decision making and showing up to everything and so... Well, and being authentic. You know, you can't be authentic if you're spread that thin in some ways. Well, you start to lose some individuality. And so even with our largest franchisee, I mean, it's a... Big ass organization. Now, I mean, they're going to do fricking close to 60 million in revenue. They got 600 employees and it's just a different, it's different than running the day to day of restaurants, running the company that runs restaurants. And, uh, they've been able to scale the culture really well and have preserved it really well, but, uh, an easy thing to do. And, uh, and we definitely don't want to bring in folks that, you know, are then really large, well capitalized, well, you know, backed, uh, companies to come in and start telling us what to do either, you know, and they don't appreciate, uh, the journey. Cool. Well, it's been fun. Thanks Godspeed.
