Living the Cigar Life

Welcome back to the Elevate Polk podcast. I'm your host Chrissanne Long, and with me today, my co-pilot, my friend Nate, the great Kendrick. Happy to be here.

I'm liking it, man. Happy to be here.

So we're waving at the camera and saying hello. I think we're live. So we're just giving this a shot. Hopefully the guests the audience will enjoy a little bit of a live version of this show. And we're welcoming guests to the podcast, Mario and Patty Medina, the owners of Cigar Life. Welcome.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

It's great to be here.

And so we had a little bit of a pre-conversation about this space. So you walked in and you're like, whoa, the sound. So soundproof opportunity for you guys to just kind of come on the show with us and tell us your story. I know a little bit, but you know, this is gonna, this is the fun part. When we start telling people stories, it starts to come out. And so I would love for you guys to just do a little quick intro. I don't know who's gonna take the lead here, but whoever wants to, Mario goes, goes and runs with it. And then I'm gonna make sure that we dig out a little bit of information as we go.

So we're Mario and Patty Medina. We own a 2,400 square foot lounge, cigar lounge in South Lakeland. and we've had the shop for 4 and a half years. Uh, most of my career was, uh, 40 years of my, of my life was in the grocery business. So that's a big transition going from groceries to cigars. Um, and we'll talk a little more about that. Um, Patty, Patty was in the timeshare industry for the last 16 years.

Yeah, I worked for a timeshare exchange company and prior to that I was in shipping and freight forwarding. Container shipping.

Awesome.

For many, many years. So we come, we both come from, I don't think I ever knew that.

I mean, I knew that you had the Publix background or not the public, was it Publix or, okay. It was Publix. Yeah. But I didn't know, you know, I guess I, that was, that's really random of me for to not know that. I feel like I should know that, but I don't. So that's really cool. So 4 and a half years ago, one, you retired, you left and you said, okay, we're gonna start a cigar shop.

So is that how it happened?

Kind of.

We moved to Lakeland in 2006 and one of our neighbors across the street was a cigar smoker and he introduced me to cigars. My first experience was absolutely terrible.

Uh-oh.

Right? It was a cigar that wasn't right for me as a new smoker. It was way too strong. I felt sick. It was terrible. So, I eventually started to order sample packs and try different things and started to find my way through cigar smoking and absolutely fell in love with cigars.

Okay. Usually somebody has a bad experience and then they're done.

Like, and then they're done.

That's, that's never gonna try it again. But something inside of you said, I really wanna figure this out.

I, I, I did. And because I enjoyed the experience and how I felt, even though I wasn't enjoying the cigar, I enjoyed the ritual of deciding what I was going to smoke.

Yeah.

Cutting, lighting, you know, drawing, being— it sounds silly, but being one with the cigar, trying to find the nuances in it. How does the flavor change? You know, how's the burn?

Right.

So on and so forth. And there's a lot of romance in, in cigar, just like there is in wine and what have you. So I absolutely fell in love with cigars. And over the next 12 years developed a love for them.

Okay.

And during that time—

And Patty was along for this journey of loving the cigars too?

No, not necessarily.

Not an issue. I didn't have an issue with the cigars. I didn't, you know, I'd hang out with him while he was smoking and I'd have my wine and I'd go to cigar lounges with him. But initially I was not attracted to smoking cigars.

Okay.

And then one day we were at a local cigar shop and I was like, you know, you guys look so relaxed when you're smoking and you know, the conversation and you know, the ritual, the cutting, the lighting, you know, toasting the foot, that whole, you know, experience. 'Cause it's an experience. Mm-hmm. It's not like cigarettes where you're just jonesing for a cigarette and you have to, No, it's not like that at all. And I said, I wanna try a cigar. And he's like, really?

Okay, so let me get right on that.

Let's, let's, let's go find you a cigar.

Cool.

And we did. And, and fortunately, I guess through his experience, I had a very good first experience with a cigar and the rest is history. I've been smoking ever since. And that was about 6 or 7 years ago.

Okay. Wow. That's cool. Mm-hmm. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt Mario, cuz I, that's, that's okay. Kind of wanna bring her in part of the story whenever we can. Hi.

So I'm at a trade show in, in New York with the president of the company I'm working for.

Mm-hmm.

And one of my colleagues, and we're sitting at the Nat Sherman townhouse in Manhattan, and we're all the way in the back. And I said to the president of my company, I said, I would love to own a cigar shop.

Huh?

Because he's a cigar smoker as well.

Okay.

So now we're seasoned.

We're right.

We know what we like. Every time we go on a trip or we go to some trade show or something, we find a cigar bar and go together.

Yeah.

Develop a wonderful personal friendship with him. His name is Bob Belsky. And he says, yeah, man, that would really, really be cool. And I said, you know what? I'm going to own a cigar shop.

That's great.

And I decided then. That I was going to do this. I hadn't talked to Patty, just in my mind. And it just came out. That's where I was. That's when I decided. Well, and, and, and from then the— I just kept feeding the dream.

Yeah.

You know, how am I going to do it? Where am I going to get the money? What is it going to look like? What's important to me in the shop? What do smokers look for? And then I started that whole process and that was probably 2014, '15.

'15, maybe. Yeah.

2014, 15. We, we end up opening the shop 2017, January 14th, 2017.

So 3 years of market research, dreaming, planning, talking, thinking, studying, all of that.

And even that's not enough because you weren't ready.

Right.

No.

Because, because one of the things I'll tell you is that, um, I'm extremely driven.

Mm-hmm.

I'm A-type personality. I'm very organized. A plus B equals C. I'm gonna do A and then I'm gonna do B and I'm gonna get C. Well, when you start out to do something that's bigger than yourself.

Yeah.

And you know, I'll give you an example. Locations. I'm gonna find a location, get the construction done. I'll get the vendor relationships up and running. I know how to do that. And we're gonna, we're gonna hang a shingle and turn a key.

Right, right. A plus B equals C. Yeah. No, very, very straightforward path.

Well, location 1 doesn't work out. We can't get ahold of the realtor. Location B doesn't work out. We can't get ahold— that property's not available. Location C falls through. And I'm like, I'm getting really frustrated. And this is taking months, right?

Right.

So for someone who's driven and very results-oriented, it's extremely frustrating. And I didn't understand what was happening at the time. Right. Then even though we, we made a decision I don't encourage people to make without some solid advice. We took everything we had worked for in our entire lives, our entire 401, and cashed it in. Oh, well, so not only did we wipe out everything we had in savings, but then we paid a penalty for having taken that money prior to 65. At the time, I also had 2 Corvettes because I was at the top of my game in the grocery industry. And we sold both Vettes. So if this didn't work, we were going to be living in a cardboard box. I mean, there was no backdoor. There was no safety net. It was all the chips are in.

Oh, man. I've got goosebumps.

Wow.

So we finally— we go to the financing part because You, even though you're gonna come with cash, you still have to have credit lines and what have you. Mm-hmm. Because that's how, how the business world works.

Right.

And the first bank didn't work through and then the second bank doesn't work through and then things start clicking.

Yeah.

Right. We find the location.

But they start clicking how far down the path? How many months? How many years?

Years.

Yeah.

It was probably early 2016.

Yeah, but early 2016, things start to open slowly.

Mm-hmm.

And this is the big takeaway. So we, we meet the vice pres— I put together a wonderful business plan.

Mm-hmm.

I go meet with what was then Platinum Bank. Mm-hmm. Matt Butz. Coincidentally, I'd worked with his wife at Publix. And, and Matt, we spent the first 15 minutes going over the business plan and then the next 4 hours just talking about our families and his kids and how they're into music and so on and so forth, develop a relationship there. Then the location hits, then everything starts to come together.

Yeah.

And what I realized was that when you try to do something that's bigger than yourself, you may not have all the tools you need at the time to execute that plan.

Yeah.

And so life is gonna issue a report card to you. And my report card was an F at the time, right? Until I made some changes, began to expand the way I think, began to be a little more patient, began to think things through a little more clearly. And then, and only then, will things start to open up for you.

Wow, that's great. That's a great message right there.

Those are gems. Because again, you said when you were first starting off, you didn't understand why it was happening, but then you gave the report card analogy, that's huge. 'Cause a lot of people don't think about it like that. And you made me self-reflect on myself and say, yeah, that's right. 'Cause it's like, again, why is this all happening? But you don't have the experience. And so until you gain the experience and the knowledge that's attached with this new endeavor and industry that you're in, then you start getting the Bs and the As and the A pluses, and then the A pluses on a consistent basis. And there's that confirmation of, okay, I'm going in the right direction. I know exactly what I need to do to get there now. That's huge.

So question for the three of you, school and school, were you consistently high achieving in the classroom? A's, B's always?

I was.

Patty, yes?

No, absolutely not.

No, no, no.

I was a C, D student.

Okay.

I was the honor student.

So this was the, the adult Mario was, became the results-oriented person after he graduated from high school and school and all of that.

Correct.

Okay. And well, how did that happen?

I think your personality was all, you may not have had A's and B's in school, but you were very driven from a very young age. I mean, you wanted to get a car and your dad said, well, you gotta work. And he got a job at Publix bagging groceries at 14. 'Cause he wanted a car when he was 16.

Uh-huh.

And he got a car.

When I bought my first car.

But the classroom wasn't where that performance was focused. Correct. It was in the hard work and the doing the thing you wanted to do to get the thing that you wanted to get.

Correct. He has a tremendous work ethic and he just goes, goes, goes. His career with Publix was the same way. Than later with his other jobs.

Right. Yeah. Okay. All right.

And, and you on the other hand were the straight A academic, but I don't have his drive.

Okay.

I'm, I'm, I can support him.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, I do a lot of the administrative part of it.

Right.

All the paperwork, the accounting, not accounting, but bookkeeping. Um, the licenses, um, you know, the POS system, all of that.

Right. The details.

The details. Yeah. I can, you know, he's the big thinker. He's the planner.

Yeah.

And I help him with the administrative side of it. And that's what a lot of my career, you know, my work was focused on in the past was a lot of it was administrative.

Okay. So I wanna back up a little bit and go into this process of the decision. Okay. So Mario has it in his head. He tells this gentleman in New York, I'm gonna open a cigar shop, hasn't talked it over with Patty yet, and yet starts dreaming and thinking and it's just, it's gonna happen. Like, out of your mouth and into God's ears, and the rest is just a matter of doing all of the things, right? So when did you tell Patty? When did you let her in on your little secret plan?

As soon as I got back.

As soon as you got back from New York. And then tell us your version of the story, Patty.

I don't remember the specific conversation or how it went, but we had always been looking for something to do on our own. We always wanted to own our own business for years and years and years.

So this wasn't a new concept, but what we were going to have a business in, that was the first time that it was shared.

We just hadn't found the right fit, the right business to get into.

Okay.

And I, yeah, I don't remember. I'm sure when he told me, I was like, okay, let's look, because I was loving cigars at that point as well. And I loved going, and we would talk about, oh, I would do this differently, or you know, the lighting here or the, the color of the ceiling tiles, the chairs, whatever. Mm-hmm. Every time we'd visit a cigar lounge. So we would talk about things like that. If, if, if I had a cigar lounge, I would do this different, or I would do that. Mm-hmm. Or I really like this. So it just kind of happened. Mm-hmm. It was, it was good. And I was along for, I was like, all right, let's go, let's do this.

So there was no resistance?

No, no, I don't think so.

It was like, oh, okay, that's great. Now we have an idea. Now we know what we're gonna open a business.

Yeah.

Right.

Like exactly. Now let's figure this out. Great.

Okay. So then how long after that date of announcement did you start taking the actions that we started talking about as far as like finding the location and all that? How much time has transpired then from that point?

Almost immediately. The, the first thing we did was create our LLC.

Okay. So you, you were like on it. Yeah. Like there isn't any, I got on, we don't have to delay anymore.

I didn't have an attorney at the time. I got on LegalZoom. Mm-hmm. And did our LLC and found out what licenses and permits and things we needed from the local municipalities to start a business.

And then there were some special technical challenges, not challenges, different, different things than the average business opening because you're, you're dealing with tobacco.

Mm-hmm.

So then you had to kind of go through what that looked like. What were, what was that process generally for you?

It, it wasn't that difficult. Getting a tobacco license is not that difficult. A tobacco retailer's license, you know, I applied to the state. We, Got that, got our fingerprints done. Mm-hmm. You know, the, the hardest part was getting the, the alcohol license, the beer and wine license.

Right.

There's more hoops to jump through for that.

Okay.

And, and that's kind of, I fast forwarded a little bit. We had, you know, hoops to jump through to get the, the, the buildout permits.

Right.

We were, it was an existing building, but we had to do a buildout inside. Mm-hmm. So, you know, it was, we had a lot of hurdles. It took months to get that done.

And that's not something most businesses who've never done this before are prepared for.

Correct.

To do the build out and figure out that process. And I've heard that a lot. Now, you were not in the city limits, you were in the county, right? So you had, you know, there's differences in conversations that I've had depending upon where you're actually working. But the hurdles that you went through, were they surprises or were they just like, this is new to us and we really don't know what we're doing?

I think it was more, it was new to us and we didn't know what we were doing. And we had a contractor. Mm-hmm. And part of it was because of the type of business we were, the county didn't know how to treat us.

Yeah.

Are you a restaurant? No. Are you a bar? No. We're a retailer that has a lounge area and has a bar.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, so you're a bar. No, we're not really a bar.

Right. And it depends on the number, amount of sales for one versus the other.

Correct.

What was the percentage that it needed to be to qualify as, as the retail space as opposed to the bar?

Well, they, well, you, you can't have more than 50% of your sales come from alcohol.

Okay. Mm-hmm.

Which in our case it, it clearly does not.

Right, right.

And we verify that every year because our liability insurance is based our rate is based on alcohol to tobacco sales.

Got it.

So that's in check every year.

Got it.

I think though, stepping back just a second, we did get a couple of surprises when we were doing the build out, like the fire suppression system.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, that wasn't an expense. We ended up spending somewhere $6,000 to $8,000 additional on— additional—

outside of what was budgeted and planned.

Well, I mean, you can always expect— at first I'm like, Okay, so this is the money that we've got set aside.

Mm-hmm.

And we're gonna order all the furnishings, cabinets, lighting, everything that fits within this budget.

Mm-hmm.

And it doesn't matter how well you do that, you're always gonna exceed your budget.

Yeah.

Yeah. Because there, there are things that you may find down the road that you can't compromise on.

Mm-hmm.

Either structurally, uh, from a furnishing standpoint, You may come across an upgrade that maybe a trade says, hey, listen, you know, if you guys go ahead and just wire the sconces now. Well, we hadn't planned on sconces. We wanted them down the road. Okay, let's bite the bullet and do that. So little things like that, you'll always exceed your budget by 10 or 15%.

Yeah. Yeah.

Always finding out that the copper wires in the back weren't— had been ripped out from—

Yeah, we had no, no main fuse box. Oh, somebody had ripped the wires up. So now call an electrician to rewire the main box in the back of the building. Just a lot of things like that. A lot of heartache.

And I think everybody who's done any kind of renovation of anything can relate to those kinds of surprises, right? But now you're on a clock, right?

Like we're paying rent.

Yeah.

We've crashed.

This is the story Craig and I always, we call the day that Craig retired from his business, resigned from what he'd been doing. He was in project management. And construction for all of his career, which was almost 17 years, I think, at the time. And he finally just said, I'm gonna crash. We call it crashing the car and walking away. Like, this is it. I'm gonna do this. I'm, and he basically did everything that you guys just described as far as, you know, cashing in the 401 and doing all of that. And, and you're on a clock, you know, that that money isn't making money, it's costing. And all of that money's going out, out, out, out, out. And you're just thinking, I've gotta get this business open. So I can start paying back what I'm spending.

Exactly.

And so each one of those little hiccups or barriers, you know, at this point you can smile about them, right? You can, you can take a deep breath and go, oh man, I'm so glad we made it through that. But those are not small hiccups. Those are not small challenges or surprises. You know, there are probably some expletives said along the way that, you know, you're cursing this person or you're cursing that person, or you're just going, what is going on? And why can't we find, just get these answers taken care of? Because, you want results.

Not only that, there were a few doctor's visits and medication prescribed as well.

Yeah. Sleepless nights. I'd be up at 3 in the morning. I couldn't sleep the anxiety. Yeah. And I'd just get up and I'd go to our office in our house and get on the computer and start doing stuff for the business.

Just to keep your mind just, yeah. Occupied and focused on something productive.

How, how long did it actually take you guys to build it out versus the timeline that you originally projected?

a lot longer than we anticipated.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yes. So we signed the lease in July, June of 2016, and we, based on the conversation with the contractor and, and everything, we anticipated opening in the third quarter of that year.

Mm-hmm.

Because it wasn't a complicated build out. Right. There wasn't, there was nothing major. It was, you know, um, but, after they did the demolition inside and, you know, they, what do they call it? The, they frame it out and the initial frame out. Then we got stalled with the permits from the county for them to continue the build out. So we were literally stopped for about 2 months.

Oh, wow.

There was no building going on for like 2 months. So we ended up opening and we pushed and pushed and pushed and we're like, listen, and we're telling the contractor, you need to get this done. Mm-hmm. Because we're, we're paying rent, we're paying electricity, we're pay— and we've got cigar. That's a, that's a whole nother part of the story. The inventory, we had hundreds of boxes of cigars sitting in our house because the buildout wasn't done. The holidays were coming and we had to order everything ahead of time because they, a lot of the manufacturers shut down for the last 2 weeks of December.

Oh, okay.

So if we didn't get all of that ordered, we wouldn't, it would be mid-January before we could get the product.

Right, right.

So it's sitting in our house along with furniture and lighting and our house looked like a warehouse.

The formal dining room is filled with 8-foot tables.

Mm-hmm.

You know, like party tables.

Uh-huh.

We've draped it with plastic and we've got humidifiers underneath.

We've created, gosh, you've created your own, basically a humidor. Mm-hmm.

Everything's in boxes under.

How creative. It's just, it just tells you, you know, Out of necessity comes the mother. Yeah. Necessity is the mother of invention. Yeah.

Right. We had to do what we had to do. And we were, we told the contractor, we've got to get this done. We've gotta open. And we'd finally said January, we're opening January 14th. It was a Saturday. And you know, this is, this is it.

Yeah.

And we were, I mean, rushing to the finish line. There were finishing touches the day before we opened. We're still putting stuff together and putting boxes out and putting, Yeah.

So I'll share with you that there were a lot of obstacles and a lot of things that looking back, because we were able to solve them quickly, weren't as big as we thought they were. And then there were others that were much larger and much more expensive to take care of.

Yeah.

However, going back to making a decision and sticking to your decision Yeah. With all resolve. Throughout the process of achieving where you want to be, you will be constantly challenged. Yeah. And life will keep giving you obstacles to gut-check your grit.

So good. So good.

On that decision.

Yes.

Because if at any time you falter, it's all lost. The time you invested, those you dragged with you, The money.

Yeah.

Everything's gone and, and, and no hope of achieving the dream.

Right, right.

So as we strived to get the store open, we were already mentally 3 months down the road going, okay, what do we need to do? Well, if we can, if we can just do $250 a day.

Mm-hmm.

When we open, you know, we can get by on mac and cheese and ramen noodles.

Right.

You know, we'll, we'll be good.

You know, we can pay the rent and utilities.

We can pay the rent and utilities and, and, and we'll be okay.

Mm-hmm.

And, and that was as we're rushing the contractors to get them finished. And finally at one point I just came in and I said, I'm telling you today, next Friday we're opening. Mm-hmm. Make it so next Friday. Yeah. That's it.

Mm-hmm.

And we put it out on social media. We'd put it everywhere so that there was no backing out.

Right.

I mean, this is real now.

Yeah.

Yeah. And so we got it done. And they were great, right? A lot of the challenges we had in staying on time with schedule wasn't necessarily their fault.

Right.

So, but it creates a heightened sense of urgency and a lot of anguish on our side.

Yeah.

To your point, because you're bleeding money.

Yeah.

I hear that story in various different corners of the community when I talk to different entrepreneurs and people who have opened and closed since because they weren't ready for— A, they were already so far behind by the time they got open that they needed more than they were going to get by staying open. And it was just the sunk cost was too great and they couldn't recoup. And I think that is a testament to, like you said, the grit, the gut check. I love that you said that. It's like, Okay, this challenge is here so that it can ask me how convinced I am that this is the path that I want to go down. It's like, do I really want to keep doing this? Because I could say no now. I don't know what's on the other side of this decision, and I don't know what's on the other side of the 5 more decisions that I'm going to have to make or challenges that we're going to have to overcome. So that's, that's a really important nugget, especially for people who are starting. And the resolve, you know, it's the question of the resolve, how resolute are you in the decision that you're making? And it's easy for entrepreneurs to hide behind the blame game, you know? So I don't hear any of that in you guys. It's like, this is the process. It is where it is. It's not the contractor's fault. It's not this person's fault. It's just, this is the process. And you're, if you're committed to it, you'll see it through. If you're not, then you'll make excuses or you'll end up taking kind of that victim mindset that is definitely not going to help you get any further down the path.

And sometimes it's not, like you said, it's not anybody's fault, but you don't know what you don't know.

Yeah.

So you don't know what questions to ask if you don't know.

Exactly.

There were things that we didn't know to ask or to look into or to, you know, because we'd never done this before.

And I will say this, trying to be as kind as possible, but I also feel like there's this sense of, from a government standpoint, that that's your problem. Like the government kind of says, well, that's on you. Like you should know better.

Right.

And entrepreneurs have been the backbone. Small business has been the backbone of our economy across the history of our country. Right. I mean, that is how we are this great American dream. And so it seems to me like there's a disconnect in that mentality coming from those that are responsible for kind of helping us get to this process through this process. It seems like there could be a different mindset about it, you know, because I hear you saying that and I'm feeling like, yes, I hear exactly. I feel your pain. Right. But the other side of the coin and the other side of the conversation is, well, if they, you know, survival of the fittest, you know, and there's an element of that. You've got to have the resolve. You've got to have the grit. You've got to have the hustle. You've got to be willing to take some of those punches and, and not give up and not play the blame game. This is not about that. But there's also a side of it that's like, are we as conducive to opening small businesses as we possibly can? And I don't think that we're there.

I don't think we are.

So that's what, you know, that to me is this Elevate Polk concept of, okay, well, here you guys are, you struggled through, you persevered, you made it through on the other side. Now what can we learn from your experience that could make the customer journey from a, from going through the government side of things a little bit more pleasant? Because we're their customers, right? We're, We're actually their bosses in many ways. I mean, we're the taxpayers. I wish that we could learn how to have that script, right? That's really the thing, the crux of it for me, because I don't want to just continue to have these conversations and say, oh man, what a great story we have, and not really have something to show for it at the end of the day. Nothing really to— I don't know where I'm wanting to go with that. It's just kind of to make the statement.

Yeah, I understand.

Because even conversations that you and I have, Nate, a lot of times it comes down to, you know, are you prepared? Well, you had the business plan, you had everything written. Out. You had the budget.

You—

it's not like you just decided one day, I'm going to do this, and then just started making phone calls and, you know, willy-nilly just started trying to try. Yeah, you had the plan.

Yeah. And you guys were serious too. You guys were willing to do whatever it took.

And you— and you took the bottom out from underneath you. So you were all in, all of the chips, everything for this— this— this decision. Um, and it would have— it would be nice if the outcome wasn't such a hard-fought battle, right? Like to get through, it's like, oh, all right, never wanna do that again.

Right. Well, it something as simple as the zoning, you know, zoning approval.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Well, they told me you need to submit this form. It's a, I think, I can't remember what it was, $100 or whatever. You'll meet before the committee. But they didn't tell me that after that there was another $2,500 and another, you know, you had to go before the, the county commission and, you know, the, the, the zoning board.

Right.

And the whole, so they don't, they give you that little bit of information. Mm-hmm. And then I'm like, okay, great, we're done. No. Oh no, no, you're not done yet.

No, no, no.

This is getting crazy.

There's more.

Yeah.

It's like, can you tell me everything from A to Z so I know what I need to do?

Yeah.

And plan for it, you know, financially in this case, cuz it was another $2,500.

Yeah.

And also, you know, what information, time, what information you need, what do I need to put together to submit to get the approval?

Right. Yeah. Yeah. So it was, there's so much valuable lessons in this story.

Mm-hmm.

Um, I hope that maybe what we can do with it is kind of come up with what does a course look like? Could you go through some sort of course and say, these are the things that you're gonna expect when you get around this corner and then this corner and then this corner? Cuz you can't see past the corner.

Right.

You're just looking and you're saying, okay, I'm going down this path and then they're going to turn you right and then they're going to turn you left. And you've just got to be prepared to know that. All right, whatever I got, I better have my checkbook ready. Yeah. Building Better Businesses, a live virtual meeting with Donald Miller and the Polk County business community. Hey, Polk County business leaders, you're invited to join me on June 16th at 4 p.m. Eastern time to meet Don Miller, the man behind StoryBrand, Business Made Simple, and a whole lot more. Join us for this unique opportunity to be connected with the business leaders in our community and one of the greatest thought leaders of the current day. He's on a mission to help entrepreneurs succeed, and he has some great ideas on how we might do just that in our little neck of the woods. In this meeting, we'll get the chance to hear from Don about his most recent book, Business Made Simple, and the vision he has for making mission-critical resources available for entrepreneurs around the world to guide them as they build better businesses. We hope you'll be there to hear from Don and to connect with more than 100 other local business leaders right here in Polk County, Florida. Whether you're starting a business right now or you've been in business for decades, we'd love to have you join us for this unique opportunity to speak with Don Miller live.

I, I think some of that's gonna depend on the industry that you're trying to get into. Yeah. Because each industry will have its own nuances.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

The other thing that was interesting is we were so excited about making the commitment to open the business that I told Patty, you need to go ahead and retire. You need to leave Interval and go ahead and I need you to oversee the buildout. I need you to start ordering cigars and all this stuff.

'Cause he was still working his full-time job.

Okay.

Right.

Right.

So that we could put bread on the table. And we had this big— we went to a big cocktail hour. They gave her all kinds of awards and, you know, for years of service. And it was fantastic. And then it was like, we're in this vacuum.

It's—

we have all these challenges, all these issues, you know, with the build-out. And she's alone and I'm at work and, and I've got my own thing going on. Take care of it. And yeah, because then there's that whole dynamic of us being you know, married couple.

Oh, let's talk about that. Let's talk about that.

That's a, that's a show in itself.

Yeah, we could talk for hours on that.

So let's, let's, let's shift into that because I, you know, I work with my husband, you know, we take it home. I, work-life balance, I'm gonna probably hear from all of the mindset coaches and all of the people in the lifestyle industry that are like, no, Chrissanne, it's you, you need to find work-life balance. I'm saying How do you have dinner and stop and not talk about the thing that you just, that just happened in the, in the work, in, in the workspace, whatever challenge, whatever thing, you know, whether it's an employee-related thing or a client-related thing, a customer-related thing, an overhead-related thing, you, it's just gonna, it's gonna be part of the conversation. So do you guys feel like you have achieved work-life balance, this unicorn that they speak of?

No.

No.

Good. Phew.

I, I think people don't realize when they say, I wanna open a business. When you open a business, when you're an entrepreneur, it's your whole life.

Mm-hmm.

You're, it, it's, you do everything.

Yeah.

Uh, and you know, not only it, people think, oh, how cool, they have a business. And you know, they, and now we have a few people working for us, so we have some, they're, you know, they're the boss. You're your own boss. That's like, no, I'm, we're not our boss.

Mm-hmm.

Cigar life is our boss.

Yeah. Yeah.

And, and our customers are our boss. We have to, we have to perform. We have to, you know, provide customer service. We have to make sure there's cigars on the shelf and, you know, it, it runs our life.

Right.

You know, not in a bad way. I mean, you have to be willing to accept that.

But you're volunteering for this. Yeah. So it's not like a mandate.

No, you have to, you have to understand that when you're an entrepreneur, you're, you're working harder than you've ever worked in your life.

Mm-hmm.

You're giving more than you ever did in any job. I don't care if you worked 70, 80 hours a week. When you own your own business, you're working at 24/7.

Yeah. Yeah. I remember as a kid, my dad owned the Hallmark store in Winter Haven. And I would work with him weekends or holidays or, you know, whatever. And, you know, somebody would come in and want a sponsorship, right? Like, hi, can I see Mr. Long? Can you sponsor my Little League? Can you sponsor this thing, that thing or the other thing? And I remember as a teenager kid, like my dad's like stingy, like he didn't want to help anybody. And I remember one time he was just a little bit more tense and annoyed at, you know, whatever was going on in the business at that point in time. And he was a little bit short with the person. He's like, you know, if I gave money to everybody that comes in here, I wouldn't have any money to stay, keep my business in business. And I like, Why is he such a jerk? I understand now. Right? Like you start, like you just said, oh wow, they have this business and everything's great. You know, we're just rolling in the dough.

Yeah. We're taking money in wheelbarrows, shoveling it to the bank. And that's not how it is.

It's funny how like it comes full circle. Like you start to realize things that you saw one way, now you see a completely different way. And that's why I always say when we're having Bridge Local meetings or we're having conversations, it's like when you can look at the person in the eye and know that they understand the challenges without having to speak them, right? You don't have to talk about the challenges to know that you get it.

Mm-hmm.

Because it's just a part of being in the entrepreneurial world. Like, I understand it, you understand it. Okay, now let's get to work and do some things that we can, that we can do together.

So, so I wanna ask, you, you know, you talked about how, you know, the, the, the challenge and the obstacles of opening up and finally getting to that point. What was that? What was that launch like when you guys finally opened up?

It was a party. It was a little bit.

It was a long time coming, right?

So it was, Nate. And I'll share with you that opening day was extremely exciting and also anticlimactic because there's a picture that I look at and it's Patty and I on the barrier, on the guardrail, that runs along the sidewalk on the corner of South Florida Avenue and Brennan Road where Miller's Ale House is.

Yeah.

Our shop's located behind that space and it says now open. And we're standing there, right? And we just unlocked the door and we're hoping somebody will come. Just hoping somebody will come and buy a cigar. Just, just to affirm that our, our—

Somebody saw a message somewhere.

Yeah. And that we know this is gonna work.

Yeah.

Right. We, we, we're, we're, I was absolutely certain this was gonna work. Mm-hmm. And it's scary. It's scary. And, and, and you don't sleep and, and your stomach hurts and your chest hurts. And Will Smith says, I heard him say that all the really cool stuff happens just on the other side of fear. And so that's where we were at. So we opened. And our first month was exactly what we predicted in sales. So, you know, we felt a little easier. And the second month was just, just a, just a trickle more than the first month. And so we're starting to get this small affirmation that we may be on, on the right track and we won't be living out of a cardboard box. The third month, we're there the whole day. It's a Tuesday. We're there the whole day. The whole day we sell $53.

Oh man.

Yeah.

I went home and cried. I went home and cried. What have I done to my family? I just sacrificed everything. And if this continues, that's how, that's how visceral the experience is from day to day in the beginning. Now, 4 and a half years later, obviously there's much more of a comfort level. We have 4 employees working with us. We have a base business that continues to grow. We have a track record. We know where we're at relative to where we were a year ago. So there comes comfort in that. But in the beginning, it's all about that grit.

Yeah.

And I heard someone ask an entrepreneur once, do you think anybody can be successful? And he replied that if you had asked me that question 10 years ago, I'd have said yes. If you ask me that question today, I say no, because not everyone has the grit or the wherewithal to go through everything that comes with getting there.

Yeah. It's a whatever-it-takes kind of attitude. I mean, you get thrown a curveball and you just— people are just like, well, I quit. And then you're like, no, I don't quit. I'm going to figure out how to hit a curveball. Right. I mean, that's just the— but it's interesting because there are those that don't react the same way to the curveball. They react in the other way. They're like, okay, I don't think softball or baseball is for me. Right. And then they just go. And I'm more of like, I'm going to master the game. I'm going to figure this thing out when I'm ready on my terms. I'm going to walk away. And I'm, you know, until I'm ready to do that, I'm staying in the game. So it's really, it's true. I think, you know, being, I think I'm, I'm my brand of the, the Chrissanne Long brand is very optimistic and idealistic and, you know, Pollyanna. We've talked about Pollyanna on the show before. And the reality is it's not necessarily that I don't know that there is a realistic alternative. It's that I am not spending any time thinking about reality because I'm making my reality in every single decision that we're making. So you could have bent to the challenges and said, okay, and turn tail and run. But you created a new reality because it was realistic for it to fail, but it was also just as realistic for you to fight through it and for it to succeed.

Correct.

And that's the beauty of entrepreneurship.

And I think a large part of it too is that self-awareness of these challenges are to be expected. And it's really the market saying, hey, are you sure you want— like you were saying, are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure you want— and it almost seems like, for me, it seems like it's over time, you become more stronger and stronger. So those same things that hit you, it doesn't hit the same way. And it's like, oh, I can handle that punch now because I've been here for a while now and I know what it feels like.

Yeah, exactly.

And even today, you know, you'll be tested.

Mm.

Because you think, well, if I can just get this and this and this done, then we won't need to dump any more money into the shop. Mm-hmm. You know, we've got the smoke eaters now, we've got comfortable chairs, we've got, you know, all the right displays that we want. We got all the, the retail merchandising down. We've got the size of the humidors correct. The number of cigars we carry is good. And then you, you go, oh, but you know, if we just had this, mm-hmm, that, that would, it's never gonna be enough, right? That would really, I think that could be a game changer. And so, You always have something more you want to do.

Well, that's a growth mindset.

Yeah.

I mean, when you stop growing, it's like you're, you're kind of saying I surrender. And the alternative to me is, is I don't even want to think about the alternative. You know, when you stop, stop growing, you start dying basically.

Yeah, exactly.

I think there's such a wealth of knowledge here with what they've done. One of the things I wanted to, to kind of present to you guys is I know there's, there's some entrepreneurs out here. That are listening, hearing your story and saying, oh man, okay, let's, let's start something. They started something. I wanna start something too. Maybe the husband and wife had a similar conversation. What would be some advice that you guys would give to them as a husband and wife going through this type of journey?

So I, I will, I will share just taking one step back and I'll answer your question, Nate. There was a lot of heartache in our relationship. Over the business in A-type personality. She's dealing with real life. We can't get that permit because there's this other step. I come, why isn't this done? Oh, that's because of this other thing. Well, why didn't you know that? And it's so you have this anxiety, right? Over we need to get open, we need to do this, we need to do that. And I'm expecting her to take care of all that stuff. But again, to her point, you don't know what you don't know. So you talk about not only growth from a personal standpoint, but you also have to have growth in your relationship. So one of the first things I would say is make sure you're both on board, right? And make sure you're ready to be very patient and forgiving with each other because there's going to be a lot of moments because this is scary. It's scary. You're in a very vulnerable position. And not only are you vulnerable just in the health of your relationship where you guys share personal stuff, but now you're vulnerable mutually in that you're endeavoring into something that's much bigger than you. And that is scary.

Yeah.

And if, if, if, if you're not used to being scared, you don't learn to live in that feeling. So you, you, the more uncomfortable you learn to live, the, the more growth you have and tolerance you have for challenges, whether they be in your relationship or whether they be in your business. So I would say make sure you're both on board with the decision. And make sure that you guys are ready to at least commit to be patient and grow with each other as you go through it.

Great answer. Great answer.

That said, here we are 4 and a half years later, and Patty and I still struggle with things about the shop. I mean, in complete transparency, we understand that, we respect each other, and, you know, there may be a couple of doors slammed, but then we'll come back and, and say, look, this, this is how I'm feeling and, and this is what I need done. And she'll say, well, this is how I'm feeling and this is, this is how I think I can get it done. Are you good with letting me follow my process and not do it your A+B way? Yeah, right. I'm going to get it to you.

Yeah.

You know, for, for the benefit of both of us, because it's going to benefit the business, but you've got to let everybody manifest their, their responsibilities in a way that's comfortable and meaningful for them.

Yeah.

Everybody, everybody works differently. Everybody has different styles. I even just something as, as simple as writing an email or a letter, I tend to be a little bit more wordy. He's more to the point.

A B C. Correct.

We're different. It's, one's not wrong and the other one, mm-hmm. You know, and one is right. It's just we're different.

Yeah.

And as a, as a married couple, you have, and owning a business together, you have to acknowledge that and, and understand your differences and try to, and again, we still, you know, and we've been married almost 37 years.

Mm-hmm.

And it's, it's still not easy all the time. Yeah. But we've made that commitment and, you know, we try really hard to understand each other. And, you know, get things done the way, you know, we need to get them done.

Yeah. There's a foundational ex— there's a fa— there has to be a foundation on which the relationship is built that is solid enough that a slam door or a crossword or, you know, a, a misstep isn't going to completely demolish everything that you've built over the years. Because I think Craig, Craig's word, it's, it's really, we found bottom, like, when bottom hits and you know where bottom is, it's like you kind of need to know where it is so that you can touch it. And then you can, like, like on the deep end in the pool, you go down to the bottom so that you know how deep it is. And then you can pretty much always figure out how to get back to the top. Right. And so understanding that foundation and knowing that person is there for the long haul, like you said, you've got to be all in together. You've got to know that that's a together decision and it's not one pulling the other or pushing the other to make the decision. I think those are valuable lessons in this interpersonal, you know, relationship. Being in business together as a spouse is really— it's exciting, but I don't think I would recommend it to the general public, right?

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, it's hard.

You need as much grit.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

To keep the relationship together. Yes.

To bear the challenges in the relationship as you do. Absolutely. To overcoming those of wanting to open your own business.

Right, right.

I mean, 'cause for all intents and purposes, everything that happened and as much fighting as we did as during the buildout, it was, it was, it was crazy. That would've, should've been enough to forget this.

Right. You know, we're not, not only are we walking away from the idea, I'm done with the whole thing.

Yeah.

Oh man. Well, I'm glad that you guys were able to persevere. I didn't meet you until you were open and had been open for a little bit. But it, it's always fun to connect with A, the Hispanic community as well. So let's talk a little bit about family, where you came from, how you, how your family, you know, talk about the roots.

So my parents came in 1960, obviously fleeing communism from Cuba. And when they got to Miami, there was no jobs. So through a church work relocation program, they ended up in St. Louis, Missouri. So very different climate, very different people. Didn't understand the language, didn't speak it. And my dad worked 3 jobs so my mom could stay home with us and they could have ketchup soup and my brother and I could split a hamburger.

Ketchup soup. Ketchup soup. Is that like tomato soup? Water, like ketchup watered down?

Yes. Literally ketchup soup.

Wow. Wow. I have not, I've not heard of that.

And when I was 4, we moved back to Miami and My dad was just fierce at tremendous work ethic.

Mm-hmm.

And he did everything he could for us. And, and, um, probably my first mentor.

Yeah.

My father.

That's awesome.

Just the, the whole work ethic. And Patty has a similar story.

Yeah. My parents also came from Cuba, 19, for the first time in '58, and then in '59 permanently. My dad was already coming to the States to work in construction. He worked for a big construction company in Cuba. So he had the advantage of a skill where the language was not as big an issue. Mm-hmm. Uh, Mario's dad had been in law school in Cuba when his dad said, you're leaving for the United States tomorrow. Mm-hmm. So yeah, my dad was already coming back and forth working. They got their visas, they came, they went to New Orleans of all places.

Mm.

And then eventually moved to New Jersey where I was born. And then when I was 3, we ended up in South Florida.

Okay.

So I grew up in the Fort Lauderdale, Miami area.

Yeah. And, and the, um, the connection we have on, on just a, almost like a natural level. I mean, my parents, my mother came from Cuba when she was 14 in '64, '60, I think it was '64. And it's like, I just, we don't need to talk about it. Like, I just know that these are my people. Right.

Yeah.

Like, I just know that there's, there's certain things that I just can sense about the people that you are that just really, has always made me feel connected. So it's really cool to just be able to bring you on the show, let you tell a little bit of the story. Hopefully we can have you back again in the future to maybe even do a deeper dive into one of these little rabbit holes. I'm sure we could spend hours talking about, but you know, I don't know if there's anything coming up at Cigar Life that you might want to share, any upcoming special things that are going on that you want to just tell everyone to, to, to be aware of? Look at the website, go to Facebook?

Yeah, so we're on Facebook and Instagram. And if you go to our Facebook page, you'll see that we have events listed. And if you go to our webpage, you'll also see a calendar with upcoming events. The next big, big thing we have will be our Paws for Patriots event, which will be held in October.

Is this the 4th annual, 3rd annual?

This'll be the 3rd annual.

Okay.

And it's huge. So within our Paws for Patriots events, Paws for Patriots is a program within Southeastern Guide Dogs.

And just for clarity, since we're in audio, it's PAWS, P-A-W-S, PAWS, like animal paws.

Yeah, right.

For Patriots. Not pausing, like hit the pause button.

And what that program does is it earmarks service animals for veterans coming back from war that have PTSD, traumatic brain injury, loss of limb, loss of sight. And so it's a charity that's dear to us, and we get behind in a big, big way. And we'll have obviously the Newmans from JC Newman with us. Well, Mission Barbecue will be doing the food and it's a big, big fundraiser. We'll have some silent auction items, we'll have live auction items, and that's our big fundraiser. That's a lot of fun.

And that— what's the date of that?

October 16th.

Okay. So, and there are still sponsorship opportunities available.

Absolutely.

And donation opportunities.

Yeah.

All right. So I am looking forward to coming down and seeing you at the shop. So why don't you tell everybody again where you're located, what your website address is, How to get in touch with you, all of those fun things.

We're, our address is 5724 South Florida Avenue. We're in the shopping center, the Center Point Plaza, which is on the corner of Brandon Road in South Florida. We're right behind the old Louie Mac restaurant. What a, oh, website.

Yeah.

CigarLifeLLC.com and Facebook, Cigar Life Lakeland and Instagram as well.

Awesome. Awesome. Nate, anything before we wrap up?

It was awesome and fascinating hearing your story and hearing the determination of what it took to build this thing. I think a lot of people, when they start off, they think it's gonna be easy and, oh, I'll be a millionaire with this concept. But to hear your openness of sharing what it truly took to get where it is today is amazing. I'm glad to know your story. And I know a lot of people that that you, that were listening to this podcast. I know it, it hit.

Yeah. It, it made sense to me. What I love about your story specifically with Mario's vulnerability in the sense that A plus B equals C is how you approach life. Mm-hmm. And so that created success for you in your career, right? You were, you, you weren't the juxtaposition between the two of us, how you came at entrepreneurship and how I came at entrepreneurship. I came at entrepreneurship an utter failure. Like I was a failure at life and I was trying to figure out how to succeed at life. You, on the other hand, were a success in life and doing things in a very professional and successful way. And you decided, okay, I'm now I'm gonna move into this new plan and this new phase of my life. And that kind of set you into this whole kind of more self-awareness of A plus B doesn't always equal C. You might actually need an A and a half plus a B minus, you know, something to get to the final destination of C. And I just, I find that to be the most exciting part of these dialogues we have with entrepreneurs because everybody comes at it with a different skillset, but we all walk away with a rich wisdom and knowledge and experience that we're able to then turn around and give back. And we're now looking at let's see how we can help other future entrepreneurs. Let's see how we can let our story kind of inspire or keep people from maybe making some of the same mistakes that we've made. And I, I love that story that you're, that you're, that you're there willing to share.

You, you have to embrace the process.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And that was a big takeaway for me.

Mm-hmm.

And because things will happen, you know, years later, like I was talking to Patty the other day, if, if we had got the first location, if we had got the loan on the First Bank, if we had been ahead in our schedule, we might not be enjoying the success we're enjoying today because we weren't ready at that moment to encounter some of the challenges. So we needed some of these initial hits to get us ready for some of the bigger stuff that came later.

Yeah.

And so you have to, you have to embrace the process.

Yeah.

If you don't embrace the process, It's painful, but that's what causes growth. And within that growth, then you achieve your dream.

Yeah.

I hope people are listening to this and really taking in these key things like the process.

Yep.

Grit, the report card, being okay with realizing that if you're going to be in any industry, that there comes a point where you're going to get tested again and again and again. And going back to that grit and that willingness to really never give up.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. What a great chat. It's great to see you both.

Thank you for having us.

So excited to just introduce you to some of the community that might not know that you're over there. And hopefully if you go and see Mario and Patty, you'll mention that you heard the episode on Elevate Polk. But yeah, thanks for listening everyone. And remember, we have a new episode each week. We drop every Wednesday morning at 8:00 AM and be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. And remember to leave us a review. We promise to read every one. And I did hear from somebody that it's kind of a challenge to write a review for Apple Podcasts. I don't really know. I'm not a, I'm an Android user. Oh. So if somebody can persevere through that challenging experience and write a review for us, that would be so appreciated. Um, so yeah, so back to what I was saying, you can, you can always find all of our episodes at elevatepulk.com. And if there's something or someone you wanna hear on our upcoming shows, Reach out to us on Facebook at Elevate Polk. Woo woo! We did it!