Branching Out Into the World of Fashion with Dr. Kenneth Gembel of L.U.C.K.

Hello and welcome to this episode of Conscious Design. I'm your host, Ian Peterman, and author of the Conscious Design book. I'm here with Ken Gemble, founder of Luck. He has a PhD in engineering and is a transformational leader. He works with a lot of private equity and others to improve businesses, and this has all also led to launching a fashion brand As well. So great to have you on the show.

I appreciate the opportunity, and I always like to discuss what I'm doing and making things better, and that's kind of the foundation of how we started talking. So I appreciate this opportunity to chat with you again.

Yeah, and it's been— we'll, we'll end up editing this all into one cohesive episode, but we've been chatting for 20 minutes or so already. It's been great. We've been talking about so much, and I'd love to talk a little bit, kind of bring it back to the manufacturing improvement side that you're working on, because you're obviously manufacturing is one, you have a PhD in engineering, you understand that technical side, but you bring more to a company than just, hey, make your your manufacturing better. What are— maybe you could outline some of the areas that you really focus on and look at that, you know, typically in one of these projects you start on, where you really start to be able to improve.

So I've been fortunate to start as a production supervisor and work my way up to running a division as a general manager and president. But when I started, you know, fresh out of college with materials engineering degree from Western Michigan University, I went to a company called American Axle Manufacturing that was founded by a gentleman named Richard E. Douck, who was second in command of Chrysler under Lee Iacocca. He has wrote numerous books. He's an iconic leader, Automotive Hall of Fame. He was a massive advocate of bringing in Engineers, and specifically because the business he bought made axles, metallurgical engineers, and putting them into all different facets of the business. But he had a maniacal focus on optimizing the manufacturing operation. While he was tremendous at strategic, like understanding the financials of a business and growth strategies, he tied it to the floor. So one of the things that I do is I spend a lot of time going to the floor and seeing what's actually going on within a manufacturing business. We might start out in a quick meeting in the front with plant managers, vice presidents, talking about what you make, but then we're going to take a walk on the floor and we're going to go into a lot of areas that maybe haven't seen foot traffic in a while, just to really see what's going on though. Because one of the things— you have a massive team, and it's no different than a football coach. Those people need to be led. And while they might not be quarterbacks, which you is the more attractive position on a football field. They might be linemen or these people that are in these— in the trenches. They need attention. And so I try to see where big opportunities lie and really talk to people that are dealing with the issues. Well, I have a lot of experience. One of the experiences I learned is talk to the people that are dealing with the problems and start focusing on— they will guide you. to what you need to do, but you got to be willing to listen, and you have to be able to— because people will tell you things are fine as well.

Well, they don't want to rock the boat.

It's part of breaking those bad habits. And it's like I said that, you know, Dick Dowd said, I'm okay with mistakes, I am not okay with mediocrity. And, and those were the couple things, is honestly going to college I didn't have super high standards going into it for my— what I expected to do career-wise. And meeting him was a change, but I'm going to connect it to some motocross things that inspired me too. But seeing him was seeing somebody that wanted to do things different and wanted to do them great. And when I started working as an intern at the company and seeing that, because honestly, as an intern there, he met with interns. that were in engineering because he wanted to know what was going on. He would listen to you. And the thing— there were— he either knew already what was going on and wanted to see who was going to tell him the truth, or he knew something might not be right and didn't have all the information. But he was going into operators, interns, and then vetting what vice presidents might be telling him. It's right, because he just wanted to know the truth.

Right.

And so that's how early on he asked me some questions about some programs going on. I didn't realize I was telling him serious issues, but when he started researching it, he came back and said, whoa, this guy is right. He's pointing us to some very— some risk in these projects that we're doing, and we need to make changes. And so the other thing was, tell me the truth and tell me early.

Right. Don't wait.

Yeah. Well, a lot of times people There can be some deceit and not— you're worried about getting yelled at, so you're trying to maybe hide it and try to fix it. I was lucky that I got in with somewhere where it was, tell me the truth, tell me early. If, if we can figure out what's wrong with it, we can fix it. Let's not push it down the road. So those were— Seeing the greatness, that honesty, like really understanding what's going on, are still things that stick with me today. I'm just trying to figure out the truth of what's going on, because that's really how you devise a plan. You have to really understand what the problem is to create the corrective measures for it. And then that's where that company is probably the best company I've seen at implementing lean systems. But it was top-down. They believed in it. Now, they might— they're not doing all the actions. They're relying on people like me, my counterparts. But that was the first company I seen that really bought into it, and we weren't going to deviate from doing it. You know, there's a lot of companies, they manufacture stuff, but they also manufacture reasons why you can't do lean. But the reality is you got to want to do it. You got to commit to it. It's no different than getting in shape, being great at something, and saying, hey, I want to be a great cyclist. I'm going to ride 5,000 miles this year. I'm going to ride 4 or 5 times a week. Ride with fast guys. I'm gonna eat healthier. Everything you need to do to be good at that, it's easy to put the plan in place. It's the commitment to doing it, right? The change, the people that are fighting it, the understanding, because there's reasons they're telling you that. But those are the things like, I go to the floor, I see what's going on, and then you're connecting. Here's where you want performance to be. The reason we're down here is because of these reasons. Now let's Let's get those into an action format. Who owns it? How fast can we get through it? What system approach can we take to make sure you never repeat it again?

Right.

So those are the couple things I learned early, but it changed me because seeing him was the first time I seen greatness. But the other— and yesterday was the 4-year of him passing away— was a guy named Brian Swink. He was a motocross racer from Michigan. One of the— his ability on a bike was unbelievable. He could just do things and control it in a way a lot of people can't even still.

Mm-hmm.

And I didn't realize when I first started racing and I went to my second race and my dad's like, hey Ken, this kid we're parked next to is unbelievable. You really need to go talk to him. You know, I was, I was 15 turning 16. He was 16, I think, going on 17, but he was already signed to be a professional. Like, at the end of that year, he turned professional, won his first championship. But I went over and talked to him and said, hey, my dad says you're really good. And then he told me, and I'd read about him in magazines, but then watching him ride, it was like I couldn't fathom doing what he could do on a bike. But he practiced so much. That's kind of like the laboring under complete knowledge thing. Like, he put so much time in, worked on his craft, um, worked on his skill to be good at it. He wasn't as natural as people think he was. His first year as a pro, he went through 125 clutches in his dirt bike. You know, most people might go through 2 in a season. Like, he was putting in so many hours, he was like Just completely weren't running through the mechanical aspects of the bike. But those 2 guys— he was the first time I was able to connect. Seeing Brian was like, this guy's astronomically better than anybody I've ever seen do this. And then he turned pro and he started winning immediately as a professional against guys that have been pros for 5, 7 years, right? So it was pretty cool. And then when I went to work I was like, oh, all the things that he was doing as a racer to be good, I can do that in business and be really good at business, and I'll still make enough money to buy dirt bikes every year, which is one of my goals. I want to get a new dirt bike every year. But it was able— I was able to relate it, right? And then it kind of tied it to Lean. It's like, whoa, this is like a motocross race. All right, the shift start, that's the gate dropping. Now, race, you might have 20 minutes. Work shifts, you got 8 hours. Okay, now I got to maximize what I get through the system in that time frame. And I was just— it was the metaphor I was able to use to tie my hobby that fueled me to work. Then, then it made it not so much like work. I was like, you know what, this is just like motocross. And that environment I told you, the AM environment was awesome because it was like winning. When the Patriots were winning, when Alabama was winning, you just expected To dominate, like to run it great. Everybody was aligned with it, and while it was it was a very aggressive environment, it made it fun because everybody was in there trying to take those obstacles. And that's kind of where it was different when I decided to to leave and go to other companies. It was a little bit of like whoa. They're not like this. They might be pretty content with stuff being super inefficient and maybe more worried about telling people that we have to make the changes to get the efficiency. They would more live with the inefficiency to keep people happy versus let's have these discussions and figure out what we got to do to change it. And I just assumed that every company functioned in that way. Like, oh, this isn't efficient. Let's get that. Let's go after this. Why would we let that go for 2 years? Let's do it now.

Right.

It was an environment where it was a little bit of a unicorn.

Yeah, I had, I actually had a similar experience. I worked, I worked in a company when I was younger, my first, first real design job. And then I moved into really far into the inefficiency world in the public sector and moved into the government side of a contracting company. And I got let go because I pointed out inefficiencies there. So I was quickly— I quickly left that arena. But it was such a— because I spent 3 years in a company that was very much All right, well, here's the problem. Let's fix it. Let's fix it. Tell us now. Like, we don't have— we don't have time for you to waste not telling us. We have to get it fixed now. Our, our business depends— the way we run our business depends on being efficient and fixing problems as soon as we know about them. And then you flip over to the other side where it's, well, if we can elongate this, we can, we can get some more money. We can just ignore it for a while. And it's just not, not the same environment.

And I think, you know, when you're talking about that, there were some things that in the recession that happened in 2008 and 2009, there we didn't go bankrupt as a company that literally had— we had a strike for 90 days. In 2008. And then we had in 2000, I believe it was 2009, another 3 months where we never sold a product because GM and Chrysler were going through their bankruptcy.

Hmm.

And but I think there's some things we did to get borrow money to get it in place. But because we'd also had this philosophy of getting improvement better, we were performing better. That kind of helped. to weather that situation. And I think when a lot of companies will look, hey, we're doing pretty well right now, and you're always doing well till you're not doing well. So, you know, I try to say, don't wait till you're on the operating table and you have a huge issue to try to fix it. Let's get in front of it. Let's figure out how to build continuous improvement into your business right now, where you're taking small increments every single day And never letting up on it.

Right.

A lot of companies wait for something to go wrong and it's like, oh, we need to get better. Well, let's do that early and protect your business. Let's put that into cash. You can either reinvest it for growth. If you want to, you can hold onto it for a potential recession if you wanna have the cash on hand to protect you, but you're always better to fix it when you find out it's going on. One of the things I told someone in my career is they were like, why do you have action lists of all these problems? I said, well, if you don't write it down, it doesn't mean you don't have a problem. You're just putting yourself at risk to have the problem and not realize you have the problem.

Right.

And then you're putting the business at risk. So when you write it down, all you're doing is giving yourself the ability to prioritize.

Right. Well, that's such an important— we talked about this a little bit with electric cars, right? It's, you think, if you don't think through things early on, you're going to end up with a problem later. Like infrastructure isn't there to handle recycling something that you just created, or whatever it is. This whole idea, like you should be thinking about The impacts, the problems, the issues now before they become something you have to deal with. Like, it's— if you wait, then it's like you said, it's the difference between, well, I ate, you know, a bucket of fat every day and I wonder why I have clogged arteries. Like, well, maybe you should have not eaten a bucket of fat every day. Probably could have had a different result. So Don't wait until you're on, on the operating table getting, getting an emergency problem fixed. Try to think about it and be aware, like you said, being aware of it, right? If you don't write it down, if you're— if you ignore it, it's impossible to deal with it or improve it or make it better. You don't know.

Or you're going to get the surprise of a lifetime, right?

Yeah.

You know, that's the thing is— and that's the thing working with private equity companies, helping with acquisitions, they don't like surprises either way. Like, yes, it's good if you beat your performance. And one of the lessons that I— when we were at Cosworth was— because they were more like a venture capitalist to— it was owned by Kevin Kilkoven, who passed away in January, was an awesome guy. and Jerry Forsyth, 2 really diehard motorsport enthusiasts. They owned the league that was opposite of the one that ran at the Indy 500. So they owned the opposite league when it split. And that's really why they acquired Cosworth is they wanted to make their own engines for the racing league. They were super passionate about it.

Yeah.

But they didn't— yeah, yes, they were happy if you beat it, but they wanted you to land the plane where you said you were gonna land the plane. And the way that they looked at it was if you beat your performance by a significant amount, you didn't understand what was going on in your business, or you were fluffing it to beat your performance. So if you don't know what's going on, you run the risk of missing your performance, which isn't acceptable at all. When you miss it better, we can deal with it, but we also have a concern that you really don't know what's going on in your business. And that's kind of the thing of Being able to predict what you're doing. You know, it's kind of what engineering does. You predict the outcome. And so it's one of the things that you're trying to put the right systems in place. And that's what I, you know, when I'm trying to coach a business is you want to land the plane right where you say you're going to. You want to have the systems in place to run your business. You want to clearly understand the actions to deliver your results.

Hey, it's Ian here. So glad you're enjoying this episode of Conscious Design. If you want the full scoop on Conscious Design, what it is, how we do it, how how you can do it, then check out our book. We wrote it so creative entrepreneurs like you can code social and environmental responsibility right into your brand's DNA. You can download the first chapter for free. Link is in the description. Enjoy the rest of the episode. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share. Right. Yeah, you should, you, you should never be that far off either, either way.

Because you're, you're forecasting, you're doing forecast this month for the next 6 months of the year, right? You're going through the end of the year.

Right.

So, you know, that, that's kind of the thing is you do a budget, which your budget's done about a year and a quarter out to maybe even a year and a half out. But every month you go through the year, typically in a company, you're updating your forecast because you're getting better visibility to what's coming in sales and expenses and all that stuff. But There's still an expectation you're going to land it towards where the budget is.

Right. Right. You're not expected to be way off.

But that's where the continuous improvement front to me is so important and it helps leaders. And there are like, I like to go in and run a business, but I'm also, I like to make big improvements to the business when I see these opportunities. But that's where it's fun to go in and help a leadership team to the hourly people put the right infrastructure in place to run a business.

Right.

So it's kind of the thing of the early AAM experience just showed me how you go into a business and put that infrastructure in place to predict your outcome and why it's important to do that. It really started— it wasn't, but it was easy to really connect it With like the venture capitalist mindset of Cosworth, those guys, I mean, just all the different things they were doing in there because they're a very small business. While it's super historic, I mean, compared to GM, I mean, they're under $100 million a year business.

Right, which is small.

It is very small when you look at companies that are multi-billion dollar companies on the stock exchange.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's such a— and those companies you're able to do more in as well, right? You're able to, to make those changes and, and make adjustments, which is more nimble, right? You're able to make those, make those changes easier than a large— you know, when you're on the stock market, the priorities change a little bit. And what, what you can and can't say yes to because you want to— you have more, more stockholders that you need to make sure are happy.

And if you want to read about it, there's, there's some good literature at Cosworth. So when they did the Aston Martin Valkyrie, it went from clean sheet design to a 3-cylinder working mule, and I believe it was in 6 months that they could test that it would meet the Euro 6 requirements. So to make a 12-cylinder, you multiply it by 4 and you're good. But they were able to test the 3/4 of the engine and go, okay, we have this thing functioning right, let's go ahead and make the 12-cylinder version.

That's—

It's basically an F1 engine in a road car. It is the sexiest sounding engine I've heard run in a vehicle. I mean, the— what I believe they were running at about 11,000 RPMs.

Wow.

It just sings. All gear-driven valve train. They did some really cool things with valve train control and things of that nature that I guess there's vehicles out there, someone wanted to really break it down and tear the engine down and look at it, they could. But some of the YouTube videos out there are amazing, and just hearing it in the dyno, hearing it run like it would make the hair stand up on your neck. Because most people have never heard an engine like that run that close, right?

Yes.

How many people get— it's beautiful.

Yeah, well, that's a bit— I mean, they're— they have amazing vehicles. I would— they're, they're, they're amazing. And, and yeah, that's a, that's a big engine and fast. That's very fast. 6 months is a very short amount of time to get that out compared to an average speed of how long it takes a new engine to get built.

They did something similar with the T50 for Gordon Murray too. That's kind of the new hypercar engine that they have that I believe they have some working models of that. So, but the design process, and like you're talking about a small company, that's Kind of the cool factor of that company there, that they took that, um, 6-month, 3-cylinder working model to— it was close, I believe it was close to a year of having the full engine, the first.

So fast. That would never happen at like Ford or GM. It just— I, I can't imagine any of those big companies being able to pull off pull off a 1 year to get a brand new 12-cylinder done. It just seems—

I think they— GM does a great job of enticing some of the top talent, those companies, to come in. They have the horsepower to do it. It's probably a paradigm shift in how creative they want to let those people be within the company. Some of the big companies can be a little stifling on the creative front. You know, just because of concerns about, you know, evolving their product. So, but they do, they get a lot of great talent. I mean, those big companies acquire really high-level, high-caliber people out of college. And, you know, I always think you could probably leverage them a little better in those companies. That's where I don't I just think that there's an opportunity. I think they're very lethargic.

Yeah, it's one of those— they have the resources, right? They have the cash, they have the talent. With a little shift, it would definitely— I think they could become nimble if they wanted to, but it is such a paradigm shift in how you approach it in a different Different kind of thinking that goes, that goes into it. Um, before, before we wrap up, I wanted to have you talk a little bit about your brand, right? You have, you have Luck, and now it's expand— expanded into a fashion brand as well as what you have for your consulting go-through.

Yes. So when we designed the brand, and I mentioned it earlier, one of— it's a buddy of mine that owns a company called Garage Modern. He also works for some other companies, is a web designer, kind of brand designer. And so we've raced motocross together since the '90s. And even back then, kind of the way we became friends is motocross. It's weird.

Yeah.

You show up at the track and it's one of the few things you can have all these flamboyant, like fluorescent pink and green and orange, and— but you're racing motocross, which is very gladiator-like, and the injuries and the impacts. But we showed up at a race together and we had pretty much the identical race gear on, and it was '93, like fluorescent green with purple and pink. And I was like, that guy seems pretty cool. And it's— we just started talking. It's like, yeah, you look pretty cool, man.

Nice.

So through the years we became friends. He was another friend of Brian Swink too, and so that was kind of the other thing that we spent a bit of time, um, with Brian trying to help him maybe redirect his own career aspirations after he retired. And unfortunately it didn't work out and he passed away, but he helped me design the logo. So, you know, I— and I didn't really understand how good he was at what he did until we started working on this little project. And so I was like, hey. He's like, let me make a logo for you. So I sent him a bunch of like the name, the Labor Under Complete Knowledge acronym, and he made like this logo that you see on my hat and my shirt. And so when I was consulting, I would wear it around. I had polo and dress shirts, but then in the evening I would have t-shirts. And, you know, I live in northern Michigan, so sometimes it's pretty cool up here even in the summer, long sleeve thermal shirts. But I walk around, people say, hey, I like that acronym. Being a fan of motocross, there are some pretty iconic brands that come out of it. Now, I'm not saying this is that. So you've probably seen the Fox head.

Oh yeah.

You know, stem from motocross. They made motocross gear. Oakley started making bicycle BMX grips and goggles, you know. And then one of the other ones is No Fear. the '90s brand, that kind of, kind of the philosophy of just sending it, not being afraid to, to take big risks. Well, I think this is the opposite of that. And, you know, people always say the term, hey Ian, good luck. Well, I like to think that I've earned the luck, that when I'm going in to interview for someone, talk to a company, I've put so much effort into my experience that it's an earned opportunity, earned success, right? That it wasn't bestowed upon me because they liked me, that they realized like, hey, this guy has put in tremendous effort. So—

Right.

And I think there's a ton of people in life that are fighting to be successful. So my thought was people like the acronym, but I also think it's a way that it's a little bit of the reminder to them that they can be successful. And, and it's that it's all casual right now. And it's when you're, you know, when I think about doing my PhD, most of it I was by myself, either staying to my office at 10 o'clock at night, reading stuff by myself. People will go, oh, that's awesome. Or I wasn't lucky to get it. There was a tremendous sacrifice. I missed stuff with my daughter, stuff with my wife, didn't take vacations. I committed to it.

Right.

And it's that thing of— and it's founded on that, that, you know, if you were to go to my high school, and this would be my 30-year reunion this year, if you were to poll my high school, I guarantee 0% would say Ken Gimbel is going to have a PhD when we come to our 30-year class reunion. I wasn't a bad student, but I wasn't At that time, I wasn't focused on my education.

You were not a PhD candidate in high school.

I didn't understand what I wanted to do from a career, but I was able to kind of— by meeting some people, they inspired me to want to be excellent. And then one of them too was the son of Dick Dow named Rick Dow, and he— his Point West Capital is one of the companies that I've been supporting him and some of his acquisitions. And transformation plans. But when I come out of college, I go work at American Axle, one Dick Dow, because they're super cool. And he's a very alpha male oriented guy, fullback at Purdue, you know, big strong guy, exuded confidence, but also instilled that he believed in you. I think that was the other thing, that when you worked for him and he was focused on winning, he built the confidence like, Ken, I need you to do this. And you're like, sometimes you're thinking there's no way that's going to get done. But at the same time, you're willing to run through a wall because you're like, I want to win too. And then all of a sudden you start accomplishing this stuff and you realize you can accomplish more. His son Rick, while Dick went to Purdue and I think he had an industrial management degree, Rick went to West Point and is an engineer out of West Point. He was captain of the football team, right? Really cool dude, great personality. He also went to MIT. And so when he's bringing in people that he trusts, he's bringing in these guys from MIT, West Point. So you're getting this leadership experience, you're getting people that have been in battle, you're getting these MIT people that are these high— and that's what I was like, you know what, if I'm going to compete I need to push myself. So kind of the company and the consulting is founded on always learning, kind of being relentless on it. So it's kind of a long story to get to the point, but the laboring under complete knowledge is, you know, I can remember driving around out of high school, just starting college, thinking I'm gonna land somewhere to where I'm at now. And one of my buddies I hadn't seen in a few years reached out to me and he's like, hey, you started your consulting business? And I was like, Yeah. He's like, Ken, you told me in 2000 that you were going to start a consulting business when you got more experience. And you kind of forget some of the goals you set. And I was like, you know what I did? He's like, Ken, we were sitting at Log Road in Battle Creek, Michigan at the dirt bike track. And you're like, when I— I'm going to get to a point and I'm going to go on my own. Like, this is great. I thought so. And it's like, but that's the thing. Like, I have been working towards this, but I want this to be the reminder to other people. And so I started it out with just the brand of getting the acronym out there, which it's cool because people relate to it. People that want to be successful, they get tired of hearing that in America you can't be successful. One of the guys that I sponsored with the brand to roll it out in motocross was Fredrik Norrin. He's from Sweden. And when we were talking about doing it, one, I had heard that he was a hard worker. 2, that he's more worried about adding value to the brands that sponsor him than he is about wanting money to be sponsored. And we were talking, he said, Ken, America is without a doubt the best country in the world. He's like, I love living here. He's like, this place is awesome. I am making my dream happen here. And that's kind of how we started the, the relationship there working together. He's Awesome guy, and I think that's the mindset. It is. This is aimed at hardworking American people. There's tons of people that are just grinding it out, going to school at night, getting a vocational thing, doing one job in the morning as a skilled trade, and then doing stuff in the evening.

All right.

And in ten years, they're gonna go, oh, so and so got lucky. They were. They didn't see the 10 years of working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, going to school, missing some stuff with your family. Kind of, you're trying to balance it out that you're not missing stuff, but they don't see that. So that's what the brands found it out. And so we got some other drops that are going to be— I got— there's a new shirt that's going to drop on Memorial Day. It's going to be pretty powerful of a reminder of how you focus. And so I'm pretty excited for that to come out. It'll probably drop through because I sponsor the Whiskey Throttle show, which is with David Pingree, which it's one of the top action sport podcasts. So I was on in January with Travis Pastrana. That one I think has right now about 80,000 views and it's still growing because podcasts still— it's, it's an evolving thing where people go, oh, so-and-so is on there, and you'll see the spikes in it. Um, yeah, and so that's right, there's more and more video of them too.

There's a— Spotify just announced that, uh, video podcasts are a thing for them, which I thought was interesting.

For Spotify or for— For Spotify.

Yeah.

Well, and so kind of the reason we said, like, I think they're— it totally relates to business, the brand. And I want people— but I think there's a part of some of the action sports stuff, the things that people do have a high level of risk. And when you can say— and that's when I remember being early in my career going, okay, so all my buddies were out trying to figure out how to jump this 100-foot triple, right? So you crash on that, broken bones, broke paralysis. There's a lot of things that can come from that that are bad. So you're saying I got to show up to work and I got to work hard the entire time I'm here. And when I'm leading people, I got to communicate with them what the right things to do for the business are. And I get paid for that? Okay, it's not so bad. Because then when I go out of work, I'm doing all this stuff where there's the risk of getting hurt, right? And so that's kind of why part of the reason I put it in there, because there's a bunch of guys and there's a pro wakeboarder that I'm talking to right now that He's an awesome guy, and he's went through a few years of serious knee injuries and stuff, kind of lost all his sponsorship. We're trying to work on him to kind of redirect it because he's still one of the best. He's just had 3 years where he's had serious knee injuries and hasn't been able to really compete and do that stuff. But he is still— he's a hustler. He's working on things to grow the sport. brand himself and he gets the brand. So I think there's a coolness factor that comes out of that, but it totally relates to business. I'm kind of trying to bridge it, but get it in there where it's a paradigm shift in how people perceive luck and there's a coolness factor with it that people look at and go, yeah, it is cool. I want it to be cool to work hard, you know, work hard and play hard, you know, try to change that definition of earning your luck. Earning Your Success. So, and it's been super fun to do it, um, kind of getting exposed and working with these people and kind of blending into the things that fuel me. It's a whole nother element of making what I've been doing fun. And I still love going into companies and help them.

Right. That's awesome. That's a great way to like blend the things that you love and the other things you love and, and be able to make it, make it all, all work together.

Somebody told me, they said, you know, you only live once. And then somebody said, no, you live every day, you only die once. So I try to look at it to make the most out of every day. I was yesterday, someone's like, oh, I can't wait to get to the weekend. I was like, you realize it's Tuesday? Like, you're on the verge of blowing 7 days or 4 days of the week. To get to the 2 days you have off.

Right.

That's not the most effective way. And I brought this because I haven't really showed this to too many people, but this is a .50 caliber projectile. So my grandfather pulled this out of the sands on Omaha Beach on D-Day and carried it through the rest of the war, which he did 6 different campaigns till he got out. I was fortunate enough to have it, but it's kind of the reminder every day that sometimes the things we face aren't that bad. I can't imagine what an 18-year-old John Gimbel was thinking when he was on Omaha Beach, if he would get home. But when he did get home, he worked super hard. So to me, it was— it's something that every now and then I just kind of pull up and go, you know, figuring out a business plan is not so bad.

Yeah, there's no .50 cals being shot at me. I'm good.

You know, they're talking to someone about doing something better isn't that hard. Now, doing it, you know, respectfully, doing it, you know, some telling somebody they're not doing something the most efficient thing can come across very harsh, right? Because you're saying, hey, you're— you could do something better. But the reality is, you know, you're trying to help them see a path save their business, be more efficient and effective, be more profitable. And when companies want to do that, we have a blast working together.

It's amazing. Well, I really appreciate your time. This has been great. You're doing a lot of things and really helping. And where would people, for anybody that's wanting to work with you, where would they be able to is the best place to reach out, either, you know, for your brand or, or for having you help consult and improve their business?

We really just started pushing the Instagram. So I literally— the Instagram, I didn't not use it, but I really started publicizing it lately. So @luckunlimitedapparel is the Instagram. And I try to respond to everybody. Now I have @LuckUnlimited is where I really— I have 2 of them set up, but if you hit me on either of them, I'll respond.

Perfect.

You know, but go to Luck Unlimited Apparel, check out some of the stuff on there. Hopefully it continues to motivate people, but I will respond if you hit me on that one. Follow me on that one. Um, trying to post every single day. But just trying to connect with people. And one of the things that we're— I'm hoping to do in the future is start showcasing people that maybe haven't had an opportunity to be showcased, to tell the story of how they've been successful. Now, oh, awesome. I've always wanted— I— so with that Brian Swink, that, um, Mark DeKuber of Garage Modern and I, we tried to start a podcast back in like 2009 with Brian Swink. But it was a little bit like herding cats trying to get that thing going with, you know, it was— it's that kind of how we talked about putting yourself out there. I think, you know, there was a little bit, you know, him just being concerned about putting himself out there where I kept saying, Brian, you're a past champion, you're revered, people love you. Like, I would have— I, I would always joke and I'd be like, Brian, those number 1 plates, I'd have those drilled into my front door. I would have everybody that came to my house know that you're a two-time 125 Supercross champion, and he's like, "Oh, you're silly." I'm like, "You're underestimating your accomplishments." Now maybe it's a bit extreme what I was telling him, but I wanted him to have confidence because he still like his anniversary of passing was yesterday, and all the social media is lit up with like memories of him. And he and he did he come across as this. He wanted to be a badass, but he was honestly one of the nicest dudes, you know, to talk to. And the stories— like, he had the craziest— motocross is a pretty extreme sport, so he had the craziest stories too about just being a pro racer, trashing rental cars, flying over to Europe, like having, you know, these races, they pay them in cash. So these guys, 16 to 23-year-old kids with duffel bags full of money. That they're carrying around Europe.

That's crazy.

You know, but so interacting with it's fun, you know. So I do, and I hope with some of it is to get people engaging in some of these other sporting activities. So I'm hoping— I don't want to talk to the wakeboard yet— that we're going to start doing some things to try to get more kids, trying to break them away from their phones and get them out on lakes riding dirt bikes, mountain biking. I think some of that's missing with all the depression and things that are going on that— I don't know, maybe— I think that's why I'm always focusing on these fun things I can do. I'm gonna get this done, I'm gonna go ride, I'm gonna go mountain bike, I'm gonna take my kids snowboarding, you know.

Yeah.

I try to tell my daughters is people look for synthetic highs because they don't have something that gets their endorphins rolling. And that's what this brand is. That's what I'm trying to showcase right now. I probably will, you know, on the Luck Unlimited, @luckunlimited Instagram, that'll be maybe a little bit more business-focused posting. And I, I try to be conscious because a lot of the stuff we do, we sign NDAs, and I got to watch what I share and showing improvement things. So I haven't done really anything with that, but that's where people can find it. And if people People want to talk to me about consulting or coming in to help their business, you can hit me on Luck Unlimited, @luckunlimitedapparel, and I'll respond. We can talk. I try to be accessible. If you ever want to do another one in the future, let me know. I like, I like talking about different things to make stuff better. So.

Sounds good. Well, it's been, it's been enjoyable, and, and yeah, I really appreciate you taking time to, to jump on this and, and do an episode with me.

Oh, thanks, Ian. I appreciate it. And, uh, best of luck to you.

Thank you.

All right, take care.