Episode 255: Rural Entrepreneurship with Jessi Roberts

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I felt like actually a drum rolled in the back.

Oh yeah, that was awesome. So every time, every time you guys give me two words and I swear you are working together or something. Bumpy, huh? Yeah, I don't know.

We weren't working together.

Well, it feels like you weren't.

That was the best. Nervous laughter.

My name is Mike Michalot. I'm the author on a mission to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. I'm doing it through my books like Profit first and Clockwork and other books and. Well, you know what entrepreneurial poverty is. It's this perception of extraordinary success when we're actually strapped with extraordinary struggle. We fix that on this show, joined in studio by my dear friend, truly dear friend, Kelsey Ayers.

Hello, friend. You can find us on iTunes. Stitcher, TuneIn Radio Spotify, iHeartRadio or EntrepreneurShipLevatedPodcast.com.

And my other dear friend, Jbone.

Hello.

Who I've worked with Jbone. We've worked together now 11 years.

Like 10. 11 years.

Well, it keeps changing.

Yeah. You keep adding years.

What?

But it was. It wasn't like, you know, it was 2,000 years.

It's not cumulative.

Yeah, but still, it's. When we started working together, we met in college.

We met in college.

Yeah.

Yeah. We were experimenting, both of us. All right, so here's.

Sorry. That was. That was funny.

So exactly why I'm never on camera.

This is.

Right. This is why.

All right, so here's an icebreaker for today, Kelsey.

Yes.

Hit the treadmill or hit the couch. That's what the question is.

The trick question.

Now let's do a different one. That's stupid. If you were a type of jeans, Kelsey, what type would you be in? Like the. The summary of this, it says hopefully don't say distressed jeans. So if you were jeans, what kind of jeans would you be?

Skinny jeans.

Oh, good one. What kind of jeans would you be?

Relaxed fit.

Oh, that's a good one.

I'd be bedazzled. You ever see that? With the bedazzles? Yeah, on the pockets.

You'd be bedazzled. Really?

I'm a bedazzler. Kal, what do you got to share with me there? Did you do the introduction with the itunes and stitcher stuff?

I did, yeah.

Okay, do we have a listener mail or anything like that?

We have a shout out to Michael L. Quinn. He writes. I listen to a lot of business podcasts, and there are a few that are being done really well these days. This is one of the good ones. Michalowicz and his team are fun, energetic, and most of all, provide great value to the small business owner.

Inconceivable. Yeah. Unbelievable. He found his show. Thank you for saying that. I do want to thank our corporate partners to make the show a reality.

Who are they?

Nextiva and Receipt Bank. Have we. Are we pursuing new people with Sheila now or what's going on? Have you spoke with her? Are you handling it?

Yeah.

And what, she thinks she can get someone for us?

Yeah, she's going to put her feelers out there.

Wow. Yeah, because we had. Listen, I appreciate Next Stephen. Receipt bank, no end. They're extraordinary companies, but we haven't sought out a sponsor ever. I think I said it once on an episode. I'm like, hey, if you want to sponsor us, we're desperate. And that didn't go so well, hey.

You never let me ask my question to you guys, remember?

Oh, yeah.

Sorry.

Yeah.

Gosh. Thank you. Okay, so from last week.

So it's from over the weekend. Yeah. So I ordered Chinese food. Favorite place, like, super really, really good, clean Chinese food. Right. It. They take long delivery. So I waited for it because I knew that it was gonna be good. An hour later, finally get the Chinese food, start digging in. It's awesome. And then I find a really long hair. Now, two things went through my mind. It had to be more than likely. It was probably a woman's hair. And then I think. Well, I just think men just think women are cleaner with their hair.

Probably.

Yeah. So then I'm like. Like, at this point, like, I already was eating it.

Oh, so it's in your food?

It was in my food.

It was.

So I pulled it out and I just. I just kept going.

Did you eat any of the amig I get in your mouth? Yeah, I literally pulled out your mouth.

Yeah, I ate a piece of chicken, and I pulled the hair and I threw it away. And then I was like, I'm not waiting another hour. Like, this was really good Chinese food. I'm gonna keep going. What would you do? Could you do it? Could you finish it?

I probably eat the hair. I got phase me at all, really?

Do you know me?

Like, dead skin cells are in your food?

Yeah.

People are sloughing off stuff all the time.

We don't have to be gross.

But isn't that the reality? It's just the reality.

Cows sloughing.

You ever see how they. You know, we get sushi pretty regularly on podcast days, right?

Yeah.

You ever see how. You ever see them cook in the back or worse, Roll those things up front? You see those guys? The one guy has, like. I think he's got cirrhosis of the skin. It's horrible.

That's ridiculous.

Have you seen it?

No, but for real, would you be able to. You would be able to continue eating? I think I. Depends.

Absolutely.

It depends purely on the type of hair. That's the only reason I continue to eat, because it was a very long, thin hair.

So you're suggesting what kind of hair?

Like.

No, I'm saying if it was, like, a shorter, like, thick hair, curly hair, I'd be done. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Really?

Yeah. I mean, think about it.

No, I could eat through anything. So I'm assuming it got cooked at some point. If they. They added at the end, if the guy, like, kind of, like, shakes his hair out and, like, license stuff comes out. At the very end. And I knew that then I couldn't eat it. But if it got cooked in there, no problem.

I don't think it got cooked in there. I think it got incorporated.

Oh, at the end, at the point.

She was packaging up.

So she's packaging up. She's like, oh, I forgot to add my hair. And she threw one in.

Exactly.

Yeah, that happens.

It was still good, though.

Jesse Roberts. That's a good transition. Dead.

I'm dead in the background.

Jesse is horrible. Talking about hair and your food. Let's talk about Jesse Roberts. She's the president.

I have the weakest stomach. I'm literally over here gagging.

Oh, no.

I'm sorry.

Good job, Jeremy.

Nice, Jeremy. So are you, like, what's the situation? Are you at the drool stage or the hot gag stage?

The cat sound like the cat is gonna throw up a hairball stage.

Oh, are you? Stage. That's the worst.

I'm dying.

I'm a co crier. I'm not a covometer.

I am a covometer for sure.

Really?

I cannot stand the, like, thought of it, the sounds of it, the smell of it.

Yeah. I'm literally the most empathetic person. So, like, as soon as anybody cries, coughs, yawns, vomits, I'm there with it. Cries, I'm there.

Sneezes. Are you co. Sneezing is very rare. Happens.

No, it does have. It's contagious when somebody sneezes.

I sneeze all the time.

Yeah. You know, I'm saying co sneezing.

I sneeze.

I do anything. I sneeze.

I'm saying.

Which is not a good thing because I've had four kids. So, like, sneezing is not. It's not something a woman wants to do.

But you're saying you. You had. Oh, I. You pee a little bit now.

My goodness gracious. Have a little bit of, like.

So, Amy. I have no tact.

You can say it without saying it.

Well, Amy here. Amy here. Remember we did. We have a morning huddle. Jesse, like the. There's 10 of us now, right? We have this meeting, and someone made a joke, and Amy starts laughing so bad. All of a sudden, she jumps to the ground and like, why do you do this? She's like, I literally started to pee myself. She's had two children and Both were over £10.

Yeah.

Jesse Roberts. I gotta read your bio. Jesse Roberts, okay, Is the president and resident boss lady at Cheekies and author of the new book that comes out March 5th, which. Well, this. This won't. This will post after. Okay, so after. So this is already. It just came out called Backroads.

So go get it back.

So get. Go get it now. Back roads, boss lady. She's a co vomiter. She pees herself when she sneezes. Yes. And best intro ever. And she runs a wholesale business, a business that sells wholesale to over 3,500 stores. And she did this all from rural America. Jesse. Jesse.

Well, we also. We retail as well.

And retail. And retail. Welcome to the show, Jesse. There you go. Now it's official. So tell us a little bit about your store first.

Gosh, I mean, you already know so much.

I know.

I don't even know where to go from here. There's so much story.

I want to know about the actual store first. Tell me about the business.

Okay. Well, we started the store in a little, like, I think we were about 900 square foot. It was a little retail front that came open. And anybody who lives in a small town knows that when you say, like, a store came open, that means that it might have happened in the same, like, decade or it might have come open like a decade before because all the buildings are empty. It feels like all the time. So it came open to me. How's that? And we opened up there and we started doing more and more events, and it just like split, spider webbed. It was just crazy. And so now we reach about 2 million people a week on Facebook alone. And then we also have our wholesale distribution. What are you selling out of this little tiny town?

What do you sell?

Well, I sell some pretty sassy items. I sell clothing, jewelry, accessories to women who live a rural lifestyle. But we have a little bit of a cheeky edge to it. So we're a little bit sassy on top of all of that.

So you sell price for sassy rural ladies. What town are you in, by the way?

I'm in a town called New Plymouth, which the town itself deserves, like its own podcast. It's like a super cool history. It's one of the oldest towns in Idaho. A bunch of business folks from Chicago, I think it was, came out here and settled to create the perfect farming environment. And so they built us in, like, a horseshoe. And people would live in this horseshoe and then farm behind themselves. And so it's got a super cool, like, irrigation system and, like, water wheels, like the big gigantic wood ones. It's really, really neat.

And you. You found that running a business in a rural area ain't so easy yet. You've grown one A pretty substantial business. Tell us about that journey. Yeah, tell us about the journey.

Well, I don't think running a business anywhere is easy, so. But we've definitely had some struggles. And we get asked all the time. And by all the time, I mean, probably once a week, I'm asked why I don't move to the Boise metro area, which is about an hour and 15, 20 minutes away from me.

But.

But we have outgrown our infrastructure. We've had even. Right now, I'm. I'm supposed to be in this quiet room, but I am super concerned because Idaho Power is putting in new power poles for us. We outgrew the phone system, the Internet. Our equipment was too heavy for the old buildings downtown because they all have basements. So we had to build new structures so that we could even, like, house equipment. So a lot of trials that you wouldn't normally think about in other areas we've had to do. Not to mention the issues of trying to find employees and staff that can help us run this business.

I think that's the big question. So if I'm in rural America, you know, how many people are in your.

Which is a lot of American.

It's the vast majority. Right. How many people are in your town? How many people live in your town?

So 14. Just kidding. 1400.

1400. So 1400. And then I assume you can draw from the labor force there, which is the size of a. Like a big high school. Right. And maybe.

Yeah.

How far are the nearest towns to New Plymouth?

So we have a lot of other small towns around us, you know, 5, 7, 10 miles away, but they're all pretty small. Like we are. Most of my employees are. We have employees from here. We have employees that drive 20, 30 minutes one way to get here. Now, I know that when you're in a big city, 20, 30 minutes doesn't sound like that much, but this is 20, 30 minutes on the interstate going 80 miles an hour to get here.

Right.

So.

So they're far away.

Yeah, you know, they're 20, 30 miles away. Easy to. To get here. Most people live within a 10 to 15 mile radius of here. We have a really hard time getting professionals to be able to come out. So we've had to do a lot of that training and education ourselves. You know, there's not a huge list of interns. Marketing, social media, advertising, graphic artists are extremely difficult to get because although it's super cool to have freelancers and people who work from home, we just have such a culture that we have developed here. That you have to be able to be a part of it. I mean, just imagine you having your huddle in the morning and half of those people are on Skype. It just isn't the same.

No question about it. And in fact, we do have virtual workers that, that come in via Skype, but we intentionally fly people in to get the energy here. Yeah, you have to our populace here. So we're right outside New York City. I think there's like 30 million people, 20 million people maybe that are with, you know, New York city alone is 10 million just in Manhattan and somebody 15 million.

I don't even think there's a million people in Idaho.

Right. So I'm just saying, like for us, you know, we run an ad, we can get dozens of applicants within a day and they're highly qualified. Now we have a lot more competition, but I think it's all relative for you. You're not the only business out there. How do you find talent like the people, the exact people you need when you have such a small pool?

So this isn't me being a brown noser, but it was a real struggle. And then I read the Clockwork book. I think Clockwork is where we got our application process from in our ads. And we developed our own version off of the template that you gave us.

Ruby, baby.

I know, right? So we have to put that out almost throughout all of southern Idaho. I have moved people here. Lots of people. I have moved here.

Interesting.

And just. And that's scary too, because not only do I as an employer and a leader feel obligated even more to make that relationship work, but also how do you get to know somebody? So we do a lot of promotion within. I have a lot of women that work for me. I have men that work for me too. But our power group, we call them, I guess it's not the regular radio, so I can use a cuss word every time. Is that okay?

Okay.

Good, good. So we talk about this in the book, but I have what are called my core bitches. And those are people that are in that inner core that actually have ownership inside of your company despite not being an owner. And so I've worked really, really hard to create ownership inside of my employees so that as they grow inside of the company, they're thinking about my business like they would if it was their own. One thing that I learned a long time ago is that when I interview, I don't necessarily interview for their skill set. I interview based off of whether they truly want to be successful in life. In general. So if they are a person who enjoys success, then they're going to work hard no matter what position they're given to be successful. People just, you know, there's a difference between somebody working hard to get a job and somebody who wants to work hard at the job.

That's it. So how do you know. How do you define someone who wants to be successful in life? I mean, isn't that true for all of us?

No, it's not. There are people who truly just want to be able to say, look, I got this job to their spouse or their friends, or I'm getting this great experience, or I have this wonderful opportunity. But they actually don't want to partake in and do the job or do the opportunity. So we do really long interviews. We do multiple interviews. Oftentimes, I will talk with my girls about how, like, what things did we notice. And then I am a person who brings up the elephant in the room. So I interviewed a girl recently that she had been interviewed by my other girls, and they were like, well, she's really shaky. And I don't understand, like, are we making her nervous? You know? So I just asked her, like, hey, I noticed that you're super shaky. Like, is everything going okay? And are you nervous? Because I don't. I don't mean for you to be. And she's like, no, actually, I have a medication that I take that that causes me to shake sometime. Well, that allowed me to say, if you don't mind me asking, what. What's going on? Are you healthy? Are you. You know, like, is there something we can do to help facilitate you being able to work? And. And that lets me put those indicators and red flags in the background. Not that I wouldn't hire her because she had an illness, but it helps me to not judge her fact that she's shaking and she's a nervous person.

You know, it's funny as you hear the reverse all the time, like, if you ask a question like that, like, are you okay that the risk is you're asking something that. Will you make a decision not to hire someone because they. They're on drugs? Discriminate. That's the word. But you're doing the. You're doing the reverse. You're using it for inclusive reasons because you would make a judgment.

I mean, I want to serve my employees just like I need them to serve me. And I have found that the majority of people out there are actually not motivated by money, especially in rural areas. I can't say that that's the truth in metropolitan or urban areas. But it is around here, the things that are super important to my employees are making sure that they do not miss a single practice or, you know, a kid's game, that they can schedule those parent teacher conferences whenever they need. In the same token, I expect them to answer me and to be on point for our customers all the time, which is when you run an online business is 24 7. So it is a give and take. But I had a guy that I talk about him briefly in the book that worked for me and it was in the car business. I spent the majority of my adult life in advertising and automotive like and Buy Automotive. I was a car salesman. And not to make that sound fancier than it was, but he had worked at this dealership for many, many years. And he was only an average salesperson, meaning he was selling between six to eight cars a month. And the owner was super angry at him because he's like, he should be able to sell more cars than that. Well, one day I was out at the kids soccer game and I saw him there and he literally looked like a Super bowl fan. I mean, if this guy could have had his shirt off and then painted his kids colors like, he would have. He was just like fanatical, right? And I was like, dang, Mike really friggin is into this. And so the next day at work, I called him in and I was like, hey, I just want to let you know I'm changing up your schedule. And he's like, all right, well, what's going on? And I was like, you really enjoy your family and I love and appreciate that. So every day that you sell a car, you can leave as soon as you're done.

Oh, cool.

And he was like, he's like, so like, if I sell a car at like 9 o' clock in the morning, I can leave? And I was like, damn straight. So he sold 20 cars a month.

What? Yeah, damn.

Triple.

He wanted to be at home with his family. And so as soon as I understood what motivated him, I could understand his actions and I was able to shift it. And that's what I have to do with most of my employees.

That is an amazing story. Give me one more thing because we got to start wrapping up from your new book, Backroads. Boss lady, what's your one takeaway that our listeners can get from that?

So even though this is an entrepreneurial podcast, I would say that they should take away that it isn't necessarily a business book. It's a book about A business. And it's a book that can actually help you learn how to find joy in your life and true contentment while still being allowed to be driven and not complacent.

I love it and it is a journey. I was privileged enough to get the manuscript through a mutual friend well before I read it maybe six months ago on a plane. And just. It's a very compelling memoir and educational book.

Thank you.

Yeah. Oh, you're very welcome, Jesse. Where can people pick up the book and learn more about Cheeky's Boutique?

Well, I was blessed enough to have a huge publisher who got it into Barnes and Nobles, Amazon, you know, all of your major retailers. But you can check us out@cheekiesboutique.com or you can go to our Facebook page, which is just cheeky. And that's C H E E K Y s. And we go live about five days a week. So you can see my husband, the boss man and I cut it up. We have a really good time.

Good. The boss lady, Jesse Roberts. And the boss man, her husband. Jesse, thanks for joining us. Don't leave. We gotta upload your files and stuff. But also we want too bad I'm gone. I got things to do. And we've got some games for you. Actually. I got Cheeky's Boutique. I want to see if you really know your products but don't. You can't go to your own website.

So I bet I can win this game.

I don't know. I don't know. We'll find out in just a minute. All right, so we're going to do a recap of what we learned. We're going to do the Cheeky's Boutique battle. See if anyone can guess what the fake product is. I just made up. And we have another game we're going to play and takeaways and just so much fun. But first I stepped on myself.

That was like the you need to stop talking.

I know. That was Kelsey hits that. But first, but first, I do want to thank our corporate partners who are supporting this show and the train wreck that it is thanks to nextiva voice over IP phone system. You know, they even server serve rural America. Rural America. So check them out. It's a voice over IP phone system. As long as you have an Internet connection, you can have a corporate based phone system. It's that high and high quality. And they do have next os which is a CRM that integrates into the phone. Very powerful stuff. And then receipt bank scan in all those receipts you have categorize Them. It links them and Syncs them to QuickBooks and all the different accounting platforms that are out there so you never have to worry about that stuff again. Okay.

Okay.

Should we start off with Cheeky's or. No, let's do the takeaway, and then we'll. We'll do the Cheekies test.

Okay.

So question for you, Kels. What was your big takeaway? Oh, let me hit the music first. Now, I know your big takeaway now.

Sorry about my loud laughs in the background.

No, we like it. We like it.

I think my favorite takeaway is having the right motivation for your employees. So really understanding who they are as a person and what they want out of life in general and then catering to that so that they serve you and you can serve them.

Yeah, good. J Bone.

Yeah, love that. And then also, I love the fact that she's still very choosy even though the pool of candidates is very small. Yeah, for real, like, yes, Hire slowly. Fire quickly. Like, that always sticks in my mind. It's, like, hard to get good people in, but then once you get them in, it's hard to do.

And I love how she moves people to build the right team. Right. She's willing to move people and invest in somebody that way. I mean, that's super risky, but obviously it's working.

Yeah. I loved, first of all, her energy. It's very clear. She's passive. She does. I want to work for her. So she's very. Just compelling in her energy. The fact that she says, I want.

Well, you would love our qbr.

I'm just saying she's a fan of Clockwork. So now she's a plus too. It's a plus two. She's also. She said, I serve my employees like I want them to serve me.

Yeah.

That is gold. That's rural gold. Okay, now here's the two things we're gonna do, and we want to know your takeaway there, listener friend. Put that in the show comments and make sure you subscribe to our show. I'm gonna name three hats that are on the Cheeky's boutique website. Two of them are real, one's a fake, and you gotta tell me which one's which. Jeremy and Kelsey. And then we're gonna have the big reveal by Jesse. And Jesse. If you get it wrong, then it's just totally embarrassing. Is that cool?

It is gonna be awful.

Okay. Yeah. If you get it wrong. But I do. I carry that product. All right, one second. I got some products here. All right, the first hat says tired as A mother. Tired as a mother. It's a distressed turquoise hat. Wait, wait, wait. I'll give you two more. What do you pronounce a serapi? Cheeky. Serapi or something? Serape. Serape me.

And we love to make fun of all the different ways that people say serape.

Serape. Okay? So on her Cheeky's serape shirt, it says, hustle is my muscle. Hustle is my muscle. And then the last one here, it says, it's just a pink hat. It says, not today, Satan. Not today, Satan. So which hat is the fake hat? So the first one was tired as a mother in distressed turquoise or Cheeky's serape. Hustle is my muscle or the pink hat that says not today, Satan?

I'll say that last one.

I may actually make you the fake hat just for fun.

Okay. Okay. So actually, that would be awesome. Please do that. So you say it's not today Satan. Could it be Satan? No. Okay. So you say it's that one. That's the fake hat. Jeremy, what do you think's the fake hat?

I think that's gotta be the fake hat.

And the real fake hat, dear Jesse Roberts, is.

Is hustle is my muscle.

I made it. I made that hat you threw us.

On with that serape thing.

Yeah, well, see, I used. Yeah, that was very good. Okay, that's actually a good one.

I like that one.

Hustle is my muscle. Yeah, do make that one, would you?

I was thinking that. I think you would look great in that.

I'll take it. I don't want in the serape nor the pink. I don't know if you can make it a little more guy like, you know. So one more. I like playing my games. Can we play another game? Yeah, one more game. This is Idaho trivia because you're in Idaho.

Oh, no.

All right.

You know I'm a Texas native, right?

No accent.

I did. I did. I did.

Yeah.

In Idaho. This is true fact. You have to guess the age. There's a certain age limit where you're not allowed to ride a motorcycle anymore. In Idaho, it's against the law for anyone over the age of what to ride a motorcycle. Jesse.

Oh, there's a cap on.

Yeah, 80 is Kelsey's guess.

I was going to go with like.

65 or 65 or 70, I suspect you see people or not racing by.

Yeah, I'll say. God, that's a tough one. I'm going to go high. I say 190.

I'm super surprised because Idahoans do not like the government Involved in their stuff, so.

Well, your government's hardcore about this, J Bones. The closest with 88 is the actual age. It's the law. Yeah. Can you imagine? I'm 87 and a half.

God damn it.

Read or write.

I know how to use a blinker.

Was it live to ride? Ride to live?

No, no, it's.

Did you know that if you ironed out the state of Idaho. Yeah. Like, all the mountains and like, the whole thing, it's actually larger than the state of Texas.

If you. Yeah, that's not. What if you ironed out a state.

Yeah.

Well, if you took.

Yeah.

Peaks and valleys.

Mount Kilimanjaro. Where is that? In. In Africa.

Not here.

Right. Where is that? Isn't it. I think it is Africa.

I feel like I shouldn't say.

I. I think it's an Africa.

I know.

I feel like if they say and I'm wrong, then people are going to be like, whoa.

Everyone's like, that's not Canada, too, dude. All right, but same thing. Like, you can't use the rule of flattening out a state because, listen, if.

You got a rule. She was just.

No, it is a rule. It is a rule. It's a freaking rule. Like, here's the deal. If you took Texas seriously, but if.

You grabbed everybody as a pooper, you guys were asses.

It's like saying, if I grabbed Texas in the middle and pulled it straight up in the air, it'd be thinner than New Jersey. Like, that's, like, ridiculous. All right.

That is a really good analogy, but it does not apply.

All right, here's one more. One more question about Idaho. This is Boise specifically, and then we'll go on. All right? And Jesse, you better know this one. There is a certain. When it comes to fishing, there's a certain animal that you're prohibited from being on the back of. This animal you're not allowed to be on the back of. What animal? When fishing.

When fishing specifically?

Yeah.

A horse.

Allowed to fish from a horse.

Okay. Anyone else? Because it's not a horse. No, it's worse.

Okay. You're not allowed to fish from the back of a sturgeon.

Closer or J Bone. What's your guess? Close.

I'm gonna guess it's all fresh water, though. There's no salt water. Right.

Don't. Don't put any logic into this.

This is Idaho of dolphin.

Better. In Boise, residents may not fish from a giraffe's back. Like, who. Why? Why would you. That means someone tried to do that.

It's Illegal to mail an alligator.

Oh, I mean, yeah.

Yeah. Do any of you guys fish?

No.

Do y' all fish?

I do.

Well, I love to fish. It's like gambling without, you know, like, it's like gambling, actually gambling, because you're just, like, risking worms or whatever. And my cell phone doesn't usually work when I'm fishing, so I love that because, like, I'm actually able to, like, have one of those man moments, you know? Like, you know, when you ask a guy, you're like, what are you thinking? And he's like, nothing. And you're like, how the hell did you do?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that's what happens to me when I fish. And so I love it.

I get those man moments. All right, let's move on to our next little last entrepreneurial bit that kind of on the entrepreneurial theme here. These are. It's called pure cheese quotes. Now, we did this last week. Jesse, you're part of this, too. I'm going to read off.

Okay.

I'm going to read off four quotes, which we're going to start with you, Jesse. Let me read all the quotes. One of these quotes is actually my own quote. They're all cheesy, but one of them is my quote. And as a bonus, there's also one that's also from a fortune cookie. A fortune cookie. So if you can guess that as a bonus. So the first guess, Jesse, for you is gonna be, which one's my quote? And then you'll, as a bonus round, say, this is the fortune cookie. But let me read all four first. Here we go. Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. I'll read that again. Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. Second quote.

Okay.

All things are difficult before they are easy. All things are difficult before they are easy. Quote number three. The biggest determinant of success is how determined you are to have success. That was quote number three. The biggest determinant of success is how determined you are to have success. And the last one is stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion. Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion. That's it.

I really wish that the last two were both quotes by you, because I like both of those a lot. So definitely one of them must be from a fortune cookie.

All right, so, Jesse, which one do you think is for me? Which one? Which one's the pure cheese from me, do you think?

Okay, one more time. Read the last two.

Sure. The last. The third one is. Is the biggest determinant of success is how determined you are to have success. And then the last one is stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion.

Number three years.

I'm not gonna tell you. I'm just gonna mark it because other two guess. What do you think's a fortune cookie?

This is gonna sound really bad because if one of the first two are from you, then I'm gonna feel like a real a hole. So I'm gonna guess number one. Okay, no, that's too long for it.

That's too long for a fortune. That's a good point. So then.

Okay, number two.

Number two. All things are difficult before they're easy. Okay, all right, Kelsey, because that one is not true.

There's lots of things that are easy.

Yeah, that would be fortunate. Cookies speak no truth. Good point. Kelsey, you're up.

I say number three is you as well.

Kelsey says three is me.

And I actually thought the first one was the fortune cookie, But I feel like that's a really good point.

It is kind of long.

Yeah, yeah. I'm just gonna stick with it because that's what I wrote.

Stick with your instinct. That usually pays off. J Bone, we're not.

Now I'm questioning why Mike is so like. Yeah, it's too long. It's too long.

Oh, he's smart. This guy's a player.

It's like a front and back fortune cookie. I've got to find one of those.

Mike, I think. I think you're number four.

Ooh, this guy's got.

And I think the fortune cookie is number one.

Okay, Jeremy, so here is the facts.

I'm so proud of you for going with what we wanted to do.

Let it be known that Jeremy last week dominated the boards. I got, I think, one right or two right?

Well, I had your quote, right?

Yeah, yeah, I had the fortune cookie, right, right?

You did. You did have the fortune cookie. And I had.

Yeah, yeah, you did. You did. Okay. But today the winners are Jesse and Kelsey. Naming my cheese quote. The biggest determinant of success is how determined you are to have success, says Mike McAllister. Schmitz now shits. Shit. Mike McCalla. Schittz, the quote.

Tell me you guys watch Schitt's creek because that show is.

I only watched the first one anyway.

I watched. I listened to Schitt's ville. That was great.

I should have gone with my original instinct because you said that one in a different funny voice, like you're making fun of yourself and that you could have got.

You got it. You gotta listen to those innuendos sounds like a clear but, but, But. Jeremy recovers with the fortune cookie. Both Jesse and Kelsey whiff by saying Winston Churchill, one of the most significant historical figures in modern times. Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. That was Winston Churchill. And you guys, He's a part time cockey.

Terrible accent.

He's a part time cockeye.

The fortune cookie designers modeled it after Winston. Winston Churchill.

Did I sound good?

No.

Success was walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.

You sounded like him when the smog, like, settled and he was having breathing problems.

Okay, so you are an asshole. All right, the other one. Jeremy says all things are difficult before they are easy. That's from a fortune cookie. And did you say that? Yeah, Jeremy said that. And the fourth. Oh, no, he didn't. Oh, no, no. He said the same one as me.

I did say that.

No, that was. I'm sorry, you got it backwards. It was Jesse. It was Jesse.

Jesse.

Jesse. Nailed it. I'm sorry, Jesse. You got both. You were right. I put J for both of you. That was my mistake. Jeremy said, stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion. That's Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos. You're an a hole dude for calling that a fortune cookie.

No, that was you. I said that was you.

You got old.

You're even an a hole.

That was a bad quote. Everybody agreed that number four was all.

You guys except for Jesse are assholes. That's all I can say.

Yes.

All right. Yes.

Fishy just called her an asshole. Just saying.

Did I? All right. Did I? Are we done with everything?

We have a shirt that says karma is only A if you are one. So I. I should wear that. I feel like the B word is so much better than I think it is too.

I think it is too.

Yeah.

Kelsey, do we have anything else? We got listener mail. Are we done?

We listener mail? Yeah. Did we do this? I don't think we did it. No.

We gotta start wrapping things.

We did do. We did a elevation.

Yeah.

Yes.

Okay. Do.

It was a good one.

Okay, do listener mail question.

Okay, so this comes from Linda.

Hey, Linda.

She's in the first few years of setting up a consultancy and keeping the W2 job until she can replace and then exceed her salary. She's been cash flowing business development costs with her salary. Does it make sense for this W2 salary based monthly allocated funding to be deposited into one of the accounts?

Gosh, these are complex questions. So the answer is no. My brain went, yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. Jesse, get busy making that hat for me as I answer this question.

I'm so glad we have you here.

Hustle is my muscle. So here's the answer to the question. Any income from a secondary source is not income to the business, so always keep it separate. We have to see if the business can survive on its own. Most people say I have to run another job or company to feed this current company, and they actually are leeching off of one. That's called a leech business. At least that's how I define it. And then you'll never know if it's.

Brits call it that. Keep going, please.

That is a gross.

Every time I hear the word leeches, I think about the movie. Was it Goonies or Stand By Me? One of them had the leeches.

I think it was Goonies with. With Rocky Road.

Rocky Road.

And they, like, got in the water and they had these.

Yeah. All over them. Yeah. Do you have any comment about that, Kelsey? Any other aggressive, agrocious comments? So, yeah, so you have to have the business stand on its own. And I'm sorry about the hurtful comments.

What's a weak all.

Do we have listener? Oh, yeah. Do I have an elevation point? All right, real quick, let me. Oh, no. I might not have the paper here anymore. We have to skip it.

Oh, no.

People may be relieved. Oh, not least relieved. Did I say relieved? Oh, here it is.

We have done so much inappropriate talk.

I know, I know, I know about. Here's the last thing.

All of the body functions today.

I didn't bring it up. You're the one who said you pee yourself. Now here it is. I want to talk about immutable laws in this section of my grand grand tips. Do you know what immutable laws are, Kelsey? What?

Unmovable.

That's immutable. Yeah. And. Okay, so you don't know what. Do you know what immutable laws are, Jeremy?

Not in the way that you're using it, no.

Okay, so immutable laws are values that are so important to us that we. We will never break them. These are rules that we define for ourselves, that if we do break them by accident or for whatever reason, we actually punish ourselves for it. You know, I will not stand for this. Or if we see someone else behaving a certain way, it upsets us the most. That's immutable laws. Businesses need to have immutable laws too. But there's boring ones out there. Like company says, oh, we're risk takers. Or an honest company. Or Teamwork, I get it. But boring? We need better ones. You know the mutual laws we have here? You know one of them, Kels? No dicks allowed. Right? No dicks allowed. Which now you're kind of a dick for not knowing that. But no dicks allowed. Like we Listen, this business is about.

You just called other people's immutable laws boring.

I was being a dick. Now that's a good point, actually. We're trustworthy and honest. Boring. Yeah. Who's the dick?

Well, don't get on to me because we use the word authentic.

Boring.

So not boring. It's even in my qbr.

I'm something better. I'm going to give you something better. Well, here, let me tell you. No dicks allowed means. Means that other people can't be dicks. And I'm not going to do business.

You can't be a dick.

But I can't. No. But I can't be a dick. But now I'm embarrassed I'm being a dick. Another one is give to give. Like you notice this saying, give to get, give to get. It sounds manipulative to me. I want something, so therefore I'm going to give you something. Give to give is giving for the joy that giving has positivity or two death. Like that's another immutable lie. I live by blood money. Money is equivalent to bud to blood. Here's some others that came out from companies that I was talking with just like butter. They want their business to run smoothly. No dry humping. It was a company that did sales and they said, we'll never dry hump you like their dog, the office dog. Dive on the grenade for our customers. Whenever there's a problem, we'll dive on it. Turn the turtles. When a customer is kind of struggling, they seem as a turtle and flip them over. That's engaging immutable law. And Jesse, now I feel like a jerk to you. I apologize because.

No, you're fine. No, I mean, our thing is it isn't just about being authentic, but we work to have a genuine connection or an authentic connection with everyone. Not just the people we work with, but the people that we work for, our customers. So we do that in every facet of our business. So authenticity is super important to us. But I don't think it's a cliche like, you know, we're risk takers.

I dig it. I totally dig it. Now I feel like a total heel. Like you convinced me. You know, one last thing before we let you go, Jesse, is what we do for these shows. I don't know if you've been on other podcasts. I don't know if they do this. We sent out a spy shopper who comes to your store just so we can get the experience, because we want to talk about it. So we have a recording. Yeah. Oh, you didn't know that? That.

No. How do I not know that? Because I listen to your podcast. I feel like, obviously.

Obviously. Now you're the dick. You don't listen to every show. Like, you would known this, apparently. So we sent a shopper and I. I guess. Apparently you work the cash. Cash register occasionally, right? You're in the front.

We don't have an actual, like, storefront.

No.

Well, you killed it.

Oh, I killed it. I killed it. I killed it. I had you. Because here's the recording of a customer. You. You answer the that right? Sometimes.

No.

Damn it. Well, we have a recording.

One of those fancy services that we heard on one of your Abby Connect sponsors.

Abby Connect. Well, here's Abby Connect, the Nancy. So we thought this was you. This is the girl who answered the phone. An order came in, and the customer. We don't have their part. They said, we're not sure if we can afford this hat. It's a little bit outside my price range. What should I do? And this was her response.

Do it.

Just do it.

So, yep, that was definitely my stuff.

I can sense your anger already. All right, Kels, let's get out of here for just more po. All right, Kels, take us out.

Please subscribe wherever you're listening to us. Whatever, podcaster.

Yeah, let's get the hell out of here. Jesse, it was a joy having you. Thanks for horsing around with us today.

See you here.

All right, guys. It was a joy having you too. I hope you learned something. I hope you laughed a little bit, and I hope there was an awkward moment or two for you.

Or four.

Yeah.

Or 10.

Or 10. And hey, oh, one more thing. Why don't you get a free copy of Surge, another one of my books? It's available right now on my website. If you go to mikemcalowitz.com or you know it by now. The shortcut. It's mikemotorbike.com. go to mikemotorbike.com in the top right. You'll see an option to download the book and get a copy for yourself. I will. See you guys. Take care, J Bone.

Later.

Later. Sad, that sound effect at the end.