What up, what up, what up, what up, what up. Welcome to the Come Up, a video podcast featuring Southwest Florida entrepreneurs and business leaders. We’re sponsored by Content with Teeth, a creative content agency, 20 years experience right here in Southwest Florida. As you can see from this fat head, they do things big, really big, specializing in copywriting, video production. If you want to be a sponsor on the Come Up or a guest hit me up @heyscrappy on IG or text my man Mike at 21,000.
Today’s guest is rapper TMike from Fort Myers. People are saying, “Scrappy, he’s a rapper. He’s not a businessman, he’s not an entrepreneur, he’s not a business leader.” And I’m saying, “Mo, no, no, no, no. My man, TMike’s got it going on.” He’s not just a rapper in hip hop. He takes a business approach to his game and to his music. I know him personally. I can tell you he’s fun, he’s genuine, and he’s got that smile. Give us your smile, Mike, give us your smile.
TMike:
I appreciate that, man. Thank you. Thank you. That’s a great introduction. I greatly appreciate it.
Scrappy:
You’re from Fort Myers. This is a Southwest Florida podcast, so it’s really cool to have you on. Tell us about Fort Myers and hip hop. What’s the scene like?
TMike:
Man, the scene in Fort Myers, it’s not too major. It’s a lot of people who rap, who sing. There’s a lot of different genres that come out of the city of Fort Myers. Collectively, it’s a great group of artists. The thing is, it is just not a big spotlight that’s shown upon the city so a lot of things you have to do as an artist you have to branch out. You have to market yourself. You have to build yourself and prove yourself as a brand, not just the artist because people going to listen to your music, but they also want to listen to who you are. They want to be able to resonate with the person that you are.
(singing)
Scrappy:
When did you get your start?
TMike:
I guess 2017 is really when I actually started, when I started taking it serious, actually putting money behind my craft. So I guess I’d say 2017.
Scrappy:
Let’s rewind just a little bit though. You were rapping [inaudible 00:02:33] way before that, right?
TMike:
Yeah, yeah. I was rapping all the time, making beats on lunch tables in the classroom, in the back rapping all the time.
Scrappy:
So you’re musically inclined. We know that about you. It’s awesome. In 2017, you put a team together. Tell us about your team.
TMike:
I started out a friend of mine, Scooby. Well, actually I started out going to this guy named Motif in my friend’s apartment. That was a guy I just met. He was actually staying with my friend at the time so I would go to my friend’s apartment and we’d go to his apartment. He had a makeshift studio in there, so we try to make music. Then my friend Scooby, he introduced me to a guy named Sam, and that was the first time I went to a actual legit studio. And Sam had, I think the name of his studio was Waves and it was in Fort Myers.
I actually gravitated towards Hero and Hero, he’s still on my team to this day. That’s my engineering, my producer. He makes pretty much all of my beats. And after a while, just being in Fort Myers and grinding, pushing out a lot of music, I got in contact with my DJ, DJ Henny, and he just simply was like… He’s a younger guy. He told me he really believed in my music and he liked what I was doing, and he just really wanted the opportunity to be my DJ.
Scrappy:
Oh, very nice.
TMike:
I wasn’t looking for him and he just happened to reach out. He was very genuine and he just became a part of the family organically, really.
Scrappy:
As an entrepreneur, you have to manage the situation, but also be the star of the situation. So how do you go about delegating?
TMike:
Few times I have to remind myself or other people have to remind me that I’m the artist. Sometimes I should just think about the music. But as an independent artist, when you are so hands-on, it’s hard to take steps back, because if I have Hero doing this, I know this is going on. It’s not just something that’s a surprise to me. Everybody in the team knows that this is happening. We all know that this needs to get done. So I never really put myself above the work. We all have to work, you know what I mean?
Scrappy:
It’s a fine line between being creative and being business. Where do you draw the line?
TMike:
I stick to textbook things. If this is proven to work, I just keep doing it. In the business world, it’s not too much room for creativity unless you’re taking risks. Sometimes the risk, it outweighs the reward and the reward is greatly received. So it just depends on the situation. You don’t want to, like I always say, never been against the market. You don’t want to put your money in something that doesn’t look fruitful. If it doesn’t seem like it’s going to pan out, it’s never a good idea to put your money on it. So sometimes you got to stick with what you know. But in a business world, it’s frowned upon to take too many risks but you get great rewards. And when it comes to creativity, you’re not bound by any rules. There is no logic. It is literally an open canvas. So it is up to you to create.
Scrappy:
Entrepreneurially, you have to make sacrifices, you have to take leaps, you have to make big risks and you certainly believe in yourself and you’ve done that. Do you feel really confident about your crusade?
TMike:
Yes. I mean, with anything in life, there’s ups and downs. You’re going to look back and ask yourself, “Did I do the right thing?” But the only way you can honestly answer that question is by continuing to go. You don’t know what the end has to hold. I’m still not finished, I’m still not done but if I could look back and say that I’m further than I am last year, then you’re making progress. You got to keep going.
Scrappy:
What makes you first pop off? When did all of a sudden TMike become somewhat of a household name in Fort Myers?
TMike:
Honestly, man, it’s still surreal to myself. I don’t know exactly when it happened. I feel like it is just me continuously to put out music, continuously to put my face out there. I want you to see me. So like I said, I would probably say like 2019 probably is when I feel like I heard people singing my music and they weren’t close friends of mine. You know what I mean?
Scrappy:
That’s pretty. That’s pretty amazing that you started in 2017 and you could walk down the street and hear your music in 2019 unwittingly. That’s totally cool. Another thing too, man, is your music. I’ve listened to pretty much all of it. It’s smooth, well produced, tells stories. I really enjoy. In fact, I think it’s important that we celebrate your music here right now and play one of your videos. Is that okay?
TMike:
Oh yes, sir. Most definitely.
Scrappy:
One time for Constantly. Got it going on TMike.
TMike:
Yes sir. Thank you. Constantly. Here we go.
Scrappy:
The Come Up baby.
TMike:
The Come Up.
(singing)
Scrappy:
I love your lyrics, dog. I love your lyrics.
TMike:
I want to give you everything, man. I want you to feel good when you listening to the song. And I want you to feel what I’m saying. I want you to be able to relate with what’s going on.
Scrappy:
How do you write?
TMike:
Honestly, I go off the beat man. Me and Hero or whoever I’m working with at the time, we’re going to sit there. We’re going to come up with a sound. We’re going to create the sound and however the sound makes me feel, is based off what my lyrics will go off of.
Scrappy:
And do you have a process, whether it’s writing pen and a pad, punch in freestyle? How do you go about it in studio?
TMike:
Honestly, it’s a mixture of both. I usually start off writing on my phone, no pen and pad. I got my notes and my phone. I start off with that. I can’t really completely write a song without going in the booth, so I’ll write down a little bit. Go in the booth, lay something down, see how it sounds. Freestyle a little bit, might ride a little bit more. It’s really based on the momentum I’m at when I’m in the booth.
Scrappy:
It’s interesting when you say the phone, because has there been an instance where, maybe it’s a compromising instance, but you hear something, you maybe you’re with your girl, maybe with your buddies at the club. “Yo, yo, yo, wait, hold on, hold up. I got something in my head.” And you record it.
TMike:
Yes. That’s happened. I was at a concert one time, I think it was called The Legends Tour. It was a Lil Durk, Lil Baby, Moneybagg Yo and we were in the crowd. We were sitting where we were sitting at, and I just had a thought in my head and I pulled my phone out and I was able to put it in my notes. I used to write. I used to have a composition notebook when I was in high school. I would write stuff down, but I’ve lost it. I mean, years ago. I haven’t seen that thing for a long time.
Scrappy:
Well, our audience is mostly business people and we all want to live vicariously through TMike. So tell us about one of your really great concert experiences.
TMike:
My favorite concert experience was, I believe it was that same concert, the Arena. We was in the Orlando Magic Arena and we actually, we had seats in the…
Scrappy:
No, no, no, no, no, no. I don’t want to hear about seats, TMike watching. I want to hear a concert story about TMike spitting.
TMike:
Oh, that was my favorite. My favorite experience had to be a few weeks ago. I was at a truth lounge in Tampa, had a show out there, and actually my brother, Sherm, it was his first time performing, and we performed our latest song, Bloody Nose live for the first time and the whole… Everybody in the club was going ridiculous. So it was a crazy feeling. Even my DJ, Hero, they were like, “Bro, we’ve never seen a club do that,” especially for me. You know what I mean? So for everybody to just be hanging on to listen to the words that I’m rapping and everybody just having fun and enjoying themselves.
Scrappy:
That was my next question.
TMike:
That was pretty much my favorite moment.
Scrappy:
Definitely. That’s my next question, because there’s baby steps, there’s recording, there’s feeling good about the recording, there’s getting your music out there, but all of a sudden to go to another city and perform and have the audience know your lyrics, man, that’s goosebumps, right?
TMike:
Yeah, that’s something. That’s something. My dream is to be able to just hold the mic out and have everybody sing my lyrics.
Scrappy:
Give it another year.
One more year.
TMike:
Yeah, man. Hey, I’m praying by the grace of God.
Scrappy:
So you have this great audience. They’re feeling you, they’re understanding you. Do you know who they are? Can you define who they are for us?
TMike:
Honestly, I say myself, I see the fans as me. Those people are who are in the crowd, it’s the same person who stand on that stage. I make my music for people like me. I make music because I fell in love with music. So I try to put what made me fall in love with music, into my music.
It’s black, white, but younger. Most people I see at my shows are anywhere between, I say like 22 and 32.
Scrappy:
Okay. One thing…
Michael Barnes:
Hi, I’m Michael Barnes, owner of Content with Teeth. We are a creative content agency in Southwest Florida. We specialize in copywriting and video production with over two decades of experience creating unboring content. If you struggle to create compelling stuff for your business or client, check us out at contentwithteeth.com. Now, back to our show.
Scrappy:
… That I tell rappers that I think is very interesting, but oftentimes goes by the wayside, is understanding your audience and then marketing to them on site. Do you give them mixtapes? Do you get data from them? Do you get their email addresses or their IG addresses, their social media information because right there, that’s gold. When you have people singing your lyrics and repeating to you and feeling you on that level, somehow someway, you need to capture that.
TMike:
One thing I always do after every set I do, I let people know my Instagram and my email to connect with me. I always follow whoever follows me. I reach out to whoever, reach out to me because you don’t have to reach out to me. You don’t have to follow me. You don’t have to be a fan of mine, but I appreciate you for doing that. You know what I mean? So I try my best to reach out to each and every person.
Scrappy:
That’s awesome. That’s awesome because branding is the relationship between the product and the consumer, and you’re on stage and you’re doing it in real time, man, that’s really cool. How about your identity and your image? How would you describe yourself?
TMike:
I describe myself as just a hardworking, humble person man. I like to have fun just like everybody else. I like to enjoy the fruits of my labor, but honestly, I’m just a humble guy. I’m blessed to be alive. I’m blessed to be in a position I am. I don’t take life for granted at all. I know any day I could wake up and not be here.
(singing)
Scrappy:
I watch your videos. I see this sensitive guy, I see this tough guy. I see this guy that’s lyrically gifted. I see this party guy. I see this guy with a gun, pop, pop, pop, pop, pow. So I see all these different aspects of you, all these different facets of TMike. So if I’m a consumer, how would you describe yourself to us in terms of why we should listen to you?
TMike:
I would describe myself as human. Like you said, man, all those different things you see is different things that everybody go through. Everybody gets mad, everybody has fun. Everybody laughs, everybody cries. Sometimes you have to be serious, sometimes you want to be the comedic relief. So I would just simply describe myself as human. I just give you the human experience. Everything I go through, you go through.
Scrappy:
I feel you. For real. I’ve interviewed 500 rappers in my life and you’re very genuine. You’re very real. You’re very sincere. You’re caring man and I feel that through the podcast for sure.
TMike:
I appreciate that.
Scrappy:
Yeah, and it comes through, man. It’s real. And next 30 days, what song are you going to put together? What’s the message going to be? What’s the theme going to be? What story are you going to tell?
TMike:
The next 30 days I have a huge project I’m coming out with. It’s called Already Made It. I just finished shooting the video yesterday with Brand Films. Shout out Brand Films. Man, Already Made It is just about the way I feel right now in my career, in my life. Just feeling good, feeling like I’ve accomplished a lot of things. Not really everything that I need to accomplish, but I feel good about the position I’m in. So the song is about achieving things and putting your best foot forward. Feeling like you are on the right track and where you should be in life.
Scrappy:
You’re in a good place. You got a catalog kicking right now, you got your social media game, you’re doing concerts. People are identifying with you. You’re really in a good place, a really good position to take it to the next level. Speaking of which, competition, do you feel like you have any?
TMike:
Always, always feel like I’m in competition with people, but I honestly feel like my competition is the person that’s number one on the top 100 Billboards. My competition is the people who are constantly getting posted on blogs and the people that you see on TV. I’m with competition with Drake. That’s my competition. My competition is Tim’s and Wiz Kid and people like that. I see those people as my competition.
Scrappy:
Really? Afro beats?
TMike:
Well, anyone. I mean whoever’s at the top of the game, that’s my competition.
Scrappy:
Nice, nice.
TMike:
I’m a artist. Whether it’s Afro Beats, it can be drill beats from the UK, whatever it is, I’m up for the challenge. I just want to be the best that I could possibly be at my craft.
Scrappy:
You mentioned Drake. What makes him so successful?
TMike:
Man, timeless. I feel like he makes timeless music. He’s able to just go with the times. Whatever is needed in the world musically, Drake provides. I mean, you can like it, you can hate it and you can love it. I mean, whatever it is, he’s going to give you something to just listen to.
Scrappy:
It’s interesting because he’s a walking brand violation now. In marketing and branding we say, “Stick to a lane, have your niche, carve your identity.” And what does Drake do? Hip hop artist puts out a house album and it’s successful and it sounds great.
TMike:
Like you always say, “Throw something against the wall, see if it sticks.”
Scrappy:
Absolutely. Absolutely. So do you feel like you need radio and record labels to be successful?
TMike:
No. You need word of mouth. You need a fan base. You just need fans. You don’t need anything except for the fans, that’s really it.
Scrappy:
And we’re you rapping in grade school?
TMike:
Yeah, battle raps, cracking jokes and stuff like that. Nothing too serious, but, all the time. Every day, pretty much especially during lunch.
Scrappy:
You have a big personality for sure. And speaking about grade school, if you were to go back to grade school tomorrow and you were going to address the class, what kind of advice would you give them?
TMike:
Oh, man. I would tell them to never stop learning. Never be afraid to ask questions. When I was younger, I was afraid to raise my hand in class and ask questions but now that I’ve gotten older, knowledge truly is power. Learn as much as you possibly can and to understand the stock market. I wish they would teach financial literacy in school these days. They don’t teach anything that we could really use in the real world, except for math. That’s the only thing we’re actually taught so just learn outside of school, learn outside of the textbooks, and learn the stock market. That’s what I would tell them.
Scrappy:
I think you’d be a great teacher.
TMike:
I try my best man. The kids are the future. They need to know these things.
Scrappy:
So let’s say there’s an 18-year-old rapper that’s on the come up. He’s just starting out, what advice do you give him?
TMike:
Try your best to find an engineer. Find your own engineer. Find your own sound. Don’t go chasing waterfalls, don’t pay for streams. Don’t put your money into scams and to just be careful because there’s a lot of sharks out there against independent artists such as myself. You’re going to get fake emails, you’re going to get fake DMs. There’s going to be people telling you they could get you a Grammy like this. It’s fake. You got to understand these things. So number one thing is to be careful.
Scrappy:
My man, TMike. Got it going on. You got it going on and we’re sponsored by Content with Teeth, a creative content agency with over 20 years of experience right here in Southwest Florida. As you can see from the fat head, we’re doing a really big specializing in copywriting and video production. We got content and if you’d like to sponsor the Come Up or be a guest, hit me up at @heyscrappy on IG or text Mike at 21,000. TMike, I’m banking on you. If there’s a stock market I’m investing in you, my brother.
TMike:
Yes sir. Yes sir. DJ Scrappy, thank you so much, man. It’s always a pleasure talking to you. I greatly appreciate it.
I’m Scrappy, and welcome to The Come Up, a video podcast featuring Southwest Florida entrepreneurs and business leaders. We’re sponsored by Content with Teeth, a creative content agency with over 20 years of experience right here in Southwest Florida. And as you can see by this fathead, they do it really big, specializing in copywriting and video production. They’ve got content, lots of content. And if you’d like to sponsor The Come Up or be a guest, hit me up at HeyScrappy on IG or Mike at 21,000 by text. Today’s guests, special guests, Teddy and Cherish Joseph, owners of MadeForThis Fitness gym in Lehigh Acres, my hometown. And you guys have a very unique approach to exercise, nutrition, and overall fitness. I’m very impressed with y’all. I checked out your website.
Teddy Joseph:
Yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you-
Cherish Joseph:
Thank you.
Teddy Joseph:
… for having us.
Cherish Joseph:
Yeah, hi.
Scrappy:
I like your website a lot. The photography, you get to the point. You really educate us very quickly on what you’re all about. Can you tell us about yourselves?
Teddy Joseph:
Yeah, we are a group and personal training facility where we specialize and customize all various different types of nutrition programs, customized exercising. We focus on culture, family. We focus on just making people feel [inaudible 00:01:32] the new style of exercise science and understanding what they’re doing, how to do it, what to eat, when to eat, how to eat. We just do it all. So one-stop shop for fitness and making sure that everybody feels welcome.
Scrappy:
I like when you say culture, because every gym or fitness center has culture. How do you differentiate yours from the others?
Teddy Joseph:
We just like to keep a very positive and upbeat environment. So our environment is very positive, very uplifting. You have coaches, trainers, just everybody there from the time you walk in to the time you leave out, welcoming you and embracing you with everything that has to do with health and fitness and just giving you that little touch of love, man. Just really, showing you a great time at MaddeForThis Fitness.
Scrappy:
How long have y’all been in business?
Teddy Joseph:
We’ve been in business for about seven years now.
Scrappy:
And you’re right next to the ice cream store. That’s got to be crazy discipline for y’all.
Teddy Joseph:
It is crazy discipline. [inaudible 00:02:32].
Scrappy:
Do you ever have any weakness? Any weakness, and you go over there and help yourself to ice cream?
Cherish Joseph:
Yeah-
Teddy Joseph:
[inaudible 00:02:38] yeah.
Cherish Joseph:
We go occasionally, yeah. They have really good ice cream.
Teddy Joseph:
They have really good [inaudible 00:02:41], have really good foot traffic as well, so it brings a lot of people’s curiosity along. So that’s pretty cool.
Scrappy:
You guys are entrepreneurs. It’s not easy being an entrepreneur. It’s a leap of faith. There’s risk taking involved, there’s passion, certainly. I can see it in your website and yourselves. Can you tell us about your entrepreneurial experience and journey?
Cherish Joseph:
Okay, I grew up, and I worked nine to five type of jobs because you can rely on security when it comes to that. And he played sports and played football and everything like that and worked as well. So he was actually the first one that did entrepreneur, jumped into that. And I was like, “Okay, if that’s something you want to do, you’re really going to go for it.” I was supporting it. But I still worked my nine to five, you know what I’m saying? So we brought in money and everything like that.
And then it started growing, and I seen him. And he’s just really good with people and just wanting to help. So it took me a little bit longer to fully be like, “Okay, let me just immerse myself into entrepreneurship” because there’s no security in it. You literally have to give all your time. You have to literally go out there and get it because if you don’t, there’s nothing coming in.
Scrappy:
It’s awesome because-
Cherish Joseph:
One or the other-
Scrappy:
I’m sorry. You’re customizing the experience, but you’re also making it personal, and you have an expert. So I got Teddy or Cherish saying, “Come on, let’s do this.”
Teddy Joseph:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Cherish Joseph:
When they come into a class, you can have people that’s been with us for five years, and then you have people that today’s their first day. They can all come to the same class, but every exercise is demonstrated with a modified version and an advanced version, so everybody can come to the same class but get it at their fitness level. And everything can always be modified, so there’s really no limit to any type of [inaudible 00:04:40] that we can do.
Teddy Joseph:
Yes.
Scrappy:
So if we had to break it down on a pie chart between psychology, mindset, mental strength versus just being fit and buff and looking good, perhaps sexual, and then perhaps nutrition and being healthy, how do you break down that pie chart? What percentages? Can you break that down for me? They’re all important.
Teddy Joseph:
Yeah, they’re all important. But first and foremost, in that pie chart, I would say mindset.
Cherish Joseph:
Yes.
Teddy Joseph:
You have to understand mindset before just diving into fitness or trying to grasp the mindset. Because there’s a lot of mental barriers and mental illusions that we put up. “Oh, I can’t do that.” There’s a lot of things that you beat yourself up on before you even step into the battlefield.
Scrappy:
Interesting. You seem like a guru. Did you create these programs?
Teddy Joseph:
I did create these programs, yep.
Scrappy:
Okay. And-
Teddy Joseph:
I spent a lot of time playing sports my whole life; playing football, basketball, running track. I went to school for exercise science, have a degree in exercise science and sports management. I did a lot of coaching, working with mentors. I’ve just done a lot in the field of exercise, science, and health and wellness.
Scrappy:
So you’re like a scientist. You’re tinkering. Always trying to get better, right?
Cherish Joseph:
[inaudible 00:06:23] a lot, yeah. He’s very good.
Teddy Joseph:
It’s what turns me on, man.
Scrappy:
Very cool. Very cool. You’re a great role model. How do you encourage women to get in the gym and stay there?
Cherish Joseph:
Just being relatable. You know what I mean? For instance, yesterday I didn’t get to do my regular workout like I normally would outside, so I just grabbed some bands. And in between tasks that I had to do, I was doing band exercises in the house. So instead of being like, “Oh, I didn’t get to do it today,” I really just try to make it more of a priority. Even if it’s 15 minutes, I’ll be like, “You don’t have to have a whole gym. You can literally use your baby, do some body squats. There’s a lot of things that you [inaudible 00:07:00] and make it more relatable and just more seem like it’s easier.” And they feel a lot better. You want to feel like a woman first. You know what I mean? So it helps a lot of women.
Scrappy:
What’s your ratio for male to female at your gym?
Teddy Joseph:
I would say about 70%, 75% women, and then the rest male.
Scrappy:
Wow, that’s amazing. That’s awesome. That’s really great. That’s really great. Because I think of a Pilates, I think of Tai Chi, yoga, swimming and so forth, as far as building up our bodies in a unique way. And just weightlifting, Teddy, you’re probably not a proponent of just doing that, right?
Teddy Joseph:
No, no. We focus on overall health and wellness, so we’re not just lifting weights all the time. We have mobility periods of the class where we stretch, we focus, we do yoga. We implement a lot of different things because like I said, it’s not just about banging the weights all the time. Sometimes you might just need the resistant bands. Sometimes you might need therapeutic exercises, things to really, really work those small, small, minute muscle fibers. So it’s not really just about banging heavy weights all the time.
Cherish Joseph:
[inaudible 00:08:22] curls.
Teddy Joseph:
[inaudible 00:08:26] curls, right?
Scrappy:
A customer of yours, maybe it’s a female and she’s been working hard, she’s been grinding and trying to make it happen for herself physically, but her tummy is still sticking out. How do you break that news to her? How do you politely say, “Girlfriend, you still have a big old tummy?”
Teddy Joseph:
Well, I wouldn’t say that. But what I would do is try to find solutions for her. I’m a solution-oriented person, man. I want to figure out how can we find a solution for this problem, for this issue? What are you doing? I’m going to evaluate, what are you doing? I’m going to ask you to assess and take daily inventory of what you’re eating, how much times are you exercising, what’s the calorie deficits? What are we doing? You know what I’m saying? What are we doing? I will evaluate, step by step, what is going on in your daily routine that is leading to that end result. Because that’s the fruit that you’re bearing for me right now, and we want to get to the root of the issue and find out what’s going on beneath the surface. You see what I’m saying? So that we can go ahead and produce better fruits.
Scrappy:
You’re like a PhD without a PhD/
Cherish Joseph:
I’m telling you, when he’s always educating himself, he is always educating. He doesn’t just reach a certain level of knowledge and then that’s it. He’s always learning. Always educating himself, always growing, always evolving, and just trying to give more.
Teddy Joseph:
Yeah. [inaudible 00:09:57]
Scrappy:
How about marketing?
Teddy Joseph:
[inaudible 00:09:58].
Scrappy:
Teddy, you’re a scientist when it comes to exercise. How about nutrition? Do you have your own programs?
Teddy Joseph:
Yes, we do have our own programs. I’m a nutritional specialist, so I do have my own programs that I teach people step-by-step, just giving them a great guide, reference points of as what to eat, what times to eat. Just things that will help them store fat, things that will help them decrease fat, things that will help them bring out more lean muscle. Just science-based information, getting down to the nitty gritty. It is nothing that’s very, very attractive or sexy to, “Hey, you’re going to lose 30 pounds in two days.” You know? It’s none of that stuff, but it’s really based off of sound, nutritional concepts. And I believe in, like I said, the lifestyle change of your journey rather than it’s just a quick fix, just a 15 day, 21 day, you know?
Cherish Joseph:
He’s not giving himself enough credit. All of our workout programs, all of our nutrition programs, all of our nutritional coaching, all that kind of stuff, he has made his self. He has it down to where it is so self-explanatory and so easy that our children, that are eight years old, three years old, understand it.
Teddy Joseph:
They know what carbs are.
Scrappy:
Wow, wow.
Cherish Joseph:
They know what carbs are. Even on the nutrition plan, it’s literally, for metabolism, it’s sunrise to sunset type of thing on how you should eat and when you should eat at the part of the day. He’s put so much time and effort into it. I’ll be like, “I want to do this type of training and this and this and this,” and then he’ll put it all together, customize it for you. You just have to do it. You have to hold yourself accountable. And we help the clients hold themselves accountable. But there’s nothing that he cannot create. Like-
Teddy Joseph:
And that’s another thing that you said: accountability. Accountability is-
Cherish Joseph:
And consistency.
Teddy Joseph:
… huge. Accountability and consistency is huge. And that is something-
Scrappy:
Discipline too, right?
Teddy Joseph:
Yeah-
Cherish Joseph:
Yeah.
Teddy Joseph:
… definitely. Discipline. Having that discipline mindset that to whether or not I feel like it. Because we all operate best when we feel like it, right? You know what I’m saying?
Scrappy:
Right, right.
Teddy Joseph:
We feel like it, we’re like, “Oh yeah, I’ll give it a [inaudible 00:12:18].” But understanding that whether you feel like it or not, I’m still going to do the same consistent patterns and habits every day. And that’s going to get you to your goals faster. [inaudible 00:12:30]
Scrappy:
Can you tell us about…? I’m sorry, go ahead.
Teddy Joseph:
And then we have your back holding you accountable. Checking on you, making sure that you’re doing the things that you say you’re doing, checking your logs. We have a private group that we form, making sure that everybody’s on board, everybody’s accountable, we communicating and interacting with each other.
It’s one thing for me just to tell the members, but when there’s other members interacting and encouraging each other and pushing each other, it creates that real team and family-oriented environment that really, really helps people get going because we can throw ideas at each other, back and forth. You know?
Scrappy:
Sure, sure.
Cherish Joseph:
All our members know each other’s names. We want everybody to know everybody.
Speaker 4:
Hi, I’m Michael Barnes, owner of Content with Teeth. We are a creative content agency in Southwest Florida. We specialize in copywriting and video production with over two decades of experience creating unboring content. If you struggle to create compelling stuff for your business or client, check us out at contentwithteeth.com. Now, back to our show.
Scrappy:
Here I am thinking salads and water is the secret, and you’ve got this-
Teddy Joseph:
No.
Scrappy:
… nutrition program.
Cherish Joseph:
It’s real food.
Teddy Joseph:
Definitely don’t want to do salads and water, man.
Scrappy:
Can you tell us a great customer experience? A great customer success story?
Teddy Joseph:
So many.
Cherish Joseph:
There are.
Teddy Joseph:
So many.
Cherish Joseph:
Miss Kate?
Teddy Joseph:
You can talk about her.
Cherish Joseph:
Okay, Kate is one of our senior clients. She comes in every single day with the best attitude. And she loves coming into the gym. She looks forward to it every single day. And she’s an older lady. She has a lot of balance issues. Her balance-
Teddy Joseph:
Balance and coordination.
Cherish Joseph:
… when she came to us, yeah. She couldn’t walk straight or have good balance. So she’s been doing our workout programs and our nutrition, and she has developed a lot of tone, muscle mass, and her balance. She has gotten a lot faster in her paces, and she’s lifting a lot more. And she spreads her energy. We have MVCs of the Month, Most Valuable Clients, we do that at our gym, that exude all of the things that we want our gym to be. And she’s gotten it a bunch. And so she just wants everybody to succeed. She’s super encouraging, and she just exudes what MadeForThis is. But her transition and transformation from when she started with us to now is like-
Teddy Joseph:
Night and day, man.
Cherish Joseph:
It’s night and day. You could barely see that she has a balance thing. And she’s a lot more mobile. She does some special stretching-
Teddy Joseph:
Stretches and mobility.
Cherish Joseph:
Stretching and mobility with Teddy that’s really helped her. Then we’ve had one of our clients, she lost… Tiara lost… In two months, she lost 40?
Teddy Joseph:
Yeah.
Cherish Joseph:
We have one client, she lost 42 pounds in two months, and she’s great. They all just-
Teddy Joseph:
And then we-
Cherish Joseph:
… come in.
Teddy Joseph:
And then we have those Tiaras consistently. People that lose 40, 50 pounds in eight weeks.
Scrappy:
Wow, wow.
Teddy Joseph:
People that have amazing belly fat loss transformation pictures. Our transformations at MadeForThis Fitness speak for themselves.
Cherish Joseph:
We have a wall of them.
Scrappy:
Oh, cool.
Teddy Joseph:
[inaudible 00:16:12] yeah.
Scrappy:
Okay. I want to give some quick-hitter questions to wrap this up. And if you could just give me quick responses to each question, I’d appreciate it. Anti-aging tips.
Teddy Joseph:
Anti-aging tips.
Cherish Joseph:
It really goes back to nutrition. You know what I mean? Of course you need to take your water. And then the foods you eat, they can aid you, or they can help anti-age. He’s the scientist when it comes down to all of that, but everything always circles back to nutrition.
Scrappy:
Teddy, how do you get people from quitting?
Teddy Joseph:
Making them find out… Finding out their why. Their why determines everything. Their why for committing, their why for starting a program, the exercise. Their why. Their purpose, their mission behind why they’re doing what they’re doing. If you can remember your why, you can find a will to keep pushing.
Scrappy:
Is exercise addictive?
Teddy Joseph:
Yes, it is.
Cherish Joseph:
Yes.
Teddy Joseph:
A great addiction.
Scrappy:
Can it be too addictive?
Teddy Joseph:
Not really. No, I don’t think so.
Scrappy:
Okay.
Teddy Joseph:
Just depends on how you look at the glass.
Scrappy:
Home gyms. Do you dissuade people from having a home gym to come to you guys?
Teddy Joseph:
No.
Cherish Joseph:
No.
Teddy Joseph:
I definitely encourage home gyms. Whatever you can’t get done at MFTF, or if you need extra assistance, extra help, I’ll give you a guide, I’ll give you support, whatever you need to accomplish that thing at home in your own gym. [inaudible 00:17:52]
Scrappy:
Can you get a bigger butt on the StairMaster?
Teddy Joseph:
On the StairMaster? Yes, you can. Just depending on how you use it. Yeah, so there’s the tension technique with the exercise definitely. You can use that.
Scrappy:
Is there such a thing as being too buff?
Cherish Joseph:
No.
Teddy Joseph:
No. The same thing. It’s how you view the glass.
Cherish Joseph:
Okay, okay.
Teddy Joseph:
If that’s what fits your cup of tea, man, go for it.
Scrappy:
Do you suggest ancillary exercise such as martial arts or swimming?
Teddy Joseph:
Yes, we do.
Cherish Joseph:
Yeah.
Teddy Joseph:
Yep. It provides, like I said, a different component of muscle group, especially something like swimming that’s low impact on the joints. A lot of seniors can benefit for from those type of programs where it’s swimming, something that’s low impact, resistance with just nature. That’s very, very beneficial.
Scrappy:
Have either of you smack-talked to coach, “Come on!” and talk some crap to get them motivated?
Cherish Joseph:
You should hear us work out together.
Teddy Joseph:
That’s a part of the routine.
Cherish Joseph:
It’s part of it. Sometimes you have good workouts, sometimes you’re mad. But as long as you are in there getting better, 1% better, it’s all that matters.
Teddy Joseph:
Yeah. And it’s always encouraging smack talk.
Cherish Joseph:
Yeah.
Teddy Joseph:
Yeah.
Scrappy:
Okay. Teddy, I know we’ve covered this quite a bit, but if you had 30 seconds, like an elevator pitch, you’re on the first floor, you’re going up to the 16th floor, and I’m in there with you in the elevator, “Scrappy, you got to join my gym, dammit.” What would you say to me in such a short period of time?
Teddy Joseph:
I’ll say, “Hey, Scrap man, listen. You must come to MadeForThis Fitness. Why? Because it’s going to help you, man. It’s going to help your lifestyle. It’s going to help your perspective. It’s going to help you become better at your job now. Whatever you’re doing now, it’s going to help you just push out all the energy and confidence and just take your game to another level. Your body was made to move, you were made to function in this way. So please, man, do yourself the biggest favor and come to MadeForThis Fitness.”
Scrappy:
All right, all right. Any social handles that you want to pitch?
Teddy Joseph:
Yes.
Scrappy:
Social IDs?
Teddy Joseph:
Definitely tap into MadeForThis Fitness LLC One on Instagram. You can also follow us at Made for This Fitness LLC on Facebook. And then of course our website, www.madeforthisfitness.com. Tap in. We got a bunch of nutritional programs, exercise programs, a whole ton of goodness to help you elevate your game and take your health and fitness to the next level.
Cherish Joseph:
We are doing-
Scrappy:
MadeForThis Fitness. Go ahead, Cherish.
Cherish Joseph:
We’re doing a free bootcamp on September 10th, so if anybody wants to come-
Teddy Joseph:
Southwest Florida.
Cherish Joseph:
Yes, we have-
Teddy Joseph:
It’s free.
Cherish Joseph:
Just go to our website under our events and just reserve your ticket. It’s free, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Teddy Joseph:
Come and move with us.
Scrappy:
Very nice, very nice. I appreciate you being in Lehigh. Have you ever heard of this? Lehigh! Have you heard of that?
Cherish Joseph:
No.
Teddy Joseph:
I haven’t.
Scrappy:
I’m a radio disc jockey. I started doing that 10 years ago. Lehigh!
Cherish Joseph:
Are you from here?
Scrappy:
Excuse me?
Cherish Joseph:
Are you from here?
Scrappy:
18 years I’ve been here.
Cherish Joseph:
Oh wow.
Teddy Joseph:
We’ll be there, man. MadeForThis Fitness. Y’all stay tuned. Let’s get it.
Cherish Joseph:
You might see him running on Homestead sometimes too.
Scrappy:
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed that.
Teddy Joseph:
Yeah. Thank you for having us, Scrappy.
Scrappy:
One time. One time for Teddy and Cherish Joseph. MadeForThis Fitness, an awesome couple. We’re sponsored by Content with Teeth, a creative content agency with over 20 years of experience right here in Southwest Florida. As you can see from this fathead, we’re doing it really big, specializing in copywriting and video production. We got all kinds of content. You name it, we got it. If you’d like to sponsor The Come Up or be a guest, hit me up at HeyScrappy on IG, or text Mike at 21,000. Content with Teeth’s The Come Up.
What up? What up? What up? What up? What up? Welcome to The Come Up, a video podcast featuring Southwest Florida entrepreneurs, business leaders. I’m Scrappy and we’re sponsored by Content With Teeth, a creative content agency with over 20 years of experience, right here in southwest Florida. As you can see by this fat head behind me, they do it really big, specializing in copywriting video production. If you need content, give them a call. And if you’d like to sponsor The Come Up or be a guest, hit me up @heyscrappy IG, or text Mike 21000.
I have to take a deep breath because I’m so excited. I’m so excited. Today’s guest, lifestyle guru and Life Coach, David Essel. He’s the author of 10 books, a syndicated radio host, international public speaker. You can check him out at mentalhealthhealing.org. David, what’s up my brother?
David Essel:
Scrappy, so great to be back with you, brother. And you have not changed a bit and I love it.
Scrappy:
The thing is, man, a lot of people say I have energy but not compared to you, that’s for sure.
David Essel:
You know, when you do what you have passion for, you obviously have passion for your work, I have for mine. It comes out of our pores, Scrappy, doesn’t it?
Scrappy:
Absolutely, absolutely. And when I was thinking about you and researching you and trying to get to know you better, I saw your commencement speech at Syracuse. I thought it was amazing.
David Essel:
Thank you. Oh my God, it was probably one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever been given, is to come back to my old alma mater, the university that I played basketball at and graduated from. And to be able to talk to the students and to the faculty, it was a dream come true. And that’s an understatement, Scrappy. It was so phenomenal.
Scrappy:
And you have such a vast knowledge, you’ve shared it with the students, it was really awesome. And your life coaching too, you’re so passionate about it. For those that don’t know exactly what life coaching is, can you break it on down?
David Essel:
Yeah, it’s pretty simple. As a coach, we take individuals who have goals that they want to accomplish and we help them lay out a format or a plan in order to accomplish those goals. There may be people that are struggling with issues they need to let go of, whether it’s addictions, maybe low self-confidence, low self worth. We help them remove those blocks. So really, coaches are all about accountability. We hold our client’s feet to the fire, we work with them at least once a week. We give them homework assignments so when they come in next week, if they have their homework done, they might get an A+, Scrappy. They may even get an apple on the way out the door. And if they end up not doing the work that we’ve asked them to do, then we get a chance to find out why. So it’s all about helping people to achieve goals and being that individual in the background, it is constantly nudging, pushing and encouraging them to greater success.
Scrappy:
You really have an interesting background from body building to Syracuse basketball, to yourself going through drug addiction and alcohol addiction. What made you flip the script and become a life coach?
David Essel:
Wow, that’s a great question. I graduated actually with a degree in sports psychology, so I was working with athletes for a number of years, but therapy is very different than life coaching. And in 1990, I had been already in sports psychology and working with people for over 10 years, and I started thinking there was something missing in my practice. I was really happy with the success my clients were getting, Scrappy, but there was something missing. And so, back then life coaching wasn’t even a title. We called ourselves lifestyle helpers or lifestyle coaches, or lifestyle mentors, but life coach wasn’t even a word back then.
But what I realized was this, one day a client came in and I gave her an assignment, a homework assignment. And the assignment was, why is it that you want to make this one change in your life so badly? You’re almost so angry you want to make this change. And so I said, I want you to write about it as an exercise. So when she came in the next week, I said, go ahead and read your homework to me. Now, in traditional psychotherapy, we don’t give homework assignments. We say, Hey, that was a great 55 minute session, Scrappy, I’ll see you next week. But all of a sudden I said, there’s something missing.
I gave her this assignment, she came back in, I said, now read it to me, and she couldn’t. She was hysterically crying. And I said, Wait a minute. You have this big goal you want to accomplish and the reason you want to accomplish it is on the paper in front of you, but you can’t read it to me. And she said, no. I said, let’s wait. We waited about five minutes. I said, now let’s try. She wanted to get in the best shape of her life to get back at her husband who had left her for a younger woman. So she was all about revenge. And right there in that one exercise with that one person, given that one assignment, I completely switched from a pure counselor in psychotherapy to someone who does what’s called now, life coaching, meaning that we give assignments.
So when I work with a client, every week they have homework assignments, reading assignments, writing assignments, and that’s what makes the biggest difference between a counselor and a coach. Counselors, we’re not trained to give assignments at the level that coaches are, but I love to combine both, Scrappy. The knowledge of psychotherapy, I think, is crucially important to help people change, but the action steps that we give them are just as important.
Scrappy:
Okay. There’s so much to it and you’re so articulate and we could be here, you and I, we could talk for hours, you and I, because I’m so fascinated with you. You’re utterly fascinating, David.
David Essel:
Thank you.
Scrappy:
What I thought we would do is maybe a word association. I’ll give you a word and give me a 30 second perspective on it, okay?
David Essel:
Okay.
Scrappy:
Depression.
David Essel:
More common than we think, more submerged than people know. And what I mean by that is that especially with what people have gone through with the pandemic, the changes that are out of our control, having to be at home with our kids while they’re trying to go to school online, and they’ve never done this before. Lots of people have this incredible frustration with what’s going on in the world. And what does that create? The feelings of lowness, that feeling of depression, that feeling of is it really worth it? Can I still make a difference with my body, money, et cetera, in the middle of a pandemic?
So depression is really a piece of hopelessness. I’ve gotten so overwhelmed with these changes out of my control. I just want to lay in bed. I just want to eat. I just want to drink. The end result of depression.
Scrappy:
Weight loss.
David Essel:
Oh my gosh. We have right now about 85% of the United States of America is either extremely overweight or obese. 85%.
Scrappy:
Wow.
David Essel:
It’s incredible. Now that’s gone up about 5% since the pandemic started, so we already had a huge issue. 80% of Americans overweight. Now it’s up to about 85%. And I’ll tell you what, the genetic part of it is about this big, Scrappy, there’s a very tiny genetic link to obesity. There is a link, but it’s very minor. It’s mainly that we’ve never really learned how to deal with our emotions, and so we use food as medication. Sugar, salt, white flour, fat, all go to the pleasure center of the brain, just like alcohol, nicotine, and everything else. So when people are using food to self-medicate, they don’t want to feel the loneliness, depression, anxiety that they’re going through.
Scrappy:
That feeds right into my next word, discipline.
David Essel:
Oh my gosh, the key to almost everything, Scrappy. So many people lose integrity with themselves because they say, starting tomorrow, I’m getting up at seven and I’m going for a 45 minute walk before I get ready for work. And then they don’t, which means now they’re breaking their own word against themselves. But individuals with discipline look at life totally differently. They say, if I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to, so that I respect myself and so that others respect me as well, Scrappy. Discipline is a key for all of us to be focused on, more so right now especially.
Scrappy:
And that goes back to discipline, they’re all kind of intertwined.
David Essel:
Very much so.
Scrappy:
You talk about depression, we can talk about anxiety, they all kind of go together in many different respects. How about finding a partner?
David Essel:
Oh my gosh. Right now with what’s happened in the last couple of years, there’s a lot of issues in relationships. And we always say people this, a relationship can only work if you are happy alone. Let that sink in. The only relationships that really have a chance of working is if you’re home on a Friday night and you have a great book and you’re happy. You’re home on a Saturday night and you’re knitting crochet, I don’t care what you’re doing, but you’re not drinking, you’re not overeating to numb your emotions, you’re not using pot to numb your emotions on the weekend when you’re alone. You can actually be alone and be happy.
That’s the number one key for people that are looking for relationships. And what we say to everyone that comes to me for relationship help is that our first goal is going to be to get you happy. Once you’re really content and happy with yourself, well guess what? The odds are, you’re going to attract other people that are content and happy with themselves as well. But if you attract people that are unhappy, they’re going to stick out like a sore thumb, because you’re so satisfied with yourself it isn’t going to be worth your time. You’ll walk away shortly.
So the number one goal before you even think about dating is saying, am I happy alone? Really happy alone? If the answer is yes, go find the great partner.
Scrappy:
That feeds into another word, co-dependency.
David Essel:
Oh, co-dependency. Scrappy, one of my favorite words in the world when it comes to, as a matter of fact, I just got done with a session with an 86 year old woman working on co-dependency. She is 86 and she says, David, I read your book on co-dependency, I am a full co-dependent, will you help me? Just had a session with her this morning. So co-dependency we labeled actually, Scrappy, in 2002, as the largest addiction in the world, and it still is today. Co-dependency is the person that’s afraid to rock the boat. They’re afraid to upset anyone. They’re afraid that their opinion may frustrate their partner, so they never give their opinion. That’s one side of co-dependency.
Another side of co-dependency is the person that always has to be right. They’re so co-dependent on being right, that even if all the facts in the world are placed in front of them that they’re incorrect, they’re going to fight to be right because they’re co-dependent on having to have the last word. They’re co-dependent on having to be correct. So this whole co-dependency goes in all these different directions. But we say this in an intimate relationship, the only way to shatter co-dependency in an intimate relationship is for both partners to agree. And this is going to sound so simple, but it’s so hard to be 110% honest with each other, always.
And Scrappy, that’s not an easy thing to do. There are many times in intimate relationships where we have to say to our partner, I’m very unhappy with the way that this is being handled. I’m very unhappy with our communication, or lack of. I’m really unhappy that you’ve shut down again. Or I’m really unhappy that you went out drinking again after we were trying to have a conversation. We’ve got to be honest with our partner. And it’s those thoughts and feelings, Scrappy, that we are not sharing, but that are eating us inside with our partner that destroys relationships in the long run, if not the short run.
Now, being honest and being a hundred percent filled with integrity with your partner is not easy and that doesn’t always mean they’re going to like you. This is crucial. The co-dependent says, no, I could never talk with my husband or wife about that because they may be upset with me. Pure co-dependency. The independent person says, my partner might be really upset with me, but we’ve got to find a way to work through this. That’s different.
Scrappy:
We’re playing Word association with my man, David Essel. And don’t forget, we’re sponsored by Content With Teeth, a creative ad agency with over 20 years of experience right here in Southwest Florida. As you can see from this fathead, we’re doing it really big, specializing in copywriting and video production. If you want to participate with us as a sponsor or guest, hit me up @heyscrappy IG, or text Mike at 21000.
David, you mentioned an 86 year old woman, and I really care about the elderly to a large degree. In many respects, they don’t have a purpose. I don’t want to get in a big question, this is word association. Let’s just say purpose.
David Essel:
Okay. Well, purpose can be volunteering. Purpose can be going into the children’s hospital and being an aid there. I think it’s crucial to have purpose. Let’s talk about addiction. Since COVID happened, the first or second year of the pandemic, we had a thousand percent increase in online alcohol sales. We know that the elderly are falling victim to alcohol left and right. The two largest groups that are struggling with alcoholism, well, it’s always been college-aged students, and that still is true. And the second group that’s struggling the most with alcoholism is our seniors, because they’re bored, because they have no purpose, as you said, because they have nothing to take their time. And so we encourage every senior out there. I’ve met several seniors that are bagging groceries in grocery stores to give them a purpose, to give them something to do. They may need the money or they may not, but they’re always in a great mood at the place I go to, and we’re talking in their eighties.
So I think having purpose is crucial. I am not a fan of retirement. I’m really not.
Scrappy:
How about people stuck in their career, you know, mid range?
David Essel:
Yeah, there’s a lot right now. There’s a lot of fear in the world of career changes, because people don’t know what’s going up next. What type of a vaccine are we going to be talking about, or a virus that we’re going to talk about next? So many companies have cut back dramatically. There’s one client that worked in Atlanta, he was a very high ranking Vice President. I think they had about a thousand people in the building. And after a year of COVID, they decided to send everyone home. Now everyone works out of their home, no one works in the building anymore. Massive changes.
Now, for people who are adaptable to that kind of change, perfect. But for those people who are extreme extroverts who really do need human interaction much more than maybe you or I do, Scrappy, they would have to change careers. They would have to look at it and say, working out of home is terrible for me. I need structure. I need more organization. I need more people interaction. So get to know yourself. Its kind of like the theme we’re talking about today. Get to know yourself and then ask yourself this question. What’s the next best move for me personally?
And that’s not a selfish question, that’s just a realistic question. I’m stuck in a job I hate. What’s the next best move for me? Is it starting to redo my resume? Is it talking to my partner and saying, Hey, listen, I’m really unhappy here, are you willing to up and move if I can find something? But don’t get stuck in a situation that you’re extremely unhappy. Scrappy, life goes so fast. I’m 66, I never even knew I could get to 66 this fast.
Scrappy:
You look 56.
David Essel:
Thank you, brother. I swear I skipped 30 years somewhere, because I don’t know how this all happened. But when I say that, I have to realize my own mortality I have to realize to take advantage of every day. And I don’t mean that just from a success and money and all that kind of crap, I just mean from being happy, like being of service and making a difference and lifting other people which lifts us. I really think the purpose of life is all about that. So I want everyone to wake up to the reality that if you’re in a position that absolutely sucks and you see no way to heal it, then start to look for the alternative of moving on. And you may end up opening doorways that’ll blow your mind with the new people you’ll meet and the new experiences. And don’t be afraid of taking an entry level position or a lateral move. If it brings you joy and peace, my God, it’s not an entry position and it’s not a lateral move if it brings you joy and peace.
Scrappy:
Yeah, but one of the problems is, is there are people with three jobs or 50 hours a week and they have kids to feed and rent to pay, they feel stuck on a whole nother level. And I understand what you’re saying, find some peace and happiness and so forth, but it’s really difficult.
David Essel:
Oh, it is. And Scrappy, I know of several families, just like what you’re talking about. And one of the things we say with them is that there are times in life you cannot change your circumstances. There are times in life you have to keep that job to keep food on the table. There’s times in life you have to do it, but this is the time too, to find a special space for your own mental healing. Is it playing guitar 30 minutes a day, that gets your brain relaxed? Is it listening to classical music 20 minutes before going to bed?
So if you’re stuck in a position where you honestly know there’s no option for the next 12 months, or 24 months, find some special space for you. You still need that self care. You still need that self love. You know, I’ve never played guitar well. I took lessons a long time ago. I still have two guitars and I’m procrastinating like crazy on this, Scrappy, because even though I play terribly, when I have a guitar in my hand, I’m smiling.
Scrappy:
That’s nice.
David Essel:
I’m always smiling. And that tells me that I need to put more time into that.
Scrappy:
You’re feeding your subconscious.
David Essel:
So as you and I are talking, I’m even exposing that David Essel isn’t perfect, and I’ve got some new things I can do as well.
Scrappy:
David, you’ve given us so much great advice, so much knowledge and so forth. But what’s your problem? What are you dealing with?
David Essel:
Well, I just listed one. I’ve been procrastinating and I’m playing guitar for years now, getting back into lessons. I would say that, honestly Scrappy, the way that I feel, even though I don’t play well at all, the way I feel when I just take the guitar out of the case, tells me that it’s what I should be doing. And the other thing, it’s really easy. Even though I’ve been doing this work for 43 years, it’s really easy to fall into workaholism and then come out of it. And then you put all your time into your career and then you come out. And it can be exhausting. And the other thing I have to keep my eye on along with starting to play guitar, is that I’ve really got to keep watching how much I’m putting into work.
We’re in the middle of moving right now. I think this weekend we’re moving. We’re going to stay in the general area here. But I have found with my partner, and we were talking the other night, that after the move, I’ve really got to start to take some downtime. We’ve been pushing super hard. During the pandemic we’ve created four really powerful programs to help this country heal. We’ve put a ton of effort and time and money out there to try to make things available.
As a matter of fact, one of our programs, the most popular one that we created, is called Helping Americans Heal. It’s a free online program and it has gone wild. The number of people that are signing up, it costs nothing and every week you get an email with information on how to boost yourself during these times. Well, we do all that, but then I forget that I have to take care of myself and I have to boost myself, because no one can do it for us, Scrappy. My partner can’t take care of my self care, you can’t take care of my self care, I can’t pay a personal trainer to take care of my self care. So that’s the second thing I have to always be working at. And right now we see that I’ve hit that level of workaholism again. So after the 19th of August, we’re taking a stretch of time so I can chill and then be ready after the 1st of September to kick it again.
Scrappy:
Very cool, very cool. You’re certainly an entrepreneur. Do you have a big team?
David Essel:
That’s a great question, Scrappy. Before the pandemic we had 12 people on our staff. And then during the pandemic, most of it was because of, we just didn’t have the work for people to do. But we’ve got it down now to about four people. So we went from 12 to four. No, we don’t have a big staff, but we have really excellent people with incredible attitudes, Scrappy, and I am blessed to have these four rock stars on my team.
Scrappy:
The number one thing you can give to people in terms of advice, in just a sentence or a couple of words, a phrase, I’m guessing it’s inner mojo. What do you think it is?
David Essel:
I believe without any doubt at all, we need to be able to look in the mirror and come to a level of acceptance with who we are right now today, Scrappy, not wishing our body was different, not wishing our money was different, not wishing our partner was different. We need to come to acceptance, because when we get to acceptance and we can really learn to like ourselves right now today, without anything changes, we have now taken control of our life.
If we can be happy now with the pandemic, with the limitations maybe of finances, if we can find a way, and listen, we know there are people all over the world that are living in squalor, and they’re happy. We see the videos from other countries of kids with huge smiles that have nothing. We hear stories of like Giannis, the basketball star from Milwaukee Bucks, who grew up in Greece with nothing. They have a story on him and his brother’s lives right now. And they found happiness with no basketball shoes, playing basketball, for God’s sake. So I think we really need to find that self-acceptance and find a way to be happy today, even if life isn’t perfect. If we can reach that level, Scrappy, we have got life right there.
Scrappy:
Awesome, awesome. 50 years from now, I’m going to eulogize you. You’re going to give me a couple of index cards to help me out. What are they going to say?
David Essel:
He tried his best every day. He tried to love the homeless as much as his partner. He looked at life from a different perspective, was an incredibly independent human being, but his whole purpose on earth was to help others heal.
Scrappy:
You’ve already written that index card.
David Essel:
Scrappy, I’ve been doing this so long. I’ve known my purpose forever. That’s a fortunate thing. But I’ll say even knowing my purpose, you mentioned it earlier, for 30 years, I struggled with alcohol and cocaine. I had a failed suicide attempt in 1990. Life has not been roses and puppy dog tales the whole time. But the one thing that I can say that’s never changed is my purpose and my passion for the work I do. It doesn’t matter how many personal struggles I’ve gone through, losing my mom and dad in the last year and a half, one of the most horrendous things that anyone could ever go through. But through it all, I feel blessed that I have been in a position of helping others. And I think that’s the reason I’m here, and the reason I have a smile right now with you.
Scrappy:
You always have a smile as far as I’m concerned, it’s awesome. You’re uplifting me, David, right now in this moment.
David Essel:
Scrappy, I love it. And the other times we’ve had the interview, it’s been the same thing. Our energy is awesomely matched. You’re over the top just like I am, and I think it’s great, my brother.
Scrappy:
Awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So we really appreciate you and we thank you for your time. One last question. Why Fort Myers? We’re a Southwest Florida Podcast, we celebrate Fort Myers. Why are you here? I mean, you could be anywhere, David.
David Essel:
Yeah, I could be anywhere. But the reason I’m here is that I’m a really laid back dude. And believe it or not, even though all my work is extroverted work, I’m an extreme introvert, Scrappy. My partner, Mia, and I, we have a very simple life. We live an amazingly simple life, there’s not much we need to be happy. And I’m not a city person. We were in Miami about eight weeks ago, and after two days I said, baby, I got to get out of here. And she lived in Miami for 10, 15 years and she loves it there, but it’s too much for me. Cities are too busy, too much traffic. I love Fort Myers area, Naples, Sarasota. I love this whole coast so much. And while we may move somewhere else in the future, it’ll probably be a very similar kind of laid back, a little area like this, Scrappy. I just love it here.
Scrappy:
I’m the same way. I’m from New York City and I live in Lehigh Acres on an acre, and I love every minute of it. My dog doesn’t have a leash.
David Essel:
Isn’t that awesome. That’s the way to have a dog.
Scrappy:
Oh man. Oh, absolutely. It’s a spiritual experience, man. And I really appreciate this moment. I adhere to Buddhism and I try to accept the fact this moment in time is what we have. David, thank you so much, we appreciate you. Content With Agency is sponsoring this. If you want to join us on a show, you can so by going to my IG, heyscrappy. Or just go to 21,000 and text Mike. Nothing but love for you, David.
David Essel:
Scrappy, nothing but love for you. And I’m so glad Content With Teeth is supporting the heck out of you, and all of your positive messages. Keep going strong, brother. And whatever you need me, I’m here for you.
Scrappy:
Thank you. But you know what I forgot? Go ahead and plug all your businesses real quick.
David Essel:
Oh my gosh. Hey, if people want to work with me one-on-one, addiction recovery, saving relationships, improving attitude, weight loss, we cover it all. Just go to talkdavid.com. If you want to join the free program, Helping Americans Heal, every week, you’re going to get content to lift your spirits. Talkdavid.com. I’m a speaker. If you’re a business and you want to bring in a speaker, talkdavid. So the only thing you got to remember is talkdavid.com.
Scrappy:
All right. Thanks again, buddy, I really appreciate your time.
What up, what up, what up? I’m Scrappy. Welcome to The Come Up, a video podcast featuring Southwest Florida entrepreneurs, business leaders. We’re sponsored by Content With Teeth, a creative content agency with over 20 years of experience right here in southwest Florida. And as you can see with this fathead, they do it big, really big specializing in copywriting, video production. They got content, that’s for sure. And if you’d like to sponsor, come up, or be a guest, hit me up @heyscrappynig or text Mike at 21,000. Today’s guest is Jason Teeters. He’s a fascinating dude. He’s a nurturing lead at Collaboratory, a non-profit organization where he helps people overcome emotional, psychological, and technical problems in collaboration. He’s also owner of JetSetState, where he is a lifestyle designer for creative entrepreneurs. Welcome, Jason.
Jason Teeters:
Wow. Thank you so much, Scrappy. So happy to be in this space with you, my friend. So happy to be a part of this conversation today.
Scrappy:
Yeah, I’ve seen a couple of your videos. You’re an outgoing dude.
Jason Teeters:
My blood type is B positive. I was once told.
Scrappy:
Well, definitely positive, that’s for sure. Collaboratory, and then you have the JetSetState is kind of like two different worlds of technical, psychological communication, emotional consultation, if you will. Can you break it on down for us?
Jason Teeters:
Yeah, yeah. It’s really simple. Now, it’s probably been almost close to 19 years ago, I started, JetSetState, was really focused on creative entrepreneurs. My wife is a wedding planner, and so I found myself in a lot of spaces with content creators, photographers, videographers, hair, makeup, and a lot of them really had this… Most entrepreneurs were able to create something out of nothing almost, right? They had this passion and people wanted to pay them for it. And oftentimes for creative entrepreneurs, they shy away from the business side. And so for my background, one of the things that I started to recognize is, how can I support creative entrepreneurs to keep turning their side hustle into their main hustle, allowing them to keep moving in this space and create a life for them. And so that really got me in this space of helping design a organization or a business that works for them, which along the way really got me involved in helping larger organizations and communities figure out, how do you design a system that allows you to compete or to participate at all levels?
Scrappy:
So, that’s a pretty cool niche. Creative entrepreneurs, helping them out. What’s been the biggest struggle other than financial for them?
Jason Teeters:
I think for a lot of creative entrepreneurs it’s really that motivation, right? ‘Cause oftentimes, it takes a lot to move forward and say you’re going to be a creative entrepreneur. But once you take that first step, you hope that it’s… You’re going to land in this really beautiful space where you’re traveling and you’re just getting business all the time. And I think you know it as well as anybody that often it doesn’t just happen that way. And so really helping take their big ideas and focus them so they can really design a life that works for them, whether it be the timing, whether it be the financial, and so they’re not overworked and overwhelmed, but really focus on moving forward. And so a lot of times clarity and motivation is the biggest piece that then allows for the rest of everything else the true business work to happen.
Scrappy:
Sure, sure, sure. So the creative disposition, what’s the baseline for them?
Jason Teeters:
That’s a really good question. I think oftentimes, we’ve been sold that most creative entrepreneurs are this hustle, 24/7, grind, grind, grind, and they’re just ready to take over the world. But one of the things that I find is they’re really big problem solvers. A lot of times the disposition’s that, “I don’t like the way this is working, I think I could do it better.” And in that process of doing it better, they start to find all these other constraints around either the industry or the environment or the clients or the product or service that really gets them off track. And so they start into problem solving and coming up with ideas. But you know and I know too many ideas makes it really difficult to actually progress anywhere.
Scrappy:
For sure. And you give tips all the time, every day, all day. What’s the best tip you ever gave?
Jason Teeters:
I think the best tip that I ever gave was to get out of your head and get in your heart.
Scrappy:
Interesting.
Jason Teeters:
And I think oftentimes we get so caught up in this perception of what we’re doing and how we’re doing and how we compare to other people, that we have to recognize that this is a long game. This is an infinite game. The idea of building a business, the idea of living life is 80, 90 for a lot of us. I don’t want to be a hundred years old still doing this work. And for me to do that, I think oftentimes I need to just quit getting that in my head and start focusing on and moving towards the things that matter to me, the things that I care about. Because all this stuff is going to be hard, at least find joy in it. Sure. Every step of the way.
Scrappy:
So you’re a big believer in intuition.
Jason Teeters:
Yeah. I am. I think that oftentimes we’ve been told that the only way to know things is between our ears. And I think for a lot of us, we’ve had opportunities and moments throughout our life where we’ve either felt something, intuitively known, had that gut feeling that we ignore because that’s obviously not correct. But oftentimes we find that it is. And I think the more we tap into that, the easier it will be for us to navigate a lot of these spaces.
Scrappy:
JetSetState, you’re an entrepreneur, you’re helping creative entrepreneurs doing that, but you’re also the nurturing lead at The Collaboratory. What the hell does that mean?
Jason Teeters:
Yeah. Collaboratory has this bold vision of bringing the community together to solve every social problem in Southwest Florida in the next 18 years. Every single one of them.
Scrappy:
What are the problems? What are the biggest problems?
Jason Teeters:
I mean, if we just talk about housing, we talk about education, we talk about workforce development. These are really clear. But one of the things that we recognize is that at Collaboratory, we’re not the solver of those problems, we’re the coordinator. And so our idea is, how do we bring people together from all aspects, from a right brain, left brain, from a creative industry to a structural financial industry. We all need us to be able to solve some of these really pressing problems. And my role is how do we bring people into a space to be able to have those conversations, to be able to not only listen, but be heard and operate in a way that we often say we move at the speed of trust. And so how can we start to build that together to be able to make change in our community?
Scrappy:
Are they buying into what you have to say?
Jason Teeters:
I think it’s interesting. I think it’s hard to believe that this is a new way to thin, oftentimes for so many of us, even for myself as an entrepreneur. “I’m going to be the best,” and, “Nobody’s ever going to be better than me.” And we move in that space that we often try to take on more than we really need to. Or we often compete in areas that we don’t need to be competing in. And so I think as a community, we’re having really good conversations about, “Why am I doing this many things when there’s other organizations that are doing this? Why don’t I focus on the thing that I care about and let them focus on the thing they care about?”
And being in a space where you start to hear individuals come together in ways to say, “Oh man, this is a real struggle for me. Oh, we love doing that.” You start to build these bridges that allow people to collaborate. And so long story short, this is 18 years, so we believe by 2040 we want to solve all these challenges. So we’re on the long road. And so we have individuals that have raised their hand. But I imagine along this route, we’re going to start picking up individuals along the way.
Scrappy:
So you have a little Elon Musk in you?
Jason Teeters:
Yeah, I try. I try.
Scrappy:
Okay. We’re talking with Jason Teeters, fascinating guy. Really enjoying this conversation. And we’re sponsored by Content With Teeth, a creative content agency with over 20 years of experience right here in Southwest Florida. As you can see, when we talk about the fat head behind me, they do it really big specializing in copywriting, video production. They got content. And if you want to sponsor, to come up, or be my guest, hit me up @heyscrappynig or text Mike at 21,000. Now Jason, why 18 years? It sounds kind of arbitrary.
Jason Teeters:
Well, I think for us, one of the things that we think about is, what does Southwest Florida look like in 2040? What does the school system look like? What does our water quality look like? What is our workforce development, our housing? It really helps us start to think about who are we speaking for and who are we speaking to, right? Because we know very well that a lot of the youth in this community in 18 years are going to be the parents, they’re going to be the CEOs, they’re going to be the entrepreneurs in this community. And the goal is, how do we carry forward a community that supports and works with everybody to create an environment that attracts the people to come down here, that helps businesses grow, that educates our youth and helps us build something sustainable.
Scrappy:
I think that’s awesome. You’re great facilitators. Is this going on in other communities throughout the United States?
Jason Teeters:
Well, as of right now, we are the first to try this. We call this, we often say, “Welcome to the greatest community problem solving initiative in American history,” because we want to make really clear that across the country, no foundation as of right now has really leaned into this idea of bringing the whole community together to try to solve some of their biggest social challenges.
Scrappy:
Interesting. Very interesting. Jason, I want to do something kind of fun. I want to do some big questions and they’re big questions, but I only want a few sentences for the answers. Okay?
Jason Teeters:
Sounds good. I’ll see what I can do.
Scrappy:
Okay. Dealing with talent, how do you collab with the diva?
Jason Teeters:
I think you let them speak and share their ideas, and then you support that.
Scrappy:
Okay. And raw talent, how do you nurture it?
Jason Teeters:
By letting it breathe.
Scrappy:
Okay. Building trust in a team.
Jason Teeters:
Authenticity.
Scrappy:
Okay. Creative entrepreneurs, not you, you’re an entrepreneur, but your clients. How do they pitch?
Jason Teeters:
They pitch around the outcome that they’re solving for.
Scrappy:
Okay. How do you tell somebody their project is wack? I know you’re not going to say that directly, but how do you break it on down?
Jason Teeters:
Is this what you really imagined for your organization?
Scrappy:
Okay. It’s of nebulous.
Jason Teeters:
Well, they’re always…
Scrappy:
Working away around it.
Jason Teeters:
Yeah. Yeah. They’re like, “Oh, we could do this and this.” And I’m like, “Well, you talked about this. Is that what you really,” “Oh well no, it’s this.” “Okay, well then maybe let’s get back over here.”
Scrappy:
Indirect approach.
Jason Teeters:
Yeah.
Scrappy:
What’s the worst advice you ever gave somebody?
Jason Teeters:
Oh, don’t worry. It’ll work out.
Scrappy:
Come on. I’m sure you gave some worst advice.
Jason Teeters:
Yeah, I think, man, probably my son when I told him, “Well, if they push you, push them back.”
Scrappy:
I think that’s good advice. I’m from New York City.
Jason Teeters:
I got called into the office for that. I got called into the office for that. Telling…
Scrappy:
Are you from Chicago or Indiana? ‘Cause I know you went to Ball State in Indiana, but are you from Chi-town?
Jason Teeters:
No, I’m from Indiana.
Scrappy:
Okay. Very cool. Very cool. And I think your degree is fascinating, industrial psychologist. Now, if one of your clients has a lot of anxiety, how do you talk them down?
Jason Teeters:
I think for me, I often try to figure out what is the fulcrum, what the thing that they’re trying to really solve for. Because oftentimes there’s a lot of things with anxiety, there’s a lot of things that are playing into that, what others think, how they think, what it looks like. But try to get really clear on what is the key thing that you’re trying to accomplish for this moment right now.
Scrappy:
Okay. My boss is a son of a b. I can’t stand him. He’s mean to me. How do I cope?
Jason Teeters:
That’s a challenging question to answer, but I think for me, one of the things that I would say is I always talk about this “me to we.” So what are you doing? Or what is the individual doing to take care of their own wellbeing so that they don’t get wrapped up in thinking that, “This company I work for is me, or this boss is me.” If I don’t have another outlet, then all of my energy goes into this organization or this business or this boss that feels like it’s the same as me. Instead of me recognizing that I have options, I have choices.
Scrappy:
That’s a great one. I appreciate that one for sure. So many of us are mired in multiple jobs, just getting by, just paying the bills, that’s about it. No discretionary income. We feel stuck. What do you tell them?
Jason Teeters:
I think often that feeling stuck is, for my own personal experience, I think the feeling of being stuck typically comes around aspirations for myself. And so oftentimes, it’s really getting back to this. Is that intuitive? Really getting back to what are the things that really move you and how are you doing those on a daily basis? If it’s meditation, if it’s yoga, if it’s reading, if it’s playing video games, whatever it is. Oftentimes when we’re stuck, it feels like the things that really bring us joy are missing from our day to day, which doesn’t allow us the opportunity to get out of our own head.
Scrappy:
I think that’s a fascinating answer, an intellectual answer. But if I’m working two jobs, just no, it’s just frustrating. It’s very frustrating to leverage your way out of that situation.
Jason Teeters:
It really is. And it is a vanilla answer, right? So much of our stuckness has to do with so much of our, has to do with so much of our history. ‘Cause it could be the stuckness around the work, it could be the stuckness around what I like to say, “organizational trauma.” You work in a company, you’re like, “Oh man, I’m just going to try to ride this out.” And then we stay in that space for far too long. And some of it is just a natural fear of breaking the mode. And I think that’s tough for a lot of people to figure out which one of those is making them feel that way, and which one of those do they want to work on first? ‘Cause you can’t do them all at the same time.
Scrappy:
Got you. Collaboratory, it’s a real challenge. You get a bunch of business leaders together, different races and ages and religions, personalities, opinions. How do you get them all on the same page?
Jason Teeters:
I think we focus on the things that we do have in common. I think all of us love living here in Southwest Florida. All of us want clean water, all of us know that every student in every high school across the region will eventually be working in our companies, our organizations, at our grocery stores, at our movie theaters, our gas stations. And so it’s really focusing first and foremost on the individuals that live here and how can we make their life better in some sort of way that allows to give them the agency to quit being stuck, start a business, be involved after school in an education program. And so we try to start with what we have in common.
Scrappy:
Okay. I think that’s awesome. That’s an awesome answer. I really appreciate that. I think too, that in business sometimes, there’s different agendas that are really hard to arbitrate, but for sure, I totally agree with that. How about haters, back stabbers, and gossip queens? How do you deal with them?
Jason Teeters:
It’s so interesting. If you go to the website Collaboratory and you look up nurturing department, that’s what it says right at the beginning, right?
Scrappy:
Okay. Okay.
Jason Teeters:
And that’s where that idea of moving at the speed of trust, because oftentimes you and I both know that to develop a relationship takes time. And we always say, “I don’t want you to leave your ego at the door. I want it in the room because [inaudible 00:18:13] flipped experience can shed light on a way that I’ve never been thinking because I’m only in my silo.” And so creating space for that to happen with respect and with care that isn’t focused around individual or a single topic, but it’s really focused around the betterment of what we’re all collectively coming together for.
Scrappy:
Okay. I’m a big fan of the Buddhist philosophy, living in the moment. How do you get people there?
Jason Teeters:
Scrap, I think that’s one of the challenges, and I think even for myself. And I would often say it feels like something that you would be better at answering oftentimes, because I think when people hear you and they listen to you, they’re like, “Man, Scrappy’s got it all figured out. He’s just himself.” I think for a lot of people, we box ourself up during the week and we have our representatives show up at places we go to. And so really getting people just to be themselves in the messiness and the history of goofiness of all of us, sometimes that’s what’s needed in a space and that takes time for people to just sort of allow that to come out. Because like I said, oftentimes with Instagrams, and Facebooks, and social media, I’m giving you the best that I have to offer. Not knowing that it took probably 30 minutes to take this one shot because the music and the video and all these.
Scrappy:
Absolutely.
Jason Teeters:
Which is why they need Content With Teeth, so they don’t have to worry about that and they can just be themselves.
Scrappy:
Jason, you’re awesome, man. I appreciate your energy and I think that you’re… I’m sure you’re doing big things with JetSetState as an entrepreneur with creative entrepreneurs, and also with Collaboratory as a nurturing lead. We’re brought to you by Content With Teeth doing really big things, content agency. If you want to be part of it, hit up Mike, 21,000 texts or me @igheyscrappy. Jason, awesome man. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time, bro.
Jason Teeters:
Thank you so much. It’s such a pleasure to be a part of this, such a pleasure to be able to see you and connect with you again after so long. And I love what you’re doing because this needs to be out there for individuals that are going through that process to know it’s okay to stumble and you have somebody to lean on to learn from and to hear sources of information.
Scrappy:
You want to bust out your socials, maybe get a client out of this.
Jason Teeters:
Yeah, I love it. So you can follow me ig@JetSetStateSetState, Instagram, uh, Teeters Jason is my personal, and then JetSetStatesetstate.com. And then if you’re in the community trying to really make change happen, follow collaboratory.org. You could jump on there and see what we’re doing in the community and be a part of helping us solve some of the largest social challenges in our community in the next 18 years.
Scrappy:
My man, Jason Teeters, thanks for your time, man. I really, really appreciate it and I learned a few things and I… That’s awesome. Really awesome.
If you’re a man, are you feeling the perm with a curly mullet?
If you’re a Lady Who Lunches after tennis at the club, do you need a Florida hair stylist whose studio culture is edgy but classy like Vogue?
You need the SWFL Hair Edgelord.
You need Christina Amandis who is Scrappy’s guest in Episode 11 of The Come Up, Content with Teeth’s video podcast profiling dynamic entrepreneurs in Southwest Florida and beyond.
Christina owns Hello Beautiful Hair studio in Bonita Springs and brings a funky, zen vibe to the hair experience.
The Come Up Episode 11 Highlights
Scrappy Goes Rasta: Christina delivers the hilarious verdict on whether Scrappy having dreadlock hair extensions is advisable.
Studio 55: She might not be in The Big Apple but Christina details her journey in opening her own studio after 16 years of experience in the hair game.
Hair Salon vs. Studio: The terms are not interchangeable. Learn why studios are for entrepreneurs and salons are for employees.
Claws: It might be September but words can’t describe Christina’s vibrant summer nails. Watch to see her reveal true nail flair!
Catch other key insights in Episode 11 of The Come Up like Christina’s edgy strategy in keeping golf and country club ladies formidable in the style game.
About Christina Amandis & Content with Teeth
For UnBoring Content like The Come Up, contact Content with Teeth HERE. Find out more about Christina and her Hello Beautiful Hair studio HERE.
The Come Up Episode 11 Video Transcript
Scrappy:
What up? Welcome to The Come Up. It’s a video podcast featuring entrepreneurs doing really big things on their own, right here in Southwest Florida. I’m Scrappy. We’re sponsored by Content with Teeth. It’s a content marketing agency that generates leads, conversions, and brand awareness. Now, today it’s pretty cool. We are going to spotlight Christina Amandis of Hello, Beautiful Hair, established hair studio and Bonita Beach. Christina, we’ve known each other for a while and I’m kind of concerned. My hair’s getting shorter and shorter and shorter. Can you help me out? I want dreadlock extensions.
Christina Amandis:
Well, we got to get you scheduled, Scrap.
Scrappy:
Can you do extensions in dreadlocks for me?
Christina Amandis:
Absolutely. Whatever you want.
Scrappy:
All right. As a studio owner, please differentiate for us, what’s studio versus salon?
Christina Amandis:
Studio is where you’re independent, you are your own boss. So with the salon setting, you have a team usually, your receptionist and other stylists that you work around. In a studio setting, you are by yourself, you do everything on your own.
Scrappy:
How long have you been doing it?
Christina Amandis:
I’ve been in hair for 16 years, but I just got into my own studio this past month.
Scrappy:
So you’ve been part of a salon and now you’re saying “I’m want to be an entrepreneur?”
Christina Amandis:
Correct.
Scrappy:
How scary is that?
Christina Amandis:
It was a big leap. It was a really big leap, but long overdue. Like I said, I’ve been in the industry for 16 years and I was comfortable where I was at in the salon setting, but I was ready for a change.
Scrappy:
You must have had a lot of regulars. Did you steal them all and take them to your studio?
Christina Amandis:
I sure did.
Scrappy:
Are you still friends with the salon?
Christina Amandis:
I have some insiders on the salon.
Scrappy:
Got you. So these people that have been with you for such a long period of time, they must be thrilled for you.
Christina Amandis:
Oh, absolutely. Everybody loves the change and they pretty much have said, “What took you so long? Why did you wait so long to make this move?” But I think I’m a firm believer that timing is everything.
Scrappy:
What’s the toughest thing about making a leap like this?
Christina Amandis:
Oh, doing everything on your own. I was a little spoiled at the old salon with having employees that pretty much do all my dirt work. They do my shampooing, they handle all of my checkouts, they handle my phone calls and my appointments. I am my own team right now. So it is definitely a big change for me.
Scrappy:
From marketing perspective, I think it’s all about personification. I mean, you are a walking, talking billboard for your business. How do you market yourself?
Christina Amandis:
Social media. Social media is key, that is definitely where the world’s at right now. So definitely letting everybody in this world know where I’m at, what I’m doing, what I’m capable of, and just keeping that ball rolling.
Scrappy:
Magazines. I don’t know if it’s uncool from a guy perspective, but I actually brought in a picture of a dude from a magazine to get my haircut. Does that happen often to you?
Christina Amandis:
Yes. As a stylist, pictures are worth a thousand words because that gives us a better understanding of what they’re looking for and if it’s doable.
Scrappy:
Culture-wise, I look at your studio looks really funky and cool and hip in the background. Can you describe the culture of your studio?
Christina Amandis:
Wow.
Scrappy:
Zen, funky.
Christina Amandis:
Yeah.
Scrappy:
Cool, fun.
Christina Amandis:
Edgy, but a little bit of class, a little bit of a little bit of pop. Just have fun, but be clean and classy at the same time.
Scrappy:
Kind of Vogue.
Christina Amandis:
Yeah.
Scrappy:
I see your nails. Can you share with us your nails? Very cool.
Christina Amandis:
It’s summertime.
Scrappy:
What’s the biggest hair trend that we need to be thinking about?
Christina Amandis:
Oh my goodness.
Scrappy:
Men and women.
Christina Amandis:
Back to social media, all these animal haircuts. We went through the wolf cut. Now we’re doing, there’s another kind of animal cut. And I don’t understand it, I mean, they’re at home haircuts, but I end up fixing a lot of them where they just put the hair up on their head in a ponytail and they chop it off and it’s just not cute. I can’t wait for this part to get out. Men right now we’re doing the perms with the curly mullets.
Scrappy:
I’m not really feeling that.
Christina Amandis:
No, me either.
Scrappy:
Maybe it’s maybe it’s my age, but my nephew has it, all the basketball players have it, but it looks gnarly to me.
Christina Amandis:
It is. It’s definitely not my favorite. I can’t wait for that trend to go away.
Scrappy:
Yeah. It’s not fresh and fresh and crisp and clean.
Christina Amandis:
No, not at all. And some can’t pull it off. So it’s hard. It’s just like, “Eh.”
Scrappy:
Absolutely.
Christina Amandis:
“Can we pick something else?”
Scrappy:
Well, you’re very trend setting yourself. Do you have any recommendations on where things are going?
Christina Amandis:
It’s a constant revolving door. It’s hard to say. Right now, highlights, the chunky zebra highlights, are starting to come back in and it’s just like, “Oh, why? Please, no.” It almost looks like a zebra. So that’s the trend coming this summer. So I’m holding on.
Scrappy:
But as a studio owner, what else is very important?
Christina Amandis:
Staying on top of your business, you have to be prompt, you have to be responsive. You have to be on your A game, one little step to the right and you could lose it. So you definitely have to stay focused, stay involved with your clients. I had a client last week that went in for knee surgery. I took the time out of my day to follow up with her just to make sure her procedure went well.
Scrappy:
Good for you. That’s awesome.
Christina Amandis:
Yeah. Staying in contact, staying on top of everything and following up is definitely-
Scrappy:
It’s a relationship business.
Christina Amandis:
Absolutely.
Scrappy:
When Mindy had a child, I brought her a toy elephant and I’m the client. So it’s definitely about getting together. But Christina, there’s a lot of salons out there, a lot, and not everybody’s making a lot of cake and a lot of money. How do you stay on top of your clientele? Not just from a customer service standpoint, but growing it from social media standpoint and sustaining it longterm?
Christina Amandis:
Again, that connection, creating those relationships with your clients. And I care, it’s not just I do this because it’s great money, it’s I care about my clients. You form these relationships where you know about their grandkids, you know about their house up north that they go to seasonally. It’s that connection that keeps that going. Then that connection creates more connections with their friends. And they’re like, “Oh, you have to go see Christina. She’s awesome.” It just keeps trickling that way.
Scrappy:
Interesting,. From a target demographic standpoint, who are you trying to attract?
Christina Amandis:
Well, my demographics right now are more of those golf and country club ladies.
Scrappy:
Okay.
Christina Amandis:
Those are my bread and butter. They are die hard. They will kill somebody to get their hair appointments. So they are my demographics. I am in the center of Bonita Springs. So I’m surrounded by all these country clubs and all it takes is one member of that country club to find me. And then it’s just-
Scrappy:
Awesome.
Christina Amandis:
It spreads like wildfire.
Scrappy:
It’s polarized because you’re this really cool, hip chick and you’re cutting senior citizen’s hair. They probably get a big kick out of you, right?
Christina Amandis:
Oh, they love it. They look forward to coming in. Every time, every visit, I have a different look or a different hairstyle and they just love it. It’s fun for them and I think it makes them feel a little bit more younger and hip because they go to somebody that’s a little bit more on the edgier side.
Scrappy:
Sure.
Christina Amandis:
That can give them that little pizazz to their hair. It makes them feel a little [inaudible 00:08:06].
Scrappy:
Well, that’s my next question. This pizazz, but do you push their limits? Do you push them to be more progressive?
Christina Amandis:
Absolutely.
Scrappy:
Okay. Give us an example. That’s very interesting to me.
Christina Amandis:
Yes. Because hair should be fun. Hair is a staple. Hair is, it’s who you are. It’s what everybody sees first, I feel like. So giving them that little edge or that little funk to make them feel young and hip is a big deal for them.
Scrappy:
How about color? Do you tell them to get really funky that way as well?
Christina Amandis:
I try to push a little bit of the color, but a lot of them I can get the cuts in and give them a little bit of an edge, but as far as color is concerned, that’s a different story. They like their blondes and their browns. And as they get a little older, the dark, harsher colors need to go away and bring in some lighter tones to complement them. So as far as color is concerned, I try to keep it edgy, but the haircut’s where that comes in.
Scrappy:
Southwest Florida is our focus here with this podcast. Do you see anything different between Southwest Florida haircuts and the rest of the nation?
Christina Amandis:
Absolutely.
Scrappy:
Dish. Tell us.
Christina Amandis:
Southwest Florida, we’re definitely a little bit more reserved in this area. You don’t find the funky fashion colors as much as you would going down to the other coast or up into the city. We’re a lot more reserved here. So walking that fine line of having that fresh, edgy, but not too crazy to make people feel like they’re not in the right-
Scrappy:
Sure.
Christina Amandis:
… Comfort zone, I guess.
Scrappy:
This podcast is featuring Christina Amandis, superstar hairstylist with a studio. Go ahead and make your pitch to everybody. Why they should visit you? Hey, come on, bring it.
Christina Amandis:
Oh my God, you just made me sweat.
Scrappy:
Why you?
Christina Amandis:
Why you? Why me? I’m always open for a new adventure. I love change, I love taking care of my clients, they become family to me. So I definitely love growing my family in the hair world and making everyone in Southwest Florida feel beautiful in their skin with their beautiful hair.
Scrappy:
And your hair is so unique. I’m sure you’re capable of giving unique haircuts, as well.
Christina Amandis:
Absolutely.
Scrappy:
Awesome. Advice to other entrepreneurs? You’re budding entrepreneur, you haven’t been in the game too long as an entrepreneur, but what advice would you give others? Especially those starting a studio?
Christina Amandis:
Grind, grind, grind. You cannot sleep on running your own business. You have to stay on top of everything. Just when you think that you have a break, you got something else that you could be working on, whether if it’s following up with clients you haven’t seen in a few months or just reaching out and letting them know that you’re here for them whenever they need something. You just have to stay on it.
Scrappy:
Finally, Christina, what advice would you give to your 12 year old self?
Christina Amandis:
Oh, knowing what I know now, keep pushing, don’t give up. Sky’s the limit. There’s [inaudible 00:11:38]-
Scrappy:
That’s that’s too generic. That’s way too generic. Okay? 12 year old self. I’m not talking about the salon or the studio or hair cutting or hair styling or coloring or perm. I’m talking about you, Christina.
Christina Amandis:
Me? Oh boy, me, 12 years old. What would I tell myself? You got me, you’re getting me these hard questions, Scrap.
Scrappy:
Any advice that you’d impart based on what you’ve learned over the years?
Christina Amandis:
I’m stronger than what I thought I am. I definitely found myself second guessing myself as I was growing and maturing and just would, “Oh, should I?” And it’s always about taking that leap and just going for it and just doing it.
Scrappy:
Sure.
Christina Amandis:
Life is too short to hold back and there’s so much out there to do and explore. And I’ve definitely learned that, not to hold back, just to do it.
Scrappy:
Nice.
Christina Amandis:
Why be scared?
Scrappy:
Very nice. You have a lot of social handles. You want to give them out to everybody so we can find you?
Hello, Beautiful Hair. An awesome studio, it’s on the corner of 41 and Bonita Beach Road, right?
Christina Amandis:
Yes. [inaudible 00:13:07]
Scrappy:
Which side, how can we find it?
Christina Amandis:
It’s right on the corner of where Komoon is and Crunch Gym.
Scrappy:
Okay.
Christina Amandis:
So I’m right in between. Yep.
Scrappy:
Very cool. Well, it’s awesome to have you here, Christina. You’re doing really cool things. You’re serving a lot of wonderful people. I’m not going to say you’re doing God’s work, but it’s really important for a lot of people.
Christina Amandis:
Yes, absolutely.
Scrappy:
We’re sponsored by Content with Teeth, a great marketing agency. If you want to be our next guest, you can text Mike at 21000 or myself on Instagram at @HeyScrappy. Once again, Hello, Beautiful Hair. Christina Amandis. Thank you so much. We really appreciate you.
Christina Amandis:
Thank you. Thank you, Scrap.
Scrappy:
What up? Welcome to The Come Up. It’s a video podcast featuring entrepreneurs doing really big things on their own, right here in Southwest Florida. I’m Scrappy. We’re sponsored by Content with Teeth. It’s a content marketing agency that generates leads, conversions, and brand awareness. Now, today it’s pretty cool. We are going to spotlight Christina Amandis of Hello, Beautiful Hair, established hair studio and Bonita Beach. Christina, we’ve known each other for a while and I’m kind of concerned. My hair’s getting shorter and shorter and shorter. Can you help me out? I want dreadlock extensions.
Christina Amandis:
Well, we got to get you scheduled, Scrap.
Scrappy:
Can you do extensions in dreadlocks for me?
Christina Amandis:
Absolutely. Whatever you want.
Scrappy:
All right. As a studio owner, please differentiate for us, what’s studio versus salon?
Christina Amandis:
Studio is where you’re independent, you are your own boss. So with the salon setting, you have a team usually, your receptionist and other stylists that you work around. In a studio setting, you are by yourself, you do everything on your own.
Scrappy:
How long have you been doing it?
Christina Amandis:
I’ve been in hair for 16 years, but I just got into my own studio this past month.
Scrappy:
So you’ve been part of a salon and now you’re saying “I’m want to be an entrepreneur?”
Christina Amandis:
Correct.
Scrappy:
How scary is that?
Christina Amandis:
It was a big leap. It was a really big leap, but long overdue. Like I said, I’ve been in the industry for 16 years and I was comfortable where I was at in the salon setting, but I was ready for a change.
Scrappy:
You must have had a lot of regulars. Did you steal them all and take them to your studio?
Christina Amandis:
I sure did.
Scrappy:
Are you still friends with the salon?
Christina Amandis:
I have some insiders on the salon.
Scrappy:
Got you. So these people that have been with you for such a long period of time, they must be thrilled for you.
Christina Amandis:
Oh, absolutely. Everybody loves the change and they pretty much have said, “What took you so long? Why did you wait so long to make this move?” But I think I’m a firm believer that timing is everything.
Scrappy:
What’s the toughest thing about making a leap like this?
Christina Amandis:
Oh, doing everything on your own. I was a little spoiled at the old salon with having employees that pretty much do all my dirt work. They do my shampooing, they handle all of my checkouts, they handle my phone calls and my appointments. I am my own team right now. So it is definitely a big change for me.
Scrappy:
From marketing perspective, I think it’s all about personification. I mean, you are a walking, talking billboard for your business. How do you market yourself?
Christina Amandis:
Social media. Social media is key, that is definitely where the world’s at right now. So definitely letting everybody in this world know where I’m at, what I’m doing, what I’m capable of, and just keeping that ball rolling.
Scrappy:
Magazines. I don’t know if it’s uncool from a guy perspective, but I actually brought in a picture of a dude from a magazine to get my haircut. Does that happen often to you?
Christina Amandis:
Yes. As a stylist, pictures are worth a thousand words because that gives us a better understanding of what they’re looking for and if it’s doable.
Scrappy:
Culture-wise, I look at your studio looks really funky and cool and hip in the background. Can you describe the culture of your studio?
Christina Amandis:
Wow.
Scrappy:
Zen, funky.
Christina Amandis:
Yeah.
Scrappy:
Cool, fun.
Christina Amandis:
Edgy, but a little bit of class, a little bit of a little bit of pop. Just have fun, but be clean and classy at the same time.
Scrappy:
Kind of Vogue.
Christina Amandis:
Yeah.
Scrappy:
I see your nails. Can you share with us your nails? Very cool.
Christina Amandis:
It’s summertime.
Scrappy:
What’s the biggest hair trend that we need to be thinking about?
Christina Amandis:
Oh my goodness.
Scrappy:
Men and women.
Christina Amandis:
Back to social media, all these animal haircuts. We went through the wolf cut. Now we’re doing, there’s another kind of animal cut. And I don’t understand it, I mean, they’re at home haircuts, but I end up fixing a lot of them where they just put the hair up on their head in a ponytail and they chop it off and it’s just not cute. I can’t wait for this part to get out. Men right now we’re doing the perms with the curly mullets.
Scrappy:
I’m not really feeling that.
Christina Amandis:
No, me either.
Scrappy:
Maybe it’s maybe it’s my age, but my nephew has it, all the basketball players have it, but it looks gnarly to me.
Christina Amandis:
It is. It’s definitely not my favorite. I can’t wait for that trend to go away.
Scrappy:
Yeah. It’s not fresh and fresh and crisp and clean.
Christina Amandis:
No, not at all. And some can’t pull it off. So it’s hard. It’s just like, “Eh.”
Scrappy:
Absolutely.
Christina Amandis:
“Can we pick something else?”
Scrappy:
Well, you’re very trend setting yourself. Do you have any recommendations on where things are going?
Christina Amandis:
It’s a constant revolving door. It’s hard to say. Right now, highlights, the chunky zebra highlights, are starting to come back in and it’s just like, “Oh, why? Please, no.” It almost looks like a zebra. So that’s the trend coming this summer. So I’m holding on.
Scrappy:
But as a studio owner, what else is very important?
Christina Amandis:
Staying on top of your business, you have to be prompt, you have to be responsive. You have to be on your A game, one little step to the right and you could lose it. So you definitely have to stay focused, stay involved with your clients. I had a client last week that went in for knee surgery. I took the time out of my day to follow up with her just to make sure her procedure went well.
Scrappy:
Good for you. That’s awesome.
Christina Amandis:
Yeah. Staying in contact, staying on top of everything and following up is definitely-
Scrappy:
It’s a relationship business.
Christina Amandis:
Absolutely.
Scrappy:
When Mindy had a child, I brought her a toy elephant and I’m the client. So it’s definitely about getting together. But Christina, there’s a lot of salons out there, a lot, and not everybody’s making a lot of cake and a lot of money. How do you stay on top of your clientele? Not just from a customer service standpoint, but growing it from social media standpoint and sustaining it longterm?
Christina Amandis:
Again, that connection, creating those relationships with your clients. And I care, it’s not just I do this because it’s great money, it’s I care about my clients. You form these relationships where you know about their grandkids, you know about their house up north that they go to seasonally. It’s that connection that keeps that going. Then that connection creates more connections with their friends. And they’re like, “Oh, you have to go see Christina. She’s awesome.” It just keeps trickling that way.
Scrappy:
Interesting,. From a target demographic standpoint, who are you trying to attract?
Christina Amandis:
Well, my demographics right now are more of those golf and country club ladies.
Scrappy:
Okay.
Christina Amandis:
Those are my bread and butter. They are die hard. They will kill somebody to get their hair appointments. So they are my demographics. I am in the center of Bonita Springs. So I’m surrounded by all these country clubs and all it takes is one member of that country club to find me. And then it’s just-
Scrappy:
Awesome.
Christina Amandis:
It spreads like wildfire.
Scrappy:
It’s polarized because you’re this really cool, hip chick and you’re cutting senior citizen’s hair. They probably get a big kick out of you, right?
Christina Amandis:
Oh, they love it. They look forward to coming in. Every time, every visit, I have a different look or a different hairstyle and they just love it. It’s fun for them and I think it makes them feel a little bit more younger and hip because they go to somebody that’s a little bit more on the edgier side.
Scrappy:
Sure.
Christina Amandis:
That can give them that little pizazz to their hair. It makes them feel a little [inaudible 00:08:06].
Scrappy:
Well, that’s my next question. This pizazz, but do you push their limits? Do you push them to be more progressive?
Christina Amandis:
Absolutely.
Scrappy:
Okay. Give us an example. That’s very interesting to me.
Christina Amandis:
Yes. Because hair should be fun. Hair is a staple. Hair is, it’s who you are. It’s what everybody sees first, I feel like. So giving them that little edge or that little funk to make them feel young and hip is a big deal for them.
Scrappy:
How about color? Do you tell them to get really funky that way as well?
Christina Amandis:
I try to push a little bit of the color, but a lot of them I can get the cuts in and give them a little bit of an edge, but as far as color is concerned, that’s a different story. They like their blondes and their browns. And as they get a little older, the dark, harsher colors need to go away and bring in some lighter tones to complement them. So as far as color is concerned, I try to keep it edgy, but the haircut’s where that comes in.
Scrappy:
Southwest Florida is our focus here with this podcast. Do you see anything different between Southwest Florida haircuts and the rest of the nation?
Christina Amandis:
Absolutely.
Scrappy:
Dish. Tell us.
Christina Amandis:
Southwest Florida, we’re definitely a little bit more reserved in this area. You don’t find the funky fashion colors as much as you would going down to the other coast or up into the city. We’re a lot more reserved here. So walking that fine line of having that fresh, edgy, but not too crazy to make people feel like they’re not in the right-
Scrappy:
Sure.
Christina Amandis:
… Comfort zone, I guess.
Scrappy:
This podcast is featuring Christina Amandis, superstar hairstylist with a studio. Go ahead and make your pitch to everybody. Why they should visit you? Hey, come on, bring it.
Christina Amandis:
Oh my God, you just made me sweat.
Scrappy:
Why you?
Christina Amandis:
Why you? Why me? I’m always open for a new adventure. I love change, I love taking care of my clients, they become family to me. So I definitely love growing my family in the hair world and making everyone in Southwest Florida feel beautiful in their skin with their beautiful hair.
Scrappy:
And your hair is so unique. I’m sure you’re capable of giving unique haircuts, as well.
Christina Amandis:
Absolutely.
Scrappy:
Awesome. Advice to other entrepreneurs? You’re budding entrepreneur, you haven’t been in the game too long as an entrepreneur, but what advice would you give others? Especially those starting a studio?
Christina Amandis:
Grind, grind, grind. You cannot sleep on running your own business. You have to stay on top of everything. Just when you think that you have a break, you got something else that you could be working on, whether if it’s following up with clients you haven’t seen in a few months or just reaching out and letting them know that you’re here for them whenever they need something. You just have to stay on it.
Scrappy:
Finally, Christina, what advice would you give to your 12 year old self?
Christina Amandis:
Oh, knowing what I know now, keep pushing, don’t give up. Sky’s the limit. There’s [inaudible 00:11:38]-
Scrappy:
That’s that’s too generic. That’s way too generic. Okay? 12 year old self. I’m not talking about the salon or the studio or hair cutting or hair styling or coloring or perm. I’m talking about you, Christina.
Christina Amandis:
Me? Oh boy, me, 12 years old. What would I tell myself? You got me, you’re getting me these hard questions, Scrap.
Scrappy:
Any advice that you’d impart based on what you’ve learned over the years?
Christina Amandis:
I’m stronger than what I thought I am. I definitely found myself second guessing myself as I was growing and maturing and just would, “Oh, should I?” And it’s always about taking that leap and just going for it and just doing it.
Scrappy:
Sure.
Christina Amandis:
Life is too short to hold back and there’s so much out there to do and explore. And I’ve definitely learned that, not to hold back, just to do it.
Scrappy:
Nice.
Christina Amandis:
Why be scared?
Scrappy:
Very nice. You have a lot of social handles. You want to give them out to everybody so we can find you?
Hello, Beautiful Hair. An awesome studio, it’s on the corner of 41 and Bonita Beach Road, right?
Christina Amandis:
Yes. [inaudible 00:13:07]
Scrappy:
Which side, how can we find it?
Christina Amandis:
It’s right on the corner of where Komoon is and Crunch Gym.
Scrappy:
Okay.
Christina Amandis:
So I’m right in between. Yep.
Scrappy:
Very cool. Well, it’s awesome to have you here, Christina. You’re doing really cool things. You’re serving a lot of wonderful people. I’m not going to say you’re doing God’s work, but it’s really important for a lot of people.
Christina Amandis:
Yes, absolutely.
Scrappy:
We’re sponsored by Content with Teeth, a great marketing agency. If you want to be our next guest, you can text Mike at 21000 or myself on Instagram at @HeyScrappy. Once again, Hello, Beautiful Hair. Christina Amandis. Thank you so much. We really appreciate you.
Because Jonathan Stone, Owner of Blue Breaks LLC, a new sports card collecting and memorabilia store in Venice, Florida, makes an appearance on Episode 10 of The Come Up.
Jonathan is a card collector and former big league sports referee and is Scrappy’s guest on Content with Teeth’s video podcast chronicling dynamic entrepreneurs in Southwest Florida and beyond.
The Come Up Episode 10 Highlights
Sorry eBay: Learn why Jonathan thinks there is no such thing as competition in the sports card world and discover the Blue Breaks niche. It involves thousands of sports cards at a kid-friendly price of a penny a piece.
The Big Racket: Jonathan details his fascinating background, including umpiring at Wimbledon to the likes of Nadal, Federer and other legends.
Retail Therapy: If you’re a card-collecting maniac, learn why you should visit a store and not just slum it out on eBay or a trade show for the best selection.
Uh, Teacher, Why Does My Mint Pete Rose Have a C? If you’ve got some old baseball cards stashed away or are a big-time collector, learn the details of sports card grading. Jonathan sheds light on a sometimes arcane process. Don’t miss this section if you’re interested in the value of your collection whether it’s hockey cards or non sports cards.
Catch other key nuggets in Episode 10 of The Come Up like how his wife thinks he’s crazy and how Jonathan’s inspiration is his 9-month newborn and any smiling kid hunting for a deal.
About Jonathan Stone & Content with Teeth
For UnBoring Content like The Come Up, contact Content with Teeth HERE. Find out more about Blue Breaks LLC HERE.
The Come Up Episode 10 Video Transcript
Scrappy:
What up? What up? What up? What up? What up? I’m Scrappy. This is The Come Up, featuring Southwest Florida entrepreneurs. They’re innovators, risk takers and big picture thinkers.
Today, our guest is really cool, really cool. I’m looking forward to this, ’cause I’m a baseball collector myself.
It is Jonathan from Blue Breaks in Venice Beach. He’s got a great store over there. If you want to be our next guest, make sure to check us out at Hey Scrappy on Instagram.
Blue Breaks, tell us about your store. How long you’ve been in business, Jonathan?
Jonathan Stone:
Hey, Scrappy. Well, we’ve been in business three weeks now. We opened the doors three weeks ago. We’ve been primarily online until then. But yeah, no, me, the wife and the nine month old baby decided it was time to take some risks.
We sold our home, moved to the area we’re in now. We’re actually staying with friends at the moment yet. We sold our home and put all of our money into opening a store because we just felt that there’s a space in the market for what we do.
Scrappy:
Okay. So in Venice specifically, do you have competition?
Jonathan Stone:
There’s some other stores in Venice, but I don’t think there’s competition in the sports cards well, because it’s not like McDonald’s, Wendy that all have a burger. They have the same burger.
You can go into every sports card store in the country. Every single store has different cards, has a different product. Not only that, even if they have the same product, when you open a box of sports cards, the cards inside are different in every single box.
So, no, I don’t think there is such a thing as competition in the sports card world. There’s other people that sell sports cards. There’s other people that do similar things.
It’s funny. I was talking to a customer a little while ago. As a collector, you should never only buy what you collect from one store or one person, because every person has a different card, has different types of cards, has different items that you want to collect. This is no different.
Scrappy:
You say you’re different from everybody else. What’s your niche?
Jonathan Stone:
In the store, as well as obviously selling sports cards, we have single sports cards from one penny. So, you can come in the store right now, and we have 30,000 cards that are a penny each, for sale in store right now.
As well as that, we have trade nights. We also do birthday parties for the kids as well.
Scrappy:
Oh, that’s fun. That’s fun. So you’ve been in business for only three weeks. Where do you get all your inventory?
Jonathan Stone:
We do a lot of shopping online. We have distributors. We have contacts within Panini and Topps and things like that as well, that we utilize.
We get as much as we can, from as many different sources, so that our customers come in and have a great weekend.
Scrappy:
Interesting. Interesting. As an entrepreneur, you’re staying at your friend’s house, you’ve put all your money into this. It’s a leap of faith.
Is it something you’re really passionate about or something you see as a business opportunity or both?
Jonathan Stone:
I’ve worked in sport my entire life. I spent 10 years as a tennis umpire. I worked tennis matches at the very top level. I’ve worked Wimbledon. I’ve worked tournaments all over the world. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal.
I’ve also worked soccer professionally, in multiple countries. And I’ve actually spent two years in baseball. I worked in Independent Professional Baseball league last year. I also do call-up games for the minor leagues.
So as well as that, to me as a collector of sports cards, it’s about filling a gap in the market, where other collectors can actually get their hands on the products they want from somebody who cares.
Scrappy:
Okay. Does your wife think you’re crazy for doing this?
Jonathan Stone:
My wife thought I was crazy before this. This just puts the nail in the coffin. I was crazy long before this.
Scrappy:
Jonathan, I’ve bought cards on eBay. I’ve gone to trade shows. I’ve been to shops. Why should I go to a shop versus eBay or a trade show?
Jonathan Stone:
Because you can come in store. You can handle our cards. You can look at it. You can get the advice you need.
We do products where you can clean your cards in store. We also do products where you can store your cards in the best condition.
Not only that, we submit to graders. We submit cards to PSA. You can actually have a good time in here.
We’ve had a lot of people in here at the weekend. We had people watching the England versus Germany European Soccer final game.
We had people in here buying supplies. We had kids in here. We had a David Becker autographed card come out of a box. We had a Steph Curry card come out of the box.
Scrappy:
Oh, wow. Wow.
Jonathan Stone:
We had a Juan DeFranco card come out of a box yesterday as well. So, we’ve had lots of cards come out over the last few days. You don’t get those experiences anywhere else because at home, you’re on your own. You’re opening cards.
If you go to a show, you’re probably buying the cards. You don’t want to open them at the show ’cause you want them to be protected.
But here you can come in, grab the cards, and we’ll give you the protection you need, so that your cards go home in the same condition they come out of that box in.
Scrappy:
The experience, for sure. That’s really interesting. That’s definitely a differential advantage.
Now, you mentioned kids. What percentage of your customers, at least in the first three weeks, are children versus some avid hardcore collector?
Jonathan Stone:
We have, obviously adults that are regaining their childhood through this. We also have collectors that come in with their kids as well.
It’s funny. A little while ago I had the gentleman come in. Him and his daughter actually collect. They’ve been a great inspiration for me and my wife, because to see them bonding over collecting cards, a guy who did this when he was a child and now his almost teenage daughter, getting into it, coming in and raiding up any boxes for her is just, it’s just an amazing thing, watching them bond.
So I think you’re probably looking at a 50/50 split because most of the kids bring their parents with them.
We do mimosas on a Sunday for the baseball moms, just to keep them happy as well. So, we have a few adults come in, but we do have a lot of kids.
Scrappy:
Are you a sucker for a kid with a smile, that wants a good deal?
Jonathan Stone:
When you have a nine month old baby, you’re a sucker for any kid with a smile. Sucker for any kid with a smile.
Scrappy:
How do you make the transition from being an umpire and a referee and being a sports advocate in that regard, to actually selling your wares, from a baseball card perspective?
Jonathan Stone:
It’s been an interesting transition. This time of year, I’m used to… Normally, I’m away in the summer on a baseball field. It’s been hard this year, being at home. But I think life has changed for me.
Now having our Kalimar baby, it’s giving him something that when he’s two, three, four, five, his interest will pique. He can help out in the shop. It keeps him busy.
But not only that. It’s a family business, that hopefully he’ll carry on in years to come.
Scrappy:
That’s awesome. I can tell just by your personality that you’re breeding something special over there, Jonathan. I can totally feel that.
You mentioned graded. Now, it’s really frustrating to me as a baseball card collector, that I got to send out graded cards. Can you explain the process to our audience?
Jonathan Stone:
Cards are worth different value, depending on their condition. In a sense, in the grading world, you’re grading your card from one to 10, 10 being the best, one being the worst.
Each of those grades, depending on the company and the grade you get, are worth a different value.
So just because it comes fresh out of the box does not mean it’s a 10 out 10 perfect condition card. Errors happen in printing, so it might be slightly off center.
We’ve all had those days where we’re fed up with that little bit of black ink crossing through a couple of letters on the printer. That happens in the card world. So, all of those sort of things affect it.
You can come to us. We’ll clean the card for you. We will send it off to PSA, and then that card comes back with a grade on it.
A grade is no better than a referee or an umpire. It’s just one person you’re, paying to give you an independent opinion on that card.
Scrappy:
How much does it cost?
Jonathan Stone:
It varies from $18 into the hundreds, depending on the value of your card. The annoying thing with grading and it annoys me as a store and as a collector, is the grading cost is dependent upon the value of the card.
So if you turn around and bring in a card that’s worth 30, $40, you might get away with an 18 to $23 charge to have that graded.
But if it’s worth 50, 60, $70,000, then we’re going to start talking thousands of dollars for the exact same process. That’s where it’s frustrating as a collector.
But we have to remember, when all these cards are being handed around and they do have these high values, there’s things like, insurance has to be taken into consideration, because that company is assuming the risk and liability of damaging that card that’s worth thousands of dollars.
Scrappy:
For sure. For sure. I have a 1980 Topps baseball card set. Ricky Henderson’s in there as a rookie. What are the chances that if I get it graded, it’s going to come out spectacular and make me a couple dollars?
Jonathan Stone:
I think there’s a chance with any card, it comes out spectacular. It’s going to depend on how you’ve kept it over the years, making sure it’s in as good a condition as possible.
Not only that, the value of cards changes all the time. David Ortiz got entered into the Hall of Fame this week. The value of his cards will change, based on that.
Players that get called up from the minor leagues into the majors, their card value will change on that.
Touch wood it never happens, when players pass away, their value changes on those cards again. To get the maximum revenue out of your card, if you’re wanting to sell it, is about doing it at the right time.
Scrappy:
Jonathan, it’s so frustrating, because I have probably a hundred cards that I look at, that have so much potential. A nice Pete Rose, a Yaz. I got a 1961 Yaz rookie card. I have all these different cards, but it would cost a fortune for me to be grading them.
Jonathan Stone:
Oh, a hundred percent. I feel your pain. We have about 65,000 cards on the shop floor right now, that if I could only afford to do that, I would.
A lot of collectors want their card in the original condition. They don’t necessarily want it graded.
We talk about when you’re watching again, the baseball purist. There is still plenty of baseball purists out in the card collector world that want it in that original condition.
So, there is pluses and minuses with grading. It’s not always the best idea to throw your money at grading. Sometimes, you know what? It’s best you just love what we have.
Scrappy:
Okay. I have my 1961 Yaz rookie card. It’s in plastic. I’ve kept really good care of it. My dad gave it to me as a gift a long time ago. I still have it. Is it better for me to go on eBay and try to sell it or bring it to your store?
Jonathan Stone:
As a generalization, going on eBay, you’re probably going to get the market value for that card. But don’t forget, you’re going to have a 13% fee, which will be a charge from eBay for selling with them.
So let’s say a card sells for a thousand dollars. You’re going to lose 130 straight away. So, now we’re down to 870. All right?
So you come to me. I’m probably going to offer you 750, $800 for that card. So you’re going to say, “Well, why would I sell to you instead of eBay?”
Remember, when that person gets that card, if they don’t like it, they can return it, and you’ve got to return that money.
When it comes to me, that’s money in your hand. You’re good to go. Let me deal with the problem. Let me deal with the customers because just like anything else, if you mail it out and it gets damaged in the mail, you’ve got to deal with USPS, when it comes to insurance and things like that. I can deal with all of those problems for you.
Scrappy:
I think it’s fascinating that you can just reel off 750, 800, off the top of your head, based on a year and a player and a team. That’s amazing to me.
So in that regard too, then you know how much you can get out of it, selling it to somebody else. So that’s all in your head?
Jonathan Stone:
A hundred percent. So when customers come in to sell to us, one of the things that we believe makes us different from some of the competition is, we will give you a price that we believe is fair.
But not only that, I’m going to tell you the price sticker that I’m going to put on that product on my shelf.
So if I come in and think that card’s worth a hundred dollars, I’m going to tell you straight up, “I’m going to sell this card in store for a hundred dollars.” I will offer you $70 in cash and $85 in store credit, which you can use in the store.
But by being transparent, you know that when you come in, in two, three, four weeks time, you see the price. Oh, you know what? He’s done exactly what he said he’s going to do. So, perhaps this is the guy we can trust.
Rather than you look at the stores all over the country. If you go and sell a card to a store and they give you 50 bucks, and you go in three weeks later and you see your card for $400, is that a store you’re going to keep going back to?
Scrappy:
Right. Right. That’s so smart. That’s really smart. If I get that transparency from a company or a card shop, it’s going to definitely make me want to go there on a regular basis.
That’s really, really smart because we have an attitude as baseball card collectors and avid fans, that we’re going to get screwed over, unfortunately.
Jonathan Stone:
Yeah. I think for me, a lot of stores, all up and down the country, when they go from being… They’re run by collectors. Everybody that opens a card store is generally a collector. We have an interest in this.
But when they start transitioning from that to just a store owner that wants to make money, then we lose the concept of why we opened.
But no, I’m a collector. I know what my card is worth. If I know my card sells on eBay for a hundred dollars or $200, and this person in front of me is offering me 30 or 40, why would I carry on doing business?
I know that the card I’m buying from them, they’re making way too much money on. So look, let’s be transparent. I’ll tell you what I’m going to price it out for in store. I’ll tell you what I think it’s worth, but I’m going to also offer you what I think is a fair price.
If you think it’s fair, you take it. If you don’t and you want to go to eBay, there’s zero hard feelings about that. I think we need to be aware of that, as dealers.
Scrappy:
You mentioned earlier, boxes. Is it better to keep a box intact or to cherry pick out six cards that are valuable?
Jonathan Stone:
No. I think, let’s look at 1986 Fleer basketball, the Michael Jordan rookie cards. The individual packs out of those, I think I saw on eBay, some were selling for $1,500 a pack.
Scrappy:
Wow.
Jonathan Stone:
There’s 40 packs in a box. So, we’re talking $60,000 in a box. That doesn’t happen with every product. The product value’s dependent on the rookie class or the class that’s in that product, each and every year.
But generally, do you know what? Buying some boxes and keeping a hold of them, it’s rare a box will ever go down in value.
Scrappy:
Everybody wants the rookie card. That’s for sure.
Jonathan Stone:
Oh, yeah.
Scrappy:
Kyle Trask, the football player, the quarterback for the Florida Gators, I’m a Florida Gator, I bought a bunch of his cards on speculation.
Of course, I bought Kyle Pitts. I bought a bunch of Kyle Pitts. I bought like 20 rookie cards from him. I don’t really know what I’m doing.
I buy these cards randomly. And then all of a sudden, my friend who knows baseball cards better than me says, “Well, these are still not worth anything because they’re not autographed. They’re not the high end brand.”
When we want to get a rookie card on speculation, somebody in college, that’s going into the pros the following year, how do we buy?
Jonathan Stone:
Let’s all remember one thing. Tom Brady was picked in what, the seventh round? Those were cards at the time, that me and you could’ve probably bought on the equivalent of eBay back then, for 99 cents.
That’s not now. You’ve got to collect who you want to collect, who you enjoy and who you love.
For me every year, I’ll look at a product Bowman draft in baseball. I’ll pick some two or three random names that went maybe in the fifth, sixth, seventh round. I’ll pick two or three. I’ll invest heavily in those cards at 25 cents, 50 cents, a dollar and buy as many of those as I can. The cheaper you buy a card, the less money you are going to lose. It’s like shares.
Scrappy:
Sure. Sure.
Jonathan Stone:
So if I buy a hundred of these cards for 25 cents a piece, the most I’m ever going to lose is $25. But if that player makes it makes his debut in major leagues, the moment he’s called up, that’s when you start to sell.
They’re probably going to be 50, 60, $70 at the time, and then you’ve invested. Then you’re looking at that return of money that you can use to grow and enhance your own personal collection, where you want that one holy grail card that we’re all chasing.
Scrappy:
Have you ever experienced the holy grail card?
Jonathan Stone:
No. No. There’s definitely a few cards in the store, that I wished were… that are on… I’m looking at a couple right now, that are in the cabinets, that I’m wishing was sitting at home and not here.
I think I had a kid come in the other day, who wanted a Mac Jones autograph. We have a Mac Jones card on sale in the store. It’s 500 bucks. He’s like, “I just can’t afford it.”
He was 10, 11 years old. “I have $109 in my savings account,” but this is a lower level product, Leaf. There was a Mac Jones autograph on my shelf for $125.
He was 11 years old. He came back the next day. He gave me the $109. 38 cents that he had. He took his card.
I lost money on that deal. All ends up going back to the kid with the smile. I lost money. But the smile on that kid when he ran across my store and showed his mom, it’s every penny of losing $10.
Scrappy:
You got a customer for life.
Jonathan Stone:
Oh, but isn’t that the thing? Isn’t that thing that we’re all forgetting? Today’s low level customers are tomorrow’s medium level customers and the next day’s big level customers.
Making an impression on kids today… We have a penny section. I don’t charge kids for cards out of the penny section. You come in. You spend an hour. You find 50 cards. You’re 12 years old. I’m not taking 50 cents from you. Do you know what? Have a great day.
But when they come back the next year and buy some 25-cent cards, when they get their collection better, just seeing them grow with their collection, isn’t that what this is about?
I’m here to pay my bills. Look, Let’s look at the business aspect of this. I’m here to pay my bills, but I’m not here to buy a Ferrari. I’m here to give my nine month old baby a future.
By watching other kids slightly older than him, grow up and build their future, and isn’t that aiding my baby’s future as well?
Scrappy:
That’s awesome. That’s awesome.
Jonathan Stone:
The baby comes in store. It’s me and the wife and the baby. I have customers that pick him up. I have kids that interact with him. My nine month old baby’s making memories for other people. Do you know what? That’s it for me. That’s worth more than anything else.
Scrappy:
Your biggest regret, you must have one that you looked at and you said maybe. And then all of a sudden, it blew up and you said, “Damn it, I should’ve bought that.”
Jonathan Stone:
Oh yeah, easy. Don’t even know why I thought about it. Anything with Luka Doncic’s signature on, anything.
I’m a Maverick’s fan. I didn’t understand the hype at the time. I thought, no, this is crazy. There’s going to be thousands of them. The hype in Luka and where those cards have gone, I think that for me, is the biggest train I never jumped onto.
Scrappy:
Okay. For those kids that are watching, any parting advice?
Jonathan Stone:
Do what you enjoy. Don’t worry about what anybody else around you enjoys. Do what you enjoy. Invest in what you want, because no matter what eBay says your card is worth, what it’s worth to you is more important than any number on eBay.
Scrappy:
Oh, that’s great. I love that. I love that. I’m going to visit you, for sure.
Jonathan Stone:
Hey, it’ll be great. Let’s get those cameras on. Well, we’ve got a trade night coming up this Saturday. Just, we’re going to fill the store out with kids. I just can’t wait to see all these kids interact.
Scrappy:
That’s great. That’s really great. You’re doing good stuff, Jonathan. Thank you so much. We really enjoy your time.
It’s The Come Up. We’re featuring entrepreneurs. You’re just on the cusp of it. I’m excited for you. I’m really excited for you.
You’re a risk taker. You’re an innovator. You’re doing it. Southwest Florida, just up the road in Venice, Blue Breaks. Awesome.Scrappy:
What up? What up? What up? What up? What up? I’m Scrappy. This is The Come Up, featuring Southwest Florida entrepreneurs. They’re innovators, risk takers and big picture thinkers.
Today, our guest is really cool, really cool. I’m looking forward to this, ’cause I’m a baseball collector myself.
It is Jonathan from Blue Breaks in Venice Beach. He’s got a great store over there. If you want to be our next guest, make sure to check us out at Hey Scrappy on Instagram.
Blue Breaks, tell us about your store. How long you’ve been in business, Jonathan?
Jonathan Stone:
Hey, Scrappy. Well, we’ve been in business three weeks now. We opened the doors three weeks ago. We’ve been primarily online until then. But yeah, no, me, the wife and the nine month old baby decided it was time to take some risks.
We sold our home, moved to the area we’re in now. We’re actually staying with friends at the moment yet. We sold our home and put all of our money into opening a store because we just felt that there’s a space in the market for what we do.
Scrappy:
Okay. So in Venice specifically, do you have competition?
Jonathan Stone:
There’s some other stores in Venice, but I don’t think there’s competition in the sports cards well, because it’s not like McDonald’s, Wendy that all have a burger. They have the same burger.
You can go into every sports card store in the country. Every single store has different cards, has a different product. Not only that, even if they have the same product, when you open a box of sports cards, the cards inside are different in every single box.
So, no, I don’t think there is such a thing as competition in the sports card world. There’s other people that sell sports cards. There’s other people that do similar things.
It’s funny. I was talking to a customer a little while ago. As a collector, you should never only buy what you collect from one store or one person, because every person has a different card, has different types of cards, has different items that you want to collect. This is no different.
Scrappy:
You say you’re different from everybody else. What’s your niche?
Jonathan Stone:
In the store, as well as obviously selling sports cards, we have single sports cards from one penny. So, you can come in the store right now, and we have 30,000 cards that are a penny each, for sale in store right now.
As well as that, we have trade nights. We also do birthday parties for the kids as well.
Scrappy:
Oh, that’s fun. That’s fun. So you’ve been in business for only three weeks. Where do you get all your inventory?
Jonathan Stone:
We do a lot of shopping online. We have distributors. We have contacts within Panini and Topps and things like that as well, that we utilize.
We get as much as we can, from as many different sources, so that our customers come in and have a great weekend.
Scrappy:
Interesting. Interesting. As an entrepreneur, you’re staying at your friend’s house, you’ve put all your money into this. It’s a leap of faith.
Is it something you’re really passionate about or something you see as a business opportunity or both?
Jonathan Stone:
I’ve worked in sport my entire life. I spent 10 years as a tennis umpire. I worked tennis matches at the very top level. I’ve worked Wimbledon. I’ve worked tournaments all over the world. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal.
I’ve also worked soccer professionally, in multiple countries. And I’ve actually spent two years in baseball. I worked in Independent Professional Baseball league last year. I also do call-up games for the minor leagues.
So as well as that, to me as a collector of sports cards, it’s about filling a gap in the market, where other collectors can actually get their hands on the products they want from somebody who cares.
Scrappy:
Okay. Does your wife think you’re crazy for doing this?
Jonathan Stone:
My wife thought I was crazy before this. This just puts the nail in the coffin. I was crazy long before this.
Scrappy:
Jonathan, I’ve bought cards on eBay. I’ve gone to trade shows. I’ve been to shops. Why should I go to a shop versus eBay or a trade show?
Jonathan Stone:
Because you can come in store. You can handle our cards. You can look at it. You can get the advice you need.
We do products where you can clean your cards in store. We also do products where you can store your cards in the best condition.
Not only that, we submit to graders. We submit cards to PSA. You can actually have a good time in here.
We’ve had a lot of people in here at the weekend. We had people watching the England versus Germany European Soccer final game.
We had people in here buying supplies. We had kids in here. We had a David Becker autographed card come out of a box. We had a Steph Curry card come out of the box.
Scrappy:
Oh, wow. Wow.
Jonathan Stone:
We had a Juan DeFranco card come out of a box yesterday as well. So, we’ve had lots of cards come out over the last few days. You don’t get those experiences anywhere else because at home, you’re on your own. You’re opening cards.
If you go to a show, you’re probably buying the cards. You don’t want to open them at the show ’cause you want them to be protected.
But here you can come in, grab the cards, and we’ll give you the protection you need, so that your cards go home in the same condition they come out of that box in.
Scrappy:
The experience, for sure. That’s really interesting. That’s definitely a differential advantage.
Now, you mentioned kids. What percentage of your customers, at least in the first three weeks, are children versus some avid hardcore collector?
Jonathan Stone:
We have, obviously adults that are regaining their childhood through this. We also have collectors that come in with their kids as well.
It’s funny. A little while ago I had the gentleman come in. Him and his daughter actually collect. They’ve been a great inspiration for me and my wife, because to see them bonding over collecting cards, a guy who did this when he was a child and now his almost teenage daughter, getting into it, coming in and raiding up any boxes for her is just, it’s just an amazing thing, watching them bond.
So I think you’re probably looking at a 50/50 split because most of the kids bring their parents with them.
We do mimosas on a Sunday for the baseball moms, just to keep them happy as well. So, we have a few adults come in, but we do have a lot of kids.
Scrappy:
Are you a sucker for a kid with a smile, that wants a good deal?
Jonathan Stone:
When you have a nine month old baby, you’re a sucker for any kid with a smile. Sucker for any kid with a smile.
Scrappy:
How do you make the transition from being an umpire and a referee and being a sports advocate in that regard, to actually selling your wares, from a baseball card perspective?
Jonathan Stone:
It’s been an interesting transition. This time of year, I’m used to… Normally, I’m away in the summer on a baseball field. It’s been hard this year, being at home. But I think life has changed for me.
Now having our Kalimar baby, it’s giving him something that when he’s two, three, four, five, his interest will pique. He can help out in the shop. It keeps him busy.
But not only that. It’s a family business, that hopefully he’ll carry on in years to come.
Scrappy:
That’s awesome. I can tell just by your personality that you’re breeding something special over there, Jonathan. I can totally feel that.
You mentioned graded. Now, it’s really frustrating to me as a baseball card collector, that I got to send out graded cards. Can you explain the process to our audience?
Jonathan Stone:
Cards are worth different value, depending on their condition. In a sense, in the grading world, you’re grading your card from one to 10, 10 being the best, one being the worst.
Each of those grades, depending on the company and the grade you get, are worth a different value.
So just because it comes fresh out of the box does not mean it’s a 10 out 10 perfect condition card. Errors happen in printing, so it might be slightly off center.
We’ve all had those days where we’re fed up with that little bit of black ink crossing through a couple of letters on the printer. That happens in the card world. So, all of those sort of things affect it.
You can come to us. We’ll clean the card for you. We will send it off to PSA, and then that card comes back with a grade on it.
A grade is no better than a referee or an umpire. It’s just one person you’re, paying to give you an independent opinion on that card.
Scrappy:
How much does it cost?
Jonathan Stone:
It varies from $18 into the hundreds, depending on the value of your card. The annoying thing with grading and it annoys me as a store and as a collector, is the grading cost is dependent upon the value of the card.
So if you turn around and bring in a card that’s worth 30, $40, you might get away with an 18 to $23 charge to have that graded.
But if it’s worth 50, 60, $70,000, then we’re going to start talking thousands of dollars for the exact same process. That’s where it’s frustrating as a collector.
But we have to remember, when all these cards are being handed around and they do have these high values, there’s things like, insurance has to be taken into consideration, because that company is assuming the risk and liability of damaging that card that’s worth thousands of dollars.
Scrappy:
For sure. For sure. I have a 1980 Topps baseball card set. Ricky Henderson’s in there as a rookie. What are the chances that if I get it graded, it’s going to come out spectacular and make me a couple dollars?
Jonathan Stone:
I think there’s a chance with any card, it comes out spectacular. It’s going to depend on how you’ve kept it over the years, making sure it’s in as good a condition as possible.
Not only that, the value of cards changes all the time. David Ortiz got entered into the Hall of Fame this week. The value of his cards will change, based on that.
Players that get called up from the minor leagues into the majors, their card value will change on that.
Touch wood it never happens, when players pass away, their value changes on those cards again. To get the maximum revenue out of your card, if you’re wanting to sell it, is about doing it at the right time.
Scrappy:
Jonathan, it’s so frustrating, because I have probably a hundred cards that I look at, that have so much potential. A nice Pete Rose, a Yaz. I got a 1961 Yaz rookie card. I have all these different cards, but it would cost a fortune for me to be grading them.
Jonathan Stone:
Oh, a hundred percent. I feel your pain. We have about 65,000 cards on the shop floor right now, that if I could only afford to do that, I would.
A lot of collectors want their card in the original condition. They don’t necessarily want it graded.
We talk about when you’re watching again, the baseball purist. There is still plenty of baseball purists out in the card collector world that want it in that original condition.
So, there is pluses and minuses with grading. It’s not always the best idea to throw your money at grading. Sometimes, you know what? It’s best you just love what we have.
Scrappy:
Okay. I have my 1961 Yaz rookie card. It’s in plastic. I’ve kept really good care of it. My dad gave it to me as a gift a long time ago. I still have it. Is it better for me to go on eBay and try to sell it or bring it to your store?
Jonathan Stone:
As a generalization, going on eBay, you’re probably going to get the market value for that card. But don’t forget, you’re going to have a 13% fee, which will be a charge from eBay for selling with them.
So let’s say a card sells for a thousand dollars. You’re going to lose 130 straight away. So, now we’re down to 870. All right?
So you come to me. I’m probably going to offer you 750, $800 for that card. So you’re going to say, “Well, why would I sell to you instead of eBay?”
Remember, when that person gets that card, if they don’t like it, they can return it, and you’ve got to return that money.
When it comes to me, that’s money in your hand. You’re good to go. Let me deal with the problem. Let me deal with the customers because just like anything else, if you mail it out and it gets damaged in the mail, you’ve got to deal with USPS, when it comes to insurance and things like that. I can deal with all of those problems for you.
Scrappy:
I think it’s fascinating that you can just reel off 750, 800, off the top of your head, based on a year and a player and a team. That’s amazing to me.
So in that regard too, then you know how much you can get out of it, selling it to somebody else. So that’s all in your head?
Jonathan Stone:
A hundred percent. So when customers come in to sell to us, one of the things that we believe makes us different from some of the competition is, we will give you a price that we believe is fair.
But not only that, I’m going to tell you the price sticker that I’m going to put on that product on my shelf.
So if I come in and think that card’s worth a hundred dollars, I’m going to tell you straight up, “I’m going to sell this card in store for a hundred dollars.” I will offer you $70 in cash and $85 in store credit, which you can use in the store.
But by being transparent, you know that when you come in, in two, three, four weeks time, you see the price. Oh, you know what? He’s done exactly what he said he’s going to do. So, perhaps this is the guy we can trust.
Rather than you look at the stores all over the country. If you go and sell a card to a store and they give you 50 bucks, and you go in three weeks later and you see your card for $400, is that a store you’re going to keep going back to?
Scrappy:
Right. Right. That’s so smart. That’s really smart. If I get that transparency from a company or a card shop, it’s going to definitely make me want to go there on a regular basis.
That’s really, really smart because we have an attitude as baseball card collectors and avid fans, that we’re going to get screwed over, unfortunately.
Jonathan Stone:
Yeah. I think for me, a lot of stores, all up and down the country, when they go from being… They’re run by collectors. Everybody that opens a card store is generally a collector. We have an interest in this.
But when they start transitioning from that to just a store owner that wants to make money, then we lose the concept of why we opened.
But no, I’m a collector. I know what my card is worth. If I know my card sells on eBay for a hundred dollars or $200, and this person in front of me is offering me 30 or 40, why would I carry on doing business?
I know that the card I’m buying from them, they’re making way too much money on. So look, let’s be transparent. I’ll tell you what I’m going to price it out for in store. I’ll tell you what I think it’s worth, but I’m going to also offer you what I think is a fair price.
If you think it’s fair, you take it. If you don’t and you want to go to eBay, there’s zero hard feelings about that. I think we need to be aware of that, as dealers.
Scrappy:
You mentioned earlier, boxes. Is it better to keep a box intact or to cherry pick out six cards that are valuable?
Jonathan Stone:
No. I think, let’s look at 1986 Fleer basketball, the Michael Jordan rookie cards. The individual packs out of those, I think I saw on eBay, some were selling for $1,500 a pack.
Scrappy:
Wow.
Jonathan Stone:
There’s 40 packs in a box. So, we’re talking $60,000 in a box. That doesn’t happen with every product. The product value’s dependent on the rookie class or the class that’s in that product, each and every year.
But generally, do you know what? Buying some boxes and keeping a hold of them, it’s rare a box will ever go down in value.
Scrappy:
Everybody wants the rookie card. That’s for sure.
Jonathan Stone:
Oh, yeah.
Scrappy:
Kyle Trask, the football player, the quarterback for the Florida Gators, I’m a Florida Gator, I bought a bunch of his cards on speculation.
Of course, I bought Kyle Pitts. I bought a bunch of Kyle Pitts. I bought like 20 rookie cards from him. I don’t really know what I’m doing.
I buy these cards randomly. And then all of a sudden, my friend who knows baseball cards better than me says, “Well, these are still not worth anything because they’re not autographed. They’re not the high end brand.”
When we want to get a rookie card on speculation, somebody in college, that’s going into the pros the following year, how do we buy?
Jonathan Stone:
Let’s all remember one thing. Tom Brady was picked in what, the seventh round? Those were cards at the time, that me and you could’ve probably bought on the equivalent of eBay back then, for 99 cents.
That’s not now. You’ve got to collect who you want to collect, who you enjoy and who you love.
For me every year, I’ll look at a product Bowman draft in baseball. I’ll pick some two or three random names that went maybe in the fifth, sixth, seventh round. I’ll pick two or three. I’ll invest heavily in those cards at 25 cents, 50 cents, a dollar and buy as many of those as I can. The cheaper you buy a card, the less money you are going to lose. It’s like shares.
Scrappy:
Sure. Sure.
Jonathan Stone:
So if I buy a hundred of these cards for 25 cents a piece, the most I’m ever going to lose is $25. But if that player makes it makes his debut in major leagues, the moment he’s called up, that’s when you start to sell.
They’re probably going to be 50, 60, $70 at the time, and then you’ve invested. Then you’re looking at that return of money that you can use to grow and enhance your own personal collection, where you want that one holy grail card that we’re all chasing.
Scrappy:
Have you ever experienced the holy grail card?
Jonathan Stone:
No. No. There’s definitely a few cards in the store, that I wished were… that are on… I’m looking at a couple right now, that are in the cabinets, that I’m wishing was sitting at home and not here.
I think I had a kid come in the other day, who wanted a Mac Jones autograph. We have a Mac Jones card on sale in the store. It’s 500 bucks. He’s like, “I just can’t afford it.”
He was 10, 11 years old. “I have $109 in my savings account,” but this is a lower level product, Leaf. There was a Mac Jones autograph on my shelf for $125.
He was 11 years old. He came back the next day. He gave me the $109. 38 cents that he had. He took his card.
I lost money on that deal. All ends up going back to the kid with the smile. I lost money. But the smile on that kid when he ran across my store and showed his mom, it’s every penny of losing $10.
Scrappy:
You got a customer for life.
Jonathan Stone:
Oh, but isn’t that the thing? Isn’t that thing that we’re all forgetting? Today’s low level customers are tomorrow’s medium level customers and the next day’s big level customers.
Making an impression on kids today… We have a penny section. I don’t charge kids for cards out of the penny section. You come in. You spend an hour. You find 50 cards. You’re 12 years old. I’m not taking 50 cents from you. Do you know what? Have a great day.
But when they come back the next year and buy some 25-cent cards, when they get their collection better, just seeing them grow with their collection, isn’t that what this is about?
I’m here to pay my bills. Look, Let’s look at the business aspect of this. I’m here to pay my bills, but I’m not here to buy a Ferrari. I’m here to give my nine month old baby a future.
By watching other kids slightly older than him, grow up and build their future, and isn’t that aiding my baby’s future as well?
Scrappy:
That’s awesome. That’s awesome.
Jonathan Stone:
The baby comes in store. It’s me and the wife and the baby. I have customers that pick him up. I have kids that interact with him. My nine month old baby’s making memories for other people. Do you know what? That’s it for me. That’s worth more than anything else.
Scrappy:
Your biggest regret, you must have one that you looked at and you said maybe. And then all of a sudden, it blew up and you said, “Damn it, I should’ve bought that.”
Jonathan Stone:
Oh yeah, easy. Don’t even know why I thought about it. Anything with Luka Doncic’s signature on, anything.
I’m a Maverick’s fan. I didn’t understand the hype at the time. I thought, no, this is crazy. There’s going to be thousands of them. The hype in Luka and where those cards have gone, I think that for me, is the biggest train I never jumped onto.
Scrappy:
Okay. For those kids that are watching, any parting advice?
Jonathan Stone:
Do what you enjoy. Don’t worry about what anybody else around you enjoys. Do what you enjoy. Invest in what you want, because no matter what eBay says your card is worth, what it’s worth to you is more important than any number on eBay.
Scrappy:
Oh, that’s great. I love that. I love that. I’m going to visit you, for sure.
Jonathan Stone:
Hey, it’ll be great. Let’s get those cameras on. Well, we’ve got a trade night coming up this Saturday. Just, we’re going to fill the store out with kids. I just can’t wait to see all these kids interact.
Scrappy:
That’s great. That’s really great. You’re doing good stuff, Jonathan. Thank you so much. We really enjoy your time.
It’s The Come Up. We’re featuring entrepreneurs. You’re just on the cusp of it. I’m excited for you. I’m really excited for you.
You’re a risk taker. You’re an innovator. You’re doing it. Southwest Florida, just up the road in Venice, Blue Breaks. Awesome.
The Come Up Episode 7: SWFL Youth Philanthropy Highlights
Terrible Accident: Learn how local teen Summer turned a tragic episode early in her life into a positive one benefitting the community and local nonprofits.
Move over Double Tree Suites: Summer reveals how selling chocolate chip cookies in her community blossomed into an award-winning philanthropic collaboration.
Hail to the…: Summer reveals her college plans to Scrappy who is reeling as a Florida Gator. Florida football rivalries are discussed. The Florida nonprofits community will never be the same after virtual high fives are exchanged!
Never Give Up: Summer details the keys to her success and what drives her forward into the next chapter in her life. Old and young alike can benefit from this wise teen’s vibrant soul.
Watch the episode and learn how to appreciate life and Summer’s plans to take her chocolate chip cookie nonprofits empire global!
About Summer Kates & Content with Teeth
For UnBoring Content like The Come Up, contact Content with Teeth HERE. Find out more about Summer Kates and her project HERE.
The Come Up Episode 7 Video Transcript
Scrappy Jackson:
The Come Up, a podcast featuring in Southwest Florida entrepreneurs. I’m Scrappy. And if you’d like to be a guest, text Mike at 21000 or me at IG, Hey Scrappy. We’re brought to you by Content With Teeth, a highly energetic creative content marketing agency. Doing it really big, like this big logo behind me.
Scrappy Jackson:
And today we celebrate Summer Kates, a young woman who certainly has an entrepreneurial spirit. Maybe not a traditional entrepreneur, but doing it really big. A victim of a car accident as a child, she flipped the script, taking her traumatic experience and turning into something amazing. A charity we call Summer’s Project. Welcome Summer.
Summer Kates:
Hi.
Scrappy Jackson:
Very cool to have you here.
Summer Kates:
Thank you for having me. It means a lot.
Scrappy Jackson:
Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate it. I know you’ve done a lot of interviews and you’re famous in Southwest Florida, but humble Content With Teeth Come Up podcast is thrilled to have you.
Summer Kates:
I’m excited to be here.
Scrappy Jackson:
So first off, congratulations. You just graduated from high school?
Summer Kates:
I did, yes.
Scrappy Jackson:
What was graduation like?
Summer Kates:
It was a mixture of emotions. I’m excited, but it’s just sad leaving the past.
Scrappy Jackson:
What are you going to do next?
Summer Kates:
I’m off to Florida State University. As of right now taking-
Scrappy Jackson:
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We have to stop this interview. I’m a University of Florida Gator.
Summer Kates:
Oh yeah. I was a University of Florida Gator, but paths have brought me to FSU.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. Have you learned to do [inaudible 00:01:42]?
Summer Kates:
Not yet. Not yet. It’ll come.
Scrappy Jackson:
Have you been to a game yet?
Summer Kates:
I have been doing the null sign, yes. That’s something I have to.
Scrappy Jackson:
You probably could get any college you want. You had a 5.5 GPA. That’s pretty amazing.
Summer Kates:
Oh yeah. It was between FSU and University of Georgia for me.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay.
Summer Kates:
Tuition, it’s crazy nowadays.
Scrappy Jackson:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And you have this accident when you’re 10 years old?
Summer Kates:
Yes.
Scrappy Jackson:
This terrible car accident and you were in the hospital, Golisano Hospital. And you’re in pain. You’re recovering. It’s a difficult recovery. It’s a long recovery. And what’s going through your mind right after the accident?
Summer Kates:
You know, me being a 10 year old, I was also a very competitive soccer player. So my main idea in my head was, am I going to play soccer again? ‘Cause I had shattered my femur, which is one of your main bones that you need to walk and do basic functions of life. So not only was I scared, ’cause I had a fear of the hospital at that time. So not only was I petrified of being in the hospital, I was worried I was never going to do what I love most again. So it was just in my mind, just a scary experience.
Scrappy Jackson:
You were thinking about yourself at that moment, right?
Summer Kates:
Yes.
Scrappy Jackson:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Are you okay now? Is your femur okay now?
Summer Kates:
Yeah, I’m perfectly good now. I’ve been playing soccer for a few years.
Scrappy Jackson:
Awesome. Awesome.
Summer Kates:
Yeah. It only took about a year to get back on the field.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. So you’re thinking about yourself. You’re worried about soccer. But somewhere you flipped the script and said, “You know what? I can turn this into a positive.” So you’re at the hospital. You’re seeing fellow kids, fellow children, going through a lot. What made you compassionate?
Summer Kates:
Yeah. Being scared at the hospital, it took me about a day I want to say, and I started to notice how comforting the staff was. And I was just blown away about how comfortable they made me feel during my stay. They had, especially at Golisano, they had this big game room. And me being fresh out of surgery, they encouraged me to walk with my walker to the game room. So they not only motivated me through the steps of my recovery, but they were just always there for me to talk. I remember specifically, they brought a dog in one day to-
Scrappy Jackson:
I love that. I love that.
Summer Kates:
Yeah. Yeah. So I’ll always remember that. So once I saw the level of comfort that they provide the kids, I was just, wow. I want other kids to see this so that they’re not scared to go to the hospital like I once was.
Scrappy Jackson:
Very nice, very nice. Very caring, sensitive. But some of the kids over there were in a lot worse shape than you.
Summer Kates:
Yes.
Scrappy Jackson:
Did that lead to maybe thinking about a charity?
Summer Kates:
Yeah, it did. It really did, because there’s just so many circumstances that go behind it. Because there’s kids that are there for long term, and you have to think if a kid is living there, they want it to feel like home. They want it to be comfortable and have toys and games. And they just want to have a fun experience in a bad time.
Scrappy Jackson:
Do you go back there often?
Summer Kates:
I try, but with COVID it’s kind of iffy.
Scrappy Jackson:
True.
Summer Kates:
I’ve always wanted to go and just walk around and see the kids. Kind of be a support system. But with COVID, it’s just ruined any of those chances.
Scrappy Jackson:
You’re in a very unique situation at age 10. And you acted like an adult. You’re very mature for your age. And when you think about it, I compare it… I don’t know if you’re familiar with it, Buddhism. Buddhism is about being mindful in the moment and appreciating life and not taking it for granted. And this moment with you is a moment. I’m having a moment with Summer Kates right now. So what did you learn from your experience as far as appreciating life?
Summer Kates:
You know, it was really to just take the good out of the bad, because I feel like everybody, especially nowadays, is just so negative on any sort of experience. So it’s really there is always at least one positive outcome in a bad experience. You just have to be optimistic about how you’re looking at it. And for me, I just saw, well, I can motivate other kids and just show the good in the hospital rather than all the bad in the hospital.
Summer Kates:
‘Cause I feel like, especially for kids, their minds aren’t fully developed on the fact that the hospital is to help fix you. It’s more of just this scary place with a bunch of hurt people.
Scrappy Jackson:
Sure.
Summer Kates:
So I feel trying to get the message out to these kids that like, “Oh, it’s a fun place. They’re they’re help you.” And I just feel like that just motivates that message.
Scrappy Jackson:
I would love to bring a pot belly pig to Golisano Hospital and have the kids hang out with it for a day. They’re pretty tame. They’re pretty mature. They’re trained pretty well. Wouldn’t that be cool?
Summer Kates:
It would. It would.
Scrappy Jackson:
So you decide to make these cookies, these wonderful chocolate cookies. Tell us about them.
Summer Kates:
My mom and I, we’ve always been in the kitchen baking. The whole reason Summer’s Project started was I was with my best friend and I was like, “Let’s do a bake sale and just give whatever money we make.” So we had just a bunch of just store bought stuff, and then some of our homemade chocolate chip cookies out on our backyard. And we were just selling stuff. We donated maybe $90, but it was just the thought that counted. And we just got such amazing feedback from our chocolate chip cookies. And we just came up to the idea. Yeah, people want to give back to a reason, but it’s just an extra nice little treat to have a cookie on the side too. And so it just circled around this idea of these giant chocolate chip cookies. And they’re just amazing.
Scrappy Jackson:
They’re huge.
Summer Kates:
They’re ginormous.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’ve seen a picture of them.
Summer Kates:
Yes.
Scrappy Jackson:
I don’t need three cookies. I only need one of yours.
Summer Kates:
Oh yeah. They’re giant. And if you pop them in the microwave, it’s just perfection.
Scrappy Jackson:
And you put some sprinkles on them too?
Summer Kates:
Sometimes.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. I saw the one with the sprinkles. Very nice. Very nice.
Summer Kates:
Oh yeah.
Scrappy Jackson:
Yeah.
Summer Kates:
We have a few different flavors going on now, but our chocolate chips are our OG originals.
Scrappy Jackson:
So you go from the front lawn, making these wonderful cookies, and what was the next step?
Summer Kates:
Next step was it just started baked sales, annually. And then we started to get some recognition from the community and we started getting events. So there was a few breweries that accepted us to just set up a table, and just have posters out. And people could come up and I could explain the story, and then people could choose to donate. And there’s been a few farmer’s markets. And then as word kept spreading, there’s just more opportunities opening up. News segments started reaching out, some radios. So it just all slowly grew because of the community.
Scrappy Jackson:
And you’ve raised how much to date?
Summer Kates:
To date, it’s about roughly over $21,000.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’m giving you a high five, Summer. A high five through the podcast. You go, girl. That’s awesome. So you’re off to Florida State. How are we going to keep this cookie thing alive? How are we going to keep it cooking?
Summer Kates:
So my little brother is hoping to follow in my footsteps and we’re taking a different approach. Because we’re so focused on kids are our future, and instead of circling around the hospital, we’re hoping to bring it around the environment and bettering our environment around. And in general, just helping the future.
Summer Kates:
And so not only is he hoping to follow in my footsteps, but I also don’t plan on stopping this.
Scrappy Jackson:
Good.
Summer Kates:
I plan on helping hospitals around Florida State University, and obviously still helping Golisano because I just love them. So it won’t be as big of a thing as it has been, but I definitely don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Scrappy Jackson:
Why can’t we take it global?
Summer Kates:
I mean, why not? Got to work our way there.
Scrappy Jackson:
It’s a wonderful thing. It’s a wonderful thing. So your mom, very strong. She’s empowered you. In many respects you probably empowered her, one way or another. And your dad. So tell us about your mom.
Summer Kates:
Yeah. When I was hit by the car, she was pregnant with my little brother. So it was just hard for her because there’s times where she couldn’t be in the room with me just because she was pregnant. So I do think it impacted her a lot. Just not being able to be there every single step of the way almost. But I feel once we started up with the cookies, it was not only was it a moment for us to work together and just have that bonding moment. But it also brought us together with doing something that we both love to do,
Scrappy Jackson:
Very nice. Very nice. Youth philanthropist of the year, 2021. How special is that?
Summer Kates:
I can’t even have words to describe it. It was just such a surreal feeling, getting that award.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. And Summer, what advice would you give to yourself when you were a freshman? Looking back on the four years?
Summer Kates:
I just want to say just never give up, because I would’ve never imagined I’d come this far. And once I received that award, I was just like, wow. If I gave up, I would never have received this.
Scrappy Jackson:
That’s your advice to yourself. Now at graduation, if you had a chance to make a speech, what kind of knowledge would you give your classmates?
Summer Kates:
That’s tough. And I want to take inspiration behind another speech that a kid had talked about. It was mainly about choosing your own path, because we could all be told that there’s only one direction to go in life. But realistically, every direction you choose has many pitchfork-like paths to it. So I just feel there’s just so many opportunities and you just have to choose what fits you best.
Scrappy Jackson:
What are you going to study at Florida State?
Summer Kates:
Right now, I’m in advertising. That’s what I’m going into.
Scrappy Jackson:
You should consider communications and broadcasting because you’re amazing.
Summer Kates:
Thank you. Communications did cross my mind and I know majors always change. But right now advertising is where my head is at.
Scrappy Jackson:
Go to the football games. They’re amazing.
Summer Kates:
Oh, I will.
Scrappy Jackson:
Amazing experience. Definitely. Definitely. Any shout outs, your friends of yours? Because I know this wasn’t a solo effort. You and your mom did big things, but I know you had some help.
Summer Kates:
Yeah. If I were to give a big shout out, it’d be to my best friend Kylie, because she was there for me for my very first bake sale that started Summer’s Project. So she’s just been a shadow throughout this whole process of Summer’s Project. And so I just want to say thank you for that.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. And you want to share any of your handles, your social media handles?
Summer Kates:
Yeah, sure. I mean everything should just be Summer’s Project. So Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Just type in Summer’s Project and it should all just pop up right there.
Scrappy Jackson:
On the radio, I give big hugs through the telephone. In the podcast, I’m giving you hugs, Summer. You did amazing things. You’re going to continue to do amazing things. We got nothing but love for you.
Summer Kates:
Thank you so much.
Scrappy Jackson:
The Come Up, a podcast featuring in Southwest Florida entrepreneurs. I’m Scrappy. And if you’d like to be a guest, text Mike at 21000 or me at IG, Hey Scrappy. We’re brought to you by Content With Teeth, a highly energetic creative content marketing agency. Doing it really big, like this big logo behind me.
Scrappy Jackson:
And today we celebrate Summer Kates, a young woman who certainly has an entrepreneurial spirit. Maybe not a traditional entrepreneur, but doing it really big. A victim of a car accident as a child, she flipped the script, taking her traumatic experience and turning into something amazing. A charity we call Summer’s Project. Welcome Summer.
Summer Kates:
Hi.
Scrappy Jackson:
Very cool to have you here.
Summer Kates:
Thank you for having me. It means a lot.
Scrappy Jackson:
Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate it. I know you’ve done a lot of interviews and you’re famous in Southwest Florida, but humble Content With Teeth Come Up podcast is thrilled to have you.
Summer Kates:
I’m excited to be here.
Scrappy Jackson:
So first off, congratulations. You just graduated from high school?
Summer Kates:
I did, yes.
Scrappy Jackson:
What was graduation like?
Summer Kates:
It was a mixture of emotions. I’m excited, but it’s just sad leaving the past.
Scrappy Jackson:
What are you going to do next?
Summer Kates:
I’m off to Florida State University. As of right now taking-
Scrappy Jackson:
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We have to stop this interview. I’m a University of Florida Gator.
Summer Kates:
Oh yeah. I was a University of Florida Gator, but paths have brought me to FSU.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. Have you learned to do [inaudible 00:01:42]?
Summer Kates:
Not yet. Not yet. It’ll come.
Scrappy Jackson:
Have you been to a game yet?
Summer Kates:
I have been doing the null sign, yes. That’s something I have to.
Scrappy Jackson:
You probably could get any college you want. You had a 5.5 GPA. That’s pretty amazing.
Summer Kates:
Oh yeah. It was between FSU and University of Georgia for me.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay.
Summer Kates:
Tuition, it’s crazy nowadays.
Scrappy Jackson:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And you have this accident when you’re 10 years old?
Summer Kates:
Yes.
Scrappy Jackson:
This terrible car accident and you were in the hospital, Golisano Hospital. And you’re in pain. You’re recovering. It’s a difficult recovery. It’s a long recovery. And what’s going through your mind right after the accident?
Summer Kates:
You know, me being a 10 year old, I was also a very competitive soccer player. So my main idea in my head was, am I going to play soccer again? ‘Cause I had shattered my femur, which is one of your main bones that you need to walk and do basic functions of life. So not only was I scared, ’cause I had a fear of the hospital at that time. So not only was I petrified of being in the hospital, I was worried I was never going to do what I love most again. So it was just in my mind, just a scary experience.
Scrappy Jackson:
You were thinking about yourself at that moment, right?
Summer Kates:
Yes.
Scrappy Jackson:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Are you okay now? Is your femur okay now?
Summer Kates:
Yeah, I’m perfectly good now. I’ve been playing soccer for a few years.
Scrappy Jackson:
Awesome. Awesome.
Summer Kates:
Yeah. It only took about a year to get back on the field.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. So you’re thinking about yourself. You’re worried about soccer. But somewhere you flipped the script and said, “You know what? I can turn this into a positive.” So you’re at the hospital. You’re seeing fellow kids, fellow children, going through a lot. What made you compassionate?
Summer Kates:
Yeah. Being scared at the hospital, it took me about a day I want to say, and I started to notice how comforting the staff was. And I was just blown away about how comfortable they made me feel during my stay. They had, especially at Golisano, they had this big game room. And me being fresh out of surgery, they encouraged me to walk with my walker to the game room. So they not only motivated me through the steps of my recovery, but they were just always there for me to talk. I remember specifically, they brought a dog in one day to-
Scrappy Jackson:
I love that. I love that.
Summer Kates:
Yeah. Yeah. So I’ll always remember that. So once I saw the level of comfort that they provide the kids, I was just, wow. I want other kids to see this so that they’re not scared to go to the hospital like I once was.
Scrappy Jackson:
Very nice, very nice. Very caring, sensitive. But some of the kids over there were in a lot worse shape than you.
Summer Kates:
Yes.
Scrappy Jackson:
Did that lead to maybe thinking about a charity?
Summer Kates:
Yeah, it did. It really did, because there’s just so many circumstances that go behind it. Because there’s kids that are there for long term, and you have to think if a kid is living there, they want it to feel like home. They want it to be comfortable and have toys and games. And they just want to have a fun experience in a bad time.
Scrappy Jackson:
Do you go back there often?
Summer Kates:
I try, but with COVID it’s kind of iffy.
Scrappy Jackson:
True.
Summer Kates:
I’ve always wanted to go and just walk around and see the kids. Kind of be a support system. But with COVID, it’s just ruined any of those chances.
Scrappy Jackson:
You’re in a very unique situation at age 10. And you acted like an adult. You’re very mature for your age. And when you think about it, I compare it… I don’t know if you’re familiar with it, Buddhism. Buddhism is about being mindful in the moment and appreciating life and not taking it for granted. And this moment with you is a moment. I’m having a moment with Summer Kates right now. So what did you learn from your experience as far as appreciating life?
Summer Kates:
You know, it was really to just take the good out of the bad, because I feel like everybody, especially nowadays, is just so negative on any sort of experience. So it’s really there is always at least one positive outcome in a bad experience. You just have to be optimistic about how you’re looking at it. And for me, I just saw, well, I can motivate other kids and just show the good in the hospital rather than all the bad in the hospital.
Summer Kates:
‘Cause I feel like, especially for kids, their minds aren’t fully developed on the fact that the hospital is to help fix you. It’s more of just this scary place with a bunch of hurt people.
Scrappy Jackson:
Sure.
Summer Kates:
So I feel trying to get the message out to these kids that like, “Oh, it’s a fun place. They’re they’re help you.” And I just feel like that just motivates that message.
Scrappy Jackson:
I would love to bring a pot belly pig to Golisano Hospital and have the kids hang out with it for a day. They’re pretty tame. They’re pretty mature. They’re trained pretty well. Wouldn’t that be cool?
Summer Kates:
It would. It would.
Scrappy Jackson:
So you decide to make these cookies, these wonderful chocolate cookies. Tell us about them.
Summer Kates:
My mom and I, we’ve always been in the kitchen baking. The whole reason Summer’s Project started was I was with my best friend and I was like, “Let’s do a bake sale and just give whatever money we make.” So we had just a bunch of just store bought stuff, and then some of our homemade chocolate chip cookies out on our backyard. And we were just selling stuff. We donated maybe $90, but it was just the thought that counted. And we just got such amazing feedback from our chocolate chip cookies. And we just came up to the idea. Yeah, people want to give back to a reason, but it’s just an extra nice little treat to have a cookie on the side too. And so it just circled around this idea of these giant chocolate chip cookies. And they’re just amazing.
Scrappy Jackson:
They’re huge.
Summer Kates:
They’re ginormous.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’ve seen a picture of them.
Summer Kates:
Yes.
Scrappy Jackson:
I don’t need three cookies. I only need one of yours.
Summer Kates:
Oh yeah. They’re giant. And if you pop them in the microwave, it’s just perfection.
Scrappy Jackson:
And you put some sprinkles on them too?
Summer Kates:
Sometimes.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. I saw the one with the sprinkles. Very nice. Very nice.
Summer Kates:
Oh yeah.
Scrappy Jackson:
Yeah.
Summer Kates:
We have a few different flavors going on now, but our chocolate chips are our OG originals.
Scrappy Jackson:
So you go from the front lawn, making these wonderful cookies, and what was the next step?
Summer Kates:
Next step was it just started baked sales, annually. And then we started to get some recognition from the community and we started getting events. So there was a few breweries that accepted us to just set up a table, and just have posters out. And people could come up and I could explain the story, and then people could choose to donate. And there’s been a few farmer’s markets. And then as word kept spreading, there’s just more opportunities opening up. News segments started reaching out, some radios. So it just all slowly grew because of the community.
Scrappy Jackson:
And you’ve raised how much to date?
Summer Kates:
To date, it’s about roughly over $21,000.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’m giving you a high five, Summer. A high five through the podcast. You go, girl. That’s awesome. So you’re off to Florida State. How are we going to keep this cookie thing alive? How are we going to keep it cooking?
Summer Kates:
So my little brother is hoping to follow in my footsteps and we’re taking a different approach. Because we’re so focused on kids are our future, and instead of circling around the hospital, we’re hoping to bring it around the environment and bettering our environment around. And in general, just helping the future.
Summer Kates:
And so not only is he hoping to follow in my footsteps, but I also don’t plan on stopping this.
Scrappy Jackson:
Good.
Summer Kates:
I plan on helping hospitals around Florida State University, and obviously still helping Golisano because I just love them. So it won’t be as big of a thing as it has been, but I definitely don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Scrappy Jackson:
Why can’t we take it global?
Summer Kates:
I mean, why not? Got to work our way there.
Scrappy Jackson:
It’s a wonderful thing. It’s a wonderful thing. So your mom, very strong. She’s empowered you. In many respects you probably empowered her, one way or another. And your dad. So tell us about your mom.
Summer Kates:
Yeah. When I was hit by the car, she was pregnant with my little brother. So it was just hard for her because there’s times where she couldn’t be in the room with me just because she was pregnant. So I do think it impacted her a lot. Just not being able to be there every single step of the way almost. But I feel once we started up with the cookies, it was not only was it a moment for us to work together and just have that bonding moment. But it also brought us together with doing something that we both love to do,
Scrappy Jackson:
Very nice. Very nice. Youth philanthropist of the year, 2021. How special is that?
Summer Kates:
I can’t even have words to describe it. It was just such a surreal feeling, getting that award.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. And Summer, what advice would you give to yourself when you were a freshman? Looking back on the four years?
Summer Kates:
I just want to say just never give up, because I would’ve never imagined I’d come this far. And once I received that award, I was just like, wow. If I gave up, I would never have received this.
Scrappy Jackson:
That’s your advice to yourself. Now at graduation, if you had a chance to make a speech, what kind of knowledge would you give your classmates?
Summer Kates:
That’s tough. And I want to take inspiration behind another speech that a kid had talked about. It was mainly about choosing your own path, because we could all be told that there’s only one direction to go in life. But realistically, every direction you choose has many pitchfork-like paths to it. So I just feel there’s just so many opportunities and you just have to choose what fits you best.
Scrappy Jackson:
What are you going to study at Florida State?
Summer Kates:
Right now, I’m in advertising. That’s what I’m going into.
Scrappy Jackson:
You should consider communications and broadcasting because you’re amazing.
Summer Kates:
Thank you. Communications did cross my mind and I know majors always change. But right now advertising is where my head is at.
Scrappy Jackson:
Go to the football games. They’re amazing.
Summer Kates:
Oh, I will.
Scrappy Jackson:
Amazing experience. Definitely. Definitely. Any shout outs, your friends of yours? Because I know this wasn’t a solo effort. You and your mom did big things, but I know you had some help.
Summer Kates:
Yeah. If I were to give a big shout out, it’d be to my best friend Kylie, because she was there for me for my very first bake sale that started Summer’s Project. So she’s just been a shadow throughout this whole process of Summer’s Project. And so I just want to say thank you for that.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. And you want to share any of your handles, your social media handles?
Summer Kates:
Yeah, sure. I mean everything should just be Summer’s Project. So Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Just type in Summer’s Project and it should all just pop up right there.
Scrappy Jackson:
On the radio, I give big hugs through the telephone. In the podcast, I’m giving you hugs, Summer. You did amazing things. You’re going to continue to do amazing things. We got nothing but love for you.
Creating Better Days, a Fort Myers-based company that specializes in CBD gummies, recently dropped 75 pounds of pet edibles for the dogs at a Southwest Florida human society in a philanthropic mission to soothe animals’ separation anxiety and other issues.
Apparently, the pet CBD market is big business. You’ll learn why in our interview with Creating Better Days Owner Kai Pfretzschner in Content with Teeth’s The Come Up video podcast of notable Southwest Florida entrepreneurs.
CBD Kingpin
You’ll meet the Creating Better Days leader and learn how the German-born Kai went from studying to be a Mercedes mechanic to running the fifth largest producer of gummy edibles in the United States and manufacturer of 350k gummies a day right here in Fort Myers.
Creating Better Podcasts Highlights
Here are the highlights of The Come Up Episode 6:
No Scrappy, You Won’t Get High from Drinking 33 Bottles of CBD: Kai explains how Creating Better Days CBD rich hemp oil is non-psychoactive and won’t make you an extra in a Hollywood reboot of Cheech and Chong.
What Is Cannabidiol: Kai explains what creates a healthy endocannabinoid system, how CBD made from mature industrial hemp can safely replace some prescription medications and fight a serious medical condition while serving as naturally occurring antioxidants . Kai is not a doctor offering medical advice, but he drops serious CBD knowledge!
Nano amplified CBD: Kai explains what this type of CBD product is and why it might be helpful for people who don’t absorb CBD products well.
Scrappy’s Parole Officer Would Like a Word:The Come Up host Scrappy Jackson jokes if ingesting CBD products will trigger a call from his P.O. Watch the episode to learn Kai’s response. It will totally surprise you!
Learn to delegate: Creating Better Days Chief Development Officer Kai gives advice to budding entrepreneurs who think they have to do it all. Watch the episode to learn how to make your organization more productive by empowering the people around you.
About Kai Pfretzschner & Content with Teeth
For UnBoring Content like The Come Up, contact Content with Teeth HERE. Find out more about Kai Pfretzschner’s Creating Better Days CBD products HERE.
The Come Up Episode 6 Video Transcript
Scrappy Jackson:
What up? What up? What up? What up? What up? Welcome to The Come Up, a podcast featuring Southwest Florida’s ambitious, innovating, forward thinking entrepreneurs. I’m Scrappy, and we’re brought to you by Content with Teeth. They’re an amazing content marketing agency for real, right here in Southwest Florida. 20 years experience. They do it big, real big, just like this fat head behind me. Content with Teeth. Check them out. Today’s guest is fascinating to me. Kai Pfretzschner, owner of Creating Better Days, a CBD manufacturer in Fort Myers. What’s going on Kai?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Not too much. How are you doing?
Scrappy Jackson:
Good. Real good. When we think of CBD, I’m like, well, it’s kind of cool, but I’m not really sure what it is. Does it give me a buzz? Does it help me with pain? Does it relieve anxiety? There’s still a little confusion about it. Can you break it down for us?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Right. So CBD is one of 140 cannabinoids that occur in a cannabis plant and it’s non-psychoactive. So it does not get you high, but it helps with certain ailments. So it calms you down and relieves anxiety. It’s an anti-inflammatory, so it helps with recovery after certain sports injuries and all kind of stuff.
Scrappy Jackson:
Very nice. Very nice. I understand that THC is there a little bit, like 3%. So can I drink 33 bottles and get high like weed?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, full spectrum CBD by law is allowed to have 0.3% THC. So some products, if you take a little bit more, you can definitely feel it. We have a line of gummies that’s called Spectrum Plus. They do have about 10 milligrams of THC, legally, in a gummy. So you definitely feel it.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’ve never taken CBD before. What’s the sensation like?
Kai Pfretzschner:
It’s more like a calming feeling. It kind of takes the edge off a little bit. So if you worry too much, it calms you down a little bit. But like I said, you don’t really get a head high or anything.
Scrappy Jackson:
And the government, they seem to be supportive of it. But not to the point where they’re like… They’re still saying May, probably. Well, sometimes, potential… How come the government hasn’t put the rubber stamp on this?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah, it just seems like the FDA, as every government agency, is moving fairly slow. So we’ve been doing this for eight years now. So ever since we started in this business… And the beginning was a total gray area. Then legislation came down a little bit through the FDA. The FDA didn’t want to deal with it. And especially in Florida, so they gave the Department of Agriculture the authority to regulate us. So businesses like mine are now regulated by the Department of Agriculture for labeling, product standards, manufacturing practices, and all that good stuff.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’ve been on your website. I know you tried to educate your customers there, but on a daily basis, how do you sensitize your customers to what you have, this great product that you have?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, I mean, the customer educates themselves usually through online searches. So people gotten very knowledgeable with CBD. We do have a quiz on our website and kind of ask a couple of questions and then suggest you a product. But grand scheme of things, people gotten pretty knowledgeable about CBD. And now there’s many other cannabinoids out there, Delta-8, D9, all kind of different ones. CBN for more calming, relaxing, and nighttime relief. So there’s a bunch of things to choose from.
Scrappy Jackson:
My brother takes it, but he says his gastrointestinal tract doesn’t absorb it fast enough. Is that why nano is available?
Kai Pfretzschner:
That’s why nano is available. It just downsizes the molecule size a little bit. Usually you kind of need a medium chain triglyceride oil, a fatty acid, with any cannabinoid. So your stomach can absorb it faster. If you nanofy, you break down the size, the absorption rate goes up, and you feel the effects a little bit faster.
Scrappy Jackson:
Kai, you have anti-depressants and also anti-psychotics in your CBD. That’s pretty cool. I mean, that’s really awesome. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Kai Pfretzschner:
I’m not sure about anti-depressant and anti-psychotic. There is a couple of things that we offer. So there’s an entourage effect between CBD, CBN, and melatonin. So we sometimes use an over the counter, like melatonin, a sleep aid, and couple it together with CBD and CBN, to give you a better effect. So there’s some people that can’t sleep sort of take melatonin. They get used to melatonin. Well, it turns out if you throw together a CBD and melatonin in one edible… in a gummy, for example, it really helps.
Scrappy Jackson:
Sleep, anxiety, pain. You’re doing really good stuff here, but the public really is still not sensitized to completely. So what will you say to the public, to all Southwest Florida, when it comes to buy my CBDs, damn it?
Kai Pfretzschner:
All I can tell them, give it a try. There’s really no side effects to CBD. Like I said, not psychoactive. So don’t be afraid that you are not going to be able to drive a car. The label state, if you use something new in your diet, like you add something like CBD, ask you physician first, “Hey, is this good for me? Hey, I’m taking X, Y, Z prescriptions. Is that going to affect it?” So you should always ask you physician. That’s something. But other than that, give it a try. Start with a low dosage. A lot of people just go way too high in the beginning and then… Start low.
Scrappy Jackson:
My parole officer’s always asking me, “Scrappy, you got to take a test.” Will I pass a test if I take CBD?
Kai Pfretzschner:
If you do an isolated CBD, CBD isolate meaning it’s just CBD, there’s Delta-9 THC in it, then you are not going to have any issues with the drug test. If you use a full spectrum product, there’s trace amounts of THC in it, then that might show up. So you got to be careful which product you choose. We got several different ones, so.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’m just kidding about the parole thing.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Hey man, I don’t know. Judgment-free zone.
Scrappy Jackson:
You mentioned gummies. What other products do you have?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Right now, our main product is gummies. So we produce about 350,000 gummies a day.
Scrappy Jackson:
Wow.
Kai Pfretzschner:
And yeah, that’s our main business right now, but we offer anything from oils to topicals. We got pet-related products, pet treats. There’s a lot of products to choose from. But we dialed it down a little bit since gummies is now our main road.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. Well, I’m curious about the gummies, but pets? You’re giving this stuff to pets?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah. The pet CBD market has been highly successful maybe for the last five years. So obviously, pets, dogs, cats deal with things like separation anxiety. They get nervous during storm and CBD helps calm them down. So we have several dog treats and tinctures for cats and docs available too.
Scrappy Jackson:
I noticed on your website, you have Better Days, Better Nights, Better Defense, Better Delights, and you have Better Pets. But you need Better Babies, man. Babies on an airplane. They’re getting a little unruly, just give them a gummy and they’ll sleep for hours.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah. This 18 years and older is a thing in Florida, so.
Scrappy Jackson:
So 350,000 gummies a day. That’s amazing, man. You’re right here in Fort Myers. Where does that put you industry wise, nationwide, globally?
Kai Pfretzschner:
In the US, right now, we’re one of the fifth largest producers of gummy edibles in the US. So yeah, we’re up there. We’re pretty busy.
Scrappy Jackson:
One of the things that’s really, really cool about you guys is the fact that you do nonprofit work. You have your quarterly donations, is it? Quarterly… What is it called?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah, we choose a charity every quarter and we help them either out with donations or we help them funding-wise or we advertise for them. We do cross collaborations with all kind of charities that in our area specifically, and that target a couple things that we feel that we can help and contribute a little bit to give back.
Scrappy Jackson:
Yeah. I noticed you’re helping out the veterans, breast cancer, humane society, man. I commend you on that. That’s really awesome.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Thank you. Thank you. I mean, giving back is one of the things that I think are important I mean a business is designed to make money, but giving back is important, especially to things that you feel are close to your… you know?
Scrappy Jackson:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And you dropped off, what, 75 pounds of gummies to the dogs at the Ford Myers Humane Society. They must have been sleeping for days.
Kai Pfretzschner:
No. No, no. We helped them out with treats. We donated bulk treats. We had our team. We currently have about 85 people working for us. So they made dog toys. So we helped them out with adoption drives, treats, we built toys for them. So everybody chips in their time a little bit.
Scrappy Jackson:
You mentioned you’ve been in business for eight years, but you’ve really skyrocketed under your leadership. How have you evolved so quickly?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Oh, good question. I mean, it’s a combination. So you are in a business. You’re trying to figure out what drives your business a little bit quicker. You hone in, there’s a thing called the power law. 20% of anything you do usually gives you about 80% of your return. So in our case, we honed into the gummies. So two and a half years ago, we decided to manufacture our own gummies. Not a lot of people did. It took about six months to get the machinery up and going, to get the R&D work together, get all the licenses together. And producing our own gummy edibles really made a difference. So that’s propelled our business.
Scrappy Jackson:
You have a fascinating background. You’re from Germany and you were studying Mercedes-Benz. You were going to be a mechanic for Mercedes-Benz. So in coming over here, you’re somewhat of a scientist, aren’t you? You’re kind of like an engineer that tinkers a lot, right?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well yeah, that’s how I started. I was an engineer for Mercedes and, yeah. Then I moved here about 20 years ago, went through a couple different businesses, anything from construction, real estate, and then ended up in the cannabis industry. And in the beginning it was all self taught. Right? So a lot of reading. How do I come up with a formula for a gummy? What’s picked and what’s glucose and what’s everything that’s in there, right? So in the beginning it was all that. Now, we have chemists employed that check all their formulas. I’m the chief development officer so I’ll come up with new ideas, new gummies. And then I go to them and say, “Here, this is my idea. Can we do it or not?” And then we work together on the formulation and SOPs and all that good stuff.
Scrappy Jackson:
As entrepreneur, we highlight entrepreneurs here locally in Southwest Florida, courtesy of Content with Teeth. I think it’s fascinating that you have two incredible skills. You’re not just a scientist/engineer, but you’re also a driver. You really drive a business. You’re very ambitious. How do you go about complimenting your team so that all the parts around you work properly?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, that was actually one of the things that I see a lot when entrepreneurs start their business. They underestimate how important it is to have a good team, right? So when you start a business, you think this was my idea, I can do it better, and I also do it by myself because nobody else can do this, but myself. Not true. Without a team, you can’t grow a business. So our team is amazing. They do a lot of work with us. We do a lot of stuff for them. Every month, we do a employee appreciation dinner. We take them out to dinner and we cater stuff. We do fun activities at least once a month. And it’s important that everybody’s comfortable. It doesn’t have to be all work, right? So it’s good to socialize and make everybody feel they belong to that company.
Scrappy Jackson:
You create a culture.
Kai Pfretzschner:
You have to.
Scrappy Jackson:
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. From a business perspective, you mentioned that you’re fifth in the United States with the gummy business. What about competition otherwise? What are you doing to stave them off and differentiate yourself moving forward?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, a company our size is obviously all for regulation. In our industry, it’s always been like that, that a lot of people started it out of their garage and their homes and stuff. We adhere to every regulation there is. We got [inaudible 00:13:00], which is the agricultural in the state, in Florida right now, working close together with us. So we adhere to label guidelines. We do third party testing. So we spend large amounts of money every month to make sure that all of our product that’s produced and goes out is tested and approved before it hits the market. Right? So there’s a lot that goes into it. You have to do it right, otherwise you can’t sustain a business.
Scrappy Jackson:
Sure, sure. I find your company to be very creative as well, from the packaging to the website. What goes into that?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah. We have a team of designers. So they’re the creative people. It’s definitely not me. Yeah. We design logos. We have a whole marketing team. So they do photo shoots. They plan out all the promotions, all the holidays they’re coming up three to six months ahead. They take pictures, they do videos for online, social media, ads, all kinds of stuff, so.
Scrappy Jackson:
So when you were kicking in Germany as a teenager, did you ever think in your wildest dreams you’d be selling gummies in Southwest Florida for a living?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Definitely not, really. I always was interested in the cannabis industry, like every 16-year-old is, I guess. But to make a business out of it was definitely something amazing. And yeah, it’s going great. I like it.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. Well, I want you to give a shout out to three groups. First of all, I want you to talk to the people that are potential consumers. What’s your pitch to them?
Kai Pfretzschner:
My pitch would be that the cannabis plant can be a perfect substitute for any kind of pharmaceuticals. You don’t have to take Vicodin and painkillers. There is a natural alternative with less to non side effects. So for one, you got a lot of customers that tell us… Oh, feedback is crazy. Older ladies and gentlemen come to us like, “Wow. I started taking CBD and Delta-8, Delta-9 THC instead of my painkillers. I feel much better.” So in my opinion, that’s one of the biggest drivers. Veterans, we sponsor them because of PTSD, right? So CBD, Delta-8 THC, Delta-9 THC helps a lot to calm them down and take the edge of a little bit. So there’s a lot of pros.
Scrappy Jackson:
Oxycodine, fentanyl. Are people actually getting off of it because of CBD?
Kai Pfretzschner:
I can’t say for sure, but I sure hope they would substitute a little bit and get off all the hard stuff.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. Well, another group I want you to talk to are budding entrepreneurs right here in Southwest Florida. I mean, you’re doing it. You’re doing it really big. What do you suggest for them? As far as, let’s say they’re getting out of FGCU next week, what do you tell them?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, if they have the entrepreneurial spirit, they most likely have an idea, right? So they think X, Y, Z, I’m interested in this. Maybe I want to start a business. You got to do your research first. What’s your competition look like? In my opinion, it helps to find a niche. Little bit something that’s right in the middle that not everybody’s doing. If you get out of FGCU and say, “Hey, I want come out with an energy drink,” well, good luck. Your competition is going to be high. They’re probably going to squish you like a bug, as they say, right?
Scrappy Jackson:
Right.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Then do your homework, right? Make sure you’re solid. Get legal representation. You need to have a legal backup. And then it’s going to be much more work than you ever thought it would be. If you don’t put in your time… Extraordinary access comes through extreme sacrifices. So you got to sacrifice your time.
Scrappy Jackson:
Yeah, definitely.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Don’t be in it for the money. Okay? The money will come later on, but hard work and just don’t give up.
Scrappy Jackson:
And Kai, what kind of advice would you give yourself when you were 12 years old?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Nothing. Everything is great. Just do exactly what you’re doing. It’s all going to be great.
Scrappy Jackson:
Really?
Kai Pfretzschner:
I wouldn’t do anything. So I could have moved a little bit earlier. Okay? So I waited until I was 20, 21 years old before I moved over here. Other than that, the only thing that I could have learned a little bit faster is delegating. We talked about it earlier, the mindset that only you can do it the right way. You need a good team of people that you can trust. You got to learn how to delegate stuff to them. That way you can get 10 times the workload done with three people in a day that would’ve taken yourself two weeks and then the customer’s already gone. So yeah.
Scrappy Jackson:
So what’s next for you, man?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, we’re trying to expand in a couple of different states. We’re trying to get into the regulated THC market in Michigan and a couple other projects that we have going on. So traveling a lot back and forward, just trying to make things happen.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’m kind of curious, if there’s recreational states where they allow marijuana, no problem, no medical card, can you actually up your CBD percentage, just for those states?
Kai Pfretzschner:
They’re doing it. If you blend CBD and THC together, it takes the potency of the THC away a little bit. So there’s certain products that are doing it. But usually in those states, it’s state regulated manufacturers. So you have to have a state license to operate in that state.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. Finally, Kai, in your success, you’ve afforded yourself the opportunity to travel. You’ve traveled extensively. And what lessons have you learned?
Kai Pfretzschner:
So traveling, I love to travel because I love to experience different cultures, different food. In my opinion, if you stay in one spot for too long, you’re in a little bubble, in a little box, right? And your mind is not as broad as it should be. So traveling, I experience other people how they do things. And then I realize that the way I’m doing it is probably not the only right way. That there’s more than one right way of doing it.
Scrappy Jackson:
True.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah. I’ve been to Asia a lot, China, to our manufacturers for machinery over there. We’ve been several, four or five times to Shanghai. Those are all great people. Not so lucky right now, but those are awesome people. They hustle hard. Their work mentality is something I admire. They never give up. And, yeah.
Scrappy Jackson:
There’s… I’m sorry. There’s cannaboid oil. Okay? CBD. And Creating Better Days, I finally figured it out, man, CBD.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Ah, CBD. Create Better Days. There you go.
Scrappy Jackson:
My man, Kai Pfretzschner. Creating Better Days, a CBD manufacturer right here in Southwest Florida, doing it really big, courtesy of Content with Teeth. We’re doing this podcast. Content with Teeth, a marketing agency, doing incredible content. I’m Scrappy. Kai, peace out.
Things weren’t always so rosy. In his earlier days, he took stock of his life after couch surfing in the Big Apple.
Now he is the founder of Cozza Investment Group which The Wall Street Journal named #10 in the country for volume produced.
The Come Up Episode 4 Highlights
The Come Up is a short video podcast produced by Content with Teeth that documents the up-and-coming entrepreneurial scene in Southwest Florida.
In Episode 4, Everyone Loves Brad Cozza.
Jumping between different companies and industries, from real estate to restaurants, you definitely want to follow this guy’s career arc.
Back in his school days: Brad was a hungry hunter for investment opportunities at FGCU when it was a lonely outpost with more snakes than students.
Cozza’s advice to entrepreneurs: Take risks, but calculated ones only. Learn how to adapt and NOT die.
Real estate success: learn how to work the genie to up your odds of being in the right place at the right time.
Watch the episode and learn the connection between Cozza and Pitbull and the ultimate advice on unlocking a real estate gamechanger.
About Brad Cozza and Content with Teeth
For UnBoring Content like The Come Up, contact Content with Teeth HERE. Find Cozza Investment Firm located in Fort Myers HERE.
The Come Up Episode 4 Transcript
Scrappy Jackson: What’s up? What’s up? What’s up? I’m Scrap Jackson, and this is The Come Up, a video podcast celebrating Southwest Florida’s most interesting entrepreneurs. We’re brought to you by Content with Teeth, a creative content marketing agency right here in Southwest Florida. They do all kinds of good stuff: copywriting, video production, HubSpot services, and based on this big ass Fathead logo behind me, you can tell they do it big, real big.
Scrappy Jackson: Our guest today is Brad Cozza, an FGCU grad who’s turned his business degree into a Southwest Florida real estate and entertainment empire. He’s done it with moxie, risk-taking vision, passion. It’s awesome to have you here, Brad. We really appreciate it.
Brad Cozza: What’s up, Scrap? Thanks for having me. How you been?
Scrappy Jackson: Good. Really good. Really good. Southwest Florida is alive with real estate entertainment. You’re on the cusp. But I’m thinking back in the day, when you were in West Warwick, Rhode Island, you’re playing shortstop for your little league team, in your wildest dreams did you think you’d be here today?
Brad Cozza: Well, everybody in their wildest dreams in West Warwick, Rhode Island in little league thought that they were all going to play for the Boston Red Sox, so that was, I guess, my dream back then. But no, I’m very blessed to have made that move to Southwest Florida, because it was just a golden opportunity and moved at the right place at the right time, and I was very happy to go south.
Scrappy Jackson: And then you went to FGCU. Tell us about your experience there with Business Administration.
Brad Cozza: I did. So I was one of the second, I think it was the second graduating class at FGCU. So back then, you would take a ride to your dorm room down Ben Hill Griffin. And I felt like Jack Hanna, basically looking for boar, for reptiles, for snakes. It was just before there was any growth pattern, that now you take a look to see Gulf Coast Town Center, you take a look at Miramar, it’s a completely different environment where it was 15 years ago.
Scrappy Jackson: If you only had one acre of Miramar land back, then you’d be pretty much set. Right?
Brad Cozza: I would have bought something, I just didn’t have any money.
Scrappy Jackson: So, you get involved in modeling. You go to Miami. Perry Ellis, Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger, you’re doing really big for the Miami modeling scene, but I read somewhere where you were stuck on a couch and you wanted more out of life?
Brad Cozza: So, the modeling industry was for the time being. It was one of those situations where you would go to the coolest parties, and I had a vast appreciation for fashion, but it’s one of those industries where you don’t make any money.
Scrappy Jackson: Yeah.
Brad Cozza: And I went to college and wanted to, obviously, use my college education. And I found myself one morning in Queens, basically living on a couch. I was like, “Okay. This was fun, now it’s time to actually do some work.”
Scrappy Jackson: But in many respects, it was the groundwork for your perspective today, because your real estate vision involves somewhat of a metropolitan, cosmopolitan feel. Right?
Brad Cozza: Sure, absolutely. So, definitely, the real estate investment arena in Southwest Florida has been what I actually focused on when I first got my license. When I was a licensed agent, typically you get into real estate and you do cookie-cutter showings and working with buyers. I knew right off the bat that I had a passion for ROI investment, development, and was in the right place at the right time during the market boom of 2005. And we started marketing to major metropolitan centers. We would run ads in the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, New York Post. And it went from five deals to 10 deals, and in 2006, our company was ranked number 10 in the nation by the Wall Street Journal for volume produced nationwide. So it was a great accolade and definitely found my sweet spot with working with investor.
Scrappy Jackson: Foreclosures, pre-construction, flips, sales, what do you like the best? What’s the most exciting to you?
Brad Cozza: Depends on what the market is.
Scrappy Jackson: Really, because you’re a businessman. Right?
Brad Cozza: So, right now you read the market and there’s a housing scarcity. So what makes this market different from ’05, ’06 is back then it was just anybody could get a construction loan, state-to-state programs, everybody was irresponsible. It was investors buying from investors. It was all hyper appreciation, false appreciation.
Brad Cozza: In this market, the game changer was COVID. 2020, our governor, you never actually bring up politics in business, but you have to state the obvious. When our governor DeSantis basically said, “Hey, listen. Florida’s open for business,” it just really spiked our local economy, spiked the economy of Florida. And from 2020 to 2021, it was the largest economic boom that Florida has ever seen.
Brad Cozza: Now you’re seeing the drip, drip, residential effect, where there’s a huge demand for housing, because people are being relocated here from their northernly blue states. And you’re starting to see for the first time, you’re seeing New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, you’re seeing New England, you’re seeing Washington, you’re seeing California. So it’s good to see that we’re now increasing the people that basically are actually coming to this area, in addition to the Midwesterners that historically come to South of Florida.
Scrappy Jackson: From a complexion standpoint, where do you see the demographic texture going here in Southwest Florida?
Brad Cozza: Major metropolitan, which is very diverse, and you’re going to see, which we love, we love a melting pot. We love different concepts. And especially to see that this market is very educated and metropolitan-oriented, it’s completely different where it was five years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago. This market is looking and feeling more and more of something you would see in the East Coast.
Scrappy Jackson: And you’re on the cusp, that’s for sure. Gulf Shore Magazine’s 40 under 40. And I was doing my homework on you, Brad, and I came up with this idea. Now tell me if I’m wrong. Modeling was an indoctrination, real estate, a foundation, food and entertainment, an avocation.
Brad Cozza: I think I might use that. That’s IG-worthy.
Scrappy Jackson: Yeah, man, because your avocation-
Brad Cozza: Yeah. Listen, hospitality has always been a passion mine, and I consider it a fun environment to be around. And I really think that Southwest Florida is ready for some major metropolitan ideas and some concepts that more and more we’re seeing that. We’re getting away from what historically would actually work in Southwest Florida five, 10 years ago, because it is so diverse and we are seeing such migration to this location, to Southwest Florida. So it’s getting that metropolitan vibe and we love it.
Scrappy Jackson: Yeah. You’re not satisfied with just real estate. Colleoni’s is a wonderful Italian restaurant. Tell us about that.
Brad Cozza: Yeah. So I was always one of their biggest patrons. I used to go there all the time. And COVID happened, and they have some family back in Milan, so they said, “Hey, Brad, would you be interested in promoting and selling our business?” So I said, “Well, how much do you want?” And we actually came to terms, and I said, “I’d like to take over the tradition itself.” So we hired a really good team, hired a really good chef that basically provided a little, had that whole Colleoni family recipe, but added a little modern touch to it. And it’s been great. We’re looking for expansion, and it’s been a tremendous opportunity.
Scrappy Jackson: That’s great. As an entrepreneur, you’ve definitely carved your own path. You’ve taken risks. You faced adversity. What kind of advice can you give a young entrepreneur today?
Brad Cozza: Take risks, but definitely diversify. Take calculated risks, do your homework. What works in one market might not work in another market itself. So just really dial into what market you would like to take that risk in, and take that jump in the pool.
Scrappy Jackson: Another piece of advice; I want Brad to give advice to his 20-year-old self.
Brad Cozza: Get in real estate before you’re 25. But again, the experiences I had with modeling and hospitality and so on and so forth, I like to be well-rounded, and I like to do numerous things at the same time. So I would not second guess anything, and I’m very happy and very fortunate to be in such a growing, explosive marketplace.
Scrappy Jackson: As ambitious as you are, how do you keep all these things, how do you keep them balanced, work/life?
Brad Cozza: That’s always the challenge. The challenge is I always like to work. I work when I’m basically not working if that makes any sense.
Scrappy Jackson: Yes.
Brad Cozza: I always, whenever I go on vacation, I’m basically looking at other concepts, I’m looking at other ideas. And so, it’s always churning in order to basically stay ahead of the game and ahead of curve, especially in a market that you can definitely actually take advantage of in a positive way, and basically actually impact some positive changes.
Scrappy Jackson: Cozza Investment Firm. Tell us about it right now, and how can we participate with you in future opportunities?
Brad Cozza: So, we’re working with some large institutional hedge funds, as well as individual investors. Again, we never want to basically overplay one specific marketplace, so we’re very flexible. There’s a huge demand for affordable housing, so we’re taking our investment group and our investors, our builders, and we’re moving north. We’re actually going to Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, North Port, Claremont, center of the state, anywhere where it makes sense where you can create affordable housing. That’s where the true demand is, and that’s where you’re going to have your exit strategies in a very safe, relative marketplace compared to what it was in that 2005, 2006 market. So we like to be flexible and we like to… Because the more investors make, the more they’re going to invest back with us.
Scrappy Jackson: Given your flexibility, do you still have a niche?
Brad Cozza: We do. We do. Pre-construction is definitely a huge niche because we’re in such a hot seller’s marketplace right now that the cost of reproduction is the only way that we can show an equity position for our investors. Because we give our builders such high volume, they can afford to scale it, and basically, actually reduce the price per square foot. So pre-construction is the niche now, but again, you never know. The market changes. Who would have known in 2008 that our sole business plan would be attending the foreclosure auction every day?
Scrappy Jackson: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve seen you on IG, family, fun, friends, entrepreneurship. You’re a good dude, and I really appreciate you, man. And one of the things that I kind of correlate with is Pitbull. He says, “Live life. Don’t let life live you.” And you’re certainly doing that.
Brad Cozza: That’s correct. It’s got to be a well-rounded lifestyle.
Scrappy Jackson: Brad Cozza, I appreciate you, bud, really do. This is The Come Up, a video podcast celebrating Southwest Florida’s entrepreneurs. It is brought to you by Content with Teeth, a creative content marketing agency right here in Southwest Florida. From copywriting to video production to HubSpot service, they do it really big, just like this Fathead right here, Content with Teeth. Brad, thanks again, man. I really appreciate it.
Brad Cozza: Scrap, you’re the man. Thanks, brother.
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