What's going on is engines Roberts.
Thanks, kiddo, Savage.com, and today I've got special guest
Willie from Quito cracked on the line.
I met him at keto Connie had a booth right opposite of me.
He's got an awesome, ketogenic food product, and I honestly,
just wanted to bring it on the podcast to pick his brain about
business entrepreneurship, he is doing all of his production
in-house, which is something that is near and dear to my
heart. Because that's exactly what
we've done with keto brick. So, honestly just bring them on
the podcast, kind of pick his brain about what he's learned
with business. What are some of the obstacles?
Howard, he knew to get. Out of his corporate job and
dive into his own thing. He's also got aspirations to
step on stage and compete to. So I wanted to kind of pick his
brain about that as well. Thoroughly enjoyed the
conversation. I've got no doubt that you will
as well. So that further Ado, sit back,
relax and enjoy the podcast with Willie.
And we are live Willie. How are you brother?
Hey, I'm pretty good. How are you doing, Robert?
I'm good, man, I'm good. So we met at Kyoto con you had a
booth just opposite mine. So you were looking at me.
I was looking at you and you have got a company called keto
cracked. How would you describe that kind
of what is the product itself? Yeah.
So what we do is we Elevate classic treats by removing the
sugar and the dairy. So basically two of our best
products are the punter. The peanut butter caramel
crunch, it's basically our take on a Butterfinger it has the
same texture. The same taste, just 0 grams of
sugar. No, dairy in it.
And the other one, it's a it's our take on the girl.
Cookie Samoa it's called the Aloha caramel.
So those are the two products that were currently selling in
markets and online as well. And you've got like a super
well-financed Sleek design. I mean, all the packaging looks
on point. It just looks really Luxe.
I guess. Is a good word for it.
Is that new packaging been rolled out yet?
Are you still use a no packaging?
Yeah, great question. So I just got that new packaging
recently. So we're still going through the
inventory of the old packaging and we're going to roll out the
new one with in the next coming months.
And we're actually working on a new one as well, which is going
to be more of a retail ready. One instead of a gift box so
it'll still kind of have the same look and feel but it's just
going to be in a, in a softer box instead of the the rigid
box. Nice.
What was the motivation behind
this in the first place, man. Like, get having gone through
the whole process to create a ketogenic food product and bring
it to Market and I can attest to the fact that it's not a trivial
Endeavor. So what was the motivation
behind making this reality in the first place?
Yeah, so I actually started keto back in like 2013, I just
started my full-time job and I like couldn't perform mentally
just because my diet was really bad.
My sleep was also really bad and so I knew that I had to kind of
change some stuff. And so the first thing that I
thought was okay, I think the diet portion is the easiest
because I was eating fast food, literally like every meal for a
few years, all throughout college and a majority of high
school as well. And so I had like pretty
terrible eating habits, which I didn't really think about Until
I tried to perform at at work and it just wasn't happening.
So I started learning about Aikido because one of my friends
cousins he was actually talking about how he can eat meat, eat a
lot of fat eat protein and he's losing weight and it also helped
him with his asthma and so I thought no this is crazy and I
started Looking into it. And I was pretty surprised at
what I found. And so I started keto, and just
throughout the years, there weren't too many keto recipes
online, I would kind of have to go on, read it, find like Google
shared documents between like the Smoky do communities,
compile my own stuff, and just throughout the years, it was
really hard to find something that was really good, especially
when it came to like Seems like sweets or snacks and so in 2019
you know. I was always kind of
periodically buying some stuff but it was always like just like
protein bars that tasted sweet basically so Quest Nutrition
that was kind of my go-to for years actually.
And in 2019 I stopped by Whole Foods just to try one of the
keto cups. I tried it.
I remember I spent more than I wanted to and it was like really
disappointing, and so I actually ended up giving you giving it
away to co-workers. And that weekend, I said to
myself, okay, I know I can do so much better because I was always
cooking and trying out different recipes and I just knew that
that I could make something better.
So yeah, that's kind of how it all started.
It was just a side project in 2019.
I was working on it about three to three to four days a week on
the weekdays and about like eight hours on the weekends,
Saturday and Sunday and then in 2021, that's when I decided,
okay, If I don't, if I don't pursue this like with 100% of my
attention and effort, I don't think it's going to go anywhere.
And so yeah, just last year that's when I decided.
All right, I'm going to really do this thing and so yeah, here
I am, I love it man. I definitely want to dive into
all the business aspect of things.
When it came when it comes to your own personal journey
through keto, you started in 2013, you said Yeah, that's
correct. So that's way.
Before any of the products were out there.
Any of the books or magazines or knit stuff was talking about
keto, where you even referring to it as key to our you just
referring to it as like some weird version of paleo.
So I found out about it as Quito.
Yeah that's how it was first. Introduced to me.
Nice nice and you've been pretty much doing it ever since then.
Yeah. So from 2013 until about 20 20,
I was on it for about like 90% of the time and then in 2021 I
kind of stopped because I wanted to bulk up a little bit because
I was like, chronically dieting for years and so I thought,
okay, I want to start eating more.
And so when I was getting up to about like 3,000 or 3,500
calories, those Very hard to eat it like eat that much just on a
strictly keto diet just for myself.
And so I thought okay, let me actually start introducing carbs
into my diet and I'm at a place where I'm not keto per se but I
am pretty low carb. So yeah, I transitioned away
from Quito little bit. Nice.
Do you when you had that
motivation? Usually to jump into key, do you
mentioned that You were wanting to optimize your performance
with work where you like overweight or anything at that
point to are you just dealing with some brain fog?
I wanted to kind of get that doll then yeah I would say a
majority of it was the brain fog.
I was a little bit overweight I was always kind of working out
but my diet wasn't great. But yeah the biggest thing was
the brain fog because coming out of college I was sleeping at
around like 4 a.m. and then I Try to wake up.
So, two weeks after I graduated from college, that's when I
started my full-time job. And so, trying to go to sleep at
4:00 and then a waking up at like 8:00 a.m. to get to work by
9:00. And on the first week, I was
drinking like, six cups of coffee a day when I wasn't
drinking any prior to that. And so that's when I knew, okay,
if coffee isn't going to work, I know I need to to make a bigger
change in my life. Yeah, it's hard on your body.
For sure. What were you studying in
school? I want to school, I got my
bachelor's in business econ and a minor in accounting.
Nice. Do you feel like your formal
education? There has contributed much to
your success within your business Endeavors or or not Not
too much. Probably not so much school.
And the same way, man, I went to school for business finances.
Well, with a minor in marketing and I honestly don't think any
of the things I applied or I learned I've applied directly to
the business. How about the marketing side for
you? Did that help at all?
Not really mean because I mean so much of the marketing when I
was in school and it wasn't that long ago, it's just not really.
I mean they weren't talking about social media hardly like
it was just you know, traditional more Getting which
is just not I mean marketing changes so quickly that it
wasn't really that effective. The only main benefit that I got
from going to business school. I think was it that it's simply
just gave me some perspective on what's possible with business.
Like I would be, you know, studying these case studies of
these massive corporations, like, you know, Walmart Tyson JB
Hunt, things of that nature. And I would just kind of see how
they move money. I would have kind of learn about
some of the legalities with it. My accounting classes pretty
good at a really passionate accounting professor which is
kind of strange to even put the same.
Since most people don't associate accounting as being
something one kind of passion for it, but he was all about him
and he was energized. He's all about talking about
accounting so that I think helped but it was so long after
that that I started actually using those skills that I didn't
really pull from that by memory. So at the end of the day, I
think honestly I just wound up with 30 Grand in student debt
and gained a little bit more perspective.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know I kind of had the same experience.
None of, I wouldn't say none but a lot of the things that I read
in the books and learned in class it didn't directly
translate over. It was actually in my in my
full-time job. That's where I would say me
working in a professional setting having to deliver
high-quality work to clients. I would say that is definitely
what help me. I'm transition into starting my
own business. It made it a lot easier because
I feel like I had a pretty good foundation of things that I need
to do being able to kind of create my own tasks and making
sure that I'm on top of it. That's the stuff that translated
over and not so much of the college experience and education
on that side. What kind of interview were you
in? After you graduate college, what
was your Before you jump ship and went into this thing full
time. Yeah, it was in a Litigation
Consulting. So basically Consulting for
attorneys when attorneys are representing their clients when
they're suing each other. They sometimes don't know
exactly how much to pursue in terms of Damages or how much
they should be defending. Like, what, what the defendant
believes is the right amount. That that they believe that they
should be suing or being sued for and so the attorneys would
hire us and we would help them review all the documents taken.
Kind of the legal aspect as well, to really compute how much
the damages should be. And so we would have a team and
we would work with the data, read the documents, and come up
with a formal report and submit that to, to the attorneys on the
courts can't. Yeah, so yeah.
Not a lot of it translates directly to, to having a keto
business, but I think kind of the strong work ethic that
definitely helped. This business.
Yeah, I think I think that carries over and transcended and
pretty much every sector of business, for sure.
And just to make sure that I'm following your timeline quickly.
So you were doing that after graduating.
And then you started the the keto company, keto cranked?
2019. You said?
Yeah. That's correct.
So I graduated school and started my first full-time job
in 2013, and it wasn't Until like six years later when I kind
of started started keto cracked as a side business and how long
will you doing as a side? Hustle before you went in full
speed, yeah, about two years. So during those two years, I
basically just did a lot of research and my plan was
actually to, to use a co-packer at the time.
Basically. I was just saving up as much
money as I could, and my plan was since, I was working
full-time. I didn't have much time to make
it myself. So basically, I just came up
with recipes. That would work on a larger
scale where I could contract another manufacturer to make it
for me. And then in 21, I just said, you
know what, I'm just going to do this full-time.
So I had the time to actually making myself.
So the original product was going to be these chocolate
truffles squares. It was almost like a bar not a
protein bar per se, but it was definitely in between like a bar
and a candy. But now since I'm actually
making it myself, I actually did a lot of research and studying
into how to make candies, so I can make more Gourmet like,
legit candy. So, yeah, that's what I make in
at the moment. So there's an interesting
question here that I want to make sure we kind of diamond to
because I get this question all the time and I'd be curious to
get your Take on it. But people come to me all the
time in the ask you. When do I know?
It's the right time to jump ship and Go full speed into whatever
it is that they're trying to pursue and there's different
trains of thought around this. Like, some people feel it's best
to have, you know, your, your main primary career path
business and then you build out a side, hustle on the side,
whenever you're able working nights, working weekends, etc,
etc. Some people are of the mindset
that you need to remove that safety.
Net. It entirely and just dive full
speed. And there's probably a ton of
nuance to this based off of where you're at in life, what
responsibilities you have if you have a family and kids, etc.
Etc. But for you I mean you were
doing your thing that you went to school for 46 years.
Probably had a pretty good established you know, base there
and then you just decided to jump into this, you know, Full
Tilt. Was that something that that
left you feeling uneasy and did you feel super-confident about
it or Had that whole conversation dialogue.
Go go between you and yourself internally.
Yeah, great question. I think it was kind of two
parts. The first one was I did, I ended
up doing a lot of research and that kind of gave me Comfort.
And knowing that when I do start it, I did enough research to
make sure that there is demand for the product and that I could
make a profit while doing this. Hmm.
Another big thing that kind of gave me Comfort was that I was
saving a lot of money. But at the same time, something
that was holding me back and if I could do it again, I would
actually do it earlier. It was there was, there was this
huge fear, I don't know what it was but I think it was the
pressure of knowing just how much work it's going to take.
It wasn't the fear of failure at the time but it was just more so
of okay. If I quit like this is it this
is going to be kind of It's going to consume my entire life
and so that was really holding me back.
And yeah in 2021 I just had a lot of time to rethink things
and I felt like I was mentally prepared, and I had the
financial I had enough of a safety net where I could do it
for at least one or two years. Really.
Give it my full effort, and see if I can make something out of
it. Did you have like a wife kids
girlfriend thought that a time or you just go?
No, so I guess that's what made it a lot easier, right?
I'm single. I don't really have any
responsibilities outside of myself and trying to help the
family. But yeah, how about for
yourself? Because I know you're married
and you have a new kid now, right?
Yeah. Congratulations.
By the way. Appreciate it, man.
So for me, I was with the railroad.
I was a train Master with Burlington Northern Santa, Fe
Railroad. And that's pretty much what I
had. Done right.
After I graduated college and I had worked for them for.
I think like two and a half years.
I was stationed in Washington state and I was trying to build
like this real estate Empire on the side there because I knew I
didn't want to be with the railroad, you know forever.
So I was trying to like, I got my real estate license and I was
trying to trying to just build up an Empire with bike rental
properties, basically. And then the railroad, I don't
know if they got wind of me trying to do my own thing and
they wanted me to. To relocate.
I'm not really sure what went down but they they basically
gave me a promotion to move to Gillette Wyoming but they gave
me this promotion before my time in Washington was supposed to be
up. So I'm not trying to.
I'm not sure if they were trying to expedite me moving, or what
was going down. But basically I had just gotten
my license as a registered agent in Washington so I didn't really
want to move to Gillette Wyoming.
And then it was kind of like, it's kind of weird.
Like they gave me this promotion with a pay increase.
And everything to Gillette Wyoming.
And like I was really well respected within Myspace there,
but they were really with how they did it.
They basically wanted me to take that promotion or else, and I
just pretty much chose the or else option.
And I just said, screw the railroad and quit, and I had no
safety net. I had no money in reserve.
I was, I had bought a house in Washington.
I was house hacking that. So I had roommates that are
pretty much cover my mortgage and I was trying to build up an
Empire there. And then quit the railroad so I
was pretty much living off of credit cards racked up.
I don't know, probably fifty thousand dollars in credit card
debt as pretty much my main. Existence that's house buying
groceries and putting gas in the tank and then I was working a
bunch of Oddball jobs like, you know, working the front desk at
a gym and then I pretty much figured that I had to find a way
to make the whole keto thing work.
So I started coaching and then that I guess I got into space
the right time there because there was a demand And growing
for heated genic realm. And then the keto brick business
came about by accident. I was making that from own
personal consumption, during my prep and then documenting that
Journey on YouTube and people started asking about the brick
and Crystal. And I just kind of decided to
dive into the world of food production, rolled up our
sleeves looked into what it would take from a legal
standpoint from a financial standpoint and you start of
bootstrapping that business from the ground up and then just
started really growing quite quickly.
Quickly to the point we're at now.
But yeah, I definitely have a plan b or a safety net or some,
you know, set aside bunch of funds.
So it's pretty much sink or swim for me, which I like operating
in that type of environment because it makes me really work
hard and think more creatively. There's a lot more stress
involved in doing that, like I probably lost 10 years of
lifespan because I've been so stressed.
But, oh, man, that's just how I operate, you know.
Yeah, must have been really stressful early on when you did
get that promotion offer. How, how did you know to not
take it or like for you? What was it that made you say,
you know what, I'm going to try my own thing, like because it
seems like there were a lot of things that maybe the normal
person would have taken that promotion, and would have stayed
in the industry for a really long time.
Yeah, I mean most people definitely would have taken Get
them in the railroad paid really?
Well, I mean, I was making really good money right out of
college. So it was a very you know,
comfortable thing to continue to do but I just knew that's not
what I wanted to do long-term. I mean I looked at the people
that were in the railroad space you know at the very top of the
ladder and they all seemed miserable.
So I'm like okay the best case scenario is still being
miserable. I didn't really sound like a
good wind for me. So I'm just going to get out now
before I really get too deep dug into it I just basically better.
Self. And I'm glad I did.
And at that time Crystal and I were kind of like, we had this
like three-month span where we weren't talking, didn't know
what was going to happen there. So had I taken that job and
moved to Wyoming her and I would no longer be a thing.
They're just a lot of it's interesting.
I think kind of play out when you kind of reverse engineer the
different outcomes but yeah I don't know.
I risk risk doesn't really scare me like I've Got a lot of risk
right now. Like I've got, you know, I'm
leveraged in a lot of ways right now and there's times where that
really seems to weigh heavily on me, but I feel like I function
really well under a lot of stress and pressure.
I started to feel like something's wrong if there is no
stress and pressure is like my Norm, Yeah.
Actually like kind of the same thing with me.
I kind of realized like in 2019 or little bit earlier that for
me to to really get to the top in my industry.
I basically had to go back to school and get it.
Get a PhD. Hmm and so I knew maybe like two
or three years into my career that okay, I'm either going to
hit a ceiling. Or that or I need to kind of
move around companies and see where I can go to where I can
continue to grow. And so I think that was also
another big thing for me. I just knew that I didn't want
to do this forever and so that made it a lot easier when I did
eventually transition into doing my own thing full time that I
made the right decision. So yeah, that was, that was
something that really made it easy for me.
Actually. Yeah.
I think it's huge, man. I mean I feel like We live in a
world in which it's so easy to just Embrace mediocrity.
I mean I see so many people that are okay.
Being average, they're okay, doing the normal things that
they don't really love, but they also don't hate it because it's,
you know, a means to an end. They're able to find some degree
of comfort and complacency, and my biggest fear in life has
always been mediocrity. And I looked at people in the
railroad and nobody loved what they did.
Everybody just kind of went through the day-to-day and a
constant state of blah. And I, that was, that was my
biggest fear. So I'm like, well, I'm just
going to get out while I'm ahead and then kind of sink or swim so
to speak, but I feel like if, you know, that's the type of
person you are, you're not doing yourself.
Any favors by staying at a place that promotes that, you know,
comfortable degree of just complacency because then it
makes it that much harder as more time passes to break free
of that Perpetual cycle. Yeah, it's funny that you
mention that because I guess I come from the side of I was
pretty content being mediocre, so just like all throughout my
life. Feels basically kind of going
the safe route was always the preferred route just the way
that I was raised. It was always take kind of the
guaranteed thing. And so, I was pretty.
I was content. I wouldn't say I was not happy
or happy. I was just like kind of right in
the middle with the career and it really wasn't until covid hit
and I was working at home and I realized okay something's kind
of wrong. And that's really one.
I started working out a lot more and that's when I actually kind
of got a lot of courage to To, to kind of become better.
Really pushing myself in the gym, making sure that I was
eating correctly that it made it a lot easier for me to always
want to strive for something a little bit more.
Not only in just the health and fitness side but also in my
entire life and then I kind of started to realize more and more
that I can actually there's like no limit to myself and you know
listening to a lot of podcasts. That also helped open my mind up
to kind of change my mindset from, just being content with
where I'm at. You know, it's it's really
happy, it's really easy to kind of stay in that place just like
you mentioned because it's easy, it's comfortable.
Like I know I know how my life is going to play out at that
point for the most part, but yeah, the gym is what really
kind of helped me too. I kind of want more for myself
and and to realize that I can achieve more in my life.
So now, I love it, man. I feel like the gym has always
been a constant, you know, think of positivity in my life and you
mentioned all this kind of really shaking down in light of
covid. And I feel like covid-19
interesting Catalyst for a lot of people like it really brought
to the surface and Illustrated what kind of person you know?
People are like if they were the type to allow Subs to become
complacent and mediocre and just settle it really you know
Illustrated that if if you're the kind of person that is able
to you know hustle and have ambition and strive in the sign
of hardship, it really Illustrated that I feel like I
feel like if anything covid brought about this sense of you
know just just drastic unexpected change and people
that thought they were in a really could position that was
insulated from all of the hazards of society in the
environment, you know, maybe they totally lost their job or
position overnight for me as an entrepreneur.
Like I don't rely or expect anything from anybody anytime.
So like the world could be falling down and I would figure
out a way to stay upright and you know, covid-19 plan exercise
of that for me, like, I think There's they're forced to be
adaptable, they're forced to think creatively.
They're forced to find Solutions when everything seems to be a
problem and a lot of people throughout covid-19 towards the
government or their their employer or their X Y or Z to be
the person or thing or entity that gave them some some stable
footing. Whereas for me as an
entrepreneur it's like there is never any stable footing like
you just Have to be adaptable with whatever footing you've
got. So I didn't really Skip Beat
with covid. I know that wasn't the case for
all companies, some companies depending on the industry, you
know, that they were in a really good spot to thrive in light of
covid and some depending on the industry were in a really bad
spot. So kind of it, I mean, it does
kind of depend on the industry or in and to an extent, but I
feel like the mentality of just simply figuring out how to be
adaptable and creative and find Solutions in light of problems.
You know, that was really just Illustrated perfectly because of
this extreme With koban. Yeah, no, definitely.
It seems like you've always kind of had this sort of
Entrepreneurship mindset, though, being very independent.
Do you kind of feel like you've always had that?
Like growing up? Yeah.
I feel like I feel like I always loved the idea of having that
but I don't think that I confidently felt that in myself
until I started seeing success with the company.
Like I always felt, you know, like I want to do my own thing
and I always admired people. That did their own thing and I
always identified as someone that would do their own thing.
But it didn't become real to me until I started actually doing
it. You know I mean it's kind of
like you can read as many books out there.
You can really business books out there in the world.
You can feel really good about what you're learning from that.
But when you start applying it and doing it, you know, doesn't
really count for anything. Yeah, it's funny because I was
stuck in this Loop and I was actually helping out a friend as
well, wear for like, two years. I think I was doing too much
research, or I was at a point where I knew that I should just
launched this thing, but I kept wanting to take more information
telling myself no. Hey, I need more information
when it was just the fear and myself, trying to avoid actually
launching at putting myself out there.
And so I was actually helping out another friend who she's
very intelligent, very driven but she's scared of Of taking
that first step of really providing her services.
And so I told her, you know what, just get one client first.
It doesn't need to be perfect before you launch because you
can always change and things are always going to change once you
actually launch. And so, yeah, I tried to and
this is something that I would tell myself and other people as
well. Get started now and you'll
figure things out along the way. It doesn't have to be perfect
before you start. Yeah, 100% man.
Like, if somebody had given me a stack of instructions at the
very beginning with all the things that I needed to do for
it to be perfect, I would have said screw that.
I don't want any part of it, you know.
So you really just have to jump in and then recognize your
mistakes then, but I feel like recognizing those mistakes and
then figuring how to refine and polish it is what allows you to
have. That confidence and adaptability
factor and you can't, you can't cheat that, you can't fake that.
I've never loved the whole concept of fake it till you make
it like, you just simply do it and then you start making it as
you learn more. So, yeah, I think you're 100%
right there. When you launched Full Speed
Ahead, man. You know, I really resonate with
the fact that you've done it all in house.
I mean, I feel like there aren't too many people that do things
in house anymore, like so many things are farmed out overseas.
There they go. Through a co-packer, they go
through some Outsourcing agency. So I've got tremendous.
Respect for people that do things internally under their
own roof. That's how we've always done it
because I think that's just the best way to continue no control
for the quality and to deliver the type of product and service
that I want to be proud of. So the fact that you've done
that as well man, I think it's just freaking awesome but with
them all kinds of hurdles and obstacles that often times go
Untold. So If you doing this, what are
some big roadblocks and obstacles that you've
encountered specifically with your company and how do you
overcome them? Yeah, I think some of the
biggest ones are that there's every day.
If I don't plan out my day, or my week or month, or the year I
can get lost in in, okay, should I do marketing today?
Should I work on on paying taxes to finance the financial aspect
of it? Or should I do our Rd or should
I package? Everything.
There's just so much to think about.
I think that's one of the pitfalls or one of the things
that I realize, it's kind of holding me back by doing
everything myself. It's me sometimes not
prioritizing the big things that are really going to move the
business forward and this is some this is a big trap that I
fell into earlier on where I was spending so much time on the
branding. The packaging the way things.
Look as opposed to me just trying to make it and starting
to sell it and so yeah for me it's making sure that if I'm not
prioritizing things then I can get lost and lose a lot of time,
not driving the business forward.
And so what I'm trying to do now is plan at least my day or my
week. Out ahead of time.
So sometimes there are certain days where I only work on
certain things and it's a lot easier for me.
I feel like I'm a lot more efficient and I can get a lot
more done. When I can focus on one aspect
of the business a day or for the week or kind of finish, like one
big project at a time within a certain Department of the
business. And so I think that's where
that's where I'm trying to catch.
Shop to someone like yourself where you're still doing
everything in house, but you have experts in place that can
help you grow the business, in, in that field, like you can kind
of just give those responsibilities to certain
people and kind of have them run run with it, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
It takes time for sure, man. It's tough to because like, you
know, when we first started was just Crystal and I doing
everything and I loved that, I mean, I love That every single
aspect of the company I've done at some point or another.
So I know exactly how long things should take how long
things shouldn't take, what the right way to do.
It is what the wrong way to do it is so I've got that Clarity
with all my employees now which I feel is super powerful.
Like there's certain employers that don't have a clue how to do
certain aspects of their business.
So like, you know, they're and when that happens like the
employees often times, you know, they take advantage of them in
that regard, which is not good. But at the same time like if
you're a one-man show you can't possibly focus on a lot of the
higher level strategic stuff because you're so busy with the
day-to-day business functional stuff like packaging and
shipping orders and whatnot. And it's all very important but
you're like the leader of the company.
You kind of want to be more high-level strategy wise and
kind of steering the ship as opposed to oil in the wheel so
to speak. But in finding more people to do
those those tasks that you can, you know, just basically say,
hey, this is what I need you to focus on like that.
That's a whole headache in itself, man.
I mean, do you have any employees now?
No, I don't. I well, not technically, but two
of my aunt's and actually, my grandma is a 93.
Now, she actually helps with some of the packaging is honest
and either put that on YouTube or Instagram or something.
It is packaged in and film then yeah, no, I I probably should.
Yeah. I'm the business is where it's
at right now because of their help and so I'm just so thankful
that that that they're able to help me out, so no employees.
But yet they definitely helped me out on the kind of the more
little manual labor part of it. Yeah, that's awesome.
And that's what we did to like Chris and I started out doing
everything ourselves. And then we bring on my friends
or my brother or my cousins and then they'd bring their friends.
And then we just kind of like pay them out early and then we
scale up and actually get some, you know, hired employees.
Then we'd like find them somewhere recruit them, and then
we'd like, have them go through the whole process of becoming a
legitimate employee with a debut to etcetera, Etc.
And then you've got all the headaches that accompany, you
know, hiring the right people and we've gone through a lot of
people, we've had some great employees.
We've had some that were not so great but finding the right
people is honestly probably the hardest aspect of business.
I mean I went Started. I thought the hardest thing was
packaging me. Like packaging was ahead of me
like getting the packaging dialed in making sure all the
fonts in the right spot. There's no airs in the spelling
like I would go back and forth with package designers and
producers, and I'm like, man. It can't get any worse than
this. And then, I sort of hiring
employees, and it's like it completely different ballgame.
Yeah, man, it's great. Like, I love like our team right
now. Freaking love our team right
now. Like, they're all really great.
People hard workers, I got no complaints, but But it took us a
long time to get the team that we have right now and it's weird
when you first start hiring and firing people because you've
never done that before. And you know, I've had to fire
people that were older than me. I've had, like, get onto people
that are doing things that I'm like, what are you doing right
now? Like, it's a new skill set of
acquiring develop, and then kind of refine and polish, but it
just makes you so much better at knowing what makes people tick,
what are what are, you know, good character traits.
What are bad character? It's in thing about most
employee positions is that you can train people to do, you
know, very specific skill sets. But you can't really train
people's character, like they kind of have that or they don't.
So we really hiring for good quality, characters is key.
So, so in your interviews, or when you talking, when you're
talking to prospective employees, what kinds of
questions do you ask? Or what's?
I know you mentioned? And like, their character, but
what are maybe some of the questions that you asked to find
out and like, how can you sometimes tell if they're being
genuine or not? Because I have encountered some
people just throughout my life where I always thought that I'm
a pretty good judge of character.
And then, you know, for years, I thought they were this type of
person and then when things get kind of rough, you figure out or
find out a different side of them.
Yeah, it's tough, man. I mean, you can't really know
like I've had I've had employees that have been with me for a
year and then all of a sudden out of nowhere, they surprised
me with something. So it's like anybody can be on
their best behavior for like a you know, 3 month probationary
period. So like you kind of just take
those punches as they come. But one thing that we started
doing is we made the onboarding process and the actual
application process, much more intensive.
So I had, I had the owner of dry form, wines on my podcast a few
years ago and he was kind of talking me through his hiring
process. And I kind of emulated some of
the stuff that he did and then add my own Flair to it.
But basically we have a pretty, pretty lengthy questionnaire
process, that people have to go through if they want to apply
and a lot of people like if they're just going to like a
zip, recruiter, like if they don't have to do more than
three, you know, bubbles or check marks are not even going
to do it so that weeds out a lot of people right there.
So I've got a pretty extensive, you know, questionnaire process.
If they passed them, then I jump on a zoom call with them.
And then it's kind of Like a pretty informal meet and greet.
And then if they pass that I fly them out here.
Have them job shadow, have them work for a few days.
Have them eat with our entire crew up, will prepare a big
cookout together and then they'll eat with our entire
Crews that our crew can venom out.
And then we kind of do that and back and forth a few times so
that they go through a pretty intensive process before they
ever signed the dotted line. And that has been really good
for us, like, we like, Some people are the mindset that you
hire quickfire quick but we've kind of taken the approach of
higher real slow and really be strategic and detail oriented
with the type of person we're looking for, put them to the
test and then give them a really clear transparent view of what a
day-to-day could look like if they were to get hired and then
just bring them out here and have them interact with us in a
very laid-back, cultural type Vibe setting to see if they're a
good fit you know culturally with our current crew because if
they're not a good fit with the current crew it's probably not
going to work out. Well, mhm.
So where do I apply? I like to say, yeah, I'll send
you. I'll send you the, the hiring
link so you can kind of see exactly what our questionnaire
press process. Looks like because if you just
like were to implement something similar to that and then tweak
it for however, you like it, you could probably eat out a lot of
people, man, because like, we originally had a very simple
brief onboarding process and we just got an influx of people
that weren't really good great candidates.
And then, Graphing to do the whole higher quickly fire
quickly, kind of deal but I don't I'm not really good at
firing quickly and this is something I've had to try and
get better at like I always try and give people the benefit of
the doubt and again they've got issues.
I'll just keep you know, hoping that they fix things are trying
to motivate them. I try and you know educate him I
try and Inspire them and it's just been like that, that often
times does not go in, it doesn't end well like if if they're not
an inspired motivated driven person to begin with.
You can't really make them become one.
So Really focusing on who they are at the onset has been, you
know, key for us, for sure, right?
And for someone like myself, who is doing everything on their own
at the moment with the help of, you know, on kind of some of the
packaging side where would you look to hire first or who, or
what position, would you hire first?
If you were to kind of go back a little bit, So I mean it kind of
depends like if you were to take your time, like if you were to
divide your, your 24-hour day into like a pie chart and, you
know, illustrate how much of your time gets spent doing each
different aspects of the business, you know, where does
most of your time go? That doesn't require your level
of expertise. So if most of that time is going
towards like, packaging, or fulfilling orders, or answering
emails, or something like that, I would probably hire somebody
for that position first, that you can do more of the higher
level thinking. Aspects.
Gotcha. Okay.
Yeah, for me definitely the manufacturing and the packaging
side. I have been kind of leaning
towards finding a co-packer just because I don't think that I'd
be willing to spend a lot of capital right now in building
out a facility. When I don't know how building
this on a larger scale is going to turn out.
So my thought process is and please, I'd love to hear your
thoughts. So my thought process is use a
co-packer right now, see how far I can get with them and then I
can decide. Okay.
Do I want to continue working with them?
Move to a bigger co-packer or just build out my own facility?
Yeah and there's lots of different Avenues you can go.
So most people in our space, definitely go, the co-packing
around the reason, right? I didn't want That was because a
lot of times co-packers will like you'll have to kind of bend
your standards to fit the co-packers requirements because
they're going to get, you know, better pricing on certain
ingredients or certain fillers or however, they structure
things. So like if they want you to do
something and conform to what's going to be best for their
bottom line, they're going to put pressure on you to do that
and I didn't want to have that pressure.
Secondly, I love seeing things built.
I love creating things with my own hands.
I love, you know, creating instead of consuming not to say
that people that go, the co-packer matter wrong.
That's just not how I personally prefer to do things and I didn't
have the means to buy the facility that we do now.
So, what I did was we started leasing a commercial kitchen
space by the hour. We were able to find a
commercial kitchen space that I think at the time was leasing
for like 20 bucks an hour. So I would, you know, book out
that kitchen for you know, whatever.
Our hourly production run time. Was I'd bring on my cousin.
My brother and my friends, and we'd all just go there, I'd pay
them hourly, pay the, the lease fee hourly, and I would just use
a lot of the equipment that the commercial kitchen space makes
it valuable to the people that use it, and I was able to do a
production run with that, from there.
I leased a building that was a commercial kitchen and had the
whole building, you know, in my lease.
And then from there, I'm at where I am now, where I
purchased my own building, renovated it out with my own
commercial kitchen and have everything under my own name.
But I definitely went the least by the hour.
Then least the building then by the building kind of approach
you can go the co-packing around again for sure.
But I feel like a lot of a lot of the reason we've seen the
success that we have, I believe is because people like our the
Killer Business is very organic in nature.
Like it's all pretty much organic.
It's all grass roots like people have supported the company
because they've seen our journey from the very And for me, being
able to have my own space and keep everything under my own
roof. And then show people how we
progress over time, just adds to that story, which is why we have
so much brand loyalty now. So I feel like, if you are going
to be creating a story and creating a brand, it's easier to
do that. If you've got opportunities for
content and you're going to have a lot more opportunities for
content. If you're doing everything
yourself, plus, it just simply creates a cooler story.
Yeah, no, definitely. I always feel like I resonate a
lot more with companies who are doing things in house, you know.
You get to kind of see more of the behind-the-scenes just
watching your stories on IG or even your post.
I can see that you're really close with your coworkers, it
almost seems like there, it seems like you guys are like a
real team and I get to kind of get a better sense of you guys
as a person and it's a lot easier to support you as a
company or your company. When I know who the money is
going to kind of right? Yeah.
Totally. I mean I mean I love like I love
having a warehouse space where I can come up here on the weekend.
When nobody's here, crank up the music full-bore workout sweep,
the floor and just like have my own thing man, like to me that
is Paradise, like, I love having that at my fingertips, some
people don't give a shit about that, they don't want to sleep
their own floor. They don't want to screw On
toilet. I totally get that too.
But for me, I just love having this compound that I can do
whatever I want with. Like I answer to no one really.
I mean, it's like my own company, my own space, my own
building, my own crew and we're all a family together, building
something, you know, day in day out together as a team and I
feel like, you know, I'm a mean. I may not be the biggest
business out there. I may not be the biggest, you
know, keto bar company out there, but I feel like what
we've got is something very special.
And I wouldn't trade it for a for a second.
Yeah, I think it's awesome. What you guys built?
And I've only met you guys recently at Quito con but I've
been kind of getting sucked into to a lot of the things that you
guys are doing just by like I really like what you guys are
doing. I like what you stand for.
Yeah, everything seems Yeah, it seems like you guys are on the
right path towards becoming really big.
But what are, what would you say?
Are your next goals for like three years or like five years
for the company man? I feel like you interview me on
the podcast. Sorry.
I just like to I'm just always like very curious.
No. No for sure man.
I mean there's it's kind of hard because like you know every
Business book will tell you to have like a three-year goal of
five year goal within your goal. And the reality is like I look
at the timeline of our Since and things have done, 180-degree
shifts in the course of three years.
Like, it's drastically changing on a regular basis.
So I don't really have like a, like a set three-year five-year,
ten-year, plan per se. I've got things that I want to
grow things that I want to build.
I've got Thailand has to win. I want to start tackling these
things. But as far as the, the keto
brick company goes, I want to keep growing it as big as it
will be while not sacrificing the Integrity of of the product
or the vibe and the atmosphere of the, the culture that we're
trying to create, because a lot of people get into business,
just to make money and they're only proxy for progress is more
money, but for me like that that's not a great, you know,
proxy for what it is that I'm trying to build like I want to
create something that yeah makes money and funds my future
endeavors but not at the expense of having a terrible
relationship with my co-workers. My He's my spouse, you know,
like I want to I want to have a place where I'm excited to go
every single day and excited to build something, alongside my
crew. So I want to get as big as I can
get while never ever sacrificing that and I want to be able to
pour into our community locally and abroad like I would love to
bring on more people and just create an environment for them
and it's going to go Way Beyond just the bricks.
Like I've got other brands that are starting and we'll start in
the future that Are going to be built on a lot of the core
philosophies that we've developed through keto brick but
are totally unrelated to the key to prick product.
So so yeah, man. There's there's all kinds of
things in the pipeline. That's awesome.
I'll be looking out for them. Yeah.
For sure man. What about you?
What do you see happening with this long-term?
Yeah, you know I think something with something along the lines
of what you what, you've already built.
That's definitely the direction that I To go, like what I want
to do with the company is I really want to make people happy
when they consume any part of our brand.
In terms of whether it's the product or whether they're
talking to us via like customer support or have any issues, I
just want to help people have like a better life.
Yeah, whether it's through like Health by kind of removing sugar
or dairy or just, you know, implementing healthier habits or
just whenever they're even talking with us if we can help
to improve their day. That's kind of the biggest thing
for me like I really care about customer satisfaction because
kind of what you said. Yeah.
We're you know as a business you have to make money but for me
that's also not Main priority. I want to make people happy.
And in the process, I want to build out a company where I can
really kind of reinvest back into the employees whether it's
through helping them pursue what they really want to in Life or
or whatever it is. I just want to help people
because I've had so many people in my life that helped me and I
just kind of want to pay it forward because I I know how
tough people's lives can be. And I'm just so fortunate to be
in a position where I can try to build my own business and so
hopefully I can kind of give back by by building something.
Yeah, and it's huge man. I feel like, you know, we we
live in an era in which the vast majority of people spend most of
her time taking consuming and just you know, grappling for for
something whereas most fulfillment, I feel has come
from Building something, creating something adding value
like giving it forward. And I feel like a company like
what you trying to build here like, well, I'm trying to build
here is a great vehicle for being able to do just that and I
feel like if you're in it for the right reasons and you
leverage, the opportunity that presents itself to do that.
I mean, that that is where that is, what makes me tick and it's
not, that's the same case for you.
Because I mean, if it was just about money, like you can easily
stay, you could have stayed within your, you know.
Corporate job that you graduated in went to after college.
But, I mean, as you realize there was not the sense of
fulfillment there that you were hoping for.
So finding another vehicle for for providing that value to
others is key. Yeah, cuz I'm definitely making
a lot less money now. Yeah.
But I'm so much happier, you know, it is hard to to grow a
business. There is a lot of work but at
the end of the day, when I kind of sit and I think about it.
I can genuinely say that I'm pretty happy right now.
So that's, that's good man. I think if you can, if you can
have the self-awareness to recognize that and never lose
sight of that, like as you're going to have days in business
where and you've already had them, where it's like, what in
the hell am I doing right now? You know what?
Yeah, but then on your good days you're like okay this is it,
this is why I'm doing what I'm doing this is what makes it all
worth it and I feel like, you know, you keep those clothes and
you just You know, refer back to them when the when the time
comes that you need to and I feel like that's the main thing
man. It's that's key.
But before so rewarding you mentioned that you've also got
the desire to do of a bodybuilding show in the Horizon
as well, right? Yeah.
So I'm thinking sometime mid-next year, I haven't figured
out what show I want to do but I do want to pursue.
Yeah, doing the whole prep for the show.
Show and also competing where you located again, California,
California, Southern California. You have to do the Washington
State proam in in Washington in October October, okay?
Because I'll be doing another show, we could be together.
Oh, you're competing in October? Yeah, that's awesome.
I think I'm pretty far away from being showroom ready and that
does suck. Maybe next October.
So, okay. Next year.
Yeah, that's awesome. No matter what?
What what division are you thinking of jumping into the by
division? Are you referring to like
classic and physique? Yeah.
Classic physique physique or classic?
Bodybuilding or bodybuilding? Yeah, I think it would be
physique and classic bodybuilding.
I'm about at the moment, I'm about 180 and I'm 57.
And so, I think I'm like, relatively proportionate.
I, I know, I can still definitely get a lot bigger.
So I think physique and classic would be kind of where I start
off, but I do have a coach. And so I'm just going to kind of
go off of what he says first, and I want to hear his opinions
and then kind of Yeah. Just follow his guidance for the
first time around and then maybe do my own thing after that.
Very cool man. Is he going to let you do it.
Low-carb, so great question, I did mention to him that I live
like a relatively low, low carb lifestyle, he at the moment has
me on like a 400 gram grams of carbs a day.
And so I'll see. I'll see if he's open to
Changing that. I actually didn't start the
program yet, so, so I'm not on it.
But, yeah, I'll see. Because I know you're still.
You're basically keto the entire time, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
And don't ever deviate from from Quito?
So do you stay below like 20 or like 40 or 50 grams of carbs?
I'm pretty much below, 20 total carbs at all times.
Even in my building phase and then in my cut, you know, I'll
get below. 10 grams, total carbs, wow.
But yeah, most coaches are not going to do that.
Especially if you go back to traditional, you know, bro, diet
so to speak approach, which is what most bodybuilders do that
or like flexible dieting, If It Fits your Macros.
But, but yeah, man, that that's, that's super, super exciting.
Like for me, bodybuilding and all the principles that I've
learned through, that sport have directly transcended in helped
me with business. Like, I got so much more Getting
so much more out of business, from what I've learned in
bodybuilding, then what I wanted?
Yeah, no, no, same here, like me, me being as aspirational as
I am now at that all goes back to to working out.
And yeah, I'm just looking forward to learning so much more
not only about the sport, but also about myself by kind of
putting myself through through the prep, and actually competing
and just kind of humbling myself again, I guess.
Yes. Totally mean what is definitely
a humbling Sport, and it's a subjective Sports.
I mean, you can't really let you can't let yourself get in a funk
based off of who shows up. I mean, you may have, you may
bring the best package in the world for you.
And then somebody come out of left field that you never expect
him. They just totally, you know,
wipe the floor with you and you can't let that weigh heavily on
you mean, at the end of the day, you got to just simply be the
best version of you that you can be.
And if you're doing that year after year, after year, then
you're winning for sure. And are you competing this year?
At all no I compete like every two or three years.
So I did a cut in 2020 and then covid canceled the show that I
had planned on doing. So I haven't haven't done a
competition prep since then so I'll compete again in 2023.
Gotcha. And is the the Washington is
that the the one that you'll be doing next year?
Yeah. So I don't think I've been
public about this but my plan is to compete in October of next
year at the Washington State natural show and then If I win
that, then I'll be eligible to compete in Worlds which is in
November and Vegas. Man, that sounds awesome.
I'll see how the prep goes. Well, I'll see how my prep goes
next year and then yeah, maybe I'll see if I can do another
prep for the, for the Washington, one in October
Yemen. That'd be awesome.
Well, there's ever anything I can do to help with any of the
bodybuilding Endeavors or the business Endeavors by all means.
Man, just let me know. Like I've got a lot of respect
for for who you are. What you're doing, what?
You're Building you, you're welcome to come here to the
compound, any time to kind of see what we're doing first hand.
Because if I can save you, any headaches from a business
standpoint, I'm certainly you know, down to do so because the
more people that are willing to share information and you know,
help with the obstacles, the better.
Yeah thank you so much. I appreciate you.
Having me on the podcast. Thank you so much for your time.
Like I know how busy you are with having a family, you know.
Heh. A new kid and running multiple
businesses. So, yeah, thank you for your
time. Yeah.
I never said, I appreciate the invitation all.
I'll take you up on it actually. Yeah, totally man.
Totally. Well, where do people go to find
out more about you and get some of the product?
Yeah, so people can check me out on Instagram at Tito cracked.
That's spelled KET 0, KR, C KD, or just on the website Kito
cracked.com, nice. Nice, when I will definitely
link it to Make it easy for people to find you.
Willie always a pleasure, man. Hopefully, I'll see you at the
next conference. If not sooner here at the
compound or the bodybuilding stage.
Yep, sounds good. Alright, thanks a lot, Robert,
have a good one you too man. Take care.
Thank you. Bye.