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Wouldn't it be nice if you could sleep at night knowing that you don't have to worry about pests in the properties you manage? In this episode, property management growth expert, Jason Hull interviews Nick Drzayich from Cover Pests to learn about dealing with pests in property management. You'll Learn… [02:00] Cover Pest… It's like Insurance for Pest Control [03:59] Dealing with Pests as a Property Manager [07:48] Dealing with the Different Kinds of Pests [13:13] How Partnering with Something Like Cover Pest Works [16:02] Eliminating Having to Figure Out Who is Gonna Pay the Bill [17:15] Using Pest Coverage as a Selling Point for Property Management Tweetables “We want the tenants to feel good about where they live and have it clean. We also want the owners to understand that their property's being taken care of when it's needed.” “It's nice for the property manager to have someone else get some eyes on the property every once in a while.” “It's increasing the visibility. It's decreasing some of the potential costs for the owners. It's protecting the owners.” “We go out, and we take care of it.” Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive TalkRoute Referral Link Transcript [00:00:00] Nick: We want the tenants to feel good about where they live and have it clean. We also want the owners to understand that their property's being taken care of when it's needed and then obviously the property management companies, they don't have to hassle with the back and forth and who's paying the bill.    [00:00:14] Jason: Welcome DoorGrow Hackers to the #DoorGrowShow. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others impact lives, and you are interested in growing in business and life, and you're open to doing things a bit differently. Then you are a DoorGrow Hacker. DoorGrow hackers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you're crazy for doing it. You think they're crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate, high trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income.   [00:00:53] At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry. Eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I'm your host property management growth expert Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow.    [00:01:13] Now, let's get into the show and my guest today, I am hanging out here with Nick, and Nick, you got to tell me your last name. I should have asked you before the show.    [00:01:25] Nick: No, that's okay. I tell everybody to just say "does your eye itch?" And that'll about cover it. Okay. It's pronounced (dur zye ich) Drzayich. It's a Serbian name, and it's way too many consonants in a row.    [00:01:37] Jason: Nick Drzayich. All right. From Cover Pest. Cool. And is it Cover Pest or just "Cover?" Website says "cover."    [00:01:45] Nick: Yeah. Cover Pest. Yeah.   [00:01:47] Jason: Cover Pest. Okay, cool. Well Nick, glad to have you on the show. So tell me-- give us a little bit of background. How did you-- and I'll just say for those listening, it says, "pest control solution for property managers," like on your website. So tell me a little bit about Cover Pest, and how did you get into this?    [00:02:04] Nick: Come from an insurance background actually. 13 years or so ago, I started and grew a independent life insurance agency, and so that's kind of been my background. Right. And so within insurance, you're obviously taking a big cost in life insurance. There's a death benefit with other insurances. There's big expenses that come at some point throughout the life of a policy and you're taking the cost of that and you're spreading it out among all the policy owners.    [00:02:34] Jason: Mm-hmm.   [00:02:34] Nick: So kind of with that mindset. I was chatting with my business partner who lives north of me, and he actually runs a pest control company and has for several years. We kind of got to chatting about this combination of life insurance and kind of sharing this cost, spreading the cost out and how you could potentially do that with pest control. And that's how we kind of landed on this idea of using that model to help property management companies take care of their pest control issues, which we know are just a hassle whenever they happen. Yeah. And solve that issue for them and allow them to take that off their plate and add a little bit of revenue in the meantime. Got it. And what areas do you guys cover? Is this a national business? Or is this local? How does this work? Yep. So this is a national business.   [00:03:21] We obviously have the ability to go anywhere in the country. We have, we started it here in our home state of Idaho, which is where we have the bulk of our clients. But ultimately, yeah, we we work with vendors across the country to be able to help take care of the issues that, that property managers are seeing.   [00:03:37] Jason: Cool. So help me understand how this works. Like why would a property manager decide, Hey, I should work with Cover Pest instead of just use some pest control vendors locally and connect with and have these people in as a feather in my cap. What advantages do they have with working with Cover Pest and why would a property manager choose? Or why do they choose to work with you?    [00:03:59] Nick: Yeah. Great question. So. As soon as you mention pest control to a property manager, you're probably going to get just a lot of heartache right there. Whenever an issue comes up, it's technically it's a tenant responsibility. Yeah, but ultimately it's going to come back to the maintenance manager. It's going to come back to the property management company or owner every once in a while. And so they're having to deal with finding a vendor. Vendors got to contact the tenant, get the service done, and then you got to figure out where you're sending the bill, and there's always going to be a fight there. The tenant's not going to want to pay it, the owner doesn't want to pay it, and you, as the property manager, you don't want to pay it either. And the benefit here is that, we work best with companies that have some kind of resident benefit package. So what our service does is it kind of slides right into that resident benefit package, and for a very nominal fee compared to what you would normally pay for pest control, your tenants are able to have all their pest issues covered, and when they need service, they put the request in online-- goes to call. We send a technician out and take care of it. There's no additional cost on top of what that monthly fee is.   [00:05:03] So like I mentioned, we kind of slide in the benefit packages. We also work as a standalone amenity for those that either don't want to put us in a benefit package or don't offer a benefit package.    [00:05:13] Jason: Got it. So what are what are property managers typically bundling in along with Cover Pest in, you know, in addition to Cover Pest in their resident benefits packages that you're seeing?   [00:05:26] Nick: Yeah, so oftentimes we'll see-- a big one is filter service, so furnace filters that are shipped--   [00:05:31] Jason: mm-hmm    [00:05:32] Nick: --every few months. There's a lot of times some kind of a credit building aspect to the benefit package. There's usually some kind of a maintenance, a 24 or seven maintenance benefit that's inside of that package. And then a lot of times there'll be some kind of perks. You get a free maintenance request once a year on something that would normally be charged to you, or you have late fee, late payment protection. Once per year, you can make a late payment and not have to worry about any kind of fees. So those are just some of the things that we're seeing inside of benefit packages along with our service.    [00:06:03] Jason: Got it. And what are you typically seeing property managers charge for this resident benefit package? And I would assume this is something that they're convincing the tenants to buy as a product.   [00:06:15] Nick: Yeah, so ultimately, what we've seen is that the benefit package just rolls right along with the lease agreement. There's not an option there for the tenant to either pay for or not. It just is what it is and you get it. Yep. And they range across the board, right? From, you know, 20 bucks all the way up to 75 plus dollars per month, depending on what's in the package.   [00:06:41] So when we were designing our service to be able to slide into a benefit package, we wanted to be super conscious of increasing that at all right because any increase in a benefit package cost is going to come with some kickback initially. And so there's got to be some good value there. So we had that in mind for sure, but they definitely range. They kind of run the gamut of, you know, pretty cheap all the way up to some pretty expensive packages, depending on what's offered.    [00:07:08] Jason: Got it. Now you said kickback, but I think you mean push back, right?    [00:07:13] Nick: Yeah.   [00:07:13] Jason: Okay. All right. Just making sure. People are like, "is there an affiliate thing going on here?" right. Okay. Yeah. Right. The tenants are going to be a little frustrated if it's too expensive and they're going to say, "Well, why am I being forced to do this? I don't know that I need all that stuff." Okay. So then, can you give us an idea of what this would cost? How do you price this with companies? Is this like on a per unit basis that you work out a deal with the property managers? Are there certain rates? Is this something that they just can do on certain properties that they can convince the owners to buy into? How does that typically work?    [00:07:48] Nick: Yeah. So when we onboard a company. It's pretty much an all or nothing deal. Right. We want to make sure we cover all of their properties regardless of where they're at and if they have current pest issues. We do work individually on a customized basis with each property management company to decide: "all right, what are you seeing typically pest issue wise? What package makes the most sense, and do we need to customize a package to best fit?" So, at a broad level, we have a couple of different packages. One of 'them is more of a basic package that covers the things that don't typically happen a lot, but when they do happen, it's a real hassle.   [00:08:25] So a good example of that would be bed bugs, for example. They don't happen a ton, but when they do, it's a pretty severe cost.   [00:08:32] Jason: Right.   [00:08:33] Nick: Yep. And and then going up from there, our upper package is a little bit more of the common stuff that people call on a regular basis. Your spiders, your ants, wasps, bees, that sort of thing. And so we do have a couple of packages that we work off of, but we do customize with each company and make sure that we're covering what they want and making it specific to them.    [00:08:56] Jason: Got it. I'm sure it differs. Like here in Texas, we have some big bugs and a lot of mosquitoes here in Austin, but yeah, in some markets, I would imagine you've got certain issues that are just typical to that market and then other markets you don't, and it might also have to do with sometimes-- unfortunately might have to do with the class of the property or the area of the property that it's in, how well it's maintained, stuff like that.   [00:09:21] Nick: Yeah, for sure. And I mean, ultimately we don't want the tenants to hesitate to call because that's what normally happens, right? They know that they're responsible for it.    [00:09:30] Jason: Yeah.    [00:09:30] Nick: And so, they don't call and they just kind of sweep it under the rug either literally or figuratively and the pest issue goes untreated and it can get out of hand, and so we want to eliminate that from happening. We want the tenants to feel good about where they live and have it clean. We also want the owners to understand that their property's being taken care of when it's needed and then obviously the property management companies, they don't have to hassle with the back and forth and who's paying the bill.   [00:09:57] Jason: So let's make this a little bit real. So let's say you've got a tenant. They've got some pests. I don't know what kind of pests would be a serious issue, but they decide not to call. Give me an example you've heard of, and then it's incurring additional damages that then the owner's going to have to pay for. Can you think of something like that?    [00:10:17] Nick: Well, I can tell you that, for example, like an average bed bug cost to remediate is going to be anywhere between 800 and a thousand bucks.    [00:10:25] Jason: Okay.    [00:10:25] Nick: So right there, you know, our average package is probably around 10 to 12 bucks a month. So if a tenant is paying 10 to 12 bucks a month, they have a bed bug issue, they're paying substantially less than what they would have to pay to have that remediated through just a general pest control company. Those obviously become much bigger issues when you're looking at multi-family situations where units are connected and those bugs can travel. So I've seen that stuff get pretty out of hand, but ultimately we want to get it controlled as, as quickly as we can so that doesn't happen.    [00:11:00] Jason: Yeah. I hate roaches. Really don't like those things like yeah. I remember being in some houses, like some just not really nice areas, like visiting some houses and stuff in upstate New York and high humidity, and there were some units that I went in that had some really nasty infestations with cockroaches and some of them are really freaking tiny. They're just running around all over, so. Yeah, I hate those things.    [00:11:27] Nick: It's rough. It is nice. Yeah. It's nice for the property manager to have someone else get some eyes on the property every once in a while because typically if you're seeing a lot of bugs, there's a reason. The bugs want to eat. And so there's some cleanliness issues there. So it's nice to be able for us to be able to report on what we're seeing and if we're seeing multiple calls on the same property that's a little bit of a red flag to maybe send someone out there to take a look at the property and have a chat with the tenant.   [00:11:52] Jason: Got it. Yeah. So one of the key benefits then is it's giving you greater visibility into some of the problem properties as to what's going on.    [00:12:02] Nick: Yeah, absolutely because we're going to track every time we get a service call, and you're going to see that report as well. So we can both kind of keep eyes on it.   [00:12:09] Jason: Got it. Okay, cool. So this is something they can build into, you know, along with their leases as part of their resident benefit package. It's not going to increase their costs. Does this become a profit center in any way for property managers or is this just mitigating costs?    [00:12:26] Nick: Yeah, we've had property managers use it just to kind of mitigate those costs. No additional revenue.    [00:12:32] Jason: Mm-hmm.    [00:12:32] Nick: Most of the companies we work with as with everything in their benefit package, they're going to add some kind of a mark up there or an admin fee just for them for kind of doing the work and yeah and setting up the relationship. So it makes perfect sense, so that's what most of them will do. And it's kind of up to them, how much they mark it up, but yeah, there's definitely an additional kind of profit stream there that can be created through using Cover.    [00:12:54] Jason: Got it. And certainly some advantages to taking greater care of the property. Cool. So what are the big questions besides the ones you've already touched on that when people come to you, they're really curious to know because I'm sure some of our listeners are probably thinking, "Hey, maybe this is a good idea."    [00:13:13] Nick: Yeah. Yeah. So one of the main questions I get is how do we roll it out? Yeah. And a couple different ways. Typically what we'll do is it's a kind of a slow rollout and it's upon lease renewal or a new lease creation. So as you're working with a property management company, they have new leases come up. They'll send us that batch for the month. That's renewing and we'll get them added into the service catalog. We have had companies that have gone in and asked their tenants, "Hey, do you want to opt into this right now in the middle of your lease?" and that option is there as well.    [00:13:44] Jason: Have you seen much success with that, with them doing that? What percentage do you see typically? I don't know if you have that data, but...   [00:13:52] Nick: that are opting in?   [00:13:54] Jason: Yeah. If they put it out to all of their residents for opt in, I'm just curious what the typical response rate is that people are like, "yeah. I'll go ahead and do that." Maybe 10%?   [00:14:05] Nick: Yeah. It's not high. Not high--   [00:14:07] Jason: yeah   [00:14:07] Nick: because--    [00:14:08] Jason: I would imagine it's like, "Hey spend more money. Do you want to?" And they're like, " yeah."    [00:14:11] Nick: exactly. Yep.    [00:14:13] Jason: Okay.    [00:14:13] Nick: So most frequently, most commonly, it'll be rolled out as leases are renewed and as new properties or leases are assigned, that's the most common way that it's done.    [00:14:23] Jason: Okay. Got it. So they sign up with you. You've worked out the pricing based on what sort of package they need, you implement, consult them and help them figure out how they're going to roll this out, and they're probably building this into their lease with some verbiage. You typically provide some verbiage for them to add to their lease as part of this.    [00:14:41] Nick: Yep, absolutely. We have some stuff that you can throw in.    [00:14:44] Jason: And then they get this rolled out. So then they've got this new maybe profit center, but at least it's being paid for by somebody. It's increasing the visibility. It's decreasing some of the potential costs for the owners. It's protecting the owners. If something gets really bad it could cause a lot of damage. And I'm curious, like, you've mentioned bed bugs, and I mentioned roaches, but what else are you typically seeing causes a lot of damage? I mean, termites, we hear a lot about. Is this something that is checked for or like relevant?   [00:15:13] Nick: Yeah. wood destroying bugs like termites are a completely different animal.    [00:15:18] Jason: Yeah.   [00:15:18] Nick: That's not honestly a part of what we do. It's another specialty altogether. As far as damage is concerned, mice and rats are another one that are--   [00:15:28] Jason: oh yeah.   [00:15:28] Nick: --they're out there, and we hear about them and we treat for those. Those ones will come in and cause some real issues. If nothing else, just scaring the crap out of people.   [00:15:37] Jason: Yeah, that's true. Yeah. And then, you know, safely doing the cleanup because--   [00:15:42] Nick: right.    [00:15:43] Jason: --You know, some issues with some of that stuff, so yeah.    [00:15:46] Nick: Yeah.    [00:15:47] Jason: And so no on termites, but yes, on bed bugs, roaches and mice and and rats. Okay. Got it. Any other questions that property managers might ask that would be curious about your service or that you'd like them to understand or know?   [00:16:02] Nick: Yeah, maybe just to, again point out that sometimes when we go out to do a service the property management company will expect another bill from us or think that there'll be another bill coming, but it's all taken care of. Just in that monthly subscription that's paid for by the tenant. There's no additional fee, no additional cost. We go out and we take care of it. And so that's a common question, common concern. One other one that comes to mind is sometimes they'll be rehabbing a property or making some significant changes to one of their properties and they'll want to stop the service or pause the service. We're definitely open to doing that and have done that. So pausing service during a rehab or big remodel is definitely something we can do. That's one question that has come up in the past as well.    [00:16:44] Jason: Unless they potentially could uncover something in the walls during that room.   [00:16:49] Nick: Right. Right. Yeah. And that's another thing to mention. Yeah. Another thing to mention is the service kind of runs with the address, not necessarily the tenant, so--    [00:16:59] Jason: okay.   [00:16:59] Nick: --if you have a property that maybe sat vacant for a couple months, and you had a maintenance manager out there to check on something and he notice a pest issue. He can just give us a call and we'll go take care of it. Even though there's not a tenant in there, because it kind of runs with the address.    [00:17:15] Jason: Got it. And that justifies including it as part of the rent as well. So if you're saying, "Hey, this. This property, in some instances like in California, like you have to usually pay for lawn care if you want the lawn to be maintained because some people just won't do it sometimes, right? So there's certain things you would include. So this would be included. You could then-- that could be a selling point to the tenants. Like this comes with a resident benefit package where it includes this and this, you won't have to worry about pest control. You won't, and these other things.   [00:17:46] Nick: Yep, exactly.   [00:17:47] Jason: Okay. So potentially as the benefit of helping, sweeten the deal a little bit on a potential rental property for a potential resident, so.   [00:17:55] Nick: For sure. Yeah.    [00:17:57] Jason: Cool. Well, I think we've covered most of the highlights. This sounds like-- it sounds like a no brainer. It sounds like a good service. Let's tell everybody how to get in touch with you and how to find you.   [00:18:10] Nick: Yeah, super easy. Our website is CoverPest.com and you can call me anytime. My number's (208) 477-1330. That's my cell. And you can go on to CoverPest.com, submit a form, and we're happy to chat about creating kind of a custom pricing model for your property management company.    [00:18:29] Jason: Cool. So I want to ask one more question. So when they hear you say, "you'll call my cell" and "here's my number," they might be thinking, is this a scalable business? What if somebody has 10,000 doors or they're a big conglomerate, you know, or they're a small property manager. Is this a scalable model for you? Can you handle different size property management companies?   [00:18:50] Nick: Yeah, what's nice is that our portal, our backend portal that's a part of our website makes it really easy for property management companies to go in and add their properties to their list. So every time they have a backed upload of lease renewals. They go to the service portal, they put it in there and they're added and they can see exactly which properties are covered in that month. And then, yeah, we work with a network of pest control companies that we use as vendors to service accounts that we get with property management companies in different states, if that makes.    [00:19:23] Jason: Got it. So you've got this all figured out really well. I appreciate you coming the show, Nick, and it's been great hearing about Cover Pest. So thanks. Thanks for coming on.    [00:19:33] Nick: Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.    [00:19:36] Jason: All right. Cool. So check them out at coverpest.com sounds like a good service. And as always give me your feedback. I want to hear... those of you that work with Cover Pest, let me know how it goes. And those of you that are tuning in for the first time, and you got some value from this episode, or if you're not tuning in for the first time, give us some feedback. If you find us on YouTube, The Google play store, or you find us on Spotify or iTunes, give us some feedback. We'd love to hear what you think of the show. And we may even give you a shout out on a future episode. So we appreciate that. And if you're interested in growing your business, check us out at doorgrow.com, and if you want to join our free community of property management entrepreneurs, you can go to doorgrowclub.com and that will get you to our Facebook group.    [00:20:23] Join that community. We've got some great people in there and you know, a rising tide raises all ships, as they say this will allow you to connect with some other property managers and have a resource you can go to to ask questions. And we'd love to hear from any of you inside there, so make sure you join. And until next time, to our mutual growth. Bye everyone.   [00:20:49] You just listened to the #DoorGrowShow. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet in the DoorGrowClub. Join your fellow DoorGrow Hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC, pay-per-lead content, social direct mail, and they still struggle to grow!    [00:21:16] At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge: getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today's episode on our blog doorgrow.com, and to get notified of future events and news subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe. Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow Hacking your business and your life.

Improving Your Business Strategy With Jason Button   You might be wondering, how do you improve your business strategy? A few weeks ago, we spoke with Marty Lewis about how to prepare a business plan. If you've already got a business plan or you want to improve your business plan, this is going to be the episode for you. We've got Jason Button from JB Strategic, and he's going to be talking about improving your business plan.   Get more tips on how to improve your business strategy at dorksdelivered.com.au   What is meant by “business strategy”?   What does business strategy mean?   Jason: Let's sort of get into the nuts and bolts of it. If anyone hasn't listened in before, I really encourage anyone to jump in and listen to Marty Lewis's piece around preparing a business plan, which is used to start a business and direct operations. That's going to cover your “Who” and “What” within the business.   Jason: From the strategic side of things, a strategic plan will look at implementing and managing the strategic direction of your existing organisation or the business that you're in. Think of that as your “How” and “When”.   Know Your Why  There's this pretty cool book called Know Your Why about understanding why you're in business. It allows you to understand your “Why”, “What”, and “Who” to further build on your business strategies.   Jason: That's got to be the starting point every single time. You've got to start with the “Why”.   Jason: For anyone who owns or operates a business, it's really critical for you, as a business owner or operator, to understand what that “Why” proposition looks like to you. Looking at it from a customer's point of view, what is the “Why” for them? Starting with that is a really good grounding point for you to build out that “Who” and “What” of your business plan and then the “How” and “When” we get there from the strategic proposition.   Jason: The other things to take into consideration with your strategic plan is how to tie in things like your vision, mission, objectives and how you are going to achieve everything as well as the “Who” and “What” of the business plan.   Know Your Customers' “Why”   You brought up a good thing there: knowing your customers' “Why” as well as the business' “Why” and objectives. A lot of the times they don't line up. How do you make sure that from a business owner's perspective, your “Why” is solid but clear to your clients and you're not pulling any emotion into that?   Jason: The exercise that I'll generally go through with people in this position is you've got to turn off all the noise around you. Take the emotion away and then think of why you are in business. What do you want to ultimately achieve within that?   Jason: Once you've got that as a framework and then you start to look at it from a customer's point of view with whatever product or service offering that you've got, there has to be some sort of alignment. That's not to say that it's got to be exactly the same, but there's got to be some sort of an element that ties both of those things together for you to have a really strong value proposition, which you can live and breathe in your employees or contractors or whoever is working within your business or organisation.   Jason: From the customer's perspective, they start to understand what your value proposition is and how that ties into whatever the offering is and ticks that box for them.   Know Why People Choose You If you've already been in business for a little bit and maybe you had a napkin-type of business plan to start off with that you created when you're at the pub with a few mates, and now you've already got some clients, is it polite just to ask them, 'Why do you work with us?' or 'Why don't you work with someone else?' How do you pull in that data?    Jason: Generally, what we'd look at is getting feedback from your existing customer base and suppliers. Go and talk to your employees or contractors. You could go to friends and family just to get that sounding board and start to really shake that up.   Jason: If the feedback that you're receiving isn't lining up with your “Why”, there is something amiss at that point. There's got to be some realignment because the “Why” stitches everything together and where you want to head. If you can't get that alignment and what you're projecting out there, there's got to be some time and attention spent on that.   How Much Time to Spend on Improving Your Business Strategy  We read Know Your Why a few years ago, and then last year we revisited it and I looked deeper into why we are in business. It racked my brain, nearly turned me into turmoil. I didn't know what I was doing. I just dived straight into it and ended up coming back full circle on why we're in business. How much time is the right amount of time to be spending on this sort of stuff?   Jason: If you've genuinely got some concerns in your “Why”, I encourage anyone to take the time. When we're all stuck in the grind, Monday to Friday is not the time to do it. You need to get away from things and turn off those outside influences to really drill down on that.   Jason: Have some time on that and start to line it up starting with the feedback. There is absolutely no reason why you can't spend time on this during the different phases of your life. You've always got to get that alignment and revisit your “What” on a regular basis.   Revisit Your Why on a Regular Basis  Jason: You've also got to start to spend time looking at your “Why” on a regular basis. I work with clients and we re-evaluate our “Why” on an annual basis and then that starts to shape that strategic plan. We do it on a financial year basis, but that doesn't mean you can't do it on a calendar year basis or whatever suits you, whatever you're comfortable with. What's really important is to always bring that back to your “Why” while you can.   We have a boring book. I've got all my different business plans that I've written in this book, and every year, I review it and see where I'm at. It's also going back through and seeing what the idea and direction and vision of the business was for us in, say, 2007—when we started—and then how that changed in 2010. Who was our target client and who were our suppliers and why were we in business?   Having a look and going far out, we've changed. I just get this big hit of energy because I've actually done a lot. Sometimes you feel like you're just on the grind, you're spinning your wheels, and you think I'm not getting ahead as fast as I want to but reflecting and looking at that, you'll find that you've done a lot. Keeping the book is a very huge value-add for us.    What should be included in your business strategy? With a business strategy, should you be talking about how many staff or is that not important? Is it more important to talk about revenue or is it more important to reflect on the numbers or the emotion? How do you know that you're balancing things properly? What are the three basic business strategies that you should be having in a business plan?   The 4 Ps and Your Why  Jason: Whenever I'm looking at a strategic plan, I look at the 4 Ps: plans, people within the business (i.e. internal stakeholders), process (i.e. how we go about certain things), and the purchaser (i.e. customers). I love to just segregate the 4 Ps into four quadrants there, start with those areas and start to drill down. You might write your “Why”—the value proposition—right in the middle of that.    The People Jason: Start to look at what's the value of all your People. We start that with a survey to get some feedback and we might do a bit of an audit on the skills and experience. We look at career pathway mapping, the culture within the business, how engaged they are, what sort of capacity we've got. There are so many different things that we can look at with just our People.   The Plan Jason: When I say Plans, we also have to look at the timeframe. When do I want to achieve X, Y and Z? Taking it back to your book, I think it's really cool that you've got a reference point to go back to when you put your strategic hat on. Start to look at your plans at that snapshot in time. Then, look at any outside influence or any change to your “Why” and then update that to ensure that you're on the right track. That's sort of a lot of planning.   The Purchaser Jason: Jumping across to Purchaser, it's looking at your “Why” standpoint from your customer side of things. It's improving the experience and communicating the value proposition. You need to do some thinking on how you communicate that effectively to customers and making sure you've got the right customers.    The Process Jason: In terms of your Process, what are you doing in terms of capturing your training internally so that it can be replicated for new people coming into the business? I can come up to your “What” proposition really quickly and look at all documented actions.   Jason: I know you do a lot with business process automation so I'm keen to get your thoughts around that and what process you go through when you talk to a client.   I started the business off as a cowboy with no processes and everything was in my head. That story is pretty familiar to a lot of people. I was running a very profitable business, but it was just myself. I brought one extra person, and then if I shall use the term, he was the Robin to my Batman. He was fantastic, but he sadly had a stroke while we're working 80-hour weeks.   I thought I'd try to do my best to do the work that he was doing as well as the work that I was doing. There are only 168 hours in a week, so I don't have very much time to do the work he was doing and the work that I was doing. I ended up having to instigate the 80-20 rule, and get rid of a whole bunch of clients that we kind of didn't want to work with anyway.   It sounds terrible, but everyone has them. I now had a profitable business that I was able to manage myself. But the push came when I brought on the first employee after him. That was when I realised I really did have some better processes in place. It took me 6 months to have that person become profitable, so we started putting in fantastic processes internally to start off with and then we noticed a lot of businesses don't really have this sort of stuff.   What is automation? For us, what we call automation is a mix between software and delegation. It's about understanding the processes yourself that might be in your head, pulling them down onto pen and paper, and then looking at how things work to then make them work better.   If you're doing any level of repetition, we have a look at how long that takes and then we take that and look at how long it would take for us to automate that process. Then we make an assessment: is the squeeze worth the juice?   A good example would be I was learning about electronics when I was 12 years old. I wanted to automate my door—I could press a button on a remote control to open or unlock the door. I worked out how the pneumatics were going to work and thought this is going to be awesome. I showed my brother, who's 13 years older than me and an electronic engineer, and went through the whole thing.    He asked how long it's going to take to make. I said, probably 100 hours. He said, 'How many times could you have stood up out of your chair and just open up the door in 100 hours?' I said, 'That's fair. Many, many, many more times than I'll ever need to do it.' But it was the process to learn how to do it.   Don't automate something that doesn't need to be automated. Don't create a process or have a faceless process if there are people involved.   Profitability and Efficiency Jason: I really like that point and the early part resonated with me. This is going to seem a bit funny. Let's pretend that we're at a restaurant. If you watch MasterChef, there was this little trend called deconstructed everything. They deconstructed desserts and other food.    Jason: Everyone knows what a pavlova looks like, but then you get a deconstructed pavlova—may still taste nice, but you just haven't had the time to do it so you've done all the elements separately. That can often happen in business when we're talking about process. Just because we are making money, it doesn't mean it's the most efficient way to do it.   Jason: I'd like everyone to look at their business and what they're offering once it hits the purchaser or the customer. Am I serving up a whole pavlova dessert in its completion or is it a bit of a deconstructed base where I've got a lot of good little elements and they're still leaving you satisfied, but it's still not quite right?   That's a great way to look at it because a lot of businesses will have all the bits, but they might not be the best chef to put it together either. It's good to be engaging people like yourself to be able to gain visibility.   An Extra Pair of Eyes Helps I am the worst critic of our own business. In our head, we always know we shouldn't have done this or we should be doing that. A lot of the time, you can't see the forest for the trees and you need to have someone come in to help deconstruct some of the different processes to find out if there is a better way to do things.    You don't know what you don't know until you know it, you know? That resonates strongly with a lot of stuff that we do with businesses.    For instance, we went in and he said they've been doing something for years. I asked if they have any problems with it locking up and they do, but everyone just jumps out of the file and then they all—10 people—jump back. I asked how often it locks up, and he said, 'Twice a week.' He has to organise 10 people to jump out and then back in twice a week. He calls them up on the phone to make sure everyone jumps out of the file. It's 30 minutes that everyone's jumping out and waiting to use it twice a week; an hour for 10 people. That's ridiculous.   Jason: From an outsider's perspective, it's really difficult in the day-to-day grind to see some of this stuff. When it is pointed out to you as obvious as that, that's your profit margin. You might still be making money, but all that inefficiency could be either replaced by tightening up your training or introducing a technical solution is profit.    Jason: It's always good to zoom out of your business and spend some time looking at what your strategies for those areas are. Look at those 4 Ps—the people, the plan, the process and your purchasers—so you can get the most out of your business and yourself. You're a happier individual with it as well.   Step Out of Your Business to Work on Your Business I think stepping out of your business is one of the most intelligent things you can do in your business. We were talking about some of the different house renovations that I'm doing, and I made it very clear that I'm not a builder, but I find that your brain never turns off.    When you're sleeping, your brain is not turned off. You're always thinking about something—a business problem, a personal thing. Whatever happens, you're always thinking about it.    I think swapping skillsets sharpens your sword. It's not just diving into your emails and becoming monotonous and repetitious with what you're doing. Just by changing out to doing something else like a run in the morning, you'll find that thoughts just come to you.    Have a Record of Your Ideas Almost everyone experiences taking a shower and then the answer they've been looking for comes to them. Or you're asleep and then you write it down. There's actually a funny Jerry Seinfeld episode where he wrote down a funny joke when he was asleep and woke up the next morning didn't know what the hell he wrote.   I've got the Amazon Echo units. I'll think of something great and I'll say it, but I'll say it with such blubbery mess in the middle of the night. In the morning, I'd wonder what the hell I was talking about.   Jason: That's a really good point. If you have some way to capture these ideas, whether it is a notebook, a whiteboard or a Google sheet, and just go back and sort of reference it when you've got time. I'm hopeless when it comes to ideas and idea generation. It often happens when I'm driving all over the countryside in traffic. I use just an audio recorder, and I'll just talk out loud by myself in the car. I can sort of throw all sorts of crazy ideas out there and dedicate a couple of hours a week to working on the business, not working on the business operations.    Jason: I use that reference point, pull out that notepad or play that audio file. I go, 'The guy in the car that day made a really good point, and I could probably translate that into the business in some way, shape or form.' That's a little technique that I use, and it might help.   Thank you. That's fantastic because they don't always come at the best of times, but we have to be able to find these ideas usually when we're nearly running out of time.   What should NOT be in your business strategy? I want to just ask a couple more questions. People ask a lot: what is a good business strategy? I want to ask you, what are the things that you should avoid having in your business strategy? What is a bad business strategy? It helps to know what you shouldn't be spending too much time on or shouldn't be putting into it?   No Accountability Jason: A bad business strategy for me is one that is missing any sort of accountability.   Unrealistic Timeframe Jason: The other thing that springs to mind straightaway is timeframes that are unachievable. You've just got to understand and get a feel. Don't bite more than you can chew and make things too ambitious. Make it so that it is achievable and will push you out of your comfort zone. Let's just make sure that it's something tangible and achievable and we know the steps to get to the final point.    Jason: Don't get hung up on the design of your plan, the front cover and the pages, and the look of it. That's where we all sit and procrastinate. Rip the Band-Aid off and then you can come back tomorrow and start to put a bit of a sense to it. It's sometimes the best way to go about that.   I think you hit the nail on the head. Starting is always the hardest. At least, if you just put something on the paper, you can then start refining it and massaging it into something better. What I do is I look at the big audacious goal and then I do the timeline in reverse.    What is it you're looking to achieve? For instance, you want to earn $10 million in two months. What are the steps that you need to take before that gets to $10 million? If you're at $1 million now, then how are you going to get to $10 million?    Is it times 10 of your client base or are you going to change around the products that you're selling to clients? What is it you're doing to allow that process to come to fruition and then put steps on that? Is it going to be a marketing plan that needs to go towards promoting these new products and everything else? You can make it a more realistic timeframe.    Avoid saying what a lot of people starting off in business say: 'I can make triple of what the boss is paying me because he charges a triple of what he's paying me, so I can do all this and I'm going to be a millionaire and pay my house off in a year for getting all of the mechanics.'   Jason: I couldn't agree with you more on that point. Once we start to get the data down and write the figures down, such as insurances, you start to work out pretty quickly that the proposition with your boss wasn't looking too bad if everything's just about money. When you're earning just over $12 an hour, once you pay yourself, it might not be the best suit for you.   Jason: It's really important that you set your goals and then work backwards from that—what it's going to take, what the steps are, and then go back and look at those 4 Ps of how they're going to help you achieve that.   Suggested Read: Good to Great  What would you say is your favourite book or a book that covers business strategy and improving your business strategy?   Jason: My go-to is Good to Great by Jim Collins. I encourage everyone to go and have a look at any of Jim Collins' works, particularly Good to Great and Built to Last. I find them really inspiring. Every time I go back and look at it, I can go with a different context and framework, and I'll get something out of it every time.   Is that the type of book you can listen to as an audiobook?   Jason: Absolutely. It's quite long, but just try and break it down and get a really good understanding of the concept that they're promoting and then take that little bit of time, work it back within your business and then go on to the next one. A lot of great stuff there.    Jason: The reason why I love it so much is I'm a data guy. 'The numbers don't lie' is one of my favourite sayings. That book was created out of years and years of research by some of the best companies in America at the time and as far back as World War II and the trends they've got in common to make them great companies.   I actually haven't read it, so I'm going to check that on the side.    What is business freedom to you? The podcast is called Business Built Freedom. What is business freedom to you or what is freedom and why are you in business?   Jason: Freedom for me is always time. Time to be a better parent later and mentor to people. It affords me the freedom or the space to continue my learnings and absorb different concepts so that I can start to shape that in my own experiences and then share that with others to inspire them. That's why I do what I do.   Jason: I'm one of four children, and my father had a small business. He left before we got up and came home in the evening and we didn't get to spend a lot of time together. I appreciate the time, effort and energy that it takes to own and run a business. If I can come in and help a business, give them that bit of freedom back to be a better parent or a better individual while their business is sustainable and growing at the same time, happy days. Everyone wins.   If anyone wants to contact Jason from JB Strategic, jump across to his LinkedIn profile, check him out, and have a bit of a chat.    If anyone has any questions to put those up for the greater community, go to our Facebook group.    Jason: I'm more willing to share anything and speak out.    That's what it's all about. The world goes round on knowledge, and I think everyone should be sharing as much as possible and not holding their cards too close to their chests. We will grow and become better together.   If you have enjoyed this podcast, jump across to iTunes, leave us some love, give us some feedback. Stay good and stay healthy.   We specialise in improving processes to boost your businesses' profitability and efficiency. Call 07 3166 5465 to enquire!

For night twenty-eight of 31 Nights of Frights we go to Space: The (true) final Friday the 13th. This is the concluding journey of Jason Voorhees. His twenty year mission: To mindlessly kill anyone who stands in his way. To seek out inventive ways to dispose of his unfortunate victims. To boldly go where no supernatural slasher has gone before...Thats right with this one, Jason goes to Space in a future set sequel that to me feels more Sci-Fi than horror, but can still be fun in spots. Is this truly a worthy sendoff for Friday the 13th and Jason? Have a listen and find out on night twenty-eight! #AdamAnalyzes #IOHO #31Nof #31NightsofFrights #NightsofFrights #31NightsofHorror #31nightsofhalloween #October #Halloween #Halloween2020 #Horror #Movies #HorrorMovies #Tampa #Podcast #TampaPodcast #ApplePodcasts #HorrorFan #HorrorFam #HorrorFans #HorrorFanatic #HorrorCommunity #Creepy #Slasher #Paramount #NewLineCinema #Fridaythe13th #Jasonx #JasonGoestoSpace #Fridaythe13thPart10 #Space #KaneHodder #DavidCronenberg #JeffGeddis #LexaDoig #SeanSCunningham # #PamelaVoorhees #AdamMarcus #JasonVoorhees #Jason #CampCrystalLake #CrystalLake --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/inourhonestopinion/support

I sat down with world-renowned vegan chef and author Jason Wyrick who has co-authored a NY Times Bestseller "21 Day Weight Loss Kickstart" as well as the book "Powerfoods for the Brain" with Dr. Neal Barnard, MD. Other books he has written are "Vegan Tacos" and "Vegan Mexico". He was the food editor for "Living the Farm Sanctuary Life" with Gene Baur and Gene Stone. He's a coauthor of "Clean Protein" with Kathy Freston and Bruce Friedrich. Jason has published the world's first vegan food magazine, The Vegan Culinary Experience which is now defunct and has been featured in the NY Times, the LA Times, VegNews, and Vegetarian Times. He has traveled the world teaching cooking classes and is the first vegan instructor to teach in the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu program. We talk about being vegan, health benefits, dairy, cheese, his home delivery service of amazing vegan food called The Vegan Taste and his restaurant Casa Terra. Jason gives us such a great insight of his progression of eating like most of the population to becoming a vegetarian and finally a full out vegan. It was such an honor for me, to have such a celebrated chef and author on my show. Because I've eaten his food, this conversation had so much more of a meaning due to my various attempts of being vegan myself. I hope you enjoy this conversation and the knowledge Jason shares with us all from his heart. Jason Wyrick: Vegan Food Delivery Service: The Vegan Taste Vegan Restaurant: Casa Terra Co-authored a NY Times Bestseller: "21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart" and "Powerfoods for the Brain" with Dr. Neal Barnard, MD. Other books he has written are "Vegan Tacos" and "Vegan Mexico"He was the food editor for "Living the Farm Sanctuary Life" with Gene Baur and Gene Stone. He's a coauthor of "Clean Protein" with Kathy Freston and Bruce Friedrich. Connect with Jason: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/thevegantaste/videos Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jason.wyrick.5 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/casaterrarestaurant Twitter: https://twitter.com/VeganChefJason https://youtu.be/6jzSCBvX7PA ********** Podcast Music By: Andy Galore, Album: "Out and About", Song: "Chicken & Scotch" 2014 Andy's Links: http://andygalore.com/ https://www.facebook.com/andygalorebass ********** If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. For show notes and past guests, please visit: https://joecostelloglobal.com/#thejoecostelloshow Subscribe, Rate & Review:I would love if you could subscribe to the podcast and leave an honest rating & review. This will encourage other people to listen and allow us to grow as a community. The bigger we get as a community, the bigger the impact we can have on the world. Sign up for Joe's email newsletter at: https://joecostelloglobal.com/#signup For transcripts of episodes, go to https://joecostelloglobal.com/#thejoecostelloshow Follow Joe: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jcostelloglobal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jcostelloglobal/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jcostelloglobal/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUZsrJsf8-1dS6ddAa9Sr1Q?view_as=subscriber Transcript Jason Wyrick: Joe: All right, welcome, Chef Jason Wyrick, this has been a long time coming for me. I have looked forward to interviewing you the moment I tasted the food that was delivered to my house. So here we are and I'm so excited to have you on the podcast and I really appreciate the time and you actually saying yes to me, so thank you so much and welcome! Jason: Well, you're welcome, I appreciate you having me on here. Joe: Yeah man this is a, the way this came about for me was I got a flyer in the mail and it was one of those things like come to this free, healthy dinner to hear some, I don't know, some sort of talk about healthy eating and nutrition. And it happened to be from a nutritionist, a company in town, like an office in town. And I went and then I, I got pulled into it, you know. The food we had was great, but it wasn't necessarily vegan, it was just healthy. But then when I got into the program, which was not cheap by the way, but I felt I was worth it. They started to say, you know, do all this blood work and then we found out my, I knew my cholesterol is always a little high. So their program is doing vegan for 30 days on their menu. And then from there, you, you know, you the hope is you stay with it or you alter it a little bit or whatever, so that's how I got into this. And the problem for me was I literally was so busy I did not have the time to prep my food. It was taking me like half days on Saturdays, half days on Sundays. And I was like, my weekend is shot and I've prepped all this food and, and I, you know, any small amount of time I had was gone. So then I really went on the hunt for trying to find healthy vegan food that I could just literally eat and not do anything with. I had already done, I think I did Sun Basket a while back. You know, all the food prep things that you know Jason: Right. Joe: of and we talk about. So that's how you and I got connected. I, I don't even know how I ended up finding you. I say it was just purely, I was so desperate doing a Google search and I found you and I was like, SOLD! You mean I can just heat it and eat it, right? That's that's your thing, it's just heart and eat. So here we are. So I want to start from wherever you want to start. I know that this was a health thing for you in combination of other things. But knowing the stories that I've read and interviews I've seen of you, that this came about more for a health reason initially for you. And then it just blew up from there and and it became your passion, which is really cool to me, because this is what I preach on this show and on my videos, is that I want people to live or fulfilled lives doing what they love. And it's cool that you went into that direction knowing some of your past, which you can talk about om how this all started for you. So take Jason: I'm Joe: It away! Jason: Sure it was a kind of a winding journey, I think I mean, it, it seems kind of straightforward when you look at it. I was unhealthy, I went vegan, I got my health back. Hurray! But that's, that's really not how it started, I mean. It's starts when I'm a little kid because, I think I didn't eat great, but I didn't eat bad for the kind of regular American diet. Which meant, you know, my mom cooked some of the meals and occasionally ordered out and I played sports all the time, I was always active. So I was a super healthy rail thin kid. And then as I got older, towards the end of high school and in college, I kept eating the same way I had been eating the last few years and last few years had changed because my mom went to work, she got busier and so our food choices changed to, "What, which one of these seven different chicken dishes do you want tonight that I know how to make? or would you like Taco Bell or Burger King or Pizza Hut or something like that?" So when I stopped playing sports all the time and was super active, the calorie and taken and honestly, like the terrible food I was eating, started to catch up with me. And so I, I probably put on 30 pounds from when I was 16 to probably 19 and just kept going up about 10 pounds a year from there. Jason: So I was already getting overweight. And then right at the end to college, I started learning how to cook. So I went to, I went to this really great Egyptian restaurant in Fort Worth where I went to college, had the ah this amazing meal with the first amazing meal I'd ever had. And I was like, "I want to learn how to eat like this!" And I'm broke because I'm in college. So I started to learn how to cook for myself. And then right after that, it was like two months after that, I went vegetarian and that was solely for ethical reasons. No real idea of the health impact or anything like that, that it has. I didn't care at the time, I was just going to keep eating food that was super tasty and not worry about the health part. So, of course, even going vegetarian, a couple gaining weight. In fact, I was kind of a stupid vegetarian, I'll just be blunt about it. I took the meat I was eating and I replaced it with blocks of cheese. So instead of these instead of like these super fatty steak fajitas loaded with sour cream and cheese that I was eating before. Now I was eating cheese lover's pizza from Pizza Hut and the additional topping was extra cheese. Exactly! [laughter] Joe: [laughter] Jason: And that was that was my dinner. I was with someone at the time, she had her own pizza. It was it was terrible. And so I became incredibly overweight. I weighed about 330 pounds and I got type two diabetes by the time I was in my mid 20s. And I was, I was faced with having to take insulin for the rest of my life and in basically starting to deteriorate even more. Like I was already deteriorating, my eyesight sucked, sleeping 10 to 12 hours a day. Everything you can think of with Type two diabetes was going wrong with me. So I was facing having to take medication and deteriorate for the rest of my life, which was probably not going to be that long at this point or changed my diet. And so it's, it's funny because I was, I've been vegetarian for five years and I had, I had heard of vegans, but I didn't really know what they were. And I even made fun of it a little bit.[laughter] Joe: Right. Right. Jason: This was back in the late 90s. And then all of a sudden it's 2001 and I'm faced with having to make this choice, do I do I give up this food that I love, which is cheese, and live a better life or just keep going with the cheese and and it's funny because even though it it sounds like a no brainer, like eat cheese and die or give up cheese and regain your health. I mean, it sounds like an obvious choice, but there is so much there's so much pain involved in a lifestyle change, that the stress of that was really bad in itself and, and going vegan in 2001 when really no one else around me was, was vegan. It meant I had to learn how to cook, I had to learn how to fend for myself, I had to completely change all these foods that I knew how to make and eat when I was growing up. And so it was super stressful at first. And so I relaxed a little bit and decided I was going to give myself a cheat day. So I was going to be a cheating vegan once a week. So every Wednesday night I'd go out and I get all you can eat enchiladas at my favorite Mexican restaurant and they bring them out in pairs they'll bring you two enchiladas at a time. And the first time I went in there, the waiter was like, "OK, yeah, whatever, it cool! He brings out enchiladas, except I eat 14 of them. Joe: Oh, my gosh. Jason: And then they come back the next week and all of a sudden the waiter's like, "Hmmmmm" because I need another 14 enchiladas. So by the third week, the waiters like "I hate you but I have to serve you anyway." Joe: You're like the, you're like that all you can eat buffet, crab, Jason: Right. [laughter] Joe: Leg guy. [laughter] Jason: It's it's probably familial in some way because I know my, my little brother would go to a Mongolian stir fry places and he take the bowl and see how much he could pack in the bowl because it was one pass through. And so he'd, he'd have the regular bowl and it only come up like three inches and then there was like the six inch pile of stuff on top Joe: Oh, Jason: Of the. [laughter] Joe: My gosh. It's. Jason: So there must be something familial about that, that buffet all you can eat thing. I, so I, but anyway, the point is, I, I did that for a few months and even then I managed to start losing weight and my symptoms went away. So I'd be vegan for the entire week, except for this one, one rather egregious cheat meal but it was still just one meal. And then it went to once every other week when I would go to this place. And then once a month. And then I remember the last time I purposely had went to this place in order cheese that I order in the enchiladas and I, it was a weird experience because I looked at them and I realized they didn't taste good to me anymore. They didn't have that, that feeling you get when you cheese that Homer Simpson like, "dooonnuuttt" like when you eat dairy, so I didn't have that anymore. They didn't taste good and I realized I was ordering them out of habit and not because I actually wanted them. So I didn't even eat the enchiladas, I pushed them away, paid the waiter, who probably sighed relief Joe: Right. Jason: that I was getting had their there and that was the last time I ever stepped foot in that place. And at that point, I was a full on vegan, which took me about eight months. And it also coincided with me completely getting rid of diabetes. Jason: And Joe: Incredible! Jason: After the first year, I dropped about 60 pounds and then when I added in some real exercise, I dropped another 60, so I dropped about 120 pounds over two years. Joe: That's incredible. And I think Jason: Yeah. Joe: What people need to understand about you, you're a big guy. Like I know Jason: Yeah. Joe: from the interviews and stuff, 6' 3", right? Yeah, I mean, that's you know, and and I think at one point you said you, you went to school and lived in San Antonio...Fort Worth, sorry. So you're like in steak town. Jason: Yeah, I mean, Joe: Right. Jason: The nickname of Fort Worth is Cowtown. Joe: Yeah, ok, so there you go! Yeah, so that must, the be, that must be hard. It's just the stigmatism with, you know, vegan and yoga and all of those kind Jason: Ok. Joe: Of things. Right. It's tough. Jason: It depends. OK, it was weird because Texas is really interesting. I mean, I grew up here in Arizona but my dad is Texan. And so I was already pretty familiar with Texas before I actually moved there for school and stayed there afterwards. And Texas has this reputation of being big and boisterous and rednecky and it is. But it also has has this huge liberal side and has this huge health side, has this huge vegan side to it. I mean, I remember when I was in college, I went to the Texas Vegetarian Chili Cookoff. And this was in the mid 90s and it was like this huge gathering of people from all over Texas doing this Chili Cookoff. Like Texas had one of the biggest vegetarian societies in the 90s, at least when I was there participating in that stuff. And so Texas is just this really cool mix of all these different things, religion and Atheism and big hair money and rebel activists and steak eaters and vegans and no one is quiet about it. Maybe that's the one thing about Texans is, you know, everybody kind of gets by in the big city but they're, they're friendly but boisterous about that stuff, which makes it really cool. Anyway, that's my tangent on Texas. Joe: No, but that's great, because it's exactly you, you saying that is exactly how it educates people to know that it's not just big hats and boisterous voices and steak and whatever, it's, I had no idea that you would think that long ago people were vegan in the state of Texas. Jason: I mean, I think, I think Fort Worth had one of the first vegan restaurants in the country, which was Spiral Diner that opened up in 2001. Joe: Yes, I don't think anybody would ever know that. So that's, that's cool. So the tangent was great. OK, so you are, this is what year now that you go full vegan? Jason: So that was the, I started the beginning in 2001 and then I was full vegan by the end of 2001. Joe: Got it. Jason: And I think, I think I might be more like a lot of other people with this, like I've, you know, I've written books with a lot of the vegan doctors and usually their message is that's all or nothing proposition. You go from zero to 60. And from a physiological standpoint, you're going to regain your health really fast that way. But if you're miserable doing it, chances are you're going to quit out. And so I think for a lot of people transitioning, as long as they have it in their mind that it is a transition, it makes it easier for people. So that's that's what I did. It took me it took me about eight months to fully transition over. And I tried to zero to 60 approach for Joe: Right. Jason: three weeks, and it, I was miserable. Joe: Yeah, and for me, the 30 day thing I did not find hard, the part I found hard about it was the meal prep and that's literally what was difficult for me. And I even heard you in some other interviews, the good thing that we have going for us these days is that it's, it's much more accepted in the world. And when you go out to a restaurant, there are options that would have never been there 10 years ago. Jason: Yeah, there are plenty of options, Joe: Right. Jason: Which has made it an interesting landscape for vegan businesses. Because I think in the past, vegan's gravitated towards vegan businesses because that was their only choice. And now at least in the Phoenix area, vegan businesses are just one amongst a bunch of other vegan options. Joe: Right, but I think the key and the reason I was so excited to have you on is what helped me get through the, the, the next 30 days that they asked me to do because they could see that my cholesterol was dropping. So Jason: Great! Joe: They were like, will you, "Are you willing to buy into doing it another 30 days? And towards the middle or end of the first, as I think when I came across your website and then it was easier for me to say yes, because I literally just could not afford the time to prep. Jason: Right. Right. Joe: But but besides that, the biggest thing for me was the taste. And I don't know, like this could be a trademark or something that I'm saying, but I didn't know vegan food could taste so good, and you can still Jason: No it's true, Joe: if you want. If it's not taken by somebody, it's all yours. But, yeah, that's what it was for me, man. When I first dug into it and the way I worked with you was that I wanted it spicy, which you were all down for. I think even when I, I got from my doctor what I needed to do, he said, OK, well, if you're gonna get this food from The Vegan Taste, just make sure, ask them if it's low and oil, right?. And it so... Joe: It everything was a yes. Like all, you know, that was when I wrote to you, Yes, you know, it's either low or minimal oil or no oil. And I can get it the way I like it, so you made it spicy, which is the way you said you liked it in email. Jason: Right. Joe: So it was like the perfect marriage. I was like sold! Jason: Yeah, I think that's, that's the key to getting people to make a change. It's about honestly, I think it's like about the in the environment that you put people in. So I know Dan Buettner, who wrote the Blue Zones by it. And one of the things that he told me that really impacted the way I thought about food and getting food to people and the way we treat people, is that the the biggest determinant for someone making choices that let them live a long time was not their willpower, was not a doctor's prescription or anything like that, it was the environment in which they lived. And so if the choices were easy to make, to go out and exercise, statistically speaking, more people would go out and exercise...that way. And so to me, food is part of the environment that you're in. And so the easier I can make it on someone to make a better choice for themselves, the bigger chance they are they're going to have to actually make that choice. And so for me, that's putting ready to eat meals in front of someone that's going to make them happy. Joe: Yeah. Jason: The less you have to worry about it, the easier it is for you to be healthy. Joe: Yeah, it's it was so nice to find the website. It was that, I could hear that sound when the heavens open, I was like "Thank you!". It's the only thing that's gonna keep me on track. Now, you know, before, before we get too deep into this, I'm not full vegan. Since doing nutrition program, I've cut out a lot of, like I would use, I would snack before dinner. I'd be so hungry I'd come home at four o'clock, whatever, and I'd pull out the the block of cheddar cheese and some Triscuits and, you know, just take the edge off. I, I stopped doing that a lot more than I use, you know, it's, it's cut way back to almost minimal, you know, to none. I don't drink, I used to drink half and half of my coffee and now all I use is either oat milk or almond milk. So I've completely switched over to that type of stuff. So while we're on the subject of, of, you know, how this has helped you, why do you think dairy is so bad? Is it just that it's like, was it not meant to be eaten or drank? Is it just like we've created this product that should not have existed? Jason: I think so. I mean, dairy's primary uses to grow a baby. And so you're you're consuming something that's meant to grow another being and as, as adults, we're not, I don't think we're supposed to be consuming foods that are continue endlessly making us grow to that scale. Like I have a five year old daughter, I watch how much she eats and sometimes as much as I do, because she, she's always out there running around and she's, like I look at her in a week later, she's taller and I'm like, oh, my God! And so calorically dense foods are good for her, I mean, that's why human mothers breastfeed and you know, all this other stuff. But then when you stop growing and you keep eating those foods, you're consuming growth hormone and all this other stuff that I don't think we're meant to be consuming. And then, you know, there are a couple other issues that go with it, which it turns out casein, which is the protein in milk seems to be carcinogenic, even, even in that milks appropriate species after their weaning, it seems it seems like the incidence of cancer goes up in that species if they continue to consume milk even from their own species after they're supposed to stop drinking it. And then, I mean, look at us where we're drinking stuff that's meant to grow a baby cow into this big monster cow compared to humans I mean a cow is pretty heavy. Jason: So, you know, there's, there's that it's, it's loaded with fat and it's all if you have cheese, it's all condensed down into this calorically dense product with all these other, all these other ingredients into it that are probably not meant for us to just get fuel. And it's all like if you take milk, milk is this big volume, take cheese and it comes down to  this little thing, all that condensed down. It's like a black hole of food. And then you're you're eating that, so, of course, no wonder you're you're getting fat, you're having arteriosclerosis as you age and all these other problems. So that's why I think the health problem is with dairy. From, from an evolutionary standpoint, it's was a good thing because you could have this nutrient dense food even in times of famine. That's, that was one of the benefits of cheese because cheese was basically shelf stable in a long period of human history when we didn't really have very many shelf stable foods, the same way that after a fashion beer, a shelf stable, just one of the reasons that beer was traded there and there are all these ways to preserve foods during times of famine and we just don't live in that anymore. Joe: Right. So on the dairy part of this, what I guess people have a hard time thinking of how they would substitute a cheese for these recipes, and I know that in you know, you have this enchilada recipe and you, there's I mean, you have a ton of different recipes. What are just some off the top of your head, some substitutes that you do use for cheese? Like, how would someone make a pizza? What would they put on it as their cheese? Jason: You know, it depends. There are a lot of nondairy commercial cheeses out there. I think from a health standpoint, they're good insofar as you're not getting casein and all these hormones that go with it, but I can't pretend that they are health food. Joe: Right. Jason: I mean, it's base, it's like cheese is solidified fat when it's dairy and the non vegan cheeses are still a solidified fat. They just have all the other junk that goes with them. So, you know, if you if you limit that look, if you're going to have a pizza and you have it once a week and you put some vegan cheese that's made out of almonds or cashews or something like that on it, you're going to be OK. If you do that every single day, you're not going to be so OK anymore. You can still be a junk food vegan. In fact, it's easier now to be a junk food vegan than it is to be a healthy vegan, because you can run over to Carl's Jr. and get a Beyond burger, that's, you know, still loaded up with all this fat and it's still a burger where as when I went vegan almost 20 years ago, if I was craving a burger, I had to make it myself. Joe: All right. Yeah, I mean, the creativity Jason: So that's. Joe: That, that you have to come up with for these recipes must be daunting. Jason: I sometimes, but only because when I do a lot of recipes, Joe: Right. Jason: I mean most, most chefs at a restaurant might do 30 recipes throughout the year. If they're really pushing themselves. I think with the delivery service, we're doing 300. Joe: WOW! Jason: Every, every year, at each year, it's different too. Joe: Ok. So you're rotating 300 recipes a year from The Vegan Taste. Jason: And we're just making about as we cook every week. Joe: It's amazing! Jason: Yeah, it's, it's, it's daunting, but it's cool. Joe: Yeah, it's. Jason: Yeah, I mean, and like back to the cheese thing, sometimes it's replacing that, that fatty mouthful, mouthfeel that cheese gives you so you can even use something like an avocado or you can use, what are my favorites is this thing called pipián verde, which is just this ah pepitas and tomatillo puree. It's it's a classic Mexican dip and I'll just use that on enchiladas or we'll make our own cheese at the restaurant, sometimes we'll make it just out of almonds and some other ingredients and we'll make our own queso fresco like that and we make our own mozzarellas and stuff. That's a little laborious, I think, for the for the home cook, it's just getting that, that creamy texture which you can get from nuts and seeds. Joe: Right. Yeah. Because even on the recipes at Casa Terra, your restaurant, I saw that there was I think you have is it brick oven pizzas or just... Jason: Yeah, Joe: Or Jason: We have worked fire Joe: Wood Jason: With Joe: Fire. Jason: Fire pizzas Joe: Right. Sorry. Wood fire. Yeah. And so and I did see one of the recipes are one of the descriptions of the you know, the pizza said mozzarella. So I was like, OK, how does he doing that? Jason: Right. It's just a, when you get to that type of cheese, that's it's a little time consuming and it's a mix of art and chemistry. Joe: Yup. It's just it's incredible. So I know we just kind of skipped over it a little bit but we talked about your daughter and, and I and I know we talked about, we didn't quite say that she's vegan, but I know that she is from based on my research about you. And I know it's tough with kids these days with all of the gluten allergies and, and everything that's going on that or used to be a lot tougher. Now, its parents are more aware there are more options and I would think that it's almost the same thing with your daughter as it is with a child that has a gluten allergy. When they go to a house for a birthday party and let's just go back to using pizza as a example, because that's how I grew up, right? That your parents would buy a bunch of pizzas, and... What does she do in that case? Or how how do you let the parents know that she's vegan and that, you know, that isn't something she would (A.) like to eat or (B.) she shouldn't eat or (C.) it might make her sick of she eats because she's not used to eating cheese. Jason: We just we tell them and ask them not to make a big deal out of it. And then we make sure our daughter has food that totally owns everybody else's. Joe: Perfect. Jason: I Joe: That's awesome! Jason: When she was in school before COVID hit, the teachers were asking if we could bring stuff for them. Joe: That is so funny. I can imagine, no I, listen, I know what it smells and tastes like. Every kid we sit there with, their pizza from Dominos going, WWO!, what are you eating? I'll trade you, I'll trade you two slices for that, that's perfect. Well good, she's totally vegan incorrect? That's amazing. So you, what is the Vcology project? Is that how you say it? Vcology Project? Jason: Vcology. Joe: Vcology. So. Jason: It's pretty much the umbrella for all the stuff that I do. Joe: That's what I thought, I just wanted to make sure. And I, because I know that you spoke about The Vegan Taste, which is the home delivery food service, Casa Terra, which is the restaurant out in Glendale, Arizona. And then I heard you speak about other things potentially coming down down the road, so I assumed that that was the umbrella where all of these things would fall under. Jason: Yeah, I mean, we're working on commercializing our cheeses on a large scale. We've already had one big vegan restaurant chain express some interest in it, which was really cool, it came out of the blue. But that was, that was a nice surprise. And Joe: Yeah. Jason: And we just want to roll out really high quality vegan cheeses onto the, onto the food service market and then retail, if we can. Joe: That's great. Jason: But if I can. I mean, if I can get, like some of the best restaurants in Phoenix using high quality of vegan cheeses, all of a sudden it opens up really great menu options for vegans around the entire town. Joe: Right. And I Jason: And Joe: Was Jason: I Joe: Thinking Jason: Think Joe: Good Jason: Go ahead. Joe: While I was sitting Jason: I think. Joe: On the dairy part of it, and I didn't even know that this underlying thing about the cheese had a broader scope or what was happening. I just I kind of chose the one thing that I know, like you, you know, it's like, how do you have ravioli? How do you have a pizza? How do you, if you you're so used to having half and half in your coffee, how do you make the move away from dairy? And I think that's, I think that's harder almost than the meat part of this or that Jason: It's way Joe: Or the Jason: Harder. Joe: Protein part of it. Right. Jason: I didn't know why until Dr. Barnard told me a few years ago that the casein in cheese is called the casomorphin and that basically means that acts like morphine. It acts like an opiate in your system. And I was like, "That makes sense!!", because one day I just gave up meat and it was like, whatever but when I gave up cheese, I had withdrawal symptoms. I was jonesing, I mean, like the hands were shaking and I had headaches and I was irritable and everything else that I had heard from people that were trying to give up cigarettes or drugs or something like that, I was going through and I'm like, "What the hell is going on?" That was, that was one way where I knew, like, I've really gotta get off this stuff, because Joe: All right. Jason: If I'm having that reaction, this is probably pretty bad for me. But it was a few years later when he told me why. And so Joe: That's Jason: Anyway, Joe: It. Jason: I think that's why cheese is so hard. Joe: That's incredible. How did the two of you get connected for that book? Your book? I wrote it down. I'm going to have it in the show Jason: Sure. Joe: Notes. Jason: The "21-day Weight Loss kickstart". So he was coming through town to do a talk and they wanted someone to do a cooking demo and I was the only one in Phoenix, doing this kind of stuff, so I just volunteered to do it. They were gonna pay me and I was like, don't worry about it, I'll just I'll just do it. And so we became friends through that and then I started teaching the cancer project classes here in Phoenix for a few years, which later became their Food for Life program. And, and during that, I just developed tons of recipes every single week. Because I think back then they were kind of in the same boat that a lot of healthy, healthy doctors are in, we're like, they're like, you have to change your diet. Here's how you do it. But they're not really experts at the here's how you do part. Joe: Right. Jason: And so, you know, their recipes were easy to do, but they weren't necessarily great. They were just like, "Ahhh". And so during that class, I just continuously develop stuff that was usually easy to make, but also really spectacular. And then because of that, we just wrote the book together. Joe: And that's really cool. It's just amazing how things, you know, you can make these connections and they just turn into something amazing like that, so, yeah. I'm trying not to skip around, there's so many things I have to ask you, I have so many notes, it's like this is, like I said, I, I was doing the meals for when I was doing the 30 day thing, basically for lunch and dinner. And then I started to do them just for lunch because my partner, Jo Ellen, we were like we were eating separate times, separate things at dinner, it felt like it wasn't this Jason: Right. Joe: Community. Jason: You loose the social part. Joe: Yeah, and so it's this balance for me. But so I thought at least at a bare minimum, and I think this is one thing that we talk about stepping stones and doing this in stages, is that it's worth at least trying to say to yourself, OK, "I'm going to eat vegan for lunch", just take a meal of the Jason: Right. Joe: day and say, this is what I'm going to do. And literally, breakfast is super easy because for me, it's, it's like a vegan smoothie, right? There's nothing and so I don't have to worry about that. It's not sausage, an egg and bacon and all this other stuff. So then you handle the vegan lunch part and you're already better than probably seventy five percent of the world in regards to how healthy you're eating. Jason: That's Joe: And Jason: What Joe: Then. Jason: I think. Joe: Right and then you just. So and that's kind of the approach I took. I don't know yet, just being honest with you, if I can completely eliminate that occasional steak or burger or Jason: Right. Joe: And I'm sure I can at some point, like for me, like you, I, I refuse to go on medication. So I'm 58 years old and I'm like, I'm not going on cholesterol medication. I don't take anything for high blood pressure. I'm not going to do any of that stuff. So if it's a, if it's food, it's going to make the difference, then that's the difference that I'll make. Go into the gym five days a week is already easy for me. But if I have to do that and get rid of the burgers and the steaks and whatever, and that's the mood that I would make. Jason: And if you could make that, did you make it fun and pleasurable, then why not? Joe: Right. That's Jason: If Joe: It. Jason: It's this chore, you know, like most people are gonna be like, ahhh screw it. I don't want to do it, Joe: Now, Jason: But. Joe: For me, it's it's talking my girlfriend into seeing if we can do it together, so that'll be the that'll be the piece we'll see. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about, oh, I also heard an interview where you said that your daughter growing up with two chefs. So is your wife also working with you at either at The Vegan Taste or Casa Terra? Jason: She she was Joe: Ok. Jason: Doing The Vegan Taste for a while. Joe: Ok. Jason: I mean, for, for years, she was with me in the kitchen. And sometimes when I was off doing other stuff, she was running at it for months at a time. Joe: Got it. Jason: But I now we're in a situation where it's hard for us to split our time like that. And so she takes care of the household and raises our daughter while I take care of the business. We tried where we were splitting it both ways and it was like, I think it's hard to multitask. Right? It's hard to be great at a bunch of different stuff at the same time. And so we just finally decided, well, I'll have to go off and kind of slug it out and be the champion for the business, while she's the champion for keeping the rest of the family sane. Joe: Which is the admirable thing for sure. So The Vegan Taste, let's talk about that really quickly. So The Vegan Taste as home delivery, vegan meals that come in these great packages that are, like you said, are the goal is to heat and eat. And Jason: Right. Joe: They I don't know. I'll let you just talk about it because I don't want to, I know I had a certain schedule and the whole thing with the coolers, but I'd like you to describe it so that the audience will know what it's all about and then they can make their decision from there. Jason: Yeah, it's it's super easy. So the menu changes every single week. It's a fixed menu. You put your order in by Friday night. My crew comes into the kitchen on the weekends, makes everything. We plate it up over the weekend. Pack it up for delivery on Monday and then my team of drivers go out every Monday and they deliver all the meals at once for your entire week, that Monday. They leave it in a cooler loaded up with ice packs so even in the middle of July, the meals will stay chilled until you can pick them up and then you put them in your fridge. I know, some of our clients will reheat them on the stovetop. They'll take the ingredients out and reheat them on the stove, top it honestly, talking to people, most of them stuff it in the microwave and they have a lunch in two minutes. Joe: Yup and those containers are microwaveable. Jason: Yes, Joe: Is that correct? Jason: Yes. Joe: Yes. I know I've done both. I've depending on what the food was, sometimes I would heat it on the stove and sometimes I would heat it in the microwave. And I think that's all, also another thing in my brain about microwaves, they know make me a little nervous thinking that maybe something's there that eventually Jason: Right. Joe: someone's going to admit to, so if I if I have enough time, I'll go to the stove. If I don't, I just use the Jason: I Joe: Microwave. Jason: Am exactly the same way. I mean, I don't even have time to cook for myself very much anymore, so so I use our delivery service for me and most of the time I just slide the contents out of the container and right to a pan. Joe: So in regards to the meals that are available, is it, are they just lunches and dinners? Are they breakfast, lunch and dinners or... Jason: It's basically lunches and dinners right now, but will add in a breakfast option and the juicing option and some desserts pretty soon. Joe: And and like me, at one point, I was getting doubles of things so that I could have something for lunch and then something completely different for dinner. So I assume you have clients across the board that are only lunch, only dinner or a combination of enough meals for, is that how many, how many Jason: Yeah, Joe: can they get? Is it Jason: So, Joe: The. Jason: Yeah, basically we do six different dishes every week and you can get a single portion of each one or you can get a double portion of each one. And the people that want to have our meals for lunch and dinner, get the double portion. Joe: Right and that's what I was doing for a time, that's, that's right. And then in my case, I said that I wanted it spicy but so you actually keep tabs of certain things that people request on a small, I assume a small level because you can't be doing personalized, you know, things across the board for everybody. Jason: Yeah, we have spice is one of the standard options we have for people. And then we have a gluten free option, soy free option, although we use pretty limited soy already anyway. And then no oil option in the meals, again, are are pretty much pretty low oil already. So we just talked to people like, do you really, really want no oil? Or is that that's that you're trying to minimize your your oil? Are you trying to minimize your soy? Are you trying to minimize gluten? Because we don't we don't use those types of ingredients heavily in the meal service. And then if there's something that we can, leave off as a garnish for someone like if someone's like, "I hate right onions." I'll tell them, you know, if it's mixed into the dish, we can't change it but if it's a garnish, we can make a note to leave it off for you. Joe: Right. Jason: I mean, most people are good about it, but then sometimes I get someone that sends me a list of like 10 different things, I can't, sorry, I can't do that. Joe: Thank God I do that I don't want to sit here and look at you in the camera and go, oh, I was one of those people. And Jason: No, not Joe: I Jason: At Joe: Think Jason: All. Joe: The only thing that I said, I everything was great for me. The only thing I request that I think was less tofu in some of my stuff only because I'm I, it's just me getting used to it, it's it, and, and it's not, I would, I wouldn't even say it's a texture thing for me because I eat oysters, right? That's about as weird of a texture as you can Jason: That's sure. Joe: get. So I don't know why I definitely have had tofu from your food service, that was amazing. And it's almost like it's firm and some of it sometimes is even like crispy, like it's it's hasn't where I've had it other times where it just, just, it's just weird. Jason: Yeah, I mean. Joe: I don't know if there's good or bad tofu, maybe there's just the quality of it, I don't know. Jason: It's the way, it's the way it's prepared. And I think it's also what you're used to growing up with. I mean, if you're used to growing up with, say, diced up firm tofu in a miso soup, you're not going to bat an eye at it. But if you're not used to that, the texture might be weird for you. And I think, when dealing with American culture where we're not used to that stuff, too many people just take tofu and throw it in a soup or a stew and they're like, "Okay, that's good enough." But it's not I mean, it's like to me that's like throwing in a raw hunk of meat and is something and being like whatever. So, Joe: Yeah, Jason: You know, it's just it's Joe: Ok. Jason: All in the preparation. Joe: Ok, good to know because I started to get to like it. And thanks to you once again, because I was definitely I grew up with, in an Italian restaurant family and my father was a chef and so all of this stuff is new to me. Jason: Right! Joe: I was eating pizza and pasta and bread and, and you name it. So I wanted to ask you about Cassa Terra. I noticed that on the website, like a lot of places, especially during this time we're living in right now with COVID-19, that the kitchen is closed for the summer, right? That's what it says on the website. Jason: Yeah, Joe: Is that true? OK. Jason: A lot of the high end restaurants, it seems, around town actually close up for the summer. Unless there are these big corporate things that can afford to take the loss that restaurants just suffer with the summer here. Joe: Is Casa Terra where you do actually all the food prep and making them? So that that kitchen is still being used for the food delivery service? Jason: Yeah, it's our Joe: It's. Jason: R&D kitchen and our delivery service kitchen. We do catering and stuff out of there, too. Joe: When does the restaurant open or when do you expect it to open back up in the fall or ? Jason: I'm not sure yet Joe: Ok. Jason: Because honest answer is for a, for the type of food that we do, our location is not that great. And so if we can find a location that's more central or on the east side, that makes more sense for us right now than trying to just reopen in Glendale. And Phoenix is a weird city, so, we have these really accessible freeways and it's actually pretty easy to get around here but I don't know if our food culture is is there yet, because if someone else to drive more than 20 minutes here for food, it's painful. And the chances are they won't do it. Joe: You know. Jason: Or if they do it, they'll come once a year. And Joe: Yeah. Jason: So it's, it's difficult that way we're compared to like Los Angeles and New York or Chicago, people will spend an hour getting to, getting to a place to have dinner. And if it's a good meal, that's just part of the it's part of the experience. That might not be a great part of the experience, but it's something you're willing to do. So. Joe: Yeah, absolutely, Jason: So Joe: Yeah. It's Jason: We Joe: Funny. Jason: Have to be, yeah, we have to be in a more central location. Joe: Yeah, because I know we're in, and I live in Arcadia and the boundary for me is pretty much like the 51. If it's on the other side of the 51, I have a hard time going that far west but I understand that. You, one of the things that I did read was that about the Le Cordon Bleu the school and it was something about you being, was it the first graduate of vegan Jason: First Joe: Or Jason: Instructor. Joe: First instructor of vegan? Jason: Remember when it was theater, 2007 or 2008 that I was teaching at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute Joe: Yeah. Jason: And right when I, right when I started teaching there, they became part of the Le Cordon Bleu program. And so I, because I became the first official vegan instructor in that program. Joe: That's really cool! Jason: There was there was cool. Joe: Yeah. There's so many things, the other thing was I remember either hearing or reading that philosophy was your major? And I think what, what struck me about it, when I when I read it and then who you are and, and I even, there was an interview about making the argument of why to go vegan, like how when someone find something like this and this is why this has been like I've wanted to talk about, even though I haven't gone full vegan, I think that the health benefits are so important and just the, the eliminating of dairy alone. I mean, I've told people when they said, oh, yeah, you know, it sucks getting old. I'm like, well, I'm 58, I agree with you, but I don't, I'm, I don't wake up feeling achy. And, and, and I never did a lot of dairy, but even cutting out what I've already done, I think the inflammation piece of this is what other, you know, is another part that people are missing. Jason: I'd, Joe: And so, Jason: Yeah, it's. Joe: You know, so getting back to the philosophy part about how you're able to convey this in a not like beating someone over the head with a club, you've got to do this, it's, it's the only way. Your approach to it is your first of all, your demeanor of how your, you know, your a 6' 3" guy who you would never think if I met you in the street, would say you're vegan. And then the way you intelligently talk about the food and then the bonus of all of it is how it tastes. And so there's just so many amazing things about this, it's why I was so excited to finally do this. Jason: Well, cool! Thank you. Joe: So the Jason: It's. Joe: Go ahead with the phil..., with the philosophy part of this, I think it's helped a lot. Jason: That that's actually what got me to go vegetarian, but also it it taught me a few things about the way people make decisions because I socially and just because of the way I was raised, I didn't want to go vegetarian because it meant changing my lifestyle. And intellectually, I've been kind of bandying it about for a couple months before I pulled the trigger on it. And I didn't do it, it was just something I had thought about it. And then I had an epiphany because I was watching, I was playing with my cat. And I, intellectually, I knew my cat is this other being with its own thoughts and her own emotions. But then there was something where I was just playing with her and I had that emotional epiphany and that's where it went off and I was like, I understood that my cat was this separate creature that was valuable and she had her own rich emotional life and because she was sitting there problem solving and she was getting excited about bringing this little bottle cap back to me and playing fetch with me. It wasn't like this, this robotic, emotionless, thinking-less, piece of matter that, that's how Descartes used to view animals and that's how he justified doing all these horrible experiments he did on them because he, you know, even though they would, they would scream and all this other stuff, he passed it off as they didn't have a soul and they weren't really conscious and all this other BS. And so you can intellectually know that, but then you have the understanding there is that connection. And within a second I was like, wait a minute, it's not ok for me to just, like, take a hammer and smash my cat apart right now, that's really jacked up, that's something serial killers do. Why? Why can't I do that to my cat but why am I paying someone to do it to a cow? And I was like, "I have to stop!" So I stopped, went vegetarian and then spent a month arguing against vegetarianism to see if any of the arguments hold up. And none of the arguments were self-consistent. And so I was like, I'm going to stay vegetarian. And that was the the rational part of that. But what I learned was I had to have that emotional epiphany to fully make that leap in my decision making. And then when I went vegan, it was even more so because I was doing it for health reasons. But then I found out about factory farming. So it's ironic because being vegetarian for a few years, I had no idea about factory farming and then all of a sudden I'm looking at it for health reasons and learning about factory farming and I know that it's what happens in a factory farming is horrible and I don't want to partake in it. But yet I'm going out and having all you can eat enchiladas once a week. Because I emotionally had that tie to the enchiladas and, and so I think for most people, decision making is ah, pain pleasure balance. And it's, it's a very immediate and very immediate decision. And it's funny because people that can make that decision for the long term, we call them wise, because in the short term, going out and jogging or lifting weights sucks for most people. But the wise people go out and do that because, you know, it's going to pay off in the long term. And so I think going through that myself, even though I was trying to be rational about it and I knew what the right decision was and not being able to make it because I had this emotional thing is what got me into food in the first place. Because I knew if I could if I could take the pain part of that calculus away for people and just give them an environment where they could make a good decision for themselves and for the planet and for the animals, then, then I had to do it. Joe: Yeah, it's, it's really cool. I mean, I learned so much more about you just doing the research that I wanted to do up front and, and I think it's important how the philosophy part of your, what your brain has done through, you know, getting that degree in school and then then I heard about the soul sucking marketing job that, you Jason: Oh, Joe: Know. Jason: It was horrible. Joe: Right. Yeah. And it's and this is it all plays, this is why this Jason: It's. Joe: is such a cool interview for me. And I don't want to keep you any longer because I know that, you know, you work really hard and but I, I would love to do more at some point, Jason: Yeah, that'll be Joe: You Jason: Fun. Joe: Know, it's just cool that you, you are doing your passion. It really means a lot to you. You're you know, you eat, sleep and breathe what you preach, but you preach it in a way that it's not preaching. The food tastes amazing! It was just a godsend for me to find it. We find out tonight as you're setting up here and give it a talk, you play the drums. It's like, what, what more of a kinship could we possibly have? And all I do is try to preach on my podcast and on my, you know, social media and all that is just people following their dream. And it's really cool to see you do this. It's, it's, it's great. And and I'm glad you're healthy. Glad you made the choice when you did. You're here Jason: Yeah. Joe: To help keep us all healthy and feed us. Jason: Well it's funny, so it's funny you brought that up, because I feel like I'm in another transition point in what I'm doing because, ah you know, I had this amazing journey where I lost all this weight, I cured my diabetes, became a chef and went and helped out other people. And in the last couple years my, my health started to decline and I was like, what's going on because I'm eating right. But there's, there's all this other stuff. So, I mean, you know, in the last couple of years, I almost got divorced. I was working 100 hours a week. I was doing all this other, other stuff. I was, you know, we went to set up to open up this restaurant, we had some guys steal about 50K from us and steal, ah... He probably cost us about 200 grand in the long term, which was almost all my family's money and almost all of my best friend's money that she had. And then we opened up this, opened up this restaurant, which you were in the restaurant business, so, you know, like it is a lot of work. And on top of that, we're doing these other businesses. Jason: And so there are all these other stressors and I realize it actually happened right wing COVID hit. Because we were thinking about like, we were really looking forward to the summer when we could shut the restaurant down for a while and get a breather. And then COVID hit and all of a sudden, oddly, my life got better. Because I was spending time with my family and I was killing myself anymore and my health started to improve. That was it, I had this very narrow focus in my life, which I was really good at but it also carried all the stress that I think, I think you have when you get a little bit older in your career and you're kind of at the, you're operating at a higher level, it's also a more stressful level. And there's a lot more at stake about point. And so when COVID hit, I had more time for my family. And then I started going on bike rides again and hiking and I started spending time playing the drums, I hadn't touched my drum set in three years. Joe: WOW! Jason: And I started playing again, which was actually cool. I have this thing where I get my, stop something for a while when I pick it up and better at it. So now I can actually play some of the Rush songs that I couldn't get through Joe: Nice. Jason: For three years. Like, where did this come from? Joe: It's awesome! Jason: You know, so that was cool. And so, so I realized, like, I'd been talking about environment with food choices. But I've been ignoring everything else that goes into being a healthy person and taking care of your mental state, taking care of your family, making sure you have time to not be insane with all this other other stuff and so I think my crew is shifting into a point where I'm going to start talking about more about holistic health and creating good environments for your, for your well-being as an adult. It's, I'm sure it's true for for kid or whatever part you're in but since I'm in my 40s and kind of went through the midlife crisis part, that's how I solved it, was figuring out that I had to create a good environment to make good choices throughout my whole life and not just with the food, because I'd just been concentrated on the food, which is one key. Joe: You. Yeah, it's amazing how many people I know, it's it's hurt a lot of people. But I personally, it's been the best three months and so long because I was running so hard. And like I said, I've gotten to do things that I want to do. I it's just it's been a good thing. And I'm glad to hear that everything is turning back around for you, too, as well. I worried about you when it happened, to be honest, because, you know, I, I know it devastated the event world for me, I mean everything just stopped. And so I was worried just purely whether or not you know how how well you would do during that time. And it's funny, speaking of, you know, COVID-19. Was there any concerns about, you know, your clients with Joe: The food delivery and any, any things that you had to do differently in order to to be, you know, follow the CDC guidelines or anything like that? Jason: We just did extra sanitation, but we were already doing that stuff anyway. Joe: Right. Jason: We were just more hardcore about it than normal. But that was it. Because I think with the food delivery, it's contactless, so our drivers just show up and Joe: Drop the Jason: They're Joe: Cooler. Jason: At their doorstep Joe: Yeah. Jason: In and head out. Joe: Yeah. Jason: So, so in a way, it didn't really affect the delivery service at all. Joe: Got Jason: It was Joe: It. Jason: horrible for the restaurant, but that ended up being a boom for us personally. Joe: Yep, yep. Well, awesome! Man. I cannot tell you how grateful I am that you're here. Like I said, I was disappointed when I had a sort of postpone it last time, I just took on too much. It was one of those deals where I thought I could I forget how much time postproduction takes after I get off this thing to get it, Jason: Yeah. Joe: You know, ready for prime time. But I am super, super grateful that you said yes and you came on, I love your food and you're an amazing human being. The more I've done the research and get to know you now. And it sounds like your daughter is definitely waiting for you to put her to bed. So I'm glad, I could go on, I swear to God for another hour, there's so many questions about food and just things that you've done, but we'll do it another time for sure. Jason: Yeah, that'll be fun. I'd love to come back. Joe: I again, I can't thank you enough. It's an honor to have you on here. And I'd love to have you back again. Just for the audience sake and things like that, where's the best place to get in touch with you? And I'll put I'll do in the show notes, I'll list every, you know, your social media things but like in regards to, let's say, The Vegan Taste, what's the best way for people to reach out? Jason: Just go right to thevegantaste.com Joe: Okay, perfect. Jason: I mean, we have all the social media platforms, but it seems like, you know, Facebook changes what they want to show to people every few months and Instagram is the same way. You know, all these other ones. So just just go straight to thevegantaste.com Joe: Perfect. I'll put in all the other links, I'll take care of all of that. Again, thank you so much, I appreciate it, it's so, I look forward to actually meeting you live in person. Maybe we can sit around and jam one night. Jason: That would be awesome! Joe: I would love it. So. Jason: Cool. Joe: All right. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate it. Jason: Hey, thank you. Have a good night. Joe: You too!

Jon and Jason Have arrived on the internet 15 years fashionably late. We're here to give a little love and a little salt to the world of pork products.. specifically to the Bacon product category. Our podcast is simple. Using a Process called Backward Baconing, we start with His Eminence himself Mr Kevin Bacon in the 1990 Classic Tremors. After we have enjoyed this film completely we will choose our favorite character/actor from the film and select a film from their catalog. There is no guarantee our choices will be wise, informed or even logical but it should be a good laugh. Join us on our choose your own adventure style journey into the unknown corners of cinematic pig pen from whence Bacon came. We join a small town already in progress as it discovers, "We've got worms".

Looking for a date this Valentine's Day? We're here for you! We offer you wine, cheese, and no obligation to call us the next day. So, stick us in your earbuds and let us whisper sweet nothings into your ears as we serenade you with the history of Valentine's Day, Tinder tips, first-date etiquette and why John Cusack standing outside your house at 5 a.m. is actually kind of creepy. This episode's wine: Weibel Family Peach Flavored Sparkling WineThis episode's cheese: St. Angel Triple Cream Brie and Mascarpone (the Vermont pronunciation) Emily is particularly punchy in this episode, in case you can't tell! It may have been the sparkling peach wine or her questioning her decisions that led to her going to Whole Foods on a Saturday for fancy cheese. For our listeners, we cut out about 10 minutes of orgasm sounds we had while eating from our amazing Valentine's Day spread. You're welcome! Emily talks about the history of Valentine's Day, including our favorite theme of Christians taking over Pagan holidays. Aside from the Roman version of "Seven Minutes in Heaven," let's just be happy we're living in modern times. James does his best to try a little Tinder-ness by talking about one of the most popular dating Apps of the moment. By the way, if you're looking for James on Tinder, he is the guy with the profile picture of pie! We also put out a call to action for listeners to send us pictures of their romantic nights listening to our podcast! DO IT! James and Emily also discuss some first-date etiquette ... or, at least the fake etiquette you should attempt. James gets some questions answered about what women really want on a date. Emily gets up on her feminist soapbox, but then gets right back down if the option of eating bon-bons in flattering skirts comes up. Emily gives some tips from the book, "He's Just Not That Into You." James doesn't quite understand why women need a book for this, but that's exactly why women need this book! If a guy isn't into you, don't waste your time. James talks about the benefits of remaining single, some ignoring Emily professing her love for pineapple and mascarpone. And the Coke vs. Pepsi fight continues! Emily gets to vent about her hatred of Disney princess movies! She also talks about things in romantic movies that are actually really creepy in real life, including the idea of Woody Allen as attractive. If a guy shows up to your house with a boom box ... be careful! Red flag! No woman actually wants the kinds of romantic gestures shown in movies. In James' words, "Just be cool, man." Featured promos: Pat and Jason Have a Podcast The Just John Podcast Find more great podcasts on Twitter by searching the hashtag #PodernFamily on Twitter! Special thanks to Adam Centamore for his book, "Tasting Wine & Cheese: An Insider's Guide to Mastering the Principles of Pairing," which inspires us to try new wine and cheese pairings in every episode! Cheers!

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                    Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com Disclaimer: The opinions of the host, co-hosts or guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions of American Dreams, Inc. , BTR, HDVR, LearnHotDogs.com, Hot Dog Answer Man or any partners or sponsors.  

A haven for hot dog vendor, food trucks operators and street food pros.    Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com  

Show info to be announced.  Catch us every Tuesday evening at 8:30PM EST. Subscribe to the blog at LearnHotDogs.com  and never miss a tip a show or the weekly Q and A.   Grow your business into something incredible.  Sponsors: The Mobile Food Vendor Association                     BensCarts.com                     LearnHotDogs.com                     Vienna Beef Hosts: Ben, Rob and Jason Have a question or a comment, please use our Listener Feedback Line   If you would like to sponsor a show or become a regular, please contact: Ben@LearnHotDogs.com