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Breaking Into Medical Sales: Gina Torres's Journey from Nurse to Industry Expert In this inspiring episode, Gina Torres, a seasoned peripheral vascular representative, shares her incredible transition from a peripheral vascular nurse to a top medical device sales expert at Shockwave. Discover how she leveraged her clinical background to drive innovation and improve patient outcomes, particularly in preventing amputations for those with peripheral arterial disease. Gina dives deep into the transformative power of intravascular lithotripsy technology and the critical role medical sales professionals play in advancing treatment solutions. She also sheds light on the evolving responsibilities of clinical specialists, balancing in-depth product knowledge with the art of sales. If you're considering a career in medical sales, Gina offers invaluable advice on how individuals from non-clinical backgrounds, such as marketing professionals, can successfully break into the industry. She also opens up about the challenges of balancing a demanding career with family life, sharing practical strategies for success. From launching Nurse Elevator to help nurses and techs transition into medical sales to her go-to book recommendation, Influence by Robert Cialdini, Gina's insights are packed with actionable takeaways. And, of course, we wrap up with a fun lightning round, including her must-try meal at Pecan Lodge in Dallas. Whether you're a healthcare professional, an aspiring medical sales rep, or simply curious about this dynamic field, this episode is packed with motivation, industry knowledge, and career-changing insights! Meet Gina: Gina is a former ICU and Interventional Radiology nurse who successfully transitioned into the medical device industry, where she is now an executive sales representative and a recognized expert in peripheral vascular interventions. Despite having no formal sales training, her deep clinical expertise and firsthand understanding of patient care have propelled her to excel in the field. She began her industry journey as a Clinical Support Specialist, where she quickly mastered the sales process with the guidance of exceptional mentors. Her ability to bridge the gap between clinical knowledge and sales strategy led her to secure a sales role, where she has since earned back-to-back President's Club awards. Passionate about helping other healthcare professionals leverage their skills beyond the bedside, Gina founded **Nurse Elevator**—a platform dedicated to guiding nurses, techs, and other clinicians into medical device sales and related non-hospital careers. She firmly believes clinicians bring unmatched value to the industry due to their deep understanding of patients and treatment algorithms. Through Nurse Elevator, Gina is on a mission to create a supportive and educational community that empowers healthcare professionals to confidently explore new opportunities. Connect with Gina: LinkedIn Connect with me: LinkedIn Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here's How » Want to connect with past guests and access exclusive Q&As? Join our EYS Skool Community today! The views and opinions Gina expressed are her own and not a reflection of Shockwave Medical or Johnson and Johnson MedTech.  

In this episode of Building Texas Business, I sit down with serial entrepreneur Steve Reynolds for his perspectives on innovation in corporate travel tech. As CSO of Embers Inc., Steve shares his journey developing TripBam, an early pioneer utilizing algorithms and robotics to optimize hotel rates. He explains TripBam's strategic transformation from consumer to enterprise software, strengthening the company and positioning it for seamless integration under Embers. Steve offers valuable lessons on championing passion within high-performing teams. The importance of actively engaging customers and development staff to creativity solve problems is emphasized. We discuss the challenges of maintaining innovation at scale versus smaller startups. Steve's experiences navigating acquisitions and a turbulent industry offer cautionary advice. A theme emerges—embracing flexibility positions leaders to overcome challenges and achieve lasting impact. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS In this episode, I spoke with Steve Reynolds, Chief Strategy Officer at Emburse Inc., about his journey in corporate travel technology and entrepreneurship. Steve discussed the origins and evolution of TripBam, a platform he founded that uses algorithms and robotics for hotel rate monitoring, which eventually pivoted from a consumer-focused to a B2B model. Steve shared insights on navigating the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the strategic decisions that helped TripBam emerge stronger, including cost optimizations and product enhancements. We explored the importance of fostering a passionate and innovative team, highlighting the value of listening to customers and involving development teams directly in problem-solving. Steve explained the critical difference between passionate programmers and those who are merely formally trained, and how assembling a team that shares the company's vision and offering equity can drive success. The episode delved into strategies for managing company growth and financial stability, such as quick decision-making in right-sizing staff and optimizing operational costs through cloud environments. We discussed the benefits of subscription-based pricing models over transaction-based ones, particularly during economic downturns, and how this approach helped maintain cash flow during the pandemic. Steve reflected on the evolution of workplace environments and leadership styles, noting the shift from rigid, traditional settings to more flexible, results-oriented cultures. We talked about the challenges of maintaining innovation in large companies, contrasting startup environments with big company mindsets, and the importance of hiring the right people for each setting. Finally, Steve shared his thoughts on the future of the travel industry and the innovative approaches that have set new standards in modern practices. LINKSShow Notes Previous Episodes About BoyarMiller About Emburse GUESTS Steve ReynoldsAbout Steve TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Chris: In this episode you will meet Steve Reynolds, chief Strategy Officer for Emburse Inc. Steve has built his career in corporate travel technology and in starting various companies over the four-decade career. Steve looks for opportunities to be disruptive. Steve, thanks for coming on the podcast. It's a pleasure to meet you and appreciate you taking the time. Steve: You bet Chris Glad to be here. Chris: So you know there's a lot that I'd love to get into with you. I know that you know currently you're with a company called M-Burst Travel, but that you started a company before that called TripBam. Tell us a little bit about, I guess, those companies and what they do. What is the business they're known for? Steve: Okay, and just to back up a little bit further, I guess what you could call a serial entrepreneur. Tripbam was my third or fourth venture kind of lost count, but I've been in the corporate travel tech space for 40 some odd years. And TripBam when we started 10 years ago, we recognized that hotel rates change a lot more often than people actually realize. If you were to create some robotics that went out and grabbed the rate at a particular hotel for a certain date in the future, you'd see that rate changes just about every hour and what we found is if you just keep watching it, eventually it's going to drop, especially as you get closer to check-in. So we created some algorithms, robotics, whatever you want to call it that said okay, I've got a rate of $2.99 at the Grand Hyatt in New York. I'm arriving on the first and departing on the third. I want you to just let me know when it drops and if it does, I want you to rebook it for me If everything is the same room, same bed, same cancel policy, blah, blah, blah. So that's what we did. We originally invented it for the consumer market. We put out a website and we got mentions in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today and so on. But sort of my corporate travel buddies called up and said, hey, Steve, we really need you to apply this to corporate travel. And they started writing some pretty significant checks. We followed the money, we pivoted and went all B2B at that point. And so the company grew 40% year over year for the first six years, cashflow positive within just a couple of months. I mean it was great. It was great. And then COVID came along and kind of took our knees out from under us for a bit. Chris: COVID kind of wiped out the fundamental business model for at least a little bit. Steve: At least for a little bit. But fortunately a lot of our customers were paying us subscription fees rather than transaction fees, so we were to stay afloat. We got through COVID and we actually came out on the backside of COVID in a much stronger position, both financially and you name it, because we were able to do a lot of just cost improvements, right-sizing the organization. We kind of got a little bit ahead of our skis, I think, in some areas and created some new products, just all kinds of things, pushed everything out to the cloud and such that dramatically reduced our costs and just were firing all cylinders. Chris: And then we worked out a deal with Emburse in July last year to buy the company. Okay, how does I guess what TripBand does fit within the Emburse excuse me, overall, maybe suite of products or company strategy. Steve: Yeah. So Emburse provides travel and expense to the largest of companies, to the smallest of companies, and what I mean by that? Everybody. When you go, you have kind of a booking tool to start with. Most folks are familiar with Concur. We have our own. The reservation gets created. It then needs to be watched, monitored, audited, improved upon. That's kind of where we fit in. So before the money is spent we actually see if we can actually do better than what the traveler did on their own. Travelers are not going to check the hotel rate every day. They're not going to check their airfare every hour. They're not potentially going to book the preferred property within a particular city. We fix all that before the money's actually spent. We then push all that to mobile. So you've got a companion app in your pocket where the traveler gets a ton of destination content specific to that company. So I'm going to New York, I'm staying at headquarters, what hotel should I stay in? I need to go take a client to dinner, what restaurants do you recommend? All kinds of other stuff, including safety and security perspective and so on. Then the data is all captured and fed into an expense report so that your expense report if the traveler is compliant. It's kind of pre-created and pre-approved, so the traveler in a lot of cases doesn't have to do anything and if they're compliant all the way throughout, they could actually kind of be paid as soon as their plane hits the ground. Then it all feeds into reporting and analytics so that we can improve your travel program, identify additional savings opportunities, find some fraud issues, detect all kinds of other stuff that might be a problem. We also offer a card product if you don't have one, and that's kind of the travel plus expense ecosystem that we provide. Chris: That's fascinating. I obviously wasn't aware that something like that existed, but I can see how large companies with a lot of employees traveling could see the benefit and realize a lot of savings from those services. Steve: Yeah, when you combine travel with expense, some kind of magic happens in that we have enough data and insight to be able to start pre-filling out that expense report. Otherwise, all we're counting on is card transactions and receipts, and that's really not going to do the trick. But if we can get that card information augmented with the receipt scanning and everything else that we do now, we can really do a nice job of pre-filling out that expense report. So really all you have to do is add mileage, hit, click and you're submitted. Chris: So you mentioned that you've been in this industry for 40 plus years. I'm curious how did you first get started in the corporate travel tech space 40 years ago? Steve: It was just by happenstance, I guess you could say. I was originally started as a programmer for Texas Instruments, got accepted into their executive program, which meant I could go off and get an MBA and then come back to TI, but quickly realized that the consulting firms were paying a lot more. So I ended up with Ernst Winnie, at the time with Ernst Young and my first assignment was with a travel agency in Houston, Texas, called LifeGo Travel, which doesn't exist anymore. The owner of that company hired us to come in and build some technology. It really put him on the map and he got tired of paying the bills and seeing the hourly checks that we were charging. And so he approached and said, hey, you know, do you want to come work for us? And I'm like, well, that never thought about working for a travel agency. That doesn't sound all that exciting. But he said look what if we created a company, We'll spin it off and we'll give you some equity. And I'm like, okay, now you're talking. So we left, we started up a company called Competitive Technologies and all of it was bought by American Express Travel two years later. Chris: Oh, wow. So unquestionably you had a little bit of an entrepreneurial spirit going way back then to see an opportunity. Put you in it. Steve: And a lot of it is just kind of, I guess, my personal. I don't do well at big companies. I really struggle because I get so frustrated at just the lack of progress or the lack of innovation or the speed at which things happen, so I tend to sort of find an excuse to hit the exit button, usually within a year or two. Chris: Right. So you said something in that response that I want to talk to you about, and that's innovation. I think that's there's such a common theme, I think, with entrepreneurs about. You know, and innovation can mean so many things. What do you think that you've done, as you've built several companies, as you mentioned, to create or foster and nurture a spirit and environment of innovation? Steve: You know a lot of it is just becoming a really good listener to the buyer, to whoever the customer is. And then when they say things, there are certain kernels that are aspects of what they say that you just go oh, wait a minute, okay, can we go back to that? That sounds important. You know this level of frustration. Why does that frustrate you? And if you have engineering and development in the room when those things are said, oftentimes some real magic starts to happen and we just the creativity, the innovation just comes out naturally as wow, we can solve that problem. That's not that hard, you know, let's go do that. So that's on the B2B side. That's kind of the formula, that conversation. Something falls out as far as a new feature, product, something like that, that we can start working on the B2C side. Chris: Go ahead. Well, it sounds like there's a function there of asking the right questions and really listening. Steve: Well, and just most big companies or companies they try to protect the dev engineering. They're like oh, we're not going to let you talk to customers. You guys sit over here in the back room and we'll come to you with sort of a priority or roadmap of what we think is needed. And I feel like that's just the wrong way to do it. You've got to get the dev and the engineers and the programmers in the room to hear the story, otherwise you get this telephone tag of what actually gets built isn't quite what the customer wants or was even asking for. And for most companies that's really hard. I don't know why, but they just. It's like we can't allow that to happen, but that's just not the way I operate. Chris: Well, I mean, it makes sense that people you're asking to solve the problem probably need to hear what the problem is firsthand, right? Steve: Exactly. And then it's oftentimes the dev guys are like they're coming up with much more creative solutions. If you just hand them a requirement sheet or spec sheet, they're like, oh okay, this is going to take a month. But when they're involved with the client and they actually hear what the true problem is, oftentimes they're like, oh, I can knock this out overnight, I'll have a solution to you by tomorrow. It's just a night and day sort of sense of urgency or sort of the emotion around creating the solution. They're bought in. At that point, when they hear it directly from the client, they can be the hero. Chris: Well, when you think about kind of that and getting the right developers and the right kind of team together, what have you found to be successful as far as what to look for in building the right team and then keeping the team together? Steve: Yeah. So fortunately for me I mean through all of these different companies that I've started I've been able to kind of get the band back together multiple times. A because I, you know, I'm a big believer in sharing the equity. You know, let's get everybody, if not equity, at least options, so that when there is an exit, everybody benefits, and they've all seen that so far today, knock on wood, I haven't had an unsuccessful exit where we've had to, you know, turn out the lights or whatever. My shareholders have all made money, you know, typically around 5x to 10x on their investment, which has been great. So it's easy to get the bad back together. But what I also have found out is there are certain programmers that are passionate about programming and others that are just taught programming, and there's a night and day difference on the result. If they're passionate about it, the results come out quick. I get creative solutions that nobody would think of. They're usually extremely low cost and it's just so much better than if I have someone that's college taught. I'm doing this because it's a paycheck and I took this degree because that's what somebody told me to and I was good enough to get a B in college on all my programming courses, but at the end of the day, if their heart's not in it and they're spending their time, you know, just on the side weekends and nights learning new stuff, they're not going to be very good. So give me one or two of those that are passionate and I'll put them against 10 to 20 of those that are school taught and will kick their ass every time. Chris: So yeah, well again, I think that transcends all industries and disciplines, the key being passion. Right, I think you, as the leader, are the one that has to start with the passion and then find people that share that passion to get to where you're talking about, where there's that flow within the organization. Steve: Yeah, I think development's a little bit different. I mean, you're not going to find anybody super excited about accounting or I don't know the other aspects of it, but with development there's guys that just get so into it. You know they're programming on the side. They get into hackathons, they want to prove that you know they're smarter than the guy next to them and just constantly looking for the next challenge and just coming up with those creative solutions. I don't know of any other discipline that really has that level of it, but there might be. I mean, I could be wrong. Chris: So, just going back and maybe not the first venture where you and the travel agency in Houston started, but maybe I'm just curious to know as you began some of these startups, maybe sharing some of the lessons learned through some of the challenges you found in starting that venture, whether it be raising capital as an example, or any other challenges that may come about, but I think that capital raise can be one in the startup that some entrepreneurs find daunting and maybe can't solve and never get anything off the ground. Steve: Yeah Well, I think, first off, just wait as long as possible to raise capital. You know most of them kind of build an MVP which just kind of barely works and then go out and try to raise money on it. And whenever you go down that path you just end up way undervaluing what you have. And I know people get in certain situations where they just need to have a check, you know, or it's you know, lights out. But if you can wait until you actually have a client actually generating revenue, actually having positive cash flow, whatever, and then you can show someone, look, we just need to add fuel to the fire here. This is not about keeping the lights on, this is about generating growth You're going to have a dramatically better outcome. The other thing I found out is when you take the big check too early, you start making really stupid decisions. You start hiring attorneys that are expensive, you hire a CFO before you need it, you have a head of HR, all kinds of stuff and overhead that's just not necessary and over time it makes you less and less nimble because you're so worried about payroll, you know, and less focused on just delivering a product that has a you know, a bunch of value. Keep your day job, keep working nights and weekends, wait as long as possible. I mean, I always said, look, cash is like oxygen. If you run out you're going to die. So hang on to it with both hands first. I mean beg, borrow and steal from friends and family and whatever to just get stuff. If you need a contract, go out on the web and search for a capolar plate contract. It'll be good enough to get you started. Or find someone that's a buddy, that's a lawyer, that's willing to do some pro bono work in return, maybe for a little bit of equity stuff like that. Just hang on to that cash as much as you can, for as long as you can. Chris: Well, I think there's a lot there that someone can learn from. Obviously, speaking as a chairman of a law firm, I can't endorse legal Zoom for the startup, but I understand your point. We talk to clients a lot about especially know, especially in the startup phase. Maybe you know helping them get going, but you know and being smart about how they spend their money. But make it an investment in getting at least a sound structure and they may not need right the full-blown set of legal documents, but I can promise you I've seen people start on legal Zoom and wish they hadn't, you know, a couple of years later when things were getting a little tight. But I understand your point there. But conserving cash is important to get off the ground. Steve: Yeah, I mean you don't need to come right out of the gate being in an Inc. You know and incorporated in Delaware and pay all the fees, whatever to make that happen. I mean, just start out as a low-cost LLC and then, when you're ready to sort of raise capital and become a real company, you know you use part of that capital to convert at that time. Chris: So you had mentioned earlier, you know just, I guess, going back to kind of trip BAM COVID having, at least initially, a pretty profound impact but then turning it into a positive, and I'm kind of want to take you back to that time and you maybe dig in a little bit deeper. I think it's a beautiful lesson of something where you know a lot of people just throwing up their hands because travel stopped, et cetera, which decimates your business specifically to you. But then you said we actually learned from that and became a better, stronger company because of it. And you've mentioned right-sizing, the organization stuff. But could you share a little more detail and some stories from that our listeners can learn from if and when their business faces something similar? Steve: Yeah, I think, first off, being fairly quick. You know you can always hire people back, you know. But if you keep them on the payroll and you start burning up cash just way too fast or you're starting to trend towards in the red, you just got to pull the trigger. Nobody wants to, nobody likes to do it, but it's really nobody's fault. It's just something as an executive or CEO you have to do, or a founder. So that's one. Second is, as companies grow, you kind of make stupid mistakes along the way. You get kind of inefficient. You don't anticipate the level of growth that might have been reality. So going back and saying, all right, take a step back, let's catch our breath. You know, what should we have done to kind of handle the scale better? And so, for example, just moving everything to a cloud environment, you know, putting it out to bid, switching from one cloud provider to another, whatever it is, you know you can just generate or reduce your costs dramatically. You know, rather quickly, if you just focus the time on it. Everybody gets so white hot, focused on growth and the next client and the revenue they forget to look at the rear view mirror about. You know there was a lot of costs we could have taken out, you know, which could generate even more cash going forward. Advert: Hello friends. This is Chris Hanslick, your Building Texas business host. Did you know that Boyer Miller, the producer of this podcast, is a business law firm that works with entrepreneurs, corporations, and business leaders. Our team of attorneys serve as strategic partners to businesses by providing legal guidance to organizations of all sizes. Get to know the firm at BoyerMiller. com and thanks for listening to the show. So we pulled the trigger pretty quick. We right-sized the staff. We had a pretty good and, fortunately for us, this is the other. We kind of lucked into this. Our customers, for whatever reason, decided they wanted to pay a subscription fee rather than maybe a percentage of the savings or a transaction fee, to where what they were going to spend would fluctuate month over month. By paying a subscription fee, they could budget it and they were going to get a better return on investment. So we did most of our deals that way and thank God we did, because when COVID and everything went into toilet in April of 2020, we still had cash coming in the door. So we were actually stayed cashflow positive because we kind of right-sized the staff fairly quickly. And then, coming out of COVID, as the revenue started to ramp back up and our sales started to continue, we were just on a much better platform that would scale after it because it was just all right-sized and efficient and whatever, and at the same time we added new products. So we had a two-year kind of all right, just keep the lights on, market will come back around. We added an air reshopping solution. We added a bunch of analytics to audit contracts and to benchmark performance, so that we had a whole bunch more to sell coming out of COVID than going in, and so that caused another year of kind of explosive growth as a result. Chris: That's great. So, yeah, obviously part of that is give some deep thought to how you price what your product right. So that subscription-based versus transaction for you sounds like a very. Maybe it didn't seem as meaningful at the time you made it, but it turned out to be. Steve: You know that's a tough one If the ROI of your product is pretty clear, like reshopping. If you've got a rate of $2.99, I drop it to $ to $250. I've got $49 per night in savings If you pay me a couple of bucks. Okay, here's the ROI. And we could run some pilots and all kinds of stuff to prove that out. So that makes it really simple and we try to hit look, I need a ROI that when they take it to their boss the guy that's doing the budgets, you know, won't cause all kinds of frustration and concern. So four to one is usually the minimum. A lot of our customers, the larger ones, are getting eight to one, 10 to one, you know. So you could say like you've probably underpriced it. But that's okay, you know we'll claw back some of that. You know, over time when it's a product that's the ROI is a bit fuzzier. You just got to somehow convince the client that this is the potential savings. They're going to guesstimate and then from there work backwards to a price which kind of gets you back to that four to one ROI. So if I think I'm going to save you five bucks a transaction, I'm probably going to charge you a dollar to $1.50 is what I'm going to aim for. Again, to get to that four to one kind of savings estimate for Relagate. Again to get to that four to one kind of savings estimate. Chris: So part of that goes, I think, in building that customer base, really focusing on strong relationships. Talk a little bit about that and what you've done, because it sounds like over the course of the various businesses, you've done a good job of creating some very good partnerships and alliances. What are some of the things you think that have helped you foster that and keep those for so many years? Steve: I think one is you know you got to under promise and over deliver. So if they're going to sign up, you know, don't make them look bad or stupid to their boss. The other one is identifying the influencers in the market. So I'm sure every industry has some individuals that are kind of on the bleeding edge, willing to try new things. And if they do and it works, they've got the microphone or the megaphone to tell a whole bunch of others. So fortunately for me, I've been able to identify who those influencers are. I've got a reputation for just delivering as promised. So when they sign up they have confidence and then they tell their peers and a lot of our sales in the large enterprise market are peer-to-peer networking. It's not from email campaigns or other stuff that we do. Chris: The kind of part of that, the old adage of just do what you say you committed to do when you said you committed to do it right. Steve: It's just delivering as promised. Don't sell me a can of goods and all this great wonderful thing. And then when the reality is just not there, you know, don't make them look stupid. You know that's the key one. I mean, these are after 40 years they become. We have some pretty tight relationships with these folks and I want them to keep their job and we want them all promoted and moving on to the next big role, because when that happens they just take us with them and we just keep getting bigger and bigger. Chris: So you mentioned that about kind of keeping this, your words, the band back together. You've been able to do that, hiring some of the right people and incentivizing the right way. Any insights into. You know what people could think about when they're looking at their team one, trying to, I guess, evaluate whether they have the right people and then finding the right ways to incentivize them to kind of keep that core group together. Steve: To me it's if they feel like they're a part of a team and they understand the value they're providing to the customer and they see that customer's appreciation. You know they're in the conversation with the client, you know, and that's easy to do at a small company, because who else are they going to talk to? Right, you got to bring the dev and engineering. But when you start layering and bifurcating and have people you know in engineering back there in the back room, kind of stuff that don't talk to clients, that's when it gets a lot harder. But when you get them into the conversation and that sense of this is my company, this is my reputation. I'm a part of something here, you know, that's growing and doing well and whatever. It's not that hard, it's really not that difficult at all. It's just everybody wants to be appreciated and feel like they're, you know, part of a team. So that's the formula, right, I mean I could throw money at them. But I ask my employees I mean I am not the guy that's writing big checks to hire people right? I'm like look, we're going to pay a reasonable salary. You know this is not, you're not going to be broke, but you know we're in it for the long term game, and so we want to keep the cash in the company so that we don't have to go do another capital raise which is going to dilute all of us, and so your equity just keeps getting smaller, you know, over time, and the guys that actually make the money, or the investors this needs to be a collaborative team effort so they get that. Chris: I think that transparent communications is key right. So they again they understand their role on the team, they understand what the goal of the organization is and how they can help further that. Steve: You know it's always been kind of fire slow, fire quick as well. You know the people, everybody makes hiring mistakes. It happens all the time. And you know when you hire someone within like a couple of days you're like this is not feeling right. You know, don't let it just sit, don't let it be two years later when you actually kind of work them out. You have to kind of pull the trigger fairly quick because it messes up the whole culture of the company. Oftentimes, especially at a small company, it can create some real problems. Chris: Yeah, I mean that may be the most sage advice and, I think, maybe the most consistent that I hear from entrepreneurs and business owners. It's been my own experience too, that that kind of fire, you know, don't be slow to fire when you know you made a mistake and it's the hardest, maybe one of the hardest ones to do because you're dealing with people. I spoke to someone yesterday and they were like hired, someone had some uncertainty and literally what I learned was to trust my gut because on day one that they started in a conversation went oh my God, this is a huge mistake. Tried to play it out, tried to make it work and guess what? It didn't. Steve: Yeah, the thing is I don't believe resumes anymore and I don't believe LinkedIn pages at all, especially when it comes to higher dev and engineering. It's just anybody can put whatever language they want and say they've got a ton of experience. You've got to figure out a way to validate Most of our hires. There's kind of referrals and peer-to-peer sort of networking. If I find someone, I can usually find someone they know, especially in the Dallas market where we are, that's worked with them at a prior company. That sort of thing and do some back-channel checking is what really pays off for us. And we know the rock stars. We know the rock stars. We know the rock stars, but they're not that hard to kind of pick out. It's the ones that are kind of questionable. That you know. You just got to do your homework and don't count on the resume. Chris: That's a really good point. It's a hard thing to do, though, and it may be easier in programmers. But, to you know, I totally agree with resumes, and profiles can be, you know, massaged, but it's sifting through and kind of through the smoke to really get to what's behind the curtain. Steve: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean. And Zoom calls, I mean people hire on Zoom calls or whatever. Like dude, you got to get them in the office face to face, go to lunch, have a couple of face to face interactions before you actually bring this person on board. You know, make them pass a coding test or something. You know something tangible. Don't just look, they're very nice people. You know they all have a. You know look great on a phone call or Zoom call, whatever, but that doesn't cut it. Chris: Yeah, I mean no substitute for personal interaction and seeing how people show up. Right. Steve: Yeah, the other thing is, since we're, you know, on a startup mode where everybody's looking at kind of the potential for equity, I'm like, look, if you're as great as you are, why don't you come on board for a month on a contract basis? Let's see how it works out, you know, and we'll go from there All right, and you really get a feel for someone and how well they're going to. We try it, we like to try it, before we buy. Let's put it that way. That's one way to do it. Chris: just talk about you know specific kind of leadership styles and and how you would describe your leadership style, and maybe how you would describe it today versus maybe 20 years ago as you you were emerging as a leader, and how you think it's changed oh, my god, it's night and day. Steve: so first company way back when. Maybe it comes as a surprise or not, but it was a coat and tie environment. Okay, guys, we've got to put on the ties and whatever. That was just so stupid. Checking office hours and all that crap and tracking vacation time just seems so silly. Now, if you can get the job done, I don't care what you wear, I don't care what you look like, I don't care what you wear, I don't care what you look like, I don't care where you do the work, I don't care if you have to take vacation on a pretty regular basis for whatever reason. I don't care if you're going off and disappearing to watch your kid play soccer, I do not care anymore. Just here's the job. Here's kind of an expectation. You know, as long as I understand, you're trying hard to get it done as quick as possible. We are good. You know, it's kind of a thing. So all that other stuff was just noise. That was just stupid, anyway it's. I mean back when I started in this, I mean programming and development and all that and the whole tech world was fairly new, so nobody knew what they were doing or how to manage these folks and it evolved over time, but fairly quickly. I mean, by company two, ties were gone. By company three, office was gone. I mean I've been virtual for 25 years. Unfortunately, we had offices but we just I think they were a waste of money but we did it for optics more than anything. Chris: Yeah, so it sounds like more kind of a traditional and somewhat of a command and control, starting out to now a little more, much more flexible and providing autonomy as long as people deliver on the expectations that they're communicated with. Steve: Which comes down to you just hire the right people, right, if you can get kind of get that sense for what the kind of folks that are going to do well. So, for example, if I see, if you can get kind of get that sense for what are the kind of folks that are going to do well. So, for example, if I see that you've got you spent 20 years at a really big company, you are not going to do well at a startup. I could guarantee you You're used to other people doing work for you. You know you're just kind of the sit back in your office and sort of you know, tell folks what to do. That ain't going to happen. You need to get your hands dirty. You might have to write code. You got to do PowerPoints, you got to do Word docs all that stuff yourself. Big company folks just tend to lose that ability, let's say, or it's beneath them and that's not going to work. Chris: Yeah, I mean it's almost. Yeah, that's not in my role. Mentality versus everything is in everyone's role. Mentality, right, it's almost. Yeah, that's not in my role. Mentality versus everything is in everyone's role. Mentality right, it's about getting a job done, no matter what it takes. Steve: And I think that drives me crazy at a big company because, you know, unfortunately for others, I tend to poke my nose into others' lanes and I get told a lot Steve, stay in your lane. Nothing bugs me more, you know, than to hear that. But that's the big company way. Chris: So you've gone through a few companies and you're now, I guess, inside of a larger company. Now Are you finding it easy to kind of have that mentality of flexible leadership and innovative environment? Steve: In the new company? Yes, I would have to say no, it's kind of as I expected. You know, with other acquisitions you start. You know, this kind of here's how it happens. However, embers, I believe, is trying hard to carve out a role where I can exist, let's put it that way. So my title right now is Chief Strategy Officer, and it's a bit nebulous, kind of by design. I can sort of make it what I want and as a result of being chief strategy officer, I can get outside of my lane and people can question it. I'm like everybody needs strategy. That's my title, I'm going to get in your lane, kind of stuff you know. So I tend to kind of bounce around to lots of different projects, objectives so on. I kind of help make sure that it's cohesive, you know, across this travel and expense story, you know. But at the same time I don't have a lot of direct reports, which is great. That usually doesn't go too well either. So so far, so good. Chris: Fingers crossed, that's great, yeah, we we kind of covered kind of the challenges of COVID If you think back prior to that, any other challenges along the way with the first two or three companies, everybody, yeah, yeah, I think people some of those are the best lessons we learned or some of the challenges we go through. I'm just curious to know any kind of lessons from a challenge that you could share with the listeners that might help them when they face something similar. Steve: Oh my God. I mean everybody's made mistakes and if they got lucky along the way and if they don't admit that they're lying, I mean some of the bigger ones. 9-11, we had a solution that was processing about 80% of all corporate travel reservations made in the US. 9-11 hit and we went to zero within about 24 hours, so that was kind of a gut check. Fortunately, travel bounced back fairly quickly, but it made us take a step back and realize how nimble we were If something like that were going to happen again. So that's one, and you know, and there's all the kind of day-to-day stuff. I mean there's fraud, there's employee HR issues that happen. You know there's. I'm not going to get into details on that, but you know you just kind of all right, let's deal with this. You know, don't just look the other way and take care of it. I think the latest I mean the big one right now is just, you know, the whole third party hacking and getting into your network and holding you hostage, stuff like that. You know that's made everybody just super anxious and nervous and to the point where companies are kind of shutting down their network so much that individuals can't do the job. You know, which is causing concern and it's what else are you going to do? I mean, if some employee can click on a link and bring down your network, do? Chris: you just turn off email. You're right, it's creating such a challenge. Everybody, all companies, are being attacked every day from all kinds of angles, and it just takes one and but you also? You can't operate out of fear and you can't let it stop you from doing your business. Steve: Well, they say there's two kinds of companies out there. There's those that have been hacked and those that don't know they've been hacked. So just kind of keep that in mind and I think it's fairly true. I think, you know, it's just almost too easy to get into someone's network and poke around and kind of see what's going on these days. Chris: It's so scary, but I thought you were going to say those who have been hacked and those that will be hacked, but I guess already have you, just don't know it. Well, see, I really loved hearing your story. It's a fascinating industry, and one that you don't really hear much about, but you definitely. It sounds like for 40 years you've been crushing it at it, so congratulations to that. Well, thanks for that. Steve: But also the one thing people don't know about corporate travel is that it sits on a backbone of legacy technology that's probably 40 years old. That has not changed. The GDSs are antiquated, the travel agency systems are antiquated. It's not that hard to come up with something innovative and new in this environment. So I just got lucky to where I got into it and I'm like this thing is so bad. I mean anything you do is going to be innovative. And so we just started coming up with new stuff solving clients' problems and it just kept evolving from there. Like this thing is so bad. I mean anything you do is going to be innovative. And so we just started coming up with new stuff solving clients' problems, and it just kept evolving from there. Chris: Yeah, that's really. You know so many entrepreneurs I've talked to. It's what you just said solving the customer or client's problem. Because what I said earlier, it goes back to asking the questions and listening and then trying to solve that problem. Steve: So many great ideas that come from that across so many industries. Yeah, and just to set up a little process to where you talk with your customers on a regular basis or a group of clients or people you trust and it just happens naturally, it's really not that difficult. Chris: Well, let's turn to a little bit on the lighter side before we wrap this up. I always like to ask people like yourself what was your first job? Steve: oh, my first job, let's see. Uh, I worked at a pet store at junior high. Well, actually first job was mowing yards, right? So everybody every kid did that just to get my allowance money. Then I worked at a pet store in junior high for a short period but fairly quickly realized waiting tables made a lot more money. So I told a guy I was 18, when actually I was 16, and they never really checked. They hired me as a waiter. I was actually kind of a part-time bartender, so I was serving liquor in Houston the strawberry patch I'll probably get them in trouble back when I was 16 years old and just made a ton of money as a, you know, a high schooler. So that was kind of the first. And then, you know, got into computers and writing code at a very early age. I was part of a program at Shell where they gave us mainframe time to go in and kind of play around and then went off to Baylor for computer science and then went to TI and then went to A&M for grad school. Very good, very good. Chris: So okay. So, being a native Texan, do you prefer Tex-Mex or barbecue? Steve: That is not a fair question, because both are pretty dang awesome, but, being in Texas, I think we've got some of the best barbecue on the planet. So Pecan Lodge here in Dallas is, I think, kind of the best, and there's a lot of Tex-Mex, though that's really good as well, yeah, I agree on all points. Chris: I haven't heard of Pecan Lodge before, so I'll have to check that one out. Steve: Yeah, it's in Deep Ellum, so next time you fly in, go in out of Love Field, and it's not too far, it's a 10-minute drive from there. Chris: Deal Noted. And then last thing is you know you've made early in the career, probably never did this and maybe have done since. But if you could take a 30 day sabbatical, where would you go and what would you do? Steve: I actually got a 30 day sabbatical. So a guy hired me or not hired me, but when he brought me on board to run a company he said hey, you know, I threw in there. Just, I read it in a magazine that it was the hot thing for techies to ask for, so I threw it in there and they accepted it. I guess they thought I'd never make it to my five-year anniversary. Anyway, I did and I took the kids and family, went all the way throughout through Europe. So we went to Italy, paris, france, austria, switzerland, whatever you know, just really unplugged for that 30 days. Actually it was a 90 day sabbatical. That's what I took. Wow, so I got a little bit more time. Yeah, it was great, it was great. So if that were to happen today, I'd probably look to do something similar, but nowadays if I want to take 90 days, I probably could just got to ask for it. Chris: Very good, very good. Well, steve, thanks again for taking the time to come on and love hearing your story and all the innovation you brought to the travel industry. Steve: All right. Well, thanks for having me, chris, I really enjoyed it. Good conversation. Chris: Thanks, well, we'll talk soon. Steve: Okay, you bet. Special Guest: Steve Reynolds.

In the heart of the Lone Star State, Dallas, one of its major cities, is a vibrant blend of rich Texas history and modern charm. From the iconic skyline to the rich cultural culinary scene, Dallas promises an unforgettable adventure for every traveler.We ended our Dallas trip in big ole Dallas. We kicked off Sunday with an outstanding church service at Park Cities PCPC church in downtown Dallas, then changed in the car (yes, we did that) and sped over to our JFK Assassination and Museum Tour. We met at the JKF memorial, which was ugly, isolating, and empty. A solitary place for thinking and apparently singing, this spot was supposed to be ugly, a prominent reminder of the tragedy that occurred on November 22, 1963. We booked this trip through TripAdvisor, and we were taken on a full walking and driving tour around the city. Our fantastic tour guide gave us the history and background of Lee Harvey Oswald, a tour of JFK's exact assignations spots, and the conspiracy (or truth) behind the horrific events. We even explored the Lee Harvey Oswald Rooming House, where Lee resided. The tour was terrific and quite informative; however, make sure you get to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on time! We arrived 5 minutes late to our scheduled time, and the grumpy employees would not let us in! Apparently, it was the first time this had occurred. The tour started at 1:40 p.m. and lasted about 4 hours. Mid-tour, our guide took us to the Dallas Farmers Market, where I had the best brisket I have ever had at Beyond the Butchers Homestead Grille. If you don't like BBQ, the market had everything from sushi to Jamaican food and cute boutiques and shops. Here, I discovered the best-smelling soaps and lotions at Abundantly Aromatic and bought way too many of them!If you are a foodie looking for the best eats around town, try Hudson House. If you are more of a coffee person, try LaLa Land in lower Greenville, where you can order breakfast but focus on the excellent coffee. For an elegant French-inspired brunch spot, try Toulouse Cafe.Try these Tex Mex. spots for lunch or dinner: Mesero in Klyde Warren Park, Las Palmas and Gloria's in Uptown, Meso Maya in Downtown Dallas, Javier's, Casa Mama's, and Gloria's. The Velvet Taco is a great fast-food taco spot. My fave late-night downtown taquito spot was Uno Mas. They are open till 11:00 p.m. and are perfect for any late-night cravings! Their tacos and queso fundido were terrific, and our waitress was super cool and friendly. For the best Margarita in Dallas (called the Mambo Taxi), try Mi Cocina in Highland Park Village. For excellent rooftop drinks, try HG Supply Co. For a Casual New American kitchen & wine bar, try Sixty Vines. For the best pizza in Dallas, try Cane Rosso. For fresh seafood, try TJ's Seafood Market. Uchi has incredible sushi, and Bob's Steak & Chop House is an A+ steakhouse. The Honor Bar has shareable snacks and delectable sandwiches, and Pecan Lodge is a phenomenal BBQ joint. For a casual burger restaurant, try Rodeo Goat.Other unique spots for tasty lunch, dinner, and drinks are The Henry in Uptown, Dolce Rivera in Uptown, and Casablanca in the Bishop Arts District. If you are looking for other activities to do in Dallas, the Fort Worth Water Gardens are a different sight. The Dallas Arboretum is gorgeous in the Spring or Autumn. We also saw the Rocky Horror Show at the Majestic Theater. It was a bit crazy for my speed but very interactive, and the regular playgoers loved it. Other fun areas in and around Dallas to explore include Highland Park Village, West Village, Deep Ellum Dallas, Trinity Groves, John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza, Northpark Center, and Klyde Warren Park. The homes in Highland Park are spectacularly enormous. West Village is perfect for people-watching while you eat. Deep Ellum Dallas has fun restaurants, breweries, and bars. Northpark Center is a local favorite mall, and Highland Park is a great shopping spot for all your luxury needs. We stayed in the Magnolia Hotel while we were in downtown Dallas. It was beautiful on the outside and a little dusty on the inside, but I loved the view of downtown Dallas, the full-length vintage mirror, the large bathtub, and the cute coffee shop attached to the Hotel. I found the Magnolia on Expedia and would give it a B+.Some other Hot Hotel Recommendations are the Canvas Hotel, Crescent Court, The W, Virgin Hotel, and Canopy.

Join hosts Robert and Michele Forto as they talk about day 6 of their Rock n Coasters Tour Across America. On this episode, they talk about some Texas-style BBQ and the kick-off of the podcast conference in Dallas. 

We're traveling at hyperspace through these Death Star Diaries and have already made it to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story!We've been away from each other for a while so we start this episode out by catching up while Rob's on the road and chat about the last movie we've seen, what we're Netflix-ing and our most recent delectable meals. Adam Chance has been rocking out the Star Wars from the very beginning and we thought it would be fun to bring another Star Wars fanatic into the DSD, fellow Home Free member/co-founder, Adam Rupp! The nerd is strong with these two and it's fun to hear their love for this subject. We end this episode with a super fun version of The Imitation Game and our Patrons get to hear us duke it out during our Best Space Films Draft!We hope you enjoy Rogue One: A Star Wars Story!1:45 Joker7:00 Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead9:00 The Good Place Season 310:07 Boulder Tap House www.bouldertaphouse.com11:30 Pecan Lodge www.pecanlodge.com12:30 High and Tight Barbershop www.highandtightbarber.com13:30 Plugarooni's 14:05 Patreon.com/theavidindoorsmen 16:07 @TheAdamChance and @AdamHFBeatbox17:05 twitch.tv/theadamchance; homefreemusic.com/tour 17:42 Rogue One Plot Synopsis18:23 Rotten Tomatoes19:02 David Sexton from The London Evening Standard20:09 Peter Travers from Rolling Stone20:25 Buegs' Hot Take22:28 Rob's Hot Take24:08 Chance's Hot Take26:51 Adam's Hot Take31:50 The Dude Award36:46 The Tucci Award44:37 Best Use Of Force Powers48:05 The Dingus Award50:32 Don't Stop Me Now Darth Vader https://youtu.be/F19hsXoBdw053:55 The Johnny Williams Memorial Award57:52 Show Me The Money 1:03:38 The Vader Sessions https://youtu.be/6A0rwG39Jzk1:05:19 Buegs' Boo Hoo Moments1:08:33 Movie Trivia1:22:00 The Imitation Game1:33:38 Top 5 Best Space Films Draftwww.patreon.com/theavidindoorsmen www.theavidindoorsmen.comwww.facebook.com/theavidindoorsmen Twitter: @AvidIndoorzmenInstagram: @TheAvidIndoorsmen

Steven Hollifield walked into a kitchen dish-pit, found it magical, and remained in food service his entire career. He now runs two kitchen-based businesses, Seismic BBQ and South Basin Kitchen, and joins us to discuss how he got his start, shares some sobering realities of owning a catering business in San Francisco, and of course, talks barbecue, from sauces to its place in American history. Learn about the value of a good partner, great suggestions for great meals, and why even the chefs at Michelin-rated restaurants go to... Taco Bell? Links and Show Notes Seismic BBQ (https://www.seismicbbq.com)—“BBQ so good, you’ll swear the earth shook” South Basin Kitchen SF (http://southbasinkitchensf.com) CCSF (http://www.ccsf.edu/)—City College of San Francisco Front of house vs. Back of house (https://www.webstaurantstore.com/article/5/front-of-house-vs-back-of-house.html)—“The front of the house, also called the FOH, refers to all actions and areas that a customer will be exposed to during their stay at a restaurant, such as the lobby and dining area.” “The back of the house, also known as the BOH, encompasses all the behind-the-scenes areas that customers will not see. This acts as the central command center in a restaurant because it’s where the food is prepared, cooked, and plated before making its way to the customer’s table.” Greasy spoon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greasy_spoon)—“a small, cheap eatery – either an American diner or coffee shop, or a British cafe – typically specializing in fried foods and/or home-cooked meals.” Michelin Guide (https://guide.michelin.com/en) Pastry chef (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastry_chef) Memphis Minnie’s (https://www.memphisminnies.com/) BBQ, Lower Haight, San Francisco Stage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_%28cooking%29) — An unpaid internship when a cook or chef works briefly, for free, in another chef's kitchen to learn and be exposed to new techniques and cuisines. Sole Proprietor vs. Partnership vs. LLC (https://www.legalzoom.com/knowledge/limited-liability-company/topic/llc-sole-proprietor-partnership-comparison) Right of First Refusal (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rightoffirstrefusal.asp)—“a contractual right, but not obligation, to enter into a business transaction with a person or company before anyone else can. If the entity with the right of first refusal declines to enter into a transaction, the owner of the asset who offered the right is free to open the bidding up to other interested parties.” Sweat Equity (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sweatequity.asp) Profit Sharing (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/profitsharingplan.asp) Craig’s List (https://craigslist.org) Poached Jobs (https://poachedjobs.com)—Food, Drinks, Jobs Sous Chef (https://jobs.morningadvertiser.co.uk/article/kitchen-hierarchy-different-chef-titles-explained/)—“The sous-chef de cuisine is second in command, and translated it literally means ‘under chef’. The role will typically overlap with the head chef’s, but the sous chef will tend to be more hands on and actively involved in the day-to-day running of the kitchen; the sous chef will also fill in for the head chef when they are off....” 401(k) (https://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/08/401k-info.asp)—“a retirement savings account that allows an employee to divert a portion of his or her salary into a long-term investment account. The employer may match the employee's contribution up to a limit.” The Gig Economy (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gig-economy.asp)—“In a gig economy, temporary, flexible jobs are commonplace and companies tend toward hiring independent contractors and freelancers instead of full-time employees. A gig economy undermines the traditional economy of full-time workers who rarely change positions and instead focus on a lifetime career.” Pared (https://www.pared.com/)—Making restaurant life easier A Guide to American Barbecue Sauce Styles (https://www.seriouseats.com/2011/05/barbecue-sauce-regional-styles-mustard-vinegar-tomato-white-sauce.html) A Comprehensive Guide to Barbecue Sauce Across the Country (https://www.chowhound.com/food-news/201302/regional-barbecue-sauce-styles-from-kansas-city-to-the-carolinas/) Restaurant Gary Danko (http://garydanko.com/)—“award-winning combination of classic French cooking, thoughtful and inventive use of local ingredients and personable yet impeccable service.” Brisket (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisket) Pork shoulder (aka Boston butt) (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_butt) Cultural appropriation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation) The Soul of Food, Slavery’s Influence on Southern Cuisine (http://ushistoryscene.com/article/slavery-southern-cuisine/) Franklin’s BBQ, Austin TX (https://franklinbbq.com/) Pecan Lodge (http://pecanlodge.com) The List: The Top 50 Barbecue Joints in Texas, Texas Monthly (https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/the-list-the-top-50-barbecue-joints-in-texas/) J&R Manufacturing (https://www.jrmanufacturing.com) Steven’s smoker: J&R Little Red Smokehouse (https://www.jrmanufacturing.com/products/smokers/the-little-red-smokehouse/) Big Green Egg (https://biggreenegg.com/) Prime vs. Choice vs. Select cuts (http://www.primesteakhouses.com/how-usda-grades-beef.html) https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/slaughter-cattle-grades-and-standards Taco Bell (https://www.tacobell.com/) Maison Baume (https://www.maisonbaume.com) Palo Alto, Michelin 2 star Multiple Sclerosis (MS) (http://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS) (Please consider making a donation (https://www.nationalmssociety.org/Donate)) Pig in a Pickle (https://piginapickle.com/), Corte Madeira, CA, first in Bay Area (https://kcbsradio.radio.com/blogs/jeffrey-schaub/pig-pickle-corte-madera-restaurant-named-michelin-bib-gourmand) to be named Michelin Bib Gourmand (https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/article/news-and-views/michelin-guide-california-2019-bib-gourmand-selection) Boulevard (https://www.boulevardrestaurant.com/), San Francisco, CA Farallon (https://www.farallonrestaurant.com/), San Francisco, CA Perko’s Cafe Grill (http://perkos.com/), Redding CA Nom Nom Now (https://www.nomnomnow.com/)—“Fresh food for healthy pets” Easy Caterer (https://www.ezcater.com/catering/pvt/seismic-bbq-3) Our thanks to Steven for joining us. You can find Steven at Seismic BBQ (https://www.seismicbbq.com) and South Basin Kitchen SF (http://southbasinkitchensf.com). Thank you for listening. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram: Lettuce Wrap: @lettucewrappod (https://twitter.com/lettucewrappod) / @lettucewrappod (https://instagram.com/lettucewrappod) Christine Doerr: @christinedoerr (https://twitter.com/christinedoerr) / @neococoaconfections (https://www.instagram.com/neococoaconfections/) Tammy Tan: @spicehound (http://twitter.com/spicehound) / @spicehound (https://www.instagram.com/spicehound/) or email us at lettucerwrappod@gmail.com (mailto:lettucerwrappod@gmail.com). That’s a wrap! Amazon (https://amzn.to/2DBzg5j) and other links may be affiliates. Purchases help support the show. Special Guest: Steven Hollifield, Seismic BBQ.

Andrew and I recap a busy day after hitting Flores, BBQ on the Brazos, Heim, Lockhart Smokehouse, Pecan Lodge, Top 5 BBQ, And Harris BBQ on our quest to hit all 50 of the Texas Monthly 2017 top 50 BBQ

Daniel Vaughn got his magazine start at D Magazine. Let's not dwell on that. Now he's the most powerful meat voice in the state. Texas Monthly just published its list of the 50 best barbecue joints in the state. We talk about how he did it and why Pecan Lodge slipped in the ranking.

Mentioned in this episode of Behind The Smoke Podcast - BBQ War Stories: Fernando Martinez (@FernsBBQ) from Fern's Semi Famous BBQ Website: www.fernsbbq.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/fernsbbq/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/fernsbbq Fern's BBQ on FOX 5 San Diego: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J378_405PY BBQ With Gary: www.instagram.com/bbq_with_gary/ Ole Hickory Pits: www.olehickorypits.com/ Weber Grills: www.weber.com/US/en/grills Del Mar BBQ Championship: http://arlie-que.com/event_detail.php?event=10200 Hot Sauces n More: http://www.hotsaucesnmore.com/ Adventures of Fern's BBQ from the military, to a legal office job, to the blue-collar life, to the Wild West that is BBQ Part Time warehouse Manager for a Biomedical company turned into BBQ aficionado Eats Sleeps and Breathes BBQ Traveling the United States in search of good BBQ  Brown Sugar or Vinegar-based sauces in BBQ Sweet Cheeks Q in Boston www.sweetcheeksq.com/ Spring Valley BBQ Tailgate Festival www.calicomfortbbq.com/svbbqfest Traeger Grills www.traegergrills.com/ Being humbled quickly in BBQ competitions - you don't know as much as you think you do Learning how to cook more than just burgers and dogs at the BBQ Festival Fern's BBQ has a self-made, solar-powered BBQ trailer with HD Flat Screens and more.  Fern's BBQ can cook up to 250 people on solar power Fern's trailer has all the bells and whistles and plans to build a larger one Best Tailgate Team award in San Diego at the BBQ competition What to do when people try and steal your idea? Competing in KCBS BBQ Competitions www.kcbs.us/ RUBLIFE https://www.instagram.com/_ivan_323/ WE ALL RUB OUR MEAT www.instagram.com/weallrubourmeat/ The many different styles and concepts of BBQ - KCBS in Australia Stick burners to pellets Traveling on airplanes with Tri-Tip in your bag Tri-Tip used to be around $0.29/lb and is now close to $8.99/lb West coast BBQ to East coast BBQ BBQ with Gary from Texas met him on Instagram Learning how to do BBQ Math when BBQing for a group of people Pecan Lodge in Texas http://pecanlodge.com/ BBQ is an adventure - it's a rodeo  Different preferences of wood in BBQ Tailgating is in our blood. Tailgating is the best thing you can do, so much camaraderie  BBQ brings people together as family The smell of charcoal when the grill fires up, there's nothing like it How many hashtags to post on Instagram Learning BBQ tips from the legend Gene Goycochea  Keeping things "simple" in BBQ competitions is best Everyday in business you are constantly LEARNING new things Wine Barrel Smokers?! Jack Daniels Whiskey Barrels Arlie-Que arlie-que.com Pork Belly (much like Brisket) at Valley Farm Market http://www.valleyfarmmarkets.com/ Nick Hardwick from the San Diego Chargers www.instagram.com/hardwina/ Dave and Jeff podcast https://daveandjeffshow.com/ Derek Marso - https://twitter.com/MarsoDerek Shawn Walchef - https://twitter.com/shawnpwalchef Cory Wagner - www.twitter.com/TheFifthPofmkt Email the show at anytime: podcast@calibbq.media

In this fourteenth episode of I Live In Dallas Radio, Neil Lemons and I sit down with Jim Winblood, one of the co-founders of The Foundry Club, a shared office and coworking space, located at Mockingbird Station. We also talk with JJ, Dan, and Chelsea from Favor, the personal delivery assistant service/app that's making waves as part of the service app "revolution" that's currently underway. They will deliver food, groceries, you name it. Just dont ask them to deliver people. That's apparently a no-no. Anything else legal and ethical, is fair game. The Foundry Club The Foundry Club is a Dallas coworking and shared office space, that strives to differentiate itself via community, unique office space and startup incubator help. They sponsor several meetups, and resources that help  startups along their journey. As recently featured in the Dallas Business Journal, the Foundry signed a lease for an additional 6,000 square feet of office space at Mockingbird Station. They plan to expand to a few new locations around the DFW Metroplex area. Favor: Your Personal Delivery Assistant Favor is currently in Boston, Austin, Houston, and of course Dallas, and is self-described as personalized deliver assistant. They wont deliver booze or people, and mainly deal with food orders. They've been in Dallas for nearly 5 months now, and are soon expanding to San Antonio. They try to deliver in 30 minutes if possible. I talk about my personal experiences using Favor to have lunch delivered, and my feedback on the service, including my love for extra rolls with my fried chicken. Listen as we talk about: Some of the most strange and surprising things Favor has been asked to deliver. How The Foundry Club came to be, and what makes it's office space and coworking community & space unique. Who are some hot new startups, that are based at The Foundry, including RedFin. Keep listening to learn about: Giving the Favor folks a hard time about their operation hours, because I wanted pancakes. We harrass noted bbq biz owner Justin Fourton about the Pecan Lodge line. "Ain't nobody got no time to wait for no brisket" JJ, Dan , and Chelsea from Favor discuss future plans, and how to get your lunch delivered at school. P.S. Thanks to the guys from Synclab Media for letting us record in your studio at Foundry Club! Related posts: Common Desk Offers Startups and Freelancers an Uncommon Alternative to Working Remote – ILID Radio #12 Dallas Gourmet Food Delivery Service Artizone.com Gears Up for the Holiday Dallas Startup Week to Inspire, Motivate, and Educate Week of March 2nd – ILID Radio #13