Podcast appearances and mentions of scott tindle

Scott Tindle and Johnny Gwin talk about NFTs and explain all that is needed to know about Bitcoins.

Scott Tindle talks blockchain technology with Johnny Gwin. 

Scott Tindle is fresh off a trip to the Middle East and Egypt with the US State Department to represent the US's interest in web 3.0 technology. Johnny Gwin adds to the conversation with his deep understanding of the technology and I try to keep quiet or risk total embarrassment and I do a poor job. 

Scott Tindle's gifts are that 1) he understands the world of blockchain and crypto currencies and that 2) he can simplify it enough to teach people like me what they are, how they work, and why they're important. His company sets people up for Bitcoin mining amongst other things. His name has been shared with me many many times as the resident expert and I finally sit down and begin my blockchain and crypto education. Know nothing about this stuff? This episode is the place to start. 

Everyone is talking about Bitcoin, Ethereum, Doge Coin, and alt-coins. What the heck is this mass hype, and are you missing out if you are already not in "crypto"? On this episode, guest host Johnny Gwin talks with Mobile's serial entrepreneur, Scott Tindle, about why he has jumped headfirst into crypto and blockchain technology, the quickest way to get started in crypto, and his tips on trading bitcoin and crypto. Plus, Johnny and Scott run down all of the weird crypto jargon you are bound to hear over the next few years. Start Trading Crypto! Open Your Coinbase Account Here Use this link to open your Coinbase account, and you and Johnny will both get a $10 bonus. Key Takeaways Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is an exciting, new, and expansive industry that has already touched most people's lives. The first place most people start with crypto is to open a Coinbase.com account. Bitcoin and Ethereum and the most well-known digital monetary asset, but there are thousands of cryptocurrencies and tokens. Don't just invest in hype, do your research and understand the details and fundamentals about the crypto projects you are looking to trade. Crypto markets are highly volatile, and all your principal capital can be lost. Learn disciplined and be patient with crypto trading, and do not fall into FOMO. This episode is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice.   Resources CryptoWendyO Youtube Channel  Bad Crypto Podcast Coinstats App Into The Block   ////// Learn More About DocRX DocRx is a family-oriented company dedicated to tailor operational solutions for patient health and compliance programs that increases the quality and efficiency of patient-centered care and always with the mission of the patient's health 1st. With over ten years of experience helping doctors and their patients with diagnostic testing, patient monitoring, medical supplies, compliance, wholesale pharmacy, physician dispensing billing, and more. DocRx is your patient and health compliance solution, both under one roof. To find out how DocRx can help your hospital, pharmacy, or physicians office see all their services at DocRx.com.

Scott Tindle is a former fair manager and entrepreneur. He's been a guest on the hit television show Shark Tank. On today's episode we talk Shark Tank, the current state of business and how businesses can survive this pandemic.

On today's episode, I'm in Mobile, Alabama. I sit down at the historic fort for a discussion with Scott Tindle, former fair manager of the Greater Gulf State Fair and current CEO of Gulf Coast Ducks. We talk hospitality & tourism, the fair industry and duck boat tours. PLUS - the advice Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban gave him during an appearance on Shark Tank. Originally published May 19, 2018

Thankfulness, Teamwork and Gratitude | C-Level - Guest Scott Tindle Our matrix is gratitude, relationships, innovation and teamwork. We try and make all of our decisions within that framework start with a foundation of gratitude. If we're not thankful for what we have we'll never appreciate blessings we may get in the future. So, Scott, I'm excited about this episode. To have you on the show, serial entrepreneur a man after my own heart. You've been on shark tank, you've had a lot of success you with some of these leadership like GRIT leadership and having speaking events and stuff like that. So welcome thanks for having me, I'm excited to be here, even remotely it's still fun. So how is it down there? You're in Alabama right, mobile? I am yeah i'm down here on the gulf coast and we're all just trying to do the best we can staying safe, staying healthy and learning our social distancing protocol which is hard for a for a guy like me. I'm a hugger, I want to just hug everybody. So you know an interesting challenge. It's interesting because I think what's gonna happen is because a lot of us spent so much time away from each other that the moment that this #ChrisDeBlasio #Agency850 #CLevel

Hey everyone! Today's episode is a throwback to August of 2019 when I got to sit down with my good friend Gary Vaynerchuk and the newly inducted Pro Football Hall of Famer, Champ Bailey. The three of us were joined by Scott Tindle and we talked about what it takes to be a great leader on and off the field. Text me your biggest takeaway from today's episode at (949) 298-2905 and let me know if you would like more of these conversations. Text me for opportunities to meet up: (949) 298-2905Where I'm speaking: https://dmeltzer.com/events/

Allen Cave & guest-host Rachel Godwin discuss the G.R.I.T. Leadership movement with co-founder and serial entrepreneur  Scott Tindle. G.R.I.T. Leadership's four cornerstones are Gratitude, Relationships, Innovation, and Teamwork. Using this foundation, Scott's mission is to teach, inspire, and equip current and future leaders with skills, strategies, and the right attitude to be successful in today's business world. From law student, ABC's Sharktank, and Gulf Coast Duck Boats owner Scott discusses his entrepreneur journey and all the wins and lessons along the way.   Resources: Scott Tindle  -  Twitter  | LinkedIn G.R.I.T. Leadership -  Twitter  |  Website  |  Podcast    Follow Playing Above The Line on Facebook Please Rate, Review & Subscribe to Playing Above The Line On Apple Allen Cave Twitter LinkedIn   Rachel GodwinTwitter LinkedIn Want to know more about Dennis and Allen?  Visit our website, www.hbkcpas.net 

In this episode, Scott Tindle has a raw and real discussion with entrepreneur Hall of Famer Gary Vaynerchuk, Pro Football Hall of Famer Champ Bailey, and sports business luminary David Meltzer. These heavy hitters discuss topics ranging from gratitude as a mindset, fear, love, and how the principles of G.R.I.T. make better leaders and teams.   Learn more about the G.R.I.T. Leadership Series    

In this episode, Scott Tindle continues his conversation with Pro Football Hall of Famer Champ Bailey and sports business luminary David Meltzer from Vayner Media's studio. David further explores the G.R.I.T. principles and movement. Plus, Champ shares his experience with building a pro team and always being yourself. Learn more about the G.R.I.T. Leadership Series

In this episode, Scott Tindle talks with Hugo B. Sanchez founder and visionary behind the MOTI app and team. The MOTI app is an innovative business peer to peer video chat app that conducts multiple types of services and transactions. Hugo shares his "all in" philosophy, chasing your passion, building his MOTI dream team, and the MOTI origin story. Check out the MOTI APP Learn more about the G.R.I.T. Leadership Series

In this episode, Scott and Bradley sit down with serial entrepreneur Scott Tindle. The guys talk about the power of G.R.I.T., the lessons learned from Scott's time on ABC's Shark Tank TV show, and he shares a new program he is involved in that can help insurance agents tremendously. Sponsors:  ePayPolicy Insurance payments made easy. Created by insurance experts for the insurance industry ePayPolicy provides the simplest solution for insurance agents, brokers, MGAs, and premium finance companies to collect credit card and ACH payments.  Click here for more info ≥≥≥. Tell ePayPolicy that The Insurance Guys sent you.   Cover DeskHire a virtual professional from Cover Desk who takes care of all the tasks you don’t need a license to perform. Click here for more info >>>Tell Cover Desk that The Insurance Guys sent you.    //////////   Get Scott & Bradleys Spittin' Gold - 7 Things Your Agency Must Do in 2018 & 19   About The Insurance Guys The Insurance Guys Podcast is made and dedicated to agents by agents. Scott Howell and Bradley Flowers discuss all aspects of becoming an insurance agent and give real-life examples of their experiences in all aspects of hiring, sales and the day-to-day reality of running your own successful insurance agency. Please subscribe, review and rate our show on iTunes, SoundCloud, IheartRadio App, & Youtube.

Scott Tindle is a serial entrepreneur that has worked for years helping startup companies get to a point where they can then be sustained by a new owner. Scott originally started his adult life by getting his undergrad degree in secondary education, only to wind up pursuing a law degree and practicing law for a few years, and then moving into entrepreneurship. Now, Scott has been featured on ABC's Shark Tank, Fox Business, Business Insider, NBC, CNBC, TMZ, Tech Crunch, and the Travel Channel. To learn more about some of Scott's projects, be sure to check out his website scottindle.com, and otherwise you can learn about those projects and his experience with Shark Tank right in this episode! ---------- Scott Tindle: Instagram: https://instagram.com/scott_tindle Twitter: https://twitter.com/scott_tindle Website: https://scottindle.com Justin Phillips: Instagram: https://instagram.com/jrpbusiness Twitter: https://twitter.com/jjustinrp Facebook: https://facebook.com/Justinrp56 Website: https://justinrp.net

Co-hosts Scott Tindle, who calls himself a serial entrepreneur, and longtime broadcaster and sportscaster Dan Brennan discuss their vision for this exploratory podcast and what they might learn along the way.

On this episode, Karen, flying solo again without the super busy Cadie, interviews one of Mobile's most known and infamous entrepreneurs, Scott Tindle. Scott went from having a multi-million dollar business on July 18th, 2018 to waking up the next day and having it snatched away like a flash of lightning in the Missouri sky. Scott shares his starting and dismantling his Gulf Coast Ducks Tours company, his unique ABC network's Sharktank experience, starting a restaurant, and what his newest Senior Bowl Leadership Summit is all about. 20% OFF Senior Bowl Leadership Summit Ticket Cheers To Business listeners can get 20% OFF their Senior Bowl Leadership Summit Ticket. Use the code: Container20 at the checkout >>> here    Big Questions: > What inspires and drives Scott Tindle? > What was Scott's most significant lesson from his time on the Sharktank TV show? > What is relentless optimism, and why is it so crucial for Scott's business success? > What is the best advice and mindset for pivoting a company? > What is Scott's most significant career accomplishment so far? > What is the Senior Bowl Leadership Summit and why is it such a considerable opportunity for the Mobile Business Community? > What is Scott's secret sauce for teambuilding and influence? Quotables & Tweetables I don't believe in regrets. I mean there are things I would do differently probably, but I wouldn't undo any of the things that we did. - Scott Tindle One of the great takeaways from Sharktank is ever since then I've tried to focus on businesses and things that I'm actually passionate about. - Scott Tindle I think that God, life, whatever gives these different signs in our lives showing us which way to go and sometimes we have to hit bottom. - Karen Simmons I used to be super emotionally invested in college football, and then I realized I can not control the outcome of the game so let me spend time worrying about things I can control the outcome of. - Scott Tindle I think for me being able to wind this thing down and protect my employees and our team, and either pivot them into other jobs within our companies or find them other places where they can provide for their families is the proudest thing that I have been able to do. - Scott Tindle Everything that we do is relational and not transactional. - Scott Tindle We build our business models on this kind of hybrid of grit, kindness, and what we say is relentless optimism. So, for us, it's not optimism. - Scott Tindle Optimism is a fleeting feeling, but if you have relentless optimism, you do not give up that optimism. - Scott Tindle I mean my team makes me look so good. They do a lot of the heavy lifting, the hard work. They let me do fun things like come and do podcasts and go out and speak to chambers of commerce, and things like that. They are really the ones doing the heavy lifting. - Scott Tindle On January 25th we're hosting something in Mobile called the Senior Bowl Leadership Summit and the whole idea of this summit is that we can bring world-class team builders to the gulf coast. And so, we are not trying to build a sports event; this is a team building and leadership event. - Scott Tindle Our (Senior Bowl Leadership Summit) slogan is building teams on the field, in the classroom, in the office, and just really trying to find ways that we can leverage the giant brain power of the folks on the panel so that we can get practical takeaways for what we're doing in our daily lives. - Scott Tindle   Resources: Gulf Coast Ducks Sylvia's Biscuits + Poyboys Senior Bowl Leadership Summit   Sponsor: Domke Market Domke Market - Facebook Page Learn more about Karen Simmons & Cadie Gaut Karen C. Simmons, P.C. Payroll Vault - Mobile & Baldwin Counties   About Cheers To Business Cheers To Business is a seriously casual business and entrepreneur podcast that discusses starting, running, refining and growing your company, or excelling at your current job with two or your soon-to-be friends - over a glass of wine. Please subscribe, review and rate Cheers To Business on iTunes, YouTube, SoundCloud & Overcast. You can contact and stay connected with us by LIKING our Cheers To Business Facebook page. Thanks for listening and as always, CHEERS to you! 

Andre and Christian interview Scott Tindle, a serial entrepreneur and Shark Tank survivor. - On this episode of Real Talk University, Andre & Christian invite Scott Tindle on to the show. Scott is a serial entrepreneur from Mobile, Alabama. Scott has served as a volunteer personal aide to President George W. Bush and has appeared on the ABC reality show “Shark Tank” for his technology company “TieTry” billed as the Netflix of neckties. Scott took TieTry from start-up to a successful company in just 18 months. Scott shares some behind the scenes stories from his experience on Shark Tank. He also dives deeper into his “effort-based” approach for entrepreneurship. Enjoy! - Contact Scott Tindle Website: http://scotttindle.com/ Instagram: @scott_tindle Twitter: @scott_tindle - Contact The Hosts Andre: ahaykal1@binghamton.edu Christian: cbonnie1@binghamton.edu Twitter: @realtalkuni Instagram: @realtalkuni_ - Thank you as always!

Participating in an international service-learning experience is the opportunity of a lifetime that can have a huge impact on your life and that of the organization that you serve. However, there can be many challenges that hold you back from taking the leap and joining a program. In this episode of the Toucan Abroad Podcast, our amazing alumnus Christopher Scott Tindle, chats with us about his journey to Belize for nine (9) days to complete a service-learning project with other students and their faculty. Chris is currently a senior at Birmingham Southern College. He traveled to Belize to discover something new but ended up discovering more of himself in the process.

On this week's podcast, Marcus sits down with Richard McGill, the founder of Mobile Fashion Week. From a background in theater, design, photography, and fashion, Richard dreamt of bringing every facet of the fashion industry together to support a local charity. Listen to this week's episode to hear the story of an upcoming Mobile event! Richard: Hey, I am Richard McGill, founder of Mobile Fashion Week. Marcus: Well, welcome to the podcast, Richard. Richard: Oh, hey. What's up, you? Marcus: Okay, so full disclosure, Richard and I do know each other. We've met through Tony, who is a photographer here locally, and we've kind of run into each other occasionally, but I wanted to have you on the podcast, because I love what you're doing with fashion week. Richard: Awesome. Marcus: Thank you for coming. Richard: Thank you for having me. Super excited. Marcus: The way that we normally start the podcast is we always kind of try to find out a little bit about the person, before we get into some of the ways of their thinking and what they have going on and stuff like that. Tell us a little bit about who you are, where you from, where'd you go to high school? Did you go to college? Did you graduate? So on and so forth. Richard: Awesome. Awesome. Well, I'm Richard McGill. You already got that part, but I'm from Mobile, Alabama, born and raised. On the playground is where I spent most of my days. Y'all get that reference? Marcus: Yes. Absolutely. I'm old enough to get that reference. Richard: Awesome. Marcus: Jerry's just trying to touch you again. Pay no attention to the man. Richard: Let me shimmy for you. But yes, I went to Davidson High School. W.P. Davidson. I was in musical theater, I was in color guard. I was the only boy in color guard at that point. I was the boy with the flag. Marcus: Blazing new trails. Richard: Man, hey, I always had that flag and I was throwing it. Had a big old smile on my face. I was good to go. In Mobile, Alabama, 2005. I went to the University of Southern Mississippi, and then I transferred to the University of South Alabama. I did have a musical theater ... I was on the tract for musical theater degree. Developed a nodule on my left vocal cord. Kind of switched it up for me. But it didn't end anything, it just started a new path, which I was really excited about. And then I ... Yeah, in Mobile. Marcus: But you didn't graduate music theater, you went and got a graphic design- Richard: Yes. Photography and graphic design. Marcus: Photography and graphic design degree. But you're in ... I mean, you predominantly are in fashion. That's where you live, that's where you love, that's, you know, all the things that are you surround fashion. Richard: Is about, just with fashion. It's just explaining to people and educating people on the fact that fashion is every day. You might not think you are the most fashionable person in the world, but what you picked and your chosen skin is what you're wearing. You chose that to wear, and whether you think it's fashion or not, like you'd make a decision. Marcus: Conscious or not. Richard: Yeah, and just teaching people that that's okay. No matter if people are telling you "Oh, well that doesn't look great together, that doesn't look good together." There's going to be people that tell you all the time "That doesn't look good." But there's going to be those people that are like "Hey, that's some pretty fresh style you got going on there." The only thing that changed in between those conversations is the person. You didn't change your outfit, it was the person that looked at it and so that's what I always try to remind people about. That's what it's about. Marcus: So, I'm the same way. I didn't grow up with a whole lot of money and so I was always very ... like I remember when Nike first released the Cortez's and they had the red heel and they had the blue stripe and I just was like "Oh, man I'd really like to have those," but I was the kid wearing the shoes from Payless, right. Just recently I started getting Air Jordan's. Richard: Okay. Marcus: And so I was wearing some the other day and Terrance DeShaun who has not been on this podcast but he is going to come on this podcast, was giving me crap about "What do you know about J's?" And I was like "Please player, don't even start with me." Like I've been lusting after J's since they first came out in the 80s but I would agree with you that fashion is very much what you're comfortable in but it projects quite a bit. Richard: Yes. Marcus: And so even as a business owner ... I'm going to go out on a limb here and I may make some enemies but the thing that kind of bugs me about fashion here in Mobile is that, you know, in the business community it's much like what it was in D.C. where you go to a business event and it's the blue blazer, the gray slacks, the white shirt with the red tie and it's like there's so much more to it then that. Richard: There's so much more you can do. Marcus: Put some effort into it and so I'm the guy that shows up wearing all the weird stuff, you know, and the funky clothes but I love it. That's who I am, and I can get away with it because I own an advertising agency, and I don't work at a law firm. Richard: But everybody can get away ... Even those people who do work for law firms. Even if you feel that you have wear a suit, wear a funky sock with it. Do something really cool, wear a really different tie, wear a bow tie or do something crazy because it's not the norm any more. I think it's definitely the new generation of people that are showing us like "Hey, you should be you." I mean people are going to love you and it's not so much more, I feel, it's not so much more about the business anymore. It's more about who you are and people are realizing that. Marcus: Like, authenticity. Richard: It's your authenticity; you are not playing a suited person. Marcus: No, and they can see thought it. Richard: You're playing you and that you are amazing so be you. Just be great being you. Marcus: Yeah, that's awesome. So I want to go back in your history. What was your first job, and I don't mean your first job in fashion. I mean like your first crap job, like flipping burgers or whatever. Richard: You want to know it? Marcus: Well, yeah. Richard: Only a few people know it. I worked at Golden Corral. Marcus: Seriously? Richard: Yes, Golden Corral. Marcus: Doing what? Now a lot of people know about it. So you know, like.. Richard: Golden Corral. I was that really loud guy at the front saying "Hey," to getting your Coke, getting your drink and that's back when like the budget really wasn't good the sign wouldn't say Golden Corral it would say like the Golden Oral or something in the light. Marcus: I'm telling you this may be the last episode of this podcast, friends. Richard: Hey now, people know me, they know my spirit, they know my heart. They know me... Marcus: It's all good. Richard: But, no, that's what was my first job and I loved it. Just because it taught me a lot. It really did even though it was my first crap job and I knew I wasn't supposed to be there. I knew that wasn't in my wheel house but I was touching people and I was my energetic self and I did make peoples day. It was a job that taught me from day one that it was okay to fail and I feel like a lot of people these days feel like ... Especially because of social media and I love social media, I'm always on social media. But you have to post like the best of the best, of the best, of the best and you have to live this like that's not authenticity you. When you fail you learn so much more than if you succeed. Like if you're doing great all the time how are you growing? You're not growing but the moment that you mess up, you know what I'm not going to do that again and I'm going to learn from that and then I can help the next person that comes and asks about it and you're just sharing that knowledge. Even though it was Golden Oral. Even though it was the Golden Corral that's where I learned it from and I learned it from there and then I probably got out of there quick. Then I went, of course, into Abercrombie & Fitch. That was my next ... Marcus: No, the Golden Corral ... Richard: You almost said it to. Got you! Marcus: The Golden Corral is the much better story and the lesson that you learned there is absolutely perfect. Richard: Yes. Marcus: Yeah, because I think sometimes so many people are afraid to fail but I actually I want to fail quickly and I want to fail often. And I want those to be micro steps that allow me to pivot into the direction that I need to go. Richard: Because that's the only way that you are literally going to grow as a person. If I'm telling you you are great all the time ... Marcus: Or as a company. Richard: Person, company ... Marcus: Organization. Richard: Who you are, just anything. If you are being told "Oh, that's just great, that's just great, you know, that's awesome." No give me honesty back. I know, and this goes back to fashion week, not to be conceited or anything but we put on the best show that we can put on. So you telling me "Oh, that was a great show," well, that's why I did it like that. I knew that, what could I have made better? "Oh, well the lighting over here really couldn't see the clothes when it got here," Bam! Not going to do that again. Marcus: You're going to fix that. Richard: I'm going to have them make sure there is plenty of lighting over there, that's right. Make it overly bright. "This designer, her clothes started falling apart in the run way." Okay I'm going to make sure to talk to her about her seams and making sure that we are secure in our seams and we're doing this and we're doing that. You just telling me "Oh, it was a great show. Thank you, we can't wait until next year." Okay well you're going to see the same thing next year if you don't tell me what else you need. What do I need to give to you? Marcus: Yeah, and like anything there is a good way to give feedback and I think giving feedback is an art form. You want people to give you that feedback. You want it to be from a position of them wanting to help you versus being overly critical and just trying to destroy you. Richard: Just being shady. There's no point in being that. I get it. There's a lot of shows that have been inspired by Mobile fashion week, a lot of different fashion events, fashion weeks have been started and of course they're going to say stuff like "Oh, we would have done it like this, we would have done it like this." Okay, that's great. Marcus: Go do it. Richard: Yeah, go do it. That's not how we do it but that's okay. You do your thing. Marcus: So you are a founder of Mobile.... Are you the founder? And that I know that. Richard: Yeah, so I'm the founder. We did it after an event we had called Fashion Forward. It was me, Suzanne Massingill, with Barefoot Models and Talent, and Toni Riales. There was a local model Morgan that had a brain tumor and we needed to raise money for her and then we don't play sports. We don't do any of that stuff so what are we going to do? Marcus: Really? You seem like a very sporty guy. Richard: Right? Don't I look like I play something. I'm just like "Yes, field goal, touch down, War Tigers, Eagles." Marcus: No, let's not do that. You just lost the rest of our audience. Richard: Roll Tigers ... War. Marcus: Yeah, but that was how it started? Richard: Yeah, it started from that because everyone loved the idea, they love the concept. They loved that we booked real models, got real designers, real styling. Everything was authentic about it. Before then, it was a little fun mom-and-pop, mom and daughter little fashion shows. Like fun stuff which is done by the Junior League which is an amazing group. They have the audience, they have the clientele and that's who they market to but we wanted to do something different. So then me and Susan got together and I was like "Hey Susan I want to start something, I want to start it, let's do it." And she was like "Hey let's try it, let's go, let's see what happens." And that was year one in 2011. Okay, we learned some stuff. We got in a little bit of debt. Let's try year two. Year two, okay we actually donated a pretty good check to Camp Rap-A-Hope. Year three, okay, this is an even better check. Okay, year four. Marcus: Is that where the proceeds go? Richard: Yeah everything goes to Camp Rap-A-Hope. We've had little other non-profits that we've joined in. We do Children With Hair Loss, that's a really cool one where if you go to any of the salons that we partner with you get a free ticket to the show if you donate your hair and that's 100% free wigs to kids that have lost their hair towards any kind of cancer treatment towards alopecia like just losing their hair any kind of diseases like that. It's just been so much fun getting to work with these people and getting to know that it's not all sad. Yes, it's sad when you see the little bald girl. Marcus: Yeah but it doesn't have to be. Richard: But it's not ... that's now who they are. They're still getting though life and they're doing this and we're getting to help them and it's powerful. Marcus: So, you're are in your ... this will be your eight. Richard: This will be year eight, season seven. Marcus: My gears just crunched. Richard: Last year I had the opportunity with H&M to go to Vietnam to open up Ben Thanh Market in H&M and it was an amazing opportunity and I couldn't let it pass and neither could, like the board, they're like "Hey, no, you've got to go. You've got to have this happen." This is one of those, not failure times, one of those times we reflected on because when I was gone a lot of stuff happened that was going to cripple the show and people spend money ... It's not like we're a cheap ticket. Like we're $25, $30 a ticket to come support Camp Rap-A-Hope and see a show. So if we don't put on the best show or if we know that we're not going to be able to provide that. We're not going to have you waste your money that you could have used on this, that, the other. Could have just given to Camp Rap-A-Hope right out of your pocket. So, when it got closer to the fashion week we walked the space again it just wasn't what we needed it to be. We've talked to some vendors, they weren't going to be able to deliver what they were supposed to and then I was out of town, so I couldn't pull up the charm like "Hey let's get this together guys. Go team." The board was like "Hey, it's going to cripple the show, it's going to ruin the brand, it's going to not be like anything anybody signed up for and people are going to be wasting their money and we can't do that to them." So we decided to cancel the show last year. The PR nightmare that came with that was like "Oh, their canceling it forever. It's because Richard was out of town." No, it wasn't because of just me out of town. It was other factors that went into it. This isn't just the Richard show, this is an amazing group of people that just come together, volunteer their time and energy to raise money for Camp Rap-A-Hope and the only way that our industry knows how, which is to put on a fashion show. Marcus: So, Mobile is not the epicenter of ... Richard: Right, where have you been? What are you talking about? No it's not. Marcus: No, but I mean let's be real. I mean it's not the epicenter of fashion. So I just want to say in this that it is absolutely very cool that we have something like this because it's not New York City, it's not L.A., it's not even Miami or any of the other secondary markets that would be considered fashion centers. Richard: Yeah. It's really not and when I got back here that was one of my main ... I moved out to L.A. that's when ... around the time when I met you and we started being cool with each other. I don't know what to say. That was kind of weird. Nothing creepy was happening. Marcus: It's all good people. Richard: But when I moved out to L.A. and I was there for six months and I got to work with some people at L.A. fashion week and I've got to engulf myself in there and when I came back and because the L.A. market just wasn't for me. It just was a lot of mean. I just didn't ... Marcus: Born and raised in Mobile you're used to people being friendly and hospitality and stuff. Richard: Smiling and just being able to be who you are and you would think that in L.A. it would be even more. Marcus: More embracing. Richard: More embracing. Like me just being the loud person that I am it was more embracing but no. It wasn't so came back on home. So I came back home and when I got here a lot of my really talented friends that were into make-up, into hair, into designing were leaving for these big markets as well. They were going to even New Orleans or Atlanta, some of them went to New York, or some of them went to L.A. and I was like, "Wow, we just lost a lot of really talented people," because they feel they didn't have the outlet to express themselves in Mobile and I was like "No, we can't lose anymore talent." That's why we have to show that we can embrace that talent here. So we did the fashion show for Morgan and then I was like "No, it's fashion week. That's what we're going to give them." Yes, you might be a hair stylist down here, you might have to do up dos for prom and homecoming all year but this is the one week that you can do these crazy looks and you can get pictures of them. You can have them all week. Marcus: Thanks for filtering. Richard: Man, you know I was. I was about to... I'm trying to be a good Christian around here. Marcus: He's trying to church it up a little bit though. Richard: Sorry, everyone. Sorry everyone but yeah, love y'all. Marcus: Now, let's think about this as an organization, okay. So, if you were talking to someone that wanted to get started in running these types of events or being more involved in the Mobile community, what's the one bit of wisdom you would impart to them? Richard: Don't be scared, do it. I mean even if you have three people that show up and three people that support you. Those three people next year will tell three more people and then those six people will tell six more people. Marcus: So, just out of curiosity how many people came to the first event. Richard: The first event it was fresh, I was young. So I was on the street I was peddling. It was our first year because we are a 501C3 though the Mobile Arts Council and so those were the days of Bob, Charlie, Hilary. Give me all these contacts and meeting all these people and that when I met Stacy Hamilton and I got in touch with the Downtown Alliance and I was like "Oh, I know all these people now." So the first year we did get about 150, actually 200. Marcus: Pretty darn good for the ... Richard: For the first year, yeah. There was a lot of ... I called in a lot of favors because like you said I worked with Tony Riles and so though that I knew people at Mobile Bay Magazine, I knew people at Access Just Launch that year as well. So I knew Hayley Hill. So I was like "Let me get all these people and let me try and get some free ads from them," and be like "Oh, it's a non-profit." So we had a lot, a lot of press in that first year. It was the first year. Marcus: Right. Richard: So, I feel now, of course we've grown, we've learned a lot from that year. Now if we had that same amount of press and people coming it would be even more. But hey this is what you learn. Marcus: Yeah, it'd be a much bigger event. No, I just ... to your ... I mean what you were saying though, those three people. I mean it is, it's a process. You have to go though that process and go through it and build on it and learn the lessons like what you're talking about and grow. Richard: Learning the lessons because ... guys just don't be afraid. You can do it. There are at least three other people that have the same idea that you have in your head but they are just so scared of failing or just scared... Marcus: There's more than that. There's more than three people. Richard: Three people. Marcus: So, I will go just to soap box for just a second. Richard: Yeah, let's soap box. Marcus: I get tired of people coming to me and not wanting to tell me their ideas and the reason why is because they're scared that if they tell me that idea that somehow ... First of all I've got my own ideas and I'm busy executing on those, but the other thing to is ideas are cheap. Ideas are really cheap, it's the actual execution of the idea is where it becomes valuable. And most people never take that first step to execute the idea and so it's just a wasted thought. Richard: Yeah. Marcus: But anyway. Richard: Stand on that soap box. Marcus: Get back on topic. Richard: The more you know. Marcus: By the time this releases we will probably be two or three weeks out from Mobile fashion week so what are you currently working on? Richard: Okay, so what am I currently working on or ... Marcus: Right now, but I mean ... Richard: Right now. Marcus: Yes, right now. So we're recording this on the 30th of August. So what are you working on for ... Richard: Right now. It's just finalizing the schedule. Everybody thinks that "Oh, it's just a fashion show. You can put that together in a month." Marcus: That's hilarious. Richard: No, no, darlings. It takes literally a year. After the last show we are already ... Like while we're putting that last show ... this show on we're already going to be working on ideas, concepts, designs for next year because one you have to give these designers a chance to make something and you have to give them a chance to let their ideas grow because sometimes their not thinking about it yet. They're just trying to get though that month. Those are the new designers that don't realize they have to be so far ahead yet. But then there's other designers that are a little bit more into the game and know a little bit more. They're already prepared, already have some of that worked out. But you need to give them time. You have to get the Pantone colors for the season, you have to make sure you're trendy. You're keeping the social media up all year so people just don't forget about it and it's like "Oh, well August is here so we're going to start hearing from Mobile fashion week again." No, we have to be at events, we have to be at this, we have to be at that. We have to be promoting, we have to be sharing. So, right now we are finalizing the actual day of fashion week. We used to do three shows. Then we started doing two shows. This year is going to be our first year with one show. One really big show and it's not because of anything else besides the fact that shows cost money and at the end of the day the more money we're spending; yes we have a great week. But the less money we're able to give to Camp Rap-A-Hope. At the end of the day that's what it's about. Like giving the money to the kids with cancer. How do you say no to that? So us cutting down the days that we're actually having to spend on production costs and just focus on the show, focus on the big show and just do other little fun special things though out the week that have to do with fashion, have to do with Camp Rap-A-Hope and promoting that. That's what's important this year. That's what we're focused on this year. Marcus: Very cool. Richard: Just another little fun little change. So yeah just finishing out the calendar. Making sure all the models are still the size they're supposed to be from casting because sometimes you just like ... Marcus: Cheeseburgers. Richard: A new restaurant will open up and you'll eat there a couple times. I've been at that Poke Luau. Marcus: Where's that? Richard: Oh, man you don't know about Poke Luau? Marcus: No. Richard: It's over in Pinebrook shopping center. Marcus: I'll have to check that out. Is that buy ... We're going on a tangent folks, give us just a second. Richard: Yeah, y'all go there too. Marcus: Yeah, is that over by Whole Foods? Richard: Whole Foods. So it's Whole Foods and then that new F45 work out place. It's right next to ... Marcus: Andy Vickers, owns F45. Richard: He's an awesome guy too. All these awesome people. But right next to it there's this Poke Lulu place. Marcus: What kind of food is it? Richard: It's just Poke. It's like... Do you know what Poke is? Like the rice with ... Marcus: Some sort of meat and fresh vegetables and stuff like that. Richard: Yeah everything. Marcus: Alright. Richard: Just go see them. Marcus: Come on, you had to know. I should have told you beforehand just strap yourself in dear listener because we're going on a ride today. Richard: Left, right, up, down. You all should be prepared. Marcus: Who's one person from the business world that motivates you? Or from the fashion world, I'll throw you a bone. So fashion world ... Richard: No, it's actually right in like I can always think big. Think globally act locally and the one person that just inspires me right now and he's local. It's Scott Tindle. Scott Tindle is just an amazing ... y'all clearly ... everybody should know who Scott Tindle is right now. Marcus: Yeah, I mean he's been on the podcast before and Scott and I are friendly. Richard: Yeah, he's just like one of those people that has those ideas but doesn't just spit them out. Like all the sudden they're just there and it's like "Oh, this is an actual thing now. Oh, we actually have a restaurant here now." Marcus: We have Duck Boats that drive down... Richard: We actually have Duck Boats. Marcus: Dauphin Street and we have a fort that's actually being used and we have a restaurant in the fort that has amazing Po Boys and who knows what else dear Scott Tindle has planned for this city. Richard: Hey, and there's going to be a fashion week at that same fort. Marcus: Is it going to be there? Richard: Yeah, it's going to be at the fort. Marcus: Nice. Richard: Yeah, it's going to be great and then we have some food there from ... oh, and they just got their liquor license so we got booze from them too. So you know the fort is going to be a poppin' place Marcus: Somebody hide the Vodka from Richard before the show. Richard: I don't actually drink. I take pictures of everybody else being drunk. It's really good. Especially at business events. It's like "Got this for later." What he has done ...It's just one of those people that's also inspiring also can make light of bad situations. Like bad stuff happens ... Marcus: Yeah. Richard: Forgot to get this license so we've got to ground, you know, the Duck Boats for a little bit but hey learned now not going to do that again. Marcus: Yeah, move forward. Richard: Yeah, move forward. So he's just really ... He's inspiring so many like Andrew Vickers he like worked with Scott and now he's doing his own thing. Just being that inspiring person and being okay with sharing ideas and not thinking like "Oh, I have to keep these ideas to myself because I wanna be the most successful, the richest person in Mobile." No, share your ideas. Marcus: One of the things that the internet has taught me is that ideas are meant to be shared. Richard: Yes. Marcus: Right, they're meant to be shared freely and that, you know. So we give away a lot of information whether it be on the  videos or the podcasts or the blog posts that we right and stuff like that and I mean we go into great detail in some of the things that we share. The funny thing is even if you give away those details often times people will never do anything with it. It's just information that they kind of consume. Richard: I learned a lot about SEO from y'all. See look, hey. Marcus: Throwing that out there. Richard: Yeah, learned it, hey. Marcus: Are there any books, podcasts, people or organizations that have been helpful to you? Richard: Yeah, Mobile Arts Council has been just the supporting of Mobile fashion week. When Bob and Charlie were there, of course, they were just people that I could go in there, talk to, cry if I needed to and just be like "Guys, I'm so overwhelmed. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what to do next." And they were just there ... just the ear to talk to. They were also ... It was really inspiring just for them to talk to in the fact of fashion is art as well. I know it gets lost. Marcus: I love it. Richard: A lot of people don't think of it as art. They think if it's not hanging up on a wall it's not considered art. Marcus: Right. Richard: So, being that outlet for them as well saying "Hey, fashion is art." Yes, it's clothing. Yes, you can wear it every day. Marcus: It's functional. Richard: But yes there are some designers that are making these gorgeous pieces that you will never wear down Dolphin street but they're these beautiful concepts and it took time and effort. It took just as much time to make that dress as it did to paint that picture. Marcus: And as much creativity. Richard: Much creativity and much uniqueness and that's just energy. Marcus: What's the most important thing that you've learned about running this organization? Richard: Just to ... I know that sounds bad because you should take everything seriously but not to take it too seriously. Marcus: Right. Richard: Not to take everything ... It's not mapping the brain, it's not brain surgery. It's nothing to do with that. Yes, we have this. Yes, we're dealing with money. Yes, we're donating money. All this important stuff behind it but if it ended today, if it ended tomorrow, if this was the last year, if next year's the last year, if anything happen that would not affect me as a person much without saying "I've learned a lot from it." I've learned so much for it and now I can move on and do something else for it. Not that it's going to end anytime soon. Marcus: Right. Richard: Because we're still young around here and we're just going to ride it until the wheels fall off. Marcus: There you go. Richard: But it's just the importance of just not taking it too seriously. Marcus: Well, I mean fashion and art are meant to be fun, right? Richard: Yes. Marcus: And there is ... often times I think we try to make things serious in an effort to lend importance to them. Richard: It gives it validation. If we make it serious, if it's a serious thing then it's validated. Marcus: Right. We have to study it and pick it apart and make it mean something more then what it means. Richard: Those lines. Did you see those lines ... Marcus: Right, exactly. Richard: It was a fun picture. Marcus: Yeah, exactly. Richard: It was a Campbell's soup can, you know. Marcus: Yeah, Andy Warhol is the reference there if you're not catching it. I mean it is ... How much cocaine was consumed in the making of those Campbell's soup cans? Richard: No matter. Marcus: I mean, how much fun was he having while he was doing that? You really think he was trying to be all that serious, no. I mean it was Campbell's soup. He was trying to make a statement but it wasn't meant to be this global thing. Richard: Yeah, no. Marcus: See I get on these soap boxes. I need to just ... Richard: I like your soap boxes. Marcus: Yeah. Richard: Where did that term come from you think? Marcus: Soap box? Richard: Where's that term come from? Marcus: Soap box. Back in the day when people would stand on some sort of pedestal and what's the old term ... Stump speech when ... in politics. Anyway we're way off topic now guys. See I told you this is the last one. We've got another one, we may have to put him in front of this just to make sure that this ... Richard: Make sure you know. Marcus: How do you like to unwind? Richard: How do I like to unwind. Do I unwind? No. I like to sew. Marcus: So you do ... I mean you're actually making fashion pieces and stuff. Richard: One of my things for fashion week ... one of the other things that inspires me. Yes, I make ... I sew, I design, I do all that fun stuff too. I love so many ... and this is what help people that want to start events as well or want's to start something to. I don't believe in a jack of all trades. Like I just don't think it's a good concept. I never really liked it. I liked the fact that you know a little bit about everything but I don't think it's good for the market place, I don't think it's good for anything. Like you just doing it all yourself. So I love make-up, I love hair, I love design, I love shows, I love everything about it but I don't want to be the designer that also does hair, that also does make-up, that also does photography, that also does this, that also does that. Marcus: No, but you have to have some understanding of it in order to pull all of those things together. To make your vision come though. Richard: I do that through fashion week. So I get to play dress up with the designers, I get to talk design to the designers, I get to talk make-up to the make-up artists that support. I get to talk hair to the hair stylist that are coming. You get all these facets together and you get to be engulfed in it all at once without trying to be like "Oh, I'm perfect at everything." And you're not actually giving it everything you're 100% because you can only give 20% of yourself to hair, 20% of yourself to make-up. Marcus: Yeah. Richard: Just put an event together, get these other people that are amazing at these talents because that's what they focus on and just be engulfed in it and just have fun with them. Marcus: Yeah, that's really cool. Now tell people where they can find out more about the event. Richard: Gosh, go to Mobfashionweek.com M-O-B fashionweek.com We post fun blogs there, we have some information about Camp Rap-A-Hope there, we have pictures from past shows. You can see what designers are walking this show. You can see the hair stylists that are supporting, the make-up artists. Everyone that's on the board and on the team that puts this show together because yes I talk because I'm the talker. I'm the loud one. I'm the one ... Marcus: [laughs] Richard: I'm the loud one. I'm the one that puts myself out there but there's so many people and that's what's also empowering as well. Having people because there are those people in life, in the world we live in that have to be the center of attention but I work with this amazing group of people that they will work back behind the scenes. You don't need to know their name, you don't need to know they helped at all. Susan Massengale one of the ones been there since day one and she never comes out and says thank you afterwords. She never does that after the shows. She cleans up, she gets all the models stuff that they leave because we have these ... Marcus: Make sure that everything's buttoned up and taken care of. Richard: Everything's buttoned up and taken care of. You don't have to see her, you don't even have to know she was a part of it because at the end of the day we all work to donate this charity to Camp Rap-A-Hope. Marcus: Yeah. Richard: And that just one of my things that I just loved about working with her, working with the rest of the team with Allison, with Lindsey, with Malcome, with all of these amazing people. Just they don't have to be the center of attention. You don't have to know they're there but they are, they're helping and I appreciate them so much but I'm, of course, like I said the loud one. I'm the loud one, I'm the one like "Hey, y'all coming to the show now? Y'all get over here y'all." Marcus: Oh my god, help us. Richard I want to thank you again for coming on my podcast to wrap up any final thoughts or comments you'd like to share? Richard: Man, just come to the show, support Camp Rap-A-Hope, support all the local events that happen in Mobile; 1065 all these great really cool events. There was that new music ... Marcus: South Sounds. Richard: South Sounds, gosh, please go to South Sounds. Marcus: Yeah, and then you're talking about Mobfest Richard: MOB Fest. That's an event that comes around. All these events, support them. So go there. It might be something you're into, e-mail them say you want to be a part of it if you want to be part of it. If you don't, if you just want to be at the house and go to a cool event, man there's so many events around Mobile. Marcus: It's important that you support them. Some of them are free so it's not even a matter of paying to go but it's important because the people put a lot of effort into that and if people don't come out then they stop putting that effort in and the other thing to is just from the economic impacts stand point because well it's a business podcast so we'll talk about it. Richard: We gotta talk about that. Marcus: From the economic stand point, you know, I was talking to someone who shall remain nameless who said that they generate $30 million worth of revenue for the city by bringing their event here. Richard: Voldemort? Was it Voldemort? Marcus: No. Richard: Oh. Marcus: And so we ... Richard: You said nameless, okay. Marcus: No. It's... Richard: It's not a bad guy. Marcus: Yeah. Richard: Their bringing money in. Marcus: I don't want to ... I mean he's going to be on the podcast soon and he may actually talk about this but we were having lunch the other day and $30-$40 million every year is brought into the city by this guy. Richard: Oh, wow. Marcus: And, you know, the tickets to the event are not that expensive but it's extremely important that we go out and we support these events. Even if they're free because there's sponsorships that, you know, they want to know the numbers that of people that come and there are organizations like yours where it's $25, $30 to come or even if it's $50 who cares. That money's going to a good cause and yes that's not a cheap ticket but at the same time it's a fun event, go. Richard: It's not like trying to go to New York. So many people ... Some of our guests that come they will never have the chance to go to New York fashion week. They'll never have the chance to go to Miami fashion week or L.A. fashion week so we want to bring that experience to them and we don't want be like "Oh, it's $100 to come to our show." Yeah we would love to raise that much money, if you want to spend that much money on a ticket write the other donation to . We don't need that money, we're okay. We're not profiting off this at all. No ones making money everything after they count zeros out goes to Camp Rap-A-Hope. So we're not trying to profit off of this. All we're trying to do is create an amazing event for you to have fun at and not think about ... because that's the fun thing about Camp Rap-A-Hope is they don't ever want to push the fact that the kids have cancer on you. They want to push the fact that they're having fun and they're able just to have fun because its not a big taboo subject because every kid there has cancer so you don't have to talk about it. Marcus: Right. Richard: Because you already know everybody else here has it so we're just going to have a fun weekend and not have to talk about it. You don't have to worry about these ports and tubes around you because you see it all around. It's just a fun week of kids ... oh gosh, I get emotional about it. Marcus: Well, I do need to wrap up. Richard: Oh, yeah we do. Marcus: But I want to say ... I normally wrap up with appreciate your willingness to sit with me and share your journey as a business center but I would just like to commend you for taking something like this on because I know it's not a small feat. So pouring your life into something and not getting anything from it other than just an outlet is an amazing thing. You're a beautiful individual. Thank you for what you bring. Richard: Thank you so much. Thank you so much everyone. Learn more about Mobile Fashion Week on their  and follow them on , , and .

On this week's podcast, Marcus chats with Jeff Carter with the City of Mobile. You're not going to want to miss this interview as Jeff shares his journey of connections and organic education that sent him from being a paramedic to being the Chief Innovation Officer for our city.  Jeff: I'm Jeff Carter, the Chief Innovation Officer with the City of Mobile. Marcus: Awesome. Well, welcome to the podcast, Jeff. Jeff: Thanks. Marcus: Yeah. You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into. Jeff: I have no idea. Marcus: Now Jeff, full disclosure, Jeff and I know each other from a number of organizations. The one that we should probably mention because we want them to known is Fuse Project. We both sit on the board for Fuse Project. I've known you from your past life as the head of the I-Team, which we won't get into here because I'm very curious to hear about what you have going on as the Chief Innovation Officer. But before we get into all of that, why don't you tell us the story of Jeff. Where are you from? Where'd you go to high school, college? I know a little bit about your background before getting hired as the lead of the I-Team. Married? Not married? All that stuff. Jeff: Ah, the short biography. Well it's a- Marcus: No, this is 25 to 30 minutes, so you better talk for a little bit or we're gonna have to dig deep. Jeff: Well, it's kind of a bizarre story that doesn't make a whole lot of sense how I got here. I'll try to make it as concise and believable as possible. Marcus: Sure. Jeff: But I grew up in the booming metropolis of Citronelle, Alabama. Marcus: Sweet. Jeff: When I got to the age of middle school, my parents decided to send me to school in Mobile. I came to the Magnet Program. I went to Phillips for three years. At the end of three years, my dad made a deal with me that I could go to high school wherever I wanted. He assumed that I would go back to Citronelle High School because that's where my friends were and everything. I did miss that a lot. But when I got through at Phillips, it just occurred to me that I'd had such a good education at Phillips that I really couldn't go back to Citronelle. Marcus: Even as young kid you recognized that? Jeff: Yeah. Marcus: Wow. Jeff: I wound up graduating from LeFlore High School, which was the Magnet High School at the time. It was a very interesting change for me to go from a small town to really an inner city high school when I graduated from LeFlore. It was, I don't know, 97% African-American. I tell people all the time that that was really one of my first and best real learning opportunities. I tell people I got an education and an education there. It was really, really good to be able to learn, at that age, so many different things that I had never been exposed to before. That really started opening my mind to how to learn from different people and how to focus on people, and it was very important to me. When I got out of ... When I was in ... um. Lot of ums. When I was growing up, my parents worked hard. They were blue collar. My mom's a teacher. My dad worked in the chemical plant. They tell people that the dreams they had for us as kids all came from a Willie Nelson song. They wanted us to grow up to be doctors and lawyers and such or get a good job. Marcus: Did they know at the time that Willie Nelson was ... nevermind. Jeff: Hey, let's not down an icon here. All right? Marcus: Yeah, a massive pothead that, you know, but anyway. Jeff: Willie's an American treasure. Marcus: He is absolutely. Jeff: He's an American Treasure. Marcus: I love Willie Nelson, but, yeah. Jeff: Anyway, so I thought I wanted to go to med school is what I thought I wanted to do. I did well in high school and tried to do all those extra things that they tell you're supposed to do. One of those extra things I wound up doing was I became an EMT. That made perfect sense to me at the time. I was gonna be an EMT, and I was gonna have this on my transcript when I applied for med school that I had had patient care experience, and it was all gonna be great. After high school went to South, enrolled in South and wound up finishing my paramedic at night while I did the rest of my college courses during the day. Then what happened was I was 19-years-old and I had a paramedic license. I was the youngest paramedic in the State of Alabama. I could give narcotics but not drink alcohol. That's when I found out that a 19-year-old boy should not be allowed to make his own money. At the age of 19, I was a paramedic, and I found out that I could get a job and make money. Somehow that became a lot more alluring to me than finishing college. I dropped out of college, much to my dad's chagrin, and I worked on the ambulance. I worked here in Mobile County. Later transferred over and worked in Baldwin County. I worked 24-hour shifts, 48-hour shifts, 72-hour shifts, X-hour shifts, but I loved it. It was great. What I loved the most about being a medic was that in a single day, in a single shift, you might help the smartest person in the world, the most challenged person in the world, the richest person in the world, and the poorest person in the world. You might get to see all those people and learn something from them in a single shift. There's really nothing else like it. It was a really cool experience. It taught me a lot about how the world works. Taught me a lot about how to talk to people of different backgrounds and learn information in a very short amount of time, and then try to turn that information into something that could help make them better in a very short amount of time. I worked on the ambulance for a little while. I was fortunate enough to get hired at SouthLight. My hire date at SouthLight is pretty memorable. The hire date was 9/11 2001. Marcus: Oh, gosh, dude. Jeff: That was my first full-time day on the helicopter, and so did that for a while. Loved that. Working at South was amazing. Also in that time, I got asked to come back, and I taught in the paramedic program run at South. Paramedic, EMTP means EMT part-time something else, where every paramedic has a bunch of jobs. Marcus: Right. Jeff: I was fortunate enough to work on the ambulance, work on the helicopter, and teach, and did that for a while. The Hospital chose to get out of SouthLight at a time and went over to a private provider. That transition was where I learned a lot about business, because all of a sudden it was more than just taking care of sick people. You really started having to understand the business aspect of it. In the healthcare world that's a challenge. Did that for a while. I thought I was ready for an eight to five day job, and got asked to come be the Deputy Director of EMS in the country, for Mobile County. I knew they had some challenges there when I took the job. Marcus: It's a nice way of saying, "Things were kind of messed up." Jeff: Yeah. Well, it reminds me of one of my favorite John F. Kennedy quotes. He was asked by a reporter his first week in office what he was most surprised about so far. He says, "Well, what I'm most surprised about is things was as bad as we were saying they were." Anyway, so we got there and they were in the transition of going from a full volunteer to a paid service and trying to do a better job for citizens in the county. We just realized we had to get to work. What happened there was I'm really proud of. We were able to turn that operation around from an operation that had very, very long average response times for the county, just very, very long was all I can say. In two years we had grown that organization from about 10 employees to 120 employees, and we cut response times in the county to 10-minute average response times for the entire county. Marcus: Wow. Jeff: We did that really sort of organically by finding problems and addressing problem, finding problems and addressing problems. The way we started to do this was really by looking at data and mapping. We started really, really paying attention to the data that we had on our run volume and the needs of the county. We really looked at mapping those calls for service by hour of the day, and day of the week, and hour of the day. We were able to match up our schedule side or deployment side to the needs and then keep growing with a county that was growing. That was our little formula there. That worked out real well. Marcus: It sounds like that was the beginning of your data analysis- Jeff: It was. Marcus: ... because I know that that becomes also very important in what you did at the I-Team as well. But I didn't realize that that was where that education came from. Jeff: Yeah, a lot of my education is pretty organic. I learned things as I needed them. Taught my self a lot of things. I don't have a very traditional education background, although I did go back to South and complete my bachelor's degree. Marcus: What'd you get your degree in? Jeff: Some of my degree is in emergency management. Marcus: Okay. Jeff: I did go back to South and complete my degree. But most of the other things I learned since then were really just sort of ad hoc in a lot of ways. But it's interesting to me how all of those things have kind of wound themselves together and built on one another, so, yeah, the data analysis and stuff that I learned there and the mapping that I learned there has been instrumental in what I've done here. Marcus: Right. Jeff: Do I just keep going here? Are you good? Marcus: Yeah, no. You're good. But seriously that's what this podcast is all about, man. Jeff: All right. All right. Anyway, so while I was working there, things had gotten settled down and we were in a maintenance mode and just growing a little bit, and things were really good out there. They're still doing a great job out there. I started getting invited to some of this volunteer stuff. In 2010, I did Leadership Mobile, which was cool for me because when I was in high school and I thought I was going to med school and I was trying to check all the boxes, I had signed up for a Youth Leadership Mobile. It turned out to have been the first class of Youth Leadership Mobile that Mobile United had ever done. Marcus: Interesting. Jeff: I was in the inaugural class of Youth Leadership Mobile. Then in 2010 had applied for the Adult Leadership Mobile course and was the first person in the adult class that had done the youth class, so that was cool. I really enjoyed that, met some awesome, awesome people, had a great experience, learned even more about Mobile. Then after that I'm kind of in this mode where once you do that, the next thing you're supposed to do is "be on some boards." I thought that's what I needed to do next. I got an invitation to the Greater Gulf State Fair Board. I didn't know the Greater Gulf State Fair had a board. I just knew that I'd been to the fair. That was all I knew. I really had not other motivation to do it other than- Marcus: To be on a board. Jeff: ... you're supposed to be on some boards after you do this. This is kind of the thing. Right? Marcus: Yep. Jeff: I think I'm following the formula. I found out later I wasn't following the formula, but I thought I was following the formula. I get on the board and to my surprise when I got there, I found that they had a lot of challenges. I was on the board for four or five years, I guess, and in that time we went through some pretty big transitions. There was some staff turnover. I wound up hiring a guy named Scott Tindle. Marcus: He's a common theme in what's going on in Mobile right now. Jeff: Yeah. I never forget it. I talked to him, interviewed him. The board voted. I went outside and said, "Man, if you're dumb enough to take this job, they're gonna give it to you." Marcus: Yeah. He's the dog that caught the car. Jeff: Yeah, so before he got there, we had made a lot of changes. When he got there was when we really started the rebranding efforts. I love telling the story because people assume that we hired some high dollar agency to do all the rebranding. The truth is we drank a lot of beers, and somebody said, "Let's just call it The Grounds." The next morning, Tindle got on Fiverr and got us a logo for 300 bucks, and hence it was rebranded. Marcus: Sure. Jeff: But all the changes that we made there, that organization had been losing six figures a year for a while. Marcus: Wow. Jeff: We were able to take that organization by re-changing its brand, changing its presentation, and changing who we advertised to. Marcus: Yeah, the audience. Jeff: Who we market it to. The feel of the event as well as some price structure, some contract things, and just a sort death by a thousand cuts. But we were able to take that organization from losing $100,000 a year to making $400,000 a year in 13 months. Marcus: A $500,000 swing- Jeff: In 13 months. Marcus: ... in 13 months. That's amazing. Jeff: Well, the cool part about it is what we did with the money. The cool part about it is we had this concept we call Community Capital. I define Community Capital by if you wink out of existence tomorrow, who would raise their hand and say, "I really miss those guys at Blue Fish"? Marcus: Right. Jeff: If there's nobody that'll raise their hand, then you don't have any Community Capital. Marcus: Please, somebody raise their hand, please. Jeff: We started doing things with the money that organization made and reinvesting it back into organizations that were providing service. One of the things we did was used to have a hard time getting people to work the ticket office. Well, we had 10 nights, so we gave a thousand dollars to a different nonprofit every night to staff the ticket office. If you've worked at a nonprofit, you know how hard it is to make a thousand dollars in six hours of profit. It is a huge deal. We started doing things like that to help really engrain that organization in the community. Marcus: Well, then also, I don't know if it was intentional, but you're also probably getting marketed to the audience that they have as well. Jeff: Everything is related. Every single thing is related and there's a- Marcus: Scott's good at that kind of stuff. Jeff: ... value exchange on everything. I did that for a while, enjoyed that. Sort of through that, that's when I got introduced to Grant and the Fuse Project. I missed their very inaugural event, but I've been on the board since right after that. What I loved about that organization was their focus on creating immediate measurable impact for kids in our area. I liked that we weren't gonna do things regular. That was really something that spoke to me, so I've enjoyed being a part of that. Actually, that organization is why I am in the job I am now. Marcus: How so? Jeff: It was a little bit serendipitous. The first year we had the first Dragon Boat, we made more money than we thought we were gonna make. At the time we felt like we needed a strategic plan, but we really didn't have enough money to go hire anybody that did a strategic plan. We didn't really believe that we could do our own strategic plan, so we had this idea that we would have an event called Light the Fuse. We had this dinner, and Noble South catered it and gave us a great deal. We completely redid the lot next door to Downtown Alliance. We invited a hundred movers and shakers of Mobile. These were the guys who get hit up for money every 10 seconds. Marcus: All the time. Yeah. Jeff: The hook we told them for that night was that we needed their brains not their wallets, and there was no charge. We paid for the entire dinner, and paid for everything. All they had to do was have a fantastic dinner, sit with some fantastic people at 10 tables of 10, and dream up what solutions would they have to fix issues for children in our area. That was what they had to do. They had to do that before dessert. Marcus: No small feat. Jeff: Yeah. We are on a clock here. Marcus: Yeah. Exactly. Jeff: Before dessert came around, we went around the tables and filmed each table's response to their answers and cut them all together real quick and played them up on that wall while dessert was being served. The 10 answers from that thing did dictate the next projects that Fuse entered into. One of the first ones, they said, "You know we need a place for nonprofits to come together." Marcus: Which became Fuse Proper. Jeff: Which became Fuse Factory. Marcus: Yeah, Factory. Jeff: Several tines we heard that we really need more mentoring in Mobile, and so that became a pledge to Big Brothers Big Sisters to fund a hundred new mentors in Mobile and Baldwin County from Dragon Boat. That was our strategic plan, and we're still working on some of that stuff. But I digress a bit. As I was doing research for the table that I led that night, I came across this article on Money.com, of all places, about Memphis, Tennessee. What they had in Memphis was an I-Team, and I read about the work they'd done in Memphis on rebuilding neighborhoods. They used a model they called: Clean it, fix it, sustain it. It was fascinating to me. I just dove into it. I found everything I could read about it. They were one of the first five I-Teams in the world, the inaugural I-Team class from Bloomberg. I just could not read enough about it. I was fascinated. We did this event in October. In December, low and behold, there's Mayor Stimpson walking down Texas Street announcing the City of Mobile has gotten an I-Team grant. I felt just compelled to apply for it. I don't think I had any special skill set that would get me in the I-Team. I didn't think that the resume I had would get me in I-Team, didn't know anything about it. But I felt I'd read about it, I was fascinated by it, and I wouldn't be able to sleep until I applied for it. I sent my application into the dark. They were dumb enough to call me, and here I am. When I got offered the job, it completely freaked my mom out, because she wanted me to have a good job, a good stable job, and I had that at EMS. I was the Deputy Director and things were good. Marcus: Right. Jeff: I'll never forget. I went to sleep one night and I woke up the next morning and I said, "You know, if I stay where I'm at, in three years I'll know exactly where I'll be. If I go take this grant-funded job, in three years have no idea where I'll be. I'm actually more terrified of knowing where I'll be than not knowing where I'll be." Marcus: There are some life lessons there. Jeff: Yeah, so here I am. Marcus: For those of you that aren't familiar with the I-Team and ... if I understand from what you said earlier ... Terrance is now the head of the I-Team, so we want to get him on as well. Because honestly I wasn't aware that you had been promoted to Chief Innovation Officer for the city. We're gonna get to that in just a second. But for those of you that aren't familiar with the I-Team, the I-Team, I usually refer to them as the virus that is infecting the city. Whenever there is a problem area ... Correct me if I'm wrong but ... where the citizens are necessarily receiving the service that they should be receiving as the citizens of Mobile, then the I-Team usually goes in, tries to assess the situation, oftentimes there's interviews of the citizens of Mobile to find out what the issues were. The I-Team tries to go in and find pathways that they can smooth out those rough spots. Jeff: Oh, that's part of it. To simplify it a little bit, the I-Team is really there to add a capacity to help the government think of old problems in new ways. Marcus: Yep. Jeff: Many of these problems that the City of Mobile has challenges with, cities all across the US have challenges with. Sometimes cities are not necessarily have the human capacity to think of new ways. A lot of the times when you hear about cities cutting budgets and all of those things, you really have an organization that has just enough people to do the job it's doing. Marcus: Sure. Jeff: For it to stop and think about how it might do it different- Marcus: It's a luxury. Jeff: ... it means that it has to stop, and you can't stop the functions of government. That's where this I-Team Innovation capacity comes in is to really help think about those things differently. To do that, the focus is very, very much on the end user, whoever the end user might be. A lot of times everybody thinks the great ideas come from the corner office. Well, they don't. The great ideas come from the people doing the work every day. Marcus: Right. Jeff: That's where the real focus of the I-Team is and has been a focus of mine. No matter what I've done is to think about it from the perspective of the guy that's out there actually doing the thing, whatever the thing is. Marcus: Getting into the change here with your role as Chief Innovation Officer, so what does that look like? What are you? Jeff: Yeah, so as the Chief Innovation Officer, I'm a member of the I-Team, the city's I-Team, city's GIS and the city's 311. Those four organizations are all related and separate. But each one of them really is a service. They provide a service to someone. Our I-Team provides a service to citizens and to the city. They're really, really, really good at looking at things from end user prospective and letting that help the design and dictate the solutions that the city needs to make sure that whatever we do as a city that we continue to serve our ultimate purpose which is to improve the lives of citizens. Our IT Department is super-strong in the technical stuff, but hasn't in the past had the capacity to think about those things from the user prospective. Marcus: User prospective. That is normal with IT. Jeff: Yeah. They're good at technical stuff. Marcus: They're really good at technical. Jeff: They're really good at it. Marcus: And they understand it- Jeff: They do. Marcus: ... but translating that into how they reach an audience is difficult. Jeff: The one thing that our I-Team gets from this marriage is they get better access and understanding and capacity on the data side of the house to make sure that when we talk about the changes that the I-Team makes, it's not good enough just to "make things better." We have to make sure that we did it in a measurable fashion and that we're meeting targets. Or if we're not meeting targets, we're adjusting what we're doing along the way so it's a continuous improvement cycle. That's the big vision of this Chief Innovation Officer, and working hard to get there. Marcus: Well, that's exciting because you're the first Chief Innovation Officer for Mobile. Right? Jeff: Yep. Marcus: Again, First Youth Class, first youth in the Adult Leadership Class and breaking down walls, Chief Innovation Officer, man. Jeff: I'll get you to make my commercial for me. I don't think about it like that, man. I'm just- Marcus: Yeah, no, I get you. Jeff: ... here to do work. Marcus: I think it's cool. I was excited about having you on because I think people need to hear that the city is trying to get better. That we oftentimes we hear it and from the mayor, and I think he's a straight shooter. Obviously we do, because we did a bunch of stuff to try and help him get elected. But we think he's a straight shooter so we tend to believe him. But there are a lot of people that look at a politician and they just think, "Well, he's just saying those things because he wants people to believe that he's doing his job." I've oftentimes said that I view the position of mayor or the position of governor or the position of President as a person that needs to be the cheerleader for the group that they represent. That they're really casting vision for that, but it is the responsibility of the business owners and of the citizens to actually take up that mantle and move it forward.  We've had that conversation a number of times on the podcast where it's not the city's job to provide good jobs in Mobile. It's the entrepreneur's job to do that. But it is the city's job to make it easy for the entrepreneur to operate and to do business. I know that you all have been, with your work with the I-Team and hopefully now continuing that as the CIO that ... Well, I guess I should take say Chief Innovation Officer because CIO is Chief Information Officer typically. But I know that you'll be continuing that effort. For people to hear from you that A, there is a Chief Innovation Officer and that the city is still looking at ways to smooth those rough edges and being self-aware and that things aren't perfect and that you're trying to get better. I think that's promising for people. Jeff: Yeah. I'll tell you the one thing that we know for sure in the city is that things aren't perfect. The only thing we know for sure in the city is that everybody's working hard every day to make it better. I haven't had a meeting with the mayor yet that at the end of the meeting he didn't say, "Go get them." That's what he wants to see done. He wants to see these changes made. The city is better for everyone. The one thing that I see with the city right now and I kind of heard you say a little bit, but it's something that I really believe in is that you can't do anything by yourself. Everything is a team. Marcus: Yep. Jeff: Whether you build a large team or a small team, you have to make sure that there's a lot of respect amongst all the people on that team. They trust each other. We trust each other. You trust each other enough to say when things are good and high five. But you also have to trust each other enough to say when things are bad and really challenge one another to make things better. We do that a lot inside of the I-Team. We're doing that now in this new Innovation Department. But it's also being done at a macroscopic level. It's also being done amongst the city as a whole. The City Administration is a team. The City Council is a Team. The business owners and citizens, those are all team members. Marcus: Yep. Jeff: Each one of them has an important role. Neither of them could do the job for the other people. Everybody has to do their part. But we also have to keep building that trust and respect to get down to what we really need to do. Marcus: Have you read, and if you haven't, I wouldn't be surprised. But have you ever read Startup Communities by Brad Feld? Jeff: I have. Marcus: You have? I think that's amazing. The whole premise of the book is that, again, going back to what we're saying, the city has to operate at a certain level, but it's up to the entrepreneurs. Also, I love that University of South Alabama and Spring Hill and University of Mobile, they're all very much trying to be a positive influence in the business community and the economic development of the area and stuff like that as well. Because I don't know that anybody is orchestrating that at a high level, but without really even trying we're kind of following the book. Jeff: Yeah. I think if you blended that book with Maker City, I think you'd have a lot of what's going on in Mobile right now. Marcus: It's blowing me away because ... speaking of Maker City ... earlier today we posted on our Facebook page that if you're a maker of goods in Mobile, please tag your business or let us know by making a comment or something like that. The last time I checked, there were like 50 comments. Jeff: Nice. Marcus: It's just blown me away. Heather Pefferkorn and I have had a number of conversations because she does The Market at The Pillars. I was blown away to hear how many people she was hearing from that were makers in the city. I don't think people realize just how much stuff is being created here, whether it's candles or art or music or whatever the goods are. I think she was talking about a young brother and sister that make bread and baked goods and stuff like that, all kinds of stuff, so. But anyway, it's cool to see that. Jeff: It's a super-cool phenomenon. I would also venture that if there were 50 people who would call themselves makers, there's probably another 150 there who are doing great at making amazing things, but don't feel in themselves that they're able to elevate their work and name it as a maker. But Mobile is just full of that kind of talent, man. It's [crosstalk 00:30:44]. Marcus: Yeah. We're looking at ways that we can actually amplify the voices of those people. Honestly the reason why we started this podcast was to amplify the voices of business owners and the awesome things that they're doing in Mobile. Because we're unique in that as a city we have a lot of people that are entrepreneurs and that step out and do some really great things. I don't know that we celebrate that enough. It's a difficult road, and if we can give somebody a platform that allows them to get some notice and some notoriety, then by all means we'll do that. Because I just think it's hats off to those that take it upon themselves to start businesses. It's not an easy road. Jeff: It's a good one though. I'll tell you, I was walking down here and I looked across the street and saw the graffiti mural on the side. I was very, very glad all of a sudden that I lived in Mobile. I'm glad to live in a city where Johnny Cash, Tupac, and John Lennon can be painted side-by-side. Marcus: That is great, isn't it? I know. I love it, and it's cool because I don't know the artist that did that. But two days after Prince passed away, he had Prince up there, and you know what I mean? Jeff: Nice. Marcus: It's just like he is continually adding to that. I don't know. I love that aspect of what we have going on here as well, so. Now I do want to get back to some of the questions don't necessarily apply to you, but there are some that do. Are there any books, podcasts, people, or organizations that you would like to recommend or that you think would be helpful to business people. Jeff: The number one business book I'm stuck on right now is Zero to One. It's by Peter Thiel. You know this one? Marcus: I don't. Go ahead. Jeff: Ah, it's amazing. Peter Thiel is the creator of PayPal- Marcus: Yep. Jeff: ... and thus the PayPal Mafia and Elon Musk and all of those other guys that worked there are doing amazing things. Everybody knows their name right now. I've read it once and listened to it twice. I've been really obsessed with it right now. It's such a great book. It's not just a great book about the business world. There's a lot of businesses that take one thing and try to make it from one to many, but that real active creation of going from nothing to one. Marcus: Yeah, getting that first client or that first product that's viable. Jeff: Yeah, is fascinating to me. But what was so fascinating to me about it again was how much focus he had on the team and building that team and how he looked at the business. So huge fan of Zero to One. Marcus: In regards to PayPal or in regards ... because he's doing mostly venture capital investment type stuff now, isn't he? Jeff: Yeah. He does a lot of things now. He does Palantir and does some VC stuff. But his team that he built there ... They wind up calling them the PayPal Mafia ... those guys started and ran tons of things out there. Marcus: Yeah. They're changing the world that we ... I'm adding that to my books to read list. Jeff: Zero to One. Got to have that one. Marcus: Yeah. Anything else you want to add to that? Jeff: That's my number one business book right now. I'm really kind of eclectic in everything else that I listen to and look at. One of the things that I hate about the digital world that we live in is that if you're not really, really, active and purposeful, you'll just keep getting fed the same kind of stuff over and over in our little filter bubble world. I don't really have any one thing to recommend as far as blogs or podcasts. It's pretty eclectic. I really try to jump all over the place. Marcus: Yeah and that is totally cool. Now I'm gonna ask this question and we may have to mark it out, so. Is there a bit of advice that you would give to people that are looking to start a business in the city? Jeff: I tell you, my best number one answer for people right now is you keep going until you find someone who says yes. Mobile is in a very, very weird time in its lifespan right now. I see Mobile more as a frontier city where anything is possible and anything will work. But starting a business, if you're starting something new and the number one thing you need is 10 people to say, "That's a great idea," you're probably not under the right space. But if you keep going, you will find this tribe of people here that really want to see Mobile do the right thing and embrace all these different ideas and all these different things. Because of that, Mobile is a place where really anything can grow here. Marcus: Yeah, Scott Tindle's proving that. Yeah. No. Without getting into too much detail, I've found that to be true. That oftentimes if you are not speaking to the right person, whether that be somebody that you're dealing with at the city, at City Plaza ... or whether that's just doing business in general ... that just finding the right person that you should be talking to oftentimes you'll get the right answer, but you just have to be persistent and push forward. Jeff: Yes. Keep going until somebody says yes. Marcus: Yeah. Now how do you like to unwind? Jeff: I'm a fisherman. I got two boys at the house. Right now I am 0 and two, my last two games of NBA 2K17 against my 12-year-old. We won't talk about the 30 games before that, but. Marcus: I'm sure he gets a lot more practice time than you do. Jeff: His practice time is higher than mine. But no, I spend time with family and fishing, being outside, is kind of my thing. Marcus: Now if people want to understand more about some of the changes that are gonna be happening, because I recognize you are just getting started, so there might not be a whole lot. But is there a place where they can keep tabs on all of that? Jeff: That'll be coming soon. Marcus: It will be. Jeff: That'll be coming soon. Marcus: Okay. Right. Well, I want to thank you, again, for coming on the podcast. I know that this is outside what we normally talk about here, but I felt because of your position and the influence that you have over what business owners care about that it was very important to have you on. I want to thank you for your time. Anything else that you'd like to add or comments you want to make? Thoughts? Jeff: No. Thanks for having me. Enjoyed it. Marcus: Yeah. Very good. Well, I appreciate your willingness to sit with me, and it's been great having you on. Jeff: Cool.

 On this week's podcast, Marcus sits down and talks with Liz Garza of FOY Superfoods. Liz moved to Alabama from Texas to pursue grad school at Springhill and marry her now husband and co-owner of FOY, John. In pursuit of starting a new life here, they have now started many new businesses that all pertain to their passion for health. Tune in and listen or read on  and do yourself a favor by grabbing lunch at FOY! (You might even see us there…)  Liz: Hey guys. I'm Liz Garza, co-owner of Foy Super foods down here in Mobile on Dauphin Street in Bienville Square. Marcus: Awesome. Well, welcome to the podcast, Liz. Liz: Thanks for having me. Marcus: Yeah. We're big fans of yours. We ate there today. Liz: Right. Marcus: That is not just because you were coming on the podcast. That's a couple of time a week. Liz: Oh, for sure. Yeah, I see you guys all the time. Marcus: Yeah. I think I'm addicted to your acai bowls and the jerk, which is a very tasty bowl with chicken and, you can add chicken, with spinach, and rice, and sweet potatoes, and all kinds of there yummy stuff. Liz: Yeah, for sure. Marcus: I don't fall asleep after eating at Foy. Liz: Right. Marcus: I also don't feel like I'm destroying my body when I eat at Foy. Liz: Absolutely. Marcus: Yeah, but we're excited about having you on. So, to get started, why don't you give us some of the back story of who you are and where you're from. Where'd you go to school? High school and college, if it's appropriate. Liz: Yeah. Marcus: And tell us about John 'cause we know that he's a big part of this. So, give us some back story. Liz: Absolutely. I'm from a city in South Texas, right on the boarder to Mexico, it's called Laredo. Marcus: Cool. Liz: And it reminds me a lot of Mobile. It has a lot of that old town charm. Everybody knows everybody, that kind of thing. I'm real comfortable. I feel like I fit in well in Mobile, just growing up in Laredo. I am a first generation US citizen. Both my parents are from Monterey, Mexico. Marcus: Very cool. Liz: Yeah. I went to high school of course, at a school in Laredo and went to college at Texas A&M for my undergrad and then- Marcus: That's it? You just went to Texas A&M. Liz: Right. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Marcus: Underachiever. Liz: That little school, yeah. But yeah, I have a business degree with an emphasis in human resource management over from Texas A&M then went on to ... When I moved here, got my masters over at Spring Hill College in liberal arts. Of course, it's a liberal arts school, but I concentrated my degree in leadership and ethics. At the time in grad school, I was expecting our only son at the time. John and I were trying to navigate our way through, "Our we gonna go to Corporate America? Are you gonna get a job?" It was kind of slim pickings, really, moving to Mobile and coming out of grad school thinking, "Well, what am I gonna do?" Marcus: Yeah. Liz: We decided, let's start our own business. We saw a need for it and it just fit into our life in more than one way. John and I both have a background family history of obesity related disease, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, all of the above. John's actually a diabetic and so, at home we were wondering, or I was wondering, "How the heck am I gonna cook for this man and not make him sick?" Trying to figure out all that world out. Marcus: And not make him feel like he's wanting for more. Liz: Right. Exactly. Like he's lacking or like you said, wanting. That's when we started Balance, which was six years ago. It was a paleo meal delivery service and we did that for almost four years before we started Foy. Marcus: Does that still exist 'cause that's the first time I'm hearing of that? Liz: Yeah. So, now when you come into Foy, you're gonna recognize all my coolers are wrapped and they say Balance and stuff on them. The business was based on basically, prepping healthy meals, packaging them down. And what we did, we established partnerships with a ton of different crossfit gyms, yoga studios, that kind of thing. We furnished the coolers and we would go make these massive drops of food. We were eCommerce. People would go to our website, they would see our menu, we change every week, and they would order meals for the week. Instead of charging them a delivery fee, we would say, "We have a partnership at a gym in Spanish Fort, or in Fairhope, our in West Mobile. If you work, live, or exercise at this place or nearby, it's convenient for you at no charge to pick up your meals that you've already ordered online and prepaid for". We did this for a few years and it kinda just grew into this big monster that sucked our life away. It was constant. We had no weekend, we had a little one, and we kinda tried to balance home life and work life and it became a little too much. We decided, "Well, why don't we take all the things we know sell really well and open up an actual restaurant." Like a brick and mortar, right? Not having a restaurant background, not even a high school job that I worked at, like a McDonald's or anything. Just passionate about health food and seeing that there was a need for it in the city and just seize the opportunity and it just worked. We realized, "Okay, now we're running Foy." That allows me to have a life. It's a lot easier. I met super cool people. We're in a little niche area here downtown. Marcus: Yeah. Liz: That's just how things came about. We're already going into our second year, so far so good. Marcus: So, you closed Balance? Liz: We closed Balance. Marcus: Okay. Liz: And we have plans to- Marcus: That's really interesting 'cause we know, he was on the podcast so, full disclosure, Lorenzo was on the podcast a while back and he's got a really interesting idea, but he tries to deliver to everybody. Liz: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Marcus: That's gotta be so hard. Liz: It is. Marcus: Your idea of dropping to central locations and then having, especially when it comes to crossfit gyms are real big into paleo eating, which is what your menu typically follows. Liz: Exactly. That's exactly what it was. Marcus: Yeah. Liz: I met Lorenzo when he first got started. He actually reached out to us and just said, "Hey, can we meet? I need some pointers." There were a lot of things that we were able to share with him about lessons that we learned the hard way, and things to avoid, and all that good stuff. Glad to see that he's still doing it. For me, it's like hey, the more the merrier. I'm all about, "Let me help you out." If I have a great idea ... I just talked to a guy with a local up an coming gluten free bakery called Gunkel's. I just met with him right before I came here. Same thing, I was sharing with him that idea 'cause he works out of a commissary kitchen. I'm like, "Well." He's trying to retail his stuff out of different stores and he's like, "I just signed on with The Cheese Cottage and I would love for you to carry my stuff." I said, "What would really seal the deal is if you had a mini Gunkel's refrigerator, wrapped in your logo, to say "Hey, will you house this cooler for me. I'll make these deliveries and you sell my product out of my cooler, that way I have control of the inventory, of how clean the cooler is, of how things are packaged." You know what I mean? Marcus: It puts that on him, that responsibility. Liz: Right. Then you get more brand recognition with, "Hey, you have this super cool cooler wrapped in your logo. They spent all this money on an awesome logo design." So, I'm like, "Put it out there for people to see." If I have an idea, I'm not to shy away from letting anybody hear it. I know you asked about John. I started going off on a tangent, but John's originally from Mobile. Marcus: Okay. Liz: He went to McGill Toolen for high school. He went to Morehouse in Atlanta, which is an all boys school. They call it the Harvard for black men. It's one of those things that he's got generations of family that they've all gone through Morehouse College. Marcus: We did an interview with Carl Cunningham just recently. Liz: Oh, yeah. Marcus: One of his Kapa league guys, Paul Lockett, hopefully is gonna be doing an internship here this summer. Liz: Yes. Marcus: He's going to Morehouse. Liz: He's on a scholarship, right? Marcus: Yes, full ride. Liz: I've heard about that. Marcus: I tried to hire him and he said, "No, I'm going to college." And I was like, "No, you don't wanna do that." He's like, "I've got a full ride." And I was like, "Yeah, I can't argue with that." Liz: Yeah. I didn't know about it until I met John, but they put out a lot of really quality men. Marcus: [crosstalk 00:08:18]. Yeah. Liz: Yeah, they push leadership and they push innovation. Marcus: You're not biased at all. Liz: Right. No, I'm not. I'm not biased at all. But no, even my son, I have a Morehouse man in training. What do you know? Marcus: There you go. Yeah. Liz: He finished from Morehouse and we actually met in Atlanta. He went on to Nova Southeastern out in Fort Lauderdale for his masters. He's got a background in public health, which is totally, you would think the opposite of the realm we're in now, but it kind of opened our eyes to this possibility where ... On the flip side, we have Foy. We also have a mental health agency. We house individuals with intellectual disabilities. Yeah. Marcus: What? Where? Liz: Here in Mobile. Marcus: Wow. Liz: We did that before we did any of this other stuff. Marcus: What's the name of that? Liz: It's called Lifetime Healthcare. Marcus: Very cool. Liz: And they are residential facilities. So, it just looks like a house in a neighborhood. Marcus: Yeah. Liz: Through the department of mental health. We get managed by Altapointe and we're contracted through the state, medicaid funded. We house these individuals and basically rehab them in several ways, but diet is one of them. Marcus: One of them. Liz: Because people don't realize how big of a role food plays into behaviors, and disease, and all these things, right? So, we were working with dieticians getting, they call them PCP, person centered plans, to say, "Okay, well, we're gonna give this person the best quality of life doing all of these things." So, we were developing diets to say, "Okay well, this person has cerebral palsy or this person has epilepsy and so these are the foods that they should avoid." We were working trying to figure that out and we said, that's how balance came about. We were like, "Nobody here in this city that we can say "Hey, I suffer from Celiac." Or "I've got arthritis." There's special diets that you can adhere to. So we were like, "Why don't we do that?" It really was one of those conversations like, light bulb went off. We were like, "Okay, should we do this?" It happened and it grew. The crossfit community embraced us and that's how we went into the whole paleo thing. But that's how this all came about. Marcus: All right. Folks, I had no idea the onion that I was peeling back when we invited you on the podcast. Liz: Yeah. I know. Marcus: We know you from Foy and we obviously, we wanted to have you, but I had no idea. That is so cool. Liz: Right. Marcus: Yeah. Just to tag on, my parents are from Brazil and so I get that, the Latin and black communities both, that there's a ... Even a white community. There's not a whole lot of information given to people depending on your socioeconomic status on eating. It's amazing to me the ... I have friend who's a physician. He's a general practitioner in Washington D.C. Shout out to Terek is you're listening. I don't think you are. Anyways, he's more of a holistic doctor so he believes in eating as one of the ways he treats people. Liz: For sure. Marcus: Out of the blue one day, a couple years ago, he sent me Rob Wolf's book on paleo eating and he was like, "You have to read this." And the reason why is because he knew that my father, I'm 44 I think. Jerrod, come on. You're supposed to keep track of these things. I'm 44. My father had a heart attack when I was 16 years old, which would've been younger than I am today. Liz: Wow. Marcus: For years, I have gone in to get my blood work checked and I've read up on various articles of what's important and hey, news flash, if you're listening to this and you're still having your cholesterol checked, you're checking the wrong thing. Go in and get your C reactive protein checked. The reason why, I know you're kind of looking at me ... C reactor protein is actually an indicator for inflammation in the body and getting that checked will be a better indicator of whether you are at a high risk for heart disease because inflammation is actually the reason for plaque build up in your arteries and stuff like that. Not cholesterol. Liz: Wow. Marcus: That's why the paleo diet and all of these other diets that eliminate some of the things that ... They're all geared towards reducing the items that inflame our bodies. The reason they why they've been so successful is because they remove the gluten and all the other things that- Liz: Processed stuff. Marcus: Yeah, the processed stuff that inflame our bodies and so the doctors should be, those that are progressive in their thinking, should be prescribing these diets more because it will actually eliminate your problems with heart disease, and with diabetes, and with all these other things. Liz: Absolutely. Yeah. Marcus: Wow, I had no idea that we were gonna be having this conversation. Liz: I know, yeah. Marcus: This is so cool. I don't even wanna go ... I'm just so fascinated by this. Did you come here to go to get your masters at Spring Hill? Or did you move back for other reasons? Liz: Well, I came here basically, to be with John. We were in a long distance relationship. Marcus: So, he was here already. Liz: He was here, yeah. I was living in Dallas. Marcus: 'Cause you said you met in Atlanta and I wasn't sure. Liz: Yeah, we had mutual friends and met that way. Both of us had, well, he had already finished his masters and he was here starting the assisted living facility. So, he started that on his own and I kind of help him here and there, but that's solely John. That's his thing. He built that up and that really allowed us to start this business debt free. Marcus: Gives you some freedom. Liz: We didn't have to borrow a dime. We did it on our own and to this day, what I have I own and if I can't afford it, I don't get it. That's our mentality with it all, but thankfully he's done well. He was more established and I was kind of in limbo with my undergrad. I was working HR in Dallas. Living the life, of course. Living downtown with all my friends and my life. I just got to the point where four years into dating, it was one of those, excuse my french, "shit or get off the pot", you know, "What are we gonna do here?" And he thought, "Why don't you just come here and go to grad school?" He was more established, of course. We were heading that direction in our relationship and so I moved to Mobile. Of all places. All my friends were like, "Oh, my God. You're moving to Mobile." Marcus: "You're moving where?" Liz: Right. But it's been the best decision. Marcus: Who's laughing now? Liz: I know. Right. Exactly. Marcus: Those suckers are all working a nine to five and you've got multiple businesses that are up and operating. Liz: Yeah, I've got my brother in town and he's recently retired and he's like, "Man, you've got a really sweet gig." I sleep in a little. I'm like, it will be 8:30 and I'm like, "Okay, let me start getting moving." And I'm here for our little lunch hour and then we can go on to the next thing. It's allowed us a lot of freedom. At the beginning, like I said, it was a grind with Balance and everything. It still is. The restaurant industry is like a monster and it will eat you alive. There's so many elements that people quite realize that are involved in running a restaurant. Not coming from a background at all of food, it was a huge learning curve. We went through all sorts of growing pains, but not the dust has settled, we've developed our processes. We have things that we bring in, like when we hire people, customer service training things, we have checklists for all types of things. The ultimate goal is to franchise and so we're setting ourselves up, basically treating this like a project. In grad school, you've got this big project that you work on when you're in business school. So, we said, "Well, let's just dissect this. Treat it just like a school project and have everything that we could possibly need to franchise this place and Lord willing, it will happen." Marcus: Yeah. Forgive me, but I think every business owner should be looking at their business in that respect. Every business is a project. I think one of the things, I keep alluding to this 'cause I'm in the midst of it people, so forgive me, but I'm in the emerging leaders program here at the chamber and the small business administration. They call that a streetwise MBA, but the biggest thing about that program is they force you to actually work on the business and not just do the business, right? So, it'd be really easy for somebody in your situation just to say, "Well, I'm just gonna work on ordering the food and I'm just gonna work on serving the customers." But you're looking at it from a much bigger picture just like we're having to look at Blue Fish in a much different picture of, "Hey, where do we wanna be in there or five years? What does that look like? What's it gonna take to get there? How do we guide ourselves into a product spaced service business?" Liz: Absolutely. Marcus: I imagine that you're having to look at, "Well, how do we set up all the processes so that we can hand this off to somebody. And that when somebody walks in it's still the same experience?" And all that stuff. Liz: Absolutely. Yeah. The thing with it and in treating it like a school project is that you never stop learning. The industries are constantly changing. You've gotta adapt or die. Really. That's just what it is. Now, with people wanting fast food, they want it fresh, they want it cheap, they want it now. You have to get with the times in this industry. Really, my biggest takeaway from this whole experience is it's like a child. You have to nurture it, it takes a village and you have to know every single rule that you have. If you're hiring somebody, you had to have already done that job. You see what I'm saying? From the beginning up. I will mop floors, I will wash dishes, I will package food, I will chop chicken, everything. Marcus: You have to know what's involved. Liz: Right. To be able to tell somebody, "Well, this is how you're supposed to do it." And to develop the process say, "This is the most efficient way to do it." Because you've trial and errored the whole thing. Marcus: It's funny because here at Blue Fish, with the exception of video editing, there's not a job that I haven't done here. Liz: Yeah. Marcus: When I hire people, I can speak their language even though they're skilled in their roles. I can speak their language because I've already done all of those things. Liz: Yeah. Marcus: But I also, I go back to one of the very first jobs that I had was, I worked in a bagel bakery in Washington D.C. I will never forget that the guy, he was the main manager of the bagel shop. And he literally, I was mopping the floor one day and he was like, "No, that's not how you do it." And he showed me the right way to mop a floor. When you're in a bakery or in a restaurant situation where a lot of stuff gets thrown on the floor, the right action can really make the difference between just pushing stuff around on the floor and actually making things cleaner. It just blew me away that, here's this man who ... I think he had military background, too. So, there was probably some of that coming through. But it was like, I never forgot that, that he knew the right way to mop a floor. Anyway, I recognize what you're saying and when you're in that position you have to know all those different skill sets so that you can train somebody else up in that situation. Liz: Absolutely. Marcus: All right. Question number two. Twenty minutes in. What was your first job? Liz: Okay, I was a lifeguard. I'm a strong swimmer. It's my favorite thing to do. I started life guarding and teaching little kids how to swim when I was a junior in high school. It was an awesome summer job. It paid well. I had a tan. Marcus: Yeah. Liz: I did it with all my friends. Marcus: You're not flipping burgers, for sure. Liz: Right, yeah. It was cool. We worked at the city pool. I was the slide girl so I was up at the top like, "Go. Go."  Marcus: Yeah. Liz: That was cool. I did that for a few years. I actually did that even when I left off for college. I'd come home during the summer and do it just to make a couple extra bucks. Marcus: Where there any lessons from that first job that you still remember, to this day? I told you about my mop experience. Liz: Oh, gosh. Marcus: Was there anything similar to that early on in your career? Liz: I think that just ... That's a hard question. Marcus: That's okay if there wasn't. Sometimes there's not. I can see how lifeguard to where you are today, that might be a reach 'cause you're taking care of people and stuff like that. I assume that there's some level of that. Liz: Yeah. If anything, it just instilled in me that you've gotta work hard for anything that you want. I didn't necessarily get a job when I was a junior in high school. My parents weren't pressuring me to get a job, but I like the fact of having my own money. If I wanted to go and buy a shirt or whatever, I didn't have to ask for the money to go get it. Marcus: Preston, are you listening to this? Liz: Right? It's almost like a sense of empowerment. Like, "Hey, I've done this on my own." You just feel like you're- Marcus: There's a freedom there. Liz: Right, there's a freedom there with that. No matter how tired I was from staying up until two o'clock in the morning the night before and whatnot, I knew that hey, tomorrow morning rain or shine, I'm getting up and I gotta be there. Marcus: I gotta get up. Liz: Right. I think that's really important just all around with employees. That's something that you really can't train. You can't instill that in somebody. Either they have it or they don't. I deal with employees and in the restaurant industry there's a lot of turn around and that's one of the main things of just finding somebody who is reliable and somebody who takes pride in what they do. To say, "I don't care if all I'm doing is mopping the floor, I'm gonna mop it the right way and I'm gonna be here on time to do it." There has to be some sort of pride about what you're doing and just reliability, too. Marcus: There are lessons. So, I guess the point there, when I ask that question is, if somebody is listening to this and they're in that position, because not everybody's a business owner that listens to this podcast. But if they're in that position that knowing that there are lessons to be learned in something even as menial as scrubbing a toilet or mopping a floor, that it is like you're saying, the pride that you put into that because that will carry you way into the future. It's that effort that you put forward. You may not get it right, but that fact that you're trying, it will get noticed and will carry you a long way. Liz: Yeah, absolutely. Marcus: Now, if you were talking to someone that wanted to get started in running their own business, is there one bit of wisdom that you would impart in them? Liz: Don't be afraid. When somebody says no and one door closes, because that definitely happens, keep pushing. Don't get discouraged. There's gonna be times where you're probably just going to be sitting on your living room floor crying like, "What am I getting myself into? What's really going on?" But it's just one of those ... There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It does take time. YOu're gonna have to jump through hoops and do all sorts of things coming from trying to get the money, the capital together to start your business, trying to get somebody to come in and help you, that you can trust and work well with. There's so many different things, but my main, I guess, piece of advise would be, learn your business inside and out. Be able to do every single job that way, when Tommy doesn't show up in the morning, you can jump in and not skip a beat. Marcus: Right. Liz: 'Cause that's what's gonna happen. People will let you down. But on the flip side, for every person that lets you down, you're gonna have five or six more people to come in to bring you up, and to be there for you, and to support you. But it definitely, it's good to network, get out there, talk to people, find people that you have synergy with and join forces. For example, like what we did with the crossfit gyms like, "Okay well, we'll furnish the cooler. Now, you have an extra service to offer your customers that are gonna have all these healthy meals after they work they can just take home and eat. Marcus: Yup. Liz: Then, "Hey, as an owner or coach or trainer, we'll give you everything at cost that way you can be able to help sell the food, too. You know what I tastes like. You know what it's doing for your performance, that kind of thing. Marcus: It's also helping support their mission of helping make people healthier. Liz: Right. Marcus: I would imagine ... You're out of that business now, but even doing something like offering your services of coming in and actually talking about nutrition and paleo, the diet itself and the ins and out and stuff like that would've been extremely helpful to. Liz: Yeah. Marcus: Most gym owners or box owners are gonna know that anyway 'cause paleo's really big in the crossfit world. Liz: For sure. Yeah, and I do stuff like that now. I do, with the board of health and Franklin clinic, they bring me in about once a month. There's a support group for women with heart disease and we have lunch and learns. Every time I come in, it's a different group and they always ask, "Are you a dietician or nutritionist?" And I'm like, "No, not at all." Marcus: No, because they don't really ... I don't know. I don't know if I wanna say that. I'm not saying take it out of the podcast, but I'm just saying ... I've talked to a number of physicians that usually have one credit hour that they take on nutrition and most of it is geared towards the pyramid, the food pyramid. Liz: Yeah. Right. Marcus: And we now know that that was created out of an industry that wanted to push more grains than anything and that those grains are not necessarily the best thing for us. Liz: Right. Marcus: If you look back at ... Historically speaking, if you look back at even 50 years ago when people would wake up in the morning and they would have bacon and eggs. They would have a cup of coffee and that's how they started their morning. Those people tended to be smaller as far as body mass goes and we didn't have nearly the incidents of diabetes and all the other things that are prevalent in our society nowadays. It was because we weren't shoving a piece of bread into our mouth with every meal, or worse. Donuts, I love them. Don't get me wrong I'll eat a dozen or two. When I eat them, I know that they're not good for me and that I'm basically doing damage. Liz: Right. Just think about the amount of processed food that we have just available to us at convenient stores or at grocery stores. To me, if it's not rotting, what's going on? What kind of magic powder do you have on there to have it just last forever? Marcus: Looking at you Little Debbie. Liz: I'm all about, "Hey, in moderation." Yeah, every once in a while yeah, we order pizza. We go get burgers and fries or drink beers or whatever. Enjoy life. Don't restrict yourself to that point, but at the same time be aware of what you're putting in your body and what it's doing to your body. Be an example, too, to people who have children that kind of thing. Their gonna mimic what they see. Make it a point to instill that at a young age now, where, hey, you go to the school cafeterias and you see they're feeding them junk. Marcus: Right. Liz: At least they can get a quality meal for breakfast and for dinner 'cause at school it's like, it's just a lost meal right there. There's a ton of stuff that's just processed things that are at the grocery store that we really should just do away with altogether. There's other countries that I've heard just rumors, "Oh, in Europe, Cheetos are banned. They don't even sell them." Marcus: You can't even get them. Liz: Yeah, you can't even get them. I'm like, "Why are they on every shelf here?" What's going on? Marcus: There are other options, too. Now, if you were to look to the business world, is there a person or organization, or something that motivates you that you've kinda looked to? Liz: Yeah, gosh. That's kind of a loaded question, too. At the local level, there are a lot of entrepreneurs who I admire and I just follow and that kind of thing just because I feel like there's a movement going on right now. Marcus: In Mobile, definitely. Heck yeah. Liz: In Mobile, especially here downtown. There's so many doers. There's so many movers and shakers and everybody has an idea and everybody's like, it just lights a fire up under you to see other people doing it and making it. At the local level, there's tons of them. I follow Scott Tindle a lot. I love what he does. He's been able to reinvent himself over and over. Matt Lamon is another one that I admire, what he's doing. There's so many, gosh. Marcus: Both of them have been on the podcast, too. Liz: Oh, really? Marcus: Yeah. Liz: Yeah. Super cool down to earth people. They're always willing to help. I remember when we first started Balance, Scott came in was just like, "I wanna introduce myself to you and I wanna learn about what you're doing." Marcus: Yeah. Liz: And it just meant so much that it's like, "Hey, this person who's already established is coming, taking the time to figure out ... Like, "Hey, this is a new cool idea and I wanna know more about it." Marcus: Yeah. Liz: With no agenda or anything. Marcus: Matt is really big in crossfit so, I can imagine he really took to what you all are doing. Liz: Exactly. For sure, yeah. He was a customer of ours. It's funny to just see how over the years we've all just found our own way, but still have synergy with each other. Marcus: Absolutely. Liz: It's just cool. We're all in the same age group. It's an exciting time. Marcus: Anybody else? You looked like you were getting ready to say somebody else's name. Liz: You look to people of like, of course, somebody like Oprah or somebody who built this giant empire- Marcus: Nah, it doesn't have to be. I ask the question open ended. I'm appreciative actually, that we've done ... You're our third episode today. Full disclosure, we batch record these. We record four or five in a day. The previous two also mentioned ... One of them, it was his father, but his father's a business owner, a barber. The other one was mentioning some local entrepreneurs that were already doing business in the industry that she wanted to do business in. I think that's cool that people are looking ... 'Cause I'll be honest. Growing up, I was never big into idolizing celebrities or anything like that. So, I have a really hard time with that now, too. Although, I do have a deep appreciation for freaks like Elon Musk and these guys that are just literally changing the world that we live in. At the same time, I would much rather work with other business owners in the area, geographically, or within my own industry, and look to them and see what they're doing. There's a conference for agents and owners that I went to in February and there was a guy there that he had no intentions of building a large agency and as he sat on the stage he was saying, "I've got over a hundred employees." Liz: Wow. Marcus: He probably has one of the largest agencies, and it's a digital agency. So, they're very much like what we are. I was just blown away. Three years ago, I think he said, it was eight people. Liz: Wow. Marcus: So, he went from, it was a small number, it was like eight or twelve people to over a hundred people in just a couple of years. That's the guy that I'm just like, "Holy Cow. How in the world?" Liz: Yes. Marcus: How do you scale at that level and still keep the wheels on the bus? Liz: Yeah, I've got a friend that is, he's a dentist in Dallas. Came out of dental school, worked for one year for a dentist, and came up with a concept ... In a city like Dallas, it lends itself to opulence, valet, and red carpet, and all this kind of thing. Well, he started at a company called Mint where they marketed themselves in such a way that now, he has twenty Mints and they're all over the place, all over Texas. We all started at the same time. And John and I, when we visit, we go to their house and we're like, "oh, my God." They have this super cool, they're driving a Bentley, and we're like- Marcus: 8,000 square foot house in Plano, Texas Liz: Right. Yeah. How on earth did you manage to build this that fast? What's the secret sauce? What's up? What are you doing? I guess some people just have it in them and if we can just have small takeaways from what they do- Marcus: You know what's cool? People are gonna listen to this and they're gonna say the same thing about you. Liz: Hopefully. Marcus: Yeah. All right. Are there any books, podcasts, people, or organizations that have been helpful in moving you forward? Liz: Off the top of my head, for sure, Leadership Mobile was very instrumental in moving us forward and Foy as a brand, downtown. I was a class of 2017 and it was such a diverse mix of people, but a lot of us were in downtown. This was during the process of, "Hey, Foy is gonna be opening." We were doing the construction and stuff. While I was in the class, that's when we opened Foy, and they were just so supportive. I had Todd Greer, who is another person who I just adore and follow. Marcus: He's been on the podcast. Liz: I'm sure. Marcus: Yeah. He's a good friend. Susan Shawl was in that as well. Liz: Susan, well, she wasn't in my class, but I love Susan. Love her, love her. We keep joking about we have a Susan button at Foy 'cause she comes in pretty much everyday and gets the same exact thing. Marcus: She's funny. Liz: Yeah. I love Susan. But there were a bunch of people in our class that were just super supportive. When we first opened, I remember, they all came to the grand opening. They were all sharing it on social media and most of them were people in the city like, "Hey, if you're having an issue with this permit. If you need this, call me." That's big. There's a lot of red tape involved in opening a business, especially a business in downtown Mobile. So, to have that network of people is priceless. Marcus: Yeah. Liz: That was a big organization that, for me, it helped put us on the map, for real. Marcus: Correct me if I'm wrong, 'cause a lot of people may not know what leadership Mobile is. Leadership Mobile is a program where you are meeting on a regular basis and you're also being introduced to various leaders in our community whether it be visit Mobile with all the CVV stuff, so the tours and stuff that's going on. Or people at the city, or just other leadership positions in the city. Liz: Yeah, University, at the hospital. You are meeting where the buck stops. They've got CEO's, CFO's. Marcus: Yeah, you're not meeting the person at the front door. You're meeting the person at the sea level. Liz: Yeah, and they get to tell you their story, which is always interesting. Then they get to talk about the good stuff that they're doing in the community. And you learn a lot, especially not being from Mobile, you learn the history of the city. We did a timeline at our first retreat. They do an overnight retreat out in Fairhope at Camp Beckwith and it's tons of fun. It's bonfire, we all bunk with each other, and they do this thing where they have a big ol' time line and you mark, "Okay, this is the inception of the city." So, you either were born this date or you moved here on this date. So, everybody puts a marker on when you moved here whether you left and came back. At that point, everybody gets to share their story of how they came in, what they perceived, will they stay. All things Mobile. You start to learn ... One of them, she's a city attorney, [inaudible 00:37:25]. What's her name? Marcus: It's okay. Liz: Can't think of her name. Anyway, you would think she was a historian or something. She knew everything about Mobile, but it was so cool coming from somebody who ... I didn't know much about the city, but it just opened up a whole new idea of the city. Thinking it's not a sleepy little old town. There's a lot going on here and there's a lot that has happened here. Marcus: I think as an outsider, and you can appreciate this, too, coming from Dallas. I came from D.C. One of the things that I love about this city is that the people that are doing cool things in this city are people, individuals that are just saying, "Hey, I wanna start this thing." And we're not really a city that larger brands look to. Which is kind of a bummer in some instances because it'd be nice to be able to get some clothes people and stuff like that 'cause shopping is a little bit difficult. Liz: Right. Marcus: It would be nice to have some more options there. Outside of that, it's nice because we do have small businesses that are here, that are providing services. It just makes for a different texture to the city. Liz: Absolutely. Marcus: Instead of D.C. where it's like, you've got an Olive Garden, a Maggiano's , and some other Italian place, I can't remember enough of the names. But three different choices and none of them ... Well, Maggiano's is good, but anyway, none of them are very good. Liz: Right. Marcus: But here we've got a lot of different business owners that have started restaurants. When I think of Foy, or I think of Vaughn's, or I think of Rooster's, or even El Papi, or Five, or all these different restaurants, it's like none of those are huge corporations with hundreds of locations. These are all just individuals that have started restaurants. It's just so cool to go to these places and you're always very friendly and so are all the other restaurateurs, they're always very friendly when you walk in 'cause they know the clientele is keeping them in business. Liz: Right. It's like Cheers. Marcus: Yeah, exactly. It's like where everybody knows your name. Liz: Yeah. It's funny 'cause we get a lot of people that are not from Mobile, Alabama at all. They're from all over, just coming in on the cruise ship, or coming in for a conference, or one thing or the other, 'cause we're near all the hotels. There's a common thread where they're like, number one, there's a ton of entrepreneurs. There's a lot of small business down here. It's so cool, it's just so quaint and all these things. Then they're like, "This is in Mobile?" It's like if we're just underestimated and then they come and see and it's like," [inaudible 00:40:03] pretty cool little town." Marcus: Just don't tell too many people. Liz: Right. Marcus: Not yet. Liz: Yeah, that's the thing. When they come in they're actually impressed. It's cool, I'm proud to be from here and I'm proud to, I have a business here. It's just cool all the way around from literally sourcing our ingredients locally, because we've got the perfect climate for everything as far as fresh produce is concerned. Marcus: You do get some of your stuff from- Liz: Everything. Well, all of our produce comes local. Marcus: Really? Liz: Of course, we have to outsource a lot of our specialty items like how we deal with hemp, and flax, and all- Marcus: You mean you don't get acai locally? Liz: No. We order that online and you'd be Marcus: I know. I joke because acai is actually a Brazilian fruit. I think it's very cool. I'm gonna say this, I very much love what you all are doing. I can literally like paleo pancakes is a favorite, the Thai chicken quesadilla absolutely love it, the jerk bowl is phenomenal, I love the acai bowl. I'm sitting here rattling this stuff off. I don't have a menu in front of me. Liz: I know. I'm like, "Hey." Marcus: She's like, "Hey, he knows my menu." Liz: I know. Marcus: What's the smoothie that I always get? Liz: PB and J? Marcus: No, it's the hummingbird. Liz: Oh, yeah. The hummingbird. Marcus: The hummingbird. See? Even the smoothie. No joke, give them a shot. Tell people where they can find you. Liz: On all social media outlets, we're at Foy Super foods. Foy is an acronym for the Fountain of Youth and we call ourselves the super food café. We of course, take pride in all of our ingredients. We have an open concept so you can see our kitchen, see all the stuff that we're using and putting out. We're in Bienville Square right on Dauphin Street. It's 119 Dauphin in the old Tom McCann building which I've heard was a shoe store that everybody used to shop at back in the day. Marcus: That's too cool. I did not know that. Yeah, that is cool. Liz: Yeah. Yeah, hopefully Foy number two will be right around the corner. We're looking and in negotiation for a couple different spots right now. Marcus: In general, you don't have to say exactly but in general, can you say where that might go? Liz: Yeah, definitely Airport Boulevard. Somewhere with a lot of traffic. Marcus: Over in that direction. Liz: Not too far west, but pretty central to make it easier for people to get to us. Definitely gonna have ample parking. We're shooting for a drive-through and we're trying to step it up a little bit because that's a lot of the feedback that we get from our customers now. Marcus: Nice. Liz: It's like, "Oh, my gosh. I would eat at Foy so much more if I could find a place to park." Marcus: Yeah, there's no parking down where you're at right now. Liz: Exactly, yeah. Marcus: But honestly, with as busy as you are normally when we go in, I don't know that you could handle ... 'Cause that is a true testament. You guys are always busy when I go in there. Liz: Yeah, busting out at the seams of the little place. We've got 1600 square feet and we've added some outdoor seating, but we're rocking and rolling. Marcus: If it's raining or cold outside. Liz: Well, that too. Yeah. When it rains, which is pretty much every day here. Marcus: Well, I wanna thank you again for coming on the podcast. Wrap up any final thoughts or comments you'd like to share? Liz: Well, just pretty much of course, I'm honored that you asked me to come here and share some of my stories.   Marcus: I'm glad we did. I had no idea. Liz: Yeah. Of course, we love seeing you guys. I know you guys come in all the time and definitely just appreciate the love and I love what you guys are doing. Any way that we can help each other out, I'm all about it.   Marcus: Yeah, absolutely. Liz: It's interesting to learn, even too, your background. I saw your face. I'm like, "He's got the olive skin." You've got this look and I was wondering are you from here? But it's cool to just find different people. Especially, of Latin decent here in the city. Marcus: Yeah, yeah. 'cause there's not that many. Liz: No, no there aren't many. Marcus: Not like Dallas or Laredo. Liz: Right. Yeah, Laredo, for anybody who doesn't know, is like little Mexico. Marcus: Yeah, I was gonna say- Liz: You can't even go to McDonald's and order in english. Nobody speaks english. Marcus: Right, yeah. "Hola, Buenos Dias." Liz: Right. Marcus: Well Liz, I appreciate your willingness to sit with me and share your journey as a business owner and entrepreneur. It's been great talking with you. Liz: Cool, thanks a lot.

On today's episode, I'm in Mobile, Alabama. I sit down at the historic fort for a discussion with Scott Tindle, former fair manager of the Greater Gulf State Fair and current CEO of Gulf Coast Ducks. We talk hospitality & tourism, the fair industry and duck boat tours. PLUS - the advice Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban gave him during an appearance on Shark Tank.

Find out what's new for Mardi Gras at the Fort of Colonial Mobile