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It's time to kick off our month of documentaries, and leading us off is one of Alex's favorite slice of life stories in cinema, American Movie! Join us as we talk through Mark and his motley film crew's attempt at making the next great American horror short film, and then review the aforementioned short film as well. That's right, a double feature (technically)! CHAPTERS: (00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 131: American Movie (1999) and Coven (1997) (00:00:27) - Intro. (00:01:12) - Our first documentary for this month of April: American Movie! (00:07:50) - The set-up, and who is behind this movie. (00:13:15) - Mark's frustrations and failures (and other people's perceptions of him). (00:18:29) - Is this a depressing movie? Also, how viable is Mark's market strategy here? (00:27:52) - The level of access the filmmakers had to these folks. (00:32:18) - Break! (00:32:46) - We're back, and let's talk about the people Mark is able to bring into his orbit. (00:39:03) - The beautiful soul that is Mike Schank. (00:46:35) - Uncle Bill. (00:50:38) - The various other players. (00:56:59) - The long winter of pick-up shots and ADR, and Mark's new love. (01:02:26) - Mark hates having a real job, and all the delightful behind-the-scenes filming footage. (01:07:54) - Getting ready for the premiere. (01:15:17) - We have seen Coven. It is a film that was completed, and we watched it. (01:25:41) - Mark made a movie, but at what cost? (01:29:35) - Where did they all go after this? (01:35:59) - Final thoughts. (01:42:12) - Some quick notes on next week's movie, and outro.
Disco Fever all the rage and how music is measured.Jerolyn Sue Adolph Evans, the Primary First Counselor, is in a bit of a pickle. Quentin Scott got poison ivy from picking blackberries, and she's clueless about what to do. Linda Talbot, Second Counselor, is also on the case. Quentin thought his mom was literally lost, and no one wants to go with Jerolyn because they're all swamped with work. Wendy and Larry Fitzgerald have such a lovely place. Quentin ended up sleeping at MawMaw's house. She misses Deron P. Scarabin and only has Rachel Guidry to hang out with. They even sang Rhinestone Cowboy a bit. Bill Evans mentioned that MawMaw said everyone missed church earlier, but now Uncle Bill says MawMaw didn't go to church. MawMaw is Quentin's Primary teacher. Sports banquet and Bill got something special and "Jerolyn hasn't matured yet." They gave all the coaches "Coach of the Year" plaques. Mikelson decided to go to Nashville and make $21K. Bill's dad retired and sold everything but one tractor. All his parents' bills paid and no debt so they should be fine. Jerolyn said she might be "fat" by the time Scarabins return. Jerolyn has to have a CB. Quentin is Steve Austin but now Evil Knievel and Jerolyn is Disco Lady. Helen on Mother's Day. Clarence sprained his ankle helping Larry move. Handful of "tomaters." Uncle Nicky gave some cucumbers. Many beans and squash is great. Eggplant and bell peppers everywhere. Clarence will start working on sewer line. Helen feels like Quentin wanting us to talk back on the tape. Helen is out of "draws." Loves to hear from Scarabins. Wendy's backyard is so pretty. Only bad part is rain piles up in one spot. MawMaw called to be Primary Teacher and Secretary. Accepted Teacher position but refused the Secretary position because she can't write. Go up and down the steps forty times a day but rarely sees neighbors. Twice she talked without recording. Clarence "hollering." They pay the bills for the Scarabins as they come in. Gail had to work so Helen is watching Brent Edward Portie. Larry had fallen down with baby (John Dirk). Baby was fine but Larry was banged up and bruised. Emmett Adolph giving well wishes. Yvonne got a CB radio and real proud of it, carrying on with Helen Mae. Drinking a cold beer after coming from the pumping station. Yvonne Adolph sends well wishes. Everyone giggling "trying to talk to the stupid thing." Bad weather. Yvonne is the Lollipop, the name Marilyn gave Annie Adolph Chapman. Janelle Adolph gets on and gives an update on shrimping and how Mrs. Lizzy is enjoying her new job. Said her doctor going to get on her about weight gain. Sally's been sick. E.J. and Sue looked at Marilyn's trailer and tired waiting on it. Carolyn and Kyle Bergeron. Carolyn cracks up over Marilyn's grocery experience. Said Gail is still sitting and Craig made a home run in baseball. Horace said they just made errors. Kyle gets on and says Mrs. Hernandez will write to Jason. Kyle's keeping bikes clean and can't wait for us to come home. Craig updates on baseball and how much fun he's having. Horace has flu. Wendy has moved in her trailer. Don't let D.D. get beat up by the rocks. Edna Adolph updates. Fresh peaches and going to visit Pam and baby. Everyone has CBs down there. She's Hunny Bunny and Ernest is Gingerbread Man. Carolyn is Bewitched and Yvonne is Lollipop. She almost bowled 200. Gail Portie, May 11. Spending night at Helen's with Brent. Eddie's horse had baby. Brent wants to talk but didn't know what to say. Wendy has such a nice trailer. Made Gail "plum sick." Only complaint is ugly green carpet. Brent talks about his horses. Ernest Adolph and Edna brought some delicious peaches. PawPaw soaking his foot and "sure looks bad." Tomatoes coming in. Brent says a few words. Someone mistakenly thought D.D. gone overseas on mission instead of working at copper mine. JoAnne Ragas Scarabin. May 13. Helen and Clarence finish tape with more talk on the trailer park.
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Rich is in Facebook prison! Covino and Danny G's family versus fandom answers may surprise you! The Vikings were right & Uncle Bill weighs in on the NY Giants. They talk Ohtani, Peete, Muncy, Bartman & goobers! The show gives some big props to Austin Reaves of the Lakers! Undrafted, yet proving major court skills. Plus, 'MID WEAK MAJOR' brings the headlines & Beyer gets a nickname!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
C&R laugh about Rich being in Facebook prison! Ben Stiller's Knicks comments spark a family versus fandom. The crew's answers may surprise you! Vikings made the right move & Covino texts Uncle Bill about the NY Giants. Plus, Ohtani, Peete, Muncy, Bartman & goobers!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In tonight's Dead Letter, we explore a mysterious phone call received by long-time listener Michelle in the 1980s. The caller identified himself as "Uncle Bill," a relative she had never known, leaving a lasting impression on her and her family. Her parents' stunned reaction to the call adds to the unsettling mystery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Call_(The_Twilight_Zone) https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/last-call-3/
There's another fun packed show in store today. The Pretenders read a fan letter, and respond to it. Uncle Bill has his cohost Cybil lead the kids to storyland as…
Uncle Bill's in South City to reopen under new ownershipSt. Louis native Jon Hamm catching flak for Chiefs intro at Super Bowl LIXMan Buys House Two Doors Down To Block In-Laws From Moving Nearby, Watches Drama UnfoldBomb scare on Austin plane causes delays; passenger onboard speaks out Follow us @RizzShow @MoonValjeanHere @KingScottRules @LernVsRadio @IamRafeWilliams – Check out King Scott's Linktr.ee/kingscottrules + band @FreeThe2SG and Check out Moon's bands GREEK FIRE @GreekFire GOLDFINGER @GoldfingerMusic THE TEENAGE DIRTBAGS @TheTeenageDbags and Lern's band @LaneNarrows http://www.1057thepoint.com/Rizz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Uncle Bill's in South City to reopen under new ownership St. Louis native Jon Hamm catching flak for Chiefs intro at Super Bowl LIX Man Buys House Two Doors Down To Block In-Laws From Moving Nearby, Watches Drama Unfold Bomb scare on Austin plane causes delays; passenger onboard speaks out Follow us @RizzShow @MoonValjeanHere @KingScottRules @LernVsRadio @IamRafeWilliams – Check out King Scott's Linktr.ee/kingscottrules + band @FreeThe2SG and Check out Moon's bands GREEK FIRE @GreekFire GOLDFINGER @GoldfingerMusic THE TEENAGE DIRTBAGS @TheTeenageDbags and Lern's band @LaneNarrows http://www.1057thepoint.com/Rizz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Davis Blackwelder brings us another of his "Uncle Bill" stories. His Uncle Bill was a legendary character in his family, and Davis is determined to keep the old stories alive!
It's a Classico episode with Uncle Bill and Brant as both the men and women keep rolling! Among the topics we cover: - Taking care of business - Nolan Hodge is back! - Greedy Williams looking for his offense - The luxury of two good big men - Looking ahead at a trip north to Delaware and Drexel - Is Campbell going to the Final Four? - William & Mary vs. Charleston was fun! - Which Seahawk could play in the Super Bowl?
CK and Uncle Bill are hitting the hump day REALLY HARD this week as we get into the latest news and nonsense of the week. CK's storage building finds, Ozsploitation Films, Scream Factory 4K announcements, un-needed sequels coming up from Warner Bros, The Scent Of A Woman, a new episode of DEADPIT is Watching and MUCH MUCH MORE! http://www.DEADPITonPATREON.com Wed, 22 Jan 2025 1:12:53 -0500 12:11 PM 01/22/2025 Deadpit Radio deadpit@deadpit.com Horror Movies, DEADPIT Radio, Physical Media, Black Friday, 1980's, Slasher Movies, Splatter Movies, Arrow Video, Shudder, Return of the Living Dead, Zombie films, Japanese Horror, Asian Horror, Scream Factory, Flower of Flesh and Blood, Gore
Her name was Lillian Millicent Entwistle, “Peg” to her friends. She was born in 1908.At the age of 19, Peg married Robert Keith, 10 years older than she. Then she discovered that he had been married before and had a 6 year-old son. The couple was soon divorced.“I'll move to a new place and get a new start,” she thought. “Goodbye, New York. Hello, L.A. I'm going to become an actress.”But hopes and dreams are fragile things and hearts are easily broken.At the age of 24 “She decided she'd failed,” says David Wallace, author of Hollywoodland. “She was very dejected and one day in 1932 she came up to the Hollywood sign, found a maintenance ladder by the ‘H,' climbed up to the top and presumably took one last look over the city she had failed to conquer, and jumped.”Her body was discovered two days later by a hiker.A handwritten note was found in her purse. “I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain.”A letter arrived at her home on the same day her body was discovered. It was from The Beverly Hills Playhouse. They wanted her to star in their next production.Are you ready for this? It was to be a play about a young girl who loses all hope and commits suicide in the final act.Peg, if only you could've hung on. Things are never as bad as they seem. But now all we have left of you is a photograph and a note.Remember that 6-year-old son of Robert Keith you heard about in the second paragraph?That boy, Brian Keith, grew up to be a famous actor, best known for his role as “Uncle Bill” on the hit TV show, “Family Affair.” He also played the perfect Teddy Roosevelt opposite Sean Connery in “The Wind and the Lion,” (1975).I have seen that movie 14 times. Brian Keith made Teddy Roosevelt come alive for me.Brian Keith shot himself in 1997.Yes, hopes and dreams are fragile things and hearts are easily broken.Be gentle with the hearts that have been entrusted to you.Roy H. WilliamsMike Frick started a side hustle as a way to help his college-student son earn extra cash. Today that business sells its products nationwide to construction sites, quarries, farms, mines, and the US military. “Our products are simple, durable, and cost effective,” Mike tells roving reporter Rotbart. In spite of heavy competition from Chinese knock-offs, Mike and his company continue to thrive by manufacturing their products only in America. It's a story of focus, humility, and fantastic success. Because that's how we roll at MondayMorningRadio.com.
TN multi-talented singer/songwriter/actor/author/TV host Rick Revel talks about his latest release “That Muscle Shoals Sound” and “The Father of the Blues”! Rick began his legendary career at 3 riding horses, building Tinker Toy guitars, and at 12 played with Uncle Bill & The Hillbillies later appearing on The Carl Tipton Show at 15 plus “The Outlaw Prophet”, “The Dead Man's Hand”, “An American Journey”, “History Highway” , “A Walk in the Woods (with Nick Nolte)” also met & opened for Loretta Lynn in '76-77 plus penning 1,500 songs hitting the national charts multiple times! Rick also has a deep love of history and scholarly approach and as an author, he wrote “In the Hills of Tennessee”, “The Mint Julep Letters', “It's a Southern Thing” and shares numerous stories about the music, his career, and deep passion of life! Check out the amazing Rick Revel on all major platforms and www.rickrevel.com plus www.rickrevelmusic.com today! #rickrevel #tennessee #singersongwriter #TVhost #thatmuscleshoalssound #thefatheroftheblues #unclebillandthehillbillies #thecarltiptonshow #theoutlawprophet #thedeadmanshand #anamericanjourney #historyhighway #awalkinthewoods #nicknolte #lorettalynn #author #inthehillsoftennessee #themintjulepletters #itsasouthernthing #spreaker #iheartradio #spotify #applemusic #youtube #anchorfm #bitchute #rumble #mikewagner #themikewagnershow #mikewagnerrickrevel #themikewagnershowrickrevel --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themikewagnershow/support
TN multi-talented singer/songwriter/actor/author/TV host Rick Revel talks about his latest release “That Muscle Shoals Sound” and “The Father of the Blues”! Rick began his legendary career at 3 riding horses, building Tinker Toy guitars, and at 12 played with Uncle Bill & The Hillbillies later appearing on The Carl Tipton Show at 15 plus “The Outlaw Prophet”, “The Dead Man's Hand”, “An American Journey”, “History Highway” , “A Walk in the Woods (with Nick Nolte)” also met & opened for Loretta Lynn in '76-77 plus penning 1,500 songs hitting the national charts multiple times! Rick also has a deep love of history and scholarly approach and as an author, he wrote “In the Hills of Tennessee”, “The Mint Julep Letters', “It's a Southern Thing” and shares numerous stories about the music, his career, and deep passion of life! Check out the amazing Rick Revel on all major platforms and www.rickrevel.com plus www.rickrevelmusic.com today! #rickrevel #tennessee #singersongwriter #TVhost #thatmuscleshoalssound #thefatheroftheblues #unclebillandthehillbillies #thecarltiptonshow #theoutlawprophet #thedeadmanshand #anamericanjourney #historyhighway #awalkinthewoods #nicknolte #lorettalynn #author #inthehillsoftennessee #themintjulepletters #itsasouthernthing #spreaker #iheartradio #spotify #applemusic #youtube #anchorfm #bitchute #rumble #mikewagner #themikewagnershow #mikewagnerrickrevel #themikewagnershowrickrevel --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themikewagnershow/support
TN multi-talented singer/songwriter/actor/author/TV host Rick Revel talks about his latest release “That Muscle Shoals Sound” and “The Father of the Blues”! Rick began his legendary career at 3 riding horses, building Tinker Toy guitars, and at 12 played with Uncle Bill & The Hillbillies later appearing on The Carl Tipton Show at 15 plus “The Outlaw Prophet”, “The Dead Man's Hand”, “An American Journey”, “History Highway” , “A Walk in the Woods (with Nick Nolte)” also met & opened for Loretta Lynn in '76-77 plus penning 1,500 songs hitting the national charts multiple times! Rick also has a deep love of history and scholarly approach and as an author, he wrote “In the Hills of Tennessee”, “The Mint Julep Letters', “It's a Southern Thing” and shares numerous stories about the music, his career, and deep passion of life! Check out the amazing Rick Revel on all major platforms and www.rickrevel.com plus www.rickrevelmusic.com today! #rickrevel #tennessee #singersongwriter #TVhost #thatmuscleshoalssound #thefatheroftheblues #unclebillandthehillbillies #thecarltiptonshow #theoutlawprophet #thedeadmanshand #anamericanjourney #historyhighway #awalkinthewoods #nicknolte #lorettalynn #author #inthehillsoftennessee #themintjulepletters #itsasouthernthing #spreaker #iheartradio #spotify #applemusic #youtube #anchorfm #bitchute #rumble #mikewagner #themikewagnershow #mikewagnerrickrevel #themikewagnershowrickrevel Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-mike-wagner-show--3140147/support.
This week, the one and only Dolly Parton graces Dumb Blonde with her presence, and it's truly a dream come true. The living legend first talks with Bunnie about her humble Appalachian roots, her childhood in the Smoky Mountains, and the profound influence of her close-knit family. She then discusses the pivotal role her Uncle Bill played in nurturing her early musical aspirations and helping her land a breakthrough performance at the iconic Grand Ole Opry. Dolly also opens up about the challenges she faced navigating the Nashville music scene as a young artist, her enduring partnership with husband Carl Dean, and the entrepreneurial empire she's built, including her successful makeup line, Dolly Beauty, Dolly Wines, and her beloved Imagination Library program.Dolly Parton: Website | Dolly Beauty | Dolly Wines Watch Full Episodes & More:www.dumbblondeunrated.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The Horror Roundtable, CK and Uncle Bill are back and this time with a super secret surprise the podcast return of Anthony from the Legendary Canadian Ferox Podcast, plus other Patrons talking the latest horror, physical media news and much more!
Voted Britain's ‘greatest general' by the National Army Museum in 2011, ‘Uncle Bill' Slim led the XIVth Army from defeat to victory. Dr Robert Lyman tells us about Slim's strategic leadership. Field Marshal William Slim (1891–1970) is famous for transforming troops who had retreated almost 1,000 miles through Burma pursued by the Japanese Army into a force that emerged from the Second World War victorious. Whether in defeat – where his leadership ensured his forces maintained their order and discipline – or in the campaign that led to their victory, his men loved him, giving him the affectionate title ‘Uncle Bill'. To have achieved this is all the more remarkable given the diversity of forces under his command. A master of combined and joint warfare, his forces included African, American, British, Chinese, Gurkha and Indian troops, and his ability to integrate air into his campaign predates – but acts as an exemplar for – the relationships needed for the air-land battle. Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten stated about our subject that: “Whenever leadership is spoken of or written about, tribute is regularly paid to his supreme qualities as the finest leader of fighting men in the Second World War”. Our guest, Dr Robert Lyman MBE, agrees with this; he is a former officer in the British Army and a renowned author. His books include a biography of William Slim – Slim, Master of War (Constable & Robinson, 2004); a record of the Battle of Kohima (Kohima, 1944, published by Osprey Press, 2010); and, with General Lord Richard Dannatt, Victory to Defeat (Osprey, 2023). Dr Lyman is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
EP 381 - From a Certain Point of Brew The life of a horror movie slasher must be pretty dull. You aimlessly walk around the woods, occasionally stare at young men and woman through cabin windows like a creep, breathing heavier than Uncle Bill after thanksgiving. And sometimes...just sometimes, you get to kill a few people. Honestly I don't know ow James does it. Well, tune in and maybe he'll share his secrets with us. THIS WEEKS MOVIE: In A Violent Nature (2024) THIS WEEKS DRINKS: North Peak Brewing - Piney Spruce Tip IPA Follow us! Twitter: @thebuzzedkillPC Instagram: @thebuzzedkillpodcast Facebook.com/thebuzzedkillpodcast
Miko didn't lose our number folks... she returns to YouTube and DEADPIT for the first time in nearly 15 years...CK and Uncle Bill get a heads up on where she's been and where she's gonna be in the future, reminiscing on the past, the current state of horror and MUCH MORE! Check out Miko's new podcast The Brutal Film Girl Experiment
It has taken 41 episodes to get here but we are finally talking about Severin Films on Boutique Talk. I just started collecting for Severin earlier this year but so far it has been a blast to explore their catalog. Today my guests Uncle Bill & The Creepy Kentuckian From Deadpit Radio and I will talk about all things Severin while also deep diving into one of their 4K releases this year in Cemetery Man. Here is an amazon link to the 4K release of Cemetery Man from Severin Films - https://a.co/d/3UOy0et Here Is My Amazon Wish List - https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls... Follow Me On Letterboxd - https://boxd.it/qN3B Follow Me On TikTok - / steelbookobse. . Follow Me On Instagram - / steelbookob. . Here Is My LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/Steelbookobsessed?u... Malko Protector Website - https://www.malkoprotectors.com/?ref=...
CK and Uncle Bill haven't talked a lot about Tales From The Crypt...until NOW! The entire show is a rundown of the history of the comics, the movies, the tv show and beyond. Don't miss it Kiddies!!
The return of Blues Hockey so that means Chris Kerber is back!Stuff we mentioned:Lines out the door at Uncle Bill's Pancake House in days before closeIs It Rude To ‘Neighborhood Hop' on Halloween?Boy Who Complained of Bad Smell for Two Years Had Screw Stuck in His NoseBoy, 10, ‘drives stolen car across playground crowded with other children'10% of Americans Are Doing a "Sober October"Court Says Man Can't Be Charged with Drunk Driving Because He Chugged Entire Bottle After Getting Pulled OverAlcoholism charity executive caught drink-driving and hiding from police in bush"You are going to die": Tampa mayor warns against ignoring Milton evacuation ordersWater supplier American Water Works says systems hackedArnold man arrested for allegedly attacking Imperial man in apparent road-rage incidentPanera settles Charged Lemonade wrongful death lawsuitAmazon plans to hire 250,000 workers in the U.S. for the 2024 holiday seasonCVS Health to lay off over 400 employees associated with Hartford locationHobby Lobby to raise starting pay to $19.25 per hourFire Hazard, Park Outside: Over 154,000 Jeep 4xe Plug-In Hybrids RecalledWoman Spends Weeks In Jail After Cops Mistook SpaghettiO Sauce On Spoon In Her Car For NarcoticsTeenager claims first ever Tetris 'rebirth' Follow us @RizzShow @MoonValjeanHere @KingScottRules @LernVsRadio @IamRafeWilliams > Check out King Scott's band @FreeThe2SG and Check out Moon's bands GREEK FIRE @GreekFire GOLDFINGER @GoldfingerMusic THE TEENAGE DIRTBAGS @TheTeenageDbags and Lern's band @LaneNarrows http://www.1057thepoint.com/Rizz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The return of Blues Hockey so that means Chris Kerber is back! Stuff we mentioned: Lines out the door at Uncle Bill's Pancake House in days before close Is It Rude To ‘Neighborhood Hop' on Halloween? Boy Who Complained of Bad Smell for Two Years Had Screw Stuck in His Nose Boy, 10, ‘drives stolen car across playground crowded with other children' 10% of Americans Are Doing a "Sober October" Court Says Man Can't Be Charged with Drunk Driving Because He Chugged Entire Bottle After Getting Pulled Over Alcoholism charity executive caught drink-driving and hiding from police in bush "You are going to die": Tampa mayor warns against ignoring Milton evacuation orders Water supplier American Water Works says systems hacked Arnold man arrested for allegedly attacking Imperial man in apparent road-rage incident Panera settles Charged Lemonade wrongful death lawsuit Amazon plans to hire 250,000 workers in the U.S. for the 2024 holiday season CVS Health to lay off over 400 employees associated with Hartford location Hobby Lobby to raise starting pay to $19.25 per hour Fire Hazard, Park Outside: Over 154,000 Jeep 4xe Plug-In Hybrids Recalled Woman Spends Weeks In Jail After Cops Mistook SpaghettiO Sauce On Spoon In Her Car For Narcotics Teenager claims first ever Tetris 'rebirth' Follow us @RizzShow @MoonValjeanHere @KingScottRules @LernVsRadio @IamRafeWilliams > Check out King Scott's band @FreeThe2SG and Check out Moon's bands GREEK FIRE @GreekFire GOLDFINGER @GoldfingerMusic THE TEENAGE DIRTBAGS @TheTeenageDbags and Lern's band @LaneNarrows http://www.1057thepoint.com/Rizz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Can swim trunks really cause chaos with airport security? Join me as I recount my latest comedic escapades from life on the road. From childhood curiosities fueled by a cable-free upbringing to the quirky overreactions of the TSA when faced with my choice of travel attire, it's a rollercoaster of laughter and unexpected mishaps. Buckle up for tales of my upcoming tour dates and the hilarity of navigating the peculiarities of being a traveling comedian.Back in Austin, life's never dull with a toilet that seems to have taken up Morse code as a hobby. Between the plumbing antics and my encounters at the vibrant Creak and Cave comedy scene, there's never a dull moment. Relive my adventure with Cactus Tate's daughter and her power-wheeled toy car, where dodging the determined driver became an art form. Toss in a light-hearted nod to my non-existent Taco Bell breakfast endorsement, and you've got a charming blend of chaos and comedy.Picture the bustling streets of Chicago where spirited drivers reign supreme, and imagine the surprise of meeting a street preacher in Greenville with an unexpected twist. As we hop over to St. Louis, reminisce about local legends and laugh over the quirks of formal men's wear. We say goodbye to beloved spots like Uncle Bill's, all while cherishing the unique characters and peculiar memories that make each city special. It's a tapestry of joy, oddities, and humorous reflections that capture the essence of life on the road.
Baseball runs deep in Brad Lachemann's family. Brad's father was a Major League pitcher and managed the California Angels. His Uncle Rene Lachemann managed nearly 1,000 MLB games, and his Uncle Bill has coached in the Angels' organization for decades. Coach Lachemann led the Arroyo Grande High School baseball program for 20 years, ending his tenure in 2020. His dedication to baseball extends beyond high school as he served as a coach for USA Baseball's 12u Open in 2019 and, most recently, he contributed his expertise to the USA Baseball Task Force for the 11u NTIS in 2023.
Jim Rutledge, Matt Hamilton & Molly Brown roll on from State Street Brats as their presented by Coors Light! With the NFL season kicking off tonight with the Ravens at the Chiefs, Jim asks which of the marquee primetime games are Matt & Molly most interested in (other than the Packers) -- rematches of last year's Conference Championship Games with the Ravens-Chiefs and Lions-Rams, or Aaron Rodgers return to the Jets vs the 49ers on Monday Night Football! Is Aaron Rodgers becoming irrelevant in Wisconsin, and how will Matt Hamilton feel if he BALLS OUT this season in New York? In honor of the new Kelce Mix of General Mills cereals, the put together a poll questions with their favorite three-cereal combinations. Throwing Stones includes takes on retiring animals who predict the weather, the NFL taking over every day of the week, and UW Athletics returning the memorial bricks that they paid to be up for ever-ish! Jim wraps up the show with a cheers to Uncle Bill in Beavers Damn -- a Good Karma Brands legend who passes away today.
Renfro Foods is a privately owned, award-winning food producer of salsas, sauces and relishes, including 30 Mrs. Renfro's products, located in Fort Worth, Texas. Founded in 1940, Renfro Foods is owned and managed by the second and third generations of the Renfro family. Its products are sold in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada and the U.K.As president of Renfro Foods, Doug works closely with his cousins Becky and James to run the company. In particular, Doug focuses on research and development, private label and contract packing, quality assurance, sales and marketing, legal, information technology and a dozen other areas Doug and his cousins strive for family harmony in managing the company and don't make any major decisions without a unanimous vote of support. For Doug, one of the benefits of working with family is the ability to be brutally honest with each other and still maintain a civil and professional relationship. The team at Renfro Foods pays close attention to flavor trends to identify new salsa flavors. QUOTES “When I got out of college, if I had come to work here I would have been chopping cabbage. The executive positions were filled by my dad and my uncle.” (Doug)“When I came (to Renfro Foods) I had been in charge of corporate accounting for a billion dollar company. My uncle was still doing pricing on a legal pad with his desk calculator. I said, ‘Here's a spreadsheet. It's going to instantaneously recalculate the cost of thousands of items in a millisecond.' He saw what that did and he said, ‘Can you do that every 90 days from now on?'” (Doug) “If you don't demand as much of your ego to be around, one of the secrets I tell (people) is get somebody without your last name to suggest the same idea you've been suggesting that's been ridiculed and suddenly it's a great idea.” (Doug)“If you take business things personally, that screws (family) relationships up.” (Doug) “I think we lost money on every jar of Raspberry Chipotle we sold last year. Thankfully we didn't sell many.” (Doug)“I want everything on the label to be tasteable but you can't always afford to do that without losing money,” (Doug) TRANSCRIPT 00:01.23vigorbrandingAll right, hey there, Fork Tales listeners and viewers. I am really happy to be joined today by a good friend of mine, Doug Renfro. Doug is president of Renfro Foods. And I had to say it like 25 times because somehow the word foods after Renfro, I mean, foods in Renfro is easy. 00:13.93Doug Renfrosorry 00:15.18vigorbrandingRenfro Foods, I just struggled. But anyway, ah he is the the the president of Mrs. Renfro’s Salsa. ah Not only are they a family owned company, which always is interesting, but they’re one of the most innovative companies I know. Doug, welcome and thank you very much for joining us and for your time. 00:32.73Doug RenfroThanks, happy to be here. 00:34.60vigorbrandingSo ah you know I’m going to start off by pointing out i’ve I’ve been very fortunate to know you and to ah have your product. And it’s phenomenal. And I’m not just saying that. ah Case in point, I have three jars behind me that were supposed to be props for this presentation. There were actually more than three. But my favorite one was sent to me, which I thank you for, and I ate it. So ah I don’t have as many jars here as I should probably. but Anyway, it’s a phenomenal product and you know, anyway, I appreciate you sending us some samples. So so tell us tell us about you and Renfro Foods and the story and your role in the company. 01:12.84Doug RenfroSure, we’re an 84-year-old family business and all the development has been organic. My granddad distributed grocery items in the 30s and made it through the Depression and thought, you know what would be fun, we’ll quit my job and start a company out of the house. So in 1940, he and my grandmother started out of their house and for 12 years or so they distributed grocery items and flavored vinegars and different things, spices. And around 1952, they moved into the core building that I actually sit in. We have now two city blocks in the street in between, but we were just one little brick building. And he started making syrup, and I like to point out there were no maple trees harmed. 01:50.40Doug Renfroyeah And then they made relishes. And you know, when when I do a trade show, like we’ll be in New York together two weeks from now and it’s a fancy food show and people will walk up and say, are these are grandmother’s recipes. 01:56.90vigorbrandingYep. 02:01.53Doug RenfroAnd I always say, no, but wouldn’t that be cool? ah You know, nobody ate Chipotle in 1940, 50, 60, 70. It’s all very organic dynamic. 02:07.41vigorbrandingRight. 02:09.47Doug RenfroSo when I was a kid, we just made Southern relishes, which had the velocity of a snail. So we had no money. And then we got in, my dad and my uncle got into taco sauce, thank God, in the seventies, which became macanti, which became salsa. and and ah and so And separating that you know for a moment, I went i worked at the nastiest jobs we had you know every summer, sixth grade, through high school. and In college, I lived at home and mixed the spices in the afternoon, went to school in the morning, very glamorous life. So I got out of college early, went to work for Ross Perot’s company at the time EDS. I was here when they sold it to General Motors, you know wearing a coat and tie every day, going to Detroit. My car did not smell of oregano anymore. 02:46.98Doug Renfroah Very cool, good people, smart people, good money, got my MBA, CMA, and some other acronyms. But, you know, corporate life will suck the soul out of your body. So I came back 32 years ago and working with my cousins, my dad, my late uncle, it’s been a lot of fun and to your point, You know, we weren’t getting a lot of sales with mild, medium, and hot. So we started creating things like craft beer salsa, mango habanero, tequila, I think. And not at um a gourmet store, housewarming gift price, but at an everyday in your grocery cart price. 03:18.68vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 03:19.53Doug RenfroAnd we’re fortunate now to 600 brands in the country where Mrs. 03:19.54vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 03:23.12Doug RenfroRimbros is number eight. I caution people not to get excited because we doubled would be number eight. but Big folks are big. 03:31.24vigorbrandingyeah Yeah, well, hey, they are. But you know what, though? Your product is fantastic. And in this in this day and age, we do a quench. We do a ton of CPG work, right? And craft and ah the originality and having a real story It’s super important to people and so products like yours. I mean you yeah I mean, I know you’ve been doing this or for forever you guys but but it’s a really it feels like a really great time for this type of brand and this type of product and Again, it’s all about the quality. 03:52.55Doug Renfroyou 03:59.98vigorbrandingSo I you know, the mango habanero as I said is my favorite. What’s your favorite? 04:05.52Doug RenfroWeirdly, that is also my favorite. 04:06.85vigorbrandingAh Nice 04:06.92Doug Renfroand and i’ve you know all Almost all the items now are recipes I’ve gotten to create over the years with my vast lack of culinary training. um but we you know I would look at things like Mango Habanero specifically. 04:17.07vigorbrandingThank 04:19.83Doug RenfroI was at a white tablecloth restaurant. I saw Mango Habanero on Chutney on Halibut, and I followed it away as something maybe five years later, we could sell every day in the grocery stores. 04:22.21vigorbrandingyou. 04:29.82Doug Renfroand That’s exactly how it turned out. and Even then, there was pushback internally about, you know, it sounds like a bizarre combination. And of course, it’s a better number two seller now for quite some time nationwide, Canada, UK. But ah it’s also, you know, a normal trend now. And that’s what you’re seeing like, you know, fast food places now have Carolina Reaper french fries, which, yeah you know, 20 years ago, nobody knew what it was. 04:50.78vigorbrandingYeah. 04:54.17Doug Renfro10 years ago, it was crazy, exotic, ridiculous. And now it’s almost an everyday thing. 04:58.86vigorbrandingRight, right. So we are you Mrs. Renfro then, if you’re making all these recipes? 05:03.42Doug RenfroIf you take the, my grandmother’s on the side of the label, if you put a wig on me and shave the beard, I think that’s what you get. 05:11.51vigorbrandingThat’s fantastic. yeah it’ so Okay, so talking about family here. I mean, you know some family owned companies, you and I know know a lot of people are part of family owned companies. ah Some families require members and future leaders to spend time outside the company. ah Was your time required and did you find that time valuable? And then or or did you and did you always plan? I know you worked there when you were young. Did you always plan on coming back to the company? Talk a little bit about that. 05:36.67Doug RenfroSure. My time was not required. Frankly, when I got out of college, if I had come to work here, I would have been chopping cabbage. 05:43.53vigorbrandingYeah. 05:43.60Doug Renfroah they they The executive positions were filled by my dad and my uncle. s such a tiny We’re small now. We were tiny, tiny back then. So I had to go somewhere else if I wanted to not wear jeans and be covered with cabbage and onions. And I think it was wildly helpful. like When I came back, I had been you know in charge of corporate accounting for a billion dollar company in some areas. and My uncle was still doing pricing on a legal pad with his hand desk calculator. And I said, look, here’s a spreadsheet. And it’s going to instantaneously recalculate the cost of thousands of items in a millisecond. 06:16.59Doug RenfroAnd he saw what that did. And he’s like, can you do that every 90 days from now on? stick yeah Having the discipline and learning and the networking was just fabulous. And I will tell you, we needed a ah filtration system for the fourth generation. So I said, we can’t hire 14 people just because they want to work here. And I said, in that case, for that gen, yes, you have to work somewhere. You have to graduate college. You have to work somewhere else for at least two years and a real job. 06:41.34vigorbrandingyep 06:42.42Doug RenfroAnd then we can talk about management training on your management track. 06:44.65vigorbrandinghere 06:46.70Doug RenfroAnd ah today we have zero fourth-generation working here. But we have we have that off and on. About half of them have done so well they could not remotely afford to take a pay cut and come back here. 06:59.74Doug RenfroYeah. 06:59.93vigorbrandingYeah, that’s great. And my my rule has always been two years and one promotion. 07:01.41Doug Renfroyeah 07:04.61vigorbrandingIf you want to come in the family, in the business, ah you got to, you know, college education, two years and one promotion. So ah and you know what, it’s neither where my girls or seem to be remotely interested. So they’re probably smarter, they but they got a good education. 07:18.22Doug Renfroand And we’ve got our age range on Gen 4 is like 23 to 38. 07:19.88vigorbrandingkind 07:23.63Doug RenfroSo you know some of them, I didn’t come back till I was 29, I think. 07:23.85vigorbrandingMm hmm. 07:27.19Doug RenfroSo there’s you know wait we’ve got lots of time. I’m not ancient yet, but you know I’ve still got some time in me. 07:33.14vigorbrandingYeah, well, yeah, sure. Of course you do. and Now you said, in one of your quotes, it was something like, ah ah if people say their family business journey, if if people have said ah their family business journey has been a smooth road, they’re a smooth liar. 07:46.85Doug Renfroso 07:46.95vigorbrandingah but Talk a little bit about the struggles and the family and all that kind of stuff. 07:47.79Doug Renfrowell 07:51.08vigorbrandingJust, you know, like some of the things you have to overcome, because it’s always amazing to me. ah ah Just, you know, what what all is involved there. 07:59.16Doug RenfroYeah, it’s it’s funny. i’ve I’ve spoken to the TCU family business class like eight years in a row now. And I usually start out with how much time do I have? um But is anyone recording this? I’m like you. But you know, one of the things you deal with is like my late uncle and my dad, they, to me, they see me in diapers when I started talking because that’s how they met me. 08:19.23vigorbrandingMm hmm. 08:19.42Doug RenfroAnd it’s hard, you know, they’ve seen you be a silly kid and get in trouble. And now I’m telling them they need to change the branding. You’re like, you know, what’s this little kid saying, shut up and get back over there. And frankly, if you don’t have, you know, if you don’t demand this much of your ego to be around, one of the secrets I tell them is get somebody without your last name to suggest the same idea you’ve been suggesting that’s been ridiculed. And suddenly, it’s a great idea. 08:42.33vigorbrandingHmm. 08:43.81Doug RenfroAnd actually, it becomes their idea. And as long as you can live with that, you know, if it’s all for the greater good, you know, foul I don’t have to get credit for everything, and I don’t have to get immediate results. It’s slow, steady progress to me. Because you and I have seen a lot of people that you know skyrocket up and then skyrocket back down. 08:59.28vigorbrandingYep, that’s right. 09:00.96Doug RenfroIt’s about gradual process. We have we have no investors. you know We just use bank debt when we need it. um It’s all still family controlled. And because of that, it’s more slow, steady path. But yeah, well I think you know I’ve told you that my dad and my late uncle had a rule. They were 50-50. They had a a little sister who didn’t work here, but she could be a swing vote, but they had an agreement. They never ever did anything important if it wasn’t a unanimous vote. They didn’t go get a tiebreaker. So now my cousins and I who run it, we have 84% of the votes of the company, and we could outvote each other on certain things. 09:30.24vigorbrandingThat’s great. 09:38.26Doug RenfroAnd we’ve done the same thing. if it’s I’m talking about a capital expenditure branding campaign, a new flavor. big things. We have to be unanimous or we don’t do it. I just assume I’m missing something if I can’t convince them both and vice versa. And now that’s key. I’ve seen friends who make a lot more money and have a lot more wealth, who have a sibling they can’t talk to, they’ve never spoken to in 20 years, and it breaks their parents’ heart. And we’ve chosen not to do that. 09:59.72vigorbrandingyeah Yep. 10:02.50Doug RenfroWe’ve we’ve gone with family harmony, so we sub-optimize, but it’s a family business. 10:02.81vigorbrandingYeah. 10:05.90Doug RenfroWe can do that. 10:06.99vigorbrandingYep. And you know, that’s, ah that’s really important. I mean, I know you obviously get it because you said all those words. and and But, but, you know, when you have the family involved, I mean, you know, the family, it’s important. 10:17.69Doug RenfroOkay. 10:18.01vigorbrandingthere’s I don’t know that there’s anything more important than family. And you’re, you know, the the company is what supports the family. And so if they can’t all be harm, if there can’t be harmony, At the end of the day, we have. and so I admire you for that, the way you’re handling it, because ah as you’re you’re right. We’ve seen a lot of ah more, unfortunately, probably more examples than not where you know somebody gets ah iced out, or they’re not talking, or you know the families are completely ah dysfunctional now, you know but maybe maybe the business survives, or maybe it doesn’t. and That’s just tragic. so 10:49.71vigorbrandingAnd so speaking of, your Uncle Bill, you said, I think one of your other quotes in an interview said something like, you can be brutally honest with each other about ideas. ah he could He could call you an idiot and it’s no big deal. So, I mean, that’s that’s that’s a benefit, right? That level of honesty. 11:03.05Doug RenfroYeah, that’s key is that we were i famously tell that story that like I would say to him or he to me that, you know, I think what you just said was the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard from a business perspective, where do you want to go to lunch? Because we didn’t, you know, there was no personal aspect to it. And and that’s key. If you take business things personally, that screws the relationships all up. 11:22.85vigorbrandingso you Now, back to the salsa. You have 20 different flavors. and how do you I know you’re the one that’s ah um coming up with a lot of the different formulas. How are you finding that inspiration? I mean, just out there in the world, i mean you said that the the the the mango habanero came from ah a meal you had somewhere. is that Is that pretty much what you’re looking at, just trends and things like that? 11:42.45Doug RenfroYeah, I tell people I’m cursed to have to eat at the nicest restaurants in the nation and, you know, read cool food magazines and see what’s going on. But yeah, it is that that simple, which is not actually simple, is always looking around. You want to see what’s on the edge. You know, I we developed a bacon queso for a customer. And as you know, a lot of what we do is creating things for other people. Our names know we’re on it. There’s no indication we made it. ah But people looked at us for ideation. I’ve had grocery chains come to me and they’re like, what should we do for a private label salsa? 12:12.69Doug RenfroIt’s going to be our first time. And I don’t mean, we’ll never make the mild, medium, and hot for the big folks, but if they want a pineapple chipotle or something, they were one of the few players that they will come to. 12:19.59vigorbrandingRight. 12:22.91Doug RenfroAnd i’ll I’ll give them my ideas. Half the time they run with that, say make some recipes for us. Half the time they do the total opposite of what I suggested. As long as they pay us, I’m fine. 12:31.59vigorbrandingYeah, makes sense. 12:31.88Doug Renfroum But yeah, you’re looking at, and and as you know with trends, most of them won’t become a mango habanero or a ghost pepper, which are in a habanero, which are top sellers. You know, I thought pomegranate chipotle was a great idea. Not many other people did. ah So, you know, you end up DC and you ski rationalization um is painful, but we do go through that. 12:49.81vigorbrandingWell, and you have to balance that. like you You can be out there too far out on the trends. I mean, a quench, we’ we’re big on trends. We do trends presentations every year, and I know you’ve seen them and been a part of them. And you know so you you see these things that are out there. You want to kind of be first to market, but that can be dangerous because you know maybe maybe the pomegranate is going to be something that will be fantastic maybe in another six months. If you’re too far out in front, you can you can you know get delisted, as you said. or But if you if you would just sit back and be hot and medium and you know mild, I mean, that’s no good either. 13:22.12vigorbrandingSo I really i admire what you’ve done. And I think that the the branding you’ve done and the flavoring you’ve done is fantastic. And just just for all honesty, I don’t do the branding. I mean, your your your design package stuff is impeccable. And I’ve always been a big fan of it. So ah congratulations on that. 13:39.90Doug RenfroThank you. 13:42.28vigorbrandingSo, I mean, now, how many do you try and make? I mean, like, ah is there in your mind, you say, hey, we should come up with two new SKUs a year? Is it sort of like when I find something I like, we’ll make it? ah how does How does that work? 13:55.53Doug RenfroBut it’s two different answers based on when it was. When I came back, we we weren’t really in grocery stores per se. 13:58.43vigorbrandingOkay. 14:02.35Doug RenfroWe were in fruit stands at the time and different things. So we were fighting for our lives. My cousins and I needed more money. Our dads wanted more money. We needed it. You were raising families. 14:12.71vigorbrandingYeah. 14:13.20Doug Renfroand so we were literally being told no constantly go away because we had hot medium mild and green taco sauce. That’s all we had. And so with no permission, one day when nobody was looking, I added black beans to the medium. Then I added the habanero, which was crazy exotic sexy at the time, you know, super hot. And we would, my sales director and I, he’s been with us 32 years and it’s non-family. We would go to retailers around the country and in Canada and say, hey, I know you have a million sauces before you throw me out. We have a black bean and a habanero at an everyday price, not a gourmet price. It gives you variety. And they started saying, yeah, that’s they’re delicious. That makes sense. We love your company and your marketing and your products. And this will give us variety. And they started putting it in and we were just you know making it up praying. And so after that, we did a 15:01.69Doug Renfrobut we A couple of years later, we did Chipotle, corn. we i We were early on Chipotle. Nobody could say it, including our own staff. I walked through the office. I’m here. Chipotle. Chipotle. 15:10.26vigorbrandingbut 15:10.84Doug RenfroI’m like, oh my god, we can’t pronounce our own product. ah Then when you when Chipotle, the chain became big, they taught everybody. And then Jack in the Box made a hilarious ad about how to power pronounce it. And so, yeah, I would look at things, you know, I saw a ghost pepper in a chocolate bar. I’d been watching it for a couple of years. When I saw it in a chocolate bar, and I told the family, I think we can put it in salsa. My uncle thought we were gonna get sued, so we put a crossbones skull on it, ex-scary hot. 15:33.05vigorbrandingHmm. 15:34.74Doug Renfroand The Today Show fell in love with it, gave us a solid minute on the Today Show back when we all watched TV and there were no streaming channels. ah Huge success. But at this point, now we’re mature. 15:45.35vigorbrandingYeah. 15:47.18Doug Renfroand frankly we’re busier than ever on rnd but it’s all for food service co-pack and private label clients with renfro what you’ll see is the big chains will want you to give them two items with a significant slotting and kick out your two slowest ones and i’m like no thank you but if you give us two if you’ll give us two more spots incrementally, we’ll take it, and that happens. But for now, when the when COVID hit, the supply chain fund and the inflation that followed that, frankly, we haven’t come up with a new item since Blackberry Serrano was our last one. 16:20.17vigorbrandingNice. 16:20.37Doug RenfroAnd we’ve kind of hunkered down. So you know maybe Pavone pomegranate is next. 16:25.34vigorbrandingThere you go. I love it. 16:26.20Doug RenfroI’m still thinking. 16:29.01vigorbrandingSo what what is the what is the mix between ah branded sales, I’ll say, and and food service ah percentages? 16:36.24Doug Renfroi And there’s there’s branded food service and then Copac Private Label. So it’s three, it’s a triad, which is really nice. It it really, you know, diversifies things for us. And we’re sort of 40, 45% Renfro and then you split the rest of it between food service and and other brands. Like I can take the national retailer usually and show you, you know, two to five other brands that we make and and not all salsas. 16:53.69vigorbrandingThat’s great. 16:59.57vigorbrandingMm 17:00.60Doug RenfroYou know, we we’re acidified foods, condiments, so we can do cheese in a jar, which God didn’t mean to happen. um barbecue sauce, relish, you know, sauces. 17:12.54vigorbrandingThat’s fantastic. That’s very cool. um So I mean, the flavor thing, again, is brilliant. And I love all the different combinations and they are delicious. You know, through my career, you know, again, doing CPG for for basically, almost 30 years, I hate to say the agencies around for 33 years, but doing the CPG thing for good, I think 25 years. ah food, um the flavor thing was almost, it almost seems a shortcut because there’s a lot of expense involved in in flavors. But like I remember, okay, that as dumb as this sounds, potato chips. It’s like, you know, ah plain potato chips still sell great, but put flavors in there and we helped many ah snack food brands, currently hers, with a lot of their products and and just adding new flavors all the time. 17:43.66Doug RenfroWow. 17:52.57vigorbrandingJust the consumer loves it. It gets them excited. We even did it with tuna, which, I mean, adding flavor to tuna, ah you know, and it just, we blew sales out of the water. Now, again, the companies were the the R and&D behind it, but we were like all in for the, the you know, the Sriracha flavored and all the different types of ah tuna flavors. And, you know, for Starkus, and it blew them out and the sales went through the roof. 18:14.72Doug RenfroSo. 18:17.12vigorbrandingSo, I mean, the, I know R and&D and I know category extensions can be expensive, but I also think there’s a a sort of a hidden ah marketing excitement. ah It just you know it brings brings energy to the category. And again, when you see your products against across the shelf or those log those those labels across, it’s ah it’s a really impressive uh a lineup i mean how how you mean i do i obviously probably feel the same where you wouldn’t have so many but i mean yeah i’m sure you’re torn like do we want another skew do we not want another skew can you talk a little just a little bit about that 18:51.01Doug RenfroYeah, it’s challenging because everything in life, usually the 80-20 rule works and ours, you know, we have 28 current Renfro SKUs, the top four do have the sales, you know, the top seven or 70% of the sales. 19:01.36vigorbrandinghuh 19:03.24Doug RenfroSo you’re like, well, why don’t we just cut the rest of them because people want variety and the people who want those second tier items. It’s funny on our online platforms, those will be our best sellers because they’re so hard to get and the people don’t care what it costs. They just want it so badly. 19:16.56vigorbrandingRight. 19:17.79Doug Renfroand But and you know no matter what you do, I don’t care if you have another 10 fantastic skews, the top four or five are going to be half your sales. 19:24.24vigorbrandingThat’s right. 19:26.20Doug RenfroIf you go to a farmer’s market and they got like 30 kinds of jelly, you’ll inevitably find that two or three do most of the sales. But they they get attention. People come over there because they want to taste you know coconut marmalade, but they end up buying peach. you 19:40.92vigorbrandingRight, right, right, right. Well, I think I heard you say that the mango habanero is number two. What’s what’s number one? 19:47.21Doug Renfroof habanero, though the one I was told internally would never sell much because it was so hot, but it’d be cute to have. 19:53.27vigorbrandingWow. 19:53.65Doug Renfrothink It’s been number one for over 15 years and I can’t eat it. i Most of the things that are best sellers that I’ve created and when I create for Renfro, my cousins get votes in our sales director. If it’s non Renfro, the customer rules or I’ll make up something. but for rent bro i I first cook with Microsoft Excel because it we line price. It doesn’t matter how good it is if we lose money on it because I can’t charge more on just one item. So first I pre-cook it in Excel and if it’s going to work financially, then I i do what I think is good. and Then I bring in my cousins and a lot of like on the craft beer, we were about ready to take it to New York. 20:31.12Doug Renfrofor the big show and I was like, it’s just kind of bland. And then my cousin Becky was like, yeah, it’s, they need something. 20:36.20vigorbrandingMm hmm, mm hmm. 20:36.98Doug RenfroSo I threw in Guajillo, Ancho and Chipotle in small amounts. It’s kind of a mid range. And we’re like, she’s like, yeah, that’s better. And then James might think it needs to be chunkier who runs production and our sales director might have an opinion. And so it, you know, it is a village situation, but you’re right. Right now we’re like, oh, it gives me a headache to think about another skew. Cause how much could it sell? Your home runs are about one a decade. 21:00.63vigorbrandingyeah Yeah. So you you said something very interesting there. And again, being in a CPG world, I have experience with that whole line pricing thing. So if I can ask, like I’ll say it this way. We had a client we worked with for, oh boy, we built the brand. It was probably a good 18 years and it was Turkey Hill Ice Cream. And Turkey Hill, like most brands, had a line price. But there was an awful lot of a difference in cost to make vanilla ice cream versus, let’s say, ah like a rainforest crunch or anything with nuts and stuff. Because the expense of those nuts, and and people don’t realize that. 21:32.10Doug RenfroRight. 21:33.41vigorbrandingThey just think it’s, oh, it’s two for $5. Or, oh, the price went up. Or it’s 89 cents more. But they they don’t realize. that one flavor to another flavor could be a huge difference and in in the cost to make it. um do you run I mean, I have to imagine you run into that to a degree. And ah you know is that something you have to deal with? 21:52.47Doug Renfroand and Absolutely. I think we lost money on every jar of raspberry chipotle we sold last year. Fortunately, we didn’t sell many. but yeah Raspberry is an item that the price goes wildly up and down, fluctuates like crazy. and Most things don’t. they They go up slowly or they sit still. but Our craft beer salsa, we don’t make as much money on it, but it’s fabulous and tastes great. But yeah would I be thrilled if everybody just bought mild all day long? Absolutely. I could get a new car. 22:23.33vigorbrandingYeah, there you go. 22:23.47Doug Renfroi myself And that is that is exactly the challenging aspect. Blackberry Serrano, you know making that worthy of the name, I get really annoyed when I go to a restaurant. They got a tomatillo pecan, you know smoked watermelon sauce, and all I can taste is salt. I want i want everything on the label to be tastable, but you can’t afford always to do that as much as you’d like without losing money. 22:39.89vigorbrandingRight. Right. Right. Yeah. That’s ah well yeah that’s ah that’s the the the the difficult part of, I’ll say, what you guys do. And that’s that’s putting product ah quality product in ah in a container. Whatever your your product is. It could be ice cream, salsa. It could be potato chips. It can be candy. it’s just the the The flavoring, you can do it. But there’s always these these cost constraints, that line pricing thing. and And then there’s the evil empires of the retailers, right? so 23:12.03Doug RenfroIt’s a delicate dance. 23:12.91vigorbrandingbut its It is a delicate dance and I don’t i don’t envy you. so But hey, you sent us a bunch of salsa, so like we’ve had a lot of parties at Proven Group, and ah but we’re gonna have our first salsa party coming up, so we’re pretty excited about that. um But as we know, um you you have recipes throughout the thing, so ah your salsas aren’t just for tortilla chips. 23:29.66Doug Renfrothe 23:33.46vigorbrandingYou have tons of recipes on your website that you salsa. 23:33.90Doug Renfroright 23:37.31vigorbrandingum So we’ll have some fun. 23:37.41Doug Renfroye 23:38.43vigorbrandingI’m gonna i’m gonna name a few recipes from your site that use salsa. And you can tell me if you’ve tried it and what you thought of it. Ready to roll? 23:46.76Doug RenfroReady. 23:47.46vigorbrandingAll right, we have the Molten Chili Chocolate Brownie with raspberry chipotle salsa. 23:54.46Doug RenfroThat came out of a wine pairing dinner. I thought it was and a winery owner and we’re a charity event and I thought she was inebriated and they She would sober up later. No, she flew us out there and had her chef and they had like 80 people bought tickets and they paired a Renfro item with every course. And for dessert, they they used the raspberry chipotle. I think they blended it with maybe raspberries and sugar also. But ah on chocolate, that did pair nicely. 24:19.34vigorbrandingYeah, ah that’s interesting. 24:19.62Doug Renfroyeah 24:21.07vigorbrandingand But that was your most expensive vitamin, so maybe you don’t want to sell too many of those brownies, right? 24:24.76Doug Renfroah please Yeah, please don’t buy too much of it. 24:29.31vigorbrandingAlright, meatloaf with craft beer salsa. 24:33.21Doug RenfroI have not had that. I have had it with the roasted salsa, which has a really strong mesquite aspect to it. 24:39.53vigorbrandingNice. ah Grilled, and this is also a delicious ah one of your products, but grilled peach salsa chicken with a pe with ah with a peach salsa. 24:48.11Doug Renfroyeah Back in the day when we still had to demo at the booth, that was our go-to. 24:51.39vigorbrandingUh-huh. 24:52.21Doug RenfroAnd and it’s funny, people think they’re cooking. If you say, put a jar of peach salsa in a baggie, throw in the chicken breast, put it in the fridge for an hour or two, then grill it. They think they’re like a gourmet chef. um And it tastes delicious. 25:03.30vigorbrandingYep. 25:04.91Doug RenfroYou can reserve some. ah It’ll caramelize on the grill, and then you can reserve like a third of it and pour it over just as you serve it. 25:07.79vigorbrandingMm 25:10.15Doug RenfroAnd that is delicious and crazy simple. 25:10.85vigorbranding-hmm. Yeah, that’s great. I mean, a very good friend of mine owns a company called Gazebo salad dressing, and he sells way more salad dressing as a marinade than he does as a salad dressing. And it’s really, truly a salad dressing, but people find figured out that you know marinating in this in these products, and I’m sure your products are are phenomenal for that. 25:32.84Doug RenfroAnd I love any recipe that’s take a whole jar and use it. 25:35.06vigorbrandingRight. That’s right. That’s right. 25:36.98Doug RenfroNo tablespoon recipes. 25:38.73vigorbrandingYeah. 25:38.89Doug Renfroyeah 25:39.37vigorbrandingYeah. He he realized that early on. It’s like, well, you know, the more, especially guys, right? Guys are grilling. So what do they do? They dump the whole jar to your point, you know, we’re not, we’re not going to spare anything. 25:45.50Doug RenfroAbsolutely. sister yeah 25:47.93vigorbrandingSo that’s, that’s the perfect consumer right there. 25:48.64Doug Renfroyeah 25:50.55vigorbrandingAll right. spag Spicy spaghetti sauce with medium salsa. 25:54.72Doug RenfroI don’t recall having that. I think we i think my cousin Becky pre-cooked everything before we would let it be on a label back and when we started doing this. I i probably sampled it, but she’s our ah she she cooks as my wife does too. ah gee They’re both excellent cooks and will actually whip these things up. I’m gluten-free too, but my wife can find gluten-free pasta to put that on. 26:16.82vigorbrandingThere you go. 26:16.93Doug RenfroI’ll tell her Michael said we had to taste it. 26:18.85vigorbrandingThere you go. That’s it. That’s it. So the last one is Mexican fudge with green jalapeno salsa. This one isn’t a chocolate fudge, it’s more of a cheese. 26:27.63Doug Renfroyeah When I came back 32 years ago, that was the only recipe we had, and it’s still the most popular. My aunt came up with that, interestingly. and it’s It’s cheddar cheese, eggs, and green salsa, and you just add more green salsa if you want it spicier, and you you put it in a pan, you throw it in the oven for 40 minutes, you go get ready for the party, whatever, take it out, slice it up, put it on triskets or whatever, and people love it. It’s gone, especially when it’s warm, and you serve it that way. ah We call it cowboy cobbler. I mean, there’s a million things, but it’s just three ingredients. like Even I can’t screw it up. 27:01.20vigorbrandingNow you said that that when you do R and&D, it’s your cousins get involved, but you also said like the the really hot, you can’t eat. Like that’s for, is that your palette? Is it just, you don’t really like super spicy or how does that work? 27:10.80Doug RenfroIt hurts. 27:14.06Doug RenfroMy assistant, it’s ah my R and&D guru that I’ve got working with me now the last few years. He’ll make me occasionally do a cutting of like ghost pepper case. So in the morning, I’m like, really? That’s my breakfast. And with ghost pepper, habanero, Carolina Reaper, I can taste two or three, four samples. And I’m done for a few hours because then I’m torched and I can’t distinguish anything different. 27:33.60vigorbrandingRight. 27:37.32Doug RenfroFortunately, I don’t have to very often when we’re coming up with something. um You know, I created a ah special ah triple hot reaper for a business group you and I are in and I tasted that till I couldn’t see my feet and then we said, okay, it must be fine. 27:53.90vigorbrandingWell, that’s fantastic. So tell me, before we wrap up, like what’s next for Renfro Foods? i mean Can you share any details about what you’re cooking up for the future? Anything you’re excited about? Anything that’s going on in the company or in the family? 28:07.24Doug RenfroYeah, that’s always a frustrating thing about doing so much private label and co-pack and food services. I can’t talk about most of it, but it’s really cool. We’re we’re doing things for people like ah the dairy-free queso, you know, that’s nut-based, the things that my 87-year-old father is like, what? 28:22.27vigorbrandingme 28:26.19Doug RenfroThat’s what my grandparents wouldn’t have known. ah We do ethnic sauces. We were always reinvesting in the plant. my My dad, my late uncle, my grandparents taught us don’t ever milk the company. So we doubled our shipping warehouse two years ago. We added a brand new two story production employee break room with QA and production offices above it. We automated some more things on the food service line. We’re always reinvesting. We’re always looking, you know, for the future we’re doing licensing agreements with other brands where we handle the marketing for them and you’ll see if yeah you’re gonna be in the new york show i think you’ll see another brand in our booth that i can talk about then. 28:55.96vigorbrandingAwesome. 28:59.33vigorbrandingYep. 29:04.36vigorbrandingSuper. That’s awesome. I mean, congratulations on all the success. and I mean, you’re, you’re a great president. You’re always very self-deprecating. Absolutely hilarious. Lots of fun. And I think that just, it sort of just, you represent the brand in my mind and in a lot, in all the positive ways, you know, and I would love to see you put a wig on and and try and emulate your camera. That would be, ah that would be fantastic. 29:23.97Doug Renfromaybe yeah yeah 29:25.99vigorbrandingThat’s how you should work the booth. You should be Mrs. Renfro. So, 29:28.46Doug Renfrolike 29:29.43vigorbrandingAll right, so I have one last question I asked this from every guest and it can’t be your product if you had one final meal What would you eat? Maybe where and why? 29:40.36Doug RenfroWell, I forgot the can’t do your problems. You gotta start with chips and salsa. And frankly, I do eat lots of people’s salsa. It’s it’s experimentation, but also, you know, I always ask people, you think the donut shop guy eats a donut every day? You know, you want to change it up. ah for lunch ah For the entree, I think I’d have chicken tikka masala. My wife and I have become big fans of of Indian food and eating it around the world. I would say one of the places in London, I think it’s Rick Road that has all their Indian restaurants. 30:05.10vigorbrandingNice. 30:06.18Doug RenfroAnd then Grand Marnier Soufflé for dessert. It’s one of those things that’s too hard to make at home, but most so hard that it’s hard to find it. There’s a French restaurant locally. I can get it like occasionally and that, now those don’t go together, but you said final meal, so it doesn’t matter. 30:20.00vigorbrandingThat’s it. Final meal. Yeah, that’s what you got to do. That’s fantastic. 30:23.12Doug Renfroah 30:23.48vigorbrandingWell, Doug, thank you very much. 30:24.20Doug Renfroyeah 30:25.29vigorbrandingI look forward to, I know you’re doing ah an event in in in Fort Worth ah for all of us. um That’ll be fantastic. And I will see you at Fancy Food. 30:34.95Doug RenfroSee you there. Thanks again for letting me play. 30:36.83vigorbrandingAll right, pal. Appreciate it.00:01.23vigorbrandingAll right, hey there, Fork Tales listeners and viewers. I am really happy to be joined today by a good friend of mine, Doug Renfro. Doug is president of Renfro Foods. And I had to say it like 25 times because somehow the word foods after Renfro, I mean, foods in Renfro is easy. 00:13.93Doug Renfrosorry 00:15.18vigorbrandingRenfro Foods, I just struggled. But anyway, ah he is the the the president of Mrs. Renfro’s Salsa. ah Not only are they a family owned company, which always is interesting, but they’re one of the most innovative companies I know. Doug, welcome and thank you very much for joining us and for your time. 00:32.73Doug RenfroThanks, happy to be here. 00:34.60vigorbrandingSo ah you know I’m going to start off by pointing out i’ve I’ve been very fortunate to know you and to ah have your product. And it’s phenomenal. And I’m not just saying that. ah Case in point, I have three jars behind me that were supposed to be props for this presentation. There were actually more than three. But my favorite one was sent to me, which I thank you for, and I ate it. So ah I don’t have as many jars here as I should probably. but Anyway, it’s a phenomenal product and you know, anyway, I appreciate you sending us some samples. So so tell us tell us about you and Renfro Foods and the story and your role in the company. 01:12.84Doug RenfroSure, we’re an 84-year-old family business and all the development has been organic. My granddad distributed grocery items in the 30s and made it through the Depression and thought, you know what would be fun, we’ll quit my job and start a company out of the house. So in 1940, he and my grandmother started out of their house and for 12 years or so they distributed grocery items and flavored vinegars and different things, spices. And around 1952, they moved into the core building that I actually sit in. We have now two city blocks in the street in between, but we were just one little brick building. And he started making syrup, and I like to point out there were no maple trees harmed. 01:50.40Doug Renfroyeah And then they made relishes. And you know, when when I do a trade show, like we’ll be in New York together two weeks from now and it’s a fancy food show and people will walk up and say, are these are grandmother’s recipes. 01:56.90vigorbrandingYep. 02:01.53Doug RenfroAnd I always say, no, but wouldn’t that be cool? ah You know, nobody ate Chipotle in 1940, 50, 60, 70. It’s all very organic dynamic. 02:07.41vigorbrandingRight. 02:09.47Doug RenfroSo when I was a kid, we just made Southern relishes, which had the velocity of a snail. So we had no money. And then we got in, my dad and my uncle got into taco sauce, thank God, in the seventies, which became macanti, which became salsa. and and ah and so And separating that you know for a moment, I went i worked at the nastiest jobs we had you know every summer, sixth grade, through high school. and In college, I lived at home and mixed the spices in the afternoon, went to school in the morning, very glamorous life. So I got out of college early, went to work for Ross Perot’s company at the time EDS. I was here when they sold it to General Motors, you know wearing a coat and tie every day, going to Detroit. My car did not smell of oregano anymore. 02:46.98Doug Renfroah Very cool, good people, smart people, good money, got my MBA, CMA, and some other acronyms. But, you know, corporate life will suck the soul out of your body. So I came back 32 years ago and working with my cousins, my dad, my late uncle, it’s been a lot of fun and to your point, You know, we weren’t getting a lot of sales with mild, medium, and hot. So we started creating things like craft beer salsa, mango habanero, tequila, I think. And not at um a gourmet store, housewarming gift price, but at an everyday in your grocery cart price. 03:18.68vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 03:19.53Doug RenfroAnd we’re fortunate now to 600 brands in the country where Mrs. 03:19.54vigorbrandingMm-hmm. 03:23.12Doug RenfroRimbros is number eight. I caution people not to get excited because we doubled would be number eight. but Big folks are big. 03:31.24vigorbrandingyeah Yeah, well, hey, they are. But you know what, though? Your product is fantastic. And in this in this day and age, we do a quench. We do a ton of CPG work, right? And craft and ah the originality and having a real story It’s super important to people and so products like yours. I mean you yeah I mean, I know you’ve been doing this or for forever you guys but but it’s a really it feels like a really great time for this type of brand and this type of product and Again, it’s all about the quality. 03:52.55Doug Renfroyou 03:59.98vigorbrandingSo I you know, the mango habanero as I said is my favorite. What’s your favorite? 04:05.52Doug RenfroWeirdly, that is also my favorite. 04:06.85vigorbrandingAh Nice 04:06.92Doug Renfroand and i’ve you know all Almost all the items now are recipes I’ve gotten to create over the years with my vast lack of culinary training. um but we you know I would look at things like Mango Habanero specifically. 04:17.07vigorbrandingThank 04:19.83Doug RenfroI was at a white tablecloth restaurant. I saw Mango Habanero on Chutney on Halibut, and I followed it away as something maybe five years later, we could sell every day in the grocery stores. 04:22.21vigorbrandingyou. 04:29.82Doug Renfroand That’s exactly how it turned out. and Even then, there was pushback internally about, you know, it sounds like a bizarre combination. And of course, it’s a better number two seller now for quite some time nationwide, Canada, UK. But ah it’s also, you know, a normal trend now. And that’s what you’re seeing like, you know, fast food places now have Carolina Reaper french fries, which, yeah you know, 20 years ago, nobody knew what it was. 04:50.78vigorbrandingYeah. 04:54.17Doug Renfro10 years ago, it was crazy, exotic, ridiculous. And now it’s almost an everyday thing. 04:58.86vigorbrandingRight, right. So we are you Mrs. Renfro then, if you’re making all these recipes? 05:03.42Doug RenfroIf you take the, my grandmother’s on the side of the label, if you put a wig on me and shave the beard, I think that’s what you get. 05:11.51vigorbrandingThat’s fantastic. yeah it’ so Okay, so talking about family here. I mean, you know some family owned companies, you and I know know a lot of people are part of family owned companies. ah Some families require members and future leaders to spend time outside the company. ah Was your time required and did you find that time valuable? And then or or did you and did you always plan? I know you worked there when you were young. Did you always plan on coming back to the company? Talk a little bit about that. 05:36.67Doug RenfroSure. My time was not required. Frankly, when I got out of college, if I had come to work here, I would have been chopping cabbage. 05:43.53vigorbrandingYeah. 05:43.60Doug Renfroah they they The executive positions were filled by my dad and my uncle. s such a tiny We’re small now. We were tiny, tiny back then. So I had to go somewhere else if I wanted to not wear jeans and be covered with cabbage and onions. And I think it was wildly helpful. like When I came back, I had been you know in charge of corporate accounting for a billion dollar company in some areas. and My uncle was still doing pricing on a legal pad with his hand desk calculator. And I said, look, here’s a spreadsheet. And it’s going to instantaneously recalculate the cost of thousands of items in a millisecond. 06:16.59Doug RenfroAnd he saw what that did. And he’s like, can you do that every 90 days from now on? stick yeah Having the discipline and learning and the networking was just fabulous. And I will tell you, we needed a ah filtration system for the fourth generation. So I said, we can’t hire 14 people just because they want to work here. And I said, in that case, for that gen, yes, you have to work somewhere. You have to graduate college. You have to work somewhere else for at least two years and a real job. 06:41.34vigorbrandingyep 06:42.42Doug RenfroAnd then we can talk about management training on your management track. 06:44.65vigorbrandinghere 06:46.70Doug RenfroAnd ah today we have zero fourth-generation working here. But we have we have that off and on. About half of them have done so well they could not remotely afford to take a pay cut and come back here. 06:59.74Doug RenfroYeah. 06:59.93vigorbrandingYeah, that’s great. And my my rule has always been two years and one promotion. 07:01.41Doug Renfroyeah 07:04.61vigorbrandingIf you want to come in the family, in the business, ah you got to, you know, college education, two years and one promotion. So ah and you know what, it’s neither where my girls or seem to be remotely interested. So they’re probably smarter, they but they got a good education. 07:18.22Doug Renfroand And we’ve got our age range on Gen 4 is like 23 to 38. 07:19.88vigorbrandingkind 07:23.63Doug RenfroSo you know some of them, I didn’t come back till I was 29, I think. 07:23.85vigorbrandingMm hmm. 07:27.19Doug RenfroSo there’s you know wait we’ve got lots of time. I’m not ancient yet, but you know I’ve still got some time in me. 07:33.14vigorbrandingYeah, well, yeah, sure. Of course you do. and Now you said, in one of your quotes, it was something like, ah ah if people say their family business journey, if if people have said ah their family business journey has been a smooth road, they’re a smooth liar. 07:46.85Doug Renfroso 07:46.95vigorbrandingah but Talk a little bit about the struggles and the family and all that kind of stuff. 07:47.79Doug Renfrowell 07:51.08vigorbrandingJust, you know, like some of the things you have to overcome, because it’s always amazing to me. ah ah Just, you know, what what all is involved there. 07:59.16Doug RenfroYeah, it’s it’s funny. i’ve I’ve spoken to the TCU family business class like eight years in a row now. And I usually start out with how much time do I have? um But is anyone recording this? I’m like you. But you know, one of the things you deal with is like my late uncle and my dad, they, to me, they see me in diapers when I started talking because that’s how they met me. 08:19.23vigorbrandingMm hmm. 08:19.42Doug RenfroAnd it’s hard, you know, they’ve seen you be a silly kid and get in trouble. And now I’m telling them they need to change the branding. You’re like, you know, what’s this little kid saying, shut up and get back over there. And frankly, if you don’t have, you know, if you don’t demand this much of your ego to be around, one of the secrets I tell them is get somebody without your last name to suggest the same idea you’ve been suggesting that’s been ridiculed. And suddenly, it’s a great idea. 08:42.33vigorbrandingHmm. 08:43.81Doug RenfroAnd actually, it becomes their idea. And as long as you can live with that, you know, if it’s all for the greater good, you know, foul I don’t have to get credit for everything, and I don’t have to get immediate results. It’s slow, steady progress to me. Because you and I have seen a lot of people that you know skyrocket up and then skyrocket back down. 08:59.28vigorbrandingYep, that’s right. 09:00.96Doug RenfroIt’s about gradual process. We have we have no investors. you know We just use bank debt when we need it. um It’s all still family controlled. And because of that, it’s more slow, steady path. But yeah, well I think you know I’ve told you that my dad and my late uncle had a rule. They were 50-50. They had a a little sister who didn’t work here, but she could be a swing vote, but they had an agreement. They never ever did anything important if it wasn’t a unanimous vote. They didn’t go get a tiebreaker. So now my cousins and I who run it, we have 84% of the votes of the company, and we could outvote each other on certain things. 09:30.24vigorbrandingThat’s great. 09:38.26Doug RenfroAnd we’ve done the same thing. if it’s I’m talking about a capital expenditure branding campaign, a new flavor. big things. We have to be unanimous or we don’t do it. I just assume I’m missing something if I can’t convince them both and vice versa. And now that’s key. I’ve seen friends who make a lot more money and have a lot more wealth, who have a sibling they can’t talk to, they’ve never spoken to in 20 years, and it breaks their parents’ heart. And we’ve chosen not to do that. 09:59.72vigorbrandingyeah Yep. 10:02.50Doug RenfroWe’ve we’ve gone with family harmony, so we sub-optimize, but it’s a family business. 10:02.81vigorbrandingYeah. 10:05.90Doug RenfroWe can do that. 10:06.99vigorbrandingYep. And you know, that’s, ah that’s really important. I mean, I know you obviously get it because you said all those words. and and But, but, you know, when you have the family involved, I mean, you know, the family, it’s important. 10:17.69Doug RenfroOkay. 10:18.01vigorbrandingthere’s I don’t know that there’s anything more important than family. And you’re, you know, the the company is what supports the family. And so if they can’t all be harm, if there can’t be harmony, At the end of the day, we have. and so I admire you for that, the way you’re handling it, because ah as you’re you’re right. We’ve seen a lot of ah more, unfortunately, probably more examples than not where you know somebody gets ah iced out, or they’re not talking, or you know the families are completely ah dysfunctional now, you know but maybe maybe the business survives, or maybe it doesn’t. and That’s just tragic. so 10:49.71vigorbrandingAnd so speaking of, your Uncle Bill, you said, I think one of your other quotes in an interview said something like, you can be brutally honest with each other about ideas. ah he could He could call you an idiot and it’s no big deal. So, I mean, that’s that’s that’s a benefit, right? That level of honesty. 11:03.05Doug RenfroYeah, that’s key is that we were i famously tell that story that like I would say to him or he to me that, you know, I think what you just said was the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard from a business perspective, where do you want to go to lunch? Because we didn’t, you know, there was no personal aspect to it. And and that’s key. If you take business things personally, that screws the relationships all up. 11:22.85vigorbrandingso you Now, back to the salsa. You have 20 different flavors. and how do you I know you’re the one that’s ah um coming up with a lot of the different formulas. How are you finding that inspiration? I mean, just out there in the world, i mean you said that the the the the mango habanero came from ah a meal you had somewhere. is that Is that pretty much what you’re looking at, just trends and things like that? 11:42.45Doug RenfroYeah, I tell people I’m cursed to have to eat at the nicest restaurants in the nation and, you know, read cool food magazines and see what’s going on. But yeah, it is that that simple, which is not actually simple, is always looking around. You want to see what’s on the edge. You know, I we developed a bacon queso for a customer. And as you know, a lot of what we do is creating things for other people. Our names know we’re on it. There’s no indication we made it. ah But people looked at us for ideation. I’ve had grocery chains come to me and they’re like, what should we do for a private label salsa? 12:12.69Doug RenfroIt’s going to be our first time. And I don’t mean, we’ll never make the mild, medium, and hot for the big folks, but if they want a pineapple chipotle or something, they were one of the few players that they will come to. 12:19.59vigorbrandingRight. 12:22.91Doug RenfroAnd i’ll I’ll give them my ideas. Half the time they run with that, say make some recipes for us. Half the time they do the total opposite of what I suggested. As long as they pay us, I’m fine. 12:31.59vigorbrandingYeah, makes sense. 12:31.88Doug Renfroum But yeah, you’re looking at, and and as you know with trends, most of them won’t become a mango habanero or a ghost pepper, which are in a habanero, which are top sellers. You know, I thought pomegranate chipotle was a great idea. Not many other people did. ah So, you know, you end up DC and you ski rationalization um is painful, but we do go through that. 12:49.81vigorbrandingWell, and you have to balance that. like you You can be out there too far out on the trends. I mean, a quench, we’ we’re big on trends. We do trends presentations every year, and I know you’ve seen them and been a part of them. And you know so you you see these things that are out there. You want to kind of be first to market, but that can be dangerous because you know maybe maybe the pomegranate is going to be something that will be fantastic maybe in another six months. If you’re too far out in front, you can you can you know get delisted, as you said. or But if you if you would just sit back and be hot and medium and you know mild, I mean, that’s no good either. 13:22.12vigorbrandingSo I really i admire what you’ve done. And I think that the the branding you’ve done and the flavoring you’ve done is fantastic. And just just for all honesty, I don’t do the branding. I mean, your your your design package stuff is impeccable. And I’ve always been a big fan of it. So ah congratulations on that. 13:39.90Doug RenfroThank you. 13:42.28vigorbrandingSo, I mean, now, how many do you try and make? I mean, like, ah is there in your mind, you say, hey, we should come up with two new SKUs a year? Is it sort of like when I find something I like, we’ll make it? ah how does How does that work? 13:55.53Doug RenfroBut it’s two different answers based on when it was. When I came back, we we weren’t really in grocery stores per se. 13:58.43vigorbrandingOkay. 14:02.35Doug RenfroWe were in fruit stands at the time and different things. So we were fighting for our lives. My cousins and I needed more money. Our dads wanted more money. We needed it. You were raising families. 14:12.71vigorbrandingYeah. 14:13.20Doug Renfroand so we were literally being told no constantly go away because we had hot medium mild and green taco sauce. That’s all we had. And so with no permission, one day when nobody was looking, I added black beans to the medium. Then I added the habanero, which was crazy exotic sexy at the time, you know, super hot. And we would, my sales director and I, he’s been with us 32 years and it’s non-family. We would go to retailers around the country and in Canada and say, hey, I know you have a million sauces before you throw me out. We have a black bean and a habanero at an everyday price, not a gourmet price. It gives you variety. And they started saying, yeah, that’s they’re delicious. That makes sense. We love your company and your marketing and your products. And this will give us variety. And they started putting it in and we were just you know making it up praying. And so after that, we did a 15:01.69Doug Renfrobut we A couple of years later, we did Chipotle, corn. we i We were early on Chipotle. Nobody could say it, including our own staff. I walked through the office. I’m here. Chipotle. Chipotle. 15:10.26vigorbrandingbut 15:10.84Doug RenfroI’m like, oh my god, we can’t pronounce our own product. ah Then when you when Chipotle, the chain became big, they taught everybody. And then Jack in the Box made a hilarious ad about how to power pronounce it. And so, yeah, I would look at things, you know, I saw a ghost pepper in a chocolate bar. I’d been watching it for a couple of years. When I saw it in a chocolate bar, and I told the family, I think we can put it in salsa. My uncle thought we were gonna get sued, so we put a crossbones skull on it, ex-scary hot. 15:33.05vigorbrandingHmm. 15:34.74Doug Renfroand The Today Show fell in love with it, gave us a solid minute on the Today Show back when we all watched TV and there were no streaming channels. ah Huge success. But at this point, now we’re mature. 15:45.35vigorbrandingYeah. 15:47.18Doug Renfroand frankly we’re busier than ever on rnd but it’s all for food service co-pack and private label clients with renfro what you’ll see is the big chains will want you to give them two items with a significant slotting and kick out your two slowest ones and i’m like no thank you but if you give us two if you’ll give us two more spots incrementally, we’ll take it, and that happens. But for now, when the when COVID hit, the supply chain fund and the inflation that followed that, frankly, we haven’t come up with a new item since Blackberry Serrano was our last one. 16:20.17vigorbrandingNice. 16:20.37Doug RenfroAnd we’ve kind of hunkered down. So you know maybe Pavone pomegranate is next. 16:25.34vigorbrandingThere you go. I love it. 16:26.20Doug RenfroI’m still thinking. 16:29.01vigorbrandingSo what what is the what is the mix between ah branded sales, I’ll say, and and food service ah percentages? 16:36.24Doug Renfroi And there’s there’s brand
New Sundial contributor Davis Blackwelder brings us a story about his legendary Uncle Bill.
Today, we share Part 2 of a special two-part episode celebrating TC Jacoby & Co's 75th anniversary. We'll talk about the milk industry from the '90s to the dairy world of the future. Join Ted Jacoby II, Gus Jacoby, and Ted Jacoby III for the conclusion of our special 2-part episode as we discuss: The first TC Jacoby & Co. cheese desk Our projection for future growth in U.S. cheese exports Our forecast for the future of the global dairy industry We love the dairy industry and look forward to what the future will bring. So, raise your glass of milk, and let's celebrate TC Jacoby's 75 wonderful years in the U.S. dairy industry. Intro audio (with music): Welcome to the Milk Check, a TC Jacoby & Co podcast where we share market insights and analysis with dairy farmers in mind. Ted Jacoby III (T3): Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Milk Check. Today, we have a special edition of our monthly podcast because this year, 2024, TC Jacoby & Co celebrates 75 years of serving the dairy industry. In honor of this special anniversary, we are publishing a two-episode edition where, in the first part, my father, my brother Gus, and I discuss and – in my father's case – tell tales of the first 50 years of our history. In part two, we share the more recent 25 years as well as our thoughts on what the future of the industry may hold. Welcome to part two. There are a lot of other things that were going on in the 90s. I mean, that all started in the 90s. We started our office in Mexico in the 90s. When I came to work for TC Jacoby & Co. in 1996, I spent about four or five months in St. Louis, and then I moved down to Mexico to help us start that office. That was quite the experience, living for a year in Mexico. Ironically, trying to move cheese to Mexico led me back to the States, and starting to sell it in the States. Eventually, I worked with risk management. At the time, we were moving nonfat dry milk into Mexico. We had a company in Mexico then, so we were TC Jacoby & Co in the U.S. selling to TC Jacoby & Co in Mexico. We were warehousing the product in a warehouse in Mexico, selling whey powder, nonfat dry milk, and various other powders to multiple distributors in the area, but then also moving a little bit of cheese. I had one of my suppliers, the cheddar cheese, cancel on me, and so I was calling around looking for cheddar cheese, and another supplier said, “Not only do I have a load of cheddar for you to ship to Mexico, but I also have about 50 other loads of cheese. You should call the guy who canceled on you and see if he needs any extra.” Next thing I know, I'm moving more cheese back and forth in the U.S. than I'm moving to Mexico. And that was when I called you and said, “Dad, I think I'm going to move back to the States, and I'm going to start up a cheese desk.” That was in 1997, and that's how we started trading cheese. We went through the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, and just about everything you, Uncle Bill, and Uncle Tom moved was mainly fluid. Then, in the 90s, we started moving powder. Bill, I think in the 80s, had begun moving powder and butter in the U.S. Ted Jacoby II (T2): Billy used to move a lot of cream from California to the Midwest. Gus Jacoby: Well, remember that was a big time for us because his development of California and the cost to move fluid product at that time was economically feasible in making cream and condensed products supplied by the California Central Valley and delivered on an annualized contractual basis to places as far as the upper Midwest and even into the Mideastern U.S. at time. Understanding the CDFA and the arbitrage between that and the Federal Orders was another thing we took advantage of for a few decades. So that was a big and successful time for us from a trading standpoint of fluid products. T3: And then he was moving non-fat to many of the mozzarella guys in the Midwest when the mozzarella industry was in its infancy; that was when ...
Today, we share Part 2 of a special two-part episode celebrating TC Jacoby & Co's 75th anniversary. We'll talk about the milk industry from the '90s to the dairy world of the future. Join Ted Jacoby II, Gus Jacoby, and Ted Jacoby III for the conclusion of our special 2-part episode as we discuss: The first TC Jacoby & Co. cheese desk Our projection for future growth in U.S. cheese exports Our forecast for the future of the global dairy industry We love the dairy industry and look forward to what the future will bring. So, raise your glass of milk, and let's celebrate TC Jacoby's 75 wonderful years in the U.S. dairy industry. Intro audio (with music): Welcome to the Milk Check, a TC Jacoby & Co podcast where we share market insights and analysis with dairy farmers in mind. Ted Jacoby III (T3): Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Milk Check. Today, we have a special edition of our monthly podcast because this year, 2024, TC Jacoby & Co celebrates 75 years of serving the dairy industry. In honor of this special anniversary, we are publishing a two-episode edition where, in the first part, my father, my brother Gus, and I discuss and – in my father's case – tell tales of the first 50 years of our history. In part two, we share the more recent 25 years as well as our thoughts on what the future of the industry may hold. Welcome to part two. There are a lot of other things that were going on in the 90s. I mean, that all started in the 90s. We started our office in Mexico in the 90s. When I came to work for TC Jacoby & Co. in 1996, I spent about four or five months in St. Louis, and then I moved down to Mexico to help us start that office. That was quite the experience, living for a year in Mexico. Ironically, trying to move cheese to Mexico led me back to the States, and starting to sell it in the States. Eventually, I worked with risk management. At the time, we were moving nonfat dry milk into Mexico. We had a company in Mexico then, so we were TC Jacoby & Co in the U.S. selling to TC Jacoby & Co in Mexico. We were warehousing the product in a warehouse in Mexico, selling whey powder, nonfat dry milk, and various other powders to multiple distributors in the area, but then also moving a little bit of cheese. I had one of my suppliers, the cheddar cheese, cancel on me, and so I was calling around looking for cheddar cheese, and another supplier said, “Not only do I have a load of cheddar for you to ship to Mexico, but I also have about 50 other loads of cheese. You should call the guy who canceled on you and see if he needs any extra.” Next thing I know, I'm moving more cheese back and forth in the U.S. than I'm moving to Mexico. And that was when I called you and said, “Dad, I think I'm going to move back to the States, and I'm going to start up a cheese desk.” That was in 1997, and that's how we started trading cheese. We went through the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, and just about everything you, Uncle Bill, and Uncle Tom moved was mainly fluid. Then, in the 90s, we started moving powder. Bill, I think in the 80s, had begun moving powder and butter in the U.S. Ted Jacoby II (T2): Billy used to move a lot of cream from California to the Midwest. Gus Jacoby: Well, remember that was a big time for us because his development of California and the cost to move fluid product at that time was economically feasible in making cream and condensed products supplied by the California Central Valley and delivered on an annualized contractual basis to places as far as the upper Midwest and even into the Mideastern U.S. at time. Understanding the CDFA and the arbitrage between that and the Federal Orders was another thing we took advantage of for a few decades. So that was a big and successful time for us from a trading standpoint of fluid products. T3: And then he was moving non-fat to many of the mozzarella guys in the Midwest when the mozzarella industry was in its infancy; that was when ...
Sub to the PPM Patreon to support the show—help us reach our Month of Truth challenge goal of 120 new subs by Sept. 1st: patreon.com/ParaPowerMapping Counterpropaganda is a new intermittent series—this is the opening salvo. We're christening it w/ a feature of films depicting contract killers. Our impetus is the anti-hitman thesis of Linklater's new screwball Netflix noir ironically titled "Hit Man", a piece of subtle albeit messy copaganda that masquerades as lighthearted psychological thriller packed w/ meditations on identity, but which is mostly a sexy romp glorifying entrapment stings, sexing-up confidential informants, & trying to deconstruct the existence of hit men (all things Klonny is decidedly not about). The movie also possesses a mercenary streak its writers Richard & leading man Glen Powell might have thought would serve as an indictment of us & trickstery subversion, but I think it gets lost in its own sauce & genre dalliances. So yr neighborly noid is here to unpack why I disagree w/ the film's framing of (supposedly nonexistent) hitmen & law enforcement moreover, which spills into multiple parts as we dive into a number of IRL "retail" contract killer case studies to pick at the film's seams, resulting in one becoming a full-on, deep history of a little known serial contract killer named Glennon Engleman aka the Killer Driller, a sus dentist who moonlighted as a murderer-for-hire, mastermind of insurance schemes, & Black Widow keeper—and we discover that these serial contract murders, which are a little off the beaten true crime path, cohere w/ McGowan's PTK framework or more recent works like "Eye of the Chickenhawk" to a surprising degree. That investigative research arrives in Pt. II. In this ep, we discuss: The Trump ear nicking assassination attempt (foreshadowing future Counterprop I'd reckon); We cram in a litany of the noir & contract killing films & TV that Klonny's been watching or thinking about in preparation for this, including - Hit Man, The Killer, Kill List, Le Samouraï, Sicario, The Day of the Jackal, The Parallax View, JFK, Rampart, The Shield,... etc. We conduct a perfunctory SUS CHECK on Linklater, which is primarily made up of examining his role in furthering Alex Jones's platform—the Bill Cooper, Ron Paul, & Branch Davidians-connected, fellow Austinian conspi-radio broadcaster & parapolitical research shitcoater. Which means we have to take an obligatory look at JONES'S C I A MOM & POPS, including his sus, implants-designing dentist of a father David Jones, who'd affix microphonic crowns on Agency teeth's (foreshadowing Glennon Engleman in Pt. II, nice) & may have been an operative in his own right... Even provided covert financial support to CA death squads... And Carol Hamman, Alex's Ma, who would help to secure housing accommodations for East German defectors in Texas in the '80s... And then there's Alex's Uncle Bill, who was a heli pilot in 'Nam, conducted Black Ops missions, & likely was involved in the Phoenix Program's extrajudicial assassinations (possibly a Hit Man connection only 2 degrees from Linklater). The other primary focus of our brief SUS CHECK: THE CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS The irony cult cum performance art troupe cum zine collective cum PA TV show cum ARG that Richard Linklater is affiliated with, learning how he's has championed said highly conceptual oddball project in the doc JR "Bob" Dobbs & the Church of the SubGenius. We get into how these exemplars of Austin high weirdness had an indelible impact on Linklater's oeuvre, inspiring his first film Slacker via their gnostic/sexual elemental force dubbed SLACK. We explore how this not-quite-fake cult started by Austin outsiders Ivan Stengs & Philo Drummond, which preaches a sexual & recreational gospel that is also rooted in a voracious syncretizing of basically every conspiracy theory known to man, might just have become a second Scientology if its founders had been a little more zealous. Full notes on Patreon
Propagandar on the TV, Propagandar in the news. His name is Anthony.
CK and Uncle Bill continue their voyage into obscure 80's Slashers! This episode the thrillbillies look at Graduation Day (1981) and Twisted Nightmare (1987)...The Slashin' continues ALL SUMMER LONG!
CK and Uncle Bill dig into obscure 80's Slashers for the ENTIRE summer, it begins here! This episode the boys look at Fatal Games (1984) and Cheerleader Camp (1988)...get your SLASH on with the Pit!
Brian Scolaro is most known for his appearances on “CONAN”, his half hour Comedy Central special “COMEDY CENTRAL PRESENTS: BRIAN SCOLARO”, as Brian on ABC's “A MILLION LITTLE THINGS”, as Doug on TBS's “SULLIVAN AND SON”, Uncle Bill on “TEN YEAR OLD TOM”, his “DRY BAR SPECIAL: TROUBLE”, his Amazon special “I DON'T KNOW WHO I AM EITHER”, and as Stuart on FOX's “STACKED”. Brian has appeared on “SHAMELESS”, “ABBOTT ELEMENTARY”, “DEXTER”, “MAD MEN”, “LAW AND ORDER: SVU”, “BONES”, “CASTLE”, “GREY'S ANATOMY,” “THE MIDDLE”, “SUPERIOR DONUTS”, “I'M DYING UP HERE”, “ALONE TOGETHER”, “NIGHT COURT,”, “THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON”, “GOTHAM COMEDY LIVE”, “LIVE AT GOTHAM”, “COMICS UNLEASHED ”, “MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE”, “GIRL MEETS WORLD”, and has also had recurring roles on “KROLL SHOW”, “LIFE AND TIMES OF TIM”, and “WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE”. He was also a regular castmember on NBC's “THREE SISTERS” as Gordon. He has four comedy albums available on all platforms and is also the author of the book “How to Punch a Monkey” on Amazon. About his role of Stuart Miller on “Stacked”, The LA Times said “Scolaro is terrific. An actual sitcom find.” About his role as Doug on “Sullivan and Son”, Brian Doyle-Murray (Caddyshack) said Brian is “one of the best I've ever seen.”And Marc Maron said on WTF podcast, Brian “might be the funniest fuckin person alive.” Watch Brian's new special, "Brian Scolaro: I Don't Know Who I am Either" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Brian-Scolaro-Dont-Know-Either/dp/B0CWGYN9V3/
Send us a Text Message.Bill Robertson is a screenwriter/producer & playwright who has a feature film, "Paradise a Town of Sinners & Saints", a sinfully funny musical satire, based on a stage production, presently streaming on XUMO. It will also be released June 15th on TUBI, AMAZON PRIME & GOOGLE TV.His next film is ROSES, which is a social commentary on grief, teen trafficking, redemption, & the human connection. Bill is also the author of "Uncle Bill's Animal Tales - Life Lessons for Adults" available on Amazon. It's a humorous and heartfelt book about his experiences with animals over the years, and how he believes they are our greatest healers & teachers. He also worked two careers for many years, as a corporate recruiter and writer, selling scripts to Lifetime, writing for a talking crayon on a kids show, National Lampoon Magazine, and Rick Dees on the radio. He has a passion for animals, nature, politics, sports and service. He is an active member of G4G, Gays for Good doing service work in the LA area where he's lived for the past twenty years.He's also 27 years clean & sober, and claims it's the best thing he's ever done in his life, in addition to adopting his dogs, & coming out in 1985. http://www.paradisebluegrassmusical.com/FIND DAWN HERE: Email: dawnversations@gmailhttps://www.podpage.com/dawnversations/ https://www.buzzsprout.com/2124488https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dawnversations/id1611645700 https://open.spotify.com/show/3nyVFDlLJ0y7S2MQ0ZqiZ5?si=RFLLwSTYQVGta30nkZ2vsg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGZFdplRZmXIguI31KbX2eghttps://www.pandora.com/podcast/dawnversations/PC:1000700495https://www.facebook.com/dawnversations.2024https://www.instagram.com/dawnversations_podcast/ https://www.pinterest.com/dawnwecker12/dawnversations-podcast/ https://www.tiktok.com/@dawnversations https://x.com/Dawnversations1https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnversations-podcast-4a98772b9/https://linktr.ee/dawnversationsMusic from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/francesco-dandrea/a-day-late-and-a-dollar-short License code: EYUYKNS4AFNOD1JO #follow #like #subscribe #pin #share #podcast #apple #spotify #anchorfm #google #amazon #iheartradio #tiktok #facebook #pinterest #instagram #youtube #life #dawnversations #dawnversationspodcast
Uncle Bill is like a media mentor to us, so when he agreed to let us hop in his podcast feed, it felt like getting an A in class. We pulled a few segments from our show this week to give you a sample. Bill loves history, we love history, and you'll hear it woven throughout our show. From discussing the unhinged antisemitism in America and out-of-control immigration, to the cultural issues that are on the brink of jumping the shark, you'll get a little of everything on Clay and Buck. https://podfollow.com/1498106610 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
DEADPIT Radio has embarked on a thrilling journey, exploring the vast and terrifying world of zombie cinema! This week CK and Uncle Bill have delved into a staggering 71 zombie films, dissecting the undead frenzy that has captivated audiences for decades. From classic masterpieces to modern horrors, they've left no tombstone unturned. Tune in to discover their expert analysis, witty banter, and passionate discussions about the zombie apocalypse that has consumed our hearts and screens!
Pour yourself some peppermint schnapps and make sure everyone has brown gloves because today we are talking about Chris Smith's wonderful documentary from 1999, American Movie. Mark Borchardt wants to make movies, and nothing will stop him. We talk about feeling stuck, late night talk shows, walking the line between honesty and mockery, relating to creative people, Uncle Bill and the amazing Mike Schank. Check out Josie's short film GOATS Register for our upcoming live show For all of our bonus episodes check out our Patreon Patreon supporters help pick episodes, monthly themes and get access to all of our additional shows and our Patron exclusive Discord. It's only the price of a single cup of coffee ($5 a month!) Visit our website and send us an email! Follow Movie Friends on Twitter and Instagram Follow us on Letterboxd: Michelle and Seth
This week The Creepy Kentuckian and Uncle Bill welcome your questions in an unprescedented 4 plus hour podcast with special guest participants Born2BeRad, Stuntman Marq and RamboRaph4Life! If you need a big time killer...this podcast is your hookup, holler if ya hear me!
Solidarity with savages. The ultimate phony. Mark Simone (aka Mr. New York) on Trump's chances of pulling NY. Uncle Bill on "Confronting the Presidents."Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuckSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Words mean things. Debt. cancellation. Uncle Bill on Conspiracy TV. Nick Adams, the Alpha King.Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuckSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Yemen's Houthi rebels. The scandal NOT getting covered. Uncle Bill on the big grift. Happy Birthday, Rush.Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuckSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Trump blames DeSantis. Israel's 9/11. Uncle Bill explains what's going to sink Biden. Do you think I'm crazy?Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuckSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.