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