Burnt Hands Perspective
This is a raw and unfiltered look into the state of the restaurant industry as a whole, powered by longtime friends Chef/Owner Antonio Caruana and former bartender turned News Anchor/TV Host Kristen Crowley.
Representing all aspects of the industry from the front to the back of the house we will dig into the juiciest stories and pull from decades of experience in one of the sexiest and most exciting industries in the world...the food and beverage industry.
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Burnt Hands Perspective
Ep 40: From Navy SEAL to Ice Cream Entrepreneur - How to build a food brand that sells
When Navy SEAL Chris Fettes packed an ice cream maker into his cruise box and churned frozen desserts with camel's milk in the deserts of Iraq, little did he know he was laying the foundation for his post-military career. This extraordinary journey from special operations warrior to gourmet ice cream craftsman reveals the unexpected ways passion can transform into purpose.
Chris shares with raw honesty how he navigated the challenging transition from military service to entrepreneurship, addressing the psychological shift from team-based validation to self-validation required for business success. "If you're not willing to start from the bottom," he explains, "you're never going to move forward in the culinary world." This philosophy led him to invest $4,000 in ice cream formulation school before earning his first dollar—a decision that seemed questionable to others but proved essential to developing his exceptional product, Be Free Craft Ice Cream.
What sets Be Free apart isn't just the remarkable creaminess and innovative flavors (like tea and cookies or mascarpone with fig jam), but the heartfelt connection to service. Flavors like "Millie Mint" and "Point Man Pistachio" honor fallen teammates, with proceeds supporting their families. The business has evolved from home deliveries from coolers to a thriving café in Virginia Beach and now distribution deals that will take the brand nationwide. (look out for it soon!)
Whether you're a culinary enthusiast, aspiring entrepreneur, or simply someone who appreciates an inspiring story of reinvention, Chris's journey demonstrates how discipline, determination, and a willingness to start small can transform a simple passion into something extraordinary. Check out Be Free at their Virginia Beach Cafe location or follow their expansion:
WEBSITE: https://befreeicecream.com/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/befreecraft_cafe
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Burn hands perspective. Here we are. Listen, you introduce this. Oh, I get to introduce him. Yeah, you do it.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, so this is someone I know I was going to say our Mario Lopez lookalike Chris Bettis yeah, who is representing the ice cream world for us today, but has a really cool story of BeFree and how it came to be and working in spec ops community, being in the military, growing up with this. So we want to hear the whole journey of ice cream, because I think a lot of people think you just make it, it's good, but you do gourmet, which is like next level, freaking insane ice cream that I love so much. So we're excited that you're here today, thank you.
Speaker 1:Cool story, really cool story, and not only is it a cool story, but it's going to be an ongoing story in his life, because you switch from something you were doing that had nothing to do with us to something that you have nothing to do with, and it's just going to continuously get more nuts and you're going to probably at some point, question why in the fuck am I doing this?
Speaker 3:I think yeah, if you haven't already, yeah, absolutely. I think scaling for me is scaling. Every step of the way is going. I don't know what the hell I'm doing, no matter how far I go, I don't think we do so whenever you have passion in what you're doing, no matter what.
Speaker 1:that's the case. So, being a chef and being a restaurant owner and whatever it is with your reframe and all your stuff, no matter what we do, we always ask that question because it's never good enough.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So if it's never good enough, when the hell does it end? So you're always in this constant stress factor of getting better and growing and it's just never going to dude. So after 14 years now of doing this, I'm going to be the first one to tell you that when you step into the food world, the culinary world or the hospitality world, if you're passionate in what you're doing, it's never going to get better. Yeah, there's no end, there's no tunnel, there's a light, but it's way over there.
Speaker 2:We brought you here for the positivity today.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Totally for the positivity.
Speaker 3:I give up. I put it as positive because we love it.
Speaker 2:It's a sickness. It's a sickness. I think you've seen scarier things, yeah let's get to that.
Speaker 3:Let's see where you're coming from. Man Speaking of scary, real quick Hell's Angel thing and I'm like I think that's badass.
Speaker 1:One thing has nothing to do with the other, right? Yeah, but it kind of does, because it's my life and your history is your life and we include it and we work these things into our life and everything applies actually. Everything applies how you deal with people, how you handle things, how your stress level goes.
Speaker 2:Actually that was one topic we wanted to talk about Coming from the SEAL teams into business ownership. You have to manage people way different too, joking aside, I can't imagine being a Hell's Angel organization.
Speaker 3:I'm sure you have structure, teams, we have accountability, all the same things, similar things, it all falls down to that.
Speaker 1:It really falls down to accountability. We all have personal accountability. That's something you prove to each other. To get there In this world, though, there's. We all have personal accountability. Yeah, yeah. And that's something you prove to each other to get there, right, yeah. So in this world, though, there's no accountability other than someone wanting a fucking paycheck. That's the shock factor.
Speaker 2:They don't give a shit. Some of them don't Now.
Speaker 1:I'm lucky and fortunate enough to have great teams.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's people that slip through the gate every time, but depending on where you are in, snip it at the bud sooner, but sometimes they sneak through the cracks, man yeah but I'm thinking at your level of what it is you have to do you and the clownery phase.
Speaker 1:Well, not only that, but you have to deal. You're the passion, you're, you're the passion, and there's not much room for anyone else to come in and recreate your ice cream right. So it's something you have to do. So you have a lot. I'm sure you have a lot of kids scooping the ice cream or working the storefront or selling the merch and that's where they're. A lot of them are there for the paycheck.
Speaker 1:So I think you have a lot more of them than you do. Career people right so back, back to that I know I've begun, so that's the difference between dealing with your teams or my, my brothers in the club, or and we don't really have to deal with them this way because they're already accountable yeah, they've already signed up for what they sign up for. Now we're accountable to each other, so the buffoonery is on a different level. It's a lot more. Yeah, it's a lot when it is a problem.
Speaker 3:it's a yeah, and I've learned in 10 months that it's like I had no standards starting out because I didn't know what I was kind of getting into.
Speaker 2:On the business side.
Speaker 3:I didn't apply a lot of that structure and stuff. I learned in the teams and the guys like him that he learned, you know, in his chapter or whatever, and I'm like now I'm already fixing it. You know, switching that sort of mindset they go. Oh, we need to have a high standard that people meet, you know.
Speaker 1:Right, and not only a high standard, but you also have to have a high level of patience. Oh, absolutely so much more patience. See, in the teams or with me, things get to an escalated level. You deal it out, you duke it out and then you're back to living life and everything's good, oh my God, here you can't punch your employees in the face. You can't punch your employee in the face anymore.
Speaker 3:No, you'll spiral. You don't have time Like. If you want the best solution, you have to have patience.
Speaker 1:The only cool ones you can punch in the face, the guys that are cool or that can take the punch and carry on realizing that it was worth it. You know they're all right, so tell us how you started. How did ice cream get into all this whole structure?
Speaker 3:dude. In childhood I just grew up cooking. My grandmother is Japanese. She immigrated with my grandfather during Vietnam. He was stationed there for a while. That's where they met. She's just like the culinary source for our family All the recipes and the sushi and the wontons and all the things. So all Asian infusion, basically at your house. Asian infusion for sure. When I make up a huge bowl of wontons it's like the neighborhood hears about it and they're over for dinner.
Speaker 2:Going to dinner, I'm coming.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll bring you some. So yeah, just like my younger son does this, if I'm in the kitchen he's there watching and you can tell that he's paying attention to everything. And my older son helps out sometimes, but he's a little more of the analytical-minded type. Helps out sometimes, but he's in, you know he's. He's a little more of the analytical minded type, you know, so you'd probably be reading a book or something you know and the little one doesn't read books we all have that right.
Speaker 2:So who started?
Speaker 3:who started making the ice cream like taught you um so I didn't make that much ice cream, but I did have, you know, a little machine when I was a kid and it was like you know, my sister's got an easy bake oven.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I remember using that more like the snoopy snow cone machine type of shit.
Speaker 3:Yeah like uh, you know, I can make like this much brownies in that thing you know, and then make like two bites ice cream.
Speaker 3:Yeah, with those, just a little cuisine art you know type machines but, um, you know, fast forward, I really didn't start it just ice cream, it really started with just that's just my favorite thing, you know. So I think my mom told me one story where we were in Japan when I was little. We lived there for a couple of years because, you know, she married, remarried my, my, my father, my stepfather, who's I consider my father, and he was in the Air Force. So we, you know, we lived there for like four years.
Speaker 3:Oh gotcha when I was younger, seven until I was about almost 12. But we'd go get, would go get ice cream, and you know there's just one story where my ice cream scoop was falling off and, like you know, I had this just cat-like reaction and just caught caught it in my hand there was no time to miss that. Yeah, and that's the moment where she was like wow, ice cream's your your favorite thing you know that's it so well, that needs to be a t-shirt, bro.
Speaker 1:A skeleton hand with the ice cream falling. Yeah, yeah, you have only one choice, me and Virtue had some Catch it or not. Oh, there you go Catch it or fail. Yeah, let it go.
Speaker 3:Me and Virtue had some comedy ideas for media, where we're going to go like I'm just going to put ice cream ready, just wet and healthy, I love it, it doesn't surprise me at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's just my favorite thing in the world. You know if it was my last you know day, that's your last meal. That would be mine yeah.
Speaker 1:So, before making your own, finding ice cream that you liked is the hard part, and I have a story of my own for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But so what the hell were you eating before?
Speaker 3:Briars. What were you?
Speaker 1:going.
Speaker 3:Dude, just like Baskin Robbins, is everything that I remember from childhood, that was your move.
Speaker 1:Baskin Robbins, 24 flavors yeah, once I could, what?
Speaker 3:was it 31? 31? 31 flavors or something.
Speaker 2:Baskin Robbins, I don't know Somebody's got to fact check that.
Speaker 3:So, we had Carvel when I was young. Oh, I love blizzards. I had one the other day. Yeah, me too. I'll roll through Oreo cookie, one Once every couple of weeks. Yep Reese's.
Speaker 1:Oreo cookie one for real.
Speaker 2:So fast forwarding so we get through that stage. You went into the military.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Did you go out in the military like right out of school?
Speaker 3:I was, you know, messing around for a couple of years, but I really was just, you know, getting in trouble and not not doing much with my life. Really, I just didn't have any direction.
Speaker 1:That's a good story.
Speaker 3:That's my favorite story kind of a skateboard, you know kind of a loser kid, you know. You know, um living in my friend's houses and you know, partying and going to raves and stuff back then and just like wasting time basically. So, uh, you know, 9-11 happened and I kind of like, just kind of woke up to go. Man, I really um could imagine myself doing something, you know, towards this, that something it just like came together in my mind to go. I have an opportunity to go, just do something meaningful with my life, right, and um, I just had memories of talking about the SEAL teams with friends in high school and stuff like that. And you know I wasn't. I don't think anybody in my family would have guessed that I was going to go in the military, and so you not only went, you went hard, you went hard.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think that's yeah.
Speaker 1:You are military.
Speaker 3:We are going for the bottom, Just like you're going for the top tier top tier operators. Yeah, so yeah For the rest of my life. That kind of set the tone to go if I'm gonna go do something you know I want to go try to do. Yeah, just be be the best that I can at it you know.
Speaker 3:So that's kind of drove me towards, you know, the rest of my, my path is like, hey, if I'm gonna go in, I'm gonna go to the seal teams, you know, then I gotta go to the best seal team, and you know. And then after that I gotta go get a job and then if I want to start a business I gotta try to make it the best you know.
Speaker 1:Version that's a great. That's a great habit. That's a bad, that's a bad habit, but it's a great one yeah, so we have to be perfect, we can lose things along the way trying to do that which I have as well yeah but it's something that you just can't. It is what it is, and that's just the way it is the things that are going to be there in the end are going to be there in the end, the ones that hold on yeah, um but it's.
Speaker 1:It's not an easy. It's not an easy habit to have habits, the wrong word. What is it not a habit? A curse right?
Speaker 2:it's a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing. It's a blessing for everyone around you and it occurs over other things in your life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got to find a balance between high level and perfection, because perfection is not perfection. That'll, that'll ruin it, you're never going to get perfection.
Speaker 1:I don't know what perfect is. I know what not being perfect is, but I don't know what perfect is because every time I achieve something I'm trying to do and it seems like it was too easy or something like that, that wasn't perfect.
Speaker 3:So what the?
Speaker 1:hell is perfect. I keep going. It's a curse, it's a drug, it's an addiction.
Speaker 3:Maybe perfect is realizing that there is no perfect. Maybe who?
Speaker 1:knows, maybe that's true. So you became a SEAL. You went to Bud's, you did all that and in your mind you're just thinking about I just need an ice cream right now. So you're sitting there treading water, you're doing the thing with the log on the beach, you're doing the buddy stuff in Bud's. You're Chocolate, ice cream, what are?
Speaker 3:you thinking yeah, mint chocolate chip.
Speaker 1:Now, if my son Declan was here right now, he'd be fighting, he's a little guy You'd probably beat him. However, he will fight for some milk, chocolate chip, ice cream.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll fight again. He'll throw hands for ice cream.
Speaker 1:Throw hands, let him and the little brother, fight over the last one in there.
Speaker 3:I end up eating it. Yeah, you take them down real quick, but this is one of my favorite stories is that you were the guy in the teams who made ice cream and you got to tell everybody. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean how the hell you make ice cream in the middle of the desert, why I joined at all and sort of my path through everything and then and then things that I had to sort of figure out afterwards in myself.
Speaker 3:All you know kind of revolved around validation, you know, and like you know, like just, and everybody needs, needs it. But we're in a world right now, in 2025, where, like so many people just require constant validation because we're just insecure in general.
Speaker 1:Well, there's so many avenues to get validation now that it's ingrained us that we need to achieve it.
Speaker 3:It's like entitlement.
Speaker 1:Social media likes comments.
Speaker 2:DMs, all that stuff.
Speaker 1:These are things this is the validation you're speaking of.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think that now being I'm self-validating, you know, so sorry.
Speaker 1:No, you're right. No, you're right. I mean go on. Sorry, I'm just I'm into what you're saying.
Speaker 3:Oh, thanks, yeah. Yeah, I try to catch myself. I'm trying to get better at that. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:It's like Not requiring it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well it's kind of you need it because you guys are working to get, you're constantly getting.
Speaker 3:It is literally yeah everything it's about is your reputation yeah you know you not only survive but thrive.
Speaker 3:You know you, you just constantly need validation from everybody. But even to have awareness, to know where you're, where you stand in the team, right. So after that's all done, it's like, pretty quickly, I learned, if you don't learn how to self-validate, it's just you're going to struggle. It's really hard, like you got to let go of that, that that need and requirement for validation, even more than just the average person is like. And then you go into business and you're like wow, I learned really fast. You know that you, I have to be self-validating Because you must know, with so much experience, that you don't have time to wait for validation from everybody to make decisions and to do things.
Speaker 1:And they don't want to give you credit. You're right and saying that I used to do that and catch myself all the time fucking up wasting time Because you're waiting to get validated, sometimes by people who aren't worthy of the validation. Yeah, they know less, or they don't understand what you're doing and they're going to give you an opinion based on what they would have done, but they'll never fucking do a day in their life because they don't have the gumption to get out of bed early enough to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So therefore, you're right. Right, I want to know how you validate this. Validate, like she said at the beginning, making ice cream in the desert, yeah, underway, I couldn't even imagine cooking eggs like that man, of course I have, but you know it's, tell me about this exciting shit, because I can just imagine everyone's sitting around like what the fuck is chris?
Speaker 2:what's he doing over there, man?
Speaker 3:yeah, oh, he's making an ice cream social, yeah, sitting around like yay machine Everyone's sitting around like yay, yeah, only certain guys knew because, like I said, because of that validation thing, I actually was kind of shy about my creative side of things.
Speaker 2:Well, you've got to be tough. Well, you don't want someone saying, yeah, you're a pussy because you're over there making ice cream. You don't want to be teased because of something you're doing.
Speaker 1:Same thing with the Hells Angels. It's hard for a Hells Angel and myself to say like hey, that's a badass Hells Angel, but looking at him, he's sous-viding an octopus. I will beat your ass and sit down at the table and eat dinner with you after.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you'll eat what I cook and you're going to like it.
Speaker 1:Who cares?
Speaker 3:right, they don't understand it.
Speaker 1:The passion I have for my art and you have for your art has nothing.
Speaker 3:Don't be confused. What it has to do with us being men on other things. Oh dude, now it's like I know what it means and what it is and I have no problem with it. If I'm at a bar with a bunch of Hell's Angels and I get a Shirley Temple, I'm like the fuck, are you drinking you little pussy? And they're like the fuck, are you drinking you little pussy? I'm like, well, I normally just drink whatever I want to drink.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I drink. Right, exactly, and not only that, I'll get my ass. I'll buy them a whiskey after that. I'll go a step further. I'll get my ass beat and still eat dinner with you.
Speaker 2:Either way it's happening. Either way you're going back to the ice cream and the food.
Speaker 3:That's true about fighting level most badass you know motherfuckers in the world like the like ufc fighters. What are they doing after the fight's over? No matter who wins, somebody gets knocked out yeah, the guy who knocked him out and the guy that got knocked out. They're hugging. They're eating ice cream. They're hugging.
Speaker 2:You know they're crying they're releasing all of that energy they're normal that up to that and and then they're there for each other.
Speaker 3:You know, in a way, where just before that they were trying to kill each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, you know. All right, so back to. We got to get to making this stuff yeah, we're dodging the subject.
Speaker 1:You guys want to tell us how to make ice cream in the desert.
Speaker 2:I know I can see what's going on here, so I've heard this story like second hand I've never heard it from you, so I don't know how much of it is like you know where they're making. You just seem like it was this huge production.
Speaker 3:No, it wasn't a big deal. Actually, it was pretty quiet. It was like it was kind of a secret and only yeah, so I upgraded. You know, when I got to seal team 10 2006, ish, I upgraded to this machine that was like a two quart, you know Italian machine called. It's called a Lello Musso, I think on Amazon if you look it up. Okay, 5800 model, so it makes two quarts. Okay, cool, I'm writing this down because I want to make some. Yeah, it serves from the top. I have one I can give you that one.
Speaker 1:So that's perfect, I'm getting gifted by the master. It means something, because it was making ice cream with camel's milk in Iraq.
Speaker 2:So we're revealing now Camel's milk. Okay, go for it, yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know from Mark, we have those big boxes, we pack all our gear, all of our stuff. So you're a cruise box.
Speaker 1:Cruise box Normally each guy has a Metal fold-up cruise box. Is that what it is? They're like Pelican cases. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2:You know like what these?
Speaker 3:guys instead of the booze box. Because I'm pretty allergic to alcohol anyways, I kind of forced myself to drink.
Speaker 2:I'm allergic to it too.
Speaker 1:You have the Asian gene Every time I get drunk, it never works out. Well, no, but you have the Asian gene.
Speaker 2:I really do, yeah, so he has to actually take medicine before he drinks, so that he doesn't blow up and get out.
Speaker 3:I was a drinker, but I just still did it to sort of fit into the culture, and then it just became a normal thing. So I just packed that machine into I got a picture of it somewhere Packed that machine into a cruise box and then after some missions we'd come back, I'd pull it out and just whip up two quarts of ice cream, because that's kind of why it was a secret too is it wasn't enough for everybody.
Speaker 1:So it just runs out of electricity.
Speaker 3:You dump your milk, your product, all your sweet, all your ingredients inside. I was just using ice cream, uh formulas that I found online. You know, back then I didn't have my asking g, I didn't know how to formulate it myself that was before google, right?
Speaker 3:yeah, like ask the beginning yeah yeah, that was you had to do some research and get some books. You know there's some, a couple old school ice cream ice cream books that were, uh, really good for that. Um, but for the most part I could just walk across to the little, you know dinky little chow hall where you know they contracted, you know, local iraqis to work in. You know we come back from a mission every before we even shower up or everybody get in there with their dusty gear right, get their, get their eggs scrambled up and, you know, eat breakfast and then roll out and go to bed for the next night. So I'll just stay up a little bit longer and whip up some ice cream and, you know, if there's a couple of guys left that were still up, we'd eat the ice cream.
Speaker 1:How long did it take to churn and make Like? 15 minutes for a batch, that's it. Wow, that's quick for them.
Speaker 3:We're making ice cream now, yeah 15, 20 minutes If you chill the mix first. And I was just making vanilla, it was pretty easy. I had a bunch of extracts, so that's always easy, but to flavor it up I was just using whatever was available. I was smashing up bananas that they shipped over to that chow hall, but it was pretty easy to get figs. So there was a couple Terps. There's this one Terp named Johnny Walker.
Speaker 3:He's actually pretty known out there because he obviously likes drinking. Johnny Walker, probably the most badass. I mean, he's probably got more combat experience than any SEAL I've ever known. He just was like through the duration of that war, of all of iraq, he was he, you know, he was working for it for every seal, you know all the seal teams that were out there. So he had no fear of like the environment and it was easy. Hey, johnny, I could really use some figs, but I can't go off base and to bad guy land, you know, from here unless we're on a mission, and I can't go to the market when I'm on a mission, you know. So he a couple times grabbed figs and you know, like whatever apples or whatever they had out there and I was making, so he was like.
Speaker 1:He was like red on uh shawshank redemption yeah, he was bad, I can get you something yeah I heard you. I heard you're a man that can acquire things. Yeah, and I'm doing.
Speaker 3:I'm plugging this on purpose, because you gotta love him, he's out there. He wrote a book. He's out in San Diego.
Speaker 1:Johnny Walker, this is for you. Yeah, him and his family are now here, so they've immigrated over afterwards.
Speaker 3:So he grew up in Mosul and the bad guys killed his brother and he became a translator for the good guys and it's a crazy cool story.
Speaker 1:It's in a story you can read in his book. Yeah, yeah, so story. It's in a story you can read in his book, so check out, johnny.
Speaker 3:Walker's book Plug, and I don't know if he remembers the ice cream stuff, because he knows hundreds of missions.
Speaker 2:How do you not remember having ice cream in Iraq In the middle of it all? It's the world around.
Speaker 3:And we were drinking heavy between those missions too.
Speaker 1:So there were some nights where I can't remember the ice cream, ice cream social. Get a little drunk, have a little ice cream.
Speaker 3:And it kind of just went from there and it was just always in my mind. But when I went to Dev Group I didn't pull it out much because the reputational validation thing became even more intense, where it was like I got to fit in here. That's one of the criteria for having a good career there is fitting in, and if you don't, you could be out. Just for that reason.
Speaker 2:Even if you perform good, don't play that like you're not copacetic with everybody that's there, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there's all these different factors, but that's for sure one of them.
Speaker 1:So, no matter what faction of life you're in, validation or being part of the crew is not ever going to go away. It doesn't matter what that's just the way it is. I think that's in every life, no matter what you do. I think that's human race. I think that's just the way it is Human nature.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so fast forward to after, when I just went through the struggle of transitioning and sort of reinventing myself and trying to transform myself, to let go of all the shit and the stuff that I just didn't need to be anymore and be who I want to be.
Speaker 3:That's part of the. The thing about entrepreneurship that I'm learning real fast is the the doors don't open and things don't really start to happen in in the profound way that they're happening to me right now, until I really got right with god and really, like, went through a very specific decision to, to make a change and transform myself into the person that's worthy of walking through those doors and so like, once you feel that and you actually commit the time like it's been years, to, to, to, to a process of years, and then once entrepreneurship, you know, is there, it's like all right, you know I'm worthy of this. And once you really focus and just really go for, go for it and just really focus, you know, without all the bullshit and all those other distractions, it's like my personal life improves and then my business is just like we're now on like a rocket ship of growth with this distribution thing, right, so you?
Speaker 1:want. Before you get to that, let's go in the middle. So you got. So you got home. You were digging right into this ice cream. People started liking it. I've tasted your ice cream, I think two years ago maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was yeah For the first time and it was like, oh shit, this is really good. One of my bartenders actually stopped and got it somewhere and brought it in and we were all sitting around it and I used to work at an ice cream place when I was a kid probably 15 years, 16 years old.
Speaker 1:I worked at a place making ice cream, so it was up in Maine, it was in New England. So New England's a huge ice cream area. You either have shit ice cream, but most of it is really taken seriously.
Speaker 2:The small towns all have their dairy joy or their you know what I mean, and they're all local homemade ice cream places. And this one place I worked at was called big dipper right and they had all kinds of flavors.
Speaker 1:We would. It was one big machine and we would just dump ingredients in it and they would dump out into, like a cambro bucket, a round bucket, yeah, and that's how it would be. And after that we put it down in the fridge, down in the freezer, the old school the old school and those is what we would serve out of, and there would be rows of them, you know, and it'd be all kinds of great flavors, like bubble gum and, you know, great, great nut yeah great nut cereal.
Speaker 1:We had great enough and it was good, this was back in the freaking night, early 90s, late 80s. Right, yeah, the mint chips, the uh almond joy, the all. That's the coconut rum, all all these crazy good flavors yeah, and it was so creamy and it was so smooth, and I still haven't found ice cream like that yet until I had yours. Oh, thank you. And once I had yours, because you have that. It is a more northern style. It's a more northern, rich, creamy, lactic. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now we can talk nerd culinary stuff yeah yeah, there's science to it, for sure. When you were in the desert. I'm imagining your ice cream was good because it was there and there was nothing like it, so it was good. However, I'm sure tell me if I'm wrong. I could be 100%. Maybe I am. I'm imagining, though, just with my knowledge and stuff like that, with the climate and everything else, it was probably coming out more crystally, a lot more frozen, a lot more icy.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Your milk was frozen, but it was more crystallized and kind of crunchy a little bit yeah, I didn't have a good.
Speaker 3:You know I hadn't learned how to do formulas myself to get to get ice cream the way I want and that's, that's where I'm going.
Speaker 1:So you just hit the word, so formulating from that chunk to non-junk, right? Yeah, you had to go through stuff in order to get on a national level or start producing the way you are or to start getting incorporated the way you are. You have to really grasp people's mouths, taste buds, interests, and it all comes from quality, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So anyone can make ice cream. You're gonna give me this machine, right? I'm holding you to it, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna put some stuff in that machine and it's not gonna come out the way you did it. I don't care what it is, it's very important, especially for the younger generation. The reason why yours is good is because you formulated it on your own. You had to ask Jeeves and that was the only assistance you had. Now you can go online and just say Google how do I make ice cream. It'll tell you exactly how to make ice cream and then you make the ice cream and it's going to come out nine times out of ten.
Speaker 1:Okay, decent, good. But no one's going to have to go any better than that, because they're never going to have to have to go better than that, because they can just ask the next question how do I make this ice cream better? And it might just come out better. You learned how to do it from the beginning and now you can write the script on the fucking computer. Yeah, so people are missing that whole fucking thing. Listen to this folks, everyone out there, every camera. When you start in the culinary world, whether you're making ice cream, pasta sauce, pizza dough, it doesn't matter. If you're not starting from the fucking beginning, you're going to always be chasing everyone else.
Speaker 3:You have to formulate your own system by starting at the goddamn bottom yeah, or you're going to have to go back and correct or learn something that you just don't Right.
Speaker 1:If you're not willing to do that, you're never going to move forward in the culinary world. And you experienced that because you learned you had a passion for this before it became a job.
Speaker 3:I think when you become yeah, when you become an entrepreneur, I'm glad I go back and go man. I'm grateful that I don't know why I did this. Why did I go spend $4,000 to go to ice cream formulating school? You know which they also do a little bit of the business side of stuff too, and the dairies.
Speaker 2:There's an ice cream school.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's an ice cream school.
Speaker 1:That's how I learned how to do it, but there is like a chef school. There is points that need to be made by going oh it does? It only helps you get the basis for what you kind of didn't know and you should know, but it doesn't help you grow out into who you are.
Speaker 3:It only gives you the basics.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's necessary, yeah so it's essential to go because you're going to learn something?
Speaker 3:I think so because one thing that, um, the first accounting firm that this this was a thing I learned too is like trash, you know, like they did my bookkeeping. But I learned it, man. I really needed to get a good controller eventually, right, which now I have an amazing one, but but then it was like 200 bucks a month. They do your bookkeeping. I was doing a better job than they were at my bookkeeping, but when I, when they sold me on that sort of little contract, the guy in the firm that came in to do the sale was like you know, one of the things he said has now helped me. Or he's like you know, you know you're gonna be good with the ice cream thing. You gotta, you know we'll do your accounting or whatever, but it's really hard to fuck up ice cream right. And I was like yeah, how hard is it?
Speaker 3:basically, we're just saying like it's, it's an easy thing, it is, you can go make ice cream easily, just like you said, but you can go make a sandwich yeah, right, but you go buy a sandwich or you can go make pasta.
Speaker 3:But you go to luce and it's bomb ass. Right, pasta there's, there's more to the higher level stuff. And then you know, intuitionally, I go back and think of myself from eight years ago because it's so stressful getting out, you know, getting your new job, and then having to tell my wife like hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna before, like I start really start this new job, I'm gonna go spend this money to go do this. And she's like why? It's like like why do you have to?
Speaker 2:do. That's a fun, because in the future I don't know how to start. Well, the best part is and I know his, I know his wife very well, so to sit there and say, hey, I just got out of the teams, I'm going to go spend all this money on ice cream and her.
Speaker 3:That could be a red flag for them to be like oh God, what is he? You know she did laugh.
Speaker 2:I mean nobody. In the beginning I think was like they were like oh cute, he's going to make ice cream like he loves it.
Speaker 3:It's great. And then you but the support was real.
Speaker 2:Though the support in the marriage was real, she did support you, jumping in way more than you expected.
Speaker 1:And now she's part of the team, if not most of the team.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, she runs it with me Right.
Speaker 1:And that's great. The faith in it worked both ways and it worked out perfect for you.
Speaker 3:She had faith that I couldn't even see for so many years. And then we went through the struggle of starting up and in a and I really learned when we were building the cafe out that she had faith the whole time. And then, once that came together, I was like, oh my god, the doors just opened up for for growth, with the strengths and the thing that she does and the in the way that I do, you know, the creativity and vision stuff, it's like it's amazing. But at first it's so hard because you know nobody can see that. You know, like I see this thing, just like when I went to the ice cream school.
Speaker 3:I'm like I don't know why. I can't explain. You know why I need to pay this four thousand dollars right now when I need to put food on the table first. But I just know that in the future I need this and it's just an intuitional thing and there's been so many moments of intuition that I did something that are now paying off later it costed me so much up front right it didn't seem to make sense and look crazy to people now the four thousand dollars.
Speaker 3:You're looking at it like that was the best four thousand dollars I could have probably now my wife yeah, absolutely, and my wife um loves to do help me with the merch stuff because she's, she's, she's stylish.
Speaker 3:You know, she's kind of a trendsetter because they're fun, but I did the designs ahead where, you know, before we even opened the cafe and I was, you know, I didn't just make, I didn't even make a dollar in you know three years. You know I actually the fact the first year of starting I was negative 40 grand for my family while she was supporting the family. And but my point is like, while I was doing that, some of that cash I was spending was on designs because I'm, you know, have a creative mind and now it's paying off because every time she wants to do a merch drop, I have a library of designs to choose from and they're all really good, awesome designs, and I don't have to stress out about that.
Speaker 1:Sure, and that's important. Image is just as important as your product, if not more so. What's the saying? A pound of image is worth an ounce of performance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so true.
Speaker 1:So it is true. So you know you have to back your product up. You can't have a fake image. You know what I mean. Your image has to be better than your product, but your product has to be better than everyone else's. So that's kind of what you're doing. So, your ice cream shop. Where is it located? Right now we have some ice cream. Yeah, we actually are going to try it.
Speaker 2:Actually, I want to back because I think what you hit on is that for the first year, you lost money.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I don't think people.
Speaker 2:You just opened a cafe, so that's new within this last year, but you had this business for several years prior and you have to tell I mean the lengths you went to to deliver ice cream to people locally Like he's local in Virginia. Beach and literally had coolers and had people pulling up to his house to pick up their ice cream.
Speaker 1:It's the only way. Yeah, I mean, you worked your ass off. When I started Luce the first time, it was the same type of thing, thank you. I said it too, I was like we're going to try some ice cream, Like I'm not the most excited fucker in this room, right now I'm just trying this bro.
Speaker 1:We got ice cream galore. We're going to talk and eat, so do you have what we? Now? I know that you're just opening up this shop. In a sense You're kind of new to it. Yeah, we're like only 10 months in, 10 months in, so you're dealing now with the. But it's amazing and it's rewarding and I love it. I know I talk down on it a lot, but I'm only talking down for those who don't understand what we go through.
Speaker 3:They don't know what it takes.
Speaker 1:But I absolutely love it. I do there's parts of it I hate but like in any job. You're going to hate something.
Speaker 2:You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean. Yeah, getting dust down the barrel of a weapon is just as annoying as a bad employee. So it doesn't matter what you're doing. You have to clean, you have to fix it, you have to go through it. These are all things that happen, yeah, so you're going to hire somebody that's going to be a shithead in the end. You're going to hire someone that takes advantage of you. You're going to hire someone who thinks they're the reason why you are here and you weren't making desert freaking ice cream.
Speaker 3:That is the story going on this year. What?
Speaker 1:That is some of my, so we have branded packaging, like that Branded packaging.
Speaker 3:But we ran out and you know we've got some more and these are like the precursors to these are the pre.
Speaker 2:Oh, pina colada, this is going to be fun. She said, pina colada, I got my attention really quick.
Speaker 1:There's. It's the precursor to the vibe of our packaging when we get into stores towards the end of this year and into next year. What's your favorite one? Do you have a favorite? I hate that question but what's that question?
Speaker 3:It's hard because I like the innovative flavors. We've come up with a couple really cool ones. I made once mascarpone cheese base ice cream with fig jam. That I really love. I did the marzipan rainbow Italian cookies flavor marzipan flavor with those cookies in there. So those are a couple of my favorite innovative kind of flavors. Peanut butter pork belly was a really good one.
Speaker 1:I love anything. Peanut butter, peanut butter chocolate, peanut butter chocolate banana.
Speaker 2:I wish I brought one Chocolate and banana.
Speaker 1:All that shit man.
Speaker 2:Okay, so there is, yeah.
Speaker 1:I had peanut butter and banana.
Speaker 3:I just didn't bring it, millie mint chocolate chip. That's probably. I know you want that my favorite, because I think mint chocolate chip is probably my favorite classic flavor. Oh it came apart.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow so what is this now?
Speaker 3:Millie is short for Milliken, so this is a flavor named after one of my greatest teammates that was killed in combat.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's amazing. So you're naming stuff after your—so there's a history to—.
Speaker 2:Some of the names.
Speaker 1:Yeah, seal teams and your heritage and everything is going right into this yeah.
Speaker 3:I've named two flavors like that after teammates that have fallen. That's some bullshit.
Speaker 1:In my mind this is bullshit.
Speaker 3:This one's a spearmint and peppermint mix, so it's not just mint like normal artificial mint flavor, it's like real extra.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not, and that's the funny part, it's not green this isn't even funny.
Speaker 1:I used to steep the leaves, but now I have to make so much Come on man, I can't steep.
Speaker 3:You know three tons of mint leaves.
Speaker 2:Okay, so basically, and you built the brand obviously based on your combat history, so the whole thing about leafy leaves.
Speaker 1:You're not just saying it like that it I'm going to tell you something.
Speaker 3:I have point man, pistachio, that is another one of my favorites, just because I know how hard I worked on that one just trying to gain all of the things I thought were missing out of pistachio flavors anywhere that I've ever tried, so that's also one of my favorite. These are my two most favorite classic flavor types this is ridiculous mint oreo, dark chocolate chips, spearmint, peppermint cream, unreal.
Speaker 1:So when I talk about this food, it's not because you're on the show, because if it wasn't that good, I wouldn't tell people it sucked. I would just be like, yeah, it's pretty good, carry on. Yeah, you seem like a truthful honest, but what I'm going? To tell you is this, people are going to sell it short.
Speaker 3:This is amazing To me just so you guys know this like dude like part of the dream is literally the moments I get to sample my ice cream and gain confidence from legit people like a chef that has you know two of the most badass. Italian restaurants in the whole like the two best Italian restaurants in the area.
Speaker 1:It the two best Italian restaurants in the area.
Speaker 2:It's really good. The texture's amazing. It's really hard to understand.
Speaker 1:First thing I look for in ice cream is moisture.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because moisture freezes, moisture crystallizes.
Speaker 3:That's alright.
Speaker 1:So the moisture in ice cream will crystallize and it will create a texture in the ice cream that's not all that pleasant.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's part of the formula right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like the mouthfeel, the consistency, that's right.
Speaker 1:So the cream and this is very creamy, with no ice at all, so that means to me that your fats and your creams weren't overbeat and all that shit Like emulsified.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:That's just good. This is the pin-up espresso.
Speaker 3:Those little details, those are the things that matter, that subconsciously people don't really think of when they try an ice cream. Like man, it's good that you learn. In that school we did so much tastings and like they set out like a dozen. Yeah, it was heaven and it was stressful too because we had to pass tests and everything. But they'd just lay out a dozen different brands of vanilla and you'd have to taste them and grade them. Almost like you tests and everything. But they just lay out a dozen different brands of vanilla and you'd have to taste them and grade them Almost like a Somalia.
Speaker 2:you're doing like yeah, like a Somalia, you're doing it for ice cream. So this is pistachio butter in here. Yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so really from ground pistachios for the flavoring. So it's an expensive flavor but it's worth it because it's yeah it. Yeah, that one's been a big hit, like Norwegian sea salt.
Speaker 2:Where you have the caramel in it.
Speaker 3:You know I came up with just a pretty simple brown sugar praline recipe for some of the nuts that we put in the ice creams Going hard here.
Speaker 2:I know this has literally turned into a fucking thing.
Speaker 1:This is brownie espresso. You had this one already, Chris we lost the entire conversation. Oh, he can keep talking. This is the first time. I want to just have someone else talk.
Speaker 2:The Millie Mint flavors meaning-wise.
Speaker 3:The Millie Mint flavor is one of my favorites because the dream would be that when we put this flavor in stores which is one of the seven we're going to start out with I will come up with a certain number of proceeds, if not 100% of it. I don't know what would make sense as, as we go into, it.
Speaker 3:You guys gotta try to just get it around directly back to you ruling and the milk crew needs to eat. That'd be amazing and like the payback part of it is what's starting to happen for me, where it's like man. Now, you know, two, three years of not not paying us anything, you're putting putting anything on the on the table. You know I agreed to my wife when I started this whole venture.
Speaker 1:This looks like chocolate mousse bro.
Speaker 2:It's got like that mousse texture. It's really creamy.
Speaker 1:It's absolutely beautiful. It's like chocolate mousse.
Speaker 3:It's like a custard. That was a Dutch processed cocoa powder, so I just love that for chocolate mousse. It's not fucking good man, but it is cool.
Speaker 2:You'll be able to once you go through this expansion. So, now that the the shop has been open yeah, you formulated the flavors. Um, I think, going into that distribution phase, you've done this, I mean it is pretty quick.
Speaker 3:I mean considering how long you've been in business like some of these things don't happen for people till like five, six, seven, eight years down the line so you're having to learn so much about the business side so fast, about distribution of food products and getting make sure, making sure my cafe is stable and still the standards are high yeah, as well, while I'm traveling, doing all this stuff, and you know we are like in a sprint for this, like I think it's going to feel like that the whole way because there's so much to do- yeah, you know to do a distribution model like that and it's just constant business planning with the group that we're working with to bring us to market.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you are working with a group that's helping you with that. He is living his best life, right?
Speaker 3:now, just so we're all aware.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, he can give two shits about what is going to happen for the rest of this episode. He's just eating ice cream. Which one are you eating?
Speaker 1:I don't know Sorbet.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's the pina colada.
Speaker 1:You know what's funny? You said that I was just about to say it tastes more like a sorbet and you just said it's a sorbet, so my fucking flavors are right. My mouth still works. Congratulations, I still know what I'm talking about. Yeah.
Speaker 3:He knew.
Speaker 2:And I figured out a, a plant-based fiber called so it's still vegan called inulin. It's like chicory root fiber, this sorbet that you're making. So you do have other stuff in the shop that's non-dairy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we just keep like four or five flavors rotating with non-dairy. But a sorbet doesn't have to be icy, it can still be a little creamy like ice cream.
Speaker 2:This is creamy. This reminds me, it's like vacation in your mouth. It tastes like a suntan. Yeah, yeah, it's like a.
Speaker 1:Hawaiian tropic fine reef girl ass.
Speaker 2:He's going back to one.
Speaker 1:He's going to be walking right on set right now with that big reef ass. Remember the surf?
Speaker 2:With the tan line, you got the big tan line.
Speaker 1:That was their thing. Was the nice ass. Can we get a Reef Girl ass please?
Speaker 2:Okay, so we've got an idea for a shoot for that now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cool. Can we call that Reef Girl ass? We should just make him the model he could be the model for the Reef Girl ass cream.
Speaker 3:No, that's not appropriate at all.
Speaker 1:Come on man, that's not, it no.
Speaker 2:Ass cream does not sound good with ice cream. I'm doing it Ass cream does not sound good with ice cream.
Speaker 3:It's just two totally different things. Now which one is this Tony's like?
Speaker 2:I'm in the mood for some ass cream. If we go full throttle you could slow drip the sorbet.
Speaker 3:That's tea and cookies. Tea and cookies. So what's tea and cookies? It's like an Earl Grey type of tea and little Biscoff cookies.
Speaker 2:So actual cookies. The so actual, okay Cookies.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the UK people would love that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the UK. I got some UK Special Forces buddies that love that flavor.
Speaker 3:Did you ever have a flavor that? Totally Not my favorite, but it's delicious. Not my favorite.
Speaker 1:Stop talking about the ice cream Two seconds.
Speaker 2:Did you ever had a flavor that totally flopped? Oh, absolutely. You learned those two. What was the worst combination you ever did?
Speaker 3:That's like probably a standup comedian in some of their you know. I think some of the best ones have probably been booed off stage a few times and had to struggle through that. You know they, just I just know it. So let's see Worst ones. I think, Soy sauce one one time yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it'd be tough to hit that one we.
Speaker 3:We did a matcha mochi Chocolate chip that I loved, but a lot of people didn't like that one and I think it was just the area, you know. I'm like maybe in, like somewhere like New York or somewhere you know.
Speaker 1:I think a soy sauce could work, if maybe you did the right mixture with a little bit of ginger, yes, and sweeten it up with some melon and ginger. You made it right Something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but not so. The way I was doing ice cream before the cafe was every week I was just coming up with a flavor of the week like blasting it on social media trying to hype it up. Every drop I did for two years was a noon Saturday drop. So, like it would, the, the sale would open, they'd get on the instagram or whatever, make their order and schedule a pickup for the, the next the next week and you, you only did like a certain number of container, like a couple hundred, yeah, of them, and as soon as they sold out, they were gone, so he actually created
Speaker 2:a scarcity mindset around the ice cream, so when he knew he'd sell, out.
Speaker 3:He missed it. I'm not making that flavor anything unatt again.
Speaker 1:Anything unattainable is better. Yeah, you know what I mean, so that's great.
Speaker 3:And then it got cool, because the second year of that some people were like can you bring that one flavor back?
Speaker 1:And then I'd have a flavor for that week the next year. These are amazing dude, really honestly.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you. I'm joking a lot but because, jordan, part of my dream we're doing a tasting at the Luce restaurant right now Ice cream tasting on the podcast.
Speaker 2:This is the first time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, on any podcast.
Speaker 2:But so what's next now? The next steps. You know where do you see everything going?
Speaker 3:The next steps are? I? Rapidly, once this deal started to happen, it just went on hyperdrive and I was like man, I anticipated being in my cafe, you know, 12, 16, 20 hour days, like it was when we first opened for a few months, for like a couple of years, and and and then going hey, maybe, you know, after year two we'll start to think about scaling into another location or franchise or something, if it works out, you know. And then this happened and it was like, oh my God, I got a lot of stuff to do to make sure this place runs really well, to the standard that I want when I'm not here, because I gotta now be everywhere for this, for the distribution thing. I gotta be at the factory in pennsylvania, the, the brokerage group in north in charlotte, you know, my team, my, my best friend and business partners in chicago and just the stores, publics and things that are going to start to happen those.
Speaker 1:That's where you're going to be in a better position. I just started doing my sauces jarred, my sauces and stuff like that. They have not yet hit the market, they're still being jarred and produced, but I took the same time. I, as you did. My sauces are going to be more of a um compliment to the italian, his heritage in a jar. It's not just a jarred sauce, it's, it's. It's going to be an amazing meal, right? So I took a lot of time in making sure the ingredients are all sourced properly, they're executed properly, all done to the traditions. There's nothing in it fake, all natural, no artificial additives, nothing at all. So it's going to be all natural sauces. A little bit more expensive, but you're paying for better right.
Speaker 3:I think people subconsciously like food, really good food, the process that you do for all that stuff really matters.
Speaker 2:They don't even see it, but they taste it and feel it. You make all the dessert. Everything that goes in here is made.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we make it all from scratch you know, based off my formulas, and you know, I've got employees that flavor it up and come up with cool ideas, you know. So now I've got like more brains thinking about flavors than just my own Right, and it's fun for them.
Speaker 1:You give them that creative freedom yeah for sure.
Speaker 3:I was big on that, and you've got to be careful with that too, because creative freedom shouldn't mean, you know, like control, right, right.
Speaker 1:And that's what they think. So a lot of people think that their creative freedom, that you gave them, is the reason why you're still around, and and that's the biggest mistake anybody could make because, no matter what happens, that's the absolute wrong thing oh, it's literally. You know who helps you move on and who doesn't. You know deep down inside that there are some key employees that if they were to leave, it would affect you.
Speaker 1:That that's a that's a fact I have them yeah, but I also know there's a lot of people out there who don't realize that if they do leave, for me it's going to be a complete inconvenience. But you were never a part of my business plan when I invested everything at the beginning.
Speaker 3:I didn't know your name.
Speaker 1:I didn't know who you were. I was just going on the fact that this position needs to be filled and you happen to fill it amazingly. But that's where we are. You get a great job, you get great pay, I have a great employee, and that's kind of that. If you were to leave for any reason, whether it be an emergency or a car accident, god forbid, or whatever you know what I mean yeah, I'd still have to move on without you, but if you do, it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you develop an arrogance. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, you're right, I'll forget if you develop an arrogance to to it like some sort of entitlement towards you know, towards that Right, right To go to try to make me believe that, like my whole business is going to just disappear or dissolve. You're delusional. Without you, you're delusional, they're delusional.
Speaker 3:They have no idea there's a mission that will just like at SEAL, team 6, is like dude, they lead us all to believe. We do believe that, like you do need every man in that six man, seven man team. It's crucial, right, but if one of them retires and one of them goes, it's still a machine and there's still a mission. So it's like, yeah, it's gonna hurt for a minute, but it's gonna keep going. It hurts for a minute, but it doesn't hurt anymore.
Speaker 1:yeah, I can tell you this for all you listening to you leaving, doing us dirty, fucking us over or thinking that you're gonna pull one over on us when you leave, you're not doing anything more than we've already been through on our own learning how to do this. We've lost so much trying to do this Lost money, time, everything. The only reason why we're successful is because of all the shit we've lost in the middle. That's the self-validating entrepreneur thing.
Speaker 3:Exactly that.
Speaker 1:You can think you're fucking us over as much as you want, but you are not screwing us over Any more than what we've already been screwed over by ourselves. We screwed ourselves over more than you can do to us At some point in time in this journey, so you're just another fucking speed bump.
Speaker 2:If you want to be like that.
Speaker 1:But again, don't be confused for the good For the great team members who would be affected by losing them as people as human beings as their spark as their passion and all that stuff. Losing those people is crucial.
Speaker 3:The ones that end up being the wrong ones. I'm grateful for them too, because I learned so fast.
Speaker 1:It took me years to get rid of them. It took me years to understand that. Just get rid of them because it's toxic man and it's only going to get rid of them. It took me years to understand that. Just get rid of them because it's toxic man and it's only going to get worse. And then they're going to be getting other people on their team and it's just a mess. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So the best thing to do is get rid of them, no matter what happens. It's only going to suck for a minute, just like a Band-Aid Really it is.
Speaker 3:Just get rid of them. Process of what of doing. That is what I really learn is like dude, patience and staying calm and collective is like that is where things from the team start to apply. That makes sense to me. They go, man. We're like some of those moments feels like you're just have your face in the mud getting shot at and there's just bullets all around you and if you just have some patience and stay calm and get through it, you know you're gonna be good.
Speaker 3:It's like if I just apply that same life and death mindset. It's like dude. It gave me the patience to get through how hard it is to go through the process of, you know, moving past the wrong ones and gradually getting it to where you have like 95%, all awesome workers, which is starting to happen really fast.
Speaker 2:So in the last like we have about five minutes left, so let's go through kind of the like you know, the struggles right now. Are there any of the things that you I mean?
Speaker 3:yeah, it really is that it's like we get started. You get started with a certain staff and you know, I didn't know what I was doing, of course you know. And there's certain ones that are like, man, he doesn't know it and it's all judgment. It's like, yeah, I, I've never started a business before, of course I don't know. It's like I want to go windmill dunk a basketball you know it's gonna.
Speaker 3:It's gonna take me some time to get to that, not dominique wilkins yeah, right, yeah, yeah yeah so, but what I'm saying is I'm I'm grateful that this is happening so fast, because it's making me like I have to get good fast or it's gonna it's all gonna fail you know, and it's all on you yeah and so like that's okay.
Speaker 3:So I'm just gonna go through it and get good fast and that's what we're doing. So you know I got this awesome new manager. Is like running the place when I'm not there, so it's like now I have less stress to go do this, this other bigger business model. That's happening and things just continue to improve.
Speaker 1:If you just stay focused and not waste time in distractions and bullshit, you know, in your life I'm going to say this With all that passion going into these courts or these containers here, ben and Jerry's, all them people, you better watch out. That's right. This is it right here. This is coming after you right here from Virginia Beach. Go ahead and tell us plug. Where can they find you? Give everybody some way to find you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have a cafe. Because of the space design was pretty big for just an ice cream shop, so I kind of was like man, this is kind of scary, but why don't we make it? The point was to make it an R&D center for this bigger thing happening. That was the actual goal. Hey, I need an R&D center, like a headquarters Might as well. Take advantage of the space opportunity and make it a cafe, right? And then I don't know nothing about coffee we'll do a coffee house and do try to do our best at that. And, um, we got to bake stuff to go in the ice cream anyway. So maybe we do sort of a mini kind of bakery thing also, you know, and so it kind of developed from there and then it's. It's been pretty successful locally. So we're right in red mill, virginia beach um, over by like home depot and target, and red mill um in its own building next to Planet Fitness and Sandbridge Tattoo Shop, which is the best tattoo shop in Virginia Beach.
Speaker 2:My buddy Second best, my buddy, tommy. We have our friends too, so we're like they can fight. We'll fight over the ice cream and that We'll live stream it on Instagram. I love it, yeah. And where, like all the social media and website stuff, yeah. And where, like all the social media and website stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my personal ChrisFetis6 on Instagram, facebook, all that stuff. You can find a lot of the story and some of my different interviews and things going on in there. And then the ice cream is BeFreeCrafts all together underscore cafe, and that's really specific to the cafe, and as we develop this, we'll start to either do a separate one or just start to plug in some of the distribution product type stuff that Virtue is going to be helping me out with.
Speaker 3:He's awesome. Then the website is BeFreeIceCreamcom. I'll update that too as we move along. That one's more focused right now on just our day-to-day menu in the cafe and a bunch of merch, because we're really big on merch.
Speaker 2:The merch is badass. I've left my shirt over there too, but the merch is badass. But you can go on there and order that, you can't the ice cream. Hopefully people will start seeing it when they see it.
Speaker 3:You know, with this uh group, the stuff that's happening.
Speaker 2:We for sure will do e-commerce with the pints too, so we'll be shipping ice cream okay, okay, good, I know that's a lot of logistics, so you've got to work in that.
Speaker 3:This is not still towards, probably like December, january of this year.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so we have a Navy veteran, Navy SEAL veteran, American hero, ice cream maker.
Speaker 2:Ice cream hero.
Speaker 1:Entrepreneur, just a straight up great guy, great conversation.
Speaker 2:There we go.
Speaker 1:Total positivity coming out of you, man.
Speaker 3:The vibe is man. That was all, jess, with the crop tops.
Speaker 1:I can tell why the ice cream is so good and passionate, because you have it all in you, man, and this has been an awesome conversation because, just feeling I can tell that you have the same passion as I do for what we do. It's just good to share that type of conversation, man. So we wish you all the best and the luck, and maybe we'll be selling your ice cream in my market down in Northville selling your ice cream in my market down in town in Norfolk.
Speaker 3:Now that we're doing it this way, I apologize because you asked me to do a Spumoni flavor when I was moving through my commercial kitchen experience and I was like that's still in my head, so I'm going to deliver on that.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to get him to do a Spumoni.
Speaker 2:A labeled.
Speaker 1:Spumoni flavor for me.
Speaker 3:Personally Pistachio and chocolate will be part of that.
Speaker 2:We Personally, personally that pistachio and chocolate will be part of that, we'll just do the cherry you might have to share a little bit of it. That's okay, but yeah, I'm so proud of you. I know I've seen you do this from the very beginning.
Speaker 3:Yeah, proud of you too, and it's been pretty incredible. So it's exciting. It's an honor to be doing this in the Luce restaurant too.
Speaker 1:Thank you, appreciate you.
Speaker 2:We love it.
Speaker 1:Keep on talking all day with this guy.
Speaker 2:I know, now we're just going to eat some ice cream, that's it. Go check it out. Check it out.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, definitely treat yourself, get to the store, get online. Ciao for now.
Speaker 2:Ciao Peace.
