(upbeat music) - Hello, everyone. My name is Ashley, our post-time back, and I am thrilled to announce my new podcast on the Hope Cast Network, Locks of Locks, where I will be chatting with comedians, restaurateurs, and everyone in the entertainment industry about comedy, duh, pop culture, and of course, a little bit of food. You can follow lots of laughs on Instagram, @locksoflapspodcast, and lots of laughs will be available on Spotify, iTunes, anywhere you listen to podcasts. So like, follow, subscribe, and I cannot wait to know-ish with you. (upbeat music) This is the Hope Cast Network. Stories and shows you actually want to listen to. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) All right, here we go. Welcome to You Don't Know What You Don't Know with Kamal Grant. I have wonderful, Don Dre Anderson here, from Symphony Chips. We've been pals for a minute now, you know. Early on, before I had the Magic Middles, you know, he kind of guided me and told me some steps, and you know, always check in with him, 'cause he's always doing big things, and I just want to know a little bit more about his story, and learn a little bit more, and tell more people about him. So, yeah, Don Dre, how you doing? Hey, man, I'm doing excellent, man. - I'm doing great. - Another beautiful day, you know, another dating grind. - Yes, indeed. So, a little bit about you. You are from Las Vegas, where you born in Las Vegas, so you just grew up there. - No, I just grew up there. I'm actually originally from Detroit, Michigan. My mother got tired of cold, moved this to the other end of the spectrum, which is Las Vegas, where I was raised and reared, and then at the age of 18, moved here to Georgia, and it's been here ever since. - Okay, what brought you out to Atlanta, or Georgia? - Well, basically, my mother wanted me to attend an HBCU, so she found Fort Valley State College at the time, that was Fort Valley University now, I believe. That's why I started my collegiate career, and I was majoring in engineering, so there was a program that got me to Georgia Tech, so I jumped in that program and ended up in Atlanta, man, and, you know, haven't looked back yet. - Oh, that's beautiful. You know, my brother graduated from Fort Valley, so, you know, when-- - I never knew that. - I know a lot of Fort Valley people, and my donut shop is right by Georgia Tech, so we've got a lot of connections here, I mean. - Yes, I do. You're donut shop a few times, actually. - Yeah, so it's beautiful. So, so, what I mainly want to talk about, I mean, obviously, I want to know about your engineering and stuff, and, you know, the career you had before the chip line, so what really, so what did you do before you started the chips? - So what's very interesting is that, I actually graduated from college, I wanted to agree, let's co-engineering it, peer engineering, and unfortunately, I graduated December, 2001, and do you want to remember what happened to this country, September, 2001? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 9/11. - Yeah, 9/11, yeah, and so, and then, right before that, was YTK, right? - People? - So, the internet, and just, you know, a lot of IT careers were already on the downward, you know, roll, and then when 9/11 hit, the bottom fell out of IT, and it just went, you went to put, so, I basically had to reinvent myself pretty much, so I was, I had a specialization in microelectronics, which is basically, you know, cell phones, or mobile devices, really, there was no market, and then there was no job for that, so I had to rethink my whole career path, and I decided to go into software engineer, and so, I started, you know, in software engineering, got into software architecture, and eventually got, and eventually stood up my own software engineering front, and so, I started doing that for a while, until I started doing the, actually, the spices first, so, and actually started with the spice. - The software engineering firm, when you started, what, about what year did you start the software engineering firm? - It was 2004. - And was that a full-time gig? Was that paying all the bills, or were you doing, that was like a side gig? You had a full-time job, or how was that working? - So, it's interesting how it started. I did have, I did have a, Wilson, say, a job in my career, right? 'Cause that's how they engaged careers, like, did you go to college for it, and then I'd be working a job under that, using that college degree, so that equals career, right? - No, so, I was doing that for a while. I had a job, and then one of the employees there, well, not one of the contractors there, kind of pulled me to the side, and she was just like, hey, they're only paying X, you could be making, you know. But you have to come up underneath this belief, or the two job is security, 'cause Georgia is a right to work state. So, they could fire you just because they didn't like the code of search you got on, and that's just the way it goes. So, you're a contractor, at least you get paid, you know, what your actions were for the time you're in that position, versus, you know, praying that they like you. I was like, wow, that's interesting. So, you know, with her guidance, you know, I learned how to stand up a company and all that kind of stuff, and then the opportunities were, you know, incredible. And so, my first opportunity, I pretty much tripled myself. - Oh, wow. - Oh, yeah. So, I had a friend of mine that had kids on a company. And so, he hired me underneath him. So, I was working with him or whatever, and that was a cool gig or whatever. I was making a little, I'll make it a little bit better than I was making at my regular job. But it was just kind of part-time. When I landed my first contract, it was huge. It was with the construction company. I had a construction company getting things out again. So, it was with the construction company. And they brought me in to rebuild their online application they had. And that and also do some PC support as well. So, I got a chance to hire a person underneath me, to take care of certain things, whatever. So, it was like, boom, boom, boom. Oh, right. So, the first gig you got to do your own thing, like it paid and you could hire an employee. - Man, IT is the only recession-proof industry. - I mean, I don't know if you were that, but I do think that that is a good idea. That is kind of true. But, yeah, that is a really good industry. Yeah, 'cause I mean, 'cause, you know, it just keeps exploding. Like, we keep learning new things. There's more technology. So, you need more experts. And then the people who did know it don't know it anymore. So, you need a new guy to come teach the people. So, you keep knowing the new stuff. Oh, that's great. So, that's really what got you. So, after that, you were like, you were off and running. So, you were an entrepreneur there? - I want to say, yeah, I was. I was, I'm still getting my feet, my feet went down because it's a service-based gig, right? - Yeah, yeah. - So, there's no product. So, when I started looking into, you know, how to develop a product and sell a product versus the service was when, you know, things started getting a little more heavier because it took a lot more developers, UI people, things that nature, and I had to fund all of that. - Mm-hmm. - No, nobody works for free. - Yeah. - It's so cool. So, 'cause they're offering their service to build a product. - Mm-hmm. - So, you have paid their service to keep the product. - Yeah. - So, you know, but yeah, that's what I was doing first, man. I mean, yeah, it was, I called it kind of one step into entrepreneurship, and while I had, you know, a successful business or what have you, by the way, you gauge it by, you know, prompting margin and being able to hire people. Absolutely, absolutely. - I mean, you weren't entrepreneurs. I mean, you weren't working, I'm sending your own hours, getting your own clients. You know, so, yeah, I mean, that is-- - I mean, everything changed. I went from working, me, I'm going to work at eight o'clock in the morning, you got four o'clock. So, now it was, I just started with my eyes open and sometimes it didn't stop till my eyes closed. So, yeah. - No, that is the thing about entrepreneurship. I kind of tell people, it's really feast of famine. It's either you're killing it or you're starving. So, you know, you were obviously feasting and sometimes it takes a lot of work to keep eating like that. So, so then as you were doing that, you know, I know a little bit about your story. You know, your dad was a chef in Las Vegas and had this great spice mix and you, you know, you loved it, so you kind of wanted to kind of build that with your dad, the spice mix. And y'all were doing the spice mix for a little bit or was it you that decided to do that? Or was it your dad, the one that said, "Hey, we need to make this into a business, "a full-blown business and sell these spices." - No, it was me. - It was me. - He had this spice mix already done. - Yeah. - And he was literally, it was in a ramen kiln inside of his stove with a spoon in it. And I was like, "Yeah, he let me try." I'm like, "This is Greek with on egg." - Yeah. - You know, when you make eggs, it's simple, it's just salt and pepper, normally. But he put this seasoning blend on it. I was like, "Oh my God, he's better than I had in my life. "What is this?" And so when you told me the story behind it, about how he crapped it over the years. - Yeah. - And then it was just something he enjoyed and everybody else seemed to enjoy as well. So he had to keep remixing ingredients. Every time he did a banquet or something like that. So, all right, this is incredible. So I got his permission, like, "Hey, can we buy all this and sell this?" Maybe this might be something 'cause I was getting to the point in my career when I noticed if I didn't show up, I didn't get paid. And I got tired of that tomorrow. - Yeah. - So I was like, "I would love something else "to show up like that." And I get all the one for it. So that's where the product-- - And for some reason you thought, "Hey, you know, this IT world's cool, "but I only get into the food service space "and the grocery space." And you think that would be easier. Did you talk to anyone first? - Oh, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Because to your earlier point, IT is still evolving. - Yeah, yeah. - Oh, it's a constant learning thing. You gotta be costly learning, constant learning. And then you have to be able to know it well enough to be able to sell somebody on your service. - Yes. - So it's a constant thing, right? It moves real quick to your point, right? And you have to also be married to it. - Mm-hmm. - And it's hard to be married to that. And then married to a human being that then produces children that you also have to commit to as far as being involved in their lives. You've got all this stuff going on. Meanwhile, IT don't wait for you, it sprints, remember? IT over here sprinting, right? Like the flash. And you've got all this stuff on your own. I don't wanna say weighing you down but stuff that takes your attention away from the IT stuff. So it becomes a life decision of, "Hey, I wanna spend my life constantly chasing after IT "'cause you never catch up to it." You're always chasing it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Oh, and there's another way that I can not similarly live more better. And I got chased after this after the flash no more. - Mm-hmm. - No, I fully understand, I mean, no, I agree. But I just said that because just in my story when I have a successful donut shop and then I was going to, you know, I wanna develop this cookie brand, get it in the CPG space. And when I went to these conferences talking to these old bakers that worked for these big con requirements, they were just like, "But why, though?" If you understand how hard it is and I was like, "But you gotta do something, I wanna try." And then, you know, I would say I got into this world and realized it is a whole different animal. So that's where, really, I'm like, did you know that this was a way different animal? 'Cause I mean, all entrepreneurship is hard and all business is hard, but, you know, this comes with a unique set of challenges that it's kind of different from the outset. And this is kind of what I love talking with people like yourself about because there's so many unique challenges to this business in particular that we're in and just hearing about it is fascinating. That's what I was like, did you know? Did you, did you fall enough? - No, I had no idea, you know, I knew what it took to run a service-based company, but then no idea what it took to run a product-based company and did your point in the snack food industry, which seems to seem oversaturated at the time. - Yeah. - Right, but then I simply looked at the success of the other brands we're having and just kind of threw yourself out there and it just seemed to go. But I didn't understand what was really hard on that. It wasn't really success, right? 'Cause some people feel like if you get on, if you get, you've got success. It is an automatic success and you're successful, but that ain't the case at all, it is ugly luck. And you really have to go in understanding, well, for me, one of the things I learned, the bigger lesson I was understanding who my target marketing was. - Okay. - And because there's so many marketing companies out here that tell you, we'll help you market your company, but they'll tell you to who. What they're not saying is that we'll take your money and we'll put some nice shiny packaging around your product and we'll just throw it out there against the wall and see where it sticks. And wherever it sticks, we'll call that your target marketing, we'll start focusing on that error. But meanwhile, we're taking your money. - Yeah. - And I think that's one of the problems, in least I don't know about country, but in our country, we want to get paid for participation. I call it the participation show, don't be said, draw. Whereas if we showed up, then we should get paid. Whether or not we won, the rates of the game, no matter what the results, we can get something because we try. - Yes. - And I noticed that then it is really embedded in our culture, 'cause when my kids would play sports, they would be more worthy for this. - Well, hello, my kids, some patients, y'all. - Just quick, just for sure. No matter it was, it was, whether or not they were poor. - But I think what you're talking about here is more of these consultants who like to sell things. 'Cause I think that's the thing with the consultants, this industry that we jumped into, there's lots of tasks that have to be done. So you've got to bring in people to be like, all right, I need you to do this. And everybody sells you how they're great at doing something. But sure, most people don't get to the job, but when you say, 'cause when you try to put a, all right, here's the X goal we need to reach, that was to do it in, and start stuttering. So I think that's really the participation trophy, but I think it's really just about people. It's kind of doggy dog, you know what I'm saying? And that's kind of what, and you've actually liked me to this a lot, especially dealing with brokers and stuff, if they're not getting the numbers that you want, you can tell them I'm not paying for this service. You know what I'm saying? You did not reach the goal that I brought you in for, where I was always like, well, I brought them in, it's my loss, I need to take the L, you're like, no, it's not your L to take, it's their L, that you can get this to you. - Absolutely right, and then a lot of brokers, and to your point, not just brokers, but also the keykeeping consultants you hire, once you sign these contracts that guarantee them money, right? And then what you have to realize on the other side of that is if they sue you, and now you go accordingly, pull up this contract and says, well, you promise you pay us no matter what, no judge is gonna honor that. You're just gonna say, well, okay, let's unpack that. Let's say, 'cause I've been sued before, so this is how I know this part. The judge will say, let's unpack this, okay? So you were hired to perform this duty, okay? What did that duty perform? When you say no, look, here's the results. The results are zero. Okay, so it's like they were never there. Exactly, and you look back at the guy, a little gal, and say, hey, well, what do you have to say to this? And they'll say, well, but we tried everything we could or whatever, and they're like, well, 'cause you tried, don't even wanna be paid. I mean, that's how I checked, if you could pay your light bill, that's because we'll definitely turn it off because you didn't pay it. - Exactly. - He goes, what? - No, that is good, and that's another hard part, and that's what I love talking to you about because, yeah, you've been like me about that a lot with hiring people and making sure that they do the job that they're there for. So, yeah, and when we talk about brokers, from people that don't understand, we're talking about there's an intermediate to get into the grocery stores. A lot of the grocery stores don't wanna deal with each individual product, so they'll deal with a bigger company that will have a lot of different products, and they will pitch all these products, and a lot of these companies have products that they're on-store shelves, so they'll be like, oh, we can get you just like them, and when you get with them, they don't. But they still want the money, like they did the service, like they made money, and their job is unlike other jobs, like gang followers or something, something random, like that, their job is specifically to make money, so there is a dollar amount attached to this, where you can't go back and be like, you've made zero dollars, so what should we really do with it? - Yeah, yeah, so I mean, to your point, the brokers are manufacturing reps, right? Yeah, they're trying to change their money. They no longer wanna be paid a percentage of what they actually kill, or what they actually see of your product. They wanna be paid a pertain, so no matter how the product does, and the reason for that is the stores are starting to start working on consignment. Now, those people do not know what consignment means. It means that you as a product owner have to provide them the product, and whatever quantity they say they want, right? And they put it on their shelves, okay? And whatever doesn't sell in a certain amount of time that they dictate to you, then they want you to be able to sell the product that to you. Now, remember, the words I use, 'cause communication is very important, I'd say the words to you, yeah, you pretty much give them too, right? And let me more clear, 'cause there's a little bit of frustrating behind this part. So, let me take my emotions out of you. So, you said, no matter to the customer, and let's say X plus, okay? And let's say it's for 1,000 units, right? So, let's say they sell 10 units, but they want to be able to then sell back to you the 998 units. So, that means the money, whatever money it took for you to pull your product together and step to them, you made a certain amount of profit on, right? But that profit does not overtake then selling back to you. That means you just hold them money for them pretty much. And then just so you can get it back to them, it doesn't sit. And then if you have the concept that some people have out there, well, when it first goes out there in the shelves, you gotta go out there and buy it all yourself or whatever. Okay, let's understand that logic. So, then at some price, that they didn't mark up, right? So, you only made, remember, you only made X. They marked up to Y then. So, then you try to go back and buy all the product that they had. And if you were gonna X, you gotta add your own money into that to get you all right. Just so you can hold it. And then give it all benefit then pretty much. If you're not able to buy it all, but you're still in the day, you're not making any money. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. And then if you're buying it, if they put in another order, you can just gonna keep doing the cycle and keep going in the hole 'cause then the day you gotta get customers to buy it, you know what I'm saying? So, like, and then offline marketing is very different. Okay, I know I just interrupted a great conversation, but my name is Brad and you may be listening to me or any of the other talent we have on this network at HopeCast. We wanna thank you for listening, but also, we want you to like and subscribe to the show you're listening to. So, when you're done listening, go on the iTunes or the Spotify and leave a great review if you like it and follow the show on Instagram and any other platforms that it's on. I think we're on TikTok, so follow us on TikTok. But make sure you leave us a review. We love good reviews here at the HopeCast network. Now, I guess I'll let you get back to your show. I hate to interrupt what you're doing now, but something very important I need to let you know about. When you purchase serious coffee beans, we want you to try to enjoy each brew for two reasons. Number one, because you're a part of something bigger, making a positive impact around the world. And number two, 'cause we did not compromise on the quality of coffee, you're drinking some of the best coffee in the world. 100% of profits are donated to nonprofits that are fighting injustice facing humans around the world, Wallace, this is powerful. Generous is best known for especially coffee, but the heartbeat of generous is their hope to use for profit business for good. In 2024, generous is hoping to provide coffee to churches around the US to spread a message within congregations that churches care about people even down to the coffee they are serving and the people they enjoy. I apologize for that extremely long run on sentence. If you have interest in hearing more about generous coffee, please reach out to their founder, Ben Higgins, at binhiggins@generancemovement.com. Thank you and back to our scheduled podcast. - More expensive than online marketing. Online marketing is caught up to what offline marketing costs. You might say offline marketing, like putting your brain up your own billboards, taking ads out in the store, take paper that your product is in, all that cost, and they charge you all on the leg for that. Well, the online community is now caught up with that. That's, remember, you and everyone, Instagram has to be a hundred dollars, you can put an ad out there. Now it's like 10 to maybe 15 grand a month just to get your response, or to start getting your interaction. You can actually take eight months of getting out. - Yeah. - It's fun to your point. It's fun. - And it's gonna hate it. So, I mean, as we're talking about all this, I mean, I guess because you've had had a bunch of successes, yeah, let's talk about the successes, 'cause one, I guess we talked about how you started with the spice bread, and you kind of pivoted the chips, because you're like, this is a great vehicle for the spices, and I think the chips will sell a little bit better. And now you're fully in the chips game. What successes have you had? 'Cause I know your chips are pretty popular, especially here in Atlanta, and for people that have had them, they like them. How did they get to that level? And what are some other successes you've found in that? - So, answer your question. Let's kind of go back for a second. So, I'm gonna hear my dad introduced me to the spices, and we were blessed with the side of the bottle and salad, but then we found out that people don't buy spices that they can't taste. So, that's how we got into the chip business, was simply because we put it on the potato chips, and we were making it in the store, so I thought we could try to spice it. And it's nice to sell it out. It was great, you know? It was cool to be like sold out, you know? Went in the store and sold it out, and that was fun. So, when we decided to get into the chip business, that was a fast track to learning about supply chain. 'Cause it takes commercial spice blending, it takes the packaging, you know, packaging and printing, and then also the actual co-packer who puts it on. Yeah, right, so getting all these people along, and all the costs that go into that, and then trying to compete in a market that yet, to your point earlier, I didn't understand. I thought you put everybody's potato chips, put them on a shelf, people buy it. This is what we all thought, sir. We all thought that, right? But then after learning, okay, people going people are habitual. They are like, mind, you know, brainwashed to believe that I've only ever liked this one thing, so I'll just keep buying that one thing forever. Luckily, our society is beginning to change somewhat, and our society is doing a good job of embracing change. Now, people are wanting different things. We don't want the same thing, my mom and dad, and I want to have something different. Grandma, grandpa, he had this particular brand, mom and daddy had his brand, I don't want to have that round with something. So, to come back to your point, so putting on that whole supply chain thing together, and then launch it, 'cause we launched Labor Day weekend, and did we have some success? - Absolutely, we need to experience some huge sites. The first big site we got was from a Instagram influencer by the name of the time of the brand. Now, people made no time for the brand from Instagram, but before she was a Instagram, she was acting. She was an actor on Will and Grace. Anyway, so she became a Instagram phenomenon, and we just sent her some chips on her web. This is kind of, she had kind of blew up on Instagram, but not to the level she is, isn't it? - Okay. - She had, I think, over a million followers even there. So, we sent her this package of chips. She opens it up, loves it so much, that without any warning, flips on her Instagram live, and just says, "My God, these chips are amazing." It takes like, Jesus, I didn't even spend it. That's the spark that he denied the blame, that her one million users heard. And all of a sudden, we went from getting, 'cause I'll do the chips kind of part-time, we were getting like maybe 20 to maybe 50 orders a month. Orms and chips, not just bags, just orders. It's ordered to be like, you know, six to maybe 12 out of the chips. So we got, like I said, between 20 and 50 a month. So now, we're getting 1,000 a day. Orms, 1,000 a day. And we were talking about getting emails that maybe we got an email, maybe like 40 emails a week, something like that. So now, you know, 400 a day. Whoo! Yeah, email awesome was great, was jammed, but it was- - That was stressing me out. I would, I would, I would, I would. - Man, look, I learned immediately that I got quite a deal with what I did, right? It's just, it was no point. - That is it. - It's quite a deal, right? But to your point, I had to get to that place. - Mm-hmm. - But in the beginning, yeah, I was overwhelmed. But it was, it was through that overwhelmingness. I just, some emails, I just would, I wouldn't know. People ask me, well, you know, is there nuts in here? Or is this, you know, is there milk in here or dairy? I'm like, it says, oh no. These, no. So, something I was doing. But anyway, it was through that, through those emails, I began to learn my blessings to my company, eat it. Because the email, they said, "GMA opportunity." I didn't, it was like four o'clock in the morning when I read this. I was like, what does that even mean? What is, what is GMM? - Cool, cool. - And then you have to ask them, coffee. It can, it. - Yeah. - Oh, that didn't warn you about it. Oh, oh, oh. So, and after that email, next thing you know, GMM was it, June 18. Some dates and times you don't forget, right? 845 A.S. just at the time. The year was 2020. We were live, good go, didn't warn you about it. - Yeah. - Right? That was, that was an awesome thing to happen. And it was so big that honestly, come on, I could not see what my life looked like on the other side of that day. - I don't know what, the afternoon, the little it's like, you know, if all of a sudden, after, you have to do one in America, I did a heart attack and it just, and then it been gone. And I had been far, I had reached the mountain top. That was it. - Yeah. Oh wow. So, so when you were onboard in Morning America, you, you definitely saw a bump. - Oh, got it. Oh, got it. - Okay. - It was huge. A thousand orders a day, right? 'Cause, you know, even when, when time of the brown, you know, turn on Instagram a lot, I didn't know what she was doing. - Yeah. - Remember I told, working, I was still doing my full-time gig in church part time. - Yeah. - Well, I was at the conference call on camera. It was like, we are right now. It all said, my phone bug, like somebody texting me or something. I'm like, okay, whatever. - Oh. - But it started, but it was like, it was raining. - Oh, mm-hmm. - And I had to look at it, you know, look down, I'm like, okay, what's going on with this? My phone, you know, what's happening? I said, it's only my call on me, it's weird. But what in the call? Those were orders. It was buzzing, you know, there was orders. - Wow. - Oh, there's orders coming in. And I was like, what in the world? And I had to go through my social media, like, what has happened for all of a sudden, 'cause remember, 'cause I think the day before, I think man had like two orders, the day before. Now I was up to like 800. - Oh, wow. - And it was like four o'clock in the afternoon. I think the, by the time that first day, it was up to like 1,500 orders. - Woo. - Oh, wow. - That was great. - Luckily, I had a supply chain in place. - Yeah. - And I had a fulfillment set. So I wasn't in my garage, you know. - You see, that's when it happened to me and it caught me off guard. But that's a beautiful thing that you were able to capitalize on that and then continue to grow, 'cause I mean, I see you still growing now. So where can people see the chips now? Are you in any retail establishments or in which retail establishments are you at? - Great question. So this goes back to earlier point. Who is my target market? So I had to learn the hard way that the mainstream, me, not me, but the mainstream was not my target market. In my cousin, the cost of my chips is higher than what's out there in the mainstream. And it's always gonna be higher than the way it takes me to put my chips together. So I had to find my audience, which happens to be luxury hotels. Island airports, private airport lounges, for arenas, country clubs, 500 companies in their hack-out materials. So I basically found places that either give away my product for free, their consumers will allow me, or they can sell it at a higher price 'cause nobody's paying attention. So I do an example, let's take like for example, this year was our second year being featured at the Masters, right? So for those of you who don't know, the Masters is a very famous golf tournament, very famous PGA golf tournament. So our chips are there and have been there, like I said, for the past two years. But when you're there at that event, you're not looking at the prices. You're like, I want a snack, excuse me, ma'am, in the car, let me get something cold and drink it, a snack. And you know like you ask how much cost you just swipe your card. You guess my target market, and I had to learn that. So I had to put my chips in places that my target market is. And move how my target market moves. So also one market we're looking at getting into also is transportation. And my transportation need like private, private limits in each, private car services, things like that. That's what my target market moved. Like nearly wrong, they get in their car service to go to the private airport to get on their private plans. So I did my chips in all those places. Yeah, okay, well, dude, that is very smart. Knowing your target market and targeting your target markets, that definitely is fascinating. I mean, yeah, cause I mean, I definitely know you've had a lot of success with the hotels and the really the boutique gift shops inside the hotels and things of that nature. Fascinating, fascinating. - Yep, yep, that in, and we look, you know, also getting into hospitals. - Okay. Yeah, I mean, what is the future looking like now? What is the plan as of right now to continue to grow the Simply Chips brand? - So we've also launched another chip line called harmonic chips. - Totally. - You know, just like those boys have BMW, well, Symphony now has harmonic, which is more for the main stream. - Okay. - So it's still the same attributes that you get from the Giuseppe day, you know, the all natural vegan friendly, no MSG, sorry, no MSG, not, not GMO and gluten free, same, same attributes. But just now the flavor is always complex. So that way we can hit the mainstream market and we can hit a price point that can compete or at least be aligned with what's in the main stream. Those chips are currently launched right now at the Atlanta airport. - Oh, really exciting. Okay, look at you moving, moving on and moving up and moving on. I got, I got a random thing that I like to do that I'm gonna start, so I may need to put, I'm gonna send you a text and put you on hold and then you can read this short story and then I want you to give me your opinion on the short story. What is your analysis? It's just a quick little story. It's only takes two minutes to read. Two, three minutes. - Okay. - So let me actually sit, let's stop. All right, so I just sent some homework, read the giving tree and give me your analysis of it 'cause I really, it's an interesting book and a lot of people view it differently and I would like to hear everybody, what did they think the story means or just their analysis of the story or just your thoughts on it? So you just read it. So let me hear, what are your thoughts on the giving tree? - My thoughts are it's really a story about how do you define happiness? How do you define success? - Mm-hmm. - Your success in happiness are tied to money but you'll never be happy and you'll never reach a level of success that's satisfactory in this tied to money. If you can figure out a way in life to find happiness outside of money and through basically your relationships, then you'll always be happy and you'll always have success. So I'm actually at a point in my life where I gauge my level of success or I experience success through our relationships. You know, relationships, even with youth, right? Even how we hung out and didn't deal with Neil or whatever. Just the camaraderie that we had is success. Because, you know, if we were like, well, you know, if we were like with Don Dreg, you know, I ain't so, you know, too many matching middle of jazz. So, you know, I'm not successful. I'm gonna slit both of my wrists and slit my throat, same. And, but, you know, we laughed at that, but then people actually believed that, that they don't hit a financial goal, then they're not successful. And you cannot gauge success by the amount of money that or you have to gauge success, at least for me, by what I've ascertained, what I've learned and the relationships that I've acquired that in language. You see, well, learning life is not anybody's your friend. You know, it's interesting when we're raised, when we are growing up or whatever, we're taught, you know, just we have friends, right? And there's somewhere along the way, we're gonna work acquaintances, right? I'm just supposed to be chewing into the spectrum, right? You have acquaintances and you have friends, right? So, you know, somebody who's better than acquainted, acquainted somebody, you see them, you'll speak. Like, hey, I know you, yeah, how you doing? All right, cool, you move on. That's some claims, right? And then there's slang, but there's nothing really in between. And what I learned is that I've created my own between, which is alla, 'cause in life, you need alla, which are more than acquaintances, but there are people that help you achieve the goals you want to have in your life. For all of us, right? It may not be 'cause you call every week or whatever to see how they're doing and you learn about their lives, their goals, things of that nation. You may not know them that well, but you know them enough to be able to leverage your relationship with them to help you not only get the things that you want, but at the same time, be there allied, to help them get the things that they want to achieve. And to me, those are the accolades I like to call successful things in life. - That's beautiful. - And you have those things that people want to leverage you for. - Mm-hmm. - And I think you've reached a level of success how many people get. - That is beautiful. Actually, I heard it years ago in that, like when you talk about success, that's literally the final level of success, 'cause it's first like you want to, and I actually don't even know the steps, but there's monetary, like I need to make money, but after you've made all the money, the next level is, have I helped other people be successful? - And it's beautiful, and it doesn't, and there's not a determined amount of money you need to make. So that's beautiful that you have already been like, you know what, I am now at the level of success where my success is, do I help other people be successful? And that's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing to hear. So, yeah, that's a beautiful take on the giving tree also. - I mean, it always reminded me of like being a parent, right? You have and give and give to your kids or whatever, and then they give us some entitlement, like their old stuff, right? And then, to a question, you have nothing left to give. And then, some of them, you know, in this story, it's getting the boy actually just sat on the trunk, and that's what, and that, you know, was good for the boy. But, and sometimes in real life, once they take it to everything that you have to give, they come and just move on for you. Well, you know, this relationship, they don't work out. You know what I'm saying? You know, so I'm just gonna move on to something else. And I'm gonna come to the key, I'm gonna go to find somebody else where I can take from. And they just, some people just are continuous taken. All I want to do is take them out with people, and they never ever learn to have a sense of satisfaction or happens within themselves to the place where they get it. So, see, the boy took everything and never gave the tree anything. And the tree was just saying, I just want, I just want to spend time. That's, that's the gift is your time. Well, like, I ain't got time to give you my time. So, so, so, you know, it's, it's to your point, it's so many other ways to look at that. But I, but even as a parent, you know, with children who, you know, you want to give your kids more than what you get. But when I grew up, you know, I didn't have a bite, so I mean, she, she had a bite. But I was growing up, you know, I didn't have my work, my own work, so make sure you have your own stuff, stuff like that. But never really giving them the insightfulness to what you earn. Hurting, it's not just about money. You have to meet, you have to earn a friendship. If you want to be somebody's friend and earn their time, which is the most valuable commodity we have as human beings, our time and our energy and focus. But it all, you know, is around time. I think that you have to earn those things. You have to be the person that's willing to give and know what you need to see. But the first part of that is getting, so. - And that's beautiful. That is a beautiful, that's a good take. Well, yeah, well, I appreciate you being on. You don't know if you don't know what you don't know. I have learned some things, now I know some things. I don't know everything, so I'm gonna go back and hopefully learn some more things. But thank you for telling me some stuff. - Absolutely, man. That's what it's all about, man. - Yeah, I appreciate it. - I'm liking hope, man. - All right, well, you have a good day, and thanks for coming by. - This is Sarah, thanks for having me. Are you guys up there to get you some sampling chips? - Yeah, we gotta do that thing. Where can you find the sampling chips? - As I mentioned, all the places earlier on, you guys come to our website, we have a location. We do it on our website, now you're typing your zip code, and I'll tell you the closest place that you can get. It may be a hotel, it could be a golf course, it could be a marina. But you can go out there and you can get them, so. - So I'm here to check out symphonychips.com. - Yep, we're all on the ship, right? What are you doing? - Okay, so I'm here to check out Symphony Chips Online. Is it better to order on the Symphony Chips website, or is there another website that people should go to, or you rather prefer? - I prefer you come to symphonychips.com. - All the Symphony Chips website. Symphony Chips.com order from there. It's way better, it's more easier. And Mr. Anderson would appreciate it, okay? - All right. All right, thank you, bye. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
