Full Transcript for How Kajae Built a Global Workforce | Garrett Blood on People-First Leadership

Utah. 71 00:04:10.030 --> 00:04:11.689 And I have family and friends here, so it was 72 00:04:11.710 --> 00:04:13.110 the right fit at the right time. 73 00:04:13.610 --> 00:04:14.409 Okay. 74 00:04:14.430 --> 00:04:18.629 The only thing holding me there in California was my company. Okay. 75 00:04:19.410 --> 00:04:24.389 So let's go back to the beginning. What inspired you 76 00:04:24.410 --> 00:04:28.949 to first create KJ, and then how did that come about? 77 00:04:30.509 --> 00:04:35.329 So, you know, I served a mission for the Church 78 00:04:35.370 --> 00:04:41.569 of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico. And being 79 00:04:41.589 --> 00:04:46.490 in Mexico and being surrounded by the happiest people that 80 00:04:46.529 --> 00:04:52.000 had nothing was pretty inspiring. And I noticed that on 81 00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:55.740 my mission, you had such incredible talent, whether they were 82 00:04:55.819 --> 00:05:00.540 engineers or accountants or what have you. They were incredible. 83 00:05:01.160 --> 00:05:03.839 And in my travels, I would notice the same thing. 84 00:05:04.339 --> 00:05:07.459 Brilliance was just sprinkled everywhere. And so I'm a big 85 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:13.350 believer that brilliance... talent and strengths are perfectly and fairly 86 00:05:13.389 --> 00:05:17.689 distributed around the world, but opportunity is not. So the 87 00:05:17.730 --> 00:05:20.430 goal was to create a way in which to take 88 00:05:20.490 --> 00:05:25.240 that brilliance and combine it and find amazing companies here 89 00:05:25.250 --> 00:05:27.189 in the U S I could appreciate it. 90 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:29.120 I love that. 91 00:05:29.839 --> 00:05:34.379 And maybe walk us through, you know, even before KJ, 92 00:05:34.459 --> 00:05:39.100 you know, you had significant, you know, operational and leadership opportunities. 93 00:05:39.660 --> 00:05:44.160 How did those roles prepare you for building a staffing company? 94 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:48.199 Oh, so, you know, we're the summation of all our 95 00:05:49.459 --> 00:05:52.500 successes and failures. And I had a ton of failures 96 00:05:52.930 --> 00:05:56.589 as a kid and growing up that you never know. 97 00:05:56.829 --> 00:06:00.370 You know, kind of the running joke was people would 98 00:06:00.410 --> 00:06:01.389 ask me, what do you want to do when you 99 00:06:01.430 --> 00:06:03.149 grow up? And I'm like, I don't know. I love 100 00:06:03.189 --> 00:06:05.029 to do so many different things. How do I choose 101 00:06:05.069 --> 00:06:07.519 just one? I almost felt like it would have been 102 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:09.660 so great early on if someone said, you know what? 103 00:06:11.050 --> 00:06:12.730 You should be a dentist. And I'd be like, okay, great. 104 00:06:12.769 --> 00:06:14.930 I'll be a dentist. And there it is, right? You just, 105 00:06:14.990 --> 00:06:18.490 you're a dentist your whole life, right? But that was, 106 00:06:19.350 --> 00:06:22.629 I didn't have that. My dad was an entrepreneur and 107 00:06:23.129 --> 00:06:27.970 he owned, growing up in Orange County, he had car dealerships, 108 00:06:28.430 --> 00:06:34.430 exotic car dealerships, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Rolls, you name it. And 109 00:06:34.790 --> 00:06:39.470 he had a limo company, and he had hotels in 110 00:06:39.490 --> 00:06:43.350 the U.S. and around the world, hundreds of condos and 111 00:06:43.689 --> 00:06:47.009 real estate, gold mines, went to school in a limo. 112 00:06:47.949 --> 00:06:49.579 And just crazy. 113 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:51.660 Isn't everyone in California go to school in a limo? 114 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:55.639 Orange County, I mean, it makes sense. So it was 115 00:06:55.720 --> 00:06:58.920 one of those things where the planes and, you know, 116 00:06:58.939 --> 00:07:01.870 just different things. And I didn't think anything of it 117 00:07:01.930 --> 00:07:03.769 as a kid, but I just saw my dad always 118 00:07:03.949 --> 00:07:07.990 working hard and He was very into health and nutrition, 119 00:07:08.050 --> 00:07:10.709 and we'd go to health food stores, and I'd be 120 00:07:10.810 --> 00:07:15.240 sitting on the floor reading manuals about nutrition and vitamins 121 00:07:15.300 --> 00:07:18.519 and proteins, which kind of led to one of my 122 00:07:18.540 --> 00:07:21.699 other companies after that, my ice cream company, and just 123 00:07:21.740 --> 00:07:25.439 got that bug of entrepreneurism from my dad. And then 124 00:07:25.459 --> 00:07:28.519 at an early age, started actually a window cleaning business 125 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:32.610 when I was nine. followed, my uncle had a successful 126 00:07:32.649 --> 00:07:35.329 business and I was watching him clean windows. And I thought, 127 00:07:35.350 --> 00:07:37.199 you know, this would be a great way to save money. 128 00:07:37.579 --> 00:07:41.180 And for me, my goal was to pay for a 129 00:07:41.220 --> 00:07:43.439 two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 130 00:07:43.879 --> 00:07:45.399 And I knew that that was the way to do it. 131 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:48.199 And I wasn't going to cut lawns. And I figured 132 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:50.639 this would be a different way to do it. And 133 00:07:50.939 --> 00:07:53.250 little by little, it was one of those things where 134 00:07:53.259 --> 00:07:55.350 I was able to add customers year after year to 135 00:07:55.370 --> 00:08:00.759 the By the age of 12. I had industrial, residential, 136 00:08:00.779 --> 00:08:03.699 and commercial companies that I would do on a weekly basis. 137 00:08:04.579 --> 00:08:06.360 And yeah, so it was kind of fun. 138 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:12.050 That's amazing. I'm picturing hiring this nine-year-old to clean my windows. 139 00:08:12.060 --> 00:08:13.730 I'm thinking back to when I was 12. 140 00:08:13.730 --> 00:08:15.430 I don't even. I think lemonade stands. 141 00:08:15.550 --> 00:08:18.110 Maybe. I just wish I

had more pictures of it. 142 00:08:18.149 --> 00:08:20.410 I have one picture of me standing on the bucket 143 00:08:20.569 --> 00:08:23.610 to reach the very top of an optometrist office that 144 00:08:23.629 --> 00:08:24.410 I did every week. 145 00:08:24.930 --> 00:08:25.389 Wow. 146 00:08:25.430 --> 00:08:27.100 I think I was about 10 in the picture and 147 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:29.879 you just see me. With my squeegee and everything else 148 00:08:29.939 --> 00:08:32.519 working on it. And that's just, that was the shtick. 149 00:08:32.620 --> 00:08:36.850 It was, my company was GB Enterprises. Enterprises. Yeah, GB. 150 00:08:36.990 --> 00:08:39.889 Care of blood. I love that. 151 00:08:40.429 --> 00:08:43.610 So, as we're talking, KJ isn't the first company you founded. 152 00:08:43.649 --> 00:08:47.309 You founded several companies over the years. You mentioned your 153 00:08:47.470 --> 00:08:50.950 ice cream company, which wasn't just any ice cream company. 154 00:08:52.250 --> 00:08:54.460 In reading about it and knowing about it as the 155 00:08:54.559 --> 00:08:59.440 third company, most popular brand is that what it. 156 00:08:59.379 --> 00:09:04.360 Was third best-selling frozen dessert product in America so after 157 00:09:04.379 --> 00:09:07.019 Haagen-Dazs number one Ben. 158 00:09:06.850 --> 00:09:09.720 & Jerry's then it was you so Arctic Zero you 159 00:09:09.740 --> 00:09:13.639 know why not yeah I love that so what was 160 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:17.980 the biggest lesson that you've learned I mean there's lessons 161 00:09:18.059 --> 00:09:20.980 all along the way and there's there's lessons that you 162 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:24.940 learn positive lessons and there's lessons negative lessons but like 163 00:09:25.250 --> 00:09:28.389 What stands out to you and any stories that you'd 164 00:09:28.409 --> 00:09:30.360 like to share? We have a lot of listeners that 165 00:09:30.429 --> 00:09:33.720 are curious about what you've learned. 166 00:09:34.620 --> 00:09:38.379 You know, it's what year, you know, is kind of thing. 167 00:09:38.659 --> 00:09:42.539 I think at a young age, when I was 12, 168 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:48.350 you know, I learned how to deal with hard things. 169 00:09:48.590 --> 00:09:51.149 So I remember when I was 12, my parents divorced 170 00:09:52.090 --> 00:09:56.860 and my dad's entire empire that I knew crumbled literally 171 00:09:56.960 --> 00:09:59.830 within just a matter of a year. It went forever. 172 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:06.200 doing anything and everything anytime you wanted to, we don't 173 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:10.230 have money for that. And, and it was, it was 174 00:10:10.470 --> 00:10:12.690 interesting to see the toll that it took on my parents. 175 00:10:13.110 --> 00:10:16.610 And then they ultimately divorced, but being forced out of 176 00:10:16.690 --> 00:10:19.710 our home, by the sheriff's department because we hadn't paid 177 00:10:19.750 --> 00:10:23.730 the mortgage in a

year. And we're out on, I'll 178 00:10:23.750 --> 00:10:28.309 never forget standing outside on our front porch, neighbors looking 179 00:10:28.429 --> 00:10:31.320 at us with all our stuff on the front porch 180 00:10:32.059 --> 00:10:34.620 and on the lawn and waiting for you haul truck 181 00:10:34.659 --> 00:10:36.960 to show up and not knowing where we were going 182 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:40.039 to go. Cause there was, there was nothing. And if 183 00:10:40.059 --> 00:10:43.539 it wasn't for grandparents, we would have been homeless, literally 184 00:10:43.580 --> 00:10:47.269 that van down by the river. And, um, And my 185 00:10:47.370 --> 00:10:51.149 mom took some of my siblings one direction and I 186 00:10:51.210 --> 00:10:54.110 went another direction because I was in junior high and 187 00:10:54.129 --> 00:10:57.190 they were in elementary school and different schedules, different times, 188 00:10:57.230 --> 00:11:01.090 different locations. And so we lived apart for a bit. 189 00:11:01.769 --> 00:11:05.720 And when they divorced, I was forced to sell my business. 190 00:11:05.769 --> 00:11:07.360 I sold it to a guy in his 30s, which 191 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:09.539 was kind of funny. So I always say my first 192 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:13.700 exit was when I was 12. And so then I 193 00:11:13.740 --> 00:11:16.019 had to rebuild it when we moved to San Diego. 194 00:11:16.139 --> 00:11:22.049 But I just remember going from, you know, we were very, 195 00:11:22.129 --> 00:11:26.960 very wealthy to welfare poor. And I remember like literally 196 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:30.379 there's a song by Everclear, a band from California that says, 197 00:11:30.419 --> 00:11:33.539 no one knows the joy of a welfare Christmas. And 198 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:36.440 I'm like, I know what that feels like. And so 199 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:41.860 just that disparity, that differential, I know what it's like 200 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:44.860 to have it and not have it. And so I 201 00:11:44.899 --> 00:11:50.399 think going through those hard things really shapes someone to 202 00:11:50.419 --> 00:11:53.240 kind of look at the different dynamics, whether it's business 203 00:11:53.299 --> 00:11:55.919 or how to interact with people and that kind of thing. 204 00:11:57.019 --> 00:11:59.039 And the rise and fall of an entrepreneur. 205 00:11:59.320 --> 00:11:59.639 Yeah. 206 00:11:59.960 --> 00:12:04.210 Yeah. And it's, you know, he, my dad, he got 207 00:12:04.269 --> 00:12:08.450 into some, he was very accessible and accessible to the 208 00:12:08.490 --> 00:12:13.830 wrong people. And so vices take over and addictions take 209 00:12:14.009 --> 00:12:18.419 over and You know, we go to a boxing match 210 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:22.820 in Las Vegas and he's spending $ 50, 000 on a bet. 211 00:12:23.659 --> 00:12:25.919 And sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't. And 212 00:12:25.970 --> 00:12:30.370 that's in the 90s. So it was probably like putting $ 200, 000 213 00:12:29.250 --> 00:12:33.789 down on red type of thing. And fortunately, I never 214 00:12:34.830 --> 00:12:38.789 looked at that and thought, wow, that's impressive. You made 215 00:12:38.870 --> 00:12:40.740 you doubled your money or something like I look at that. 216 00:12:40.750 --> 00:12:42.220 I'm like, I don't want to have anything to do 217 00:12:42.259 --> 00:12:45.129 with any of that stuff. And, uh, but you know, 218 00:12:45.149 --> 00:12:49.809 you learn from those things and, um, but yeah, it's, uh, 219 00:12:50.149 --> 00:12:52.230 but yeah, it was, it was a tough time of my, 220 00:12:52.330 --> 00:12:54.789 in my adolescence. I was the oldest of four. And 221 00:12:54.860 --> 00:12:56.620 so it was a matter of, okay, now I've got 222 00:12:56.639 --> 00:12:59.620 to create a new business to pay the bills because 223 00:12:59.639 --> 00:13:03.940 my mom, um, wasn't earning anything. And so I, I 224 00:13:03.980 --> 00:13:06.639 became the breadwinner and when my parents divorced, my dad 225 00:13:06.679 --> 00:13:11.110 fell into depression and drugs and all sorts of stuff. And, 226 00:13:11.590 --> 00:13:15.009 To this day, he's homeless and we can't find him 227 00:13:15.049 --> 00:13:17.669 in Orange County somewhere. And we've looked and we've looked 228 00:13:17.710 --> 00:13:19.350 and we've looked. We know he's alive because we get, 229 00:13:19.509 --> 00:13:21.269 it sounds bad to say this, and it's kind of funny, 230 00:13:21.669 --> 00:13:23.309 that we get people that tell us there was a 231 00:13:23.389 --> 00:13:27.320 sighting of him, but we cannot find him to save 232 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:32.659 our life. But it's just interesting how mental health can really, 233 00:13:32.759 --> 00:13:37.340 really affect folks. And so you have someone that was sick. 234 00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:40.490 He looked like Tom Selleck, drove the same Ferrari. He 235 00:13:40.509 --> 00:13:43.389 was 195 pounds, could bench press 420 pounds. 236 00:13:43.590 --> 00:13:43.850 Jeez. 237 00:13:44.149 --> 00:13:47.169 Specimen of health. Brilliant. If you ever watched the movie 238 00:13:47.269 --> 00:13:50.799 Ocean's Eleven with Andy Garcia's character, that was my dad 239 00:13:50.919 --> 00:13:54.179 in terms of charisma and energy and everything. And so 240 00:13:54.220 --> 00:13:58.600 you see this complete fall. It's like mind boggling that 241 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:01.179 that kind of stuff happens. And so you've got this, 242 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:04.970 you know, he had master's in mechanical engineering and all these, 243 00:14:05.269 --> 00:14:09.529 you know, all these entrepreneurship, I mean, entrepreneurial careers. And 244 00:14:09.730 --> 00:14:12.750 it's just amazing how, you know, it could be here 245 00:14:12.789 --> 00:14:17.029 today and completely gone tomorrow. But anyway, not taking things 246 00:14:17.070 --> 00:14:18.250 for granted, basically. 247 00:14:18.269 --> 00:14:21.490 Yeah,

that's a lesson, an important lesson to learn when 248 00:14:21.509 --> 00:14:26.409 you're 12. But also, you know, the fact that you 249 00:14:26.470 --> 00:14:29.970 were able to be so industrious at that age and 250 00:14:30.049 --> 00:14:34.480 just obviously something was instilled in you as a child that, 251 00:14:34.519 --> 00:14:37.500 you know what, like, you can do something about this. 252 00:14:38.429 --> 00:14:41.750 That's incredible. Like how proud your mom must be. Um, 253 00:14:42.769 --> 00:14:47.529 and probably your dad too, but, um, that they, they, 254 00:14:47.669 --> 00:14:50.230 they've seen that in you over the years. 255 00:14:51.070 --> 00:14:51.230 Yeah. 256 00:14:51.370 --> 00:14:56.350 It's just interesting. Uh, you know, the, the different, the different, um, 257 00:14:57.090 --> 00:15:00.340 things that I grew up with seeing and it's like, okay, that's, 258 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:04.919 I like that. Let's, let's borrow that skillset and not 259 00:15:04.940 --> 00:15:08.789 that one over there. And, and, um, through trial and error, 260 00:15:08.830 --> 00:15:12.570 I guess you could say. And, um, but yeah, my, 261 00:15:12.789 --> 00:15:14.909 my mom actually lives here in California. I'm sorry, here 262 00:15:14.929 --> 00:15:18.350 in Utah. Got me thinking California. So yeah, my siblings 263 00:15:18.389 --> 00:15:20.590 are all here now. The only person that's kind of 264 00:15:20.610 --> 00:15:25.009 still there is I've got a couple of cousins and, and, uh, 265 00:15:25.350 --> 00:15:28.549 aunts and uncles and my dad basically are left in California. 266 00:15:28.649 --> 00:15:31.129 So try to get the rest of the cohort out 267 00:15:31.169 --> 00:15:32.570 here eventually. So, yeah. 268 00:15:33.590 --> 00:15:37.700 Sounds like your grandparents played a pretty significant role, you know, 269 00:15:39.070 --> 00:15:43.690 I'm sure over the years have had a massive impact in, in, 270 00:15:43.909 --> 00:15:47.429 in your upbringing and just helping you through this. Did you, 271 00:15:47.710 --> 00:15:48.649 any comments on that? 272 00:15:49.169 --> 00:15:52.149 So my grandfather was a, he was a, I say 273 00:15:52.169 --> 00:15:54.720 he was a baller. He wasn't a basketball player. He 274 00:15:54.759 --> 00:15:57.159 was a tennis player, a tennis pro. And when I 275 00:15:57.179 --> 00:15:59.220 say tennis pro, he was like ranked, but he wasn't 276 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:02.639 a tennis pro. And, but he was actually a school teacher. 277 00:16:02.779 --> 00:16:07.370 He was a mathematician. And he, Super brilliant and just 278 00:16:07.389 --> 00:16:11.409 an incredible hard worker. Like he could outwork anybody. And 279 00:16:11.429 --> 00:16:13.950 so I just always really appreciated that and saw that 280 00:16:14.090 --> 00:16:21.220 for what it was. And very disciplined, hyper disciplined. And 281 00:16:21.659 --> 00:16:23.639 one of the other things that I just loved, he 282 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:28.000 used to always say, never handle things twice. I always 283 00:16:28.039 --> 00:16:30.600 love that and it resonates with me today. So I 284 00:16:30.620 --> 00:16:30.899 love that. 285 00:16:31.100 --> 00:16:33.919 I say that all the time. I don't know where 286 00:16:33.940 --> 00:16:37.629 I first heard it. But yeah, never handle things twice. 287 00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:43.720 Tell me, I was looking at KJ a little bit 288 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:46.220 more today, and one thing that stood out to me was, 289 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:51.259 it said something about that you interview around 200 candidates 290 00:16:52.190 --> 00:16:57.190 to hire the top three for a client. So what, 291 00:16:58.269 --> 00:17:02.250 first of all, how, but how does that process work 292 00:17:02.309 --> 00:17:05.119 for you? And are you still involved in that process? 293 00:17:05.990 --> 00:17:11.230 Yeah, I don't do the interviewing part anymore. 200 is 294 00:17:11.289 --> 00:17:13.730 a lot. It's a lot for one position. Yeah. And 295 00:17:13.769 --> 00:17:16.680 so if you've got 20 positions you're filling a month 296 00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:19.200 or 30 positions, you start doing the math and it's like, 297 00:17:19.240 --> 00:17:25.720 how is this possible? Right. And we, it's a fun process. 298 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:29.240 And when I say fun, like we've really dialed it 299 00:17:29.259 --> 00:17:31.700 in over the years. And one of the things that 300 00:17:31.740 --> 00:17:34.210 was really frustrating for me is I remember one time 301 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:37.680 couple of times actually in the last 25 years applying 302 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:41.019 for a position. And if you're not a brilliant resume 303 00:17:41.059 --> 00:17:43.599 writer where you don't know how to write it in 304 00:17:43.720 --> 00:17:46.319 just the right way, or you didn't go to that 305 00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:49.500 Ivy league school to pick up, to pop up on 306 00:17:49.539 --> 00:17:53.119 the sensors, you might get passed over completely. And I 307 00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:54.529 used to always think if I could just get in 308 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:57.910 front of the person doing the interview, I'll get this job. 309 00:17:58.190 --> 00:18:00.569 Like I'll sell myself. I'll tell you why I can 310 00:18:00.589 --> 00:18:03.119 get this job. But if it doesn't reflect that in 311 00:18:03.140 --> 00:18:05.259 the resume, sorry, you're going to the bottom of the 312 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:07.720 pile because it doesn't say Stanford. It doesn't say Harvard 313 00:18:07.819 --> 00:18:10.019 on it. Or it doesn't say that you were the 314 00:18:10.619 --> 00:18:13.420 chief technology officer for a company or something like that 315 00:18:13.579 --> 00:18:16.039 at a major brand. Maybe it was Google or NVIDIA 316 00:18:16.059 --> 00:18:19.809 or something. And I got tired of that. And I 317 00:18:19.829 --> 00:18:22.430 thought we need to put more humans in front of

humans. 318 00:18:23.190 --> 00:18:28.029 I want humans in front of... HR just says HR. 319 00:18:28.109 --> 00:18:29.930 People forget the human in human resources. 320 00:18:30.910 --> 00:18:31.069 And. 321 00:18:31.589 --> 00:18:35.069 And what I hate, I literally hate it, that HR 322 00:18:35.089 --> 00:18:37.309 is looked at as, well, we have to have this 323 00:18:37.329 --> 00:18:41.789 department because it's our liability protection, right? Like we need 324 00:18:41.809 --> 00:18:44.779 to figure out how we can pretend to care about 325 00:18:44.819 --> 00:18:46.819 our employees. I'm doing air quotes when I say that 326 00:18:47.339 --> 00:18:50.819 because they're really focused on just their bottom line. And 327 00:18:50.839 --> 00:18:54.720 they forget that your most important part of your company, 328 00:18:54.799 --> 00:18:57.519 the most important asset, if you will, is your people. 329 00:18:58.829 --> 00:19:01.599 And so you got to give all your people the 330 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:03.640 right shot. And so what we do is we interview 331 00:19:03.940 --> 00:19:08.269 face-to-face these individuals. Now we use AI to call it 332 00:19:08.329 --> 00:19:12.309 from a thousand applications down to 200. And then we 333 00:19:12.349 --> 00:19:16.690 have some very quick rapid fire type of interviews. Usually 334 00:19:16.730 --> 00:19:19.819 sometimes there's a lot of video there. And so maybe 335 00:19:19.839 --> 00:19:22.019 they got 60 seconds or 90 seconds and then it 336 00:19:22.059 --> 00:19:24.759 gets narrowed and narrowed and narrowed to the point where 337 00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:26.779 we then take it down to 50 and then we 338 00:19:26.819 --> 00:19:28.279 take it down to 10 and then we take it 339 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:31.589 down to the best three. And so in some cases, 340 00:19:31.690 --> 00:19:34.769 like we had an accounting position once that got 5,000 341 00:19:34.769 --> 00:19:39.480 applications from 30 countries. And so taking that down. And 342 00:19:40.279 --> 00:19:43.500 so if you can imagine the creme de la creme 343 00:19:43.859 --> 00:19:46.789 of the most brilliant people you've never heard about before. 344 00:19:46.829 --> 00:19:50.839 And so we always tell companies. companies will come to 345 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:52.900 us on a Monday. And so we trademarked a phrase, 346 00:19:52.940 --> 00:19:56.740 Zoom on Monday, talent by Friday. And so they'll come 347 00:19:56.779 --> 00:19:58.740 to us and we say, what does your dream hire 348 00:19:58.779 --> 00:20:01.640 look like? And they give us this laundry list. It 349 00:20:01.660 --> 00:20:07.140 was a terrific. We're going to find. between 300 people 350 00:20:07.319 --> 00:20:08.539 and we're going to narrow it down and we're going 351 00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:10.880 to introduce you to three of the best people you 352 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:14.769 never knew existed from 30 different countries this Friday. You're 353 00:20:14.789 --> 00:20:16.690

going to meet them. You're going to ask them questions, 354 00:20:16.710 --> 00:20:20.289 get familiar with them. And whoever you love, give us 355 00:20:20.329 --> 00:20:22.829 the thumbs up. In some cases, they'll hire all three. 356 00:20:22.849 --> 00:20:26.640 It happened a lot. And we tell them, you give 357 00:20:26.660 --> 00:20:28.519 us a thumbs up. And on Tuesday of the next week, 358 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:31.160 they're in the trenches working with your company dedicated to 359 00:20:31.180 --> 00:20:35.130 you 40 hours a week. And they're not shared with 360 00:20:35.190 --> 00:20:38.789 any other company. There are team members, but they work 361 00:20:38.829 --> 00:20:42.390 dedicated to a client that we have designated. That's been vetted. 362 00:20:42.630 --> 00:20:46.650 We don't just allow anyone to have our people. Because 363 00:20:46.690 --> 00:20:50.210 there's too many people that they've got the idea of offshore, nearshore, 364 00:20:50.250 --> 00:20:53.430 like virtual sweatshops. And that, you want to see me angry? 365 00:20:53.539 --> 00:20:57.619 That's where you go. Because people are like, oh, you're offshoring, 366 00:20:57.640 --> 00:20:59.839 you're nearshoring. Oh, I get it. No, no, no, no, no. 367 00:20:59.880 --> 00:21:02.009 We are not the race to the bottom team. type 368 00:21:02.029 --> 00:21:04.109 of company, we pay our people five to 10 times 369 00:21:04.210 --> 00:21:06.859 more than a living wage. So they literally go from 370 00:21:06.890 --> 00:21:09.759 poverty to middle class in 60 days or less. And 371 00:21:09.779 --> 00:21:12.859 we've done that 100% in the last five years within 372 00:21:12.900 --> 00:21:14.700 those 60 days for every single person on our team. 373 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:16.779 That was the conversation that you and I had when 374 00:21:16.819 --> 00:21:19.599 we were talking about you as an emerging elite company. 375 00:21:19.900 --> 00:21:20.000 Oh. 376 00:21:20.420 --> 00:21:22.640 As I remember you saying that, I was like, hold on, 377 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:23.680 say that again. 378 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:28.210 And it's But on top of that, they get full medical. 379 00:21:28.259 --> 00:21:30.170 They get full dental. They have paid time off. They 380 00:21:30.190 --> 00:21:32.500 have paid maternity. They have paid paternity. We have a 381 00:21:32.539 --> 00:21:36.380 clinical psychologist on staff for mental health. We have an 382 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:39.079 English expert linguist on our team if they want to 383 00:21:39.460 --> 00:21:43.400 remove an accent, for example. They want to up their 384 00:21:43.500 --> 00:21:47.279 English game even more. Then we have continuing education initiatives 385 00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:52.400 with Thunderbird University and ASU. We have monthly AI trainings 386 00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:57.150 where they come together, like accounting. will come together, all 387 00:21:57.190 --> 00:22:00.130 the accountants on the entire team,

and they'll learn new, 388 00:22:00.410 --> 00:22:03.069 you know, new trainings on AI with just accounting because 389 00:22:03.089 --> 00:22:05.890 it's completely different than our mechanical, electrical, civil, or we 390 00:22:06.029 --> 00:22:08.990 even have nuclear engineers on our team. And it's completely 391 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:12.119 different from our graphic designers or video editors or supply 392 00:22:12.140 --> 00:22:14.779 chain analysts, you know, with like Harley Davidson and stuff. 393 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:19.460 Like they're all very, very diverse in terms of their roles. 394 00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:22.140 And so AI has to be very customized to each 395 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:24.579 and every one of them. I'm a big believer that 396 00:22:25.299 --> 00:22:26.700 AI is not going to take their job. And I 397 00:22:26.740 --> 00:22:27.839 tell them this all the time, but I said, the 398 00:22:27.859 --> 00:22:31.599 people that leverage AI will. So you have to be 399 00:22:31.640 --> 00:22:35.569 the ones that have leveraged AI so well that you 400 00:22:35.650 --> 00:22:40.710 have to be in their trenches all the time. And 401 00:22:41.230 --> 00:22:42.990 you become irreplaceable at that point. 402 00:22:44.089 --> 00:22:46.230 You know, I would love to explore just a little 403 00:22:46.269 --> 00:22:50.000 bit on that point that you made. So the ability, 404 00:22:50.019 --> 00:22:53.130 so that skill to leverage AI is, And then what 405 00:22:53.190 --> 00:22:55.900 other skills do you see? Because obviously the soft skills, 406 00:22:55.920 --> 00:22:59.160 and we've talked about this in previous podcasts, the soft 407 00:22:59.180 --> 00:23:03.859 skills are becoming even more important, right? So maybe highlight 408 00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:08.359 those two or three things that are just absolutely essential 409 00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:12.309 to differentiate one person versus someone else. I love it. 410 00:23:12.589 --> 00:23:17.130 I think it's so interesting how everything's come full circle, right? 411 00:23:17.150 --> 00:23:19.140 Where Like before it was, no, this is what you 412 00:23:19.160 --> 00:23:20.640 got to focus on and you've got to be the 413 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:24.019 best at this. And it's just very, very. And now 414 00:23:24.119 --> 00:23:27.319 anything in front of a computer can practically be done 415 00:23:27.359 --> 00:23:31.609 by AI. Anything that zeros and ones. I always tell people, 416 00:23:31.630 --> 00:23:33.029 if you're in front of a computer, you've got to 417 00:23:33.250 --> 00:23:35.549 really get, you have to embrace AI like more than 418 00:23:35.710 --> 00:23:41.130 anybody else. And because, yeah, you in the next 36 months, 419 00:23:41.150 --> 00:23:45.339 it's going to get even worse. And but my one 420 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:47.019 of my number one things is they have to be 421 00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:53.210 very comfortable communicating. They have to be amazing communicators more 422 00:23:53.250 --> 00:23:57.869 so than anything else, because that human element has to 423 00:23:57.970 --> 00:24:00.490 remain because there's already a little bit. But there's going 424 00:24:00.509 --> 00:24:04.029 to be a significant growing backlash against AI because now 425 00:24:04.069 --> 00:24:09.170 you're literally thinking that that thing, if you will, that 426 00:24:09.210 --> 00:24:13.900 has no soul, has no depth. you're putting that to 427 00:24:13.940 --> 00:24:17.759 communicate with other companies or other AIs and you're going 428 00:24:17.779 --> 00:24:20.529 to take the human element out of it. No, no, no, no. 429 00:24:21.099 --> 00:24:22.980 The companies that are going to win in the future 430 00:24:23.019 --> 00:24:26.859 are the companies that are warm and they have a soul. 431 00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:30.920 They literally are flesh and blood type of companies. Because 432 00:24:30.940 --> 00:24:32.759 at the end of the day, I don't want to 433 00:24:33.420 --> 00:24:37.650 communicate with a machine over there about certain things. It's just, 434 00:24:37.890 --> 00:24:42.019 it feels so phony to me. And so- Always tell. Yeah, 435 00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:44.299 always tell, right? And it's going to get really good 436 00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:45.660 where we're not going to be able to tell, but 437 00:24:45.700 --> 00:24:47.559 at the end of the day, I can't go to 438 00:24:47.640 --> 00:24:50.819 lunch with that AI person, you know? And so it's, 439 00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:53.670 I'm not going golfing and I'm not going wake surfing 440 00:24:53.710 --> 00:24:56.970 with that computer, you know? It's just not happening. And 441 00:24:57.029 --> 00:24:59.589 so the human element has to be there. That communication 442 00:24:59.609 --> 00:25:02.250 has to be there. But in addition to that, people 443 00:25:02.390 --> 00:25:08.299 that are resilient- people that have dealt with adversity and 444 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:11.839 have dealt with hard things. Like I tell people all 445 00:25:11.859 --> 00:25:15.099 the time, I go, we are so soft as Americans. 446 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:18.680 Like we have it made in the shade. Like the 447 00:25:18.759 --> 00:25:21.680 homeless in America are so well off compared to the 448 00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:24.839 rest of the world. And that's one of the things 449 00:25:24.859 --> 00:25:26.940 that I love is I get to meet people that 450 00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:31.140 have done hard, hard things on a regular basis. And 451 00:25:31.160 --> 00:25:35.589 they're so deserving of it, of having an opportunity. And, um, 452 00:25:35.960 --> 00:25:37.900 You know, it's interesting. I've got a member of my team. 453 00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:43.809 Her name is Sarah. And she lives in Venezuela. And 454 00:25:43.940 --> 00:25:50.890 she speaks four languages. Has two master's degrees. She was 455 00:25:51.049 --> 00:25:53.769 the head of creative design for the United Nations. 456

00:25:54.509 --> 00:25:54.769 Wow. 457 00:25:55.029 --> 00:25:55.349 Okay. 458 00:25:55.710 --> 00:26:00.730 All her experience, amazing pedigree in terms of education, four languages. 459 00:26:01.710 --> 00:26:04.250 But they didn't pay her anything. It was a perfect 460 00:26:04.289 --> 00:26:07.109 example of an organization that's... Do as we say, but 461 00:26:07.789 --> 00:26:08.349 not as we do. 462 00:26:08.569 --> 00:26:08.809 Right. 463 00:26:09.650 --> 00:26:12.980 And she quit that job and started working for us. 464 00:26:13.980 --> 00:26:15.900 And she was, like I said, she was paid hardly 465 00:26:15.960 --> 00:26:19.599 anything over there. Like slave labor rate wages for as 466 00:26:19.640 --> 00:26:23.680 good as she was and amazing. And after about three weeks, 467 00:26:24.740 --> 00:26:27.359 about three weeks, she sends me an email one day. 468 00:26:27.380 --> 00:26:30.480 She's thanking me. Garrett, thank you so much. This is 469 00:26:30.500 --> 00:26:34.549 the greatest job I've ever had. And in that email, 470 00:26:34.569 --> 00:26:36.329 there's a picture and there's a picture of a bed. 471 00:26:36.990 --> 00:26:42.150 And she goes, I just bought my first bed. Mind blown. 472 00:26:43.509 --> 00:26:48.680 And you're like, you got Americans complaining that their internet's 473 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:50.859 not fast enough, you know? And she's like buying her 474 00:26:50.900 --> 00:26:56.880 first bed, speaks four languages, two master's degrees, brilliant experience. 475 00:26:56.920 --> 00:26:59.849 You're like, what? This is crazy. And so I get 476 00:26:59.890 --> 00:27:02.490 stories like that all the time from members of my team. 477 00:27:03.269 --> 00:27:06.420 And you're just like, whoa. And so you just imagine 478 00:27:06.460 --> 00:27:10.539 the companies that get them, they end up hiring more 479 00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:13.220 and more members of our team over time because they 480 00:27:13.740 --> 00:27:17.769 are so committed to those companies. Loyalty. I always say 481 00:27:18.710 --> 00:27:22.789 we hire loyal and grateful rock stars. That's what we do. 482 00:27:25.009 --> 00:27:26.950 So that was actually one of our official questions that 483 00:27:27.029 --> 00:27:28.930 we wanted to talk to you about is that you 484 00:27:28.970 --> 00:27:30.559 hire people over, is it 28 countries? Yes. 485 00:27:31.640 --> 00:27:34.869 It keeps growing. What is it today? It was like 486 00:27:34.869 --> 00:27:37.390 19 and it's 22. Now it's 29. I think we 487 00:27:37.410 --> 00:27:38.630 just hit 30, actually. 488 00:27:38.930 --> 00:27:39.329 Okay. 489 00:27:39.410 --> 00:27:40.109 Like last week. 490 00:27:40.150 --> 00:27:42.190 And then how do you find the Sarah? How do 491 00:27:42.210 --> 00:27:45.730 you find the Sarahs of these countries? Like how? 492 00:27:45.829 --> 00:27:49.170 Human to human. You got to just, some people just 493 00:27:49.450 --> 00:27:55.640 have that everything factor. And,

you know, and I got, 494 00:27:55.779 --> 00:27:57.579 I started getting really sad because we had to say 495 00:27:57.660 --> 00:28:01.130 no to so many people. And I know one of 496 00:28:01.170 --> 00:28:05.349 the companies that I'm on still, I've sold off a 497 00:28:05.730 --> 00:28:07.670 lot of my ownership in that company, but I'm still 498 00:28:07.829 --> 00:28:12.789 on it, is Hire Mango. And Hire Mango was exactly 499 00:28:12.849 --> 00:28:15.309 like KG. But the difference is I got tired of 500 00:28:15.329 --> 00:28:18.150 the 197 that we had to say no to. And 501 00:28:18.230 --> 00:28:21.660 so we created this sister company that would take the 502 00:28:21.700 --> 00:28:25.579 people that were almost as amazing and give them another 503 00:28:25.640 --> 00:28:28.400 opportunity that's better than anything else in their country. And 504 00:28:28.440 --> 00:28:30.900 we would tell them why they didn't get hired. So 505 00:28:30.940 --> 00:28:33.180 maybe they needed more education and now they can get 506 00:28:33.220 --> 00:28:38.240 it through that company. They maybe needed more experience and 507 00:28:38.380 --> 00:28:40.410 now they can get more experience. Maybe they needed to 508 00:28:40.450 --> 00:28:43.109 work on their English. And so it was basically a 509 00:28:43.170 --> 00:28:45.849 training ground for them to try, try and try again. 510 00:28:46.430 --> 00:28:48.009 The door would never be closed to them and they 511 00:28:48.029 --> 00:28:51.230 could just, okay, today's not the day, but maybe next 512 00:28:51.250 --> 00:28:54.230 year it is. And so that's the reason for that 513 00:28:54.289 --> 00:28:55.609 company is creation. 514 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:02.769 You know, I think you mentioned Sarah and I was 515 00:29:02.789 --> 00:29:05.829 just curious if there were other stories. I think you 516 00:29:05.849 --> 00:29:08.990 mentioned not a week goes by without joyful tears on 517 00:29:09.009 --> 00:29:11.930 your team. And I just think Sarah is probably one 518 00:29:11.970 --> 00:29:16.019 of many experiences that you've had over the years. You know, 519 00:29:16.039 --> 00:29:19.680 and I think it's obvious to me why your company 520 00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:23.220 has grown so significantly over these years. I mean, it's 521 00:29:23.259 --> 00:29:26.519 just amazing the principles and the vision and what you're 522 00:29:26.680 --> 00:29:27.420 trying to accomplish. 523 00:29:27.440 --> 00:29:27.819 So maybe. 524 00:29:28.450 --> 00:29:33.019 Highlight maybe another story that I think, again, touches on 525 00:29:33.059 --> 00:29:34.819 to that theme. 526 00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:40.289 I sigh like that because I'm looking for tissue. Because my... That's... I'm, uh, 527 00:29:40.369 --> 00:29:43.490 I'm notorious for breaking, breaking down in interviews and different 528 00:29:43.509 --> 00:29:50.500 things because I start talking about members of my team. Um, the, um, yeah, 529 00:29:50.519 --> 00:29:52.000 there's a member of my team. I'm not going to 530 00:29:52.019 --> 00:29:55.980 mention his name. Um, because this, this is a little 531 00:29:56.000 --> 00:30:00.619 bit more sensitive. He's in Mexico city. He worked for Google. 532 00:30:01.059 --> 00:30:06.920 He is one of the most brilliant computer engineers you've 533 00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:09.700 ever met. And he's kind of like the Elon Musk 534 00:30:09.880 --> 00:30:14.799 of Mexico on my team. And he was going through 535 00:30:14.819 --> 00:30:19.940 a divorce, two sons, custody issues, and he ended up 536 00:30:19.960 --> 00:30:22.279 losing his job at Google. And he was trying to 537 00:30:22.319 --> 00:30:25.740 find work and he couldn't get it together because he 538 00:30:25.789 --> 00:30:28.170 was just going through so much, so much turmoil with 539 00:30:28.230 --> 00:30:33.230 his boys and going to lose them, the fees and 540 00:30:33.250 --> 00:30:37.230 the bills that were racking up. And he kept applying 541 00:30:37.259 --> 00:30:40.019 for positions and wasn't getting them. And he's like, this 542 00:30:40.059 --> 00:30:43.279 is crazy. I've got the education. I've got the experience. 543 00:30:44.099 --> 00:30:48.059 I'm great. I can speak English so well and all 544 00:30:48.099 --> 00:30:52.470 the things. And it was just, what's going on? And 545 00:30:53.940 --> 00:30:55.619 time after time he was just not getting the job 546 00:30:55.660 --> 00:30:57.849 and bills are stacking up more and it's just all 547 00:30:57.869 --> 00:31:00.869 leveled up against him and he sees a post he 548 00:31:00.890 --> 00:31:03.730 applies for it and KJ we interview him and we 549 00:31:03.789 --> 00:31:07.990 hire him on a Tuesday and I remember talking to 550 00:31:08.049 --> 00:31:10.980 him last year he had been with us a year 551 00:31:11.019 --> 00:31:12.299 at that point so he's been with us two years 552 00:31:12.339 --> 00:31:16.960 now came up to me thanking me and he said 553 00:31:16.980 --> 00:31:26.579 sorry if you didn't hire me on Tuesday, I was 554 00:31:26.640 --> 00:31:33.500 planning on killing myself on Thursday. Wow. So those, those 555 00:31:33.579 --> 00:31:35.750 types of stories, you know, he's like, yeah, I was 556 00:31:35.769 --> 00:31:37.230 going to take my life on Thursday, but I got 557 00:31:37.250 --> 00:31:40.450 the job on Tuesday and it changed my life. What? 558 00:31:41.509 --> 00:31:47.359 So I've got, uh, I've got another amazing member of 559 00:31:47.380 --> 00:31:51.799 my team. He's in, um, he's in Nigeria and, um, 560 00:31:52.730 --> 00:31:55.980 He's got a master's in applied physics and a master's 561 00:31:56.319 --> 00:32:02.779 in AI computer learning. And he is just outstanding. A 562 00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:08.759 lot of people don't know this, but the secret India 2.0 563 00:32:08.759 --> 00:32:13.759 place for tech brilliance is Nigeria. It's not the financial 564 00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:16.599 princes trying to tell

you they want your bank account 565 00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:21.450 to send you money. It's the brilliance there. It's not 566 00:32:21.529 --> 00:32:23.670 the one-tenth of one percent that make it, give it 567 00:32:23.690 --> 00:32:29.019 a bad name. And so he worked, he was working 568 00:32:29.210 --> 00:32:34.099 in the city about eight hours away from his family 569 00:32:34.859 --> 00:32:38.740 that lived in a small village in Nigeria. And he'd 570 00:32:38.779 --> 00:32:42.059 only get to see his family usually twice a year 571 00:32:43.220 --> 00:32:45.180 because he couldn't afford to go back and forth. And 572 00:32:45.220 --> 00:32:49.630 so every time he'd see them, they had aged. Any 573 00:32:49.650 --> 00:32:50.829 of us with kids, it's like, whoa. 574 00:32:51.259 --> 00:32:51.470 Yeah. 575 00:32:51.930 --> 00:32:54.359 And so he, he applied for a position with us 576 00:32:54.940 --> 00:32:56.380 and he was ecstatic because it was going to be 577 00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:59.579 like five times more than he's ever made before. And 578 00:33:02.099 --> 00:33:07.180 he got the job and yeah, he was super excited. 579 00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:10.079 And I meet every single member of my team and 580 00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:13.519 we do welcome calls. So I, I take a page 581 00:33:13.559 --> 00:33:15.200 of notes on every member of my team when they, 582 00:33:15.319 --> 00:33:19.220 when they joined KJ. So when I see them, we 583 00:33:19.259 --> 00:33:21.789 can interact and we talk and I know they're, names 584 00:33:21.809 --> 00:33:24.950 of their spouses, names of their kids, all that stuff. 585 00:33:25.690 --> 00:33:29.480 And talking to him, he's like, Garrett, he goes, I 586 00:33:31.779 --> 00:33:36.579 was able to buy, pay for Starlink and I can 587 00:33:36.599 --> 00:33:40.539 be home with my kids and my wife 24 seven. 588 00:33:41.460 --> 00:33:44.059 So he moved out of the city and was able 589 00:33:44.079 --> 00:33:46.859 to move back home and be there nonstop for the 590 00:33:46.880 --> 00:33:49.660 last couple of years. He's never had to be away 591 00:33:49.680 --> 00:33:51.829 from them ever again. Um, And then people in the 592 00:33:51.910 --> 00:33:55.890 village are able to use Starlink that he has. And 593 00:33:55.910 --> 00:34:01.059 so they've all been able to elevate. So anyway, sorry. 594 00:34:01.299 --> 00:34:03.680 Every time I've said that story, like 50 times. And 595 00:34:03.720 --> 00:34:07.259 every time I get like this, so I'm glad I 596 00:34:07.259 --> 00:34:08.639 don't have any paper in front of me. It'd have 597 00:34:08.659 --> 00:34:09.380 to be laminated. 598 00:34:09.500 --> 00:34:14.800 That's significant impact is thank you for sharing that. Being, 599 00:34:15.500 --> 00:34:16.320 being able to share that. 600 00:34:16.719 --> 00:34:20.820 Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that story. It, It's 601 00:34:20.940 --> 00:34:25.619 clear that you have found a purpose in this business. 602 00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:30.860 We love talking to CEOs, founders, and it always comes 603 00:34:30.929 --> 00:34:33.469 down to there's got to be a higher purpose. It 604 00:34:33.489 --> 00:34:34.349 can't be just the job. 605 00:34:34.369 --> 00:34:35.550 Yeah. 606 00:34:35.730 --> 00:34:39.349 And it's clear that you've found that and you get 607 00:34:39.389 --> 00:34:42.429 to experience it. It seems like maybe even daily, if 608 00:34:42.510 --> 00:34:45.070 not multiple times a day, as you see the lives 609 00:34:45.090 --> 00:34:48.440 that you're changing through the opportunities that you're providing. Yeah. 610 00:34:49.860 --> 00:34:52.969 It's you know it's um i never got it in 611 00:34:53.110 --> 00:34:55.590 ice cream you know my previous company my ice cream 612 00:34:55.630 --> 00:34:58.590 company which is funny yeah um and i got to 613 00:34:58.610 --> 00:35:01.829 change people's waistlines basically and that was very and for 614 00:35:01.849 --> 00:35:04.769 good it was a protein kind of ice it was 615 00:35:04.809 --> 00:35:08.050 a protein-based ice cream it was the first product to 616 00:35:08.070 --> 00:35:09.739 ever have calorie counts on the front of the package 617 00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:13.500 and now everybody does it and um But with this, 618 00:35:13.719 --> 00:35:17.219 the feel good component of seeing people's lives change, being 619 00:35:17.260 --> 00:35:19.340 able to do things that they never thought was going 620 00:35:19.360 --> 00:35:21.570 to be possible. Got members on my team that are 621 00:35:21.590 --> 00:35:23.570 having children for the first time because they couldn't afford 622 00:35:23.590 --> 00:35:26.510 to have children. And in some ways they couldn't afford 623 00:35:26.869 --> 00:35:29.989 because they needed fertility treatment, for example, and it was 624 00:35:30.030 --> 00:35:32.150 an impossibility. And they just had just chalked it up 625 00:35:32.210 --> 00:35:35.860 for we will never have children. And now that they've 626 00:35:35.900 --> 00:35:38.800 got the means because they could get a job with 627 00:35:38.920 --> 00:35:42.090 any company and hopefully it would pay more. Some companies 628 00:35:42.170 --> 00:35:45.250 pay one or two times more than the regular wage, 629 00:35:45.329 --> 00:35:49.590 but they're still going to be in poverty. You took 630 00:35:49.630 --> 00:35:52.030 them from having four jobs to make ends meet to 631 00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:55.539 maybe three. And even then, they can barely scrape by. 632 00:35:56.360 --> 00:36:00.119 But my goal was, I want everyone to gain full-time employment, 633 00:36:00.440 --> 00:36:02.340 no more than 40 hours a week. So no one 634 00:36:02.380 --> 00:36:05.300 on our team works more than 40 hours. The goal 635 00:36:05.340 --> 00:36:09.340 specifically is so that they have the focus between they 636 00:36:09.380 --> 00:36:12.989 can Everyone talks about there's no such thing as work-life balance, 637 00:36:13.030

--> 00:36:15.849 but at the same time, if they can spend more 638 00:36:15.909 --> 00:36:20.750 time with the things that matter versus working, that's where 639 00:36:20.769 --> 00:36:24.940 it's at. And so now you've got nuclear family there, basically, 640 00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:30.039 that can be home together and grow. And it just 641 00:36:30.079 --> 00:36:32.219 changes the dynamic. And so we're able to pay them 642 00:36:32.300 --> 00:36:37.090 more and they aren't looking down. for another opportunity. They 643 00:36:37.110 --> 00:36:39.780 don't have one foot in and one foot out. They're 644 00:36:39.820 --> 00:36:44.659 committed long-term. And our clients love that because, you know, they're, 645 00:36:44.800 --> 00:36:47.239 they're hired, they're trained, they're brought into the company, they 646 00:36:47.280 --> 00:36:49.800 learn the company and they're not going anywhere. So all 647 00:36:49.820 --> 00:36:54.920 that intellectual property, all those clients, everything is staying there. 648 00:36:55.320 --> 00:36:57.570 And one of the things that that's unfortunate is I've 649 00:36:57.610 --> 00:37:02.070 seen so much career jumping and over, over the years. 650 00:37:02.230 --> 00:37:04.210 A lot of people that graduate from school, they want 651 00:37:04.269 --> 00:37:06.750 six figures right out of school. They have no experience 652 00:37:07.730 --> 00:37:09.809 and they're going to work at a company for four months. 653 00:37:09.829 --> 00:37:11.150 And then they're going to jump to the next one. 654 00:37:11.670 --> 00:37:13.349 And a lot of times they take that IP, that 655 00:37:13.409 --> 00:37:15.869 intellectual property, or they take clients with them to that 656 00:37:15.909 --> 00:37:18.690 next stop. And so that loyalty just isn't there. And 657 00:37:18.710 --> 00:37:19.889 so a lot of companies are like, you know what? 658 00:37:21.050 --> 00:37:23.849 We want someone that wants to grow with us and 659 00:37:23.989 --> 00:37:29.650 is loyal. And so, you know, talking to people around 660 00:37:29.710 --> 00:37:33.239 the world, that just simply want to feed their families, 661 00:37:34.099 --> 00:37:38.199 they're the most loyal of anybody. And they are so 662 00:37:38.260 --> 00:37:42.119 excited for just to have an opportunity that changed the 663 00:37:42.159 --> 00:37:45.110 dynamic of not only their lives, but their children's lives. 664 00:37:45.869 --> 00:37:48.829 And so that's the thing for me that's so exciting 665 00:37:48.869 --> 00:37:50.409 is because I get to hear and I get to 666 00:37:50.449 --> 00:37:53.030 see their kids growing and doing things that they didn't 667 00:37:53.050 --> 00:37:55.289 think were going to be possible in their life. Like 668 00:37:55.309 --> 00:37:56.750 they talk about one of the things that I always 669 00:37:56.929 --> 00:37:59.710 ask what are some of your favorite TV shows and movies? 670 00:37:59.849 --> 00:38:01.530 And it's so funny to hear kind of some of 671 00:38:01.550 --> 00:38:04.690 the things that the commonalities around the world, you know, 672 00:38:05.130 --> 00:38:06.820 if you were to ask someone were to ask me, 673 00:38:06.909 --> 00:38:09.699 what is one of the most popular movies that everyone loves? 674 00:38:09.820 --> 00:38:10.820 It's interstellar. 675 00:38:11.360 --> 00:38:11.639 Yeah. 676 00:38:11.679 --> 00:38:13.840 Christopher Nolan, for some reason, that is a movie that 677 00:38:13.960 --> 00:38:17.960 captures everybody. They love that movie, TV shows. They love friends. 678 00:38:18.039 --> 00:38:21.300 They love the office, crazier movies, like break or shows 679 00:38:21.320 --> 00:38:23.900 like breaking bad. They love, it's just so funny to 680 00:38:23.940 --> 00:38:25.619 kind of hear the reasons for some of these things. 681 00:38:25.659 --> 00:38:27.800 But one of the things that I, I tend to 682 00:38:27.880 --> 00:38:32.530 hear is when they watch those movies, it's American escapism 683 00:38:32.869 --> 00:38:35.590 for them. Like that's how life is supposed to be. 684 00:38:35.630 --> 00:38:38.489 This is like, you live a good life. You get 685 00:38:38.510 --> 00:38:41.170 to do all these things. You have choice, you have freedom. 686 00:38:42.110 --> 00:38:47.659 And I think Americans, a lot of Americans don't understand 687 00:38:47.739 --> 00:38:50.460 how amazing our country is. They want to focus on 688 00:38:50.480 --> 00:38:53.460 maybe what the media says and is lying about. But 689 00:38:53.500 --> 00:38:55.500 if you were to ask people from outside the world, 690 00:38:55.539 --> 00:39:00.750 looking in, keeping their media out of the picture, they, they, they, 691 00:39:01.050 --> 00:39:03.329 they see what we're missing sometimes, like what we're just 692 00:39:03.489 --> 00:39:06.530 literally not saying. And so I hear that all the time. 693 00:39:06.610 --> 00:39:09.510 I see that all the time. And, um, but no, 694 00:39:09.550 --> 00:39:12.739 it's just, it's really inspiring to, to talk to, to 695 00:39:12.780 --> 00:39:14.739 members of my team in different countries and what they're 696 00:39:14.780 --> 00:39:17.519 going through. And I, you don't even think about that sometimes. 697 00:39:17.659 --> 00:39:20.719 Like I have a member of my team one time, 698 00:39:20.739 --> 00:39:24.929 one of the reasons why we hired her Amazing. She 699 00:39:24.949 --> 00:39:27.760 grew up in the slums of Manila. And a lot 700 00:39:27.780 --> 00:39:30.380 of people don't know this, but one of the one 701 00:39:30.400 --> 00:39:34.219 of the areas in the world that has more homelessness 702 00:39:34.260 --> 00:39:38.199 than anywhere on the planet is in Manila, Philippines. The 703 00:39:38.260 --> 00:39:43.210 entire population, let's put it this way. There's 3.1 million 704 00:39:43.250 --> 00:39:48.650 people in Manila that are homeless. Not the population, just 705 00:39:48.710 --> 00:39:54.159 homeless in Manila. 3.1 million. The population of

Utah. Let 706 00:39:54.179 --> 00:39:57.210 that sink in. And over half of them are under 707 00:39:57.230 --> 00:40:02.010 the age of 10. Wow. So just picture that. But 708 00:40:02.250 --> 00:40:06.909 like someone on my team, she is, her name is Shelly. 709 00:40:07.030 --> 00:40:10.449 She's phenomenal. She went to the top universities like the 710 00:40:10.530 --> 00:40:15.829 Harvard of the Philippines. She is remarkable. And she qualified 711 00:40:16.190 --> 00:40:19.139 to be hired. And so we have tests and a 712 00:40:19.179 --> 00:40:21.559 lot of different things to make sure people have the 713 00:40:21.639 --> 00:40:26.179 aptitude and they've got the ability and English listening, learning, speaking, everything. 714 00:40:26.199 --> 00:40:29.400 And like, so tell me, tell me why you think 715 00:40:29.460 --> 00:40:33.360 you're able to do this job. She goes, Garrett, I 716 00:40:33.400 --> 00:40:35.050 can do hard things. 717 00:40:36.820 --> 00:40:37.090 Yeah. 718 00:40:37.199 --> 00:40:40.489 I'm like, okay, let's go. And her, one of her 719 00:40:40.530 --> 00:40:42.070 goals in life was to be a CEO of her 720 00:40:42.090 --> 00:40:47.050 own company. And so she, and she, she, she's demonstrated that. 721 00:40:47.590 --> 00:40:50.369 since day one, she's been with us for about three 722 00:40:50.389 --> 00:40:53.969 and a half years. She is, she is a fire starter. 723 00:40:54.110 --> 00:40:57.559 She is amazing. And, uh, she just makes it happen. 724 00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:01.360 And that's my whole thing. I love finding people that say, 725 00:41:01.380 --> 00:41:05.059 you know, I can do hard things. Give me a challenge. And, um, 726 00:41:05.260 --> 00:41:09.050 so anyway, sorry, I, I just monologue. That's great. 727 00:41:09.329 --> 00:41:13.510 I love that. I was, I was thinking too, you 728 00:41:13.809 --> 00:41:16.670 have done such a incredible job of creating a company 729 00:41:16.710 --> 00:41:20.170 that does so much for others and You have your 730 00:41:20.210 --> 00:41:23.510 hands and so many things of it. But what creates 731 00:41:23.650 --> 00:41:27.780 balance for you? I'm curious about that because you've got 732 00:41:27.880 --> 00:41:35.280 five kids and And their teenage years, I'm guessing? 733 00:41:35.530 --> 00:41:37.150 Oldest is 22 and my youngest is 11. 734 00:41:37.150 --> 00:41:37.429 Okay. 735 00:41:38.070 --> 00:41:42.849 So a wide array of ages. So Kate, Ariana, Jack, Alexa, Ethan. 736 00:41:42.889 --> 00:41:44.849 And I say it in that order because the name 737 00:41:44.889 --> 00:41:46.010 KJ comes from their names. 738 00:41:46.190 --> 00:41:46.909 Yeah. That's cool. 739 00:41:47.269 --> 00:41:50.300 And it means gift from God in Jamaican. And so 740 00:41:50.320 --> 00:41:52.159 it was kind of a trifecta. I got lucky and 741 00:41:52.179 --> 00:41:54.579 it was a five-letter domain that was a word that 742 00:41:54.619 --> 00:42:00.239 still existed and wasn't a misspelling. But to answer your question... 743 00:42:01.369 --> 00:42:03.710 You know, it comes from having a really great team 744 00:42:04.230 --> 00:42:07.199 around me. My chief of staff, May, she's been with 745 00:42:07.219 --> 00:42:12.780 me since before KJ. And great story there, too. She 746 00:42:12.800 --> 00:42:16.159 was part of the catalyst for creating KJ. She's based 747 00:42:16.360 --> 00:42:20.480 in Manila. Your chief of staff is in Manila. She's 748 00:42:20.519 --> 00:42:23.480 in Manila. She served a mission for the Church of 749 00:42:23.500 --> 00:42:26.440 Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Montreal. And that's where 750 00:42:26.460 --> 00:42:30.949 she learned her English. And her English was just... So outstanding. 751 00:42:31.670 --> 00:42:33.059 At the time, she thought to herself, why am I 752 00:42:33.099 --> 00:42:37.460 going to Montreal? And here she is. And I'm sorry, 753 00:42:37.480 --> 00:42:40.579 it's not Montreal. We have someone else that I know 754 00:42:40.619 --> 00:42:42.599 is Montreal. She was in Toronto. And so she was 755 00:42:42.619 --> 00:42:47.869 in Toronto, Canada. And very, very random, rare place for 756 00:42:47.909 --> 00:42:50.230 someone in the Philippines to go, by the way. And 757 00:42:50.289 --> 00:42:53.849 she's my stuff would not get done if it wasn't 758 00:42:53.869 --> 00:42:57.750 for her. She's so remarkable. But in addition to having 759 00:42:57.769 --> 00:43:00.510 an amazing team and folks on our internal team that 760 00:43:00.570 --> 00:43:05.230 keep everything well oiled and smoothly running my wife, I mean, 761 00:43:05.909 --> 00:43:07.949 she just, she puts up with me on a regular 762 00:43:08.010 --> 00:43:13.559 basis and my, my constant, I have a lot of 763 00:43:13.639 --> 00:43:19.530 energy and it's not a good thing. And it's one 764 00:43:19.550 --> 00:43:23.110 of my strengths is ideation. So my ideas are always flying. 765 00:43:23.849 --> 00:43:26.769 And so she's really good at kind of like bringing 766 00:43:26.789 --> 00:43:30.110 me back down a little bit and just helping. Honestly, 767 00:43:30.170 --> 00:43:33.849 she makes it possible. If she didn't run everything so perfectly, 768 00:43:33.869 --> 00:43:36.150 I wouldn't be able to do the things that I do. 769 00:43:38.010 --> 00:43:41.530 With your kids being so, I mean, 20, what did 770 00:43:41.550 --> 00:43:41.789 you say, 21? 771 00:43:41.760 --> 00:43:41.840 22. 22. 772 00:43:41.820 --> 00:43:44.789 23 in December. That's crazy. What do you hope they're learning. 773 00:43:44.530 --> 00:43:55.090 From you throughout this experience? You know, so they've met every, 774 00:43:55.300 --> 00:43:58.489 every year we take one of our kids to one 775 00:43:58.510 --> 00:44:01.199 of our summits around the world so that they can 776 00:44:01.260 --> 00:44:06.079 meet the, the team, they can experience what the team experiences, 777 00:44:06.159 --> 00:44:09.480 but also they can see the countries, you know,

some 778 00:44:09.500 --> 00:44:12.179 of these countries and the haves, the haves nots and, 779 00:44:12.760 --> 00:44:15.619 and the freedoms that we enjoy versus what we take for, 780 00:44:15.659 --> 00:44:18.059 you know, what we take for granted here. And so 781 00:44:18.079 --> 00:44:21.519 that's been really good for them to see. They know, um, 782 00:44:23.030 --> 00:44:25.409 you know, if dad's in the office, what he's working on, 783 00:44:25.449 --> 00:44:28.190 you know, if you were to see my office, I've 784 00:44:28.230 --> 00:44:33.590 got three big curved LED screens and my laptop down here. 785 00:44:33.650 --> 00:44:36.210 So I've got four screens and it looks like a 786 00:44:36.289 --> 00:44:41.510 cockpit of a jet. And that's, that's, that's ground zero 787 00:44:41.530 --> 00:44:44.949 right there for, for KJ. And I've got the greatest 788 00:44:44.989 --> 00:44:47.800 commute in the world. It's only 30 seconds. And so 789 00:44:47.840 --> 00:44:50.119 it's terrific. Like people are always like, you don't have 790 00:44:50.159 --> 00:44:52.360 an actual physical office. I go, yeah, I'm going to, 791 00:44:52.980 --> 00:44:55.940 break everybody, blow everybody's mind here, but no, we are 792 00:44:55.960 --> 00:45:01.860 a 100% remote company in 29 countries. Like we, we, 793 00:45:01.880 --> 00:45:05.340 I hate to use the phrase, you know, we drink 794 00:45:05.380 --> 00:45:08.840 our own Kool-Aid, but we do. I mean, like we literally, um, 795 00:45:09.340 --> 00:45:12.550 we practice what we preach and, uh, and we've been 796 00:45:12.630 --> 00:45:16.210 able to grow a company number five fastest in Utah, 797 00:45:16.230 --> 00:45:18.969 according to Inc. 5000, number eight in our category in 798 00:45:18.989 --> 00:45:22.710 the United States doing it this way. And it, uh, 799 00:45:23.099 --> 00:45:24.719 You know, you don't have to have a brick and 800 00:45:24.760 --> 00:45:28.480 mortar and everyone has to show up on the dot 801 00:45:28.800 --> 00:45:31.460 in order to make a company successful. It's just you 802 00:45:31.500 --> 00:45:34.960 surround yourself with the best people and you put them 803 00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:36.679 in those seats that they need to be sitting in. 804 00:45:38.539 --> 00:45:42.000 How impactful has it been to be in Utah? And maybe, 805 00:45:42.139 --> 00:45:44.530 you know, you have been recognized. I know the Mountain 806 00:45:44.550 --> 00:45:48.389 West Capital Network has recognized you. How meaningful has that 807 00:45:48.429 --> 00:45:50.769 been as well as being located here? 808 00:45:50.789 --> 00:45:55.989 Yeah, I... You know, Utah's the best kept secret. I 809 00:45:56.010 --> 00:45:58.550 always tell people, I go, people, the people. 810 00:45:58.570 --> 00:45:59.730 Can we keep it a secret? 811 00:46:00.369 --> 00:46:02.260 I always tell people, you know, keep calling us the 812 00:46:02.300 --> 00:46:05.179 flyover state. I love that. Don't land because you'll want

813 00:46:05.199 --> 00:46:05.739 to stay here. 814 00:46:05.880 --> 00:46:06.079 Yeah. 815 00:46:06.719 --> 00:46:08.900 I said, it's great for a reason, right? It's just, 816 00:46:08.940 --> 00:46:12.940 we're a very fiscally conservative state that invests in its people. 817 00:46:13.599 --> 00:46:16.920 Pioneer stock. We've worked hard since day one. I've got 818 00:46:17.260 --> 00:46:20.630 Ancestry that's been here since day one. Utah has an 819 00:46:20.750 --> 00:46:23.929 entrepreneurial spirit that I look at like the founding fathers had. 820 00:46:24.289 --> 00:46:25.969 They came here and they said, okay, we got to 821 00:46:26.010 --> 00:46:27.969 make this happen. We can't go back to England. We're 822 00:46:27.989 --> 00:46:30.159 going to be killed, you know? And so same thing 823 00:46:30.179 --> 00:46:32.420 with us, right? It was feast or famine. You know, 824 00:46:32.460 --> 00:46:35.519 we got to make this work. And I think that's 825 00:46:35.599 --> 00:46:39.179 just been cultured into Utah for so many generations that 826 00:46:40.139 --> 00:46:43.269 we aren't afraid of the word no. You know, when 827 00:46:43.329 --> 00:46:45.429 I hear the word no, I just, someone tells me, 828 00:46:45.449 --> 00:46:47.250 they tell me no, I just look at them and 829 00:46:47.269 --> 00:46:48.929 I go, well, that means that I just can't do 830 00:46:48.969 --> 00:46:54.739 it with you. And that's, that's the nature of it. 831 00:46:55.280 --> 00:46:58.989 And in, in Utah, amazing things are happening all the 832 00:46:59.030 --> 00:47:02.289 time because you've got people that we've got, we've got 833 00:47:02.309 --> 00:47:05.730 a lot of active ingredient is what I always call it. 834 00:47:05.989 --> 00:47:08.219 You know, like if you look at the chemical makeup 835 00:47:08.260 --> 00:47:10.760 of a product, most of the time it says something 836 00:47:10.800 --> 00:47:15.199 like 98% inert, which is like water filler stuff that 837 00:47:15.239 --> 00:47:18.849 doesn't move the needle. and 2% active ingredient. And we 838 00:47:18.889 --> 00:47:21.800 have an overabundance of active ingredient. And that's why I 839 00:47:21.840 --> 00:47:26.099 think our state does so well consistently, not one hit wonders. 840 00:47:26.119 --> 00:47:31.420 I love that. It's a great response. Thank you. 841 00:47:31.440 --> 00:47:36.190 So entrepreneur at heart, since you were nine years old, 842 00:47:36.989 --> 00:47:40.710 now your KJ is just doing such great things and 843 00:47:40.750 --> 00:47:45.179 growing so fast and bringing so much good. What's next 844 00:47:45.619 --> 00:47:48.780 for KJ? Or maybe I should, I actually want to 845 00:47:48.800 --> 00:47:50.320 know what's next for Garrett Blood? 846 00:47:50.760 --> 00:47:52.219 So let's see. 847 00:47:52.239 --> 00:47:53.130 Can we talk about it? 848 00:47:53.199 --> 00:47:56.929 What's next? You know, probably got some like weddings on 849 00:47:56.949 --> 00:47:59.050 the horizon

here in the next couple of years. So 850 00:47:59.070 --> 00:48:00.769 we'll have to deal with that and figure that stuff out. 851 00:48:00.789 --> 00:48:05.190 Save your money. Save, yeah, exactly. But no, I mean, 852 00:48:05.269 --> 00:48:09.110 it's everything's, it's a journey, honestly. I mean, I look 853 00:48:09.150 --> 00:48:10.590 at when I was a kid and the things that 854 00:48:10.630 --> 00:48:13.880 I'm doing today, I would have never fathomed. In a 855 00:48:13.900 --> 00:48:17.429 million years, I'd be owning a staff, a premium staff 856 00:48:17.469 --> 00:48:21.710 augmentation firm and let alone know what that meant. Actually, 857 00:48:21.730 --> 00:48:23.130 you know, a lot of people are like, what's that? 858 00:48:23.210 --> 00:48:27.530 What's that mean? And but going back, having an ice 859 00:48:27.570 --> 00:48:30.630 cream company, I would have never expected that either. But 860 00:48:30.829 --> 00:48:33.789 future wise, I've got a couple of different I've got 861 00:48:33.809 --> 00:48:36.940 an idea I've been working on. It's it's something that's 862 00:48:36.980 --> 00:48:40.460 in the tech space, which is which is huge. Can't 863 00:48:40.480 --> 00:48:42.940 get into it right now too much, but let's just 864 00:48:42.980 --> 00:48:48.559 say it is probably one of the most fun platform 865 00:48:48.719 --> 00:48:56.239 ideas to bring people together that has never existed in 866 00:48:56.659 --> 00:49:00.809 human time. I can just see it having an impact. 867 00:49:01.130 --> 00:49:05.190 And the software is done. And what's nice about having 868 00:49:05.289 --> 00:49:07.610 access to the best talent in the world, they always 869 00:49:07.650 --> 00:49:11.219 love projects. Mm-hmm. And so if I say this is 870 00:49:11.260 --> 00:49:14.000 what I'm working on, I have the best and brightest 871 00:49:14.019 --> 00:49:17.210 that are like, Garrett, we're working on it. And so 872 00:49:17.409 --> 00:49:22.480 one of our directors of AIs, who is literally like 873 00:49:22.579 --> 00:49:25.039 Elon Musk, also in Mexico, I've got a lot of 874 00:49:25.079 --> 00:49:29.000 them around the world. He's like, Garrett, in the perfect, 875 00:49:29.219 --> 00:49:34.059 perfect accent. He goes, this is easy. I can do 876 00:49:34.099 --> 00:49:39.170 this in 96 hours for you. No problem. And sure enough, 877 00:49:39.550 --> 00:49:42.190 He puts it together and he's like, Garrett, this is 878 00:49:42.230 --> 00:49:46.150 the best. I love this. And the rest is history. 879 00:49:46.590 --> 00:49:50.030 And so he did great. His name's Carlos Barbosa. And 880 00:49:50.489 --> 00:49:53.090 I have to actually probably keep him under wraps because 881 00:49:53.880 --> 00:49:56.619 whoever is out there in the tech world will want 882 00:49:56.659 --> 00:49:59.599 to hire him up immediately. And they'll pay him probably 883 00:49:59.599 --> 00:50:01.360 100 times more than I could afford to pay him. 884 00:50:02.139 --> 00:50:03.579 But anyway, he's awesome. He's great. 885 00:50:03.599 --> 00:50:04.599 I love that. 886 00:50:05.239 --> 00:50:09.070 Yeah, you mentioned, I think, A final question. You mentioned 887 00:50:09.110 --> 00:50:11.539 Jeff Bezos and when we were talking earlier. 888 00:50:11.659 --> 00:50:13.059 So give us a scoop on. 889 00:50:13.380 --> 00:50:13.659 Yeah. 890 00:50:13.719 --> 00:50:16.659 So, you know, early on, my dad was big into 891 00:50:16.800 --> 00:50:20.440 lifting weights and it was part of the reason why 892 00:50:20.480 --> 00:50:23.489 I would sit on the floor of natural natural food 893 00:50:23.530 --> 00:50:26.230 stores and read all the manuals. And I remember coming 894 00:50:26.250 --> 00:50:29.489 home from my mission. And I'd be working out at 895 00:50:29.510 --> 00:50:32.909 the gym all the time. And I'd always crave ice 896 00:50:32.969 --> 00:50:35.710 cream after the gym. And I'm like, come on, there's 897 00:50:35.750 --> 00:50:38.380 got to be a better way here. This is so unfair. 898 00:50:38.619 --> 00:50:40.539 I'm going to negate everything I just did in the gym. 899 00:50:41.760 --> 00:50:43.320 And one day I thought, why couldn't there be like 900 00:50:43.360 --> 00:50:47.280 a protein ice cream or something? I said, how hard 901 00:50:47.300 --> 00:50:50.769 could it be? And so bought a frozen yogurt machine, 902 00:50:51.670 --> 00:50:55.670 started experimenting and dumped in whey protein concentrate and all 903 00:50:55.710 --> 00:50:58.809 sorts of stuff into the frozen yogurt machine and discovered 904 00:50:58.829 --> 00:51:01.929 that there's a thousand proteins ways not to make ice 905 00:51:01.969 --> 00:51:04.840 cream and it was like oh this is this is 906 00:51:04.920 --> 00:51:07.219 terrible it's almost like an edison moment where you're about 907 00:51:07.280 --> 00:51:09.139 to give up and then all of a sudden you 908 00:51:09.159 --> 00:51:12.400 go you know that's not half bad okay and we 909 00:51:12.420 --> 00:51:17.179 made it fat-free gluten-free lactose-free diabetic friendly 150 calories for 910 00:51:17.219 --> 00:51:18.980 the entire pint the goal is to eat the whole 911 00:51:19.019 --> 00:51:21.420 pint guilt-free 10 o'clock at night and you had a 912 00:51:21.420 --> 00:51:24.880 sweet tooth 20 grams of whey protein concentrate 8 grams 913 00:51:24.920 --> 00:51:28.179 of fiber and it was all natural clean ingredients And 914 00:51:28.239 --> 00:51:33.309 we ended up becoming the number one importer of lojango, 915 00:51:33.369 --> 00:51:36.090 which is called monk fruit in the United States. So 916 00:51:36.110 --> 00:51:38.289 we were the first importer of it. And we got 917 00:51:38.309 --> 00:51:40.969 it into one grocery store, then a hundred grocery stores, 918 00:51:41.130 --> 00:51:44.719 then a thousand grocery stores, then 10,000. And we capped 919 00:51:44.780 --> 00:51:48.159 out at 18,000 grocery stores. So yeah, Haagen-Dazs, number one 920 00:51:48.199 -->

00:51:49.940 ice cream in America. Ben and Jerry's was number two 921 00:51:49.980 --> 00:51:53.099 in a pint and we were number three. And, you know, 922 00:51:53.119 --> 00:51:55.630 it was everything from It was on CNN and it 923 00:51:55.670 --> 00:51:59.969 was on Fox and it was on, you know, Dr. 924 00:52:00.110 --> 00:52:00.349 Osset. 925 00:52:00.369 --> 00:52:02.690 It was his favorite dessert of all time. The Wall 926 00:52:02.710 --> 00:52:04.699 Street Journal talked about it. So it was just, it 927 00:52:04.739 --> 00:52:07.639 was really cool. Be an ice cream guy. So, you know, 928 00:52:07.699 --> 00:52:10.519 Whole Foods, it was the number one best-selling dessert two 929 00:52:10.539 --> 00:52:14.159 years in a row for Whole Foods nationwide. And we 930 00:52:14.199 --> 00:52:17.019 were getting some really good traction. Nestle started distributing it. 931 00:52:17.659 --> 00:52:20.750 And anytime Nestle puts a product on their trucks, it's 932 00:52:20.789 --> 00:52:24.250 because they're testing it. We hear about your numbers, but 933 00:52:24.289 --> 00:52:26.469 we want to see if you actually have the numbers. 934 00:52:27.110 --> 00:52:30.090 So they started distributing it. And then they started having 935 00:52:30.110 --> 00:52:32.070 the conversations about it because we were moving so much 936 00:52:32.110 --> 00:52:34.550 more product than they were on the shelves. And we're 937 00:52:34.630 --> 00:52:36.920 going up against these multi-billion dollar companies. And here we are, 938 00:52:36.949 --> 00:52:41.059 this little tiny little company out of Temecula, California. And 939 00:52:41.159 --> 00:52:45.400 so fast forward, we... One of the things that I 940 00:52:45.679 --> 00:52:47.519 was trying to figure out how to grow the company, 941 00:52:47.539 --> 00:52:49.880 it was very expensive to ship ice cream around the world. 942 00:52:49.900 --> 00:52:52.360 I'm sorry, around the country. We did ship to Canada 943 00:52:52.380 --> 00:52:55.389 and some different places. But it was very expensive to 944 00:52:55.429 --> 00:52:59.769 move product frozen overnight from San Diego to New York 945 00:52:59.809 --> 00:53:02.789 to a frozen buyer when you're a very limited budget, 946 00:53:03.280 --> 00:53:06.800 small company. And I thought, you know what? 947 00:53:06.820 --> 00:53:08.639 Amazon. 948 00:53:08.679 --> 00:53:11.380 Amazon. is like the best at shipping stuff. I wonder 949 00:53:11.400 --> 00:53:13.860 if they ever would ship frozen. This was early on 950 00:53:13.900 --> 00:53:16.860 when Amazon was not even really dealing with too much 951 00:53:16.920 --> 00:53:20.900 food products. And so Amazon, we saw them at a 952 00:53:20.960 --> 00:53:22.440 show once they started talking to us and they said, 953 00:53:22.460 --> 00:53:25.030 you know what? We only have shipped like one other 954 00:53:25.110 --> 00:53:28.130 type of ice cream product. We'd love to beta test 955 00:53:28.190 --> 00:53:31.090 this with you guys. We said, sure, no problem. And 956 00:53:31.210 --> 00:53:35.869 so we started put together custom insulated containers, figured out 957 00:53:35.909 --> 00:53:38.650 the exact amount of dry ice we needed. That we 958 00:53:38.670 --> 00:53:40.510 could ship a two-day air and it would get there 959 00:53:40.570 --> 00:53:43.230 in time. All these different things. And it started working 960 00:53:44.269 --> 00:53:49.460 swimmingly well. And what we weren't prepared for is that 961 00:53:49.500 --> 00:53:52.539 we had, at the time, you would call them an influencer. 962 00:53:52.579 --> 00:53:54.980 Now they call them content creators and stuff like that. 963 00:53:55.280 --> 00:53:59.559 But this was before Instagram. Facebook was brand new. We 964 00:53:59.599 --> 00:54:03.119 became really good friends with this influencer. And she goes, Garrett, 965 00:54:03.139 --> 00:54:05.940 I'm going to talk about Arctic Zero on my email 966 00:54:05.980 --> 00:54:09.179 blast that I send out every single day. I'm like, great. 967 00:54:09.280 --> 00:54:12.750 She goes, no, no, you don't understand. I have over 1.2 968 00:54:12.750 --> 00:54:16.889 million subscribers and they're active. Then I'm going to email 969 00:54:16.909 --> 00:54:19.469 them about your product, Arctic Zero, and it's going to 970 00:54:19.489 --> 00:54:22.349 be huge. I said, great, let's do it. She goes, 971 00:54:22.670 --> 00:54:25.030 I'm going to warn you before I do it. I'm 972 00:54:25.050 --> 00:54:26.610 going to give you enough. You need to make sure 973 00:54:26.639 --> 00:54:28.820 you have all your T's crossed and your I's dotted. 974 00:54:29.420 --> 00:54:32.420 I said, okay, great. And because she goes, when I 975 00:54:32.460 --> 00:54:36.539 talk about it, it will go gangbusters. I'm like, okay, great. 976 00:54:37.190 --> 00:54:40.750 Kind of naive thinking, okay, well, what's this going to do? Yeah, right, right. 977 00:54:41.829 --> 00:54:45.710 Oh my gosh. She gave us the notice and we 978 00:54:45.750 --> 00:54:47.789 made sure that our website was up and running and 979 00:54:47.829 --> 00:54:50.469 protected and fine. We had product in stores. Everything was 980 00:54:50.489 --> 00:54:53.909 going to be good. We had Amazon. Amazon was shipping it. 981 00:54:54.409 --> 00:54:59.860 People could buy it online. It was terrific. And it debuts. 982 00:55:00.960 --> 00:55:06.289 The email goes out. It's like 12.01 a.m. I'm awoken 983 00:55:06.349 --> 00:55:08.090 that morning at like five. 984 00:55:07.829 --> 00:55:08.369 In the morning. 985 00:55:08.690 --> 00:55:10.730 Have you seen what's going on? I go, what are 986 00:55:10.750 --> 00:55:14.010 you talking about? And I pull up my inbox and 987 00:55:14.090 --> 00:55:17.550 I've got so many emails and they're not the kind 988 00:55:17.590 --> 00:55:19.880 of emails where it's like a yes or no response. 989 00:55:20.079 --> 00:55:23.260 It's like, I love this. I love this. I want this. 990

00:55:23.300 --> 00:55:24.880 Where can I get this? And it's just like all 991 00:55:24.920 --> 00:55:27.260 of these. And it just, it's one of those things 992 00:55:27.300 --> 00:55:29.519 where you answer one and you've got seven more that 993 00:55:29.539 --> 00:55:31.739 just came in while you're answering one and then 12 994 00:55:31.739 --> 00:55:35.610 more answers. by your second email. And you're like, oh no, 995 00:55:35.809 --> 00:55:39.449 this is good and this is bad. And all of 996 00:55:39.489 --> 00:55:42.949 a sudden, I'm finding out that our website's down. And 997 00:55:42.989 --> 00:55:45.289 I'm like, what? We run a new server. This is 998 00:55:45.309 --> 00:55:46.829 supposed to be fine. This is not supposed to be 999 00:55:46.849 --> 00:55:50.179 a problem. And so I call up GoDaddy because they're 1000 00:55:50.199 --> 00:55:52.829 the hosting platform that we use. I call them up. 1001 00:55:52.940 --> 00:55:55.260 He goes, one second, sir, let me check. And he 1002 00:55:55.320 --> 00:55:57.400 drops an expletive on the phone when he looks at 1003 00:55:57.460 --> 00:56:00.800 our account. He goes, I've never seen this type of 1004 00:56:01.250 --> 00:56:04.210 bandwidth being consumed in such a short amount of time. 1005 00:56:04.849 --> 00:56:07.090 I go, what are you talking about? He goes, you're 1006 00:56:07.170 --> 00:56:11.369 getting almost 60 visits per second right now. I go, what? 1007 00:56:11.409 --> 00:56:13.110 He goes, I've never seen that. I've been here for 1008 00:56:13.199 --> 00:56:17.360 five years. And I'm like, okay, great. He go, I go, 1009 00:56:17.400 --> 00:56:20.199 but we're down, man. And so he's like, give me 1010 00:56:20.219 --> 00:56:22.159 a second. And he's like, okay, you're back up. And 1011 00:56:22.179 --> 00:56:23.719 he goes, I put you on a dedicated this and 1012 00:56:23.760 --> 00:56:25.539 that he goes, you're, you're fine. You won't have a 1013 00:56:25.559 --> 00:56:29.139 problem again. But I knew that this could be a possibility. 1014 00:56:29.239 --> 00:56:31.679 So I created a form on our website where if 1015 00:56:31.699 --> 00:56:35.559 you could not find the product online or in your 1016 00:56:35.599 --> 00:56:37.820 local store, print this out and hand it to your 1017 00:56:37.880 --> 00:56:41.460 buyer in your grocery store that's local to you. And 1018 00:56:41.519 --> 00:56:45.820 so instantly we had this literal massive following of people 1019 00:56:45.940 --> 00:56:48.820 around the nation that had this printout and said, here, 1020 00:56:48.900 --> 00:56:51.460 this is the distributor that has this product. I want this. 1021 00:56:51.960 --> 00:56:54.420 And that's when we exploded into so many more stores. 1022 00:56:55.070 --> 00:56:58.030 But the reason for Amazon was I could facilitate getting 1023 00:56:58.110 --> 00:57:00.480 product from point A to point B by selling it 1024 00:57:00.539 --> 00:57:04.659 to ourselves but changing the address. So if

I wanted 1025 00:57:04.679 --> 00:57:06.760 to send it to that buyer in New York, I 1026 00:57:06.800 --> 00:57:08.739 could buy the product, send it to him, and I 1027 00:57:08.780 --> 00:57:11.090 would pay the differential, which was the shipping, which ended 1028 00:57:11.139 --> 00:57:16.869 up being going from like $ 100 to ship it, about $ 12. 1029 00:57:15.550 --> 00:57:16.989 And that's how we got it from point A to 1030 00:57:17.030 --> 00:57:20.329 point B around the U.S. really, really quickly. But when 1031 00:57:20.369 --> 00:57:25.119 that debuted and that article went out, We went through 1032 00:57:25.199 --> 00:57:27.699 tons of product. We went through 10,000 pounds of dry 1033 00:57:27.800 --> 00:57:30.880 ice a week for the next couple of weeks. And 1034 00:57:31.099 --> 00:57:34.280 so 10,000 pounds of dry ice, it's a monumental amount 1035 00:57:34.300 --> 00:57:36.210 of dry ice. And literally, if you don't use it, 1036 00:57:36.239 --> 00:57:38.949 it literally goes up into smoke. I mean, it's like, oh, 1037 00:57:38.969 --> 00:57:41.409 it's gone. You know, you spend all that money. It's 1038 00:57:41.449 --> 00:57:45.030 in the air now. And the problem is back then, 1039 00:57:45.110 --> 00:57:48.730 Amazon was a net 60 situation. So we're moving product 1040 00:57:48.909 --> 00:57:51.510 every single day. Hundreds and hundreds of orders. We're filling 1041 00:57:51.550 --> 00:57:54.679 up two to three FedEx trucks every single day. And 1042 00:57:55.159 --> 00:57:58.519 the bill that they owe us starts getting bigger and 1043 00:57:58.579 --> 00:58:00.400 bigger and bigger. And I always joke, it was like 1044 00:58:00.460 --> 00:58:03.110 the GDP of a small nation, what they owed us, right? 1045 00:58:03.469 --> 00:58:05.489 Not literally, but, you know, I'm just like, that's what 1046 00:58:05.510 --> 00:58:07.349 I told someone once. They're like, you can't say that. 1047 00:58:07.369 --> 00:58:09.869 I'm like, well, I'm just, anyway, maybe there's a little 1048 00:58:09.889 --> 00:58:11.369 bit of- You get the idea. You get the idea, right? 1049 00:58:11.389 --> 00:58:15.369 It was a lot of money, okay? And it got 1050 00:58:15.409 --> 00:58:18.300 to the point where they were single-handedly going to bankrupt us. 1051 00:58:19.500 --> 00:58:22.739 And I called up my point of contact there. I 1052 00:58:22.780 --> 00:58:26.170 think it was Teresa- or Barbara, I can't remember what 1053 00:58:26.190 --> 00:58:27.829 her name was. And it was one of those two. 1054 00:58:28.469 --> 00:58:30.510 And I talked to her. I said, hey, Teresa, I 1055 00:58:30.590 --> 00:58:32.570 am turning off the spigot. She's like, what are you 1056 00:58:32.590 --> 00:58:39.260 talking about? You can't do that. You're number 57 of 552,000 1057 00:58:39.260 --> 00:58:43.800 food items on Amazon. You are a top 100 product. 1058 00:58:44.800 --> 00:58:48.320 Give me 30 minutes. Give me 30 minutes. Don't turn 1059 00:58:48.340 --> 00:58:50.219

it off yet, Garrett. Don't turn it off. I said, okay, fine. 1060 00:58:50.960 --> 00:58:53.039 And so she goes and she talks to the senior 1061 00:58:53.079 --> 00:58:56.460 vice president of grocery at Amazon. He goes, how much 1062 00:58:56.480 --> 00:58:59.340 do we owe him? Whoa, that's a lot of money. 1063 00:59:00.739 --> 00:59:04.309 I can't authorize this amount. She's like, okay, well, he's 1064 00:59:04.329 --> 00:59:06.050 turning it off if we don't come back with him 1065 00:59:06.090 --> 00:59:08.130 with something quick. He goes, okay, I got to go 1066 00:59:08.170 --> 00:59:10.929 talk to Jeff. So he goes and he talks to 1067 00:59:10.989 --> 00:59:13.139 Jeff Bezos. And this is back in the day. I 1068 00:59:13.489 --> 00:59:16.420 know everything's completely different now, but they were big, but 1069 00:59:16.440 --> 00:59:19.300 they were small, if that makes sense. And talks to 1070 00:59:19.340 --> 00:59:22.559 Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos is, who are they? Arctic Zero. Okay. 1071 00:59:22.619 --> 00:59:23.980 What are they? Oh, wow. 57. 1072 00:59:23.980 --> 00:59:24.219 Okay. 1073 00:59:24.579 --> 00:59:27.380 Yeah, they are. Okay. That's a big amount. All right. 1074 00:59:27.769 --> 00:59:28.889 This is what you're going to do. And he tells 1075 00:59:28.949 --> 00:59:30.989 his senior vice president, you're going to overnight them a 1076 00:59:31.090 --> 00:59:35.420 check priority. So it's in their hands first thing tomorrow morning. 1077 00:59:36.420 --> 00:59:38.400 Make sure the funds are good to go, that they're 1078 00:59:38.420 --> 00:59:40.340 not going to have any issues with any bank so 1079 00:59:40.360 --> 00:59:43.239 that the funds are they're taken care of. Pay them 1080 00:59:43.420 --> 00:59:46.840 everything that we owe them as of today and move 1081 00:59:46.860 --> 00:59:50.179 them to net 15 terms. So to this day, I 1082 00:59:50.239 --> 00:59:57.940 say that I've debt collected Jeff Bezos. So it was good. Wow. 1083 00:59:58.239 --> 00:59:58.989 That's amazing. 1084 00:59:59.110 --> 01:00:00.050 That's incredible. 1085 01:00:00.389 --> 01:00:03.710 Well, Garrett, thank you so much for joining us here today. 1086 01:00:04.309 --> 01:00:06.949 It's been a long time coming and we're excited to 1087 01:00:06.989 --> 01:00:09.309 have you. We're proud to highlight all of your work 1088 01:00:09.349 --> 01:00:10.949 here at Mountain West Capital Network. 1089 01:00:11.530 --> 01:00:13.750 And for our listeners who want to learn more about 1090 01:00:13.809 --> 01:00:16.750 you and connect with you, how do they do that? 1091 01:00:16.889 --> 01:00:20.239 Just send me an email. Garrett at KJ.com. Two R's, 1092 01:00:20.260 --> 01:00:21.500 two T's. That's awesome. 1093 01:00:21.730 --> 01:00:24.530 And to everyone listening, thank you for joining us. A 1094 01:00:24.809 --> 01:00:28.829 special thanks to the LaunchPod team, Johnny, Christine, Cole, and 1095 01:00:28.889 --> 01:00:32.579 Rachel for producing our show. Zachary Reed for his vision 1096 01:00:32.619 --> 01:00:36.460 and direction as producer. Katie Brown, our operations specialist, for 1097 01:00:36.500 --> 01:00:39.480 keeping us in line and on track. And to Garrett 1098 01:00:39.519 --> 01:00:42.159 Lawson and Kevin Jessup for serving as our Mountain West 1099 01:00:42.179 --> 01:00:44.119 Capital Network podcast chairs. 1100 01:00:44.880 --> 01:00:47.079 And don't forget to leave us a five-star review and 1101 01:00:47.119 --> 01:00:50.619 subscribe to stay updated on Utah's fastest growing companies and 1102 01:00:50.679 --> 01:00:54.150 leaders shaping our business future. There's nothing we appreciate more 1103 01:00:54.570 --> 01:00:57.550 than hearing from our listeners. Rate, review, and share. 1104 01:00:58.210 --> 01:00:59.429 Welcome to the Winner's Circle.