Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to a talks for the Silver Stars tonight.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Well, welcome back to another episode of Love and Business. And as promised, we're back to our guests and we are so fortunate to have a really unique guest. You know, we, we tend to spend a lot of time on the business side and today we're going to branch out. Yes, of course, staying with business. But we've got a dog trainer with us today which we've been talking about in prep for a long time and are super excited to hear what you have to say. So Carter Wild is here with us today from Wild Acres. So welcome and thank you so much for taking time. We appreciate it. We always start with a bio. You know, we could, we could tell everybody your bio, but we love for them to hear from you what you've been doing and how you got where you are. Start as far back and then we'd love to open this up and have our audience know as much about you as possible possible.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Cool. Thank you very much for having me today.
Yeah. I'm Carter Wild. The thing that I've been doing for about the last 20 years is training dogs, mostly in Baltimore county is where. It's where I was born and raised in my business and everything pretty much has stayed there. And, you know, I started, you know, right after, basically right after high school. I got my first dog, my own first dog.
And it was a. There was a bit of a reflexive response from dogs that we had had growing up that were not the greatest. They weren't the, well, the like perfectly well trained dog that, you know, that I'd like to have today or that I would hope that people can achieve today.
But they were rescues that had additional behavioral problems, like, you know, mostly biting people.
[00:01:50] Speaker C: Right.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: And there was a, you know, for me, something. There was a kind of traumatic crossover, which was the last family dog that we had was actually put down based on having bitten too many people. And so when I got my first dog, I said, I'm not gonna let this happen to this dog.
I was also just absurdly attached to this particular dog. So it provided like an impetus and like, like a real passion started growing there. And I found a place that was.
I found a place nearby that was actually nearby here in.
Was in Sparrows Point. And it was a dog training facility. It was kind of like a maybe like a little bit more old school training facility. But they were really serious about it and they, you know, made me promises about what they could do for my dog and things like that. They pitched me and sold me on a like a 16 week course that I could do. You know, you can do anything with your dog in these 16 weeks.
And I ended up being there on and off for like two years cleaning kennels, hanging out with the owner. I would go out there and eat lunch, I would listen, listen to him make sales calls, talk to his staff, train some dogs. And that was the just building really early on of this thing that I wanted to do.
Although at that time there was no inkling that I would be able to make any money doing it. The people that were there weren't, they weren't making a ton of money, but they were in my mind doing what they wanted. And I was like if I could ever figure out how to make it, make it work, I would love to do that. And it took me somewhere in the neighborhood of I guess like about seven years for me to figure out how to actually make it work financially.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: Right.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: And we talk more about that later. But basically at it took seven years for me to quit my part time jobs and go full on. I'm just training dogs and in. So that was probably 2012, 2013 coincides with the time that I actually got sober in 202012 as well.
And five years later bought the facility which is now Wild Acres. So I bought a dilapidated 50 plus year old dog kennel that if you ever imagined what a dog kennel built in the 70s looked like, it's like imagine what a jail that was built in the 70s looked like and then just like put dogs in it, make it smaller.
So we had to rebuild every single thing. So all the systems need to be replaced, all the roofing, all the fencing, every wall, every, you know, just basically the foundation and the concrete walls are the only thing that's remained and built that into what it is today, which is super fun. It's a 20 acre facility, provides all sorts of fun stuff for me, my family, a bunch of employees that we provide, great jobs and good living style lifestyle too. And I've been able to start recently in 2023 I started another business which is a product line that kind of supports that which is leashes, collars, treat bags, you know, dog, dog trainer centered gear.
And that's where I am right now. I've got, my wife actually also has a business at the facility which is a flower and flower arranging business. So we have a little farm that, a little flower farm that we also run there. That's Wild Root company. Wow, that's awesome.
[00:05:31] Speaker D: That is awesome.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: The wild trifecta. Yeah.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: And ecosystem on a yeah.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: On a.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: On a podcast called Love in Business. So I would love for you, just so I can get up to speed, can you wrap your ages around some of that? You were talking about the years 2012, 2011. Can you wrap your ages around some. When you were 17, 18. Just so our audience knows where you are. We love the evolution of people. And then that business piece, you know, as it relates to finding that property you mentioned, you had to. To do a lot of improvements, where the funding come from, you get into that. But can you wrap some of your ages around that so we can understand the evol.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: Absolutely. So when I.
The first dog that had. The first dog that I described was Jackson, the one who got put down. And I was about 17 when that happened. And then by the time I got Spike, I was, like, 19.
And that's that first dog that I was talking about. And from 19 to 25 is the time period where I was intensely passionate about it, but also trying to figure out what the heck I could do to be successful.
Meanwhile, also drinking and using drugs, which was part of the reason I was not able to be successful until that 25. So then at 25 years old is when I got clean, went 100% on dog training, which, like, kind of all happened right at the same time, and started really building after that.
When I bought Wild Acres, I had this. It was called something else. And I had this goal when I was really young. I remember when I first got interested in dog training, I said, I want to have a dog farm. Which is like, in my head was, it kind of looks like what it looks like now, really. But it looked different.
And I told my mom, like, I want to have a dog farm by the time I'm 30.
That's what I want.
[00:07:16] Speaker C: Right.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: And I was 31 when I bought the place, Wild Acres.
[00:07:21] Speaker C: Right.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: And, you know, and then now I'm 39, so I've had it there eight years.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: Okay, so go ahead.
[00:07:29] Speaker D: No, I.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Again, my head's exploding over here.
[00:07:31] Speaker D: Yeah. Just for the audience, which I think, like, Carter, you and I have known each other for a really long time, so. And we partied together, and I saw you through when you were not sober and also sober.
And I always admired you for that journey. I think another thing is that I just think it's important to preface this conversation with to. You are also one of the most unique. I think the word eclectic is right. People that I've ever met. And you stayed true to that, like, always, like, to yourself. And I think that I Think there's a through line there with what you do. Like, what you do is unique, how you do it. Unique. So I do want to touch on that. And maybe you're like, I'm just me. And that's just, like, what happens. But it's definitely something that I've been so, like, attractive, attracted to you and compelled to your story. Cause I'm like, he's just one of the most. I've told you guys this, like, unique people I've ever met in my life. But it's been really cool to see you go from, you know, us partying in high school to. To where you are now. And I think part of that, as we were talking about before the camera went on that sobriety journey, has been a driver. Maybe that's the right word in some of this. And I'd like to understand, like, what.
What was that motivation to get clean?
Because I do think it's an important spark. You just said it to. To the beginning of every. This whole thing. Like, how did you do that?
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Yeah, well, thank you very much for the, I guess, the accolades on that, but it's being clean, sober, whatever is. I guess that's. And we can put that in, you know, in a bucket. But really, that bucket overflows into everything like you're talking about. It absolutely is pervasive throughout all of my life.
And it is, I believe, part of the thing that propelled me forward in general, there's. It's not just being clean and sober. There's also, you know, I do, like, work in. In a program and so forth that is, you know, encourages you to continue to make your life better.
[00:09:34] Speaker C: Right?
[00:09:35] Speaker A: So it. Continue to make your own personality better and to, you know, start to clean up pieces of yourself that are not helpful, to clean up pieces of yourself that are self damaging and to really encourage the parts of you that are selfless and the parts of you that are grateful to really grow. And so if you, you know, and I look at my own personal life where I constantly was pushing myself to just be better at things, right? And that was be better at being accountable, be better at being responsible, be better at client communication. Be better like. And knowing that I would hold myself accountable at the end of the day, which is part of the program, right? Which is basically like doing a daily inventory and being like, what did I mess up today?
[00:10:27] Speaker C: Right.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: And make sure that I don't mess it up tomorrow. Make sure that if I need to apologize to somebody, I do that today or I do that tonight, or I do that tomorrow or whatever it is. And those are the things that make you. I mean, in my mind, that makes you a good person, but also that makes you a person that people want to do business with. So it does go hand in hand.
And about being accountable was like, probably the. Is like the highest tier there. It's like, I say, I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it. I say, I'm going to be there. I'm going to show up. You know, like, you mentioned about the. Another part that you mentioned about kind of. Of being eclectic or a different personality, or you say, like, I just kind of do my own thing.
And that's been. That was a struggle initially. That was a struggle for me.
I thought I was actually talking to my son about this yesterday, and I said, do you know that I didn't used to like my name? I was telling him, like, I didn't like the name Carter because I wanted a name like everybody else had. I was like, I didn't know anybody that had the name Carter. I was like, why can't I be. I think actually at the time, I wanted to be named Justin, which is like, I don't. I don't know. It's like I, like, met a cool guy named Justin. I was like, why is my name Carter? Nobody knows anybody named Carter. Can. Why can't I just be a Justin?
[00:11:42] Speaker C: Right.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: And I have, like, a distinct memory of that. And at some point later, I was like, oh, I really like my name because it's. It's uncommon. I don't have. So. And that's part of, like, growing into it, being an individual and so forth. And they're like these things in business milestones and personal milestones where I was like, okay, I don't mind having.
I mean, you know, you guys don't have a lot of tattoos. Doesn't look like. Right. But I don't mind having tattoos on my hands and things like that. It's like, I know what I am now, and if people ask me about them, I love to talk about them because I put them there so that people ask about them also.
[00:12:23] Speaker C: Right.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: And they're for my kid and my wife and da, da, da.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Right.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: But things like that, it's just like, I'm comfortable doing what I. Yeah. What I feel like I should now. But I wasn't always comfortable with that. Well, that's.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: So Brit said that she experienced you as being hyper, comfortable in your own skin, but you were the opposite internally. And is that one of the things along the way that pushed you into that addiction, onto that addiction trail because of that discomfort or maybe some insecurity.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: I have, I have a lot of theories about that in terms of like why, why addiction.
[00:12:58] Speaker C: Right.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: But that is, even that by itself is a really.
It's hard to look back and diagnose why.
[00:13:08] Speaker C: Right.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: The thing that, the thing that you mentioned though, which was like, you know, was it because you felt different or was it because you felt like it was hard to be yourself or things like that?
Um, I don't place it on that. I place it more along the lines of I got like, I like tricked myself into being an addict almost. Like I'm sure there, there's like, you know, there's your underlying traumas and this and that and whatever that your body is trying to like cover up. But I was, I just liked doing it. I liked doing it at too young of an age. And so I think that the main part that happened is I was motive and opportunity. Yeah, I had some motive, like precocious generally like young boys that are just like, oh yeah, I'm going to try to be like these older kids. I was hanging out with some older kids and they were smoking weed and I was like, I want to do that. And that was at 12, 13 years old, just too young. So like by the time I was in high school, I'd already formed a pattern of every day after school you're smoking weed. So that, that was just a pattern. And I think that I'm prone to. And I believe that.
So I personally believe that all people are addicts.
So like in, you know, in different programs they'll be like, well you know, this person's an addict, this person's not an addict. Like I don't buy that. I think everyone's an addict. It's just a matter of what you.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Get addicted to if you find your addiction.
[00:14:38] Speaker C: Right.
[00:14:38] Speaker D: 100%.
[00:14:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: And, and the people in that particular program found themselves addicted to things that, that the rest of the world calls, you know, drugs and alcohol or whatever. And that's just like for them it's like their solution to this like itch and they just found a bad pattern. I believe that some people are even more proficient at forming habits than others.
[00:15:01] Speaker C: Right.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: So I would probably venture a guess that you guys are really good habit formers and the fact that you are able to use those in like a positive way versus putting them into something that was, that's really negative or detrimental or self harmin.
I think a lot of that has to do with what you start first. And, like, if those. If those patterns come in there first. And so, you know, I think that I was. I think it was just, like, early exposure. I was a bummer. But I also think that, like, my core and, like, who I am is, like, part of also why I was able to get out of it, even though it was an early exposure and early patterning like that.
[00:15:39] Speaker D: Yeah, I.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: Great explanation, by the way.
[00:15:41] Speaker D: It is. And I've seen. I think we've both seen there's so many addicts, drugs, and alcohol that become, once they get sober, incredible business people. Or I see it like, I run a lot in the ultramarathon space because you just. It's a superpower that's just directed in a. In a positive direction. And so I can see how that would be beneficial to you now, like, having that drive and that, like, commitment, like, undying, unwavering commitment to something.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I think that just being obsessed, right? What we're talking about here is, like, whether somebody's obsessed with running or they're obsessed with the feeling they get afterward, they're obsessed with the next, like, oh, I want to do this many miles. I want to do this many. This bigger and bigger number. If it's business, you're obsessed with a number per year. Oh, we need to hit that number. We need to hit that number.
And that's something I've been thinking about the last couple days. I don't know why it popped into my head, but basically it's not. And this isn't directed towards any particular person, but you're not good enough, and you're not working hard enough is, like, that's the mantra that, like, I would tell myself for many, many, many years. And I believe that, you know, I don't know what a therapist would tell you, but I think that that's like a very.
I think that, like, maybe a habit of effective people and, like, of. Of productive people, because the negative reinforcement of, like, accomplishing a task. I accomplish a task, and I let go of the stress of, like, that I've put on myself, right?
[00:17:18] Speaker C: That.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: That deadline stress.
And if I get used to doing that and if I am telling myself, like, for example, I told myself, you're not. You're not good enough at dog training.
Not, like, you're not a good enough person, but you're not good enough at dog training, right? And, well, there's an answer for that. Go learn more about dog training. Like, that's it, right? Go find experts, spend more time with them. Until you feel like you've accomplished something. I did four apprenticeships with various trainers that were all better than me and, and had different and varied expertise.
And I didn't, I didn't go to college. I went to college for one year, right. I went to theater school and I spent. I mean, I spent as much time as anyone spent in college. I've spent learning from other dog trainers, whether that was at apprenticeships, watching videos, just like, intake, intake, intake. More information, more information, more information until you can just spit it out whenever you need to. And you have this experience set that you've gained from other people.
And the other piece of it is that. That you're not working hard enough part is like, okay, we'll get more skill set and then go apply it over and over and over and over again and go hit doors and like, legitimately. I started.
I started my personal, like, dog training business by literally going door to door, knocking on doors, talking to people, handing out flyers, asking them if they had dogs, can I train your dog? They just like, right, I see you have a fence. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. But I don't see a pool. Therefore you have a dog.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: And then you must need training.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: And it barked at me all the way up the garage, I think up the driveway. I think we need each other. Yeah, I think that habit piece, right, you found a habit called soccer. I found a habit called golf. I was a golfer, but I had it in me for sure to latch onto something. And I think that, you know, what you described to me sounds like a chip on your shoulder. You know, that piece where you drive it, we talk about it a lot here. We also talk about mentors. You said you went out and found the best of the best and hit your car to them. But that chip piece is interesting just in that that drives a certain amount of energy, and then you have to choose what you're going to do with energy.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: That's.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: That's driven by having a chip on your shoulder, being the underdog, if you will. That's a. That's a way to show up in certain spots that we talk about a lot. And it completely resonates with me as someone that always was. I use that as a huge motivator to get where I wanted to go.
Not good enough. That whole not good enough mentality. So that, that's very loud for me, for sure.
[00:19:46] Speaker D: I remember, gosh, I don't know how long ago this was, and you can correct me, but you were just in the beginning of your journey.
You Had a car. You were like, I have this beat up car. And I think you had the window taped up. Do you remember?
Is it. And you were like, I'm trying to like, figure out how to make this work. Did you have a window that was taped? Yeah. Well, it was like a bdog. I remember this conversation because, like, I was like, oh, my God, like again, talking about the ark and like, where you started.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: So give us context.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: Where were you?
[00:20:15] Speaker B: At a party? You guys were how old?
[00:20:17] Speaker D: No, I think we were at a coffee shop.
We just like. And I just remember you telling me about. And I don't know if it was current or like, I got from here, I don't know where, but that was part of like the beginning of your journey. So it was not. You had nothing, right?
[00:20:32] Speaker A: I had a hand me down car, right? The hand me down car was my late father's Volkswagen Passat station wagon. That was a five speed.
And I had. I'd been destroying it for a few years at that point, right. And there were multiple things that were wrong with it, including one of the windows would just fall. It would just start sliding down, like, just. And the, the, the, like the mechanism didn't work to pull it back up electronically. And I wasn't gonna go spend whatever, 400, 600, a thousand dollars, didn't matter. It could have been 200. I wasn't gonna spend it to fix the car, to fix the window. So I just taped the window shut on the outside and I was like, that's what we're working.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: And I'm dry. And here we go.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: And, well, and the same tape around the sunroof. And like, the engine was like smoking into like the passenger compartment at some point. And by the time I traded it in, I literally got like. I think they gave me like 400 for it or something like that.
But yeah, I mean. And that was when I started this thing. And that's what I was driving around, going door to door. And I remember being in Guilford at. In front of this house that I've talked about this, this client before. They were. This dog was named Queen Flora of Guilford. Okay?
Her name was Flora. She was English mastiff. We called her Queen Flora of Guilford. And she was a majestic creature. And it was one of these, like, iconic houses in front of Sherwood Gardens. Just absolutely beautiful, beautiful gardens, everything. And my car was parked in front of it, and I had the dog and I was in Sherwood Gardens. I think I took a picture of my car in front of that and I was Just like I said, there are two things I said to myself. One, at that point I was like, look how, look how far I've come. And then do these people even know who I am? Like, I feel like, you know, maybe imposter syndrome, whatever. But I was like, do they know? Like if they knew who I was then they wouldn't want me to be here or something like that. Or they, they don't know that I'm just trying to figure all this out at the same time.
And that ties to somewhere along the lines like maybe six months later, the owner of that dog, the owner of that house, awesome, man. He's passed. His name was Sandy Stewart and he was a.
You know, I'm not, I can't remember what he. He worked for Stifel and he did, did lots of work. He was very successful.
Incredible guy personally.
[00:22:57] Speaker C: Right.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: And we went on a walk one day and I took his dog on a walk. Mostly I worked with the wife, so I didn't know him that well.
So we walk around the block, we get back to the house, it's. It's hot. And we're in the kitchen giving the dog ice cubes or something like that. And I said to him, I just had this kind of like inkling. I said, you know, Today I have 366 days clean.
[00:23:22] Speaker C: Right.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: It's like just had a year sober. And I was thinking about it, whatever. And he said, he looked at me and he was like, huh?
He said, you know, in March I'll have 25 years.
And it meant so much to me. That was huge.
[00:23:38] Speaker D: Because that was the connection point.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Not just the connection.
I can be successful like him.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: I could be that guy.
[00:23:45] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: I could be this guy who hires somebody who's nice to people who obviously, who has nice cars and who lives in a beautiful house and a beautiful family. And I thought everything is just like white picket fence. And I'm like, wow.
[00:24:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: Well, you had just assumed that guy was flawless until then, right?
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:06] Speaker D: That'S such a great story. We always talk about the texture. The people with texture are like the best, the best people. And when you dig deep enough, I think most people are.
So I.
Going back to that where you started, how. And I know you had part time jobs which you alluded to.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: What were they? Can I interrupt?
[00:24:25] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, please.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: Because I'm interested to know. Right. Because we talk there's. Because you started your business as a side hustle while you were doing X number of other jobs. What were they and did they contribute to Some of the things you're into, like you've told me, you know, you were. You're working in the restaurant business, for example, or something that would be. That would seem to me like to be contributing or be hard to get yourself on track. Why you got your. And I'm sorry, restaurant people. If I just completely offend everybody. But what were you doing? What were you doing then when dog training was your side hustle?
[00:24:53] Speaker A: So it's. This is a crazy number. Okay. But by the time I was 25, I had 35 jobs.
I had had 35 jobs. That's a lot of wisdom.
[00:25:06] Speaker B: It's a lot of W2s, Carter.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Okay.
So I mean I had jobs for short periods of time and I had multiple jobs at a time. So I was always getting jobs. And I did everything from when I was probably 13 or 14. My first job was working at a snack bar at the pool.
[00:25:25] Speaker C: Right.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: And then I cooked for a bunch of years after that. Always working at a pizza shop or something like that. Whether that was. I worked at like some late nights there and then I would work days somewhere else. I've been a cabinet maker's apprentice. I've been a plumbing apprentice. Apprentice or plumbing plumber's helper. Not even apprentice.
I did H vac sheet metal. I did insulation in working for a big sheet metal installation company, like an H Vac company.
I've done basically any job in a restaurant, including valet. I've done any job you can do as like a helper in construction with just like, with no experience, you know, I can do some of it pretty well, but you know, just helper level experience with the exception of electric. Terrified of electric.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: Smart.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: Props to electricians.
And I mean literally just, just tons of jobs like that door to door sales, which did teach me a lot. Absolutely.
I wasn't afraid to just walk up and talk to anybody. I was selling. I wasn't even selling. I was setting appointments, canvassing, setting appointments for windows, siding and doors. Yeah. And. But I lear all sorts of cool stuff from that. And, and I learned how to, you know, how to sell. Like first tier is like be like they're going to say no. Okay, what do you do next? Right.
And the things that, you know, benefited me, I took little pieces from each one of those jobs and learned.
But I think something that has been not just with dog training, dog training by itself. And this, this is like, this is. I don't think this is polarizing particularly, but dog training in itself is a skill that is like, it's Attainable. You can. I can teach you to become a good dog trainer specifically for your dog.
[00:27:19] Speaker C: Right?
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Almost anybody that has, like, good coordination and so forth.
[00:27:22] Speaker C: Right.
[00:27:23] Speaker A: I cannot teach you to be able to convey that skill to other people.
[00:27:29] Speaker C: Right?
[00:27:30] Speaker A: I've. I. I can try, and I know the things where I can put in place to, like, teach trainers how to be better at their job. But. But that's not everybody's skill.
[00:27:40] Speaker C: Right?
[00:27:41] Speaker A: You can be a great dog trainer, and you can produce, like, really, really awesome clips on Instagram of dogs doing amazing things. And you may not be able to convey that point to people in a way that they understand.
And having those jobs and working in that was my cultural experience. It was like, hey, I've worked with tons of different people, and I learned kitchen Spanish from people from El Salvador and Honduras. And, like, I didn't learn it in school. I learned it from them. And I.
[00:28:04] Speaker C: Right.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: And I can still get around and speak that stuff. And I worked on construction sites.
So my cultural experience was, like, working with people of all different varieties in that, like, lower level kind of thing and being from the socioeconomic background or whatever that we came from in terms of, like, hey, we were also Baltimore county private schools, like, whatever. So I had that.
And I can relate to anyone because of all those experiences. Somebody comes in front of me and I say, I'm like, oh, what do you do?
What kind of work do you do? What kind of stuff?
[00:28:38] Speaker C: Right?
[00:28:39] Speaker A: I'm a teacher, I'm a professor, I'm a doctor, I'm a lawyer. I'm a, you know, I have a company that makes socks, whatever, like. And I'm like, oh, let's talk about it.
[00:28:48] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: Yeah. That's the thing that's benefited me more than actually the ability to train a dog is like, I always tell people, like, that work for me and, like, my trainers and so forth. I'm like, train the dog. Awesome. Gotta train the dog. But remember that the reason people come back and the reason people will, you know, talk about us to their friends and so forth is because they like you.
[00:29:08] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: So be likable also, right? You got to train the dog. That's your job. But the more likable you are, the more referrals you're gonna get. And, like, that's where it's at. It's like, can you be likable in your chosen profession? And, like, specificity.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: Hey, Mick here. Quick break from the show. Thank you so much for listening. If you're enjoying this episode, the easiest way to help support Our channel is to subscribe. Please take a second, hit that subscribe button and help us push to get to 1,000 subscribers. The goal here is to monetize so we can bring on even bigger guests. Drop a comment with who you think we should interview next. All right, back to the show. I also think too, what you said about your. Your career, the helper stuff, right. The carpenters. When I picture what. And I have not been to your facility, but I picture a lot of infrastructure, whether it's where you keep the dogs.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: And I imagine there's an upkeep aspect of that. That's pretty.
What we do around here. That probably serves you well too. Being handy in certain spots, being able to do things, not have to call in other people to do it, which is helpful when you're trying to build a business and you want every penny to stay in the business. I imagine that helped too, as along the way as far as building some of that stuff out, or at least the visionary aspect of it.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: The visionary aspect, for sure. And not getting ripped off when you hire people and being able to watch them do stuff and say, oh, no, I want to make sure that, make sure that trim piece is connected over there. Or like, no, no, you need, you're going to need longer screws than that. Whatever. Just. Just seeing somebody where you're like, hey, that's not right. Definitely calling them on it and being comfortable with that and understanding the process. Understanding part of the business process, too, and being like, oh, I know how they make their money. I know what they're going to try to short on. So like, let's make sure they just. They know they're not going to short me on it and then we're good, right?
[00:30:55] Speaker C: Right.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: Definitely. Yeah.
[00:30:56] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:30:57] Speaker D: So the next. I think we've gotten to the point where you had all these side hustles and then you're like, okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna bet on myself. I'm going in a hundred percent. Do you remember that moment when you made that decision and what did that look like?
[00:31:10] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So I went to a.
Basically it was right after I got clean.
So I got clean because I had like a really bad night and I had a bad night and was, you know, whatever, throwing up and ill, this, that, whatever. The next day I woke up and I was like, I need to dry out.
[00:31:28] Speaker C: Right.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: And I didn't know how long that was gonna last, but I was like, not zero interest in, in anything right now.
[00:31:36] Speaker C: Right.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: I.
I quit. All in one day. I Quit, you know, smoking cigarettes, smoking weed, drinking, which I was doing, you know, all day, every day, basically all of those things. So quit everything in one day.
And I was working at an auto shop at the time, doing window tinting.
[00:31:58] Speaker D: Add it to the list.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:02] Speaker B: The Carter of all trades.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: Yes. Or Justin Carter of all trades. Yeah, exactly.
So. And I had been working at Ruth Chris Valet. Valet parking. I had actually previously quit at Ruth Chris, like, like, before this happened because, like, I tore my meniscus in my left knee break dancing with.
With a friend of ours when I was out drinking. And anyway, when breakdancing seems like the best idea, break dancing is always a good idea. On like, you know, eight shots of Jack Daniels and.
And just like hyper extend your knee. And just like the next day I woke up, my knee was like that big. And I was like, I can't go to work. And like, I eventually was like, I took like a week off of work, whatever. And they're like, are you going to come back? And I was like, no, I'm not coming back. It's not happening.
And then auto shop. You, you had asked about, like, well, when I was. I training dogs, this, that. So like, I would train dogs on Mondays for some period of time. I had Mondays off. I would work at the auto shop Tuesday through Saturday. I would work at valet parking at Ruth Chris. I would work there Friday, Saturday, Sunday, every weekend. Valet parking. I would train dogs on Mondays and I would just set up appointments. I would drive from like, literally from like Dundalk to Catonsville to do a 25 appointment, like hustling Mondays, whatever, five appointments, whatever I got to do. And literally, like to make no money, just to be like, I want to do this. I was passionate about it. I would train my dog whenever I could. If people could come. Like, I would literally have. People would either bring their dogs to the auto shop sometimes or like I was training the owner's dog at the auto shop, stuff like that. And just like finding time whenever I could. So when I finally got clean, I had this mentor, Michael Ellis, who was just kind of like a digital mentor. I was watching his videos online and things like that, and he's like the truth in dog training. He's still.
He's my. If you guys are, you know, in jiu jitsu belt system here, but he's like the coral belt master, right?
And so I was like, I want to go to his school.
And he had a course that was a. He had a three week course or a two week course at the Time, which he doesn't have anymore, that, that I was able to, able to go to, able to attend. And when I went out to do that, my, the auto shop, they had asked me, are you going to come back? And I was like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. And by the time I got to the end of that course, I was like, I'm not coming back, right? And I told him that I got back to Baltimore and I got some, you know, life lessons from, from the world, right? I was on, you know, good or bad, I was on food stamps. I was living in an apartment that was like 400 bucks a month, this apartment.
And I was getting that from like my mom, like every couple months. I would need to borrow it from her.
I was, I don't even know. I had health insurance through like some like, you know, lower income health insurance situation, Maryland health insurance plan, I think it was. And I, the previous, in this apartment, the apartment was terrible. The previous tenant had hung himself in the closet. Okay. Of the apartment. There you go. It was just like, it was a terrible place. And I, I was, you know, with my mom and my mom was a, she was CEO of a non profit. Not at that time, but. Or maybe she was at that time and she was like, you need to be hustling, right? She was like, you need to hustle. She said, if you don't have 40 hours of work, you need to be finding work 40 hours a week, right? And so that's when I made flyers, went door to door and literally just started hustling. I had a, there was a meeting I used to go to, like a, a sobriety based meeting that I would go to. It was at 7am because they had coffee and day old donuts or bagels, so could just go grab a free breakfast there. I would bring my dog, I would train him in the parking lot. I would be like, who, like, who wants to learn something? Or does anybody want to pet my dog, whatever. And I would go from there to a vet's office like almost every day. And I would just go to a different vet's office, shake hands with the people at the front desk. I didn't have at the time. I didn't have money to buy like bring them cookies and donuts and gift cards and stuff like that like we do now, right.
I would just show up, try to help them to, you know, think that I was the guy they wanted to refer to, drop off some flyers and then go to the next one the Next day. So that was my, like direct sales, basically like as close as I could get to the client.
And that was, that was how I started that first year.
And I mean, the first year I made, not made, I, you know, I rang 25.
Yeah, $25,000 and I spent like 35 or whatever on my business.
And the year after that I made or like, you know, rang38,000 or something like that.
And it quickly went up from there. I mean, we, you know, like, we're able to, we were able to do, you know, 100 a bunch of years and it's just been.
Yeah, it all started. It all started then though, like, you know, with saying I, I quit with all this part time stuff. I'm going full time and really putting the effort into actually getting the business.
[00:37:41] Speaker B: Where was your sobriety at that moment too? Because you said you had a terrible night. You just, you were, you were done for a minute, but it might have been just a minute.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: And what were you doing from a sobriety perspective, which would have been simultaneous to that build up too?
[00:37:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So that was it. I quit cold turkey. Never used again after that day.
I did have a few more, like at later dates. I like bummed a couple cigarettes off of people at later dates. But like, you know, basically that was it.
[00:38:07] Speaker C: Right.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: Right then.
And so it's been that was February 5th of. Or February 4th was the last night. Using February 5th of 2012 was the first night or first day clean. And yeah, never went back to it.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: Do you feel like the dog training filled that habit void simultaneously or almost instantaneously where you just left it behind?
[00:38:29] Speaker A: I went to a lot of meetings. Oh, you did? Okay. Absurd quantity of meetings.
I went to, you know, both fellowships, all the fellowships, whatever you want to call them.
The. Since I'm not a spokesperson, we try not to say the names of them.
[00:38:44] Speaker C: Right.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: But the I, I went to multiple meetings every day for the first year, which is. That's obsessive.
[00:38:52] Speaker C: Right.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: So a lot of people like, oh, I went to one or two last week or this or that. My first year clean, I went to, yeah, probably 500 meetings. Right. Like every day a lunch, five a day.
[00:39:04] Speaker C: Right.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: Every day a lunch meeting, every day a breakfast meeting, trying to go to dinner meetings, or back and forth. Because, you know, when you're trying to form a new habit, as I know from behavior modification and dog training, right.
Where basically, if you're trying to form a new habit, there is no protection from rehearsal of the old habit or relapsing right?
Because, or spontaneous recurrence or spontaneous relapse of that event.
Because you can't destroy a habit.
The habit loop is created. It's in your brain, this neuropathway. And from start to finish, from trigger to end event, right? It's laid out and that doesn't go away. There's nothing you can do besides take that trigger and come up with a new end event. And we call that a replacement behavior. Say I want to smoke a cigarette, do 10 push ups. I want to smoke a cigarette, do 10 push ups, right? Okay, well if you don't do it one time when you think about smoking as then like you, you like fail to encourage that other behavior.
And there's this, this law called the matching law, right? Or maybe the matching rule. But basically if you take the same trigger and split the like occurrences of events that will eventually transpire. So like, you know, I say.
[00:40:36] Speaker C: I.
[00:40:37] Speaker A: Don'T know what it is. Half the time I pick up this, this water, it's cold and half the time it's hot, right?
Then if I don't know if it's hot or cold, 50% of the time I'll reach out thinking it's going to be cold. And 50% of the time I'll reach out thinking it's going to be hot. And it literally will be a measurable effect in that way. So if your trigger in the first couple years, your trigger, there's no way that you've built up enough mass in your replacement behavior to that point for it to be competitive.
So you need so many repetitions of the replacement behavior to ever even start to overcome the first one. Okay, I've been angry and then went out drinking. I've done that a thousand times. Or say just whatever. Okay, cool. Now I'm angry and I call my sponsor, I'm angry and I call one of my friends in the program. I'm angry and I meditate, whatever it is, right? Okay. 1,000 times you have to do that to even get to a 50% likelihood that your first thought is meditation versus your first thought being drinking.
So people way underestimate the amount of reps I think that you need for stuff like that. And they also. This isn't information that people, everybody knows I know this stuff because I'm obsessed, obsessed with dog training. But it is so relevant specifically in addiction. But in any habit forming thing that you're trying to do. It's like you want to run in the morning. Okay, cool. You can't just get up and be like all right, well, for the last week, I ran every day. It's like, no, no, no, no, no.
[00:42:11] Speaker C: Hey.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: But for 35 years you didn't.
How many reps of 35 years, right? Thousands, tens of thousands of days. You didn't do it. So now you've got to, you're going to have to do it for years until it's like, you know, you get to that point where just like in the morning when, you know, I don't know about you guys, but I wake up in the morning, I'm not 100 thinking clearly. I'm brushing my teeth before I even am really thinking about what's going on, right?
You might wake up in the morning and your shoes are on and you're like, dude, I'm walking towards the front door and you're like, I'm not even awake yet, right? And you're like, I'm going on my run, right? So that stuff is just like, again, the repetitious aspect of it. I don't think people, people understand fully how many repetitions it takes to build a habit like that. And you have the habit on the other side, this like running habit where like you're so built in that direction, if you didn't do it one day you'd be like, yeah, yeah.
[00:43:06] Speaker B: Oh, no, yeah, no, no, that's exactly true. Question in the moment. So everything you said was incredibly enlightening. And I, and I agree. And I also, to take it one step further, I love the dog training side because a lot of times I will refer to humans as mammals also. Right. And that interconnectivity, certainly the species go in different directions, but I many times will tell the stories about mammals and, and the things that mammals do that somehow humans think they get to exclude themselves from. But in that moment, did you know that piece, everything you just talked about habit and having to balance out that habit piece. Did you know that or did you look back retroactively and piece all of that together? I can't imagine that you were self aware or had that level of understanding that you said, oh, no. Anger equals call my, you know, call my sponsor. Did you know that or did you piece it together retrospectively looking back at the events?
[00:43:56] Speaker A: Well, definitely putting the, putting like kind of those psychological terms and like behavioral psychology terms on top of it. Definitely that's retrospective. But I mean, the programs that I'm involved in pretty much beat it into you. Like that's what you need to do. It's like, you have any feeling, call your sponsor. You have any feeling Call somebody else.
[00:44:14] Speaker C: Right.
[00:44:14] Speaker A: Because. And in early recovery, you don't even. You can't even identify those feelings, which is like, something that you, like, you realize, like children oftentimes where children, they need, like, coaching to even, like, understand what the feelings are that they're feeling.
[00:44:31] Speaker C: Right.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: It's like that's, it's basically like. It's like if you were in, like, a bad accident, you need to learn how to walk again. It's like after you're. After you, like, you start recovery or after you're sober, you need like, like emotional rehab to, like, start to learn how to handle your emotions again.
[00:44:47] Speaker C: Right.
[00:44:47] Speaker A: And that's why they're like, no, no. You can't be trusted. Your first choice can't be your first thought cannot be trusted. Like, go talk to somebody.
[00:44:54] Speaker B: You don't get to do this alone until further notice.
[00:44:57] Speaker A: Right. You don't get to do this alone.
[00:44:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:44:58] Speaker A: And you can't do it alone as well. That's like, I've seen some people try it. I've seen some people go long times without it, but it's not the same. They don't get the same benefit. You need like, like, you need the team, you need the, the tribe. You need the. This cohesive mammal, mammalian unit that we've created, you know? Yeah.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: You need the same pack support that the animals love.
[00:45:20] Speaker A: You need support.
[00:45:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: And it's, you know, your board of directors for your own personal, like, business that is, you like everything you do on a daily basis.
[00:45:28] Speaker D: Did you read the book Atomic Habits by Adam Grant?
[00:45:32] Speaker A: Haven't read. It.
[00:45:35] Speaker D: Is similar to, like, that replacement, I think he. He offered. There's three ways to beat that negative recurring loop, but replacement was one of them. And I remember reading the book being like, replacement for me is the only option. It's like, I. There has to be replacement. Like, I can't just eliminate. That's just not my opinion.
[00:45:52] Speaker B: You're going to be addicted to something.
You got to make a good choice.
[00:45:55] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
[00:45:57] Speaker B: Your knees may disagree with you, but that's a different story.
[00:46:00] Speaker D: Okay? I. I want to keep moving along the ark. So you. You made it full time. You're training dogs. You're knocking on doors.
What was the first big milestone for you? Was it your first employee? Was it the new facility? Like, when did you start to make some money and be like, I think we're onto something here.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: This is funny, but I think it might resonate with you guys or some people anyway, which is, I bought a coffee at Starbucks so that Wasn't something that was just given. That wasn't something that was just given. I was like, dude, it's like $4. It was like, you know, no, I can go to a meeting and get it for free. I can go to a, you know, go to, go to the church basement. I can get a free coffee if I just get my butt to a meeting at 7am, right?
And that, that was it. Literally, like there was a, that was a big moment and I was like, am I making it?
[00:46:58] Speaker B: Yeah, $4. $4 of disp.
[00:47:02] Speaker C: I had.
[00:47:03] Speaker A: There was a week, right?
There was a week where I got.
Basically I had asked a, my, my mentor if I could get a dog from him. So a Belgian Malinois, like, and I really wanted to compete with this dog. That's Rhino. That one right there, that's Spike. That's the one I was talking about. He's got a glucometer kind of stuck on a glucose meter.
So I, they told me that I was going to be able to get a dog from that litter, right? Rhino.
I had bought a truck, my first, my first like, new vehicle. I got a five speed Tacoma with like a jump seat in the back and like whatever, a five foot bed. And I was, that was brand new.
I think I leased it anyway.
And I got a really, really awesome client, right, who was like, who had a, a young German shepherd puppy. This is a, some one of the most prominent Baltimore families, whatever. And they were, and they were like, can we do, can you come three times a week and also do all these board and trains, whatever. And basically like I wrote them out like a, I don't know, it's like a 25 or a 30k like estimate for like the year. I was like, this is, this is what it's going to cost for how much work you want me to do? This is, this is it. They said, that sounds great.
I had this new truck.
I knew the dog was coming. I was literally driving up Charles street in the, in the new truck just like yelling and I was like, like, no way. It's like my life, man. Yeah.
And that, I mean that was a big part of it for sure. That was like. That's like. There have been many moments where you're like, we get it. You know, my wife says, she says like all the time. She came up with this new little phrase that some good things do come off Facebook, by the way. So she got this off, I think off a reel or something and said, who's got it better than us, right? When like like, everything's going sideways when, like, you know, baby's screaming, there's, like, poop on your arm or something. And she'll look at me and be like, who's got it better than us? Right? And you just, like, you can trick yourself into smiling and, like, working through that, but it's the truth. I'm so, so, so grateful for all the things that we have, like, up to this point and, like, how. How our lives are. Are playing out. And I think that that's another level. It's like gratitude is like this. This other level of, like, you know, life satisfaction and success and things like that. Like, what level of sex success do you want to achieve? I want to be grateful for the things that I have.
I want to be grateful. Like, there you go.
[00:49:56] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah.
[00:49:56] Speaker B: And that takes perspective, right? It's, I think, for any number of people, like, you, you know, you. There was a rock bottom feel in there for you.
[00:50:02] Speaker A: Right.
[00:50:02] Speaker B: You talked about food stamps and the. The place where the guy hung himself in the closet. There's a rock bottom feel to that.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: So.
[00:50:08] Speaker B: So I think you have to live or experience some of that and have that perspective to actually understand what being grateful looks like.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And I will put caveat here, because Alex, my brother, won't forgive me for saying this, but I was never in danger of starving or in danger of. I have an excellent support network.
I could have moved back in with my mom probably. She was still. Everything was fine.
So it's not like I was, you know, destitute and, like, homeless and things like that, where I have a lot of friends and family who have done, you know, a lot of friends, rather, who have been in, like, way worse, like, I guess, like, socioeconomic states. Right. I had. I had a. I had a fallback there.
[00:50:54] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:50:55] Speaker B: There were financial resources close by.
[00:50:57] Speaker A: Yeah, but you were still living it. Yeah.
[00:50:59] Speaker C: Right.
[00:50:59] Speaker A: And the other side. And my mom had gone to enough meetings of her own to be like. Like, a pretty hard line on, like, I'm not, you know, you're not getting anything from me unless it's like, you can eat food here, right? I'm gonna make sure you have some health insurance. She was very nice about that because I have. I'm type one diabetic. And she was always just like, you can't not have health insurance. So she made sure it happened.
[00:51:21] Speaker C: Right.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: But yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:51:22] Speaker B: That fine line between enabling.
[00:51:24] Speaker C: Right.
[00:51:24] Speaker B: I mean, she could have been an enabler in spots taking care of her boy.
[00:51:27] Speaker A: Yes, That's.
[00:51:28] Speaker B: That's a tough One.
[00:51:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:51:30] Speaker D: So let's talk about, let's talk about wild acres. Let's talk about your, what you're doing today, your facility. Let's, let's. Because I think that is so awesome. Like awesome and unique.
[00:51:42] Speaker B: Tell us about the business side. Buying a 20 acre facility.
[00:51:46] Speaker D: What do you do on a day to day.
[00:51:47] Speaker B: Yeah, we talk about bootstrapping it. How'd you get the funding? You know, what did you do to create the assets that you needed to truly get into this thing? Because with 20 acres and the space you need just to, to house dogs, whatever. That's, that's an asset heavy business and spots certainly in land and things. How'd you, how did you pull all that together?
[00:52:04] Speaker A: So no business school, right?
And I didn't have like a strong plan for how it was going to work. And I went to my, my cousin Brian who did go to business school. And I was like, what do I, how do I do any of this stuff, right? I was like, I really need to take a jump here. And this is when I was just, just training dogs out of my house. I had like a little Cape Cod that was like 1100 square foot cape Cod with like a really long, skinny, 300 foot long backyard. And I would have like 10 to 15 dogs there where I was just like boarding dogs for people going out training all the time. I was like, I need a dog kennel. I got to figure this out. And I went to, I went to a commercial realtor first and I said, what are we, what are we gonna. Like, like what do I do for this, right? Find me a warehouse or something like that. Let me find something that we can get zoned appropriately.
And you know, warehouses are crazy expensive to like rent. Yeah, you have one, so. And true. And like, and they're not ideal for what I do for a lot of reasons, right. And what I found out, like, we found one that was going to work, right? It was in a good location.
We, the realtor thought we could get the zoning and all that stuff. And it was like, I think it was like nine, like nine grand a month or something like that. And I had, you know, I don't know, like tens of thousands like, you know, saved. Like, I didn't have like nothing to speak of particularly. And I was also, you know, just like, I have no idea how to run a business that would bring in that revenue that I could spend that on rent anyway, right? Yeah.
[00:53:44] Speaker B: $108,000 a year just to show up, up, right?
[00:53:46] Speaker A: Just, just to have the doors open and it does include build out and staff and your first six months of, you know, like, whatever is going to happen while your business is building and who knows? And I'd never run that business before. I didn't have any, like, business partners.
And I was simultaneously, I was looking at properties in Baltimore County. Like, I was, like, just looking at places. I was like, it'd be cool if I could have, like a, you know, a farm, right? And I've just happened upon a place that was a dog kennel, right? And it was the. The owners were elderly.
They had it listed for, you know, it was like, way over what it should have been listed. And no. And it had been on the market for, like, multiple years, and it was literally the last property in Baltimore County. It was like, right up to Carroll County. So it's like, like, kind of out there. But anyway, it's like, it was expensive for Carol county, but, like, you know, Baltimore county reasonable, most expensive house on, like, not great street, you know, so there were a lot of things that weren't going for them. And it had this enormous dog kennel behind it that was, like, busted up. And it was in. They were using it. It was like the. The business was active, but it was busted. And I started offering them. This is a wild story, I won't speak numbers, but I started offering them basically $50,000 less every month or like every other month. And, like, I don't even know if this is a recognized strategy, like, anything, right? It is now.
[00:55:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it is now. You're welcome.
[00:55:21] Speaker A: Literally, they. No, I guess no one was. No one else was offering. I had to. I stopped for a while because they. They were in, like, talks with somebody or they were in whatever. It was, like, under contract with somebody, and it didn't go through for zoning issues, which I found out about later.
And I.
Eventually they just came back to me and they were like, well, can you go back to the one you said last month?
[00:55:46] Speaker C: Right, yeah.
[00:55:47] Speaker A: And I said, I spent the money. I, like, bought a truck or whatever, you know, and they were like, okay, like, I guess can you go up like, 15,000? I was like, all right. So I stole the place that made it work.
[00:56:01] Speaker C: Right?
[00:56:02] Speaker A: Nowhere near $9,000 a month for me.
[00:56:05] Speaker C: Right.
[00:56:06] Speaker A: And it covered my house. Yeah, it covered this. This property and the business.
[00:56:11] Speaker C: Yeah. Right.
[00:56:12] Speaker A: So I didn't buy the business. The business was just like an asset transfer or whatever. But amazing, amazing deal. And then, you know, like, basically multiply that deal by, I don't know, three to eight, what it should have Been if you just had waited like three years. Because I bought in 2017 and the. They're like the whole street like doubled and doubled in more like it's really, you know, 2.5. Like what. You know, on my street, 20 acres, right? Yeah. So that, that's how that part went. And I was able to do it with not even creative financing. I just, I just bought it with like a home loan loan.
[00:56:54] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:56:54] Speaker A: Yeah. So I didn't have anything there. I borrowed the.
I did borrow the down payment, the additional down payment from like friends and family.
And so we got ourselves or. Well, I was just being me by myself. Then I got in there and the first year was insane. I know why businesses fail in the first five years.
I know why businesses fail in the first like two years. Right. And that's because, I mean, I've. I. Because I've now started like three or four different businesses, right. I'm not like a serial entrepreneur kind of like just my first business, like dissolved into my second business. My second business dissolved up into Wild Acres. And then, you know, it's just kind of.
[00:57:44] Speaker C: And.
[00:57:46] Speaker A: I. That first year, 2017, was the absolute hardest year I've ever had for. In any reason, right. Whatsoever.
I had two mortgages. I had the other place still.
I had this kennel, all the new responsibilities of it, and it made no revenue. So lots of additional responsibility, zero additional revenue.
[00:58:12] Speaker C: Right.
[00:58:13] Speaker A: I bought it. The previous years they had been at a loss.
The business had been at a loss. And it wasn't even a lot like they were. The whole business was bringing as a 10,000 square foot building, right. And they were bringing in a hundred and a hundred thousand a year and spending like 130 on payroll. Just on payroll.
[00:58:30] Speaker C: Yep. Right.
[00:58:32] Speaker A: And the first year, whatever, 2017-18, I bought in like October. So it's like we did like the opposite of that.
So like we, you know, we spent 110 on payroll and we made 130 or something like that. And I was like, this might work, but also the stress, unimaginable, crippling stress when like the. I got 14 dogs in the house because the kennel's not suitable for dogs.
For my dogs.
[00:59:02] Speaker B: Right.
[00:59:02] Speaker A: I was allowing the.
I was allowing the kennel, previous tenants to operate there. So they rented out part of the kennel to a rescue.
And so 20 of the kennels were in a rescue and then the other 50 kennels were like just clients who were going on vacation. This, that, whatever. And the business was, whatever it was, it's not the type of facility that you'd want to have your dog at. It wouldn't have been the type of facility.
But there were people that were, that were still coming, right? And maybe they didn't know or whatever, but heat went up at the, heat went up at the kennel. Hot water heater. Hot hot water heater. Like not exploded but like leaked everywhere at the house. I had a bunch of dogs on board and I was at like this is talk about rock bottom. That was my rock bottom. Like emotionally sober, stressed out of my absolute mind and I wanted to quit.
Panic attacks, hardcore panic attacks. Wanted to. Literally the picture in my head was crawling into the back of a closet at like my mother's house.
And just like that, like, I just wanted everything to go away. Too much, too much pain. I'm like, just take it all back. I'd literally just like want my mommy. That's how much stress, right?
[01:00:29] Speaker B: Did drinking ever occur to you?
[01:00:30] Speaker C: That's.
[01:00:32] Speaker A: Slightly. But I was more inclined to like darker alternatives, honestly. But yeah, I was just like, I was, can't do this. It's not going to work.
[01:00:45] Speaker C: Right.
[01:00:45] Speaker A: Like this is, this is going to just fail. I'm going to buckle. And I.
Meditation and deadlifts.
So meditation every morning. And if you ever.
Right now, I have not been every morning with the new baby and everything's a little bit crazy and you're in a better place. But. Right, but right up until that I absolutely like 30, I mean and I've been getting some 30 minutes of, 30 minutes of meditation in the mornings, but not every morning.
And deadlifts at peak arousal. So anytime that I ever am like in peak anxiety, peak arousal, like just, just, just full stress, I, you know, my, my belief is that I'm thinking about things that are not real and that I'm worried about things that are low probability events and they're causing a high degree of arousal and I go do something that is, that will require full physical attention whether you're, you know, whether you just rep it out or you're doing heavyweight whatever.
And that like got me through some period of time where I could just like, you know, it's like white knuckling is the deadlift part, meditation is the cure. Like that's the fix.
[01:02:05] Speaker C: Right?
[01:02:06] Speaker A: More meditation equals less likelihood of high arousal events. So if you're walking around at an 8 and a 10 is going to bring you to panic attacks and making really bad decisions, whether that's drinking, using, you know, self harm, other things, buying things online at 2:00 clock in the morning. Right, Right. No one does that.
[01:02:27] Speaker B: Shop therapy.
[01:02:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
So if you're at an eight and you're walking around at an eight, you. First of all, you can't afford to walk around at an 8. So we need to. That's what I start my day and try to break that down to whatever you can do. And meditation for me drops you a few points, but you can't do it in the moment. You can't wait until. I mean, you can. It's just not as effective. You might drop a do. You get yourself from a 10 to a 9 by meditating. Like in the moment when you're fully stressed out. But the time it works best is before it's in the. It's early on. It's like. Yeah.
[01:03:00] Speaker B: After you've triggered fight or flight. It's too hard at that point. There's too much adrenaline rush, there's too many chemical events happening to overcome with mental.
[01:03:07] Speaker A: Yeah, that's hard.
[01:03:08] Speaker B: So tell us about. How'd you meet your wife?
[01:03:12] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:03:14] Speaker B: Oh, I did want to say one thing.
[01:03:15] Speaker C: Thing.
[01:03:15] Speaker B: So I think what you talk.
[01:03:16] Speaker A: You asked me a question.
[01:03:17] Speaker D: You kept talking.
[01:03:17] Speaker B: I know, but. But then I forgot. I wanted to ask that you just. What you just described is interesting, that. That evolution from a craftsman.
[01:03:25] Speaker A: Right.
[01:03:25] Speaker B: That's what we call it when, you know, you were a dog trainer and the business was fine, but it was secondary to the extreme focus on the craft of dog training. So you were a craftsman. And then when you have to switch over and make that a full business entity, you know, we'll say on this podcast a lot, until you sign an idot, an indemnified deed of trust, well, they'll take your house if you blow it. And that fear is what you expect.
Exactly what it is.
That's legit. Like in. In making that move from Craftsman to then handling all of the business side, some days you're like, I just wanted to train dogs. How did I get here? I. I just wanted to train dogs. And it sounds like you had that feeling along the way.
[01:04:03] Speaker A: Lots of times. That's all. It's still. Right.
[01:04:06] Speaker B: It'll still sneak in, too, without question all the time. I just want to sell bags of air. I'll say that, too.
[01:04:10] Speaker C: Right.
[01:04:10] Speaker A: That's what I do all the time. Yeah. I.
I mean, I remember when I told my mom, like, early on, like, this is what I'm gonna do. I want to do this. And I said, I think I can make 50 grand. It's like. And if I can make 50 grand. I don't care. It's all good. That was like my. You money.
[01:04:29] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right.
[01:04:30] Speaker A: Which, like, you know, I would have sold myself short, you know, But. But the. The truth is like that.
[01:04:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:04:38] Speaker A: I mean, I want something.
I want legacy. I want more than just, like, the.
The enjoyment of every day is like, part of the enjoyment of my pursuit.
[01:04:51] Speaker C: Right.
[01:04:52] Speaker A: Of success or greater success is that.
I guess I just hold this thing in my head where I hope that my kids, I hope that my wife. I hope that whoever like. Like people, like, remember me when I'm gone as something.
[01:05:08] Speaker C: Right.
[01:05:09] Speaker A: It's all. Potentially. It's all meaningless. But I. I do hold that in my head. Like, the legacy is important to me.
And, you know, I think that's why we.
I'm. Now, I'm conflating the question about my wife, but.
Well, that's your question. You asked about my wife.
[01:05:28] Speaker D: How did you meet your wife?
[01:05:29] Speaker A: I did, yeah.
[01:05:30] Speaker D: Yeah. Let's go. Let's go there. For his family. Yes, let's go there. How did you meet your wife?
[01:05:35] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:05:35] Speaker D: Easy question.
[01:05:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it is an easy question. So we're. We're at this barn party. It was like a cystic fibrosis fundraiser or something. And I was just like, kind of a, like, plus one for a friend. He just brought me along, and we go in there, and it was literally at a barn on this big, beautiful, like, equestrian property.
And Olivia was.
She had been racing that day at Virginia Gold Cup, I believe, with her horse, Grandman.
And she was. She was trainer, not the owner. And she was. So she's wearing barn clothes.
No, I. I don't know her from anybody.
[01:06:20] Speaker C: Right.
[01:06:20] Speaker A: Don't know her from Eve, I guess you'd say.
And she's walking through the barn aisle. There's. This is a large barn, and she's got, like, a cheeseburger. And she's just, like, stuff in her face with this cheeseburger.
[01:06:35] Speaker C: Right?
[01:06:35] Speaker A: She's got, like, a long raincoat on. She's wearing, like, boots and, like, she's all, you know, wearing, like, track clothes, whatever, and barn clothes. And she walked by, and I said to my friend, I said, what do you think? She just looked, like, in love with this cheeseburger. And I was like, what do you think that girl would do if I grabbed that cheeseburger? And I was just joking, right? But it put in head. That's that girl. She was eating a cheeseburger. Whatever.
I'm in line.
Not in line. Sorry. I'm at the at the bar station, which was like, in a stall, my friend was. Was tending bar, right?
Will Young. I don't know if you know Will Young. Okay, so he's tending bar, and I was just talking to him, drinking sodas or whatever. And I trained a couple dogs for him, and. And he just.
[01:07:23] Speaker C: Just.
[01:07:23] Speaker A: We know each other from back in the day. And she walks up, she's gonna get a drink at the bar, and unbeknownst to me, he knows her. And he introduced us. He said, oh, Carter, you know my friend Olivia. Or vice versa, right? She's. And she. He said, oh, you should. He said to her, he said, you should talk to him. He's. He's got a cool dog. And he was talking about Rhino, my, you know, my competition protection dog, whatever. And she was like, oh, you got a dog, dog? And so for literally the next two hours, we, like, sat on a hay bale showing. We. I started by showing her pictures of my dog. She starts showing me pictures of her horse back and forth and literally sat on a hay bale and, you know, talked until, whatever, it was time to go. And she's a bit younger than me, right? And we, you know, I'm 30 at the time, she's 23. And I. I didn't know that exactly, but I was like. At the end of the conversation, I was like, like, we're like, right about to, you know, like, split off and I'm going to leave and whatever. And I was like, how old are you?
She's like 23. And I started laughing and I was just like, oh, my God. I was like, I've just, like, just spent the last, you know, three hours falling in love with a girl who's, like, seven years younger than me. I was like, there's no way this is going to work out or anything. And, yeah, we went on our first date, like, a couple days later after she went out, you know, exercising horses in the morning, and we met over at the Ashland Cafe in Cockeysville and had a breakfast and I texted her. I said, or we might have even been communicating on, like, Facebook messenger or something. And I said, just to let you know, I'm in a very large red van, right? I was like, don't be, like, spooked, right? And it didn't have lettering on it yet or anything. It was literally. It's like a transit van with, like, it's like an extended roof, high roof, extended wheelbase van. I'm like, don't mind the fact that there's dog crates and a bed in it. Okay.
[01:09:28] Speaker B: Versus, versus ropes and duct tape.
You should worry about that.
[01:09:32] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:09:33] Speaker A: So she's. And, and we, we were both very busy and it was a, like a slow onset, but we, we dated for like a year plus and then became a little bit more serious and so forth.
And she's, she's got a, she's a nurse as well, so she does the nursing thing and then she's got this, this flower business and currently taking care of babies.
[01:10:04] Speaker B: And a mom.
[01:10:04] Speaker A: And a mom. Yeah, mom is, mom is full time stuff. Man, that's a lot of work.
[01:10:10] Speaker D: It is a lot of work. So you have a four year old and a six. Six week old?
[01:10:14] Speaker A: Yep. Four year old and a six week old.
[01:10:15] Speaker D: Are you tired right now?
[01:10:18] Speaker A: I feel sorry to say that I got an excellent sleep last night because I slept in bed with my 4 year old in his room and I felt a little bit guilty about that when I woke up this morning. So I'll sleep in the room with the baby tonight. All right.
[01:10:35] Speaker B: It's a fair trade.
[01:10:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:10:36] Speaker D: One of the things, love in business. We talk about a lot about the love and the business side. And I, I think we have a 14 going on 15 month at home. And it has changed me in every way, but it's really changed me as a businesswoman, which I knew it would change me as a human, but I don't think I realized how much it would change me as a business person.
Have you felt that? Well, I'd love to hear how being a father has changed you personally and also how you run your business. Assuming it has. Yes.
[01:11:11] Speaker A: So I think that, I mean, it's obviously it's changed me as a person dramatically. I tell people that having a child, you know, alters the lens through which you view everything.
So there's no way, there's no going back. You can't unpickle the cucumber right after you put it in there. So it's changing. You're changing for sure.
Now if the change is dramatic or not, or if you allow it to change those patterns that we've talked about before, like on a daily basis, if it changes those patterns dramatically, that's different. Individual to individual.
I made a commitment to my son like as soon as he was born, which is a similar commitment that I've made to dogs previously, which is like, if I am not working, I will be with you.
[01:12:01] Speaker C: You.
[01:12:02] Speaker A: That's like literally I made that commitment to my dogs over the years and I would just make my life work that way. Obviously sometimes you got to go out to a wedding, you can't bring your dog or your kids, Right? But for the most part, we're a unit, right? We're a team. And it. The things that I allow to pull me away from the family are only pretty much the business, right, to support the family. Exactly.
So it absolutely changed in a very small. Like a small but very meaningful way. It changed the way that I would speak with someone about how their dog and children should interact and how their household should be managed with dogs and kids, how to teach their kids to be respectful of dogs, this. That. Whatever. How to get their kids involved in some of the dog training or exercise or general chores or things like that. And I spoke to people for years about that stuff.
[01:12:56] Speaker C: Stuff.
[01:12:56] Speaker A: Remember, I've been doing this for 20 years, only four of which I've been a parent.
And I've been giving people advice.
I've been giving people advice on what they should do with their kids and dogs.
And some of it was wrong. A lot of it was good because I'd just been aware and I'd seen it in the world. I've seen people's dogs and children interact in ways that I didn't want to see that.
[01:13:18] Speaker C: Right.
[01:13:19] Speaker A: I didn't want them to be doing those patterns, but it made me much better at that. In terms of a business owner, I think the. The part about legacy, right? And being like, okay, I need to make sure that this is in line with what I'm, you know, what I'm trying to do for my son and so forth. And I had previous to, you know, in business. I have. I think I was.
[01:13:49] Speaker C: I.
[01:13:49] Speaker A: By the way, I think even if I wasn't in dog training, I think I would have found my way into some kind of business. I believe that, like, that really works for my mindset even. We go back to the.
You know, I started smoking weed at 12 years old. I started selling weed at 13 years old, right? It was just like. I was like, actually not even 13 years old. It was like, I bought the first day.
This is a funny story. The first day, we're. We're walking to. We're playing basketball, and we're walking to go get drinks, right? And after we played basketball all. And this guy kind of came out of the woods and. Or bushes and whatever, and he was like, hey, you guys want to buy a bag?
[01:14:22] Speaker C: Right?
[01:14:22] Speaker A: And we're like, no. And we ran to the giant.
[01:14:26] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:14:27] Speaker A: On the way back, literally on the way back, we bought the. The 10 bag. Like, literally, like, we said, no. And then 15 minutes later, we were like, yeah, let's get it right. Okay? Because we talked about it when we got to the Giant. We were like, should we buy it? Should we do this? And we get back, back. Anyway, the next day, I went back to the same guy.
I got the dime bag, I split it into three parts. I sold those same two kids, the five, and I took one.
Cool. Now I smoke for free. And I was like, why don't you just do this forever? And I did that until I was 25.
[01:15:01] Speaker C: Right.
[01:15:02] Speaker A: So. And, you know, I don't know that that's like a business acumen as much as it is just like a tendency towards like, like kind of like pattern, like pattern acquisition and being like, you know what I see? I see the numbers here and like, why don't I just do this and move a little bit over here? And so, like, I could maintain my addiction or maintain my habits and so forth without, like, incurring too much cost on myself. And so it just made sense to me.
[01:15:30] Speaker B: It's efficient if nothing else.
[01:15:31] Speaker A: It's efficient if nothing else. And I remember, you know, just always being like, well, you know, as long as you're doing it for free, then it's not that big a deal. The problem is, like, these people that get broke over it, which is crazy because obviously it can be just as. It's just as problematic. But, yeah, I don't remember where I was going with that, but the next thing for me was like, oh, should you open another facility?
Should you open two more facilities? Should you start to branch out and have, like, at every, you know, strip mall in America, should there be like a Carter Wilds dog train training place franchise? Yeah, yeah. And that's absolutely been. You know, I've thought about that a million times. I have a good friend who works with the celebrity Learning center crew, and that's what he's done. And he's done an amazing job with that. He's made a lot of money, everything. But what I've also understood about other people who have done that is that it. You really get further and further and further away from that, that, like, first tier objective, which is, I just want to train dogs. Yeah, you're like, no, now you're just running eight businesses. Now you're running. Now you have a thousand employees or whatever. Like, there's no time for you to think about dog training anymore and to, like, wax poetic about how much, you know, reinforcement or punishment or this or that would. Would change an event or. And that's the stuff that I love and that I'm passionate about.
And I think that's been changed since.
I think that I've had less desire to do that part. I'm like, that's going to take too much time away from the family. And I see how they're like, maybe there would be a. Maybe, I don't know, maybe in 10 years I'll feel differently or maybe if I have the right people in place and I got the right general managers, maybe. Maybe they do take enough workload off of your plate where they could go run another facility for you at another location, or if the right thing popped up, I would potentially do that.
[01:17:28] Speaker C: That.
[01:17:28] Speaker A: But I think that having the kids definitely, I mean, it shortens the work day dramatically. And I. There's a hard line, like, you know, I gotta go to take over because my wife's gonna go to an appointment or this or that. And I, you know, I feel like that's what's important to me, that family is like ultimately super important. That how he thinks about me and how my family thinks about me is more important than how basically anybody else is going to think about me.
And I want to just maximize the potential of this particular location, and we'll see what happens.
[01:18:05] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:18:06] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:18:06] Speaker B: You mentioned that thing, you know, that would have you getting further away from your craft. You know, I mean, you experience, you already had a pretty significant brush with it as far as the, you know, learning the business side on fire, under fire, and being pulled away from the craft and everything you said resonates with me. I recently found myself back in the VP of sales job, which is I'm a salesman by trade. I mean, my craft is sales, and I love that part. You know, I mean, I found myself far away from the craft of sales, and now that I've been forced back into it, I love it. It's my favorite. And things that would have me, I don't know, divesting, looking at other deals, making acquisitions that would have me away either from here or the craft or my family feel exactly the same way.
[01:18:49] Speaker D: But you also reserve the right to change your mind and your plan.
[01:18:53] Speaker A: Sure, sure.
[01:18:53] Speaker D: Absolutely. As your kids get older and new.
[01:18:56] Speaker B: Information presents all the time. Information never stops presenting, especially in today's world with everything so dialed and so available and accessible.
[01:19:05] Speaker D: I would love to know, and this might be a great way to end it. What are. What are you. So we talked a little bit about what you see in the immediate future, but with your current, your current facility and your business, like, let's talk immediate future from here to, you know, into next year.
What do you guys, what are you really striving to do? What's your, what's your mission? Is it acquire, acquire more customers or build something out or. You talked about your product line, like what's really front of mind right now?
[01:19:32] Speaker A: The quality of my staff in terms of their level of training is like of the utmost importance as well as I'm working with like an operations coach right now because again I didn't go to business school. These are, there's, there's pieces of this, of businesses, especially when it got to this point that I don't know, know, right? And I'm all about finding people that know more than me. Like in a general way. I love that, Love to find an expert and just be like, oh, can I ask you about this, this, this, this.
Because that's how I learned everything that I have so far. And as like an expert, I'm like, well if you come to me and you have questions about dogs and I'm like, cool, I'll give you the answers and then you can go and do them, do with them as you wish, right? Whether you do them or not is on, is on you. But, but I've found that I have been really successful at getting like coaching for various different things. I'm like, if they give me the information, I can like implement habits on my end that really start to build it. So with my operations coach, I've just been, just started.
[01:20:37] Speaker C: Right?
[01:20:37] Speaker A: And things like, you know, we haven't, we don't even have a built out org chart. Like I didn't have one yet. I didn't have a, like a great set of guidelines for internal communication. I have.
[01:20:50] Speaker C: Right?
[01:20:51] Speaker A: Okay. This is how they should be formulated and that's what for the next year.
The things that I want to work on are making sure that we have people in places that they can thrive and also that they have like a set of, set of things that they can, a set of guidelines that they can use to like, like limit drag, right?
And those are gonna be hopefully that decreases time spent on things that get messed up, miscommunications, things that didn't get communicated at all. Look, we're doing a great job of taking care of the animals. We're doing a great job of training. We're doing a good job of you know, turning, converting leads to sales.
[01:21:33] Speaker C: Right?
[01:21:34] Speaker A: Let's make sure that the employees themselves aren't frustrated because like something didn't get communicated properly. Let's make sure that people aren't doing the same task twice. Let's work out redundancies.
[01:21:45] Speaker C: Right.
[01:21:45] Speaker A: And so I'm thinking about this year as refining what we've already got. We've got like a great set, we've got customers coming in. Let's utilize that. We're also building different kind of training programs. Like in terms of like, you know, what we're selling is changing a bit.
We're selling dog training, but how we go about it, we can sell it in two week blocks, we can sell it in private lessons, we can sell it in day training, we can sell it it in six one week blocks. There's a million different formulations that you could do. So those are the things that we want to dial in over the next years, like changing little pieces of that.
And my personal, my. This other, the other business, which is Wild American, which is this product line, I also want to keep pushing that forward in the next year. I'd like to. I just hired a, a new guy who I'm really excited about. He's a graphic designer by trade and has a really great skill set and is really motivated to help like push things in many different directions. So I'm hoping that that helps us too.
And you know, being that products are all about. A lot of, a lot of it's about design in terms of like, do people like this? Right. So having somebody else's eye on it who's willing to tell me like, I don't think this is right, this is not right. This. For this reason, the designer's eye would be helpful. So try to push that business and really refine the, the, the Wild Acres business. Refine that one. I'm not worried that like we need to make more money on it or whatever. I'm trying to maintain this year and then with Wild American, I want to grow that. It needs probably 2x to become like something that's sustainable long term in terms of like just paying for advertising and all the photo and video stuff we do.
[01:23:29] Speaker C: Right.
[01:23:30] Speaker D: I'm in the, I'm in the exact same place as you. I feel like.
[01:23:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I completely agree too.
[01:23:34] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:23:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:23:35] Speaker D: So if people are listening to this and they, they want their dog trained or they want to buy some products, like where best to find you on all things.
[01:23:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So Instagram is always easy for everybody to kind of get a grip and see pictures and videos and things that we're doing.
I'm Carter Wild on Instagram and you can pretty much find everything through that. It's. That's. Would Be the easiest one is Carter Wild. Remember, Wilds with an e that will.
[01:24:03] Speaker D: Be on the screen, folks. Thanks to Kenny and show notes.
[01:24:08] Speaker A: Yeah. But if you're local, if you're interested in dog training, Wild Acres md And Wild American is its own website and it's just Wild American dot com.
[01:24:20] Speaker D: Awesome.
[01:24:21] Speaker C: Yeah. Great.
[01:24:22] Speaker B: Anything. So we always love to end anything you would say to our viewers. I mean, you've. You've been through it in any number of ways. Starting a business where you are now, now you're in that growth phase we talked about. You know, we talked about stabilize, which seems like you have the stabilized business piece. It sounds to me like you might be in optimize mode with maximize on the far side of that. What are some. Some tips you have for our viewers that you learned along the way and some with some scrapes and some scars, too.
[01:24:45] Speaker D: Or just motiv. Anything you want to say? Lasting words.
[01:24:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:24:50] Speaker A: I think I'd reiterate that you're not working hard enough and you don't know enough as being the, like, primary drivers for me and make sure that. That if you're like, hey, I am working hard enough. I'm, like driving myself completely insane. I'm obviously working hard enough. Then you need to learn more. And maybe that's not about your particular craft, but maybe it's about your business.
[01:25:14] Speaker C: Right.
[01:25:15] Speaker A: And if you are busy and you're driving yourself nuts with how busy you are and you are not making money, you need more information because there's gonna be a way to be successful. If you are that busy, you're just going to have to find it. And that's mostly informational.
[01:25:31] Speaker D: I think I'll just end on. And I think for what you said, you've done a great job is. Is not having an ego because when you. When you are willing to seek out mentors, as you've said, that are better than you, you ha. You have to drop that sense of, like, ego. I know best, which is hard.
[01:25:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:25:47] Speaker B: That vulnerability, letting people in will help.
[01:25:49] Speaker A: You get where you want to go.
[01:25:50] Speaker D: Yeah, for sure.
[01:25:51] Speaker B: Well, that's great. This has been awesome. This is such a unique interview, and this has been on our mind for a long time just because of how unique it is for some of the things we talk about. And this was. This was fantastic. Thank you.
[01:26:02] Speaker D: Yeah. Thank you so much.
[01:26:03] Speaker A: Awesome. Thanks, guys. A lot of fun.
[01:26:05] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:26:10] Speaker A: Welcome. Tonight.
