May 5, 2025

Gregory Vetter – founder of Tessemae's, co-founder of Alta Fresh Food and author of "Undressed"

Gregory Vetter – founder of Tessemae's, co-founder of Alta Fresh Food and author of "Undressed"

Gregory Vetter, innovator & disruptor in the Clean Food Movement and author of "Undressed", founded Tessemae’s after being inspired by his mother’s homemade dressing recipe. Greg and his family, primarily brothers Matt & Brian, grew the...

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Gregory Vetter, innovator & disruptor in the Clean Food Movement and author of "Undressed", founded Tessemae’s after being inspired by his mother’s homemade dressing recipe.
Greg and his family, primarily brothers Matt & Brian, grew the business and in 5 years became the #1 organic salad dressing brand in the refrigerated space, as well as innovating manufacturing on a mass scale by inventing the only gum-free bottling process. That process led to the creation of the “fresh condiment” category.

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The topics and opinions express in the following show are

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solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not

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Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are

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condemned to repeat it. Kevin helen N believes that certainly

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applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at

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W four CY Radio.

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That's W four.

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Cy dot com and now your host, Kevin helen N.

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Thanks everybody for joining in once again. I'm Kevin Hallanan

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and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on

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W four cy dot com. We're streaming live on talkfour

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tv dot com, and of course we're on Facebook and

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that's at Winning Business Radio, and we're available after the

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live show in podcast form wherever you get your podcasts,

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that's you who you who know? YouTube iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple again,

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everywhere you find podcasts, we are there. The mission of

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Winning Business radio and TV, as regular viewers and listeners know,

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is to offer insights and advice to help people avoid

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the mistakes of others, right to learn best practices, the

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how tos, the what not tos, the what toos, to

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be challenged and hopefully to be inspired by the successes

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of others. Those are consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders and

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owners and entrepreneurs, people with expertise. But you know, virtually

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every successful person I've ever had a chance to talk

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to has said some form of failure in their lives

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and careers. So I say it every week. While we

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all have to get our knee skinned once in a while,

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I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery.

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Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat.

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I've spent the better part of my career equipping businesses

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to grow, and those are from solopreneurs to small and

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medium sized companies all the way up to the Fortune fifty.

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I've seen some of those companies win into varying degrees.

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I've seen some fail I've had the opportunity to rub

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elbows with some of the highest performing people around, and

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frankly with some who probably should have found other professions

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and my own businesses. I've had lots of success, but

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some failures too, So I like to think I've learned

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a lot from those experiences. So of course you're going

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to hear from me my opinions and insights, but more importantly,

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you're going to hear from those experts that I refer to today.

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No guests, no exception, excuse me. My guest is Greg Rivetter, innovator, disruptor,

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and author of Undressed. Gregor Yvetter is a well established

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innovator and disruptor in the clean food movement. The oldest

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of the Vetter brothers, he had the brilliant idea of

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launching Tessames after Tessames, after being inspired by his mother's

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wildly popular homemade dressing recipe. What Greg knew in the

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American consumer base was soon to discover was that the

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idea would soon resonate wildly and give rise to an

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entirely new food category. Gregan has broader family, primarily brothers

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Matt and Bryan, cultivated the business and in a mere

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five years translated their vision into becoming the number one

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organic salad dressing brand in the refrigerated space. The emergence

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of Tessames paved the way for clean manufacturing on a

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mass scale by virtual of inventing the only gum free

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dressing bottling process. Ultimately, that manufacturing process led to the

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creation of the fresh condiment category and similarly the first

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whole thirty approved bottle dressings and condiments in the nation.

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With the wind clearly at their back, Greg and his

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brothers launched alta fresh food company, and that has since

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pioneered a better way to get great tasting salads to

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the masses through the innovative master kitting process and break

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through R and D T. After the triumph as Sam's

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Club Supplier of the Year resulting from their master kitting process,

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Alto was prepared to the forefront of the fast fast

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food solutions industry. More recently, Greg elected to take his

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lessons learned from his sustained success in the food industry

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and launched Homegrown brand Accelerator. Homegrown was developed with a

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singular purpose in mind to empower the next generation of

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brands by making the playbook available to whomever had the

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desire to build the next great American brand. In addition,

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he's authored the best selling book Undressed, The Unfiltered Story

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of my failed American Dream and how it led to success.

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I love that title. Greg winner of Ink Magazine's Entrepreneur

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of the Year Award, Ink Magazine's thirty five hundred thirty

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ey Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, ted X Talk Speaker,

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Nielsen Design Impact Award for Packaging, and Sam's Club Supplier

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of the Year. Greg spends time with his wife and

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four kids on their farm in West River, Maryland. He

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holds a bachelor's in business management from Washington College. Greg,

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welcome to Winning Business Radio.

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Thank you for having me.

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No problem. I appreciate you taking the time. So I

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want to go to your background. But as I like

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to do on this show, tell us you know where

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you grew up, and well, I actually start with wife

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and kids. Tell us about your family.

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I met my wife in college at Washington College. So

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you know, people are like, oh my god, you know,

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how do you stay married with such a wild guy?

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And she'll say, well, you should have seen him in college.

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So I've met Genevieve in college and we have four

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beautiful babies fourteen, thirteen, eleven and nine, two girls, two boys,

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and they're all active in sports and wonderful human beings

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and a pleasure to be around. And then we have

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a bunch of dogs and Texas longhorns and some alpacas

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and some goats and some chickens. So we're getting it

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done over here.

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That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, we have four also they're

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a little older, but two and two as well, So

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that's fun.

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All right.

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Tell us where you grew up and what it was

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like to have grown up.

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There, Annapolis, Maryland. I grew up in Epping four it

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swimming in the Severn River and went to public school,

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so Rolling Noles Bates Middle and Annaple Senior High School,

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and it was it was great, normal, wonderful childhood, full

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of getting in trouble and trying to figure out the world.

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And so my primary sport that I chose was lacrosse.

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A bunch of them, and my dad's from southern Ohio,

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so he didn't he had never even heard of the sport. Yeah, yeah,

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and it was amazing. I mean, it was a great

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outlet for my aggression. I played defense, and so you know,

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I liked whacking people, and I ended up going to

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college to play, which was really fun, and then ended

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up playing professionally for a couple of years. And you know,

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the next thing I know, I'm in the salad dressing business.

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That's pretty cool. Yeah, I mean it's first Actually, I'm

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sure it's what you wanted to do when you were eight, right,

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all right, So why did you choose Washington and a

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business management degree?

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That's funny? Well, I chose Washington College because I did

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not really care in high school as much as I

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should have, and I got recruited by a bunch of

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kind of big, smart d one schools that I could

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not get into without taking a post grad year, which

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I didn't know what that was, and neither did my parents.

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And so Washington College said that they would get me

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in and I would start as a freshman, and that

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seemed like a win win to me, and so I

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went to Washington College and wild experience, exposed to great

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amounts of wealth, exposed to kind of like the concept

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of tradition, which was really interesting, and it was an

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amazing experience for me to come into the man that

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I would eventually be. And I did that through primarily,

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but also just kind of trying to figure out the

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world on my own, trying to figure out what I

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wanted to do with my life after college. Being exposed

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to really kind of wealthy families and seeing what's possible

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really piqued my interest in curiosity, and so I started

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interviewing all of the dads on.

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Cross Team that's fantastic.

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Figure out how did they make their money? And so

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I would just you know, at tailgates, be like, hey,

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mister so and so so, like talk to me about

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living in Darien, Connecticut. How did that? What's going on there?

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And so some were very complicated and beyond my scope

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of what I thought was possible for me at the time.

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You know, someone was talking about being a hedge fund manager,

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and you know that I wasn't going to be doing that.

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But then others seemed realistic, which was you know, one

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guy just kind of like bought and sold death. I

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was like, I didn't even know you could do that.

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Another guy was in commercial real estate. I was like,

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well what does that mean. They're like, hey, you know

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you either sell buildings or your buybuilding. I'm like, okay,

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I understand that. And so it was interesting because it

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showed me that the wealthy were not magic. And so

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I was like, okay, So now I'm curious because I'm

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a very competitive guy. You know, I'm very competitive in athletics.

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If I put my mind to something, I'm willing to

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sacrifice anything to get it. I'm very focused. I can

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just grind until the end of time. And so now

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it was really a matter of like, well, where can

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I direct my energy to potentially put myself in a

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situation long term where I can potentially be successful. And so,

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you know, I started trying to figure that out. And

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the next thing, I know, selling insurance over top of

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a bodega looking over a cemetery.

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Again, very sexy business. You should others should try it

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out exactly.

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And I'm just cold calling all day, you know, I'm

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in the cubicle by six point thirty. I'm cold calling

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until people stop picking up in the evening. And now

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I ended up making it a game, very competitive with

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myself about it, closing a couple large customers, and that

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brought me to again being competitive. I went to the owner.

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I'm like, hey, you know, I brought in three of

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the largest customers we have. I'm only twenty five years old.

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I'd like to be a partner, and he was just like, no,

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that's not happening. You're never going to be a partner.

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You make enough money for your age. That's the end

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of it. And in that moment, I realized that I

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was not in control of the future. And so I

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started thinking about, Okay, well what am I going to do.

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I know I can work hard, I know I can call,

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I know I can go to a meeting and close it.

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What does that mean for me long term? And so

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every day at lunch, I would go home with a

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journal next to me, and I would stand on my

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head in the dark, waiting for an epiphany, and one

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did not come. But I would then go downstairs and

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I'd make myself lunch, and then I'd go back to

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my cubicle and I'd co call all day. And one

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day I walk downstairs to make myself a big se.

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I love this story, keep going you.

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And to make myself a big salad protein on it.

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And this two liter bottle of salad dressing that my

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mom had made for me was missing, and you don't

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misplace a two liter bottle of salad dressing. So I'm looking.

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Everywhere for it, especially one that your mother made.

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Exactly, And I'm looking everywhere. Every cabinet is open, every

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drawer is open. I cannot find this stuff anywhere. And

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I call my wife and I'm like, hey, did you

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take the salad dressing to work. He's like, no, I

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didn't take the salad dressing work. Why don't you open

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your eyes and find it. I'm like, I have looked everywhere.

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I cannot find it. And she goes, maybe someone broke

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into our house and took it. Probably really, someone stole

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salad dressing from our house. I'm like, that's insane. She goes, well,

219
00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:31.639
I don't know what to tell you, Greg, and she

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00:12:31.799 --> 00:12:34.720
hangs up. And I go to prove a point, I'm

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00:12:34.759 --> 00:12:37.720
going to call some people that I know. You know,

222
00:12:37.799 --> 00:12:40.799
no one broke in, and so I call the guy

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that I think is the least likely person to have

224
00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:48.120
stolen this dressing. And so I call him and he's like, hey,

225
00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:50.279
what's up. I'm like, have you random question? Man? Have

226
00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:54.519
you seen my salad dressing? And he's like, yup, woke

227
00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:57.240
up this morning was Jones and for it, hopped on

228
00:12:57.320 --> 00:12:59.879
the scooter, knew the code to your house and now

229
00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:01.639
crushing a salad, and I'm like.

230
00:13:02.919 --> 00:13:04.360
What that's all riot?

231
00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:09.159
What kind of man steals another man's salad dressing? But

232
00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:11.360
then I thought to myself, what kind of salad dressing

233
00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:14.720
is so good that someone would steal it? So I

234
00:13:14.759 --> 00:13:17.919
called my wife back. I go, hey, you were right.

235
00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:20.679
So and so stole the salad dressing, and I'm going

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00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:24.879
to quit my job and start a salad dressing company.

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Dead silence.

238
00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:29.399
Yeah, she said yeah.

239
00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:32.039
And then she goes, that's the greatest idea I've ever heard.

240
00:13:32.200 --> 00:13:35.440
I have a weird feeling this is gonna work. And

241
00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:37.480
so then I took the only business skill I had

242
00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:40.360
at the time, which was cold calling, and I started

243
00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:43.320
cold calling grocery stores to try and get a meeting.

244
00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:46.679
And it was before you started making this stuff.

245
00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:47.919
We weren't a thing.

246
00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:50.000
Yeah, I was just like, idea.

247
00:13:50.360 --> 00:13:52.919
I go, I'm gonna see if anybody wants this stuff.

248
00:13:53.080 --> 00:13:54.440
This is before quitting the job.

249
00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:58.399
This is before the job. I want to see if

250
00:13:59.159 --> 00:14:02.759
there's intro. I want somebody to try it. That's not

251
00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:07.639
anyone that I know. And so, day in and day out,

252
00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:10.519
two weeks straight, I called twice a day every grocery

253
00:14:10.519 --> 00:14:15.440
store in town, and eventually a guy picked up and goes,

254
00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:20.159
it was a Friday. He goes, yes, bring it to

255
00:14:20.200 --> 00:14:24.720
me today at noon. I'm like, all right, So I

256
00:14:24.759 --> 00:14:27.240
call my mom. I'm like, I need you to make

257
00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:32.759
the greatest batch of salad dressing that has ever been made.

258
00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:36.159
She goes, why, I go, I got a meeting. I'm

259
00:14:36.200 --> 00:14:38.279
going to get us into a grocery store. We're going

260
00:14:38.360 --> 00:14:40.279
to be a thing. She goes, what are you going

261
00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:42.519
to put it in? You're not a company, there's no name,

262
00:14:42.559 --> 00:14:44.480
you don't have a bottle. I go, I don't care.

263
00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:47.720
I'm going to figure it out. So I ended up

264
00:14:47.799 --> 00:14:50.960
walking in with a tupperware container with a red lid,

265
00:14:51.559 --> 00:14:56.919
crunchy romaine lettuce dressing on top. Walk in, this boxer

266
00:14:57.039 --> 00:15:00.799
comes to me. He's my size, He's like six three,

267
00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:04.600
missing half of his teeth. And I'm like, this is

268
00:15:04.679 --> 00:15:08.759
a salad dressing buyer. And he's like, where's the product?

269
00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:10.720
And I just hold up this little container. I'm like,

270
00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:15.879
it's lunchtime. I brought you a salad. So he takes

271
00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:18.960
this piece of wet let uce out of this tupware container,

272
00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:24.120
licks the dressing off, looks at me, and goes that's

273
00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:27.200
the greatest salad dressing I've ever had in my life.

274
00:15:27.320 --> 00:15:31.120
You need to call the regional office. And so went

275
00:15:31.159 --> 00:15:34.559
to the regional meeting. They gave me two hundred pages

276
00:15:34.600 --> 00:15:39.759
of paperwork. I googled my way into becoming a food manufacturer,

277
00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:48.480
and we officially launched actually today May fifth, Yeah, two

278
00:15:48.519 --> 00:15:50.600
thousand and nine. Wow.

279
00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:54.360
All right, hold that thought, perfect time for drink. We're

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gonna come back. We'll take our first break right here.

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Everybody will be back in about one minute with Greg Better.

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You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on

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W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com.

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287
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00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:35.559
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00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:39.519
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And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene

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presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in

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mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again,

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he's Kevin Helene.

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We are back with Greg Vetter. So how did you

300
00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:19.240
start manufacturing? You needed labels, you needed containers, you needed brand,

301
00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:23.880
you needed logosh, we needed everything. Yeah.

302
00:17:23.960 --> 00:17:27.200
I googled a lot of stuff. You know that the

303
00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:30.839
name came from my mom's nickname. So I was trying

304
00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:32.480
to think of good names.

305
00:17:32.480 --> 00:17:34.319
And I hope I pronounced it correctly. I don't know

306
00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:34.720
if I did.

307
00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:37.799
Well. You'll hear the story in a second. You can

308
00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:40.680
and you can know. So initially, I'm thinking the names

309
00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:46.200
are all really stupid. You know, Greg Zone, Lemon Zingers,

310
00:17:46.920 --> 00:17:50.240
you know, three brothers. I'm trying to bring everything. It's

311
00:17:50.279 --> 00:17:55.519
all dumb. And then I say Tessie Mays' like that

312
00:17:55.880 --> 00:18:01.559
sounds real, that sounds official. So my dad's from southern

313
00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:04.559
Ohio and he took my mom to a wedding when

314
00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:09.640
they were dating. Her name's Teresa, and I think Mary

315
00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:14.480
Henry was being married, you know, his cousin. And my

316
00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:16.960
mom walks up and is like, Hi, I'm Teresa, and

317
00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:20.440
my dad's older brother goes not in these parts, you're

318
00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:25.559
not You're Tessie May. And then when email came out,

319
00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:30.000
she was always Tessie May at whatever you know dress was.

320
00:18:30.759 --> 00:18:33.960
So that's how we got the name. There was a

321
00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:36.440
guy I played lacrosse with was a graphic designer and

322
00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:38.559
I can draw, so I kind of sketched out what

323
00:18:38.599 --> 00:18:41.920
I wanted the label to be. He did it. I

324
00:18:42.200 --> 00:18:46.680
ordered these like really expensive eight and a half ounce

325
00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:50.559
rectangular bottles with quarks, thinking it was gonna last me

326
00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:53.799
a really long time, which it did not, which is

327
00:18:54.359 --> 00:18:58.880
another funny story in the book. And really it was

328
00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:05.599
just someone not taking no for an answer until the launch.

329
00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:10.599
So it didn't matter what obstacle came. It didn't matter

330
00:19:10.720 --> 00:19:16.240
what document I didn't understand, it didn't matter. Literally nothing

331
00:19:16.279 --> 00:19:20.720
stood in my way. I was committed that, at a minimum,

332
00:19:20.759 --> 00:19:23.000
I was going to try and launch this thing to

333
00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:28.559
see if a regular guy with no money, no food

334
00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:34.200
manufacturing background, no history of business in the family could

335
00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:38.559
take any product it happened to be a really dumb

336
00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:42.559
one like salad dressing, and could do something with it,

337
00:19:42.920 --> 00:19:46.759
you know, Could I actually live the American dream? Could

338
00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:51.279
anybody do that with a concentrated amount of effort and

339
00:19:51.319 --> 00:19:56.920
focus and desire and an unwavering spirit. And it turned

340
00:19:56.920 --> 00:20:01.839
out that that is possible. It's not it's very painful,

341
00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:08.039
but it works. And so yeah, it was just full

342
00:20:08.119 --> 00:20:09.799
commitment to get it done no matter what.

343
00:20:10.200 --> 00:20:12.400
When did Matt and Brian get involved? Did you ask them?

344
00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:14.279
Did they see it and say we want in or

345
00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:15.039
tell us about that?

346
00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:17.440
I made him help me a little bit in the beginning.

347
00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:21.319
They everybody was kind of looking at me, going, you know,

348
00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:24.200
let us know if this works, you know, and if

349
00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:28.319
it does work, will help. So in the beginning stages,

350
00:20:28.519 --> 00:20:30.599
you know, we were making it at a rib restaurant

351
00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:31.039
at night.

352
00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:32.880
When they closed, right, that was my next question.

353
00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:36.759
Yeah, yeah, so we had to find a certified kitchen

354
00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:41.279
to get our main factoring license. There aren't really a

355
00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:44.920
lot of places to do that. There are now, right,

356
00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:50.240
there's Union Kitchen in DC that's literally built exactly for

357
00:20:50.359 --> 00:20:56.079
this situation. I mean, talk about too little, too late.

358
00:20:56.200 --> 00:20:59.160
I mean I could have used that No nine, he

359
00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:01.519
was I think he was still in college at the time,

360
00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:04.279
the guy that ended up being a founder of that.

361
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.519
But I convinced the owner of Adam's Ribs in Eastport

362
00:21:09.799 --> 00:21:13.240
to let me use his kitchen when they closed, And

363
00:21:13.319 --> 00:21:15.039
initially he didn't want to do it because he didn't

364
00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:20.000
want the health department, the safety whatever, and they're kind

365
00:21:20.039 --> 00:21:23.920
of doing additional audits and stuff. But I offered him

366
00:21:23.960 --> 00:21:27.920
freestyle addressing for life, and I stalked him every day

367
00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.920
until he said yes. So he eventually gave in and

368
00:21:32.039 --> 00:21:34.880
let me do it. So they would close at ten,

369
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:38.400
we'd be in there by ten thirty. We'd lay out

370
00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:42.119
all of these metal bowls we were making it and

371
00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:46.559
literally small batches, pouring it into the bottles, funnels in

372
00:21:46.599 --> 00:21:50.680
the bottles, hand labeling it, hand sealing it, putting it

373
00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:53.559
back in the boxes, loading it up, driving it into

374
00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:58.160
grocery stores every day. And so I did that for about.

375
00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:00.720
A year how many stores? And was the volume like?

376
00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:08.079
So we were actually crushing it for the grand opening.

377
00:22:08.279 --> 00:22:10.039
This is how I knew it was meant to be.

378
00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:13.680
So we set up a demo. The store opened at

379
00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:17.640
like ten am or something, and the buyer told me

380
00:22:17.799 --> 00:22:21.640
to make four cases for the month. He's like, that's

381
00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:24.319
all we'll really need. So I set up a demo.

382
00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:27.759
I'm handing out samples. Four cases are gone in thirty minutes.

383
00:22:28.119 --> 00:22:28.720
Holy cow.

384
00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:30.319
So I go to the guy. I'm like, hey, man,

385
00:22:30.359 --> 00:22:32.119
all that dressing is gone. He's like, there's more in

386
00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:35.559
the back. I'm like, no, it's gone. Because you sold

387
00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:37.839
four cases in thirty minutes. I'm like yeah. He goes,

388
00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:41.359
go get more. I said, I have to make more.

389
00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:45.400
This was for the month, and so that night I

390
00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:48.559
made more, brought back six cases. The next day, sold

391
00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:51.559
him in forty five minutes. Wow. And so for that

392
00:22:51.839 --> 00:22:55.759
week we ended up setting a national sales record, and

393
00:22:55.799 --> 00:22:59.079
we sold six hundred and sixty bottles in five days

394
00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:00.680
of one flavor.

395
00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:01.319
Wow.

396
00:23:01.559 --> 00:23:05.319
And that really showed me. Okay, people love this. If

397
00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:08.039
they try it, they buy it. Let's see what we

398
00:23:08.079 --> 00:23:10.119
can do. I still had a full time job. I

399
00:23:10.200 --> 00:23:13.680
was playing professional acrosse, so I was very very busy.

400
00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:14.240
Married.

401
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:21.480
I was married, no kids yet. And that year we

402
00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:24.200
got into another three stores, so we were in like

403
00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:25.319
four stores total.

404
00:23:26.359 --> 00:23:27.960
Grocery store like Krogers or whatever.

405
00:23:28.279 --> 00:23:29.319
Yeah, we're in Whole Foods.

406
00:23:29.480 --> 00:23:30.759
Yeah, oh yeah, okay, yeah.

407
00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:34.759
We started with Whole Foods and it just got to

408
00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:36.599
the point where I'm like, I don't know, I don't

409
00:23:36.599 --> 00:23:38.519
know if I should actually quit my job. For this,

410
00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:42.599
I don't know. I definitely can't do it alone. I

411
00:23:42.680 --> 00:23:44.599
wonder if my brothers want to help. I wonder if

412
00:23:44.599 --> 00:23:47.839
my wife wants to help. And so I sat down

413
00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:50.200
with my brother Brian and my wife and I said, Hey,

414
00:23:51.400 --> 00:23:55.359
here's what's going on. We either need to fully commit

415
00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:58.960
to this thing and put every dollar into it, quit

416
00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:02.119
our jobs and do it, or we need to shut

417
00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:07.400
it down because whatever this fifty percent in that I'm doing,

418
00:24:07.799 --> 00:24:12.480
it's not working. And so my brother quit his job.

419
00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:15.960
He wasn't really making any money anyway, so we paid

420
00:24:16.039 --> 00:24:20.200
him a whopping five hundred dollars bi weekly. Oh yeah,

421
00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:24.599
and my wife took on all of our procurement, supply

422
00:24:24.799 --> 00:24:29.279
chain planning, and the next thing we know, we got

423
00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:31.519
into all the stores in Maryland, d C in Virginia,

424
00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:36.279
and we were off to the races. So it was once,

425
00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:41.519
once everybody fully committed, we grew aggressively.

426
00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:45.279
What were some of the innovations you talked about no

427
00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:48.119
gum and all. I mean, I think it's all fresh ingredients,

428
00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:51.720
but there was one other I read. What were some

429
00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:52.839
of the things that you innovated?

430
00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:56.640
Well, my mom only gave me one piece of business advice.

431
00:24:57.119 --> 00:25:01.079
And she said, Greg, do you remember Schlitz b And

432
00:25:01.200 --> 00:25:04.680
I said, well, not really, but yeah, I know of Schlitzpeer.

433
00:25:04.680 --> 00:25:08.519
And she goes, everybody used to love Schlitzpeer and then

434
00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:14.599
they change the ingredients and it sucked. Don't do that, yeah,

435
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:18.519
And I go okay. So after that initial success and

436
00:25:18.599 --> 00:25:22.759
everybody's just buying it, I go, well, we can't add gums,

437
00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:27.079
we can't add citric acid, we can't use dehydrated garlic

438
00:25:27.160 --> 00:25:31.079
instead of fresh garlic. How can we keep the formula

439
00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:35.640
exactly the same and figure out how to kind of

440
00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:39.680
re engineer the manufacturing process that they'll have to re

441
00:25:39.720 --> 00:25:43.519
engineer the physical product. And so that's what we did.

442
00:25:43.559 --> 00:25:47.480
We invented clean manufacturing. So we were the first people

443
00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:51.720
to be able to mass produce basically a handmade product,

444
00:25:52.680 --> 00:25:55.400
and we were able to do it to every grocery

445
00:25:55.400 --> 00:25:56.559
store in the United States.

446
00:25:56.640 --> 00:25:57.599
So what did that look like?

447
00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:03.599
Well, initially it looked like one hundred bowls, and then

448
00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:09.799
it moved into a gallon little kind of areas, and

449
00:26:09.799 --> 00:26:13.440
then it was five gallon gatorade containers, and then it

450
00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:18.400
was one hundred gallons stainless steel containers. And so we

451
00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:23.759
were just basically retro fitting little things for each product

452
00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:28.039
so that the product came out perfect. It wasn't any

453
00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:32.759
one thing outside of a complete commitment to not ruin

454
00:26:32.880 --> 00:26:33.519
the product.

455
00:26:33.839 --> 00:26:35.599
Was it still one flavor?

456
00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:42.960
It was one flavor for probably three years, and then

457
00:26:43.039 --> 00:26:46.680
we just started asking our customers, hey, you know, what

458
00:26:46.759 --> 00:26:49.480
else do you want to see? And someone goes, you

459
00:26:49.480 --> 00:26:52.680
should put balsamic in it. We go okay. And someone

460
00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:55.119
said you should put pepper in it. We go okay.

461
00:26:55.880 --> 00:26:57.680
And then somebody said, you know, you should make an

462
00:26:57.720 --> 00:27:02.039
Asian dressing and we go okay, And so that's what

463
00:27:02.119 --> 00:27:06.960
we did. Then for the next probably five years, we

464
00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:12.000
kept coming out with like variations to the core offering.

465
00:27:13.640 --> 00:27:18.200
But then we decided to get into the creamy dressing

466
00:27:18.279 --> 00:27:23.039
game once we bought data and we realized that sixty

467
00:27:23.160 --> 00:27:28.400
eight percent of salad dressing sales were ranch dressing and

468
00:27:28.480 --> 00:27:32.279
we didn't have one, And so we then invented the

469
00:27:32.319 --> 00:27:40.519
first ever dairy free, clean, healthy, whole thirty keto or

470
00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:42.319
again blah blah blah.

471
00:27:42.359 --> 00:27:44.680
I mean right now you can buy everything I've got celiac.

472
00:27:44.759 --> 00:27:47.960
So it's and I was only diagnosed about five years ago,

473
00:27:48.440 --> 00:27:51.079
thank god. But prior to that, it wasn't a lot

474
00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:52.680
of variety. You guys were early on.

475
00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:57.279
Yeah, we were the We were really the first clean

476
00:27:57.559 --> 00:28:01.720
bottled product on the market. So the whole thirty diet

477
00:28:01.880 --> 00:28:05.599
was a thing ever that so we were the first

478
00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:10.279
approved product on the whole thirty diet. And because it

479
00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:13.279
was only you know, five ingredients, six ingredients, so everything

480
00:28:13.319 --> 00:28:17.160
was gluten free, everything was sugar free, everything was vegan

481
00:28:17.240 --> 00:28:19.640
until we came up with the Rams dressing. Everything was

482
00:28:20.359 --> 00:28:23.519
everything was any food tribe.

483
00:28:23.400 --> 00:28:25.839
Whatever they needed because it was simple.

484
00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:28.759
We were it because it was so simple, so we

485
00:28:28.839 --> 00:28:33.759
got to participate in every trend, which then made us

486
00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:38.240
really the leader of the clean eating Wow. Yeah all right.

487
00:28:38.279 --> 00:28:41.799
So then, so talk about how you got into Sam's Club.

488
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:46.079
I mean that's that's when growth must have just been crazy, right.

489
00:28:46.440 --> 00:28:50.519
Yeah, I mean getting into Sam's Club was gigantic. Getting

490
00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:56.519
into Kroger nationally was gigantic, Getting into Walmart nationally it

491
00:28:56.640 --> 00:29:01.359
was gigantic. Sam's Club was giant because we were just

492
00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:04.880
trying to sell them Caesar dressing and they go, well,

493
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:07.519
we're not going to put great dressing on a crappy salad,

494
00:29:08.160 --> 00:29:10.440
so why don't you make the entire salad.

495
00:29:10.920 --> 00:29:13.960
All right, this is the Aultar Fresh Foods.

496
00:29:14.119 --> 00:29:14.319
Yeah.

497
00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:22.519
Yeah, And so we created this master kitting process so

498
00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:26.480
that we could ship them everything that they needed to

499
00:29:26.720 --> 00:29:30.680
make chicken caesar salads or whatever. We ended up making

500
00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:34.039
multiple different salads with no food.

501
00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:36.079
Waste, minus the protein or was the protein.

502
00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:40.039
Everything was in there. So an employee at one of

503
00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:43.599
these stores would get a box it would make twelve salads.

504
00:29:43.960 --> 00:29:47.880
There was an instruction on how to make everyone containers

505
00:29:47.960 --> 00:29:51.000
to put it in. It was direct from We're in

506
00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:53.880
the Salinas Valley in California. So the shelf life was great,

507
00:29:54.440 --> 00:29:57.039
and then they tasted amazing because we were making the

508
00:29:57.160 --> 00:30:00.880
dressing and putting packets of the dressing in there. And

509
00:30:00.960 --> 00:30:04.160
so if you went into, you know, a Sam's Club

510
00:30:04.279 --> 00:30:07.200
and bought a chicken caesar salad for a family of four,

511
00:30:07.960 --> 00:30:11.880
you were literally having the best chicken caesar salad you've

512
00:30:11.960 --> 00:30:15.720
ever had. And so it really kind of opened our

513
00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:20.079
eyes to the applications of what we were capable of

514
00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:24.400
from a dressing perspective. So we started then getting into

515
00:30:24.559 --> 00:30:30.079
other things that aligned with clean food for everybody. That

516
00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:33.079
was kind of our concept. That's why we kept our

517
00:30:33.160 --> 00:30:36.319
price point where we did. We wanted it to be

518
00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:38.079
accessible to everybody.

519
00:30:39.200 --> 00:30:41.400
We're going to take our second commercial. I just noticed

520
00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:44.480
the time. Everybody will be back in another minute with

521
00:30:44.559 --> 00:30:45.079
Greg Better.

522
00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:53.079
You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on

523
00:30:53.359 --> 00:30:57.480
W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com.

524
00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:00.000
Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up

525
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right here on Winning Business Radio.

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537
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And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin helenan

538
00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:45.839
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in

539
00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:49.440
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again

540
00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:50.559
is Kevin.

541
00:31:50.319 --> 00:32:02.200
Helena we're back with Greg Vetter in a disruptor, author

542
00:32:02.480 --> 00:32:05.000
of Undressed. We'll get to that shortly. But now you're

543
00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:09.160
at scale, or you're really at scale before relative to before,

544
00:32:09.440 --> 00:32:13.359
more employees, bigger process investors.

545
00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:19.480
Yep, lots of friends and family, lots of friends of friends.

546
00:32:20.839 --> 00:32:25.200
Never really got into kind of the venture world or

547
00:32:25.200 --> 00:32:27.759
the equity world. We did have some high net worth

548
00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:33.440
individuals that had home offices, but yeah, lots lots of

549
00:32:34.440 --> 00:32:39.799
small checks, some big, but a lot along the along

550
00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:44.920
the way. Because again this was before organic was a thing.

551
00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:49.319
We're talking to buyers in your product was organic. They're like,

552
00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:53.119
it's a fad, and you're like, I don't think it

553
00:32:53.240 --> 00:32:56.400
is a fat you know, clean eating. They're like it's

554
00:32:56.400 --> 00:33:00.960
a fad. I'm like, it tastes better. Don't even worry

555
00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:05.920
about organic or cleaning or whatever. It just tastes better.

556
00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:09.160
People like food that taste good. No one's going to

557
00:33:09.240 --> 00:33:13.720
select something that tastes worse. It's not a thing.

558
00:33:14.839 --> 00:33:17.799
It is the refrigerated category, by the way, right, Well, it.

559
00:33:17.759 --> 00:33:20.039
Was kind of everywhere at the time, but yeah, I

560
00:33:20.079 --> 00:33:25.240
mean salad dressing specifically, and so we really were just

561
00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:31.160
kind of trailblazing the situation, and uh yeah, lots lots

562
00:33:31.160 --> 00:33:32.960
of investors. We ended up I think at the end

563
00:33:33.039 --> 00:33:34.160
having fifty three.

564
00:33:34.680 --> 00:33:38.160
Wow at your height. How big were you in terms

565
00:33:38.200 --> 00:33:39.920
of sales and staff?

566
00:33:41.160 --> 00:33:46.599
We were doing seventy million and we had a hundred,

567
00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:51.480
probably between one point fifty and two hundred in terms

568
00:33:51.559 --> 00:33:56.319
of manufacturing workers, salespeople, back office stuff.

569
00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:00.000
And this is a next I think this question is

570
00:34:00.039 --> 00:34:03.319
somewhat humorous your rocking and roll in national awards. When

571
00:34:03.319 --> 00:34:05.200
did it get difficult? I'm sure it was difficult at

572
00:34:05.200 --> 00:34:09.440
many stages along the way, But when did it become problematic?

573
00:34:09.840 --> 00:34:12.159
When did things become problematic? What did that look like?

574
00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:17.519
It really came down. So we navigated COVID really well.

575
00:34:19.039 --> 00:34:21.519
We had our own manufacturing plants, and we took care

576
00:34:21.559 --> 00:34:23.559
of our people and they loved working for us, so

577
00:34:23.559 --> 00:34:29.679
it was all good. The supply chain crisis really started

578
00:34:29.719 --> 00:34:33.800
making everybody squirrely. We had just kind of made it

579
00:34:33.840 --> 00:34:38.760
through COVID. Everybody's investments are wacky and some are going

580
00:34:38.800 --> 00:34:41.880
down in a fiery blaze, and we're still plowing through

581
00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:45.159
and things are going great, and then the supply chain

582
00:34:45.239 --> 00:34:50.960
crisis happened, and that's really when everybody just started, you know,

583
00:34:51.519 --> 00:34:54.599
giving their two cents of where we should be going,

584
00:34:54.800 --> 00:34:59.920
what we should be doing. Investors had differences of opinions

585
00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:02.599
to each other, so there started to be a lot

586
00:35:02.599 --> 00:35:06.519
of infighting. They're starting to private but you have a board, Yeah,

587
00:35:06.519 --> 00:35:09.840
we have a board. Yeah. Yeah, So we're navigating that

588
00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:15.159
whole process. People start suing us, you know, to try

589
00:35:15.199 --> 00:35:20.400
and gain control or change board seats, and the next thing,

590
00:35:20.400 --> 00:35:23.199
you know, you know, we had to hire a professional

591
00:35:23.239 --> 00:35:27.400
negotiator to try and results stuff. And we came to

592
00:35:27.400 --> 00:35:31.199
the conclusion like, hey, let's sell it. And I didn't

593
00:35:31.199 --> 00:35:35.159
think the timing was great because of the supply chain

594
00:35:35.239 --> 00:35:37.920
crisis and you just didn't know what was really happening.

595
00:35:39.440 --> 00:35:41.880
But then we hired an investment bank and they valued

596
00:35:41.880 --> 00:35:45.199
the business at between three hundred and five hundred million dollars,

597
00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:50.079
and so everybody really started they go, Okay, this is

598
00:35:50.119 --> 00:35:52.159
how much I own. If it sells for three hundred

599
00:35:52.159 --> 00:35:54.280
this is how much show going to make. And then

600
00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:58.719
the sales process did not go well. So when that

601
00:35:58.960 --> 00:36:04.639
didn't go well, all hell broke loose and everybody just

602
00:36:04.840 --> 00:36:08.079
was basically positioning themselves to take over the entire thing

603
00:36:09.159 --> 00:36:12.400
and then the next thing, you know, we're spending three

604
00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:15.639
hundred and fifty thousand dollars a month on four different

605
00:36:15.679 --> 00:36:19.840
lawsuits and we're just fighting the good fight, and we

606
00:36:19.880 --> 00:36:23.039
had to restructure. And then the restructuring process didn't go

607
00:36:23.119 --> 00:36:25.400
well at all because a couple people in it were

608
00:36:25.519 --> 00:36:30.440
experts and kind of ruined that process as well. And

609
00:36:30.480 --> 00:36:34.719
the next thing, you know, this one just freaking rocket

610
00:36:34.800 --> 00:36:41.960
chip is just nose down on fire. And I'm sitting

611
00:36:41.960 --> 00:36:45.559
there in a conference room handing over this business to

612
00:36:45.639 --> 00:36:49.079
a private equity group for four and a half million dollars,

613
00:36:50.320 --> 00:36:56.719
thinking to myself, how did I get here? What is

614
00:36:56.760 --> 00:36:57.760
going on here?

615
00:36:58.960 --> 00:37:01.000
You probably didn't answer it that moment, but what did

616
00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:01.599
you figure out?

617
00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:03.159
Well?

618
00:37:03.199 --> 00:37:07.679
I wrote a whole book on it, available on Amazon.

619
00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:11.079
Yeah, yep, and I read the audio book hold On.

620
00:37:11.119 --> 00:37:14.440
The full title is Undressed, The Unfiltered Story of My

621
00:37:14.519 --> 00:37:17.119
failed American Dream and how it led to success. All right,

622
00:37:17.159 --> 00:37:17.519
go ahead.

623
00:37:18.880 --> 00:37:22.280
What I reflected on was we did a lot right.

624
00:37:23.199 --> 00:37:26.079
It sounds like it, but we also did a lot wrong.

625
00:37:26.960 --> 00:37:31.599
And you can really boil it down to trusting the

626
00:37:31.639 --> 00:37:36.719
wrong people and not trusting your gun. And so I

627
00:37:36.760 --> 00:37:40.559
can go back to all of these critical points, these

628
00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:44.480
forks in the road, and I had an opinion of

629
00:37:44.519 --> 00:37:47.880
which way we should go. The board had a difference

630
00:37:48.280 --> 00:37:50.760
of an opinion, or an investor had a difference of

631
00:37:50.760 --> 00:37:55.239
an opinion. And you know, I thought kind of as

632
00:37:55.320 --> 00:38:00.199
hard as I thought was reasonable. But in retrospects go

633
00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:03.880
back and it's like, well, that was the moment. That

634
00:38:04.039 --> 00:38:07.079
was the moment we let them into deep. That was

635
00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:11.920
the moment we allowed that negotiating point to go their way,

636
00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:16.239
thinking that they would be reasonable and you know, give

637
00:38:16.320 --> 00:38:21.559
us something in return. And in reality, I learned a

638
00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:24.760
lot about human behavior that I don't know if I

639
00:38:24.840 --> 00:38:27.800
wanted to learn, but I know a lot about now.

640
00:38:29.039 --> 00:38:34.320
And it's interesting to really kind of see what people

641
00:38:34.320 --> 00:38:38.519
are willing to do for greed and ego. I always

642
00:38:38.599 --> 00:38:42.119
kind of had this, you know, you see movies and

643
00:38:42.159 --> 00:38:43.599
you're like, nobody's.

644
00:38:43.159 --> 00:38:45.079
Really that bad, greed is good.

645
00:38:45.559 --> 00:38:50.079
Yeah, Well it's like yeah, yeah, And it turns out,

646
00:38:50.280 --> 00:38:53.159
you know, people are willing to do anything.

647
00:38:53.960 --> 00:38:56.039
Which and these are people you had, you had some

648
00:38:56.320 --> 00:38:58.639
relationship with, whether it was first agree or second degree

649
00:38:58.719 --> 00:39:01.920
or maybe third agree, but people that you knew pretty well.

650
00:39:01.800 --> 00:39:04.840
Yeah, that knew my family and I'm into their Christmas

651
00:39:04.840 --> 00:39:10.000
parties and you know, had a boatload of conversations with

652
00:39:10.239 --> 00:39:14.360
and it was that that was bizarre, you know, because

653
00:39:14.400 --> 00:39:18.079
they knew the impact not only to me but to everybody,

654
00:39:18.880 --> 00:39:22.599
and they just didn't care. And I think that part

655
00:39:22.960 --> 00:39:27.920
was after it all happened, you look back and you go, wow,

656
00:39:29.119 --> 00:39:35.000
that's that's something. And so that's why my beard is gray.

657
00:39:36.039 --> 00:39:38.079
Just for the audience we shared. We shared a little

658
00:39:38.159 --> 00:39:41.599
moment before a moment. Yeah, we chatted briefly before we

659
00:39:41.679 --> 00:39:44.719
came on air. So it must feel good to know

660
00:39:44.760 --> 00:39:48.679
that those products are still out in some way.

661
00:39:48.880 --> 00:39:53.119
Right, It's it's nice to know we don't make it anymore, right,

662
00:39:54.000 --> 00:39:56.000
So I don't know how the quality is. I don't

663
00:39:56.039 --> 00:40:01.800
buy it anymore, but it is cool, especially now during

664
00:40:01.840 --> 00:40:06.400
this like massive you know, make America Health again and

665
00:40:06.400 --> 00:40:09.960
they're dominating dies and they're talking about thickening agents for

666
00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.440
the first time, and they're talking about natural flavors and

667
00:40:14.440 --> 00:40:18.880
and I'm like, yeah, we were, we were doing that

668
00:40:19.280 --> 00:40:22.840
and uh, you know a little too early, I guess

669
00:40:22.840 --> 00:40:23.679
for that stuff.

670
00:40:23.760 --> 00:40:26.519
But maybe you could consult with RFK who knows RK Junior,

671
00:40:26.519 --> 00:40:29.920
excuse me, all right? So then you decide. All right, First,

672
00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:32.639
before we get to the book, I wanted to how

673
00:40:32.639 --> 00:40:36.119
long did it take you emotionally, physically even to land

674
00:40:36.639 --> 00:40:37.000
after that?

675
00:40:38.239 --> 00:40:42.920
You know, I didn't really I didn't dwell on it

676
00:40:42.960 --> 00:40:48.119
too too long. I remember watching an interview of Ross

677
00:40:48.119 --> 00:40:52.880
Perrot talk about Steve Jobs when he got fired from

678
00:40:53.000 --> 00:40:59.159
Apple and why he invested in Steve Jobs' next business,

679
00:40:59.199 --> 00:41:02.679
and he was talking about how here's a guy that

680
00:41:02.840 --> 00:41:05.480
was the most famous, wealthy young guy in the country

681
00:41:06.119 --> 00:41:10.000
was just embarrassed beyond belief and did not go into

682
00:41:10.039 --> 00:41:12.360
his basement and cry about it. For three months, he

683
00:41:12.440 --> 00:41:14.360
picked up the phone and he called me for an

684
00:41:14.360 --> 00:41:18.239
investment for his next business. And I thought about that,

685
00:41:18.599 --> 00:41:23.719
and I go, okay, yeah, like, there's no time to

686
00:41:23.840 --> 00:41:27.280
sit there and cry about it. I've got four kids,

687
00:41:27.480 --> 00:41:30.800
I'm coaching their sports, i have a wife, I have

688
00:41:31.480 --> 00:41:34.119
you know, other things that need to be done right now.

689
00:41:34.159 --> 00:41:37.280
And so I really didn't sit there and dwell on it.

690
00:41:37.639 --> 00:41:44.039
I think complete forgiveness though that came a little later.

691
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:47.719
That took me a while. I really had to work

692
00:41:47.840 --> 00:41:48.360
through that.

693
00:41:48.840 --> 00:41:50.360
So I have a similar story. I'm not going to

694
00:41:50.360 --> 00:41:52.719
get into it because this is your show. But I

695
00:41:52.760 --> 00:41:55.320
have a much smaller scale. But I had a bankruptcy

696
00:41:55.320 --> 00:41:56.599
and I didn't even want to go into that town

697
00:41:56.920 --> 00:41:59.840
where the business was just because I took me along

698
00:41:59.880 --> 00:42:02.559
time time to get over that. But yeah, I can

699
00:42:02.599 --> 00:42:04.519
hear what you're saying. So you get to the book

700
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:08.119
you decided to write, the book, tell us about it

701
00:42:08.400 --> 00:42:10.760
and sort of the lessons you learned and that you

702
00:42:10.800 --> 00:42:11.320
want to share.

703
00:42:12.519 --> 00:42:14.280
Well, I wasn't even going to write a book, so

704
00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:17.920
I hired a performance coach to help me think through

705
00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:20.559
where I should be spending my time. I actually was

706
00:42:20.599 --> 00:42:23.079
getting a lot of opportunities. People were coming to me

707
00:42:23.119 --> 00:42:25.039
saying like, hey, I know it didn't work out, but

708
00:42:25.119 --> 00:42:29.119
I mean, you grew this thing to a giant, wonderful

709
00:42:29.360 --> 00:42:34.920
entity and we want some help. And so this guy's

710
00:42:34.960 --> 00:42:38.559
super high level. You know, his clients are pro athletes,

711
00:42:38.679 --> 00:42:42.840
edge fund managers. Bon Jovi is one of them, and

712
00:42:43.400 --> 00:42:45.400
some telling them the stories and he goes, are these

713
00:42:45.400 --> 00:42:49.519
stories real? I'm like, yeah, He's like, you need to

714
00:42:49.519 --> 00:42:52.679
write a book, Like why would I want to write

715
00:42:52.679 --> 00:42:58.239
a book about my greatest failure? Yeah? And he goes,

716
00:42:58.320 --> 00:43:03.360
because your outlook is unlike anything that I've seen, Like

717
00:43:03.400 --> 00:43:07.280
you're still positive, you're still healthy, your kids still love you, your

718
00:43:07.199 --> 00:43:10.480
wife still loves you. Like you have some insights through

719
00:43:10.559 --> 00:43:15.079
this pain that I think other people would really appreciate.

720
00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:19.519
And if you write it while the wounds are fresh,

721
00:43:19.599 --> 00:43:23.480
I think it will be more impactful for people because

722
00:43:23.519 --> 00:43:26.920
nobody's out there doing that. Everybody either writes their story

723
00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:29.320
when they're at the end of their career and they

724
00:43:29.400 --> 00:43:34.440
romanticize the pain, or they haven't lived through anything like

725
00:43:34.519 --> 00:43:36.920
this and they just are just basically telling you, you know,

726
00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:39.800
buy my program, or do this or do that. And

727
00:43:41.360 --> 00:43:44.400
so I still wasn't convinced I should write a book,

728
00:43:44.960 --> 00:43:49.159
but I just started randomly putting words down on paper,

729
00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:53.719
really for my kid's sake, And next thing I know,

730
00:43:53.760 --> 00:43:56.800
I had three hundred and fifty pages written, and here we.

731
00:43:56.760 --> 00:43:59.239
Are a lot to take.

732
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:02.800
It took me about a year to write it, it

733
00:44:02.840 --> 00:44:08.639
took about a year to edit and publish it self published.

734
00:44:09.199 --> 00:44:11.880
Yeah, so I was the homegrown.

735
00:44:12.159 --> 00:44:15.199
Yeah so I got a bunch of I was looking

736
00:44:15.239 --> 00:44:19.360
at the hybrid publishing route just for the ownership, kind

737
00:44:19.360 --> 00:44:23.159
of an increased ownership and intellectual property. And then I

738
00:44:23.199 --> 00:44:26.079
realized that the publishing process is very similar to just

739
00:44:26.159 --> 00:44:29.920
launching a product, and I wanted to own all of

740
00:44:29.960 --> 00:44:34.400
the intellectual property for it, and so I just went

741
00:44:34.440 --> 00:44:36.760
through the publishing process and it was really interesting, and

742
00:44:36.800 --> 00:44:40.280
I found a great custom book publishing group where everything

743
00:44:40.360 --> 00:44:45.760
was basically a la carte and I project managed it

744
00:44:45.800 --> 00:44:52.039
myself and it turned out great. An editor, multiple editors,

745
00:44:52.079 --> 00:44:54.960
so I had an editor kind of for the actual

746
00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:58.800
creation of the book. Then I had a grammatical editor

747
00:44:59.119 --> 00:45:02.559
and that whole workflow, and then I had a legal

748
00:45:03.440 --> 00:45:06.280
editor to make sure I wasn't yale ye.

749
00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:11.960
So yeah, and obviously a professional photographer, because I'm guessing

750
00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:14.639
you didn't stand behind that little box or whatever that

751
00:45:14.840 --> 00:45:15.480
you're holding there.

752
00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:17.039
No, I actually did.

753
00:45:18.599 --> 00:45:20.400
All right, that's good. I love it even more than

754
00:45:20.599 --> 00:45:22.159
than Yeah.

755
00:45:22.199 --> 00:45:28.119
So my creative director modeler, uh, he took the picture

756
00:45:28.480 --> 00:45:33.960
and we actually broke all of those bottles in my barn. Wow,

757
00:45:35.800 --> 00:45:40.039
I didn't stand, you know, in a sock on the

758
00:45:40.079 --> 00:45:41.639
physical broken glass.

759
00:45:41.840 --> 00:45:47.840
Yeah, but yeah, no, we uh cool, very creative. All right,

760
00:45:47.880 --> 00:45:50.360
it's available on Amazon. I'm going to give the title

761
00:45:50.360 --> 00:45:52.199
more time than I got. A couple other questions here

762
00:45:53.039 --> 00:45:56.000
undressed The unfiltered story of my failed American dream and

763
00:45:56.039 --> 00:45:59.280
how it led to success. What success are we talking

764
00:45:59.320 --> 00:45:59.800
about now?

765
00:46:00.800 --> 00:46:04.920
So I took all the principles and everything that I learned,

766
00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:08.440
and I wanted to see if it was right. I

767
00:46:08.480 --> 00:46:10.639
wanted to see that principles would work. I didn't want

768
00:46:10.639 --> 00:46:15.239
to just be talking about stuff that couldn't translate. And

769
00:46:15.320 --> 00:46:19.679
so we applied them to the fresh food business and

770
00:46:19.719 --> 00:46:25.559
grew that exponentially. We applied it to one of the

771
00:46:25.599 --> 00:46:30.000
companies from our brand Accelerator, which is a portable toilet business,

772
00:46:31.480 --> 00:46:35.920
and so that's been growing exponentially, and we're launching a

773
00:46:35.960 --> 00:46:39.280
line of consumer packaged goods with it, so wipes and

774
00:46:39.320 --> 00:46:42.800
other things like that. We've we've done it with a

775
00:46:42.920 --> 00:46:48.000
vodka business with and then we're also doing a bunch

776
00:46:48.039 --> 00:46:54.559
of joint venture work with people that have developed companies

777
00:46:54.679 --> 00:46:58.800
or products and they just can't get it done and

778
00:46:58.840 --> 00:47:01.880
they want us to come in and basically just grow

779
00:47:01.960 --> 00:47:05.280
the whole thing. And so there's three or four of

780
00:47:05.320 --> 00:47:11.440
those and it all works, you know. So I think

781
00:47:11.480 --> 00:47:15.159
the part of the success that's so interesting, and I

782
00:47:15.159 --> 00:47:18.639
don't actually really like to use the word success, but

783
00:47:19.679 --> 00:47:27.559
everything that I ever wanted happened after I failed. And

784
00:47:27.719 --> 00:47:31.000
Joseph Campbell has this beautiful quote, the cave you fear

785
00:47:31.079 --> 00:47:36.599
to enter holds the treasure you seek. My cave was failure.

786
00:47:37.239 --> 00:47:39.639
I saw that, and it was a question I skipped earlier,

787
00:47:39.719 --> 00:47:43.360
fear of failure. Yeah, is the well, so many lessons there,

788
00:47:43.400 --> 00:47:43.880
but go ahead.

789
00:47:44.519 --> 00:47:49.360
Yeah, And that's what fueled me. That's why I worked

790
00:47:49.360 --> 00:47:53.559
so hard, Like, yeah, everybody is ambitious, everybody has goals.

791
00:47:54.480 --> 00:47:57.440
Mine was a mixture of Yes, I want to be successful,

792
00:47:57.440 --> 00:48:01.599
but I think I'm more scared of being a complete failure.

793
00:48:02.760 --> 00:48:08.719
And so it was interesting because in being pushed to

794
00:48:08.840 --> 00:48:15.280
the actual limit, you understand what you're capable of. Right,

795
00:48:15.559 --> 00:48:20.239
anybody can win, but I want to see how you lose.

796
00:48:21.800 --> 00:48:24.079
Mindset. So we teach, again, not trying to make this

797
00:48:24.119 --> 00:48:28.039
about me, but we teach in our sales consulting behavior

798
00:48:28.079 --> 00:48:31.159
attitude and technique. Behaviors make the dolls. Technique is way

799
00:48:31.159 --> 00:48:34.280
should sound like. Attitude is our belief system. Confidence. That's

800
00:48:34.280 --> 00:48:37.119
probably seventy to eighty percent. Yep, Yeah, I'm with you.

801
00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:41.400
Yeah, I mean it's all in between the ears. And

802
00:48:41.639 --> 00:48:45.199
I coach kids sports and I've done it since I

803
00:48:45.280 --> 00:48:49.599
was twenty three years old, before I had kids, and

804
00:48:49.719 --> 00:48:53.840
all those guys ended up being unbelievably successful and stay

805
00:48:53.920 --> 00:48:56.079
in touch with me to this day, which is really cool.

806
00:48:56.679 --> 00:49:01.480
But what you see is talent skill. Yeah, it's important

807
00:49:01.519 --> 00:49:07.360
to a degree. The greats work this muscle out right here.

808
00:49:07.639 --> 00:49:11.480
They are working the brain. It is the mental discipline,

809
00:49:11.960 --> 00:49:16.400
it is the focus. It is the ability to metabolize

810
00:49:16.440 --> 00:49:21.760
pain and turn it into fuel. Learn from your failures,

811
00:49:22.320 --> 00:49:25.960
don't make the same mistake twice, and keep moving forward

812
00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:27.079
against all odds.

813
00:49:27.199 --> 00:49:29.400
That is awesome. That is awesome. We have to end

814
00:49:29.440 --> 00:49:32.400
right here. Who in the listening and viewing audiences should

815
00:49:32.400 --> 00:49:36.159
reach out and that's Gregoryvetter dot com. Who should reach out?

816
00:49:36.199 --> 00:49:40.039
And why anybody that has a dream that they want

817
00:49:40.039 --> 00:49:43.079
to follow, because my story is about business, but it

818
00:49:43.159 --> 00:49:45.000
was really about following a dream.

819
00:49:45.239 --> 00:49:47.719
Yeah, And the easiest way to reach out is the

820
00:49:47.719 --> 00:49:50.519
website Gregory vettor Gregoryvetter.

821
00:49:49.840 --> 00:49:54.239
Dot com, or on social media. I'm on Instagram, I'm

822
00:49:54.280 --> 00:49:57.519
on TikTok, I'm on LinkedIn. I have a social media

823
00:49:57.559 --> 00:50:00.559
team that checks everything. So if you send an I

824
00:50:00.679 --> 00:50:01.880
literally get it and.

825
00:50:01.840 --> 00:50:05.159
I'll respond fantastic. I'm sorry we went short. We didn't

826
00:50:05.199 --> 00:50:07.239
go short. It just was a good really good conversation.

827
00:50:08.079 --> 00:50:10.400
Thank you for your time and we appreciate you being here.

828
00:50:10.559 --> 00:50:11.519
Thank you very much.

829
00:50:11.760 --> 00:50:14.480
Great, my pleasure, my pleasure, and thanks everybody for listening

830
00:50:14.559 --> 00:50:17.440
and watching. Once again, this is a show about business

831
00:50:17.480 --> 00:50:20.880
and business challenges successes too. If you've got concerns about

832
00:50:20.920 --> 00:50:23.840
the sales effectiveness or company of your company, whether your

833
00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:26.280
sales team is you or small or it's large, feel

834
00:50:26.320 --> 00:50:28.199
free to reach out to me or you can drop

835
00:50:28.199 --> 00:50:32.199
me a note Kevinatwinning Business Radio dot com. Our company

836
00:50:32.239 --> 00:50:35.079
is Winning Incorporated. We're part of Sandler Training. We developed

837
00:50:35.159 --> 00:50:38.639
sales teams at the high achievers and sales leaders into

838
00:50:38.679 --> 00:50:41.639
true coaches and mentors. We're not right for everybody, but hey,

839
00:50:41.679 --> 00:50:44.679
maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you as always

840
00:50:44.679 --> 00:50:46.880
the producer and engineer one, Thank you one for another

841
00:50:46.960 --> 00:50:49.400
job well done. Be sure to join us next week

842
00:50:49.519 --> 00:50:52.519
Monday May twelfth. My guests will be entrepreneur and rising

843
00:50:52.599 --> 00:50:57.639
star architect Matthew Arnold, founder of the boutique architectural practice Arnold.

844
00:50:57.800 --> 00:51:02.360
And until then, this is Kevin Hallan. In you have

845
00:51:02.440 --> 00:51:05.800
been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host Kevin Helenan.

846
00:51:06.239 --> 00:51:08.960
If you missed any part of this episode. The podcast

847
00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:13.320
is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio. For more

848
00:51:13.360 --> 00:51:17.480
information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com

849
00:51:17.599 --> 00:51:20.159
or check us out on social media. Tune in again

850
00:51:20.159 --> 00:51:22.480
next week and every Monday at four pm Eastern Time

851
00:51:22.639 --> 00:51:26.280
to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W four

852
00:51:26.360 --> 00:51:30.519
CY Radio w four cy dot com. Until then, let's

853
00:51:30.559 --> 00:51:34.280
succeed where others have failed and win in business with

854
00:51:34.400 --> 00:51:38.000
Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio