#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards
Are you feeling stuck in life, wanting to grow, improve your income, or build a stronger community? Join performance coach Jordan Edwards as he interviews world-class achievers—including the Founder of Reebok and the Co-Founder of Priceline—who share their success stories and actionable strategies. Each episode provides practical tips on how to boost your personal and professional growth, helping you implement changes that can make a real difference in your life.
This podcast is designed for anyone looking to make progress—whether you're aiming to improve your mindset, relationships, health, or income. Jordan distills the wisdom of top performers into easy-to-follow steps you can take immediately. Whether you're stuck in your career or personal life, you’ll find new ways to get unstuck and start moving forward with confidence.
How to get unstuck? It’s a question many face, and in each episode, you’ll hear stories of how successful individuals broke through barriers, found purpose, and created systems to overcome obstacles. From building resilience to developing a success mindset, you'll gain insights into how high achievers continue to evolve and grow.
Looking to improve your income? This podcast also dives into financial strategies, offering advice from entrepreneurs and business leaders who have built wealth, created multiple revenue streams, and mastered the art of financial growth. Learn how to increase your income, find opportunities for advancement, and create value in both your personal and professional life.
Jordan also emphasizes the importance of building community. You'll learn how to expand your network, foster meaningful connections, and create supportive environments that contribute to personal and professional success. From philanthropists to community leaders, guests share their experiences in building impactful, values-driven communities.
At the core of the podcast are the 5 Pillars of Edwards Consulting—Mental Health, Physical Health, Community Service/Philanthropy, Relationships, and Spirituality. Each episode integrates these elements, ensuring a holistic approach to self-improvement. Whether it's enhancing your mental and physical well-being, giving back to your community, or strengthening your relationships, you'll receive actionable advice that’s grounded in real-world success.
This podcast is for everyone—whether you're an entrepreneur, a professional looking to advance, or simply someone seeking personal growth. You’ll gain actionable steps from every conversation, whether it’s about increasing your productivity, improving your health, or finding more purpose in your life.
Jordan’s interviews are designed to be perspective-shifting, giving you the tools and inspiration to transform your life. From overcoming obstacles to building stronger habits, these episodes are packed with practical insights you can use today. Whether you're looking to grow in your career, improve your income, or enhance your personal life, you’ll find value in every conversation.
Join Jordan Edwards and a lineup of incredible guests for thought-provoking conversations that will inspire you to take action, improve your performance, and unlock your full potential. No matter where you are on your journey, this podcast will help you get unstuck, grow, and build a life filled with purpose and success.
#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards
#212 - Josh Goodman's Path to Leadership and Growth
Josh Goodman, the dynamic CEO of Pour My Beer, joins us to share his remarkable journey from a middle school student grappling with self-doubt to a visionary business leader. Listen as Josh opens up about the pivotal moments that fueled his drive to set ambitious goals, such as transforming from a no-name JV football player to a varsity starter. He candidly discusses how the internal motivation sparked during his youth laid the foundation not only for his sports achievements but also for his future entrepreneurial success.
Explore the world of sports and personal growth with Josh as he reflects on how wrestling, despite its unexpected challenges, honed his work ethic and competitive spirit. This chapter uncovers the courage required to step outside comfort zones and embrace new experiences, all while touching on the surprising lessons learned from selling Cutco Knives. These stories illustrate the transformative power of facing fears head-on and the valuable insights gained from pushing beyond familiar territories.
As we navigate Josh's transition from athlete to entrepreneur, you'll hear about the strategic shifts that led to the creation and expansion of Pour My Beer. From overcoming early business adversities to forging partnerships with major hotel chains, Josh's story is a testament to resilience and innovation. Join us to discover how he turned obstacles into opportunities, building a successful company that has made a splash in the hospitality industry.
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Hey, what's going on, guys? I've got a special guest today. Here we have the CEO and founder of Pour my Beer. He's also the bestselling author of Tap the Big Idea, josh Goodman. Josh, we're so excited to have you here today and for you in your story. You have so much resilience. Where did that come from for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say it was an acquired skill that I acquired through middle school. You know, a lot of people that kind of look at me today or even knew me in college wouldn't recognize who I was in middle school. You know, going through, I would say, the tough middle school years, gaining a little bit of a few extra pounds I mean again, just not to date myself, but in the 80s it was late 80s, early 90s it was, you know, a lot of cereal, a lot of video games and not as active as I probably could have been or should have been at that age, and that resulted in being a little my mom would say, big boned or husky. And yeah, so the middle school years were tough. But you know, looking back, that's, that's what kind of started the process of me becoming more resilient, you know, and going through some adversity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny because we always try to, we always label ourselves in different ways to make people feel better. Like you just said, there, he's big boned, he's husky, he doesn't. It's not a big deal, but people do that all the time with things and try to make it okay. But then there's a point where you as an individual are like I'm not okay with this, like I want to improve. So what? What caused you to kind of flip that switch and want to continue that progression?
Speaker 2:I'd say it was my freshman year. So you know, for me, just kind of from a size perspective, I was about 5'10", you know, 180 pounds as a freshman in high school and I'd played sports my whole life and I'd done pretty well at them. But then my freshman year I had to watch everyone else play a sport. So I was on the sidelines for football and on the sidelines watching them play and watching them enjoy it. And that flipped a switch to me where I decided kind of I didn't externally mention this to anybody, but I said I'm going to go from being a no-name person on the JV to starting on the varsity my sophomore year. Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:It was a crazy goal, especially at our high school. I grew up in Chester, virginia, so it's kind of a suburb of a suburb of Richmond and you know that the school I went to, thomas Dale, that you know they had we had several NFL athletes, like it was, you know, kind of Texas style high school football but every you know small community, everyone went to the games. I mean the rival game would have 10,000 people there. So me saying a statement like that was insane. You know to be literally third string linebacker on JV and say I'm going to start on varsity next year and but you know, similar to what they say, you put things out in the universe and and you know they happen and it did. So that I was kind of like I would say that the switch got flipped that freshman year in high school.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. And it's that now I imagine that you probably are a little more open with sharing the goals and aspirations, as you have a company. But when you really do start, like you ha, it has to, the idea has to be born with inside of you, because it can't be just someone wants it for you. You have to start wanting this inside of yourself and you want this drive. And we're just talking sports now, but we're going to start diving into business and other things, but for you, where has this? Have you seen this throughout your entire life? Where it's? I set the example and I went for it Like action, like I set the plan and then I take action.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, that's something that I'm a big believer in. Like even even back then I didn't have chat, gpt or things to tell me like this is the regimen you should do to go from a no name freshman to starting on the varsity as a sophomore. I just put work in. I went to the gym more. I reminded myself of that pain, of what it's like to watch others enjoy a sport that you enjoy, of what it's like to watch others enjoy a sport that you enjoy, and that became my fuel. And you know that I would say consistency of just.
Speaker 2:You know, I remember vividly going in my garage and turning musical and just doing push-ups and just doing anything. There was no strategic method to improving myself. I just knew that I didn't. The other thing that happened after that freshman year of football is the wrestling coach came and gave a speech. It was it was my first experience as being sold to. I didn't realize that till later in life, but he was doing a sales pitch on why you should wrestle, because the wrestling team needed more wrestlers and he started listing out all these nfl players that wrestled you know, like ray, glass Ray.
Speaker 2:Lewis and you know, I think, justin Donald, you know in today's day and age, but he started naming off like 10 or 15 wrestlers and then also some college athletes, because, being in Virginia, you have Virginia Tech and UVA, so the names of the really good college players resonate as well. So he just did an excellent job selling me on wrestling and that you know I was like, okay, well, if I commit to that I could get that'll help me get to my goal. And again, that was just kind of I would say that that was. I don't want to call it luck, but it's like I didn't know that wrestling could have could help me get to where I wanted to go.
Speaker 2:And then just being involved in that team really changed a lot of my work habits and and just, you know, kind of like, uh, it was also fun, like beating people one-on-one, like that was, uh, I, I'm very competitive. So in football you can, you can. You know you have to compete alongside 10 other people and you work as a team. In wrestling it's you and that other person on the mat and if you lose it's 100% your fault.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I think one of the coolest things that we're talking about through sports is that, no matter what you do, even if the sports are different, even if the things are different, it still helps you with everything you do. One of the things I've been doing recently, probably for the past year, is there's a Muay Thai gym down the street from me, so they have 6 a the 6am classes Tuesday, thursday and I just go and it's like Jordan. Why would you do Muay Thai? And it's because, first of all, you learn self defense, you learn all these other things, but you start to learn about yourself and then you can apply yourself in different areas. Like, if I do the Muay Thai in the morning, I have a better day and you just start to realize these things that it's good to add in, things that might not make sense at the time, but then they start to later down when you look backwards.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That's, I think, just that part right there is trying new things and sucking at it, but continuing to do it. You know, because you know, you have to trust that that work is going to compound and add up to making you a better version of yourself, or unlock a new version of yourself, or introduce you to people that you might not have ever met before, you know, unless you did go down that road.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And the really important thing is realizing that every time you do something, it's like the problem is that as people get better and better at things like in your past story, like you did very well in sales and it's like, okay, you do very well in sales you don't usually want to restart because you're like I have this standard for my life and I don't feel that I should be below that, because I have this ego and I'm the man. Most people have that, so it's hard for them to try new things. But for you, what's allowed you to be so open to new things? Because new things are one of the biggest advantages, I think, to people, whether it's traveling to a new location, whether it's trying a new job, whether it's trying a new housing situation, whatever it is, I think it's so beneficial.
Speaker 2:For me a lot of it's come from pain, not to sound like dark, but you know, talking going back to the middle school experience, that was painful. I mean I recently did some breath work, which I highly recommend people trying or experimenting with. But I had a conversation with my 12-year-old self and you know I don't know how accurate the statement is, but like my 12-year-old self was, like, you know, crying to me and asking like why is everyone so mean to me? So you know that like clearly there's some damage that was done, not to laugh at it, but like there was some damage done at that age that kind of set the stage for that. And then you know, thinking back to like you know, yes, I sold Cutco Knives. That was an awesome experience, experience.
Speaker 2:I regularly speak to some of the division offices that want me to talk about my time with there because learning how to sell was such an important part for me in the process, because everything I'd always done was sports related. So I loved getting the accolades in sports and winning. But the transition from sports to business for me was sales, because up until I was 23 years old I thought the only way you could make money was whatever your hourly rate was times how many hours you put into it, because I'd done all the hourly jobs. I bagged groceries, I did manual labor, I painted gym floors. I did a lot of manual labor and every way I got paid was you did this many hours, you got this many dollars. So selling Cutco for me was like oh my God, like I could sell a thousand dollar set of knives and make $400 in an hour. Okay, that's kind of cool, you know.
Speaker 1:And it's so. It's so eyeopening because most of us aren't open to those opportunities where it's like you see people, where you're like, oh, you've never experienced different kinds of money, Like you've never experienced the random hourly wage because you weren't selling something, You've never created the product. And usually that's where I mean it's a very new idea, Like it's not new, new, but like there's always been entrepreneurship, but it's been even more accessible nowadays than it's ever been, where you can literally sit there and go wait. I have this idea, Let me see if it has value and has some legs and I can see if I can make money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, I like to reference that time in my life because that was an awakening for me to see that there's other ways to you know. Again, no offense to my parents, but they were just always like you know do good in school, go to college, get a job.
Speaker 1:That was which is weird, because my dad owned a business.
Speaker 2:He owned a carpet business that I would regularly help, you know, kind of lay tax strip and lay padding, but I was always paid by the job. You know what I mean. Like so for me, like that, that was a eye opening experience and kind of, you know, to fast forward, to like actually getting to corporate sales. So I I did Cutco during college and then after college I ran my own office where I had to recruit, train and maintain a sales team, which was that was. That was another skill set that I had to learn. You know you're recruiting people to pay you to come work for you and then they sell the cut-cared knives and I made a percentage of whatever they sold. So not like a pyramid, but it was like we paid them whether they made a sale or not, but the goal was that they made more sales than not. So it was, we had some good experiences there.
Speaker 1:So I think that's really important because most of us, even when we do our entrepreneurial journey, we never really get past that. So I think there's three components to it. There's the employee, the manager and the owner. And majority of the time when you're running a small business, like you were with Cutco Knives like Cutco Knives is a bigger company, but as the salesperson you're employee, manager, owner of yourself. And then as you go to a bigger thing, you're like okay, we can hire employees, I can manage them. There's obviously the owner of Cutco knives, so they're owning all of it. But it's just whenever you go through these things you have to realize where you're at in that framework and each of those requires a completely different skill set. To sell a person to, hey, let's join the team. To do you want knives, they're completely different and you have to pull people on what really drives them. So how are you able to even recruit people? Because I feel like it's not an easy process at all.
Speaker 2:So we, you know we did a lot of things. So we sent mailers out, we would we advertise in the newspaper Again. This was like early 2000s, so 2004, 2003. And we would get you know a flood of emails and calls coming in and then I had receptionists that I would pay to schedule appointments to meet with me for an interview and the interview process was about an hour hour and 15 minutes.
Speaker 2:Process was about an hour hour and 15 minutes and it was really just me explaining the position in full detail but also like using a lot of takeaways, explaining like how the $15 base appointment worked and how commissions worked and you know how our team set up appointments and you know like a lot of direct sales type roles. It starts with your you know kind of family friends that you're presenting to and then you get, you know I guess, the referrals from there. And I think that's where for me, when I sold Cutco, it was seeing people that were like second and third generation referrals spending a thousand bucks with me. It just, it really just, I would say, amplified my conviction in the product because I was like I was able to sell to people I'd never met before you know.
Speaker 1:No, but that's a huge point, because most of us always go friends and family. Very few friends and family are going to support you because they have a frame of who you are as an individual. They go. Why is Josh the football player trying to sell me knives? It doesn't make sense. But when you have these new people come in, it's a completely different frame and they sit there and go Josh sells Cutco. I don't know anything about Josh. That's what he does, I believe. Go on. And it's this interesting thing and I say this because I have groups that I coach with and a lot of people struggle with this idea and that's why friendships are kind of hard to maintain because they're like my friends don't view me in the different light, because the friends only view you in the light of hey, we're friends, like we sat on the couch together, we played football together. I can never see Josh doing better than me because we played football together. How could he do that? And it's a lot of internal stuff.
Speaker 2:And you know, for me I always something. I mean I would say maybe some of this is just natural. But like I would always kind of pull down any barriers from from the start, like I I would spend 20, 30 minutes just talking and building rapport, telling them how I'm trying to earn a scholarship through selling the Cutco and talking about my experience in college and just how I know if it's a second or third layer person, dropping in little funny stories about the people that they know. So there's that connective too and it's funny because a lot of that I would say came natural. I mean, I did go to sales training seminars with Cutco but they talked about rapport.
Speaker 2:But I think that in itself as an art form is building a connection with somebody without them feeling like you're giving like 30 questions Just trying to desperately find that connective thing. Or you know again, like just again it sounds generic, but someone's got a picture of a fish on their, on their wall and you don't. You don't recognize the picture of the fish. You just randomly say, yeah, last week I took my son up to go fishing in the finger lakes. You should look at the size of this fish we caught. It's like you know. So you know that he fishes or she fishes. So you're going to inject a story about fishing into the conversation and then, guess what? Now they're going to tell you a story.
Speaker 2:And now, now you're not talking about knives anymore, you're not talking about, you know, with our company, uh, self-serve beverages. You're talking about what you have in common and you know it's breaking down that barrier and, um, but you know, kind of not to jump too far ahead, but like that set the foundation for like I enjoyed sales. I was, I felt like I was naturally good at it, um, and you know there's no ceiling, you know. So I took that. My one buddy always gives me a hard time. He's like there was a period in my 20s where I had a different business card, like every year or two. So, like I went from Cutco not to get dramatic, but my business got robbed, which was weird, and I got an insurance check. So I was like I think I'm done with this chapter of my life. So I closed down the Cutco office in 2004 and went into corporate business-to-business sales for, at the time, at&t and Singular. So we were doing again like Blackberries and PDAs and working with business business to business.
Speaker 2:So that was legit cold calling, knocking on doors, you know, all out through Baltimore and I was doing okay with that. I wasn't, can't say I was passionate about phones and I remember that was the first time I saw that it wasn't necessarily how hard you worked to make a lot of money. If you got gifted like an amazing account, you were a lot of money. If you got gifted like an an amazing account, you were. You could print money you know like.
Speaker 1:And so then it became like whose butt do I have to kiss to ensure that, like, when this person gets a promotion, I can get this money making account, you know, um yeah, a hundred percent, which doesn't even have to do, because now you're trying to think smarter instead of harder and it's like, wait a second, I could go knock a hundred doors today and maybe get two interested people. Or this guy's got a mammoth account and I just become his best friend and I could be his help helper for an hour a day and then I get his his account and it's like that changes the game.
Speaker 2:It was, I would say it. It was like for me as an athlete who always prided themselves on, like I'm gonna outwork somebody. It was, I remember the first time, because they'd always talk about oh this guy lee, he's 800 percent of quota. Oh, this guy jim is, you know, 700 percent of quota. It's funny, the one guy jim was on the apprentice, I think. Uh, not jim. Um, yeah, he was on the apprentice. Uh, like one of the first apprentice chairs they had.
Speaker 2:But they were like they were touting him, but I I always try to follow like r&d research. Uh what?
Speaker 1:is that research and development?
Speaker 2:yeah the other r&d, rob and duplicate so you you follow them, you learn how they do what they do and you duplicate it so you can have similar results. And I remember going and I was like can I shadow you guys for the day? Because again in a commissioned job you got to go close deals. That's how you make money. I think the time my salary was like 30 or 40 grand and the expectation was that at quota you were making five grand in bonus a month.
Speaker 2:So, these guys were, like you know, like I said, seven to eight hundred percent of quota.
Speaker 1:And then they got thirty to forty grand yeah they were killing it, you know.
Speaker 2:So I went on a few appointments with them and I saw they were not good salespeople, they were not like, they were not super hard workers, they were order takers, but that was again. That was one of those things where I was like, uh, my honeymoon, you know, uh similar to yours, coming up, uh came, I went, it was in september of 2004 and basically it was like two and a half three weeks that I was off, you know of work yeah, guess who didn't hit their quota that month?
Speaker 2:this guy, of course and then I got put on a PIP performance improvement plan. I was like so now I'm in the hole, now I have to work myself out of the hole and I'm like I don't even like this Like.
Speaker 2:I hate, I don't enjoy what I'm doing. So I kind of went on. I was like I'm going to find something else I enjoy or another kind of sales type role. And that's what took me into the staffing world, which again this whole time I'm learning of different ways you can make money through sales and how they work.
Speaker 2:And the cool thing about staffing was it's like an annuity. So once you put someone to work, if you're billing the customer for a hundred bucks an hour and you're paying them 50 bucks an hour and the company's making 50 bucks an hour gross margin, that's staffing. So I could build up an annuity of customers or consultants out there and then occasionally I'd get a perm placement which typically would pay around 15 to 20% of their salary and I would get a percentage of that percentage. So you know I was making, you know, good money. And after I left the the you know, singular wireless AT&T wireless world. But going back to that whole painful thing, I was the number one salesperson in our Baltimore metro area. I had brought in a pretty big client, constation Energy Group, at the time. We're doing like 400 people for contingent staffing.
Speaker 1:So, I mean it's a.
Speaker 2:It was going to be a quarter million in commissions a year, like that's. That's how I looked at it. I was like, okay, I just hit the. I just I earned the lottery, you know what I mean. Like I didn't.
Speaker 2:I actually had the CEO help me kind of map out how I'm going to, you know, get into this account, and it all worked out. And then when it came time to actually get paid for it because I had followed the CEO's instructions on how to get in there and which his direct instructions were ignore HR, go around, hr, don't listen to HR I did that, but I tried to do it in a nice way, like I would send them cakes and send them flowers and they would say, hey look, you can't contact our managers. And they would say, hey look, you can't contact our managers. And then I would go to a golf event that I knew that they were at and I'd meet them and I'd still, you know, like, so I wasn't going on the facility and interacting with managers, but I'd meet them at different ways to kind of find out what staffing needs they had, and ended up placing someone there before we got put on as a vendor and that burnt the bridge eternally. So then they told our CEO that they would be interested in working with our company only if I wasn't their account manager.
Speaker 2:So imagine you've put all this work in to get this big account to come on board with your company and you build all these relationships that have, I would say, allowed this to even exist. And then they say, look, we're going to spend a quarter. You know they're going to spend millions of dollars with us. You know close to five million. And then that quarter million that I was going to get was going to get given to another guy in the office that had not done anything. Like so that when I talk about coming from a place of pain, like so that when I talk about the coming from a place of pain that hurt, you know, like to know how hard I worked and know how much effort I'd put into that. And then see him I mean he literally was able to buy a boat like three weeks, three months, into getting that account.
Speaker 1:And I'm guessing he didn't thank you at all- I do feel bad for him because I was.
Speaker 2:I was, you know, I was in my twenties. I was somewhat immature. I'm still kind of immature, but yeah, I was. I dropped some, some aggressive, aggressive comments. I was like, oh, you know, it must be nice to hit the lottery. You know, blah, blah, blah. Like I would, you know, just underhand, walk out of meetings when they're, like, you know, highlighting how great this, this conversation, as I just walk out, I'm like this is crazy. Like eventually I got fired. So that was, uh, that was, that was where things, I would say, started.
Speaker 2:I was like, before I got fired, I was actually, you know, I'd been thinking about ideas and you know we talked about it earlier, about taking action. So the idea that, uh, I think I don't know if I referenced it in the book or not, but one of the ideas I was trying to bring to fruition was night washers and whoever's listening to this. If you want to pursue this idea. I didn't take the action, but the idea was would you like to wake up in the morning and your car is completely clean, like, detailed to the to the max, and the idea would be that you just set up appointments and it's probably a lot more realistic to accomplish now, but like the ability to come in completely wash the car, detail it. Then you wake up in the morning and you've got this insanely, you know clean, car clean car.
Speaker 2:So that was the. I didn't really go down that road too far, Cause, again, it's early it. So that was the I didn't really go down that road too far, Cause, again, it's early, it's mid to late. Two thousands. You know that the tech scene wasn't where it is today. And then I tried to sell carpets to a college freshmen that were moving in and that failed miserably. It cost me about five grand to buy a bunch of carpets and then I went from like different campuses and I lost like 14 pounds over the course of like a week, because moving carpets is very uh, so heavy, they're so heavy, that's so impossible.
Speaker 1:Anyone who's like, yeah, I want to move a carpet. It's like, no, no, because we literally had to do, and then if the carpets get wet, oh my god, it's the end of the world and well, but the nail in the coffin there was.
Speaker 2:I was supposed to be at the University of Maryland. I was like this is gonna, the University of Maryland. I was like this is going to be my big payday. I'm going to make like 25 grand. All these freshmen are moving in Torrential monsoon downpour for two days straight. I'm not even exaggerating Like I could not, even I couldn't. I was like I can't set up and sell carpets in the rain, like that's insane. So now I'm stuck with all these carpets. I ended up driving around to a bunch of different carpet places in the DC area and setting them up for consignment because I was like I could only imagine what your wife's going through with $5,000 worth of carpets in the house.
Speaker 1:It's all over the place. You're like I am going, I'm not crazy, like we're going to win, I swear we're going to win. But I swear we're going to win, but like this might not be, because the thing I appreciate with you, josh, and like a lot of people, aren't vulnerable enough to go hey, I failed, like I failed a ton. And you're like, dude, I just stacked each learning from each of the failures, because you start to sit there and realize that it's like it's not about winning, it's about the ability to overcome the failure and it's about being OK with that and being like the failure is not a reflection on me. It's a reflection on where I need to grow and what I can do differently. And maybe I didn't read this correctly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you have to experiment. I mean, hopefully you're not losing $5,000 every time you experiment, but I will say I didn't lose money there. It just was the hardest I've ever worked to make two grand in my life. So I netted seven grand out of the five, but it took me like six or seven months and a lot of. I probably lost money when you take the gas into account and everything like that. But it was yeah, but yeah, I mean that was so that happened.
Speaker 1:And you know, my wife was also, I think. So this was 2000, like eight nine. So my she was pregnant with my and I'm going on my honeymoon tomorrow and it's just, dude. You start to sit there and there's so many life events happening, you're like dude, the financials are not ready. Like, like, what do I need to do to get this going? Because you're going. You want to have a family but you don't want to be like not be able to take care of them and it's a stressful thing.
Speaker 2:I'm like ah no, it was uh. You know, what happened is, I guess, to get to the whole like tap. The big idea concept was I was, I was doing all these things and then I the one you know not to give away the story, but like I was at a bar in baltimore and I met a few buddies of mine and we were just going to have a few drinks before, uh, an orioles game. And're sitting there and it takes like 20 minutes to get a drink and I'm like this is ridiculous. I can see the taps right there. Could I just go over there and just pour four beers? And they're like, yeah, that'd be cool.
Speaker 2:And I was like, no, but why can't I? Why can't I just pour my own drinks? We pump our own gas. And they were like at the time I was like would would you pay like an extra $2 to be able to pour your own beer? And all of my friends were like I'd pay $10 to pour my own beer. I just want to get a drink, you know? Um, and so that I left the bar and, uh, I'll send you the uh, the original, uh business plan that I did, uh, after I left the bar, but I was up till like 4 am. I was like I've got the big idea. It's like you feel like you've got this thing and you just want to share it with the world. But I didn't even like. I didn't have a coding background, I didn't have an engineering background, I didn't have like any of the things like that you would need to bring this business to fruition.
Speaker 2:You know I had the ability to sell, but that can only take you so far if you don't have a product. But what I will say is, by sharing that with a lot of different people, it opened up different doors that would not have been opened up. So I shared with a bunch of friends. I shared the crappy business plan I put together and you know I always like to have friends that'll shoot holes in things you know?
Speaker 1:Hey, tell me where you think this isn't going to work.
Speaker 2:And my one buddy was like hey, there's a company in Atlanta that just did taps on the table. And I was like, well, that's not really what I'm going for. But you know I'll reach out to him and see. You know, see what, what their deal is.
Speaker 2:It was. It was at a bar called Stats down in Atlanta, and so I was like, screw it, I'm going to get on a plane and go check it out. So I got on a plane and went down there and I ended up meeting the guy that did that and he had actually gotten the technology from a guy in Ireland named Philip and he was like, yeah, I'm going to focus on opening up a bunch of places like this. If you'd like to help sell, like you know, there might be an opportunity for that. Well, I went over 50 trying to sell that product, which is, you know, that's a very demoralizing experience to go over 50. I probably rounded up maybe it was 47, but either way, never let the truth get away. I have a good story.
Speaker 1:But it's super important. I I want to bring this up. It's super important that, as the audience is listening, josh literally said hey, I heard about this guy and I'm gonna hop on a plane and go see him. He didn't. The guy didn't know he was coming. He just said I'm going and it's like you just went, like these are what it takes, these are the decisions it takes to create your dreams and to make them a reality. And it doesn't hurt to spend a little bit of money to go explore and see the possibility of this, because you never know what you're going to run into. So I just wanted to add that. But you are, yeah, you're doing great.
Speaker 2:No, I was, you know. But I tried to get things going and the feedback I got from a lot of customers was man, this is going to be really expensive, not just for your product, but to run draft lines through, you know, through the floors, all the tables. And then the one said, hey, if you had like a mobile solution, like something that could roll in and we could test it out, I'd be up for that. So then, you know, I was like, well, can we do that? And you know, the guy in Atlanta was like, well, could we do that? And the guy in Atlanta was like, yeah, are you going to pay for it? And I was like, yeah, I'll pay for it.
Speaker 2:So I'd been still making some money doing the staffing thing, just here and there. So I had some cash and I think I spent about $10,000 to make these two beer tables and I got the guy to sign a six-month lease that was going to cover I think it was going to be about 12 grand over the six months. So I figured, hey, like I'll make two grand off of it and I'm able to prove the concept. And the interesting part is, when I had them built and I installed them in his place. I was like oh, you should put these two like craft beers on there. He was like nah, we're gonna put Miller Lite and Blue Moon moon. I was like, really, that, there's the two beers you're gonna put on both tables. He was like yeah, he said because they come in and they spend 500 every wednesday on a hamburger, so they're gonna get whatever they want, like you know, the miller and the miller yeah not to you know uh share your legal practices.
Speaker 2:But that's, that was. That was 2008. Uh, it it was. It was another failure. It was, you know, it was not a dispensing system. It like literally would dispense straight foam, like full pictures.
Speaker 1:Oh, because it wasn't okay, it wasn't coming out correctly. But I think the other major thing here is that you're going to the market to see what the solution is, instead of sitting at your home and you're like, let me start pouring the beers and making sure they work correctly, and it's like no, you have to go to the market and see what they enjoy and see what might work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean this particular version required a key to put in the hole. But as I was going through that process again, like I didn't understand how beer comes out, I mean I'd gone to college and I did a little pump thing where you'd pump the keg, but I didn't understand why it was coming out so foamy. So then you know, I'd read Rich Dad, poor Dad, in my kind of entrepreneurial journey, and I said I need to find a rich dad around. You know this area that knows everything about you know dispense. So I just started asking bar owners.
Speaker 2:I was like who's the smartest person in dispense? You know dispense. So I just started asking bar owners. I was like who's the smartest person in dispense, you know? And everyone kept pointing me towards AC beverage. So then I drove down to Annapolis I lived in Baltimore and I was like hey, um, I want to come work for you. And he was like we're not hiring. I was like I don't need you to pay me, I just want to come work for you. And he was like so you want to come do work and not get paid? I, okay, well, meet me, and we're going to a project tonight in New Jersey. Meet me at this rest area at like 7.00 PM. I was like that's weird. I'm going to meet this, you know. I'm going to meet him at 7.00 PM, where you know. What does this entail?
Speaker 2:We ended up driving to New Jersey working through the night. So it was a champ sports bar and basically I got to learn how to put a draft system together from midnight to like 6 am. Wow. So I did that for a few other projects and then that opened the door to him saying, hey, there's this company in Ireland that's marketing these self-serve tables, you know, maybe you should talk to them. I was like, yeah, maybe I should, yeah, maybe I should.
Speaker 2:So I ended up talking to them, not to give away the whole story, but I figured out they had no idea how to bring their product to the United States because they had said something very telling on an email where they said I said hey, I'm a bar owner in Pennsylvania. I want to buy one of these. Do you have something saying that I can do this in the state of Pennsylvania, because Pennsylvania Liquor Board's pretty strict on things? And they said, oh yeah, we've got a blanket approval across the whole country. And I was like, no, you don't Like, that doesn't exist. I personally had to get you know approval for my technology prior to them, every single state and in Maryland, every single county.
Speaker 2:So I basically was a paralegal at this stage in my life because I had to get all these liquor authorities to approve it. So then I just said, look, you clearly don't understand the US market. I do. I want to grow this concept. What does it look like for us to work together? So they flew me to Ireland. I'd never been to Ireland, you know, time was 2000, 2009. So I'm barely 30, I guess, and it was awesome, I got, I got, you know, I got a flight to Ireland. I got to drive around Ireland with their you know some of their leadership team and see how it was working in the market. And they had landed a pretty large deal with Diageo, the owners of Guinness.
Speaker 2:So they wasn't like they had to go out and get 200 locations individually. They landed one customer who gave it away to all of the pubs in Ireland. Oh, huge, huge. So that's illegal in the United States. So that model wouldn't work here because they want to encourage, I guess, fair competitiveness. So it's like that local craft beer has the same opportunity to get on tap, as you know.
Speaker 1:Oh, ok, interesting.
Speaker 2:But that was, you know. So that was kind of like that next step, but it's, you know, just kind of like connecting the dots backwards, Like at each stage, I kind of took a, I was like a leap of faith. Of course I don't know how this is going to work out, but let's, let's try this, you know, but that was my first like actual job after, you know, probably a year and a half or two years of of not like I was just, you know, kind of like doing little things here and there to create money, you know.
Speaker 1:No, absolutely. And that's what it takes sometimes, where you sit there and you go, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm working towards this goal and by you going up to people and going, hey man, I want to work for free. He's obviously like, what is this guy's deal? But like, come along, there's so many people that would do that because they're like, oh, this guy's driven, he actually wants to do something. But too few people are willing to put themselves in that situation because maybe they haven't saved up enough money, maybe they aren't in the right financial situation, maybe they aren't driven.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you just got to jump and see what ends up happening. And it sounds very similar to I had the founder of Reebok on and he talked about how he had to make a Boston connection to get Reebok into the States. He's like dude, it is so hard to get in the States. He's like the States is like another monster. So it sounds very similar to what you did and realize the value prop that you had, because a lot of us don't realize the value that we bring. But you were able to see that for yourself, which I think is awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, it kind of brings up an interesting point to your listeners too. I actually got offered a job to work for him because he saw how hard I worked and how you know how driven I was and he actually tried to sell me off self where he's like that's going to be a fad. Like don't you know? Like come work with me. You know you could make, you know make good money. Like you know I like your work ethic. I think you bring a lot of good energy to the team. I think you bring a lot of good energy to the team because I was literally working for free for like a month or two.
Speaker 2:you know where I would just show up, hey, tell me what project I can help out on. And they just kept giving me more and more responsibility. But that gave me the foundation for, like, understanding draft systems. And then also I was able to make foam go away, like I would have foam nightmares, you know, when we did some installations, because it was just straight foam coming out, the taps you know and so that was.
Speaker 2:It was a but all that to say like, if you're listening to this and you're excited about a certain field, find somebody killing in that field and do what I just did offer to work for free. And if you, if you're like me, you'll probably get offered a job at the end of that free period, you know.
Speaker 1:And the thing is that when you're a high performer, people want to attract high performers. It's very hard to do that. So anyone who does this like I'll work for free thing, people love that and they'll be like, come work for us or make some money with us, at least, Like, do something with us. They want to keep those people around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's actually someone did that to me. Uh, we duncan. Uh, he's awesome guy, he's in the book, he's from australia, and he messaged us over email and said hey, I want to do a free internship with you guys in the united states, um, and then he got on a plane, showed up in chicago when I lived there and he worked with us for, like you know, after like a, like a month, I was like dude, I can't not pay you. You're doing so much work, like I, I gotta pay you. And he was like oh you know, thanks, mate. And so he, uh, he, he. It was funny cause he bought a moped when he landed and he would drive he, it was a broken moped. So it was a broken moped. So he bought a broken moped Because he grew up on a farm. He learned how to fix it. So he fixed it and used that to get to the office every day and then sold it for more than he bought it for on the way out. So I was like I love this kid.
Speaker 1:He's so creative, so creative and the thing is. But you have to be open enough to respond to someone who's like I want to come work for you from Australia, like most people are like, yeah, that's a BS, email delete. So my point here is that Josh saw opportunity everywhere and you have to see opportunity everywhere, and only when your eyes are open and you see these different possibilities does it become an opportunity. So what ended up? How did you end up getting into pour my beer? Where? Where did it end up going? Did it take you? Yeah?
Speaker 2:So there's. You know, I look at it in phases or chapters, I guess similar to a book. But you know, I did the thing with the Irish company for a few years, so 2010,. It was me and my business partner or I would say, co-worker at the time we weren't business partners at the time, but Declan we started selling Like we weren't business partners at the time, but Declan we started selling like that's what we could do, we could sell these beer tables. So we sold 200,000 in orders the first year and 2010, and then another 800,000 in 2011. And then we had set the goal to do one point seven in 2012. And then around June, the Irish company went bankrupt. So that was that, that that was not going to happen. And then they wanted us to restart a new company. But then what was it? I mean, there was some shady stuff going on. So we were like, yeah, we don't really want to be involved in restarting a company that you didn't tell us was going bankrupt until the last possible second. So we're going to start our own company.
Speaker 1:So that's an important lesson for people to realize is that you learn lessons through people going bankrupt until the last possible second. So we're going to start our own company. So that's an important lesson for people to realize is that you learn lessons through people right. So you trust people. The way I usually do it is you trust people off the start. Some people go. I have no trust for people. I go. I usually have trust for people and then they start to lose the trust, whether they tell you they're going bankrupt or anything of the sort. Um, but it's just these ways of always testing and seeing what happens. But it's that awareness of knowing I can always go in another direction. I have value in what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:There's ways to recreate this value yeah, and that was an interesting, I guess, point in time too, because we had sold a bunch of these beer tables and and there were some locations that were doing really well, like we had a customer in vegas doing 50 grand a month through the beer tables awesome um, you know so, but it was.
Speaker 2:It was more of a gimmick than it was an actual like changing of the way you do business. So we were in the process of starting, like the self-pour on the walls uh, where you could, you know, transact with the wall and it could have like anyone could transact with it, versus like at a table. You can't just walk up to someone's table and take some of their pitcher of beer and you know, and for yourself, you know, that's just not practical. So the walls were becoming a thing as as the company was going out of business.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, declan and I were like, look, you know, we we didn't have much capital between the two of us and we were like, if we're going to start on our own, like what does that look like? So we agreed, you know, 50, 50, and we started pour my beer in December of 2012 without a real plan, like we didn't have a product. So we were going to try to resell a company, this company in Austria's product, uh, for the beer tables. And then we were, we were starting to entertain these other companies in the United States that we could potentially, you know, resell their technology too, cause, again, we didn't have a real plan. We were just like we got to sell and we got to stay alive and I put like 50 grand into the company and I I didn't hard market like my friends and family, but I was able to get another like 30 grand, uh, no, 60 grand between you know those, those types of uh, I guess endeavors?
Speaker 2:yeah yeah, so it wasn't and it I ended up paying back every one of those, uh people that put their money in just you know like because that company was not the same company they invested in and I just felt bad.
Speaker 2:Like I was like actually one guy that put in five grand. He reached out to me. He, hey, I put five grand in like a year ago, what you know, I'm just curious what's going on. And at the time, like we were in a dark space and like Declan had to go get another job I couldn't afford to pay an installer. So I was doing everything and only had like probably a grand in the checking account and I wasn't paying myself either. And I was like look, dude, the person, someone told him we were going public. That's why I put his five grand in there. And I was like you got lied to and I was like I feel awful for that. So I was like I can pay you back the 500 over the next 10 months. I'll figure it out. You shouldn't have lost money or you shouldn't have invested if you thought we were going public. And after talking to him and telling him kind of my plan with getting this Austrian company as my partner, and you know, he was like you know what? Like I want to let it ride. I think it's. You know, I think you're going down the right path.
Speaker 2:So that was you know that was 2015-ish when he had approached me about getting his money back. But in 2014, I call that my Britney moment that's where I shaved my head and went a little crazy, you know. Again I forgot the part about, like, the company in Ireland that went bankrupt. They did start another company and they owed us $100,000, but they never paid us. But I gave them back the website that I had built. Like, I had built this marketing tool to get leads in and it was doing what it was supposed to do and I got us some Bar Rescue. So every time Bar Rescue came on, we were getting more leads.
Speaker 2:So it was this lead gen machine and I was like look, I'll give you back the website. If you give me, you know, if you commit to paying me, you know, 10 grand a month for the next 10 months and they. They said, okay, you know, we'll do that. And guess what? We didn't get paid the first month. Instead, we got served papers that they were suing us.
Speaker 2:Oh, my god I was like so not only do I not have the money, now you've got this lead gen tool and I've got to probably take out a loan to defend myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like talk about like the worst possible start of a company. It's like no money, you're getting federally sued and you're, you know, and on top of that they're, they're sent, they paid a PR company to send this press release to to like of them suing us, to like all of prospects so it was like wow did you find out yeah next level.
Speaker 2:Awful people like so, yeah that. But you know like they're dead now, but not physically, but as a company. And here we are, you know, uh, with 600 plus locations. So it's, you know the good guys do win. Not to end it on that, but like that, was that pain of going through that motivated me to be like all right. You know I've been down this road before. Let's, let's go. You know we can survive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we can survive, because it is just. That's incredible, because there's so much of it where we just have so much adversity in our life and we don't realize, but it's all those moments that led up to that, it's the middle school, it's the getting the 250 removed, it's all of these adversities that you've already faced. And then you get to this point and it's like I don't back down, I step up, I'm going to war, I'm ready for this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a war, I'm ready for this. Yeah, no, it's. I mean and there's been anyone that reads the book. You'll read about some some other gut shots that took place. But there, you know you're, you're able to take those gut shots when you've. You know, it's like a business coach Dan Martell he was. He always says, like you know, you start out freaking out over $500 problems and then the 500 problems aren't a big deal, and then it's the $5,000 problems, and then the $5,000 problems aren't a big deal, and then it's $50,000 problems. And he was like you know, once you get up to a $500,000 problem not not really impacting you, like that's, you know, the next one's a $5 million problem, right, so it's like it's just upping the level of pain threshold. I guess you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it takes time. It takes a lot of time to up that pain threshold and most people never experience it because they don't choose this life of creation and value creation and going out and doing something. That's an incredible feat. So you have two 600 plus locations today. I know you have like over 100 projects you're working on. What excites you the most about overcoming these challenges and what? What is something that you could leave the audience knowing like hey, it's gonna be okay. Like I have been beaten down and I give over team.
Speaker 2:So like you can too yeah, I mean it really we're in the hospitality business. I mean we're a technology company but we are. We are in the hospitality business. Which man, so many unique, amazing people that I've gotten to meet and interact with over the years. You know, I think of david cone, uh, one of our early customers out on the west coast in san diego, and just the wealth of. I mean, he's got similar stories to me, like where they were literally out of money opening up their first location. Now they've got, you know, 30 locations scattered up and down the West Coast and some in Maui.
Speaker 2:But you just you get to meet such interesting people and even in the same with the entrepreneur world, like the term imposter syndrome, I used to be like what is that? That's kind of you know. But I remember thinking when I got to went to an entrepreneur event where you had to be doing at least 3 million in revenue to even like apply for it. And I remember when I finally crossed that threshold of 3 million and I applied for it and then I got, you know, chosen to attend it. You know it's called Mastermind Talks.
Speaker 2:And I remember sitting at a table with, like Philip McKernan who's this, you know, world renowned author, one last talk and I didn't know him at the time. And then, like two other, like big time authors. And then Ronsley Vaz, who's like, he's like an AI expert and number one podcaster in Australia, like, and I'm sitting at this table. I'm like, like you know why the f am I at this table? Like these people are like, they're like I don't deserve to be at this table, but it was one of those kind of like moments where you know they, they validated, like you know, I didn't say that you know externally, but it was just like you, you've earned the right to sit at this table because of the things you've been through, you know um not, not just the revenue bar, not, it's just, like you know, like you, you just have to be willing to take, take the pain, you know, because pain equals growth, that you know that whole thing.
Speaker 2:But you know, going back to like, like today, like what? What excites me today is like we have a, we have an awesome team. Like you know, there's people on our team that that you know, left other careers, like literally had no experience in this world, and we're like I just like what you're doing and I want to be a part of it and seeing them thrive when they come, you know, come to to to work with us, like that, that excites me. You know, we're starting to do a lot of projects with hotels now. Like, for the most part, all these locations, they're individual, individually owned entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:So I always say we're not in the business of selling self-serve technology or taps or whatever. We're in the. We're in the dreams business. We sell people dreams and we help their dreams become a reality. And then when you see them flourish, you see them, you know, doing a hundred, 200, 300,000 a month through our system and they share with you that their labor costs are half the industry average and some a third like they're. You know, they're excited like they. They took that leap of faith, the same way I did, and they're thriving and you know, I, like any entrepreneur, I want to keep growing it.
Speaker 2:I want to. I want to get to that. You know, I want to cross that $10 million barrier and then, once I cross that barrier, I want to cross the $20 million barrier and continue to innovate and create value, like you said.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, that's awesome. That is awesome and, josh, you've been so gracious with your time. Where can people learn more about you? Hear about you? Hear about Pour my Beer, about?
Speaker 2:you hear about. You hear about Pour my Beer, yeah, yeah. So yeah, our website. Follow us on Instagram. We try to post some pretty fun content the book, you know, half the big idea. I got to send you some copies as well. But yeah, you know, I'm excited to kind of continue to grow. You know, when you think of the industry as a whole, there's a million bars and restaurants and we're only in 600. So, you know, keep an eye out for us. We're going to be spreading through the Hilton's and through the Marriott's. The IHG's, like hotels, are really enjoying our product.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And the other thing is that a lot of you guys might not know this, but you've probably been to a Pour my Beer Like you might not know it, but you've probably been there Just if you've seen the self-service. There's locations in Tampa, there's locations in St Pete I'm just saying that from my area, but they're all over the place, so it's an important thing to remember. And yeah, Josh, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:No problem, yeah, check us out online the locations map. You'll probably put that in the show notes, but yeah, love for you to go check.
