#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards

#227 - Cultivating Success: Matt McLean's Path in Citrus

• Jordan Edwards • Season 5 • Episode 227

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Uncle Matt's Organic is not just a brand; it's a testament to family legacy, resilience, and the pursuit of sustainable agriculture. Matt McLean shares his journey from childhood in Florida citrus groves to building a successful organic orange juice business, emphasizing the importance of quality and community connections. 

• The evolution of Uncle Matt's Organic and its commitment to organic farming 
• Lessons learned from family challenges and citrus greening disease 
• Insights into the transition from family business to private equity and back 
• The significance of consumer engagement in shaping product offerings 
• Practical advice on navigating business challenges and mindset for success

How to reach Matt:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattmclean

To Reach Jordan:

Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93Zw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/



Hope you find value in this. If so please provide a 5-star and drop a review.

Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-555/intro-call

Speaker 1:

Hey, what's going on? We got a special guest here today. On the Hashtag Clocked In podcast, we have Matt McLean. He's a fourth-generation citrus grower launching Uncle Matt's Organic in 1999. Matt's goal and still is is to produce the highest quality juice using only premium, 100% organically grown fruit that is free from synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Matt, we're so excited to have you on the Hashtag Clocked In podcast. The first question is why would you get into the orange juice business? Great question.

Speaker 2:

Hey, and thank you so much, jordan, for having me on today. I appreciate it. I'm equally as excited to talk to you and your listeners. Why get in the orange juice business? Well, first off, it was in my blood. I'm fourth generation Florida citrus grower, so it started right there in my blood. And then, when I had the right opportunity, like every entrepreneur, you end up having your aha moment where you think, geez, could this be a real business and a business idea? And then you get excited because you think you look at the market and go, no, it's that idea is not already been done.

Speaker 2:

And at the time I started 25 years ago, when I looked at it like 28 years ago, it took me a couple of years before it came to fruition. There was no organic Tropicana, organic Simply, or Florida's Natural in the market. So that was a clear direction for me. There was a business opportunity. I thought for sure that it would be something great. And then you know I didn't necessarily know 25 years, I'd still be doing it. But it's awesome because I obviously chose the right pathway back then. But that's why I got into the organic orange juice market. It was in my blood. But then I saw an awesome opportunity that was not in the marketplace.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And for you, matt, how was it growing up a citrus farmer? Were your parents kind of pushing it on you? Was your family pushing? Just keep doing your thing, we don't do anything else, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So they I have a great family and I could have been anything I wanted to be. They would encourage me to do that, and you know, growing up though, obviously my dad and grandfather. They were deeply involved in citrus. They were citrus growers and then later became citrus consultants. When they had the freezes in the 80s, 83, 85 and 89. It killed and wiped out all of the groves. They had 600 acres.

Speaker 1:

And what happened? What happened? It might be comedy, comedy, yeah. What's the?

Speaker 2:

situation. It got down to literally 19 degrees and in florida that doesn't work very well uh during the farm wave of oak freezing and so, literally christmas eve 1983, it got down to that and you could hear the sap uh burst in the tree and it sounded like a gunshot going off out in the groves periodically. So it it killed over 300,000 acres of bearing citrus in uh seven different counties up here around central florida so 600 acres of that was my dad and granddad's and um.

Speaker 2:

They unfortunately from there became citrus consultants instead of citrus growers. I had to sell off the land. Um and my grandfather moved south about two hours down to Lake Placid and my family stayed in the Claremont area, which is just west of Orlando, but you know. So I could have stayed in Citrus, I could have gone to the University of Florida and got an ag degree. Instead I got into business.

Speaker 2:

I just I felt after the long hot summers of working in the groves it's pretty, pretty tough manual labor.

Speaker 2:

I learned a lot of great lessons being out there the value of hard work and leading other young men as the guy out there in charge.

Speaker 2:

But I just thought there was something else beyond that, and while I love the upbringing, I like the business aspect of it, and so I went to college to get out of agriculture and to get into the business side, and my family was fine, my dad was fine with it. But I tell you, when I got out and I had the opportunity and got back into working in the citrus industry, while I wasn't a grower, I was on the other side. I was selling juice to Europe and the Middle East. I started an import-export business and I met one of my father's consulting clients who was a German fella and he knew a lot of bottlers in Germany and so I went along all of the processors in Florida and I helped buy the orange juice and grapefruit juice and we shipped it over to Germany and he sold it to the different bottlers. So I really liked. I found a way in the citrus industry that I love to have passion for.

Speaker 2:

I just didn't really want to be in the ag side, but I found a way to still be in it and be on the business side which was great which was doing the juice and the import export, and so that was a lot of fun and I think it was just one of those you know perfect scenarios that you could imagine when you get out of college and links you back to your family. But you know still, you know not really what you wanted to do, but something better.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and it's pretty interesting. I've been reading the book the E-Myth and they basically talk about the technician and then the entrepreneur. So the technician is the person who does the work consistently, like the agriculture person, and the entrepreneur is the person who kind of brings all the ideas together, kind of sees the different vision. It can still be responsible, but they're all different. It gives them the framework that everything's just a fiddle, like everything can be adjusted and everything can be utilized. So I share this, just because it's interesting for the audience to realize that even if you think you're very good at something but you really enjoy the business side of it, you can still be involved in that. But you don't have to do it on the day to day, but you're still part of that community, correct?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So it worked out well for me and, to be honest, when I came back and started the import-export business, my family was thrilled because it was just a different part of the industry that they had never been a part of. They'd never been on the sales side of selling the end product, they'd mostly just been growing it. So that immediately gave us another expertise within the family. And then when I started Uncle Matt's and had an actual brand, that was kind of the pinnacle Wow, now we can reach all the way through to the end user, the end consumer. My grandfather was so excited and thrilled after you know all of his life work, being mostly a farmer or a consultant and always just selling to whatever process or a packing house that would come and buy his fruit, he never had the chance to actually reach all the way to the end consumer and so Uncle Matt's gave us that chance and to get the feedback and to have the one-on-one relationship. So his life was complete like a checkbox.

Speaker 1:

And that's fascinating because you don't think about it. But most people are like I want my business to work and I want to make money, but you don't think about it. As a manufacturer, you don't get that joy of having the end consumer see your product and being like I really enjoy this. I drink this every morning. I keep this optimal, so what caused you to name it? Uncle Matt's, by the way, too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I have a sister-in-law. I had thought of all kinds of generic dumb names.

Speaker 2:

Healthy Farms literally was the top of my list that, generically, I came up with and I knew it wasn't good. But my sister-in-law came to her in a dream. She's a spiritual person that said, hey, I honestly tell you, this may kind of freak you out, but God, I had a feeling that God said to call it Uncle Matt's. I'm like, really Well, that's divine intervention. I don't know if I can disagree with that. She goes because it's about the next generation and farming organic. And I said, yeah, you know, that's perfect. Actually, the more I thought about it, it was, hey, I didn't really want to be the spokesperson of the company for the rest of my life. I'm perfectly fine being, you know, the hard worker behind a name. But it made real sense because at that time I had one niece and one nephew. Today I have 10. And I did really care about them and I thought, yeah, organic farming is about protecting the environment, it's farming better for future generations, leaving, you know, the earth in a better spot than what it was before.

Speaker 2:

So it really came together full circle for me, and from there on I became the Ronald McDonald of Uncle Matt's.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And how? How has that? How has organic changed throughout the years? Because I know I feel like when you're doing it in 1999, that's kind of a unique area, like now it's everything. Is it organic? Is it not like now it's so prevalent? You have battles like because obviously it costs hot, costs, more money. It's not as easy.

Speaker 2:

It's not as easy to get the products like yeah, so I started before there was actually the usda organic seal. So prior to 2002 the usda had not come in and actually made a full standard. We we said we were certified organic by the california foods production act of 1990. So we had an independent certifier body in Gainesville, florida Organic Growers and they came in and they certified us organic to that standard of the California Foods Production Act of 1990. That was the basis of the law that eventually went into effect by the USDA in 2002. And now you'll see the USDA organic seal everywhere.

Speaker 2:

But in the beginning like you know, very few people really knew about it and we would get made fun of it. This is hippie food, right, but the hippies were the kind of was a hippie movement in the beginning about farming, you know, the way Mother Nature intended, and then it just became over time more and more relevant, more and more obvious and more about the health of the soil, the health of the tree and holistically managing it the way Mother Nature intended and the way we are today, where it's prevalent throughout the whole grocery store. I mean, every single category has some kind of organic seal on. You know a ketchup or a tomato or a, you know yogurt, a milk, all of those things. It's now prevalent throughout, throughout, which is pretty awesome because I I remember in 1999, you know thinking gosh, um, you know, when you walk into the supermarket there's not a whole lot of organic. But the organic baby food aisle was really doing well and organic baby food had caught on and I put that in all my presentations.

Speaker 2:

In the beginning I put the little graph of how fast the organic baby food market was growing and I said, listen, if mom is buying it, it's going to eventually trickle to a lot of other things in the supermarket because if she'll buy baby food then she'll also buy everything else that kid is going to want and need in its lifetime. And so, sure enough, you know, look at the rest of the grocery store. You know everything started having a small percentage of what they offered would be organic. And so, you know, orange juice made sense to the buyers who listened like, yeah, okay, we'll give you a shot and put you in.

Speaker 2:

You know why it didn't move crazy amount of volume in the beginning. It kept growing and it kept growing and it kept growing and it kept growing. And then they'd give me one more facing one more item. And before you know it, you know, hey, we're a real brand. And here we are, 25 years later and we'll have, you know, six, eight, ten items on the shelf. You know we sell more uncle matt's and accounts like whole foods and sprouts than tropican and simply, um and ford is natural.

Speaker 2:

So we're we're selling more than them and we're outgrowing and outpacing the category. For the last 10 years, we've been the thing that's provided growth. So it's it's pretty amazing absolutely a hundred percent.

Speaker 1:

And just to explain to everyone, what is the major difference between organic, like, in regard to the farms, in regard to the, the juice like.

Speaker 2:

Can you just elaborate on that a little bit, because I yeah, for for layman's terms, really, it's by farming without synthetic uh pesticides, uh, or fertilizers. Right, so farming more the way mother nature intended. So, compost, compost, tea, fish emulsion, um, uh, we'll use natural botanicals to deter pests. You know, we'll use like neem oil. So instead of stuff with skull and the crossbones on the label that you would put out on into mother earth, uh, we won't use that, right, we'll use things that they used, uh, before uh, world war ii. When they came home, instead of making bombs, they then made pesticides out of a lot of the same material. It's true, it's what happened Before my grandfather passed away.

Speaker 2:

He was so excited about us farming organic and getting into farming organic because he saw it in his lifetime. He saw farming prior to World War II without pesticides. When I first came to him with the idea of can we farm organic in Florida, he laughed and was offended and said I was alive man. Of course we can. Before pesticides were invented, we can't.

Speaker 2:

You know, we planted cover crops, we put hairy indigo down and it grew our own nitrogen. Then we would disk it back into the ground and it would build organic matter, hold more moisture and we'd get a lot of composted chicken manure, we'd use that for fertilizer and we did those kind of things and those practices and the groves thrive. And we didn't. We didn't stop using those methods because they were disproven. They were just displaced by new technologies that came in with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. And in his lifetime he saw from the beginning to the end and you know, he died when he was, I think, 81, 82. That at the end, and when he and I were interacting, it was hey, we have become an industry in agriculture where it's a lot more single factor analysis.

Speaker 2:

You have a pest, you get a pesticide to kill it. You have a fungus, you get a fungicide to kill it, instead of holistically trying to come up with preventative maintenance right around building the healthy soil so the tree can defend itself naturally.

Speaker 2:

It doesn't attract the pest because it's too vigorous. It does more on its own. You stimulate its own immune system, etc. So that's what he was so excited about that we were. His lasting legacy was fighting to try to get back to more holistic farming, and the conventional method was taking us further and further away from it.

Speaker 1:

Because the other side of it, it's more profitable now because it's easier.

Speaker 2:

less work, less labor, yeah I mean the conventional ag model is more about production right than necessarily quality. And when you look at organic, while not all the crops will get the same production as your synthetic counterparts, uh, we want more quality, right, we want, you know, better, higher nutrient density inside of it, more antioxidants, you know, vitamin c and some of those things. Uh, when a tree grows um slower, it grows more.

Speaker 2:

With a healthy soil you're going to get more nutrients inside that that fruit and better results and a lot of its flavor. You know which is the end consumer gets and goes.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that was really well, you're going to get more nutrients inside that fruit and better results and a lot of it's flavor, which is the end consumer gets and goes. Oh, that was really good, because it's different. Yeah, it becomes very interesting and now I feel like you guys are perfectly primed for this, because now the organic wave is strong. It is With like a Whole Foods and a Sprouts. Wrong, it is like a whole foods and a sprouts and, yeah, like even the normal rush, normal um food stores are still trying to give organic sections because they're like yep yeah, I don't care they, because people are viewing the health as a longevity game, correct?

Speaker 2:

and definitely post covid you know, more people are looking at, more people are trying to come up with. You know, how do I keep myself healthy right and not have to go to the doctor? And if the next you know pandemic comes through, I want to have a natural immune system that's ready to help and fight off that disease. And so how do you get there? You know you are what you eat. You know health as well. Food is medicine. Those are kind of key components and they were always rooted in that organic movement because we were looking for the most nutrient, dense, the healthiest, whatever you're going to grow, and that's what organic farming is about.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and for people who are for your business. Did you guys end up having some success with this? Because I mean, obviously you're around 25 years later, but yeah, you, did any of the big guys ever try to take you guys, like buy you guys out? How did that go?

Speaker 2:

so we did um as a family we had. We started in 1999. My uh, I was myself and I got a loan from my mom for 20, I think 20 grand, basically paid her all back. But I was by 2002, I realized, you know, hey, this Uncle Matt's thing, I need to do more on the growing side. I can't just go out to a couple organic growers in Florida and buy their fruit and buy their juice. We need to start doing it ourselves. And so we formed a whole other company, uncle Matt's Fresh, and I brought in more family members, my dad and brother in particular. They were the agronomist.

Speaker 2:

And so we then rapidly began transitioning groves to organic. It takes three years from the last prohibited substance. And so we had to play the long-term game. We'd go out and say, hey, let's turn it organic. We'll help you with the farm plan, we'll tell you what to fertilize with, what kind of organic sprays you're allowed to use, we'll help you with certification and oh, by the way, we'll buy it all because we need it. And so we did that very aggressively from 2002 until 2015 and we had all of our own groves. Um on for uncle matt's. We supplied. We were the largest organic fresh fruit shipper on the east coast, so orange is great.

Speaker 1:

Were you shipping just for yourself, or you were shipping other people as well?

Speaker 2:

no, so we we were shipping to publics and Whole Foods and Kroger, but I mean I mean like obviously your father and brother started making this?

Speaker 1:

Yes, they started growing Supply, the demand. You guys had a demand with Uncle Matt's.

Speaker 2:

OK, so I was growing the demand and they were literally growing the supply. So we went from three acres in my dad's backyard to at the end. At our peak we had 1,500 acres.

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2:

We had over 35 different growers that we had converted over the years and we took care of all of it ourselves. We had a separate caretaking company with 20 different people, five different tractors and all kinds of equipment to take care of them all throughout the state, up and down the state of Florida. And then this little citrus greening bug shows up and started killing everything and it's a disease that affects the industry.

Speaker 2:

It's a bacterial disease. It doesn't affect humans, but it affects the citrus tree and conventional organic. Nobody has cured it to date, and so our business model has dramatically changed since then. What we have left to the 1500 acres is about 70. That's only for research and development to try and find a cure for greening. So we've had to pivot. We now work with other growers in other locations around the world.

Speaker 1:

That are greening free. What were you going through when you were thinking about that? Because the reason I say this is because I think it's so important for businesses to share learnings and challenges, because we all want to sit there and go. Oh, it must be so easy for him. He's got all these deals, all these things, but like no there's real challenges.

Speaker 1:

So like when your supplier goes, hey, we can't do this and it's because of a little bug that starts in, you're like, oh my God, like that's almost as bad as COVID. And you're like what?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So it was huge and we had to dramatically change and pivot. I had a lot of friends over the years that I developed in both Texas, California and Mexico, because we were growing the same time. They were growing organic and they would ask we were friendly competitors. But when 2015 hit, we then started pivoting and said, hey, we're not going to have the supply that we had on these groves. The production's going down. If we don't find a cure, you know we're going to be finished.

Speaker 2:

And so what ended up happening is we started sourcing from those other locations and we turned those friendships into now business partnerships and began working with them to not only help tell them about citrus greening and how to avoid it in the future, how to identify what things you could try and do to avoid it, and then we had just good long term business relationships, working with them about growing quality supply for us, and so that was. That was quite the ordeal. But back to some of the hurdles 2002, we got all the way to 2012, and we didn't take any money. It was still just a family business. We combined the Fresh Fruit Company and the Juice Company in 2009. And then 2012,. We realized like hey, we need to raise some money, we need some more advice, we need more professional help on how to really take this brand to the next level, and so we brought in a private equity group out of Colorado and they were wonderful.

Speaker 1:

How was that experience Because I know the idea of raising money can be very intimidating one and then two bringing in a partner who isn't especially a private equity one where they're like, yeah, and then two bringing in a partner who is in, especially a private equity one where they're like, yeah, let's just they might be like let's drop the organic thing.

Speaker 2:

Like why are we so? We had a good friend in the industry, a gentleman named Aubrey, and he helped us navigate to find the right PE firm who shared our mission. And the guys out of Colorado were called Greenmont and they really understood organic. They were big into supporting organic farming and so when things would go sideways, they weren't looking for the exit door to get out, they were trying to figure out how to work through it with us, and so we were blessed to have the right partner there.

Speaker 2:

And that was great. And so, when we were going through all these creaking up and downs and holy cow, nobody panicked and they helped get us through. But by 2017, it had been five years and they were ready to exit.

Speaker 2:

They needed to find you know for their own fund they invested three to five years, and so we went to the market to find a replacement for them. They were a minority investor and it became pretty obvious that the the only way and the best way was people wanted to buy the whole company. Yeah, they didn't want to just buy a minority share, and so we thought long and hard about it, uh, prayed about it and said you know what? I think it's the right time. I think you know, yeah, we, we had some hurdles with greening. Uh, we were at this kind of plateau as a company that we just needed more help and expertise to get it. Uh, more distribution nationwide, uh, and so we decided to sell um, it was it's not the easiest decision, kind of. You know, I've thought maybe this was a multi-generational business, we would hand it off to the next generation. But I also said at the beginning there'll be the right time to get in and the right time to get out, and it will be clear.

Speaker 2:

There will be a clear point of like hey, you hit so much adversity and walls that you've got to figure out which fork in the road you're going to. And it made sense for us to sell. And so it was a great exit for my family. They, you know, mom and dad mom, retired dad just went back to farming. My brother-in-law uh, he went back to being a full-time delta pilot. Um, my brother um, stayed on and became and became the ag R&D consultant for us. My wife and I stayed on and ran the company. We sold it to Dean Foods.

Speaker 2:

They were the largest dairy nationwide. They were publicly traded $8 billion with a B, 17,000 employees, 70 plus plants. And it really helped me employees, 70 plus plants and it really helped me see us expand nationwide. Like, okay, I can get into these plants. You know, milk is ubiquitous, it's in every crack. I can see it for the next two or three years and then I'll go do something else. I'll go back into farming and do what I love with the family and just be a fresh root grower. But lo and behold, they went bankrupt Two years in. They had a lot of problems. Dairy was declining pretty rapidly. They had a lot of debt on the books. They had all these plants and they couldn't close them fast enough. Plant-based milks, soy, almond, oat, all those things were coming in and getting more shelf space from the milk. They couldn't pivot fast enough, unfortunately.

Speaker 2:

Unfortunately, they went bankrupt and I was sitting there at the beginning of the pandemic and you know, early 2020 going wow, this thing's gonna go up for auction. Um, do I want to buy this company back like it's?

Speaker 1:

a pandemic.

Speaker 2:

Your little subset back yes, yes, so we could go in and carve out little Uncle Matt's and the $8 billion company.

Speaker 1:

I didn't mean it like that.

Speaker 2:

But it's very true and it was like this little tiny company that we were going to buy out of the big monster thing with all the different assets. And so it took a while I mean I was about $350,000 in legal fees into the whole bankruptcy thing of trying to figure out how to buy it back and maneuver and raise money, and so if we would have lost the bid I would have taken a pretty good hit and that wouldn't have been fun. But I went in and found some good industry friends who would come alongside me and invest back in the company. Um, I didn't want to risk all of my chips on the table.

Speaker 1:

So at this point, so at this point, just to clarify for people listening is you basically were able to sell your business, take chips off the table, be kind of set for life, and then you go back in and you're like, wait, wait, are we about to play this game again?

Speaker 1:

But that's what you brought some friends in, because people don't understand that when you're purchasing things, you can share the debt load in different ways and you can raise money and it can be very unique, so it doesn't always have to be a one person does it all.

Speaker 2:

That's right. Yeah, and we kind of knew what our risk level was, that we wanted to go at it again. And you know, granted it's orange juice, it's a commodity and you know it's not the easiest category and there's not huge margins. You have to be a really lean operator.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And you know it was a category that was in decline. Orange juice continued to kind of slowly decline while we we continue to increase. So we uh, the judge uh said hey, this is going to be not a typical auction. It's going to be one, you know, final bid. So put in your best and highest bid. So that was very, you know, difficult. Like, wow, how much do we really think this? You know we're going to be bidding against other people, how, what's our max that we want to raise? And how much do my wife think this? You know we're going to be bidding against other people. What's our max that we want to raise? And how much do my wife and I want to be diluted to, to still be interested? And so that was a lot of dynamics. And then if we lost the bid, you know my wife and I would be out the 350 grand of our legal time, and so we weren't really excited about that. But you know, we, we, we did all this work. We had all these several different attorneys on there. It was right at the beginning of the pandemic, we raised money in 30 days. You know, most people put a big deck together. They have all kinds of data and stuff, and we didn't have that. They just had to trust us. Like, hey, I think we're going to get, if we'd win the bid, we're going to get a good deal at bankruptcy on a company that already has, you know, three, four times the sales of what we're going to buy back for, and we'll have a pretty good, pretty good opportunity to grow from there. And we did so.

Speaker 2:

Remember, four in the morning my wife wakes me up, no-transcript, and we'll be back owning the company, but I'm not gonna sweat over it. So she's like wow, that's crazy. Okay, so I go to bed. I'm knocked out at 4 am. She's like waking me up Honey, honey, like, yeah. She's like, guess what? Like, huh, like, is there an intruder in the house? You know, it's kind of like out of it. Yeah, you got the company back. We got it back and I was like what we won the bid, she's like is going to work. And so since then we've more than doubled the business and have a lot of growth and strength in the category. And now we're doing our own manufacturing. We have our own bottling facility where before, for 24 years, we were using co-packers all over the US, and now we've consolidated it all.

Speaker 1:

What's the major difference between for people who don't know about that between having your own manufacturing versus co-packers?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I mean we had good relationships with our co-packers. We would supply them the juice and they would put it in the bottle for us and then we would ship it out and market and sell it. So they were the, they were the manufacturer, they had all the shiny steel, they had the labor that did all that and just provided a service for us, and for the most part they did a good service. But when we got into COVID, everybody had issues and so we had to go from one co-packer to three co-packers to keep up with our volume, and so that became really burdensome on our company. To ship stuff, you know three different locations we were Midwest, mid-atlantic and down in Florida that we had to supply every week with you know the same materials, and it was just like wow, it's way too confusing.

Speaker 2:

It was inexpensive, but we did it, and we did it really well. Our team did a fantastic job, and so it became very obvious like, hey, we need to consolidate this, and then where are we going to do it? You know, we're a fourth generation Florida citrus family. We've always been right here. Well, it's not here, you know, we did it.

Speaker 2:

We did it in the middle of the country, in Texas. Texas is our supplier, east coast of Mexico is our supplier. So now we we ship it right there to dallas and we go east and west and split the country in half and strategically it's a really good uh move and advantage for us. And I fly out there period, you know, at least once or twice a month and uh, have some fun at my, my version of disney world and uh, really enjoy it and our, our efficiencies are getting better and everything about it is a lot of fun. And now we're, you know, firmly set to expand and grow our business, but with a whole different business model than when I started in the very beginning. And it's bittersweet, very bitterstersweet, because I'm a Florida citrus guy and for the longest time man, that was my, that was my main selling point.

Speaker 1:

But you know we had to change and how has that been for you? Because I know a lot of people face challenges when a change occurs and it seems like selling the company, buying it back with the the, with the citrus greening, like all these challenges. How have you been able to view change? And, if someone's listening to this, how can they utilize change for a positive?

Speaker 2:

uh, you know I like a good challenge.

Speaker 2:

All right, it's a mindset I I completely agree yeah, I mean, it really is a mindset hey, we're going to overcome any obstacle, right, and you're always thinking strategic. You're thinking what if? Scenarios. Yeah, so you know, I always tried to stay two or three steps ahead of hey, what if this happens? And as organic and being a fast growing company, we always had to really think strategically like, hey, what if a hurricane wipes out a lot of our supply? What if a co-packer goes down or they don't like us anymore, they want to get in and compete against us, or something? I was always trying to think of backup scenarios. So embrace those scenarios. Think about the what-ifs.

Speaker 2:

I do the old six Ps of prior proper planning prevents poor performance. Up scenarios. So you know, embrace those scenarios. You know, think about the what ifs. I do the old six P's of you know prior proper planning prevents poor performance. And do that quite a bit and do it throughout your business of every little piece, right, that you're going to, you're going to plan. You're going to plan for the best and you're going to plan for the worst. So you're ready when it happens, because it will happen. I guarantee you stay in business long enough. You're going to have the best of the highs. Like man, we're like nothing stopping us and then you're going to have the low of the lows, like I think they're coming to take the house and this is not going to be fun. Like holy cow, I was just a top amount, like last month, I get to the damn bottom of the bag.

Speaker 1:

So how do you keep an even mindset? Because I feel like I mean, that's the turbulence of entrepreneurship that's so challenging for all of us.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean for me, I mean as a Christian, I stay, you know, faith-based right. So I pray for wisdom and strength on a regular basis and try and stay, you know mellow, and say you know my treasures are in heaven, it's not here, I can't take any of it with me. I try and stay, my treasures are in heaven, it's not here, I can't take any of it with me. I try and stay on my mission. Hey, this is all part of just getting to the mission and fulfilling what I love to do with the purpose in life. It's going to be trials and tribulations, it's just part of it.

Speaker 2:

There's no business, it's nothing but a hockey curve up and no problems. So it doesn't matter what you do or where you go. But, aside from my own faith, just finding things that you like to do outside, you know work-life balance, right. So work-life balance, you got to make sure, do your best, when you're not working, to not work, whether it's exercise, you like to read, you like to go for a bike ride, you like to hang out with your friends. You know, have hobbies. Have hobbies that you can truly, uh, let you impress yeah decompress.

Speaker 2:

And so I I try to uh, do it. I mean it's you know, you got to have a mindset to do it, because it will follow you a lot and, and especially, you didn't have kids. You have a kid, you have a wife. You need to really make sure you're making time for them, because then, before you know it, life has passed you by.

Speaker 2:

I'll never forget the Wendy's founder. They talked to his daughter and said what do you remember the most about your dad? What an amazing guy. He had all these Wendy's. He created this company. What do you remember the most about your dad? What an amazing guy. He had all these Wendy's. He created this company. What do you remember the most about him? And her quote was that he was never there. I'm like wow, I don't want to be that guy. I'm about my kids and the next generation having a great impact. I literally want to live, to be 100. That's one of my goals. So I try to biohack my life, come up with great exercise routines, food to nourish my body health as well. Because I want to impact the future generations, I want to tell them the stories my granddad told me. I started late in life with kids. I didn't get married until I was 36. I got my work cut out for me at 53, but I like a channel.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, absolutely. And when you think about it, when you really put it all together, it's fascinating. Our life is so much more than just the job, and this is coming from someone who's ran a big business, sold the big business, bought the big business back and he's like life is not about the business. The business is just a tool to facilitate. And I think something everyone's a little curious about is you mentioned that you ran this with some of your family members, a good amount of them. How has that relationship been? Because I know that can be challenging. A lot of people say don't mix business and pleasure, like our family business, but like, what did you really get from that?

Speaker 2:

So we were. We were fortunate we have a family that, um, you know we all get along. Uh, actually, I live right next door to my sister and brother-in-law. Uh, my brother lives across the lake from us. Um, and my my parents still live here too, in the same small town, so you know we were a pretty close family in there.

Speaker 2:

If there's one thing that can destroy any family, it's money. It's money and disagreements over money and how you handle money and when you work in a business together. You're going to talk about money and you're going to talk about who makes what, what kind of bonus and job descriptions. The best thing I can tell you is that we all had unique traits, so it was pretty easy to delineate. This is your job description, this is what you're good at, really help the business there.

Speaker 2:

So Dad and Ben they were agronomists. My sister-in-law she had a marketing and advertising background, so she worked as a creative side that did a lot of the writing for packaging. My wife was also a graphic designer and a creative, so she really loved that and designed packaging and helped do writing and oversee marketing. My brother-in-law he had an MBA. He was really good at finance, so that helped. My mom had a great background in, you know, running a nursing program, so she was caring and compassionate, so she was HR, so we all had great natural gifts. That lined up perfect for you know, sharing the responsibility and sharing the roles as the company grew, and so that was. That was very helpful. So if you do have individual traits like that, it makes it much easier to put a family together than if you're all fighting over the same oar in the boat. Then that could be a problem Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And then when you juggle the business dynamic and the family dynamic, how does that work? Do you sometimes have to go? I am Uncle Matt's Matt right now, not Matt McLean, your brother.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I mean that's delicate, right, but I think everybody respected and understood that. I mean, somebody has to be in charge and so, if they're okay with the dynamic, that's the first step, right? Okay, who's going to be the leader? Who's the ultimate guy that's got to stand there and say you know, I'm charting the course, you know we can debate about you know how to get there and do that.

Speaker 2:

But you know, here's the course we're charting, and I got to be the leader of the organization. All of them are also leaders in their own right. So they led the ag team, they led the marketing team, they led HR. So they all had their chance to be leader. But at the end of the day, there has to be one person that at least is you know. Hey, I'm responsible for it all and I have to be making sure everybody's doing their job. So we serve the customer.

Speaker 2:

I mean, we're here to serve the customer and when you take it that way, it helps everybody realizing like, hey, you're not serving me, we're serving the customer. Ok, I'm just telling you what I think the customer is going to need and the customer demands, and if we don't do that, the competition will. So you know, that kind of helps deflect it from I'm telling you what to do as your brother or your son. It's no, the customer's telling us what to do. I'm just here to try to steer the ship.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's what a lot of people have said in regard to really running a business that I'm not the boss of anyone. All my employees are the boss, all the customers are the boss. It's funny, because a lot of people get into entrepreneurship to not have a boss and then you start to realize you're like I have a million bosses yeah, yeah, uh-huh.

Speaker 2:

You never get away from uh being told by somebody what to do absolutely, absolutely, I mean you can, but then you're not listening to your customer and you probably won't be a business owner.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, absolutely. So, matt for you. Where can people learn about Uncle Matt's? Where can they find Uncle Matt's? Where is all this?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the good news is we're in 15,000 plus stores nationwide. Oh, wow.

Speaker 2:

Which is great. So I mean you can find us in Whole Foods, kroger, sprouts, publix, walmart a bunch of different regional chains, great natural food stores where we started out. So if you've got a good local food co-op, go there, support the little guy. But go to unclematscom. We have a store locator. Click on that tab, put in your zip code and it'll tell you exactly what stores in your area where you can find which items. We sell a bunch of different items, not just orange juice but lemonades and punches. And now we got into real brewed organic tea, which is kind of fun. And if you can't find the item you want, we will actually ship it to you. So we also have an e-com aspect. We will ship it direct to your door. It won't be as cheap as what you have if you can find it locally, because we have to put it in a refrigerated box and send it to you overnight. But we will gladly deliver anywhere in the continental US. But you can also find us in Hawaii, alaska.

Speaker 2:

Oh wow, puerto Rico. Yeah, we're in other spots.

Speaker 1:

That's incredible. Thank you so much, matt, this has been amazing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I appreciate it, jordan, Anytime.

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Jordan Edwards

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