In 1926, Charles Taylor patented the world's first soft serve ice cream machine. With the pull of a lever, these machines could dispense the cold yet soft ice cream we all know and love. Since that day, soft serve has pretty much been dispensed from those same machines. And if you've ever been to a McDonald's where the ice cream machine is broken, you know the frustration of this aging system. However, 97 years after the first soft serve machine turned the ice cream eating world upside down, Joe Nietzsche has revolutionized the way we consume soft serve ice cream. He has created a way to package soft serve in a pouch. So you can consume it whenever, wherever. You no longer need to be Jeff Bezos to enjoy soft serve ice cream in your house, because now you can grab a few pouches from the grocery store and keep them in your freezer. Or you can eat them all the way home. There's no judgment from us. In today's episode, we chat with Joe, the founder of CVT soft serve about how they're grappling to keep products on the shelves because their demand is so high. The importance of making his product LA mom friendly. And why going on Shark Tank is a hard pass from him. All right, welcome back to the podcast. We're talking to Joe from CVT made a pivot and he's here to tell us what you did. All right. So a long time ago you were doing the truck thing. Yes. We had had several conversations around how to scale. Yes. And now you've just launched a new product. What is it? This is CVT soft serve to go. It is the first of its kind soft serve ice cream in the freezer aisle. Grab and go. No mess, no machine, no prep. Just eat it on the go. What led you to this? Like when I think about it, it looks like a gogurt or like yogurt on the go. But what was the thing? Because this category doesn't exist. And so to some extent you're part genius, part hacker here. And so that's flattering. What led you to do it this way? So trying to expand the brand, trying to understand how we can do this without finding a fleet of 1961 trucks. And my customers would normally get a soft serve cup with a dome lid on it to go. And I'd ask them, you know, how does it taste? They said, oh, we take it out of the freezer. It tastes like Ben and Jerry's. Or if it starts to melt, it tastes like your soft serve again. So it's like light bulb moment. If we can package this in a way where it melts slightly, we could do this. And that was about a two year development, R&D. Yeah. What's the hard part of this? Is the hard part? The packaging? Like in terms of like, OK, so you have a concept of like, OK, yeah, how to shelf stable. Seven all-natural ingredients that was, I wanted to make it LA mom friendly. Well, it's true. LA mom-friendly, all-natural seven ingredients trying to figure out how do we get the taste to be as close or if not the same as the trucks without a soft-serve machine. That's the hard part. Very hard. Getting the consistency right, because right now you're a brick. How do I get it from brick to soft serve instead of from brick to soup? There's a middle ground, which is what your friends here are consuming right now. And at some point, are you thinking, I mean, it's a whole another game. It's one thing running like this like retail on wheels business, and now you're in the CPG business. It's whole another game. It's completely new. I'm learning every single day. So I have a team of guys that are helping me because I definitely, it takes a village. Yeah. What's the team? What are they focused on? I have attorneys helping me with all the legal and the patent work. I have a sales guy who actually grew vitamin water to 500 million in sales. He's small company. Yeah. It's not 50 cent, is it? It's not 50 cent. His name's Jason. He helps develop and build brands sales-wise. And I met him through a CVT customer. I have a really great creative guy that used to work for Stanley at Paramount and did all their movie posters. If you've seen a Avengers poster, his name was on it. Yeah, these are beautiful. They're pretty cool. Thank you. I love that package. I have a finance guy that's been helping with our fundraise and it's been really good. And the strategy, I know right now you're at Tacos 1986. What other locations are you at? Are you in retail? What, what, how did you sort of get the market? We launched with Gelsons. I wanted to go premium. It's a premium ice cream. That was our first pitch meeting. Give me a window into, so you're sitting down with Gelsons. You have this idea, I don't know what they've ever done this. I don't know. This has been done before. And so are they like, what are they telling you when you're pitching them? Do they see it? Do they not see it? Like, where are we going to put you? I didn't even have the packaging. They were in like no joke, breast milk storage pouches. Perfect. Yeah. So I brought the product there. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm showing them what it was. I had a wonderful pitch deck from my guy, my Paramount creative guy. And I pitched them and they tried it and they were sold. And Jason Sales Guy told me, he said, Joe, these things take at least a year to get on shelf. And in the room, they want, they said, how soon can we get it? So they were really excited because it's, yeah, it's a new category. And what did they see though? Or they like, like, where are they going to put you? Where are they thinking they put you right in the ice cream? Did they not know? Novelty. Next to a cookie sandwiches, whatever the grab-and-go ice cream is for novelties. But my argument to that is I don't feel like we're in the exact same category in that. It's no mess. Yeah. I would agree with that. It's a little bit confusing. And how's it going so far? Incredible. Sold out all 27 locations, three times. Gelsons. Oh, wow. We've outsold their top two. I won't name the names. Their top two ice cream competitors, times five. I know it sounds crazy. It doesn't sound so. People, there's an appetite. And what do you credit that to? Do you think it's your social media? Do you think it's your influencer network of celebrities? Yeah, I'm not the influencer. I think it's the product stands for itself. But also, I mean, it's just a fun new thing to try. And yes, our social media following people jumped in. But I was surprised to hear cases were selling out in San Diego and Santa Barbara, where we have no following. I assumed in the San Fernando Valley and around LA it would be popular, but it's been popular at all locations. And now you're expanding? Are you taking different retailers? We're doing discussions. Additional grocery. We just landed a week ago on campus at UCLA. Oh, nice. So I was. That's fun. Yeah, I wasn't considering that. But there's a lot of kids there that like to eat ice cream. So. And are you raising capital because this is an expensive endeavor just to get off the ground. How are you? How are you family seed round? That went great. Now there's a lot of opportunity where I want to hire key employees, build our inventories and machinery. So we're involved in a series A round right now. And when it comes to the trucks, do you just view that like a marketing branding exercise? Will you keep them or is this? I'll keep them. Yeah, I think they're going to be great for PR, for putting them at grocery store parking lots, letting people know about the brand. I think they're mobile. So that's great. Makes it easy. Yeah. But eventually. Yeah, we'll keep the trucks going. They're kind of two separate things, but they help each other. That's actually a really good idea. I hadn't thought about like instead of doing the whole taste like table inside the grocery, you could just do it outside. Yeah.  You should work for me.  That's exactly what we're doing. That's actually a brilliant idea. That's what we're doing.  Is that ever? I know a little while ago you not really, but would you do it now? Just to have like a flagship? I would consider permanently parking a truck. Farm cup. In a building. Yeah. And having a flagship. But yeah, now the trucks are great for that. We're going to move them from location to location to. What's been the hardest part of this transition for you? All of it. I mean, this is really like a whole new game. It's a beast. Yeah. Again, I have no problem.  Like I know what I'm doing. I'm like, I'm a rookie. I don't understand. Can I learn from you? When you're hiring the experts. Yes. Which is smart. Yes. What's been the most valuable thing you think you've learned as you've gone into CPG? The most valuable thing, nothing moves quickly. So just to have a lot of patience. Yeah. It's a hurry up and wait game. Yeah. Even though it, I mean, it has been moving quickly. But just knowing that these things take time. And also for, I mean, from all aspects, from sales to production. So we didn't anticipate selling out. We thought we would do a certain number of sales per week and we just blew it out of the water. So keeping up with production has been a challenge. That's awesome. We're working on it. Will you ever do this thing? So we were talking to Holy Grail Donuts where they do this Donut of the Month thing with a chef. Will you ever do this thing where you introduce a new flavor with just someone fun? And it doesn't have to be a chef. It could be like anyone that you just enjoy working with. Yeah. I mean, we talk about doing coffee flavors all the time. We talk about doing strawberry. So yeah, our base is there. So we can definitely expand the line. And then you have the trucks. So it's almost like you could beta test in the trucks. Right. And so it's almost like free R&D to some extent in a controlled environment. And then if people like it, it's easy. Yep. Do you sell them individually or in packs? We sell them individually. We thought we would need to do multi-packs, but people are just buying them in bulk. We never anticipated that. The average Gelsen shopper is purchasing at least four to five minimum. I assume if you have kids or friends, you want to grab it one for each. But I think the scarcity of it all also created this demand of we better grab it while it's on shelf. What do you sell them for? How much are they? They are $4.99 at Gelsen's. OK.   Who is your customer? Is it mostly moms, LA moms, like you said before? No. I said I made it LA mom friendly for the ingredient panel. But I say our customer is Nick used to nursing homes, pretty much babies to grandparents. I know that's everyone. On a line. No. I'm telling you, it is the two most popular flavors of ice cream in the world. OK. Chocolate and vanilla. That's it. There's a famous quote from Baskin Robbins. They said, do you know why we have 31 flavors? To give people 30 reasons to go in and buy vanilla. Vanilla is the most popular flavor in the world. We actually, on our trucks, vanilla outsells chocolate two to one. But yeah, our demo is everyone. I have to ask this because we've been talking to so many Shark Tank people. Yeah. I got to know. Are they emailing you? Are they trying to get you on the show, Joe? It's been discussed. I know you have Shark Tank friends, so I don't want to speak. We do. In a way that. Are you interested? Absolutely not. No, hard no. Hard no. Even for marketing. Even for marketing. Why not? Well, now I'm just going to offend your network. You can offend them. I think it's not in my nature to go on national television and ask for money. That's an ego pride thing. And I know it's one of the most popular shows on television. These are experts. As the Sharks, I get it. For me, it just doesn't feel right to go on national television. It feels kind of baggy. That's an interesting take. But you'd happily take their money. Just not on national television. On what terms? Whatever you want. Up to you. Happy evaluation. If the valuation is great, of course, they're strategic partners. But I just don't want to do it on national TV. One of the things we learned in talking about a bunch of these companies on the CPG space, so to get off Shark Tank, was like, there's this really interesting hack where if they can really get in bed with the retailer, like with galsons or these Ralphs or these Whole Foods, and they can solve a problem that these retailers are having. And so it's not just like, here's my product, do it. It's so good. It's more of like, hey, Whole Foods, what are you guys missing in whatever space or whatever lines are in the novelty space, let's call it. And then if you can drum up some sort of shared connection where they'll now promote you, because they've been interested in trying this new model or approach, has that, have you gotten to that yet? Yeah. Yeah, because you have the product for it. Yeah, and they also, from a financial standpoint, they have a vested interest in keeping it on the shelf, so it makes sense for both of us. Yeah, and are you getting hit with stocking fees or is that not a thing? It can be a thing, but when your product is selling, there's always room for negotiation. I'm trying to be... So you're avoiding the stocking fees? I'm trying to be PC here. That's really good. Yeah, there's slotting fees, there's all sorts of fees for... Slotting, that's it, yeah. But when the product is selling, it's negotiable. What's the next step for you? I'm gonna try one of them. Which one should I try? The vanilla? Yeah. For people listening, it's a Monday, and I had not planned to have ice cream on Monday. Eat ice cream at 11 o'clock? What's next for you in this whole endeavor? Additional channels that are not grocery. We've got a lot of opportunity. Dude, that's so good. Thank you. That's... Oh my God. That's like really good, Joe. Thank you. Yeah, it's no mess, too. That's what I like about it. It's like the perfect sweetness. Super creamy. Was gluten-free? It's non-vegan. It's... Non-vegan, that's a better word for it. It is not plant-based. There were cows involved in that. Was it hard getting the sizing of this right? Like for little kids versus like people like me? It's funny you mentioned that. We focus-grouped it, and I was getting people that were saying, ooh, it's too much or ooh, it's too little. We actually sell six ounces on the truck, which is what you're eating right now. But trying to figure out that, and I would go to different focus groups and kind of ask, and depending on where you are, people say it's too much, too little, so we tried to find the middle ground. Again, here I am trying to be a PC. Should I just break it down for you? Break it down, yeah. All right, so... Because these pouches don't come in all sizes, I imagine. Correct. I have catered from billionaires to homeless shelters. Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos to homeless shelters. When I cater for the top 1%, when at the trucks they say, just want a taste, give me a little. I don't want too much. When I cater for lower income, people, can I get more? Can I have two? How much can I have? Does more come in a cup or a cone? So when I was focus-grouping, I was kind of trying to figure that out. And I think we found the middle ground. Someone said to me, ooh, that's too much for my kid. I said, did they finish it? They said, yes. So a fluent mom might think it's too much. People share it? Like if you have a kid, like if you have two kids, are you like, let's buy one pouch and Johnny gets half and Susie gets the other half? I would think they shouldn't do that, but you could. And if you can't finish it, you can cap it and put it away and eat it again later. How much are you trying to raise now in your series A? Come on. I'm curious. I'm curious how fast, because you got to go so fast. That's the hard part, the velocities of it. You're seeing the demand, you're selling out. So you know the cost. Yes. Do you have warehouse space yet? Are you looking for that? We have that. Okay, cold storage. Have that. Okay. But that, you need more of it. Yes. Yeah. And so then you're just doing the analysis. I know. I'm trying to do enough where we don't have to run into a second raise anytime soon. Yeah. I'm trying to have some reserves. A big one. To throw a bazooka at it when it really goes. What is the vitamin water guy telling you? Hard and fast. Yeah. We have something unique. We're first to market. Let's make sure we stay that way. Clearly there will be someone down the road that's going to want to come in. How often do you think about that? Way too often. That's the thing that always terrifies me about new products. It takes like nothing. It can be anything, but it takes nothing for a company just to make it tomorrow. Let's call it Dan and then all of a sudden they're pumping it everywhere and spending $10 million on advertising. My hope and then again, ego. Nine years of a built brand, celebrity brand cache. I hope that holds weight. I think the product holds weight. I think that people who do try it will probably do a cheaper formula. Won't taste as good. That's my opinion, but I could be wrong. It'll probably be cheaper. Yeah.  But I would argue there's 100 pizzerias in town that are all in business. So we'll make it work. That's really interesting. That's the thing that would keep me up at night, actually. Competition? It's competition, but it's also like you're the behemoths, right? The behemoths of the world are the one that can just tackle you. And it's hard or just like copy you and now you're in some legal battle for no reason. They're just slowing you down. I've had people tell me that a lot of the big guys will buy the innovators before they innovate themselves. I should be more concerned about the smaller guys coming in. I don't know if that's true or not. That's what I was told. That's good advice. Yeah. It helps me feel better. I mean, if I believe it, I'm like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. All right, let's go to the other side of it then. Acquisition. Do you care or do you want to?  If an acquisition offer comes in before then, it's a hard no for now. It's not a hard no for now. I'm open to it. I just got to see where it takes us. Do you have like a fun collab thing or like what would be like the most fun thing you do with this company? Just fun. Like Joe, like something for you personally that would just be like, oh, that thing I did was really cool. Whether it's like, I don't know. Your favorite baseball team wins the World Series instead of bringing up the Champagne. They're all having CV Teenies in the back locker room. I just catered for the NHL, like for the Stanley Cup in Vegas with these pouches. And you brought your kids? I brought my kids. I saw that. That was really cool on Instagram. Yeah. So I'll give you the short version, basically a producer that I had catered for in the past asked me, do you know any soft serve ice cream trucks in Vegas? I said, I don't, but I have these. She goes, I saw those, but can you ship them? I said, if you can get me access to my for my kids to see this thing. Sure. And I wasn't, I didn't want tickets. I just wanted to go and get the kids to see the arena. We did that at the end of the day. She said, you can go to the game. We went to game five. We watched the Stanley Cup get hoisted. Incredible. But when we got there, we thought we were having the nosebleed seats and we walked in and we were in the TNT suite with Wayne Gretzky and all these monsters of hockey and everyone on the crew loved it. I don't know how I'm going to top as a life experience. Seeing the Stanley Cup won one while sitting with Wayne Gretzky eating ice cream.  So that's a good way to go out. Anyway, you said like collab. Of course, the NHL will be insane, but live events in general, sporting events, concerts. One of the weird things, and this is this is just a real estate side of things on the, for like nightclubs and bars, I've been asked, like people ask me like, hey, do you know like a truck that could give people ice cream after? And I'm like, after what? They're like after the club gets out. They want dessert. I've never in my life wanted ice cream after leaving a club. It's but apparently it's like a monster thing. I wouldn't know because I have Because you go to bed at 10. I go to bed. I have four kids. Just like me. I go to bed early. And I imagine if there would be a market for it. One of our CVT and machine clients is a brewery. They sell a lot of ice cream. I never would have thought that it would sell a lot of ice cream, but they do. And is it people having them in this, like actually at the brewery? I think it's at the brewery. They're also making like stout floats, but also breweries are all ages. So you get people that don't want to drink or kids that can't drink. And they have their own vice. But about taking it the other way. Maybe this is harder. I don't know. What about like mini fridges with hotels and stuff like that? Talking about that too. That seems easy, right? We're doing a sports bar, as you probably know. And so I think about this stuff all the time where it's like what are we going to put in the sweets? What's the thing that these sweets come with? Sure. Having your product then it would be fun and cool. I don't think anyone would expect it, which is also different. Yep. Having it in the bar is probably the same thing. What do they charge for it there? Is it the same? Do you have it all fixed at $499? It's $18 for a beer at a concert. So it'll be more. Not for us necessarily, but for them. Yeah.  But it's... You really believe it and you see that. I see it every day. How many nursing homes are you on? Tons of nursing homes. They don't have to chew. There's no spoon. No teeth, no problem. Hospitals. Forget the ice cubes. I think food service is a huge avenue for us too. Is that what the UCLA, what is that? UCLA campuses like Google, Tesla, they want to feed their employees. What's the hardest part about this? Is it just focusing on the thing that's actually going to bring in a lot of revenue or you don't care where you sell it to, you just want to sell it? How do you think about that? I want to stay as premium as possible for as long as possible. I think that there will be certain retailers that will come our way that will cheapen it. And I know that sounds weird for a product that's $5, but there's a reason the product tastes good. It doesn't seem like it's that expensive. I don't know. I don't know. I actually don't buy ice cream. I haven't bought ice cream in a long time, so I don't even know what I'm comparing it to. You could get a pint of generic vanilla ice cream for like $3 to $4 at the grocery store. But what's been in cherry? Is it like $8? Is that one $8 for like a pint? A pint of Jenny's or salt and straw, you're looking at $12. So there's definitely a range. You should put them in packs though. That seems to make more. I want to do a six-pack like a beer, like a six bottles, but six pouches. Yeah. What can you tease? What can you tell us what's coming down the pipe? What's coming down the pipe are more grocery stores. There are opportunities for outdoor events. This isn't happening yet, but we're interested in talking to airlines. But the college thing, we didn't even scratch the surface on with UCLA. There are so many campuses, and I wasn't even thinking about that. Airlines? Airlines. Well, the first class people get two ounces, and then the people in the back of the plane get four. Exactly. How are you going to slice that up? When I was going out with this for our early investors, I was getting the constant feedback of there's no mess, no mess, no mess. I didn't realize we're also selling the convenience. I mean, I know that, but that wasn't top of mine. I was just focusing on the taste. But you're selling an experience where I can give this to my child in the back seat of the car, and there's no mess. There's no mess. You really got at the marketing side of it. So what kind of promotion are we going to see? Are we going to see something like, I'm putting spoons out of business. Spoons out of business. Where are we going with this? We're going to go, I think, probably after McBroken.com, maybe. It's like the one thing people all know about is that soft serve ice cream machines are always breaking. So our tagline is this ice cream machine's never broken, but I think it'll be fun to just play into that. What happened to the CVTini? They're still out there. You're still doing that also. Yeah, some people want them fresh. Okay, so that's still a thing. I still think that this, based on volume, will take over. I think so, too. This has the velocity. It's easy. It's amazing. It tastes good. People get it. I like the no-mess thing. It seems like a no-brainer. Send me your deck. This is cool. Thank you. I don't know, man. CPG. It's a tough business, though. But that's what I keep hearing. And I feel like we're getting a lot of beginners' luck, but maybe not. I don't know. We have a good product. That's a secret. I guess the way I look at it is, the product will sort of set you free, give you a lot of early wins, and the team's the one that makes the decision later. And so it's smart of you to be talking to these experts, because they're the ones that get you into that next level, where you're just out classing people.  I got a taste of it. There's a CPG conference called Expo West, where people go and they try and, you know. Dude, it's insane. Okay. So I went there and I'm looking at it. That's like the Ikea.  It's like, what's happening here? I'll tell you a quick story. Went to Expo West for the first time, what was it, April? Yeah. And I'm walking around and I'm just seeing like everyone has the next vegan pop chip. There's like, it's oversaturated. Everyone has the same thing. But I was realizing that the buyers are there. So on day two of Expo West, I started reaching out to certain distributors, and I snuck in a backpack full of dry ice, and I ended up doing meetings without having a booth. Without having a $60,000 booth. I took my meetings at the Marriott Starbucks. How'd it go? Very good. Expo West is tough because you're totally right. I'm totally... You're not exaggerating any capacity. I've knocked Shark Tank and I've knocked Expo West. So... You like the hacking of it. You like to do it your way. I don't know about that. I don't want to pay $60,000 to see some buyer say, please pick me, please pick me. That's what it feels like. Going to Shark Tank. Yeah, please, please, please. And I'm like, hey, I'm at Expo West. You want to try this? Let's go talk and have coffee. Yeah. That seems better. It's a lot better. Yeah. That's a lot better. That place is crazy. It's nuts. And most of those businesses will be gone in two years. I heard that on the floor, they say about 10% will make it one year. Yeah, I believe that. And you're totally right. But some of them ideas are just bad. It's like totally... And what you're saying sounds like you're exaggerating and joking, but it's 100% true. I would never joke. It's like a cookie with some other version of dough that is better for you. It's got Ashwagandha in it, then you go to the next one, and it's got L-Theanine in it, and you go to the next... And it's like, stop. Like, just make a good cookie. And also the color-coded tags bugged me. So the buyers had a certain code. So it's just like all these people trying to have a conversation with you, but I think I see an orange-coded... The buyer tag? When you're headed my way, it just felt so gross. I can't do it. Maybe I'm not cut out for sales. I think you're right. I think you're just touching on the humanity side of it. And that probably makes you uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable. But the sales guys walking around like... But you know who they are. What I find so funny about conferences, it's like it doesn't matter what conference you go to. It could be Expo West or like Software. And there's the same characters everywhere. It's like, that's the sales guy. Yeah. That nerd is the CEO probably. Yeah. And then what's the girl? She's the booth babe.  It's like so annoying. I want no part of it, but I know that's part of the process. Whether I agree with it or not. It sounds like you've done a good job avoiding it, which is hard. Well, maybe not hard. You have a good product. You've been in business for a long time. Yeah, but just getting those doors opened can be challenging for new businesses. Yeah. So if you don't know, if you don't have a sales rep, you don't have the right people, that's your only option. Are you pitching the stores now or are they just coming to you? Both. But it's been easy, it sounds like, to facilitate meetings. It's been easy. And then the early buzz and then showing them our numbers is just like, wait, what?  She didn't believe what we told her our numbers were for the first few weeks. So she said, no, it's not possible. And then we got to show her the data and then we just got this store because of that. It's been nuts. I just sound like such an egotistical, like, hey, look at us. I don't think you do. I don't hear much ego in what you're saying. It's been selling like crazy.  So it's almost like, I know you were trying to hit, you were saying May to launch, but I mean, the sun hasn't come out all night. No, it's been June gloom and our numbers are great. So yeah, when I say I'm scared about production, I'm scared about production. Yeah. Where's your, is it facility in LA? Or are you, I don't even know where you would do that. We are facilities in Southern California. And we are expanding out of state. To help with distribution, I imagine. Help with distribution. If we have an East Coast customer shipping from the West Coast, it can be done. It's just, why would we spend that kind of money? So do you ship now? Like you can order this online? No. I mean, just DoorDash. You're just saying like, yeah. Is there any opportunity there to partner with one of those like Uber Eats DoorDash people? Could do that or Gold Valley. Yeah. I didn't want to do the exclusive with anyone. You don't want to do with anyone? I didn't want to do exclusive. Okay. Is your man of the people? Same with Grocery Store. Yeah. Well, that makes more sense to me. What are the markets you're in? Are you in Indiana yet? Like what are the markets? Is it just California? Southern California. God, I can just, I just know the people listening to this, like any investor I know is just going to, they're just salivating at this.  Thank you. There's additional opportunities outside of Southern California that I would love to talk to you about, but I cannot, but I will soon. Yeah. I know that's pointless on a podcast. No, it's good. Let me ask you this question just personally for you because I've sort of seen your growth, right? Yeah. From when we first met to like now. Yeah. And so what is it, let's do two things. Okay. One, what has the process actually been like? Because it's a slow process. It's a lot of looking inward. It's a lot of what does the market want and then you developing concepts and sort of committing to that. Yep. So what has that been like mindset-wise for you? With four kids, with all the things, family. I'm not a patient person, so it's been a little frustrating. Okay. Yeah. And now what is it like now when you start to see after two years? It was worth all of it. Taking your kids to the Kings. It was worth every second.   I would just say just keep your head down and keep grinding and try to focus on only what you can. Obviously with the hope of that being the goal, but just focus on what you can. Because if you start getting ahead, oh, I'm going to sell it here. It's going to be there. I'm going to go on Shark Tank. Like Shark Tank. You're the first person. Isn't that terrible? I don't know if it is. I kind of like it. I don't know.  I think, look, I think Shark Tank could be a really, it's an interesting shortcut people can take, right? Because you know exactly what's going to happen. Well, you're going to be in every retailer next day. You better have distribution lined up. Your warehouse better be full because we know what's going to happen. And so just from a pure sales like bazooka type moment, that's it. And that makes sense to me. From a, do I want to give my company away? Not even about that. It's like, please pick me. It's the gross Hollywood actor, something in me like, please, please, please. I'm going to, Mr. Cuban, please can I have a check? Where I'm like, no, this is great. And if he likes it, he'll cut a check. And if he doesn't, he doesn't. I'll find someone. What if you just do the super freak? You go in there being like, look, I know there's six of you here in this room. The only person I want to deal with is this person. And then you just super freak it. And you go, I don't care, Mark. I don't care. Mark, I don't care. Dammit, I don't care. Barbara. This is the rebuttal. They're going to say, then why are you here? To get a deal with you. Whoever. Who's the person? If you had to get one, who is it? Is it Mark? I don't watch the show enough. See, I'm maybe, but then you go to the Mavericks.  The reason I say that is because it's happening more and more, like the more that we interview companies that have been on it, the more it trips me up where it's like the entrepreneur is actually the one picking who they're going to work with. But let me go back. The people you're talking to, they like the experience. They enjoyed it. They're grateful they did it. I don't know that anyone likes the entrepreneurship experience. No, no, no. Being on Shark Tank. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's the unforeseen challenges of what's ahead to you? Like as you scale this thing, like what are the things that you know you have to pull off to sort of make it this year, maybe up until summer of next year? I keep going back to it, but it's making sure we have enough product on shelf. And I don't know, because I'm new here, how long the retailers are like, it's okay. We'll get it in a couple of weeks. Like how bad is out of stock? We're not there yet, but if this thing goes to the plan, can I tell an upcoming retailer, you can have your product in August, six weeks from now, seven weeks from now. I don't know. We're going to find out because we're going to, we're headed in that direction. That is the hard part. That is, that's what keeps me up. All right. Tell everyone where they can find you, man. Follow your journey. They can find us at cvtsoftserve.com. That's Instagram account probably. Thank you. Honestly, so good. Very entertaining. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at cvtsoftserve. Gelsons. At Gelsons, at UCLA, at Tacos 1986. There's a local chain here in LA, and many more places soon. So if you go to our Instagram, you will be able to find out where we will be. Awesome. Not on Shark Tank. Don't get excited. We will not be on Shark Tank. Thanks, Joe. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much for the support and making it to the end of the episode. If you haven't already, please do review and share the episode with your friends. If you never want to miss a beat on all things entrepreneurship, make sure to follow us on socials for daily content. See you next Tuesday for another great episode.


Good harvest fellow land dwellers. Today we're going to be taking a look at an image that is the very definition of the words Oldish today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace What's worse than accidentally slamming your testicles in the oven door? That's right the Kodak price hike Perhaps with the cost of film going up. It's time to return to the roots Degarot types the man that the process is named after Lewis Degaray is actually known for taking what many consider to be the First known photo of a human being. Here's the photo shot on HP 5 pushed about 200 stops And here's our lucky first human ever photographed either getting a shoe shined or bartering for sexual favors We'll never know so looking at Lewis Degaray's photo from 1839 I wanted to make a video about how I think that this photo is more than just a historical landmark I Legitimately believe this photo deserves more recognition for its art than its technical Accomplishments and I'm prepared to arm wrestle to the death to prove it but first I think it might be crucial to understand the backstory of this photo 1839 was a long time ago and there wasn't shit to do back then so some people decided to start playing around with some chemicals Which is something film photographers and people who make meth have in common Lewis Degaray's mentor Joseph Neeps took this banger in 1826 while experimenting with a camera obscura and some photosensitive chemicals It's considered the first photograph ever taken and took somewhere around eight hours to expose though Some people think it probably actually took days after Neeps passed away Lewis Degaray took up his mantle like Batman and found a way to do the exposing process much faster He began by taking pictures of artsy bulls around his apartment like he was quarantined in 2020 or something but eventually he had the crazy idea to point the camera obscura out towards the city streets of Paris And he snapped this photo which allegedly took about 10 minutes to expose But why are you prepared to defend this photos artsy side to the death Jason though? Perhaps it wasn't intentional this photo displays a lot of strong compositional techniques that we still rely on today as well as a Subjectively strong in-frame narrative, but where do we start? Let's talk composition and boy is this one a doozy What is it exactly that makes a good composition perhaps it's not so simply defined I think that it's a mix of balance and simplicity one of the most popular ways to look at composition is the Fibonacci spiral It's a technique that's been in use way longer than you might think though often referred to as the golden ratio It dates back way beyond the era of neat rock mounds in the desert That's right The golden ratio was first dropped by mother nature herself in the year negative 13.7 billion but in terms of photography this whole thing breaks down pretty simply the Fibonacci spiral essentially breaks your total frame into Exponentially smaller sections until you arrive in an area where the subject or center of attention should naturally reside But what happens when we lay this nautilus looking mother f***er on top of Louis de Garret's daguerreotype from 1839? Well, it looks like our shoe shine guy is pretty dang close to where he's supposed to be according to our all-knowing and all-seeing Spiral, but let's talk about another compositional technique that's deep at work in this photo layering for your information There's a lot more to photos and people think photos are like onions They stink. Yes. No. Oh, they make you crack layers Onions have layers photos have layers onions have layers You get it a basic example of layering in photography is just by having a foreground mid-ground and background Clearly represented in the photo. This helps establish the environment, but it also gives the photo a more three-dimensional feel Well, daguerre is back at it again. We've got buildings in the foreground We've got our subject and some nice park details in the mid-ground and even more buildings in the background to the deep background It's f***ing tight, dude It's more three-dimensional than my personal character arc after 83 episodes on this channel But that more or less brings me to my next point leading lines leading lines are used by photographers painters and Attractive buff dudes to lead your eye towards something this photo is no exception Mainly the curve of the street and the array of park lamps and a path that lead us right to our guy showing off His new Jordans furthermore from there The street kind of takes our eyes and forces us to follow it along into the deep background Making you absorb all the layers in their oniony goodness But perhaps maybe it's time to look at the cherry on top of this whole thing the lighting It is of my personal opinion and perhaps yours too that lighting is just about the most important thing in photography Well, the lighting in this photo is on point especially in the background to the left of the frame My biggest inspiration of all time is the painter Edward Hopper and studying a lot of Edward Hopper's work I realized that lighting creates the mood and to Gary's photo is very moody One thing that I as well as a lot of other people enjoy about Edward Hopper's work is that it is very Melancholic oftentimes when I look at Edward Hopper's work I feel like I'm looking into a world where no one else exists except the people in the frame And that's something that I absolutely love about his work now to go a step further I would say that I feel the same way about to Gary's photo The bustling streets of Paris feel desolate the 10 minute or so exposure definitely had something to do with this Turning every moving thing into a ghost But perhaps the scope of the scene paired with a single remarkable figure makes it all feel isolated yet fantastical Now you might hear all this and think wow this daguerre guy is kind of a badass mother after all Let me stop you right there I truly think that this fantastic photo was a culmination of a lot of Dumb luck namely that Lewis daguerre just happened to live in an apartment with just the right height and angle so that he can capture a Pleasant composition and perhaps luckiest of all our guy down here didn't have to do except stand there for 10 minutes Getting a shoe shined or kicking the shoe shiner in the dick. We still don't know Daguerre took this photo not knowing what to expect in all honesty It's probably a test photo again It was around a 10 minute exposure daguerre didn't know that this guy down here would become the subject let alone that He would become globally recognized as the first photo of a human being but how do you explain everything else compositionally? Here's the thing Lewis daguerre was no dumb ass before instagram and photos even existed all anyone had were paintings But painters figured this out a long time ago Rembrandt was like Good lighting is the player and da Vinci Bellini and Raphael were like compositions Lit fam since daguerre came from kind of an artistic background It's entirely within the realm of possibility that he realized the correlation between painting a composition And composing a photographic composition thus he might have started applying some of these tried and true techniques to his experiments Lastly I'd like to wrap this up by stating that yes time itself does make photos more interesting It doesn't turn a photo into a good photo But I suppose it might add some subtext if you took a photo of the boring street that you live on today And then didn't look at it for 180 years I have no doubt in my mind that that photo would at least be mildly interesting Being able to peer back in time through photography is the first time that we as humans were able to break free of linear time Photography is one of the greatest achievements of mankind and this daguerre type is an excellent example of why I won't get into it But I could also talk about how cool the texture of this photo looks Even though it looks like it was run over by a billion leaking porta potty trucks Or perhaps even how dope it is that it has what looks like a light leak But those things are all surface level Literally what makes a photo art to me is the lasting impact that it has on the viewer and to me I think daguerre's image hits hard I certainly think that this photo is incredible and hopefully now you do too Or maybe you still think it looks like microwaved illford xp2 I don't know what I do know is that I want to thank today's sponsor Squarespace have you reached that point in photography where you'd like to start selling your prints or putting together books for your patrons to purchase? Well, then look no further Squarespace is an all-in-one website building platform that features all the tools necessary for you to build an online presence for your shop Including modules for keeping track of inventory as well as various selling tools built for photographers like print on demand and low stock alerts Squarespace's user interface is simply straightforward But if you do hit a snag squarespace offers 24 7 award-winning customer support and even features an online forum for you And your website if you have questions regarding custom designs or workflows So what are you waiting for if you're ready to build a website? You can start a free trial today at squarespace.com Slash grainy days and if you use the code grainy days at checkout you can get 10 off your first purchase Well, that's it for daguerre's photo. It'd be really cool to do a daguerreotype someday But from my understanding it requires a lot of nuance and components that I don't have and oh crap backster hasn't been in this video yet


YouTube team keep it clean. What's going on? It's engraving here with another video and in this video First and foremost before we get into the bad news. We got to talk about the good Ravens what 16 games in a row and a preseason undefeated streak great clap it up for the Ravens. Yeah But for team keep it clean Um Great things are coming for y'all great great things big things are coming for y'all fun stuff I'm like I did speak about last night in the string. We will be doing a giveaway to the last preseason game Between the Redskins and like I said if you if you want to be part of that giveaway Just stay tuned Because we're gonna be announcing that real soon but if you want to go do your own thing and go to where you can have open-bar 21 years and up of course, but it's open bar unlimited food A ticket to the game a bus ride to the game from Baltimore to the Redskins stadium and land over Then it's $30 you can get all that for $30 and now, you know You can go to a restaurant for $30 and get less than that You're not gonna get no open bar for $30 at a restaurant. No trust me I know you're not gonna get all the food you can eat for 30. Well, you can't get that But you can't get everything else, especially a ticket to the game So if y'all want to be part of that, I know a few of you have hit me up already Inquiring about how but you can go to the description and hit line up line events You can hit them up on Facebook You can send them an email and they have phone numbers for you that you can call as well to get in contact with them But please once you hit them up You have to let them know that engraving of his sent you because I want them to take care of you The best way possible so let them know that I sent you so they can hook you up but anyway and Again the giveaway We're gonna give away two pairs of tickets to that game the Redskins Ravens game So y'all stay tuned for that because I got announced that very very soon, but anyway Last night was pre-season game number three and With it being pre-season game number three. It is known as the dress rehearsal game For the starters. It is the game that we usually see a lot of the starters play Extensively well extensively compared to the first two pre-season games. So I know a lot of people were looking forward to seeing Lamar Jackson against this Philly defense that's fast, especially that defensive line goodness And we didn't get to see that though because a lot of the offensive linemen were out and you know what's funny I just seen on Twitter seen in different group chats seen on a instant just seen everywhere all over social media It was so funny that I saw um once it came out that Lamar wasn't starting like a lot of people was super excited to see Oh, yeah, okay. We're going against Philly. This is a really good team. Let's see how Lamar does We've been hearing all this stuff about them in joint practice blah blah blah, but now we get to see it And we were all excited for it But then when it came out that he wasn't gonna be playing It was funny because I just saw a lot of Ravens fans try to talk themselves out of being disappointed Because they were like, oh, well, yeah, he's he's starting offensive line. They banged up. So yeah, I don't want to see Lamar Anyway, I don't want to I don't want him to be out there with that. No, not at all But I thought it was just funny. But anyway, um, yeah, so they didn't play Lamar Jackson Which was a wise move especially if the offensive line ain't right Carson Wentz he didn't play but maybe that's just cuz he's an injury prone quarterback and Philly was like You know what? We don't need to have him out there for this We don't need him to be out there for this No, and it's a slight chance that it could rain because like my boy Michael Blackman said yesterday on the string and shout out to everybody That came through on a live stream after the game last night I appreciate y'all and those of you that didn't weren't able to come through We'll do another video where we break down the game. Um, so we got you But anyway, he said man if the rain came down too hard and Carson Wentz might break a bone But he is definitely an injury prone quarterback. So Yeah, that's that but so is Andrew Luck. Yeah, like my guy. I think his name was rental He mentioned in the comments section. He said Andrew luck don't get talked about enough as an injury prone quarterback And he is that now too. He's angry. He's always hurt Andrew luck is always hurt so both good quarterbacks Both would obviously make their team much better Like that, but both of them also get hurt like that So hopefully they can both be healthy this season. I know Andrew luck dealing with something right now in what his calf I think I forgot what's going on him. But anyway Injuries speaking of injuries They hold a lot of players out of the games Happens in every single sport if you are hurt then if you are bad enough then you can't play You can't play and somebody who we would have expected to see a lot more of last night Especially with it being a week three preseason game and not that he's a starter But just that this is the game where it's like, hey a lot of a lot more decisions are being made about the roster Because a lot more starters usually play But in this case with the Ravens, it was kind of the opposite So one were to think like what a Lamar not playing Gus Edwards didn't play Ingram didn't play Kenneth Dixon didn't play Oh Chris more play yeah, Chris more always plays man But I'm with a lot of the starters not playing one would think like okay somebody who was expected to sort of take over the role or take over Suggs role well kind of He's not the drop-back type at least not now Jaylen Ferguson we had expected to see a lot more of Jaylen Ferguson last night But unfortunately we didn't they had I know Jeff Zerbiec was talking about he was out there in shorts and stuff And he was going through the pregame stuff and whatnot running around exercising doing all that stuff But he we didn't see him we didn't see that number 45 out there And a lot of people kind of wondered why like huh like for the vets, okay Undisturbed but for Jaylen Ferguson who still he's sort of trying to find his niche with the Ravens and sort of really Find his mojo and sort of get that momentum Heading into the regular season a lot of people were expecting to see him But he wasn't he didn't play He didn't play a lot of our other rookies played even a Hollywood Brown Hollywood Brown Miles Boykin they played but no Jaylen Ferguson No even Marshall he didn't play either because he's getting ready for that stash move But some some of our other rookies they played but not a Jaylen Ferguson So with Jaylen Ferguson not playing I didn't think too much of it But I was just like okay, I guess like the Ravens just Maybe they know they're his role for the team. I don't know but it came out today Jeff Zerbiek said that he's actually in concussion protocol and I know Chris board. He's in pro concussion protocol I can't think of anybody else right now, but with concussion protocol that is um That can it can be something that's quick it can be something that's really quick or It can be something that lingers Of course with the Ravens expected to sign Paul Warlow and I've got a video coming out later where we spoke about this But with the Ravens expected to sign Paul Warlow It could be an indicator that Chris board Maybe Chris boards concussion is maybe he's not responding to it the way that they thought he would We'll just we'll have to wait and see he does have a little bit of time left And it's a good sign that he was actually out there like jogging around and stuff before the game, but You know, you don't know till you know because like with the concussion protocol if the player can't cover it up that good then them doubt they won't let you go back out there and they With them adding the doctors on the sidelines over the past couple years They don't make they're trying what they're trying to make sure the game is safe If you add if you try to add two games, I don't think that's really making it safer. But anyway They are doing different things to make the game safer and having the doctors out there That can assess them immediately if they have a concussion is one of those ways but with Chris Boyd, I think Paul the Paul Warlow signing is it could be an indication that maybe Chris boys concussion is not doing so Well, maybe he's not fully recovered from it yet Or it could just be a depth thing because of the lack of experience that the Ravens have an inside linebacker But with Jalen Ferguson Again, like I was saying earlier, this could be a thing that lingers Because concussions they can go on for weeks like do dudes can be in concussion protocol for weeks Oh We've also seen where dudes can be in concussion protocol for one game and then sit out and then the very next week very next game Boom. Hey, I'm back. What's good. Let's get it So hopefully for Jalen Ferguson.  He's gonna hold it down Like I know his name is sack daddy from what I've seen so far though. His game reminds me more of a Jared Johnson type sort of a Courtney Upshaw sort of a Who's somebody else? Yeah, just those maybe like a Corey Redding Where they they can hold it down on the edge they not they don't have the pretty moves in the past rush But they they got the strength to hold it down and so far so good with him with the strength holding it down But hopefully that this concussion it can it can go away and he can be good to go so anyway as I found out I had to let y'all know too About Jalen Ferguson. I appreciate y'all. I love y'all. Thank you for continuing to rock with us Thank you for just showing crazy support all the time All the videos just with everything man appreciate y'all Make sure you follow on Twitter and Instagram if you want to be added to the groups where we put every single video in the group chat Just hit me up on Twitter hit me up on Instagram and I'll put you in those groups team keep it clean I love y'all. I appreciate y'all and just like Jalen Ferguson was last night I'm out


It's pumpkin pie spice season. Now that's a tongue twister. And I love to mix up my own blend of spices because I get just the flavor that I want and the freshest flavors. So I have my spices that I'm going to use in my blend all pre-measured and I'm gonna show you how easy it is to just mix up your own blend of pumpkin pie spices. So I start with cinnamon, three tablespoons of cinnamon. And if you don't wanna mix up this much of a blend, this amount, then just cut it in half and you'll still get a really nice flavorful pumpkin pie spice blend. And I've measured out some ginger, about two teaspoons of ground ginger. And you can see I'm putting it right into a jar. And I've got nutmeg. I'm adding about two teaspoons of nutmeg, but my secret to the best flavor is to grate my own nutmeg. So you can just buy the whole nutmeg in the store, bring it home and these stay for a long while in your pantry. They don't lose their flavor. So just take your little grater and I happen to have a little microplane grater here and in 10 seconds you probably got half a teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg. So I'm using two teaspoons of the fresh stuff along with about a teaspoon and a half of allspice and another teaspoon and a half of ground cloves. And I'm going to give that a little stir. If you like cardamom, that's a nice addition too. That's totally optional, but that's what's nice about mixing up your own spice blend. You can get it just the flavor that you want. So I've got it all mixed up. I'm going to put the cover on. And any recipe that calls for cinnamon, you can use your pumpkin pie spice blend instead of the cinnamon or if you're making pumpkin bars and you've got a list of three or four different spices, add up the amount of those spices and use that much of your pumpkin pie spice blend. So I also have a piece of freezer tape ready to go because I'm going to label my jar. So I remember what's in it. And then I'll put it on my shelf and it will be ready to use for my baking season. Now next week I'll show you how you can make a wonderful, delicious homemade latte with your pumpkin pie spice. I'm Sue Dodin sharing good food for good life 365.