$55 Million with only 5 employees - Kris Dehnert

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Chris Denner, Corporate Gifting, Dugout Mug, Gold's Gym
2. 5:00 – 10:00: Reflection
3. 10:00 – 15:00: Big George
4. 15:00 – 20:00: 80/20 Rule
5. 20:00 – 25:00: Julius Randall, Ready, Fire, Aim, Vanity Metrics
6. 25:00 – 30:00: Claude, Glenn Diesel, Mike Weiss, Voice AI
7. 35:00 – 40:00: Business Journals, Capital One, Celsius, Chasing Trends
8. 40:00 – 45:00: Affiliate Program, Big Golf, Perpetuity, Teespring
9. 45:00 – 50:00: LinkedIn, Vanity Metrics
10. 50:00 – 53:25: Big Golf, Dugout Mugs, Dugout Mugs, Major League Baseball

Notable quotes from "$55 Million with only 5 employees - Kris Dehnert"

• North America, giftable stuff, and baseball fans love it. But it's actually transcended that. It went into corporate gifting and wedding gifting and the list just it keeps…

  about Corporate Gifting · at 1:10

• That and this because the dugout mug to me was just another canvas. the world of print on demand, there was that big like boom of print on demand t-shirts.

  about Print on Demand · at 2:13

• You're working for somebody else and it's like okay so what am I good at? and I talk a lot about reflection.

  about Reflection · at 3:42

• The person, teach them the job, right? You hire you know I'll give I'll give George our guy at the front like this guy is meticulous and I hope he watches this because he's epic, right? He's meticulous, OCD kind of guy.

  about Big George · at 12:15

• Vanity metrics are not, worth even looking at. Oh, we did $10 million. It's yeah, but if we only made a million and we had 600,000 in overhead, that means there's only four,.

  about Vanity Metrics · at 22:48

• PR. Like a few days ago we were on Good Morning America. launched our Savannah Bananas line with our MLB line and we did okay. we did pretty good. so mainstream media PR I'm…

  about Savannah · at 37:50

• I own a golf company as well. Big golf. so I have a cigar line. Yeah.

  about Big Golf · at 42:54

• The only social I have that's public is LinkedIn. I find there's more serious people over there. My Instagram is friends and family. Sure, I could grow it and get a whole bunch of likes.

  about LinkedIn · at 48:18

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Big George — Person · 2 mentions · first at 12:21
• Chris Denner — Person · 1 mention · first at 0:27
  My name's Chris Denner and I sell cups. No, I'm just kidding. So, I do sell cups, right? But that's that's usually the story I tell people I don't want to talk to because that ends a.
• Julius Randall — Person · 1 mention · first at 21:07
  Get on the bus and ride it until the damn wheels fall off. you can do that. I don't suggest it. Randall and I made a great move whenever COVID came around. it's like we could…
• Mike Weiss — Person · 1 mention · first at 26:25
  I've seen there's some other guys, Mike Weiss, shout out to Mike and I know Glenn Diesel's doing some stuff too where voice AI, some of the stuff that's going on there is because I'm in a mastermind board of advisor, so I.
• Glenn Diesel — Person · 1 mention · first at 26:27
  I've seen there's some other guys, Mike Weiss, shout out to Mike and I know Glenn Diesel's doing some stuff too where voice AI, some of the stuff that's going on there is…
• Bald Brian — Person · 1 mention
• George Jared — Person · 1 mention
• Magos — Person · 1 mention
• Nate — Person · 1 mention
• Tina — Person · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

• Teespring — Company · 2 mentions · first at 2:26
  One of the companies at the, at the center of that was a company called Teespring and I was one of the first guys on Teespring and I kind of brought it to the social media world because I had massive audiences. I had a bunch of fan.
• Savannah Bananas — Company · 2 mentions · first at 37:53
  PR. Like a few days ago we were on Good Morning America. launched our Savannah Bananas line with our MLB line and we did okay. we did pretty good. so mainstream media PR I'm…
• Big Golf — Company · 2 mentions · first at 42:54
• Gold's Gym — Company · 1 mention · first at 3:16
  Into like real life, I think I won at the gym business. I started off at Gold's Gym. I was selling memberships and you know I figured out a way to leverage social media. This…
• R2 Cares — Company · 1 mention · first at 36:15
  There's a charity called R2 Cares that I work with here locally and it's my alma mater. I graduated 25 years ago from there and I'm going to go speak the inaugural speaker at this like a.
• Miller — Company · 1 mention · first at 37:12
  Interesting. So I mentioned to you like we're making mugs for Kors and Miller and Coke and Pepsi and Yamaban and Hard Rock and Celsius and T-Mobile, Capital One, like crazy.
• Yamaban — Company · 1 mention · first at 37:12
  Interesting. So I mentioned to you like we're making mugs for Kors and Miller and Coke and Pepsi and Yamaban and Hard Rock and Celsius and T-Mobile, Capital One, like crazy.
• Celsius — Company · 1 mention · first at 37:14
  Like we're making mugs for Kors and Miller and Coke and Pepsi and Yamaban and Hard Rock and Celsius and T-Mobile, Capital One, like crazy.
• Hard Rock — Company · 1 mention · first at 37:14
  Like we're making mugs for Kors and Miller and Coke and Pepsi and Yamaban and Hard Rock and Celsius and T-Mobile, Capital One, like crazy.
• T-Mobile — Company · 1 mention · first at 37:14
  Like we're making mugs for Kors and Miller and Coke and Pepsi and Yamaban and Hard Rock and Celsius and T-Mobile, Capital One, like crazy.
• Capital One — Company · 1 mention · first at 37:16
  Miller and Coke and Pepsi and Yamaban and Hard Rock and Celsius and T-Mobile, Capital One, like crazy.
• Good Morning America — Company · 1 mention · first at 37:50
  It's not the only thing we're doing, right? Like I'm I'm also doing a lot of PR. Like a few days ago we were on Good Morning America. launched our Savannah Bananas line with…
• Tampa Bay Business Wealth — Company · 1 mention · first at 38:08
  That. I've been there's a couple magazines that just did a write up. I was in Valiant CEO, Tampa Bay Business Wealth, Fast50, Business Journals, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com. there's a lot of features. And again,.
• Valiant CEO — Company · 1 mention · first at 38:08
  That. I've been there's a couple magazines that just did a write up. I was in Valiant CEO, Tampa Bay Business Wealth, Fast50, Business Journals, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com. there's a lot of features. And again,.
• Business Journals — Company · 1 mention · first at 38:10
  Magazines that just did a write up. I was in Valiant CEO, Tampa Bay Business Wealth, Fast50, Business Journals, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com. there's a lot of features. And again, it's just I'm building a personal brand.
• Fast50 — Company · 1 mention · first at 38:10
  Magazines that just did a write up. I was in Valiant CEO, Tampa Bay Business Wealth, Fast50, Business Journals, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com. there's a lot of features. And again, it's just I'm building a personal brand.
• Entrepreneur.com — Company · 1 mention · first at 38:14
  Business Wealth, Fast50, Business Journals, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com. there's a lot of features. And again, it's just I'm building a personal brand.
• Forbes — Company · 1 mention · first at 38:14
  Business Wealth, Fast50, Business Journals, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com. there's a lot of features. And again, it's just I'm building a personal brand.
• Chasing Trends — Company · 1 mention · first at 39:34
  Hey, this just happened. So, our company was called Chasing Trends. And that's what we did. It's like this happened on this reality show. Everybody's losing their mind over it on social. I need five concepts around that, right? And.
• Dugout Mugs — Company · 1 mention · first at 50:03
  But I would say that and then obviously Dugout Mugs and Big Golf. check out what we're doing. What we're doing is awesome. Period.
• Major League Baseball — Company · 1 mention · first at 50:42
  A podcast. Wanted to chat about doing some custom stuff. And we're officially licensed with Major League Baseball, the Savannah Bananas. we got it all.
• Coke — Company · 1 mention
• Kors — Company · 1 mention
• MLB — Company · 1 mention
• Pepsi — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

• Dugout Mug — Product · 1 mention · first at 2:13
  Well in the apparel space and I think there was a direct correlation between that and this because the dugout mug to me was just another canvas. the world of print on demand, there was that big like boom of print on demand t-shirts.
• Print on Demand T-Shirts — Product · 1 mention · first at 2:19
  Me was just another canvas. the world of print on demand, there was that big like boom of print on demand t-shirts.
• Voice AI — Product · 1 mention · first at 26:29
  Mike Weiss, shout out to Mike and I know Glenn Diesel's doing some stuff too where voice AI, some of the stuff that's going on there is because I'm in a mastermind board of…
• API — Product · 1 mention
• Bat Slices / Ornaments / Keychains — Product · 1 mention
• CRM — Product · 1 mention
• Gorgias — Product · 1 mention

Concepts & topics

• Reflection — Concept · 3 mentions · first at 3:45
• Corporate Gifting — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 1:15
• Print on Demand — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 2:18
• Vanity Metrics — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 22:48
• 80/20 Rule — Concept · 1 mention · first at 18:06
  Like that works. you got to understand the moving pieces of the company and it's well, the 8020 rule. pick your, pick your cliche. well, 80% of our stuff's coming from over here. Why the hell we got 80% of our people working on.
• Ready, Fire, Aim — Concept · 1 mention · first at 20:59
  You can. So, figure it out later. yeah, ready, fire, aim. make a move, measure the move, and be ready to adjust. these people that just get on the bus and ride it until the damn wheels fall off. you can do.
• Affiliate Program — Concept · 1 mention · first at 40:06
  Whenever the I ended up being the piece. So, I helped Teespring kind of write their affiliate program because I identified it's okay, well, this market's getting saturated, so everybody's going to want they wrote an article about me guy.
• Perpetuity — Concept · 1 mention · first at 40:24
  All right. So, I put a an affiliate program in place where I made 50 cents a shirt in perpetuity. Very special word that perpetuity. And on anybody I bring to the platform. So…
• Pareto Principle — Concept · 1 mention
• Speed to Market Principle — Concept · 1 mention
• Systems vs. Processes — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

• Savannah — Place · 2 mentions · first at 37:53
• Tampa Bay — Place · 1 mention · first at 38:08
  That. I've been there's a couple magazines that just did a write up. I was in Valiant CEO, Tampa Bay Business Wealth, Fast50, Business Journals, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com. there's a lot of features. And again,.
• United States (states) — Place · 1 mention

Sponsors

• LinkedIn — Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at 48:21
• Proven Podcast — Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 0:00
  Welcome to the Proven Podcast, where it doesn't matter what you think, only what you can prove. On this episode, Chris shares how he bought his business back from bankruptcy, turning into 55 million.
• Claude — Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 25:22
  Basic. I use Claude. I like that one. my CEO Jared, he's he uses Chat GPT and I think he got like the upgraded one. And then obviously Grock is doing some.
• Dugout Mugs — Sponsor · 1 mention · first at 50:03
  But I would say that and then obviously Dugout Mugs and Big Golf. check out what we're doing. What we're doing is awesome. Period.
• ChatGPT — Sponsor · 1 mention
• Gorgias — Sponsor · 1 mention
• Grok — Sponsor · 1 mention

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Welcome to the Proven Podcast, where it doesn't matter what you think, only what you can prove. On this episode, Chris shares how he bought his business back from bankruptcy, turning into 55 million a year with only five employees. This one's unforgiving, unrelenting, and he's just trying to help. The show starts now. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Chris, I'm excited to have you on.

0:20 Thanks for having me, man. So, for the few people don't know who you are and the success you've had, let's give a little bit of debrief who you are, what you've done. Uh, my name's Chris Denner and uh I sell cups. No, I'm just kidding. So, I do sell cups, right? But that's that's usually the story I tell people I don't want to talk to because that ends a conversation pretty quick. But when you dig in uh we we did something really fun. We turned baseball bats barrels into mugs. Probably one of the coolest mugs on the planet. And uh we started with an idea. It started in a kitchen that went to a shed that went to a garage that uh went to $55 million in sales. and national, international uh distribution, every stadium, every state, hundreds of athletes and and uh celebrities and players. And we just make cool stuff, man. We make really cool, high quality, premium, made in North America, giftable stuff, and uh

1:14 baseball fans love it. But it's actually transcended that. It went into corporate gifting and wedding gifting and uh the list just it keeps getting more and more broad, which is amazing to be at the helm of that ship, man. Yeah, there there's two things you've done. One, you're selling a product I don't need, but I want, which is is challenging as hell to do it. And you've also done it on a shoestring uh group of people. Like, you don't have a big staff that's doing this,

1:35 which has been really amazing. And it's funny cuz you sent me one of the mugs, which again, thank you for one of the mugs.

1:40 I haven't physically touched it yet cuz my team won't let me near it. They're running around with this and they're not even freaking sports fans, but you engrave the logo and they're running around with this thing and now all of a sudden it's become this ma mascot of my org that they're they're taking it and they're going out to eat with it. And I'm like, "What the hell's happening with this mug?" So, everybody loves it. But this isn't your first business. You've you've created multiple businesses before. This wasn't an accident. What are some of the other successes you've had?

2:04 I think you learn more from the failures and you know what I mean, right? Like I've had some, but yeah, I did really well in the apparel space and I think there was a direct correlation between that and this because the dugout mug to me was just another canvas. Um, the world of print on demand, you know, there was that big like boom of print on demand t-shirts. One of the companies at the, you know, at the center of that was a company called Teespring

2:28 and I was one of the first guys on Teespring and I kind of brought it to the social media world because I had massive audiences. I had a bunch of fan pages probably I don't know six or seven million fans probably closer to seven. So it was just push button make money and um talk to the fan base. Hey what do you guys want? Oh we want Christian shirts. It's like all right

2:47 there you go. And and it really allow I mean we were doing that whole business with like three people and we did over $20 million in sales of t-shirts with I think at our highest point we had six people and three of them were designers because they're just cranking stuff out. One of them was an ads guy and then it was one was customer service and one was me,

3:07 right? So that was a win. Um if you go into like real life, I I think I won at the gym business. Um I I started off at Gold's Gym. I was selling memberships and you know I I figured out a way to leverage social media. This new website called Facebook that came out and how to drive just massive amounts of people connect with people before they knew that it was kind of like going to be the new norm. Um that was back in 200 you know I guess five six seven eight somewhere in there.

3:37 So yeah I did I did really well in the gym business but you know you hit that ceiling pretty quick when you realize you're working for somebody else and it's like okay so what am I good at? You know, and I talk a lot about reflection. I'll probably mention a few more times, but what am I good at? What am I bad at? And one of the things I'm really, really good at is sales, promotion, marketing, networking, things like that. So, it's like, okay, well, I can do that one to many. And that just what a what a domino effect that's had in my life. Uh, learning how to leverage technology.

4:05 Now, I'm not technical, but I know how to leverage technology, right? And and that was really cool. And just yeah, one thing after another, and you know, here I am selling again. and I sell mugs, right? And and having a lot of fun doing it.

4:18 So, you we talked about this right in the beginning. You said, you know, you learn from more from your failures than you will for your success. And and we talk about this all the time. You will never succeed your way to success. You will fail your way to success. And most people don't get that. I'm like, well, look at your kid.

4:30 When your kid first started walking, it fell and it fell again and it fell and it fell and it fell and you didn't sit there after the 50th time go, "Screw it. I'm going to put in a wheelchair." You just kept pushing. But we take that out of our kids in our world in school. Let's talk about some of those failures. What are some of the failures that you learned the most and what were the lessons you learned from them?

4:46 Well, I think to your point, what people do is they take away the pain. Mhm. And pain and pleasure, those are the two things that really drive people. And when you fall, a [ __ ] hurts. You fall again and again, you're like, "That is it. I am tired of hurting. I'm just going to walk, right?" And I I think that's that's what the pain is. Um, the first time I screwed up, I didn't dial in my contracts and somebody got me for like quarter million bucks. That [ __ ] hurt.

5:16 Yeah. I didn't have a quarter million bucks to lose at the time. And uh, you know, you learn, okay, now I'm not going to do that again. Dialing in my contracts on on the front side with partnerships and deals and collaborations and joint ventures. Um, uh, the restaurant industry. Uh, we made a bunch of money selling t-shirts and me and a few friends and thank God in this deal I was the least I was the smallest equity holder, but we lost seven figures doing a restaurant. You know, the the old saying, the best way to make a million bucks in in restaurants is to start with two or or start with two and open a restaurant. That's the best way to make a million bucks.

5:50 Um, but yeah, like it it that's a really funky industry and I had no business being in it. I just had money. So, we were just throwing [ __ ] at the wall and see what sticks and it's like I don't know about that. So again, from an investment standpoint, I I lost a lot, learned a lot. And I believe you're winning or learning. Like those are your options. And whenever we're lo we're lo losing, we're learning. Okay? Don't do that again or do that. Do it again, but different, right? Um so the restaurant industry got me. The cannabis industry got me. Um the crypto industry got me.

6:21 Yeah. Now I still hold a very um aggressive portfolio with crypto, but I learned what not to do. Mhm.

6:27 And and again, so again, winning or learning, you learn to stop. The pain made you stop or the pain made you change. And then when you start doing things right, like Dugout, um you know, there's been pain in this company. Um you know, but the the pleasure of it far outweighed it. So this is one of those things that the pleasure is what's driving me. Um you know, a year and a half ago when my partner and I decided he he he was ready to be done, ready to retire. Awesome dude. He's like, you know what? I'm I'm done. had just had a kid, just got married, just built a house, all the things. And it wasn't part of his path anymore. And it's like, okay, we could sell it and walk away, but I'm like, I'm having a lot of fun and it's kind of broken and I really kind of want to fix it and really drive it fast again. And and that was my driver there. So, I think you learn as much from pain.

7:17 you you learn more about yourself in pain and then you really learn like what you're what you want with like the pleasure push. You know what I mean? I think is a okay way to say that.

7:30 Yeah. I think I I agree a thousand%. I remember when I my first company I ever had was an IT company. We were closing like 90s something% of our sales and I exploded. I was like what are you doing? I go if we're closing that high of a level then we're not risking enough. We don't have enough pain. So I made everything go up. Then we radically increased the company. When you talk about having partners there, it's challenging because, you know, I I want to get to the idea that you're building these empires, these, you know, nine figure companies with a sho string.

7:55 There's just nobody there. How are you doing this with five people? We'll get to that because that's that's the important part that I think that's really sexy. But when you talk about partnerships, how what are the pain lessons that you've learned there? Because again, we've all done it. We've all gotten in bed with people who we just shouldn't have got in bed with or we've turned friendships into partnerships and it ruined the friendship. What are some of the struggles you've run into with that?

8:14 Um, I Well, the struggles I've run into are, again, I'd rephrase it. What are the lessons I've learned,

8:21 right? I think it's a better way of saying it. And uh I think reflection again on the front side. You know, partnerships and deals are one at the beginning, you know, asking better questions at the beginning, understanding what someone's blueprint looks like at the beginning. Look at a a marriage. I want three kids. I want none. Hey, that [ __ ] ain't going to work, right? Somebody's going to be pissed sooner than later, you know, in business. I want to do this forever. Oh, I'm only on a four-year plan, right? I'm 22 and full of piss and vinegar. It's like, [ __ ] I'm 45 and I'm ready to start slowing down. Like, you have to look at these blueprints and and I don't think enough people do that. They get blinded by cash and and cash is only a singular currency. There's so many other currencies out there in my opinion. uh time experience fulfillment family like there's other currencies that are

9:14 involved. And if you're only basing your decision- making off cash and money, I mean, in fairness, that's one of the most common currencies out. We just print that [ __ ] It's not even attached to anything, right? Like, here's more,

9:26 right? And to ever make that your north star is foolish in my opinion. Um, so I think there's not enough reflection on the front side with partnerships.

9:35 Uh, and and I got blinded by that. like I got in business with a family member and it went super sideways. Um and and at the end I was just like here take my half of this [ __ ] I'm out. I can't do this no more. Um with with uh I mean other partnerships. Yeah. I mean trust your gut. I don't think people do that enough. How cliche is that? Right.

9:57 But but but really some friends and I we always laugh like I only want to do business with people I'd go on vacation with. It's like, okay, because, you know, you got to realize if you're spending this much time with folks, you know, I I say it all the time. A good day with bad people can still suck and a bad day with good people can still be really awesome, right? What you're shooting for is a good day with good people and then like, you know, pour the champagne. But, um, the the people in the deal are more important than the deal in most cases, at least in my world, right? because I don't just do things transactionally like this is my life, you know? I don't honestly believe in work life balance,

10:39 right? It's sometimes you're working, sometimes you're golfing, sometimes you're parenting, sometimes you're crying. Like, it's life, you know? Um, so I try to do life

10:51 with people I like and and with people I want to be around, right? So, it's funny because every time we've talked within probably four or five sentences, you talk about your kids. It just comes out. I talk about like this I'm a family man first like the rest of this I'm sorry this is more important to me than anything else every time we've spoken when you're starting to build the systems and there's a difference between systems and and processes processes involve people systems don't that's just people need to understand that really quickly you've built empires a ton of cash you know amazing businesses with very few people because there's so many times where I've gone into businesses and they're like oh I've got 30 staff I was like cool how much you making like a million a year like what the [ __ ] are you doing what what do you what this is broken this is an ineffective model when you go into

11:31 that and you're starting to scale how have you've done it what are the things that you do every single time okay I need this I can outsource that because they're different conversations

11:41 uh I think understanding what people's um core competency you know what is their superpower

11:49 kind of thing don't ask a fish to climb a tree you know the whole adage right um I always laugh and say there's a reason I'm not jumping hurdles I'm old and a little fat and I got bad knees I'm not I'm not going to do very well. Right? So I I think what you do is you identify the pillars in the in the company that need attention and need to be managed by a a a person and then that person has a particular skill set. So you like hire the person, teach them the job,

12:18 right? You hire uh you know I'll give I'll give George our guy at the front like this guy is meticulous and I hope he watches this because he's epic, right? He's meticulous, OCD kind of guy. Dude doesn't miss anything, so he's in charge of logistics,

12:34 right? Uh we got Eric who was you ran commercial kitchens, you want to talk about processes and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Okay, that's your dude,

12:44 right? Um again, like you just find people and you and you you lean into them. Like people, oh god, I've heard it so many times and I hate it. Uh even old partners of mine said it and I hated it. It's like, "Oh, if you don't know something, you should go learn it." It's like, "Fuck that. If I don't know something, best case scenario, I'm going to be mediocre if I go spend time, energy, effort, and resources to figure this [ __ ] out. Best bet is to get somebody else. I don't mow my own yard. My pool guy was here earlier. He's cleaning the pool. He's going to do it better than me.

13:16 I'm up here chatting with you. The lawn guys are about to be here in a minute." It's just like we do it in so many other areas of our life. My my point back to your question is I find people I find out what they do best and then I try to inspire them to go for the vision that we have collectively put together. And if people feel ownership in the vision that's been created, buddy, they're going to be behind it and behind you all the way. And and I like to step away. You probably heard me say it in the past, but like give direction, not directions. That was a funny way of us explaining it internally that really kind of stuck with me and it was you're really good at this Jared and you're really good at this, George and Nate and Brian and Eric and Tony and Tina and Magos like y'all are good at what you do. Can we all agree that this is where we're driving all in our own little car, our own little lane and we're like yeah.

14:06 I'm like all right I'm out. They just drive there because they have ownership in what we're doing. Um you know they they believe what we believe they see what we see. So I think asking better questions, empowering people to think freely and operate freely, the micromanagement world blows. I I don't think it's a good model. People hate it and and they're hating it more. And the group of kids that are coming up and and group of workers that are coming up, they hate it even more.

14:35 Um but but you got to have that's where the systems that's where the technology and some of this other stuff comes into play. You put up these roadblocks so they're not jumping you off a cliff, you know? That's kind of is it's kind of a hybrid.

14:46 It it's interesting. We always talk about this. I don't care about the how. The how's irrelevant to me.

14:50 You're going to figure that out. If I've hired well enough, you're going to figure it out. I'm going to let you go through this environment. I'm going to put basic bumpers in you. He's like, "Hey, if you get too far off track here or there, but I would rather you ask for forgiveness and permission going up like this is where we're going. I really don't care how we get there. I don't care for on a simple very watered down version of this. I don't care if you're on a Mac or you're on a PC. I don't [ __ ] care. Just go. I don't care if you work at night or if you work in the day. Just just go. Just let them go.

15:18 If you're writing a damn letter, get the message out 100%. And like we had this literally in my org recently. Someone was putting together an email and they reached out and like hey I don't know if this email is right. I'm like does it have all the key things? They're like yes. I'm like I don't care what the email sounds like. Go. They're like well can I use chat GPT? I'm like I have hired the wrong person. So we're already in the process of replacing that person because I'm like listen if you don't if you're that person who needs to be guided on that level you can't make systemized streamlined teams. So one of the fears that people have when they build teams is like okay I need to have coverage.

15:49 You know I've hired Susie. Susie is in charge of sales. What happens if Susie wins the lottery gets eaten by a purple dragon? Whatever the else it is. How do you offset that? Because Susie one day may you know win the lottery or get hit by a bus or whatever it is. How do you offset that fear? Um, I I don't have a solid answer for that. I think what it really comes down to is having um documented processes and and and systems. I mean, with AI, and we touched on it, but like with AI, buddy, especially with what I do, and I think it's unique, right? I think people's journey is unique. Their businesses are unique. They have a lot of the same components. I'm not foolish. I know that. But but I think how those components work and interact and and also the person running it and managing it is has a lot to do with it. Like I'm a big hands-off guy. So yeah, we're leaning into AI, you know, u we just

16:43 replace customer service with AI. It's not that the girl was bad, she wasn't great, but she wasn't bad. But it's like, so AI is going to work 247. It's infinitely scalable. Midnight, 2, 3, 4, 5 in the morning all the way through Christmas when we normally have to double or triple our team. I'm like, "Yeah, okay. we're going to do that. You know, it just makes sense. Design. I I make these designs for the mugs. Well, AI is doing a really good job ripping these things out. Okay.

17:09 Right. So then that and then with the API and integration with with ecom in particular and with my that's why I stay so lean.

17:16 You know, we're really lean. The only thing we're physically doing is engraving, cleaning, packing the mugs.

17:23 That's it. Uh we went from a 12,000 uh 500 foot facility. We're in the process in the next 90 days, we're going to be down to 8,000. We cut a third of our of our space by becoming more efficient. We identified what do we need? What do we not need? Again, ask better questions. We don't need this 4500 square ft over here full of additional overhead and seven extra people.

17:48 We could just put that on this other side. You know, that again, it's just it's understanding what you're doing. And then it's like, you know, the back in the day the index cards on the table and you move your [ __ ] around like how does it work? It it sounds basic, but like that works. I mean, you got to understand the moving pieces of the company and it's like, well, the 8020 rule. I mean, pick your, you know, pick your cliche. Um, well, 80% of our stuff's coming from over here. Why the hell we got 80% of our people working on the 20? Well, what how can we be more efficient? So, there's a couple opportunities I'm looking to roll up right now because they'll fit perfectly into the systems that we have. They'll fit perfectly into this new streamline system at the 8,000 foot place. And and the and the strengths here and the strengths here are like they click. Like it just if your plates's more clear by

18:35 not getting in the weeds, I feel like you can put better things together and and and that's where I try to focus. So I have to be hands off.

18:45 So when you talk about asking better questions, you know there's everyone talks in platitudes all the time. What are the what are the tactical these are the questions that have always had the best ROI for me like I these are the questions I ask every single time on any single project when we get stuck or if we're going to expand or anything else what are the ones that you're like these are the questions I asked where are we you know what's going right what's going wrong what do we need to do different I mean I've I've said that hundreds of times if we understand what we're doing wrong like right now I'll tell you what we're doing wrong we're not as forward- facing on social media as we once were you we got two and a half million people on Tik Tok. I got a 100,000 on, you know, 120,000 on Facebook. I got another 100,000 on Instagram. Like, we got a lot of people.

19:27 We're access to a lot of people. Uh, our email list is like 800,000. Our SMS is a couple hundred thousand. Like, this is a stack of people, right? We're not doing a good enough job communicating with them as we once did. So, and I know like this is my style. I love it, bro. I love sticky notes. They stay right next to me because I know and I can only put like three things at a time on them. I'm like, check tech check tech check tech tech check tech check tech check tech check throw throw that [ __ ] over there. Um so like for me I I know one of the things we're doing the worst right now was forward facing. So I started hopping on more podcasts. I was like all right well I can certainly tell my story a little bit more and talk about the company a little bit more. So I committed to that. I'm doing that. And again it's just um that's what I ask you know what are we doing wrong? Um we're our conversion rate sucks. Okay you only

20:14 focusing on conversion rate right now. And then what are we doing right? and we just kind of put that on ice. Right now, we're manufacturing mugs. We're doing a really good job. Our fulfillment's on point. We don't need to uh you know, where could we where could we shave? And we're like, well, with AI in particular, it's like, well, we can shave design and we could shave customer service. That saves us like $5,000 a month. That's $60,000 a year bottom line. That's not massive numbers, but those matter,

20:41 right? I think it's the conversation people have all the time like, how do how to become wealthy? You're not hitting grand slams. It's these singles.

20:50 Singles. Get on base. You know, for you know, the idea of the dugout, just get on base as quickly and as intensely as you can. So,

20:57 figure it out later. Like, yeah, ready, fire, aim. Like, make a move, measure the move, and be ready to adjust. I mean, these people that just get on the bus and ride it until the damn wheels fall off. I mean, you can do that. I don't suggest it. Randall and I made a great move whenever COVID came around. Um, it's like we could have kept pushing what always work, but we decided not to do that. that we decided to change our marketing from people at ball games and tailgating to backyard barbecues and living rooms, right? Cuz we're marketing to people where we were.

21:24 If we would have stuck to this other thing, you know, that's the, you know, that's the blockbusters, that's the the cirities, that's the Kmarts. Like, if you try to do the same thing, it, you know, the wheel to the wheels fall off, you're ask the wheels are going to fall off. So I I think being fluid is really really really important

21:42 when So when you have a small team, they see your growth, right? They're in there. They're with you. They they bleed with you. And that's how it's important to to work with people you actually like. But also one of the couches here is they're going to see your profits as well. How do you work with that compensation thing where like, hey guys, you did a great job. We made an extra $10 million this year. How do you deal with compensation on that level? Do you incentivize them? How integrated are they in that success?

22:06 I've had very open conversations with those who can wrap their head around the content of the conversation. Um, uh, probably a third of my team will meet. So, we do we do Monday meetings. We're always we we link up Monday 10:00 a.m. What's going right? What's going wrong? What do we need to change? What do we all need to know about? Who's leaving? Who's coming? Who's going? What's you know, is there a fire we need to collectively put out? Right? So, everybody's kind of just got this this team atmosphere. It's easier to manage when it's smaller. Um, as far as the profits, I explain in a way that they understand what I'm saying.

22:48 Vanity metrics are not not, you know, worth even looking at. Oh, we did $10 million. It's like, yeah, but if we only made a million and we had 600,000 in overhead, that means there's only four, right? So it's it I I don't mind guiding people and talking to them and being transparent. I think transparency I mean people aren't stupid either. You know I think more now than ever um access to information is everywhere. So you don't want to treat and I don't want stupid people around me anyway. But you don't want to treat people um you know assume they're ignorant. So I'm actually more about being transparent with them and and they're well paid. Actually, when I first bought my uh you know, when I stepped in, I took over the company, um we were in not a great place. Like seven figures in debt, seven figures over here for the buyout, and [ __ ] a half a million. It was ugly. And I was like, "Okay, well, I

23:46 know I can't do it without these people, so let's talk to the people." Half the team got a raise on the first day.

23:53 Nice. And it was about me committing to that. and they knew it's like, "Hey, not a good spot, but you're getting a raise because I need you for this. Don't drop the ball. Here's the ball. Go." Right. And I and some of the response to that has just been tremendous when you have faith in the people like that. So, I've been really transparent about um now there are times where they see thousands and thousands and thousands of mugs going on. They just like, "Oh, this guy's just getting fat and happy over here." Um, and we do, you know, we we do bonuses and we do uh incentive stuff.

24:30 I've I've looked into some uh um uh employee stock options kind of thing and you know, ownership, right? Like I don't I don't need it. I'm actually really basic. You know, I'm flops and t-shirts and hats pretty much every day. So, as long as my bills are paid, my kids are happy, and I'm living the lifestyle I want. Like, I don't mind sharing the wealth. These are the people making it happen. And that's just the mentality I have,

24:53 right? You mentioned other currencies, man. Absolutely. And and I I don't think people understand that. I really don't think that if you're if you think money is going to make you happy, it's not. It's just it's never going to happen. It it makes life easier. It's a great tool. I love being able to use it and, you know, be in first class, be in business class. It's a great tool, but it's not going to make you happy. It's just it isn't. A lot of people talk about AI and the integration within. You've optimized it. What are some of the AI tools that you're using now to make your life easier?

25:22 Basic. I mean, I use Claude. Um, I like that one. Uh, my uh my CEO Jared, he's he uses um Chat GPT and I think he got like the upgraded one. And then obviously Grock is is doing some interesting stuff. Anything Elon's touching is interesting. So, um that's pretty much it. Now, we use our our CRM. We use Gorgeous

25:43 uh and it has a an AI component in there which is been really impressive. Um, so the team's got on and and integrated

25:53 that with our customer service and I mean it's I'm getting emails back from me.

25:58 It's like, "Hey, check this out. Don't forget to click here." And it just walks you right through it and responding and I'm reading some of the responses. It's like, "Dude, that's like 95% on point." And then the more you teach it, the better it's getting. So I'm like, "Okay, we're doing that's why we're doing it right now, Q3, because

26:13 when Q4 hits, this thing's going to be on point and infinitely scalable." So that that's probably the one we've used the most.

26:22 I've seen um there's some other guys, Mike Weiss, uh shout out to Mike and I know Glenn Diesel's doing some stuff too where uh voice AI, some of the stuff that's going on there is um because I'm in a mastermind board of advisor, so I meet with these guys every quarter and listening to some of the stuff they're talking about. Dude, it's wild. like the voice AI, the outbound infinite calling voice AI, setting up stuff and lead genen and just dropping them right onto a calendar. Uh there's some pretty cool stuff happening.

26:52 Gotcha. So the one that you're using where you you know replace customer service that's Gorgeous.

26:57 Yeah. So we were using Gorgeous in the past and we were manually doing it. It's kind of just like a hub where social and email and all blah blah blah and and they launched their AI piece a while back and and it took us forever to get to it. And it's like let's take a look at that. And Jared, uh, he's, you know, he's my right-hand man in dugout. He's like, dude, I'll figure it out. I said, okay, dude, figure it out. Let me know what you come up with. He jumped in. Boom, boom, boom. And and yeah, bro, it's rocking. It's rocking. M so normally when we go through these and we break things down step by step by step.

27:32 If someone wanted to come in and do this and say what has been proven to work more than anything else outside of hiring right you know keeping it lean asking the very specific questions what is working is not working you know what do we need to fix right now what are some of the other things that you've run into that are like hey this if if I took everything away right now and I had to start over what are the proven things that you've done that have created radical success? Uh I think success is a unique um experience. I think it's unique to each person. So what I would do is I would go back to a a place of peace and balance and try to understand what I really want.

28:10 Mhm. Right. So for me um you know when when my daughter was born 10 years ago, you know, I got super sick, almost died. Like that really sucked. Best thing that ever happened to me honestly. But I came out the other side of that and I was like, "Okay, um, what's important to me?" And it's like, well, I don't really want to be away from my house anymore. You know, I've I've been working from home since before it was cool, right? Uh, and you know, so it's it's about really understanding where you're trying to end up and and then understanding who around like I only take advice from people where who are where I wish to be.

28:43 So, it's like understanding who your um core uh support group and and community is. That's why I'm in the mastermind, right? Um and I I so like that's not like a tactical answer, but I think the how to do stuff is not nearly as difficult as people make it out, especially when we're in the age of technology and learning, right? I think it's understanding what success looks like, feels like, sounds like,

29:14 and then you know, then everything that lands on your plate, it's like it is or isn't black and white is or isn't in the direction of where you want to go. Like this is where I want to go. This is where I want to be. I want to make $10,000 a month with that with working 10 hours a week. And I want to be able to go to every single dance and and softball game and baseball game with little Billy. and I want to take my wife on a date night every week and I want to have some investments so that when my kids, you know, like that, bro, like the the understanding what that looks like, I think, is really what it's about. Not the not the tactical measures to do it.

29:50 Um, I also think now if you do need that advice, I would say, um, I'm a huge fan of create a system you're not a component of. uh because my my goal is to be irrelevant in the system. I want to be the beneficiary of course, but I want um I if I'm always in the weeds, I can't, you know, be over here where I want to be. So, I I would tell people create a system you're not a component of. Um, I would tell them to uh really do due diligence on anybody else who's going to be a decision maker in the venture. Um, I would say uh identify like make sure you're it's fun and and I know that sounds weird, right? is fun. To me, fund's a major currency,

30:49 but but there has to be a release in at some point in what you're doing cuz it's not always easy.

30:57 It's not always going to work. And and I think having fun along the way will allow you a lot more uh uh resilience and durability so you can last a little longer because you're constantly getting a release along the way. I think those things are what I tell people.

31:17 Yeah. I think it's rare to have someone show up with the honesty and the vulnerability you have, which is start with a filter,

31:24 which is I don't want to be involved. I want to be at my kids uh baseball games, ballet, ballet, that's that's my filter. So, if I got offered a job making a bazillion dollars, but I'm never going to be home. It it doesn't work for me. So, put your filters in play. Where do you want to go first? I talk about this all the time. If you're going to shoot an arrow, you don't fire the arrow and then think, where do I want it to go? You identify your target first, then you filter out from there. So, most people don't do that. The second step is having the confidence enough in yourself to know I'm I'm not important. I'm irrelevant to the process. So, I need to fire me from the beginning. If it relies on me, then I've just made a prison, not a business. And most people don't have that conversation. Most people are coming in going, "Hey, I'm special. This is what I know how to do. I'm amazing.

32:08 I, you know, my grandmother made great cookies. Therefore, hence I have to make great cookies. My hallucination is you did not grow up wanting to sell [ __ ] mugs. That that just wasn't your ball game. You're like, "Hey, I'm gonna make mugs for

32:18 It wasn't a line on career day, dude. But I'm kind of glad where I landed." Now, if I look at what my core competency is, sales, networking,

32:28 promotion, like, put me on TV. I'm in. Right. I can do it. So, I I understand the prison sentiment you made a minute ago a minute ago. You didn't make a business. You created like a prison cell. And I'm currently in the process of this. Now, all this shit's a daily practice. Okay.

32:48 Yeah, absolutely. This isn't, oh [ __ ] I got it. No, it's a daily practice, you know, just like taking a shower. Bro, you're dirty. Take a shower. This is constant uh repetition. It's a mother of all learning, right? So, for me, um I'm currently trying to build out a sales team because that is what I do best. I've been able to stay in my power my power zone in this business, my superpower in this business almost the entire eight years. And that's why we've seen some of the success that we've had. The majority of it, I would say, is because of my ability to just push and drive and connect and make [ __ ] happen, right? Um, but I also realize that it is starting to be heavily reliant on me to bring those sales in on the front side.

33:32 So now we're putting the people in place, right? Um what what really sucks is if you get stuck in a corner that you just don't know how to clean, you know, or you don't know how to handle. Like that's that is brutal. Um but

33:48 you were talking earlier I got stuck in my my power zone. But even that even that I'm in the process of trying to remove myself.

33:55 Yeah. You talked about post-it notes that you have. I literally have a post-it note. It's the only one that I keep on my computer that says fire yourself. like sits above it like fire yourself. If I'm missionritical to the process, I have failed. I have created a prison. I have not created a business. It's a different conversation. The stuff that makes me the most money, I'm not involved in. So, I'm constantly working every day. And I love that you said it's like going to the gym. You got to keep doing it over and over and over and it's an everyday practice to sit there and fire yourself out because yesterday's success

34:23 question to ask yourself again. You're asking better questions. If I was an employee, would I fire me?

34:28 A lot of people don't ask themselves that. And you're like, "Oh, I'm kind of [ __ ] show up late every day, leave early every day, I have a beer at noon." You know, I don't know if I would let me hang around.

34:38 Wait, I'm not supposed to do that. Wait, I'm not that that's not normal. [ __ ]

34:42 Well, hey, if you would fire you, maybe you're the problem, right? See, my goal is to make it.

34:49 Yeah, that's my biggest thing. My goal is that I am not mission critical, that I don't matter, and that to speed that process up as fast as possible. Now, you mentioned earlier you're running into some struggles, which is, hey, you know, we we've dropped the ball and we haven't been social enough and I'm doing the podcast and you're doing all that. When you're asking better questions there, what are some of the ways that you're like, hey, why did you decide podcast versus about a million other different ideas that as many as you said that I was like, well, [ __ ] I've got this laundry list of what I would go do. Why did you decide this was the best path and allocation of time?

35:19 I had a lot of people, it was easy. I had a lot of people asking um they're like, "Dude, you got to share your story with me. Can you hop on? you hop on. I'm like, "Nah, I don't have time for that. I don't have time for that. I don't have time." Right.

35:30 But it's like, you know what I mean? Really, I did a podcast one time and I shared story when I got sick and a guy reached out to me. He was in another country. He reached out to me and he said, "Hey, dude. I listened to that podcast the other day and it saved my life because a week later this and this and this happened. I don't want to share his business, but this and this and this happened and I remembered what you said. I immediately did went to the hospital and they said if I got to wait another hour I'd be dead. I was like that's crazy. So you never know what kind of ripples you're putting out there and impact of those they could turn into a tsunami right in and of good somewhere else. And um I I think I owe that to people. I'm speaking tomorrow morning at a at a high school for emerging leaders.

36:15 There's a charity called R2 Cares that I work with here locally and it's my alma mater. I graduated 25 years ago from there and I'm going to go speak the inaugural speaker at this like a auditorium full of people talk about emerging leadership and leadership and and all this. So it's like I feel like that's that's part of success for me. Um I'm not I'm dude I'm not that guy that's like all stoked about leaving a legacy. Like that's fine as long as the people that matter care about me and remember that's did my job. Um, but but I feel like putting the good out there is part of your responsibility as as a

36:51 um an influential person and I like that. And it was and it was it was a lay down. Um I'm fine on camera. I got plenty of [ __ ] to talk about what I think is cool, fun, and sexy. And you know, people buy it like at this point like the corporate gifting side of what we're doing is really interesting. So I I mentioned to you like we're making mugs for Kors and Miller and Coke and Pepsi and Yamaban and Hard Rock and Celsius and T-Mobile, Capital One, like crazy.

37:19 So a lot of business people have been buying our mugs, you know, 36 here, 75 there, 100 here, and they're gifting them out just like you said, your team, right? Like they're gifting them out because these things kill

37:30 and and uh you know, the podcast is a great way to do that. uh podcast hosts give them out to guests and it's just a lot of a lot of cool stuff and it only took an hour here, an hour there. I can do it on the fly. I could do it if I'm in, you know, traveling.

37:46 Um it's not the only thing we're doing, right? Like I'm I'm also doing a lot of PR. Like a few days ago we were on Good Morning America. Um launched our Savannah Bananas line with our MLB line and we did okay. You know, we did pretty good. Um, so mainstream media PR I'm doing. Uh, this kind of fit right into that. Um, I've been there's a couple magazines that just did a write up. I was in Valiant CEO, uh, Tampa Bay Business Wealth, um, Fast50, Business Journals,

38:14 uh, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com. Like, there's a lot of features. And again, it's just I'm building a personal brand. You know, this isn't my first rodeo with Dugout. I've had nine other companies before this. So my personal brand is gonna outlive this company. So I'm just constantly doing things and taking little steps in the right direction. You can have two broken legs, dude, but if you're moving like you're still moving,

38:36 you're still moving. Your feet are just moving and and uh until some of these other things shake out like the paid ads and the traffic and the algorithms that are adjustments that are happening and um all this kind of stuff. I think just keep moving, you know, keep moving. So why do you think in the in the print on demand which was a very saturated market? What what made you stand out? How did you succeed and win where others didn't?

38:58 Speedtomarket principle and uh the fact I took that [ __ ] serious. So the speed to market was I didn't sit around and wait. I saw an opportunity and I jumped in and I jumped in with both feet, you know? I didn't just trickle my toe in the water. It's like, "All right, dude. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to fail fast forward. we lose, bro. We're going to lose now and we're going to be on to the next thing. And this that's why I actually got out of POD. Um, so we jumped in and I treated it like a business. I we had business meetings every week. We had the designers. Here's five things I'm thinking about. What do we want to try?

39:32 Hey, this just happened. So, our company was called Chasing Trends. And that's what we did. It's like this happened on this reality show. Everybody's losing their mind over it on social. I need five concepts around that, right? And then we ran it like a business. Um, not like a hobby or you're moonlighting doing something. We took a [ __ ] serious and we won. And also we were we were in the market fast. And then we were we were fluid enough to identify when things started like changing. So whenever the um, you know, I I ended up being the piece. So, I helped Teespring kind of write their affiliate program

40:08 because I identified it's like, okay, well, this market's getting saturated, so everybody's going to want they wrote an article about me like, you know, guy makes a million bucks on Teespring or something. And so, I started getting a lot of people reaching out. I was like, all right. So, I put a an affiliate program in place where I made 50 cents a shirt in perpetuity. Very special word that perpetuity. And on anybody I bring to the platform. So then it's like, hey, I'm going to launch a digital mastermind. So then they paid me

40:37 for me to show them what to do. Then I referred them to here and then I'm making residuals over here. We sold like three million t-shirts through that program. I made a million and a half dollars. 50 cents at a time on [ __ ] I never sold, touched, nothing.

40:51 And and so again, like you have to be fluid and not be scared of changing. And and and sometimes that can really land in your favor. Um people are scared of change but the only thing that is consistent is change and you know and and I think that is why we won. We went in hard. We knew when to move. We treated it like a business and and anything you should just treat it like a it'll be as serious as you are.

41:17 Right. I think and if you don't take it serious it's not going to work. That's just the reality. You either go all in or you don't. So what is next for you? You know I know dugout's going and you're expanding it and the mugs are just you've infected my entire team. you bastard. I have to buy mugs for them. Um

41:32 I have to buy more mugs from you. So, but what is next for for for y'all and what y'all are doing?

41:37 Um synergy, identifying synergy. There's um you know, a digital company that's out there that's very much in line with what we're doing. There is um some woodworking stuff that fits very well with what we're doing. there's another company that's out there that is their systems are not as clean as mine. So there's so I could roll up a company that's making X dollars and literally double the revenue double the bottom line just by bringing it in house and you know and plugging it into my efficient systems. So trying to find ways to grow by acquisition

42:15 versus just grow by additional sales because when you force that you can really lose your ass because you're blowing ad dollars just burn might as well light it on fire right so I'm trying to grow by acquisition and um continue to groom the people within my company to replace me so that I'm more of a con consultative like role. Uh I think that's what the next two to three years looks like. And now that the company's all mine, honestly, I'm not really in a hurry. Um the the events I get to go to and the things I get to do and the people I get to hang out with.

42:54 Um I own a golf company as well. Big golf. Um so I have a cigar line. Yeah. So I have beer and baseball and golf and cigars and breweries and

43:02 fun stuff. Yeah. It's like what else am I going to do? Yeah. So stuff as a teenager you like this is going to be great. So when you talk about your systems are more efficient, walk me through that. What do you mean by your systems are better than and then how did you develop those? Because I'm a systems guy. If you want to talk there's very few things in the world that get me more excited than systems. Um you know what's where I I just walk in there and so my daughter, my 10-year-old goes up there with me, you know, in busier times. I'm like, "Hey baby, we're going to work today."

43:28 She's like, "All right, Doug got mug shirt on, hat on. Let's go." And she's just taping boxes, slapping stickers, you know, doing everything. um just loves working with dad, you know, which is one of my favorite things, too. But um I walk around and it's like, hm, that's a step I didn't need to take. Why? Why are we doing that?

43:47 Oh, that's how we've done it. It's like noted. I I go in the just yesterday. I went in there and there's a whole table. It's like 200 mugs in the back. It's all teams and custom and shit's everywhere. And one big table. It's like a brick of mugs on top of this massive 8 10ft table. I'm like, "What's this?" And they're like, "Oh, those are the ones that either had a little dent in it or the thing was a little crooked or this and that." So, like, y'all just set it here and walked away. They're like, "Yeah." I was like, "All right."

44:15 Okay. Now, we just blow these out. Turn mugs back into money. Um, one of my favorites recently was we had we had the mugs are on a rotary device like this. Dude, this laser's hot. Sometimes it'll just freak out and zap a hole right through this thing. So, they're just throwing this whole thing away. So, I walked I was up there. Let me see. I know I got one here sitting here. I know I do. Let me see if I can find it. I had I just had a I annihilated some stuff this morning. Oh, here it is literally right in front of my face. So, you're going to love this. So, this thing we would just throw this away.

44:49 Instead, I take I cut off the bottom starting right here cuz all this is solid wood. So, then we started making bat slices turned into orn no ornaments and

44:58 ornaments. There you go. Now you want a Philly's keychain or a Yankees keychain. So this was trash and we're just throwing them out, dude. Cuz what are you going to do with it? Right. So now I can turn it into six keychains that sell for 20 bucks a piece or 15 bucks a piece. That's $90. I turned trash into $90. Right.

45:16 Right. Um that was an efficiency. I I walked up there and I just, you know, again, I just put I I put myself out of the situation and I just look um we had two big ass shipping containers. I'm like, "Why do we got these?" And they're like, "Oh, a few years ago." I was like, "Stop right there."

45:35 Yeah. Right. And I said, "What's in them?" And they said, "We got golf balls in this one and it's about half full. And we got some other random [ __ ] in this one and it's half full." I was like, "So what you're saying is we can make one of them all the way full and one of them can leave." And they're like, "Yeah." I was like, "Okay, well, guess what we're doing today?" And everybody shifted over one to this, filled one up, sold it for like 1,100 bucks. It's only 1,100 bucks, but dude, I'll take 1,100 every time you want to give it out. And I I think to me,

46:03 it's just a common sense, and I know it's not common, right? I know how I think is unique.

46:10 Um, I walk in there and I'm like, why do we have these boxes only stacked four high? Well, because the roof's only eight feet, nine feet. I'm like, "Okay, so if we had a 12 foot roof, we wouldn't need as much floor space and we could just stack up." And all these dudes just stack here until we pull them down and engrave. They're like, "Yeah." I said, "Okay." So, the new facility, guess what? 15t ceilings.

46:32 There you go. And it's these little details. How many times count how many times you come down these stairs a day?

46:39 30 or 40. Okay. So, what you're saying is if we took down upstairs and we set it down next to downstairs in the wall, we could just go in a circle. And they're like, "Yeah." I was like, "Well, guess where this new place is?

46:51 4,000 and 4,000 side by side. Holes in the middle, holes in the sides." It's like, but I think constantly looking for holes or improvements and and never take your eyes off of that. So, when people bring deals, and I have a lot of deals landing on my desk, right? Um, the first thing I do is I poke holes because I know when I can't poke a hole in it, that's a winner,

47:18 right? So, that's what I do with my business. I walk around and I'm like, why do we have two versions of a Red Sox mug in the system? It's the same damn mug. This one says Red Sox on the tag and this one's a Red Sox logo, but it's the same mug, but it's just printed up different with the SKUs. Like, I don't know. Well, guess what?

47:37 You're going through the system today and you're going to wipe out every duplicate that's in there and we're going to simplify it.

47:43 It's just stuff like that, man. It's really not complicated. It's just It really isn't.

47:47 Find the problems. Find the holes and fix one at a time. I think it also starts again, you know, you got that filter first. The first filter is I'm not going to go pull 40 hours a week. It's not going to happen. I'm gonna be with my daughter. I'm going to be with my family. That's the thing. So, how can I make sure that it's efficient? If if someone's starting through this and they're struggle busing and they're like, "Hey man, Chris is amazing. I I'm not going to be at this high school reunion thing, but I want to get a hold of them. I want to be part of this. I want to get to this process."

48:13 How do people get a hold of you? How do they reach out to you? What's the best way to do that?

48:18 Uh, the only social I have that's public is LinkedIn. Um, I find there's more serious people over there. My Instagram is friends and family. Sure, I could grow it and get a whole bunch of likes. And those are the vanity metrics that don't matter. They don't.

48:33 So, I pretty much just you made everything private. Other than LinkedIn, I still do consulting. Um, it's it's not as common that I do that, but I'll do 90day sprints with people like, "Hey, I got a product. Hey, I got a company. Hey, I got an idea." Um, I help them get dressed, get ready for the party, go to the party, connect the dots, I'm out. Right? I still do some of that, but again, it has to check the boxes, right? Can I play with my friends? Can I leverage my network? Would my kids be proud of me? Is it gonna be fun? Does the other person suck? Like, these are real check boxes, man.

49:06 Yeah, they're real. And if if you check all those boxes, like, okay, this is a deal I'd probably play around with. Um, you're buying my time. You're doing it for 3 months. At the end of that, we can have a conversation.

49:16 Do I continue as from an equity standpoint because we really got something humming here and it's not going to really work without me.

49:25 Um, then I have that. So that's how I got into Dugout is I got 40% equity in the company on the front side for no money down

49:34 because of my involvement and what I was able to do. Um and then my golf company, I own 60% of that company uh for no money down and and it was a brand that had over half a million dollars in golf ball sales right off the bat. So it's like um it does it fit my lifestyle? Can I play with my friends? Can I have fun? This is you know all these questions. So, um, I still do my consulting. That's why I leave LinkedIn. And I'm really pretty responsive over there.

50:01 But I would say that and then obviously Dugout Mugs and Big Golf. I mean, check out what we're doing. What we're doing is awesome. Period.

50:08 Yeah. So, we Yeah, absolutely. When we get sent stuff, because we get sent [ __ ] all the time, it normally lands flat. Your stupid mug. I'm actually a little pissed. They [ __ ] love this thing. My entire team won't let me touch it at this point. They're running around with it. And so, they're amazing. So, where if people want one of the mugs, where do they go? How do they get access to it?

50:25 Dugoutmugs.com. Um, that's the place to get it. Now, if you want to do some custom stuff or get like some corporate mugs or something, just shoot us a message. Um, there's right on the site. Right on the site. Just pop it in there. Hey, saw Chris on a podcast. Wanted to chat about doing some custom stuff. And we're officially licensed with Major League Baseball, the Savannah Bananas. Like, we got it all. So, you can do like Yankees mugs on one side from your friends at XYZ Corp on the back. We can do all that good stuff.

50:53 So, um, yeah, pretty much. And if if you want to come up with something awesome,

50:58 let me know. And what I loved about it was how fast it was. It literally it was it was like within two days it was there. I was like, "What just happened?" It was sick.

51:05 These guys are dialed in. They only do what they do best. And they don't do anything else. I don't walk up there and say, "Hey, Eric, looks like you're really managing [ __ ] well. Can you go clean this thing?" No.

51:16 Or, "Hey, Tina, you're really just on top of getting everything out the door. Can you go run the lasers?" Like, and that's what people do. And and I've seen it. I' I'm guilty of it. That's why I know it screws stuff up is you find what somebody's doing and then you have them go do something else. I do at my m I'll tell you a little story and we can rap because I know you got to roll. Um I was at my mastermind the other day and this guy uh his name was Phil. Actually, he just just put in an order this morning for for mugs. So, shout out Phil. But he's like, "All right, write in cursive with your dominant hand. Write your name." And everybody did. He had like 10 seconds to do it because who remembers cursive? He said, "Now write it with your left hand in the same amount of time."

52:01 And uh it gave you 20 seconds, right? More time. And and it looked like trash. Horrible. Okay. But what he said is like this is an example of what's happening in your business. So people are more focused and they take twice the time to do a shittier job because what you ask them to do is so far outside of their comfort zone,

52:22 right? Like what a what a great example. What a great example. Good job, Phil. To execute. It's like you can do a okay job if you know what you're doing. Then you can do a half-ass job in twice the time if it's not your lane. But all the time people are applying unnecessary pressure on employees by asking them to do what they're not best at. And I saw and that really landed, right?

52:42 Yeah, that was a really good That's huge. So, man, I appreciate there's so many different insights and things and I've got to talk to you about mugs. But Chris, man, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it.

52:52 Yeah, I'm always down to jump on, man. If you ever want to rap about something else, let me know. I'm around.

52:56 Sounds good, man. I appreciate it. See it. All right, that wraps up our episode. Chris is one of those few entrepreneurs who just gets in your face. He only buys what he loves. He only does what he loves. We jokingly talked about it after the call where he's like, "Dude, my entire life is sports, booze, and cigars. I get to do that every day and then go back to my family. What other life could you want?" Talk about the proof of her entrepreneurship right there. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I'll see you in the next one.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "$55 Million with only 5 employees - Kris Dehnert"?

In order: 0:00 Chris Denner, Corporate Gifting, Dugout Mug, Gold's Gym; 5:00 Reflection; 10:00 Big George; 15:00 80/20 Rule; 20:00 Julius Randall, Ready, Fire, Aim, Vanity Metrics; 25:00 Claude, Glenn Diesel, Mike Weiss, Voice AI; 35:00 Business Journals, Capital One, Celsius, Chasing Trends; 40:00 Affiliate Program, Big Golf, Perpetuity, Teespring; 45:00 LinkedIn, Vanity Metrics; 50:00 Big Golf, Dugout Mugs, Dugout Mugs, Major League Baseball.

What is mentioned in this The Proven Podcast episode?

63 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Reflection, Corporate Gifting, Print on Demand, Teespring, Big George, Vanity Metrics. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "$55 Million with only 5 employees - Kris Dehnert"?

The episode runs 53 min; the transcript is about 11,566 words in 146 timestamped sections.

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