Who's Driving
Who's Driving with Wesley Turner & Steven Merck is all about the entertaining stories we share and brainstorming topics we discuss as two best friends would on a long road trip. Come along for the ride as we check in with friends & offer a wide range of informative topics centered around running small businesses, social media, and all things Home and Garden.
Who's Driving
Who's Driving - Surviving Market & Franchise Follow-Up S2E27
This week, we're back with an exciting episode of Who's Driving after battling "car troubles", COVID, and sinus infections. We share the rollercoaster of our recent Atlanta market visit, from the overwhelming response to our franchising announcement to the challenges of holding 20 live sales while dealing with being sick, we managed to push through and have some incredible updates to share.
We want to hear from you give our hotline a call at 864-982-5029. Happy listening! And remember to leave us a rating and review.
We mentioned The Nested Fig App in this episode. You can Tap Here to get our app and join our live sales on Sundays and Thursdays at 8pm est.
Follow the progress at the Savannah store on Instagram at @Thenestedfighomesavannah
Follow Steven on Instagram at @Keepinupwithstevenand follow Wesley on Instagram at @Farmshenanigans. Shop our online store at TheNestedFig.Com Find The Nested Fig on Instagram at @TheNestedFig
Girl get on in. I got the car out of the shop. She's up and running. We're back together. It's time for another episode of who's Driving. Welcome to who's Driving. I'm Wesley Turner.
Speaker 2:And I'm Stephen Merck. We're two best friends and entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1:Who's Driving is an entertaining look into the behind the scenes of our lives, friendships and businesses.
Speaker 2:These are the stories we share and topics we discuss, as two best friends would on a long road trip.
Speaker 1:Along the way, we'll check in with friends and offer a wide range of informative topics centered around running small businesses, social media and all things home and garden.
Speaker 2:Buckle up and enjoy the ride. You never know who's driving or where we're headed.
Speaker 1:All we know is it's always a fun ride. And on this week's episode coming up in a bit, we're going to talk more about franchising In general. In general, we got a lot of questions after we announced that we were franchising and some surprising questions, so we're going to do a little bit about that coming up and then in the next episode next week we are going to talk about market and what we saw at market, the market trends.
Speaker 2:We're going to have our franchisee on yes, our first franchisee.
Speaker 1:So that's going to be the lineup coming up. Last week the car was in the shop. We didn't have an episode. We let a lot of people down.
Speaker 2:I needed to be in the shop, I know.
Speaker 1:So we just got back from the Atlanta market, but before we went there, you we were recording, you had COVID.
Speaker 2:I had COVID. Yeah, we recorded it. I record, we recorded from home. We were at home remotely, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I had to record by myself. But you got better just in time for the Atlanta market.
Speaker 2:I mean, I still had a cough, but it was over. Yeah, it was over, but you know how you have that residual, irritating, annoying cough, but then it went away within a few days of being there, right?
Speaker 1:And then I got sick going to market before market. You know, I went a few days before because I felt like I was getting a little congestion.
Speaker 2:Dr Merck told you, so I went and got a vitamin IV.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but Dr.
Speaker 2:Merck told you you needed an antibiotic.
Speaker 1:Well, it continuously got worse until. I did start taking an antibiotic and I got better.
Speaker 2:You have gotten progressively. Over the past two years. Your allergies have gotten just progressively worse.
Speaker 1:Yes, I think what really set it off this time is I before market, that week in between I don't know where we'd been and here and there, whatever, I started going back to the gym, but then I couldn't make it a couple of times and we have a treadmill in our garage and I think it was dusty because it was like the next day after I worked out in the garage my throat was kind of, I was kind of nasally and I think it triggered sinus and then it turned into a sinus infection is what I think.
Speaker 1:Everyone was like oh, do you have COVID now? I tested four times.
Speaker 2:Oh, I've never seen anybody test for COVID.
Speaker 1:Well, I didn't want to spread it at market unknowingly.
Speaker 2:And my test you know I tested twice, and even the second one that I was feeling better, still tested positive. But I read and the line was really light, so it meant the virus was wearing you know? Yeah, and then, after that it was gone, yeah, it was fine, but yeah, yeah, your allergy, your allergy situation for the past two years. It's gotten a little irritating I know so you've started taking singular.
Speaker 1:Finally, dr murk here told you you needed to take how that worked well. We'll see how it works well.
Speaker 2:Knock on wood, knock on wood. I stopped Singulair the end of last year just to try, and you've been fine and you know, because I've always had horrible allergies and I feel like it's been fine.
Speaker 1:You haven't noticed anything, have you?
Speaker 2:No, I think I was like you know, I don't need to take a pill if I don't need it anymore and your body changes. But I think your body changed to more sinus issues.
Speaker 1:I used to never have sinus issues. They started probably about 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:I didn't, as a kid.
Speaker 1:And started getting worse and worse and then probably moving to the farm doesn't help and dust and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Pollen, pollen, and I feel like the pollen was so bad this year too, but I got to market, which we had an amazing market.
Speaker 1:We did 20 live sales while we were there. I tried to do Instagram and everything and my voice was gone and I was so nasally. But you know what? I just love all of you listening, but it kind of gets a little irritating. So the whole time I was at market I just stopped even looking in my direct messages on Instagram.
Speaker 2:You need this. You need to do that.
Speaker 1:No, no, it wasn't even telling me. I don't mind someone saying hey, you should try this, this helped me, or whatever it was. Message after message, you sound like you're getting sick. No shit, no shit. I've been sick for and this would be at the end of market when I was already on antibiotic and getting better. I was like I've been sick. Where the hell have you been? And I don't need you to tell me I'm getting sick. Like what? I don't understand what is behind the comment. I appreciate the comments that like someone would be oh no, it sounds like you're getting sick. You mentioned you always get sick at market. I hope you can hang in, you know, encouraging or something Nice, but not like oh, are you sick?
Speaker 2:It's like oh, do you have brown hair?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no, this was you're getting sick. You sound like you're sick, you're sick. I'm like, yes, I'm sick, I'm barely making it through market. What do you want? But the good thing about being sick this time at market, I didn't really feel horrible, I mean, other than it being just a pain in the butt of the congestion, not being able to talk and that sort of thing, and I never had a fever, so I didn't feel, you know, just horrible.
Speaker 2:It's amazing what people take the time out of their day to message on social media. I mean it. It never ceases to amaze me. And listen 90, 98 are wonderful. Right, we love you.
Speaker 1:It's great, but I just don't understand the direct. Like you're, You're getting sick. Like what do you want my response to be? Is what throws?
Speaker 2:me off, you think?
Speaker 1:I didn't know that. Thanks for telling me. Oh, let me check into that Self. Are you sick, Hell?
Speaker 2:yeah, you're sick. That's what it goes through. Well, it's like.
Speaker 1:you look tired, oh my God. I've been tired since I started Instagram. You look tired, oh my God. I've been tired since.
Speaker 2:I started Instagram. You look tired. Yeah, my favorite is you need to get some rest, you need to rest?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you need to pay my bills. Like, what do you want? There ain't no rest. I know we rest.
Speaker 2:Listen, let me tell you something. That's our biggest question. Listen. 98% of the time it does not annoy me.
Speaker 1:Biggest question listen 98 of the time. It does not annoy me because I I get, we are not normal people. Right, I get it. We're not normal, we're not in any way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I'll tell you when we rest, when we absolutely collapse when we crawl to the bed I rested when I came back from market.
Speaker 1:I literally, but I got up the next day and worked yeah but I was like, okay, I have to have a day right to like, rest right, I just have to have a day just to lay in the damn bed.
Speaker 2:Yes, I don't even care about food, water, anything right, I just want to lay there and I'll be fine, and we rejuvenate like we are, just like a wilted plant, right you? Water us a little, we're good to go again.
Speaker 1:It's true, it's true.
Speaker 2:And the other thing is is Wesley and I have worked literally since we were young teenagers, right, and we've worked all the time.
Speaker 1:We're workaholics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess you would say, it's what makes our lifestyle.
Speaker 1:We talked about that before. Our work and doing the businesses is a lifestyle. That's what. It doesn't work like that when you own your own business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that was the hardest part I don't want to talk about McDonald's, but selling McDonald's was the hardest part for me was not having my phone ring and not feeling needed. Right, I was like what in the hell?
Speaker 1:What do I do now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like all these people are always bothering me, but that's really what kept me going get you up in the morning, so I know, yeah, and it goes back to the comments and being sick.
Speaker 1:I love and what you're talking about being rest. That was another comment. I'm at market and market is like a huge deal. Like I start stressing about market and being sick at market. Like two weeks before I can't get sick, I gotta sick at market. Like two weeks before I can't get sick, I got to be at market. That is a huge thing to be sick.
Speaker 2:You stress me out about it. You're like we can't get sick. We can't get sick. Don't be around that person. They're sick. Don't go to that store, I do.
Speaker 1:Because market is such a huge deal for us, it is a huge deal. And then the comments when I'm sick at market and I have to power through and you just need to go back to the hotel and take a couple of days off.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I'm like that made me want to crawl out of my skin and just beat someone Because I'm like that is not an option, like that is not an option one, because I'm like that is not an option.
Speaker 2:Like that is not an option. Listen, the first time I had COVID, I got it Christmas. Well, I got it New Year's of 2020. And then market was like the first of January.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was early.
Speaker 2:And that was before any vaccine, before anything. That was the first round.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I had the energy of a wet dish rag.
Speaker 1:But you got over it.
Speaker 2:You were negative because they were checking us.
Speaker 1:They were checking us, but I was still so tired, you were very tired.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was so tired, you would crawl out of bed.
Speaker 1:I would be like, okay, we got to go to market. You would literally crawl out of bed, power through market and then collapse in the bed at night In my clothes, in shoes, yeah, and I would be like I'll go get you food.
Speaker 2:I mean, but you know, and then you would be there till the next morning.
Speaker 1:We had to do it, but that's the way yeah. I mean and thank God we've never had a stomach virus or anything, because I don't know what we would do. Well, I did that one time.
Speaker 2:Oh, you did. It wasn't throwing up, though, you were blowing it out.
Speaker 1:Yes, Luckily, I think it was at the end of March and it was just like one day.
Speaker 2:It wasn't like a full-fledged virus.
Speaker 1:Oh my God Okay we'll keep going, going, but anyway, market was a success and we're going to talk about, like I said, market in the next episode. I will say this and that sort of thing that was the hardest I've ever worked at market and it was great right, it was great, it was fun, it was energizing.
Speaker 2:you know the live sales fun. Our business growing is so fun and exciting and having our franchisees there, it was all super great.
Speaker 1:There was nothing negative about it, but it was an exhausting market. It really was. We'll talk all about that. Okay, I have a riddle for you. Oh, I've got one for you.
Speaker 2:I bet mine's better.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, Well, do you want me to you go first? Okay, Riddle for you. Oh, I've got one for you. I bet mine's better. Oh okay, Well, do you want me to you want?
Speaker 2:to go first, okay.
Speaker 1:Riddle me this. I am odd. I'm an odd number, but take away a letter and I become even. What am I? I am an odd number, but take away a letter and I become even. I don't even know the tune.
Speaker 2:We need the music in here. It could be.
Speaker 1:I'm an odd number, but take away a letter and I become even If you're listening out there.
Speaker 2:Can you get it? Okay? I'm thinking like if it was, the number was 41, that's an odd number. Okay, and if you took away A letter, oh, not a number, a letter.
Speaker 1:Take away a letter, I'm an odd number. But take away a letter and I become even I don't know seven. If you take away the s damn it, it's even I see I didn't take, I wasn't listening I wasn't thinking beyond the question yes okay, I thought that was a pretty good one.
Speaker 2:That's a good one, and I've read that one before and I still got it wrong. Well, I'm a little disappointed in myself.
Speaker 1:Let's go. Okay, you know I won't get it. Let me get in the right mindset. You can get this one. Okay, let's go.
Speaker 2:I have branches, okay, but no fruit trunk or leaves. What am I? A bank? Yes, you read it. You just read it. No, I didn't, you're lying.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't. I really did not read that. Damn it, that was a good one. Well, I pictured a tree and then you were going and I'm like, what else has branches when you?
Speaker 2:said okay, I'm the big fat loser for today. No, that was easy, I don't know why that popped in my head. I thought it was easy. I was like, oh, even Wesley should be able to get this. You're so mean, I'm kidding, I am kidding.
Speaker 1:I have a new Instagram. It too.
Speaker 2:What is it?
Speaker 1:I think I sent this to you, maybe, but it's been a couple of weeks, since we weren't together about it, so you may have forgotten about it. I saw this person and it's a big account on Instagram and she was making, I guess, like summer drinks, punch or whatever, in buckets and then they were having having. I can't remember they were having like a I don't know if it was a barbecue or a low country boil or something like that oh, I remember it, it was a low country boil okay, she just put these galvanized buckets on the table and then, like the whole family was drinking out of it like everyone.
Speaker 1:They had like five or six straws in a bucket.
Speaker 2:She nasty if she's doing that she listen, there's two words to this she, she nasty. And I would tell her that if she's doing that, she is not washing her hands when she's cooking and a cat is scooting its ass across the counter. She, that is just gross.
Speaker 1:I know she made like maybe like seven of these buckets I don't know however many and then showed like multiple family members drinking out of the buckets at the same time you listen.
Speaker 2:I come to your house and you got buckets with people to drink. I ain't drinking nothing, I'm leaving. Yeah, I'm done, I won't have to go. Yeah, that is gross it was so gross.
Speaker 1:And then people were commenting oh, I need the recipe, which I guess that doesn't mean they're going to drink it out of the bucket.
Speaker 2:No, no, I think most people would have enough couth about them to not do that.
Speaker 1:I mean, who does that? Like I wouldn't have done that pre-COVID but post-COVID I'm still not, and I know COVID's not everything and it's just a cold at this point, blah blah blah.
Speaker 2:But even with glue going around anything, I'm not doing any. I don't want your cold sore either.
Speaker 1:I'm not doing any communal drinking.
Speaker 2:I would have never done that I don't, I wouldn't drink after you. I've never drank after you other than like I would taste this cocktail, but then I would use like I mean but that's different like maybe like a sip or I usually put a straw in it and hold it and suction it out With your finger and then drop it in your mouth. Have a little respect. Nasty, nasty. Oh gosh, see, it's so hard for me.
Speaker 1:And I don't do it.
Speaker 2:So nobody can ever say I do not leave negative comments on social media. It is my, you know you do you, but it's my personal thing, I just don't. I feel like the world doesn't need any more negativity, so I just keep it to myself keep scrolling or hit unfollow and we just judge on our podcast and talk about it. Yeah, but I'm not wasting my time. But I mean it was hard not to say you nasty. I mean I wish hard not to say you nasty.
Speaker 1:I mean I wish I could be scrolling through Instagram and see you nasty I think that is gross. It is so gross. But it goes back to like maybe we've talked about it before, I don't know, but like bobbing for apples back in the day.
Speaker 2:That's why I never did it. Slobbering in, there it's great and I think people's teeth I think, it's all how you're brought up to like yeah I, you know, I, I was that kid. You didn't touch my, my plate, you didn't touch my fork, you didn't none of that?
Speaker 1:well, because you were a spoiled only child, brat well, maybe, but I mean yeah yeah I never liked that I never grew up like, even in my family, like drinking after each other or anything that just grosses me out and I don't like.
Speaker 2:You know, and I've told this story on here. I don't know if I've told this story on here, but I don't know if I've told this story on here, but I'll tell you because it kind of goes with. That Is the girl that worked at McDonald's many years ago and she was making caramel sundae. We've told that story and she licked her finger. And the side of the cup In front of the customer and then was going to hand it to her.
Speaker 1:She nasty.
Speaker 2:We told that story, I know we told that story and if you're out there maybe it was on a live, I don't know, but if I fired you for that, call in. Yeah, I want to see where you are in life that was her last day.
Speaker 2:yeah, if you missed that story, steven was at one of his mcdonald's restaurants and watching a girl make a sundae a caramel sundae, I guess and I guess the caramel got on her hand and down the side of the cup and she licked her hand and then licked the side of the cup and handed it went to hand it to the customer and I was sitting in the lobby at a table doing some paperwork and, I kid you not, I look like Bo. Duke from the Dukes of Hazzard going across that counter. I literally jumped across the counter and grabbed the sundae and was like no, ma'am, no, no, no, you go to the back and have a seat. And I took over, made the customer's sundae customers.
Speaker 1:Sunday apologize. The customer realized what had happened. Like had they reacted before or not it had.
Speaker 2:I was literally. I was in there like Superman. I mean it literally. I think I don't know if they were as stunned over yeah licking of the cup as they were of me jumping over the counter, but I think they appreciated my sense of urgency, right. But I was like no, no, no, and that is not a trainable issue, right? I'm sorry, that is not that is a personality here, that you just should just go home innately.
Speaker 1:No better than yeah doing that yeah, just go home.
Speaker 2:And I, and when I look at that woman and those people drinking out of buckets, she was licking the cup, the caramel sundae cup. She was doing that. Oh my god, listen, y'all can eat out of that woman's kitchen if you want to, but I promise you she is licking the batters and then putting them right back in the frosting she's nasty.
Speaker 1:The beaters, the beaters, not the batter, not the batter yeah off, right off the the mixer, mixer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gross I was like she's.
Speaker 1:She's making stuff and taste just spoonfuls and then putting the spoon back in there and stirring it up. You know this girl.
Speaker 2:You know we were at.
Speaker 1:No, you go ahead. We were at Market and I may have offended the lady, I don't know, but we were at Market and you and I we both are big on. We don't really want to eat food that someone else made if we don't know them and know their house. You know what I'm saying. Like we don't really do that, like we don't want anyway. So our rep was like oh, do you want? Um, you know some kind of treat at market? It was like a brownie, I don't know what it was. So we go back there and I'm thinking it's gonna be. You know, they bought it at costco or whatever.
Speaker 2:Well, it's in a.
Speaker 1:Tupperware container. It was really good. But then the showroom manager walked in and she had made them and I was like, oh, is your kitchen clean. I don't know if she found it as funny.
Speaker 2:I don't care. Sometimes you have to ask.
Speaker 1:I know, but I was like regretting as I was eating it, even though it was good.
Speaker 2:I was kind of like, oh, I've always been that way One time in middle school and I met some people. Some friends from school listened to this podcast, so y'all will know what I'm talking about here and I don't care. Well, you know I had to take home ec back in the day. I don't think that's even a thing anymore Home ec.
Speaker 1:Did you take it? I didn't take it, but it was a thing.
Speaker 2:It was a requirement.
Speaker 1:For us when we did it at my school, that was like you had electives almost, and I took like greenhouse. Our school had a greenhouse.
Speaker 2:Well, I would have much rather taken that I took horticulture things instead of homemade well, I had to take this crap and learn to cook and make crap and I was sick, legit sick, and I was a very, very good student and, um, I didn't realize that day or I would have drug myself in there sick the day we were being split up into cooking groups and in the cooking group you had to cook it together. Everybody had to do a part, so if there was three or four people in that group, you had to each take a part in it and everybody had to eat, it had to sample whatever you were making, right?
Speaker 1:Everybody in the class. No sample, whatever you were making, right? Everybody in the class.
Speaker 2:No, everybody in your group. Okay, so you couldn't mess it up. You know everybody had to be on their best behavior. Well, I was out and she took all of the people that were out sick and I get it from her point of view and threw us in a group together. And I got there the next day and this girl that I went to school with I probably shouldn't call her name, but her name started with the A and her last name started with the B, so y'all know who she is. If you went to school with me and bless her heart, I mean I feel bad for her now, but you could smell her coming a mile away. Oh my gosh, Just horrible and I could not take it. You know how weak stomach I am. I could not take it. So I went to the teacher very nicely and I said you know, Mrs Stewart, I am happy to be in this group.
Speaker 2:I understand, I was out and I will participate. I will do everything, but I'm not eating it. Yeah, it's not happening. Yeah, and she told me well, you have to. And I said, mm. So I went home and I told my mother yeah, I was like Mom, I don't know what you have to do, but I will fail before I eat. So that's when my mother actually called her and she was like okay. Yeah, I understand your situation, but just understand he will not eat this. Can he eat sample somebody?
Speaker 1:else's Right.
Speaker 2:He is not going to eat it yeah and um, she finally realized I wasn't gonna eat it. It just wasn't gonna happen. Yeah, I mean, the only way I would have eaten it is if she had taken her stank butt and sat down across the room and not put her hands in it. Right that's, but it was awful. And it was so awkward Because, see, I wouldn't be mean To her and you know, looking back, we were in middle school, it wasn't her fault, it was her parents fault. But, oh my gosh, nauseating.
Speaker 1:That is the worst. I can see little Steven going. I ain't eating and I bet you got home, mama, I ain't eating it, no, and I bet you got home, mama, mama.
Speaker 2:I was like Mama, please, mama, I'm not eating it, I'm not, I'm not eating it. Mama, you got to do something. She was like honey, you don't have to eat it.
Speaker 1:Mama, I'm going to fail.
Speaker 2:You got to do something. But my mother was the sweetest soul on earth. Okay, honey, but we cannot hurt her feelings, right? So don't say anything, because that's not her fault, that's her parents fault. So I was like I'm not trying to hurt anybody's feelings, I just ain't eating it, right?
Speaker 1:I know you didn't, I know you wouldn't.
Speaker 2:Now but what adult would do that? Like mate, let's all drink out of this yeah, so weird, but weird, that is weird.
Speaker 1:I don't know, that was my Instagram.
Speaker 2:Well, who was it that I was watching? Oh, I know who it was. I don't want to get political here. This is not political. Do not call in. This is not political. I watched this yesterday, so it is not meant to be political. I don't care who you vote for or anything else, but I was stunned. It was our vice president, kamala Harris was in a interview and she was talking about cooking vegetables. And I'm watching it and I'm like, oh okay, you know, I guess she made some good collard greens and she said in this interview that she made had to cook so much at one time she had to wash them in the bathtub. What? And listen, y'all don't call her hotline. It is not. I am not making a political statement. All I'm saying is I ain't eating at her house either, and I was just but I mean oh my God.
Speaker 2:Can you?
Speaker 1:imagine, well, first of all, how many are you making that you got to wash them in the bathtub? I don't know, but you know. But then, and could you not have washed it in batches in?
Speaker 2:the sink. Well, that's what I would have done but done. But you know, a lady back home in clemson ain't gonna call any names because there's a lot of relatives to those she used to make a lot of pickles, and this is the truth, and she did them in the bathtub too washed them in the bathtub yes, no, ma'am, so, but I'm thinking I didn't know what to say.
Speaker 2:Like you've got, you know, these well-known people, and even like that influencer, you know she's got hundreds of thousands of followers and uh they just said it like yeah just like it was no big deal she was talking about how many all the greens she made, I was like, dang, I'd love to have some of her greens, I love collard greens. And uh, when she just sat there and said it, yeah, I made so many one time I had to wash them in the bathtub I was like, oh, my word, I mean that is crazy.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's funny I just can't.
Speaker 2:Every time I look at her I see a bathtub and collard greens. I was like who does that?
Speaker 1:I know. You just never know how people are cooking and living. That's why I don't eat out of people's kitchens. Well, you never.
Speaker 2:You never know. And you know there's certain people. We had a family in our church, oh.
Speaker 1:I ain't eating nothing at church, nothing at church.
Speaker 2:This is a very very, very, very nice family, very well known. I would never call their name um those potluck dinners. They're hoarders like you can't walk in their house. They're what? Hoarders. Oh, I thought you said they're whores. I was like what? They may be whores, but they're hoarders Hoarders. And I'm like here's the thing, and it sounds like we're being real judgy, but we're not. If you're nasty, you're nasty, but if you can't get around in your house to clean and you got I ain't eating it.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, ma'am, no, sir.
Speaker 2:No, no, no ma'am no sir. Nope, not doing it, not eating it. No, ma'am, I mean.
Speaker 1:Maybe we're just too picky. Let us know on the hotline how do you feel? Do you not think about it? Maybe you know some people aren't you know Daniel would eat. It wouldn't bother him that those collard greens were soaking in someone's bathtub, that would not.
Speaker 2:That wouldn't bother him at all. I'm wondering, mate, is that a thing? Are we the odd ones out? Do people like clean their bathtub and wash big batches of vegetables? I?
Speaker 1:don't know, I don't know and I would say back I don't know.
Speaker 1:let us know on our hotline text, or call and leave us a voicemail 864-982-5029. It's down in the caption below as well. If you need to reference the number, let us know. Are you picky about eating out of other people's houses or not? Is that not a thing for you? Are you like? Oh, it doesn't bother me, I'll eat whatever. I mean you know. Honestly, though, we're probably picky about it coming out of someone's kitchen, and some restaurants we eat from are probably worse.
Speaker 2:They are Well. Go to the bathroom, Go to the restroom and you look at some of those restrooms. If that restroom is filthy, you know their kitchen is. Kitchen is nasty. And you know I am glad I didn't grow up rich or privileged like some of these celebrities and stuff, because I would not eat some of that nastiness either. What do you mean? Like caviar?
Speaker 1:Oh, you're saying Pate, I'm not eating it. Yeah, you're talking about specific foods.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I mean pick any celebrity that probably I even watch Below Deck. Yeah, and some of that food they eat I even watch Below Deck.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And some of that food they eat.
Speaker 1:I'm like Not eating it. I'm not eating it. Yeah, but Daniel, that just made me think like he would eat anything. He'll eat anything.
Speaker 2:And it never makes him sick.
Speaker 1:Mm-mm.
Speaker 2:Never. I've never known him to get sick and he will eat anything. I know I mean, if you cook something and you were like if you told him, oh, this is a crust off of some animal's foot, but it's very tasty, he would try it.
Speaker 1:He probably would, it's true. So I guess maybe there's a lot of people like that that don't care, don't mind whatever.
Speaker 1:Let's get into talking about franchising, though. We got a lot of questions about franchising. If you missed it, I don't know where you've been, but maybe you're just catching up. So, stephen and I, we own the Nested Fig. We have our retail stores the Nested Fig Garden here in Greenville, south Carolina, the Nested Fig Home here in Greenville, south Carolina, the Nested Fig, which is our online store where we ship all across the country. So there's no excuse for you not to have something from us wherever you are. But we announced a few weeks ago that we're franchising and our first franchise location is going to be in Savannah, georgia, opening this fall, hopefully the 1st of October. That kind of catches you up on the details there.
Speaker 2:It's located at 2428 Abercorn.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we have the Instagram up the Nested Big Home, savannah, if you want to follow along the process. But I was kind of thrown off about franchising questions in general and I'm not judging anybody or anything like that, but how many?
Speaker 2:it's just a shock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to me, and it's. You know, we're in the business of business, we're in the business of business, so I guess to us it comes natural. But if you're not, how many people really didn't know what franchising means. They were like I don, how does that work? I don't understand what a franchise is, and that threw me off. But I'm glad to talk about it because we love talking about business.
Speaker 2:What hit me was what some of the questions I got from reps at market and I was like what?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So let's start off with franchising. In general, a ton of businesses are franchised that you probably shop at or go to every day. So franchising, if you don't know, is when a business owner or whatever, has a business model that can be replicated and you can sell it to a franchisee. Basically, you sell your name and your rights to use your name and your business model, and there's things that come along with it, such as coaching or helping whatever it can be different across businesses, but that's the gist of it.
Speaker 2:Different fees associated with different franchises.
Speaker 1:So a lot of things like Crumble Cookie. That's a franchise business. So Crumble, the owner of Crumble Cookie, does not own each location. Those are franchised. He has sold those off. So when you go to a franchise location they're following the Crumble Corporate's method for recipes, cookies and that sort of thing. But that's also why you can go somewhere and the, you know, level of customer service can be different or some things can be off if it's not watched closely, like McDonald's.
Speaker 2:McDonald's was is 85% of all McDonald's locations are owned by individuals, right.
Speaker 1:And so that's why, again, you can go to each McDonald's location and the service can be different. The cleanliness can be different.
Speaker 2:Certain products they can carry and not carry. There's core products they have to carry, and then there's elected you know there's core products they have to carry and there's elected um, you know there's elected. Things like nugget sauces you can or you know you don't have to carry, and then pricing is solely up to the owner yeah, of that location.
Speaker 1:So that's where the variants can come in another like ace hardware. Those are all franchise locations.
Speaker 2:FedEx.
Speaker 1:People don't know this. Fedex stores.
Speaker 2:And FedEx routes. Fedex ground yes, you can buy franchises.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Locate, you know.
Speaker 2:People don't realize that, yeah.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of businesses that you go to probably every day that are franchise locations. So that's the gist of how franchising works and that's why it's important, even for bigger franchises like McDonald's. You know, for a huge company like that they get. Sometimes the whole corporation or chain can get negative feedback or, you know, image, when it could be something that just one franchisee did.
Speaker 2:And you step out of line. You know for McDonald's and I'm sure it's this way with all yeah, I can speak more to McDonald's. But you decide, you wake up one day and you decide, oh, I think I want to sell this friend of mine. She was a great owner, Great person, Great owner. I had a lot of respect for her. Um, she got in the business late in life.
Speaker 2:She got in the business in her 50s when she became an owner and she had only worked for McDonald's for less than a year prior training. And, bless her heart, she was just such an entrepreneur and I love that about her, you know, because I am a true entrepreneur at heart so I got it. And one time she decided and she had very successful restaurants, yeah, she decided that you know, panera and all these places had soup and salads and she said, well, I'm going to do a soup and salad. So she figured out how she could order these frozen soups, uh-huh, and these, basically a crock pot. You put the pouches in and have them ready to go. And she ordered her containers.
Speaker 1:This is so something I would have done.
Speaker 2:If you had been in business with me, we would have done this. And she ordered all of that, honey. Not only did she start selling it this nut and I say that out of love and respect she put a billboard on I-85.
Speaker 1:Soup and salad at McDonald's.
Speaker 2:Soup and salad at McDonald's. And so when you do that, you get this little letter from Chicago, from the legal department, basically a cease and desist. I mean she was always getting in trouble but you know, hats off to her. That's how she grew her business. She is a very, very wealthy retired lady right now.
Speaker 2:But, that's why you know she wanted. She didn't understand why we didn't have Ices. You know like you get at convenience stores. She went and bought an ice machine and dropped it at her house. I mean, she was always getting in trouble and I would just giggle because everything she did was the right idea.
Speaker 1:Right but not. She didn't follow the right avenues, it wasn't the program Right.
Speaker 2:Right, you know, bless her heart, she needed to be in menu management in Chicago. But you know, and it's crazy that I'm telling these stories and I'm like, well, we're starting to franchise. But that's why you have to have guidelines and boundaries Right, because you will always have. You know you're fearless out there and if she's listening she knows I love her and I have a tremendous amount of respect for her. But you know, you've always got those people that are really going to be out there. How can I make this better? And they might not really know the do's and the don'ts and not think about the ramifications, because when you do that, like in McDonald's, that affects your coverage, your insurance, your liability, all kinds of things. You got to stay with the program, stay in your lane Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know, and I did little things here and there in my career that I got in trouble for, but you know it worked.
Speaker 1:You did what you had to do. It worked. It worked.
Speaker 2:I didn't do anything to hurt anyone's health. I did go out one time and decided that the tomatoes were shitty.
Speaker 2:This was way back when you. They come in sliced now it's so much easier but back when you had got solid tomatoes and they were just shitty and they were really expensive and they were just crappy tomatoes and when you're in South Carolina you don't eat a bad tomato. So I found a local farmer that had these gorgeous, gorgeous big old tomatoes so I started buying from him. Well, I didn't know then because I was dumber. I didn't know that it's a red flag when something drops off of your order.
Speaker 1:You stopped ordering tomatoes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't need their shitty tomatoes.
Speaker 1:I got in trouble. They're like why is he not ordering tomatoes?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's he using? Yeah, and I had these beautiful tomatoes. Yeah, I got in trouble. So I mean I've been there, done that with most franchising. It seems like second nature to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was a little stunned by some of the questions we got. And it's completely legit. I just think of it as second nature to me.
Speaker 1:So back to us and our model, if you're wondering, because we got a lot of questions about that and like, oh, they're going to have this store, are they going to have the same thing that you have? All that, so the way that it works when you franchise. So, basically, we've developed our knowledge, our brand, we've you know, we've talked about it, we trademarked our name.
Speaker 1:We've been going to market for years. We have that experience. We've gotten our vendors, so we have a model you can replicate for a store. So our first franchisees have bought for the Nested Fig home. It's going to be in Savannah, georgia, like I mentioned.
Speaker 2:And you can buy the Nested Fig garden as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So the way that it works is our franchisees pay us a flat fee of whatever we ask for. We won't disclose that here, but if you're interested you can reach out to us.
Speaker 1:And with that we do not own their business. With the fee that they pay us, they are getting to use the nested fig name. They're getting access to us and our knowledge, and they're getting access to us and our knowledge and they're getting access to our vendors. So with that, we have approved vendors that they can buy from, which are the same vendors that we buy from. So when you franchise, you want a cohesiveness across the brand, although there can be variants, especially in home decor, as far as individual items. So they'll shop from the same vendors, but they may have, you know, we're going to sell the same upholstery furniture, but they may have different models on their floor or different color fabrics at any given time than us, but it's going to be the same upholstery furniture that we have in our retail store here in Greenville, South Carolina.
Speaker 2:And we have about that. We regularly order from about 100 vendors give or take Right For the home store, just the home store. So they have a large selection to choose from. They don't have to buy from every single vendor, but they can.
Speaker 1:Right, and so they can create their own product mix from those vendors. But because they're using the same vendors that we use, it's going to closely reflect the same brand, same curated look. Same curated look. So that's how that sort of thing works and you know, home accessories they may shop from the same vendor, but they may add in some, maybe nautical things because they're in Savannah, where we wouldn't add that into our store here in Greenville, south Carolina.
Speaker 1:So there is a small margin of variance, but overall the same look. Then the other question I was getting was will they do live sales? Will they sell online? So they purchased for a retail location, so they won't do live sales? That will be us still doing our live sales and then their online will be our online. So the way that that will work, if a customer comes in, they can say to the customer like we have a wider variety of products online. Here's the website which will be the nested fig and anything that they sell. Just kind of the same way it kind of works. We've talked about with the influencer Anything they sell through their link on our website, they'll get a commission.
Speaker 2:And I guess if they I'm just thinking, we haven't even discussed this, I'm just thinking if they got a huge following on their Instagram and they wanted to do a live sale out of their store for a local pickup or something like that, I guess they.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but they won't have the Nested Fig app. There's only going to be one, that's true, the Nested Fig app no, but. I'm saying they could, they could do live local events.
Speaker 2:Facebook, that sort of thing, but it's not going to be. It's different. The e-commerce is retained by us as a corporate company For anybody interested in franchisee. Let us deal with that, monkey, you don't want to deal with that because you have to. It's fun, we love it, but there's a whole infrastructure for that.
Speaker 1:But it actually, I feel like, works very well for the franchisees locations, because they get an extended inventory that they don't have to pay anything for and they can get commission. Oh, absolutely. They have a whole nother avenue of not having to deal with the infrastructure for e-commerce, live sales and all that.
Speaker 2:And not have to deal with the shipping and employees.
Speaker 1:Right, the shipping. Shipping from a warehouse stocking the product, but they can still earn a commission that didn't cost them anything, right? So that's how that model but I'm saying works.
Speaker 2:What I'm saying is it's a whole.
Speaker 1:That's a whole, different animal in itself that's a whole nother business of doing the whole. It's e-commerce and yeah and take.
Speaker 2:They get to take advantage of of our business and what we've put together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so then, in addition to paying their upfront fee, then as a franchisee, they will pay us a monthly royalty fee based off of their sales. And so then, from that we don't own their location, we don't own their business, any of that they have the rights to sell under the Nested Fig brand.
Speaker 2:We're not their boss, we're not their boss.
Speaker 1:We got that a lot and the reason why we would want to franchise is we can't be in different states and different cities and maximize our business.
Speaker 2:We barely keep up with what we've got going.
Speaker 1:Right. So this is a way to broaden our business and grow our business, with other people doing it for us With other business owners. And it helps maintain the brand because they're going to care for their stores where we couldn't be like. Oh well, we haven't been down to Savannah if we owned it and didn't franchise it.
Speaker 1:We haven't been down there in six months. I wonder what that store looks like. You know what I'm saying. So that's why people franchise. But with franchising and buying into it, we, you know, we help you all along the way getting open. So you know, stephen has gone and scouted locations. I never went and scouted physically but you were telling me and I looked up things about the location because we went from different locations. They had a couple of locations they were interested in and different cities. Yeah and cities. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:But we want to make sure that it's right.
Speaker 1:We're setting you up for success.
Speaker 2:Yes, we want to make sure you do well for you and for us and the company Right.
Speaker 1:So we help find the location and then we help you know, design your location, whatever needs to be done for that location. And then obviously we were at market and if you were watching that, they came to market with this. We helped order all their products to open their store. While we were at market, we'll help with the setup, we'll probably go down for the grand opening and that sort of thing. So you get a lot out of us. If you've been interested in having a home decor store but don't know how to break into it, I would have loved to have had this when I was starting out Just all the resources and everything sort of figured out for you.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you, you know Wesley's been in business, you know, going on 25 years I've been in business longer than that, probably closer to 30 years, longer than that, probably closer to 30 years and we took yeah, I'm old, but we took everything that we thought would help a business owner and put it in to the package. And I made sure, just from my 30 years in McDonald's, things that I hated about franchising. I tried to minimize that. Right, because we do not want to smother anyone's talent or take all the entrepreneurial spirit out of the business. Right. So we kept the guidelines to the minimum. Right, and if you want to carry a different vendor or something, you can request it in writing and we we can approve it right as long as it fits.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the overall look and business model and that sort of thing. And that's another thing. You know we can coach you on why you don't want to have this. You know we've tried a lot of lines and a lot of products and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:Um, this is why you don't want to carry bras in your store yeah, or I mean why you don't want to do xyz, yeah, or? You shouldn't sell shoes, right you know, there's I mean people really and listen I. I said I we laugh. We have made all the mistakes right and we've recovered from and we've done a lot right.
Speaker 1:And we have done a lot right as well. So that's the gist of franchising. So they'll have their own store, the Nesta Fig Home, savannah, and they will buy on their own from approved vendors and create their look for their store, which will, you know, match our look. And we do keep the, you know, the colors of the store the same, the feel of the stores the same, so that it feels familiar. If you've been in one of our home stores and go in theirs, it will feel very familiar in that aspect.
Speaker 2:We have an approved color palette to choose from, and then there's certain vendors I didn't mention that we retain.
Speaker 1:We call those retained vendors and those are items that we stock in our warehouse and then they will order those directly through our warehouse and that helps keep a percentage of cohesiveness in that direction.
Speaker 2:And it also helps because when you're first in business, sometimes it's difficult to afford all the minimums that certain vendors set Right, and you might not need 12 of this, you only need two or three, and we've removed that from the equation to help.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because by having the retained vendors and items we stock in our warehouse, you're getting to order across multiple vendors and you can order whatever quantity you want for your store from our warehouse. So that removes that element, like Stephen was saying, of meeting all of these minimums from different vendors, especially when you're starting out. So we tried to pull together Stephen's knowledge of franchising, even though it was in restaurant different, but still franchising.
Speaker 1:Yes and then my experience of starting businesses on my own and what would have been so useful and really help, you know, elevate my business in the beginning, or what resources I would have loved to have. So we're trying to blend those two and that's how the franchise and I think it's we.
Speaker 2:I think we've done a nice job of achieving that.
Speaker 1:And we have a couple of other people that have reached out, so you never know what we're where we'll be next.
Speaker 1:I think the other thing that threw me off about franchising was people not understanding that for us to open somewhere, someone has to come and buy the franchise and put it in that location. They're like, oh, open one like all these places, open one in this city, open one in this city, open one in this city. And I'm like we're open to opening, you know, in a ton of cities, but we're not the ones we'll make the decision. Looking, you know, we want to help our franchisees go. This town may not be right, it may be oversaturated, it may not have the clientele to support it, that sort of thing. So that doesn't mean we'll just open anywhere but we're not the ones opening it. Someone has to come forward and say I want to open in this location.
Speaker 2:And there are some models that do that, like, for example. There are some models that do that Like, for example McDonald's does that. Probably two-thirds of the time They'll say we're putting a store here because they have our, you know, and McDonald's has been doing this since 55. They'll pick a location and say we're going to have a location and then owners can bid on buying that location.
Speaker 1:But we ain't that big bid on buying that location.
Speaker 2:But we ain't that big and we're you know that's eventually down the road. Who knows, we could get to that level.
Speaker 1:But it goes back to we have so much going on in our local current business, we can't be out opening stores in other cities and neglecting the overall business. It takes a lot to get a store open, so that's why we need franchisees.
Speaker 2:And the location is super, super, super important. So, that's probably the pickiest, most stressful part of it is finding the right location with the right traffic, the right demographics, the right everything, because we want you to be successful. Your success is our success, exactly, and it's our brand, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what other questions did we get from? I got a lot like are you their boss? So we're not their boss, they own their own store.
Speaker 2:And the other weird thing I wasn't expecting we still own our business, oh, yeah. We own the parent company.
Speaker 1:And we own our retail stores.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're not selling a percentage of our business. None of that. We own our business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got that one too. Someone asked I put up a question box, so now they own part of your business and it's like no, they do not.
Speaker 1:Stephen and I are business partners. We own the Nested Fig, including here in Greenville, like I said, our two. Well, we have three retail locations with the outlet store and our online store. They're buying the rights to use our name and business model to have their business, and we charge an upfront fee and royalties each month. So that's how we continue to make money off of that business so that we can continue to support them in whatever they need, such as, you know, a marketing thing or, hey, we found these new vendors here's some new vendors for you or any coaching that they need. So that's, you're getting access to us as part of the package.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would say yeah, someone said to you at market like so now that you've sold your store, what are you going to?
Speaker 2:do yeah. I was like we're replicating our store.
Speaker 1:We're not selling ours. I'm not.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, yeah, no. He said what are you going to do with yourself, since you sold your business? I'm like what I hadn't sold anything, I'm still here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was funny.
Speaker 1:So if you have more, you know we love talking business and small business. If you have more questions about franchising and that sort of thing, call us on our hotline or text us. If you want us to answer any of those, our number is 864-982-5029. We'll be happy to answer Because I just like I started off saying it was weird how other people perceived it and I realized they're not in business and they don't know, and so you don't know how it works, and for us it's something that we're so used to.
Speaker 2:you think it's very common knowledge or something In my brain because of being in McDonald's for 30 years.
Speaker 1:I think everybody knows it and they really don't, but they don't, and that's why they find your McDonald's story so fascinating.
Speaker 2:They don't understand how it works, but I will tell you, like I said, if you are interested in doing it. We're going to work very hard to help you be successful and do well. Your success is our success, and we have made it very affordable, as affordable as it can be, because that's the biggest obstacle with so many franchises, especially McDonald's, it's very hard for an individual to even be able to afford to get there, right, and so we wanted it affordable but realistic, right, and we're on our way, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm excited and it's so. It's crazy, like I feel. Like you know, you and I have been talking about franchising for years. We talked about that on the podcast when we announced it. This is something we've been working towards, but just saying we want to be ready when it happens, when we're ready to launch it.
Speaker 1:So we've made decisions along the way like well, how would this work if we did franchise? Like we say that like over and over. Well, one day, when we franchise, and now we're franchising, I'm like I can't believe it's actually here.
Speaker 2:We talked it into existence. We did, and I'm, and I believe in that, I believe, I believe in that. You know, if you say it enough, it's going to happen.
Speaker 1:I know. So I'm excited to see it now come to life, especially since they've been to market and seeing you know Tina Mark, who's our franchisees, and we're gonna have Tina on the next podcast seeing them power through market because I can remember going to market the first time and how overwhelming it is. It is truly the most overwhelming feeling I have. I feel like you'll feel, because of the over, just like stimulation of it all.
Speaker 1:Going to market, trying to make all the decisions in a split second. Do I want this product, do I not? All of the emotions, how many do I want? How many do I need? Am I ordering too much? Is it going to come in Like there's so much adrenaline, emotions, overstimulation with colors and designs and the physical, and to watch them go to market and power through. I'm like, okay, great decision, they're going to be great because they handled it so well.
Speaker 2:They like. I told them they got an A+.
Speaker 1:They did.
Speaker 2:I mean, they really powered through it. It was good.
Speaker 1:They really did All right. That's going to wrap up this week's episode. We'll continue on with this conversation next week and we're going to talk about market. We with this conversation next week and we're going to talk about market. We're actually going to have Tina on next week's episode as well. Remember to leave us a review wherever you're listening to our podcast you can leave it anywhere and to call our hotline 864-982-5029. It's down in the show notes below. Or text us any comments or feedback that you have for us. We'd love to hear it. Thanks for being here and we'll see you again next week. Thanks, guys.