Resilience and Innovation in Entrepreneurship with Ben-Jamin Toy

What if you could transform your passion into a thriving business while staying true to your values? This episode of the Charleston Marketing Podcast brings you the remarkable story of Ben-Jamin Toy, a dynamic entrepreneur who has done just that. From his humble beginnings on a farm in Pennsylvania to becoming a pivotal figure in Charleston's business scene, Ben's journey is a testament to resilience, adaptability, and faith-driven leadership. Mike Compton and guest co-host Katie Blomquist explore how Ben's unique identity and roles have shaped his entrepreneurial path, leading to ventures like On Purpose Adventures and Nature Adventures on Shem Creek.

Through riveting anecdotes and insightful reflections, Ben shares how his childhood sales experiences laid the foundation for a versatile career, spanning software startups, digital screen advertising in rickshaws, and beyond. He opens up about the personal development and family influences that have propelled his entrepreneurial spirit, highlighting the innovative leap into adventure-based business models. Learn how the pandemic unexpectedly boosted his profitability and efficiency, and discover the creative branding efforts that make Ben's ventures stand out, from vehicle wraps to his distinctive yellow camo attire.

The conversation wraps up with an exploration of the Cohesion Culture brand and its seamless integration w

King & Columbus is a full-service marketing and advertising agency based in South Carolina that helps brands grow through a mix of creative storytelling and data-driven strategy. They offer everything from branding and content creation to media planning, digital advertising, and PR—focused on delivering measurable results across digital, social, and traditional channels. https://kingandcolumbus.com

South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) is a public, nonprofit organization that fuels South Carolina’s innovation economy by supporting technology-based startups, academic research, and industry partnerships. Through funding, coaching, and its investment arm SC Launch, SCRA helps early-stage companies grow, commercialize ideas, and scale within the state’s key innovation sectors.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:46

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, powered by the Charleston American Marketing Association, broadcasting from our home base at Charleston Radio Group. Thanks to CRG, we're able to talk to the movers and shakers of Charleston, from economy to art, from hospitality to tech and everything in between. These leaders have made a home here in the Lowcountry. They live here, they work here, they make change here. Why let's talk about it.

Speaker 2 1:15

I actually walked into my barber today and he knows the guy that I know and he said that guy has unusual energy.

Speaker 3 1:24

About you.

Speaker 2 1:24

Yeah, oh, and I'm like, well, that's interesting, it's just passion showing up as energy because I feel like I'm always tired.

Speaker 3 1:33

Oh, you're just on, go, yeah, yeah, awesome. Well, hey, we're all exuding energy today. Uh, hello, beautiful people. Uh, welcome to the charleston marketing podcast. Uh, powered by the charleston Marketing Association, we're recording here in the Charleston Radio Group Studios. Big supporters of CAMA. Thank you very much, charleston Radio Group. Thank you, tantrum for stepping in big time. Bud Really appreciate it. You can find Tantrum at 993 the Box. I don't know daily. Yeah, monday through Saturday, from 2 to 6. Love it, love it, love it, love it. Two Saturday from two to six. Love it, love it, love it, love it. Also, love my buddy, dj Jerry feels good with the beats in the front of this podcast. We've got a fun episode ahead of you guys. We got to the bigger names in Charleston. I mean, if you've ever networked in Charleston, you've definitely ran into these two faces at one organization or another.

Speaker 4 2:28

That's how we know each other. All three of us know each other.

Speaker 3 2:31

Yeah, that's true it's amazing the power of networking. And then I love it too because we kind of honestly became friends oh, yeah, we all I have. We text you and I text like it's kind of cool. It's kind of cool right. Charleston's kind of cool in that way. Hey, real quick a shout out to charlotte. Uh, charlotte, we've got a lot of listeners in Charlotte, so you know, give them a big hug.

Speaker 3 2:50

That's awesome, hello, charlotte and we appreciate your support up there in Charlotte. Busy, busy, busy day today. Let's get right into it. You know me. I'm Mike Compton, president and co-founder of Roomba Advertising, goroombocom, where we help companies find the soul of their brand, and I'm also your director of membership experience. Glad to be here. Thanks for joining us. I'm here with a guest co-host today, Super excited to introduce her, Katie Blomquist. You have to recognize the name If you're on LinkedIn, if you're in Charleston area. Katie, explain how you became so great.

Speaker 4 3:26

Thanks for having me as your co-host. Not only do I serve as the marketing director for the Charleston Marketing Association here in Charleston, but I'm the founder and executive director of the Nonprofit Going Places. We give new custom bikes to whole schools of low-income kids Crazy. And I have a social media management company called the Social Collective.

Speaker 3 3:47

Love it. How many bikes have you given away? Almost 5 over how many years?

Speaker 4 3:51

seven, seven years, five yep and locks and helmets and bike pumps awesome, good work thank you for doing that seriously.

Speaker 3 4:01

Uh, we're also joined by ben jammin toy in the house, hello sir say Great to be here. Thank you so much All of your fans are listening right now.

Speaker 2 4:11

They will be.

Speaker 3 4:11

Three of them.

Speaker 2 4:12

Oh yeah, no, you are a very well-liked gentleman here in Charleston Until I speak truth.

Speaker 3 4:18

You do speak the truth, though, and I appreciate it. I've been on board meetings yes, I've been there.

Speaker 3 4:23

I've been there Lots of fun, though, ben. You're doing a great job. Thank you so much here. Let me give the listeners a bio of old Ben Jammin' Toy. He's a passionate, faith-driven, generous, life-loving man. Are we talking about me? I mean, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, you, ben, it's all about the guest. Daily. He strives to be a better husband and human. His mission is to be a passionate leader who avidly embraces deliberate actions to grow and harvest the best abundant fruit in himself and others. Professionally, benjamin works with elite clients spanning the globe, From well-known Fortune 500 companies to special ops forces, representing five countries dang he is the founder of on purpose adventures, co-owner of nature adventures on shem creek and co-founder of cohesion culture.

Speaker 3 5:19

Ben, what's up, man, that's it. Yeah, did I read that pretty? I mean that's that's the.

Speaker 2 5:25

That's the verbal version you know it's just written, it's.

Speaker 3 5:27

It's a little bit detailed goosebumps, so it's.

Speaker 2 5:30

It's actually written in the way of what we the I'm practicing, what we preach. That connection before content. Everybody goes right into what you do, okay, and I want to be known about what, who I am yes, I want identity first and roll second that's why we do this the way this is right.

Speaker 3 5:46

Absolutely oh man, this is going to be the best conversation ever. Where are you from, ben?

Speaker 2 5:53

In a barn outside of Pittsburgh, pennsylvania. I grew up in the sticks Farm, basically, yep.

Speaker 4 5:58

Like with animals.

Speaker 2 5:59

Yes, horses, mainly Horses, barn cats, things like that.

Speaker 4 6:01

I know some people grew up kind of on that plot of land but not.

Speaker 2 6:10

Yeah, we had horses. Um, my mother taught people ride horses. Um, oh really, that's cool stables. And then, you know, did that for probably until around 12 and then ended up transitioning to a trailer park, okay, so, that is a big part of my uh, one of those upbringing and uh me.

Speaker 2 6:22

I actually learned a lot about life and and who I was in that phase as much as I was in the outdoor scenario. But you know, I grew up where I had a 48-hour curfew and they didn't come checking on me until it had been two days. So very different world.

Speaker 3 6:34

Okay, well then, all right, you made it. You made it through.

Speaker 2 6:38

I'm alive.

Speaker 3 6:38

Wait, wait, wait. Was that back in the 90s too? Was that back in the 90s so?

Speaker 2 6:45

my mother went to a horse college and had a really, really good friend who she stayed in touch with, and every one month of most of my summers growing up I would get taken down to horse country in Virginia, nova, northern Virginia, and just get dropped off for a month. And so this friend, who was busy running the barn and giving lessons, was in charge of me.

Speaker 4 7:08

Yes, so did you ride horses a lot? I've never heard. Do you still love horses?

Speaker 2 7:13

I mean, I love horses. I haven't ridden in a while, but I grew up riding, had ponies. My mother used to meet me at the end of the road with a horse or a pony. Oh my God.

Speaker 4 7:21

Wow.

Speaker 2 7:22

I learned how to vault, which is gymnastics on horseback.

Speaker 3 7:25

Everybody which is gymnastics on horseback.

Speaker 4 7:26

Everybody knows how to vault. I need to see a video of that.

Speaker 2 7:28

There's none of that Back then we didn't have that.

Speaker 4 7:31

Come on, we're all about the same age here. It's all in the memories.

Speaker 2 7:33

And I have to remind my mother of some of the things and then other people remind her of things they're like oh yeah, that's what happened. So she was friends with the, I believe the 92 Olympic team big team, uh, david and carol o'connor, and I remember having dinner with them, uh, so the equestrian team uh, growing up they spent a lot of time she used to uh basically train a lot of pittsburgh business people to get ready for dude ranch, uh things out west like. So she'd give them a crash course and how to ride and how to get ready. Okay, they'd go out and go do a three-week cattle drive or something like that.

Speaker 2 8:06

So yeah, pretty interesting I mean, that's where my love for the outdoors comes in. Oh, yeah and you know, you know, to you know, jump start a couple things that you know. I was working in offices for a good 10 years before I realized I was dying inside well, no, you just jumped ahead.

Speaker 3 8:20

I know, I know, I know.

Speaker 2 8:21

I'm just saying but that's that's going back to that.

Speaker 4 8:24

Yeah, it's good, but it Go ahead, they'll say growing up in LA, as you're talking about your childhood polar opposite experiences yeah, I mean that's. So you probably learned a lot more than I did about life and paying attention.

Speaker 2 8:41

I believe that there's a have a different perspective of their surroundings and less injury, like because they know, they learn that gravity is going to affect them differently if they jump on this branch yes versus the injury of kids that play sports and I played sports too but a lot of of contact sports have more injuries because you rely on the equipment and not the. I'm getting into way off topic.

Speaker 2 9:10

Yeah, that's all right but I just being outdoors helped me, be around in my surroundings, and also when I I'm getting into way off topic, yeah that's all right, but I just being outdoors helped me, or be around in my surroundings, and also when I I'm with uh youth and I coach and teach, the expression I say is pay attention, not be safe or be careful, because pay attention is something they can control. The other things are not up to them.

Speaker 3 9:26

I love that. I'm going to use that now, ben. I just learned something. Words are. I'm going to just pay attention yeah that's huge.

Speaker 1 9:32

My eight-year-olds don't pay attention to nothing bike riding, looking the wrong way, come on guys figure it out.

Speaker 3 9:38

Uh, I see a lot of memes coming around nowadays kind of aiming at us gen x, I'm assuming I'm gen x, you're gen you told me how old you are.

Speaker 4 9:47

I'm the oldest. I'm a. I'm the oldest of the millennial group. I'm the Xennial.

Speaker 2 9:50

Or the Xennial.

Speaker 4 9:52

I'm an 83 baby.

Speaker 2 9:53

Okay, so I'm 78. Yeah, I'm 81. So I was an X. Until like six years ago I was an X.

Speaker 3 10:00

And they're like let's change this.

Speaker 2 10:01

You guys are something different. I'm like no, I was raised differently.

Speaker 3 10:03

Yes, exactly my point. We were raised differently. No, no offense, tantrum, I know you're young, huh, oh, you're right there too. Oh, so you're an ex-entity like me. So we grew up with kind of both. Yeah, tantrum's our studio engineer, by the way. Listeners, we paid attention, exactly, exactly, but all those memes are coming at us like we were raised by feral cats. Yeah, nobody paid attention to us like we. But we here, we are still rocking and rolling and and kind of I'm passing that down to my kids like now my eight-year-old's just kind of like biking around.

Speaker 3 10:38

We're gonna call the sack, it's safe, he's gone, and then he comes back in an hour and checks in. Anyways, long story short, born in a barn, I was born in a bar in michigan. Not like in a bar, but that's where we lived.

Speaker 4 10:51

My parents owned the bar, so you know I was like would your mom not make it to the hospital?

Speaker 3 10:56

She made it to the hospital, all right, whatever my dad made it there, that's a whole other question.

Speaker 2 11:01

Anyhow. So there's other like Is it going to be that kind of session? This is right you brought it up.

Speaker 3 11:07

So I love getting to know our guests, so that's just amazing, and then finding just different commonalities that we have. Did you go to school for what you're doing right now, for what I'm doing? No, okay, did you? Did you do that? No, good for you. I'm still paying off my school.

Speaker 2 11:22

The history is, I didn't really have much of a plan for school or my future. I just wanted to get away from home for a little while because Pennsylvania is very gray and I was good at math and science and so put Clemson on my SATs as a junior in high school. They accepted me, waived everything, so I came down to school here, loved it.

Speaker 2 11:42

It was surrounded by mountains, lakes, very similar to my area of where I was from, because I'm not from Pittsburgh City, I'm from 45 minutes northeast and so being out there was just great. And then I learned really quickly that I didn't want to be an engineer anymore, I didn't want to work in the corporate world. So I actually left school and you know.

Speaker 3 12:01

Yeah, did your own thing.

Speaker 2 12:02

Did my own thing.

Speaker 3 12:03

I love it With a buddy, let's get that. What did you do then? What was your start?

Speaker 2 12:05

Well, a buddy of mine, a of mine, uh, newer over here. So well, a buddy of mine, uh, wanted to start a ticketing software company, so I I left and jumped with that, and then we transitioned that into a book publishing company that is headquartered in charleston.

Speaker 1 12:19

Okay, we still have that no, no, we um.

Speaker 2 12:21

So I I just helped him get started, um, but uh, but yeah, that's when did you come to charleston uh, kicking and screaming in december of 2005 no five so we the headquarters here and that's what brought me here. But every time I'd visited it must have been low tide and the paper mill going, because it did not smell good to me. Oh no kidding. So I really didn't like anything about Charleston it was just the opportunity at hand and came here and now. Pluff Mud is a profit center.

Speaker 3 13:28

You made the best of it, that's for sure.

Speaker 4 13:30

Entrepreneurship was really rare back then in 05, because I graduated in 05. We're all about within a similar age. Back then, entrepreneurship meant unemployed.

Speaker 1 13:39

There were no entrepreneurship colleges?

Entrepreneurship Journey and Adaptability

Speaker 4 13:42

in the business school, there was none of that. And so what made you even think, hey, I can start my own thing, because that wasn't even an option? It wasn't a thought I wouldn't have known. When we were in college people weren't at least where I went to see you, boulder, people weren't really interning unless you got paid or you were like the business school. So what made that thought come into your head, like I could do this?

Speaker 2 14:04

some. Well, I have different thoughts on the fact that entrepreneurship can't be taught, but that's a a whole other topic. I see that Sure it can Behavior the mindset that can't be changed.

Speaker 1 14:15

The ambition, the ambition, all that.

Speaker 4 14:17

You can teach business skills but not the stuff right and that's where this comes from is.

Speaker 2 14:23

My grandfather owned restaurants. My mother was self-employed, but those were both self-employment examples, so I have that example. But I also saw things that I didn't like doing. Where my grandfather was tethered, couldn't leave, go 45 minutes away, my mother was tied to, eventually a dog kennel, things like that. Very successful, good income, good money. But so when I wanted to make some changes, I wanted to make a lifestyle engineering choice, because then I was employed technically for those other companies and then my on my own start didn't start again until 2011. But, mindset wise, I've just gone to my own drummer for a while, so that's awesome.

Speaker 3 15:01

Yeah, it sounds like it, because you kind of had, you kind of were your mom, just you know, hey, go find that drum okay so part of that is the the entrepreneur spirit.

Speaker 2 15:09

When, when you being asked when I started this, I would say sales and entrepreneurship are very uniquely intertwined in some cases. You have to and I was dropped off at neighborhoods with the candy bar thing. Yeah, and I was always top salesperson at eight, nine years old no. She wouldn't let me back in the car until I'd gone through five cases. She would ask for way more cases than anybody else ever, and like I just thought that was what we were supposed to do was sell all those, and I'd always sell all of them.

Speaker 4 15:38

Did she give you any tips or you just kind of figured it out?

Speaker 2 15:41

No, I just learned that. I mean, that's where I learned that being told no is not a big deal. I also learned how to get yeses, but perseverance. And then in the trailer park I actually learned I had a lawn care business and then those people became the ones I shoveled snow for. So I love snow days. Everybody else got to sleep in. I was up at 6 in the morning shoveling snow making money before everybody else went to work.

Speaker 3 16:03

White gold baby.

Speaker 4 16:04

That's awesome.

Speaker 3 16:05

So you were just making money since the very beginning.

Speaker 2 16:07

Trying.

Speaker 3 16:08

Trying to be an entrepreneur and I love that. So since the very beginning Trying Trying to be an entrepreneur and I love that. So you were kicking and screaming coming to Charleston. The first person I've talked to that said that by the way.

Speaker 4 16:17

I really like that. I like to hear that.

Speaker 2 16:19

It's refreshing to hear that it really is, Didn't pick it off a map like some people Like. Oh, I just want to go there.

Speaker 3 16:35

Was it the?

Speaker 2 16:35

software company. That was the corporate job that you were speaking of. That, well, it was a startup. So. So I worked for an automotive company in the upstate of south carolina and that's where I realized that corporate wasn't going to be for me, and I realized that I was going to be willing to change. And I met a guy that was actually doing a study abroad. I moved into his dorm room and that's how we connected and that's where that business started and did that for a couple years and then decided it was time to move on.

Speaker 3 16:52

Yeah, did that, and, and, and then, and then what then? What happened?

Speaker 2 16:56

uh, lived for a year on my silver proceeds. Okay, I bought a whole bunch of silver at 11 an ounce and sold it at 46 an ounce, and so I lived for a year.

Speaker 3 17:06

So that's not a joke, he's's dead serious listeners.

Speaker 2 17:10

I love that.

Speaker 3 17:11

Man, man of mystery over here that was yeah, 2008.

Speaker 2 17:13

You're an onion then. And then digital screen advertising. So before we had the tech with iPads and tablets with GPS, we put digital screens in the backs of rickshaws and pedicabs with lots of batteries, so it really made them pedal a lot harder. So, emerging technology, we had screens at all the different resorts and all that did that for a little while.

Speaker 3 17:36

then I went to container freight trucking sales and this is all in charleston, all in charleston. And how old are?

Speaker 2 17:41

you uh 42 not now buddy.

Speaker 3 17:43

How old are you then?

Speaker 2 17:44

oh, it's like 10 years. I mean that was uh late 20s into early 30s Hustling so cool.

Speaker 3 17:52

And then On Purpose where does this come into play? Because it's such a great mission and a purpose. See what is there. Talk about it.

Speaker 4 18:07

And which came first, this or Nature Adventures.

Speaker 2 18:10

Nature Adventures is roughly a 26-year-old company. Oh boy On purpose is one that I started in 2011. My wife and I started working at Nature Adventures part-time in 2013 because I was so successful that I had no money, and then my wife and I were able to purchase the company in 2017.

Speaker 4 18:29

And also, at some point, I want to know about where your wife comes into the picture how you had her here, I know she plays a big part in your businesses, Yep yep.

Speaker 2 18:38

So how On Purpose got started? I was working for a trucking company inside sales and had a base and commission. They said they put out a certain number, roughly being $300,000 a month in monthly revenue, and I got that in two years and then for six months they found every reason to not pay commissions and so I got my monthly nut up to $350,000 a month in revenue and I wasn't getting paid commissions. And so I was part of a mastermind group at the time and got called out. It's like well, are you going to complain about it or do something? That day I literally put in my notice quit, no plan, no, nothing.

Speaker 2 19:17

But the original business model was I want to get paid to go play, and so it was whitewater, rafting trips, camping, survival, hiking, whatever. And so that's how the business started. And then we had divisions where I was going to go okay, it's going to be signature events, bachelor, bachelorette events, and then corporate events, and we became very focused on it was easy to do bachelor and bachelorette parties. So before, there's a lot of companies now that do that in Charleston. We were the original Okay, all right, but they were all adventure-based. We called them, mother-in-law approved and we said we'll throw you a party you won't forget, with pictures you won't regret, right um? So that's what it was. It was adventure based. It was coming up with these slogans, that's all me.

Speaker 2 19:58

Yeah, I figured so, yeah, you know people without a sense of humor aren't any pun. Oh dear, um. So that was the model originally. And then I just wanted to get out of that. Uh, I'd been in personal development for so long, uh, reading. Get out of that.

Speaker 2 20:11

Uh, I'd been in personal development for so long, uh, reading a lot of books, and I created a scavenger hunt on paper, an analog version no kidding and then we've been doing that for a while. So more and more I like doing more corporate stuff, because I also made a more difference. Even even though my adventure-based bachelor parties were relatively clean, for that event I couldn't impact, uh, what they were doing the evenings, right or whatever, and not that I have any problems with drinking or anything like that but I just want to make an impact where it'll change somebody ultimately and that wasn't going to happen in that, in that realm, and so. But corporate team building allowed me to do that, where I can put plant one little seed into how to do something and that could change how they interact, pay attention, for example.

Speaker 2 20:53

Or something like that and so scavenger hunts, and then then actual team building, which is skill set enhancement, has become our focus, in addition to just the random corporate event that is, let's create some fun adventure type of deal. There's also, uh, the largest zombie race in the southeast. There's month-long competitions. We had fundraising initiatives. Katie and I worked together and we created a field day one year as a fundraiser oh really Fun. That's cool. So teams competed, they did tug-of-war and combat archery and relay races and scavenger hunts all at one time.

Speaker 3 21:30

What is this from again, Katie?

Speaker 4 21:32

It was with Going Places.

Speaker 3 21:33

It places. Yeah, it was one of our first.

Speaker 4 21:35

I think it was like our second year as a non-profit yeah, it was fun.

Speaker 3 21:38

What year is that? 2018 I think it was about about around. Then I think, yeah, um, speak pre-covid, speaking of COVID. How did that I mean good Lord?

Speaker 2 21:52

I mean, you hit everybody right. What's your story? The silver lining?

Speaker 3 21:56

around a cloud.

Speaker 2 21:57

So what it? We learned a lot. If you look at well, two different businesses I'm going to separate. On Purpose Adventures, from April to December of 2020, was down 98% in revenue 98%, 98%, that's a real number.

Speaker 3 22:12

It's a big one.

Branding and Business Adaptability

Speaker 2 22:13

But if you look at the entire year, I was only down 68% I had the best first quarter ever, so you were killing it. We had multiple hundred person events lined up in April of 2020, and it just tanked. So, in addition to losing loss of revenue, there were refunds, because I didn't have really good contracts. I didn't really have good anything.

Speaker 1 22:29

It was rough because I didn't have really good contracts. I didn't really have good anything.

Speaker 2 22:30

I remember talking about that. It was rough, but what it helped me realize was how focused I was on being busy and not so much productive or profitable Preach on. So the assessment to understanding that yes got me to where I was but no will get me to the next spot was the biggest thing that I learned from it. I recently read a newsletter on LinkedIn about I kept bubble soccer. We also had a bubble soccer company. I kept that around a year longer than I needed to because it kept employees busy but it wasn't profitable. It was a lot of headache, a lot of things, and so I learned how to focus on the things that I do best and either delegate or say no to everything else.

Speaker 2 23:13

And recently just had to do that you know, an event that I like doing, but it's just not where we're focused on how to say no, Um, but COVID, in that aspect, really taught me a lot. It allowed me to uh connect with uh uh, a strategic alliance colleague named Dr Troy. Yes, and we have created the cohesion culture uh program, which is employee retention based program, and we have created the cohesion culture program, which is employee retention based program, and without we had actually, in February of 2020, we sat down for two different days and created this entire map of what our relationship was going to look like, and if March 2020 hadn't happened, you would not know what cohesion culture was. I don't feel that what we created was worth anything.

Speaker 2 23:53

I mean to some degree because, what it morphed into because of the need for the hybrid teaching, the online teaching, and then we created a course with it, and all this stuff was because of the forced innovation that a lockdown and remote work.

Speaker 4 24:09

Talk about a blessing in disguise, absolutely.

Speaker 2 24:12

And for nature adventure side of things, we were shut down for two weeks based on state mandates. That's just two weeks, two whole weeks.

Speaker 4 24:21

Because you're outside.

Speaker 2 24:23

Well, there was only one condition per the state mandate of why we had to close, and it was shared equipment. And we had a plan and I won't the people that regulated our. I asked like well, how do you interpret this? Should we close down? And they're like we default to the state. So I applied the day that that happened, I messaged the state chamber of commerce or the state of commerce, whatever state issue, it was yeah, government.

Speaker 2 24:50

And within two weeks they said no, you. So we're now considered a um. What is the term um essential? For mental and physical health so anything happens we never have to shut down, so what?

Speaker 2 25:02

but what that did was something that we had always talked about doing but never did was having online rental reservations. Okay, okay. So we have tours where a guide goes out with people on the water and we give them instructions, and then we have rentals where we give all the instructions, we give the map, we talk about the tides, but you go out on your own and we'd always we'd had tours booked online, because that's limited, you know, you only have nine people per slot or per tour. But rentals, we were always hesitant of doing it online for the lowering of tip potential for our rental staff. Well, we were forced to do that because of keeping people timed out or whatever, and what we found was they got the same tips, if not more, and people are double tipping and our staff staff tells them hey, you've already pre-tipped Nice. And they're like it's okay, it was such a great experience.

Speaker 2 25:55

So it actually turned into a blessing for that. We used to be open in the summer eight to eight, because it's not dark here till after 830 or nine, even sometimes right. But we found out being open with less people coming, but only open nine to five. We were 43 more profitable, profitable, wow okay, that's not 98 38 38 less revenue. You just flip that script yeah 38.

Speaker 2 26:22

less revenue but more profit. Oh yeah, so we didn't have to have the double staff that we normally did, right? We even polled the team in both 21 and 22, said hey, would you like us to hire more people and be open longer Friday, saturday and Sunday? That means individually they're going to work less. They can have more time on the weekends if they wanted it, but the chance for making less tips was there. They all voted, said no, we want to work the shifts and be done at 5. What other hospitality industry can you be working 9 to 5? Be outside, have fun. And what other hospitality industry can you be working nine to five?

Speaker 4 26:51

be outside, have fun, be you know and then have your own time at night, have your own time at night.

Speaker 2 26:54

Every night you can make plans. You can do certain things and go to a different. And so that's something that hasn't gone back. You know we haven't gone back. We're still open nine to five. We're not going to, you know, we know what we're doing. There's no scale because shifts used to be 8 to 2 and 2 to 8. Now everybody shifts 9 to 5, unless you're a tour guide.

Speaker 4 27:14

And it's kayaks and paddle boards, right, correct? Is that anything else?

Speaker 2 27:18

We have walking tours that we're launching as well, so if winds are bad or whatever, you can walk the Shem boardwalk as well. And then occasionally we do team-building scavenger hunts and team building kayaking as well, where they do some land activities, and then I have you spinning in circles.

Speaker 4 27:32

Maybe standing in your kayaks. I've done kayaks and paddle boards with you guys.

Speaker 3 27:35

So, much fun.

Speaker 2 27:36

It's a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 27:37

And where do you, where did they find it?

Speaker 2 27:38

So we're headquartered on Shem Creek, right next to Mount Pleasant Seafood, who just experienced a fire but, they will be opening soon. They're making. We were not physically affected. Our little office, which shares the building, has no ventilation shared with them where you could smell the smoke. We were physically. We lost power, electric and water.

Speaker 3 27:59

How are they now?

Speaker 2 27:59

But we were able to operate. It was all isolated to one area, but they should be opening fairly soon and that was the seafood. What was that called?

Speaker 1 28:06

Mount Pleasant Seafood Mount.

Speaker 2 28:07

Pleasant Seafood. So we're located there right next to Water's Edge and then right across from Red's, and so that was the effect we actually were able to open at 9 o'clock the next day. Oh great Using hotspots and pulling out cards.

Speaker 1 28:22

Wow yeah.

Speaker 2 28:22

So it was pretty powerful.

Speaker 3 28:27

Crazy Katie. Do you have anything to add to that?

Speaker 4 28:29

I don't think so.

Speaker 3 28:30

Yeah, I wanted to talk. You also do a really good job with this Katie. Do you have anything to add to that? I don't think so. Yeah, I wanted to talk. You also do a really good job with this. Katie is personal branding. Listeners can't see us right now, but he's got. What do you call this? What are you wearing right now? What do you call that?

Speaker 2 28:42

Yellow camouflage, yellow camo. I like it.

Speaker 4 28:44

Okay, that's the reason you can't see me, and in this conversation you got to talk about your car as well.

Speaker 3 28:51

Yeah, and that's where I was headed. I mean he has yellow camo on everything, everything.

Speaker 1 29:01

Even his suit jackets are on brand oh his sandals.

Speaker 3 29:04

Yes, he's wearing sandals.

Speaker 4 29:07

We are in Charleston His watch Yep His watch.

Speaker 2 29:10

I've got backpacks, custom-made suits, shorts, vests, bow ties.

Speaker 3 29:15

So it's all part of your branding, it's all part of the company branding and you personalize it.

Speaker 2 29:19

Thank, you, is it you could refer to Kama, is it Charleston?

Speaker 3 29:23

Charleston American Marketing Association. Yeah, Okay.

Speaker 2 29:25

So AMA, ama, yeah, but the year, okay, former, probably even president, I don't know.

Speaker 3 29:36

Before my time, yeah, before your time. So she was great, yeah, great leader.

Speaker 2 29:39

And she said it's very expensive to brand a company, but in today's social media world it's easy to brand yourself.

Speaker 3 29:46

Yes.

Speaker 2 29:47

And at that time I had no money. Like no money, like I left my job without a plan, a business plan or anything.

Speaker 3 29:54

Yes.

Speaker 2 29:58

And was actually grateful that the company said, hey, can you stay a month instead of two weeks, because you're fairly important yeah Sure. Gives me two more weeks runway.

Speaker 3 30:05

Exactly.

Speaker 2 30:08

And so I became Mr Adventure. So the first Nomiker was be called Mr Adventure and I went on. All kinds of everybody knew that. Every time something crazy would go viral on Facebook or social media it would get sent to me like 30 times. They just knew me as Mr Adventure and that really was powerful because everybody thought of me that way. The yellow camo actually didn't come around until a couple of years later. The actual look for facilitation was regular camo pants or digital camo and then some sort of graphic t-shirt that said alarm clocks are evil or entrepreneur. For facilitation was regular camo pants or digital camo and then some sort of graphic t-shirt that said alarm clocks are evil or entrepreneur or something like that. I just wanted something unique because I didn't want to have any stolen valor questions or anything like that.

Speaker 2 30:46

Right, and then one day I was in back home in pennsylvania and walked into a thrift store and saw a yellow camo pair of bdus pants like military pants. I'm like that just spoke to me then. From there it's surprisingly easy to get yellow camo products.

Speaker 2 31:01

And I've seen a lot of it and I have a manager at Nature Ventures. Every Christmas he gives me something new, like the watch, the backpacks, the hats, all this, and so it's been pretty easy to do that. But that's where I understand. I'm actually an introvert and while a lot of people that's shocking, yes, uh, I energize by being alone and I don't want to go out and connect with a lot of people and I don't want to do things. The yellow camo brings people to me. It is the, it is the conversation starter. Oh, it literally has brought us business. That's.

Speaker 2 31:30

Someone saw the watch and said I gotta talk, I gotta ask about that, like so now the great thing is I don't have to wear the yellow camo t-shirt or anything else. I'm always on brand company wise because of that. But that's where I separate also the personal brand now from the business brand, because I used to be more of the one that talked on social media and all that, and I just don't want to. I don't want to be behind and I know I'm bucking the trend or what's supposed to happen, but I want it to be about the company, not about me, and or what's supposed to happen, but I want it to be about the company, not about me, and that's a challenge because I know that people want to see me behind the scenes. So I'm figuring out what that looks like.

Speaker 2 32:05

But Yellow Camo Crew is what the team is called and one time we actually flew to an event in San Diego and I asked how they? It was a repeat client and the conversation went. They were planning the session and they said how, or should we have the guy with yellow pants come?

Speaker 3 32:21

They're like what? The guy with yellow pants.

Speaker 2 32:23

Like you know, the session we did in Charleston, you know, Mr Adventure, they couldn't remember. Well, this company couldn't remember. They're like you know the one with yellow pants. They're like, oh my gosh, yes, so when we my travel was yellow pants. So you know it's.

Speaker 2 32:37

It's almost like you know the guy in the the yellow jacket with with the curious george or whatever yeah so that has become the thing that the, the, the vehicle is half wrapped with yellow camo, and then it looks like I'm kayaking while I'm driving on the other side yeah, it's like the door is like his body, so it cuts off perfectly of his shoulder.

Building a Brand With Benjamin Toy

Speaker 4 32:59

So when you see him driving the car, it's an extension onto the wrap on the car. It's hilarious.

Speaker 2 33:06

It lines perfectly with the steering wheel. So my hand's up here, my bottom hand's down here.

Speaker 3 33:11

Who thought of that?

Speaker 2 33:13

Well it was my idea, but I saw a meme of a plumber sitting on a toilet in a white van. Oh my gosh. So it was like he's driving on a toilet seat Shout out to that plumber Years ago, years ago. That's hilarious and I've been wanting to do this for years. I literally bought this vehicle for $1,800 five years ago three, four, five years ago and then wrapped it.

Speaker 4 33:32

Do people acknowledge it from the road, like in other cars?

Speaker 2 33:37

It's hilarious because I can watch people driving past and watch them mouth the name of the company, because the On Purpose Adventures is the, it's a Yukon XL or Suburban, and so the logo is 10 feet long and I watch them mouth it. And the cool thing is I got QR codes I can track, like, if I'm at an event, I can track the spikes of the of the searches, and all that time you're on the road and I even have it in my forms, and I asked somebody like you wrote other, uh, so tell me how you learned about us.

Speaker 2 34:07

She's like well, a year ago, a year ago I saw a vehicle going down the road, so gotta play the long game.

Speaker 3 34:16

Oh yeah well that's what charleston is yeah yeah, but not only did you personify this yellow camo, you changed your name that was actually before I even owned a business.

Speaker 2 34:28

I want to say go ahead.

Speaker 4 34:29

I've always wanted to know this story.

Speaker 2 34:30

I'm glad to hear it um, every benjamin has been called benjamin. I just took advantage of it. Okay, you just went with it. I just threw a dash in there, capitalized the J, which also brings up the conversation point. They see it, they see me speaking. They're like is it Ben-ha-meen, ben-ya-meen, is it your middle name? Yes, because I actually know a guy named Jamin and a guy named Jamin, so they're Benjamins, but they chose to go with that as their name.

Speaker 1 34:57

Oh, because you think you only have Ben I was a.

Speaker 2 35:00

Benji, I'm still when I go back home. It's a Benji Right.

Speaker 3 35:03

Benny Benny.

Speaker 2 35:05

And for one group of people I'm Dover.

Speaker 3 35:08

Oh.

Speaker 4 35:13

Ben Dover, I get it now. Oh, I just got it.

Speaker 3 35:19

It was an ex-girlfriend, right so he just blankly looked at me for a little while you're gonna get it.

Speaker 2 35:27

So Benjamin became a thing because if you search, my last name is toy, if you were to search Benjamin toy, you will never find me. Benjamin is so common. Toys are things. You throw the dash in there my social profile comes up, and that was that was actually a thing I did before, on purpose. That was a. You know, I was always doing side hustles. I was a sales guy so I wanted my stuff to show up and that's how I got around it. So I have the domains with the dashes in them all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 35:58

How perfect.

Speaker 2 35:59

your last name is Toy and your companies are all fun With a last name like Toy, how could I ever be expected to grow up?

Speaker 4 36:07

Right.

Speaker 3 36:09

I love it, Benjamin. This is so much fun. I can't call you Benjamin, can I? No, it's Benjamit.

Speaker 2 36:14

To show my age. I will respond to anything except for dinner. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 36:18

So for anybody else.

Speaker 2 36:20

It's a very old joke.

Speaker 3 36:23

You can? Yeah right, you don't want to explain the jokes and they're not funny. Listeners can go to our YouTube channel and see the video. I'll get some B-roll of the truck.

Speaker 4 36:35

Yes.

Speaker 3 36:35

And I got to see it again because I did film a little bit of it earlier.

Speaker 4 36:38

You didn't get him in it.

Speaker 3 36:39

I didn't even notice. It's so funny, it's the best.

Speaker 4 36:43

He didn't pay attention.

Speaker 1 36:47

Well, I didn't know to pay attention before.

Speaker 2 36:50

Oh, it's not as good a branding as I thought, though.

Speaker 3 36:53

Why not? Oh no, I was on my way here. Give me a break, it was a second.

Speaker 4 36:58

Wait until you see him sitting in it.

Speaker 3 36:59

Yes, unbelievable you can't wait. Yes, well, you and again, go to our youtube channel and find that out. What's up, ben?

Speaker 2 37:04

I love I'm sitting in traffic and I can see kids oh on my left side and they just start pointing and all this kind of stuff wind my window down and I like they love, they, absolutely love it wow, I bet, I bet, and that's great that it's working.

Speaker 3 37:16

You see it working. So there's a note listeners.

Speaker 2 37:21

I mean honestly, wrap is one of the best marketing things that I've ever done.

Speaker 4 37:24

I should get one of me on a bike.

Speaker 2 37:26

It was $3,000 to wrap my vehicle and it has been worth multiple times that $300 to wrap it $3,000. $3,000. Oh my God, yeah, yeah $3,000 for every video.

Speaker 3 37:35

I was like, whoa, that's cheap. $3,000 is perfect. Who is your vendor? Can you give a shout?

Speaker 2 37:39

out to your vendor, rapstar.

Speaker 3 37:41

Rapstar Look at that.

Speaker 2 37:43

They did a great job, rapstar.

Speaker 3 37:44

Yep, you can do some sponsorships, rapstar. Okay, how about that? We love giving vendors shout outs here. Dr troy did an interview with him not too long ago on the mount pleasant chamber podcast.

Speaker 2 38:04

I'm not sure if that's going to be launched just yet.

Speaker 3 38:05

When this gets launched, but listeners can look out for that one. He was a special person. He's a special person. I think that he just gave us so much everything, all of it like like yourself, like you're just giving everything like he did the same. So I can see why you guys connected really well because you're just giving everything Like he did the same. So I can see why you guys connected really well Cause you're just authentic, true giving people.

Speaker 4 38:22

But it's interesting you both do so such like your typical careers are so different and how you came, it's like Martha Stewart and a Snoop dog. It was like totally different worlds that came together in the most perfect way. That's you know, and you two as people. He's a suit guy and you, you know, you're a camo guy and just the way you guys have come together with the corporate, it's just, it's I, and I've known, you know, dr troy, for many, many years also do networking.

Speaker 4 38:48

yeah okay and so to see you guys come together, it's been really cool to watch he.

Speaker 2 38:52

He says that roughing it for him is having to ask for extra towels. Yeah, I believe it right.

Speaker 3 38:59

I follow him on social, yeah, so I kind of you know he does wear.

Speaker 2 39:02

He does wear yellow camo, just so you know, I saw that you know our our, our, you know alliance is. We use his color brandings on the product stuff but for facilitation he wears yellow camo what's the future look like?

Speaker 3 39:15

Right, Uh-huh obviously.

Speaker 2 39:17

You've got to have plans, though, right.

Speaker 3 39:19

I know you've got plans.

Speaker 2 39:21

So it's interesting finding out the different markets that we serve.

Speaker 3 39:24

I was going to say you're growing into different markets. On.

Speaker 2 39:26

Purpose Adventures. I have two distinct markets. One is direct to businesses and then one is to event planners that I work with and the event planners plan for other companies, conferences, things like that. The end client can do the same activity but I'm selling two different things. I love working with everybody, but our way to expand is working through event planners or hotels or destination management companies, our data, our feelers. Out there is that the corporate market, corporate visiting market, to Charleston is on its way down. Okay, it's a hot topic. Hot topic. Hotel rates here have increased to the point that larger groups cannot come here and so they are going to Greenville or other markets that are beautiful and less expensive. So we have my office team and I have facilitators in Greenville and I'm expanding in Greenville. We have been working with conferences up there, got to go where the people are.

Speaker 2 40:27

I mean some of the nicest hotels up. There are half of the rates here.

Speaker 4 40:30

Wow.

Speaker 2 40:31

So from that market that's where we're chasing that For Nature Adventures. We're doing a lot more affiliate type stuff we're doing we've, uh, let off the rain, we were minimized or, um, we were reducing the amount of people we put on the water, and now we've got a really, really good staff this year that we're going to be able to, let you know, serve more people this year. We've actually actually throttled back for the last three years the water.

Speaker 3 40:59

Yeah, that's a great like the environment. Has it changed? Has it the water been less? Has it been warm? Like what's the what's? What's going on on that?

Speaker 2 41:07

because you got, you're affected there too, so um, that's gotta be hard on your business, yep uh, you know, shem creek is a beloved historical place and sometimes gets a lot of bad publicity for some water quality things. And you're on boards, though, too, like you're out of boards.

Speaker 2 41:22

Oh yeah, we're on hospitality boards uh, shem was on the shem creek task force. Okay, um, but on the on the water quality thing, uh, the charleston water keeper has done a great job at bringing awareness to certain things, but a lot of times the news uh, here's the um. There are three different spots where they test for water quality at Shem and the floating dock and the boat launch area pass 75, 85% of the time. The one that doesn't pass is way, way, way up the creek where nobody actually paddles. It's the old neighborhoods and all that. So Shem Creek is a great place to be on water. Sometimes there's boat stuff and all that kind of stuff, but for the most part it is gorgeous.

Speaker 1 42:01

We're not actually doing swimming tours, contrary to popular belief not, you know, no, not not doing swimming, but that's what.

Speaker 2 42:06

That's what the why the advisements are for uh, secondary contact, not that big of a deal, but uh, we have a great ecosystem here yeah, how far else do you go with the well?

Speaker 2 42:16

we are headquartered in sham. We go all to, depending on how long the tour is uh, crab bank island, we go to pitt street, go up the intercoastal a little bit sweet, um, we have trailers. We go up and down, uh, into the francis marion areas. Um, with a sister company that actually has the permit out there, we do it on the ace basin, which is the ashapu combaheeee and Edisto River Basin.

Speaker 3 42:39

No idea what you're talking about. I want to go.

Speaker 2 42:41

It is named one of the last great places on Earth. What by the Nature Conservancy. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Speaker 1 42:48

If you've never been to the Ace Basin. Ace Basin.

Speaker 2 42:51

Just past. When you're getting out of Ravenel, past West Ashley South, you start entering that ace basin which is an estuary, so it's a breeding ground for a lot of the bigger creatures out in the ocean. Come in there to have their young because it's safe, safer. And you got the Edisto River, you know, going into it, and then the Combahee and the Ashapu all joining forces.

Speaker 4 43:14

And you've gotten to know a lot of the dolphins. You guys name them right. You told me you've named them. We've named some. You really are familiar with them.

Speaker 2 43:21

We know the dorsal fin cuts and markings and stuff like that. We have clipper, which is one that has it cut off. Notch has a pretty good notch in it. There's a name for one of the great egrets that attends the boardwalk, named Henry.

Speaker 3 43:40

That's my favoritery, henry doesn't leave.

Speaker 2 43:41

Like you could walk and almost pet him. He's like I'm gonna go get that food. You bring up your catch while you're, while you're fishing he eats it. You know he waits. He actually waits for you to get the hook out and then he'll jump on it so smart it's a it's a fun environment um, your, your business names.

Cohesion Culture and Business Growth

Speaker 3 43:57

They all have, you know, reasons for the why they're. Are you naming them? Are you, you have a team, and then talk about the, the stories behind it, like why did you name them on purpose, adventures, why did you go? Cohesion culture and what is like sure, uh, on purpose.

Speaker 2 44:13

Adventures, uh, you know, became the mindset of my desire for intentionality and thought, word and action okay um and wanting to make a difference.

Speaker 2 44:24

you know one of the first events I did. We had 40 people at a whitewater rafting trip and we happened to be at a state park. State parks didn't allow drinking at the time. I was early 30, not even 30 at this and a guy who was in his late 30s came up to me and said this is the first weekend that I can recall since I was 16 where I haven't been hammered at least one night. I had more fun, I remember it, and I made some friends, and so that's where I knew that I can make a difference. Now I again. I have no problem with drinking, but I want I like showing people that you can have experiences without other influences, like the experience itself, mindset, wise, and all that could be incredibly entertaining.

Speaker 2 45:06

Um but also on purpose, in your, in your conversations to people, how you interact with people Um nature ventures has been that before me, but we we renamed it and we kept it because Adventure name.

Speaker 1 45:19

We are actually tied.

Speaker 2 45:20

so this is a marketing one. We are tied, we rebranded it and it actually has both companies have Adventure font as the word Adventure.

Speaker 3 45:27

I thought so.

Speaker 2 45:29

They're tied together via font Sure, perfect Right. Cohesion Culture is a part of Dr Troy's best-selling title book. Cohesion Culture Proven Principles to Retain your Top Talent, but when you have the compass in it. So here's the joining of the things. In 2020, I had a rebrand and actually created my new On Purpose Adventures logo, which has a compass, which is our logo mark now, and that logo mark has been a big part of what we do, because I can change the colors of it and put it in the names of things. And so the naming of cohesion culture. When the has the compass in the cohesion culture as the second o in cohesion, that indicates the joint product of troy and I. All right, yeah, he's the author of the book, yeah, he speaks on it, but anything with that logo is us and we have products for executives all the way down to individual contributors. So everything is about that, and our online course is called the Cohesion Culture Camp.

Speaker 3 46:26

Where are you getting all this? You're just born with this branding, knowledge, this marketing, because you didn't go to school for it.

Speaker 2 46:32

Didn't go to school for it. There's some intuitive stuff. I got a buddy that does YouTube videos.

Speaker 3 46:36

He just learns from YouTube videos and he's now a successful agency owner.

Speaker 2 46:43

You don't have to go to school anymore. There's been a lot of reading. I've read probably close to 600 business motivational self-help books on different marketing things like that. I follow folks. I do a lot of stuff that's wrong. I do a lot of stuff that just feels right. I I'm like, well, that, like you know, back end should have done that a little differently.

Speaker 2 47:01

That's important to fail, but you know, for the most part it's I haven't done well up until now. I haven't been a follow the path of anybody. I went no franchise, no whatever. But actually part of my retiring plan is to buy franchises. Actually part of my retiring plan is to buy franchises.

Speaker 3 47:17

Like I'm done figuring it out, I'm going to go just do this other thing. Work smart, not hard.

Speaker 2 47:20

But I like what I've done so far, but also being willing to change, and that's what 2020 has taught me. It's like, okay, let's rethink why we do these things and get focused 100%.

Speaker 4 47:30

What kind of franchises do you want to buy?

Speaker 2 47:31

I don't know Something that doesn't have a register, um that you know. You know those types of transactions, yeah, um, that could be managed by a manager I assume that you wanted to franchise out nature adventure. Now, I mean, there's culture, there's, there's been well cohesion culture is something that we can expand with facilitators and whatnot, and we work with organizations and train the trainers. And our second version of that cohesion culture is brought in by organizations to help with their employee retention.

Speaker 2 48:00

We are launching the cohesive leader directed at the individual who is seeking growth, development and advancement, because 71% of employees are seeking growth, development and advancement, but 59% do not see any type of those things at their current place of work. Now, that doesn't mean they're not there, just they might be hidden, the barriers to entry, they just aren't explained on how to get to there. So this is something that somebody individually can choose to advance themselves. Another stat is 39% of the current workforce does not want to be a supervisor.

Speaker 2 48:31

39% of our current workforce does not want to be in charge of managing other people, but they want to be more than what they are. They want to be poured into, they want to grow, and that doesn't mean they want to be in charge of managing other people. Sure so, but they want to be more than what they are. They want to be poured into, they want to grow, and that doesn't mean they want to be an entrepreneur. They don't want to have a side hustle, they just want to follow a career path, but they want to be more, and so that's what the cohesive leader. So we're taking the first two chapters of Dr Troy's book, which is called be a leader, and with the last four years of our work together and making a new book that we're coming out with.

Speaker 4 48:57

No, when. When will that be you?

Speaker 2 49:00

guys put me on a deadline. Now we are.

Speaker 3 49:02

It's supposed to come out January 15th 2025.

Speaker 2 49:04

I'm sorry, one more time.

Speaker 4 49:05

You guys, you guys are currently writing it, right now, january 15th 2025.

Speaker 2 49:11

I'm going to stick, stick you to it.

Speaker 3 49:13

That's the author.

Speaker 2 49:15

Yeah Well, I've already got a bestseller.

Speaker 3 49:16

Of course you do. God bless it.

Speaker 2 49:18

It was a chapter in an anthology called Dear Younger Me, Things I Wish you Knew. So it was a letter to entrepreneurs. So it was a letter to myself 20 years ago.

Speaker 3 49:26

Love it.

Speaker 2 49:27

And it basically talks about don't be an entrepreneur. Well, don't wear the label of an entrepreneur. Folk know that you can actually have boundaries by not answering your phone after 6 pm or whatever. You can go after profit first. You can say no. All these things that I wish I would have known. That 2020 taught me honestly early on. Go after behavior traits. Who do you want to be known for? Go after learning. Go after all these things. The money will follow.

Speaker 4 49:53

It is hard when you're an entrepreneur to say no because it's just like you're so desperate to. You know, I need money, I need my name out there, and it does. It takes years to really set those boundaries and say like, no, I don't want to, this doesn't quite fit, and that is something you know. We're all entrepreneurs. I'm sure you have experienced that. It takes years to get to that.

Speaker 2 50:15

You need the filter. You need the filter of saying does this help me get to where I need to be and, at certain times, saying yes to those things did Right. The filter is does it pay me?

Speaker 4 50:25

Right.

Speaker 2 50:25

Right Now the filter is does this move my mission? Does it help me, that kind of thing? So, unfortunately, I don't do many birthday parties unless they are scavenger hunts, combat archery or kayaking. Like there's the filter, you know, here's what I do. Yeah, like it's just it. And you know, some folks want to be bespoke and want to do custom, and to some degree I customize the things that I do. Sure, but it's in those buckets. If you want to work with that person, correct. And I start by saying that it's going to be very expensive, expensive and just throw that off out the bat yeah, so well, whatever you're doing, ben jam and toy is awesome and it's working.

Speaker 4 51:01

Keep it all right. Everyone in charleston's heard of one of these companies.

Speaker 3 51:06

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 4 51:08

Thanks for your time yeah, thanks for having me. This is fun. Yeah, to know even more.

Speaker 3 51:12

I know right. This is why I love these podcasts. You get to know the people you get to know the charlestonians that know the Charlestonians that live around us. They're some really cool people. Do you so? Real quick? We're going to close up here, but you were kicking and screaming to move here. You're still here and you're still smiling, and you have a wife, yes. So are you still kicking and screaming, do you like Charleston?

Speaker 2 51:33

I absolutely love Charleston. Yeah, there we go. I have an affair with Greenville. Oh, all right, I love Greenville. So being up there. Seeing the mountains again just is reminding me of what I love.

Speaker 3 51:47

I got to check it out.

Speaker 2 51:47

And so having a mountain spot up there or something, a home that we can rent out or whatever, I just love going there. But I love Charleston. We were blessed, just immensely blessed, to be actually on the water. A crazy story of just favor to living on the water oh that's awesome. I go paddling at sunrise.

Speaker 3 52:06

With the wife.

Speaker 2 52:07

She doesn't get up that early. She gets up early. But yes, we paddle separately. That's our individual time.

Speaker 3 52:14

Your alone time. Yeah, next time, next episode, we'll get more into the wife. Shout out to the wives out there.

Speaker 2 52:20

She actually just published a book. Come on Identity Detox, a bestseller.

Speaker 3 52:24

You guys are a power couple.

Speaker 2 52:25

Identity Detox the Journey Beyond Perceptions and Labels.

Speaker 3 52:29

Wow, you guys are deep. You just stay up all night.

Speaker 2 52:33

Within a day, she was actually getting messages from people she didn't know of how much that a book empowered her.

Speaker 4 52:37

That's amazing.

Speaker 2 52:37

Empowered them. It's incredible.

Speaker 3 52:39

Congratulations, man. Awesome. Thanks for being here again, Ben.

Speaker 4 52:43

Thank you, Katie, you did great by the way, thanks for having me. I'm glad I could jump in and be co-host.

Speaker 3 52:49

Yeah, jumped right in, no problem. Before we leave, we to also thank our sponsors charleston radio group studios, jerry feels good for the beats, and the american marketing association. Thanks to tantrum, dj tantrum for stepping in on the engineering booth and thanks to katie and ben for their time. If you want to be on our show or or sponsor our show, hello, email us at podcast at charlestonamaorg and we'll get right back to you. Until next time, charleston, thanks.