From Food Truck to Flourishing Pizzeria: The Brick's Woodfired Pizza Company's Rise to Success

Ever wondered about the secret sauce behind transforming a humble food truck into a sizzling brick-and-mortar pizzeria success story? Buckle up as I sit down with Nick Ward of Brick's Woodfire Pizza Company, who not only spills the beans on his journey but also serves up piping hot slices of entrepreneurial wisdom that you won't want to miss. Join us as Nick recounts the installation escapades of pizza ovens on wheels and the game-changing switch to Gozney domes for cranking up the pie production. It's a tale peppered with the zest of passion, the heat of challenges, and a generous topping of triumph.

In the bustling world of the pizza biz, it's not just about tossing dough and slathering sauce—it's a dance of dough management, recipe refinement, and, yes, the art of recovery when demand beats supply. We chew over this crusty topic, recounting the time we ran out of pizzas at an event, and how this taught us the importance of preparation. Nick, a retired Air Force mechanic turned pizza maestro, shares his unique neo-Neapolitan style and the delightful blasphemy of adding prosciutto to pineapple pizza.

Let's talk about the heartbeat of Brick's—the customer service. Nick's philosophy is clear: his establishment is a customer service company first; they just happen to make killer pizzas. We venture into the world of delivery service decisions, the significance of a personal touch in customer engagement, and the belief that the universe dishes out what you knead when you need it. But wait, there's more! We dish on future plans, contemplate a gelato and olive oil pivot, and offer a slice of advice for those brave souls ready to leap into the food truck foray. Whether you're a pizza aficionado or a budding foodpreneur, this episode is the perfect pairing for your entrepreneurial appetite.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:04

All right, we're back. Another great episode of Pizza King Podcast. I got a super dope guest for you today, someone that I've been watching on Instagram for probably a good year or two now. Watch these guys make transition from a busy dope-ass food truck to and I'm sorry if I'm cussing dope food truck to the brick and mortar, dope food truck to the brick and mortar. I'm excited to bring Nick on to let you guys hear his story and talk about their journey and what's going on with Brick's Woodfire Pizza Company over in North Carolina. Side note, north Carolina's got some dope pizza spots. I think we all need to make a little trip out there and see what's going on, what's happening in North Carolina. But let me bring him to the stage. Nick, welcome to the pizza king podcast. Thanks for joining us. Uh, tell us who you are uh, my name is nick ward.

Speaker 2: 1:53

I own I'm the co-owner of bricks, wood fire pizza. Uh, brick stands for britney and nicks, uh, and that's the way that we got our name is my wife and I. Uh, and when we started dating like 13 years ago, all of her friends were like that was when there was like celebrity names and they used to joke that that was our celebrity name.

Speaker 1: 2:12

Bricks. I like it though.

Speaker 2: 2:13

Yeah, so. And then when it came time to like, do the pizza company, um, that was just the name that we landed on.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Well, it's kind of a no brainer, right, you guys got your. You got the famous, you got your. You got the famous, you got your celebrity name, your your Bennifer.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Yes, listen, because it was this or Nick, and nobody wants that bro.

Speaker 1: 2:32

Well, you got, you got to leave with the wife, that's just. That's just the way it goes.

Speaker 2: 2:35

For sure. That was a smart move. Smart move. So you guys are, are you know, here together doing this? When did you start? Bricks with Fire Pizza? Bricks with fire pizza, uh, our soft opening was like june 17th, 22, so we're not we're, we are infant and infant pizza company infant pizza company.

Speaker 1: 2:55

But you've made some major moves pretty quickly when you talk about going from starting a truck and what made you decide to start with a truck versus going into, you know, straight into a restaurant.

Speaker 2: 3:08

It just seemed cheaper. It's not, but it seemed cheaper and it seemed like the better option, and I'm a retired Air Force fighter jet mechanic.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Thank you for your service.

Speaker 2: 3:24

Yeah, absolutely Everybody's worth it. So, um, but we just it. I retired from the air force, went to work in civilian aviation, got my airframe and power plant license and then was managing another fleet of um private jets in kinston, north carolina, and was like, dude, I, it's the same. Like I went from the air force to like the air force in civilian clothes, you know what I mean. Like it's the same, I don't went from the air force to like the air force in civilian clothes. You know what I mean? Like it's the same, I don't want to do this.

Speaker 2: 3:49

And I went to work on back on base in a fighter squadron. It was like a civilian contractor doing like scheduling fighter pilots and working in a vault and I kept sending my wife pictures of like food trucks and finally she was like either buy a food truck or shut up. And that's exactly how the conversation went down. So, um, um, that was it. Like we looked and looked and looked and then found the trailer that we wanted and went back to it several times and figured out how to make it work and then went through like the build-out process, which was awful, and then went through, um, like we had a forno bravo oven built like a kit. We bought like a backyard backyard pizza oven kit and then put it in the food truck and the guy that outfitted it had no business building a pizza oven, so basically it was his first time trying to do something like that, yeah.

Speaker 2: 4:39

Like he the guy. He did okay, Like the rest of the food truck, but he put our pizza oven on. So our pizza trailer is 24 feet long. It's got 12 feet of enclosed like kitchen and then 12 feet of back porch area. Then he put it behind the axle, like three feet behind the axle on the very back of the trailer and this thing is like 2 000 pounds, dude and like oh man it would go down the road and because it was so far behind the axle, like the, the frame would springboard that oven.

Speaker 2: 5:10

It wasn't attached to the truck, it was attached. It wasn't attached to the table that sat on the table. The steel table that was sat on was attached to the floor with like self tapping screws.

Speaker 1: 5:20

that immediately just pop right out.

Speaker 2: 5:23

That oven lasted three weeks and it just crumbled around itself, so that's an expensive lesson to learn.

Speaker 2: 5:30

It's fine. It's fine, it is what it is. So I followed Peddling Pizzas on Instagram. It's a dude in England that uses Dome, so I asked him. I was like, hey, how do you like those? And he's like they work great. He was super, super bad. He's got a big, big ass following and gave me, took the time to respond and I really appreciate that and like. So I bought two, two domes, took the trailer back to the guy that outfitted it and said put these in this, I'll be back in a week and um, like, and then that was it. And like I couldn't be happier with the decision that we made to use Gosney domes.

Speaker 1: 6:12

So so the so you guys are running the Gosney domes um, and two keeps up with the volume.

Speaker 2: 6:17

Just just fine for you bro, we can make 60 pizzas an hour with a full staff. What, yeah, I mean, that's why I need a pot, no-transcript, half sortie and like get training and then they'll land, and then we have what's called the turn and you have three hours and really it's two hours because an hour before that, so from the moment they land they got to take off three hours later. So you have two hours to turn 10 jets and we'll send eight up for the second go and that's gas them, inspect them, fix whatever you can. Um, you know, find, like put screws back in because they're pulling g's. You know what I mean. Especially like f-16s and strike eagles, they're pulling like eight, nine g's, so screws work their way out, vibration, all that stuff, and then, an hour before they take off, the air crew steps back out, pilots show back up to the jet, they do their walk around, they start the jet, they do pre-flight stuff and they bounce and they're trying to take off at the three hour mark anyway, and then we'll send eight up and then fix them right after that.

Speaker 2: 7:38

That's the day, and that efficiency is what we wanted to bring from my life as a fighter jet mechanic to this, and that's the way that we do it, like no wasted steps. Like don't go out to the, you know, don't walk 200 yards out to a jet and be like, oh, I forgot a wrench and walk back inside. You know what I mean. Be like get back out there. Don't do that, don't waste any steps. So efficiency is everything to me.

Speaker 1: 8:00

So so that experience probably helped you, I mean when it came to designing your kitchen and you know how you just manage the restaurant in general, that's. That's great experience to have, because a lot of folks have to learn that after the fact, after you've done it wrong for a few years.

Speaker 2: 8:14

Right, yeah, and I mean it's. This is not harder than that. This is really hard. You know what I mean. But this is like after 20 years of the soul crushing pressure of being on a fight or flight, because there, because in that turn time, in that two hours, there's one guy that's really responsible for getting everything done and that is the most fun. If I had one job to do forever, it would be that. Because you just get to be a psycho Like you drive around in a little white truck and scream at people and tell them to work faster, and you're on the radio and you're coordinating all these different agencies trying to to bring everybody together to just get jets gotta go and that there's nothing more important than just I mean safety is important, but like jets gotta go, it's gotta go.

Speaker 1: 8:58

That's it, bro. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 8:58

You probably can't be that guy in the restaurant, though people know it's so much nicer to not have to be, but like there's like, that dude still lives deep inside. You know what I mean, and there's every once in a while, uh, and as a retiree now I just get the bitch about. You know the current state of the air force and people are walking around their hands in their pockets and whatever you know, but that dude still lives inside of me.

Speaker 1: 9:21

I just keep them for special occasions well, I mean, it's probably good to push yourself with that guy, right?

Speaker 2: 9:27

Yes, yeah, and that's like that dude drives me. He doesn't drive anybody else. You know, it's the, it's the like the get up in the morning, Don't be a lazy piece of shit, and like get going, that's what it gets me.

Speaker 1: 9:41

So was it always pizza when you had retired and you're sending your wife all of these food trucks? Was pizza what you were going to do?

Speaker 2: 9:48

Oh, it was always pizza, and we fell in love with Neapolitan pizza in Northern Japan, which is the weirdest thing.

Speaker 1: 9:53

Hold on, hold on Northern Japan. That's the scene for Neapolitan style pizza.

Speaker 2: 10:00

There's a lot of Neapolitan pizza in Japan, but I was stationed at Masawa Air Base in Northern Japan and where we lived in Japan it snowed like 100 inches a year, so it's one of the snowiest places in the world. If you ever get to go skiing there, it's the best snow ever. Um, and we, right outside the gate at Masawa Air Base, there was this Japanese dude that studied in Naples and like was AVP certified and like brought up I had a beautiful oven. You know what I mean that was. He was constantly stuck in with logs and um, and I really didn't know anything about Neapolitan pizza before that I had had it, um, but we kind of fell in love with it and my wife bought me a Baker stone backyard oven and a book one year and then we just started messing with it. You know what I mean. And that's where it all started.

Speaker 1: 10:43

So you fell in love with pizza first. So you fell in love with pizza first. I think that's that's a great way to do it because the business will take you out.

Speaker 2: 10:51

Yeah, if you let it, bro, it's tough. Like, and and then, when we opened our food truck, I have friends that own a brewery a block away and, um, we used to turn wrenches together and um, and and they said, you know, it was always our plan to open the food truck and then look for a brick and mortar and he goes, make as many mistakes as you can in the food truck, right, and that's what we did. And we blew it time and time and time again. Like, we ruined our life, rebuilt our life, ruined our life, you know, um, and just made, made a lot of mistakes, but which I'm fine with. Like, I don't have a, I don't care about making mistakes, I care about making them twice, but you know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 11:27

Like you learn, you grow and you really get to figure out. If this is what you really want to do, that's it, and you know what I mean, what you think, without a huge investment. You know, but that's not.

Speaker 2: 11:38

that's not always true, that's not true, you know, uh, it's, it's crazy. And I think that I'm also appreciative of guys like you that tell your story and like I listen to a lot of podcasts and to try to learn from other people that, like, have made mistakes so that we don't have to. You know what I mean, because I think that that is the point of all of this is to just share our experiences of the community and, like, make everybody else better.

Speaker 1: 12:05

That's, that's the goal. You know, there's there's no competition in this. There's so many people and everyone loves pizza. It's not, you know, if we can take our time and say, look, don't do what I did. That's, that's huge. What was so? What was the big? You know, the biggest lesson that you learned, or the biggest?

Speaker 2: 12:22

mistake you made in those early days? Uh, being prepared, yeah. So, like we, my friends on a brewery invited us out for their anniversary and uh, it was like their five-year anniversary, excuse me and we brought 40 pizzas. I brought 40 go balls, cause that was like our standard load.

Speaker 1: 12:37

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:38

And we sold out in 25 minutes and had to call another food truck and I was humiliated. And like you ever had that happen where, like for like a week, you just don't sleep? You know what I mean and you're just so mad at yourself that, like you live in that moment.

Speaker 1: 12:50

And well, it's all the things you could have and should have done, right.

Speaker 2: 12:53

Yeah, so like that, that was. The biggest lesson was, and I hate, not being prepared. That's like when I got out of the Air Force I did a psyche valve for the VA and like, like with a zoom, call um the psychologist. That she goes, what's your number one fear? And I said not being prepared and she was like, cool man, you have generalized anxiety. Here you go, but like, but that's it, because also, I got been on the flight line and not been prepared. And you just like it is embarrassing when you fall on your face in front of everybody, you know, and there's no way to hide it and you just either embrace it or you you move on. You know, learn the lesson and move on. And that's what we did.

Speaker 1: 13:31

Yeah, and it's, and what people don't know, anyone that's not a pizzeria operator. There's no recovery time. You can't recover once once it's over. I mean dough is a multiple day process. You know, prep, prep happens. We prep today for tomorrow and the next day. It's not just something that you can just hey, let's just make some pizzas real quick. It just doesn't work like that.

Speaker 2: 13:51

No, it doesn't work that way and I think a lot of people don't understand that. And like we made dough yesterday for Wednesday. You know like you should realistically, if you walk into a place and they're like, yeah, this dough is fresh, we made it this morning.

Speaker 1: 14:08

You should should probably turn around and walk away.

Speaker 2: 14:09

You don't want our dough is best at day two and day three. Yeah, we like day three dough yeah, I do too. It flops better because we do it all by hand, like um. When we opened this place in June, I was like I'm a YouTube pizza chef. You know what I mean. Like everything I know came from YouTube, but like the Air Force is also really good at making you realize that you need training. So I went to the school that Mara Forney puts on Pizza University, yeah, and it was like a three day class in Beltsville, maryland, and I learned so much.

Speaker 1: 14:34

I mean I follow, I follow his content on YouTube and on Facebook too. And he's, I mean I follow, I follow his content on YouTube and on Facebook too. And he's, I mean he's always teaching, he's always teaching, it's always teaching, and it's so good for any, any Well, any pizza operator out there you. There's something to learn from Pizza University for sure.

Speaker 2: 14:48

Yeah, it was great. And we use I do it the same way. We do the same recipe that they taught us. I flop dough the same way I teach my staff to flop dough the same way. Like we do everything exactly as they did. Our recipes didn't change. Our sauce didn't change, like we don't. We're a neo-Neapolitan restaurant. You know what I mean. I don't make a traditional sauce. Our sauce isn't just tomatoes and salt. We use olive oil and basil. You know what I mean. We blend it and whatever, but like it's our own.

Speaker 1: 15:16

But do you get the pizza purists that are questioning your style, like, hey, this isn't really Neapolitan style pizza. Do you get that? Because I know that's.

Speaker 2: 15:27

That's a thing, seriously, when it comes to Neapolitan style, it really is. And there's a dude when you come here. There's also a guy that owns Luna pizza and he is he's like a local legend around here, but he's been in. He, he did the same thing, like studied in Naples, all that stuff, and he for the longest time just put he's been in business for like 10 years and just put pepperoni on the menu.

Speaker 1: 15:47

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:48

You know what I mean Like, and we the only there's no pineapple in his place.

Speaker 2: 15:53

No, right, and our pineapple pizza. So when we said, okay, we're going to do this, I was working in a fighter squadron and they were deployed. The guys went to, they were doing a um, a tour of. They did six months in europe and it was right when, kind of just right before ukraine kicked off anyway. So the dudes that were left, um, I would just like bring 20 dough balls. And I took my oven to work, and fighter pilots are really really tough to deal with for the most part, as I'm sure you can imagine. However, they're excellent at giving feedback. So I would make them 20 pizzas and go what do you guys think? And they would give me honest, legitimate.

Speaker 2: 16:33

We would debrief every time I made pizza for them and I learned a ton. One guy was like, hey, man, you got to have a pineapple pizza. And I was like, no, absolutely not, I'm not doing it. And he's like dude, I'm telling you that you have to. So I made him a prosciutto and pineapple pizza and it was like this is amazing. I was like, all right, look, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to talk shit. So our, our Hawaiian pizza is called the prosciutto bestamia, which in italian translates to ham and blasphemy ham and blasphemy, that's dope, we get italian we get italian dudes, like people that speak italian.

Speaker 2: 17:07

Come in once in a while and they'll just start laughing and uh and that's. But nobody gets it like. I live in the south, you know what I mean and the people that I tell them uh, it's that's funny some of them laugh hysterically and some of them look at me like I'm an idiot, but which is also true.

Speaker 1: 17:23

Well, I mean, it's not to offend anybody, but it's good to have a little fun For sure, you know, pizza is the best your way item to have, like you get it the way you want it. Yeah, and I think that's what makes what makes what we do so cool.

Speaker 2: 17:35

Yeah, it makes what we do so cool, yeah, and we'll make it how you want it. And we define ourselves as a customer service company. That makes pizza First and foremost like we are a customer service company, everything else is secondary.

Speaker 1: 17:46

I love that. I saw that on your Instagram page. It's kind of like your headline, your tag like we're a customer service company that also makes pizza.

Speaker 1: 17:56

Yeah, explain how that mentality has driven you to where you are now, because I think you're really modest and nice about it. But in a very short time you went from hey, I'm making 20 pies and testing it out with the guys on the flight line to food truck to brick and mortar way faster than anyone should really do that way faster than anyone should really do that Right, that.

Speaker 2: 18:21

So I knew as a food truck, I get, I get one chance at your business, you know, and that's, that's real. In a restaurant, in a brick and mortar place, if you have a bad experience, you might come back like three months, six months later, but like, let's go try them again. As a food truck dude, you come to my window and you have a bad experience. You're gone forever For sure. You know what I mean and like. As a food truck dude, you come to my window and you have a bad experience. You're gone forever for sure. You know what I mean and like. And I'm here to get, I'm here to get my three times. I need to get three times. Right, I need to see you three times in a row so that becomes a habit and you become a real customer. So I need to see you three times and I'm not willing to like to lose it for any reason.

Speaker 2: 18:53

So our policy is the second the second that you see somebody at the window, you must at least speak to them, because we've all been to restaurants or food trucks where you show up and nobody speaks to you and it is the worst feeling. You feel unimportant. You know what I mean. I'm here to spend. I work hard for this money and I know that people work really hard for the money that they give us, and I'm a blue-collar guy. We love dirty boots around here and I know how hard it is to make money and to give it to somebody else. I want you to feel like you're appreciated and that you feel valued.

Speaker 1: 19:32

I read somewhere that the number one driver of dissatisfaction in customers is indifference. It's not the food, it's not the value, it's feeling like my time and my money doesn't matter to you.

Speaker 2: 19:39

That's it. I couldn't agree more, and it does like, because I don't. We judge places. Look, people will go eat lousy pizza with great customer service, but they will not eat amazing pizza if there is no customer service amazing pizza if there is no customer service?

Speaker 1: 20:01

Nope, so I know I won't spend my money somewhere that where it doesn't matter, um so so I love that, I love that and then that, and I'm sure that carries over to your team. How many people on your team?

Speaker 2: 20:09

We have four. We we kind of over hired. So, like you know, when you open your place, um, I was so busy trying to learn how to operate my business that I it took us. We're finally at a point now where I can run my business. Um, because, straight I I had no idea what I was doing. We were just trying to like to do, have a thing, and so you do everything so you do everything right.

Speaker 2: 20:33

So, um, we, when we opened this place, we kind of overhired and then I was like our expenses are getting out of control, like, and we were fortunate that, you know, the profit margins are so high in pizza that, like we've never lost money, we've never had a month that we were in the red, you know what I mean Like I've never had to take money out of my own account to like put into the businesses to keep it going, and fortunate in that regard. But regard, but we got rid of, like we hired a lot and then we kind of trimmed everybody down to keep because payroll was outrageous, man, you know, especially with what you got to pay now, like it's it's, it's, it's, it's a killer and it's on the rise.

Speaker 1: 21:13

And if you don't, if you don't really find a good way to manage that and and develop, develop and keep your people around, I mean, long-term people are just going to be the value because they they can do the job better. But when you pay, I can't stand it. You're paying the new guy with no experience more than what I could pay the guy who's been there with me for four or five years. That's, that's crazy to me. It's awful.

Speaker 2: 21:36

And we started like my lowest paid employee is 11 bucks, yeah, and like, think about 1997, us like what you would have done for 11 bucks an hour?

Speaker 1: 21:45

my first job, I made 415 an hour 425 at pizza hut in like 95 yeah you know, 415 and I remember minimum wage went up to 425 and that was my first race. Yeah, from 415 to 425. Yeah, so it is. It's crazy.

Speaker 2: 22:04

I paid $9.44 for a double cheese murder meal the other day. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 22:08

Yeah, do you. Do, you guys deliver?

Speaker 2: 22:12

No. So that was one of the questions that I was going to ask you is we are trying to figure it out. I'm terrified of third-party apps because of the people that represent my food, but we don't have the manning to do a delivery. We're going to work it out, because I think that that is what's hurting us a lot right now is that we don't offer delivery and we're in a small downtown and in a small town. There's only like 17,000 people in this town. We're the only Neapolitan pizza in the county, but I mean what is your opinion on third party ordering?

Speaker 1: 22:57

I would never sit here and call myself an advocate for any third party platform, because First they take I mean they're the platform is the one that's winning. They get all I mean they do nothing and get the most. I understand that. The way that it works with people who have to deliver and they and they work for these companies, it's it's a gig work, it's flexible. But I do have a problem with it because you have no.

Speaker 1: 23:26

Once that food leaves your, leaves your place, you no longer have any control over that. It can, it can disappear. Who knows what's in that car. I've I've had to refuse deliveries with folks because I just couldn't get over the appearance of somebody that came in, and maybe that's wrong. But if I, if, if you don't look like someone who should drop off my food, I'm not going to, I'm not going to let it go out. But then the customer suffers, right. So it's kind of it's this tough situation We've.

Speaker 1: 23:53

We've been transitioning somewhat to delivery as a service just to offset some of the staffing challenges, where first party orders come through us and we dispatch a DoorDash driver that's been working for us. It comes at a fee and it's like seven bucks every time we have to do it. But that's been better than just straight up taking orders on a third party platform because they're going to take 20, 30, 30% commission. They're going to charge the customer all of these fees. They charge us the marketing to get to reach that person and even with the commission at 20%, which we had, you know we negotiated for 20% commission.

Speaker 1: 24:32

We ran in numbers. We were still 40, over 40% in in fees to the platform. So it just I know that they're necessary. They're a necessary part of the business now because so many people are there. But I look at third party, third party orders as as a marketing tool and a way to attract a customer and introduce them to you. But you got to find a way to try to pull them off platform and get and get your own. If you can't deliver first party, I would first try delivery as a service before I just went straight up to Uber or DoorDash and just joined their platform because you're basically just going to send your food out for free.

Speaker 2: 25:12

That's what we keep coming back to, because, like three or four times I've been like all right, I'm just going to commit, I'm going to do this, we're going to try it, and then at the last minute I just get the willies. You know what I mean. Like I don't.

Speaker 1: 25:25

It's, it's it devalues the product. It's especially when you're working so hard. You got a good product, you got a lot of pride in what you do To attract an order on these platforms, people. It's, it's like it's a wild, wild West. So it's, it's, it's BOGO deals. It's it's $10 off of 30, you know it's, it's, it's all of that and that's how people shop there, which is fine. I understand the consumer side of it, but it comes. It comes at a cost to to the merchant or to the restaurant. So I can't tell you not to do it because if it, if it helps sorry, my dog's going crazy. He cannot stand long guys at all. I've heard that on.

Speaker 2: 26:05

TV in your podcast.

Speaker 1: 26:08

He's all I'm telling you. He waits until I hit record and then he starts. He just starts going. But he lives here. I can't do anything about it.

Speaker 2: 26:14

I ain't bothered by it.

Speaker 1: 26:15

But it I don't know. I ain't bothered by it, but but it I don't know it. It it attracts the customer for you, but it's it's really, it's a really tough way to make money um, and grow. I haven't seen year over year growth, and I've been on these platforms since probably 2018, 2019. And you really don't see year over year growth on a third party platform, which means you're constantly putting dollars out in marketing to attract the next customer, the next customer, the next customer. I don't see that as a as a sustainable model for the restaurant.

Speaker 2: 26:46

Well, I mean, you said it yourself on a podcast that may have been the smart pizza marketing podcast that I heard you on. But, like, if you're going to do a deal, the deal's got to make sense. It can't just be a deal. You can't just do a pizza deal for the sake of having a pizza deal. Right, If you're going to give a discount, there's got to be value in it for both parties.

Speaker 1: 27:07

Yeah, and if it's for me to get, if I can get an email address out of it, if I can get a cell phone number and I can continue to market to that person, then that's something. But third-party platform, they own all the information. You get none of that data. You get data but you don't get control over that. So you don't, you don't, you don't have the opportunity to really market to that customer after that first time you see them and that's a that's tough. So you know we, we still use it and we still have them. But we're like you know, we flyer the boxes, we put stickers on them, we try to drive them back to our platform so that we can then.

Speaker 1: 27:42

But it also took us having to make sure we stepped up our game on our side, because if I tell you come over here, it's better and it's not better, then I've lost you. So I would continue to weigh it out. Order some delivery, see, which I mean? And I don't know who has the market share in your town. First, when we started, uber was like in control here, but DoorDash has quickly gained market share here in Tampa and we're starting to have some conversations with them.

Speaker 1: 28:12

But you know, the ones that have more control over their people and over their platforms, ones that have more control over their, over their people and over their platforms Um, they've, they've tried to implement things like you know, making sure that drivers are taking pictures of orders before they leave out so that they can confirm that they're there. Um, they only have their own delivery bag, so it looks a little bit more presentable. But the customers know, and if a customer this here's what I've learned too If a customer is on on like, if they're already like a DoorDash customer or they're already a DoorDash user, once I dispatch that driver, it shows up on their app. So now it's. You know, it kind of devalues my products when they say oh, and I have customers tell me, don't send the DoorDash driver to me, please send me one of your guys, and we can't always do that, so that becomes a problem.

Speaker 2: 28:59

Another problem Well, I had a conversation last week with my insurance agent and said hey, man, I've got this old, like I have a Super Duty that we pull the trailer with, but that thing is just insanely expensive to operate. So I bought like a 04 Subaru Outback. The back seats are down and I use it as a pickup. It's like if I had to go pick up food or whatever I do, like that's my personal daily driver and that's what I run around in. So I was like hey, like, I've got this car. If we put it in the business's name and insure it, give it commercial insurance, like can my staff use it to deliver pizza? And uh, and he was like, yes, that's you know, but like, honestly, most people just have own, they just deliver in their own cars. Um, but like, and ultimately, ultimately, this entire all this is moot because I'm the gap filler. You know what?

Speaker 2: 29:53

I mean Like it's going to be me so, like when we start delivering pizzas, it's going to be me gonna be me so, like when we start delivering pizzas, it's gonna be me and um, and I'm I'm certainly not gonna send you know, uh, like we have a lot of girls that work for us. I'm not gonna send one of them out to like somewhere that I'm not comfortable sending them at night. Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 30:14

Like oh, yeah, I mean, and there's so many things to consider. Do you become, do you start to take cash at that point or do you know how does that all work? And I know you got you guys are using toast, right, so there's yeah, there's some delivery capabilities there. You can, you know, do you can charge a credit card at the door, things like that. But there's, there's all these different elements of it that you need to consider before you do it.

Speaker 1: 30:39

And I would, you know, just really work through that process and ask yourself all of the questions like what's our radius going to look like? You know, is there going to be a delivery minimum? Are we going to charge a fee? You know, how are we setting these expectations? A lot of folks will, you know. That becomes your brand and we tell our drivers all the time. Most of our customers have no idea who I am or who you know my partner JR. They've never even been to our restaurant. They only know you. So you become us. At that point, you have to make sure that you're presentable and you're nice and you're, you're on time and your, your bag is clean and all these different things. It's just there's a lot of factors into it.

Speaker 2: 31:14

You take off your face and put on my face.

Speaker 1: 31:17

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 31:18

And you know. And the customer service. We are a customer service company that makes pizza and that I don't want that to stop at delivery. You know what I mean Like. So again, it's one of those things that we're trying to work through and like when I find what is right, what cause. You know how it it either feels right or it doesn't. Yeah, so, like now, it still doesn't feel exactly right, and we're I'm a great pontificator. You know what I mean. It's the three o'clock in the morning. I'll wake up and like and just run through it. I'll run through every scenario possible at three o'clock in the morning while I'm just trying to go back to bed.

Speaker 1: 31:54

But that's the way it goes.

Speaker 2: 31:55

Dude. That's. That's the way I solve problems. Is is in the middle of the night like um try not to wake my wife up.

Speaker 1: 32:02

Yeah, so and and go through that process because that'll help you determine when, when, it's when, and if it's right for you to do it. Because although I believe in delivery and I think delivery is, is here to you know, obviously it's here to stay, but it's an important part of the pizza business, it's. You know, we were pre COVID, we, we, everyone delivered and COVID happened and it was great for pizza because we were already ready for it. But it has taken some of the, some of the the personal element out of it. It's not so customer focused anymore, it's not so friendly, it's it's contactless, it's drop and go. It has become very, very transactional. So I would just caution you just to think through all of those things before you make that move as a customer service company.

Speaker 2: 32:50

Yeah, and I appreciate that advice. That's one of the reasons I was excited to talk to you, because this is our store. Look, our place is this big, this is everything. We're 585 square feet, dude. There's nowhere to hide. You know what I mean? Like there's nowhere to hide. So we like, again, I just want to make sure that it's the right thing for the customer, to make sure that they come back and they believe in us. So, uh, and it's probably going to be me delivering pizzas for a while, but but also, like I mean, you got three boys, dude, I'm trying not to orphan my kid.

Speaker 1: 33:26

Yeah, seriously. So it's uh, you know, just take your time and I and I know that you'll you'll do the right thing, that's yeah, and your customers will let you know what they need and how they, how they want it, and you may just find that right person that says, hey look, I can do this. I got experience maybe. You know, and I believe in that. I think the universe just sends us the things that we need when it's time and when it's right. Someone would just walk, just walk in the door and say, hey look, I've been, I've been looking for this. So, you know, I I hope that, I hope that it happens that way.

Speaker 2: 34:00

We had a dude, um, that worked for like a big franchise pizza. It like stopped down here, he's not from here. He and his girlfriend were just boondoggling one day and like he ate my pizza and he walked out and came back. He's like I've been in the afternoon on a wednesday. He came back and he was like this is amazing. He's like if you guys ever want to hire, he was like a district or the general manager for this place, um, and I was like sure, man, you know, took his number down and then, like we started talking and uh, and I was like I, I just can't afford. He wanted like 50 grand a year and I'm like I, dude, if I pay somebody, i'm000 a year.

Speaker 2: 34:38

I'm getting zero. You know what I mean Like the only reason I'm able to do this is because I have a retirement. You know what I mean Like. So so, no matter what happens, my mortgage is paid because of my airport retirement. But I was like, dude, if I pay you 50,000 bucks, there's no, there's not going to be a pizzeria for you to go to. You know what I mean. I mean, and um, and then I again, I was listening to your podcast last weekend, two weeks ago, whatever Um, and you said, make sure that you don't like hire somebody that you're not ready for. And I was like, cause I didn't end up hiring?

Speaker 1: 35:08

And I was like, all right, cool, now I feel like that was well, yeah it could slow you down, it slows you down and once you start to, once you start to run into red, it's really hard to get up, to get out of that. Yeah, and you commit to people and look, we're all. We sell pizza, but we're all humans and we're all. We're all here for each other. So you want to take care of your people. Once, especially once you got them on the team, and sometimes you do that to your own detriment, and I'm a I'm a testament of that. I've, I've, I have not always been successful. I've killed a business trying to, trying to be everything for everyone. So I, I, I always approach that with caution.

Speaker 2: 35:47

Well, guys like that are the easy button, and it's cause he would have been the easy button, hey man, come on in, you know what I mean, and then I can just go make hats or whatever. But you know, but also he would have, you know, we probably would have sunk.

Speaker 1: 35:58

So yeah, so it's important and that's why and I love what you do you take care of the customer first. That's where our business is. We, we're here for the guest, the guests, and I always tell my people all the time it's not I don't, I'm not the one paying you, it's not me, it's it's these experiences that we're delivering. That's what takes care of us, not it's not me. So, yeah, you know, when you have that, that's that's what keeps you going.

Speaker 2: 36:25

And we're fortunate that my entire staff is on board with my philosophies. You know what I mean and like and simple things like we have a little counter man. You know what I mean Like and if you order and you said that we have two little bar tables and instead of going handing a pizza over the counter, like my staff walks it around the counter.

Speaker 1: 36:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 36:43

Like just dumb, dumb stuff like that, and like we, I don't know like I just I know how it feels Like when I make a pizza. I want to think about eating that pizza and like what is the bite that I'm going to get? Am I going to get exactly what I want in every bite? Okay, eating that pizza, and like, what is the bite that I'm gonna get? Am I gonna get exactly what I want in every bite? Okay, that's how I want to make a pizza. And then how am I gonna do? I want to feel while I'm in the place, and that's we just try to replicate that also be a good human and like, if you see an old lady with a shopping cart, take the card from her and put it away, stuff like that, you know what I mean be, just be a good dude, it's more important to be nice than it is to be right.

Speaker 1: 37:16

Straight up. That was my grandmother. She always taught me that it doesn't cost anything to be nice. Do that first, and then the good things will happen to you. I love that and I live by that myself. What's your favorite pizza? What are you making for you when it's time? I?

Speaker 2: 37:37

like the brick is our signature pizza and we cut our so, for the brick is a pepperoni salami prosciutto. We cut our pepperoni, our salami, into sticks, which is something that we straight up stole from that place in Japan and we're the only there's not a places that do that. I think that's an old school way to serve.

Speaker 1: 37:54

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 37:54

You know what I mean but like a brick with jalapenos, a little bit of onions, and then, um, you know, sometimes I'll throw a little ranch on there, but uh, but like it's just a good italian pizza, you know what I mean. And uh, and we tried to make that, turn it into sandwiches. We also tried sandwiches too, which I'm about to bring back, but, um, I don't know that that's. That's my favorite pizza also. I don't want to eat pizza anymore. I don't want to eat my pizza anymore. I don't know how that's. That's my favorite pizza Also. I don't want to eat pizza anymore. I don't want to eat my pizza anymore. I don't know how you feel, but like I'm down with other people's pizza.

Speaker 1: 38:26

But I'm, I'm both. Um, I eat my pizza when I'm making something that I see, so I'll see something. And I'm always like on Instagram you guys see me all the time. I'm always scrolling, I'm always on there and I I'll see something and I'm in the shop. You know, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, I'm going to, we're going to try to make it, and that's usually how, how I eat pizza. But I'll also. We also go out, like if I'm, if we visit a place where I'll go. You know, you know, I still travel quite a bit, so I try to go try pizzerias whenever, whatever town that I end up in. Um, that's my, that's, you know, kind of what makes my life cool is to just go try pizza in different places. I used to be like this hot dog guy. We would go like baseball stadium and go, you know, eat nachos and hot dogs everywhere, but then it's it kind of moved more into it's a pizza now.

Speaker 2: 39:13

Gas station hot dogs are my secret chain.

Speaker 1: 39:16

I'm with it. I'm a I'll still eat. I'll still eat a hot dog or a chili dog just about everywhere I go.

Speaker 2: 39:21

But somebody off the roller.

Speaker 1: 39:24

Yeah, If it's, if I'm, if I'm, you know, rolling with the fam or rolling with some other folks, it's pizza because we can. We can customize it and look, I haven't, I haven't had a bad pizza yet.

Speaker 2: 39:35

For sure.

Speaker 1: 39:36

For sure I haven't had a bad one yet. It's just just I love it. I love the way everyone it's and everyone's different. So that's what makes it cool for me and I'll go back and we'll try it. I like that. I love that part of it too. It's just because I'm I'm kind of like this artist at heart, a little bit messy, a little bit. You know, I'm just that's just how I live. So I like to go back and try to recreate it and that's a that's a lot of fun for me well, we just did a sausage dog with pizza dough that like I'm thinking about putting on the menu.

Speaker 2: 40:01

You know what I mean. Have you seen that where, like you take an Italian sausage and then just like, cut a strip of pizza dough and then it like you slide it into the oven and the dough rises and cooks up around the around it.

Speaker 1: 40:12

Hold up bro.

Speaker 2: 40:14

I'll send you a picture. It is so good and we messed with it. I didn't again, I have friends in our little downtown, so like, well, I'll just invite people over for lunch when we're closed and be like, come taste, test this and uh, and it's amazing. I'm trying to figure out. Our next step is to sell. I think we're going to sell our food truck because it's so much you know what I mean and the costs are so much higher than this place. I've focused for two years on making a pretty good pizza quickly and efficiently and I'm ready to start making the best pizza in North Carolina. You know what I mean. Like to still do it efficiently, but like, uh, it's just, the food truck is profitable, but it's a lot, you know what.

Speaker 1: 41:00

I mean, and are you? Are you the one that's pretty much handling things? When it comes to the truck, I know we talked, we were texting the other day and you were headed out for a catering and an event. So that takes a lot, that's. It takes a lot to do right.

Speaker 2: 41:14

None of the girls that work for me are pulling a 28 foot trailer with a three quarter ton truck. You know what I mean. So every time the food truck works and that was the big push to get this place open is that when the food truck works, I got to work, which I want to. I love being in the food truck. We did the. You guys eat, man, all the pickles. Do you have those down there in Florida? You ever been to Mount Olive?

Speaker 1: 41:33

Pickles, so like it's.

Speaker 2: 41:35

It's 20 minutes from here. Mount Olive is 20 minutes from here and every year they have a pickle festival and um and it's like 50 000 people come to this and mount olive is like 10 000 people.

Speaker 1: 41:46

It's an itty bitty town, so it's flooded with folks it's flooded.

Speaker 2: 41:48

So we, we got invited and we went down and broke every sales record that we had saturday and sold, um, we made like 255 pizzas and we probably I mean we sold. I probably give away a lot of pizza, especially we see cops walking around but um, like, we probably sold, you know, 240 pizzas, probably 15, but like and it was the craziest day that we've ever had we made a pickle pizza. We sold like 100 pickle pizzas, um, and got support from mount olive picklesles. And then Thursday Wayne County is doing Foodie Week where the Chamber of Commerce is going around to different restaurants and the whole crew is going to try these different local places. So we're going to go back to Arnard Brewing in Mount Olive and then make those pickle pizzas again and Mount Olive Pickles is sponsoring them. So they're going to come out and it should be a cool deal for us.

Speaker 1: 42:42

But that also means that you're committed to that. Don't that entire day. Yeah, we were not open.

Speaker 2: 42:48

We were not open here. I don't have a staff. You know what I mean. Like, when we do big events like that, it takes at least four people to just keep up and it's me in the front flopping dough and making pizza. It's a person cooking pizza and then a person taking orders, and then there's a person like in the middle and that person is the boss. I'm not the boss that day. They are managing boxes and managing orders and making sure that the right things happen at the right times and, um, you know, I also don't want to do that job. I can, but, like I'm, my favorite part of this whole thing is making pizza. But anyway, that's me. Yeah, I just want to be in in the. I want to be flopping dough and we hand. You know, we do the knee up off and slap on every pizza. There's no, there's no press, there's no, nothing.

Speaker 1: 43:35

Yeah, I haven't seen a press deck and really do what you do to to do that style of pizza uh uh, gerald forney just made a machine that uh, oh, the, uh, yeah, the opera prima yeah, which is awesome, it's thirty thousand dollars I haven't seen it in action. I've seen video and I've seen. I saw bruce was at a place and and showed that they have one, but I haven't actually seen one live yet.

Speaker 2: 44:01

Was it?

Speaker 1: 44:02

I mean, they had it at they had it at Expo and they had it at at the Orlando Summit. But when I went I was there in Orlando and I was actually sick, super sick, but I had to speak that day. So I'm like I showed up, did my, did my thing and I like got the hell out of there because I didn't want to. It was just like I felt awful. But thank goodness it was only like it's like an hour from where I live so I could just get out of there. I'm like all NyQuil and Mucinex stuff, just so I could go, you know, have that, have that talk for a couple of minutes, but I didn't get a chance to really experience the show. So I'm excited for this year.

Speaker 2: 44:35

When is it?

Speaker 1: 44:36

It is.

Speaker 2: 44:37

November, november. I think we're going to try to go.

Speaker 1: 44:40

First or second week in November. It was big. It was a cool show. They kind of paired it with the Florida Restaurant and Lodging show. There's more than pizza there. It actually made it a really good show.

Speaker 2: 44:51

I think we're going to try to go because we want to go to Disney too. My eight-year-old has never been to Disney.

Speaker 1: 44:58

How many?

Speaker 2: 44:58

kids. I have one kid. Look, we tried to have another kid, but in the three years that I was in japan, I was gone for a year of it, just out on like two week trips, three weeks trips, 11 weeks in alaska, you know what I mean. Like we would go to korea. The. The pace, the operational tempo of fighter jets in, especially in the north pacific right now, is outrageous. So, like you got to be home, man, you know what I mean. It takes two people to make another kid. So, and now I'm 45, my daughter's eight, so it's, and this whole thing is based on, like when she's 18, I'm 55. And in 10 years it is what it is. And wherever we are, either we'll find somebody to manage this. But like, hey, kid, I'm a helicopter dad. Wherever you go to college, I'm coming. You know what I mean. Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1: 45:46

So is she? Does she like being around the shop?

Speaker 2: 45:50

She tolerates it. She's good in the food truck Like she wants to help, but she's eight, you know what I mean. So like, legally she can't do anything, but she'll, she does what she can anything, um, but she'll, she does what she can.

Speaker 1: 46:06

She's getting there. Yeah, my, my oldest and he's, and he's growing up. All my kids have just grown up in and around the shop, but my oldest is like he in his mind, he's the manager. He's like if he calls me and I'm there, he's like who's? Who's all working tonight? Who's there facetime, show me, show me, show me who's on the counter, who's answering the phones, who are the drivers tonight? It's like they walk in and they just they're all in the cooler. I get always got a bunch of ice cream in the freezer. So they're just like walking around the shop and just taking over. I love that part of it.

Speaker 2: 46:35

It's a good lesson, though, right, like we also did this to teach her. Like this is what hard work does this to teach her? Like this is what hard work does you know what I mean? Like, um, and speaking of ice cream, we're thinking about having gelato to this place, because there's not. There's no gelato in this town either. Like and you found that there's it's difficult to like. Do you sell your ice cream or you just have it?

Speaker 1: 46:55

we just have it, we just have it, we try. So we tried to sell and we couldn't compete with grocery store pricing for what we were getting the ice cream for. And we were. I mean, we're direct from the distributor, but we couldn't compete with the Walmart or the Publix pricing. So it was it almost felt wrong to charge someone $10 for a pint of ice cream. You know what I mean, yeah. Or you know 10, 12 bucks to deliver a pint, and I know there's a novelty in it to say, hey look, we deliver ice cream. We can order your pizza with an ice cream. But we tried it for a little while and we ran it in a couple of locations and just wasn't. Our staff eats more of it than we were selling.

Speaker 2: 47:42

I understand that, dude. I'm hoping that like we can, because not having seats is hurting us more than I thought it would. You know what I mean being a takeout only spot. So that's a lesson also, that is hard, that we're trying to just work through, and the hope is that in the next year we can move into a place that has seats or something. You know what I mean. Cause this, the deal with this place is it doesn't have to stay at pizzeria, like we signed a lease, but it doesn't have to stay at pizzeria, so they don't care as long as we're in. It could be your dough kitchen, it could be gelato.

Speaker 1: 48:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 48:24

My wife wants to do like a gelato and olive oil boutique and balsamics and stuff like that. You know what I mean. Like sure, Rent is nothing.

Speaker 1: 48:32

So they say if you can stay profitable and then that's fine. I worked in my mentor, bob, who started founded West shore pizza. He, he tried to do a we did like an italian ice concept, um, kind of based around redis, what they do, almost, almost a exact copy of it. And the ticket average. The ticket average was so low that we found ourselves having to like over market to drive the traffic to really get the volume up, because I mean, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're used to 25, $30 tickets and you go from quickly down to a three to $5 ticket average and you know, I don't think anyone understands how much cost is really, really, really, in you know, the dairy space, when you talk about milk and and cream and all these things's very highly perishable, short shelf life and, uh, actually really expensive. I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm just talking about my experience, um, but what's cool to do and very fun that's the thing we didn't make any money that's it, and that's why I wanted to talk to people.

Speaker 2: 49:37

You know what I mean, because the one of the things that I struggle with being in this small town is that, like I don't have any peers you know what I mean like there's not uh, there's a couple of everybody here is either in the military or from new york, so new york style pizza is the predominant, and I'm sure that florida is no different, right, like new york style pizza is the predominant style of pizza around here. Um, and a lot of people that walk in my door have never had a neapolitan pizza or a neo-neapolitan pizza but so you're educating so I'm educating but, like, again, nobody talks.

Speaker 2: 50:10

And I'm a talker, you know, like, I believe that, like, together we all make more money, and that's the way that we ran our food truck is yeah, look man, like it, treat it like a food hall, um, and we just need to open a food hall because I feel like this would work perfectly. This concept in a food hall would be perfect.

Speaker 1: 50:29

But I like that. So you're thinking about. I was going to ask you what you know what's next for Briggs? It sounds like you're kind of thinking you know of expansion because of just kind of the customer need Right, people want to hang out, they want to, they want to bring four or five folks and you know, sit down and have a couple of pies.

Speaker 2: 50:49

And I have. I have friends that own, like I said, own a brewery and they own a tap room and they they have like three. You know, these downtowns have like small skinny spaces. They have like three of these skinny spaces. They have like three of these and they offered one of them to us, uh, with like a door in between, so that people that were drinking beer have, because they are losing money when people go at the dinner and we are losing money because people aren't here. So it's mutually beneficial, but upfit costs are out of control yeah so right now, dude to spend another like 55,000 bucks like we're.

Speaker 2: 51:25

It's the line where the debt ratio is not sustainable for my family.

Speaker 1: 51:30

I understand.

Speaker 2: 51:31

You know what I mean. So we're trying to work through that and hopefully, after we sell the food truck we'll maybe try that. But yeah, but like straight up.

Speaker 1: 51:40

Does selling the food truck affect your, your catering potential?

Speaker 2: 51:44

We will stop catering. You know what I mean. Because, uh, for the most part and it's catering is super profitable, also because we don't do by the pizza, you know, we cater by the person. And the way that we do catering, math is four slices per pizza on a 10 to 11 inch pizza. You know what I mean. So, um, we go set up a pizza buffet and then we have a warmer on the truck and we'll pre-make like 20 pizzas and then go put like eight or 10 of them out and then then we have you know 10, at least 10 pizzas to like start backfilling while we continue to cook at full speed. And then we're just refilling pizza, right, and we're just rapid firing pizza and people are just coming around. They'll get one lap, they'll go eat, they'll make a second lap and they'll go sit down and after that, like it slows down, we package up what we have left. Boom, here you go and we're out.

Speaker 1: 52:31

And we go, oh, that's so. I'm glad you just I'm glad you said that Someone asked me about event. Well, they're doing an event here in june and he's like hey, you think you can come make pizzas and I've never, like made pizzas on site at an event. I like, I like that idea because I was thinking we'll just make he's got 100 people, we'll just make 100 pizzas and everyone get what they want that sounds crazy.

Speaker 2: 52:52

now, yeah, because also like, and sometimes so like, if we have, um, you know, we, we did the wedding that went to in beaufort, right, it's two hours from here, and it was 115 people, but we probably only made 55 pizzas, so, but the cost is the same, which? This is what we charge you. We charge per person and then we, after you're done eating, we'll make a couple more and box them up and quietly make our escape, because my catering, the way that we approach catering, is like, uh, there's a scene in uh uh, oceans 11 where, like, he's talking to Bernie Mac, right, uh, matt Damon's talking to Bernie Mac in that, like back office, right.

Speaker 2: 53:32

And they're like prepping him for prepping uh, matt Damon for that, and they're like he needs to like you and forget you. And that's the way that we approach catering. I want you to like us and forget us. I don't want you to, we don't. I don't want to be a part of your day. I don't want to be an athlete Like I want to be like the easiest part of your thing that you never have to think about that you didn't have to worry about, and well, that's how you get called back.

Speaker 1: 53:53

Yeah, and pizza was great. What happened to the pizza guys? They're gone, but there's all this like we can now have a party, you know, get housed and eat as much as we want because there's plenty left. Like I like that. That's a great one.

Speaker 2: 54:07

So it. If my wife's idea is to like sell the truck, stop catering for a little bit and then, if it works out, then try to find a drivable one that we can condense, because also, we were when we started, we were commissary, so we did everything in the truck yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 54:23

So I just had to deal with my friends where I would come dump gray water and that was it. Other than that, like we did everything else in the truck. So we don't need to do that because we have a commissary and I don't. I don't need all the space anymore. So if we could shrink it down into a drivable truck, that, like my wife could do, because I also don't like dealing with rides, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 54:41

I'm a dude, like I don't, I don't care about any of that, like I'm happy to make you pizza, but I just want to come make the pizza, and just that's it. Yeah, just get on out of here.

Speaker 2: 54:51

So, um, I don't know, it's been. Really it's way better than going to a staff meeting. You know what I mean. Like I don't, I don't, we don't do that, we don't do meetings, I don't do, we don't do that no man, you got you guys are doing it.

Speaker 1: 55:07

You're doing it right over there, all right. So you know, what advice would you give someone who was, who's watched this and they go oh, I want to do this, I want to try, I want to start a, start a pizza company, I want to start a food truck or trailer, I want to get into a brick and mortar what? What advice would you give to the next guy?

Speaker 2: 55:24

Just make mistakes.

Speaker 2: 55:28

Go make the mistakes, just go make them. Like do it small, make it scalable so that you can start small and like make to where your mistakes don't impact you as much. You know what I mean. And that is the thing like be able to make as many mistakes as you can and have the intelligence to like learn from them and kind of almost journal them, um, so that you don't make them again. But like just make mistakes. People are afraid of failure and I think that that is dumb. You know what I mean. Like fail there's that corny thing about failing forward but like do that. Like just fake it till you make it bro.

Speaker 1: 56:04

And the one thing I can promise anyone about this business something's going to happen, it's just going to happen almost every single day so you gotta you gotta put yourself in the right mind and the right mindset to move past it and look and say, look, this is, this was part of it, this is what I signed up for.

Speaker 2: 56:21

Well, I think about having like a boutique and I'm like, if we don't open a boutique, like all they have to do is order it and show up and stock it and then pay somebody like 10 bucks an hour to be here, but like I'm here at seven, 30 every morning making toe balls, making like we have so much prep that we do, they're like what, why? Why are we doing this? You know what I mean yeah, it's funny.

Speaker 1: 56:42

Well, my partner and I, we look at each other like why didn't we buy real estate?

Speaker 2: 56:47

right, I'm a licensed I'm a licensed airplane mechanic like why didn't we just buy?

Speaker 1: 56:52

like buy an apartment building or something like, why did we do this for ourselves? But at the same time, we love it because it's the people. It's, it's the people. Our team is great. Most of our folks have been with us for seven, eight, nine, ten years now. I've seen their kids grow up. My kids have grown up. You know, it's like I don't know. I can't imagine doing anything else now. But sometimes I look at it and I look at some other folks. My goodness, I could have probably been rich.

Speaker 2: 57:22

Stuff to do here.

Speaker 1: 57:24

But it's fun, though I'm having more fun and I think they're all. They're all jealous of what we're doing too.

Speaker 2: 57:29

I mean I agree, yeah, I totally agree, cause it's I don't know. I really enjoy it and it's the working with your hands. I'm on my feet, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 57:37

Like, how many?

Speaker 1: 57:38

go through shoes like two pairs a year, you know what I mean, like how often you go through shoes like two pairs a year you know what I mean like you're just hustling it's and it's. I just enjoy it and and I always tell everyone I'm and I've, you know, worked myself now to the point where, um, it's really good and it's, I have some balance. And I get a lot of questions about the balance. How do I, how are you, how are you running a shop and you get to do a podcast and you're, you're making all this content and I'm like I have a, we have a great. It's not my team, we have a an awesome team and I'm not the boss and I don't have a boss and I'm the.

Speaker 1: 58:09

I'm the backup pizza guy and the backup driver and the backup, the backup cashier the gap filler I'm the gap filler and I get to do that you, you know, you know for a few hours a day or a few days a week, and it's great, I love it.

Speaker 2: 58:26

And I was really surprised when we scaled up to this place that like the first five weeks was probably like 80 hours a week, you know what I mean. And then after that, like the staff got their feet underneath them and then I was able to like, ok, we'll do one night when I'm not there, okay, we'll do two nights. And now like, um, I mean I mean we're only open Thursday or Wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, wednesday through Saturday and I'm only here because of the food truck. I'm only here one night a week. I try to be here more because it also makes a difference to people. Like restaurants fail a lot because the owners are not around. People think that they can just open up. I'm going to open this business and I'm going to go sit on the beach or something, and that's not like no, no, no, just because I'm not here it doesn't mean I'm not hustling.

Speaker 1: 59:09

You know what I mean? No, you gotta, you gotta be around and you gotta be available. And there's I mean there's always things to do. I'm making people like us that's also your job, so that makes it fun this has been fun. You're great. We gotta do this again. I'm gonna end the recording, but hang out, let's talk a little bit more you got it brother Nick. We didn't get to meet Brittany, but Brittany and Nick from Bricks Pizza, bricks, woodfire Pizza in Greensboro.

Speaker 2: 59:42

Goldsboro, North Carolina.

Speaker 1: 59:44

Goldsboro, north Carolina. I'm sorry about that. Go check them out on Instagram Bricks Wood Fire Pizza Facebook. They got a nice following on Facebook there. If you're ever traveling in that area, that Raleigh area, go check them out. Order some pizza from them. He's got his heart into it, so I know you're going to get a great pie. Thanks for.