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Fresh Fit Meals
423 Plays3 years ago
When times are tough, the tough find opportunity. Buying a business in the middle of a pandemic can be a dicey proposition, especially a food-based business that had already seen a 75% drop in revenue. But our guest Aaron Anderson saw potential not only for resuscitation of the business but growth and expansion, and now Fresh Fit Meals, provider of fast casual health food, is opening new stores and looking to expand the model beyond their current market.
In this episode, we talk about the process of purchasing the business, securing the funds, and early sacrifices that allowed the business the space to find its footing. Plus the value in knowing what you want to get out of your business (and it can’t just be money), the challenges of people leadership, as well as having a vision of where and how you want to grow.
For more information on Fresh Fit Meals, visit freshfitmeals.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Uncommon Life Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Everyone dreams about living an uncommon life, but how we define that dream is very different for each of us. And for most, it's a lifelong pursuit. Welcome to the Uncommon Life Project podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living that life or enjoying the journey to get there. We're going to also give you some tools, tricks, and tips for starting or accelerating your own efforts to live an uncommon life, a life worth celebrating and savoring.
00:00:30
Speaker
Please welcome your hosts, Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey.
Meet Aaron Anderson
00:00:35
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the Uncommon Life Project where I'm your host, Philip Ramsey. And I'm Brian Dewhurst. Welcome back, Be Dog. Come on. It didn't have you. It's Friday. It is, it is. We like to do our podcast on Friday. If you didn't know, we have an amazing guest with us. I want you to introduce them because we got a lot of things to cover.
00:00:54
Speaker
All right, we have the one, the only, Aaron Anderson. He grew up in Clarion, Iowa, graduated from Central College in 2016, has owned Fresh Fit Meals with his partners coming up on two years now, and we're gonna unpack his story. And for all of you that don't know, Fresh Fit Meals is fast, casual, healthy food to fit your lifestyle. So welcome to the show, Aaron Anderson. Thanks for having me.
00:01:16
Speaker
Gosh, don't you just feel good. We're in studio, which is our favorite way to podcast. I want to start out by giving a shout out to Kevin Stitsworth. That's who connected us. Oh, good old Kevin. I know. He's got us like three different podcast guests. He's doing it. He's dialing it in. What have you done for us lately? Kevin has done something. We're going to get into it. We're going to unpack. You've got a lot to unpack and a huge story that I think is going to really resonate with those people who
00:01:43
Speaker
Might be looking at maybe jumping off the proverbial bridge and trying to jump into this uncommon life we use that analogy or financial advisors that really think that you are your best asset and love that analogy because. You do have a parachute on your back but it's never easy to just stand up on top of that bridge and like jump.
00:02:02
Speaker
you've done that and not only have you done that you're thriving and then you've done that and you've also hit some adversity in the way and then you've worked through that which is basically everybody's story but we're gonna unpack yours so where do you want to start let's start there I mean I start beginning a fresh fit we might as well do that Aaron you're right let's go right there let's start there yeah
00:02:22
Speaker
So, I mean, essentially like, say, 2017, I was at Hy-Vee managing for a
Aaron's Career Journey
00:02:31
Speaker
year. Actually, first off, I was trying to sell insurance for three weeks. I did not sell a single thing of insurance. So I'm like, all right. So sales, like, I love leadership management. So everything I was looking at out of college was like, you need to know how to sell to be a leader. And flipping that script, I don't really believe in that anymore. Fast forwarding a few years.
00:02:51
Speaker
Then I went to management Hy-Vee and then LinkedIn actually brought me to FreshFit. I'm very much employee based, kind of a leader style and it's more about the employees versus myself. I made a post about that and the next thing you know I got a couple messages and one was FreshFit. So I sat down, interviewed,
00:03:09
Speaker
and got the job, so, and then I ran that store for two years. They didn't feel like they wanted to grow anymore for company-wise, or they weren't growing fast enough for my liking. I was already capped from learning and leadership, like I... Yeah, perfect ceiling there. Yeah, I was done. I couldn't make any more money. I couldn't grow anymore until we grew more stores. I was just stuck. Right. And I want to keep moving forward. So I end up actually leaving, going to Winterset Sidery with Nick and Nini Williams.
00:03:39
Speaker
and learned a lot from them and a lot about the cider business from brewing to the bar management, to the orchard, to the lawn care, which is completely out of the realm of what health food was when I was managing Fresh Fit. But some of the wisdom and principles have to be the same. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. Leadership, I think all, like it really depends on who you are as a person from that end. So who you are is really how you're going to lead. You can still kind of take, I like taking bits and pieces from everyone.
00:04:06
Speaker
I kind of make them own. That's what I try to instill in our managers today, really.
Buying Fresh Fit Meals During COVID-19
00:04:12
Speaker
Yeah, then from there, COVID happened. There's always a positive and everything, even though COVID was bad.
00:04:19
Speaker
you know, it gave us an opportunity to come in and step in and buy Fresh Fit. And that was freaking scary, let me tell ya. Because it was like the beginning of the whole pandemic, so 2020. Walked through the timing of that because I think, you know, we all can, you know, it's kind of like when the Twin Towers went down, everybody remembers kind of that pivotal moment. And, you know, spring break is where it largely hit in Central America, you know, for COVID in 2020.
00:04:46
Speaker
So kind of walk our listeners through that timing because I think making big decisions like that in the eye of that storm is pretty profound.
00:04:53
Speaker
Yeah, so it was actually, so we were flying to me and Nick. We're going to CiderCon. There's a CiderCon and it's fricking massive. Like we, me and him. Who would have thought? Yeah. It's in Indianapolis, I bet, isn't it? No, it was in Oakland. It was in Oakland. I think it was December. We're flying out there and he gets a bunch of Amex emails and he's like, COVID's not looking great over there. I don't know what's going to happen. But we ended up going to Oakland and it was fricking time of our life. It was so many fun stories with Nick and I there.
00:05:23
Speaker
That was December, get back in January. Cider season right now is kind of, fermentation's all that stuff's done. Now we're kind of getting to February, March and now it's... It's hitting. It's hitting and everything's shut down. So I'm like driving to work and there is literally no one on the road.
00:05:43
Speaker
And then by that time, you know, I was still kind of in contact with Fresh, but I never like lost contact with them. And just, I love everyone there from that end.
00:05:55
Speaker
They didn't shut down the stores as food, but the revenue from what I was used to was a quarter of what it was. Like a quarter, which they are not making money at all. Like they're putting money into it, pumping it to keep it alive. And then, you know, as March, April, that goes off March, April, May, looking at those books, like we didn't have control of it, thankfully. Probably would have sunk or had fine outside investors.
00:06:21
Speaker
which no one would have done that at that time. Right, nobody's putting money in anything. Yeah, nothing. No one's writing checks into that. So March, April, May, the previous owners that we bought it from, they had it. And then looking at August, it's kind of our timeline of when we bought it, August 1st of 2020. Looking back, I was telling my parents, I told you a little bit ago, Brian, probably March-ish,
00:06:47
Speaker
I'm like thinking about buying a house. I'm tired of kind of living apartment, white apartment. And I'm also like, man, fresh fit came for sale. I'd probably buy it. Not thinking what's going to happen the next six months. I had no idea. Right. But you are kind of in the mindset of a big purchase house. Like you're kind of like, all right, I'm ready to move on. Yeah, exactly. That's a good thought. I didn't think about that, but, um, yeah. So going into June, um, I started hearing some like little things on the wall of from Becca and John and,
00:07:17
Speaker
Angel, my three partners. Like, hey, things are kind of getting weird here. Like, you know, Matt, he was the director of Ops Refresh Fit, so it was my direct report at the time. And he's like, he's not really talking to us anymore. I heard he's transitioning to Five Star. We don't know what's going on. They're selling the corporate house in town. They're selling the vehicle. The Texas store shut down, and then my light bulb just, like, flickered. Bing! I'm like, huh.
00:07:43
Speaker
So they're getting ready to either like just kind of let it fly or sell it or just let it sink or three choices right there Yeah, right. I'm like, well, we were gonna be on the buying end of this hopefully. Yeah, and then all through this I'm like trying I'm looking at a house and then I tell my realtor or I had an offer in a house that fell through two days later this whole thing comes to fruition and
00:08:07
Speaker
It's funny, Becca's so non-confrontational and we're like, Becca, you're the manager right now. You have to tell Matt. Step up. Step up. Hey, someone wants to buy FreshFit. And she said that. And then while she's texting us, three of us on the group chat, she's like, guys, things are happening. I'm like, here we go. Oh, man. And this is middle of June right now. Right. So COVID is...
00:08:34
Speaker
It's still there, but the store is starting to rebound a little bit, just from revenue. I was still kind of watching it. People were like, I gotta get some food. I need to get out of my house. Yeah, higher percent. And then next thing you know, I jumped on a Zoom call with Brian. That's his name. And he's like, why do you want to buy it? And I'm like, this, this, and this. He's like, well, I've never sold anything to employees, but I believe you guys, I'm in Texas. There's really nothing left for me.
00:08:58
Speaker
kind of stepping away from Five Star, which is their supplement brand and stores. They have like 55, 60 of those locations. So they're big, so they don't really, not worried about a one stop store in Urbando, Iowa, and they live in Texas. So that was kind of the riding on the wall there too.
00:09:14
Speaker
And I thought this business, and now I can actually talk about this, I thought it was gonna go way, way more than what it was worth. We're gonna have to find money. This is like the first time I've ever heard that, by the way. Usually we hear this like, oh, it's gonna be way lower than what they actually proposed. It's like, oh my gosh, it's four times more than I thought it was gonna be. So this was the opposite. Opposite, complete opposite. Because he sold it to us for a deal. He's like, I wanna get rid of this. He's like, yeah. It's a win-win. Yeah.
00:09:42
Speaker
Like I don't have to worry about the stress anymore. I'm gonna sell it to you for a deal with a COVID. Like that's just what it is based on the books. This is what I feel like it's worth. I'm like...
00:09:50
Speaker
Oh, done. Where do I hit the deal button? Yeah. And then we just had to basically find a little bit of money and we were done. Wow. So how many people ended up starting with you like owning? Four of us. So for my transition, it was, I ran it for two years. I actually hired John and Becca for part-time help. Becca left to go get her dietician degree. Um, and then when I was leaving, John took over.
00:10:15
Speaker
And Angel's been there since day one, so the rafter was going up. He's basically been our chef for three, four years. Great. So the four of us, and then John was about to go back to hotel industry. He wasn't really like in running like the GM position. He's more of a marketer, which is what he does now.
00:10:30
Speaker
Forest and Becca's more direct to direct for contact for a dietitian and Consults and all that stuff like really trying to push the health and Wallace initiative one-on-one consultations and then so Becca came back in as John was leaving for management and then it all kind of like transition backward like to
00:10:50
Speaker
basically everyone kind of falling into the roles of what they're supposed to
Early Challenges and Sacrifices
00:10:53
Speaker
be in. Wow. So it all worked out. So August 1st, 2020, that's when we officially had it. So. You took it over and ran with it. Yeah. Minus the four lawyers that told me not to do it. Of course. They always count on the lawyers to tell you what to do. Not do. Nothing bad against lawyers, but. Yeah. They only tell you the potholes that you're going to run into. Correct. Never like. There's never any blue sky. No, right. Which maybe that's just what they're trained to do. I don't know. Right. So tell me how did you come up with the money?
00:11:20
Speaker
Aspect of it's like hey, it's 20. It's gonna be X amount We're just gonna divide that by four and then that's how much everybody's how did that work? So basically Brian was like hey you have to come in with So he like literally gave us this opportunity, right? He's like hey you guys need sitting game. I get it. You're young You probably don't have a ton of money. So I'll personal finance for you. I'm not meeting with bankers on the side like I
00:11:42
Speaker
Just in case. Just in case, yeah. And I'm like, how do I find money? All the bankers are telling me there's no one's going to let you have money because you haven't ran a business. I'm like, I ran this freaking thing for two years. The only thing I don't know is the P&L, which I understand because I studied finance too, and I just understand numbers better. And all the bankers are like, it's going to take you at least 60 to 90 days. I'm like, I don't have that. I have 30.
00:12:06
Speaker
And then it's like each day is trickling down. So the lawyers will make this needs to be done by X date. If it's not done, like I'm probably still signing this deal. Right. Um, it's like too good to be true. And I'm very gut instinctual and that's basically what happened. Um, so yeah, we basically came up with the money all.
00:12:23
Speaker
Well, three of us, Becca couldn't put anything yet until later, which she did. So we're all kind of equal in equity now, which is nice. Yeah. So I mean, we just came, we just had it. Um, we had, maybe had a little bit of outsourced to bring in, but it wasn't a lot. It was like 20 grand probably. But that was the, we just had to add to working capital. And that's what he asked for in a down payment. Any personal finance, everything else. Wow. So we just pay him a monthly.
00:12:47
Speaker
fee for the next, probably paid off actually this year. Wow. Um, get a little more free cashflow. Really? Yeah. Yeah. That's great. So August, 2020 it's now yours. Yeah. What's that first day look like? You walk in and be like, all right guys. Oh man. I popped the bottle of champagne. As soon as I signed that deal. Oh man. It was like,
00:13:06
Speaker
And so let's talk through, cause like the whole house thing never came to fruition, right? Like it just never came. It fell through and then this deal kind of comes. Yeah, I literally told my realtor like, hey, this might be happening. Can't really talk about it, but might be purchasing fresh fit. So sorry. He's like, cool. That's cool, dude. Oh, good. More important. Yeah. He was a customer. He's like, he understood. Yeah. So, but yeah, he was chill about it.
00:13:30
Speaker
Good. Good. Okay. So that was probably really cool kind of transition to like, okay, we're going to make this big purchase. Now I'm going to make a different purchase, but it's going to be something that's going to actually cashflow winning. And so now you're in August 2020, you pull in, champagne's popped.
Business Strategies
00:13:48
Speaker
Yeah. And so this is what's crazy. So the business itself was not really making a lot of money yet.
00:13:54
Speaker
So we just kept everyone inside the store a salary. And I was, so, Becca, Angel, and our staff at the time, they didn't like lose any money, like they stayed. I was not taking any money for business. So I was still not on salary, and I was still working full-time with the cidery. Oh, wow. So here I am.
00:14:11
Speaker
And I didn't tell Nick Garnini any of this before, like probably three days prior to like, hey, it's going to happen. Right. I didn't, I didn't know. It's not worth it. Yeah. I didn't know how they'd react. At the end of the day, they were super happy for me and I've honestly, knowing them, I should have expected that more so. And they probably would have helped me through a lot of this stuff.
00:14:26
Speaker
as they just purchased the cidery literally a year before. But you don't know what's gonna happen. Kind of protect yourself a little bit. Yeah, that's exactly what I was doing. And I lost my train of thought there. So you were working for cidery. Yeah, cidery. So I was doing both for October until, what was my last day?
00:14:49
Speaker
probably like October 17th, middle of October. And I still was not taking any money. And so then I basically just cut myself a really small salary and floated all the way until January and that's when we can basically really start paying me a
00:15:03
Speaker
Not a good salary, but a moderate, just a livable one, essentially. So I was pumping in between the cidery and fresh fit, probably 190 to 100 hours a week, like easy. Holy cow. Like I'd go to the cider during the day, come back, work at night, a fresh fit, or in the morning early. I was grinding. It was a grind.
00:15:21
Speaker
It's interesting though, like the sacrifice that you made probably made the business in itself way more like stable. You know what I'm saying? Like if you would have been like, no, I need to, I need to make a hundred grand. It's not going to work. It's going to probably sink. But the fact that you sacrificed and did that to job situation, full, full-time jobs, uh, is the reason why like in January, it was like, Oh wow, we've got something here. Like it's starting to turn around.
00:15:48
Speaker
Yeah, which is exactly what happened. I mean, November, December, for like our industry in general, for meal prep and health, it slows way down. Nothing good happens in December with your finances and your diet. Just throw those out the window. Yeah, gone. Yeah, so that's essentially what happened.
00:16:06
Speaker
January is like cool. We're off the races and kind of start getting in there and like focusing on things and then we're recommitted and yeah, yeah Yep, and then actually our biggest time of the year is spring. So like March people may like we're getting ready to like bathing suits. Yeah Exactly. Let's talk about that I think it's a good time a good segue to start talking about the actual product because what I think is cool and especially you know You know, you have a new dietitian on port just the blood sugar level that doesn't peak I'd like to hear that
00:16:34
Speaker
part of it, just because I think it's such a cool sales, a perfect opportunity for you to talk about the product. Because when I heard that, I was like, oh wow, this is actually legit. Okay, so let's go there. Yeah, so with what we do is just healthy meal prep. So when you walk inside the store, you're going to see over 40 meal options, basically. Grab and go, 90 second meals, you're done.
00:16:56
Speaker
So really the science behind it is we're trying to hit all low glycemic and a lot of gluten-free items. So glycemic index is where it spikes your blood sugar, so your A1C3 levels essentially. People that are diabetic, they don't want that number to go sky high. So you'll never get tired after eating. So if you think of Thanksgiving as you're eating all these mashed potatoes, your turkey, you get really tired and your body gets a little cold. And everyone talks about for the turkey. It ain't the turkey. It's not the turkey. It ain't the turkey. It's all the food you're stuffing in your stomach.
00:17:23
Speaker
So your blood sugar levels are going through the roof because your body's trying to basically process it. Your body gets really cold because all your blood's rushing to your stomach and you get tired afterward. So if you had a big meal or eat something super sugary, you crash an hour after, it's because your blood sugar spiked. Our food is designed to keep it steady. So you never crash. And again, about three or four hours, you're probably going to be a little hungry again, which is the thought process and premise behind it. You don't want to overeat, you want to eat right amount.
00:17:50
Speaker
So this whole carb commentation, I gotta get this out of there. Carbs aren't bad for you, 100% not bad. You need them, and that's how your body processes this. You can go on the keto diet and go all day on that stuff too. The keto diet's not great. Another podcast. Another podcast. But this is all for you. The meal has already been prepped. And what I like about it is they're not super expensive. No.
00:18:12
Speaker
They're about $8 a piece. That's like affordable with inflation and everything now. I think we're going to be an $8 gas here if we're not careful. We will not raise, I'm very firm on not raising this price. We raised them a little bit when we took over just to counteract some things we're doing. Absolutely. At this point, we're like,
00:18:33
Speaker
So I was looking at averages of nationwide, what, what everyone else is doing. We were probably two or three dollars below the nation average. Now we're probably like a dollar, which is perfect. Still right. Yeah. And I don't want to raise the price unless we actually have to, if we don't, so we can survive if we need to. So where was the location back in 2020? Urbandale. Urbandale. Okay.
00:18:54
Speaker
And then that's the place that makes the food? Yep. So we'll have a kitchen and be like a hub and spoke model. So we'll actually open an Ankeny store here in 2022, um, in spring. So probably within two to three months, actually literally probably five blocks from here. It'd be really good because this could be good for Brian and I swing on over. Yeah. Go to Jimmy John's Brian. Don't go to Jimmy John's. Very cool.
00:19:17
Speaker
And then so that'll be your second location and then Ankeny and then like, what's your trajectory? Like, where are we going? What's fresh fit going to be?
00:19:29
Speaker
We want a lot of things. I really want to kind of go more of a Midwest, our LLC name is Midwest Meal Prep. So we really want to kind of hit all the Midwest areas. So your Minnesota, your Illinois, your Nebraska. The I-35, I-80 corridor. Correct. Yeah. Nice. So if we hit all of that, that'd be awesome. So we're still kind of, there's a lot of work to be done to see what we can do with just a hub and spoke model is about another kitchen or we have to do a centralized kitchen. There's a lot of,
00:19:56
Speaker
in our works in that, or do we franchise, do we not franchise? Yeah, there's a lot of. Yeah, what do you want to do? Who's helping you through those decisions? Because there are some big decisions that you can make. Thankfully, there's partners. So we all kind of have to agree on certain aspects of it and kind of where we want to go. Well, when we got into it, there's a few things that we all talked about first. It was, okay, what do we want from this?
00:20:20
Speaker
We want to help people. That was the first thing. Cool. We're not in it for the money. We are, but aren't. That should never be the overarching principle. If you're in it for the money, you're in it for the wrong reasons. What's the byproduct? Yeah, byproduct. 100%. So if you're doing good, you're going to get rewarded by doing good. And that was our thought process. And then the second piece was how big do we want to grow this thing? 50, 60, 70 stores. You want to blow it up. We want to help people and change their lives. It's just our goal.
00:20:43
Speaker
Right, because the more stores and locations you can open, the more people you can help. Correct. Yeah, they're byproduct. Byproduct. So that was the overall process.
Leadership and Management Insights
00:20:52
Speaker
And so as we kind of teeter down the line, I mean, over the next few years, we'll see what happens. But probably 2023, we'll let both stores just kind of run and just see how it goes. 2024 is probably when we'll start really attacking everything. Growing, right.
00:21:08
Speaker
So just let it sit for a little bit and just understand the operations. Because in growing, there's a scaling issue too, right? And I'm sure that you've faced some adversity up to this point. Like it's not all just canned cupcakes and rainbows. So let's talk through some of those transitions and how did you get through those of like, hey, we've hit like, we've hit an obstacle. How do you then transfer into the obstacle and then trying to overcome it? Does that make sense? Yeah.
00:21:35
Speaker
Yeah, so a lot of our obstacles is one, food on the shelf, and two, people, people are always obstacles. People are always obstacles. Brad's like, yes, amen. Yeah, they are. But they're also your most important asset. All right, there you go. It's difficult. There you go, Aaron. But it's not like, I can't control you, you can't control me. It's that piece in trying to work through people and let them understand the vision and process of everything. Beautiful, it's beautiful. But it's difficult.
00:22:02
Speaker
probably the hardest piece. I always tell, you know, why, this is the part of the best analogies. Why do the people that are managing make the most money?
00:22:13
Speaker
because they're dealing with people all day. And if you can control people and not really control them, but like get them to do what you want them to do and leave them in the mission that you're trying to do, that's why they make the most money in the day, because it's the hardest piece about business. It's numbers, easy operations, whatever, people freaking hard. Yes. Hard. But it's great too, right? Yeah.
00:22:34
Speaker
It is. There's a big camaraderie, like when we do our Christmas party or I'll probably start doing like quarterly parties, stuff like that with a team just getting together. It's a blast. It's a lot of fun. There's nothing better than getting everyone together and having a good time. Right, because you have a common goal if you're all. Exactly. So cool.
Logistics and Delivery Services
00:22:51
Speaker
But yeah, so food on the shelf, that's probably the biggest obstacle right now. Gotta have stuff to buy.
00:22:56
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Like Thursday, Friday, our shelves get depleted, which is good as we try to do a zero waste method. So we don't have a ton of waste unless there's just no storm and it kind of throws off the numbers and powers. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, we are absolutely destroyed. Like we had 250 people in the store Sunday. Wow. Getting ready for the week. Yeah, getting ready for the week. And then Monday, we, I was, this is a really bad, bad week. So, um,
00:23:22
Speaker
Wasn't it on Sunday? I just want to see how it would go. Sometimes you have to like kind of... Let's just see what happens. Not the best decision. Learned a little bit from that but also cool. I had to be up at 4.30 in the morning on Monday and I needed to be in the kitchen and start prepping or not prepping. I don't cook anything but plating everything to get it on the shelf.
00:23:41
Speaker
And we played at 1200 meals in six hours. Wow. And their shelves were full by noon. So, but we were all hands on deck. Yeah, it was, we had 25% of our inventory on the shelf. Wow. So going into Monday morning, which is another freaking crazy day. Right. So that that's our biggest test right now. So it's getting probably honestly more people in on Sunday, prepping a little bit more.
00:24:03
Speaker
working a little bit faster, jumping in there. So, been in the kitchen a lot lately. Not a horrible problem to have either. No, no. And the fact that you'd have a solution, no, it's probably not the forever solution, sustainable solution, but you guys aren't shipping then. It's all kind of like the Papa Murphy's type. Yeah, we'll do local delivery. We have a guy, Peter, he does all of our delivery stuff. So we pay him, we eat the delivery cost. So I don't want to have people pay for delivery, but it's an $80 minimum within a 50 mile radius right now.
00:24:34
Speaker
So basically they'll order online delivery, he'll come in and get them at three o'clock, out the door they go, deliver at your doorstep from three to eight p.m. and done. Wow. So. It's very cool. And how far out can you, like, because I, you know, the fresh fit, there's no preservatives, you know, this isn't like a lean cuisine. Yeah. You know, how long do your meals kind of last or, you know, what's kind of the shelf life? Like, can I buy six days out? Is that?
00:25:00
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, typically four to six days the shelf life of it. We'll have the dates on the side of the package, soon to be on the label. And that's really, I mean, it's fresh food. I mean, people do freeze them. I won't say they don't. We're not gonna personally freeze them, but you can freeze them.
00:25:14
Speaker
So I have people that come in and grab 20 and they're like, we're just gonna freeze these for the next couple weeks. Cool, go for it. If your decision isn't today, it may not taste as well, but everyone else says that it tastes good, just the same. So it's like, cool. Yeah, you do you. Just keep buying them. Yeah, that's fine. It's still helping people, so it's cool.
Reflections and Advice
00:25:34
Speaker
What do you think the biggest thing that you've learned, or what would you tell your younger self before you got into this? What would you be like? If you could sit down in a room, you have three minutes, what would you say? Wow. Be patient and stay true to yourself. That's really, don't change. I mean, that's really what it is. Yeah. I mean, I've probably,
00:26:01
Speaker
been the same person mentally as I'm looking back. This is what's weird. Growing up, this is a fun side story. Growing up, you probably looking back now, you're like, oh, now that makes sense why my brain was ticking that way. That's where I am at now. It's super strange. Growing up, I would have
00:26:21
Speaker
this army thing, but I'd always be in front kind of leading my friends. And then I'd always have like a store shop and I'd be the person in the shop. And now it's like looking back, I'm like, that's a little bit weird. Cause literally what I'm doing now. So that was when I was like eight or nine years old, 20, 27, I was 28 now. But like looking back on that, it's like, yeah, just stay true to yourself and be patient. I mean, that's literally at the end of the day, what it is, don't change.
00:26:46
Speaker
How are your parents or your support system and all this? Because I mean, you're a young guy. To go and just buy it off of business in your 20s is no joke. Yeah. So my mom is very supportive. My dad's a little more pessimistic. So we butt heads a little bit every now and then, and I'm very optimistic. So they're always going to be supportive. They always tell me, always supportive of what you do with your life. We don't care what you do. Just go do it. Have fun. It's your life. So that's kind of my
00:27:16
Speaker
and selling myself too, and just like go have fun, do what you want to do, like that's your life at the end of the day. But they're super supportive, so they have no, they're happy for me. It's huge to have a support system. Yeah, you need it. What would you say to somebody who's like going to the proverbial bridge, looking over and thinking like, oh man, because I think. We're talking about starting a business. Starting a business, yeah, that's a really good plug there, Brian. He's throwing it out there. Because I think the, that's good.
00:27:45
Speaker
I think the notion is to be like, wow, with conditions the way they are in the world, with my circumstances the way they are, probably not the best time to buy a business.
00:27:55
Speaker
What I love about you is COVID, like they ain't nobody's buying businesses and you ain't nobody's going to give you any money either. You know, so like there was, it probably wasn't the most ideal like book answer to buy a business, although maybe emotional time to buy a business, maybe the book answer actually really is. Does that make sense? And so what would you say to that person who's just leaning in to say like, Oh, is this a good time? Is it not a good time? What's happening in the economy? There's a little, little, little, you know, all the ways they get in their head. What advice would you give them?
00:28:23
Speaker
Well, I had four lawyers tell me not to buy the business. And I was like, it's not your money.
00:28:28
Speaker
basically like better words. Write the deal, write the deal up. Just do it. You're working for me and you're not like, like. Because you can always go find a job. I mean, you had a good job. You know, you're making stuff. And I think too, the other side of it, I love with your stories, it's food, you know? Yeah. Like people gotta eat, more people are eating out than they are in, you know? I think the data suggests that. And, you know, at the end of the day, it's not like you're selling, you know, widgets from China, you're selling fresh food, you know? Literally. So.
00:28:57
Speaker
Okay, honestly, I just jump. I mean, you gotta have a calculator risk. Like for me going into it, I already knew how to operate it and operate the store and run the store. I did it for two years and I grew it 30% from just doing that and not having control of the money.
00:29:14
Speaker
So I had a little bit of a head start on a lot of people, like just maybe start from the ground up. But still, same principle, you just gotta do it and kind of grind away. There's gonna be good days, there's gonna be bad days, there's gonna be frustrating days. There's gonna be days where you just wanna lay in your bed all day, which I have those days. I do, I'm like, I do not wanna get up, I'm not gonna move.
00:29:34
Speaker
See you guys. Yeah. Talk to you tomorrow. Right. Cause I'm naturally introverted too. So it's, when I hit, I hit my threshold of social limit and talked about 80 people a day. I learned that yesterday and the day before I'm talking 70 or 80 customers. You're tapped out. I'm tapped. I'm done. I'm getting annoyed, frustrated. Like, yeah, it just, that's who I am. So I'm always embraced that piece, but.
00:29:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's good. Just do it. It's funny because you do take, and this is something that Brian and I do, and we own a business called the Uncommon Wealth Partners, and what we do is we don't just let somebody just jump off and start down this uncommon path unless we see that the history that they've had is leading up to this point. Does that make sense? Yeah, it's perfect. You have done this. You have this experience. You have this. It's not like, and I'm going to go open a miniature golf.
00:30:27
Speaker
You don't have no, like you've only done that once, you know? So there is something about your past that's super powerful that gives you and equips you for the future endeavors and activities that you're gonna do. So what I love about you, especially that little story of like, I was always the guy in the shop selling things. Literally. I play like, we would call it like Star Wars shop and so I'd be like someone in Star Wars widgets or friends and like,
00:30:52
Speaker
But it ends up being more of a calculated risk, right? Because you were working at FreshFit, then you went to the cider business, and then you knew how to kind of apply all those stuff. And even before that, the Hy-Vee situation of just managing people. That's where I learned how to manage. Right. Like a little bit. But I learned...
00:31:09
Speaker
tooth and nail how to manage, get people to do what you want them to do, and first off is getting them to trust you. Absolutely. And so all this stuff has now led you to where you're at now, which then makes the sky the limit, and every day you get to go do what you love to do.
Conclusion and Future Outlook
00:31:23
Speaker
Reason why you're on the show. Don't you know? Okay, what's your closing thoughts about anything? You can say anything. Closing thoughts about anything. Can't wait for this, actually. Man, put me in a tough spot here, Philip.
00:31:38
Speaker
Closing thoughts would probably say, you know, you know, just say my sweatshirt be relentless, but really it's just get after it. Honestly, like go do what you want to do. Don't be scared and jump really. Right. That's what you got to do if you want to see successes to find different ways. But for me, success is kind of doing what I want when I want and helping people.
00:32:03
Speaker
So whatever your definition of success is, go do that. Go do it. Gosh, such a good glove. Don't really have anything else to say. Uh, I'm so grateful you took time to hang out with us. I'm also excited just to see where your business goes. Keep serving people. You're doing such a good job, not only serving the people around you, but also leading the team. Uh, and so it's encouraging for me just to see how young you are and what you're creating. Cause it's going to be awesome.
00:32:28
Speaker
Aaron, if people want to learn more, how do they find you guys? Yeah, so you can go to freshatmeals.com. That's everything on the website. And yeah, that's pretty much it. And everything's on there. So we'll stop at the store on Hickman or Ink Community Open here. Come say hi. Get a meal. Or 10. I'm not too shy. Or 20. Or 20. Be healthy. Right.
00:32:50
Speaker
All right, well, thanks for your time. You've enlisted the Uncommon Life Project. I've been your host, Philip Ramsey. And I'm Brian Dewhurst. Tune in until next time. Enjoy your life. Go be uncommon. And just jump. Let's go. Thanks, everybody. Goodbye. That's all for this episode of the Uncommon Life Project, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.