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Tony Smith Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: My next guest. Uh, excited about it? I read it.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I read an article about my next guest in the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Triple A magazine of Texas. Triple A stands for the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: American Automobile Association, and their magazine feature stories about local
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: businesses in Texas. The business that Triple A magazine feature
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: was Jarvis Boards, a surfboard company based in Austin, Texas,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and his owner is an African American. Please welcome to
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: moneymaking Conversations. The owner of Jarvis Boards, Tony Smith. Thank
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you for having me, Tony. How are you doing, my friend,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I'm doing great. Thank you for having me on. Oh yeah, Well,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I've been a member of Triple A for about what
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: it's about eighty five? Could I be used to be
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a road comic? And so I always on the road,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: so I knew I need to Triple A just case
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: my car broke down. So I've been an avid reader,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: uh and receiving the Triple A magazine on a monthly basis,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: And I came across your article and I felt your
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: story is compelling because of the fact that you're venturing
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: as an entrepreneur in an environment that one would consider
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: that shouldn't be an environment you should venture into. But
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I wanted to tell your story because one, you are Houstonian.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Let's get that out. Because I'm a Houstonian by the way.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah it's funny. Um. You know, I grew up in Houston,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: and everybody at my parents church and neighborhood back in
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Acres Homes in Houston came over and saw us in
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Triple A magazine and they're all excited to shoot my
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: parents and talk to my parents about it. Um. So
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: that that that piece of press has been been great
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: for us. And it was a conduit that and that
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: you and I, which is exciting absolutely. Uh. Acre's home
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: was on the north side of Houston, as the mayor
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: of Houston is from Acre's home. Just let you know,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: as a pretty thriving community. Um. From philp War Texas
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: in Houston and uh two communities MoMA like in the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: kind of like in the heart of Houston. And now
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: what school did you go to college? Uh? Uh So
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I went to Trinity University uh in San Antonio, and
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: then would would come up to to Austin, Texas to
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: go rock climbing all the time and just kind of
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: fell in love with the outdoor lifestyle and Austen and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: moved to Austin and begin my career in finance in
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: two thousands fives. Okay, now let's just talk about rock climbing. Okay, Now,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: you know, we gotta be honest. This is I'm African American.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: African American. Okay, rock climbing, boards, surfing out there in
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the water. That's not what we will typically assume an
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: African American do. Correct that that's correct, and that's uh.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: That's one of the driving forces for me personally for
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the company Vision company brand and why I'm so avid about,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: you know, pushing the sport and and pushing Jervis boards
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: is you know this, this African American experience doesn't have
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: to be a narrow path of of of activities. Um
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: with with a lot more people adventuring outdoors and rock climbing, surfing,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: pider boarding, all of those are just fun, great athletic
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: activities that are enjoyable, um that I enjoyed personally, and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I want, you know, when when my kids twenty thirty
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: years old, for people to not be having the conversation saying, oh,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that's not a not an African American thing, or you know,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: black people don't don't do X y Z UM. You know,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I want to be on sort of that leading edge
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: if you will, Well, you're on the leading edge. I'm
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: let you know that I'm acting like you're not on
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the leading edge. You're all on the edge, my friend.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: And it's funny when I when I told my mom
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: that I wonder if to start a company building paddle board,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: She's like, what's the paddle board? But talk talked to
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: my listeners and educate them or exactly what your company does, yees.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: So Jarvis Boards, what we do is we bill stand
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: up paddle boards UM. But specifically our stand up poddle
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: boards are made out of wood, so they have a
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: really high end unique look with a lot of them
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: being customizable with different graphics logos. You know, we've build
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: UH boards for a number of celebrities and UM athletes,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: UH and and CEOs of companies and so they'll customize
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: them with with whatever detail or logo they like. UM
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: and that's what really makes us unique. One. You know,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: our boards are made in the States here in Austin,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Texas too, they're customizable and three UH they're made out
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: of wood, so they have this really premium, high end look. Um.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: As far as poddle boarding as a sport, you know,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: it's the fastest growing water sport in the country. Um,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: that's just exploded in popularity in the last nine ten years.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: That can be enjoyed, you know at the ocean, surfing,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: inland lakes and rivers for fishing. Um, you can do yoga,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: just hang out and relax. A lot of our poddle
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: boards that we sell we put in cup holders so
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: you can just hang out on the water and have
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: a nice cold one for yourself as you like going
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: too far my friend. Now, let's let's as a give
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: you a little bit more impatible paddle board and you're
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: standing up correct and then you got you got this
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: long paddle and you go on left right and moving yourself.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: So people need to know you kind of need to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: be in prepared to stand a lot. You know when
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: you pad the board all right, that's right. Um, you know,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: think of it as like a giant surfboard. Uh, And
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: a lot of people see it and they're intimidated. On
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: my Instagram, I have a story that I did, uh
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: when Bruce Bowen came up. He's an NBA spur retired.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Now he came up and boarding and unfortunately three times
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: taken out and go pidle warning for the program. Joe, Um, yeah,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: can hear me? All right, Tony, I want to let
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you know, let's let's back up a little bit on
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: this Jarvis board and Bruce Bournes. Okay, let's let's really
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: multi fact Jarvis bolls Okay, Bruce Boyd he kind of
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: like to say he was. This guy was saying to
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: tell you three times NBA Defensive Player of the Year
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: for the San Antonio's board. Let's give using them HiPE now, Tony, Okay,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: you know jobs boy, you know I read about your article.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: He's a big deal now because he kind of threw
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: my thoughts. He's bilingual. You know it's Bruce board is
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a bad boy. Okay, came up to your shop now,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I'm just sending it. Came up to Jarvis Boards. So
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: let's set the tone that three time NBA defensive player
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: that you came to your location. Yep, yep, that's right.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: And and I'll add he was absolutely the coolest, most
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: laid back down the earth guy that you can you
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: can imagine, Um, you know, you just talking to him,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: you would never think he's three times you know, NBA
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: defensive player. Like he was just so down the earth
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and cool and laid back and funny that it was
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: just you know, like taking out anybody else to go
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: piddle boarding for the first time. But but but we, uh,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: you know, go out and he's he's a he's a
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: big beaut he's tall, he's a little bit nervous, but
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: you know, he's an athletic and uh, you know, he's tense.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: And he gets on the board and I give him
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: a few five ten minute tutorial We hop on, he
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: starts baddling, and then you know, by the by the
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: first hour, he's cracking jokes and we're having a good time.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: So one of the cool things about the sport is
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: how accessible it is for wide range of people and
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: athletic types. Right. So I've sold boards too. You know,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite customers here and in Austin, Texas.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: This was my early early days when I was just
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: getting started, still working my day job in finance, but
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: she bought one of my boards. Are actually our husband
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: bought it for as a retirement gift. Um. She's a
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: grandmother of six. I think she was like sixty seven
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: years old at the time and just a sweet older lady.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: And uh, we still send each other Christmas cards. You
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: know that that's one of the the cool things about
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the sport is making those personal connections and and and
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: engaging with people and learning their stories and being able
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: to build a physical, tangible product that they can love using.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: And absolutely absolutely the the the thing that they're really
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: excited me about getting you on the show. And thank
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: you for taking the time to come on the show.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I'm speaking to Tony Smith. He's based in Austin, Texas.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: He's the owner of Jarvis Boards is. Uh, the paddle
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  Speaker 1: boards is which is a growing sport and um and
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: aldoor adventure entertainment. And so the thing that you you
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: made a decision to go into this tell everybody how
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: you got started, because you started out building the canoe, correct,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: and then then this evolved into this. See you just
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: had that that the natural instinct to work with your hands,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and it started with a canoe. Yeah, so it even
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: really starts, um, you know before then uh, and you know,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: I do a little bit of homework about you, and
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: you're sort of the unconventional story of of you know,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: IBM to to leaving that day job to focus on
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: your passion of you know, stand up media, and um,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: my road is a little bit similar. You know. Growing
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: up in Houston, my dad had a construction company, and
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: so we grew up in the family business doing stuff
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: with our hands all the time, you know, uh, restoring
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: cars and building model rockets and just all sorts of
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: hands on just building stuff. You know, absolutely loved it.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Went away. I got a degree in finance. Um, I'm
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: not really sure why I did that. Did that, and
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: you know, I was working in finance for about ten
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: years or so, and I worked for a number of
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: big asset managers and had great stable careers there. But
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: there was just that teeth missing right of of building things,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and that entrepreneurial bug and entrepreneurial spirit just kind of
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't there. And a little bit on a whim, I
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: bought a how to guys for building wooden canoes, and uh,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: I just said, and that's cool, I want to I
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: want to build that. And I had never made a
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: canoe and built this wood canoe. How do you start
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: building a canoe? Now you have to build a big
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: old tree. I just love talking to you because you
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: just blow pass all the facts. You know, this guy
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: from standing to tell yo, Bruce boy, and he came
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: up and I told now, I bought a book or
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: how to Build a Canoe? Well you know that the bookstore,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: and though the picture of the wood canoe that looked cool,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, I think I can build that.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: I'm going to try it. And so it was as
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: much of anything goes a personal challenge. And of course
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: my friends made fun of me. They're like, you know
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: you list for three other books. Um, but uh, you know,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to challenge myself, like learning new life skills,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and and said, let me do this as an afterwork
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: stress reliever. And you know, I had no inkling that
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: this was going to become a career or a business
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: or any of that. Is just I'm just always learning
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: and doing new things. So I built this canoe and
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I just fell in love with the process of building
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: it and seeing something physical and tangible come to life.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: How did you build the canoe? Okay? How yes, how
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: did you the canoe? Uh? Step? Step by step? So
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: you just start with some raw pieces of wood and
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: you and you cut them down under these thin one
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: it's strips and you glue each strip of the canoe together.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: It takes about three or fours to build it, and uh,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: you know it, to my surprise, Ay, it floated and
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: be it looks pretty cool. Um. But you know, on
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: that first voyage on the canoe, it's almost uh just
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: for shouting. But on that first wards on the canoe,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: I take it out and my wife is standing on
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: the shore. She wouldn't get in the thing because you
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: know what if it didn't float. And I get in
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the canoe and there's all these people paddle boarding that
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: are planning and looking at me saying, oh my god,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: that's the coolest looking thing I've ever seen. And right
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: there it clicked in my head. What if I could
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: translate this level of excitement about the wood look of
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: my canoe into this fat, this growing sport, a standard
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: piddle boarding. Hey, Tony, hold that, hold that though, Tony,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: We're gonna be back with more. Tony. You know, he
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: built the canoe. He's hanging out with basketball superstars. He
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: don't he don't mind. He's just a laid back dude.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: We enjoy. If you enjoy money making conversation, come on back.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: If you don't, come on back, because I got some
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: information for you to know. Hi, this ra Sean McDonald.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: You're listening to money making conversations on the phone. I
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: have a he's from Houston. Acre's home in Houston, Texas.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I'm from Houston, Texas. So I got a fellow Houstonian
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: on the phone. But he's based in Austin, Texas. He
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: has a company, a paddle board company, UH called Jarvis Boards,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: is based in Austin, Texas. He's a got his degree
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: in finance. He walked away from the world, the corporate
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: world that I walked away. I was formerly I was
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: formerly employed at IBM, and I decided to walk away
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: and pursue my aspirations as a to be a comedian
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: and which you lading entertain which leading the production opportunities
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: as well as management opportunities. So Tony, I got you
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: on the phone. We have to well, let's let's recap
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: your story. Okay, Rashauna came from Maker's Home, went to
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Trinity University, got my degree in finance. When he played
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the corporate world, corporate world. Then I didn't really know
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: what I want to do. Then all of a sudden,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I saw this book on canoeing. How to build your
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: own canoe. You had three hours to throw away. You
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: had that kind of time on your hands because you
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: wanted to relieve the stress. And you built this canoe
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: that your wife refused to join in on your maiden forge.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: But everybody in the water said, wow, that's hot. So
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: did the So that's when the light bulb popped in
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: your head and you said money, money, money, money, or
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: you just said I'm just the coolest doing in the water.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Which one was it? Uh? My mom, I started to
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: be the coolest dude the water. You know, it started real,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: real slow. It was in my garage working on these
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: cattle boards because you know, the first tttle wards there
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: is no how to book the build one out of wood, right,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: so I'm making it up as I go, And my
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: neighbors would see me out that working late at night,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and um, you know, you know, asked me, hey, what
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: are you doing. I'm like, I'm building a wood tattle board.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: And you know, sometimes like Le's quoted by one what
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: company is it? And Jarvis is my middle name, and
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: you know, Tony's kind of boring, and um, and I
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: didn't want to name it smith Boards, and so I
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: just went with Jarvis boards and uh just kind of
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: started making them out of my personal garage and selling
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: them and just kind of went from there. Okay, now
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: these are handcrafted. So how did you just the price point?
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: How did you develop the price point? And exactly how
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: long is it palaboard? And how why is it paltable? Yeah,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: so to to get points, they are the cheapest ones
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: that we make are going to be about seventeen hundred
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: or so. Uh and we've sold boards over four thousand
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: dollars to pick well, I take it back. The most
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: expensive ones were sold for about fifteen grand UM at
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the Maui jam Invitational Basketball tournament last year as part
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: of a Raffle charity donation that we've done. But most
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: of them ranging price from about seventeen hundreds of four
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: brands UM. As far as size there there think of
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: it as like a big surfboard, so anywhere from about
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: nine ft to twelve feet long. So you're gonna you know,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: put them on top of the roof rack of your
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: car or at a boat dock or something like that
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: that that you can use to paddle around. So is
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the wood is what is the wood process that makes
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: your surfboard I mean, are your paddle boards unique. Yeah,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: that's that's a big component of it. So I didn't
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: know this getting into the industry, but most of the
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: brands that you see out there in the paddle board
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: and surfboard space are made by only a handful of
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: big maga factories overseas, and they just put different brand
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: stickers on them. Um. So to speak, ours are all
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: made here in the States, here in Austin, Texas. UM.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: And what immediately catches your eye is the would look
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of it, and more importantly, what we do with the
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: would so we can do different designs and layouts. UM. So,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: like we did one that had an American flag on it,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: skull and cost bones. Um. We're building one now for
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: a guy that was born in South Carolina. So we're
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: doing the outline of like the South Carolina state flag
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: and you know, a bunch of things sort of telling
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: his life story, if you will. UM. And so we're
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: able to customize them so that they're sort of functional
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: pieces of art. UM. We have a lot of people
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: that that gift the gifts them as presence, which has
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: been really fun unique. So you know, we just shipped
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: one out to a guy in Arizona for his wife's
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: fifty at birthday, which is coming up this week. Hopefully
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: she's not listening and we're not rooting the sprice. Um.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: But it's really cool. But you know because we get
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: to almost feel like I have this extended family if
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: you will, around the world of these people that we've
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: built these these hand crafted boards for that that we
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: know their personal story and have that sort of connection
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: with it, if you will. Now, I got to go
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: to the big question to be in a minority in
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the outdoor business. Talk to us about that story also,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: is I think credibility has to has will fall into
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: that conversation or how would you how could you do
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: this type of sport because there are stereotypes that you
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: have to overcome correct. Yeah, it's um, it's a challenge, um,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: and a lot of it I will admit as a
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: personal challenge and a personal struggle, you know it. Really,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I would get struck with this all the time of
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm just a black food from make homes, Like,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: who do I think I am? That I can go
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: out and charge twice what other people are charging for
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: these wood paddle wars and it's gonna work, you know,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: like it's just such an insane story that there's this
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: black guy and landlocked off in Texas. That's building you know,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: some of the nicest paddle wars in the world. UM.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: And so I struggled with that, uh personally, UM, you
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: know sort of do I belong? Do I fit? And
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: so that sort of drives me to personally to be
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: the best that we can and make the company the
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: best that we can. So it's almost undeniable if you will, um,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: you know, just make that the products sort of above
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: and beyond UM. And it's it's a challenge and it's
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: a it's a motivating factor for me to So it's
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: just sort of be present in the sports that has
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: very very little minority representation, UM to hopefully change that
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: and move that needle forward so that the next generation
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: of kids coming up c O. Wait, black people do gotten, sir.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: If they do piddle boards, they rock climb, all these
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: things or or activities that that you know with them
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: with are within the realm of possibility for for them
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: to go out and do, which is really important to understand.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: You know, where I'm at today is always uh on
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: my show, I always peel off a little bit more
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: information about who I am to my staff because they
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: don't really know me. They know what they know me currently,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: but this show allows me to talk about my past
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: a little bit. And so because when you create a
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: pass that allows you to you know, because you're you're
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: proud of where you came from across home, You're proud
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: of the fact that your finance person. But all that
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: allows you to have a level of communication because you
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: have that degree. So there's respect there. Okay, your your
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: goal oriented person. You know how to start a task
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and complete a task. That's one of the strong benefits
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: that you have to take hold of. The reason I
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: brought you on the show was because I feel that
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: you're just a super talented person who who decided to
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: play against the odds. Everybody likes to play is safe,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: and playing the safe tends to not leave you two
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: forward thinking and so you're fod thinking guy going why
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: can't why not? Why can't I do that? And so
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: that's why this is part uh part supporting you from
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: our mentorship standpoint, because that's all I'm doing on this
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: show and measuring people, let them know that they can
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: continue to do your dream, continue to plan, continue to
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: believe that you can be successful, but also promotion. How
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: do you promote your brain? Yeah, so a lot of
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: what we do on the promotion side, you know, we
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: get a lot of earned media, I think because it
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: is such an insane story, UM, which is is great uh,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: social media, UM, it's been a big driver force email
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: marketing UM. And then just just word of mouth. You know,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: people will discover us and say, you won't believe this
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: thing that I got, and then they go show it
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: off and tell their friends and the you know, their
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: friends get jealous and and and want to buy one.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: So those have really been big catalyst for us and
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: and good drivers of of us UM. You of being
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: able to grow and build a brand UM. And then
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: just the cool connection with you know, taking people like
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: goose Bow and paddle boarding. Now would say, you know,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: it's always a self promotion of teying yourself to CAMPAIGNE
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: did did generate interests into your product? Okay, when is it?
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: When are you going to have the first Javish Boards
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: paddle board race in Austin, Texas? You know, I don't
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: know if we will do a race. That's something that
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: we thought about. What we have done a good bit
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: of that's been a win when. UM that I appreciate
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: personally is uh tying ourselves to charitable events and causes. Um,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: either loaning boards out for you know, we've done some
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: river clean up things here, or donating a customized board. Um,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Like I said, we were with the Maui Jam Invitation
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: excuse me basketball tournament in Hawaii. Um, and you know
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: we donated some boards and that calls and got a
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: little bit of ESPN coverage and UM, you know I
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: was able to meet J. Billis and hang out with
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Bill Walton and that sort of stuff, which is is
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: great because we raised you know, thirty thousand knowledge in
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: the Maui Food Bank. But it's also great for Jarvis
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Boors because Tony Smith throws our games. He just throws
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: our names, not listening. The power of the relationship. J.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Billis is the college basketball voice for ESPN. Bill Walton
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy seven led Portland Trail Baylors to the
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: NBA Championship and also led the Boston Celtics to an
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: NBA championship and is an NBA Hall of Famer. He is, yeah,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: and again he was just so down the earth and
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: so cool, you know, he met with him in the ESPN,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: came into tell him and all that stuff, and I
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: probably spent a good fifty minutes just chatting with him,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: like you know anybody else, um and uh yeah, just
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: a cool guy. You're a cool guy, Tony. I'm gonna
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: tell you're a cool guy. You're down to earth And
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I love being able to promote you. I love to
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: be even let you know how big you are and
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: how brand friendly you are because of the fact that
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: coming on my show, Money Make Conversation, that's what it's
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: all about, giving the opportunity for young entrepreneurs or established entrepreneurs,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and you an established entrepreneur uh brand that is now
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: trying to grow outside of your circle and also trying
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: to broak that that wall of minoritiests can only do
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: this and breaking stereotype. I really respect you for that.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I really respect the fact and proud of the fact
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: you from Houston, Texas Acres homes Hey. Man, keep winning, Okay,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Man,