467 | The World's Largest Food Truck Company: Kona Ice

Jul 15

[00:00:00] Chaz Wolfe: What's up, everybody. Welcome to gathering the King's podcast. I am your host, Chas Wolfe. I'm a serial entrepreneur across franchising, construction, real estate, and online education. My mission with this show is to transfer courage to you, our listeners, by sharing the real and raw stories of successful entrepreneurs, even seven, eight, and nine figure business owners.
[00:00:21] Chaz Wolfe: Today we are joined by Tony Lamb, the owner and CEO of Kona Ice, traveling Tom's coffee truck and Beverly Ann's cookie truck. Tony went from selling vacuums to building the largest food truck company in the world. But what's truly remarkable about Tony isn't just the success, it's the journey and the heart behind his businesses.
[00:00:41] Chaz Wolfe: Tony's companies have been able to give back over $130 million to communities. How has Tony managed to achieve such incredible success also while creating an amazing franchisee culture? We'll find out today. We discuss three key things. One, the realities of growing and scaling Kona ice and how Tony actually did it.
[00:01:01] Tony Lamb: I can do this until I get it off the ground. Those things all added up to me taking a swing.
[00:01:06] Chaz Wolfe: Two, is everyone able to be an entrepreneur?
[00:01:09] Tony Lamb: I never want to discourage anybody. I always want to be the encourager in saying this, listen, you got to know who you are.
[00:01:15] Chaz Wolfe: And three, the difference between being an entrepreneur and a small business owner,
[00:01:19] Tony Lamb: small business and entrepreneur, two different things.
[00:01:22] Tony Lamb: Completely.
[00:01:23] Chaz Wolfe: If you want to learn what it takes to grow one of the largest companies, you're in the right place. Stick around. This is one episode you won't want to miss.
[00:01:33] Chaz Wolfe: What's up, Tony. So glad that you're here, man. Thanks for being here.
[00:01:35] Tony Lamb: Hey, I'm excited to be here, Chaz. I really am.
[00:01:38] Chaz Wolfe: Well, welcome to the King stage. This is going to be a fun conversation. ~Um, ~not only just because of your background, I mean, literally your background here on the screen says so much about your brand, about your personality. ~Um, ~but, but Tony, you're, you're the largest food truck company in the world.
[00:01:56] Tony Lamb: ~Uh, ~yeah, I, I, I did not know that was a thing until I had some,~ uh,~ some partners had did some research and came back and said, you know, you're the biggest in the world. And I was like, you mean, wait, and,
[00:02:08] Chaz Wolfe: yeah,
[00:02:09] Tony Lamb: but no, it's, it's not a, you know, I think the second place guy is me with coffee and the third place guy.
[00:02:17] Tony Lamb: is way down there. There was a company out of Australia that had quite a bit, but they, they have not done well. ~Um, ~I think they got to four or 500. I think Mr. Softy back in the day was four or 500 back in the day. ~Um, ~and that's,~ uh,~ but they're, they're no longer to any size or any scale at this point. So
[00:02:35] Chaz Wolfe: What do you think is, I mean, that's just a very obvious, like stark gap between, you know, 1700 plus and the next guy that's maybe got a couple of hundred. It's just like night and day. What would your response be to the, what the heck?
[00:02:49] Tony Lamb: I'm really good.
[00:02:52] Chaz Wolfe: I mean, you gotta be
[00:02:55] Tony Lamb: I, I don't know. No, I think really trying to, trying to understand the business model and what it is. ~Um, ~and, and really lean into it. I think a lot of people that do food truck and a lot of people that do it, they do it as a bolt on to brick and mortar or they do food truck trying to get to brick and mortar.
[00:03:11] Tony Lamb: And you see that happen a lot. And I've always said, just, just lean in and be the absolute best at food truck. ~Um, ~and not think about brick and mortar. I've had so many people come to me and say, let's brick and mortar Kona ice. Let's brick and mortar Toms. Let's, you know, all these different things. And I'm like, no, it's not where really my expertise lies.
[00:03:27] Tony Lamb: It's not really where we have the competitive advantage. So let's,~ um,~ you know, let's do it. Let's do it amazing in the, in the space that we're in.
[00:03:35] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Well, I think that there's a lot to that well that you just slightly identified for us and we're going to get to that. I want to know a little bit about your backdrop first, because I'm a millennial. And so your background, I'm gonna get to here in a second, but it, I'm familiar with it, but there are people listening here today, millennials, or maybe even younger, don't even know that you, you once not only had to push a vacuum back and forth, but that you didn't buy it from Amazon.
[00:04:01] Tony Lamb: Right. Right.
[00:04:02] Chaz Wolfe: So I got to hear you sold vacuums door to door. I familiar with this industry. It was, you know, super prevalent when door to door sales, but like. Tony, the vacuum, come on, give us some, how did this work for you? I mean, you obviously successful.
[00:04:17] Tony Lamb: I don't think I had a choice. My dad was a vacuum cleaner salesman my whole life. And I thought everyone aspired to be a vacuum cleaner salesman. That's, that's the,
[00:04:24] Chaz Wolfe: that was the
[00:04:25] Tony Lamb: the, it was the pinnacle brother. That's how you, that's how you arrive. I said that one time I said, you know, I had buddies that did that.
[00:04:30] Tony Lamb: Dads were doctors or lawyers and they didn't live in a nice house as we did or my dad drove a nicer car and I'm like, okay, that's, you know, that's here on the level and, and,~ um,~ and I want to be above that. So I'll sell vacuum cleaners and obviously I got into college, start taking some classes. I'm trying not to be a vacuum cleaner salesman.
[00:04:49] Tony Lamb: I get out in the, in the, in the summer and I start doing it, you know, just, just to cut my teeth and to, cause I've just had it in the blood for so long. And I was just really. You know, lucky and did real well at it. And then by the time I graduated college, there was no job out there going to pay me what I was making selling vacuum cleaners.
[00:05:07] Tony Lamb: And I thought, you know, I went to a job interview and I thought, yes, this is it's pharmaceutical sales. And I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, take my sales experience, take this, you know, one chemistry class I had in college. And,~ uh,~ this degree and I'm going to, I'm going to sell pharmaceuticals. And the guy said, you'll make 36, 000 a year.
[00:05:24] Tony Lamb: And of course this is back in 92 or whatever. And I was like, eh, I'm already making that in the summer selling vacuum cleaners. So I'm going to have to, I left that interview on UK's campus and drove to the Lexington Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner office and, and said, what's the highest commission you'll pay me?
[00:05:42] Tony Lamb: And I said, I don't know. Went to work.
[00:05:44] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. I love that. Just that, that free, you know, a cap. I mean, that's really what sales and even, and then eventually entrepreneurship is about, right. It's, you know, I don't want to be put in a bubble. And so, ~uh, ~for you as vacuums for, for me, it was, you know, You know, a plethora of things, the insurance and advertising and all the things that I sold as a, as a youngster.
[00:06:03] Chaz Wolfe: But for you, it was a college degree, but you're looking back. If you were in sales, you didn't use it. And then I think you've got some preferences on that towards now, even your own children. Can you talk about, can you talk about
[00:06:15] Tony Lamb: Yeah, good, good, good research, Chaz. ~Uh, ~no, my kids,~ um,~ of course, went down the road. They got out of high school. They'd done well. And they were going to go into college. They went into college, took some classes. And, but, yeah, Kona was thriving. They, you know, I'm watching some of the things they're doing, and they're working here.
[00:06:33] Tony Lamb: And there just really wasn't anything. And, listen, there's I'm a big fan of college for a professional degree,~ uh,~ you know, accounting degree, medical, whatever. I'm not a big, probably a big fan of, of a very expensive college degree that has a job that won't service the debt that you incurred to get that college degree.
[00:06:50] Tony Lamb: I think a lot of people are kind of coming to terms with that. ~Um, ~and,~ um,~ so, so maybe I was a little bit in front of my time, but none, none of my kids have a college education, but they're all doing extremely well. ~Um, ~And I say that I think they've had an education the four years after high school, but a lot of it was working in Kona or, or,~ uh,~ I've got two daughters that are in video and, and photography, and they do incredibly well outside of Kona.
[00:07:16] Tony Lamb: They do incredibly well. And, and I get excited about that because it's not, you know, it's not the traditional path, but you're seeing more people being able to, you know, wrangle a career, so to speak, and wrangle a living without that the formal education, but it's for me, it's also the indebtedness. That's what worries me.
[00:07:34] Tony Lamb: I think that's why I've been a good entrepreneur because I've always managed. My debt, my personal debt load very well.
[00:07:42] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I think that there's a, there's a commonality, obviously your, your history and then what you're helping your kids with is, is different, but there's, there's commonality. So I want to pull out some nuggets there for the listener, you selling vacuums or your kids growing up in your business and now even doing their own things a little bit, it sounds like.
[00:07:58] Chaz Wolfe: What, what are the commonalities that the listener can take away from whether it's them particular, maybe feeling less than because they're not college educated, or maybe it's they're thinking about their kids and going, Oh, I don't really agree with this, but I don't really know. What are the skill sets?
[00:08:12] Chaz Wolfe: What are the things that you got from selling vacuums or what are your kids getting now that are way more important than the paper?
[00:08:17] Tony Lamb: Oh yeah. I mean, just like, listen, I think, I think I've said this before talk. I speak to a lot of universities and I speak to a lot of high schools. I like high schools better. ~Um, ~like FBLA groups and things like that. These are younger kids getting ready for college or whatever. And they've got all these preconceived ideas of what it's supposed to be like.
[00:08:34] Tony Lamb: And my, my thoughts on that is listen, You're just at the starting gate. Life is about learning and it never stops and you don't get to a point where you're so knowledgeable that you don't have to consume knowledge anymore. I'm 55 years old and I consume knowledge, I mean, like a starving man. The podcast, the books, the, the everything I can get my hands on, getting to conferences, getting around people.
[00:09:00] Tony Lamb: I love getting around smart people and just gleaning from them and seeing what, what I can pull off of it. ~Um, ~and,~ uh,~ and so when I look at that, I,~ um,~ you know, I had a buddy that was introduced himself one time. We were in the business together and I said, they said, well, where did you go to school? I said, I went to the University of Kentucky.
[00:09:17] Tony Lamb: And then he kind of manipulated the conversation to where he didn't have to answer the fact that he didn't have a college education. And I thought to myself. Because it's the smartest guy I've ever been around. I mean, to this day, he's probably still one of the smartest guys I've been around. And he didn't make it all the way through college.
[00:09:32] Tony Lamb: And, and so that stigma of, you know, And I think it's, I think it's evaporating just a little bit because it comes down to how many followers do you have? That's the new college education. How many followers do you have, brother? ~Uh, ~how much content are you producing? ~Um, ~which is fine. Listen, I love the evolution.
[00:09:50] Tony Lamb: I don't want to be the guy that's just stuck in a, in a rut that that's like, Oh, this is the way we used to do it, man. Give me around some young smart people and tell, and let me find out what they're doing. And, and, and, And I think this is exciting, but, but that stigma of not having a college education, my gosh, I hope it's leaving and I hope it's leaving quickly because it's not about that.
[00:10:11] Tony Lamb: It's about the, the, the learning that you consume and how you get out there and use the thing that you've, you've learned. I say that with a little hesitation. Cause I think, I think,~ uh,~ education can also be,~ uh,~ can be brutal sometimes it can be,~ uh,~ you know, what you don't know. And that's what I loved about the formal part of it was like getting in there and just getting overwhelmed.
[00:10:34] Tony Lamb: I remember accounting just used to kick my tail. ~Um, ~and, and the first couple of years was easy. I was actually majoring in accounting at one time and then, you know, took a high level accounting class. It was like, Oh my gosh, I, it's killing me. And
[00:10:46] Tony Lamb: I remember, yeah, but, but I love the, I love the butt whooping of that.
[00:10:53] Tony Lamb: I mean, I did, I really did. ~Um,~
[00:10:54] Chaz Wolfe: even into entrepreneurship. You're talking about, you know, conferences and getting around people, obviously gathering the Kings as a mastermind of high level entrepreneurs. This is, this is why it exists is because when you have a little bit of a humble spirit, especially as an entrepreneur around wanting to continue to learn and wanting to continue to get around other people who have different perspectives, even listening to this podcast, they're going to get your perspective.
[00:11:14] Chaz Wolfe: They'd never heard it before that that is growing. Right. And, and maybe a little bit of a butt weapon, you know, at the end of the day, it's. That's kind of how we change, you know, it's either the, the, what we're going towards that we're, that we're motivated to go get, or it's the fear of what we're running from.
[00:11:29] Chaz Wolfe: And sometimes we just got to hear it from somebody else. And we're like, wow, or read it in a book or, you know, in a class, whatever that might look like.
[00:11:35] Tony Lamb: Yeah,~ um,~ was it Jensen Huang, the,~ uh,~ the CEO of,~ uh,~ Nvidia. He just spoke to the Stanford class. He's a, he's a Stanford grad and I've, I've listened to him for years cause he's this real humble guy. And, but he just, I think 30 days ago and I've got it earmarked on my computer. He spoke to the, the graduating class of Stanford.
[00:11:54] Tony Lamb: He said, no, you obviously come from means because you just went to the, one of the greatest schools. You're around great people. You're, you're, you're at this elevated level, so all I can hope for you is pain and suffering. I want you to have pain and suffering because the growth that comes from pain and suffering is the greatest growth and it's the stuff that sustains you and, and I, I so believe in that.
[00:12:17] Tony Lamb: And I, I, I kind of lean in for pain and suffering. Let's start another brand, you know, cause Kona was running so smoothly and not. Almost autopilot. We're selling a couple hundred franchises, you know, a year and things are great. And it's like, ah, let's mix it up. And then COVID yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. God had a different plan in mind and then whatever that was.
[00:12:43] Tony Lamb: I mean, that was some external pain and suffering that you didn't anticipate, but, but I like starting new brands. I like pushing the envelope on what we're doing now because, you know, we're just in this niche by herself. ~Um, ~and I, I like the,~ uh,~ I like the continual butt whoopin so.
[00:12:59] Chaz Wolfe: I mean, that's growth minded, you know, NIS it's, it's,~ uh,~ it's,~ uh,~ we've got this phrase inside of gathering the Kings. It's grateful, but not done. You know, the ability to sit for a second, be humble and go like, wow, like I've really gotten a lot from either the, my success or my failures, but. But I'm still, and I'm thankful for it, but I'm, but I'm still heading up.
[00:13:18] Chaz Wolfe: There's still more to do. There's more, there's more agitation. There's more potential. ~Um, ~I want to get to some of those,~ uh,~ sticky points for you, but you're, you're kind of beginning piece here of how you even started. The brand was a little unique. ~Um, ~I think your daughter had a unique experience with ice cream.
[00:13:33] Tony Lamb: Yeah, I mean, it was, it was real simple. It's just,~ uh,~ you know, we moved into a new subdivision. Ice cream truck comes around the corner. My kids instinctively run to it. It's a, it's a disaster when we get there. You know, the, the guy's fresh out of prison. He's selling high end or high, very expensive, not high end.
[00:13:49] Tony Lamb: Good Lord. Very expensive quality ice cream. Products off the truck. And I'm, I'm very tickled by it. I laughed a lot during this experience as my kids buy 22 worth of freezer burnt ice cream and he drives away and I guarantee you, and I've said this, if he turns around and comes back, my wife, my kids scream again for it.
[00:14:06] Tony Lamb: And I'm like, what is in this kid's DNA that they understand this? And so, When, when I, when that hit me, and of course as an entrepreneur, and I'm a serial entrepreneur, and I don't say that braggadociously, I say that almost confess, you know, as a confessional. ~Um, ~hi, I'm Tony Lamb and I'm an entrepreneur.
[00:14:25] Tony Lamb: you know, you know, you know, it's, it's not
[00:14:27] Chaz Wolfe: I'm right there with you. I'm in the same circle. We're in the same class. We got to keep each other accountable
[00:14:32] Tony Lamb: it's, it's not something to be really super proud of. And of course, you know, you're talking to people that have made it, but a lot of people, and even me until this point had not made it as an entrepreneur. There's a lot of great small business owners.
[00:14:46] Tony Lamb: ~Um, ~Chaz and that's, that's commendable, but, but the entrepreneur part of it, you know, the, the spin, but, but let me get back to the origin story was, you know, for a couple, several weeks, actually, I just kept pinging my wife and people that I knew, what if that, what if a truck would come through your neighborhood and it was phenomenal?
[00:15:02] Tony Lamb: What if it was clean and welcoming and the driver was uniformed and you felt safe with it and the product was reasonable and the experience was phenomenal. And people are very well received it. And I was like, I'm going to do it. And I mean, I just talked about it for two years and I had a lot of window time with what I was doing.
[00:15:21] Tony Lamb: ~Um, ~currently at the time I was doing some marketing consultants, I was driving a lot. So. And so I just thought about it a lot. I would take notes and, and, and I remember one day I was heading to Louisville, Kentucky about an hour and a half drive. And I thought, Oh, I'm going to think about the marketing, the initial marketing of, of Caribbean ice.
[00:15:42] Tony Lamb: We called it Caribbean ice and prototype. ~Um, ~too many R's, too many B's. I was looking for a shorter name. So, ~uh, ~so I'm going to think about the marketing. And I remember just taking my mind and turning it there, and for an hour and a half, I thought nothing about how do I market this outside of just driving it through streets.
[00:15:59] Tony Lamb: And,~ um,~ and so, you know, it's 2000, it was a four or five, something like that. There wasn't, you know, Facebook wasn't around,~ um,~ these kind of things, you know, so how do you, how do you market it? How do you penetrate? And so, that was fun for me. And, and then as it, and I remember sitting in. A restaurant with a, with a buddy of mine and we talking about and he said, well, we've talked this thing to death.
[00:16:21] Tony Lamb: Either you do it or you don't. And I said, you know, I'm going to do it. And it just came out of my mouth jazz. And I was like, Oh, crap. I just said that. ~Um, ~so I got to do it. And, but I had some residual income. So I think that was made it very easy for me to leave. I have no debt. I, I, I'm a very debt avoidant guy.
[00:16:39] Tony Lamb: ~Um, ~you know, personal debt. So I thought I got a lot of flexibility even though I had four kids. They're in a little Christian school know, I didn't have car payments. I didn't have a house, I didn't have anything that was just burying me down. ~Uh, ~tuition was about the, the greatest thing that was, that was, but I thought, I can do this.
[00:16:54] Tony Lamb: I've got some residual, I can do this until I get it off the ground. And, and that was, those things all added up to me taking a swing. And it
[00:17:03] Chaz Wolfe: I love, I love that. That was the calculation to take the swing, right? It was, you know, ~um, ~all these months, probably potentially even a couple of years, like you said, of, of thinking and, and, and getting research and, and planning things out. ~Um, ~I loved, I loved how you said it wasn't just this,~ um,~ you know, like this idea that kind of just kept coming to you.
[00:17:19] Chaz Wolfe: It was, it became an obsession actually is how you described it. And so what we obsess over is typically what we get.
[00:17:26] Tony Lamb: Well, it's, I think it's a little dangerous too. Cause I think the obsession, you have to be very contrarian in that. You've got to, you've got to take a couple of days and step back and say, let's look at this from a different lens. And I've tried to find people that would shoot holes in it. And then when you get to the point, you're like, man, No one's really shooting holes in this thing.
[00:17:46] Tony Lamb: And the holes that they're trying to shoot just don't add up. And I can overcome this and I can overcome that. I mean, listen, the big hole was the stigma and the big hole was that industry is dying. And the big holes they were shooting was like no one thinks about the ice cream truck anymore. For me and what I saw in my own kids was this.
[00:18:03] Tony Lamb: I'm like, I think it's still there. I think, yes, you go one more generation. There's no ice cream trucks. ~Um, ~it's just, we're not going to allow people to drive through our neighborhoods. ~Um, ~you know, I say fresh out of prison. ~Um, ~not that there's not great people that are fresh out of prison. I'm just saying that.
[00:18:19] Tony Lamb: You know, just the, the, that, that look, that feel, you're not going to let it happen continuously and it's going to just drive it out. So I thought we had, it was the right time, the niche was open and let's, let's, let's go.
[00:18:33] Chaz Wolfe: So you said, your van is clean. It's, it's obviously colorful. ~Uh, ~the driver's uniformed, like all of these things that you built because it's the opposite of what you experienced that day with the ice cream truck, man.
[00:18:45] Chaz Wolfe: And, and, and I, I've got a vision in my mind here of the white van. It's kind of beat up, you know, the side door kind of opens, you know, he's, and he's got this big old, old kind of rusted freezer and he's throwing out, you know, 12 snicker bars. And it's like, geez, I, I, everything you described I've experienced.
[00:19:03] Chaz Wolfe: I think everybody listening probably has experienced, but yet that, that little bell goes off and you're like, Oh, it's the ice cream truck. ~Um, ~But, but I want to segue into the brand because I think that you obviously did an amazing job, but how can this correlate to the person listening right now who maybe is beginning, maybe they're in the first couple of years and, and they're trying to set themselves apart.
[00:19:23] Chaz Wolfe: How much did that make a difference? When we're talking about the way that your truck looked, the position of the colors, the name, the, the, the uniformed driver, like a lot of people maybe don't think these things are important anymore because when you go to McDonald's, they're just all sloppy. Today, how does it, how much does it actually matter still?
[00:19:42] Tony Lamb: Yeah, but if you look at the people that are doing incredibly well, and just the little nuances of maybe like a Chick fil A where the customer service is at another level. And so, listen, and that's the problem with being an entrepreneur, is, is because you're obsessive and you go through this thing.
[00:20:02] Tony Lamb: If you don't have that other lens where you're trying to say, okay, what's the problem? What makes us, what's, what's, what differentiates us? What makes us,~ um,~ to where we can have a market, you know, be a market leader in this. I don't want to make another hamburger. I don't want to make another pizza.
[00:20:18] Tony Lamb: There's too many great people doing it. I'm very competitive, but I don't want to go up against. Those guys, they've been doing it for a long time. ~Um, Um, ~and you worry about that the egotism of that of saying, Oh, I can build a better hamburger at scale. Of course I can build a better hamburger in my backyard, but at scale at, you know, all the different things that happened that that's a learning curve that that's pretty amazing.
[00:20:39] Tony Lamb: So, so looking at it from a perspective of, you know, is there a niche, is there a place for me to be able to stick my foot in, be able to make a living? And that's, that's the big thing is, is how am I going to monetize this to the level that That I can make a living, more so for me, it was, it was because I had, I felt like I had about three or four years of residual income, no debt, that I could, I could get this thing off the ground.
[00:21:06] Tony Lamb: And, And that gave me a lot of fortitude. That gave me a lot of motivation. But, so, all the profits that would come in hired more staff. More staff hired, you know, made the job better and made the experience of owning a Kona ice franchisee better. And so, that was able to grow without me sitting on top having to take, you know, a couple hundred thousand dollars a year to pay my living.
[00:21:31] Tony Lamb: ~Um, ~and that's where a lot of people get in trouble. They just need so much money. And,~ uh,~ in the beginning, so it's tough, you gotta, you know, you gotta bootstrap it as everyone calls and things like, or you get a big investor and you spend their money like it's water, you know, either way, I wasn't willing to do that.
[00:21:47] Tony Lamb: ~Um, ~I did have an investor, but I was more conscious about his money than I was my own. So, ~um, um, ~it, but it, it worked at the end, Chaz, when you, when you get down to it and you can, you start seeing the horizon. And I remember thinking, you know, the first three or four people that bought trucks were having as much success as I was.
[00:22:08] Tony Lamb: And a lot of times I'm a good salesperson. I'm a talker. You know, I could walk into a school, a little league, whatever. I could get the, I could get the account. I could get it. But when people that were like, not me, were coming in and being successful, Georgia had come in and he, and he wasn't a, you know, a type personality and he's driving neighborhoods making two or 300 a day.
[00:22:30] Tony Lamb: And he's like, Hey, I'm surviving. And then he gets one event. And then another and then another. And then he's like, you know, now he's got the same guy to this day, bought truck 20 something. And now he's got. I think he's got six or seven franchises. He's got a coffee franchise. He's just, his whole family's employed, you know, the whole thing.
[00:22:50] Tony Lamb: And he wasn't an entrepreneur as much as he was a really good small businessman. You know, I would say the entrepreneur in that story would be me, but the, and I'm not being egotistical, like I said, but it's, but small business and entrepreneur, two different things completely.
[00:23:06] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. And I, I definitely want to get to that cause I think that's a whole nother thing that could be very valuable. ~Um, ~let's, let's stay here on this, you know, a couple of two, three years you're getting started. The nugget that I'm pulling out though, I want to give it to the listener before we move on is because you kept your expenses low and you were, you know, basically conservative in the way that you either spent and, or needed personally, you were able to grow the business as a business from the beginning before it was maybe.
[00:23:32] Chaz Wolfe: A big business, you were doing things to grow it. And so you were spending money where maybe other folks weren't,~ uh,~ you were making them look nice. The, the, the caliber of people, the caliber of franchisees, the experience of all that you were investing in that early. What was the snag in that? Cause that sounds like a two or three years of like, it kind of popped, but what was the behind the scenes?
[00:23:51] Chaz Wolfe: Maybe nobody knew about it. What was the, what was the thing that you were really struggling with
[00:23:55] Tony Lamb: is that I had to have in my local operations,~ uh,~ ran. I own two or three trucks in Northern Kentucky, and the local ops used to have to, it used to have to do well so I could pay the payroll of the people sitting in the office talking to the franchisees. And,~ uh,~ and so, you know, I'm working 9 I'm a nine to five, you know, working on the franchise part of the business and from five until ten, I'm in a truck driving the streets trying to, you know, keep my labor costs down, but also learning the business more so.
[00:24:23] Tony Lamb: And ~um, ~and, and doing this, those are the long, long days. And my wife always jokes, she said, Tony got into the, got into this business so he could spend more time with his family because I was on the road a lot. And then I started the business and I was like. I was working
[00:24:39] Tony Lamb: twice as hard, but I was able to put my kids in the truck with me.
[00:24:43] Tony Lamb: ~Uh, uh, ~they just told the story that my, my youngest daughter, who's 21 now, she was in a car seat in the front of a Kona truck and I'm driving through the neighborhoods and people are like, Oh, she's adorable. And I said, yeah, I picked her up at the last stop. I just, I'm collecting, I'm collecting children,
[00:25:01] Chaz Wolfe: I think that was the opposite Tony of what you were trying to create. Okay.
[00:25:05] Tony Lamb: It was a, it was an uncomfortable couple seconds, but then they realized this is my daughter. So it, you know, I, you know, always, always
[00:25:13] Chaz Wolfe: let it hang in the balance there
[00:25:14] Tony Lamb: yeah, yeah, yeah. I kind of liked the,~ uh,~ listen, I wanted to be engaging and I wanted to be different. Him and I wanted to have that, that experience.
[00:25:22] Tony Lamb: Life is too short and it's too funny for us not to call those things out. And let's just, let's just have, I'm a 40-year-old man driving around an ice cream truck. My buddies are making fun of me. You know, Lambie used to drive a nice car, wear a nice suit, and I'm like, it's a pretty nice truck, don't you think?
[00:25:37] Tony Lamb: It's a pretty nice truck? And, and I got a Hawaiian shirt on, so this is a nice suit. ~Um, ~and I'm doing what I want to do. And I'm, I'm taking a swing, man. And I was making good money. Life has always been, I've been one of those lucky guys. I was always figuring out how to make money because like you, I could sell.
[00:25:54] Tony Lamb: ~Um, ~and,~ um,~ and so if you sell, you can, you can do a lot, you know, you can, you have no inhibitions of talking to people or I think that's going back to the vacuum cleaners. What I learned from that is just, it's a numbers game. Rejection is part of life. ~Um, ~you know, and that it's a, it's an integral part of it.
[00:26:11] Tony Lamb: So I like, you know, knocking on 30 doors to get into one house, selling one out of three. So if you do the math, if you're knocking doors, you got to knock 90 doors to put a commission in your pocket. So let's get started early,~ um,~ in the
[00:26:23] Chaz Wolfe: Let's get them all knocked now.
[00:26:25] Tony Lamb: yeah, let's get them, let's get them knocked out. So it's tough business, but you know, but I looked like this in high school, so I was used to rejection, you know, it's like, it's like, Oh my God, you want to go out?
[00:26:34] Tony Lamb: No. All right. ~Uh, ~what about your friend?
[00:26:38] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I tell, I, I experienced the same thing,~ uh,~ in school. There was some, some gals that I,~ uh,~ asked out a couple of times and got the no, but,~ um,~ I even tell that to my wife cause we got, we got married pretty young and we met in high school actually. And I told her that, that she's throughout all the years of all the rejection,~ Um,~ you know, even, even as we're married, we have a great marriage.
[00:26:57] Chaz Wolfe: She doesn't actually reject me very often. But the, the reality of it is, is that there's, that's just part of the game. And that's okay. I was like, I was thanking her really is like, look, I'm super tough because I get rejected every day because that's just the way that it works.
[00:27:12] Tony Lamb: That's the way it works, but listen, that's, that's the pain and suffering that he's talking about. Let's get a little pain and suffering in life.
Hey Kings and Queens, Chaz Wolf. I want to talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort, we meaning myself and my team into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too.
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[00:28:05] Chaz Wolfe: You, you kind of mentioned something there around mindset. ~Um, ~you know, the, my buddy's making fun of me. ~Um, ~you know, I used to drive a nice car. I used to drive a, you know, wear a nice suit. ~Uh, ~but, but. It was different, but you and your mind immediately changed that. Or maybe it wasn't immediate.
[00:28:19] Chaz Wolfe: Maybe that's hindsight. Now you changed it to, well, I have a nice truck and isn't it colorful and isn't my Hawaiian shirt suit. Nice. And was that, was that internal that that was happening to you? Was there, was there a moment in time where you were just like, you kind of felt the weight of your buddies and everyone around you kind of making fun of you and that, or was it just like, ah, from the beginning?
[00:28:38] Tony Lamb: Well, I, again, going back to vacuum cleaner salesman, I never had a glorious job. I mean, I've never, I worked at the gap. I think that was my most credible job when I was in high school is I worked at the gap. And so I never really cared about that. That's another thing. You know, you gotta get, you gotta get rid of stuff like that.
[00:28:54] Tony Lamb: If you're going to be an entrepreneur, you can't, you can't,~ um,~ You can't hang on stuff like that. You really can't. If you believe in what you're doing and what you're doing is good and wholesome and moral and has a level of integrity, then you can live there at the end of the day. And I know my franchisees come in and they're like, Yeah, I'm going from being a computer programmer or I'm going from being a nurse or I'm going from being this to I'm going to drive a Kona truck around the neighborhood.
[00:29:20] Tony Lamb: And I'm like, Yeah, in the very first 30 days, your friends are going to wonder why, but in six months from now, you're going to be the Kona lady. You're going to be the person that's like the most popular person. In the eight year old demographic, you're gonna be the most popular person in your community 100 times over.
[00:29:40] Tony Lamb: And,~ uh,~ and I've got story after story after story of people saying I'm the Kona guy, I'm the Kona lady. And I love it because now I'm just, I'm loved in the community. And I'm like, Oh, that's a, that's a pretty cool, pretty cool place to be.
[00:29:53] Chaz Wolfe: I think so as well. Let's talk about the, this, this small business owner versus entrepreneur. ~Um, ~you know, we kind of dabbled on that a little bit, but I guess maybe it probably stems from the question of can anybody in your opinion be an entrepreneur? Is it something that's inherent?
[00:30:08] Chaz Wolfe: Can it be learned? Is it, do people struggle with it? What, what are your thoughts on that?
[00:30:12] Tony Lamb: That's such a good question. And I, I struggle with this I never want to discourage anybody. I always want to be the encourager in saying this. But listen, you gotta know who you are. I think my biggest pet peeve in life, and I've realized this probably in the last 5 or 10 years, is people that aren't self aware.
[00:30:28] Tony Lamb: People that have these, nuances in their, in their personality. And they're just so unaware of it. And you're like, come on, man, have you, do you own a mirror? Do you, can you look in the mirror and understand? You don't have this skillset either work on it or just accept you don't have it and move on.
[00:30:45] Tony Lamb: I just get so, so frustrated. I know what my, What my failings are. I'm no, I'm not super organized. I know I'm not. ~Um, ~I, my, my thinking scattered sometimes. ~Uh, ~I work against that, you know, I'll sit down and have, I'm very intentional with my alone time to put my thoughts together. I come into the office every Sunday night for two or three hours and lay out my entire week because you come in Monday morning, you become a pinball and you're bouncing all over the place.
[00:31:11] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah.
[00:31:13] Tony Lamb: So let's work hard against it. So sometimes entrepreneurs, and I'm, I'm using that term lightly and they, they go in, they say, I want to be an entrepreneur and I want to start my business from scratch. Okay. What experience do you have starting from scratch?
[00:31:27] Tony Lamb: I think mentorship. And internship is so, so important. And we're missing that in the college education conversation. Is, is, is, man, get into a mentorship. Get around people. Get, the cost of education. is expensive, but it's not always writing the check to the college. A lot of times it's like working for 15 bucks an hour for a company and you're underpaid, but you're learning a tremendous amount that, that the difference in what you're worth and what you're earning, that's the cost of education.
[00:31:59] Tony Lamb: So look at it as that and make sure you're, you're paying attention. You're, you're spending your time realizing, Hey, I'm spending a ton of money getting educated here. So I better walk into the office every single day looking for that education because I'm not getting enough money,~ uh,~ to justify working here.
[00:32:15] Tony Lamb: So, so that's kind of the mentality a little bit. So when I say an entrepreneur is a dysfunctional psychopath, narcissist that thinks he's so smart that he's got a better answer for everything. And he's going to, he's going to do that. I, I, I worry about that, but there's so much great room for someone who can follow a narcissist and say, and say, Hey, I can do what he's doing.
[00:32:37] Tony Lamb: That's why I love kind of franchising because it's putting the business model out there. It's this, it's this distilling of a good business model. You hand them a great recipe book and you say, make it like this and you will do well. And, and so I think that's kind of, kind of the journey, but no chance to answer your question.
[00:32:56] Tony Lamb: Not everybody is an entrepreneur and I worry that. You know, I got asked, I'll say this real quick. I got asked to be on the board of a university and say, we're going to, our biggest, our fastest growing major is entrepreneurship. And I'm like, I have a problem with that. I don't think you can teach entrepreneurship at the college level.
[00:33:15] Tony Lamb: I think, you know, if you want to, if you want to focus on mentorship and, and interns and things like that, yes, but, but to teach somebody to entrepreneur, You know, in a classroom, I mean, yeah, there's some basic stuff, but I think you can get that anyway. Accounting, get some accounting, get some finance, get some whatever, some science.
[00:33:34] Tony Lamb: I don't know, but,~ uh,~ but not entrepreneur. It seems like it's, it's a,
[00:33:39] Chaz Wolfe: It's a little bit of an oxymoron that we'd go to a classroom to, to, to, to learn how to run a business. You know, so what I'm, what I'm picking up, especially since obviously you've got a franchise system and,~ uh,~ that was my first business as well,~ uh,~ was, was buying into a franchise system. And so I think that the, the ability for any personality background, You know, desire,~ uh,~ of a person can step into a model like yours and, and be successful.
[00:34:05] Chaz Wolfe: And, and they don't have to have some of those like really exuberant, really loud entrepreneur type,~ uh,~ either personality traits or characteristics or, or skills. Even,~ uh,~ they can still be successful doing their own thing. ~Um, ~they are an entrepreneur, they are business owner. ~Um, ~but, but that person's going to have, you know, maybe one, two, three, You know, maybe five trucks or in our industry, it's, you know, maybe one or two locations, you know, retail locations.
[00:34:28] Chaz Wolfe: And that's about how it goes, right? Like you just look across and it's like, okay, everybody's kind of a onesies and twosie, and then you've got the few that kind of stand out to have the 25 trucks or the, you know, 150 pizza locations. And those guys,~ uh,~ that's kind of how I always kind of thought of myself in that system,~ um,~ was, you know, even though I was, Operating the business.
[00:34:46] Chaz Wolfe: I saw myself as more of an investor or an entrepreneur working at working on a, like a global piece as opposed to, you know, this one singular little mom and pop expression, which there's nothing wrong with that, but that's what I'm hearing you say. The difference truly is, is a small business. You kind of in it doing the thing versus, you know, building something.
[00:35:05] Chaz Wolfe: That's going to be much larger than you at some point.
[00:35:08] Tony Lamb: correct. And there's no, and both of those things are noble.
[00:35:11] Tony Lamb: They're necessary, they're noble, it's worth the journey. ~Um, ~I was in, I was in Acona College, I'm, I do a Q& A at the very end of the college. There's a young lady in the front and she raises her hand and she's very introverted and she says, she says, how does somebody with my personality, make it in Kona.
[00:35:28] Tony Lamb: This is day four of college. So we're getting ready to graduate. They're going to get their truck and drive home. And she says, how do I do it? And, and I had to be honest with her. I said, I said,~ um,~ I, I can't speak from that perspective, but I can give you 10 people that are introverted, that are succeeding wildly in Kona.
[00:35:47] Tony Lamb: And I, I got done with that, that session. I walked up to my office. I got Karen Mowry's email and I put those two women together and I said, Karen, this is a lady who she's excited about the business, but she's introverted and Karen is extremely introverted and she's wildly successful. And she says a lot of people want to be on the stage.
[00:36:09] Tony Lamb: But I love being beside the stage and watching. And ~um, ~and, and, and, and, I can see the stage. I can smell the stage. You know this is the kind of thing, she says. But I do my best work on the side of the stage. And I, I just kind of love that. And those two, Ladies connected and she's been extremely helpful to her.
[00:36:29] Tony Lamb: And, and so I'm lining those people up because I can't look at her and say, you know what you, you know what y'all do? Just not be introverted. Just be extroverted. You know, like it doesn't work that way. You know, you should be taller. That's what you need to be. You should be taller. ~Um, ~it doesn't, it doesn't work that way.
[00:36:43] Tony Lamb: So put like minded people together because we're, we're being successful at all different levels of the business and you don't have to be, you know, super psycho, you know, extroverted it's funny. I watched one of my kids, we have a cookie bake every year and you know, Christmas cookie bank and got four kids.
[00:36:59] Tony Lamb: They're so cool. And they're different. Everyone is different. And the one that I find the funniest, I guess, is over there making cookies. And we all have this competition and then we eat the cookies and we say, okay, this is the first number one cookie. Somebody tries to bring a different recipe every year, you know, good competition.
[00:37:15] Tony Lamb: And I look over that my, at this, at my son, I'm trying to hide his name. Anyway, he's over there just, he's pouring flour into the cup, it's overflowing, he throws it in the bowl. And I mean, he's not an exact recipe guy. and I'm talking to him, I'm like, you gotta follow the recipe, brother.
[00:37:31] Tony Lamb: And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I am, I am. And I'm like, you are not. There's a heaping mound over top of the cup. You know, you're, you're pouring the vanilla in, just, you know, you're just pouring it in out of the bottle. He's like, why, it just, it needs a dash of vanilla. And I'm like, it, it doesn't work that way.
[00:37:45] Tony Lamb: Recipes are meant to be followed. And, and so, I realized that's something interesting about people. And this guy's got, my son's got these great qualities. He's so, he's so extroverted. He's so a people person. People love him and draw to him. He's funny, but doesn't follow a recipe to save his life. And so I wonder about, is he going to be a good franchisee?
[00:38:07] Tony Lamb: Is he, is he going to be a good operator? Because, I don't know, he might need to be in a different role if he's going to, you know, You know, do the recipes that way. Does that make sense? I
[00:38:18] Chaz Wolfe: a hundred percent. I think it's great. ~Uh, ~we use a, we use a system called culture index. ~Um, ~and we,~ uh,~ you know, a couple of clients with it. And of course I've done it with my wife and all of our friends. And it's interesting when you can understand that nuance right there. You're like, okay, cool.
[00:38:31] Chaz Wolfe: Like. He, like you said, even about yourself, I'm not that organized. Does that mean that you just throw up the, well, I'm not organized flag and you just lean into being a chaos mess. Well, no, you come in on Sundays and you organize your, your week to the best of your ability. But because of that, I bet you you've put some really organized people around you.
[00:38:50] Chaz Wolfe: And I bet you there's some tasks that are pretty organized, maybe around that accounting stuff that you're talking about that you don't necessarily touch on a regular basis, but maybe a report is given to you by someone highly detailed. Right. That's how we combat these things. As long as we can be self aware, sometimes it's an assessment that helps us take that, but sometimes it's a parent, right?
[00:39:07] Chaz Wolfe: Like how many times we've looked at our children and been like, wow, you're really good at this. Or this is an area where we might need some help, you know, following a recipe.
[00:39:16] Tony Lamb: No, I, I love that about you know, the people and I just have that microcosm in my own family that, you know, this, my daughter would follow the recipe to the nth degree and then if it doesn't turn out perfect, she can blame the recipe. She doesn't have to accept the responsibility that, hey, it's not very good.
[00:39:35] Tony Lamb: And, and Jonah has made some cookies that have been like terrible. However, he's won the competition a couple times. And he's like, see, see? And I'm like, that was luck, brother. That was pure luck. There's, there's no skill involved in that. But, but no, I, I love that, that differentiation. So, so trying to set up a system where everybody can thrive.
[00:39:57] Tony Lamb: You know, so you have broad recipes and franchising to some degree. I mean you gotta maintain, you gotta maintain the brand consistency. We have to, we gotta live there. And that experience for the customer is going to be good, but the experience for the employee doesn't always have to be the same. The experience for , the person in the truck communications, the operation standpoint, all that doesn't have to be exactly the same.
[00:40:19] Tony Lamb: We want the, the, the brand promise to be, you know, a safe, great experience for the, for a customer walking up to the truck.
[00:40:28] Chaz Wolfe: I think that there's a lot of,~ um,~ even wiggle room in that type of thinking for someone who's maybe a little bit more entrepreneurial than, than a small business owner, as we've kind of defined, these can still step into your system, know that there's okay. Like there's a brand promise and there's an experience for my customers that I need to deliver on, and that can't be wavered, but like kind of how I go about doing that can kind of be my version.
[00:40:49] Chaz Wolfe: And so I think that,~ uh,~ you're catering to,~ uh,~ not just,~ uh,~ You know, the operator, but also the entrepreneur who wants to come in and maybe get a little, get a little feisty with a couple of trucks and do it, do it kind of in their own way. ~Um, ~I want to ask you a question about franchising. If someone's listening right now, they've maybe had an idea in their mind around, I'm going to franchise my concept.
[00:41:06] Chaz Wolfe: What would you say to that person? Would you encourage them? Would you say run the other way? ~Uh, ~if they are going to do it, is there something they should be looking at first? What's the, what's your thought?
[00:41:16] Tony Lamb: Well, I think it goes back to the mastermind concept is a little bit is because if you, if you license it. And you, you make everybody follow your pre prescribed thing to a T.~ Um, ~you're not, you're not getting any add to the deal. You're really not getting the, the mastermind effect. And I think franchising allows more of that.
[00:41:35] Tony Lamb: I, what I realized early on is I don't have all the answers. ~Um, ~real quickly, I realized that there are some people that are much better at this business and at this level than I am, and they've done really, really well. No one, I don't think anyone can outwork me, , but far as, you know, really understanding the customer base and it's the PTA president, the youth, and the, the,~ uh,~ summer camp, these people in the community, and, and that wasn't me necessarily.
[00:42:00] Tony Lamb: So they know they speak that language and so they could do the business. They could connect better. And I loved bringing that all together. So they would be able to take that. teach the rest of the franchise system. Hey, here's the way you approach a summer camp counselor. Here's the way you approach a PTA president.
[00:42:15] Tony Lamb: Here's the way, you know, these kinds of nuances that I didn't have. And then again, back to that mastermind effect. That's what I think franchising does. The problem with franchising, it's very expensive because you have to license through every state. You've got to go through, you've got to have a. I've got FDD drafted, you know, I've got a FDD that started out at 49 pages and now it's probably 400 pages.
[00:42:36] Tony Lamb: ~Um, ~it's, it was so easy that everyone could understand it. Now, it's not as easy to understand. ~Um, ~it's reactionary to, to the bad elements that sometimes get in your system that say, you know, Hey, I want to sell blank off the truck. You're like, okay, let's put a paragraph in here that you can't sell blank off the truck.
[00:42:53] Tony Lamb: ~Uh, ~you know, or whatever. You say, you've got to start monitoring and. And then the different nuances of the states, you know, some of the states are very heavily regulated for this. So you've got to, you know, I remember California, I think we added 40 or 50 pages to the FDD just to, just for them alone. And so it became this, this,~ um,~ construct, but, but it's expensive and we, you, you, we pay attorneys and you have people that write it and you go through all this stuff.
[00:43:19] Tony Lamb: So it's a, it's a tough way to, to start, but it's, it's not, I say that you can write an FDD for your state. You can go and get it approved and then you can start small and do that. I had a buddy who was an attorney who said, Hey, I can just cut and paste. I'll put one together for you for X number of dollars.
[00:43:36] Tony Lamb: This is a true story. He put it together and he's like, I'll do it for like five or 10, 000. I said, Oh my God, thank you so much. Cause I was getting quotes for like 50 to a hundred thousand dollars. So he cuts and paste it, puts it all together. We turn it, we send it to the very first applicant. The guy gets an attorney and they just rip it to shreds and he comes back.
[00:43:57] Tony Lamb: Alan Griffith is his name and he comes back and they, those attorneys just go back and forth for like a month and they finally get it all done. And Alan said, yeah, I made about 70 cents an hour doing that. He said, this is a disaster. ~Um, ~but he got it the core done. Then as you submit it to the states, the states have changes.
[00:44:13] Tony Lamb: So we've obviously since then have contacted with lots of attorneys, got it done right. But I've spent, I spent a lot of the profits of the early days dialing all that stuff in. And so. It's challenging to do it that way. But you have to have the understanding is you're looking for help, you're looking for input.
[00:44:32] Tony Lamb: If you want to license it and control,~ uh,~ or license it actually is less control. ~Um, ~or if you want to keep it all to yourself and I'm going to, I'm going to open up the next city and I'm going to hire everybody individually and I'm going to do that. Oh my gosh. Then you, you really are a narcissist and you really are a psychopath that you want.
[00:44:48] Tony Lamb: You think you can control people at that level. ~Um, ~I just want the input from great people. So.
[00:44:53] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. That, that concept that you're referring to the mastermind,~ uh,~ principle, you know, it's defined in, in think and grow rich,~ uh,~ by Napoleon Hill as two or more, two or more minds working in harmony,~ uh,~ together unto the achievement of something specific or a definite chief aim, as he says, what, I mean, you just gave a pretty, a general aspect of how your franchise system has, has operated in that.
[00:45:12] Chaz Wolfe: But what, what comes to your mind when you say like, I operated in the mastermind principle here and it changed everything for me? What, what's an example for you on that?
[00:45:19] Tony Lamb: my dad probably. My dad was a president of the vacuum cleaner company that I used to sell vacuum cleaners for. And he had kind of retired. I had moved on. We were doing different things. And,~ um,~ but here's a guy who was in his seventies who was brilliant. And I got to, I got to garner and glean off of him,~ uh,~ from that perspective, but he didn't understand the nuances of today's business as much as he understood the big thoughts of, I mean, he ran a huge company.
[00:45:47] Tony Lamb: ~Um, ~and so I, I was able to glean that there's all the people that are hired in the early days, which. We're definitely because I always hired into my weaknesses and I always hired into, you know, the accountant, the, the,~ um,~ the, the organizer, the administrator, there's people that have the, like you said, the organizational skills or the accounting skills or whatever.
[00:46:06] Tony Lamb: But I hired into my weaknesses continually and ~um, ~and that is the mastermind. That's the definition almost of, of mastermind. And I, let me. back and not to throw a shout out.~ Uh, ~what is it? H Jackson Brown Jr.
[00:46:20] Tony Lamb: or something. ~Uh, ~he's a, he's a famous,~ um,~ I had this thing hanging in my office for years and it says the keys to success or the happiness, keys to happiness, keys to success. It said, marry the right person. This one decision will affect 90 percent of your happiness or misery. And I was very, very lucky in the fact that I married the right person 31 years ago.
[00:46:40] Tony Lamb: And the mastermind effect there is,~ um,~ her gifts and her skills, this, this caring, this kindness, this, this love that she has is, is almost void in my, I don't want to say it that way, like I'm a mean guy, but I've heard her, I've heard her work with the kids and say, well, your dad's this way because, you know, you know, your dad's a little bit more curse and he's, or terse, whatever the word is.
[00:47:06] Tony Lamb: And he's a little more, he's a little more, but that's his, his strength is what has had him be successful in business. He's very direct. He's in your face. He doesn't let things lie. He attacks every point and she doesn't. And, and I think going back to the very, foundation of mastermind effect is that that is man marry the right person.
[00:47:30] Tony Lamb: And then your, your, your foundation is set. And then again, going back and I keep, I keep retraining this to understand who you are and what you don't have higher into those things. And let's get this job done.
[00:47:43] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. So powerful. I, I spoke actually with my,~ uh,~ my bride, Julie, couple of months ago we spoke in, in Nashville and our talk was the ultimate mastermind. And we spoke about marriage and, and everything that you just said,~ um,~ you know, the, the detail of that and how actually your, The nuances of your differences and also strengths made you each better because you were each there for each other and, and pressing each other in those ways.
[00:48:08] Chaz Wolfe: And so that's pretty powerful.
[00:48:10] Tony Lamb: Can you imagine Chaz, us being left to our own devices for this world? I mean, just someone not sitting there who loves you truly, who's speaking into your life, like, Hey, you're out of control. Hey, Hey, think about this again. You know, look at this from a different light. You've just, you've got to have that.
[00:48:24] Tony Lamb: And whether it's a, whether it's a spouse or someone that you loved dearly or a family member, someone needs to always be able to speak truth. The great emperors of the day had the people that would whisper in their ears, you know, the, the truth of life it's
[00:48:39] Tony Lamb: important. right. Yeah. You're, you're a hundred percent right. I've, I've often said that there was,~ um,~ things that I've done along the way You know, Julie has guided me on,~ um,~ some things I listened to, some things I haven't, I look back now, I'm like, Oh, I, I,
[00:48:54] Tony Lamb: should have. All
[00:48:57] Chaz Wolfe: but you're 100 percent right.
[00:48:59] Chaz Wolfe: ~Um, ~do hell have that perspective in, in that type of environment, because that person knows you just so more,~ uh,~ you know, clearly or, or in depth, but to have those examples,~ um,~ in employees or franchisees or other, you know, of course, other mastermind,~ uh,~ members, whether you're in a group or, or, you know, You know, going to a conference and meeting other people for the first time, like you can, you can have this effect,~ um,~ in different ways, but it's about perspective.
[00:49:20] Chaz Wolfe: It's about agitating your thought and seeing things a little different and being able to adjust accordingly.
[00:49:25] Chaz Wolfe: I got one last question here for you. ~Um, ~I got,~ uh,~ the same question and I typically end with, but Tony, I want to know if you had the chance to roll back the clock and you're talking to younger Tony
[00:49:34] Tony Lamb: Hmm.
[00:49:35] Chaz Wolfe: and you, you just whisper something in his ear just briefly.
[00:49:38] Chaz Wolfe: What do you tell him?
[00:49:40] Tony Lamb: Ah, Chaz, that's such a good question.~ Um, ~I think I would say ~Um, ~I, I gotta say personal. I know you want this. This podcast is meant sometimes to be business themed and you'd say, well, do this or do that. And from a business perspective, but from a personal perspective, I would say forgive quicker. ~Um, ~you know, you hold these grudges.
[00:50:00] Tony Lamb: ~Um, ~I would forgive quicker. I would try to be in the moment more. ~Um, ~I think I watch, I watch people take pictures of everything. and never in the moment where they're at. And you're like, man, breathe in the air, take a, take, enjoy that. And I, as I get older, obviously that's more important to me than I'm like, I don't want to take a picture of this and look at it 10 years from now.
[00:50:21] Tony Lamb: I want to live it right now. So, so I think that would have been helpful to be, you know, you're running so fast, you're blowing through things, you're, you're, you're sacrificing relationships, you're sacrificing ~Um, ~interpersonal communications because you're just so driven in the early days. And I say all this with a little asterisk on it because I would also say don't change a thing because I love where I'm at right now.
[00:50:45] Tony Lamb: I love how I've gotten here. I, I, I, I really do. I mean, humility, I mean, I'm a very humble guy and I say that, I say that, is that not the funniest line? I'm a humble guy.
[00:50:58] Chaz Wolfe: I'm the most humblest.
[00:51:01] Tony Lamb: But when has anyone ever said. , more humility is not good. It's just, no one's ever said that because. You have to realize who you are in this world. I just keep coming back to that and, and, and the frailties that you have, and I think people guard against them sometimes and they work to hide those or they work to overcome those and the reality is let's just lean in on those things a little bit and, and, you know, you're always trying to get better, but, but the humility of life, the longer I live, the more, humility I get because I realize how much I'm not.
[00:51:34] Tony Lamb: Yes, I've got 1800 franchises and two brands that are coming and life is so good right now. I'm so blessed beyond anything I ever, ever, ever imagined. ~Uh, ~you know, you remember those times, Jasper, you're like, I hope if I can get to this amount of money, then I'll be happy. And then, okay, then you set the bar a little higher.
[00:51:52] Tony Lamb: You set it a little farther. If I can get to this level of, you know, of,~ uh,~ I can see the finish line and coast on in, but then when, and I've been blessed enough to get to some levels and then you start thinking, well, how can I change the community and the world around me and other people's lives with this?
[00:52:08] Tony Lamb: I've got 15 people that work here that, that are just laying it down. And I'm thinking if I don't finish this journey without those people having Experience, you know, whatever, being a millionaire or, or they're just ultimate joy in life. Then I've failed miserably. I I've gotten to a point where I've been blessed beyond anything I imagined.
[00:52:31] Tony Lamb: So I say blessed me and my sister argue over this. I hate saying blessed, even though I have strong faith. I want to say lucky because I don't want to say blessed. Then other people say, well, I'm not blessed even though I'm living a moral life or a life of integrity. And so I never want to. I never want to, you know, discount that, but I, I do feel there's a lot of smart people.
[00:52:53] Tony Lamb: There's a lot of hardworking people. Not every one of those people get to a great place in life. ~Um, ~you know, people work hard all the way to the end. People very smart. You know, work all the way to the end and don't experience some of the successes that other people have. So I feel like I'm very lucky to have experienced the success that we've had.
[00:53:13] Tony Lamb: ~Um, ~I try hard and be very transparent. I tell everybody what I'm thinking. ~Um, ~I'm, I'm open to criticism. , you know, not too much. I mean, not, not not
[00:53:22] Chaz Wolfe: I'm only a half narcissist.
[00:53:26] Tony Lamb: I'm losing my hair. I've got a little extra weight on, you know, I, I, I, I say the wrong words sometimes, so just be, be easy, be easy on the criticism. But,~ uh,~ but, but, but very respectful of that. So I've, I've loved the, so what saying that to the young Tony is, man, don't change a thing because I love where I'm at right now,
[00:53:45] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. So powerful. Yeah, that, ~uh. ~Yeah. Place of good people, not having a good life or even the opposite, bad people having amazing
[00:53:55] Tony Lamb: Right, right,
[00:53:56] Chaz Wolfe: is been an interesting topic and that's probably for a whole nother podcast,
[00:54:00] Chaz Wolfe: but but the truth is, is that their success principles,~ uh,~ no matter moral standard. And,~ um,~ you know, there's, there's good people who just.
[00:54:08] Chaz Wolfe: You know, don't have the right recipe. ~Um, ~and, and maybe there's some luck in there too. I would probably agree with that. There's probably just,~ uh,~ some, some cadence there to that, that cookie recipe that we call success that,~ uh,~ some people are just,~ um,~ doing a dab here and a dab there and not measuring properly.
[00:54:21] Chaz Wolfe: ~Uh, ~Tony, you, you are a man of, of not only just a lot of success, but a lot of wisdom and appreciate you sharing here today. ~Um, ~obviously the listener is interested in, in Kona ice. You've got two other brands coming down the pipe that are in, in development and growing, if they want to jump in or figure out how to get involved with you, or you maybe just even connect with you somehow, how can they find you?
[00:54:44] Tony Lamb: Well, ~um, ~obviously Kona ice. com is our main site. Traveling Tom's Coffee is,~ uh,~ it's going to be open to the public. We're only selling it right now. We've sold 150 franchises. We're going to sell another 150 this year, only to Kona franchisees. But October 1st, we're going to open it up to the public and let people,~ uh, Uh, ~buy that,~ uh,~ that aren't Kona franchisees.
[00:55:04] Tony Lamb: Then we've got a prototype concept called Beverly Ann's. By the way, Traveling Tom's named after my dad. Beverly Ann's named after my mother. ~Um, ~and Beverly Ann, she made the best cookie in the world. So I'm trying to,~ uh,~ duplicate that as a, as a cookies and ice cream truck. ~Uh, ~it's doing well in prototype, but we're not.
[00:55:21] Tony Lamb: We're not ready to sell that yet, but we will. We've got, we've got three or four other brands in concept that we're kind of bringing up the line. I just, we're very good at mobile. We understand what it is. ~Uh, ~we've got a great success record in, in mobile. We're going to live there in that space and we're going to do it better than anybody's ever done it before.
[00:55:39] Tony Lamb: ~Um, ~you know, with our software, with our marketing, with our support, with our manufacturing, you know, understanding the, the whole aspect of that. So you know, reach out if you want me personally, LinkedIn,~ uh,~ Tony Lima, LinkedIn,~ um,~ but yeah, come to our websites,~ uh,~ again, anytime you want to get ahold of me is, is easy.
[00:55:55] Tony Lamb: You can come to the website, call the main office at we're here in Florence, Kentucky, you know, the birthplace of shaved ice. This is what, no, no one knows, Florence,
[00:56:05] Chaz Wolfe: Oh my goodness. We've got to come visit.
[00:56:08] Tony Lamb: everybody's visiting these days. It's a great place to be.
[00:56:13] Chaz Wolfe: Tony,~ uh,~ you're remarkable. Thank you for being here. ~Uh, ~blessings to you, your family, all the Kona,~ um, uh, ~you know, fingers out in the marketplace and the representation of your brand, but also just the joy and happiness that you're bringing to people all over. So thank you for being here, sir.
[00:56:25] Chaz Wolfe: Appreciate you.
[00:56:26] Tony Lamb: Chas, I loved it. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate the time.
Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away. More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself, doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself.
What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing over 200 or 300, is that, you know, it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun. So, I hope that you're Other very successful seven, eight, and nine figure business owners is that it's tough to do it alone.
And so gathering the Kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1000 Kings specifically who are grateful, but not done. We're intentionally assembling Kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities. And here's what we believe that in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, That it ignites within us, the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy.
So if that relates and resonates with you, and you know, that you need people around you, sharp, qualified, other very successful business owners. I want you to go to gatheringthekings. com. Once you take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1000 Kings talk soon.

Tony Lamb is the owner and CEO of Kona Ice, Traveling Tom's Coffee Truck, and Beverly Ann's Cookie Truck. Tony recounts his incredible journey from selling vacuum cleaners to building the largest food truck company in the world. The discussion covers key aspects like scaling Kona Ice, understanding the difference between entrepreneurship and small business ownership. Tony also shares insights on the importance of self-awareness, financial management, and the role of mentorship. This episode is packed with entrepreneurial wisdom and real-world business strategies.

Tony Lamb:

Website: www.kona-ice.com

Website: www.travelintomscoffee.com

Website: www.beverlyanns.com

Website: www.ownakona.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/konaiceexperience

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/travelintomscoffee

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeverlyAnnsCookieTruck

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/konaice/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelintomscoffee/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beverlyannscookietruck/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-lamb-81a158202/

Chaz's favorite morning drink to fuel him for his day