159. Leveraging Diverse Revenue Streams De-risks Income

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159. Leveraging Diverse Revenue Streams De-risks Income

00:00:01 Welcome to the everything coworking podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host coworking space owner and trend expert. Jamie Russo, Welcome to the everything coworking podcast. Before we dive into today's guest, this episode is brought to you by my masterclass three behind the scenes secrets to opening a coworking space.

00:00:38 If you are working on starting a coworking space, I want to share three decisions that successful operators make when they are designing their coworking space. The masterclass is totally free. It's about an hour, which will include Q and a time. If you'd like to join me, please register at www dot everything, coworking.com forward slash masterclass. And also before we dive in,

00:01:02 I want to congratulate the new members of community manager university. We have several brand new and seasoned community managers that have joined our program to learn, grow, and connect. If you would like to learn more about investing in your team to help them contribute more deeply to the business and love their job even more, you can learn more@everythingcoworking.com forward slash community managers.

00:01:30 And now for today's guest, I interview Angela Garland, who is the founder and CEO of exit 11 workspace coffee house and drive through. So she has had a lifelong dream of opening her own business lounge. She had a very specific vision of what this would look like, and it would include coffee and she has gotten there, but she has also kind of taken an unexpected path,

00:02:04 partly due to just the evolution of where she saw the demand for coffee and the business opportunity. Her husband's passion for coffee. And now COVID-19 working through a pandemic and having to prioritize, take the brake off of the workspace business a little bit and put the accelerator on the coffee aspect. But I know many of you are interested in how coffee gets integrated into workspace.

00:02:30 Angela shares her story around how she got into coworking without taking a bank loan, which I think is also an important aspect for many of us today. You are looking at space looking for, as she calls them entrepreneurial landlords who were had space that was under utilized and were willing to take a chance and help her avoid that bank loan, and then diversifying her revenue streams,

00:02:56 which really helped her in the time of a pandemic to, uh, maintain a level of income even while her workspace was closed. So I hope you enjoy this conversation today with Angela. Good morning, Angela. I'm so excited to be here with you. You are coming to us today from Washington, Missouri, kind of outside of st. Louis. How far are you from st.

00:03:23 Louis for those 40 minutes? So pretty close. So Angela Garland is the founder and CEO of exit 11 workspace, coffee house and drive through. I know. So you have evolved your business model over time and especially, it sounds like because of COVID, you've done some kind of either accelerating or pivoting. So I'm looking forward to hearing your story. I've seen your name for a long time and we've not met.

00:03:50 So you've been in the industry for a while. Tell us first about, you know, your background, um, general background and then your background in the industry and kind of weave us through the story of how you opened exit 11. Sure. It's a long story. Yeah. I know. Dive in where we have time. I have some coffee.

00:04:11 I know I need some more, I think. But, um, so I, my mom was actually in the industry and back then it was called shared office center or business centers. And so in high school I would go help answer phones or organized by rooms, et cetera. And so then when I went to college, um, I went to Mizzou and as any extrovert,

00:04:30 um, had way too much fun and then came back home. And so then I would, I worked for my mom's business and then I went, you know, the community college got grades up, went back to Mizzou, came in anyway. So I finally said, alright, I can do school. Right. So I went to work for her in the industry and that she had owned two,

00:04:47 um, two business centers. So one of them was with HQ back in the day, and then she opened up an independent one anyway. Um, I, she, she decided to get out of the industry. Well, it was kind of pushed out like reading to close and I am 22 at the time and thinking I could survive this, you know,

00:05:06 I'm going to buy my mom's business. I was nine months pregnant with my first baby, you know, thinking I could talk to the world anyway. So I decided that someone, some wiser person said was probably not a good idea because I would be acquiring her debt. Anyway, it was a dream. Like, I know I can do this. Um,

00:05:22 so that was, of course that idea was put on pause and then went back to get an undergrad, thinking that once I have an undergrad, then I'll go back into the industry, which I did. So then, um, so three children in undergrad, finally, there's something about once you're in a grown up and you're like, okay, now I know what I want to do,

00:05:41 what I have to see children. So I'll go back to school. So, um, so got the F went full time with HQ at the time. And then I guess that was in 97. And even at that time, I remember thinking why doesn't somebody come up with a concept where you have like hotel, cause this is when Kinko's was big.

00:05:59 So you had a copy center meeting center, street level, office space. And at the time coffee wasn't on my radar, but I always thought why doesn't somebody just come up with that instead of wearing these high rise buildings. Anyway, I get pregnant again. So four children now, fortunately. Yeah. So I decided, so this was before 30,

00:06:21 so I had four before 30 anyway. So then I decided, okay, well it doesn't, it's not practical. And I was always a numbers person. I'm like, how much do you add for dry cleaning, travel, eating out? Does it make sense? Okay, I'm making like 50 cents an hour. So it doesn't make sense to have full time job in that,

00:06:36 in a traditional sense. So I knew I needed to create something that was flexible, whatever. So did consulting and marketing help or whatever. So then in where the kids are a little bit older, Regis was expanding in downtown st. Louis. I didn't know why they were going to downtown st. Louis because at that time, no one goes to downtown and lives there.

00:06:56 And the traditional model for the business center is that you're five minutes from home. So you leave home, you go there to work and you're not commuting 45 minutes. So Funny though, how that was sort of the initial value prop and then it really kind of swung to CBDs, right? Like, yeah. And now we're, now we're back to this.

00:07:18 I know. I mean, that's one of the interesting, you've seen the cycles, you know, of the industry. So anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt you. This was, I guess they opened up in 2000 and it was a beautiful space top of the metropolitan square, like the 20th floor, 25,000 square feet. Gorgeous. Um, but then again,

00:07:38 I always knowing, I want to open up my own someday thinking I could. And so I even started working on a business plan, but I thought, okay, I'll have a job working on a business plan, but you know, well, I got four kids and dropping them off at daycare at seven in the morning and pick him up at six and doing the math.

00:07:57 But I love Regis was an option. They do great training and they send me these fabulous places back then. Um, but their sales process was not one that I could resonate with. It did not feel authentic where they'd say, okay, this way, you know, just tell people that it's in process, we're working, you know, the Hollywood office is they would have Hollywood office put the newspaper out.

00:08:20 And anyway, I guess that's what you have to do to sell things. Anyway, I didn't feel comfortable with it because I knew everyone in st. Louis. I'm like these people, the jig is going to be up here. And they say like, how long has that space been on hold? And it was in downtown st. Louis. And in my head,

00:08:34 I was like, no, everyone lives in the County. No one's way to intentionally drive to downtown st. Louis, try to find a place to park. Right. I've been here anyway. So I, um, talked to my super, my boss at the time, say, I don't know, can, I don't feel comfortable with the sales process?

00:08:50 She's like, you know what I know you've always wanted to have your own. Why don't you just go open your own little center, right. Well, I would, except that this noncompete with you all, we'll let you out of that noncompete. You're just go do what you want to do. And they gave me a severance package for like six weeks.

00:09:05 I'm like, okay. And at the same time I had, you know, we meet with all the commercial real estate brokers. You make friends with them. And one of them reached out and said, Hey, they're building a technology park out at this military post. And one of which is the shutoff guns office. Would you go talk to them as soon as they need you?

00:09:23 Okay. So I go talk to them and they decided to hire me as a consultant to advise them on this 80,000 square foot business center on military coast. So, um, there would be shared, you know, contractors that come on in, or do any deals with the military. So that was kind of my, alright, well, that's going to pay the bills.

00:09:40 It gives me time to work on my business plan. So I go to the bank and talk to the president of the bank, which was the dad of one of my friends. And I got that. So I need to have money to open up this business center. And he was so nice. He's like, um, so do you own a home?

00:09:56 No, no, just so oblivious. But anyway, he was nice and coached me and said, you know, maybe want to start small and blah, blah, blah. My first, I don't want to start small ever, but I decided to build the virtual office model. So I said, okay, let me find space, like at least telephone answering in the mail address and all that.

00:10:18 So kind of started that and then just did a lot of networking. And when you're networking, you have to specifically ask for what you're looking for. So I find that, what am I looking for? An entrepreneurial landlord? Okay. So I literally said that I'm like, I'm looking for an entrepreneurial alignment. And that was when all the dot comes had been were imploding.

00:10:36 This was 2000, 2001. Anyway, so there, so the sky's the gap, then we've got this vacant space. So there was, I think it was about 15,000 square feet, had a conference room and the kitchen and reception area, 25 offices, all the phones, all the furniture, the internet. I literally just had to move in carpet paint.

00:10:55 And Because some company had just gotten up and left. And so there's one of those in my town right now, every weekend I walk by and I look in the window, like same thing, furnished office, all the things. And I just, yeah, trying to, I'm trying to, I don't know if the, if the landlord's very entrepreneurial though,

00:11:15 Right? So he just said, well, we'll just partner 50 50. You see what you can do? We'll cover the expenses. So you ramp up whatever. So he was in, he was like, let's try. Sure. Yeah. We don't have anything to lose. Right, right. To make it make money great at the same time.

00:11:28 So right during that time, I'm at Regis vaping. This is when Starbucks was starting to become really popular. And then even when I took over that business, this is, I started with office start business centers of what it was called. And so I would rent these offices and they're paying us $900 a month for the opposites. I would go to Starbucks and I would see them having a meeting,

00:11:47 sitting on a couch, having a meeting and Starbucks. And I asked him like, why don't you just use our boardroom? I mean, I, but I just feel so comfortable. It's more laid back. Alright, whatever. So the idea of how you get meeting space, office space, coffee, copier, all that. So then I start working on that business plan trying to raise money, 00:12:11 blah, blah, blah, do that while I'm running off start. And while the consulting gig is paying me. And while I have four kids, it's flexible because I know hire receptionist back then. It's easy. You hire a receptionist and train her to do it. And here's how you sell a virtual office and all this. And then you can go so I could have some flexibility.

00:12:32 Um, so then just two years into that and add some expo and some guy approaches me and says, Hey, would you want to sell your business? Like, well, it's like barely started. I'm not paying myself. I probably owe the landlord some money. There's some people who like the business already up and money and they can just take it to the next level and put some money in that much.

00:12:52 Sure. I'll look at why not. And so within three months, so business, so now I'm like, okay, well I did that. And so then I thought, well, this'll be good. I can work on my, my coworking, which wasn't called coworking. I called it a business club back then. So this is 2004. And I thought it'll also be a good time for me to go back for my MBA.

00:13:13 Why? But I just thought, I'd like to meet your husband. Who's like, now, what are you doing? And I said, well, I don't know. I might want to speak someday or right. And I just think that'll give me credibility. Plus we all have our own stuff with school, you know, now in retrospect, be like,

00:13:33 you didn't need to do that, but you have a personal, like, I was totally in that camp. I was, I was working while I worked for a bunch of startups before business school. And I remember I had a business partner who like just was scrappy and we would go meet clients. And I had that total imposter syndrome. I was like,

00:13:53 we don't know what we're doing. We don't have, we don't have marketing training. We just made this up. I'm going to get an MBA. And he was like, Okay, well, I'm going to make this business and sell it for a billion dollars. She did racking up. Yeah. I hear ya. Call me from my ex as an alumni and said,

00:14:14 would I help some of these students? I said, I promised myself that until I pay off my student that I couldn't help anyone else or my kids, but I could help them. Um, so then, so while that, the good thing about that is I'm still doing the consulting. It's still making some money. And the guy that bought the business paid me half upfront,

00:14:34 and then the rest was in payments over three years. So that was nice. I still have, cause that's always important. Like you gotta make money. And so he, and it gave, as you know, when you go through the MBA program, like an adult learning, we have a cohort cohort of 60 people. So these are all people of different backgrounds,

00:14:50 different that my crazy entrepreneurial one to have them rip the plan apart, like, let's look at it, let's analyze it if you thought about this. So it was a couple of years of a deep dive into that practicing pres presentations. Meanwhile, also I met with the attorney and had offering documents and really thought that this was the future. I was going to open these,

00:15:09 this business club model that was only 5,000 square feet. And it was going to be all over the world. And you're number one, you're never at all similar to Regis, but we just have not yet done this part of it. So then like getting ready to graduates 2006. And I still haven't, I'm not anywhere further along. Um, and I actually had a reporter that was following the story cause she was an independent.

00:15:33 She wanted to write the story about the day in the life, what an entrepreneur goes through, staying up in the middle of the night to do plans. Cause you gotta meet with the banker or tomorrow, whatever. Um, but I started to get to this frustration of, I don't, this is ridiculous. I've been working on this for four or five years.

00:15:49 No one is getting, it has even the guys with money guys or gals have the money. He said, I don't get it. I've never been to a coffee shop with a laptop. I think, I don't know what you're talking about. Oh yeah. Yeah. And back then there was, I think the statistic was 10 million people are working from coffee shops.

00:16:04 So right. The guys with the money, weren't picturing it. No. Yeah. This is where we're headed people as you listen to me. So I go onto<inaudible> website and I start exploring and looking and I see some verbiage about a business club and I think, you know what? I bet they're working on something similar. They're smart people. So I reach out to my former boss and say,

00:16:26 Hey, because I had the website up and everything. I said, could you look at this? It sounds like you guys might be working on it. Maybe we can, there's something we can do. Well, sure. I'll put it up the pipeline. And then we'd just go by. I finally decided to reach out to the executive assistant to Mark Dickson.

00:16:44 Yep. Yep. Just the gatekeeper. You know, if I can just chat to her anyway and said, here's what I'm doing. I've talked to her. You know, the person gave me the name of the lady I talked to before. Um, so I don't hear back and I am frustrated and I had been reading this book about called visioneering and it was a Christian book about now I can't remember the character in the Bible.

00:17:07 This is really sad. Like we're trying to build a wall and he keeps getting, God keeps saying, keep going. Don't care. This is what you're supposed to be doing. Whatever. And it wasn't, I never went into any kind of business. And maybe this is what entrepreneurs are made to do. I'm saying ha, which would be a millionaire.

00:17:23 It's more like, I just know there's a need for this and this, The guys in the Starbucks. And you were like, I want them in my space. There needs to be something. And it was the original design was, it was like the ones that are out there now. But anyway, so we, um, where am I? I,

00:17:44 I go to read it. So anyway, I go on a walk and back then I had a lot of conversations with I'm like, okay, I'm done with this. Like the vision to someone else's is exhausting. I can't handle the rejection. Don't want to do it anymore. So you're just going to have to drop a tree on it. If I,

00:17:59 if you want me to continue this, that right time, like go back to my office. I get I'm like Peter. And there's an email from the executive assistant to Mark Dixon that says he wants to talk to you. He's in Paris right now. Can you do a video call next Monday? And so then I start, I see my daughter at the time,

00:18:21 my oldest was 17 at the time, this is a long journey. So she's 17. And then, and I said, so I started crying. She's like, what's wrong, mom? I just said, it's the, I don't care if anything ever happened from that moment forward, it was the validation that I was on the right path. And that this was a cool concept.

00:18:37 That was the future. So he says, yeah, why don't you come on out? So they fly me to New York and I spend all day with Mark in an office with my plan, his plan, we lay everything out. He's like, okay. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to invest 10 million. Where did do 20 of these?

00:18:53 You'll run the project and I'll try to protect you as much as possible from the corporate infrastructure. Cause at this time he is, he's like, um, he's on the board, he's on the board, but it's not day to day operations. He's the crazy entrepreneur, right? It says, Hey, let's do this and do this. And he knows that when that happens,

00:19:10 everyone tries to break it down, redo it, transform whatever. So they'll pay. So he pays me a nice salary. Meanwhile, the reporter's not happy with me. She's like, you've ruined the story. Right. I'm like, I know you can't beat them. Join them. Right. Public at this time. And they had come out of bank Cause they were,

00:19:31 they went public the first time I worked for him in 19, 2000 around. And so they may have been out and back. Yeah. They were in for very long, but yeah. Out, out in back. Yeah. But they've been doing this for a long time and it's such an evolution. Yep. Let's do that anyway. So they blamed me on and it does,

00:19:55 I'm on it for a year. We still don't open one. But the cool thing is he's flying. I'm getting to go and meet the CEO of Herman Miller and Steelcase. And they're doing all kinds of research and validating it and talking to the eBays and the apples of the world. If we build this, will you come, blah, blah, blah.

00:20:11 So I'm getting to be a part of this really cool experience that I never in a million years would have done on my own. But I'm stuck in st. Louis in this little office, like trying to communicate to their construction guys, their architects a year goes by and I'm like, when are we doing it? Meanwhile, if we've gotten to go on trips and do whatever.

00:20:28 But, um, so I, to the president of the U S division was year Mo I forgot his last name, but he was head of the U S division. So I find, I asked for a call with him and said like, Hey mr. What's going on? Like, we were supposed to be opening a Palo Alto and we had a lease,

00:20:43 but we hadn't nothing that was going to be the first location. And it looks really nothing like my original vision, but I'm like, whatever, okay, here we are. They're paying me. So I, right. So he's like, well, you called to get sort of a conference call. And he's like, Oh, you called this meeting.

00:20:57 What do you want basically? Am I, um, are we going to, when are we opening? Like, are we sign the deal? And he said, your economy is getting ready to change. We've got to pull out our chairman. Our board wants us to pull out anything. That's not our core concept. Um, but so I think we're going to pay your severance again and you should go,

00:21:19 if you end up doing this, just let us know. Maybe we'll buy it. So that was the conversation For the second time. Angela, just go do it. It's fine. Okay. And so what I appreciate is that, I mean, it was a great experience. I'm so glad I left it yet anyway. Um, so I'm like,

00:21:39 okay. And I'm still, so I can go back to doing a little bit of consulting. And this is when, and I had a struggling marriage at the time, and this was kind of the straw. You know, when you need the support of the, this is like, totally not what we're talking about, but when you need the support of your mate at that time,

00:21:56 that's when I needed it. But to say, Hey, babe, it's going to be okay, here we go. And he didn't, I'm like, okay, well, why aren't you here? We fast forward a year of trying to just meet with other investors and whatever. Meanwhile, the economy is slowly housing. Market's going down, we're upside down on our house,

00:22:15 blah, blah, blah. And I find, and I get, I finally realized that I got four kids to feed. I need insurance. I need to put this concept on the shelf. So in 2008, I went to go work for century 21, corporate, which is owned by religion. So I was a franchise business consultant. So I learned all about franchising.

00:22:34 And so I'm the mediator between the franchisee and the franchise or, um, and of course each year said, okay, I'm just gonna do this one more year. And then eight years go by until I finally left. But in the middle there there's a climb. There was a climb for kids at CEO of century 21 with you. And he, I asked a question one time and said,

00:22:55 Hey, do any women ever go on this climb? Cause like, well, no, but our, you said we didn't, we had one last year, but we don't have this one this year. Would you like to go? And I was asking the question, just curiosity, like, I don't know how to climb a mountain. Right? Anyway,

00:23:10 no, I signed up, declined the third and seventh, highest mountains in North America with a team of five guys. And I'm a senior in high school and an eighth grader and two older single I'm like, sure, I can I'll do this. But I think it's like with anything it's like, can you, we want the challenge not, we sometimes go into things blindly.

00:23:31 So I did. I don't, you don't know what you don't know. So just like having a baby is going to be a piece of cake, Four of them Blind it out. But anyway, so there we are. So it was after that experience. And also along the way my kids are saying they're watching the news and seeing we were, and it's growing.

00:23:53 And it's frustrating when you see that, you're like, Oh it doesn't. And it doesn't really matter. So you have the idea. So what if someone else was better at putting all the pieces together? And I realized my biggest fear was asking for money because I didn't want to, because my mom had lost money to family and friends by her business.

00:24:12 I ever want that feeling of, Oh, when people money and that they take a risk, but I didn't understand that investment. That's what they do. I wasn't mentally accepting of that. So anyway, I decide I had the conversation with him at the president of century 21, when we're on the trip and said, told him my dream. And he's like,

00:24:31 well, why don't you just start working on it, disclose it to HR, work on it and then open your first one and then go from there. Okay. So it's kinda like the CEO said, give me permission to be who I am. Right. So I did, you know, cause when you work, that was a homebased. It was,

00:24:50 um, the business consultant was, I worked from home. So I did have lots of flexibility. And as an entrepreneur, we were able to, a lot of times when it comes to traditional work, traditional workers, don't CA can't comprehend how you can get what you're getting done, because you have laser focus. You're like, yeah. If I get 40 hours in two days.

00:25:06 Yeah, Yeah. Do you have a different why? It's just, yeah. Right. I work on it. We're on the plan. Keep going and re applying for grants, blah, blah, blah. And then the old friend of mine says, Hey, there's this place? There's this building in Washington, Missouri. It's got a lot of vacancy.

00:25:25 My boss just bought it. Not too long ago. I shared your idea. Would you be willing? Would you consider Washington, Missouri, Washington, Missouri. Okie dokie. It's 14,000 population. Don't know a single soul. I'm like, I'll go look at it. And I wasn't crazy about it, but I thought, you know, what? If I can make it work here.

00:25:47 Cause that's the model, right? If you it's easy to open something where, you know, everyone loves you and Louis, I've been talking about this for a decade or more. And so people would just come because they were my like me, but there are nobody. I have no reputation, nothing. So I thought, okay, if I can make it work there,

00:26:03 I can make it work anywhere. And any small town, it'd be a good test. And again, entrepreneurial landlord who said, Hey, we'll help you with build out and small loan and let's see what we can do. So then that's where I had. I think I had more hope than brains. Cause I thought I can make this happen. It took a year before the town even said,

00:26:26 okay, you're here for good. Cause I'm a small town and everyone lives there forever. There there's a lot of people would come in from the outside, they opened up a shop, they sell stuff. And then they go back to their st. Louis and they spend their money. So there was this idea of you want our support. Well then you should be eating,

00:26:41 drinking, shopping in this community. And no one ever said that out. Right. But it's true. So anyway, I joined the rotary, joined the chamber, got involved, host all kinds of events. I have one office tenant renegotiate with the landlord. And then, so I had the first kid that thing I did was my friend was the property manager and she wasn't very good at it.

00:27:02 I said, you are not sure. And she's like, yeah, I know. I don't like it. And I'm not, it's not my favorite thing to do, but I knew we could do it. And my husband, the second, the second husband get married in 2015, we opened X and 11 in August. We got married in February,

00:27:16 opened August. And I had already like signed the lease like a couple months, every get married. He's like, excuse me. But I've been working on this for 18 years. Right. Bad, mr. He's like, okay, but we're married now. And so we should probably talk about these things before you sign a lease for five years. Okay.

00:27:33 I'll do that next time promise. So I'm like, you gotta come with me. And so he was very supportive and I kept the century 21 job for the first year and a half. So he kind of, so, but I could work from the office from right. So we, so that first six months it's not moving fast enough. And the landlord had also invested in a restaurant in this building.

00:27:58 So this is a 55,000 square foot building. So the lower level had a restaurant. Um, and the guy and it didn't work. And it was a cafe in the day and a bar at night. And there was this espresso machine sitting down there. And so I had, we were just doing, Slavia like self-serve. And I knew my vision was I wanted to have like a Starbucks or up call days or whoever placed in there,

00:28:23 but I wasn't going to necessarily be in the coffee business, but I just needed to be a part of it. But we couldn't afford to do that when we did the build out because you got to buy a thousand dollar refrigerators. And so this is a high end espresso machine. Scott, my husband looks at it and does he's like mr. Mechanical and examines the whole thing and research,

00:28:41 it figured out he loves coffee. Whereas I like a latte, but he was the coffee, that coffee cup. He watches every YouTube video on how to be able to reset visits. Every coffee shop asks, tons of questions does all this research. And he's like, and we said, let's just see if this works. We start making lattes. We open up the space to the public.

00:29:00 Did you borrow the machine? Yeah. We'll work out the finances later, go see if you can sell something from it. So, um, so the coffee part of it became popular, but the building has a lot of medical space and there's no place to park and it wasn't, it's not a, Hey, I want to go open up a coffee shop in an office building just as not.

00:29:28 So we were making do so I'm very much of a bootstrapper it's like, okay, what else can we do? What else can we sell? How else can? Cause I wasn't, people didn't understand. I was like, I was from an alien planet and no one knew what coworking was. I'm like, so it's been around for a long time,

00:29:44 but coworking itself since 2009 where they, it was, it's a snapshot. So they didn't do this with 2015. This is 2015. Yeah. So the membership model people weren't understanding it offices. Yes. Meeting rooms. Okay. And so we started to push the meeting rooms. There's a lot of industrial companies, so stuff you're doing an offsite lunch and learns all that.

00:30:07 So yeah, 2016, the coffee's becoming popular and well, we thought now what's really, you know, whatever. So we start exploring some of the drag, like visit coffee shops all the time. And, and that's when we were dating, we would go to coffee shops. So, um, we just liked the feel and whatever. So we had a guy that we met along the way,

00:30:37 had a trailer. There was a one sided drive up that he would literally just take to the VFW hall every morning and sit there from five to 10. So whatever coffee you've probably come back in 2016, I would go visit my sister, my sister, my daughter, who's living in Seattle at the time. And I see these little drive-thru kiosks everywhere,

00:30:57 these little bitty buildings, I'm sure you've seen them all over. I'm like, wow. And I'm outside nonlinear. And I'm like, what's the population of Mount Vernon. I think it was six or 8,000. And there was eight drive through how do these all, every single one of these make money? Well, most people when they open up a,

00:31:18 and I'm not diminishing this, but a hobby chocolate sale or quilt store or a furniture store, it's because they're passionate about it. They want to make enough living. And they're just having fun, just like coffee shops. Cause they think it's going to be fun and I'm retired and I don't need to make a lot of money and it's okay. Whatever.

00:31:35 So I want to make money and I want to build, I like building models. And so when we saw that came back and that's when we started researching the drive through trailer, because if the cost of getting up brick and mortar, it's going to be 250 to 300, just even for Wow. Yeah. The strategy. So we did that. So this is 2018.

00:31:59 We finally, you know, we go talk to landlords on their parking lot. Like, Hey, would you want to come? We run our parks. So we rent the parking lot, find little parking lot and like a couple of spaces in the parking lot, like 10 spaces. So what's funny. This is an old abandoned gas station on a gravel lot.

00:32:19 That's been on the market for years. It's across from a graveyard on a side road. And the popular sounds amazing traffic like 11,000 up and down the street. So we, and what, so we did like a lease purchase option. Like, Hey, we'll see if this works. And it was like, again, if it's an entrepreneur, a landlord,

00:32:39 like sure, whatever trailer there. And so it, so we with them in the first few days, we're selling as much coffee from there. Of course, as we were at the coffee house because yeah, we, within that first year, we know, well, I know I've always known that I was, I was wanting to duplicate this model with in Washington and it's not like my husband cause a hard time,

00:33:07 like that was never going to make any money. Like it was always going to make a little bit of money. And then you multiply that types of 10. Yeah. It's not like I was going to be, we were live on Highlife with one, a little bit business center in Washington, Missouri. So at the same time our meeting space is taking off.

00:33:24 So, so 2018, 2019, I build an 800 square foot meeting, additional meeting room because there's lots of demand for that. It's like, okay, people don't want to be members like 10 members. And then you're like, if you're you also have free wifi and they can buy a latte and spend $5 a day, why are they being a member?

00:33:42 Because they didn't value the office part of it. But I'm just coming here. I want to get some work done, but then it started opening up. And this is the hard part as you would appreciate with the business center is my shtick. At the very beginning, my presentations back in 2000 worth, you'll be served by a concierge and a blazer rather than a pump in an apron.

00:34:03 This is going to be professional. And so it's going to set us apart so you don't have to worry about traditional. I said, there's no kids, there's no teenagers and no toddlers. That's why you don't do that. So here we are. We have moms clubs, Bible studies, political conversations, business people. I mean, it doesn't matter.

00:34:22 Everyone comes out, which is cool. So there's this community aspect and the front of the house, which is a thousand square feet. And then the traditional offices and only 10 of them plus the meeting rooms. But because it's a community, people are in their offices, they walk out into the coffee shop, they run into somebody, they went to church with and high school with and whatever.

00:34:41 And everyone who's rented an office here knows that it's there, you're walking through this coffee shop, which was originally just supposed to get a workspace area cohort. So anyway, so we decided the drive through model is where. So we started seeing the numbers there. I thought, okay, this is the drive through model is where it is. So we start to look for other options.

00:35:03 So last year in 2019, we met with a guy who was a former neighbor who does franchising. And then, so I pulled back from that a little bit, but we just met with them again last week. So anyway, during COVID, so we are at a, we put that to a peak with, so we open the drive through, we keep working on the second location.

00:35:21 We opened a second location about, about seven or eight miles away and another small town. And so now we've gotten this brand like, nice, but then you have this following, you're going to come to union Missouri. It's like the special, like you're going to be. And there's only, there's a Starbucks inside target. And in 2008 there was a Starbucks drive through.

00:35:46 But that's when they closed like 600 stores across the country because yeah, if it wasn't doing a certain role to find out the volume that it was doing $3,000 a day, Starbucks closes, right. Because they also had Not good enough for Starbucks. Totally fine. For exit 11. Yeah. And I called a friend of mine. He works at target.

00:36:07 She's like a tire level person at target just to say, can you give any kind of a ballpark on how these, so how the locations inside targets are doing? She gave me those numbers cause no one in the coffee business shares their numbers. So I went to coffee slash coffee, expo, whatever that's I forgetting the name of it. But let me take shows.

00:36:29 When we went to that before we opened up the drive through, and then we went again, after we opened up the first drive through and then hearing the numbers that the profit margin in a traditional coffee shop is two to 3% like that is nothing kind of the average coffee shop does about 250,000 in revenue. This is the average coffee shop across all planets 3%.

00:36:49 Yes, because they're, they've got the overhead. I mean the cost of goods. And as you know, are the base, shouldn't be more than 50%. It shouldn't be more than like your cost of goods and your payroll anyway. So we're thinking we're doing pretty good because our overhead, we quickly realized that this thousand square feet that we have to wash dishes clean up,

00:37:12 after they suck up the internet, they leave their trash, blah, blah, blah. And there's a rifle or where they just, they take their trash with them. They're there for 30 seconds to a minute and they go, and then we were the perception you think with higher end coffee shops is that a drive through would cheapen it like you can't possibly do really.

00:37:33 You can't do anything organic and whole and real and out of a five foot. You just, can't where we figured out a system where you can do that and do a lot of prep beforehand. And then in 2019 NASA found a shared co-op for roasting. So we said, okay, let's start roasting our own. So that saved us money. And then we said,

00:37:51 my husband's name is Scott. Has it been using Scotty's? So people love spottings dogs, love dogs, like babies. It's like, let's create a brand. That's got its coffees. So we started, we launched that a year into it too, which is a whole other revenue opportunity that is waiting. That can be Now you do retail coffee. People can buy.

00:38:11 Yup. Well you can come to the drive through and say, yeah, I want a pound of holding an Ethiopian and resell it right out the window. They can also come to the coffee shop. So then we, then we were trailer. Number two is eight foot longer, has a built in bathroom. It's got so it's maxed out. And that one actually does sit on a parking lot,

00:38:29 taking up 10 spaces on a parking lot where there's a Mexican restaurant and all kinds of stuff. So, and it's not like parking it, it doesn't move it's there. So it's tied into the seat. You're not parking it some, yeah, it stays there. And so the model is, it looks cute, like a food truck, but it's not,

00:38:47 it's so small footprint, which people love, um, and striked here. So I went back to what I would say, pre COVID. We thought, okay, this is a good amount, our baseline number. And when I did projections, I'm like, let's choose that up. That's a normal production. So we had, and we had just opened union on March 13th and then that following week and shut down all restaurants,

00:39:14 blah, blah, blah. And I kept going back to the CDC to say, are we really going to central business? Like, are we in a central business? Cause I wanted, I didn't want it to look like we were taking advantage or anything. It's like, no, the workspace or for the drive through place had to close, then have to move it,

00:39:29 I guess. But it did. So I thought, okay. And up to that point, we had a couple of young moms who said, I now have to go homeschool. So like, okay, do what you gotta do. And then a couple of other kids at the dry cleaner that said, I, I just don't feel comfortable. I want to go home.

00:39:43 Like, okay. So that's why closing them workspace and coffee house people, members and tenants would still get in, but the coffee shop, parts club sort of the retail aspect. But I was able to shift those people. I thought, Oh, I'll just shift the coffee shop and workspace people over to the drivers. Well then they quit too. So I'm like,

00:40:01 okay, now hire only we're opening up a new location. So we needed five or six new people trying to train them on how to be a barista. And then also thinking, Oh, we've got to wear gloves and sanitary Safety protocols. Yeah. Cash and blah, blah, blah. But you know, the square app it has. Yeah. Well we've never used the wireless.

00:40:23 We always just take the card and swipe it. So then we started just handing in a little box out the window and they've touched touchless. They're like, this is the coolest thing. So that became like, okay, it is safe to go there. We aren't six feet away. We're smiling. And so it became this place of, I've got to get out of the hockey would say like,

00:40:40 I have not been anywhere in a week except here. Like this is like, go back home. I'm like, what are we doing today? Like where does drive? And we decided to get out. And so, and then the people's work patterns changed. So normally in the dry through art, we'd be 80% of our production within the first two hours.

00:40:59 Well now it's all day long and mean sure. There's peace in the morning, but it was kind of, her patterns are off and at schools are closed and parents are homeschooling the Washington doubled in production Because that's also interesting. I mean the Starbucks are totally dead. No, I shut him down. So yeah. Yeah. I mean closed, but even those ours was still doing mobile orders only kind of similar,

00:41:26 but it was very, certainly not the friendly local barista experience. It was like grabbing like ma you know, felt service. But I mean, their volume had to have just Paul I'm at it. Yeah. Because of my daughter, my youngest works at Starbucks in Springfield, Missouri. Okay. So she's there and she's like, well, they offered about a couple of weeks before it really hit where we are that she said they're offering to continue to pay people if they don't want to come to work.

00:41:57 But anybody who wants to stay at work, they'll pay $3 more an hour. So what happens with college kids? If you say we'll pay you for not working, is they all choose to not work at work? That for my kid who says, so all of Starbucks is Springfield clothes except for hers. And then eventually they had to close it cause I've never had to work it.

00:42:16 So while I understand where Starbucks was coming from to protect employees, but it ended up being a, um, I ended up hurting them, I think by saying, let's come up. So we're in the meantime saying, well, what should we close it? Should we not? How do we do it? And having the strive through experience where they order,

00:42:35 they placed the order at the, to our face. So there's no like box, they talk to, they just pull up. They wait there and my visit with them and everybody knows their drink. So there's this great experience. Um, so anyway, that, so, so union is, was moving along and so was Washington and now, but we thought,

00:42:57 okay, you know, basically our entire competition's been shut down. So of course we're going to be because the other coffee shops in town are not drive through. They did try to do some like the grab and go or coped service Starbucks and said target had to close. So we thought, Oh, this'll be, um, be an opportunity to while those people,

00:43:17 but also just expect that once things go back to semi normal, they'll go back to their old habits, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So we gained about 2,400 new customers in that 45 days. And so there's, I love about square. It gives you all these stats. So Angela, it also do you have their email also If they'd given it to us.

00:43:36 So we have 14 or 15,000 in our database of customers. Now those could be, but about 2,500 of them, we have email addresses on so that we can say, let me get with them. So that what, so what Starbucks open and everything else is back open. We are, we're the same. So we have kind of flat lined at the new rate,

00:43:58 which showed us that what's possible because I think you get to like, well, I think this is our max, this is what we do. Yeah. You had it in your head, like we're doing, we're doing pretty well compared to, and then you saw like, Oh, what pretty well could be? And it was much higher than you thought Was.

00:44:15 And I think part of it is a lot of, I mean, I know I strongly believe in the Michael Gerber going to work on, on your business, not in your business, but here, if you don't know the business, if we did not have Scott and I did not know how to be a barista and how to, you know, make the burritos and do everything,

00:44:34 I don't know that we could have sustained it. So we had to, I mean, Scott and I are, we're at Eddie and I think the employees appreciate that. Cause they know when I come in there and I'm working the window or not, but it's like, I will dive in and do whatever we need to do to keep moving forward. The sleeves are up.

00:44:50 You're in it. Yeah. So when you need to be, I mean, yeah, I'd love that book too, by the way. I'll, Before I opened up office start, my uncle had me read that it is set it up as it's going to be franchise, even if you don't ever do it. Totally. Yup. Which it sounds like you might,

00:45:08 what's on the horizon for, at 11 Through the office center, the coworking space and the coffee shop are cool and hip and it would be great to duplicate that model. But right now, and I do believe that coworking space and meeting space will have an uptick. We just have to get through this phase because people will be like, okay, I am,

00:45:32 my company has realized I could work from home. Okay. So the general office start office space market will implode, but coworking, a meeting space will be like, I still have to get away from my kids and my dog for an hour for this conference call. Or we had a group, um, an industrial group that rented our room a couple of weeks ago.

00:45:51 And it's this huge room that they said, we need to be six feet apart. And so we've set the tables apart. And there's only a team of like eight to 10 people in there, but they needed their leadership to get together. We're still wearing masks. So we wore masks as we brought in pastries and coffee and all that. So it's like,

00:46:05 we'll do whatever. And I know we're different because we're in the Midwest and have to be wearing masks, but it's like, we will honor whatever it is that their preference. Yeah. So a quick question about that. You didn't change the price of your meeting room because it was at half capacity. What do you mean? Like, no, you didn't Your meeting room price because they said,

00:46:28 Oh, we're only bringing, you know, half the people that can fit. Oh yeah. I heard a lot of people say that like, Nope. I think you're thinking about it the wrong way. People need the room Room, no matter what. So yeah. That's always a smaller room that seats eight to 10, but right, exactly. And it's interesting when you and I,

00:46:48 before the call started talking about landlords, it's that, cause we now make it since we manage the building still. So they, a lot of the tenants reached out and said, will the landlord offer concessions or whatever? And so we just said, yep. Do what you had to do for the next couple months. We can always add it on,

00:47:05 on the back end or start, you know, pay rent this week or this month plus a little bit. But I've also had four, I have four company tenants up for renewal. So I did the same thing. Like, okay, we are going to increase because they have been below March for all this time. Most people are lowering the rent.

00:47:23 They're not Lady not going to happen Status quo. Right. Totally. So you're the point of contact for the property? Yes. So we have, yeah. I mean, it's an interesting Role and the landlord probably loves that because we have an onsite property manager and then building tenants, I think love it. So we, I have to be careful that I don't give us extra privileges.

00:47:49 And I was telling my husband at the lower level, honey, he's got mechanically inclined. So he oversees all of that. Any maintenance issues and pirates. Okay. Interesting. The team here. So I have, you know, I think I have 21 employees now, which is weird for me to say that, but Yes, Angela, that makes you a CEO And good that this core group,

00:48:17 because well, bottom line is if we were, do you ever watch Marcus Limonus from a profit. There is this it's a reality show, but he goes in to help small businesses. He talks about it's processes, people and product and the drink. I had a friend telling me to watch it forever and I'm finally like, wow, we have Scott and I watch it and you have to pay for it like on Netflix,

00:48:36 but it's totally worth it. It's like, okay. So he, um, he would come into our business and say, you need to shut down the coworking space at coffee. Doesn't make sense. You're wasting energy. Blahbity blah, blah, blah. I'm justifying in that because we were the property manager. I need somebody here on site because I needed a receptionist for the tenants.

00:49:01 If that same person could also make a latte between 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM and serve some pastries. Why not for now? And I have to have the space because my marketing, you know, we're doing marketing, you need an office, we're doing everything here anyway, sit in the trailer and do work. So, so I, and this sort of store all of our backups.

00:49:24 So we are now having bigger problems that I never imagined. And now, as I've been an expert of this is sideline. When I go to first open up in 2015, I tell the it guy, cause I haven't been in it since 2007. I'm like, yeah. Um, I need some cat five cable. And I told him like, okay,

00:49:46 please don't ever say that again. Don't do cat five cable anymore. Apparently like, but I was, you know, for the telephone and other things. But I was trying to let him know that I knew what I was talking about. Oh, got it. Right. But in general, I understand a lot about the workspace industry. The frustrating part about the coffee industry is it's deep.

00:50:12 I mean, you are selling pencils. I mean, my husband said we're selling $5 at a time, whereas I rent an office right. Hours at a time, whatever. Yeah. Just collect your money and I check in, are you good? Okay. Right. That's all I gotta do. So it's uh, so I'm learning, I mean the cash business,

00:50:29 like I don't know why I haven't been in the cash business, but how what's the best? No, you better all of this process. I'm like, can I just like round up, did I have to really give them all their change? It's got a balance. Angela. So the workspace in coffee model, w do you believe in it in another location?

00:50:51 Yes. And I believe in it when I found out about here is that it's cute because when, when people are coming in and touring like this is folks come in town, they introduce exit 11 as the, we work for our community, which I think is huge. So they're like, this is we've taken it that I think both with the drive through model and the coworking coffee shop model work in small towns and they,

00:51:18 no one is focusing on small towns. Like Starbucks is not going to go into a small town. We work as either go into a small town, but there's still that demand. And there's still lots of entrepreneurs and people working from home. And I tried to do this when we first opened here is find somebody who's connected in the community to be my center manager.

00:51:37 And I hired the wrong person. I quickly realized I can't afford to pay someone right now to be that person I'll have to try and be that person, but in the future, that's that key role because it's in that, it's the key role. Anyway, in any, even in big cities, if they know everyone in town and everyone in town trust them,

00:51:54 then they will come to see what it's about. Um, and it is there's, it's, it's exciting to see that this model is there's. I don't know, there's always this demand, it just keeps evolving. And the riskiest part is taking on the space always. So if you can, which I think is what Regis has partners with landlords to say,

00:52:19 I can't be on the hook for 50,000 square feet until a certain point for total ramp up or revenue share. So, but I love, And you found, we talk about this there, and I love that you're sharing this because I think there are people doing, and you may not have had full on, you know, sort of management agreement, but the way you described it as entrepreneurial landlords,

00:52:40 willing to help with the buildout gifts, give you some room to ramp up, you know, whatever that looked like, so that you could get into the space without I assume, going to the bank and getting your $500,000 plus loan. Yeah. Hard to get under many circumstances. Right. People struggle with that even when they own their home. And so well now you own the home,

00:53:00 so sign it away, Angela. Then you got right there, you got to get the husband to sign off on, you know, on that. I mean, it's a big deal. So, you know, we don't hear a lot of, sort of the local stories of people finding the entrepreneurial landlord. And so to me, um, that's really,

00:53:18 you know, it's a, it's a nice Ray of hope and yeah. Which is also with the drive through model. If you go a broker, the broker is not going to be interested, like, cause it's for sale for lease, whatever. I don't want to be interested in talking to us like, Oh, look did up a thousand dollars and going to have to do what to the parking lot.

00:53:34 I'll get it. So they're going to get to the owner. So you have to, somehow you need to do this digging and research to find out who the owner would you and what I love about my husband. And still just seeing if they're standing out on the parking on the property and just walk up and doctor It's like, they got to show up at some point,

00:53:51 I'll just be there. And yeah. Yeah. I think people give up because they think they have to raise that money. And so you have to be smarter. I like, I've always had to have some kind of income. Even when I opened office start, it's like, I'm not paying myself. You don't get to pay yourself people. So you have to make money somewhere else or have a,

00:54:09 a partner that is helping to fund things, fund the family while you build it. And also think multiples, unless of course you're, unless you just want a hobby, which some people want to have because even coworking space, there's that certain threshold of, I don't know what the stats are now, but it used to be like 60% occupancy before you were even breakeven,

00:54:30 right? Yeah, totally. Yeah. Sometimes it can take a while to get there. So you have to be patient. So you, speaking of patience and persistence, I mean, you hung in there for a long time pursuing this. What, what would you tell somebody who's, who's got a dream similar to yours. Who's I think there's, um,

00:54:53 you know, Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield chicken soup for the soul books. Right? Mark Victor Hansen had an audio series that I listened to back in 2004 called dreams don't have deadlines. So he used the example of, you know, an 85 year old woman who starts a dance school or a retired doctor who decides to go teach or do whatever.

00:55:13 And that we think, especially as a young woman, I would say like these, this woman with 18 children on the cover of fortune magazine, she created this whole like, Oh, I should have, you know, are you get that in the business journal? It's like the 40, under 40, the 30, under 30. And they're just disappointed.

00:55:31 Cause like, why didn't, why you're, we're so hard on ourselves. Like how come I didn't get there? So you think we're in such a hurry, we to do it all by the time we're 40 and make our millions and then we can retire. We're 43 and it's it's okay. And there's no way I could have, I think about had I opened the business with my ex husband at the time that I was wanting to,

00:55:53 it would have gone. It wouldn't have worked. And so there is that it's um, and I've had other ideas, you know, we have all kinds of ideas. Like there was an anxiety, can we go to all of them? But I think that something that is continues to resonate with you and it's still there and you keep, um, and we'll go away,

00:56:15 you have to continue to pursue it and find ways to make it happen. And it's interesting to me that people will say, um, Oh it, because you're female, you weren't able to raise money. I'm like, no, because I just don't, I didn't have the tools that I needed and I didn't have to go that route. And so I've worked really hard to do the boots.

00:56:35 Bootstrapping is it's not fun sometimes, but it feels better if you, if it, if you don't get to pursue it all the way. And really landlords, I think there are it's around changing the mindset, which is why I went to, we just have, if I can just have a little piece of something big I'm okay. Then having to own all of it.

00:56:56 And so that's where we are with the whole idea of franchising is it's fun. I like the idea of like, let's just open three or four of these that makes a great living and go on our way. But then now to be able, and I think being in the drive through business, now, if it has a low overhead, I'm like other franchises and it's in the drive through business.

00:57:15 Why not create a living a great living for other couples, you know, millennials or some retired couple, or this is the next step. And we get to share that. And I have to, we had a discussion with a couple of other husband-wife partners about the ego, because my ego is tied into this. So when it's funny, because when women will come into,

00:57:40 like I was talking to owner, I do mean my husband, I'm the owner of the business owners, but there's this, like, I birthed this thing before this person ever came on this planet, but he's getting the credit and he's not is my own. He's like, I'm not taking credit anywhere. I'm just like someone coffee, you know? But so anyway,

00:58:04 that's a whole other side thing we're going into business where your husband is. You have to know quite. Yeah. But there are, I mean, I think that's common in franchises is there are husband and wife teams that right. They're looking for a lifestyle business and wants something they can do together. That's appealing to both of them. And I love this model to your point.

00:58:30 And it gives opportunities to people in smaller communities where other franchises may not be quite as, Right. Yeah. It's like, Oh, we're special enough to have this. Thank you. Like, I guess what McDonald's just to experience when they first started going. Yeah, totally. Uh, what is the exit 11? Where does the name come from?

00:58:51 So the original name was express office center. So X, P R E S S. And it was nicknamed there's going to be nicknamed espresso, but the problem is back then, if you don't have the ma, if you don't have the web address and it's too hard for people to figure it out, cause it was<inaudible> dot com. So I was on it.

00:59:12 I've always had this thing with 11. And so if I see one 11 to 11, 11, 11, just numb that number all the time. I find, I don't know what I just said. Okay. I'll say every time I, it I'll say prayer gratitude or something. Cause I don't know, but it's, so it's not really anything other than I was on a road trip in 2009 and driving back and like,

00:59:31 I've got to change the name. I've got to come up with something else and racking my brain. And I stopped at a gas station. I see this massive billboard and all it has on there is X 11. Like that's it. There's like, I'm like, what's an next 11. So then I get on the highway and I start to see sign after sign,

00:59:47 after sign. It literally says hospital X, a lot of restaurants I want to watch. So I'm like, why not? And it ends up tying in because the 11 they're parallel, you've got multiple businesses going on, exit off the main interstate to a side road or a small town. And so it ends up working at the beginning. People are like,

01:00:10 I don't understand. It's like, well, neither did Starbucks was like the nickname of a character and Moby Dick. And it's nothing, you know, our key goes was the nickname of the pinky red hair. So as long as it's memorable and I had friends who knew, knew me for a long time and do have the concept of like, Oh my God,

01:00:26 that's horrible. I don't know what to tell you. I used to always see it on the GWA list and it always caught my eye for some reason. So it's interesting. Totally Angela, we are out of time for today. Thank you for sharing your, your story long, but interesting. And I think inspirational because you have this dream for a long time and,

01:00:49 and it sort of took its turns and, and, you know, you had a lot of interesting experiences along the way, and I feel like you're just getting started again. I know. And then I look at my age, I'm like, okay, I can't think about that. No, but in a fun way, I mean, you've had Successes and you've had experiences that lots of people would,

01:01:06 would love to have and learned. I mean, you're, it feels like you're a lifelong learner. You love to learn new things and experience new things. And you're about to dive into this mobile coffee per not mobile, but drive through coffee. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and then like marching as marketing and digital stuff for me. So it's like,

01:01:26 the kids are now becoming, and my oldest daughter has, she's a barista and helps me with the accounting and all that. So it's, they are now coming into it. So, And it's also just kind of a good story, which is part of the reason I had reached out is, you know, you've got kind of a few different things going on.

01:01:43 And so you've kind of put the brakes on the workspace for a little bit and amped up the coffee space for a little bit. And so I think that's also a little bit of a lesson is some variety in the, in the business model and the income, because it allowed you to just kind of shift gears and not completely fall apart. So, and your relationship with the landlord also a big,

01:02:02 Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Does anyone else sort of float we're closing the door. I know. Right, exactly. Anyway. Well, we can't wait to hear. Yeah. Know, love to hear your story and look forward to seeing, seeing your, the evolution of the, uh, of the new business.

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