Finding Success Through Humility and Impact: Tyler's Entrepreneurial Journey

This episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast features an insightful conversation with Tyler, an entrepreneur who made a significant impact on the restaurant technology space within a year. Tyler shares his journey from starting as an entrepreneur at 23, keeping his business within a close-knit community, to deciding on a path of mergers and acquisitions that led to the creation of VersiTech and its subsidiaries, Bold Integrated Payments and Tonic point of sale. The dialogue delves deep into the motivations behind expansion, focusing on making an impact rather than solely chasing financial success. Tyler and the host, Jeremy, discuss the importance of community and relationships, both personally and professionally, shaped by their life experiences. Tyler's story of resilience and growth is underscored by the shared principle of humility and the desire to affect positive change in the industry and people's lives. Additionally, the conversation touches upon the benefits of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) for business clarity and employee engagement, and concludes with personal reflections on gratitude, health, and the impact one can have on the world.

00:00 Welcome to the Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast
00:33 Introducing Tyler: From Unknown Entrepreneur to Industry Sensation
01:10 The Evolution of VersiTech: Merging Payments and POS Solutions
01:56 The Power of Impact: Tyler's Mission Beyond Profits
04:32 Building Community: The Foundation of Tyler's Success
04:41 Personal Stories of Resilience and Community
21:07 Fostering Relationships and Creating a Welcoming Space
25:18 A Story of Transformation and Success
26:22 The Power of Sharing Personal Stories
28:41 The Impact of a Podcast: Reaching and Uplifting Others
32:11 Balancing Work, Family, and Personal Growth
36:59 Core Values and Their Role in Business and Personal Life
41:05 Embracing Challenges and Staying Humble
46:20 Gratitude, Health, and Making a Difference
48:35 Closing Thoughts and Future Plans

Transcript

0:02

This is the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast. Helping you run your restaurant better.

Jeremy: 0:14

welcome back to the restaurant technology guys podcast. I thank everyone out there for joining us as I say each and every time I know you guys got lots of choices on how you guys spend your time So we appreciate you guys, spend the time with us each week when we come on the air today I am joined by somebody that I just met but i've been following for quite some time So i'm gonna let him talk a little bit about himself. tyler You've become an internet sensation recently, and I'm super excited to, to get into your story today. But, for those that are not familiar with who you are, Tyler, why don't you introduce yourself? And then we can talk a little bit about what you get to do.

Tyler Young: 0:45

Yeah. thank you, Jeremy. And thank you for inviting me onto the show. I'll start with my journey as an entrepreneur was at 23 years old. And as of a year ago, I don't think anybody even know who I was, including yourself. and in the last year that's changed. And that was a very intentional change. even though as an entrepreneur at 23. My business stayed in a bubble and I, for a lot of time focused just on the people around me and payment processing. And in 2017 decided to take a different path and did a few M and A's, which got us here today, which is a couple of brands. We have VersiTech as our entity, Bold Integrated Payments as our payment platform. And, Tonic point of sale. Tonic point of sale focuses on channel sales. Bold always focused on channel sales for payments. The two came together and they formed VersiTech, which has allowed us to take the market by storm because we have two solutions for VARs and ISVs.

Jeremy: 1:46

I appreciate you sharing that. And again, as I said, it's very seldom that I'm in the space as long as I've been, and I don't know about people like you guys. So it's been cool to get to hear a little bit more about your story. Tyler, talk to me a little bit about why, why did you choose just a few years ago to expand? Because, I think you're why. Makes up a, really formulates what it is that you like to do and why you're looking to get out, not just to make more money or not to do that. I, I know you and I talked a little bit pre show about that. Really, it was the impact that you were looking to have. So I'd love for you to talk a little bit about that if you don't mind.

Tyler Young: 2:15

Yeah, great question. And I flob there on the explanation. It's a little bit complicated cause we do so much as a company, but Intentionally, we are just here to make an impact. I have my partner, Gary Lou, and he and I came together in 2021, just wanting to make an impact on the industry, on people's lives. Prior to that, we were two small companies with around 16 employees. We did extremely well. My life was. Very easy. I had an amazing team, the average 10 year, five years plus, and we were just all doing our thing. We supported each other. We had very happy customers. It really Gary was in the same boat. We decided we wanted to come together and build an organization that could Thrive through building communities. And it was going to start with the community of our team. And now that we've grown to 105 as of last month, I think it's probably 120 by the end of the quarter, but that team of people has our laser focus. And that's really then just expanded into the community that is payments and point of sale. And then all the way down to the end users. Gary and I really sat around a table, spent thousands of hours on the phone and said, okay, what do we want to do with the rest of our time? And it wasn't to chase money. It said, you know what? There's a market being underserved. There's a lot of entrepreneurs that don't have solutions. And we wanted to be that solutions provider and therefore impacting their lives, allowing people to have a product, a solution that they could build their own business on. Their own ideas. And as entrepreneurs ourselves, it just made sense to be a vehicle that others can thrive on. And in doing so, it's not the most financially beneficial road that we decided to take, but ultimately it was what we felt called to do.

Jeremy: 4:17

I love that. I love that. that explanation. and again, I think really even that sense of community is how we got connected, how I've started to get aware of who you are and what you do truly is through, former guests that have been on the show. Jim Roddy has been on the show a couple of times. Others is really through the RSPA. And so talk to me, why is community such an important part of your life? And why did you decide to build first the small community of 16 people and then expand that out?

Tyler Young: 4:41

Yeah, I'll try and make this a little bit short, but some people are aware. that I was born in the hospital system, but I didn't leave the hospital system for about five years. It wasn't for me, but my older brother who was 23 months was diagnosed with leukemia and I was still in my mom's stomach at the time. So when I was born into the world, we basically spent all of our time in the hospital system. We lived in Seattle. My father was down in Oregon working and then we had a surprise baby brother. He's only 16, 16 months younger than me. Okay. So it was just kind of him and I in the hospital systems, and it was a really strong community of people and support, and I have a lot of memories of playing in the play center with other children at Fred Hutchinson's that were going through leukemia, or any form of cancer. They were not all leukemia, and I grew up with a lot of support, a lot of support for myself, a lot of support for my brother. and he is a cancer survivor today. He turned 40 last year, so that's a different long story. But that sense of community and support just gave me a lot of hope in life that no matter what happens, there's a positive outcome, there's a chance, there's a lesson to be learned. And that has been my driver in life is to help others see that hope. Very optimistic person. I think anyone that meets me will say I'm energetic, but it's just how I grew up. Cause when you were the. kids in the room, we were the most positive. And that goes to me and my younger brother, Bubba, if you ever get to meet him, that's our approach. And we've just been that way. Our whole lives and building my business was supporting all of my employees at the time. And we really got to a point where we hit everything I could ask for with our team of 16 financially taking care of friends, family, the business, and it became a natural goal or just being pulled to say, okay, let's do this bigger. Let's get a hundred employees. Let's get 10, 000 customers. Let's work with other businesses. Let's work with VARs and see what kind of impact we can make. And so that's been the driving force, I think. I'm still unpacking it. our childhood has way bigger of an impact on our lives than, really, I probably even realize now. But I know my childhood led me to be who I am today.

Jeremy: 6:56

Yeah, and I appreciate that you shared a little bit of that. And I don't know that I've ever shared this portion of the story. I had not quite as similar a story, but, When I was three, I was coming home from a friend's house actually. And I was a little bit older than that. So it was probably four. And I was coming home from kindergarten and my sister who was two at the time was on the second floor, the second floor on an outdoor patio at an apartment complex that we're living in at the time. And her big brother was coming home from school and ultimately she fell off of that and cracked her skull and was in the hospital for nine months. So from my fourth through my sixth year, it was constantly caring for my sister. Caring for my sister at that time. So it's, it's interesting that, and up until, the last few years, I didn't realize what an impact that had on me. I appreciate you sharing a little bit of that, that a little bit of that story, I know we talked a little bit about it pre show.

Tyler Young: 7:43

Yeah, likewise. And, that's amazing that I question even right now with my children who are six and seven who have a really smooth life, I would say, and I'm very active. I wonder what lessons I'm teaching them. It's actually something Gary and I were just talking about how we want to get them into. into the facilities, that are helping those that are in need. I want to take him down to the hospital to meet Children that are going through tough times and get connected with care. I was really proud of my son. We have this dad and doughnuts at his school just recently, and they do all this work and they put together these slides. of life and advice and what the parents teach you. And my dad, my son and daughter really just wowed me that day when I got all this stuff. And what it was is what does your dad, what has your dad taught you? And my seven year old wrote to be loving and caring. And I was like, man, that, that warmed my heart. Cause I, he's doesn't have the same upbringing. I have the need to help others. He doesn't have that, but he still picked that up and it really made me happy.

Jeremy: 8:52

Yeah, that's, and not to one up you, it's more just, I was just texting with my, my 18 year old this morning. He was leaving to go, to go to a baseball tournament. And we were talking about, we took, we started taking him when he was three to Mexico to serve the underprivileged, when we were living in California and build homes and built, we built a kitchen that, industrial kitchen that feeds 300. 300 kids breakfast every morning and he's friends with these kids. He's running around three, four years old playing soccer with these people. He can't speak English. He can't speak Spanish, but, but he realized that, people are the same, no matter what, where they come from, what language they speak, people really want to be cared. They want to be heard. They want to be seen. They want to be loved. And, so he and I were texting about that this morning and, and he was, he was commiserating about the travel woes with the, Baseball team traveling to Florida and just going, none of these guys have the same experiences that I had. And I said, probably none of them were in Mexico, serving, serving the homeless or serving these people at three and four years old. so yeah. and again, not a, not to one up, cause that's awesome. That to me is, what you call winning when your kids can recognize that, that it's not about, selling point of sale systems or payment systems. It's more about, how you treat people and take care of people.

Tyler Young: 9:56

Yeah, I don't feel that way at all. you could say one of, I think it's sharing of a beautiful example. You have older children than I, I look forward offline probably hearing more how you created the relationship where you're 18 year old, 19 year old, all your kids are communicating to you. I think that is not, is common today ever where the kids are really caring to share with their parents like that. So I think that's wonderful. We do have a mutual connection. Just to switch gears here for probably people want to hear Jim Roddy. You mentioned that name and Jim and I just met yesterday. We actually just shot a little talk tonic series where I got to know Jim, and it was pretty exciting. How long have you known Jim?

Jeremy: 10:34

I have known Jim, for quite some time. Jim used to work at business solutions magazine. For those that aren't aware, he's the CEO of the RSPA. Ultimately I helped him come to the RSPA after he left world pay years ago, but I met him for 13 years ago, 14 years ago in Chicago. He, he was the editor of business solutions magazine and he had asked me to fly out and do a speech. It was the first time I'd ever, and I'm like, Jim, why do you want me to do this? and he was like, and scared the crap out of me, but I flew to Chicago, took the train up to Roseville cause it wasn't even really Chicago. It was up in Roseville and, took the train up there and stayed at a hotel. And, he had me talk to a bunch of ISVs and a whole bunch of people about my experiences in the, in the restaurant tech space. so yeah, Jim is one of the. The best, best people in the industry that, that I've ever had the privilege of interacting with. And I got to be his boss for a year as the board chair of the RSPA. When I, when the previous CEO resigned, Jim was already on staff and I said, Hey, we're going to move Jim into that CEO spot.

Tyler Young: 11:28

All right, I have to ask. You laid a lot out there that I have really been Racking my brain on and maybe it's because you were at the board and you have this long history and you brought Jim in. But when I went to Inspire this year, it was my first time. It was an event hosted by the RSPA. It was in Puerto Rico. I overheard multiple people say Jeremy Julian's name. And it was said, I miss Jeremy Julian. I wish he was here. I didn't know who Jeremy Julian was at the time. I really thought, who is this guy? Because it was the only name I heard the entire time I was there where someone says, I wish somebody was here. And I don't think I've been to trade shows where people talked about someone they don't even work with that way. So what did you do when you were a board member that made people wish you were at Inspire this year?

Jeremy: 12:17

it's similar to your story for me. It's about the people I made relationships, for a long time. and this might come off as a little bit terse. in our industry, there's a lot of what I call 50 year old white guys or 60 year old white guys that all have been doing this since NCR trained them back in there when they were 20 years old, they've been doing it for 40 years. And they work in the same exact circles that they were, 30 years ago and 20 years ago. And my big position seven years ago, eight years ago now, when I ran for the No more of that at the end of the day, that is not our competition. Our competition is these highly funded, VC backed companies that are out there. We need to work together. There is not going to be a world where we can live in our own little fiefdom and only talk to our own people. We need more youth. We need more diversity. We need more people sharing. Even if we're in the same patch competing for the same customer, we need to be talking to each other multiple times throughout my tenure. In this industry, if you had a customer that called me and looking for a system, I would call you and say, Hey, you probably should go take care of this guy because he's at risk instead of just taking that business from you. Because at the end of the day, I think that you deserve a chance to solve that customer's problem rather than having me just steal it from you. and I've done that hundreds of times over and quite frankly, the reciprocation has come back where people are upset with our team because we're not perfect. You're not perfect. Your team's not perfect. They're going to mess up from time to time. And when they do, we deserve the right to be able to go make it right for that customer to build into that relationship. and so for me, relationship is what it's all about. And so I built a lot of longstanding relationships. Some of my, some mentors. There's people above me. I stand on the shoulders of the people that were there before me, cause I wouldn't be able to do that. And these people that poured into me when I was a young punk that didn't know anything about anything in this industry. And at the same time, it is incumbent upon me to do that same thing for those people that are coming up behind me that don't have the same opportunities that I've had.

Tyler Young: 14:11

I intend to hold your feet to the fire on that because I'm relatively new to the space and especially RSPA. So I certainly will be asking a lot of questions offline. But there are a couple of things that I want to ask the guy who was missed. Number one is I'm gonna put you on the hot seat. Why weren't you there?

Jeremy: 14:30

Why wasn't I there? 100 percent truthful story. I looked back at my travel schedule. So for those that are longtime listeners, they know I have four kids and two years ago, I spent 120 nights outside of my own bed. Last year, I spent 110 nights outside of my own bed. And I looked at it and said, you know what, do I really want to spend more time? And so I had to cut things. So I intentionally plan my calendar. That's number one, number two, one of my team members, one of our team members, not my team members, but one of the team members on the CBS team, had been asking about board positions. And while I'm on the board, nobody's, nobody else at our company is allowed to run for the board. And she had asked me for the opportunity to run for the board. once I, Positioned off. And this was my very first event where I had positioned off after seven years on the board and as the board chair, and she just became a board member and I wanted her to have her day in the sun. And I was afraid that if I showed up there, that I would overshadow her first board meeting, her first inspire the first time she's got an opportunity to represent our organization to the entire industry without me there, she's gone with me before, but I wanted her to have her day in the sun without me overshadowing. It is really where it came from. Yeah.

Tyler Young: 15:39

think, an answer everyone has no response to. It's a great answer. So then I'll go to my next question that I heard you state. You said when you were a young guy in this industry. How young were you when you started in this industry?

Jeremy: 15:52

for those that know me know that it's a family business. If you go on restaurant technology, guys. com or even on the custom business solutions website, my dad is the founder of CBS. he bought a cash register business from a couple, there was three employees, two and a half employees, really one guy was part time and it was a couple. In 1987, and they were selling cash registers in Huntington beach. And, so I was 10 at the time. and so I started, but even before that he was working for somebody. So CBS started in 1987 as a different brand name. This year we're celebrating 30 years as custom business solutions. So it reincorporated in 1994, but, I have

Tyler Young: 16:29

So I'm here in a while. That's what I'm hearing. I'm here in a

Jeremy: 16:31

it's a long time. It's a long time. So I spent summers, I spent spring breaks, I spent time unboxing cash registers, unboxing computers. And then really the only professional stint that I have was in college. I worked in restaurants using the systems that we sold. Quite frankly, I worked serving and waiting tables in restaurants. So I've been in the restaurant space pretty much my entire life.

Tyler Young: 16:53

So I heard you had an in to get into those restaurants you were working at

Jeremy: 16:56

Maybe there might have been one or two, one or two favors being said. I rode my bike too, because I didn't have my license at the time I was 15. And my very first serving job was at Denny's. They opened a Denny's in the town that I lived in right near my high school. And, Still to this day, back to relationships. I still have a relationship with the, the owners of that Denny's that opened in

Tyler Young: 17:16

Wow.

Jeremy: 17:17

so

Tyler Young: 17:18

Wow. Okay, so you've been in the industry a while. Check. You got me beat there for one upping each other today. Just kidding.

Jeremy: 17:27

yeah, it's not definitely not a competition. That's for darn sure.

Tyler Young: 17:29

no. I'm playing around there. Okay. And then I wanted to ask, you said you have four children. Gary Lou, for those who don't know my business partner, he has four children. I have two. Four has been something from the outside looking in. It looks pretty hectic, right? And you're running the business, you're running the podcast. You have four children. How are you managing that time?

Jeremy: 17:54

first I married up. My wife is amazing. Michelle is awesome, but, yeah, honestly, and I'm a person of faith. And again, long time listeners will know that, but, had two kids. Things were great. Kids were awesome. Yeah. Super easy. we were doing some mission work and God called us to go adopt. And so about 11 years ago, we adopted from East Africa and, and, Michael, who's now 15, he was four at the time when I picked him up from the orphanage. He'll be, probably by the time this releases, he'll be, he'll be 16. he, he came into our lives and life changed forever. Cause now we had a son who was, who was from Africa and didn't speak English. And I have two kids. At home that are five and five and three at the time, or actually, I'm sorry, seven and seven and five at the time. And then, God bless us with a, girl eight years ago. not something we were planning, but, but we, and not where we hit, not what were we expecting. I show up at home from work one day and my wife says, you need to sit down. And I'm like, what in the world did just happen? But, but God knew his plans and now she's, she's our fourth and life is amazing, quite frankly. Life is amazing. I couldn't, I wouldn't wish it any other way.

Tyler Young: 18:57

four is the magic number then for those of us out there. I'm sure a lot of people are shaking their heads saying, I don't know about that. But for two people in my life, four seems to be a pretty magic number.

Jeremy: 19:07

it's, it's been pretty miraculous. and, I started to say it earlier, but, for me, it's, it's an opportunity, to invest in the lives of people that are going to be able to make a difference in the world and all four of my kids already make a difference in the world and, I have a couple of life goals and anybody that'll listen to me for more than five minutes, I often tell them I want to be able to love my wife and want to spend time with her even when the kids aren't here, meaning like I'm not running them to soccer practice and baseball practice. And I want my kids to want to come home even when they don't have to. Those are my two life goals. And to me, if my kids want to come home on Sunday night for Sunday night supper, that to me means all the world to me.

Tyler Young: 19:44

Gary and I became really close over such a similar subject. Gary's son was two, he was Matthew and we were at a president's club. This is where we met. And I brought my father when I was, in my early twenties and that's who I wanted to bring to celebrate with me. And so Gary asked him, how do you foster a relationship with your child that they would choose as a, young 20 year old that I'm going to bring my dad over so many other choices at the time for a fun trip. And my dad gave this answer. I'm curious your thoughts on it. He said that his philosophy to foster that strong relationship was to build an environment. a homestead that his son's friends wanted to be and to give them activities that they enjoyed. Therefore, the friends looked at him as a cool dude, somewhere they wanted to be, and they listened to my dad. So when we got to those difficult teen years that rather than the rebellion, the friends were saying, your dad is cool listening to him. Therefore we listened to him. And that was the advice he gave Gary. And I've never forgotten it to this day. And it rings so true because there's a dozen of my friends that look at my parents as parents, quite frankly, because of that philosophy and you had your son reaching out to you. And therefore I thought, What would your answer be to that same question?

Jeremy: 21:11

I got the same privilege you did. My dad was that we were that house. The pantry was always full and the pantry was full. And what he said to me is if you feed them, they'll come back. If you make it a comfortable place for them to come. very true story. and I love telling this story cause it's quite ironic. My son graduated high school last year. He's off at college. and, and one Sunday night. I get a text, and I get a text from one of his friends and it was random and I'm okay, why is Kurt texting me? And so Kurt texts me, and, get the text. And I didn't have Kurt's number in my phone. So I'm like, he says, Hey, this is Kurt. I'm like, Kurt, who he's like, Kurt, Nick's friend, Nick happens to be my son. So yeah, what's up Kurt? And we happen to have some thunderstorms in the area. And I was like, maybe his house had some problems. His parents needed some help or whatever. I don't know. I didn't know what he was texting me about, but come to find out he's going to Arkansas, University of Arkansas and Arkansas is playing A& M and they're playing here in Dallas. And so what he was hinting around at is he was going to be home on Saturday night. And he wanted to host poker at my house with all of his friends Even when my son wasn't in town and we have enough of a relationship That kurt also asked me to make them dinner because they get pizza at college all the time And he said I said, do you want me to just order you pizza, bud? Or do you want me to make dinner? He goes mr Julian, if there's any way you could make us some burgers and hot dogs, that would be amazing We've gotten cafeteria food for the last three months. So To me, that's what it's all about and I now still, my son has kids that are now seniors. They text me, Hey, Mr. Julian, I hit two, I got two hits in the baseball game yesterday. I'm playing really well. You should come out and check us out. And so I'm that guy now to my son's kid, my son's friends, my daughter's friends, my other son's friends, and my youngest daughter's friends are, that's who we are. That's who my wife is as well. And we try and create a welcoming experience. I asked my son, Mike, does anybody else. This way. Cause they come in, they just come in and sit down on the couch and talk to me while I'm watching TV at night before they go up to play poker or go up to the media room to watch TV. So absolutely. That's a, I would encourage you to do that, that you create a safe space for your kids so that the friends want to come around because I'd rather have them here than have them, out somewhere where I don't know what they're up to. But yeah, that, that story is one of my fun stories of Kurt having 14 kids at our house that I'm making cheeseburgers and they all are sitting around my kitchen table eating cheeseburgers and hot dogs, for, for, six, seven hours on a Friday or Saturday night. when my kid wasn't even home.

Tyler Young: 23:35

Jeremy, if that's, clearly you answered my question of why people missed you. If you treat everybody the same way that you treat your children in these stories, I'm glad that we finally got to connect here. And before, I'm sure you got to ask me some questions here, but I'm going to take this opportunity while I get a chance to know you and ask, this is how you treat, me. RSPA. This is how you treated your family and your children. You grew up in an environment where CBS is where you worked for your entire life. What's the culture like at CBS and does it mirror what you've done personally?

Jeremy: 24:12

Yeah, it absolutely does. And, We were an EOS house for anybody that doesn't know EOS. EOS is an entrepreneurial operating system. And when I think about my personal why, and I think about our business, why I believe that God created everyone uniquely. And at the end of the day, my job as a leader is to help them find that. And sometimes they're going to find that inside of our organization. Sometimes they're going to find that outside of our organization. And so my job is to invest in them. Leader's jobs are to invest in them and to help them get that and find why they were created and helping them, the two best days of your life or the day that you're born. And the day you find out why my goal is to help them find out their why as fast as possible, so they can make the largest impact. And that's why we do what we do. share a quick story. There's a kid that, that, if you've ever seen the show breaking bad on HBO, there's a kid that, that, I just played golf with him earlier this week. He was that kid. He grew up, his parents were cooking meth in a trailer. He ultimately got into the life of cooking meth and selling meth on the street. Ultimately got sent to prison for it and his, he comes on, knocks on our door one day and applies for a job. And he's you know what? I've cleaned up my life. I've cleaned up everything that I'm doing. And I could go through hundreds of these stories, but he's one of my favorites. he's one of my favorites and, and I just saw him. So it makes it easier to talk about him. He came in and he's I know what you're going through. I'll do anything you guys need me to do. I'll clean floors. I'll wash, wash the bathrooms. Like you tell me what you need me to do, but I want to make it right. And if you take a chance on me, I will prove it right. And ultimately he worked for us for 14 years. He ultimately became a VP at our company. And then. Decided, Hey, you know what? I'm at the max where I can get to here. And we released him off to some clients and now he's running it for a brand that's got just over 80 restaurants and is now married, married with two girls. And I look at Jason and I go, you know what, I'm so proud of you. And he's one of literally hundreds of stories of people that we've looked at and said, you know what the person in there is not what the world sees them as. They are somebody that's created for a purpose. And if we can help them find it. They'll ultimately be able to go change the world. and he has and hundreds and hundreds of people later that we've been privileged to, to influence in that way. That's why we do what we do.

Tyler Young: 26:22

wow, that's an unexpected story, but it makes a lot of sense to me from just personal satisfaction. I would love to have stories like that. I'm early in the journey. I don't think I've known someone 14 years yet. I've only been doing this for 14 years, so I'm looking forward to having a story like that. Do you share those on the podcast? Is that?

Jeremy: 26:43

I have not historically, it's funny that you ask because it's not, even the adoption story, I think I've shared more on the personal side than, you've, you've clearly turned the script on me here, Tyler, that, we came on to talk about tonic and you've, you've You flip the script and been like, Hey, I'm going to ask you some questions to learn more about you. So I love that. I love that you've taken the opportunity. Cause I've shared them individually, but I've never really shared, I've shared them in little bits and pieces, but never all in one fell swoop and, at the end of the day, and I say, I said it to you when we were prepping for the show, I hope nobody talks about, how much point of sale I sold when I do eventually pass away, I hope that people, they talk about the impact that I had on their life, the way that I lifted them up, the way that I shared with them a story, the way that I encourage them to be better than, to see something in them and lead them to a path that they didn't even know that it was possible for themselves. And that's my goal in life. That's that young lady. that she started, she had blue hair. She was working on the help desk. She was working the overnight shift on the help desk when she started. And now she's a VP at the company. She's on the board for the RSPA. And I'm so proud of the work that she's done. And again, those are the things that, those are the things that, that get me up in the morning and make me work the, the 12 to 14 hour days that we get to do as entrepreneurs pouring into people

Tyler Young: 27:46

that's the normal day. That's definitely an ideal day when it's only twelve, twelve hours, that's for sure. And I didn't mean to flip the script, but there's not many people that I've met in this space where others are just wishing they had more time with. And that was you, and I'm hearing why. And I have another why question. Which is why the podcast I, I'm going to recap this for everyone hearing, because what I'm hearing, it's a father of four, a lifetime veteran in your space, no small business. You guys have achieved some super milestones with the close to 100 or 100 employees, as you mentioned. Or I heard even. And on top of that, you're gonna adopt a child and then you're going to adopt your children's friends and host them for dinner. And on top of that, you throw a podcast with over 200 episodes. How did this podcast come to be?

Jeremy: 28:44

I believe in people. I believe in people and I believe in, and I believe that, that way too many people are underserved. And so for me, it's how do I expand the opportunity for people like yourself to get out in front of audiences that they wouldn't be able to get out in front of to learn, I get the privilege. I, I was a young 20 something and I was sitting. In the office of, I was sitting in the boardroom at the cheesecake factory. They had just hit 500 million in sales. And I'm looking around and I'm like 24 or 25 years old. And I'm like, what am I doing here? How did I get to this place where I'm sitting in this boardroom? I have no right to be in here, but if I keep it to myself and I don't allow people to sit in that room, not physically, but virtually be in that room to be able to hear what's going on in there, I Then I'm being selfish and that's not fair. And so for me, it's for the people that are out there, the impact. When I walked through the NRA show, when I walked through the RSPA show and people like, Oh my gosh, you had Tyler on. And that dude's awesome. He saved, he helped make, this customer's problem go away, or he helped take care of this thing, or he and I innovated on something that I've been wanting to do forever. And he was able to come up with a way to solve this problem for this solution. That. Again, as the impact that I look at and go, there's nowhere else in the world that I can, there's no other way other than through media that I can do that because I can only talk to so many people. And so for me, it was an opportunity to get people to the insight for the privileges that I have to talk to people. How do I share that with the world at a greater level so that they can take that and make their business better. and, I do believe a friend of mine, Sean Walsh chef, he's a restaurateur and media guy. all. ships in the harbor rise together. I truly believe that. I truly believe that if we continue to lift people up, they will continue. I want to give hand ups to people. I want to help people be the best version of themselves that they can be. I don't believe in pushing anybody else down. And the only way I can do that. And why do I have people that even compete with our regular business on the show? Because at the end of the day, I think there's a place for everyone in our space. And I really do genuinely believe that. Why do I call people and say, Hey, you should take care of this customer? Because at the end of the day, I believe in that because you know what? It's not a zero sum game. It's an infinite game. And at the end of the day, there's somebody else that's going to be sitting in my shoes. There's going to be somebody else that's going to be sitting in our shoes. There's going to be somebody else that's sitting in your shoes and Jim Roddy's shoes, but there's never going to be somebody else that's going to be Husband to my wife. There's no one else that's ever going to be the first dad to my kids. there's nobody else that's going to be in that role. That's the job that I can do. How do I now get the word out about the things that the privileges that I get to, to share the experiences that I get to have with the world. And I do it through the podcast and through video and all of those different means.

31:26

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Tyler Young: 32:12

I gotta ask this follow up question to that then. help me understand. I got kids of two. I got a business. I'm similar to where you're at in life. What have you done or what principles have you implemented that help you manage your time? Because you're taking on a lot. You just described an immense amount of stuff and I can relate because I feel like I'm doing the same, but it seems to always just be a struggle to find the time. You have any advice on that?

Jeremy: 32:41

I'm really disciplined about dinnertime. The phone is away. So I get up really early. I started getting up, but. And I work before the kids wake up, I work out. So a couple of things when I travel, I work out every single day, no matter how much sleep I've had, and I drink lots of water, keeps me hydrated and keeps me. so energy levels put in 12, 13, 14 hour days, I've worked out probably. Six years in a row and I might've missed three days total in six years and a workout might be a half hour walk. It might be a 45 minute walk. It might be a all out sprint. It might be weightlifting. It doesn't have to be any one thing. It might be. I see the Peloton behind you on the video. Like it might be the Peloton. There's lots of different ways that I get my body engaged, but, and when I travel, I drink a lot of water because it helps keep me hydrated and helps keep me well. But the discipline with the kids is I recognize that, that. Okay. I'm not gonna, they're not gonna always be here. I have a certain amount of time that I have really authority over them, and then the authority becomes influence. And about that 12, 13-year-old age, if you haven't gotten the, the authority into them, you start to become an influence. And their friends are as much of an influence as you are at that stage. So spending that time to be present. One other thing that I,

Tyler Young: 33:54

When I asked on that, you said, being present heard that a handful of times. It's a hard thing to do to be present in the moment. It's not every time you can try and be present, but you're not always present. You've got your brain running. You're thinking about things, especially as an entrepreneur. Have you been able to calm your brain to be present and how? No,

Jeremy: 34:19

a couple of things. I have systems. So while I'm doing these things, like I, I am in a podcast focus mode. There's no alerts, there's no notifications, there's no anything. And other than my wife calling or texting me, there's nothing that's going to come through to my phone for this time that we're recording. That's number one. So putting in that discipline to be okay with FOMO, because you know what? They're you're scared. what about that notification? What about that deal? What about that customer? What about that? Whatever. So being able to do that. And then I learned from a friend of mine who's from Africa that at the end of the day, he says, he says, you Americans have all of the watches. Us Africans have all of the time and I was like, you know what? That is so true because you know what? People are the wealth people and relationships and being able to pour into people that is what's got that email that list of emails. You know what? I likely, if I get back to somebody right now, or I get back to them at eight o'clock tonight, after the kids go to bed. Probably isn't going to change and move the needle that much. My own lizard brain is going to say, I got to get back to the email. I got to get that inbox zero. I got it. But you know what? this is what's going to make the impact on the world. Being able to do this and do this well. And people can tell when you're not genuine. And I give my kids, I give my wife, I give my staff permission to tell me you're not present. Do you need to reschedule because if you're not going to be present, it's not going to make the same impact as you would be if you were present. And I heed that. And so when I'm with my kids, I'm with my kids. When I'm with my wife, I'm with my wife. And they recognize that there's times that they, I have to take a work call here and there. But when I'm there and I say I'm going to the ball game or I'm going to church or I'm going to spend time with them here or there, I'm there with them and I try and be super present. and then I work. Okay. I work, I'm disciplined enough to work during the day, but at night, after the kids go to bed, I set my phone down on the charger at 5 36, do dinner, do bedtime routine. And then if I have to work at eight, eight, 8 39 o'clock, whenever they're done with their day. I come into my office and I work if I need to. And same thing, first thing in the morning. So those are all systems. And sorry, that was a long winded answer to your question, but

Tyler Young: 36:29

that was, I found that helpful. I think the summary I would put on that takeaway for me was, you accepted the outcomes that happened that you could have affected. If there was a sell, a business opportunity, a business issue, that you accept your team's, Resolution and either they'll wait for you or they won't wait for you. But that's what I took away. It's what I heard when you said you turn off the notifications, you stay present and you just trust in the team. that was in the

Jeremy: 36:59

and I've given a very clear direction that says I, so part of EOS is we have core values and I say it every two weeks on our all staff call.

Tyler Young: 37:07

went exactly where I was going to ask you. Because if we run a U. S. Two, so it's gonna be like you mind sharing your core values.

Jeremy: 37:13

I happy to, they're on our website and you

Tyler Young: 37:16

Yeah, please add those to your explanation here. Go ahead.

Jeremy: 37:18

so I say to them, if you can look through our four core values, which are grit, success, creative, and dammit, I knew you were going to do this to me, sorry, I'm terrible. I know them. I promise. I know them. and my team's going to yell at me when they listen to this, but, when they look through their core values, if they look through them and say, To me, I evaluated the core values and I made a decision that I thought was best for our organization. I will stand behind them. I will stand behind them humble. the biggest one that I try and practice. So it's humble, grit, success,

Tyler Young: 37:51

The one you know, so you didn't

Jeremy: 37:53

that I know I, and that I try and live every day. But to me, I give them permission. One, to call me out on my BS. Two, to call me out, even on my core values, I tell my kids and I tell my staff, my staff, I don't own them. they're the staff that serves our customers, but our team knows that they're allowed to call me or anybody else out on the core values. If you're not acting in accordance with the core values. And the flip side of that is look through the four core values. If you can make a decision and evaluate those four core values and say, you know what I acted and this is why I did it. I will support you even if it was the wrong decision, because you know what? I'd rather you make a decision that I took the core values and said, you know what, this, I was exhibiting the core value of greater, I was being humble on this, or I was trying to lift somebody up and the core value of success, you know what you evaluated, you made the wrong decision, but you know what, you made a decision and you evaluated I'm all on board with that. And I will stand behind you all day long.

Tyler Young: 38:47

That's fantastic. I really enjoyed that, especially your core values. How long have you run EOS?

Jeremy: 38:53

we're going on three years now. this fall, I think it'll be four.

Tyler Young: 38:57

What's the biggest impact? EOS, I started two years ago. And, Gary was a huge fan. It was part of our deal. He said, we gotta run EOS. So I said, okay, let's try it. what's the biggest impact EOS had for you? Yeah,

Jeremy: 39:13

succinctly who we were, forcing me to talk about the why. Cause I would talk about these anecdotal stories, but. People didn't quite get it. They didn't live the core values. They didn't live those types of things. And I would go home frustrated and art would go home frustrated and be like, why did they not do this? Why is this employee? So I just don't get it. and again, I'm being dramatic about it, but that these kinds of kind of things happens in entrepreneur, you're like, you want to replicate yourself. And The ability for people to make decisions when you're not there. And then longer term, it's been systems and processes and what's our core marketing message and all of those kinds of things. But it's really, who are we at our DNA and people understanding those things and then being able to hearken back to it. Very true story. I was, back to the core value of Humble. I was, I was on a conference call. Sitting right here where I'm taking this call from with you. And I have a sales engineer, young sales engineer, and I'm training him and I'm coaching him on word tracks and how to ask questions and sales opportunities. and, and, we're role playing a little bit and I was picking on him like, Oh, you do listen, you do get it. And my wife actually happened to walk by and she goes, that didn't sound very humble, like after the fact. And I was like, you know what? She was right. I was picking on him. I was making fun of him, being like, Hey, and I went back and apologized to this guy. And I said, you know what? That wasn't super humble of me. I apologize. I'm really proud of you for working hard because this doesn't come natural to you to do these kinds of things. You're trying a new role. And I'm super proud of you for doing that. And I'm sorry if I came off as somebody that was being a jerk about the way I was going about it. That permission that I've allowed the team, I'm going to have multiple team members say to each other or to me, Hey, you know what? That, that didn't sound in line with this creative or grit or success or humble, which is awesome to me. I don't know. that's how you replicate yourself and get outside of yourself.

Tyler Young: 41:05

I, you hit home for me because EOS is open, honest, transparent, right? It's teaching everyone in the organization to have a voice through the L10 meetings that are weekly and they can post issues and then be open, honest, transparent about it. And so to be called out like that is similar to what happened to me not long ago. This podcast with you today, this, you not knowing me a year ago, but now you know who I am. It's been very intentional. We worked with a marketing firm and. They said, Hey, Tyler, you're charismatic. You need to do more and be more of a thought leader and help bring brand awareness. And it's really uncomfortable for me, Jeremy. It's one of the things I've been preaching to my staff. To get comfortable with the uncomfortable and there's a sense of fear in my chest that I feel when I don't really want to do something or it intimidates me and I'm the guy, believe it or not, that if we're at an event and there's a stage presence and they say, I need a volunteer, I'm the guy looking to the ground looking away. You don't ever catch me with my arm up. I'm like, please don't pick me. Please don't pick me. And many times I've been picked and I have to go up there and you think I look comfortable, but I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm not comfortable. It's been a big roller coaster this last 12 months. I was able to model for my favorite NBA team, which is a funny story because they just had no clothing on the website and I sent them a sarcastic, but funny email and they said they have a lot. It's just not listed. So I said, Hey, can I come down and model it so I could see the clothing? And I got to, so I got to go model for them. and then I applied to be on a viking movie just because it scared me and it took me six months to even apply and I, but I got this hair and I'm like, I really want to do it and shoot bows and guns. I grew up doing that and, and I got casted for it, right? And now I just got casted in a movie because that one never happened. And now they want me to play a lead character role in one that you may saw recently on Facebook. It scares the crap out of me. And so these good things are happening and Adam runs our marketing team. And he grabbed me one day in a one on one conversation and he said, Tyler, he's been with me eight years. And he just hit me right in the face with that word, humble. He said, one of the reasons, I appreciate you is you're humble and you've always been that way. Don't lose it. And because we have, what is perceived success, media can be easily perceived success. And he hit me with that. So you just reminded me and it's a reminder to everybody listening, be humble where there are a lot of people that don't have what you have, what you've created, what you've, been a part of your friends, your family, what you have that are in life. There are a lot of people that just don't have those pros and they wish they had those. If whatever you have, they wish they had it. They may have something else or nothing at all. And I think that is a really strong core value.

Jeremy: 43:56

Yeah, I appreciate that. And again, I, having been to Mexico and Haiti and, South, sub Saharan Africa and Kenya, and I didn't get chosen to get born into the country that I was born into. I didn't get chosen to get, born to the family I was born into. I, yes, I've worked hard to get where I'm at, but at the end of the day, when people ask how I'm doing, it's better than I deserve. Cause at the end of the day, I don't deserve half of what I have. And it's not a false humility at the end of the day, I never thought I'd be able to be in the boardroom with some of these people. I never thought I'd be able to have the influence that I've had and I'm grateful for it. And every day, I do want to share this one last one with you. Every day I start my morning every day. reading, reading my scriptures. And then I look through my calendar and I pray about every one of my meetings that I'm going to have. And then I write down three things I'm grateful every single morning. And I write down three things that are going to make today great. I start my day before I take one phone call, before I read one email, before I read one social media post, before I do anything. I start my day with scripture, prayer, and then looking at what are three things I'm grateful for every single day. And scientifically, it changes your DNA to being a more grateful person. Look and look at out and say, what can I do to impact the world? And those three things that I'm going to, I'm going to make today. Great. And, and then at the end of the day, I get a reminder to talk about what are the three things that happened that were really positive on the day. And then one thing that I could have done differently, or one thing that I learned from the day that, that I didn't know before that, and I've been doing that for now, probably close to 10 years now, and also very helpful to me. sorry. I know I segue

Tyler Young: 45:29

No, that's a really great share. and, I'm grateful for all the opportunities I described that have just been there in front of me, but they scare me. And if they scare me, then I have to do them. And my buddy did the great American speak off and he got the golden ticket and I saw it laying there on the bed about five, six months ago. I said, instantly, I knew my heart fell away. Just now I have to do it. I have to try it. And so I did and I didn't get a golden ticket. I learned that I didn't have a message. He may have one. I can speak, but I didn't have a message to speak, but I still went and did it and got to round two, but didn't get the golden ticket and had to take the defeat and be humbled to it. To those that succeeded in front of me and grateful is what I wanted to say there. And then I want to ask you, since you've been doing it for 10 years, can you, rattle off three things you're grateful for today?

Jeremy: 46:20

grateful first and foremost for my health. Cause, back to your brother, he, who has his health has a thousand dreams. He who doesn't has but one, my health. Cause I, I can't take it for granted. Cause you know what, I've got a kid who's going through a medical issue and there's nothing more than I, that I want other than to get. One of my sons to be, to be well, the second is I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful that God has blessed me with the opportunity to have a loving wife that supports everything that I do. and really my kids, and that, and then the third thing, I'm grateful for the impact that, that I know I've already had in the world. I'm in my mid forties at this point, and I know there's people around me that I've had an impact on. you alluded to it and, maybe I deserve the right. I don't deserve the right. I know that, that God has put me into a place of leadership to be able to influence different people, to be a better husband, to be a better dad, to be a better friend, to be a better coworker. And, for me, that's my goal is to help people be a better dad, be a better, ultimately every interaction I go into is how can I help this person be. A better version of themselves that they are today by seeing something in them that they didn't discover, but I see in them and call it out and be that encourager for them.

Tyler Young: 47:28

I get, told I have an inspirational story or I inspire people. I get a text every once in a while about that. I just got to say you've inspired me today. It wasn't what I was expecting to get on here. I appreciate you giving me the time to ask all these questions of you. It, I'm inspired. I hope others are too. And so I have one request at the end. You mentioned your health and something that I have going on my life right now. and I want prayer requests, right? And, I have a friend that is in high school, a friend from high school. I knew a long period of time. His name happens to be Tyler as well. So I'm Tyler, but he's Tyler. And, he is fighting cancer right now, and he's got two young Children, and so I would just ask for you to add that as you're praying over meetings and anyone who wants to prayer for Tyler, my friend Tyler and him and his family, and I'm watching closely on his journey and trying to send as many prayers I can. So as you mentioned health, I wanted to put that request out there for anyone that wants to do that.

Jeremy: 48:31

I really appreciate that. and again, we will definitely pray for Tyler. Tyler young, we have not talked enough about tonic. Would you be willing to come on the show a second time, so we can talk more about tonic since you flipped the script on me and, and started asking me a whole bunch of questions. I genuinely appreciate, You do a great job of listening and, and asking, good questions. So thank you for taking the time. I hope that, I hope that our listeners are a bit inspired by, by yours in my, my chat today when they listen.

Tyler Young: 48:57

Jeremy, I'll talk to you on this podcast. I'll talk to you anytime off this podcast. I've enjoyed it thoroughly.

Jeremy: 49:04

I appreciate that. And, guys to our listeners, we know that you guys got lots of choices. Like I said, Tyler, thank you so much for sharing a bit about who you were. let's do a tonic, we'll do tonic very soon. and, to our listeners guys, make it a great day.