Tasting Success with Clean Eatz - Evonne & Don Varady

 Don and Evonne Varady, founders of Clean Eatz, discuss their journey from humble beginnings to franchising success. Both Don and Evonne share their personal and professional experiences—from Evonne's cancer battle inspiring change, to Don leaving his carpentry trade behind to invest in their first restaurant. They also talk about the experience of training franchisees, branching into meal delivery services, launching other ventures like V&P Farms, and their future venues for events. They express their belief on staying grounded despite entrepreneurial success, and voices their commitment to continuously providing quality food that supports a healthy lifestyle.

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Transcript

Clean Eatz

Tyler: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Whiskey and Wisdom podcast, coming to you from the Cargo District Recording Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, where we discuss the most fascinating topics of life. I'm Tyler Yaw with my co host, Chris Kelly, and each week we interview a special guest to learn how they acquired their wisdom over a glass of whiskey.

So, sit back, pour yourself a glass, and enjoy Whiskey and Wisdom.

Welcome back to the Whiskey and Wisdom podcast, everybody. This is your co host, Tyler Yaw. And today I am with Chris Killam. And our special guests today are 

Evonee: Yvonne Verity. 

Don: Yvonne Verity. 

Tyler: Thank you so much for coming on. This is a special episode for us. I know Chris knows you guys pretty well through the jewelry store.

And then I. 

Evonee: Technically, I 

Don: mean, 

Chris: technically, I know, well, I met you [00:01:00] guys at buckle. Yes. So years and years ago when she's 

Evonee: right. Yeah. Yeah. And you were in the cafe too. You've been around for a long time. 

POD00019: Oh 

Chris: yeah. Like I've, I've enjoyed clean eats for years now and it's very, it's great to see its growth.

So it was kind of cool to be like, Hey, I know those people. 

Tyler: Appreciate that. Yeah. And Clean Eats is part of my weekly routine. I go on Monday and I go and I get something from Racine and then I pick up the rest of my meals from the, the freezer in there for the rest of my week. So that's what I do every single week.

Love it. Yeah. As soon as I started doing 75 hard about three, four years ago, that's been the start of my, my routine with Clean Eats. And I've always used you guys for years before that anyway, but that was like the constant like continual. Yeah. Use of Kleeneats and I greatly appreciate what you guys do because it helps a lot.

Especially because I'm not going to make all that stuff myself. 

Evonee: Totally understand. 

Chris: Yep. So [00:02:00] we, we decided for a special occasion for you guys opening up your new store. We bust open the bottle of E. H. Taylor. Had a little sip of that. Yeah. It's delicious. It's 

Evonee: so good. So good. It's so good. 

Chris: So that's what we're sipping on today.

We if you know, each EH Taylor, you know, it's delicious and kind of hard to find. So it's definitely worth the occasion. Thank you. So because we guys got you on here, like I said, I've known you since I worked at Buckle, which was seven years ago. Yeah. And I've. My old boss Jordan was like, this lady's amazing.

You should check her out. And it was interesting 'cause I had never met somebody who had had that transformation of like actually being in shape and having to like find clothes like off season, on season. So my question to you is like, how did you guys meet and get started and everything? 

Evonee: Do you wanna tell the love story?

I said we are 

POD00019: sorry, 

Don: way, way back . We, we always [00:03:00] laugh and jokes. She tells our. Our backstory with a little bit more rainbows and unicorns than I do. Black and white. She'll give you the warm and fuzzies. I'll let you 

Evonee: take it. You want to take it? Okay. So we're originally from Illinois. I'm from like a small town of 600 people.

So no one even knows. And Don says he's from like the bigger town, which was Edwardsville, which maybe had what? Not many more. Yeah. Not many more. So we always joke about it, but I had just ended my x ray career. And we can kind of go into that why later if you want. And so I was looking for a space to open this meal prep business.

Right. And I actually went to Don's town in Edwardsville and it was actually. It was too much rent for me. So I went to the smaller town called Beal, Illinois, and it was I picked it because it was say that fast three times. Beal, right? Beal . It was actually across from a gym and I was like, these are my people.

Yeah. So I was in the [00:04:00] process of opening up the cafe across the street from the gym. Mm-Hmm. . And so, I couldn't afford a house. So I lived in a closet in the back of this restaurant. And so I would go to the gym twice a day across the street so I could shower and brush my teeth, you know, like back and forth.

So I was over there training one morning and I always call him a thug because he was like dressing those baggy sweat pants. I mean, if you guys think old. time body builders, you know, you know, you've seen them in the gym and they're all in those baggy sweatpants. They got their like little hat pulled down over their ears and I was in there doing legs and he was doing legs and he just kept looking at me and back then, like women did not work out like that.

So we were always on the cardio side and there wasn't a. bunch of women, you know, that would lift and I had just started I signed up for a show. So I was, I was being kind of serious in there and he was like mean mugging me. And I was like, dude, like whatever. So I didn't, we didn't [00:05:00] speak. And I left and his best friend.

Actually, she was a trainer at the gym, so I'm like, I got to hook up with this, not hook up, hook up, but like, connect with this lady so she can send her clients to me. And so she brought him over that day for lunch. And I always joke and say that it was the best chicken and broccoli rice that he ever ate.

Cause he never left. Here we are 14 years later. So that's not too romantic. 

Don: I mean, 

Chris: still, you met in the gym, you both stay in shape. So like you. It was a good 

Don: spot. It's funny, I still have a creeper photo on my phone. It's literally 14 years old. Of her on like the Smith machine squatting. It's one of the oldest photos in my phone.

That's hilarious, I love that. Creep. 

Chris: So, based on your shirt, that you're rocking, Kleenex is So, you've 11 years. So, what was the original shop called? 

Evonee: Locale Cafe. Okay. And it was [00:06:00] open 3 years? Yeah, close. Yeah, close to 3 years. 

Chris: Nice. So, then how'd you end up here? 

Don: Oh, man. Um, so, I'll pick up where she left off.

So, I was a carpenter for almost 15 years. And it was, we met at the end of 09. We always get this wrong, but right after the housing market kind of took a crap in, in 08, 09 and construction right around that time was dying, really hard to find work. And I knew that my job, the job that I was had and was working on was coming to an end.

And I was like, I don't really know what the hell I'm going to do at that point in my career. I was burnt out. I was tired of wearing a tool belt. I did not want to do it anymore. I was really good at it, but tired of doing it. And so, I had had like dreams and ambitions of [00:07:00] opening a sports bar or something like that.

And, you know, I had already done one bodybuilding show when I met her. And so, when my friend Haley introduced me to her, I was like, holy crap. This is awesome. This is amazing. This is the best thing I've ever seen. And then, Her and I honestly, we really hit it off and so we talked about it many many times She said she lived in a closet.

She's not kidding Like a little bit bigger in the room. We're sitting in with a futon on it and I would go there and stay with her at night help her finish putting the restaurant together and I remember going and helping her pick up her first walk in cooler in the ghetto of St. Louis. And we pulled down in there to get it, and I stepped on a 357 Magnum on her floorboard.

You have to protect yourself. So you have to go down there. But, Went to St. Louis a couple times, I understand. You know, after three or four months of us dating, people called us crazy because we kind of made the decision that We didn't know how we were going to do it, [00:08:00] but I wasn't going to go back to work.

And I told her, you know, I said, I don't really know how we can do this other than I'm going to have to literally just give up everything I own. I had a brand new Hemi. I had a two bedroom house that was mine. I didn't have a lot of debt, but I didn't have a lot of money either because I'd already been divorced and I had to pay for that and stuff.

I just said, look, I'll give up my house, my truck, everything, and we'll just, I'll start from ground zero, and I'll just kind of earn my way up, basically, and that's kind of what, what happened. She I remember you followed me to the bank in that beat up old minivan. We call it the War Wagon. It looked like somebody, it looked like somebody had been body slammed on the hood.

Yeah. Followed me to the bank. I walked in there and dropped the key fob to my Hemi on the desk and walked out, left it sitting there. And then let my house go into foreclosure and filed a bankruptcy. And then we took what little cash I had. It was like five or six grand, I think, that I had saved up.

And we invested it into [00:09:00] the restaurant and the rest is history. It kind of took off from there, but One turned into two. The second one came about when A lady owned a deli in the town I went to high school with on like a main street, kind of like front street kind of that vibe. And she had gotten really sick and we needed to sell the business and, you know, we, we would already decided that we were coming to Florida or we were going to the beach.

That was kind of the thing when, when her and I had linked up and decided we were going to do this restaurant concept together, we weren't going to stay there. We were going to the ocean to be by the beach in the sun. If we're going to compete the way we were going to do and the way we're already doing it, we wanted to do it where we wanted to be.

And that's ultimately how we ended up here. We went, I'll let you tell that story, but we bought that restaurant from that, that little old lady for pennies on the dollar. And so we ultimately had to like put our, our big plan on hold for a year or two. Because we're like, man, we're not going to get [00:10:00] this opportunity again.

We need to take it. And it, it, honestly, I'm glad we did it because it kind of helped us mature and kind of as business owners grow and learn a few mistakes first. I think had we packed up and left for Florida when we were wanting to, we would not have been here. We the water. 

Evonee: So we were competing, like you said, and so what do all bodybuilder competers do?

We went to the Arnold show in Columbus, Ohio. And so we drove down there for the weekend, eating tilapia and asparagus because we were really close to a show. Cold in the car. Ugh. And you guys you're too young, but oxygen magazine was a big magazine at the time, which was all female, like, inspiration fitness athletes and Jen Hendershot had just one Miss Olympia.

And she was like one of my idols. And so she had this. big thing called fat camp that she was traveled all around the world and do these like little retreats with women. And so when we [00:11:00] were at the Arnold, she had a booth there and I was like, Oh, I gotta go meet this lady. So I pulled in there, we have our little locale shirts on and she instantly just like, yeah, Yeah.

Hey, what is this? And I was like, Oh, this is our restaurant. It's all healthy. And she's like, really? And I'm like, yeah, she's like, where are you located? And I'm like, Oh, this little town in Illinois. And I was like, but we're going to Florida. And she goes, no, don't go to Florida. She goes, you know where you guys will be successful at?

And I was like, what? And she's like, Wilmington, North Carolina. And I was like, Where the hell is that at, you know, I was like, is that near water? And she's like, Oh my gosh, it's a hidden gem. And we're like, okay, okay. And I mean, we just had met her. So like, why would we take her advice first round? Right.

And so we went to Florida and we went down there for like five days. Couldn't find anything. Came back home and I was like, man, this just isn't, there's no vibe. Like I just don't have that gut instinct. And so we went back to the Arnold show, met Jen, Jen up again. [00:12:00] And she had a Wilmington resident with her at the time that was selling t shirts there.

And they're like, no, Wilmington, North Carolina. And we're like, okay, so Labor Day weekend, we put got on Craigslist, found the racing location on Craigslist. It was a deli at the time. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So put that in our GPS and drove. 20 hours down here, drove 20 hours down here in a minivan, pulled up to the thing and walked in.

We're like, Oh my God, this is it. And we went and stayed at the holiday and went to Gold's gym. So that was like our big thing over there. And we kind of like felt out the neighborhood and then, went back, told the Picasso owner, like, can you meet us tomorrow? And we're like, we'll take it. And he's like, well, you mean, I'm like, we'll take it.

I mean, if we didn't even negotiate the price, like we weren't even buying the building, we were buying this like second gen like equipment, but we loved it and knew it. So, and we're like the, I think this was September and like, could you hold it until Thanksgiving? [00:13:00] And so he held the store till Thanksgiving closed his doors on Wednesday before we unloaded our.

Trailer that we had picked our other restaurant up and then drove 20 hours back home to return my mom and dad's trailer and then got in the car, had Thanksgiving dinner, got back in the car and drove another 20 hours back. 

Don: We made that drive from Wilmington to St. Louis six times in two months.

Yeah. Oh my goodness. We couldn't afford to fly. Well. Yeah. That drive is 

Chris: just. 

Don: Yeah. 

Evonee: It's brutal. 

Tyler: It was brutal. Yeah. Oh. That's incredible. 

Chris: But I mean, that shows that you had passion and you could feel like what was 

Tyler: coming. And the dedication, the desire to get it done. 

Evonee: I mean, looking back, I'm like, what did, what were we thinking?

But, and I don't know if I have the mental capability to do that again, but we were 

Don: young. I still, I still remember the day very vividly. When you're coming down 40 and you come up over the bridge right there by Costco. Oh yeah. And it says Seahawks [00:14:00] Country right there or something. The day we drove into Wilmington, it was like 75 sunny, no, no clouds, no nothing.

And we had left like 38 degrees, miserable rain, snow. And I just remember that feeling. I'm like, so this is it. We're home. 

Evonee: This is it. So, and what sealed the deal is we went down to Johnny Mercer's pier and went out on the pier and I was like, this is home. And that was it. I mean, we made a split decision that day, moved our entire life 

POD00019: down 

Chris: here.

I mean there's something about that pier too because you're not the only person who said that like, hey, you know I went to the beach and just walked out and it was like 

Evonee: This is it. It's just breathtaking. Like you if you don't feel something when you walk out on that pier, then yeah It's just you can feel it 

Tyler: So, do you know or know of at least Andy Frisella with first form?

Oh, yeah, of course you do That was the stupidest question I've asked I was like, I go there every week and I get a smoothie every single time. Of [00:15:00] course you do. Yeah. But like he has the same similar story where he was sleeping on the ground of What was it supplement like superstore or whatever it was and similar, similar stories.

That's really neat. Just kind of like starting from living in the place that you actually work to where you are now. It's really neat. 

Evonee: Yeah. So we both started our businesses almost at the same time. That's when he bought the supplement shop in Edwardsville, Tilios. So he was just as he was sleeping in the back, we were sleeping in our back too.

So it was kind of weird how we kind of. Started, 

Don: You've known those guys a long time. Yeah. Oh, that's crazy. 

Tyler: So 

Chris: interesting. They're good. Yeah. So I was looking over our notes earlier. You have Clean Eats and Kle Eats Kitchen. We do. What is the difference? I'm asking. I'm going forward. So the 

Don: easiest way that I like to explain this is Cleanings as a brand is two companies.

They're sister companies clean Eats, the franchise company is the brick and mortar restaurants. [00:16:00] We've got. There are full scale restaurants with the meal plans like over there at Racine and there's over a hundred of those now. And then Cleaning's Kitchen is more of a distribution style of a company, but it's services like, we have government accounts with military services, D1 universities, pro sports teams.

And then it also will ship to customers where we don't have a franchise location. Okay. So those customers can go to the CleanEats kitchen website and order meals and have them shipped to their home. Oh, nice. It was kind of 

Evonee: trying to cover all bases. Funny story because gold's gym, Mike Fantino and came over and they had another meal plan company in gold's and he was like, man, we just, we want your meals over there.

And we're like, yeah, we'll do that. So, we started doing meals for gold's gym. Well then what? Two years later, if was it even two years somewhere around that timeline, we get this USDA inspector that walks through our doors and then, and he has like [00:17:00] put a red tag. He's like detained our meals over there and he's like, you guys are not USDA 

Don: guy.

Looks like Frodo on you. He comes in with this comes in with this inspector like the yellow FBI. Yeah. And it says inspector on it and he comes in and he like flips open this badge at me. And I looked at her and I looked at him and I looked at her again and I looked at him and I'm like Who's punking me, right?

This dude's like four foot two. 

Evonee: So we found out that you cannot retail meat and poultry products without them being in your locations. So it's not health department, it's USDA. And so we yanked out all of the meal. Like it was like a huge ordeal. And whoever made the anonymous call it was second week of January.

So imagine how that felt to our bottom line, you know, So we yanked everything out and, we got USDA certified, which took us about two months. And so that means that there's an inspector in all of our [00:18:00] facilities every single day. So and they will weigh the meals, they check ingredients, they check recipe formulas, they like sanitation, like every, it's like a whole process every day that we go through to resell those meals.

And anyway, CleanEats kitchen was kind of developed because we had 12. locations, nine, nine or 12 and we're like, man, we felt so small, you know, we're like, how do we act like a national brand if we don't really have 12 locations? Like no one knows who the hell we are. And so we just, we did the whole clean eats kitchen so that it looked like we were a national brand versus just 12 units.

And that way we got better food pricing, better you know, paper goods and all that. So it kind of made us feel a little bit bigger than what we were at that time. 

Don: That's one part of it. The other part of it was the government, the military accounts. Oh yeah. We had already been servicing Camp Lejeune and some other ones and they wanted to do a lot more than what we were already capable of doing.

Yeah. And so in order to do that we [00:19:00] had to start this other entity and start doing it so we could grow it on a larger scale. Makes sense. 

Chris: I didn't know that. 

Evonee: So, fun fact, I fly out tomorrow to Salt Lake City, and we ship to Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Hawaii. Oh, wow. Marine bases over there. 

Tyler: Oh, that's huge.

Yeah. 

Chris: That's really cool. I feel like I'm spoiled because I'm from here. So, I'm just like, oh, hey, like, there's a cleanings around the corner. I remember walking into Gold's, like, when I used to go to Gold's, and be like, oh, there's cleanings here. So, I didn't realize, like, all of the extra that you guys had to 

Evonee: go through.

Oh, yeah. It's a lot. 

Chris: I applaud you on that. Figuring all of that out. 

Evonee: I just recently got off probation for cussing one of them out. So, they're it's like a federal, so it's like, you cannot disrespect the USDA officers. Like, there's zero, zero tolerance. Federal agent? Yeah. Oh, like, what'd they tell me?

Fifteen years. It's like a 25, 000 fine, 15 years in [00:20:00] prison if I get like the next step 

Don: or whatever. The funny thing is, is when we formed that entity, right, we had the franchise company and her and I were kind of running that together. She had her parts of the business and, and I had mine. And then we had another, you know, consultant or partner, if you will, at that point.

And then when we started this one, you know, he helped us build this. So he's an equity partner in that one. And he kind of moved over there. Well then, when we decided to do that, we were like, Okay, well we gotta divide and conquer. And so, we decided to make the decision that I was gonna run the franchise company, You know, Jason was gonna run the kitchen, And Yvonne would do menu and food development for both of them.

Because they kind of coincide together. The reason for that was, I don't have any patience. He would totally 

Evonee: be in 

Don: jail at the moment. Yeah, I would choke one of them out. And then, we always joke like, You're the one that deals with the USDA because you're more mild temperament. Here you are. You're the one that 

Evonee: [00:21:00] serves papers.

Yeah. It was a whole ordeal. I had to get my attorney involved. Like the big wigs from Raleigh came down and then I got served papers for the one year probation. So it was not, it's good now. I 

Don: remember that meeting when they came down, we had our attorney, it was in our conference room and they were trying to make it out to be a big deal.

And. I'm sitting at the other end of the conference table just kind of minding my own business and at the end of the meeting, the guy looks at me and he was like, well, sir, do you have any questions? And I'm like, nope, no, man, there's, you're dealing with her and it's probably a good reason he looked at me like this and they're like, okay, fair enough.

Out we 

Tyler: go. 

Chris: So, cause you mentioned it, I'm going to go back and then go forward. Cause you were a carpenter prior. You did x ray. I did x ray. What does that mean? Were you an x ray tech? Yeah, x ray 

Evonee: tech. Oh, wow. Yeah, so I started in physical therapy but I was a poor farm kid. So,[00:22:00] back then, I, I won't, I mean, I turned 49 this year, so just a couple weeks ago.

And so. I'm surprised you admitted that. I know. I, I think, you know what? I'm just gonna embrace it. Like, just, I'm gonna go for it. 50 is the new 30? Yeah. Yeah. So I started in physical therapy and then it was a five year program, so it was super expensive and my mom's just like, we can't afford this. And she's like, your cousin is an x ray tech, so I signed you up for x ray school.

That's how that conversation went down and I was like, okay. So I went, I thought like as long as it was a medical, I was probably okay. Well, you know how that is. It's like I got this itch and I was always looking for something else. So I became a personal trainer. Then I became a kickboxing instructor and then how I got into the meal plan was that my clients.

We had a Hardee's on one corner and a McDonald's on the other corner. And then we didn't even have a gym. It was the hospital that was their physical therapy department [00:23:00] that they kind of like let us train out of. So. The client or, you know, all of my clients would go train with me and then they would go to McDonald's and Hardee's afterwards.

And so at that time I was meal prepping for myself. And so I was, got him in the room one day and I was like, what if I like make all your meals? All you have to do is eat the meals that I make you and then come and train and. Lo and behold, it worked. So before you knew it, I was making like 500 Tupperware containers out of my kitchen on a Sunday, delivering it to all of my clients.

And then. I got melanoma it was just kind of like a random, like, mole on the back of my leg and it had, like, went through my calf and all the way to my shin, so it had, like, grown like these little tentacles through. And so I went for the first surgery, they told me they didn't have clear margins, so they took out more of my muscle in my leg and then they finally got clear.

Well, then it was like, well, we don't know if we're going to do chemo and radiation. And I was like, it was a mole, like, [00:24:00] you know, like. I don't know. So then six months later I was on the bed with an ultrasound student and cause they always want you, somebody to be the guinea pig. So I was like, Oh, I don't have patients.

I'll do it. They scanned and the radiologist comes in. She's like, I think you have lymphoma. And I was like, God, okay. So, I went and had nine lymph nodes cut out of my groin. And they all came back benign and the doctor's like, you just got a second chance to life because we thought you were a goner.

And I was like, okay. So I walked in and I quit my job. And my mom's like, you know, my mom who put me to x ray school, she's like, you've just ruined your entire life and what are you doing? And da, da, da. Like, like I think I'm going to go start this meal plan business. And that's when I got the location across from the Bethalto in there.

So. 

Tyler: Oh, wow. That's incredible. 

Chris: Yeah. Sorry. I was like, it's just so crazy. The reason why you switched over and how you guys end up meeting it's just. 

Evonee: At the time it did not sound crazy now that [00:25:00] we sit here, we talk about it. I'm like, that was just batshit crazy. So yeah, but you just do what you do. I don't know.

I, there's just something when you decide to make a change, you know, that I always say aha moment. You have that aha moment. Nothing can stop you. You know, it's just, you just. You do what you need to do. 

Tyler: Yeah. You have that right thing that pulls on the heart string at the right time. It's just, that's the time to do it.

Evonee: And if the universe all aligns, which it did for us, I mean, it just seemed like everything has aligned with us and it's not saying it's been easy, but it's kind of guided us, you know, along the way. So it's been, it's been very fortunate. 

Chris: Good. So jumping forward when did you guys decide to franchise?

And then like, how has it turned in what it is now? Like you said, you have a hundred restaurants. 

Don: Oh man, how do I? We We didn't really, well, We got Racine up and running and we're open two years? [00:26:00] Two and a half years? And then we're like, okay, we got a handle on this. We're getting pretty good at this things are going very well And we were like, okay, let's try to open a second one, you know And then at this point we were like if we do this though, we want to build what we want like the picture perfect You know thing and at the time then still we were still competing We're still doing all that.

Well, then we had all these aspirations of doing Supplements retail, you know, you name it the whole gamut And we had went and talked to an equipment dealer ironically, who's right across the street from our old office. Oh. And we were sitting there talking to him and telling him all this stuff that we wanted to do and pinging ideas off of him.

And he was kind of giving us this, like, glazed over look on his face. And he was like, you guys can't do this. And we're like, what? What? And we were like, he was like, you really need to franchise this concept. And so he gave us a business card to these two [00:27:00] guys that were here in town that were franchising small businesses.

 So we went home and thought about it and we're like, damn, all right, we need to do this. Let's do this. We 

Evonee: had to Google it because we had no idea what that meant. So I was like, was it Rocco and Wells? No, it was Jason Nesta and Greg George. Oh, okay. Yeah. But Jason and those, he was partners. Right. Yeah.

Same like little group. Yeah. 

Chris: It's that's the thing we were talking to earlier. Like Wilmington is so small. I mean, it's growing rapidly, but there's always so many. There's only so far you can get from somebody before you come 

Evonee: back in there is so many Intelligent like people here that I mean, it's yeah Wilmington produces some huge Entrepreneurs out of here.

So very grateful that we know a handful of them 

Chris: So Jumping all the way forward You guys like you said you got a [00:28:00] hundred shops open now. You're finally opening The one on Oleander. 

Evonee: Yes. The 15th. Sure. 

Chris: See, I, I say finally because I remember it seems like over a year ago where you came in and I was talking to you and I was like, Oh, you're opening another shop.

Like I was so excited and I would keep driving past and I'd be like, I'd tell my wife, I'm like, Oh, they're going to put a clean eats over here. And she was like, I don't see any change. So it 

Don: was a permitting ones. Eons. For permits. 

Evonee: It was forever. It was like seven months, right? 

Tyler: Yeah. Sounds about right.

Yeah. So right outside of where our studio is right now, they've been working on the city for permits as well, too, and it, they've been working on it for a long time. 

Evonee: So painful. I don't know who listens to this from the city, so I don't want to say nothing back.

Wilmington's a small town, right guys? 

Tyler: Nothing I haven't already heard. 

Evonee: [00:29:00] But whoever's on there that gave us our CO, we got our CO when was it? Right before Christmas at four 48 and they closed at five. So whoever's there and listening, thank you. We appreciate that. You did make us sweat all day, but it was a great Christmas present.

Thank you. 

Chris: Gosh. So are you excited about this? Cause I feel like you guys got to pretty much clear it out and build what you wanted. for the space. 

Don: Yeah, this has kind of been a dream. We've been trying to do this for four years, five years. We always wanted something to where, you know, when we first started franchising, obviously we trained everybody at racing, you know, all of our franchisees would come there.

Well, you know, we nicknamed racing the closet. That place is only 1000 square feet, 1100 square feet. And so as the brand and the company kept growing and the model kept developing and maturing, you You can only fit like three or four people in there. So then we had to make a decision. Okay. Well, we can't [00:30:00] literally train anybody here.

It's physically impossible. So three or four years ago, we made the decision to send franchisees to Cleveland and to Raleigh because those two operators are phenomenal. They do everything by the book. They're just great operators. And so for the last four years, they've been training everybody and we just pay them to train them and it's worked out well, but.

You know, we always wanted to have, like, the picture perfect prototype. And it was always a cool vision and dream for her and I to have our corporate office right there. Yeah. Where you could literally, like, press a button and walk through a door. and walk into the restaurant and everybody's there. You don't have to leave because right now we have our warehouse on Raleigh Street, which is down by the porch.

Yeah, that's where our franchise offices are currently until tomorrow. And so and then we also have our big distribution center in Dutch Square and then we have Racine. Oh, wow. So her and I are constantly [00:31:00] pinging in three different directions all the time all over town. And so it's just going to be really nice to have to go to one place.

Don't have to leave, you don't have to go 

Evonee: anywhere. It's totally type A for an obsessive compulsive like disorder that I can just go next door to watch everything. So, it's gonna help with my control freak, you know, mechanism. Is 

Tyler: that gonna be a, a public store as well too, or is that pretty much like the research kitchen?

So it's really 

Don: about, I can't be open 

Evonee: to the public. Oh wow. So it's 10, 000 square feet in 2200 of it is the restaurant. 25, 25, so 2, 500 is the restaurant, which is open to everybody. And so we made it a little bit bigger so we can train everyone. And then on the backside, which there's a window. So if you come into the cafe, you can peek into all of our corporate office on the other side.

And then the other 8, 000 square feet is, all of our corporate people on that side. So think about marketing. They can go right across. Like if they're training, they can do you know, book work and then go and make the food. So it's, it's going to be good. A [00:32:00] 

Tyler: lot 

Don: more efficient. I'm sure. Yeah, it's going to enhance everything.

It'll enhance the training for the owners and for, you know, trying to get a, like a management training system up to where owners could send managers to train. Almost like a little small university type setting in the same building. 

Tyler: And you have franchises even outside of the U. S., right? Not yet. Not yet?

Evonee: Okay. We've been asked several times, but I I 

Don: got enough anxiety, I'm 

Tyler: moving to the 

Don: old 

Evonee: international laws. I think that's whoever takes us over at some point, maybe. They can have that headache. Yeah, we've been offered 

Don: Dubai. We've almost gone to Mexico and Canada a few times and just turned them down. 

Chris: So, cause you can't go fully international.

Would it still be possible for you guys to go to like, territories? Like Guam or Puerto Rico or something? 

Don: Yeah, yeah, you can. It's just harder [00:33:00] for That's what I'm looking for, like consistency, menu consistency. Sometimes some of the things that are available here aren't 

Evonee: available. Was it Costa Rica?

We were Chile. Chile, Chile. And, man, it's just, their food and our, like, just the recipes would be so It would be probably a whole nother like menu over there because of what they're limited to with Ingredients, that's 

Don: true. Yeah for a brand our size, you know, like the big conglomerates like Jersey Mike's You know, yeah, I mean nothing Chipotle stuff like that.

You're gonna find them international because they can They can take their own product put it on a vessel and send it over there and then it's the same They got the same products Not there yet. We're not there yet. 

Chris: I like to just say yet. Yeah. So like there's potential. There's potential. Always 

Evonee: thinking further.

Yeah. We can figure it out. Just not the priority 

Don: at the moment. We can ship our pre packaged food anywhere. Yeah. We can go global. Yeah. [00:34:00] That's cool. 

Chris: Yeah, that's really neat. So I'm going to shift away from food for a minute. I saw that you've opened up a farm for, is it for venue? Like. Yeah. I just see it because I follow you guys on social media.

So I see like the random cows up here and I see like 

Evonee: all the random cows, Chris, they have names. Well, like they show up on 

Chris: my, on my feed and I'm like, wait, are these real? And I promise. So seeing 

Tyler: their AI cows, because 

Chris: I've seen your. your cows have shown up now, like my random search feed on like social media now shows the Highland cows.

Evonee: Yeah. And I'm like, you're so lucky. You're welcome. 

Chris: So do you want to talk about 

Don: that a little bit? Yeah. So three years ago, four years ago, I 

Evonee: think it would be four years in August. 

Don: Four years ago, we bought almost 60 acres out there in Pender County. And it was literally a [00:35:00] place I wanted to go shoot and hunt.

Yeah. And I just got lucky. I was sittin we had looked for, for months and couldn't find anything. And then one Sunday, we, her and I were sittin at home watching football and I was like, I'm just gonna get on Zillow and see what I can find. Very first search, I just put in land in Pender County. And the very first one popped up this awesome log cabin with 60 acres.

And I immediately reached out to her friend, Crystal. And I was like, I want to see this tomorrow, like set this up. We got to go look at this. And we all fell in love with it instantly. Very similar to the cafe. Like we pulled down this road and I'm like. And then 

Evonee: another road and then another road and the roads kept getting like they were paved and then rocked and then dirt and then I mean, you're not going to 

Don: find this place.

You will never. Yeah, literally don't belong back there. It's super cool though. And we've owned that for four years and then there's a 200 acre plot next to that that kind of butts into our, our property. And this old man [00:36:00] has lived out there for almost 20 years and he built a compound out there. We don't have enough time for me to tell you about this guy, but he's a very interesting character.

Sovereign citizen. Oh yeah. Hates the government, doesn't like to protect, that whole nine yards. And so he's one of those ones, like a conspiracy theory guy. Builds this compound for his family. Puts schoolhouse buildings on it. There's a baseball diamond, an in ground pool. Tennis court. Oh, Michael.

And so when we bought our property, all the neighbors around us was like, you know, stay away from, you know, his name is Sullivan, stay away from him. You know, he's crazy. He'll shoot you. Blah, blah, blah, blah. It was like a year after we bought ours. One of the neighbors up the road had called a friend of ours now.

And he said, Hey, he's putting this property on the market. If you guys have any interest in it. Oh, wow. Wrap. Yeah, you know like let's go look at this. And so I called the same realtor friend. She came out [00:37:00] and He met us like you pull out of our lane and you'd literally hang a left on this dirt road rock road And you go up about, I don't know, 200 yards, 300 yards.

And the back iron gate to his property opens up and he's got all these, like,

there was places where he had cameras at one point, you know, something like that. Or when you pull up spotlights, come on. Right. That's kind of what it looked like. And so he met us there on his little piece of crap in his holster, John Gator, John Deere Gator, and. Come and find out the guy's cool as a cucumber.

Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. Super cool. Like, weird. Completely weird. But nicest old man you'd ever meet. And toured the property with us for 

Evonee: four hours. It took us four hours to go through all of this. He drove us 

Don: around, showed us everything, and we like instantly fell in love. It was like, holy crap. That's amazing.

This is awesome. And at that [00:38:00] point, it was just way too soon for us. We couldn't do it. I mean, he wanted to Well, we just had 

Evonee: bought Chuck E. Cheese. We had 

Don: just bought the Chuck E. Cheese. Yeah, so like Literally weeks before this. Oh, wow, yeah. And so, we decided to like, hey man, it's not the right time. And, just let it go.

Well, I don't know, universe, whatever. He took it off the market. And decided not to sell it. And then three years later, two, two and a half, three years 

Evonee: later, I 

Don: got a random phone call on my phone and, 

Evonee: Well, no, I sent you to poker night. That 

Don: was after he called me. He had called me and said, Hey, I've got a real estate developer interested in the property.

Are you, do you guys have any interest in this? If not, I have to sell this. I need to, I need to get rid of it. I can't maintain it. I'm too old. So her and I were like, man, I don't want to, I do not want to lose this. There's no way. Especially to a real estate developer. Yeah. Out there. You hear that diamond in the rough?

This is a diamond in the rough. [00:39:00] And we had him and his wife come over, well she sent me to poker. Yes. They 

Evonee: have Thursday night poker. Like everyone on these, like six old men. There's six to eight of them. Yeah. Yeah. John's the youngest one. But they play poker on every Thursday night. So I'm like, go to poker and go get some dirt on 

Don: it.

So. Listen man, these guys out there, I don't know what your listeners are like, so I'll be careful what I say, but these guys are. They live in another era. Let's just leave it at that. And I go to play poker and they have this ritual. He called this place Dixieland. I'll leave it to your imagination for the rest.

Got it. And we go and we play poker and these guys sit up, they like, he had all these decorations up from 1800s. They stand up and start singing this like national anthem from the confederate army. And I'm sitting there and I'm like. 

Evonee: And there's a no phone rule, so he can't text me or anything. I [00:40:00] gotta 

Tyler: go.

I 

Don: gotta go. I need to get up and leave now. And they just kind of sat back down and I'm like, holy shit. I'm thinking to myself, how do I get out of this? I have to go. Like, I do not want to be here. And I, I stuck it out. went back to our cabin. I said, Yvonne, I will never do that again. I'm mad at you for making me go do that.

And one thing led to another. We had him and his wife come to the cabin a couple days later, and we worked out a deal with them to where we could, we could buy this property. And then her and I just kind of had this vision of doing this wedding venue there. I mean, that's just a cool concept. It's something we've always wanted to do.

It's a picture perfect place to do it. 

Evonee: So we of course me, I'm like, I need animals, you know, something needs me out there, like I need to go love on something. So we bought too many donkeys and their names are Coco and Chanel. And they're like, [00:41:00] of course, right. And then came the horses. Cause I'm like, I want to ride horses.

So we went and bought two horses and that's angel and queen. And then. I have been looking for those mini cows, but tick tock has just blown them up. And so they go from anywhere from like 19, 000 to 50 grand and I'm like, okay, I'm not desperate yet and I can't pay that and he will totally kill me. So, I'm on all these.

Auctions and like, so one day it was like right before Christmas, I'm on there and there's live auctions. It's in Virginia. I'm like, Don, they're going for six grand. Like I can afford this, you know, like this isn't my budget. He's like, get off of there. He was like, Christmas is so, you know, close, like don't, I'm like, so what does that mean?

I'm getting a mini cow for Christmas, you know, and he's like, just stop it. Yvonne, just stop it. And I was like, okay. So the whole time I thought I was getting a mini cow for Christmas and then I go through all my presents and there's like no mini cows, but then I know my birthday is three days later. So I'm [00:42:00] like, okay.

And then I started messing with everybody. I was like, dad, am I getting many cows for my birthday? I get many cows for my birthday. And so no one said anything. I mean, I kind of like had to like. Maybe an inkling that they're coming and then so we go out for my birthday and my oldest daughter She's coming from st.

Louis and she's like what you wouldn't do for your birthday. I'm like, oh, I don't know and she's like Let's go ride horses. I'm like Wait a minute. You never want to go out and ride horses. What's going on? And so then we went out there and I pulled in and I looked for the cows and there was no cows in the lot.

I'm like, son of a bitch. There's nothing here. Dang it. I've been like hosed. And so I'm trying to, yeah, putting the I was trying to get the saddles on the horse and Don be like, Hey, go take the kids and go like, look at the property. Go do this. I'm like, Don, like I want to ride, you know? And. And I finally got a blanket on one of the horses and he's like moving the horse all around.

And I'm like, what are you? I'm trying to stall 

Don: her. 

Evonee: Yeah. And so about this time I'm like getting [00:43:00] mad, like I'm going to like start going red on him. And I see this trailer coming down the road and I was like, Oh. Are those many cows? He's like, you're just gonna have to wait and see. And so then Dolce and Gigi arrived.

So we have the designer herd. Yeah. 

Don: Yes, I love that. 

Chris: That's funny. So do you have chickens, too? 

Evonee: No, I'm not gonna go that far. Yeah, I know. 

Tyler: Are the many or many cows like the actual like Highland cows? Or? Oh, they 

Evonee: are. So there they are. My 

Tyler: wife doesn't listen to this. She's gonna have people 

Evonee: knocking on your door.

She's like, she's like 38. Inches. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. And then Dolce is like 40, so, so she's still pretty small. Yeah. But yeah. And so the jokes bin, which I, I knew what I was doing, but everyone's like, oh, you're going for like a female empowerment vibe out here. It's all girls. And I was like, yeah.

And then someone said something the other day and they're like, so why is all girls? I'm like, because they can have babies. I'm like, so we're gonna have tons of babies out here,[00:44:00] 

Which Dolce she's got a pretty big belly. So, she could be 

Don: pregnant. Very carefully. Could have bought a pregnant cow. Oh, no. Oh. 

Chris: I mean, that would save you 

Don: a lot of money. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, true. So, 

Tyler: yeah. I'm excited. I didn't know you had. 

Evonee: Yeah. But they're super cute. You guys got to come out because they take treats like our neighbor, who's out there, Tim, who helps us take care of things when we're not out there.

He I was like, do cows take treats? And he was like, Oh no, I've never like seen it. And I was like, Oh, okay. So I got the, the little horse treats and I went out to the cow pasture and sure enough, Dolce comes up there and she puts her big old tongue out and grabs the treat. And I was like, damn. She takes treats and he's like, great.

So much trouble. I'm in so much trouble. Yeah. It was so good. 

Don: That's hilarious. I love that. Hopefully next year in this year, I say next year, this year, keep forgetting. It's [00:45:00] January. Hopefully we can start, you know, having events out there. We're hoping. April and May, it'll be ready for an event. 

Tyler: Oh, nice. So did you keep the tennis courts and the swimming pool and all that out there?

Yep. 

Evonee: Yep. We did all that. And then we got the, the barn stadium, which I know it's three against one in here, in this room, so I'll, I'll be okay. But, so we got the horses and we're going to start having horse barn dinners. So you can come out. And I, I see your look. Okay. I got 

Chris: like, if I can come out and like the wife's will sit across and look at 

Evonee: the animals.

So you were going to put the table down the middle of the barn stable and then the horses will be able to maybe get your hair while you're eating your dinner. Have you ever spent 

Don: time around livestock? 

Chris: Oh, I do. It'll prevent other, like it will prevent my wife from wanting to say, yeah, they all poop.

Yeah. I know what it'll smell like. I'm 

Don: thinking, who in their right mind, she told me this idea, I'm like, you're crazy. You just wait. Google will do it. [00:46:00] I know. I'm just, I can't fathom it. You 

Tyler: see they have another small barn in the back, just call it like a bourbon bar and that's where all the men 

Evonee: can go.

See? I think, yeah. I told him that. 

Don: Listen, I told you. I hope you prove me wrong. Yeah. I really do. 

Chris: Surprising. I want to say no, but. 

Tyler: People do my wife yoga. So I, I, I understand like all this 

Evonee: silly stuff. There's goat yoga. Someone's going to come eat a steak dinner with some horses nibbling on their 

Don: 50 plus dollars a plate to go sit in a horse barn in Southeast North Carolina with our weather, with a horse shitting right behind me.

I'm just not going to do that. 

Chris: It happens. 

Evonee: Someone will do it. We're going to be sitting here a year later, you guys, on this podcast interview, like, so tell me about your successful horse barn dinners. I'll be like, that's right. 

Chris: We hold them once a month and, you know, you got to book your tickets early. We sell out.

We only have 12 seats, so. 

Tyler: Yeah, it's going to be fun. I could, I [00:47:00] could probably name at least 12 people right now that would sign up instantly. So I, 

Don: I, yeah. Well, I will eat my words in a year from now. 

Evonee: You guys heard it, it's recorded, so we're good. You're right, 

Tyler: yeah, it's all recorded now. Awesome. 

Chris: I love it.

Sorry, I'm just 

Evonee: You asked about the farm, so that's Oh, that was on you, sorry. No, no, I was like, mini cows, mini donkeys, yeah, and horses. 

Chris: It's, I'm surprised because I've lived here my whole life, and the fact that there aren't as many, like, farm venues That really surprises me because every time I'm like, because they technically rightful manner is like kind of a farm in town, but it's not really a farm.

And then I know there's one in Pender County, is in Pender County. It's actually right behind us. Oh, okay. So I know there's one out there that, like, I've had friends get married out there. I'm like, you would expect there to be more of them. 

Evonee: I think they're starting to pop up a little [00:48:00] bit more now with people's kind of venturing out with property, you know, like, you know, these traditional farmers out there that they're, they're using the farmland for like, you know, their fields and raising animals in here.

All of us, Bougie City people coming in and we're going to make. Barnstable dinners and wedding vignettes. They're probably like, who the hell are these people? Send them back to the beach. 

Chris: Sad thing. I was just thinking about this. I'm like, talking about barnstable dinners. It's also hard to find a bar out in the middle of nowhere.

So if you set up a spot 

Don: One that you would be comfortable with, I guess. Yes. 

Evonee: Yeah. Not out in the sticks. But there's like 50 acres. It's like kind of an open field. So I would love to do like music festivals out there. I mean, I could totally see like a race out there because it's just gorgeous. I mean, the Ironman comes about halfway to our farm.

Like the bikes run through there. So it's not unheard of that someone could like. [00:49:00] We could do a whole race out there. 

Tyler: We used to do CrossFit with Essential. CrossFit. And they actually, they have a bunch of land too. And they started doing Spartan races for kids out there. And it's 

Evonee: pretty cool. My future dream is we're gonna do the ropes.

So like you would climb the ropes. You have this big open field on the other side. And I would love to put like a rope course out there so corporate people could come out there and, you know, like blindfold you and your team member and you got to put trust to get across. Like, I don't know. I, I. I think the wedding venue will be good, but during the week I could totally see corporate events out there.

I mean, we had our corporate event out there. It's got like a little chow house that you can like cook in and eat. And then we just, I mean, we played kickball out there and the kids swam and it was super cool as a huge pond on it that the kids were even fishing. So there's so much to do out there. And currently there's no wife, like wifi.

So you have to, [00:50:00] like, my kids were here for, yeah, for my, once the writing got done for my birthday, they're like, can we go back into the beach? Cause there's nothing to do out here. It's like, no, I was like, we're going to play games. So we play cards and so we have no TV out there currently, no wifi. So you really have to just.

Just disconnect from everything. That's great to have though. You, yeah, you just need it. I mean, it's. It's 

Don: coming. I keep telling her, I'm like, Yvonne, you can't have a wedding venue. Oh, yeah. With no Wi Fi. 

Evonee: Well, yeah, we'll have to get for that, but the other house will stay then. 

Don: DJs don't use CDs anymore.

Right. 

Tyler: Just get Starlink out there and you can turn it off whenever you 

Evonee: want. That's it. Watch it fly above us. I don't think it's available. Yeah, it's a waiting list here, I thought. There is 

Tyler: a waiting list, but it doesn't take that long to get on, though. Okay. 

Chris: So, you did mention your, like, corporate retreats.

Don't you guys have one? Like. Every 

Evonee: year? Yes, coming up next weekend. Okay. Oh, wow. One of them. One of them. Yeah, you're talking about that. We change lives. Yeah. Yeah [00:51:00] So the challenge begins January 15th, and we give away 25, 000 to a single winner and then every cafe the hundred cafes each have a winner from their location but we do a we change lives retreat where the customers come here to Wrightsville beach.

And then we do three days. They eat our food, they train it's mindset and get them kick started off for the new year. And then we also do the franchisees all come here too. So Lumina loves us. I think most years depends, but yeah, we have three retreats a year. So we have the customers, we have the managers and then we have our owners.

Tyler: Oh, nice. And you guys. Or I guess relatively recently started like the, I forget what it's called now. I literally just looked at it a couple of days ago, but it's the box where it's all like set up, ready to go for you for the whole entire month. It's the like best kickstarting thing. I looked everything and said, and I was like, if you had any doubt of like what to do to get started on like a weight loss journey or a health journey, like [00:52:00] that's the perfect thing to use.

Evonee: I, yeah, I was. Definitely going after Nutrisystem with that, so, She's not gonna, she's not, she's not gonna say anything, I'll let you know. Yeah, because Nutrisystem is pretty much the only one that has in its, I don't know if anybody has ordered Nutrisystem, but it is, with Nutrisystem, I always kind of get our competitor's stuff, and it got delivered to the thing, and it was out on my doorstep, and I was like, oh my gosh, it's gonna be like hot.

Opened it up, it's like tuna packets, like it's like all, Nothing is like fresh food in NutriSystems. So I'm like, man, we can totally just blow this out of the water and cheaper. So then with the protein, the snacks, the pizzas the greens, I mean, yeah, it's like an entire month. I'm super, I hope a lot of people take advantage of that because I mean, if you have any, don't know what to do, all you have to do is just.

Follow that box and you're me and one of our team members did it brand and I lost seven pounds in the [00:53:00] first 15 days and he ended up losing almost eight pounds, 10 pounds, but he was he was trying to kind of balance, like he wasn't looking to lose or gain, but he's just like, just me cleaning up my diet.

He was like, he just naturally lost. So 

Tyler: I was looking, I was like doing the math on my phone. I'm like, this is so cheap. Like, yeah. How I don't even know how you guys are able to offer it for that price. It's like 500 for the box. Is that right? 

Evonee: Yeah, and it's 

Tyler: 30 days. Yes, it's for 30 days of food and there's a lot of stuff in that I was extremely impressed.

I 

Evonee: mean, it's all you have to do is just follow the direction Yeah, and let us cook for you and pick it up. Like that's your biggest thing is picking it up and follow on it So yeah we've sold I think quite a bit, it hurt a lot. I, I'm waiting to see what the results are from our customers because it was like a big kickoff for the new year, obviously.

And so I'm waiting for everyone to kind of, I've been hearing the franchisees selling a bunch of them. So I'm waiting to kind of see some testimonials come [00:54:00] in to see what they think. So 

Tyler: yeah. 

Chris: Yeah. I do have to apologize. I don't stalk you. It's just the way of social media. I was sitting here. I was like, Oh yeah, I know this.

And I know this. And I was like. Like, yeah, that does seem like I like stalk these people. 

Tyler: It's like, so what about your cows? 

Don: Just means we're doing what we're supposed to do. Right. 

Evonee: Exactly. Yeah. No, it's good. I was like, what about those cows? 

Chris: I mean, it was funny too. Cause Tyler, I was like, Hey, I reached out to Yvonne.

I wonder, you know, I mean, Kleenex to me is like a big company, like, cause I'm used to just front facing like, Oh, Hey, like a person who. Has like a real estate business and they have few houses or something like that But I was like, I wonder if they'll say yes 

Evonee: I know you were so sweet when you I don't know.

This is a big what'd you say? This is a long shot. I'm like, yes chris I'm, like, yeah, like i'm gonna do it. So 

Chris: So I love that you guys are like for a couple who has grown a business [00:55:00] from ground up to where you guys are right now. I think people should just realize like you should still say grounded and you two, I feel like are very grounded people who are still in the community doing great stuff.

Don: You 

Evonee: have to, yeah, it's just, you have to, and I couldn't ever see me being anything else. You know, like I would totally, you know. Yeah, I don't know. There's just nothing that I wouldn't do. And I just couldn't live that arrogancy. It, I feel like that would take so much of your energy to be arrogant and you know, like narcissist, you know, I just, I couldn't do it.

So I feel like being humble is much easier. 

Chris: Definitely. So talking about being humble and how I got to hype you up what does or would success look like for the two of you guys? Like business, personal, your choice. 

Evonee: Our definition of it, the success?

Don: I feel like we just filmed this the other day, I'm trying [00:56:00] to remember 

Chris: what I said. I think you did too, cause I was like, I'm gonna ask that question. 

Evonee: Yeah. I feel I would say in my earlier days I was always looking for that finish line. So I just thought like, okay, once we get to 50 locations, I'll feel this.

Once we get to this, I'm going to like react this way. And it took me this year to really, I think maybe it's because I'm getting her in turn 50 or whatever, but to dig down deep and be like, why do I keep waiting for that success Like, what does success feel like? Like, you know, like you think that you're going to do this and you're just going to like, like all these fireworks go off inside of you or something, you know?

So this year I really had to dig deep and I really had to find like little things that bring you joy every single day. And so I feel like that is successful. If you can be happy and you can be you know, like doing this today, like, you know, on a Sunday and it's just like little things to me [00:57:00] that keep me happy, keep your passion fulfilled.

Because I think once you lose your passion, then it's just another job, right? So. My success is to live each day with joy in it. I feel like, it sounds so cliche, but. 

Don: Mine's similar, and I remember what I said online the other day. It wasn't something that I posted. A friend of mine had, had put something online.

And kind of an influential guy. And he, he asked, you know, what success means to you. And he, he specifically said, I want a very in depth. deep answer. And I immediately, I just, it just went like that. And I was like, listen, bud, I've been around the best of the best. And I've sat at tables with guys that, you know, you, there's a definition when people think success, right?

These guys are it, you know, they have their own planes, they have millions of dollars. But I think one [00:58:00] thing that a lot of people forget is they try to put a monetary value to success. And that's just not, it's not true. It's not real life. And, you know, similar to the things that she said, I think that people don't give themselves enough grace for the things that they have and that they have accomplished versus what they have not, or what they don't have and what they have not done.

You don't hear anybody say, I'm a successful father of two, I work at so and so, I do this, that, and this. And my wife is a successful mother of two and she does this. And they make 80 grand a year. It's still successful. You're happy. You know what I mean? You can wake up every day with a smile on your face, lace up your shoes and go do whatever it is.

And you're happy with your life. That to me, success doesn't matter. You could have 100, 000 or 100 million. It doesn't matter. Yeah, the meaning is the same. 

Evonee: Surrounded by many cows. Right. 

Tyler: As long as there's many [00:59:00] cows, success. 

Chris: I feel like Tyler's wife will just be like can I show up 

Don: and like, absolutely.

We need to find a really cool sign to put because the donkeys and the cows are in a paddock that's like side by side. They're in the same pasture. Basically, they're just kind of separated. Right. We need a good sign that says the designer heard. Yeah, you definitely do. 

Evonee: I've been looking, don't worry. I got 

Chris: it.

So what are you planning on naming the next baby mini cow? If you have one, Louis 

Evonee: Vuitton, 

Don: already 

Tyler: done scheduled 

Chris: for it. You're like, Hey, I got this ready. And 

Evonee: you know, what's funny is, is like, I don't even own designer, any of those designers, but I look up to, like, I love Coco Chanel. Like I just look up to her as a business woman and even Dolce, you know, just their store, like I just, right.

Idolize what they've done. And cause I [01:00:00] do like, you know, from my buckle days, how much clothes I like. Yeah. So I just love clothes and I just, I kind of, they're kind of like my idols, the Kim Kardashian's, you 

Tyler: know, so based off of Chris's question, if you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be?

Don: How young are we talking here? 

Chris: I mean, some people go back to two years 

Don: ago 

Tyler: or 12 

Evonee: or whoever. Man, that's always so hard. 

Don: I'd go back to my 23 year old self and I'd say, Don't get married. I was married once. Don't get married. Don't spend your money in bars. Don't take girls from the bar home. Wait for this beautiful 30s.

Evonee: I think I would tell my younger self to be like, is quit worrying. Like I was [01:01:00] very, as the oldest of three kids we had some family. Ish sickness in my family. So I had to grow up pretty fast with that. So and I was always worried, always worried you know, but I think if I could just tell myself like, you know what, go with your gut and don't, don't have fear.

Like cause I was always fearful of everything, but it will always work out. So I think I didn't learn that until I was. Right when I met you, like 35, when I left my career and did all that, and then to find joy was last year. So, you know, because again, I was always looking for that finish line. I always like, this is going to make me feel happy.

This is going to make me feel happy. And it never happened. And so I'm like, what is wrong with me? And so it's just like, yeah, you just got to find like joy every day and something like he said. So I 

Chris: love it. Very good. So because we've talked about all your businesses where can people find you guys on social media or find a [01:02:00] business and use your products?

Don: Me personally, it's just Don Verity on Instagram. V A R A D Y. CleanEats. com is our website. 

Evonee: CleanEatsKitchen. com is our delivery service. I'm Yvonne at Ver or Yvonne Verity on there. And then, go follow V& P Farms to watch the mini cow stuff come true. And sign up for the barn dinners.

Oh, yeah. 

Don: Yeah? Hopefully we 

Evonee: got a website for that. Yeah, hopefully we have a website for that soon. It's, it's in process. Is that all of our stuff? Facebook, TikTok, we're all the same on there, aren't we? Oh, nice. Now we're too old. So, we've got our full names. Keep it all the same. 

Chris: Yeah. 

Don: That's 

Tyler: the way to do it.

It's confusing otherwise. 

Don: Yeah. 

Evonee: That's it. Oh, and 203 Racing Drive is our OG cafe. We got, we're trying to save it so we don't want the new cafe to take put it out of business. And what's the new cafe? 

Don: 4389 Oleander. [01:03:00] It's the old Chuck 

Evonee: E. Cheese, Chuck E. Cheese on Olander. 

Tyler: And odds are you'll see myself or a previous guest, Pete Fournier, over at the Racine Drive one because we always run into each other over there because we go there a 

Evonee: lot.

And if you come in, you guys gotta ask for us because we'll be right behind the wall. Oh, 

Chris: yeah. Yeah, like, Pete lives on like the far side of town, so we could technically cross over and stop at the Olander one. Oh, 

Tyler: yeah, that's true. He probably will start going to that one now. He'll probably know that it's 

Evonee: open.

Yeah. Gas, save the OG. I think it'll be okay, but 

Tyler: I think it'll be okay. This is pretty busy in 

Chris: there. That's what we were talking about. I'm like, it's great because they're close, but not too close. So I feel like you'll be getting those people that are on. That's what I always say too, is 

Tyler: that. Wilmington as though as small as it is, it's very like segregated and it's like, 

Don: it's almost like 

Tyler: boroughs.

Yeah, exactly. Like, I don't remember the last time in the monkey junction. I like, I just don't go to that side of [01:04:00] town 

Don: unless you live here. 

Chris: If you live in monkey junction, you're down there. 

Evonee: Now we don't ever come downtown or monkey junction and very seldom Porter's net. Like we're in a bubble. Yeah. It's pretty sad.

Don: We used to joke around and tell everybody back home when we first moved here, they got two of everything. They got two O'Bico's, two Ro's, two Targets, two, two everything. 

Chris: We're almost to the point of having two Targets. I know. 

Evonee: I'm so excited. If they could just keep this Target stocked, I'd be happy. So that would bring joy to my life if Target would keep their shelves full.

Chris: It's so painful. But if they have two technically, it should alleviate some of that issue. I 

Don: hope. Hopefully. I hope. Never know. I am not a Target guy. I know. 

Tyler: Yeah, I'm just waiting for the day that they actually put a bar inside of Target for all of us to go and hang out at. I mean, they 

Don: should. 

Chris: There is one across the street.

Went out of 

Tyler: business. Oh. Oh. So it needs to be in Target. [01:05:00] So 

Evonee: handing out some tokens at Target for all the 

Chris: being in there. Gosh. Well, thank you guys so much for coming out. It was a blast. Yeah. Appreciate you guys coming 

Evonee: on. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And thanks for the bourbon. That was super 

Chris: good. That was great.

No, absolutely. Yeah, we, we discussed how painful it is to try and find this bottle, so Yeah. Yeah. 

Tyler: That's good. It gets, we love sharing it though. That's, that's the purpose of this podcast is trying to find the good stuff and sharing it. Awesome. 

Evonee: And you just get better stories as the bottle keeps going down, right?

Yes. 

Chris: Yeah. Thank you guys for listening to the podcast. Like comment, share, subscribe, check us out on YouTube Spotify and Apple podcasts. Yeah. Cheers. Next one.