Welcome to the Nobody Knows podcast with Callie Zamzow. Join us for conversations with local changemakers and hear the stories that don't always get told. It'll be honest, messy and beautiful. Touching and humorous. Slow down for a glass and pull up a chair. This is the Nobody Knows podcast. Welcome to Nobody Knows. I'm your host, Callie Zamzow. I'm going to start right off with a tip of the week. I guess the number, I guess it's a technically we're at step two of the lawn program, but I want to cast that aside. If you remember the program, that's awesome. You know what you're supposed to be doing. I want to talk to the person who is not a member of the lawn program who is thinking, well, I want to do the whole program. It's probably too late because I heard that they had step one, yada yada yada. And I want to make I want to help you hit the easy button, because you do not have to be a part of the alone program. We created that to make it easy and kind of a no brainer. We send you texts and we tell you when to apply things and all that fun stuff. If you are not on the program, you can still have a gorgeous lawn and you can start now. If you haven't done it yet, that's totally fine. Just because we're in step two, you can start right now, and you just start with what we call our spring and summer lawn food. It is a product that my dad, Jim created and he created it because back in the day, this would be like in the 70s when he and his brother had taken over as the third generation of Zamzows running the business and they had brought in the Scotts Lawn program, and my dad actually had gone back East and he had studied at the Scotts. I don't know what it's called, but had learned how the program worked and he had brought it in. And for years they it had been, you know, been really what we had sold. And then he started having customers coming in who had been on the lawn program on their On the Scotts program for, you know, a couple of years. And they were starting to see some problems. And my dad, you know, there were all the solutions. And so he would say, well, this is what you need for that. And they're like, we did that. It's still not working. So that was when my dad began to realize that, that maybe that program wasn't built for our soils, so that it's the beautiful lawns that people think about that are lush and green and gorgeous, that are in like magazines. Those are in the Midwest, where there's carbon in the soil, not in Boise, Idaho, where we are lacking in carbon and where we have this clay, and we have all these, you know, alkaline soils. And it's very different here. And so dad began to develop a new program that would work for our soils, that would keep from. And the other thing, too, is he wanted it to be natural, because when you are using chemical fertilizers, you're slowly eroding the soil you're making you're kind of you're making it worse over time, you're depleting it. And and he wanted to do it in a way. He wanted to do something where when you were putting something on the lawn, it was making a lawn beautiful, but it was improving the soil underneath it so that it was self-sustaining. So that's where the whole program came from. He he didn't have a lot of resources. We happened to have a feed mill, so he decided to use products and ingredients from our feed mill. So and this is I mean, we would love to say that, you know, it's all natural. It's safe for your pets and kids and everything, which is completely true. We didn't do it that way on purpose necessarily. It's a wonderful you know, we're glad it's a huge benefit. And now we wouldn't have it any other way. But he did it initially because the only ingredients he had were feed ingredients. And that's, you know, that's what he had. And of course, that makes it safe to eat because it's feed ingredients. So but and then I'll tell you this really quick story. When my brother and I were teenagers, when he was developing this, he decided we lived near Fairmont Junior High School. That was like junior high school we went to, and that's where we were at the time. And there was a huge field there. And he could you could actually like drive right along Northview and you could drive right. There was only a sidewalk and then this huge lawn. And so it made it easy for him in the night, time to grab his spreaders and his various formulas that he was trying and draw stripes of various different things. And so and then what would happen? So we do that at nighttime, and then the next morning he would be like, well, not the next morning. But like, you know, a couple of weeks later, he'd be like, okay, kids, hop in the car. Come on, mom, or all of us getting in the car. And he would say, okay, I'm going to drive down. And he could then drive right along the sidewalk and say, okay, do you think the first stripe is better or the second stripe or the third strike? Yeah. So we were the ones were like, oh, we think the third stripe. But here's the thing my brother and I had we couldn't tell anybody because we were humiliated, because we were teenagers. And our dad was striping up our our junior high school lawn. Yeah. So we had to keep it a secret and pretend like we had no idea what was going on. In the meantime, dad's super excited about this thing he's developed. And anyway. The rest is history. It's a wonderful product. It. The best part about it is that you are not going to be deteriorating, deteriorating your soil when you're using it. And that's huge. That means that you know you can use it. You can go off of it for a while. It sustains and and you can start back again. And unlike chemicals where you're kind of causing problems to the soil and you have to continue to keep adding the chemicals, this is one this is self-sustaining. So so there you go. If you're not on the program, come, come see us at Will happily help you. Any of our 12 stores in Treasure Valley. That was kind of a long beginning and I'm very excited about our guests, so I apologize for prolonging this. I my little story leading in is that I was on a plane ride. It sounds like I just took a little ride. I was going somewhere on an airplane. I was actually on an Alaska Airlines flight, and my husband and I, you know, they they offer up various goodies for you. And, and one of the things was these potato chips, and they say Idaho on the front of them. And I'd seen them around, but that was like the first moment that I was like, this is kind of cool because we were flying. We were we were flying away from Idaho. So I was like, well, this is this is really kind of cool. We got this whole Idaho thing going. And then of course, I love them. They're so delicious. And so that was it was a great experience. And so I'm very excited to have Kyle Nehring on the podcast today. Thank you for being here, Kyle. So you are the founder of Teton Valley Brands? Yep. For better or for worse. I have so many questions for you, as I always do before we get going to far, could you just kind of give us a quick background of you? So we kind of understand who you are, and then we'll dive into what you do. My family is all from the west, Utah and Idaho. And in fact, my great grandfather, which we named the the the company after his farm is just near the Tetons and Teton Valley brands. However, my my dad took a job in Indiana, and so I grew up in, you know, in the middle of those lovely Midwest grass, you know, homes, no sprinklers. And yet our lawn flourished. Right. And so that's actually where I grew up as an adult. Most of our his children came out here. And so we ended up landing out here and ended up being here in Idaho. And while going to school in Idaho, that's where the birth of this company came from. I, you know, realizing the value of the Idaho brand and how incredible it is. And, you know, you go anywhere, literally in the world and you think, Idaho, you think potatoes. Why does nobody use the Idaho brand in the in the snack aisle? And so that's just a little bit about kind of how we got started. But yeah, I'm so I'm actually kind of a midwest kid very much involved in farming communities. And and yeah, ended up finding a beautiful lady at college that I married. And we ended up out here as well. Nice. You know, it's funny, the whole Midwest thing, I remember when I went to college in California and all of my friends were like, oh, you're from the Midwest. And I'm like, technically we say Pacific Northwest. Like, that's kind of where we that's identify. Now, my daughter is in New York City and she's getting the same thing. It's like, oh, well, you're in the Midwest. And she's like, no, technically. But I think that part of it is how we behave. I think there's a midwest sort of way of being, and I think that that Boise and Idaho fit very nicely into that. We are kind of that welcoming sort of, you know, unassuming and, you know, kind and all the all the wonderful traits I think, that we consider Midwesterners to be. So I, you know, I think we identify that way. I totally agree, I totally agree. So what was happening in your life when the idea for Teton Valley brands like brand, when did that what was happening in your life? Yeah, so so like I mentioned, I was going to school and I was studying entrepreneurship. I had kind of this crazy teacher who was an entrepreneur and had ran a bunch of companies, and he just inspired me. I just was so impressed with what you can do with companies. And and also, it's a way for me, you know, as I'm, as I'm growing, developing. Right. I was a very young man at the time. Like, who do I want to become and what I want to do? And how am I going to, you know, the world is in front of you. And I realized, I think I want to be an entrepreneur. However, I'm a college student. I have no idea, right? I have no idea what I'm doing right. And even though I've taken a class or two or whatever it is. But I had this idea, you know, an Idaho potato chip, right? Like, surely that's going to do something once again. No, nothing about business. I have no money. The only thing I'm certain of with the idea is to build a potato chip factory is going to be really expensive, and I have no idea how I would do that. Wow. Okay, I let me back up just for a second about entrepreneurship in general. So. So there are classes like sorry if I'm dense, but I didn't realize. I know people will go for a business degree or whatever, but you were taking specific classes on entrepreneurship. Yeah, it was a business degree with an emphasis in entrepreneurship. And so yes, yeah, they're very specific classes. There's actually 2 or 3 different professors who were retired from business, who had their own companies and had come. And so, yeah, it it just kind of was a perfect storm to create entrepreneurs. I'm kind of imagining in my head what a class on entrepreneur entrepreneurship would be like. And I'm giggling because first of all, it's different for everybody, right? I think that's by its very nature, but also it is the wild, wild west of like careers. Like there's no there's there really aren't like awesome rule books for that kind of stuff. And I think there's probably an internal spark that you would even want to do that. There are some people who are like, forget that. I would never even want to do it. So was there is there always been? Have you always kind of been like that? Yeah. I'm we were talking before the show started and I said, I'm kind of, I don't know, in a centric kind of, kind of a unique jumble of a person, lots of interesting strengths, lots of interesting holes, you know, and I'm and I like who I am, but I'm very unique in a lot of ways. Hence, I mean, there's not a lot of people that are like, I can start up a tater chip company, right? Like, and I will say, you're exactly right. There's lots of different personalities, only certain people I would recommend actually taking that route. I happen to marry one who is very not that way, right? God bless my wife. She. She is fantastic. But she literally she should have married a dentist. That would have been fantastic, right? See, I also married an opposite personality. And I mean, you probably have this too. We're like, what would you do without her? She fills in all the she does all the things that you probably don't do very well, and you do the things that she doesn't do very well. Right. So it's a nice balance. But I think there is we have to we have to be welcoming to that. I think when we're very, very young, it's sometimes difficult to see somebody who's that different and be like, yeah, that seems like a good partner. So I'm always very grateful that I made one really good decision that I know of. Yeah, I was hooking up with somebody who was, you know. Yeah, it fills in all of my gaps. I yeah, I just I'm amazed at how his brain works. So congratulations that you did that. That's great. Yeah, that is for sure. I can say that I made one good decision. So. Yes. All right. So so what do you can you think of like a specific moment when you're like, okay, I think I think I've got the pieces together here. I'm doing this. Yeah. So, so I actually had to table the idea for a little while. So this is back in 2010. I really was just like I described broke. I had no idea really what I was doing. Right. Took a few classes. So I actually ended up working for another consumer packaged goods company, which is essentially another company that has a product that sits on the shelf. Right. And it was a food product, was actually a plant based protein supplement company. So similar, but very different also. But it was a young company with only 50 employees, and that was really the spark that I needed to to to give me enough confidence to consider doing something like this. And so what what it essentially allowed me to do was see the entire organization. I literally knew all 50 people in the organization. And so I understood well, this is what a sales team looks like at this size company. This is what the operations look like. We ended up purchasing a manufacturing company and so we took that on. So I learned this is what taking on manufacturing looks like. And it really was just the just a lot of things, a lot of holes that I had. I ended up in college. My actual degree was in supply chain management. And the only reason why was because I thought that would give me a wide enough angle on all parts of the company, because I felt like that was kind of the heartbeat of the company, whether that was right or wrong. But to give you an idea of kind of how unique I am, I was considering supply chain and I was considering marketing, and most people, like, those were like opposites, like, what are you talking about? Right. Like they are. And that's genuinely what I was doing. And actually what I do right now, today fits really well into both of those, which is kind of interesting. Yeah. Yeah, that's I think that's I think about listeners who might be thinking about doing something like what you're doing, what you are currently doing, and kind of it's nice to see that it's not as clean like I think sometimes especially young people just kind of like, okay, I'm going to do A and then B, and then I'll land at sea and then I'll be happy happily ever after. And that certainly is not how these things go. Yeah. It's not quite as linear. No, not at all. And certainly not not for me. And there are entrepreneurs that probably are able to do that. And, you know, there are so many opportunities out there, so many exciting ventures. You know, I could never do what, you know, some of these tech entrepreneurs are doing, right, where I think it is a little bit more very specific skill sets for me. That's what's kind of fun about about the games that we're playing, that I kind of have this funny view of, of money in general, where it's just kind of a game and, you know, it's okay if you lose. It's okay if you win, you know, well, you can restart the game if you need to. I think that's a really wise way of going into these kind of things. I think mostly because if we grab onto something to tightly hold it to and panicky that sometimes the energy just doesn't flow for us to be able to get the things done that we need to get done. So we have to be able to loosen our grip a little bit. And if you yeah, if you're like, everything's riding on this, then it's really hard to let go of your grip and be like, okay, I've got to let some things flow here and see how it goes. Yeah, yeah. That's so you you did this whole thing with your wife, right? Like you were. She's been a part of this whole process. Yeah. Yeah. She, she has been. And so so we originally started it was actually mostly my brother and I. And then both of our wives were supporting and helping quite a bit. And my brother I, we went our separate ways several years ago now. He was very early on. And so and that's a whole other story. Maybe we'll get into some of that. But but no, my my wife has been absolutely integral, you know, couldn't have done this without her. Couldn't have done it without her support. I mean, in fact, just to to to paint a little bit of a picture, you know, when we decided, hey, we've got to give this thing a real shot. We're a couple of years into it. We've got to go full time. We've got to build out a proper manufacturing facility. You know, we we ended up selling our house and living off of those proceeds. We've got. You mentioned it's, you know, messy. Our story is super messy. It's full of, you know, those kinds of risks. Loading a credit cards and then paying them off and loading them up again and like, you know, just super messy. But but so much props to my wife. You know, once again, we had to sell our house. It actually came and I apologize. I'll probably just get a hair emotional that became that was seven days after we had our fourth child. Oh, wow. And so yeah. So she's a champ. Like genuinely she is she, she's been, you know, for her not to have the kind of personality that embraces uncertainty like like this. She's she's been amazing. And so every bit a partner all along the way, even if she's not been in the day to day all along the way. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I hope that for everybody that everybody finds a partner that sees our dreams and will stand by our side and help us achieve them. I just like if the world would be a better place if we all had that right. For sure. For sure. Oh my gosh, this is a great story. So okay so let's continue down the line here. So you're you know you've got this idea. It's messy. You're you're doing all of these things. At what point were you like like when did you make your first chip. Like when did that take place. Yeah. Yeah. So so early on it was it was a side hustle very much. And so we sacrificed our spare room in our basement and we put up a potato chip manufacturing, you know, thing there. That was in 2017. We tried to go as bootstrapped and as scrappy as you can be. Right. Was still making a great product. Right. The goal always from day one was how do we look as beautiful and as professional on the shelf without, you know, people realizing we're just this super tiny, scrappy startup. And and maybe that's not even a good thing. Sometimes people want to support you if they realize how small you are. But that was the goal, and I think we did a pretty good job of that. But yeah, so 2017 was when we started, and it was late nights, very much a side hustle, you know, working full time with this other company. And that company was fantastic. It's somewhere, by the way, a little shout out to them. They they were very supportive. My, my boss actually was kind of coaching me through because he, you know, enjoyed this kind of stuff. And so that was fantastic. So many resources. And and that's that's also a theme of our story is your network is so important. I know it's kind of cliche in business to say, you know, network. Right. But but really the people that you partner with and connect with, the community that's behind you, that's that is so integral to success for an entrepreneur. Isn't it interesting that I find this in a way that you're that you're going along and you'll meet somebody and then go on a little further and you're like, oh, that person has the keys to this part of the kingdom. And you're like, and then for me, I always look backward and I'm like, Holy cow, how did that even happen? How did I how did I even, like, meet that person at the time that I did and got to know them, you know, chose to invest in a little bit of that relationship. And then now it's come full circle and they have some things that I need or that could help me or I could help them. Sometimes it just feels like there's it's, you know, like there's an extra hand in there that's helping things along sometimes just to make sure that we're meeting the right people. And do you ever feel that way? Oh, yes. Absolutely. You know, there's a lot of yeah, there's a lot of ways you could you could take that. But yeah. No, I think I would just say faith in general is something that any entrepreneur needs to have in a, whether that's actually in, you know, a higher power, which is very much what I believe. But but either way, I mean, you have to take a lot of steps into the dark to figure out, you know, where you're going. And, and yeah, that's another, another way that I like to think about that. We've had a lot of very lucky moments. For example, we launched a product right at the time that the Albertsons Market Street stores were launching. Right. And they were literally looking for how do we fill these shelves with great local products? And they were like, oh, like to do an Idaho potato chip for beautiful new Idaho Market Street stores. And so, you know, it sounds, it sounds like, oh, that was lucky. And it was it was lucky. However, we had built everything beforehand. And so if you're not doing something, it's really hard to get lucky. Yeah. But yeah, once again, definitely an invisible hand helping all along the way. You know, it's interesting, just as you're telling me that story. I remember when the market place and it was the one, I think, in Meridian that had opened up that I but we, we also go to the one that's down on Broadway. But long story short, I remember going in there and experiencing it for the first time and seeing your potato chips and thinking how perfect it was. It was. I'm like, how perfect is this is a perfect fit. And really was part of my whole experience of of the Albertsons marketplace initial just, you know, getting the initial impression, I guess. So that's funny that you mentioned that. I'm like, wow. Yeah. And I don't even remember. Maybe, maybe it was there was a huge display or something. I don't remember exactly that part, but I definitely remember the brand. So I was like, yeah, that's interesting. Yeah. No. And that was you, you know, go back to 2010 that that's my young entrepreneur brain saying, surely there's something here, right? We've got this Idaho brand. Potato chips are a thing. A lot of people like them. Right. Surely we can do something and and yeah, you're exactly right. And we've been able to accomplish that. Now, that being said, we thought just put a chip on the shelf and it says Idaho on it. It's going to be great, right? Everyone's. Yeah. Right. We couldn't have been more wrong about how difficult it is. But that is that's that's where you start. Right. And most entrepreneurs I mean there's always a certain level of naivety, you know, you wouldn't get into it if you realized what it actually took. But, you know, I still recommend people go for it because, you know, life's an adventure. And yeah, there's it's it's a beautiful journey so. Well and I think that there at least I've spoken to quite a few entrepreneurs that they're there is sort of almost a heart pulling where there are days like that. That's what keeps you going. And you're kind of like, don't even really know what's next, but you but you know, you're going to keep taking steps to that direction. And even though they're like odd stacked against you and maybe financial situations and you know, all the things you can think of, but it still carries you forward because you have this sort of internal knowing, like a guiding light, if you will. Yeah. That sound familiar? That's exactly. And, you know, to to paint a little bit more of a picture of kind of what the last several years have been. Food companies have a very hard time becoming profitable. Right. Once again, we sold our house. We went in full time, we had some money. It wasn't a ton, but it was enough to get going. And we we literally had year after year after year after year of, of kind of wandering, you know, just what you're suggesting, right? Where it's where, where does this go? What are we doing? You know, we thought, oh, let's put this on the shelf. It's going to sell really well. Great. You know, we don't need to be number one, but we just need to compete. Well, that didn't work out as well. And our costs, of course, were higher than what we were anticipating. And. Yeah. And how are we going to, you know, just pay for ourselves, just even to survive. You know, we we went, we went a couple of years without a paycheck and then a very, very modest paycheck for a couple more years. You know, we're talking. Yeah, we're talking 40 grand a year, right? Like nothing, essentially. And it was really hard, you know, it's it's nice talking to you now. We can laugh about it a lot more. But if we're talking years of just like, oh, like wind does this, and where are we doing? Like, what are we doing? It's just a chip company. Like, why do we even, like, why are we doing this? Right? But to kind of bring it back full circle where we were at, you know, we were talking about people and community. That's actually a huge transitioning point for us was when we met the current CEO of Teton Miller Brands, which is Matt Price. And Matt was the unlock for us to be able to really change directions in the company, to help us be connected into the community, so much more so and, yeah, just, just just put a lot of faith in us. We put a lot of faith in him. And and the story has been very different. It's still been very challenging for the last three years or so, but it's it's the game has changed a lot for us, which has been really fun. Isn't it amazing that you bring in one person or several specific people in the right place at the right time can make such a big difference? I think, especially when you're being scrappy, trying to, you know, trying to get things done. And and we have our vision and we think we've got it all. And then you bring in somebody with a little different perspective or knowledge base, or have done something that you haven't done yet and so already have paved the way. You bring them in. It's like magic. Holy cow. And for me, anyway, I, I get these very warm, fuzzy like feelings about these humans that are willing to help out, and they get in the middle of things and change the trajectory. And it's awesome. The people part is incredible to me. How about you? Absolutely. I mean, that's really what all this comes down to at the end of the day is it's the people. The people inside our company are so important to me. But but even just to connect throughout, right? I mean, I couldn't agree more. And that's, that's, that's that's what Matt was. He risked a lot coming into a small startup bringing his network of connections. Right. But he saw the vision and was able to grab a hold. And we've been able to, to to do some really cool things. Yeah, we we got we. I'm sure we'll talk about it in a minute, but we've got some really fun new products that have really changed the game for us. You know, at the beginning, the holy grail of what we thought was, you know, this Idaho brand and we still think there's a lot there, but it really didn't do what we needed to do. And these new products have have changed the landscape for us. Well, I think this is a great time to talk about that. Let's let's dive into that, because we talked about a little bit before we started the podcast, and I didn't have any idea that you guys were kind of venturing into the these different realms. So yeah, let's let's talk about some of the new, new products. Yeah. So so, Matt. Matt was at a at a party with some with some friends here locally and knew some of the people over at Agri Beef and Snake River farms. And so they got talking and they said, you know, it would be a really fun, unique product is a Wagyu beef tallow potato chip. So a potato chip cooked in beef tallow from our snake River farms. And they got they got chatting about it and said this could actually work. It's interesting. There was a few people, you know, kind of dabbling in it. And and so it was just an idea, kind of shelved it for a little bit. But we thought, you know, if we got some downtime at the facility, we could we could try to figure this out. Fast forward six months, we end up making our first batch of tallow, Wagyu tallow, potato chips, and we taste those and we are just blown away. We're like, what are we tasting? This isn't even a potato chip. And like, this is a totally different thing. It was so fun to be like, Holy cow, like we have discovered something, right? And and I think a lot of people, as they open up those snake River farms so that that partnership was huge. But yeah. So so the product to get back to the question, the product is a partnership with snake River farms, Wagyu beef tallow, just classic salted chip you would think. Oh yeah I'm sure it tastes like a potato chip. It does, but it is so much more rich and decadent. It's absolutely delicious. Can you can you talk a little bit about tallow if. Because if you're I don't mean to insult people, but if you're aware at all, you're hearing tallow coming up a lot lately and and interestingly and I mean, I think about the history of, of fat and tallow things and those all these things that we sort of like shunned back in probably the 90s. And now all of a sudden we're realizing, oh, wait, maybe this is a better way. So can you talk just a little bit? I realized that's not entirely the point of the show, but just to bring people up to speed about that. Yeah. So so tallow, you know, it's just everybody's familiar with steak, you know, and you've got the trimmings, the fat. You can render that into an oil that is tallow. And so essentially you cook it and then you pull out the oil portion of it. A lot of people are familiar with it. It's very trendy right now. And like lotions and hand creams and face creams and all that kind of stuff. And by the way, that's those are fantastic products. I highly recommend those. But it's it's a type of oil, right? Essentially. But it's an oil that the body recognizes as a food. It's not a manufactured altered. Correct, correct. So I think that's part of the whole like whole food sort of thing. Correct. It's something that our bodies have been familiar with for a very long time. Whereas some of these processed oils, you know, some of them are genetically modified, some of them are, you know, bred a lot to be able to create, you know, the highest yield. Right. And this whereas tallow is, you know, very much something that our bodies are familiar with. Right. And you know, so seed oil is kind of a category that people are just realizing, hey, I need to I need to be aware of this. You know, some people will say they're absolutely terrible. Others are, you know, maybe not in that direction. I'm probably somewhere in the middle. I think there is use, but it's definitely not what our what our bodies want. Right. And, you know, part of my personal journey, I've eaten way too many potato chips in my life, right. And most of those are with probably the most premium sunflower oil you can buy. But it's still sunflower oil, and that's not been healthy for me. You know that with a lot of stress and, you know, exorbitant amounts of cortisol and my sister and all that kind of stuff and not not a I used to joke. You know, for years I was on the fryer literally cooking myself, and we were trying to figure it out. And I would constantly be eating chips because I'm perfecting the recipe. Right. And I used to joke, I eat potato chips for breakfast. But anyway, not not what I would recommend for anyone. But yeah, so so so that gives you an idea of tallow. Really a great product, a fantastic product. I am very much a believer in that. It is what's good for your body, but that like everything in moderation, you know. Yeah. Okay. So that's a that's an awesome new development. That's a that chip is delicious. So what what else what else have you got going on. Yeah. So so in that same space in the tallow space we took a big jump, and we decided to test out tortilla chips. And that's probably news to a lot of people. It's not under the Teton Valley brand's name. And so it's a little bit unique. It's a standalone brand. It's called tallow and Stone. But yeah, it's a really great packaging, really great product. And I actually grew up mostly on tortilla chips myself. A lot of people are very much tortilla chips and tortilla chips and salsa or nachos or whatnot. Absolutely amazing. So yeah, we've ventured into this. We've we found a local supplier for tortillas, and we've got some really great product pumping out of our facility, and the flavors sound amazing. The the flavors are amazing. I actually, I don't know if this would be the best for audio, but we could literally snack on these and I almost. They're so good. You could probably hear how delicious they are, I don't know. A couple of minutes ago my stomach started growling and I kind of looked around and nobody knows. I'm like, okay, I don't know if you heard that fast. Literally scrolling, talking about this. So we should have breakfast. So we've got we've got three different flavors. Our classic tortilla chip. Right. Just salted. Just three ingredients wagyu beef tallow, corn and salt. And then our other two are really unique and really fun and really delicious. Number one cilantro lime. And I'm not even joking. That flavor. You could replace a meal with a bag. And you know, it's so good. Absolutely delicious. Just just a beautiful savory flavor you've got. I would compare it to the cilantro lime dressing that you would dip a chip in and, you know, just really yummy. And, and then the, the other flavor, which is really unique, maybe equally as delicious. I'm amazed. So I take a lot of pride in these flavors. Part of my role, a huge part of my role is flavor, innovation and new products. And I was able with, with some help of some, some foodies, I would say, develop these flavors. And the other flavor is called horchata churro. Yeah, I, I know that's I probably don't need to know about. So so it's really a unique experience because when people think about tortilla chips, they don't think about a sweet product. It is, you know, a horchata and churro. Very sweet products, delicious products. I brought a bag home to my wife, and my wife's a lovely, tiny little thing. And she admitted to me, she said, I have never finished an entire bag of chips in my life, and I just destroyed that whole thing. Do you have any more? Yeah. So, yeah, that sounds delicious. Yeah. So I have a hard time deciding which one is my favorite. Those both are out of this world. Delicious. It's fun to have you describe them. I feel like we kind of we talked about this scrappy entrepreneurship and it kind of got you through. You held on, you got the thing rolling. But now it seems like maybe you've shifted into a position and an area where you can get creative in a different way with the flavors and that sort of thing. Is that does that ring true? Absolutely. It does. No. And that's in my story. There are parts where it can get heavy, right? Where it's like we had years and I've done a few podcasts where I'm just talking about like, oh, I can't like and it was, it was hard and it was heavy. But we have turned a corner for sure, and it is fun. And the creative side of me very much gets to express itself through our new products. The talent Stone product in particular is fun because I took that one essentially from 0 to 100 from every aspect of it, right? So the brand, the product, the product launch, designing the flavors. And that's because I've been able to hand off some things to different people as we've grown. And and like I said, so Matt, our CEO is a fantastic guy. He's not the creative guy like I am. I'm really not CEO material, which is totally fine by me. Right? Like if you were to put me in like the cells role of the company, I can create a product that will sell. I'm not going to do a great job at selling the product myself. Like, it's just not. It's just not what's in my wheelhouse. And I think that's okay. As entrepreneurs in the early days, you kind of have to do everything, but really we have to. Where you're going to be the most successful is where you're naturally, you know, inclined. And that is, I hope our listeners rewind. That's old school for go backwards in time. Listen to that again. Because there are so many of us, I think, who should all over ourselves. We we go to school for something in particular, so we should stay in there. We our parents think that this. So we should do that whatever. And I think in the end doing those things and and honoring what you're naturally good at, what your heart calls you to do, what your brain is wired to do it. It should be a non judgmental world in the sense that we get to do those sorts of things, because when we do, that's where magic happens. When we stay within that joy and our and our natural abilities, like that's that's when magic happens. So I love it that you said that. And I love it that you're getting to do that. It makes me happy for you. Yeah, yeah. No, it's it's been such a shift. Yeah, it's been fantastic. It's so great. So looking forward to the next chapter. No doubt you're doing that as an entrepreneur. What what do you see kind of coming down the pike. Yeah. So so these products I mentioned are brand new. We've we've done some tests in some stores, but we're anticipating a lot of potential with these. And really even just a classic tortilla chip that's got a great brand, that's got a great story that really is a good product, even just one flavor. There's a lot you can do with just that. Right. And so, so I would say as we look to the next chapter, a lot of it is how do we get the word out that we've got these great products and where do we go? We've been playing around with some different accounts here in the Pacific Northwest and West in general. For example, a really exciting one. We did a test launch with our snake River farms beef potato chip with Costco. Oh, yeah, in just in the Pacific Northwest. So 70, about 70 stores, give or take. But that was a that was a huge step for us. Yeah. So that's a massive step. Congratulations. Thank you. And you know Costco doesn't just take you in and say, hey, you know, you're permanent. You're here forever. No, but but but but we're working on that relationship. They love the product. They love what we're doing. And we're really excited where that's going to take us. And I could echo that with all of these other new products, and there are actually a couple others that I do need to mention. Yes, please. So, so one other, one other very unique thing that was fun for for me once again is the creative behind it designing. We have recently launched a waffle cut potato chip. And so yeah, if you can imagine essentially a chick fil A French fry that's a lot thinner, but has the you know, those the waffles, those windows, it completely changes the experience as you're eating it and just the texture. It's absolutely lovely. And so we've got two new flavors. We did it. We did a test last year on it just to see what would happen with a truffle salt waffle chip. It was fantastic. I still have wonderful people. I'm thinking of Whitney in particular on my team, who just was like, you have to relaunch that flavor. It's so fantastic. Yeah. She's great. And we are, we're working on that. We launched two new flavors just recently. One we calling Idaho Ranch. So it's just a ranch flavored chip. Fantastic product. And the other one that I once again take a lot of pride in Huckleberry barbecue. Oh, no. That sounds phenomenal. Yeah, it's it's really a unique chip. Yeah, you almost have to try it to even, you know, wrap your mind around what that would taste like. It's so fun and delicious. Yeah. I will be trying that. Sleep sounds awesome. So I like to always kind of imagine that there are young people that are listening to this podcast that are thinking about, like, what they're going to do next with themselves. If they're like, I love what this guy is doing. I want to do something similar to that. What would you say? What would you say to that person if they if they are excited and this gets them going? I would say one, you're never going to be ready, so just go for it. I would say number two, this is a quote that I like. Henry Ford, I believe said it originally. But whether you believe you can or you can't, either way, you're right. And so yeah, I would say go for it. Reach out. There are there's tons of people who want to help, who want to support you. You can reach out to me, like, literally, you can reach out to me, I'll talk to you and let you know my my thoughts. So I had a professor once again in college, and it was really an important time for me to while I was trying to figure out what I was going to do, he said essentially those two things that I was talking about. But he said, the biggest thing for a company is you just don't let it die. It's like, that's like, if you can figure out how to keep it alive, you're smart enough, you're capable enough. You know, you can you can pivot. You can change what you need to change. Just don't let it die and you'll make it. Wow. Yeah. That's great advice. Yeah. Like literally that that phrase got me through a couple of years, right? Where it's just like, we just can't die. Like, that's the only thing. I don't care if we are doing great this year or whatever. It just has to make it. And and I think it's I think it's sage advice I do too. There are lots of layers between where we might be an actual death. And I think sometimes we forget that, you know, like if something goes a little awry. You're like, I'm it's going down, you know, and like, no, no, it probably isn't like, hold tight. And so I think there are a lot of layers there. Before you actually would hit to the point where you're like, all right, this is. And each time you can kind of bounce off the bottom two and get yourself back up again. I think that's I hear that story over and over again. So I'm going to take a quick amid episode break here to to thank our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Zamzows your local source for garden, pet and planet friendly products. As a thank you to our Nobody Knows listeners, use Code Teton at checkout and you can receive 10% off your online order. The discount applies automatically and is valid online only and excludes lawn programs, and it runs through August 31st of 2026. You can buy online. You can pick up in store at any of our 12 Treasure Valley locations, so visit. Zamzow.Com and let's grow something good nobody knows like Zamzows. So we're going to shift gears a little bit here. We're going to the segment called sharing is caring a little more rapid fire. You ready. Okay. What's a local product brand or business that you really admire right now? I've got several that I admire. You know, one company that's doing a great job is Earth Beverage. I don't know if you know those guys. Absolutely. They're they're almost famous here because they should be because they're such good people and have such great products. So absolutely. Those guys. Daily's pickles is another local one who's really a great story. Great company. Awesome. Love those answers. How about a go to snack food that you always keep stocked? So snake River farms, obviously they do chips. Those are fantastic. I can't say my own product, but they do a Wagyu beef jerky that is so good. I introduced that to my wife and that might have been a problem. But yeah, it's it's it's absolutely delicious. Yum. Can my stomach okay. And then how about something outside of work that helps you recharge. Yeah. All my family. Definitely. I've got such fun ages right now. My oldest is 13 and my youngest is six. And as I mentioned, all daughters, I mean, they're they're an absolute delight. Yeah, I couldn't I live in a fairy tale outside of potato chips. So I love the new, like the phrase girl dad. Yeah. And it sounds like you are a girl, dad. Sure. Full on. I legit have the shirt that says girl. Yeah, yeah. So I even love that. That's awesome. Your girls will be so happy that you. That you've chosen to be such a great father. So that's awesome. Okay, how about a partnership that you couldn't do this without? Oh, that's a that's a great question. Like I said throughout the interview, the relationships are are so important. Probably our number one partnership was with a local farmer. Yeah. It really actually a very cool experience for us. Cranny farms is their name, and they're out of Oakley, Idaho. One of one of my favorite things about our company is we have had to raise money, but all of the money has come from local people in the state of Idaho, with our number one investor being a five generation farm. I mean, is there is there a cooler partner that you could have? Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Great answer. All right. How about a local places where people can get any of your products? Just so you know, one of our first retailers was Zamzows Believe it or not. Oh, yeah, that was that was probably Kelly Roark. He was our he was our buyer for years and years. So I'm guessing that was probably him. That's awesome. That was Kelly. Yeah. So cool story. As we as we were building the brand, we wanted to we basically wanted to encompass everything cool about Idaho, everything that I love about Idaho, that people love about Idaho. And we wanted to do it with local partners. We even had a conversation with Kelly about putting a picture of Sam's, like a storefront on the back of our bags, because at the time we were talking about like, how do we just highlight everything? Idaho. Right? And that's another you guys have a fantastic local company. And so, yeah, that didn't end up happening. We just have pictures of the state of Idaho, you know, that that could get complicated for sure. I can only imagine. But yeah, we still want that. We still want to just represent in a bag of chips. Idaho. Yeah, but we're kind of everywhere. Like, I feel like I see them. I was at Lark and Larder the other day. They had them. So. Yeah, we're we're all. Could you, could people go to get your product? Yeah. Yeah. Almost, almost everywhere that you can find chips is where we're at. So our big one, big ones, Albertsons, WinCo, even Walmart. One of our favorites is Boise Co-op. In fact, if you're looking for our latest innovative products, go to Boise Co-op because they've basically given us a license to sell, you know, like James Bond. Essentially we if we develop something, we can put it on their shelves. And yeah, they're just such a fantastic partner. But by genuinely a lot of fantastic partners here. Okay. Well, it's time to ask that question at the end of the podcast that we ask everybody, are you ready? Ready? Okay. What is something that nobody knows? So so I mentioned I mentioned my daughters. This is kind of fun. So I actually come from a family of six boys. Wow. Yeah. So a large family, all boys. Bless my mom. She is a saint. Yeah. So that's what I say is I have learned a lot since getting married. I bad, I can only imagine. Yeah, yeah. And then for you to have all girls have all girls. Yeah. No, it's great though. It's, You know, I couldn't imagine it any other way. So that's, That's a fun one. Yeah, that's very cool. I my my mother has she has only sisters. They're all sisters. And all the sisters had one child and they were all boys. And my mom's the only one who had a second child. So I'm the only girl. So. Yeah. So a bunch of women who had mostly boys. I'm the one girl. So I've kind of been treated a little, specially in the family because of that. It's been kind of cool. Anyway, it's it's kind of fascinating to think about those and just how we have to bend and learn, you know, based on our own experiences versus what's coming at us. So, yeah. Very cool. Thank you for being on the podcast. This has been a wonderful conversation. Thank you for making delicious chips. You've singlehandedly made my my trip to San Diego better this last quarter. So thank you for that. And and thanks for encouraging entrepreneurs in the area. And by just sharing your story so that people know that they can do things like you're doing. So thank you for that. Thank you. It's my pleasure to be here. All right. If you enjoyed today's conversation, please follow the podcast and leave a review. Next week, we'll hear from another incredible voice shaping the Treasure Valley. And until then, thanks for listening.