Nobody Knowz with Callie Zamzow
Hosted by Callie Zamzow, Nobody Knowz is a Boise, Idaho-based podcast dedicated to exploring the connections that shape our lives—between people, animals, and the environment. Featuring stories and voices from across Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, and the greater Treasure Valley, the show is rooted in authenticity and driven by curiosity. Through thoughtful conversations, it champions integrity, sustainability, and lifelong learning.
Nobody Knowz with Callie Zamzow
He Left His Corporate Career for a Hometown Candy Store
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Weiser Classic Candy owner Patrick Nauman left a corporate hospitality career to buy a candy store in the Idaho hometown he once couldn’t wait to leave. What brought him back after 18 years away, and why did this unexpected career change feel right?
In Season 2, Episode 11 of Nobody Knowz, Callie Zamzow sits down with Patrick Nauman to discuss how his father’s cancer diagnosis brought him home, where a candy store for sale offered a chance to stay close to family and give back to the community that raised him.
00:00 – Welcome to Nobody Knowz
03:00 – Why Patrick wanted to move back home
04:00 – His father’s diagnosis and the candy store opportunity
06:00 – Leaving his job and learning to make candy
08:00 – What buying a candy business actually involved
10:00 – Protecting the original recipes and quality
13:00 – Faith, timing, and learning to let go
21:00 – Hospitality lessons and stories from the Mississippi
30:00 – What his younger self would think of coming home
39:00 – Finding joy in a simpler way of life
40:00 – The little boy who reminded him why he makes candy
50:00 – Mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs
59:00 – Funding scholarships through the Weiser Harvest Bazaar
1:06:00 – His vision for Weiser Classic Candy’s future
1:09:00 – Closing thoughts
Everyone has a story, a moment, a lesson, or a piece of their life most people may never hear. Hi, I'm Callie Zamzo, and this is Nobody Knows. Welcome to Nobody Knows. I'm your host, Callie Zamzo. And today I get to talk to the candy man. And I'm very excited about it. As I prepared for this, I had there are so many things that I was thinking about that would be fun to talk about and that I that just took those nostalgic stuff, you know, kind of like childhood and that sort of thing. And uh so I'm hoping that we get to talk about that. You have a fascinating career. I'm hoping we get to talk about that. I I want to talk about your small town. There's there's a whole bunch of things. So please welcome to the studio, Patrick Nauman. He is the owner of Weezer Classic Candy.
SPEAKER_01Thank you very much for having me here.
SPEAKER_04AKA The Candyman.
SPEAKER_01Right, aka Willy Wonka.
SPEAKER_04That's it. Yeah, you know, you don't seem as strange as Willy Wonka, though.
SPEAKER_01So I know maybe it depends on which Willy Wonka you're after.
SPEAKER_04That's true. That's true. Okay, well the two Willy Wonkas, who are you closest to, do you think?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I'm definitely closer to the original. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_04I am not a Johnny Depp Willy Wonka.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_04That's good. I was gonna say, because I might be scared for my life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04Over the top. Over the top. Okay, so I let's just let's jump right in here. Um I I before we dive into the candy making, I it you and I met in Ada County. Right. And um, and I had no idea that you were a Weezer. Is it a Weezerite?
SPEAKER_02It is. Is it okay?
SPEAKER_04Good job. Um, until I I had a friend who grew up in Weezer connect the dots for me. And I was like, oh, I had no idea. So can we can we talk a little bit about what it's like to to grow up or what it was like growing up in Weezer, Idaho?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. It was great.
SPEAKER_04Yeah?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Small town, right? Uh it was about 4,500, 5,000 people somewhere in there when I was growing up. Uh my family ranched about 15 miles north of town. So I grew up on in the Man Creek area. Um, primarily. We when we first moved to Idaho, we actually moved to Idaho from Montana when I was at the ripe old age of four. So I celebrated my fourth birthday a week after we moved.
SPEAKER_02Oh man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, so we actually grew up in Midvale, up on Thousand Springs and the Thousand Springs area first, and then moved down into the valley, as we called it. Uh onto Manscript and grew up there uh on a on a cattle ranch. Dad worked in town, mom worked in town, but then we ranched full time too. And I mean, it was, you know, it's typical small town, right? You don't appreciate what you have until you move away from it. Yeah. So um, I was one of those typical small town kids that liked living there because I didn't really know any better. But as I got older, I'm like, oh, there's gotta be something bigger and better than this, and couldn't wait to get out, and then I couldn't wait to get back.
SPEAKER_04So I I feel that. I I uh obviously Boise's a little bit different than that, but it's still very small compared to other places. It was much smaller when I was growing up. Absolutely. And then I left for college and I was like, I am never coming back. I never come back. And then I was really glad to come back when I did. It's uh yeah, there is something about that. No, not everybody does that, but I think for some of us we we get called back. And yeah. So it's interesting that you that you came back, but like you came all the way back to Weezer. It's not like you just came back to Idaho in general. So was there something about Weezer in particular that you did it called you back home?
SPEAKER_01You know, I just uh it was the good lord's intentions, I guess. I just kind of look at it that way. I had already decided um that it was time to move back to Idaho uh after having kind of lived all over the country in my career. Uh and was but I wasn't really expecting to be able to make a living in Weezer. Right. I figured I'd be in Ada County. I was I was looking at resort towns, whether it was McCall or Sun Valley or coming into Boise or something like that, in order to stay in my hospitality career. And fate intervened and put the candy store up for sale at the right time. And I went back to my corporate job after finding that out and kind of went, hmm, candy could be kind of fun. So and then we just kind of jumped in with both feet.
SPEAKER_04So I okay, I'm kind of jumping ahead here, but I'm I we're talking about this.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_04What was that? What was that like, that decision? Because I it called you, but that that is vastly different than what you were doing before, and we'll get a chance to talk about that.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, it's you're not wrong. It's vastly different, definitely. It's a much sweeter profession than we had before. Um but you know, it was it was really one of those. So when I it in 2006, I came home for Christmas that year. Um, and my dad at that point in time had just been diagnosed with cancer in October. And so visits were monumental, right? Um, and so I anyway, I came home for for Christmas in 06 and saw that the candy store was for sale. And literally, as I said a minute ago, I went back to work and was in my corporate job and just kind of started thinking about it and thought more and more about it, and made a phone call and uh to the real estate agent. And the real real estate agent actually told me it's kind of a kind of a cool story if you ever want to know whether or not fate can intervene. Um the real estate agent told me then, well, if if you're serious, I need an offer within 48 hours because the owner, the original owner, was getting ready to review offers and in 48 hours. And she's like, So I'm gonna need uh an offer on the table. And I'm like, uh no.
SPEAKER_04Like I'm just thinking about this.
SPEAKER_01Like, yeah, I was just kind of calling to get some information, right? Uh, and no way do I have time to do the RD in 48 hours to try to figure out whether or not I want to buy a business. Um, because it was business and real estate and everything. I mean, it was a it was a commitment, right? So uh, and it wasn't a small commitment either in 2007. Uh and so I said, Well, thank you very much, but obviously, no, thank you. It's not meant to be. I'll figure out something else. And she called me 24 hours later and she said, So I met with the original owner last night. I told her who it was that called and who was who was potentially interested. And she said, if you're really interested, she'll hold off reviewing offers for two weeks to give you time to do your RD.
SPEAKER_02Wow. That's right.
SPEAKER_01The rest, as they say, is history. I started flying, I was living in Portland at the time, actually Vancouver, Washington, but working in Portland. So I spent uh the next two weeks uh flying back and forth and doing everything that I could to put information together. And we actually extended offers out another week uh before I was able to make an offer and and bid on the business. And I wound up, uh we wound up, she knew she was gonna sell to me. I knew I was gonna buy it. I quit my job. I moved home in April and worked in the business for about two and a half months with her before I ever took over ownership of the business in June of 2007.
SPEAKER_04So she taught you how to make.
SPEAKER_01She taught me how to make.
SPEAKER_04So it's not like you've been doing this you were as a side hobby, and then you you were not in it at all.
SPEAKER_01Mom and I made a little candy when we were growing up, right? Like I might make a couple pounds of fudge here and there, not 40 and 50 pounds of fudge at a time. And yeah. So yeah, I'd I'd made a little bit of candy when I was growing up, but nothing like this.
SPEAKER_04So as you think about it, does there part of you that looks back on that time? And because you kind of talked about the divine intervention that's right. So was there was something like guiding you? Was there something something internally that you're like, yeah, I this is the right decision? Even though it's there were probably lots of things that pointed to it not being the right decision, right?
SPEAKER_00Hindsight's 2020, right, Kelly.
unknownFair.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but no, there was uh I guess probably the best thing about it was there was just a feeling of peace that I knew it was the right decision, right? It was gonna put me at the right place at the right time. I was gonna be home to be with my family when family needed me. Um, I had our like I said, I'd already known that I wanted to move back to Idaho after living all over the country. So the opportunity to move back to my hometown and be an entrepreneur in my hometown that helped raise me where my mother and my father were entrepreneurs. I mean, it was just kind of everything just kind of lined up in step the way that it's supposed to.
SPEAKER_04So did you, you obviously you were a business person already. So you understood some parts of it. But when you dug into, and I'm sorry, I'm assuming this is part of the two and a half months, part of it was candy making, part of it was here's how you make money, here's here are the tips and tricks of that.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_04What was that part like where you were kind of like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It was intense. Because there's you know, you think, oh, let's just go make candy and we'll put it out there and people will buy it. But there is so much more behind the scenes that goes on between you know, and it at that point it was still a a pretty small company, realistically. Most of her sales were brick were just through the brick and mortar walking out the front door. There wasn't many other aspects. There wasn't even a website when I purchased the company. Um, and but still to learn health requirements and and FDA regulations and packaging and printing and yeah, and who all your suppliers are and where everything comes from, you know, and and and I didn't take, even though she'd been doing it for so long, I still didn't take anything for granted that there wasn't a bigger, better way to do it. So at the same time I was learning everything she had done. I was also looking for avenues of way to expand the company and or find new vendors or suppliers or whatever else. So there was, there was a lot of behind the scenes work involved.
SPEAKER_04Learning curve. I'm just amazing. Huge. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Huge learning curve.
SPEAKER_04When I also think about the fact, and and I we've all been to candy companies where we like, oh, I like this or I liked it last time, but then I got it this time and it doesn't taste the same. Right. And you were you are not that way. I have every single if I know a particular candy, I know that when I buy it from you, it's gonna taste the same as it did last time. So you're not tinkering with your with your formulas and throwing people for a loop and being like, wait a minute, this isn't quite, which is its own, like there's there's a certain amount of uh just I think I don't even know what the word is, but but just being able to like stick to those things and not get in cute with it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. No, it's you know, that's it's very important to me. I I said when I first bought the company, the product is amazing. All I have to do is just kind of harness that and and mold that and and share it with everybody else. That's kind of my job, is just to share that product. The recipes that she developed, um, she being Fawn Olsen, by the way, was the one who started the company um years ago. Uh, she had done an amazing job of perfecting those recipes and doing those. And it was just kind of my job to harbor that and continue to share it because it's an amazing product. And I'm not saying that because I'm the owner of the company. I said that before I ever owned the company. So uh quality is what's the most important thing to me. I don't change ingredients, I don't change anything else. It's it's just good.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So she mentored you for a little while. Did she continue to work over the years? Did she would she still to this day? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. Still to this day.
SPEAKER_04I love that. Does she ever have ideas where she comes in and she's like, I had an idea last night? Is there a like does she ever bring things mail? Okay, which is probably good.
SPEAKER_01She was happy, I think, to get rid of that part of it, right? Understandable, yeah. Right. Uh, but no, she's still, I mean, still to this day, every once in a while I'll I'll email her or I'll call her with a question and she'll be like, Oh yeah, it'll do that every once in a while. Just do this, right? So yeah. And what a breadth of knowledge and just just even knowing that that's in my back pocket huge reduces so much stress.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that that should be required. Like if you're I really in any role, there should be somebody there who's gonna be there to and years later. Years later. Because yeah, because things come up. It's strange how things maybe it won't come up for 15 years, but now all of a sudden it came up and so.
SPEAKER_01I've had things all of a sudden I'm like, I've made this particular type of candy 10,000 times, and all of a sudden on batch number 10,001, it does something weird.
SPEAKER_04And you're like, what happened?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04How big is your team now?
SPEAKER_01I have 27 employees now.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay, how many? So when you took over, what how many people? Seven. Wow. Yeah. And you and the the value of the company has has escalated quite a bit. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Um, was she just in Weezer before and and did maybe some dabbling, or did she do as much of the extensive?
SPEAKER_01She did a little tiny bit of dabbling. She was basically in Weezer, and then she had a total of six wholesale accounts.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um, her first wholesale account did not happen until right after 9-11.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01And it was just by fate and circumstance. There was a gal that owned a little boutique gift shop in Bonnie Lake, Washington, who was visiting family and r and friends in Boise when 9-11 happened. So she got stuck here and couldn't fly home. So she rented a car for the next week or 10 days, whatever it was, and just kind of drove around and visited towns around and happened to stumble across Fawn and convinced Fawn to start selling chocolates to her. And that was her, so you know 2001 was her very first wholesale account, which she's still a wholesale account to this day, by the way. Interesting. Yeah. So and that was it. She had, like I said, she had no website. She didn't that was it.
SPEAKER_04So this is a word, this is a second, like, and I don't even really know fate or whatever story that you're telling me. Are is there is that woven into your whole story? Are there are there lots of different instances where you're like, whoa, yeah, that was supposed to happen, but I have no idea how it happened. You know, just like happy accidents or absolutely.
SPEAKER_01I look back on, yeah, I mean, you know, I like I said earlier, hindsight's 2020, right? But I can look back on several aspects of my life and my career and whatever else. And I'm like, if I just stay out of the way, let the good Lord be in charge, then it works, right? So it's just very difficult for a type A person to do.
SPEAKER_04I was gonna say that's that's incredibly difficult to do. And and uh that's there's some wisdom there. There's some wisdom there because I think especially when things get hot, when things get intense, it that's a time a lot of times we don't trust our gut, we aren't praying, we aren't worrying, we're just like and sometimes we just mess it up because we can't control ourselves.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We try too hard to control everything else, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's interesting. Okay. Thank you for going down that rabbit hole with me. I'm happy to. Very interesting stuff. I love rabbit holes. Yeah, me too. Okay, so so let's talk about your the hospitality industry because I just learned this recently. I think from the last time that we saw you at an event and you brought up and you're like, Yeah, I was in this in the cruise line industry. And I was like, What? So will you and that's not the only thing. So will you kind of talk about talk about the journeying away from Weezer, what you did, and then we just talked about the return return home. But I think that part of your existence is important to the story.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So uh I was a child of the 80s, right? So right?
unknownExactly.
SPEAKER_01The last good music generation, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_03Amen. Don't hate me. Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_01Um, but so I I uh of course, one of my favorite shows on TV was The Love Boat.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right? Who didn't want to grow up and be Isaac or Gopher or whoever, right? So Captain Stubing. Um But so I uh I left left Weezer, went to uh went to the College of Southern Idaho, actually, uh, got a degree in hospitality management, and was working in the hospitality field, I was working in hotels and restaurants through college and and right after, right after college, I moved back to um to Boise and was working in a couple of different restaurants here. Uh and then eventually wound up at what was then the holiday in holodome.
SPEAKER_04Oh right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So that'll that'll date me a little bit as well, too.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I don't know what you're talking about. What's that?
SPEAKER_01You've only heard of that, right?
SPEAKER_04It was only our favorite place in the whole world to go to if we ever got to go. Like somebody would have a birthday party there and we'd be like, that's it, that's the greatest place ever. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I was uh working catering actually there, and was preparing to become the new catering manager. What and at the same time was sending out resumes to cruise ship companies trying to get on. Um and I will tell you, as an American, to get on with the big lines, Princess, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, any of those guys, it's very, very difficult. Uh they they look primarily towards foreign nationals, especially for their entry-level positions. And you can't get a management position unless you have experience with them. So it's kind of right, it's a very catch-22 deal with within the cruise line industry. But I happened to on a whim, I was literally flipping through a magazine that I had, and at the back of the magazine was an ad for cruise ship employees for the uh a prime uh premier Alaskan season, initial Alaskan season for this one cruise line company. It was a small ship company. They only had 35 crew members. They carried 110 passengers on the boat. And on a whim, I sent out a resume and I got a phone call back that said, Are you serious? Because we still need two crew members. And I scheduled an interview a couple days later. And a couple days later, I got another interview from the VP of the company. And within 72 hours after that, I was on a flight to Seattle. And I literally went into the Holodome and said and told my boss, I'm like, this is the opportunity I've got. And here's another one of those fate stories, right? Uh, my boss looked at me and said, You're never gonna get this opportunity again. You need to go. And I said, Yeah, but you know, I'm like kind of jumping in with both feet here. And he goes, I'm gonna hold your job for you for the summer. So it'll still be here if you need it when you come back. And I actually wound up calling him from Alaska after I'd been doing it for about six weeks. And I'm like, You can hire somebody else. I'm not coming back. Wow. Cruise lustry was phenomenal.
SPEAKER_04Really?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. 13 years. 13 years in the cruise line industry. So and were you all over, or would you most primarily um after doing that one small ship, I realized what a niche that small ship cruising really is. Um, and I still preach the preach to the to the nethers to this day that if you're gonna go on a cruise, stick with small ship cruises. Um, but uh I I did so I did Alaska that first season, and then that company actually wound up, that boat wound up selling to another company. Uh, and I went to work then for Delta Queen Steamboat Company. I left what I was doing there and went to brownwater cruises, as we call it, which are river cruises. Okay. So I got on paddle wheel steamboats running out of New Orleans then. Uh, and I wound up staying primarily with that company in one aspect or another. It splintered off and did a couple of other things, but most of my time was with Delta Queen Steamboat Company or one of their subsidiaries over the next nine, 10 years. So I did uh Mississippi River and all the tributaries. I did the Columbia River for a number of years when we started up a boat on the Columbia River. Uh, then I ventured out and I did Alaska again and I did Mexico for uh for a season in Mexico as well, too. And then went back to the company that owned Delta Queen Steamboat Company and went to the East Coast and brought out ships on the East Coast and sailed from Florida up into Nova Scotia and Canada and up in there.
SPEAKER_04Wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So you've you've literally seen a lot of things because you've been every single state in the union. Really?
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_04That's cool.
SPEAKER_01It helped take me to every single state.
SPEAKER_04Amazing. What's the what as far as working on the boat, what's the biggest difference between being on a river boat and being on a would you say like a cruise ship?
SPEAKER_01A blue water or cruise ship.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, blue water. Blue water versus did you want to say brown water?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, blue water, brownwater. Yeah, you well, for the most part, um, the brownwater cruises are usually a little bit smaller, more intimate, and they're um more itinerary driven. So we were, I mean, there was no better way to experience the South and the rich history of our country than cruising on a paddle wheel steamboat up the Mississippi River. I mean, you could just like okay, I'm back in the 1800s, right? So I mean it was pretty awesome to walk down the the plantation roads and go into some of the some of the places that you know really was the birthplace of our country.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I've been to I've been to Vicksburg, I've been to the Battle of Gettysburg, you know, I've been to some of the most interesting places in our nation's history. So, um, and all because of that. And then you're out on blue water and it's scenery and those kind of things, right? Like I did um I Alaska is absolutely beautiful, and I will do it again and again and again. But I mean it's a total different feeling than it is when you're when you can look off of either side of the boat and see the and and see land as it is opposed to being out in blue water when you can look for miles and not see anything.
SPEAKER_04So is there something um that sticks out as far as something that you learned on the brown water boats, as you were just describing, like learning about the south and the history there? Right. Is there is there a story there that you learned that you were like, I just I I come back to that time and again, or or that you particularly loved?
SPEAKER_01You know, I think more than anything it was about the traditions of the South.
SPEAKER_04Ah.
SPEAKER_01Right. Um you want to talk the epitome of customer service, first of all. Um, go spend some time in the South where it's it's all about manners and it's all about uh it's all about customer service anywhere and everywhere. It's yes, sir, yes, ma'am, you know, uh a mutual respect for everybody and just a slower, calmer pace of life, right? Um everything doesn't have to be in a hurry. You you you learn to just kind of take it as it goes, right? And you just you learn patience and humility. Uh and I I am still like uh like I said, walking down the the path of some. Of uh America's greatest plantations. And knowing what happened on those grounds, whether it was during the Civil War or in years after that, and learning the stories of the families that were there and the slaves that were there and how they overcame all of that and continued to move on and move the country forward. There is not enough attention given to it, honestly.
SPEAKER_04You know, they're gonna have to pay you for this advertisement because I don't know if my husband's listening right now, but I think we need to do that.
SPEAKER_01Um I highly recommend it.
SPEAKER_04We have friends who've brought up a couple of different times, and I you have just painted the picture for me because I'm like, I don't know. I could just go to a river bowl. Like I don't what are you what are you gonna do? Like I kind of didn't realize that until you just explained it.
SPEAKER_01And we have and and on the boats that I worked on too, we actually had somebody that was a very unique position called a River Laurean. And their job was to tell the stories of the river and of the towns that we go to and the things that happened. And they would have a lecture series every week, but then they would also just randomly, as we're cruising down the river, oh, here comes, you know, a spot along the river that everybody needs to know about. So they'd jump on the mic and do boatwhite announcements and do a little history lesson as you're cruising along. And um, I will tell you that Christmas on those boats is amazing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, beautiful.
SPEAKER_01The the Cajun traditions and some of the southern traditions at Christmas, absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_04I never would have even thought of that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's beautiful. First of all, the boats are amazingly decorated for Christmas. I mean, really, you want to talk about a Norman Rockwell feeling type of Christmas. I mean, it just wraps its arms around you. But we used to do um Cajun-themed Christmas cruises on the lower Mississippi out of New Orleans, and one of the Cajun traditions was that they would uh light fires along the riverbanks for Papa Noel, aka Santa Claus, to be able to find their house. And so the company would stage and have people light bonfires along the side of the river as we were cruising along on Christmas Eve. So we could find our way, yeah. So Papa Noel could find his way to the boats as well.
SPEAKER_04So that's really cool.
SPEAKER_01Right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh man. What did I so the last time we've been to New York City several times, and uh for some reason, uh several, many, many times. And uh because my daughter goes to school there. So say that's every single time. I'm sure the listeners are like, we know Callie. Um the last time we were there, we had our last day, and uh, for full disclosure, the last day before we say goodbye is always very tense because we hate saying goodbye. Right. And so the whole day we know we have it till five o'clock, and that's when the official goodbyes meet. So we were kind of high strong, and Clint came up with this idea to to take one of the boat tours, like just a totally touristy thing to do. But there was so much information as we were going past things that and I I was leaning in, I was like, this is amazing to learn all these different things. And I realized that I think my younger self maybe didn't really appreciate that very much.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm sure not.
SPEAKER_04But this older version of myself, a more mature version of myself, appreciates these things at a totally different level. Like I, it's not just, oh, that's interesting to know. It's uh I wonder what that felt like. Right. I wonder what they were doing. I wonder if that was scary. I wonder if, you know, and so these historical things are to draw more into the emotions of the entire event, too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That's even when I was working on the Columbia River, you know, I how many times had I driven back and forth from Weezer to Portland for various things or whatever else? But yet the first time that I ever sailed up the Columbia River from Portland, I was like, our country is amazing. It's beautiful. Where we live is really unique and beautiful. I mean, it just gives you an entirely different perspective. And to know that Lewis and Clark took that same route, you know, and you learn about uh Sicagoea, depending on how you learn how to do it.
SPEAKER_03Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Um but uh yeah, but just getting involved in some of that history. I mean, we're all we all grow up with Lewis and Clark history in in Idaho, right? I mean, that was taught to us in the fourth grade, right? But there is so much more to that story that you never learn until you actually are on the trail with where they were. So it's yeah, it's very rich.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's it's it's wonderful. So you've we've already begun it. We talked about the fact that you we we now know that you went back and you did the started the candy cover, you took over the candy company. Um, so this this juxtaposition of of hospitality and then making something that is ingestible. It's probably not the way that you sell it. This is my very scientific way to be. You know what? You probably don't want me to have it. That's fair. That's fair. I'm I'm not up for hire in case you want to be a marketing. I'm so sorry. Um, yeah, so so you uh so you you come back and and you decide to to take this business over. You could have, I'm assuming, taken that business and said, I'm gonna take it into a more populated area. But you didn't. You said I'm keeping it in Weezer, I'm keeping the name, I'm doing the whole. So can you tell us about that decision? Or maybe it was maybe it was never a decision.
SPEAKER_01Well, it was um Yeah, you know, I I guess looking back at it, it was not really a thought process to not be in Weezer. Um when I bought the company in 2007, it was called Fawn's Classic Candies, which, like I said earlier, the original owner's name was Fawn Olsen. So which um Fawn was a six foot tall, red-headed woman. So I knew I did not want to keep it Fawn's Classic Candies, because I do not, I don't even have any hair, leave alone red hair anymore. Right, yeah, I do not personify that. Uh so I actually um I knew right away that one of the first things I wanted to do, even though I was a Weezer kid that had grown up and been there for years, but I'd been gone for 18 years, which I always say I spent the first 18 years of my life trying to get out of Weezer and then the next 18 years trying to get back, right? Uh but I uh it so it just really wasn't a thought process that I wasn't going to be in Weezer, but I knew that it also wasn't gonna be Fawn's classic candies forever. So I finally decided actually, like I said, I bought bought and took over the company in June. And later that fall, I actually held a contest in town to help me name the company.
SPEAKER_04Oh, that's cool.
SPEAKER_01Right. So I gathered nominations from the community and we narrowed it down to the top 10, and then we put it back out to everybody to vote. And Weezer Classic Candy was the top vote getter. So I awarded this dear sweet elderly lady who was, I think she was then, I think she was in her 70s, maybe or 80s, and she told me it was the first time she'd ever won anything in her life, and she wanted a free a year's supply of chocolates for being the one that came up with the name that actually wound up winning. So yeah. And it was just always kind of uh, you know, I alluded to it before. Mom was an entrepreneur in town. She owned a business that was half a block away from where Weezer Classic Candy is now. We ran a ranch out on Manscreek, but then dad was also the manager of the local livestock, livestock auction company in town. So I spent a lot of time in town on those streets as a kid doing fundraisers and selling cookie dough and Christmas cards and gift wrap and everything else to every business person up and down the street. And it was, I just kind of always felt like it was my turn to now pay that back. So it was my pay it forward opportunity to come in, have a business on Main Street, and give those same opportunities to kids that were growing up and doing it now.
SPEAKER_04So that's wonderful. I in my mind I'm wondering, and I don't even know if you can answer this question, but what if how old were you when you left Weezer?
SPEAKER_01I was officially I was 19. I had been in and out for I went to I was a state FFA officer. So I took a year off after high school to do that or semester, and I was gonna go to Boise State uh for uh starting that spring semester, but I decided that wasn't a good idea. So I actually waited, I guess I was, yeah, I was 19 when I then left and went to CSI.
SPEAKER_04Okay. So if you if this version of you were able to tell your 19-year-old version, you're gonna you're gonna be gone for 18 years, but then you're coming back here. What would the 19-year-old version of yourself have said?
SPEAKER_01You are nuts.
SPEAKER_04So you didn't leave thinking I will always come back.
SPEAKER_01You no. I had um and when I left, I so I growing up in Weezer, I had traveled a little bit, but not much. FFA provided me with tons of opportunities. Um I'd seen Kansas City, I'd seen Washington, DC, uh, you know, I'd seen a few other cities across the country. Um, so I knew there was bigger, brighter, better out there, right? Uh 19-year-old me probably would have um would have been like, you're you're gonna wind up either, you know, worst case scenario, you're gonna wind up in Boise. Best case scenario, uh, after I'd been in college for a year or two and visiting with some of my other hospitality friends who had grown up in small town Idaho, we were all planning on making our mark in Seattle or Atlanta or LA or any of those in New York, any of those bigger cities. Uh, I will say that um 19-year-old me too, uh, well, actually, that was 16 or 17-year-old me went on a tour of the state capitol with during uh National FFA week. And I got an opportunity to sit in the governor's chair. And I told the then governor at that point to make sure he kept that seat warm for me. So, you know, so that that age was was rather ambitious towards politics. Now I'm not so sure anymore.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Although I'll tell you, I th I think there's a lot of us that would uh get behind you if you wanted to.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_04You got do you have a pretty robust history? You would. You just bribe everybody with chocolates.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_04I I think uh you brought up FFA and I think it's worth uh giving a nod there. I I guess my question on that is did did the things that you learned in FFA, did those contribute to how you went out in the world and how you were in the world? So can you share that, especially for people who aren't familiar with it or or think, ah, it's just a another organization of cow kids or whatever.
SPEAKER_01Just a whole bunch of cow kids that don't know what to do, right?
SPEAKER_04Right. Yeah. Could you explain that a little bit?
SPEAKER_01You know, um I still look back on this day and and give kudos to FFA as an organization for so many things that it taught me. I was most people would probably never believe this, knowing me now, but I was actually kind of a quiet, shy freshman.
SPEAKER_02Interesting.
SPEAKER_01Um that uh that I I had a few close friends and and stuff, but I was uh I was certainly not the outgoing person that uh that I was until kind of I started breaking into FFA. They're the ones that taught me public speaking, they're the ones that taught me to get out of my shell to try new things. Um my parents gave me an amazing work ethic, but FFA then kind of honed that as well too. Uh my FFA advisor is still, um, you know, unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago, but he is still uh one of the bright spots of my high school career. Um, you know, and the opportunities that were presented to me. I mean, how many kids from Weezer, Idaho at the age of 16 were able to travel to Washington, D.C. for a week and go meet with their legislators and tour, tour the nation's capital and and get to visit with, you know, the powers of bee at that point in time. You know, and I went to uh the national FFA convention in Kansas City, Missouri for four years in a row. Uh, and I went all the way through until I got my national degree, which is, you know, less than one percent of all of the kids in FFA get their national FFA degree. And at that point in time it was, I don't even know what the whole national membership was, but it and I know it's still to this day the largest youth organization in the United States has the largest youth um convention annually in the United States. And back then we would get twenty-five or twenty-six thousand kids in town for a week. You know, um, and you just see that sea of blue jackets everywhere you go, and it's just kind of amazing, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, and not just the sea of blue jackets. When you approach one of the blue jackets, uh there is a demeanor that everybody has. Yep. So I we will sometimes we'll go to the like the breakfast, you know, in in Meridian at Meridian High School. And um, I I just I part of my my well, that's probably my favorite part of all that. This food's pretty good too, but it my favorite part is interacting with those kids because they're impressive. They are. And not in like a fake, weird, like, you know, if they've just learned some some basic skills on how to communicate and how to approach you. They're usually having to ask difficult questions about, you know, uh there's a raffle ticket, and but they're not like, give me ma'am. You know, they're it's a really uh they're impressive, impressive people.
SPEAKER_01Aaron Powell I think one of the things that uh that and I and especially now as a business owner looking back on it, and even still to this day, if if an if an FFA kid walks in to my shop and with a job application, A, I know that it's filled out correctly, B, I know that everything is spelled right, C, I know they can actually write, right? And legibly, but I know that they have a work ethic that is uh you know, I mean, it's just a I I don't even really need to interview them. I just sure, when can you start? Right. They're the the life skills that that organization teaches is far and above any other organization that's out there.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. So you have this FFA background and you have, you know, you've gone out in the world and you've done some things and you come back to run this company. You you now are you're at the helm. So if you want to slack off and not do you totally can. Like you're you have those that ability if you wanted to, because it's yours. But I I mean I see the smirk on your face, but that's not even in you. No. So can you describe maybe how, aside from FFA, where that work ethic comes from? Because it's clearly there. Like you don't, you don't have to, when Zamzo says, Hey, will you come out and do you could say no thanks. Right. But you don't. No, and it and it's not, I get the distinct feeling it isn't because you're looking for the money all the time. Like that's not so there's something driving you and there's a sideline, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So there's there's definitely an ethic there. So can you help us understand that a little bit?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I guess that's the um the benefit of growing up in a in a ranching community and and on a ranch, right? Uh oh, I used to I I you just don't think about it. You get up, you go outside, you do your chores, you feed your animals, then you come back in, you have breakfast, you get ready to go to school, you go to school, you come home. Um at my my junior and senior year of high school, I held down uh what seemed like an 80 a week hour job then, right? Um I'm pretty sure I probably wasn't working eight hours a week, but it sure seemed like it. Uh, but you know, I I was working after school every night too, and then was still involved in 4-H and FFA and had those activities. I mean, you just, you just do, right? That's that's what you do. You just do. So, and there's no, you know, oh, well, it's the weekend. Let's take the weekend off. Well, your animals still have to be fed and there's still fence to build and irrigation to do and those kind of things. So you just kind of do it. And you don't have a bunch of hired hands to say, go take care of that for me. Right. So, you know, that's just kind of where that comes from, I guess. It was instilled from me at a very early age by my parents. And that was um, you know, I watched mom and dad both uh not take a lot of vacations or anything else when I was growing up. They because there was the ranch to take care of in addition to their jobs and and the businesses that they ran or whatever else. And so you just kind of learn that as you go.
SPEAKER_04Okay, okay. I didn't in that whole story, I didn't hear you say that it was unfair. I didn't hear you say other people had it way better than me. I didn't hear you say so and what I did hear a lot of is it it's joyful.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, so what could we what could we extrapolate from that to help there's certain people that that struggle with that? They they're they not only does the thought of what you just say make them very unhappy. Yes, but then maybe they're even a little bit angry at the thought of it, like making me do those kind of things, except for that nobody is making you do those things and you're joyful about it. So there's something to that. There's something there's something to that. That's a that's a mixture of some things that um I because generally speaking, you're you're one of the happiest people that I've met. You're you are you're a happy person.
SPEAKER_01I eat a lot of sugar.
unknownThat's it.
SPEAKER_04That was what I was looking for. There we go. So so it's just eat a lot of sugar and I'm amalgamated. Oh man. I do think that there is a magic recipe, if you will, there of uh and and I don't know if it's whether it's how we were raised. Maybe there was a generation and a different way that we were raised.
SPEAKER_01Um, I think that's a I think that's a lot of it to begin with. Um I feel very fortunate to be raised in the generation that we were. Uh long before all the technology advances and all of those. Um I I I'll go out to dinner still to this day, and I'll look across the restaurant and I'll see mom and dad and three kids at the table, and every single one of them are on devices and not having any communication back and forth. We sat down as a family every single night and had dinner. We sat down on the weekends and we had our Sunday dinner, and you know, um, I enjoyed, I still say that one of the best toys that I ever grew up with was a stick and a dog.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right. So, you know, I mean, I could we could keep I could keep the dog entertained and me for hours, you know. Um it's just it was a simpler, gentler way of life, I guess. And so it taught me to find joy in the simple little things in life. Um, and I and that's still to this day. I, you know, the other day, um, well, I'll go, I'll I'll actually revert back to a different story because this one um and get the bleep ready. But uh that's fine. But the this was early on in owning the candy store, probably year three or year four, somewhere in there. And it's one of those moments where you know things get stressful, whatever else. It was kind of coming into the holidays, and there's always those moments, right? And dad and his probably four-year-old little boy came in. And for the first time, he was bringing the little boy in and he was showing him the candy in the case, and he was just eyes were big, and you could almost see the little boy drooling a little bit at the chocolate, and he was just amazed. And dad was sitting there looking at stuff, and the little boy wandered off. And at that point in time, I had two cases of chocolates, and they were kind of separated by about 10 or 12 feet. And the little boy wandered off and he found a whole nother case of chocolate, and he stopped and he looked at the chocolate, and then he turned around and looked at dad and said, Holy, Dad, there's a whole bunch more down here. Just the biggest smile on his face. And I laughed, and I still tell this story, obviously, to this day. And I just said, and that is exactly why I do what I do, right? Is for the simple little joys in life. And I think that is just that personified.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01Every day it starts to, when it starts to get a little too much or a little too stressful, you just like, ah, you just get those little god shots every once in a while. And you just remember that, you know, you don't have to control it all, you don't have to work at all, you know. And I guess that's the other thing too, is I've always said that, you know, as long as you do something you love, you don't ever actually have to go to work. Yeah. Yeah. And and that's the big thing. So many people these days work for an end instead of just, you know, instead of enjoying their life while they're going on the path.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And you have to.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. I am wondering about legacy. And this is maybe a little selfish because um I obviously work at a company where there's legacy and it it started well before me. It just does well, and just like yours started before you. You and so there is there's something about the business part, and then it's almost it's a completely separate animal, the legacy part. And I think that people who aren't necessarily involved with businesses who have that that sort of legacy, and and I don't mean to make it sound like I was gonna say hanging over your head, it's it's it's not necessarily that, because it's not that I resent legacy, like I think it's really great. It just adds a total different layer to the business part. So can you speak to that a little bit as far as the as far as the the legacy and maybe um how how you balance, you know, what you what you're doing just straight up as a regular company, and then with the fact that it is this legacy company, and particularly in Weezer.
SPEAKER_01In Weezer. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and and that was one of the reasons why um I did what I did to get that community buy-in with naming the company um from the very beginning, right? Was I wanted to make sure that they recognized the fact that it was Weezer's candy store, not I'm just the I'm just the harborer. I'm just the I'm just steering the steering the ship along. Um but uh it so when you uh when you trace back the history of the company, Fawn Olson actually started that company because she was really well known in town for her homemade fudge. She'd been making fudge kind of as a she was actually a retired registered nurse, but she'd been making fudge out of her house and giving it to the church folks and what and the neighbors and whatever else and her kids one year said, Mom, you need to make fudge and you need to sell it at a booth in the National Time Fiddle Contest.
SPEAKER_04Oh boy. Right. That was a great idea. Right.
SPEAKER_01So mom said, I don't have anything else to do this week. Why not? So she made fudge and it was such a huge success that she launched a little fudge shop on the other side of town and started making different fudges and selling fudge. Then she worked uh with food scientists, actually at Poise State and the U of I to develop her own line of of recipes and developed her own confectionery recipes, worked with national confectioners and everything in order to do that. And I can still remember when I came home in 06 and found out that the store was for sale I during my cruise line time, the last four and a half almost five years of my cruise line industry in the cruise line industry, I was actually in the corporate office as director of operations for the West Coast fleet. And I had been after Fawn trying to buy her candy to put in the gift shops and use on the ships and she just wouldn't do it. She's like, nope, I don't want to grow that big I don't want to do that much. That's not what I want to do. So I knew the quality of the product. I knew it was there, right? Uh and so then when I when I did come home and take it over then I knew the quality of that product was already there. I already knew the name behind it. I already knew you know the the reputation behind it. And it was just like I've said before it was I'm just the steward. Those recipes are flawless. Like I for for the fact that she just kind of got together and whipped up these recipes. I mean I'm making it sound really simple. I know there was a lot more work to it but um the fact that I was that I was given the privilege of uh of given the Bible as I call it when she gave me her recipe book to be able to hold that true and and move that on, I haven't changed a recipe. I've added some, but I haven't changed a recipe the whole time. And probably the greatest gift that I've given been given during this entire process is to have each one of her kids one by one reach out to me and say mom couldn't have given the company to a better person.
SPEAKER_04Oh that's huge.
SPEAKER_01Huge it's huge.
SPEAKER_04And and unusual I would think I very yeah very to have that kind of support.
SPEAKER_01She was so well respected in town and in the community and yeah and she's she was just an amazing person. Is an amazing person. Sorry Fawn you're still here she is she is an amazing person. But yeah just the just to have that continual family support. I have one of one of her daughters is uh is an executive at a company in California and they buy chocolates from me every year to give to their clients and and customers and stuff that I ship to California for them every year. So the fact that she's willing to buy the product that I now have, you know, and give to her clients is one of the biggest honors that I could get.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I think you were really wise in in making it a like a hometown brand. I think that was a really wise decision because I think that probably helps. Yeah because you got the whole community behind you, right? So I I think that that's uh that's pretty amazing. I now is it is it true that because you've you've grown it quite a bit.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_04So I it was thrown around to me that perhaps 300% might be pretty pretty accurate. Okay. So you've you've grown it quite a bit and you still care about this legacy factor. You still care about that fact.
SPEAKER_01That is the that's the whole basis of the product to the quality or the quality of the product right so and now and you have added some things.
SPEAKER_04So how what is your process for saying I'm I'm going to add something like how what what are your criteria for this makes sense to add into so that it doesn't screw up this wonderful thing that you've got the legacy is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know it's um it depends on the product I guess uh it's very important to me to support Idaho to begin with. It's very important to me to to support small business. I'm still a huge advocate. It's what it's one of the cornerstones of my my four pillars of of business mentorship that I work off of is that to me small business supporting small business is the cornerstone of our economy and that's where you know as we continue to move forward that's what we have to do. So those are some of just a couple of the things that I look at whenever I'm going to launch a new product. But it has to be something that that makes sense, that fits with what we do. And quite honestly I mean I I run this company in a 3000 square foot facility and over half of that is actually retail storefront and and one thing that we haven't even mentioned is I also run a deli restaurant out of there too. So we have a full service deli restaurant out of the retail section that's down front as well too. And so just less well about a third of my property is the production kitchen and and the and where we where we dip and package and everything else. So it has to be something that makes sense that we can do uh in order for me to to develop and do a new product.
SPEAKER_04I'm just realizing that this has been a very one-sided relationship. You always come to Boise for me to experience your I my husband and I are going to make a trip out there after this podcast. It's time it's time we clear the fact that I had no idea that was even the case. Really this has been way too one sided. We owe it to you we will make our way out to Weezer. We want to anyway because you know Cindy Baker's my shout out to my friend Cindy who is a native of of Weezer and um she has said for a long time I just give me a day. I just want to take you through and show you all the places that we've you know what I did when I was growing up I want to take you to the Chinese restaurant. I want to take you to like all the different things. Yeah all the things so we've promised her we will do that. We haven't done it yet and uh so you know some well I'll dangle the chocolate carrot in front of you. That's that's perfect. Um okay so you so you touched about the uh touched on this just a minute ago about your involvement um as mentoring and helping other people that's a big part of of what you do like it's a it's yeah so can you tell us a little bit important to me yeah why is that why is it so important to you?
SPEAKER_01Um well and it's it it's gotten even more important over the years, right? It was very important to me at the very beginning anyway because like I said I I grew up walking the streets of State Street downtown Weezer. Mom was, you know, one of my very first jobs that I ever had was sweeping sidewalks for all of the neighbor businesses around my mother's business. And but I was also as I was in middle school and high school I was one of the kids that was out there selling Christmas cards to everybody and you know all of those little fundraisers that we did. But that's what helped mold me and create the entrepreneur that you see now, right? So I feel like that's my responsibility now to take that on and and pass that forward and do that to the next generation. So mentorship is something that's huge to me. And I've worked with uh FFA I've worked with FHA I've worked with OEA and BPA and all of the high school groups I've judged state contests I've done different things for them uh just because it's the opportunity to to continually give back to the community is something that is I think all entrepreneurs that's kind of a responsibility of every entrepreneur to do that in my opinion.
SPEAKER_04Okay so I'm I'm gonna make the argument by the way I don't believe this argument but I'm gonna make it anyway that um kids can get that people can get that from they can go to FFA they can be they can learn things like that. Why why learn from somebody who's doing it practical experience can never be exchanged.
SPEAKER_01Right? Yeah and so you you you can be talked to as much as you want but to actually see it in see it in action and to be able to experience it firsthand is a whole nother level.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh and so and I love nothing more than to go to I go to the business classes almost every single year at Weezer High School and talk to the business kids about uh and we start with how to fill out an application and how to show up to an interview and how to do those kind of things and put all of that into practicum. But then I also take it to the next level and say so I used to sit in these seats and yet I wound up working on cruise ships and I wound up sailing all over the country and I've been to our nation's capital and I've been into the White House and all of these opportunities are there, but you have to see it and want it and go for it. Right. You can't just grow up in Weezer and say I'm always going to be in Weezer or you know you have to be able to have some kind of a drive and I think for them to be able to see that those opportunities are really there and attainable is a whole nother level.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So on that note because you are talking Weezer obviously is a very rural uh place. So is there something that gives you hope about rural Idaho and and just rural places in general that's a good one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah you know uh I guess no matter what good or bad it can be either side of the coin depending on but things just move at a slower pace in rural Idaho. And it the things that affect so many people on the national level uh or even on a statewide level so many times do not necessarily trickle down to that small town rural community at least to the degree and or as fast. Right. Um yeah I I bought the company in 2007. June of 2007 I purchased the company uh and in no no it was in August August September of 2007 we hit the huge financial downturn and crisis. I quickly did some homework and realized that the chocolate industry is the number one industry to be in in the time of recession. I said thank you God was another one of those fate things thank you God for that right um but even still it was felt less in Weezer really than it was in so many other places. Some of the a lot of the agricultural industry wasn't as affected by that by that recession and by that economic downturn. So I think that's what a lot of rural rural America but especially rural Idaho has going for them is with that agricultural based economy it can absorb a little bit more fluctuation a little faster a little easier um in order to to continue to go on. You've got one harvest might not be good but hopefully the next harvest is you know kicks back and takes over so that's a that's that's interesting. And they're very resilient. Farmers and ranchers are very resilient. Yeah. So have to be rural Idaho people are very resilient.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I I think about sometimes uh I I think maybe it's just cliche like the the kids who are who grow up in a rural area and I for lack of more intellectual way of putting it they've got ants in their pants they're they're ready to they're anxious to get out and but they've got a you know I've got to be a junior and then I'm gonna be a senior and then by golly I'm gonna I I think um I think there's a lesson in that even for them that just the fact that and and I think a lot of times it doesn't happen till much later, but there's something that happens in that ants in your pants season for small town kids that helps them grow up a little bit. It does. Yeah there's almost like a for most of them. That's true. Well for most of them but I've met I've met a lot of them that and and many of them go back home. They so they they rush off to go do whatever they're gonna do and then they end up coming back.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_04But but there's some there's a lesson there.
SPEAKER_01There's something that that is I just kind of interesting to think about um just that it's a c I think it's kind of a common thing to be in a small town and be young and be like get me out of here you know yeah well and I I mean if you look up in if you look at the difference between even just and Boise to me is not a big city yet, right? It's it's getting a lot closer. I'm more than happy to stay on the other side of the valley. But uh but you know the the opportunities that are are evident in Boise are a hundredfold what they are in Weezer. And so when you grow up in Boise with all of this around you it's easier to say I can stay here I can work here I can I can go to school here right all those kind of things. Whereas Weezer even or you know in other rural communities doesn't matter where it is you know you're at least going to leave to go further education in one aspect or another if you're going to. So there's always that kind of I'm gonna have to leave no matter what. So it just depends on how quickly you want to come back and depends on what they want to go into. You know I've been huge about uh really pushing the trades and those kind of things too to a bunch of the user kids because a lot of them uh I've really noticed the change over the 19 years that I'll bet you it's probably 50-50 now of the kids that want to go on for a four year degree and those that are either content to go get a trade some type of a trade license or even just stay in the community and work.
SPEAKER_04Right. So and it's it's really interesting to kind of watch that change over the last and I I really like how uh we as a state have leaned into that because I think there was for a long time there was a stigma there and it was absolutely uh and and it was ridiculous. Ridiculous absolutely absolutely I'm I'm behind you on that now you you don't just support kids and go and speak at the high school you you've put your money where your mouth is and you have have given a lot of money and scholarships to kids in the Weezer community. So can you tell us a little bit about that? Sure.
SPEAKER_01That was gosh 10 12 years ago now somewhere in there uh I started the Weezer Entrepreneurial scholarship Weezer classic candy entrepreneurial scholarship uh with my whole goal of trying to raise that next generation of entrepreneur right um to make them realize that there is more out there than just working a nine to five or going to work at Micron or whatever it might be, right? That there is um and trying to kind of create that entrepreneurial spirit. So uh my scholarship application is completely unique and different than I think almost every one of them out there. Uh it's a pretty simple one page brief summary. I don't care what your grades are, doesn't make any difference to me. Don't give me your transcripts I don't want to know but I do want you to write a business plan for what business it is that you're gonna start and it's got to include some type of a marketing plan. And then you also have to write a summary of when you become an entrepreneur how you're going to give back to the community of whatever community that you're in. It doesn't have to be Weezer wherever you happen to land but you have to write me a summary sheet on on how you plan to give back to the community and what your plan is there. That's really cool. And it's awesome. I give away um and it just kind of depends on how the fundraising goes. I give away at least one $1,000 scholarship every year. I've given away as many as six in one year. So yeah just kind of depends. And I have different fundraisers throughout the year that I raise funds for it. Uh my biggest one I started about three years ago now and it's actually coming up the first Friday and Saturday of October. I have a a two-day vendor event in downtown Weezer now that is uh I call the Weezer Harvest Bazaar. And I have a little over a hundred vendors that I set up on the main street in downtown and then we took over the event center as well too. So we have some indoor booths and I bring in vendors from all over the place and and a hundred percent of the vendor fees go to that scholarship fund so that I can continue to to fund that scholarship.
SPEAKER_04So you know I I I wasn't I didn't think it was possible to like you more. And I just this conversation has has uh it you I just you're just a great guy. Well thank you and you have some great ideas and you're doing wonderful things for people. I just I love this.
SPEAKER_01It's fun yeah well and I and that's the other thing that didn't work I eat a piece of chocolate shit over I was gonna say yeah there are no bad today it was a carameled apple.
SPEAKER_04I mean that what's not to like but then we're just talking about that like it is definitely season for for carameled apples and it's apples apples becoming a we just the best.
SPEAKER_01The Sims Fruit Ranch for supplies and then and then do you like fully dip them and you do that with okay you do the whole yeah we do caramel we do caramel with nuts we do caramel and chocolate and then we do our gourmet which is caramel chocolate and all the toppings. So okay well let's really quickly talk about some of the favorites so do you have a favorite candy that you made absolutely my gold digger to this day is the one that made me buy the company is the gold digger salted cashews caramel and chocolate. Oh I've had the gold digger yeah yes in fact I think we I think that one we've got that one even before I bought the company my mother used to send me boxes of gold diggers on the ship. So which I finally had to start having my mother like ship them under somebody else's name. She couldn't put her name on the box anymore because when the mail would hit the purser's office on the ship I'd get it I would get a radio call that says your mother sent a package and I'd beat it tracks down there and half of the stuff would be gone. So because mom was mom's a great baker too. So she would bake and she would send me chocolates and they'd be like it's your mother's stuff is delicious. I'm like I'm gonna beat you.
SPEAKER_04Oh man. Okay. This is I usually want my daughter to listen to these. I don't want her to hear this one because she's gonna be like mom you know you need to up your game with these tear packages. Where there is tear packages at exactly we just sent one.
SPEAKER_01Just sent one. Right it's on the way.
SPEAKER_04But it was a bunch of it wasn't it wasn't fun stuff like what you just said. All right um how about what what sells out fastest?
SPEAKER_01Like when you when you our velvet mint is still the number one seller. That was um that is one of Fawn and one of the there was fun that started the company and another gal that was kind of her right hand lady uh that that kind of got the company up and running and going with her um and worked on a bunch of the recipes and stuff with her. And those two came up with that that candy and that recipe and it is the funny thing is it's the simplest easiest candy to make it has the least amount of ingredients but we sell it's astronomical how many velvet mints we sell over the course of a year. We do we we make a batch every day.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_01We get 1400 pieces out of a batch.
SPEAKER_04Oh wow yeah that's amazing that's yeah there is something about a mint candy.
SPEAKER_01If you don't have the right ratio like it can really screw things oh yeah yeah and it's this is one that's just very soft and just kind of melts across the palate. That's where the velvety comes from but then it's just a light hint of mint and I've had I have had tons of people I go to offer them a free velvet mint, right? And they're like, I don't like mint. And I'm like you haven't tried this one. Yeah and yeah I've converted a lot of I don't like mint people in my 19 years.
SPEAKER_04So I know as a business owner that we get requests it's funny it everybody thinks that they have ideas that and sometimes they're wonderful. I'm wondering if is if anybody's come to you with a strange idea of like you know what you should do.
SPEAKER_01Is there any uh anything you can do almost on a daily basis it seems like you know what would be great. Oh yeah that's a great idea.
SPEAKER_04Well does your mind immediately go to that won't work because this can't go with this and you're thinking like the chemical makeup like okay that's funny I absolutely go into the into the formulation of the recipe people always think those things go together.
SPEAKER_01When you put them together actually don't go together at all together at all yeah and or there might be four people that might like that right so I don't know that they can create a 50 pound batch of that and so sometimes though we get some great ideas and we run with it and we'll do a test batch and we'll see how it goes and and whatever.
SPEAKER_04But yeah there's no there's been a few of those over the course of the year that or years that yeah no no all right so a final candy question is there a candy that best represents your personality actually you know what that would be bad if it was the gold digger but um I will I would let me let me ex let me expand it. It doesn't have to be one of yours is there a candy in the world that represents your personality that's a good one that's a really good one so many possibilities I know um yeah I could probably um I could probably say a nut roll oh my gosh I have to tell you it's funny that you just said that we are on the search for pecan rolls because there was some on the shelf right now. Okay that's it that's we uh we've been craving pecan rolls but you know it's uh if the pecans have to be fresh the inside can't like you can't there's a the way to do it and yeah okay I bet you do them right I bet you really do them right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah okay that's another one of Fawn's original recipes and hers is a little bit different than a lot most of them use that like white nougat on the inside hers was um what's called an Olympia cream which is like a brown sugar buttercream so you actually have to you have to brown sugar in order to make it caramelize sugar in order to make it and it's it's a little time consuming but it is so worth it. And then dipped in chocolate and rolled in pecans and yeah or not chocolate caramel and rolled in pecans and yes yeah okay you've now made your case we will come out and visit you. Do you want me to go ahead and put you on my calendar?
SPEAKER_04Yes would you for tomorrow and get to get get a few of those rolls lined real quick. Maybe might not be a bad idea. All right um this is my last question for you and then I will let you go on your merry way because getting back to Weezer from Boise a little traffic so we want to get you on the road.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01I am wondering what you hope Weezer Classic candy looks like 20 years from now I would have to say that my hope is that it is still very largely untouched and the same in some regards, right? Like uh I continue to grow and expand. Um you can yeah I I said earlier that when I first bought the company there was no website. There was uh you know we were only six wholesale accounts and those kind of things. Now you know one of the very first things I did was launch a website actually which is probably on its 10th generation of changes now, um making it better all the time. But uh now you can find Weezer Classic candy in stores from Alaska to Hawaii and Maine and and Florida and kind of all points in between. I hope it just kind of continues to grow, but I don't ever want it to leave downtown Weezer. I don't ever want it to lose its hometown touch. Uh I I in my marketing now I say that we are um gourmet hand handmade chocolates and that's exactly what I want. Uh my newest tagline that I've been doing is that we provide sweets treats and memories and that's what we are, right? Like it's not just about the fact that we are a candy store. It's about that we are that hometown candy store in the quintessential small rural community on the on the main corner in downtown that you can literally walk through the door and kind of take a step back in time and just the world slows down and and it's and you know that hopefully you know that when you put a piece of chocolate in your mouth that you know that the world's gonna be okay. Yeah. So and that's just kind of where I hope it stays. I've always said that we can take over the world one bite at a time and that's kind of what I intend to do. I want at someday I want people to say you remember that candy company used to be called what was it? C's that's right. But then somebody else came along and replaced them but I don't ever want it to be uh the kind of chocolate or candy that is mass produced and is stuck on a warehouse shelf waiting to ship out. Every once in a while I'll get a wholesale account that'll be like hey where's my product I need it right now and I'm like you did you forget that when your order comes in we start making the candy for it right I'm like the reason that you do business with me is because it's fresh and it hasn't been sitting around. That's what I want to continue. It's a legacy. It is a legacy.
SPEAKER_04That's exactly right. Patrick thank you for being here. Thank you so much for having me. And also thanks for thanks for befriending us. Absolutely because you're just so you know a friendly guy. So we just got to be friends over just various times and then figured out we had these connections and anyway it's wonderful. I'm so glad that you're here. I'm glad you got to share your story. Thank you. And I'm glad that people will now understand a little bit more of what you're doing because you're just doing just doing so much for the community and for the state of Idaho and so we appreciate you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's been a blast I love it. You're welcome.
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