The Smitty Bros SauceCast: The Story Part Three – The Aftermath of Bitchin’ Sauce
Picking Up the Pieces After Bitchin’ Sauce
The Smitty Bros Sauce Cast continues with another gripping chapter in the Bitchin’ Sauce saga. After choosing not to take legal action against their sister, the Smitty brothers found themselves at a crossroads. With no company, no money, and an uncertain future, they had to figure out their next steps.
Starting Over with Nothing
After walking away from Bitchin’ Sauce, the brothers were left with nothing—not even a paycheck. The business they had spent years building was now out of their hands, leaving them to regroup, rebuild, and survive.
With no income and nowhere to turn, Ryan moved in with Porter, bringing his wife and baby into the lower half of Porter’s rental home. It was a temporary solution, but one that allowed them to put their heads together and figure out what was next. Friends and family supported them during this time as they tried to regain their footing.
They were not the only ones who left Bitchin’ Sauce. Their parents, younger brother, and several employees who had been part of the original company also walked away. It was a mass exodus—essentially, anyone outside of their sister and her husband’s family left the company. It became clear that the heart and soul of Bitchin’ Sauce were now gone.
A Final Break from Bitchin’ Sauce
One of the first things the brothers had to do was completely separate themselves from Bitchin’ Sauce legally. Even though they had built the company together, their sister had already claimed full control. To make a clean break, they signed over their shares and nullified any non-compete or NDA agreements that tied them to the brand. It was the final step in cutting ties with Bitchin’ Sauce for good.
This was a surreal moment. For years, they had poured their blood, sweat, and tears into Bitchin’ Sauce, only to walk away with nothing. But they had no choice—they had to move forward.
The Birth of a New Sauce
After much prayer and soul-searching under a pepper tree in Porter’s front yard, they decided to do what they did best: make sauce. They knew that the demand for nut-based sauces was still growing, and the market had yet to be fully captured. Bitchin’ Sauce had grown, but there was still plenty of room for competition—and who better to take on Bitchin’ Sauce than the guys who originally built it?
That’s when they launched Good Lovin’ Foods, their next venture. They weren’t just coming back—they were coming back bigger, stronger, and with a better product. They took everything they had learned from Bitchin’ Sauce and improved upon it.
Going Head-to-Head with Bitchin’ Sauce
With Good Lovin’ Foods, they knew they had to move fast. They raised funds, brought in investors, and made their move. Within the first year, they:
-
Landed Whole Foods accounts, placing their product right next to Bitchin’ Sauce.
-
Secured three Costco regions, expanding faster than they ever had with Bitchin’ Sauce.
-
Introduced new organic and extended shelf-life products, improving on their past recipes.
-
Launched their own organic tortilla chips, further diversifying their product line.
To fuel their success, they went all-in on demos—just like they had done in the early days of Bitchin’ Sauce. They relocated, traveled, and worked tirelessly in stores. They were once again the tip of the spear in the nut-based sauce market, and it was working.
Bitchin' Sauce Follows Suit
As they gained momentum, Bitchin’ Sauce made some changes.
-
They changed their packaging—removing Ryans face from the lid but still keeping his body in the logo (yes, really!).
-
They extended their shelf life to match their improvements.
-
They launched their own organic version after seeing their success in that category.
But the biggest move came not from Bitchin’ Sauce, but from a surprising new player: their own co-packer.
Betrayal: The Co-Packer’s Play
The brothers had partnered with a hummus manufacturer to co-pack their new sauce. The company was well-connected in Costco and had been approached about creating a Bitchin’ Sauce knockoff. At first, they seemed loyal, even sharing information about Costco’s interest.
Then, one day, during a Costco roadshow, Porter walked into a store and saw something shocking: a new almond dip on the shelf, sitting right next to their product.
It was their own co-packer’s product—a blatant copy of their sauce.
Not only had the co-packer launched their own competing product, but they had also undercut the brothers' price in Costco. In an instant, years of work were wiped away. Their biggest accounts were gone. Their fast-growing company was dead in the water.
The Collapse of Good Lovin’ Foods
With no way to fulfill their Costco orders and no co-packer willing to work with them, they were forced to shut down Good Lovin’ Foods. It was over. Once again, they were left with nothing.
It was one of the lowest points of their lives. They had been betrayed by their own partners, much like what had happened with Bitchin’ Sauce.
But even in that moment, they knew one thing: they would rise again.
What’s Next? The Story Continues…
After losing everything—again—they had a decision to make. Would they quit? Or would they fight back once more?
In the next episode of Smitty Bros Sauce Cast, they dive into the next chapter: their reinvention, a bold new direction, and the surprising lessons that came from losing their sauce company not once, but twice.
Stay tuned. The best is yet to come.
Transcript:
welcome this is the Smitty Bros sauce
cast part three yeah of the story yep um we left
off in our last one we were we were at our Crossroads and we made the right
decision to um not Sue our sister in
court so we're coming out of that stepping into the great unknown
with no company no money and uh we had to figure out what
we're going to do with our lives yeah so that's where that's where we were that's
where we were we had just uh what did we offer the mediation we had offered the
mediation the first it was denied mediation that was denied and so what do we do now what do
we do yeah I remember we had to move in
together yeah at that point uh at that point with no income and not
really knowing what was going what we were going to do next
um Porter had a bigger house than I had that he was renting and so I uh moved
out of my house with my wife and baby and moved into the lower half of
Porter's house and um I think for the first I don't
know how many month months it was until we regrouped and got a plan it I think it happened
pretty quick but um we were supported by friends and
family during that time yeah we weren't the only ones that left and separated from the company
either no we weren't there was a there was a whole crew of people that separated from the company and left the
company and you know basically the company the in the groups that were a
part of the company there was uh my sister her husband and then her
husband's siblings that was like one that was like like the crew that stayed yeah and um I
think they had some friends like her husband's friends a few of those uh
people that stayed around but um the rest of the family outside of you know
my sister and her husband and her husband's extended family outside of
that the rest of our family left the company so our parents walked our younger brother Casey walked
um you're I think Joel had already left but uh you
know yeah he he he was gone uh yeah not
many like a third of the people stayed yeah that were a part of that original
crew yep and uh you know the act
that that we took that actually kind of solidified it for us was
to um eventually sign over the company
also basically the the shares that we had of that shell company [ __ ] and Inc
so we had to yeah I I remember that point it was like we need
to you know with without that mediation taking place we need to with and the
nefarious things that went down were like we need to completely separate ourselves
from this Loco thinking and whatever
else it would be possibly attached to that because if you listen to the last podcast you know our sister in the I
call it like a matrix world that she was living in this reality that no one else was living
in um in that world it was uh uh you
know she was going to you know she said she wanted
to after taking the the intellectual property of the sauce and all the
accounts and all the money and basically stripping the guts out of our um company
[ __ ] and Inc she wanted to maintain an owner of [ __ ] and Inc or whatever she whatever in her mind
she was she still wanted to share in anything we created Point yeah she we stayed yeah she wanted to share in that
so that was um we were like no we're not going to um have anything to do with her
or be connected to her in any way shape or form so that's when we gave I
remember it was like we're giving whatever shares we have whatever would communicate with her
yeah you know if you listen to last podcast said you know the shares were in question and yeah you know she made up
all these things but it was uh we were like all right well whatever we have
we're giving back to the company and then we also you know as a quorum of
that company and the majority of that company we got rid of any we nullified
any ndas we nullified any Nonet non-competes we nullified all of it and
um we did that before we gave away our shares but uh or gave our final Act gave
back our yeah that was our final Act within the company was nullifying any contracts or anything that was sign and
um then we you know gave our shares back to yeah uh the company whatever they
were in their minds just separating ourselves so yeah that that uh that was
that and then moving forward from that point I remember there was this pepper
tree in your front yard and we had two like ader de style chairs under that and we would go under that tree and pray
every morning for direction you know like what the heck
are we going to do yeah and so and you're what's interesting about this point is like you're put in a situation
where because of somebody's you know
uh and this is you know all from my perspective from somebody's
poor uh you know unsound choices now I'm thrown into this
situation that um where it's like well
do I keep doing what I was doing before mhm or do I do something else you
mentioned in the last podcast that uh you know like when our aunt and uncle
decided to take the sauce and start making it you know it's it was always in
our minds to work with people and have a have it be a blessing for yeah we didn't
want to go into we didn't want to compete yeah we didn't want to compete with our own family so now here we are
again and it's like well if I make sauce and continue to do that I'm going in
direct competition with my sister and that's not something that I would
typically go and do you know that's not something that is uh you know that I
would do but then like thinking through it it's like well you know I didn't do this I didn't put myself in direct
competition essentially the poor Choices put them in a position
of competition yeah so we decided to move forward we got over that decided to
move forward and we're like we're just going to continue on doing what we know how to do doing what we're good at we
have contacts we have all this stuff we're going to start a new company and we're going to go bigger and better and
faster than we've ever gone cuz you know another thought you know was some of
that uh some of that unsound thinking was hindering the growth of the company and
so we knew that being free from that unsound thinking and free to move and um
and make it happen that we could go much faster yep and so we started a new
company and at well at this point uh you know [ __ ] and sauce was not a massive
company it was not in every store I mean we were in several regions and we were
we were up to the Bay Area and over to Colorado yeah and you know we were uh we
had done some good work some good foundational work but it was still a
race to be the main nut-based sauce out
there it was still the market was still yet to be captured yeah like wide open
yeah so seeing that opportunity knowing we could move super fast y that is when
we started our new sauce company and we started good loving Foods yep and when
we started that company um you know our mom and dad had walked from [ __ ] and
sauce and you know we didn't we really didn't want to leave anyone who made a
righteous Choice behind so everybody who walked from that company when we started
our new company we gave shares in the new company our mom um was a larger
owner in the new company cuz not everybody was a part of building our new company but our mom was yeah and us and
um it was it was everybody who was part of the profit sharing oh the profit sharing that's right bitching so when we
established this profit sharing program inside [ __ ] and sauce before the Meltdown uh the the program was set that
even if you didn't work for bitching you were going to get your profit you were going to get your profit Shing correct
and it was that means Casey yep that means mom that means dad that means Joel
that means our wives our wives so there was seven people that were a part of the
profit sharing that uh uh you know when the
when the breakup happened were also stolen from yeah they all were taken from also um yeah has anybody seen as
scent of profit sharing no no they haven't no that program was
dissolved when people didn't agree yeah yeah which that's not right yeah
you know th those were people who didn't even have who essentially you know they
weren't even a part of they had nothing to do with that you know there was eight people we forgot about Manny oh yeah
Manny our our our graphic designer graphic designer um yeah they they they
weren't even like our our younger brother completely innocent mhm
completely innocent mhm uh and that's it's just crazy y you know we
all his work our younger brother he used to juice when we first started we used to like we used to pick lemons from
lemon trees I mean we had like the most Artisan of products and he would juice
those lemons and I mean everybody in our family sacrificed so much to get that
company off the ground and to be promised that and to see nothing yeah
from that is uh is horrible yeah but to make it right
we we gave them portions of the new ownership of ownership of the new
company yeah that was within our power to and to do and take care of people so that's what we did um and we brought in
some investors and we raised some money and we were Off to the Races starting a
new product we decided that we were going to find a co-packer
we were going to um extend our shelf life just some of these pain points in
our old brand were like we need to fix these pain points and get past this and really run and we tried to make it
healthier and organic yeah and yeah organic that was a big that was a big
one um so to kind of sum up I I guess
the next year and maybe it was like year and a half of building that brand we um
we launched our dips into Whole Foods um you know right next to our old
brand we had a manufacturer in uh in San
Diego and we were able to
get I don't even know how many different regions of Costco we landed three three
different regions of Costco and very quick within the first year the first year of of products
hitting the shelves yeah we were back to a million dollars a year in revenue and
uh and we were beaten out cuz bitchen had got that Costco deal also and they were doing Demos in San Diego and they
were doing Demos in Roos in Arizona yeah um they were doing some in
Colorado and oh yeah we took over that space yeah and we were we were doing
that same move to a moved to a town and demo demo demo move to a town demo demo
demo and I had actually at that point we to grow fast I had moved out of my house
you had moved out and you moved in with our parents yep and I had bought a
trailer and stuck my two kids and my wife in this trailer and we set out on
the road yeah and uh yeah and we hit Colorado demoing and
Road showing and and beating out our old brand we were really The Cutting we were
cutting the tip of the Spear of this type of product into the marketplace um
you know doing that we went organic we were first organic on the Shelf yeah yeah
um there are some other tweaks that we made to the product yeah um but it was
still an almond based sauce and it was uh much like [ __ ] and sauce um but what
[ __ ] and sauce didn't have was us yeah and uh that's what that's what really
drove that that brand really fast yeah and we went wide in our marketing not
necessarily so deep into the communities like we did with [ __ ] and sauce over the years you like can dig down into the
market or into the lives of your customers where you're you're solid for
you know come rain or shine they're still going to get your product but what we did is we went wide very fast and
tried to get this brand into as many stores as we possibly could
you know as fast as we could and tried to support that so we even um sent I remember sending our parents to
live yeah our parents live different places they lived in La for a time they
lived in Portland for a time um setting up demo teams demoing um it was kind of
all handson deck in a scramble to be the first yep it I mean we were kind of in a
position where we could pull that off everybody was a little uprooted anyway so it was like let's just go and get
this thing done mhm yeah that was wild that was wild
and you know while this is happening you're seeing uh you know [ __ ] and sauce
is still out there they're making changes to the products they're you know
uh making an organic version they're making well yeah they're making an organic version they are
uh extending the shelf life extend their shelf life just just how we did it and I
think I think they they saw if they didn't um you know move to adapt and
adjust quickly to what we were doing they were going to get beaten
and yeah um they changed the face on the lid that was one of the first things
they did yeah so if you remember in if you listen to the other podcast my face
my bitching face was on the label and uh
they quickly changed that to I think it was one of star's uh I think it was
star's oldest son to his face and they they switched that one thing what's
funny that we just realized recently in looking at some of these these pictures
is they switched the face but they didn't switch the shoulders and the
chest the body part of the logo that's still me it is still your body it's
still my body on that label give me back give me back my body what were we
saying well they're they're using your body they're using me for my body yeah
my gosh it's still I mean we didn't really forensically go in there and look at everything but you know it's it's you
it's it's your body with a different face on it so that's funny that that you are still involved in their
marketing to this day um but no they were making changes and kind of
following along the path of what we were doing mhm um just to make a more
Superior product and uh you know that's that's competition that's healthy that
makes that makes better for all customers so welcome to do that and still welcome to this day to make your
product better um one thing that's just so interesting is that my sister our
sister she created her own competition and you don't want you and I as
competition in the Almond based sauce Marketplace actually probably anywhere in any type of product uh and you know
we we didn't want to do this but we're
not going to change well when you have the greatest
sauce salespeople in the world you know sitting next to each
other and you and someone someone can't sideline that someone can't redirect
that we have to continue to sell sauce the people the world needs us to yeah uh
and so yeah so we are our greatest our sister's
greatest competition to this day yeah you know what's interesting in all of like up until this
point in the story we literally have we haven't done anything
different we never made a decision against what my sister wanted M we asked
questions MH and we shined light and truth and got was getting to like the
heart of the matters for understanding to see like what's going on here but to
this day we NE we have never made a choice different no we haven't done
anything different we haven't done anything different and we didn't make any choices that were against what my
sister wanted in the first place mhm we we never did yeah we we didn't we didn't
do anything uh it wouldn't even even it wouldn't have even been wrong but we did
not make a choice we never took a vote we never took a vote we didn't do any of
that we did nothing we talked about doing stuff yeah we well we were trying to understand and
figure it out but we actually never moved forward um we just were searching
for understanding Shining Light and uncovering Things by asking questions
and you know finding the truth and the answers behind them
yeah one thing we did did do differently with our new company is that we um
wanted to protect ourselves a little bit more and not be you know not make the St
same mistakes of that we had just made by picking the
wrong partner and not having uh agreements in place so in an
establishment of our communication is what I like to call it not moving forward without clear communication
about this is what we're doing and these are this is how we work yeah so in our
new company good loving Foods those were priorities we we um we
put together a shareholders agreement we um
issued you know stock certificates y we uh we issue you know we did non-compete
with our uh co-packer um you know non-disclosure with our co-packer y uh everything was
legally protected yeah and even between us even you know and um we had invited
uh our mom in which she was actually kind of shocked that we would do this but we brought Mom in as a one-third
owner of the new company yep um part of the reason behind that is because in the
[ __ ] and sauce world we had uh a wing of products [ __ ] and bars which we were
selling at farmers markets we actually got into Whole Foods yeah our mom came up with those the bars like her her
recipe and her her little project within [ __ ] and sauce was the bars yeah and it
was getting and it was growing too yeah we got our Whole Foods out in Colorado and yeah it was going into uh you know
like food food service and it was going into like smoothie place
like like uh cafes and things like that people were using those those bars and
so you know it was growing also MH and you know when when [ __ ] and sauce was
taken out of [ __ ] and Inc the only things left there was the bars cuz star
didn't want anything to do with the bars yeah oh she did she wanted ownership in them oh yeah that's right but she didn't
you know she didn't care about uh you know taking those on herself so um when we
did you know sign over our shares back to um [ __ ] and ink one of the things we
did do is take the inventory of bars out
that was actually the last time I uh saw star was when we were in the back of
bitchin the bitchin facility and and we were like well you know we're going to
if these bars are are made for Mom and we're going to take those out of the
facility and we loaded those into the into a truck yeah um but anyway uh so Mom has a third
ownership in this new company MH um
to basically just make it right you know yeah and at the time you know it it was
hard to work with mom cuz she's from another generation and you know we uh we
were it was you and I are very just go go go you know almost like ask for ask
for permission you know later or forgiveness like ask for forgiveness later like move quickly um you know I
don't think Mom had a good feeling about going into competition with star in the
first place I don't think she wanted to and uh but I don't she didn't really have another Choice um she could have I
mean she had she had all the choices in the world to do whatever she wanted but you know that was just something that we
offered and I know that she didn't want to go into competition with and this is
probably her own personal yeah journey of whatever is going through her mind her only daughter you know doing these
things and you we actually have a great letter from our mom that she wrote to uh
to St that will'll show also when it was when it was all going down when it was all
going down and we'll talk about that one probably in a later podcast but it was a it was a fantastic letter that she wrote
um but yeah it you know in the same way that I'm going that I'm in my own mind
thinking am I going to go into competition with my family like this is just unprecedented you know yeah so she
was probably having those same thoughts but you know I feel like I arrived at a
conclusion a lot sooner yeah so she was a third owner we were moving quickly we
actually uh added chips to our um we did lineup we we started uh coconut oil
coconut oil cooked tortilla chip tortilla chip organic at the time wasn't nothing on the Shelf at that time there
was nothing in the marketplace like that and um you know we got those into Whole Foods and Y uh
you know things were moving and a shaking going really fast M um I was
in I was in San Francisco doing Road shows at Costco uh with my family our
trailer was parked out in uhma which is out by in Marin County out
in the country um and I would drive into San Francisco or the Bay Area and do
Road shows and I was 3 months into a road show that was happening
there and um we a little bit of a backstory we
were working with someone who made hummus the the co-packer yep he was he was a hummus maker and he was a hummus
maker for Costco yeah um and and they could
make almond Bay sauce also and they realized they made it okay
I mean as soon as soon as we started making it ourselves again you know we we
realized that that's what what we need to do is we need to make this ourselves but yeah you know they were making our
product and sending it out and um you know it wasn't perfect it had uh it had
some separation issues and it had we were working through some of that stuff had to do with the Machinery that we're using but um you know they were well
known with Costco yep for their hummus and um one of the things
that uh is interesting is that Costco had talked to them about doing a version of [ __ ] and sauce yep
they yeah Costco had approached them to say that they wanted him to copy
bitching sauce mhm and I remember talking to uh talking to the co- Packer
that we were using he he was like Hey Costco approached me and said they want me to make bitching sauce mhm and
um which I I appreciated I appreciated you know him letting us know that and at
that point you know it was uh you know we had all our contracts in place but
we're like well I mean if if they want you to make bitching sauce
like it's fine if you make bitching sauce like I I didn't care at that point if he made bitching sauce um because our
sauce was a lot there were some big elements of our sauce that were way
different than bitching sauce that uh you know we were going I mean our
product you know was just a higher quality better ingredient product so I
wasn't know there wasn't much threat there yeah um to what we were doing yeah
and so and so we were I mean we had known about that um he was
keeping us in the loop of Costco buyers that he was meeting with for homicide of things yeah you know and you know in the
back pocket was our version of uh of a
dip also so if anyone had any interest you know he already makes us our stuff
he is yeah he would sell our stuff he would sell our stuff and so there was a lot ofit him also yeah there was a a lot
of um conversation about you know where our C- Packer was opening up his
products and you know trying to sell our products also in there or at least bringing our products to these meetings
yeah um and uh and I and I appreciate
Costco you know wanting to do their own version of something that is lightning
in a bottle you know um and you the you know Kirkland Signature is they they
find very successful products and they do it their way and um you know that's
normal that's normal thing out there so I I understand Costco doing that what I
don't understand is when our
co-packer um was asked to do that why he
decided to make our recipe and sell it to Costco yeah and what ended that's
that's what ended up happening is go ahead I was in San Francisco doing a
road show at the end of a three-month Road Show proving this concept yep um
killing myself to to get as many people as possible to eat an almond Bas dip
that they've never had before yeah so I mean just to kind of explain the process with CCO um a lot of times with I mean
this doesn't happen every time but a lot of times with new products um to prove the concept prove the
numbers um you go into Road shows which most people know what a road show is any
of the sampling that's happening where a company will come in Sample their product um it's uh you can do Road shows
and not have your product actually slotted on the Shelf in Costco so it's
like a trial it's like a trial um testing it out seeing how people receive it and so that's the opportunity that we
had was to prove the concept and that's what you were there doing our product was not permanently on the Shelf we were
just out there proving the concept at all these different warehouses doing great numbers and you know getting it
done yeah and Roos are you know five straight days of 10hour 10 hour plus
days plus the commute and I'm coming in you know I have a uh 2hour commute in
some cases yeah um so they're very very very very long day and you're standing
the entire time talking the enti time can't leave your post you know something that we were trained in doing with
farmers markets and our road shows were record-breaking Road shows we we can do
more sales in a road show than I would say with a like product than anyone yeah
um and so you know at the end of a of a long uh time time doing this in the Bay
Area I showed up at a Costco and right next to our product was our co-packers
product and it was called almond dip well it wasn't called almond dip to begin
with it wasn't and I'll tell you why and it was Chipotle the it wasn't it no no I
it's this is even better this is even better it wasn't called almond
dip that was not their initial version of it it showed up on the Shelf next to
our product and it was called awesome sauce really yes the first iteration of
what they did was called awesome sauce and I'll tell you how I know this oh uh well I'll tell you did you see as we as
we go in as we move into the next phase of this but it was called awesome sauce
and one of the things that uh separated us from [ __ ] and sauce was
we used nuts and seeds we weren't just we weren't wasn't just Alm it wasn't just almonds we had seeds in ours um to
like pepitas pepitas to beef it up a bit and their nutritional value theirs was
not bit and sauce theirs was nuts and seeds yeah
and that was a problem yes well I saw it the what I saw in the in Costco next to
my product was called almond dip that was the that was the label that was on
it and it had nuts and seeds are you sure yeah and
it I think I I trying to remember but I think I just walked out of Costco I got
my stuff and walked out that day um
I yeah I don't think I continued through it and I made some phone calls and we
got you know the crew on online on the phone and saying
hey something's a foot here yeah it was you know cheap it was uh cheaper than
our product was so they had undercut Us in price yeah they had um done a deal
with Costco where it was placed in every single location yeah an inline product like slotted it was in and they were
skipping the road show mhm and I felt like I was used yeah I felt like I was a
total loser uh you know to go through all that
work and um have this happen again y to
me Y and so well to us um and pretty much at this
point this is like in terms of how our business was structured you know we had
we had contracts in place um with all the legalities but you know this is the
point where you learn like you can even have contracts in place but it doesn't stop people from making the wrong choice
and um you know this was probably the riskiest area of our company where if
you just uh go through it if something was to go down with the C- Packer your
company if you don't have something as a backup in place you know you are uh kind of hung out there to dry
unless you can figure something out yeah and at this point I had I had landed a
deal with uh Costco on a um on a very
large level that was um it was a done deal and it was a few months away and it
was an it was a slotted deal and um you know at this time that they
launched their own product the co-packer also said they're no longer going to be co-packing any more products and uh you
know that was that was a very like they're flushing us yeah yeah that was a very um
you know scrambling time to try to set up another co-packer and all of that and
we did we found another one and um um priced it out and and did everything we
could and we were just priced out of the deal that I had already made and Costco
wouldn't renegotiate the deal and um at that point that's when you know
essentially you know we lost all of our business
yeah well Costco was a major anchor in our in our company it had grown so fast
with we also had Whole Foods and some other things rolling yeah and our chips and our you know we had multiple product
lines out there and um you know but that hit of having to
scramble to find a new co-packer uh you know was enough time
that you know all accounts were hung out to dry yeah and and deal were no longer
um you know they were no longer profitable Y and even if they were a
little bit profitable that little bit of profit was was wiped away yep um
so good loving dip and good loving
chips die yep and uh we stopped doing them yep and we you know we talked to um
we talked to an attorney during this time and he's like listen you can go and spank this guy if you want like it's
everybody loses yeah he's like the lawyers will win everybody's going to lose um otherwise and you know in in
that moment it was you know we're faced with you know I mean essentially we're
faced with well the future is brighter than trying to spank
somebody yeah and especially when you know I I mean we don't have a ton of
experience in all the the suing of
people and all those things we don't do that we hav done that but um but we didn't do that then either no
we didn't do that then I mean we just the the lawyer was like yeah it's it's it's not it's not going to be
worth it yeah so at that point we um that was in light in in the realm of
like everything that we were doing and like everything we've been through that
was like a low of lows where I felt pretty low yeah didn't we
like I was in a trailer and I was like well I don't have a home so I'm going to
drive this trailer to Boise idah and park it in my in-law's house and live in their basement and uh you know
survive yeah and you guys were in sural mode yeah we were in survival mode um
yeah I just started selling things I started selling my possessions that I did have selling my truck selling things
just to survive and uh figure out like
what the heck are we going to do and you
know we we just there it was just a very it was it was like that was a rough time
that was a rough time of of like going I
can't believe I'm in this situation yeah and um I remember when we were like
searching we were wanting just any type of information uh to move forward and we
were like okay we need coaching and so we I flew down from
Idaho here to San Diego and we went to a uh like a coaching seminar and we've
spent some money to get a get some one-on-one coaching to get some one-on-one business
coaching and when we're it was you me and Mom and Dad yep and we were going
into this like how do we save this company if this company is to be saved
yeah um you know we did have some the Bars were still actually in our
possession we still had yeah we we had some bar manufacturing equipment yeah
and that was all we had that all we had that was all we had and our idea was we
could Take These Bars and just do exactly what we did with sauce yeah that
was I mean that was the idea and we're like you know we have to make them ourselves we're like yeah well you're
thinking through it and you go if I make it myself I'm not going to get
screwed you know and so um you know at
that well in that coaching thing the guy the coach was like he was like so what
sauce are we making next isn't that what he said well that that was funny it's
kind of the punchline to this whole coaching session cuz we went in we're like all right we're going to do
whatever this coach says we should do we're going to put all of our stuff aside we're going
to um you know we're going to explain that we're moving and we're going to do
these bars and these bars are going to make it but we just need really good coaching on how
to move on from this point yeah and but we're going to do whatever he
says I sitting down and like the first thing out of his mouth so what sauce are
we making next and you're like I remember look at everybody like oh my
gosh this is the perfect this is the perfect thing to ever happen yeah cuz
everyone was like oh we're not going to make sauce we're not going to do it yeah we're were in the bars and he was like
oh okay yeah and you know we basically told him what we were going to do and
that coaching session was yeah uh was a waste
yeah yeah I think at that point you know it was like I'm done with s Wars you
know felt felt defeated oh yeah you know it was just a low it was at that was the
point when you know my wife and I started going to church and I started
getting like picked back up yeah and was like okay I I it was like it was really
good having people around me to pick me back up and snap me out of yeah a low
place I'm living with my parents I have a new baby mhm uh I think did I have a
new baby at that time no maybe I still had only one I think Jesse was pregnant
yeah Jesse was pregnant um just nuts and you
know we're living at our parents house Jess's like we have to get out of
here we have to move out yeah and so
what we decided to do do you have something else to say I have something else I got to fit in yeah
fit it in there I remember the Bars
were um you know they were our new course and we were going
to set another layer of protection so that no one could actually take our
recipe yep again yep and so we decided we were going to um make our own bars we
had a machine and that we um I don't know
where we got that machine maybe it was it was given or no no we had already we had already planned on doing and so we
had we had picked up a few pieces of equipment yeah yeah that's right so we
we already had that so this this was a part of what we were doing we were sitting on a bar machine yeah um we're
like okay we're GNA take this it's funny like have you ever heard
the thing where you give someone a goat and instead of
like instead of like doing all the stuff for for them like a a a villager in
Africa just give them a goat and they can take that goat and they can they can
begin again they can sell the milk and then they can like breed it or whatever and it can like spark a whole a whole
like you know business for them so this this bar machine was our goat yeah and
uh it was it was where we decided we were going to go but
in I remember going through this phase too where there was like a spark of of
information that showed up in my brain MH and I was like wait a second the
sauce what if we did this with sauce yeah I do what
if you know cuz uh stores have totally let me down and um but I still have the
recipe of the greatest sauce that man has known so what if we did a thing
called the blender batch yeah and a blender batch would be
like a we would ship people the deconstructed ingredients to the sauce
to the sauce yep and then they could make fresh batches at home yeah and this
was this was kind of a pain point that we experienced with [ __ ] and sauce and
with our new with our dip good love and dip was like e-commerce was like off the
table you have to ship everything refrigerated and so you know there's
essentially it's just a pain in the butt there's no e-commerce solution to get around this crazy expensive shipping ice
packs insulation all that and so this blender batch was like this could be the
solution to our e-commerce
yeah you can ship uh lemon but you can't ship lemon juice you have to refrigerate
it yeah you can ship uh almonds and you can ship oil so we this is a fleeting
thing but it was actually really valuable it was fleeting cuz it didn't work it didn't I mean we put together
this product con it worked but and we we made it like a beautiful you know box of
ingredients that someone could buy and we had all the design done and the the directions on how to make sauce at home
and all you needed is a blender and some water cuz you have water we're not going to ship you that
yeah and you know that quickly quickly we learned that that was uh it was not
the right time for that no no it wasn't but that was it's just an interesting
thought an interesting thought that uh that actually kind of plays into the
rest of our story a little bit later one of the elements of that was it's like how do we regain control of our company
you know even getting into stores you're subject to buyer decisions one buyer for
you know a bunch of stores and you know what they say essentially goes and you
know we're like how do we have control where we can you know we're so good at farmers markets how do we translate that
digitally and sell product digitally and we just we didn't have the solution for
that um but going direct to the customer was we knew that that was the best
experience um that we could possibly give totally yeah um so that's funny um
go ahead well I think we need to because this is another chapter what we're going
into is a chapter of our uh our bar
company after yeah the first chapter I have I have one thing to add one thing to kind of round
off this chapter sure so moving into the bar company world and we have this
Machinery we have um you know we have recipes and we have I think we even had
packaging and we we kind of had the guts of a bar business to launch and and pull
off um I think we had leftover uh from you know our our good L
and Foods company left over I we only had a line of credit it was like $80,000
line of credit uh something like that and that's what we were sitting on and
that was the seed to launching our own
manufacturing uh facility yeah and starting this new bar Venture so that's
that's where this then leads to yes and uh yes this next chapter will
be equally crazy yeah it do crazy hasn't
stopped yet in fact this next chapter might be some of my favorite stuff yeah to share so did
I'm wondering I'm wondering if I was if I thought I was going to quit at this point oh yeah I had to talk you I had to
talk you back did I I'm wondering I'm wondering if it was this point that I was thinking
of quitting here let's start next chapter with you quitting are trying to
okay I think I think I tried to we're going to start the next podcast with this uh so more to come all right