In this episode of ‘Celebrating Small Family Businesses,’ hosts John and Connie Kuder interview Derrick and Bill Jerome, the father-son duo behind Honey Badger’s Bee Farm.
Initially motivated by Derrick’s quest to alleviate his allergies with local honey, the business began with just two hives in the city and has grown to over 200 hives. They discuss the evolution of their products, from raw honey to innovative smoked and flavored honeys, and their recent ventures into honey-infused teas and a unique, patent-pending tea emulsification process.
The Jeromes also share their challenges, including a forced rebranding from ‘Hobbit Honey’ to ‘Honey Badgers’ due to copyright issues.
The episode touches on their success in expanding their product line, securing national retail opportunities with Walmart, and the importance of family involvement and trust in their business’s growth.
They explore how the business adapted to commercial demands, patented their unique products, and the significance of community and environmental contributions, such as bee rescue operations and supporting local agriculture.
00:00 Welcome to Celebrating Small Family Businesses
00:47 Meet Honey Badger’s Bee Farm: The Origin Story
02:41 From Backyard Hives to Innovative Honey Products
05:32 The Evolution of Honey Badger’s Bee Farm
08:32 Innovating Tea with Honey: A Delicious Accident
15:24 Expanding the Brand: From Tea to Testing New Ideas
21:18 Family Dynamics and Business Challenges
24:41 Navigating Business Roles and Dynamics
26:29 Embracing Strengths and Overcoming Challenges
26:56 Innovating with Patents and Expanding Product Lines
31:18 Scaling Up: Infrastructure and Future Plans
34:31 Navigating Costs and Sourcing Challenges
41:30 Community Engagement and Educational Initiatives
46:40 Celebrating Small Family Business Success
John and Connie: Hi and welcome
Speaker:to another episode of Celebrating
Speaker:Small Family businesses.
Speaker:We're John and Connie Kuder..
Speaker:And today we have with us Bill
Speaker:and Derrick, sorry, Derrick
Speaker:in foreground, Bill Jerome.
Speaker:And they are Honey Badger's Bee Farm.
Speaker:They have a fascinating
Speaker:story and a fascinating line
Speaker:products I've never before.
Speaker:So we are excited to be here.
Speaker:Hi Derrick.
Speaker:Hi Bill.
Speaker:Derrick and Bill: Definitely.
Speaker:John and Connie: Welcome to the party.
Speaker:Derrick and Bill: Hi, I'm Derek.
Speaker:I'm Derek Jerome.
Speaker:And this is my father
Speaker:right here next to me.
Speaker:Uh, it is a family business.
Speaker:, My brother couldn't make it today.
Speaker:He's, he's under the weather.
Speaker:He's the third badger.
Speaker:John and Connie: That's a third badger.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Love the name of, of your business.
Speaker:That is fabulous.
Speaker:So how did your business get started?
Speaker:What, uh, what got you into
Speaker:Derrick and Bill: this?
Speaker:Well, basically I, my, well, my dad
Speaker:thought I was crazy, but I have real bad
Speaker:allergies in the, uh, the spring and fall.
Speaker:And I would track down the local
Speaker:redneck at the flea market that
Speaker:had three teeth and suspenders.
Speaker:and look for the authentic honey
Speaker:with the guy and I would find him
Speaker:and I would go and get the comb
Speaker:honey that was in the big mason jar.
Speaker:And I was like, I know this guy went out
Speaker:in his backyard or up a tree to get this.
Speaker:And I would use the honey and I would
Speaker:eat the honeycomb and in the spring
Speaker:and the fall, my allergies would stop.
Speaker:And I was like, this is fantastic.
Speaker:This works great.
Speaker:Um, because I would get to the point I'd
Speaker:have to take so many pills or I would
Speaker:take Benadryl and start chewing them
Speaker:up like Flintstone vitamins and become
Speaker:narcoleptic as I was trying to walk.
Speaker:So I was like, I got to get honey.
Speaker:So I started taking it and I went
Speaker:to go find the guy and he was gone.
Speaker:I was like, man, how am
Speaker:I going to get honey?
Speaker:So I went to the local Trader Joe's.
Speaker:I went to all the health food stores.
Speaker:I was like, I want real honey.
Speaker:And as I read on the, on the
Speaker:different jars, I found out, well,
Speaker:this is from Argentina, this is from
Speaker:Pakistan, or this is from another
Speaker:state or God knows what it is.
Speaker:And I would try to take some of
Speaker:it and it wouldn't work for me.
Speaker:So I came up with the idea and I come
Speaker:home one day and I told my wife, I
Speaker:said, I, you know, I've been YouTubing
Speaker:and I've been studying getting bees.
Speaker:I want to get bees.
Speaker:And she told me I was crazy
Speaker:that we lived in the city and
Speaker:I was not going to get bees.
Speaker:And I said, you know what?
Speaker:I'm going to go to the local
Speaker:meetings with the bee club, meet
Speaker:with some other people that do bees.
Speaker:And I said, I'm going to learn about it.
Speaker:And I'm going to get bees.
Speaker:I'm bringing them home.
Speaker:No, no, no.
Speaker:You're crazy.
Speaker:Well, I went and got two hives.
Speaker:I brought them home.
Speaker:And put them right in the backyard.
Speaker:And this is, at this time we lived in
Speaker:the city, so you walked out our back
Speaker:door and there was two full size hives
Speaker:sitting right outside our back door.
Speaker:And that pretty much started everything.
Speaker:Uh, we're over 200 hives now
Speaker:that we currently manage.
Speaker:Uh, but those first two hives that I got
Speaker:started it in the city, in the backyard.
Speaker:So that, that basically, and that was my
Speaker:medicine was to go out there and get that.
Speaker:And I was like, this is fun.
Speaker:I got a bunch of extra honey.
Speaker:What am I going to do with it?
Speaker:I'm like, I'll sell to the guys at work.
Speaker:This is pretty cool.
Speaker:And we started bottling it
Speaker:and I started selling it.
Speaker:I started rescuing bees.
Speaker:, My brother and I started, uh, he
Speaker:has a pest control company and
Speaker:we started going out and taking
Speaker:them out of fascias, soffits, out
Speaker:of houses, water meters, and that
Speaker:continued to bring more and more bees.
Speaker:So every time we had a rescue,
Speaker:then we got another hive.
Speaker:And as we were doing this
Speaker:and started selling honey, My
Speaker:dad, he goes, that looks fun.
Speaker:Let me, join you guys.
Speaker:Do we want to start a little business?
Speaker:I'm like, okay.
Speaker:So pop jumped in and, uh, he
Speaker:has a huge culinary background.
Speaker:Dad and I used to have
Speaker:a restaurant years ago.
Speaker:Uh, we, we shut down , back in 2010, but
Speaker:we had a barbecue restaurant for 10 years
Speaker:and, , we started playing around with the
Speaker:honey, going to flea markets, selling it.
Speaker:And, uh, we were like, well, raw
Speaker:honey's all right, but it just
Speaker:doesn't have a, a big appeal.
Speaker:I'll see you once a year, every
Speaker:six months, and it was like,
Speaker:we got to do something else.
Speaker:So we came up with five pepper smoked
Speaker:honey and we tried it at a flea market
Speaker:and people went, Oh my God, this, we've
Speaker:never seen anything like this before.
Speaker:And that was pretty
Speaker:much our eureka moment.
Speaker:And we went, I think
Speaker:we're onto something, Dad.
Speaker:I said, uh, let's figure
Speaker:out what else we can do.
Speaker:And the next one he came
Speaker:up with was smoked garlic.
Speaker:And we took that out there.
Speaker:People absolutely loved it.
Speaker:They fell in love with it.
Speaker:They went, Smoked honey,
Speaker:garlic, this is awesome.
Speaker:I said, yeah, it's all
Speaker:local farms around here.
Speaker:When we live in Brooksville, I said, we
Speaker:just get to get the ingredients and smoke
Speaker:it up and throw it right in the honey.
Speaker:Oh, this is neat.
Speaker:And I'm like, okay, I think
Speaker:we're onto something dad.
Speaker:So we just kind of puttered around
Speaker:doing different small trade events.
Speaker:, and under that, um, guys as a
Speaker:beekeeper, you're in the cottage law.
Speaker:So you can basically sell honey.
Speaker:You can kind of manipulate it
Speaker:a little bit and work with it.
Speaker:And as we continue to progress and grow,
Speaker:we got to the point that, uh, we made too
Speaker:much money to have it as a hobby or as
Speaker:cottage law, and we had to go commercial.
Speaker:So we actually went with the USDA and
Speaker:Department of Ag and became bottling
Speaker:manufacturers and got certified.
Speaker:And then we continued to take the,
Speaker:uh, the brand and line and go with it.
Speaker:So it's, it's been a crazy ride
Speaker:and It seems like every couple of
Speaker:months, something else pops out.
Speaker:We get going even more.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And originally we were known as
Speaker:Hobbit Honey, but because when we
Speaker:become a little bit popular and people
Speaker:started seeing us on Facebook and
Speaker:everything else, the people from, uh,
Speaker:um, what's the name of their company?
Speaker:Middle Earth Industries.
Speaker:They contacted us and said,
Speaker:we own the word Hobbit.
Speaker:Take it down or we'll
Speaker:fine you $15, 000 a day.
Speaker:So we took it down and we
Speaker:came up with Honey Badgers.
Speaker:And it's basically
Speaker:Honey Badgers don't give
Track 1 00:06:05
a
Track 1 00:06:05
Derrick and Bill: care.
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John and Connie: I remember
Track 1 00:06:07
that little YouTube video that
Track 1 00:06:09
was going around like a meme.
Track 1 00:06:10
Honey Badger's bada**
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That
Track 1 00:06:14
was so funny.
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Oh my goodness.
Track 1 00:06:17
Derrick and Bill: It's a
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bit of a nickname for me.
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I'm small and furry and ferocious.
Track 1 00:06:22
So a lot of the boys at
Track 1 00:06:23
work, that's what they said.
Track 1 00:06:25
And when I was changing my name.
Track 1 00:06:28
Yeah, it's a bit of a nickname.
Track 1 00:06:30
go, well, you're like
Track 1 00:06:31
a little Honey Badger.
Track 1 00:06:32
Yeah.
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Yeah, you're, you're mean and mean
Track 1 00:06:34
like a little honey badger you
Track 1 00:06:35
want to scratch and bite, and I'm
Track 1 00:06:36
like, oh, well, that worked for me.
Track 1 00:06:39
John and Connie: I love it.
Track 1 00:06:40
I love it.
Track 1 00:06:40
Better name anyway.
Track 1 00:06:43
I'm really curious about
Track 1 00:06:45
the, the smoking idea.
Track 1 00:06:47
I mean, did that come from the
Track 1 00:06:48
barbecue restaurant or what?
Track 1 00:06:50
I mean, what, where did
Track 1 00:06:51
that idea come from?
Track 1 00:06:52
I've never heard of smoking, you
Track 1 00:06:55
know, mixing smoke and honey.
Track 1 00:06:58
Derrick and Bill: It was, uh, it
Track 1 00:06:59
was one of those kind of ideas.
Track 1 00:07:00
I've made a pepper sauce from scratch
Track 1 00:07:02
that I actually made for the restaurant.
Track 1 00:07:04
And it was wildly popular.
Track 1 00:07:06
We also made hot sauce that we
Track 1 00:07:07
sold over the counter and I put,
Track 1 00:07:10
I like to smoke meat, obviously
Track 1 00:07:12
doing a barbecue, but I put those
Track 1 00:07:14
together and I went, you know what?
Track 1 00:07:15
I bet if I smoke, smoke the peppers.
Track 1 00:07:18
and then infuse them into the
Track 1 00:07:19
honey, then I'm going to come
Track 1 00:07:21
up with a better product.
Track 1 00:07:22
And we tested it and we went, Oh my God.
Track 1 00:07:25
Oh, okay.
Track 1 00:07:27
This is good.
Track 1 00:07:28
And that's pretty much the Eureka is that
Track 1 00:07:30
we've, we've been working, making sauce
Track 1 00:07:32
like barbecue sauce for years, but we
Track 1 00:07:34
never thought when we had the restaurant
Track 1 00:07:36
to really use natural ingredients instead
Track 1 00:07:39
of using, you know, um, the fake honeys
Track 1 00:07:43
and stuff that you get in high fructose
Track 1 00:07:45
corn syrup to make barbecue sauce.
Track 1 00:07:47
At the restaurant, we would, we went,
Track 1 00:07:49
Oh, wow, now we have a natural product.
Track 1 00:07:52
Let's infuse it.
Track 1 00:07:52
And then now when we give it to somebody,
Track 1 00:07:55
and we say, okay, we're selling you this.
Track 1 00:07:57
Not only is it good forever, but
Track 1 00:07:59
everything in it you can pronounce.
Track 1 00:08:01
You don't need YouTube or Google
Track 1 00:08:03
search to figure out what's in it.
Track 1 00:08:05
And it lasts forever.
Track 1 00:08:07
It's one of those miracle things.
Track 1 00:08:09
And we said that, you know, we get
Track 1 00:08:10
a lot of people, you see, um, some
Track 1 00:08:11
of the other companies out there,
Track 1 00:08:13
and they make it all pure where it
Track 1 00:08:15
looks absolutely purty in there.
Track 1 00:08:17
Well, we leave the peppers
Track 1 00:08:18
and everything in there.
Track 1 00:08:19
We want you to get all the good stuff.
Track 1 00:08:21
Because that's obviously where
Track 1 00:08:22
all the vitamin C, that's where
Track 1 00:08:24
all the other good parts of the
Track 1 00:08:25
pepper is actually in the flesh.
Track 1 00:08:27
So we leave the pepper seeds
Track 1 00:08:28
and the flesh all in there.
Track 1 00:08:29
So you're getting, you're getting
Track 1 00:08:31
actually everything with it.
Track 1 00:08:32
And, uh, we've taken that, that
Track 1 00:08:34
kind of, uh, leave everything in the
Track 1 00:08:36
bottle and leave it all natural from
Track 1 00:08:39
the garlic and the smoke all the way
Track 1 00:08:41
to now what we're producing is tea.
Track 1 00:08:43
And we didn't even think that
Track 1 00:08:44
was going to be that popular.
Track 1 00:08:45
And that was more of an
Track 1 00:08:46
accident than, uh, anything.
Track 1 00:08:48
Yeah.
Track 1 00:08:50
But, but that was, that
Track 1 00:08:52
was a nice accident.
Track 1 00:08:52
john-and-connie_1_03-29-2024_091031: You
Track 1 00:08:53
went to the World Tea Expo and came in,
Track 1 00:08:55
uh, like second in the world or something?
Track 1 00:08:58
Derrick and Bill: Yeah, we
Track 1 00:08:58
took, uh, that was last March.
Track 1 00:09:00
Um, all three of us flew out to Vegas.
Track 1 00:09:03
We were invited, , as a, um, to come out
Track 1 00:09:06
and, , show our wares and have a small
Track 1 00:09:09
area and a brand new undiscovered section.
Track 1 00:09:12
So we got invited to that, but part
Track 1 00:09:14
of that every year they do a Def
Track 1 00:09:16
Chante, which is one of the founders
Track 1 00:09:18
tea that brought it to America.
Track 1 00:09:20
Um, they do tea tycoons and
Track 1 00:09:23
it's everybody in the world can
Track 1 00:09:25
enter this contest every year.
Track 1 00:09:27
And I put us in and I said,
Track 1 00:09:29
okay, we'll, we'll put in for
Track 1 00:09:30
what we do with the tea and.
Track 1 00:09:32
We were coming up with a new invention.
Track 1 00:09:33
This is our badger spoon that holds
Track 1 00:09:36
the exact amount of tea for our honey
Track 1 00:09:38
tea and makes it single serving.
Track 1 00:09:40
And we're like, we'll put
Track 1 00:09:40
it in and see what happens.
Track 1 00:09:42
And I kept getting calls every
Track 1 00:09:44
few months that like, okay,
Track 1 00:09:45
you're in the last 10, 000.
Track 1 00:09:47
I'm like, yeah, okay.
Track 1 00:09:48
That's great.
Track 1 00:09:49
I'm like, we're, we're coming
Track 1 00:09:50
to display our stuff in Vegas.
Track 1 00:09:52
We're going to come anyway.
Track 1 00:09:54
I said, you know, you give me false
Track 1 00:09:55
hope with winning the Tea Tycoons.
Track 1 00:09:57
I said, it's fine.
Track 1 00:09:58
And as we progressively got
Track 1 00:10:00
closer, she called me up a
Track 1 00:10:01
couple weeks before we flew out.
Track 1 00:10:03
She says, you're in the finals.
Track 1 00:10:05
And I went, what?
Track 1 00:10:06
She says, yeah, it's you and, uh,
Track 1 00:10:08
there's going to be six of you on stage.
Track 1 00:10:10
And I go, Okay.
Track 1 00:10:13
I said, that sounds great.
Track 1 00:10:15
She says, well, you guys are going
Track 1 00:10:16
to battle it on the stage and you're
Track 1 00:10:18
going to talk about your business.
Track 1 00:10:19
He says, do you have any problems talking?
Track 1 00:10:21
I go, no, you'll probably have to tell
Track 1 00:10:22
me to shut up or throw something at me.
Track 1 00:10:24
I said, but I have no problems talking.
Track 1 00:10:26
I said, I'll be more than happy to talk
Track 1 00:10:28
about what we did and how we developed it.
Track 1 00:10:30
So we ended up going up head to head
Track 1 00:10:32
with Australia that made a tea based wine
Track 1 00:10:35
without alcohol for like Zima for tea.
Track 1 00:10:38
I don't, I don't know.
Track 1 00:10:40
And, um, they took first and
Track 1 00:10:42
we took second in the world.
Track 1 00:10:43
So we were in a few of the bigger
Track 1 00:10:45
publications, Tea Time magazine,
Track 1 00:10:48
some of the ones with, uh, dad
Track 1 00:10:50
and I don't really understand.
Track 1 00:10:51
It's got the little doilies and,
Track 1 00:10:53
uh, little crumpet cakes and
Track 1 00:10:55
the old ladies with the hat.
Track 1 00:10:57
It was like, we were in some of
Track 1 00:10:58
those and they asked us, you know.
Track 1 00:10:59
Hey, you're, we have all that.
Track 1 00:11:01
Yeah, we're a farm.
Track 1 00:11:02
I said, we're honey badgers.
Track 1 00:11:03
We're not, I don't know what
Track 1 00:11:04
the doily and little cakes are
Track 1 00:11:06
for, but our tea is really good.
Track 1 00:11:08
John and Connie: That's,
Track 1 00:11:09
that's fascinating.
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Yeah.
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You talk, yeah, you talk about the doilies
Track 1 00:11:12
and all that, like thinking about the
Track 1 00:11:13
English high tea and there's such a kind
Track 1 00:11:15
of a ritual around that and the English
Track 1 00:11:18
are very particular about their tea.
Track 1 00:11:20
I'd be very curious to see how your tea
Track 1 00:11:22
honey mixture is received by the Brits.
Track 1 00:11:25
That's fun.
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Wow.
Track 1 00:11:27
What a great story.
Track 1 00:11:30
So tell us about working together.
Track 1 00:11:32
What, what is it that,
Track 1 00:11:34
that makes it so much fun?
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Because obviously you guys
Track 1 00:11:38
are successful with it.
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Derrick and Bill: Partly
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is I'm a retired chef.
Track 1 00:11:44
So it, and Derek and Andy both
Track 1 00:11:47
have culinary backgrounds, so
Track 1 00:11:49
it's kind of like you throw out
Track 1 00:11:51
an idea and it bounces around.
Track 1 00:11:54
You've got three different
Track 1 00:11:56
opinions and sometimes we all
Track 1 00:11:59
settle on the same opinion.
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Sometimes we don't, but.
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Then we try something, we
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just see where it goes.
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And it depends on the taste buds.
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Uh, my brother's taste buds are
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kind of like, we call him the Helen
Track 1 00:12:13
Keller of taste buds sometimes,
Track 1 00:12:15
but he also provides that valuable
Track 1 00:12:17
feedback, but we, we razz him up.
Track 1 00:12:20
We go like, what does this taste like?
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And he's like, uh, and we're like,
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no, no, no, no, no, that's not it.
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So, but we, uh, we, we have
Track 1 00:12:31
this great relationship.
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We're coming up with ideas and, uh,
Track 1 00:12:35
we've just grand slandered them.
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And some of them come from little
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things that the whole idea with the
Track 1 00:12:39
tea, I think is, uh, we, we both get
Track 1 00:12:42
aggravated, uh, to a certain extent,
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sometimes at the shows doing trade shows
Track 1 00:12:46
that people ask us for a half hour, what
Track 1 00:12:49
kind of tea or what kind of honey to
Track 1 00:12:51
put in their tea and how much they love
Track 1 00:12:53
this kind of tea and that kind of tea.
Track 1 00:12:55
And we'll take it to the point
Track 1 00:12:56
where we know what your palate is.
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And we know what honey
Track 1 00:12:58
will kind of work with it.
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And then they just go, uh, I'm
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just going to take this weird honey
Track 1 00:13:03
here and throw it all in the tea.
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And we're like, what?
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I'm like, oh, okay.
Track 1 00:13:10
And when I come back to you
Track 1 00:13:12
one day, I said, you know what?
Track 1 00:13:14
We were watching Karate Kid,
Track 1 00:13:16
I think is how it started.
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I was watching Karate Kid with
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one of my, my daughters and
Track 1 00:13:20
I'm watching the tea ceremony.
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And if you're watching him do the,
Track 1 00:13:23
uh, little hook and there, and I put
Track 1 00:13:25
it in and I seen that and I went.
Track 1 00:13:30
That's green tea, and it's a powder.
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He's putting it in water.
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I'm like That's an idea.
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So I actually got green real
Track 1 00:13:41
green tea and Matcha, and I said
Track 1 00:13:45
well if you could do a water Why
Track 1 00:13:46
couldn't you infuse it in the honey?
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And then you could take it out of the
Track 1 00:13:50
honey in a spoon and put it back in
Track 1 00:13:52
the water and now it's sweetened And
Track 1 00:13:54
ready to go And the rest is history.
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That was our first one was matcha.
Track 1 00:13:59
And we put it out there on
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the market
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Derrick and Bill: and people
Track 1 00:14:01
went, Oh my God, this is awesome.
Track 1 00:14:03
All in one product.
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John and Connie: And you don't, uh,
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I'm not as familiar with tea as I am
Track 1 00:14:07
with coffee, but you know, once you
Track 1 00:14:08
grind, they say once you grind coffee
Track 1 00:14:09
beans, you know, oil, the flavors start
Track 1 00:14:11
to degrade, and that's why the, you
Track 1 00:14:14
know, the canned stuff doesn't
Track 1 00:14:15
taste as good as fresh ground.
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With tea, when you infuse the, the tea
Track 1 00:14:19
into the honey, does the, you don't
Track 1 00:14:21
get any kind of chemical reaction
Track 1 00:14:22
that, that changes flavor of the tea?
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Derrick and Bill: Nope.
Track 1 00:14:26
And no, actually the, uh, flavor stays
Track 1 00:14:30
right along with the, the, the honey in
Track 1 00:14:34
the tea, because you're actually consuming
Track 1 00:14:36
the tea leaf right along with the honey.
Track 1 00:14:39
So you're getting all the free
Track 1 00:14:40
radicals and all that, all
Track 1 00:14:42
of that with, with the tea.
Track 1 00:14:44
Yeah, we didn't, we don't just brew
Track 1 00:14:46
the tea and put it in the honey.
Track 1 00:14:48
We take the, just like a matcha,
Track 1 00:14:51
we take it all and it all goes in.
Track 1 00:14:53
So it's, you're drinking the leaf and
Track 1 00:14:55
uh, our coffee variety, you're actually
Track 1 00:14:57
drinking the coffee bean too, which
Track 1 00:14:59
is actually wonderfully good for you.
Track 1 00:15:02
And, uh, if you think about it, we throw
Track 1 00:15:04
the good part when you're drinking tea
Track 1 00:15:05
bath water, 90 percent of the time, and
Track 1 00:15:08
you're taking all the leaves and you're
Track 1 00:15:10
chucking them in the trash can, where
Track 1 00:15:12
that's a beneficial part of the tea,
Track 1 00:15:14
and a lot of the older teas and stuff,
Track 1 00:15:16
depending on where you're getting it from,
Track 1 00:15:17
God knows how old that little teabag is.
Track 1 00:15:19
Part of the, uh, being there and winning
Track 1 00:15:22
that contest was the connections we made.
Track 1 00:15:24
So I actually got to meet with
Track 1 00:15:25
the people that make the tea
Track 1 00:15:27
in their origin countries.
Track 1 00:15:29
So these guys were from Nepal, they
Track 1 00:15:31
were from Southeast Asia, they were from
Track 1 00:15:33
all around the world and they were the
Track 1 00:15:35
actual farmers and family businesses.
Track 1 00:15:37
So we got bougie kind of with our tea.
Track 1 00:15:40
So the black tea comes from
Track 1 00:15:42
Nepal, um, the butterfly pea
Track 1 00:15:45
flower comes from Southeast Asia.
Track 1 00:15:46
So I actually got to meet.
Track 1 00:15:47
And connect with other, uh, businesses
Track 1 00:15:50
that are farms that make these products.
Track 1 00:15:52
And we got to make our
Track 1 00:15:54
stuff just that much better.
Track 1 00:15:55
Uh, and, and that is
Track 1 00:15:57
really what pushes us on.
Track 1 00:15:59
And we didn't think that tea
Track 1 00:16:01
would be that big of a deal.
Track 1 00:16:03
And we're like, well, tea's alright.
Track 1 00:16:04
We make honey, our pepper stuff is cool.
Track 1 00:16:07
And, you know, we're making
Track 1 00:16:08
flavored honey, this is cool.
Track 1 00:16:10
And it's like, okay,
Track 1 00:16:12
well tea's a big thing.
Track 1 00:16:13
Okay, this is a big deal.
Track 1 00:16:14
And they really like it.
Track 1 00:16:16
So, uh, we have that jar all
Track 1 00:16:18
in one and then we just keep
Track 1 00:16:21
stumbling upon crazy stuff.
Track 1 00:16:23
We were, we're sitting and we're cleaning
Track 1 00:16:26
our machine and we've had machines
Track 1 00:16:28
specially built and designed, uh, for
Track 1 00:16:31
us under my, my specs and designed to be
Track 1 00:16:33
able to do this and we're cleaning the
Track 1 00:16:35
machine, but to clean the machine out,
Track 1 00:16:37
we've got to put water in the machine.
Track 1 00:16:38
So we have to dump it in and then
Track 1 00:16:39
it shoots it out and shoots back out
Track 1 00:16:42
through the machine.
Track 1 00:16:43
And at the end, we have a, you
Track 1 00:16:44
know, a two and a half gallon bucket
Track 1 00:16:46
and it's shooting out green tea.
Track 1 00:16:47
And we're like, man,
Track 1 00:16:48
this kind of looks good.
Track 1 00:16:50
So we tasted it and it was
Track 1 00:16:52
like, oh my God, this is great.
Track 1 00:16:54
This still tastes delicious.
Track 1 00:16:56
And this is just going out.
Track 1 00:16:57
This is wastewater.
Track 1 00:16:58
So we started bottling 16 ounce teas that
Track 1 00:17:02
are all natural teas that don't, they
Track 1 00:17:05
have to be refrigerated at all times,
Track 1 00:17:08
of course, or anything else at all.
Track 1 00:17:11
But we actually started putting those
Track 1 00:17:12
and that was kind of something that
Track 1 00:17:14
started just from us cleaning the machine.
Track 1 00:17:16
We said, we got some bottles,
Track 1 00:17:17
let's bottle this up.
Track 1 00:17:18
We'll give it out.
Track 1 00:17:19
See what people think kind of
Track 1 00:17:20
gets that, that mentality from it.
Track 1 00:17:22
And it's got to the point now I run
Track 1 00:17:24
14 gallons per batch to make that tea.
Track 1 00:17:30
And I don't do the cleaning anymore, but.
Track 1 00:17:32
The cleaning is what started it, but it's
Track 1 00:17:34
now I'm actually have to make batches of
Track 1 00:17:36
tea and we're running about 800 ish teas
Track 1 00:17:39
a week, um, in nine different flavors
Track 1 00:17:42
that are available and about 80 different
Track 1 00:17:44
retailers around our area right now.
Track 1 00:17:46
So tea is super hot with us and, uh,
Track 1 00:17:49
it's our, our, our honey based tea.
Track 1 00:17:51
Everything's got honey, tea, purified
Track 1 00:17:54
water, and then any kind of, um, if we put
Track 1 00:17:57
a natural ingredients, it's one of those.
Track 1 00:18:00
Natural flavor characters.
Track 1 00:18:01
It's really concentrated.
Track 1 00:18:03
It gives it a real good,
Track 1 00:18:04
uh, a little flavor to it.
Track 1 00:18:06
And that whole idea came from us
Track 1 00:18:10
cleaning the machinery and going, man,
Track 1 00:18:11
I don't want to throw all this out.
Track 1 00:18:12
This stuff tastes delicious.
Track 1 00:18:14
And we had a distributor come
Track 1 00:18:15
in and he grabbed it and went,
Track 1 00:18:16
man, this, this is great.
Track 1 00:18:19
And we're in local mom and pops and people
Track 1 00:18:22
are grabbing our quick grab-and-go teas
Track 1 00:18:24
that has that higher quality of tea and
Track 1 00:18:28
honey, and it's an all natural product.
Track 1 00:18:30
Nothing, you know, there's no crazy
Track 1 00:18:32
stabilizers And they're they're grabbing
Track 1 00:18:35
it and it's like this is this is fantastic
Track 1 00:18:37
and it's it's amazing We keep stumbling
Track 1 00:18:41
upon some weird ideas that we're bouncing
Track 1 00:18:42
off each other and he says let's let's
Track 1 00:18:44
put it in the bottle See what works.
Track 1 00:18:45
I'm like, okay, it works people like it
Track 1 00:18:50
John and Connie: That's so, I
Track 1 00:18:51
mean, is so core to, um, success
Track 1 00:18:56
is testing things, you test, try
Track 1 00:18:58
new stuff, test and see what works.
Track 1 00:19:00
And, and you don't have to, you don't have
Track 1 00:19:02
to put, go all in on something, right.
Track 1 00:19:04
You try something, can,
Track 1 00:19:05
you market it a little bit.
Track 1 00:19:07
I mean that's, and, and that, I
Track 1 00:19:09
Derrick and Bill: And that's all and he's
Track 1 00:19:11
he's got a lot of people that we
Track 1 00:19:12
can test market with at the jail.
Track 1 00:19:14
So We send it, send it there first
Track 1 00:19:18
of all, and then get feedback.
Track 1 00:19:21
And then, uh, we've, we've put a
Track 1 00:19:23
lot of samples out in different
Track 1 00:19:25
places, sell food places, then some
Track 1 00:19:27
of the gyms and stuff like that.
Track 1 00:19:29
We got feedback on some of it.
Track 1 00:19:31
Well, this might be, this
Track 1 00:19:32
is a little bit too sweet.
Track 1 00:19:33
So we back off on the sweetness of it.
Track 1 00:19:36
Uh, the amount of honey that
Track 1 00:19:37
we put into it and that.
Track 1 00:19:39
And then that was our feedback.
Track 1 00:19:41
And it's like, then we got down to
Track 1 00:19:43
where, okay, these are all good.
Track 1 00:19:44
Boom.
Track 1 00:19:46
Oh yeah.
Track 1 00:19:47
It's, and it was nothing but
Track 1 00:19:48
buying some bottles that,
Track 1 00:19:49
John and Connie: full-time Sheriff's
Track 1 00:19:50
Deputy?
Track 1 00:19:52
Derrick and Bill: Yep.
Track 1 00:19:52
I'm a, I'm assigned right
Track 1 00:19:53
now to a corrections.
Track 1 00:19:55
I'm dual certified law
Track 1 00:19:56
enforcement and corrections.
Track 1 00:19:58
John and Connie: Okay, so that's
Track 1 00:19:58
what Bill by, uh, I wanted to
Track 1 00:20:00
make, I wanted to clarify that.
Track 1 00:20:02
That's what Bill meant by, um,
Track 1 00:20:03
you know, you've got a lot of
Track 1 00:20:04
people that test at the jail.
Track 1 00:20:07
Captive audience.
Track 1 00:20:08
Derrick and Bill: Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Track 1 00:20:08
not.
Track 1 00:20:08
Yeah, not an inmate.
Track 1 00:20:11
Those are other, uh, what we call
Track 1 00:20:13
ourselves jail guards or the other deputy
Track 1 00:20:15
sheriffs that work there at the facility.
Track 1 00:20:17
And, uh, it's kind of
Track 1 00:20:18
like that old commercial.
Track 1 00:20:19
If Mikey, see if Mikey will eat
Track 1 00:20:21
it, Mikey will try anything.
Track 1 00:20:23
Well, I'd take it to work and, you know.
Track 1 00:20:25
The boys basically try everything.
Track 1 00:20:27
They humor me, but now they've got to
Track 1 00:20:28
the point that they know whatever I bring
Track 1 00:20:30
is probably going to be really good.
Track 1 00:20:31
So they, they all run and
Track 1 00:20:33
bug the crap out of me.
Track 1 00:20:34
Like, Oh, let me try it.
Track 1 00:20:35
I got to try it.
Track 1 00:20:35
Oh, what'd you make now?
Track 1 00:20:37
Or what is this?
Track 1 00:20:38
And I tested out on them.
Track 1 00:20:40
I said, give me your honest
Track 1 00:20:41
opinion because I know you will.
Track 1 00:20:43
Unlike, you know, normal people.
Track 1 00:20:44
I said, you're not going
Track 1 00:20:45
to hurt my feelings.
Track 1 00:20:45
The honey badger don't care.
Track 1 00:20:47
Just tell me if it tastes like
Track 1 00:20:48
crap it tastes or what it needs.
Track 1 00:20:50
And, uh, we, we take it out there and
Track 1 00:20:52
we let everybody at, have a go at, at
Track 1 00:20:54
it, especially when we're doing tests.
Track 1 00:20:55
I want, uh, other pallets and other
Track 1 00:20:57
people testing it just to see what,
Track 1 00:20:59
uh, what the, the consensus is on it.
Track 1 00:21:03
John and Connie: Yeah, yeah.
Track 1 00:21:03
You get a, kind of like with your
Track 1 00:21:04
brother, you get a broad, uh, spectrum
Track 1 00:21:07
of palates because they
Track 1 00:21:08
don't come necessarily from a
Track 1 00:21:10
culinary background where you guys
Track 1 00:21:11
have got a well trained palate.
Track 1 00:21:13
Derrick and Bill: Right.
Track 1 00:21:16
John and Connie: Very cool.
Track 1 00:21:18
is there, , is there a challenge
Track 1 00:21:20
that you've overcome together
Track 1 00:21:22
as family you think would
Track 1 00:21:24
other family businesses benefit
Track 1 00:21:26
hearing about?
Track 1 00:21:28
Or a lesson learned?
Track 1 00:21:30
Derrick and Bill: I don't
Track 1 00:21:30
know.
Track 1 00:21:30
Derrick and Bill: I mean, we
Track 1 00:21:31
have a unique, kind of dynamic.
Track 1 00:21:32
Uh, we actually, we moved from, Pinellas,
Track 1 00:21:35
uh, back in 2017, out here to the
Track 1 00:21:38
woods, what we call it, on five acres.
Track 1 00:21:41
We were going to, I was going to wait
Track 1 00:21:42
until I retired to move out, but it
Track 1 00:21:44
actually made a family dynamic that
Track 1 00:21:46
my Mom and Dad are living with me.
Track 1 00:21:49
We're living in one big giant house
Track 1 00:21:50
here on the property and we're kind of
Track 1 00:21:52
setting up a little farm and that, that
Track 1 00:21:56
actually works and that, that dynamic
Track 1 00:21:58
works, uh, you know, with my kids and my
Track 1 00:22:00
wife and my, I have my Mom and Dad here.
Track 1 00:22:04
That are just downstairs.
Track 1 00:22:05
They live in live in
Track 1 00:22:06
the downstairs portion.
Track 1 00:22:07
We're in a huge three story
Track 1 00:22:10
It's almost 5, 000 square foot.
Track 1 00:22:11
But when we seen the house originally
Track 1 00:22:13
I was looking for bee land So it
Track 1 00:22:16
always goes right back to bees again.
Track 1 00:22:18
I was looking with a realtor friend.
Track 1 00:22:19
He says hey, you know I know
Track 1 00:22:21
you're just looking for land,
Track 1 00:22:22
but I got this really cool spot.
Track 1 00:22:25
I want you to go look at I'm like listen
Track 1 00:22:27
I don't retire for a while Uh, I think I'm
Track 1 00:22:30
a little outside of retiring and driving
Track 1 00:22:32
over an hour to be out in the woods.
Track 1 00:22:35
I said, I just need
Track 1 00:22:35
some spots to put bees.
Track 1 00:22:37
Find me something, you
Track 1 00:22:38
know, junky and cheap.
Track 1 00:22:39
You know, where I can
Track 1 00:22:40
drop bees in a good area.
Track 1 00:22:41
He goes, just go look at this house.
Track 1 00:22:43
You've got to, you have to see it.
Track 1 00:22:44
So, I, of course, popped up here
Track 1 00:22:47
and looked at it and went, Oh, Dad?
Track 1 00:22:51
Dad?
Track 1 00:22:52
I said, uh, get Mom and come up here.
Track 1 00:22:55
And then I called my wife.
Track 1 00:22:56
I said, you need to come
Track 1 00:22:56
up here and look at this.
Track 1 00:22:58
And we, we fell in love with this
Track 1 00:23:00
house and the rest is history.
Track 1 00:23:02
So we've been here since, uh,:Track 1 00:23:05
and we continue to expand upon what
Track 1 00:23:07
we're doing here at the farm, but
Track 1 00:23:09
it's always challenging with family.
Track 1 00:23:11
We do go back and forth, do a
Track 1 00:23:12
little bit of the OCC, uh, chopper
Track 1 00:23:14
stuff every once in a while.
Track 1 00:23:16
We, we get to, we get in,
Track 1 00:23:18
uh, but that's family.
Track 1 00:23:19
But at the end of the day, even
Track 1 00:23:21
with my brother, um, you know,
Track 1 00:23:22
you mess up or something happens.
Track 1 00:23:25
And you yell at each other.
Track 1 00:23:26
We're, we're family at the end of the day.
Track 1 00:23:28
It's like, I love you, brother.
Track 1 00:23:30
You know, I love you, dad.
Track 1 00:23:31
We'll see you later.
Track 1 00:23:32
And we continue to charge on, but it's
Track 1 00:23:35
so great to be involved where you do
Track 1 00:23:38
have family and you don't have, I have
Track 1 00:23:41
trust issues, obviously, in my line of
Track 1 00:23:43
work and what I do and specifically.
Track 1 00:23:46
What I do is supervising the criminals
Track 1 00:23:50
and, , I don't trust what people
Track 1 00:23:52
saying what comes out of their mouth.
Track 1 00:23:54
And that's, that's from years of
Track 1 00:23:55
just being in that kind of setting.
Track 1 00:23:58
So it's good to have the family
Track 1 00:23:59
component there, or I know that
Track 1 00:24:02
I can trust what they're doing or
Track 1 00:24:03
what they're saying where I couldn't
Track 1 00:24:05
put my trust into to an employee.
Track 1 00:24:08
Uh, I would be too skeptical of
Track 1 00:24:09
that person being around, um,
Track 1 00:24:12
and have trust issues until I
Track 1 00:24:13
really knew that person very well.
Track 1 00:24:16
But having a family thing, it's great.
Track 1 00:24:18
Having my dad, I can call him up
Track 1 00:24:19
and say, Hey, we got online orders.
Track 1 00:24:22
You better get them out.
Track 1 00:24:25
And get them ready.
Track 1 00:24:26
Or I say, hey, I need this labeled.
Track 1 00:24:28
Or he tells me, hey, you need to
Track 1 00:24:29
get out there and make some tea.
Track 1 00:24:31
The distributor was just here.
Track 1 00:24:32
Now you need nine cases
Track 1 00:24:34
of this, this, and this.
Track 1 00:24:35
And I'm like, oh god, okay.
Track 1 00:24:37
So, alright, I'm gonna go
Track 1 00:24:39
out and get started on that.
Track 1 00:24:41
John and Connie: So you mentioned
Track 1 00:24:42
a little bit, you alluded to the
Track 1 00:24:43
different roles in the business.
Track 1 00:24:45
If you guys, uh, is part of your
Track 1 00:24:47
success having really clearly defined
Track 1 00:24:49
who's doing what, who's in charge of
Track 1 00:24:51
what, keeping roles straight separate?
Track 1 00:24:53
Derrick and Bill: Yes, I think so.
Track 1 00:24:55
I get pinned with the technology issues
Track 1 00:25:00
and pretty much the computer end of it.
Track 1 00:25:02
And then we kind of just bounce
Track 1 00:25:03
off of everybody who takes a role.
Track 1 00:25:05
Um, he predominantly does because he
Track 1 00:25:07
doesn't like the way I put the labels on.
Track 1 00:25:11
They're not straight.
Track 1 00:25:12
He does all the labeling.
Track 1 00:25:15
John and Connie: you
Track 1 00:25:15
go with your strength.
Track 1 00:25:16
Derrick and Bill: I, I,
Track 1 00:25:17
My
Track 1 00:25:17
patience level doesn't go up
Track 1 00:25:19
and they're a little crooked.
Track 1 00:25:20
I go, ah, they're fine.
Track 1 00:25:21
And he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Track 1 00:25:23
So he does all the
Track 1 00:25:25
John and Connie: We've got that
Track 1 00:25:25
Derrick and Bill: we each take the
Track 1 00:25:26
component of the business and it's like,
Track 1 00:25:30
and the computer stuff comes
Track 1 00:25:32
up, like, Hey, I need to do this
Track 1 00:25:33
email and send this stuff or.
Track 1 00:25:35
Set this up and it's like, get in here.
Track 1 00:25:38
I'm like, oh, okay.
Track 1 00:25:39
Yeah.
Track 1 00:25:39
I'm the IT guy.
Track 1 00:25:40
All right.
Track 1 00:25:41
The geek, yeah.
Track 1 00:25:42
Geek squad on call.
Track 1 00:25:44
So I'm, I'm there for that.
Track 1 00:25:46
And, uh, to, to get the technology end
Track 1 00:25:49
of the stuff going and we, we all kind
Track 1 00:25:51
of break a piece off and, and, and it
Track 1 00:25:53
works out great for us, you know, just
Track 1 00:25:56
having that and everybody kind of does
Track 1 00:25:58
that, that little piece of the pie and
Track 1 00:26:01
we, we put it together and make it happen.
Track 1 00:26:03
You know, and then being able to talk
Track 1 00:26:06
to each other, not as like an employee
Track 1 00:26:08
boss relation dynamic is a lot easier
Track 1 00:26:11
too., you know, where you have that.
Track 1 00:26:13
And we all kind of know
Track 1 00:26:14
what needs to get done.
Track 1 00:26:15
And three of us being the owners, we
Track 1 00:26:18
know what, what the end product is.
Track 1 00:26:19
You know, our goal is to get the, get
Track 1 00:26:22
the stuff made and done and pop through.
Track 1 00:26:25
You know, it's, it's very trying at times.
Track 1 00:26:29
And as, as we get going, um, We've
Track 1 00:26:32
had our little hiccups here and
Track 1 00:26:33
there and a lot of it's just you
Track 1 00:26:35
know, how are we getting that?
Track 1 00:26:36
You know each little pathway that
Track 1 00:26:38
gets blocked like the uh Hobbit Honey.
Track 1 00:26:40
It was like, oh my god How are
Track 1 00:26:42
we going to recover from this?
Track 1 00:26:43
We got to change their name.
Track 1 00:26:45
We have to do all that
Track 1 00:26:46
and they actually...
Track 1 00:26:48
I appreciate, I should send those
Track 1 00:26:49
guys a little thank you honey.
Track 1 00:26:51
And the the amount of stuff that
Track 1 00:26:53
they taught us without knowing
Track 1 00:26:55
that they were teaching us.
Track 1 00:26:56
They taught us about patents
Track 1 00:26:58
They taught us about trademarks.
Track 1 00:27:00
They taught us about all those
Track 1 00:27:01
bad things that can happen to you.
Track 1 00:27:03
And it made us better, so we
Track 1 00:27:04
went out and patented Honey.
Track 1 00:27:06
So, all that stuff that you see that we
Track 1 00:27:09
have on our website, those tea emulsions.
Track 1 00:27:11
We actually have a pending patent
Track 1 00:27:13
that basically anything other than
Track 1 00:27:15
raw honey will fall under our patent.
Track 1 00:27:18
You can't patent raw honey.
Track 1 00:27:21
But you can patent anything you add to it.
Track 1 00:27:23
Anything you add to it,
Track 1 00:27:24
you can put a patent on it.
Track 1 00:27:26
So we went crazy and anything
Track 1 00:27:28
and everything that we
Track 1 00:27:29
could think of, we patented.
Track 1 00:27:32
So we have THC, CBD emulsification
Track 1 00:27:35
in honey, uh, with a single serving
Track 1 00:27:37
delivery device, which is part
Track 1 00:27:38
of our invention is that spoon.
Track 1 00:27:41
That we developed for the U S and then all
Track 1 00:27:44
the teas and like the five pepper honey
Track 1 00:27:46
and the garlic honey, all that's patented.
Track 1 00:27:49
And that'll be when that becomes
Track 1 00:27:50
an enforceable part of our patent.
Track 1 00:27:52
It's provisional right now.
Track 1 00:27:53
It usually takes a, I think my lawyer
Track 1 00:27:55
set up to eight years sometimes to
Track 1 00:27:57
get a patent all the way through it.
Track 1 00:27:59
But those valuable lessons that we
Track 1 00:28:01
learned, it was like, I should send
Track 1 00:28:03
these guys a gift basket because that
Track 1 00:28:05
set us in a trajectory instead of going,
Track 1 00:28:08
you know what?
Track 1 00:28:09
I give up, you know, this isn't for me, or
Track 1 00:28:11
I'm gonna not, you know, and throw a fit.
Track 1 00:28:14
We went, we're even badder.
Track 1 00:28:17
And , it rolls right back into the name.
Track 1 00:28:18
It's Honey Badger.
Track 1 00:28:19
We don't care.
Track 1 00:28:19
We don't care.
Track 1 00:28:21
We don't care.
Track 1 00:28:22
John and Connie: Yep.
Track 1 00:28:23
Derrick and Bill: we don't care.
Track 1 00:28:24
John and Connie: I'm thinking
Track 1 00:28:25
there's the honey badger right
Track 1 00:28:26
Derrick and Bill: And when we, even
Track 1 00:28:27
John and Connie: So much better name.
Track 1 00:28:28
Derrick and Bill: when we do, yeah,
Track 1 00:28:31
when we do events and stuff like that,
Track 1 00:28:33
we have, uh, some, once in a while we
Track 1 00:28:35
have the, uh, event coordinator come
Track 1 00:28:38
up to us and say, well, I'm sorry, but
Track 1 00:28:40
I've got two other honey vendors here.
Track 1 00:28:43
And it's like, we don't care.
Track 1 00:28:46
Oh, well, sorry for that.
Track 1 00:28:47
I mean, we've been, we've been in a
Track 1 00:28:49
lot of different trade shows that, uh,
Track 1 00:28:53
we're selling 3:1 of what everybody
Track 1 00:28:56
else is selling in the same building.
Track 1 00:28:58
So it's, we've just, and that was
Track 1 00:29:01
one of our things with, uh, going
Track 1 00:29:03
from raw honey to the flavored honey.
Track 1 00:29:06
Because if you're only selling raw
Track 1 00:29:08
honey, I see you once every two months,
Track 1 00:29:11
maybe to come back and get another jar.
Track 1 00:29:14
But with the flavored honey,
Track 1 00:29:16
that, that little jar for a five
Track 1 00:29:20
pepper will do a set of ribs.
Track 1 00:29:22
It'll do wings or whatever.
Track 1 00:29:25
And the next weekend you're
Track 1 00:29:26
going to go, Hmm, I did ribs last
Track 1 00:29:28
week and I want to do chicken.
Track 1 00:29:29
Let me go buy another one of those.
Track 1 00:29:31
So I see you maybe three times a year.
Track 1 00:29:34
No, I would say think
Track 1 00:29:35
of the five pepper too.
Track 1 00:29:36
Uh, we, we just got, um, invited
Track 1 00:29:38
to Walmart's Open Call this year.
Track 1 00:29:41
And we have a deal with Wal Mart
Track 1 00:29:42
for the five peppers specifically.
Track 1 00:29:44
So that will be launching in our
Track 1 00:29:47
geographic area, 25 stores in October.
Track 1 00:29:50
So we're onboarding with them now, but
Track 1 00:29:52
they're still, they're still talking
Track 1 00:29:54
with us about, they want to do four more.
Track 1 00:29:57
They want to do a group, so a collection.
Track 1 00:29:59
And I said, I like the sound of that.
Track 1 00:30:02
And then I looked at that and went,
Track 1 00:30:03
Yeah, well, for more of our line,
Track 1 00:30:05
like some of our teas, , they're
Track 1 00:30:06
looking at the blue razz, the garlic
Track 1 00:30:08
smoked, uh, the blackberry mango.
Track 1 00:30:10
And we just invented something,
Track 1 00:30:12
yet again, we can't help ourselves.
Track 1 00:30:15
We invented badger dust, which is,
Track 1 00:30:17
uh, an all purpose seasoning dry
Track 1 00:30:19
rub that's got honey powder in it.
Track 1 00:30:22
And, uh, we're just getting the
Track 1 00:30:23
labeling now, but we've actually sold
Track 1 00:30:25
through about 30, uh, we'll show,
Track 1 00:30:28
I don't know if it'll show on the
Track 1 00:30:29
camera that well, 30 pounds of it.
Track 1 00:30:33
John and Connie: Whoa.
Track 1 00:30:36
Derrick and Bill: So we're
Track 1 00:30:37
going to do hot and regular.
Track 1 00:30:38
John and Connie: Mixing flavors and,
Track 1 00:30:39
that both acknowledge it, but also
Track 1 00:30:41
the, experimentation that comes from
Track 1 00:30:43
cooking, I think, you know, that's
Track 1 00:30:46
kind of your secret sauce there.
Track 1 00:30:48
It's, it's, it's amazing.
Track 1 00:30:50
So, I
Track 1 00:30:51
Derrick and Bill: Well, we
Track 1 00:30:51
didn't get these beautiful
Track 1 00:30:52
physiques that we have dieting.
Track 1 00:30:55
John and Connie: So, you mentioned
Track 1 00:30:56
the, uh, the trust issue and, you
Track 1 00:30:58
know, working just with families.
Track 1 00:31:00
So I, now I'm getting curious
Track 1 00:31:02
about, well, the uniqueness of your
Track 1 00:31:04
products, they're going to spread.
Track 1 00:31:06
There's going to be more demand
Track 1 00:31:08
and you're going to need to grow.
Track 1 00:31:09
Have you got a plan for growing and,
Track 1 00:31:13
taking in , you can't keep growing your
Track 1 00:31:15
family, so how do you grow your business?
Track 1 00:31:18
Derrick and Bill: Well, the first
Track 1 00:31:19
thing to start out with is we've got
Track 1 00:31:21
a 40 by 70 building that's going up
Track 1 00:31:24
with a 20 by 40 kitchen in it and
Track 1 00:31:26
the rest is going to be warehouse.
Track 1 00:31:28
That'll be starting here shortly.
Track 1 00:31:30
All right.
Track 1 00:31:31
We're about to, yeah, we're
Track 1 00:31:31
about to break ground on that.
Track 1 00:31:33
So we actually are trying
Track 1 00:31:34
to, , plan ahead, , for that.
Track 1 00:31:36
And, uh, a lot of the stuff with the,
Track 1 00:31:39
to be able to keep up the volume from
Track 1 00:31:41
our, our perspective, , we're going to
Track 1 00:31:43
keep up to a certain extent, and then
Track 1 00:31:45
we're going to look at co packing.
Track 1 00:31:46
And of course, I'm going to be
Track 1 00:31:47
probably the crazy guy that when I do
Track 1 00:31:51
take it to a co packing setting that
Track 1 00:31:52
makes sure that the standard that
Track 1 00:31:54
I'm setting for it is maintained.
Track 1 00:31:57
, but right now we're going from a smaller
Track 1 00:32:00
, 10 by 20 kitchen that we have here
Track 1 00:32:02
on the farm to a full size warehouse.
Track 1 00:32:05
So we've actually all put that in
Track 1 00:32:07
place, , secured with, , Department of
Track 1 00:32:09
Ag to be able to do a, uh, a farm loan.
Track 1 00:32:11
And we, that was part of the success
Track 1 00:32:14
with getting that deal with Walmart.
Track 1 00:32:16
Now we haven't got any revenue,
Track 1 00:32:18
but we're revenueing up right
Track 1 00:32:19
now with the farm to get ready
Track 1 00:32:20
for that and, uh, the increase in
Track 1 00:32:23
sales and the tea.
Track 1 00:32:25
Because
Track 1 00:32:25
we don't have enough
Track 1 00:32:26
storage room for the tea.
Track 1 00:32:27
As we make the tea, I don't
Track 1 00:32:28
have enough room to store it.
Track 1 00:32:30
Because I have to store it refrigerated.
Track 1 00:32:32
And we're starting to come up to that
Track 1 00:32:33
level where we just don't have the room.
Track 1 00:32:35
And it's like, how do we scale?
Track 1 00:32:37
Um, and I do have kids.
Track 1 00:32:39
I have a 21 year old and an 18 year old.
Track 1 00:32:42
And, uh, their prospective
Track 1 00:32:44
boyfriend wants to be a son in law.
Track 1 00:32:47
Uh, I have them guys, they actually
Track 1 00:32:49
pitch in and they help me manufacture.
Track 1 00:32:51
And produce here at the farm so I
Track 1 00:32:53
have a little bit more help to do it.
Track 1 00:32:54
Otherwise, it's on my days off and
Track 1 00:32:56
I work a 12 hour rotating shift.
Track 1 00:32:59
So, uh, this weekend I'm off
Track 1 00:33:01
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Track 1 00:33:03
Then I'm back to work Monday, Tuesday.
Track 1 00:33:05
Off Wednesday, Thursday.
Track 1 00:33:06
And then I work Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Track 1 00:33:08
It's a flip flopper.
Track 1 00:33:10
But, uh, that being with my job
Track 1 00:33:12
absolutely allows me to have more time
Track 1 00:33:14
with family and time to get into that.
Track 1 00:33:16
And I'm trying to keep
Track 1 00:33:17
ahead where we can do that.
Track 1 00:33:19
And now the, uh, the equipment.
Track 1 00:33:22
That we've actually invented and I have
Track 1 00:33:24
China designing for me allows me to
Track 1 00:33:27
make this stuff and even bigger batches.
Track 1 00:33:29
So, basically, I have the
Track 1 00:33:31
infrastructure built now.
Track 1 00:33:33
I make a phone call.
Track 1 00:33:34
I can say, look, instead of a 40
Track 1 00:33:37
liter, I need an 80 liter machine
Track 1 00:33:40
and I need it heat jacketed.
Track 1 00:33:42
I need it to be able to pump
Track 1 00:33:44
and all the machinery we're
Track 1 00:33:45
using now runs off air pressure.
Track 1 00:33:47
So, it actually emulsifies, stirs
Track 1 00:33:50
it up and then shoots it right
Track 1 00:33:52
into my jars, which is great.
Track 1 00:33:54
And I, and I'm, I'm actually
Track 1 00:33:56
manufacturing, uh, we, we, we
Track 1 00:33:59
always say, what did we say?
Track 1 00:34:00
We're like, we're, we're in the big boy
Track 1 00:34:02
world, but we're not really big boys.
Track 1 00:34:04
And it's the same thing when we
Track 1 00:34:05
stepped into the Walmart arena.
Track 1 00:34:06
It's like, Oh, we really stepped into deep
Track 1 00:34:10
into the pool and not know how to swim.
Track 1 00:34:12
and they're like, where
Track 1 00:34:13
do you guys come from?
Track 1 00:34:14
What are you, what are you doing here?
Track 1 00:34:16
Uh, you're, you're not
Track 1 00:34:18
supposed to be here.
Track 1 00:34:19
And I was like, well, yeah,
Track 1 00:34:20
we know what we're doing.
Track 1 00:34:20
Hey, we're, we're good.
Track 1 00:34:21
We're good.
Track 1 00:34:22
We got this here, try this.
Track 1 00:34:24
Oh my God, that's excellent.
Track 1 00:34:25
Yeah, we can scale that.
Track 1 00:34:27
Well, how are you gonna scale it?
Track 1 00:34:28
I said, no, no, no.
Track 1 00:34:29
Don't worry about that.
Track 1 00:34:30
I'll, I'll scale it.
Track 1 00:34:31
And, uh, you know, some of the prohibitive
Track 1 00:34:34
things in the US and what we find
Track 1 00:34:36
in the food industry and, you know,
Track 1 00:34:38
having a restaurant years ago too.
Track 1 00:34:40
is cost prohibitive.
Track 1 00:34:42
Um, and I see it even in the honey
Track 1 00:34:44
industry with beekeeping and bee
Track 1 00:34:46
supplies is you'll go to, uh, get
Track 1 00:34:49
a specific equipment or specialized
Track 1 00:34:52
equipment and it's astronomical,
Track 1 00:34:55
the pricing on it in the U.
Track 1 00:34:56
S.
Track 1 00:34:57
I can get on the phone and they're
Track 1 00:34:59
a 12 hour difference than us.
Track 1 00:35:00
I can get on the phone tonight at 8, 8
Track 1 00:35:02
o'clock at night, it's 8 in their morning.
Track 1 00:35:05
And I can get on the computer and I
Track 1 00:35:06
can message my girl number one, and she
Track 1 00:35:09
goes, Hey, Derek, you're number one.
Track 1 00:35:11
Me love you long time.
Track 1 00:35:12
And I got another machine coming, not
Track 1 00:35:15
a problem, more than happy to help me.
Track 1 00:35:17
, And the same machine that I
Track 1 00:35:19
can get that would be built in
Track 1 00:35:21
the U S would be 10, 15, 000.
Track 1 00:35:24
And it would be something that
Track 1 00:35:25
would be modified and it would
Track 1 00:35:27
probably come from them originally.
Track 1 00:35:29
And somebody in the U S would stick
Track 1 00:35:31
a sticker on it and say they did it.
Track 1 00:35:33
You know, and that's a huge thing.
Track 1 00:35:35
And we found in our industry, um, like
Track 1 00:35:38
ball glass, they're not made in the U
Track 1 00:35:40
S anymore, and it's very sad that the
Track 1 00:35:43
companies and stuff that were part of
Track 1 00:35:46
the U S and they're not made, um, there
Track 1 00:35:48
is a, there's a headquarters, they don't
Track 1 00:35:51
make the components, they don't make
Track 1 00:35:52
the glass and they don't make the lids.
Track 1 00:35:54
So everything is sourced from China
Track 1 00:35:56
and we had to adapt like, uh, we
Track 1 00:35:59
were using container companies.
Track 1 00:36:01
here in the U.
Track 1 00:36:01
S.
Track 1 00:36:02
And the plastic, the same
Track 1 00:36:03
plastic bottle that I can get
Track 1 00:36:05
here is almost over a dollar.
Track 1 00:36:07
And a lot of people don't realize that
Track 1 00:36:08
when you're buying commodities and
Track 1 00:36:10
buying products that the cost associated
Track 1 00:36:13
for me to put that honey into a jar is
Track 1 00:36:15
over a dollar, you know, just to put
Track 1 00:36:17
everything in there to put my label
Track 1 00:36:18
on there to put the seal on there just
Track 1 00:36:20
to get to that point is costing me.
Track 1 00:36:23
And then they don't understand
Track 1 00:36:24
why would you be sourcing
Track 1 00:36:26
overseas or something like that?
Track 1 00:36:28
Because that same bottle I
Track 1 00:36:29
can go to 30 cents a unit.
Track 1 00:36:31
And I can bring in 4, 000 of
Track 1 00:36:33
those and they're more than
Track 1 00:36:35
happy to do anything I need.
Track 1 00:36:37
Now I have to wait 45 days because of
Track 1 00:36:39
the shipping, you know, coming overseas,
Track 1 00:36:41
but I can land that same product.
Track 1 00:36:44
And then I, you know, it's upsetting
Track 1 00:36:45
in the U S because you go to a company
Track 1 00:36:48
that's called all American containers
Track 1 00:36:50
or something like that, or U.S.
Track 1 00:36:53
Plastic.
Track 1 00:36:53
But at the end result, I'm talking
Track 1 00:36:55
to the person that's making that this
Track 1 00:36:58
shipping it over here in cargo containers.
Track 1 00:37:01
To them they're they're they're putting
Track 1 00:37:03
you know, putting the price up, you
Track 1 00:37:04
know capitalism at its finest They're
Track 1 00:37:07
they're popping the price up to make
Track 1 00:37:08
money off of that and it's like it's
Track 1 00:37:10
I said, it's not manufactured here.
Track 1 00:37:12
They go,
Track 1 00:37:12
oh, no, no.
Track 1 00:37:12
No It's over there.
Track 1 00:37:14
I'm like, so why don't I
Track 1 00:37:15
just go to who's making it?
Track 1 00:37:16
And then you know, that's a challenge
Track 1 00:37:18
with uh with the business and we've
Track 1 00:37:19
we've found that in that space you know
Track 1 00:37:22
with the bees is to overcome a lot of
Track 1 00:37:23
that cost and Then I can give you a
Track 1 00:37:26
better product at the end without You
Track 1 00:37:28
Really pushing our, our cost up there.
Track 1 00:37:31
And that hurts.
Track 1 00:37:32
Yeah, because we haven't changed
Track 1 00:37:33
our prices since we got involved
Track 1 00:37:35
in the commercial end of it,
Track 1 00:37:37
which is 1920 or 2020, excuse me.
Track 1 00:37:42
2020.
Track 1 00:37:43
1920.
Track 1 00:37:44
2020.
Track 1 00:37:45
When we first started out,
Track 1 00:37:47
John and Connie: going to say,
Track 1 00:37:47
you're looking pretty good.
Track 1 00:37:50
Derrick and Bill: just before the covid.
Track 1 00:37:51
I mean, we actually,
Track 1 00:37:52
and we were one of the.
Track 1 00:37:54
Few places that actually
Track 1 00:37:56
done well during the COVID.
Track 1 00:37:59
COVID actually accelerated us.
Track 1 00:38:00
Yeah.
Track 1 00:38:01
So that
Track 1 00:38:01
actually gave us, uh, you
Track 1 00:38:02
know, people, we, people really
Track 1 00:38:04
John and Connie: yeah, the health
Track 1 00:38:05
Derrick and Bill: about farm to table.
Track 1 00:38:06
They started thinking,
Track 1 00:38:09
John and Connie: Okay.
Track 1 00:38:09
Derrick and Bill: yeah.
Track 1 00:38:10
And all the benefits that you get,
Track 1 00:38:12
the health benefits you get from
Track 1 00:38:13
using natural products, you know, and
Track 1 00:38:16
we've continued that, you know, we,
Track 1 00:38:17
we still have our hiccups here and
Track 1 00:38:18
there and it's always growing pains.
Track 1 00:38:20
And, uh, we're, we're always worried
Track 1 00:38:23
about when do we take that next
Track 1 00:38:24
step or should we take that step?
Track 1 00:38:27
You know, as we bounce in, you know,
Track 1 00:38:29
you have the multimillion dollar
Track 1 00:38:30
companies that can throw money out,
Track 1 00:38:32
you know, like they're in a strip club.
Track 1 00:38:34
We don't have that luxury.
Track 1 00:38:36
You know, we really have to worry about,
Track 1 00:38:37
you know, where our next and plan and
Track 1 00:38:40
for, and focus on what we're doing.
Track 1 00:38:42
And so far we we've,
Track 1 00:38:43
we've made great choices.
Track 1 00:38:44
You know, we've made a few
Track 1 00:38:45
bad ones here and there.
Track 1 00:38:46
We've, we've had our fingers
Track 1 00:38:48
crossed a lot of times.
Track 1 00:38:50
John and Connie: Sure.
Track 1 00:38:51
Derrick and Bill: we got payments
Track 1 00:38:52
coming up and is this going to work out?
Track 1 00:38:54
We just spent what we shouldn't
Track 1 00:38:55
have spent and, and it's
Track 1 00:38:58
like, we've been lucky so far.
Track 1 00:39:00
It, it worked out.
Track 1 00:39:01
And we, we, we've been real
Track 1 00:39:03
busy here lately just trying
Track 1 00:39:04
to keep up with the product.
Track 1 00:39:05
And then, , this is swarm
Track 1 00:39:07
season for us beekeepers.
Track 1 00:39:09
So, our phone is, , literally ringing off
Track 1 00:39:11
the hook with, I got bee swarm in my tree.
Track 1 00:39:14
I got them in my garbage can.
Track 1 00:39:15
I got them in my water box.
Track 1 00:39:16
I got them all over.
Track 1 00:39:18
And, uh, it's like, oh,
Track 1 00:39:20
okay,
Track 1 00:39:21
let me see if I can get out there.
Track 1 00:39:22
And we're, we're going out and still
Track 1 00:39:24
continuing that, that mission of rescuing
Track 1 00:39:26
the hives and, and pulling them in.
Track 1 00:39:28
And then we get some commercial
Track 1 00:39:30
contracts where it's in a playhouse.
Track 1 00:39:32
And we had a massive one that
Track 1 00:39:33
we just did here recently.
Track 1 00:39:35
There was three hives and one
Track 1 00:39:37
little playhouse shed that was
Track 1 00:39:38
out, uh, the realtor was selling
Track 1 00:39:40
the house and they needed it
Track 1 00:39:42
removed and it was, it was crazy.
Track 1 00:39:44
That took us, what, about four
Track 1 00:39:45
or five hours to get it up?
Track 1 00:39:47
That was a lot of bees.
Track 1 00:39:48
Probably about, uh, 500,
Track 1 00:39:50
about that on
Track 1 00:39:51
between what we had seen.
Track 1 00:39:54
Yeah.
Track 1 00:39:54
Yeah, we've been, that would have been
Track 1 00:39:56
the one with the big round piece of comb.
Track 1 00:39:58
Yeah, the comb was like, it
Track 1 00:40:00
was like almost three foot.
Track 1 00:40:01
It was huge.
Track 1 00:40:03
And that was just one piece.
Track 1 00:40:04
There was five of them on each
Track 1 00:40:05
side that they had built out.
Track 1 00:40:07
It was absolutely massive.
Track 1 00:40:08
One of the biggest ones we've seen.
Track 1 00:40:09
Seen in a while, especially
Track 1 00:40:11
three codependent hives like
Track 1 00:40:13
that because it's not one There's
Track 1 00:40:15
each individual had a queen.
Track 1 00:40:17
John and Connie: Okay, so I wanted
Track 1 00:40:19
to, this has been fascinating.
Track 1 00:40:21
We need to unfortunately wrap up.
Track 1 00:40:25
How can people find you, I'm guessing that
Track 1 00:40:29
you ship nationwide, is that accurate?
Track 1 00:40:33
Derrick and Bill: Yes, we're on we
Track 1 00:40:35
have our own website honey badgers bee
Track 1 00:40:37
farm dot com which is just our name
Track 1 00:40:39
super simple We're actually on Amazon,
Track 1 00:40:42
eBay, Etsy, Walmart dot com Mammoth
Track 1 00:40:46
Nation Uh, a few others that are, that
Track 1 00:40:49
are on there in between, and uh, not
Track 1 00:40:51
only does that give you an online link
Track 1 00:40:54
in there, or you can come directly to
Track 1 00:40:55
our farm link at honeybadgersbeefarm.
Track 1 00:40:57
com.
Track 1 00:40:58
And uh, we ship nationwide, and
Track 1 00:41:00
we actually ship out of the U.
Track 1 00:41:01
S.
Track 1 00:41:02
I do have customers overseas
Track 1 00:41:04
that also buy from us, not
Track 1 00:41:06
pricey, but it does, we do ship.
Track 1 00:41:09
And, uh, that's available on our website.
Track 1 00:41:11
And then if you're in our local
Track 1 00:41:12
area, we pretty much, uh, have, um,
Track 1 00:41:16
probably a hundred mile range around
Track 1 00:41:17
us where we're in stores right now.
Track 1 00:41:20
And then we're, we're hoping to expand.
Track 1 00:41:21
We're always looking for more
Track 1 00:41:22
partners and more people that believe
Track 1 00:41:24
in the mission and what we do.
Track 1 00:41:26
, Not only, you know, rescuing
Track 1 00:41:27
bees and making cool honey.
Track 1 00:41:30
And then we like to bring the kids
Track 1 00:41:31
out to the farm too, homeschoolers.
Track 1 00:41:33
And, uh, allow them to go
Track 1 00:41:34
barehanded and touch the bees.
Track 1 00:41:36
We want to have that, that connection
Track 1 00:41:37
where, where your food comes from.
Track 1 00:41:39
And we're actually talking
Track 1 00:41:40
to local farmers here in the
Track 1 00:41:41
area too as we go around.
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I get to talk to the local guys that
Track 1 00:41:45
are making blueberries, blackberries,
Track 1 00:41:46
strawberries, you know, and, and
Track 1 00:41:48
are making the peppers and stuff.
Track 1 00:41:49
They're growing them.
Track 1 00:41:50
Those are the guys.
Track 1 00:41:51
You know, we don't charge, uh, our
Track 1 00:41:53
farmers for the pollination service.
Track 1 00:41:55
We usually do a bartering system.
Track 1 00:41:57
We say, hook us up with some peppers.
Track 1 00:41:59
I need some garlic.
Track 1 00:42:00
I need some, uh, blueberries.
Track 1 00:42:02
You know, and we make sure
Track 1 00:42:03
we take care of each other.
Track 1 00:42:05
You know, the, the industry now
Track 1 00:42:06
is hard enough in agriculture.
Track 1 00:42:08
So, we try to help everybody
Track 1 00:42:10
out as we go around.
Track 1 00:42:11
It helps our bees out, too,
Track 1 00:42:12
because they're out there getting,
Track 1 00:42:13
uh,
Track 1 00:42:14
delicious nectar and
Track 1 00:42:15
pollen right off the farm.
Track 1 00:42:17
John and Connie: Excellent.
Track 1 00:42:17
Wonderful.
Track 1 00:42:18
Okay.
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So you're in Brooksville, Florida.
Track 1 00:42:21
So if people are in the Tampa, greater
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Tampa Bay area or central Florida
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area, they find you Brooksville.
Track 1 00:42:28
And like said, um, people homeschooling,
Track 1 00:42:32
uh, or, or you've got tours,
Track 1 00:42:34
you've got tours of the apiary.
Track 1 00:42:35
You've got, you do some basic
Track 1 00:42:37
beekeeping classes, I think one on one.
Track 1 00:42:40
beekeeping one on one.
Track 1 00:42:41
Derrick and Bill: Yep,
Track 1 00:42:42
you want to learn how to bee
Track 1 00:42:43
keep you can come out we'll
Track 1 00:42:44
John and Connie: website is,
Track 1 00:42:45
Derrick and Bill: Plethora
Track 1 00:42:47
It's a plethora of things.
Track 1 00:42:48
That was the geek.
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That's the geek squad.
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That's that's the geek squad I built
Track 1 00:42:51
that built the website So to make it to
Track 1 00:42:54
make it enter, uh, you know where you
Track 1 00:42:56
can interact with it And we actually
Track 1 00:42:59
have a store here on the farm too.
Track 1 00:43:00
So During the week you can come out and
Track 1 00:43:03
actually we have a little shop and you can
Track 1 00:43:04
come in and see everything that we make
Track 1 00:43:06
And then where it's made and if you want
Track 1 00:43:08
to see where your honey's actually made
Track 1 00:43:10
You We have hives here on the property.
Track 1 00:43:12
Our, uh, breeders are here.
Track 1 00:43:14
You can actually see bees when
Track 1 00:43:15
you come to buy your honey.
Track 1 00:43:19
John and Connie: think
Track 1 00:43:19
we need a road trip.
Track 1 00:43:20
think we do.
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Connie's allergic to bees, so
Track 1 00:43:23
we've got a little bit of, uh,
Track 1 00:43:24
Derrick and Bill: We put you in a suit.
Track 1 00:43:26
John and Connie: gets stung, she needs
Track 1 00:43:27
an
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Derrick and Bill: EpiPen.
Track 1 00:43:29
You're covered up.
Track 1 00:43:31
You got a hat.
Track 1 00:43:32
You got a jacket and everything.
Track 1 00:43:34
We put you in a full suit.
Track 1 00:43:35
John and Connie: I'm also thinking you
Track 1 00:43:36
guys have got a market for corporate
Track 1 00:43:38
gifs because of the of your stuff.
Track 1 00:43:40
You know, people that are, that are, um,
Track 1 00:43:43
you know, in a, in an environment where
Track 1 00:43:46
they've got, you know, like, I don't know,
Track 1 00:43:47
financial advisors, you know, people that
Track 1 00:43:49
are dealing with, you know, high, high
Track 1 00:43:51
ticket clients and they're spending a
Track 1 00:43:53
lot of money with them or, or they're,
Track 1 00:43:54
you know, managing a lot of money.
Track 1 00:43:57
They send, yeah, realtors, they
Track 1 00:43:58
send gifts, you know, uh, and Connie
Track 1 00:44:01
looked at your site yesterday and
Track 1 00:44:03
I hadn't shown it to her before
Track 1 00:44:04
and she was going crazy last night.
Track 1 00:44:06
Oh my God, we're ordering this.
Track 1 00:44:07
Oh my God.
Track 1 00:44:09
So I think, uh, you know,
Track 1 00:44:11
Derrick and Bill: Well, what we,
Track 1 00:44:12
John and Connie: are probably
Track 1 00:44:12
already on top of that.
Track 1 00:44:15
Derrick and Bill: Yeah, what we
Track 1 00:44:16
had actually hoped about was the
Track 1 00:44:17
fact that the, uh, the Airbnb,
Track 1 00:44:21
we could attach to them guys
Track 1 00:44:24
for the, uh, our spoons, simply because
Track 1 00:44:27
that is a cup of coffee, it is a cup of
Track 1 00:44:31
tea, and all it is, is a little, it sits
Track 1 00:44:34
on the countertop or hangs on a hook.
Track 1 00:44:37
And it's in the room.
Track 1 00:44:39
We're trying to make that portable,
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John and Connie: is so
Track 1 00:44:40
Derrick and Bill: know,
Track 1 00:44:41
there's everything in business.
Track 1 00:44:43
It's hard to get your,
Track 1 00:44:44
your foot in the door.
Track 1 00:44:45
Unless you know somebody.
Track 1 00:44:47
Our, our, our foot hurts because,
Track 1 00:44:49
you know, and so, so do your fingers
Track 1 00:44:51
when you're trying to grab the door
Track 1 00:44:52
to keep them from slamming it on you,
Track 1 00:44:54
you know, but the, you know, it's
Track 1 00:44:56
keeps trugging along and, and we keep
Track 1 00:44:58
having doors open for us finally.
Track 1 00:45:00
Uh, you know, it's, it's difficult
Track 1 00:45:02
being that small family business,
Track 1 00:45:03
you know, go to a retailer and said,
Track 1 00:45:05
Hey, I got a real awesome product.
Track 1 00:45:06
Yeah.
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Yeah, get out of here.
Track 1 00:45:08
I want to hear about that.
Track 1 00:45:10
And then you'll have another one that
Track 1 00:45:11
finds us at a trade show that got a chance
Track 1 00:45:13
to try it and went, That is awesome.
Track 1 00:45:15
I would like that in my store.
Track 1 00:45:17
No brainer.
Track 1 00:45:17
Super easy.
Track 1 00:45:18
And we, we get in.
Track 1 00:45:20
But, you know, that's the best thing you
Track 1 00:45:21
can tell for being a family business.
Track 1 00:45:23
And being a business is you're, you're
Track 1 00:45:24
going to get the door slammed on you.
Track 1 00:45:26
You're going to catch your fingers in it.
Track 1 00:45:27
You're going to catch your foot in it.
Track 1 00:45:29
Um, you may, you may get your
Track 1 00:45:30
feelings hurt, but that's
Track 1 00:45:31
why Hardy Badgers don't care.
Track 1 00:45:33
But there's always going to be out
Track 1 00:45:34
of those a hundred doors that shut.
Track 1 00:45:36
There's going to be that one
Track 1 00:45:36
that pops open and it may
Track 1 00:45:38
not be the one that we were
Track 1 00:45:39
John and Connie: and all you need is one.
Track 1 00:45:40
Derrick and Bill: Walmart to say yes,
Track 1 00:45:43
we went through four meetings and
Track 1 00:45:45
the last meeting, the guy went and
Track 1 00:45:48
he's, he's digging around in the jar.
Track 1 00:45:50
He goes, I want this, we're
Track 1 00:45:52
not going any further.
Track 1 00:45:53
I'm like, Oh God, did we
Track 1 00:45:55
just lose all the deals?
Track 1 00:45:56
And I went, no, no, no.
Track 1 00:45:57
I want this in the store.
Track 1 00:45:58
And he said, can you handle 25 stores?
Track 1 00:45:59
I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Track 1 00:46:02
And we're trying not to dance.
Track 1 00:46:04
We were, we were on a zoom.
Track 1 00:46:05
Talking and it was like, we're
Track 1 00:46:07
trying not to dance and I'm, I'm
Track 1 00:46:08
hitting him and going, we're just,
Track 1 00:46:10
we're talking about the deal.
Track 1 00:46:12
And, uh, you know, afterwards we're
Track 1 00:46:14
dancing around in the kitchen.
Track 1 00:46:16
I don't know if those people know that.
Track 1 00:46:17
I mean, that, that feeling, then
Track 1 00:46:19
when you're doing business with a
Track 1 00:46:20
small business and you have that
Track 1 00:46:22
success, it's like, we're dancing,
Track 1 00:46:24
we're like, Whoa, we're valid.
Track 1 00:46:27
We're real beekeepers.
Track 1 00:46:28
We're real honeymakers.
Track 1 00:46:29
You know, it pretty much justifies
Track 1 00:46:31
everything you're trying to do.
Track 1 00:46:33
John and Connie: Exactly.
Track 1 00:46:34
Exactly.
Track 1 00:46:35
Derrick and Bill: stuff.
Track 1 00:46:37
John and Connie: Yes, and it is
Track 1 00:46:38
so important to celebrate that.
Track 1 00:46:40
Well, and that's a perfect wrap for
Track 1 00:46:43
celebrating small family businesses.
Track 1 00:46:44
We are so happy that we contacted
Track 1 00:46:46
you and that we got to do this.
Track 1 00:46:49
We look forward to celebrating you
Track 1 00:46:50
and helping promote your business.
Track 1 00:46:52
And, um, look forward
Track 1 00:46:53
to future conversations.
Track 1 00:46:54
I, I see you.
Track 1 00:46:57
There's so much we didn't talk about.
Track 1 00:46:58
Right.
Track 1 00:46:59
But thank you so much again
Track 1 00:47:02
Derrick and Bill: That's why I
Track 1 00:47:02
said people usually throw things
Track 1 00:47:03
at me and tell me to stop.
Track 1 00:47:05
Then we haven't gotten to the
Track 1 00:47:06
bee, the bee aspect of it.
Track 1 00:47:08
But, uh, yeah, we
Track 1 00:47:10
appreciate you having us on.
Track 1 00:47:11
We, we love that.
Track 1 00:47:12
And yeah, really cool.
Track 1 00:47:15
We, we love doing it and we go out and
Track 1 00:47:16
we try to talk to people and mentor
Track 1 00:47:19
and help people as much, you know,
Track 1 00:47:20
as much as you can, you got to give
Track 1 00:47:22
back what you put out, you know, if
Track 1 00:47:23
you're having success, talk to people.
Track 1 00:47:25
John and Connie: Wonderful.
Track 1 00:47:26
Derrick and Bill: peoples.
Track 1 00:47:28
Definitely.
Track 1 00:47:31
John and Connie: Well, I hope that all
Track 1 00:47:32
of our present and future listeners
Track 1 00:47:34
will at least visit your website.
Track 1 00:47:37
Absolutely.
Track 1 00:47:38
Fonts of information about
Track 1 00:47:39
bees and beekeeping and honey.
Track 1 00:47:42
Oh my never thought nothing flavors
Track 1 00:47:47
So if you like food and flavors,
Track 1 00:47:49
gotta check it That's right.
Track 1 00:47:50
That's honeybadgerbeefarm.
Track 1 00:47:52
com
Track 1 00:47:54
Derrick and Bill: Yep.
Track 1 00:47:54
real short and simple,
Track 1 00:47:57
like a honey badger.
Track 1 00:48:00
John and Connie: There you go.
Track 1 00:48:00
Well, thank
Track 1 00:48:01
Derrick and Bill: might see us out
Track 1 00:48:02
there da something, something weird
Track 1 00:48:05
John and Connie: Fabulous.
Track 1 00:48:06
You're to dance on TikTok
Track 1 00:48:08
chicksTikTok not afraid.
Track 1 00:48:12
Thank you again for being with us and
Track 1 00:48:14
sharing your life with us and uh, we
Track 1 00:48:17
look forward to Having more conversations
Track 1 00:48:21
Derrick and Bill: Definitely.
Track 1 00:48:22
We do too.
Track 1 00:48:24
John and Connie: Good
