Cigar Hustlers Podcast 246 Howard G Cigars

Episode Summary

Episode 246 of the Cigar Hustlers Podcast is an evening-edition sit-down with Howard G, founder of Howard G Cigars, recorded in the Mike & Mike Productions studio in Orlando. The conversation opens loose and personal — Howard's weekend in Jacksonville with former Jaguars and Steelers offensive tackle Leon Searcy, skipping the Jaguars game for floor seats to an Alicia Keys show, and a long, funny detour into NFL talk (Cowboys, Bucs, the Mike Evans–Marshon Lattimore scuffle, Micah Parsons' pass rush, and Tom Brady's unretirement). Along the way Howard explains his pre-cigar life in sales, insurance licensing and acquisition/deal connecting, and how nearly every client relationship he's built over 15 years of smoking started in a cigar lounge.

The cigar meat of the episode is Howard's approach to building a boutique brand in only two years. He walks through the All Pro Series, created specifically so athlete-branded cigars aren't just a name slapped on someone else's blend: his partners — Ike Taylor and Leon Searcy — travel to the factory or Miami and blind-smoke roughly 40 unbanded blends until they land on a cigar that's genuinely theirs. He breaks down the lineup: the box-pressed Black Moses Maduro perfecto (the flagship and best seller), the pigtailed Limited, the new Blanco Connecticut version of the Limited, and the Ike Taylor one-of-a-kind cigars including a Sumatra and a Connecticut "breakfast" torpedo that carries a Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns image inside the box as a nod to Taylor's roots before Pittsburgh. Production currently runs through American Caribbean in Nicaragua, with a new project from an undisclosed second factory slated for TPE.

Business talk gets specific and useful: Howard has moved over 100,000 sticks with a three-to-five-year goal of half a million; he prices his own website above retail so he doesn't compete with brick-and-mortar partners; he fills trade-show orders first; and he explains why the real value of PCA happens at the bar after the floor closes, where friends at larger companies introduce him to big accounts. The hosts and Howard compare PCA and TPE (TPE is more fun, PCA more ego), talk about the cost of exhibiting, allocation fairness for small retailers, and the danger of letting reps oversell into backorder. Throughout, Howard's stated edge is asking relentless questions of successful friends in the industry and actually taking the advice — "copy the right cat."

In This Episode

1. 01
   Howard G's Weekend: Jacksonville, Leon Searcy and Alicia Keys
   Howard recounts hanging with Leon Searcy in Jacksonville, skipping the Jaguars–Colts game and heading back for floor seats at an Alicia Keys concert.
2. 02
   NFL Talk: Cowboys, Bucs and Micah Parsons
   A long football detour covering the Cowboys' upset win over Cincinnati, Ezekiel Elliott's carries, the Mike Evans–Lattimore fight, and Micah Parsons' pass rushing.
3. 03
   From Deal-Maker to Cigar Brand Owner
   Howard explains his sales, insurance and acquisitions background and how 15 years of cigar-bar relationships — including hedge fund clients — led him into the industry.
4. 04
   The All Pro Series and Blind-Blending with Athletes
   Why Howard makes his athlete partners blind-smoke around 40 unbanded blends so the cigar is authentically theirs rather than a name on someone else's stick.
5. 05
   The Lineup: Black Moses Maduro, Limited, Blanco and Ike Taylor Cigars
   Howard breaks down the flagship box-pressed Black Moses Maduro perfecto, the pigtailed Limited, the new Blanco Connecticut, and Ike Taylor's Sumatra and Connecticut breakfast torpedo.
6. 06
   Ike Taylor, Leon Searcy and Life After Football
   Stories about Ike Taylor becoming a Steelers regional scout, his mock-draft accuracy, his 6:30 a.m. workouts, and Leon Searcy's Jacksonville radio show.
7. 07
   PCA vs TPE and What Trade Shows Actually Deliver
   The crew compare the two shows, the roughly $35,000 cost of exhibiting, the $5 million lighter hype, and why the post-show bar is where real orders get written.
8. 08
   Scaling a Boutique Brand: Online Sales, Allocation and Growth Goals
   Howard shares his 100,000-stick milestone, a half-million goal, his no-discount website policy, filling show orders first, and why small retailers deserve allocation.

Brands & Cigars Discussed

Linked items are in our shop. Mentions without a link aren’t currently stocked or couldn’t be matched with confidence.

Transcript

I'm waiting on you now. I'm waiting on you. I'm waiting on you. Welcome to episode 246.

Yeah. Cigar Hustler Podcast. Evening edition. Oh, that's right.

Sort of. It's definitely evening. I'm well past my bedtime. I didn't just be fucking home by now.

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I like that you have that saved on your phone now. I print it every week. I just forgot, I didn't print anything today, but we have a guest. This fucking guy, he's got a better phone than me now.

He's got... Do I have a better phone than you? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

You don't have the 13? No. Oh, I didn't know that. No, no, I think I have a 12 or an 11.

Oh, whatever. Yeah. I'd ride them out. Until they got kind of shit out.

Well, I mean, I had an eight before you got me the 13. Look, I felt... So this... First of all, Howard G from Howard G Cigars in the house.

Howard G from Howard G Cigars is on with us today. Sorry, introduce our guest. Diehard Eagles fan, if you can see on YouTube, obviously. How 'bout them cowboys, baby?

We're gonna get into that in a second, for sure. But, like, before, I just want to say, you know, so, he bitched about his computer, so now we got him the Megalodon. We had to get another, yeah, the other one started getting old. Look, he's downplaying it.

I'm not downplaying. It's a nice computer. It's better than the other one. Well, as this, so we kind of built this machine.

I can upload and download at the same time. Right, so the production company, it's, the podcast has turned into this production company. Okay. And now we have people, make sure you're on their mic too.

Yeah, you gotta lean in there, boss. There you go. There you go, you can see that sexy husky voice. Yeah, it's beautiful.

Oh, baby. Yeah. So, as this has kind of grown and developed, we got more videos and more, like, so the laptop started to bog down. It's like, dude, let's just go get you the fucking Kamehameha, Apple, yada yada.

And the other one was the Kamehameha. At the time. At the time. Yeah.

And now you have surpassed that. Right, this one's better. Yeah. And now he's got a little extra pep in his step.

He's very excited. I like new toys. I like getting new toys. Yeah.

So, you know. You do all the work, you get all the toys. That's just the way it works. Is that how that works?

Is that why I have no new toys? That's exactly why. That's why I have the nicer phone, the nicer laptop. Yeah.

Yeah, you do. You have a nicer everything. It's fucking ridiculous. So, you were just in Miami?

What were you doing in Miami? Or no? What, like today? Yesterday?

Yeah. I was in Jacksonville yesterday, earlier. Okay. I went to Jacksonville on Saturday.

Okay. To hang out with Leon Searcy, who's one of my guys. Very nice man. Awesome dude.

We hung out at Aromas. Well, we went to Island Girls and hung out at Aromas in the back VIP. Oh, so you were working? No, I was just telling you.

Oh, in the back VIP. So we can buy some bottles in there and watch the hurricane game. Okay. So since my Florida State Seminoles won on Friday night, I said I can go to Jacksonville.

What the hell? Leon's obviously a Canes guy. And hang out there with the three-time national champion. And then on Sunday, he had tickets for me to go to the Jaguars game.

Okay. But I left. You missed that fucking game? Well, when I got up.

Oh, my God. When I got up, it was raining, bro. It was like, hard down raining. You figure there's no game.

Are you new to Florida? No, it's not, but I'm a Cowboy fan. I'm not supposed to sit out there with the ponchos on in Jacksonville for the Jaguars, it's not happening. " - My casino host.

- See, this is the thing. - Yeah, what is that? - This is why I wanted Howard on. - He just says it like it's an everyday thing, like we all have a casino host.

- I need to know the life of Howard. " - Yeah. And so, I said, okay, and I, you know, text my, well, I called my fiancee, Rachel, which y'all both did. Very lovely woman.

And she was like, oh my God, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, that was the reason why I really decided, I'm not gonna risk being stuck in traffic trying to leave that game. And all this rain. To get back to Orlando, to go to Tampa.

Imagine living the line. In time to see Alicia. Wait, wait, wait, one second. It would have been so great if you didn't say the last name.

She was amazing. Alicia Keys. Yeah, yeah. I figured you'd just call her Alicia.

Yeah, yeah. A, we call her A. Yeah, we call her A. A.

A. Drop the A-bomb, you know. She'd drop a couple of bottles to the table. It was a good thing.

Can you imagine though? Like, hey, my boys got me tickets to the Jacksonville, to the NFL game, which was a great game that you missed out. Well, it was Jacksonville. But you know, I'm just gonna go ahead and I gotta put a pass on this.

I gotta get home. Yeah, I gotta get home. Because I gotta get to the Alicia Keys concert. Right.

My fiancee, so, you know, fuck that. It's floor seats. Yeah, yeah. We're going to go out.

Where were the football seats? There were, like, 200s. Oh, wow. This is Jacksonville.

I could get tickets for Jacksonville any time. I would have told you. You should have told me. 15 tickets.

A couple years ago, right? Yeah. He asked me a wheel call. Like, 200, I mean, there's, what?

He had 20 tickets waiting for me. I was only able to bring 10 people. Right. There's 10 of us.

The 10 wasn't really interested in seeing the Jaguars, it's not being funny, it's the truth, so, you know, they're a team that's been on a rebuild for a little bit, yeah, but I gotta give them credit, for them to have the number, when it comes to the Colts, it's just shocking, because that's the same team that caused them, the Colts, not to make the playoffs, by losing to them last year, they put up a goose egg, and now they scored zero points, I said, oh, man, and you missed it. That's true, but I did bet for them to cut, for them to cover. So it was uncomfortable. Right, okay, so it worked out.

I didn't bet for them to win the game. I would have made more money if I bet for them to win. But I did bet for them to cover. A home dog, they were a home dog?

Oh yeah, I love a home dog. I was like, yeah, they're gonna definitely. Like, give me the points. Mike has no idea what we're talking about.

I know cover, and I know take the point. I know cover. I understand how this works. I mean, I probably couldn't have figured it out if I was making the bad, but...

Okay, so like, all right, so Leon's obviously a partner with you, you know, you make a cigar for him, Ike Taylor's obviously a partner with you, you know, and you're kind of getting going your few years now, this is year two? Yes. Okay. All right.

So yeah, you said, hey, my life is fucking great. I got, I got NFL access. I mean, I would be like, Leon, why, I need to be on the floor. I don't, you know, I want to, I want to run out of the tunnel with these guys or whatever, but you know, hey, whatever, you know, I'm saving that for the Dallas Cowboys.

Okay, all right. That makes sense. That has clout. I need a press pass at that point.

Yeah, I get it. I get it. So you got all these things fucking going on, and you're like, hey, you know what? My life is so good, I really need to offset it.

Why don't I get in the fucking cigar industry? Is that what happened? I mean. How can I fuck this up?

Yeah, like I really need to, I need some kind of displeasure, you know, where I get teed off on all the time or whatever, you know? Cigars. That's what you. No, it was more like everything I fuckin' do is with a cigar.

Right, right. You know, if I can meet with a client and they smoke a cigar, I'm gonna meet them somewhere where we can smoke a cigar. And so with that being the case, that's what originally got me excited about getting the cigars. Just the smoking aspect of it.

It wasn't, I never had the thought of being in the business side of it. I just enjoyed cigars. Right. And I enjoyed the camaraderie, the people that I met throughout my time smoking cigars, and it's been, like, 15 years now.

Damn. And some of the relationships. How old are you? I'm 38, currently.

You're a fucking liar. I'm 38, bro. No, you're not. I want to see your driver's license right now.

I'll show you. There's no way you're 38. You think he's younger or older? I don't know.

I feel like 15 years of smoking, that means he started at, like, 23 years old. What's wrong with dad? How many people, you know, start at 23? Oh, I don't know.

Well, I have a 19 year old next month. Okay. On the 8th, I have a 19 year old. Dude.

Guys, so wait a second. Is he bullshitting with the 38 now? I'm now even more confused. I don't know.

He added another variable to this. Right, so it's... I was born at 83. Okay.

Okay. So I'll be 39. That would work. I'll be 39 in November.

Oh. So yeah, so I'm hanging on to a little bit of the 38th. What is your birthday in November? November 28th.

Oh, my wife's 29th. Oh, there you go, birthday party. Sagittarius. That's it.

Maybe we can get floor seeds for Alicia or Elton John or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, somewhere in the fuck is it. Hey, listen, Elton John ain't fucking going to Hard Rock. Oh, that's true, that's true.

The guy's gonna be at the Magic Arena if he's in this area. Or Camping World Stadium. Yeah, he's Camping World Stadium. Yeah, he's Camping World State.

Yeah, he's Camping World, yeah. So then Howard just had to call us Connect there. Right, right. It would be a big deal.

He's Camping Hostess. He's Camping Hostess. He has Hostess everywhere. So, when you say clients, what do you do?

So, outside of cigars. Yeah. So, my background has been, I've been in sales my whole life. Okay.

So, I'm not really sales, but I have an insurance license. Okay. So, I have the 215s, 214s. I've been in network marketing my whole career, but my driving force has been connecting deals, so I do a lot of acquisition connections.

So I get my points on getting the money that my clients need. Holy shit. And if you look at it from a standpoint of, okay, cigar people, people that smoke cigars, typically if you smoke If you smoke like we smoke, you typically, you're not pinching pennies, so just from that standpoint of doing all different types of deals, it's easier to do them at the cigar bar. I have nine hedge funds friends I've met over the last 15 years, that all came because of a cigar.

Now he slides his cigar over to him. C. I know, I know, but I said that now. It literally started from them semi-wearing Robert Graham shirts, and that will literally be a conversation starter.

What's Robert Graham? Thank you. You know Robert Graham shirts. The shirts I had on at the PCA show.

Oh, the bright flowery, the very nice flashy shirts. See, here's the thing, you really threw me off with the whole Dallas Cowboys gear. I thought for sure it was going to be a loud shirt that would be coming in. This is everyday wear, Howard.

No, no, no, this is not, this is during Monday. Oh, here is why, please explain to my friend, Michael, as to why you were in Dallas Cowboys. Oh, they played today? So they played yesterday.

Oh, okay. We were supposed to lose, we were expected to lose. Right. And our defense stepped up and made some plays in the last few minutes of the game.

Right. For us to get the ball back, and we drove down and kicked a field goal. Well, the linebacker that I have on right here, which is Van Der Esch, he made some really key stops in the late parts of the fourth quarter, and so since I have about 30 Cowboy jerseys, I decided to show him some love. I was going to ask, do you have one for everybody?

No. Oh, okay. " Oh, him. I wear this one.

Well, last week I wore Diggs, Trayvon Diggs, so this week I'm giving him some love. You wore that on Monday? Or did you wear that on Sunday? I wore that one on Sunday, because it was a Sunday night game.

The game that we got... Couldn't wear that on Monday. No, the game that... Because it's not a victory.

Yes. Dude, he went in methodical. Like, secondary in Dallas is no joke, right? Yes.

So, here's what we do. We're gonna run the ball. They made adjustments. Yeah.

In our first series, we ran the ball down their throes with Zeke. And then all of a sudden, we tried this fucking... Preschool, Little League, Goddamn, Gadget Plays, and running this way, and all this kind of stuff, and then like, the game just went, and they did to us what we were supposed to do to them. 2 yards average of carry, why the hell did he not get the ball 25 times?

I do not know. Let's give it to Pollard. Mix it up. Yeah, mix it up.

Why did we not run the ball? I know, it's a joke. But, you know, Tom Brady, he's the GOAT, and their best thing about them is they're good at adjustments, and so our guys are not. Mm-hmm.

Or, you know, taking out cornerbacks when they get fuckin' lippy, which I loved yesterday. I didn't, so-- Yeah, Mike Evans. Yeah, dude, first of all, I mean, I know this isn't sport talk or whatever, but we're gonna wrap this up real quick, and then we'll move on. So, my son's birthday party was yesterday, so I'm at a fuckin' bowling alley, and we got 30 kids.

And it's chaos, right? But I guess at some point, you just accept it for what it is. And you just kind of let everybody go, right? I don't give a shit.

Whatever. Throw the balls. Everybody have a good time. So I'm not really watching the game, right?

But then I see, I pick my head up as this play is going down, not replaying. I'm like, oh, oh, oh, shit. So Lattimore was talking smack to Arians. Right.

And then Leonard Fournette, the running back, gets involved. And then Tom Brady gets involved. And you can clearly see, fuck you, coming out of Tom Brady's mouth. And as Lattimore is getting loud and going in, you don't have to worry about that because Mike Evans is going to take care of it.

And Mike Evans has fucking leveled this guy. And I'm going to tell you right now, if that shit did not happen, Tampa Bay was not going to win that game. They did not have the mojo. The Saints always have their number.

But you took out, you know, and now he's suspended for a game. Yeah, but he's my fantasy, one of my wide receivers, so I mean, I didn't expect him to suspend him, and then also, to the point of, they had Tampa Bay's number when there was a different quarterback. Drew Brees? Yeah.

Winston's got a Winston, baby. Hey, but you're an FSU guy. I am, but I can't, I can't, listen, it's only so much fight I got, man. He made three interceptions with 12 minutes left in the damn game.

I mean, if he could throw to the Bucs the way that he If he threw to the Bucs at that game, he'd still be on the Bucs. I said damn, bro. I can't really say anything. He's also, Phil is also an FSU guy.

I would die hard. But I, listen, there's only so many no's I can get. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, no's all the way.

I don't know what, he's, obviously you can see he knows nothing about sports. I had no idea what he was doing, I know. He has nothing about it. I'm gonna make sure everything's working.

I never heard Mikey's stance on college. You know, I don't really have a stance on college. I'll tell you what, I, I, I was like a U, University of Miami, but it was like based on nothing, it was only based on the fact I liked the Rock, Rock was University of Miami, I watched the U, right? My son's kind of fucking this up for me, okay?

So he watched Kadarius Toney break off a huge play a couple years ago, and he's like, that's my guy, you know, he's the man, I'm a Gators fan, I'm like, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, we're Gators now? We're fucking Gators. Oh my god. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.

So, he's like, I want to go, I want to go to Florida, I want to be a Gator. I'm like, okay, you know, that's what you want to do. Wow. I know it's tough, it's hard.

We can talk him out of that. I know that, like Seminoles, the campus is not, I know, I've heard it. Believe me, I've heard the whole thing. Listen, Florida ditch lizards.

Man You know what I despise the Gators It's just I don't even really have no beef with Miami like that Outside of Florida State Going wide right right left And they bring that up all the time But But them damn Gators Oh my god There's nothing inside of me that gets excited about them I mean they could be going against a team from Timbuktu. I'm going team Timbuktu. It's just how it is. I heard they have a good secondary this year as well, Timbuktu.

Yeah, Timbuktu. It's the running game you've got to watch that for. South Florida was supposed to be Timbuktu the other night. They just couldn't pull it off.

Yeah. So, hey, you know, well, we're glad that you made it out for starters. I didn't really get to do that at the beginning, but I'm glad that we're kind of getting to know you a little bit more, which is really fun. So you're kind of progressing, right?

Like I'm, I'm seeing the progression. I'm, I'm watching it. You know, I got to, I got, we were fortunate enough to stand next to you at PCA, which is really cool for us because, you know, that's a bullshit with you a little more. I really got to know Leon a lot more, which is fantastic because the more he talked, I was like, the more I wanted to listen.

I'm like, holy shit. Tell, tell me what else is going on, you know? And Ike is obviously a good guy. You know, I think he's a little more standoffish at first.

But once he realizes that you're a good dude, he's like, okay. Ike is like an old school Chevy. You cut him on, but you got to idle in. You got to idle in a little bit.

Pump the gas a little. You start him up, he's ready to go right there. So that's just the difference in the personalities. So once you realize that, I give examples.

30. 30. Ike's like, bro, I see you at 12 o'clock, 12, 12, 30. I already know that because Ike's going to go run like 10 miles before he gets there.

And so, but the dynamics when you bring us together, it's pretty much our match. We literally have a ball. You guys are friends, man. But then separately, we both do our things together.

Right, right. You know, where it's just me and Leon, just me and Ike. And we kind of like just, the wavelength is just smooth. But we enjoy each other and what I really appreciate about those guys are that that's the reason I started the All Pro Series on the cigar side because I've known there are athletes that have cigars that typically were not designed for them, meaning they had nothing to do with the actual making of the process.

They just put their name on it. They just put their name on it. Right. And we all know this is a residual business.

Right. And so you can like an athlete a whole lot. You can be a huge fan of it. But being consumers that you guys are aficionados in smoking, if you think a cigar is trash, you know.

Right. Doesn't matter whose name's on it. You don't give a damn who it is. It's just trash.

Yeah, you'll smoke it once and then that's it. Right. The benefit to the all pro side is I wanted to make sure that my athlete went down either to the factory or even down to Miami, depending on how the schedule was, and I lay out, you know, 40 different types of blends that was unbanded, you couldn't see a band, you couldn't see anything to get biased, but you can just literally smoke and just get your honest opinion and then go from there. I like this one.

You know what I mean? This one's mine. I like this one. You know, I'll say, just smoke it a little bit the first quarter.

If you like it, smoke it, you know, go a little more, or whatever, but all I want to do is get an authentic review from you of what it is, so we narrow it down, because once we make the cigar, and you say that's your favorite cigar, then I believe I can sell it to the world, to the masses. But it has to be authentic, you know? And so now, whether or not somebody likes that particular blend, that's perfectly fine. But it doesn't take away the fact that that's literally that person's favorite cigar.

They have stamps of approval, the whole thing. And I think that's another big thing that happens in this industry is a lot of people make a cigar and they'll smoke it around people and the people will think that it's shit and they won't say that. Like, oh, yeah, yeah, no, no, I really like this one. So you just send a person right off a fucking cliff, which is fucking atrocious, but it happens all the time, right?

So, kudos to you for kind of doing it that way, and going about it, you know. I appreciate it. Yeah, we just have, we try to keep it 100, right, which is in the terms of just keeping it real, being your authentic self. I like that you break that down for Mike, that's very nice.

Yeah, I knew what that meant. No, no, no, you need to understand, listen, you're extremely, you're very white, you're a very white person. Yeah, I understand, I know, I understand, I know. And we got to bring you up to speed on some of these things, you know.

Well, I do have the Ali and Savage guys. Yes, that's true. Yeah, he does, yeah, he does a, he does. I have to ask them, there's another show we do, and I have to ask him sometimes after the show, like, okay, what is a Roscoe?

Why did some guy have a Roscoe or something? Oh, my goodness. That was the first night, yeah. Like, I don't understand what that was, fellas.

I'm very sorry. It's a gun, apparently. It is. It absolutely is a gun, yes.

So I'm picking up some of the vernacular. Good. That's important. Oh, it is.

Yeah. I'm very street now. I'm very street. Good, yeah.

Well, you know, eventually we'll have you pick a gang color, and, you know, it'll be, I'll have to check with my guys. You gotta go, yeah, you gotta go deep, though, yeah, you gotta, I mean, if you're gonna go. Actually, I'd probably just ask my wife, she'd probably tell me. She could, yeah, she definitely knows more slang than you.

Oh, certainly does. " Yeah, but that's a little embarrassing, I'd rather ask them than my wife. Oh, really? Yeah.

Yeah, she would definitely chastise you. Yeah, yeah, she would. " He's so white, he did not know what a Roscoe was, guys. Then they all laugh, and I'm in the butt of every joke for the rest of the school year.

Then they call me, Roscoe, every time, hey, Roscoe, how you doing? See you at the Christmas party, pal. Right, I can say. Oh, man.

Yeah, this is the podcast. This is dope. You and Ike still doing a podcast? Yes.

So, our podcast is a little different. It's not like, this right here is a real deal set up podcast. Ours is, we're just gonna get together. Right.

Because we're together three or four times a week, and we're going to smoke a cigar, and we're just going to do some clips of our normal conversations or whatever some bullshit we want to talk about. What's the name? We'll give you a plug. So, we call it the Ike and Howie Slinging Cigars Podcast.

So, we got to do one this week, but what happened was, and shout out to Ike, he just became the regional scout for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh! That's a big fucking deal. It really is.

Yeah, it is. Because, you know, a lot of people don't know, and I always, I big up both of my guys. Big up means I give them a whole lot of money. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

There you go, Mike, you're moving right along. Moving right along. Yeah, write that one down, okay? Costco Big Ups 100.

There you go, perfect. But I love to give the guys their flowers, you know, and so one of the things is, a lot of people And if you didn't know about Ike, Ike was Mr. Dan Rooney's, well, favorite player, in our opinion. And the reason why is because when Mr.

Rooney died, his pallbearers for his funeral was his seven grandsons and Ike Taylor. Oh, wow! And you can Google that. You know what Jack said, Google me?

You can Google that. " Right, that's how he- How's it going back there, guys? Can you see over my head? You know what I mean?

So, for him, like, Pittsburgh Steelers football, coaching, like, that's just his passion. Honestly, the GM status. " It's a steakhouse, Michael. Right.

Oh, that is, I'm very poor, so I have no idea what a steakhouse is. I have kids, it's tough. So you're more about pizza and stuff like that, right? You don't know about my dining?

No, you have no idea what that was. I just want to doordash it and have them go to bed. I don't think you can doordash Morton's. Yeah, no, no.

Apparently you could order if you have Howard status. He's got a host, yeah. Morton's host, yeah. Yes.

Yes. Hi. I don't have the juice at Morton's. The juice.

That's another one. I know that. Okay. Ike has the juice at Morton's.

Okay. Wow. Even though he's a vegetarian. Well, he eats fish.

He eats fish. Oh. Okay. You know what?

They have fish at Morton's? For him. Yeah. They probably do just for Ike.

For Ike. Get Ike's fish out. He's on the phone. Ike's eating somebody to get some fucking fish.

Listen, I was cool. He had like 10 filets for me, so. Nice. Well, and salmon and all that kind of stuff.

But the thing that got me is when I walked in, he says, so, bro, here's my first round picks before the draft starts. Right. So I'm looking at it. The first thing I look for is where my Cowboys pick at.

And I look, and it says Michael Parsons, Penn State. I'm like, fuck off. No, no, we're not. We want Patrick Sertain.

Let me tell you why. Boom, boom, boom. And I'm doing all my little Stephen A. Smith shenanigans, right?

Right, right. " This dude, out of the 32 teams, on paper he already gave it to me, he got 28 of 'em right. Right. Wow.

That's pretty fucking good. " Right. You know your shit. " Right, he knows his game.

And so, and that's how heavy he is with that. And when it comes to the big search, Leon, Leon has his own radio station in Jacksonville, so they have this segment, it's Lunch with Leon, it's like from 11 to 3 or something like that, and so Leon's been able to bring in, and his voice is amazing for like, commentary, and so he's had the different coaches on his show, and he does them back to back, back to back. But he has the Gators coach, then Florida State, then he brought in, you know, Crystal Ball from Miami, and stuff like that, but he talks a lot about Jacksonville, other stuff, but everything they do is authentic, and it's really good. Wow, they're good dudes, man.

Yeah, they're very nice. I got to talk with Ike a little bit about, you know, coaching his kid and stuff, and that's where we kind of had something to bullshit on, you know, Mike, 'cause that's not easy in itself. You know, that's a huge task. And it's not so hard it is with the kids.

I mean, he's at another fucking level, right? Don't get me wrong. Right, yeah. I'm teaching five and six-year-olds to be like, no, no, you got to go the fucking, it's called foot, it's called football.

We're going for the kid with the football. No, no, you don't use your foot. Yeah, like this way, right? Where he's, you know, he's doing other things.

All different levels. Yeah, and he says that his son's going to be better than him when the time comes, right? Yeah. So, like, that was really where we could kind of bullshit a little bit and really talk about things, right?

But, like, Leon, you could just sit down and say, so how's your day? And he's like, what do you want to know? I could break down the omelet and tell you how it sucked or tell you how it was good. I like when you ask him what he missed the most about football.

And he goes, the money. I mean, that's an honest answer. Fuck, man. That's a big search, man.

That's how you, but you know, when someone's real, it makes life so much easier. " You know, it was just a camaraderie, you know. It's the cash, I miss the cash. Yeah, the money was really good.

Right. Right? Totally different level. So this, for me, this is my favorite screw you make.

Okay. The Black Moses. We actually, we've reviewed a couple so far on the Patreon. We did the new one.

We did that one recently. We did that one. We did the other one too. Didn't we do the new one?

With the white? Oh, there's the white band. Okay, you turned it over. Connecticut?

Yeah, we did that. We just released that one. We put it in our month club. The one-of-a-kind Connecticut we haven't done yet.

But I'm going to tell you right now, this cigar for me is fucking the best. So here's the deal. What I want you guys to see out of that cigar, that is the Black Moses Maduro before they box-press it. So the actual one that is sold is a box-pressed Perfecto.

Okay, so that's why it looks different. So what I do is, I have what we call personal smokes that I have sent to me from the factory, so I don't end up smoking stuff that's actually in my inventory, so I have to have my own stuff, 'cause I smoke a lot. Right, it's a problem, I get it, we all have that problem. Think about it, guys like us, we socialize, so I mean, hey, my buddy's a manufacturer, and then we're going to hang out, and he doesn't have cigars, what the hell?

You know what I mean? So I would rather bring them stuff like, I'm like, ah, try this. Yeah, something a little different. They feel exclusive.

Right, right. They feel special and everything. Exactly. So that's what that particular cigar is.

But that was the very first blend, just in the box press shape, was the Black Moses Maduro. So it's our number one seller. It's our flagship product. I've gotten a lot of traction from the Limited now.

The Limited has come on, that's the one that has the pigtail, and that one's been going good. And then we're just releasing the Blanco, which is a Connecticut version of the Limited. So it's the same blend. Realized that 50% of the market is really Connecticut in sales, so we just went that way.

It's hard, dude. It's hard finding your footing in that realm, because if you're a bold smoker and you work with a factory that does a lot of bold cigars, Finding that other avenue can sometimes be difficult, you know. We had that experience with the BDP. Why are you making faces, Phil?

No, I want him to do more camera three when you're talking. Yeah, Phil, god damn it. What's wrong with you? I'm watching.

You're staying on two. Still camera two. I just went to Howard G the whole time. This is not Ike.

No, what are you talking about, Ike and everything? Right, right, right. That was a very racist. I've seen one come on.

I haven't seen three. I just want you to give Mikey some airtime. It's safe to say you would never see Ike with this color. Right, right.

That will not happen. Listen, listen. Beat me to that. Eric, go ahead.

If Ike was in cowboy. Yeah, you're good, you're good now. If Ike was in cowboy outfit, there would be some fucking serious problems. We're just enjoying the show and everything.

Yeah, I was, I was enjoying the comedy. Right, right, so. We could do some Gator stuff, that way you could be on three the whole time. Don't get it twisted.

I'm so upset over it. I'm not there yet, okay? I'm just saying that that's where I'm at as far as. I'm ordering it right now.

Gator stuff? Yeah, for you. All right, well, I'll tell you which one I want. Please don't say the quarterback.

No, I'll tell you which one I want. Who do you want, who do you want? Aaron fucking Hernandez, god damn it. Are they allowed to sell those?

He was a legitimate gangster. Yeah, yes, that's it. I'll tell you what, I only have one, so I was born in Boston, so I'm a Patriots fan, but now I've become a Bucs fan when my son was born. Okay.

I don't have jerseys like you, unfortunately. I have like one or two. Now, whenever like postseason would come out and people would come around, I would wear a jersey. I have one Brady jersey, and then when shit got serious, I have one Aaron Hernandez jersey.

Because, like, fuck it. If a guy is wearing an Aaron Hernandez jersey, do you really want to fuck with that guy, you know? No, no, no. I wouldn't want to fuck with that guy.

No, no, no. What are your business now? He's dead serious. Yeah, the guy's not fucking around.

He's really ordering you, because now he's not changing the camera at all. So you just have to keep talking. Good luck looking for that, too. Now I'm permanently on camera.

It says out of stock. Yeah, no shit. Did you try the bigger size? Wow.

What do you want me to get, 4X, 3X? Something to fit his arms and his shoulders. He's going to be angry though. Because he won't have the pads, but it looks like he has the pads on.

He's going to work out 10 times tomorrow. At this point, you're going to have to get a knockoff version from China or something. Two Asian. Two Asian.

Custom jersey. Just customize it. It's done. Just tell him you want 81 and tell him your last name is Hernandez.

it gets red flagged i'm sure like wait a second wait what are you doing no you can't do that so but yeah you get over there now yeah i'm great okay so yeah kind of getting into the connecticut realm can be difficult we had that experience with bdp like we were we're very well known post on is well known for bold cigars right and then we started making these one-offs And they were all bold. Then we came across a really good cigar that we enjoyed and it's a lighter cigar. So like that market, we haven't really tapped into it because all our consumers are bold smokers, right? So I'm not saying don't do it.

I'm just saying that like progression over and expansion sometimes takes a little bit longer, you know? But we like that Connecticut cigar. We're definitely a fan. I like everything that you're doing.

I think that, you know, you're fun to watch. You're fun to watch. You know what I mean? Like, it's fucking...

Yes, because he's doing so well at a younger stage of the game. Yeah. Like, off the rip, you're not, you know, PCA, right? You've experienced PCA, obviously.

Day one, you know, especially kind of being new, it's very exciting. It's, you know, like, you go in, you get to talk to people, you write some orders and stuff like that. And then you have day two, and maybe a little bit less. And then, like, there's day three.

And especially with the way the PCA is currently, the numbers aren't there, right? So you slowly start to kind of bleed out and it becomes a bit of a time suck, right? And for guys like me, I'm just like, okay, well, glad Leon's here. You know, like I could have somebody to talk to.

Was this your first PCA? No, it was actually our second. Your second? Okay.

And we met him at the other show. TPE, that's where we ran into him. Yeah, we put them to the test of TPE, and we instantly became a fan. But I was on the outside section, which was, I loved that, because I got all the traffic, and so people was walking by, but literally, if we'll be honest with you, TPE is way more fun than PCA.

I believe it. PCA is, everything's like, you know, everybody's like real time, and everybody's jerking off all the bigwigs. Right, yeah. A lot of egos to be struck.

Yeah, so it's like, you know, like you see this time at PCA, the whole talk was, did you see, you know, the gold, the- Yeah, the five million dollar lighters. Yeah, the five million dollar lighters. And stuff like that. I'm like, no, fuck no, I didn't see that, man.

I was over there trying to, like, expand my freaking brand. Right, right. You know what I'm saying? And time to walk around.

Which is kind of my point. Like, every single day, you kept your tempo. Like, you were like a fucking firecracker. As soon as you walk up, what's up?

Ready to go. I'm like, God damn, I wish I had, I mean, and I'm the same age as you. I'm like, fuck, I wish I had that kind of energy. You know, you've been beat down a lot longer.

I have been. It's a tough, it's not to, it's, it's an, yeah, yeah. Cigar industry is a lot, bro. It's a lot.

And you'll learn, like, but I don't, you're not the type of guy to really kind of let that affect you. You know, you don't have that mindset, which is fucking amazing, dude. Well, man, bro, I believe in having a good time. I mean, think about it.

And you're gonna have a good time, regardless. How many people did not wake up in the last, let's say, six months, every freaking day, I'm getting alerts on my phone that's talking about this person just died, and I'm looking at them like, damn, that person's younger than me. You know, this person, I mean, I've lost this year, like, my favorite uncle, you know what I mean, and somebody else in the family, and somebody else. So, I'm sitting there, like, I have two things I can do: I can look at the glass of half empty, or look at the damn bitch, it's half full.

Right. You know what I mean? It's like, okay, I lost some, okay, let's steal, I can still make some more. Right.

And believe it or not, that's why my happy place is going to Hard Rock to the casino, and going to my little slot machines. Right. Because I smoke my cigar, I relax. Right.

That's where you unplug. And I just relax, and, you know-- And the host just brings him everything he wants. Yeah, yeah. Perfect.

Listen, I'm pretty-- I don't blame you at all, man. It's kind of a big deal. He's dialed it in. It's kind of a big deal.

I got a pretty good percentage. I'm working off percentages now. 70%. That's nice.

I've been pretty good. But, you know, it's literally having fun and enjoying the moment. Yeah. A lot of people try to get too fast.

They want to be there instead of understanding what it takes from here to there. Right. One of the big things is the conversations that I, like I'll talk to Ike and say, listen, you know, before you got here with the Steelers or before you guys had these Super Bowl runs and stuff like that, he's like, yeah, but he said, I care more about right here. Where the preparation and how to work out, how to handle being a professional right here.

I know I'm going to eventually get there, but if I fine tune it here, by the time I get there, it's second nature, right? Like, it's like still working out like that. Right, right. So when it comes on to the business standpoint, all I do is, I look at it, I look at goals, I look at markets where we want to be, right?

But how can we sustain what we're doing? Because the worst thing you want to do as a boutique brand is to get in some of these places and then turn around and then And not be able to fulfill it, the orders again, and stuff like that. And so that's why I make sure that I properly gauge everything, properly go that route. And so even with the PCA, I'm like, you know, that was about $35,000.

So I'm like, okay, might as well, you know, be on the move. But the benefit for PCA has been, honestly, after the show, when everybody meet up at the bar. 100%. And so, I always give credit to where credit's due.

I have buddies that are in larger companies, that they work for the companies in different positions, and then they say, "Man, hey Howie, bring some cigars with you. I'm going to introduce you to some of my large accounts, and then give them something to smoke, so they can smoke. " And so, that's what happens. That's great.

They smoke the black, I'll lead with that one, of course, or I'll lead with the Ike Taylor, because there's a lot of guys that are Stiller fans, as well, that was there. And so I'll leave with one of those two cigars, and then once they, once they, um, the guy smokes the cigar and stuff like that, he's like, oh man, this is a good cigar. I said, well, listen, you know, let's say the name is John, hypothetically. I said, listen, John, I know you, I know you, you, you know, you, you wrote a 200,000 with such and such brand.

I said, man, you know what, give me a $10,000 order. You know, get the foot in the door. And with that, I'll do, I'll do an event. Right.

And then it was like, okay, no problem, I'll do that. Yeah, it's an easy gamble. Well, at least I got him, he liked the cigar, so he smoked it. It's a good product.

It's a good product. It was also recommended by somebody that they... Right, that they already know and respect. Right.

So it's like, all right, well, we'll give it a shot. And the face behind it, you're 100% in, right? Like, you're good to go. You're not like, ah, fuck that.

You know what I mean? Yeah, so it's been more of a scenario that way. That makes a big difference. We did that with the, you saw with the pre-orders for the new cigars, with the Little Search and the Connecticut Ike.

Connecticut Ike, it's the identical same blend as the Sumatra, it's just a 52, and he wanted a torpedo shape on it. Right. And then Connecticut Rapper. Right.

But what I did was, I put the picture from his Hall of Fame, from the Raging Cajuns in there. Right. From his school, Louisiana Lafayette. Mm-hmm.

Because, During the bowl games, last year, we went to the bowl game, we had a suite, and they played Marshall, and we had a, I had a bag full of the, you know, Ike Taylor's one of a kind cigar, the Sumatra, about a hundred or something of them, a couple hundred, and when they won and beat Marshall, that's where we were at, on the field, and in the locker rooms, giving the cigar to every single person, from the team, to the president, see the president light up the one of a kind cigar, and stuff like that. So when we were talking about making a breakfast cigar for Ike, I told him, why don't we switch the picture inside and make that, you know, everybody knows you from the Steelers, but if it wasn't the Louisiana Lafayette, there's no Steelers. Correct, right. And so that's one of the things that we did that way.

And the feedback from that cigar has been, I mean, the traction on it has been really well. We haven't smoked that one yet. No, we haven't. We haven't.

We haven't smoked it yet. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's, I mean, now for Boulder's guys, now this is going to be stronger than that. Okay.

This is going to have a little bit more notes to it as well. I got questions for Ike, man. I'm like, okay, so, you know, first of all, I respect the guy that flat out says, "Hey, listen, I'm not going to be there at 10. " Yeah, I'm not making it at 10.

Yeah, I'll see you there and then just show up. He's like, "No, fuck that. " Like, that's definitely my approach. I love that.

But I'm curious as to how, if it's his breakfast morning cigar, when does that happen? Oh, when does he have breakfast? Yeah, like is it post-workout? Is there a rest recovery procedure?

Like, I mean, you know, like the geek in me as far as like athleticism, I want to know. You want to know where it comes in? Yeah, when do you light it up? I just use a cigar around 12 o'clock every day.

Yeah? m. Okay. So, the reason he does his workout at 6:30, because at 8 o'clock, then he has people coming over, and he works them out.

Gotcha. Oh, okay, like a trainer. Yeah. Well, kind of.

Yeah, right, right, right, no, yeah. " Right. You know, typically consists of 500 to 1,000 sit-ups to start, Flutter Kegs, Left Over Right. Is it like younger athletes, or is it just people he knows, just friends?

Typically, athletes are in the summertime, or some of the kids that play in high school with his son, stuff like that, that workout is a little different, but the other ones be like parents, people living in the neighborhood, you know, that lives, hey, can we work out, you know? Yeah. But like, but could you imagine like being a kid and having that exposure and that opportunity? Oh sure, right.

Like, that's fucking next level. Right. Like, coach is going, you're doing good, what's happening? Yeah, so how'd you learn all the footwork?

Oh, I was at Ike's house today at 8:00. He had to show up at Ike's at 8:00, and he has these flutter kick things that I do, and it works out really well. And then he's been working with me, and you know. Right.

Fuck, man, that's crazy. You know, kudos to him. Be like if you had a workout from The Rock. Yeah.

Well, yeah, something like that. But I don't know. I don't know about all that, well, I'm just trying to think of somebody who you look up to as an athlete or physical fitness guy. Yeah, I mean, I just feel like some of his stuff is like, eh, I got questions.

Bro, you look like, okay, I'm fit, I'll kick somebody's ass, but it's not like, over, like, The Rock looks like he's like, one more fucking bicep curl from trying to be Mr. Goddamn Olympia. Oh, from exploding. Yeah, right, it's like one flecks away from it just blowing up completely.

Yeah, like, boom, you know. Yeah, I gotta, I gotta get on the sauce, that's what it is. I can't do that. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, more shots of them.

Yeah, a little more shots of them, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. What's one extra one? Yeah, what the hell? That's one more amongst friends, right?

Right. Let me ask you that. Forty-five. Okay.

So, now you're two years in. Obviously, one year was fucking COVID, right? So, that's a hard way to kind of analyze data, right? There's so many anomalies going on in the industry, in the market, as well as you being accessible and traveling and all those things.

And now you've got two PCAs under your belt. I'm sure you're scheduled for the next TPE, right? How many, what number of cigars do you think you want to produce annually to say, all right, we're, we've arrived and I'm good with this, this is where I want to be, you know? So right now, we've done over a hundred thousand sticks.

That's a good number. But my goal, honestly, I have everything breaking down to three to five years, and then past that, so the goal next is to get to a half a million sticks. That's a good number, man. Now, the difference is, our numbers is a little different, because until we have the amount of wholesalers, retail partners across the country, we still sell online, and COVID showed us the numbers, why, a lot of people stopped going to, because of the whole...

Right, they didn't go to the shops anymore. And some people realized that they really had a nice freaking man cave at home, and a nice backyard, or a nice thing, and that they could actually save money by drinking their own alcohol, and stealing it at home, and stuff like that, so that number has increased, so we kept the website part going, and so I figured I'm gonna, as we continue to get larger, then I'm gonna move towards doing something different online, which was... Which would be more merch driven and maybe some exclusive things that's only website only. But other than that, we try to not, we don't compete with our retailers.

So if our retailers are selling it for this particular price, we'll go higher on the website. Unless you're in a market where it's 75% tax. No, I can't help you with that. But you're not deep discounting your own product.

Yeah, so not that, but from that standpoint, other than that, we're just literally just trying to perfect the craft. Right. I get that. You know, just increase the numbers.

We have some stores that are really, do really well, but then we have some other stores that we're like, that store has potential to be where these other stores are at. And it depends on just, you know, getting the right system down in place and so, and going by there and stuff like that. Do you think that the online retail has given, has anybody given you blowback about that? No.

No, I didn't think so. I mean, the people that say stuff, their volumes are so small it doesn't really make a difference. Yeah, like I wouldn't want to fucking work with them anyways. Yeah, like it's like if you're worried about that, like, but then you want to take the product and then sell it on your website.

right and then you want to get mad at me i'm like i'm like at the end of the day you know we're for a profit bro like we're not right it's my business i want to take care of you as well you know like you can carry the product you can sell the product you know it's like what the fuck my price is more than yours yeah what's the what's the right but i could see that listen in my personal experiences i have seen retailers that that because we sell our own product right we also sell our own product to retailers now we don't discount post on the online right and if if i'm let's say especially when it comes to my limiteds or some of these other things if i only have a quantity of x i will never hold back anything for myself i'll make sure that everybody's covered right so like all our spcs we've never really had them online we've never had it you know like i've always sold them to retailers because they sell out so like i've never had that issue but i've had people ask And I'm like, yeah, I just, if you feel that way, like if you think that I'm here to kind of fuck you, then why are we having this conversation? Like, yeah, I'm a good dude. I'm not, I'm not going to fuck anybody over. And if I have to explain that to you, then we got a lot to talk about.

Yeah, we got to move the fuck on, you know, so I don't see the problem with you putting it online, man. I don't have an issue with it. I'm a retailer, you know, so keep doing what you're doing. I think we focus on trying to continue to get the brand awareness out there, but then on top of that, it's like, we look at it, a lot of the people that are serious come to the shows, so we are at the shows, and we expect a lot of the people that come to the shows, so I'll give an example.

When we came out with these new cigar boxes, these new ones we just released, we were going to fulfill the orders that came from the show first, that's just only right. Right, it's the way you should do it. And so then there was some people that was not happy because they didn't come to the show, I was like, well, I gotta take care of the guy that was there first. Those are the ones that came, they asked for the product, they fill out the form, we already had them, So they were going to get the first amount that was released, and then we're going to continue to go from there, but, I mean, you can't please everybody.

No, right. There's always going to be somebody who complains. Somebody's always going to bet you about something. At the end of the day, we're not really worried about it.

Yeah, man, I love that attitude. That's the right way to look at it. It's all right. We'll be here.

We're going to be okay. I'm not going anywhere. We'll be here. There's no reason to try to rush.

There's going to be tomorrow. Hopefully we're still alive and we're good. We keep pushing. So right now you work with one factory, right?

So right currently, we work with a factory in Nicaragua, American Caribbean, but I do have something coming out for TPE that is coming from another factory. Are you going to disclose the factory or no? You don't want to? " Right now, I didn't disclose it, but they're pretty decent, they do pretty well.

I'd say they're firm. They're firm, they produce a lot of cigars, but I had a concept that I wanted to put out, and I wanted to, I have a certain niche I wanted to go after, and so that was the route that we went, and I wanted a different type of flavor, and a different type of audience. Right. That I could get with that particular blend.

Hey man, kudos to you for identifying that, man. Like that's a big step. Honestly, man, like some of the time, like we've had conversations and I'm like, oh shit, he already skipped. Okay, that's good.

He advanced from that step quick. He learned fast on this. Like you, you have done things that have really kind of expedited your process into making a successful business. Where I've seen a lot of people kind of stumble, you know, I'm like, or, or I will say, hey, listen, I've kind of taken this test.

This is from Phil, and so, here are the answers to the test, like, go ahead and take a look at that, and, you know, use this for your test, where a lot of people will be like, no, fuck that, I don't want to, I don't need the answers, I'm just going to go ahead and crash this plane and fucking whatever, I'm like, okay, dude, but like, you are intelligent, where you just say, okay, this is working, this is what I need to do, you take advice from other people, and you continue to grow and build, man. Like, if everybody had that fucking outlook, it'd be like, you would be successful after a few years. You'd be moving along. Right.

Let me help you based on what I've already fucked up. Right. Yeah. Here are all the mistakes I've made.

Right. Like, don't do that. I can help you not to make them. Yeah, yeah.

No, no. Fuck you. I'm fine. I won't do it anyway.

Yeah, what the fuck do you know? Right. You know. It's crazy, man.

It's crazy. The sad thing about it is, it's, it's, um, I believe in, if you copy the right cat, you know, it's no, it's nothing wrong with being a copycat, just copy the right cat. Right. So this company is $15, $20 million in the cigar space.

Right. And you have a personal friend that's outside of just, you know, just regular friends. Right, yeah. I'm in your city.

Right. We're at dinner. Right. We're hanging out.

You're in Orlando. The first person gets a call is me. Right. Right.

So if we've got relationships like that, I'm going to ask a million questions while we're chilling. Right. You're off the clock. Right.

Right, yeah. You got a cognac in your hand, a scotch, or something, and so I want to know, so, how many boxes are you guys backordered? Right, yeah, like how, you know what I mean? Let's talk about production.

Really? You're backordered at 6,000 boxes? Right. Well, shit.

You know? Yeah. Well, why did it get to that? Right.

And all I'm doing is asking questions. Right. And all he's just doing is just talking. Right.

And I'm just soaking up every single thing. Right. And I'm like, well, what are you going to do to prevent that from next time? Right.

Well, probably is, I'm not gonna let the reps oversell this one particular product, make them change this, this, this. Well, depending on the size of the company, some of them don't give a fuck. Yeah, that's the crazy one. That's true, and that's the bad thing too.

A lot of people don't care. But they're looking at the fact that there are, they're looking at the fact that there's a bunch of huge, huge, huge brands out there, huge companies, huge stores, retailers. So they feel like as long as they get their product, everybody else can get it whenever they get it. But the thing about it is, they don't see the fact that the smaller companies that might be a tier four for you could jump up to a tier three.

So everybody's petitioned Payton on the growth of the company. " Right. Because as long as they move the market with their stuff. Right.

Yeah, that's a check. But I look at it a little different. I will say, you know what, man, let the little smaller ones get at least a couple boxes. Yeah, let them have some.

Right. You know, just let them keep... Have it on the shelf. Don't let the shelf get emptied and you be out of product for two months.

Right. And then they're gonna switch to something else. They're gonna switch to somebody else. Right.

Their people are gonna be pushing it, you know, to somebody else instead. So it's like... You don't want the guy to leave without something, so you gotta find something, oh you like this particular, well we don't have that, but let me tell you what I think is comparable, and matter of fact it might be $2 cheaper, now you have a customer, he's buying the other one now. So, all those type of things Mike, that's all I do is ask those guys questions like that, and I just jotted it down.

It's amazing, dude. It's fun to watch. I'm not gonna lie. It's fun to watch how you build and how you're going, man.

I enjoy it. I fucking enjoy it. It is very entertaining. And like, you nail it a lot of times.

I'm like, fuck. But our events are fun. We gotta do an event here. Yeah.

Yeah, hopefully in November if you guys can make it work. Yeah. Well, the difference is, I mean, where you guys are located, we can make it work because Leon's an hour away in Jacksonville and I can't Mike and myself, we're both in Orlando. Right.

Just don't leave at 4 o'clock. Yeah. I'm like, why the hell am I in there? I took the exit, I left at 3:30, and I'm in the express lane.

So the express lane ends out right before you get to Lake Mary. Yeah, right at Altamont there. Yeah, at the end of that. And then, we're good, we're rolling, exit 98, then everything stops.

Yeah, you get that Sanford Bridge there, and you're just dead. Yep. Yeah. So, yeah.

30, no 4 o'clock. We'll have to have you come later. Everybody comes this way. Yeah.

Everybody goes home. But it was an accident. I mean, it wasn't something. Oh, there's always an accident somewhere or something.

Little Honda was messed up, and they had to bring a tow truck for it. Yeah. So it wasn't as bad. Because once I got past that, then I was good.

Right. So does that give you shit about the cowboy stuff? Oh, hell no. No?

Nothing? No. If you look at some of the podcast stuff that we do, he's like, All right, talk about the Cowboys, Howie. Yeah.

And I tell them what I believe the Outlook is and stuff like that. That's in front of the podcast, bro. I mean, I'm talking... Oh, outside, no.

No, never? He actually... Leon. Does Leon give you a shout?

Yes. Okay, all right. Leon does. " That's how the conversation starts.

Right. " I said, "Thank you, Big Lee, I just want you to know that if you would have been If you have been drafted to the Cowboys like you were supposed to, your big ass would have three Super Bowls to go along with your three national championships. And he's like, do you got anything else to say besides that? I'm like, ah, I can keep thinking.

I feel like I've said enough there. I mean, that's pretty much a mic drop. I mean, Ike, he kind of takes it easy on me when it comes, I mean, it's still the only person that, the only people that can say something about my Cowboys, And I will refrain from having a rebuttal. Right.

It's typically a Steeler or a Patriot. Right. Because they literally have six. Right.

We have five. Right. Gotcha. Yeah.

Right. But the craziest thing is a damn Miami Dolphin fan. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, yeah. Listen, they had an amazing game yesterday. I was, I mean, Tyreek Hill. I miss having him on my fantasy.

When he had those weapons. I mean, that was, that game was a Tyreek Hill effect. Right. Literally.

But, because the, It was those bombs. But here's the thing, if you take a Miami Dolphin fan, I have a lot of buddies that are Dolphin fans. Right. We have bets for the whole lifetime bets.

Right. A hundred dollars every year, who has a better record? Okay. Right?

I'm up like four or five hundred. Do you see Phil turning a nice bright red over there? Four or five hundred, I'm up. Right?

But then my buddies, they still owe me. So at the end of the year, I have to never get my hundred. " Oh, they're bullshitting you on 100 bucks? God damn.

So now, I have buddies that's down 300, 400 bucks to me. Then they have a birthday. I'm like, "Oh, I'll take 50 bucks off the balance. All right, you owe me 350, now.

" Put that in a card. Happy birthday, minus 50. Yeah, but now, Miami came back and won against Lamar Jackson yesterday. And now I'm getting messages like, bro, you see the Dolphins, bro?

They're coming out of the Woodward. Hey, Coach, hey, still owe me $400. You still owe me. You ready to pay off everything else now?

Right. You want to ride this wave and save an extra hundred bucks off the balance you owe? Right. Good job.

You know? But, like, people like that. And people that's like, literally their team is nothing to be noticed. Right.

But they watch the Cowboys to see the Cowboys lose and then come up with more memes than anybody. I'm like, your life must suck. I mean, your life must really suck that you gotta literally stop what you're doing to hate on this team, and your team never smelt a victory, never smelt a Super Bowl, let alone five, let alone the most valuable franchise in all of sports in the world. This is an accurate statement, right?

I know this for a fact. I mean, like, life must really suck. 86 billion. Yeah, if you want to get, man, how long are y'all going to beat them boys?

We're going to always beat them boys. There you go. Hey, I won money yesterday at the Cowboys, so I like the Cowboys yesterday. You know what?

So how many games do you think they need to win before Dak comes back? I mean, winning that one was a big deal. It was. I thought for sure that Cincinnati was going to smoke them.

I mean, I did too. to the only as the only good thing that they had going for them is that cincinnati is a deep threat pass normally right and you guys have a hell of a secondary right well i don't say we have a hell of a secondary we have i would trayvon diggs he's a big deal half of them right yeah but the guy on the other end number three brown he ruined my thanksgiving bro no last year seriously i like Thanksgiving is one of those things where I have a whole bunch of people over my house, food galore, everything. And I get, then everybody knows, leave me alone, I'm going out to watch my Cowboys, I'm going to eat, have fun, and we're going to have the game. And we literally lost to the Raiders because of Anthony Brown.

He changed numbers to number three now. So I'm just being honest, I think he's absolutely garbage, and I think we should get rid of him, and hopefully we'll get rid of him. We'll get rid of him soon. Now, outside of that, the safety that we have, Kersh, he's good, but he's healthy.

The other safety has been injured as well, who came from Atlanta, right? But the star of the defense is Michael Parsons. And if we can keep him rushing the passer, the guy might break the record. The guy is unstoppable.

But the Cowboys sometimes don't know how to, like, keep going with what's working. The guy's rushing the passer. He sacked Tom Brady twice, first week one. He sacked Joe Borough last night, yesterday, twice.

And there's some other sacks that other guys got because they had to start doubling on Micah. But then the Cowboys want to stop and move him to linebacker and have him chase the goddamn back out the flat. Now, he was talking shit about Brady, right? He said he was going to take him out, right?

I mean, it was a little respect thing. Everybody wants to hit the goat. Well, he hit him one too many times and I think Fournette just let him know, right? No, they had to put a chip.

So, what Fournette did was he chipped him, but when he chipped him, he kind of like really, really gave him the business of the chip. So, you have 50% of the people saying, "Oh, that was a penalty. " It technically was a legal play. You just didn't expect him to do it.

You gotta let the guy know that's fucking putting your quarterback on his ass and hey, you know. Well, I mean that's Tom Brady though. You gotta understand, anything happens to Tom Brady, Tampa Bay now goes back to being the Tampa Bay Succaneers. It's true, that is true.

Literally. So you need Tom Brady upright, the guy's 45 years old. Not only do the Buccaneers need Tom Brady upright, the NFL needs Tom Brady upright. Yeah.

Yeah. " For real. You know. And he came back like Mike.

Yeah, right. The only one I ever seen that had Michael Jordan do a commercial for him before the damn game. Yeah, no shit. I'm like, ah, shit.

Yeah. From goat to a goat. Yeah, you got Mike talking about him? Right.

He's like, I lasted for two years before I come back. This guy couldn't last for 60 days. Yeah, 45 days. 45 days.

I'm like, hey, you got Mike doing a commercial. I wonder what that check looked like. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

You know he got paid. Of course. But they're buddies, though. Are they?

I'm sure they are. Michael Jordan and Tom Brady, I've seen clips of Michael Jordan and Tom Brady playing two-on-two, them two-on-teams against two young kids on some island somewhere where the kids don't know who the hell Michael Jordan is. Oh, my God. And then Jordan tells them, "Hey, you better Google who Michael Jordan is.

" So they're definitely, they're tight. It's a real life, Billy and Stacey, white, white man can't jump, sorry. Oh, thank you, thank you, I appreciate it, thank you. Oh, that, that was their name?

Yeah. Okay. Broke that down for us, holy smokes. I just know that was Wesley Snipes and Willie Harrison or something?

Yeah. Yeah. So, thanks, Phil, this is why we turned his mic off. That was elementary when that movie came out, bro.

Yeah, right? No shit. He's younger than us. Oh.

Oh, yeah, it's crazy. I totally lost my train of thought after that statement, I'm not gonna lie. " All right, what are we doing? Are we at an hour?

Yeah. All right, we're gonna have to wrap it up here, but hey, thank you so much for coming on. It's a pleasure, I had a great time with you guys. Yeah, thank you very much.

It's important to me that people kind of get to know who you are, you know, and get to know a little bit more about you, not just the brand. So, you know, I really appreciate you coming out. We're definitely gonna have to do it again. Absolutely.

We got more shit to talk about. This is just the beginning of season, too, so I mean, we could just talk about sports, unfortunately. Let's get one with Leon. Yeah, absolutely, sure.

Yeah, let's get one with Leon, and let's get one with Ike as well. Whenever you want, the door is open, so. Yeah, we'll set it up. I know their schedule is kind of crazy during football season.

Yeah, but we can do it in a weekday. I can get Leon on a weekday, and then Ike's on, depending on his coaching. Right, yeah. But yeah, it'll be hot.

We'll have to get a big chair for Leon, something that'll. Yeah, I was thinking of the chair. Isn't that, we'll have to, yeah. Hold on, you can just go like this.

Oh, you can flip the arm out. Phil can stand. Yeah, right. Phil can stand.

Yeah, it's true. Phil can hold them. His mic's off. He's taking his piss because his mic is off.

Whatever you need, whatever you need. He can get one of the little chairs from the other room. For Phil, not for Leon. Yeah, of course, not for Leon.

That's ridiculous. All right, well, thanks again for coming on and this is the... Yeah, we appreciate it a lot. I appreciate you guys having me.

Thank you very much. All right, man. That's it. Bye.

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Show Notes

Our Heroes sit down this week and chat with Howard G!