Where it started…

I backed my horse into the chuted felt the adrenaline hit me hard at a young age. My partner and I came out of the gate fast, and won the California Team Roping State Championship that day. My childhood rodeo lifestyle came to an end shortly after the National Finals Rodeo.

Here’s Where The Story Really Begins

make up some of my most vivid memories. Shortly after crash landing in Lynchburg, Virginia with my new wife, I learned about a “startup beef company” coming to town. Not knowing exactly what that meant, the aspiring entrepreneur in me buzzed with excitement at the possibility of working within a startup company as I put myself through business school with Liberty University. I became the first employee, working with the sub contractors to renovate Virginia’s largest (and long abandoned), 100 year old beef processing facility.

Filled with that burning fire to take care of my new wife and “make it”, I worked harder than you could imagine. On day one, they gave me a shovel and a broom. You’ve never seen anyone shovel and sweep as hard as I did. I filled dozens of dumpsters with scrap metal as I gutted old equipment that summer, and brought this ancient relic back to life.

“Scrubbing decades old rust off all the carcass rails - with a wire brush was one of my first tasks”.

For weeks I would go home with bloody knuckles and no skin left on the back of my hands - and Devan would wrap my hands in bandages at night. It felt like I was living inside a Rocky Balboa movie and she was my Adrian, taking care of me. The company finally became operational - going from a graffiti laden haunted house, to a modern 50,000 sq. ft. production facility.

There were homeless people with spears living inside that old building at first, and gang presence in that community was very real. I absolute started to question why I was there very early on.

I had a new wife and we were 2,500 miles from anything we ever knew - we did not know anyone, we were renting a literal shack in the woods, and finding a new different job was not that easy.

That was a daily question I’d ask my work mate at the time. Seemingly just the day prior, I was a successful kid living in southern California. Somehow, I suddenly found myself in the ghetto, surrounded by a bunch of convicts, tasked with one mission - build a functioning team, and do whatever had to be done to start operations.

That forced me to suffer - a lot. I’ve never been more miserable than the first summer and winter. There was no heating or air conditioning on that floor.

Going from beaches in southern California, to skinning and gutting cattle in humid, 100 degree heat, then -10 degree freezing cold is something I’ll never forget. Manually dragging sopping wet hides, chains and shackles across the blood soaked floor hardens and reshapes you.

I learned how to skin cattle better than most, from a twice convicted felon - NOT something I EVER thought I’d be doing. The hard physically labor and conditions were punishing.

I’ll never forget the moment I said that to my closest work companion at the time. The business was punishing us, and not going very well. I remember having the realization that no one was coming to save us - we were going to have to do it ourselves.

I’d kill cattle one day, and the next day I was on the road selling our new brand. I watched some sales reps make 3-5 appointments in a day - I literally would go to 25 restaurants in a day. By my twelfth month, and I increased sales by $1M per year, while working hard physical labor in the plant on non sales days.