Love & Sandwiches ft. Ike Shehadeh | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby Ep. 41

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Love & Sandwiches" featuring Ike Shehadeh | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby Ep. 41

Introduction

In Episode 41 of Coffeez for Closers, host Joe Shalaby welcomes Ike Shehadeh, the dynamic founder and CEO of Ike’s Sandwiches, to discuss his entrepreneurial journey from humble beginnings to establishing a renowned sandwich brand with over a hundred locations nationwide and internationally. The episode delves into Ike’s business philosophies, leadership style, challenges faced, and insights gained along the way.

Early Beginnings and Vision

Ike’s entrepreneurial spirit was evident from a young age, influenced profoundly by his father’s work ethic in the supermarket and real estate businesses. Ike recalls, “I knew I was, I was young enough to sit on the counter, but old enough to know, oh, that stuff buys me like this toy or whatever it was that was high in my values back then” (18:09). This early exposure instilled in him the values of dedication and the importance of showing up every day.

Morning Routine and Personal Habits

Ike emphasizes the significance of a disciplined morning routine in maintaining productivity and a positive mindset. He shares, “I do 50 burpees, 50 pushups, all in a row... Total, like, total time 20 minutes, maybe 25” (02:46). This rigorous start to the day not only boosts his physical health but also sets a tone of accomplishment and readiness to tackle daily challenges.

Establishing Ike’s Sandwiches

Ike launched Ike’s Sandwiches on Halloween 2007, initially as a full café offering an extensive menu that rivaled major competitors like Starbucks. He passionately explains, “I opened with seven different milks... I just wanted to make sure that anybody that came in would have that” (05:08). His commitment to inclusivity and variety laid the foundation for a diverse and appealing menu, catering to a wide range of customer preferences.

Menu Development and Business Strategy

Ike’s approach to menu development was driven by his desire to feed people, create memories, and foster creativity in the kitchen. “I want you to want to come to me for breakfast... and I want to come in when you want lunch... I want you to come in when you want dessert” (07:35). This holistic approach ensured that Ike’s became a versatile dining option at any time of the day, enhancing customer loyalty and broadening their market reach.

Overcoming Challenges: Permits and Regulations

One of the most significant hurdles Ike faced was navigating the complex landscape of permits and regulations. His first Ike’s was shut down due to a lack of specific permits required for selling sandwiches in San Francisco. Ike reflects, “Since that day, literally the first month until the city shut me down in 2010, the biggest issue is the government permitting this” (22:55). This experience taught him resilience and the importance of understanding and complying with local regulations to ensure business continuity.

Expansion Strategies Across States

Despite the challenges in California, Ike successfully expanded Ike’s Sandwiches to other states by leveraging his established brand reputation and negotiating favorable terms with vendors. He notes, “We've been able to negotiate great pricing with our vendors... and the same with the staff” (15:12). Ike’s strategic expansion into cities like Houston, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas showcases his ability to adapt and scale the business model effectively across diverse markets.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Business

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ike’s Sandwiches thrived by already being integrated with delivery platforms like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Postmates. Ike shares, “We were blessed in that we already had delivery capabilities... We actually had higher sales year over year through Covid” (32:14). This foresight in embracing technology and delivery services positioned Ike’s to sustain and even grow during a challenging period for the restaurant industry.

Leadership and Team Dynamics

Ike attributes his successful leadership to cultivating a positive and productive work culture. “The culture that we have also kicks people out... if they’re a jerk, they’re not gonna want to work here” (44:23). By fostering an environment that values respect and excellence, Ike ensures that his team is motivated and aligned with the company’s vision, leading to high employee retention and exceptional service quality.

Personal Insights and Motivation

Ike distinguishes between motivation and passion, stating, “I do it because I want to. And a lot of folks out there... I don't like motivational speakers because anybody can say something and then you get rah, rot up for a little bit” (40:26). His intrinsic motivation to feed people and create memorable dining experiences drives his unwavering commitment to the business, beyond the need for external incentives.

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Ike offers invaluable advice to those looking to enter the restaurant industry: “If you want to feed people, you will feed them... you’ll make money because you want to feed them” (39:14). He emphasizes the importance of passion and perseverance, encouraging entrepreneurs to pursue what they love, even in the face of adversity. Additionally, he advises starting immediately and prioritizing personal savings, regardless of the uncertainty.

Future Goals and Personal Aspirations

Looking ahead, Ike envisions expanding Ike’s Sandwiches globally, aspiring to “feed people on Mars” (61:51). On a personal level, he expresses a desire to explore his creative side through music by releasing an album after voice lessons and venturing into acting with roles in upcoming movies like Killing Faith and Caitlyn’s Chance (64:08). These aspirations highlight his multifaceted interests and continuous drive for personal growth.

Conclusion

Ike Shehadeh’s journey with Ike’s Sandwiches is a testament to the power of passion, resilience, and strategic thinking in building a successful business. His insights on leadership, overcoming challenges, and maintaining motivation provide a roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs. As Ike continues to scale his brand and pursue diverse personal goals, his story remains an inspiring example of what dedication and a clear vision can achieve.

Notable Quotes

1. Morning Routine:

   • Ike: “I do 50 burpees, 50 pushups, all in a row... Total, like, total time 20 minutes, maybe 25.” (02:46)

2. Business Vision:

   • Ike: “I want you to want to come to me for breakfast... and I want to come in when you want lunch... I want you to come in when you want dessert.” (07:35)

3. Overcoming Criticism:

   • Ike: “If they're going to talk smack no matter what... I'm doing what I love to do versus the other way.” (09:57)

4. Motivation vs. Passion:

   • Ike: “I do it because I want to. And a lot of folks out there... I don't like motivational speakers because anybody can say something and then you get rah, rot up for a little bit.” (40:26)

5. Advice for Entrepreneurs:

   • Ike: “If you want to feed people, you will feed them... you’ll make money because you want to feed them.” (39:14)

6. Favorite Quote:

   • Ike: “Your well being is your greatest contribution to humanity, no exceptions ever.” (52:33)

7. Best Advice Received:

   • Ike: “If things go the way that you want, great. And if they don't go the way that you want, even better.” (53:59)

Timestamp Key

• 02:46: Discussion on morning workout routine
• 07:35: Vision for Ike’s Sandwiches menu
• 09:57: Handling criticism and staying true to passion
• 39:14: Advice on pursuing business for love, not just profit
• 40:26: Difference between motivation and passion
• 52:33: Ike’s favorite quote
• 53:59: Best advice Ike has received

Note: The timestamps refer to the minutes and seconds in the provided transcript.

Transcript

[A]

What's up, everybody?

[B]

And welcome to another episode of Coffees for Closers, where success is served daily. In today's episode, we're going to walk through a journey of an entrepreneur who turned a passion into a massive household brand. Starting from humble beginnings, our guest now boasts over a hundred locations across the country, from California to Florida and even Saudi Arabia. Get ready to hear from the mastermind behind Ike's Sandwiches. Some of the best sandwiches you've ever had in your life. The one, the only Ike. First off, I never knew Ike was real. Right? You, a lot of people. I. We met the guy from Travis, Matthew, or, you know, Tommy Bahama. And it's always a fictitious character behind. Behind the brand, but Ike is really Ike. And not only is Ike really Ike, but the logo of Ike is Ike. So it's amazing. I got. I was, like, starstruck yesterday. Like, that's. That's Ike. That really is Ike.

[A]

Well, thank you.

[B]

Super cool. And it's super cool that, you know, we related on a cultural level as well. So it's like. It just was. Like, it was just destiny that we got to. To meet and to hang out, and you're super cool, and you immediately agreed to come to the show, and I was just, you know, I'm truly honored. I'm blessed to have you here. So thank you for popping in.

[A]

I appreciate you having me. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you.

[B]

Now, many people want to know, where did the vision of Ike sandwiches start? Like, how did you start this whole thing?

[A]

Well, which part? Because as you know, with any journey, it's. What part do you want to know about?

[B]

Well, before I dive into the vision of Ike, I like to start every podcast with the same question. What is Ike's morning routine?

[A]

My morning routine? Oh, man. So 90% of the time, maybe even more, I look at the clock, and I set my alarm for eight hours after whatever the time on the clock is before I go to bed. So I set it for eight hours, guaranteed.

[B]

So you sleep eight hours.

[A]

It doesn't matter. I'm. I'm blessed in that unless I schedule something, I don't have to be anywhere at any time. So that's the first thing. Let's say 90% of the time. This morning, I had a shoot with David Melzer, and I had a specific call time, and unfortunately for me, it wasn't eight hours from when I went to bed. So. But for the most part, I could do however I want to do it. Then I wake up, make sure there isn't any Emergencies on my phone. Usually the emergencies are on emergency breakthrough. So I will have been awoken if there was.

[B]

Do you have an emergency breakthrough on your phone?

[A]

Yeah, some people can. Some people have access to me even if my phone's off. I mean, I think it's a common thing, right? Emergency breakthrough. And then after that, I do a morning. My morning routine is I do 50 burpees, 50 pushups, all in a row. 50 burpees, then 50 pushups, do some ab work. Some. Some.

[B]

Is that just your only workout? Do you do additional working out?

[A]

Besides, that's where I'm at. If I'm by a gym, I'll do that whole workout, but in the gym, and then throw some weights around as well. If I'm in a hotel room like I was this morning, it's gonna be push ups, burpees, and some lunges and some ab work. Total, like, total time 20 minutes, maybe 25 if I'm slow or lagging or, you know, tired or whatever. And so I automatically start my day with. I'm like, I already won. Not that doing what I just said is. Is a huge thing, but for me, it's. I don't have to worry about, oh, I didn't get a chance to work out yet today. Yeah, it's not the. Oh, I lost track of the day. Normally, I like to do multiple workouts in a day. As long as I get the first one out of the way, then it kind of. There's no pressure on me to do it later. And if it. The cards are in it, I go and do another workout. And then after that, fix myself up. I. Sometimes I got to shave my head. Sometimes I got to shave my face. Shower.

[B]

You got to look the part of Ike.

[A]

And then if there's nothing for me to go to, then I don't go. I think then that's when I'm getting in my phone, returning texts that are not emergencies. Return, like, get on social media, respond to comments there. I eat usually between one and three, like, my first meal.

[B]

So your intermittent fasting, though. So you haven't eaten yet?

[A]

Not yet. Oh, cool.

[B]

I got meal preps for you once you're done.

[A]

Yeah, I've had. Some folks were having little samples of this new product. They have some beef jerky type thing.

[B]

Those are pretty cool.

[A]

I had a package of that. This is my first meal of the day.

[B]

Did you have it black? All black?

[A]

No, you had dirty chai, and it's a little dirty.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, we have the dirty chai lattes, too.

[A]

Yeah, normally I'm not a caffeine enthusiast. Just when I was a kid, I didn't realize I was addicted. And I was like, I'm never going to be addicted. I'm totally addicted to a lot of other things. Just caffeine's not one of them.

[B]

Love it. Um, so. So now we'll dive into the vision of Ike. So what year did you start ike's open?

[A]

Halloween 2007. October 31, 2007.

[B]

And it stars Ike sandwiches. That was an original name, hasn't changed.

[A]

Ike's place. It was Ike's and then we were a full cafe. When I first opened, we sold at a full espresso bar. Full like everything, whatever you can get. In fact, I had more than what you could have gotten at a Starbucks or a Pete's. We had. This is in 2007. I had rice milk, soy milk, macadamia nut milk, almond milk, regular milk, low fat milk, non fat milks. I opened with seven different milks. And mainly because I was like, well, what if you want, what if you can't have soy? What if you can't have nuts? Then I had the rice milk. What if you. And so I just wanted to make sure that anybody that came in would have that. And then I did breakfast. Full breakfast menu. Sandwiches, obviously, salads.

[B]

Man, you gotta bring Ike's place back.

[A]

I'm working on one. I can't say where because it's a surprise, but I'm working on one right now that'll be a sit down version of Ikes with some items. I can talk about the items. The items would be. My breakfast menu is coming back. Oh, I'll have a specialized coffee menu. But instead, because I'm not a big caffeine enthusiast, I'm going to do all those. I'm going to have my own mushroom coffee blend. So there'll be coffee in there, but also the mushroom stuff and then kind of functional elixirs for breakfast and for say like a. Instead of a bar, it'll be functional elixirs. So non alcoholic, but all with functionality.

[B]

That's awesome.

[A]

You might get high off of them, but it won't be alcohol. And then we'll also have alcohol too for the regular old person that wants alcohol and caffeine. For the regular person that wants caffeine.

[B]

Yeah, well, these. That sounds like that concept in O7. That's just like breakthrough in 2024, 2025. So to do that in 2007, like you're a true visionary as a restaurateur. And I don't know where that. How did you get that sort of vision for, you know, a sandwich spot? You have the biggest menu in the space.

[A]

Like, I don't think there's anybody that has a larger menu than there's.

[B]

No, not even, like, in a restaurant. A regular restaurant doesn't have Cheesecake Factory.

[A]

And you see their menu.

[B]

Yeah. And it's overwhelming for people like you. Like, you just broke it down, though, and you simplified it. But, like, how did you get so many ideas for sandwiches?

[A]

It all stems from. And this is something that anybody can do in whatever their line of work is, is. It all stemmed from me focusing on what do I like and what's the reason why I was doing it. So not just what I like, which is food and to eat, but how come? And it was to feed people, to create memories on a table and to be creative in the kitchen. So if you come, combine all three of those things. For me, I was like, okay, well, I want you to want to come to me for breakfast. I want you to come to me when you don't want breakfast, so you wanted coffee. I want you to come for me when you want lunch. I want you to come to me when you want dinner, and I want you to come in when you want dessert or if you don't want any of those things, which is why I'm adding the elixirs at the end. And obviously, people drink coffee all times a day. So it stemmed from that. When I opened up my first Ike's, which was a full cafe, I didn't know, because I didn't have any experience, that you're not supposed to have a million different things and do all these things. I just thought, I can make breakfast, I can make coffee, I can make dessert, I can make salads, I can make sandwiches. So why not do all those things? And in fact, all my beginning mentors that were all in the restaurant space, that had way more locations than I back then. And a lot of them now, with 3,000 or so locations, they were like, what are you doing? Kind of thing. And I'm saying, well, I just didn't know any better because it was only about feeding people, creating memories, and being creative. So obviously that's going to lend to a longer menu and a larger menu, too. And so it's all about that. Whatever it is that you love to do, if you only do those things for the reasons that you want to do them and only focus on those, whatever those are, whether it's five reasons, five things, then it doesn't matter what you do, even if it's crazy to do it, you're likely going to be successful in that area because, well, you'll want to do it. And you have a why for why you want to do it.

[B]

It's incredible that you've really managed to bring a whole new element to the sandwich space. And it's inspirational because you really brought in your vision, which to many people, I'm sure was contested. People were like, what are you thinking? Right. How did you deal with that backlash when people. You would explain your vision?

[A]

Well, I'll say that I learned when I was younger, and by younger, I mean like 12, 13, 14, that people are going to talk smack about you if you don't do something, and they're going to talk smack about you if you do something. So if they're going to talk smack no matter what. And I would use a cuss word no matter what. If they're going to do that no matter what, you might as well do stuff because they'll be like, oh, you're a punk, you didn't do it. Or you're, you know, you're scared, you didn't. Whatever they're going to say, or if you're going to go do it, you're a clown. You think you're better than everybody. Like some people say about me now. So it's the same kinds of criticism. I just. Now they say that, and I'm doing what I love to do versus the other way. Me worrying about what people are going to say and then me not doing what I want to do. So that was the first realization that I had when I was really young. And I'm. I'm blessed. I guess I had a lot of detractors back when I was younger and then. But when I was specifically to Ike's, when I was like, hey, I want to took my ideas and I thought to myself, I should open up a cafe. And I started telling people, say in my family or my friends, oh, that's stupid. Restaurants go out of business. Oh, you should be in the best, like for. Especially for our culture and probably a lot of cultures you went to school, you should do what, you know, fill in the blank, whatever you did. Or the only approved engineer, basically. Engineer, yeah.

[B]

Doctor, lawyer. Yeah, that's it.

[A]

Here and there. Right. And so for me, I just was like, okay, well, I'm gonna do this because I want to. My life up until that point was unsuccessful financially, but also unsuccessful from a happiness factor. Like, I was doing things that I Didn't enjoy doing. And I was also not making money. So that's probably the worst place to be. And probably most people that are listening to this aren't in that space. But we know people, and we've definitely been in a place where you're not making money and you're not doing what you like to do. So that's the crappiest life I know possible. That's where I was. And I said, well, okay, if I'm not going to make money, if everybody is right and it's not going to be successful, at least I'm going to be doing what I like to do, which is better. If I'm not going to make money, I'd rather do what I want to do and not make money than do what I don't want to do and not make money. So I just stopped talking about it. If I knew that so and so family member or so and so friend is going to be like, oh, that's a dumb idea. After they said it one time, I just shut up. I had prominent family members of mine give me a call. I ended up in the newspaper, like four or five months in to Ikes, maybe six. Lots of newspapers, lots of articles. Hey, I read about this. I like, that's you. When did you do. Why did you open up when this happened? And I was just like, remember I told you, say, a year ago I was gonna do this, and you said it was dumb. Yeah, that's why I didn't tell you that I did it. So I have very prominent family members and friends that found out about it through the media, through social media. My gosh, you're doing a restaurant. And back then it was more like a cafe than a sandwich place. And so I was like, yeah, I did. And obviously at that point, they weren't talking smack if they're reading about me in the newspaper. So then it turned into, no, I didn't say that. You know, obviously.

[B]

What'd you go to school for?

[A]

Computer science and engineering.

[B]

Oh, wow. How did your parents take it when you told them, mom, dad, I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna go put everything I have on the table and be an entrepreneur.

[A]

Well, so my mom was actually the one who gave me the money for the first one. So that's how she responded.

[B]

That's good. Moms are always the best.

[A]

And then my dad was like, well.

[B]

Dads, they have the problem.

[A]

So not that he had an issue with it. He was just more like, well, are you sure? Like, he wanted me to be smart about it. And I'm thinking, it's a freaking restaurant. I don't think there's anything, no offense to anybody, but, like, if you're getting into the restaurant business and you don't want to do it, that's an idiotic thing, no matter how smart you are about it. And so I figured that out. Just living my life is the things that I like to do, even in the jobs that I had that I didn't like, I did anyway. Even though maybe I wasn't going to be rewarded for it, often I was rewarded for it. And I was able to link that to, okay, well, if I just do these things, I'll do it. So I was like, oh, I wasn't looking for smart eyes on my project. I'm just going to open up a restaurant and kind of do what I love to do. And I assumed that that is better than doing not what I love for not money. So that's basically my dad and then my mom. I was like, here's money.

[B]

Now, one thing I really want to ask you, because I was actually talking to this with the CEO of Wahoos yesterday. It's like, we're in California. We're dealing with random labor lawsuits, margin compression, insane minimum wage, and you're still delivering deliciousness and variety for a very cheap price. Like, your sandwiches are very inexpensive, especially for California. Especially for California, like in the Midwest. I mean, they're probably the same price, but still, like, very reasonable and a lot. A big portion. How are you still able to maintain such profitability and expand and do it at those prices in this current environment with extreme margin compression?

[A]

Oh, it starts with, well, first of all, we're probably seeing less of a percentage of profit. And actually, I want to talk about this real quick. Often I see, especially on social media and probably on the platform we're talking on right now. So, like, everybody's at record profits and whatever. Hey, think about it. If I made $1 more than last year, and last year was my record, I made record profits. But it sounds like I'm a trillionaire because this company's making record profits, and that company's making record record profits. Take that out of the equation. Also, add in, say, if everybody has a certain percentage they want to make. Whatever percentages you make on your. You want to make me. Oh, I want to make. If everything goes up in price and I'm still only making, say, 8% or 10% or even 20%, 20% of a bigger number is going to be a bigger Number just because that's what mathematics is. But it doesn't mean we're making record profits. It's just what happens when prices go up is everybody makes more. And so I want to take that into like common lexicon, realize what it is when people are framing things. But first of all, I think we're making less as a percentage of profit. But how we're doing it, we've just been doing it for so long that we've been able to negotiate great pricing with our vendors. We've been doing it so long, we have great goodwill with people that they're willing to pay the prices that we're charging. And then the same with the staff. The people really love the product that work with us, so they're able to put out a great product. And all that put together kind of helps us so that we can expand. So I can open up and say a brand new city like Houston, which we did a couple years ago, and even Salt Lake City, which we did a couple years ago, Vegas, all these places is where people have heard of Ikes. So it allows us to expand in a less than risky way. It's not guaranteed though. It's less than risky when we open a location in Austin. And half of California moved to Austin. So if anything, that maybe the bad prices here in California forced everybody to go to Austin and then they know about Ike's in Austin because they're all Californians, so to speak.

[B]

Now, do you cut your parents, are they entrepreneurs? Did they run their own business?

[A]

My father did, yeah.

[B]

So, okay, so at what age did you realize that you're going to be an entrepreneur?

[A]

So I've been going with. My father was in the supermarket business. He owned four to six supermarkets and then got into real estate. But he like, where I saw him work was the supermarkets. And I remember being sitting on the counter and like watching people count money and like, oh, that guy's giving my dad money. I want to be like, like, oh, money. I knew I was, I was young enough to sit on the counter, but old enough to know, oh, that stuff buys me like this toy or whatever it was that was high in my values back then. And then I started bagging the groceries for my dad and I started, oh, I want to take their money and count the change. And so learning stuff like that, I don't know what age that was. 5, 6, 7, 8.

[B]

Probably just in the Arabs genes. Basically, you're like, I was born an entrepreneur essentially.

[A]

And then one of the other things that I saw through my father Doing that, because I probably only went in, like, 5% of the days that he worked is that he went every. Every day. He went there when he was sick. He went there when there was good stuff going on, and he went there when there was bad stuff going on. He went there when there was problems at home. He went there when there is not problems at home. So I learned to show up every single day by watching my father do it as an example. And sure, perhaps, like, oh, he had to support his family. Still, people don't show up even in those scenarios, or they complain about it in those scenarios, even though they, quote, have to do it kind of thing. So I learned about that stuff from my father. So you watching him work, you would.

[B]

Say that the biggest source of inspiration and motivation from you stems from your father and his work ethic. That's where you think you learned it?

[A]

Well, that's where I got my work ethic from.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I show up to work. The only days I don't go is, like, when I'm doing stuff like this.

[B]

Although, well, this is work.

[A]

Probably work. Right. People hear this and everything like that.

[B]

This is marketing.

[A]

Ike, often, yeah, I'm often on planes, like, three or four a week, and invariably I'm. I'm traveling, and the person picks me up, like, oh, are you coming? Are you going? You know, we have that conversation, oh, is it for fun or is it for work? And for me, it's. My work is fun. I wouldn't get on four planes a week and sometimes more if I didn't enjoy doing that. I can delegate the flying on planes part or whatever those things out to someone else. If I didn't want to do that. We're at that position where I don't have to do those if I don't want to. So for me, it's. It's doing it. But also on the days where, oh, man, this task needs to be me to be the one to do it, but I don't feel like it or I'm tired or whatever happens, something's going on in my life, like, I'm just gonna go do it, because I always feel better after doing something that's uncomfortable instead of waiting and lagging on it or delegating those tasks out that need to be me, which aren't a lot. So for me, it's all of that stuff rolled up into. Through the package of this is what I want to be doing, and this is how I want to be doing it, the reasons why I want to do this and all that in one package becomes, holy crap, you're Ike from Ike's. You know, like kind of how your reaction was or the other people in this office's reaction was. And that's not what I set out to do. It's just how I'm doing it through all the entrepreneurial and love aspects and inspiration aspects.

[B]

Yeah. And it does help that the logo is your face.

[A]

Well, what. Oh, yeah. So you're asking about the logo. I think that's how we started a long time ago in this part. So eventually that I got, people were, who's Ike? Who's Ike? Who's Ike? And we'd have three hour wait. And people are doing all these things. I'm running around passing out sandwiches and.

[B]

Like 3 hour wait for Ike's Cafe.

[A]

The first one, we had three hour. Within six months, we had three hour waits. It was. It was like we went viral before being viral was a thing. Because Instagram didn't exist back then and TikTok certainly didn't exist back then. It was basically Twitter and MySpace. Facebook was kind of coming up and it was more like we got social media back when it was the newspaper. So I'd be in articles all the time. I'd be doing live TV interviews where it'd be like Jack Dorsey right before me and then me and then someone like Mark Zuckerberg or whatever would be. Would be one of the guests. But me being.

[B]

You got to hang out with these people because you're in the Bay and that you had the hottest restaurant in the Bay.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So you got to meet everybody in.

[A]

Silicon Valley, 90% of whoever this. Since that CEO, founder, whatever. I have fed them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Probably even more that. That I don't even know about.

[B]

And that's the beautiful thing about being a restaurateur and like, you get to. To hang out with everybody when you, when you eat, everybody eats athletes to.

[A]

To the CEO.

[B]

You fed Steph Curry, you fed Mark Zuckerberg. You fed everybody who's anybody in the Bay.

[A]

Anybody who's anybody. And some that I will don't even know that I fed.

[B]

Yeah. And everybody loves good food. And you. And you have everything under the sun in terms of good food.

[A]

Yeah. If they eat sandwiches, I've fed them in the Bay Area.

[B]

Yeah. I think if they've eaten sandwiches, most people listen to the show you've fed.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Thank you too.

[A]

For everybody who is a fan of Ikes and has eaten it. And if you're not a fan, I still love you.

[B]

Yeah. But if you're Not a fan. And you haven't eaten Ikes, probably wrong. Yeah, you need to try it. Yeah, go eat there. Now, let me ask you, what are some of the hardships, the biggest hardships you dealt with when you started Ikes?

[A]

So most of the. So the first Ikes infamously got closed down because we were. We didn't have permit for selling sandwiches. Apparently you need a specific permit to sell sandwiches in that neighborhood in San Francisco. I'd say from the day I opened till today, the number one issue is the government permitting this. This part of the government needs. You need this permit. You need these kind of things. You need these people to say, hi.

[B]

Yes, sounds just like my business.

[A]

So. And it's. It's. I recall. And this is way before we were famous and way before the. The rest of the government got in and shut us down. Like the Supreme Court of California is like, don't sell any more sandwiches. That's it. Otherwise you're going to go to jail. Is that. I remember putting up a sign on my window because I got all these permits. Like, I needed the fire permit. I need all these permits. Got all these permits. They don't talk to each other. 1. And I remember I had to put a sign I had to close one day because I had to go to city hall and get some permit that somebody said that I needed. And back then, I was the only one that worked there. So I remember writing a note saying, sorry, the man said I had to go in and get permission to do whatever it was. I don't recall what it was, but I remember putting that on the window, like, me being actually upset that it closed my business and walk over there and get whatever something that they wanted me to say that I needed to do to stay open. And that was like the first month I was open. And I remember crying in my car like, what the hell is going on? Why can't I just sell sandwiches? And I remember just sitting in the car listening to some music and gathering myself and. And just I had to take the day off because I had to go into the city and get some stuff. And so since that day, literally the first month until the city shut me down in 2010, till now, when I want to open up in this city or that city, the only biggest. I don't want to say the only issue, the biggest issue is please let me open up a sandwich shop in this place. Please, please, pretty please, can we do this? How about this? Can I get this signature and that signature, that's the number one issue And I think a lot of times that's gonna be a lot for a lot of people. The same exact answer. The biggest issue is, is gonna be the regulation. So it's how you deal with that, how you set yourself up so that whatever it is, it's an issue in your field. Like I'm sure you got a lot of things covered, even though it may take extra time because you have to jump through this or do that. And so setting yourself up so that happens. So you can just go out and do what you love to do or what you want to do.

[B]

Yeah, I mean you're in a hyper regulated space. And now how are you dealing with all the regulation as you expand in all the different states?

[A]

Well, a lot of states are different and heck, a lot of counties are different. I remember it took us three years to get a permit, two plus years to get a permit in San Francisco because we were a chain now. And you needed a conditional use permit. Even though I start like to move across the street, I wanted to open up across the street. And they're like, you can't, you're a chain. What do you mean? But I'm here. I can be here, but I can't be over there. Yes, you can't. So we had to get a permit that took two years. Same exact time period. I put in a permit to get something in Oakland and this was in the 2012. At the time they were small business. Small business. We opened in 45 days after getting the space. 45 days or two years. It took me two years.

[B]

Certain cities just want franchises there states.

[A]

And things like that. So now as we're expanding, there's some places like no, we want people to open. So here's some, here's some over the counter incentives or ways to, to get them. Like you just come and be like, hey, I want to open up the sandwich shop and they have somebody there stamp. And thing is, they can do that anytime they want with anything that they want. Literally any, any county, any city can do that, any, anytime they want with anything that you want. You know, how do I know that? Because you're telling me that Oakland is that much different than San Francisco. I can do it in 45 days in Oakland, but two years in San Francisco? The answer is no. The answer is somebody said you can't do it in San Francisco and that's why it took two years. You don't even have to use in those cities are really close to each other. And then somebody in say in Texas, you can go right now and get your permit. You can open up a sandwich shop in this address. They're like, boom. Why can't they do that everywhere? Yeah, well, they get the health inspector to come in, get the fire inspector to come in, get the whoever to come in, all the health and safety stuff. But we all know that that stuff doesn't take that long. They'll come in and they'll say, yes, this is not a fire hazard. Go. But it's usually the permission to do things. And I feel like that. That is artificially put in place. I use it as a test from the universe, like back then, like, do I really want to do this? If I do, I'll put up with this bs. If not, then I won't. And maybe that's the reason why. It is, like, not why the cities do it. They do it because they're. They make up that they need to do it. But I mean, the reason why the universe puts that in front of your God or mother nature, whatever you want to believe in, puts that in front of you is so movies they got here. Prove to yourself. Some people might not. I'm down with God. To prove to yourself and. And God that you want to do it. Because if you're like, oh, man, it's such a pain. I'm not gonna do it, then that means you wouldn't have done it anyway. You would have just quit at the first sign of drawback. You'd be like, oh, I don't want to do this anymore. You quit.

[B]

What is the easiest city you've dealt with so far?

[A]

So far? Well, that one in Oakland was pretty.

[B]

Easy because some cities are just paying you now to just come open business. Because some cities are just totally deprived and they want chains to come in.

[A]

There are times where we reach out and like, hey, we want to open here. And we'll literally message the mayor, the mayor's office. And they're like, yes, please. Those have been. And that's been. I don't want to. It's been a lot of places like that. Like probably 20 something places. Have we hit up the mayor's office and they're like, yes, please open here. What do you need from us?

[B]

Yeah, and even paying you to come in, like, we'll front you.

[A]

There's so I. I found the city. I'm not actually. I don't want to talk about smack about the city. So there was a city that offered me 300 grand to open up in an area, part of the city that they were attempting to economically revive and after looking into it, 300,000, you know, it's not. That's not a joke. It was a grant or whatever that you wouldn't have to pay back. And I looked at the area and I go, actually, if you want me to come here, it's going to be more like 750,000 for me to do it. Based on the area and the lack of opportunity in the area. How much is going to cost to redevelop the space, all that stuff, like 300 grand. I was like, no, that'd be doing it for free for that space. Obviously, if the Oakland local location gave me 300 grand, I would have done it in a heartbeat because I would have done it for.

[B]

But the demand in Oakland is so high and housing and affordability, these people.

[A]

And my experience is every time a city is offered to give me money.

[B]

It'S usually a bad time.

[A]

Yeah, like, why? Because that doesn't make sense. Why would you want to give me money? Like, they've done the math and they're like, okay, if we do this, we're gonna. We're gonna do well on it. So I'd say, I mean, but just.

[B]

Simple economics says just. Because if it's dependent, you know, population growth is happening at such a rapid speed that. That Ikes will eventually work.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Will it work this year? Maybe not. Will it work in three years? Probably just because. Just we are getting populated and especially any city in California.

[A]

And yeah, this was a city in California. I. I would.

[B]

Is that city still. Is that city still terrible? Now if you look back and go.

[A]

Today, today, this was in like 2010ish.

[B]

Maybe 2000's probably booming now.

[A]

So this city is still a. It's a world famous city, obviously. And that same exact spot that they were offering me 300,000 for, I still wouldn't do it.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Even though it's been 10 years? Yeah.

[B]

You still wouldn't do it?

[A]

Not in that part where they wanted me to be, yeah.

[B]

Oh, wow. So, okay, then you. Okay, well, then you were right.

[A]

Just keep in mind, California. California did kind of get a lot of areas did kind of get killed by Covid. And not even by Covid. More like the COVID policy, where literally areas of cities were shut down. Shut down. And they still haven't revived. And in a lot of areas. Not everywhere.

[B]

You opened the Ikes near me and Tustin during COVID Yeah. Okay, so how much did Covid impact your business?

[A]

We were lucky in that. Doordash, Uber Eats, Postmate, all these, like, companies that you'd maybe even never heard of. We launched on those back when we were the preeminent sandwich place in San Francisco, one of the top ones in la, but for sure in the Bay Area. And so all these, when they were becoming ideas, they're like, hey, Ike, come on our platform, we do this. And I remember back then, I'm like, you should pay me to be on these. And so we did actually get paid to be on a lot of these platforms that now it's the opposite where people have to pay to be on them. And then so we were blessed in that we already had delivery capabilities. We've already been on all those DoorDash, Uber and all the other ones.

[B]

I mean, you were rubbing elbows with their owners, the CEOs of all these.

[A]

Thrown out of a few of their parties. Places. Yeah, we've had some disputes here or there. And some of these places, they have. Have conference rooms named after the business Ikes. So we have got a lot of pros and cons where people are coming over my house and then be like, what the hell? So we got some nitty gritty, like, one day it'll be a book and they'll be like, oh, this person and this person and that person. But we launched with all these things. So when with COVID what happened is. Well, we were already on every single delivery platform and we had been on there for five, six, eight years, some of them. So we already had high placement, high reviews. And when became natural for people to order from their phone, it was just. We kind of were able to. We kind of. Well, we did have more sales during COVID than we did the years before.

[B]

Wow, you scaled during COVID in the restaurant space.

[A]

We opened locations during COVID Obviously profitability came down because costs would, you know, one day something was going to be there, or we had to not have chicken for a week or roast beef or whatever it was. So there was difficulties, but we actually had higher sales year over year through Covid, probably because we were already on all these. We already had an app, so we were. We were set in place. But this is back before places had apps. This is back before you were tech forward.

[B]

Before tech forward was a thing in the restaurant space.

[A]

Yeah, we had an app since 2010, so that's how long ago we've had an app. We were just able to adapt and make our app better once coveted and stuff happened and then keep in mind, Doordash and all that stuff, they were way less of a percentage of businesses than they were during COVID which was like 100 of most people's businesses were that during.

[B]

So you have. Do we have the ability to order Ikes from the Ikes app directly?

[A]

Yeah. And delivered. Yep. You can.

[B]

You have drivers right here. So we'll save money. We'll save the.

[A]

You'll save all the fees. I don't know if they want me to say that it's cheaper if you get delivery on my app, then whatever app you're using, even if they're giving.

[B]

You vip, that's great to know.

[A]

Yeah. So order, go to ike'ssandwiches.com and find somebody. Hopefully somebody's close enough to deliver to you.

[B]

Yeah. So. So from Tustin. What's the. What's this? Yeah, I'm just asking for the office.

[A]

Yeah. Well, there's Costa Mesa, there's Tustin, there's.

[B]

You have one in Costa Mesa too. And Newport.

[A]

I'm sure all those. Yeah. When I was Googling earlier from my hotel, I'm like, where's. I always like to do that. Where am I? Where's an Ikes? And I pull up the map and it's like there was three of them within 20 minutes from my hotel. I was staying in Costa Mesa. So for me it's, it's like, oh, look, there's four here. So you know, if I want, if I. Because I get obviously free Ikes. Right. So if I'm like, I want to get food delivered to me, like, let me just check it out. And yeah, they all, all four delivered to my hotel so that I was close enough for all of them to deliver to where I was.

[B]

So there's delivery. So you have cars for every Ike's.

[A]

It's through a third party service, but.

[B]

Yeah, that's pretty cool. I did not know I'd save the delivery fee. That's great to know.

[A]

Well, the, it depends on where you're at. The delivery may still be there, but there's not that spread on the price.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know how it's about a 15.

[B]

It's a 15, 20 spread.

[A]

And then also we, we mark up the food. The food as well.

[B]

Oh, wow. Significant savings. Yeah, that's good.

[A]

And then you also get rewards. There's going to be like, oh my God, you want to teach? Like, we're doing crazy stuff. We did a thing. We're probably going to bring it back. Spoiler alert, guys. You will order. And if I'm your near town and you're. I'm at the store, I'll be like, oh, I'm Gonna personally deliver it. Instead of having the third party be like, let me roll up.

[B]

You're gonna personally.

[A]

I'll be like, hey, how are you doing? And then, yeah, we'll do. We're gonna do a few of those. We did that a long time ago.

[B]

That's gonna be some good content.

[A]

Show up and be like, hey, what's up? And you're like, oh, my God, Ike. And I'm like, here's a hundred dollar gift card. Thank you for your order.

[B]

Where are you gonna do that?

[A]

Oh, it's gonna be like, it's gonna be dependent on where I'm like, if I'm traveling.

[B]

Yeah, we should have done it here while you're here today.

[A]

We don't have it set up yet. Right now we have to find a way for us to cancel the driver. Because once you order, the driver gets kind of like, if you ordered a car. Yeah, the driver gets booked. So we need to find a way to deliver it without. We'll figure it out.

[B]

Multiple spoiler alerts for people who are like, now, I saved everybody who's listening right now 20% on their food, at least. Yeah, like 20%. You guys are all good. And they're getting rewards because you don't get the rewards through Uber.

[A]

Only get through me. And.

[B]

And then the possibility. Yeah, possibility. Ike's gonna deliver your food to you.

[A]

So if you follow me on Instagram, be like, oh, Ike is in, say, Costa Mesa. Well, he might. Or he might bring me my food and then do the order. And heck, who knows? Sometimes I do like three of them in a day. Sometimes I do 10 of them in a day. Sometimes I'm like, I'm not that guy again. I'm not gonna go to his.

[B]

You know, that's so cool, man. What a cool job. Now, the restaurant business is a very risky business. So is there a specific skill or mindset that someone's gotta have right now to succeed in the restaurant space?

[A]

Well, for any space. So, like, I started if you wanna get in the restaurant space. When I talk to entrepreneurs, food entrepreneurs specifically, I go, how come you wanna do this? And they'll say whatever they wanna say. If they don't say, I wanna feed people or I wanna make people happy, I'm like, don't do it. Not that there's no money in the restaurant game. It's just gonna be a lot of headache, and you're not gonna want to do that stuff. So unless you love cooking, you love feeding people, then there's no reason to get in the Food space? Absolutely. At all. It doesn't matter how amazing your recipe is, if you don't care about making food, then you shouldn't sell food. You should be like, hey, I have a recipe. And find somebody else that likes to make food and license your recipe. There's ways to make money in the restaurant business without you being a restaurant operator. So for me, it's, I didn't give up when I sold nothing on the first day. I didn't give up when I wasn't making anything and couldn't pay myself for two years. The reason why I did it is because I wanted to feed people and I wanted to be creative and make new menu items and I wanted to do all those things. And if I had three hour waits and I still wasn't making any money, like you imagine working that hard seven days a week and then at the end of the day having like $1,000 for the whole month. At the end of the month, no, absolutely not. But I would have done it for free. Literally, I would have done it for free. Because I did it for free for two years. Nobody can say that I wouldn't do it because I have proof that I would. And because I would do it for free is why I'm successful. Because most people will quit when they're not making money. Viva's like, you're gonna work every single day for a month and I'll give you a thousand dollars. Maybe you'll do it for one month if you needed the money, but after two years, you'd be like, I'm quit, I need to do something else. You can literally make more money doing anything else. And so that's basically the formula. If you want to feed people, you will feed them, and then you'll make money because you want to feed them. And because you want to feed them, you'll feed them better than other people can feed them. And then hopefully your food also tastes good.

[B]

That's incredible advice, especially for those who are like, man, I can't do this anymore. Like, you got to do it out of love. You got to do it from the heart.

[A]

Yeah, that's anything. It's not just food, but whatever it is that you're doing. I talked to a lot of entrepreneurs, grew up in Silicon Valley, and somebody's like, hey, what about this app? Okay, okay, why do you want to do it? And if they don't say, I want to connect people, whatever their app is, I'm like, no, I'm not going to invest in you. And no, I don't even want to, like, I can't help you, because if you're. If you're looking at it and you don't want to do whatever the thing is, you're going to quit tomorrow. You're going to quit when there's no money in six months, or when you burn all your, you know, your burn rate or whatever is gone, then you're going to quit. And it's not a good investment, no matter how good the idea is. You just need to find somebody that wants to do it for it to be successful. That's the key. Somebody that wants to do it. And by want, I mean having the desire from within that that's what it is that they care about.

[B]

Now, that leads me into this question. I guess you kind of answered as, after all the success, you've had hundreds of Ikes, and you continue to scale, and you don't really need to grind, like, as hard as you grind, like, Ike himself delivering the sandwich. That's insane, right? But you're doing it, and you're doing it with a humble heart. After all this continual success, how do you find your motivation? How do you continue to find this motivation?

[A]

I think this is where the myth stands. I don't need to be motivated to come up with a new sandwich. I don't need to be motivated to feed people. I don't need to be motivated to. If I'm at the store and somebody looks like they're confused to get up, like I'm playing on my phone or I'm on a call, hold on, and let me go and walk them through the menu. I don't need to be motivated to do that. I do it because I want to. And a lot of folks out there. So I don't like motivational speakers because anybody can say something and then you get rah, rot up for a little bit. I like to be internally transformed, internally inspired. And so for me, in fact, if anything, if I have to motivate myself to do anything, I literally don't do it, because then one day I'll. I'll. I'll stop doing it. So I would just delegate that out. So it's a trick question or a trick answer is I'm not motivated at all to do it. I do it because motivation doesn't even come into play.

[B]

Love that now. And I guess you know that that's kind of like your why, too.

[A]

If. If today we catered the event with David Melzer, I didn't make any extra money because I was there passing up.

[B]

By the Way you catered and catered in Vegas too. And that was excellent.

[A]

And I didn't get money for that. Like, if I didn't show up, it would have been the same amount of whatever you want to call it, brand recogn. Well, obviously I'm a little bit different because I am the brand. But I didn't get a bonus because I showed up. I showed up because I want to do it. And again, this is why, like, motivation doesn't even come into play. Like, I'm just going to do it automatically. And all of us out there have those things that we're already doing in our lives already that you're going to do even with. Not that you don't even expect to get recognized, you're not going to get recognized for. Nobody's going to say, oh, way to go for walking your dog or whatever it is that you did, but you do it anyway. We just make up that we can't turn that into a career. Why? Because somebody said that? Not. Because it's not actually true. And you can make money literally doing anything. You've seen that you're doing stuff like this and it's generating, even though that's not the reason why you did it, in the end, you're seeing your tremendous success because you want to do it and it inspires you to do it. So why not make money doing these the things that you actually are already doing? I'm not saying go out and find what you love and you're not already doing it and then try to find money, make money doing it. You already look at your day to day, yesterday and this week and this month and next month and look at what you're already gonna do. And how can you generate a way to make that into a career? Because you're already doing it for free. And I feel like somebody would. It would just be unwise or even idiotic to not go, like, if somebody's going to give you a nickel for every time you brush your teeth. Like, if you brush your teeth test a dance and he's like, here's 10 cents, would you be like, no, don't give me the 10 cents. And he'd be like, sure, I'll take 10 cents. I was going to brush my teeth anyway. So it doesn't matter if it's pennies that you're making if you're going to do it anyway. It doesn't matter if it's pennies that you're making if you're going to do it anyway.

[B]

Great advice. That's Excellent advice. Now, in the C levels, like, because I. Does it run like a typical corporation where you got like a coo, a cfo, a cto, and then your. Your headquarters is also in the Bay Area? It's all right.

[A]

In Orange county here? Yeah. We moved during COVID to Orange county because most of the staff is Orange county based.

[B]

So your C level folks, your management, all your leadership team is here.

[A]

Basically everybody but me is here. Yeah, I travel.

[B]

So why don't you. But you have a place in Orange county, too, don't you?

[A]

Santa Monica.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Or that's where I used to live in Venice, actually, for eight years. Twelve years.

[B]

So where's your actual headquarters in Orange County?

[A]

Yeah, it's in Long Beach.

[B]

Awesome.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

How are you fostering talent at Ike's? How are you continuing to develop your talent there?

[A]

So talent is coming through via. Ike's is doing something like, even if I'm not under ix, whatever the culture is that's in that store cultivates people that want to stay. It also helps the fact that we have. The culture that we have also kicks people out. Like, not literally, like, you have to leave, but you're like, man, I don't want to be here. Because it's whatever that, like, we get rid of jerk customers and jerk employees.

[B]

It's just a fun place.

[A]

It just happens that way organically. You're a jerk.

[B]

You're not gonna want. You're not gonna.

[A]

Yeah, come work. They'll be like, wait, I actually have to work here? Well, I can get paid to do the same job at selling books or. Or I guess these days in California, Everybody is paying 20 an hour because that's the minimum wage. So you could leave and go McDonald's or any. Any place, basically, and make 20 bucks minimum. So why would you do it if you didn't want to at Ike's if you didn't like it? So that's one way that we cultivate the. Like, the talent is the people that stick around are the ones that are they. We don't even have to sell them on it. They bought get bought in because they're there and they're like, wow, I really like this way. I really like how things are. And then we. We attempt to grow the people that say, hey, I want to do this. It's kind of, you know who here, when you bring in somebody new, if they're doing great for a while, if it was fake in the beginning, you kind of know. And we just take those people or they take themselves and they move their way up. And next thing I'm like, oh, wow, I remember you and used to just make sandwiches and now you're running the region of Orange county or whatever kind of thing. And then we do also mix that in with a few folks that we find from outside that are already doing amazing jobs at their current job and bring them in because they fit the culture too. So a combination of from inside and from outside. And again, they will just quit if they're not down with the culture. So you don't ever have to worry about a bad fit.

[B]

That's excellent. Yeah, yeah. Now you're so, you know, you're so busy all the time. So what kind of hobbies do you like to have? You know, like, you're always traveling. You get to work. You do outside of 50 burpees and 50 push ups, like, what else you get to do?

[A]

Well, my side hustle. My side hustle is I play video games or I play an online game called Mobile Legends and another one called Plunder Pirates. I would love to go pro. I was talking to Clinton.

[B]

Yeah. Did you know he's starting the global gaming love?

[A]

That's why I was asking about mobile games. I would love to be a pro. Maybe I'm not good enough to be a pro right now, but I feel.

[B]

Well, he's, he's starting that.

[A]

That's good enough to get there. Yeah.

[B]

Mobile gaming league. He's gonna have, you know, Kevin Hart's gonna have a team and 50 cents.

[A]

Can have a team on their team.

[B]

Yeah, well, you, you, you, you can't, you can't, you can't have your own team unless you're superstar.

[A]

That's not me yet.

[B]

Yeah. I'm like, can I get a team? I'm like, he's, he laughed at me.

[A]

He's like, well, no, that makes sense though.

[B]

LeBron's your cousin. He could be the team lead and then you could be on his team. So we just have to know a superstar. No, like, B lister doesn't count. It's got to be a superstar.

[A]

Makes sense. So gotta be Beyonce. Like a thousand locations. Then I'll be able to own my own team because I'll be like a super across the whole.

[B]

Exactly. Because I was like, I don't qualify. Like, you know, I got millions of followers. I'm a big brand in the mortgage space. Like, no, no. But he laughed at me. Like, no, no. Super Star Joe Superstar.

[A]

Maybe that's why when your goals is 100 million. Yeah.

[B]

Then once I get to 100 million followers. Like now? Yeah, like, all right, I'm gonna tell Clinton, like, once I. What now? What? Clinton, Shaq's team.

[A]

That'd be a great.

[B]

Yeah, Shaq gets his own team because he's a superstar, of course.

[A]

So I play this one game called Mobile Legends. I'm. I think I'm in some characters. There's different positions. Some positions, like my worst position, the. The ones that I play the worst position, I'm probably like the last person. Like, if there's a team of 12, I'd probably be the 12th man. But I'm good enough to make the league, is what I think you made really well, I mean, I think so. I haven't played professionally because I don't. I mean, I don't even know how to start that. And there's some characters where I feel like I could start on a team that is like a pro level team, maybe a minor league team, but definitely could start well.

[B]

I mean, you know, we're gonna hit them up because, you know, I'm getting in on the global gaming, so like.

[A]

For like a little percentage. But I also want to be an owner player. Like.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's what I'm doing. I'm. Because I got my kids, they're all gamers too. So I should have had you with me today with the, with the global gaming presentation. We'll talk about it. You know, you obviously got his info. I'll put you on a thread with them yesterday.

[A]

Sorry about that. And then another thing that I do is I do a lot of my own talks. I have my own podcast called Food and Philosophy. I basically eat food and go through books and espouse how I go through a book and how I apply it to my life, whether that's business or relationship or my physical body or spirituality or things like that. So I do that. I spend a lot of time on that and I read, I hang out with my friends, I travel, I eat a lot. I know it might not people like, how do you eat a lot? I see you post on your Instagram. Well, it's because I'm. I worked on my mind and my body, but I also work on my body, literally, and I work on my mind.

[B]

You work out twice a day. I mean, so. And that's important. I'm the same way. I think it's part of our, like, high achiever syndrome, which is also known as add.

[A]

Yeah, well, I also literally feel better when I'm strong. Yeah, I did a. Oh, I was in. Where was I? I Was in Phoenix, Arizona area. And I went to this western place. Somebody was like, hey, come to this western, like bull, bull riding place. So I went there. It's like a country bar. Definitely. They have country line dancing and things like that. And they, they mentioned, hey, at 10 o'clock we're gonna have pushup contest. And my buddy was like, dude, don't you do a lot of pushups? And I was like, yeah, I'll do it. So I set up for the push up contest and I'm by far the smallest person. I'm. How many can you do in 111 1/4 inches. So the end and how many? I can do 136 and one in a row. That's my record. I don't know if I could do it right now, but for sure I could do 100 right now, no problem. Even in this suit, I'd be afraid that it'd be like maybe rip the suit or something or get sweaty. But 100 right now, right here, dude.

[B]

I could barely do like 60.

[A]

And so we do this contest and it was like, I think 10 people in the contest, maybe more. And we're going down. And everybody's like, oh, what you. They're all looking at me and they were, they kind of all knew each other.

[B]

They're in the chest to the ground 136.

[A]

I put my like chin down to the ground and. And so we're doing the push ups and it was a little different. It was more like when I say down, go down. When I say up, come up. So like you kind of had to do an honest cadence. And sometimes it would be down for like 3 seconds or 5 seconds and then push up anyway. So I'm doing the thing and everybody's like, oh, this guy's gonna get demolished. And then at the end, it was just me and this one. And this dude is huge. I'm talking about like NFL player, like tall, obviously. I'm like, dude, that's unfair to him. My arms are way shorter than his. And he also has ways way more than me. So once it was just us two. To me, like, I looked out and they're like, that's last two. So I kind of peaked and I was like, oh, I'm gonna destroy this fool. I don't care how many push ups he can do, he's not going to be able to like hold it down for five seconds. Like the guy was incoming up and I, I don't want to say I destroyed him because I don't want to disrespect him. But I won the competition. And he was like, oh man, good game. I was like, I easily had another 30 to 40 in me and he couldn't do it. So that is like, I felt strong, not because I beat him, but I was like, I. When somebody goes, you want to do a push up contest? Knowing that I can meet beat like 9 out of 10 people makes me feel good physically. And then I'm also like, it's like.

[B]

I was gonna challenge you to one, but I don't know, I feel uncomfortable doing it now.

[A]

In the suit. Let's go.

[B]

I mean, I, I was thinking like, well, I got the advantage because I got a sports shirt.

[A]

You definitely got better. Better. I would unbutton my this, but I'd keep it on. And if you got a vest, if your best is 60, I would say that you probably don't want to do it live. Maybe we do it off of.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, let's not do it now. So a couple things I want to, I want to ask you. So what's your favorite quote?

[A]

Ooh, my favorite quote. And I end my podcast with this. It's your well being is your greatest contribution to humanity, no exceptions ever. And that's from Dr. Carl Buchheit, who I've studied with for, since 2008. So for a while. And then it's, it's your well being is your greatest contribution to humanity, no exceptions ever. Because think about it as you're out there and you're doing what it is that lights you up, like me with sandwiches you with all the things that you're doing. And everybody, everybody has what they're doing and everybody that you came across with was doing the same thing, do you think there would be much conflict? You think there'd be much animosity between people? If you're like, you and I were just vibing, we're totally similar in a lot of areas and totally different in a bunch of areas. But we're just chilling because you're doing what makes you well, and I'm doing what I make what feels well. And the reason why I like that quote a lot is because we're told out in society the opposite is true. We celebrate when somebody sacrifices themselves. We sell, look how selfless this person is. And in reality, that makes that person worse. And it also makes everybody else worse by thinking that they should be selfless too, instead of, well, what lights you up literally inspires, will inspire other people.

[B]

That's an amazing, amazing quote. And you know, I think that A lot of people need to hear that more often now. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

[A]

Ooh. If things go the way that you want, great. And if they don't go the way that you want, even better.

[B]

Awesome advice. And I think a lot of people listening right now need to hear that.

[A]

We don't. You don't know how things are going to show up. And I'll give an ex real life example, which is why this particular thing really hits me is so I had my previous my dad's supermarket. I ended up buying it a long time ago after he like retired. And in 2004, I ended up having to close it. I was 50, 50 business partners with one of my cousins. We ended up having to close it because of lack of money. And I didn't want to work 20 hours for like 50 bucks, like literally for $50. And I was like, I'm not going to do that anymore. So we closed. And I remember on that day going, oh, man, all my life savings was into that. And I had to sell my car, I had a house, I had to sell my house. And I ended up basically with just a little bit of cash, like 5 or 6,000 after everything got sold and all debts got paid. And I was like, man, I'm a loser and I'm crying. And I remember closing the store like the last time and I put the locks on the store and I was standing in there and watching the city of San Francisco, like on the street pass me by and thinking, oh my God, this is so terrible. And then three years later, I ended up opening up Ikes.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

And I remember as I started becoming popular, busy one, my cousin was older cousin and he was pretty successful. Like I went out of business and I had to sell all my stuff, but he was still really financially well off because this restaurant or this supermarket was not his main bread and butter. For me it was. And I noticed that all the good ideas that I'd have, him and I would go out and we'd be 50, 50 partners because we're partners and we were partners on everything. And he would never let me call the things what I want. He would never approved of opening up a sandwich shopping, naming it Ike's. He would have wanted it named after him. So when I started looking at it, I was like, oh my God, that was one of the worst days of my life. And I was a loser and had to sell all these things. But in reality, it disconnected me from him and it disconnected me from a lot of folks that were in my life that only were around because of success. And so when I went out to go do Ike's, I got to do it how I wanted to do it, put my name on it, do all the recipes and all the crazy things that I wanted to do. And I would have lost 50% of that off the top if I had stayed. If that business had stayed in business or even worse, that business would still be in business and I'd be doing that and not exactly what I love to do and I would have lost this whole entire opportunity. So even then I really wanted a successful business. Even better that it didn't work out because now I have this.

[B]

Yeah. I mean every door that closed on you, just a bigger one opened.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now let's go back to when you were 20 years old. What would you tell your 20 year old self to do to build wealth?

[A]

Well, first thing is I would have been like, start now. Like whatever it is the ideas that you have in your head, you're not going to know if they're a good idea or a bad idea. Heck, you're not even going to know if you want to do it or don't want to do it until you do it. So go and do it. Especially my 20 year old self totally has time to fail and go and do things. So one is start today. Doesn't matter what it is, start today. Nothing that's going to come up. You don't need to have a business plan. You don't need, you don't need all this stuff. Just do it and create and adjust. Like trial and error. Do that. That's one thing to like specifically regarding wealth, I'd be like, dude, just save 10% of everything that you. Every time you get money, just put 10% aside. 20, you know, 20 to where I'm at now that be couple, I don't know, 20 million or so. Like if I actually did that. So that would probably be the one thing that's from the richest man in Babylon. Pay yourself first. So that would be what I would tell my 20 year old self is start now and pay yourself first. Just put it aside. You're not going to miss a dollar every ten that you make. You're not going to miss it.

[B]

Now, what's the most painful thing you've ever been told?

[A]

Ooh, asides from getting like broken up with painful thing I've ever been told. Oh, when somebody like that I respect doesn't believe in me.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, we get that a lot nowadays. It's it's part of just life. It's just part of our growth now. What do you think the most popular business mindset or principle is that you use right now on a daily basis?

[A]

It doesn't matter what people want to buy. It only matters what you want to sell. So just sell that, and the people that want to buy that will find you. And in fact, the less people that want to buy it, that means the less market there is out there. That means the more that if you do it, you're going to be the foremost expert in that. And so anybody that wants to buy, you know, whatever ceramic mugs or whatever, they have to come to me because I'm the best ceramic mug person, period. So it doesn't matter what people want to want to buy. It only matters what you want to sell. So sell that.

[B]

And you know what? Now you're at a point where you don't need to sell like, you. When, you know, because everyone knows Ike's. Like, they gotta like Ikes. You don't need to sell it because they either like it or they don't.

[A]

Yeah, we were talking about that earlier. Oh, hey, do you wanna. Do you want somebody to do this? I'm like, hey, if they like Ikes, let's move forward. If they're like, oh, hey, I need to tell them why they should do Ikes, then we don't need to do it.

[B]

Yeah. Now on, don't eat there. On that note, like, what do you think the biggest obstacle is that you face starting Ikes, and how did you overcome it?

[A]

The biggest obstacle, I think with Wolf, with me, I know for me, but for everybody, is deciding to do it. We all know. I guarantee every single one of us know exactly what we want to do with our lives. Whether it's one thing, seven things. Like, there's things that we want to do that we don't do out of fear or we don't see how it connects or how we can make money off of it, or is it realistic stuff like that, or even outside influences, like your parents say that's stupid, or your peers say it's stupid. So the toughest thing for me, because I had the idea of Ike's between when I had it and I opened, was a year between when I wanted to do it and. And before I actually started working on it, almost three years. So it would have been three years ahead of time if I just did it versus, oh, should I do it? Should I do it? Should. I'm kind of comfortable here. Should I do it? And at that time, I was probably making like three grand a month. So not terrible, but also not like, not enough that to be disturbed enough to stop. And so the toughest part was going, I'm gonna stop doing what I'm doing, and I'm gonna focus on what became Ike's. That was the toughest part. The toughest obstacle was my own head with the outside voices.

[B]

We're always our biggest obstacle. And overcoming that is. It takes a lot.

[A]

And that's the hardest part. Like, deciding to do it is the hardest part. Everything else, if you're out there and you've decided to do it, just know that was the hardest part. And the second hardest part is your first iteration of your product. That's the second hardest part. So if you already have that or at the first iteration of your product, you're literally 99% of the way there. The only difference between you and succeeding and not succeeding is if you quit or not. That's. I don't want to say a hack, because it's not really a hack. If you have the product and you already decided to do it. You're almost there.

[B]

Amazing.

[A]

And you don't know if it's going to be this step or that step. Like, you're just literally steps away.

[B]

Now, I got a couple questions, and we'll adjourn here. And this is a two pronged question. What's a personal goal that you have for yourself, and what's a business goal that you have for Ikes?

[A]

Ooh, business goal. I would love to feed people on Mars. I would like to have.

[B]

Coming.

[A]

Yeah, I'm soon. Coming soon. And I'd love. And he's been in my house, so.

[B]

You know, Elon's been your house.

[A]

Maybe we could. Maybe we can work something out. I don't know how we would get the Dutch crunch bread up there or how we can make it.

[B]

Wait, you. You had Elon at your house? That's pretty cool. I mean, you know. You know Silicon Valley.

[A]

I know a lot of.

[B]

What does Elon think of your. Your sandwiches?

[A]

I assume he thinks that they're amazing.

[B]

I mean, he came to your house. I mean, that's pretty cool.

[A]

Funny part is, is he didn't know that it was the Ike. The Ike.

[B]

That's awesome.

[A]

Anyway, and then.

[B]

Do you have any Ikes at Tesla, by the way? Like, there's not an.

[A]

I said Tesla. There. There is. I don't want to talk about Silicon Valley stuff because. But there's not an ice. There's. We had the ice At Stanford. And that kind of gave me all the connections to basically every single. And actually, it's really weird. I met a bunch of these guys before Ikes. So it's not. It's not a. You know how it's one of those, like, energy things.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

There's famous billionaire tech people that I met before Ikes was like, when Ikes was just an idea in my head. So then later on when it turns out, like, wait, oh, wait, you're that guy that did that. Yes, that was me. So it's kind of one of. I believe the world foreshadows a lot. Yeah, I've been hanging out with celebrities since I was 20, 21, dating celebrities since I was really, really, really, really young. So it makes the world foreshadow. So it makes sense that I have a lot of celebrity sandwiches. It makes sense that a lot of the tech world is enthralled with my food. It's like kind of the world tells you. So what is the world showing you right now that is kind of foreshadowing for your future life? Just pay attention. The world's always talking to us. God's always talking, whispering in your ear. Some people say it's the muses. Whatever it is, it's being spoken into your ear, and you just need to listen. And then. So that. That's like a business goal to feed people other. Well, you know, Mars, if you want to keep it to. More like in this lifetime kind of thing. I would love to be in every single state, which for sure is going to happen. I'd love to be international, whether that's Dubai or Paris or.

[B]

You're somewhat international now, but, you know.

[A]

And then I would love to. And then for a personal goal is one day. Well, besides the gaming, I already shared that, so I'll share a second one. I would love to put out a. I'm not. I feel like I'm a terrible singer, but I'd love to get voice lessons and put out a freaking album.

[B]

That's awesome.

[A]

I can listen to my own.

[B]

What about movie star? I heard you're doing a movie. We didn't even talk about that.

[A]

It's not a dream of mine because I'm already doing movies. Yeah, that's why I have this beard, is they're like, hey, we need you to look like a. Basically an ungroomed deputy. So they said don't shave. So I'm not shaving. And this is like 12 or 13 days. I'm kind of impressed myself. I normally don't let it grow out this. This long.

[B]

What movie is it?

[A]

It's called Killing Faith. It is. Guy Pierce is the lead. Hopefully I'm allowed to talk about it, but I already talking about it and so I'll be a deputy or something in that. Yeah.

[B]

It's a Netflix movie. Are you producing it?

[A]

This will be a like a real motion picture that Netflix is not real. But I mean, it'll be like in the theaters. Movie. Yeah.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

And I'm a co executive producer on it as well.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

Give myself a role, you know.

[B]

Oh, yeah. It's nice when you produce a movie.

[A]

I mean, normally I play myself in movies, so this would be the first acting gig I've had in like 20 years.

[B]

Really? So it's just. You just. You just play Ike?

[A]

Yeah, I'm normal. Yeah. The last movie I was in, which I was a executive producer on, and that one's called Caitlyn's Chance. That one's gonna be more like Hallmark or. Or Lifetime or something like that. It's totally a chick flick. That one's gonna be. I play me from. I play Ike from Ike's. Like, I'm wearing an Ike shirt in there. There's Ike sandwich wrap. Sandwiches in the audience and. And they like cut to me and I think I'm eating a sandwich. Like, I ate like five sandwiches during the shoot because they kept like, I'm like, oh, should I be eating the sandwich now? Should I be eating the sandwich now? And then I just had to keep digging sandwiches out of the, you know, had to eat five sandwiches. Yeah.

[B]

And then my last question, and I ask everybody this question. We adjourn with this question every single time. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you?

[A]

Did you bring me a sandwich?

[B]

That. That's the legacy. Let's go. Ike, it's been a pleasure to have you on the show, my man. Thank you so much. Look forward to having you on again. And, you know, we're going to be connecting all the time. Vibing all the time. You've been awesome. Thank you so much for coming.

[A]

Oh, you're welcome. I appreciate. Any time, guys.

[B]

Oh, if people want to connect with you, if people want to follow you, how do they. How do they get in touch with you?

[A]

Yeah, I'm at Ike Shahada sh. I'm sure you put it out there. S H E H a D e H and that's every single social media except for YouTube. For some reason. Somebody has Ike Shahada and it's not me, so it's vote the number four, Ike Shahada. So a little bit of foreshadowing, maybe. So it's at Vote for Ike Shahada. If you want to see, basically my podcast called Food and Philosophy, and I have probably 400 videos up there by now.

[B]

That's awesome. Food and Philosophy. Cool.

[A]

Or at Aksha Hot on everything. I put out great content, whether that's food or philosophy, in a combination of both. Yeah.

[B]

Thank you so much, Ike. All right, guys. Ike, make sure you get us sandwiches. Let's go, let's go.