Not Just Comics
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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forever
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what's up everybody welcome back to
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another episode of greetings from the
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garden state i'm mike ham we are here in
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montclair new jersey at eastside mags
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with jeff beck jeff welcome to the show
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hey how's it going everybody oh it's
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going it's going so this is this could
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be the coolest place we've been to full
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disclosure yesterday we recorded with a
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farm animal sanctuary that was pretty
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cool because we got to pet a lot of cows
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and pigs and goats and stuff i'm kind of
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upset that i know so all those cool
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things yeah well you got some other cool
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things in here so let's kind of let's
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talk about it like what do you guys do
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what's cool as a goat though they have
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square pupils i know and only bottom
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teeth did you know that
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they only have bottoms only bottom teeth
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i swear yeah yeah fun fact well i'm
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gonna i'm gonna tie us into goats i'm
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gonna i'm gonna you only have bottom
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teeth i'm gonna do it uh you're gonna
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you're gonna you're gonna look at me and
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go holy he really did i can curse
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her right yeah yeah yeah yeah it's a new
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jersey podcast because that's pretty
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much what we do a lot that's okay so
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does my four-year-old but anyway um yeah
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i'm gonna tie this back to ghost okay
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and you're gonna be amazed yeah i'm
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ready
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like a magician yeah taking one i'm
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gonna do it right now yeah right now so
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this new location that we're in uh that
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we moved into this location uh september
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26th i feel like i already know where
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you're gonna go with this but keep going
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prior to this it will over the summer it
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was an ice cream place but for a year a
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couple of years
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up until coat the coat murphy governor
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murphy and also covered shut down in new
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jersey
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this was a
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coffee shop called
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uh crazy mocha yeah whose uh mascot
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was a goat right i think i was here and
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it was crazy mocha oh yeah yeah i think
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so and i still have the giant goat sign
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with a cup of coffee that uh one day
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very soon i'm going to uh
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see if i can get a big sticker made of
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our logo yeah and we're going to put it
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on the mug over the crazy mocha logo
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love that and uh i don't know it might
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be like the eastside medics krampus yeah
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uh or something but yeah champion the
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goat yeah but because it freaks me out
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yeah they have square pupils this is
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nice i know square people's and only
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bottom teeth so but you weren't here
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originally you were kind of around the
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corner right yeah we were about 30 sec
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uh 30 to one minute 30 second to one
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minute walk away yeah uh kind of
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diagonally across the intersection on a
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side street not far off the beaten path
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but just far enough that i think we
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earned a pretty cool a pretty big cool
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factor yeah for a while yeah uh but
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we're over there for well seven and a
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half years and then uh
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two months here so my favorite question
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when people walk in is oh how long have
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you been here and i go two months and
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they go
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oh that's
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supposed to do it's not that long and i
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go well yeah but seven and a half years
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on south fullerton yeah and then people
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go oh
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yeah yeah so you're the same comic book
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story like yeah that's right
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thanks thanks for thanks for keeping up
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with us yeah awesome yeah thanks for
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your patronus so you said comic book
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store in there and if people that are
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watching on youtube can't figure it out
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this is a
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comic book primary primarily a comic
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book store correct comic books graphic
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novels collectibles statues action
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figures
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original artwork from local artists
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dvds uh use dvds because i'm trying to
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empty out parts of my house
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and why not use my shop as a vehicle for
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that exactly um and my friend's house
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because he gave me a whole bunch of like
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korean movies and kung fu dvds and stuff
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like that so we added those sure um but
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yeah and uh
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yeah pop culture fun yeah
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yeah it's all good no i love that so um
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so seven years in the original location
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two months here so seven years and two
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months so why why open up a comic book
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store did you just like love them as
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like growing up crime of fashion yeah um
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yeah so i i collected comic books
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uh for pretty much like 25 years i guess
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uh most of my entire
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most of my entire life um although i'm
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40 now so it's not that much but yeah
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i'd say i started about when i was 12
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13. uh
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and
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before this i was working in the city in
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hotels and conference centers i got into
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the av world uh i was a salesperson for
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a couple different companies that uh
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put together uh like fortune 500 company
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meetings in various conference centers
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and hotels and i liked what i did but i
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didn't like the people i worked for um
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my immediate boss who's one of my best
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friends to this day was amazing he had a
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very
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huge open door policy
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i got to sit in on
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p l meetings and all kinds of other
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managerial stuff that i normally
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wouldn't have been privy to yeah um but
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he just he wanted everybody to know how
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the operation was run there was no
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secrets there was nothing crazy going on
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um he was just very upfront about
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everything so i learned a lot from him
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about
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how to manage expenses and understand
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cash flow and stuff like that so i kind
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of got like a for lack of i guess lack
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of a better term like a school of hard
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knocks yeah type right uh on running a
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business running a business yeah so um
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but i had studied to get my mba and all
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this stuff like i wanted to go to go
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back to school and get a degree and
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business administration and all this
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stuff and uh what is it the lsats i
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think you have to take to get your mba
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gmats i know because i have an mba no
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not to you know brag but
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well uh and now i'm doing a podcast so
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you can tell
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i'm pretty sure i if i remember i think
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i tanked my gmats okay twice uh and i
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was like this i'm not getting
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figure something else out yeah and i was
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like and then a buddy of mine who uh one
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of my best friends who lives in tel aviv
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uh who i've known since fourth grade who
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at the same time was also trying to get
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his mba and did well on his gmats and
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then went and got his mba
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um
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was like you know dude you don't really
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need an an mba doesn't make you a
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business owner of course you can still
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do it as long as you understand what you
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need to understand right i just thought
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about it
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okay and so i started doing research and
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i did a lot of reading on the on the web
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the different like state government
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sites and and stuff like that just to
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try to like all right i kind of
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understand this aspect like i understand
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cash flow i understand labor i
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understand this so you know uh it just
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but working with nick who was my
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supervisor in hotels and conference
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centers uh
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just really gave me the confidence i
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needed to to feel like i could get this
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off the ground coupled with working for
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companies that
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well
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working for corporations that
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uh as we all know clearly don't give a
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about their employees uh was just
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fuel on the fire and and just in
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incensed me to to just keep working at
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this and and
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learn what i need to learn and do what i
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need to do right um
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culminating in the last company that he
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and i worked we he and i worked at two
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different companies together
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one i left voluntarily because i was
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just like i'm done with this industry
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i've had it uh and i left but then he
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kind of like called me off the bench for
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this new company that was a startup it
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was owned by two at the time 30 year old
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ceos yes they had two ceos which they
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don't anymore because that doesn't work
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very rarely yeah
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but they were best friends who graduated
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from villanova together and used to
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sell textbooks or cigarettes or
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something in their dorm rooms i don't
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know but
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they were they had a college business
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together and they were like oh we work
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well together we should take this to the
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next level and then ended up opening
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this business where
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um i won't say the name of the company
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just for fear of uh contribution right
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yeah we don't need that not that i'm
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scared of them but i just don't care
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enough to give them any shout outs
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but they would lease
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space in corporate buildings turn it
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into meeting space which would provide
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and the idea is pretty pretty cool yeah
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uh it's it's an amenity for the the
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tenants that are already in the building
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they have meeting space and technology
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at their fingertips that they can just
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do whatever they need to and never
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really have to leave the said building
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yeah and they would pull in business
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from outside okay um so i was the
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salesperson for the technology component
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so if you needed a projector microphones
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webcastings video conferencing stuff
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like that uh any kind of recording i was
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the guy who was your first point of
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contact regarding the technology and i
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put together the proposal and you know
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it was always thousands of dollars but
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um but that was my job and that was what
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i did and then my boss kind of oversaw
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that and built out new locations because
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these guys were just buying up property
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in manhattan yeah like crazy and it
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started to branch off into dc and other
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places and they're still around they
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still seem to be doing well if you know
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in the 30 seconds that i spend on
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linkedin uh now it is uh because i kind
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of don't care anymore yeah uh it's not a
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thing for me right so linkedin doesn't
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seem like the spot necessarily for a
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place like this yeah
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yeah not that it's not not that it
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couldn't be i mean i'm friends with some
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industry people
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comic book edition people yeah but like
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yeah i just kind of go in because i like
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to silence the the notifications that i
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get
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uh and every once in a while i get some
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like
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young
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smoking hot millennial who's like
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who's like hey i work for this young
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upstart advertising agency who can get
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you and i'm just like
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okay is this a solicitation are you like
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really the person in in your profile
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picture because i feel like i'm getting
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catfished right yeah you know and
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usually i'm getting catfished so
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uh and actually one girl got real kind
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of like she kind of threw a couple jabs
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back and she was like she was like why
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would you think i was catfishing you and
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then i was like okay and i like proposed
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a date and time to
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have a phone call sure and she never got
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back to me and i went catfish right yeah
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yeah that's what happened you told me i
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wasn't being catfished you catfished me
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by telling me i'm not being catfished i
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was like i'm just drowning in catfish
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yeah i think i like soul food so
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um
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yeah so yeah linkedin sucks but um
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and then we started a comic book company
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but then we then i started it so uh and
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i also won't say the name of the company
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because i don't know if this will come
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back to buy me either but i spent about
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two years behind the scenes of my my old
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job
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um
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working on this i just had a really bad
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day at work uh clients were yelling at
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me nothing was going right you know just
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everybody has those days it's just like
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you feel like the whole world is just
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caving in and so i got home uh i
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ingested some herbal supplements okay
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to expand my mind sure and uh then went
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to the burger king i was living in
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jersey city with my then girlfriend at
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the time uh who's now my wife and uh
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[Music]
10:58
herbal supplements went to burger king
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and was sitting there
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chowing down on like four burgers and a
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big milkshake as one does and i kind of
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caught my reflection and i went
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oh like what am i doing yeah this isn't
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this isn't healthy
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mentally or emotionally this isn't good
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for me like what am i doing with my life
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right uh i'm miserable i don't like my
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job
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i gotta figure this out yeah so i sat
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down and i gave a really hard thought uh
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thanks to the herbals and uh i decided i
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love comic books and i love music and
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like if i'm gonna do
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one thing for the rest of my if i could
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do one thing for the rest of my life it
11:38
would revolve around at least one of
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those two things both yeah um
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other than playing music in the store i
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haven't terribly figured out a way uh to
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incorporate the two yeah uh we used to
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do live music okay in the shop yeah
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that's like bands out yeah yeah yeah
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have little like punk shows and stuff
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which is cool yeah but uh i just figured
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i didn't want to work nights for the
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rest of my life because eventually i
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would like to i wanted to have kids
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which i do uh and be able to go to like
12:02
little league or ballet or whatever that
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brings uh so working nights wouldn't
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allow me to do any of those things and
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working in the city i was basically
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responsible for about two million
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dollars in sales
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minimum on an annual basis so i said
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well if i can do two million dollars in
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sales working for this corporation in
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manhattan
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surely i could sell 300 to 500 000 worth
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of product on my own yeah in a small
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space in new jersey right and so one
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thing led to another and i started
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putting a business plan together and i'm
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googling things and i'm looking at the
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sba and that uh the sp s
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dcc whatever the
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smaller like more local level of the
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small business administration yeah which
12:48
is the federal one right right right
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whatever the smaller version is yeah uh
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i bet with this dude sylvester in jersey
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city who worked for that or worked for
12:55
the sba uh who gave me a lot of really
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good insight on uh you know how to put a
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business plan together and how to
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understand and project sales because you
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know i've had people ask me like how do
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i put a business plan together and it's
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like definitely one of the hardest
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things is trying to figure out like how
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much you're going to sell because you
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haven't sold anything right starting at
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zero no data to go on yeah so there's
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nothing to fall back on yeah and the
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other thing that's really kind of niche
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and
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uh also shitty about
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comic book stories is we're all
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independently owned businesses so
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there's no public records we don't have
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to submit our sales data to anybody
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right it's all just mine or theirs so
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there's literally like unless you just
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can get in good with people and ask them
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and get very candid specific answers
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yeah there's no resource there's no way
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to look it up and go oh how did comic
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book sales do because there's sites that
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do that yeah but those are comic book
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sales to people like me
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not my sales to folks like you sure who
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are on the other side of the retail
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account yeah exactly so
13:57
i can see how many copies of amazing
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spider-man sold to comic book stores but
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not from comic book stores to people
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right yeah and for all i know that
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number is vastly different and comic
14:07
book stores are sitting on copies of
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amazing spider-man because maybe it's
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something i just want to read it yeah so
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yeah um so it was just it was very
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difficult but i managed to pull together
14:16
uh i had the good part about working in
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the city was that they paid me a bot
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load of money like just a buttload
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of money and incentive and kept
14:28
incentivizing me to keep me on
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and uh i just i'm not a man of expensive
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taste yeah uh i don't drive fancy cars i
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don't eat fancy food i love pizza and
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sitting on the couch and watching tv and
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you know i'm good so this buttload of
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money i had just what do i do with it
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and i just kept squirreling it away so i
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had this huge nest egg that i had
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accumulated over like
14:51
10 years of doing this yeah and uh
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i think the only thing i spent real
14:56
money on was the engagement ring for my
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girlfriend nice smart yeah
15:00
happy wife happy life type of thing
15:02
yeah and uh
15:04
yeah eventually
15:05
uh the 30 year old ceos
15:08
uh
15:09
had approached my boss about turning
15:11
turning the rooms uh into like a giant
15:14
iphone and my boss was like that's
15:16
that's not a thing and they didn't like
15:18
hearing no from people so they fired him
15:21
and i was stunned because that was
15:23
really the only thing that was keeping
15:25
me there yes that was your guy that was
15:26
my dude yeah and so i went all right
15:28
well we're going to finish up this
15:30
business this business plan and we're
15:31
going to start making moves to try to
15:33
get funding yeah and i submitted uh my
15:35
business plan
15:37
uh for funding to i think it was
15:40
at least six or seven different
15:41
financial institutions whether they're
15:43
banks or co-ops or whatever and got shot
15:45
down by everybody because i was renting
15:47
an apartment i owned a car that was like
15:49
eight years old so there was like no
15:51
value to it right and i had no
15:53
collateral yeah but i just had this
15:55
massive nest egg that i had put together
15:57
that was over six figures and quite
15:59
substantial but
16:01
nobody would take that at like so
16:04
i sat down and my dad who has
16:06
historically not always been on my side
16:08
with things but is also a small business
16:10
owner but he's a structural engineer so
16:12
very different field a little bit yeah
16:15
but the one thing he does understand is
16:17
numbers because those don't change and
16:18
he looked at my business plan and he
16:20
thought it made a lot of sense and he
16:21
just kind of looked at me and he was
16:22
just like well
16:24
just use your money and i was like
16:27
but i thought we we didn't want to play
16:29
with house money yeah yeah and he would
16:31
and
16:32
play with our own right
16:33
with the house money yeah and he was
16:35
like well yeah but how many times are
16:37
you going to get rejected by a bank or a
16:39
co-op before you decide you're just
16:40
going to use the money
16:42
just do it yeah and i went
16:45
all right right so i wrote four
16:46
resignation letters that night the next
16:48
morning i went in at 7 30 a.m the cfo
16:51
saw me in the office at 7 30 in the
16:53
morning and went
16:54
you're never in here this early and i
16:56
just went
16:58
dropped my resignation letters and that
17:00
was it
17:01
bought a bought a laptop using the
17:03
company discount uh before i walked out
17:05
the door so i got like a
17:07
2500 laptop for like 800 bucks nice
17:09
sweet smart still have it to this day
17:11
you still use it yeah right
17:13
lenovo carbon x1
17:15
very happy
17:16
um
17:18
yeah and that was it yeah and i got a
17:20
lot of dirty looks on my way out people
17:22
thought that's all they were like oh
17:23
where are you going what you you're you
17:25
quit where you going i said i'm open to
17:26
comic book store liar like what
17:28
are you gonna go work for a competitor
17:30
you're like yeah i'm gonna go do
17:31
whatever the you want man i'm gonna
17:32
go out there and sling ass on the street
17:35
like see if anybody wants to pay for it
17:37
this luscious body right yes
17:39
there's a there's a marker for
17:40
everything everybody's gotta mark it
17:41
yeah but yeah but i was honest with
17:43
people i said no i'm gonna open a comic
17:44
book store yeah we're like you man
17:45
like why i thought we were cool you
17:47
gotta lie to me
17:48
yeah
17:49
no one's lying yeah whatever here we are
17:51
yeah and here we are and seven and a
17:53
half years later i really didn't think
17:54
this thing was going to stand on its own
17:55
but you know man we're here it's a
17:57
long time and we're doing great yeah i
17:59
love that just moved to a bigger space
18:01
right and
18:03
yeah okay i got no complaints rolling
18:05
right along all right so we went a
18:06
little long on that first segment but
18:07
that's okay so what we're going to do
18:09
is we're going to take a short break um
18:11
and then we'll be right back so this is
18:13
the greens from the garden state podcast
18:14
i'm mike ham we're here with jeff beck
18:16
at eastside mags of montclair new jersey
18:18
we'll be right back
18:21
it is time for today in new jersey
18:22
history on january 17 1876 frank hague
18:26
was born in jersey city new jersey he
18:28
served as the 30th mayor of jersey city
18:30
and had a widely known reputation for
18:31
corruption and bossism and has been
18:33
called the granddaddy of jersey bosses
18:36
at the time of his death which was on
18:37
january 1st 1956 page wealth was
18:40
estimated to have been over 10 million
18:41
dollars although his city salary never
18:43
exceeded 8 500 a year and he had no
18:46
other legitimate source of income and
18:48
that is today in new jersey history
18:53
and we're back this is the greens from
18:55
the garden state podcast i'm mike ham we
18:56
are here at east side mags of montclair
18:58
new jersey with jeff beck so jeff in the
18:59
first segment we did a great background
19:02
of jeff beck very thorough very thorough
19:05
uh from basically birth to now uh so if
19:09
you haven't listened to the first
19:10
segment you should probably go back and
19:11
listen to that and find out where he was
19:12
born all that i'm totally kidding so
19:13
security number
19:15
pin pin number all that no no um but uh
19:18
but so i i do want to talk about it so
19:19
we kind of took you through like your
19:21
your professional background and kind of
19:23
what eastside mags is on a broad scale
19:25
and the business and all that kind of
19:26
stuff but one of the things that i did
19:27
want to ask you um
19:29
is you know some people that take
19:31
something that they're passionate about
19:32
something that they love and marry it
19:34
with a business
19:35
sometimes the the passion kind of wears
19:38
off a little bit is that something that
19:40
you've seen or is this something that
19:41
like
19:42
you're on more on the positive side of
19:44
that
19:44
uh i would definitely say i'm more on
19:46
the positive side of it i still really
19:48
enjoy reading comics uh it does irk me
19:52
uh especially like the last couple weeks
19:54
we're just things have been there's
19:56
there's been a lot of changes in the
19:57
industry marvel jumped from one
19:59
distributor to another that's
20:01
you know a whole
20:03
kettle official on its own and uh dc did
20:06
it earlier i actually did it during like
20:08
while things were shut down and kovid
20:10
was kind of at its height yes he went oh
20:12
we're gonna throw a monkey wrench at
20:13
this whole thing for you it was like oh
20:15
my god i don't even have to deal with
20:17
the cable pandemic and not letting
20:19
customers in my store and now
20:21
i have to like readjust everything but
20:23
at least i will say in hindsight that it
20:25
was good that they did that while it was
20:26
shut down i didn't have to worry about
20:27
dealing with customers
20:29
coming in and out and that at the same
20:31
time sure so right um but i mean
20:35
yeah so like this week's just been it's
20:36
been a little hairy one of my main
20:38
distribut one of my my main distributor
20:40
that i use was the victim of a
20:41
ransomware attack so we couldn't check
20:43
in shipments we couldn't do orders we
20:45
couldn't do a lot of things
20:47
uh because we're kind of relying on
20:48
their hardware
20:50
and so uh that was kind of a pain in the
20:52
butt uh so it's kind of irking me that i
20:54
don't think i read any comics this week
20:57
to like and i try to i try to there's a
20:59
few titles like spider-man and batman
21:01
that i'll read on a regular basis
21:03
because i just those are characters that
21:05
i grew up loving but then i try to just
21:07
read like two or three issues of a lot
21:09
of different titles so i can
21:11
get a sense of what something's about so
21:13
when someone comes in and goes oh what's
21:15
this about like i can actually say yeah
21:17
i didn't really like it or i loved it or
21:19
the art's great but the writing was
21:21
there like give them like a real honest
21:23
opinion about how i felt about it
21:25
exactly and also let them know like
21:27
you're not me so maybe you'll really dig
21:29
this right i didn't think it was that
21:30
great or i love this i hope you like it
21:32
too yeah and if you don't that's okay
21:34
you know yeah um
21:36
but yeah so i
21:37
it hasn't it hasn't taken away any love
21:40
of it it's it's opened me up to exactly
21:44
what goes on behind the scenes how it's
21:46
produced
21:48
how they're created the kind of work and
21:50
effort that goes into it i've met a
21:53
ton of really awesome people
21:55
from artists and writers to publishers
21:57
to ad sales to
21:59
all kind people who editors all kinds of
22:03
different people who
22:04
occupy different positions
22:06
from the top down as far as the creation
22:10
and distribution of this stuff goes um
22:13
i've unfortunately met some shitty
22:14
people
22:15
which everybody does in a lot of
22:17
different ways in different places yeah
22:18
but i guess i guess in terms of like oh
22:21
pulling back the curtain and seeing how
22:23
the sausage is made kind of thing it's
22:25
not terrifying yeah
22:27
it's it's definitely been eye-opening
22:29
and i think it also
22:32
steers me a little bit as far as
22:35
you know people who
22:38
are
22:39
inclusive and who are thoughtful and are
22:43
genuine
22:44
like
22:45
i tend to support their stuff more sure
22:48
than
22:50
the people who tend to be shitty yeah i
22:52
mean if it's good if it's good and at
22:54
the end of the day it's really about
22:56
sales and like what's moving yeah and
22:59
like
23:00
the numbers thing yeah exactly and if
23:02
and if people if something happens and
23:04
people stop buying batman well i'll stop
23:07
stalking batman like it seems like a
23:09
taboo thing and it's like
23:11
heresy like a comic book sword not
23:13
carrying batman but like if if the
23:15
book's that bad and it's not moving why
23:19
exactly why stock it right and the great
23:21
part about the comics industry is that
23:22
you know despite
23:24
popular belief uh
23:26
you know i don't know if it's popular
23:27
belief but like
23:30
a lot of people just kind of go oh it's
23:31
comic book so it's like superman batman
23:33
spiderman all that but there's so
23:35
much more yeah out there than superhero
23:38
stuff so like whatever if i have to stop
23:41
selling batman because it's not selling
23:42
anymore it's not like i'm dead there's
23:45
hundreds literally hundreds and
23:47
thousands of other titles and other
23:49
directions that i can go in which i
23:51
found out very quickly during shutdown
23:52
and covet and all that stuff right um so
23:55
it's not
23:57
mutually one's not mutually exclusive to
23:59
the other yes you know we'll be fine but
24:01
right
24:02
but no i'm still very much a fan i just
24:04
saw eternals yesterday nice uh which is
24:06
the first time in almost two years i've
24:09
seen a movie on opening weekend but
24:10
there's a buddy of mine who wanted to
24:11
take me out my birthday's in a couple
24:13
weeks nice uh i was like kind of an
24:14
early birthday present and it was great
24:16
yeah it wasn't what i expected but you
24:18
know i i really enjoyed the movie yeah
24:20
um
24:22
and so yeah i go see the movies i watch
24:23
the tv shows uh you know if they're on
24:26
demand or whatever like i'm just i'm
24:29
still very much into it yeah no i love
24:31
that so kind of going off of that too
24:33
you know in that answer which i love
24:35
that you know the passion is still there
24:36
for the stuff that you were passionate
24:38
about that's why you started this so it
24:39
would kind of be kind of shitty if it if
24:41
you weren't anymore and you were just
24:43
like this curmudgeon that just like
24:44
hated comic books now but um so talking
24:47
about the last year and a half you know
24:48
by the time this episode posts it's
24:50
gonna be close to two years which is
24:51
almost kind of crazy to think about but
24:53
um when you're
24:55
navigating that time obviously you had a
24:58
move over the course of the last couple
24:59
months
25:00
when this episode's being recorded but
25:02
were there things that maybe you tried
25:04
to implement
25:05
in the business with your customer base
25:07
maybe that if not for the last couple
25:10
years that maybe you would not have you
25:12
would have not have tried like were
25:14
there zoom things were there ways you
25:16
were trying to stay connected with your
25:17
customers even with the doors closed and
25:19
people not allowed in here oh yeah i
25:20
mean uh
25:22
i'm just in general i'm just i
25:25
i don't say die like i won't roll over
25:28
yeah i i've never been that way and i
25:30
probably never will um
25:32
so
25:33
you know
25:34
any obstacle that comes that comes my
25:36
way and and my old boss used to say it
25:38
to me and i say it to my wife all the
25:40
time and i say to my kids even more
25:42
and it's always when something
25:44
goes wrong
25:46
whether you had something personally to
25:48
do with it or not
25:50
the only thing in this world that you
25:52
have full control over is yourself
25:54
and when something doesn't go the way
25:56
you want it to
25:58
it's important to look
26:00
at yourself and see what could you have
26:02
done to avoid the situation what could
26:04
you have
26:05
what did you have control over that you
26:07
could have done to try to get at least
26:09
or at least a different outcome sure and
26:12
so yeah i'm not responsible for kovid uh
26:14
i don't i don't know where it came from
26:16
i don't know how we got it but it's
26:17
here uh it's it's impacted
26:20
everybody and uh you know
26:23
but i have a business that relies on
26:25
people coming in
26:27
purchasing things touching things uh i
26:30
mean if you're not a comic book
26:31
collector like one of the big things
26:33
that comic book collectors do is they
26:34
like to dig through boxes yeah uh long
26:37
boxes short boxes and flip through every
26:40
single issue to find
26:42
maybe a gem or a missing issue that they
26:44
need or just something cool as a gift or
26:47
whatever the reasoning is but it's a lot
26:50
of hands-on it's a lot of touching
26:51
things it's a lot of close quarters if
26:53
you've
26:54
been to a comic convention before kovid
26:56
you've seen people like
26:57
literally shoulder to shoulder digging
26:59
through boxes you know furiously yeah um
27:02
so how do i make this survive
27:05
if i can't even let people in the door
27:07
and so it just turned into
27:09
all right let's just start looking at
27:10
every aspect of the business and figure
27:12
out what we can do one of the things one
27:14
of the very first things that became
27:15
apparent was we do a saturday morning
27:17
drawing class for kids cool i talked to
27:19
the instructor who was a friend of ours
27:23
uh and the fiance or maybe they're
27:25
married no i think they got married they
27:27
might have gotten married during covent
27:28
um
27:30
but she's a she's a friend a really good
27:32
friend of mine
27:33
she teaches the saturday morning drawing
27:35
class we immediately moved that over to
27:37
zoom
27:38
we found that she she her and her
27:40
husband
27:41
figured out a way to connect her ipad
27:44
and get that connected to zoom so that
27:46
the kids could see when they log in like
27:48
what she's drawing and seeing her at the
27:49
same time so that was a pretty easy
27:51
transition um we do sunday dungeons and
27:54
dragons campaigns the dungeon master was
27:58
very good at transitioning all those
28:00
campaigns to zoom uh which we still do
28:03
today yeah the drawing class is on a
28:05
discord server now uh she found that
28:07
that was a a better fit for her okay um
28:10
but yeah but those are still online
28:12
we're talking about maybe bringing the
28:14
drawing classes back in person now that
28:16
kids five and up can get vaccinated so
28:19
um parents might be a little more
28:20
willing to sure let their kids hang out
28:22
in a comic book store for two hours on a
28:24
saturday morning if they've got a
28:25
vaccine right um
28:28
but then it was like okay so that takes
28:29
care of the dungeons and dragons
28:31
takes care of the drawing class
28:33
but like
28:34
that's like revenue that we that it's
28:36
kind of split it's not my revenue so
28:38
like how do i keep myself afloat
28:41
and so
28:43
uh there was a lot of brainstorming i
28:44
mean for all the that people talk
28:46
about facebook nowadays and i mean
28:49
they're not wrong uh it is it is kind of
28:52
terrible uh but they're also very very
28:55
huge positives um
28:57
with facebook yeah and one of those was
28:59
the ability
29:00
after murphy shut down non-essential
29:02
businesses in the state
29:03
uh
29:05
i mean i'm on uh probably about a half
29:07
dozen retailer
29:08
pages it's that's just comic book
29:10
retailers for different reasons and
29:13
motives yeah but uh there were
29:16
new retailer groups that opened up
29:18
called plan c distribution which was one
29:20
of them started by a woman who owns a
29:22
couple comic book stores in the midwest
29:24
and it was not marvel not dc not even
29:28
image or dark horse or idw but like
29:31
independently
29:33
distributed comics like stuff coming out
29:35
of people's basements and attics and
29:37
stuff yeah um who normally wouldn't have
29:40
a venue like hey are you sit on comics
29:43
that you were going to try to sell at
29:44
shows but now there aren't shows because
29:46
of a global pandemic here's a an entire
29:49
group on facebook that's comprised
29:51
primarily of retailers that you can
29:53
pitch your stuff to
29:54
or download an email list and solicit us
29:57
with your independently drawn written
30:00
produced comic book to get us in stores
30:02
because if
30:03
at the same time everything shut down
30:06
diamond who's the main distributor for
30:08
comics wasn't shipping comics
30:11
new stuff yeah so there was no new
30:12
content coming out so was a combination
30:15
of this
30:16
talking to a lot of the independent
30:18
comic book creators that i knew who were
30:19
selling their stuff um
30:22
and then me looking at the shelf and
30:23
going all right well let's try working
30:26
out like
30:27
new for you comic book day right like oh
30:30
you never read uh the dark knight
30:32
returns oh you never read greed lantern
30:35
darkest uh blackest knight oh you never
30:38
read this amazing you know craven's last
30:39
hunt with spider-man like here i've got
30:42
copies and i was doing curbside pickup
30:44
when i probably shouldn't have been but
30:46
i was anyway right we were shipping
30:48
things nobody needs to know that nobody
30:49
listens anyway so
30:51
um uh but i was shipping things to
30:53
people we started doing uh free shipping
30:56
for orders over 50 bucks uh we i was
30:59
doing curbside pickups uh i was spending
31:01
about 20 minutes and fetal position
31:03
crying in the beginning of every day you
31:05
gotta figure it out you gotta fill the
31:06
day somehow what are we gonna see
31:07
tomorrow i don't even know we're gonna
31:09
see the wall but like you know but then
31:12
i get like
31:13
all right back on the horse let's go
31:15
let's go let's figure out a way to sell
31:16
these comics and like it just
31:18
became a thing and i'd look at my
31:20
shelves and i'd go what do i have a lot
31:21
of and
31:23
is there a way that i can pitch this
31:25
book to people
31:27
that is going to make it interesting
31:30
and then that all of that
31:32
plus
31:33
just a really
31:36
awesome community of people who we've
31:38
cultivated who we've grown and
31:40
cultivated with over the last seven
31:42
years i mean we had people like uh this
31:45
guy zach whose wife
31:47
owns uh
31:48
with a toy story that's down the block
31:50
from us now yeah
31:51
he would call me up and he go jeff i got
31:53
75 bucks
31:55
what's good
31:56
make some recommendations yeah but i've
31:58
got 75 to spend with you i had uh one
32:01
customer came in and she gave me
32:03
uh well she didn't come in but she
32:05
called me up and she was like i've got a
32:06
hundred dollars i want to spend on five
32:08
dollar gift certificates for you to give
32:10
out to essential workers very cool so
32:12
like and i you know we rang it up and i
32:14
was so moved by the fact that she wanted
32:16
to do that that i was like you know what
32:19
a pandemic we're gonna match it
32:21
yeah we'll do 200 worth yeah and so uh
32:24
we
32:24
printed out all these gift cards uh if i
32:27
had to go grocery shopping because my
32:29
wife was like oh on the way home you got
32:30
to pick up some stuff i'd be like okay
32:32
and as i'd be walking around i'd be
32:34
handing out gift cards because i knew
32:35
those grocery store employees were
32:37
working the whole time yeah right um
32:41
the male lady who came by uh anybody i
32:43
saw him
32:44
in scrubs on the street
32:46
just handed them out like candy yeah um
32:49
little kids
32:50
yeah just you know but it was stuff like
32:52
that that kept us afloat um and helped
32:55
us pivot a little bit into
32:58
adjusting to the times until such a time
33:00
that we could get back to business as
33:02
usual of course and uh and even now i
33:05
mean we
33:06
doesn't look like it now but we do
33:08
require masks um
33:10
in the store uh
33:12
not at this moment right now but well
33:14
generally speaking yeah uh please wear a
33:16
mask if you come by right um yeah and
33:19
they even if you don't have one they
33:20
gave me one when i walked in yeah
33:22
i now that there's not like this massive
33:26
worldwide shortage of right surgical
33:28
masks yeah you know we we pick we pick
33:30
up uh
33:31
some giant bags of them and and have
33:34
them available because sometimes people
33:35
forget and sometimes people come in and
33:36
they're just like no i'm not wearing a
33:38
mask and it's like
33:39
alright see you later have a great day
33:42
thanks for stopping in what am i going
33:44
to do
33:45
and i'm not going to stand here and i'm
33:46
not going to argue about
33:48
covet
33:49
and
33:50
oh kids can't catch it or you know
33:53
any of this other like rhetoric
33:55
like you know we we've been following
33:57
cdc guidelines
33:59
science is is where my head is at and
34:01
what i'm focused on and all the
34:03
political like is means nothing to
34:06
me yeah um you know just and i got two
34:08
kids at home i got a four and a half
34:10
year old and a one and a half year old
34:12
that neither of them are old enough for
34:14
a vaccine and i'm trying
34:16
not to
34:17
get them covered again i mean we are my
34:20
family already had it right last march
34:22
yeah
34:23
my four-year-old was in a preschool that
34:25
my wife worked at and his teacher was
34:28
like a young girl who went out and
34:31
didn't take it seriously and caught it
34:33
and brought it into the school and my
34:35
wife caught it my son caught it i then
34:38
had it the my one-year-old baby caught
34:40
it like that's how i found out that i
34:42
had it right because i had to get the
34:43
baby tested because the baby was hot and
34:45
i was like your skin should not be yeah
34:47
right i don't know a lot about babies
34:49
but if they're high i don't think that's
34:50
good no no definitely not yeah and so
34:51
like you know we got i got him tested
34:53
and i got tested because i'm the
34:54
caregiver and sure uh we let my wife
34:57
come out of quarantine because i was
34:58
like well i don't have to slide
35:00
americraft singles to you under the door
35:01
anymore uh for sustenance uh you're
35:04
allowed to come out now because we've
35:06
all got coveted so let's just
35:08
right be together and quarantine the
35:10
house together yeah you can help change
35:11
some of these diapers because it's a lot
35:13
that's a lot of sounds like a lot it's a
35:14
lot of poo yeah so yeah i mean you know
35:17
but i'm not trying to do that again so
35:19
wear a mask if you come in here just put
35:21
on a mask it's not a big deal
35:23
you know you could do it for 30 minutes
35:25
yeah while you leave through throw it in
35:27
the dumpster when you leave i don't care
35:29
yeah
35:31
i'm here my house my rules right so well
35:34
one of the things that i liked about
35:35
that it was gonna wind up being a
35:36
perfect segue into our third segment so
35:38
we're gonna take our second break and
35:39
our last break up this episode now um is
35:41
the community side so we know that we're
35:42
to get into the community uh part at the
35:45
end here um that's what everybody
35:46
listens to the show and knows what we do
35:48
so uh we're taking our second break uh
35:50
this is the greetings from the garden
35:51
state podcast i'm mike ham we're here at
35:53
east side mags in montclair new jersey
35:55
with jeff beck we'll be right back
35:59
it is time for new jersey fun fact of
36:00
the day did you know that new jersey has
36:02
a state seashell it's the knobbed welk
36:04
and is known to be used in the italian
36:05
dish scungili and that is your new
36:08
jersey fun fact of the day
36:13
all right we're back this is the
36:14
greetings from the garden state podcast
36:15
i'm mike ham we are here at east side
36:17
mags in montclair new jersey with jeff
36:18
beck
36:19
so
36:20
jeff in the first part of this uh
36:22
interview we talked a lot about your
36:23
background we talked about the
36:24
background of the business we talked
36:26
about you know um
36:28
a lot of other things we kind of talked
36:29
about marrying the passion with the
36:30
business side of it and kind of how that
36:32
works um and then we were talking about
36:34
in the last segment and we're gonna
36:35
really hammer it in this segment um is
36:38
the community side of it so as someone
36:40
that doesn't necessarily like read a lot
36:42
of comics or do a lot of these things
36:43
but i have friends that do and i know
36:46
that a lot of those communities are like
36:48
you know
36:49
diehards like if you're into this thing
36:50
it seems like you're very into it um so
36:53
talk to me a little bit about like you
36:55
talked about how strong the community
36:56
that you've cultivated here for seven
36:58
and a half years and talk to me about
37:00
just how important that is to your
37:02
business i mean obviously the dollars
37:04
and cents thing but even beyond that i
37:06
mean the best example of community
37:09
as far as us as far as we go as a shop
37:12
was
37:14
displayed
37:15
about a month and a half ago when we
37:18
decided to move
37:19
i had been
37:20
kind of letting people know that we
37:22
would be
37:23
my the way my lease was laid out was my
37:25
first month's rent had to be paid
37:26
november 1st so like throughout the
37:29
whole summer we were letting people know
37:31
like by november 1st buy november 1st
37:33
buy november 1st
37:35
we finally picked a move-in day
37:37
uh it was september 26th which was a
37:39
sunday uh normally we're open the only
37:42
day we're close is on monday but i said
37:43
you know what we're going to close that
37:44
sunday we're going to
37:47
basically just put everything in our 968
37:50
square foot store in boxes
37:53
and we're gonna move it over to the new
37:54
space and the new space is like a 30
37:56
second walk from the old space so
37:58
no moving truck no movers
38:01
nothing just hand trucks and bodies just
38:04
people who are willing to help us
38:06
and i was like if it takes all day it
38:08
takes all day but we're going to give up
38:09
a day of revenue the next day we're
38:11
closed anyway so there's no revenue to
38:13
be had that day and the idea is to just
38:16
get
38:17
at least
38:18
four specifically targeted areas of the
38:21
shop up and set up
38:24
in order for me to unlock that door
38:25
tuesday morning
38:27
and be okay yeah and then we could
38:28
slowly start to put toys away and stuff
38:31
like that but it had to be the new
38:33
comics the kids section the register and
38:36
the subscription boxes or pull boxes as
38:38
people tend to call them
38:40
and if i can get those four things set
38:42
up and good between sunday and monday
38:45
everything else the drinks the dvds the
38:49
statues all that stuff can be
38:51
dug out of a box to sell to somebody if
38:53
they know that we have it or it can be
38:55
set up at a later date
38:58
started letting people know all right we
39:00
picked september 26th to be moving day
39:03
people started going oh if you need help
39:04
let me know if you need help let me know
39:06
so i started making a list and i started
39:07
writing people's names down and getting
39:09
their contact info
39:10
sent out
39:11
an email
39:12
mass email to everybody who who gave me
39:15
their name
39:16
a couple of facebook messages to certain
39:18
people
39:19
and was just like all right this is
39:21
gonna be it uh the day before was uh
39:23
jazz fest here in montclair okay so we
39:25
had a small table set up for jazz fest
39:27
because i got talked into it and why i
39:29
decided to do it the day before moving i
39:30
would never understand but uh i have a
39:33
button machine we make our own buttons
39:35
out of damaged comics okay cool uh so i
39:37
just sat there making buttons all day
39:39
like it was easy set up easy clean up
39:42
and i gave away free stuff because i was
39:44
like the less we have to move the better
39:45
yeah
39:46
and
39:47
that night i went over with uh one of my
39:50
best friends who does comic conventions
39:52
with me his name is mike
39:54
and we stood in the empty store at 10
39:56
o'clock at night and i told him about
39:57
the four areas and how i wanted to do
40:00
things and we were good he was on the
40:02
same page and then
40:04
my two employees chris and ariel who are
40:06
like
40:07
the greatest employees i could have ever
40:09
asked for
40:10
chris has been with us practically since
40:12
day one i think he came on our second
40:14
year
40:15
of
40:16
of business and has been with us ever
40:18
since arielle like fourth year yeah uh
40:20
it has been with us ever since
40:23
and they're just amazing dudes and i
40:25
said to chris i was like listen you're
40:26
gonna be in the old spot you're gonna be
40:28
responsible for boxing stuff up
40:30
ariel's gonna kind of be back and forth
40:32
but he has a another job that he does in
40:34
the morning i'll be at the new spot
40:36
receiving things yeah and
40:39
we're just gonna kind of go from there
40:42
sunday morning came
40:43
i told everybody listen we're gonna
40:45
start we're gonna be there as early as 7
40:46
00 a.m so whatever time you can get
40:48
there whatever you can do to help out
40:50
great
40:51
seven a.m there was at least
40:54
ten people
40:55
who showed up at seven in the morning on
40:57
a sunday
40:59
hand trucks
41:00
dollies
41:01
plastic wrap to wrap
41:03
prices and i was like totally moved by
41:06
it by the time
41:09
we actually started moving things over
41:11
there was at least 20 people
41:13
moving things back and forth i mean it
41:15
was a non-stop caravan back and forth
41:17
across the intersection
41:19
of hand trucks moving things over a lot
41:21
of my stuff's already on wheels because
41:23
my idea for the shop was to be able to
41:25
move stuff around to make room for
41:26
different events right um
41:28
but like the absolute
41:30
show of support from
41:32
20 people who didn't expect to get paid
41:35
and didn't expect to get anything out of
41:37
it other than to help us move things
41:39
over yeah um just showed me that we've
41:42
made such a difference
41:45
in
41:45
certain people's lives or just
41:48
in the way that they experience this
41:51
industry and comic books and you know
41:53
we've just we've touched so many people
41:54
that they
41:56
they were really willing to come out
41:57
here seven in the morning on a sunday
41:59
night move stuff forever yeah um
42:02
which is awesome no it's that's
42:04
amazing it's huge and then
42:06
you know go back a little further the
42:08
whole thing during covid with people
42:09
donating money to us giving us money for
42:12
gift cards
42:13
to kind of give us that help us with
42:14
cash flow um
42:16
that also gave us gift cards that we
42:18
could give out to hopefully new
42:20
customers you know and bring in more
42:21
revenue and all that good stuff you know
42:24
and then even before that you know we
42:26
spent seven years in our old location
42:29
um doing free punk shows uh you know we
42:32
never charged admission for that stuff i
42:35
started off the shop doing movie nights
42:38
where i would uh
42:39
i would buy like guardians of the galaxy
42:41
on on
42:43
a streaming platform
42:44
and then i would rent a projector a
42:46
screen and a sound system and set it up
42:49
in the shop and move everything to all
42:50
the products at the sides and set up
42:52
chairs and like a theater type
42:53
atmosphere
42:54
and we would do a showing of guardians
42:56
of the galaxy and the circumvent any
42:59
rights or money we would have to pay
43:01
instead of charging admission we would
43:02
collect canned food
43:04
that we would donate to a local food
43:06
pantry awesome so that if disney was
43:08
like you owe us money for showing
43:09
guardians of the galaxy i'd go okay i
43:10
can pay you in beans how many cans of
43:12
beans there's a couple cans of campbell
43:14
soup yeah right yeah complete with uh
43:16
with a
43:17
with a press kit about how disney would
43:19
rather
43:20
take food out of the mouths of the needy
43:23
to compensate for me sharing one of
43:25
their movies right you know never
43:27
happened but yeah you know but that was
43:29
the idea was to be community supportive
43:32
and also at the same time
43:34
they disney can't ask me for
43:37
some time it was twofold yeah but i mean
43:39
we've collected
43:41
clothes and money for like uh
43:45
sexual assault victims and and victims
43:47
of rape in essex county
43:49
uh food pantries um we host local
43:53
artists um
43:55
so we hang up artwork and we help sell
43:57
their artwork on consignment uh where
44:00
the the the it's it's always more in
44:03
favor of the artist than it is for us
44:04
because my feeling is that i didn't pay
44:07
for anybody to go to art school but
44:09
there is a little bit of a rental
44:10
associated with the shelf space that i
44:12
could put something else on right so but
44:14
it usually comes out to like a 70 30
44:16
split or a 60 40 split in favor of the
44:18
artist because i want their costs to be
44:19
covered and i want their profit to be
44:21
real profit right and not oh i sold this
44:24
thing for five i got five bucks for it
44:26
but it cost me four bucks to make so i
44:28
really only made a dollar like no if it
44:30
cost you four bucks then we give you the
44:31
four bucks whatever is left that we
44:34
split fifty yeah um
44:36
and we've
44:37
we've met some amazing people through
44:39
that too independently produce comic
44:41
books and distributed comic books we
44:43
said we have a whole we used to bake
44:45
them into
44:46
the everything so like you could have
44:48
batman here and right next to it could
44:50
be a comic that a guy draws in his
44:53
apartment you know right next to batman
44:55
on the wall uh but you know we've had
44:57
some conversations about it uh amongst
44:59
me and my my my team and so now we we're
45:02
trying out the indie comics table we set
45:04
up a table where it's just indie comics
45:06
and people can take a look and you know
45:08
that seems to be working out really well
45:09
too so i've got no complaints there no
45:11
it's awesome um but you know we try to
45:14
we just we're inclusive
45:17
we like diversity we like different
45:19
things uh
45:21
all of us have different tastes who work
45:23
here yeah we don't always see eye to eye
45:25
on the same thing
45:27
which is great i mean it doesn't get
45:29
volatile it doesn't get angry it's just
45:31
you know it gets a little heated
45:32
sometimes but that's okay passion
45:35
passion and
45:36
you know we argue about stuff sometimes
45:39
and sometimes we're all like nope that
45:41
season of titans was the best
45:43
season in the world or nope this last
45:46
season of titans was trash and
45:49
they ruined the red hood storyline
45:51
and
45:52
super disappointed yeah but like
45:54
you know but whatever it is like
45:57
we're amicable about it it's cool and we
45:59
just move on yeah and it's just we love
46:01
this stuff right and i tell people all
46:03
the time that the comic book industry is
46:05
full of some of the greatest people you
46:06
will ever meet and some of the most
46:08
toxic who ever walked this
46:10
earth
46:11
because
46:12
some people just they just don't know
46:14
how to let things go and yeah they don't
46:17
know how to like just
46:19
let things change with the times yeah
46:21
but i guess that could be said for just
46:22
about anything yeah nowadays sure so
46:24
exactly so one of the last question i
46:26
have about that is just you know because
46:28
in the last segment also we talked about
46:29
the you know doing the classes for the
46:30
kids the drawing classes for the kids
46:32
doing the dungeons and dragons uh stuff
46:34
on sundays um are there like other
46:36
things that you do to try to like bring
46:38
people in and you know like give them a
46:40
space to do those types of things or is
46:41
that more just kind of like two specific
46:43
examples part of the part of the idea
46:45
for part of the reason why we moved to
46:47
this new space here was because i read a
46:49
lot of articles about how people
46:51
are shopping now that cove is a part of
46:54
our lives and how
46:56
shopping
46:57
uh
46:58
shopping habits will adjust moving
47:00
forward that things are never going to
47:02
really go back to the way they work
47:04
so we have
47:06
you can't really see it in here but this
47:08
huge aluminum tube that runs down that
47:11
gives us like an industrial feel but is
47:13
the air conditioning so invisible air
47:15
conditioning makes people feel like
47:17
there's air flow it's a it's a bigger
47:19
space than about two and a half times
47:21
bigger than where we were so instead of
47:23
stacking things this way i'm stacking
47:25
things this way sure so there's more
47:26
room to move around it also allowed us
47:29
to open up this space in the back where
47:30
we are now that's going to be
47:33
once people once we feel more
47:35
comfortable gathering together our
47:37
gaming space yeah so the dungeons and
47:38
dragons will be in person and they'll be
47:40
in their own space whereas previously
47:42
they were kind of in the middle of the
47:43
store and if someone came in who wasn't
47:46
interested in dungeon dragons they were
47:47
stepping over backpacks and you know it
47:50
felt just very tight and crammed in
47:52
there yeah and now we don't have any of
47:54
that stuff
47:55
so
47:56
besides forgetting the question that you
47:58
just asked me just so you know like if
47:59
you do any other types of things like
48:01
that and i think that that would kind of
48:03
play into maybe some future plans right
48:04
you know just doing some different
48:05
things with the space that you can do
48:07
that you couldn't do prior right yeah
48:09
right now we're kind of i'm in this
48:11
limbo where i don't really know
48:13
what i'm gonna do but the good part is
48:15
that it's november
48:17
and holiday season is upon us and that's
48:19
if anybody works retail they know that
48:21
this is like the do or die time this is
48:23
the time yeah you know
48:25
so
48:26
i'm kind of not as concerned about it
48:28
right now because i'm like okay i'm in
48:29
this new space and it's bigger and
48:31
there's still only three of us plus our
48:33
intern kirk who comes in whenever he
48:36
feels like it which is fine because he's
48:38
the intern so that's kind of his role
48:40
but you know um
48:42
he's great support when he's here but
48:44
when he's not here it's still just three
48:45
of us at any given point in time so like
48:48
managing the new space making sure that
48:50
we're comfortable and that we have what
48:51
we need where we need it
48:53
and then
48:54
not
48:55
kind of back to not knowing what to
48:57
expect from this holiday season not just
48:59
in terms of covid and shopping and stuff
49:01
like that but just
49:03
is our foot traffic going to be bigger
49:05
now is it going to be less is it going
49:07
to be different like what's going on and
49:11
so just having so many unknown variables
49:13
right now i'm not really in a rush to
49:15
worry about that kind of stuff but
49:16
future wise we'd love to get our guns
49:19
and dragons back on back to in person
49:21
when our dungeon master gets his kids
49:23
vaccinated he's willing to do that
49:25
drawing class is coming back to being in
49:27
person
49:29
probably in january of next year we'll
49:31
start
49:32
renting out the table space back here
49:33
because one thing that i also learned
49:35
from kovid was that a lot of people were
49:37
utilizing zoom and other like facebook
49:41
live to do online dnd campaigns well
49:44
people may not want to just be done with
49:46
that they may want to keep playing but
49:49
you may have been playing dungeons and
49:50
dragons with five randos who you've
49:52
never met and don't want in your
49:53
house so here there's a comic book store
49:56
yeah right totally public place where
49:58
people are coming in and out and there's
50:00
employees and we're inclusive and we're
50:01
fun and you can bring your randos here
50:05
and if you don't feel comfortable you
50:07
can tell us and we'll
50:09
make it stop or call somebody or do what
50:12
we can yeah do you think you don't have
50:14
to go oh i guess this is the end of our
50:16
campaign because i don't know
50:18
your people and you're not going to sit
50:19
in my kitchen yeah no you let them come
50:22
here yeah um you know so that stuff can
50:24
continue very cool um
50:26
i mean we've got a couple other ideas
50:28
maybe different events maybe we can go
50:29
back to live music and yeah doing punk
50:32
shows again um
50:33
you know a lot of that stuff what
50:35
someone said to me the other day like
50:36
what what what's old is new again and i
50:39
was like what are you a hallmark
50:41
shut up don't say those things yeah
50:44
gross yeah but i mean
50:46
he was wrong like
50:48
you know what we've been doing we can
50:50
probably at some point go back to doing
50:52
it and hopefully we
50:54
are are we still trying to flatten our
50:55
curve i don't even know what it is
50:57
anymore
50:58
some places you wear masks on places you
51:00
don't i just stick one in my pocket and
51:01
you know if i need it cool if i don't
51:03
need it i'd probably wear it anyway
51:04
because my kids aren't vast yet yeah uh
51:07
yet but um
51:10
yeah awesome all right well so what
51:12
we're going to do now if people have
51:13
listened to this episode and i cannot
51:15
imagine if they've listened to this
51:17
episode and they don't want to learn
51:18
more or come check you guys out
51:20
all that kind of stuff so what are some
51:22
places that they can go maybe there's a
51:23
website maybe there's some social
51:25
handles all that kind of stuff where can
51:26
they go to learn more eastsidemags.com
51:30
uh eastside mags on instagram facebook
51:33
and twitter my wife is telling me that i
51:35
should have a tick tock but i don't
51:36
think i have time for that
51:37
um
51:39
let's say we're on tumblr if people
51:41
still use tumblr okay uh you can find me
51:44
on linkedin if you're on linkedin right
51:46
and then you'll probably just silence
51:47
those notifications anyway yeah you're
51:49
just gonna catfish me anyway which is
51:51
fine
51:52
it's fine yeah i don't send anybody
51:54
money anyway so it's
51:56
not anymore it's not a thing yeah um and
51:58
then what's the new address here so
52:01
people know 491 bloomfield ave we're in
52:04
suite 102 which is on the ground floor
52:07
and totally wheelchair accessible if if
52:09
you have it um but yeah we are uh
52:13
we're visible from the main ave we're on
52:14
the main street with the big boys yeah
52:16
and big girls we're we're one of the big
52:18
kids right exactly played on the big kid
52:20
playground oh yeah bloomfield ave that's
52:22
that's about as big as it gets around
52:23
here
52:24
major county road yeah and uh yeah
52:28
yeah we're here awesome selling comics
52:30
and
52:31
fun stuff we just uh we just had mugs
52:34
printed because a lot of people on the
52:35
community pages were have been
52:37
complaining about parking in town uh and
52:40
i mean it's been a problem there's like
52:41
i think the broken parking meters are up
52:43
to 11 percent town wide i'm not a big
52:46
fan of parking around montclair love new
52:47
jersey love montclair not a big fan of
52:49
parking around here it's not it's not a
52:51
great thing but we have uh we now have
52:53
we're calling them eastside mugs uh it
52:56
says eastside mags on one side and on
52:58
the other side it says proof i found
53:00
parking in montclair
53:01
so we're going to be giving you one
53:03
before you leave oh amazing thank you
53:04
you found parking i did yeah i'm going
53:06
to carry my box all the way here but it
53:07
was all good
53:08
so yeah i'll put the mug in there we're
53:10
going to give you one uh as a party gift
53:12
i love that
53:14
yeah and uh yeah i mean people on the
53:15
community page just think it's hilarious
53:17
yeah i just hope they think it's funny
53:18
enough that they come in and buy one buy
53:20
these mugs that i just had printed up
53:22
yeah yeah but we've got t-shirts with
53:25
very clear punk rock influences yeah
53:28
actually our tea public store has one
53:30
that i i manipulated the uh notorious
53:33
b.i.g ready to die okay uh this is ready
53:36
for comics and it's like funko hulk with
53:38
the crooked crown on his hand yeah yeah
53:40
it's cool i gotta i gotta buy one for
53:42
myself uh because now that i'm not
53:44
getting them printed on my own right uh
53:46
i have to buy your own
53:48
merchandise so that i can get my own cut
53:50
later yeah yeah yeah who knows but yeah
53:53
awesome awesome well jeff thank you so
53:55
much for having me here today this was
53:57
amazing for having me man this is great
53:59
you have a great podcast thank you i
54:00
appreciate that i'm i'm really happy
54:02
that i got to be a part of it yeah me
54:03
too this was a lot of fun uh definitely
54:06
i wouldn't say better than the goats
54:07
just a lot different than the goats that
54:09
we had on the other day so
54:11
beating goats is not uh it's not easy to
54:12
do no but you did your best you gave
54:14
them you gave a
54:16
valiant effort for sure um so again this
54:19
is the greeting state from the greetings
54:20
from the garden state podcast on my cam
54:22
we're here at eastside mags today in
54:24
montclair new jersey with jeff beck
54:27
thank you so much jeff beck the goat uh
54:30
thank you for listening and we'll catch
54:31
you next week
54:40
[Music]
54:41
[Applause]
54:53
[Music]
