Business Money Hacks

Episode 6: Creative Appropriation with Tracey & Dakota

[Music]

Dustin: Every morning, you need to mind-hack and murder-hack your brand.

Bridge: Exponential growth is exponential.

Dustin: Look at your calendar and burn it. What is your personal winning resume?

Bridge: The number one thing that they don't teach in school is to make money

Bridge: Entrepreneurs

Dustin: Entrepreneurs

Bridge: Entrepreneurs

Dustin: Entre-manure

Bridge: Produce produce produce, produce

Dustin: I am literally a god.

Leonidas: Spartans!

Dustin: Business

Bridge: Money Hacks

[Music]

Leonidas: Our arrows will blot out the sun

Dustin: Hey everyone, welcome to Business Money Hacks. My name is Dustin Taylor Hahn

Bridge: I’m Bridge Stewart.

Dustin: Today we're going to be talking about small businesses, and how to quickly create a bigger business out of it. As you know, something that's small is minuscule; it means nothing to anyone. Nobody will buy a product from you if you tell them that “I’m a small business”. It's just not how it works.

Bridge: It's very important to know how to scale, how to just expand your business at a very rapid rate. A metaphor we always like to use is this concept of the plague. Now, I mean the plague is obviously- it's a bad thing. That's a very bad thing that happened in history, but you can sort of take a little bit of advice from the plague. It really expanded fast. It really went through Europe, and it's something you can look at and say, “Hmm that's a good idea.”

Dustin: The more important thing to talk about is the word “big”.

Bridge: Big

Dustin: “Big” is not a big word, but big is- it means large. It means big.

Bridge: Its meaning is huge.

Dustin: When something is big, it's bigger, and it's better.

Bridge: It’s bigger.

Dustin: Something that’s smalls is not as good as something that's big.

Bridge: It's insignificant. No one wants to hear about that. I mean that's just a constant theme I’m hearing in the business world is just: small is bad. It's always going to be bad, and big… people want to hear about that. So the quicker you can be big…

Dustin: Something that I’ve been working on in the compound, I don't know if you've seen all the renovations going on right now. It's kind of crazy when you came in.

Bridge: I’ve seen a few.

Dustin: So I’m building a Colossus of Rhodes statue based on myself right now. All the workers are creating this thing for me,

Bridge: Wow

Dustin: In my honor.

Bridge: Okay

Dustin: Do you know the Scales of Liberty? The woman, the blindfolded woman holding the scales?

Bridge: Absolutely, Scales of Justice.

Dustin: So what I’m doing is--the scales of justice, yeah--so what I’m doing is creating a 50-foot statue of myself, and I’m actually holding the woman holding the Scales of Justice by the collar…

Bridge: Oh my

Dustin: On one hand, and on the other hand, the architect that designed the statue, his head.

Bridge: Yeah, well, that's fair

Dustin: I’m going to take somebody else's credit.

Bridge: I mean taking credit--grabbing a hold of credit--I think is a very important thing, and I think honestly that leads us into our guests right now.

Dakota: Yeah, thanks again, guys, for bringing us on.

Tracey: Thank you so much.

Dustin: Thanks for flying in. Thanks for taking the time.

Dakota: We're so excited to be here.

Tracey: I just want to say, what you had to say about the word “big” was really inspiring. I had never heard that before that “big” is a small word. So I had never thought about that, but it's so true.

Dakota: It is so true

Tracey: It is such a small word, and it means huge. It means big, you know?

Dakota: And it's easy to say, and I wanted to just say, what you were saying, Bridge, about the plague… people are still talking about it.

Tracey: That's how big it got.

Dakota: It’s so wild.

Bridge: That's how popular it was that people are talking about a thousand years later.

Tracey: If I could be like the plague-

Dustin: Some would say we need to bring the plague back.

Tracey: Oh my god, totally, I was gonna say if I could be like the plague, that would be a huge win for me. That would be a success.

Dakota: You know they say “gangbusters”, but someday they'll be like, “Tracey, you're the plague. She's a plague”

Tracey: Yeah, I’m a plague.

Dustin: She's just spreading herself all over the world.

Dakota: Just an even layer

Tracey: Should we say our names?

Dakota: Yeah, sorry, we’ve never done anything like this before.

Dustin: We’ve seen a lot of articles about you two.

Tracey: Tracey Rodman

Dakota: Dakota Snerling

Tracey: I’m 25.

Dakota: I’m I’d rather not say.

[All laugh]

Dakota: compare our voices, and who’s younger?

Tracey: I am younger. It is true. Tracey Rodman is younger.

Dakota: But yeah, you know it's been a pretty crazy year for us.

Tracey: Oh crazy crazy

Dakota: And they say “any news is the best news ever.”

Dakota: So for those that don't know what we do, we basically help other smaller businesses grow by- We go in, and we find food that people usually consider kind of gross or scary or yucky.

Tracey: Yeah, like “ew, I would not eat that.”

Dakota: Yeah, or like, “I’m not gonna go there. There are thin tablecloths. I don't wanna touch it.” and we make it more better, and we make it something that everyone wants to eat, and it's everyone. That would be in New York or Portland, everyone. And so what we do is, we kind of restructure their business, but it's ours.

Tracey: Yeah it's like farming where you take something that you didn't create, and then you make it better and sell it for more money, and yeah, I loved what you said about “making it more better”. That's like kind of our thing, kind of our motto. We actually have t-shirts that say that.

Dakota: More better

Dustin: “more better” maybe on the back you could say “more bigger” on the back.

Tracey: Wow!

Dakota: Maybe, we’ll see.

Tracey: Oh my god, what a good idea!

Bridge: Look we're always just taking each other’s ideas.

Dakota: Yeah, anything that we say, though, it's our idea. It's recorded, so… and we are recording this as well. It's not anything about trust. It's just something that we have to do.

Tracey: Yes, legally, we have to.

Dakota: Yeah, legally we have to do for our company.

Dustin: I plan on deleting a lot of this, by the way

Dakota: Cool, I’ll have it.

Tracey: We have all of it. Just so you know, we have all of it.

Dustin: So what other foods are you working on right now? What other foods you are popular?

Tracey: Have you heard of pad thai? Have you heard of pad thai?

Bridge: Yeah I have I have heard of pad thai. It's like noodles or something, right?

Tracey: Yeah noodles

Dustin: It's flat noodles, looks like ringworms?

Dakota: Yeah I guess ring- like a tapeworm.

Tracey: Yeah like tapeworms

Dakota: Pad thai is something that I don't think anyone really knows about, and it sounds kind of gross it sounds like a lily pad, like you’re eating frog.

Tracey: It sounds disgusting. When I first heard it I puked.

Bridge: I can barely pronounce it

Dakota: Yeah it's hard, and so what we did is we ordered a bunch of pad thai from a thai place, kind of in a like “eugh” area, and we threw away the packages, and then we bought plates from Zara Home, and we put the pad thai on it.

Tracey: Yeah we did.

Dakota: And then we got rid of- we burned the chopsticks, and we used these rose gold forks.

Tracey: Oh my god, they're so cute.

Dakota: They're super cute. The rose gold rubs off a little bit, but we're working on that, and we named it “peanut sauce noodles”.

Tracey: Peanut sauce noodles, and let me tell you-

Dakota: With a hint of lime

Tracey: People are going to love them.

Bridge: And that's something I can understand: peanut.

Tracey: Nobody knows what “pad” means.

Dakota: I can’t speak Thai.

Tracey: I don’t know what thai is.

Dustin: It doesn't matter. Who knows.

Dakota: It doesn’t matter anymore because it's peanut sauce noodles

Tracey: Yeah, with a hint of lime

Dakota: But it's all about research. I mean we're here in New Zealand because we've been thinking about aboriginal food. What is that?

Tracey: What is that?

Bridge: I have no idea.

Dakota: It's just alcohol, but like grass also.

Tracey: And you can make grass pretty.

Dakota: You can make grass pretty. You can cut it. You can grow it. There's so many different types of grass, but people would be scared to eat that. You don't want to feel like a cow, but it's all about lighting, and it's all about painting the walls.

Tracey: The plate you use is so important.

Bridge: Yeah I agree

Dustin: You can eat anything gold.

Bridge: Yeah and if you put the word “fusion” in it. That's something I really like, personally.

Dakota: Fusion is something that- I would call that a little bit old school, but yeah

[Tracey and Dakota laugh]

Bridge: This brings up a great point in that I know there's a little bit of controversy these days about appropriating food. You hear headlines about it. “Stealing food”

Tracey: Oh boy, the A-word.

Bridge: People say “You're stealing something from another culture.”

Dakota: Yeah

Tracey: No

Bridge: Steal is a very hard word. That's a heavy word. “Steal something” I like to think of it-

Dakota: It’s a small word.

Bridge: A word I like to use, especially in business, is sort of like “cat burglaring” If a cat broke into my house and stole my stuff, I wouldn't even be mad, to be honest. I would think it was kind of funny.

Dustin: ‘Cause it’s fun. They look like they have a mask on, and it's like-

Dakota: Like Pink Panther, you know?

Dustin: That's a cat. That was a cat.

Bridge: It's hard to get angry at the Pink Panther.

Tracey: Was the Pink Panther a cat? Is a panther a cat?

Dakota: A panther is…

Bridge: Ooh that's a good question.

Dakota: I think it is culturally a cat, but it identifies…

Dustin: I’m creating a cranther right now, which is a half-cat half-crocodile, which eats smaller house cats right now. It’s what I’m working on.

Tracey: That's so scary. How are you making that?

Dustin: In my lab

Dakota: Oh

Tracey: Oh my god

Dustin: I’m trying to figure out a way to eat as many different types of animals as possible.

Bridge: I bet that would be a great mix, you know I don't want to use the word “fusion” like you said.

[all laugh]

Tracey: What are you old? What are you the oldest person?

Bridge: Yeah

Dakota: I’m the youngest.

Tracey: Actually I’m the youngest, we already said that, because I’m only 25.

Dakota: Whatever

Bridge: It's a beautiful animal,

Tracey: The cranther

Bridge: Although it does kind of walk oddly.

Dustin: It's a bit vicious.

Tracey: Is it furry? Is that an appropriate question?

Dustin: I don’t like fur. I want to get an ottery sleekness to it; so there's some otter genes in there.

Tracey: Otter??

Dustin: On its tummy

Bridge: I like animals that are really greasy. That's just something that I approve of.

Dakota: We have been working with this culture that has a lot of grease-based animals, and so we've been kind of flipping- we call it “flipping the script”. We've been flipping the script.

Bridge: A little bit of otter meat, is that what you’re-

Dakota: No, it's like we take all of the regular, the dregs of what is feeding off of the land, and we deep fry it. And so it's like a chicken, and we deep fry it, and it we call it “crispy bird”.

Tracey: Crispy bird

Bridge: Crispy bird

Dakota: Crispy bird

Tracey: Crispy bird

Dakota: It's not crispy bird, it's crispy bird

Tracey: Crispy bird

Dakota: “Are you guys going to Crispy Bird tonight? Are you gonna have a margarita at crispy bird?” but we call those…

Tracey: Lime juice alcohol drink

Dakota: I like to call them “salty dizzies” but, Bridge, you definitely bring up a point. You bring up a point. I think we have the ability--and I’m not saying we're stealing, because we're not--but I think we have the ability to go in, take it, and make it more better.

Tracey: Yeah, this is appreciation, not appropriation.

Dustin: Creative appreciation

Dakota: Creative-

Bridge: Creative catburglaring

Dakota: Exactly

Bridge: Yeah, I’ve been catburglared a couple times, but I accept it, because that's part of the creative process of anything. People give a lot of crap to the robber barons of the early 20th century. Those guys were getting creative. They were getting creative with industry. They were getting creative with how to make money, and I think you guys are doing very much the same thing,

Dakota: And we appreciate that

Bridge: And I’m proud of that sort of innovation

Dakota: Thank you, yeah

Bridge: still happening in the United States.

Tracey: Thank you so much

Dakota: I think people are going to--especially in the next year, in the next fiscal year--I think that-

Tracey: Oh, good word

Dakota: Thank you, I think people are going to be really shocked at what they didn't know they already liked.

Tracey: [Gasp] yes.

Bridge: Okay, that’s something to think about.

Dakota: And if you learn, you should unlearn, that’s what my mother always said to me.

Tracey: If you learn, you gotta unlearn.

Dakota: You gotta unlearn

Bridge: That's a beautiful philosophy to live by: just dropping that knowledge out of your head, yeah.

Tracey: You don't want excess knowledge, because you want to have room for only what you need. So if it's something that I don't need, I say “bye” and it’s out of my brain forever.

Dakota: Yeah, if I didn't learn it earlier, I don't need it now.

Tracey: I don't need it.

Dustin: There's only so much information that your egg can hold.

Tracey: Totally

Dakota: And see that's you creating a better word for your head: an egg. See you would be so good at this.

Tracey: Wow

Dakota: Do you guys travel?

Bridge: Oh yeah

Dustin: I used to travel. I just stay here now. You can see my fingernails are getting pretty long.

Bridge: Yeah you've been shut in a little bit.

Dustin: I just like to shut in

Bridge: For the last couple years

Dustin: I’m getting paler.

Dakota: It’s definitely a look.

Tracey: Ew

Dustin: I just want to be away from it all. I mean, the masks that I wear-

Bridge: I find that mask to be very elegant.

Dakota: It reminds me a lot of like a pirate, and I think that--going back to just expanding--they were the original people that were- they were people of the world…

Dustin: They plundered

Tracey: Pirates

Dakota: Pirates of the world

Tracey: Pirates

Dakota: But they were exploring. Let's not call it “plundering”. Let's not call it “pirating”

Dustin: Catburglaring of the sea.

Dakota: Yeah exactly

Dustin: They were cats of the sea, I think.

Dakota: They were being creative. They wore earrings, and they accessorized, and…

Tracey: I just thought of what your mask reminds me of. Did you guys see? There's this play where there's a ghost at an opera house, and then they--do you know what I’m talking about?--and then they sing a bunch.

Dakota: There's a lot of singing.

Tracey: Phantom

Dakota: And yeah, there's like a phantom.

Tracey: Do you guys know what I’m talking about? It’s a love story?

Dakota: Yeah it's called “Opera Ghost”.

Tracey: Yeah, Opera Ghost

Dustin: Opera Ghost

Dakota: It's really great.

Tracey: I love Opera Ghost. Yeah, that's the mask from-

Dakota: It's kind of like a rock opera.

Bridge: I like singing ghosts. That's something I really enjoy.

Tracey: I love singing ghosts.

Dakota: Tracey was once visited by a ghost while we were travelling.

Tracey: We had sex.

Bridge: Oh wow

Dakota: Yeah, I was in the room. I’ve never told you that.

Tracey: Dakota

Dakota: I was in the room.

Tracey: Dakota hun, I knew you were there

Dakota: I know. I was giggling.

Tracey: But yeah, no, I was visited by a ghost, and we did really hit it off. We had the most chemistry I’ve ever had with someone, and I did lose my virginity to the ghost.

Dustin: Oh, when did this- at what age did- did you lose a ghost to- to a specter?

Tracey: Did I lose a ghost to a specter? Sorry?

Dustin: Well, when you want to lose a ghost to a specter?

Dakota: When did you lose your virginity?

Dustin: When did you lose your ghost, your virginity, to a specter?

Dakota: I mean, you're 32 now; so that must have been a while back

Tracey: I’m 25.

Dakota: Oh right, okay

Tracey: And I actually lost my virginity quite late. I was 16. My ghost boyfriend I broke up actually, because he was yelling too much. So it actually is-

Dustin: So he was a banshee

Bridge: A ghost screamer

Tracey: So I don't love-

Dakota: What was his name? His name was Kerrigan?

Tracey: Kerrigan. Nancy Kerrigan.

Dustin: Nancy Kerrigan, the banshee

Dakota: Kerrigan Nancy

Bridge: Nancy Kerrigan the screaming ghost

Tracey: Kerrigan Nancy, but it was just really- I mean it was a very passionate relationship.

Dakota: Kerrigan came from, it seemed like, a sordid past.

Tracey: Yes, he was from 1840.

Dakota: The Civil War, right?

Tracey: Something like that

Bridge: That was a tough year.

Tracey: Maybe, yeah

Dustin: It was a rough year. I think that was right in the middle of the Civil War.

Tracey: Yeah, 1842, right in the middle of the Civil War

Dakota: I could never tell what side he was on, and I guess it doesn't matter because honestly-

Dakota: What the hell does that mean, Dakota?

Bridge: That’s troubling

Dakota: We're all people of the world, and if you need to fight a battle, and everyone you know- There are both sides-

Dustin: Everyone’s a hero to-

Dakota: There's two sides to every story. I’m not saying anything. I’m just saying, I was wondering…

Tracey: He was on the good side. He was a good guy, okay?

Bridge: He was a good guy,

Dakota: There are two sides…

Bridge: But he was a screamer

Tracey: He was a screamer, a shrieker.

Bridge: A shrieking ghost named Nancy Kerrigan

Dakota: Yeah, Kerrigan Nancy

Tracey: Kerrigan Nancy

Bridge: Kerrigan Nancy?

Dakota: It's a very southern name, which is why I was wondering what side he was on.

Tracey: Hey, Dakota,

Dakota: The crispy birds…

Tracey: Can you not?

Dakota: Sorry I’ve had some salty dizzies before I came here. So sometimes I talk a lot.

Tracey: Dakota, I don’t

Dakota: The altitude

Tracey: I don't want this.

Dakota: It’s fine

Tracey: You need to cut this part.

Dustin: So what would you say is the new buzzword? What's the new buzzword?

Dakota: We've been using this term. It's originally from Europe, but “mozzarella”.

Dustin: Mozzarella

Bridge: Mozz

Dakota: That means like “go out there and seize the day.”

Tracey: It's actually Latin.

Dakota: Yeah, mozzarella

Dustin: Mozzarella

Tracey: “mozza” means “go out” and then “arella” means “seize the day.”

Bridge: So you can say you two are mozzarellaing.

Dakota: We’re mozzarella, which is why that's the name of our company is Mozzarella

Bridge: Oh

Dakota: But it's like “Mozz-her-ella”.

Tracey: We love that. We're really into “her ella”

Dakota: Mozz-her-ella, yeah

Bridge: Just breaking up words

Dakota: We’re women, and it’s the year of women.

Tracey: I’ve been saying “her story”. It’s the year of women.

Dakota: Her story

Tracey: I’m been saying “her story”, I’ve been saying-

Dakota: My story

Tracey: My story, yeah. It’s about women, and actually that's making us a lot of money.

Dakota: Honestly, we've been banking off of a lot of-

Tracey: It's called feminism

Dakota: It’s called feminism

Tracey: And we have been making so much money off of it.

Dakota: The plight of so many women that have been taken advantage of has honestly really helped us out.

Tracey: Personally, I’ve never experienced sexism.

Dakota: Yeah, no

Tracey: So I have a hard time…

Dustin: Empathizing with that

Dakota: Again, it's like if you're putting it out there

Tracey: It’s your fault.

Dakota: And someone's taking it, then maybe you’re

Tracey: It's your fucking fault.

Bridge: Well yeah, I mean that's a great thing. You really are expanding. You’re mozzarellaing your business.

Tracey: Yeah we are.

Bridge: And I really respect that. What has been the hardest stage for you in this expansion?

Tracey: Dakota?

Dakota: I mean, honestly for me, the hardest in the process was when we did our quarterly reports, at the end of the fiscal year.

Dustin: I like it. I like it.

Tracey: We did. And there's four quarters in a fiscal year.

Dakota: There's four quarters in a fiscal- so we did all of them- well, that was the problem: we did them all at the end of the year. So we forgot to do the quarterly.

Dustin: Hold off on it.

Tracey: We actually didn't know about it until the end.

Dakota: At the end. So we forgot to do the first three. So we kind of mushed them together at the end, and that was a learning process, and we learned, and then we unlearned, but we learned it again. So that we're only making money off of people now, and we're not investing any money.

Bridge: Fiscal growth is a great thing, and it seems like you're really mozzarellaing your fiscal growth.

Tracey: Yeah we really are. Well, just fiscally speaking, the quarterly gains are up.

Dakota: We’re in the blue.

Tracey: And we're expanding. We’re actually in the blue right now.

Dakota: Because we’re up in the sky.

Tracey: We’re in the sky

Dakota: We're up in the sky with our income.

Bridge: I hadn't even heard of blue.

Dakota: What are some buzzwords that you guys have been using down here, down under the complex okay?

Dustin: Now that’s inappropriate because we're in New Zealand. That was an Australian accent, you can get a lot of trouble for that.

Bridge: They get very angry at each other, yeah.

Dustin: Down under’s more like-

Dakota: See that's good to know when we go to mine that grass.

Dustin: Australia is more like “down under” and-

Dakota: Down under

Dustin: Down under

Tracey: Down under

Bridge: Down under

Dustin: And New Zealand is more like “down under”

Dakota: Down under

Tracey: Down under

Bridge: It's a beautiful accent. The one buzzword that we've been utilizing a lot, it's a phrase called “dankruptcy”.

Dakota: Dankruptcy

Tracey: Dankruptcy

Dakota: I love it.

Bridge: And when things are- you're going bankrupt, but who wants to hear about bankruptcy? So we go with “dankruptcy” It makes it kind of cool, makes it sort of new.

Dakota: Kind of like a smoke shop, vape vibe.

Bridge: Like a vape vibe

Dakota: I love it, yeah.

Bridge: Exactly, and that's what people usually want to associate with a multi-million dollar bankruptcy. So that's

[all laugh]

Bridge: That’s how we like to operate, is just kind of a smoky vibe.

Dustin: How do you spin it? how do you spin it?

Dakota: How do you spin? What’s the spin?

Dustin: I think that's half of business, is how you spin a bad- a large situation into a big situation.

Dakota: Absolutely

Tracey: Wow

Dakota: Yeah, and honestly, I think-

Tracey: My ghost boyfriend had a daughter. Sorry to bring this up again.

Dakota: No it's fine, it's fine.

Dustin: No, I love talking about dead children.

Tracey: Dakota's getting a little bit mad at me.

Dakota: No, I’m sure we can- let's find the spin on this. How is this business? We'll figure it out

Tracey: Okay, I-

Dakota: But you were a stepmother for a little bit.

Tracey: Yeah, I was a stepmother.

Dakota: And I think that that actually did- you learned how to ignore…

Tracey: I ignored the shit out of that little shit.

Dakota: Yeah, Mirabella Kerrigan Nancy

Dustin: It's easy to ignore a ghost, because ghosts, they go right through.

Bridge: And kids, because they can't chase after you. They're always trying to get your attention

Tracey: Eugh

Bridge: And they have small legs; so they can't catch up to you.

Dustin: You could literally run away, and start another family, or just another life, and your kids will eventually forget about you-

Tracey: Mirabella had polio.

Dustin: -And psychologically they’ll be fine.

Tracey: She had polio.

Bridge: It’s a beautiful thing.

Tracey: Polio, so…

Dakota: So she couldn't really run that fast.

Tracey: She couldn't run; so I was pretty lucky.

Dustin: So you had a ghost stepdaughter with polio?

Tracey: Yeah

Dakota: Yeah

Dustin: Did she contract polio before after becoming a ghost?

Dakota: I believe it was after.

Dakota: I don’t think we gave it to her.

Tracey: Yeah I don't think we gave it to her.

Dakota: I don’t think I’ve ever had it.

Tracey: But I feel like she got it from after she was dead, but still in 1860. I think she still got it then, and I think it was just- some other ghost gave it to her like an STD. It was really bad.

Bridge: And you know polio, that's another one that was just killing it

Dakota: Spreading

Bridge: A few years ago, that really was…

Dustin: That one got a president elected.

Bridge: …something that really took hold of the world.

Dakota: It did, it got a president

Tracey: That got a president!

Dakota: There are for sure movies…

Dustin: A strong, big disease

Dakota: …with polio in them.

Tracey: I think so yeah, yeah

Bridge: That's incredible. Well, all right, thank you, everybody, for tuning in to Business Money Hacks. This has been a very educational experience, and thank you for joining us.

Dakota: Thank you so much for having us,

Tracey: Thank you so much for having us.

Dakota: Bridge and Dustin

[Music]

Leonidas: Your women will be slaves.