Small Business Challenges with Pete Nappier, Samurai Institute (Hickory, NC)

[00:00:02] What you want when you want it, where you want it. This is the MESH. Welcome to the Entrepreneur Exchange on the MESH podcast network. A monthly conversation about startups and small business with ideas tools and advice to operate your business more effectively on today's show.

[00:00:30] How do you start a service business and make yourself stand out? Maybe starting with Samurai Swords, our own today's podcast. We have Pete Nappier, founder of the Samurai Institute in Hickory, North Carolina. And he'll let you know how he got his business started

[00:00:45] and we'll ask him whether he can kill you with one hand. We'll also have our small business of the month feature where we'll recommend some interesting businesses that you should be checking out. My name is Jeff Nouvelle.

[00:00:57] I'm your co-host and director of the Manufacturing Solutions Center in Con over North Carolina. I'm joined by my co-host Gary Muller, who is Executive Dean of Economic Development and Corporate Education at the Tobbe Valley Community College in Hickory, North Carolina. Gary? How's it going today? It's going great.

[00:01:15] Beautiful day. This is a great month for us at the college. We had our graduation, graduated a record number of students coming out of COVID. It was fantastic. Of course, SkillsUSA is on the horizon and the nationals, and so we're excited about that.

[00:01:30] Well, you did a great job with the State Competition. You had how many medals did you win at the State Competition? We said a record winning 14 gold medals and then 57 students received medals at the competition. Well, congratulations to you.

[00:01:44] And your alma mater, Wake Forest University, has the top ranked college baseball team in the country. It's amazing. First time ever, they've won a national championship. It's the first time they've been ranked number one in the country.

[00:01:55] We lost a couple of pitchers coming down the stretch, but we're certainly still proud of them. Well, we wish the Wake Forest team luck and I hate to say it. I don't even know if my Carolina tar heels are still playing. I think they're in it, yes, too.

[00:02:07] Okay. We'll go so in it. And they're finished third in the country and golf men's golf last week. Wake Forest? No, Carolina. Oh, see? Well, you're up to spot the way the Wake Forest win and did win the national championship. Oh, two weeks again.

[00:02:21] All right. Well, I'm good. Good time for the ACC. Yes, our listeners really are enthralled with that. So hopefully there are those way of course. They're still with us, but let's welcome our guest, Pete Napier, who I'm giving some grief

[00:02:38] to you know, I don't think that you kill people with one hand. I don't think you actually have samurai swords or maybe you do. Well, by the way, that worried me a little bit. Okay. Start talking. Well, we do have samurai swords.

[00:02:50] But you don't use them on your clients unless they don't pay? Not the first class. No. We do train with swords. Our art is all samurai based art and it involves swords. So yeah, there are a few swords in the school. Okay.

[00:03:09] Okay. But basically the samurai institute does martial arts training. And that's the business that you have started. Exactly. And we don't teach a violent type of martial art. Our martial art, our core martial art is called Iquito and it's the art of peace.

[00:03:27] And we defend ourselves in a way that nobody gets hurt. The attacker does it yet hurt. You don't get hurt. Everybody goes home happy. The samurai institute is we started it in 2022, but it took a little bit of planning before that.

[00:03:46] Mom, and I'm, you know, an any good business does require some planning. And, but you might have started this business in 2022, but you've been involved with the martial arts for a long period of time.

[00:04:00] And, you know, in our interactions, I mean, it seems like you a big focus of yours has been on. I'm going to say bullying sort of anti bullying. You know, you're not teaching people how to bully. Right.

[00:04:14] We do have a very structured anti bullying curriculum that we teach kids how to 12 alternatives to violence that doesn't. It teach you to do the escalate the problem, resolve the conflict in a peaceful way.

[00:04:28] But if it gets to a physical level, they have the tools and the skills to be able to put the person down on the ground and get away and get safe. And it's not about hitting and punching and fighting. It's about getting safe.

[00:04:42] And that's what we do. We teach that. Well, how did you get into the martial arts? And what sort of training have you had? Well, my dad was a character. And he, at my very young age of 10, he decided that and I was very small kid.

[00:05:00] I got picked on a lot when I was a kid. And he threw me in in South of a karate school right down here in viewmaunt in 1969. And sat there in the lobby and watched me get beat up for two years. And basically, I learned a lot there.

[00:05:23] They taught me how to fight. They taught me how to block more than anything. But then that was the beginning. And then in 1974, I met a guy and he started me in what we call IQ Arts or IQ other than particularly.

[00:05:41] IQ Arts are a little bit more blending rather than blocking. OK, we use the energy. We counter the attack by using the energy in the attack to neutralize it. So I started that in 1974. Got lucky.

[00:05:59] After I got out of the army and met a train with some other people over two years. Then in about 95, I believe, in 1984, I got lucky and met a man in California that taught me the Japanese sword.

[00:06:16] And evolved what I do now and what we, what I've knew then and to what we do now. So it's been kind of an evolution but it's been 54 years and I've learned a lot. I've made a lot of mistakes. But of course you learn from those mistakes.

[00:06:38] But that's kind of the just of it and I've been in IQ Arts ever since and just concentrate mainly on that kind of thing.

[00:06:47] Now, if one goes to your website and looks around a little bit, it says that you've earned the rank of eighth day then IQ Budo, which I might not be saying correctly. But what is that? You're close. Okay. Ace Dawn IQ Budo. Okay. And now try that.

[00:07:06] I'll put one more here. Here's what we do it. Here's a real tongue twister for you. Our whole art is called Bution Room, Monster Katsu High, Keybuket. I can't try that. I think he'd cast it. If he did it in Japanese, that's quite alright.

[00:07:25] IQ Budo is a kind of a broad term. Budo is a term that is used for the study or the path of war. Boo in Japanese means war and dough means way or path or way of life.

[00:07:41] And it's really the study of strategy, war, everything involved with combat. I key takes it to another level that incorporates the blending and the cooperation, the use of energy.

[00:07:59] And that's, I key is a hard term to translate into English because it means so many different things in Japanese. But the way in our context, it's basically the blend energy and the blend with one, the same thing. And then the same thing.

[00:08:14] So, we're interested in the business and what sort of planning you did and what sort of obstacles that you ran into. So, you know, what were the biggest challenges for you to get your business up and running? And what sort of planning did you go through?

[00:08:36] That's a great question and it was a journey, I should say. I was coming to Hickory, I used to live in Taylor's arms, come to Hickory one day and I happened to look at a building.

[00:08:51] Just turned my head and glanced at a building thought, oh, that's making my school school. And it was for rent and I happened to come back through their stop, got the number called about it and the fault started.

[00:09:05] And I began this with a fault and a dream and that was it. I had no money, no friends, no students, no nothing. I began without suddenly nothing. Okay? Now when I did this, I thought, okay, I'm going to put together business plans.

[00:09:25] So I got the work, put in a couple of weeks, put together and of course, I used to solve my business plan. I made a couple of major mistakes in the market but it was a decimal point. That's one point, so get money.

[00:09:43] And really what it was, I left out the decimal point and it was like a hole, put it in a hole in other perspectives. I did the business plan and I started talking to a couple of investors,

[00:09:54] a couple of invested companies, had one up an national that was really interesting. And then my ex-wife jumped in. And that was, we went into this litigation and the deal with business investors.

[00:10:10] You couldn't be in any kind of litigation for their kind of loan to go through it. So that kind of went south but it didn't discourage me. Okay? I kept pushing forward. Worked out a deal.

[00:10:25] I really, at that point I realized I couldn't afford rent on this base. So I went old school and started looking at raccanners. Started talking to first went down to Newton raccanner and had a great spot. Beautiful facility at Newton raccanner.

[00:10:46] They give me the lower level space down there, big space. But it was right at the end of COVID and right in the transition of COVID. And COVID, the city had decided to shut the raccanners and all everything down in that little second way.

[00:11:13] And now I think this was in September of 2021. And today's before we opened the city show estate. And I thought okay, another obstacle but that did not stop me. This is a great story.

[00:11:31] Well, I went and at that time we do, and our art, we do a, what's called, to Michigan, to Michigan is taking real live, samurai swords and we roll up and we target and we put on these stands.

[00:11:49] And we test cut with these, with the swords and make sure our cuts are correct because there's a lot of factors going on. I could do a whole podcast on that a lot but we don't better.

[00:11:59] But I was making these cutting stands for people and I sell them across the country. You know, I'm marketing them in my own Facebook and online stuff. This guy in Phoenix Arizona, about two. And he sunk a good deal of money into these two cutting stands.

[00:12:16] I couldn't understand why and somehow that was right when I was doing the advertising and that was a whole another challenge on Facebook for that original thing at Newton. Well, he inadvertently got one of my messages with the ad on there and she calls me and says,

[00:12:36] Hey, this is David. I can help you with this. I said, why? He goes, I just liked to help people. I said, well, okay, what do you got in my money started telling me a couple of little things to do here in there?

[00:12:46] I don't know, okay, that's cool. What do you want now, David? He goes nothing. I said, no, you're kidding. No, I don't want anything. I've got 400 students in my school out here.

[00:12:58] I like to bring out and show you the day-to-day operations how we did it and we did that during COVID. And I go, wow, okay. So fly out to Phoenix. He pines and dies me for a weekend. We do a seminar on during the time.

[00:13:12] And shows me all this stuff. Tells me some more stuff to start doing. I started implementing that in my advertising and it worked. Now, this guy, he's a, he's a brilliant businessman. He's got an MBA from Stanford, just genius in business.

[00:13:31] And he started showing me things. So he started giving me tools and skills to overcome some of the obstacles that I was getting started. Yeah. So when then I decided, okay, I didn't, couldn't do anything. I went to a, a, a Hickory great center at Parks and Recreation.

[00:13:55] Trying to work out something, got to a point work. I had to have a facility called I had 60 people ready to come in on the March 19th, 2022. And I didn't have a facility at low and the whole, like, going talk to the foot heel gymnastics.

[00:14:11] And shown their put me a, gave me a background back there when we started. And then they're on 29th Avenue. Yeah, yeah. And I've taught there years and years ago when they, when David classic first owned it and first original owner.

[00:14:27] And it worked out really good, but they're in the back room. It was an after school program going on. There was a dance studio back there. A lot of chaos. I'll keep coming in and out. And I couldn't pay attention.

[00:14:41] I couldn't ask a three year old to do. So I'm going, okay, some's gonna give and I called Jeff. One day I said, Jeff, something I don't want to do. I don't want to do another obstacle. Or then Jeff being the brilliant business man there.

[00:14:56] Yes, he tells me that. Yeah. Well, being the brilliant business man. He is he started throwing out stuff at me. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm okay. Wow, okay. Well, I'm taking notes and I'm doing this stuff.

[00:15:10] And then he said, and I tell him, I said, I've got students ready to quit because of the chaos. I need to find a place, cheap enough that I can afford that. Can give me the peace and the tranquility in that we need to train.

[00:15:27] And Jeff said, you need to check out the hiccry up. I said, what? I didn't know anybody. First I told you to go to Gary's office because he's never there. You do the space for free, but you're running around doing something. Yeah.

[00:15:42] Well, I never could get hold of your eyes. Never there. I never will. Response. Never will. So I go over to the hub and the lady shows me downstairs. And I'm following, I'm going, wow, this is super.

[00:15:59] So then we were still in, I had bought, and when we first started at Fidth Hills, I had bought a couple little portable mats, folded mats to get started with because we need mats to follow because we do a lot of throws and a lot of take downs.

[00:16:17] And it's just for safety, more than anything. And plus I'm old and I don't want to get hurt. But we, uh, I bought a couple little mats to get started with and they were working okay, but we were growing and I need more mats.

[00:16:34] And my daughter sent me a link one day. She's a realtor here in here. And she was seeing something on Facebook or email or something about a micro business grant that the city does. And she sent me the link and I thought, I looked at it.

[00:16:53] I thought, I don't know. So I called Karen Depperson and I called her and she said, listen, if you go through the loops and you do all the stuff that's necessary, it is worth the effort. So I thought, I want to hack. Okay, I'll do that.

[00:17:08] So I put the application in, loan behold, I'm a third in my page, I'm holding a file for the city gave me $4,000. Fantastic. And mats, I don't know you guys probably don't know how martial arts guys are about mats, but maybe I'm not happy right now.

[00:17:29] Okay, I've gotten more mats. I don't know what to do with. I was able to secure some really good puzzle mats that we use at our demonstration at our tuber fests and by the way, we have a big one this year.

[00:17:43] But I got those and I got the mats that we have in our dayjoo on the floor now, which are carpet bonded that works well with Velcroy. So the city was in an inch to a million getting started if it wasn't for that grant.

[00:18:00] I don't think I'll be where I'm at right now. Honestly. And Gary and I have folks that come to us looking for grants. And there aren't that many grants out there for profit businesses, and there are more grants

[00:18:14] out there for nonprofit organizations and kudos to the city of Hickory for having a program that is in place to help smaller startup businesses. Some business to a mid-sized business for $1,000 might not be that meaningful, but to a small business, it was a lot of stress.

[00:18:35] I mean Gary gave us the tools and I was able to buy not only mats, but I was able to buy some obstacle course stuff too, which we were increasing by and worst up now.

[00:18:49] But we were able to get some stuff that makes the program a lot of fun. And when kids, that's what it's all about. They're not having fun. They're not having fun. Yeah. They're not having fun. They're not going to do it. Absolutely.

[00:19:03] So after that, now, well, we've been at the hub exactly one year yesterday. Yesterday marks our first opening full time. We've been there and that was a great thing about the hub. And I have these opportunities available for other instructors if they're in need.

[00:19:29] Somebody that's going to start up a class or try to get a school started, it's a great opportunity they can come in and rent. Like I did to begin with and pay a very low $500 a month as opposed to $45,000 a month. It's a great opportunity.

[00:19:48] I'm still able to do that but what we worked out with the hub now, I run the entire underground. Okay, I'm basically the landlord. All right, but we have full run of it now.

[00:20:01] We can come in all the time so we've expanded from six, doing six classes a week to use two Thursdays and just recently Saturdays. It was just two Thursdays and Thursday running from six classes a week. We're now running its 26 classes. That's amazing. That's amazing. Fantastic.

[00:20:20] Yeah, 23 Thursday and Saturdays. I'm trying to keep Friday and Sunday. I need a day off. Let me have some Pete time. What a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. This podcast is sponsored by Jackson Creative, a custom communication agency located in downtown

[00:20:37] Hickory, North Carolina specializing in online content creation to learn more visit the JacksonCreative.com. Jackson Creative, we tell your story. Well, so now I'm not an expert in the martial arts. I know Gary you think I am, but I'm not really.

[00:20:58] Those are just Asian mind games I'd like to play with you. I assume Pete that there are competitors out there that also do classes and I just want to challenge you as to any business has is how are you going to make yourself stand out from your competitors.

[00:21:18] What are the things that you do at the Samurai Institute that give you some uniqueness over your competition? Well that is a great question, Jeff. I'm so glad you asked that. First off, I have a unique, well about 20 years ago, I have a paradigm shift and I turn

[00:21:40] in 180 degrees and I start to look at things a whole another way. Now most of the martial arts instructors around this area look at me as their competition. I don't look at them as my competition.

[00:21:53] I look at those as in the same industry doing the same thing, trying to do the same thing with the community and creating touch in the lives and changing lives. Our competition is gymnastics, football, soccer, dance, cheerleading.

[00:22:08] Every other key activity on the planet is what we're really competing against from a martial arts industry perspective. That's a great way to look at it. It's not just this little. It's a thing through the Chamber, I joined the Chamber about a year ago now and

[00:22:24] through it and since being in the Chamber, I have learned so much for one and being involved with the Small Business Center as well as the Small Business Technology Center as well, development. I always get that wrong.

[00:22:41] You guys have taught me a lot and what I've learned is that if all the martial arts instructors would come together and work together, we could create a better, better programs to touch more lives in the community. That's what it's all about.

[00:23:00] As far as setting myself apart, I have that. Our program is not like any other martial arts. When you say martial arts, people already have a preconceived notion and perception of what that term means. They think, Cobra Kai, automatically everybody, Cobra Kai. That's okay, but that's not real.

[00:23:30] Our martial arts, we don't teach punchin, we don't teach kicking and we definitely don't fight. We don't spar, we don't get on the ground and grapple, we don't do any of that. We defend, we stand our ground, we defend ourselves in a way that no one gets hurt.

[00:23:47] And that alone sets us apart from every other martial art in the area. And what I like to say, I don't know, this might be a bad word, but I'm not mainstream martial arts. I am different.

[00:24:01] We are specific, we are unique and because you cannot get what we teach anywhere else around this area, we are that unique. And that sounds great, understand? How do you market yourself so people know that you're indifferent? Well, where is it where to mouth?

[00:24:19] A lot of it is word of mouth, but in through some of the media and social media and networking that we've been doing, people are just knowing that's what you're doing. Making that stamp, we're making that brand in the community.

[00:24:39] But recently I just joined with Jackson Creative here and they are doing my Facebook ads and that alone is the one turning point. In the last month we brought in, I think it's been 12 new students.

[00:24:58] We signed six to permanent memberships for a long trial membership and the other two were kind of on the phone right now. So we're doing, right now, a conversion rate of about 70 to 80 percent. We're doing a appointment from the performance set coming in at about 98 percent.

[00:25:28] Once they get in, they see the difference and that's what we market it as. Come and see the difference because there is a big difference. Like I said, it's not mainstream karate, you know, martial arts stuff.

[00:25:43] So from a marketing perspective, you mentioned Facebook ads, in social media, you're talking about word of mouth which helps through your association with the Chamber of Commerce and what not. And I, you know, sounds like you also go out and do demonstrations and things, you know,

[00:26:02] you're part of, you're trying to be part of the community. Well we are and we're a big part of the community and that's the community of starting as a recognizes that. The other thing that we do and we just started is a referral program.

[00:26:17] We have the kids bringing a friend in because it's always fun to train with a friend. They bring them in. We did giveaways, we do raffle. You know, right now we're doing a raffle, give away an archivist attitude, you know, virtual media game deals.

[00:26:33] The kids bring a friend in. They get a ticket in the bucket. They find that that friend signs up. They get three more tickets in the bucket and then the friend gets a ticket in the bucket and then it starts over.

[00:26:45] And so we're doing that for a month and we're going to give that away next month. We do different little things like that through the year, but the social media is the way to go and video.

[00:26:56] Anybody that's wanting to market their business, video, it has the best way to do it because people want to look at it. So you're putting that out there on Facebook and other places? Yeah. Jackson, Jackson created here.

[00:27:14] They they blocked some super cool ads for us doing some video, doing some kids, doing stuff in the class. They came down and done a real segment. So that is the big, a big part of our marketing. And I actually 90% of our marketing is that. That's fantastic.

[00:27:32] And then you came from a chamber event today? Yeah. Yeah, we were set up at a chamber event the first Friday morning, brew, a big event, level. The chamber is done so much for me. Tom, a little assistant over here.

[00:27:45] She was with me out there and did an awesome job walking up to people on Sunday, proud over to hey, how are you? My name's Emily, blah, blah, blah. And she just super. And Emily has been with me for since the beginning, since the beginning. I was up.

[00:28:05] Yeah. Yeah. Well, so that also sounds pretty good. So as far as other advice and for small business owners and folks that are starting a small business, what other advice, what have you learned and what would you share with them? Well, planning is the biggest thing.

[00:28:30] You can learn, because I've been doing this for a long time. I've had more than a dozen DJs over all over the area over the years. And the biggest thing that I did in the end that I've done this time was plan.

[00:28:49] Make a plan and work the plan. If you don't work that plan, it will fall apart. Another thing that I see a lot of businesses, especially in our industry and the martial arts, they have that field of dreams mentality.

[00:29:08] They come, they get the nice building, they put all the money into the equipment, they set it all up, it's beautiful, they open the doors and they hope they come. And they never show up. I had that field of dreams mentality. I've done that so many times.

[00:29:24] You open the doors and you sit in there and well. Okay, I was twilling your thumbs and you're waiting. Okay, nobody's here yet. Two minutes to class time, nobody's here, ten minutes later, nobody's still there and you want to fail in.

[00:29:40] So you have to have a plan, work the plan and don't wish they would show up, make them show up, have something that they won't and make it market it that way.

[00:29:52] And then you adapt to what you see and just because you set your plan, you also look at what you need to do it to adjust based on. Exactly. You know, wrong mail more told me, you know, you look at things and you see one thing

[00:30:10] working where you hit the gas on the land, you see something else that's not wearing where you back off on that little bit. And you keep adjusting those things all the time constantly and you look at them every month.

[00:30:20] And in the beginning, I was looking at them every week. I mean, I was looking at my stats, every week what's coming in, who's converting and they were terrible, they were absolutely terrible.

[00:30:33] And we came to the hub a year ago with four students from, I don't know, what was 20 soon started out with us and we lost that many in just a month and a half that we were at put heels, mainly because of the chaos I felt.

[00:30:51] We got there and in the summer doubled our enrollment almost immediately and then doubled it again. All right, you start with four, it's easier to double it. Yeah, that's true. Okay, you started wanting to double it if you were working pretty good. Yeah, that's true.

[00:31:08] But now we're up to about 26 students and we have a map full every class. So we had to split the classes up now, they're always specific now. So we don't have the six year olds in there with the 20 year olds trying to throw them and stuff.

[00:31:29] And we got full classes all the time now. I'm super excited. That's great. Well, we really appreciate you joining us today. People want to find out more about the Samurai Institute. Where should they be looking?

[00:31:41] They should go to our website, martial artsheakery.com, martial artsheakery.com and Jeff and Gary I really appreciate you all having me here. I love this. It's really, really, really, this is a lot of fun. Yeah, I'm glad. Well, we're not done with you yet, do you?

[00:31:57] Yeah, do I get to throw somebody? Jeff and Sam, he's in the house. Well, you know, our producer will be there soon. That anyway. No, we're going to, we want you to play our lightning round. You up for that? Yeah, sure.

[00:32:12] All right, well, we have a new sponsor for the Lightning Round this month. It's sponsored by Prestige Worldwide, which is a global entertainment conglomerate and sponsor of the Catalina Wine Mixer Entertainment Management Research Development Security. It's all there with Prestige Worldwide.

[00:32:30] You should check them out on the internet. So we've got some quick questions for you, Pete, and quick answers. Don't overthink it. Okay. First question, what is your biggest pet peeve time the belt wrong? Time the belt wrong?

[00:32:46] Yeah, I cannot stand for a black belt to tie the belt wrong. Okay. Time you get the black belt, you should know how to tie your belt. All right. That's your biggest pet peeve. My biggest pet peeve.

[00:32:55] I've got a black belt, but I don't have to tie it. Okay. What are y'all for that? All right. Well, you know, little more global. You know, what beetles are rolling stones for you? Absolutely. We've rolling stones. Okay. No, we've got rolling stones. You need a beat.

[00:33:14] All right. What toppings do you put on your pizza? Pepper only in sausage. Where do you stand on pineapple? Oh no. Not a lot of pizza. Good answer. All right. You were in security for a period of your life. What's the biggest event you ever worked with?

[00:33:33] Well, I've seen every music act on the planet up until about 15 years ago. New ones I don't know too much. Yeah, the music sort of stopped at that point. But actually the biggest event, I worked at Panthers Game One Time and the Panthers Stadium is huge.

[00:33:54] I didn't like, I didn't like walking around that much. Okay. Well, you weren't the only person working security we assumed. You got a bad place. You know, you got a call for a fight on the other side of the stadium and it takes

[00:34:06] your hot men to get there. And that's running. And I'm all about working. I'm all about working. All right. Well, last question for you, if you could have one superpower, what would it be? I have so many. One superpower invisibility. In visibility. Yeah. You'd be a sneaky guy.

[00:34:33] Yeah, I like to be a sneaky and look at things, watch them and then leave. Okay. And they never know them there. All right. Well, very good. True. True, and hit you. All right. Well, we really appreciate you joining us today. If you go to www.marshalartickery.com.

[00:34:50] That's what you'll find out more about the Samurai Institute. And you also mentioned the Hickry Hub. Well, if you Google Hickry Hub, you'll see what they've got going on in their space. And you'll find Pete in the basement.

[00:35:02] And if they go to the website and fill out the information marks, they can get two free weeks of training for nothing. So we can try it out and see the field the difference. Well, we appreciate a business that is always selling. And you're doing it. Yeah.

[00:35:17] So I like Pete in the basement. You just eat in the basement? Yeah. All right. I sort of like the field of dreams. The reality. I'm going to use that one again. So we like that one. I'm not sure if I've seen a lot happen over to you.

[00:35:32] And unfortunately, there's been since in the year that I've been at the hub, there's been probably two or three school martial arts schools that have closed here in Hickry just out there. I attribute it to that field of dreams. I don't think so.

[00:35:46] I think it's not just martial arts. I think a lot of people sort of make that mistake. Yeah. I used to play. Planning, planning, planning. And one more thing. Planning. Okay. Well, I understand. All right.

[00:35:58] Well, at the end of our podcast, we always like to do a shout out to some small businesses that we've come across. Pete is there a small business that you want to give a shout out to? Yes. There's a lovely young lady in Hickry that she does. Ta-chi.

[00:36:15] And Ta-chi is another Chinese martial art that has a lot of health benefits and a lot of flexibility, movements. It's really just really good for you. And people can do it all way into their senior years. I mean, it's even us weird. Gary, not good at that.

[00:36:32] So God, we can do that. And Diane Crescence, she teaches all over the county. Look her businesses, energy arts, and you can find them in Facebook, energy arts. Okay. And I'm not sure if her website, but if you find her in Facebook, you can, I'm not sure

[00:36:52] if you've got a website. So, well, complimentary to what you're doing. And we're going to have Diane come in and do some women's self defense classes for some great, I can't. You know, just some brief things for the community to give back a little bit.

[00:37:07] That'd be good for us. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Gary, you have a small business that you want to give a shout out to? I do, but I want to do. Also, spotlight our students coming out every day on entrepreneurship, venture fund program

[00:37:21] that you started, and Suzanne has carried it on. We had five students that got loans this year, not loans. Money this year, we're not loans that I have to give it back. And in the $3 to $5,000 range, just like we were talking about earlier, and I think it's

[00:37:38] going to help tear down some of those barriers for them. Oh, go. Go to the next level. Shout out to you and these students and Suzanne. Okay, for all the work in there. And is anybody heard of Carp Crestum Bakery in Newton? Carp Crestum. Carp Crestum. Carp Crestum.

[00:37:57] Carp Crestum. Bakery, no. I haven't heard of it. I had neither, but we had some companies in our corporate development center for seminar and for lunch they had really nice lunches, and then they had Carp Crestum Bakery items. And of course I love anything sweet.

[00:38:15] So I tried it and I was really impressed. It's in downtown Newton on the square, and please go try it. I did not just say that because I heard it, I tasted it was good stuff. I'll be there to say something. There you go. Okay.

[00:38:31] All right, well, that's a good one. Small business. I'm going to give a shout out to you. We're getting into the summer time and some of us might be going to the beach. But some of us burn very, very easily. I'm one of those people, you know.

[00:38:45] I can't take too much sun. Company called Shibumi. I don't know if you've heard of them before. But they invented something called the Shibumi Shade, which was invented by three fellows, Dane Barnes, his brother Scott and their best friend, Alex later. And it's a North Carolina company.

[00:39:04] These fellows actually went to school at the University of North Carolina and they've been in business since 2016. And these are basically umbrellas that sort of blow into wind. They're like two stands and they sort of the sea breeze holds them up. So they came up with a prototype.

[00:39:24] It's got five foot sections of PVC pipe, an anchor, which anchor a hand-sown fabric. And they got to a point where it turned into a full-time business. So if you look them up under Shibumi Shade.com, you can learn more about their business

[00:39:43] but pretty cool and you're probably seeing a lot of them out in the beach this year. They say to be doing very, very well. Sounds great. So, shall I come out at Shibumi Shade? Let me say one more thing about carp custom. It means in Spanish.

[00:39:57] Seize the pastry. Seize the pastry. And it is, you know, a Carolina vine's was in downtown Newton. That's where they took vets. That's called cold. Yeah. Well, if any of our listeners, if you've got an idea for the small business of the month,

[00:40:13] you can email them to us and e- exchange at themesh.tv and if we use your ideal, you'll get an entrepreneur exchange, a prize pack. We might even get you like a free lesson at the Samurai Institute. You never know. So, free month. All right. All right.

[00:40:33] So, bring them in. We want to thank Pete and AP here for joining us and wish you're having the wish, wish you continued good work with the Samurai Institute. As always, we want to give a big thanks to our friends at Themesh.

[00:40:50] If you go to Themesh.tv, you will see all the podcasts at Themesh is producing and they've got great network of things out there from business to comedy, the health related podcast so a little bit everything.

[00:41:03] So, you should be checking out all the shows at Themesh.tv and Gary as always thank you and we're always creating together again at Themesh. Thank you. All right? Love it. Take care. Thank you guys.

[00:41:28] You've been listening to Themesh and online media network of shows and programs ranging from business to arts, sports to entertainment, music to community. All programs are available on the website as well as through iTunes and YouTube. Check us out online at Themesh.tv.

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