You know that joke about Marines eating Crayons? Well, what if I told you USMC Veteran, Frank Manteau, actually created an edible, colorable crayon! Well, he did the impossible and is on the way to making it a reality on shelves near you. Frank and I discuss his business, the challenges, and a few other things in this awesome episode.

Guest Links:

https://crayonsreadytoeat.com/

Transcript from Episode 17 with Frank Maneau:

Keith McKeever 0:04

Hey everybody. Welcome back to the bumblebee podcast with your host Keith McKeever here. Really excited to bring this guest on. If you are a Marine, you might want to sit up and pay attention. This guy has created something that you've been waiting for your whole life, something you can actually eat, that you jokingly eat all the time. That probably will taste a lot better than real Krantz. Okay, it will taste a lot better real cream. It's got white chocolate in it, it's gonna be delicious. You're really, really really, really going to want to get your hands on some of these. I really excited to talk to Frank. I've seen him grow this plan and get ready to launch here with this business and it's absolutely awesome to see. And we're really excited to to have him on here and talk about you know, the struggles of creating something such a unique business like, like edible crafts, and turning it into actual reality something you can actually eat. So what's it like I said to the Marines out there you can you can actually eat your Koreans now and not have to worry about what the wax and the and the dyes and the cranes would do to your gut. So without further ado, let's roll. Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever. Hey, Frank. Hey, he already mentioned awesome cranes.

Frank Manteau 1:30

Yeah, yeah, it caught me caught me munching on some, you know, delicious grounds. Well, they

Keith McKeever 1:35

sound delicious. Ever since the first moment I ever heard you talking in a lawyer Council when you introduce yourself about cranes already. The weakness is like wait, what is Air Force guy? I'm just like cranes ready to eat? Like seriously? Like somebody is actually like, You got to be kidding me. You know? But no, it's it's reality. Thank you are, you're rocking and rolling. And, and so close to actually be able to have these out and distributed and all that stuff. And I'll let you kind of get into that. But I'm just excited for all the Marines out there like it is a dream come true. This is probably like, a lifetime of Christmases at once. Like I said just a minute ago in the intro like they can actually eat it and not get sick because you know, there's no wax and God knows one of the things they actually put in Kranz, I have no idea they could actually eat himself. Welcome to the show. Frank, go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and what your military life growing up and military journey and all that stuff was.

Frank Manteau 2:37

Oh, first off, I want to say you know, hey, thanks for having me here. Appreciate being on the show. It's great to be here. So just give you a little idea. I'm a I'm a country boy redneck from the backwoods of Ohio. I grew up in the farm towns call mine steel mill area. And it was growing up hunting fish and roaming the woods going out and doing, you know, weird, stupid crazy things. Before there was the internet before there were cell phones and drinking out of the water hose and, you know, swimming in the ponds that the the sewer plant ran into and stuff like that. So, you know, it was only fitting for me to decide to join the Marine Corps.

Keith McKeever 3:20

It's a natural fit, right?

Frank Manteau 3:21

Well, there's a lot of factors to meet joining the Marine Corps. My birthday is in February 23. And if anybody understands anything about Marine Corps history, February 23, was the flight raising of Iijima. So, let's just throw that out there. Um, but no, it was, for me, the decision to join the military was kind of a tough one. I had, you know, I didn't have the greatest childhood growing up. And I had a lot of mentors that helped get me don't learn a lot of the things that I knew when I was younger. kept me out of the the family life and kept me immersed into learning things, growing things, making things. I took woodshop in high school, so it was really beneficial working on the farms always constantly building stuff and things like that. And I love to draw I Love You know, I did art. I had my same art teacher from fifth grade all the way to my senior year. When I became a freshman she became the high school teacher. And I literally threw away a full ride scholarship to the Pittsburgh artists to to join the Marine Corps

yes

Keith McKeever 4:37

seems like an interesting choice. I wasn't I wasn't ready for that bombshell right there. Okay, so So why, you know what, what were you planning on doing and why did you switch focus and go to the reason?

Frank Manteau 4:48

Well, I did not know I was getting a scholarship. When I joined the Marine Corps. I joined the Marine Corps my summer gear between junior and senior year, entered in the delayed Entry Program. So tactically on my books, I've got, you know, the delayed entry program the year prior. And I went in, um, I get back to high school. And here to find out a couple months after school starts, I get a letter from Pittsburgh Institute, that one of my artworks it was submitted in a contest, and I was granted a full ride scholarship. Did not know it was submitted. My art teacher submitted it for me. Um, and I had a full ride scholarship to do fine arts, visual effects and makeup art. Because I was, you know, doing stuff and everything's in that learning night. So airbrushing, drawling and makeup art and had to make a hard decision. So I went back to the guy I look up to I still talked to him to this day. I call him hooter. His nickname was hooter. So I would call him, his real name is Mark. And I'm like, Mark, you know, I want to get out of here. You know, we discussed this, get away from the things, you know, and everything, but I have this opportunity. And he gave me an he just laid it out for me. And he was like, oh, man, I got to make the decision. So I ended up took a couple weeks. And it was it was a hard decision to turn out a four year four ride scholarship, just been able to do everything guaranteed job placements. It was it was it was there. But I know if I stayed in that area, there was risk of me falling into the family history. And not knowing that family history at that time. Just understanding the way my family life was. It was like I time that. Yeah, time to go out, see the world explore different things and see what life has

Keith McKeever 6:58

to offer. Or at least you're wise enough to be able to recognize some things that are going on.

Frank Manteau 7:02

Yeah. To get out. Yeah. And later on in life, I figured out you know, what, what the things were, and you know why it was a good thing that I didn't stick around. So I ended up it was a really quick transition. I graduated high school, June 1 of 1995. June 5, took every little best, but I had went up to maps, June 6, I was in maps, doing all the check in that evening, I was on a plane heading to South Carolina, the middle of the night. I landed my footprints on and of course anybody knows anything about Marine Corps history, or military history? June 6 is D Day. June 7, my feet were on the yellow footprints. So it's like yeah, not only to the birthday factor, but June 6, bombing of Pearl Harbor. I'm getting ready prepared to get my you know, do my last swearing or my almost last swearing to go to boot camp. So join the Marine Corps. And you know, the one of the biggest things we get told whenever you know by the recruiter is you know, one of the questions we get asked is how do you recruiter lied to you? Well, I signed up for Marine Corps security forces not knowing I was infantry. So I go to boot camp, you know whenever they ask you what your MLS says and I tell him he was like you know, the drill instructor was like Bo shit you ain't your security forces your Oh 311 Your infantry? Like what? So what I signed up for you know, Joseph, you know, sir, it was like bullshit. That's your primary MLS security forces is just a glorified Firewatch and like I stuck on Firewatch for the next two weeks

Keith McKeever 8:59

you wanted to send a message,

Frank Manteau 9:01

you know, straight two weeks of Firewatch that was that was that was a doozy and that's when I learned to keep my mouth shut and do my do what I was told to do and turned out you know, boot camp was kind of a breeze got out went north, the North Carolina did my soI training, did it for the university training that I went to Norfolk to do my security forces training. And I be now this is gonna throw you also for a loop country boy from the backwoods of Ohio. I could not get eighth and I because I could not swim. I was fourth qual in boot camp. I when I jumped off that 10 foot tower into that water. i We jumped off the tower you know the stripping pits the high walls down in the strip and pits you had like 2030 feet between you and the where you could walk. I learned how to swim underwater. I got through it in a sink or swim I learned how to swim I'm underwater so when I jumped into that freakin pond that that poll, I'm underwater going at it. Next thing I know I'm getting drugged up right getting yelled at you know why what is what are you doing recruiters like this recruits told to swim to the other end, sir. That's not how you swim you're supposed to on top of it as always screwed was how to swim sir. So I get pulled over with the guys that can't swim and learn how to do the elements your backstroke. So I get sent to Washington state of a Bangor Washington. I could not stand in Washington State. I appreciate, you know, the opportunity but I think only lasted 10 months there before I was requesting to be transferred. Sitting on a dry dock constantly in Gortex, soaking wet. Walking around. Glorified Firewatch every single shift for four hour shifts, sometimes six hours shifts. It was just it was brutal in the Puget Sound getting rained on constantly go into PT getting rained on constantly. I was like, no. So I requested to get transferred. And Marine Corps stuck at me. Knowing that I can't swim. They sent me down to off. Yeah, they sent me down to Alpha Company one five and Camp Pendleton. I check in. They tell me where I'm going. And I'm like, How is it that I'm attached to a boat company? I'm a fourth qual swim. You can you can thank your last command for that. That was the request of your last command. I'm like, I really I'm like, come on. I can't I'm a fourth quarter I can barely swim, you're gonna throw me in a boat out the middle of the frickin ocean that I've never been into. Really. So yeah, I got stuck in Boat Company. That was fun. Um, so out in the infantry, getting my feet wet and learning the ropes in the infantry and everything else getting stuck out in the boat in the Zodiac, you know, getting flipped over trying to survive. And I learned really quickly on the first time they flipped it. Hold on to that rope. And whenever that thing flips over, hold onto that rope. And then you can be able to Creek and pull yourself back up and have something to hold on to when you can't swim. And ocean waters and you don't know what's underneath of you. Yeah, I'm going I'm making sure I'm staying up for dear life.

Keith McKeever 12:36

And a bunch of stuff underneath you. You don't want to know about? Yeah.

Frank Manteau 12:41

And and especially whenever you get up underneath of it, you got that gap of errors you're holding on. Right. And so the the team has got to freakin get the boat flipped over and then start looking for everybody. Right? So I figured out that, you know, when I'm holding on, when they flipped it over, it was a little bit struggle for him because guess what, they were pulling me up over. So I didn't flip over. I landed in a boat too into the zodiac.

Keith McKeever 13:05

But then you were there to help. Right? Yes. Yeah, it was a vital part of the team at that point. Yep.

Frank Manteau 13:12

So I was the guy to be able to, you know, get him in. So that that was that was the joy of not being able to swim getting thrown in the ocean, you know, flipping Zodiac on purpose. Yeah, that was a slam

Keith McKeever 13:21

on top of the water then.

Frank Manteau 13:23

Nope, still don't know. I still don't know how I still do not know how I can do the elementary backstroke. That's about it. That's all you're gonna get out of me. And I've got to pull up my house right now and I haven't been in it because whether, you know, waters a little chilly. But, um, so I ended up going to do doing a six month deployment Okinawa did that. And at this time I married got kids, or got one kid now didn't have a kid at that time. No, sorry. Got married, you know, young, got married to the first one that came along, moved out everything else anyhow. Um, ended up getting on a six month appointment, came back. And all of a sudden, we're getting like, thing there was like 15 of us that got picked throughout the various materials between o threes, 30 ones, 40 ones, all of us that's within the infantry and platoons and we were detached to the IMF. And they had no clue what was going on what was happening. Not the whole platoon not the whole company battalion was going just select few were going and we didn't know where we found out a week before that we were getting sent over to Kuwait and this was in February of 98. None other another sad day of that was his. That was my 21st birthday here and at 703 On February 23, I'm stepping foot onto a plane to go to coin a dry country okay.

Keith McKeever 15:14

I think we have some vastly different experiences

Frank Manteau 15:18

Yes,

Keith McKeever 15:20

I turned 21 right like a week before I went to boot camp. Oh, yeah. In my drinking in tech school right after.

Frank Manteau 15:27

No There you go. Yeah, there you go. So we go over to Kuwait and I'm attached general boat he was General at the time general Bowden. If anybody knows anything about Bowden he is was recently monthlong. I forget what it was. But he was the head of NASA. He was the one guy that was charged NASA he was actually an astronaut. And I wish I still had my documentation. My last marriage, I lost all those ad sets we won't go into that said my meat book is no longer here. I don't have my meat book no more. It's a sad day. But anyhow, so go over to Kuwait. And if anybody has an understanding of it, there are cases where you go overseas and your DD 214 does not reflect foreign C service. That was the case that I was in. So there is no foreign service on my D two DD 214. But have a j mk. Nobody knows what a j mk is it's a joint Meritorious Unit Citation. That means I have worked with outs, you know, foreign units in one shape or form overseas, but I have no foreign see service on my DD 214. Right. So back in 98, they were trying to get the inspectors over to Saddam's inspect his nuclear weapons. That's what we were attached to. So wherever their comeback 98 cup, you know, in between my deployments, my daughter was born. Um, fast forward to getting getting back and then I go to recruit at some range to coach recruits on the rifle range. So going up there being able to educate people on shooting, I was already an expert, get up there learn how to be able to touch recruits. And when US Marines re qualify for the rifle range in Pendleton. That's where they would come to be able to shoot to it oversee them and things like that. And that lasted from the beginning, say about the end of 98, beginning 99 to 2001. And then I ended up getting transferred to campus zoo North Carolina. Out the golf company to to while I was there, anybody knows anything about 2001 911 happened. And that's when everything just everything we were training for. Just got real. It's now on our soil. And you know, immediately. It was funny how that situation had happened is as soon as I got out there, I'm learning. We're going back. I'm going back to California for 30 days. In the Marine Corps, we do do CACs which is a combined arms exercise. And they said it's a 29 palms and Twentynine Palms is not a fun place. It's desert as desert gets. Right. Um, so immediately shortly thereafter, I'm I get there in July. I think it was. And September, no October. And we're going over. Now we were slated to return on September 11. On September 8, we're being told our flight has now been changed to September 10. Okay, whatever military that is. So we get back September 10. And of course, when you're married, you know personnel and you get back from deployment. You don't have to report early in the day unit doesn't start till later on. And maybe in the sergeant me being in charge, I went in early, I didn't have to be in there until 1200. I was in there I was rolling in through the gate. Whenever the radio broke through of the plane it just hit the building. Oh, the they didn't know as a plane at that time. Twin Towers one tower was on fire and there's an explosion. And next thing I know I get through the gate. Two cars behind me get to the gate and they're closing off the gate. Nobody's entering through and nothing. Driving through. All the sudden I'm here and you know that there's just as I'm pulling into the barracks, another a plane it actually hit the second tower.

Get up in there, get into the barracks, everybody's just messed around a common area around it. TV. And we're just watching this, and we're just all in devastation of what's happening. But yet we're all on edge. You know, we're we're in North Carolina is like what is going on? And then we're hearing about the other plane situations. And it's like, immediately, you know, we're getting, you know, it's good to think we're getting to the armoring. We're getting geared up, we're getting situated, we're getting ready to, you know, defend, you know, the base, because now we're here in the Pentagon's get, you know, going after the Pentagon.

Keith McKeever 20:33

Yes. Next at that point. I mean, we were all the whole whole world was in a mass confusion. Yeah, anything was possible.

Frank Manteau 20:40

Exactly. And when you when you start taking a look at the factors, you've got New York, now you got the Pentagon, now you got campus Zoo, and it's like, are we next to what's happening once you know what I mean? You don't know what, you know, we had no clue. So we're literally geared up locked and loaded, and we were locked down in the base for 4840, almost three to three and a half days, locked on base, you know, just on edge, you know, ready to at a moment's notice anything going on. And the news started coming out, you know, everything and, you know, the plane getting taken down, you know, the phenomenal job, and, you know, the people that the civilians, and those that were on that plane that took that plane down to make sure that it didn't go anywhere else in Pennsylvania. Just is is a phenomenal you know, it's it's an unbelievable situation, you know, in knowing everything that's going on. And knowing that we came back a day early from CAX, it makes you question was there what was the reason behind that? You know, years later, I was like, why don't we come back a day early? You know, why would we not in you know, we in the air? You know, on September 11? It just, it gives you a question.

Keith McKeever 21:57

Yeah, you know, something a question or a heck of a coincidence.

Frank Manteau 22:01

Yeah, exactly. So, um, we, you know, it's just like, here we go. And of course, in the infantry, you're constantly running impound and stuff like that. So now we're a couple months later, we're training to get ready to deploy, we know that we're going deployed, we're going somewhere, are universally to go to Afghanistan. And we were on an easy, seven mile hump. And all of a sudden, I started getting sharp pains in my back, back was hurt really bad pressing through, and I could see the OC, I could see the the end of it. And our platoon, our company decided that we were going to end up bumping back, we weren't going to take the five tonnes back. And all of a sudden, it is dropping collapsed. And I couldn't feel from the waist down. I was basically paralyzed the waist down for eight and a half hours, I had a pinched nerve, both hip displacements and two discs that were messed up. So we're going through this whole thing. And now I'm a liability. And they wouldn't let me deploy. And I'm fighting it. And I'm arguing that, you know, I had spent time in that sandbox over in Kuwait. I spent time, you know, they're seeing what it's like dealing with the people dealing with situations, like I wanted to go, I knew I would be able to have an opportunity to save lives, I had knowledge, I had information. And it just wasn't in my cards. So I had an option, go sit behind a desk, or get an early out. I looked at my kids, my family, my marriage wasn't the greatest in the world. And I had to get out for my kids. So I got out in December of Oh, two. And, you know, I did one of the common things we do in the military, when we get out. My transition out was not the greatest information, it was taps and it was sign this sign this check this box and go check in this location, turn this gear in and get out and you're done. Because, you know, we got more pertinent stuff going on and I went back to Ohio. Um,

Keith McKeever 24:09

I don't think that's changed a lot over the years. Yeah, no, it's still basically the same way when I got out 2011 It was I was Air Force but when I got out went through that it was like, hey, get a LinkedIn profile duster resume off, do this do that. Like said all you know, all your stuff, Attorney gear, and that's about it. Yep. And it'll tell you about a lot of the other things that you're going to have to face the civilian or the actual mental toll of transition.

Frank Manteau 24:34

Well, one of the things that, you know, I realized later on is when we're in the military, and and a lot of people are gonna be like, I can't believe you just said this. But it's it's if you dig down deep and in the truth of this, why we're in the military, we're in a socialist situation. We are provided three meals a day. We're provided clothing are you uniforms, were provided room and shelter. If you're married, you're provided funding to be able to purchase that fund that there, you're on base, you have everything that you need. So if you look at it, the military is kind of like a socialist type entity. We're getting exactly that. I mean, so, yeah, good.

Keith McKeever 25:20

I was just gonna say, I mean, you know, a lot people talk about how the military is not paid well, and they're not. That could be paid more. But when you look at the totality, and could go off on a tangent on this, but the medical care would be better, but your medical is taking care of your house is taking care of you get a housing allowance, you get cost of living allowance for overseas. So, you know, you look at the base pay, I think I was looking the other day like he won, or and I was like, 21 22,000, something like that a year? It's not not, what do you look into some of the other things, you get the free room in the barracks, and this and this, and this and this, it adds up to something. The perception is different, I guess I should say, it looks like they only make this amount. But when you take into account the free medical free house, things like that, there's, there's other benefits that don't have a solid monetary value, but they do add up. It could be billing, definitely gonna be better.

Frank Manteau 26:10

Exactly. You get three square meals a day, you go in the morning, get to chow, you go to lunch, get your child, you got furniture, you ain't paying for it. And I mean, and so it gives you an under, you know, with that explanation there, it gives you the, you know, when you get out, you're in shellshock. Now you've got to figure out how you're going to pay for this, how you're going to afford this? How are you going to get these things where you're going to get this at? And when somebody goes from just like, in my situation, days after graduating high school, go into the Marine Corps, and spending seven and a half years there. And then now, you know, I've got a family that I've got to take care of, I got kids to take care of I got house, I got bills, I got you know this, everything else. You're You're, you're in, you're in survival mode, what am I going to do? What is going to happen, you're going to get this. And so I wouldn't, I wouldn't work two jobs, trying to make ends meet, pay for things, get things situated. And then you throw divorce on top of that court fees, attorney fees, fighting for custody, you know, all these and everything. And it does enter and when you move back to a small town, you know, from where you're from in that area, there's not a military support. You know, you've got the Legions you got the VFW but it's a bunch of old guys sitting around drinking beers. And, you know, it wasn't my cup of tea, you know, I'm not gonna sit around in waste my day, I've got to be doing something. So I stepped away from the military aspect, all in general. I didn't label myself as it I you know, it was like, you know, I worked at the county VA office for a little bit, but it just it wasn't, it wasn't it was all cracked up to be. And I was just like, nope, got in working the world and I got an award of automotive industry went and worked at Advanced Auto LK Q. Life relationships failed. And finally, when my kids were old enough, I did one of the stupidest things anybody could do is in 2013, I decided to pack up a four bedroom house on a quarter acre lot. Two stories with the basement privacy fence, you name it, it was a nice house and put it into storage pack up my kids because they couldn't have a normal life. It couldn't go anywhere. It couldn't enjoy things without their biological mother creating issues and problems and always being there. I had to have, you know, plays and securities you know, some, you know, programmed into their phones, I had to give them phones at young ages. Because it was it was you know, detrimental. Um and then I made a decision to get out of Ohio I flipped a coin It was either Paris Kentucky or it was San Diego California. Paris Kentucky was a selfish thing because I wanted to go hunt and fish and you know, just see things and stuff like that and hopefully the kids will be able to survive but San Diego was was uh, the reasoning was is all the seasons are here. If you go and see it. You can go drive up and hit the mountains and hit the snow you can drive and go hit the desert we got the rain every occasion or you got the water to go out to the beaches and give them a chance to broaden their horizons and experience different things. So coin flip this out here, packed up the house put in storage packed in the suitcases one way ticket $4,000 landed in San Diego no job no vehicle didn't know anybody. Nothing just landed here and got a hotel and hit the ground running for you know I got involved in a couple programs and use my Veteran Status and ended up finding, I ran into a person that I looked at her and I was like, No, I ain't her. Lo and behold, it was I holler at her name, she answered. It was one of the guys that I served with and base housing. We were in the same unit, he was in the he was no 331, I think I think he was, he was a machine gunner. And we live in the same base housing, they help, you know, my ex wife at that time in my wife, she was that time get established in base housing, and while we're on deployment and stuff like that, so you know, I knew her and it was them. And they didn't go back to San Francisco, like I thought they had done when they got out and talk to him. And I didn't tell him you know, that I was struggling, you know, I was didn't know was going to how much longer I was gonna stay in a hotel what was gonna happen, and then they offered me to come stay with them. So we wouldn't stay with them out here and Lakeside and

start hitting ground running. That was February 27. And within May I was working at a rally autoparts and in June we got a place of our own. So I took that military mentality of hit the ground running make sure you get things happen mission accomplishment, and you know, make it happen. So

Keith McKeever 31:23

you got a lot you got a big missionary you got to take care of the family and yep, shelf established, that's your I cuz that's like a crazy, almost like a crazy thing. Just sell sell stuff and move across the country not knowing really anybody. And that's a lot of risk. But it's not unlike the risks, the other risks that you're taking. Like, you know, when your newest business ventures,

Frank Manteau 31:44

well, that that's its life was taught me, you know, things about risk, and so worked at a rally, and it just got tired of working in corporate America. And I've always had that mentality, I've always had that mentality, I just don't like I'm working for somebody else I'll make it's killing me. And it shows you that I think the rate right now, I'd have to double check it don't quote me on this. I think it's like 40% if not higher of entrepreneurs are veterans. You know, we get out of the military, you know, we have, you know, an entrepreneurial mindset, you know, mission oriented, goal oriented, make things happen. So just like I had to do this, I got tired of work in corporate America, cashed out my 401k and I started kamikaze Woodworks. I went, like I said before woodshop worked on the farm, he always made stuff. So I'm like, This is what I knew. So what a bunch of old to woodworking tools, some of the stuff you can see back here, you know, yeah, yep. And started just making stuff. And it was doing it was doing pretty decent, it was enough to pay the bills, wasn't nothing to scream over, or go out to, you know, go celebrate on. But I was able to do something that I loved and I enjoyed, it was therapeutic for me, it was something that, you know, when the whenever the you know, you get them, you know, your mind gets going, you get into those depression moments and thoughts and it gives gave it's therapy, if anybody that is in, you know, thinking about it, or you know, wants to find something to do, you know, find a skill, find a task to be able to help, you know, deal with those things and keep you busy. So sort of the woodworking, and my kids were involved in high school activities, photography band choir. And so I ended up getting asked to make props for the local high school marching band. And for the local color guard. Well, in the midst of making a prop for the color guard, they just needed a giant picture for him that they could jump in and out of. And was like, I'm not gonna make this big elaborate, or do I'm not gonna paint this thing, I'm just that it's needed to prop up Stand up, put legs on the back of it, so it stays upright, and we're going right so, took a picture, blew it up, print out multiple sheets, glued it on there cut out you know, the edges that were looks like the shape of the frame, that nice design. And paint wasn't going to work. When you put paint on paper, it's not going to work that well. Marker wasn't going to work is when a bleed, you can't blend them black in in the same color. Got to Change Markers. So the only next best thing that I knew was okay. My art and background was crayons stay that consistent color from the beginning to the end depends on how hard you push. Right? So if you keep the same consistent pressure, you're gonna get the same consistent colors right? Now, mind you, when the newest idea came about the reason it came about was is I switch colors and put a crayon in my mouth and literally starting knowledge on it. And that's when the lightbulb clicked in that I started recently a few years ago seeing memes and videos of actual Marines eating crayons. I didn't know why. I didn't understand it. When I got out of the Marine In court, we were not called crown eaters. We were called jarheads ground pounders bullet sponges. Leathernecks. I had no clue.

Keith McKeever 35:10

Yeah, I don't really know where the whole cranny or thing came from, but it's been around for maybe 1015 years, something like that.

Frank Manteau 35:17

Yeah. Something like that. And then the meme. Yeah, it was like that they started happening. Like, I think memes are, you know, I started noticing around 2015 16. But really, you know, when you start research and look into when you look up crowd eater, you're seeing all these things is like, holy snacky. So if you do a Google search, or crowny, you're gonna see some funny stuff. Um, so and then hit me it was like, Is there truly an edible crown? So I spent three months looking on and off. And then I finally figured it out. And I was like, Okay, I know nothing about chocolate. I have no clue. But whenever I was a store, man, when I took over as a store manager at a rally autoparts when the store manager left to move, move out of state, and I took over, one of the team members brought in these homemade peanut butter truffles that were better than any receipt cup that I have ever tried. We found out Oh, it was good. Yeah, it was good. So we found out that she had went to school to be a pastry chef for a few semesters before life hit and Sid went into the workforce. So I had that the mental Rolodex, right. And it's like, All right, good to go. So when this idea sparked, she was the one I was calling. I called her and I'm like, Cassandra, I know you like to make stuff out of chocolate and food and pastry. She's like, yes. Have you ever heard or have you ever done anything with making chocolate, right? She's like, No. Like, do you think you could figure it out? She said, I will try. Not a problem. September 12 2017, she sends me a video of her actually making chocolate, right. And it was the biggest smile I had on my face at that time. And it was like, we got it, we figured it out. Now. It was in between her working and me pushing the woodworking business, trying to figure out how we're going to do this. So I know nothing about food. I'm learning a little bit about business. She's not familiar with the business side, but she knows the food but not really into the large scale or the commercial side everything else. So

Keith McKeever 37:53

I think a lot of people could find themselves in a situation of just, you know what, you know, but you don't you know, you don't know what you don't know.

Frank Manteau 38:00

Exactly. So we're going through this and we we know that after trial and error that a regular sized crayon was not going to stand up it was not going to work. When you get the chocolate your hands get warm, it's breaks too easy. And it melts too quickly. So we had to figure out what are we going to do then we started realizing we needed to make sure that it was distinct full that it was not your average crayon and we got the max amount of chocolate we could get out of it and give it some durability. So started researching then we found our modes which we currently are in which gave us the shape and we will continue to use is a triangle and shape chocolate crayon. And there are three reasons for that. The first one was of course, the durability and giving you more chocolate. The second reason was it's got a flat surface, it will not roll off the table so you will not lose your food and therefore dirty your food so you're not you know a child will be able to pick it up and you know, want to eat it and everything else because parents are like that's on the floor. I don't need it. Now as green rolling.

Keith McKeever 39:11

Oh shoot

Frank Manteau 39:12

well as US Marines got a five minute rule. So about No, that's it just five, five minutes.

But um, and then the third reason is we wanted parents, guardians, and CEOs, staff NCOs higher ranking officials to inform the lower ranking, you know, military members. These are the ones that are okay to eat the regular crayons not okay to eat. Yeah, it's

Keith McKeever 39:46

gonna mess your gut up or kill you or who knows what else

Frank Manteau 39:50

they say they're non toxic and you can eat them Yeah, shop some ramifications there somehow. Yeah, they'll stop you up pretty well. Probably. Yeah, yeah. So, so that's why we wanted to share with you when. And I had been in contact with the marine wrapper. And I had got ahold of a wood lathe and I spun him out a 21 inch wooden crayon. And I made him a California shaped board with a bulldog bottle opener on it. And I made it for him. He finally came down to San Diego and I got a hold of him in October of 2018. When I noticed he was down here, he was in starting up, or he was the lead and starting a new chapter down here in San Diego, of the bunker labs veteran a residence program. So if you're a new entrepreneur, or existing, you know, starting out entrepreneur, you have a business going on, I suggest you look into it, because you get six months free space, free office voting, 24, access networking events. You know, if you got a podcast, or you need to have meetings, they have conference rooms that you can, you know, block out, set a time go in there, everything at your disposal, you have education, you have networking events. So it paid off because whenever I met with him, he was doing it. I got invited to their their muster the launch muster, and got the walk around network and I had and the way this came about is is I dropped the crowns off to him literally a week before I dropped his his crayon off to him a week before and we were talking and he was like What else you got going on? You got something else going on? You have to You're a Marine, you always got up doing something. I'm like, Well, you know, and I put it off. It's like kind of doubting it. Like I got this idea of actually making, you know turn in the Marine Corps joking around 80 of us being crown eaters and making chocolate crowns. He went ballistic. So I got invited to the muster, went down there. And I brought some with me. And after the networking event, he let me upstairs because you have to have key access to get into the rooms. And he's cleaning up so Mike sours a forged clothing, and santha Samantha Binya and I'm probably butchering her name. I always butcher her last name. Sorry, Sam, if you see this. We're up there. And Sam says to Mike, remind me Nick, before we go to the next photoshoot, we buy some crayons. I did not know who she was. I knew of Ford's clothing. I now know who the guy is that owns it. And I'm like, Okay, I'm pretty you know, I'm like, this is cool. So I'm, I'm like, gonna take a chance Do I say something? Do I wait for Ramin? What do I do? Like I screw it? I'm like, Why do you need crayons before your next photo shoot?

Keith McKeever 43:00

I can see why you'd be nervous to ask that.

Frank Manteau 43:03

Yeah. Especially your dancers. Yeah, and especially being you know, a beautiful female and, and gathering from the conversation that she was a model. So I'm like, why would you need crayons? She's like, Well, I'm a Marine. And you know the joke Marines green crayon eaters. And I'm always getting people commenting of them, you know, calling How can a crane ever be so beautiful? You know, I can't believe you're a crown eight or, you know this and that. And I'm like, I got something better for you. I'm a marine as well. How about I let you try the first edible colorable chocolate crayon. And she just lit up. And I pulled them out. Let her try them. And she immediately started coloring without hesitation, put it in her mouth and bit into it and was just loving it. On the second bite. She's got her phone out. She's recording it. And she sends it to all her other female marine models. And they're like, yes, we need these. She was like, Can you get me some of these? I'm like, I haven't even done anything with these. I haven't started this as a business. I have no clue what I'm doing how I'm going to do it. I have no pack. I have nothing. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm like,

Keith McKeever 44:21

was that like literally the first batch? Like, yes, that is literally the first official backs and she ate all the samples.

Frank Manteau 44:28

No, she didn't even know because I had some set aside so I can show in the Raymond ah, sale smart. Yeah, there you go. Yeah.

So I'm like, Yeah, sure. I will get you something not a problem. So Raymond comes up, we're talking. Next thing I know. I mean, invited two weeks later, to their meeting where they get around, they talk different things and have you know, presentations or, you know, learn about business or learn about other businesses. So I was on the second half and they asked me to pitch my business. Mike Ramin I don't even know if this is a business. I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm sorry. I've never pitched anything. He was like, just talk about what you're doing. Look a little bit in depth to what you talked about with with me. And just come in and spell it. We'll get you into a business. I might I good to go. I'm not a social media guy. I don't know what I'm doing. So I'm like, Alright, so we bust out about 1010 12 batches, five crowns, each wrapped up in wax paper. And I go there. And next thing I know, we are. Sit down, I taught and I pitched them and I set up the Instagram. I set up the Facebook, I set up a website, I quickly threw up a WordPress website. And just Okay, here we go. That I don't know what I'm doing. I took pictures of what we had printed out the first ever concept of our packaging, just a flat sheet, just the front of it. Just printed out stuck there did pictures put up on the website? I didn't archive that website I should have for historical purposes, but I was like, yeah, no, I'm like, it was like, so, um, we go there. And we only had basically family, a few of my, you know, my family, her family following us assist me, we had 11 people. This was September 12 of 2018. Literally one year from the day that Cassandra actually sent a video of her making chocolate, right. So you see the resemblance is of dates in the Ikonics here if things you know repeating themselves in different chains of events. It's it's weird concept. Um, so now we are sitting here going through this, and literally within the four or five and a half hours that I'm there at that meeting. Our Instagram has blown up over to 200 people, because they're all sharing us and tagging us. And in doing these videos, everybody they're sharing it was like, Oh, we're onto something here. So I go back to Cassandra. We're talking we're on this repairing that we're going to do and then we came up with our first package design. We printed it out on cardstock. Cut it out, folded it, glued it and created our first packaging, which was a crayon box. Right? He's like, Alright, here we go. That was after we started shipping before we knew we needed packaging. We decided, Okay, let's try this. So we're going to wrap them on wax paper, throw them up on a website, and we're going to ship them. We made about 110 orders within a week and a half to get stopped by a phone call by the county that we are in violation of umpteen million permits, regulations, certificates, codes, everything we do the government to put their foot down on some stuff. We almost got fined $10,000 Oh, luckily the director was nice enough to give us a warning explained to us the process she thought the idea was caused can be was glad that you know we were creating something walked us through the steps and help us develop the packaging, do our ingredients get everything made sure it was made in a home kitchen, all this stuff. So we got that that was in March of 2019. So now we're going to events. And before that, we were doing events under the radar. And we met Steven coons of the veteran manure tribe and the warrior council because he was at an event called clever talks. They had a pen up on the stage. And we were we got invited to be able to be there as walking around and I had trans in my body and a cooler and a lunch cooler in my backpack going around and testing people out. You know, I had you know, I met Donny O'Malley from vet TV there. And I met Steven coons. I met Flossie hall you know, I met I got to see Jocko got to meet I think Evans from black rifle coffee was there you know got all these people I got to meet them and give them a little tries and samples and stuff like that. And and then we move on. I jumped back sorry about that. And then we're back to March you know where we get to certification we find out we were doing things illegally for the longest time.

So we get official, we start doing events don't pop ups get involved in you know, different events and things. And then we realize the name that we came up with this and we had some modify it and I haven't told you the name yet. I know I haven't and I apologize for that. I'm giving you that you know given you the the run through this, because I want you to have an understanding what it took us to get the business and what struggles we had for it. I was struggling on trying to figure that out. Before we had did the launch and right before I went met, or you know, along with, whenever I'd met with the marine rapper, and I was talking to a buddy of mine that I met on social media, he was not a veteran. And one we were talking about meals ready to eat and stuff like that. And then he was like, I'm like, and then we started talking about the idea. And that's when I told it to him. I'm like, I got this idea and trying to figure it out. And, you know, taught him what it was. And he was like, why don't you just call it crayons ready to eat? And I'm like, wait a minute,

Keith McKeever 50:34

dude, why ball hits, you're like done, there's nothing.

Frank Manteau 50:37

There's nothing else name it.

I'm like military military joke to reality. Crayons ready to eat. And that's when we knew that we had to emulate something like the Mrs. Of my era. But all I knew was crayons and a coloring box, right? So later on in 2019, we knew we had to get better packaging, because we were getting more momentum where we're getting more things happening. And then we decided that we were going to start sourcing out and trying to figure out where we're going. And hold on one second. Then we were was like, Okay, we got to do something, started research and started digging in figuring out where we're going on the time that it took us to handcut fold and glue 200 boxes was two days in between everything else and we're like this is killing us. That's a

Keith McKeever 51:43

lot of tedious work right there.

Frank Manteau 51:44

Yes, it is. So we're like okay, we got to figure this out. So when we found our newest packaging, it reduced two days worth of work to 45 minutes and we we knew that we were right onto something when we figured out now it's now it looks like the you know the the father of it you know the meals ready to eat. Now crowns ready to eat has its own distinct look. And then we came out with the pouches are pouches or like, look, design? Ziploc seal for refreshes, but you probably won't need it because you're probably gonna eat them all by the time we're done with it.

Keith McKeever 52:28

Yeah, pretty good chance. Yeah, you know,

Frank Manteau 52:30

zip it, rip it open. And it's much more cleaner visible to see the you know everything on there. So we went with the pouch. So it now truly looks like a meal ready to eat, which all military veterans, active duty reservists. Even though spouses knows what a meal, you know, meals ready to eat it. Here we go. So we're getting things lined up. The NRA calls us and wants us to be have our product at their national conference. That's how big we blew up and how far we got. We had to turn. Yeah, we had to turn down their order because we could not be able to ship our product. It killed us. Then we started looking into get into a commercial kitchen. What do we got to do to get a commercial kitchen. All of a sudden, I started noticing the decline in my woodworking in December. Like i What's going on January, started looking decline in everything. I'm like, this ain't good. Something's not right. And I'm like, I gotta find a part time job and still be able to do this. So I started looking for work. And then my old job found out I was looking called me to go back to work for them back at O'Reilly auto parts. And we couldn't get anywhere traction. You know, the the kitchens, the ones we were finding were either vegan, or they were the drive was going to end up pushing the the price point on our boxes, to where we were only going to getting like 15% markup. At the price point we were selling. We were selling for nine we are and we still plan on selling for 999. And it's like, you know, whenever you're only making a 15% markup, it's like you can't survive off that it's like what do we do? Then we're like, okay, maybe we got to get, you know, figure this out. So we've started stepping back and I went to work and then all of a sudden, March hits COVID is now a thing it's been talked about more I never paid attention in the news media. It's all my social media. It's on my phone popping up was like oh, we get a notice from the county that we need to stop production guidelines this everything else. So all of 2020 We have no footage No no no proof, more proof of concept, more people using our product. Anything we're shut down. I'm going to work, then all of a sudden clubhouse comes along a audio drop in app to where there's no showing your face like we are now. It's your voice. And you're able to express you know, and talk and people that understand communication, which a lot of our youth and a lot of us were missing that in 2020, you can tell a lot by somebody's voice, you can tell their, you know, their passion, their demeanor, their, you know, how they're doing, just by hearing their voice. Why in the military community, a lot of us have some have went to let's do 22 Push ups, but some of us have went to, let's call somebody, don't do something that's going to benefit you do some is going to benefit somebody else, physically call them reach out to somebody, our youth today is in their phones, not calling up the phone. And there's when they call you, you know, they're like, you know, saying these little acronyms OMG and JK and, you know, they're not talking for sense their communication skills are not you know, they're they're texting communication. It's like really, so definitely different.

Keith McKeever 56:17

That's, that's for darn sure. And the interesting see how this last year and all the weird stuff that's going on, you know, shapes communication, but

Frank Manteau 56:26

yeah, so clubhouse comes along. And right now, it's only for iPhone users, which I'm an iPhone user. I switched several years ago, I was on the dark side many, many years ago, I swore by Android,

Keith McKeever 56:38

but I'm on Android, but I have an iPad. That's how I listen.

Frank Manteau 56:42

So I just got trouble. I just got tired of having to pull the battery out and restart that thing all the time. So that's why I switch to the iPhone. Anyhow, I digress. So I'm sitting there listening to this and I got an A couple nights and when I first started begin to January, in the evenings, and I was like, You know what, this is something that I could pop in one ear and answer the phone on the other ear at work. So I had listened and listened and listened, listen, and learn and stuff in here and these guys and yeah, I was I was jumping to the big rooms with these high rollers, moneymakers. And these guys that are, you know, making a certain amount of money. And I was like, so I tried to reach out to a couple and they said, hey, send a DM, we'll talk we'll see what we you know, give you some pointers. So I've talked to them. And they basically wanted to change my whole story and fit the narrative and the gist behind it. And they didn't understand how I thought or how I talked. And that told me they don't understand us as the military, us as veterans

Keith McKeever 57:48

as corporate American Veterans anyway, but

Frank Manteau 57:52

yeah, and no spouses, they they deal with a lot more than we deal with ultimately. Because yeah, we're gone. We're over there, our lives are on the line, we're doing things. Now they have to take care, they have to keep things in order. They have to keep their own sanity, you have to keep the sanity of the kids they have to pay the bills, they have to take care of the house. They have to you know they have to do a lot of things and they have to sit there and be worried about your ass out there freakin you know, something gone wrong, something happening even if it's an even it's in stateside training evolutions, how many times we had accidents during training evolutions, and painful every year, unfortunately. Yeah. So you've got all these things. And it's like, okay, so they don't understand us. So I was kind of active in the veteran printer tribe. I was sitting there because I had met Steven many years ago. But I really wasn't active. I didn't know about it. So one day, I decided I found this club on clubhouse called veterans network. And I'm like, Ooh, that sounds interesting. So I'd go in and listen to a couple of them. And I'm just like, everybody's talking mastermind and these other groups. We don't have that here in the veteran community that I know of, I had no clue. And I'm like, what if I because I want to learn how to do things. I want to learn about business. And they always say, if you don't know how to do it, find somebody that can help you or find something get you the answer, right. Absolutely. So I get this brainy idea. I'm going to go into Clubhouse. I'm going to start a club under veterans network that says veteran entrepreneur mastermind and see who shows up. Like, all right, cool. Good to go. So that was like right at the end of the last Saturday in January. Did it for like an hour, hour and a half. Maybe this guy by the name of Eric ranks jumps in and we're talking I'm trying to figure it out. I'm like, you know, there's no masterminds. There's this and everything else and Eric Like, What? Are you part of the venture of an orc tribe? on Facebook? I'm like, Yeah, I am. I just, I'm there. He was like, You're not pay attention. I'm like, No, not really. He was like, you know, Steven Lane actually have a what's called the warrior Council, right? I'm like, no, no, my eye starts telling me about it. So I go check it out. And I signed up. That following Wednesday, or Thursday. In the morning, I'm on a zoom call with a bunch of cool freakin people. Oh, thanks,

Keith McKeever 1:00:37

man. You consider me cool. Yeah, he's awesome. Frank. Yeah, you're in there. You can be my friend now. Yes.

Frank Manteau 1:00:45

So I'm like, I'm already I get this. I like this. I see where this is going. So I'm like, I'm gonna do a week to have the frickin club. I'm gonna kind of structure it like I just learned in this first ordeal. What do you got going on? What your successes? What do you need help with, but not do the extra stuff that we do in there. You know? Oh, my God. So I jumped over. Did it on week two. I had Eric I had DP I had Liz I had her and Lisa. I had Nadia. I had Brian had Joey from the moment cigar lounge who? Phenomenal. If you don't know joyful moments are our lounge. Gotta check them out.

Keith McKeever 1:01:32

And money, dude. Yeah.

Frank Manteau 1:01:35

So that room went on for six and a half hours. Now, my business is not a side hustle. My business was actually converted to an LLC, thanks to the knowledge of Joey. Thanks to the warrior Council, I was connected with somebody to get a business plan and a pitch deck done. Thanks to clubhouse, I met the owner of fun, the first Robert garlin, who has a crowdfunding platform that is different than any other one most of the other. And that's why I never started it. Because most of the other crowdfunding platforms are, you don't get your money until you make your goal or exceed your goal. They take an exuberant amount of high percentage on it, you campaign only runs for a certain amount of time. With fun, the first, they only took a set amount to give you the maximum out of sponsors you get, you're still getting a good chunk of what you're getting. They work with you with PR and marketing and everything else. They walk you through the steps. There's no end date on your crowdfunding. They use ID me to verify military, law enforcement and their spouses and their dependents to be able to use the platform. And I can start requesting money at 30 days to start using to put into my business. It was like a no brainer. So I got on our boom, boom, when he's talking about it, I get on there. And I set it up and I send an email, you know, I need help because I don't understand this. I'm trying to figure it out. He helped walk me through it. I watched a couple videos on YouTube, how to use iMovie to figure out the movie that we have on there. Put it up there. And six hours later, the crowdfunding is done with his support act of boom. Like that was easy. Speaking of that was easy. That was easy.

Right? Yep.

So I go through this whole thing. It's like, Alrighty, then. So, and that was all in one day. Loc, business code, business consultation, business concept to write the business plan and getting crowd funding set up. One day between freakin clubhouse warrior counsel, you told me that's not powerful,

Keith McKeever 1:04:15

though it's it's extremely powerful. And I told you last week in the warrior Council, like I've I have nothing to do with your business but to have have heard every week updates and things that are going on. It's just so awesome to see a veteran business just take off and just explode in these connections and all these things are going on. And it's just really cool to see like just kind of from the sidelines, just like you know, it's sometimes we just don't see enough success. We don't see enough people succeed and we don't we don't encourage people enough sometimes. Or tell him you know, how proud we are people are succeeding. You know, it's awesome that you had this idea. And, and you've obviously hit a lot of bumps in the road. For some from the government, some from other things, but there's a trend here of just just networking. Yep. You know, it's just meeting the right people at the right time, you know, not really saying no, and just going to these events and just talking to people. And there's a lot of power in that. And I think everybody who joins the water Council shameless plug for it. I think all of us have something that we get out of it. I joined last October and I immediately like I just needed for my business, real estate. I felt like, after a long year, I just needed to like recenter my mind, get myself back on track, some accountability, some things like that I immediately had it because that next week, Steven and Layne, were asking me, okay, so what are you doing this last week? Did you get those things accomplished? Did you do that? And it did like it just immediately the first couple of weeks, I just narrowed that focus back down. Yeah. And that's it. And everybody has a different thing that they get out of it. It's awesome.

Frank Manteau 1:05:52

Yeah. And, you know, exactly. It's like, you know, so I get the word counsel, I get the clubhouse. And boom, within that week, it was like, the structures like holy, you know, unbelievable. And then from there, just talking with people getting things connected. I wouldn't have this hat if it wasn't for the workout. So JD, I now have patches listed up on our website that, you know, JD, you know, South Pole laser concepts. Is that South Pole laser concepts? That is correct. I hope I said that, right. Yeah. That

Keith McKeever 1:06:29

I've got to have it's happening on my bookshelf right there.

Frank Manteau 1:06:31

Yeah. And we got patches now on our website that we're selling because of him. You know, it's now we're doing business where we're collaborating. And I started doing that collaboration. In the early years of the business, whenever I found a Marine veteran own T Shirt Company that does TGV printing, and we got our T shirts done. They did our T shirts, that's who does or two. So I learned the collaboration in that ordeal from that. But now I'm saying, you know, get it here. And it's like, alright, we got this going. And then all of a sudden, now I'm getting on podcasts, like yours. This is like the fifth one that I've been on so far. And in that time period. Now, this is February night. The following week, I'm getting asked to be on podcast. Every time I go in the clubhouse. I cannot go in the room and listen, if there's somebody up there that has known me or interacted with me. I'm getting pulled up and asked to talk about crayons ready to eat. Talk about this fabulous idea that I've got going on. And it's like, okay, here we go.

Keith McKeever 1:07:39

It's crazy. I was telling you before we started I'm like, because we're both so you know, almost always in like the same rooms are bouncing back and forth and touch following each other or whatever. And it's crazy. As soon as you pop in a room, everybody's like, hey, stop, stop, stop breaks here. Like, you know, they know somebody, they're like, Hey, you're a Marine. You got to talk to Frank. Let's get Frank up here, man. He's making cranes. And you know, just just the excitement. It's like, whoa, that's crazy. Yeah, gotta be crazy. From your perspective. Just be constantly. Oh good for it's good publicity. But it is.

Frank Manteau 1:08:10

It's phenomenal. You know, right now we've raised $6,750 on our crowdfunding, not only of our own pushing, but you know people from clubhouse so we get through here at the clubhouse next thing I know week later. Task and purpose military oriented website is asking to do an article on us. Military comm is asking to do article on us, which landed us on marine time or Military Times, which landed us on marine times. Army times they got shared to that got shared to New York Daily News. Veteran magazine picked it up now veteran magazine wants to do a full article on us. Popular airsoft tagged us on there. Okay, not a problem. Here we go. Then I started talking with people. I get with Mike from blazing star barbecue sauce. I'm trying to now I want to get into a co Packer. Mike from Blazing, blazing star barbecue sauce. We start talking. If you don't know who he is, look him up. Instagram tick tock, phenomenal dude. And I'm waiting for his barbecue sauce to get shipped here to me. So I can try it. But everything. Yeah, sounds really good. And he tells me you got to get a hold of whole brain consulting and explains to me what CPG is. I didn't know what CPG was. I had no clue this like I said I'm learning everything.

Keith McKeever 1:09:42

I have no idea what it is.

Frank Manteau 1:09:44

Consumable packaged goods. It's what I'm doing. So I get in there. I started talking to this guy. He started he gives I talked to him he gives me co packers instead of charging me normally he gives me a link gives me connection some coke. So now I'm talking to co packers. Three weeks into this thing and this whole start from the LLC and others three weeks in, it's like holy crap. And then all sudden, I need an idea. Got another idea pops in. We already have coloring sheets that you can download for free on our website of our mascot, Lance Corporal crunch. Mind you, Lance Cooper crunch is hand drawn originally by a phenomenal artist by the name of Ben Cantwell. Go check him out. If you go look on our Instagram page pages or anything, you'll see he's tagged in there. Phenomenal artist. So we created our mascot had to be a Marine crouched down Lance Corporal, everybody has been a lance corporal twice or three times and munching on crayons, right? There we go. So it was like now we need to create a coloring book. After I'm done here, I'm gonna be talking with somebody that is going to help publish a coloring book for crowns ready to eat. So we're gonna have a coloring book coming out. This is happening, like, holy crap, one thing after another, right. And all of a sudden, we're now getting an email that we're going to be on military COMM The biggest military website out there once you do an article on us. Nice. On top of that, I still don't know about the food industry about the CO packing industry or anything like that. I'm getting connected. With a 21 year Navy veteran chef to Camp David, and the White House and CEO of the presidential culinary Museum. To help get us a strategic plan for CO packing, distribution, everything. So to meet our goal of by July to be able to start shipping is went from this is now to this. Wow. A month timeframe from getting active highly in warrior in clubhouse to get into warrior Council, to now being to hear for our July goal to be able to be shipping is just phenomenal.

Keith McKeever 1:12:26

Just imagine what the next month could bring.

Frank Manteau 1:12:28

Exactly. If I had all the time in a row not being at work being here to be able to handle it. Yeah, this is what I've done while working a full time Now mind you, in the beginning of September. What helped or I'm beginning of February what helped make this happen. The big push is I can track the COVID I came down with COVID I tested positive. So I was home quarantine. And us in the military. We can't be doing anything. We gotta be doing something. We can't sit on our hands. So I immersed myself into getting connections and doing this and making things happen. So now I'm back to work, but I'm still making things happen. And it's it boils down to what we've learned in the military. Take action. You have a mission. You get it done. You get a completed

Keith McKeever 1:13:12

action. Yeah, exactly. Have a network around you. You have to build a network. Exactly want to be successful. You got to have a team around yet.

Frank Manteau 1:13:20

You have to you have to adapt and overcome. And one of the things in the military we have is I don't know how it is for you. But in the Marine Corps, we have battalions. We have platoons we have squads. We have fire teams. During stages three, have a fire team that has a leader that consists of three members, the rifleman, the scar gunner, and the assistant sock gunner. You have three fire teams that consists of a squad with one squad leader. You have three squads that consist of a team with one platoon leader, you have three platoons that consists of a battalion. See, see how there's interesting connections of three? Who's in front of you? Who's alongside of you? On the left and the right, who's behind you? Who are you learning from? Who was doing the same as you and that you're learning off of and helping each other with? Who were you mentoring and teaching up from behind? Right?

Keith McKeever 1:14:20

Yeah, that's almost same, almost same format that we had in the Air Force. Security forces. I don't know about the regular the rest of the Yeah, we were the infantry of the Air Force, if you'll call us that. No, no, no, no, yeah. But somebody has to defend the base in fact assets and people Military Police Yeah, hundreds of the base. But yeah, we kind of have the same format. Fire teams squads, yeah, flights, etc.

Frank Manteau 1:14:47

Exactly. So now we're, we're here. And it's like all this was happening. It's like, because we took action and networked and, and it sounds cliche, and I never thought this like I said I stopped For the military, it's not your net worth, it's your network. It's who you surround yourself with and who you are getting yourself connected with. Now, I've made mistakes, I've done people wrong. And I'm working on making those mistakes. Right? But you know? Hold on a second. Yeah.

Keith McKeever 1:15:29

You didn't have a good point about power of a network, you know, because you would nobody in your shoes would have been able to achieve or get anywhere without a network, even from the very beginning with your partner, knowing somebody who could turn just the idea of cran into something edible, and it can, right. It's just, you know, from the very beginning, you needed that team, that person that can help bring that, that vision to reality. So there's definitely a lot of power to that. And I know you got to you got to get running here pretty soon. But you know, for everybody, everybody paying attention, you just got to have that network, and you got to keep pushing forward. There's no other choice.

Frank Manteau 1:16:12

Yeah, exactly. You know, and it's a matter of pressing for and everything else.

Keith McKeever 1:16:32

I think we got a little long winded here, to make you a little, a little behind for your next appointment.

Frank Manteau 1:16:37

Just a little bit of messaging. But, you know, like I said, it's just a matter of jumping in there. Making it happen. And don't take no. And don't take the first thing that comes along. Listen, get your ideas, get everything happening, get situated. And let's kind of figure it out and get more than one person's opinion, get one more feedback, like the doctor, get a doctor available. And why rely on one result? Get a second, third opinion. in it. I mean, you go look at a car, you buy the first car that you find. Sometimes you do if you guys drop onto it, you know, but you want to test drive it, you want to see how it goes. And everything else.

Keith McKeever 1:17:27

You definitely got to do your research, you got to see what else is out there in the market. You know, is Yeah, deal? Is it place you want to buy from? You have to assess a lot of different things. So

Frank Manteau 1:17:35

yeah, exactly.

Keith McKeever 1:17:37

But that's, that's awesome. Frank, I appreciate you coming on here and kind of telling a story of your business because I think that's really relatable. There's a lot of people that may be on the entrepreneurship path that may be anywhere along that timeline. They can be in the beginning stages, the idea stages implementation. One piece of advice I definitely have for him is get off clubhouse. If you're not on there, you need to get back. Because these rooms are fairly small. Even in the veterans network. You know, sometimes it might be 2030 people in there. I mean, there's obviously much larger ones for regular people, but the veterans network is almost all veterans, military spouses, etc. But that's a great place to meet some people and have really good conversations. So before I get out of here, though, I do have three questions. First question for you, Frank. I asked all veterans this one piece of advice you'd have for somebody looking to get out of the military today.

Frank Manteau 1:18:32

Do not be a statistic of alienating yourself, from your community from your tribe. Okay. Soon as you read before you get out, figure out where you're going, where you're going to live. Find out what organizations for the veteran community is there, plug yourself in, get into that tribe of the veteran community as much as you can? Do not walk away from us. All right. Next, whatever your business is, whatever your industry is, whatever your job is, surround yourself with a second tribe, within that community within those people to help better you in that job and that experience.

Keith McKeever 1:19:15

Thank you. What about what about advice, and that was good, by the way. Because we want we want all of our brothers and sisters to be here tomorrow. What uh, what advice would you have for somebody who's young and looking to make a career in the military looking to go in any advice for them?

Frank Manteau 1:19:32

Don't take the first words your recruiter tells you

Keith McKeever 1:19:36

to heart. Okay, remember, they're gonna lie to you at some point in time?

Frank Manteau 1:19:39

Yeah. And figure out what you want to do. Most recruiters, and I will say most because I've talked to many people in this aspect. They have a quarter of the field they have to certain jobs they have to fill. Look and learn what jobs are available in the military because trust me, there are jobs that you don't even think exists. It exists in the military. I never had a clue that there was a journalist job that somebody had, you know, garage is taking photos and doing, you know, stories, stuff like that. You never, you know, you got supply clerks that are doing things, you've got people in the armor, you've got, of course, the infantry, you've got, you know, everybody's a janitor in the military, but you know, you have just so many jobs. And don't count yourself out. Because you're, you're maybe being an artist. I didn't go into the art industry. But take that art and go into the, you know, the field where there's the arts needed. Music, every unit, every every military branch has a band, you can go in and do your music into the band, and still do those things. So find out every job that there is available, and find one that fits to you and what you want to do, and be adamant about, this is what you want to do, don't let the recruiter tell you what they want you to do.

Keith McKeever 1:20:59

Yeah, or what they think you want to hear because they will lie to you. But the internet is so much more powerful these days than it was when I joined in oh six or when you joined. There's information now there's YouTube that's out there, you can find some information on some of these jobs. So use that to your advantage and kind of really educate yourself. So last thing I got for you here is give me an opportunity to give a shout out to any kind of veteran organization that you think is doing awesome things or you know, it's been hugely impactful for you. See, if you go the direction I think you go,

Frank Manteau 1:21:34

Well, I've already named I don't know how many of them already. So let's let's reiterate. Many of them so most going to do one, bunker labs veteran or residents. Alright, explain that until you learn about it. Apply. There's a limited number. If you don't get in, apply again. vetch equinor tribe on Facebook, the warrior Council, get into the warrior Council. If you're a male spouse, the Rosie network. Get in there, get into the Rosi network, get service. If you're a veteran owned business, you can get your business listed on the Rosi network. Okay, get on to veteran owned business, get your business listed everywhere. And add it's just one of those things, you got to be able to learn where your resources are and get plugged in. If you're on clubhouse, get into the veterans network club. Okay, so I'm not just doing one now is good, you know, and then

Keith McKeever 1:22:37

find people value and in resources,

Frank Manteau 1:22:41

and all them. Exactly. And one of the things that I want to say is, you know, on our website, right now, we are not shipping our crowns. Kind of give everybody a heads up. There is something in the works that either a we will be having, not your average traditional gift card gift cards. You can go to anywhere and get an E card right krans ready to eat is going to launch what is hopefully going to revolutionize business, e commerce, e cards, for your business and everything else. We are introducing e gift coins. You're going to be able to purchase gift coins, for yourself or for others to use to purchase our product. Whenever we offer anything on our website. Once you're ready to ship. We're hoping to roll that out on Monday.

Keith McKeever 1:23:39

Interesting.

Frank Manteau 1:23:40

All right. Yeah. And

Keith McKeever 1:23:42

you're full of surprises, Frank.

Frank Manteau 1:23:46

Hey, also,

we have an option on there. Eric ranks has a phenomenal nonprofit program called veterans Connect. If you go to our website and you purchase anything minus the the our apparel because our apparel was handled by a third party. You can also donate to his organization, veterans network, anything you purchase, you will see when you go to checkout, you'll see a donation button. And that goes to veterans network straight to Eric Eric ranks nonprofit organization.

Keith McKeever 1:24:15

So awesome. Well, I appreciate uh, Frank coming on here and kind of telling us again, telling your story, the struggles, the triumphs, all that stuff. I think that really will speak to a lot of military veteran people who are looking to be in the entrepreneur space, and realize that not everything is going to be not everything's gonna be easy and a smooth path. But you got to build that network around you and make it happen. So I appreciate that. And I'll drop you out of here before I play the final announcement. But once again, really appreciate it. And good luck, and I cannot wait to taste some edible Krantz,

Frank Manteau 1:24:50

you will soon and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to being on here and you've gotten a larger story than most people have. And you've got the you know the New Deal. tails of the dropping of the coins, the E gift coins. So, but I just want to thank you again and I look forward to seeing you again on on on the World Council here next week.

Keith McKeever 1:25:10

Absolutely. We'll see ya. All right. Thanks, Frank. Thanks. All right there you have folks, edible cranes coming sometime this summer. They sound absolutely delicious. Maybe it's because I'm getting hungry. But stay tuned for the final outcome of the show here. Alright, that's it for today's episode. Thanks, folks for tuning in. And take a listen to what we got what we had in store for you today. Appreciate you tuning in. Real quick before we leave, don't forget to go check out battle buddy podcast.net. That's our website trying to constantly provide as much content and valuable stuff there as possible for financial things to VA to just a few other resources that I that I can provide. So go there, check it out. If you have any ideas reach out to us for other things we can add to the to the website. And don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, you know, go follow us on all those platforms so we can help get the message out. As you know, the goal here this podcast is to help people, whether that's to you know, help people get a needle out of their arms to get themselves clean and back on to a productive path. Or, or take the gun out of somebody's mouth, you know, and help them deal with those demons and go on to live a better life. Or get somebody on a path to financial freedom or just bettering your life as a whole right the goal is to help our fellow vets and that's something we should all be striving for. So help me get the message out be my be my battle buddies and go do that for me. Last thing I've got here is is for those who might be at their at the end of their their rope. And it feel like there may not be another option other than to become a statistic today. And all I got to say to you is don't I want to be your battle buddy. You got tons of other battle buddies out there. You know we love and appreciate you. We don't not want to lose another brother sister today. So down at the bottom of the screen if you're watching I've got the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. That number is 1-800-273-8255 So make that phone call or contact a VA contact your pastor. I don't care whoever that person or entity needs to be for you. Make that phone call. So you can be here with us tomorrow.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai