God, Coffee, Entrepreneurship

Navy veteran Jose Alaniz is the founder of Third Day Coffee Sequin and the God, Country, Coffee Podcast. We will be discussing his relationship with God and how it has benefited his life. As the only mesquite-roasted coffee maker, Jose has a very unique business. We will discuss where his coffee comes from, how and why mesquite as well as the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur.

Guest Links:

www.thirddaycoffeeseguin.com

Transcript from Episode 13 with Jose Alaniz:

Keith McKeever 0:06

Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the battle buddy podcast. Got a great guest on today. He is a member of the entrepreneur tribe, a fellow war council member. And today we're going to talk about God, coffee and entrepreneurship and for his business and his efforts. All those are all combined in a nice little package. So without further ado, we go to the intro and I'm going to introduce my awesome guests for today.

Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever.

Jose, welcome to the podcast. It's a pleasure to have you on here. Talk about some stuff near and dear to your heart here. Go ahead and introduce yourself and what you got going on with your military story.

Jose Alaniz 0:47

All right, keep the first off. Thanks for having me on, man. I really appreciate it. I love telling you about my story. I graduated high school, Catholic high school I went to Catholic military school from kindergarten till I graduated high school. The last two years of high school where I wouldn't in the ROTC program, but I still got the credit to make a two out of boot camp. I joined the Navy in 1989. I did this delayed entry program. I was actually trying to go Air Force because my dad mall Corps Air Force they were both crypto Tech's dad that a lot of CI work counterintelligence work overseas. And my uncle was in Vietnam. He was actually I don't know much about what he did. All I know is that he was in Laos. And anybody who's ever done any research on Vietnam knows what Laos was all about. So

Keith McKeever 1:40

Montsegur mouth stuff he can't talk to talk about.

Jose Alaniz 1:45

He'll never ever ever talk to me about what went on. Anyway, I was gonna go Air Force, I wanted to be just like them. They're my heroes. My dad definitely was my hero till he died. And my uncle is still still my hero. And so that year in 1989, when I graduated high school, they had a the Air Force had a freeze on recruiting. And so I, the guy told me just come every Friday, and whenever this thing clears up, you know, we'll get you going. So I did the delayed entry thing. You know, where you swear it and then you swear in a second time. And waiting until every Friday, this one Friday, I went in at the time in San Antonio, all the branches, all four of them, right for them at the Coasties, but I have all four branches were in one building, all the recruiting, the main recruiting stations were all in one building. And so I would walk past you know, the army and the Marines and the Navy every day to get to the Air Force count Fridays. I'll check in once a week on Friday. And this one Friday, I went and the lights were out. There was a sign there were closed. And I turned around to walk out and there's this old crusty Navy. I sit in the doorway, inside the building smoking a cigarette. And you know, we off everything Air Force does. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, no. And I was out of a job. And I didn't have any money. I'd already ran out of money. Been I've been to school for one semester waiting for the Air Force to to get squared away. And I walked in there we started talking about like, tronics and stuff like that, that I wanted to do. And and then I had to go home and face my dad, my uncle and tell him that I joined the Navy.

Keith McKeever 3:30

Tell them that you're a traitor. Yeah, they were mad. It's so understandable. You know?

Jose Alaniz 3:37

Yeah. Well, and you know, they both had great careers in the Air Force. But dad was in for a short time. But you know, it's funny thing after dad died, I've got his service jacket. And dad kept pretty good records. And we were trying to fix we've heard all these crazy stories about my dad, and what he did. And so if you ever see that movie with Tom Hanks, Bridge of Spies, something like that bridge. It's about I guess, when they shut down the the YouTube and Russia.

Keith McKeever 4:14

Now I don't think I've seen it. Or surprising because I think I've seen every Tom Hanks movie out there that? Yeah. So

Jose Alaniz 4:21

well, they do this thing where the CIA comes into, to this barracks with these Air Force guys are and they're like, You, you and you come with me. And I like but we're an Air Force. Not anymore. Now you're working for us. And it was the CIA. And so we just joke around all the time that my dad did. My dad did do all kinds of weird stuff. I've got all kinds of crazy stories. But I when I got his records, and I was going through all this stuff. I realized it was a two year gap from what his service record says that he exited the military. And when he got home, IV I even have the train ticket that he took To the air to the port to get on a boat to come home. And I have all that information like what he left the country. But there's like a two year gap. And there's nothing on him zero.

Keith McKeever 5:12

I think he could explain maybe a couple of weeks, maybe a month, but two years is a little difficult to explain. Yeah, it's over two years. What do you what are you doing there? Yeah, maybe wasn't a secret squirrel stuff,

Jose Alaniz 5:25

maybe had to be doing some. I mean, for the government, I don't know what he was doing. Yeah, I grew up, not knowing that, that just like, fed my, you know, I guess the passion I have for my father's service, and my uncle service. And, but you know, growing up, that's all I wanted to do. I just want to be like, my dad, my uncle, I didn't care about, you know, how I was gonna do it, or what I was gonna do or what, you know, what's got to go through? And that's all that's all what I wanted to do. And so, you know, when I graduated high school, there was no, there was no, I didn't have, I didn't have a doubt in my mind what I was going to do. And so, you know, it's

Keith McKeever 6:07

interesting, that that plays out for some people, because some people have that, like fear set. My cousin was was in the Marines. And I think from like, age eight, like, I wouldn't be Marine, like, hands down, gonna be a Marine. He did security forces than infantry. And, you know, he did it growing up. I mean, I had those thoughts as a kid, but I never really thought it was a reality that I was ever going to serve. And it wasn't until like, I got my associates degree, I was like working a job at Kohl's and I'm like, I'm tired of working in the shoe department and unloading trucks. There's got to be something else. I had an Associate's in law enforcement, I was like, I don't wanna be, I don't really want to be a cop. You know, I need some experience. Like, it just seems scary to jump into the real adult world into something grown up. And so I'm like, Oh, well, you know, I'll just join the Air Force. You know what I mean? The army called me first and they almost had me a helicopter pilot tough on I had no depth perception. And so long story short, for me, it was Air Force it kind of out of boredom and do something else and grow up and go, go do something. So I think it's funny how everybody falls in one of those, like, either end up in the military by some weird chance, or they've just had, you know, their goal, like it's gonna happen, since their destiny, one way or another? Yeah.

Jose Alaniz 7:22

Yeah, I never had a doubt man, I knew exactly what I was gonna do. When I graduated. I didn't think I was gonna go in the Navy, I thought I was gonna go Air Force. But I really enjoyed my time. You know, I know you guys saw a few weeks ago, I was in Florida with two my brothers that I hadn't seen in 30 years. And, and that was, that was a pretty moving week, you know, to hang out with those guys. And, and it was like, we'd never been separated, it was like, we had never missed a single day. And that's, I know, something that civilians, they can't wrap their head around that they don't understand that, you know,

Keith McKeever 7:57

anybody in the civilian world works with somebody so closely for so many hours. In kind of boredom, sometimes, you know, you have no choice but to talk. And you just know, it's weird, because you know, each other deeply. But you really don't know each other. It's kind of weird, sometimes, like military, like you knew each other so well. But at the same time, you really don't know that much about that person. But no, me, I've been out for almost 10 years, and I have not had that experience where I've gone and hooked up with one of my battle buddies or served with, but I've talked to a few them on the phone. And it's even through phone conversation, you know, it's like, that love and I respect for each other and deep, caring, like, Hey, we're here for each other still, like, you know, it's kind of pick up that conversation. I can only imagine 30 years, you know, and meet up in person, that's gonna be crazy. I think everybody should do that. Yeah, as frequently as they can, you know, find a way to get together.

Jose Alaniz 8:56

And the one guy Scott, John, and I hadn't hadn't reconnected until probably I don't know how long ago it was. I want to say it's probably when somebody built a site for our ship, is probably when I reconnected with John, but Scott, I've never really lost contact with Scott. Ever since I got out of the service in 9519 95.

Keith McKeever 9:25

I clarify that

Jose Alaniz 9:26

I there, right. I just saw somebody. Yeah, I watched the green arrow. And I was looking at some of the characters and one of the actors in the show. They're born in 1992. And I'm like, Oh, my God, you know, I was I was floating the Caribbean in 1992. You know, but uh, yeah. Scott and I have always kept in touch. And, and so when 911 was going on, all that stuff was going on. I had people that I had trained people that I had worked with, you know, like Hey, putting out felonies what are we doing, man? You know what's going on? What are you going to do? I'm like, man get down in recruiting station, you know, they need people, they don't have to train. And I said, you just go, Where are you going to be? I said, don't worry about it. I'll be somewhere, Man, y'all catch y'all up. And, but I was 400 pounds when 911 hit. So I wouldn't go anywhere, but to the fridge in the kitchen four or five times a day, you know. And so I and that's a, that's a, a demon, I guess, for lack of better words, that's a demon that I have fought, you know, all my life since I got out of service. And Scott always, always kept me in the loop with what was going on. He always made me feel like, I was still part of that mission. You know, even when he trained up for this last one, I've got stuff on my phone that nobody will ever, ever, ever see, just because, you know, he was just keeping me like keeping me involved, you know. And, and so it was, it was a very moving, you know, experience for me, because I never, I never really thought about doing that. And, and we had, the reason that we had talked about doing a get together is that John's birthday is March 17 St. Patrick's Day, which was my dad's birthday. And so we always talked about, you know, doing something on St. Patrick's Day. And when Scott found out, he was getting deployed, we all decided that when he got back, we were all going to go to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day. And we were going to spend that over there in Ireland. And so of course, COVID came

Keith McKeever 11:44

to say, I knew COVID had to sneak his head in there somewhere, I changed the plan.

Jose Alaniz 11:49

Got back right before Thanksgiving. And I said, Well, let's I'm going to go, you know, when you get home, because we'll just wait a little bit, you know, and I'm like, Okay, and so he had to react with me, you know, he was having a little bit of trouble, you know, transitioning back to, to normal, everyday life. And so, you know, we he and I talked about it quite a bit, we planned it out. And, and I went and it was, you know, it was a great thing, because those bonds are not easy to find, you know, they're really not people say, these guys are closer than some of my family. You know, I don't know if you've experienced that yourself. But you know, yeah, it's pretty,

Keith McKeever 12:32

there's a I mean, there's a lot of people I look back on that, you know, a lot of fond memories serving with a lot of my would put in, definitely, you know, close friends. But there's a handful of people, for various reasons, whether I worked with them, or we were in the same locations experience, kind of same things. Like it just goes deeper. Like, it's kind of hard to explain. I know, probably anybody watching knows exactly what we're talking about. But it's just, it's just deeper, like, you know, you just do anything, to have each other's back. And, you know, one of the one of the guys, I just talked to him, you know, last fall after his wife, you know, tragically passed away from COVID. And, you know, picked up that conversation. And, you know, and when I were talking about all kinds of things, you know, and he, he even off call to check on him, he was pulling me in the right direction to go do this, go do that he'll take care of yourself, too, you know, and, hell, that's the, that's the whole battle buddy mentality, right? Like, How ironic is that call to check up on him see how he's doing after something. And he turns around, and gives me advice and sets me on the right path. So it's crazy. You know, that's, that's that love, for lack of a better term. I guess. It doesn't respect we have for each other.

Jose Alaniz 13:48

Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's, you know, there's so there's so few of us. If you've really looked at the numbers globally, the the amount of people that serve their country, whether it's United States or Britain, Australia, I don't really care about anybody else. But look at the number of people in those places in the population, you know, where everybody says just 3% but it's probably closer to one, you know, I think probably 1% is a little more accurate. And so that, that really, you know, makes a small, tight knit community.

Keith McKeever 14:28

And I think we have to as a coping mechanisms sometimes like nobody really understands us, but us you know, I mean, our Air Force your navy, we served in different periods, we saw different things, but like, there's so many commonalities between us the things we experience, you know, Navy boot camp is different than Air Force.

Jose Alaniz 14:51

Well, I mean, y'all have weekend

Keith McKeever 14:53

hospital about that, but I didn't go through one it was six and a half weeks, per suckers doing eight and a half right now. Hey, I feel sorry for them. I could go on for days about boot camp man, that was that was a cakewalk. I ended up as laundry Chief, I spent most of my days off the drill pad, doing laundry. It's like the hidden gem in my opinion, man, I did laundry all the time. I skipped out probably half the drill, I had to go to the classes never really skipped out PT but being off the drill pad and kind of you know, taking some weekends and stuff being down there kind of isolated. where nobody's really looking for you because you're just kind of doing your job. There was there was a master sergeant pop his head and every now and then he'd like to sneak up on us cantos, man so you wouldn't hear to click cookers on the bottom of his boots. He was a ninja swear but now it was easy for me like it didn't bother me but yeah

Jose Alaniz 15:49

weeks you know it wasn't bad. It was not so good I think was more intense because it was a two year Electronics makes basic like electrical and electronics and then advanced electronics course that that was two years condensed to six months and so that was that was the that was where the all the intensity and all the other witness screwing around I mean and you were on you're kind of on your own a little bit you were still in barracks but but you were pretty much you know after school you could do what you wanted you know there were guys that went and got drunk every night came in at you know two o'clock in the morning went back to school at you know 630 It's like oh, and

Keith McKeever 16:32

I know if you guys like that I may or may not have been one of them occasionally we do my tech school it's kind of like that too is like cuz I was right there at Lackland for for basic training and then my tech school right there for security forces and it's apart from me I mean it was hot I mean I was doing tech school we were out of Campbell was running up and down the mountains with no shade no shade or Hills I guess yeah, just with no shade I mean you know you're down and out area like all the cactuses in the big giant spiders man. I was not fan I mean I love Texas is God's country had moved down there but some of the creatures down there man just ain't normal. Face to face with this. This spider dude land navigation I turn around this corner and this sucker is like right here next to my face. Big old like yellow orange thing. And I'm not I'm not that person has a problem with spiders and I have a phobia but I was like over it. No, no, no, no backing up is my thing. Yeah, so I'm you know, I'm doing the the pace counter got behind you got the the compass and he's like, what's wrong? I'm like, backup the backup. I don't know if this thing jumps or not. Ridiculous.

Jose Alaniz 17:39

It's always a little bitty ones down here. You gotta worry about a little. And the brown recluse everything else.

Keith McKeever 17:48

I don't know it's pretty intimidating when the things like size your hand, right is it's like out there in your face. And I don't know if this thing jumps or not, man,

Jose Alaniz 17:54

banana spider. Yeah, they're huge. They, I mean, they get you know, as big as your face almost were their legs stick out and everything and you're like, oh, but you know, they keep the mosquito population down. And of course you were in Texas so you know how bad the mosquitoes get? I tell you what the I'm really surprised. It had to be the fact that we had that hard such a hard freeze this year. Enlightened February because we're usually not used to getting that kind of a freeze in February.

Keith McKeever 18:22

Understatement of the a hard freeze. A little bit more than a hard freeze.

Jose Alaniz 18:29

Yeah, we did. I mean, we had like a friggin Arctic freeze.

Keith McKeever 18:33

Yeah, Mother Nature was like, Screw you guys. I guess I'm special for you.

Jose Alaniz 18:36

It was bad man. And you know, people I talked to Paul the other day, he's from New York. And some other people are like, are you bunch of wimps and I'm like, Look, man, you got to understand first off, we're not used to that kind of crap. Y'all get that stuff every year. You know, you're used to shoveling five feet of snow out of your front, you know, walkway every day. We're not we rarely get it. And then the houses are built to a different code up north than they are down here. And so, you know, we're not like I don't even have you know, this won't make sense. Anybody with air conditioning guys, but, you know, most of your new air conditioning units. If they're electric, they have three strips. Okay, and so the three different stages. So the first stage, you know, if it's just cool, whatever kicks on wherever you have your set points, the second one, the third one. Well, most of the ones down here, they have one strip. You know, Now mine's got three because that's what I did for the longest time HVAC. So I went out and I hunted the unit that I wanted in my house. And it's got three strips in it. And let me tell you, during those rolling blackouts all three strips were on but other older houses they only got one when when the power to go come back on. Well that one strip is like blowing, you know 100% It's as high as it can possibly be. because it can't keep up. And so and that was also some things too, I've been reading a lot about the the company that, you know, everybody quit that place here got fired from that or caught energy. Texas is so big we have our own grid, right?

Keith McKeever 20:15

I know, that was the craziest thing to think of, after all that happened and reading about it. Yeah, Texas

Jose Alaniz 20:21

is big. We have our own grid, compared to, you know, there's like a whole grid for like, you know, all these states on the East Coast and the West Coast and Midwest, we have our own grid. And again, we're talking about how big Texas is. It so, but I've been reading a lot of stuff about that, you know, they they got all this money, they're supposed to do upgrades to the equipment and all that stuff that they didn't do. So they weren't prepared for but again, we're not, we're not set up for that down here. That's not on anybody's mind. Nobody ever thinks, oh, it's gonna get so cold here that people are actually going to run their heat, you know. And, you know, my wife rarely, rarely, rarely run the heat. I mean, the house, I think our setpoint is like 63 or something like that, you know, in the house where most people will set them at like 6568 and ours will let it go to 60 Sometimes, now this time they got down to like 48 in the

Keith McKeever 21:21

house. So yeah, that's chilly. Everywhere you can find

Jose Alaniz 21:28

you can see your breath inside the house is pretty bad.

Keith McKeever 21:31

Know where you're at. So but you don't have that many hoodies, right. No.

Jose Alaniz 21:35

Shorts and, and polos man, I

Keith McKeever 21:38

mean, in in my other room full of cold weather gear, man, I'm upset. I'm up in Illinois, so but I

Jose Alaniz 21:45

have my cold weather gear, some books from the military, some from one of my brothers, who's in Afghanistan. He gave me all his cold weather gear is his beat back. And so I've got the boots and the the insulated boots and the base layer and I've got the, you know, the sweaters and all that stuff. So I have all the gear but

Keith McKeever 22:08

I've got one piece that I've only worn like, three times I think when I was in, they send us up on it was an operational readiness exercise or something he sent us all the way up to Alpena, Michigan, you know, Roger saying damn near in Canada, you know, we're almost, almost I think it was a guard base Reserve Base up there. But it was so bitterly cold. It set us up there with the training time gear because it was an exercise, but they also sent us with like that big jacket, like with the fleece and the feathers in it and the fur on the on the thing. I never wore that muscle guy, because we are normally in the exercise where it can gear which is funny because you can take your cambier off now and we're like, Nah, we're good. It's an extra layer of warm. We'll just hang out in it for the rest of the day. But I still got that thing. I've had to break it out a couple of times up here, where it's just got really cold. I'm like, I'm going to look a little weird run around with this whole thing on but keeps me warm keeps me warm. I better get frostbite. So it's no surprise that Texas has their own grid because I think Texas has everything of their own. Their own barbecue their own. Your own culture. I mean, Texas pretty much has its own of everything. And it's home to the only whiskey coffee right?

Jose Alaniz 23:25

Yeah, man. I've Googled it many times. I have found other coffees that are hard wood roasted. But they're they're not roasted the way ours is. And I've not found a place that does ski but you know they could be out there. I don't know. I haven't found

Keith McKeever 23:45

them. Well, there's only one to try to find another one. That's fine, but there's only one to try. There's really only one that matters only one to try. I was I'll be honest, you know your with your coffee. I was like home askeet That's, you know that's interesting. I think everybody has that thought like Okay, I gotta try it. I'm a little nervous because I'm a coffee drinker but I'm a black coffee drinker which probably helps because I I don't know that a bunch of cream and sugar would taste all that good. But first time I tried it I was like how do I put this like a very surprise tastebud shock in some way. So I'm like, okay, that's coffee is smooth. It's got this different flavor and I'm immediately thinking like man, I need some bacon and eggs and some pancakes with this. Like this is not some people creamer or a bunch of sugar in your drink is black. It's smooth. You know pick pick pick your flavor, you know or your you know, your dark level that you like, you know whether you like light roast or dark roast or whatever, but it is one of those things like give me a big old plate of pancakes and bacon and eggs, and a nice hot cup of coffee. Have your coffee man just

Jose Alaniz 25:02

we are definitely do some different things. You know? Well, one of the things that I have because I didn't know much about coffee when, when I, I didn't know that I was ever going to do coffee. I knew that I wanted the same kind of coffee in 2014. My grandson was born in New Zealand. And so Connie and I went over there for a month. And one weekend, we went to Sydney because that's on my bucket list. And it was like 300 bucks for both of us round trip. I'm like, we're going to Sydney,

Keith McKeever 25:32

you're already there. You Mazal spend that money. Oh,

Jose Alaniz 25:36

Mike, we're going. And it's actually less than $300. That's $300 New Zealand. So it was actually like maybe, I don't know, 220 or something like that for both of us. And so anyway, we we went to Sydney for the weekend. And we were everybody takes a picture of that famous opera house right with the clamshell looking opera house with a with the right thermal water with the gate. But the big bridge behind it. The big suspension bridge.

Keith McKeever 26:03

I think that's the only thing in Sydney. I could recognize it a picture. Yeah. Does. Everybody takes that picture there?

Jose Alaniz 26:09

Yeah. And so we were we were the first day. I think Connie was going to try to rip my throat out. Because we got we rented a car. And four hours later, we finally got to the hotel that was like five miles away. It was horrible. Absolutely horrible driving there. People are absolutely out of their friggin minds. And they don't let you in. And it was it was miserable. And so we were going to go to a vineyard before we went to check in. And we never got out of the city. We never even got across the bay. And so we just were trying to get to the hotel, and we couldn't get there. And then we finally did and we had to park and everything's underground. Because there's no place there's so many people in Sydney. And so we went to an underground parking garage $75 for 30 minutes.

Keith McKeever 27:03

Holy.

Jose Alaniz 27:04

Wow. And then I went we went we checked into the hotel. And and they said, Oh no, we have a we have a parking lot, you know, and since it's after five, you know, you'll get that discount rate. The discount rate for one night was $150. Because they don't have any place to park, man. I mean, like at all. There's so many people people are like on top of each other. So they either Sydney either goes up or goes underground. And so anyway, we decided that that was not the way we're going to get around Sydney. And then we found out we looked online, there was a place where you could return the car at like five o'clock in the morning. And so we loaded our backpacks we took off before traffic even started. And we drove 16 blocks straight down the road that we were on to this place and it dropped the car off. And then we backpacked all day. And it was amazing. And so we had breakfast here and we walked around and you know people who love people don't know this, but Australia by the end of the traditional British Empire was the largest What do you call it? The largest. It's not called Commonwealth colony, but it's

Keith McKeever 28:25

like Commonwealth or or territory. It's all

Jose Alaniz 28:28

prison colony. By the time that they British Empire was starting to wind down they were the largest prison colony in in the British Empire. The largest one was actually the United States until we, you know, fought them killed him and kicked them out. But we were actually the largest ones so so anyway, they there's a place there Hyde Park where they would bring the prisoners and they've turned it into like a it's a museum that you can go into horrible, horrible. I mean, it historical part of is just disgusting. But they have this little restaurant out and so we were out there and there's cockatoos everywhere. The big green parrots, the big huge ones. They like they're just all over the place. They're like,

Keith McKeever 29:16

trolleys version of seagulls. Yeah, right. Yeah.

Jose Alaniz 29:20

They're like, I don't know. Good morning, dogs are everywhere. And so we're sitting there eating and then and then we wanted to go walk down there on the on the shore front and take a picture in front of them the deal, and we had been backpacking most of the morning by this point. And I want coffee, I want to get some coffee. I'm tired. You know we're gonna be another six hours before it gets dark. And so we're walking down the sidewalk and on the right hand side there's this little literally plywood shack. It was built with four by eight sheets of plywood. And it had like, you know it was a little bit it had two sheets it was like eight feet wide and four feet wide, deep or whatever. And that was it was just five or six sheets of plywood they'd built it with. And as a little guy in there selling coffee, and I'm like, Well, hey, man, it can't be any worse than we'd already been in New Zealand for a week, and my kids drank instant. And so I was disgusted with and I was like, Oh, wow. I mean, you're how, how is this the best coffee they have? We found out later that my kids didn't really venture away from the house at all. So anyway, we're, there's a shack and I'm like, well, the coffee can't be any worse than what I'm drinking it my kids house. And it was the most amazing coffee I've ever had in my life. And I was like, man, what do you do your coffee? This is like the best cup of coffee I've ever had. He's like, Oh, no, nothing, we just, you know, they they roast, there's like nine roasteries and in Sydney. And they all roast on Wednesday. And so you will get coffee on Thursday. And, and, you know, here you are Saturday, you know, it's a couple of days old. And I don't grind it until you order it. And so that was the first time that I'd ever really had fresh roasted, made to order coffee. And then we went back to New Zealand. And I said, Surely they have coffee here because there's no way that you know,

Keith McKeever 31:18

they don't have coffee, something better than instant, right?

Jose Alaniz 31:22

My wife and I went into town one day without the kid just walking around through downtown Hamilton, New Zealand. And sure enough, you know, we found a little coffee dive. And I was like, Oh my God, this, this is the ticket. So when we got home, I tried to, at first I was buying coffee, I would buy coffee, and my daughter would send it to me, or my wife would go over and she'd bring back for a couple of years. And then in 2017, we went to Italy in Greece, when I came back from that trip, same thing, awesome coffee, you could go to a little shoe box of a business. And the coffee was awesome. Because they they got it fresh roasted weekly, and they didn't grind it to you ordered it and this is whole culture. So when I came home, I was trying to find a way to replicate that coffee. You know, because I find it from Danielle. And having shipping, you know, shipping from New Zealand was like 60 bucks. It just wasn't worth it. And so I kept trying to find different ways to replicate it different ways. And and that, that process of trying to find coffee, make coffee the way I wanted it came about in a very bizarre manner. The lady at church said why don't you just roast your own? And I'm like, you know, where am I going to get? How am I gonna roast my own coffee?

Keith McKeever 32:43

Like, how do you do that? Like, especially if you don't know anything about it? Like I just want to get a cup of coffee. Yeah. How the heck do I roasted? Like, yeah, and I have not heard your story about how you, you know, kind of came up with with mosquito or where that came about. So I did hear about that.

Jose Alaniz 32:57

Yes. So this lady from church. She said, I've got a roaster, I'll bring it to you. And I'm like, what you can bring me something that I can roast coffee in. And so her name is Carrie Evans. And she had this little electric countertop I roast. And it was about four ounces at a time. And then she said like if you really like the strong coffees, you know, get online look up raw coffee. And you know, try to stick with the African blends and Ethiopian wand and stuff like that. And so I you know, Amazon, right, well, I don't know nothing about coffee. So Amazon, and Amazon's got some rock coffee. And so I did some of that. And then I found a place called Coffee Bean corral. They're all really, I don't use any I use coffee bean corral every once in a while now, because they're all just so overpriced. But I was making coffee. It was better than what I could get anywhere around. Especially at that sbw place that we don't mention their name, but that huge, you know, crazy. Chain National Training. I'm not talking about the veteran on one.

Keith McKeever 34:16

I know exactly what you're talking about. I am not a fan. It's too, too much for me. It's like a prize. It's just like not only to me.

Jose Alaniz 34:25

Yeah, not only is it expensive, but there are a lot of coffees over roasted. And that's something I had to learn to most coffees in the states that you buy from these big companies are over roasted. And so I'll get to that in a minute. But I started roasting with that thing. And it was first off it wasn't enough coffee. I wanted to make more coffee, right and so, but I wasn't going to do that until I came up with a coffee that I enjoyed. And so I found some really, you know, strong Ethiopian coffee that I liked. That was pretty okay. And, you know, South Texas I grew up grilling on the ski, we would go spend, you know, a week at the ranch with my grandfather. And we would go, you know, get mesquite from the book, you know, from the brush, and he cooked all weekend on it, you know. And so I grew up loving Mesquite, the way it smells the way the food's, you know, flavors, the food. And I was outside one day, I was grilling steaks, I have a little, you know, I don't know, it's a little two foot by two foot steak grill that I bought. And it's just an open flame, you build your fire, you put the grate on top of it, and you do your steaks, direct heat. And so I was sitting there making steaks and I go, man, I wonder what coffee would would taste like with mosquito on it, you know. And so I'm out there grilling steaks, and I'm on Amazon, and I bought this little four ounce stainless steel cage, and I bought a rotisserie that that it fit on about the little rotisserie motor. And so I hooked all this stuff up to this little steak grill. And a couple of you know, four or five days later, I was out there roasting coffee beans over muskie. And so it it was a lot of trial it took it took a lot of a lot of trial and

Keith McKeever 36:14

error. I'm sure you're pretty nervous before that. Taking that first cup, right? Yeah, this is either gonna be you know, okay or good or it's kind of tastes like crap.

Jose Alaniz 36:24

Yeah. I didn't know that with different grinds. I didn't know how to get the most out of the coffee. And so anyway,

Keith McKeever 36:34

learning process. Yeah. comments on Facebook from from another veteran coffee person. Carrie beavers on here, says SB is the enemy. And she was that was a hillbilly roaster.

Jose Alaniz 36:47

That is absolutely right out straight up hillbilly. And Frank's watch it to what's up, right. But yeah, so I didn't like any of the coffee. And even the coffee I was making, I still didn't like it. Something's not there. And so I just kept doing that until I got it to a point where I liked it. I didn't love it. But I liked it. It was better than what I was getting anywhere else. And so, about that time, I had already been with the NSA for like 10 years. I worked for a private company, but our customer was the NSA. And that's we went to work at the NSA facility every day. And you know, it was just just not a great place. You know, for me, I didn't want to be there anymore. I was done. So my wife and I started praying about a way for me to get out of there. And by this time, I'm roasting on that thing every day, almost because it's only those four ounces.

Keith McKeever 37:46

Yeah. Yep. Pretty repetitive over and over again.

Jose Alaniz 37:50

It sounds talking to? Uh Yes, Carrie. I was talking to a buddy of mine. He's a welder. And he said, Why don't you just make a bigger basket? And I'm like, Yeah, of

Keith McKeever 38:07

course, that makes sense.

Jose Alaniz 38:10

We'll place here that I've always bought my stainless and aluminum and off, you know, brass and things like that. All your non ferrous stuff. I went there, and I told him what I needed. And they handed it over. And I still don't I still to this day, don't weld stainless very well. So I'm thinking back to my buddy, who's got a TIG and all that. And we welded up this, this six pound basket. And that's when things really started getting interesting because I was in a group. I think the group I think carries in it also and some of our other friends but it's called Coffee, coffee, coffee. And I think there's almost 200,000 members in that group. It's huge. All over the world. And I posted on there, I'm having trouble roasting and does anybody roast over open flame and I got, you know, one guy was credible. He's like, Hey, man, I'll tell you, you know, first off, you need to, you know, be rotating and 60 You need to put propane burner because you're not going to get everything you want on a smoke, you can't control it and all that. And so, you know, I started doing all these things. And I've got this huge smoker pit that I built for a guy. It ended up being too big for him. And I bought it back from him. And so it's 36 inch casing, 36 inch diameter pipe, and it's an offset true Texas smoker pin, it's offset, two foot fire box, three foot cooking area, and it's three feet deep. And so again, I bought this special motor for it and I welded all this stuff to my it's my computer. It's okay, get all these stupid on and so I need to turn notifications off and see how I do that. Excuse me And so anyway I got some information, I bought this motor from a place in Minnesota, it was not cheap. It was probably I think I've spent about $700 to get this new rig run and I'm still not selling coffee at this point, right? I'm just spinning money. And and so I got everything set up. Again, a couple of failures, got the propane working right, built a fire in the fire box, drafted the smoke across the beans. And now I had something. And so that was

Keith McKeever 40:36

a fire. Right?

Jose Alaniz 40:37

Yeah. Literally cooking with with fire. And, and so that is what literally launched didn't launch the business right away because I still don't have a business. I didn't know what I was gonna do with it. But we used to have a men's group that we would get together weekly and or every other week and do a Bible study. And one of the guys or two of the guys would come to the house all the time. And so we were at the house when we came because I needed some help doing some woodworking because I am not a wood butcher. I do not do wood butchery. I'm a steel. Metal guy. Yeah, yeah. And so that my friend Robert, he does wood butchery. And he came over and he picks the the deals we're working on. And we're sitting there drinking coffee that I made. He's like, you know, this is a this is not just a coffee, but this is a ministry, and a business all wrapped up in one us as I said, How do you mean? He's like, Well, every time we get together, we talk about God, while we're drinking coffee. Okay, so there's a ministry opportunity there. If you have this coffee that that tastes like nothing I've ever had, and you get people drawn in for the coffee, then you get to have a ministry. And and then if you wanted to, you could make it a business where you sold coffee. And I was like, you know, hey, that's a crazy idea.

Keith McKeever 42:07

It's amazing how the entrepreneurship journey can like, just start in something. I was just thinking like, I had some questions for you like to kind of lead some conversation because you know, I know your podcast is pretty unscripted. I like to have some questions. You just totally like bypass all the questions you went right? Journey. So you're thinking like, that's like perfect, because entrepreneurship is something I wanted it to kind of pull out of this and your journey. And you just walk through the whole darn thing of like, the ups and the downs. And you just go for one little step to the next you fix that problem. It's on to the next one. And then every now and something smacks you in your head, and you're like, I don't know, why do you think about that? Like, you know, now now, you've got something?

Jose Alaniz 42:49

Yeah. Yeah. So so now we've got coffee. And people like it, I'm sharing it with my friends like giving it away all the time. It was it was the money pit man just like that movie, The Money Pit back from the 80s and could fill for money in you know, Arizona for money or something else breaks, you know. And so I was, yeah, I really was going great. We're praying for a way for me to get out of this situation that I'm at work. I'm not happy there anymore. And my company, the company, I worked for COPD, best company I've ever worked for. I tell everybody they're the goose that laid the golden egg. Incredible people incredible company. They cared about the employees, but it was our customer that just, you know, like any other huge bureaucratic agency government agency, it's not a great place to, you know, Tommy's always trying to be surprised

Keith McKeever 43:45

by that. You know, Shaka, just take it back right now. I can't believe it.

Jose Alaniz 43:53

So I was working night shift at the time. And I was, I was mad, I was doing things like fasting before I prayed, I was doing all kinds of stuff, I wanted God to show me a way to get out of this place. And I came home from work one morning, you know, after a long night shift. And I have a message on my messenger request, you know, and it looks like you get those scams all the time. But even fewer boys or it was actually an his son or might have been both his boys I don't know his son usual. And so I'm fixing to go to bed. I'm half out of it anyway. And I want to hit and you know, just accepted the request. And five minutes later, I get a message hello from Honduras. And I'm like, what? And so I'm gonna cut that really, I'm gonna condense that part of it because it's very important, but it's it's just just for time sake. Ashley owns a coffee farm in Honduras. And he's a Christian, and they went down there on ministry, when they bought their first piece of property that consequently had an old mill on it, which is how they got into the coffee business. And so he told me at some point over the we had conversations for a year, he helped me dial in my smoker, BBQ pit coffee roaster. And he didn't even know nothing about him. But he knew enough about coffee, and what the beans were supposed to do to help me figure out what I was doing on mine to stop burning coffee and stuff like that. And so anyway, at some point, he tells me, you know, if I believed in divine appointments, and I'm like, Dude, I've been praying for divine appointments for months. He goes, because I feel like I'm being led to help you get your business off the ground and get to a point where you're successful and whatever that takes, we're gonna help you. And I was just like, I was floored me. I mean, that's like, God thing had nothing to do with me. And you know, how was I gonna pick that guy? out of, you know, 200,000 people and say, Hey, come help me out with my coffee. But

Keith McKeever 45:56

weird things happen and whether you're not weird things could just happen sometimes that just don't have any explanation. This will Brian Gibson just said just like, you know, his organization was was blessed with their facility, FOB rush. Like, oh, yeah, weird things can hit you sometimes from out of nowhere. And you got to roll them in to take the bus. Yeah.

Jose Alaniz 46:18

obedient. That's my lesson that I had to learn. If I'll just be obedient to God's will. He'll bless my socks off. You know, and I don't have to understand how it's happening. You know, I do have to be smart enough to understand this is not of Me. This is not of the world. This is what God's doing in my life.

Keith McKeever 46:37

And when he smacked me upside the head with that opportunity run with it. Yes.

Jose Alaniz 46:42

Run with it. It's so shortly after I met Justin Charpentier. Carrie and I were both on the flagship mastermind group that he did. We're both founding members of his group. And, of course, he's a digital marketer, right? He does marketing. And so I think we had placed an order for our roaster in February of this last year. Excuse me, it's been almost a year now that Justin and I have that we have the class, I think it was last March, that we did Justin's class the very first time. And that's when I started learning. Because I've done three businesses before, okay, I did three welding businesses. The first time I opened my welding business, I didn't know anything about welding, and I know anything about business, failed miserably six months. The second time, I knew a little bit about well, the instead of nothing about business, I lasted a year, that time. The third time, I was almost a master welder. Still didn't, I knew a little bit about business, but not enough. And when 911 hit because I didn't know anything about business, I didn't have any way to protect myself. And so when 911 hit all these, I had contracts with like eight parent companies, apartment complex chains in San Antonio. So I had about 18, maybe 16 or 18 apartment complexes that I would maintain, I would do stairstep replacements, I would fix their Pool Enclosures. Because Texas passed a law about, you know how wide the gap can be. And so I had all this work going 911 hit, and they're like, Hey, listen, do you have umbrella insurance? Do you have auto liability? Do you have, you know, general liability? Do you have? You know, do you have all these things? These guys that are working do they have? It was all stuff from the Patriot Act, you know, and the only thing I had in place was my bank at the time was was a Patriot Act compliant, they were already there before they were required to be there. And so that's the one thing I had lined up. And I didn't know enough about business or anything. And so the the I found the program called Boots to Business to the VA, and I took that and that's pretty cool. You take live classes from Cornell? Well, they're recorded classes, but you take core classes, and Cornell business classes. And that kind of gets you along the way and then they, they when you graduate from that, or when you finish that you complete that portion. They turn you on to the local that call Vbox their veteran business centers. And I did that and but the nearest one was like, you know, three hours from here

Keith McKeever 49:41

for me to have, like, you know, a short drive in Texas.

Jose Alaniz 49:44

Right? It's just right around the corner around the corner. Yeah. And so I didn't want to, you know, I didn't want to mess with that. And so I started I enrolled at Wayland Baptist, because it fed right into where I was at You know, after dad died in 2016, I surrendered my life completely. God kept doing all these wonderful things in my life. And I got to go back to school to Wayland Baptist on using my chapter 31. I didn't even know I qualified for chapter 31 vocational rehab. And so I was taking business classes, and I was taking ministry classes. And that's what I was taking Justin's class. And in February, we took possession of our, of our machine. In March, I think this last March, march, or no May, maybe somewhere around there, but this time last year, we took possession of our, of our machine that we custom ordered from a place in Oklahoma. And COVID, hit right in shut the whole country down in February. And it literally created my business for me. But I still wasn't quite ready yet for the business port. But that's where Justin's class came in. And so, and then, and then I joined the warrior Council, and you know, all the stuff that comes out of those meetings. Oh, so much guidance. Yeah, networking. And I was able to I left, I left school. Because what Justin was teaching, I was getting two weeks later from school. So he was always way ahead of them. And, you know, like, if you if you caught my podcast this last week was Steve, you know, they're giving tangible assets in their book away, you know,

Keith McKeever 51:38

Oh, yeah. I didn't catch that. And I, as somebody who's in school, right now pursued a business management degree. I unleashed alpha, that's, it's actually on my website now as on my reading list. But there's the academic way. I mean, that's the way that colleges teach it. You know, here's what you need to know, definitions, academic way of things. And someone who's been in business like myself for for eight years, as a realtor, sometimes I sit through and I'm like, This is stupid. I negotiate for a living by by example, I'm taking a negotiation class. 25 people in the class, first day a couple months ago, who's got negotiation experience, everybody in the class says they have negotiation experience negotiating with their younger siblings, because they're all 18 to 22 years old. I'm like, Well, I've been a realtor for eight years, I negotiate for a living. And I'm just like, lost. I'm like, I knew what was going on. I mean, I negotiate. I mean, I mean, it's what I do, but now you're throwing these terms and his verbage out here and all this crap. And it's like, I thought I was gonna, you know, I'm doing okay, in class. Don't be wrong, but it's like, oh, this is just difficult to wrap your head around, because it's the academic version. Yeah, it's not practical, how you actually do your roll up your sleeves and do it.

Jose Alaniz 52:52

Yeah. And so I left school, because I realized, shortly after joining the warrior council that, you know, school is great, but the tangible stuff that I need, because I'm already operating, you know, because people were at home now, all of a sudden, right? They were forced to be at home. And guess what, all those coffee fanatics like myself, were buying coffee online. And so it literally blew my business up overnight. But I was still trailing as far as what to do on the business side. And so, again, you know, I pray for people, man, and God puts him in front of me, as long as I keep doing, you know, and I know everybody's ever heard my podcast, the first thing I do, when I start my podcast is I thank God for everything that he's done in my life and my business. And, and he just keeps doing it. You know, I mean, we're, we're, and this is not boasting, or anything like that. But we, we were, we told Ashley's been telling us for six months that we were going to go to Honduras in May. And I was like, Ashley, I'm going to, I'm leaving my job in February. Another thing I've done, I left my job. I said, we're not going to have money for that. I said, but I will tell you this, if God makes away we'll go because God makes ways all the time. And so there was some money that left over from my job that I was not expecting, that I received and I'm like, oh, and then one of our dogs needed surgery. And they quoted us it was almost like I was like, Okay, well, there's all that money, it's gone. And so we went took it. I took the dog in the other day for the surgery, and he came out and they charged us like 150 bucks. And it was supposed to be like an $800 surgery. And I was like, so right here. We have seven dogs. And we have we had three horses. And so dogs been out to our house. You know, he makes house calls. We he jokes around all the time that we're responsible for the new wing that they're going to put in. We have animals that we take with us Sometimes we get sometimes he does. And sometimes he just charges for what he has to. And I'm sure they give us a break on it, even though I don't think they'll ever admit to it. But all of a sudden, I was like, Hey, we have the money, because it's not that it's not horribly expensive to get down on the earth. And I was like, Hey, we can go. And even Connie started my life even started saying, Well, if God makes away for it, we're going to go to Honduras in May. And so it started out with Ashley telling me that we were going to go and meet telling him, hey, we'll see, we'll see to my wife saying, Oh, we're going to Honduras in May. And then God made a way for it. And so and then I just came home today, too, and I was a tax guy. You know, I, I thought we were going to be upside down big time. But you know, God just has a way of making everything work out.

Keith McKeever 55:56

And stuff happens.

Jose Alaniz 55:58

He does, you know, and, and, you know, we we ties every bag of coffee that we sell. You know, I've had people that are friends of mine, that are business owners that Well, you can't, you can't start giving money to the church, you know, because you're just getting started. And I'm like, the Bible says to give of your first not your whatever you got left. And so we that's just how we carry ourselves, we, you know, we put God first. And before the business we, before the financials, before the mechanics of it before the, you know, the coffee beans, God comes first. We're going to glorify His name and everything we do, we're going to give him what's his first, not from whatever's left. And I can tell you that I've never had a month where I got scared and said, Sweetheart, I don't know how we're gonna make it this month. Because God, and sometimes I don't even sometimes I'll get 40 orders in a week, I never get 40 orders in a week. Just boom, all of a sudden, I'm like, I keep praying for you. So you know that it's hard to deny what he's doing. And And really, what I'm doing, being obedient is I'm sharing the gospel, that's what we're supposed to do. I'm sharing God's message, I'm sharing his word, and his message of love. And the vehicle that I'm using to get back and forth happens to be something that I absolutely love, which is coffee.

Keith McKeever 57:32

He's done in a very creative way to like when you're packaging, because when I bought some you got sample packs. I bought, I think what four, four sets of sample packs or something like that. It's my initial thought was a I want to try it will be how can I not support this mission? First of all, it's a small business. Second of all, it's a veteran owned small business. It supports a family in Honduras. And, you know, you're you're spreading a message with it. Like, how can you enjoy whiskey coffee, you know, that's icing on the cake, right? Like, you got to try this. And so I mean, I got, like four sets your sample Pac Man, and I was just handing them out left and right. Yeah, here's something my mom, here's some of my sister, here's my step brother and his wife, you know, and I'm like, Man, everybody would try this. Like, you got to try it. Thank you know, yeah, this this, this is a this is a friend of mine down in Texas. Stuff like, you know, give this give this try. Throw this in your coffeemaker, some of this stuff starts with an F or, yeah, that stuff.

Jose Alaniz 58:32

It's just been amazing man, you know. And then the other day, you know, Steven land, they went down to Peru, and they did their yearly download. And they came up with have right humble alpha, veteran empowerment, and

Keith McKeever 58:45

you walk right into things, man, I was gonna, I was gonna bring that up and try and surprise you, man, because I thought that was powerful. When they came up with that. I'm like, Man, humble Alpha veteran empowerment. You showed the book earlier. People need to get that book. It is incredible. I got it on Audible. And I just sat, you know, like two nights, something like that two and a half nights, just sat and listened to a little bit picked up the next night. And you're done. And it's something that you have to go through like two or three times, you got to go once and then kind of go back through it. But their whole idea works at the end of the section. Exactly. I suppose. I think you have to go through a once. Yeah, and let it soak in a little bit. And then you have to kind of go back and digest it in chunks, you know, work on it. But they came back with that have, you know, humble off of veteran empowerment? Yeah. And our friend Joe came up with something that I think is amazing. And I can't wait to see what the second one and third one of the fourth one are. But I'll go ahead and tell what what Joe came up

Jose Alaniz 59:44

with. So Oh, tomorrow actually, I've got a guy from Temple come in. He's coming on Friday because he can't come on Saturday. And I've got JD Tierney from South Paul. The hat that I'm wearing to pray hat

Keith McKeever 59:57

shameless plug for another business, right? Yeah.

Jose Alaniz 1:00:02

And so Brian Gibson I will contact you brother JD is coming up here Joe's coming down tomorrow. Kennedy page, we just redid my logo. He's, he's all veteran entrepreneurs.

Keith McKeever 1:00:18

Now he's a good guy. He did one for me for my real estate stuff. Yeah, she was, too. But you know, it's mission 309 Roman talking to people in my local area about the nonprofits and admissions that they're going on to do things in the local community. Yeah, smash up jobs. Amazing.

Jose Alaniz 1:00:34

He called Joe deemed it. And we asked, you know, we talked to Steven Lane before we just do it all out there, what he called it have mission 1.0. And the mission was to come down here to get a bunch of guys from the you know, from the council from the tribe to come down here. And help me finish my my shop because I've been struggling with John to do by myself. And, and so we've got people coming from Dallas, Temple, Houston, corpus, San Antonio, someplace else I forget, were all going to come down here on Saturday. And we're going to wipe this thing out one day. And and then we're going to fellowship and network and see how we can help one another's businesses. And I know that this is just a first off the cuff thing. And, you know, Steve is, has given Joe and myself a pat on the back about it. And that's awesome. I know, it's gonna be more structured. As this thing evolves, as they get, you know, Stephen Lang, get more involved in it. I'm sure that the missions will be a little more pointed, you know, but what a great concept. Get a bunch of veterans together. Because we're always helping people. People don't know that we're veterans, but we're always helping people. Most of us have that. That servitude, you know, that service mindset where we want to serve our community.

Keith McKeever 1:02:06

And a lot of us, I think it's a behind the scenes kind of thing. We don't run a whole lot of press about exactly what we're doing. We just want to help we got it, we got to serve and serve our fellow brothers and sisters, you know?

Jose Alaniz 1:02:17

Yeah, but but now. And and I'm not saying that we don't need help. We do. I don't know. I mean, I don't have a problem asking for help. Some people do, but this is veterans helping veterans. I mean, I got a group of veterans coming to my house from all over the state. You know, to help me with something that's very personal, my business,

Keith McKeever 1:02:42

extremely tangible way. It's not like advice, or saying, hey, try this. Try this system, or try this or try that, like, you guys are getting your hands. You're building walls on electricity, insulation, stuff like that.

Jose Alaniz 1:02:55

Yes. It's so hot. I just did it still, like, I just don't? You know, it's hard for me to fathom it sometimes, you know, and Joe and I had been in contact almost daily. And we're talking about it daily. And it's just like, Wow, man, I just can't believe this is this is actually going to happen, you know? And so to better

Keith McKeever 1:03:20

be some pictures. Yeah, there's gonna be pictures or didn't happen, right. He's bringing

Jose Alaniz 1:03:24

his whole road caster with him. And so we're probably going to do some lives throughout the day, while we're working. And of course, hopefully, towards the end of the day, when we're probably, hopefully be close to being done. But yeah, it's gonna be, it's incredible. I mean, I just don't know. You know, it's really hard to, to, to do something when you're not like, I have a grandfather who was in business. He was a genius. He was completely illiterate. He couldn't read a word, read or write a word of English or Spanish. He came here illegally. He got his paperwork. And he was so excited about being a citizen, and paying taxes, those were things he was very proud of. And it's not like today where you have all this mentality where they just come and don't pay, and they don't want to assimilate to our culture, and they want to get here. So I have issue with that, but because my grandfather came here, and he realized what was important, and he did what he had to do to become a citizen, but he the gap between him and me, you know, was so big, that I really didn't really didn't get to draw any experience from him business experience. And so I don't know where it came from. And, you know, if you listen to what Steve talks about, you know, he was kind of a weakling kid when it came to sports. And he was always in trouble. And he was terrible.

Keith McKeever 1:05:05

I resonated with some of that mostly, yeah, horrible sports part.

Jose Alaniz 1:05:10

But you know, you have to, you have to set your intention, right. And once you set your intention, then you, you know that you follow it up with imperfect action. And so leaving my job was kind of crazy. But it had to be done when it was done. You know, because this business is going to be successful. You know, and so yeah, it's just, it's overwhelming, to be quite honest with you, it's actually overwhelming. But I'm excited

Keith McKeever 1:05:41

just to, to know what was going on. Know that the guys are just rallying around you and helping you out. Because I've told you before we started recording, I'm like, if I was any closer, I'd be down there. But you know, talking like 18 hour trip to make it down there. That's, that's not in the cards, especially with, you know, appointments, but it's like, I am excited about 2.0 3.0 4.0, whatever those look like, you know, when there's something in my neck of the woods, you you know, whoever it's benefiting up betcha. I'm going to try and be there.

Jose Alaniz 1:06:12

Do you don't want to do it, man, I want to see those things all over the country. You know, and I'm looking forward to seeing Layne, you know, in person and Steve in person at some of these things as they grow. And so, you know, because they are really, they're like business mentors for us. And so, you know, yeah, and I had a conversation with Justin today. He's like, Man, I, he just got back from vacation. And, and he's like, Man, I wish, you know, the circumstances were different, because I'd probably jump on a plane and get down there too. But, you know, he's a personal mentor that I you know, really before before I had the counsel, I was with Justin and his group, and he's still a huge resource, I can call Justin anytime I want. You know, and so and he's a like minded individual, you know, Christ first. And so he just, uh, you know, it's just been blessing after blessing after blessing, it just goes to show you that if you'll just submit to God's will, and be obedient to Him, there is absolutely nothing that he won't do in your life. Because all of the things that have done that have lined up on the business side, with the exception of some good decisions that I've made financially, I could not have done, I don't have those kinds of resources, I don't have those kinds of contact lists. I don't have that kind of, you know, I've never had that kind of entrepreneurial background or tutelage, I never had somebody, Hey, you know, Do this, do that. So all those things have just completely been God. And the beautiful thing is that the vehicle to get on his mission to do His work, is something that I am absolutely passionate about. And that's great coffee. In fact, it's the best coffee this site I have.

Keith McKeever 1:08:08

That's a bonus, that's key, like, it's kind of the key to happiness, the key to finding your path in this life man is find something that makes you happy that you have a passion to do every single day and you can just get up and do it. You know, and it's you know, sometimes, you know, that can take different forms. You know, I've got two passions myself, one of them is real estate, I love it. Been doing it for eight years, my mother's my business. Somewhere over 40 years combined experience I grew up around it, I love it. I love helping people in the property, personal property and buying and protecting their assets and building wealth. I also love giving back to veterans want, you know, podcast, you know, we're both kind of doing that same thing, like finding a way to give back and add value and help people protect and like it's incredibly powerful to be able to wake up every day and do that, like wake up and get excited. You know, like, today's gonna be good day, you know, another episode, or, you know, I did that today like, man, it's gonna be awesome. I appreciate interviewer earlier today, man, it was awesome. I'm so excited. See, there's two things on my calendar. I'm like, excited to talk to this person. And I'm excited to talk to Jose again. And hear more of that story how the coffee came out and entrepreneur journey because we're still in

Jose Alaniz 1:09:23

it. Yeah, we are man. It's still evolving daily.

Keith McKeever 1:09:27

as well. It evolves weekly, right. You know, you got the warrior council meetings for those people that don't know that. That might be watching or may Washington future listen. on Facebook. There is a group called the bench printer tribe. There's what we think is in there, Jose 15 16,000 people somewhere in there. It's over 15,000 I know it's over 15 I don't know if it's cracked 16 or not, but like it's still

under there. But yes, somewhere in there.

Change and Lane blown and Steven Kuhn run that. They took that over, I think about a year or so ago, and they created the warrior Council, which had more of a mastermind actually type group. And that's, you know, we all pay to be in that group. There's, I think, almost 100 in there. And we meet every Thursday morning, we talk about our business and what our challenges are, what do we need? What are we looking for? It's, it's hard to say what goes on the Facebook group, just in the Facebook group, the questions, people reaching out for the free value that we're adding to each other. I was helping, you know, I mean, I, I had a couple of points that I messaged somebody on there the other day, that I don't know anything about their business, I'm not even remotely close to the same kind of business. But a program that I was aware of, I felt like might be a fit for them. It might be adaptable for them. And, and that's the beauty that I get out of it. I think everybody else does is like, you never know what message or which one of the group that's gonna come from. It's gonna give you that spark or that inspiration or that idea that makes your business better. I know we both benefited as podcasters from Travis Johnson and his guest. It's incredible. Yeah. I can't give enough shout outs to Travis.

Jose Alaniz 1:11:01

Yeah, I know. He really does. And then now he's got the veteran podcast network that has us all listed on there. I think you've already jumped on that. Yep. I mean, yeah. So I think he said he's got 15 people on an array,

Keith McKeever 1:11:16

it grew pretty fast. We actually did that. In the warrior Council. He pulled it up and started building the framework for Tammy Moses and her hoarding solutions, podcast in mind, because we happen to be in that chat. So kind of built that in our little squad meeting after that main meeting on Thursday. And he built that out. And since then, he's got like, said about 1516 or so. There are podcasts in there, which is incredible.

Jose Alaniz 1:11:38

Yeah, I'm gonna go through there are clicking on all of them.

Keith McKeever 1:11:42

Yeah, absolutely. But you've got a podcast and obviously, everybody should know that now. God country coffee podcast, and go ahead and say a little bit about what what you're trying to do with yours. Yeah, so that you guys know that

Jose Alaniz 1:11:57

the God country coffee podcast, every Friday night, 1900, Central Standard Time. And I, we talk about anything God called country or coffee. And so far, I've only had one civilian, and that's my coffee supplier.

Keith McKeever 1:12:14

It's good first person out there?

Jose Alaniz 1:12:16

Well, yeah, I mean, it's not by because I'm trying to, I mean, I've put this out everywhere. But everybody who signs up for it has been military, and they've got these great, incredible stories. And I And when I do my pre interview, I don't ask you about your faith, I just, you know, hey, listen, this is what I do. This is what I personally do before I start, I don't script it. We'll start out with how you got in the military, how you, you know, what had you where you were born, where you were raised, how you got to the military, and then what you did after that, then we're going to focus on your business that's plugged your business. You know, that's what it's all about. And I can't tell you how many episodes since I started, have had somebody who didn't discuss it, right, because I don't I don't discuss that beforehand, who've had this great work in their life that God did. And so the podcast, it's twofold. One, I'm always going to share awesome stories about what God's doing right now. Because we serve a true living God, right, our guy's not dead. And so I always want to push that. The other thing is that I want to support our community. Obviously, I'm a little slanted, because I want to support the veteran community first. But you know, I mean, there's people who they feed the homeless, there's people who, you know, they close the homeless, there's people who find jobs for people. And my niche is, you know, I want to help veterans, especially those who are in crisis, you know, and the way to do it is you have conversations about it. And so that's what we do on the podcast. And I generally keep it at give praise and glory to God. Tell me about you. Tell me about your business? And how can we help you how can we support your business? And so I try to stick to those guidelines are broad, those are very broad, but you know, we try to stick to that as best as I can. And and, you know, you know, you've been on the show, I ask people for their websites and other social media stuff so that I can post it while we're talking. And, and, you know, I do the same thing you do I put it a couple of days ahead of time on the tribe and in my on my Facebook page and on my personal page and and I go I

Keith McKeever 1:14:44

learned from each other no, yeah. iron sharpens iron, right. With each other. Got a lot of same guests to you know, which is amazing because they're slightly different angles. Yeah. You know, and it's, it's interesting to, to see that same message right?

Jose Alaniz 1:15:00

Yeah, yeah, I love it. And, you know, like I said, I don't I don't bring up. I don't intentionally, in an interview bring up, hey, tell me about your relationship with God. Because you know, my, my relationship with God is between me and him. My story, what God's done in my life is something that I should be sharing with other people, which is what I'm doing. And and that's the reason why I don't. And I'll ask somebody ahead of time, is there anything that you don't want me to talk about? You know? And is there anything you do? And I had one lady tell me, I don't really want to talk about my faith, because I'm very uncomfortable with it. I mean, I'm comfortable with my relationship, and I'm uncomfortable talking about it. She ended up getting on the show, and talking about how God did this incredible work. You know, in her life, when, when she was when they the baby had stopped, heartbeat stopped in her inner while the baby was inner and they thought it was dead. And you know, she heard somebody's voice. And then the lady said, there's not been a man in here. Ma'am. This is just us, the two nurses and the doctor, she's a lady. And so, you know, it got a way of getting somebody needed to hear her story that night. And she felt compelled to tell it and she did. I didn't prompt her. I didn't push her to say it. In fact, I told her, you're more than welcome. If you don't want me to talk about it, I won't. I won't even bring it up.

Keith McKeever 1:16:33

Yeah, some some conversations are tough. Like, you know, do you go there? Does this go? Does this go off the rails? Wow, you know, does this get too emotional? Does it get too raw? Or is it you know, is it the right calling is the right time? Because somebody out there is going to hear one of these days? Yeah. And it's going to help them in their situation?

Jose Alaniz 1:16:54

You know, as well as I do, being in the driver's seat, it's a lot different when you're on the other side, you know, like I am today? It is,

Keith McKeever 1:17:01

it definitely is.

Jose Alaniz 1:17:02

I got called on to the TVO campfire, which is a TV show that that airs on streamed services like Apple TV, and Google TV and all that. And I'm not gonna lie, man, there's like three points in that. during that interview, where the questions that That lady was asking me and the guy was asking me, I got emotional. I mean, I, I had to like, stop and get water, and it was bad. But yeah, you know, you just never know.

Keith McKeever 1:17:33

And that makes the best program. You know, it is when you hit that when you hit that point, somebody can talk about something that's super relatable, where it just gets really, really deep. And it can help somebody.

Jose Alaniz 1:17:48

Yeah, everybody's got a story. Right? And, and if God's done something in your life, it's your duty to tell people about what he's done. I mean, that's part of what are, you know, the Bible says that when you surrender your life to Christ, you're commissioned to share the gospel. And how do you do that? Well, I'm going to tell you what God's done in my life, I'm not going to preach to you and tell you, Hey, listen, you should stop doing this. I'm not going to do that. But I will tell you, Hey, let me tell you what he's done for me because I was headed the wrong way, I don't end up in a barded somewhere in a cardboard box. So

Keith McKeever 1:18:27

we share the opportunity or the vision to kind of notice that things were kind of falling in line for you, you know. And I think that's a valuable lesson. Because I, I want on my podcast here for there to be some sort of a lesson with every guest that comes on. And I guess that's really the deep lesson. It just kind of hit me. I knew there's a lot of objections during go God, coffee, entrepreneurship, and then the whole journey, but really, if somebody's struggling out there, whatever it is, it could be substance abuse, or PTSD or financial or just like not really know what's going on, you know, like looking for that next thing or some just general guidance, whatever it is, you know, keep keep an eye out for those opportunities. Because you never know when that opportunity is going to slap in the back of the head and say, Hey, dummy, wake up. Open your eyes. There's an opportunity here. Maybe as God if you if you believe it, maybe it's just chance, who knows? But be open to those opportunities. Keep open your eyes, don't don't walk through the world, you know, joke about, you know, young millennials now with their cell phones walking down looking, you know, head up, eyes open, Ford focused, have that right mentality and be looking for that opportunity? Because it'll be there. It'll present itself one way or another. Yeah. Whether it's a divine intervention or not, or who knows whatever you believe. It's going to be there eventually.

Jose Alaniz 1:19:57

I'm also a firm believer that God doesn't expect for us to sit around You know, on a barstool or on a bump on log or whatever waiting for him to do something, you know, I need to get this tree cut down. So I'm gonna pray about it, I'm just gonna sit here and wait till God strikes it with lightning. That's not what God wants us to do, you know, we're supposed to get up off our tails and do and move. I strongly believe that that's what we're supposed to do. And you just keep moving until you hit a brick wall. And then when you hit that wall, to me, for me personally, that's God saying, You need to go a little bit more to the left, or you need to go to the right. If you don't believe in that, that's fine. But that brick wall tells you what, well I got to change directions,

Keith McKeever 1:20:37

you're gonna hit that brick wall one way or another, whether you believe or not,

Jose Alaniz 1:20:41

you believe or not, you're gonna hit that wall. So in order to avoid that wall, you either have to go this way, or you got to go that way. And so whether you're a believer like I am, or you're not, you know, sitting around waiting for something to happen, is, is not going to get you anywhere, you're gonna stay right where you're at. You know, and so, you absolutely I love that word, imperfect action, you have to take imperfect action. And sometimes the first part of that is just moving, get moving in the direction. So if you ever do something in the veteran community, you're never alone. There's always a brother or a sister right around the corner, that will lend an ear that will lend a hand that will give you a word of advice. You know, or sometimes just listen to you, you know, just hear what you have to say. And so if you're out there listening, and and you think that there's no, you know, alternative there is there's always a brother or sister. And even if it's not the ones that are in your circle, maybe your buddies are tired of you, they don't want to hear you. But there's somebody else who will listen to you. And so you're absolutely never alone.

Keith McKeever 1:21:50

Yep, that that there definitely is. And you need to realize when you hit that brick wall, you you may be looking forward and hit that brick wall, whether it's business life, whatever. You hit that wall. So you, you probably saw the wall come and you should have seen the wall come in, but you hit but what you don't see because you're you know, maybe looking forward to looking side to side as you have your brothers and sisters behind your back. And maybe you just need to turn around say, hey, hey, bro, Hey, Sis, what do you think I should do here? Can you can you give me a hand? You know, should I go left? Should I go? Right? Should I go over it? Dig a hole go under it? What do I do here? You know, give me the piece of advice I'd get around this obstacle on to the next one. And because you know what, maybe they're with you, maybe they get ahead of you. And they turn around with some day say, hey, look, I need some help. What do you think shall go left, right over under? You never know. Everything works in mysterious ways. But that was uh, that was that was awesome, Jose, but I do have three final questions for you. Okay, I hope I hope you're prepared for these. Because I asked everybody the same three questions. Now, I should say all my guests so far, but vets I do have a couple of civilians coming up. I don't know what to do for them yet be honest. But all of that I have three questions. First one, what advice do you have for somebody who who's looking to transition out of the military today?

Jose Alaniz 1:23:11

First thing I would do is if joined the veteran or tribe, join the warrior Council. Get plugged in to be around people that are already doing what you want to do. Because that's how you're going to learn. You know, if you want to sell cars, don't hang around real estate agents, because they're not going to tell you how to sell cars. You know, and vice versa. If you want to sell houses you want to be real estate. hang around with you. Don't hang around with car sales.

Keith McKeever 1:23:42

Don't hang around with car dealers. No. Yeah.

Jose Alaniz 1:23:46

You know, you you know as far as that goes, definitely. And don't wait till you get out. Don't wait till Hey, I'm gonna wait till I'm done with this. Before I start, don't Man, look, look way out ahead. Look at the big picture. And prepare yourself you know, five Ps man we all ever branch the server's learns the five Ps. Right? They say six, but we'll just say five for children watching. Perfect planning or proper planning prevents poor performance? Yep.

Keith McKeever 1:24:15

Absolutely. So what advice would you have for somebody? And second question here. Somebody's looking to join the military today. What advice would you have for them?

Jose Alaniz 1:24:24

Man, I would join and stay in for 20 Honestly, doesn't matter what branch you join the work ethic that you will develop the camaraderie that you will develop the friendships that you'll forge will be there for the rest of your life. I went from making 1175 an hour to a job where I made almost $36 an hour because of my military experience, not because I had something special cific to what I was doing there. Because I was in the military, and the guys that were hiring before full birds, and they're like, well, they have an understanding of what your work ethic is. And you know, and if they've made those six, they can weed out the, you know, the, there to,

Keith McKeever 1:25:22

I can smell the bullshit by then. Smaller thecommon

Jose Alaniz 1:25:27

Yeah, so that would definitely be my advice for that.

Keith McKeever 1:25:31

Alright, and the final question here, What organization or organizations and see if you throw a curveball here or not? Would you like to give a shout out to that you think are doing amazing things for the veteran community?

Jose Alaniz 1:25:44

Oh, my veteran network. Dot club is the website VP. He's got the largest veterans group on clubhouse, which right now is only on iPhone, but it's going to be my Android soon. They're doing such relevant work, man and all the spaces. I would say, Doc Jocelynn. Podcast bullets, the beans. He hits a lot of hard veteran issues from somebody who's suffering severely with PTSD. You know, Brian's project 22 was a pride project IRR. Yep. What an amazing mission that he has. I mean, he's literally taking people off the street, man.

Keith McKeever 1:26:47

I mean, it's groundbreaking in so many ways.

Jose Alaniz 1:26:50

It's just, I just never thought anybody. But you know, he, he's a, he's a believer, and he's doing amazing work for his brothers

Keith McKeever 1:26:59

and sisters. I could go on and on, but I by what he's doing. Well, I literally recorded an episode with him a few weeks ago. So you know, anybody listening? You need to go back and listen to that one and hear what he's got going on for our brothers and sisters.

Jose Alaniz 1:27:15

You know, I would say anything, any the, there's so many. It's that's a hard question. It's probably the hardest question of the whole thing. Because, you know, you want to list all these people that, you know, that are just doing amazing work in the veteran space. And it's hard to nail them all. But, you know, I think dogs conversation weekly, with with veterans in crisis, people who have survived crisis, you know, Brian's outfit they need, they need help, they need financial help, they need supporters, they need, you know, stuff to make that mission. That's an important, really important mission. You know, and then anything in the veterans network, you know, if you go on their site, and you buy a pair of socks, DP gives a pair of socks to a homeless veteran. If you buy a hoodie, he gives a hoodie to a homeless veteran. If you buy, you know, whatever you do, he donates that to, you know, and then he's bringing all these people on his show that are impacting the veteran community, in a way like no, like, none, like no other time in our history. In no other time in our history, are people doing what people are doing what Brian's doing what DPS doing, you know, what some of us are doing with our podcast? Nobody in history in the history of veterans, I don't think has ever been so highly motivated to help our veteran community out

Keith McKeever 1:28:42

screaming from the mountaintops. Right?

Jose Alaniz 1:28:45

I don't think you have to look very far man to find incredible missions to support.

Keith McKeever 1:28:51

Yeah, there's a there's no shortage, that's for sure. And that's why I have those three questions, because I think I am always surprised what the answer is what what direction somebody goes with it. Haven't heard anybody say any kind of piece of advice yet. Don't expect to either. But it's always interesting because it's a little bit of an insight into your you know, to your to your opinion, like, how you feel about what is important. You know, what's important to you when you get out what's what you think is important when somebody joins in. And I do get a lot a lot of dp in veterans network as a new one. I have not had anybody call that. Call that one out there and that answer yet but it is awesome. And if you're on clubhouse, or you're on Android, you're gonna get on clubhouse you need to check it out. There's a lot of conversations there. He does them there. He doesn't want YouTube.

Jose Alaniz 1:29:40

Yeah, he every Friday night, after my show after my blog. He starts at eight o'clock Central. They have called they call it FNL Friday Night Live. And he always has incredible guests that are doing incredible work in the veteran space.

Keith McKeever 1:29:56

And his I think is what, eight eight Central or something. Yeah, eight central yours. Yours is seven, right? Yeah. And then you're talking about Project art. And I know Brian still listening but he doesn't update at five every Friday on what's going on on his thing. So seriously, listen. Drop your regular Friday night plans. Yeah, every single Friday night. And this might be a little weird for a podcast host to be to be saying this about other people. But the mission, the message, everything is important. My Friday nights get a little crazy. Sometimes I can tune in sometimes I can't. But I am almost to this point now where I've got that same routine. Five o'clock. Brian's on, try and catch it if I can. If not, you go back and watch it to hear update, but he's got going on. And then I'm trying to catch yours. And I'm trying to listen to DEP afterwards. And sometimes I might even stay up super late and see what's going on and clubhouse after. Yeah, just have those conversations. And it's, it's amazing. You know, it replaces a little bit of Netflix time or some Hulu time. But the content is more near and dear to my heart and hear what people got going on. And it's inspiring. So, absolutely. So cancel your the Friday night plans. And yeah, I'll hop on Facebook and check those out one after another. You've got time in here for dinner? Because Brian, this is a five so when he's done, he got a little bit of time to get some dinner. Yeah. Somebody with a drink or whatever. What are your pick your poison for the night and sit back and relax? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So once again, Jose, thanks for coming on here. For those who are watching. Third day coffee seguin.com is where you get the coffee with this will be posted in the description to on YouTube. But thank you so much. I unfortunately will not be in the World Council tomorrow. I've got a scheduling conflict, but I will be there next week. I know it's rare. I'm almost always there. I get that much value out of it. But yeah. Say hi to everybody for me tomorrow. I appreciate you being on dropping the back room here and kind of play my my final little lessons here. Alright, man, we'll wrap it up. Once again. Thanks. Appreciate Jose, for having me. Really appreciate

it.

And that is it folks. Thanks for tuning into the episode today. We really appreciate you taking a listen or watch. Please remember, we have a website www battle buddy. podcast.net. We're always trying to add more resources there. So please go check it out. And if you have ideas for extra resources, please reach out to us and let us know what you think we can add to the website. Don't forget, you can listen to this podcast places such as Spotify, Apple Music, Google podcast, anchor and many more. And don't forget, hit the like and subscribe button on any of our social media channels. And finally, if you're feeling like you're at the end of your rope, and you need some extra help, please reach out to a battle buddy. Or you can call the National Suicide Hotline at 800-273-8255 No matter what you do brothers and sisters get the help you need. Because we want you here

tomorrow

Transcribed by https://otter.ai