Barry Davis shares his experience growing up in Yellowstone National Park, his path from the Bluegrass, and his myriad entrepreneurial ventures: including a chain of fried chicken restaurants in Colorado and the world’s most high-end bowling alley.
Check out some more of Barry’s stories here
Below is the Transcript from the podcast, and here’s a link to listen: Uncommonwealth of Kentucky podcast with Barry Davis
Jason Heflin:
Hey, guys. Thanks for joining us today. Today, Chad and I will be talking with Barry Davis. He’s an old buddy of mine. He’s done a lot of really cool things over the years. Some of them, he probably won’t want to talk about but, hopefully, several of them he will. He’s done everything from run bowling alleys, probably wrestling alligators, all the way up to starting restaurant concepts, and even worked in the marijuana industry a little bit. He’s bounced around. He lives in Vail, Colorado. I think his title is assistant mayor of Vail. He’s here with us today to talk about Kentucky, and growing businesses, and whatever else he wants to talk about. What’s up, Barry?
Barry Davis:
Hey, guys. How are you? Thanks for having me.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah, man. Super excited about this. Barry and I go way back, so we’ll just put that out there. He and I were in a fraternity together in college and had a lot of fun there before moving on. Barry, you’re roughly my age, right? Maybe like a year younger?
Barry Davis:
I graduated high school in ’94. Did you as well?
Jason Heflin:
’93, so yeah.
Barry Davis:
I went to college in Maryland for a year before getting the heck out of there and coming to Kentucky.
Jason Heflin:
What was Maryland like?
Barry Davis:
Well, Maryland was, you know when your parents tell you to study hard? Because if you don’t, you’re not going to have a lot of options. I found out that that was a fact. I barely got out of high school, and pretty much my only choice was going to community college in Maryland. It really drove home for me that it was time to get it together. I was maybe the most excited and motivated anyone’s ever been to come to Western and study hard because I did not want to go live on the farm. I did not want to go back to community college.
Barry Davis:
I was like homework Rocky when I got to Western. I was running up the stairs with my book bag. I did not want to go back to community college, man. Hopefully, let that be a lesson, that they mean it. I took some serious left turns in high school, and I had to really claw my way to get back. I don’t think anybody’s ever fought harder to get into Western than I did.
Jason Heflin:
Maybe this will be an episode of Scared Straight.
Barry Davis:
It could be, it could be.
Chad Webb:
Why Maryland though?
Barry Davis:
My parents were in the Park Service. I’m sure some stories are going to come up today that I grew up all over the country. It’s because my parents were in the Park Service. We lived mostly in national parks throughout my childhood. For high school, my dad and mother both worked in Washington, D.C., and so we lived in Maryland, and that’s where I went to school for my high school years, and Montgomery College.
Jason Heflin:
Hmm. Montgomery College.
Chad Webb:
That makes sense. I thought you were just like, “Where’s the closest community college to Kentucky in Maryland?”
Barry Davis:
I was born in Kentucky. I guess, since this is a Kentucky podcast, should I jump in and validate myself as a Kentuckian?
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. What’s your tie? Otherwise, we’ll just have to kick you off.
Barry Davis:
Kentucky has always been the center of the Davis universe. My family, on my father’s side, is from the Mammoth Cave area. I’m the seventh generation born within like a 35 mile radius right around the Cave. Our family settled in there a long time ago. My dad realized that being on the farm and the existence that his family had carved out wasn’t for him. He did not want to, to borrow his words, spend the rest of his life looking a mule in the ass. He figured out that working in hospitality at Mammoth Cave National Park could be a ticket out, and he really excelled. He worked and he went from being a busboy to running large operations for the concessionaire, to being recruited by the Parks Service.
Barry Davis:
The Parks Service took my dad, and to work in that same business, but be the person that works on the contracts between the Parks Service and the concessionaires. That career took us all over the country. I spent most of my childhood in Yellowstone National Park, but Kentucky was always considered back home. Most summers had a two-week trip back to grandma’s house, where we’d go stay and live on the farm. Then for college, my older sister went to Western. She’s been the most influential person in my life, so it was no choice that I wanted to go there.
Barry Davis:
My parents wouldn’t let me go to a school anywhere near a ski mountain, and so Western … After visiting a bunch of school, I just thought Western was the coolest. We had family history there. My older sister went there, my mom went there, and my grandmother went there. The woman that raised my grandmother went there, back when it was Western Teacher College. Now my sister, Susan, works there. We have a ton of Western Kentucky roots, and I loved going to school there. Now that my parents are back, they live back in the Cave area, and my sisters are in the area, it is definitely very back home.
Jason Heflin:
You said that your dad didn’t want to look a mule in the ass for the rest of his life, so he upgraded to bison out at Yellowstone. Tell us a little bit about that experience.
Barry Davis:
Growing up in Yellowstone, it was a charmed life. There were also some challenges. It was a tiny community, like tiny. There were three kids in my class for most of my growing up. One kid in the class below me, and one kid in the class above me. We have eight months of winter. We had three television channels, and if the President was on, your night was ruined. We also got to, we learned how to ski in school, and we had Yellowstone as our backyard. I’m really tight with the kids I went to elementary school with, a handful of them anyway. It was an amazing place to grow up.
Jason Heflin:
What was the closest city to you? Would it be Billings?
Barry Davis:
City, well, Bozeman would be the biggest town of any size, with an airport maybe. The Bozeman Airport is still a fly speck, but we had a little … Gardiner, Montana, is right outside Yellowstone’s border, and from there we would drive to Livingston to get groceries. The weekends, when we got to go to the big city of Bozeman, Montana. Go to the mall, get an Orange Julius, play some video games. That was a big weekend.
Jason Heflin:
No Sbarro’s?
Barry Davis:
No Sbarro’s. We weren’t that advanced.
Jason Heflin:
Oh. You could always sit in the Chico Hot Springs.
Barry Davis:
Chico Hot Springs is the real deal. That’s where I learned to swim. If you’ve never been to Chico, you should go. It’s worth an adventure. One of the greatest things about going to school in Yellowstone, we had a little elementary school in the park. It was this unbelievable experience. On Friday afternoons, when it was snowy, we could go ski, and so we’d have a little rope tow in the park that we all got to ski on, and when there was no snow, we went swimming at Chico.
Jason Heflin:
That’s fun.
Barry Davis:
Yeah.
Jason Heflin:
You grew up in Gardiner, Yellowstone. You now live in Vail, Colorado.
Barry Davis:
Right.
Jason Heflin:
You’re bouncing around. You’re just staying on vacation, from what I’m understanding.
Barry Davis:
You’re understanding correctly. I haven’t understood why anyone wants to do it the other way.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. Well, what’s it like? What’s it like living in Vail? I’ve visited you out there plenty of times, but what do you like about it? What do you not like about it?
Barry Davis:
Well, the likes definitely outweigh the dislikes, because I wouldn’t have fought tooth and nail to stay here otherwise. It’s getting harder and harder to stay in mountain communities, as a working person. I live across the street from Vail Mountain. I can pick my son up from school and we can go take some snowboard laps for an afterschool special. I love that I can ride my bike out my back door and be on my favorite trail. I love my community. This whole town is made up people that were the weird kid from high school that moved to Colorado. You’ve got people that are a little, are daring, and interesting, and smart, and risk-takers. We have some really great dinner conversations in this town. I love it.
Barry Davis:
I love the access to Vail. Vail is, as far as mountain towns go, I think, it’s kind of the porridge that Goldie Locks ate, that we have this interstate that can get me to an airport really quickly, and we have, our skiing terrain is always pretty good. We’re not one of those mountains that gets shut down with no snow. The mountain biking is great a lot of the months of the year. It’s just, if you want to life an outdoor, active lifestyle, this is a really great place to make it happen, and have a family, and have a pretty well-rounded existence.
Barry Davis:
The things I don’t like about it is that I don’t know that it’s … For example, my son, today, was complaining about what chairlift he wanted to ride. My son’s out of school on Wednesdays. We went snowboarding this morning, and he’s complaining about what chairlift he wants to ride. I’m thinking, “Don’t you realize that 99.9% of the population would have their mind blown just to get to ride the chairlift?” I’m like, “You are definitely taking this magic flying couch that takes you up the mountain for granted.” When I see things like that, I’m like, “Man, how are we going to show this kid that the big, beautiful world is a very different place than where you grew up?”
Chad Webb:
I think, one of the points you made there is interesting in terms of, what do you think, at this point, for Vail, how achievable is it for someone to just roll over there and someone to pick up, from say Kentucky, and start a life there in terms of job prospects? Because I do know the real estate market has gotten pretty insane there.
Barry Davis:
Yeah. Real estate in all mountain towns is bananas right now. Because everybody can work from home. Everybody wants to work somewhere beautiful, so we’re seeing a lot of people move here that are working remotely, that can afford to take housing that has traditionally been for people that live and work in this town. That market’s already been challenged because there’s a lot of people that just want to be here. It’s making it harder and harder to live and work here, so we’re seeing families go down valley.
Barry Davis:
If you wanted to be here, I still tell the people this all the time, like, “You can figure it out.” If you want to move to somewhere in the mountains, or especially Vail, there are ways to figure it out. If you have a trust fund, it makes it a lot easier to figure it out, I’ve found. Unfortunately, I didn’t come with one of those.
Jason Heflin:
Barry, one of the things that I look for in a town is fried chicken. If I were to come to Vail and I want to try some fried chicken, where would I do that?
Barry Davis:
Well, you have several options, but there’s one that I recommend most. I think you’re teasing me about how my illustrious career, where after running a bowling alley, I left that to fried chicken.
Jason Heflin:
It’s called a segue, Barry. We’re making-
Barry Davis:
It’s a segue, okay. Well, on paper, it’s a hard segue, but yeah. About, jeez, when was that, eight years ago? Almost nine years ago, somebody’s, and I and my wife, we had an idea to start a fried chicken concept. We’d figured out a way to cook delicious chicken and healthy sides, and make it definitely a more Colorado approach to fried chicken. We went all in on starting this restaurant chain. We built it up to five stores. If you come to Vail and you want to eat fried chicken, I’m going to take you to get the best fried chicken sandwich you’ve ever had at Yellowbelly.
Jason Heflin:
It’s pretty dang good.
Barry Davis:
It’s really good. I had one of those sandwiches yesterday and even though I’m not involved with Yellowbelly anymore, it is still a sandwich worth writing home about.
Jason Heflin:
Well, if you want to … I think, I like how you adapted. I think this is a good representation of what this podcast is about. People who have some tie to Kentucky, and they go and they do things here or elsewhere. You took something that was a staple from your home place, and you took it into a market, and you paired it up with things like quinoa and kale, and started selling it. You adapted it for the audience. I think that’s something that, any entrepreneur or anyone starting a business, you can’t just replicate or clone someone else’s idea. You have to give it its own spin and reinvent it, and that’s what you guys did.
Barry Davis:
Well, you got to solve a problem. We were trying to solve a problem of, where did my wife and I want to eat? Where can I get things that are somewhat indulgent, yet pretty healthy? We started playing with these recipes and flavors, and we realized there was a real need in our community for fast, affordable, healthy food. We figured out this hack on fried chicken. I’ve been a fried chicken freak since I was a kid. I was really eating a lot of Chinese food at the time. Driving to Denver to eat, every Chinese food place I could.
Barry Davis:
We started playing with these Chinese flowers and different techniques. We discovered Yellowbelly’s recipe as kind of an accident. When my chef partner and I landed on the flavor we liked the best, we also had the light bulb of like, “Hey, this is gluten-free. We should probably tell people about that.” We opened Yellowbelly, and it’s not for everyone. Not everyone gets it. Some people put their nose on the glass, and it’s not for them, but the people that get it, well, they really loved it. It let us carve out a really cool business that was a pretty fun ride for several years.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah, yeah. You moved into fried chicken from bowling, correct?
Barry Davis:
Right. Well, so even back further. I’d owned this dive bar in a building that was set to come down. I got really fortunate that I built a relationship with the developer who was going to tear the building down. They were building a huge, 14,000 square foot space that was going to be a live music venue. I was a nightlife guy, so it became very clear that I was going to get the keys to this. They were tearing down one music venue that was very popular in the community, and they were going to go bigger and better with the new music venue, and I was going to be the guy to run it.
Barry Davis:
During construction, the engineering on the building changed, and the ceiling height got dropped by half. There was this brainstorming session where like, “What are we going to do now with a 14,000 square foot space that’s shaped like the Millennium Falcon and has 10-foot ceilings? There’s not really room for a discotheque in Vail.” One of the designers had the idea to make a bowling alley, and everyone on my team, even the people that I had contacted for live music were like, “We’re in. Let’s build the coolest bowling alley in the world.” That was our mission, and we did it.
Barry Davis:
We paired it with bowling, with an upscale nightlife vibe that fit Vail, and served a need there. We solved a bunch of problems with a great date night spot in Vail, and we paired it with some really unexpected food. I brought in the chef partner, Eric. The same guy that I ate way too much Chinese food with when we were figuring out Yellowbelly. We built this wonderful business, and I lived it for years.
Jason Heflin:
I was in there a few times. I remember one of the times I was in there, you had screens at the end of the alleys, right, when you were looking down the bowling alley?
Barry Davis:
Right.
Jason Heflin:
You would either … I don’t know. The night I was in there, it was like big cats in Africa chasing down prey and taking them down, while you’re bowling, and wearing these kind of like, I don’t know, like designer bowling shoes, and having drinks. It felt like what you were going for, it really felt like you were somebody. You were a who’s who.
Barry Davis:
When you were there, yeah. The whole place was a trip. It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to be in, it was a lot of fun to run. The clientele that we would get in there was just insane. We had a lot of really fun nights. I worked in hospitality my whole life, and I love the idea of, “Can I help someone leave happier than when they came in?” When you’re in Vail, it’s really easy to do. People are usually here on vacation, they’re having a great time. Then they come in a place like that that has a futuristic design, and great food, and you’re having drinks, and bowling. It’s really easy to have a good time.
Barry Davis:
I loved it, man. I loved serving people in there. I’m a hospitality guy, and I’m a food guy. I’m a guy that wants to do different things, and so I started daydreaming about fried chicken. It went from being a back of my mind idea to something that was keeping me up at night, and I knew we had to do it.
Jason Heflin:
Well, I can say, Barry, though that Chad and I probably daydream about fried chicken a lot, but we didn’t go all in like that. What was the-
Barry Davis:
Yeah, and look how smart you are. Save your friendship and your money, and just go eat the best fried chicken in town.
Jason Heflin:
My question is, what got you … What was the point or the moment where the light bulb went off, you had the epiphany and you said, “Man, this is a great idea. We’re doing this”? Was it one night? Or was it just over time a series … Because I think, for anyone starting a business, that’s a big challenge, is when to know when it’s real. Is it a gut feeling, or is it a spreadsheet that popped out a number that looked good? For you, what was it?
Barry Davis:
Yeah, it definitely wasn’t a spreadsheet because so much of that was napkin math and, “If we do this, and if we do this.” It really came about, I had this idea and then there was a space. When the space became available in West Vail, which is just a couple miles west of the Village, kind of a locals’ area, the right space become available and it was just talking to me. You see the space, and you see your business inside it. It consumed me.
Barry Davis:
It was all I could think about. You’re laying in bed at night fired up. You want to do this. You know your idea is right. Our buddy, Shawn, you’ve had on the podcast says, “It’s either a hell, yeah, or a no.” I knew that it was a hell, yeah. I knew it was what I wanted to do. I knew that when I would talk to the right people, and I could see that they would get fired up about it, I knew it was time to do it.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. Have you been involved … You named one of them, one of them was Bol, B-O-L?
Barry Davis:
Right. That was the bowling alley we started. Right.
Jason Heflin:
Yup. You got, what was your … Remind, me what was the dive bar?
Barry Davis:
Yeah. Before Bol was Art’s Bar.
Jason Heflin:
Art’s Bar. Who was Art?
Barry Davis:
Art, yeah. That’s funny. Let me go back, if you want to hear the story about owning bars in Vail.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. We’re just doing this interview kind of backwards. We’ll just, now we’ll go back.
Barry Davis:
Yeah. I’m going to go the other way. I’m going to go all the way back to I told you my mom wouldn’t let me go to college anywhere near a ski mountain because she knew I wouldn’t go to class. The deal was, go to school and then go be a ski bum for a year. “One year, mom. I promise.” After graduating, I actually moved to Costa Rica for like six months. My girlfriend, at the time, got us jobs as travel writers, which really didn’t mean anything, but we just went and traveled Costa Rica for a while. It was fantastic. We come back from Costa Rica, her and I split, and I’m just standing around in Bowling Green like, “What the heck am I going to do?”
Barry Davis:
I ran into one of my favorite advisors from the business school, Dr. Meyers, and he’s like, “Look, we’re starting this exchange program. Why don’t you go to Mexico for the summer, come to Western for the fall semester, and then go over to Vail for the spring semester? You can do that and get your MBA.” I was like, “This is the greatest idea I’ve ever heard,” so I did that. I went to Mexico for a summer, and Western for a fall, and then I came out here. I did that for a couple of years in a row.
Barry Davis:
I was working at this bar called the Platz’l a few days a week. Platz’l means like hang out in Austrian slang. I’m bartending there and the bar is being run miserably. It’s being run by two ski patrollers, a ski instructor, and a dentist money partner in Denver. Nobody knows how to run a bar. One of the partners comes to me one night and says, “This is a disaster. I want out. You should buy my shares. “I’m like, “Okay,” so I took the cash advance on five credit cards in the same day, when you could still get away with that, and I bought a bar, and dropped out of grad school.
Barry Davis:
I ran the Platz’l. That was like one of the greatest periods of education in my life. Give a 23-year-old kid in a ski town the keys to an après bar, and I knew I could not screw up. These credit cards were serious about getting their money back, and if I made a mistake, I was going to be living in my parents’ basement for life. I built some good work habits there, and we were in the Platz’l like a top for about a year, and we sold it. I mean, hindsight being 20/20, I should have never sold that thing, but we did. Sold the bar, and I was bartending back at the pizza place, and-
Jason Heflin:
Let me stop you. Let me stop you real quick. You sold the bar. You were rich now, right?
Barry Davis:
I thought I was. I had no idea what to do with it. In hindsight, it wasn’t a lot of money, but at the time, you give a 23-year-old kid a check like that, I didn’t know what to do. I just pretended it didn’t happen. I put it all in the bank and I went back to work at the pizza place, trying to figure out my next move. One day, we’re in the pizza place, and the developer I mentioned before had bought the building across the street. There was a basement space in it that had been a ton of things. 100 years ago, it had been a KFC. It’d been a brewery. It had been … Currently, it was a failing martini bar that owed the landlord a ton of money.
Barry Davis:
My buddy comes running over one day and he’s like, “Hey, the developer’s going to have a meeting to take pitch ideas on that space, but he’s not really offering a lease because they don’t know when they’re going to tear the building down. Do you want in?” I was like, “I’m in. Get me a meeting.” I go to the meeting and I didn’t realize, this guy is so busy, he didn’t even give me my own meeting. I’m in there with two other men, grown, adult men. I’m intimidated. These guys are in their 50s, I’m 24, and I’m dressed like a clown because I thought I was king of the bros at the time.
Barry Davis:
We’re sitting in the meeting and he just goes down the line. The first guy’s like, “I’m going to run with the martini bar concept.” The second guy’s like, “Yeah, I’m going to do an après-ski bar with live music.” He gets to me, and I was like, “I’m not going to do any of that. The martini concept failed. Nobody’s walking past all these other après bars to come into a basement. I’m going to serve cheap drinks. I know all the locals in town.” Then I said the ringer. I was like, “I’ll pay you cash. I’ll pay you a percentage of sales, cash, every week.” The developer’s like, “These guys are smart. You got the gig,” so I opened Art’s Bar.
Barry Davis:
It had been called Bogart’s Bar and Bistro. Honestly, we did not have a name for the bar, so we didn’t know what we were going to call it. The Bar Across From Pazzo’s, Barry’s Bar. There was a really famous music venue upstairs called 8150. I was like, “Maybe we should just call it 8130,” so we didn’t know what to do. The night before we opened, I went outside with a can of green spray paint and changed the sign from Bogart’s Bar and Bistro to Art’s Bar. Art’s Bar, what was supposed to be one season, turned into three years, and it was awesome, man. It was like throwing a party in my parents’ basement every night.
Barry Davis:
Again, luckily, I had learned some really good habits at the Platz’l, and I was able to host the party without being a part of the party, which gets a lot of people, but it didn’t get me. That was a really wonderful time in my life. I met my wife there. She was a bartender there, and some of my best relationships. Running that business was a heck of an education.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah, I bet, I bet. We’re going backwards, but I want to jump forward a little. Art’s Bar, let’s get the progression right.
Barry Davis:
Okay.
Jason Heflin:
Okay. Let me see if I’ve got this. You got … Well, let me go back. Was it Platz’l?
Barry Davis:
Yep.
Jason Heflin:
Platz’l, serving pizza, Art’s Bar, then Bol, Vail, then fried chicken, Yellowbelly.
Barry Davis:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jason Heflin:
Then what? We’ve got the … You know what? Instead of a resume, you just send them this podcast.
Barry Davis:
Yeah, exactly. What it shows is that I’m not scared to jump into something, I have no idea what I’m doing, and figure it out.
Jason Heflin:
I think Chad wants to know about that credit card thing.
Barry Davis:
Yeah. I don’t recommend … If you could get away with it these days, I’d say don’t do it. It was very risky. I was risk-averse at the time … Not risk-averse. Yeah, so there came a time when it was time for me to leave Yellowbelly, and that’s its own story.
Chad Webb:
How long were you with Yellowbelly, again?
Barry Davis:
Seven years.
Chad Webb:
Seven years.
Barry Davis:
We built it and it got to the point where a partner, and our COO, and I wanted to take the business in different directions. I was feeling the pressure of other things. We had five stores, they’re spread out. I’m in my car all the time. I’m not seeing my son. I was bummed out. I was renting an apartment in Denver, in a garden level apartment, and just not seeing my family, and not happy. The stresses of the business weren’t …. The journey, the road was breaking me down.
Chad Webb:
Do you think that’s kind of the same path that the Colonel took?
Barry Davis:
No. Colonel Harland Sanders, that man was a rock. He was the rock others break themselves again. I don’t know how he did it. He invented … If you want to talk about Harland Sanders on a podcast, I will stand up for that man. I’ll lay down in the road for him. My Drunk History is on him.
Chad Webb:
Oh, there you go.
Barry Davis:
Yeah. It was time. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, man. People don’t … That’s one part of entrepreneurship the books don’t prepare you for, is how emotional you might be when it’s time to let someone else take the wheel of your baby.
Chad Webb:
That’s a really good point, I think, and it’s probably because of the amount of time you’ve invested up to this point, and you’ve seen it be fairly successful. I think about that. I think, like with the chicken restaurant, if you had done it for eight months, maybe even 24 months, and it was just kind of, eh, it was okay, you’d probably see it as a relief to move on, but seven years is a legitimate, with Yellowbelly, it’s a legitimate, it’s running, it’s working, and now you have to say goodbye to it.
Chad Webb:
I think about that a lot with Jason in terms of CrowdSouth, at some point, we can’t do it forever, even if it’s 20 years from now. We’re going to hand … I don’t think there’s a way that I could hand it over but stay in the background. I’d almost have to be like, “It’s yours. Change the name. Just don’t tell me how it’s going, or how you’re, quote, unquote, ruining it.” I think I’d just want to be completely relieved of it.
Barry Davis:
Is she really going out with him?
Barry Davis:
(singing)
Barry Davis:
Yeah, it’s tough. I live a quarter mile away from this restaurant, so it’s a fine line. I still love to be a customer there, and I think about … I can’t help myself and play “what if.” Ultimately, I’m really proud of what we built. I’m proud of that chapter in my life. I’m trying to use everything I’ve learned and that excitement to write the next chapter of my life.
Chad Webb:
Well, but there was a reason that you were saying with the whole wanting to have some more time with your family and also, wanting to not have that place in Denver, the apartment and things like that. There’s a reason for it. Did you find some sort of, while it was, maybe it was almost bittersweet, like there was a relief once you made that move?
Barry Davis:
Yeah. It took a little while, for sure. It took a little while, but if you’ve ever worked restaurant hours, and especially restaurant ownership hours, even if you jump into another job that demands a lot of you, it’s a relief. Restaurants are a hungry animal, and I was happy … It’s strange. See, I took a 9:00 to 5:00 after that, and it’s still really weird to me though. Like, “Wait, nobody’s calling me? There’s no emergencies? There’s no …” It took me a little while to settle into that comfort.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. You get into different … You’re right. The brief period where I was involved in a restaurant and brewery, you get people calling in because they’re hung over. I don’t get that so much in the environment that I’m in now, and it’s just a different … People, at a different point in their life, or people that are … It’s just a different type of employee, and so managing, and also managing the day-to-day tasks is different. You’re right. In the restaurant business, you’re just fighting fire after fire, and it’s feast or famine.
Barry Davis:
It’s kind of addictive. You love to be the superhero. I think a lot of people, whether it’s entrepreneurship or anything, like I said before, one of the things that validated me and attracted me to hospitality was the human interaction. Like how I could get that spike of serotonin by making somebody’s day.
Barry Davis:
Well, just as addictive is being the fixer. Like, “Oh, man. I know that I can elbow anybody off their station and do their job if I need to show them how it’s done.” Or, “I know I can handle this,” and it requires … Maybe in our third year of Yellowbelly when I had to step out of being so hospitality-focused and step into things like building restaurants and raising money that I started to realize like, “You’ve been hiding behind this skillset. You need to learn and do new things.”
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. Well, that leads us almost up to today, right?
Barry Davis:
Yes.
Jason Heflin:
Where is Barry Davis today?
Barry Davis:
Physically, mentally, emotionally, employed?
Jason Heflin:
I think emotionally, but from a career perspective. You’ve done a lot.
Barry Davis:
I’ve done a lot. I left Yellowbelly and I took a business development role with a company that had been, traditionally, in the cannabis space. That came to be in a really cool way. It kind of fell into my lap. Someone I’d met as a customer who knew me and knew what I could do, and had actually been vetting me. I bumped into him the day that I resigned from Yellowbelly, and informed our investors. I ran into this guy. We met for coffee the next day and I was employed. It was really neat. I went to work for that company. They were growing big in the hemp space, and they were acquiring some new technologies, and getting all those companies rolled up.
Barry Davis:
That was really fun and challenging for two years. The company ran into some challenges with some of those entities they purchased, and ended up kind of sinking the ship, so that left me looking for a new job at the beginning of this year. For the past two months, I’ve been working on some different projects, some creative projects and personal stuff. As well as, I can’t talk about it too much yet, but identified a, I’m going to intrapreneurial opportunity in the health space that I’ve approached some large healthcare providers about that … It’s something I’m really passionate about. It’s an opportunity to work in men’s health, particularly men of our age. I wish I could give some more details on that but-
Jason Heflin:
Yeah, I’ll just clarify too that men of our age means young.
Barry Davis:
Yeah. Young dude. Young-
Jason Heflin:
Young dudes.
Barry Davis:
Yeah.
Jason Heflin:
Super fit.
Barry Davis:
Athletic, prime of their life kind of dudes, just like us.
Jason Heflin:
Absolutely.
Barry Davis:
Yeah, so no, I haven’t stopped. That’s the problem with my hamster, is it never shuts off, and it’s just, I’m constantly kicking the tires on ideas, waiting for one to light me on fire, like when Yellowbelly did. That thing that keeps you up at night because you want to do it so bad.
Jason Heflin:
I’m hearing a little bit of a theme too with your path that I see a lot with entrepreneurs at this phase. It’s like you get the opportunity to work for yourself … You work for someone else for a while, several years. You really learn from those people. You learn what to do. You learn what not to do. Then you go to work for yourself. Then you work for yourself, you work for yourself, you work for yourself. Then something happens, and you go work for someone else, but that typically, for someone with a mind like yours, that doesn’t last long. It’s an interim project, and then you move on. You want to get back to owning your time and driving the ship, right?
Barry Davis:
Yes and no. I’m actually pretty excited about the opportunity. Part of the reason, my last position, I like the opportunity to be able to think and navigate with that autonomy, and be able to make and execute decisions, but doing it with the horsepower of a big business behind me right now is actually really compelling. Because at Yellowbelly, man, we did it on what my partners and I had in our checking account, so I know what it’s like to be underfunded. I know what it’s like to go for a long time without a paycheck while you try and get something in the air.
Barry Davis:
There are definitely some aspects of entrepreneurship that I will seek out. The chance that I’ll work for myself again, probably, but in the meantime, I am really excited about being able to take an idea and fill a gap for a company that has the horsepower to really execute that idea. I think that people get … You and I joke about this on the side, that people have the definition of entrepreneur totally defined wrong. It’s not all playing ping pong and, “We’re millionaires now.” It’s a lot of hard work. A lot of it is just shouldering the load.
Barry Davis:
I think that the idea of, like I said before, intrapreneur is pretty exciting to me right now, because I’m seeing really well-funded, well-established industries and companies that have major gaps in their efficiencies. If you can take that same problem solving mentality … I think we’re going to see a lot of companies and industries evolve over the next few months. All the big ideas don’t necessarily have to be small business.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. No doubt.
Barry Davis:
Or startup.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. Would you say, if you had to … It’s cliché, but if you had to define a dream job, would that be like you just said, being able to exercise your entrepreneurial muscle, but also have the horsepower of the big entity behind you?
Barry Davis:
No. That’d be great, but if we’re playing dream job-
Jason Heflin:
Yeah.
Barry Davis:
Man, I probably spend way too much time daydreaming about if I owned my own small ski resort. Like one of the smaller, mom and pop sized. I think about that way too much.
Chad Webb:
Even mom and pop sized is probably a significant outlay, right?
Barry Davis:
Right, right. They’re huge. It’s a big animal. Yeah, that’d be my dream job. I look at these little … They’re trading hands, but someday. I’ve got to stockpile a few more chips for that but then, and you guys will, of course, be invited. Anyone that listens to this podcast will get free lift tickets.
Jason Heflin:
I don’t know if you remember this, Barry, but there’s one point where I came out and I’d eaten at Yellowbelly, and I came home. I teased, I said, “I want to invest,” and you just kind of, “Yeah, yeah. Sure, man. Sure,” and so I mailed you a dollar bill. I don’t know if you remember that, but you still- [crosstalk 00:38:09]
Barry Davis:
We spent it. We spent it.
Jason Heflin:
You still have my dollar, right? [crosstalk 00:38:11]
Barry Davis:
That’s how investing works.
Jason Heflin:
Okay. I’m just waiting on my return. I didn’t get my dividends yet last quarter. Anyway, just curious, just curious.
Chad Webb:
Is he sending the reports to you each month?
Barry Davis:
It’s not coming.
Jason Heflin:
Okay.
Barry Davis:
A dollar level investor, your return is that you get to say, “I own this place” when you walk in.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. “This little part right here.”
Barry Davis:
That’s the return.
Jason Heflin:
This French fry that went under a table. That one’s me.
Barry Davis:
Yeah, yeah. There you go.
Jason Heflin:
You’re, imagine, 20-year-old Barry Davis. He’s getting ready to go out into the world. He’s getting ready to go off to Costa Rica, or Mexico, whatever it was at the time. If you could sit down with 20-year-old Barry Davis and say, “Hey, man. Here’s what I think you should know,” and just caveat here. You can’t say, “Do it exactly like you’re going to do it, Barry.” You can’t do that. What advice would you give him?
Barry Davis:
I’m trying to think of a way to articulate it. It would-
Jason Heflin:
I thought you were crying.
Barry Davis:
I was a little bit. I’m a little upset that the cameras aren’t on so that we can’t share this tender moment. I think it would be, be more cautious with your choices in who you partner with. Not just as a business partner, but in whose opinion you’re willing … Are you willing to take someone’s opinion with their money? Because Yellowbelly put myself and my partners in a real pressure cooker that brought out the parts of our personalities that didn’t play well together.
Barry Davis:
Almost as importantly, when you take on someone’s money to help your vision, money is a strong position. When those people have a turn at the steering wheel, you might very quickly find that your idea doesn’t look like your idea anymore. I wasn’t prepared for a lot of that stuff. I had been … If I was going to give 20-year-old Barry any advice, I’d be like, “Buckle-up, dude. The next 10 years of your life are going to be awesome.”
Jason Heflin:
That’s great.
Barry Davis:
Yeah. “You already know what to do. Just do that.” Maybe save a little more money. Yeah, I think that being cautious about partnerships and investors is where I would really try to give a younger me some insight.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. Well, you did well with your wife and your son. You’ve got a great little family unit. You’re living in a resort town, and you’ve started several successful businesses. That’s why I put that caveat on there, because things have worked out pretty well. Of course, there have been setbacks and bumps in the road, and you would have rather something happened differently, but it’s all happening and shaping in a way that you don’t understand, we don’t understand, but there will be something next and there will be … That’s what I know about you is that whatever you do, when it ends, there will be another thing. I’m interested to see what it is. I’m excited about it.
Barry Davis:
Well, hopefully, tomorrow … We should have done this after tomorrow, because I have a bit pitch tomorrow, and I would love to give you the follow-up on it.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. We’ll do a part two.
Barry Davis:
I thought we were going to talk about music and fun stuff, anyway. I’ve just been talking about … If anyone is still awake on this podcast, I will send them a free sandwich.
Jason Heflin:
We will just tell them to skip to about the 45 minute mark, and this is where it gets weird.
Barry Davis:
Let’s get weird.
Jason Heflin:
Who’s you’re favorite Ninja Turtle?
Barry Davis:
Donatello.
Donatello:
My name is Donatello. As long as I can remember, I’ve always liked to tinker with stuff.
Jason Heflin:
Why?
Barry Davis:
One, when the Ninja Turtles came out, purple was my favorite color. Two, I like that he has a bow staff. He doesn’t need a sword or devil stakes, or … He’s got just a stick. I thought Donatello was the coolest name.
Jason Heflin:
Definitely is. What about your favorite metal band?
Barry Davis:
Currently or of all time?
Jason Heflin:
Both.
Barry Davis:
All time? Man. Of all time, probably Metallica. Just hours spent listening to Metallica. Currently, I listen to a lot of a band called The Sword. I like them a lot. I like, ooh, I just found this band called Power Trip. They’re like young Pantera. I listen to them when I’m getting ready to snowboard. Oh, can I tell you a funny story? If you’re Google, if you’re at home, you’re playing the home version, you’re Googling these bands, do not put thesword.com into your browser. I was working, there was one period in time after Art’s Bar, before Bol, this guy who had a financial company in a mortgage company, basically, was like, “Come work for me. You’re going to love it. Come work for me while they build your new bar.” “All right.” I hated it, by the way.
Barry Davis:
I would just spend the days just gently looking … Looking into the internet’s eyes and talking to her softly. One day, I’m at work and I put thesword.com into my browser, and what pops up is a, not just a gay porn site, but thousands of pop-ups for all the gay porn sites. If you’re into heavy metal and gay porn, maybe thesword.com is for you, I digress, but it was not within the workplace decorum, so I am freaking out. There’s 100 pop-ups on my computer, and they’re just multiplying, multiplying.
Barry Davis:
My boss starts walking down the hallway, and I am control-alt-deleting as fast … Control-alt-delete, control-alt-delete, control-alt-delete as fast as I can. I am sweating. Finally get it cleared off. He is in my office. I am fully sweating through my shirt. Crisis averted, right? Except that the tech guy that worked for us, the tech guy, [Molan 00:44:28], down the hall, never made eye contact with me again. He just … Yeah.
Chad Webb:
Wow. He sounds pretty judgemental.
Barry Davis:
Yeah. Well, maybe he knew that I wasn’t supposed to be looking at hundreds of advertisements for that on the work computer.
Chad Webb:
Hundreds, no, but three would have been fine, right?
Barry Davis:
Yeah. Three’s within the acceptable tolerance.
Jason Heflin:
It’s in the company policy, Barry.
Barry Davis:
Yeah, yeah. Well, thanks for asking about heavy metal music. Do you get a lot of heavy metal listeners on the podcast?
Jason Heflin:
You know what? No, everybody’s … That’s the thing about, I’ve used the word entrepreneur eight times. That’s the thing about us type people is, well, we’re just different. Everybody’s a little different. They get into owning a business for different reasons, and it takes all types, just like anything.
Barry Davis:
Right. It’s not usually a top-40 guy. You’re going to have the confidence, you know what I mean? You’re going to be confident in your opinion. Whether it’s that you don’t like ketchup, or you’re willing to listen to weird music, or dress a little funky. If you’re going to have the confidence to spend your life savings on a fried chicken restaurant and hippy sides, or whatever it is, you’re probably not a top-40 guy.
Jason Heflin:
I think that it would be good to get a story from college, but I’m a little scared to ask, so I don’t know.
Barry Davis:
Man, I want to tell you the story about Jason Heflin being-
Jason Heflin:
See, you can’t even do it.
Barry Davis:
No. I was sitting … When I first met you, the first thing I said to you, okay, so I thought fraternities were stupid. “No way am I joining a fraternity. Just going for the free food, man. I’m too cool for this.” I’m sitting on a couch in the fraternity house, and if we can rewind the clock and tell you how cool I thought I was. I mean, how … I’m wearing big pants, and I think I had a chain wallet, and the tips of my hair were dyed, and I had a nose ring. I looked real cool at Western Kentucky University, as you could imagine. I’m sitting on the couch and you and our buddy, John, walk in, and you’re being really friendly. You’re like, “Hey, what’s up, man? How are you?” In a weak attempt to be funny, I said to you, do you remember what I said?
Jason Heflin:
No.
Barry Davis:
I said, “Just chilling on the cizouch,” and you looked at me like … Both you and John looked at me like, “Who’s this dork?” [crosstalk 00:47:06] You guys walked out of the room and I was like, “Oh, what an idiot.” I thought I was so funny, but it didn’t play real well. Anyway, thanks for letting me into your fraternity, and we had some great times.
Jason Heflin:
Oh, it was like the Island of Misfit Toys, so you fit right in.
Barry Davis:
The best was when we got … You were one of the only believers when, for some reason, as a new kid, they put me in charge of planning parties because, I don’t know, I had that personality, I guess. The first thing I did was order eight tons of sand to put it into our home. We put eight tons of sand in the house. In hindsight, think about how dangerous this was. We lived in a rickety house, that I’m surprised the floor didn’t fall through, but you were one of the only believers, like, “Guys, this is a good idea, and my band can play the party.”
Jason Heflin:
Yeah. There’s the angle. I was like, “We’ve never played a gig before.”
Barry Davis:
Yeah. Thank you for letting me put eight tons of sand into a house, and your band rocked it out that night.
Jason Heflin:
I still have Loser Adam, that was the band. Loser Adam, my bumper stickers.
Barry Davis:
I’ll take one. I’ll send you back your dollar.
Jason Heflin:
That’s awesome. This day is going to work out great. Well, Barry, man, we’re about at an hour. Is there anything else you wanted to add? I was going to criticize entrepreneur programs at universities. I like to do that regularly. I think I mentioned it to you the other day, in fact, when we were chatting.
Chad Webb:
That being said, you get asked like three times a year to go speak at one.
Jason Heflin:
And i do it every time. “Me? Who, me?”
Barry Davis:
Oh, are you talking about Jason Heflin, local entrepreneur guru?
Jason Heflin:
Yeah, yeah.
Chad Webb:
“Would you like me to talk to these 19-year-olds about how easy it is to be an entrepreneur?”
Barry Davis:
I just want to … I’ve been asked by Western and others to do the same, and I find talking people out of following their passion is my passion.
Jason Heflin:
That’s what I do. The last time I did it, I went to the entrepreneurial program on campus. I went up there, I spoke to a class of maybe like, I don’t know, 30 people, 30 students. I just went through all of the things I failed at. “Then I did this, and that didn’t work. Here’s why it didn’t work, and this, that.” I was just killing, crushing their dreams.
Jason Heflin:
At the end, I just said, “If you want to be an entrepreneur, that’s what you have to do. You have to set yourself up and be prepared to be knocked down, and then get back up. You might not make a dollar. You are going to be poor. You’re going to be a dirt bag. Maybe, if you’re lucky, one of those things will work out.”
Barry Davis:
Yeah. They certainly don’t tell you that. If you’re young, and you could do it, and you could take the risk, and you’ve got a big idea, go for it. For me, what did that look like? That was like, man, when we opened Bol, I had a cot in the liquor room. I would sleep there because it was easier than going home. I lived there, man. That was my … When Yellowbelly was in hard times, I spent a lot of commutes crying in the car. Just frustrated, and angry, and no one to talk to it about. There were times when you’re going without a paycheck so that your employees can have a paycheck, and all the stuff that isn’t in the story.
Barry Davis:
People want entrepreneurship but sometimes, if you want to be tied to the mast, are you ready for what comes with that? It’s, ask yourself that? Like, “Are you a hard worker? Are you someone who can do it?” Can I tell you another quick story? This is a totally different one, but it reminds of something else. Have we got time?
Jason Heflin:
By the way, I love when you say, “Can I tell you a quick story?” and you just go into it, because you know the answer’s yes.
Barry Davis:
No, I’m waiting for permission.
Jason Heflin:
No, do it.
Barry Davis:
All right. I want to tell you this story about this kid named George. I’ve always joked that I think skateboarders make the best entrepreneurs and employees. Because to be good at skateboarding, you have to be willing to take the slam, and there is no reward. Most people that skate, you’re not going to be a pro skater. You skate because you love to skate, and loving to skate comes with accepting the slam, and so there’s no cheating it. There’s no easy way out of skating. I had this story recently happen to me in life that I’m going to share about someone who I think is a future entrepreneur. His name is George. George is this kid that I’ve mentored since he was a little dude, and he just always needed a big brother, and I was that big brother.
Barry Davis:
George is now 15. A few years ago, George and I were at the skate park. This is when Thrasher t-shirt madness is at its peak. Every girl’s got a Thrasher shirt. The Kardashians have a Thrasher shirt. We’re at the skate park one day and he says, “I’m going to get a Thrasher shirt.” I said, “No, you’re not.” He’s like, “What?” I said, “You can’t do a kickflip, man. You don’t get to wear a Thrasher shirt until you’ve got a kickflip online.” He said, “Bull. These girls in my school don’t even skate and they have Thrasher shirts. Those kids over there, they don’t skate. They can’t do kickflips, and they have a Thrasher shirt.” I was like, “Cool. They’re not my friend. You’ve got to have a kickflip before you can wear a Thrasher shirt.” I was like, “I tell you what. You get it, I’ll buy one for you,” so George …
Barry Davis:
Here’s the cool thing about skating. To learn how to ollie takes six months. Then to get a kickflip on top of that, and it’s like a year, but George does the work. George is going home, he’s practicing in the garage. He spends the whole winter in his garage practicing kickflips. His mom calls me one day so frustrated, like, “Can’t you just buy him the shirt? His shins are bleeding.” I’m like, “No. Trust the process.” The next summer comes, and George and I are at the skate park. Another buddy of mine that happens to be a photographer for Thrasher is at the skate park. We’re all skating, and George meets my photographer buddy. The photographer’s shooting some pictures of him, and he thinks George is a cool kid.
Barry Davis:
We’re all hanging out, and I tell the photographer the story. He’s like, “That is freaking awesome, man. Please tell me when he gets close.” Sure enough, a little later in the summer, George has got two in a row. The rule in skateboarding is you don’t own a trick until you got three in a row, and George can get two sometimes. I call my buddy and I’m like, “Dude, George is super close.” The next day, two days later, a big box shows up on my porch, giant box. Open it up, there’s a sweatshirt on top of it with a sticky note that says, “This is all you get. Hands off. The rest is for George.”
Barry Davis:
I throw my sweatshirt aside, and the box is just packed. I mean, it’s packed with sweatshirts, and t-shirts, and stickers, and there’s a big autograph … Like a bunch of signatures on this card. It says, “George, we heard about the kickflip. Keep up the good work.” I think George is still living in a Thrasher t-shirt. I think that that story has more to do with entrepreneurship than skateboarding.
Jason Heflin:
Yeah, and brand.
Barry Davis:
Yeah. He earned it for the sake of earning it.
Chad Webb:
Yeah, that’s, by the way, you should start a podcast called Accept the Slam.
Barry Davis:
That is entrepreneurship 101, man. You are going to slam.
Jason Heflin:
That’s the name of this episode then. Accepting the Slam.
Barry Davis:
I wish I’d known I was going to need a title at the beginning because I probably would have leaned into telling you more about my embarrassing failures. “Chilling on the cizouch” is just the tip of the iceberg.
Jason Heflin:
Chilling on the cizouch, accepting the slam.
Chad Webb:
I think it’s funny that you mention that, the chilling on the cizouch thing, because there’s so much stuff like that, whatever. I’m 41 years old, and it’s like there’s so much stuff like that that I remember from high school and from college that no one else remembers. Jason doesn’t remember you saying that, but it stuck in your mind as like, “What an idiot.” There’s so much of that that I can remember from my life as well, like, “Why did I say that?” and no one else but me even remembers it, and it’s like-
Barry Davis:
I’m going to tell you another story, because we talked about metal and Metallica. One thing about living in Vail is we get a lot of celebrities. That’s the cool thing about talent here, is that Vail is the kind of town celebrities come to just chill. Aspen’s where they go to be seen. Vail is where they come to just, not be a big fuss. Working at Bol, we had celebrities of the grandest scale, like big A-list celebrities in and out of that business. We had huge names, and so. I got pretty good with dealing with celebrities and keeping my cool. Just treat them like real people, don’t act like they’re celebrities.
Barry Davis:
I thought that I was a pro at this. That all changed the day that James Hetfield came into Yellowbelly. James Hetfield, lead singer of Metallica, moves to Vail, and everybody’s got these Hetfield sightings. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve had a couple of cool run-ins with him, but my first run-in with him, what a dork. He’s hanging out in Yellowbelly eating. He’s with his wife. They have a great meal. I happen to be in there with my son, we’re hanging out. The staff is coming over and talking to Ziggy and I, and checking on us about a couple things.
Barry Davis:
Towards the end of the meal, Hetfield finishes at the same time I finish. We put our plates away at the same time, and I’m like, “Hey, just thanks for coming, guys.” He’s like, “Oh, you own this place.” I was like, “Yeah, I own this place. Thanks for coming.” We have a cool little conversation. He’s talking to Ziggy and he’s like, “Cool kid.” The thing you need to know about James Hetfield, one, he’s giant. He’s a big guy. Two, he sounds exactly like you want James Hetfield to sound. When he talks, it’s like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” It’s like he talks. I’m talking to James Hetfield, and he says, he goes to shake my hand, he’s like, “Hey, I’m James,” and I respond, “I know.” I did not sleep for a week. Oh, well. Sorry.
Jason Heflin:
I love that story. I can just imagine him ordering.
Barry Davis:
The whole time, I’m like, “Play it cool. Play it cool. Play it cool. This guy has no idea how many thousands of hours you spent locked in your bedroom, as an angry teenager, listening to him.” Like, “Just play it cool. Just Play it cool.” No. Couldn’t do it.
Chad Webb:
I like that you’re like, “We just happened to finish our food at the same time. We just happened to put our plates up at the same times.” You’re shoving food in your kid’s mouth, like, “Finish, finish.”
Barry Davis:
The next time I met him … He’s into cowboy stuff and he was … I go into this store, and my friend works in there. I’m chatting with her, and she’s like, “I’m helping a customer. He’s in the back, if you don’t mind hanging out for a second.” I’m like, “No problem.” We’re just hanging out in the store, and James Hetfield is the customer. He comes out of the back. I’m like, “Oh my god.”
Barry Davis:
We’re chatting, and we’re telling some stories, and I’m making him laugh. When he laughs, it’s like, “Ha, ha.” It’s like, “Yes!” You get goosebumps when you hear it. We’re talking and making him laugh, and just to make that guy laugh was maybe one of the highlights of my life, because it sounds like that. We’re joking around. He’s like, “How do you know this girl?” I was like, “Oh, she was my first girlfriend in Vail. We dated for like 20 minutes.” He lets out this laugh that is like, I can’t do it … I don’t want to do it injustice, but I was sure he was going to blow the windows in the store out. I felt totally redeemed for my, “I know.”
Jason Heflin:
I imagine when he’s ordering food, that it’s like, “Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire. Give me bones, give me fries, give me that which I desire, huh.”
Barry Davis:
It did not sound like.
Jason Heflin:
Oh. “I’ll have the steak tartare.”
Barry Davis:
Yeah. There you go.
Chad Webb:
That’s awesome. I saw Marty Stuart-
Chad Webb:
(singing)
Chad Webb:
… getting out of the car at Chicken Salad Chick like two days ago.
Barry Davis:
That is like the most Nashville thing I’ve heard in weeks.
Chad Webb:
Yeah, it was. Yeah. It wasn’t Nashville. It wasn’t Chicken Salad Chick. It was First Watch, the breakfast restaurant.
Barry Davis:
You should take it back to the Chicken Salad Chick just to up your rhinestone credit.
Chad Webb:
You know what’s funny? Is I was like, “I know that guy’s famous,” and I could not think …. I was with my daughter. I could not think of his name. You know how I found him? I Googled “old, white-haired country singer.”
Barry Davis:
I thought you were going to say like, “Wearing several bandannas.” I saw him at a dive in Denver about two years ago. That guy still puts on an awesome show.
Chad Webb:
He looked like you would think he’d look. He just looks the same.
Barry Davis:
Yeah. He looks the same. Yeah, that was a great show. You might be in Nashville if you’ve seen Marty Stuart at the Chicken Salad Chick.
Chad Webb:
Oh, man.
Jason Heflin:
Barry, it’s always a pleasure. I want to have you back when you move into the phase and hear all about that, because I’m sure there’s going to be some fun things, whether it’s the project that you’re working on or it’s something else.
Barry Davis:
Did you watch the cartoon I sent you?
Jason Heflin:
I did. That was good. Plug it.
Barry Davis:
Well, we missed the podcast. The podcast is over.
Jason Heflin:
No.
Chad Webb:
No, no, no. I’m still recording. You got it.
Jason Heflin:
Oh. Always record. Always record.
Barry Davis:
I don’t really have anything to plug. If you’re going to put links on this, not thesword.com. If you’re going to put some links to the podcast, Jason, I’ve been telling stories, with the help of my friend, about my amazing childhood in Yellowstone. I sent them to Jason, so Jason might put the links in the podcast.
Jason Heflin:
I might.
Chad Webb:
You might. Might you, Jason? Jason will forward those to me and I’ll stick them in the podcast.
Barry Davis:
I really expected more hard questions, Jason. If I could give a little feedback.
Jason Heflin:
This is really not that kind of podcast. This is kind of the, “We’re going to wing it and just see what happens,” and I hope-
Barry Davis:
Oh, okay. Yeah. It’s learning to podcast in front of a live audience. “Ready, fire, aim.”
Jason Heflin:
Yeah.
Chad Webb:
Barry’s like, “As the host of the renowned podcast, Accepting the Slam, I would probably give you a few pointers.”
Barry Davis:
Yeah. Thank you, Chad. Thanks for saying what needed to be said.
Jason Heflin:
On the next episode of Accepting the Slam, Marty Stuart.
Barry Davis:
Marty Stuart. We’ll have Marty Stuart.
Jason Heflin:
And James Hetfield.
Barry Davis:
Amazing.
Jason Heflin:
Well, dudes, I really appreciate it.
Barry Davis:
Yeah.
Chad Webb:
Absolutely.
Barry Davis:
Me too, man.
Jason Heflin:
We’ll do it again sometime.
Barry Davis:
I hope I’m invited back. I’ll bring more heat.
Chad Webb:
Sounds great, man. Thank you.
By Chad Webb
Chad Webb (who is 40) is one of CrowdSouth’s Partners and brings years (not quite 40) of experience managing multi-million dollar website projects to your business. He loves hoodies, puffy vests, jeans and flip flops.