Episode 546 Billy Rudd How a Veteran Found Freedom After the Corporate Grind Transcript

This transcript is from episode 546 with guest Billy Rudd.

[00:00:00] Scott DeLuzio: Do you ever hit that point where you know your job is fine, the family’s good, but you catch yourself wondering, is this it? Uh, you’re doing what you’re supposed to do, you’re paying the bills, keeping things steady, but something inside of you still feels like it’s just missing. Today’s guest, Billy Rudd knows that feeling.

[00:00:18] After years of climbing the corporate ladder, traveling nonstop and barely catching his kids’ games, he decided to walk away from it all. What started as a side hustle? Uh, roasting coffee turned into Cloud Splitter Coffee. A small business built on authenticity, hard work, and the kind of grind that actually feels good.

[00:00:40] Billy’s story is about finding the joy in the work again and setting an example for your kids along the way. It’s kind of a cool story and hopefully you get, get something good out of it, especially if you’re considering starting a business yourself. But before we get into the story. I wanna take a moment to raise awareness for something that’s important [00:01:00] to our community.

[00:01:00] The Global War On Terrorism Memorial Foundation. This organization is working to build a permanent national memorial in Washington DC to honor the service members, families, and civilians who are impacted by the global war on terrorism. This memorial will serve as both a tribute to those who served and as a way to ensure that their sacrifices are recognized and remembered for generations to come.

[00:01:22] If you’d like to learn more or find out how you can support their mission, visit GWOT memorial foundation.org. Now, let’s get into today’s episode.

[00:01:32]

[00:01:45] Scott DeLuzio: Hey, Billy, welcome to the show. I’m really glad to have you here.

[00:01:49] Billy Rudd: Hey, thanks for having me on.

[00:01:50] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. So,

[00:01:52] Before we kind of jump into the conversation, get, get into you know, kinda what we’re we’re gonna be talking about here today. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell us about your, your background, [00:02:00] your military background, and, and things like that.

[00:02:01] Just for maybe for the listeners who aren’t familiar with you and who you are.

[00:02:04] Billy Rudd: Yeah, so my name’s Billy Rudd. I am the owner and founder of cloud Supporter Coffee. More importantly though, I’m a dad of two awesome kids. One’s going into two boys, one’s going into high school this year. He is the JV quarterback and and the other just started middle schools. So both in new schools and well adjusted a great kids intelligent, kind, athletic. I’m really, really blessed in that that. capacity. Let’s see. I grew up in upstate New York. Two military listeners out there, very close to Fort Drum, 10th Mountain Division. So I grew up on a dairy farm up there. And then after high school, like a lot of farm kids, I joined the Air Force and I served in the Air Force from 95 to 99. Kind of between the Gulf Wars and I was a crew member on a plane called Oriah in the Air Force. I bet I’m the only oriah person to ever be on this podcast because it was the smallest career field in the Air Force. And that job doesn’t exist anymore. It’s been taking over by satellites.

[00:02:59] But[00:03:00] really cool plane. Cool job. I was stationed out at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California Flight Test Center. Wear the Sonic, or where the, the sound barrier was, was broke. And just a really cool place to be stationed if you’re,

[00:03:12] An aviation enthusiast. So, so I

[00:03:14] Scott DeLuzio: Cool.

[00:03:15] Billy Rudd: Four years and then got out and, you know, went to college and professional career and

[00:03:19] here I am today talking to you.

[00:03:21] Scott DeLuzio: Awesome. Awesome. So, so you got into the Air Force. Any kind of lessons or, or things that you, you kind of took away from your time in the Air Force? I know a lot of people when they get into the military, it, it kind of changes who they are. The, the, the military breaks you down and builds you back up to what they want you to be, right?

[00:03:38] And then, then you get out and you look back and there’s all these. Lessons that you, you’ve learned or that you’ve accumulated. You may not have even realized it during that time that you were in the military, but then you come away and you’re like, oh, you know, I’m doing things differently. I’m, I’m starting to notice how I’m different from some of the civilians that maybe I’m working with or, or going to school [00:04:00] with, or, or things like that.

[00:04:01] And, and you start to realize just how much of an impact that’s had on, on your life. Any, any kind of big takeaways from your, your career in the Air Force and kind of anything that maybe helped with your. Post-military career,

[00:04:14] Billy Rudd: Yeah, so a couple things that I think affected me personally and then, you know, some. Things professionally as well. One like I said, I grew up on a, on a farm, so I was already pretty fit. You know, I just. Just, just kind of a, a

[00:04:27] hazard of the occupation, you know?

[00:04:29] Scott DeLuzio: right.

[00:04:30] Billy Rudd: but you know, after I got outta the military, I was no longer a farm kid.

[00:04:33] And you know, but I kept fitness as a priority. You know, and, and here I am, 48 years old and it’s still a priority exercise every day. And I think a lot of that comes from comes from my military background. The other thing I would say also is just being, you know. Personally and professionally organized, whether it’s time management or just having systems in place that that, you know, just keep just, just keep me organized, you know?

[00:04:58] So, of course I got a lot of that [00:05:00] from the Air Force as well. And I think from a professional standpoint, so after I left. The Air Force. I went on to work for Red Lobster and Darden Restaurants for 23 years. I started there as a server with no restaurant experience. I left as a senior director of operations leading a division of 55 restaurants.

[00:05:18] So, it was kind of the, I don’t know, the restaurant business is kind of one of the last merit autocracies, where you really can kind of put your nose to the grindstone. It doesn’t matter kind of what you

[00:05:26] know, it’s kind of what you, kind of, what you put into it.

[00:05:29] Scott DeLuzio: Sure.

[00:05:29] Billy Rudd: And, and one of the things that became important to me is especially when I got into a position of, of hiring really over the last like 10 to 12 years, Not so much as necessarily somebody’s intelligence, but their emotional intelligence. And, you know, I kind of equate that to you know, if you have a bad day at work, are you gonna go home and get on LinkedIn and go get a new job? Or or are you going to you know, kind of. Buckle down and, and it’s hard to to suss that [00:06:00] out when you’re hiring for something or promoting somebody if they’re, you’re promoting somebody internally, you know everything about ’em.

[00:06:05] But if you’re interviewing somebody for 45 minutes it’s hard to figure out if that personal, if that person has grit, if they have emotional intelligence. And there really isn’t questions that are good for it. So, as I kind of started to think about it, one of the things that I. Realize, and I kind of lean back in my military training as, as military folks, veterans, you know, that are now in the in the private sector. Most of ’em do have emotional intelligence because even if you’ve only went to basic training and you weren’t deployed to a combat zone like me, been yelled at for two months straight. You know, that’s, that, that, that’s better than any corporate job, right? Because nobody’s yelling at you or you’re going to hr, you know?

[00:06:41] So, so I learned that, you know, a lot of folks who have a military background are, are great candidates for jobs, especially high stress jobs, because they face those they face these

[00:06:52] conditions way worse than this any day.

[00:06:54] Scott DeLuzio: Right.

[00:06:55] Billy Rudd: yeah, a

[00:06:55] couple things I learned.

[00:06:56] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And one of the things you just mentioned was [00:07:00] how military folks are are great in those, those high stress environments. And you know, I found through conversations I’ve had with people that. It almost becomes addicting to be in those kind of high stress environments where you’re, you’re looking for chaos it, where some people are, are looking for, Hey, I just wanna go in and punch the clock and work my nine to five and, and collect my paycheck and, and move on.

[00:07:25] Sometimes people are, are so used to the, the chaotic high stress in environments that it’s like I. I kind of can’t do anything other than that. Like I, I kind of need to have some sort of high stress situation going on. And that that could be, you know, a, a good and a bad thing. Obviously there’s some jobs that, that’s an occupational hazard, you know, law enforcement, you know, paramedics, firefighters, those, those types of things.

[00:07:51] You know, any of those are gonna be high stress at times, and you have to be able to deal with those. And if you just crumble under the pressure, you’re not gonna be able to do [00:08:00] very well in those types of jobs. But. Not every job is like that. If you’re working you know, nine to five in a cubicle and you’re, you know, punching out spreadsheets, yeah.

[00:08:09] I mean, a lot of people just wouldn’t be able to do it. Right. You know, but if, if that’s what you’re, you’re doing and you’re. You’re craving that high high stress environment, that, that high octane kind of situation, you’re probably not going to be able to manage that very well. I know when I got back from Afghanistan, I, I went, went back to work and you know, I, I was, I was going in into basically a.

[00:08:34] You know, cubicle situation in, in an office environment. I, I didn’t last very long there. It, it just wasn’t for me anymore. I, I, I had a real tough time doing that. So, but being able to kind of reflect and look in on yourself and kind of understand what it is that you’re looking for and what you, what you might need and, and how you might be able to you know, satisfy those needs going forward, I think is, is important too.

[00:08:58] You know, in addition to all those things that you just said. [00:09:00] Right. Now, so you worked in kind of the, these larger corporations for, for a while. You know, you mentioned Red Lobster was, was one of them, and, and you’ve, you’ve kind of bounced around a little bit. Then eventually you, you kind of moved on and, and you are you’re, you’re now with cloud Splitter coffee.

[00:09:16] Right. And tell us about that. What was that decision like and how did, how did you get into to doing that?

[00:09:21] Billy Rudd: Yeah. So, so professionally I was, like I said, I was with Red Lobster for 23 years and then I left them and worked at Topgolf. I was the national director of Ops there, running a bunch of venues for them. Probably about six months before I left Red Lobster, I founded Cloud Splitter just as an e-commerce company, shipping coffee all over the country, you know, to a lot of the listeners to this podcast.

[00:09:44] There’s probably some familiarity with Black Rifle coffee a coffee brand that targets the military and veteran community and. First responders as well. They’re a great company. I would say cloud supporters, very similar to that model of a company, but we target the outdoor industry, so [00:10:00] hikers, mountain climbers, runners so on and so forth.

[00:10:03] So, so I had this going on for, for about three years. Just kinda as a side project. And it was growing and growing and you know, an opportunity kind of came along for me to, to leave Topgolf. Like I said, my kids were, were are getting older, you know? And I know that these are gonna be the best years of my life, you know, being able to. You know, one, they’re just fun to hang out with, but, you know, go to their events or go to their games and all that kind of stuff. And with the job that I was in, I was flying to work every week. I was a hundred nights a year at the Marriott. My office was in Dallas. I live in Maryland. You know, it just it was really, I had a lot of competing priorities and I

[00:10:35] couldn’t find a way to be in two places at once.

[00:10:38] Luckily, I had cloud supporter kind of, as a. Little side project I had going on and we were gaining some traction. Particularly with the running community, we’ve become a bit of a running brand, so like marathoners and folks like that they, they’ve really become attracted to our swag for our merchandise and was able to, to leave was able to leave Topgolf and, and do [00:11:00] cloud supporter full-time.

[00:11:00] We also have a mobile, coffee shop, you could say, is essentially kind of think of like a Starbucks on Wheels, but it’s the, we call it the brew box. And we take it to all kinds of events. I

[00:11:09] mean, we’re, we’re booked out for months

[00:11:10] Scott DeLuzio: Oh, that’s great.

[00:11:11] Billy Rudd: we’ve become really popular pretty quick, so, and it’s, it’s great coffee.

[00:11:16] So, where the name comes from is a cloud. Spoilers a really tall mountain, and I’ve climbed hundreds of mountains. And it was my Instagram handle for a long time and everybody was like, dude, I like your name. I like your name. And then, one time we were on a trip and my girlfriend and I, and it had been raining for like days on end and, you know, it was just a, just really kind of a miserable trip to the mountains.

[00:11:37] And I, I just said it out loud. It was like cloud splitter coffee. I don’t know why, but you know, she she was like. I’d buy that. And so we got back from that trip and I bought the domain name cloud supporter coffee.com, and started the LLC and then quickly realized I was in over my head because I knew nothing about coffee. And and took about six months to kind of form the con the company in the background. And and, and launched it, like I [00:12:00] said, about six months later. And,

[00:12:01] It’s been a, it’s been a wild ride.

[00:12:02] Scott DeLuzio: You know, it, that’s kind of a, a nice way to start a business is when you, you have a job, so you have some financial security, you know, something that you can fall back on if. You’re starting a business and you know, let’s say you start it and it doesn’t work out, you know, the customers aren’t there. You thought it was a great idea, whatever it is, you know, whether it’s coffee or something else, maybe it’s some service or product that, that you might have in mind, and you, you start this business and it doesn’t work out well, you always have that job that you can kind of fall back on.

[00:12:31] Right? And, and so like in, in your situation, you, you started this, you still had. Your, your job at Topgolf going on and it, it was kind of something that you’re, you’re handling on the side. It wasn’t like you just, you know, quit and just dove in head first into basically nothing starting off from scratch.

[00:12:46] Right. So, so you at least had had some way of, of kind of starting off. And one thing I’ve noticed in in business that I’ve, I’ve been a part of is the thing that you s. [00:13:00] Pay more attention to will start to generate more income, you know, so, and that may not make a ton of sense the way I, I just phrased it, but just as an example, I, I had a business where.

[00:13:12] I was building websites for, for people, and that that was fine. And I was doing like, maintenance on the websites and all that kind of stuff. That, that, that part was good. And, and, but it wasn’t really where my, my passion was. I, I was doing it. It was paying the bills. It was, it was, it was good. I also had developed some, some software that would run on websites that I, I, it was kind of more of an afterthought.

[00:13:32] It was like, I. I built it because I needed it, or maybe one of my clients needed it. And I was like, you know, I’ll just put it out there on, on the website and see if it sells, and if it does, great. If it doesn’t, you know, whatever, it’s not a big deal because I, I needed to build it anyways. And then I. I was like, that’s really where my passion was.

[00:13:47] And I, I really wanted to do more of that. And so I, I kind of said, you know what, I’m, I’m not gonna take on any more website design clients. I’m gonna go focus on the software side of things and, and, and just do that. And it was like [00:14:00] within a very short amount of time that took over my business and I. All of my time got dedicated to you know, supporting tho those software products.

[00:14:08] And it, it was, it was really because I, I spent more time on it as far marketing it more and, and really kind of giving it the attention that it deserved and it, it just kind of blew up from there. And so I, I imagine, you know, when you were working at, at Topgolf probably wasn’t. Growing as quickly as it would be if you were spending it full time, you know, dedicated to it.

[00:14:31] And I imagine after you, you kind of switched to, to doing this full time, that’s where you probably saw some, some pretty good, pretty significant growth. Right.

[00:14:39] Billy Rudd: Yeah, a hundred percent. So now you’re taking. You know, the 50 hours a week that I was working on Topgolf and you shipped it

[00:14:46] to this other thing that now you

[00:14:47] gotta make it

[00:14:48] Scott DeLuzio: Right, right,

[00:14:49] Billy Rudd: you know? And

[00:14:50] Scott DeLuzio: right, right. Right.

[00:14:50] Billy Rudd: so, yeah, a hundred percent that I, that’s when I’ve seen seen the most growth,

[00:14:56] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah,

[00:14:56] Billy Rudd: you know, hands down, it’s not even a question. But to your point, you know, when you [00:15:00] really shift. To the thing that you really want to

[00:15:02] do, then you’re also happier and that’s what matters, right? You know, when you think about just your, just your, your work life balance and you’ve, you’ve gotta do something to make money. So you ought to do something that makes you happy and and, and follow where your passions are.

[00:15:15] And it’s just a lot more enjoyable spending your time

[00:15:17] spending your time on something like that. So.

[00:15:20] Scott DeLuzio: exactly. And I, I think that that was very helpful, like in, in my case that I just described. Because it wasn’t like I was dreading going to do the work that I, I was doing. I, I was, I was actually looking forward to it and I would spend more time on it than I might have otherwise if, if it was a job that I really wasn’t.

[00:15:40] Too thrilled about, but it was, it was paying the bills, but I wasn’t too thrilled about it. I probably wouldn’t put as much effort into it, but it was something that, A, it was paying the bills, but also it was something I liked. So of course I’m gonna spend more time doing it, you know? And and, and that.

[00:15:55] I think really helped in, in the growth of, of what I was doing. But you know, so, so [00:16:00] I guess ultimately kind of that, that takeaway for any of the listeners is, you know, try to find something that you’re not, you’re passionate about, that you can make money with and, and will allow you to kind of feel like you’re, you’re not even having to go to work.

[00:16:14] It, it’s, it’s more fun than, than work. You know? It,

[00:16:18] Billy Rudd: yeah, yeah, a hundred percent.

[00:16:19] Scott DeLuzio: yeah.

[00:16:20] Billy Rudd: I think one of the things that’s important is, you know, when you’re gonna start a business though, is know who your audience is. You know, like who, who’s your, your, your target customer essentially. And. I think it’s important to be authentic, at least, you know, for Cloud

[00:16:36] Splitter it’s been really important to be authentic, especially

[00:16:38] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah,

[00:16:39] Billy Rudd: brands.

[00:16:39] Now people wanna know who’s the face behind the brand,

[00:16:43] Scott DeLuzio: sure.

[00:16:44] Billy Rudd: if you’re creating some sort of mountain brand, but you’ve never been to the mountains, like you’re gonna get called out real quick, you know? But you know, it really did start out with a lot of people who just kind of knew me. You know, they’ve seen me. On the mountains. They’ve seen me on the Appalachian Trail, they’ve seen me at the ultra marathons. You know, they, they know I’ve sleep [00:17:00] in my forerunner, you know, and you can’t fake that, that type of authenticity. And it just becomes, like I said, it’s becomes fun because, you know, your customers, especially at

[00:17:09] first, are probably gonna be your friends.

[00:17:10] They’re gonna be people, you know,

[00:17:11] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:17:12] Billy Rudd: then it’s gonna be people that they know that are very similar to them. And then you, you’re creating a community, you know, I think a lot of. Brands think about having an audience. But you know, I think about it as creating a community, you know, of just kind of kindred spirits.

[00:17:25] And we say at, at at Cloud Splitter that we’re, you know, for the love of the grind, you

[00:17:30] know, it’s kind of a double entendre

[00:17:31] Scott DeLuzio: Sure.

[00:17:32] Billy Rudd: you know, but whether you’re, you know, running a hundred mile ultra marathon or, or you love coffee,

[00:17:38] You know, we’re, we’re always grinding.

[00:17:39] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. E exactly. And, and you know, it’s just nice when, when those things kind of, just come together and, and it just happens to work out that you can use that same same phrase and has a couple different meanings there. That, that it just works out nice that way. But so for, you know, folks who are, you know, kind of in, in your world, right? Like in the [00:18:00] entrepreneurship world whether it’s coffee or it’s something else, someone who, you know, has an idea, has a passion for something they don’t know really where to get started. What, what were kind of some of the first steps that, like for you, I know you, you said you kind of had the idea, bought the domain.

[00:18:14] Those are easy things. You can, you know, spend 10 bucks and buy a domain name. Anyone, anyone can do that. But. Then there, there’s, there’s business, but you gotta get down to business and

[00:18:24] Billy Rudd: Yeah.

[00:18:24] Scott DeLuzio: fi figure out how to do that. And you know, sometimes an idea is just that, it’s just an idea. Where do you go from there?

[00:18:31] After the idea, how did you kind of test it out and make sure that, you know, is this actually a business or is this just, you know, kind of a fun idea?

[00:18:39] Billy Rudd: Yeah, so I think right away I knew exactly, you know, cloud Splitter coffee. I had a name. I felt like it rolled off the tongue pretty well. I, I knew what I wanted to sell, the product that I wanted to sell. And I had a pretty clear, you know, as far as, you know, customers go. But then, like you said, when it comes down to brass tacks, [00:19:00] like package design, logos, brand story building, a website, all that kind of stuff, I don’t know anything about that kind of stuff.

[00:19:07] I know a little bit from my corporate career, but I’m not an expert really on, on much of that. I, I’ve been in operations my whole life, so, so I, I employed the experts. I, I went to an agency who works with small startup food brands and, you know, we had a sit down session like, here, here’s. What I’m envisioning, you know, here, and, and they love the name of the company. They love everything that I just said. But like, I think like a lot of people, I’d kinda started out with like a logo generator and was like, oh, I even got an idea for a logo. And there was no chat GPT at that time. But if there had been, they would’ve, they would’ve said that looked like it was made of a chat, GPT, like it’s, it looks like a logo generator made it and it needs some refinement.

[00:19:46] So, and, and so together in we went through many iterations of logos and, and well actually the first thing you gotta do is a brand story. And that’s the first thing I would tell anybody is essentially. A brand story is [00:20:00] not your history. It’s, it’s essentially your, your constitution. You know, it’s kinda your manifesto as a brand, and we have it printed on the back of every bag of coffee, and that is our brand’s voice.

[00:20:10] That is kind of the direction that our brand goes is off of everything that’s on that story. And then we did logo design and colors and packaging and all that kind of stuff. So, so I’d say if you’re not, you know, you know, familiar with that, you know, probably

[00:20:24] employing the expert experts to do it is

[00:20:27] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:20:27] Billy Rudd: is probably some pretty good advice. Probably, maybe it depends on what you’re doing, but I wanted to look clean and

[00:20:33] professional all the way.

[00:20:35] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and I, I think for anyone starting a business who’s starting it by themselves, they don’t have partners or, you know, co-founders, that type of thing. Finding a. Other people who are good at the things that you’re not good at. And, and recognizing where you add value to the business. You know, if your, if your value is in, you know, one area, you [00:21:00] know, you probably don’t need to be spending your time doing the taxes and the bookkeeping and the, you know, all the, all those other things. Like you can hire that out and and get somebody else who, who can do that, which then frees up your time to focus on the things that you are good at, the, the things that actually add value to your business and allow you to grow the business and, and you know, do bigger and better things.

[00:21:23] But if you’re spending all your time doing administrative work that. Really you don’t need to be doing you’re not gonna grow as fast and or, or at all. You know, ’cause you’re, you’re gonna be so tied up in fighting fires here and there and, and doing all these little things that you really don’t need to be doing.

[00:21:39] You, you, you’d be better off finding somebody else who can do that stuff for you. So, you know, so I, I think, you know, to your point, you know, you weren’t a branding guy and that wasn’t your, your thing, but a huge part of what your business is about needs to have a good, solid brand behind it and. If you just use that logo generator and, you know, maybe [00:22:00] even I, I’m not saying that this was, this was exactly your case, but if, if you kind of half-assed your way through all of, you know, whatever it is that you’re, you’re trying to do as far as the branding goes, people are gonna see right through that.

[00:22:10] And, and to your point earlier you know that that community was, you know, really really focused on that story and that, that background that, that you, you had. And, you know, if you, you don’t do a good job communicating that message, you’re, you’re going to, you’re gonna start losing people and, and you’ll, you’ll never build that community.

[00:22:28] So, so I, I think, I think folks who are, are, are starting a business definitely you know, figure out what it is that you are. Good at and do more of that and figure out the things that you are not good at, and do less of that and find somebody else to do those things. Right.

[00:22:44] Billy Rudd: Yeah, because if

[00:22:44] you’re, I mean, you’re probably gonna need a website, right? And

[00:22:47] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:22:47] Billy Rudd: a web designer, you’re, you’re gonna get really

[00:22:49] frustrated building a. website

[00:22:51] Scott DeLuzio: Right.

[00:22:52] Billy Rudd: And and, and that could be enough to squash that fire that you had burning in you to to start this business in the first place.

[00:22:59] You know? So [00:23:00] keep, keep the stoke high. Yeah, employ the experts. Where, where needed. I think I

[00:23:05] am a branding guy, but I’m not a design guy, right?

[00:23:07] Scott DeLuzio: Sure. Okay. Yeah.

[00:23:08] Billy Rudd: vision in my head, like I, I’m probably more big picture, but I need somebody else to kind of take my vision and, and

[00:23:14] put it, put it down for me.

[00:23:15] So.

[00:23:16] Scott DeLuzio: So transfer transitioning from the corporate world to entrepreneurial world. You were saying, you know, your time was pretty stretched, pretty thin when you were working in the corporate world you know, with traveling and all these other things that you, you, other, other commitments that you had going on.

[00:23:35] How do you see the difference between that and your, your time now as an entrepreneur? Are, are you finding you know, any. Benefits to that, where you’re, you’re having a little bit more flexibility in your schedule a little bit more. I, I, I hate to use the term work-life balance at, at some it’s just one that is commonly used, but, you know, just able to enjoy life and do the things that you want to do outside of work.

[00:23:59] But also [00:24:00] keeping time for, for work as well. Are you finding that it’s, it’s any easier or, you know, a little more flexible or is it maybe even more difficult?

[00:24:09] Billy Rudd: To, to, to all of that. So. I probably actually work more hours now, but it’s all

[00:24:15] contained, right? I’m not all over the country,

[00:24:17] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:24:18] Billy Rudd: it’s all right here. So I’m home in my own bed every night. I’m able to pick my kids up from practice. I, I see them more. They go back and forth between me and their mom.

[00:24:28] So, so I have a bit of a limited schedule, but now I I, I, I’m able to be more open with that, so that’s great. And I don’t miss any games, you know, so in, in many ways That’s good. One of the responsibilities I had, kind of a side project I had at Topgolf is I launched and chaired for two years, their mental health.

[00:24:47] Employee resource group. So, a lot of brands have employee resource groups for all different affinities. Top Topgolf aspire to be one of the top employers in the, in the country as it relates to mental health. And we did a [00:25:00] lot of great things there to kind of make that come to come to light. but one of the well, there’s two things that I aspired for with that. With that employee resource group. And that was to one, create a community just like we talked about. ’cause it was a lot like creating a brand, but also providing resources for, you know, we have a lot of young people,

[00:25:17] you know, in the hospitality business, you

[00:25:19] Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:20] Billy Rudd: And providing resources.

[00:25:21] And and with that, you know, I had some social media chops, so they, they wanted me to kind of put that to, to good use. And I created a video one time. About what you were just talking about, work life balance. And I, I tend to think of it a little differently. I, I

[00:25:34] talk about work life, harmony, you know,

[00:25:36] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:25:37] Billy Rudd: because it’s not always, I balance, right?

[00:25:38] There’s some times where you have to focus more on work and you know, you, you, you know, and, and a little less on your personal life. And there’s other times where you get, you know, more time in your personal life and you, you’re not so focused on work. And so, so when I think about, you know, kind of my current situation, yeah, I have the ability to, to say no to like certain events, you know, if I want to

[00:25:57] keep that date open for, for me,

[00:25:59] Scott DeLuzio: [00:26:00] Hmm.

[00:26:00] Billy Rudd: or for something I wanna do in my personal life. Or I can say yes, you know, and or, you know, I can have. You know, two, two different clients that are trying to book an event the same day, and I have a choice. You know, pick one I want for whatever reason I want. So, so yeah, I would say I’m working, I probably work more hours now but I’m certainly happier now.

[00:26:21] By, by far just because I have. I would say more control over my schedule. You know, just

[00:26:27] because I don’t have to be at a meeting in Dallas, you

[00:26:29] Scott DeLuzio: Right.

[00:26:30] Billy Rudd: on Tuesday. I don’t have to be on six teams calls a day, and, and you know, when you’re the boss, you know, in that position, they pay for your phone ’cause they expect you to pick it up 24 7, you know, and after, you know, years and years of that, you know, it’s it can lead to a little bit of burnout.

[00:26:45] So, yeah. I would say in, in many ways, I

[00:26:47] have better work-life balance today.

[00:26:49] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and that’s good. And I, I, I think. To what you’re just saying, I guess it really just depends on what it is that you’re, you’re looking for and, you know, if you want to be able to have [00:27:00] that kind of flexibility to be able to go to your kids’ sports events or to, you know, other things that you have going on in, in your life, whatever that may be.

[00:27:09] You know, there, there are certainly some benefits with being the boss and making your own schedule and, and kind of, laying that all out yourself. If, Hey, I’m, life’s getting too busy right now, maybe I need to back away and, and not take that event on or, or that new client on or, or whatever. And you can do that because you’re the boss.

[00:27:28] Whereas if you’re working for somebody else, well, you do the work that you’re. Told to do. And if it’s getting too busy for you, well that’s too damn bad. Like that’s, that’s what you gotta do. And so, you know, I don’t know, it, it, there, there’s kind of a, a bit of a trade off, but you kind of have to just feel it out and see what feels right for you, I guess.

[00:27:48] And, and that’s I guess that’s something everyone has to do, right?

[00:27:53] Billy Rudd: Yeah. I think one of the benefits for me specifically again, is going back to just kind of. My personal situation, [00:28:00] but my kids are able to jump in and help now as

[00:28:02] well, which is good for them. It’s like a first job

[00:28:04] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:28:04] Billy Rudd: They, they are making like tips through our mobile, you know, coffee shop and but they’re learning about, you know, getting up early and going to work and getting organized and all the different equipment and hospitality and you know, and, and working for tips and things like that.

[00:28:20] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:28:21] Billy Rudd: I was tucking in my youngest son the other day and we, we had done an event and I was like what? I always ask him, you know, what’s the best part of your day? And he was talking about, oh, he had the confidence to talk to a couple hundred strangers that day. I think we had made over 400 drinks, you know, mean he had to, he took every single order and he is, he is 11 years old, he is running his cash register and it takes a lot of guts, you know, to talk to, you know, and so that’s

[00:28:43] been a great benefit as well.

[00:28:45] Scott DeLuzio: Well, yeah, and, and so. There’s a lot of stuff that a, a, a kid that age can take away from that. I mean, obviously making some money that that’s, that’s pretty cool. And you know, a lot of kids his age probably don’t have any money to, you know, to [00:29:00] their name and they, but he’s able to go out there and, and earn some money and that, that kind of instills a bit of a work ethic and that, that I think is a, a good thing.

[00:29:08] And but that, that social interaction, being able to talk to complete strangers to other, to adults who maybe aren’t related or, you know, friends of the family or anything like that, they’re just random strangers who come coming up to order a coffee. Having that confidence to be able to talk to those people and you know, take their order, get their order right.

[00:29:28] You know, make the, the order you know. Collect payment, you know, maybe if they’re paying cash, give the right change, that type of thing. You know, there, there’s a lot of lessons. There’s, you know, basic math that comes into there, but, you know, in, you know, all that kind of stuff is stuff that you don’t get sitting there playing Xbox, you know,

[00:29:45] Billy Rudd: Yeah.

[00:29:45] Scott DeLuzio: that, that type of thing that a lot of, a lot of folks do.

[00:29:48] You’re not, you’re not learning those lessons and, and those things are gonna help the, your, your kids out. Whether they start a business themselves or they, you know, whatever job that they end up in, it’s gonna help them [00:30:00] out because it’s just gonna give them a better work ethic. I think. You know, we, I tried doing that with, with my kids as well.

[00:30:05] You know, having them, you know, help out in the business in, in one way or another. It could even just be small things. And, and all, all those things are you know, ways that they can you know, learn, learn a little bit about hard work and earn some money and. Feel kind of proud about the, the work that they did and, and look back and it’s like, Hey, you know what?

[00:30:25] I, I accomplished something. And that, that’s, that’s pretty good. And you don’t, like I said, you don’t get that from Xbox, you know? Yeah.

[00:30:31] Billy Rudd: At first I was a little bit conflicted on what I thought about that. But then I remembered I grew up on a dairy farm. Like, you know, my parents started taking me to the barn when I was five days old. So I always joked I had the first four days of my life off, you know? You know,

[00:30:46] so I don’t feel so bad

[00:30:47] about it now.

[00:30:48] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, exactly.

[00:30:49] Billy Rudd: Yeah.

[00:30:50] Scott DeLuzio: and, you know, it’s, it’s good, you know, I, I think getting involved in the family business helping out where you can, but also, you know, being fair, obviously, you know, they’re, they’re [00:31:00] making some money. They’re, they’re learning some skills and, and those are things that, you know, and I, I keep, you know, harping on, on the, the video games, but even just going to school, you don’t learn those things going to school either.

[00:31:11] You know, those things are you know, not, not to knock the teachers or anything like that. I’m, that’s not what I’m, I’m trying to do. It’s just that’s not the focus of school. And

[00:31:19] Billy Rudd: interaction just isn’t the

[00:31:21] way it, it’s not the same as it was when we were kids.

[00:31:23] Scott DeLuzio: sure.

[00:31:24] Billy Rudd: Yeah. It’s, you know,

[00:31:25] it’s obviously much more digital these days,

[00:31:27] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:31:28] Billy Rudd: you know, there’s some business, you know, that it

[00:31:30] doesn’t matter what you wanna do in life. You’re gonna have to sell something, you’re gonna have to sell a product, or you’re gonna have to sell a service.

[00:31:35] That’s how you’re gonna make money. And, you know, you got a lot better chance of being successful if you’ve got some personality to, to go along with it. And so, yeah, I think that’s been a side benefit of, of the, the, the mobile operation. But then they get to come home and see all the digital orders that have come in too, and, you know, they gotta fill these bags back here and print shipping labels and

[00:31:58] all that.

[00:31:58] So.

[00:31:59] Scott DeLuzio: Right. And, [00:32:00] but again, all of those things are, are things that when you buy something online, whether it’s Amazon or you know, wherever it is that you, you buy from you, you just see the screen in front of you that you place the order, put your credit card in place, the order, and. Then it shows up on your doorstep.

[00:32:17] You don’t know all the other things that happen in the background between, you know, the warehouse and all the, you know, picking the products and packaging it, and shipping labels and all the things, the customer service aspect of it. If, you know, an order gets you know, delivered, it’s the wrong product, or, you know, something happens, like all of those other things that happen in the background, I mean, most people don’t have any clue how, how that operates for, especially for a small business.

[00:32:41] I’m not talking, you know. Big company like Amazon, but small businesses, like a lot of times the IT. It’s the, the business owner who’s, who’s taking care of that stuff, or, you know, immediate family members or something like that. Like in your case customer service and, and everything that, that’s, that’s probably landing on your plate.

[00:32:57] Or, you know, you might, you might get to a [00:33:00] point where you have somebody else who comes in and, and takes care of that stuff, but but you, you’re probably gonna be pretty close to that, you know, you know. No matter how big the, the business gets, you wanna know where are the problems and, and how do we mitigate those problems so that they don’t happen again and, and that type of stuff.

[00:33:15] So you are continuously improving and making sure that the, the business is just getting better and better and, and you know, improving that, that customer experience you know, going forward. But,

[00:33:25] Billy Rudd: yeah, I mean a hundred percent When I was with Topgolf or, or with Red Lobster, I mean, I had thousands of employees under my leadership and you know, hundreds of millions of dollars in my p and l that I was responsible. Before. And,

[00:33:36] But I read every single guest complaint,

[00:33:38] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah,

[00:33:38] Billy Rudd: every single one of ’em

[00:33:39] because you know that, that tells a story, you

[00:33:42] Scott DeLuzio: sure.

[00:33:42] Billy Rudd: if somebody’s, you know, putting in a guest complaint, it’s ’cause they want you to win. People don’t like, really take the time to write, you know, I mean, there’s a few, but, you know, it’s not really worth trying to, know, weed those out. It’s, it’s a very small percentage. You know, but I think when people complain, it’s because we, we let them down. They, they’re, they’re cheering [00:34:00] for you. They want you to win.

[00:34:01] They didn’t

[00:34:01] wanna, you know, this, this situation to

[00:34:03] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:34:04] Billy Rudd: and you just yeah. So I don’t think it really matters how big or how small you are. I think if you, you know, are, are listening to your customers,

[00:34:10] you know, you’re gonna learn a lot.

[00:34:12] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:34:13] So as, as a veteran starting starting a business, were there any any benefits to being a veteran in, in starting this business as far as you know, any services that were available to you or even just. Just the resilience and grit from being a, a, a veteran. Anything that you found that was helpful for you in, in getting this business off the ground?

[00:34:35] Billy Rudd: So I didn’t really use any like specific services like financial aid or anything like that. But one thing I did learn is we did kinda in, in. Small font places on the website and on the packaging, on the back of the package packaging, it says veteran owned. And it was interesting, like when we first started the brand, we’d go to like some festivals and we had like a branded tent and stuff like [00:35:00] that.

[00:35:00] And we’d talk to people that were like, what’s cloud splitter? And we’d talk to ’em and they were interested but not super interested. But as soon as they heard veteran owned.

[00:35:10] That’s when they became a lot more interested.

[00:35:11] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:35:12] Billy Rudd: I live in like a rural area and we were doing festivals out in this area, and I don’t know, it’s, I think that that resonates a little bit more, at least here, where I live the, the veteran part. So I, I’ve learned at that, that, that people certainly are more inclined to support veteran-owned businesses, you know, so I would, we, we still don’t scream it from the rooftops, you know? I just personally, that’s, that’s just not who

[00:35:39] I, I would be ina inauthentic if I

[00:35:40] Scott DeLuzio: Sure.

[00:35:41] Billy Rudd: the rooftops but it is out there a little bit more than, than the early part of the brand. And and it’s, it’s like it, it’s something that they, either they were in a service, their parents

[00:35:55] were, or they just liked supporting veterans.

[00:35:57] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:35:57] Billy Rudd: I would say if I was giving advice to [00:36:00] some, to a veteran, starting a a, a business that put that

[00:36:03] out there in some way, shape, or form,

[00:36:04] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, yeah. Kind of. Don’t, don’t shy away from it. Lean into it a little bit, but to your point, you don’t need to, you know, have your, your brand colors being red, white and blue, and making it all, you know, make it be the whole, I mean, if it is, that’s fine, but

[00:36:18] Billy Rudd: that’s who you are

[00:36:18] Scott DeLuzio: then

[00:36:19] Billy Rudd: then go for it.

[00:36:20] Scott DeLuzio: go for it, right?

[00:36:21] Billy Rudd: unapologetically who you are,

[00:36:23] Scott DeLuzio: Sure.

[00:36:24] Billy Rudd: For me it’s, it’s tends to be a little more discreet, you know? But there’s certainly brands out there that are Yeah.

[00:36:30] They’ve, they’re riding in on a war eagle, you know,

[00:36:33] Scott DeLuzio: yeah.

[00:36:33] Billy Rudd: yeah. That, that’s who they are.

[00:36:35] So,

[00:36:36] Scott DeLuzio: yeah.

[00:36:36] So.

[00:36:37] Billy Rudd: I would say

[00:36:37] don’t Hide it though. Okay.

[00:36:39] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, I, I would say, you know, kind of to that point, like, put it out there, let it be known that, hey, this is a veteran owned company. I know from my own experience, I, I, there’s a farmer’s market in our town and I, I went in, I went in there one day looking for one particular thing and I end up walking by a booth that had things a veteran owned, you know, [00:37:00] whatever.

[00:37:00] And, i, I ended up just stopping by there and buying something from them in addition to whatever else I was looking for, just because they were, it was a, a, a veteran owned business and I, you know, got to know the person a little bit, talk to talk to ’em who, you know, figure out what, what it is that they’re all about and, and that kind of, their background and seemed like a good person.

[00:37:17] So I was like, what the hell? I’ll support ’em and you know, bought something from him. But you know, without that sign, I probably would’ve walked right past it. Just be.

[00:37:23] Billy Rudd: other advantage too, especially if you’re, you know, kind of living in the digital space like, like cloud supporter does is other veteran businesses will reach out to you to partner with

[00:37:33] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.

[00:37:33] Billy Rudd: mentor to. wins and losses, you know, they may not even be in the same industry or there’s even opportunities to, to donate or, you know, give charitably back to veteran organizations from, from your business.

[00:37:48] So, so I think, yeah, I think it’s, there’s a benefit to, to putting that, that label out there.

[00:37:54] it’s just gonna expand the business.

[00:37:55] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, that, that’s awesome. I think really great advice you know, for, for [00:38:00] folks who are, are starting a business, veterans, obviously, you know, if you’re not a veteran, don’t put that on on your product. But don’t, don’t do that. But but if, but if you are, you know, it’s, I mean, you’ve earned that title so you know, why not use it and, and.

[00:38:13] It’s not like you’re, you’re taking advantage of anything. It’s that that’s the title you’ve earned and so, so, you know, go for it. For folks who are listening you know, the coffee drinkers out there, I know veteran veterans have a lot of coffee drinkers and there’s, that’s kind of a big deal amongst veterans.

[00:38:28] Anyone who wants to try out cloud fitter split. Excuse me, cloud Splitter Coffee.

[00:38:33] Billy Rudd: Yeah.

[00:38:34] Scott DeLuzio: It’s like my mouth is getting split over here the way I’m talking. No, the, the Cloud Splitter coffee anyone who wants to check that out where can they go to to find out more about it and, and place an order and, and all that kind of stuff.

[00:38:46] Billy Rudd: Yeah, so you can go to the website, cloud splitter coffee.com. And we have, on there, you’ll see all of our different roast. We have five

[00:38:53] different roasts, light, medium, dark espresso, and

[00:38:55] Scott DeLuzio: Thank

[00:38:56] Billy Rudd: You also see all of our merchandise on there.

[00:38:58] And then you can also, [00:39:00] there’s a feature to

[00:39:00] Scott DeLuzio: you.

[00:39:00] Billy Rudd: where, where’s that trailer at?

[00:39:02] Here locally if you’re in Western Maryland, Pennsylvania. The kind of the four state area here. West Virginia. Virginia where we’re located at and and maybe we can connect. So, also you can find us on Instagram, Facebook,

[00:39:14] and you can follow me on LinkedIn as well.

[00:39:16] Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. And I’ll have links to all of that in the show notes as well. So, so for folks who are wanting to check it out go, go straight to the show notes. You can click right through on there and, and it’ll get you to where you need to go. But, but Billy, really thank you so much for coming on the show and kind of sharing a little bit about your journey, your, your entrepreneurial journey and you know, how your, your military background has benefited you going forward.

[00:39:38] You know. Between the resilience and the grit in, in those types of things that, that come out of military service. That’s just kind of a byproduct, I think a lot of us walk away with whether we realize it or not. But also you know, just how, how you’re able to you know, get the business up and running you know, while, while working a a regular, you know, corporate job and you know, get that up and running and then, then kind of [00:40:00] leaning into it and, and making that your full-time thing.

[00:40:02] I, I think that’s, that’s a great way to go. And you know, for folks who are out there wanting to do something like that I, I think that’s, that’s certainly something you can, you can consider. And you know, definitely, definitely give that, give that a shot. You know, once when you’ve found that thing that you, you think you’re, you’re passionate about, can make some money on you know, definitely, definitely do it that way.

[00:40:20] I think that that’s a good way to go.

[00:40:22] Billy Rudd: Take the leap.

[00:40:23] Scott DeLuzio: Exactly.

[00:40:24] Billy Rudd: Yep.

[00:40:25] Scott DeLuzio: So, so yeah, thanks so much for coming on and, and sharing you know, everything that you, you do and you know, we’ll, we’ll definitely get that link out there and hopefully get some, some folks find some coffee.

[00:40:33] Billy Rudd: All right. Appreciate your time. Thank you.

[00:40:35] Scott DeLuzio: All right, thanks.​