204 – He makes jewelry in 2 countries: Tom interviews Greg Boudah

Episode 204 – Greg Boudah
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody, it's Tom here with Episode 204 of Screw the Commute podcast. We got Greg Boudah here. This guy is a prolific marketer and also he works in two countries. He's in Thailand right now where I'm going to be talking to him and he also has business in the U.S. and he makes really gorgeous high quality jewelry. So we'll introduce him to you in a moment. And hope you didn't miss Episode 203. That's Margy Feldhuhn. She runs a service to book people on podcasts. Then they went from one person to a 14 person business almost overnight. And she also rescues animals, which makes me love her even more. So make sure you go back and listen to that one. Quick announcement. Our podcast app's in the App Store. You can do lots of cool stuff. Conveniently from your mobile device and you can download from the app store. Also, we have instructions on how to use all the fancy features on our Web site screwthecommute.com/app. Make sure you grab that. And also while you're over there, leave a review and star rating for us we'll appreciate it. Now, as a thank you for listening. We have a free e-book for you called How to Automate Your Business. And just one of the tips on this e-book has saved me over seven and a half million keystrokes. And it's allowed me to handle up to one hundred fifty thousand subscribers and forty thousand customers without pulling my hair out. And we sell this book for 27 bucks, but it's yours free is my thanks for listening. And plus, there's another surprise whitepaper for you that some people are charging four five or six thousand bucks for the same info. I'm gonna surprise you with that one. But you can pick them both up at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Now our sponsor's the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia. It's a distance learning school which teaches legitimate techniques to make a great living, either working for someone else or starting your own online business. And we we got approved by the Department of Defense for a military spouse scholarship program. So if you know any military spouses that don't want to have to take crappy jobs every time they get moved to a different station than let us know because we can keep money coming in for them when they get these Internet marketing skills. So check it all out at IMTCVA.org. And of course, everything we do will be in the show notes. This is episode two hundred and four. So you go to screwthecommute.com/204 and you'll see all of Greg's stuff and you can get links over to our military program and our school over there. So it'd be IMTCVA.org/military if you want to go check out the scholarship program and we do a lot of stuff and we give an internal scholarship to all military active duty veterans, first responders and law enforcement because we couldn't do the things we do if it wasn't for those people keeping us safe.

[00:03:41] So let's get to the main event. Greg Boudah is here. He says you pronounce it like the monk is a veteran loving ginger beard, farming, former U.S. Marine gone goldsmith. And he's laser focused on elevating the type of jewelry products the military community are being offered. He owns a jewelry factory in Thailand and operates a design studio here in the United States. He's got a team of 30 highly skilled jewelers and military spouses. And the jewelry republic is where veterans buy jewelry. Greg, are you ready to screw. The commute. You got a heck of a commute.

[00:04:24] Yeah, that's a heck of a commute. I'm I'm so ready. I'm absolutely excited to be on your podcast. Thank you for having me. It's so cool.

[00:04:31] Yeah. It was great to meet you at the Military Influencers Conference. Steven Kuhn introduced us. Yeah, my girlfriend makes jewelry here in the States and so I was really excited about what you're doing and the beautiful of bracelets you had for everybody. I didn't get one, but other than that, my wrist is probably too fat for that. So tell everybody what you're doing, how you're in business in two countries. And then we'll take you back and see how you came up through the ranks.

[00:05:05] Fantastic. So the Jewelry Republic is headquartered in Denver and I manufacture and make big certain products in the United States. That's super important to take away is. Some things are made there because it's a detail and how we need to make it and other pieces I manufacturer and make them produce in my factory in Thailand, where we have a whole lot more technology capability. But the design work is done really, really well in the US. And so what we've got going on is a military focused team who really through my through my experience as a military guy, a former Marine and the mill spouses who work for me, starting with my wife. And I've got a couple of a few other ones that are working for us who helped me make sure that the imagery and the designs and the layouts get out to our people that resonate. But more importantly, it's just not all military looking stuff. You're not going to get everything with an anchor on it for the Navy or the gun on it for submarines or whatever. It's it's fine, fine jewelry. You would see anywhere in the United States and very high end all or a very high shop. What it is, it's it's just. Always get like lower end stuff and and I don't know how to make low end stuff, so I just figure hey let's produce this for our community because they deserve it. The journey that they've been on their whole life as a veteran and as a military person and now, you know, as a civilian, most likely it's what we deserve. And I'm sort of appalled at what's being on offered to our military community.

[00:06:35] Yes. So. So the only thing I saw was the bracelet. When I met you. But what other things do you make?

[00:06:43] Oh, great question. We make everything from men's cuff links to women's pendants to necklaces, the earrings. Right. We do a ton of custom work. We have it. We have things for the entire body and two of them taste, but that's it. So that's really what we what we focus on. We're a full factory, full service jeweler and it's fits great with a about our community is somebody will see one of our customers will see something. And the first thing you want to do is militarise it, which is great. And you know why? Because that guy in Kansas City who sees that item that we have. He says, oh, man, I want my artillery unit logo on there or I want. I'm a comm guy or on a whatever. I can do that because I will absolutely understand the importance of everything with regard to your logo, the military aspects of what we do. I understand all of that stuff where a civilian has no freaking clue, full stop period that nobody's talking about. Now for our wives, our wives, girlfriends, the women in our world, they do not typically want a rifle hanging off of their necklace. They don't want a, you know, like a drill instructor hat necklace or. They don't want that. We're cool with it. But my wife, I don't want her to be. She doesn't want to be on it. It's up to her. She simply doesn't want to be covered in a military logo stuff. I've got plenty of that for. So it's fine jewelry. My factory, we have several types of customers to include very high end American brands where I manufacture their jewelry as an OEM manufacturer. Like so say you see a big, big brand, let's say on the red carpet at the Oscars. Some woman, at least their role. And she's going to say to the microphone, oh, this is made by X, Y, Z company because they're good. They're going to want to know. And I am the manufacturer who makes the jewelry for that type of people that customer who then who then dresses up Charlize Theron on it or Demi Moore or Pink, any one of those people we make jewelry for companies that dress them.

[00:08:49] So they do the design or do you also do the design?

[00:08:53] It's a collaboration because we've got several customers, big clients who are wholesale manufacturers from Europe to the United States to other parts of the world. Australia, New Zealand. And they sometimes they have a certain level of sophistication when it comes to their designs. Depends on who they are and others. Talk to Emma, who's my wife, who's a you know, a lance corporal in the Marine Corps. She will guide them, coach him and create for them. And then they basically will say, this is your new collection for the spring. And it could be, you know, rubies, diamonds, sapphires, whatever. And then we will pitch that that to the brand. And then the brand will come back to us and they will say, we like this, this, this and this. And then at that point we go in and start doing minimum orders and we make them do a certain amount of volume, but we give them a directive. We give them a wholesale rate as they're buying 10 or 20 or 100 units. Now the jewelry republic, I leverage a jewelry bulk for our community. There's zero people in the middle. It's me, my company, and selling it to my our people, our veteran community, so that all that middle road, all that left, all that list, all of those little guys in the middle who make jewelry so damn expensive, I literally eliminate. And that's where I can make this amazing jewelry for a value literally far cheaper than what you're going to buy. But it's made for the same levels of companies that are on the red carpet.

[00:10:17] Wow, wow. Wow. That's. So it's a great thing. Where do where do you sell it retail to the military community?

[00:10:26] We do we do veteran shows from which we're doing our. We're doing one on December 14th. I'll have to. I'll send I'll put on to show notes. I'll send you a link. We are an online jewelry store. I don't I'm not. I don't believe that I need a retail store. Our community is our community is moving around. The P.X. I have talked to the guys down in Texas for the army exchanges and whatnot. They're not really open minded right now to take it on a high end brand. And that is a totally jacked up mindset. They literally have told me, you know, people aren't ready for fine jewelry. And I look at her and I go, no, that's totally wrong. They are. They're just going across the street, off base and buying the jewelry from somebody else who could give two shits about a military community period where I absolutely care about our community and know our community. And so they basically don't. So the other day, what's going to happen? I'm taking a very gave. The approach to this is is the jewelry public will be so important to this community that the P.X. will come in, contact me and say we will like you in our store because it is a completely wrong that our people don't deserve high quality jewelry.

[00:11:43] They deserve more than the average person.

[00:11:46] I agree. They're buying trinkets and it's it's not. You will never buy a diamond for me. That is a low quality. It's beautiful quality. I just won't market it up five hundred times period.

[00:11:57] All right. So what if someone, a civilian, wanted to buy a gift for a military person?

[00:12:04] Oh, that's great. But we we we we only specifically target to the military people. We have all kinds of civilians who see our product and buy it because it's not all military specific. Like for the men's collection, we've got some very cool just general skull rings and, you know, aggressive looking awesome stuff. And in the women's stuff, you know, like a really cool bullhorn pendant or a pyramid necklace or, you know, a green sapphire snake ring that doesn't look like a snake, little snake. But but it's the jewelry's for anybody. I just don't know how to talk to anybody. I don't know how to talk to Jane Smith from Venice Beach, who's been killing her whole life. I don't how to talk to a Starship Johnson, who I've I've I've literally hiked the same god damn hills as he have. I've shot so the same watches that Jane Smith has on ship. I've done all of that. Therefore, I have a lot to connect with. And I don't know how to talk to the civilian community at all when it comes to selling them jewelry. I'm very comfortable often talking to sailors. The chief season just just passed us in the Navy. All the chiefs got promoted to chief. The new chiefs get promoted. And and it's so much fun selling to military people. Guys, you're like, come on, bro, just fired off your dumb ass. It's never good to see some ladies again. They're like, oh, yeah, you're right. I say that there's a value and a meltdown in front of you like you're such a jerk. Well, that's just how we are. And it's so much fun.

[00:13:32] All right. So I want to get back to this just a little bit. If you said you customized it, if somebody told you a certain thing that they wanted, is that correct?

[00:13:43] Yeah, every it seems like almost exclusively we make custom jewelry almost all the time. Some of our products. When you look at it, they love it and they buy it. That happens all the time. But very often it is like they see the item and they want to put their logo on right then.

[00:13:59] But so it's a one off. You can make one at a time if you had to.

[00:14:03] Absolutely. Absolutely. So we'll do the design work with you. So basically, if you see an item and you want to or you want to make something from scratch, you don't have to modify any item. You can just come to me and say, I want to make this. And what we'll do is I have a whole team, a whole design team, and we do a 3D design. And then I will show you a very clear digital rendering. That's a pretty darn close effect that what it will look like when it's done. And then I'll use my 3-D printer and a printer on my 3D printer, and they will cast it in 14 or 18 karat gold or platinum or silver if you need it for the mostly for the men is the silver stuff. But I cast a direct and boom, boom, boom. I made you your custom item with maybe your military logo or your special service or whatever you did in the military. I will figure it out with you and we'll talk on the phone bill and we'll we'll get there. And it's you'll be super happy. We do it all the time.

[00:14:50] Yeah. That's right. And like I said, that was a gift for a military person. Someone wanted it customized without them knowing about it. You'd be a person to say, no, that's stupid. Don't do that. That's it. They came up with an idea that just doesn't make sense for that person's military career.

[00:15:12] Absolutely. And that they don't know right now. I'll help them hone in on that also. Well, say what? What did they do? Tell. Let me show you what that logo looks like correctly. Very good. You do a logo wrong in the military. You upset people pretty quickly.

[00:15:24] Yeah, so. So tell us a little bit more about the business aspect of running a business in Thailand. How did that come about?

[00:15:33] So it came about. I got I got I lost I lost my job after I left. I got back from Iraq and I lost my job. I got back from a tour in Iraq in 2003, and I was working as a production manager for a jewelry company in Denver. And they went out of business almost. They got they went very they got they weren't nearly out of business. And I went out of business with my got basically fired with everybody else. And at that point, a company asked me to. They just built a factory in Thailand for their own operation. And they said, Greg, we need you to come run it. And I was I was like, sure, I Tom, I had no idea how to do that. I don't know idea. But guess what? I was out of a job and there was an opportunity staring me in the face.

[00:16:22] You were married at that time or not married?

[00:16:25] I'm married. I have a house mortgage. I had friends, family. I had everything in Denver. I had the whole nine yards. But you know what? When that when the door just everything just changed overnight. There are no two week notice. It was worth shutting everybody down. Oh, man. So so I lost the job and got we all got laid off. And then immediately an off an offer was was given to me. And I had no idea how to do that. But I did say I could figure my day. I'm sorry. I didn't say that at all. Is it sure I could do that? Got on a plane. Basically, I took over this jewelry manufacturing company for a very large American jewelry.

[00:17:01] So the family's still in Denver and the house and everything. And you just took off to Thailand.

[00:17:06] That when in short, shortly thereafter. Shortly thereafter, my wife was with me in Bangkok. Within several weeks. Quit her job as a human resources manager for a bank. And we we put that house on the market for rent in Denver and it has been rented since 2006.

[00:17:25] Oh, all right. So you didn't go down the tubes with a foreclosure.

[00:17:33] No, no. It was super quick. It was like I got I got fired. Bam! And I got a new job. And. But but the new job was definitely a big decision. It was. And this is an important decision that I made that I see with our veteran community. I pretty much only pay attention to the veteran community woes. I'm sure civilians have the same woes, but I focus on our woes. And they're you know, they they lose our job or they don't like their job. And often a lot of guys and girls are forgotten. Men and women are like, oh, but I don't want to move to the three towns over. But I'm like, well, you gotta put food on the table, honey. I mean, that's what you've got to do. I wanted to continue to live that lifestyle where I could put food on my table. So I took the job and it was hard Tom. It was very hard, tough on a family. And my wife and I were pretty tight and very hard. A first year living overseas. Doesn't matter if you're in Thailand, Costa Rica, Mexico, whatever. Or maybe you moved from Florida to Maine and start a whole new career across the country making a big move like that. heavy-lift right area, very heavy lift emotionally. So, so, so strong that, you know, we sought help. We got a we got some counselling and we got some new tools in order to say, OK, we've got to figure this stuff out.

[00:18:43] So twelve months later go by, we started figuring out how to navigate this town and brought in this new job. And then I you know, I I'm taken on all these challenges. And so I ran this guy's company for several years. And while I'm running this guy's company all, he is a privately owned company. And we had all these wholesalers around the world who kept on calling me because they were like, oh, this guy, Greg, he really has his stuff together, which is, I think, just the Marine Corps image. They just look at me and my head's up and I look at my shoulders back and I'm smiling. I think that kind of like the laws of attraction kind of work that way. But my oh, the owners of the company were like, Greg, would you not want to take in the outside business? Just our company. So I was like, OK, I'm telling you, Tom, monthly. I was getting turning away quarter million dollar business. 10 million are going really into our business, a half and just turning away production from these wholesale brands across the world. And that's fine. So it took me slow learner. So give me a break. I was like my wife and I are like, hot babe. We should just start our own company and and take these outside orders.

[00:19:47] So long story short, that's exactly what we did. I left that company after about three, four years. And then in 2011, I started a company called Spokes Jewelry Services and Spokes Jewelry Services. I immediately went right after one client and then another client and then another client. And I completely screwed up the first one and then salvage the other two. And that was in 2011. And this company, the spokes spoke jewelry services does very well as if if spoke jewelry is on my core revenue for the for the whole entire thing. That's what we do for a living. And I. We we we have a great little team. And it it's a it's a hell of an offer. It's a hell of a thing that we started. It's hard.

[00:20:31] Tell us more about actually starting a business in Thailand.

[00:20:36] So Americans, we have a special thing called the Treaty of Amity between the United States and Thailand, where the United States during the war in Vietnam, when America was over there fighting the war. We built a ton of things over here in Thailand. Thailand is a massive ally of the United States, very, very important ally. We built all their runways. We put all there the ton of communications, infrastructure, everything and the support of two main things keep us operational in Vietnam. And we fought in a war of Vietnam. And to keep the country, Thailand, out of the war in Vietnam, because, I mean, it was all over the place and we kind of kept everybody at bay as in return, the government, the country of Thailand allows only Americans to own their businesses outright. Big, big deal. French, Spanish, English, whatever. My my wife, she's Irish. Is she, if you will, if they want to start a company here in Thailand has to be fifty one percent type majority. Very important little detail. Yeah. And where let's say if you're starting a research company, no big deal, you hire a lawyer and you make him your owner and make that 51 percent thing. It's not a big deal. But for Americans, absolutely. Take full advantage. Took full advantage of that because my product is pretty walking out the dorable. So, you know, you upset your fifty one percent shareholder he'll hold a quick meeting quietly. And next thing you know, put a lock on your door. It happens in this stuff. This this town is kind of gunslinging in many ways. They don't let that. OK. Now, I can own my business, but I can't have a bank. I mean, I can have a bank for checking account, savings account, payroll and stuff like. Yeah, but I cannot have lending facility because foreigners were not allowed to own property. Unless you're even even if you're married to a Thai woman, you have to use your Thai wife, your own, the property, they don't sell land to foreigners. So therefore, if I wanted to get a loan from a bank, I don't have any real estate to be leveraged. So that's sort of a tricky one. So running a very high end jewelry manufacturing company, it is all about gold and it's all about cash. So I that all those were the ways that I'm forced to do business by the government here. It it's an advantage because I don't have any terms. I have zero debt. I have no credit. So I can go to the diamond trade.

[00:22:50] I can go to the gemstone trades. And I buy everything that I slide over fifty thousand dollars of cash across the table. And I get I get one kilo of pure gold. Oh, and I'll turn that. But the hard part is to turn that 50. That that one kilo, if I do that, all that, that's like my right. Kind of a date. So every couple of weeks I'll buy it. But the hard part is, is that that money comes right out of my checking account. So imagine you take a big fifty thousand dollar nut out of your checking account. You need to turn it back into sales A.S.A.P. that pays the lights pays the payroll, that pays for the rent, that pays for the car, that pays everything. So. Who you choose to do business with is very important so that they don't stiff you and not pay you. We have very good clients. So that works out the types of investments that you make, the types of machinery that you make, the decisions that you make a very important as if it slows down your ability to recover your accounts receivable or the money that customers owe you. It can really slow everything down your cash flow.

[00:23:50] Let me get this straight. So I remember I've been to Thailand twice and it was always considered very safe. But I wasn't carrying gold in the 50 grand in cash. Or can it be a check?

[00:24:05] They don't do checks very well. Business to business. They might. But that's all gone away. Now, when I started the company, we didn't even have online banking. So like I would need to get cash. So I wanted to be incognito. I would literally walk out of my factory in downtown Bangkok and get a motorcycle taxi guy. Right. Flagged him down.

[00:24:27] Not even a tuk tuk.

[00:24:29] No, no. God, no. They're too slow. So I gave him my little motorcycle taxi guy and I would have him drive me to my bank. The Bangkok bank and I would walk into the bank, I would write a check is very slow read. I get withdraw about fifty thousand dollars or one point five million Blop worth of cash, which is the size of a toaster oven. Put that in my backpack. And meanwhile, I've already know, shooed that guy off. The taxi guy. I walk out of the bank, turn left, get another taxi guy, though. I need to switch it up. And then I've got this big giant toaster of cash in my backpack. I get in another taxi and I go to the gold company who sells me a kilo of gold. So the taxi guy dropped me off about a half block away. I walk in. There is a big, heavy backpack, walk out with a light backpack, except this big lump in the bottom and right in the middle of it. Another motorbike taxi with a kilo of pure gold. And I drive back to near my factory. Then I walk around and I sneak back and I do that. All of that stuff. And I had this little bottle of pepper spray because foreigners aren't allowed to own guns. I got this little bottle of pepper spray, which they openly sell here in the like the military surplus shops. So this thing is sticking out of my backpack like a periscope all the time. And then one day, Tom, this is crazy. I'm reading the front page of the newspaper having breakfast. And there's an article about the Thai hookers want the government to allow them to carry pepper spray. And I'm thinking, well, why wouldn't they carry pepper spray? So I read the article more. It's like a class one felony or class like whatever, class one or class 5, whatever that is the worst class a felony to utilize and carry pepper. Oh my gosh. I literally like took that shit. Boom. Right into the soup. Right. In the moment I was like, this is gone because you know what it is. I'm not afraid to get stopped by a random cop. And you looked at my pepper spray, right? It's if you happen to upset somebody, upset an employee. And this is an important day for business, period. You upset an employee. You're a foreigner or you're in you're I'm in America all the time. I got employees there. And if you would set them, you know, people can get a little weird and vindictive on you doing something blatantly, openly wrong. I frankly did not know that there was a whatever high level class felony. I did not want to spend any time in the Bangkok Hilton.

[00:26:42] They're selling it there in the in the stores.

[00:26:49] Absolutely. Right there. And who's in there? All the cops are going in there to buy their stuff. I even had a bulletproof vest for a while. Yeah, my buddy who a contractor from Halliburton or some he shows up and he gives me his bulletproof vest because he moved to open our stuff. And I'm like, oh, great. So I got this bulletproof vest, ballistic plates and I read the same article can have bullet proof vest like Jesus, men walking felon.

[00:27:15] Oh, man. Maybe I could get one of those. They are bulletproof clothing. No, no. Like a jacket.

[00:27:24] So so starting a business here is super tough. You have to it, too. It takes a lot of money and it took a lot of saving. Right. So in order to get you have to have a work permit. They have very good immigration. Our country we learn a little bit about immigration from this particular country. I check into immigration every 90 days. I get a visa every two years. I physically have to go show my face. My 9 year old's face, my wife's face. And in order to get a work permit, number one, I have to hire a certain amount of Thai employees. And I want to Segway one quick. People who think I'm outsourcing, I'm not outsourcing. I live here. My wife is Irish. I got. There's a lot of some guys. They get all hit up all year old towards American do it. I do employee Americans. I employee Thai. I employ one Irish woman, my wife. But it's it's this is just how I choose to live my life. I like being overseas. I love going back to United States. And I spend my summers with my son at the Grand Canyon and plan to visit Colorado, riding horseback and shooting guns. I spent time in Ireland. When I became a Marine security guard, which is a job in the Marine Corps. We work different embassies around the world. I was like, oh, this is cool. So that's just how I structured my life by hook or by crook. When I got fired in Denver. But that's just gone. How it happened. And there's there's a difference between outsourcing and actually living your own in your own business. It's a stark, stark difference.

[00:28:47] That's for sure. And most people say after the fact that getting fired or quitting is the best thing that ever happened.

[00:28:56] One million percent. I was talking to some people recently, and I wish they were talking about the fear of entrepreneurship. And I said that's a valid fear. But just do it. Period. It's not like you're rolling in dough, like free available cash or we have cash, but it's got to go to raw material. But it's an entrepreneur. What you have is control of your fate in many, many ways versus an employee on your percent as an employee. You're sort of at the beck and call of someone just saying, I need a bunch of bad decisions. The is closed. It's a big deal. I had my heart like skipped a beat when that happened to me. It was. It was a big stressor.

[00:29:33] You are the first guy on here that had backpacks full of gold as part of their business model.

[00:29:40] Evolved since then. Now they deliver it to me.

[00:29:48] So were you an entrepreneurial kid?

[00:29:51] No. My my my quite horrible stepfather is a Navy lieutenant commander, retired type, and my mother was a teacher. So now we add we are all military family all the way.

[00:30:03] When you go in the military.

[00:30:05] I joined the Marines ninety three and got out in '04.

[00:30:08] Okay. So you put put some time in there. So what kind of tips would you have for people that are either thinking about starting a business or are in a business now and want to improve it?

[00:30:19] Protect your capital. Don't go running out and buying all a bunch of equipment that you can. You can you can find a vendor locally to do for you. Let them do that part of the business. Protect your capital. I started this this company with a whole bunch of cash and I immediately blew 40 percent of it on two machines that I don't even use today. I didn't use that. Big mistake. I survived. It almost really messed myself up, but I just didn't need it. Secondly of OK for those who. Your second question to get, Tom, is, was improve your business if you're already right. Look, if you're local, let's say you're in Kansas City or Albuquerque, L.A. or whatever. A link up with Bunker Labs. They're really, really good. They are at a huge added value. They will help you get your entrepreneur mindset in the right place. Visit your local chamber of Commerce. You're going to rub elbows with people who are experienced business owners. You might be lucky enough to get a responsibility in the Chamber of Commerce where maybe you're a secretary or they make you a treasurer. It's all volunteer time. But guess what? You're rubbing elbows with the guy who owns four car dealerships. You rubbing elbows with the real estate mogul who's making $10 million a year and you get to sit across with your little brand new small company, whatever you're doing. And maybe you your revenue is a thousand dollars a month. Guess what? You're having lunch with the guy who turned over seven digits. And you can say, how do I do this, man? After your relationship is tight and he'll tell you or she'll tell you, that is a real value. Get out of your little network and expand marriage. The Chamber of Commerce is a big way to do it. Bunker Labs, another big way to do it.

[00:31:55] That's a great, great advice. We've got to take a little sponsor break and when we come back. We're going to ask Greg what's a typical day look like for him and how he stays motivated. So so, folks, I'm down on my hands and knees begging you to check out a webinar or pass it on to someone that could use it. It's has to do with higher education. And if you're considering getting retrained because you hate what you're doing or you want a better life for yourself, for your family, or maybe have kids or nephews, nieces or even neighbors who are wondering if they should burn up hundreds of thousands of dollars, go into to college or universities, and then they end up broke with mountains of debt and no marketable skills. Well, you might just want to take a little time and watch this webinar and be prepared to be mad when you're watching it, because the the tuition rates are going up and they're faking grade point averages. They're inflating them to make it look like the colleges are doing better. And the testing is showing that the kids are dumber and they're only spending eight hours a week total on preparing and going to class. I mean, I don't know if I'd want to mortgage my house for this, to have them. The rest of the time was spent partying, these are all high level education, people with these statistics. This isn't just me hawking my school, but they are the rest of the time is partying and eating and shopping. So like I said, I don't know if I'd want to mortgage my house to pay for something like that and then compete for jobs at Starbucks. So so check out the webinar or pass it on to someone that's thinking about what their future is going to be. And I think you really like it. You can check it out at screwthecommute.com and then click on webinars and you'll be able to see it. And if you have any questions about our school where you can get an education, that's a marketable skill that every business on earth needs in a relatively fast period of time. Well, you want to talk to me about IMTCVA.org. And if you're in the military for law enforcement or first responders, we have a. Scholarship for you just through our school. And then if you're a military spouse. The Department of Defense has another scholarship for you. So so check it all out. This is episode two hundred and four. Screwthecommute.com/204. And we also have links to all Greg's great stuff there.

[00:34:26] So let's get back to the main event, Greg. So what's a typical day look like for you?

[00:34:33] So if I'm in the United States, that's a studio. What we're doing is we're creating.

[00:34:37] How often or how much time you spend in each place.

[00:34:42] It depends on the all it. It depends on the volume. Primarily, I'm here because this is where the bulk of our production comes from. Our if during our peak season that I get around just a bit more, but it really depends on the season. The jewelry business is quite seasonal, so we're often just building and creating new designs so that there, you know, that I could get what I need out of the designs. And it's. It's very kind of a passionate personal thing. So it's you really got to get your head around. What are we going to look at for the next season?

[00:35:13] And then when you're saying seasonal, is it like Valentine's Day and Christmas or what's the season's for?

[00:35:19] And then Mother's Day. It's Mother's Day. And Valentine's Day is like a two week blitz. And it depends on the business, like for the jewelry republic. It's it's a two week blitz of just finished product retail sales for my for the factory, which are making jewelry for the for the brands across the world. That is a month long. It's all going to be done in a very short period time because it's right after Christmas. Like in December. I'm making jewelry for February. It's sort of depressing, actually. Until the invoices come in and you're like, OK.

[00:35:54] But in Thailand, the day the scheduling were up and at 'em at 6:00 in the morning and I dropped my son off and my wife and I come come to the factory and get it. Get it rock and roll and do a quick morning, basically a morning powwow like you would do in the fleet. I run the business just like I would a platoon.

[00:36:11] How many people work in the factory.

[00:36:14] Twenty five.

[00:36:15] Twenty five. Is it the typical stuff like we have in the states with payroll taxes and stuff like that, or is it a whole different system?

[00:36:24] No. Totally the same. It's all based on the general accounting gaap. The typical way to do business through payroll taxes and salaries, Social Security. I. Because I'm American, we offer we do benefits for our employees because we are we we run this place like an American business. And it takes our staff a little while to get their head around those who don't get their head around it. They get moved on. But we I want to hear your opinion if you want to try something differently. I want to hear you. I want you to debate with me a little bit. And that's a cultural difference that we've we've harvested. Most of our employees been with us for well over five years.

[00:37:02] They mostly speak halfway decent English.

[00:37:06] No, no, that's a problem. This country was never colonized. Something that could have propelled them much faster throughout the world would have been a bunch more English where the countries around Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Burma. They speak English. And you can see it in the last decade. They have really, really come up in the market. So we'll start our day here. Get the ball rolling with the team. And then my my wife is our designer. So she'll really start drawing and creating ideas, working with customers from east coast to west coast to different parts of the country. And and she'll be what? She's our designer. So she'll be talking to the chief in Seattle who wants them, who's a submariner, and he wants to make a submarine ring from his world. So, Emma, we'll start going back and forth and collaborating. I'm running the operations I'm doing. I'm doing the five paragraph orders every day at, you know, getting everybody going. And she acts and which is all in military terms. We get our ball rolling. And I'm making sure the you know, the inventory is in good place. The flow is happening. Right. You know, the H.R. stuff is handled correctly and the targets are being met. We tried to ship every Thursday and Friday and there's a lot of production plans and there's a lot of data and a lot of quality control to make sure everything gets hit on time. We've got customers with different styles of everything. You know, things with feathers to things with time and things with Emerald's. It's it's all over the place.

[00:38:29] So what's the price? What's the retail price range run from?

[00:38:33] So for our clients, their retail. We've got s we've got some that are retailing pieces in the 70s and 80s, the thousands of dollars. And we've. Our bread and butter, their retailing at twelve fifteen thousand is that is what they're retailing. I'm selling it to them for somewhere between eight hundred dollars each unit to two thousand dollars.

[00:38:57] What about your retail stuff for the military.

[00:39:01] Oh for the jewelry republic. You're looking at for the men. It's right around three twenty five. Four hundred. Some around there for these really cool men's collection. That's I kind of went vintage vintage Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, vintage stuff and vintage tattoo style mesh with military. And for the women probably about six hundred.

[00:39:24] Ok. And those bracelets that I saw over in D.C.

[00:39:31] Yeah. So so that that those men's beat bracelets are lazy, 8 millimeter stone bracelets and those retail for ninety five dollars on the one side. They're not on the website right now, but they're ninety five dollars on the Web site and they will be amongst our direct emailing and doing some special offers. So you got to get over there and sign up because if you get the email you're going to get a discount code and it has to be good. It's a 14 karat gold logo like the Army or maybe the Marine Corps or something that represents your unit, your brand, or I'm your service. And and then it's it's just a really cool way item that people love.

[00:40:08] And they were adjustable weren't they.

[00:40:11] Yeah. We've got to we've got a flexi elastic one. Double strand elastic. And then I've got a flexible one that's got a little macramé nylon rope and we set a little black diamond in there and it looks cool.

[00:40:22] Everybody loved them. That's for sure.

[00:40:30] No, even Kuhn has an arm like a damn. Steven Kuhn is a tanker. Did you know about his? Well, his arm is like a barrel. That tank. So I he put it on like, dude, you gotta, like, get smaller. So they came on. I'll make you one. And you you should have it.

[00:40:52] So. So how do you stay motivated?

[00:40:55] I love the challenges that blow up in my face. Like every. I know their headaches and problems, but I like to learn and deal with that. So that's one aspect. I do like a challenge. It's just where I come from as a kid. Adversity is a redhead. And it seems like it always is in my face. I guess it's just where I'm comfortable. I'd love to. I'm very active on the vetrepreneur tribe. I love helping other veterans as much as I can. That. That's not what I do. I'm not a coach for a living or when I see a one of our guys or women struggle. And I'm I love to give them some real, real pro tips. I'm a I'm a real active business entrepreneur. And here in Thailand, what I'm often doing is I am running. I'm actually I'm hopefully, if I'm lucky, in two weeks, I'm going to be on the board of directors for the American Chamber of Commerce here in Thailand, which is actually covers it's like the largest business network in this part of the world in America. So, I mean, if I'm lucky, I'll be rubbing elbows literally with the CFO of Chevron, with CEO of Deloitte, who is big tax companies. PricewaterhouseCooper Colgate. So I will be in a boardroom of twelve of them every month at seven o'clock in the morning. But, you know, and I get to observe how they make decisions and collaborate with these super high multinational corporation and me little old jewelry republic. But that keeps you way motivated. And every month I do events for the my local business community whereby we help small to medium enterprises in town learn how to do digital marketing. I don't I'm not the best digital marketer. But you know what? I know 10 companies who are digital marketers. I'll get one of them, one of the CEOs to come talk to my community of eight or nine hundred people to say, hey, try this way or human resources or finance or we did one on bitcoin that blew the doors off. I mean, we just do all these events. I love doing. I don't I don't just sit around, chill out too much. Plus, I've got an awesome son, an awesome wife. I have to say.

[00:42:55] I think that the Deloitte needs a some custom piece of jewelry to give out to all their executives around the world, don't you?

[00:43:04] I agree. That's where you hit him up for like cufflinks. Cuff links $1000 each.

[00:43:14] I spoke over there twice. I was brought in by the tourism department to help them with tourism. This was in the late 90s, but it was all Internet stuff. You know how to help them because they are they do have somewhat of a reputation, you know.

[00:43:32] You'll be surprised if you haven't been here since the 90s. It is a first. All time is very, very advanced. We've got we're on our way to our 5G network. There's travel there, trains everywhere, elevated, air condition, beautiful trains there. It's all of the American brands are here. And it's funny, the ties you're getting there, you see used in your mind, you think a skinny little Asian, but no crush that the KFC, KFC, KFC is adding inches to the belt lines. And Yum! Brands is here, which is McDonald's and McDonald's and KFC and stuff like it's like a big deal of it. Whenever I has a business owner is the easiest thing in the world. The staff get a little finicky like they're stressed out because we're doing all kinds of overtime stuff right now or their anger about whatever that happens. The biggest silver bullet to all problems, Kentucky Fried Chicken, is two boxes to the colonel I'm the man, it solves everything. It's something and church's chicken just came out. I did a blind taste test. Of course I was. I told the guys that. What do you want? You want KFC, you want an eye? There's a name. There's a little funny thing, but sure to check out. Take it in. But there is, I say. They said all we can't eat churches. Chicken does. It's too high end. I couldn't believe it. What are you talking about? It is not like high in chicken. It is all the same chicken.

[00:44:58] What is high end chicken?

[00:45:01] I don't know. But they actually don't call it churches chicken. I just happen to know the French at the match. The guy who owns a master franchise. But the truth. The church's chicken here is called Texas Chicken. So I did a competition between Texas chicken, which is Church's Chicken and Kentucky Fried Chicken. And you know what? Texas chicken smoked it. I can't believe it. I don't think I've ever had church Chicken. It was far superior than KFC and everybody was happy. It's given out the door drinking Pepsi. So what? So one thing I also really like to do is I just had a guy out here. He's still here. As a matter of fact, his name is Joel. He works for a company called International Franchise Marketing. So he helps franchises.

[00:45:49] Oh, yeah. Joel, I've had him on the show.

[00:45:51] He's awesome. Yeah. You've had your own show. I. I just organized an event for him last night and he pitched his franchise, American franchises to the Thai community. So I was able to help him organize. He doesn't know how to do that in this town. So I was able to help him out set up a venue at a really nice university. We got a bunch of people in the Super Bowl. And I'm you know, maybe so. And he Joel has got these brands that are like this mid level brand. And he can bring those out. And Joel, you obviously do what Albert does. This nice America brand can expand. And it's not about taking jobs overseas, for Christ sake. It's about taking American. Morals and values overseas because we run our companies a certain way. Asia doesn't. We do. We offer health care benefits and all that because what we care about you a lot and it really it takes time for the folks to get that around their head. I just want to be healthy. I had a pregnant girl whose work I have now. She's so bright. She works on one of my polishing machines. And the moment she comes, we just met Mr. Greg. I'm pregnant. She's all sad. Like, how bad? Congratulations. I mean, she's 40, so she got on the bubble. Like, we kind of had a laugh. Because I've known her for years. And I was like, well, look, the first thing you going do, I'm yanking you off this machine because I don't want to work on this machine. And she was so upset.

[00:47:20] Like you insulted her or a demotion.

[00:47:27] Exactly. Yeah. You're just going from the polishing department. I'll put you in a wax department where you're preparing waxes for. It's a part of the way to make jewelry. Starts with the master. Right. So it's it's a softer room. It's it's nice and easy. There's that there's enough 3 horsepower motor ball in your face with polishing dust everywhere. I could not believe the blowback I got on that one. I had to have like special interventions and stuff for that. So they're not used to people giving a damn and they think there's an ulterior motive.

[00:48:00] Yeah. I mean, I remember when I really loved the butter when I was I was brought in, one of the sponsors was Thai Air. I got to fly a 747 simulator and I went from Bangkok to London Heathrow and in seven minutes and crashed. But I remember like a waiter was not somebody trying to be an actor. That was his profession. And he any took off. So he was that was his profession. And if he did something wrong, he was embarrassed about it wasn't he was just there to try to be an actor or something else. So the thing I loved, would they still have the spirit houses around?

[00:48:46] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Their religion is very, very key to them. And they they get a huge laugh at me. My last name is Boudah. Oh, yeah. And you know, I'm definitely a skinny white boy. I'm not around. And they like your name is Boudah? Yeah. And they go. It's actually got it's got some luck to it and this culture is really big on luck and I mean it's kind of all leverage the hell out of it. It makes me happy. I guess it's like lucky to work for me, please.

[00:49:16] Yeah. Yeah. I really I really loved the time over there, so. Greg, thanks so much. Tell them how they find all your stuff, your Web sites and how to get a hold of you and all that.

[00:49:27] Great. Well, the Web site is theJewelryRepublic.com. I am on Instagram at Jewelry Republic. And Facebook is the jewelry republic. So that's where you'll find me. I. I answer the emails or Emma, my wife answers the e-mail. Just her and I on that side of the business. And if you want to ask me a question, please send me your logo, your unit, if you're military guy. Send me your, you know, logo the day you graduated your A school or bootcamp or whatever you did. Just tell me and I'll put it in there. It's usually like for a men's ring it's like 500 bucks, but it's a custom one, I think. And it's all about honoring your journey Tom. And that's the thing. We had these amazing journeys in our career. We go from wherever we were born in the United States and we got this amazing whirlwind in the military. And then we get out, we become something different. But you never let it go. And it's actually the truth is, after you get out there, you kind of go stick your head in the sand for a while. And after a while, you become a veteran, you're like, wow. Well, I really, really camaraderie, moderate the people. And I encourage you to honor your journey. And not with some junky little trinket buy a ring. Make a ring. I'll make it for you and you'll give it to your children. And guess what? You'll be that you'll have that piece. It stays in your family for ever. Honor your journey.

[00:50:40] And it probably appreciates, right. Or it's worth something. Fifty years from now.

[00:50:47] It has value, for sure. Real monetary value. Yeah.

[00:50:51] Yeah. Well, it's so great to finally getting a hold of you and your story is gonna be inspiring to people. I'm not sure they're going to run to Bangkok to start a business right off the bat until they figure out how to hide 50 grand in cash riding around town on the back of a motorcycle. Yeah. So, so great. And hopefully we'll get to some sales out of this. And thanks a lot, man.

[00:51:20] Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

[00:51:22] All right. We'll catch you later, everybody. And let's see, next episode is one of my Monday trainings. Episode 205 is going to be on E courses every Monday. I do an in-depth training on something that's made me or saved me a lot of money. And on Wednesdays and Fridays, we interview great guys like Greg, so we'll catch everybody on the next episode. See you later.

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