WEBVTT - A Meaty Decision 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:10.799 Ye, Welcome to On the Job. This season, we're focusing 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:13.760 on how people and businesses are getting back to work. 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:16.960 Let's call it a great transformation, a change in the 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:20.720 way workers are thinking. Employers need people to work more 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.840 than ever, putting laborers in a sort of position of power. 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:27.040 We'll be hearing from people navigating this new normal for 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:32.040 themselves as they find their life's work. In the last 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.000 couple of years, the workforce has been experiencing what we're 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:39.600 gonna call a great transformation. Basically, COVID has motivated a 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:41.800 lot of people to re evaluate what they do for 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.199 work every day, changing the way in which they do 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:46.680 their job and inspiring a lot of people to leave 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.320 their stable careers altogether. Well, today we talked to Scott 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:53.599 who took an enormous risk leaving his work and marketing 0:00:53.960 --> 0:01:01.040 to do something completely different. Did ever have a week's stomach? 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:07.760 No um, even the first time, being around like a 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:10.640 dead animal like, I don't know it never really like 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:14.320 bothered me. This is Scott Kerry, and having a strong 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:16.680 stomach is kind of a requirement for his new line 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:18.560 of work. I am a whole animal butcher and I 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:23.960 own Slate Belt Butchery We're located in Sailorsburg, Pennsylvania. Sailorsburg 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.120 is just north of Allentown, Pennsylvania, a big city but 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.120 surrounded by lots of farmland. Pretty ideal for being a 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.160 whole animal butcher. It's a little different than like a 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:37.000 retail butcher, where we're selling behind a case to customers 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.600 that walk in. We are actually um a farm processor, 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.880 so we take animals from the farms. When we process 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:47.480 them down from carcass to cut. Scott doesn't do the 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.120 slaughter that happens at a different facility, and then he 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.680 has the animals delivered to him. He breaks them down 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.480 into different cuts and packages them for retail for the 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.360 farmers to sell however they'd like. So we're basically the 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:02.480 middleman between a farmer and the end user. After over 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:06.280 a decade in marketing, Scott opened Slate Belt Butchery in August. 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:09.480 They've only been opened a little over a year, but 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:12.520 they are busy. A big part of that is there's 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.240 not a lot of small processors doing what he does anymore. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.160 Number one, I think a lot of butchers are retiring 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.320 and they're not passing on their their trade to like 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:25.280 someone else. This is true, big agriculture has had a 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:29.400 huge impact on small family farming. Another reason. Scott believes 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:32.440 today's world values a four year college degree over learning 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:34.880 a trade skill. And so, like a lot of butchers 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.000 that I talked to you that are retiring, like they 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:40.040 just can't find the workforce or people that really want 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.440 to do the work. I mean it's it's like it's dirty, 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.520 it's cold, it's not like the most glamorous job. But 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:48.920 for anyone who's willing to do it, there's not a 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.560 shortage of work out there because it's needed, you know, 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:56.040 like there's so many farms out there that need processing. Um. 0:02:56.280 --> 0:03:01.640 We work really hard, you know, um, every day. So 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.680 a day in the life at Slate Belt Butchery, it 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:07.200 starts pretty early. I mean we I wake up at 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.239 five am, um, and then I'm usually in the shop 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:12.880 by six am. He and his crew have a team meeting. 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.640 Scott delegates what everyone's doing for the day. It's like 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:18.959 here's what we're gonna do, here's who I want doing what, um, 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:21.720 and then we just get to work, like making sausage. 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.320 I'll put someone on sausage, or slicing bacon, or breaking 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.520 down animals. Scott does a little of everything, but he's 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.000 more on the logistical end. Now he's got two full 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.960 time butchers, someone for packing, a driver and his business partner, Mike. 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:37.320 And Mike is like less on the business side and 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:39.600 more on the production side. So Mike's really good at 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.720 like just leading the breakdown of animals, and like it's like, 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.400 okay if I like step away to like handle customers, 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:47.720 because I'm like keeping the business coming through the doors, 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:50.000 and Mike is keeping the business going out the doors 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:52.720 so we can bring more business in. Still he hops 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.840 in wherever needed. Some days they're making ground beef, some 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.520 days they're carrying hams. They've got a smokehouse, so some 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.760 days they're busy smoking bell season all kinds of other cuts. 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.200 Halfway through my day, I usually step away to answer 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:09.160 phone calls, handle emails. When we first started, it was 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:11.440 just me and Mike just cutting and processing, and I 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:13.400 would say, like I was probably holding a knife a 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:17.080 lot more during those times. But they've been doing so 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.760 well and they've gotten so much business over this past 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.560 year that taking in new customers is a job all 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.279 in itself, honestly, Like you tell one farmer, hey, there's 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:28.720 a new processor in town, Like three farmers are gonna 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.120 call me. Scott got in at the right time. Locally 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:34.440 sourced food is in more demand than ever, and at 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.400 the same time, small processors like him are harder and 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.640 harder to come by. Yeah, if we're not around, it's 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.920 it's gonna be nothing but these massive, big agg facilities, 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:51.440 and then you're not gonna have any local meat. A 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:53.560 lot of butchers going to the trade because that's what 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:56.159 their parents did or that's the industry they grew up around. 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.000 Not the case for Scott. He grew up about an 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.000 hour north of where he now around scrant His dad 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:03.760 was an I T. He had to stay at home, 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:08.120 mom and my whole like basically a childhood, it was 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.720 it was like go to college, get a four year degree. 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.839 Like there was no real like talk about like trades, 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:17.320 no matter like who you would go talk to you, 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:20.559 whether it was a teacher or your parents or friends. 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.719 Like everyone was going to college and so that was 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:27.640 my path. Scott's high school experience was similar to mine, 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.560 and that we had a trade school attached to our 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.200 high school building where kids could go learn plumbing and 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.160 mechanics and electrical work. But they did have a reputation 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:42.159 trade school was almost like one step away from like Juvie, 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.080 Like it was like the bad kids went there. For me, 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:48.000 looking back, I think that trade school that I grew 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.240 up around had a bad rat because it was just 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:53.400 a very working class environment, which is pretty messed up. 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:55.520 And it was just like I was conditioned to like 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.160 just think that I didn't even think about going to 0:05:58.240 --> 0:05:59.800 a trade It was just like, Oh, you're gonna go 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:02.560 to college and then all right, you're gonna major in 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:06.760 like the sciences, liberal arts or like business or something, 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:08.520 you know what I mean. Like I didn't even think 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.200 that like going to school to be like a butcher 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.120 or a chef, or like an electrician or plumber. Like 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.240 it wasn't mean like a thought that it didn't man 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.480 occur to me that I could do that. After high school, 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.160 he immediately went to King's College in his hometown and 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.880 decided he'd get a degree in marketing. Did you know 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:28.680 you wanted to get a marketing degree or did you 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:30.320 just kind of like throw a dart at the board 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:32.360 and just say that's what I'm doing. The reason, the 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:34.279 real reason why I did it because I played drums 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.400 in a band and I liked the opportunity to like 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.800 booking my band or like making flyers or something. And 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:41.200 I was just like, well, what is this. It's a 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:42.919 marketing I was like, well, I like this. Let me 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:45.680 let me just majoring in Well, how the how the 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:50.960 band work out? I didn't. Well, he did know is 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:54.320 that someday, somehow he wanted to be an entrepreneur and 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:56.960 maybe this is the way to do that. He graduated 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.560 in two thousand nine, immediately got an internship at a 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:02.400 marketing company, and then started working there full time. I 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:04.400 knew pretty early on, like I was like, man, this 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:06.720 is exactly what I didn't want to do. It didn't 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.560 feel like me um personally like I'm I felt I 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.160 feel really antsy when I like sit down and I'm 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:14.920 just sitting in a computer, Like I can't like sit still. 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.320 I like working with my hands. But he was doing 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:22.160 Google ads and Facebook ads analytics. He was getting paid well, 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:24.480 but he was not enjoying it. The entire time I 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.160 was going to school, I was thinking like, I don't 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:28.640 want to sit in a cubicle. I don't want to 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.840 work in like a corporation. But that's what I was 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:36.040 going to school for. While I was doing it, and 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:39.720 I was just like, man, like the career that is 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:41.160 waiting for me at the end of this, like I 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.560 don't even know if I want to do it. And 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:46.120 I actually went and I did it for ten years. 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.840 That first job lasted a few years, and then you 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.760 got another one, a two year contract and I and 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.880 I was still doing like web analytics or intern up marketing. 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.560 They offered me good money, and I was like, I 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:05.240 was only doing it for two years. I was like 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.240 thinking to myself, well, maybe I'll get a promotion a 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:10.400 couple of years down the road and and maybe it 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:12.680 will work out for me or something. But the whole 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.960 time he knew there's got to be something else out there, um, 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:17.720 and I would always try to find like these little 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.720 side hustles and do little things to try to get 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:24.040 myself out of there. He built custom drums for people 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.920 going back to his music days. That didn't work out, 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.560 so we started any commerce store selling school supplies and 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:32.600 so like, once I did it and it was starting 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.080 to run, I was like getting these like customer service calls. 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:37.400 I was like, yeah, this is like too much for me. 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:39.360 And it was only like twenty three at the time, 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:41.920 so I didn't really like understand what it takes to 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.440 run a business. I was kind of more like like 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:48.319 a entrepreneur, a entrepreneur. Yeah you ever hear that that phrase. 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:50.760 That's the first time I've ever heard that. Yeah, Like 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:52.640 you like want to be like a business owner, but 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:54.320 you really don't have, like you don't know what it 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:56.520 takes to do that. Yeah, you don't know what it takes. 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.400 At some point, he also pitched a cust and design 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:03.200 card deck on Kickstarter, but he didn't get the funding. 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:06.600 The years passed and he eventually got married to a 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.480 wonderful woman named Nancy. He bought a house, he had 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.040 bills to pay, and at a certain point his career 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.439 felt like a sunken cost. He built a life around it, 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:20.720 and he felt stuck. Eventually, I you know, while working 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.520 in the office and stuff, it actually started to like 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.040 affect my mental health and I became like very depressed. 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:29.800 I think like the Kickstarter thaying like really like took 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:31.880 it over the edge for me and really like messed 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:33.760 with my head a little bit because I felt like, man, 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:35.920 if I can't even get like a Kickstarter project funded 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:37.440 for a couple of thousand dollars, like I'm not I'm 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.160 not gonna be able to do anything. I just like 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.880 I remember like coming home from like my job and 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:45.680 just like for a couple of months, I was just 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.880 like laying on my couch and just like just being 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.680 completely like depressed, and like I think at that point 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.480 was like when it was like okay, like you gotta 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:57.880 make like a change, like there's something you have to 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.719 do something here, I was like, do I go back 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:02.760 to school? Like I was kind of at a crossroads, 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:06.200 like what do I do. Scott was working as a 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.760 web producer for a hospital at this point, doing their analytics, 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.360 running their web page. It was monotonous, but at the time, 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:18.480 like I was getting really into like backyard barbecue and 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.120 I was just like dabbling back there, and just like 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.800 every weekend I was just like trying different things while 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:25.840 I was kind of like depressed and like defeated from 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.560 like all these failures and the like my side hustles, 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:30.720 and I was like still working this job that I 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.600 wasn't percent happy with, but like I was finding like 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:37.880 happiness just cooking on the weekends. It was the first 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.560 time that Scott was doing something on the side that 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.040 he wasn't trying to grow into a business or make 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:46.280 a quick buck off the just like brisket. What happened 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.840 was as I, um, my wife knew that, like I 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.440 was very like unhappy with my career or she was 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:56.000 like like, you need to do something because this is 0:10:56.040 --> 0:11:00.920 like affecting like everything, and so like before I even 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:05.400 like quit my job in marketing, I was like, well, 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:07.560 let me get like a part time job, just like 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:10.040 like on the weekends, like working for like a butcher shop. 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.600 He figured he likes barbecuing, but there weren't a lot 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:19.760 of barbecue restaurants around and he wanted to learn more 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:22.880 about meat. So butchering seemed like a good fit and 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.800 you get to supply his backyard barbecue have it. But 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:28.160 then also like it would just it would get me active, 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:29.920 get me out of the house, get me away from 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.160 my other job, and it would just give me something 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.960 to do, you know what I mean. And so that's 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:41.720 what I end up doing it. We'll get back to 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:46.400 Scott's story right after the break. A strong work ethic, 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:51.200 it takes pride in a job well done, sweats over 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:55.640 the details. This is you. But to get an honest 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.840 day's work. Do you need a response? You need a 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:03.959 call back, you need a job. Express Employment professionals can 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.480 help because we understand what it takes to get a job. 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.760 It takes more than just online searches to land a job. 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.480 It takes someone who will identify your talents, a person 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:18.600 invested in your success. At Express, we can even complete 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.640 your application with you over the phone, will prepare you 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.959 for interviews, and will connect you to the right company. Plus, 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:27.360 we'll never charge a fee to find you a job. 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.440 At Express. We could put you to work with companies 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.680 of all sizes and industries, from the production floor to 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.720 the front office. Express Nose Jobs, get to no Express, 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.520 find your location at Express pros dot com or on 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:46.480 the Express Jobs app to pick up on our story. 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.240 Scott realized he needed to make a change and started 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.800 reaching out to butchers in his area, seeing if anyone 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:54.080 needed part time work. One of them said yes, and 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:55.640 I went in. I told him, I was like, I 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:57.680 have no experience like doing this. It's like I'm just 0:12:57.679 --> 0:12:59.880 like cooking in my backyard. And they they took a 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:01.320 shot on me and they brought me on and I 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.959 worked basically Saturday and Sunday for like a couple of 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:06.920 hours every day for about six months. I should say 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:08.760 here that the guy who did take a chance on 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:13.320 him was Mike, the guy who would become Scott's business partner. Okay, 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.240 so Scott starts working in this butcher shop. I like 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:18.200 learning about like the different cuts. Like I had no 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.240 idea I cooked a brisket and I had no idea 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:22.280 where on the on the cow where it came from. 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:23.840 I got cooked the pork butt and I thought it 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.199 came from the pork's butt, and actually is the pork shoulder. 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:28.400 So like I was like learning all these things, and 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:30.880 I was like, well, what's a try tip? And I'm like, well, 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:33.040 what's the top round? And like what are all these 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:35.960 things that I'm like, like I'm starting to cook, he 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.680 inhaled knowledge. Loved learning the craft. He started talking to 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.440 customers more and answering questions. He started looking forward to 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.720 weekends when he would get back into the shop. And 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:49.120 that's where I realized that, like, this is what I 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:52.680 love to do. Like at first, it was just like 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.160 I'm just gonna do it just to like get away, 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:57.480 And what it turned it into is like me like 0:13:57.520 --> 0:13:59.679 finding like my love and like me finding like this 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.280 is what want to do full time. Scott told his 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:06.520 wife Nancy he wanted to do this. They knew their 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:09.280 lives would change because he wouldn't have his marketing salary 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.360 coming in, but she still supported him, like in my opinion, 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:13.880 like that's love right there, you know what I mean, 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:16.280 Like she wanted to see me happy. Like we just 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.160 like how to go live within our means. He put 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:21.560 it in his notice at the hospital web producer job 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.200 he had and started working full time in the butcher shop. 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:27.040 All he wanted to do at first would learn the craft, 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.880 and he was excited, but he immediately got thrown into 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.640 the packing room, not cutting me at all, thinking to 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:34.440 myself like, man, I quit my job and now all 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:37.160 I'm doing this packing boxes and it sucked. But like 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:39.880 at the same time, like I remember like stepping back 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:42.720 and thinking to myself, well, I'm learning the business here, 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.160 like if I just keep my eyes and years open, 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:47.760 like I'm learning how this whole how product enters the 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:51.160 building and leaves the building. It's where you realized that 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:53.440 the craft of butchering is really just half of it. 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:55.800 You can make like great charcuterie. But like if you 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:57.840 don't know anything about the business, like you're probably gonna 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:00.720 fault apart. Eventually he got to do every part of 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.760 the business, including how to process an animal and cut meat. 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.560 He says, more than anything, this job taught him the 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.760 entire business, and it taught him how to work. Because 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:14.040 they were busy. I always thought like, man, like there's 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:16.280 massive demand for this. Like when I was there, I 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:18.800 was like, he was like turning people away, Like he 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:21.240 was booked out two years, you know what I mean. 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:23.720 He really couldn't get people. And I was like, I 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:25.760 was like, where are these people gonna go? Like where 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.040 are they going? You know, where do they go? I 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.600 don't know, Like they send their animals to auction and 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.560 they go like across country or something, you know, Like 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.000 they don't Once an animal goes to auction, they can 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:39.440 go anywhere. So after two years in the shop, Scott 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.080 could finally call himself a butcher. I learned how to 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.920 make sausage and charcuterie. But what I really learned is 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:52.240 like there's like a massive business opportunity. Right around this time, 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.400 Nancy Broker leg And was out of a job. Scott 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.360 wasn't making much money in the butcher shop, so he 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:00.440 left to get another job in marketing to pay the 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:02.680 bills for the time being. It was kind of tough, 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.320 but I was always like, Okay, I'm gonna come back 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:10.120 to this back home. He used his skills in the 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.840 off time to make kill BOSSI for family and friends, 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.160 and he was making enough where he was doing custom 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:19.320 orders deliveries huge batches, and then I ended up creating 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:21.880 a can LLLC because I was like, well, I'm gonna 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:23.720 do this. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna I'm gonna 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:28.120 make good money doing it. Scott finally felt that he 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.600 wasn't a entrepreneur anymore. He still wanted to start a business, 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:33.920 but now he knew what it took to do it, 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.120 and he had the work ethic to make it happen. 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.240 I got like a commercial kitchen set up, and I 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:41.960 got inspected, and I was going through the process of 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:44.920 just like doing like little little sales here and there, 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.800 and I signed up for like a farmers market, and 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.920 then COVID happened. The commercial kitchen he was in shutdown, 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.920 so he started calling around to other butchers seeing if 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.800 they'd help impack his products, and on one call one 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.480 of his connections said, better yet, I know a guy 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.960 who built a butcher shop and it's it's sitting empty 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:08.439 right now. He's not using it, and that like I 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:13.880 envisioned this entire thing in that phone call. The guy 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:17.159 who built this kitchen was a farmer. Because there's not 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.720 a lot of small butchers out there. Some farmers try 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:23.480 to vertically integrate by doing all the processing themselves, but 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.359 this is a huge undertaking, which is why this guy 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.080 wasn't really using it. When I got up there, I 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:30.960 was like, man, this is perfect, this is everything I 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.679 need and and he wasn't using it. So he started 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:39.800 running it to me and I started using it. Additionally, 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.840 Scott offered to do the processing for this farmer, which 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:45.040 was a good deal of work and he needed help. 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.879 He called up his former boss, Mike, who was working 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.080 in a kitchen somewhere at the time, and he was 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:53.400 he was like on board. He came up that weekend, 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:56.679 we talked it out. Are in the numbers, like this 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:58.359 is a no brainer, Like I didn't have to build 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.199 the building. I knew that there was other farms that 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.280 are going to want processing. So in August, Mike and 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:09.000 Scott officially started as Slate Belt Butchery. It was crazy 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:11.280 because it was just like we had one customer and 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.160 then like the next month, we got two customers. Third 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:16.840 months we got three customers, and so on. I felt 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.119 like every month we got the same amount of customers, 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:23.000 but like additional, additional. Yeah, by three months and you 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:27.280 had six customers. Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly. From there, like 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.000 it was just like a snowball. They picked up another 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.520 big client in Philly. They hired a driver to pick 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.360 up animals and do deliveries. On average, we were doing 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.399 five ten animals a week, which was manageable for us, 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:42.639 but pretty soon they were doing more. He hired his 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:45.600 first new butcher and then another. I think one week 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.960 we did over thirty animals. Um, we're up to forty 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.680 customers right now, and in December I hired a full 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.840 time packer. Within a year, you had forty customers and 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.719 six or seven employees. There's five full time employees and 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.880 we have like one part time employee. That is rapid grows. Yeah, 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:06.240 it is crazy. I don't know. I feel like we're 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:08.080 like growing out of the walls that we're currently in. 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.320 He told me that something was in the works regarding 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:18.160 that they wouldn't tell me what, but Slight Belt Butchery 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.359 just keeps growing. Because there is so much demand for 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.440 smaller processors like him. Someone just called me today. They're 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.800 from Massachusetts and they need meat processing. They're having trouble 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:29.680 up there to get meat processing. I'm like, you're gonna 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.119 drive like five hours coming. He's like, He's like, be 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:34.119 honest with you, I would because I can't find anyone 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:37.240 that can do it for me up here. Bigger processing 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.840 facilities dominate the market right now, and generational businesses like 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:44.199 butchering have been on the decline. Scott does hope that 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.680 his story does set an example for other people in 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.600 this community who want to do something like this. There's 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:51.159 a lot of people willing to do this type of 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:53.520 work because I don't know if they're not really being 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:57.360 introduced to it. So if you could go back and 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.000 introduce young Scott to butchering, um would you do it? 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.800 Would I change that? Probably? Not? Like Like who knows, 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:07.640 Like if someone pushed me to be a butcher when 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:09.640 I was eighteen, like what I have turned away from it. 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:11.399 Like I'm very proud of the fact that I'm a 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:14.720 first generation butcher, Like it wasn't in my family. No 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.080 one pushed me to be a butcher, Like I kind 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:20.560 of found this on my own, whereas it's the opposite 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.000