HEALTH AND SAFETY OFFICER - JUSTIN BAILEY

DEATH WISH COFFEE COMPANY EMPLOYEE SERIES #20

"We do have long days, but it feels short. It feels short when you're with people that you're comfortable with." Justin Bailey, Health and Safety Officer, Death Wish Coffee Company

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW

ABOUT JUSTIN BAILEY:

Justin Bailey started working on the production floor at Death Wish Coffee. Now he is our Health and Safety Officer and he joins the show to talk about how his job has changed, and how the company has grown, and where he sees Death Wish Coffee next. Plus, Justin and Jeff and Dustin share a lot of the same interests and geek out about anime, Star Wars, and sports.

ON THIS WEEK'S COMPANION FUELED BY DEATH SHOW:

On Science this week, Jeff tells Dustin about two spacecraft that have reached the end of their missions: Dawn and Kepler. Dawn has studied two celestial bodies in the asteroid belt for years and Kepler has discovered over 2600 exoplanets beyond our solar system. On the Roast, Dustin and Jeff run down the history of Beards - the good, the bad and the weird. Finally on the Update hear about the next mug release, the upcoming chocolate bars and a special contest with Suavecito.

DEATH STAR OF THE WEEK:

Meet Joslyn LaMadrid on the Death Star of the Week segment in the show below:

TRANSCRIPT:

Jeff: Before we get into exactly what you do here, I wanna talk a little bit about when you started here. How long have you been working at Death Wish Coffee?

Justin: Let's see, it is what? October?

Jeff: October 2018.

Justin: I would say about a year and a half.

Jeff: A year and a half?

Justin: Yeah.

Dustin: Nice.

Jeff: So, did you get hired as a production worker?

Justin: Yes, I did. Yes.

Jeff: When you got hired, had you heard of the company? Did you know about...

Justin: Yes, I had heard about the company. I heard about it through my best friend, who actually works here.

Jeff: Name drop that best friend.

Justin: DJ Dragonetti.

Jeff: There he is.

Dustin: Oh, shit. He's so cool. His name is DJ.

Justin: Yeah, DJ Dragonetti. Yeah, so Thomas works here. He's of course the art director.

Jeff: Oh, yeah. We talk about him all the time.

Dustin: All the time.

Jeff: Just about every freaking show, yeah.

Dustin: Love that dude. He's freaking awesome.

Jeff: Where'd you meet Thomas, by the way?

Justin: I met Thomas though my wife Angie. Me and Thomas had been friends for 10, almost 11 years.

Jeff: Wow.

Dustin: Wow.

Justin: Yeah, so it's been a long time.

Dustin: Yeah.

Justin: It's been a long time.

Jeff: So, you knew about ... So, through that you definitely knew what Death Wish was all about, and all that. The other question I gotta ask, are you a coffee drinker, were you a coffee drinker before?

Justin: Not really. I drink it a lot more now than usual.

Dustin: Yeah, that happens.

Justin: But, still I wouldn't say that I'm a coffee drinker.

Jeff: It's not like your morning routine?

Justin: Not really. I take that back, I would say now it's definitely more of my morning routine now because I don't drink soda because my body can't handle it.

Jeff: Getting old sucks.

Justin: Yeah, it does suck.

Dustin: I don't know. Soda's not all that great.

Dustin: [crosstalk 00:01:53]

Jeff: That's funny. A lot of people think that working at a company like Death Wish it's a prerequisite. You have to love coffee and a lot of employees have started out not drinking coffee at all. Like you said, it just seeps into your veins because we're just around it all the time.

Dustin: I bet that wouldn't happen though, and I brought this up before, I bet that wouldn't happen if the coffee was shit.

Jeff: Yeah.

Justin: You are definitely telling the truth. Just imagine, if we instead of drinking just the one part of Death Wish, instead of having the mixture.

Jeff: Right.

Justin: Yeah, robusta, no you wouldn't want straight robusta.

Justin: [crosstalk 00:02:29]

Dustin: Which is, by the way, all the other companies that are claiming that they're strong coffee, it's like straight robusta.

Dustin: [crosstalk 00:02:36]

Dustin: It tastes like burnt popcorn.

Justin: It'd be disgusting.

Dustin: I don't even see you, you're under my radar. It's seriously none of my concern. You taste like shit.

Jeff: It's true. You start out a year and a half ago on the production floor and now your job has went a whole 180. You're still part of our incredible production team, but you are now, and correct me if I'm wrong, you are a safety officer.

Justin: You could say that, but safety manager.

Jeff: Safety manager.

Justin: It's the same thing.

Dustin: Officer Justin.

Jeff: Officer Justin.

Justin: I know, right. Police officer.

Jeff: Keeping us all safe. Can you talk a little bit about what it means to be that because this another one of those jobs that when the company started, we didn't have such a thing.

Justin: Right, exactly.

Jeff: Can you talk a little bit about what a safety office, safety manager does?

Justin: What I exactly do is, first, I ensure the safety of our employees, including administrative, production floor workers, shipping and receiving, looking for hazards. It could be chemical hazards, machinery hazards, slip, trip, and fall. Coffee beans could be on the floor. Making sure the floors are clean and things like that, so nobody gets hurt.

Dustin: Are we safe right now?

Justin: I think we are. I think we're good.

Jeff: I think I'm going to get into the habit of everyday just getting a hold of you...

Justin: I think we're good.

Jeff: ...am I safe.

Dustin: Oh my god! Justin am I safe?

Jeff: Am I safe, Justin?

Justin: I think we're good.

Jeff: I got ask then. Do you have any back ground in this at all?

Justin: Obviously, no.

Jeff: No.

Dustin: Obviously, no.

Jeff: That's anther thing that we come to on these employee episodes that is just so surprising about Death Wish is lots of us do jobs, or multiple jobs at this company, that we absolutely have no background in.

Justin: Exactly.

Jeff: You're learning this on the job, basically.

Justin: Yeah.

Jeff: Is that interesting?

Justin: It's very interesting.

Jeff: Yeah.

Justin: Very interesting. Me coming from a different background, I've been an educator since I've been out of school. In terms of common sense safety, you kind of already know...oh, look both ways before you cross the street... and stuff like that. Oh, you're a kid, don't put that in your mouth, your mom should've told you that.

Dustin: But you're an adult. You can put that in your mouth.

Justin: I mean, you would think you would carry that lesson with you into adulthood.

Dustin: You would think, but shit keeps ending up in my face.

Justin: Exactly.

Dustin: I don't know why.

Justin: Yeah, I mean, of course if you're a knucklehead when you're a kid you, might just be knucklehead when you're an adult, too.

Jeff: True.

Dustin: Good chances.

Justin: You get tot talk to people that have experience, you get to learn about the authorities that you once thought you didn't have that you start to develop. Like, oh, I can do that. Wow, alright. Now, I can kind of get some training on the job. It gets cool at times when you find out information.

Jeff: Was it hard becoming a safety manager, safety officer, in a situation where the company had never had theses practices or things in place before? Was it hard to get us up to code, I guess? Are we up to code?

Dustin: Are we okay? Are we safe?

Justin: We're getting there.

Jeff: Has it been a hard road to get there?

Justin: I wouldn't say so at all. In terms of people getting use to procedure and policies, and things like that. At first, before I got here Death Wish was a small company. Actually, still not that big, in terms of employees, but as we grow as a company we start to bring more stuff in, so you've got to follow procedure and policy.

Dustin: What was most surprising when you started working here? We all have our preconceived notions when we're thinking about getting into something, right. I'm sure you had this image in your mind of what it would be like at Death Wish. What was the most surprising thing when you actually got here?

Justin: The most surprising thing?

Dustin: Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of surprising, you can bring up a few things.

Justin: There's so many things. I would say the most surprising thing, even though we don't get to do this anymore, but the most surprising thing was the fact we could listen to music while we're working. It was so awesome. I loved it. We still do, but we don't do it in the same way that we use. We could listen on our headphones and things like that, but now it's a safety concern. I'm sorry guys, it's a safety concern...

Dustin: Yeah, you don't want to have your hearing impaired with a forklift behind you.

Justin: Exactly, or things like that. We still are able to listen to music, but still, that's one of things that stuck out for me the most.

Jeff: Why was that so surprising to you?

Justin: Because, at normal jobs they wouldn't allow that.

Dustin: I think every job I've had allowed it.

Jeff: Wow, we've had some shitty jobs.

Justin: Not me.

Dustin: I was dental lab technician for ten years, thank you very much, and I listened to music every damn day. Out loud, headphones in, you name it.

Justin: Not me. We couldn't do it. The little kids ears couldn't hear the music I would listen to.

Dustin: Right, no.

Jeff: How have you seen, obviously in a year and a half, this company has changed drastically, and I love asking this question of different employees because it's weird to think about, but do you see the growth, or is it this gradual thing where you don't even think about it? DO you think back to your first day until now and it's completely different?

Justin: In terms of people coming in, not too much. We haven't added too many things. In terms of trying to get certain licenses, of course, that comes with new job titles or new people actually looking at this particular thing; oh we actually need that now.

Dustin: Right, right.

Jeff: Yeah.

Justin: So, in terms of that, yes. We're growing very rapidly. We've been growing rapidly since I've been here, but that's where it's at right now. To the point where I just thought of a new job title today, Tony's probably gonna be mad that I said this right now, but I feel as though Tony should be the mechanical technician. He practically trains every single person on every single machine. He knows how to run every single machine.

Dustin: Yeah.

Jeff: It is incredible on both the production side and on the office side with the growth of the company. Seeing , not only roles expand, but roles that we never even had in place before. Becoming evident, not only that we need them, but like, oh wow, we need three of them.

Justin: [crosstalk 00:09:53] Exactly

Jeff: It's like you said. We are still on the books a small business. If you're under 50 employees, you can't even get some of the health benefits and stuff that are out there.

Dustin: That's why I think it's so important to get on the ground floor of a company like this. You walk in, you don't think there's many chances for expansion, but every day there's new job titles.

Dustin: [crosstalk 00:10:19]

Justin: Exactly, it's crazy.

Dustin: And it will only keep on happening that way for the next ten years of this company. We'll constantly be looking for new job titles to take over certain positions that we didn't even know existed. Hell, when I showed up we weren't even fucking counting anything.

Jeff: Right.

Jeff: [crosstalk 00:10:31]

Dustin: And it was like, well, I guess I'm an inventory manager now.

Justin: Exactly.

Dustin: It's crazy.

Jeff: When I showed up, nobody was podcasting at all.

Dustin: Nobody was...

Jeff: I mean, like, how can you have a coffee company without pod...

Dustin: Jeff, to be fair, I was podcasting when you showed up.

Jeff: True, dammit.

Dustin: But with you... whatever.

Jeff: I'm needed. I really am. I am important. Oh, my gosh.

Jeff: So, let's get off of Death Wish for a second and go to you, Justin. What do you like to do when you're not here, when you're not working the nine to five? Do you have hobbies? Do you have stuff that you just love to fall into? Are you an outdoor person? What do you like to do?

Justin: So many things.

Jeff: List them.

Justin: I am definitely into sports. I play basketball a lot, soccer...

Dustin: A lot of ping pong.

Justin: A lot of ping pong.

Dustin: You're a killer now. It's crazy.

Justin: I actually just got...

Justin: [crosstalk 00:11:32]

Dustin: I remember he couldn't even keep the score.

Justin: I was horrible. I was so bad.

Dustin: He would look at his paddle as he swung it.

Justin: I was so bad.

Dustin: But not he's a killer.

Justin: Yeah, I was so, so bad.

Dustin: He's a stone cold killer on that ping pong table.

Justin: I was so bad.

Dustin: He was like, oh you wanna play, I was like, I guess, but it's gonna be like last time I saw you were swinging like ah geez this is gonna be embarrassing...you whooped me.

Dustin: [crosstalk 00:11:51]

Justin: Yeah, it was crazy.

Dustin: We had some epic games though.

Justin: It was, it was crazy.

Dustin: I didn't mean to interrupt.

Justin: It was no, I love ping pong, I love it.

Jeff: So, you're a big sports fan. Are you a big fan of sports in general, like watching sports? What's your favorite sport to, kind of like, not participate in, but to follow, I guess would be the thing?

Justin: I would say tennis.

Jeff: Really?

Justin: Yeah, I would definitely say tennis.

Jeff: Really?

Justin: I'm sorry. Tennis is like...

Dustin: Jeff just swallowed his tongue.

Jeff: No, I just, I...

Justin: Seriously, because the crazy thing is...

Jeff: I don't anything about that tennis.

Justin: I mean, it's easy to get really quick. At first, you're just watching it thinking that they're just hitting it back and forth, but the endurance in tennis is freaking insane. Especially when you see two opponents going at it and they are volleying back and forth.

Jeff: Yeah.

Justin: Like, as soon as they get over ten, you would think that, me being a guy that's really not in shape, but even if I was in shape, to do that, no, I couldn't do it.

Jeff: Yeah.

Dustin: And then over and over...

Dustin: [crosstalk 00:12:58]

Dustin: Multiple games.

Justin: Oh, mu gosh. It's crazy insane.

Jeff: Have you ever been to a professional tennis match.

Justin: I wish.

Jeff: No.

Justin: I would live to do that.

Jeff: Yeah.

Justin: Oh, my god.

Dustin: Do they have those in America.

Jeff: Yeah.

Justin: Yeah.

Jeff: Yeah, they just had them in New York City, actually.

Dustin: I'm just kidding.

Jeff: I literally know nothing about tennis, but it is a sport that I do watch from time to time. Especially, I don't want to get it wrong, the big one...Wimbledon.

Justin: Williams or Serena.

Jeff: The big...

Justin: Oh, yeah, Wimbledon.

Jeff: Wimbledon. I'll watch that, especially like the line on sports center, or whatever. And it's fascinating. I think it would be fascinating to be in the stands, to watch something like that.

Justin: Yeah.

Dustin: Yeah, I bet.

Jeff: I was not expecting that you were a tennis fan.

Justin: Oh, my gosh, man. It is crazy. There's so much technique into it.

Jeff: Do you play?

Justin: I wish I could play. Truthfully, playing ping pong...

Jeff: Have you tried to play?

Justin: Playing ping pong, I try to play...

Jeff: That's he's so...

Jeff: [crosstalk 00:13:59]

Justin: Ping pong is like tennis. I try to do all the, you know, like, just watching women's tennis, men's tennis, it doesn't matter. I just like watching it.

Jeff: That's so funny.

Dustin: Is this relatively new or have you watched it your whole life?

Justin: No, it's...let me put it like this. I am into a lot of different things. When I meet people and I hear the things that they like to do and I'm like, let me check that out. Then' I'm like, oh, okay. That's actually pretty interesting. Or I'm like, no, I don't want to do that. Growing up as a kid, of course I watched a lot of cartoons. I don't know if anybody watched cartoons as much as I do. Me being a grown-ass man.

Jeff: I might.

Justin: I'm into anime, so they have all kinds of anime cartoons out there that touch on everything that everybody's interested in.

Dustin: Yeah.

Jeff: That's true.

Justin: Believe it or not, there is a tennis anime.

Jeff: Of course there is.

Justin: It's alright if you're into anime.

Jeff: So, favorite anime?

Justin: Good questions. That's hard.

Jeff: Or, at least, one in your top three.

Dustin: It better be something good or we're gonna fight.

Justin: Oh, my god. Really.

Jeff: Yeah, it's that hard.

Justin: I can't say this number one, this is definitely in my top five.

Jeff: Okay.

Justin: Alright, I'm just gonna say number, Cowboy Bebop.

Jeff: Yes.

Dustin: Yes.

Justin: I love Cowboy Bebop.

Dustin: I love you.

Justin: It's a-freaking-mazing.

Dustin: I love you.

Jeff: It's so good.

Justin: The fact is that Cowboy Bebop is way before it's time.

Jeff: It really is. It's still way before it's time.

Justin: Way before it's time.

Jeff: I tell people this all the time. For all you guys watching and listening, if you've never seen Cowboy Bebop, go watch it after you're done listening and watching this episode. One of the things that surprise me, and I'm not a huge anime fan. I like some of the classics like Akira and Vampire Hunter B.

Justin: Right. Oh, that's a good one.

Jeff: Yeah

Dustin: Ninja Scroll.

Justin: Oh, that's a good one.

Jeff: But, I can't consume it as a fan, all the stuff that they do, but Cowboy Bebop was so striking because, not only was it well done, it did things in animation, not just anime, but in animation that, to this day, I still have not seen other animated shows do. There's was scene that I always think of where the main character, Spike, is interrogating a guy, and the camera moves from the normal two shot of an interrogation, up above, and then through the ceiling fan, so you're watching the whole scene happen as the ceiling fan is in motion. You can't get that shot in reality, obviously...

Justin: Yeah.

Jeff: But, as an animated shot, it's as good as anything Oliver Stone has ever thought of.

Justin: Yeah, it's really good.

Jeff: It was amazing that they were able to do that and there're so many moments in that show that it's just like, wow.

Dustin: And they mix creativeness like that with some of the best fight scenes that I've ever seen.

Dustin: [crosstalk 00:17:02]

Justin: Oh, the best.

Dustin: That Spike Spiegel Jikundo.

Justin: Yes.

Jeff: Yes.

Dustin: Dude, I just got the chills.

Dustin: So you must like Samurai Champloo, as well.

Justin: Oh, my goodness. I've probably seen that one anime at least six or seven times.

Dustin: So good.

Jeff: For anybody who's a fan of our companion TV show The Fuel by Death Show, we get comments on your laptop every single time because you have that Samurai Champloo logo right on your laptop.

Justin: Shout out to the late Nujavis. He's not with us anymore, but awesome guy.

Jeff: Awesome. And I know you're a big sci-fi fantasy fan, too.

Justin: Oh, yes.

Jeff: We've talked about everything from Strangers Things...

Dustin: Enter magic nerd, now, too, by the way.

Justin: Yes. Exactly, never played magic until I started working at Death Wish.

Dustin: Now you have your own magic card.

Justin: I know, right.

Dustin: The confused wizard.

Justin: Thanks to the Brads.

Jeff: I know, right. They got us all into magic. It's crazy.

Justin: It's insane.

Jeff: I said it before. It's the best time to be a big kid. We as adults get to still be kids...

Dustin: It's the best time to even be a sci-fi nerd. You have Black Mirror. Holy Crap.

Justin: I still haven't finished that.

Dustin: Really.

Justin: Yeah, it's pretty good, too

Jeff: Altered Carbon.

Dustin: That was pretty good.

Jeff: Stranger Things, all of it. West World.

Justin: It's funny that you guys are getting to this. Did you guys know that Iron Fist got canceled?

Jeff: Yeah, did you hear Luke Cage got canceled, too?

Justin: Oh, wow.

Jeff: Yeah, so, okay. I'll go down the conspiracy hole a little bit.

Justin: I don't have any problems with Luke Cage, by the way, but I'm just saying...

Jeff: I was just surprised, yeah.

Justin: I'm just saying...

Jeff: Here's my thought process on that, and this might actually already be news by the time this airs, so if it is, I apologize, but as the time of us recording this, it's still up in the air as to why both Iron First and Luke Cage got canceled. There's two possibilities, I think. One, Disney, it's not a lie anymore, Disney is going to be coming out with their own streaming service to contend with Netflix and Hulu and that kind of stuff...

Justin: So, it wasn't because they sucked?

Jeff: It might not be.

Justin: We don't know yet.

Jeff: We might be hearing, and again, we might have heard this by the time this comes out, they might cancel Daredevil and Jessica Jones, as well, and repurpose them all on their own streaming service because Disney does own all the Marvel properties. The other side of the coin, the one that I want to subscribe to is, I like Luke Cage, but I felt that second season wasn't as good as the first season.

Justin: Yeah, it wasn't

Jeff: Nobody likes Iron Fist.

Justin: Well, season two was actually pretty good, actually.

Jeff: Stop.

Justin: It's okay. It's alright.

Dustin: I haven't watched it yet...

Justin: Season one is horrible, but season two is actually pretty good.

Jeff: But, the character, as a character with the power of the iron first, set in the streets of New York City, works in the world that Marvel has created on Netflix with Daredevil and Jessica Jones and all this stuff. So, to cancel them as shows, I think is a smart move because it's been proven that maybe they can't hold 13 episode seasons together.

Justin: Right.

Jeff: But, you pepper them into the other episodes and, for comic nerds out there, when Iron Fist and Luke Cage was called Powerman at the time, were introduced into the comics, neither of them had their own comic line for over 15 years. They had...

Justin: I did not know that.

Jeff: They had a double line called Powerman and Iron Fist and it was the Adventures of Powerman and Iron Fist. My conspiracy theory is that they canceled these shows to come out with Powerman and Iron Fist and to have them as a buddy cop kind of show and rebrand it.

Justin: Oh, wow. Okay.

Jeff: We'll see. But, again, I just am happy that Marvel is throwing anything at the wall. Some stuff works, some stuff doesn't, but we're getting characters that as a comic book nerd, I never thought I'd ever see in realty, on the screen ever.

Justin: Yeah.

Jeff: Like ever.

Justin: So, if Disney is coming out with it's own streaming, which is a very good idea, does that mean the Iron Fist and Luke Cage are going to be more G?

Jeff: No, it's no, look at it like this...

Dustin: It probably won't be called Disney Streaming Service.

Justin: Okay.

Dustin: They'll probably call it something else. In fact, I think they own Hulu, right?

Jeff: They do own Hulu [crosstalk 00:21:24]

Dustin: So they might just keep it as Hulu and just bring over all the Disney franchises.

Justin: That'd be great. Because if they made it G, that would be even worse.

Justin: [crosstalk 00:21:32]

Jeff: They're gonna model it on Netflix's model. So, if you look at Netflix's model you can sign in as your avatar on Netflix, but there's also a kids Netflix.

Justin: Right, exactly.

Jeff: That you set up for your children, so your children can't watch kind of that stuff. That's how Disney's going to do.

Justin: Okay.

Jeff: Disney has already announced, just to let you know, that there is going to be, I think it's 10 or 15 million dollars they are giving to John Fabro to create a Star Wars specific series for this streaming service called the Mandalorians and it's all going to be about Bobo Fets clan and that is definitely not G.

Justin: So we might see a black light saber?

Jeff: Yeah, we might see a lot of stuff. All I'm saying is we're gonna get a lot of cool properties on that, but it's also going to be a home for all your Disney favorites, all your Pixar favorites...

Justin: Sweet.

Jeff: They got my money already, 100%. They've got my money.

Dustin: Why does the first thing that comes to your mind is black light saber?

Justin: Oh, my gosh. Okay.

Dustin: I'm not, okay, I'm...

Jeff: DI you want to open that can of worms?

Justin: I was just like, do you know about the black light saber?

Jeff: Yeah, who doesn't?

Dustin: I don't think I can close those can of worms, but go ahead.

Justin: Okay, here we go. So, how I found about the black light saber was, of course when you play Knights of the Old Republic...

Jeff: Great game.

Dustin: Very familiar, awesome.

Justin: Yu find out that there is a Jedi master who is a Mandalorian.

Jeff: Yes.

Justin: And he actually finds, I forgot the crystals that they use to make the light sabers?

Jeff: The kyber crystals.

Justin: He uses kyber crystal that is black to make black light saber.

Jeff: Yes. And it's black, black. It's like, in the sense of fantasy world...

Dustin: Sucks the light out of a room.

Jeff: In the sense of fantasy world, he's literally fighting you with the nothing, as a light saber.

Dustin: Oh.

Jeff: It's crazy.

Justin: Exactly.

Dustin: That's what I always wondered about what Death Wish bags would like, just suck all the light out of a room.

Justin: It'd be freaking sick.

Jeff: Just for the people who are still listening to this podcast, if you don't know, the Mandalorians that we're talking about, that is the crest that Bobo Fet wears. Bobo Fet was part of the race of people that is called the Mandalorians.

Dustin: I'm not a big Star Wars fan. I will say, I think everything in Star Wars is cool...

Jeff: Yeah.

Justin: Right.

Dustin: I don't like the movies.

Justin: Okay, that's fine.

Dustin: But, what you're talking about, the Mandalorians, that sounds pretty hip to me, if they do it right.

Jeff: Think about it like this...

Dustin: Is it going to be animated or live...

Jeff: No, live action. Think about it like this, the man who kicked off the Marvel Universe, with Iron Man, directing a show that has the same production value as Game of Thrones and has Disney backing everything.

Dustin: Wow.

Jeff: I honestly think...

Justin: It sounds like a no brainer, if you had that kind of money to dump into something, you take Bobo Fet and you pump as much [inaudible 00:24:28].

Jeff: Exactly.

Justin: Exactly. I don't know what it is about Bobo Fet. I don't care who you are, but if you're a 8 to 12 year old kid, you see Bobo Fet and you're instantly like, I want to know who that is, I want to be him for Halloween

Jeff: Exactly. People always laugh at me because I am such a lover of Bobo Fet, he's not my favorite character in the Star Wars universe, but he's the one I gravitate towards the most. The reason why, is because you know so little about him. People always make of fun. Yeah, he appeared on four times and he said nothing and he died stupidly. You're right, but the cool thing about it is, the people like myself gravitate to liking Bobo Fet the same way that little kids, every little kid, if you asked any little kid about Star Wars the first thing that they say is I love Darth Vador. Why do they love Darth Vador? It's because he's all dressed in black and, as a little kid, you know nothing about him, you don't understand all of that other stuff. You just know he's the coolest looking thing on screen.

Justin: True.

Jeff: That's exactly what Bobo Fet was to me. He had a jet pack, a blaster, a grapple hook, and his whole costume was colorful and cool. It was the coolest thing ever. So, to see a whole thing on that. Welcome to Star Wars the podcast.

Justin: My blood just wants to burst out of my body just so I don't have to be here anymore.

Jeff: SO, let's reel it back. Let's reel it back in. Let's go back to Death Wish Coffee. When talking about working here the better part of a year and a half you've seen, kind of, the company grow and change to the way it has. This might be a little bit of a tough question, but where do you see us in five years? Where do you see this company going? DO you see us continually growing, do you see any road bumps, do you see us going public? What do you see about this company and where do you think this company's going to be in five years?

Justin: It must be getting close to that time. Anyway...

Dustin: Are you gonna turn into a pumpkin?

Justin: No.

Jeff: That becomes unsafe. Immediately unsafe.

Justin: Yeah, I'm mean, it would be awesome if I could turn into a werewolf or something.

Dustin: Oh my god, it's that...

Justin: Ah man, that's hard to say. We are growing very fast.

Jeff: Do you think we're growing too fast?

Justin: No, to tell you the truth, sometimes I feel like we could take it up a notch.

Jeff: I love that. It scares the absolute fuck out of me when you say that, but I love that.

Dustin: I like that.

Justin: Truthfully, and the reason why I say this, I'm pretty sure fans know, we had a super bowl commercial...what was that three years ago?

Jeff: 2015...16...15...16? 16.

Justin: Something like that?

Jeff: Yeah.

Justin: So we did have a super bowl commercial.

Jeff: Super bowl 50.

Justin: So, the thing is, we haven't had a commercial since.

Dustin: Right.

Justin: You know, and our customer base still is in that 30 plus range?

Jeff: Yeah, yeah.

Justin: In terms of like audience...

Jeff: You're talking about demographics?

Justin: Yeah, you know

Justin: [crosstalk 00:27:43]

Jeff: Our demographics is about 28 to 30 now.

Justin: With it being 2018 and there is so many things out here right now, I feel like we can literally go anywhere with what we have as coffee. Supposedly, we're the strongest coffee in the world.

Jeff: It's a galaxy, yo.

Dustin: Why would you even say supposedly.

Jeff: The galaxy, yo.

Justin: Because I haven't tasted everything so I don't know. I'm a person that likes to keep it...

Dustin: I like the caution, okay.

Justin: So I don't know.

Jeff: Playing the safe answer. I get it.

Justin: But our coffee if very good, you know.

Dustin: So you think we can burst into that younger demographic?

Justin: Yes...

Dustin: How do we go about doing something like that?

Justin: Of course, I'm bias towards it because I love video games and stuff like that...

Dustin: Yeah, there you go buddy.

Justin: ...but I feel like we can just dive right in.

Jeff: I agree.

Justin: There's Red Bull and Monster and all of these energy drinks that are out here, that are just all in it, and I'm pretty sure you guys know what happens to you after you drink an energy drink.

Jeff: You crash.

Justin: Crash, like insane.

Jeff: And you don't feel that great because you're adjusting to all that sugar and all the chemicals.

Justin: Exactly.

Jeff: I've talked to a lot of gamers, especially gamers that do it professionally and are on games for 12 hours...

Jeff: [crosstalk 00:29:16]

Dustin: I think the cold brews the key, man.

Justin: Yeah.

Jeff: I keep saying it, when our cold brew comes back out we're gonna be in that game scene really hard...

Justin: Exactly.

Jeff: Because the other side of that coin is e-sports is becoming a legitimate industry now. In fact...

Justin: Well, I don't know if it's the truth, but I heard that, I don't know if it it's the University of Utah, but they're actually giving scholarships...

Jeff: They are.

Justin: ...for e-sports, which is insane.

Jeff: And ESPN 2 or 3 simulcasted the Overwatch league finals...

Justin: Right.

Jeff: And it had better ratings than major league baseball.

Justin: That's crazy.

Dustin: Whoa. That's scary.

Jeff: So, we're on the cusp...it's not scary, it's awesome.

Dustin: That's crazy.

Jeff: Because there's so many gamers out there.

Justin: That's our country's oldest sport.

Jeff: Yeah, you know, there's so many gamers out there...

Justin: It's crazy.

Jeff: ...and it is a sports thing. People do enjoy, not only playing the games, but watching people compete in these games.

Dustin: I've been having this thought a lot, is technology gets better, not only do the games look better and become more entertaining to watch, but then you get into augmented...

Justin: That's right.

Jeff: Yeah.

Dustin: ...and simulated realities and now you're taking sports and literally mixing it with video gaming. So, e-sports will be an athletic endeavor.

Justin: Right.

Dustin: I think once we marry the two, it will be unstoppable. I think that's the future.

Jeff: THey're already marrying the two. Picture this, this is what we're going to see in the next two years and this is very, very exciting. Right now, e-sports is where if you want to be a spectator of the sport, like any sport, you're gonna go to an arena, in fact they just had one at Madison Square Garden, where all of the gamers and all of their systems are in the center, and you are in the stands watching this. In two years time, as AR and VR becomes more even apparent, we will be able to be sitting at home and we will be able to put our little headset on and we will virtually be in the game.

Justin: Yeah.

Dustin: Wow.

Jeff: As they are playing the game. So, as they are playing a game like Fortnite or Overwatch, or whatever, we will be spectators within the game.

Justin: Yeah, amazing.

Jeff: So, instead of being outside watching the gamer themselves play, we will be watching their avatars actually compete virtually.

Justin: Yeah, and we'll be within the game ourselves.

Jeff: Incredible, and they're working on that right now.

Dustin: We're not far, we have the technology to that now.

Jeff: Yes.

Dustin: But, we're just a few steps away from mass producing that, but to have that possibility. I'm always thinking, what's the next game console? What's the next one that they're gonna do and when is virtual reality gonna happen. Even as a kid I was thinking when are we gonna get the virtual reality console.

Jeff: Very, very soon. I wanna say a quick plug, actually, to a company that everybody should be checking out because they are going to blow up in 2019 and they are on the cusp of all of this. If you have not heard of Magi Leap, go check out Magic Leap...

Justin: That's the one that...

Jeff: ...that our good friend Ron Mars has a little bit of his hands in, as well. I mean, there is some incredible people making some of the most incredible technology for that and that's really cool.

Jeff: Getting back to what you're saying, Death Wish Coffee will be a part of the gaming community at, very, very soon, if not already.

Justin: Yeah.

Jeff: We're working on that because it is another avenue where I can see this. Not only, the cool thing, is we're a life style brand. Not only are we providing a good product for someone to be able to stay up all night and play video games.

Justin: Exactly.

Jeff: But you can look fucking badass while you're doing it, you know.

Dustin: [crosstalk 00:32:47]

Jeff: Exactly.

Justin: Exactly.

Jeff: So, through it all, Justin, through working at Death Wish Coffee, through, not only starting on the production floor and now being the head of sec...I was going to say security...

Justin: Very close.

Jeff: The head of our safety, here, at Death Wish Coffee and then, on the other side, all of the fun thing that you enjoy when you are not here working, what fuels you to keep doing what you do? What fuels you to keep being the best Justin there is?

Justin: I work with a great group of guys, like you guys. I love coming and hanging out with you guys and working with the production team, the office team. I feel like that's what keeps me coming back. Even though it can, we do have long days, but it feels short. It feels short when you're with people that you're comfortable with and it's almost, as if, when you're having conversations on the floor, like you're having a podcast.

Justin: Oh my gosh, we're talking about this, this would be awesome.

Dustin: But the conversations aren't far from the ones that we're having right in this room.

Justin: Right.

Jeff: I've literally had some of the same conversations with you off my podcast.

Justin: It's crazy. Prime example, I don't if it was you guys that brought this up, but about two weeks ago, Connor McGregor and Khabib...

Jeff: Yeah.

Dustin: Yeah.

Justin: That was freaking insane.

Jeff: Insane, we did talk about that.

Justin: Like that was crazy.

Dustin: That was nuts.

Justin: I'm not really into UFC that much, but Connor over that past two years has made such a huge fuss, so now you know, if you're not a UFC fan or person that watches UFC, you start to watch it because Connor is like, everybody is talking about him...

Jeff: You still know who is.

Justin: And now you hear about him..

Dustin: He's got the personality for sure.

Justin: Then he brings all of these people to UFC and now you start wondering about other fighters. Now, we here about this dud Khabib, who doesn't really talk that much, but I'm like, okay, he's fighting Connor McGregor, so he must be good, and he's undefeated. I've never besides John Jones...even though Jones hasn't actually had a loss in the ring, he's had losses due to disqualification.

Dustin: Yeah, he came with a downward elbow on Matt Hamill.

Justin: Exactly.

Dustin: The 12 to 6 elbow, which is technically illegal for stupid reasons. He did that against Matt Hamill. He was kicking his ass, too, and that's his only loss on his record.

Justin: Exactly, man, so besides that, John Jones would be like the only fighter that hasn't lost in the ring and then you have here Khabib.

Dustin: There are other fighters, but you have to consider champion.

Justin: Right.

Dustin: Champion that hasn't lost.

Justin: Right. I didn't even know that there were other fighters that had been undefeated.

Dustin: Yeah, there's quite a few. But you get guys that are, like 9 and 0, not like Khabib who's 27 and 0.

Jeff: 27 and 0

Justin: That's freaking insane.

Dustin: It seems almost impossible. Like, how have you not fucked up once by now.

Justin: Exactly. Well, I mean it's kind of hard to fuck up when you're freaking wrestling bears when

Justin: [crosstalk 00:36:11]

Jeff: It's true.

Justin: And then you're seeing this dude freaking jump off the freaking cage of the thing and I'm like okay...

Dustin: What did you think of that?

Justin: That was crazy.

Dustin: What was your feeling behind that?

Justin: Obviously he was in the moment. He wasn't thinking, as though, like, business man, like okay, I just got this win. Who cares what he said. He was in the moment. He felt disrespected. Like most people, they tend to act out when they feel disrespected to a point. It could've gone a different way. Truthfully, who would've know what would happen if he would have, instead of acting like a maniac, help Connor up.

Jeff: That's exactly what Dawson said.

Justin: That would've been, freaking, like whoa. Not only is he one of the most dangerous dudes in the freaking world, but he's a freaking humble, gentle giant at the same time. Either you...some people will probably think he's a pussy for it or whatever, but then a lot of people would respect him.

Dustin: I don't think anybody would think he's a pussy after murdering Connor McGregor.

Justin: But you know how some people are.

Jeff: You said...

Dustin: So you think it was unintelligent, but somewhat excusable for the moment.

Justin: Yeah, I mean, we're all human. We all make mistakes, but it's a learning experience.

Jeff: You said it, though. YOu've got a name like Connor McGregor bringing in all these people who might not have ever even cared about UFC and now just because of that cult personality are actually wanting to watch it and, maybe, event thinking, awe man, maybe this is something OI could do.

Justin: Right.

Jeff: And that's one of the things that Dustin actually said on a recent show when we were talking about this, was, like you said, if Khabib had actually turned to Connor and helped him up and congratulated him.

Justin: Ah, man, that would've been.

Jeff: That would've been more outstanding. That would've shown the younger generation, who's watching this...

Justin: Right.

Jeff: ...maybe for the first time, oh that's the way you react. Whereas, now they're going I've gotta be just a monster.

Justin: Right.

Jeff: And that's not the way. Personally speaking, my takeaway was always, the fight exists in the ring and anything outside of the ring, you should never bring the fight outside of the ring.

Justin: Exactly.

Jeff: So many boxer have always talked about that. Mike Tyson was an animal in the ring, but other than being wordy to people, he shouldn't have taken it outside of the ring and that's where we saw people doing that.

Jeff: It's the same thing with Holyfield. Holyfield was very upstanding until he started taking it out the ring and the it was, like, okay, what the hell, you can't...

Justin: Exactly, it changes...go ahead.

Dustin: There's a point that you brought up that all these people who didn't watch UFC for the first time are now watching UFC and then they see something like that go down, and they think this sport is this ridiculous...

Justin: Right.

Dustin: ...fucking shit show of circus. Which it's not. That doesn't happen on a...that has never happened in the UFC and now so many first time viewers are looking a the UFC in a light that's not true.

Justin: It takes the technique out of it. Like, at first, like you're watching, like man, I didn't know that they had moves like that, or, lik the kind of punches or kicks and all this other stuff and holds and stuff like that, but then that happens and it changes from professional fighting to a brawl in a bar. It's just completely different. Oh snap, he just jumped off the freaking cage and he's trying to do some drop kick from WWF.

Dustin: It was impressive.

Justin: It was sick.

Dustin: It was an impressive jump.

Justin: I was kind of shocked, I was like, oh snap.

Justin: And he scaled it like he was a freaking spider.

Dustin: He had two people trying to stop him at the same time.

Justin: What the heck.

Dustin: It was nuts.

Jeff: Final question. You want it Justin?

Dustin: Yeah, sure. It's an important one, so, relax it's okay. Death Wish or Valhalla Java?

Justin: What? Death Wish.

Jeff: Nodding just like incredulous.

Justin: Oh, my gosh, what.

Jeff: Death Wish over Valhalla, alright. Good, I'm glad you didn't block at because we've gotten some people.

Dustin: Good company man.

Jeff: We've gotten some people.

Justin: I mean, I don't know, like.

Jeff: And please welcome our special quest Zack Wild, the pizza delivery...

Justin: I don't know, I mean Death Wish. I just have to go with Death Wish. Like, when I go, coffee traders by the way, anyway, when I go to Coffee Traders I normally get Death Wish or get something that is mixed with Death Wish.

Jeff: Yeah.

Justin: That's normally how I go.

Dustin: Fair enough.

Jeff: That's fair enough. This was a lot of fun Justin.

Justin: It was amazing.

Dustin: Any social medias to put out there for listeners.

Jeff: Yeah, do you social media? You don't have to throw anything out if you don't want to, but if you want people to follow you...

Dustin: At John Swedish

Justin: Not really, but I probably will be getting into it probably in a couple of months.

Jeff: Okay, we can always add it later, but yeah, honestly, anyone who wants to follow all of our awesome employees, just follow us. Follow us at Death Wish Coffee and you can see all the cool stuff.

Dustin: A lot of cool stuff that we do.

Jeff: Thanks again man.

Justin: Yeah.