PRODUCTION - UILLIAM FINN MURRAY

DEATH WISH COFFEE COMPANY EMPLOYEE SERIES #17

"We've gotten to the point where we just have to constantly produce. We have to constantly be going, and it makes for some pretty insane days on our side." Uilliam Murray, production and roasting, Death Wish Coffee Company

PREVIEW:

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

ABOUT UILLIAM FINN MURRAY:

Uilliam has not only worked at Death Wish Coffee now for over a year, but before that he also worked for Saratoga Coffee Traders when the company was being formed in the basement. He joins the show to talk about his daily duties, what it was like to see Death Wish Coffee take off, and some of his interests outside of work. Plus, hear the origin of his name.

ON THIS WEEK'S FUELED BY DEATH COMPANION SHOW:

Happy Fourth of July this week as Jeff has returned from his trip to NASA - a special recap of his adventures next week. New data from the Cassini mission to Saturn has revealed complex organic material coming from one if its moons, and Dustin and Jeff break it all down. Independence Day myths are debunked on the roast and new products are revealed on the update, including some new socks.

TRANSCRIPT:

Jeff: Okay. So for real though, I wanna know to kinda kick this off, and don't take this the wrong way. What kind of name is Uilliam?

Uilliam: Okay.

Jeff: I'm sure you've gotten this before in your life.

Uilliam: Yes. I have gotten this quite a lot.

Dustin: It's like William but they forgot the W.

Uilliam: Yeah. They just kinda said whoops.

Jeff: It's such an interesting name to me. I'm very curious.

Uilliam: So my father is from the UK. He's from York in northern England.

Jeff: Okay.

Uilliam: He's not English. His grandmother ... his mother was Irish, my grandmother, and his father was Scottish. So when he had me, I'm the oldest, me and my sister. When he had me he wanted to name me something very unique and different. So there were a lot of names thrown around like Padrake, but my mom denied that because she didn't-

Jeff: That's good. Good mom.

Uilliam: She didn't want her son to be growing as Paddy which [crosstalk 00:00:49]

Jeff: Oh, true, I didn't even think about that. I was just like Padrake?

Uilliam: And then my dad wanted to call me Finnegan, but my mom still kind of passed on that. Finn is my middle name so my dad kinda won a little bit.

Dustin: I like Finn, Finn's alright.

Jeff: Yeah.

Uilliam: But then they settled on Uilliam because it's the old Scottish form of William but it's not the old form, like the old form is something ridiculous that I can't even say. It's like [inaudible 00:01:09] or something.

Jeff: Yeah, like Scottish, yeah.

Uilliam: Yeah. Like my sister has it worse, her name is [Leshach 00:01:14].

Jeff: [Leshach 00:01:17]?

Uilliam: [Leshach 00:01:19].

Jeff: Oh wow. So did your ... were you born in America? Or were you born in the UK?

Uilliam: I was born in Atlanta.

Jeff: You were born in Atlanta.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Jeff: Which is part of america.

Dustin: I was about to say. Yes. No or yes.
Atlanta Ireland? Arguably Georgia is a part of america but ... sorry our Georgia listeners.

Jeff: So your father he came over to america?

Uilliam: Yes. He worked for a British telecom for a number of years, and I think it's their american headquarters that's in atlanta, or just one of their big companies. He moved over here, I think maybe when he was around 30 or something. Five years or something before I was born.

Jeff: Wow.

Uilliam: Yeah. He came over here and ... I don't think he's ever been ... he's not citizen. I don't think he's ever really cared about being a citizen.

Jeff: Right.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Jeff: You ever go back to the homeland?

Uilliam: To Georgia or England?

Jeff: England.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Jeff: Do you have family over there still?

Uilliam: Yeah. Most of my family lives in York. My cousin just moved a bit further outside I don't know where she lives. But yeah I go back there. My aunts, my uncles, my cousins, yeah everybody still lives up there. We go ... the last times we went was 2015, but it's kinda hard to get out there now just because me and my sister are grown up, money is always a thing.

Jeff: Oh yeah.

Uilliam: But yeah we used to go quite often when we were younger to see everybody and do stuff.

Jeff: Have you been to the other parts of the United Kingdom? Been to Scotland or Ireland?

Uilliam: I've been to Scotland. I was very young. My sister wasn't born yet so I think I was probably about a year.

Dustin: Oh, yeah, just a little baby.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Jeff: Or little baby.

Dustin: Little baby.

Uilliam: But as far as the rest of the UK I've never gone to Ireland, I'd love to some day.

Jeff: I'm sure you will.

Uilliam: I want to. But I've been to London quite a few times, and I know when I was younger I think my dad took me around a few places throughout the UK but not that I would remember really where I went.

Jeff: So what brought you from Georgia to upstate New York.

Uilliam: Family. My mother is from Skaneateles, which is on the Finger Lakes. It's not on Otisco Lake, I think it's next to the next one over. But my grand parents live out there. Her brother, my uncle got married, they have kids, they live up here.
So my mother wanted to move up here to be closer to family, to be able to have all that and I think honestly she just didn't want to live in Georgia anymore. I guess that's how it went.

Jeff: Yeah. Got it.

Dustin: Can't blame her.
I like atlanta.

Uilliam: From what I remember from when I was a child, I really enjoyed it. Like the closest I've been back now is one of the times I flew to Texas I was in the Atlanta airport. I saw atlanta, but I would love to go back as an adult kind of experiencing it.

Dustin: Yeah. That's when it's a little fun. You can see the night life, you can go into the restaurants.

Uilliam: Because I remember what I loved about it as a kid, but what I liked about it as a kid might not be the same thing I like about it as an adult.

Dustin: I imagine living there, it's just hot as hell down there.

Uilliam: Dude, it's hot to begin with, and it's humid. It's the humidity that's the worse part. It feels like you're walking through a wall half the time.

Dustin: It's not that dry heat that Arizonians brag about. It's that really swimming-

Uilliam: I have a friend down in Arizona, and she's telling me like 110 degrees or something like that and I'm just like-

Dustin: Yeah, but it's dry heat.

Uilliam: Dry heat is much better.

Dustin: You're still cooking. Your still cooking.

Jeff: It's still hot.
Okay. So you come out to this area and you are now one of our premier production workers and we're going to get to that in a minute.

Uilliam: Sweet.

Jeff: But before you started working at Death Wish, what did you do before this job?

Uilliam: Directly before? Or like far back a bit?

Jeff: Let's say directly before.

Uilliam: Directly before, I was unemployed.
That's why I asked that question.

Jeff: The best job.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Jeff: So how about before that?

Uilliam: Before that I worked at a bookstore in Saratoga Springs.

Dustin: Oh cool.

Uilliam: I worked at ... you guys would know it, Northshire.

Dustin: Yeah.

Jeff: Yeah.

Uilliam: I worked there for a bit less than a year, and I left for many reasons. A lot of the reasons I left I just needed to have time to myself.

Jeff: Yeah.

Uilliam: I just needed to get out and just kind of-

Dustin: It's funny because I was unemployed before I worked on Death Wish as well.

Uilliam: I thought you worked at [inaudible 00:05:17] up until.

Dustin: No I quit [inaudible 00:05:19].

Uilliam: Oh really?

Dustin: Yeah. I was probably about six months out from when I left because I left [Esperano 00:05:28], and then I went to Colorado for two or three months, I don't remember. And then when I came back I was like yeah I'm not going to do anything for a while until I really figure out what I want to do.

Uilliam: And it's also like being unemployed, you start it to being with and you're like thank god I have time to sort out whatever mental problems you got going on, whatever physical things you just want to [inaudible 00:05:48] and hang out.
And then you get stuck in a rut of oh, I'll look for a job tomorrow. I'll look for a job tomorrow. And you just keep going.

Dustin: Yeah. Luckily for me it kinda just worked out the way I wanted it to because when I came back I was like, you know I'm going to be unemployed but these are the things I'm going to focus on. I had my plan of attack. I'm going to see my friend, be healthy, because he was dealing with Stage 4 cancer. I'm going to play Fallout until my eyeballs fall out of my head.

Uilliam: Is that Fallout 4?

Dustin: Yes. It was Fallout 4.

Uilliam: Yeah I did the same thing.

Dustin: And I'm going to do Jujitsu. And I was like I'm just going to fill my time with that.
And then I got to a point where it was like, I feel bad not being employed and I could use a little extra cash I guess, and I was actually having dinner with Eric. It always works this way with Eric that's how I ended up [crosstalk 00:06:45] yeah.
And he was like yeah, we could probably ... he brought it up before I did and I was like yeah I could use a part time job then. And then I just started-

Uilliam: And then it just kind of-

Dustin: Yeah. It was kind of nice. It was like whenever I wanted to show up, I'd show up and pack a few cups and then leave. So I was able to kinda like still do the things I wanted to do, and at that time you had Obamacare so it was kinda-

Jeff: A little bit nicer.

Uilliam: A wonderful time.

Jeff: So how long have you been here now?

Dustin: A yeah and a half. I think? Maybe a bit under a year and a half. Like right around there.

Jeff: Alright. So I'm sure I know the answer to this question because you are a local but had you heard of Death Wish coffee before you came here?

Uilliam: Actually yeah. So I grew up in Saratoga. Saratoga Coffee Traders was my home away from home for years.

Jeff: Did you ever work ... I feel like you worked there.

Uilliam: I worked there for two and a half, three years.

Jeff: Yeah that's what I thought.

Uilliam: So in high school I'd go in all the time, like I'd see Mike. I was closer to ... even when I wasn't working there when Mike and Scott were working there I was always close to Scott, I just knew him better.

Jeff: Why?

Uilliam: It just happened.

Jeff: Sorry.

Uilliam: And then around 2012 or so when the company started off, I remember I heard a lot about it, it popped up and I was kinda sitting here kinda like oh, my favorite coffee shop is doing their own thing. Cool. That's awesome.

Jeff: Right.

Uilliam: And then I ended up working there for a while. It never was one of those things that popped out of nowhere for me, it was just I was always there all the time to begin with. And I'd actually heard stuff about it from them because I was there for so often that they were like, "Hey we're kinda doing this thing."
And then it happened and I was like this is awesome. This is amazing. This is like awesome.

Jeff: That's cool. So what's it like seeing it from the ground floor level that you did. Like oh this little-

Uilliam: It's-

Jeff: To where it is now? And you're embedded in it. And you see what it is.

Uilliam: It's amazing dude. It's like ... like I've got a few different stages there. I remember going to the store, before it even existed and that happened. And then I started working at the store and I remember seeing all the people come in ask for Death Wish, be really excited like oh my God this is the home of Death Wish. All of that.
So I worked there at the time where I remember Eric Donovan and people in the basement bagging coffee. Like I'd finish closing, I'd go downstairs and like, you guys want some coffee? I'll leave some upstairs.
And then to see that go from the basement over there, to ... I never saw the original small warehouse but to hear about that going from here and then to come to work now.

Dustin: The original small warehouse is where the grinder is.

Uilliam: Yes. Yeah.

Dustin: Yeah.

Uilliam: To have the stage of remembering the little table in the back of the SCT basement, to come to work now in this giant building, with two roasters, a huge metal warehouse, a huge production warehouse, a whole team of other people, office guys and this stuff we're doing, it's awesome. It's really cool to say I come to work at a place like this, that's not just I go to work at ... I don't want to Starbucks.

Jeff: You can.

Uilliam: I go to work at Starbucks, I serve you coffee and stuff like that. Cool but I just work there. To come here and but it's not like I just work here, I give a damn about every ... it's awesome. It's amazing to have that experience.

Dustin: But everybody who works here is literally like a little piece of this company.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Dustin: Everybody as a whole, as a sum, makes up the image of what we are right?

Uilliam: Yeah. And a lot-

Dustin: It's kinda cool being a part of that.

Uilliam: And it's kinda cool when you notice a lot of people in those companies, the connections we all have with each other from different areas.

Dustin: All lives.

Uilliam: Like a lot of people here I knew, or talked to, or known before I showed up.

Jeff: Yeah. Shout out to Eric Donovan.

Uilliam: Eric Donovan. Yeah exactly.

Dustin: One degree of Eric Donovan.

Uilliam: Like Eric, King, Mike, John. Honestly I don't really know anybody on production when I started here. So I started with knowing no one over there and quite a lot of people over there.

Dustin: Yeah. That makes sense.

Uilliam: And then even now talking to all the people that come in all the weird way our paths almost met but didn't. It's really cool.

Dustin: Yeah because I feel like I've passed by you in the streets a million times, and we'd ... I mean we were friendly to each other.

Uilliam: Yeah. Like I can't remember any specific incident but I'm sure you got coffee from me. I know I got doughboys from you.

Dustin: Actually I'm sure I didn't get coffee from you.

Uilliam: Did you?

Dustin: I never drank coffee until I worked for this company.

Uilliam: Really?

Jeff: Yeah.

Uilliam: Well then I know I definitely got doughboys from you at like 2:00 in the morning [crosstalk 00:11:07]

Dustin: Yeah that was the case. Sure.

Jeff: So let's go back to when you first started here to today.

Uilliam: Okay.

Jeff: What is kinda like how has your job changed? What did you do when you first started here and kinda take us through your day now.

Uilliam: Okay. It's changed a lot. When I first started here it was pack cups. Also when I first started here, the production side of things we didn't have a lot of the stuff we have now.

Jeff: The machinery and things yeah.

Uilliam: The machinery, the people. When I started here it was ... there was Dave roasting, Tony learning how to roast, John-John, Jake, and Noah.

Jeff: And that was it.

Uilliam: I think that was it. [crosstalk 00:11:46]

Dustin: Oh wow.

Uilliam: Yeah. That was it. So I really got to watch everybody coming in this company. The production side of things. I got to watch all these guys come in and do all that stuff.
So now I just started out packing cups, kinda wandering around for a bit. And then just kind of ended up, do to a series of events, ended up running the manual weigh-in fills. Just there.

Jeff: Could you explain what that is for those of us who don't know?

Uilliam: Okay. So the manual weigh-in fills is this little contraption that you could set it to run a 1 pound program, a 5 pound program, 12 ounce, 8 ounce.

Jeff: Okay.

Uilliam: And once you get it set up, it spits out the coffee, weighs it up and you fill a bag up, and there it is. It's weighed out.

Jeff: And you run that whole thing?

Uilliam: Yeah.
So I ... I say I run it like I'm the guy that comes in and does that.

Jeff: Right.

Uilliam: So that's my every day thing. Outside of that, I've also been doing some mid shift for roasting. Which for me I think I'm on it again next week. Which is I come in a bit later, I do a weird staggered shift and I just stay and roast after hours as well.
And I also handle the coffee order for Scott for SCT.

Jeff: Cool.

Uilliam: Which is kind of a sick joke from John Swedish.

Jeff: Right. Yeah. You have that connection.

Dustin: You can't get away.

Uilliam: Well I got fired so he just wants to have me do more stuff.

Jeff: Is ... it's gotta be ... I mean I see it and it's mind boggling to me and for someone who's like in the thick of it, to see us grow into the point now with all this stuff we're doing with retail, with all the stuff we've been doing just with the eCommerce and things like that, to the point now where we have to have a mid shift. Where we have to have much more of a roasting schedule. It's gotta be crazy to see production ramp up like that.

Uilliam: It's insane for that and also the days we don't do mid shifts, like say ... it happened a couple of weeks ago when we had ... I forgot exactly why but we didn't do mid shifts. And I think I remember talking to Dave or I saw the noticeable difference in the production output at that point. It's noticeable. We've gotten to the point where we just have to constantly produce. We have to constantly be going, and it makes for some pretty insane days on our side. Like we are never not moving, we're always going around, we're always doing our thing but it's rewarding as hell. It's a lot of fun.

Dustin: How do you like roasting?

Uilliam: I'm enjoying it. I'm really enjoying. Yeah Dave and Tony both have been very helpful, and very informative with that.

Dustin: I love both those guys. Tremendously.

Uilliam: They're amazing. Tony is an amazing guy, Dave is just the best big bear you'll ever meet in your life.

Dustin: Both of them seriously have a heart of gold. It's great. A lot of those guys [crosstalk 00:14:19]

Uilliam: Yeah. They're probably the best people amongst everybody on that side.

Jeff: I mean, it's again, just to speak on the growth of this company, it really is on the backs of you guys, and it's refreshing to hear that someone like you who came in, and just started to pack cups and is now has a lot more hand in a lot of the different processes that go on but you're still passionate about it. You sound like you thoroughly enjoy your job which I think is a rarity.

Uilliam: I've never had a job that i legitimately enjoy. I've had days at past jobs that I've loved. But I never had a job where every day I don't ... you know everybody has those days no matter how much they love their job where they come to work and go goddammit I have to do this.
But it's every day I come into work and I'm thinking like, I say I don't really care what goes down today. It's not that I don't care it's that I'm like I'm ready for whatever the hell happens today. I might get annoyed, I might get mad, I might laugh my ass off because the people I work with are insane. I might do a bunch of really fun stuff, or I might just have one of those quiet days where everybody is kinda like just cool let's get our stuff done.
But every day is not necessarily the best most fun day ever, or the worst day ever, it's just every day I come here is just such a good feeling to have.

Jeff: Yeah I generally sense an aura of content coming from you at a pretty consistent basis.

Uilliam: It's taken awhile to get there but I-

Dustin: Yeah. For all of us.

Jeff: And you know we're lucky. And that might not always be like that.

Uilliam: Oh yeah.

Jeff: You have to cherish those moments. Everybody has to cherish those moment where you're content.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Jeff: Because you know. Life goes up and down.

Uilliam: I'm 24 I didn't go to college. I dropped out of community college. I did not ... I expected for a while I'd just be working like odd jobs here and there but now I have an opportunity with this job where I'm like oh, crap. Okay. I need to get my shit together, I need to go-

Jeff: No, you're good.

Uilliam: Okay.

Jeff: This is the Death Wish Coffee podcast.

Uilliam: Good point.

Jeff: Oh, shit. You're fired.

Uilliam: I may or may not swear more than anybody else over there so-

Jeff: Yeah. They slip out of me from time to time, to say the least.

Uilliam: But it's awesome. I love it. For me to have that opportunity. To have the opportunity to have opportunities. That's the way I want to put it.

Jeff: I mean the opportunities here are pretty fucking endless.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Jeff: You never know where you might end up.

Uilliam: Especially in the past year. Just the growth we've done in the past year, and the stuff that's opening up. It makes me sit back and go like damn.

Jeff: And here's the thing I have this talk with a lot of the guys here. It's just like dude that's where I started doing, that's how I got where I'm at because I notice there was opportunity here, and that if my performance here was awesome it would be noticed and you do move up the ranks.
And it's nice to have that opportunity to where like oh I have a reason to kick ass. I forgot the saying I heard. "Purpose makes for acceptable suffering." Right?
Like if you have a reason to do something that's unfavorable, it's that's much easier to do. Rather than a job you go to day after day, and you're just making that paycheck. It's much more difficult to take on than any kind of suffering that you might run into.

Uilliam: You're just putting that latte on the counter, you're just running out that book, you get to a point every day where you're just like what the hell am I doing?

Dustin: And there's nothing that's going to happen from that.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Dustin: It's not like oh dude if you're the best book salesman you're going to be north east manager for ... it just doesn't really work like that.

Uilliam: In situations like that it's all luck. I mean here it's luck. I got extremely lucky that I was even ... in my eyes, I got extremely lucky I was even considered when I put my application in. But here I am so it works out.

Jeff: And you have a great attitude even in the face of ... I think you and Noah both are vying for the production punching bag title.

Uilliam: Oh. Jesus Christ. I mean damn man.

Jeff: I see them make fun of Uilliam a lot.

Uilliam: I put myself in that situation a lot. Granted like for me work is kinda like ... I'm just kinda like ... goofy whatever, have fun at work. But yeah. Yeah.
Don't talk to Dave.

Dustin: Oh no.

Jeff: So on the other side of things, another thing we like to talk about with employees here is when you're not in the thick of it and you're not here at work. I know you have some pretty interesting hobbies.
What do you like to do for fun?

Uilliam: Well straight off my two big things are books and video games.

Jeff: Books and video games. Love it. You're on the right show.

Uilliam: I'm also ... I have for years ... it's what I did go to community college for but I dropped out because school's not for me. I like to write a lot. I guess that just kinda comes from reading a lot of books.

Dustin: Yeah.

Uilliam: And just general ... I guess this sounds weird ... just generally being outside. Like I love being outside. Where I live in my apartment, there's a big ridge right in front of me. And you can go up in there and walk throughout all the little trails and go out. I do that all over the weekend and stuff like that.

Jeff: I thought you was going to say right in my apartment there's a hole in my roof so I'm generally outside all the time.

Dustin: Gotta talk to him about that at some point.

Jeff: Rent controlled.
So let's go back to books. Favorite books. Either favorite books or favorite writer.

Uilliam: Okay. I'm huge fan of fantasy sci-fi. Like I read a lot of everything. I'm the kind of guy that I'll go from reading a political book to something by Alexander Dumas, to something by Tolkien in the same week. But my books on my shelf that I really care about are my fantasy collection. Like I'm a huge fantasy nerd from ... I think that kind of stems from my dad quite honestly.

Jeff: That's cool.

Uilliam: But yeah. Absolute huge fantasy nerd.

Dustin: Same here man.

Jeff: Yeah dude.

Dustin: Yeah we've actually read a lot of the same books.

Uilliam: Yeah. One of the first times we've really talked at one of the [inaudible 00:20:10] shows, we ended up talking about Wheel of Time and a bunch of other stuff and just going ah.

Dustin: Yeah. It's always nice when you run into a fellow fantasy nerd.

Uilliam: Because it's so rare sometimes and still ... even with Game of Thrones being such a popular show, there's still a weird stigma surrounding fantasy where you're like, "I love fantasy." And people are like, "Nerd."
Why? It's awesome.

Jeff: What do you like dragons and swords? Yeah swords are sharp and kill people. That's awesome. Dragons are flying lizards that breathe fire. What? How is that not cool to you?

Uilliam: And I feel the problem there's still with that is that like people don't consider how amazing those writers are. It's not just because you're in a genre means that you're this writer, or that like a lot of people look at literature. Like the literature section a bookstore and go writers.
But fantasy there's some amazing writers there.

Dustin: These are people creating their own worlds.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Dustin: With their own rules.

Uilliam: They are-

Jeff: Tolkien created his own languages.

Uilliam: Yeah. And that's pretty common in fantasy novels.

Dustin: I got one of those tattooed on me. I got a little Tolkien thing.

Jeff: Okay so the other side of it that I know Dustin and I also are big fans of video games.

Uilliam: Oh yeah.

Jeff: Favorite genre? Favorite game?

Uilliam: Okay so RPGs. Hands down.

Jeff: Win. Win win.

Uilliam: Win win.
Goddamn if we're going to ask me to say favorite games.

Jeff: At the moment. You don't have to ... I know that's hard.

Uilliam: Definitely the Witcher 3. One of the best games ... oh god it was-

Jeff: I tried to play that twice and I've not been able to get through.

Dustin: I played it right up until I got to the last boss and I was like, yeah I'm good. I think it's the only time I've ever done that with a game.

Uilliam: The whole game is amazing and the DLC, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. Blood and Wine is all about vampire hunting.

Dustin: Oh that's cool.

Uilliam: It's one of those concepts like vampire hunting really? Like haven't we done that to death? And they nail it. They make it creepy, horrifying, and great.

Dustin: Really?

Uilliam: Witcher. I'm a big fan of Elder Scrolls, Morrowind ... I'm currently knee deep in Elder Scrolls Online and slowly losing my life a little bit with that game.

Jeff: I have never put Skyrim down since 2011. I haven't. I still-

Uilliam: It's crazy that's so good. Dude these are the games that I've always wanted as a kid.

Jeff: I know. How fucking cool is this?

Uilliam: And they keep coming out. And when you're like 10 or whatever you're playing whatever the hell and you're like I wish this game had this, or I wish the game had this, and now I'm 24 and I'm playing this game I'm like, "Oh, shit 10 year old [inaudible 00:22:25]."

Jeff: Yeah.

Uilliam: Damn. Alright.

Jeff: It's incredible. So okay big nerd moment, you're a fan of Elder Scrolls, you're playing a bunch of them now, they just released at this year's E3 finally that we're going to get Elder Scrolls 6.

Uilliam: It was just a little teaser.

Jeff: But at least we know it's happening. It's coming. It's probably still about two years out.

Uilliam: I just had a ... we over there have been talking a lot about it.

Jeff: Okay so I want your thought then, where do you think and I'm sorry for anybody listening to this who isn't as big of a nerd as we are, but if you don't know the Skyrim, if you don't know the Elder Scrolls games, each game exists in a different quote unquote area of the overarching world that exists in Elder Scrolls.

Uilliam: And the overarching world is Daggerfall.

Dustin: Tamriel.

Jeff: Tamriel. Right. So we've seen lots of different areas of this throughout the different games. The last one being Skyrim which where we learned a lot about that.

Uilliam: It was like a viking style Nordic.

Jeff: So where do you think Elder Scroll 6 is gonna go.

Uilliam: Well i have to go with what we've seen in the trailer it was just like the main ... I think like 40, 50 seconds long? It was short.

Jeff: Yeah. It was just over the mountains and you see a little town and then they just sail [crosstalk 00:23:34].

Uilliam: I think it was a name. So the areas we haven't gone to I don't know think they'd go back to a zone that they've done before.

Jeff: Unless it's in the story but yeah we're not going to be centered in Morrowind again.

Uilliam: Not counting Elder Scrolls online because they go everywhere.

Jeff: Right.

Uilliam: But with what we've seen in the trailer, and with what I really want, I really hope it's Elsweyr.

Jeff: Me too.

Dustin: Yes.

Jeff: Me too.

Uilliam: Because in the trailer we see some mountains, a lot of greenery and then what looks like savanna plains in the background and Elsweyr is like Tamriel's Africa.

Jeff: Right.

Uilliam: And the Khajiit are so freaking cool and so weird and alien and their culture is so awesome that I-

Jeff: Could you explain the Khajiit to the-

Uilliam: So the Khajiit are a bunch of humanoid cat people.

Jeff: Yeah.

Uilliam: And they've got a really weird culture behind them. A lot of them are nomads. When you see them in game they kinda just wander around and sell you stuff. And they're just kinda cool.

Dustin: Kinda Gypsy-ish. Right?

Uilliam: Yeah.

Jeff: They're kinda Gypsy-ish and what I love about-

Dustin: Like Romani.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Jeff: What I loved about the last game, you can play as that ... you can play as any race in the game, and when you pick a Khajiit, the entire game, it doesn't matter what you do in the game, doesn't matter how you align your character, the entire game you're dealing with racism.

Uilliam: Yeah.

Jeff: The whole time.

Uilliam: They do a great job of that.

Jeff: People are constantly like, "Ugh Khajiit, get out of here." Or like talking down to you because there's this air of mystery about this type of character so it's like-

Uilliam: In that game the only time you really see them are when they are in little camps outside of the ... okay.

Jeff: That's why I like to lock that fucking door. Go on though, go on.

Uilliam: The only time we really see them in Skyrim are when they are in little camps outside the gates of cities, and when you talk to them they're like yeah they wouldn't let us in. We gotta stay here, so you wanna buy stuff? No? Okay.

Jeff: No. I'm excited for that too. And it sounds like you like the same types of games that Dust and I do.

Uilliam: Yeah they're ... except for you were hating on Destiny 2.

Jeff: Destiny 2 was a travesty. It was a-

Uilliam: It's weird there's this group of elitist motherfuckers. They're like Destiny 1 was better than Destiny 2. And it's like, dude really?

Dustin: Destiny 1 was not necessarily better I don't think. But Destiny 2 did drop the ball on a lot of things that they had nailed beforehand, that kinda made you sit back and go what the hell happened.

Uilliam: Now as far as my perspective, I never played Destiny 1.

Dustin: Oh really?

Uilliam: I just started playing Destiny 2 probably I don't know two months ago or something like that.

Dustin: Damn, okay.

Uilliam: So it's something I picked up and I was instantly sucked in, it was like oh my God this is so much fun.

Dustin: One of things ... myself included, Destiny was such an original big concept when it came out and it was like Bungie's first thing after Halo.

Jeff: Yeah.

Dustin: So it's like this huge deal. So Destiny I think ... it was so good off the bat, and they did such a great job improving it that I felt like the second one was set up to kind of be a bit-

Jeff: Less.

Dustin: Less. Not because it was less but because people's expectations are so high. But I just didn't ... and also I don't know if I was burnt out after the first one. If I just didn't enjoy it as much because of that.

Jeff: I mean that game sucks so many hours out your life it's insane.

Dustin: Oh I'm going to upgrade this, or I'm going to get my level up just this bit so I can do this. Oh god that's like 10 hours of crap.

Uilliam: They just ... crawl through that game. And I love video games. Like it's so ... and this is what I heard about the first one in particular. It's so challenging and they make you figure it out. They do not lead you to the water whatsoever but you have to drink. It's crazy.

Dustin: So of the raids I came very close to hating some close friends of mine.

Uilliam: Yeah. It's crazy.

Dustin: It's almost really bad.

Jeff: Oh my God, that's crazy.

Uilliam: You better pick your clan wisely friend because you have to deal with them. It's crazy and all their inadequacies.

Dustin: It was just ... it's painful too if you mess up in that and instantly you know you messed up and everybody else knows you messed up, and you're just sitting there like [inaudible 00:27:22].

Jeff: I'm glad they can't see me right now.

Dustin: Yep.

Jeff: So going back to the company. A question I like to ask employees because getting people's perspective I think is important. You've been here for a year and a half, you've known about the company before that, you've seen it grow from the basement to where all the things that we're doing now. Is there anything you think that we haven't tried that we should? Any area that we should be maybe pushing the brand towards, or something that we should come out with that we haven't tried? Or-

Uilliam: World domination.

Jeff: World domination.

Dustin: You don't think we're trying that?

Uilliam: Okay let's do it.

Jeff: I think we're working towards there.

Uilliam: Honestly I don't know. That's not on my radar half the time. Like I'm more, I'm like working on what I'm doing every day doing that stuff. But I think what we're doing now with this and with a lot of the other stuff we're doing a lot of the different people we have here with their different goals and everything. A lot of steps are being made right now to do some really cool things. And just continue with that and just keep going. This is also not an area where I really know too much about.

Jeff: Yeah.

Uilliam: So I feel like anything I could suggest may not be ... it's not something I've thought about particularly much.

Jeff: Well I'll tell you something that kinda stems from what we were just talking about, and it's something that I've been working towards trying to get us into this realm a little bit more and it's been a slow process.

Dustin: Is it space?

Jeff: It'll be awesome. We're doing that. But video games. I think there's a big market for us to kinda work with people who are in the Twitch community, who are in the video game community, we did a little bit with that one game For Honor where we did the branded bags.

Uilliam: That was so good.

Jeff: And I think we should do more of that kind of stuff. And that's what I love about this company. It's like we have an idea like that but we're not going to force it. We're working towards it, like figuring out the best way to kind of bridge into that.

Uilliam: Well I think the biggest linchpin for gamers to consume out product is cold brew.

Jeff: Yes.

Uilliam: Something that they can buy in the store, bring home, turn on their video games, start Twitching, and crack it open, you hear it, start gulping, get those 500 milligrams of caffeine in their system and they're zooted.

Jeff: And for everybody listening and watching this show, to reiterate yet again, we are working on our brand new cold brew recipe and hopefully you'll be seeing that some time in this year. Down probably fall. Fall-ish I would say, once we get everything finalized. We're finalizing packaging, and taste profiles and all that kind of stuff so I'm excited. Because you're right getting a product like that out I think would be great.

Uilliam: I feel like every time I see somebody in public that doesn't know me and I'm wearing a Death Wish shirt, that's the thing they ask about.

Jeff: Yeah.

Uilliam: That's every single person.

Jeff: Yeah it's definitely, it's coming guys it's coming.

Uilliam: I mean it's the biggest thing that we do so well with the product that you have to go home and prepare. It's not something that you can just buy in a store and directly consume. And cold brew changes that game entirely.

Dustin: It's also just so good.

Uilliam: And when you're specifically a strong coffee company and you're working for that high caffeine and competing in that energy drink realm. It's a no brainer. That's a no brainer.

Jeff: Okay. So the question we ask everybody on this show, and from someone like you who we've known, you love coming to work, you love this job, you believe in this company, you have a great attitude about it. What fuels you to keep doing that?
What fuels you to keep coming back here every day and keeping your head up and having that good attitude?

Uilliam: It's kinda like two part. I feel like the first part is something like every person on here has said. The people I work with. Not just the people I work with directly in production, like we got John-John, CJ, Noah, Joe, John, Dave, Tony, all the others I haven't mentioned, I'm sorry.
And then everybody over in the office that I don't work with directly, everybody here is just so cool. And everybody is so great and just passionate about everything.

Dustin: Not you Jeff.

Uilliam: No not you Jeff.

Jeff: My mom said I was cool.

Uilliam: She lied.

Dustin: Exactly.

Uilliam: But just to come to work and see everybody and know every person here, I can have a great conversation with, have a good ... like when we have the events where all of us are outside of work eating dinner or something like that. It's amazing to have these people here and do all that.
And the other part is just to come to work and feel like I'm a part of something. And not just feel like I'm a part of something like I'm doing this, but to feel like I'm genuinely a part of this giant massive force that's just kicking ass and doing a lot of cool shit.

Jeff: World domination.

Uilliam: Yes that.
And it's a really rewarding job to have, and I ... the kind of person that everybody here is, you need ... I like being done with my day and feeling like fuck yeah, I did that, that was awesome. Or like I feel good about what I did today.

Jeff: Hell yeah. Hell yeah.

Dustin: Valhalla Java or Death Wish?

Jeff: Yep. Which one.

Dustin: If you had to drink one for the rest of your life?

Uilliam: Probably Valhalla.

Dustin: Really?

Jeff: Okay. Good.

Uilliam: I'm a Valhalla guy.

Jeff: You didn't falter on that. Alright good.

Dustin: Why?

Uilliam: I just prefer the flavor.

Dustin: You like the flavor.

Jeff: You like the flavor.

Uilliam: Oh god.

Jeff: The flavor huh? It's all about flavor to you.

Uilliam: I remember working in SCT when we had this new ... like we were told hey Death Wish has a new coffee coming out. And we're all sitting there going, it's not going to be good. It's definitely [inaudible 00:32:50] and we got on the shelf and we tried it and I'm sitting there going yeah it's fucking good. But since day when I tired Valhalla. Death Wish is still awesome but Valhalla is just my personal flavor.

Jeff: Alright. Good. Hey well-

Dustin: I go through phase for sure.

Jeff: I know Zach Wild will be happy to hear that you like his coffee better.

Dustin: How do you feel about our flavored stuff? Like our Barrel brand which you have in your cup right now.

Uilliam: I love it. I think Tony does an amazing job roasting it and I love the fact that we do these cool little roasts every so often, like what did we have this past year? We had Irish Peppermint, [Grumball 00:33:27], Whiskey, Bourbon, and Pumpkin.
Pumpkin's my favorite.

Jeff: It's coming back, it's coming back. Every fall guys. Remember that.

Uilliam: I'm a hug pumpkin fan. Anything. My birthday is in October so every time October rolls around-

Dustin: Oh I wanna tell a secret. It's gonna be at the end of this podcast.

Jeff: I don't think you can tell that secret yet.

Dustin: The-

Jeff: Yeah I don't think you can tell that secret.

Dustin: I want to.

Jeff: I know you want to but I don't think you can.

Dustin: Do you know what I'm talking about?

Jeff: Yeah.

Dustin: And it has to do with pumpkin spice.

Jeff: Yeah. There's a secret that you guys will hear soon but you can't hear it yet. You can't hear it yet. We can't reveal it yet.

Dustin: Why not? It's not a big deal.

Jeff: It kinda is.
Dustin's gonna say it. I can't stop him.

Dustin: It's ground. We're making a ground.

Jeff: Yeah. There it is. Yep. Okay.

Uilliam: You saw that look.

Jeff: Yeah it happened. So now you know.

Dustin: Maybe you didn't get to this point. And you'll never know.

Jeff: Maybe you'll never know.

Uilliam: Or maybe he's lying entirely and that's not going to happen ever.

Dustin: Oh yeah. Maybe I ruined it. Maybe now that I said it, we're not grinding shit.

Uilliam: That's it done. Off the wall. Screw it.

Jeff: I can't thank you enough for coming on the show.

Uilliam: Yeah dude.

Jeff: It was a lot of fun talking with you. Finally and if you don't that's totally cool but is there ... do you social media? And if you do is there anything that you'd want to shout out for people to follow you on social media, or if you don't that's cool too.

Uilliam: I'm on Facebook and Instagram but I don't use it too much, only for really like contacting people like if I lose my phone or people like trying to find somebody that I haven't found or whatever. Something like that.
Just you know-

Jeff: Yeah, go ahead.

Uilliam: And one funny thing that I would think was really funny to bring it up, the whole getting my job here. Scott fired me from SCT.

Jeff: Why did he fire you?

Uilliam: Because I was a shithead. I was a 21 year old jackass that deserved to be fired.

Dustin: Can you describe the moment when he fired you?

Uilliam: So I show up to work for shift on a Friday. It was a closing shift. Sitting in front of the store kinda on my phone. "Hey can I talk to you outside?"
Oh, okay. Go outside to talk to him.
"So I'm letting you go."
And I'm sitting there like-

Dustin: Oh.

Uilliam: Oh. Fuck what do I do here? Alright.
"So we have your shift covered, or you can work it."
And I said, well I'm already here. I don't think anybody will work my last shift. And that actually influenced why I got the job here. Because I got my ass fired because I was a crappy idiot that deserved to get fired, but then when John Swedish and Mike heard that I had worked my last shift, that was a big thing of like well, okay.

Dustin: It's weird how a small decision like that can affect you so greatly later in your life.

Uilliam: Well which is why-

Dustin: Because I remember them bringing that up when we were talking about hiring you.

Uilliam: When my mother was helping me look for job applications, she found this one on I think it was Craigslist.

Jeff: Yeah.

Uilliam: And she goes, hey wanna hire for Death Wish. And in my head I'm like I'm not fucking getting that job. I was like I'll apply but there's no way in hell they're going to hire me.
And then I got an interview where I'm sitting here going like, okay.

Jeff: And now you're here.

Uilliam: It just goes to show like it doesn't matter ... like fuck up dude. Make mistakes and then your life isn't over you keep going and you have an awesome opportunity like this.

Dustin: You can always turn it around. Always.

Uilliam: The whole point of life is to make mistakes and even though you fuck up in the moment and it feels like the worst thing ever. It's not it's a tiny little thing and then you end up in a cool situation like this and you end up happier and just more comfortable with yourself than you ever were. And a lot of that is because of this job. I was in a shell before I got here. And now people can't get me to shut up so.

Dustin: It's true.

Jeff: It's true.

Dustin: When you realize that your fuck up is just a blip on your radar in your life, it makes so much easier to turn things around. And even more ... like a tiny little minuscule blip on the radar of the universe.
That one mistake does not make you.

Uilliam: Exactly.

Jeff: Right.

Uilliam: And I fuck up a lot.

Dustin: We all do.

Jeff: We all do.

Dustin: It's part of it.

Jeff: But man thank you so much.

Uilliam: Thank you guys. Cheers homie.