PRODUCTION/GRINDING - MATHIAS TYLER

DEATH WISH COFFEE COMPANY EMPLOYEE SERIES #22

"This is the only place I've ever worked where I wear my company logo when I'm not working." Mathias Tyler, Death Wish Coffee Production 

PREVIEW:

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW VIDEO

ABOUT MATHIAS TYLER:

 Mathias Tyler was a big fan of Death Wish Coffee, and now he has been a vital part of the production team for a year. He joins the podcast to talk about his daily duties and how he doesn't feel like it's a normal job. Mathias sees great potential in the company and the brand and feels he has found his career at Death Wish. I also talk to Mathias about what he likes to do outside of the job, and we bond over a mutual love for Final Fantasy video games and Dragon Ball Z.

TRANSCRIPT:

Jeff: Let's start before Death Wish Coffee with you, because we are now, as a company, in a spot where someone like you now has joined the team, is an integral part of the team, but you were a fan first.

Mathias: Huge fan.

Jeff: And I wanna start there. What did you do before you started working for Death Wish Coffee? What were you doing?

Mathias: As far as job-wise?

Jeff: Yeah, as far as job.

Mathias: I've been, like a lot of us, in the restaurant business for 25 years for the most part.

Jeff: I hear it. I hear it. Back of the house, right?

Mathias: Back of the house. I mean, I was a chef, line cook. I've done it all. Any type of food, I know how to cook it.

Mathias: I've been in a few warehouse jobs. I've ... a few gas station jobs. But logistics and warehouses, I really fell in love with it, really enjoyed it. It's just the pace of it, the hard work, the labor of it. It just, it tickles my bone. I love it.

Jeff: Yeah. And so, on that, you're a local. You're working in restaurants. You're working in warehouses and stuff like that. When did you find out about Death Wish? Did you just hear about it because of being a local, or-

Mathias: No. Well, yeah. I was living in North [Greenbush 00:01:19] at the time. I think it was 2015, I stopped at a gas station, get gas, cigarettes, coffee, or whatever and I seen big heavy-set dude with the hoodie. And I walk up, I'm like, "What's this all about?" And he told me, it's a local company right in our own backyard, killer coffee, so I was stoked about it. So I went home. I googled it, found it and a week later, had it mailed and that was it, done. I got ... I didn't have a grinder, so I got the ground first, went straight to whole bean right after. Because I used to grind my own coffee with other brands, but at the time I was drinking crap, just whatever. I'd spoil myself once in a while on a good bag of coffee. But that first bag of Death Wish, man, it blew me away. I was-

Jeff: Do you know what ... around what timeframe that was, what year?

Mathias: I wanna ... It was probably a couple months ... It was around my birthday, actually. I think it was a couple months after the ...

Jeff: The Superbowl commercial?

Mathias: No, the newscast.

Jeff: Oh.

Mathias: When it was on Good Morning America.

Jeff: Good Morning America.

Mathias: Yeah.

Jeff: So this would be 2013, 2014, around there?

Mathias: Yes, somewhere around there.

Mathias: And then I remember voting for the Superbowl, and that was epic. I was so stoked about that. Man, that was cool.

Jeff: Yeah. I mean, as employees of this company, we're still stoked about that. In fact, I just went to a rock concert last night and people were coming up to me still saying, "Oh, my god, Death Wish Coffee. I saw you guys in the Superbowl," and this is years later. It'll never go away. It's incredible.

Mathias: Yep.

Jeff: So a big of the fan of the company then, what drew you to it? Was it just the blend of the coffee? Was it the atheistic?

Mathias: Mainly, yes because, I mean, I was never big on Facebook, never really followed Facebook. My first mug wasn't until the 2017 mug, the annual mug. That was the first mug I got. It was the 2016 stamp, that one on Amazon, the smaller one.

Jeff: Yep.

Mathias: That was my first mug, and I've gone to Saratoga Coffee [inaudible 00:03:27] a few times and I walk passed mugs, and to this day I regret not buying any of them because now I can't find them anywhere.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: But it was always the coffee. I loved the coffee. Just, I've always been a coffee nut my whole ...

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: I started drinking coffee when I was 13, 14 years old, and with a ton of sugar, but now I can ... Death Wish is probably the only coffee I can drink black. I mean, I still add a little cream and sugar, whatever, milk and sugar, but I can drink Death Wish Coffee black and still really enjoy it.

Jeff: I agree.

Mathias: So ...

Jeff: I ... And so, fast-forward to getting a job here. Because again, I wanted to reiterate this, you and I are a different breed of employee at this company. So many of the people at this company, like Eric Donovan, and Kane, and [Taya 00:04:15], they were there in the basement at Coffee Traders from the beginning before even Good Morning America. And as the company grew, even a lot of the people that were going in there were just like, "What is this weird Death Wish Coffee," but you and I were fans before we ever ... We knew about the company, we knew about what it ... the coffee was all about, what the community was all about. So what was it like joining the team coming in on your first day? How long have you been working here now?

Mathias: April 16th, 17th will be a year.

Jeff: It will be a year, right.

Mathias: It will be a year.

Jeff: So about a year ago you come and join the team. What was that like? What was it like coming in?

Mathias: It was probably the greatest feeling in the world.

Jeff: Really?

Mathias: It really was. I was working in a restaurant down at [Clifton 00:04:56] Park and I never really thought about applying. I always thought it was a tight-knit family type of business. I never really realized that they would hire outside. And my girl, she was on the website just scrolling around and just light bulb went off, look for careers. Couldn't find it, so she called. She talked to [Kristin 00:05:17] who was here at the time, and she got the link for me and I updated my resume. It took me about three months to get everything situated to switch over for a job. I applied. Took a couple weeks. I got the call, come in for the interview. Second interview, boom, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory my first day. I was so stoked. Oh my god. Just walking around, the smell of the place, it was phenomenal. I mean, I'll never forget it.

Mathias: And to this day, I don't consider it a job. I feel like I have a career.

Jeff: That's awesome.

Mathias: It really is. I mean, I wanna see myself ... I see a future for myself in this company.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: It's just, it's a great feeling working here.

Jeff: I think one of the greatest things, and we've talked to a lot of employees on this show, and that's why I love inviting you guys on the show to talk, because it's a running theme that it's not ... we're not working for, for lack of ... let's use a crappy example, but for not working for a Folgers, where you're working for a corporation. You punch your timecard in the morning. You do your job. You punch your timecard at the end and you're done.

Mathias: Yeah, it's not that.

Jeff: We all seem to really believe in this brand, believe in the company, believe in the career that this can turn into.

Mathias: I have a lot of faith in the company. I put a lot of time and energy and effort into working here. I come in. It's not a punching the clock. I come in and there's times I forget to punch the clock because I go straight to work.

Jeff: Me too.

Mathias: I enjoy being here. I love doing it. I love doing what I do. For the last month or so, I've been grinding. I'm the only grinder. And last week or the week before, I think it was the week before, either broke records or I made a record on how much coffee I ground, just over 27,000 pounds.

Jeff: Wow. What time period?

Mathias: In a week.

Jeff: In a week.

Mathias: In a week, yeah.

Jeff: That's crazy.

Mathias: I think it's cooler to say 14 tons.

Jeff: 14 tons in a week.

Mathias: That's a lot of coffee.

Jeff: That's a lot of coffee. Holy crap.

Mathias: Yeah. So we're a little ahead, but I love, man. I get a rush. I really do. And being on the floor with the guys, I mean, we have a good time. It's not really work. It's coming in, you're working and you're having a good time. It is, it's a family. It's really cool. I really enjoy being here.

Jeff: And let's go even forward still, from being here for a full year, how has ... how do you feel the company has changed in that year, like the growth, the direction? How do you feel like ... Where do you think we're going, kind of thing?

Mathias: We're getting our hands into everything.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: And we're so open to put our hands everywhere. I wanna see getting into environments that really suit us, like in the gaming industry, concerts, just getting everywhere, and that's what we've been doing. The fact that we're in how many supermarkets now?

Jeff: I can't even ... I begin to lose count.

Mathias: It's just, it's amazing how far we've extended everything. It's just, it blows me away in such a short time. And when we had our last company-wide meeting where we got heads up of what the next year or two is gonna be like, I'm stoked. I really am. I mean, we're gonna be ... there's gonna be a lot of changes and there's gonna be a lot going on, and it's just gonna blow us up. I can't wait. It's so exciting.

Jeff: Yeah. It is crazy to think about that, this little company. And that, we get talked to by other companies in other industries even of, how are we sustaining what we do? Because at the end of the day, and a lot of people don't know this, we are a small business. We are under 50 employees, still as I'm talking to you, under 50 employees, and we're not just producing coffee. We're producing incredible merchandise. We are sponsoring things like NASCAR, and New York Comicon, and fueling bands like Metallica and Slayer-

Mathias: It's insane.

Jeff: ... and doing all this stuff, and constantly new opportunities show up and we're always just like, "Yeah, let's give it a shot."

Mathias: Let's do it. Let's do it, yeah. It's exciting. Everything about what we do is exciting.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: I get a kick out of all of it, and it's just fun. It's a really fun job, career.

Jeff: Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Jeff: So speaking on fun, let's go to the other side of it. When you're not at the nine to five, what do you like to do for fun? What are ... You got any fun hobbies?

Mathias: Yeah. I mean, right now, because of the winter, I really don't do much but I'm more of an outdoorsy, yard work, whatever. I like to do stuff outdoors. I'm more of a homebody for the most part.

Jeff: Ditto.

Mathias: Some gaming, nothing crazy. I got a ps4. I play it once in a while.

Jeff: Do you have a favorite video game?

Mathias: Final Fantasies.

Jeff: Yes, yes.

Mathias: And the Dragon Balls, the Dragon Ball games.

Jeff: Yes. Yeah, you are a big Dragon Ball fan.

Mathias: Huge Dragon Ball fan.

Jeff: That's awesome.

Mathias: But I'm waiting for Final Fantasy 7 remake to come out sooner or later.

Jeff: I know.

Mathias: They say it's gonna be this year for the last three years.

Jeff: They said that last year, and the year before.

Mathias: But I've seen trailers for it, and it looks epic.

Jeff: Out of ... Let's nerd out for a minute. Out of all the Final Fantasies, is 7 your favorite?

Mathias: 7 and 8 were great. My favorite was the one that got me hooked on Final Fantasy. I think it was Final Fantasy 3 for Super Nintendo, unless it ... yeah, for Super Nintendo. It was ...

Jeff: Are you talking ... Was it 6, was it the one with [inaudible 00:11:07]?

Mathias: Yeah, yeah, Final Fantasy 6.

Jeff: Yeah, 6.

Mathias: But Final ... I think it was Final Fantasy 3 in Japan.

Jeff: It was three in Japan, or it was 3 here, and was 6 in Japan, something like that.

Mathias: One or the other, yeah.

Jeff: That's the one that got me hooked too.

Mathias: Yep, yep. That's where the ultimate weapon, where the energy ball comes up that just-

Jeff: And all the summons, and the characters. There were 13 freaking characters in that.

Mathias: [inaudible 00:11:28] was my favorite.

Jeff: That game, I probably sunk in one summer, probably, easily 200 hours into that game.

Mathias: Oh, endless hours, endless hours. I mean, I remember just spending weekends in my room just plastered to it.

Jeff: Yep. That's the one that got me. That's the one that got me hooked too. And it's great, because I remember being a kid playing that game and being like, "Holy crap." It was the first RPG I ever played too, so that got me into the whole RPG aspect and everything, and I really, really gravitated towards that. And I remember thinking, even then, "Man, I wish I could play this everywhere." I have it on my phone now.

Mathias: Yeah, same here.

Jeff: And it's awesome.

Mathias: Yeah, it's cool.

Jeff: So I don't play it all the time, but every ... the last few iterations of my iPhone, I have Final Fantasy 6 on it. And every now and again I'll just click it and I'll play a couple battles, and [inaudible 00:12:13]-

Mathias: Just for the hell of it, yeah, yeah. It's cool. It's nostalgic.

Jeff: Because young me, if I didn't have it on my phone, young me would be like, "What the hell are you doing?

Mathias: Yeah, what's wrong with you?

Jeff: Like, why don't you have this?

Mathias: Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff: Have you played any of the newest ones, like 15 or-

Mathias: Yeah, I played 15. I wasn't too crazy ... It was just dry.

Jeff: I couldn't get into it.

Mathias: Yeah, it's not ... I mean, when I play Final Fantasy I'm always looking for that old feel.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: 7 was great. 8 I thought was great, because you get the ... how they used to junction all the material and everything.

Jeff: Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, yeah, that was fun.

Mathias: That was cool. Everything, all your material did something with something, and it just boosted the levels or whatever, but it was cool. The idea was cool. And then, 9 got cartoony.

Jeff: Very.

Mathias: And 10, 10 was cool.

Jeff: I like 10. It got way too much into, what was it, blitz ball?

Mathias: Yeah.

Jeff: Yeah. That was it's own game in itself, and it was like, "Why am I here?"

Mathias: When you're walking on a course, so you don't get to free walk anywhere really.

Jeff: Right.

Mathias: 12, I think it was 12, 11 or 12-

Jeff: 11 was the MMO. I never played 11.

Mathias: Yeah.

Jeff: That was the online one.

Mathias: I think 12 was kind of similar to the older ones, and then 13 was, I think, 13, what, lightening.

Jeff: Yeah, yeah. I played a little bit of that.

Mathias: That was okay. I got like halfway into it, and then I got to that one boss. I just couldn't get passed it, then I just, I stopped playing.

Jeff: I've been the same way. I'm excited for ... I really hope, fingers crossed, [inaudible 00:13:36].

Mathias: Well, they still have it on pre-order on Amazon, so-

Jeff: I know.

Mathias: But that's been there for, what, the last two years, three years?

Jeff: I know. When it comes out, it's gonna ... everybody's gonna be playing it.

Mathias: It's gonna be ... It's gonna be ... They said it's gonna be like a four-part game. They're gonna release it in four parts, because they made it so big. So now it's gonna be out in four parts. They're gonna release the first disc up to the fourth.

Jeff: Okay. So ultimate nerd Final Fantasy question, and I apologize for all of our fans out there who are not gamers, but I don't care. We're talking about this. When they, because I've asked other people this, when they release Final Fantasy 7, do you think they're gonna change anything? Actual example, do you think they're gonna allow us to get Aeris back?

Mathias: From what I seen in the trailers, it's possible.

Jeff: It's possible.

Mathias: It's possible.

Jeff: That's what I'm thinking.

Mathias: Yeah. It's possible. I think they will do it.

Jeff: That was-

Mathias: Because so much of the game they're keeping to the original of the game, and they're just basically vamping up the graphics and a little bit more of the storyline, and adding more stuff to it. But I think, originally, they wanna it to what the game originally was, so ...

Jeff: And I agree with that, but still to this day I literally broke a controller in half when Sephiroth came down killed Aeris because it's not telegraphed and, for those you of you are RPG fans, this character, if you never played Final Fantasy 7, Aris, when you get here, she's your healer. She's your white mage. So you obviously level the crap out of her.

Mathias: You need her. You need her.

Jeff: You give her all the cure magic, and she's your tank for healing, and then they take her away. I ripped a controller in half. I was very mad.

Mathias: Yeah, yeah. That was ... When he came down and right behind her, I was like, "You gotta be kidding me? You gotta be kidding me?" And still a good game, great game.

Jeff: So again, I would love it if we play up to that point, it still happens but there's some sort of-

Mathias: Something.

Jeff: ... special dungeon, crazy magical room that you find that you can somehow resurrect her and get her back, and then, "Ha-ha, I've got her back." That'd be cool.

Mathias: Yep, yep. That'd be cool. That'd be cool

Jeff: Cool. Well, yeah. I mean, I could talk about video games for-freaking-ever.

Mathias: Yeah, yeah.

Jeff: What had got you ... On the other side of that, what got into Dragon Ball?

Mathias: Saturday morning cartoons, really, Saturday morning cartoons. I've watched-

Jeff: The longest fights in Saturday morning cartoons.

Mathias: Yeah, yeah, god.

Jeff: Fights that would last three episodes. The episode would end and they'd still be like ...

Mathias: Still screaming, yeah. I've watched Dragon Ball for years. I grew up watching Dragon Ball, and Dragon Ball Z, then they did their little side thing with Kai, and then when they came back with Super, I was just freaking blown away.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: I mean, huge. I mean, I got all the DVDs. I got all ... everything, all the movies.

Jeff: Do you collect any of the figures or anything?

Mathias: I have. My cave is just filled. Half my cave is Dragon Ball, my other half of my cave is Death Wish.

Jeff: Dragon Ball and Death Wish. Okay, so we gotta do a Dragon Ball Death Wish thing somehow.

Mathias: Well, for-

Jeff: If we can get that license.

Mathias: Yeah. That'd be sweet. That would be sweet.

Jeff: Yeah, that'd be sweet.

Mathias: Well, for my year anniversary, my plan is to get a tattoo, a Death Wish tattoo for my one year here.

Jeff: Awesome.

Mathias: And what I might do is gonna do the seven dragon balls and one of the dragon balls is gonna be the Death Wish symbol.

Jeff: Oh, that is excellent. And you don't have a Death Wish tattoo, yet, right?

Mathias: Not yet.

Jeff: All right.

Mathias: I was gonna get it when I first started, but I was like, "I'm gonna wait for my one year anniversary, and then I'm gonna make it a birthday present to myself.

Jeff: Excellent. Well, this episode's actually coming out right around that time, so you'll be having it.

Mathias: Right after, yeah.

Jeff: That's awesome.

Jeff: So let's go back to the business side of it with Death Wish. You are like me. You're loving how we really just throw everything at the wall, see what sticks. We really wanna put our hands into everything. Is there an area that we haven't really gotten into yet that you think that has potential for us? Is there something that we haven't tried that you'd like to see us go for? If you were CEO tomorrow, where would we ... where would you steer this train?

Mathias: That's a good question. I mean, it's not-so-much as new but put more into some of the things that we've already done, I think, like the Comicons. That turned out to be a good thing for us.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: Keep punching at those. The concerts, we do okay. Do bigger ones.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: More sporting events. It's kind of tough, because coffee and sporting events is a little tough.

Jeff: Except for when we get our cold brew out.

Mathias: I can't wait.

Jeff: Can't wait.

Mathias: God, when are those coming out? Do we know yet?

Jeff: We do not have a date, as of today.

Mathias: I want them, that's why.

Jeff: Yeah. Oh, yeah. We all do too. It's just finalizing all of the packaging now. And, because like you mentioned earlier, we're now in this ... we're now in so much of a retail space. So when we released the cold brew the first time, we didn't have that option so it was just ... it was on us. We were like, "Okay. It's ready. Hit the button online and you can buy it now." Now we wanna do a two-tier thing where not only will you be able to buy it online, but hopefully you're gonna see on shelves-

Mathias: On store shelves, yeah.

Jeff: ... in stores.

Mathias: That's what I'm stoked about.

Jeff: So just finalizing all that kind of stuff. But this year, 100%, in spring we're gonna see it.

Mathias: Yeah, and the cans look so good, beautiful.

Jeff: And, like you said with sporting events, that's where you wanna see that kind of stuff, for sure.

Mathias: Yeah, yeah. That and a lot of gaming things. I mean-

Jeff: Yeah, I really [inaudible 00:19:06].

Mathias: ... televised gaming, I mean, they have these, I don't know what game it is, but it was championships.

Jeff: Overwatch?

Mathias: Overwatch.

Jeff: And Counterstrike.

Mathias: Yep. They do these-

Jeff: Super Smash Bros.

Mathias: Yeah, they do these huge events on TV.

Jeff: It's nuts.

Mathias: It's almost like a Superbowl of video gaming.

Jeff: The Overwatch championship last year was simulcasted on EPSN, I don't know, 4 or 5 or whatever.

Mathias: Imagine having our banner back there.

Jeff: I know.

Mathias: A huge banner of Death Wish, and then all the gamers drinking our cold brew.

Jeff: It'd be crazy.

Mathias: And sick.

Jeff: I think it's a perfect fit, too, because a lot of gamers, the same reason why we got into the comic book industry, the comic book industry is these artists and writers who are staying up late, late hours working on their deadlines. So what are they doing? They're drinking coffee to keep going. And a lot of these gamers are drinking caffeine too, but they're drinking all that crap, that Monster, and the stuff that's just sugar and chemicals and everything else.

Mathias: I was a huge Redbull drinker for the longest time. Before Death Wish, Redbull all the time, all the time. And it just-

Jeff: It's a great thing to get you going, but the crash is terrible.

Mathias: Horrible.

Jeff: And, I mean, when it really comes down to it, you're consuming a ton of sugar, a ton of sugar and a ton of stuff that, if you really do wanna take care of your body, you're not doing a good job.

Mathias: That's what I like about our coffee. I mean, you ... Yeah, you get that wake up, you're feeling good, but you wanna back off it, you're not ... you mellow out.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: You just come down off the caffeine really mellow and you still function.

Jeff: Yes.

Mathias: Crashing off of Redbull or Monster, it's just ... and, I mean, you're ready to hit to floor.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: I just, I can't do that. And the Monsters, I can't stand the taste of those things.

Jeff: No, me, I never liked it either.

Mathias: The coffee's are okay, but there's still all that crap that's in it, and so you gotta limit.

Jeff: I think we're very poised to get right into the gaming circuit, not only with branding but to give these guys a good drink that's gonna keep them up and keep them going, keep them caffeinated so you can play, you can stream for 24 hours if you like.

Mathias: And it's organic coffee.

Jeff: Yeah. It's organic. It's fair trade. [inaudible 00:21:18]

Mathias: It's the best part. I mean, there's no crap in it.

Jeff: There is no crap in it.

Mathias: But yeah, I think we should keep with what we've been getting our hands in and just-

Jeff: Keep pushing.

Mathias: ... grab a fist-load of it.

Jeff: I love it. I love it. I love it.

Jeff: So question we get to on every show, you've been here for a year, you're loving it. Like you said, you feel like you're in this career. What fuels you to keep going? What fuels you to keep coming to work, keep kicking ass, keep doing the things that you love to do?

Mathias: I wanna see the company grow. When I first started working here, the first thing I thought of was, in 10 years, all of us, all these guys that I work with, in 10, 15 years from now we're all gonna have our own headquarters all throughout the nation.

Jeff: The world.

Mathias: The world.

Jeff: The solar system.

Mathias: And all of us, we're all ... I still feel ... I feel that I got into my position at the perfect time in the company's infancy, because the amount of faith I have in this company that we're gonna grow so big that the guys that I'm working with now, we're all still training for 10, 15 years from now to be running our own warehouse, and we're gonna be fueling the world. That's the way I see it, so ...

Jeff: Yeah. It's inspiring.

Mathias: Yeah.

Jeff: I mean, and again, that just [inaudible 00:22:41] back to it's a good core group of people that work here, but we all kind of have that same mentality that we believe in the product. And it shows in the fan base too, shout out to the official Death Wish Coffee Company community page on Facebook-

Mathias: A lot of good people there.

Jeff: ... and all of the fans and customers out there. That's why they created that space. That's why multiple spaces like that exist. That's why people constantly talk about the company, rep the company. You know about traveling around and getting recognized with the brand firsthand, because you actually went to LA on a crazy-

Mathias: LA last summer, yeah.

Jeff: ... on a crazy adventure, right?

Mathias: Yeah, yeah.

Jeff: Can you talk a little bit about that?

Mathias: We went out to see a friend, birthday or something like that, and I put a bunch of swag bags together with stuff that we were giving out at the time. So there was some stickers, patches, key chains, sunglasses and a few other things here and there. And along the trip, two days, if anybody stopped that recognized what I was wearing, gave me a shout out or whatever, this or that, and hook them up just to get the name out there and people loved it.

Jeff: What were people's reactions when you gave them this incredible little swag bag of stuff?

Mathias: Stoked, man. They were stoked. The last guy that I met up-

Jeff: Was anybody weirded out by it? Nobody was ...

Mathias: No, no, no, because most of them actually came up to me and asked me about it.

Jeff: Oh, excellent.

Mathias: And they were curious about it, like I was the first time that I first seen it. But there was this one young couple when I was out in California. They were like, "Death Wish, what are you doing all the way out here," and chasing me down the alleyway, so that was cool. That was cool.

Jeff: It was like Beatles moment.

Mathias: Yeah, so I hooked them up. I gave them both each their own little bag. And then I met this guy on the way back. He was the last one I met, this dude Ronnie, and he was actually on a week trip just meeting people, meeting strangers. And so, he did his little thing on his podcast and put our name out there. And it was cool. Meeting people and letting them know, and when they recognize, it's just a cool feeling.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: It really is. When you're out and about, and when you constantly wear it every day, I mean, it's part of your wardrobe not just your work wear. People love it. I love it.

Jeff: Yeah. It's great working at this company, because we don't have a company dress code, but we all wear the merchandise anyways because it looks cool.

Mathias: We sport it. We sport it, yeah. This is the only place I've ever worked where I wear my company logo when I'm not working.

Jeff: Right.

Mathias: Willingly.

Jeff: Willingly, exactly.

Mathias: Yeah.

Jeff: But there are sometimes I'm going out to just something random, like a rock show, or going bowling or something, and it's like, I wear hats all the time, and today I'm not because I'm wearing this shirt, but more often than not I'm like, "Do I wear this hat or do I wear my Death Wish hat?" And it's always like, "I'll wear my Death Wish hat."

Mathias: Death Wish, yeah, yeah.

Jeff: That's awesome.

Mathias: And it's, not only do I invest my time and my energy into the company, I invest my own money back into the merchandise.

Jeff: Yeah.

Mathias: I've never done that before in any other job, except for a restaurant if I'm hungry.

Jeff: Of course, of course, of course.

Mathias: But that's it.

Jeff: Well, that's awesome. And speaking of a journey, I don't know if you do a lot of social media, but is there a way that people that are watching and listening can follow your journey here at Death Wish?

Mathias: I'm on Facebook most of the time. I mean, I have Instagram and Twitter. But, I mean, Facebook is Mathias Tyler. That's how you can find me if you have any questions or whatever.

Jeff: All right, I'll put that in the show and that way-

Mathias: I don't post a lot, but-

Jeff: You do post, I know-

Mathias: Some.

Jeff: You do post some really cool photos of being on the job, which is awesome, and when you went out to LA you did that whole thing, so you're gonna wanna follow this guy.

Mathias: That's about all I do, really, on Facebook. I don't really put anything personal on there. The only thing I put anything on is about Death Wish, so that's about it.

Jeff: Perfect, perfect, so that'll be in the show.

Jeff: Final question, Death Wish or Valhalla?

Mathias: Death Wish all the way.

Jeff: Not even a no, no, nothing.

Mathias: No hesitation.

Jeff: Death Wish all the way.

Mathias: I've had Valhalla a couple times, and I've had our barrel blends, but Death Wish is my daily, on the daily. I'm a weekend [chem-xer 00:26:50]. During the week I got the Keurig, but I use the refill pods. I grind my own beans, so it's right where I want it. And distilled water in my Keurig, nice, clean cup of coffee.

Jeff: Yeah, excellent, excellent. All right, all right.

Jeff: Look, I can't thank you enough for coming on the show. This has been a lot of fun talking with you.

Mathias: It was fun.

Jeff: We're gonna have quite the journey together for the next few years, I'm sure.

Mathias: Oh, for more than that. We're here for life.

Jeff: Excellent.

Mathias: I am, definitely.

Jeff: Excellent. Thanks so much. Cheers.

Mathias: Right on, brother.