This is the full transcript for Episode #229 of the Wild Business Growth Podcast featuring Angie and Dee Cowger – Chili Champions, Co-Founders of Custard Stand. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.
Dee Cowger 0:00
Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. If you believe in your product and you know you got a product get out there and sell it
Max Branstetter 0:22
Heyyyyy that was the best note I’ve ever sang. No, it’s not. But welcome back to the Wild Business Growth Podcast. This is your place to hear from a new entrepreneur every single Wednesday morning, who’s turning Wild ideas into Wild growth. I’m your host, Max Branstetter, Founder and Podcast Producer at MaxPodcasting. And you can email me at to save time with your high-quality podcast. This is episode 229 and today’s guests, guests plural are Angie and Dee Cowger. They are the creators of some of the tastiest, most deliciously tasty chili you will ever taste and it’s delicious. They are the owners of The Custard stand, as well as Custard Stand Food Products, and they create hot dog chili and chili soup. And I know there’s a whole debate about whether chili’s soup or not. Doesn’t matter. Their chili will change your life. In this episode we talk how Custard Stand came to be how to take a small business from a small town and expand all across the nation. And the fantastic dynamic between Angie and Dee. So a little bit of family business there from probably some of the most likable people you’ll ever hear from. It is Angie and Dee and it’s time to get chili. Enjooooooy the shoooooooow!
Aaaaaalrightyyyyyy we’re here with Angie and Dee Cowger of Custard Stand. The custard Stand as well as Custard Stand Food Products. Really, really cool. And just absolutely delicious company all around. Angie and Dee, thank you so much for joining How you doing today?
Angie Cowger 2:14
Doing awesome, thank you.
Dee Cowger 2:15
Great. Glad to be here.
Max Branstetter 2:17
Of course, of course. And super glad to have you. And I think that first question everybody’s wondering is can you go in detail and lay out what the secret recipe? No, I’m just gonna No, no, no. We won’t make you spill the beans there. Pun intended. But we are going to talk chili, chili sauce, hot dogs kind of everything in that delicious world. Before we get to company as it looks like today. When was the first time that you two knew that you might you know work in the business world together one day?
Angie Cowger 2:52
Ah, probably 1990, ’91 is
Dee Cowger 2:57
when we started the restaurant. So it was yeah, it was about that time.
Angie Cowger 3:00
I was a school teacher and he was a truck driver. And we were just looking for another income source for our family.
Max Branstetter 3:07
You two got married in ’87? Correct? Yep. Right? Perfect. That is the same year my parents were married. So it’s a fantastic year to get married. I have to say, what was it back then that gave you that first idea that that you would want a partner in terms of business? Well, back when,
Dee Cowger 3:23
when we were growing up in high school, there was a there was a little very bar down in Webster Springs. And we all everybody called it the custard stand, you know, and we would go there and have our milkshakes and our hotdogs. You know, when it’s shut down? We missed it. I mean, what had been closed for three or four years? And of course, like he said, I was driving truck and she was teaching.
Angie Cowger 3:46
I was like what can we what? What business? What can we go into that, you know, you can work during the day I can work some in the evening or you know, whatever works out so that you know we’re the ones running this business and making things work. And that’s what came to mind. You know, the when we started the get all the deliveries at the restaurant and our school and then I came in and worked like two evening shifts and a weekend shift in the restaurant itself. When we started out going back
Dee Cowger 4:14
just a little bit we you know, when we first started talking about it, we her aunt worked there, and I’m like easy. What would your aunt help us with a chili recipe with the milkshakes was teaching us how to how to even open a restaurant, you know, because we didn’t have any restaurant experience. So we actually went to her aunt,
Angie Cowger 4:33
my great aunt Loucille. Yeah. And she was in her 60s at the time.
Dee Cowger 4:37
Right. So she she really helped us a bunch and yeah,
Max Branstetter 4:42
so it was all family family business even like before it was officially started. So that’s awesome. You know, besides just enjoying like, the food at that place. What was it that kind of sold you that this would be like a really great business to get into
Angie Cowger 4:59
um, A business that was here previously, Elsie’s Dairy Bar that everybody called the custard stand was very successful. They just lost their lease. And, you know, the lady that owned it was older and the workers were older. And when they lost their lease, they were like, okay, you know, we’re just done, they didn’t have anywhere else to move to, and they didn’t want to try it again. So we’re like, if they can be successful following that model, then why can’t we, you know, and give it a try.
Dee Cowger 5:26
But really, it was the chili, I mean, the light bowls of chili, I mean, people would come from miles to get a hot meal there, you know,
Angie Cowger 5:35
and the ice cream, you know, there was no other ice cream business in our community. So we didn’t have any, we do soft serve at the customer today. And that’s what they did years ago. And that’s what we do. And there wasn’t another self serve location in our town. So we didn’t need to reinvent the wheel, we just needed to, you know, update it a little bit.
Max Branstetter 5:53
Right, you needed to reinvent the custard
Angie Cowger 5:58
and it’s not even custard, you know, that’s the funny part is is that we do 100% soft serve ice cream, there is a difference. Custard has a higher butterfat content, it has eggs in it, and our product does not. But everybody called the place the custard stand when it was open before so there wasn’t any sense in trying to, you know, rename it either.
Dee Cowger 6:18
We talked about it, we talked about, you know, there’s like four mountains coming into Webster springs, you know, we we talked about, you know, calling the restaurant for mountains and all these different names. And then we go back to, you know, my wife goes back and she’s like, Oh, everybody’s gonna call it the custard stain. So let’s just call it the customers,
Angie Cowger 6:36
no matter what name we put on it, officially, it’s still gonna be the customer saying because that’s what the other one was. And same thing with our our hot dog chili business. You know, when we started going into into the manufacturing business, we had the same conversation again, we actually have a little jar that has, you know, the little four mountains logo thing on it. And we’re like, Well, should we do this? Should we change? You know, what should we do? And we came back to the same thing. Even though this tub doesn’t have custard in it. We just as we’ll call it custard sand hudec Chili, because we have a following already from that.
Max Branstetter 7:10
That is a natural chili segue. So let’s get to custard standard all things in the Custard Stand world. So there’s The Custard Stand, as you mentioned, like actual physical locations, restaurants orstands, if you will. And then there’s Custard Stand Food Products. In simplest terms, it’s your your chili sauce that you manufacture and send out Correct? Yes, right, right. Yes,
Angie Cowger 7:37
we no longer manufacture in West Virginia, we work began to work with a co Packer in 2020. Part of that was a COVID issue. And part of that was looking for a longer shelf life of our product from 2003 till 2020. We manufactured in house and then we moved the manufacturing to a co-packer in Burlington, North Carolina. But we still pick up all the product and bring it back to West Virginia to our facility and then ship it out of our facility
Max Branstetter 8:02
in terms of the different aspects of the business. So at what point did you get the idea that we can take this chili sauce, we can take this awesome flavor and take it beyond the actual physical locations and delight more and more people around the world?
Dee Cowger 8:20
Well, like Like she said, like we were talking earlier, the restaurant you know, the restaurant we opened in 91. And from 91 until 2003 That’s when we got the idea. You know, we want to we want to grow this chili business. I mean, she had a friend wanting to purchase chili. And we wouldn’t sell it to anybody because my mom she she made it in the back for us. She cooked it on the stove and it was just a you know, it took a long time big process. And
Angie Cowger 8:48
while it was cooking, she was doing our thing she was chopping vegetables, doing kitchen prep, making pizzas, pizza breads, so it was hard to put $1 figure on the actual cost of the manufacturer of making the chili at that time.
Dee Cowger 9:02
Yeah, you know, her girlfriend actually got mad. I mean, she gave her a call and she’s like, why can’t I buy that chili? And she’s like,
Angie Cowger 9:09
I’ll give you some you know worries. I’ll give you a jug gallon jug or whatever you want.
Dee Cowger 9:15
Anyway, we thought I’d hold and just said you know I’m really you know, you’re you’re the smart one I’m the mechanically inclined when I said you know, I’ll remodel our car wash bay our first but we have a three bay carwash here, and I said well I’ll just remodel the first car wash pay will get USDA approved, you do the marketing, and we’ll we’ll see how it goes. You know, and that’s what we did and that’s what we did and you know we go in there we had a USDA inspector come and he like looks at the walls and looks around and not actually filled the pit to where the you know, when you wash your cars off, the pit fills up or mud, you know, I feel that it was drains. You know, I feel that it was concrete. He looked around and he’s like, Well, the first thing you’re gonna have to just get that concrete out of the floor. He said, You have to have drains, and all your floors. So you
Max Branstetter 10:09
wait. So so the literally the thing he replaced, he’s just like, Yeah, put those back in. Yeah,
Dee Cowger 10:14
right. Like take them out if I had to take the actual sledgehammer and start pounding the beaten down there before it really set up super hard. And it only been a couple days, but it was still really hard to get it out. And we got that out and you know, got our floors. You know, we had to do a lot of things like, you know, put fiberglass reinforced plastic board on the walls and, you know, stainless steel sinks everything that you would have to do to manufacture commercially, but those drains was, that was a big deal. We had to have drains in the floors. It kind of worked out in our favor, you know, it’d be in the carwash. But
Angie Cowger 10:51
being a little company didn’t make any difference. We had to do all of the things that the big giant food companies had to do as well.
Max Branstetter 10:58
You hear so many entrepreneurs talk about how hard it is to build a business, especially in those early years. But I don’t think too many are dealing with the sledgehammer and you know, taking drains out putting drains in reinventing the carwash, like you did a lot on the physical side to make this reality. But you talk about that, you know, you had like your friend is literally pissed at you because they want this more spaces. So that’s like, you know, extreme demand. And you know, a great thing to see from a business standpoint, what was the feedback like in those early days, once you once you did start offering that chili out?
Angie Cowger 11:33
Oh, people were so excited it Well, I mean, it was crazy for a little while, you know, we were of course selling it from our restaurant location right out the window, you could come to the customers day and take your chili home with you. We advertise that. And maybe in a school teacher, I put a West Virginia map up on the wall and got out my little gold and blue and green stars. And then I would we’d cook on Mondays. And on Tuesdays we’d box what we cook the day before. and on Wednesdays, we’d get in the truck and drive around with cases of chili, we had a little ice unit mounted, like you know, when you go to a convenience store and you buy ice from the little unit on the front of the convenience store, we mounted one of those on a pickup truck with a converter, he was able to connect the converter to it and do all that stuff. I didn’t know anything about any of that. But he did all that. And we would go to the independent grocery stores near us and say, Hey, we’re from Webster springs, we’ve got this awesome chili, we take a hot plate and a cooker and heat it right up on the spot for them and say, you know, let us fix this. So you can try it, sample it and you know, then we’d make a sale. And pretty soon we’d built around, you know, we had GreenStar for the people that took chili, yellow star for the people we needed to follow back up with and anybody that told us know about a red star, you know, and, and we just, you know, built out out circles until we had enough to make a route. And then they started running regular. And we hired production people and went from there.
Dee Cowger 13:00
Right? Well, we’ve done our own production. I mean, hired, hired our own
Angie Cowger 13:03
production staff here. Yeah, you know, I’m back in school, his mom’s still working the restaurant, he can’t make chili or because he’s deliverance. So we hired a production crew for our facility. And I think we started out with three people and ended up you know, by the time we quit, we had six
Dee Cowger 13:20
Yeah, and when you’re talking about, she’s talking about deliver, and I’d literally take one case, which are cases, then we’re a 12 pack. And I may drive two or three hours out of the way to go to a certain store. Just to make that one case delivery. You know, it wasn’t about a you know, we saw one case, we delivered a case, it didn’t matter if it costs extra money to get it there. You know what I’m saying? And we took that product to the customer.
Max Branstetter 13:46
I really liked this star system, you have the different colored stars, and it feels it feels like a way I mean, you’re both are doing so many different things and working multiple jobs. And you know, your team is growing it Oh, yeah. So you know, why not? Why not throw kids to the next step. But you have so many different things going on. Something like as simple as organizing with you know, stars or color coding like that, I feel like goes a really long way to keep things in order there. And as you’re adding to that production crew, so that’s, that’s a big difference. Once you have, you know, growing your team and having more people starting to make this stuff and do this stuff for you as opposed to you to doing literally everything. How was the transition for you to being you know, still very, very involved in the business but having other people on your team that you can work with to you know, actually do more of some of the some of the details.
Dee Cowger 14:36
Oh, it was great. I mean, we had we’ve always had good people working for us. You know, I started out with a 60 gallon steam jacketed kettle and of course we had mixers and things like that in there because you had the you know, the guidelines for the production you had to cook the product up to like 165 But you had to cool it really fast. Yeah, well, you really didn’t have to do anything until it got down to 130 and then from 130 to a 80, you had an hour and a half. And from 80 to 40, we had an additional four hours, you had to call it that fast to keep stuff from growing. And all the extra hands, you know, because we use frozen ingredients and different things back then, to meet the guidelines, you know what I mean? And
Angie Cowger 15:17
his mom was a big help, because she was our quality control, you know, if somebody, you know, didn’t do something, right, or she didn’t think it was right, or, you know, she thought they missed something or anything like that, you know, she’d be on the phone saying, hey, come down here and check this out, come look, see what’s going on. And then our plant manager, the current plant manager, that we have been with us for 15 or 16 years. So the plant manager prior to him had been around for a while and had learned the process, you know, completely and knew it as well as D did. So yeah, you know, it’s hard, it’s a little bit hard to let go of, you know, be in there and on hand with your hands in full time. But in order to grow, you have to do that. And so we were the best people to sell and market. So it was more sense for us to hire people to manufacture and then free us up some to get out there and pick up new accounts and work with the new accounts and that sort of thing.
Max Branstetter 16:11
Yeah. How does this scale of the plant or co-packers however you want to describe it? How does the scale of like the manufacturing look like today compared to when it started in that you know, drain and then undrained carwash?
Dee Cowger 16:26
Well, in the you know the we’ve got three bays here we you know, and I went from the we went from the first car wash bay, we moved into second Bay and we we finally got an automated line in 2006 you know with Handfield tubs up until then, and my mom’s she’s like I’m getting carpal tunnel in my wrist. We’re gonna have to do
Max Branstetter 16:44
this because I’m exhausted and like my wrist hurts just hearing that.
Dee Cowger 16:49
So we come up with you know, we got an automated filling line, and we were actually cooking, you know, then about 2000 pounds a day, but we got to where we could cook 4000 pounds, four to five. Yeah. About to turn a little over. You know, the last year we manufactured in house was year COVID Yet, we manufacture 550,000 pounds out of these three bay carwash now our CO Packer that we have now which you know, I don’t have the liability of the USDA inspectors here. You know, I don’t have all the employees here on me all the time. That allows me and Angie to get out and market and sail, but they can do 12,000 pounds a day.
Angie Cowger 17:29
Now we talked to him yesterday. And he said they could do three batches. I think they can do almost 20,000 Yeah, so
Dee Cowger 17:35
they can do a lot more now. So you know and it’s allow us to get out market sale and grow. So
Max Branstetter 17:42
the more chili the merrier. That’s good place to be. So what So today, what are each of you focusing on,
Angie Cowger 17:50
I focus on new accounts and trying to grow the business with our existing accounts. On our goals, we set a new goal each year. This year, our goal is to add three new distributors three new retail accounts, but also to expand all of our current distributors by about 20% And I’ll give you an example. US food is nationwide but we only deliver to us food in West Virginia. So my goal is to talk to that buyer for us food and get us out into you know North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, those areas so we want to expand our existing base and add additional REITs wholesale accounts as well as retail accounts.
Dee Cowger 18:32
Well we want to grow our you know grow our accounts now too because we’ve you know we were in the Kroger division Roanoke Kroger division. What last year when did we go in the
Angie Cowger 18:44
new divisions in May of 2020. Why is
Dee Cowger 18:46
it so we went from 120 Kroger stores to like 700 Last year last year. So this should be a really big year for Kroger for saying as well as like Meijer and
Angie Cowger 18:59
we added the Meijer Cleveland’s doing a localization program with Meijer. We added 10 New Meijer stores that have both products the hot dog chili and the chili soup. We added Kroger just has the hot dog chili right now but we’re planning to pitch them the soup in the next month. And then Walmart has hot dog chili, and we’re in about four different divisions of the Walmart DCs but they also added chili soup into those same for Walmart divisions. So we have some stores that have just hot chili and some stores that have hot chili and chili soup. And then we just picked up Harris Teeter, they just have the hot dog chili. Our Food City account has grown tremendously. We started out delivering one pallet you know every couple of weeks or one a month or something like that. And we don’t deliver less than two pallets anytime the food sitting right now. So
Dee Cowger 19:51
and feed line that’s another big one. We’d like to really expand our market with Food Lion.
Angie Cowger 19:55
We have one division of food line and we’d like to have that for
Max Branstetter 19:58
you Wow, you got a full plate?
Angie Cowger 20:02
Yes. And then are all the stores you know that we aren’t in yet you know the Publix and the Giants and the ACMEs and Market Baskets and you know all these other stores that and new stores coming up like ALDI and Lidl and those stores, so
Max Branstetter 20:15
congrats on all those distribution wins. I mean, that’s so excited to see it literally thinking of the physical stores, but also thinking of how many end consumers who maybe haven’t even heard of your product before and are able to just pop into, like their local store and get it now is really, really exciting. I’m a little bit biased. I’m for all things Cleveland and Ohio. So you know, just keep going those distribution wins in Ohio. That sounds good. But what’s the biggest difference between working with these, you know, quote, unquote, big guys like the Krogers and Walmart, like all these huge name stores and the actual buyers versus like, kind of going back to your roots? And, you know, to kind of just serving people around town, like how does that change the dynamic of how you operate your business,
Angie Cowger 20:58
we had to add a lot of eCommerce or you know, we had to add electronic data. So we have an EDI platform that we worked through receiving and sending invoices and POs that was new for us, you know, before we just hand wrote our orders, we would go to the front of the store, and the store would pay us with a purchase order. And when we were leaving when we were delivering it and now we wait you know anywhere from 30 to 60 days on a check to come in the mail,
Max Branstetter 21:23
that’s your favorite part probably right haven’t
Angie Cowger 21:27
been able to get to a contact sometimes in the corporate world right now, it’s very hard, you know, especially since COVID hit, people are working from home, they’re not as accessible, you can’t give them a call on the phone emails are, you know, loaded up with, you know, messages coming in and out. So the ability to reach someone quickly, or respond to something quickly, has changed a lot from where we delivered individually to where we’re working. Now at corporate level. We work with a lot of brokers right now. And you know, that’s a great liaison. And so you can respond, you can get your broker to respond a lot quicker sometimes, then you can get the buyers to respond. And so then the brokers work with the buyers and make things happen. Our buyers or buyers are all accessible. I don’t want to I don’t want to say they’re not accessible. They just have so many companies and vendors that they’re dealing and working with.
Max Branstetter 22:19
If you’re buying into podcasting and entrepreneurship, see what I did there, then you might be interested in the Podcasting to the Max newsletter. It is where podcasting meets entrepreneurship, you can sign up and MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. There are new emails every Thursday. And it includes wonderful behind the scenes stories and insight and laughs from the Wild Business Growth Podcast, and podcasting tips to help you on your podcasting journey. That’s MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. Now, let’s go from the chili to the really, really cool people behind the chili. I’d love to switch gears a little bit and talk more about kind of both you on the personal side and your relationship and how you operate outside of work. I guess it deals with inside of work as well. But I’m a huge fan of all things family business grew up with a family business. And I think it’s really, really special if you have the opportunity to do it. And you’re an example of family business that’s been around for one, two, you know, maybe more than a few years. Some awesome story there. So what is it about your dynamic, you know, just between you two that has allowed you to thrive as a family business for so many years.
Angie Cowger 23:39
Um, these personality probably is the biggest driver for that. He is very positive. He doesn’t let things get him down. He doesn’t let things worry him a whole lot. And he is all the time grinning and smiling and carrying on he can make a joke out of anything. He is very fond of saying that I am the hit. He is the
Dee Cowger 24:00
I’m the foot in your butt.
Angie Cowger 24:04
I don’t know where that was.
Dee Cowger 24:07
You know something along those lines.
I’m the head you’re she’s just the neck.
Angie Cowger 24:13
That’s a big thing. And then the fact that I mean we work all the time, literally, him not as much as I do because he takes off and he works. He hunts professionally with a TV show called whitetail frenzy that’s based out of West Virginia and other family business couple brothers that have a hunting show. We advertise on that show but you know, from September to December Dee is out of the office a lot and hunting and do and stuff. And so I work you know a lot of times in the evenings I work on the weekends, but you know, just not quitting and not giving up and being able to support each other and take risks. Even if he doesn’t get on board. Like when we first started out. He thought networking was ridiculous. And he thought social media was the devil. You know, Facebook is the devil get off Facebook. And so
Dee Cowger 25:03
Now, I’m on there more than she is.
Angie Cowger 25:06
You know, just even even supporting what we all you know don’t necessarily agree with until we see the value of it,
Dee Cowger 25:12
but I’m always working through she said on those hunting trips, I’m not working but I’m taking chili with me. And every guy in the camps the hunting camps, everybody there’s eatin Custard Stand Chili.
Max Branstetter 25:25
Yeah, there’s, there’s so much there. I mean, I think having someone with the positive attitude and that joking atmosphere. I mean, do you think we are two peas in a pod? Because I’m the same thing. Like, some of my family always gives me shit. Like, why? Why are you so overly positive about everything I’m like, I like being that way. I don’t know. It’s gonna be fun. But it helps when you can have you know, multiple people kind of like a yin yang of different emotions there. And but I think if you if you can laugh about stuff, and still like, you know, be confident about, hey, we can get over anything that bodes really, really well for business. And you to just have such great camaraderie there. Angie, how do you get upset with him when he goes on a hunting trips without not just going
Angie Cowger 26:12
to go sometimes, you know, depends on I haven’t been like, I’ve never been out to Colorado on one of their trips. I’ve never been to Canada on weather trips. So depending on either you know where it is and what he’s doing. I like to go sometimes, but I get a lot of work done when he’s gone. Because you know, there’s no, not necessarily come home and fix dinner because we share that. But there’s no having to be home at a certain time or anything like that. You know, so I may be at the office until seven or eight o’clock at night, and get real focus, get real hyper focused on something, you know, be able to stay at the office and get it all finished up and not have to worry about any requirements at home.
Max Branstetter 26:45
So if hunting is your guilty pleasure Dee then Angie, what what would yours be what it’s what do you do from January to August? No, I’m just kidding. But what do you what do you do in your free time to, you know, take your mind off things.
Angie Cowger 27:01
We spend a lot of time with our kids and our grandkids and some friends we have some we have some my best friends from high school are still we’re still friendly with them. And so we’d like to go out and enjoy some time. Take a couple vacations, that sort of thing with them. But my guilty pleasure is trash historical romance novels.
Dee Cowger 27:18
Yes. And you know, when she gets when she gets started on one doesn’t matter who you know, what do you say to her or she she’s not she doesn’t hear you?
Max Branstetter 27:29
Right? All right.
Angie Cowger 27:30
When the Hunger Games series came out, good lord, I don’t think I slept for three days. Just
Max Branstetter 27:37
read all those. In addition to Hunger Games, are there any other favorites and well, they could be new or old or older that come to mind.
Angie Cowger 27:45
I love Nora Roberts I love when Nora Roberts writes as JD Robb I like Danielle Steel. I don’t I don’t like her as much as Nora Roberts. But I wish Nora Roberts would put out about 12-15 books a year.
Dee Cowger 27:56
I keep trying to get her to write a book about us but she’s not done it yet. I keep saying and I’ve always said that there will be a movie about custard stay in one of these days.
Max Branstetter 28:05
Yeah, yeah. Well with the with the hunting show, you already got the background in production, so definitely good. And there’s endless custard and weiner puns that you can make. So there’s a whole world of opportunity there.
Dee Cowger 28:19
Right right.
Max Branstetter 28:23
Speaking of that, let’s get a bit more unusual. So from weiners to the unusual so this is more you just on the personal side pet peeves, quirks weird talents, so and this is you both can answer separate just kind of jump in whenever you want. Whoever wants to go first can go first but what’s your biggest pet peeve?
Angie Cowger 28:43
business wise I hate when people don’t see see everybody I hate when they don’t you know copy everyone that’s on the email and just reply to one person and then you don’t see the reply. It drives me crazy.
Mine’s probably my wife like we went to Columbus, Columbus to a fishing show this week with a couple of friends you know, just trying to get away. And she’s like pulling up Walmart’s and Kroger’s. And we got to stop here. We got to stop there. And I’m like, Angie, we’re supposed to be taking taking a break this weekend. Well, we did and we stopped the five or six doors on the way up and five or six doors on the way back she she just she’s always selling always promote. You know, that’s not you know, that’s a good thing.
Max Branstetter 29:27
Yeah, that’s sweet. How about quirks What’s something a little bit quirky about each of your personalities that maybe you call each other out on your kids or grandkids call you out on but it’s who you are nothing to be ashamed of.
Angie Cowger 29:40
We had a company come one time and they wanted to put us on a reality ship. And so at the end of the reality show when they showed us the preview I was the wicked bitch and the business you know, here can pour all day having to do this and you know our kids, me making them go to work and me making them do this. I mean I can do that. And so I do tend to be a little bit overbearing sometimes.
Dee Cowger 30:06
I thought it was funny, I thought, you know, I wanted to see that. I wanted to see you there. But, you know, they had me up on top of trucks shooting the bow and doing all the redneck stuff that a West Virginia country boy would do you know what I mean? But, you know,
Max Branstetter 30:22
I think wicked is a little harsh, unless, unless you’re from that area, and then the word wicked flies around all the time. And then how about I call them Weird Talents. And Dee, I’m not gonna let you say hunting for this, but a talent that has no impact on your business, but it’s just something maybe it’s around the house, maybe it’s a memory trick, just something that you’re really, really good at, like a party trick. It’s just kind of unique, it doesn’t have much impact on the grand scheme of things.
Dee Cowger 30:47
If something’s broke, I can figure it out. I mean, I can fix stuff I can, you know, I don’t know what it is. I mean, like our
Angie Cowger 30:53
home, our water is dripping at home, okay, our water in our kitchen faucet is dripping constantly. And I’m like, Are you gonna fix this? And he said, well turn on the hot water, turn on the cold water, turn the hot water off first, and then I’ll stop. And I’m like, How do you know that? What made you think to do that? How did you know that? That’s what was wrong? Because it works. It fixes it every dime calm, he still needs a fix whatever the real problem is. That fixes it temporarily every time.
Dee Cowger 31:21
But yeah, I mean, I know you said that stuff that doesn’t, you know, factor, you know, not about your business or whatever. But as far as electrical carpentry work. I mean, we don’t at all, we figured out how to manufacture and as far as our homes,
Angie Cowger 31:38
he loves you to be like, so he doesn’t do a whole lot with podcasts. But he loves to watch YouTube videos to figure something out. The other day, something wouldn’t come on in his truck, and he’s googling YouTube trying to figure out what it is.
Dee Cowger 31:49
I don’t know. I’ve just I just, I should ask for help a lot more than I do. But I’d normally don’t ask for help. I like trying to figure stuff out.
Angie Cowger 31:58
Yeah, and then probably, I can remember things like I can remember people and places and you know, things that we’ve created things that we’ve put together. And I can say hey, we did this on this day, and you know, or this year or whatever. And so that’s served me you know, Well, personally and business wise both because you will meet someone and do say Hey, buddy, how you doing and talk to him. Like he’s known him all his life. And he can’t remember the light on what their name is. So he says, Hey, buddy, and everybody’s buddy.
Max Branstetter 32:29
Is this why you called me Buddy earlier? No. Yeah, well, well, thanks, buddy. No, I totally can relate to those. I well, I think the buddy thing is a good way to go about it. Because I’m the same way like, like, my memory is pretty good with stuff. But you know, unless it’s something like this where it’s like an interview like you know, research preparing to speak to you guys. I am terrible at remembering names. And so it’s just something you know, I same sort of thing could talk to anybody, but they’re just all buddy. Now but right. Let’s before we get too much trouble. Let’s let’s wrap this up with some Rapid-Fire Q&A. You’re ready for it. Okay. All right. Let’s get Wild, buddy. No, I can’t stop. All right. What? What is the most creative use or most unique food that you’ve seen somebody eating your chili topping on
Angie Cowger 33:28
pizza for me? Oh, they spit on pizza crust. Very cool.
Dee Cowger 33:34
Maybe they’re walking tacos. Or they put it in the bags of Frito bags with the corn chips but cheese down in there.
Max Branstetter 33:41
Oh yeah, those are good. I’m not going to put you in the same category of Skyline Chili because I know it’s very controversial polar. But we were in Cincinnati. Last year for my cousin Rachel and her now husband Glen’s wedding. And we stopped at MadTree Brewing and they have a pizza stand there and one of the pizzas that they have is literally like a chili pizza like it’s a whole pizza that’s just covered with it basically their version of Skyline chili topping but I’m sure yours would be tastier but it was it was pretty cool and unique. So I guess that’s a widespread trend now.
Angie Cowger 34:17
Potatoes will be a close second. We’ve seen a lot of we didn’t know it was a thing but mashed potato bars have become a thing the last three or four years and that’s a close second. I would have never thought but chili on top of mashed potatoes. Oh that sounds really good.
Max Branstetter 34:31
You know my my dad always does that with like he loves sloppy joes. So when we’d have sloppy Joe’s he puts a sloppy Joe’s on mashed potatoes so I could see that a lot of stuff mixes well with with mashed potatoes. D on your hunting slash fishing trips. You kind of been all over the place. It sounds like what’s what’s the most unique or exotic location you’ve been for an extended trip there.
Dee Cowger 34:54
I like Saskatchewan. I mean the deer hunting out there. It’s just crazy the way they you know they put the alfalfa out and the deer come in, but the the terrain and the you know, the snow and the I just enjoy it. I really liked going out and you know sitting in the cold box blondes and put now I’m starting to use heaters. But yeah, I think that’s a neat place.
Angie Cowger 35:16
We went to Alaska last year with our son that wasn’t one of his friends and Alaska was awesome. We want to go back there
Dee Cowger 35:21
for sure. Yeah, but I haven’t hunted there yet. But I’m looking, I’m looking at a moose and maybe a grizzly bear hunt. I’d like to go on there.
Max Branstetter 35:30
Wow, those are those are some stories, journeys of a lifetime. You just made me think of another question. What is the absolute number one reason to visit Alaska?
Angie Cowger 35:39
Northern Lights? Oh, you saw? We did? We did. We went to a place called Sheena hotsprings. And we’re able to see and so it was pretty cool.
Max Branstetter 35:47
How would you characterize the and the Northern Lights in person?
Angie Cowger 35:50
It’s so much better than what the pictures are? Yeah. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was we were staying at like we checked in a hotel. And they call this when the lights came out. Like we could go to bed and they would call us when the lights came out. So we could go out and look at them. So it was cool.
Dee Cowger 36:05
Yeah, they were green. And yeah, it was it was neat.
Max Branstetter 36:09
That’s amazing. Yeah, totally. Like every time I see pictures and videos of him I think they’re so cool. But I’ve always thought that I think you’re exactly right. Those have to be like towards the top of the list of things that look so much more breathtaking IT person then well and
Angie Cowger 36:23
we were in a car. It was it was on that it was a couple of hours past Fairbanks and we rented a car and drove like seven hours we drove like almost a trip from here to Myrtle Beach or something to go look at the lights and spend the night and do the hot springs and stuff and it was well worth it. Yep. 1500 mile
Dee Cowger 36:39
round trip.
Max Branstetter 36:42
Yeah, Alaska is pretty damn big. On that note, Dee as a truck driver, I guess you’re you’re used in your in your past life, I guess to driving many, many, many miles. What’s your favorite way to, you know, pass the time or keep yourself entertained when you’re on those long trips,
Dee Cowger 37:02
Snapchat, the little videos I used to do those little videos when I’m driving down the road.
Angie Cowger 37:11
He did one about we watched. We went to Holden beach and watch turtles hatch one night, you know, we got up and went watch the turtles hatch and the nestlings go to the water and all that stuff. And he made one at the end and I’m telling you, you almost peed your pants. Listen to him.
Dee Cowger 37:25
Right, right. I mean, I’ve done a lot more than truck driver. I mean, we’ve all I’ve kind of been an entrepreneur all my life. I mean, I had a split rail fence company, we made split rail fence and, and I had trucks then, and her dad was in a logging business. And that’s when I bought my first truck. When I say truck driver, I’m driving my own trucks most of the time. But I had an archery business where I had 30 targets, archery targets, and we shot three, the archery range, and a bow shop and a bed and breakfast he had
Angie Cowger 37:58
noticed I said she didn’t help. She had a like a five and 10 cent store. It was a little store in our town that was going to close and we bought it it wasn’t a good move for a five or 10 cent store. But we eventually moved our customer stand down there. So the restaurant is now in the old five and 10 Oh, and
Dee Cowger 38:17
another thing I can throw out there real quick. That’s, that’s what’s helped me to do the things I’ve done is her being a school teacher and she’s always had insurance on our family. You know, so that’s allowed me to, you know, do the trucks and do this and do that, you know, because without the insurance we would I would have never
Angie Cowger 38:35
been owning your own business and insurances. Yeah,
Dee Cowger 38:39
that’s been a big a big role in our our success, I believe.
Max Branstetter 38:43
Yeah. Oh, totally. Yeah, it’s so nice to have that security. Well, little insurance there. And yeah, Dee gives you the permission to just be a wild boy that goes all over the world now. But no. Last one here, though. Let’s keep let’s keep it to West Virginia. I want to hear from each of you. What is your favorite part of living in West Virginia?
Angie Cowger 39:04
The feeling of home community? You know, our friends are here, our families here. And you know, while some of them are a little more spread out than others, it’s always easy to get together with people if you want to.
Dee Cowger 39:17
Yeah, me too. It’s it’s the people I mean, the people especially in our town, you know, there’s one red light in our whole county here where we’re at no fast food, no fast food. We’re the only
Angie Cowger 39:26
hour from Walmart our from there two hours from the local mall.
Dee Cowger 39:30
Yep. And everybody waves it everybody. Everybody knows everybody, which that’s not always good. You know?
Max Branstetter 39:38
It’s good until it’s not.
Dee Cowger 39:40
Right, right. The mountains and the streams and the you know, West Virginia is a beautiful state. Like I said, I’ve been to a lot of different states and it’s hard. It’s hard to beat West Virginia
Angie Cowger 39:49
and they couldn’t live somewhere where there wasn’t four seasons. I don’t think he and he you know, fall is his favorite because that’s when hunting season is but he enjoys all four seasons all the time.
Max Branstetter 40:00
Yep. Yeah, there’s definitely something special about the seasons. I do wish winter was about one day long, though. But
Dee Cowger 40:08
yeah, well, yeah, it does.
Max Branstetter 40:11
It is nice to change it up. Well, Angie and Dee, thank you so much. This has been awesome. Just so great getting to know you in here and custard, Stan story and all your different lines of business. And we could do a whole you know, like several hours about all your other businesses we can even dive into, but really, really appreciate you both coming on. And where’s the best place for people to try out your products, as well as if they want to connect with the either you online.
Angie Cowger 40:37
CustardStand.com, our website has a store locator. And that store locator customers, people can just put in their zip code, and it will tell them if there’s a store near them. A lot of the stores we mentioned while we were talking, if you can’t find a store, call or call our office, and we’ll look and find it for you or let you know what areas we’re in. We do a lot of online orders. We do our own in house fulfillment now. And so we ship anywhere we’ve got an order go on to Washington, Monday state of Washington on Monday. So we’ll ship anywhere in the United States and ship direct to your door if it’s not available in a retailer. And then we have you know, Facebook, we have Instagram, we have all those social locations. Just look for Custard Stand Chili And
Dee Cowger 41:22
if you’re on here, and you’re listening and you you need samples for a business, just let us know, we can send out samples, you know, that’s Oh, yeah, we
Angie Cowger 41:29
need to get an address for Yeah, yeah,
Dee Cowger 41:30
we definitely got to send you some samples also appreciate
Max Branstetter 41:33
it. I was okay, that means a lot. I was just thinking this has been one of the most mouthwatering interviews of all time. So, yeah, we’ll exchange that after the fact. But I really, really appreciate it. And I have just heard light years of good things about the products you make and the kind of people you are. So really appreciate everything. And last thing, final thoughts. It could be a quote or just kind of words of advice, kind of business wisdom, words to live by whatever you want, send us home here.
Angie Cowger 42:04
I like the one do all the good that you can and all the ways that you can to all the people that you can as often as you can.
Dee Cowger 42:12
Wow, I can’t, I can’t talk that. I believe in your product and hustle, hustle, hustle. I mean, you got to you always got to hustle, you got to stay after it and you know, it’ll work out for you. You know, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. If you believe in your product. And you know you got a product, get out there and sell it, you know, and don’t be afraid to talk to people. If they don’t want to talk to you. They won’t talk to you.
Max Branstetter 42:38
That’s right, buddy. All right.
It is confirmed delicious. Thank you so much to my new favorite buddies, Angie and Dee Cowger for coming on the podcast for all you do in the chili world and beyond. And thank you Wild Listeners for tuning in to another episode. If you want to hear more Wild stories like this one, make sure to follow the Wild Business Growth Podcast on your favorite app and tell a friend about the podcast and then try out Custard Stand chili with them any of their chili varieties and you will not be disappointed. You can also find us on Goodpods where there are some very, very good podcasts and it probably goes well with good chili as well. And for any help with podcast production, you can learn more at MaxPodcasting.com and sign up for the Podcasting to the Max newsletter. That’s at MaxPodcasting.com/Newsletter. Until next time, let your business Run Wild…Bring on the Bongos!!
