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RUN DOG RUN
RUN DOG RUN
Alex Pujol - Pivoting, Positivity, & Pandemics
Welcome to the inaugural episode of the RUN DOG RUN podcast, a MERGE series. Join us as we interview my good friend Alex Pujol to discuss how businesses are adjusting to the coronavirus pandemic, creativity in the restaurant and bar industries, the Dave Chappelle Mark Twain award presentation, Netflix, & Space Force!
Now. Yeah. Gotcha. Nice technology.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:I was here preemptively judging your inability to follow the links and the steps. Only to realize that it was my fault that I never sent it to you. I mean,
Speaker 1:I was on time. You were on time.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:guys, I'm a very excited to have somebody I consider a brother. One of my best friends guys known me. What out ninth grade, dude. I've been
Speaker 1:ninth grade, 17, 18 years. 19 years. 19 years. Almost 20 years. 22 years. 22 years.
Speaker 3:We're very good at math. Uh, we went, uh, we went to high school together, played baseball together. Uh, went to UCF together. I mean, literally attached to this guy's hip probably for a solid eight years. You know, he's seen basically merges entire journey. You know, he was in the car when I came up with the name. I, you know, have witnessed his whole professional journey, which has been honestly amazing. I couldn't be happier for the guy to find something that is just so aligned with his personality and just something that he really excels at. You know, he started, uh, in alcohol sales, uh, for Stoli here in Miami beach and did such a phenomenal job that they gave him the opportunity to move to Colorado and, and manage the entire state. So I'll tell me what it's like moving from Miami to Denver.
Speaker 1:Oh man. So many panic attack when the opportunity came up. I mean, I pretty much talked with all my friends and family about this after I made my decision cause kind of didn't want any influence from anyone outside of kind of, I wanted to do this with my me and now wife when we decided on it. But it's been one of the best decisions in my life. I was living in Miami beach as you know, probably for eight years at that point. So I was in the thick of what Miami was doing, alcohol sales in Miami beach. So I was one of those people that never leave Miami, never will, never can. But, uh, Colorado came up, man and tell you the truth. What I miss most other than family and friends is seafood. It's about it. I, I, I do miss.
Speaker 3:I do miss those invites to the, to the various restaurants on the, uh, on the all, uh, on the old, uh, the old account. I do miss.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the, Oh, the expense account. Yeah. Those, uh,
Speaker 3:um, but yeah, man, I mean, you know, dude, this is, you know, whatever it is. This week's been crazy, man. I, you know, uh, of everyone that I talked to him and I, you know, I probably talked to you more about the current state of what is going on than anybody, you know, a socially, economically from a health standpoint, political. I mean, it's just like a whirlwind of stuff, man. It's just, it's, it's just crazy, man. And what's the community like over there? How are people, you know, dealing with this? Like, I mean, what are you seeing?
Speaker 1:I mean, I, I think when it first started, it was a lot of just no one knowing what the heck to do. People upset that st Patrick's day parade was canceled and this is, you know, what the hell, you know, uproar about that. And then it steadily just became a little more serious, a little more serious.
Speaker 3:But isn't it? Isn't that funny? Like two weeks ago, like you look back like the stuff that we were like so disappointed is not happening. We're like, like my cousin got mad at me cause we're not going to the NFL draft and I'm just like, dude, what do you, what do you want me to do? And then like a week later he's like, yeah, ah yeah, they're not even doing it. I'm like, yeah, no shit dude. Like I knew this was happening.
Speaker 1:We got some more serious for every group of person as this has gone on to now where I think there's a little bit of a fatigue with everyone where they want to get off of this yet they're still kind of trying to navigate how serious that all is. I don't know. It's a weird state and we keep going through day by day, week by week. But here, like you said, people were going a little stir crazy. People wanted to get out. I know there's areas in Boulder and areas closer to the mountains where trails were just slammed and they started getting more notice about like, guys, we don't want to close these trails cause we want to have these areas open but we want to get people out. And then what they started doing here in the city is closing off neighborhood, uh, areas for cars. So pedestrians can have walkways more trying to get people to go out but keep their distance. But yeah, it's a weird dance
Speaker 3:dude. Have you, have you seen this thing where like all these animals that are starting to go on the streets and stuff like, dude[inaudible] bears and mousses and due to it's crazy. Like somebody said this, your day made so much sense to me. They're like, you know, of course the human race would have the ego to assume that we own this planet and we've been abusing this planet for hundreds of years. And, and now it's like, it's just, it's just nature reminding you that we don't own this planet. And it's the craziest thing is seeing, dude, you're seeing like deer, like in the middle of streets. Like, I mean, I don't remember, you know, obviously not like in New York city, but there was, there was a pretty like crazy picture I saw the other day of like, uh, like a pretty prominent downtown area with just animals roaming the streets. Like I am legend. It was crazy, man.
Speaker 1:I think San Francisco is one of those that you see coyotes and wolves just, we were roaming the streets because it's right next to the natural areas. So yeah, New York city, probably going to be one on Venice had fish in it. So
Speaker 3:yeah, I, you know, this thing kind of rocked our world, you know, pretty, pretty bad at merge and you know, we, you know, fortunately have like other division and things that we can creatively come up with other solutions. You know, obviously this government, uh, small business thing is helping us out just, just to give us some time to think, man, just to think of, figure it all out. But you know, I think, I think one of the biggest, um, one of the biggest industries that has, uh, inspired me the most through this has to be, you know, the culinary, uh, restaurant and, and service industry. And, and, you know, the thing, it's like they have all the reason in the world to be upset, depressed, you know, become hermits, you know, just get angry. And I'm sure a lot of them are men. It's understandable, but, but at the same time, I think your industry are really setting the standard of, of what of creativity when it comes to whether it's prime one, 12, uh, selling their, their, their, you know, their stakes wholesale directly so you can grow them at home. You know, I, you know, you and Pam are constantly showing these, these mixologists that are, that are creating these packages that you can take home and, and, and have drinks at home. I mean, really, really inspiring man. Just to see people pivot and make the best of the situation.
Speaker 1:My, my, uh, my side of that industry I think is a real unique in that sense. And they probably, a lot of them are angry or probably a lot of them did want to initially crawl into a space, but that's not in their nature. Do you meet any of these culinary guys from line cooks all the way up to sous chefs, to head chefs to owners. These guys are workaholics in nature. They they problem solve literally 12 hours out of a day because if you're in behind one of those kitchens, if you're behind a bar, if you see a surface, if you see front of house, back of house, it's nothing but problems all day. The hardest work is solving them quickly and what you think is a fight or an attitude is really just an attitude of let's fucking get this shit done and enjoy a drink and a cigarette after this because they have never had anyone that assists them. They have never had had anyone that helped, but they never relied on it. They never expected it. So not getting the assistance that they rightfully deserve right now is something that unfortunately they're used to and they're trying to thrive around it and like you said, creative ways, but it's not something that unfortunately is lasting and there's going to have to be new things that have to come up in this way, but it's what the industry breeds. Man, these people are incredible and I work a lot of times just hand in hand with them. I wish I could say that I do what they do, but now man, they're there. They're incredible people creatively and more importantly with business. They're, they're amazing. They changed it and they have this whole time.
Speaker 3:I always, I always say this, they have arguably the best work ethic of any industry that I know. These guys are consistently working 16 hour days. It requires every ounce of their, their soul and being to be successful and these people work 16 hour days, man, they, they bust their ass in the kitchen. If you go to a restaurant that opens up at at 12 that means somebody was there at eight and it means that somebody was leaving at four in the morning cleaning man. It's just nonstop and, and, and just,
Speaker 1:and it's a lot of the drone, let me tell you, coming home
Speaker 3:they got and they're room for errors. Like nothing there. Room for error is literally nothing and, and as it is yet the economics are already against them when it comes to, you know, probably, you know, restaurants are so notorious for being one of the hardest businesses to run. And again it's, it's, it's going to be a, it's going to be really interesting man. I, I, you know, I don't know what's going to happen on the tail end of this thing man. You know, we need to start thinking of our businesses differently because you know, restaurant capacities are something that could be affected after this, you know, it's just going to be a lot of things that, that are going to require adjustments after
Speaker 1:discussion with us has gone back and forth when this opens up back up. Number one, how many are opening back up and what does opening act when opening back up? Realistically look like? Because realistically I think if you talk to any business owner, a restaurant owner, whatever type of hospitality, 50% capacity isn't a realistic thing. It's not 100% what it is. What does the consumer feel comfortable going back to? What does the restaurant tour have to do? What changes have to be made? It's, it's a lot of what and what can we do? And I think we're kind of waiting on assistance from others and guidance on what that direction is.
Speaker 3:You know, at some point where we're going to have to make a lot of tough decisions. But you know, the thing I've realized through this process, man, is that we're incredibly resilient man. And you know, watching now more and more people actually going home quarantining, seen some of the numbers getting just a little bit better. Not that they're getting better, but getting a little bit better is, is very encouraging to see. I mean, you could almost argue that this has[inaudible]
Speaker 1:it's legal effects of what we're doing and it's kind of awesome, right? Like quickly you're kind of quickly seeing them, but
Speaker 3:yeah, I don't know. And you're and, and you're, we've needed, we've needed something. And again, man, I, I wish we were not in this situation. I don't want that to be taken the wrong way, but we've needed something in this country for a long time to unite us, man. Something that felt like we were on a common goal, a common, a task and yeah, man, you're going to have political bickering here and there. But I think at the end of the day, everyone wants the same result in this situation, which is just, just,
Speaker 1:I get to be on the blue and red and American, I think, uh, globally I feel a little more United too. Like it's one of the first issues in my lifetime. I can remember that. It feels like we're all in this to find it. Like out should've been climbing control should have been a whole lot of other things before this. But I think at least this opens the door to be like, damn, you should worry a little bit more about what can kill us versus us trying to kill each other kind of thing.
Speaker 3:It's insane. I, I, you know, I don't know how many business are going to be affected by this. I mean, it just to me seems like, like there,
Speaker 1:speaking of that, I don't do any business hasn't been effective. I know obviously you've been affected like, yeah, like I've seen this, but a day to day besides going to office and staying at home and all of that, what do you, what are you doing different now? Like what, what, what kind of pictures are you trying to make and everything within your business?
Speaker 3:Um, I'm really, you know, my dad told me something a few years back that, you know, you know, you know, we're both fortunate to have great fathers and, and that, that, you know, they plant these seeds in your brain and then the plant grows like three years later. And you remember something that told you, my dad said, you're not in the business of filmmaking or in the business of storytelling. And as long as you could tell a story, you could do anything. And I'll never forget that. And I, and I remember that from time to time. And the truth is, you know, I'm not focusing as much on the, um, on the, on the execution or the tool or, or the, the process. I'm focusing on the storytelling. So, you know, this podcast is a perfect example as like, I've wanted to do this now for over a year and because we've been so busy, I haven't gotten the chance. This is another form of storytelling. This is the way I'm going to tell my story. This is the way I want to connect with people. We're at a point now where, you know, everyone, you know, it's like everyone dropped a bunch of marbles and the marbles went everywhere and now we're starting to kind of gather the marbles. And you know, I'm just communicating a lot with all of my clients, all of my agencies, friends, all the creatives. Like I, I just, I'm just in a mindset of service right now and I want to understand where their minds are going, where their, how they're working with brands, how they want to communicate on their brand's behalf. Because I'm just listening a lot, man. At the end of the day, storytelling is the most powerful way of human communication. It's not going anywhere. So in my mind, I'm not like, I'm not, this is what I do for a living. I'm a storyteller. So now it's just like, how am I going to pivot and help these brands tell stories that they still gotta tell?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they've got to figure out interesting, interesting time for artists, especially like you, like I see a lot of things going on Instagram and social media artists almost taking different outlets of expression that they've never had before. Like you said, you're doing a podcast now, but I think it's a very interesting and critical time. We saw that Shippo documentary with the whole team. What I took away that was so amazing was his appreciation for all our, and how critical it was during the elections in 16 where he thought that was a critical time for artists to step up. And I'm sure right now there's a lot of different artists working on a lot of different things and a lot of different outlets that they've never expressed that are going to come out or five, six, 10, 15 years from now that get some major, um, fruits of success from this horrible, horrible.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And, and I, and it's funny, the Chappelle thing I told you, man, I got emotional a few times watching it and if anyone hasn't seen it, man, you gotta see this thing, man. You know, you know, love him or hate him. I understand his work is extremely controversial, especially the new stuff with everything going on and how, you know, let's, you know, let's call it the ultra sensitive, uh, environment, which, you know, carry some weight and validity, but at the same time you gotta let people,
Speaker 1:so yeah, I think in that, I think that documentary you can take away, even his friends disagree with him strongly. Yeah. But what they love, the fact that they're able to hear an opinion and disagree with within, and also hear where, why he's coming from that opinion, which I don't think we can do enough anymore.
Speaker 3:I think our group of friends, we've been very fortunate to grow up in a very, very, you know, open, transparent, like we're, we're ex, we're like overly so transparent with each other about things and we get in debates all the time and we've, we've, we've nurtured a healthy social relationship with each other that has carried on into our lives. And I think we're better men for it. You know, what's so amazing about that Chappelle thing is just how socially aware, and this is what I keep telling people. Like what I took away from it is how a human being at 16 years old was as socially aware as he was. I, I don't even understood the world around me at 16 or even at 20 I just don't, I don't think challenging beliefs is unhealthy. I think challenging you challenging my beliefs makes me a new, stronger. And a lot of people take, someone's challenging their beliefs that's challenging their character, which are two different things. Challenges, someone's beliefs should never cross the line of challenging their character. And when you challenge rivalries, I get to reinforce or change my thoughts on something which was, you know, what's crazy about this whole sort of like quarantine thing, staying home thing is that, and this will, I was talking to my dad earlier about, it's like you have this whole side of this thing that's like the most horrific, terrifying, you know, you see the stories from New York, it breaks your heart. My wife's, you know, in the medical fish that a nurse practitioner, you know, she's weeks away from potentially having to go bedside. So you know, we're kind of living through that fear. So this horrible thing, and you're seeing these families go through this. But man, there is, there is this undeniable silver lining side. It's hard to see it now, but if you can focus on some of the silver lining items on the other side, I mean, the time I was spending with my kids, I wouldn't have, you know, time that, you know, my dad, like my dad said, it's like you're inheriting like a, like a sabbatical, almost a little
Speaker 1:fucking zoom balls. We got to have our, or older siblings or family,
Speaker 3:they are, they're dude and, and, and[inaudible] knowing, you know what? You know what's crazy? I was thinking about this the other day. I was like, this, this situation forces you to stop. And there are a lot of people that go a thousand miles an hour because they don't want to face themselves in the mirror. The idea, the idea of solitude scares the shit out of them. You know? And, and this is going to be a day of reckoning for a lot of people because they're going to have to face their demons, like on their own because they're there. They're going to be. And it's so healthy, man, it's so healthy. A lot of people are going to come out on the other side of this, having a better understanding of who they are and what matters to them.
Speaker 1:I don't think that norm is going to be redefined to a long time. I mean took two or three years for planes to be filled after nine 11 and that was just cleans. This is everything all around them. Just kinda thing like it's weird. I've watched things now that were quarantined. We will like watch shows. Like there's moments in shows from it that's not happening anymore. That ain't happening anymore. When's that gonna happen? You know, like it's just,
Speaker 3:you seen anything good on TV lately?
Speaker 1:Man, I think I've been all over the place. I haven't seen tiger came in, which is everyone's seen. So
Speaker 3:I uh, I almost had a divorce my wife after that one cause she kept watching and one after I went to sleep and finished it and I was like, that's grounds. That's grounds for divorce, right?
Speaker 1:For sure. It didn't take that to the grave and then rewatch it. And act the whole way like yeah. Pretend you didn't see anything. Yeah dude, that that shows a really crazy up on Ozark and uh, watching movies more than anything. I watched onward yesterday with Pam. I don't have kids cry like a baby because brother connection, you're good. I it, I did it.
Speaker 3:See the whole thing but just the uh, the one little scene that I saw that I was like, God damn it. Pixar, how do you do this shit is when you[inaudible]
Speaker 1:does the little,
Speaker 3:the T the top with the foot on his foot because that's the only way he can communicate with his son. Dude, I almost like killed me inside man. It's nuts man. Like the whole Netflix culture for me is, is incredible man. Just, just seeing Netflix completely changed the entire landscape of entertainment for the simple fact that they greenlit things that studios and safe networks would never Greenlight. And by doing that they put pressure on everybody else, man. And we've been, content has been absolutely 100% better for it, man. I mean, just crazy. You got space force and we're going to get space force. That is going to be the greatest thing ever. If you guys don't know what space forces, they basically got the creators of the office and parks and rec
Speaker 1:do it in a row because he's parked creator of it. Steve Carell and John Malcovich to do a office. The Y Ben Schwartz, who now is famously the voice of Sonic, but he's from parks and recreation. He's a jr. John Ralphio is one of my favorite
Speaker 3:and they get, and they get to do an office style show on space force. The new arm of our, uh, military department brought into office.
Speaker 1:Right. And it takes place in Colorado where Colorado, so a little home state of mind.
Speaker 3:Oh God. Dude. Did they shoot it there?
Speaker 1:Uh, I don't know if they should try to get here, but I guess the plot is Steve Carell is like, he's a very like, accomplished, uh, I believe Naval captain general, and he reluctantly takes this position because they're going to Pete, dude, this is what they're going to do. They're going to, I don't know anything they're going to, they're going to paint him as like some sort of hardcore, like just liberal that he, that then gets this offer from a president that he doesn't probably necessarily very fond of and then he, but he has to take in career offer probably. He's going to be like the fuck he's gonna be like the Fowchee of, of that. He has to do it. Like what choice do I have? I have to do it. It's like I gotta deal with this guy to help these people. What am I going to do?
Speaker 3:So good man. So good. Well brother, I love you man. Thank you so much for taking the time. It's always a pleasure. I, I don't know why I have a feeling that you're going to be what they say. It's been good to see you. For sure, man. For sure. I have a feeling that you're going to probably end up being a recurring guest on this. Maybe we'll have to give you your own little segment before you go. Any amazing bottle of wine that you've opened during the corn gene. You're like, Holy shit, dude. I opened up the other day. I'm around a King Richard realm. That was pretty awesome, man, the man, let me tell you, those guys at Rome really know what they're doing, man. I mean, people don't realize that these guys, especially some of these guys in Cali man are making these 15% alcohol just bombs. And you're, you're sipping them. They're young, you're sipping them and, and it's going down like the smoothest thing, like literally the smoothest juice you've ever drank. These guys are just wizards. All right brother. Thank you again man. Love you buddy. Shit it take care of all loving man. Bye. You know, Alex's is a, you know, one of my best friends growing up, one of the most special people, um, you know, in the world. I dunno. I dunno. We're, we're living in weird times, man and I, and I think that, and I've learned this with my, my merge family that, you know, this is psychologically going to be challenging for any given person on any given day. When you start interacting with somebody, make your goal tough. Lift people's spirits, you know, keep them excited. Keep them happy, keep them motivated, keep them headstrong. Remind them that this is just temporary, that we'll get through this, that they're not alone. I mean, that's the biggest thing. You know, the, you know, be a human being first man, and just, just constantly spread love, uh, and connect with as many people as as you can because now more than ever, we need that love. You all take care. Thanks for listening. Bye.