Bennett Maxwell understood that to run a successful company he needed to know the business and be the least important person in it. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it's us. But we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Waukee Feet Ad] Stephen Semple: Hey, it's Stephen Semple here, and we've given Dave another break. Dave Young has been getting lots of breaks lately. But he's a hard-working guy, so it's good that we can give him a week off. And I'm really excited. I have with me Bennett Maxwell, who's the CEO of Dirty Dough. And I'm going to let him explain what Dirty Dough is. And in fact, I'm even going to let him explain what a CEO is, because we were talking earlier about whatever the heck that is. Bennett Maxwell: You can write it chairman over CEO, because we'll probably get it in the story that I have a CEO, which is why I don't know what the hell a chairman is because I'm like, it's the title you get when you have a CEO and they're like, get out of my way. Here's a title. Stephen Semple: Even better. Even better. Right out of the gate, I made a mistake. But it's not about the titles, it's about what you've built. And it's pretty cool what you guys have built and how you found yourself in the food business. Because one of the things that is remarkable about so many of the stories that I've come across for the Empire Builders Podcast is how many of the businesses have been started by people who are not from the industry. And you're the same. You're not from the food business. So tell us a little bit about the beginning, and then how you ended up stumbling into Dirty Dough. Bennett Maxwell: Yes. The beginning of me or the beginning of Dirty Dough? Stephen Semple: Beginning of you. To me, that was really interesting. Bennett Maxwell: Okay. Beginning of me. Raised in Utah, one of nine kids, to a single mom. And there was seven boys. So me and my brothers were always hustling to make some money, selling everything from lawn aeration door to door, to discount cards for the schools, to shaved dice. My first real job, I would say, was Cutco, which is all sales as well. Learned a ton of good referrals or referral based sales from that. I served a two-year Mormon mission in Tijuana, Mexico. Stephen Semple: Because Cutco, they do door to door knives, right? Bennett Maxwell: Not door to door, or at least not how I was trained. It's sit down with your close friends and family, tell them that you make $15 an hour presentation or commission, whichever one's higher. But they don't need to buy anything. And just go get practice. And then at the end of the presentation, you say, "Okay, Stephen, whether you bought or not, who are 10 people that would be willing to listen to our presentation?" And you're like, "Oh, yeah, I could think of them." Like, "No, I need you to think of them right now. And now I need you to call them." So that was a really good practice of ask for referrals, and unapologetically ask for referrals. Really good. And I think that's led to a lot of success with Dirty Dough, which we might get into. But a two-year Mormon mission. And then I did a lot of door to door sales, pest control, satellite, direct TV led me to do solar. Started a solar company, and then that kind of led me into the Dirty Dough side, which, going from solar to cookies is a little bit of a stretch. Stephen Semple: Now, if I remember correctly, when we were talking, you had built the solar business up to a stage where you were able to sell that business and exit out of that business.
