Episode 72: Ezekiel Kindle is Raising the Heat in NWA

IANWA : 72 - Ezekiel Kindle is Raising the Heat in NWA

Duration: 35:06

IANWA Open [0:11] It's time for another episode of I am Northwest Arkansas, the podcast covering the intersection of business, culture, entrepreneurship, and life in general here in the Ozarks. Whether you are considering a move to this area or trying to learn more about the place you call home, we've got something special for you. Here's our host, Randy Wilburn.

Randy Wilburn [0:42] Hey folks, and welcome to another episode of I am Northwest Arkansas. I'm your host Randy Wilburn, still here in quarantine as of May 29th, 2020, here in my home studio. I wish I could be in person with this individual that we're about to speak with, but I'm still fighting the good fight and we're still doing podcasting episodes. So, really excited to be here today I have a great guest with me. As a matter of fact, this guest in my estimation, is pure fire, no pun intended. But Ezekiel Kindle is the founder of Kindle Spices. If you guys don't really know this about me, I am a hot sauce guy have been since I was a child. I love all kinds of hot sauce. Everywhere I go around the world, I always try to find a local hot sauce and bring it back. It was nothing but kismet that Ezekiel and I met last year, almost about this time, but it was actually in August, we met at the Roots Festival. I was volunteering and trying to help out Jeremy and his team on some things at one of the locations and Ezekiel was set up with his booth and sharing his hot sauce and I was just blown away. And he actually gave me a free bottle which I ran through so fast it wasn't even funny. But without further ado, I just wanted to welcome Ezekiel Kindle to the I am Northwest Arkansas podcast, Ezekiel, how are you doing today?

Ezekiel Kindle [2:05] I'm doing fantastic. Thank you so much for having me today.

Randy Wilburn [2:08] Oh. Absolutely. I want to get into a couple of things as we talked about before we got on the air. I would love for you just to share with the audience your superhero origin story. Actually, I will just let you tell it so why don't you tell the audience a little bit about who Ezekiel Kindle is and why hot sauce is so important to you?

Ezekiel Kindle [2:29] Yeah. I like being a superhero. I will take that. So I was born here in Fayetteville, but I moved to a little beef cattle farm that my family owns just right over the border into Oklahoma when I was a young kid. I moved back to come to college and, like many, many people who have ever lived here for any amount of time I stayed. I loved it. There was no question in my mind that this was the place for me to be as soon as I got out of college. And I mean, I had a pretty good childhood. I had lots of gardens. As you can imagine being out on a farm, my grandpa and my dad both had huge gardens all the way growing up. And that was pretty distilled in me. That was part of me. As soon as my wife and I got our first place here in Fayetteville, one of the first things we did was just tear up a square in the backyard and put some wood down and we made a frame and had a garden. And that first year, I actually just grew jalapenos and cayennes, which looking back on it, that was much less heat in my life than I'm experiencing today. And we kind of moved it up every year. In the second year, we had jalapenos cayennes and some habaneros. And then the third year I don't know why we just got some ghosts scorpions and carolina reapers, and we just upped the ante when it came to heat. And most of that and this is actually the story that's on the back of our very first hot sauce bottles is most have that is my grandfather's fault. When I was a kid, he would kind of play tricks on me. He loved jalapenos. He thought they were really good, and he could handle that heat level. And it was around the age of eight or nine, he would always find one that was super hot that he couldn't eat. And he'd save it until I came over for Sunday lunch. And he didn't make a bet. But you can eat this jalapeno. And, of course, I would do my absolute best holding back tears face red just trying to munch that jalapeno down. And it's interesting if he could look back on this now, I'm doing the same thing but with carolina reapers the hottest pepper in the world. So, I've munched two or three of those down in my life so far and, and to stick with the heat puns, he really ignited you could say a fire there with that. And yeah, I've just been obsessed. I tell him all the time, it's his fault, he did this to me. I am obsessed with heat, and we've realized that we wanted to do something with it. My wife and I both being people that love spicy foods. When I grew those ghost peppers, scorpion peppers and carolina reapers that third year when we grew those, we filled our entire kitchen freezer full of pepper because we didn't know what to do with them. We had so many you can only do so much with peppers of that heat- we didn't know what to do. We just had a full freezer and it was either throw them away, or it was to make something with them because you got to have freezer room for food and other things that you want to sustain your life.

Randy Wilburn [5:34] Yeah, so I'm curious real quickly just to interject. Were those peppers--- and I remember my grandmother growing a lot of different peppers back in the day, but peppers typically aren't terribly hard to grow. Were those more specialty peppers like the ghost and the scorpion and the reaper, were those harder to grow than your hardier variety of pepper?

Ezekiel Kindle [5:55] They are picky peppers. They like a certain amount of magnesium and potassium in their soil. And if they've got too much or too little, they're going to start wilting. They're going to show spots on their leaves and they're not going to grow peppers. They like a certain amount of water. They actually like less water than most plants. So, if you see them a little bit wilted, that means they are probably pretty happy- that's their natural environment and where they want to live. So that was fun going from regular hardy plants like tomatoes and cucumbers even or even just the jalapeno plant and then going to these and not knowing what to expect.

Randy Wilburn [6:30] I'm curious because as I'm just thinking about it right now, but were those varieties of peppers that existed or were they like spliced and created. Because when you hear ghost pepper, you're like, man, that sounds like something that was created in a lab somewhere. Where in the world are ghost peppers found?

Ezekiel Kindle [6:50] Mostly in India?

Randy Wilburn [6:52] That answers the question right here. I haven't even been to India. I want to go, but now I know why I didn't run across the ghost pepper, but that's cool. So, go ahead and finish what you were going to say.

Ezekiel Kindle [7:03] Yeah, so in India, they actually grow ghost peppers, and they hang them on fences around their buildings or their gardens or whatever they want to protect. And it protects those buildings from elephants because an elephant will try to eat the pepper and then it will get sick because the peppers too hot and it will run away. So that's the things that I'm putting in my hot sauces for a while for you to enjoy.

Randy Wilburn [7:26] Yeah, you know I've been having a squirrelpop problem lately. I've written about it in the newsletter because one of the things that I learned to do during this---. I've always liked to bird watch but I really am doing it a lot more now because the thing that I've noticed about being here five-plus years, almost six soon, is that we just have such a wide variety of birds in this area, Northwest Arkansas. I started putting bird feeders out but the squirrels love bird food and they are driving me crazy. And then I've been looking for like squirrel repellent that wouldn't kill them because I'm not trying to kill them, right? Otherwise, I just take my BB gun or air gun and just go out there and get rid of them. I'm just trying to keep them away from the bird feeder. And one of the things that they said works really well are hot seeds from different peppers that you would put around there. And once they eat those a couple of times, they will leave that stuff alone. So, I may have to borrow some ghost peppers from you and maybe see what we can work out.

Ezekiel Kindle [8:29] Yeah, that's one of my favorite things about birds because they actually don't have the ability to detect capsaicin oil off of the seeds. And so, they're the biggest spreader of spicy peppers in most parts of the world because they can eat a pepper. They are not turned away by the heat because they can't taste it, and then they spread the seeds places. I would have definitely recommended putting some spicy seeds in your feed. I'm glad somewhere else on the internet gave you that information. That's awesome.

Randy Wilburn [8:56] I like that a lot, and I didn't realize that birds cannot detect heat like that. So, I guess it's like a superhero power for them?

Ezekiel Kindle [9:05] It definitely is.

Randy Wilburn [9:07] So tell me a little bit about what led you to this trajectory of saying, you know what, not only do I like hot, spicy stuff, but I'm going to start a business one day. While you were in school, did you have a business? Besides, I know your family ran a farm, which is a business but what entrepreneurial bug really hit you that said, okay, I can actually do this?

Ezekiel Kindle [9:29] You know, I had a couple of friends in college who were very entrepreneurial mindset and I love that. I love talking to them. I really love brainstorming. That was kind of my favorite part about it. If one of my friends came up and they had a business idea, I would love to talk about it with them. And I still do that all the time. And I decided probably a sophomore or junior year in college that I wanted to run my business, but I had no idea what I wanted. And I thought about it a lot. Every couple of months I would try to come up with ideas for a business that I could run, and maybe I just wasn't that creative of a person to come up with something super new that people hadn't seen yet. And I went to college for a computer engineering degree. So, I was always trying to come up with a program or some app that I could make, and I never really got there. But going back to when I had that freezer full of peppers, that was one of the first thoughts that I had. I was like I could make some sauce. I could see how it works, see what happened and we could go from there.

I thought about selling at the farmers market, things like that. And it was just kind of turning my little tiny hobby and things that I was already good at into something that I could share. And then it went from, wow, I'm pretty good at this. Maybe I should really try to share it. Maybe I should try to sell this at harvest or sell this at Ozark Natural Foods. And so, it just kind of blossomed from there. And I'm still keeping alive that entrepreneurial mindset when it comes to my friends and things. I have monthly meetings with some of my friends, and now it's monthly zoom calls with some of my friends, but we always throwback ideas and goals that we want to achieve in life. And I'm constantly trying to help them achieve that. Because a lot of the local companies, as you know, around here have helped me achieve this business goal that I wanted to achieve.

Randy Wilburn [11:12] Yeah. I mean, it makes perfect sense. So, you started Kindle Spices in 2018. You decided, let me see what I could make of this. You weren't necessarily sure the direction that it would take. I'm curious to know what background or what led you to the understanding of being able to formulate all these different sauces? And was it just a lot of testing in the kitchen to ultimately get that perfect concoction? We think about Colonel Harland Sanders and the 11 herbs and spices and all the work that went into that recipe I might add that is still under lock and key, right? Nobody knows exactly what's in that 11 herbs and spices. But the bottom line is it takes a lot of testing and retesting and trial and error to come up with the right combination and as a hot sauce guy myself, and I have a question in here. Still, it's one thing to just eat something hot or have a hot sauce. It's another thing to have something that's hot and flavorful. There is a difference, right? And so, what I found from yours and I shared it with my wife whose family is from Trinidad, so we know about spice, scotch bonnet and a lot of other really cool spices that are down there that she grew up having in her food. And I actually shared some of your spice sauce with my mother-in-law, who I think is like a bird, nothing hot affects her. We think that's like her superpower. But anyway, what did you have to go through to kind of develop and come up with all of these different amazing sauces? I mean, you've got Ghost Pepper sauce, you have a Blackberry Stinger. I love the names. You have Short Fuse, Blueberry Stinger. Do you have Apple Temptation? So many different ones. How did you start formulating all those different sauces?

Ezekiel Kindle [13:07] Yeah, so like you said, we started in early 2018. But we didn't actually come out with a sauce that we could sell until January of 2019. So that tells you a big part of that story there. We spent a lot of time in the kitchen. My wife, she loves to just sit at the kitchen table and wait until I pull some type of sauce out of a pan and give her a spoon of it to see how it tastes. She's kind of my test subject on most of the stuff when it comes to this. I would say we probably spend eight months of cooking in the kitchen and trying out new sauces almost every single weekend. And it wasn't until January of 2019 that really gave me the motivation to just do it. I've been working with some people who you've actually had on this podcast, the owners of Black Apple Hard Cider.

Randy Wilburn [14:03] Oh, yeah. Leo and those guys.

Ezekiel Kindle [14:06] Yeah. I've been working with Leo, and he had an idea. January 22 was International Hot Sauce Day in 2019. And he said, you have brought all these sauces to me to try, why don't you just pick four, come up here and we will do like a sauce flight. And the thing that he didn't know at the time was that none of those sauces were FDA approved. None of those sauces had any of the actual paperwork that I needed to have done to make myself legally sell them. I can make them at home and share them with people. I just can't sell them. And he and I had this conversation on January 10, and I had 12 days. I had 12 days to pick four sauces, get them approved, make them in a kitchen, and be able to sell them. And that was the longest ten days or 12 days of my life; it was insane. And weirdly enough, that's kind of what did it. I had all these little recipes that I was constantly tweaking, trying to make perfect and that ended up being part of my problem was my little bit of a perfectionist touch that I was trying to add to those sauces. And so, I picked the Blueberry and Blackberry Stinger which was against my better judgment because there used to be a Cherry Stinger and that was my favorite but that was no one else's favorite that I let try. And that was a tough thing for me. I was like this is my business, I want to do the sauce that I want to make but I chose to leave that one out. And I made the Apple Temptation sauce kind of as paying homage to Leo and everybody at Black Apple Hard Cider for doing me a solid. They took me in they advertised for me they let me do this thing. So, I tried to make an Apple Themed Hot Sauce. And then we have the Ghost Pepper which is our crowning achievement and that one was made about three days before the event. I put some stuff in a pot. I thought it tasted good. My brother and I went to the [inaudible 15:57] kitchen here that the University of Arkansas has and we made 200 bottles of it. It was just on a whim, we put it in there and it turns out that it's still our best-selling sauce that we have.

Randy Wilburn [16:09] Yeah, I love that. And I think Voltaire is the one that said the perfect is the enemy of the good. And it took Leo to cajole you into realizing that, and I want to thank him personally for that because you certainly have stumbled upon something really, really good here. And I think it's a perfect testament and an example. I hope that everybody listening to this realizes that if you endeavor to start a business or to go out and create something and do something amazing, sometimes you have to ship it and let the market tell you. Let your community or let the people that you're sharing it with let you know. A lot of times we are our own worst critic, we're our own worst enemy. And you know, you were renting space in your head that was telling you that hey, no, this can't happen and it took Leo and others to encourage you and say listen, dude, just put this out here and let the people decide. So, yeah, I think that's a perfect example. And I hope everybody listening to this podcast hears that very clearly, especially in this timeframe as the recording of this podcast a lot of us are stuck in our homes for an extended period of time. I haven't been on an airplane, and God knows how long. I don't even know how I would handle myself if I got on one right now, although I don't want to get on one right now. But in seriousness, this is a great time to create. This is a great time to come up with some things. Some of you have an invention. Some of you have ideas, and I could go on and on. I didn't want to be on a soapbox, but you really encouraged me by sharing that part of the story because I think people need to hear that and understand it. So, as you go to wherever you can go to pick up Kindle Spices, and we will hear from Ezekiel later in terms of where you can find the spices. I want you to be thinking about the planning and preparation that went into getting this to market and sometimes it's not as difficult as you think it is. Sometimes we just need a kick in the pants to move some things forward. Would you agree?

Ezekiel Kindle [18:02] Hundred percent? I need that constantly. That's one of the best things about my wife here, and she gives me a kick in the pants sometimes. I will make a sauce, and she's like, this is good; you need to take it to somebody now. Like, don't rethink it. Don't overthink it like I do. I'm a data analyst at heart. I'm going to analyze that thing into the ground. And so, we need that. And it's great. You know, you said earlier about Arkansas is kind of a hub of entrepreneurship right now. And that is something that I absolutely love about it. There is an entrepreneur somewhere in Northwest Arkansas, who has either been through what you want to go through or what you're about to go through, or they have direct experience doing the same thing that you're doing, and they are there to give you that kick in the butt. And it's so supportive. It seems rough being kicked in the butt, but it is so supporting having that.

Randy Wilburn [18:53] Yeah, and I'd be curious to know because as a data analyst did you like before you ventured off to start this, did you like look at all the numbers of like the market share of the different hot sauce companies. I've been a fan of Tabasco and I've told people all the time if you're down in the Avery Island area down in Louisiana, you need to visit their facilities. It's really amazing how one family has held on to that and done what they've done for so long and they actually have a really good Ghost Pepper version of Tabasco, which they sell in a few places. It's hard to find but I actually found it down there right off the quarter in a hot sauce shop. Because like I said, everywhere I go, I try to pick up some hot sauce and man, that version of Tabasco is the best version that I've ever had. But I'm just curious with your data analyst's mindset, did you like overdo crunching numbers to see what you know whether it even made sense for you to do this?

Unknown Speaker [19:51] I did. In the beginning, I found every type of sauce that I could find. I found where they were; I did my best. Some companies have some public numbers, and you can find out how much they move. How much product they sell on a month to month basis. I was watching the show Hot Ones on YouTube- I've seen every single episode of it. They are in partnership with a company called Heatonist, which is a hot sauce shop in New York. And I called them. I was emailing them. I was trying to figure out how new craft sauces came in. And that's a whole nother side of the coin is the craft hot sauce side of the market because Tabasco is teetering on just what you would think of as a store of hot sauce and craft sauce. Because if you look at Tabasco's process, they are a craft sauce. They age all of their sauces in whiskey barrels. There is a very distinct process to how you make that, it's not just vinegar, salt, and peppers, like a lot of sauces. And so, I definitely overanalyze things, trying to figure out how to break into this market if this market was even able to be broken into. There are some other companies in Northwest Arkansas who make salsa and there's another company that makes spicy jam. And so, I think that's important. I think, for me, it was definitely important to crunch the numbers. But it's definitely also important to not focus on that too much kind of got to live your dream, you really got to like we were just saying you got to put yourself out there, you got to give it a try, because who knows what you might accomplish?

Randy Wilburn [21:16] I mean, you have no idea. And so just for some number's sake, and I'm sure you'll appreciate this. In 2018. on the Hot Sauce market size was about $4.1 billion. They estimate that that's going to grow by more than 20% by 2024, to about 5.5 billion. So, you know, and that's billion with a B, not millions. I mean, it's a big market, and if nothing else those numbers are astounding, but there's room for what Ezekiel's doing. There's room for those that have a creative eye towards creating something that people would like to use. And certainly, you have found your niche with Kindle Spices, and I applaud you for taking those steps and moving out and trying it, you know. So that is really really awesome. So, tell us where can people that are listening to this podcast find Kindle spices?

Ezekiel Kindle [22:12] So right now, we are in all 12 of the Northwest Arkansas Harps Stores, and we are at Ozark Natural Foods, Harps and those natural foods currently carry our Ghost Pepper and our Short Fuse. We are working on getting some more in, and we'll see how the market goes. Obviously, things right now have been a little up in the air so we'll see how it goes in the future. But all of our sauces are available on our website kindlespices.com and if you're local to Fayetteville we'll even throw in some free shipping for you there

Randy Wilburn [22:45] I love that. Yeah, that's great. People need to get out and kind of support what Ezekiel is doing with Kindle Spices, and you know anybody for that matter. My buddy, who we've had on this podcast, Jordan Wright from Wright's Barbecue, finally got his barbecue sauce out and available and that's a really good sauce and I'm all about the sauce. So, I think a good sauce mix goes a long way, right? And so, I'm certainly want to encourage people to get out and support you guys. I wanted to just kind of tie that in because you mentioned just for those that are local here in Northwest Arkansas. What would you want to tell somebody about Northwest Arkansas that's thinking about moving here? What makes this area so special?

Ezekiel Kindle [23:25] Oh, man, there's so many things. It's so difficult. No, just one.

Randy Wilburn [23:29] Give me one thing that really when your friends are calling you and saying hey, man, I'm thinking about moving to NWA. I had a conversation with Walmart or an interview with Tyson or maybe huntsmen* recruiting me, what would you tell them what would be the one or two things you say to them about NWA?

Unknown Speaker [23:46] I think it would definitely have to be that this place has the ability to provide anything you want to you. If you want hiking, there are so many trails within just a couple of hour's drive if you want to go that far. You can see some of the most amazing views outside of a huge mountain track that you would have to take. We have tons of craft beer. We have tons of startups. We have companies like Wright's Barbecue, or like Con Quesos that Omar has started. We have all of these companies that seem to work together. It's almost as if we're living in a utopian bubble in Northwest Arkansas. And you know, if you want to be near the city, I think the city is just big enough. It's just big enough that you could get irritated in the traffic so if you wanted to feel like you were in a big city. But you could also live far enough out of it that you don't have to deal with that. And that's part of the thing that's just keeping me here is I would say I am more than content because I'm so happy being here. I don't have to go somewhere else for a vacation. I do. I sometimes do, but I don't have to and that's the most magical thing about this for me.

Randy Wilburn [25:01] Yeah, I love that. You're absolutely right. I mean, you mentioned a lot of the things that we've talked about on this podcast, hiking, craft beer barbecue, all my favorite things. The startup nation that we have here, and I like that phrase, that utopian bubble, I sometimes feel like that. And again, that's one of the reasons why I created this podcast Ezekiel was that I really wanted to give people an insight into this area that maybe they didn't have before. And, you know, that's been the goal. So whether you're thinking about relocating to Northwest Arkansas, because you're taking a job with the big three or you just want to relocate here for a different pace of life, or you already live here and trying to discover new things to do there's always something new happening in Northwest Arkansas. You don't have to look any further than obviously you can go to the I am Northwest arkansas.com website. But there's so much out there everybody's got something going on and I think the thing about it there's not a huge competition like it is in some other big cities. Like I grew up right outside of New York City, which is, I mean, competitions at a whole nother level in the city. Competition is at a whole nother level in the northeast in general. When I lived out in California, the same thing. I lived in the Bay Area, Silicon Valley, competitions off the charts. It's not that competition doesn't exist here but it's more open to a variety of thoughts and ideas and situations. So, I really want to encourage people to take a closer look if they are thinking about moving here. It's a good place to come. I don't care what your background is. You could find a home here easily in Northwest Arkansas. Would you agree with that?

Ezekiel Kindle [26:33] Most definitely. And to echo the non-competition of things that have been, you know, getting my sauce into stores and sharing it with a whole lot of people; that has been awesome. But the thing that has been just extraordinary for us is the local collaborations that we've been able to do. We've made six different spicy ciders with black Apple crossing. You talked about Jeremy from Wood Stone earlier. We've now got a Wood Stone Sicilian Pizza hot sauce that you can buy on our site or at Wood Stone whenever they get open back up. And you might be able to get them at the new ONF* building sometime soon. And we're just constantly working with people. One of the spicy ciders was actually a collaboration with Wright's barbecue, who you mentioned earlier and us, they grilled the pineapples, we provided the Carolina Reapers and they made a spicy grilled pineapple cider. And honestly, if anybody were to go look at your list of podcasts on this podcast, they would find that I've worked with or trying to work with about 12 of the people. It's almost as if I'm using you as a template for who I should send an email.

Randy Wilburn [27:39] That's awesome. I love that, Yeah. And at the time of this recording, we have almost 70 episodes in the hopper there at iamnorthwestarkansas.com so, there's plenty to choose from. But I'm honored that you're using my list of people to go after and create collaboration, but that's what it's all about, though, right? I mean, that's what you do. So, I mean, no man or woman is an island, I say that all the time and I mean it. And we're all out here trying to help each other. You're helping me by coming on this podcast. Hopefully, I'm helping you by giving you some exposure to some people that didn't know who Kindle Spices was, or didn't know that we had our version of Tabasco right here in Northwest Arkansas. So, I think that's perfect. So, well, listen, man, I don't want to put you on the spot because I know it's hard to pick favorites but what's your go-to place to eat around here? If somebody was saying that I'm in Northwest Arkansas for two or three days, I want to make sure I eat good. You've listed the hiking you've listed some other things to do. We're going to check out Black Apple for some cider, but I want to eat and I want to eat some really good food, what would be your one top two recommendations. And I don't want to get you in trouble with any restaurant owners that you know because I know how that is. But it's just the idea that you can only pick two. What are they?

Ezekiel Kindle [28:52] So, I think number one would be Yeyo's, fantastic tacos. I can't speak highly enough of their food. It's unbelievable, and Chef Raphael is just a fantastic human being. Even without the food, it's worth it just to go there to talk to him, which I have done. And the other one, which I think for a lot of my friends, it's probably purely because it's unique. But for me, it's because it's just delicious would be Hammontree's. I have not been to another place that has a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant, and I doubt that if there are any others in America that they are nearly as good as Hammontree's.

Randy Wilburn [29:29] Yeah, I'm not a huge grilled cheese person, but I do like grilled cheese from time to time, and they know what they're doing. I remember it's great to be there very soon after I moved here and I was like, oh my gosh, this is great. So back in the day when my office used to be right around the corner from them by Wilson Park, I used to head over to Hammontree's quite a bit, so I kind of missed that place, though. But I'm glad you mentioned that that is a good spot. So those are two really good places, Yeyo's. And actually, I reached out Yeyo's started following us on Instagram recently and I connected with them and they're going to be on the podcast and so I can't wait to talk about that because Jeff Raphael has a farm. They do a lot of stuff in the community and they've been around here for a while. So, I definitely want to share it. And you're absolutely right, their Mexican food is to die for. Unbelievable. It's unbelievable as right. Well, man, this has really been a pleasure, Ezekiel, I'm going to make sure I put all of the contact information that we have for you. If people wanted to just reach out to you and pick your brain or ask you a question-- we already said that if they want to order this hot sauce, they can go to kindlespices.com. If they don't want to walk into an ONF or if they don't want to walk into a Harps, they can easily get your hot sauce that way right on the website. I definitely want to encourage you if you haven't already heard Ozark Natural Foods is about to move into a new building at the corner of Lafayette and North college. When that opens, I encourage you to go check it out. Do a lot of things and buy some Kindle spices Hot Sauce while you're there, and I think you'll you will certainly benefit from that. And yeah, that would be that. So, we really, really appreciate you being on the podcast. So, like I said, if you have another method of connection that you'd like to share with our audience, please let us know.

Ezekiel Kindle [31:16] Yeah, definitely, we have a communication page on our website that you can email me through. But we are also Kindle Spices on Facebook and on Instagram, and I would love to talk. If you got questions about hot sauce, go ahead and ask me. If you got questions about growing peppers, hit me up. If you've got questions about starting a company and you need contacts, or you need to try to figure out who to talk to, just shoot me a message if I can help, I would love to.

Randy Wilburn [31:39] Yeah, absolutely, iron sharpens iron. I really appreciate you saying that and folks, take him at his word and reach out to them and we'll make sure that all of Ezekiel's contact information is there in the show notes for you at iamnorthwestarkansas.com for this particular episode. So, well, we really appreciate you, man. Thank you so much. Just shout out to you and your wife and everybody else that has had a hand in putting Kindle Spices together, another successful entrepreneurial story here in Northwest Arkansas, and we just appreciate you taking some time out of your day to come on the show.

Ezekiel Kindle [32:11] Oh, I appreciate you. This has been fantastic. I'd love to talk about sauce more than I love to talk about pretty much anything in the world. So, this was a great lunch break for me. This was fantastic. Thank you so much.

Randy Wilburn [32:23] Awesome. Awesome. Well, folks, there you have it, Ezekiel Kindle from Kindle Spices. You can check them out at kindlespices.com. That's all I have for you this week. Again, we're moving into the summer months here in Northwest Arkansas. So much is happening, and a lot of us are still hunkering down at home. So, I want to encourage you always to stay safe. Stay responsibly social distant, wear those masks when you can if we're still in a mask phase if you will. I don't know when you're going to listen to this. You can listen to this two years from now but the bottom line just continues to go out there and do you and make things happen. If you ever have any questions about Northwest Arkansas that we can help you out with, you can always reach me directly at Randy @iamnorthwestarkansas.com. I just wanted to encourage you guys to check out some of our sponsors. One of our sponsors is the Exclusive Real Estate Group and Chris Dinwiddie, there at the Exclusive is an outstanding real estate agent here in Northwest Arkansas. Chris knows what he's doing. They not only do high-end properties, but they do just about anything within reason. He works with a number of developers in the area. He's running that whole Mission Heights Program over there off Mission Avenue, right before you hit to cross over there on the east side of Fayetteville. And Chris is just an outstanding real estate agent. We've had him on the podcast so I would really encourage you to reach out to the Exclusive Real Estate Group whenever you get a chance if you ever want to check them out. If you need real estate help or if you just have a question, and their website is theexclusiverealty.com and their information will be in our show notes as well. That's all we have for this week. Again, you can find us wherever great podcasts can be found. We really appreciate you checking in with I am Northwest Arkansas. Keep the reviews coming. Let us know what you think. And if there's somebody that you want to hear on this podcast in the future, just hit me up on email or just reach out to us via our website and you never know you might hear them next. So that's it for this week. I am your host Randy Wilburn and I will see you next week. Peace.

IANWA Open [34:23] We hope you enjoyed this episode of I am Northwest Arkansas. Check us out each and every week available anywhere that great podcasts can be found. For show notes or more information on becoming a guest visit, iamnorthwestarkansas.com. We'll see you next week on I am Northwest Arkansas.