Kevin Mobley: The Profound Artistry of the Side Hustle (#3)

Chuck Allen: 00:00:10

This podcast is about the choices people make when they want to change something about their life. Maybe to make it more meaningful or more satisfying. Maybe more money, maybe just cooler. Hey, friends.

ange. The setting was January: 2017

That was the night that something happened that will stick with me for a very long time. That was the night that I first experienced the epic goodness of Annabelle's Mac and cheese. My buddy Tom McDermott was there with me.

He can attest that this was special. So the chef, the owner of Cracklin Bees, was on top of the food world at that time. Brian Fuhrman.

He had just been nominated for a James Beard semifinalist award and actually was nominated again this year. Southern Living had named him top 50 barbecue joints in Georgia. And food and wine had said he's the best barbecue in Georgia the year before.

And Bon Appetit did a big article on him. Martha Stewart stopped by to visit this little place, and there we were. We experienced it. Here's the thing, though.

This isn't a story about Brian Furman, because even though it was his place, he's not the one who made the incredible Mac and cheese. That was a gentleman named Kevin Mobley. See, Kevin's always got something else going on.

He is the CEO by day of the Ian Thomas Group, which is a cyber security firm, a very successful company. And yet, on the side, he's got a couple of other things going on that make him a serial entrepreneur and also a societal problem solving.

You're about to see why.

Kevin Mobley: 00:02:02

Kevin Mobley. I am from South Boston, Virginia, son of Sandra Mobley and Gatorary Mobley.

Chuck Allen: 00:02:10

This guy's voice is over the top, isn't it? But then again, so is everything else about Kevin Mobley.

ssful technology firm back in: 2007

He regularly travels the world to the most exotic places that you can imagine, making new friends with everyone along the way, laptop in tow, continuing to run his business. These aren't vacations. He's just found a way to live his life in interesting places. You want to know the best barber in Thailand? Ask Kevin.

sk Kevin the best dive bar at: 03:00

I'm calling this episode the profound artistry of the side hustle. Side Hustle is basically that thing you do besides your day job to either earn a little extra money or just to pursue some interest, some passion.

And that's what Kevin has done. He's got two active side hustles right now. The first one is called Annabelle's Mac and cheese.

It's based on a recipe that he grew up making with his grandmother. She died when he was eleven, but he has spent 15 years attempting to recreate what that perfect recipe tasted like.

And I can tell you, I am here to witness that he got it just right. Brian Furman, in his award winning restaurant, allowed Kevin to come in there and serve it to 50 of his closest friends as he debuted that product.

You know, it's gotta be good. He's also got another side hustle.

He was listening to Andrew Cuomo, the New York governor, talking about, why is it that the US doesn't have PPE made here? Why can't we make more?

So Kevin, recognizing that his hometown of south Boston, Virginia, used to be a famous textile town, decided he put some people back to work and kicked off a new company making masks. But not just any masks. In true, over the top Kevin style, he designed masks that were meeting the m 95 standard.

That is, they filter out 95% of pathogens in the air. And he is running with that business right now. That's what we're talking about today on this episode of Cool Change.

So, Kevin, you told me that a couple weeks every year you would go out to Napa because you love wine and you want to learn more about making wine.

And that's where you first decided that you need to take a close look at your life in corporate America and make some decisions about perhaps starting your own company.

Kevin Mobley: 00:04:53

How did that go without helping Adam Lee at Suduri and Jeff Pizzoni over at Pizzoni. And Adam and I had left the winery to go and look at some grapes. So we picked some samples, and then we went to red to have lunch.

And we're sitting out there, we're having this amazing lunch, and the sky is perfect, and the wines are perfect, and the food is perfect. And we're having, like, this three hour great conversation about something.

And I look at Adam and I realize that, unlike me, this is his job, and he's at the busiest time in his life. In my world, this would be like we're in a. We got a customer going live with a two $300 million project. This is crunch time.

There's not going to be any wine and great lunches and beautiful sky. It's in a basement somewhere, grinding in front of a laptop, dealing with conference calls 24 hours a day.

I looked at him and looked at me, and I said, I'm taking vacation to be here. I was like, that was one of the pieces that made me think long and hard about my life.

And so then when I run into this issue at work and I knew that it was time to make a change, I left, went to Argentina for three weeks, went down for a conference, but stayed down and hung out, ate great food, great, drank great wine, and came back and quit, you know, and started the company. Didn't have my first customer yet, but within six months, we had two major customers, and we did well.

Chuck Allen: 00:06:19

Good decision.

Kevin Mobley: 00:06:20

Great decision. Best decision I ever made.

Chuck Allen: 00:06:26

So, I don't know if you've read the four hour workweek or not by Tim Ferriss, but I remember reading that a number of years back, and one of the key principles in there was to find ways to disconnect yourself from having to show up at a certain location all the time in your career.

And God knows that in the environment that we're in right now, with the quarantine and Covid happening globally, more than ever, we've got people who have been. Have been dislocated from their places of work. Some people like that. Some people don't. Some people are able to, some people aren't.

But more people than ever are able to work from wherever they need to work from. And you, in particular, have been able to turn this into an art form in your travel.

Kevin Mobley: 00:07:09

I mean, that you just defined: 2017

Vietnam, Bali, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Maldives, all over Malaysia. But it was exactly that. It was like, yes, every day was a vacation, in a sense, but at the same time, every day was work.

Chuck Allen: 00:07:34

That sounds completely amazing.

Kevin Mobley: 00:07:36

all from. From ski slopes. So: 2017

You know, I was taking conference calls.

I remember my favorite office ever was in the Maldives, sitting at Sunivayani in this absolutely stunning villa and sitting there, you know, having a meeting.

Chuck Allen: 00:08:05

So how are you approaching business differently now during quarantine, during pandemic, than you did when things were status quo or when things were relatively calm?

Kevin Mobley: 00:08:17

Usually when things are pretty status quo, you have to look for those opportunities to grow. And you sometimes get caught up in little things.

But when there's huge upheaval like there is now, my God, there's so much opportunity to learn, there's so much opportunity to grow. And for me, right now is when it all comes together. It's like. It's when it's fun.

Because I'm going to expand my mind in how I look at supply chain, how I look at international commerce, how I look at manufacturing, how I look at workforce development. You know, there's a million ways in which I'm looking at my own growth as well as it builds on things from my past.

And I had a long conversation this week with Indira Kolocha, who I went to college with. And we. We started a group called Student Multicultural Core Committee, and our goal was to train leaders for the 21st century.

And we were reflecting on all the things that we were talking about then that we're now seeing coming to fruition with the Black Lives Matter movement.

And so now is when I get a chance to really expand, because I can actually put into play things that have been on my mind, things that I've wanted to do in my community, putting people back to work. I'm a firm believer that it's the economics that drive the opportunity.

My favorite book is a book called Black Fortunes, and it's about the first original black millionaires in the country, the first six. And they're coming out of slavery. And these folks were making millions of dollars in the mid 18 hundreds.

So that expansion of mine, there is no place where it doesn't. Whether it's clothing I look at, whether it's the friendships I make, whether it's a relationships, anything, it's all about for me.

How can I expand that mind?

Chuck Allen: 00:10:02

All right, so you mentioned putting people back to work, and I'd like to use that as an entree to discuss how it was that you decided to build a company that would build masks in your hometown of South Boston, Virginia. How did that whole thing come about?

Kevin Mobley: 00:10:18

Listening to the governor out of New York screaming in the tv every day about why. Why we don't make these in America. I was screaming back at the tv, you know, why does my hometown make these? Because that's. That's.

The textile industry was a big part of what South Boston, Virginia, was known for. And picked up the phone, call the family and said, hey, let's put some people to work. And that's what we did. Wow.

You know, we're putting folks that have commercial sewing experience back to work.

Chuck Allen: 00:10:40

Yeah.

Kevin Mobley: 00:10:41

And it's nothing for me a greater joy than doing payroll on Friday, because that means these folks are making a difference in their life. I had one of our stores, you know, she went out to Lowe's and bought a whole pallet of flooring because she's upgrading the flooring in our house.

And there's literally no greater joy than making that payroll.

Chuck Allen: 00:11:02

You know what I mean? How do you do that? For every thousand people trying to make a point, there's one trying to make a difference.

So few people, upon hearing what the governor was talking about, for example, picked up the phone and called some family members or friends or whatever and started a company. Now, there were lots of people who began helping out, sewing this, making that, gathering together, volunteering, whatever. And that's.

That's fantastic. You took it a step further, and you actually created a business out of this. How do you get started? Where do you even begin?

Kevin Mobley: 00:11:36

You know, it literally started with sourcing any material we get our hands on. You know, our first material was stuff that we could buy at a hardware store. You know, it wasn't. It wasn't.

It wasn't even things that you would consider normal material, you know, in the age of Google, I mean, there's not a problem you can't find and solve. You know, if you. If you. If you search hard enough, you know, work from home. I have people working from their house, which is sounds, you know.

Okay, so what's the big deal with there? Well, number one, safety, right? I don't want to put people in the building right now. We're having a hard time trying to figure out how to.

n't understand Covid in March: 2020

But that's what I do in the tech company, right.

hen I started tech company in: 2007

So we had an 830 phone call every morning that got everybody synced up, and we work from there. So take those same work from home. Skills now apply to the manufacturing space. When I was at Georgia Tech, knowledge management was big.

It was a couple courses I took off the offer. My system engineering program and knowledge management back in 19, 96, 95 was all talking about this new knowledge economy.

And how that was going to, what that was going to look like, you know, being able to do a conference call from the ski slope, that was kind of the. Kind of the image of the knowledge. Knowledge worker.

Well, fast forward: 2020

One of my favorite images is walking in, and there's a whole family together sewing, where the grandmother, the mother, the two adult age daughters are, all four of them sewing together as a team.

Their children are there playing on their iPads and what have you, and so they've taken care of their daycare needs, and they're working as a unit and they're cranking.

Chuck Allen: 00:13:56

So why your mask? Why buy your mask instead of any of the other ones? There's many, many out there right now.

Kevin Mobley: 00:14:03

Two things that are really important. Number one, how it protects you, the wearer, not just the general public.

Most people talk about masks as protection, but that's the fact that it holds the. Whatever virus you have into yourself and so you're not spreading it. What happens when you yourself needs protection?

Most of these masks are not protecting anybody. Not you, the wearer. Our mask filters 95% of the pathogens that are floating in the air. So therefore, you personally are getting protected.

Now, there are masks out there that will offer that protection. Those masks are difficult to wear, difficult people to breathe through. Which goes to the second point. Our mask is breathable. It's lightweight.

People can wear for hours on end.

I know this because when I make that Mac and cheese and I'm in a hot kitchen for seven, 8 hours at a time, I can actually wear that mask and not pass out. That's compliance, in my opinion, will be the difference between us bending the curve and not because most people are just.

I mean, people hate wearing masks. Let's be honest. I don't like wearing masks. Nobody I know can't wait to put a mask on. Culturally, it's not what we do, and it's not comfortable.

But if you've got to wear one, and if you're an employer, you've got to think about how do I put people back to work? How do I get folks, you know, whether I'm in a fast food situation, I'm in a office building, I'm working. I got folks putting in the call center.

Whatever the story is, I've got to get these people back to work. And I got to get them back to work and be productive, just like they were pre Covid.

In order to do that, they've got to wear something on their face that protects them and protects everybody around them. And they do it in a way which they maintains a 90% to 95% compliance. Our mask allows you to do that.

Chuck Allen: 00:15:36

Wow, good for you. So that's your mask business. Tell us a little bit about how you got started in your other side hustle, the Annabelle's Mac and cheese business.

Well, first of all, let me ask kind of an obvious question. You're doing very successfully in your cybersecurity company, your full time job, you got this mask business going. Why all the side hustles?

I mean, what is it about, for example, Mac and cheese that makes it actually worthwhile and worth your time?

Kevin Mobley: 00:16:08

We've done some projects for some really big, well known, I mean, top five, top ten companies, and we've saved them literally tens of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars.

You barely get a thank you, and I can give somebody a $20 pan of Mac and cheese, and they're grinning from year to year, and they're just damn near doing backflips.

In fact, giving, giving out samples at the farmers market is my favorite thing in the world to do because the reaction is just, it's infectious as I don't know what.

Chuck Allen: 00:16:48

You know, you're probably wired a little differently than a lot of people think. Back to your younger days. You're back in south Boston, Virginia.

Tell us about a moment perhaps from your younger days, from your childhood, that put you on a different track than you would have been otherwise. Can you think of anything?

Kevin Mobley: 00:17:09

The first one was I was practicing shot putting, discus behind the school next door to me was elementary school that I went to, and I was now in high school, but I was practicing for the track team, and Mister Richardson walked up to me and said, hey, my wife tells me you're not doing anything in school or not doing anything in her class. And I was in her 9th grade math class. I had failed in 9th grade the first time around, so I had been in Richmond, Virginia, had not gone to class.

I wasn't, didn't fail because I couldn't do the work, just didn't go to class.

So now I'm here back in south Boston, going to school, and he comes up and he explains to me that the reason I'm doing all this is because I'm trying to be accepted. And it was the first person to ever really explain to me the behavior that was leading to my downfall. And so I stopped and I listened.

And from there, Mister Richardson became my first serious mentor that I would have. And I've got. I've had literally hundreds of mentors since that time.

Chuck Allen: 00:18:03

Yeah, but what was different about him? How was it that he got your attention when I'm sure lots of other people tried to get your attention, failed.

What was it that he did that was different?

Kevin Mobley: 00:18:13

Explaining to me why I was doing such destructive behavior. You know, a lot of times in life we're doing something where we know it's not good for us, but we keep plowing through it.

He was the first person to ever sit down and say, this is why you're doing this. And it made sense. It wasn't a, hey, you're being a bad person.

That had been the story that most people had been applying to me at that point in my life. Hey, you're being destructive. You're doing this, you're doing that.

He actually gave me a clear explanation as to why I was doing what I was doing, and I listened and I. And I connected. Yeah, I was doing this because I was trying to be accepted.

You know, I was a little fat kid that oftentimes was laughed at that oftentimes, you know, the kid who didn't have a home, because, in effect, all my mother's friends were, came from two parent households. I didn't fit in there. All the kids who didn't have two parents, I didn't fit in there.

I could default into that second community because, you know, that's a community that tends to be run by lots of folks that have challenges. So you can fit over in that community, but I'm not really a part of that community still, mainly because of my family and where they come from.

So I am trying to fit in. I'm trying to fit in in two worlds. I don't fit in any one of them. And so I was doing a lot of destructive behavior as a result of that.

So that's when over the course of that year, I stopped everything. Stopped drinking, stopped any. You know, I've been smoking marijuana, but I had, funny enough, stopped right before I met him.

But it just sort of solidified the fact that, and I haven't smoked any marijuana since I was 15. So that was the end of that. I went from a kid who had.

Who was doing things that were going to lead him into being dead or jail, probably about 18 or 19, to being captain of my wrestling team, head of my ROTC program, to being the youngest manager ever at King's dominion to then graduating from high school when everyone assumed I was never going to graduate.

Chuck Allen: 00:20:11

King's dominion. God, I love that place. Growing up, I mean, we go like two or three times a year. It's basically like going to Six Flags. Fantastic roller coasters.

I mean, we spend the entire day, just dawn till dusk. And you were a manager there? The youngest ever. Congratulations. All right, let's switch gears here a little bit and talk about your family.

I've heard several times you mentioned your mother and your family, your roots, as being a real influencer in how you think and how you live your life. Talk to us a little bit about the influence that your early days had.

Kevin Mobley: 00:20:52

You know, again, like I said, my mother made that heroic change in the sixties that, I know it may seem not a big deal today because divorce is such a.

We have a 55% divorce rate in this country, but it was a big deal for her as a woman, because you gotta realize that at that generation, income flowed from the man to the woman, right? And now here she is. And she was fully expected. She was married to a minister. She was fully expected to take on this mantle in the community.

And she gave all that up, you know, and that meant that she was working secretarial jobs. That meant that she was not earning the income to put her in a position that she was expected to be in. But she never gave up.

So she spent a lot of time, you know, she was president of everything, every organization you can imagine. She was laughing the other day. I was like, you know, there was not an organization she didn't join where she didn't rise to the top.

You know, she went on the Toastmasters and had to be a DST, which is there highest level in their organization. Then she, in her fifties, went and got her MBA and didn't decide to go on and get her PhD. You know, she just never stopped going.

Chuck Allen: 00:22:00

Well, she does sound like an amazing lady, but how did she. How did she end up affecting you or influencing your life, really?

Kevin Mobley: 00:22:07

So, in my younger days, I spent a lot of time trying to think about the mistakes she made as I got older. And now I think a lot about the fact that there were two sides of her.

There was a side of her that when she had a clear focus and goal, she achieved it every single time. And then there was a side of her that fantasized a lot and that often didn't have any real steps. That was just a lot of conversation.

And so I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I do in life that's purely fantasy, and what I do in life that truly has steps that's going to lead to an outcome. And I've tried to minimize, trying to minimize the fantasy side.

Not that daydreaming is a bad thing, but if it's something that I'm serious I want to achieve, then I've got to translate that into, okay, here's a set of steps I'm going to take to get there.

Chuck Allen: 00:22:56

Man. You're speaking my language. Intentional design, intentional living. I'm all about it. So tell us about another cool change. Some other big pivot.

Something that happened in your life that you can point to as being instrumental in how you think about your life. Side hustles, work, all of it.

Kevin Mobley: 00:23:20

s probably getting married in: 1996

I remember I had rented this rental car when I was pursuing Stacy, talking about always over the top. And I'd rented a car that was way beyond my pay grade, to say the least. So I got in a lot of trouble for it.

So I was freaking out about it, and Stacy looked at me and she said, so, do you think that this company is the source of your supply, or is God the source of your supply? And I looked at her and I was like, are you mine? This company pays my bills. Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Well, based on the things that I have had to deal with, I've started to really understand not only God, but also include my ancestors as part of that and that shift. You have no idea how big a deal that shift is mentally.

Chuck Allen: 00:24:21

You mean the idea that these companies, these institutions, these bosses, the salary, this was no longer or was never going to be the source of your supply, as you put it. Well, Kevin, you've been so fantastic to spend time with us today. I've got one more question for you before you leave. And that is, how do you know?

What advice can you give us to know when it's time to make a pivot?

To step outside the mainstream or step away from the life that we're living and toward the life that we want, or to uncover a decision or a choice or something along the way that would help us take a step or get involved in some sort of a side hustle? When do you know?

Kevin Mobley: 00:24:59

I guess first question has to suffer. Are you happy and fulfilled? I mean, if everything in your life is perfect, then maybe you don't need to make a cool change.

I think that most of us know that something's not right. I think we know that.

At least in my own case, I think the issue is that trying to change when you are, when staying the same seems safer, you know, and I did it. I told you. But once you decide to make that change, just getting excited about it, you know, getting excited about what?

What is this going to reveal to me? You know, this is going to bring something that's that. Yes, it's going to work. It's going to be hard.

There's going to be a grind, and that's associated with it. But I enjoy the grind. You know, I know that I was explaining somebody that o seven.

Now, whenever there's been like, major upheaval is my best time, because you can't be comfortable. You know, you got it. You got to make it happen. And so now is when you get to turn it on.

I get bored as hell when things are smooth and the waters are clear and, you know, you're just sitting out there and just drifting along. That's my worst days.

Chuck Allen: 00:26:09

Kevin, thank you so much. You are really, truly one of the coolest people that I have met, and I love you, and I appreciate you being here with us today.

I want to make sure that our guests know how to get a hold of you and how to reach out if they need to order some masks.

The website that you have is itg dash, med.com, itgmed.com, and then for the Mac and cheese company, annabellesmac.com, annabellsmac.com will have that on the podcast page and on the website as well. So thanks again for being here. We certainly appreciate it. Well, folks, I want to thank you for joining us today.

I'm reminded that not everyone is going to be able to make a cool change right off the bat just because they heard a podcast. Not everyone can travel, and not everyone can disconnect from what they're doing today.

The point of this podcast of cool change is for you to begin to notice opportunities and to begin to be intentional about designing the next chapter so that you can take your next coolest step.

You know, I'm reminded of a couple of friends of mine who several years ago, they took a year and they had saved up for it, and they rented an RV and they toured North America. They called it their radical sabbatical. And when I hear them talk about that, what I hear in their voice is, those were the greatest times.

And then when we talk about what does their next chapter look like? They say it looks just like that. So what is that for you? And are you being intentional about it?

Are you beginning to design for yourself what that chapter could be for you as you think about what is your next coolest move? So for next week's show, check this out. You're not going to want to miss it.

We're going to speak with a couple from the back of their catamaran in Annapolis, Maryland.

They typically live in the US Virgin Islands and they give charters through the US and the British Virgin islands simply because they decided to try to running their small business from a boat. So they sold their house and they bought that boat and they made a leap and they're not looking back.

You're gonna love these folks, Steve and Bonnie Carroll, and they are captains of paradigm shift. It's gonna be a fantastic conversation.

I look forward to seeing you then check back with us and if you wouldn't mind, please give us a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. And we'll see you next week as we talk to Steve and Bonnie, who have made their own cool change.