Extreme Ownership in Action: JR Rodriguez’s Path from Maintenance to Plant Management | Manufacturing Series

Anthony Codispoti : Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispoti and today’s guest is JR Rodriguez, the Assistant Plant Manager at HB Specialty Foods. This company is committed to delivering superior food solutions for the future. Offering services across food processing and supply chain management.

Their facilities have earned top safety ratings and they continue to grow through innovation and a focus on high quality standards. Jose has an extensive background in food production, manufacturing, and maintenance. He graduated magna cum laude with an associate of applied science from the College of Western Idaho, specializing in welding and metal fabrication. Before joining HB specialty foods in 2022, he held leadership roles at Fresca Mexican Foods and gained hands-on experience in fabrication and maintenance. Today he uses this expertise to maintain high production standards and drive efficiency at HB. He’s also dedicated to improving processes and delivering quality results. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by implementing one of our innovative programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, the Assistant Plant Manager HB specialty foods, JR Rodriguez. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Thank you, sir. So JR, you earned a degree in welding and metal fabrication. And then, as I understand it, you applied those skills at Mike’s Metal Fab and United Metals Recycling for a few years. I’m curious, what first drew you into the field of welding?

JR Rodriguez : So actually, back in high school, I did some welding shop classes. They really kind of appealed to me. I find welding in general to be very calming for me. Just being under a hood, kind of staring into a puddle doing some things. I also, as we spoke about a little bit before, my dad was a very hard working guy. So I was very driven to kind of do something with my hands and be able to create something from nothing.

Anthony Codispoti : I’m curious about, say more about the sort of the how you find welding to be soothing. Is it sort of just this total focus, like kind of shutting out the rest of the world? And like, I’m right here.

JR Rodriguez : Yeah, it definitely, for me, is able to kind of get me to hyper focus on the moment, kind of what I’m doing and kind of drown everything out. And it’s almost peaceful for me.

Anthony Codispoti : Yeah, that’s interesting. I interviewed somebody a few weeks back that works in the asphalt industry. And he explained sort of the, not the process that they do on the road with laying the asphalt, but what they do inside of the factory as something very similar. He finds himself and a lot of his co workers find themselves in this zone of just, like, complete and total focus on what they’re doing. And they’re working so hard. But at the end of 8, 10, 12 hour shift, they feel amazing. Is it kind of similar for you?

JR Rodriguez : Very similar. That’s kind of why I was drawn to the maintenance side of things is because I have kind of just working with equipment is kind of the same hyper focus, trying to figure something out.

Anthony Codispoti : And I was going to ask, you know, how did that transition from welding to food manufacturing first come about?

JR Rodriguez : So I was at a company doing some general maintenance on heavy equipment and was not necessarily in a field that I enjoyed very much. It just kind of started looking.

This position kind of came open. So I decided to apply and I was very intrigued by it because actually growing up, my dad worked at the Forty of Macree and Fresco, Mexico, to make the teeth. So I kind of had a background in tortillas and understood the process, understood some of the equipment and thought, you know, I could probably do a pretty good job here. So I applied and did maintenance there for quite a while before we kind of transitioned into other need.

Anthony Codispoti : And how did the opportunity specifically at HB Specialty Foods happen?

JR Rodriguez : So I happened to meet a really good gentleman by the name of David Klyce at Fresco, who for all intensive purposes is one of my mentors. The guy is amazing. I’ve kind of learned a lot from him. He started not long after I did at Fresco and we kind of, you know, grew a pretty good bond. He was able to kind of see something in me to help me transition into some of the leadership stuff at Fresco. And then he decided to leave for other opportunities and ended up here, which was a company he had worked at previously. You know, long story short, he decided to go elsewhere and move out of state and basically recruited me out of Fresco over here and told me on the company and the people and kind of the culture here.

Anthony Codispoti : And what had you been doing specifically at Fresco before you made the move?

JR Rodriguez : So, you know, at the end of my kind of tenure there, I was basically, the title was plant manager, but I was essentially a production manager for kind of day shift operations, running everything on the production side of things, you know, looking at day to day operations, hiring, firing kind of all the stuff that leaders do day to day, making sure that things are optimized, making sure that, you know, numbers are good and that people are happy.

Anthony Codispoti : And what was it about HB that you were sort of hooked on?

JR Rodriguez : You know, the culture here is very, it’s very family oriented. The key difference for me between kind of what I was doing, what I am doing is I’m able to focus more on my family, even though I’m in a similar position here where I do a lot of the day to day and deal with a lot of the operations, but at Fresco it was very, I was never kind of in the moment, even when I was at home, because I was always worried about work. And it takes a toll on you, you know, I was working a lot of hours, I was starting to see some health things from it and decided that it was time to make a change, because I wanted to be there, you know, I look back and I can say that I don’t really remember my kids being uber little, because I was working so much, so I kind of missed out on them being babies and some of those things. So I craved that, I wanted to be somewhere where I could, you know, focus on home as much as I focus on work, they’ll be able to feel like I’m a accomplished worker. And that’s essentially what what sold me on this was, you know, when we initially talked, he said, you know, it’s not going to be, you know, the 90 hundred hours a week that you’re working right now, you’re going to be able to kind of, you know, we got a good team in place. Everybody kind of knows what they what they need to do, everybody handles their position, and you guys are all just kind of trying to build towards something better. And you’ll be able to have that family time that you’re missing.

Anthony Codispoti : That’s really cool. Explain to us what, maybe first a little bit of the history of HB, and then what it is that you guys are doing there today.

JR Rodriguez : So they’ve been around since 1994. You know, we just celebrated our 30th anniversary last year. The original owner is still, you know, with the company, he developed one of the first coding systems for French fry. A lot of people don’t know that there are certain things that go on French fries when they’re mass produced to keep them crispy and not kind of going bad and some of those things. So he developed that back in the 90s.

Anthony Codispoti : Something that gets applied to the first fry.

JR Rodriguez : Yeah, like, like, like, just a clear coding that kind of sprays on French fry, like a batter. And then just kind of from that develop, you know, to where we are at today, you know, we’re a company now that that we still, you know, our big kind of driving force right now is still the potato industry. We still do a lot of coatings and things for fries. You know, if you’ve ever had a French fry, I’m sure you’ve probably had one of our coatings. Okay, we do, you know, panko bread for various companies to put on, you know, protein, such as fish and chicken and some of those things, you know, various batters for appetizers. We’re, we’re, we’re essentially an ingredient company for, for other final processing. But you know, a lot of our coatings go on a lot of the food that people eat.

Anthony Codispoti : So that’s what you guys are known for is, is coatings. Yeah, like the food coatings. And so you’re not the one that’s applying the coating to the potatoes or the French fries, you’re the one that’s selling the coating to the company that applies. Okay, they apply it to their foods. And so I don’t know if it’s trade secret, but like what is in a typical potato coating that helps to keep it fresh?

JR Rodriguez : You know, it’s various things, you know, there’s flowers and starches and things. I mean, it’s nothing too crazy, but can’t give away all of our secrets.

Anthony Codispoti : Fair enough. All right. I had to ask though, I had, right, absolutely, absolutely.

JR Rodriguez : So clearly, they’re, you know, I’m set you apart from them. What do you guys do that’s different and special?

JR Rodriguez : You know, we are extremely relationship driven. We really try and maintain good relationships with everyone we work with. We try and make sure that they are that we are adding value to what we are trying to sell it. I mean, we’re not just selling them a product, we are going from, you know, we’re bending over backwards to ensure that that they have what they need when they need it. Sometimes it creates a little stress on our end, but we do everything on our power to ensure that the customer is our main focus.

Anthony Codispoti : And I don’t want you to give me any customer names, but I’m curious to understand sort of the profile of your customer. Would it be like a McDonald’s or Burger King, like a fast food restaurant? Would it be like the bags of frozen french fry companies that, you know, buy in the freezer section?

JR Rodriguez : So kind of all of that under the sun. We kind of do a little bit of all. Okay.

Anthony Codispoti : And what are some examples of other types of coatings? You mentioned sort of the panko, we got the french fry coatings.

JR Rodriguez : Yeah, you know, we do some batters that go on, you know, proteins and things. Different kind of chicken batters that end up on certain, you know, fast food type chicken sandwiches and things.

Anthony Codispoti : You know, HP specialty foods emphasizes superior solutions for the future of food. Kind of curious from your operations perspective, what unique or innovative processes as the company spearheading to kind of stay ahead of those industry demands?

JR Rodriguez : You know, we’re constantly looking at innovation. We’re looking at new product lines, new things that are kind of coming down industry wide to ensure that we have whatever solution is needed for the customer coming up. You know, recently we’ve got some big projects going on at some of other other sites to kind of move our business a little bit in a direction that is more in line with what our customers are needing, as opposed to what we’re currently doing. But, you know, we’re constantly looking at what we can do to add value, like I said, to our customers.

Anthony Codispoti : Can you say more about the types of things that you’re moving towards that the customers are asking for?

JR Rodriguez : You know, just various, you know, we’re looking at things like, obviously, a lot of the foods that we are currently producing and batters that we’re currently producing are fried. We’ve moved away from, you know, we’ve tried to innovate and do some things so that people are able to air fry and do some of those things. There are, we’re looking at, you know, kind of the trends in removing gluten from some of our products, making sure that we’re able to stay up with some of the organic things that are going on, trying to make things a little bit healthier while kind of staying in our space.

Anthony Codispoti : That has to be difficult. I mean, if your recipes are formulated, you know, to have wheat and gluten based products in them, you know, that’s an important component. I don’t understand food science that well, but to be able to kind of like hold everything together and then to reformulate, you know, and take it like that really important component out, it’s got to take, I would guess, a lot of R &D.

JR Rodriguez : That does, it does. And we’ve got a really good R &D team here that is constantly, you know, tweaking and working on things to ensure that it still tastes good.

Anthony Codispoti : Yeah, that’s the most important part, right? Right. You can get somebody to buy something once, but if you want them coming back, you want that repeat business, it’s got to taste good the first time. Absolutely. Yeah. And so I’m curious if sort of the cross-operational experiences that you’ve had are coming in handy at HB, you know, kind of your background and welding, has, you know, some of the lessons from that been helpful and the things that you’re doing now there at HB?

JR Rodriguez : It definitely does. It definitely gives me a different perspective when kind of looking at the way we function operationally. I’m very driven by making sure that equipment is running efficiently and well. We’re constantly looking to make sure that we are not throwing money at something that isn’t worth, you know, kind of keeping running at some points. I think it helps just having that mechanical kind of background to look at things a little bit different. You know, I’ve worked with a lot of operations guys that are always kind of looking at the number and the final product count and not kind of realizing what it takes to kind of keep all those numbers whatever.

Anthony Codispoti : So is that also part of your job responsibility kind of looking at those numbers, you know, driving to the P &L?

JR Rodriguez : I try and keep up with, you know, all of our product throughputs, our efficiencies. You know, I’m always trying to look at things to ensure that I do carry a recently received a Six Sigma Greenbelt lead. And so I’m looking at, you know, continuous improvement constantly.

Anthony Codispoti : That’s impressive. Congratulations. And you mentioned working on or towards organic certification. Are you guys…

JR Rodriguez : We are certified. We’ve got a lot of products that are certified organic already.

Anthony Codispoti : And are you able to do those all under the same roof? I’m not sure how the rules work or do you need a separate production line for that?

JR Rodriguez : So for our gluten-free side of the business, that is totally separate production line, separate buildings to keep everything segregated, you know, on the certified organic stuff. We generally have some really deep claims that we do and make sure that nothing is cross-contaminated. And we’ve got a lot of checks and balances in place to make sure we’re safe.

Anthony Codispoti : Yeah. How many folks report to you, JR?

JR Rodriguez : Oh, I mean, I like to say six, but when you’re talking the full plant, we’re closer to about 150 in operation. Okay.

Anthony Codispoti : You guys have one facility?

JR Rodriguez : We’ve got facilities in Napa, Idaho. We’ve got a facility in Northville, Tennessee. And we’ve got a facility in Bullet.

Anthony Codispoti : And which one is it that you’re responsible for? I’m in Nampa. Okay.

JR Rodriguez : Which Nampa is also the site of our kind of corporate headquarters.

Anthony Codispoti : And you say six, but really 150. So is that sort of six? And then those six oversee kind of even more folks? Okay. Right. Right. And so the folks that report to you, what are their roles?

JR Rodriguez : So it’s three production managers, a QC manager. We have a warehouse manager.

Anthony Codispoti : Okay. Let’s see. Are there any books, podcasts, or other resources that have been helpful for you, either in personal development or career development that you might recommend? Other folks?

JR Rodriguez : Oh, so many. So many. I could have a list. I’m a big reader. So you know, at the top of my head, I would say seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Coving. It’s probably my top tier favorite. You know, extreme ownership by Jaco Willink and Leif Babin is a really good one.

Speaker 3: Followed up by… What’s that one about?

JR Rodriguez : It’s essentially, like the title says, learning to take ownership over everything that you have control over and some things that even you don’t. Being able to kind of humble yourself enough to know that, you know, if your team fails, you’re being able to really just command and own what you should. I think what gets lost a lot of times with all of this, myself included sometimes, is we have a tendency to, when things go bad, we forget that we’re ultimately responsible for those things.

Because we haven’t either given the goals, given the feedback necessary, or we haven’t followed through with them. So just for me, it was a really kind of eye-opening book. It’s also centered around, you know, kind of, they were both Navy SEALs. So it’s a lot of, you know, kind of how it applies in the military, how it applies in the real world, and some real-life scenarios and things in business. It’s a great book.

Anthony Codispoti : And then you were starting to mention another one in there before I jumped in.

JR Rodriguez : Oh, yeah. They also wrote one, a follow-up to that called dichotomy of leadership, which is another fantastic kind of view of kind of the two sides that you’ve got to be when you’re a high-level leader. You have to be the bad guy, but you can’t be so bad.

Anthony Codispoti : And so what’s it like for you when you have to be the bad guy? How do you approach that?

JR Rodriguez : You know, I just try to be as respectful as possible. And, you know, I want to talk facts. I don’t see it as, I don’t try to ever look at it as completely negative. I’m trying to offer feedback to get somebody to be as successful as they can. You know, not everyone accepts that feedback all the time, and ultimately, people do not succeed always.

But for me, it’s always an opportunity for me to kind of talk to somebody and learn, have them learn, you know, exactly where they stand. Again, I think on the extreme ownership side, you do have to own both the good and the bad. So myself included, if somebody’s offering me feedback and it’s not something that I want to hear, I might not be happy about it. But I respect it enough to understand that that is their belief. And sometimes that that is on me to change that belief.

Anthony Codispoti : You know, and I think this is actually a good point to kind of do a little segue on because, yeah, getting that sort of constructive or even critical feedback isn’t always easy to hear. But when we’re able to drop our guard and not be so defensive about it, it can be an incredible opportunity for growth.

with. Can you think of a time in your working past where that came up? Somebody came to you with some feedback that, man, was it what you wanted to hear, but you look back now and you’re pretty grateful for it?

JR Rodriguez : Wow. That’s a great question. I think there have been a few times in my career when I have been offered some feedback when I was pretty defensive in the moment, particularly actually, I mentioned them earlier, David Kleist, it was a time at Fresca when we were talking career growth and path and things and he frankly came up to me and said, well, you’re not ready. It’s not anything you want to hear. I had pretty lofty goals at the time and aspirations and he was straight. I respect him for that.

That is a very difficult, difficult thing to tell somebody, especially when you don’t know how that person is going to react. I look back on it now and I think that was an even greater motivator for me to get ready and to work on the things that I would like.

Anthony Codispoti : Did he give you specific feedback on H &R? Did he need to work on XYZ?

JR Rodriguez : He did. He was really transparent and my strengths and both my weaknesses at the time. I was still kind of hot headed and to his point, didn’t always accept feedback very well, which is something that I’ve worked on since. I try to always keep an open mind because as he put it to me then, you don’t see it, but other people do. That generally is bigger than what you think. Perception is unfortunately the reality of most situations.

Anthony Codispoti : That’s a good way to put it. Perception is the reality for most situations and most people. I’m curious, how did you go about working on some of those things? What did that personal development look like for you?

JR Rodriguez : I started kind of humbling myself and swallowing my ego. I have a tendency to be a very prideful person and just kind of pushing some of that aside. I also started doing a lot of reading and things to kind of look at some different perspectives and see what I could learn from people that are a lot smarter than I am.

Anthony Codispoti : But that’s really the key, right? Admitting that there are other folks out there that we’ve got a lot to learn from. Where does your drive and your work ethic come from? I can see sort of the trajectory of all of this. It’s like, I had lofty goals. I wanted to get somewhere. I wanted to get there quickly. You’ve got some get up and go in. Is that something you feel like you were just born with? Was it learned along the way?

JR Rodriguez : My dad instilled that in me when I was really, really little. The one thing that I can say that I have learned more than anything from my dad and my mom both is you really sometimes just need to grit your teeth down and do the work. Nobody’s going to save you.

Nobody’s here to hold your hand. You’re going to work for everything that you’re going to get in this life. If you want some big things, you’re going to have to work.

Anthony Codispoti : I want to shift gears for a moment, JR. Maybe talk about a serious challenge that you’ve overcome in your life. Maybe it’s personal, maybe it’s professional, maybe the two intertwined. How’d you get through it and what did you learn?

JR Rodriguez : So full transparency. I was pretty heavy into drugs in my younger years. I’m a recovering addict. Been sober for 21 years. It was some of the darkest times I think I’ve ever seen. I look back on kind of the trajectory of what all that did and some of the anger and things that I had.

I could say that my parents were both kind of hard-nosed, grit and worked. I think as a younger guy, I didn’t fully appreciate what they were trying to instill in me. So I kind of rebelled and did some things that I don’t want to say that I’m not proud of.

I mean, nobody wants to be that, but I have been able to turn the page and look back and think to myself, yeah, if I did that, guys, the limit. I have to thank my wife as well. I met my wife at a time when I was kind of in the middle of the crossroads and to this day, I tell her that she saved my life. She was able to kind of calm my thoughts and my kind of wild side enough to see something in me that I didn’t see in myself and that was kind of able to put me in a place where I was able to kind of deal with some things that I needed to deal with, just call it trauma, call it whatever, from just past experience and I look back on it now and it is definitely, like I say, probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done and overcome, but truthfully, I didn’t do it alone. I did it because of my parents, I did it because of my wife, I had a huge support system, which kind of drives me is the one thing that I have learned in this life is that everybody needs somebody in their corner. It doesn’t matter how strong a person is, it doesn’t matter what the person has done, everybody needs an advocate to get, to be able to lean on it somehow.

Anthony Codispoti : What an incredible story there. You met your now wife at a time when you were still struggling to figure out which way it was up and I mean, she sounds like a real gem, you know, because she…

JR Rodriguez : She’s amazing, she’s amazing. We’ve been married, it’ll be 20 years next March.

Anthony Codispoti : And she was a big part of your getting into recovery and sort of tackling these demons.

JR Rodriguez : Oh yeah, she’s by far the one thing I can look at and daily and think, you know, I’m blessed that you are in my life because if you were not, I may not be here. Wow, that’s powerful.

Anthony Codispoti : Have you been able to take any of that? I mean, you made that, what did you say, everybody needs somebody in their corner, right? You went through this hard time. Thankfully, you didn’t have to go through it alone.

You had your wife, you had your parents. Are you able to bring any of that sort of philosophy, everybody needs somebody in their corner to your work environment and how you approach your employees?

JR Rodriguez : Yeah, absolutely. I’m very much now driven, kind of, that’s kind of my drive and I want to make sure that everybody around me, I want to be that advocate for anybody that I’m working with, anybody that you know, I’m reporting to reports to me, reports under me, I want to make sure that everybody has that one person that they can turn to and help them accomplish whatever goal they have and whether it’s professional, personal, whatever.

Anthony Codispoti : How does that show up for you on a day-to-day basis?

JR Rodriguez : You know, again, just like my company, I’m very relationship driven. I check in constantly to see how my guys are doing, how the people on the floor are doing. I am constantly making sure that my values align with their goals so that we have a mutual kind of win-win attitude when it comes to what we’re trying to accomplish.

I ultimately know that for me to be successful, they have to be successful and by the first hand, so. Are you a parent? You have any kids? I am. I have two little girls. How old are they? So 10 and 9. Okay.

Anthony Codispoti : How do you try to teach them some of these lessons that need somebody in your corner, the grit and the determination?

JR Rodriguez : I’m very much the… I sometimes look at it. I think I’m a lot like my parents were with me at times where I’m very to the point and I like to say that I’m a realist. I don’t try and sugarcoat things with them. I try to be as honest with them as I can about kind of everything under the sun that I can that’s appropriate. I mean, there’s some things that ask me that I’m not ready to have a conversation about. And then I just try to be as consistent as I can and spend as much time with them as I can. I know that regardless of what comes up, it’s where a team and we’re going to get through whatever it takes, all of them.

Anthony Codispoti : I’m someone who believes in the power of daily practices. Do you have any habits or daily rituals that you go through that are kind of an essential part of your day?

JR Rodriguez : I do. I do. I have a general timeline. I’m a very much a creature of habit. I get up every morning. I generally have a home gym that we’ve started. So I’ll hit the gym four or five in the morning, work out for an hour or so, get ready for my day. We’ll get here, kind of do some things here, but my drive is to be out on the floor within a couple hours of getting here and just making sure that I try and say good morning to everybody that I see.

Sometimes a good morning is awesome, but you need to have a better day. By the time I end my day, I’ll go home. And the first thing I do is just go and make sure that my girls had a good day, kiss the life, to know that I missed her. Then we spend some time together and just kind of do the family thing. I’m pretty normal guy. Just have my little quirks and things, like I say, a mental timeline of things getting done throughout my day just to make sure that I’m on track.

Anthony Codispoti : If we were to talk a year from now, JR, and you’re celebrating something, what would you hope that is?

JR Rodriguez : I mean, I know I’ll be celebrating my 20th year anniversary. That’s a big one. It is. We’ve been looking for a while at it. Originally, there was a plan of us maybe having a big wedding. We didn’t have a wedding when we got married. We just kind of eloped. There had been talk about having a wedding. I think that we’ve kind of both decided that kind of everything that recently happened in our personal life is maybe we’re not going to do the wedding, per se, but I think we’re going to definitely still look at what we’re doing about it.

Anthony Codispoti : Some kind of a celebration? Yeah.

Speaker 3: Do you want to give voice to anything that you’re referencing there, things that have happened recently?

JR Rodriguez : Just as we spoke earlier, my mom recently passed away from complications due to a hard month.

Anthony Codispoti : I’m sorry to hear that, JR. What have you found has given you strength? What have you been able to lean on during this challenging time? Work was amazing.

JR Rodriguez : They really allowed me to be there for my family. I had to leave on kind of an emergency time and without for a little bit.

Speaker 3: I mean, they didn’t blink an eye. My team that I work with has been a supporter and my life is amazing.

JR Rodriguez : We’ve got a really big support system that’s been really amazing and helping. That’s terrific.

Anthony Codispoti : As you look back, what do you think was the best decision you ever made for your career and why?

JR Rodriguez : Honestly, going back to school and getting my degree in welding has been probably the biggest thoughts. I worked in a manufacturing plant making windows for seven years previous to that. One day decided that I needed to do more. We kind of did the scary thing, I quit work and went back to school. It’s been great since. It allowed me to kind of hit every goal that I’ve kind of set for myself up to this point.

Anthony Codispoti : Any advice for folks that are listening? There’s something that they’re afraid to do, sort of take that big next step. The fear is just kind of blocking them at the moment.

JR Rodriguez : Definitely. At some point, you definitely have to face that fear head-on. As scary as it may be, you have to find that guiding light to kind of get you through the struggle and the hard time you may face in the short term. Ultimately, the end of the road, it’s everything that you hope it can be. Most of the time, even for me, it was more than I thought it has been.

Anthony Codispoti : You’re talking about courage. I know that innovation oftentimes requires a dose of courage. Is there something maybe at HB or even before where you had to kind of face fear and be a little bit courageous to introduce innovation into the workplace?

JR Rodriguez : Yeah. I mean, I think here at HB, I’ve definitely been a proponent of changing some things culture-wise and just in the way we do things day to day. It’s been met always with positive feedback and things, but just being able to kind of put myself out there and speak up on the things I feel.

Anthony Codispoti : Yeah. What’s one thing that you wish more people understood about your industry, JR?

JR Rodriguez : What we do, we oftentimes get asked, what exactly do you guys do? I try to give people the kind of high-level answer of, we make batters and coatings and things, but it’s amazing to me after working here in the last two and a half, three years, how much effort goes into everyday items that people think regret.

Anthony Codispoti : My boys are going to eat some chicken nuggets tonight that probably have an ingredient that you guys produced and french fries with it too.

JR Rodriguez : Almost certainly.

Anthony Codispoti : We never think about it. It’s just there in the bag. I have no idea how many people or different companies got involved in making that come into our freezer and into our dinner table.

JR Rodriguez : Right. It’s definitely eye-opening. It was eye-opening for me. Even coming from a similar industry, coming here and kind of truly understanding what goes into everything, that something as simple as a coating. You call it a simple coating, but I know different.

Speaker 3: It takes quite a bit. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti : What’s something you enjoy doing outside of work?

JR Rodriguez : You know, I’m an outdoors guy. I like being up camping, fishing, hunting. I haven’t been hunting in a while, but I do really enjoy being outdoors. Anything near water, I love. What do you like to hunt? You know, it’s been a while, but you know, bird, so we’ll do duck hunting or pheasant. It’s fun.

Anthony Codispoti : Well, I’ve just got one more question for you, JR. Before I ask, I want to do two things. I want to invite everybody who’s listening today to go ahead and hit the follow button on their favorite podcast app so you can continue to get more great interviews like we’ve had today with JR Rodriguez from HB Specialty Foods. JR, I also want to let people know either the best way to get in touch with you or to follow your story or that of HB Specialty Foods. What would that be?

JR Rodriguez : You know, our website’s a great resource for what we’re doing. Definitely in the process of maybe doing some things there to make it user-friendly. There has been some high-level talks of doing some things to kind of really put a better understanding of our process out there. As far as myself, you know, I have a LinkedIn that people can contact me on. I can’t even remember the name of it. I’m going to say JR Rodriguez 81.

Anthony Codispoti : We’ll put a link to your LinkedIn profile on the show notes and same for the company website, which we’ll also give voice to now, hbspecialtyfoods.com. Last question I have for you, JR, as you look to the future of HB Specialty Foods in the next two to three years, what are some of the most exciting changes that you see coming?

JR Rodriguez : Oh, just so many. You know, we’re aggressively looking to grow our business. With a lot of that comes obviously a lot of major change of new challenges that present themselves as some of those growth headaches kind of manifest. And again, we’re actively seeking new opportunities in our space. So there will be new product launches and lines and things that we’re working on.

Anthony Codispoti : Any acquisitions that you think might happen or is this going to all kind of happen ground up internally?

JR Rodriguez : I think a majority of it is going to be ground up internally. You know, we are looking at expanding our business in our current three sites. And then, you know, outside of that, it just kind of depends on how the ball keeps rolling. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti : I don’t know that this would apply in the role that you’re in, but a lot of my guests love to talk about how they’re dabbling in or using AI in some manner. Has that hit your radar at all yet?

JR Rodriguez : Very little. You know, we will use some of the AI platforms for brainstorming. We’ve recently done that. But across my individual day to day, not much. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti : That makes sense. Very much operational and dealing with physical equipment and making sure that it’s up and running and the folks are doing what they need to do. Right. Well, JR Rodriguez, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it. Hey, I appreciate it, sir. Thank you. Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us today. you