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Josh Carin on effective communication today ~
“I think that’s the challenge with technology today is that we are so accustomed to communicating via email, via texting. I tell my team if you can’t communicate what you need to say in three sentences, pick up the phone and call them.”
A Ockershausen: This is Andy Ockershausen and this is Our Town. We’re so delighted to have a special guest. Now, I say that to everybody because I mean it. I’m delighted to have you here, Josh Carin. A great tennis player, Arthur Ashe, said “From what we get, we can make a living. What we give, however, makes a life”. If that’s true, then our next guest has quite a life. He’s a business owner. He’s a finalist in Washington Business Journal Small Business Philanthropist. He’s worked with The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. He fundraisers for WORC and the MDA. He’s active in the Greater Washington Board of Trade. He’s been a mentor for The Small Business Academy. He’s involved with Goodwill, The Cultural Alliance, and The DC Chamber of Commerce, The Levine School of Music, and DC Central Kitchen. Josh Carin, in your spare time, you’re one of the great caterers in the free world. How do you have time for all these things?
Josh Carin: Time? What is that?
A Ockershausen: It used to be a very good magazine.
Josh Carin: Yes. Yes. Exactly. No, my work, my family, my philanthropy, that is my life. Family first. Work, a very close second. I would say the philanthropy is tied in second place. Those are the things that I do to keep myself busy.
A Ockershausen: Everything you’re saying that you’re doing is really making you a success. Whether your business is a success or not, you are a success Josh, which is great.
Josh Carin: Thank you for that. Thank you. I’ve been very, very blessed. I was fortunate to be recognized years ago by an organization, and I made the comment that I could not do what I’m doing without the people who have supported me. My work, which I love, has afforded me the ability to provide for my family and to give back, which then helps foster new relationships, which then fosters new business relationships. Then, it allows me to get my family involved. It’s a great circle, a great cycle.
A Ockershausen: Josh, it’s amazing what you’re saying. It’s sort of the mantle we’ve had at WMAL. We used to have for many, many, many, many years and you’re a native. You’re local. What I didn’t say is about Geppetto Catering is your business. I apologize to you, but I figure everybody knows you as a catering business. But, the way the name Geppetto, I know where I thought of it the first time, but where did you come up with this idea?
What’s in a Name?
Josh Carin: I can’t take credit for that. My partner, Charlie, owned a restaurant in town. For the long time Washingtonians, you might know Geppetto Pizza. He and I met when I was in college and we decided to start Geppetto Catering. Obviously, we used the name Geppetto from the restaurants, because it was a known brand within Washington.
A Ockershausen: Yeah, but where did he get the name from? Let me tell you where I first heard it: in the movie Pinocchio.
Josh Carin: Which is what everyone knows it from and obviously, Geppetto was the puppeteer, the woodcarver.
A Ockershausen: He was Pinocchio’s father.
Josh Carin: That is correct.
A Ockershausen: I love the name.
Josh Carin: I actually asked my partner, Charlie, where the name came from. He told me he was reading the story Pinocchio to his daughter and boom, there was a name.
A Ockershausen: What a wonderful name. Anybody in this town, in Our Town, thinks of catering, they think of Geppetto, because the name is so great. It really has scored.
Josh Carin: Thank you.
A Ockershausen: That’s important branding.
Philanthropy is Branding
Josh Carin: Branding is very important, and where you started with philanthropy. Philanthropy is branding. A dear friend of both of ours, Catherine Meloy, has been a great mentor to me. She was the one many, many, many years ago who really got me engaged in philanthropy. It was accidental.
A Ockershausen: She’s a trailblazer.
Josh Carin: Without a doubt. Without a doubt.
A Ockershausen: She really is a trailblazer.
Josh Carin: It’s the more you do it, the more it just spirals and in a good way. The more you give, the more you get.
A Ockershausen: We preach that to everybody and everybody that comes on this program is that Our Town person almost invariably are saying the same thing. We know that. The more you get, the more you give back in so many ways.
Josh Carin: Correct. Correct. I think that the thing that I would share with people is we’ve been very blessed to grow into the company we are today at Geppetto Catering, and we were not always what we are today. We were a small startup.
A Ockershausen: Absolutely. In 1989?
Josh Carin: 1989.
A Ockershausen: That’s a blip. That’s no time. You’ve been competing with people in the business for 60, 70 years, right?
Josh Carin: It feels that way. It feels that way sometimes. But, what I would say is that back in those early days when we were a much smaller company, we gave what we could. As we gave, that led to other friendships and business opportunities and then we grew and we were able to give more.
A Ockershausen: You gave them Josh Carin, too. That is the big number.
Different Way to Serve
Josh Carin: That is correct. Correct. I think a lot of times people don’t value the fact that they can give their time by board service. They can give their time by volunteering on projects. If you own or work at a business, businesses today do have programs for giving back. If you are a carpenter, Rebuilding Together would be a great organization to support. It gives you organization visibility and that could lead to business, so think about it differently I think.
Geppetto Pizza | Geppetto Catering | White Pizza and Ricotta Pie
A Ockershausen: Whatever happened to the pizza business? Did y’all close that?
Josh Carin: We sold it. We sold it.
A Ockershausen: Is it still in business with your name?
Josh Carin: It is not. It is not.
A Ockershausen: Oh.
Josh Carin: The original Geppetto was on M Street in Georgetown. We sold that restaurant many, many years ago. The people who acquired it actually changed the concept and it became very successful and some other businesses within the area. The second one, which was in Bethesda, we sold it. The people were using the name for a period during the transition, and recently, they transitioned it to a new name that they are now using as their business.
A Ockershausen: Being a born and raised and going third generation Washingtonian, I can tell you when I grew up, the pizza, nobody knew what it was. Occasionally, if you had an Italian friend, his grandmother would fix it. The only pizza place in Washington was a place called The Cavalier on 14th Street. We’re talking about now the 40’s and 50’s.
Josh Carin: Right. Right. Right.
A Ockershausen: You had to get on a streetcar to get to it. Now, there’s a pizza on every corner in America.
Josh Carin: There is. There is. There is. I remember Geppetto was the first true Chicago style pizza in Washington. Then, we were also highly regarded for our white pizza.
A Ockershausen: Oh yeah. First time I’ve ever had white pizza was at Geppetto’s.
Josh Carin: Yeah. Then, our ricotta pie. Our Sicilian pizzas, our white pizzas, and our ricotta pie were the three things that people knew us for. Actually, on the catering menu, I have kept the white pizza and I have kept the ricotta pie.
A Ockershausen: Do you? Great.
Josh Carin: Most people who have them don’t know the history of the restaurant, but the long standing Washingtonians, they really appreciate it.
A Ockershausen: You use your pizzas and so forth for stand up cocktail parties, right? It’s easier.
Josh Carin: Without a doubt. Without a doubt. The white pizzas are a home run every time.
A Ockershausen: Oh, I’m sure.
Josh Carin: Every time.
A Ockershausen: I do enjoy white pizza. Let’s talk about the food business. Let’s take a break here and come back and talk about the catering business.
Josh Carin: Sounds great.
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Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town.
A Ockershausen: This is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town, and we’re having a wonderful conversation with Josh Carin and Geppetto Catering. Now Josh, you’re in a very competitive world, but is so important in Our Town that we have catering, because this is a very entertaining town as I’m told.
Josh Carin: Without a doubt. Without a doubt.
A Ockershausen: Your business has grown tremendously in my knowledge of it, because I see it from the outside looking in.
28 Years of Organic Growth
Josh Carin: It has grown. It’s amazing. I remember vividly. We are a green caterer, and so our lights are on motion sensors. I remember going into the office on a Saturday with my kids and my wife to pop in and do something real quick. No one was there.
A Ockershausen: Your partner.
Josh Carin: Exactly. My wife was my first employee, so yes, the real boss. My kids were younger and they started to run through the facility and then, the lights were popping on as they hit different zones. I just saw their backs and I saw them running and the lights going and I thought my gosh, look what we have built. It is amazing. If you ever would’ve told me 28 years ago we would be what we are today, I would tell you you’re off your rocker. I think that’s because we’re growing organically and we’re growing through referrals.
A Ockershausen: Josh, it didn’t happen because you put the name out there. It happened because somebody had to work very hard to get this prominence that you’ve achieved.
Geppetto Catering’s Team – Longevity
Josh Carin: I have a great team of people. Geppetto Catering is 28 years old. The average tenure for one of our employees is over 15 years.
A Ockershausen: There you go.
Josh Carin: We’ve got people that have been with us for 20 years. I had someone retire at the end of last year who is the second longest employee. I still have someone who’s been with me 26 years. It’s the people. It’s the people that support me, that make me look good and make me have this opportunity to sit with you. But, the business is definitely more competitive now. There are more players in the market. Restaurants are catering now. You can actually order food through Uber now.
At Your Service – Meeting Your Every Need
A Ockershausen: Uber?
Josh Carin: Uber is delivering. Uber is delivering, so it is a very, very different business. I think that when I think of myself and I think of the people that do what we do, beyond the food, we’re providing services, such as support stuff, whether it be valet parking, coat check, waiters, bartenders. We’re providing décor that could be florals, lighting.
A Ockershausen: Is that right? You go that deeply, yeah?
Josh Carin: All of that. All of that. What we do is actually more than just food and beverage. In fact, that is the easiest part of what we do.
A Ockershausen: Wow, that’s knowledge to me. Do you help with parking? You’ve got to provide attendants.
Josh Carin: We can provide music. We can provide really anything you need to have an event. The devil is in the details and finding out what the goal is of the host and helping them achieve that. In our changing world of technology, you are competing against people going to websites and pricing these things out. Then, you are competing against that “Sims”. Is Syms still around?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Sy Syms, educated consumer?
Josh Carin: Yes, the educated consumer is our best customer.
A Ockershausen: Oh, that was a fabulous campaign.
Josh Carin: It was and you know what? It is true to this day. I think technology is wonderful. I think it’s a great tool.
A Ockershausen: Marcy was her name, right?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yes. Marcy. We never figured out if Marcy was the daughter, the wife, the girlfriend, what she was.
A Ockershausen: But, what a fabulous campaign. It comes back to all of us.
Social Media Changed the Way We Do Business Today
Josh Carin: But, it is so true. It is so, so true. I think any business today, not just catering, whatever it is, you are competing against technology, where you have people that are accustomed to going online, making a decision, clicking a button, and moving forward. Now, in most cases, you’re buying a shirt. You’re buying a piece of equipment for your stereo system, whatever it might be. You’re buying something. You know what it is.
A Ockershausen: A product.
Josh Carin: A product, thank you. But, we’re in the service business. I think anyone that’s in the service business is competing against that technology, and what people don’t understand is that again, the food is the easiest part of what we do. It’s all of the other pieces to the puzzle.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: You probably have a real joy in the fact that people are like you said, more educated when they come to do business with you. They’re probably more creative. Now, they have Pinterest to work off of.
Josh Carin: Without a doubt.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: They have social media, so their demands are more.
Josh Carin: Their demands are more. They bring great ideas. They bring wonderful, wonderful ideas. Then, it’s helping them find out if it’s within the budget, okay? The creativity is wonderful. The involvement from your customer on some events is high and that’s great. It’s also getting your hand around those costs and making sure that the things that someone might be taking on themselves, that they’re getting vendors that are reputable and that are going to deliver.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Because it’s really a co-mingling of the professional and the non-professional, I’m sure it happens a lot. But, you’re working on corporate in the corporate world, but then you’re also working on weddings and personal things as well?
Josh Carin: Correct. We’re working on country weddings, which are a lot of fun.
A Ockershausen: Country weddings?
Catering Country Weddings
Josh Carin: Country weddings. I love them.
A Ockershausen: In Potomac? Potomac’s not country.
Josh Carin: It used to be. When I grew up, Potomac was country.
A Ockershausen: Way out in the country, oh my god.
Josh Carin: Exactly. That’s all changing, but I love country weddings, because what I have found is that the couple’s getting back to the roots of what it should be about, which is their love for one another, family and friends. The environment in the country lends itself to be less formal. When I talk to families that we’re helping, what I really equate it to is we’re going to have a great party and we’re going to meet at this beautiful farm. Whether it’s a family farm or something they’ve rented. By the way, while you’re here, give us 15 minutes. We’re going to go by that oak tree by the pond, get married, and then come back to the party. The focus is really about the couple, their love, their family, and their friends.
We did a wedding last year on a farm. It was actually awesome. A local couple had been together for years. They had a child together, but they never got married. They were engaged. They just never got married. They invited everybody to a farm on a holiday for just a picnic. They thought it was a picnic. Everyone’s there and they’re having a good time. Then, the couple kind of gets up and says hey, as long as you’re all here, we’re finally going to tie the knot. Grab a chair. We’re going over by that tree and we’re getting married. Then, we got married by the tree and then, around the corner, there was a tent with everything set for the party. I’m getting goosebumps right now thinking about it. It was just a wonderful couple and it was really what it was about and what it should be about. I love the country weddings. I love the corporate events, because in this town, you’re going to so many cool, unique places. The places I’ve gone, the things I’ve seen, it’s unbelievable. It’s unbelievable.
A Ockershausen: Do you personally check out the sites? Are you involved in it?
Josh Carin: A lot of times. I’ve got a great team.
A Ockershausen: All teams need a captain though.
Josh Carin: They do. They do.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Josh, what’s trending location wise these days?
Trending: Outdoor Venues
Josh Carin: I’m seeing again, a lot of outdoor venues are really, really hot. I’m seeing a lot of the office buildings that are being built in the city are creating these wonderful event spaces within them. I think it’s a diversification. What they realize is they’ve got their tenants within the building, but if they create this grandiose patio or rooftop, then they’ve got a great venue space. The rooftops, the green, Green Building USUBC buildings, where they’re doing the green roofs. They’re just gorgeous. What you saw in the beginning was it was a roof. It was a lovely space, but then your issue was if it rained. What they’re now doing is they’re building these beautiful event spaces that are enclosed on top of the roof. Then, it has an outdoor component, so if the weather is inclement, you still have the striking views.
If you look at the Hay-Adams, they had that beautiful roof. They had a tent on it for years and then, Hans and their team, they basically added a floor and it’s now an enclosed beautiful space for events.
A Ockershausen: We’ve been to several weddings at the erstwhile hotel, correct?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yes.
Josh Carin: Yeah.
A Ockershausen: With a view of The White House.
Josh Carin: Yeah, it’s beautiful.
A Ockershausen: Janice and I look like we’re standing in front of The White House, cause we’ve taken so many pictures.
Josh Carin: Yeah, it’s beautiful. Without a doubt. I would say those are the things that I’m seeing.
A Ockershausen: Josh, I want to talk to you about your family, about your wife, and how she saved you.
Josh Carin: Yeah, no doubt.
A Ockershausen: This is Our Town. Everybody needs a savior. Thank the lord I got mine sitting next to me. This is Andy Ockershausen. We’re talking to Josh Carin on Our Town.
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Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town with Andy Ockershausen. Brought to you by Best Bark Communications.
A Ockershausen: This is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town and we’re talking to Josh Carin about Geppetto Catering and about his personal life. I know why he’s been so successful, but I want to hear it from him. Who is this young lady that enraptured you and said “I want to be your partner”?
Moira Carin
Josh Carin: It is my lovely wife, Moira.
A Ockershausen: What a great name, Moira. Love it.
Josh Carin: Love her to death. Great name. Her maiden name is Geronimo, so she’s even got a really strong last name.
A Ockershausen: Wait a minute. Is it the Geronimo?
Josh Carin: No relation.
A Ockershausen: Moira’s an Italian name, is it not?
Josh Carin: I don’t know.
A Ockershausen: I’ve heard the name before.
Josh Carin: Yeah, I just love it.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Geronimo was a famous Indian.
Josh Carin: Yes. Yes.
A Ockershausen: We know who he was. He was an Apache, not Italian.
Josh Carin: She is the best. Moira was my first employee at Geppetto Catering.
A Ockershausen: You still had the pizza business when you hired her?
Josh Carin: Still had the pizza place. In fact, we started Geppetto Catering out of one of the restaurants. Then, Moira and I met about 27 years ago. Obviously, at that point, it was a two man band. It was she and I. We took the phone calls on the phone. We made the food. We made the deliveries.
A Ockershausen: She made your business, Josh.
Josh Carin: She made my business. She made me. But, I tell her she loved me from the day she met me, cause she can tell you what I was wearing. I’m just saying I had a little bit of mojo.
A Ockershausen: Were you in the restaurant business then?
Josh Carin: I was. I was. But, Moira and I fell in love over romaine lettuce in a kitchen.
A Ockershausen: The story of your engagement is a great story, how it happened, and we want to hear it Josh. Tell us.
Josh Carin: When Moira and I were dating, we had a French restaurant that we used to go to on a regular basis that’s no longer around. We’d literally be there two to three times a week, sometimes more. The staff knew us very well. They were like family. Christmastime, they got holiday gifts from us. It was lovely. One night, we went to dinner and I called the owner and I said I’m coming and I’m going to propose tonight, so I handed him the ring. It was not uncustomary for him to give us a glass of wine or something to eat, because we were there so often. At the end of the evening, he brought over a couple glasses of champagne. In her glass was her diamond ring.
Now, I will tell you I was mortified that she would drink it. I would have a Heimlich incident. That didn’t happen.
A Ockershausen: She didn’t swallow it.
Josh Carin: She didn’t swallow it. She sipped it. Everyone in the restaurant’s looking at her. Do you see the ring? She’s thinking why is everyone looking at me? I’m like look in the glass. There was the ring.
A Ockershausen: What a great story.
Josh Carin: Yes, so that is how.
A Ockershausen: She never looked back after that, brother.
Josh Carin: Never looked back. She was the boss before then. She was the boss when we got married, and she’s still the boss.
A Ockershausen: It’s true. You’re a lucky man, cause I go through the same thing every day with Janice. We love Our Town so much and love all the things, and particularly, what you’ve done. We preach it and we preach it, and you’re a living example of it. The more you give, the more you get back.
Josh Carin: It is an amazing thing. People don’t understand how much joy you get from it.
A Ockershausen: You’re involved in so many things, but that’s all so great for business to be involved.
Josh Carin: Without a doubt.
A Ockershausen: It’s a two-edged sword.
Josh Carin On Connecting the Dots
Josh Carin: You know what? One of my favorite stories is our dear friend, Catherine Meloy. She used to be at Clear Channel, as you know. She was involved with a nonprofit, something she supported. They were having meetings at her office for some event they were working on. She would order food from my company to provide for the guests coming to the meeting.
A Ockershausen: How about that?
Josh Carin: One of the guests at the meeting really liked the food and they worked at a very large university in town, and asked who did the catering. Catherine shared my name. The university called us, and I have been working with them ever since. I believe that because it was for a charity event, Catherine asked us to either discount it or donate it. I don’t remember what we did, but obviously we supported her and we supported the organization. Then, ironically, through that business relationship, the person then reached out to me about the nonprofit. It’s actually Muscular Dystrophy Association, so I then got involved with MDA. If it was not for meeting with Catherine at the Board of Trade that developed into a friendship that then developed into her ordering food for a meeting, connect the dots.
A Ockershausen: It always does connect the dots. Boy, does that make life so much better, doesn’t it?
Josh Carin: Correct. You don’t have to run after business.
A Ockershausen: I had a lot of tutoring in the early days and learned from people who were involved that said, and one of the things I learned from a man who is not with us anymore, fabulous man named Leonard Doggett, Bud Doggett, used to preach to me a fact that I found so true. Show up and return your phone call. You will be successful because most people don’t do that.
Josh Carin: Yep. Exactly.
A Ockershausen: It’s not that you’re so great. It’s that other people don’t follow through on it. Show up and return your phone call. You did that.
Josh Carin: Yep, without a doubt.
A Ockershausen: And continue to do it, right?
Effective Communication – Pick up the Phone | Write a Thank You Note
Josh Carin: Continue to do it. Again, I think that’s the challenge with technology today is that we are so accustomed to communicating via email, via texting. I tell my team if you can’t communicate what you need to say in three sentences, pick up the phone and call them.
A Ockershausen: Boy, does that makes a difference.
Josh Carin: Because it is so foreign today to have a conversation. One of the other things that I do is I like to write thank you notes. I don’t take this envelope and run it through a machine with this printed stamp. I get a stamp and I lick it and I put it on the envelope. I will tell you I get notes periodically and I put them on my desk and I save them forever.
A Ockershausen: Josh, it’s so easy to do, too.
Josh Carin: Yeah.
A Ockershausen: You know the thing that bothers me about the new world, new world to me, is email. There’s no passion with email.
Josh Carin: Yep.
A Ockershausen: The telephone, you can’t see it, but you can feel passion on the telephone, right?
Josh Carin: Yep, without a doubt.
A Ockershausen: When you’re selling something it works.
Josh Carin: I’m not a Facebooker. I’m not doing any of that stuff personally. I just learned text last year. The only reason I did it is because I have teenage children. It was the best way for me to communicate with them. Exactly. But, that is what scares me. One of the things that I love to do and I’ve been doing for years is going in and speaking at high schools about networking and about how to create relationships. One of the things that I love to do is I have one of these indestructible phone cases, so I take my phone and I fling it across the room. I’m like you do not need these devices. The gasp of these young adults. It’s like their world is going to shatter.
I believe in my heart of hearts that being engaged, showing up, giving til it hurts, those all connect the dots. But, I also believe that if we’re not careful, we are going to lose the ability to communicate, how to have a conversation like we’re having right now, because when you talk to young adults now, they don’t look at you. They’re looking down. They don’t know how to shake a hand.
A Ockershausen: Or, they’re looking at their phone.
Josh Carin: They’re looking at their phones.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: There’s no engagement.
Josh Carin: None.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: That’s what’s so bothersome is there’s no engagement. There’s no inquisitiveness about what you’re doing or how you’re doing it. It’s all so self-focused and I think that’s the shutdown. That’s the barrier. That’s the wall.
Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School Corporate Work Study Program
Josh Carin: Yeah. Make no mistake, there’s great young adults out there. Don Bosco Rey High School.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: That’s our charity.
Josh Carin: Yep.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Don Bosco Cristo Rey.
Josh Carin: Yep.
A Ockershausen: Janice is on the board.
Josh Carin: Okay.
A Ockershausen: We give them a lot of money, I can tell you that.
Josh Carin: We have two students and love them.
A Ockershausen: They’re great kids.
Josh Carin: Great young adults. They really are doing a great job over there. We actually have one of their students, they’re on Spring Break, and we hired them to work. We’re putting money in their pocket, but just great young adults.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Thank you, Josh, for that.
A Ockershausen: Oh Josh, we’ve seen it for 10 years. The school’s now 10 years old and we’ve seen it where it was nothing and now it’s thriving.
Josh Carin: Oh, it’s amazing. It’s not woe, our future is all going to pot.
A Ockershausen: We’re in great hands, right?
Josh Carin: We need more of that.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Those are the sponges, those kids, that are going to listen to what you have to say. They see that you have achieved. They see that you’re successful and they’re open to it. I think those words of wisdom, the nuggets that you provide as long as we keep doing this, there are people that are going to be sponges and accept this information.
Josh Carin: Without a doubt.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Those are the ones that are going to succeed.
A Ockershausen: I heard a lot of people in the jobs at work, the school at works programs, say they hired the kids to be good citizens for the school. Then, they found out they were hiring good employees. They had no idea these kids would work so hard.
Josh Carin: Oh, they’re great. I have a student that’s graduating this year. I am so happy for her and she’s going off to college. Beautiful young kid, but in the pit of my soul, I’m sad she’s graduating, because I wanted her another year or two.
A Ockershausen: If she goes to school here, you might find her somewhere.
Josh Carin: I hope so. Actually, she’s going out of state, but we’ll keep in touch with her. We’ll keep in touch with her.
A Ockershausen: Josh, we’re so proud, Janice and I, of what you’re saying and what you do and using you as an example now of really working to get ahead. It pays off. You’re a happy man. You have a wonderful family. You have a wonderful business, but it didn’t just happen Josh. You worked it.
Josh Carin: I worked hard. I worked hard. I continue to, but I enjoy what I do.
A Ockershausen: You get up every day looking forward to it. Isn’t that wonderful?
Josh Carin: I look forward to it and I think that that’s also the secret sauce.
A Ockershausen: No question.
Josh Carin: I think that you have to figure out what you like and just do it because you like doing it.
A Ockershausen: Go for it.
Josh Carin: Then, the rest will come.
A Ockershausen: That’s such good advice. We tell young people that all the time.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Josh, give us your website address and then give us your phone number.
Josh Carin: Our web address is www.geppettocatering.com which is G-e-p-p-e-t-t-o catering c-a-t-e-r-i-n-g.
A Ockershausen: Think of Pinocchio.
Josh Carin: Exactly. Then, in addition to that, our phone number is 301-927-8800.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Call and have some of that good white pizza.
Josh Carin: Exactly. Don’t forget the ricotta pie for dessert.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: There you go.
A Ockershausen: Josh, this has been so delightful and thank you for all you do and for Our Town. We didn’t talk much about the Board of Trade, but I know it made my life and has done so much for you and will continue to.
Josh Carin: Board of Trade.
A Ockershausen: I tell young people that. Get involved.
Josh Carin: Get involved. It is the one organization, I’ve been there for over 25 years, and I would never ever think of leaving.
A Ockershausen: They do such good things. This has been Our Town. This is Andy Ockershausen with the most famous caterer I know, Josh Carin.
Josh Carin: Thank you. I appreciate your time.
Announcer: You’ve been listening to Our Town, Season Two. Presented by GEICO, our hometown favorite. With your host Andy Ockershausen. New Our Town episodes are released each Tuesday and Thursday. Drop us a line with your comments or suggestions. See us on Facebook or visit our website at ourtowndc.com. Our special thanks to Ken Hunter, our technical director and WMAL Radio in Washington DC for hosting our podcast. Thanks to GEICO. 15 minutes can save you 15% or more on car insurance.
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