And, good evening.

You've got More Than Money.

You've got Gene Dickison, your host, your personal financial advisor.

We are happy to be with you for the next half an hour.

Hopefully you'll stick with us through the entire show.

You might find yourself informed, we hope, entertained, perhaps.

That accidentally happens on occasion.

But most importantly, I think you're going to hear a story that you're going to be able to connect to on lots of different levels, lots of different points.

So, please stick with us.

If you're a loyal listener to More Than Money, you know exactly how this works.

We are here to serve you.

We are the self-proclaimed most relevant financial show on television today, because we focus on you.

We focus on what's most of concern to you.

If it's at the top of your mind, we want to give you an answer that will give you peace of mind.

So if you have questions that you'd like to pose that perhaps would appear on a future show, send those directly to my e-mail address, gene@askmtm.com.

So many of your friends and family have already done that.

We answer every single question back to you.

Whether they appear on air or not, that I can't promise - simply too many to fit.

But every single e-mail is answered.

Even the silly ones.

We answer those as well.

And many times we have questions about how to best evolve a life that will give you purpose, that will give you joy, that will have some intensity to it, perhaps, not necessarily serious intensity, but intensity nonetheless, and will produce a result that will give you great satisfaction.

And we try as often as we can to identify those folks who have done exactly that and pick their minds and see what they might offer us that can guide us a little bit further down the road.

So I'm very, very excited to welcome as our guest this evening husband and wife duo Zeke and Elaine Zelker.

Welcome back.

- Thank you.

- How are you?

- Well, welcome back.

- Repeat!

You are the world record holder for More Than Money.

- That's awesome.

- It is awesome.

- I'm much more relaxed this time.

- I would hope.

Goodness.

I mean, in the interest of full disclosure, of course, we're friends as well as colleagues.

And you assist our company in many, many ways.

So it's wonderful to have a friend back.

- That's awesome.

- And then there's this other guy that we'll introduce here in a second.

He's here, for sure.

For folks who haven't yet seen, and by the way, if you haven't seen Elaine's previous appearances, make sure you go to morethanmoneyonline.com.

They're right there for you to check out.

But for folks who haven't seen those, give us just the Reader's Digest condensed version.

Who's Elaine?

- Oh, boy.

Elaine is a pivoter.

Elaine is somebody that started off here and wound up way over here.

But sometimes, she goes over here.

Now I'm over here with him doing stuff with Zeke.

I used to be a nurse by trade.

I have a bachelor's in psych and business, went back for nursing, did nursing for about 12, 13 years, lost both my parents, got divorced, met this guy, and world completely changed again.

And he kind of was that cheerleader that helped change the projection of my life.

And I pursued a passion that I always liked, which was photography.

And I've been doing photography in the Lehigh Valley here for the past almost 12 years now.

I honed in on that a lot more and changed my brand a little bit to focus more on empowering women and entrepreneurs.

And because I had so much ammunition in my bag and with marketing and branding and social media and, you know, just empowering other people, not only do I do the brand from the photography side of things, I would teach women and entrepreneurs how to grow their businesses as well.

And I stopped doing nursing about five or six years ago.

I was doing hospice nursing, combined some hospice nursing with photography, and then strictly did photography.

And now I am the co-owner with my husband at Zekraft curators of taste, which completely pivot us again during the pandemic.

So that's where we are today.

- And, Zeke, who would have known that with your background, multidimensional that it is, that you would now be most famous for being married to Elaine?

- Depends on which circles you're referring to.

- That is true.

That is true.

A force of nature.

- Oh, she is, yeah, absolutely.

- A force of nature.

And so your coming together, she mentions you as a cheerleader.

- 100%.

- That's a pretty cool... - Oh, absolutely.

I'm proud of that.

- As any husband would be to be described in such a way.

So now that we have a kind of a sense of Elaine, who is Zeke?

Who's Zeke Zelker?

- Oh, gosh.

Um... A lot of things, I think, you know?

So I've, you know, grew up wanting to basically be an investor.

And my early, well, actually my first job ever was as a clown selling balloons at Dorney Park because we had to work at the park.

I literally grew up in an amusement park, which is a very different way of growing up.

We used to slide down Thunderhawk on our rear ends.

It's a big slide.

I'm completely unafraid of heights.

I don't know why that is, but I am.

And so doing that you have a different outlook on things - business, and everything else.

So they called it early on in the '80s, the Disneyfication of business, where you basically create a brand and you create a lifestyle around that brand.

Knowing that everything in an amusement park is a facade which is all outward looking, you don't know what's going on behind the scenes.

So I was always able to figure out ways in my film career then of making money in some way or another.

Not necessarily was in box office tickets, but it was in other ways of bringing the productions into fruition.

- The term now, monetization, - Correct.

Correct.

- Just kind of a polite term for how to figure out how to get paid.

- So the thing was always, too, was like, you have an entertainment, but then around the entertainment property, you have to have different ways of making money, whether it be games of chance, merchandise, and so forth.

So if you actually dissect my film career, you'll actually see that quite a bit.

- A lot of folks are not aware that you were, you are, part of the family that was Dorney Park for generations.

- Yeah, they started... My family moved here in 1884 from France.

They were butchers.

They came here and started at Picnic Grove and then to sell more food, they brought a carousel there.

That's how Dorney Park started.

Not many people realize that they were actually all culinarians, and then that's how it all evolved from there.

Keeping people to stay there so that they could make more money is what it came down to.

That's how the rides started.

So Zekraft is - it's what?

DNA driven?

- 100%.

That and entertainment.

Like, people don't realize this, but, you know, early on in my career, I worked in restaurants to basically make a living, you know?

Cos the film career is pretty hard and so forth early on, but then thankfully I was successful enough where I didn't have to do that anymore.

Also, too, is the way that I really learned how to cook was because I had to feed myself because my mom was at the seminary, like, not joking, so, like, I was a latchkey kid and, you know, a big soccer player and things.

And so, like, I consumed so much food, it was crazy, but I had to learn how to cook.

And one of the reasons that we give a lot back to local nonprofits and things dealing with food insecurity issues is because we also didn't grow up wealthy whatsoever.

Yeah, we had this amusement park and everything else.

Family members were extremely wealthy, but grew up pretty gosh darn poor, quite honestly.

And so that's one reason why, too, is we give so much back.

Like Elaine, you know, you could even say, too, like, you know, had subsidized lunches and things.

And so, like, it's a matter of, you know, we grew up with not having, so we figured out how to have success, have fun and then also help other people is the big thing.

- One of the things that you said that kind of we went right on by - my mom in the seminary.

Yeah, my mom went to Moravian College.

So just everything about my life is a little bit crazy.

So we moved back here.

I was born in Saratoga, New York, moved down here, my mother started to work with my Aunt Cathy Kavounas who had a real estate company.

So she sold real estate, made a lot of money at it, but then had her calling because her big thing was, when I was born, I was DOA, and so if I lived, she was do God's work and obviously I lived.

And so she kept that promise.

My mom was always one of conviction.

And, you know, she decided something, she was going to do it.

And then when I was in fourth grade, she decided to go in the seminary and our whole lives changed.

We used to clean real estate offices to get my mom through school.

There was a lot of things that we did to sacrifice for my mom to be a minister.

And so, thus, later on in her life, she sacrificed a lot to actually help us in things because, kind of like, payback, kind of thing.

- So, yeah.

- What part of Mom being a preacher is most kind of influential in who Zeke is today?

- Empathy.

Giving back to others.

There's something out there larger than self.

Being a part of something bigger, driving it to be successful.

My mother was a very successful preacher.

It sounds crazy, but every single church she worked with became more "profitable" because of her.

She was a businessperson.

You know, before I was born, she had her own hair salons and things in Upstate New York.

So she had her calling.

And so she became a minister and she actually worked up, what, two weeks before she passed away, she was still working.

- Incredible.

- Yeah.

- Now, you talk about empathy and you're talking about a calling.

Elaine, we've had some pretty personal conversations on air about how you approach your interaction with your multiple businesses.

Very much like a calling.

Do you think there's almost a generational connection there?

- For sure.

I always thought I had an old soul because my father was 20 years older than my mother.

So growing up, I had this old-fashioned mentality instilled in me and people mattered.

Like, I love that you're telling a story about your mom because she did all that stuff.

Even though we went through all this other stuff to get there, she's still acquiescing and got through it and always gave back.

And I'm a lot like that and Zeke is a lot like that.

People don't see that side of us because we don't talk a lot about that.

- We don't promote it.

- No, no.

It's just who we are.

We've both been working...

I've been working since I'm 12 years old.

We don't know what it's like not to work.

And it's not about the money sometimes, it's about giving back.

And how can I make your life better?

How can I make a difference in your life?

- I'm going off script.

There is no script.

So for those of you at home, look behind the curtain.

The idea that you don't promote the giving back piece - I'm of a different generation and you wouldn't... That would almost negate the giving back part.

- It's almost embarrassing.

- Is that part of how you feel?

- 100%.

- I get embarrassed.

Like, I don't want to be called out for stuff like that because the calling should just be done without being recognized.

However, as a businessperson for our companies and doing the marketing and branding, that stuff's important to put out there.

- But we don't often, though.

- No, we don't.

Personally, we do so much.

But we have to figure out... - The balancing act.

- ..what's best for the business.

So it's hard.

- Philosophy is a thread that comes through everything I've read about your life.

I already know a little bit about the philosophy that Elaine has brought through, but even Zekraft, where we talk about, if I've got this right, nourishing body, mind and spirit.

- Correct.

- Did I get that right?

- Yep.

Yep.

- That's a philosophy.

People don't talk about philosophy.

They think it's boring.

- It's not.

Is apparently drives your business.

- Absolutely.

So it's different.

So like, you know, you can have a restaurant to feed people.

That's great.

But when you flip the switch and say that you actually want to nourish somebody, it's a completely different mind-set, - Completely different mind-set.

So we would do.

for the past ten years, I'd go into schools, elementary schools, and teach the kids about nutrition, exercise and mindfulness in these big assemblies wrapped around art.

I've always been a big advocate for the arts and things in the Lehigh Valley, and beyond.

And so about nourishing people is essential because it's not... You can give somebody a titbit of something, you know, News Bite or whatever, but it's not until you actually give them some sort of meat or some sort of greater good, will they actually get something back out of it.

So you actually really have to be conscientious of what you're doing.

So we literally we provide a very high-quality product.

We do not charge them money we should be for, quite honestly.

But because our business plan is not necessarily to make a lot of money, but it's literally to elevate people's knowledge and also elevate people's palate and so that they understand what is also out there.

- The term farm to table is pretty common these days.

For a long time, no-one had heard the phrase and now it's almost table stakes.

You almost have to be that aware.

But your commitment to the people that you work with, some people call them vendors, your suppliers, - Oh, no, I see my farmers every week.

- And I've heard you reference them as partners.

- 100%.

- OK. - Yeah, well, because, like, it's funny because right now we're having a greens problem.

I know it sounds really funny, but like getting as much... Cos we do a lot of salads like.

If I told you how many pounds of lettuce we go through in a week...

So the problem we've been having is the farmer can't produce enough.

So we try and get two farmers, but then the problem is, is then they're not in sync, nor do they produce the same product.

So now we're actually trying to buy through Bowery, which is a local farm, interior farm.

It's a hydroponic farm locally.

- Right, - They came out of Brooklyn.

So we're trying to get product from them.

But we're talking, like, when you're buying 60lbs of lettuce a week, you have to realize how much land that is.

People don't think about that.

- Tremendous.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

And so it's those weird things.

So like, yeah, we've been working with, talking with, different farmers to literally just grow for us.

So we're working, we're trying to solve the problem and also make sure that they have a livelihood, you know?

- You say we.

The two of you work together.

- We do, yeah.

- And there are lots of husbands and wives out there watching right this moment going, "No way in hell, I couldn't do that."

How does that work?

- It's not easy.

No, seriously, it's not.

It just is... - A learning experience.

- It's learning.

And also, too, is a matter of listening.

Because we both have that problem, because we'll hear something, not listen, we'll hear something and we react.

And instead of actually listening, OK, taking all the information and then making an educated decision from there.

But what we're trying to do now is create lanes.

And so, like, I have a certain lane where, like, basically I'm all in the food side of it and, you know, the growth of the company and on the business side of things, you know, more on the accounting and finance side of it.

And where Elaine does more of the marketing and more of the HR side of stuff.

- I'm too tempted.

So he's the A-lane.

You're the E-Lane?

- Yeah.

We skip there through B, C, D. - I'm glad he got over E-Z, though.

- Not bad.

That clarity, perhaps, is the right word, of roles... - The hard thing is actually to have those very finite, because we actually, you know, we move over each other's lanes all the time.

- But they're changing, though, because things in the company change and things change.

- Amazing growth.

- Right this moment, you have roughly how many employees?

- 30... - About 30.

- 36, I think it is, wasn't it, at the last count?

- 32, maybe.

- Yeah.

- OK.

So in the 30s - a substantial business, no doubt about it, but still a small business.

And as the owner of a small business, as every owner out there is listening going, "We do everything."

- Yeah.

- 100%.

- You walk in, that needs to be picked up, you pick it up, that needs to be moved, you move that, you need to talk to somebody about my lettuce delivery, it's whomever has that I've got it.

I got it.

So that communication piece for folks who hear and do as opposed to hear, process and do.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, real challenge.

- Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that comes up and I'm like, "That's you.

That's all you.

I have nothing to do with that."

Not that I don't want to deal with it, but that's in his lane.

- That's his wheelhouse.

- And then things that I know, and there's times as husband and wife where, you know, when we cross over and we will butt heads, but that's our business.

And then we say to each other, "I love you.

Goodnight," at the end of the day, because we're husband and wife first.

Business is second.

- 100% - Outstanding.

Outstanding.

- You have to live that way - Outstanding.

Now, because making independent films is so much like running a restaurant, your head spins.

But from what I've learned about your background, it really is the fundamental skills of, gosh, large scale on limited resource.

That's an entrepreneur.

That's the definition.

- Film-making is a heck of a lot harder than doing what we're doing now.

- Wow.

- But I got to say, my production background made home meal delivery that we do easy.

Catering, easy.

The challenges that we're having right now is actually our stores.

Just because it's a lot more personnel, we're trying to figure out the ebbs and flows of business.

You know what people like, what people don't like, how much education do we do?

How much do people know?

There's all these little weird idiosyncrasies that we deal with on having multiple locations at the same time.

But if film-making brought me anything, it was the ability to actually look at a problem across a wide scope and then to be able to dissect it and get it solved.

In the film industry, when you're moving from one location to another, it's called a company move.

You have to make sure that all your gear and everybody is there ahead of time for your actors to arrive.

So it's a lot of logistical things, but you have to...

I very seldom write things down.

I literally remember an amazing amount of stuff.

- Drives me crazy!

- Oh!

- Yeah, yeah.

- I'm horrified.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I write everything down.

- But I mean, I start my days at five in the morning and I basically am home, like, around between five and eight o'clock at night.

So I easily work 105 hours a week right now.

That's seven days a week, 15 hours a day, but absolutely love it, you know?

And that's what keeps me going, is a matter of, like, knowing that we're producing such a quality product and also happy and excited about all the people that work with us, because not only do we employ them, but we also learn a lot from them as well.

And it's not a matter of - it's not just giving.

It's a matter of, like, a give and take kind of thing.

It's important to find the right people.

Elaine is the one that hires all of our baristas and everybody at the front of the house for, you know, all the stores, and then I'm on the kitchen side of it.

But she's done an amazing job with hiring people.

We have people that stay with us, thank God.

- In our world, we talk about taking our work very seriously, but we don't take ourselves very seriously at all.

And there seems to be that kind of a culture on the Zekraft side as well, an intensity about getting the job done wonderfully.

But a commitment to enjoying the trip.

Is that true?

Am I getting it right?

- I don't know.

- I do.

I goof around every once in a while... - Yeah.

- .. with my team.

- Oh, yeah.

We're still who we are, because I still do my photography.

I still do that as well.

And I still get to - remember the last time we were on, if you go back to the other episodes, I talked about mission and passions, and your visions and values, and things like that.

I still get to do all those things to fulfill my mission and values with my staff now.

So I have somebody come in and I noticed that they're an artist or they're a musician.

Well, let's get you on stage in one of our cafes.

Now we have a platform for them.

So we're always looking for ways to empower our staff to use their gifts and talents, whether it's with us or outside of us, we will still help them.

- 100%.

- You know, somebody that comes as a dishwasher is now our pastry assistant because I saw that they had talent.

Why would I keep her in there?

So I get to do what I love, what I'm passionate about, with now 30 people, and I'm constantly looking for those things.

That's the heart of this business.

It's not just about us.

How can I make it better for you?

- You mentioned heart.

The two of you have been together as a, I guess, blended family is the right term.

Three amazing girls.

As the father of three amazing girls, I relate pretty directly.

Maybe a tough question - what have you learned from being around all these girls that has helped kind of advance Zeke to be Zeke?

- Wow.

That's an interesting question.

I'm getting too emotional, too, at the same time.

Uh... Wow.

So much.

I mean, just this past weekend for Thanksgiving having them all here.

Before, it was a matter of, previously in my life, before Elaine, it was a matter of having events.

It was wrapped around events or things in life.

But I had more fun and enjoyment just sitting around a table with the girls.

It's a matter more so of enjoying the simplicities of life than it is the big events of life.

Like, I'm not a celebrator.

I can't celebrate my own successes, by any means.

My premieres, and stuff like that.

I just...

It doesn't make...

I'm not comfortable with it.

Like, it's not about me.

It's about the work, and let me hide in the background.

I have no problem speaking to people.

But the girls have taught me so much, just as a matter also, too, as a matter of being an educator, being somebody for somebody to look up to.

Like my one film InSearchOf, it's about the repercussions of the consequence of people's sexual actions.

We got a lot of blowback from it, but it's also been a very successful film in the long run.

But our daughters would never have thought I would have made that film.

It's intense.

There's nudity in it, and things.

And, like, Emily was just like, I can't believe that he made that.

- And she just watched it.

- And, you know, and then there was the conversation - would I do that today?

And I don't know the answer to that.

My off the cuff initially, I would say no, I probably would not have.

But if I dig deeper and be like, why did I make that film to begin with?

Then I would say, yes, I still would.

So there's the superficialness of things has gone away being around, you know, four women all the time.

And it's actually gotten a little bit deeper.

And also, too, is the matter of the talking about personal things as well, something that we've never done.

I mean, my family is pretty buttoned up, you know, and didn't really express much and everything else and things.

But being around, you know, Elaine and the three girls, it's like, you know, it's fun, it's great.

And I'm very proud of the girls and I'm very happy to be a part of their lives.

But also, too, is, like I've always said to the girls as well, that it's important for them to have an amazing relationship with their dad as well.

And so that's a big thing of just like being a stepdad.

You know, I know that it's kind of like the substitute teacher sometimes, you know, but at the same time, it's just a matter of, you know, I know I have the love and respect of them, but I love and respect them tremendously.

- As part of a blended family I really appreciate what you just said, cos it will speak to the hearts of so many people watching either who are step dads, step moms, step children who are hearing that there's a real love, a really deep love that crosses from generation to generation.

-It's also respect.

Also raising three girls and not being their biological father, you have to really respect them as individuals just because of - not crossing lines or anything like that - like, I thoroughly respect our girls and I'll ask for their opinions quite a bit.

Like, I remember when we first started Zekraft, as a matter of, like, the logos and stuff, I'd go to the girls and say, "What do you think about this?"

And then I'd get feedback from them and I'd go back with, you know, start redesigning things and stuff and, you know, products and so forth.

Like, I respect their opinions.

Will I take it all the time?

No, you know.

But that's being an educated person.

You don't take everybody's opinion.

- It's not unlike someone, I don't know, who might... - But respect is a big thing with raising step children.

- Of course.

And not unlike asking the opinion of my daughter about what tie I should wear and make sure I don't look silly when I leave the house.

- Right.

Right.

Right.

- I get that completely.

We have a minute or so left.

Is there one piece of advice that you would give a married couple who's thinking about the entrepreneurial life?

- Together?

- Yeah, together.

What...?

- I'll go first, yeah.

- Go ahead.

Because the first thing - it's together, and my slogan with Zeke is "no matter what".

But, I will not lose myself.

- Oh, very good.

- I won't.

I am who I am.

And, I mean, I have the partner that still supports all of that.

And I still support if he wants to go do another film while we're doing all this, I'd be like, "Oh, gosh."

You still have to be who you are to be a better together, honestly, because if not, it's not going to work.

- Sir.

- And the thing that's true is the matter of like doing a lot of preplanning.

Like, we have a style sheet, for instance, like, how everything's supposed to look across the brand.

And so it's a matter of making concrete decisions very early on that you don't deviate from because you're building something together.

And you really have to take an inventory of all those things in advance of it.

Like, you know, how are you doing the banking?

How are you doing these sorts of things?

- Very good.

I have a feeling there may be an Elaine 4 in our future.

- Oh, boy!

- That's just a feeling.

Thank you so much.

-Thank you for having us.

- Thank you, both.

Folks, for everybody out there, if you didn't pick up at least half a dozen things that you're going, "I got to think about "that, I got to really make a note of that," that's why we put these on our website so you can go back and revisit the show and make some notes and really see where that all fits for you.

Because this is what it's all about - More Than Money is all about - you.

We want to be relevant to you.

So I want to thank you for spending part of your evening with us.

I hope you picked up some great ideas and I hope you picked up enough that you're going to want to return next week when we're back in this studio for our next edition of More Than Money.

Goodnight.