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Speaker 1: The last time that we spoke on the episode you

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Speaker 1: had the restaurant Homemade in Baltimore, and the reason why

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Speaker 1: the episode is so leg you know, you guys should

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Speaker 1: check it out episode eleven, is that you kind of

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Speaker 1: you broke down your business model. You broke down the

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Speaker 1: streams and it was very detailed as far as numbers

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Speaker 1: and all that, and people wasn't really familiar with. I

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Speaker 1: think it was kind of new. Yeah, like that wasn't

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Speaker 1: something that people really did before, right. I think you

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Speaker 1: kind of changed the game where you opened the door

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Speaker 1: as far as transparency. But since then a lot has changed.

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Speaker 1: You moved from Baltimore to New York. Yeah, yeah, you

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Speaker 1: switched from the restaurant to we had Cloudy Donuts. That's

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Speaker 1: your new operation that you got running. So a lot

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Speaker 1: of a lot has changed, right, So let's catch the

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Speaker 1: audience up to speak. How did you transition from Baltimore

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Speaker 1: the restaurant to SOHO the vegan donut spot.

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: You know, you know, my thing is this, I always

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Speaker 3: tell the person, when you go fast, you grow fast.

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Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. So nothing really educate you

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Speaker 3: more than just living real life and doing it at

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Speaker 3: a fast space. So when y'all saw me in the

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Speaker 3: restaurant space, it was more about getting settled in and

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Speaker 3: coming home. I had one goal when I came home,

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Speaker 3: and that was to be legit. I had an advantage

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Speaker 3: with that because it was like I saw the world

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Speaker 3: through the lens of a criminal, somebody who was just

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Speaker 3: coming home, and like, Yo, shit, I can't believe I

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Speaker 3: got a legit spot. I got people on payroll, my

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Speaker 3: mother got come see this. You know what I'm saying,

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Speaker 3: because I grew up just straight immersed in the criminal lifestyle.

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Speaker 3: So when I had the opportunity to come on the show,

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Speaker 3: I had built out the brunch restaurant, I had the

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Speaker 3: food trucks, and it was really about the supper club

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Speaker 3: and creating verticals within my business that would allow me

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Speaker 3: to grow. Now, what I always encourage entrepreneurs to do

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Speaker 3: is to focus on the main thing, keep the main

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Speaker 3: thing the main thing, And for me, after I got legit,

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Speaker 3: it was really about making some real money. So in

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Speaker 3: the midst of the restaurant, you deal with a lot

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Speaker 3: of nuances, whether it's dealing with staff coming in front

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Speaker 3: of the house, back the house managers and so on

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Speaker 3: and so forth. So I was like, yo, let me

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Speaker 3: do a little bit more history, because once you over

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Speaker 3: the excitement of being legal, you got to deal with

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Speaker 3: the excitement of ambition and wanting to get some money.

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Speaker 3: And I always tell people, once you get over the

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Speaker 3: good look, you get some good money. Right. So I

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Speaker 3: got to a place where where I was at was enough,

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Speaker 3: and it was like, all right, what's next for me?

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Speaker 3: So I begin to focus on one singular product, and

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Speaker 3: for me, it was a donut. And the reason why

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Speaker 3: I focused on that is because if you get a

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Speaker 3: donut right, you don't need to catch up hot sauce, mayonnaise, mustard.

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Speaker 3: You're not looking for a refill, You're not looking for

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Speaker 3: a way that they give you a check. It reminds

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Speaker 3: me of the game. It's straight product driven. If I

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Speaker 3: got a quality product, it's over the counter service. You're

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Speaker 3: coming in out the space. It reminds me of like

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Speaker 3: a trap house. I give you the product, you don't

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Speaker 3: even know who I am, you gone, and I'm able

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Speaker 3: to scale that. So it was a scalable model as

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Speaker 3: opposed to a traditional restaurant where you're dealing with so

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Speaker 3: many elements and components. And that's why I chose donuts.

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Speaker 2: So the transition because homemade everybody remembers. For that episode,

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Speaker 2: we had the supper club piece too. We left all

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Speaker 2: that we came here. What was the transition like from

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Speaker 2: a business standpoint of, all right, this is a new city.

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Speaker 2: I may not be familiar with the ins and outs,

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Speaker 2: the demographics are different. Talk about that piece.

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Speaker 3: It was all like hustling out of town. It was

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Speaker 3: all it was all about. It was so crazy because

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Speaker 3: and I'm so excited for my partner, so d two

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Speaker 3: to talk because as you as any hustler, when you

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Speaker 3: go out of town, you get through a woman and

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Speaker 3: you get to the community, right, like, for example, what

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Speaker 3: my superpower was my partner? And it was really about

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Speaker 3: us strategizing, like, all right, here's this life that we're

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Speaker 3: gonna bail, here's this brand we're gonna build, and how

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Speaker 3: are we going to be able to connect with the

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Speaker 3: people in an unconventional way. So when I came to

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Speaker 3: New York, I knew a few things. I knew that

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Speaker 3: I had to get familiar with the landscape, be respectful

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Speaker 3: of the people, and provide them with a phenomenal product.

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Speaker 3: So when we used to sell dope, we call it

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Speaker 3: dropping teas. I don't know if they're seeing it in

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Speaker 3: no wire, but like dropping t's is basically like if

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Speaker 3: you get a couple ounces of dope, you get some grams,

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Speaker 3: you put them together with some quinin benita, and then

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Speaker 3: you pass out test us. So like on the why

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Speaker 3: they would say dropping teas because now all the dough

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Speaker 3: things will congregate to that because it's like, oh, all right,

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Speaker 3: they're giving out these teas. So my teas was complimentary donuts.

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Speaker 3: It was like, yo, I believe in my product is phenomenal,

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Speaker 3: let's just give it away. And that created word of

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Speaker 3: mouth along with her being behind me and in most

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Speaker 3: cases beside me, but also behind me doing additional work

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Speaker 3: or like yo, I'm gonna make sure that I get

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Speaker 3: your product to everybody who don't know you, and trying

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Speaker 3: to sensor a global phenomenon. So it was really about

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Speaker 3: the work that she put in were connected with community

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Speaker 3: and me just being in the lab making sure we

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Speaker 3: had the best shit going out.

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Speaker 1: So Soho, how'd you end up in Soho? Because most

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Speaker 1: of the time, and you start thinking it was in

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn at first, even that was a different type of area.

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Speaker 1: But you know, you as a black entrepreneur, they would

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Speaker 1: probably expect you to be in hall on MM or

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Speaker 1: you know best, or a black neighborhood. Why why did

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Speaker 1: you grab towards soho?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, everything that I do relates directly back to who

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Speaker 3: I am as a man. I don't it's no gimmicks, No,

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Speaker 3: nothing is fatty over here or trendy, right. So, like

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Speaker 3: when I was trapping, I had some real money and

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Speaker 3: I was living in good neighborhoods, but I always felt

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Speaker 3: there wasn't a true place for me in the midst

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Speaker 3: of white afflaunce. I mean, like, think about it. We

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Speaker 3: drive down Rodeo Drive, we got our phone out, we

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Speaker 3: take a bunch of pictures, but black people don't own nothing.

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Speaker 3: Then we go on Madison Avenue, we got our phone out,

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Speaker 3: We buy a bunch of pocket a bunch of purses

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Speaker 3: and jackets, but black people don't own nothing. And I

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Speaker 3: always lived in these particular spaces, and I felt like, Yo,

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Speaker 3: where's the space for us, Where's the space for the

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Speaker 3: black man who's successful? Everything doesn't have to be like

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Speaker 3: a charity case, right, So I was like, Yo, I'm

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Speaker 3: gonna put the donut shops in areas that I was

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Speaker 3: specifically living, and it was the same thing in Baltimore,

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Speaker 3: and Baltimore we in white neighborhoods. That's the flowing as

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Speaker 3: well too. It's not intentionally trying lane in the white folks,

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Speaker 3: but it's just really just following my own path of

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Speaker 3: where I would live. And I felt like from what

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Speaker 3: I've seen other brands, whether it was Kissed or Ald

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Speaker 3: or Supreme, I felt like that for black people to

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Speaker 3: get seen in a different light and to be global phenomenas,

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Speaker 3: you needed global retail positioning. So it's like the only

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Speaker 3: way I'm going to become successful is to position myself

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Speaker 3: next to the other people. So I was never comfortable

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Speaker 3: being like the biggest lion on my block. I want

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Speaker 3: to get in a den with the other lions and

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Speaker 3: show you what I got. We're here now,