Speaker 1: Obviously you've created your own formula. How do you protect
Speaker 1: it from somebody who's saying like, oh, I can do
Speaker 1: the same thing. Is it Is it something that you
Speaker 1: try to patent or that word it.
Speaker 2: Is pat Nobody nobody can you know?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm telling you I got the business right before
Speaker 3: I got the business right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: At the trenches. It took a while to get here, Yan,
Speaker 2: but come take it from me.
Speaker 4: My graduates from my school being false back drop bag
Speaker 4: drop Mike, drop back, drop drop.
Speaker 1: Money. It comes with a lot of questions and Fidelity
Speaker 1: can help you get answers. Visit fidelity dot com slash
Speaker 1: black Wealth to learn more.
Speaker 5: All right, guys, welcome back, e y l back home.
Speaker 5: Traveling around the world, And this is something that we've
Speaker 5: actually been looking forward to for a while Dope episode.
Speaker 5: And we've covered the marijuana industry a few times. To
Speaker 5: Al Harrington, shout out to a few people that we've
Speaker 5: covered in the space, but this is something that's interesting.
Speaker 5: I just told him the only thing that I do
Speaker 5: smoke is hookah. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. So you know,
Speaker 5: I'm not sure who introduced this to us this interview.
Speaker 1: God perhaps God did so black also known as black tatted.
Speaker 5: Uh, he's killing it in New Orleans, from New Orleans,
Speaker 5: and then it just spread all over the map and
Speaker 5: started a company called Black Smoke.
Speaker 2: So it's a.
Speaker 5: Black owned sheisha sheisha company, which is the that's the
Speaker 5: real name for kah right. Sure. So, but then he
Speaker 5: has the portable joints as well. It's interesting, I believe
Speaker 5: there's no tobaccooe, no tobacco, no nicotine, because that's what
Speaker 5: they always say. It's like smoking hookahs, like smoking a hundred.
Speaker 2: Undred figure it's bad.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's bad for your lungs. So and then but
Speaker 5: he's killing it. So he just had two million dollars
Speaker 5: Black Friday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, seven man, congratulations.
Speaker 1: Don't discount this point seven.
Speaker 5: So he got he got a lot of rap artists
Speaker 5: that you know, have endorsed the brand, from Lil Wayne
Speaker 5: to Cardi B to Lorilla Yogatti. The list goes on.
Speaker 5: So this is gonna be a dope conversation. We're going
Speaker 5: to talk about, you know, how he got into the industry,
Speaker 5: how he was able to scale a brand, marketing, social
Speaker 5: media and all that stuff. But person foremost thank you
Speaker 5: for joining us. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me many Yeah, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah double to shout out to the Governor building.
Speaker 5: When's the episode coming.
Speaker 1: Treehouse Live from the Treehouse.
Speaker 2: Shout out to the Treehouse baddies.
Speaker 5: All right, so let's get into this. So how do
Speaker 5: you get into producing hookah sticks?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 5: How did that even happen? Because I've never really even
Speaker 5: thought about that being a business?
Speaker 3: Yeah, just like yourself, Like me, I love hookah. You know,
Speaker 3: that's just something I love to do. But I never smoke, Mariana,
Speaker 3: I never smoked cigarettes or nothing like that. But just
Speaker 3: the realization of understanding that me smoking hookah, it's just
Speaker 3: like smoking a pack of cigarettes. So I just wanted
Speaker 3: to figure out a way to how to eliminate the
Speaker 3: effects of something like nicotine tobacco. If I'm choosing not
Speaker 3: to smoke that but still be able to enjoy hohoka
Speaker 3: the wait that I do because it's something I love,
Speaker 3: I didn't want to give up, so I pretty much
Speaker 3: needed a healthy alternative. And that's like where it all
Speaker 3: started from. So I knew in order to smoke hookah,
Speaker 3: like when you're going to diet, Right, the first thing
Speaker 3: we'll say is like fruits of vegetables. That's what we
Speaker 3: consider healthy. I know, vegetables. It wasn't even an option
Speaker 3: for whoker because nobody wan't smoke nose out damn lettuce,
Speaker 3: you know. So I knew fruit was an option because
Speaker 3: first of all, fruit is already incorporated hookah. You go
Speaker 3: to hookah spots and you could get sheet inside of
Speaker 3: a pine up ahead a greape fruit, you know.
Speaker 2: Stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So that's what a flavor exactly, and that's what the
Speaker 3: initiative of it all started from. So I knew it
Speaker 3: had to be a way to create. So it's one
Speaker 3: hundred percent of fruit produced hookah.
Speaker 1: So you got a vision, right, You love hookah, but
Speaker 1: most people can't turn the things that they love into
Speaker 1: actual business. So at what point, right, did you have
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur panoial background or like, how did you figure
Speaker 1: out let me create this business plan to turn this
Speaker 1: passion of something I love to do into something that
Speaker 1: could be profitable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's what's crazy.
Speaker 3: I always use my personality and my influence on influence
Speaker 3: on social media, and I used to do just be myself.
Speaker 3: Should my personality be funny sometimes and stuff like that,
Speaker 3: and it deemed me some kind of way getting into
Speaker 3: the world of becoming the promo king where everybody business is,
Speaker 3: from the smallest business to the biggest businesses. I'm talking
Speaker 3: about as far as we TV wanted me to use
Speaker 3: my personality and sell product. I used to think it
Speaker 3: was so normal, so natural to me. But everybody was like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, that work.
Speaker 2: Do that? Could you do that for my business?
Speaker 3: So I started promoting other people businesses and they started
Speaker 3: making more money than they ever made that everybody was
Speaker 3: coming with testimonial was like, you maybe more money this
Speaker 3: weekend than I made since I've been in business for
Speaker 3: two years, three years, And I was like, all right, cool.
Speaker 3: Then I realized, my god, damn, like I could do
Speaker 3: this for myself, you know what I'm saying. So that's
Speaker 3: when I really understood and like I had something. I
Speaker 3: literally could do this for myself and I could become
Speaker 3: a CEO.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: So how long ago did you start?
Speaker 3: It's almost two years ago, yes, and it became a
Speaker 3: multi million dollar business the first three months.
Speaker 5: So before this, what were you doing?
Speaker 2: I was literally on Instagram doing bro yeah, making a
Speaker 2: lot of money.
Speaker 3: Though I'm influence. I was influenced, but before you was
Speaker 3: an artist at one point. That's the crazy I played
Speaker 3: around with a song. You know, New Orleans is known
Speaker 3: for our culture. We dip you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: we uy, So it's a depth. So they called me.
Speaker 3: They deemed me the dip King. I seemed like they
Speaker 3: always be deeming me something key, the dip king.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, that's a move king, arng
Speaker 2: your leegh it that.
Speaker 1: I know it is. I know that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, but before the Instagram stuff, I used to work
Speaker 3: off shore like that was my gig. That's kind of
Speaker 3: how Instagram kicked off of me because I was always
Speaker 3: showing that boat so off shore, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Off shore?
Speaker 5: What's that?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: You you in the middle of the golf of Mexico
Speaker 3: on ships on tug boats?
Speaker 1: Was doing that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I was doing.
Speaker 3: Wow, That's how I got into Instagram because I was
Speaker 3: so bored. I was throwing only black guy on the
Speaker 3: boat was you know, mister Dave and people sixty three
Speaker 3: years old and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: I'm a young I'm a young guy.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, y'all, I need y'all to connect with
Speaker 3: me and talk to me. And make me feel like
Speaker 3: I'm at home.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. I couldn't go to the
Speaker 2: treehouse in the middle of Golf of Mexico, even in
Speaker 2: the tree.
Speaker 3: So yeah, Like when I really think back, like all
Speaker 3: those things was it was a purpose, all those things,
Speaker 3: Like everything happens for a reason. I truly believe that
Speaker 3: now because you look back all these different elements of life,
Speaker 3: it really what came full circle and got me doing
Speaker 3: what I'm doing today. I feel like if I would
Speaker 3: never work off the show, I would never probably connected
Speaker 3: with the internet as much, never had so much free time,
Speaker 3: never put myself out there, never had nothing else to
Speaker 3: do but to focus on that, you know.
Speaker 1: How just do random? How far out are y'all? Because
Speaker 1: every time I see it, I'm like, yo, how do
Speaker 1: they even get service out there?
Speaker 3: No? Very very very far out, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: Shout out to all all the dudes who's like losing
Speaker 3: their relationships and their wives and stuff out there like fishing,
Speaker 3: so all the ships got a like dock and like, uh,
Speaker 3: even when you see like coal and all that kind
Speaker 3: of stuff like that, that's where it's coming from.
Speaker 2: That's where it's important from.
Speaker 3: So when the ships are so heavy and carrying all
Speaker 3: these barges and stuff like that, they can't dock theirself.
Speaker 3: So that go us and the other ships and the
Speaker 3: tugbos which are a little smaller, and you're pushing the
Speaker 3: ships towards the dock. It's called like landing, uh turn
Speaker 3: for see and things like that. Even when the ship
Speaker 3: is coming out of a doe, they can't turn themselves,
Speaker 3: so you got to connect wyire in line to them
Speaker 3: and pull the boat back and literally help them turn.
Speaker 2: So that's the kind of stuff you do out in
Speaker 2: the gulf. So boring.
Speaker 5: Interesting. So all right, so you get the idea to
Speaker 5: make hookah with fruits, yes, as that's like the base.
Speaker 2: It's made one hundred percent fruit, all right.
Speaker 5: So it's made out of fruit. You get the idea
Speaker 5: for that, but how do you what's the first steps
Speaker 5: to actually get the product produced?
Speaker 3: The first step is getting the product produced is literally
Speaker 3: damn you want me tell you, my resident.
Speaker 2: This is like good birder.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 5: I mean as far as like like as far as
Speaker 5: like what's those steps of actually like manufacturing, Like, Okay,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna get a hookah made in China? And skid
Speaker 5: it sent over like I mean.
Speaker 2: So that's the thing that was the trigger part.
Speaker 3: That's what became the most complicated part for me because
Speaker 3: I couldn't just go and do something that the average
Speaker 3: person could do because I'm literally doing something that has
Speaker 3: never been done. It's something that I created, so it
Speaker 3: didn't have like the proper steps of the right supply it.
Speaker 3: I learnally had to put this together like I learned
Speaker 3: had to find a supply. I had to go through
Speaker 3: so many of them, like people were saying, like supplies
Speaker 3: were saying they couldn't do this because the vision that
Speaker 3: I had and the things I was saying to do
Speaker 3: is like it sounds good, but you cannot put fruit
Speaker 3: juice and inside of a hookah pin and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So that was the most complicated part of literally finding
Speaker 3: somebody that could believe in my vision and we literally
Speaker 3: figured it out together because I didn't have all the
Speaker 3: answers but I just had a vision.
Speaker 2: But now it helped come to life clearly.
Speaker 1: So you're building a team around it because I'm figuring like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're building with fruit, but it takes some like expertise
Speaker 1: and to figure out how to make the right connects
Speaker 1: actually figure out, yo, we could smoke this. If not,
Speaker 1: this could go back absolutely Like who are you? How
Speaker 1: did you find the team or like did you pisch
Speaker 1: the idea of people to say, like this is a
Speaker 1: vision I have, Like how that works?
Speaker 2: That's literally will work with the supplies.
Speaker 3: I just had to be That's why I went through
Speaker 3: so many the people that really realized, Okay, we could
Speaker 3: do this if we use this and we the fruit
Speaker 3: from going bad and this have to be done and
Speaker 3: this could keep it healthy and stuff like that. So
Speaker 3: the supplies actually helped me, you know, take my vision
Speaker 3: and bring it to life. So we kind of like
Speaker 3: work together and created a formula.
Speaker 2: That actually gave you black smoke.
Speaker 1: How cost intensive is it? Because if you're using fruit, right,
Speaker 1: if you make.
Speaker 2: Very costly, it's very costly.
Speaker 3: And then by being made a certain way, I couldn't
Speaker 3: even use like one supply for one thing, Like it
Speaker 3: was such a big deal to be able to get
Speaker 3: the fruit to what it needed to be. And it's
Speaker 3: a whole nother idea of having a hookah pins that
Speaker 3: could hold the kind of fruit and the stuff that's
Speaker 3: going to go in there. So I have to have
Speaker 3: different supplies, like one supply like make the fruit and
Speaker 3: got to give with the other supply to put it
Speaker 3: in the hookah babes Like, it's just it's a lot.
Speaker 3: So it's not something where I could just go and
Speaker 3: put my logo on something and it's already made and
Speaker 3: shipped to me. It's like a whole system. So it
Speaker 3: cost me quite a bit, but hundreds of thousands to
Speaker 3: get started. When I first got started, it cost me
Speaker 3: one hundred thousand. But now, yes, hundreds of thousand. Now, oh,
Speaker 3: a couple of meal, you know what I'm saying, because
Speaker 3: I got to keep up with the hot demand and.
Speaker 5: The supply, so the startup was like one hundred thousand.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Is it just the portable or is it the regular
Speaker 5: hookah too?
Speaker 2: After regular hookah too?
Speaker 3: Even my sheeshes are literally you opening and this the
Speaker 3: actual fruit, like it's all fruit.
Speaker 2: Everything is one hundred percent fruit based.
Speaker 5: Do you have to get like FDA approval for that or.
Speaker 3: And yes, and that's what the things that that takes
Speaker 3: the time takes some time. My legal team is already
Speaker 3: like and it works with all that stuff. The FDA approval,
Speaker 3: that's just something that doesn't happen overnight. Will have no
Speaker 3: doubt in the world that it's going to be FDA approved.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of steps that go into it's
Speaker 1: obviously the FDA approval, but trademarking, like talk about the
Speaker 1: lessons you have to learn, like to get this thing
Speaker 1: actually a product that people could use.
Speaker 3: So that's that's the thing. That's that's a lot of
Speaker 3: stuff that I'm I'm like still learning, like I give myself,
Speaker 3: try to give myself more knowledgeable about it every single
Speaker 3: day because, like I'm I didn't never this is a
Speaker 3: this is a monstrous company, this bigger than me.
Speaker 2: I didn't even imagine.
Speaker 3: You know, if you could have told me I could
Speaker 3: just come over with this product and have this company
Speaker 3: and probably make ten twenty grand month, I'm like, okay, great,
Speaker 3: at least I got something, you know, some leverage. But
Speaker 3: now it has become something that I didn't prepare myself
Speaker 3: for because you can't tell me in my wife's dreams
Speaker 3: it will be this. So I'm literally literally learning every
Speaker 3: day and getting more knowledge as I go.
Speaker 5: So, all right, so once you got it made and
Speaker 5: all that, now how did you start selling it? Did
Speaker 5: you sell it to the clubs first, or what you're
Speaker 5: selling it hand to handed people like what's the online?
Speaker 3: So I got this thing about me right like I'm
Speaker 3: a I'm a influenzer, a public figure, but I also
Speaker 3: like to be very private. So if I'm dropping something,
Speaker 3: if I'm doing something, I literally never talk about it,
Speaker 3: and my audience noticed about me. That's why they kind
Speaker 3: of stay tuned because you could literally be on Instagram
Speaker 3: today and I ain't posting two months, but today it
Speaker 3: could be like surprise, I do that, like I'm known
Speaker 3: for that. So I was working on it, creating it.
Speaker 3: I used to be on Instagram, lib.
Speaker 2: I used to.
Speaker 3: I actually started during the pandemic. I started Instagram with
Speaker 3: these talent shows. Like I used my playtform. I was
Speaker 3: on Instagram lib, like almost so many celebrities used to
Speaker 3: come to my talent shows every weekend. Like he used
Speaker 3: to have thousands of people in there, people saying they
Speaker 3: thought I was diddy or something like. I ended up
Speaker 3: getting nobody the big brick, but I just made him
Speaker 3: feel like, come on this down the show. You just
Speaker 3: don't don't know who's gonna see.
Speaker 1: You, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So that's uh That's that's really how it was. And wait,
Speaker 3: what was we talking about?
Speaker 5: Just how when you started selling it? Who did you?
Speaker 5: Who did you start selling?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what it is.
Speaker 3: So I once everything was done and everything was pretty
Speaker 3: much you know, form laid, I literally had it already
Speaker 3: in the house and everything what nobody even knew I
Speaker 3: was coming up with it.
Speaker 2: So I literally dropped it on my Instagram.
Speaker 3: I was like surprised that they have seen me smoking
Speaker 3: hookah all the time, like I was known from having
Speaker 3: my wine, having my hookah the whole time. They just
Speaker 3: didn't know it was mine. So so many times it
Speaker 3: was asked me, like what you're smoking? What flavor smoking?
Speaker 3: I'm telling them they trying to go get another brand
Speaker 3: that's that same flavor because I'm not telling them exactly
Speaker 3: what the brain is. So I guess they thinking in
Speaker 3: the sense that he ain't go tell me the brain
Speaker 3: because they ain't pay him to tell me to brain.
Speaker 2: But it was always mine.
Speaker 3: So them trying to keep up and doing what I'm
Speaker 3: doing and me having my influence and when I literally
Speaker 3: say this is what I've been smoking, this is mine
Speaker 3: and not as available now. First day I dropped it
Speaker 3: sold out and it's been like NonStop ever since.
Speaker 1: Well, how much inventory did you have that first day? Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, people always try to figure out business. How
Speaker 1: much should I have in the event that I sell out?
Speaker 1: So what did you say? Like was the number?
Speaker 2: Yes? So this is what was crazy.
Speaker 3: I had spent like one hundred thousand dollars on inventory,
Speaker 3: like getting everything right. And when I say a hundred
Speaker 3: thousand dollars, that was for the design, the inventory, the
Speaker 3: shipping and everything like that. And I had I literally
Speaker 3: got this book. I'm gonna talk about this. I got
Speaker 3: this book that I wrote.
Speaker 1: On the inspiration from others drives us forward. Their resilience
Speaker 1: pushes us to excel, and their path navigates the way
Speaker 1: towards freedom. Ford is proud to celebrate Black History not
Speaker 1: just this month, but year round. They're committed to being
Speaker 1: the fuel for change, supporting Ford Fund program centered around economic, educational,
Speaker 1: and empowerment opportunities for our communities to continue creating the future.
Speaker 1: Learn more at Fordfund dot org. Built Ford Proud.
Speaker 3: Right before I opened my company, and I was like, lord,
Speaker 3: if I could like make one hundred thousand dollars my
Speaker 3: first year, I know that so far fetched, but that.
Speaker 2: Is my goal.
Speaker 3: I won't make one hundred thousand dollars my first year,
Speaker 3: and I won't have all this inventory that I just
Speaker 3: invested in going within my first year of business. So
Speaker 3: I had enough inventory I could make at least one hundred,
Speaker 3: like seventy one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. So when
Speaker 3: I dropped that, I made that one hundred and seven
Speaker 3: hundred eighty thousand dollars the first day.
Speaker 2: Ain't no inventory.
Speaker 3: First day, all the inventory was sold out, So you
Speaker 3: have backwater? Yeah no, no, So I'm saying my year plan,
Speaker 3: I was trying to sell this product that I had
Speaker 3: within one year and make this amount of money within
Speaker 3: that first year. All that product was gone that first day,
Speaker 3: and I made that yearly.
Speaker 1: Go.
Speaker 2: I made that the same day I dropped.
Speaker 1: Now it's time for the real Yeah.
Speaker 3: So now it was horrible for me. I'm stressing, I'm sweating,
Speaker 3: I'm like, what the dude? So now, literally I once
Speaker 3: I dropped, my day that I dropped and I sold out,
Speaker 3: I literally have more product against.
Speaker 2: For two months.
Speaker 3: So then, but I think it worked out of my
Speaker 3: favor because that built this demand. Everybody was trying it
Speaker 3: was talking about it, and everybody that was hearing about
Speaker 3: it wanted then they couldn't get it, so now they
Speaker 3: was ready for the next drap. Oh he sold out,
Speaker 3: so fans, it's gonna sell out again. So every time
Speaker 3: I dropped, everybody anticipating and they setting the lumps.
Speaker 2: People. It's crazy.
Speaker 3: People really be calling off work because they's like they
Speaker 3: can't have their phone or they don't want.
Speaker 2: To miss it. So when I drop, it goes crazy.
Speaker 1: So this is another valuable lesson in the business. Right.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we try to come out with a product, but
Speaker 1: we have multiple products at a time. When we started,
Speaker 1: we had seven different shirt designs until we realized, like, wait,
Speaker 1: people are buying assets of a liability. Yes, we got
Speaker 1: to stick with that. How many flavors of the season
Speaker 1: did you start with? I?
Speaker 3: Actually, I go big or go home. I started with
Speaker 3: fifteen flavors at once. That's why my investments were so high.
Speaker 3: Like that's why, like, Lord peace, let this work for me,
Speaker 3: you know, I started.
Speaker 2: At the extra fifteen flavors at once.
Speaker 3: And also, well, like I say, for somebody else who's
Speaker 3: probably trying to get some advice and want to start business,
Speaker 3: don't know how many products to start.
Speaker 2: With all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: I actually feel like versus trying to push the narrative
Speaker 3: of inventory or push the narrative or have different options
Speaker 3: as people, what you first want to do. The first
Speaker 3: thing first is build a demand for your product, not
Speaker 3: build the inventory for it.
Speaker 2: Because you can get ten of these.
Speaker 3: Designs of jeans and five of these shirts and twelve
Speaker 3: of these hookahs. But if you don't have a demand
Speaker 3: for what you're selling and why people need it and
Speaker 3: why they have to come and get it from you,
Speaker 3: versus just go and get the next best thing for
Speaker 3: the next best person. You just have another product and
Speaker 3: another you know, another item that nobody feel a need
Speaker 3: to want to get. So you build a demand for
Speaker 3: your business and you build the inventory of for that.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, yeah, so.
Speaker 1: You sell out the first batch and now people got
Speaker 1: to re up. Are these one time uses or can
Speaker 1: I get like a refill?
Speaker 2: They disposable? Disposable? Yes, so we just yeah, you gotta
Speaker 2: be like the man, I need you to keep coming
Speaker 2: back baby.
Speaker 5: So but it worked out, But that can actually be
Speaker 5: very harmful for a business if you don't have enough inventory.
Speaker 2: Absolutely and I still struggle with that to this day.
Speaker 3: So every time I every time I get amount of
Speaker 3: inventory right, I will sell out it. And from that
Speaker 3: first time, I started saying, well, I'm gonna get double
Speaker 3: over what I had. But then when I waited a
Speaker 3: little two months and I had got double, I said, well,
Speaker 3: this is gonna last me longer because I got double.
Speaker 2: This and that's sold out in hours.
Speaker 3: So now I'm dealing with the fact that I'm tripling
Speaker 3: and it's sold out like so it's like, no matter what,
Speaker 3: I just can't keep up with the man. So now
Speaker 3: this is a world exclusive. I never even had enough
Speaker 3: room to have the demand which I needed. I'm a
Speaker 3: new business a year old. I had a little, small,
Speaker 3: little warehouse, and now it's so crazy that I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm operating like Amazon. I just closed on can
Speaker 3: make a million like head quarters. So now I'm feeling
Speaker 3: good about that because I appreciate that. I feeling good
Speaker 3: about that because my problem with making money and running
Speaker 3: my businesses always it stops and starts because I'm literally
Speaker 3: the problem is I'm running out of inventory. So now
Speaker 3: I feel like, what I run out of inventory, the
Speaker 3: sky's the limit. I could just keep rolling.
Speaker 2: I can keep going.
Speaker 3: All the money that I made, I feel like I
Speaker 3: could have made double and triple that because the whole
Speaker 3: time of me making that much money, I've been sold
Speaker 3: out one, two and three months at a time.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a process. But let's go back to
Speaker 1: that day. Yeah, go back to that day. So you
Speaker 1: sell out, Uh, you're making the money in your mind,
Speaker 1: is it like all right, let me reinvest it? Or
Speaker 1: is it like let me let me get let me
Speaker 1: get some of the things I've always wanted.
Speaker 2: Absolutely reinvested.
Speaker 3: Still to this day, I reinvest pretty much everything, like
Speaker 3: I really feel like.
Speaker 6: Except for the jewelry, I say a lot of raising
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But like a lot going on.
Speaker 2: It took a while. This is hey, it's been. It's been.
Speaker 2: It's been almost two years.
Speaker 3: And I just got this jurory like two months ago,
Speaker 3: two months ago. No cap, look like I'm just getting it,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying, Like, let me keep reinvesting.
Speaker 2: Do that, but real talk, like it takes a lot.
Speaker 3: And I really feel like, no matter what how much
Speaker 3: you reinvesting, you not kept with. I feel like, as
Speaker 3: long as you have inventory, you are not broke. Inventory
Speaker 3: is money, you know what I'm saying. You don't got
Speaker 3: to see that liquid and have that money, that cash
Speaker 3: flow in your hand. But you got money right there.
Speaker 3: You could literally make a post, get an influencer, do
Speaker 3: something any day, and take that inventory and turn it
Speaker 3: into dollars yet again, so I feel as long as
Speaker 3: you gotta, I can have twenty dollars in my bank account,
Speaker 3: but I got a million dollar worth of product in
Speaker 3: the inventory, you know worth the inventory in that warehouse.
Speaker 2: I'm rich. I got a million dollars and it's right there.
Speaker 3: I just got to figure out a way to, you know,
Speaker 3: strategically turn it into dollars again.
Speaker 5: So let me ask you this as far as marketing,
Speaker 5: how do you market You just go on social media?
Speaker 5: Like you got hookah? Like is it is it skits
Speaker 5: that's built out? Do you get other influencing celebrities? Like
Speaker 5: how do you market it? You have a follow up?
Speaker 5: Like how do you push it on social media?
Speaker 3: So, and the best thing that could happen to me,
Speaker 3: hookah is such a popular thing already. People already love
Speaker 3: to hookah, and so I kind of have to influence
Speaker 3: them to do something that they already love to do.
Speaker 3: The only thing I gotta do is like influence them
Speaker 3: on why you should do it with mine instead of theirs.
Speaker 3: And the things that I use is so easily use
Speaker 3: because it's actually the truth, A healthy turnative literally made
Speaker 3: from fruit, and you can do it without the nicotine
Speaker 3: the tobacco. Like you like the smoke hookah a lot,
Speaker 3: so I know you could even agree that when you
Speaker 3: smoke that hookah in the club, everything your could be hurting.
Speaker 3: You could get a hair rush, you get a headache,
Speaker 3: that'd be that nicotine, that tobacco.
Speaker 1: So he only smokes hookah. The R and B's playing
Speaker 1: you don't smoke it a lot.
Speaker 3: Especially Confessions album, right, but yeah talk so yeah, it's
Speaker 3: kind of like the consumers pretty much market the product
Speaker 3: for you and then they be excited to get it.
Speaker 3: You kind of get like free free promo all day,
Speaker 3: just NonStop, you know. And the thing about it, as
Speaker 3: far as the celebrities and stuff like that, it's really
Speaker 3: crazy that these people be You be thinking that these
Speaker 3: these are people that you really can't touch, a people
Speaker 3: that you can't reach, but you find out when you
Speaker 3: have a business and a popping product that they really
Speaker 3: sitting there on their phone, scrolling and looking at the
Speaker 3: next best thing, just like us. They slily your DM
Speaker 3: LEARC said, what's up, King, I gotta get you get
Speaker 3: some of that. I'm like, I'm saying to my soul,
Speaker 3: look like but I'm like, oh, write no thing, you know,
Speaker 3: trying to cool calling my team like.
Speaker 2: Stripped that out right now overnight.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: Look, I'm just saying, but but yeah, that's just really
Speaker 3: how it go. And it started with with love and
Speaker 3: organic like relationships. And then they post it. I don't
Speaker 3: I don't care if a celebrity post me on the instantore.
Speaker 3: I just send the free product. They still use their influence.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna take that. It's a story and I'm a
Speaker 3: screen recording and I'm gonna post on my page. Not now,
Speaker 3: they gave me a post and that post is going
Speaker 3: to go all all over social media and so influences.
Speaker 3: What what's the key you know to to turn it
Speaker 3: into dollars?
Speaker 2: Right now?
Speaker 1: That's the commercial right there. So yeah, obviously I'm figuring
Speaker 1: your marketing as the healthy hookah right this is a
Speaker 1: healthy alternative. If you're going to do hookah, obviously you've
Speaker 1: created your own formula. How do you protect it from
Speaker 1: somebody who's saying like, oh, I can do the same thing.
Speaker 1: Is it Is it something that you try to patent
Speaker 1: or that word.
Speaker 2: It is pat nobody nobody can you know?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm telling you I got the business right before
Speaker 3: I got the business right, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: the trenches.
Speaker 2: It took a while lot to get here, but come
Speaker 2: take it from me.
Speaker 5: So, like what's the makeup of sales. Is it mostly
Speaker 5: through individuals or is it a lot moving through night
Speaker 5: life clubs?
Speaker 3: And so it's only available online, like it's not I
Speaker 3: didn't even get into that world. No wholesale, no distributors,
Speaker 3: like eventually, like you know, it's just it's my baby
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 2: Like I knew.
Speaker 3: That's why I was just saying, like what you were
Speaker 3: just saying with the investors and all that stuff, you
Speaker 3: kind of teaching me knowledge because I didn't know about
Speaker 3: any of this.
Speaker 2: And you you know, in the.
Speaker 3: Black community, we be so guarded and everything, and we
Speaker 3: feel like if we share a percentage of something that
Speaker 3: we're doing everything and we got to be mochraman, we
Speaker 3: got to do it by ourselves or it's more rewarded
Speaker 3: to us to say I did this by myself, so
Speaker 3: you'll really feel like we feel better having one hundred
Speaker 3: percent of two million dollars than having fifty percent of
Speaker 3: five billion dollars, you know what I'm saying. So that's
Speaker 3: the world that I'm really starting to learn now, and
Speaker 3: that's the game that I'm really trying to get more
Speaker 3: into and have a better understanding of. And I really
Speaker 3: feel like, if I can take it this far by myself,
Speaker 3: just imagine what I could do with a machine bombing
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean based on your NLS. So are the
Speaker 1: sales coming domestically, meaning like you seeing it happen dominate
Speaker 1: in the States? If so, like what parts of the
Speaker 1: country Like obviously we're in Atlanta a lot, and that's
Speaker 1: like it's part of the fabric. But yeah, from an
Speaker 1: international standpoint, where in the Middle East and these countries,
Speaker 1: this is part of their culture. Do you have visions
Speaker 1: to expand it from an online space to getting out
Speaker 1: to those parts?
Speaker 2: That's what's crazy.
Speaker 3: Those are the people like Barbados and Dominican Republic and
Speaker 3: all those kind of places they buy bulk. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm like, who is this person who is these people
Speaker 3: like we shipped so much like overseas that is that's
Speaker 3: like it's insane and like I just don't didn't never imagine,
Speaker 3: you know, within one year that I go from the
Speaker 3: States into overseas and things and people like that. But
Speaker 3: I feel like when I get into whole sale and
Speaker 3: distributed it, that's when.
Speaker 2: Really like the world is really go have black smoke.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: So what is the most popular flavor?
Speaker 2: You know what's crazy?
Speaker 3: The most popular flavor is all of them, the bundle
Speaker 3: cells you know what I'm saying, the most the flavors,
Speaker 3: all of them. So you get the bundle, you gonna
Speaker 3: get all all ten of the flavors of the Hookah
Speaker 3: Pin and the Bundle of the She Show, which comes
Speaker 3: comes with fifteen flavors. Whenever somebody get one, they be
Speaker 3: mad because now they love it. You know, you always
Speaker 3: wanna try one and try it first. Now they love it,
Speaker 3: and now they want more. But now it's been sold
Speaker 3: out for so long and you gotta wait, and you know,
Speaker 3: waited so long trying to survive that one pen, and
Speaker 3: then when it it came back and stopped, you couldn't
Speaker 3: get it again. And it's sold out again. So now
Speaker 3: they just buy bundles all day. That's the most favorite thing.
Speaker 5: So how does this work? It's already inside of it.
Speaker 5: You have to light something?
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, Actually, it's just look opening. How about you
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 5: The first ever?
Speaker 1: All right, all right, let's do it.
Speaker 2: But you're like, man, we're.
Speaker 1: Gonna go green apple, green apple. Governor you're he already
Speaker 1: got his governor? Has there? We go up here?
Speaker 2: Tear from the sun side. Smell it right now?
Speaker 1: Smells great? What were we doing?
Speaker 2: All you do?
Speaker 3: How to do is take the plastic. Yeah, take that
Speaker 3: rub out and it's bread activated. You just puffed, blow
Speaker 3: it out your mouth.
Speaker 5: Don't worry, it's just fruit that.
Speaker 1: He doesn't smoke much. This is this taste, good man,
Speaker 1: that's abob.
Speaker 2: This is what I'm in the minute. It's goudstalf gudstalfas
Speaker 2: just like green apple. Doesn't it does absolutely does the
Speaker 2: lights up? Yea. And you just you don't hear. You
Speaker 2: don't hear? Who can like weed?
Speaker 5: Bro?
Speaker 3: You?
Speaker 2: Yeah? You just hit it, You hit it and blow
Speaker 2: it out.
Speaker 1: You're trying to don't put that in your lungs.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to blow guns and I blow out.
Speaker 1: Oh boy.
Speaker 6: So so then a right, so take the conversation. So
Speaker 6: this this is this is good actually all right? So
Speaker 6: so all right, so now let's say I'm done for
Speaker 6: the time. I put this back in like this.
Speaker 3: You have to leakproof. Leak yes, leakproof, turn it upside down,
Speaker 3: I promise you, man in my word.
Speaker 5: So just you just all right, okay, and then you're
Speaker 5: just smoking into this.
Speaker 2: No more smoking to us, no more you good.
Speaker 1: This is probably last day.
Speaker 2: I knew the women.
Speaker 3: I knew the women was gonna want it all in
Speaker 3: their purses and stuff like that. So I didn't want
Speaker 3: to be like, that's leaking all online.
Speaker 1: The fact that that lights up, I mean, this is
Speaker 1: gonna go crazy. It's it's gonna go crazy.
Speaker 5: And so m hmm. Interesting. And then Glowrilla had it
Speaker 5: in her video.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and tomorrow to video with Glorial featuring Card.
Speaker 5: Part Yeah, you knew that that was gonna happen or.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definite kly what was gonna happen because Glorida
Speaker 3: had literally taste the pins already. Everybody was tagging me
Speaker 3: and sending me videos of Glorrida like literally having a
Speaker 3: pin in her hand while she was on stage, so like,
Speaker 3: I'm friends with someone who worked with gloriala shout out
Speaker 3: to and I was like, look, it really like the pins.
Speaker 2: That's so sending Glorida pins.
Speaker 3: She made the video whatever the case in Beasts Witness
Speaker 3: like clothes, was like her friends love these pins so
Speaker 3: much they could smoke them in a video.
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, we send them eight more bundles.
Speaker 1: Bundles like bundles, So how much is it?
Speaker 3: These are thirty nine nine nine much the bundle?
Speaker 2: The bundle is two nine and nine two hundred and
Speaker 2: nine nine dollars.
Speaker 3: And what you saving like over one hundred dollars by
Speaker 3: getting a bundle?
Speaker 1: How many come in a bundle?
Speaker 2: Ten comes in a bundle?
Speaker 1: Now okay, okay. Now we saw Jewel just this Eastern
Speaker 1: great company and we sold at the laws food and
Speaker 1: the incentence marketing in to teens and you know it's
Speaker 1: really dangerous. But you actually said that that loss will
Speaker 1: help you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well I didn't know about that part.
Speaker 3: I just knew about the part of Jewel being banned
Speaker 3: and they were talking about the higher levels of nicotine
Speaker 3: and tobacco. So I didn't even do like interviews or
Speaker 3: nothing on that. But I go on Google and I
Speaker 3: see so many right of saying that jewels has been
Speaker 3: banned for nicotine tobacco, open up the doors for black
Speaker 3: smoke and no nicotine, no tobacco.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what, thank you?
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, Like so many people came over,
Speaker 3: came over, was literally right in my comments, like so
Speaker 3: glad I found this healthy turnover. I've seen this jewel
Speaker 3: got banned and you guys are the next best thing.
Speaker 2: It was just like free promo, you know, best press,
Speaker 2: best bread. So so this.
Speaker 1: Is just.
Speaker 2: One percent fun fact, no negative. Listen.
Speaker 3: It's made up of miracle bearriers, which is actually a
Speaker 3: very popular thing in West West Africa, Like they take
Speaker 3: miracle bearer bearriers to help keep their blood float well,
Speaker 3: bodily functions and everything like that, which is what's deathly.
Speaker 1: This is made up of natural fruits and fruits to America.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 5: So what's your plans on scaling? Like how do you
Speaker 5: take this to the next level?
Speaker 3: And that's literally when I'm in my bubble right now
Speaker 3: trying to figure out because I'm to a level that
Speaker 3: I wouldn't even fathom, right, So my thing is literally
Speaker 3: I'm feeling like I really need to get a machine
Speaker 3: behind me.
Speaker 2: Like I have seen pretty much what I can do.
Speaker 2: I have reached the culture.
Speaker 3: I have this something that hasn't been done yet, Like,
Speaker 3: you know, I have targeted our people. But literally, I
Speaker 3: just really want to disguise the limit on some you know,
Speaker 3: and I'm really trying to figure that out. I really
Speaker 3: feel like I just need to be in the right
Speaker 3: rooms and soak up knowledge from the right people y'all included,
Speaker 3: and really kind of find my way.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like that, man. So you're doing it online?
Speaker 1: I know. We kind of had a little conversation about
Speaker 1: brick and mortar looking into the future. What's your thoughts
Speaker 1: on it or hesitations on it? Because it's like we're
Speaker 1: pretty successful doing a business online. We always talked about
Speaker 1: if you have business, isn't online, you don't really have
Speaker 1: a business. Yeah, it's starting there. Do you think maybe
Speaker 1: brick and mortar right, because it was like it's like
Speaker 1: one of those things or successful already what I need and.
Speaker 2: That I'll be feeling like but again, I'm in a
Speaker 2: new world, so I'm money.
Speaker 1: It comes with a lot of questions, how do I
Speaker 1: save Where should I invest? Can I build wealth to
Speaker 1: pass on? It's hard to know where to get answers.
Speaker 1: That's why the people at Fidelity do what they do
Speaker 1: to make it easier for you to get information to
Speaker 1: make better money decisions. It's what they've built their business on.
Speaker 1: They've got articles and videos, tips and apps, and insights
Speaker 1: and perspectives that make planning, saving, and investing a little
Speaker 1: less stressful. And when you want to talk it through,
Speaker 1: there's a real person on the other end with real answers.
Speaker 1: Helping people is what they do, and they can help
Speaker 1: you too. Help you buy a home, save for your
Speaker 1: kids education, start a business, support your community, and feel
Speaker 1: more confident about the future. Want to learn more, visit
Speaker 1: Fidelity online at Fidelity dot com slash black Wealth. This
Speaker 1: episode is brought to you by P and C Bank.
Speaker 1: A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring,
Speaker 1: and sure, they definitely can be, but understanding a professionals
Speaker 1: routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little,
Speaker 1: day after day. It's like banking with P and C Bank.
Speaker 1: It might seem boring to safe plan and make calculated
Speaker 1: decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is
Speaker 1: what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P
Speaker 1: and C Bank Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty five. Brilliantly
Speaker 1: Boring since eighteen sixty five is a service mark of
Speaker 1: the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. P and C Bank
Speaker 1: National Association Member FDIC ernest What's Up? You ever walk
Speaker 1: into a small business and everything just works like The
Speaker 1: checkout is fast, the receipts are digital, tipping is a breeze,
Speaker 1: and you're out the door before the line even builds
Speaker 1: odds are they're using Square. We love supporting businesses that
Speaker 1: run on Square because it just feels seamless. Whether it's
Speaker 1: a local coffee shop, a vendor at a pop up market,
Speaker 1: or even one of our merch partners, Square makes it
Speaker 1: easy for them to take payments, manage inventory, and run
Speaker 1: their business with confidence, all from one simple system. If
Speaker 1: you're a business owner or even just thinking about launching
Speaker 1: something soon, Square is hands down one of the best
Speaker 1: tools out there to help you start, run, and grow.
Speaker 1: It's not just about payments, it's about giving you time
Speaker 1: back so you can focus on what matters most. Ready
Speaker 1: to see how Square can transform your business, visit Square
Speaker 1: dot com. Backslash, go backslash eyl to learn more. That's
Speaker 1: square dot com backslash, go backslash eyl. Don't wait, don't hesitate.
Speaker 1: Let's square handle the back end so you can keep
Speaker 1: pushing your vision forward.
Speaker 7: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
Speaker 7: in Massachusetts. Thirteen gang member from Al Salvador accused of
Speaker 7: murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with filming and
Speaker 7: selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some of
Speaker 7: the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J.
Speaker 7: Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States Secretary of
Speaker 7: Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are
Speaker 7: at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred
Speaker 7: thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally,
Speaker 7: your next you will be fine nearly one thousand dollars
Speaker 7: a day, imprisoned and deported. You will never return. But
Speaker 7: if you register using our CBP home app and leave now,
Speaker 7: you could be allowed to return legally. Do what's right.
Speaker 7: Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families.
Speaker 2: Will be protected. Sponsored by the United States Department of
Speaker 2: Homeland security probably even break my chain of thought. I'm
Speaker 2: trying not to think the same way. I'm trying to
Speaker 2: think outside of box. You know. It's kind of like
Speaker 2: I feel like, if it's not broke, you know why
Speaker 2: I fix it?
Speaker 3: If I'm I feel like if I'm on line touching
Speaker 3: so many peoples, Like when you're online, you can reach Dominican,
Speaker 3: you can reach New York, La, Atlanta or whatever. But
Speaker 3: if I have a store base, it's just literally for
Speaker 3: the population of which is around me. So I'm just
Speaker 3: feeling like, how, you know, how beneficial could that be
Speaker 3: for me? Also, but I guess having it insight, like
Speaker 3: literally rolling down the street and always being able to
Speaker 3: see black smoke, it's still kind of beneficial. And then
Speaker 3: also I'll be trying to not to think from such
Speaker 3: a large scale, right just thinking that since I'm making
Speaker 3: X amount of dollars online, the fact that I could
Speaker 3: probably make fifty k from a storefront isn't beneficial to me,
Speaker 3: but that fifty k may add up. I just got
Speaker 3: to realize it's different levels, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: It's different ways to you know, break the ice, and
Speaker 3: it could be successful over here. Even if it's not
Speaker 3: the same level of success, that still be considered success
Speaker 3: and all that adds to the pot. You know.
Speaker 1: It's just like one of the things we spoke about
Speaker 1: with like the Marathon store recipes in it, but like
Speaker 1: it became an attraction, right, So you put it in
Speaker 1: a place where you're from, Now people come. You can
Speaker 1: have limited releases, limited items, exclusive items just for the area,
Speaker 1: all kind of like what Pinky's done, where it's like
Speaker 1: there's a chance I might meet you if I come
Speaker 1: to the store, right, because your personality becomes a thing
Speaker 1: where yeah, she has a product, which is the food,
Speaker 1: but people just come sometimes just to meet her. And
Speaker 1: then obviously there's incentives when you come and get there.
Speaker 1: And also the other side of it is that there's
Speaker 1: a real estate play too, right, So when you bring
Speaker 1: that type of value, you're bringing continuous customers to an area,
Speaker 1: the appreciation on the area goes up. But there's a
Speaker 1: couple of things where I see like it could be benefiticial,
Speaker 1: especially like if it's where you're from.
Speaker 3: Right, right, Gota Yeah, So y'all, it's y'all advice. If
Speaker 3: I open up a store front, a store front definitely
Speaker 3: got to start a new audience.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm not I don't really think. I don't think
Speaker 5: a brick and mortar might not be the best idea,
Speaker 5: but I do think getting it into clubs is a
Speaker 5: good idea, Yeah, because I feel like that's something like
Speaker 5: you can have like the premire like in every club,
Speaker 5: mean like have like on the menu, like you know
Speaker 5: when you go to clubs and you order bottles and
Speaker 5: like every club has rose, every club has Don Julio,
Speaker 5: or every club has you know, tequila or whatever. So
Speaker 5: now it's like they have different hookah options, and then
Speaker 5: they'll have your option as one of the hookah options.
Speaker 3: And then I'll be sitting back in the cutting and
Speaker 3: realizing the clubs it's such an inconvenience with those hookahs
Speaker 3: because everybody's crowded, everybody bucked up. The girls can't even
Speaker 3: get through that because somebody about to get burnt like.
Speaker 5: That, And this would definitely makes it a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 5: that's a fact, because like you said, even in restaurants,
Speaker 5: like you know what I mean, you gotta the thing
Speaker 5: is like you gotta pass it. Yes, you got like
Speaker 5: duck and they knocking cools down.
Speaker 1: Burn the floor, the sofa, somebody and the mouthpiece and
Speaker 1: much more convenient.
Speaker 5: This is that's where I see I see a lot
Speaker 5: of scalability in that because, like you said, you got
Speaker 5: the clubs, you got the lounges, and you have the restaurants.
Speaker 5: They all serve hookah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you do both, right, because even like
Speaker 1: Burner with cookies, like that becomes a brand that just travels.
Speaker 1: We know cookies, even if we don't know Burner, we
Speaker 1: know what cookies is. And so like when they see
Speaker 1: the store, it's like, oh, we know what's inside, right,
Speaker 1: we know the level of product. But if you become
Speaker 1: that that brand, especially for this space, I mean, the
Speaker 1: possibilities are endless.
Speaker 5: The only thing with cookies are you I don't think
Speaker 5: you're allowed to mail marijuana.
Speaker 1: You are in California, you can, but I'm saying you
Speaker 1: can't mail ithause that's.
Speaker 5: Why it's like those stores are cash cows, because it's
Speaker 5: like you, if you want to buy the weed, you
Speaker 5: gotta do it right, correct, got a business, but you
Speaker 5: can actually ship it, ship it across state line. So
Speaker 5: and like you said, the hookah thing is interesting because
Speaker 5: you could just smoke hookah just on a random like
Speaker 5: I just see people on with pins like it's those
Speaker 5: fake pins and all that. You could just be like
Speaker 5: on a golf course.
Speaker 1: We don't know what it is. We assuming this hohoker,
Speaker 1: but this is That's what I'm saying. But I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: just those portables everywhere. Yeah, people are smoking at everywhere.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's in all of them. They're very
Speaker 1: popular right now. That is actually something that's beneficial.
Speaker 3: Man, I try to puff on those things. I don't
Speaker 3: know how people do it, like the marijuana, like those nose,
Speaker 3: like those big jewel and all that stuff. Like, Man,
Speaker 3: I'm talking about list.
Speaker 1: That we want it dangerous too. I know some people
Speaker 1: who try them.
Speaker 2: I never tried rollers.
Speaker 1: You don't want to go on.
Speaker 5: So are there other people that's making fruit based hookah? No,
Speaker 5: you're the only person that makes fruit.
Speaker 2: Based person that make fruit based yes, thank you.
Speaker 5: You don't so you don't have any competition. No, do
Speaker 5: you foresee competition coming?
Speaker 3: I'm I'm you know, I'm the blueprint of something, right,
Speaker 3: So it's only right that when people see something and
Speaker 3: you do it like it's going to be others coming
Speaker 3: behind you just try to duplicate it like I'm aware
Speaker 3: of that, and that doesn't even affect me in any
Speaker 3: kind of way.
Speaker 2: Like I just know what I make, what I create.
Speaker 3: That's just literally if you love your your grandma or
Speaker 3: your mama gumbo, and they just probably tell you how
Speaker 3: you get in the play.
Speaker 2: Like I put a little couple of sausage in there,
Speaker 2: put a little you know, trumpy laid baby.
Speaker 3: You could sit there and do it the same way.
Speaker 3: But it's gonna probably be good for you. But it
Speaker 3: ain't gonna be your mama.
Speaker 1: Gummy ain't gonna be the same.
Speaker 2: And that's what black smoke is.
Speaker 1: No, not that I haven't either.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 2: You gotta come to Muros and get some gumbo.
Speaker 1: Gotta come.
Speaker 5: We make it without pork though.
Speaker 1: We got to seafood seafood gumbo.
Speaker 2: Couldn't believe Monday is not open on Tuesday.
Speaker 5: Monday is not open on Tuesdays. I just not get it,
Speaker 5: Like I mean, I can only have it yesterday, right,
Speaker 5: all right? The reset, Let's talk about Dwayne Carter had it.
Speaker 5: He's is he He's the most famous person to ever
Speaker 5: come from the Wornes.
Speaker 1: Absolutely one thousand. That's my guy.
Speaker 5: So he he's uh smoked. Your Yeah, how that happened.
Speaker 2: You know what's crazy? Uh? I think it was.
Speaker 3: It's crazy because you always think about you know, we
Speaker 3: always said we hear that light a flick and.
Speaker 2: That Wayne song.
Speaker 3: So now I'm like, damn it not we hear that
Speaker 3: that's black smoke, but that that relationship actually came from Larry.
Speaker 2: My got right here, man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Larry his good friends with mc mahon, which is
Speaker 3: you know, uh litt Wayne right and man and Larry
Speaker 3: always that's one thing he gonna do.
Speaker 2: He go talk to you.
Speaker 3: He can be like, look, you probably know some good
Speaker 3: ship up. You probably know some people, but you got
Speaker 3: to meet my dog. You got to meet blahlah blah.
Speaker 3: He said, hooka pans and this, that and that and
Speaker 3: the other. So you know, we all got got to
Speaker 3: talk and got on phone calls. And Wayne had a
Speaker 3: birthday coming up. McMahon was saying he was gonna make
Speaker 3: sure way ain't get the product. Way ain't got the product,
Speaker 3: Try the product. Love the product was part of his birthday.
Speaker 3: Bad She actually had black smoke on this menu as
Speaker 3: the as the hookah appetized.
Speaker 1: What that feel like? Man, you're from New Orleans, obviously
Speaker 1: we shared in the you know we love Wayne obviously,
Speaker 1: like what that feel like when you see the guy.
Speaker 3: I don't talk the same only talking golden, not bad
Speaker 3: like you understand, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: It gets no bigger than that.
Speaker 1: From Louisiana. So when you uh, you're building right, Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming at some point it's not just you. You
Speaker 1: got to build a team right now, How did that
Speaker 1: work out? We grabbing family or we got our friends?
Speaker 1: How you're building a team out to just go?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it's crazy us with my friend right here,
Speaker 3: which is Dais and day we've been we've been listen,
Speaker 3: it's crazy.
Speaker 2: I love backstory. We was friends like when we was
Speaker 2: like and I were late teens and stuff like that, right,
Speaker 2: and we always had this goal in this motive that
Speaker 2: we need to be rich one day. We don't know
Speaker 2: how we're gonna be rich.
Speaker 3: So we used to be sitting back in our living
Speaker 3: room writing on envelopes, trying to figure out how to
Speaker 3: build a my Space app and a Facebook. A Wheel
Speaker 3: was like, we gotta put we gotta put time out
Speaker 3: of business. We can do our own app, right, So
Speaker 3: coming for a circle, she was running all the insurance
Speaker 3: companies all over the world. I started being off show.
Speaker 3: Then I started my hookah and stuff like that. And
Speaker 3: then as things was growing and I was realizing the
Speaker 3: day you came to my house one day, she was like, I'm.
Speaker 2: Proud of you, but what the hell is you doing?
Speaker 3: Like I was doing my own marketing, my own customer service,
Speaker 3: my own social media, like I was running everything, shipping
Speaker 3: all this.
Speaker 2: She was like, let me help you, my baby. So
Speaker 2: DA just came over here and listen.
Speaker 3: It was started with one conversation in my office in
Speaker 3: my house, and it became the best thing that could
Speaker 3: have ever happened to me. Like so days, just like
Speaker 3: my right hand man, she helped me run everything. Like days,
Speaker 3: you have more access to my life than me. You
Speaker 3: asked me something about me.
Speaker 5: I'm like, I don't know, x Dasia.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: So my team is very, very small right now, but
Speaker 2: it's definitely started with my friends. Yes, yes, So.
Speaker 5: Talk about retaining customers, because that's the most important part
Speaker 5: of a business is once you get a customer, you
Speaker 5: want to make a customer for life. So what's your
Speaker 5: plans to make sure that customers return and keep buying product?
Speaker 2: You know, I feel like It's all about the connection
Speaker 2: with a customer.
Speaker 3: Don't make a customer feel like they're just a customer,
Speaker 3: like an the person that's just spending money in buying
Speaker 3: something from you. That's one of I think that was
Speaker 3: one of my most my most successful ways of going
Speaker 3: about things that I connect with everybody. Like literally every
Speaker 3: customer that that buy from me buy for me, they
Speaker 3: literally feel a connection with me. I talk to them,
Speaker 3: I gonna live, I answer questions. I literally talk to everybody.
Speaker 3: I repost everybody. It could be beyond saying how y'all
Speaker 3: are repost and I also post little Jenny that's sitting
Speaker 3: in her Ford focus. You know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 3: I literally make everybody feel I appreciate it because they
Speaker 3: truly are. And I always feel like the people that
Speaker 3: consider those selves themselves the little people, those are actually
Speaker 3: the biggest spinners. Those are the people that are sitting
Speaker 3: down there working they nine to five and getting they
Speaker 3: checking buying themselves something that they feel good about, which
Speaker 3: is a hookah, a hookah pin and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So those are the consumers. That makes the most sense
Speaker 3: to me. So I just think it's all about making
Speaker 3: every customer feel value I appreciated and loved.
Speaker 1: So are we looking at more, more products or more flavors?
Speaker 1: How are we going to keep the business going?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 1: So you got fifteen know how many flavors? You know?
Speaker 3: I got ten hookah pen flavors and fifteen hookah sheesh
Speaker 3: your flavors.
Speaker 1: So what's the plan? More products or different or different flavors?
Speaker 2: You gotta follow my Instagram.
Speaker 3: I told you I don't say nothing to just dry,
Speaker 3: but I'm gonna just say this, king, I'm never not working,
Speaker 3: you understand me?
Speaker 2: So Wayne like that switch right?
Speaker 5: So the warehouse that's going to be where all of
Speaker 5: the the product is held and where all the products
Speaker 5: is getting shipped out of and all this stuff.
Speaker 3: Yes, forty thousand squb feet like it's mega thirty offices
Speaker 3: like I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: Listen, it's crazy, y'all should come do an episode of
Speaker 2: Early Lesion.
Speaker 5: And we gotta stop bobbing. Sure, So are you thinking
Speaker 5: about diversity?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 5: All right, so you're getting money with the hookah? Are
Speaker 5: you interested in other aspects? Of you looking about our
Speaker 5: real estate? You're looking at invest in other businesses restaurants
Speaker 5: like you're looking to do that? Or you just focus
Speaker 5: on what you're doing right now.
Speaker 3: Absolutely no, I'm looking to do that because I'm a
Speaker 3: fan of you. Gotta get it while it's hot, Like
Speaker 3: you know, like everything doesn't last always. Some things got
Speaker 3: his phases, some things got his time. So I just
Speaker 3: feel like, while you're in the game, you just literally
Speaker 3: gotta sprang your wings and be a ball eager. You
Speaker 3: can't literally just focus on one thing, have all your
Speaker 3: ags in one basket. And I feel like you don't
Speaker 3: have this kind of success and literally stick to one
Speaker 3: thing like you you know, you got people as far
Speaker 3: as like, for instance, you got jay Z, which was
Speaker 3: a rapper and now he owned a basketball game and
Speaker 3: now he.
Speaker 2: Own his own lick up, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So I literally look for people like that as blueprints
Speaker 3: and understanding like I don't ever want nobody to put
Speaker 3: me in a box. So it starts with me. I
Speaker 3: don't want to be in no box. I may have
Speaker 3: started with black smoke, but that's not going to be
Speaker 3: the last thing you hear of me.
Speaker 1: So you started out with that crazy first day, but
Speaker 1: this Black Friday was pretty monumental as well. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get to the amount, but let's talk about the lead
Speaker 1: up to it. You said the marketing is Instagram. Are
Speaker 1: you taking in inventory and getting pre orders or waitless?
Speaker 1: How do people you know build up to that. You
Speaker 1: know that's super successful Black Friday, And like I said,
Speaker 1: we talk about numbers later, but what was the build
Speaker 1: up in two Black Friders?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I never do pre orders. I really feel like
Speaker 2: my advice to any business don't do pre orders because
Speaker 2: you can may have it on on the website, you
Speaker 2: can post it on Instagram.
Speaker 3: You could verbally say this is the pre order blah
Speaker 3: blah blah. But all people know once day pre order
Speaker 3: is I spent my money and I don't have my
Speaker 3: product at no matter what if you say it's coming
Speaker 3: in three weeks on a seventh day, they would be like,
Speaker 3: you scammed me. I don't got it yet. So I
Speaker 3: just really don't feel like it's worth a headache. So
Speaker 3: the thing about it is, I even like the last
Speaker 3: time when I made headlines, when I made one point
Speaker 3: what it was one point four million dollars and nine
Speaker 3: hours one point four million dollars and nine hours. That
Speaker 3: was just on a regular day on a restot. I
Speaker 3: was out of inventory for two months and I dropped
Speaker 3: it and it did that. So I literally never had
Speaker 3: a sale before. So me being able to make a
Speaker 3: million dollars with no sales just on a regular day,
Speaker 3: it was literally.
Speaker 2: Like a Tuesday dog Like it was a Tuesday, you know.
Speaker 3: So I was anticipating that Black Friday was going to
Speaker 3: be successful, but I didn't know the kind of success
Speaker 3: that it would have brought. Like she was actually telling me,
Speaker 3: Dave was actually telling me like, you know, Black Friday
Speaker 3: gonna be crazy. I'm like, ah, but yeah, nah, but nah,
Speaker 3: she was like, are you insane?
Speaker 2: Are you sick? Listen my ge? Oh my god. It was.
Speaker 2: It was insane. I didn't expect it in the main years.
Speaker 3: Bro, they took advantage of the Selle Like I said,
Speaker 3: like they bold to tell forty percent.
Speaker 2: They took all my ship. Could you believe that? That
Speaker 2: damn the half of I'm so mad. I never do
Speaker 2: that again. But nah, it was love, man. It was
Speaker 2: a beautiful feeling. Man made me feel back.
Speaker 3: I was giving make me feel bad like I was
Speaker 3: giving back to the community because I'm giving you out
Speaker 3: forty percent.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: So, what what is your biggest markets in America. My
Speaker 5: biggest market is it's just the people. Like I said,
Speaker 5: like everywhere, no region's bigger than others.
Speaker 2: It's really worldwise.
Speaker 3: We look at that just saying like if you if
Speaker 3: you look at our analytics, like it's just look at
Speaker 3: the map. I mean we touched Like I feel like
Speaker 3: I'm the I'm the dope deal of like ghost don't
Speaker 3: got nothing on me.
Speaker 5: Boy, if you think about who's one of these things,
Speaker 5: because you know we travel a lot. So Atlanta is
Speaker 5: a heavy hookah hub. New York City like you said,
Speaker 5: you spoke about the Dominican influence. So New York City
Speaker 5: is heavy on hookah. Yeah, Atlanta, for la people smoke hooker.
Speaker 5: So yeah, it's one of these things where no matter
Speaker 5: where you live, hookah.
Speaker 2: I love Houston hooker. Yeah. New Orleans is heavy with
Speaker 2: the hookah. You know what's crazy. That's the thing. Well,
Speaker 2: I know a lot of people always.
Speaker 3: Be like your hood don't support you know the hook
Speaker 3: would be the last people New Orleans be showing up
Speaker 3: and showing out for me. Like everywhere we go in
Speaker 3: New Orleans, you see they smoking hookah pans Like uh,
Speaker 3: even Larry, my friend Larry right here he have establishment,
Speaker 3: which is my favorite place on the plug again treeouts,
Speaker 3: you know, treehout, shout out to the baddest uh. Lara
Speaker 3: was at Treehouse watching the game and Larry FaceTime because
Speaker 3: I gave Larry some hookah pans and he bought some
Speaker 3: of hooka pans with.
Speaker 2: Him to the Treehouse.
Speaker 3: And once people see he had blecks Mo hooka pans,
Speaker 3: like they was boaging him. Like everybody was like lyrics
Speaker 3: like I just don't get it because we have Hookah Hill,
Speaker 3: Like why did they act like that behind blex mooth.
Speaker 2: But my city is no matter why you go in
Speaker 2: the city, you're going to see people in the smoking
Speaker 2: they blexs Mo hooka pans. They definitely show up.
Speaker 5: Yo.
Speaker 1: How you're looking at Miami because I feel like that
Speaker 1: that's a city that there's a parties almost every day.
Speaker 2: That's what's crazy. Miami is looking very good. That's why
Speaker 2: I've been talking about Miami.
Speaker 3: I see, I really got to do something in Miami,
Speaker 3: and I've been I visited Miami a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2: And now I'm like, I gotta find a penhouse out here.
Speaker 2: It's different Miami. It's just different vibes.
Speaker 5: So let me ask you this, New Orleans is an
Speaker 5: interesting place because, like you said, it's on culture even historically,
Speaker 5: like you know what I mean, Like everything is different,
Speaker 5: like the music, the food, even the language, like the
Speaker 5: creole everything, like you know what I'm saying, Like that's
Speaker 5: a whole different culture that historically has been different from
Speaker 5: a lot of other places, every other place in America.
Speaker 5: But there's also a lot of issues violence, murder, rate,
Speaker 5: stuff like that. So how has your experience been, Like
Speaker 5: have you had issues or has it just been really
Speaker 5: like a positive because a lot of New Orleans want
Speaker 5: of those places where there's a lot of negative news.
Speaker 5: For people hear about New Orleans and they're like, oh,
Speaker 5: it's murders. You know what I'm saying, it's a lot
Speaker 5: of crime. Like how what's your thoughts on the city
Speaker 5: right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So my thing is I pretty I stay out
Speaker 3: the way, you know, I stay out the way. I
Speaker 3: almost don't leave a house unless I'm probably going the treehouse.
Speaker 2: You know, I stay out the way.
Speaker 3: So but for the most part, I would say, I
Speaker 3: know my city be painted in such a negative way,
Speaker 3: but it's really love in New Orleans, Like you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying like, I mean, every place have crime,
Speaker 3: every place got they they.
Speaker 2: You know their negatives and their positives.
Speaker 3: But I can say I can speak for myself and
Speaker 3: for my circle of friends, which I have a successful
Speaker 3: circle of friends like me, Super sent Larry Moreau, Jessica Dupart.
Speaker 3: Like when we come to our city, our city respect
Speaker 3: us and look at us as like pretty much as
Speaker 3: their way out, and they blueprint. So I really feel
Speaker 3: like we are respected in a sense that it's just
Speaker 3: so much love and it's just like you make you
Speaker 3: give me hope. We give them that bit of hope
Speaker 3: that sometimes you don't even get to see these kind
Speaker 3: of things, and you don't even think these kind of
Speaker 3: things are possible to achieve. So you can look on
Speaker 3: TV all day and see puff Daddy a billionaire. You
Speaker 3: look on TV all day and see jay Z a billionaire,
Speaker 3: even though somebody else achieved it, you're going to feel like, Okay,
Speaker 3: that's them. But if you see the same person that
Speaker 3: you're stood next to in the crawfish line getting a
Speaker 3: dackery and they became a billionaire billing and hold on,
Speaker 3: wait a minute, now, you give me hope for real protection.
Speaker 2: Protected king and you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You're buying a warehouse. Obviously ridiculous. Congratulations on Black Friday
Speaker 1: business booming, But so do expenses. So how will you
Speaker 1: managine that? Because as you as you grow more, you
Speaker 1: got to get more inventory, there's more expenses. How you
Speaker 1: manage that balance between profitability? First, what you have to spend?
Speaker 2: My CPA in danger shout out to day.
Speaker 3: I don't got time. I know works works on a TP.
Speaker 3: I say, luke me and the meetings when you really
Speaker 3: need me there because I got them to do. You know,
Speaker 3: I gotta go to the treehouse. Let me know what
Speaker 3: they say. You know, but yeah, we always want to
Speaker 3: make sure that we stay at a certain threshold and
Speaker 3: a certain number, and like you know, our profit got
Speaker 3: to be a certain amount.
Speaker 2: Like you know, we we we.
Speaker 3: Spend two million dollars on inventory this month. We we
Speaker 3: gross blah blah blah amount of millions. And you know,
Speaker 3: we spend this much on production. We got to make
Speaker 3: sure we had this much left in accounting, spend this
Speaker 3: much on expenses, like she break down every single thing.
Speaker 3: It's times when she a call and say, how did
Speaker 3: you spend two hundred dollars that look, I need a
Speaker 3: some gas gas. You spent two hundred you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, So definitely keep that bannage. But other than that,
Speaker 3: I mean as far as the ap and stuff they
Speaker 3: just found out after, she would have never approved of it.
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes you gotta be a little irresponsible to
Speaker 3: get responsibility.
Speaker 5: So this employee that you had that drove two hours.
Speaker 3: To work one hour, yes, yes, yes you brought you
Speaker 3: brought my house. Yes, that was my very very first employee.
Speaker 3: Her name is Keisha, and uh, I just knew I
Speaker 3: was you know, like I told you I was gonna
Speaker 3: drop this product, but I ain knew it was gonna
Speaker 3: do this. So Keisha was the first person that came
Speaker 3: on the Black Smoke. I haven't even released it. I
Speaker 3: told the world I was releasing it. Yet me and
Speaker 3: her was like inside of the inside of the room,
Speaker 3: stacking up the hookahs together whatever the case may be,
Speaker 3: was like we go clear this room out one day.
Speaker 3: So Keisha was the very first employee. And she lives
Speaker 3: on the West Bank and I live on the North Shore,
Speaker 3: which is like an hour drive, and she drive to
Speaker 3: work an hour every morning and back every every knowing
Speaker 3: and Keisha is always the first one at work and
Speaker 3: always the last one to leave. Even when she like
Speaker 3: not on the clock no more, she's still like, just
Speaker 3: to get a hay for tomorrow, I gotta be doing
Speaker 3: address corrections, I gotta be doing this, gotta be doing that.
Speaker 3: It's times where we have so many artists, and Keisha
Speaker 3: was pushing out the artists by herself because she was
Speaker 3: my first to own the employee that she would literally
Speaker 3: not see her kids for two, three and four days.
Speaker 3: She'll literally sleep on the nortill Well warehouse at just
Speaker 3: so she could wake up three in the morning go
Speaker 3: start artists and leave out that twelve am. Like, that's
Speaker 3: the kind of commitment that she had to me. And
Speaker 3: she started that from the beginning, before she knew what
Speaker 3: the company was going to become. You know, it's easily
Speaker 3: easy to find employees now that will probably won't come
Speaker 3: just ship and pack with black smoke because it's the
Speaker 3: popular thing.
Speaker 2: A probably seemed like the cool thing to do.
Speaker 3: But to have somebody else believed in me before I
Speaker 3: truly even believed in myself, before I even knew all
Speaker 3: the witness what this was gonna become, it's like a
Speaker 3: different kind of love and admiration that I will always
Speaker 3: have for Keisha. So still to the day, she was
Speaker 3: driving to work every morning and even every evening driving it.
Speaker 3: I win and never complained about it. It was just
Speaker 3: the fact in the back of my mind that I
Speaker 3: was realizing that she's still doing this. So what kind
Speaker 3: of other way that I could repair her?
Speaker 6: You know?
Speaker 3: So I had to make sure I got Kesha by
Speaker 3: that way out to Keisha, shout out to you, Keisha,
Speaker 3: you're real one.
Speaker 5: No, that's important, man. You gotta take care of your
Speaker 5: your support. Yeah, because you're only as good as a team.
Speaker 2: As the people around You're absolutely, man, that's a fact.
Speaker 5: So let me ask you this. As far as you
Speaker 5: have the hookah, are there other like ancillary products that
Speaker 5: you could produce, like from the hook Like are you
Speaker 5: selling like what's it actually called? Those big things where
Speaker 5: you smoke hooker out of the hookahs? That's the hookah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so, that's the hookah pen.
Speaker 5: So what you're smoking is the shesha correct hookah is
Speaker 5: the name of the machine? The machine?
Speaker 2: Correct?
Speaker 5: Okay, I never heard that. I thought was actually what
Speaker 5: you're smoking.
Speaker 1: No, no, you got that's what I say. You got
Speaker 1: fifteen shesha fifteen sheh.
Speaker 5: All right. So do you sell hookah? Yes, you sell those? Yes, okay,
Speaker 5: So you sell a hookah.
Speaker 3: And I got and I sell the fruit she should
Speaker 3: have put inside the hookah instead of the nicotine.
Speaker 5: To back over, So what's your whole what's all your
Speaker 5: product life? Like, what's all the products that you sell?
Speaker 5: You sell? You sell them? Yes, yeah, sheisha.
Speaker 3: I sell a hookah, the hookah pen, the hookah shisha,
Speaker 3: the hookah charcoals. I got one hundred percent of what's
Speaker 3: that the coconut charcoals. That's the black things that all
Speaker 3: to sit on top in the club when he said
Speaker 3: on top of the fall, I have the I sell
Speaker 3: a hookah foil you. I sell the tips to smoke
Speaker 3: the hooka. I have candy tips, even have hookahs that
Speaker 3: light up. So I have my own batteries called black
Speaker 3: power to go inside of the hookahs.
Speaker 5: You know what it's meaning.
Speaker 2: The whole merchandise, merchandise like you're talking about like clothes.
Speaker 1: Clothes when we talked about and shout out to my brother.
Speaker 1: But like when you see that sea, you know what
Speaker 1: it is, right you? Like I would imagine when we
Speaker 1: see this logo, people just want to support it, right
Speaker 1: because it's something that brings us together. This is enjoyable.
Speaker 1: This is like a moment. So when I see him
Speaker 1: wearing I know it's connect it because he's on the
Speaker 1: same time I'm.
Speaker 2: On WI yeah pret shirt.
Speaker 3: It was crazy as when I go on Live and
Speaker 3: stuff and talk to him, I always have on my
Speaker 3: shirt of my hat. But we just make him within
Speaker 3: our you know, I were coming off team like I
Speaker 3: think you got on a black smoke hood it right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah see, And people be like put them on the side.
Speaker 2: We cannot buy him in it. I just be like,
Speaker 2: we got too much going on.
Speaker 5: I can't.
Speaker 2: We can better keep artists, we can better keep up
Speaker 2: with this artist. I'm not about to stress me, y'all.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So, but I feel like, as you know, as the
Speaker 3: team grow, and you know, as as the business constantly grow,
Speaker 3: we could touch other you know, avenues and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: But right now I think we overwhelmed.
Speaker 5: So, so where's the name? Black Tannic used to be
Speaker 5: a tattoo artist.
Speaker 2: Man, No, man, let me tell you, I'm so crazy, bro.
Speaker 2: I always had a wild imagination. I guess that's why
Speaker 2: I became successful, right.
Speaker 3: So I was literally creating my instagram when I came
Speaker 3: from All Show and I went to the tattoo shot.
Speaker 3: When I got All Show, I was at this point.
Speaker 3: I was all Show for like a money. I had
Speaker 3: some money to blow in me. I was like to
Speaker 3: give it to the tattoo man. That's why I'm giving
Speaker 3: to So I was in there and I was creating
Speaker 3: my instagram to make one when I'm going back on shore,
Speaker 3: and I was like what to call myself? I already
Speaker 3: called myself black. My whole family called me black. Nobody
Speaker 3: called me by my government. They hold My whole family
Speaker 3: called me black. So I'm like black, what though, I
Speaker 3: can't just say black because then people just called me
Speaker 3: like the color. I was like, oh, I'm about to
Speaker 3: get all these sleeves, about to get my legs tatted,
Speaker 3: my arm, tatted my.
Speaker 2: Neck, tatty black, tatty that boy, because you go to
Speaker 2: say that boy black tatted after today? Guess what?
Speaker 5: But I had never had a tattoo. Yeah, got all
Speaker 5: those chats on one day.
Speaker 2: Fuck No, that's my point. I had never had a tattoo.
Speaker 2: Nobody told me that shit hurt.
Speaker 3: So when I made the name Black Tatty before I
Speaker 3: got in the chill once he gave me that ink
Speaker 3: one time, I was like, I never got it finished.
Speaker 5: I never went back.
Speaker 1: You didn't have any tattoos.
Speaker 2: You got a half of sleeve. Yes, I got to help.
Speaker 3: I went back and got this a couple of years
Speaker 3: after that. But I made the name black Tatty thinking
Speaker 3: I about to be tatted up. I paid the man full.
Speaker 3: He still followed me on Instagram to the day.
Speaker 2: So we never finished. I said, we never is that
Speaker 2: ship hurt? I don't know how people do that, bro,
Speaker 2: I'm never going back.
Speaker 1: No, indeed, no, indeed.
Speaker 5: So are you you doing anything with essence Fest?
Speaker 3: Oh? So with men and Larry was already talking about
Speaker 3: making sure I'm a part of essence Fest next year.
Speaker 3: This year I kind of missed my miss my mark because,
Speaker 3: like I said, you know, the business is fairly new,
Speaker 3: so it would have took so much. But now I
Speaker 3: got more little knowledge and understanding. So definitely gonna be
Speaker 3: a part of uh Essenfest.
Speaker 5: Let's make sure that the biggest we spoke about that okay, culture.
Speaker 1: One in the studio without that, So you got some
Speaker 1: pretty big influences obviously little Wayne Tapelain. Is there anybody
Speaker 1: that on your whishlers? Like if I can get my
Speaker 1: product in their hands, this would be even crazier.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm talking about I have I know this, this
Speaker 2: is wild. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I know, hove and be proving to smoke
Speaker 3: son before you know what I'm saying. They cool people.
Speaker 3: I'm like, damn be you know you know, you know,
Speaker 3: been holding a Tesla bag like you know they hold
Speaker 3: the black smoke. But like people like jay Z, Beyonce,
Speaker 3: Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, and Drake those kind of people.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at y'all, I'm looking at it. This makes sense,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying at this point?
Speaker 5: Like who else?
Speaker 1: I think it was brought a place out in the
Speaker 1: Orleans too. Oh yeah yeah, write that down, y'all. Put up.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just just joking. Sister loves you used to love
Speaker 5: this as long as used to live. No, it's a
Speaker 5: good it's a good story, and I feel like it's
Speaker 5: something that you know, there's so many different places that
Speaker 5: I see people smoke, even though like back because you know,
Speaker 5: like some of some of basketball in New York is
Speaker 5: really big, like in the street like street ball stuff
Speaker 5: like that, and they starting to they're starting to have
Speaker 5: hookah on the court. Yeah see today, So this is
Speaker 5: way more convenient because it's like yeah, like they literally
Speaker 5: have the hook those big hookah machines, Like wow on
Speaker 5: the court, people smoking.
Speaker 1: Somebody come to get the balls, right yeah right New York.
Speaker 5: Like even like this is way more convenient than having
Speaker 5: that big hookah.
Speaker 1: Do you ever thought about having ambassadors?
Speaker 3: I didn't, but I mean I'm open to it. Like
Speaker 3: I'm saying, like everything just happened so fast, bro.
Speaker 5: The Black Smoke Girls, Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: We did.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, but I'm saying, we never do it. We
Speaker 3: made a list, like you know, we thought about it,
Speaker 3: but we never did it. And people be writing all
Speaker 3: day asking how could I become ambassador? Can I get
Speaker 3: on the ambassador list? It's like yeah, I'm like, adam
Speaker 3: to the list and we got this long list that
Speaker 3: we just never did nothing with.
Speaker 2: But I'm going to get twenty twenty three. I'm coming
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 1: Boy won a trade. You know.
Speaker 5: So before we wrap, what's some of your what's some
Speaker 5: of your plans like for the for next year, Like
Speaker 5: what do you What are you looking forward to in
Speaker 5: the next year too?
Speaker 3: What I'm looking forward to because it has become this
Speaker 3: whole social media thing that people always talk about how
Speaker 3: they love going to hookah spots, right, and they go
Speaker 3: to hookah spots and they're willing to pay for the
Speaker 3: hookahs there. They don't mind paying for it, but they
Speaker 3: literally want to put the black smoke sheeshes. They want
Speaker 3: to smoke the black smoke sheesha. Only they were like,
Speaker 3: I even pay your price for your shisha, but can't
Speaker 3: you put the black smoke in it? So it was
Speaker 3: this funny thing I was tagged in on Instagram, this
Speaker 3: hookah spot in North Carolina. It was so properlar when
Speaker 3: people bringing black smoke to it. They literally had a
Speaker 3: sign by the door say no black smoke products allowed.
Speaker 3: So they be literally saying, black, you got to give
Speaker 3: us some black smoke hookerh spots. We don't want to
Speaker 3: go to the hookah spots, all that nicotine, all that tobacco.
Speaker 3: So I just want to say, I'm never not working.
Speaker 3: I hear you can't get queens.
Speaker 5: Well that's what I was saying. I feel like if
Speaker 5: you get those, because yeah, there's so many hookah spots
Speaker 5: that's out there and they can have a healthy alternative
Speaker 5: that still tastes good. I would, I would go there
Speaker 5: for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So that's that's that's my big goal and big
Speaker 2: playing for twenty twin. I'm very excited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that distribution is gonna be crazy. Man, I'm sure
Speaker 1: that the people listen here, like, we got to get
Speaker 1: this in our spot.
Speaker 5: So if you're a restaurant owner, a clown, a club owner,
Speaker 5: you should be early. You should reaching out all right
Speaker 5: now our restaurant own is reaching.
Speaker 2: Out everyone you could probably think of. Man, it's crazy,
Speaker 2: even the strip clubs.
Speaker 1: Yes, everybody reaching out man for black businesses.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2: My brother's a pleasure.
Speaker 5: Thank you. How can the people follow you on social media, website,
Speaker 5: all of that stuff.
Speaker 3: You can follow me at black Tatted and Black Smoke.
Speaker 3: So the thing that people having a problem with at
Speaker 3: Black tatt and Black Smoke is because they spelled black
Speaker 3: with the b L a c K. There's no c's
Speaker 3: b l a kk tatted and b l a kk smoke.
Speaker 3: And also the website is black smoke dot com and so.
Speaker 5: Black Tatted is your personal page.
Speaker 2: Person. Smoke is your business pace correct.
Speaker 5: Got it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, highly recommended, highly respect him.
Speaker 5: Thank you, appreciate that we've actually tried the product live.
Speaker 1: They didn't disappoint then, and then we're gonna have to
Speaker 1: get a bundle over him.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I need the bundle.
Speaker 2: I told you that's the most popular flavor of the bundle.
Speaker 1: You see that that's not really good.
Speaker 5: That's the most popular flavor every That's what that Troy.
Speaker 5: I'll keeping on show.
Speaker 1: Shout to everybody on E y L University, shout everybody
Speaker 1: on pictreon dot com, and shout out to all the
Speaker 1: earners that are worldwide. I say worldwide because it's just
Speaker 1: that man. We got love from a lot of places
Speaker 1: throughout the world. Shout to you and shoutut the black
Speaker 1: Man like this is a really good p I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go upstairs with this and now this will probably done tonight,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna try some new flavors. Man. We we're
Speaker 1: gonna help support this man, and we got some business
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 2: Smoker is the movement.
Speaker 5: Baby smokers on our way out.
Speaker 3: Please, that's puffing on E y L the biggest talking
Speaker 3: little wings. Go ahead, appreciate y'all. Man, did y'all get
Speaker 3: that on video?
Speaker 1: Out? Peace?
Speaker 4: My graduates from my school being force back drop bag drop,
Speaker 4: Mike drop backdrop.
Speaker 7: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
Speaker 7: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
Speaker 7: accused of murdering a Texas. Man of Venezuelan charged with
Speaker 7: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
Speaker 7: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
Speaker 7: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States
Speaker 7: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
Speaker 7: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
Speaker 7: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
Speaker 7: are here illegally, your next you will be fine nearly
Speaker 7: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported, you will
Speaker 7: never return. But if you register using our CBP home
Speaker 7: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
Speaker 7: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws,
Speaker 7: border and families.
Speaker 2: Will be protected.
Speaker 1: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,