Speaker 1: I'm with Lucas and this is Black Tach Green Money.
Speaker 1: Black Tatt is an artist, entertainer, entrepreneur, and founder of
Speaker 1: Black Smoke, the world's number one leader and no nicotine,
Speaker 1: no tobacco hooka products.
Speaker 2: That are actually made from fruit.
Speaker 1: In recent months, he's had more than a couple million
Speaker 1: dollar days where his products have generated more than one
Speaker 1: million dollars in sales and completely selling out online within
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. As Black about the growth and whoka
Speaker 1: and vaping in our community and why his approach with
Speaker 1: no nicotine or tobacco involved is so important.
Speaker 2: We all have alls with the pleasures in different ways.
Speaker 3: So I mean, even when it comes as simple as
Speaker 3: eating food, like we probably shouldn't be eating for chops,
Speaker 3: we shouldn't be.
Speaker 2: Eating fried chicken, but we're going to do it, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And sometimes when you feel like I should be eating
Speaker 3: that bad fried chicken instead, I'm going to salteed and
Speaker 3: skill it with some butter, and maybe that's a little
Speaker 3: healthier than you know, eating.
Speaker 2: The fried chicken.
Speaker 3: So the same thing I wanted to do a hoh
Speaker 3: hookahs becoming such a big thing in our community. I
Speaker 3: found myself a victim of it as well, Like you know,
Speaker 3: want to be down on the ecstatic, on the vibe,
Speaker 3: going out with friends and you get the drink when
Speaker 3: you're sitting there. It's almost like we all are hooked
Speaker 3: on this oral fixation. We just need to be doing something.
Speaker 2: And I never.
Speaker 3: Smoked before in my life. I had never smoked a cigarette.
Speaker 3: I had never smoked marijuana, nothing like that of that sort.
Speaker 3: But I found myself smoking hookah and realize I was smoking.
Speaker 3: I was exposing myself to so much nicotine and tobacco.
Speaker 3: It was just like I was just the same person
Speaker 3: that I was condemning from smoking packs of cigarettes.
Speaker 2: I became that.
Speaker 3: So I wanted to figure out a way that not
Speaker 3: only for myself, but for other people.
Speaker 2: How could we, you know, have our guilty.
Speaker 3: Pleasures, do the things that we love to do, but
Speaker 3: expose ourselves to less harm less toxins, less chemicals. Found
Speaker 3: myself getting headaches, stomach aches, feeling nauseous because I was
Speaker 3: smoking so much nicotine and tobacco.
Speaker 2: And that's when I realized it's a way that I
Speaker 2: could continue doing.
Speaker 3: This, but just not doing it in such a worst
Speaker 3: way possible, And That's when I feel like my importance
Speaker 3: to the community of offering something that literally didn't exist,
Speaker 3: something that we couldn't get anywhere else. I knew it
Speaker 3: was away, like everything was not here before. Everything had
Speaker 3: to be like innovative, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 3: even though I had got so many no's and so
Speaker 3: many people felt like it was so crazy. What you
Speaker 3: mean fruit or a hookah, That's not possible. But you
Speaker 3: also use fruit to put your nicotine in tobaccos, cheat
Speaker 3: you inside of people stuff it with grapefruit, with oranges,
Speaker 3: with pineapples, and they still put the far on in
Speaker 3: the still put the codes on top. So I feel
Speaker 3: like fruit was already incorporated and you still burning the
Speaker 3: fruit some kind of way. So I knew it was
Speaker 3: a way to intercept the two and do it in
Speaker 3: a better perspective.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned a couple other things in our community
Speaker 1: that may not be the best for us, but you
Speaker 1: saw hookah as a business opportunity for you. Why hookah
Speaker 1: versus any of the other things that you could have done.
Speaker 3: The reason why it is hookah, because I said this
Speaker 3: to all entrepreneurs was important. It's best to do something
Speaker 3: that you already loved to do. That's where that passion
Speaker 3: comes from. Because when if you chase something just because
Speaker 3: of the money, yes it be good, yes it feels good, but.
Speaker 2: It doesn't last long term.
Speaker 3: I had never created no other business because I was
Speaker 3: very selective of what I wanted to do. Because whatever
Speaker 3: I wanted to do and whatever I started doing, I
Speaker 3: wanted to be do it from the.
Speaker 2: Start to finish, know the ends, and I was about
Speaker 2: it and really be passionate about it. Because when the
Speaker 2: money comes, it feels good.
Speaker 3: But when the money stoles down at a stop, would
Speaker 3: you still care about doing this particular thing or you
Speaker 3: would you try to hop on next wagon with the
Speaker 3: next dollar attached to it.
Speaker 2: And that was never mean. I didn't want it to
Speaker 2: be me.
Speaker 3: So huku was something I did every day, all day.
Speaker 3: It was part of my regular life anyway, with my
Speaker 3: friends and with my holis. It was things I had
Speaker 3: knowledge about that I know what I was looking for.
Speaker 3: I knew what tastes good, I know how it made
Speaker 3: me feel. I knew another alternative I was looking for
Speaker 3: when I was affected by the original you know, nigotine
Speaker 3: and tobacco. So it was all things that I also
Speaker 3: as an entrepreneur, was also able to eliminate myself as
Speaker 3: an entrepreneur and all so see the different faces of
Speaker 3: it as a consumer, so I knew the ends and
Speaker 3: I was about so that's why it made the most.
Speaker 2: Sense for me.
Speaker 1: And so you mentioned this or fixation. So sometimes it's
Speaker 1: just the action of smoking that satisfies the desire to
Speaker 1: smoke in it's because yours doesn't have nicotine. You know,
Speaker 1: there's there's more to it. So can you talk about
Speaker 1: what that is?
Speaker 3: Yes, it don't have nicotine, it don't have tobacco, tobacco,
Speaker 3: So it's really more so like that artifixation. A lot
Speaker 3: of people just thinking that they so addicted to that cigarette,
Speaker 3: is so addicted to that hookah, that that nicotine, that tobacco,
Speaker 3: because they tell themselves or I need that.
Speaker 2: What do what do black smoke do for you? I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna feel none're not gonna get high older, I
Speaker 2: can't smoke that. I need my nicotine, my tobacco.
Speaker 3: It's not the nicotine and tobacco that that got you
Speaker 3: hooked to that at at the beginning. It was that
Speaker 3: or fixation, and when you got so accustomed to the artifixation.
Speaker 3: Now you have probably became addicted to that nicotine, that
Speaker 3: tobacco from trying to, you know, fix that urage of
Speaker 3: that artifixation. So much so when you really think about it,
Speaker 3: like it's literally the organization with which plays apart. That's
Speaker 3: why when people will literally say, oh, my nerves bad,
Speaker 3: they got in the argument that somebody being upset, I
Speaker 3: need a cigarette right now because my nerves bad. It's
Speaker 3: not the niggatior tobagg of calm you down least your mind,
Speaker 3: making you feel like that organization something that is happening,
Speaker 3: but nothing is really happening.
Speaker 1: It's so oftentimes the solutions of problems are all around us,
Speaker 1: and so we just have to reframe the way we
Speaker 1: look at things. And opportunities can be all around you.
Speaker 1: And so if I think of problems as opportunities and
Speaker 1: so if you just open your eyes, there's business opportunities
Speaker 1: all around you. The smoking is, to your point, is
Speaker 1: often is correlated to the relaxation, and you found a
Speaker 1: way to do it with fruit.
Speaker 2: Can you talk about how we.
Speaker 1: Can reframe ourselves for problems solving by working to with
Speaker 1: a different lens on the world around us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like pretty much when you're really thinking about it,
Speaker 3: everything that you see around you, everything that you probably
Speaker 3: think of your regular day to day life that probably
Speaker 3: be so.
Speaker 2: Normal to you. It always feels from something.
Speaker 3: It always comes from something, So there is always an opportunity.
Speaker 3: There is always a business venture, a business idea that
Speaker 3: can come from anything. Like, for instance, you could sit
Speaker 3: there and be having a regular day and just go
Speaker 3: outside and stop stop stepping mud on your shoe, and
Speaker 3: by the time you came home, your shoe is hard.
Speaker 3: It's hard to get the ball.
Speaker 2: To the mud up.
Speaker 3: Brin brom Broom. Literally you could come up with a
Speaker 3: shoe cleaning that's literally just for mud saying. It's like
Speaker 3: it's so easy to just do with everything that's around you. Like, uh,
Speaker 3: I've had a cousin that's not not too long ago,
Speaker 3: was telling me about how he came to my refrigerator
Speaker 3: and literally try to make a drink and by me
Speaker 3: not using my ice and my ice maker, the ice
Speaker 3: is kind of me when.
Speaker 2: It comes to get the ice out. If it was
Speaker 2: all hard and stuff together.
Speaker 3: He was like, you need to do something, You need
Speaker 3: to something with the individual ice cues and it.
Speaker 2: Come out like like sonic ice like the small cues.
Speaker 3: I said, why don't you create a fielter, create a
Speaker 3: frigerator that has ice.
Speaker 2: Come out like that? He said, nobody got no sonic.
Speaker 3: Refrigerator And I said, no, not against the only one
Speaker 3: brings in the ice. How about to bread refrigerator? And
Speaker 3: you too looking at me like I was crazy.
Speaker 2: I see. I guess my idea is a way too
Speaker 2: to advance with you right now. You're not day, You're
Speaker 2: not ready. I love that, But you're right.
Speaker 1: The problems are all around us there for opportunities are
Speaker 1: all around us if we just take a different look
Speaker 1: at the things that are around us. So, your products
Speaker 1: have been extremely viral on social media, and I want
Speaker 1: to know how you're able to achieve, Like what tactics
Speaker 1: have you used to ensure that your posts go viral?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is my thing. That's why I tell
Speaker 3: people like I understand. Please don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2: Well I'm not.
Speaker 3: I'm not acting like money isn't important, Like it's our
Speaker 3: weblive it, it's our well of surviving.
Speaker 2: Money is as important. I give it our lovelihood.
Speaker 3: But the biggest thing is to create an artist, build
Speaker 3: a structure, build a foundation and build a family, like
Speaker 3: like be able to connect with your audience, build, build,
Speaker 3: build this magnitude of this understanding with them. So then
Speaker 3: when you have that, when you have that connection first
Speaker 3: and these people that's that's looking to you, admire you,
Speaker 3: like inspire by you, connect with you like you talk back,
Speaker 3: you respond back, you you you. You always include them
Speaker 3: and let them know the importance of who they are
Speaker 3: to you. That feeds they soul. What also feeds your business.
Speaker 3: A lot of people just get on here and don't
Speaker 3: connect with their audience and but take their business and
Speaker 3: just post a flyer up post to.
Speaker 2: Self like restocking this friud to restock.
Speaker 3: Nobody wants to feel like they're just looked at as
Speaker 3: a dollar. Nobody wants to feel like That's just like
Speaker 3: if you was in a relationship with your spots, only
Speaker 3: come to you when they have a problem. Okay, other
Speaker 3: than when I solve your problem financially, What else do
Speaker 3: you think of me?
Speaker 2: What else do we have in common? Like I'm not
Speaker 2: a shit of daddy. You know, you're not my Pam.
Speaker 2: So it's the same thing with your consumers.
Speaker 3: It's okay that you have people that's poetry is okay
Speaker 3: that you value that is support you by outside of
Speaker 3: them support you, supporting you.
Speaker 2: And buying from you. What else is there? Y'all share?
Speaker 3: So I share more of a connection with my audists.
Speaker 3: I share more of relatable things us talking about us
Speaker 3: really getting to know each other. Like they really feel
Speaker 3: like they have watched me elevate and they feel like
Speaker 3: they played a big part in my success, which they have.
Speaker 3: They feel like they have watched my kids grow up.
Speaker 3: They call them their nephew and you know, they sons
Speaker 3: and stuff like that. So when you build that structure, first,
Speaker 3: the money is going to flow. But when you just
Speaker 3: chasing the money, you limit to yourself the access of
Speaker 3: what all comes with it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: So what I hear you saying is, you know, social
Speaker 1: media can't be used as a one way conversation, like
Speaker 1: you just post and you have to engage in the comments,
Speaker 1: you know, and engage on other people's posts and et cetera.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes you have to, because like it's such a
Speaker 3: worldwide thing, like everybody is totally different, Like it's not
Speaker 3: one world, it's not one community. You can't post one
Speaker 3: thing and touch everybody, like everybody has a different way
Speaker 3: of life or different way of things. It's something that
Speaker 3: I post that may have flurred two hundred thousand people
Speaker 3: probably have made fifty thousand people like I don't like
Speaker 3: that or that's weird. So you have to touch things
Speaker 3: that that can relate to as everybody. You probably would
Speaker 3: never relate to everybody, but at least try to relate
Speaker 3: to as many people as you can. And you can't
Speaker 3: post the social media just from your legs because not
Speaker 3: everybody also think like you. Now everybody understands your perspective,
Speaker 3: so you gotta sometimes take yourself out of the box,
Speaker 3: like I wouldn't normally like this, but somebody out here
Speaker 3: may you know, may do, so you really can't think
Speaker 3: about it that. I was also telling a person like
Speaker 3: that about a business mention that they was working on.
Speaker 3: It was getting my opinion on it, and they was
Speaker 3: talking about different flavors and stuff like that of this
Speaker 3: alcohol beverage and it was like, no, because I hate blueberry,
Speaker 3: No because I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't like pineapple. I said, that's what you hate,
Speaker 2: that's what you like with that.
Speaker 3: Millions of people in the world that love blueberry, that
Speaker 3: love pineapple, So are you going to be the one
Speaker 3: buying all exactly you're consumers. It was matters if the
Speaker 3: people that's buying for you, that you expected to support.
Speaker 3: You see, this is my favorite flavor, You're gonna not
Speaker 3: sell it because you see I don't like it.
Speaker 2: That doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: You know, when you sell humongous things like you've had
Speaker 1: one million dollar a day, two million dollar days, you're
Speaker 1: not always stocked I imagine with a million dollars worth of
Speaker 1: product in the warehouse or two million dollars worth a
Speaker 1: product in the warehouse, I imagine, especially when you do
Speaker 1: it early. How do you manage to coordinate sales with
Speaker 1: inventory so that you can get through that product fast enough.
Speaker 2: This is the thing I have never done pre autist before.
Speaker 3: I only and I preached this all the time, only
Speaker 3: sell with inside of your warehouse.
Speaker 2: Which is why I had to get I know, if
Speaker 2: you see when I just.
Speaker 1: Purchased a human hate beautiful, man, it's beautiful, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much.
Speaker 3: And that's because the reason why I was selling out
Speaker 3: because I was only able to go as far as
Speaker 3: my invatory allowed me to. So when I had those
Speaker 3: one million dollar days, I was completely sold out.
Speaker 2: So I've always was mad at myself. Everybody else is
Speaker 2: around me, car I.
Speaker 4: Was like, whoa, you made a million dollars in a
Speaker 4: couple of hours, And I'm mad at myself with my
Speaker 4: head done because if I made million dollars in such
Speaker 4: and such hours and it stopped on it because my
Speaker 4: inventory ran.
Speaker 2: Now, I was so lowed. I could have made three
Speaker 2: million dollars in twelve hours.
Speaker 3: I could have made five million dollars and twenty four hours,
Speaker 3: but I limited to myself.
Speaker 2: So I'm never okay with selling out.
Speaker 3: It all sounds good and it all looks pretty, but if
Speaker 3: you were literally a business person that you focus on
Speaker 3: the growth of your business, you're hitting your growth every
Speaker 3: single time.
Speaker 2: So selling out is not the goal. The goal is
Speaker 2: constantly making.
Speaker 3: More money, more money and been having enough inlatory to
Speaker 3: sustain the amount of magnitude of your consumers, but still
Speaker 3: not selling out.
Speaker 2: Always got to supply for somebody else. Because also, you.
Speaker 3: Can't get so like cocky and level headed to the
Speaker 3: point where you feel like, oh yeah, it's so lowed
Speaker 3: when I restart then come back. You gotta always have
Speaker 3: this humble mindset that when I don't have it, they
Speaker 3: we're going to get the next best things from the
Speaker 3: next best person.
Speaker 1: That's right, and so so how do you think about
Speaker 1: because you know you're selling out so quickly, what is
Speaker 1: the think on the balance of or if it's selling
Speaker 1: outs so fast at this price, maybe it's priced it
Speaker 1: could go higher. How do you think about that?
Speaker 3: So that's that's the thing. I feel like, if it
Speaker 3: ain't broke, don't fix it. When with everything's setting out
Speaker 3: so fast and the price is what it is, like
Speaker 3: before I released it, I like evaluated everything and find
Speaker 3: out my price and points and what work for me
Speaker 3: and what will be most suitable for me. How could
Speaker 3: I manage my business be fair to the consumers but
Speaker 3: also make sure I'm getting my profit and able to
Speaker 3: suspend my lifestyle and everything like that.
Speaker 2: When I came up with that price, I did that.
Speaker 3: So just because I'm being supported to this magnitude, I
Speaker 3: feel like it will be unfair to the consumer and
Speaker 3: very selfish to raise the prices, you know, and fluctuate
Speaker 3: the prices just to make my life a little better
Speaker 3: and make my my properly little higher, but actually taking
Speaker 3: more out they pocket. These are the people that support me.
Speaker 3: I need them to feel more comfortable than me, you know.
Speaker 3: So when they work hard and get dey tech every week,
Speaker 3: I need them to like buy for me and I
Speaker 3: have regrets after it. I need them to love the
Speaker 3: product when they receive it, and I need them not
Speaker 3: have a regret when they see that price come out
Speaker 3: of their bank account. Because at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: if we constantly see something that's costing us too much money,
Speaker 3: and we add up at the end of the month,
Speaker 3: end of the week and saying this is too high,
Speaker 3: nine times out of ten we go not going to
Speaker 3: go back and continue doing that.
Speaker 2: D that.
Speaker 1: So I was reading this interview and this is a
Speaker 1: quote from you, and you said I wanted to offer
Speaker 1: a healthier alternative. I wanted to create a vaping product
Speaker 1: that could be made with vegetables and water. But no
Speaker 1: one wants to smoke vegetables and water. I was left
Speaker 1: with that truth, but felt there had to be a
Speaker 1: way possible to incorporate fruit into hookah smoking. I tried
Speaker 1: many things and received a great deal of feedback. People
Speaker 1: told me it was not possible. It was so discouraging,
Speaker 1: it was not gonna happen, It was not gonna work.
Speaker 1: And that fruit would burn. How do you go about
Speaker 1: then testing sampling products before you go into mass production,
Speaker 1: into mania manufacturing.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Dad was a lot that was.
Speaker 3: That's the part that I was, I'll say a discourageing
Speaker 3: because before I even got to the point of getting tested,
Speaker 3: so many people wouldn't even entertain the idea to test it.
Speaker 3: It was like, I can tell you right now, that's
Speaker 3: that's not gonna work. I tell you right now, that's
Speaker 3: not possible. I can tell you right now, you know
Speaker 3: it's so. And also allow those nose and a lot
Speaker 3: of that feedback also worked better for me because they
Speaker 3: allowed me to also go back to the drawing board
Speaker 3: and constantly reinvent, constantly like re educate myself more and
Speaker 3: more and more.
Speaker 2: What could I add? I, what could I do?
Speaker 3: What could I subtract to make sure it's possible to Also,
Speaker 3: I was trying to work so hard to convince people
Speaker 3: to understand the logic from the person from the beginning,
Speaker 3: so that I wouldn't even get a no. To the
Speaker 3: fact that it made me getting myself down to the
Speaker 3: tea so perfect that I couldn't get a nod no more.
Speaker 3: And not only did I get a yes, the yes
Speaker 3: that I got was just so you know, it was
Speaker 3: so like above and beyond because I did all the work.
Speaker 3: If I don't got yes from the beginning, I probably
Speaker 3: would have stopped there. I wouldn't researched more, I wouldn't
Speaker 3: added more, I wouldn't see what I what could be used,
Speaker 3: what can be used.
Speaker 2: So I just feel like that was the best thing
Speaker 2: that can happen to me. I literally got.
Speaker 3: I think it was like seventeen denials, wow, twenty one or.
Speaker 2: Something of that nature.
Speaker 3: That's very discouraging, especially since at the same time, I'm
Speaker 3: fronting everything. I'm paying for these mixtures, I'm paying for
Speaker 3: these formulasts, I'm paying for these testing.
Speaker 2: I'm also trying to live my life.
Speaker 3: As an entrepreneur already and doing things on Instagram. I
Speaker 3: don't have that much money right now, so all these
Speaker 3: things are costing. It's discouraging, especially when you already got
Speaker 3: a conference zone. I was doing things right right now
Speaker 3: with we TV networks and stuff like that, making a
Speaker 3: lot of money.
Speaker 2: With those two It's like, why even entertained something.
Speaker 3: I'm getting those from and making zero dollars from and
Speaker 3: I'm spending all the money I'm making here.
Speaker 2: That's very discouraging.
Speaker 3: You're might as well say forget that I'm a goo
Speaker 3: where I know it's for sure, but I was adamant.
Speaker 2: And when I put my mind to something, I'm going
Speaker 2: to do it.
Speaker 3: And I feel like my vision is my vision for
Speaker 3: a reason because I see things that other people can see.
Speaker 2: So I'm not going to let their response dictate what
Speaker 2: I continue to do. From that point. I'm going to
Speaker 2: prove you wrong. And I did that. I love it.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: Other than other than your online strategy, which you can
Speaker 1: you know, direct b to see business to consumer, you
Speaker 1: can sell directly to your customers, how did you work
Speaker 1: out your business to get distributions into other people's stores,
Speaker 1: other people's vape shops, and other people's hook luages so
Speaker 1: that they can sell your products.
Speaker 2: So that's the thing we have.
Speaker 3: Like tens of thousands of emails and requests about that.
Speaker 2: I have never done that yet.
Speaker 3: I haven't allowed them to do that yet because I
Speaker 3: feel like I'm still a new business.
Speaker 2: I'm, like, what, less than two years in the game, So.
Speaker 3: I still have my freshness, I still have my exclusativity,
Speaker 3: and I love that about me. Like I'm an online business.
Speaker 3: I'm doing so great online and everything like that. So
Speaker 3: I feel like before at least let me like exude
Speaker 3: in a success and all of you know, the highs
Speaker 3: and lows and experience all my lessons on behalf of
Speaker 3: myself before I include others before.
Speaker 2: I even get to their route, Like I.
Speaker 3: Will want more experience as a you know, an individual,
Speaker 3: independent entrepreneur of it before I include like.
Speaker 2: A through Z. Right now, I'm not ready for.
Speaker 3: That that yet, And I understand one day that's definitely
Speaker 3: you know, supposed to happen, and that's going to happen,
Speaker 3: but I just feel like, right now, it's not the
Speaker 3: right time, especially if I'm having so much success on
Speaker 3: my own by not being so exclusive.
Speaker 2: I feel like that plays a big part that people
Speaker 2: want to come get.
Speaker 3: It because it's not easy accessible and when they sell out,
Speaker 3: there reading for the restock. So I feel like I'll
Speaker 3: be working against myself while I'm at the highest part
Speaker 3: of my career at this point.
Speaker 1: You know, how did you get celebrities to back you
Speaker 1: on using their showing media platforms or was that just
Speaker 1: they saw organically and.
Speaker 3: Like organically that's what that's the thing about me, like
Speaker 3: I thought, it was so hard for these celebrities.
Speaker 2: I always admire these celebrities. You know, I'm human like
Speaker 2: everybody else.
Speaker 3: And I was like, one day I wish I could
Speaker 3: One day, I wish I could get this person, get
Speaker 3: that person.
Speaker 2: But they are human just like us.
Speaker 3: They like to do the same things that we do,
Speaker 3: and they like to be a part of.
Speaker 2: The trends and everything else like everybody else.
Speaker 3: So I guess seeing my business everywhere, seeing everybody going
Speaker 3: crazy about it, seeing that everybody don't have access access
Speaker 3: to it, what it made them want to do is
Speaker 3: use their celebrity card that just slide in the DM and.
Speaker 2: Be like, yes, I know it's so loud. I know
Speaker 2: they can't get it, but I want to try it.
Speaker 2: Can I get it? And that's where it started at.
Speaker 3: So it got to the point that they started sliding
Speaker 3: DM or get my number from fellow friend X and try.
Speaker 2: I send it to them. Hopefully one day we could
Speaker 2: do business.
Speaker 3: And before I know it, when they get the delivery,
Speaker 3: they making a video just like everybody else.
Speaker 2: And they literally used to brag and be like, well,
Speaker 2: y'all can't get this. I know it's so long but
Speaker 2: I got mine, so it became a trend. Like it's
Speaker 2: like a who's who's who got the black smoke? You know?
Speaker 2: That's fine.
Speaker 1: When I think about when you create an innovative products,
Speaker 1: I want you go level deeper there on. You know,
Speaker 1: how how you keep away compy casts or or have
Speaker 1: a brand strong enough that they can do whatever and
Speaker 1: do we gonna do what we're gonna do anyway, And
Speaker 1: so how do you think about your brand being so
Speaker 1: strong and how do you ensure that it's so embedded
Speaker 1: in the minds of your consumer that you know, ten
Speaker 1: other people can go and do their fruit thing, We're
Speaker 1: still going to lead this market.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's my biggest point, Like I feel like
Speaker 3: people remember.
Speaker 2: People remember you in a way that you present yourself.
Speaker 3: So if I would have just came out and say, hey,
Speaker 3: hooker from fruit instead of explaining that this couldn't be done,
Speaker 3: I was the first one to do it. Whatever the
Speaker 3: kids can be. So that's why people hopped on the
Speaker 3: wave because and they want to try regarding because it's
Speaker 3: like this is impressive, this is interesting.
Speaker 2: I want to try something that I never tried.
Speaker 3: I want to see what this is like, see what
Speaker 3: this tastes like so I feel like now we are
Speaker 3: stamped as the number one hooker brand, not only the
Speaker 3: number one hookul brand.
Speaker 2: That's the first to ever do it.
Speaker 3: So not even if somebody else was to do it
Speaker 3: or try to do it, that's cool, but it always
Speaker 3: would be like, oh, you're doing with black smoke, and
Speaker 3: you know, I feel like there's nowhere around it. You know,
Speaker 3: it's never going to be somebody come like take my spot.
Speaker 3: I'll do me because you cannot erase history and I
Speaker 3: have made history.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I love that this is an entrepreneur I follow. His
Speaker 1: name is Paul Judge, and I'm a paraphrase a quote
Speaker 1: that he says because it makes me think of you,
Speaker 1: and it says, the easiest way to get smart people
Speaker 1: to want to work with you is to have big ideas.
Speaker 1: Smart people want to work on big ideas, not small ones.
Speaker 1: And you're creating something out of nothing. And talk to
Speaker 1: me about some of the most critical roles on your
Speaker 1: team from the start that were important to you get
Speaker 1: into the scale that you're at because they could have
Speaker 1: done a lot of other things.
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, just like having a vision is one thing,
Speaker 3: but having your vision unfolding in front of you, like
Speaker 3: I can promise you, I can tell you firsthand, like
Speaker 3: it's not as beautiful and as peachy and cream as
Speaker 3: it may sound like, because you only believe as far
Speaker 3: as you can think, and you only can think as
Speaker 3: far as what you're capable of. So I had this vision,
Speaker 3: this idea, and this magnitude and of this idea of
Speaker 3: how big I wanted it to be and how great
Speaker 3: I wanted it to become.
Speaker 2: But me as a person, I was not prepared. I
Speaker 2: was not ready to deal with that.
Speaker 3: Like I wasn't I didn't have the proper knowledge and
Speaker 3: understand understand it because I feel like I was gonna
Speaker 3: learn as I go. What I have accomplished this far
Speaker 3: probably would have been my twenty years span. So I thought,
Speaker 3: as I grow on, I was going to have time to,
Speaker 3: you know, educate myself and learn more and be able
Speaker 3: to put things in different perspectives. But my success almost
Speaker 3: happened overnight. So it's like you're making the money, you
Speaker 3: gotta deal with the product. You gotta deal with inventory,
Speaker 3: you gotta deal with the help, you gotta deal with
Speaker 3: the consumers.
Speaker 2: You gotta deal with the growth. You gotta deal with
Speaker 2: the brand.
Speaker 3: Like all that is a lot with one person, especially
Speaker 3: when not starting off as a team.
Speaker 2: You're not starting off with a team.
Speaker 3: So the roles of the people that I do have
Speaker 3: closest to me, Thank God for them. They played such
Speaker 3: an important role, like working the late nights, early mornings.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about getting off at four a m.
Speaker 3: Coming back to work at eight am. Like I cannot
Speaker 3: take all the credit. It's times where they tell me
Speaker 3: you rest, you go home, you go get you some sleep,
Speaker 3: and they was running it, you know.
Speaker 2: So I'm at a point right now like I just
Speaker 2: cherish the people.
Speaker 3: It's like I cannot tell my story without including them
Speaker 3: in it because they've done this with me.
Speaker 2: Like it's all written and it has.
Speaker 3: People on my team that I can promise you it
Speaker 3: canna be fifty it is from now.
Speaker 2: I can promise you.
Speaker 3: There's nothing that can make them not be a part
Speaker 3: of this team. There's nothing that can make me fire
Speaker 3: them or get rid of them. It's just like without
Speaker 3: without them is no me, and without me is no them.
Speaker 3: And we have that understanding and I would never break
Speaker 3: that long to me.
Speaker 1: I've heard you, Well, there's other people who would not
Speaker 1: embrace being called an overnight success, but I've heard you
Speaker 1: embrace it.
Speaker 2: Can you talk about why you've.
Speaker 1: Embraced that concept of being an overnight success.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you why I embraced it.
Speaker 3: Because although my journey itself wasn't overnight, because I was
Speaker 3: creating myself as Black Tadded, already an entrepreneur, working hard,
Speaker 3: working with these brands and doing little things. However, the
Speaker 3: Black Smoke success was overnight. Despite that I used my
Speaker 3: platform that I had worked on for so many years,
Speaker 3: that doesn't make a difference. When I released my brand,
Speaker 3: it was an overnight success. And the reason why I'm
Speaker 3: not against the overnight success because I feel like that's
Speaker 3: ultimately the goal that everybody should want. Nobody want to
Speaker 3: want to have the option to say, hey, you're gonna
Speaker 3: make a million dollars tomorrow, and they gonna say, hey, no,
Speaker 3: I'd rather do it in seven years.
Speaker 2: No. So you don't really hear about the overnight success
Speaker 2: too often.
Speaker 3: So I feel like, when it happened, it's a great thing,
Speaker 3: and I want to give other people hope that you
Speaker 3: can have that one week or that one day or
Speaker 3: that one month that can really change your life.
Speaker 2: Not everything's gonna take five to sevent ten years. So
Speaker 2: that's why even I feel like that gives you the push.
Speaker 3: That you need even when things doesn't go the way
Speaker 3: that you expect them or want them to go.
Speaker 2: You know, this one day it a probably pop. So
Speaker 2: I feel like that's giving people inspiration.
Speaker 3: And hope to not give up and keep going because
Speaker 3: it just may be your day and it just may
Speaker 3: be your week.
Speaker 1: And so I want to go a little bit into
Speaker 1: your who black title was before being CEO of this
Speaker 1: big company. Now you're a social media influencer, like you
Speaker 1: had people You're funny, comedy and things.
Speaker 2: Yes, And there.
Speaker 1: Was a quote I found for you where you said
Speaker 1: I was because you have brand deals, people were paying
Speaker 1: you to post about their stuff, and you said I
Speaker 1: was okay with giving everybody else business, but it never
Speaker 1: hit me that I was truly sleeping on myself. That's
Speaker 1: a quote from you. And so what is the difference though,
Speaker 1: between an influencer who can create a big following and
Speaker 1: can sell things versus an influencer who can't seem to
Speaker 1: make anybody pull out their wallet because that happens.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, that's the difference because also what people got
Speaker 3: to understand, like having followers, it's not like equivalent to
Speaker 3: having influence.
Speaker 2: It can have people with a lot of followers.
Speaker 3: And they can literally be a comedian that makes gets
Speaker 3: with a wig ones per see, and it has people
Speaker 3: that follow them simply because of that that reason, all
Speaker 3: they want to see from you is that video of
Speaker 3: this character that you put that makes me laugh.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 3: But when you but it's a difference when you have
Speaker 3: a person what follows, what influence that pretty much have
Speaker 3: they word is bond and have built a lawyer following,
Speaker 3: and people know that they don't just put their name
Speaker 3: and their mouth and they stamp on everything. That's why
Speaker 3: it was very important to me that just because something
Speaker 3: sounded good and just because something was presented to me,
Speaker 3: just because they massed the dollar amount which I ask
Speaker 3: for or maybe have succeeded while you're asking for this
Speaker 3: and you say no, so I'll give you this instead.
Speaker 2: It was never about the money for me.
Speaker 3: It was always about like my influence, always about my
Speaker 3: word of mouth.
Speaker 2: Because if I'm going to tell my followers.
Speaker 3: To go get this, when they're gonna get it, I
Speaker 3: needed to actually work because if they go get it
Speaker 3: and it doesn't work. That's gonna only hurt me in
Speaker 3: the long run. When I say it, go get something.
Speaker 3: I really need them to go get So if I don't.
Speaker 2: Believe in it, I'm not gonna post about it. I don't.
Speaker 3: If I wouldn't use it, I'm not gonna tell them too.
Speaker 3: If I wouldn't buy it, I'm not going to convince
Speaker 3: them boy it. Because you can't do things with just
Speaker 3: a dollar. That's a temporary fix. That's a long term disaster.
Speaker 1: So how do you encourage people who or teach people
Speaker 1: who have watched your story? You know, come from you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say the bottom, but come from
Speaker 1: not a lot and have achieved what you've achieved and
Speaker 1: look at you and say, you know, well there's something
Speaker 1: that's got to be something more to it. Then this's
Speaker 1: a regular guy. That's not possible for me.
Speaker 2: How do you.
Speaker 1: Relate to people so that they can be inspired by
Speaker 1: your story and take nuggets from your story so that
Speaker 1: they can apply those things to their lives.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why. And yes I do come from the bottom.
Speaker 3: Like I was not born to silver s fool, like
Speaker 3: I lived in the ghetto. I live in the hood,
Speaker 3: like I have literally witnessed murders happening in front of me,
Speaker 3: and that's just my truth. So I feel like that's
Speaker 3: why I don't just only like talk about the great
Speaker 3: I don't just highlight Oh, everything is perfect to me.
Speaker 3: Like I let them know, like the things that discouraged me.
Speaker 3: I let them know, like the things that that I
Speaker 3: still haven't figured out. I let them know that this
Speaker 3: thing has grown so much bigger than me that I
Speaker 3: really at one point didn't have no idea what I'm doing,
Speaker 3: what I was doing. I just had a dream and
Speaker 3: that's just what happened. And also I just need them
Speaker 3: to understand, like it's not about where you come from. Yes,
Speaker 3: that plays a big part on you know, of the
Speaker 3: opportunities sometimes that we have and also the resource. But
Speaker 3: also you do not have to be a product of
Speaker 3: your environment.
Speaker 2: It's up to you to change that narrative. You don't
Speaker 2: have to want only what you see.
Speaker 3: I came from where I came from, and I've seen
Speaker 3: everything around me, but I see the way it affected
Speaker 3: everything and everybody around me. So all I didn't know
Speaker 3: exactly what I wanted to do or what I wanted
Speaker 3: to be wanted to be, but I know I wanted
Speaker 3: it to be opposite. So you literally got to bin
Speaker 3: yourself to thank for to train yourself to believe. And
Speaker 3: I know it sounds so cliche, but when you put
Speaker 3: your mind to it, you can actually do it.
Speaker 2: Like where you come from does not determine where you're going.
Speaker 1: Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity, Afro Tech,
Speaker 1: Black and Fat Podcast Network and I Hire Media. It's
Speaker 1: produced by Morgan de Bond and me Well Lucas, with
Speaker 1: the addition of production support by Said and Rose McLucas.
Speaker 1: Special thanking to Michael Davis, Vanessa Surroundo or Maya Multru.
Speaker 1: Learn more about my guests and other tech this weepons
Speaker 1: and innovators at afrotech dot com. Enjoy your Black Tech
Speaker 1: Green Money shit is with Somebody could get your money.
Speaker 2: Need some love