Speaker 1: Welcome back, Welcome back to the Vitamin D Podcast with
Speaker 1: Dawn Day. I am glad to be your eponymous host,
Speaker 1: here to help you become the best you you can
Speaker 1: be and signed some light in your life. It's time
Speaker 1: for you to live your best life right now, on
Speaker 1: purpose and for purpose, because life is short. Tab with
Speaker 1: Boseman just passed away, brother got diagnosed with stage three
Speaker 1: and sixteen and gets still filmed several movies, walk down
Speaker 1: several red carpets, and did countless of interviews. All why
Speaker 1: standing forth and being there for friends, family and friends?
Speaker 1: What is your excuse? What is holding you back? Why
Speaker 1: are you afraid to be great? Let me guess you
Speaker 1: don't have it all figured out. When I think back
Speaker 1: on my first idea of what Vitamin D would be,
Speaker 1: all I knew was that I had a voice and
Speaker 1: that I should use it. I also knew that I
Speaker 1: had a passion for music, and I knew that music
Speaker 1: makes you hear words differently. And I said, We'll wait
Speaker 1: a minute. I love inspiring people, so let me go
Speaker 1: to the music and pull out an inspirational message that
Speaker 1: can reach people universally, something that everyone would understand. And whoila,
Speaker 1: here I am Vitamin D is coming out of your speakers.
Speaker 1: Don't tell me it's not possible, and you can't tell
Speaker 1: me that you're not worth it, because you are. And
Speaker 1: it's time for you to get out of your own
Speaker 1: way and make your dreams a reality. Which brings me
Speaker 1: to today's dose of vitamin D. Our guest today comes
Speaker 1: with a little bit of that fusion flair. She comes
Speaker 1: to drive and I'm talking about a woman who quit
Speaker 1: her corporation. I haven't made her dream of reality with
Speaker 1: only two thousand dollars and an idea. I'm speaking with
Speaker 1: Miss Barbara sky Barrel, founder of l A's famous Skies
Speaker 1: gourmet tacos. We discussed what to do when you don't
Speaker 1: like the direction of your life, what to do when
Speaker 1: passion doesn't get you past the line, and how you
Speaker 1: can walk it out not having it point by point
Speaker 1: planned for your life. I mean, who really has it
Speaker 1: all figured out right? We talked how some of the
Speaker 1: greatest ideas are some of the ones we throw away
Speaker 1: is too far fetched, too trendy, and how a little
Speaker 1: girl in Chicago asking her mother what a taco is
Speaker 1: la decades later to some of the best tacos in
Speaker 1: southern California. Without further ado, it's time for your dose
Speaker 1: of vitamin damin D right with me and get excited
Speaker 1: about Well. Hello, they're miss Barbara, Jean Bara. How are
Speaker 1: you doing today. I'm wonderful good to meet you. It
Speaker 1: is an absolute honor to meet you. I say that
Speaker 1: because I was just thinking how I live in the
Speaker 1: neighborhood and Darren, who is a neighbor of mine, and
Speaker 1: I would see he had one of his cars were
Speaker 1: wrapped in Sky's Tacos. I remember a couple of years ago. Actually,
Speaker 1: I stopped by before you moved to your new location,
Speaker 1: when you're in the smaller area. I thought the tackles
Speaker 1: were absolutely wonderful. So then here's how we met. Dan
Speaker 1: received a package at my house. I want to go
Speaker 1: drop it off, he says, Hey, Don, I am just
Speaker 1: in such gratitude for what you did. He's like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna bring you something from my good girlfriend Sky. You
Speaker 1: know Sky's Tacos. I'm like, of course, I know Sky's
Speaker 1: taco I'm gonna bring you some caramel cheesecake. My heart dropped,
Speaker 1: my paler danced. I saw a new day. Oh you
Speaker 1: know what to say? I got it. Thanks thanks so
Speaker 1: much at me so much. It really does. Dan David
Speaker 1: and my biggest fans. I don't know what I do
Speaker 1: without him in the in the team. But again, I'm
Speaker 1: glad you enjoyed the cheesecake, and thank you absolutely. And
Speaker 1: here's the thing as well, as I was getting prepared,
Speaker 1: and if you're listening, I am talking to the CEO
Speaker 1: and founder of Skies Gourmet Tacos located right well, you
Speaker 1: have a couple of locations, but located in southern California. Yes,
Speaker 1: you've founded it almost but almost thirty years ago. This
Speaker 1: year mark the year. Yes, that's correct. It's it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Where the years gone? And and I look up and
Speaker 1: I say, well, I do this again. I'm stupid. I would, Okay,
Speaker 1: I would, but let's talk about that doing again. And
Speaker 1: that just makes me think of the start. First and foremost,
Speaker 1: we have something in common. Okay, we are two Midwest girls.
Speaker 1: I'm from Detroit. I saw your from Chicago. Went to
Speaker 1: Michigan State. My sister went to Michigan State. Welcome, welcome,
Speaker 1: It's good to know you. You know, there's there's something
Speaker 1: about us Midwestern here that's a there's another there's another
Speaker 1: touch to us. Okay, I hadn't kill anybody, says, because
Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna ask you where you from. Mr. Gone,
Speaker 1: I thought you were from somewhere in the Midwest, not
Speaker 1: idle home, not Iowa, but like Detroit, Google, that's where
Speaker 1: my folks are from. Yes, grow but Joe Brow is
Speaker 1: environment my uncle, um, my father went to cash Tech
Speaker 1: and all my my relatives went there. Yeah, very prominent musician,
Speaker 1: first African American and is somethany so fior wow wow Detroit.
Speaker 1: So respect always say Detroit. They breed us differently. There's
Speaker 1: a go about us. There's a buzzas there is, There
Speaker 1: is and and and that that came on through to Chicago.
Speaker 1: And if you and I think that I think it
Speaker 1: doesn't leave, it doesn't mean that that that or doesn't leave.
Speaker 1: It's good to know you, my follower, Midwestern. It's good
Speaker 1: to know you. And Ms Barbara Jeane or should I
Speaker 1: call you sky whichever you prefer. They call me the Countess.
Speaker 1: They me the Countess because I was dot in my Marina,
Speaker 1: dol Rey, my opening up here in the marina, and
Speaker 1: sky Score made marketplace, and so someone came in and
Speaker 1: said I heard that there's a countess moving in with
Speaker 1: her son, a rich, rich countress with the side, so
Speaker 1: that's better. Really started calling me the countess and I said, well,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be better to be a queen. And then
Speaker 1: I was told what queens get replaced the countess? You
Speaker 1: better speak that. I love that counter sky. It sounds
Speaker 1: so majestic, So let's start. Let's talk about it, because
Speaker 1: you have a very interesting story. Uh. And I think,
Speaker 1: like when we talk about stories of success, we see
Speaker 1: the ups and downs, the twist and turns and all
Speaker 1: that in between. And like we said that you're from Chicago,
Speaker 1: tell us about what it was like going up to
Speaker 1: Chicago and what actually sparked your interest in the restaurant business.
Speaker 1: Grew up in Chicago, moderate U income family that aspired
Speaker 1: for the best for my sister and I. On there
Speaker 1: were the culture very little um, very few African Americans
Speaker 1: and are good um Latinos. We rarely solvm um, we
Speaker 1: rarely interacted with them. But I was always culturally diverse
Speaker 1: in my mind and heart because I would live with
Speaker 1: a person, say how they look different, Let's see what
Speaker 1: do they do? How they live? So this is how
Speaker 1: my interests started, and then of course the taco threw
Speaker 1: up somewhere on a billboards with my mom and I said,
Speaker 1: what's that. She's out to taco, says taco, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: can we get a taco? And never had a taco,
Speaker 1: So somehow we ran to a taco, started eating tacos,
Speaker 1: developed tacos, cultivate a tacos. Tacos a part of my life,
Speaker 1: for real, for real, so interesting having to be a
Speaker 1: part of your life. It didn't start out that way
Speaker 1: because when you were studying at Michigan State, you were
Speaker 1: actually going down the business route. And I'm wondering you
Speaker 1: were with your mom with that tackle. But I understand.
Speaker 1: Darren was telling me that your mom was a professional
Speaker 1: celebrity chef. That's correct. My mom cooked for Diana Ross.
Speaker 1: My mother took for Diana Ross right here barely Hills.
Speaker 1: She cooked for the Cassidy's David Cassy, he cooked for
Speaker 1: James conen Um Fred Sands, and that that inspired me.
Speaker 1: But I didn't know at the time it was my inspiration.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. Sometimes we as life goes on, we
Speaker 1: don't know really the answers, and we could be experiencing
Speaker 1: something very beautiful. And I truly understand. My mother was
Speaker 1: a meticulous cook that was um of the perfectionist that
Speaker 1: she would grow away. And I understand that if it
Speaker 1: wasn't righteous, it's gotta go. My mom was stellar. She's
Speaker 1: not WITHO list any longer. But I'm telling you she
Speaker 1: got so much. She gave so much to my hone
Speaker 1: and for order for me to give in the arena cooking.
Speaker 1: SOB please with that. I'm called. And I love what
Speaker 1: you said. You said sometimes you know, I think you know,
Speaker 1: coming up and in life, we are trying to map
Speaker 1: out every single thing, and we realized that sometimes you
Speaker 1: have to live just to let things unfold. Absolutely absolutely,
Speaker 1: and and you speaking on and just reading someone can
Speaker 1: see that you were studying, you know, you were getting
Speaker 1: a degree in strategic business management at Michigan State, and
Speaker 1: then one day you just said, decided to say, hey,
Speaker 1: this isn't for me, so let me get this straight.
Speaker 1: I've done everything what they call aspect what you see,
Speaker 1: I didn't just go right from high school into Michigan State.
Speaker 1: I made some detours. You see. I had a child, Um,
Speaker 1: I was I worked at the phone company, I was here.
Speaker 1: I moved to California, so in movie in California. But
Speaker 1: I was able to catch up on my education. Okay,
Speaker 1: through the route. But it didn't just I'm oh, I'm
Speaker 1: doing this, this and this. No, there was no, it
Speaker 1: was not simple the clear cut path. No, I didn't
Speaker 1: do that. No, that's not me. I didn't do that.
Speaker 1: Within me have done in life. My past have been
Speaker 1: very um, they've been very uh what we would say,
Speaker 1: off the the off, the stray, off the main off
Speaker 1: the main site. But it's come around. It's coming, It
Speaker 1: comes around, that's what they say. You know, you just
Speaker 1: live a little longer and just experience some things and
Speaker 1: you see how all the pieces come together. Yes, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: So when it came down to you and I was
Speaker 1: reading you decided to take a break, when you decided, hey,
Speaker 1: this is not what I want to do. Uh, depending
Speaker 1: on you know, going down the business route, because I
Speaker 1: understand you were also an executive of several major companies
Speaker 1: and actually had a hand and the drive through being
Speaker 1: established at McDonald's. That's correct, that's correct, making maybee want
Speaker 1: to believe. So how did you get to the point
Speaker 1: I can imagine McDonald's what it is today a very
Speaker 1: lucrative stand up job to say, hey, I'm walking away
Speaker 1: from this from something that possibly was unknown or possibly
Speaker 1: a seat that had been planted. It was. It was
Speaker 1: a wonderful stepping stone. The experience when I wouldn't trade
Speaker 1: it hard work, discipline and instilled um systems things that's
Speaker 1: needed what I do every day, you have to system
Speaker 1: for everything. McDonald was fabish, but I wanted. I wanted
Speaker 1: something else in my life for me. McDonald was just
Speaker 1: ablished when I quit Mcdoaldy was. It was right after
Speaker 1: I finished the Drive Too, and I resigned because I
Speaker 1: knew there was something else and I didn't have another
Speaker 1: I didn't want another job, but there was something else
Speaker 1: because I've always thought in the back of my mind,
Speaker 1: I want my own business, and maybe this is time.
Speaker 1: And you see, I'm not a I'm an intuitive person.
Speaker 1: Sometimes my intuition is a lit long and it was off.
Speaker 1: So some several years later, nonetheless, I knew that I
Speaker 1: wanted McDonald's was established. I wanted to establish what Barbain
Speaker 1: needed and was put here to establish speak on it.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what's so important when we talk
Speaker 1: about dreams, it's about what is your passion and are
Speaker 1: you still enough to hear it? Are you disciplined enough
Speaker 1: to see it? Are you ambitious enough to pursue it? Absolutely? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And I would I would suggest when people talk about
Speaker 1: all my passion is my passion is this or that? Well,
Speaker 1: passion doesn't always get us to the to the line.
Speaker 1: It's it's uh something that will motivate us. The passion
Speaker 1: doesn't take us the way the distance. Passion doesn't do that.
Speaker 1: What passion will do is it will get you started.
Speaker 1: Because when as you walk that line, you're gonna need
Speaker 1: something more than passion. You're gonna need persistence. You're gonna
Speaker 1: need a touch of a touch of hard handedness. You're
Speaker 1: gonna need a confidence that you have to constantly cough
Speaker 1: up sometimes every morning in order to make it. You're
Speaker 1: gonna need a brashness to know that, oh we need
Speaker 1: to tell me this the whole wide world like you
Speaker 1: do it. These are the things that you have to
Speaker 1: muster up in addition to that that that cool word passion,
Speaker 1: fashion is a wonderful word, and it's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1: It's only a start, and it's a good start, but
Speaker 1: it will it will never take you the distance. So
Speaker 1: you found your passion and you said, hey, you're with
Speaker 1: your mom. You saw these tacos, then you decided to
Speaker 1: step away from McDonald's. I read that all you had
Speaker 1: was two thousand dollars and a vision. That's correct. What
Speaker 1: was that about? While you see when you believe, first
Speaker 1: of all, when you believe, when you know that you've
Speaker 1: come to the end of the road, the end of
Speaker 1: the road, that is the jump off for the beginning
Speaker 1: of the real road. This is what I did. I
Speaker 1: was working on as an asset manager dog tom Hira
Speaker 1: high rise for Black Investments Company of Men for ten years,
Speaker 1: save money, quit oh nine months head of ball and
Speaker 1: spent all the money except for probably to grab And
Speaker 1: I said, okay, God, am I gonna do now? And
Speaker 1: this is the truth. So so I did my no arena.
Speaker 1: It was nine days, you know. And that ninth day
Speaker 1: I awakened at six a m. In the morning with tackles.
Speaker 1: I said, I believe the six am January I had
Speaker 1: a space, that small space that interfer a weight was people.
Speaker 1: I wasn't planned. I had no I had basically no money,
Speaker 1: but I knew that this was what I needed to
Speaker 1: do go in that space. I sit down in the chair.
Speaker 1: I've got my two sons, and I said, now what
Speaker 1: I do. My one son was excellented plans building whatever.
Speaker 1: The other sun was there saying, you know whatever you mean.
Speaker 1: He was that they were both in school. But whatever
Speaker 1: you need, mom, we're gonna We're here for you. And
Speaker 1: and they worked for me, and that March five comes
Speaker 1: along and I said, we're gonna open up March five
Speaker 1: one forty four in nineteen nineteen, I said, open the doors.
Speaker 1: We're not ready and will never be ready. Open the
Speaker 1: doors anyway. We open those doors. And those doors when
Speaker 1: we opened them, we were like because we were still
Speaker 1: in the developmental state. We weren't totally you know, together,
Speaker 1: and you know we had everything. You know, people have
Speaker 1: donated compressors. I gotta we'll still two thousand dollars. Let's
Speaker 1: that's all I needed. I don't know how it has happened.
Speaker 1: I don't know how it happened. When I say don't
Speaker 1: know how, I know that I took step by step
Speaker 1: and said I'm going on anyhow. When I do it again, yeah, yeah, wow.
Speaker 1: And you know, just hearing somebody else say hey, and
Speaker 1: that one morning in January, the vision came. Then you said, wow,
Speaker 1: I got the space. So now you got the vision,
Speaker 1: you made room for the vision. Now this is the
Speaker 1: part I think you talked about that exceeds the passion.
Speaker 1: Now what are we gonna do with it? Now? Where
Speaker 1: we get to it's called the jump. You gotta jump off.
Speaker 1: You are jump right and wrong. You gotta jump and
Speaker 1: for somebody to hear the success. And I'm sure and
Speaker 1: that's what I wanted to talk about as well, the
Speaker 1: road and to your success. One can look at it
Speaker 1: and say, well, that's easy for you to say. You know,
Speaker 1: everything was provided for you already. It was easy, but
Speaker 1: it takes a level. No matter where you are, we
Speaker 1: no matter what platform you're standing from, you still realize
Speaker 1: the greater the risk, the greater the reward. Absolutely absolutely,
Speaker 1: And and my my background has been I work for men,
Speaker 1: and you know men, you know they got another tostof
Speaker 1: thing going where they got they got the answers and
Speaker 1: if they don't have the answers, they're like, like they've
Speaker 1: got the answers. Well, I learned some of their some
Speaker 1: of their tricks, their tricks and white that sustained them
Speaker 1: and help them to get through. That is what one
Speaker 1: of them was, which I find to be so much
Speaker 1: a part of me. You fear, call them the defense
Speaker 1: if you have to, because fear is fear is going
Speaker 1: to be with us, and every every big step we're
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna have this fear. Men have fear, but
Speaker 1: you never know it. M. These men, I worked for
Speaker 1: men that were strong men. When I see strong and
Speaker 1: very very strong, I was right. I was easily right
Speaker 1: next to them, sat on the board, right next to
Speaker 1: these men in terms of more heat and working habits, work, ethic, work, presentation, work, conclusion.
Speaker 1: And one of the major things that I noticed was
Speaker 1: how they handled fear. They had fear. They crawled under defense,
Speaker 1: whatever they had to do, but they moved along. M
Speaker 1: it's that fear, and that's what I learned what these
Speaker 1: men and I have the experience of having many many
Speaker 1: wearing many hats and being able to bring these hats
Speaker 1: to my business. I learned about insurances and business. I
Speaker 1: learned about UM. I learned about how to how to maintenance.
Speaker 1: I learned a lot of different different things. Okay, I
Speaker 1: learned how to just get through, just go on anyway
Speaker 1: they tell you know. Oh, that's okay, that's a good
Speaker 1: that's a good answer. Knows a wonderful answer. I'll be
Speaker 1: right here tomorrow. Thank you learned. And it's interesting of
Speaker 1: how you got that perseverance coupled with that persistence, because
Speaker 1: here we are in twenty we can still compare how
Speaker 1: much a woman is getting paid by the data to
Speaker 1: a man, let alone an African American woman. And that's
Speaker 1: in now we're talking. You established your business, you opened
Speaker 1: it up on Pico In. Therefore, I'm teen years prior
Speaker 1: to that. You are an African American woman standing in
Speaker 1: a room of how many other women? Were you usually
Speaker 1: the only one? Yes? Yes, that was always amongst men. Mhm.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about some of the things that you
Speaker 1: had to push through. That was said because I talked
Speaker 1: to people oftentimes and they're going after your dreams and
Speaker 1: like you stated before, not having it figured out. But
Speaker 1: sometimes you get in certain situations and you think that
Speaker 1: you're going to have us a support system of people
Speaker 1: that are rooting you on. But of course, when you
Speaker 1: look different and when you're breaking a barrier, when you're
Speaker 1: doing something that's unknown in foreign people don't always take
Speaker 1: a liking to that how did you persevere opposition was tough.
Speaker 1: The positions that I held. For example, I would never
Speaker 1: get addressed by my name. I was asset management, but
Speaker 1: I never got addressed as Barbara Burrell. I was always
Speaker 1: addressed as dear sir, dear sir. Other places, people would
Speaker 1: write me notes and then your asshole, I mean men,
Speaker 1: men predominantly men, and aren't going to be offended by
Speaker 1: the way. I was very offended, but I would never
Speaker 1: let them know it. I would go in and I said, well,
Speaker 1: I guess I'll be a there asshole the day because
Speaker 1: there I come. But every day that this chips away,
Speaker 1: it can chip away at you. It can chip away
Speaker 1: at your confidence. And if you don't, if you don't
Speaker 1: really work and believe in yourself and every day tout
Speaker 1: yourself and say were you waking at the one and said, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm great, I'm great, I can make this, I
Speaker 1: can make this, and I can do this well to
Speaker 1: be defeated because I have worked along nothing but NET
Speaker 1: made more money than NET. And the setups some of
Speaker 1: the things that happened, I mean the setup that they do,
Speaker 1: they create for you to fail. There's nothing but set
Speaker 1: up for failure. And when they get and I've been
Speaker 1: fired five and fired, and when they get ready to
Speaker 1: fire you, they bring down a whole bunch of suits
Speaker 1: and even a set of just one suit. But for
Speaker 1: for a strong woman, they're gonna bring down suits like
Speaker 1: three and four because it's a psychological thing, okay. And
Speaker 1: of course I thought it was an honor because they
Speaker 1: did not define me. And I knew the reason, did
Speaker 1: I southe No, it wasn't necessary. I don't have time.
Speaker 1: I got other things to do. But it was. It
Speaker 1: was a blow. It was a blow in that you
Speaker 1: have to really sit down and get in touch with
Speaker 1: yourself and say, let me figure this out. And it's
Speaker 1: about being a woman. It's about being a woman, a
Speaker 1: woman that looks different. And we're still we're still in
Speaker 1: this battle. We're in this woman inclusion battle. We're trying
Speaker 1: to break out of it. It looks like we're it
Speaker 1: looks like we're on the way, but it's a way
Speaker 1: to go. Women do not get respected. Yeah I was.
Speaker 1: And when I worked as asi manic drivers a woman,
Speaker 1: I wore high heels and lipstick and they were like, oh,
Speaker 1: here she comes. And so I was to be men
Speaker 1: can go around and they can they can taunt and
Speaker 1: then taunt in terms of say other things to women.
Speaker 1: And it's okay when you say something to a man
Speaker 1: in terms of instructions, they're like, oh, she's a bee h.
Speaker 1: But a man he could, he could say what he
Speaker 1: wants to say to a woman. You know. So we're
Speaker 1: we've come some way, but we've kind of go a
Speaker 1: long way. We're gonna go to distance too. We're gonna
Speaker 1: go to distance, and you know, the way society has
Speaker 1: definitely opened up doors. And I think there's a different
Speaker 1: light and a recognition for a lot of women that
Speaker 1: have dreams. But I think, or I feel, what you
Speaker 1: said was so imperative. And this goes for a lot
Speaker 1: of women that are being bold enough to go against
Speaker 1: the grain, to step in their truth to say, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I want a business and I may want
Speaker 1: a family too, and if not, that's okay. But what
Speaker 1: I find is so interesting with a lot of not
Speaker 1: only women but men and going to your path of
Speaker 1: success is that it can be lonely and there's a
Speaker 1: sure enough confidence in yourself that you just have to
Speaker 1: know what you know. And I just think about you
Speaker 1: and you're saying that, Hey, I'm the only one in
Speaker 1: hills and lipstick in this entire room, and probably the
Speaker 1: only one of color. H What would you say was
Speaker 1: your inspiration or who are what kept you going? I
Speaker 1: was raised around the mother that was extremely strong, and
Speaker 1: she was much stronger than she even gave her some
Speaker 1: credit for. I watched my mother great battles. I watched
Speaker 1: her fight battle after battle, and I said to myself,
Speaker 1: I could never do this. Oh, I could never listen.
Speaker 1: This is the battle for for homeownership, you know, just
Speaker 1: just the usual living uh arena nothing nothing, you know,
Speaker 1: tremendous like buy a building or high rise. It was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: let me fight get my home. Let me I had
Speaker 1: to get my loan from the bank. Let me fight
Speaker 1: to get my job. And civil service because I've been
Speaker 1: discriminating against discrimination was real and there was little we
Speaker 1: could do about it. Okay, she was be discriminating as
Speaker 1: a woman, an African American woman, Okay, and her abilities
Speaker 1: and my mother, I said, I watched her. I watched
Speaker 1: her with civil service, fight fight and say I'm going
Speaker 1: to keep my job. I watched my mother's study so hard.
Speaker 1: They gave her another test and she came out number one.
Speaker 1: I watched my mother fight. And this was back in
Speaker 1: in the in the in the sixties. I watched my
Speaker 1: mother and my mother it's I didn't realize how what
Speaker 1: an important influence that was. But every day that I
Speaker 1: went to work that I had to fight this because
Speaker 1: it was it was a bash against my my personality
Speaker 1: and my confidence. Every day I went to work, I said, here,
Speaker 1: I come watch me. And every day I had to.
Speaker 1: I had to pick myself up because by days in
Speaker 1: I would I would be so tired that when I
Speaker 1: would leave work, I'd have to pull over and breathe
Speaker 1: and say, ah, now that's not right. No one you'd
Speaker 1: have to live. No one should have to have an
Speaker 1: environment to work like that. But the environment was meant
Speaker 1: no that that. So this is what you do. This
Speaker 1: is what this is what we're gonna put you through.
Speaker 1: Can you stand? Yes? I can wrong one wrong one.
Speaker 1: So but this was from my mother. It's just from
Speaker 1: the model I had. It's amazing of how the influence
Speaker 1: of our parents have because I like to say, just
Speaker 1: with my story and the things that I've done of
Speaker 1: just leaving Detroit, going to Howard, living in New York
Speaker 1: now living in Los Angeles, and people are like, wow, Dawn,
Speaker 1: and you know, being to the point of having a
Speaker 1: job to no car, to no job, well my but
Speaker 1: still making it happen. And just like you mirror that
Speaker 1: because I had a strong mother. I had a strong,
Speaker 1: strong mother. I saw my mother battle cancer three times,
Speaker 1: and I didn't realize how serious it was until it
Speaker 1: was the third bout. But I'm saying, it's interesting when
Speaker 1: we talk about our pedigree and we talk about the legacy,
Speaker 1: and just like the legacy that you're leading with Sky's Taco,
Speaker 1: is that when you know what you know and that's
Speaker 1: who you are, you have no other choice but to
Speaker 1: go forward. And and you do, and you do, and
Speaker 1: as Uhria Reva says, with a Forge, wowlen't go exactly.
Speaker 1: And it makes me think because I look over the
Speaker 1: years of just reading it, almost these past three decades,
Speaker 1: you've gotten several accolades of the amazing thing in l
Speaker 1: a Weekly, whether you're featured on Katia like countless of
Speaker 1: other television shows and news programs, and again we're like, wow,
Speaker 1: look at Sky. Yes, yes, but what I think is
Speaker 1: so interesting. And we talked about the perseverance and pushed through.
Speaker 1: It's one thing to be fighting the outside sources. But
Speaker 1: I understand that you two had a battle with cancer.
Speaker 1: You also dealt with the loss of your son. Yet
Speaker 1: still almost thirty years later, you still have your business.
Speaker 1: But more importantly, as I sit here before you, you
Speaker 1: still seem to have a peace of mind. How is that?
Speaker 1: I'm extremely blessed. I'm extremely blessed. When I was diagnosed. Um,
Speaker 1: First of all, I I was diagnosed and kind of
Speaker 1: an unusual way. I remember it was on Wednesday evening
Speaker 1: and I had a long I noticed my breast and
Speaker 1: I said, oh, I must be picking up these tomatoes.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been picking up too many cases of
Speaker 1: tomatoes are too heavy. And I said, well, i'll check
Speaker 1: it out later. Well, there's Wednesday. Something came into my
Speaker 1: spirit and I went to emergency on Sunday and then
Speaker 1: Monday they said come back tomorrow because you need to
Speaker 1: see a surgeon. I'm like, okay, Well, this fear or
Speaker 1: just was like was overwhelming inside of me. And I
Speaker 1: got that fear under control, so I had They took
Speaker 1: out what they call it aspect to me uh to
Speaker 1: uh to find out its cancerous. And I didn't know
Speaker 1: what they were really gonna because I don't hear a
Speaker 1: lot of information. A lot of yeah, a lot of
Speaker 1: information can throw me too much information. So I told
Speaker 1: my sister, I said, so I'm going over, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have a biopsy and and whatever. So that was on
Speaker 1: a Wednesday, sort of Friday. My sister's picking me up.
Speaker 1: My mother's in the car, my other sisters in the car,
Speaker 1: and it's one's reading this book it's called Doctor Susan
Speaker 1: a lot of first book, right, and I'm saying, we're
Speaker 1: going to see the doctor. I mean, but it hasn't
Speaker 1: gone on me. That's where I had. That's how, that's how.
Speaker 1: Immediately I gone to another plane. So we got the
Speaker 1: doctor's office and the doctor said the surgeon said, uh,
Speaker 1: I'm mother sitting to my left. And he says, you
Speaker 1: have and I said, oh, my mother was just my family. No, no, no.
Speaker 1: So I got up when I walked down and I said,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, I said, but I want you
Speaker 1: to know that I'm healed me And I walked out
Speaker 1: of there and I sat down and I thought to myself,
Speaker 1: what what is this all me? So fortunately had your
Speaker 1: family and right there with me and my sons were
Speaker 1: right there at the business. And so I wasn't worried
Speaker 1: about people say you have to close the business. Said no,
Speaker 1: I don't. I've got sons. I've got sons that are
Speaker 1: interested and that I have my best interests. And I
Speaker 1: believed the interests of the business at heart. They took
Speaker 1: they did take over. There was no issue. There was
Speaker 1: no issue. It was support that chemotherapy all gone through
Speaker 1: the whole thing um radiation but not but and and
Speaker 1: I believed at every step that I was field, not
Speaker 1: not in remission. I don't believe nor mission. It saves
Speaker 1: nine percent and that's nothing to me. A hundred percent
Speaker 1: and give it all to me. But that's what was
Speaker 1: my belief. And fortunately, you know, I was able to
Speaker 1: go widely after chemo therapy two days after and start
Speaker 1: waking out because I wanted to be strong. Wow, I
Speaker 1: was very, very very weak. I was very weak. I
Speaker 1: was very old. Because it will do that to you.
Speaker 1: The disease will ravish, it will do that, it will
Speaker 1: make you weak, it will make you old before your time.
Speaker 1: And I was able to have a wonderful trainer who
Speaker 1: was like my angel fabulously walked in one day in
Speaker 1: walking the skies. I was sitting in the back as
Speaker 1: I was hiding, and I said, Scott, I says, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to try to work out, Mrs I'm a trainer.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, you know, really I love to.
Speaker 1: I said, you will tell me how much does it cost?
Speaker 1: He's all worked that out, he was my angel. I
Speaker 1: could not afford it, and he did not charge. And
Speaker 1: I will always always be so thankful because I worked
Speaker 1: out for not one year, two years, three years. I
Speaker 1: mean I I started returning to Barbara and and I
Speaker 1: was just really tremendously blessed. And again my troven knew
Speaker 1: there to support my families, there to support me tremendously blessed.
Speaker 1: I find that so amazing how we can find ourselves
Speaker 1: in certain situations and be in the space of not
Speaker 1: knowing how, but God shows up and sends those angels
Speaker 1: and the people that we need. And the thing that
Speaker 1: is required is just to have faith, oh yeah, of
Speaker 1: little faith, and just walk it out and walk it out.
Speaker 1: You don't have to worry about tomorrow. Can we just
Speaker 1: walk it out? And if we can learn this with everything,
Speaker 1: oh my God, our lives would be so much richer,
Speaker 1: and it would be so we'd be so much healthier.
Speaker 1: We worry about things that may never come to pass.
Speaker 1: If we can just walk this day out, that's that's
Speaker 1: what the truth that I had to come to one
Speaker 1: step in front of the other, one step, just one step,
Speaker 1: Ye'll take two, which is one I um. I tried
Speaker 1: to relieve myself of that sometimes because you get so
Speaker 1: caught up in the long house instead of figuring out
Speaker 1: the right now and it's like, it's just right now
Speaker 1: and it's It just reminded me of you just saying
Speaker 1: one step even in your in your when you were
Speaker 1: speaking and you said not but but and because and
Speaker 1: allows a plus and it's more, but is a stop
Speaker 1: a restriction, And I feel that's what happens, what comes
Speaker 1: with stress. You're trying to control, you're trying to stop.
Speaker 1: But like you said, just walk it out. There's a
Speaker 1: free forming feeling and it's a piece. Yes, yes, if
Speaker 1: we could just take it day at a time. And
Speaker 1: I mean I've been faced with, uh, that lesson over
Speaker 1: and over again, because that's how really lesson that can
Speaker 1: be our monthly of course, it just you just don't
Speaker 1: accept and so I'm gonna walk this out here. I
Speaker 1: am everybody in walking now. Now you while you're walking
Speaker 1: it out, you're working it out in your head to
Speaker 1: try to walk it out. And then after you know,
Speaker 1: come on, now we're real, We're really we're human beings
Speaker 1: and we're real people. We got roads of thoughts going through.
Speaker 1: Or when I say walk it out, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: walking out in terms of turning it over to to
Speaker 1: whomever your power is and my power is gone. And
Speaker 1: if you could turn over and just say, when you know,
Speaker 1: give us this day, and there's so much truth. If
Speaker 1: if in the world, work in the world of relationships,
Speaker 1: in the world of spouses, because you can't see when
Speaker 1: you're trying that you've got the rain so tight. Oh
Speaker 1: come on, say it again. You can't see when you
Speaker 1: got the rain so tight not to see. But if
Speaker 1: you let let go, act like it's a bar stap
Speaker 1: in your handle and see what happens, it's wetting, keep
Speaker 1: you handle, it will work out. And I still I
Speaker 1: still have to go through that this day. But it's
Speaker 1: just not an automatic. Nothing is automatic. You have to
Speaker 1: work at it every day. If it's your business, if
Speaker 1: it's your marriage, if it's your everything. Do you work
Speaker 1: out every day and people don't think that maybe they're
Speaker 1: working at it, but you're either working out it, you're
Speaker 1: doing nothing. Okay, choice And if we think about it,
Speaker 1: we're here to live. You don't stop living until you're dead.
Speaker 1: So why are you stopping now? It's most people think
Speaker 1: about life. We're here to We're here to make an
Speaker 1: impact through change, through through role model, through empowerment, to encouragement. Uh.
Speaker 1: If it's the people we see on the street, how
Speaker 1: are you doing the day with a smile, But they
Speaker 1: can look at me with that smile and it means
Speaker 1: so much. And not because you're needing, but because you're human.
Speaker 1: Because it's spirit to spirit. Hello, the spirit to spirit
Speaker 1: and it's kind of like that energy source that you
Speaker 1: just allow it to flow. Whether it's you know, like
Speaker 1: you're talking about having that faith with the business. All
Speaker 1: you have to do is see it. All you have
Speaker 1: to do see it and know that every day that
Speaker 1: you put in, every day that you put in, it's
Speaker 1: your it's your bank, it's your bank. And listen to this.
Speaker 1: You made me smile because there's something I talked about
Speaker 1: with my platform I always coined myself as the life
Speaker 1: bank account expert, and I say that because I charge
Speaker 1: and I challenge people to think, what kind of deposits
Speaker 1: versus liabilities are you putting in your life bank account?
Speaker 1: Because in this account you are your greatest asset. The
Speaker 1: value whether you're reading, whether you're resting, whether you're working out,
Speaker 1: whether you're eating right, those are deposits. But just like
Speaker 1: anything that has a positive and a negative, you understand
Speaker 1: that there is a bentalance with that. So there is
Speaker 1: some take. Maybe there is some sacrifice, maybe there is
Speaker 1: some bumping your head learning a lesson, but like you said,
Speaker 1: having that grace and walking it out, working it through
Speaker 1: and having that forgiveness. Let's talk about that a little
Speaker 1: bit more. Um here you are you started the business,
Speaker 1: like I said before this to twenty eight year. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure tons of people that are listening right now
Speaker 1: or like that's the time I've been on this earth.
Speaker 1: That's a huge accomplished man. Grew up, go to college,
Speaker 1: Finnish college. In their careers kids at eight beans that
Speaker 1: were so hot, you know, and little Johnny middle Johnny's uh,
Speaker 1: you know, as an adult married when we think we're
Speaker 1: doing me meal worth understand that nothing is menal when
Speaker 1: we put purpose to it. Or why I don't care
Speaker 1: what you don't give your janitor, I don't care. So
Speaker 1: we clean it. I can we clean our homes when
Speaker 1: we go in with intecht and purpose. Well, when it's done,
Speaker 1: it feels so good, it looks good. Same basic premise.
Speaker 1: That's everything you're in life, same basic premise. What is
Speaker 1: the what is why? They say your wire is what's
Speaker 1: gonna wake you up, Your wi is what's going to
Speaker 1: keep you pushing. That's it. As a gentleman, his name
Speaker 1: is Eric Thomas, who happens to be from Detroit as well.
Speaker 1: He cause him off et. He says, he's he coins
Speaker 1: it as your dream. But let's just say if it's
Speaker 1: your why, you have to want your why, your dream
Speaker 1: as bad as you want to breathe, because you realize
Speaker 1: it's beyond you. Like you said, when you had this vision,
Speaker 1: it was beyond the comprehension of this realm of understanding
Speaker 1: how it was to be. You knew your assignment. I did,
Speaker 1: I did, I did. And what's interesting when we know
Speaker 1: on our assignment. Sometimes we can start on one path,
Speaker 1: but I promise you whatever your assignment is, it's somehow
Speaker 1: in life. It's gonna drag you to that place. Like
Speaker 1: it's life. It is an interesting thing. It's like we
Speaker 1: think we have to know. I already get to come.
Speaker 1: I don't know what fools be doing. I tell someone,
Speaker 1: I tell them pick something, pick something that you like,
Speaker 1: and do it. It's okay because if it's not right,
Speaker 1: it will take you on to whatever you're assignment is.
Speaker 1: They'll take you on, but you have to pick something.
Speaker 1: You gotta stick with it long enough. And even if
Speaker 1: you veer off, and whatever mistakes we make, if you believe,
Speaker 1: I believe in my heart that you do have an
Speaker 1: assignment and everyone here has a purpose, it's gonna show
Speaker 1: a face. It's gon show up. Sometimes when it shows up,
Speaker 1: you won't even know it. You're like, oh, oh, I
Speaker 1: mean come, I started doing tacos and I knew, we
Speaker 1: didn't know this was really my assignment. I knew of
Speaker 1: having a business, wasn't I mean, I was on the grill.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's just been no sweet picnic. In
Speaker 1: other words, it's been a prooful. But I've worked it
Speaker 1: from the growing up. A matter of fact, it hasn't
Speaker 1: been that long since I got off the grill that long,
Speaker 1: but I'm not ashamed of saying I get on it again.
Speaker 1: So so sometimes you don't even know, but all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, one day you'll awaken it's like, Wow, this
Speaker 1: is This couldn't have lasted had it not been much
Speaker 1: bigger then test me. Usually I assigned me so much
Speaker 1: bigger than wow. And I feel like even when you
Speaker 1: say that, that's how it comes back and it keeps
Speaker 1: giving because there's a surplus and an overflow, And when
Speaker 1: you talked about your why and talking about how it's bigger,
Speaker 1: I can't help but think about how you've built your
Speaker 1: business where your employees are basically like family. My employees
Speaker 1: are very important to me. My employees are they are
Speaker 1: part of me, and that blooth have been brought me
Speaker 1: a long time. First of all, I've taken the time
Speaker 1: first the trainer. I'm a teacher. I trade, okay, I
Speaker 1: I I criticize, but I'm gonna bood you. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I criticize you and I'm talking. I'm a taskmaster and
Speaker 1: I and I do that first, I want to see
Speaker 1: how tough you are, dis whmember I come out of
Speaker 1: the world. I caught her. And it's not about um.
Speaker 1: It's not about being um, being ugly. It's about getting
Speaker 1: to the point, getting to the point of what you
Speaker 1: need in your business and making this picture for them
Speaker 1: so they can see what this picture is about. Once
Speaker 1: you defy and stop telling them, your employees and the
Speaker 1: people that you work with very closely, what your goal is,
Speaker 1: what the vision is, then they don't know why they're working.
Speaker 1: You have no idea, okay, But in telling them, training them,
Speaker 1: encouraging them, finding out what what is their loves Sometimes
Speaker 1: you know, I've got one person looking for over twenty
Speaker 1: years anstag actually is the greatest food designer and you
Speaker 1: ever want to run into who would have known? But
Speaker 1: I let her have it. I let her have encouraged
Speaker 1: you go to school, do what you have to do
Speaker 1: what you need to do. I don't want you just
Speaker 1: to be able to work for sguise. I want you
Speaker 1: to be able to go out there work for yourself.
Speaker 1: Because I get nothing, get nothing. If you don't vote,
Speaker 1: the world gets nothing, the community gets nothing unless you
Speaker 1: go up. That's my truth intention and again, task Master,
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you, but I'll tell you. But you'll learn.
Speaker 1: You'll learn, and you will understand that this has to
Speaker 1: be carried over. You will take this home with you.
Speaker 1: You will take this to your children, to your family.
Speaker 1: You will take this to your employees. Did you start
Speaker 1: a business business? I um? I was on a panel
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, and after the panels over,
Speaker 1: I met someone who's came up and she said, you
Speaker 1: don't remember me? And I said, he'll remember you. Oh
Speaker 1: I don't. And she said, I am so and so
Speaker 1: And I said, she decarted to work for you, and
Speaker 1: she said wow. She said you were tough. She said,
Speaker 1: but she taught me so much. And I want to
Speaker 1: tell you thank you. I'm like, oh God, that touches
Speaker 1: my heart. That touches my heart. That and and she's
Speaker 1: a professional woman. She's gonna stop. She's a stockbroker, professional woman.
Speaker 1: If she wasn't a professional woman, she's doing what she's doing.
Speaker 1: But she came up to say to me, thank you.
Speaker 1: Why do I mentor why do I stay in this business?
Speaker 1: Because there's people like her, You're going to benefit And
Speaker 1: that's what we're here for. We're here to teach, We're here,
Speaker 1: we're here to share. We're here toa We're gonna go
Speaker 1: through the troubles. So what you do with us? And
Speaker 1: it's no wonder like why your your establishment has been
Speaker 1: so f fruitful not only am Marina del Ray, but
Speaker 1: where I am right now here in mid city because
Speaker 1: of what you have given to the community and how
Speaker 1: the community has nourished and how it serves everyone in
Speaker 1: the community. I was reading how you said, listen, this
Speaker 1: is not a Mexican so food fusion and in fact
Speaker 1: maybe you cringe with that, and you said, because there's
Speaker 1: a piece that it fits for everyone. Why is it
Speaker 1: so important to be in the community for so long?
Speaker 1: As well as serving the various aspects of the community.
Speaker 1: Part of community we have to understand and encompasses each
Speaker 1: and every one of us. We all have long we
Speaker 1: all have our path and community. Some volunteer, some open
Speaker 1: businesses now when we open the business or you're there
Speaker 1: for profit, but also you're there to serve because there
Speaker 1: are people along the way that now on do we meet,
Speaker 1: but we we hear, we hear about that have losses
Speaker 1: and how can we serve this person? I mean, people
Speaker 1: have been so good to me in my life. I
Speaker 1: can do nothing but share and deal. But community can come.
Speaker 1: It's a many, it's within a person. Community is part
Speaker 1: of having a business that has integrity. Community is part
Speaker 1: of the person that are part of any person that
Speaker 1: stands for citizenship within as a whole, as part of
Speaker 1: the goal. Skies I believe represents these things because it's
Speaker 1: important that it's important that Skies have the integrity support.
Speaker 1: It's important Skies serves. That's therefore uh human human kind
Speaker 1: and we care. That's community and it's us coming together.
Speaker 1: And now tell me if I have the incorrect information
Speaker 1: prior to actually opening up in a store, was skies?
Speaker 1: Did it start off as a truck? Were you solely
Speaker 1: on a truck at first? No, I started out nine negatitude. Again,
Speaker 1: the truck came along in two thousands him the truck
Speaker 1: was truck was a wonderful line. The truck is another
Speaker 1: uh facet our business. It was the facet that I
Speaker 1: found to be interesting. We did well, We did well
Speaker 1: with weddings and different events, but it was not my direction.
Speaker 1: It's not the direction I wish to go. So we
Speaker 1: sold with truck a couple of years ago. And again
Speaker 1: it's it takes another takes another facet of business two
Speaker 1: truck okay, and we had that experience and it was finished.
Speaker 1: And I love that. I just and I think that's
Speaker 1: just another part of your story that I appreciate because
Speaker 1: when you talk about, you know, breaking barriers, when you're
Speaker 1: talking about being a pioneer and trailblazing and leading the way,
Speaker 1: you realize too about how many chances that you have
Speaker 1: to take. And sometimes it's just learning, like you said before,
Speaker 1: ways of not doing something and once we ease the
Speaker 1: pressure on ourselves, allowing us to live. I'm wondering, from
Speaker 1: your perspective and your experience, what would you say is
Speaker 1: one of the most valuable experiences that you've learned being
Speaker 1: a restaurant for Newer one of the most valuable experiences
Speaker 1: I've learned. My God's been so maybe through the years,
Speaker 1: I think, but one is the people understanding how people
Speaker 1: that's our that's our resource. Lot of us confunction about
Speaker 1: being able to ban, being able to uphold one another,
Speaker 1: uh to share with one another, to understand the the
Speaker 1: life experiences and one another justice what we're experiencing. Something
Speaker 1: now with the we've had the protests, because the pandemic,
Speaker 1: we're all learning something new about one another, and all
Speaker 1: of it isn't bad. Some good things happening. And I
Speaker 1: think that the experience in my wary it's a bit
Speaker 1: about people sharing experiences both ways given tape. That's that's
Speaker 1: perfectly and it's the magical part of life. It's it's
Speaker 1: a gift that keeps on giving because with one person
Speaker 1: may not have someone else. And like you said, working
Speaker 1: with that overflow, reaching out, that's how we all become
Speaker 1: better as one. And I just think when I think
Speaker 1: of Sky's tackos, I just think of um. I just
Speaker 1: think of just being limitless, because you know, we score
Speaker 1: in the sky and we fly. And just speaking with
Speaker 1: you and just seeing how many firsts you've done, how
Speaker 1: you've taken your intellect, your your ability to not only
Speaker 1: stand in a room but to command your room, and
Speaker 1: how eloquent you speak, and how much of a boss
Speaker 1: you are, and just to be an African American woman.
Speaker 1: I sit here and I'm thinking all the news with
Speaker 1: Kamala Heris and what that can mean for someone such
Speaker 1: as yourself that has pioneered and creative even vegan menus
Speaker 1: and l a right, right, right, right right, Vegan menus
Speaker 1: in l A wow that was. That was a tough
Speaker 1: one for me because I'm not. I wish I was
Speaker 1: a vegan night, but I'm not. That's okay, that's okay,
Speaker 1: um delicious, delicious fair. So what we did is my
Speaker 1: son and I, Victor and I, we went looking for
Speaker 1: this vegan fair. He says, you know, mom, we gotta do.
Speaker 1: There was not my idea. It was not my idea.
Speaker 1: It was Victor's idea. Who was the president of my son.
Speaker 1: He says, let'sen look look for let's let's go vegan.
Speaker 1: This is important. This is uh, this is an important part,
Speaker 1: and that there are a lot of v nice people
Speaker 1: are not embraced them embracing. Then I said, okay. So
Speaker 1: we went around tasting food, vegan food. It was horrible.
Speaker 1: And when I said horrible, it was horrible. It was
Speaker 1: like I'm like, for real, So I really have to
Speaker 1: go through this And he says yeah. He says, but
Speaker 1: remember it doesn't they're taste. It tastes like this because
Speaker 1: this is what they know. What do we know? So
Speaker 1: we come back to skies and we're looking at it
Speaker 1: with another attractiveness. Let's make this food attractive in taste
Speaker 1: and let's make it where people haven't had this, this
Speaker 1: soul flair. You know, vegan food is like plant based
Speaker 1: and now one Okay, let's let's let's pice it up.
Speaker 1: Let's put some skies seasoning in here. Let's let's put
Speaker 1: it on. You can put on another grill. We'll make
Speaker 1: everybody happy. And let's know that we're Are you talking
Speaker 1: about vegan meat, because in my head I was like,
Speaker 1: you mean eight now no, Now you've got talking mushrooms.
Speaker 1: You've got your new red potatoes. You know, we've got um,
Speaker 1: You've got some good stuff going on here. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: not about tofu. I mean I hate it too before
Speaker 1: I love to tofu. It's like, glad, let's do this.
Speaker 1: We put our season in there, you know, shell dipper shell,
Speaker 1: all the world go around. And let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: We am one of the best vegan menus movie because
Speaker 1: it's not your gland source. It is a delicious vegan taste.
Speaker 1: It's just not your usual you know. Oh well it's vegan,
Speaker 1: so it's supposed to be good for us. It tastes good, cool,
Speaker 1: it supposed to be about it. So that's our actually
Speaker 1: vegan I love that. And in true story I actually
Speaker 1: tried to before our interview. I wanted to get, you know,
Speaker 1: refreshed on how delicious the tackles were, but we didn't
Speaker 1: have enough time. By the time, it was just it
Speaker 1: was so crowded, of course, and I couldn't get it.
Speaker 1: But I definitely will be in there to tell the
Speaker 1: good folks how amazing that is, because when you see
Speaker 1: someone such as yourself that first of all, you got
Speaker 1: the Midwest and we just we have that flair, we
Speaker 1: have that season of how we cook and how we
Speaker 1: do what we do. And then to see how you
Speaker 1: merged it over here, like I can't wait to tell
Speaker 1: everybody about it, and I'm so proud, um to be
Speaker 1: living in the community where you have flourished. Like I
Speaker 1: could walk to your restaurant from where I am. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, And I just couldn't help but
Speaker 1: to wonder, um, you know, just the thoughtfulness in the
Speaker 1: process where it came when you were developing your menus.
Speaker 1: What were these recipes from your mother? Part of it?
Speaker 1: But most of all, let me talk about the vegan menue,
Speaker 1: the vegan venue. I was confused because I understood, I
Speaker 1: understand all that plant based I read all about it.
Speaker 1: But you see when you try to marry the pallet
Speaker 1: with Serri on paper, you're like, is not this is
Speaker 1: not driving. So you have to pick up what you
Speaker 1: read on paper. What you're gonna do with this plant
Speaker 1: based school? This? I read it, and then what you're
Speaker 1: gonna do is you're gonna say, now, let me interpret
Speaker 1: it in terms of my own creativity. And that's what
Speaker 1: we did. So so um and I keep going up
Speaker 1: the vegan because I gain I was not I didn't.
Speaker 1: I love to go. Yeah, colet Skies, it's good. So
Speaker 1: what's next for Skuys? What do you see Skyes Tacos
Speaker 1: in the next ten years? Got long? I'm impressed. I'm impressed. Um.
Speaker 1: The next the next move for Skies is um Skyes
Speaker 1: University and we're opening up next week. Yah, so tell
Speaker 1: us about skys University. Sky University. It's see yeah, it's
Speaker 1: pick up delivery strictly, it's um Skies warming Tacos Okay,
Speaker 1: and uh, we're exciting about it. It's it will it's
Speaker 1: basically in the delivery. It will service the downtown area
Speaker 1: to a sea area over in that area exposition. So
Speaker 1: again we're excited because we have not penetrated that area,
Speaker 1: they have not had the skies experience. Again, we're excited
Speaker 1: about that. And then of course we've got the sauces,
Speaker 1: our sauce you can seasoning that are coming out. They're
Speaker 1: gonna be on amazonal Foods a bit. And that's right,
Speaker 1: that's right. We're talking about the reason it's not not
Speaker 1: ours because the plant because of the pandemic, the plant
Speaker 1: shut down, whatever is the work, they're delayed. But it's okay,
Speaker 1: there's no delay. There's always the right time. Okay. So
Speaker 1: there's that will be out probably for the month, hopefully
Speaker 1: within a couple of months or less or less. And
Speaker 1: then we have, of course we're gonna start shipping our
Speaker 1: wonderful cheesecakes that will start week okay, and that will
Speaker 1: include our playing pineapple caramel bunge for mango. But maybe
Speaker 1: you want something a little different, you know, give us
Speaker 1: a ring, won't will work at it will have it
Speaker 1: right for you. And then of course you have the
Speaker 1: so fine, what the stadium, because that's excited. The stadium
Speaker 1: is coming up for us. That's seal deal. Wow. The
Speaker 1: uh yeah, that would be able the next year or so.
Speaker 1: And again that's Uh, that's the real deal. It's a
Speaker 1: nice beautiful space. It's going to be. Um, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a little bit more upscale. It's gonna be okay,
Speaker 1: it will be okay. Then we are have the Westfield
Speaker 1: West built a panga. We're going in there and that's
Speaker 1: in a year and half. That's a sealed deal. So
Speaker 1: and then but seven this is a year year to
Speaker 1: half so far as a year. Um Westfields a year
Speaker 1: and a half. So we really don't know what's gonna
Speaker 1: happen between them, because you know, we we we're on
Speaker 1: the move. We're the team that's on the move. So
Speaker 1: we don't know what we're gonna pick up in between
Speaker 1: we all we're you know what we know that we
Speaker 1: know our movement is with us, the movement, Okay, it's
Speaker 1: with us. That's where we're going and that's where this
Speaker 1: is where we are again next week University City scott
Speaker 1: University's we're excited about it. We're excited because it gives jobs,
Speaker 1: I mean jobs going on you know, jobs right and
Speaker 1: like you said, like, um, it could be a year
Speaker 1: or a year and a half from now, but like
Speaker 1: you said, walking out walking and fuck it out, walking
Speaker 1: out and person, it's like I'm a right now, right now,
Speaker 1: it is right now, m because whatever we're walking out,
Speaker 1: it's right now. So right now we're excited to hear
Speaker 1: you speak, you know, just learning more about the success
Speaker 1: of your business and what you've done, but also you
Speaker 1: fed my soul, you felt my spirit of just the perseverance,
Speaker 1: the mindset, the know how, your empathetic approach to want
Speaker 1: to give back. You know. It's it's this one pope
Speaker 1: that I've heard a couple of years ago when working
Speaker 1: with Lisa Nichols, and it's all about lifting while we climb.
Speaker 1: And I see your climb as just everything that you've announced.
Speaker 1: Mind you, we're in the middle of a pandemic and
Speaker 1: you have these praise reports the blessing. The blessing pays off,
Speaker 1: and it pays off at the most unusual time. What
Speaker 1: has come into our world, the black swat the event
Speaker 1: that we could never ever ever preap Dick, it has
Speaker 1: been a blessing. Oh prayers are God knows for those
Speaker 1: that have longed there longed, Oh my God, just with
Speaker 1: my heart. We have to understand that the circle is
Speaker 1: still there, circle of blessing, and and it it does not.
Speaker 1: It doesn't ear mark a time that we think it
Speaker 1: should be. It ear marks the time that he thinks
Speaker 1: that you'd do well. Okay, And what had a perfect
Speaker 1: time is that that's right now, that's right now. This
Speaker 1: is what we're walking through right now. I had to
Speaker 1: raise my hands. I wanted to show me because everything
Speaker 1: is about it right now. How are you feeling right now?
Speaker 1: Does it drive you? And like you said, talking about
Speaker 1: your intuition, what did your guts say? My gut said
Speaker 1: when this first, this pandemic first hit, and wasn't market
Speaker 1: draw market kempt. I was like, what, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: you know because because that's the first reaction that we're
Speaker 1: customed we're accustomed to that that we're running in on
Speaker 1: it's okay, Like, oh what's good? And I said and
Speaker 1: something a piece came over me, So it still will
Speaker 1: be okay. You'body to try over laying off people. And
Speaker 1: I said that, I said, don't don't anybody move. We're okay,
Speaker 1: we're okay. And I not only trust at some point
Speaker 1: you know that you know what what you say. Don't
Speaker 1: that you know that there is no laws okay, because
Speaker 1: if there's a detour it's gonna come around to the
Speaker 1: right space. There's no laws, there's no there's no failure.
Speaker 1: We're's no failure. There's are stepping stone to your success.
Speaker 1: Someone walks out to I said, and it was a
Speaker 1: perfect time for me to get some rest. I was exhausted,
Speaker 1: probably all exhausted, and all got was re rest. We're
Speaker 1: we're being moved, happing new we we can we can
Speaker 1: come on and ready to do a new thing. Things
Speaker 1: will never say they will never be the same. They're
Speaker 1: not supposed to be the same. They're gonna be better.
Speaker 1: This is a time when people can we think their lives,
Speaker 1: we think they're their avenues and which they're taking. We
Speaker 1: define themselves. This is the time we got time reset
Speaker 1: rab a job okay then, which is real? Wow. Well,
Speaker 1: I want to thank you so much for for your time,
Speaker 1: for your intelligence, thank you for your wisdom, but more
Speaker 1: so for your presence, for not only what you've given
Speaker 1: in this interview, but also what you've done not only
Speaker 1: for our community, but what you are doing abroad because
Speaker 1: because of you, somebody's doing what they're doing because of you.
Speaker 1: There's another woman that's sending their making big deals and
Speaker 1: meager corporations in a field that's predominantly ran by man
Speaker 1: because of you. Thank you, thank you. I'm think, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm honored because when it comes down to the why, yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: Sky's Tacos is where it's at. So thank you, and
Speaker 1: I hope that for you that's listening to understand the
Speaker 1: importance of just walking it out. Well, that's it for
Speaker 1: your dose of Vitamin D. Thank you, miss Barbara Jeans
Speaker 1: sky Brill for joining me and telling us about what
Speaker 1: it took to establish to persevere, Persevere and the rise
Speaker 1: of Skies Gourmet Tacos. Now, I want to ask you
Speaker 1: before we officially close out, tell us where your locations
Speaker 1: are if someone's in the California area, and where they
Speaker 1: can check you out. The next city Tacos that fifty
Speaker 1: three three West called Boulevard, and that's Los Angeles phone
Speaker 1: numbers three three nine, three, two six, two five three,
Speaker 1: And of course you can check us out Skies Tacos
Speaker 1: dot com or Skies blomet Tacos to Tease dot com,
Speaker 1: uh at a well dot com. So we're also at
Speaker 1: the Britao City Club forty three thirty three Admiral two way,
Speaker 1: Sweet one Skyscourmet market Place four to four, three five,
Speaker 1: three zero two nine two. Okay, all these tellicboo numbers, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know how you do it all your fingers and
Speaker 1: that that's nothing right. Anyways, We're open daily from seven
Speaker 1: am until ten eleven on the weekends and we'd love
Speaker 1: to see you. Thank you, and I'm telling you from
Speaker 1: Dawn Dave myself. Skies gourmet tacos are truly get delight.
Speaker 1: It speaks to your palette and touches yourself. Thank you
Speaker 1: so very much for joining at to that. It was
Speaker 1: so nice to sit down and talk with fire from
Speaker 1: us too many West girls. I just felt like were
Speaker 1: connected that way you do with an aunt or like
Speaker 1: an older sister. So much wisdom just going between us.
Speaker 1: I want you all to reach out to me in
Speaker 1: fact and tell me what you think. Is there anything
Speaker 1: getting away of your dreams? Just like Barbara said, you
Speaker 1: don't have to figure it out. Sometimes you just gotta
Speaker 1: walk it out day by day. But nevertheless, I want
Speaker 1: to hear from you. How are you going to get
Speaker 1: over that fear that keeps you from getting what you wanted?
Speaker 1: Is there anything you feel looking back that you want
Speaker 1: and you want to go back and try and get it.
Speaker 1: Let us know email Vitamin D at Dawn day Speaks
Speaker 1: dot com. That's Vitamin D at Dawn day Speaks dot com.
Speaker 1: If you want to find Sky's Gourmet Tackos, you can
Speaker 1: check out their Peko location at fifty three oh three
Speaker 1: West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles and they're Marina del
Speaker 1: Ray location at forty three thirty three add multi Way.
Speaker 1: You can also follow them on social media at Sky's Tacos.
Speaker 1: As always, you can catch us where you get your
Speaker 1: podcasts every Monday with more inspiring conversations and insights. If
Speaker 1: you're looking to get even more Vitamin D in your life,
Speaker 1: you can also follow me at Dawn day Speaks on
Speaker 1: all social media. That's Dawn d a I speaks on
Speaker 1: all social media. Well that's it for your dost Survitamin
Speaker 1: D until next time. Always remember you are your greatest
Speaker 1: days I had