Speaker 1: Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur till it's time to
Speaker 1: do entrepreneurs ship, not entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship. And I recently saw
Speaker 1: a mean that said, everybody wants to be an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: but we need more electricians. Facts, facts, no dead as
Speaker 1: dead Ass. Hey, I'm Cadine and we're the Ellises. You
Speaker 1: may know us from posting funny videos with our boys
Speaker 1: and reading each other publicly as a form of therapy. Wait,
Speaker 1: I'll make you need therapy most days. Wow. And one
Speaker 1: more important thing to mention, we're married. We are. We
Speaker 1: created this podcast to open dialogue about some of life's
Speaker 1: most taboo topics, things most folks don't want to talk
Speaker 1: about through the lens of a millennial married couple. Dead
Speaker 1: adds is the term that we say every day. So
Speaker 1: when we say dead ass, we're actually saying facts one,
Speaker 1: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Speaker 1: Were about to take pillow talk to our whole new level.
Speaker 1: Dead as starts right now. This story takes me back
Speaker 1: to two thousand and nine. This is when I was
Speaker 1: working at Polly Prep. And it's funny because Dave Frederickson
Speaker 1: just text me three days ago. Dave Frederickson was my
Speaker 1: first personal client when they came to training and I
Speaker 1: was at Polly Prep. I was working as um offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator for the JV football team, and I noticed that
Speaker 1: a large part of the general population has children who
Speaker 1: want to play sports at an extremely high level, but
Speaker 1: don't know what it takes to get to that extremely
Speaker 1: high level. So I was like, I was living in
Speaker 1: Brooklyn at the time, just retired from the NFL. That's
Speaker 1: a there's this, this has legs for a really good business. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is this is a market here for a really
Speaker 1: good business. And hence I started Elite Prototype Athletics with
Speaker 1: my brother Brian, and I think it was two thousand
Speaker 1: nine going into two thousand and ten. We spoke it
Speaker 1: over fifteen banquets all over the city and we were
Speaker 1: pretty much soliciting people too and trust us with their
Speaker 1: kids development through speed and agility training. And after speaking
Speaker 1: with I think over four hundred people that winter, we
Speaker 1: only had one client in the summertime and when most
Speaker 1: people would have quit, I invested all of my time
Speaker 1: into this one client. His name was Ramel Ashby his
Speaker 1: mom was Nisia Bates. I had Ramel for the entire summer,
Speaker 1: and when he got back to playing pop wanna football
Speaker 1: that year at the age of twelve, I believe he
Speaker 1: scored over forty touchdowns. And then the following winter, we
Speaker 1: had thirty clients and those thoughty clients, trained them the
Speaker 1: entire winter, spring, summer, they went back, went to the
Speaker 1: national championship game for their division. The following year, had
Speaker 1: over a hundred forty clients in the winter, and then
Speaker 1: over three hundred clients by the spring, and Elite Prototype
Speaker 1: Athletics was officially we have mad kids. No we got
Speaker 1: we got mad killed. And this is the funny part
Speaker 1: about this story. As we as we dive into what
Speaker 1: it took, I'm going to dive into what it took
Speaker 1: for me and condem to run this business because this
Speaker 1: became the family business. But I remember when I first
Speaker 1: came back to Brooklyn Um and I was working at
Speaker 1: poly Prep, and I started telling people what I wanted
Speaker 1: to do. All I kept hearing from people was no
Speaker 1: way that's gonna work. That's all I kept hearing from people.
Speaker 1: The only persons persons because there was two people who
Speaker 1: saw the vision, like I, sohole the vision, what's codeine?
Speaker 1: And my brother Brian an elite prototype Bathleg was born.
Speaker 1: Why there's a whole lot of money in this motherfucker.
Speaker 1: That's the only part of the song I know. And
Speaker 1: I can't even help you out and be there. There's
Speaker 1: a whole lot of money and this motherfucker and that's
Speaker 1: all that matters. There's a whole lot of money. Check
Speaker 1: this out. We gotta pay some bills because we're trying
Speaker 1: to get some more money in this motherfuckers google the
Speaker 1: lyrics too. Yeah, let's let's let's google the lyrics so
Speaker 1: we can see. Hopefully it's worth us saying at least
Speaker 1: the whole course and not doing one part of the course.
Speaker 1: But we'll be right back after these messages. So we're back.
Speaker 1: We're back. I ain't google this song. Y'all know, we
Speaker 1: got we got too much talk about when it comes
Speaker 1: to entrepreneurship. Yes, because so many of you we were
Speaker 1: asking for, like just topic suggestions, things you want us
Speaker 1: to talk about, things you want to hear about, And
Speaker 1: many people talked about how did it all start, where
Speaker 1: did the business start, um becoming entrepreneurs? What was the
Speaker 1: road like for you guys? So we figured we would
Speaker 1: just tap in let you all know. Um, so that's
Speaker 1: what we're talking about today. And in August study research
Speaker 1: show that while nationally okay, the number of business owners
Speaker 1: rose by two percent, black business owners rose by thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent from pre pandemic numbers. Interesting, right, Even still,
Speaker 1: black businesses were also the hardest hit early in the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Both of these facts are due to systemic disparities in entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: The lack of access black owners have to information, opportunities,
Speaker 1: and funding has both fueled our ingenuity and contributed to
Speaker 1: our failures simultaneously. Right, In order to change the future,
Speaker 1: it's up to us to provide the information that we
Speaker 1: have to help how we can. So here we are,
Speaker 1: let's start. People always ask me, right, what is the
Speaker 1: first thing an entrepreneur needs in order to get started?
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna say this, and I hope you'll understand
Speaker 1: what I What I mean when I say this, You
Speaker 1: need vision, right, like you you have to understand people
Speaker 1: and socio economics. Right. People think people think that if
Speaker 1: you just have an idea or conviction, you can be
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. That's not the case, because I'm about to
Speaker 1: say a lot of people have visions of like oh
Speaker 1: this should work. That should work, but can't actually put
Speaker 1: the wheels emotions. Absolutely, you have to have the foresight
Speaker 1: to see or or no a service or product that
Speaker 1: people need in abundance in order to be a good entrepreneur. Right.
Speaker 1: For example, some one maybe doing something at home and say,
Speaker 1: you know what I could really need, I could really
Speaker 1: use right now, and it comes to their mind. But
Speaker 1: what happens is they say, oh, if I need this,
Speaker 1: everybody may need this, not understanding socio economics and not
Speaker 1: understanding if there's that really a need that you have
Speaker 1: or a need that the world would have, And a
Speaker 1: lot of people start businesses off of ideas that they
Speaker 1: feel they think are good or they need. Realistically, an
Speaker 1: entrepreneur needs to be able to see the world in
Speaker 1: its totality right, see something that is in need or
Speaker 1: high demand, and then create that product at a cost
Speaker 1: that people can afford it. Give you an example. When
Speaker 1: I started training in two thousand and ten, um there
Speaker 1: was a place called Parisi Speed School. And when I
Speaker 1: when I was training for the NFL Combine, I was
Speaker 1: training at Parisi Speed School and I watched a ton
Speaker 1: of young kids and a ton of professional athletes and
Speaker 1: high school kids come to Paris Speed School to become faster,
Speaker 1: because in order to get notice or recognize, you have
Speaker 1: to be big, strong and fast. You can't control how
Speaker 1: big you are, but you can control how strong you are,
Speaker 1: and you can control how fast you run depending on
Speaker 1: how you train. So a lot of parents started putting
Speaker 1: their kids into these programs to develop their athleticism, to
Speaker 1: put them in contention for scholarships. So when I retired
Speaker 1: from the NFL and I came back to Brooklyn, I
Speaker 1: was working at Polly Prep. But simultaneously, my brother and
Speaker 1: I were mentoring kids back at Brooklyn, and I realized, like, man,
Speaker 1: a lot of these kids and Polly Prep already have
Speaker 1: the resources they need to be successful. You know, you
Speaker 1: go to a forty dollar a year school. You have
Speaker 1: access to two coaches who are highly paid, you have
Speaker 1: access to training staff, you have access to a full
Speaker 1: weight room. I said, what about the young man who
Speaker 1: who grows up in East New York, Brownsville, Flatbush, Canarsie,
Speaker 1: who doesn't have access to any of these things? Because, um,
Speaker 1: the vast majority of people in Brooklyn go to public schools.
Speaker 1: And what people don't realize is that public schools are overcrowded,
Speaker 1: the funding is very low, and they don't pay any
Speaker 1: attention to the athletic program was in public school arts anything.
Speaker 1: So I was like, you know what, what if I
Speaker 1: could develop a program that could mentor young men at
Speaker 1: the time was just young men as I was thinking
Speaker 1: of because I was thinking about football young men into
Speaker 1: being collegian athletes. So I started. I trained um Brian
Speaker 1: and my brother Brian, and I trained a young man
Speaker 1: by the name of Dane Frederickson. He was working as
Speaker 1: a p A at Polly Prep at the time and
Speaker 1: he was trying to get into Wagner. Now he was
Speaker 1: trying to get to a school and Wagner had offered
Speaker 1: him an opportunity, but he had to come in shape.
Speaker 1: So for the entire fall I trained him like a
Speaker 1: professional athlete. He ended up losing over thirty pounds. His
Speaker 1: forty time just dropped dramatically. His two bench press went
Speaker 1: up dramatically. He end up getting a full scholarship to
Speaker 1: Wagner and UM. I remember he thanked my brother and I.
Speaker 1: He just wrote us a card, right, a card had
Speaker 1: a hundred dollar bills my brother and I and it
Speaker 1: was like a token of appreciation, and in that moment,
Speaker 1: I was like, Boom, I got it. What if I
Speaker 1: create a program for young men that they can learn
Speaker 1: how to be bigger, strong, or faster, but I can
Speaker 1: also help them academically because my brother and I are
Speaker 1: simultaneously while working with Dave Frederickson was working with a
Speaker 1: group of high school juniors and seniors. Then went to
Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson Canarsie boys and girls. So in talking to them,
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, why don't you think you
Speaker 1: can go to college? These are juniors. Now, Oh well,
Speaker 1: I never took the S A T or the or
Speaker 1: the A C T. No, what's your g p A
Speaker 1: about the seventy You don't even have the prerequisite academics
Speaker 1: to be considered to be a collegiate athlete, let alone
Speaker 1: need to be bigger, strong, or fast enough. You need
Speaker 1: to focus on that. So that's when I started thinking,
Speaker 1: how can I build a program that's gonna make sense
Speaker 1: for these kids financially Because at the time we were
Speaker 1: planning a wedding, I had just retired from the NFL,
Speaker 1: I wasn't getting paid a lot from Polly Prep, and
Speaker 1: I needed to be able to provide for my family.
Speaker 1: So it started with a litmus tests. My brother and
Speaker 1: Brian and I paid for all of these kids memberships
Speaker 1: to go to the gym. And what we did was
Speaker 1: we ran a program that I created because I started
Speaker 1: studying exercise physiology and kinesiology when I was playing football.
Speaker 1: So I said, let me create a program and see
Speaker 1: if I can train all of these kids at one
Speaker 1: time and get them all better. So for those three months,
Speaker 1: we trained the hell out of these kids. Like we
Speaker 1: we did. We put them through every single test and
Speaker 1: every program that I remembered from college to the NFL,
Speaker 1: and these kids got way better. And I think the
Speaker 1: vast majority these kids ended up being old city. UM.
Speaker 1: I had a couple of kids that got scholarships right away. UM,
Speaker 1: a couple of kids that end up having to go
Speaker 1: to Juco but ended up going and playing for school
Speaker 1: and college. But what that did was show me that
Speaker 1: I could create a program that could work. So before
Speaker 1: I even got into charging people for what I thought
Speaker 1: had value, I had to figure out if I could
Speaker 1: create a program, it's money absolutely, Then it was creating
Speaker 1: a price point that works. This is where being an
Speaker 1: entrepreneur sometimes people get things lost in translation For example,
Speaker 1: entrepreneur to most people, means I don't work for nobody.
Speaker 1: I make my own money, right right, I make my
Speaker 1: own schedule. I mean I do everything on my own.
Speaker 1: I knew for a fact that I needed to understand
Speaker 1: the business, and I needed to understand the demographic I
Speaker 1: was getting involved in, and I needed to understand the
Speaker 1: business structure and corporate structure needed to create a business.
Speaker 1: So I ended up I started working at Paris Speed
Speaker 1: School in order to learn how to run this business.
Speaker 1: So I worked at Paris Speed School for two years.
Speaker 1: I made ten hour. I made literally no money. It
Speaker 1: cost me more money to get to stat Noland and
Speaker 1: come back than I did making it every week. Bridge
Speaker 1: told to it was twelve at the time. It was
Speaker 1: twelve fifty to get there, and I was going to
Speaker 1: Paris Speed School six days a week. So another thing
Speaker 1: that entrepreneurs typically need that they don't have is capital.
Speaker 1: You need capital in order to invest time in yourself
Speaker 1: to learn the business properly. You don't just jump into
Speaker 1: any business and try to figure it out. You lose
Speaker 1: way more money that way. And what people don't understand
Speaker 1: is most businesses need up to three years in order
Speaker 1: to get into black. Getting the black means you actually
Speaker 1: make money. You spend the first two and a half
Speaker 1: years investing in the business if it's a good business,
Speaker 1: and then finally on the third year, you make money.
Speaker 1: So what you said when they talked about most people
Speaker 1: don't have the resource, especially black people. When they're talking
Speaker 1: about resources or the knowledge, they're really talking about capital
Speaker 1: because most people who start businesses get capital from generational wealth.
Speaker 1: I want to start a business. Let me ask my parents,
Speaker 1: Let me ask my dad. Let me see if he
Speaker 1: has anybody's who want to invest in this business. Most
Speaker 1: black people come into the world with debt. So when
Speaker 1: you come into the world with debt, who are you
Speaker 1: going to ask to first get you out of the debt,
Speaker 1: then invest in your business. So after running this litmus
Speaker 1: test um, I spoke to a couple of parents and
Speaker 1: this is where people this is a key component to entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: At that point in two thousand and ten, the price
Speaker 1: point for personal training was at least fifteen hundred dollars
Speaker 1: a month, which means if you went to a gym
Speaker 1: and you had a sports performance trainer, they could charge
Speaker 1: anywhere from seventy five to one hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 1: an hour, and most people needed three sessions, sometimes four
Speaker 1: sessions a week. So think about a single mom in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: or a mom and dad who live a manor's lifestyle
Speaker 1: who have to pay up to six hundred dollars a
Speaker 1: week to get four times a week training four times
Speaker 1: a month. Now you're looking at six hundred dollars times
Speaker 1: for two hundred dollars. If you bring it back down
Speaker 1: to three times a week, now you're looking at four
Speaker 1: fifty times four hundred, that's eighteen hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 1: Most people in Brooklyn didn't have that, So I said,
Speaker 1: how could I provide a service for people that's a
Speaker 1: affordable Then he looks at me and he's like, how
Speaker 1: can I do that? And I'm like, I don't know
Speaker 1: what to tell you, bro, because how are you gonna
Speaker 1: make this worth it? For? This is the part of
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship that people also miss. You have to have the
Speaker 1: foresight to create businesses that don't even exist. That's truly entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: You can get an idea from people, you can learn
Speaker 1: about structure, but this business doesn't exist, so it's on
Speaker 1: you to figure it out. So I had to create
Speaker 1: a football training business that was cost effective for most
Speaker 1: people and still be able to get them better. So
Speaker 1: I can't just provide a business and not get them better.
Speaker 1: It has to work. So then I, you know, looked
Speaker 1: around and watching Paris speech. Scorse, how does Parissy Speed
Speaker 1: Schools business model work? They were charging people in membership.
Speaker 1: Their membership was a hundred and fifty dollars a month,
Speaker 1: and they were providing speed performance training for kids. So
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, that's that's cheap hundred fifty a
Speaker 1: month as opposed to fifteen hundred dollars a month month
Speaker 1: personal training. So then I said, ah, small group training
Speaker 1: is one way, but large group training can work, especially
Speaker 1: for football because football teams are typically anywhere between thirty
Speaker 1: two sometimes eighty people on the team. So I was like,
Speaker 1: I have to create a program that can train football
Speaker 1: players a lot of football players at one time in
Speaker 1: a certain time spot to make it make sense for
Speaker 1: me and for them. So that's two things. I have
Speaker 1: to create a financial structure that works for the business,
Speaker 1: but then I have to create a performance training structure
Speaker 1: that works for them. Because even if even if I
Speaker 1: say it's only a hundred and fifty dollars. People want
Speaker 1: to get the most out of a hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1: So I'm saying to myself, and this is how I worked.
Speaker 1: I said, Okay, a hundred and fifty dollars a month,
Speaker 1: if they train three times a week, that's twelve sessions
Speaker 1: a month. Hundred and fifty a month. That's a little
Speaker 1: over ten dollars a session. How many people do I
Speaker 1: need to have in this session in order to make
Speaker 1: it make sense for me? The number I came up
Speaker 1: with was thirty. How can I train thirty people at
Speaker 1: one time and get them better? And that's when I
Speaker 1: started thinking. I was like, this is what entrepreneurship is.
Speaker 1: I have to create a program that serves two purposes,
Speaker 1: serves the consumer and serves me as the owner of
Speaker 1: the business. And that's what I did with Prototype. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna give you all all my secrets, but I
Speaker 1: was able to create a program that served the consumer
Speaker 1: and served me as the owner without sacrificing the integrity
Speaker 1: of what I'm really trying to do. Because the integrity
Speaker 1: of what I was trying to do was make all
Speaker 1: of these kids better. That's really and It's funny you
Speaker 1: mentioned um having the vision right and then knowing what
Speaker 1: is needed, and then bringing your brother along who also
Speaker 1: believed in it the way I did. I wasn't training nobody,
Speaker 1: but I was like, I'll keep the books south whatever
Speaker 1: you need me to do however you need me to
Speaker 1: do it, Um. And it was good because you had
Speaker 1: someone a partner and your brother who was maybe not
Speaker 1: as savvy when it came to the mindset of like
Speaker 1: what can work with with the business in terms of
Speaker 1: just like UM coming up with the ideas and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, but he was very good at executing. So
Speaker 1: when you are starters an entrepreneurs, nice to have somebody
Speaker 1: on your team who can be the worker b or
Speaker 1: who can be the one that is now executing the
Speaker 1: ideas because you can have the ideas and then I
Speaker 1: have someone who's good at execution or vice versa. So
Speaker 1: you brought up a good point. I was really good
Speaker 1: at creativity, right, I needed someone to be good with administration.
Speaker 1: That was you that When we did orientations, I was
Speaker 1: a salesman. I sold the people on what my vision
Speaker 1: was and what my plan was. While I was selling
Speaker 1: them my vision, people who wanted to register and sign up,
Speaker 1: went over, took a dean much like I did in college.
Speaker 1: The dean had at her computer, her laptop. She registered
Speaker 1: everyone in, put them in a computer, made sure they
Speaker 1: had a schedule, and and then Brian was working out
Speaker 1: kids on the side a taste of what was gonna
Speaker 1: happen when they got there. One thing about my brother
Speaker 1: Brian is he's always on time and he works hard.
Speaker 1: So when we first started, like I said, we we
Speaker 1: did all of this marketing. We spoke to hundreds of people.
Speaker 1: We have one client. Why is that part of the
Speaker 1: story important Because most people when they start a business,
Speaker 1: they expect to see results right away, and when they
Speaker 1: don't get the results that they expect to see right away,
Speaker 1: they quit, like they quit. For example, Kadine and I,
Speaker 1: they're like, oh yeah, started doing videos for the family.
Speaker 1: This is dope. We were doing videos with the family
Speaker 1: when no one was watching the same way my brother
Speaker 1: Brian and I were training people one at a time
Speaker 1: when no one was paying. And what happens is the
Speaker 1: greatest form of marketing is word of mouth and the
Speaker 1: product itself. You can spend as much money as you
Speaker 1: want on trying to make people believe these fancy commercials,
Speaker 1: these these high tech videos. I even watch it today
Speaker 1: on on Instagram. I see all these trainers they do,
Speaker 1: all these super videos and all this high tech stuff.
Speaker 1: And I continue to watch them, and a lot of
Speaker 1: their pages don't grow, and a lot of their following
Speaker 1: don't grow, and then after a while they're no longer
Speaker 1: doing training anymore. And what I realized that a lot
Speaker 1: of people lack the mental fortitude to go through the
Speaker 1: business when it's not at its greatest. But they also
Speaker 1: lacked the vision to see what people really need. People
Speaker 1: don't really need the flash. The flash will get them
Speaker 1: to pay attention, but you need the substance to keep
Speaker 1: them there and make them pay. You need don't need
Speaker 1: the flash. You need the craft too, because think about
Speaker 1: how many people may take a course in something. For example,
Speaker 1: I'll use myself makeup artistry. Right. I was working as
Speaker 1: a makeup artist when the recession hit. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I can't sit around and just not do any thing.
Speaker 1: You were playing in the NFL at the time, so
Speaker 1: I said, you know what, used to dip and dab
Speaker 1: and make up a little bit in my pageant days.
Speaker 1: Used to do this girl's makeup and that girl's makeup,
Speaker 1: and then that's usually every makeup artist's journey, Right, They've
Speaker 1: been doing makeup on their friends and then finally developed
Speaker 1: something that they kind of have a knact for. So
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, let me just start doing makeup and
Speaker 1: let me start charging people. So when I started doing makeup,
Speaker 1: now I didn't really have the title per se of
Speaker 1: a makeup artist, but it knew it was something that
Speaker 1: I could do, right. Um, So I went up to
Speaker 1: the Mac Cosmetics in Michigan, and I think it was
Speaker 1: it was the Somerset Mallreset Mall, and Um interviewed through
Speaker 1: a couple of rounds and was hired as a makeup artist.
Speaker 1: So working for the company, I now saw an opportunity
Speaker 1: to say, all right, at least I have a job.
Speaker 1: I can use my creativity in a way. Didn't really
Speaker 1: feel like work to me, because I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: you know I'm helping women. Yeah, I'm helping women feel
Speaker 1: better and look better and you know, feel better about themselves,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm selling makeup whatever, not nothing too serious.
Speaker 1: Um and then saw the opportunity when girls on the
Speaker 1: side were like, oh, I have this wedding this weekend
Speaker 1: that I'm doing, and I'm like, oh, doing a wedding
Speaker 1: this weekend, what does that look like? You know? And
Speaker 1: a couple of the girls I saw it was kind
Speaker 1: of tapping in. They said, you know, a wedding, you know,
Speaker 1: bride cost this much. You got five, six, seven, eight
Speaker 1: brides maids, You got mother of the bride, mother of
Speaker 1: the groom. Before you know it, you have about ten
Speaker 1: twelve faces that you have to do if you charge,
Speaker 1: you know, a hundred dollars of face. And I was
Speaker 1: like a phase, like that's the going rate, you know,
Speaker 1: back in the day, And to me it just made
Speaker 1: so much sense. But what happened through my journey with MAC,
Speaker 1: even though I worked as a manager, was promoted to
Speaker 1: assistant manager, a keyholder and all that. I still kept
Speaker 1: that job because I felt like it kept me in
Speaker 1: the industry. It kept me abreast of what was happening
Speaker 1: in the industry. It kept me abreast, and I was
Speaker 1: able to sharpen my skills as a makeup artist because
Speaker 1: you weren't just a makeup artists, you are a member
Speaker 1: of the Impact team. I've learned how to manage of books,
Speaker 1: you understood standing products. All of that is part of
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs So it's about going into the industry and working
Speaker 1: in different areas of the industry to see how these
Speaker 1: moving parts work. Right. So being a part of the
Speaker 1: Impact team did what. It taught me how to be
Speaker 1: around other artists and how to learn from other artists.
Speaker 1: Being um, you know, in the stores help me to
Speaker 1: deal with the customers and see what customers really want,
Speaker 1: what they like, what they don't like. Going to training
Speaker 1: meetings where I can talk about product, what's needed in
Speaker 1: the industry, what we're missing, what people are looking for.
Speaker 1: I kind of was in different parts of it. So
Speaker 1: when time came for me to say, you know what, Candeine,
Speaker 1: retail hours don't really do well with my schedule and
Speaker 1: my and my and my mental health right now because
Speaker 1: I have my husband and my baby at home that
Speaker 1: I want to have more time for. I want that
Speaker 1: autonomy over my time. I was then able to say,
Speaker 1: all right, I can step back from working there full
Speaker 1: time as a manager. However, if I step back, let
Speaker 1: me stay as a freelance artist so I can still
Speaker 1: have my foot in the industry. By being being able
Speaker 1: to come back to the stores and work from time
Speaker 1: to time, so that way I can also just stay
Speaker 1: in the industry while still serving people outside of the store.
Speaker 1: And I say that to say a lot of times
Speaker 1: you see people will pick up a craft or they'll
Speaker 1: start a craft, and then all of a sudden they're
Speaker 1: an expert. And then they're teaching these how to classes
Speaker 1: and they want to teach people how to do it,
Speaker 1: and they're having coaching sessions and all that, and they
Speaker 1: haven't even really fully built themselves up to be the
Speaker 1: expert in that field, you know. I think that comes
Speaker 1: from um. There's there's been this stigma for especially millennials.
Speaker 1: Gen z ears that in order to be an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: you have to figure everything out on your own and
Speaker 1: you can't work for no one else to learn right,
Speaker 1: it has to happen immediately for you and I. You
Speaker 1: worked in Matt Cosmetics, shout out to mac because it
Speaker 1: taught you a lot about the business in the industry.
Speaker 1: I worked at Paris spe School under Gary Miller. Gary
Speaker 1: Miller was a program director for Paresis School for years.
Speaker 1: Everything I know about the fitness industry and the business
Speaker 1: I learned from Gary Miller. The first thing he did
Speaker 1: was tell me I have to get NASUM certified. That's
Speaker 1: the National Academy of Sports Medicine. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of players on that played there's a lot of
Speaker 1: trainers who are not certified, so they don't understand the
Speaker 1: industry standard of what it means to be an expert
Speaker 1: in that field. And a lot of people ask me
Speaker 1: what's the difference in prototype and all these other people
Speaker 1: popping up with programs left and right. I said, well,
Speaker 1: I I respect the craft of the industry. Right. The
Speaker 1: industry has standards, and it doesn't matter what type of
Speaker 1: business you open. There's an industry for that business. And
Speaker 1: the more you learn about the industry, you can learn
Speaker 1: about your business and it can help you and and
Speaker 1: being a part of UM these industry standards or learning
Speaker 1: for example, Codein going to I remember Codein was And
Speaker 1: this is just to talk about how Condin and I
Speaker 1: always work together. When I started my businesses Kadein always
Speaker 1: work in administration. When she had interviews for Matt to
Speaker 1: be on an impact team to do all these other things,
Speaker 1: I drove her. We discussed these things when she started
Speaker 1: her business. I talked to her about having contract because
Speaker 1: this is another thing people understand about businesses. Businesses require
Speaker 1: contract and liability responsible. A lot of people don't understand that. Well,
Speaker 1: even think about you when you talk about training everybody.
Speaker 1: If there's people walking around they said, they're trainers. How
Speaker 1: do you know to train somebody appropriately and properly if
Speaker 1: they have, for example, high blood pressure? Absolutely what to
Speaker 1: look for for signs of you know they're in distress.
Speaker 1: Or me as a makeup artist, how do I know
Speaker 1: what to use with someone's skin if they have an
Speaker 1: allergy to latex and I can't put lashes on them
Speaker 1: because the glue has late text in it. Like, there's
Speaker 1: so many different things that are beyond just thinking about, Oh,
Speaker 1: I run my own business. I'm glad you brought that
Speaker 1: up because being a trainer one of the first things
Speaker 1: I've learned, and this was and I had trained Dave.
Speaker 1: I started training kids in the park on football drills
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But then when I went to
Speaker 1: the to get my nassimy come now some certified, they
Speaker 1: talked about this thing called a park and I was like,
Speaker 1: what's the part of you? And it's pretty much a
Speaker 1: questionnaire to make sure that anytime someone is in your hands.
Speaker 1: You're responsible for their health and well being. You're responsible
Speaker 1: for their death if they die while training. These are
Speaker 1: things that you don't think about when you're training. So
Speaker 1: you have the par queue. Some of the questions are,
Speaker 1: have you ever had diabetes? Blood high blood pressure? Have
Speaker 1: you suffered from a stroke in the last six months.
Speaker 1: These are questions that most people who have never trained
Speaker 1: before don't ask. They just said, you're out of shape.
Speaker 1: Let's go to the park and you're starting with a mile.
Speaker 1: Then someone starts running and pass out. You know you
Speaker 1: don't know CPR when I was not. Some certified we
Speaker 1: all have to take CPR classes. I'm like, wow, if
Speaker 1: you don't understand the industry standards of a business, you
Speaker 1: can't even be considered an expert or run your business safely.
Speaker 1: No one of my my buddies are starting a training business.
Speaker 1: First thing I asked them, you have an LLC. What
Speaker 1: do I need an LLC for. You're gonna train people
Speaker 1: and I have an LLC. What if you training someone
Speaker 1: in the park and they step in the pothole? The
Speaker 1: city is the city in the park because at the
Speaker 1: time we never gym and they tear they need they're
Speaker 1: gonna sue you, bro, how they're gonna suit me. It's
Speaker 1: in the park. You're the trainer, You're responsible for them.
Speaker 1: He had no clue. But part of the reason why
Speaker 1: he had no clue is because most people don't respect
Speaker 1: the craft of whatever business or industry they're in, so
Speaker 1: they try to skip steps and end up sucking himself
Speaker 1: because they either get sued, they don't make no money,
Speaker 1: or people look at them like a joke. But those
Speaker 1: are the parts of entrepreneurship people want to skip those
Speaker 1: are Those are the things you learned in the first
Speaker 1: two to three years while starting your business to be
Speaker 1: able to even say I'm an entrepreneur. And people don't
Speaker 1: want to hear it, but you need that time. You
Speaker 1: need to learn from people. There's nothing wrong with, like
Speaker 1: you said, starting your business, working to build your business
Speaker 1: while working for someone else. You know, there's nothing wrong.
Speaker 1: We're having your business starting your business while working for
Speaker 1: someone else for two reasons. Number one, you need capital
Speaker 1: and told you I was still freelancing because I was
Speaker 1: at least it was guaranteed money every week. Yes, and
Speaker 1: we had an insurance. So you have insurance, you have
Speaker 1: a constant paycheck coming in. What that does is that
Speaker 1: relieve stress. When that relief stress, you're allowed to move
Speaker 1: a little bit differently and take more chances in your
Speaker 1: business because you don't have as much stress. Plus, the
Speaker 1: capital allows you to continuously invest in your business. And
Speaker 1: the bigger your business gets, the more money it costs
Speaker 1: to invest in your business. As we got more children,
Speaker 1: we needed more T shirts, we needed more shorts, we
Speaker 1: needed more equipment, we needed more gym time. This costs
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of dollars a month. That when you
Speaker 1: become an entrepreneur, the money comes in and night like
Speaker 1: I'm making money, but the money also goes out. We
Speaker 1: just spoke about and I watched you with the same thing.
Speaker 1: You need to buy more brushes. You need to buy
Speaker 1: a bigger kid, more product. When you invested in doing classes,
Speaker 1: we had to buy studios in the extra car because
Speaker 1: now we have two different you know, livelihoods. He's one
Speaker 1: place in one place. I had to travel all these
Speaker 1: places for weddings and whatnot. You have to hire an assistant.
Speaker 1: Assistance get paid so and and then you had to
Speaker 1: pay for your assistant to know the industry standard and
Speaker 1: go through these classes. These are the things that people
Speaker 1: don't understand, don't realize are necessary to have a successful business.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's funny my SoundBite. We were joking because
Speaker 1: I said, you talked about, you know, entrepreneurship, and I
Speaker 1: said that we need more electricians. That's just the mean
Speaker 1: that I saw recently. But there was also someone on Instagram, Um,
Speaker 1: I forget who it was. I think it was I'm
Speaker 1: clear trapper, but she had said something like everybody wants
Speaker 1: to be an entrepreneur, but we need you know, burger
Speaker 1: flick flippers that you know, Zonald's. We need you know,
Speaker 1: people who are just gonna be doing basic jobs too.
Speaker 1: So it's like everybody can't be the entrepreneur. There are
Speaker 1: some people who just don't have the mindset for it,
Speaker 1: some people that just don't feel to do that. They're
Speaker 1: just like, you know, I don't want to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: I'm okay working this scientified for Tom Dick or Harry
Speaker 1: just because like you don't have to necessarily feel because
Speaker 1: I feel like it's almost like a trend now that
Speaker 1: people just want to or it just maybe maybe this
Speaker 1: generation that everybody just has this desire to I don't
Speaker 1: want to work for nobody. I want to just be
Speaker 1: my own boss. But not everybody can be a boss
Speaker 1: because you need the consumers and you need the people
Speaker 1: on the back end making your business thrive. But but
Speaker 1: I do think that there's something to be said about
Speaker 1: the quote unquote American dream. Right. The American dream is
Speaker 1: that you work, right, What's what's our our model? Why
Speaker 1: do we work to build capital? Why do we build
Speaker 1: capital to make your money work for you? You don't
Speaker 1: want to have to work for someone your whole life. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: you want to have time, right. I've said this on
Speaker 1: the last podcast. If you had to describe wealth in
Speaker 1: one word, it's time. Being an entrepreneur gives you time.
Speaker 1: But what people don't understand is when you're an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: you never clock out. So, yes, you have time, you
Speaker 1: can move, you can do things, but your brain is
Speaker 1: always working on ways to keep up with the industry trends.
Speaker 1: You talked about being trendy, Right, Every industry has trends.
Speaker 1: So when you think that you're going to create something
Speaker 1: in the industry that's going to be brand new, right,
Speaker 1: unless you're unless you're Elon Musk and you created the Tesla,
Speaker 1: which is one of the first electric cars that are
Speaker 1: faster than like a Ferrari. There are trends within the
Speaker 1: industry that can teach you the peaks and valleys of
Speaker 1: when you're gonna make money when you're gonna lose money.
Speaker 1: For example, this is important if you're in fitness. You
Speaker 1: know that during the summertime, the entire fitness industry goes
Speaker 1: down to drain. You want to know why people are
Speaker 1: outside showing off those bodies that they worked for since
Speaker 1: January one, So the peak years, the peak time for
Speaker 1: the fitness industry is New Year's so you get you
Speaker 1: get people high influx of people January one all the
Speaker 1: way up until February. Then as they get into the spring,
Speaker 1: people start to trend downward because you have spring break,
Speaker 1: people have kids, they lack off. They come right back
Speaker 1: right before the summer, so that that may that may
Speaker 1: area you get a hot influx. Then you have a
Speaker 1: valley again the summer all the way till September. Why
Speaker 1: the kids are out of school. When the kids are
Speaker 1: out of school, people travel, they're go on vacation, they're
Speaker 1: not in the gym training, they're showing off through summer bodies.
Speaker 1: Then September comes around the kids are back in school.
Speaker 1: People say, you know what, I need to get back
Speaker 1: into the gym because before this holiday season, I had
Speaker 1: a damage control before the exactly, so you know, September October,
Speaker 1: you get eight weeks. People come in November, December. People
Speaker 1: just cries say at the end of the year, they're
Speaker 1: gonna get whatever body I give because it's cuddle season
Speaker 1: and it starts. I never realized. But that's my ebb
Speaker 1: and flow. Guffy during the one in time, it's more
Speaker 1: to love. It's just more to love. You know, you
Speaker 1: hug more body here. But um no, it's important for
Speaker 1: people to to understand the ebbs and flows of every industry.
Speaker 1: This way you can prepare your pockets to say, you
Speaker 1: know what for the summertime and shout out to my boy.
Speaker 1: Dolo um he Dolo was never do and Dolo so everything.
Speaker 1: Dolo Dolo so water, he's so bottom man. Jackson asked
Speaker 1: me one time. I was just like, Yo, Daddy, let
Speaker 1: me's a serious question. So what what is Dolo water?
Speaker 1: And I was like, it's water. He's like, is it
Speaker 1: like Dolo sweat? Like why would I drink Dolos water?
Speaker 1: Like where does he get the water from Like, does
Speaker 1: he just take it from his apartment? I said, bro,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but he packages it. He sells it
Speaker 1: Dolo slippers shorts. But you know what, also two people
Speaker 1: bought into it, Dolo dolo. Oh, I'm glad you surship.
Speaker 1: People buy into the person, yes, man, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. They're not always buying into a product person.
Speaker 1: People buying into the way someone makes them feel absolutely,
Speaker 1: you know, like I just think he just literally comes
Speaker 1: to minus that like just being around him, just his energy.
Speaker 1: He's always he's always positive, like it seems like he
Speaker 1: never had to day. That's what people are buying anatwing
Speaker 1: particularly I know in the training industry, but sometimes too
Speaker 1: even just with makeup ARTI street, you sit down and
Speaker 1: you vibe with somebody, they have great energy. I think
Speaker 1: about the people who I have, you know, that are
Speaker 1: on my staff or my payroll, that I always employed
Speaker 1: to do whatever tasks. It's because I enjoy having that
Speaker 1: person around and I see the value in their expertise
Speaker 1: in whatever field. That is. Anybody who you see on
Speaker 1: our team, you know that we just love having these
Speaker 1: people around. You want to know why the people become
Speaker 1: the brand. Jay Z just he was on Instagram and
Speaker 1: I just saw I mean, and he was like, man,
Speaker 1: funk Nike and he said, not not funk Nike personally,
Speaker 1: but like Nike, like the people who create, who are
Speaker 1: wearing the Nikes become the brand, right, Like Michael Jordan's
Speaker 1: made Nike what Nike is. Before Michael Jordan's stepped into Nikes,
Speaker 1: everyone was wearing Adidas, they were wearing Pumas. Those are
Speaker 1: like the big brand names, rebok with the big brand names,
Speaker 1: and like the eighties, Michael Jordan comes in there and
Speaker 1: turns Nike into this powerhouse and now you know he
Speaker 1: has his own Jordan brand. But Nike has become this
Speaker 1: global brand based off of Michael Jordan's because people become
Speaker 1: the brand. The culture is the brand. And when you
Speaker 1: when you understand that, like you said, and you understand
Speaker 1: that people buy into you, you start to recognize your
Speaker 1: power and then you recognize, you know what in this industry,
Speaker 1: I'm going to recognize trends, but I'm not gonna try
Speaker 1: to be trendy. I want to know why when you
Speaker 1: try to become trendy, trendy things die. So if you're
Speaker 1: following trends, it's gonna die. You have to become the
Speaker 1: brand that people buy into. The same way he said
Speaker 1: when he was trying to get into music, Everyone's saying, O, Columbia, Columbia, Columbia,
Speaker 1: this record, this company. So they created rock when we
Speaker 1: Rockefeller Records was now Rockefell and Records is rock Nation,
Speaker 1: and Rock Nation. Rockefeller is the brand and it's the people.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad you brought that point up because people
Speaker 1: have to understand the power of the brand is the person.
Speaker 1: You represent the brand every time you go out and
Speaker 1: make an interaction with someone or make a transaction with someone.
Speaker 1: So understand that as an entrepreneur, you represent your brand
Speaker 1: with everything you do. Absolutely absolutely Alright, some fun facts
Speaker 1: to leave y'all went before we get into another break
Speaker 1: and come back with listen. Letters of black business owners
Speaker 1: are women? Cool of black business owners use their own
Speaker 1: cash to start their own venture. That was us um
Speaker 1: thirty thirty seven point nine percent of black business owners
Speaker 1: say that they are discouraged from applying for loans. That
Speaker 1: was me, I UM quick story. I applied for loans
Speaker 1: early on and did not get approved. Here's a crazy
Speaker 1: part my white counterparts with less capital, with less business acumen,
Speaker 1: with less references, got to prove for business loans when
Speaker 1: I didn't, So I had to use my own capital,
Speaker 1: and I also used other black capital. A young man
Speaker 1: by the name of Marcel Learning invested twenty five thousand
Speaker 1: in Elite Prototype Athletics to help us rebuild the gym
Speaker 1: in two thousand and fourteen, and we moved from Aviator
Speaker 1: Sports Complex to pac Plex and was able to build
Speaker 1: out our program and extend from servicing four hundreds over
Speaker 1: a thousand athletes a year. And if it wasn't for Marcelle,
Speaker 1: I don't think we've been able to do that. So
Speaker 1: shout out to marcelf Learning for investing. Black man work
Speaker 1: for Cushman and Wake started his own business, and he
Speaker 1: gave me all the knowledge I needed to move forward.
Speaker 1: So that's not as good to Lincoln network with people,
Speaker 1: you know, we gotta we gotta be each other's support
Speaker 1: system and not be afraid to ask for help when
Speaker 1: you need it. But this, this with Marcel did not
Speaker 1: happen like this, right. I didn't go to myself like yo, man,
Speaker 1: let me get twenty five thousand. I got a business idea,
Speaker 1: I already had a successful business that was making money.
Speaker 1: I still then proof of concept right there, had proof
Speaker 1: of concept, but I still wrote out a full ten
Speaker 1: page business plan and presented it to Marcel and said,
Speaker 1: this is what I would like to do. This is
Speaker 1: what I would like to do moving forward. If you
Speaker 1: were able to invest this, it would allow me to
Speaker 1: generate this amount of returns for you. He invested in
Speaker 1: the business, got his money back, and then got a
Speaker 1: percentage of the business through perpetuity as the business existed
Speaker 1: until I eventually sold the business. Exactly. So it's not
Speaker 1: just like going to your homeboy who you don't have
Speaker 1: a little cash, like that idea which we get now
Speaker 1: because from just like I got a business idea, and
Speaker 1: then when you ask him for a business plan, they
Speaker 1: getting upset, like or you said, you know, send your
Speaker 1: business plan to my manager. They're like, oh, you're sending
Speaker 1: me to your manager. It's like, well, if you have
Speaker 1: a business idea, you should have a business plan that
Speaker 1: my financial advisor and my manager can look over and
Speaker 1: say this may be worth the while. If not, keep
Speaker 1: it moving, Like it's no disrespect, but you just want
Speaker 1: me to give you money so you can figure things out,
Speaker 1: not doing that, not doing And New York has the
Speaker 1: greatest number of black owned businesses in the country. I'm
Speaker 1: not surprised to hear that, because New York, what do
Speaker 1: we do. We're gonna hustle, baby, We're gonna find a way,
Speaker 1: all right now, let's hustle our ads into some breaks
Speaker 1: so we can make some money. I'm talking about entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: And we'll be back with listener letters after this listener
Speaker 1: letter time. Let's jump into the listening. Okay, Hey, I
Speaker 1: love when people say hey, codemium and vow it's codeine.
Speaker 1: I am. But I love that you're thorough. Um. Hey, Cadean,
Speaker 1: first and foremost congratulations and all your success thus far.
Speaker 1: And Baby Dakota, thank you. As I start writing this letter,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to understand why it took me so long
Speaker 1: to write to you guys in the first place. Well,
Speaker 1: we're here now. I've been following you guys since two
Speaker 1: thousand and seventeen and fell in love with your way
Speaker 1: of life. I love the transparency you guys give throughout
Speaker 1: your videos and podcasts. Thanks this. As a millennial myself,
Speaker 1: I catch myself screaming at my phone when listening to
Speaker 1: you guys talks because you talk so much truth. Thank
Speaker 1: you for being such an inspiration to me. Three years ago,
Speaker 1: I found my purpose in helping others to understand their
Speaker 1: own self worth. I am in the process of becoming
Speaker 1: a self love life coach. I've been consistent with posting,
Speaker 1: speaking everything into existence, and disciplining myself to not give up.
Speaker 1: I will hashtag until I'm blue in the face. I
Speaker 1: tag people, including you both, to help promote myself. My
Speaker 1: problem is, how do you promote what people can't see?
Speaker 1: How do you promote internal understanding of self without selling
Speaker 1: a physical item or humor? Mhmm, consistency, This is the truth. Um.
Speaker 1: I've been making videos of my family for years before
Speaker 1: y'all found us, and at the time, I never used
Speaker 1: the hashtag. I never tagged anyone. I didn't use any
Speaker 1: celebrities to try to share my stuff. It was super
Speaker 1: early in social media to where I think it was
Speaker 1: two thousand and sixteen when we finally caught Instagram kind
Speaker 1: of when I guess when we caught on, I guess
Speaker 1: it wasn't basic around has been around, but um, realistically,
Speaker 1: there's there's no this is what you do to catch it.
Speaker 1: Even when you go to a firm and you pay
Speaker 1: a firm to create buzz for you, there's no guarantee
Speaker 1: that a video is going to go viral, which we tried. Yes,
Speaker 1: we did try. I tried before before I started creating
Speaker 1: videos for myself. In two thousand and fourteen, I hired
Speaker 1: a firm to help me create post more consistently because
Speaker 1: I wanted At the time, I wasn't as engaged on
Speaker 1: social media, and what I heard was if you post
Speaker 1: every day, you post consistently, you get more engagement, which
Speaker 1: is true. So I hired a firm. Um it costs
Speaker 1: a lot of money. They created post, but it was
Speaker 1: generic standard post that they just took off the Internet.
Speaker 1: Means that they took and created captions and they just
Speaker 1: posted it on my Twitter and my Instagram. And although
Speaker 1: my engagement went up initially because I was posting more,
Speaker 1: the type of engagement never went up because it wasn't
Speaker 1: my voice. It wasn't me. It wasn't until I started
Speaker 1: focusing solely on what my voice was going to be
Speaker 1: and stopped focusing on trying to go viral that I
Speaker 1: actually went viral, because at the time, going viral wasn't
Speaker 1: even really a thing. We didn't know what that was
Speaker 1: until the videos started to get millions of views and
Speaker 1: then being shared. The good thing about recording videos prior
Speaker 1: to going viral was that once I did finally go viral,
Speaker 1: I had a catalog of videos similar to the ones
Speaker 1: that people found that that went similar to the one
Speaker 1: that people found that went viral. So when they found
Speaker 1: my profile, they now had a whole catalog of years
Speaker 1: of content that they could go over and share, and
Speaker 1: then my pages continued to grow from there. So you can't. Um,
Speaker 1: there's no quick fix to hard work and dedication and
Speaker 1: consistency and living in your truth because people tend to
Speaker 1: share things that they can relate to. And it's also
Speaker 1: a thing where you need to consider the fact that
Speaker 1: you're going to find your audience and your true audience
Speaker 1: by putting out your true work right, So you can't
Speaker 1: will a certain audience to find or appreciate what you
Speaker 1: post or relate to it. Um. Ultimately, you're going to
Speaker 1: have your niche of people that will support and follow
Speaker 1: you because that's what they're looking for. Usually people on
Speaker 1: social media are looking for something, right, what do we
Speaker 1: go to social social media for Are you going to
Speaker 1: social media to make purchases? Are you looking for the
Speaker 1: latest trend? Are you looking to laugh at something? Are
Speaker 1: you're looking for a pick me up? Like? There are
Speaker 1: different reasons why people engage on social media and to
Speaker 1: what extent are you looking for the latest gossip? Like?
Speaker 1: There's so many different things, so your audience will naturally
Speaker 1: find you if you're continuing to put out organic work. Um,
Speaker 1: and I don't think you necessarily need to change anything,
Speaker 1: because then it will be hard to keep up with.
Speaker 1: It's like trying to keep on trend with something thing
Speaker 1: that can ever be changing. And you're right, Um, the
Speaker 1: algorithm tends to put people in front of the type
Speaker 1: of people who are looking for that content. So, for example,
Speaker 1: I like to look for motivational wisdom quotes. So if
Speaker 1: you're a self helped life coach, Um, there's a good
Speaker 1: chance that if you constantly put out the same content
Speaker 1: and people are sharing it, you'll end up on someone
Speaker 1: else's page who's looking for the same thing without even trying,
Speaker 1: because the algorithm does that to keep people engaged to
Speaker 1: the app. It's important for people to know that they
Speaker 1: they make money by us staying on the app and
Speaker 1: constantly scrolling so they will constantly put like minded people
Speaker 1: in front of you, so that you continuously continuously stay
Speaker 1: on the app the hope that helps us keep at it.
Speaker 1: Number two, Hi Caneen and devout much love to you
Speaker 1: and your family. Thank you so much. My fiance and
Speaker 1: I have been together for four and a half years.
Speaker 1: We are too madly in love millennials in our thirties
Speaker 1: who still date and have fun. That's what's suck. However,
Speaker 1: our communication around business hasn't always been the best. We
Speaker 1: just up one year of a couple of therapy and
Speaker 1: November and we are now trying to communicate with each
Speaker 1: other on our own. My issue is that even though
Speaker 1: I asked him to help me plan our future, he
Speaker 1: is not proactive at life building together. He seems strictly
Speaker 1: focused on his side business and online movie blog, and
Speaker 1: his nine to five jobs was nine to five jobs.
Speaker 1: How do I get my fiance to bring more than
Speaker 1: his share of bills to the table, bring more than
Speaker 1: his share of bills to the table? How do I
Speaker 1: get him to be the partner that talks business and
Speaker 1: it's proactive in planning our future with me? Side note
Speaker 1: I've already tried sharing my ideas asking him his long
Speaker 1: term goals, but they are met with either hesitation or brevity.
Speaker 1: I run an airbnb business and he runs an international
Speaker 1: online movie blog. Something is going over my head. Help
Speaker 1: m hm. So the first thing I say is we
Speaker 1: as individuals have to learn to respect other people's processes. Right,
Speaker 1: Like we mentioned before, until we know the full context
Speaker 1: of the story, which we don't have because we only
Speaker 1: have her version, It's hard to get a full idea
Speaker 1: of what's happening. Right because if you would have asked
Speaker 1: me what my ideas what business were, and how Codein
Speaker 1: was involved early on in our marriage, you would have
Speaker 1: heard me say, Codeine is nowhere near and nowhere near
Speaker 1: as involved or interested in the things that I'm interested in.
Speaker 1: But I had to learn through life that her process
Speaker 1: is different. I tend to think of an idea and
Speaker 1: go full steam ahead of it and try to figure
Speaker 1: things out on my way. Coadan is more of a Okay,
Speaker 1: that's your idea. Let me take a couple of days
Speaker 1: to think. Then I'm gonna plan, write some notes, replan,
Speaker 1: and then figure out exactly how I'm gonna attack it.
Speaker 1: To me, it seemed like that's wasting time and procrastinating
Speaker 1: to her, that's how her process is. So sometimes in business,
Speaker 1: especially when you know you're new. I mean, you guys
Speaker 1: said they've been together five years. We were together thirteen years,
Speaker 1: and I still ain't no ship about codeine. So figuring
Speaker 1: five years may seem like a lot you because you're
Speaker 1: existing in that five years. But you still have a
Speaker 1: long time to learn this person. But if you, guys
Speaker 1: continue to talk about your processes and how you few
Speaker 1: business strategy and life building, you'll learn what the processes
Speaker 1: and you'll learn to work together. And she says that
Speaker 1: he's strictly focused on his side business. Is this side
Speaker 1: business and his nine to five what he enjoys doing
Speaker 1: right now? That might just be where he finds his
Speaker 1: happiness and where he's content working in that space. I mean,
Speaker 1: you talk about life building together and you know, um,
Speaker 1: what does that look like for him? You know, you
Speaker 1: guys just maybe on two different time frames of what
Speaker 1: life building looks like, he might feel like, well, in
Speaker 1: this season of where I Am, this is what I'm doing,
Speaker 1: I'm doing my nine and I enjoy doing this online
Speaker 1: movie blog. You enjoy doing your Airbnb and whatever else
Speaker 1: you have going on, So you kind of might just
Speaker 1: have to let him work through his own process of
Speaker 1: this is where he is now, and maybe having the
Speaker 1: discussion about a year term goal, then having like a
Speaker 1: three year goal and then a five year girl like
Speaker 1: we do, UM that has worked for us in the past,
Speaker 1: where we kind of say and at least in the
Speaker 1: next five years we would like to accomplish X, Y Z,
Speaker 1: and kind of like making a checklist. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like a mental vision board for us of what we
Speaker 1: foresee happening for us in the future. So I feel
Speaker 1: like you should just continue to have the conversation. Like
Speaker 1: anything else, um when it comes to relationships, just keep
Speaker 1: the conversations going and don't necessarily discredit or discourage what
Speaker 1: he has going on now because you may not see
Speaker 1: the value in it. Clearly he sees some value in
Speaker 1: it and it's be bringing him at least some sort
Speaker 1: of joy and I'm hoping it's lucrative financially for you guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I think we all have to get used
Speaker 1: to ridding ourselves with this egocentric view of life, Like
Speaker 1: if someone is not trying to do life the way
Speaker 1: I'm doing it is wrong, and I think we all
Speaker 1: as individuals tend to do that until you find a
Speaker 1: life partner and you watch them go through life and
Speaker 1: you say, thing, this person is super successful doing something
Speaker 1: that I never would have done. I got a first
Speaker 1: row seat of watching you do that. You got a
Speaker 1: first row seat of watching me do that. So I
Speaker 1: empower all of you couples to take time to continue
Speaker 1: to express to each other what your issues, maybe in
Speaker 1: real time, but also give each other grace to figure
Speaker 1: it out. Sounds good to me? All Right, y'all write
Speaker 1: us in email us flood flood flood that box because
Speaker 1: we want to hear more about what you have going on.
Speaker 1: And it's not just listening letters. If there's a particular
Speaker 1: topic that you'll have in mind that we haven't spoke
Speaker 1: about yet, or something that we have covered and maybe
Speaker 1: you want to follow up, to be sure to email
Speaker 1: us at dead s Advice at gmail dot com. We
Speaker 1: want to hear from you. That is D E A
Speaker 1: D A S S A D V I C E
Speaker 1: at gmail dot dot com. Alright, moment of truth time.
Speaker 1: What are we talking about today? Black entrepreneurship for what
Speaker 1: it takes to start and run a successful business. I
Speaker 1: feel like you devour. We're able to break down in
Speaker 1: the beginning of the show a lot of what um
Speaker 1: steps you took to start a prototype? Um. I spoke
Speaker 1: about my transition from working retail makeup to doing my
Speaker 1: own thing and having my own little makeup business. So
Speaker 1: what's your little that you want to leave these folks
Speaker 1: with today? Well, this is my moment of truth. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be the five key things you need to start
Speaker 1: a business. Actually, Trumple made a list, but I grew
Speaker 1: with all five of these things on here right. Number one,
Speaker 1: choose your business idea. Make sure you choose a business
Speaker 1: idea that is in high demand. Make sure that it
Speaker 1: is a product or service that people need all the time.
Speaker 1: That's number one. Number two. Write a business plan. Okay,
Speaker 1: don't get offended when you're trying to ask people to
Speaker 1: help you with your business and they ask you to
Speaker 1: write a business plan. Put all of your ideas on paper.
Speaker 1: And a business plan typically has a barrier of entry,
Speaker 1: the full business and an exit strategy. So when you're
Speaker 1: writing a full business plan, make sure you know everything
Speaker 1: it takes to get started in this business. Make sure
Speaker 1: you write out how long you plan the business. On
Speaker 1: last thing, what the return is going to be return
Speaker 1: on investment that's called r O Y. And also the
Speaker 1: exit strategy, how and when you plan on selling the business,
Speaker 1: because all businesses don't last forever. Number three register your business.
Speaker 1: This is important. LLC S Corp see corp in the trust.
Speaker 1: Make sure you register your business legally so that you
Speaker 1: can pay taxes and also get tax breaks. The good
Speaker 1: thing about having a business is that you get tax breaks.
Speaker 1: I read a book called uh Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
Speaker 1: He said, rich dad makes money, spends money, pays taxes.
Speaker 1: Poor dad makes money, pays taxes, spends money, which means
Speaker 1: you end up paying more money in taxes when you
Speaker 1: spend it. Afterwards, you have to register your business so
Speaker 1: this way you can protect yourself and your business. Number
Speaker 1: four get certified as a minority business owner if you
Speaker 1: are a minority. Also if you are a woman a woman,
Speaker 1: get registered as a minority woman business owner. There are
Speaker 1: tons of way for Number five to find funding for
Speaker 1: your business if you get certified as a minority or
Speaker 1: a woman business owner. And it's important to find financing
Speaker 1: for your business because it costs money to make money,
Speaker 1: so If you think you're going to start a business
Speaker 1: from scratch and figure it out and it's not going
Speaker 1: to cost you anything, you are sadly mistaken because what
Speaker 1: will happen is, even if you do make money in
Speaker 1: the very beginning, you're going to utilize all of that
Speaker 1: money to put back into business to make more money.
Speaker 1: So try to get financing for your business first. This
Speaker 1: way you don't automatically have to start in the red.
Speaker 1: So those are my moments of truth. Hope you can
Speaker 1: take away from those moments of truths that ain't no
Speaker 1: moments left it moments left for your girl. I guess
Speaker 1: what I was gonna say. The one thing I had
Speaker 1: to say, just kind of sum it all up, was
Speaker 1: just do the work. Do the work. If this is
Speaker 1: something that means something to you and you want to
Speaker 1: have that wealth, which means time equating to autonomy over
Speaker 1: your time, to be able to move freely because you
Speaker 1: have a business that's running. Also, just knowing that it's
Speaker 1: not going to be a thing where you can clock out,
Speaker 1: because a lot of entrepreneurship has seven cycle of work.
Speaker 1: Just do the work, do the due diligence. If you
Speaker 1: have a craft that you are trying to um make
Speaker 1: a business and you want to make it lucrative. Continue
Speaker 1: to work on that craft. Continue to be a student
Speaker 1: to that craft so that way you can make the
Speaker 1: experience for those who do patron your business a rich experience. Okay,
Speaker 1: that is on that and be sure to follow us
Speaker 1: on social media dead as the Podcast and I'm Cadine,
Speaker 1: I am and I am Devout And if you're listening
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, be sure to rate, review, and subscribe
Speaker 1: and share to share this episode and all the episodes
Speaker 1: with your friends that they think you think can benefit
Speaker 1: from them. You know, sharing is hearing. Dead As dead
Speaker 1: Ass is a production of I Heart Media podcast Network
Speaker 1: and is produced by the Noorapinia and Triple Follow the
Speaker 1: podcast on social media at dead as the Podcast and
Speaker 1: never miss a Thing