1
00:00:01,360 --> 00:00:03,640
Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank.

2
00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,760
Speaker 1: A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring,

3
00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:10,840
Speaker 1: and sure they definitely can be, but understanding a professionals

4
00:00:10,920 --> 00:00:14,160
Speaker 1: routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little,

5
00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:18,200
Speaker 1: day after day. It's like banking with P and C Bank.

6
00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:21,480
Speaker 1: It might seem boring to safe plan and make calculated

7
00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:24,599
Speaker 1: decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is

8
00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:27,960
Speaker 1: what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P

9
00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:32,879
Speaker 1: and C Bank Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty five. Brilliantly

10
00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:35,600
Speaker 1: Boring since eighteen sixty five is a service mark of

11
00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:38,840
Speaker 1: the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. P and C Bank

12
00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:42,000
Speaker 1: National Association Member FDIC.

13
00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:45,279
Speaker 2: Erness What's Up?

14
00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:47,839
Speaker 1: You ever walk into a small business and everything just

15
00:00:47,960 --> 00:00:51,159
Speaker 1: works like the checkout is fast, the receipts are digital,

16
00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,640
Speaker 1: tipping is a breeze, and you're out the door before

17
00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:58,840
Speaker 1: the line even builds. Odds are they're using Square? We

18
00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:01,320
Speaker 1: love supporting business is that run on Square because it

19
00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:04,399
Speaker 1: just feels seamless. Whether it's a local coffee shop, a

20
00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:06,920
Speaker 1: vendor at a pop up market, or even one of

21
00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:10,039
Speaker 1: our merch partners. Square makes it easy for them to

22
00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,920
Speaker 1: take payments, manage inventory, and run their business with confidence,

23
00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:17,600
Speaker 1: all from one simple system. If you're a business owner

24
00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:21,200
Speaker 1: or even just thinking about launching something soon, Square is

25
00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,319
Speaker 1: hands down one of the best tools out there to

26
00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:27,399
Speaker 1: help you start, run, and grow. It's not just about payments,

27
00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:30,640
Speaker 1: it's about giving you time back so you can focus on.

28
00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:32,000
Speaker 2: What matters most ready.

29
00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:35,399
Speaker 1: To see how Square can transform your business, visit Square

30
00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:40,160
Speaker 1: dot com backslash go backslash eyl to learn more. That's

31
00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:45,640
Speaker 1: Square dot com backslash, go backslash eyl. Don't wait, don't hesitate.

32
00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,160
Speaker 1: Let's Square handle the back end so you can keep

33
00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:50,600
Speaker 1: pushing your vision forward.

34
00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:55,640
Speaker 3: All right, Welcome back, Welcome back. This is a special

35
00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:59,360
Speaker 3: episode we on set, something that we haven't done in

36
00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:02,720
Speaker 3: a long time. But it's a very nostalgic feel. If

37
00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:05,160
Speaker 3: you've been walking with Earn your lesion from the very beginning,

38
00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:09,040
Speaker 3: you know episode eleven, game changer. Yeah, that was when

39
00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:11,440
Speaker 3: we were still in the dining room, right right right

40
00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:12,600
Speaker 3: early in the trenches.

41
00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:13,040
Speaker 4: In the trench.

42
00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:17,720
Speaker 1: Fact, so if you've been listening, we've always referenced that

43
00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:21,280
Speaker 1: as probably the most impactful and always our favorite episode.

44
00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:25,600
Speaker 3: That's a fact. So I met Derek Falcon on Instagram.

45
00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:27,560
Speaker 3: Don't remember the store, you DM me?

46
00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:30,079
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I remember it like it was yesterday. Man.

47
00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:33,880
Speaker 4: First of all, I'm super excited to be here. We're back,

48
00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:36,280
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. So I feel great about it.

49
00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:38,679
Speaker 4: We've been able to maintain a relationship for quite some time.

50
00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:41,760
Speaker 4: And it all start on Instagram. So I remember it

51
00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:46,760
Speaker 4: was like January twenty nineteen, before cold, before everything, and

52
00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:49,440
Speaker 4: I just saw this page that kept coming on my timeline.

53
00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:51,880
Speaker 4: I'm like, yoho, it is this sky dropping all this

54
00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:55,680
Speaker 4: dope ass content. Right, it was crazy, and it was like,

55
00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:57,680
Speaker 4: you know, some people kind of compared to like more

56
00:02:57,720 --> 00:02:59,720
Speaker 4: of like the financial shap Room. For me, I saw

57
00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:03,120
Speaker 4: more for like a transition of black power and us

58
00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:06,639
Speaker 4: controlling my narrative and taking back our own stories. So

59
00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:10,240
Speaker 4: it was bigger than just like typical financial reporting. It

60
00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:13,919
Speaker 4: was impactful. So at the time I had just came home,

61
00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:16,639
Speaker 4: I was operating a restaurant and I was like, yo,

62
00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:19,960
Speaker 4: I got some ship to say, how can I connect

63
00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:22,960
Speaker 4: with this person and how can we build? And I

64
00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:25,960
Speaker 4: reached out to Shotty him being a real man that

65
00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:28,600
Speaker 4: he is, he called me right back like two days later,

66
00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:31,079
Speaker 4: we wound up talking on the phone for like forty

67
00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,000
Speaker 4: five minutes an hour, and he straight dropped the addiye

68
00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:38,160
Speaker 4: on me, and I came through he dropped, I breezed

69
00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:40,560
Speaker 4: throughing it. It was what it was. But yeah, man,

70
00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:42,400
Speaker 4: I'm excited that it's excited to be here. Yeah.

71
00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:45,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had no idea of that. Yeah. Yeah, So

72
00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:47,360
Speaker 2: he dropped the addy, I opened the door. I sell

73
00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:48,400
Speaker 2: who is this guy?

74
00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely that's a fact. But here we are six

75
00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,480
Speaker 3: years later. So when we first met, well, first of all,

76
00:03:55,520 --> 00:03:59,240
Speaker 3: thank you for everything and thank you. So he thought

77
00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:00,920
Speaker 3: the bunch of stuff. You did a live show with

78
00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,560
Speaker 3: us in the DC Arena. That was crazy. Just did

79
00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:06,840
Speaker 3: the book book toward us and.

80
00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:13,000
Speaker 4: Then we did it university. Remember this this is this.

81
00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,720
Speaker 3: Is around two for the for the show. So okay,

82
00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:17,640
Speaker 3: when we when the last time that we spoke on

83
00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:21,839
Speaker 3: the episode, you had the restaurant homemade in Baltimore. The

84
00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:23,479
Speaker 3: reason why the episode is so legend that you guys

85
00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:25,800
Speaker 3: should check it out episode eleven is that you kind

86
00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:27,839
Speaker 3: of you broke down your business model and you broke

87
00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:31,280
Speaker 3: down the streams and it was very detailed as far

88
00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:33,839
Speaker 3: as numbers and all that and people wasn't really familiar with.

89
00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:37,200
Speaker 3: I think it was kind of new, like that wasn't

90
00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:39,039
Speaker 3: something that people really did before, right. I think you

91
00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:42,039
Speaker 3: kind of changed the game where you opened the door

92
00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,000
Speaker 3: as far as transparency. But since then a lot has changed.

93
00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:48,320
Speaker 3: You moved from Baltimore to New York. Yeah, yeah, you

94
00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:52,480
Speaker 3: switched from the restaurant to we had Cloudy Donuts. That's

95
00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:57,159
Speaker 3: your new operation that you got running. So a lot

96
00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:00,400
Speaker 3: of a lot has changed, right, So let's catch the

97
00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:04,760
Speaker 3: audience up to speed. How did you transition from Baltimore

98
00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:09,920
Speaker 3: at the restaurant to Soho the vegan donut spot. Yeah?

99
00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:11,960
Speaker 4: You know, you know my thing is this. I always

100
00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:14,120
Speaker 4: tell the person when you go fast, you grow fast,

101
00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:17,560
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. So nothing really educates you

102
00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:20,159
Speaker 4: more than just living real life and doing it at

103
00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:23,160
Speaker 4: a fast space. So when y'all saw me in the

104
00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:26,280
Speaker 4: restaurant space, it was more about getting settled in and

105
00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:29,480
Speaker 4: coming home. I had one goal when I came home,

106
00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:32,320
Speaker 4: and that was to be legit. I had an advantage

107
00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:34,440
Speaker 4: with that because it was like I saw the world

108
00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:37,240
Speaker 4: through the lens of a criminal, somebody who was just

109
00:05:37,279 --> 00:05:39,240
Speaker 4: coming home and like, yo, shit, I can't believe. I

110
00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:42,360
Speaker 4: got a Legit spot, I got people on payroll, my

111
00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:44,159
Speaker 4: mother got come see this. You know what I'm saying,

112
00:05:44,279 --> 00:05:48,040
Speaker 4: because I grew up just straight immersed in the criminal lifestyle.

113
00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:50,919
Speaker 4: So I when I had the opportunity to come on

114
00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:54,039
Speaker 4: the show, I had built out the brunch restaurant, I

115
00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:56,160
Speaker 4: had the food trucks, and it was really about the

116
00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:58,960
Speaker 4: supper club and creating verticals within my business that would

117
00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:02,480
Speaker 4: allow me to grow. Now, what I always encourage entrepreneurs

118
00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:04,640
Speaker 4: to do is to focus on the main thing, keep

119
00:06:04,680 --> 00:06:06,920
Speaker 4: the main thing the main thing, And for me, after

120
00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:09,640
Speaker 4: I got legit, it was really about making some real money.

121
00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:12,400
Speaker 4: So in the midst of the restaurant, you deal with

122
00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:15,040
Speaker 4: a lot of nuances, whether it is dealing with staff

123
00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:16,880
Speaker 4: coming in front of the house, back of the house,

124
00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:19,960
Speaker 4: managers and so on and so forth. So I was like, yo,

125
00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:22,760
Speaker 4: let me do a little bit more history, because once

126
00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,720
Speaker 4: you over the excitement of being legal, you gotta deal

127
00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:27,960
Speaker 4: with the excitement of ambition and wanting to get some money.

128
00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:29,760
Speaker 4: And I always tell people, once you get over the

129
00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:31,000
Speaker 4: good look, you get some good money.

130
00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:31,240
Speaker 2: Right.

131
00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:34,520
Speaker 4: So I got to a place where where I was

132
00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:36,680
Speaker 4: at was enough, and it was like, all right, what's

133
00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:38,919
Speaker 4: next for me? So I begin to focus on one

134
00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:42,720
Speaker 4: singular product, and for me, it was a donut. And

135
00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:45,680
Speaker 4: the reason why I focused on that is because if

136
00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:48,400
Speaker 4: you get a donut right, you don't need catch up

137
00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:51,120
Speaker 4: hot sauce, mayonnaise, mustard. You're not looking for a refill,

138
00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:52,800
Speaker 4: You're not looking for a way that they give you

139
00:06:52,839 --> 00:06:55,640
Speaker 4: a check. It reminds me of the game. It's straight

140
00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:58,840
Speaker 4: product driven. If I got a quality product, it's over

141
00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:00,760
Speaker 4: the counter service, you coming in and out the space.

142
00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:03,760
Speaker 4: It reminds me of like a trap house. I give

143
00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:05,440
Speaker 4: you the product, you don't even know who I am,

144
00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:07,880
Speaker 4: You gone, and I'm able to scale that. So it

145
00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:10,800
Speaker 4: was a scalable model as opposed to a traditional restaurant

146
00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:12,880
Speaker 4: where you're dealing with so many elements and components. And

147
00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:14,160
Speaker 4: that's why I chose donuts.

148
00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:19,120
Speaker 1: So the transition right because homemade, everybody remembers for that

149
00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:20,360
Speaker 1: episode you.

150
00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:23,440
Speaker 2: Had the supper club piece too. We left all that,

151
00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:24,200
Speaker 2: we came here.

152
00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:27,080
Speaker 1: What was the transition like from a business standpoint of,

153
00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:29,320
Speaker 1: all right, this is a new city. I may not

154
00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:32,400
Speaker 1: be familiar with the ins and outs, the demographics are different.

155
00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:33,480
Speaker 2: Talk about that piece.

156
00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:36,240
Speaker 4: It was all like hustling out of time. It was

157
00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:39,280
Speaker 4: all it was all about. It was so crazy because

158
00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:41,880
Speaker 4: and I'm so excited for my partner, so D two

159
00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:44,880
Speaker 4: to talk because as you as any hustler, when you

160
00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:47,000
Speaker 4: go out of town, you get through a woman and

161
00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:49,560
Speaker 4: you get to the community. Right, So like, for example,

162
00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:53,320
Speaker 4: my superpower was my partner, And it was really about

163
00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:55,480
Speaker 4: us strategizing, like all right, here's this life that we're

164
00:07:55,480 --> 00:07:57,640
Speaker 4: gonna bail, here's this brand we're gonna build, and how

165
00:07:57,680 --> 00:07:59,200
Speaker 4: we're going to be able to connect with the people

166
00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:01,720
Speaker 4: in an unconvention no way. So when I came to

167
00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:04,400
Speaker 4: New York, I knew a few things. I knew that

168
00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:06,560
Speaker 4: I had to get familiar with the landscape, be respectful

169
00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:09,240
Speaker 4: of the people, and provide them with a phenomenal product.

170
00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:11,960
Speaker 4: So when we used to sell dope, we call it

171
00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:13,840
Speaker 4: dropping teas. I don't know if they' seeing it on the wire,

172
00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:16,320
Speaker 4: but like dropping tas is basically like if you get

173
00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:18,560
Speaker 4: a couple of ounces of dope, you get some grams,

174
00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:21,240
Speaker 4: you put them together with some quinin benita, and then

175
00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:24,400
Speaker 4: you pass out test us. So like on the wire,

176
00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:26,320
Speaker 4: they would say dropping teas because now all the dope.

177
00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:28,440
Speaker 4: Things would congregate to that because it's like, oh, all right,

178
00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:31,920
Speaker 4: they're giving out these tea's, so my teas was complimentary donuts.

179
00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:34,760
Speaker 4: It was like, yo, I believe in my product is phenomenal,

180
00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:37,440
Speaker 4: let's just give it away. And that created word of

181
00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:41,080
Speaker 4: mouth along with her being behind me and in most

182
00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:43,720
Speaker 4: cases beside me, but also behind me doing additional work

183
00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:45,600
Speaker 4: of like yo, I'm gonna make sure that I get

184
00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:48,560
Speaker 4: your product to everybody who don't know you, and trying

185
00:08:48,559 --> 00:08:51,120
Speaker 4: that sense to a global phenomenon. So it was really

186
00:08:51,160 --> 00:08:53,480
Speaker 4: about the work that she put in were connected with

187
00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:55,520
Speaker 4: community and me just being in the lab making sure

188
00:08:55,559 --> 00:08:57,000
Speaker 4: we had the best shit going out.

189
00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:00,400
Speaker 3: So Soho, how'd you end up in Soho? Cause most

190
00:09:00,440 --> 00:09:01,640
Speaker 3: of the time, I mean you start think he was

191
00:09:01,679 --> 00:09:04,400
Speaker 3: in Brooklyn at first, even that was a a different

192
00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:08,079
Speaker 3: type of area. But you know, you, as a black entrepreneur,

193
00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:10,040
Speaker 3: they would probably expect you to be in hall On

194
00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:13,960
Speaker 3: mm hm or you know, Bestyle or a black neighborhood.

195
00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:17,520
Speaker 3: Why why did you gravitate towards Soho?

196
00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, everything that I do relates directly back to who

197
00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:23,960
Speaker 4: I am as a man. I don't it's no gimmicks,

198
00:09:24,240 --> 00:09:26,520
Speaker 4: no nothing as fatty over here or trendy.

199
00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:26,760
Speaker 2: Right.

200
00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:29,320
Speaker 4: So like when I was when I was trapping, I

201
00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:31,679
Speaker 4: had some real money and I was living in good neighborhoods,

202
00:09:32,040 --> 00:09:34,440
Speaker 4: but I always felt there wasn't a true place for

203
00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:37,040
Speaker 4: me in the midst of white affluence. M I mean, like,

204
00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:39,040
Speaker 4: think about it. You. We drive down Rodeo Drive, we

205
00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:40,680
Speaker 4: got our phone out, we take a bunch of pictures,

206
00:09:40,679 --> 00:09:42,760
Speaker 4: but black people don't own nothing. Then we go on

207
00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:44,760
Speaker 4: Madison Avenue, we got our phone out, we buy a

208
00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:46,920
Speaker 4: bunch of pocket a bunch of persons and jackets, but

209
00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:49,640
Speaker 4: black people don't own nothing. And I always lived in

210
00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:51,920
Speaker 4: these particular spaces, and I felt like, Yo, where's a

211
00:09:51,960 --> 00:09:54,560
Speaker 4: space for us? Where's the space for the black man

212
00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:56,880
Speaker 4: who's successful? Everything doesn't have to be like a uh

213
00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:59,720
Speaker 4: a charity case, right. So I was like, Yo, i'm'a

214
00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:02,480
Speaker 4: put the donut shops in areas that I was specifically living.

215
00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:04,960
Speaker 4: And it was the same thing in Baltimore and Baltimore

216
00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:07,120
Speaker 4: we and white neighborhoods. That's the flowing as well too.

217
00:10:07,600 --> 00:10:09,800
Speaker 4: It's not intentionally trying and laying in the white folks,

218
00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:11,959
Speaker 4: but it's just really just following my own path of

219
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:15,800
Speaker 4: where I would live. And I felt like from what

220
00:10:15,880 --> 00:10:18,160
Speaker 4: I've seen with other brands, whether it was Kissed or

221
00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:22,160
Speaker 4: Ald or Supreme, I felt like that for black people

222
00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:24,080
Speaker 4: to get seen in a different light and to be

223
00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:28,000
Speaker 4: global phenomenas, you needed global retail positioning. So it's like,

224
00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:30,079
Speaker 4: the only way I'm going to become successful is to

225
00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:32,600
Speaker 4: position myself next to the other people. So I was

226
00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:35,000
Speaker 4: never comfortable being like the biggest lion on my block.

227
00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:36,600
Speaker 4: I want to get in a den with the other

228
00:10:36,679 --> 00:10:39,320
Speaker 4: lions and show you what I got. We're here now,

229
00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:40,200
Speaker 4: that's a fact.

230
00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:44,320
Speaker 1: One of the things that throughout the years, we've got

231
00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:48,280
Speaker 1: these conversations about entrepreneurship in the state of the black entrepreneur.

232
00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:51,360
Speaker 2: Now, remember you talking to us about ordering our best talent.

233
00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:54,000
Speaker 1: Right, we sent our best talent to the worst environments, right,

234
00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:56,240
Speaker 1: or we try to get a discount on the talent.

235
00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:01,080
Speaker 1: As you've navigated business over the past six and use transition,

236
00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:02,680
Speaker 1: and we've met a lot of the workers and a

237
00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:05,920
Speaker 1: lot of people who've been employed by you. What's your

238
00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:09,440
Speaker 1: mindset now when you see the state of entrepreneurship, especially

239
00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:10,080
Speaker 1: in our community.

240
00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:14,720
Speaker 4: I feel like when it comes to black people, you know,

241
00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:16,920
Speaker 4: we tend to generalize and say we want to create

242
00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:20,040
Speaker 4: generational worth, generational wealth, what we want to unify, But

243
00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:22,719
Speaker 4: I really think it's about getting the best talent in

244
00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:25,960
Speaker 4: the room with the best talent, and they might not

245
00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:30,520
Speaker 4: always be black. I tell people this, sometimes the motherfuckers

246
00:11:30,559 --> 00:11:32,120
Speaker 4: that you want to do it with are going to

247
00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:34,400
Speaker 4: be the people that you can't do it with. The

248
00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:36,040
Speaker 4: people that you want to do it with the most

249
00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:38,320
Speaker 4: are going to be the people that you probably most

250
00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:41,040
Speaker 4: likely in our community can't do it with. You'll talk

251
00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:43,080
Speaker 4: to your brother over and over again, but a stranger

252
00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:46,160
Speaker 4: will automatically get it, and then now the people who

253
00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:48,280
Speaker 4: we don't give a shot are the people for So

254
00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:51,400
Speaker 4: I just learned to focus on skill set as opposed

255
00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:53,719
Speaker 4: to just like, oh, we from the same neighborhood. I

256
00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:57,400
Speaker 4: learned to focus on mindset as opposed to like, oh, well,

257
00:11:57,559 --> 00:11:59,520
Speaker 4: this is something I should be doing for my community

258
00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:01,800
Speaker 4: because I'm black. And I also think that the community

259
00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:04,160
Speaker 4: has to become a little bit more micro. So I

260
00:12:04,160 --> 00:12:05,920
Speaker 4: think the first thing that allows you to come into

261
00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:08,320
Speaker 4: the community is you black. The second thing is that

262
00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:10,240
Speaker 4: you're black with the same mindset or else that shit

263
00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:10,920
Speaker 4: ain't gonna work.

264
00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:14,800
Speaker 3: So so like to talk business because I know you

265
00:12:14,840 --> 00:12:19,000
Speaker 3: know you're a great business mind. Marketing, right, that's the

266
00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:22,719
Speaker 3: lifeline on any business area. What's your thoughts on mark,

267
00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:25,160
Speaker 3: what lessons have you learned from marketing? And what's your

268
00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:28,400
Speaker 3: thoughts on you know, marketing in twenty twenty five as

269
00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:30,680
Speaker 3: far as your business For any entrepreneur.

270
00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:35,200
Speaker 4: My core marketing strategy consisted of basically like a handful

271
00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:39,040
Speaker 4: of pillars, whether it was cold called email DM, giving

272
00:12:39,080 --> 00:12:43,839
Speaker 4: product away, showing people who will influence you that came

273
00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:47,440
Speaker 4: into the space, and more specifically like word of mouth,

274
00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:50,920
Speaker 4: so like it's it's it's for me. It's just like

275
00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:54,400
Speaker 4: selling coked op and weed. If I got the best product,

276
00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:57,440
Speaker 4: somebody's gonna tell someone. If I pass out the teas,

277
00:12:57,480 --> 00:13:00,520
Speaker 4: they're eventually gonna come back. If I put myself in

278
00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:04,440
Speaker 4: a space where influential people can come in to my establishment,

279
00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:07,079
Speaker 4: then I can position myself as a global phenomenon. So

280
00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:09,720
Speaker 4: with the marketing I would have to lead. I would

281
00:13:09,760 --> 00:13:13,360
Speaker 4: definitely have to credit Zo D two for that because

282
00:13:13,400 --> 00:13:15,800
Speaker 4: she does a phenomenal job of bringing people who are

283
00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:18,640
Speaker 4: influential into the space. And then I kind of do

284
00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:20,880
Speaker 4: a home run of giving them the product. So the

285
00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:24,319
Speaker 4: marketing has been very organic. We've never paid for marketing.

286
00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:26,760
Speaker 4: The people who come into the space really walked in

287
00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:28,839
Speaker 4: because they know us and they loved us and what

288
00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:31,400
Speaker 4: it is that we stop for. I think on the

289
00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:33,640
Speaker 4: outside they see us as two black people with a

290
00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,320
Speaker 4: dream and they buy into that. I think a lot

291
00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:38,920
Speaker 4: of people just see us as a brand with a

292
00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:41,640
Speaker 4: high quality product and they buy into that. So what

293
00:13:41,679 --> 00:13:43,920
Speaker 4: we have to understand when it comes to marketing is

294
00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:45,720
Speaker 4: you have to find out all of the things that

295
00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:48,240
Speaker 4: are going to draw people to your space and pull

296
00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:51,080
Speaker 4: on all of those strings, because no buy ain't gonna

297
00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:51,640
Speaker 4: give us nothing.

298
00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:52,360
Speaker 2: Yeah.

299
00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:55,559
Speaker 1: I think what makes you very unique is that when

300
00:13:55,640 --> 00:14:00,400
Speaker 1: you think about competitors inside of I guess this specific right,

301
00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:02,960
Speaker 1: the dunkin Donuts of Christmas Kent. I don't even feel

302
00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:05,680
Speaker 1: like you look at the competitors, right. This is quote

303
00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:08,520
Speaker 1: that you've always said that in the world of people

304
00:14:08,559 --> 00:14:10,280
Speaker 1: trying to figure out who they are, I know who

305
00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:13,640
Speaker 1: I'm not so expond upon that, And like how that

306
00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:15,520
Speaker 1: has translated into your business acumen.

307
00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:18,319
Speaker 4: I got a tunnel vision I'm trying to get on.

308
00:14:18,679 --> 00:14:21,600
Speaker 4: I'm trying to become successful. I mean, I'm gonna be

309
00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:23,920
Speaker 4: honest with you. I still got cars I'm looking at

310
00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:25,720
Speaker 4: you know what I mean that I ain't getting yet,

311
00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:28,400
Speaker 4: or you know, it could be something small as having

312
00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:30,600
Speaker 4: things in your cart that you wish to acquire that

313
00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:33,440
Speaker 4: you just can't get right now. So everything is about

314
00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:36,320
Speaker 4: a vision board. And what I always tell my community

315
00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:39,400
Speaker 4: to do is like envision your perfect day and then

316
00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:41,760
Speaker 4: put a comparable number to that day, so like it

317
00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:43,600
Speaker 4: could get real specific, like whey, I'm go get up

318
00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:45,560
Speaker 4: where I'm gona wake up at, what type of apartment

319
00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:47,800
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have, what type of comma be driving? And

320
00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:50,000
Speaker 4: that kind of like for me that drives the needle

321
00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:53,080
Speaker 4: for me. So I always swim in my own lane.

322
00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:54,960
Speaker 4: I don't look to the left or look to the right.

323
00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:58,160
Speaker 4: And what I specifically tell black men because it's the

324
00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:00,680
Speaker 4: easiest way I can explain it for you, right, is

325
00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:03,960
Speaker 4: that you never wake up and look at the next man, Dick,

326
00:15:04,880 --> 00:15:07,720
Speaker 4: You focused on yourself. If you wake up and you

327
00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:09,760
Speaker 4: six foot tall, you never woke up and wanted to

328
00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:11,840
Speaker 4: be eight foot tall or even five foot Tell you

329
00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:15,000
Speaker 4: happy that you six foot So once you become happy

330
00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:16,720
Speaker 4: with who you are and where you try and go,

331
00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:19,640
Speaker 4: things will get much easier. So yeah, in a world

332
00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:21,640
Speaker 4: where people trying to figure out who they are, the

333
00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:23,320
Speaker 4: most important thing you could know is who you not.

334
00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:25,720
Speaker 4: And I know I wasn't a corporate guy, so there

335
00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:28,000
Speaker 4: will be no five hundred stores, and I knew I

336
00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:30,320
Speaker 4: was a hustler, so yeah, I'm gonna get that product out.

337
00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:32,800
Speaker 4: So it's different. It's different pros and cars that I

338
00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:35,400
Speaker 4: know about myself, and that's kind of like how I

339
00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:37,400
Speaker 4: lean into my personal life and how I built my

340
00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:39,680
Speaker 4: brand in my business. The people that we invite into

341
00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:41,840
Speaker 4: the shop are the people who I see online who

342
00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:44,800
Speaker 4: I'd hang out with. I even tell Zode all the time,

343
00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:47,880
Speaker 4: I said, listen, if a person wouldn't get along with

344
00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:50,080
Speaker 4: you in a real world and you didn't have this business,

345
00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:51,880
Speaker 4: they probably not going to get along with you when

346
00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:54,320
Speaker 4: you have the business. If I wouldn't hang out with

347
00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:56,920
Speaker 4: you without Cloudy Donuts, I'm not going to hang out

348
00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:59,240
Speaker 4: with you with Cloudy Donuts. A lot of times our

349
00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:01,880
Speaker 4: businesses are me that bring people into our world, and

350
00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:04,040
Speaker 4: then we wonder why we don't necessarily get along with

351
00:16:04,080 --> 00:16:06,440
Speaker 4: those people. It's because if you ain't had that business

352
00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:08,160
Speaker 4: or that product or service, they never would have fucked

353
00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:09,040
Speaker 4: with you in the first place.

354
00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:12,520
Speaker 1: Was there a change though, right from a monetary standpoint?

355
00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:16,120
Speaker 1: At a certain point, did you have a fiscal goal?

356
00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:19,240
Speaker 1: And as you got into business you realize that, you

357
00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:21,480
Speaker 1: know what, that ain't really the thing, right, It's really

358
00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:23,400
Speaker 1: about the impact, Like was there a transition?

359
00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:23,640
Speaker 5: Yeah?

360
00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:25,840
Speaker 4: I mean for me everything was. It was a combination

361
00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:28,480
Speaker 4: of like a fiscal and a social goal. So my

362
00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,600
Speaker 4: first fiscal goal, my number was ten bands. If I

363
00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:34,200
Speaker 4: could make ten thousand dollars a week, it would I

364
00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:37,200
Speaker 4: would resist the urge to break the law, so I

365
00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:39,200
Speaker 4: wouldn't be in a space where like that was even

366
00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:40,960
Speaker 4: on my back because I had a monkey on my

367
00:16:41,040 --> 00:16:43,680
Speaker 4: back coming home. I'm like, yo, I can't just work

368
00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:47,080
Speaker 4: at Walmart. So I had this fiscal goal and it

369
00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:49,480
Speaker 4: was really about like how can I make enough money

370
00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:51,920
Speaker 4: to be able to avoid the urge of breaking the law,

371
00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:54,520
Speaker 4: but more specifically build my brand. And then I had

372
00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:57,760
Speaker 4: a social goal of hiring all black And that has

373
00:16:57,920 --> 00:16:59,960
Speaker 4: worked for me at times and sometimes it's been a

374
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,760
Speaker 4: against me because now I got on blindness and I'm

375
00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:05,119
Speaker 4: focusing on people, just mainly on the color of their skin,

376
00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,600
Speaker 4: not on the content of their character. But what I

377
00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:10,880
Speaker 4: learned is that you can still build with your community,

378
00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:13,600
Speaker 4: but you definitely have to be more socially aligned. And

379
00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:15,960
Speaker 4: that's how I really was able to build a brand

380
00:17:16,160 --> 00:17:18,240
Speaker 4: when I look for people who were more harmonious to me.

381
00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:20,720
Speaker 4: Because when you start, you start with your friends and family,

382
00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:22,879
Speaker 4: they the closest to you, and then they might not

383
00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:25,000
Speaker 4: have the same mindset. So then the next play is,

384
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:27,040
Speaker 4: all right, well, I'm gonna bring on all these professionals,

385
00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:29,600
Speaker 4: and then the professionals don't got the morals that you got.

386
00:17:29,720 --> 00:17:31,600
Speaker 4: So now I think it's a combination of finding a

387
00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,040
Speaker 4: person with a mindset and morals, and the bonus would

388
00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:35,600
Speaker 4: happen to be if they people of color, but if

389
00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:37,960
Speaker 4: they not. Like I said, sometimes the people you want

390
00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:39,440
Speaker 4: to do it with won't be the people you can't

391
00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:39,720
Speaker 4: do with.

392
00:17:40,720 --> 00:17:43,800
Speaker 3: So let me ask you this. As far as in Baltimore,

393
00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:48,119
Speaker 3: you had the business model of you own the real estate.

394
00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:50,960
Speaker 3: It was only open two days or like three days

395
00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:53,159
Speaker 3: I think a week, two days in two days a week.

396
00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:57,320
Speaker 3: You had seven items on your menu. It was very specific, right,

397
00:17:57,800 --> 00:18:01,679
Speaker 3: So how has that change? Obviously now you're in soho.

398
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:06,920
Speaker 3: So I'm like, your mindset on business? Are you still

399
00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:09,000
Speaker 3: open three days a week? Is it still goals to

400
00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:12,840
Speaker 3: try to or is it like, how have you shifted that?

401
00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:15,240
Speaker 4: Oh, it's a much more vast pilote when you're going

402
00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:16,920
Speaker 4: to a big city like New York.

403
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:17,240
Speaker 2: Right.

404
00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:20,040
Speaker 4: So I always tell people the lessons you refuse to learn,

405
00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:20,800
Speaker 4: life will teach you.

406
00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:21,440
Speaker 3: Right.

407
00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:23,680
Speaker 4: So I came in to New York with my big

408
00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:25,680
Speaker 4: hat on, thinking I had to figure it out, and

409
00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:27,080
Speaker 4: she had something for my ass.

410
00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:27,400
Speaker 2: Right.

411
00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:33,919
Speaker 4: So the retail overhead is much higher, the customers have

412
00:18:34,119 --> 00:18:38,160
Speaker 4: way more options, and in New York, I mean, it's

413
00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:41,080
Speaker 4: the greatest city in the world and you can pretty

414
00:18:41,119 --> 00:18:43,400
Speaker 4: much do whatever you want when you want to do it, right.

415
00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:46,240
Speaker 4: So it's like, now, how do you get out of

416
00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:48,960
Speaker 4: your comfort zone and what you think work and listen

417
00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:51,960
Speaker 4: to your customers and figure out what works for them. So, yeah,

418
00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,840
Speaker 4: we expanded the palette beyond donuts to cinnamon rolls, pound cakes, cookies.

419
00:18:56,119 --> 00:18:58,399
Speaker 4: We expanded the days from three days a week to

420
00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:02,720
Speaker 4: five days a week. I think it's really about entrepreneurship

421
00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:06,280
Speaker 4: in general, is about being ambitious and being arrogant about

422
00:19:06,320 --> 00:19:08,359
Speaker 4: your product or your service, but also being humble when

423
00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:10,600
Speaker 4: it comes to listening to your customers. So that really

424
00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:13,800
Speaker 4: changed me when I came to New York. And it's

425
00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:16,040
Speaker 4: been a beautiful thing because it allowed us to get

426
00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:18,800
Speaker 4: more exposure and more market share and brand awareness. But

427
00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:21,120
Speaker 4: on the flip side of it, I think it kind

428
00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:23,520
Speaker 4: of reminds me of the streets. So like you gotta

429
00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:26,640
Speaker 4: do your homework before you go anywhere. You really got

430
00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:28,480
Speaker 4: to do your homework and know who you're dealing with.

431
00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:30,600
Speaker 4: Because the customers are even different from Brooklyn to here.

432
00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:33,040
Speaker 4: So like take Brooklyn, right, people are more nestled than

433
00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:35,760
Speaker 4: their homeowners. It's more family. It's a lot of kids, right,

434
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:38,560
Speaker 4: So it's really about people walking into the space and

435
00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:40,920
Speaker 4: bond donuts not just for themselves but for the entire

436
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:43,280
Speaker 4: family because they gonna have an outing. But then you

437
00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:45,400
Speaker 4: in Soho and it's much more of a retail heaven

438
00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:48,280
Speaker 4: where a person want one donut because they shopping. They

439
00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:50,119
Speaker 4: don't want to carry a bunch of donuts around with

440
00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:52,479
Speaker 4: them the whole time. You see what I'm saying. Some

441
00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:55,000
Speaker 4: people aren't from America, it's their first time here, so

442
00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:56,880
Speaker 4: they just want to try it donut because they never

443
00:19:56,920 --> 00:20:00,560
Speaker 4: had it, So it's a total different mindset depending on

444
00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:02,960
Speaker 4: where you're going and how it's looking. Same thing with

445
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:06,600
Speaker 4: La is much more of a vegan conscious city and

446
00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:09,120
Speaker 4: that people are concerned about like gluten or sawyer things

447
00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:11,560
Speaker 4: like that, so they much more ingredient based markets. But

448
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:13,840
Speaker 4: I think, like always tell people, when you go fast,

449
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:17,280
Speaker 4: you grow fast, and those things really help me grow

450
00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:18,600
Speaker 4: as an entrepreneur a business mind.

451
00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:22,200
Speaker 1: It sounds like there's some fluidity now, right, Like I know,

452
00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:25,160
Speaker 1: our first conversations it was like, I'm so, I'm gona

453
00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:27,200
Speaker 1: figure this thing out, and I'm hearing the fluidity now

454
00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:30,199
Speaker 1: as you're speaking when.

455
00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 2: You talk about Brooklyn the soho.

456
00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:33,159
Speaker 1: I know, we don't want to get the five hundred,

457
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:36,520
Speaker 1: But what does expansion look like for Cloudy Donuts? Is

458
00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:38,639
Speaker 1: there a goal to say, hey, we're gonna we have

459
00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:40,760
Speaker 1: in the New York market. There's some other markets we

460
00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:41,320
Speaker 1: want to tackle.

461
00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:44,919
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think the goal for Cloudy Donut

462
00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:49,520
Speaker 4: is it's a brand built off possibility, right, So who

463
00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:53,320
Speaker 4: am I? I'm the black Man's possibility and you know

464
00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:55,560
Speaker 4: my partner's OD two she says it all the time.

465
00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:59,200
Speaker 4: You know, our lifestyles in general, are just inspiration enough

466
00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:01,480
Speaker 4: for black people to feel they can galvanize themselves and

467
00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:04,080
Speaker 4: get up and do whatever they want to do. I

468
00:21:04,119 --> 00:21:07,359
Speaker 4: think that sometimes we look at the measuring stick of

469
00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:09,480
Speaker 4: other people and say, well, this is what they're doing,

470
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,480
Speaker 4: so we should be doing something similar. But like I said,

471
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:16,639
Speaker 4: like coming from the streets, I always knew what I wanted,

472
00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:19,479
Speaker 4: So I'm basically in a space where I got almost

473
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,040
Speaker 4: what I wanted. So my goal was seven streams, right,

474
00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:24,960
Speaker 4: So that's a docuseries that I'm shooting right now about

475
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:28,480
Speaker 4: my life and about what is it going to take

476
00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:30,120
Speaker 4: for a black man to come from nothing and get

477
00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:33,000
Speaker 4: to seven streams of income Because, as I've said before,

478
00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:35,679
Speaker 4: the average manion it has seven streams of income, and

479
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:37,640
Speaker 4: you're not going to make a lot off of one thing.

480
00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:39,639
Speaker 4: You're gonna have a bunch of little things that you

481
00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:41,560
Speaker 4: can make a lot off of, and you can accumulate

482
00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:44,359
Speaker 4: those things and create wealth. So like I did it,

483
00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:48,360
Speaker 4: I came home, I got legit, we got seven assets.

484
00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:50,280
Speaker 4: The goal is to get all those assets running at

485
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,159
Speaker 4: the same time to continue to employee black people and

486
00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:55,840
Speaker 4: provide them with opportunity with more or less inspiration and

487
00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:59,480
Speaker 4: possibility So when it comes to a scaling model, we're

488
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:01,640
Speaker 4: going to have a lot of vertical scaling, Like we're

489
00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:04,560
Speaker 4: gonna have events, we're gonna go to, We're going overseas

490
00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:07,199
Speaker 4: next year. You know, we're going to career. We're going

491
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:10,000
Speaker 4: to do Paris Fashion Week. We've already talked about doing that.

492
00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:12,879
Speaker 4: And those are the things that we're most excited about.

493
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:16,960
Speaker 4: And I always tell young people, don't look the white

494
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,280
Speaker 4: folks and what they got, thinking that that that's our model.

495
00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:23,719
Speaker 4: You got to understand your model. So your model is

496
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:26,000
Speaker 4: who are you and what do you want? And how

497
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:27,919
Speaker 4: can you take a scale or ability whether you're a

498
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:31,359
Speaker 4: plumber or electrician or mechanic or your self donuts? And

499
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:33,720
Speaker 4: how can you architect the life from that? So I

500
00:22:34,359 --> 00:22:37,480
Speaker 4: told you my first number was Tan gryand I'm already

501
00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:39,760
Speaker 4: on You see what I'm saying. And I think that

502
00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:42,920
Speaker 4: if we could pump the brakes on scale and focus

503
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:46,240
Speaker 4: more on social impact, then our young people will have

504
00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:48,919
Speaker 4: a different lifestyle and they chase different things. But if

505
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:50,800
Speaker 4: I try to get the yard, get the helicopter, now

506
00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:52,920
Speaker 4: they're in that space. But if I tell you, I'm like, yo,

507
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:55,320
Speaker 4: sit your black guys down, and just focus on that

508
00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:57,680
Speaker 4: one thing that you're doing right now, focus on being

509
00:22:57,720 --> 00:22:59,600
Speaker 4: the best plumber you can be, and drive the hell

510
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,240
Speaker 4: out of that that you got and then get another van.

511
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:03,600
Speaker 4: You're gonna get there.

512
00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:06,720
Speaker 3: You spoke about the seven streams. I want to talk

513
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:10,560
Speaker 3: about that your series, your docu series that you're working on,

514
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:13,840
Speaker 3: but also what's your thesis on seven streams of income?

515
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:16,360
Speaker 3: Because you broke it down the first time. People here

516
00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:20,600
Speaker 3: seven streams and it's confusing. Everybody has different ideas of

517
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:24,119
Speaker 3: what's seven strains of income? But from your personal perspective,

518
00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:27,840
Speaker 3: how did you get seven streams? And what's your viewpoint

519
00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:29,320
Speaker 3: on that whole seven.

520
00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 4: Stream Strategfinitely, I think the goal is to take one

521
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:37,960
Speaker 4: thing and master it that one thing and then find

522
00:23:38,040 --> 00:23:41,440
Speaker 4: services and products that are a byproduct of that one thing.

523
00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:45,240
Speaker 4: So like, for example, like I'm gonna talk about my streams,

524
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,879
Speaker 4: and we started with a donut shot, which was the

525
00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:51,359
Speaker 4: first stream, which we focused on the three essas saving

526
00:23:51,359 --> 00:23:54,440
Speaker 4: plus sacrifice ego scaling. That allowed us to now stay

527
00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:57,840
Speaker 4: down and stack. You see all the asks saving plus

528
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:00,560
Speaker 4: sacrifice equal scaling, and you stay down and stack until

529
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:03,760
Speaker 4: you saved sacrifice and you scale right. So we had

530
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 4: the one shop and we just saved. I drove a

531
00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:09,000
Speaker 4: Mini Cooper, right, I drove a Mini Cooper. I lived

532
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:11,960
Speaker 4: in a studio apartment. And then I got another shop,

533
00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 4: and then we just saved, and then we got a truck,

534
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:17,879
Speaker 4: and then we just saved, and then I got another truck.

535
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:20,359
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, then I got another shop, and

536
00:24:20,359 --> 00:24:22,919
Speaker 4: then I got another shop. So that's five shops. But

537
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 4: two of the shops that I got I own and

538
00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:26,760
Speaker 4: they have residential units. So that's the seven streams.

539
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:27,040
Speaker 2: Right.

540
00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:30,119
Speaker 4: So it was really this mindset of how can I

541
00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:32,920
Speaker 4: take this one ability that I have not be distracted.

542
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,760
Speaker 4: We're doing other things. Now, try to become a djail

543
00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 4: or sell heir on the side. Now I try to

544
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 4: sell bundles of body wraps. Just focus on the donuts.

545
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:44,280
Speaker 4: Get seven streams. And if those seven things could just

546
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:47,320
Speaker 4: make me one thousand dollars a week, that's two million

547
00:24:47,359 --> 00:24:50,720
Speaker 4: dollars a year, that was it for me. If I

548
00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 4: made two million dollars a year, I know I could

549
00:24:53,119 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 4: easily live in a two million dollar house. I know

550
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:57,760
Speaker 4: I could easily afford a four million dollar house with

551
00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:00,440
Speaker 4: a mortgage. So I comped my life out by saying,

552
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:03,000
Speaker 4: if I can just take this and get there, So like,

553
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:05,119
Speaker 4: think about that one lady who got that salon, who

554
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:07,479
Speaker 4: making three thousand a week, and how goal is nine thousand?

555
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 4: Just get two more salons. Don't try to be a

556
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:13,520
Speaker 4: DJ on the side and don't start selling dinners a place.

557
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:17,920
Speaker 4: Get two more salons. It might take you longer. We

558
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:20,880
Speaker 4: vastly underestimate what we can accomplish in the long run,

559
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:23,879
Speaker 4: but we always overestimate what we can accomplish in the

560
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:27,199
Speaker 4: short run. My marathon been going on six years. I've

561
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:29,719
Speaker 4: been doing it. I started ten years ago. But I

562
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:32,000
Speaker 4: got it though. See that's where I'm at with it.

563
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,520
Speaker 4: I got it. I'm not in a position where I

564
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:36,840
Speaker 4: got a bunch of debt out on awe bunch of

565
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,680
Speaker 4: people and I could control it. So any given moment,

566
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:41,800
Speaker 4: I could activate the seven streams, and as long as

567
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:44,479
Speaker 4: I now maintain it, which is a different mindset, I

568
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:47,199
Speaker 4: can always have the option to perpetuate it. But what

569
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,359
Speaker 4: we gotta understand is Black people is that YO, listen,

570
00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 4: sit down and focus on maintenance. Got people who want

571
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:54,280
Speaker 4: to do a podcast, they want DJ and they want

572
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:57,920
Speaker 4: to do hair. Figure out the DJ in first, whatever's

573
00:25:57,920 --> 00:25:59,400
Speaker 4: going to make you the most money. Then I always

574
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:01,440
Speaker 4: tell another person this, once you get over the good look,

575
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:02,320
Speaker 4: you get some good money.

576
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:02,560
Speaker 2: Right.

577
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:07,359
Speaker 4: Stop focusing on everything that you specifically passionate about. Focus

578
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:09,679
Speaker 4: on what's going to bring that number in. That's what

579
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:13,160
Speaker 4: white folks do. They not passionate about owning three thousand buildings.

580
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,040
Speaker 4: Trust me, they know that that portfolio won't get them

581
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,120
Speaker 4: what they want out of life. So it's about giving

582
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 4: it everything you got and it'll give you everything you want.

583
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 3: And then also, so when you came first time, you

584
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:27,280
Speaker 3: talked about even having multiple streams off of one business. Yeah,

585
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:29,760
Speaker 3: so it's like as far as a restaurant, you could

586
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 3: cater you can have your ads, you can have a

587
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:33,200
Speaker 3: cooking show.

588
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:35,400
Speaker 4: So let me break down the substreams that I got.

589
00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:37,920
Speaker 4: So this is my this is how my industry works.

590
00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:38,120
Speaker 2: Right.

591
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:39,760
Speaker 4: Typically, when you see a donut shop, you think, and

592
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:41,720
Speaker 4: they make the most money from a person walking in

593
00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 4: and buying a donut, not me. We get our money

594
00:26:45,119 --> 00:26:47,399
Speaker 4: from brand collaborations day at the top, because we can

595
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:49,159
Speaker 4: be our natural selves and the company will give you

596
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:51,840
Speaker 4: a bag. Right, And after brand collaboration, we got what

597
00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:54,720
Speaker 4: we call corporate pickup and drop off where a company

598
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 4: can call us and they can establish a weekly catering,

599
00:26:57,400 --> 00:26:59,959
Speaker 4: not an annual catering, but a weekly catering, so it's

600
00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:02,920
Speaker 4: like a subscription package. After the catering, we also got

601
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:05,120
Speaker 4: the truck. With the truck events, we got we could

602
00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:06,960
Speaker 4: do private events where we could also pull up with

603
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 4: the truck and do street venting. After the truck events,

604
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:12,359
Speaker 4: we got people walking in the store. Then we still

605
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:14,359
Speaker 4: got the seven strings where we educate people about all

606
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 4: the things that we've done. And then on top of that,

607
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,160
Speaker 4: we got digital product that we can ship that's six

608
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 4: strings within one string. So now it's just it's a

609
00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:25,879
Speaker 4: domino effect, and I'm telling you it don't bring I

610
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 4: don't make a lot of money off of each stream.

611
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:29,920
Speaker 4: I make a little off of each stream. I might

612
00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:32,199
Speaker 4: get one catering a week, but that's one thousand dollars.

613
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:34,400
Speaker 4: People might come into the store this weekend, but that's

614
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 4: three thousand dollars. I might get a brand that called

615
00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 4: me and give me ten thousand dollars. And what I

616
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 4: do is I can bind all of that and I

617
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:44,720
Speaker 4: cumulate wealth and I stay in my line.

618
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:49,520
Speaker 1: So again, you've done this in a I mean a

619
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 1: real meticulous way.

620
00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:51,880
Speaker 2: But you haven't done it alone.

621
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 1: I wonder at times, Like I said, we've had a

622
00:27:54,359 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 1: relationship for six years, and so I've been privy enough

623
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:01,160
Speaker 1: to have some of these conversations that the times when

624
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:04,359
Speaker 1: it's rough and the times when it's great, it's still

625
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:07,640
Speaker 1: you until you find somebody that you can share this

626
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:08,400
Speaker 1: passion with.

627
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:11,440
Speaker 2: So talk about that process, because the people.

628
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:14,199
Speaker 1: That you grew up with, your family members, they're not

629
00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:16,040
Speaker 1: seeing this the same way you're seeing this. In fact,

630
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:18,920
Speaker 1: you're accustomed to a certain life coming from the communities

631
00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:21,880
Speaker 1: that we come up in. But you've kind of decoded

632
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:22,600
Speaker 1: the matrix and.

633
00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:23,160
Speaker 2: Made it out of there.

634
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 1: Talk about going on this journey, not doing it by yourself,

635
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 1: but leaving some of the people that you obviously grew

636
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:30,680
Speaker 1: up with and family members behind.

637
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:35,399
Speaker 4: On this path, you're all alone. Especially if you're grading

638
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 4: you black, you definitely all alone. So for me, I

639
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:43,600
Speaker 4: was on my journey for a while by myself. And

640
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 4: after you know, because I come out of the street.

641
00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 4: So the people that came out in the street with

642
00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 4: they laughing. You're doing selling breakfast like I gotta fanom,

643
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:53,120
Speaker 4: I got a coloring, you know, what I'm saying, like

644
00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:56,239
Speaker 4: what you doing? They couldn't really understand the transition, and

645
00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,040
Speaker 4: I was all alone for quite some time. And then

646
00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:01,600
Speaker 4: my best friend he got indicted, and I just really

647
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 4: felt like it was a singular journey. But my life changed.

648
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:08,200
Speaker 4: I was lucky enough to meet somebody who strived for

649
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:10,520
Speaker 4: stride with me, and then a lot of instances astride

650
00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 4: in front of me and meeting ZOD two really transitioned

651
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:17,479
Speaker 4: my life because if I hadn't meant her, because I'm

652
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 4: gonna tell you, like this, fuck everything else. I got broke.

653
00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 4: I went bro I was broke because you gotta think

654
00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:26,360
Speaker 4: about it like this. It was cyclical. I always had

655
00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:28,640
Speaker 4: a store that I was opening, right, I always had

656
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:30,000
Speaker 4: a store that I was working on, and then I

657
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,080
Speaker 4: had a store I was maintaining. So I was running

658
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:35,120
Speaker 4: through this three phase economic plan that at times, if

659
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:38,280
Speaker 4: one egg didn't work, the other two eggs are crack.

660
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:41,880
Speaker 4: So just imagine I got the brunch, I'm buying the

661
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 4: donut shop. Now all the money I make from the

662
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 4: brunch got to go into the shop, so I don't

663
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 4: got no money. Then as soon as I get the

664
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:51,000
Speaker 4: new donut shop open, I'm looking for another shop, So

665
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:53,280
Speaker 4: I always had the brunch that I had to maintain

666
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 4: the new shop I'm opening and then I'm looking for one, right,

667
00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:00,200
Speaker 4: So meeting her it really helped balance my men, know

668
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 4: more than even my economic because now you have another

669
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:07,360
Speaker 4: person who's equally invested, who you can give some of

670
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:10,640
Speaker 4: the way to and who shares the same journey in

671
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,400
Speaker 4: the same path with you. So that really helped me,

672
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:17,160
Speaker 4: and I would encourage all couples, so any type of relationship,

673
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,920
Speaker 4: your best friend, the person who are around you, to

674
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 4: build with those people because those are the people who

675
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:24,600
Speaker 4: know you best and you can build a journey with them.

676
00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 4: So that was really an eye opener for me, finally

677
00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:31,240
Speaker 4: finding somebody who understood that. So she came into the

678
00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 4: brand in twenty nineteen and the primitive stages of the

679
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:38,640
Speaker 4: brand just helped me, helping me while she maintained her

680
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 4: job as a teacher. But it was always my goal

681
00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:41,800
Speaker 4: for us.

682
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:42,360
Speaker 2: To work together.

683
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:46,080
Speaker 4: I mean, it just made perfect sense for us to

684
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 4: be able to build one another. And she's brought contrast

685
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 4: to my life and more specifically to the business that

686
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:52,760
Speaker 4: has helped propel me to this space.

687
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:56,280
Speaker 3: Well, speaking to your partner let's let's bring let's bring

688
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 3: her on, bringing, Let's bring her on.

689
00:31:00,560 --> 00:31:02,800
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me, Oh, thank you, thank you,

690
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:04,400
Speaker 2: thank you for all of this.

691
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:08,520
Speaker 1: Where does the journey start for you when you're watching

692
00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 1: this entrepreneur for Baltimore who's just sliding in DMS.

693
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 6: Yeah.

694
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:15,200
Speaker 4: Yeah.

695
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,600
Speaker 6: So when I met Derek, I remember.

696
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 7: Our first phone call, and we had literally were in

697
00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:25,280
Speaker 7: constant communication ever since we met. And then we met

698
00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 7: actually on March twenty at twenty nineteen. So that's where

699
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:31,760
Speaker 7: I feel like the love story really happens, because I

700
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:35,600
Speaker 7: don't remember like going home after that. I feel like

701
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:38,080
Speaker 7: I went like maybe on a Thursday, and I stay

702
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:41,240
Speaker 7: till Sunday. I fell in love with him partially because

703
00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:44,880
Speaker 7: of homemade brunch, Like he was feeding me all the food,

704
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 7: and that was a really it was a really beautiful

705
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 7: space to not only meet the man himself, but learn

706
00:31:53,120 --> 00:31:58,680
Speaker 7: about him through through design, through food, through the story.

707
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 7: So we met Mark twenty nineteen and we've been together

708
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 7: ever since, and it's it's been quite the journey. It

709
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,760
Speaker 7: has been quite the journey, but it's been worth it.

710
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:13,040
Speaker 7: I mean, I've I've always wanted to I'm someone that

711
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 7: loves to be challenged. You know, I get bored easily.

712
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:18,160
Speaker 7: This is not the space where you get.

713
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:18,680
Speaker 6: Bored at all.

714
00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:22,280
Speaker 7: You're constantly you know, on your toes, something's in motion,

715
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:25,440
Speaker 7: something is happening. But more than anything, like, I've grown

716
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 7: so much as a woman because of the man that

717
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 7: I'm with. I think Derek is beyond just you know,

718
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:33,520
Speaker 7: I like my partner in life and in the business.

719
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:36,160
Speaker 6: He's also like a tremendous mentor you know, so.

720
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 7: All the gyms that you you know, people get to

721
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 7: hear him drop and stuff like that's literally like our

722
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 7: home life. Like he talks to me the same way

723
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 7: he talks to y'all, you know, and I'm really empowered

724
00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,680
Speaker 7: by that and I'm really inspired by him. It's a lot,

725
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:52,920
Speaker 7: It's a lovely a lot.

726
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:53,960
Speaker 4: Yeah.

727
00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:56,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, So if you guys didn't obviously catch it, they're

728
00:32:56,840 --> 00:32:59,520
Speaker 3: not only business partners, but life partners as well. So

729
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 3: how so, yeah, a lot has changed since the last

730
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 3: time that we spoke.

731
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 2: Definitely.

732
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so a lot of people, you know, they

733
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:12,200
Speaker 3: relate to your story because you know, you're a hustler. Yeah,

734
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:15,560
Speaker 3: and you know, you give inspiration as far as like

735
00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:19,440
Speaker 3: people that's trying to figure it out right, So, how

736
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:24,680
Speaker 3: has been in a relationship changed? Help you know, modify

737
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:26,760
Speaker 3: your situation? Because when you're hustling, you by yourself, you know,

738
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,200
Speaker 3: it's twenty four hours a day, you answer, you don't

739
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:32,440
Speaker 3: answer to anybody. But when you're in a relationship, obviously

740
00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:37,920
Speaker 3: there is changes and compoages. Right, So how how has

741
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:40,000
Speaker 3: that you know been for you as far as that

742
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:41,160
Speaker 3: hustler mentality?

743
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 2: Yeah? Shit real?

744
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:44,760
Speaker 4: I mean like you gotta realize like this right, so

745
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:48,640
Speaker 4: when you when you when you focusing on yourself, she

746
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 4: could seem so easy. You like, yo, I know if

747
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:52,880
Speaker 4: I go, I can get a meal for one person,

748
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:55,320
Speaker 4: if I wasn't spending this amount of money, if this

749
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,840
Speaker 4: didn't happen, right, And then you go through the mindset

750
00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:00,840
Speaker 4: of like, all right, am I ready to be in

751
00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:02,960
Speaker 4: a relationship right now? What do it look like? And

752
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,440
Speaker 4: then coming from the streets, you know, you see all

753
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:08,040
Speaker 4: the dirty shit, so you see you know, niggas go

754
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:09,719
Speaker 4: to jail, they girl don't take care of them. You

755
00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 4: see people cheating and all that type of shit. But

756
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,279
Speaker 4: one thing I know about me was like I'm a

757
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:17,359
Speaker 4: real man, you feel me? So I felt like if

758
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:19,520
Speaker 4: I bring any type of plan to a real woman.

759
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:23,040
Speaker 4: We're gonna build a real thing. And I think, like

760
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 4: that's what really was the difference. And like what I

761
00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:28,680
Speaker 4: mean by that manhood is like is it times where

762
00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:30,440
Speaker 4: a nigga like nah, I mean I wish I was

763
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:34,759
Speaker 4: by myself, Like yeah, early on, not now, but early on,

764
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 4: because you know what you're gonna deal with as a man.

765
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:40,160
Speaker 4: Is you gonna be mentally fucked. You're gonna be mentally fucked.

766
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:41,920
Speaker 4: I mean when you had your first kid, you might

767
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:43,919
Speaker 4: deal with the anxiety, like with this a good move.

768
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:46,480
Speaker 4: I can't afford a mortgage, you know what I'm saying.

769
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:48,719
Speaker 4: So I went through all the ups and downs, bro,

770
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:51,280
Speaker 4: I went through all the ups and downs, the long walks.

771
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:54,040
Speaker 4: I used to work out a lot, but Zodie was

772
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:57,319
Speaker 4: always certain that it would pan out for us, and

773
00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:00,359
Speaker 4: I always believe that if we did right, we would

774
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:03,839
Speaker 4: get right. It definitely was different for me, but it's

775
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 4: the most it's the best decision. So like when I

776
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:07,719
Speaker 4: always tell people, you don't let your next move be

777
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:09,600
Speaker 4: your best move, that was my best move by far

778
00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 4: being in a relationship with her and deciding to build

779
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:15,600
Speaker 4: a brand with her because I couldn't have done it otherwise.

780
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:18,200
Speaker 4: And then I think I always been lucky, Like whether

781
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:21,240
Speaker 4: it was indictments or being in the streets, God always

782
00:35:21,239 --> 00:35:23,919
Speaker 4: threw me a bone, like you know you're gonna be down,

783
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:26,000
Speaker 4: but I ain't gonna let you get too down. So

784
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:28,839
Speaker 4: like I was telling you, like yo, when I had

785
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:31,560
Speaker 4: by the time I mention, I was fully legal, like

786
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 4: I might do lord shit, you know, motherfucker by a

787
00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:35,640
Speaker 4: food stamp. You know what I'm saying. You know what

788
00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:36,479
Speaker 4: I'm saying, But I ain't.

789
00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:36,799
Speaker 2: I ain't.

790
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:40,359
Speaker 4: I was fully legal. So being fully legal, I kind

791
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:42,839
Speaker 4: of was lucky because I came from the streets and

792
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:46,399
Speaker 4: I started this brunch and it immediately hit. But like

793
00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:48,920
Speaker 4: when we got to New York and we started building

794
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:51,520
Speaker 4: the donut shops, and I think that recipe that I

795
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:55,440
Speaker 4: had that I thought was so functional at Baltimore, I hit,

796
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:57,960
Speaker 4: I hit a curve, and if it wasn't for Zodeto,

797
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:00,960
Speaker 4: I wouldn't have gotten through that. Not only men, but

798
00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:03,040
Speaker 4: just more or less, like having somebody that I could

799
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:06,080
Speaker 4: vent you, like I might be dealing with some issues

800
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:10,520
Speaker 4: with construction or with the landlord, and like I can't

801
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:12,760
Speaker 4: call my man phone it's tap. Probably or he probably

802
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:15,000
Speaker 4: in a mix. You know what I'm saying. I can't

803
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:17,520
Speaker 4: go to a working man. He's still he complain about

804
00:36:17,560 --> 00:36:19,200
Speaker 4: his boss and shit, I'm like, I just lost two

805
00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty bands fucking with this store. It's still

806
00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 4: ain't open yet. But she could understand because she helped

807
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:27,600
Speaker 4: me work for that. She saw me spend that, you

808
00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:30,000
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. What was real? So like I think,

809
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:32,319
Speaker 4: like what I always tell guys when it comes to

810
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:36,319
Speaker 4: life in general, is that there's a few decisions that

811
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:38,759
Speaker 4: men have to make, and it's the work that we

812
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:41,920
Speaker 4: decide to do, the place we decide to live, and

813
00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:45,000
Speaker 4: a woman we decide to choose. And if a man

814
00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:47,279
Speaker 4: even get two of those three things, he could win.

815
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:49,719
Speaker 4: Like even if you don't got the woman and you

816
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 4: in the right place and you getting some money, you

817
00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:53,560
Speaker 4: feel confident, like y'all know I could find the right

818
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:56,000
Speaker 4: woman in position. You see what I'm saying. If you

819
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:57,960
Speaker 4: ain't got no money, but you got the right woman

820
00:36:58,120 --> 00:36:59,799
Speaker 4: and y'all on the right thing, you feel like, I'm

821
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:03,359
Speaker 4: get some money. So it was really all about, Like, Yo,

822
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:06,719
Speaker 4: I had gone through so much being an inmate, being

823
00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:09,040
Speaker 4: in the ghetto, being in the trenches, I knew what

824
00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:11,680
Speaker 4: the bottom looked like. I knew what the middle felt like,

825
00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:14,239
Speaker 4: and I knew what the top looked like. So like

826
00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:17,040
Speaker 4: when we go through our shit, I serve as a

827
00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 4: mentor to her, like she said, because a lot of things.

828
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:22,120
Speaker 4: I'm experiencing a lot of things we experienced and she

829
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:24,920
Speaker 4: never saw. So I'll be like, I'll be knowing like, yo,

830
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:26,480
Speaker 4: look we right open up the store. We're gonna be broke.

831
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:29,319
Speaker 4: We're gonna be fucked up. And she might be always happy,

832
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:31,600
Speaker 4: like what's the news story? They gonna come like, Man, listen,

833
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:33,920
Speaker 4: check this up. We're gonna be broke for a while.

834
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:36,440
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. I think women naturally have

835
00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:39,960
Speaker 4: a nurturing quality and they very optimistic, and I think

836
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:43,719
Speaker 4: as men we focus on more practical approach and what's realistic.

837
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:45,920
Speaker 4: So I really it was really just about doing my

838
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:48,480
Speaker 4: numbers on our relationship. I think it's man, we calculate

839
00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:50,920
Speaker 4: things like you calculated you you going on a deck,

840
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:52,960
Speaker 4: You're seeing where they work, how many people they know,

841
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:54,560
Speaker 4: who they slept with? Do they know your friends? You

842
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:57,000
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. You calculating and you downloading all

843
00:37:57,000 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 4: the data, and every time I downloaded my data, she

844
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:00,839
Speaker 4: was percent.

845
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:07,319
Speaker 1: Never trust nobody, you ain't been broken. I mean it

846
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:10,960
Speaker 1: speaks to the beauty of relationships and growth. And there's

847
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:13,400
Speaker 1: a contrast here, right, like I've known you and I

848
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:15,320
Speaker 1: had the pleasure meeting a few times.

849
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:19,480
Speaker 2: But there's a contrast that works. Even from the standpoint.

850
00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:21,279
Speaker 1: I love that you're using the word brand right because

851
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:23,800
Speaker 1: a lot of times we won't support something because it's Derek's,

852
00:38:24,160 --> 00:38:26,040
Speaker 1: but we might support homemade because we don't know who

853
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:27,880
Speaker 1: it is. In fact, we didn't even know who he

854
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:29,759
Speaker 1: was until we got to homemade and we got to

855
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:30,360
Speaker 1: taste the food.

856
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:32,000
Speaker 2: So the product spoke for itself.

857
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:35,799
Speaker 1: Now, building Cloudy Donuts and the beginning stages, it was like,

858
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:37,040
Speaker 1: it's the donuts, it's the product.

859
00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:37,720
Speaker 2: It's the product.

860
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:40,920
Speaker 1: I see you now more forward facing as almost like

861
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:43,279
Speaker 1: the face of the brand or maybe the spokesperson for

862
00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:46,279
Speaker 1: the brand, talk about that journey and understanding like yo,

863
00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:48,400
Speaker 1: that might not be his strengths, so it has to

864
00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 1: be Yeah, you.

865
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:51,640
Speaker 7: Know, I think that even going back to your point

866
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:54,279
Speaker 7: and to answer your question, Derek, when you were like,

867
00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:59,239
Speaker 7: women can be much more service based and optimistic.

868
00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:03,439
Speaker 6: I think that also we can be like it's not.

869
00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:06,000
Speaker 7: Necessarily optimistic as much as it's like, I know, I

870
00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:07,759
Speaker 7: have to make a way. So a man will have

871
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:10,160
Speaker 7: a plan and a woman just has the innate feeling

872
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:12,040
Speaker 7: that like I've got to figure this out.

873
00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:13,200
Speaker 6: I have to make this work.

874
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:16,880
Speaker 7: And you know, I think that with Cloudy Donut, we

875
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:18,279
Speaker 7: definitely led with.

876
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 6: The product, you know, the revamp of the page.

877
00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:24,120
Speaker 7: When we first started, it was all donuts, right, and

878
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:26,200
Speaker 7: then we saw over time, because I did come with

879
00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:28,640
Speaker 7: that community aspect, because it's near and dear to who

880
00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:31,960
Speaker 7: I am, we started to show more people and then

881
00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:35,160
Speaker 7: we saw the engagement on the page grow. A lot

882
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:38,439
Speaker 7: of people wanted to see reflections of themselves, and then

883
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:40,840
Speaker 7: over time we would see when people come into the

884
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:42,480
Speaker 7: space and I'm working in the front of the house.

885
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:45,239
Speaker 7: I've always explained our dynamic as Derek builds the world

886
00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:47,719
Speaker 7: and I bring people into it. So if you come

887
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:51,240
Speaker 7: to Cloudy Donut, you will probably see me. Every store

888
00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:54,759
Speaker 7: that we've opened, I've I've managed to maintain the front

889
00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:59,200
Speaker 7: and I'm typically working the space, you know, So we

890
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:02,000
Speaker 7: are literally like in my home right now, like this

891
00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:06,080
Speaker 7: is my little oasis, and we saw that people were

892
00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:09,799
Speaker 7: they regardless of what it says that Derek is, which

893
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:13,319
Speaker 7: is true. Derek is the founder and CEO. People romanticize

894
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:15,160
Speaker 7: the idea that this is my shop, so it's like

895
00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:17,080
Speaker 7: you're the owner, this is it, you know, and we

896
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:19,080
Speaker 7: decide like, okay, I'm not going to keep going against

897
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:21,880
Speaker 7: the grain, like if you see articles, I'm the owner,

898
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:26,440
Speaker 7: I'm the operations manager, I'm the I've made up so

899
00:40:26,520 --> 00:40:28,960
Speaker 7: many titles within this role because both he and I

900
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:30,200
Speaker 7: know what we're here for.

901
00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 6: So it's not about a title.

902
00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:35,719
Speaker 7: It's not about how I'm presented, but it's what I represent,

903
00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 7: which is us.

904
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:37,200
Speaker 6: You know.

905
00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:40,600
Speaker 7: So when they come into the space and they think

906
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 7: I'm the owner, they've seen that and they feel really

907
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:45,280
Speaker 7: good about that, you know. So for us, it's really

908
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:49,880
Speaker 7: just been about how can we sell our product, maintain quality,

909
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:54,239
Speaker 7: stand on who we are, and provide the customer with

910
00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:54,960
Speaker 7: an experience.

911
00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:55,960
Speaker 6: Over time, I mean.

912
00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:58,279
Speaker 7: That changes a lot people are, you know, as you

913
00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:00,680
Speaker 7: mentioned earlier, like one of our our friends told us,

914
00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:04,000
Speaker 7: we're transitioning more into like a metail space of like

915
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:05,919
Speaker 7: people just want to see what they want to see

916
00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:07,800
Speaker 7: when they want to see it, you know, what's convenient

917
00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:10,200
Speaker 7: for them. But it's been a beautiful thing to be

918
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 7: on this journey with someone who has truly allowed me

919
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,479
Speaker 7: the space and the grace to be exactly who I am.

920
00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:18,680
Speaker 4: And a lot of that come from this, right So

921
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:21,319
Speaker 4: I'm gonna just give it to you know, I'm talking

922
00:41:21,360 --> 00:41:23,440
Speaker 4: to the guys right now. A lot of that come

923
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:29,719
Speaker 4: from this. We have mutual and individual goals, So that

924
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:31,680
Speaker 4: don't get that. We can't get that screwed up. So like,

925
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:35,080
Speaker 4: for example, like we have a mutual push that's bigger

926
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:37,560
Speaker 4: than cloudy donut, then we have individual goals it's bigger

927
00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:41,080
Speaker 4: than cloudy donut. So people don't understand that what really

928
00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:44,239
Speaker 4: pushes the shot is the individual and mutual goals that

929
00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:48,200
Speaker 4: we have, and that is to become financially independent, to

930
00:41:48,200 --> 00:41:50,320
Speaker 4: get to a space where there's a level of wealth

931
00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:53,040
Speaker 4: that can support us in our personal lifestyles. And then

932
00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:55,360
Speaker 4: also the transcend the narrative of what has existed in

933
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:59,360
Speaker 4: our families for generation, which is in my case, drug abuse, neglect,

934
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:03,120
Speaker 4: growing up in households where you know, I didn't have

935
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:06,080
Speaker 4: access to certain type of resources of capital. So like

936
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:08,440
Speaker 4: that's what really pushes. So what really brought me and

937
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:10,120
Speaker 4: her together, was like, listen, I give it to it

938
00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:12,920
Speaker 4: like this, Listen, if we push this shit and we

939
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:15,560
Speaker 4: get on, whether we together or not, we both on.

940
00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:20,920
Speaker 4: I've seen it with Hove and Dane, like, regardless of

941
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:23,839
Speaker 4: how they feel about each other, they both rich. Now

942
00:42:23,880 --> 00:42:26,520
Speaker 4: what you decide to do after that is up to you.

943
00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:28,399
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. And it's the same thing

944
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:31,560
Speaker 4: in y'all case, Like you can't reverse those followers, y'all God,

945
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:34,400
Speaker 4: you can't reverse those festivals in those episodes. And I

946
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:36,200
Speaker 4: think that a lot of our people are living in

947
00:42:36,239 --> 00:42:38,759
Speaker 4: the head of, well, if I give this person my all,

948
00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:40,920
Speaker 4: what if it doesn't work out right?

949
00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:41,560
Speaker 2: Right?

950
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:44,719
Speaker 4: So, like our whole thing was like, listen, do it

951
00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:46,799
Speaker 4: makes sense for us to work together? And can we

952
00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:51,160
Speaker 4: push the brand in ourselves further individually and collectively. I'm

953
00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:53,520
Speaker 4: not in a space as a man like yo if

954
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:55,399
Speaker 4: she leave or she not in a space. So if

955
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:58,279
Speaker 4: I leave, it makes perfect sense. She can't take the

956
00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:00,600
Speaker 4: followers that she got me. I can't take back the

957
00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:03,560
Speaker 4: donuts that I made. So you have to now focus

958
00:43:03,640 --> 00:43:07,279
Speaker 4: on an agenda that's really clear, but also more specifically

959
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:09,880
Speaker 4: really per you see what I'm saying, so everything that

960
00:43:09,920 --> 00:43:12,080
Speaker 4: I ever did, and I'm gonna be honest with you.

961
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:14,680
Speaker 4: I'm a man. I make mistakes, but everything I ever

962
00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:17,480
Speaker 4: did with anybody was always per Shit might not have

963
00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:20,759
Speaker 4: worked out, might have went bad, it was peer. So

964
00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:23,879
Speaker 4: like with our relationship is per. I think people see

965
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:25,360
Speaker 4: you and they want to be like, well you married

966
00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:26,960
Speaker 4: and say you're gonna be with me one hundred years

967
00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:29,720
Speaker 4: or else. Sign't doing the admin? Like yo, all right?

968
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:31,319
Speaker 4: So if you don't do the admin and I keep

969
00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:33,600
Speaker 4: working at Amazon and you keep working at ups, how

970
00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:36,440
Speaker 4: that shit look right? You know what I'm saying, So like,

971
00:43:36,520 --> 00:43:38,719
Speaker 4: snap out of it. So always tell our people these

972
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:42,640
Speaker 4: three things. Enough is enough because we don't have enough.

973
00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:45,440
Speaker 4: And what I mean by that is yo, enough of

974
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:47,960
Speaker 4: the bullshit, enough for the back and forth, because we

975
00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:50,960
Speaker 4: already grew up without enough. So now you get to

976
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:53,600
Speaker 4: a place where it's house money, right, what is it

977
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:56,399
Speaker 4: for me as a thirty something year old black man

978
00:43:56,440 --> 00:43:58,440
Speaker 4: in the early thirty something, I mean thirty something year

979
00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:00,839
Speaker 4: old black woman for us to get together and try

980
00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:03,239
Speaker 4: and make this shit shape. I've been trying to make

981
00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:05,080
Speaker 4: shitshakee with niggas that I knew my whole life it

982
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:08,040
Speaker 4: ain't happen. So a lot of us we become, especially

983
00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:10,839
Speaker 4: now in a time where mental health is so so amplified,

984
00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:14,239
Speaker 4: we oversensitize things and we like, yo, oh, but if

985
00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:16,399
Speaker 4: it don't work, If it don't work, but you still broke,

986
00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:18,840
Speaker 4: you've been broke. Yeah.

987
00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:21,040
Speaker 7: And I think and I think also like to an

988
00:44:21,040 --> 00:44:23,200
Speaker 7: emotional part of that, cause I think you do speak

989
00:44:23,239 --> 00:44:25,839
Speaker 7: from a space of logic, which is why you specifically

990
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 7: like when you're talking, you speak to like the black man, right.

991
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 7: But I think that when a woman hears what you're saying,

992
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:35,520
Speaker 7: it's also important for her to understand, like, like you said,

993
00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:37,440
Speaker 7: like you have to like I had to have. I

994
00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:39,759
Speaker 7: had to come into my way of like what am

995
00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:41,960
Speaker 7: I doing this for outside of I love this man,

996
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:43,680
Speaker 7: because that's how I came into it, like I love you.

997
00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:45,040
Speaker 6: You're doing this thing that sounds great.

998
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:47,799
Speaker 7: And I didn't really think long term about like how

999
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:52,279
Speaker 7: I was going to dedicate basically my early thirties to this,

1000
00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:54,880
Speaker 7: to this band, to this brand. You know, I wasn't

1001
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:57,280
Speaker 7: really thinking about that. I wasn't thinking about the sleepless

1002
00:44:57,360 --> 00:44:59,319
Speaker 7: nights or you know what I'm saying going broke and

1003
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,880
Speaker 7: all of these differ and transitions that we had, and

1004
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 7: over time, I really had to sit with myself and say, Okay,

1005
00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:07,600
Speaker 7: what do you want out of this? Because I can't

1006
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:11,879
Speaker 7: equate my happiness to how he feels or what we

1007
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:15,000
Speaker 7: do together. And I think that a lot of times,

1008
00:45:15,360 --> 00:45:18,920
Speaker 7: as women, we have this ideology that like, well, we're

1009
00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:21,040
Speaker 7: in this together, we're doing this together, and that's a

1010
00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:24,759
Speaker 7: beautiful thing. But you have to find your way, like

1011
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:27,319
Speaker 7: you have to find yourself within that way, or else

1012
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:28,799
Speaker 7: you will get lost, you will have.

1013
00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:29,960
Speaker 6: Resentment, you know.

1014
00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:32,359
Speaker 7: And so there there were times where you know, we

1015
00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:34,239
Speaker 7: were like, maybe this doesn't make sense for us, but

1016
00:45:34,239 --> 00:45:35,920
Speaker 7: I damn sure was never leaving the brand.

1017
00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:39,480
Speaker 4: It's just like yes, exact yeah, which sounds like our

1018
00:45:39,520 --> 00:45:43,080
Speaker 4: personal relationship have been rocky or we because we run

1019
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:45,279
Speaker 4: into a lot of obschools, right, So it's not like

1020
00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:47,560
Speaker 4: the business. The business might be fucked up. I might

1021
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:49,239
Speaker 4: be like, man, shit, I don't know, you know what

1022
00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:51,480
Speaker 4: I'm saying, like, listen, you just focus on your job

1023
00:45:51,520 --> 00:45:53,239
Speaker 4: and focused on mine and we can get back to

1024
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:56,080
Speaker 4: the relationship later because you in that duck place, right.

1025
00:45:56,640 --> 00:45:58,959
Speaker 4: But like like I said, she not leaving a brand

1026
00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:01,600
Speaker 4: because she thinking like, help you build this shit? Yeah,

1027
00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:04,680
Speaker 4: and like we not outside of the relationship, Like I'm

1028
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:07,480
Speaker 4: not outside dating nobody you're thinking of nothing like that.

1029
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:10,799
Speaker 4: I'm building And I just feel like that everything that

1030
00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:13,279
Speaker 4: we built had been mutually beneficial for both of us

1031
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:16,000
Speaker 4: no matter how it goes, it's a super win. So like,

1032
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:18,120
Speaker 4: even like the way in which we interact and engage,

1033
00:46:18,440 --> 00:46:21,160
Speaker 4: I don't have a problem taking a back seat on

1034
00:46:21,239 --> 00:46:23,520
Speaker 4: like the founder title or none of that shit. I'm

1035
00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:26,120
Speaker 4: trying to win, like I don't, you know whatever, however

1036
00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:28,960
Speaker 4: it gotta look is I'm always like I quit myself

1037
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:31,840
Speaker 4: to like Dennis Rothman, like most people not gonna like me,

1038
00:46:31,880 --> 00:46:34,520
Speaker 4: but I'm gonna give you nineteen boards and we're gonna

1039
00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:34,799
Speaker 4: get the.

1040
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:38,080
Speaker 1: W There's a peace there, right because you say, like

1041
00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:40,920
Speaker 1: sometimes the business isn't working. I know you're in education

1042
00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:44,879
Speaker 1: where you when did it become full time entrepreneurship full

1043
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:48,400
Speaker 1: time is cloudy donuts? Or was it like, Hey, I

1044
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:51,160
Speaker 1: gotta keep this this job until I can make this

1045
00:46:51,239 --> 00:46:54,120
Speaker 1: a full time thing. Because sometimes you gotta make that

1046
00:46:54,239 --> 00:46:56,960
Speaker 1: sacrifice and look at my super powers and like, hey,

1047
00:46:57,040 --> 00:46:58,560
Speaker 1: I'm great at this here's where I could bring to

1048
00:46:58,600 --> 00:46:59,960
Speaker 1: this business and do time.

1049
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:02,160
Speaker 2: Was there a planet to strategically stuff?

1050
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:04,560
Speaker 7: Yeah, there was a plan you could you could tell

1051
00:47:04,640 --> 00:47:05,520
Speaker 7: the plan, We'll give.

1052
00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:05,719
Speaker 2: It to you.

1053
00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:09,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's COVID right boom. She teaching on

1054
00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:12,720
Speaker 4: my iPad. She teaching because we never, to be honest,

1055
00:47:12,719 --> 00:47:14,640
Speaker 4: I never wanted a dynamic where a woman had to

1056
00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:16,960
Speaker 4: work with me. I kind of thought like I was

1057
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:18,919
Speaker 4: gonna be up, and then there was this soft life

1058
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:20,759
Speaker 4: where she could support me, you know what I'm saying.

1059
00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:23,919
Speaker 4: So the first year and a half she worked, I say, yeah,

1060
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:25,640
Speaker 4: not even in that maybe a year. She kind of

1061
00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:28,279
Speaker 4: helped sporadically, just wanting to help for free, like just

1062
00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:31,200
Speaker 4: and was doing I thing. So COVID hit and she

1063
00:47:31,239 --> 00:47:33,840
Speaker 4: a teacher. You know, DC teachers don't make much as

1064
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:36,320
Speaker 4: y'all know, right, So she probably about sixty.

1065
00:47:36,960 --> 00:47:40,280
Speaker 7: Yeah, And I was a theater teacher so before COVID,

1066
00:47:40,320 --> 00:47:43,720
Speaker 7: So basically my entire educational career was teaching creative writing

1067
00:47:43,719 --> 00:47:46,800
Speaker 7: and theater. When I first met Zrek, I was teaching

1068
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:51,680
Speaker 7: seventh middle school, so seventh, sixth, seven, eighth, seventh grade

1069
00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:54,120
Speaker 7: was wild, and I was like, these kids are.

1070
00:47:54,239 --> 00:47:56,640
Speaker 2: Wild, wild this age group is middle wild.

1071
00:47:56,800 --> 00:47:59,920
Speaker 6: I was like, what's happening? So what I decided to do?

1072
00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:01,920
Speaker 2: Oh?

1073
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:02,160
Speaker 1: Yeah?

1074
00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:04,200
Speaker 7: He used to always yay Yo.

1075
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:04,799
Speaker 6: They used to.

1076
00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:05,279
Speaker 3: They used to.

1077
00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:07,239
Speaker 7: They used to fry me and everything. I'd come into

1078
00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:08,759
Speaker 7: the school, they'd be like, yo, what's your got on?

1079
00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:13,120
Speaker 7: Like crazy crazy, crazy and so. And then I also

1080
00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:15,880
Speaker 7: look super young, so like no one really took me seriously.

1081
00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:18,399
Speaker 7: I'm teaching an elective. You're not getting a grade for it,

1082
00:48:18,520 --> 00:48:21,120
Speaker 7: you know whatever. And I never was a teacher that

1083
00:48:21,200 --> 00:48:23,560
Speaker 7: raised my voice, and whenever I was wrong, I would

1084
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:26,160
Speaker 7: apologize or help myself accountable, which is what they weren't

1085
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:29,759
Speaker 7: used to seeing from adults. Okay, So I was like,

1086
00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:32,359
Speaker 7: all right, seventh grade is crazy. I want to kind

1087
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:35,680
Speaker 7: of reverse. So I decided to go into early education

1088
00:48:35,719 --> 00:48:38,120
Speaker 7: because I really wanted to understand the psychology of like

1089
00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:40,839
Speaker 7: how do we get here, like the formative years. So

1090
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:43,600
Speaker 7: I was already Derek and I had been dating for

1091
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:46,480
Speaker 7: like a few months, and that's when I was teaching

1092
00:48:46,640 --> 00:48:52,440
Speaker 7: preschool and then I'll never forget. Actually, the weekend before

1093
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:54,879
Speaker 7: the world basically shut down, Derek had come to pick

1094
00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:58,160
Speaker 7: me up on like a Friday from Baltimore, like.

1095
00:48:58,160 --> 00:49:00,359
Speaker 6: Late at night and I he was.

1096
00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:02,440
Speaker 7: I was just like, I'm gonna call out. I called

1097
00:49:02,480 --> 00:49:06,080
Speaker 7: out Monday, but everything was shut down. We were so

1098
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,520
Speaker 7: now we fully transition to zoom. So this is where

1099
00:49:09,719 --> 00:49:11,720
Speaker 7: like we're on zoom the whole time.

1100
00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:12,279
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1101
00:49:12,360 --> 00:49:14,880
Speaker 4: No, So she on zoom and me, I tell you,

1102
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:18,279
Speaker 4: I'm a realistic person. So I'll go over the numbers, Like,

1103
00:49:18,280 --> 00:49:20,879
Speaker 4: all right, so you're making like sixty, you're bringing home

1104
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:24,000
Speaker 4: like forty, that's eight hundred a week, You're catching ubers

1105
00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:26,640
Speaker 4: to go to meetings. You gotta paid for full all

1106
00:49:26,640 --> 00:49:29,200
Speaker 4: this type of shit. So her net was like two

1107
00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:32,080
Speaker 4: fifty three hundred dollars a week. So I'm like, I

1108
00:49:32,080 --> 00:49:34,719
Speaker 4: don't know, I can't. I could pay you that. So

1109
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:36,400
Speaker 4: she was on a lunch break and it was like

1110
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:38,120
Speaker 4: a small room that the teachers ate in, and I

1111
00:49:38,160 --> 00:49:41,040
Speaker 4: was like, look, I went over the numbers. You shouldn't

1112
00:49:41,040 --> 00:49:42,680
Speaker 4: be working there. And she said, well, well, I said,

1113
00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:44,760
Speaker 4: let me show you what you're dealing with. So basically,

1114
00:49:44,800 --> 00:49:47,520
Speaker 4: you make fifteen thousan dollars a yeah, you could come

1115
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:49,359
Speaker 4: with me. We could double down on what I got

1116
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:51,880
Speaker 4: going on, and we can go to the moon. I

1117
00:49:51,920 --> 00:49:54,319
Speaker 4: showed her the numbers. Shit took two minutes. She went,

1118
00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 4: she got off the lunch break and put the two

1119
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:58,560
Speaker 4: weeks in. Yeah, but see and see a lot of

1120
00:49:58,560 --> 00:50:01,240
Speaker 4: people looking for that play. So you got to understand

1121
00:50:01,280 --> 00:50:03,960
Speaker 4: at that point, my debt to income ratio was like

1122
00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:06,360
Speaker 4: ten percent, So I'm taking home ninety percent of my income.

1123
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:11,520
Speaker 4: I own the building that I had, I had the brunch,

1124
00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:14,680
Speaker 4: I had two trucks at the time, and I lived

1125
00:50:14,680 --> 00:50:16,520
Speaker 4: in an apartment where I can afford to pay my

1126
00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:20,680
Speaker 4: bills for the year. So it gave her enough foundation

1127
00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:22,880
Speaker 4: as a woman, and I was serious about myself. Eight

1128
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:24,840
Speaker 4: hundred credit school or all of that.

1129
00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:25,200
Speaker 2: Right.

1130
00:50:25,600 --> 00:50:27,239
Speaker 4: I ain't had no mess. We never had no mess.

1131
00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:29,600
Speaker 4: Women call, no none of that. I don't got no kids,

1132
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:31,239
Speaker 4: none of that. I don't drink, I don't smoke, none

1133
00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:33,120
Speaker 4: of that. So a lot of times and the reason

1134
00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:34,919
Speaker 4: why I have to give you that context because other

1135
00:50:34,960 --> 00:50:36,239
Speaker 4: guys all see it and be like, y'all don't know

1136
00:50:36,280 --> 00:50:38,279
Speaker 4: how my girl ain't doing. Yeah, you got to get

1137
00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:38,920
Speaker 4: your shit together.

1138
00:50:39,120 --> 00:50:42,400
Speaker 7: And also, I guess in that transition period too, I

1139
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:46,279
Speaker 7: was one year sober, so I had just became like

1140
00:50:46,680 --> 00:50:49,799
Speaker 7: newly into my sobriety. I'm seven years sober now, and

1141
00:50:50,080 --> 00:50:54,360
Speaker 7: I was already also in a space of transition for myself.

1142
00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:57,239
Speaker 7: So he was in a pivotal space where, you know,

1143
00:50:57,400 --> 00:50:59,920
Speaker 7: he was a very serious I'm sure man, but I

1144
00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:03,319
Speaker 7: was also a woman who was ready for something new

1145
00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:07,359
Speaker 7: and something different, and I was really stepping into that way,

1146
00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:09,400
Speaker 7: and I didn't really know what that looked like for me.

1147
00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:11,680
Speaker 6: So I was just kind of like, all right, well,

1148
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:12,320
Speaker 6: let's see.

1149
00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:17,920
Speaker 7: And Derek put me on pre order and social media,

1150
00:51:18,320 --> 00:51:20,200
Speaker 7: and he told me years later he put me on

1151
00:51:20,239 --> 00:51:22,800
Speaker 7: social media because I was always on my phone, which

1152
00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:24,520
Speaker 7: was very smart.

1153
00:51:25,680 --> 00:51:28,399
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, man, you.

1154
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:29,920
Speaker 4: Know, and that's kind of like how I built this.

1155
00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:31,560
Speaker 4: So I'm like, are you always on the phone, You're

1156
00:51:31,560 --> 00:51:34,359
Speaker 4: always looking at social media? Boom, run a social Because

1157
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:36,759
Speaker 4: I'm just a numbers guy. If you're working for me

1158
00:51:36,840 --> 00:51:39,120
Speaker 4: seven days a week and I'm able to give you

1159
00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:41,000
Speaker 4: the same three hundred and we're doing it together, we

1160
00:51:41,040 --> 00:51:44,040
Speaker 4: can build. So I wasn't get I gave him more

1161
00:51:44,080 --> 00:51:46,040
Speaker 4: than that, obviously, but it was in a situation. It

1162
00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:48,839
Speaker 4: was a situation that was been mutually beneficial for both

1163
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:52,160
Speaker 4: of us. So now from there, she moved with me.

1164
00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:54,440
Speaker 4: So now it's like, all right, well we can actually meet.

1165
00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:56,120
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you how I look at it. I'm

1166
00:51:56,200 --> 00:51:58,040
Speaker 4: brand guy. So like we could work in the brand

1167
00:51:58,040 --> 00:52:00,960
Speaker 4: seven days a week. We can be personal and professional.

1168
00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:03,160
Speaker 4: We were able to take walks, we worked out together,

1169
00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:06,759
Speaker 4: and then our bond just amplified because like dog, yeah,

1170
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:08,359
Speaker 4: we got a dog. It was all it was.

1171
00:52:08,400 --> 00:52:10,480
Speaker 2: It was it was dogs. Man, y'all love him?

1172
00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:12,200
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1173
00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:14,799
Speaker 1: As I'm hearing y'all speaking, I just had read this

1174
00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:17,399
Speaker 1: book and it was talking about submission and in terms

1175
00:52:17,480 --> 00:52:20,080
Speaker 1: of a marriage, right, a man and a woman, and

1176
00:52:20,120 --> 00:52:22,440
Speaker 1: they were like, if you think about the word submission,

1177
00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:25,280
Speaker 1: somebody has to submit, but somebody has to have a mission.

1178
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:27,840
Speaker 1: And as I'm hearing y'all speak, it was very clear

1179
00:52:28,320 --> 00:52:29,799
Speaker 1: that you laid out the mission, so.

1180
00:52:29,760 --> 00:52:31,080
Speaker 2: It was easy to fall into that.

1181
00:52:31,160 --> 00:52:33,719
Speaker 4: It was easy. And then I think small successes gave

1182
00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:36,040
Speaker 4: her the confidence to believe in me that larger successes

1183
00:52:36,080 --> 00:52:38,759
Speaker 4: could happen. So like I promised her, like yo, I'm

1184
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 4: gonna get your LLC. I got you. I took her

1185
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:42,880
Speaker 4: straight to the bank, got an LLC, put money in

1186
00:52:42,920 --> 00:52:45,560
Speaker 4: that bank account. Then I had American Express at the time,

1187
00:52:45,600 --> 00:52:48,160
Speaker 4: so I put on all my accounts as an authorized user.

1188
00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:50,560
Speaker 4: So I built it from no credit to a seven

1189
00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:53,279
Speaker 4: fifty credit score. So then she had the credit lines

1190
00:52:53,280 --> 00:52:54,960
Speaker 4: and she had the LLC and she said like, all right,

1191
00:52:55,000 --> 00:52:56,880
Speaker 4: this shit real. Then everything I said I was going

1192
00:52:56,960 --> 00:52:59,160
Speaker 4: to do, I did it, Like if I said I

1193
00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:01,319
Speaker 4: was going to get another show. I was constantly on it.

1194
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:03,839
Speaker 4: I worked out in the morning, I stayed strict, I was,

1195
00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:06,560
Speaker 4: I was on it. So then I think, and in

1196
00:53:06,560 --> 00:53:09,000
Speaker 4: my case as a man, I always believed like the

1197
00:53:09,040 --> 00:53:11,360
Speaker 4: small wins allow you to build trust, and they deposits

1198
00:53:11,360 --> 00:53:14,440
Speaker 4: in the trust bank account. So then over and over time,

1199
00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:16,560
Speaker 4: now you can get with droves back and you can

1200
00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:18,359
Speaker 4: say like, well, now you've seen how I did that,

1201
00:53:18,440 --> 00:53:20,279
Speaker 4: so I need you to do this. So a lot

1202
00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:22,520
Speaker 4: of times people don't see the dedication that we have

1203
00:53:22,640 --> 00:53:24,880
Speaker 4: for one another, but it really comes from making a

1204
00:53:24,920 --> 00:53:27,800
Speaker 4: lot of big deposits in that trust bank account.

1205
00:53:28,520 --> 00:53:30,239
Speaker 3: So how's the how are you able to get the

1206
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:31,080
Speaker 3: corporate accounts?

1207
00:53:32,200 --> 00:53:34,360
Speaker 6: Yeah, So we learned.

1208
00:53:34,640 --> 00:53:36,400
Speaker 7: One of the things that we learned right when we

1209
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:39,880
Speaker 7: were working in the store, because we were actively working

1210
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:41,400
Speaker 7: in the store, was that a lot of the people

1211
00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:44,480
Speaker 7: that come to our space, they have jobs, so they're

1212
00:53:44,520 --> 00:53:47,880
Speaker 7: working for somebody, right, or they're working at an establishment,

1213
00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:50,040
Speaker 7: or they have their own businesses. And so it was

1214
00:53:50,080 --> 00:53:53,000
Speaker 7: a lot of just like active conversation with our guests.

1215
00:53:52,920 --> 00:53:55,080
Speaker 4: And it was and it was genuinely interested in They

1216
00:53:55,080 --> 00:53:59,120
Speaker 4: were exactly like, y'all fuck with us. It's a layup

1217
00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:01,880
Speaker 4: for me to do investment. So it really came from like,

1218
00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:05,000
Speaker 4: so what I did with the brand is I meant

1219
00:54:05,040 --> 00:54:08,799
Speaker 4: towards Zody how to attract customers and build sales. And

1220
00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:12,960
Speaker 4: then she knew relationships so me, I know, like, if

1221
00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:15,080
Speaker 4: I'm selling you grass and I'm like, y'all got some

1222
00:54:15,120 --> 00:54:17,600
Speaker 4: pills there? You right here? I got you. You know

1223
00:54:17,640 --> 00:54:19,400
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, Like nine times out of ten of

1224
00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:21,080
Speaker 4: a nigga gonna get some brown from the liquor store,

1225
00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:23,840
Speaker 4: he probably gonna buy some weed. So that's the reason

1226
00:54:23,840 --> 00:54:26,799
Speaker 4: why like brands like Panera brand existed. Panera started as

1227
00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:28,400
Speaker 4: a cookie shop and then he saw they would go

1228
00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:30,960
Speaker 4: across the street and buy sandwiches, and that's how that's

1229
00:54:30,960 --> 00:54:33,879
Speaker 4: the Panera story. So it was really about how can

1230
00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:36,480
Speaker 4: we keep the customer fully immersed in the world, and

1231
00:54:36,480 --> 00:54:38,960
Speaker 4: how can we build verticals. So It's like if I'm

1232
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:41,120
Speaker 4: sitting there, you like ying with eyl shit, y'all, gottavest

1233
00:54:41,120 --> 00:54:43,560
Speaker 4: fast ht what's up? Hit my number? So I already

1234
00:54:43,560 --> 00:54:45,680
Speaker 4: had you on the hook. So what they don't understand

1235
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:48,040
Speaker 4: is it's three things that I toard Zody, which is

1236
00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:50,360
Speaker 4: you got a hotlya meaning a person already come and

1237
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:53,000
Speaker 4: spending some money with you. You got a warmly, a

1238
00:54:53,040 --> 00:54:55,759
Speaker 4: motherfucker welcome by saying they heard about you. Then you

1239
00:54:55,840 --> 00:54:58,080
Speaker 4: got a coldly, a person who don't really know nothing.

1240
00:54:58,560 --> 00:55:00,880
Speaker 4: So like a warm ly with me, it'd be like, Yo,

1241
00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:02,920
Speaker 4: I saw this dude was on an episode. Link me

1242
00:55:02,960 --> 00:55:05,439
Speaker 4: with him. That's a warm lead. I know you gonna

1243
00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:06,919
Speaker 4: put me with him, And now I got to build

1244
00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:08,879
Speaker 4: a hot lead. Is like, yo, I got the pound

1245
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:11,359
Speaker 4: cakes for you right now, pull up. And we didn't

1246
00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:13,400
Speaker 4: done that, you see what I'm saying. So I was

1247
00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:15,120
Speaker 4: able to teach her like, Yo, you got to understand

1248
00:55:15,120 --> 00:55:17,839
Speaker 4: when people come into the store, it's verticals that you

1249
00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:20,880
Speaker 4: can catch. But everybody kind of in Lilah Land. So

1250
00:55:20,920 --> 00:55:22,440
Speaker 4: like when you want to average coffee shop, it's a

1251
00:55:22,440 --> 00:55:25,120
Speaker 4: teenager with they hear down, not thinking, but in that

1252
00:55:25,160 --> 00:55:27,160
Speaker 4: coffee shop, I'm thinking like, Yo, this is a working

1253
00:55:27,160 --> 00:55:30,040
Speaker 4: class environment. You work somewhere. How can I cater that?

1254
00:55:30,560 --> 00:55:33,080
Speaker 4: How can I build a rapport? So ninety percent of

1255
00:55:33,120 --> 00:55:35,880
Speaker 4: our revenue outside of the shop has come from just

1256
00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:39,280
Speaker 4: building organic relationships. That's how we literally got the corporate account.

1257
00:55:39,320 --> 00:55:42,560
Speaker 4: Somebody coming in they like us. And then also, I'm

1258
00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:44,799
Speaker 4: not afraid to spend some money first, So I want

1259
00:55:44,800 --> 00:55:47,040
Speaker 4: to teach people that too, because people get so caught

1260
00:55:47,120 --> 00:55:49,160
Speaker 4: up and what their budget is and what numbers is

1261
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:52,319
Speaker 4: because they had bad interactions with other customers, so they

1262
00:55:52,400 --> 00:55:53,960
Speaker 4: kind of put up this wall and say like, well,

1263
00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:55,319
Speaker 4: you could just go to my email, you just go

1264
00:55:55,320 --> 00:55:55,920
Speaker 4: to my website.

1265
00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:56,320
Speaker 2: Listen.

1266
00:55:56,719 --> 00:55:59,360
Speaker 4: It's nothing like that hand to hand combat. It's nothing

1267
00:55:59,400 --> 00:56:01,319
Speaker 4: like telling the person like, look, I got a box

1268
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:03,720
Speaker 4: for you, let me drop something off, let me follow

1269
00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:06,799
Speaker 4: up call you. It's the same, the same principles that

1270
00:56:06,840 --> 00:56:09,360
Speaker 4: I had in the street. If I bring you seven

1271
00:56:09,400 --> 00:56:11,560
Speaker 4: grams of grass and I'm trying to sell you pounds,

1272
00:56:11,719 --> 00:56:13,600
Speaker 4: I'm gonna give you the best grams I could give you.

1273
00:56:13,640 --> 00:56:15,320
Speaker 4: Then I'm gonna follow up like, Yo, was you fucking

1274
00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:17,759
Speaker 4: with the grams? Shit? Even if you can't cop right now,

1275
00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:19,640
Speaker 4: let me know if you ever need something on right here.

1276
00:56:20,160 --> 00:56:23,600
Speaker 4: So people not understanding like, yo, nothing changed. We didn't

1277
00:56:23,640 --> 00:56:25,879
Speaker 4: go to business school. We didn't all of a sudden

1278
00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:28,719
Speaker 4: get an epiphany. It's really a nigga who come from

1279
00:56:28,800 --> 00:56:31,480
Speaker 4: flat foot hustling using those same principles today.

1280
00:56:31,600 --> 00:56:34,160
Speaker 7: Yeah, and those principles also to be applied to the

1281
00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:36,640
Speaker 7: consumer's way of thinking, like because a lot of time

1282
00:56:36,680 --> 00:56:38,560
Speaker 7: the consumer will think like, oh, well, if I came

1283
00:56:38,560 --> 00:56:40,719
Speaker 7: in and bought it, donnut I'm supporting you. And that's

1284
00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:43,040
Speaker 7: just one level. But it's also like, Okay, if do

1285
00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:45,480
Speaker 7: you work somewhere, do you do you do events? Do

1286
00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:47,840
Speaker 7: you go to events? Like how can you spread that,

1287
00:56:47,920 --> 00:56:50,880
Speaker 7: like you said laterally, to really help amplify the brand

1288
00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:51,799
Speaker 7: that you love so much?

1289
00:56:52,120 --> 00:56:54,760
Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's educating the consumers too, because black people

1290
00:56:54,800 --> 00:56:57,640
Speaker 4: we only know what we know because everything we everything

1291
00:56:57,640 --> 00:56:59,279
Speaker 4: that we know had to be self told to learn

1292
00:56:59,400 --> 00:57:02,000
Speaker 4: right through through negative experiences in most cases.

1293
00:57:02,040 --> 00:57:02,799
Speaker 2: Right, So you.

1294
00:57:02,760 --> 00:57:06,400
Speaker 4: Gotta realize, like, let's talk about Travis. You put me

1295
00:57:06,440 --> 00:57:10,200
Speaker 4: on with Travis shout out to Travis Brown. Put my

1296
00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:13,680
Speaker 4: me Travis at the event, right, I kick it with him?

1297
00:57:13,680 --> 00:57:16,120
Speaker 4: He liked my energy, Yo, give me your real number.

1298
00:57:16,200 --> 00:57:18,920
Speaker 4: I'm not too big you feel I'm saying. Sometimes we

1299
00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:21,320
Speaker 4: act too tall to be small sometimes. So it's like

1300
00:57:21,320 --> 00:57:23,320
Speaker 4: with Travis, I'm like, all right, give me your number

1301
00:57:23,320 --> 00:57:24,680
Speaker 4: of traps. So y'all like your energy. I like what

1302
00:57:24,720 --> 00:57:27,080
Speaker 4: you got going on. I'm with the public school system,

1303
00:57:27,280 --> 00:57:30,600
Speaker 4: so me hustling. I know it's several ways to carve

1304
00:57:30,640 --> 00:57:32,680
Speaker 4: a fish. Oh you with the po Yeah, what's up?

1305
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:35,160
Speaker 4: I know you got some money for the tea. I got, y'all,

1306
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:38,160
Speaker 4: And I'm an over deliver some I'm overdeliver because you're

1307
00:57:38,200 --> 00:57:40,760
Speaker 4: my mind, because you black, you're in an education space.

1308
00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:43,600
Speaker 4: I love all that shit. So it's like, now, guess what,

1309
00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:46,600
Speaker 4: Trav give me his wife number. You're my wife teaching

1310
00:57:46,760 --> 00:57:48,960
Speaker 4: l e s. And people don't even see how we

1311
00:57:49,080 --> 00:57:51,680
Speaker 4: moving because we're putting our ego to the side. You know,

1312
00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:53,480
Speaker 4: many times I don't walk into a spot and be

1313
00:57:53,480 --> 00:57:56,440
Speaker 4: considered like the doughnut delivery guy. Whole time is forty

1314
00:57:56,440 --> 00:57:59,040
Speaker 4: on my wrist. I ain't worried about none of that.

1315
00:57:59,400 --> 00:58:01,240
Speaker 4: Once you get over the good look, you get some

1316
00:58:01,280 --> 00:58:04,400
Speaker 4: good money. That's how we really built this shit out,

1317
00:58:04,760 --> 00:58:06,760
Speaker 4: and people not understand it because they're so caught up

1318
00:58:06,800 --> 00:58:08,280
Speaker 4: on like, well, if you want order, you know it's

1319
00:58:08,320 --> 00:58:09,800
Speaker 4: an email. Man, what's up?

1320
00:58:09,880 --> 00:58:10,280
Speaker 3: I got you.

1321
00:58:10,360 --> 00:58:12,880
Speaker 4: No, I'm a real mand man, what's up? And like

1322
00:58:13,480 --> 00:58:17,040
Speaker 4: we as black people have bought into white society's way

1323
00:58:17,120 --> 00:58:19,960
Speaker 4: of building socially that we don't understand. Like, Yo, you

1324
00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:22,160
Speaker 4: don't have the privilege to just send somebody to the email.

1325
00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:24,440
Speaker 4: You got a group of people and investors and resources,

1326
00:58:24,480 --> 00:58:27,640
Speaker 4: and you just gonna get that transaction. You gotta see

1327
00:58:27,640 --> 00:58:28,600
Speaker 4: that transaction through.

1328
00:58:29,040 --> 00:58:30,680
Speaker 1: That's the fact. That's the fact, and that's the reason why.

1329
00:58:30,800 --> 00:58:32,240
Speaker 1: And I said this to you the other day. It's

1330
00:58:32,280 --> 00:58:35,040
Speaker 1: like when we go out this opportunity, I'm calling you.

1331
00:58:35,120 --> 00:58:35,280
Speaker 2: Right.

1332
00:58:35,320 --> 00:58:37,560
Speaker 1: So we got a book event, Bring Cloudy Doings, Yo,

1333
00:58:37,560 --> 00:58:40,120
Speaker 1: were going to the radio station, Bring the doings. It's important,

1334
00:58:40,360 --> 00:58:42,840
Speaker 1: right because support doesn't just mean hey, I bought a donor.

1335
00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:44,520
Speaker 1: It means like, Yo, are you speaking my name in

1336
00:58:44,520 --> 00:58:46,720
Speaker 1: the rooms that I'm not in and I haven't been

1337
00:58:46,760 --> 00:58:49,280
Speaker 1: in yet. I want to talk about Brown Collective though,

1338
00:58:49,440 --> 00:58:52,640
Speaker 1: because I know that was one of the focuses about

1339
00:58:52,920 --> 00:58:58,160
Speaker 1: spreading the lifestyle and the core for entrepreneurs and people

1340
00:58:58,200 --> 00:59:00,640
Speaker 1: in the space who hadn't gotten to space that you

1341
00:59:00,680 --> 00:59:03,280
Speaker 1: were at yet and trying to become that mentor because

1342
00:59:03,280 --> 00:59:05,560
Speaker 1: I know one of the things that people probably don't know.

1343
00:59:05,600 --> 00:59:07,480
Speaker 1: And if they've come to the shop, they probably realize

1344
00:59:07,520 --> 00:59:08,760
Speaker 1: that fashion is.

1345
00:59:08,760 --> 00:59:10,520
Speaker 2: A thing for you, but the core is a thing

1346
00:59:10,560 --> 00:59:10,800
Speaker 2: for you.

1347
00:59:11,120 --> 00:59:11,440
Speaker 4: Definitely.

1348
00:59:11,720 --> 00:59:14,680
Speaker 2: I saw the crown molding, we talked, talked about the

1349
00:59:14,680 --> 00:59:15,560
Speaker 2: lime stone walls.

1350
00:59:15,600 --> 00:59:17,640
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the great ground in the subway towel.

1351
00:59:17,880 --> 00:59:20,040
Speaker 1: All of this is done very intentionally, and you wanted

1352
00:59:20,120 --> 00:59:22,320
Speaker 1: to help people in that manner. So what what where

1353
00:59:22,360 --> 00:59:25,400
Speaker 1: does the Brown Collective stand now? And what's this mission?

1354
00:59:26,160 --> 00:59:29,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's all about putting black and brown faces in

1355
00:59:29,120 --> 00:59:34,640
Speaker 4: white spaces and creating a level of I would say

1356
00:59:34,680 --> 00:59:39,080
Speaker 4: pushback to what how we traditionally sing. I think, you know,

1357
00:59:39,120 --> 00:59:41,440
Speaker 4: it's easy for me to come to New York and

1358
00:59:41,480 --> 00:59:43,400
Speaker 4: it makes sense for me to be in Best with

1359
00:59:43,480 --> 00:59:46,640
Speaker 4: a fried chicken spot. I think it don't make sense

1360
00:59:46,760 --> 00:59:49,040
Speaker 4: for me to be in Soho with a vegan donuts shot.

1361
00:59:49,760 --> 00:59:53,320
Speaker 4: And I've always done things that don't make sense because

1362
00:59:53,320 --> 00:59:55,960
Speaker 4: I've always done things that are true to me. I've

1363
00:59:56,000 --> 01:00:00,280
Speaker 4: never been afraid for me. If I ever was to

1364
01:00:00,320 --> 01:00:02,600
Speaker 4: have a legacy, obviously that's up to the people but

1365
01:00:02,720 --> 01:00:05,240
Speaker 4: it would be tied to a level of fearlessness, not

1366
01:00:05,400 --> 01:00:08,280
Speaker 4: tied to a number or an award. It's fearlessness, right.

1367
01:00:08,480 --> 01:00:12,640
Speaker 4: So the Brown Collective was meant to be a force

1368
01:00:12,680 --> 01:00:16,240
Speaker 4: field amongst people who were once afraid. It was meant

1369
01:00:16,280 --> 01:00:19,320
Speaker 4: to be a pillar in a community for people who

1370
01:00:19,360 --> 01:00:24,120
Speaker 4: didn't have an opportunity. It's meant to be an education

1371
01:00:24,240 --> 01:00:26,320
Speaker 4: space where people could come and learn about the things

1372
01:00:26,360 --> 01:00:28,720
Speaker 4: that's going to help you navigate through life beyond school.

1373
01:00:29,480 --> 01:00:35,000
Speaker 4: So it was really about subconsciously, and Zodi coined the

1374
01:00:35,120 --> 01:00:38,640
Speaker 4: term verge gentrification, right, which obviously means putting black and

1375
01:00:38,640 --> 01:00:42,040
Speaker 4: brown faces in white communities and spaces through business or

1376
01:00:42,080 --> 01:00:44,160
Speaker 4: through any type of you know, residents in general.

1377
01:00:44,240 --> 01:00:44,439
Speaker 2: Right.

1378
01:00:44,960 --> 01:00:47,440
Speaker 4: But I had been doing the shit just subconsciously, Like

1379
01:00:47,640 --> 01:00:49,680
Speaker 4: I just bought this spot down here, well why because

1380
01:00:49,720 --> 01:00:52,480
Speaker 4: it's flying. I would lie down there. Then over time,

1381
01:00:52,840 --> 01:00:54,680
Speaker 4: you look up, because when you work really hard, you

1382
01:00:54,720 --> 01:00:56,280
Speaker 4: look up and you see like that I built the

1383
01:00:56,360 --> 01:00:59,880
Speaker 4: village and I got like a small fortune. Right, It

1384
01:01:00,200 --> 01:01:02,120
Speaker 4: was never really for me, Like I told you, I

1385
01:01:02,200 --> 01:01:04,560
Speaker 4: was just trying to get legit. Then I was trying

1386
01:01:04,560 --> 01:01:06,600
Speaker 4: to hit a number. Then I look up and it's

1387
01:01:06,600 --> 01:01:07,960
Speaker 4: like I got all this shit. What I'm gonna do

1388
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:10,760
Speaker 4: with it, and naturally for me, is about giving black

1389
01:01:10,800 --> 01:01:13,880
Speaker 4: and brown people an opportunity to participate in it. But

1390
01:01:13,960 --> 01:01:15,840
Speaker 4: we have to see it in order to be it.

1391
01:01:16,200 --> 01:01:18,400
Speaker 4: So that's the key, right. So it's like how do

1392
01:01:18,480 --> 01:01:20,840
Speaker 4: we get out of our own way? That's the narrative

1393
01:01:20,960 --> 01:01:21,840
Speaker 4: going into the future.

1394
01:01:21,920 --> 01:01:22,040
Speaker 2: Right.

1395
01:01:22,080 --> 01:01:24,640
Speaker 4: So with the Brown Collective, we want to continue to

1396
01:01:24,680 --> 01:01:27,160
Speaker 4: work with black and brown talent, but they have to

1397
01:01:27,200 --> 01:01:30,160
Speaker 4: have the same mentality that we have, and that's the

1398
01:01:30,200 --> 01:01:35,520
Speaker 4: mentality of humility, grit, hustle, and the ability to be teachable.

1399
01:01:36,000 --> 01:01:38,440
Speaker 4: I think, like we talk about the education system, right,

1400
01:01:38,480 --> 01:01:40,800
Speaker 4: and I think the ability to be teachable and coachable

1401
01:01:41,240 --> 01:01:45,440
Speaker 4: shows you longevity. Like shoddy come from the sports space, right,

1402
01:01:45,480 --> 01:01:48,320
Speaker 4: So like let's talk about like Robert Rory versus a

1403
01:01:48,360 --> 01:01:50,920
Speaker 4: more problematic player, right, Robert or able to have that

1404
01:01:51,000 --> 01:01:55,320
Speaker 4: level of sustainability, get multiple championships, understand his role, and

1405
01:01:55,360 --> 01:01:58,120
Speaker 4: then you get people like say DeMarcus Cousins who might

1406
01:01:58,120 --> 01:02:00,720
Speaker 4: be a little bit problematic for that sis. I'm not

1407
01:02:00,760 --> 01:02:03,200
Speaker 4: saying he's a bad guy, but for that system, and

1408
01:02:03,240 --> 01:02:05,680
Speaker 4: then now you can't get the longevity that you're looking for.

1409
01:02:06,000 --> 01:02:08,560
Speaker 4: So specifically when it has come to talent, they think

1410
01:02:08,560 --> 01:02:12,760
Speaker 4: that the Brown Collective is solely based on creativity, where

1411
01:02:12,760 --> 01:02:15,160
Speaker 4: it's really based on the mindset and the ideology that

1412
01:02:15,200 --> 01:02:17,080
Speaker 4: you're going to work in an ecosystem of black people

1413
01:02:17,120 --> 01:02:20,120
Speaker 4: to accomplish a macro goal, even if sometimes you gotta

1414
01:02:20,160 --> 01:02:22,760
Speaker 4: play number two. So I always tell people who want

1415
01:02:22,760 --> 01:02:26,920
Speaker 4: win in life, right, sometimes being number one is playing

1416
01:02:26,920 --> 01:02:27,640
Speaker 4: like you number two.

1417
01:02:27,920 --> 01:02:30,680
Speaker 7: Yeah, And I think I think to that point too,

1418
01:02:30,800 --> 01:02:33,600
Speaker 7: I think it's really true. I think it always was

1419
01:02:33,920 --> 01:02:40,560
Speaker 7: an ideation and it's really transcended into uh, just an

1420
01:02:40,680 --> 01:02:43,840
Speaker 7: understanding of what is possible, you know. So I always

1421
01:02:43,880 --> 01:02:47,320
Speaker 7: say that, you know, after meeting Derek in particular, you

1422
01:02:47,360 --> 01:02:49,600
Speaker 7: know that we created a world that was made for us,

1423
01:02:49,680 --> 01:02:51,480
Speaker 7: because this world was not made for us.

1424
01:02:52,200 --> 01:02:54,840
Speaker 6: And so initially when we started the Brown.

1425
01:02:54,560 --> 01:02:57,800
Speaker 7: Collective understanding that you know, Cloudy Donut is the first

1426
01:02:57,880 --> 01:03:00,840
Speaker 7: one hundred percent black on vegan donut shop, like okayyay,

1427
01:03:01,320 --> 01:03:03,200
Speaker 7: you know, And then you go to Brooklyn Heights and

1428
01:03:03,200 --> 01:03:05,040
Speaker 7: you learn that we're the first black owned food and

1429
01:03:05,040 --> 01:03:07,320
Speaker 7: beverage business. And then you come here and you learn

1430
01:03:07,360 --> 01:03:10,480
Speaker 7: the same thing. You know, on the outside, looking at

1431
01:03:10,560 --> 01:03:12,880
Speaker 7: people are like, oh my god, that's so amazing. It's historical,

1432
01:03:12,920 --> 01:03:15,080
Speaker 7: but we also understand that that means that there's still

1433
01:03:15,080 --> 01:03:18,200
Speaker 7: so much work to do. So our goal initially was

1434
01:03:18,320 --> 01:03:21,280
Speaker 7: to you know, we're kicking down these doors, and it's

1435
01:03:21,320 --> 01:03:23,280
Speaker 7: to use this door as a bridge to bring other

1436
01:03:23,280 --> 01:03:23,760
Speaker 7: people in.

1437
01:03:23,800 --> 01:03:27,160
Speaker 6: And I believe that over time, you know, especially for me.

1438
01:03:27,440 --> 01:03:29,880
Speaker 7: You know, Derek speaks a lot to like, you know,

1439
01:03:29,920 --> 01:03:31,560
Speaker 7: the black man I speak to, you know, to the

1440
01:03:31,560 --> 01:03:34,440
Speaker 7: black woman and the woman in general, understanding that.

1441
01:03:36,080 --> 01:03:37,800
Speaker 6: We have to see what's possible for us.

1442
01:03:37,960 --> 01:03:41,640
Speaker 4: Because yeah, no, and that's why now we got specific opportunity.

1443
01:03:41,680 --> 01:03:43,760
Speaker 4: So I wanted to talk about that. So we're looking

1444
01:03:43,800 --> 01:03:47,480
Speaker 4: for operators right for all of our spaces, So like

1445
01:03:47,560 --> 01:03:49,440
Speaker 4: that's the biggest announcement that we're going to make. So

1446
01:03:49,480 --> 01:03:51,880
Speaker 4: it's a level of get back. So like specifically with

1447
01:03:52,200 --> 01:03:54,520
Speaker 4: four shops to in Baltimore and two in New York

1448
01:03:54,800 --> 01:03:57,040
Speaker 4: and the truck, we're looking to take at step back

1449
01:03:57,080 --> 01:04:00,000
Speaker 4: and we're looking for five operators that fit a mindset,

1450
01:04:00,960 --> 01:04:03,320
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, and that's what's going to

1451
01:04:03,360 --> 01:04:05,000
Speaker 4: be next for me. So like that's how our plan

1452
01:04:05,120 --> 01:04:07,280
Speaker 4: to automate my business. It's not to bring on like

1453
01:04:07,360 --> 01:04:10,320
Speaker 4: any type of capital, it's not to sell to a

1454
01:04:10,400 --> 01:04:13,600
Speaker 4: large investment group. It's definitely to look for some operators.

1455
01:04:13,680 --> 01:04:16,360
Speaker 4: So if people send us an email and they interested

1456
01:04:16,520 --> 01:04:18,640
Speaker 4: in operating the space, sent us a resume, but more

1457
01:04:18,680 --> 01:04:20,800
Speaker 4: specifically send us a video or why you deserve an

1458
01:04:20,800 --> 01:04:24,120
Speaker 4: opportunity to operate those spaces, you know, but we're looking

1459
01:04:24,120 --> 01:04:25,880
Speaker 4: for operators right now. Like that's what's going to be

1460
01:04:25,880 --> 01:04:26,400
Speaker 4: next for us.

1461
01:04:27,120 --> 01:04:31,040
Speaker 3: So okay, talk about the seven streams, the show, the

1462
01:04:31,120 --> 01:04:34,160
Speaker 3: series however you plan on putting together, like explain the

1463
01:04:34,160 --> 01:04:36,439
Speaker 3: thought process and when will that be out?

1464
01:04:36,520 --> 01:04:39,600
Speaker 4: And yeah, sure, what's next for us? Like I always say,

1465
01:04:39,600 --> 01:04:42,320
Speaker 4: when you go fast, you grow fast. Right, So now

1466
01:04:42,360 --> 01:04:44,480
Speaker 4: here we are. We got these four donut shops. We

1467
01:04:44,520 --> 01:04:48,160
Speaker 4: got a truck and we documented the So the donut

1468
01:04:48,160 --> 01:04:50,320
Speaker 4: shops are one we have one in Brooklyn Heights, we

1469
01:04:50,440 --> 01:04:53,040
Speaker 4: have one in Soho or no Leader for that matter,

1470
01:04:53,640 --> 01:04:55,520
Speaker 4: one at you on nine Man Street, one at fourteen

1471
01:04:55,560 --> 01:04:58,120
Speaker 4: Columbia Place. And we also have two donut shops in Baltimore,

1472
01:04:58,120 --> 01:05:01,360
Speaker 4: Maryland and Federal Hill at ten forty nine South Charles

1473
01:05:01,360 --> 01:05:03,560
Speaker 4: Street and another one at forty three eleven Half for Road.

1474
01:05:03,880 --> 01:05:05,720
Speaker 4: We have a truck that goes between the D and

1475
01:05:05,840 --> 01:05:09,200
Speaker 4: V New York. It's national, so the truck is much

1476
01:05:09,240 --> 01:05:11,360
Speaker 4: more of a nomadic concept. If you're in La, hit

1477
01:05:11,440 --> 01:05:12,920
Speaker 4: us up. We're gonna be doing a tour in La

1478
01:05:13,640 --> 01:05:16,960
Speaker 4: late April early May, so that's how you can directly

1479
01:05:17,000 --> 01:05:20,560
Speaker 4: reach us. Also, we have an Instagram. I've turned the

1480
01:05:20,600 --> 01:05:23,400
Speaker 4: homemade Instagram into seven streams. So shout out to Troy

1481
01:05:23,400 --> 01:05:27,240
Speaker 4: forgiving me that advice, amongst many other pieces of advice

1482
01:05:27,280 --> 01:05:31,320
Speaker 4: he gave me. But it's really about people being able

1483
01:05:31,320 --> 01:05:32,880
Speaker 4: to pull up to the shops and connect with us

1484
01:05:32,880 --> 01:05:36,640
Speaker 4: in that way. So we are thriving, We're not surviving.

1485
01:05:36,760 --> 01:05:38,240
Speaker 4: I'm not even gonna sit up here and act like

1486
01:05:38,240 --> 01:05:41,120
Speaker 4: I'm maturity case. That's not even like mymo So I

1487
01:05:41,160 --> 01:05:42,840
Speaker 4: would never be a person that, even if I was

1488
01:05:42,880 --> 01:05:45,080
Speaker 4: going out of business, would start begging or nothing like that.

1489
01:05:45,320 --> 01:05:47,960
Speaker 4: But as you know, it's still twenty twenty five, we

1490
01:05:48,080 --> 01:05:51,080
Speaker 4: still got a long way to go. So me, I

1491
01:05:51,160 --> 01:05:53,520
Speaker 4: really proud myself on being able to grow my business

1492
01:05:53,560 --> 01:05:56,480
Speaker 4: through my community. So I'm looking for people to come

1493
01:05:56,520 --> 01:05:59,280
Speaker 4: into the shop fuck with me. If you see Zoe

1494
01:05:59,360 --> 01:06:01,960
Speaker 4: speak to us. We really work. I work every weekend,

1495
01:06:02,000 --> 01:06:04,360
Speaker 4: it's not this facade and like a god and assistant

1496
01:06:04,360 --> 01:06:06,880
Speaker 4: and there's twenty five people in front of me. Every weekend,

1497
01:06:06,920 --> 01:06:08,480
Speaker 4: I go into the shop and I make sure the

1498
01:06:08,480 --> 01:06:10,680
Speaker 4: production is what it is. And every weekend she's at

1499
01:06:10,720 --> 01:06:11,480
Speaker 4: the Soho shop.

1500
01:06:11,560 --> 01:06:12,920
Speaker 6: I am looking for an assistant.

1501
01:06:13,280 --> 01:06:14,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, asistant.

1502
01:06:15,000 --> 01:06:15,200
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1503
01:06:15,840 --> 01:06:18,240
Speaker 4: So it's like it's like like the best thing for us.

1504
01:06:18,280 --> 01:06:20,760
Speaker 4: Like Shaddy was saying what the Seventh Straings was, it's

1505
01:06:20,800 --> 01:06:24,080
Speaker 4: a documentaries of how I got all the shit from

1506
01:06:24,240 --> 01:06:28,840
Speaker 4: jail to my grandfather house, how I was raised. Yeah yeah,

1507
01:06:28,880 --> 01:06:32,160
Speaker 4: Classic on the couch. Yeah yeah, yeah, it's a it's

1508
01:06:32,200 --> 01:06:34,280
Speaker 4: like a it's like a dope. Like it's like vice

1509
01:06:34,320 --> 01:06:36,720
Speaker 4: style or like the like my man said, remind him

1510
01:06:36,720 --> 01:06:38,600
Speaker 4: of like the Last Dance, like mic style. So it's

1511
01:06:38,640 --> 01:06:43,760
Speaker 4: a very like vlog style form of economic and entrepreneur entertainment.

1512
01:06:44,560 --> 01:06:48,000
Speaker 4: But it's really about ME giving you a principal, living

1513
01:06:48,000 --> 01:06:50,040
Speaker 4: that principle out in real life, and then kind of

1514
01:06:50,080 --> 01:06:51,960
Speaker 4: covering that with a quote that I have that people

1515
01:06:52,000 --> 01:06:54,000
Speaker 4: can live by. So, like how Biggie had the Ten

1516
01:06:54,080 --> 01:06:56,920
Speaker 4: Crack Commandments, which I grew up on. I created the

1517
01:06:56,920 --> 01:06:59,960
Speaker 4: Ten Black Commandments and the Ten Black Commandments are just

1518
01:07:00,200 --> 01:07:02,640
Speaker 4: things that I personally lived by and my laws and

1519
01:07:02,720 --> 01:07:06,040
Speaker 4: my life that can allow any entrepreneur in any space

1520
01:07:06,040 --> 01:07:08,080
Speaker 4: to be able to navigate through a form of grit

1521
01:07:08,080 --> 01:07:11,240
Speaker 4: and tenacity. So we got the ten Black Commandments within

1522
01:07:11,600 --> 01:07:14,240
Speaker 4: the Seven Streams. So people should be excited to look

1523
01:07:14,280 --> 01:07:16,800
Speaker 4: at that because like just imagine, like, Yo, I'm showing

1524
01:07:16,800 --> 01:07:19,720
Speaker 4: you I so crack at. I'm showing you like my

1525
01:07:19,840 --> 01:07:23,120
Speaker 4: first hustles, I'm showing you my first store. I'm showing

1526
01:07:23,160 --> 01:07:26,080
Speaker 4: you my first real estate play. You know what I'm saying. So,

1527
01:07:26,160 --> 01:07:29,720
Speaker 4: like all of these things are key and intricate for

1528
01:07:29,760 --> 01:07:32,080
Speaker 4: people to show the dark side. So we always talk

1529
01:07:32,120 --> 01:07:35,560
Speaker 4: about entrepreneur from a more celebratory standpoint, and that's cool,

1530
01:07:35,760 --> 01:07:37,720
Speaker 4: But like what you get with seven Streams is you

1531
01:07:37,760 --> 01:07:39,560
Speaker 4: get the doc shit, you get the gritty shit. I've

1532
01:07:39,600 --> 01:07:41,840
Speaker 4: been broke my account being overdraft a couple of times.

1533
01:07:42,080 --> 01:07:43,840
Speaker 4: When I started this store, I ain't have no money.

1534
01:07:43,880 --> 01:07:45,840
Speaker 4: I built this store one way because y'all came to

1535
01:07:45,880 --> 01:07:48,320
Speaker 4: the Premier. It wasn't working. We had to build a

1536
01:07:48,400 --> 01:07:51,280
Speaker 4: store again. I was fucked up for two months. I

1537
01:07:51,320 --> 01:07:54,560
Speaker 4: couldn't generate no revenue. My credit cards was maxed out.

1538
01:07:54,600 --> 01:07:57,960
Speaker 4: I done lost credit cards, I done lost bank accounts.

1539
01:07:58,480 --> 01:08:00,160
Speaker 4: My credit score went from my eight hundred one I

1540
01:08:00,200 --> 01:08:02,640
Speaker 4: met her till like down on like a five seventy five.

1541
01:08:03,720 --> 01:08:06,920
Speaker 4: My truck got stolen, my other truck got told I

1542
01:08:07,000 --> 01:08:09,880
Speaker 4: drove a U haul here today, Like that's real shit.

1543
01:08:10,080 --> 01:08:11,800
Speaker 4: Like with all the things that would come, it's like

1544
01:08:12,200 --> 01:08:13,840
Speaker 4: I'm still in the midst of it. So I'm still

1545
01:08:13,840 --> 01:08:16,360
Speaker 4: so hands on. But I know who I am and

1546
01:08:16,400 --> 01:08:18,600
Speaker 4: I know what I got. Like fuck that you, I

1547
01:08:18,640 --> 01:08:21,760
Speaker 4: got the seven yeah, seven streams.

1548
01:08:22,360 --> 01:08:23,160
Speaker 2: That's the fact, man.

1549
01:08:23,520 --> 01:08:25,400
Speaker 4: I just want to say thank you.

1550
01:08:25,600 --> 01:08:29,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, because because for about I feel like two years,

1551
01:08:29,080 --> 01:08:32,040
Speaker 1: we talked about this, and every time I was just like, now,

1552
01:08:32,080 --> 01:08:34,760
Speaker 1: you gotta do this, you gotta do this. Because I

1553
01:08:34,800 --> 01:08:38,320
Speaker 1: think people hear the entrepreneurial journey and it sounds like

1554
01:08:38,360 --> 01:08:40,720
Speaker 1: it's the best thing and that there are some great

1555
01:08:40,760 --> 01:08:41,519
Speaker 1: things that come from it and.

1556
01:08:41,520 --> 01:08:43,400
Speaker 2: You learn a lot, but they don't hear that side

1557
01:08:43,439 --> 01:08:43,680
Speaker 2: of it.

1558
01:08:43,760 --> 01:08:45,920
Speaker 1: And I think there's the same way we kind of

1559
01:08:46,680 --> 01:08:51,880
Speaker 1: democratize financial education, right, there's a certain demographic that needs

1560
01:08:51,880 --> 01:08:54,519
Speaker 1: to hear your voice in the world of entrepreneurship. So

1561
01:08:54,560 --> 01:08:57,639
Speaker 1: when I watched the piece that you're saying. I was like, yo,

1562
01:08:57,720 --> 01:08:59,760
Speaker 1: you did it. But then I was proud to see

1563
01:08:59,760 --> 01:09:01,720
Speaker 1: it because we had been talking about it.

1564
01:09:02,400 --> 01:09:04,200
Speaker 2: I wonder, as you watched it, and as you were.

1565
01:09:04,120 --> 01:09:07,320
Speaker 1: Filming it, and as it's being put together, what are

1566
01:09:07,360 --> 01:09:09,880
Speaker 1: the things when you look at it that you're learning

1567
01:09:09,880 --> 01:09:11,960
Speaker 1: about yourself? Right, Because a lot of times we on

1568
01:09:12,000 --> 01:09:14,679
Speaker 1: this journey, we never looked through the rearview mirror because

1569
01:09:15,040 --> 01:09:17,160
Speaker 1: everything has to be straight ahead. But as you look

1570
01:09:17,200 --> 01:09:19,680
Speaker 1: at the body of work that you're putting together, the

1571
01:09:19,720 --> 01:09:22,040
Speaker 1: stories that you share with your family, going back to

1572
01:09:22,080 --> 01:09:24,559
Speaker 1: the first shop, going back to homemade, and looking in

1573
01:09:24,600 --> 01:09:30,559
Speaker 1: the kitchen like yo, yo, you got my mixer. Some

1574
01:09:30,680 --> 01:09:33,760
Speaker 1: flashbacks are like what you learn about yourself as you

1575
01:09:33,880 --> 01:09:35,160
Speaker 1: as you come back and look at the body of

1576
01:09:35,200 --> 01:09:36,160
Speaker 1: work that you put together.

1577
01:09:36,720 --> 01:09:41,160
Speaker 4: There's so many levels. First of all, I'll be looking like, yo,

1578
01:09:41,600 --> 01:09:43,960
Speaker 4: I've been through a lot of shit, and in the

1579
01:09:43,960 --> 01:09:46,720
Speaker 4: midst of my professional journey, like I didn't accumulate it,

1580
01:09:46,800 --> 01:09:49,040
Speaker 4: a lot of shit, just really grinding on some day

1581
01:09:49,040 --> 01:09:52,920
Speaker 4: by day type shit like yo, I remember days making

1582
01:09:52,960 --> 01:09:56,040
Speaker 4: five hundred, like in the shop, like that's all we made.

1583
01:09:56,240 --> 01:09:59,599
Speaker 4: I remember days making five thousand, and when I look

1584
01:09:59,640 --> 01:10:03,000
Speaker 4: at the body of work and really, because I when

1585
01:10:03,000 --> 01:10:05,480
Speaker 4: you're in the dark and you're from the ghetto, its normalized.

1586
01:10:05,520 --> 01:10:07,320
Speaker 4: Like I never I never knew I lived in the projects.

1587
01:10:07,360 --> 01:10:09,599
Speaker 4: I lived in a happy home, you know what I'm saying.

1588
01:10:10,160 --> 01:10:12,960
Speaker 4: And I always tell people to three e's education plus experience,

1589
01:10:13,000 --> 01:10:15,200
Speaker 4: creature and exposure creates entrepreneurship.

1590
01:10:15,280 --> 01:10:15,439
Speaker 2: Right.

1591
01:10:15,760 --> 01:10:20,000
Speaker 4: So my first interaction coming out of my community was crazy, like, oh,

1592
01:10:20,040 --> 01:10:23,400
Speaker 4: I live in a fuck up spot. So looking back

1593
01:10:23,439 --> 01:10:26,680
Speaker 4: on my whole journey, I'm like, Yo, from my elementary

1594
01:10:26,680 --> 01:10:29,559
Speaker 4: school to my teachers, I'm like, y'all did it. I

1595
01:10:29,600 --> 01:10:31,439
Speaker 4: came from the back. It made me really feel like

1596
01:10:31,520 --> 01:10:33,960
Speaker 4: anybody could do it because I don't really feel like

1597
01:10:34,000 --> 01:10:35,840
Speaker 4: I'm crazy special with it or nothing, you know what

1598
01:10:35,880 --> 01:10:38,960
Speaker 4: I'm saying. So that the thing I was most proud

1599
01:10:39,040 --> 01:10:43,559
Speaker 4: of is that I stuck toward I stayed sober, I

1600
01:10:43,640 --> 01:10:49,599
Speaker 4: stayed sane, and like, I just really just stayed at

1601
01:10:49,600 --> 01:10:52,280
Speaker 4: it like I was Yo. I was at it like yeah,

1602
01:10:52,520 --> 01:10:54,840
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, Like, yeah, I just really

1603
01:10:54,880 --> 01:10:56,599
Speaker 4: just I think that's the biggest thing I would say

1604
01:10:56,680 --> 01:11:00,160
Speaker 4: is my consistency and my persistence through all of my

1605
01:11:00,160 --> 01:11:03,320
Speaker 4: my setbacks, and my trials and my tribulations. So I

1606
01:11:03,360 --> 01:11:05,720
Speaker 4: think the thing I'm most proud of is my consistency

1607
01:11:05,760 --> 01:11:08,360
Speaker 4: and my persistence. And when I look back on it,

1608
01:11:09,439 --> 01:11:13,599
Speaker 4: I'm proud of it because it's such a it's such

1609
01:11:13,600 --> 01:11:16,160
Speaker 4: an embodiment of who I am, and the like the

1610
01:11:16,240 --> 01:11:18,400
Speaker 4: brick by brick, Like I told you the Coke League,

1611
01:11:18,439 --> 01:11:19,840
Speaker 4: I mean, the we lead to the coke and the

1612
01:11:19,880 --> 01:11:22,160
Speaker 4: coke leading to the dope. Once you got that briage

1613
01:11:22,160 --> 01:11:24,519
Speaker 4: a dope, you feel like you're on, Like you feel

1614
01:11:24,520 --> 01:11:26,280
Speaker 4: like you made it, bruh, Like you know what I'm saying.

1615
01:11:26,280 --> 01:11:27,880
Speaker 4: So when I be looking back at I'm like, damn,

1616
01:11:27,960 --> 01:11:32,040
Speaker 4: nigga made it. But to your point, like another thing

1617
01:11:32,080 --> 01:11:35,200
Speaker 4: I learned on this journey, specifically from my relationship with y'all,

1618
01:11:35,479 --> 01:11:38,920
Speaker 4: with Shaddy and you giving me so much advice through

1619
01:11:38,920 --> 01:11:41,519
Speaker 4: the hard times, through the dark times, and always tell

1620
01:11:41,600 --> 01:11:43,679
Speaker 4: y'all like you know, if you give me the advice,

1621
01:11:43,720 --> 01:11:45,400
Speaker 4: I'm gonna run with the rest. You know what I'm saying,

1622
01:11:45,479 --> 01:11:48,320
Speaker 4: And everything that you ever told me, I always implemented it.

1623
01:11:48,560 --> 01:11:50,360
Speaker 4: So you said two years, but I really got to

1624
01:11:50,400 --> 01:11:53,320
Speaker 4: go back six years because when you first saw me,

1625
01:11:53,560 --> 01:11:56,280
Speaker 4: you said, yo, you're a megastar, and you you need

1626
01:11:56,320 --> 01:11:58,840
Speaker 4: to be on the global stage. And for so many

1627
01:11:58,920 --> 01:12:01,760
Speaker 4: years we fought the by my ability to be more

1628
01:12:01,880 --> 01:12:06,639
Speaker 4: public and more extroverted, and a lot of the things

1629
01:12:06,640 --> 01:12:09,320
Speaker 4: that I've done have been a direct byproduct of the

1630
01:12:09,400 --> 01:12:12,920
Speaker 4: advice that you've giving me. So it's so beautiful to

1631
01:12:12,960 --> 01:12:14,960
Speaker 4: be here with all three of y'all because y'all have

1632
01:12:15,000 --> 01:12:17,679
Speaker 4: had the largest impact on my personal development and growth

1633
01:12:17,720 --> 01:12:21,799
Speaker 4: as a man, and more specifically, my brand. So looking

1634
01:12:21,840 --> 01:12:24,479
Speaker 4: back at all of it, it really is like like

1635
01:12:24,520 --> 01:12:27,479
Speaker 4: a fucking whirlwind, bro, because I really I did a

1636
01:12:27,479 --> 01:12:30,200
Speaker 4: lot of fucked up shit. I did shit to stay

1637
01:12:30,240 --> 01:12:32,160
Speaker 4: on you feel me, like you know what I'm saying.

1638
01:12:32,200 --> 01:12:37,040
Speaker 4: I remember just like you say, like riding around all

1639
01:12:37,120 --> 01:12:40,360
Speaker 4: kinds of shit stolen, like you know what I'm saying.

1640
01:12:41,120 --> 01:12:46,200
Speaker 4: Breaking my first store, I was selling weed, You feel

1641
01:12:46,200 --> 01:12:48,720
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. Like at that first store, I had

1642
01:12:48,760 --> 01:12:51,080
Speaker 4: weed under the account. I still was hitting place, driving down,

1643
01:12:51,320 --> 01:12:52,960
Speaker 4: like telling a nigga like cause I don't want nigga

1644
01:12:53,000 --> 01:12:55,200
Speaker 4: know I got the spot, But meeting nigga two three

1645
01:12:55,240 --> 01:12:57,200
Speaker 4: blocks down, hitting a cell and putting that in a

1646
01:12:57,240 --> 01:13:00,160
Speaker 4: register with the legit money. You know, what I'm saying.

1647
01:13:00,800 --> 01:13:03,320
Speaker 4: When we went to LA last year, we did the

1648
01:13:03,360 --> 01:13:05,360
Speaker 4: truck tour, like, yo, we ain't he passed the inspection.

1649
01:13:05,439 --> 01:13:07,479
Speaker 4: We still did the tour, like went out that betch

1650
01:13:07,600 --> 01:13:10,240
Speaker 4: drove out there with the truck. We're trying to get

1651
01:13:10,280 --> 01:13:12,679
Speaker 4: the truck inspected. They're like, nah, you failed the inspection.

1652
01:13:13,360 --> 01:13:15,880
Speaker 4: Shit they paid us. We out this bitch. We doing this,

1653
01:13:16,800 --> 01:13:19,439
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. So like it it really

1654
01:13:19,520 --> 01:13:22,040
Speaker 4: tell me like how wild I am in my in

1655
01:13:22,080 --> 01:13:25,519
Speaker 4: my pursuit of my goal. You know, I grew up,

1656
01:13:25,800 --> 01:13:28,880
Speaker 4: I grew up hard body, so like I don't even

1657
01:13:29,000 --> 01:13:31,640
Speaker 4: I never It's so many things I did subconsciously that

1658
01:13:31,720 --> 01:13:33,800
Speaker 4: I think the normal person would have been like, noah, wait,

1659
01:13:33,840 --> 01:13:36,519
Speaker 4: we can't do this, and I did it.

1660
01:13:38,520 --> 01:13:41,320
Speaker 3: So and is there's something attached to the seventh streams

1661
01:13:41,400 --> 01:13:42,800
Speaker 3: like a digital.

1662
01:13:42,520 --> 01:13:45,800
Speaker 4: Yeah, so definitely. People can access the seven streams through

1663
01:13:45,960 --> 01:13:49,000
Speaker 4: subscribing to the Brown Collecting Right. So it's two it's

1664
01:13:49,040 --> 01:13:51,120
Speaker 4: two things that I'm doing and I got this from

1665
01:13:51,160 --> 01:13:55,120
Speaker 4: from Troy. I'm over delivering. So the content that I'm

1666
01:13:55,160 --> 01:13:58,280
Speaker 4: providing people is going to be free. What I want

1667
01:13:58,280 --> 01:13:59,760
Speaker 4: to put, what I want to show people is the

1668
01:13:59,760 --> 01:14:02,120
Speaker 4: power possibility of the brand, and I'm really excited for

1669
01:14:02,120 --> 01:14:04,599
Speaker 4: people to try my product. So how you can get

1670
01:14:04,640 --> 01:14:07,800
Speaker 4: access to the seven strains and you go online, you order.

1671
01:14:08,160 --> 01:14:10,120
Speaker 4: We dropping pound cakes four times a year, so we

1672
01:14:10,240 --> 01:14:13,760
Speaker 4: doing full seasonal boxes and if a can bring me

1673
01:14:14,240 --> 01:14:15,880
Speaker 4: the box, we can show the box. But were doing

1674
01:14:15,920 --> 01:14:20,280
Speaker 4: full seasonal boxes, and we doing content with the boxes,

1675
01:14:21,000 --> 01:14:23,400
Speaker 4: so that can work some sort of way where like

1676
01:14:23,439 --> 01:14:25,280
Speaker 4: people can know like all right, I can get a dessert,

1677
01:14:25,280 --> 01:14:27,200
Speaker 4: but also can learn about these people's story in a

1678
01:14:27,280 --> 01:14:31,080
Speaker 4: much more intricate manner. So like I think typically when

1679
01:14:31,080 --> 01:14:34,040
Speaker 4: you see entrepreneurs in a dessert space or even in

1680
01:14:34,040 --> 01:14:36,519
Speaker 4: the food and better space, you just see an end result.

1681
01:14:36,800 --> 01:14:39,360
Speaker 4: You don't see the backstory or the process. So I'll

1682
01:14:39,400 --> 01:14:42,400
Speaker 4: go with to shoot content every three months at least

1683
01:14:42,400 --> 01:14:45,240
Speaker 4: the content online with a box of desserts and then

1684
01:14:45,400 --> 01:14:49,320
Speaker 4: gift our community with the desserts. But also the content

1685
01:14:49,439 --> 01:14:50,760
Speaker 4: is going to be free. And I got that from

1686
01:14:50,800 --> 01:14:54,439
Speaker 4: you because you over deliver and when I mention you,

1687
01:14:54,439 --> 01:14:57,000
Speaker 4: you allow me in your space for free. I remember,

1688
01:14:57,040 --> 01:14:58,840
Speaker 4: like y'all niggas even treated me like to the snow

1689
01:14:58,840 --> 01:15:00,640
Speaker 4: a lego content You're probably gonna remember, but y'all and

1690
01:15:00,680 --> 01:15:01,040
Speaker 4: did so.

1691
01:15:01,000 --> 01:15:06,920
Speaker 5: Many things that classic Yeah, yeah, so you didn't do

1692
01:15:07,080 --> 01:15:08,599
Speaker 5: so many things for me. So when you brought up

1693
01:15:08,600 --> 01:15:10,599
Speaker 5: over delivering, I was like, Yo, I know what I'm

1694
01:15:10,600 --> 01:15:13,400
Speaker 5: gonna do. All of the money that I make specifically

1695
01:15:14,000 --> 01:15:16,760
Speaker 5: developing the content, I'm gonna just put it all back

1696
01:15:16,760 --> 01:15:18,840
Speaker 5: into the community by giving the people my story for

1697
01:15:18,880 --> 01:15:21,479
Speaker 5: free and hopefully they buy into the desserts as well,

1698
01:15:22,000 --> 01:15:25,280
Speaker 5: and then for people who might not necessarily want the

1699
01:15:25,280 --> 01:15:27,760
Speaker 5: dessert but there for the content, that's a bonus as well.

1700
01:15:27,840 --> 01:15:29,840
Speaker 4: So it's kind of like you can't lose either way.

1701
01:15:30,600 --> 01:15:34,719
Speaker 3: So what's the website and all information side website?

1702
01:15:34,960 --> 01:15:38,120
Speaker 7: Yeah, so our website is just too subscribe to get

1703
01:15:38,160 --> 01:15:40,160
Speaker 7: the seven Streams and the pound cake drop is the

1704
01:15:40,160 --> 01:15:42,719
Speaker 7: Brown Collective right now, When you go to the Brown Collective,

1705
01:15:42,760 --> 01:15:45,360
Speaker 7: you'll it will tell you it will get your information immediately.

1706
01:15:45,400 --> 01:15:46,960
Speaker 7: So that way, when we have the drop, it's going

1707
01:15:47,000 --> 01:15:49,320
Speaker 7: to be right there for you. So that's how you're

1708
01:15:49,360 --> 01:15:53,000
Speaker 7: going to find the seven Streams and the educational pieces

1709
01:15:53,040 --> 01:15:56,800
Speaker 7: that both Derek and myself share. If you're looking for

1710
01:15:56,840 --> 01:16:00,200
Speaker 7: cloudydonut or cloudydonut dot com with the four stores, the

1711
01:16:00,240 --> 01:16:02,000
Speaker 7: truck is going to be moving around.

1712
01:16:02,040 --> 01:16:03,439
Speaker 6: We're about to get ready for the truck to.

1713
01:16:03,720 --> 01:16:05,240
Speaker 4: The truck gonna be in La. If you're in La,

1714
01:16:05,320 --> 01:16:07,320
Speaker 4: pull up on this. All of the truck information is

1715
01:16:07,360 --> 01:16:10,360
Speaker 4: on Instagram. We're doing the first pound cake drop is

1716
01:16:10,360 --> 01:16:13,519
Speaker 4: the first week in April, So whoever like you know,

1717
01:16:13,560 --> 01:16:15,160
Speaker 4: and I'm gonna be honest with you. So we're only

1718
01:16:15,200 --> 01:16:18,280
Speaker 4: doing a thousand boxes. So we're only doing a thousand

1719
01:16:18,320 --> 01:16:20,400
Speaker 4: boxes to start off, and then we're going to continue

1720
01:16:20,439 --> 01:16:22,360
Speaker 4: to build from that. But I'll go it's just focusing

1721
01:16:22,400 --> 01:16:25,200
Speaker 4: on craftsmanship, making sure the customers got the right thing.

1722
01:16:25,760 --> 01:16:28,479
Speaker 4: And so we're doing a thousand boxes and if you

1723
01:16:28,479 --> 01:16:30,559
Speaker 4: subscribe to the content, you can get that as well.

1724
01:16:30,680 --> 01:16:33,920
Speaker 4: If anyone subscribed to the content outside of the thousand boxes,

1725
01:16:33,960 --> 01:16:36,360
Speaker 4: you will get those boxes additionally, but it'll be like

1726
01:16:36,360 --> 01:16:38,400
Speaker 4: a two week time because we want to make sure

1727
01:16:38,400 --> 01:16:39,280
Speaker 4: everybody get the right thing.

1728
01:16:39,479 --> 01:16:41,759
Speaker 3: Yeah you haven't, ladies and gentlemen.

1729
01:16:41,840 --> 01:16:45,080
Speaker 1: And if the product has been tested and improving, I'm

1730
01:16:45,080 --> 01:16:47,920
Speaker 1: not talking I'm talking to any donors, not specifically Vegan.

1731
01:16:48,000 --> 01:16:48,800
Speaker 2: Yes, because it's vegan.

1732
01:16:48,800 --> 01:16:52,360
Speaker 1: It's incredible, and yes you are brother, the product is incredible.

1733
01:16:52,439 --> 01:16:55,720
Speaker 2: I thank you. The donuts is just phenomenal and the

1734
01:16:55,760 --> 01:16:56,639
Speaker 2: way that they look.

1735
01:16:57,360 --> 01:17:01,519
Speaker 4: Yeah, but dreams from true. That's tell them floudy donut,

1736
01:17:01,560 --> 01:17:02,759
Speaker 4: you know, don't stop believing.

1737
01:17:02,800 --> 01:17:03,880
Speaker 2: And they're gonna they're gonna.

1738
01:17:03,920 --> 01:17:05,880
Speaker 1: They told me that they're gonna name a donut after

1739
01:17:05,960 --> 01:17:08,519
Speaker 1: us at some point, some point.

1740
01:17:09,120 --> 01:17:10,679
Speaker 2: But we appreciate you, my brother.

1741
01:17:10,560 --> 01:17:14,640
Speaker 3: Man, thank you, appreciating much success. Continue the blessings and

1742
01:17:14,960 --> 01:17:15,920
Speaker 3: keep inspiring the people.

1743
01:17:15,960 --> 01:17:19,280
Speaker 2: Support. Tell them we sent you when you come down.

1744
01:17:19,560 --> 01:17:22,320
Speaker 2: Yeah that's a fact. And then if you hear I'm

1745
01:17:22,360 --> 01:17:23,880
Speaker 2: just I'm gonna give you all. This is a tipot.

1746
01:17:24,479 --> 01:17:27,120
Speaker 1: If they got the sweet potato rolls, get about four

1747
01:17:27,160 --> 01:17:28,559
Speaker 1: of them, Sweet.

1748
01:17:28,320 --> 01:17:30,559
Speaker 4: Potato cinnamon rolls. Some of the flavors that we got

1749
01:17:30,560 --> 01:17:33,439
Speaker 4: brown by the chocolate chip, sweet potato pie cinnamon rolls.

1750
01:17:33,439 --> 01:17:36,080
Speaker 4: We got brown sugar Pine, the website down cake, and

1751
01:17:36,120 --> 01:17:38,479
Speaker 4: I'm really excited about the basil olive oil cake. That's

1752
01:17:38,479 --> 01:17:38,840
Speaker 4: my thing.

1753
01:17:38,920 --> 01:17:40,439
Speaker 2: You know. Oh that's new.

1754
01:17:40,680 --> 01:17:45,559
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, I thank.

1755
01:17:45,400 --> 01:17:50,200
Speaker 6: Y'all, Thank you guys.

1756
01:17:50,479 --> 01:17:57,160
Speaker 8: That's an illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a

1757
01:17:57,240 --> 01:18:00,760
Speaker 8: child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al

1758
01:18:00,840 --> 01:18:05,639
Speaker 8: Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged

1759
01:18:05,680 --> 01:18:09,559
Speaker 8: with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are

1760
01:18:09,640 --> 01:18:13,120
Speaker 8: just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of

1761
01:18:13,160 --> 01:18:16,880
Speaker 8: President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United

1762
01:18:16,880 --> 01:18:21,639
Speaker 8: States Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal

1763
01:18:21,680 --> 01:18:25,360
Speaker 8: border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and

1764
01:18:25,400 --> 01:18:28,720
Speaker 8: over one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If

1765
01:18:28,760 --> 01:18:32,400
Speaker 8: you are here illegally, your next you will be fine

1766
01:18:32,479 --> 01:18:36,600
Speaker 8: nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported, you

1767
01:18:36,640 --> 01:18:40,200
Speaker 8: will never return. But if you register using our CBP

1768
01:18:40,360 --> 01:18:43,080
Speaker 8: home app and leave now, you could be allowed to

1769
01:18:43,120 --> 01:18:47,960
Speaker 8: return legally. Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump,

1770
01:18:48,120 --> 01:18:51,719
Speaker 8: America's laws, border and families will be protected.

1771
01:18:51,800 --> 01:18:53,960
Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.