Speaker 1: Solo mare, thank you so much for cooking us up
Speaker 1: this meal today and spending time with us to eat
Speaker 1: while broke. I'm sure, So what are we eating again?
Speaker 1: So we're eating my famous, my famous big beings and
Speaker 1: hot dogs. This recipe was passed down from generation to generation.
Speaker 1: Came from my came from my pop Pope who passed away,
Speaker 1: and I used to always eat it with him, and
Speaker 1: my mom made it and now I'm making it. And
Speaker 1: it's just keep on going down down down to the family.
Speaker 1: All right, cool, walk us through this dish, And I'm
Speaker 1: just curious, when was the last time you ate this meal?
Speaker 1: I actually had this meal last night. That's the funny part,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I had the meal last
Speaker 1: night because even it don't matter, It don't matter how
Speaker 1: probably rich I get, Like I'm I think I'm always
Speaker 1: gonna come back to my baking hot dogs, Okay for sure.
Speaker 1: So I mean to start off, I got a boy
Speaker 1: the hot dog, so I'm gonna go ahead take these.
Speaker 1: I can tell the difference between beef and turkey and turkey,
Speaker 1: go ahead, drop beak ones in here? Can you drop
Speaker 1: one turkey? And oh yeah, I got you a matter
Speaker 1: of fact. No, we can drop both of them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was trying to be the healthy when I was
Speaker 1: trying to sneak it into your gar I make sure
Speaker 1: that I make sure they're separated. To boil the hot
Speaker 1: dogs first, um, get them nice and ready, and then
Speaker 1: once you get finished boiling the hot dogs, we gotta
Speaker 1: chop them up in the pieces. So I'm gonna go ahead,
Speaker 1: and you're good. You're good. We're gonna break them down.
Speaker 1: We're gonna break it down in the small pieces. They
Speaker 1: once see breaking it out in the small pieces. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and dump the bake bean. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take the water out of its pot pitted here and
Speaker 1: put the big beans in. Then I'm gonna put the
Speaker 1: bake things in. I'm gonna seizing them up real good.
Speaker 1: You know. Uh, it's a certain ratio of butter to
Speaker 1: catch up to sugar. You gotta pi. But you don't
Speaker 1: use a measuring cup. No, no measuring cup. I'm black,
Speaker 1: so you know, black people, we we more. We more
Speaker 1: so just like it's an eyeball game for us. That's like,
Speaker 1: and just keep going to that thing tastes good. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go ahead. And just you know, go off
Speaker 1: in memory and uh, and then get them. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get them big beans, good nice and seasoned up. And
Speaker 1: then I'm an dump the hot dogs inside of there
Speaker 1: and then it's gonna be all together and one thing.
Speaker 1: Then dumping in the bowl and that's it. Awesome. So
Speaker 1: while we're waiting for this boiling water to boil hopefully
Speaker 1: sooner than later. Um, where are you from? Originally I'm
Speaker 1: from Philly. Is that where the love for Italian ice
Speaker 1: came in? Yeah? So, uh, happy ice is Philadelphia water ice.
Speaker 1: So it's it's a product I was raised on. So
Speaker 1: you know, when I came out here and noticed that,
Speaker 1: you know, the product wasn't here, I was like going
Speaker 1: through withdraw. I was like, oh man, like, no way,
Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta introduce, you know, I gotta introduce
Speaker 1: California to authentic fill water ice on top of me
Speaker 1: just wanting it for myself. So um yeah, so that's
Speaker 1: when happy Ice came to life, the idea, and uh
Speaker 1: I just went right for it. Yeah. Growing up and
Speaker 1: I'm from New York and growing up in New York,
Speaker 1: that is the signature treat I didn't I did not
Speaker 1: know originally until I was older that it was from Philly.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it originated from Philly or Philly
Speaker 1: had their own and then New York had their own.
Speaker 1: I think, I think, I think honestly, like there's no
Speaker 1: real history on time. I mean, like Philadelphia water is
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, if you look it up. Um,
Speaker 1: but I think it's just that Philly just does it
Speaker 1: a certain way. Because Italian ice and you know New
Speaker 1: York Italian ice and whatter ice is different, Like what
Speaker 1: do ice has like a certain texture to it. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Oh, there's a differences in a texture.
Speaker 1: So like Italian ice is more like icy, and then
Speaker 1: like Philadelphia water ice is more so like I find
Speaker 1: like almost cream like, like smooth like texture. That's why
Speaker 1: when I eat yours, it never has a chunk in it.
Speaker 1: Right in New York, if you eat them, there's a
Speaker 1: chunk like you'll you'll bite until like a harder piece
Speaker 1: of it. But when I eat yours, it's smoothed all
Speaker 1: the way there. It's like a smooth texture. It's like
Speaker 1: it's just it's a difference. It's a difference. So you
Speaker 1: have perfected that. I definitely perfected that. Um So, you
Speaker 1: know that has been that has been our our our
Speaker 1: state one happy ice, that texture. A lot of people
Speaker 1: have been blown away by that. Yeah yeah, m So
Speaker 1: did you always know since you were a little you
Speaker 1: were gonna get into happy ice? Or they're like pivots
Speaker 1: along the way? No, see, I wanted, like a lot
Speaker 1: of people kind of like, I'm not stuck to one thing.
Speaker 1: Um Like, for me, I think I'm a hustler. I
Speaker 1: called myself a hut. Entrepreneur is a word, but I'm
Speaker 1: a hustler, you know what I'm saying. So it don't
Speaker 1: matter what I sell. I feel like whatever I set
Speaker 1: my mind to, I'm gonna do it. So like, you know,
Speaker 1: happy actually just an idea that I felt like I
Speaker 1: was filling a void in the market of California. So
Speaker 1: that's why I did that. But you know, no, it's
Speaker 1: not I didn't grow up thinking I was gonna do happy.
Speaker 1: I just always knew I was gonna grow up and
Speaker 1: do something, and this just happening to be, you know,
Speaker 1: one of my one of my first steps, and it
Speaker 1: happened to be a big step for me. What caused
Speaker 1: Mike from Philly to call. Uh, you know a lot
Speaker 1: just the environment that I was in, you know where
Speaker 1: I'm from. It's like, uh, it's just rough, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's rough. You know. I lost a
Speaker 1: lot of I looked at, like basically the history of
Speaker 1: my family, and a lot of people in my family
Speaker 1: like got life in jail or even got killed. My
Speaker 1: dad got life in jail. Um, his brother died in
Speaker 1: jail from life in jail, you know. Um, So it's
Speaker 1: like and then a lot of my friends got killed
Speaker 1: growing up. And then the last, the last thing that
Speaker 1: made me jump from Philly to l A was my
Speaker 1: brother passed away, not from getting killed, but died in
Speaker 1: a motorcycle accident. And um, Like, basically my brother was
Speaker 1: a risk taker. So when he passed away, I was like, damn,
Speaker 1: you know, that's one of the things I took from him.
Speaker 1: And I was like, he died at twenty seven, and
Speaker 1: I decided, Man, I don't know when I'm going passed away,
Speaker 1: so I need to go after the things that I
Speaker 1: told myself I want to do. And I like, it
Speaker 1: was one of the things in my list that was
Speaker 1: a dream, and so I was like, man, I'm going
Speaker 1: for it, you know, so I just literally jumped here
Speaker 1: with nothing um. I had a friend of living colarbasses.
Speaker 1: It's just like super far um too. It was too
Speaker 1: far from where I was trying to work at, which
Speaker 1: is on myl Roads, where the story is like at today,
Speaker 1: and so I used to sleep in the tattoo shop
Speaker 1: on myl Roads, a little bit of like send my homelessness,
Speaker 1: and there I was, send my homelessness. It was some
Speaker 1: days where I was actually actually really homeless too, where
Speaker 1: I was like why I really had to sleep in
Speaker 1: the tattoo shop because I had to sleep in the
Speaker 1: tattoo shop, like I didn't have no other other place
Speaker 1: to go. Okay, okay, So you went from tattoos and
Speaker 1: then you were like this need is this this void
Speaker 1: is here? Yeah, and I just went after it. What
Speaker 1: did that transition look like? Was there? Semi? Was it
Speaker 1: just stacking chips on the tattoo side to really so
Speaker 1: like part of me sleeping inside of the tattoo shot
Speaker 1: was the fact that you know, I had cash, but
Speaker 1: I didn't have cash to spend. I needed all the
Speaker 1: money that I had to pick towards you know, the
Speaker 1: dream or a goal. You know what I'm saying I
Speaker 1: didn't have have like I didn't have cash flow coming in,
Speaker 1: but I had cash flow. I had cash saved from
Speaker 1: when I was in Philadelphia. So I didn't want to
Speaker 1: I didn't want to like burn all of that trying
Speaker 1: to you know, lift this Los Angeles lifestyle. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I gotta figure something out so I can actually you know,
Speaker 1: be comfortable here. So, um, I basically took all the
Speaker 1: money I had from tattooing and invested it all in
Speaker 1: the AMPI ice what I'm saying. So it was like
Speaker 1: I think at the time, I probably had like around
Speaker 1: like I would say, like right from because I was
Speaker 1: a popular tattoo artists in Philly and it cost seventy
Speaker 1: five to get hack that I started. So I was
Speaker 1: like tattooing, flying back the Philly tattoo and just going
Speaker 1: through the whole struggle like trying to get the rest
Speaker 1: of that money to get to what I needed to do. Now,
Speaker 1: how did you predict that it would cost seventy five grand?
Speaker 1: By the way, your food smells good already, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: hopefully we won't set off some sprinklers in this building,
Speaker 1: but we should be good. Um, So how did you
Speaker 1: predict that. Were you a business, like, did you start
Speaker 1: writing business plans the business element there? No, No, I
Speaker 1: had no business experience. I struggled the whole way. I
Speaker 1: made so many mistakes. Started Happy Ice. I made a
Speaker 1: mistake from the moment I started Happy Ice. The first
Speaker 1: mistake I made was I went down to the city hall,
Speaker 1: I mean city all down here, and I registered for
Speaker 1: the name Happy Ice. Like when I first thoughted, I
Speaker 1: did see but for new business owners, new business owners, uh,
Speaker 1: if you ever want to like just ensure that you
Speaker 1: can have a name, like just go reserved the name.
Speaker 1: Reserving the name is like that the city will just
Speaker 1: hold it for you and you pay like a little
Speaker 1: small fear and be like, just reserve the name. I
Speaker 1: went down there and I actually got the name like officials.
Speaker 1: So when I did that, it's basically when I did that,
Speaker 1: it was saying I'm open for business. So it took
Speaker 1: me a year and a half to get Happy Ice open.
Speaker 1: So when I want to go file taxes for the
Speaker 1: first time, I had all these penalties because I didn't
Speaker 1: you know, I never filed from when I from the
Speaker 1: initial time when I started a business, So I had
Speaker 1: like three grain and penalties like tax. Now I thought myself,
Speaker 1: I thought the first year you filed because I did
Speaker 1: the same thing a bunch of times, and they eventually
Speaker 1: caught up with me and I got leans on all
Speaker 1: my stuff. But I heard that the first year or
Speaker 1: I was able to and this could have been prior
Speaker 1: to your or after somewhere over there, But the first
Speaker 1: year usually they have a forgivable Yeah, it's like, so
Speaker 1: some of this stuff they forgave me on, but some
Speaker 1: stuff not. They were like, no, so it was some
Speaker 1: stuff for sure, they gave me a break on. They
Speaker 1: gave me a break on some stuff because it was
Speaker 1: like you said, the first year, but it was some
Speaker 1: parts of it. No, it wasn't forgivable. So you lost
Speaker 1: money right there. From day one, I lost money. Was
Speaker 1: there ever like a movie you made where you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's it, the pot is empty, We're done. We're not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to get this ship off the ground,
Speaker 1: or did you get it off the ground? And then
Speaker 1: it was a point where I was scared. Man. I
Speaker 1: I always shedding tears. Um. So when I got here,
Speaker 1: my idea was to ship product from Philly to l
Speaker 1: A and so I thought that all I needed. So
Speaker 1: when I got here, I made the decision of Okay,
Speaker 1: I actually want to make the product myself. Then I
Speaker 1: don't have to rely on somebody to send me product
Speaker 1: because if if they slip up, then it has shut
Speaker 1: down the whole business. Because I want to have a product,
Speaker 1: So I invest. I had to get save the money
Speaker 1: up to get the machines, and a long story short,
Speaker 1: the first day that we UM decided to do like
Speaker 1: a little soft opening with our friends or whatever, Um,
Speaker 1: the machines didn't work. So it was like I was
Speaker 1: already getting like hammered so bad by health department. Um.
Speaker 1: When I first got the truck. I had got the
Speaker 1: truck built from Philly and bring it here and the
Speaker 1: health code regulations are totally different, so the truck wasn't
Speaker 1: able to get pass from health inspection. They made me
Speaker 1: like redo all this off in the truck. I didn't
Speaker 1: have the money for that, you know. So like so
Speaker 1: now I'm like I'm like losing my mind, like I'm
Speaker 1: stressed the hell out, and it's like you know, um,
Speaker 1: so I had to go. I had to like grind
Speaker 1: up try and make some more money to pay for
Speaker 1: the renovation to the truck so it can pass home.
Speaker 1: And when you're grinding, you're tattooing. The whole time. I'm tattooing.
Speaker 1: So I'm like either like trying to fly here. I'm
Speaker 1: like not sleeping honestly, Like I'm like flying to this
Speaker 1: this football player to tattoo him because they like paying
Speaker 1: chunks to cash. I'm like going back to Philly. I'm
Speaker 1: like going here, and then I go and spend the
Speaker 1: money and I'm like and it's like so I'm like
Speaker 1: making It's all these things that just like hit me
Speaker 1: at one time, and like the truck happened, this happened,
Speaker 1: and then I go to have like a little soft
Speaker 1: opening and like the machine is not working, so like
Speaker 1: we got people there no product at the little soft opening,
Speaker 1: and like we had to get electrician and try and
Speaker 1: figure this out and figure it out to see what's
Speaker 1: wrong with the machine. And finally got one like one
Speaker 1: of the machines that work a little bit, and we
Speaker 1: had it still wasn't good because we brung down like
Speaker 1: slush ice, like it wasn't like it wasn't it was
Speaker 1: like all bad and it was just thing after the thing,
Speaker 1: and I just remember like sitting there and my grandmama
Speaker 1: and them flew out and I just been sitting there.
Speaker 1: I just like I just broke down. Curry, did you actually?
Speaker 1: I was about to ask was there a point where
Speaker 1: you were like tears and everything cring? Like I just
Speaker 1: broke down? And then what were their words of encouragement
Speaker 1: at the time, because I know they had some kind
Speaker 1: of words, right, Yeah, my grandmom she's always been super supportive,
Speaker 1: even if even she also support me financially, like I know,
Speaker 1: like it's it's multiple people in the world that got
Speaker 1: that one person that are like come through them something front.
Speaker 1: Sometimes that was my grandmam. So she just was more
Speaker 1: so like she was a business on herself. So like
Speaker 1: I'm like breaking down crying, like I don't know about
Speaker 1: all the trials that you go through, right, and like
Speaker 1: she has been through those things. So she looking at
Speaker 1: me like, lat Mary, this is this is a part
Speaker 1: of it, you know what I'm saying, Like, and she
Speaker 1: just let me know, like like pull it together. This
Speaker 1: is a part of the game. Like you wanted it,
Speaker 1: you want to be in this life, this is a
Speaker 1: part of it. You gotta make it through these moments, right, here,
Speaker 1: like you got it, pull it together. She said, look,
Speaker 1: I gonna let you get five minutes, but in five minutes,
Speaker 1: you better wrap this up and we gotta get back
Speaker 1: to it. Nice. Nice. She always she always been that
Speaker 1: type of person. She she always said, like, okay, when
Speaker 1: you in those moments, give yourself, she said, give yourself
Speaker 1: a time limit. I'm gonna give you a time if
Speaker 1: you're letting it out, and then when that time done,
Speaker 1: you gotta wrap it up and we gotta keep going.
Speaker 1: So I got my little five minutes, not wrap it up.
Speaker 1: We hopped up when we kept going nice. Now, was
Speaker 1: there ever a point you were driven to a scan like?
Speaker 1: Probably the most scanless thing, because I feel like on
Speaker 1: that journey you are always the depth. There's like the
Speaker 1: angel on one tide and the devil's on the other side,
Speaker 1: and you're at that crossroads and then you have the
Speaker 1: devil knocking on the door, Like I have this one
Speaker 1: scanless opportunity that gets you over the milestone? Did you
Speaker 1: have one of those? And are you comfortable sharing scanless?
Speaker 1: Because like, I'm a firm believer in like things come
Speaker 1: back you I'm saying, so, like I don't steal from people.
Speaker 1: I'm a honest person. You can under say in like so,
Speaker 1: but it's I did take one major shirtcut that if
Speaker 1: I did not do it, it probably wouldn't be happy. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: I had went and got a townhouse, like a little
Speaker 1: town house, like three story townhouse, and like, and I
Speaker 1: had and I already knew, I knew my plan. I
Speaker 1: had to find a townhouse that had a garage. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Because I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: if I get a townhouse, we can live in there,
Speaker 1: and also we can turn like the other couple of
Speaker 1: floors into like inventory, like like holding stuff like cups, napkins.
Speaker 1: And then I was like, I need a garage because
Speaker 1: I need like a place to make the product. So
Speaker 1: of course, like everybody know, like you're not supposed to
Speaker 1: be making products side of a house, like health department,
Speaker 1: that's not it. But I promised I was totally sanitary,
Speaker 1: Like the garage is probably more sanitary than people's stories.
Speaker 1: I get because people stories be raggedy. Like I had
Speaker 1: this thing set up like a real laboratory, so you know,
Speaker 1: I couldn't afford to go get a story. So I
Speaker 1: had the house as like our office space. You know,
Speaker 1: to hold st are all our different cups and like
Speaker 1: products and inventory. And then also he's making products inside
Speaker 1: the garage and I had like freezers in the garage.
Speaker 1: I had like three phase converters for the electric to
Speaker 1: like running machines, and like I turned into a full
Speaker 1: laboratory and like that's what I was able to. I
Speaker 1: use that for honestly, like for the first probably like
Speaker 1: year and a half, like two years of half the
Speaker 1: ice to like get it going. And yeah, that really
Speaker 1: took me over the edge. Like sometimes you gotta do
Speaker 1: what you gotta do. You definitely what are the next
Speaker 1: steps in this? Meals next? All right? So now that's
Speaker 1: now we're really good. These are done and got to
Speaker 1: the point they don't bust open. So now they're supposed
Speaker 1: to look sure, especially I like it when they look
Speaker 1: like this. What we're gonna do now once they come out,
Speaker 1: I go ahead and I cut this up. He's already
Speaker 1: he's already like pretty much split. So I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: cut them down the middle. I'm just gonna break these
Speaker 1: in the little pieces. And they looks soft. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: looks good. So while you're breaking them. So I've seen
Speaker 1: will Smith I've seen. Actually, I was at a party
Speaker 1: the other day at a friend's house and I was
Speaker 1: hanging out with the celebrity and I was talking about you,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, yeah, you guys got to
Speaker 1: bring your kids. You guys have to try happy Ice.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Promise you won't regret it. And then she
Speaker 1: looked in her phone. She's like, wait a minute, Yes,
Speaker 1: we've been there. I'm tagged on the Instagram. I love
Speaker 1: this place. But what was the celebrity where you were like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I got this phone call for this
Speaker 1: gig um and you've done a lot. I've seen Will
Speaker 1: Smith's one, which was pretty about to say Smith that
Speaker 1: that right there, it's that one takes the kick, That
Speaker 1: one takes the kick. But you know, if I had
Speaker 1: to say one, that one takes the kicks. One head
Speaker 1: from Philly, right and like anybody moving from Philadelphia to
Speaker 1: California automatically people like refer that to a Will Smith story,
Speaker 1: Like yeah, but what's like, you know, like we get there,
Speaker 1: like and I'm from West Philly and he from Overbrook,
Speaker 1: which is in West Philly, so like it's like I'm
Speaker 1: from West Philadelphia by rade, so it's like the whole
Speaker 1: story matches like perfect though, right, So it's like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just to have interacted with them, and like
Speaker 1: that was just a big That was a big moment
Speaker 1: because that's like he's been inspiring to us the whole time,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like he's been the most
Speaker 1: inspiring person for Philadelphia for like decades. You know, like
Speaker 1: we got Kevin Hart now and like Meek Mill and stuff,
Speaker 1: but like Will Smith is like the icon the the
Speaker 1: face of Philadelphia realistically. So what did that call look
Speaker 1: like when you got it? Man, it was for It's
Speaker 1: for Jada's it was for jada birthday. I wasn't even
Speaker 1: sure if you're gonna see Will Smith. It was for
Speaker 1: Jada's birthday. Um, And so I did, like I made
Speaker 1: a real spetshow I mean, like a menu for her,
Speaker 1: Like it's none of the stuff she requested. I just
Speaker 1: did it because I was like, man, it's Jada, like
Speaker 1: well Smith, Jada like everybody, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: sounding like, man, I gotta go all out. So I
Speaker 1: made a special menu. I made a special flavor for
Speaker 1: red table raspberry, I mean, like a raspberry flavor water
Speaker 1: ice just for her. And we got there and we
Speaker 1: went to the crib. Crib is like super nice. They
Speaker 1: like basically like turned their house into a production facility,
Speaker 1: Like they turned into like a Warner Brothers. It's like
Speaker 1: crazy how they got to set up and yeah, and
Speaker 1: then we end up serving everybody. Then she comes out
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, snatch, Jada, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I like that, let's check out the menu. And she's like, oh,
Speaker 1: she's super happy see the menu. And then when I
Speaker 1: see Will and I'm like, oh, Ship, he really he's here,
Speaker 1: Like you know what I'm saying, I thought you would
Speaker 1: be here too, like it's her birthday, Like why wou't
Speaker 1: he be here for a birthday? His wife? So it
Speaker 1: was just I was like, oh, Ship is happening right?
Speaker 1: And then we get to talking and like the producers
Speaker 1: like his producer that worked for Westbrook or whatever, like
Speaker 1: they are like super fans of Happy Ice too, so
Speaker 1: like they couldn't hold in the story of like my
Speaker 1: story and being from Philly, so they started like pretty
Speaker 1: much just like telling my whole story to like them,
Speaker 1: They're like damn, like for real and it's all about
Speaker 1: you and They're like yeah, and then I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's black own. They're like what They're like, man, like
Speaker 1: showed the brothers in love. We're gonna post my Instagram
Speaker 1: And then they just started pulling like all the little
Speaker 1: directors from best Brook or whatever. It was like, look
Speaker 1: shoot that part of the thing, shoot that, shoot that,
Speaker 1: and they just turned like a whole thing, like out
Speaker 1: of nowhere. It was like. And then they just started
Speaker 1: interviewing me, like in front of the truck, and I'm
Speaker 1: like this is fucking fake, and like me and my
Speaker 1: me and Danielle because my my wife there because you know,
Speaker 1: of course she from Philly too, So I'm like, but
Speaker 1: you gotta come to this, come to this gig. Did
Speaker 1: you surprise her with it and just say, hey, we're
Speaker 1: going somewhere. I told her. I was like, babe well
Speaker 1: Smith and that we gotta go together. Like she came
Speaker 1: along with me, and like we just like at this
Speaker 1: over We're like looking at each other at day house
Speaker 1: and like did that just happened? And we're like, yo,
Speaker 1: they're really about the post And sure enough next day
Speaker 1: they posted this. It was crazy. And then you also
Speaker 1: did like aason to rule O. I believe right, Jason.
Speaker 1: That was that was how does that impact your business?
Speaker 1: Does it? Does it help it? When? Oh? Yeah, all
Speaker 1: that stuff helps, Like all that stuff helps like a lot,
Speaker 1: like super Low, Like, honestly, social media is the biggest platform,
Speaker 1: like anybody that's anybody that's trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to get their business out there, like social media is.
Speaker 1: For sure, they think that they should be focused on
Speaker 1: figuring out how they can take social media to the
Speaker 1: next level because happy, Honestly, at this point, you can
Speaker 1: go anywhere in the world. It's nowhere we can't go
Speaker 1: where we won't be successful at this point, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And it's because there's so much uh
Speaker 1: like love we get from the celebrities, like I was
Speaker 1: tattooed recently, like because I barely tattooed, but I was
Speaker 1: tattooed recently the quick story and the person I was
Speaker 1: tattooing and has like a foundation in Africa, and I
Speaker 1: was like, damn, you think that guy's do good in Africa?
Speaker 1: And she's like yeah. So we started like attacking like
Speaker 1: how that could work? And we I was like, damn,
Speaker 1: what did they charge over there? So I can kind
Speaker 1: like figure out what my profit marks would be with
Speaker 1: slaver calls. So she ended up calling on our people
Speaker 1: from Africa and was like, hey, yo, like what is
Speaker 1: like a popular ice cream spot and where you at
Speaker 1: in Africa and like what they normally charged. And the
Speaker 1: girl like, they like this super popping spot. It's like
Speaker 1: maximum three dollars and US dollars and not at a
Speaker 1: and we're like oh yeah, and she's like why are
Speaker 1: you ask and she was like, oh, my friend Happy Ice,
Speaker 1: that own Happy I right here are he was thinking
Speaker 1: about coming And the girls like no fucking way, and
Speaker 1: she like what she like, Happy Ice? No you're talking
Speaker 1: about Happy Ice and she's like yeah Happy. She was
Speaker 1: like you're not with them, You're not with that guy,
Speaker 1: and she like yes I am. So she faced time
Speaker 1: and the girl started screaming like oh my god, it's
Speaker 1: really you. And she like if you bring Happy X
Speaker 1: to Africa it would go crazy, like all the celebrities
Speaker 1: post your stuff. We all know about Happy Ice and
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the fuck? Yeah are we? It's just
Speaker 1: serious right now, like Africa, bro, Like social media is
Speaker 1: like you guys great with your social media and social
Speaker 1: media is crazy. Yeah. Yeah, So whenever I'm trying to
Speaker 1: find you guys or hunt you down, I'll either if
Speaker 1: I'm not by brows or by one of your stores
Speaker 1: out try and track where's the truck? Yeah? That that
Speaker 1: social media, you can't top that. But if I would say,
Speaker 1: like another celebrity, I was like Will Smith, I said
Speaker 1: he took the kick, but I was super surprised and
Speaker 1: like hype about doing a cater and for Travis Barker, Oh,
Speaker 1: we did something for his daughter, and like, like I
Speaker 1: have a bunch of tattoos. Honestly, if if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for Travis Barker, I probably wouldn't be tatered. Like this
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, like like he's like the icon of tattoos.
Speaker 1: So like yeah, man, So like I got to go
Speaker 1: to his crib and it was so crazy when I
Speaker 1: I froze and I saw him. I super frozed, like
Speaker 1: I had like a perfect perfect moment to like actually
Speaker 1: like say something, and like I froze, I kept on walking.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my fucking guy. When I walked by,
Speaker 1: I was like, dude, I didn't take it. I didn't
Speaker 1: say that. I'm like what happened? It was like I
Speaker 1: could have said something like I froze, like I guess
Speaker 1: I would start struck. I guess I don't know, Like,
Speaker 1: but yeah, my biggest most favorite artists celebrity of all
Speaker 1: time is jay Z and I had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: work with him and he just kind of threw me
Speaker 1: in front of him and the only word that could
Speaker 1: form was butter and everybody was like speak and I
Speaker 1: was just like putter. Yeah, that was like, but that's
Speaker 1: the best you could come up with, bro, It's crazy.
Speaker 1: I saw jay Z before too. Uh. We did a
Speaker 1: catering for for Ditty for his his twins birthday. They
Speaker 1: did They went thereut like a skate Raine and yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw I saw jay Z there. He was with Blue.
Speaker 1: It was cool. We had the car that the Kardashians.
Speaker 1: Derek Kardashians was like her kids like killing happy Ice
Speaker 1: and it was like murdering it. So that was that
Speaker 1: was dope. Cove was like very calm and chill. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's super chill. And I feel like when he looks
Speaker 1: at you, he looks at you in your eyes like
Speaker 1: it starts for your soul and you're like, I'm not
Speaker 1: expecting that. I would love to have a like a
Speaker 1: real moment when I saw them there, I was just
Speaker 1: like I was catering. So yeah, I couldn't really like
Speaker 1: bust it up with anymore. Like yeah, if I could
Speaker 1: bust it that way, hope I would for sure. Like
Speaker 1: I have a lot to say, So do you feel
Speaker 1: like success is here free happy ice and yourself and
Speaker 1: your family or do you feel like there's another milestone?
Speaker 1: And what what does what does it? What does success
Speaker 1: actually look like for you? Now? I mean success for me,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, like things of success, but
Speaker 1: like for me, like successful to me is like really
Speaker 1: making sure that my the generation after me is good,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And it doesn't really have
Speaker 1: a lot to do with like money, but more so
Speaker 1: like me taking my time and like really going as
Speaker 1: you nip you would say, like going through this marathon
Speaker 1: and like really learning every step of like of making money,
Speaker 1: of creating business, so that way, like my daughter and
Speaker 1: everybody else, I can teach them like all the steps,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Because like the lack of
Speaker 1: knowledge is the real reason why people aren't successful. They
Speaker 1: don't really have to do like with people not having
Speaker 1: a good idea. A lot of people do have good ideas,
Speaker 1: but they don't understand how to really execute that idea,
Speaker 1: how to make that then come to reality. What steps
Speaker 1: do you have to take? What steps shouldn't you take?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, um So, like success to
Speaker 1: me is really just like taking my time and learning
Speaker 1: every aspect of it and how to do every how
Speaker 1: to how to really take every step the right way,
Speaker 1: and then being able to teach that to everybody that
Speaker 1: that I know that I'm surrounded with and making helping
Speaker 1: them become millionaires. You know what I'm saying. That's really
Speaker 1: where I'm gonna get a lot. That's why, That's why
Speaker 1: I'm I really feel successful. I'm gonna really feel like
Speaker 1: the man when I can like help everybody else, like
Speaker 1: when your whole crew is yeah, true family, like after me.
Speaker 1: I don't want know like poverty or like poor broke mills.
Speaker 1: That's that's just all gonna be optional, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like this that won't happen no more. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like everybody problems will just be
Speaker 1: this fun the fun stuff. Like everybody would have the
Speaker 1: opportunity and had the resources and knowledge to be successful,
Speaker 1: as they would say, like I don't want to teach
Speaker 1: everybody to fish. That's my success, you know. Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what it is for me. But Happy it's got
Speaker 1: a lot going on. Um, if we want to talk
Speaker 1: money wise, uh yeah, we got a lot happening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how can how can people join the Happy Ice club?
Speaker 1: What you mean like far as like, oh, what's the
Speaker 1: next steps? Next steps is like far as like business wise,
Speaker 1: business like that type of success. Um, franchising, So you're
Speaker 1: gonna get into franchising. We're gonna get into franchising. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do corporate own, but I'm also gonna do
Speaker 1: franchise and I'm gonna let other people come on board. Um,
Speaker 1: and I'm actually looking to like I'm actually gonna have
Speaker 1: like it's gonna be two parts of franchise in one
Speaker 1: where it's like it's just a regular way, right, But
Speaker 1: it's a lot of people who are like more capable
Speaker 1: of creating a successful business and putting their time and
Speaker 1: energy and too, that don't have the capital for it.
Speaker 1: We actually fund the trucks for people that that don't
Speaker 1: have the opera, don't have the funds to do it.
Speaker 1: But they have the willpower and they have like the drive,
Speaker 1: the passion, and even people be having the knowledge you know,
Speaker 1: to like run a company and and and build, but
Speaker 1: just don't have a fun. So I want to help
Speaker 1: put those people in position because it's hard, you know,
Speaker 1: it's hard to get that type of capital, you know.
Speaker 1: I want people that I want to put a lot
Speaker 1: of sugar and cinnamon in this. This is gonna look
Speaker 1: very interesting. The place the thing about to put the
Speaker 1: most in there is butter. Wow. So for all y'all listeners, um,
Speaker 1: I just watched him put a ton of sugar and
Speaker 1: cinnamon that wasn't sugar. Well you know, it's not even
Speaker 1: a shot of alcohol. Okay, so so almost a shot
Speaker 1: of sugar and uh now we're watching a bunch of
Speaker 1: chunks of butter. This looks like it's gonna taste really good.
Speaker 1: But this is not something you'd eat if you want
Speaker 1: an Instagram body. No, I wasn't too sure if you
Speaker 1: ate this with bread or if you just ate it
Speaker 1: just like this. Definitely with bread. That's funny. Really, I
Speaker 1: have bread and veg definitely all right, Well, today I
Speaker 1: guess we're gonna go without bread. But but yeah, it
Speaker 1: looks and smells delicious. Oh, this is this is it,
Speaker 1: this is this is it, this is and you ate
Speaker 1: this last night last night. So does your wife make
Speaker 1: this for you sometimes? Okay, well she You guys grew
Speaker 1: up and you're you moved here from Philly together together.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. A lot of successful men I see have
Speaker 1: their wives and their girlfriends. It's it's it's it's definitely
Speaker 1: a team effort. Do you feel like she played a
Speaker 1: pivotal role in yes, definitely, definitely, definitely. Um When we
Speaker 1: first started, half used like everything was from scratcher. Like
Speaker 1: I was thinking brand in the beginning, but I didn't
Speaker 1: have the money to to be it too invest into
Speaker 1: like things that make a brand, so like to make
Speaker 1: a brain what you need you need like Brandon's napkins,
Speaker 1: Brandon Spoons, branded cups, like all these different things and right,
Speaker 1: and I didn't have that. So, like, just to get
Speaker 1: an example, like we used to go off like three
Speaker 1: hours of sleep, especially me all the time, and she
Speaker 1: would do the same thing with me a lot of times,
Speaker 1: right because we used to have to make the product.
Speaker 1: You know, Uh, let me get a quick walk through
Speaker 1: of our day we will wake up in the morning.
Speaker 1: We have to wake up around like seven thirty, right
Speaker 1: seventh thirty. Get ready, get to the actual truck, the
Speaker 1: Happy X truck at the commissary around like nine, Hop
Speaker 1: on the truck, take the truck out and be at
Speaker 1: the location on Melrose by ten because we had to
Speaker 1: get there before Merrow's got busy because it would be
Speaker 1: no parking spots. Right, so we'll get there by ten
Speaker 1: right before everybody get there to get a parking. I
Speaker 1: will open up around eleven, so we'll be open. And
Speaker 1: when we first opened, we didn't we we didn't really
Speaker 1: know about business hours. That wasn't even a thing, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. We just like man, we just
Speaker 1: opened whenever it slowed down, and we're gonna close yea
Speaker 1: once it drops to zero dollars an hour open. We
Speaker 1: had a matter of fact, we had a closing time
Speaker 1: and not really opening time, so we decided to stay
Speaker 1: open late because it was a wing spot on the corner.
Speaker 1: So we just stay open. So remember we was up
Speaker 1: at seven, got down there attending m We used to
Speaker 1: close that ten am. So we us just put me
Speaker 1: and her used to put in twelve hours ship when
Speaker 1: at ten at ten p m. When we closed, we
Speaker 1: had to drive back to the commissary. We had to
Speaker 1: clean up and drive back to the commissary. Let's say
Speaker 1: it's like let's say we're walking in the house at
Speaker 1: eleven thirty. At eleven thirty, she would go right to
Speaker 1: the kitchen and start labeling cups. We had like stickers,
Speaker 1: like transparent stickers with half the ace on, and she
Speaker 1: would like start labeling cups to replace the cups that
Speaker 1: we had sold that day. And I would go down
Speaker 1: in the basement and start making the ice. So she
Speaker 1: will be up on the cups, be done or doing that.
Speaker 1: She'll be coming to cash and she would probably let's
Speaker 1: say she ended, and what's ready to go to sleep?
Speaker 1: Back around like two, and then sometimes I'll be ready
Speaker 1: at to but a lot of times I have to
Speaker 1: go to like five, like especially for weekends because we
Speaker 1: have busy weekends. So I'll be up to five in
Speaker 1: the morning, and I get like a couple of hours
Speaker 1: of sleep, maybe like two three, and hot right back
Speaker 1: up and do it all over again. And this is
Speaker 1: me and her all day. So like if I didn't
Speaker 1: have her there to do like the other pieces like man,
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't know, like that would have been.
Speaker 1: That would have been more of a struggle for me,
Speaker 1: like trying to figure out how can I do all that?
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure. You know, I probably would have
Speaker 1: worked it out, but it would have been like I
Speaker 1: don't know, I couldn't even tell you. And I'm happy
Speaker 1: I'll never find out neither. Yeah, I love hearing like
Speaker 1: the husband wife does. And yeah, and she deserved credit
Speaker 1: for sure, And I wouldn't. I wouldn't have it no
Speaker 1: other way, you know what I'm saying. And like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm I take a lot of pride, I take a
Speaker 1: lot of prodem and and my wife, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, because on top of like this whole business thing,
Speaker 1: like I'm pretty, I'm kind of I'm pretty. I called myself.
Speaker 1: I guess people call me like an influencer. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like the person I'm really inspired by
Speaker 1: it's like somebody like Lebron, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like I want to be like I want to attach
Speaker 1: myself to his image of like businessman who also take
Speaker 1: pride of his family. You know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 1: he don't like when have we heard about Lebron and
Speaker 1: the news about sheet and his wife or you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, or like being disloyed to her, disrespect
Speaker 1: to her. You know what I'm saying. He's always super respectful.
Speaker 1: So like, I take pride of my wife. She's been
Speaker 1: on this journey and I want to just like be
Speaker 1: like another another version of him, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And that's cool because that is a true sament. I
Speaker 1: know as a woman watching that, you're like, Wow, that's
Speaker 1: a beautiful thing. I pray to God, my my man,
Speaker 1: you know, can can see the value in that. Yeah, now,
Speaker 1: now let's try this meal. Yes, big beans and hot dogs.
Speaker 1: Here we go. Thank you so much for feeding first,
Speaker 1: Thank you you you got some turkey and be that's good.
Speaker 1: I'm hungry. I've been smelling this. Well, hey, it doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: all right, here goes to test. Let's see if his
Speaker 1: eye seasoning skills is good. Ready, Oh my gosh, dude,
Speaker 1: is fire. This is so good. Yeah, this is so good.
Speaker 1: I feel bad for the crew that is not trying
Speaker 1: this baked beans and the hot dogs. I'm telling you, yo,
Speaker 1: this is so delicious. It don't matter how how much
Speaker 1: money you make, you can always go back to baking
Speaker 1: a hot dog and you can taste the cinnamon and sugar,
Speaker 1: and you can pick this thing like tomorrow, same time.
Speaker 1: Keep this thing up, but a little we're in there
Speaker 1: and loosing that up a little bit. Michael. Wait, it's
Speaker 1: gonna taste the same, might taste better if i's forgetting
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Lamar for coming out and feeding
Speaker 1: us amazing dish on Eating while Broken. I hope to
Speaker 1: see you soon. It's surprisingly good though. It was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely going to make this at my house for sure,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna put this recipe probably on our sites
Speaker 1: and online, and you know, hopefully one day it will
Speaker 1: be added to the Happy Ice menu. Thank you for
Speaker 1: having me. I appreciate it. I appreciate all opportunities, and
Speaker 1: I appreciate this one because you build a platform of
Speaker 1: inspiring others, so you know, I'm always happy being partisan
Speaker 1: like that. Thank you. Thank you for more Eating while
Speaker 1: Broke from I Heart Radio and The Black Effect. Visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows and Well Broken