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Speaker 1: My next guest she gets back in the way of

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Speaker 1: food and everybody in the studio. No, Sean mcduhn as

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Speaker 1: a guest owner by food, I kind of lose my

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Speaker 1: mind a little bit. She heard. She personifies brains and

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Speaker 1: beauty as success as a successful businesswoman, entrepreneur, restaurant tour author,

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Speaker 1: and culinary visionary. That's a lot culinary visionary. She's building

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Speaker 1: a restaurant empire, a fusing traditional business savvy and industry

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Speaker 1: skills with lavish creations and niche restaurants that are appealing

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Speaker 1: to foodies worldwide. And myself, I am a foodie. She

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Speaker 1: recently died at her Atlanta based restaurant, The Real Milk

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Speaker 1: and Honey Restaurant in College Park. I landed, got my

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Speaker 1: truck park right up Frock one and there, and they

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Speaker 1: had me because y'all, when I eat, I eat like

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Speaker 1: three different things. So I go and I sample. I'm

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Speaker 1: a sampler. Please walk with the money making conversations, Monique

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Speaker 1: rows Hi there, Thank you for having me appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: That was a heck of my introduction? Was it was? It?

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Speaker 1: Was it worthy? Though? Was it worthy? I didn't even

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Speaker 1: realize I did all that. Well, you know. Well, first

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Speaker 1: of all, they say you're BYO, you're from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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Speaker 1: I am born and raised. Thirty years I lived there

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Speaker 1: to Atlanta. So so you you do them, You do

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Speaker 1: the Milwaukee thing. You buy ass Chicago, which is one

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Speaker 1: of the great eating towns. Chicago, My god, I tell people.

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Speaker 1: I'll tell people honestly, Chicago they have the great breakfast spots,

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Speaker 1: you know, because the text Mex is up there, barbecue

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Speaker 1: is up there, pizzas up there. Of course you seafood

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Speaker 1: and so so you buy ass Chicago one of my

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Speaker 1: favorite cities. Of course, the code will get you to bypassing. Okay, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I had enough for the code. I actually I guess

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Speaker 1: I passed through Chicago because I went to U. I

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Speaker 1: s I got my you know, freshman ten pounds eating

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Speaker 1: in Chicago. But I just I didn't settle there. By

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Speaker 1: thirty years old, I was sick of Midwest winters and

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Speaker 1: decided to take my talent south to Atlanta. So what

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Speaker 1: was the experience about it coming to Atlanta that made

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Speaker 1: it unique for you and allow you to realize that

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Speaker 1: this is a place I can really live my dreams? Um,

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Speaker 1: I just felt I had you know, traveled to Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: have visited as particularly as a kid. I do have

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Speaker 1: a lot of family in Atlanta. UM, and I just

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Speaker 1: remember feeling that, you know, I had done all that

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Speaker 1: I could do in Milwaukee and stuff like, there was

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Speaker 1: just something more out there for me. It was a

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Speaker 1: good time, and my son was entering high school, my

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Speaker 1: daughter was enter in kindergarten. It was a good transition period,

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Speaker 1: UM and UH, I just I wanted to go something warm,

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Speaker 1: to be honest with you, I was like, look, this

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Speaker 1: is a good go to. I was getting a divorce,

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Speaker 1: so it just was a lot of reasons to UM,

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Speaker 1: just for a fresh start. And it actually, UM was

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Speaker 1: one of the best move that I've made thus far

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Speaker 1: in regards to my UM career. Now, so you come down,

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Speaker 1: you leave Milwaukee, come all down. You know she's coming

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Speaker 1: down down in Atlanta, Georgia today. Now you're in Atlanta

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Speaker 1: and uh so, but you have restaurants on the East

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Speaker 1: Coast and uh Bowie, Maryland, Washington, d C. And then

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Speaker 1: you have restaurants in Atlanta. So let's talk about you

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Speaker 1: in Atlanta. But I'm seeing restaurants on your website on

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Speaker 1: the East coast. That is true. Yeah, I kind of

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Speaker 1: UM can the Atlanta UH did about eight see seven

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Speaker 1: years there, UM, and then UM decided to Actually it

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Speaker 1: wasn't a decision at the time. I was a general

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Speaker 1: manager of t I's restaurant there in Atlanta, Scales UM,

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Speaker 1: and chef Sammy Davis was the executive chef. So that's

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Speaker 1: actually where we met. UM. We both worked there. As

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Speaker 1: we know that restaurant is closed. It didn't work out,

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Speaker 1: but during our time they're together, we started doing these

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Speaker 1: pop up brunches UM. I think our first one was

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Speaker 1: at my Fair Suite. So we would take restaurants that

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Speaker 1: were closed on the Sunday and then go in and

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Speaker 1: do what we called our Top ten brunch. So that's

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Speaker 1: kind of how Milk and Honey got rebirthed indirectly, UM

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Speaker 1: was by these bunches that we were doing, and it

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Speaker 1: really was just out of necessity, Like UM, Sammy had

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Speaker 1: quit Scales. I was on my one ft out the door. UM.

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Speaker 1: We had like one client because we do restaurant consulting also,

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Speaker 1: and so we were like, let's just do these bunches

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Speaker 1: every week, makes money, UM, and they just blew up.

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Speaker 1: They were people were really they were really successful and

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Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, anybody who knows restaurants to

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Speaker 1: completely move them to somebody's restaurant and then moved back

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Speaker 1: out in the same days is no small feat. Like

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Speaker 1: it was very challenging and a lot of work. But

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Speaker 1: let's turn down Monique, because this sounds really cool what

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Speaker 1: you're doing here. Was this something you're doing on a

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Speaker 1: monthly basis or weekly basis? Weekly every single Sunday? Okay,

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Speaker 1: so so do I'm assuming that you started developing a

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Speaker 1: mailing list and you to the notices your social media.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. See, I was actually blessing up to

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Speaker 1: be partner chef Sammy as a food network chef. He

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Speaker 1: won chop redemption. Uh, he's also celebrity chef. He was

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Speaker 1: a little Wayne chef for many years. Um, a bunch

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Speaker 1: of other people, Jill Scott, Puffy, but a bunch of people,

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Speaker 1: but had enough of a following on social media. Um,

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Speaker 1: and I did it as well personally, although um not

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Speaker 1: as big as his. And we kind of just put

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Speaker 1: it out that this was all like social media and

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Speaker 1: word of mouth. So people were telling like, I went

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Speaker 1: to this bunch, you gotta go. Um, we moved from

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Speaker 1: my fair suites to Epic Lounge which is now um

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Speaker 1: the other milk and Honey on Cascade. So we were

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Speaker 1: doing popa bunches there um and they just were really

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Speaker 1: successful like when we and I think the reason why

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Speaker 1: they were so successful, besides the fact that we marketed

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Speaker 1: them well, was we took ten items and just did

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Speaker 1: those ten items better than anybody. It wasn't an extensive menu.

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Speaker 1: You can only come and get those ten items, and

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Speaker 1: we we we killed those ten items. So I think

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Speaker 1: that's what made it so successful such a short period

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Speaker 1: of turn. Now, one of the one of the innovative

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Speaker 1: dishes was the deep fried strawberry shortcake biscuits. Yes, yes,

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Speaker 1: and that actually was an accident we were we happened

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Speaker 1: with me and in the kitchen and um, some of

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Speaker 1: the biscuits fell over into the French toast batter. So

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Speaker 1: we decided to just deep by them and then we

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Speaker 1: talked on a cream cheese icing and some strawberries and

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Speaker 1: the rest of his history. Like that's one of our

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Speaker 1: aside from strip and grits, was one of our top

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Speaker 1: stop stopping silly biscuits just fell over yar, but I

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Speaker 1: acted it, but maybe I piste off knocked over some

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Speaker 1: biscuits and that that that anchor has has made us

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Speaker 1: a lot of money. I'm happy about that one. And

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Speaker 1: so so you take that you you dipping it down

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Speaker 1: and did you put it in a little basket and

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Speaker 1: dropping how many minutes in the maybe two minutes. It

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Speaker 1: doesn't take long at all. Um, we'll put you up.

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Speaker 1: We were just using our regular like homemade biscuits, which, um,

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Speaker 1: those were good. But now we use a we've evolved.

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Speaker 1: We use this it's a waffle biscuits, so it's more

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Speaker 1: like a uh funnel cake kind of if it's really

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Speaker 1: really good. So we put that in French tokes batter.

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Speaker 1: We deep fry it, um you topic with some powder, sugar,

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Speaker 1: our cream, cheese, icing and then um strawberries. But now

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Speaker 1: we have different flavors that we do the turtles. Turtles

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Speaker 1: you can get caramel and pecans and cookies and cream

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Speaker 1: and blue and kans on they stop, stop, stop, you're crazy,

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Speaker 1: you're crazy pieces And that's what we do, you know,

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Speaker 1: she said she used a coolinary visionary. She said that

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Speaker 1: I said that in the inter went oh wow, and

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Speaker 1: I'm really so so you know the fun thing about

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Speaker 1: this interview. Is that just excitement, the excitement in your voice,

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Speaker 1: you're having fun doing what you're doing. Absolutely, absolutely, you can't.

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Speaker 1: I mean this is you gotta understand that I'm from Markee, Wisconsin,

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Speaker 1: teenage mother Sammy from are still me Um been homeless

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Speaker 1: before he grew up in foster homes. When you come

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Speaker 1: from where we come from, when you've got nothing to come,

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Speaker 1: to have this type of success in such a short

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Speaker 1: at the time, not that we haven't been working for

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Speaker 1: it our whole lives, but to have this have happened

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Speaker 1: in the last couple of years is just a mane.

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Speaker 1: We started moving honey with five thousand dollars and in

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Speaker 1: the last almost three years where we've grown more than

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Speaker 1: twelve million dollars in revenues and counting so far. So

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Speaker 1: we can't help but be happy. Like I'm amazed when

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Speaker 1: I when I pull up and I still see the

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Speaker 1: lines outside and I see that people really are, you know,

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Speaker 1: supporting and and still showing up for our food, Like

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Speaker 1: it blows my mind. And I have to keep this

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Speaker 1: energy because that's what got us here. We can't lose that. Okay, well, okay, cool,

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Speaker 1: I'm hungry. You know that right, and we're gonnabout to

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Speaker 1: go to break when we come back and find out

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Speaker 1: where you at today and Rashaan and his team, We're

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Speaker 1: coming down, girl, were coming down. We're coming down eight

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Speaker 1: be back with more money making conversation just start when

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Speaker 1: it grows this ra Sean McDonald, Weather's a quick breakfast,

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Speaker 1: meeting with colleagues, brunch and friends with family and launching

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Speaker 1: alone or carry out the dial at home, all your office.

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Speaker 1: I've been there, College Park, the real Milk and Honey cafe.

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Speaker 1: Food is great on the phone, is uh the visionary?

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Speaker 1: The food visionary I had, I hadn't. I haven't had

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Speaker 1: this much fun talking to somebody about food in a

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Speaker 1: long time. She's fantastic. Please welcome back on the show,

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Speaker 1: Monique Roads. So yeah, right now, Monique, I'm in Maryland

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Speaker 1: right now. College our College Park Maryland locations, so we

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Speaker 1: not only have one in College Park in Georgia, but

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Speaker 1: also in College Park. Well, you're making it happen. So

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Speaker 1: let's let's break down each restaurant all of the same

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Speaker 1: menu are I know wants a seafood restaurant in Washington,

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Speaker 1: d C. So I know that menu is different. So

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Speaker 1: let's go to each location talking about or what's what's

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Speaker 1: the what's the theme? Okay, okay, sure, um, yeah, they

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Speaker 1: are heavy on the seafood. I will say that we

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Speaker 1: do use a lot of lobster, um, salmon, shrimp, that

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Speaker 1: type of stuff. We do have you know, some chicken

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Speaker 1: and one burger on the menu. But for the most

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Speaker 1: at all the locations are are heavily based in in seafood.

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Speaker 1: They are very similar, although that we tweaked certain things,

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Speaker 1: like for Atlanta, UM, the shrimp and grips are slightly different.

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Speaker 1: Like I said, we do, you know, because it's Georgia.

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Speaker 1: We did the peaches and cream, so we tweaked a

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Speaker 1: little bit. But for the most, like the core of it,

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Speaker 1: those those ten items I talked about, those main items

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Speaker 1: that got us where we are today, the shrimp and grips,

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Speaker 1: the lobstig and cheese, croissant, samon hash those type of things. UM,

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Speaker 1: stay consistent throughout every location. Now, now the seafood restaurant.

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Speaker 1: Did you open in Washington, d c H. Talk to

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Speaker 1: us about that? UM well, opening January January of this year,

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Speaker 1: correct January it was, it was, yeah, when we did

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Speaker 1: official opening. Yeah, we kind of soft open November last

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Speaker 1: year January, and then what we found happened was everybody

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Speaker 1: knew that we were the owners of Milk and Honey

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Speaker 1: that had launched this Catch tweting too, so they came

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Speaker 1: in all the d be people looking for milk and honey,

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Speaker 1: you know dishes. So we kind of took a turn

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Speaker 1: about four months ago and switched it over to the

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Speaker 1: bar at Milk and Honey. So it still has the

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Speaker 1: Catch twenty two dishes to see food dishes like the

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Speaker 1: whole red snapper and deep fried crab legs and the

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Speaker 1: lamb chops and the things that people wanted. But then

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Speaker 1: we kind of fused it with Milk and Honey because

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Speaker 1: we found that in this particularly in this area, Milk

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Speaker 1: and Honey. Um, it's pretty well known. So everybody, even

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Speaker 1: though they were coming to check out Catch, they were

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Speaker 1: still asking for the Milk and honey stuff. So we

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Speaker 1: found a perfect marriage. I'm kind of happy with it.

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Speaker 1: Um it allows us to do both things very well.

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Speaker 1: Um that's the only Milk and Honey location that has

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Speaker 1: an entire four bar, so um, you know, it's just

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Speaker 1: a different re vibe. It's in d C, so you

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Speaker 1: can you know, take a date there, hang out with

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Speaker 1: your girlfriends. It's not it's still casual because milking honey

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Speaker 1: is casual, but it's kind of a more trendy, hip

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Speaker 1: kind of place. You just don't sit on certain furniture.

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Speaker 1: It's like, you know, right right there is for display

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Speaker 1: on I walked in there. Now it looks looks suitable,

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Speaker 1: but I advise you not to sit right. It's the

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Speaker 1: imagery that there's So what was the typical day of

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Speaker 1: Monique Roles? Okay? Uh, my day typically starts at about

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Speaker 1: four am. UM, I get up, I respond all the

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Speaker 1: text messages and messages from staff at the different restaurants, emails, UM,

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Speaker 1: take a little moment to meditate and praise, prepare for

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Speaker 1: once ahead. I'm a mother too, so UM, I have

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Speaker 1: a high school er uh and a grandmother, but a mother, UM,

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Speaker 1: and I get her out for the day and then

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Speaker 1: UH come back. And I have a home office as well.

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Speaker 1: I try to do something there. And said, you know,

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Speaker 1: we have offices at the restaurants, but once you're in there,

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Speaker 1: it's a kind of it's it's like impossible to really

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Speaker 1: get anything done. So I try to, um spend a

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Speaker 1: little time there at my home office. UM. I also

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Speaker 1: owned Mink and Honey, which is a beauty brand. UM,

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Speaker 1: So I might spend a little time on that, look

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Speaker 1: at the orders and that, do some promotions, and I

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Speaker 1: talked to marketing. I run around. I try to hit

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Speaker 1: every location in the DMV if I'm here, UM, if

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Speaker 1: I'm in Atlanta. I pretty much been my entire day

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Speaker 1: on Main Street for looking out, you know, scouting new locations, UM,

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Speaker 1: because we are looking for a second location in Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: and my shock, am I shock, You'm only looking for

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Speaker 1: another location. You just will not sit down. You will

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Speaker 1: not sit that. So it just it just goes that way, honestly,

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Speaker 1: until until late at night. Really I usually don't. I

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Speaker 1: try to get at least four or five hours of sleep,

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Speaker 1: but that very rarely happens. UM. I have to work

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Speaker 1: on that. That is actually something that I've committed to

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Speaker 1: myself to do better at. But yeah, I go all day,

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Speaker 1: all day long. It's a lot. We're when the process

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Speaker 1: of building this team. We just had hired a district

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Speaker 1: manager UM recently earlier this year, so that's been a

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Speaker 1: great help. But you know, it's just been me and

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Speaker 1: Samy kind of doing this all on our own. So

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Speaker 1: now that we're going we have two more locations opening

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Speaker 1: in this area, another in d C and in another

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Speaker 1: in Maryland. So, um, it's trying to build a team.

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Speaker 1: So that's that's my focus. Because you said in your

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Speaker 1: intro staid a restaurant empire, you know, and so how

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Speaker 1: do you maintain quality control? That's the key when you

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Speaker 1: started evolving, when you start building, like you said, just

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Speaker 1: one restaurant, catching it two, you had to differment you

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Speaker 1: and then you go over there people going, look, we

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Speaker 1: want some shrimp, and grid want where is that? Where's

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Speaker 1: that that biscuit? That de fried biscuit? And so you

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Speaker 1: have to accommodate. So you know now that your brand

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Speaker 1: has to stay consistent otherwise it because you're not saying

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Speaker 1: the word negative, but people they will complain if they

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Speaker 1: go to someplace and and they're they're redefined what you

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Speaker 1: what you're supposed to be doing your dreams saying look

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Speaker 1: they're good, but they don't have that. And no one

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Speaker 1: wants negative wording about a great set up. So how

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Speaker 1: do you maintain quality control? Um, we use really really

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Speaker 1: quality products. So even if staff member, because you know

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Speaker 1: you're you're leaving your your your brand, and your business

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Speaker 1: in the hands of other people. So even if they

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Speaker 1: missed the mark, we still are better than our competitions

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Speaker 1: best because our our quality of the product is so good,

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Speaker 1: so that that's where we put our money. UM. We

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Speaker 1: don't really focus on UM. And I want anybody if

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Speaker 1: let's listen to your show, that wants to open a restaurant.

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Speaker 1: I always tell all new inspired and work restaurants whoms

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Speaker 1: do not get into the money pit of trying to

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Speaker 1: put all your money in the front of the house,

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Speaker 1: meaning your dishes, your flatwear, your decor, your tables, that

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Speaker 1: type of so the stuff that you take loans out

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Speaker 1: for and you never up and smoke money is what

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Speaker 1: Sammy calls it. That's what it is. UM. You lose it,

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Speaker 1: put your money in the product and then you know

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Speaker 1: that's you know, your revenue will support that. So I

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Speaker 1: think that that is what allows us to remain consistent

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Speaker 1: because our product, we use the same product everywhere. We

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Speaker 1: don't allow you know, one location to skimper you know,

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Speaker 1: steady using heavy cream, use half and half or you know,

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Speaker 1: like we really make sure that the quality of the

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Speaker 1: product is great and superior. So therefore even if somebody

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Speaker 1: you know, messes up our grids, you can't really they

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Speaker 1: still better than the average grips, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: I'm a great boy because I'm from Houston. Now, grit's

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Speaker 1: got to be right now. And I wouldn't know what

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Speaker 1: I'm saying because because a lot of people through out

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Speaker 1: that do some grits that're going okay, really really really,

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Speaker 1: Yeah it's horrible, but yeah we're not. We're not just

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Speaker 1: boiling water for our grids. So it's a lot that

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Speaker 1: goes into a pot of milk and honey grits and um.

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Speaker 1: Like I said, even if somebody was a little bit off,

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Speaker 1: our product is so good that it's still would you know,

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Speaker 1: stand up and it still would be consistent hopefully to

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Speaker 1: what people are you know, accustomed to from me. Okay, Monique,

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Speaker 1: I talk about the show money making conversation. I hear

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Speaker 1: all this hard work, I hear all his energy. Where

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Speaker 1: is the balance life in Monique's life? Yeah, I just

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Speaker 1: told you I'm working on it. I wish I could say,

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Speaker 1: stop into your life, do not be roshan. I making

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Speaker 1: all this money and all of a sudden you go okay, yeah, okay,

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Speaker 1: take a vacation. Take a vacation. Okay, it's not didn't

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Speaker 1: fall apont I tried, and then I'm working on vacations.

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Speaker 1: It's just horrible. I think it's because it's I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I think hopefully over time I will level out a

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Speaker 1: little bit and balance out and do better at that. UM.

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Speaker 1: I know it's very very important. It's hard to you know, balance, Okay,

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Speaker 1: what's hard life and business and making sure you're getting

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Speaker 1: enough rest. And you know, because because you're not, you're

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Speaker 1: not have similar qualities. You have similal quality. We have

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Speaker 1: similar qualities. You get up at four I get up

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Speaker 1: before fifteen, okay, okay, I actually sleep about four five hours,

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Speaker 1: but five hours, never four hours is usually my my

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Speaker 1: life schedule. So that's so we're there, okay. So me

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Speaker 1: and you. So I'm coaching your law, I'm mentoring you. Okay,

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Speaker 1: thank you. I appreciate I need it because because because

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Speaker 1: of the fact that you know, the success that you're

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Speaker 1: having is awesome of you know, me being able to

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Speaker 1: take time for you to take time to interview me,

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Speaker 1: let me know that you know how to balance your life, okay.

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Speaker 1: And my whole thing is that is that in the

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Speaker 1: process of being successful. You know, I won't just I

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Speaker 1: want you to just start telling your story more. I'm

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Speaker 1: amazed that you don't have a TV show because you

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Speaker 1: just you just you just ooze star power. You know,

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Speaker 1: you just tell me such amazing stories and things like that.

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Speaker 1: But you just take a week, just to take a

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Speaker 1: week here, week there, a weekend there. Just start just

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Speaker 1: taking because the restaurant's not gonna close. The probably is

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Speaker 1: gonna shut down. You've seen the start because you're doing it.

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Speaker 1: You're setting it up anywhere I know is going to

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Speaker 1: be your year. Are relaxing because I hear general managers

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Speaker 1: being hired. I hear a much more a much more

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Speaker 1: structured environment where you're able to you know, even when

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Speaker 1: you're on vacation, you'll be able to monitor people via zoom. Hey, right,

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Speaker 1: because I know you're crazy behind is not gonna let release.

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Speaker 1: You know, you're right, that's very important. I think the

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Speaker 1: right team is what allows that to happen. And so

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Speaker 1: I gotta just pire and and surrounding ourselves with the

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Speaker 1: right people and you will. And so before we go,

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Speaker 1: just talk everybody about the restaurant locations and the websites

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Speaker 1: and uh do you right now? Currently in the d

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Speaker 1: n V area, we have Buoy in College Park, Maryland,

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Speaker 1: and then of course we have the Georgia Avenue UM

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Speaker 1: location as well. In January five we open our h

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Speaker 1: Street location in DC. So I'm excited about that. January

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Speaker 1: one is my forty birthday and so we will have

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Speaker 1: that celebration and preview for the new location. Our website

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Speaker 1: is Milk and Honey Cafe, so the letter in dot

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Speaker 1: com so Milk and Honey Cafe dot com. All locations,

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Speaker 1: including Main Street there in College Park, Georgia, UM are

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Speaker 1: all on that same site. You can find us on

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Speaker 1: Instagram at Milk and Honey number two and then the

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Speaker 1: real Milk and Honey at l from all our Atlanta

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Speaker 1: folks as well. And I could be found at the

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Speaker 1: Monique Grows on Instagram and Facebook and every other place

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Speaker 1: that you can find me. I am afraid of ors.

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Speaker 1: You keep winning. Definitely, when you come back to Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna read my staff by, so please let them

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Speaker 1: know so we can come back and enjoy a great meal.

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Speaker 1: I've been there already in college, so I know come back,

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Speaker 1: you boy. And I do come to d C because

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Speaker 1: my brother. My younger brother owns like four Barbara and

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Speaker 1: Beauty and Barbara Salon. So I'm definitely gonna come there

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Speaker 1: and drag him to one of your locations. So you

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Speaker 1: said your new shop open to what date in January? What?

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Speaker 1: What day is that in January? Anyway, First Wednesday, January,

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Speaker 1: first first day of the year, national holiday, is my birthday.

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Speaker 1: She's just bragging, just going on the booing on January first.

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Speaker 1: She just got too much energy, Monique, do not change.

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Speaker 1: We'll see you see at least two weeks. Okay, okay,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks about