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Speaker 1: My next two guests on the phone and just said

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Speaker 1: hi to them off air, so let me bring them

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Speaker 1: more online so we get this bad ball rolling. My

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Speaker 1: next two guests began their business with one product, the

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Speaker 1: Advanced Hair Formula, a unique blend of herbs, amino assets,

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Speaker 1: and minerals to support healthy hair. Be course, on ball Headed,

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Speaker 1: I got some hair, but you know I cut it

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Speaker 1: off and so people onto mac assume on ball Headed

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Speaker 1: it helps your skin, nails, and your immune system. Since then,

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Speaker 1: they have expanded to a half dozen half dozen collections

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Speaker 1: under their direction, including products for skin and children. Their

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Speaker 1: products have been distributed any more than eighty seven countries

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Speaker 1: and can be found in more than one hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: stores across the US and retailers such as Salad Beauty.

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Speaker 1: I go there, Target, of course, I shot their CVS

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Speaker 1: and wal Rings went the wall rooms yesterday. Kroger's went

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Speaker 1: to their yesterday with the wall rejusted as well, J C.

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Speaker 1: Pennies and Walmart to name a few. Please work with

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Speaker 1: the money making conversations. My guests Monique and Melvin Rodriguez, right, well,

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Speaker 1: thank you? Do you love that energy? Got by got

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Speaker 1: me a power couple on the phone here were good.

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Speaker 1: Where are you guys based at? So were based Chicago, Um,

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Speaker 1: but we're based out of Northwest Indiana, which is about

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Speaker 1: forty five minutes outside of Chicago. Okay, cool. I was

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Speaker 1: in Chicago from I lived up there because I did

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Speaker 1: to Steve Harvey talk show up there from twelve to

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. So so I know about that Chicago winter. Yes, okay,

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Speaker 1: it's coming. It should be there now, it's October. Now

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Speaker 1: it's not upon you and you just denied them. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we're bout. Oh wow, that's that's pretty. That's pretty. That's

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Speaker 1: pretty warm for that time of the year. So let's

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Speaker 1: let's talk about your business. Um. First of all, I

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Speaker 1: set up the top of your power couple, which means

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Speaker 1: that you have to work as a team. Like It

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Speaker 1: was kind of funny at the very top when I

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Speaker 1: said what you guys were from. Both of y'all talked

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Speaker 1: to the same time. And I know you can't and

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Speaker 1: I know you can't run a business like that. There

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Speaker 1: has to be a unity. Yang you handle this part

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Speaker 1: of the business. I handle this part of the business.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes you do come together because you know you have

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Speaker 1: to discuss the direction of the business. So how this

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Speaker 1: shows about money making conversations about small business, about entrepreneurship.

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Speaker 1: It's about relationships. Your relationship means you communicate. You do

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Speaker 1: you let me ask this question right quick? Do you

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Speaker 1: bring okay, you you've got a business together, do you

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Speaker 1: bring that business home? When do you release your business? Time?

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Speaker 1: Go ahead? Nevis, Well, that's that's always a interesting um

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Speaker 1: topic because Ben an entrepreneur. You know obviously, as you know,

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Speaker 1: you're working ten times harder than you if you're working

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Speaker 1: in your corporate in your job, and you know, but

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Speaker 1: for us, it's God family than business, and it's in

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Speaker 1: that order, and that's how we operate. Monique and I

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Speaker 1: are God fearing people and all that we do, it's

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Speaker 1: it's His way in not our way, and you know,

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Speaker 1: oftentimes in our and where we are now, you know

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Speaker 1: we made periodically talk this is and what have you,

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Speaker 1: but we always remind ourselves, you know what, this can wait.

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Speaker 1: There's no need to talk about this right now. You know,

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Speaker 1: our kids, our kids need us, our home needs us,

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Speaker 1: and we can deal with that atalytric time. So so

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Speaker 1: we are aligned with that regard. But being that both

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Speaker 1: Monique and I are so driven and We're always looking

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Speaker 1: to improve an all fast and of our lives. You know,

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Speaker 1: oftentimes we find ourselves uh periodically talking business. But again,

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Speaker 1: we we do recognize and we do understand that, you know,

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Speaker 1: there is a balance and there is a line that

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Speaker 1: we uh tending the practice to not cross and so

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Speaker 1: it keeps us balanced. Cool. That's great. Now, let me

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Speaker 1: ask you this question, Monique, Uh, the name of your company?

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Speaker 1: How did they come about? Give us the history of

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Speaker 1: your company's name. Yeah, So when I first, um started

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Speaker 1: brainstorming on names from my company, obviously I was more

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Speaker 1: so working on the products, art and really educating consumers

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Speaker 1: on social media. So I guess I was kind of

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Speaker 1: going in the direct in the direction of creating a business.

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Speaker 1: So once I decided to come out with the product,

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Speaker 1: I had the product, actually before I had the name

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Speaker 1: of the company, and you know, I went back and

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Speaker 1: forth with Okay, what do I want to name the company?

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Speaker 1: And you know, I wanted the name to be something

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Speaker 1: that's meaningful to me and you know, something that motivates me,

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Speaker 1: something that drives me every day, UM, and something that

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Speaker 1: I obviously love. And my kids are the first thing

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Speaker 1: that comes to mind because they're the reasons why I

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Speaker 1: do what I do. Obviously, I'm their mom. I love

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Speaker 1: of them like more than I love myself. And you know,

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Speaker 1: everything that me and Melvin are sacrificing, all the hard

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Speaker 1: work that we're putting into this business is for our

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Speaker 1: kids and to create a legacy for them. So I

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Speaker 1: thought it would only be right to name the company

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Speaker 1: after them. Um. And also for the fact that me

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Speaker 1: and my kids we also share the same birthday. So

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Speaker 1: I have two daughters and our birthday is on October fifteenth,

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Speaker 1: which which recently was just passed. It was last week,

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Speaker 1: and it's like, what are the odds of that. Not

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Speaker 1: many moms or I've never heard of any moms sharing

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Speaker 1: our birthday would not one, but both of their children

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Speaker 1: for the company to be named after them. So their

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Speaker 1: middle name is Gabrielle and r L. And they're Mea

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Speaker 1: and Mackenzie. But they're my IL. So that's where my

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Speaker 1: IL was created. Wow, I'm glad I asked because it's

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Speaker 1: important to understand that, you know, like people ask me.

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Speaker 1: Many of my business company's thirty and fifty media some

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Speaker 1: people call it three one five media, and that's based

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Speaker 1: on the address of the home that I grew up,

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Speaker 1: when I lived, when I would lived in the hood.

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Speaker 1: That's where. Yeah, it gives me my motivation as to

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Speaker 1: my history, and it gives the story. And I think

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Speaker 1: it's important that you tie a story to why you're

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Speaker 1: achieving success. And when you talk about your children, my

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Speaker 1: children is my legacy. It drives me. It gives me

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Speaker 1: a sense of purpose. So I understand that as well.

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Speaker 1: And I want to get back to this whole power

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Speaker 1: couple conversation because because Melvin he talked about, you know,

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Speaker 1: being able to turn it off and being able to

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Speaker 1: you both were driven, and you know, it's kind of

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Speaker 1: you know, we have two people that's just just looking

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Speaker 1: forward all the time. They have them, don't have a

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Speaker 1: general tendon to look behind. Okay, as a team. Explaining

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Speaker 1: your work habits, Monique, and then I'm gonna ask you, Melvin,

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Speaker 1: explaining your work habits because they're different, correct, Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we're absolutely different. Helo holo, hold on, you said that

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Speaker 1: we're absolutely different? Like that was like a little lamb

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Speaker 1: on Melvin. Melvin, don't not to do you like that, brother, No,

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Speaker 1: he knows, he knows like we we so people all

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Speaker 1: the time like our personalities are just so opposite. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, we work, we just work differently. Like you know,

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Speaker 1: I work well in the morning times. I'm a morning person.

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Speaker 1: I'm not a night person. I will cut off and

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Speaker 1: go to sleep at if I can, if it's a

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Speaker 1: good day eight thirties, because my brain shuts down. But

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Speaker 1: I work and I throwve better in the morning time.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'm also a person that writes down everything.

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Speaker 1: I'm a checklist type type of person. So I keep

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Speaker 1: my calendar, I keep my planner, and I write down

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Speaker 1: all of my tasks for you know, the week. I

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Speaker 1: plan out everything, all of my content on social media,

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Speaker 1: and I like to check things off, so I'd like

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Speaker 1: to say organized. Um. And you know I've practiced getting

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Speaker 1: up at five o'clock in the morning. Okay, you five?

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Speaker 1: What time are you Melvin? I'm a five thirties Okay,

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Speaker 1: we got fo Okay, we got we got four or fifteen,

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Speaker 1: we got five, We got five thirties. We gotta work

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Speaker 1: on five thirtyes there. Okay. You know we went to

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Speaker 1: buy like a few we went to to buy in April,

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Speaker 1: and you know, just to see like their culture and

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Speaker 1: how they practice getting up early in the morning and

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Speaker 1: spending time with God. Like it was really like I

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Speaker 1: opener for me, and you know, just researching a lot

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Speaker 1: of other successful people and seeing how getting up early

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Speaker 1: in the morning before the sunrise and spending time with

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Speaker 1: God and really spending time with yourself and being stealing,

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Speaker 1: being quiet, it just gives you so much clarity for

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Speaker 1: the day. And to me, that just helped me stay

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Speaker 1: so more organized and be more productive throughout the day.

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Speaker 1: Um So that's just kind of like how I operate. Cool. Well,

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Speaker 1: we have to go about to go about to go

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Speaker 1: to break and when you come back, I want to

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Speaker 1: talk about the three tips for entrepreneurs. Also want to

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Speaker 1: talk about the SOFCE method to your business philosophy and

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Speaker 1: I want to get more detail about that. And it's

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Speaker 1: a it's a program you guys have put together. I

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Speaker 1: want to talk about that. We're gonna talk about that

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Speaker 1: five thirties program that are that Melvin is working on.

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Speaker 1: Two more with money Making Conversations. Hi, this Rahard McDonald's

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Speaker 1: continuing in my conversation with Monique and Melvin rod Rigor's

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Speaker 1: a couple that's uh working together as a team, building

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Speaker 1: their brand as a team, their product is in one

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Speaker 1: hundred thousand stores across the US and retailers such as

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Speaker 1: Sally Beauty, Target, CVS, Walgreen's, Kroger's, J C. Penny, and

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Speaker 1: wal Mart. Now, as as a interesting thing that when

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Speaker 1: I was talking to mailing off air, Melvin, please tell

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Speaker 1: us really just the reason for this interview. What are

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Speaker 1: the statements that you're trying to make sure people understand

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Speaker 1: about what you and your wife are accomplishing as entrepreneurs. Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: and I appreciate you, accep. And you know, God told

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Speaker 1: Abraham three things. He told him that he would make

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Speaker 1: his name great, He told him that he would bless him,

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Speaker 1: but he also told him that he would be a

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Speaker 1: blessing to others. And when I think about that, and

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Speaker 1: I really really meditate on that word, that's what Monique,

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Speaker 1: That's what we're trying to do. God has blessed us tremnity.

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Speaker 1: He has blessed us exceedingly above above all we could

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Speaker 1: have been magic for. But our goal are WI is,

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Speaker 1: our youth is our community is the kid who is

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Speaker 1: struggling trying to figure out how he or she is

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Speaker 1: going to get through to day. To show them that

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Speaker 1: their situation is temporarily and that their current situation does

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Speaker 1: not determine their final destination. They do and to show

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Speaker 1: on them that black people we can do it, we

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Speaker 1: can be successful, and that together we shall rise. And

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Speaker 1: my wife and I are doing this, that we're running,

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Speaker 1: we're building his enterprise together. More importantly, for our youth,

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Speaker 1: for our communities, and everything that we do, we bring,

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Speaker 1: we we are. Our goal is to bring them along

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Speaker 1: our journey because our story is their story. Our testimony

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Speaker 1: belongs to them, not us. Success is reading and that

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Speaker 1: rent is to do every day and it's important for

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Speaker 1: us to between the paying four and that's our why

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Speaker 1: our y is our community being a change that they

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Speaker 1: need to see, you know, and and and a lot

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Speaker 1: of times you need to see it multiple times before

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Speaker 1: you can believe it. And that's what we practice, you know,

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Speaker 1: we absolutely so when when you're talking like this, Melvin

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Speaker 1: and Monique about the future, the future of your brand,

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Speaker 1: the future of and it's my Yale right, yes, my

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Speaker 1: Health Organics. It is the name of your name, of

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Speaker 1: your brand and uh being in over one hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: retailers in five short years. Again, one hundred thousand retailers

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Speaker 1: in five short years. There's a process to doing that

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Speaker 1: and more. Nick, you wanted to talk about how to

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Speaker 1: apply the SOFCE method to your business. Tell us what

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Speaker 1: the SOFCE method is. I'm assuming that's a program that

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Speaker 1: an individual can uh go online to participating in. Correct? Yes? Correct?

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Speaker 1: So you know I understand that my duty as an

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Speaker 1: entrepreneur and the platform that God has blessed me with

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Speaker 1: is for me to share my platform with others and

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Speaker 1: to show other entrepreneurs that it can be done, you know,

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Speaker 1: to show them the way everything, all the mistakes, the trials, tribulations,

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Speaker 1: the challenges that I've been through as an entrepreneur, to

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Speaker 1: share the information so someone else doesn't make those same mistakes.

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Speaker 1: Not saying that the road is gonna be easy. You're

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Speaker 1: still gonna make mistakes. But that's how you learn and

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Speaker 1: that's how you grow. So my purpose and creating my

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Speaker 1: mentorship program is to be that mentor, to share those

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Speaker 1: mistakes and to share those challenges to prevent someone from

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Speaker 1: making the same thing. And when I created the Secret

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Speaker 1: Source Academy, I had the brainstorm and I'm like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: what did I do from the very beginning to start

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Speaker 1: and what do I steel continue to do to scale

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Speaker 1: my ill organics and how I started. In order for

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Speaker 1: you to start any business, before you're going in any industry,

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Speaker 1: you have to study the market right, you have to

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Speaker 1: have authority, you have to know your audience. You have

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Speaker 1: to understand your gift, understand your talent. You have to

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Speaker 1: clarify your message for your audience will listen to you.

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Speaker 1: And you have to educate and empower your audience as well.

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Speaker 1: And I wrote down all of these things that I

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Speaker 1: did in the beginning and what I still continue today,

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Speaker 1: and I came up with an acronym thought and it

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Speaker 1: just made perfect sense because I call it the secret sauce.

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Speaker 1: But there's really no secret because as long as you're

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Speaker 1: operating and being yourself and being authentic like the principles

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Speaker 1: of marketing, and those principles don't change. You just want

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Speaker 1: to apply your own sauce to whatever it is that

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Speaker 1: you're doing in your industry and be successful at doing so. Um.

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Speaker 1: So that's how I came up with a sauce method,

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Speaker 1: and it was really something that I feel that God

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Speaker 1: just gave me that vision to create and that's why

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Speaker 1: it's called the secret sauce. To success, you can talk.

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Speaker 1: You know that, right, you can talk and you're good talker,

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Speaker 1: which it really helps you sell your brand. And uh

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Speaker 1: and Melvin here's no slouch either. And it's really important

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Speaker 1: that when people learned that communication plays a major role

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Speaker 1: in building your brand because to be able to expand

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Speaker 1: as quickly as you guys are expanding, it means you

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Speaker 1: have to be able to tell people while your product works,

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Speaker 1: show them that it works, and then provide the product,

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Speaker 1: which is the key. Because a lot of people have

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Speaker 1: good products, they get out there too fast. People ask

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Speaker 1: for the product, products show up, sometimes show up sloppy,

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Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden the relationship is turned away.

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Speaker 1: So how did you guys deal with that massive growth

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Speaker 1: five years, you know, a hundred thousand stores? Well, definitely

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Speaker 1: it was hardy. Go ahead, ma, man, no no, I

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Speaker 1: was just gonna say in terms of you know, obviously,

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Speaker 1: you know, in any business, any young startup or entrepreneurs

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Speaker 1: entrepreneur business, you're gonna deal with what we all call

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Speaker 1: and no growing things. But you know, I'm a farm believer.

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Speaker 1: But when you know better, you do better. And so

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Speaker 1: through such trials and trip relations we learned and we've

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Speaker 1: gotten better and as as I mentioned earlier, we're very,

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Speaker 1: very driven, you know, to the point where failure for

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Speaker 1: us is not an option. Our motto is execution of

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Speaker 1: excuses is as simple. And so you know, um, when

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Speaker 1: we talk about going the scale, well, we had to

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Speaker 1: plan for the scale uh financially, uh, structurally, et cetera.

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Speaker 1: And so fortunately for us, we were able to surround

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Speaker 1: ourselves around experienced individuals that have been done that to

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Speaker 1: help and mentor and aid us. And what we were

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Speaker 1: getting ready to undertake it the relations to scale. Because

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Speaker 1: when we started our first major retailer, Sally Duty, in ten, right,

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Speaker 1: we scaled the rapidly long story, you know, we entered

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Speaker 1: in February and literally within six months it could us

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Speaker 1: change why due to the success and and um demand

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Speaker 1: pot brand. And so fast forward four and a half

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Speaker 1: five years later, we're now in every major retailer in America,

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Speaker 1: as you mentioned earlier, And how did you support that? Well, again,

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Speaker 1: surrounding yourself with like minded individuals, surrounding yourself with experience,

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Speaker 1: surrounding yourself with people that have your best entest at hand,

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Speaker 1: and and and also being able to uh educate yourself

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Speaker 1: to scale because again it's about it's one thing about

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Speaker 1: getting a distribution at scale, but it's another about staying

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Speaker 1: that scale and sustaining yourself. And for us, you know,

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Speaker 1: we're all about sustainability and consistency, and so everything that

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Speaker 1: we do today we did a minion of years ago

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Speaker 1: in the beginning, given that customer that experience that he

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Speaker 1: or she deserves every single time, all the time, you know.

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Speaker 1: And so again for us are not money driven. We're

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Speaker 1: not revenue driven. We're a mission driven. So it's a

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Speaker 1: big difference. And so in all that we do and

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Speaker 1: everyone that works for us, they understand that. And we're

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Speaker 1: consistent and we're accountable at all that we do, and

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Speaker 1: we've we've been able to support our growth, you know,

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Speaker 1: and show to the point now, I mean we're shipping products,

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Speaker 1: as you mentioned earlier, over eighty countries around the world.

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Speaker 1: You know, how did you do that? Again, you have

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Speaker 1: to have the support because there is no eye and

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Speaker 1: team and you can't do this alone, which is one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons why we're really showing our youth and

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Speaker 1: our communities that together that you can't you just can't

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Speaker 1: have it all. And when we get the mindset up,

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Speaker 1: I just can't have it all that. You know what,

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Speaker 1: when two or three I gathered and he told us this,

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Speaker 1: when two or three I gathered in the midst, it's done.

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Speaker 1: And so for us, you know again going back to

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Speaker 1: surrounding people that understand the mission, and we're together, you

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Speaker 1: can support the scale. I love it. I love it.

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Speaker 1: You know it's really important because you know when you

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Speaker 1: start growing and you start doing something that is normal,

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Speaker 1: because everybody knows how to go get a job at

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Speaker 1: a banink, or go get a job and the store.

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Speaker 1: Go get a job at a regular location where everybody

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Speaker 1: else works, clocks into the leaves at five, get that

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Speaker 1: large break, playing for vacation. When you're an entrepreneur, you

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Speaker 1: can't really explain to people what your normal day is,

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Speaker 1: and it confuses people. And that's where the doubt drops in.

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Speaker 1: How are you gonna make money? How are you gonna

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Speaker 1: pay for the bill? Girl? You know you've got kids?

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Speaker 1: All that type of those conversations start popping in, dropping in,

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Speaker 1: And that's what you're saying, Melvin, you gotta get those

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Speaker 1: people out of your conversation, those doubters, those people who

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Speaker 1: tell you that can't be done, who told you you

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Speaker 1: can do that. What bank gonna give you money? All

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Speaker 1: those dollars because they they doughted me in my life,

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Speaker 1: and I know that they're the first, they're the closest

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Speaker 1: to you. Really, your dollars, your biggest dollars, are the

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Speaker 1: people that you really believe in the most initially because

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Speaker 1: you go, wow, you questioned me. So you really have

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Speaker 1: to go out of that that first circle. You got

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Speaker 1: to jump out of that first circle to meet people

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Speaker 1: out understand how you approach business. As you say, Melvin,

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Speaker 1: like minded people generate like minded success. They will have

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Speaker 1: to push you to your opportunity instead of hold you

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Speaker 1: back from the opportunity through questions, through doubts. I've never

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Speaker 1: done that before. I don't know. See, if you're constantly

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Speaker 1: answering questions like that, guess what, You're not moving forward.

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Speaker 1: I'm on the phone with my my power couple. My

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Speaker 1: power couple here a Monique and Melvin Vegas. You so

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Speaker 1: my Yale Organics a hundred a hundred thousand stores in

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Speaker 1: short five years, eighty seven countries. See, I got I

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Speaker 1: got the conversation down. Walker. I'm not even reading anymore.

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Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just rattling from success. I'm just talking

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Speaker 1: about success and he's on a mission. I want to

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Speaker 1: just say that Melvin is on a mission to let

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Speaker 1: everybody know that he and his wife worked as they

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Speaker 1: come from the hood. They come from a regular life,

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Speaker 1: improving it power and success, and they want to continue

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Speaker 1: to keep that message out there so everybody can understand

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Speaker 1: that you can beat them. That's the whole message that

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Speaker 1: that's why they came on the show to take They

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Speaker 1: took their time out of their life to say you

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Speaker 1: can be them, and that's important. I want to thank

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Speaker 1: you too for coming on Money Making Conversations and no

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Speaker 1: Christmas is coming up someone, You're coming back on the

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Speaker 1: show so we can make some money together. Money making conversations, Okay,