Speaker 1: This is The Eds with Eddie Judge and Edwin ado Jab.
Speaker 1: All right, welcome to another podcast of The Eds. My
Speaker 1: name is Eddie Judge my.
Speaker 2: Co host, and my name is Edwin Arijabe.
Speaker 1: And we have a special guest today that shares a
Speaker 1: same first name as I, Eddie Osefo. Eddie Ossefo is
Speaker 1: married to the Real Housewives of Potomac Star since twenty
Speaker 1: eleven and they share three kids. Wendy joined the Bravo
Speaker 1: Universe in twenty twenty and is a current cast member
Speaker 1: of the show. I hear you, guys are just starting
Speaker 1: the film this next season.
Speaker 3: Just kicking off. Yep.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Well, welcome Eddie. We're really excited to get to
Speaker 1: know you.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me, guys. It's a pleasure to be
Speaker 4: in a room for the Eddies, you know. So yeah,
Speaker 4: the universe has a line properly, so I'm glad to
Speaker 4: be here.
Speaker 3: Awesome.
Speaker 1: So let's get to know you, Eddie. There's so many
Speaker 1: things I want to ask you. There's so many things
Speaker 1: we have in common too. The first and foremost is
Speaker 1: we're on a housewife show together. Essentially, tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up, Bettie?
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 4: So a little background on me. I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland.
Speaker 4: I have four siblings. I went to school locally, University
Speaker 4: of Maryland College Park, computer Engineering. Actually I met my
Speaker 4: wife while we were in high school. We were just friends.
Speaker 4: Her family had moved to the area. So I've known
Speaker 4: her actually since we were about seventeen years old. But
Speaker 4: we we went away to college, remain friends, stayed in touch,
Speaker 4: but then upon graduating from college, she went off the temple.
Speaker 4: I stayed local at University of Maryland College Park. We
Speaker 4: got together after we graduated, and so that's kind of
Speaker 4: where our love story began in the DC metro area
Speaker 4: together getting married in twenty eleven. Yeah, and that's kind
Speaker 4: of like where our love story began.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds great. Tell us a little bit about
Speaker 1: what it was like growing up as a kid, you know,
Speaker 1: those are the details that are left out when you know,
Speaker 1: we really get to know you.
Speaker 4: Do you have siblings, Yeah, so I have four siblings.
Speaker 4: I'm the second oldest. I have an older sister who
Speaker 4: was two years older, a younger brother two years younger
Speaker 4: than me, and then a sister who was two years.
Speaker 3: Younger than him.
Speaker 4: And then we have our junior youngest sister, who is
Speaker 4: four years younger than my youngest sister, So we're all
Speaker 4: two years apart except for my youngest sister. And so yeah,
Speaker 4: just growing up in Maryland, you know, we're the My
Speaker 4: parents were immigrant parents from Nigeria. They came here, you know,
Speaker 4: raised us as best they could. A lot of my siblings.
Speaker 4: You know, they use education as a tool to advance
Speaker 4: in life, and so that's why they placed the heavy
Speaker 4: emphasis on education. So you know, in our household, it
Speaker 4: was either you're going to be a doctor, lawyer, or
Speaker 4: an engineer, and so it kind of got the best
Speaker 4: of all worlds.
Speaker 3: And my older sisters a doctor. I'm a lawyer.
Speaker 4: My younger brother is a computer engineer, and then my
Speaker 4: two younger sisters are doctor. So they kind of like
Speaker 4: really pushed education in our household, and we kind of
Speaker 4: had to follow through otherwise we'd be failures if we
Speaker 4: didn't follow through on that ask for my parents. But
Speaker 4: I mean it was it was a good It was
Speaker 4: a good child. You know, I had fun. I had
Speaker 4: a lot of fun growing up. I played a lot
Speaker 4: of sports, you know, I was I would say, I'm
Speaker 4: a smart jock. You know, because I played you know, football, basketball, baseball,
Speaker 4: but also you know, excelled in the classroom. So I
Speaker 4: wasn't the jock jock, but you know, I try to
Speaker 4: balance it. Uh popular kid. A lot of kids, you
Speaker 4: know were friends with me. You know, I smiled a
Speaker 4: lot growing up, so it was easy to attract friends
Speaker 4: and uh you know, build that community.
Speaker 3: So it was it was good.
Speaker 4: It was good growing up, you know, in our neighborhood.
Speaker 1: It sounds like the you know, atypical American dream, immigrant
Speaker 1: parents coming here and then raising amazing children and becoming
Speaker 1: really good citizens and providing you know, value to the
Speaker 1: American dream.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 1: Notice you are you have two degrees, you're a lawyer,
Speaker 1: and you do something else.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So it's funny because I my undergrad was in engineering,
Speaker 4: computer engineering, but then I went to law school, so
Speaker 4: I got my jd. Then it was a dual program,
Speaker 4: so I got my jd NBA. But then I went
Speaker 4: back to law school to get an LLM. So I
Speaker 4: got an LLM focused in state and local tax and
Speaker 4: that's kind of where I began my career in the
Speaker 4: state and local tax practice. So I've done that for
Speaker 4: probably the past thirteen fourteen years, but then most recently
Speaker 4: I kind of pivoted to it's just funny because you
Speaker 4: don't know what Housewives will do to you until Housewives
Speaker 4: does something to you.
Speaker 3: But it was like, I forget what season it was.
Speaker 4: But one of the women on the show were coining
Speaker 4: me Happy Edti because I smiled at her.
Speaker 3: So she took it as like a reference that I
Speaker 3: tried to.
Speaker 4: Hit on her and then I was smiling and the
Speaker 4: name kind of, you know, took a life zone and
Speaker 4: went viral online. People were like, oh, this this woman
Speaker 4: is crazy, like so now you can't smile at someone
Speaker 4: otherwise you're hitting on them and trying to be nefarious
Speaker 4: in your actions. And so, you know, I took that
Speaker 4: name that was Happy Eddi. And Maryland went legal in
Speaker 4: terms of recreational use for marijuana. So I started a
Speaker 4: cannabis brand in twenty twenty three, and I launched the
Speaker 4: cannabis brand in Maryland. It's been doing really well. Took
Speaker 4: the name Happy Edi ran with it. I have a
Speaker 4: lot of products in the market and most recently, you know,
Speaker 4: we're expanding into the New Jersey market and the Missouri market.
Speaker 3: So I kind of turned.
Speaker 4: Those lemons that happened as a result of housewives and
Speaker 4: turned it into lemonade and kind of made you know,
Speaker 4: the entrepreneurial business push.
Speaker 2: Well, I love the name Happy Eddie. I think you know,
Speaker 2: I tell my sales guys all the time, even people
Speaker 2: that think they're now sells people. I'm like, if you
Speaker 2: could just smile when you speak, you just automatically have
Speaker 2: this charisma that comes out where people, at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, people like you and trust you, they're
Speaker 2: going to want to do business with you, and you'd
Speaker 2: be you'd be amazed what a smile can do. And
Speaker 2: from the get go, from even though I didn't know
Speaker 2: you prior to you coming on the show, immediately when
Speaker 2: you came in, you just had this big old smile
Speaker 2: on your face, and I'm like, man, I like this guy.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to interview them. And but anyway, so
Speaker 2: I love the name and how you're an all around
Speaker 2: type of guy. You mentioned you know you were a
Speaker 2: smart you know jock, and you know you played a
Speaker 2: lot of sports. How do you contribute you know, your
Speaker 2: success in business as an entrepreneur, but also in school.
Speaker 2: How did sports sort of get you ready for that.
Speaker 4: I think sports is actually a key component of any
Speaker 4: kind of I guess thing you want to do in life,
Speaker 4: because it teaches you when you face adversity, when you lose,
Speaker 4: you can come back and have a good game, you know,
Speaker 4: if you will, you can learn from your mistakes and
Speaker 4: then apply to them on your next.
Speaker 3: Your next project.
Speaker 4: And I think in business, you know you're gonna hit pitfalls,
Speaker 4: you're gonna hit obstacles, you're gonna hit hurdles, and it's
Speaker 4: all about how you react to those hurdles.
Speaker 3: It's not about how you dwelling the.
Speaker 4: Mistakes that you made, but about how you take that
Speaker 4: as a learning lesson and you apply it to your
Speaker 4: next you know, project. And I think I've used that
Speaker 4: in sports, just you know, you're not gonna win every game,
Speaker 4: so just losing, what do I do wrong? Okay, what
Speaker 4: I do wrong, let's fix it for the next game.
Speaker 4: And so applying that in the business world, it's just
Speaker 4: like a it was kind of you know, you didn't
Speaker 4: really have to think about it, you just have to
Speaker 4: do it. And I think that's what's been very advantageous
Speaker 4: and helpful in the business run, because you're able to
Speaker 4: just apply your learnings and all right, I'm not going
Speaker 4: to go with this type of vendor because I know
Speaker 4: what happened last time. Let's do this due diligence first thing.
Speaker 4: You know, things like that you apply going forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then with the obviously very smart you got
Speaker 2: all these degrees, and typically some people that go that
Speaker 2: route get stuck working in the corporate world. What finally
Speaker 2: made you say, you know what, I'm gonna try this
Speaker 2: entrepreneur thing.
Speaker 4: It's funny because you know, I thought, you know, in
Speaker 4: my small world, I thought, you know, the corporate ladder
Speaker 4: was the way to go. That was the you know,
Speaker 4: you just work your way up the corporate ladder. You'll
Speaker 4: find happiness once you get to the top. And then
Speaker 4: once you get to the top, you really realize, like, no,
Speaker 4: it's just more ladders to climb, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: It's not really like you're going to get to the top.
Speaker 4: And so I think at that point, you know, social
Speaker 4: media kind of took a life of its own, and
Speaker 4: you start seeing people really living life and really enjoying life,
Speaker 4: and they weren't necessarily doing the traditional jobs and careers
Speaker 4: that you would imagine. I kind of I think that
Speaker 4: kind of opened my eyes to what else is out there?
Speaker 4: You know, can you could apply you know, I can
Speaker 4: go solo practitioner and you know, be an attorney. But
Speaker 4: there's also other entrepreneurial pursuits that you could do. And
Speaker 4: I kind of took that button.
Speaker 3: I ran with them.
Speaker 4: I said, Okay, what else can I do in the
Speaker 4: realm of entrepreneurship that I like to do that I
Speaker 4: could achieve, you know, leverage my you know, learnings, and
Speaker 4: leverage my career and what I've done and really succeed
Speaker 4: in that. And I think that, you know, in the
Speaker 4: cannabis industry. I never thought I would be in the cannibisry.
Speaker 4: I sports and foremost. It just kind of like it
Speaker 4: was an opportunity that I saw opening and I kind
Speaker 4: of ran with it. But I think I was able
Speaker 4: to leverage that legal background and apply it to the
Speaker 4: cannabis industry.
Speaker 2: I'm curious what your parents said, right, you're either a doctor, engineer,
Speaker 2: or lawyer, and here you are saying I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: sell cannabis. How did they take it?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: You know, like I said, they were immigrant parents, so
Speaker 4: they really no matter how much you frame it, the
Speaker 4: conversation it's still you're selling weed. You know, you're selling weed,
Speaker 4: and people were rocked up for selling weed. You know,
Speaker 4: I don't know what you're talking about. So I think
Speaker 4: it's it's it's.
Speaker 3: A work in progress.
Speaker 4: It's a lot of massaging that goes on, but it's
Speaker 4: really I think the more and more they see it
Speaker 4: in the public's realm, the more and more they understand
Speaker 4: that it's legal. It's a business, is an industry. It's
Speaker 4: a growing industry. It's like pharmaceutical drugs. You know, it's
Speaker 4: like an industry within the society that is growing, and
Speaker 4: it's that taking a life of the sowing. And so
Speaker 4: I think the more and more they see it as
Speaker 4: a legal business, the more they're like, Okay, he's just
Speaker 4: doing business and that's just part of the business that
Speaker 4: he's doing.
Speaker 3: So I think maybe more accepting of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, as long as we don't use our own.
Speaker 4: Supply, there you go, you know, you refuse it.
Speaker 1: So let me ask, I forgot to task earlier. Are
Speaker 1: you still practicing law part time at all? Or have
Speaker 1: you given that up?
Speaker 4: So I'm still legally licensed the practice law, but I've
Speaker 4: done more consulting. I call it more consulting because I'm
Speaker 4: able to manage my schedule more and take on clients
Speaker 4: as I have capacity to do that, And so I
Speaker 4: would say that right now, and I'm really trying to
Speaker 4: put four forced effort into the entrepreneurship of the cannabis
Speaker 4: brand and growing that brand as much as I can
Speaker 4: and getting into a position where it's self sufficient. But
Speaker 4: then you know, I'm in a position to now have
Speaker 4: the freedom to do what I want to do, but
Speaker 4: definitely don't want to lose that legal training on that
Speaker 4: legal side, but it does take time, and so you
Speaker 4: can't kind of serve all masters, so you kind of
Speaker 4: got to pick and choose what you do with your time.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that legal mind has helped you and a
Speaker 1: lot of the decisions you're making for your new venture.
Speaker 2: How did you and your wife reconnect?
Speaker 4: By the way, So it's funny because we so we
Speaker 4: went away to school, but we always stayed in touch
Speaker 4: through you know, instant messenger, So we stayed in touch.
Speaker 3: And actually I joined.
Speaker 4: Well, she joined her sorority first, and so then I
Speaker 4: was joining a fraternity in Maryland, and I invited her
Speaker 4: to our introduction show and I said, hey, you should
Speaker 4: come down. You know, your your friends, your sorority sisters
Speaker 4: will be here, you should come. And so she ended
Speaker 4: up not making it to that show, but she ended
Speaker 4: up making it to other events that I had from
Speaker 4: my fraternity.
Speaker 3: And that's kind of like.
Speaker 4: Where we I wouldn't say we fell apart, but we were.
Speaker 4: You know, we're in different school, so we have our
Speaker 4: own group of friends, but we kind of reconnected when
Speaker 4: she came to my fraternities events and then you know,
Speaker 4: saw that we shared common allity, share carmon friends, and
Speaker 4: then we kind of got back together at friendship wise,
Speaker 4: and then afterwards, you know, we kind of tried the romantic,
Speaker 4: you know journey and then here we are today.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 2: Who's got more degrees? You or your wife?
Speaker 4: You know, that's a great question if you asked the audience.
Speaker 4: You know, because she her first season, she was four
Speaker 4: degrees Wendy. For degrees, doctor Wendy. We have the same
Speaker 4: four degrees when you do the math, So it's funny,
Speaker 4: but she was missed four degrees Wendy.
Speaker 2: Now, was that coincidence that if she didn't have the degrees,
Speaker 2: do you think you would have married? Or was that
Speaker 2: like a part of it, Or was that like a
Speaker 2: you know, like an I like a woman that's got
Speaker 2: an education, that's independent. Did that play into her being
Speaker 2: the one? Or did it really not matter if she
Speaker 2: could have just not any degrees and you still would
Speaker 2: have gone with her.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think she could have not had any degrees. I
Speaker 4: still probably would have won her. I like an ambitious,
Speaker 4: intelligent woman, but I don't really like honestly, until she started,
Speaker 4: she said on the show that season, I don't realize
Speaker 4: she had that many degrees, Like, I mean, we were
Speaker 4: just like you know, serial school, you know, attendees.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a very interesting question edwin because
Speaker 1: if I was to put myself in that situation, I'd
Speaker 1: say I'd need a woman that has to be smart
Speaker 1: in order to have a conversation after you know, having sex,
Speaker 1: you know, because that's the number one thing, you know,
Speaker 1: us men think about, and then after that, what do
Speaker 1: you do. I'm really happy for you guys that you
Speaker 1: found each other. And I understand you have three children.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so we have a twelve year old boy,
Speaker 4: ten year old boy, and a five year old girl
Speaker 4: who runs the house.
Speaker 1: Oh and she's got two older brothers and she runs
Speaker 1: a house, and she.
Speaker 3: Runs the house. It's like something that would tell her.
Speaker 1: Are you guys gonna instill the same motto of education
Speaker 1: to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer?
Speaker 4: You know, I don't think so, because I mean, we
Speaker 4: know better, so we should definitely do better. We know
Speaker 4: that there's more out there. You got to pursue happiness.
Speaker 4: It's not all about going to school. And yeah, it
Speaker 4: may not be what your happiness is. You know, you
Speaker 4: could be the worst student, but if your parents are
Speaker 4: pushing school on, you think that's the only way. And
Speaker 4: so I think that we definitely want to be more
Speaker 4: open minded, give them more of a sense of the
Speaker 4: opportunities out in the world. You know, you can be
Speaker 4: an entrepreneur, you could be you know, you could go
Speaker 4: to school, you could be a doctor if you want.
Speaker 3: You could be whatever you want to be.
Speaker 4: But you have to find out what your passion is
Speaker 4: and fulfill that and chase that passion, that dream. So
Speaker 4: I think that's something that I didn't get grown up.
Speaker 4: But I think that we're definitely to instilling our kids
Speaker 4: that you know, follow your dream, follow your passions, and
Speaker 4: it will lead to work that doesn't feel like work. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I always tell our kids, like, you can do whatever
Speaker 1: you want. Sometimes they're not doing anything, and it's frustrating.
Speaker 1: But as long as they have a foundation of some
Speaker 1: sort of education, some sort of subject, they can go
Speaker 1: left or right. I've known a lot of people who've had,
Speaker 1: you know, an education in botany and opened up restaurants,
Speaker 1: and even lawyers who got their degree and ended up
Speaker 1: practicing or quitting the practice of law and doing something
Speaker 1: in business in general. So I think we are if
Speaker 1: we see the opportunity, we can do anything we want.
Speaker 1: But if you get stuck in that, you know, same regimen,
Speaker 1: like I have an engineering degree, that's all I'm going
Speaker 1: to do. That's where I think eventually you wake up,
Speaker 1: you know, forty fifty years later and you realize I
Speaker 1: could have done so much more.
Speaker 2: Exactly, are the kids more into sports right now? Are
Speaker 2: they more into school right now?
Speaker 3: They are more Well.
Speaker 4: It's funny because if they don't do well in school,
Speaker 4: they can't play sports. But they actually do well in sports,
Speaker 4: which is I'm living vicariously through because you know, they
Speaker 4: enjoy football, basketball, My daughter is into dance and gymnastics. Uh,
Speaker 4: and so they enjoy sports, but they also do well
Speaker 4: in school, which I'm happy about. So I'm trying to
Speaker 4: push sports, you know, I'm trying to really push sports.
Speaker 4: But they're not you know, they're kind of way and
Speaker 4: they're kind of wanting to play video games.
Speaker 3: War.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're in that age video sports games.
Speaker 3: That's true. NBA two K and Maddie. I'm like, that's
Speaker 3: not the real thing. Go out and such bread.
Speaker 1: Although you know, I wouldn't knock it too much because
Speaker 1: it's a big world of online gaming. I don't know
Speaker 1: how familiar you are with it. I had an entrepreneur
Speaker 1: friend of mine who was part of that world in
Speaker 1: our EO group, and he introduced me to that. And
Speaker 1: it's a huge, huge, It's almost bigger than our real
Speaker 1: sports game worlds, the e sports, like the video game sports.
Speaker 1: Are you guys familiar with that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I heard about it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh it's huge. It's enormous. It's its own world and
Speaker 1: it's worldwide.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm, yeah, pretty good.
Speaker 2: I think anything that makes you compete is good because
Speaker 2: I haven't met a successful person that's not competitive. Like,
Speaker 2: if you're not competitive, you're not going to go past
Speaker 2: your own capacity, you know. So it's why I asked
Speaker 2: about sports. That's what sports taught me is that you know,
Speaker 2: to be competitive and if you work hard enough, even
Speaker 2: though you might not start off on the you know
Speaker 2: at the top, you can you can very well get
Speaker 2: there if you if you have the hard work ethic
Speaker 2: and and you're just consistent.
Speaker 1: But the other thing that sports teaches you is you
Speaker 1: win some and you lose some. I think that was
Speaker 1: Eddie's point earlier. You know, that's that's a that's a
Speaker 1: really good lesson. I think it helps with any level
Speaker 1: of success at any level of life, from relationships to
Speaker 1: friendships to business. You know, you you're going to lose
Speaker 1: some and you're gonna have to get back up and
Speaker 1: try it again.
Speaker 4: Yeah, failure is the best teacher, It really is.
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 2: So Eddie, when you first heard about the Housewives, did
Speaker 2: you know about the show? And I guess that's the
Speaker 2: first part And second were you Was it an automatic yes?
Speaker 2: Or do you like have to marinate on it that
Speaker 2: for a bed?
Speaker 4: You know, I feel like I heard about the Housewives,
Speaker 4: but I to me it was one of those things
Speaker 4: where you could turn it on, turn it off. I
Speaker 4: wasn't really invested in the Housewives so kind of when
Speaker 4: the opportunity presented itself. My wife brought the opportunity, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4: you should do it. You know, Yolo, you only live once,
Speaker 4: you know, why not. I wasn't thinking about what it
Speaker 4: takes to be on the show. I was just thinking about, Wow,
Speaker 4: you get to be on TV. You get to go
Speaker 4: to fancy events and have fun.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I didn't think that someone can really just say whatever
Speaker 4: the hell they want to say on national TV.
Speaker 3: That's it. But yeah, I just.
Speaker 4: Thought it was an opportunity, and I thought it was
Speaker 4: a great opportunity to leverage a platform to go and
Speaker 4: continue to pursue your dreams. And I didn't think about
Speaker 4: everything that it entails. And I think over I think
Speaker 4: this is our six year. I've kind of gotten to
Speaker 4: a sweet spot where I understand, like, you know, there's
Speaker 4: no reward without risk. You got to go through the
Speaker 4: fire to get to the green pasture. And so anytime
Speaker 4: I have to talk my wife off the ledge a
Speaker 4: lot because she's yeah, scorching earth and blow the whole
Speaker 4: establishment up, and I'm like, hey, it's a show. You know,
Speaker 4: everyone's doing their job, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you feel like after five years, do you
Speaker 2: think you finally have the hang of it. I saw
Speaker 2: this clip of you being on the what do you
Speaker 2: call it, what's the season finale thing called reim the reunion,
Speaker 2: and I was and I honestly thought, man, that's ballsy.
Speaker 2: I would never go on to reunion. They freaking paid
Speaker 2: me because it's there's so much drama that happens, and
Speaker 2: you were so calm, you were just man. It was
Speaker 2: like you were made for it. And that's like a
Speaker 2: hot seed of all hot seeds. So yeah, what was
Speaker 2: that experience?
Speaker 4: Like, you know, it's good when you're not actually in
Speaker 4: the hot seat, meaning it's not my drama that's being
Speaker 4: talked about, but it's still you know, these women they're
Speaker 4: in a different level, different league, and so I can't
Speaker 4: keep up. And so I really I don't try to
Speaker 4: keep up like I try to, you know, simple do
Speaker 4: my time and then roll out because they eat you
Speaker 4: out and spit you out if you try to get
Speaker 4: involved in the women drama. You know, so I try to,
Speaker 4: you know, I really just try to stay out the way.
Speaker 4: I really try to be pleasant, don't get into drama,
Speaker 4: give advice, and then go, you know, and go go,
Speaker 4: go to my separate corner because you.
Speaker 3: Can really get caught up in the women's drama.
Speaker 4: And then now in this day and age, you have
Speaker 4: not just what you film, but you have social media,
Speaker 4: you have the blogs, you have the bloggers, you have
Speaker 4: all these different people weighing in with opinions, and it's like,
Speaker 4: you know, you lived it, it's your truth, but everyone
Speaker 4: has their opinion, and people want to believe lies or
Speaker 4: believe untruths more than they want to believe the truth.
Speaker 4: So you got to really keep everything in perspective when
Speaker 4: you're on these shows.
Speaker 1: It definitely has evolved tremendously from the beginning, where I
Speaker 1: remember they used to have a rule where the women
Speaker 1: could not even talk outside of filming. They couldn't, you know,
Speaker 1: have a conversation, They couldn't go to lunch, they couldn't
Speaker 1: go not that they would, but it was really strict
Speaker 1: about not making it as or not conversing about what's
Speaker 1: going on unless the cameras were there. And then as
Speaker 1: social media came to light and everybody's posting pictures and everything,
Speaker 1: and then blogging came to light just like the real world,
Speaker 1: right like even in business. What I'd noticed growing up
Speaker 1: and wrapping my head around the big companies that promote
Speaker 1: their product is better than b product, right, and they're
Speaker 1: saying all these horrible things. It happens in politics. You know,
Speaker 1: one politician putting out this ugly story about another politician
Speaker 1: sleeping with a dog or something like that. You know,
Speaker 1: just can you do that? Why are you doing that?
Speaker 1: It just seems so dirty, And that's how i'd kind
Speaker 1: of seen the show evolved in to get really dirty.
Speaker 1: What has been some of the things that negative things
Speaker 1: that you've experienced on the show personally?
Speaker 4: I remember one year I think it was probably the
Speaker 4: second year, maybe sixth season, where there was a rumor
Speaker 4: that was totally made up by the blogs about an
Speaker 4: extra marital affair about having a baby about.
Speaker 3: I think that.
Speaker 4: Maybe that was the extent that maybe there was even more,
Speaker 4: don't I don't.
Speaker 3: Even recall, but it was.
Speaker 4: All lies, yeah, And it was all lies that started
Speaker 4: in the blogs because I think it was one of
Speaker 4: those things to get attention, to get clicks. And then
Speaker 4: because it's in the blogs, you know, the women are
Speaker 4: the women, and they do what they do, so they
Speaker 4: bring it on the platform. So now it's on the platform,
Speaker 4: So now the world sees it, and so you kind
Speaker 4: of relive it over and over again because you film
Speaker 4: it and then it now it runs in it and
Speaker 4: it airs. And so that was probably the toughest season
Speaker 4: because like, wait, so they really can say whatever they
Speaker 4: want to say. Until this day, no one circles back
Speaker 4: and says, you know what, that was a lie or
Speaker 4: that was untrue. They just we just move on. But
Speaker 4: you know, the articles and the footage it still lasts forever.
Speaker 4: And just having to live through that and just knowing that,
Speaker 4: you know, I wasn't one of those people that went
Speaker 4: on social media to try to campaign for, you know,
Speaker 4: the validity of what I'm saying. I just say, hey,
Speaker 4: you guys are gonna believe what you want to believe.
Speaker 4: I know what the truth is, and I'm gonna proceed
Speaker 4: with the truth. But it could have I could have
Speaker 4: taken that route, and then I would have just.
Speaker 3: Been on every website, every blog.
Speaker 4: Saying no, this is untrue, this is untrue. And I
Speaker 4: didn't choose that path. But it's really it can go
Speaker 4: it depends on how you take it.
Speaker 3: It can really go back, you know, bad for you.
Speaker 4: Like you know, I remember at that time, I think
Speaker 4: HR had called me into a meeting to talk about, well,
Speaker 4: if you know, because I was in a position of superiority,
Speaker 4: is there someone who you've been with at the firm,
Speaker 4: because we would need to know that, you.
Speaker 3: Know, going forward.
Speaker 4: And it's like, wow, oh this is all There is
Speaker 4: a woman who just made this stuff up. It's totally
Speaker 4: lies and fabricated. But I had to have that conversation. Wow,
Speaker 4: they don't know that when they're doing this online and
Speaker 4: you know, on TV, but this is real life. It's
Speaker 4: not just reality TV. It's really real life. So having
Speaker 4: to deal with that, that was probably the toughest year
Speaker 4: that year.
Speaker 1: I think for me, it's really just been two things
Speaker 1: that they've been trying to, you know, push on us.
Speaker 1: And I'm as confident as you eddywhere you know, if
Speaker 1: you want to believe the live, you believe the live.
Speaker 1: If the worst thing you can say is that I'm
Speaker 1: gay in my marriage as a sham, or that my
Speaker 1: wife and I are getting divorced, If that's the worst
Speaker 1: thing you can say, I got no reason to go
Speaker 1: out and defend it. But if you're calling me a
Speaker 1: criminal and I'm getting investigated by the FBI, or I
Speaker 1: you know, I hit and run and a dui, or
Speaker 1: I do something really bad and illegal. Those are the
Speaker 1: people that are going on. They're trying to defend themselves like, no,
Speaker 1: it didn't it happened this way right, right, right.
Speaker 2: So guilty, it's so obvious, right, Yeah, Eddie, I loved
Speaker 2: what you said earlier in regards to just the girls
Speaker 2: being at another level. I often tell people like, you
Speaker 2: don't understand how witty you have to be to be
Speaker 2: on this show, Like how quick the girls are, Like
Speaker 2: if you try to get into it, they will eat
Speaker 2: you alive.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: Is there a person on the show that you're like, Man,
Speaker 2: I don't want to mess with that one other than
Speaker 2: your wife of course, right, other.
Speaker 4: Than my wife because I got to mess with her
Speaker 4: on a daily basis, you know, Like I said, I mean,
Speaker 4: they're all it's weird because I think I pride myself
Speaker 4: on being quick and being quick on my feet, but
Speaker 4: these women, like they will wrap you up in your
Speaker 4: words and you're like, wait, what was I trying to say?
Speaker 4: You just want to exit the conversation quickly, so I wouldn't.
Speaker 4: There's not one that I would want to talk, you
Speaker 4: know with, or have a verbal dispute with because they
Speaker 4: all have it and I don't you know, I don't
Speaker 4: want to test it. I've seen it in action and
Speaker 4: I'm like, man, okay, I've actually seen guys try to
Speaker 4: interact with the one of the ladies and I'm like,
Speaker 4: it's not gonna end well for you.
Speaker 2: Shout out to whoever does the casting, right, It's like
Speaker 2: they know what they're doing because these girls are just quick. Man,
Speaker 2: I'm amazed. And you know a lot of times people
Speaker 2: think of like, well, what do they do? They're just
Speaker 2: going on the show and talking like they are very smart.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, yeah, if you're not quick, you're not gonna
Speaker 4: last long. They're gonna eat you alive, a woman, as
Speaker 4: a new wife, as anything. Yeah, you're not gonna last
Speaker 4: very long.
Speaker 1: Now, a real serious question, and I'm sure the viewers
Speaker 1: will want to hear the truth and honest answer. And
Speaker 1: that's have you and your wife ever like had fights
Speaker 1: stupid fights over what happened on the show or what's
Speaker 1: going on on the show, And you're like, what the
Speaker 1: hell are we fighting about?
Speaker 4: Yes, short answer, yes, And it's it happened a lot
Speaker 4: in the beginning as well, because it's like you know,
Speaker 4: it's reality TV, but then you have your own reality
Speaker 4: and it's like I maybe subconsciously I would say something
Speaker 4: that maybe happen online or happened one of the women
Speaker 4: called her on the show, and I'll say it at
Speaker 4: home and she's like, see, you're using the show against me,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, I didn't even realize it. It's just
Speaker 4: you know, still a word, but I didn't realize it.
Speaker 4: But it's like those type of things are triggers when
Speaker 4: she's going through, you know, filming the show or just
Speaker 4: not seeing aya eye on. Okay, there's a dispute on
Speaker 4: the show, and I'm giving you my honest opinion, and
Speaker 4: you don't like minest opinion because you know, you feel
Speaker 4: like I'm signing with someone else.
Speaker 3: Like disputes about the show.
Speaker 4: They happened in the beginning, and I had to just realize, like, Okay,
Speaker 4: give my wife some time to decompress from filming. Don't
Speaker 4: ask her about filming, don't ask her about the show,
Speaker 4: you know, ask her about how hard they went, and
Speaker 4: then try not to get too invested in this show
Speaker 4: because inevitably, you know, we end up being the sounding
Speaker 4: board when they come back from you know, these cast
Speaker 4: events or filming or what have you, we end up
Speaker 4: being the sounding board or the voice of reasoning, the
Speaker 4: con voice. And so I think that, you know, we
Speaker 4: have gotten vice to beginning. We haven't gotten into them
Speaker 4: lately because it's really like, oh okay, oh that's going on.
Speaker 1: Oh wow wow, yeah, yeah, you kind of figured out,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's just a TV show. And as
Speaker 1: long as they don't do or say anything that will
Speaker 1: really hurt our career or our livelihood, I think it's
Speaker 1: just a TV show. But when they start really affecting
Speaker 1: the other things that are important, like even your relationship
Speaker 1: with your kids or business partners or whatnot, I don't
Speaker 1: really see that happening. Because my my truth is as
Speaker 1: long as I'm not doing anything illegal, immoral or you know, criminal,
Speaker 1: I'm fine, you know, just me just having a good
Speaker 1: time in life. So I'm not breaking the law and
Speaker 1: going to jail and you know, becoming a yoga instructor
Speaker 1: because I was in jail for a year, you know,
Speaker 1: just not I'm just not doing shit like that, just
Speaker 1: being me.
Speaker 4: So and you can tell when they make when they
Speaker 4: make up those lives and they don't stick, they just
Speaker 4: go away.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, and the ones that stick are the ones
Speaker 1: that are going no, no, it's not true. It's this way.
Speaker 2: What's the best thing that's come out of being on
Speaker 2: Housewives for you?
Speaker 3: Great question, that's a great question. I think.
Speaker 4: You know what's funny, I think actually being on Housewives
Speaker 4: has in our relationship my wife Wendy and I strengthen
Speaker 4: our relationship because it's forced us. I forced us, but
Speaker 4: it allowed us to get closer when you feel like
Speaker 4: it's us against the world. So I think that's one thing.
Speaker 4: I think also my kids have actually I've been able
Speaker 4: to maintain a sense of normalcy for them but also
Speaker 4: build them up in a way that I wasn't you know,
Speaker 4: I wasn't raised so in a sense of, you know,
Speaker 4: they're growing up in the spotlight, you know, like I
Speaker 4: have two boys they walked on in New York Fashion
Speaker 4: Week one year, and like those opportunities, Like I've never
Speaker 4: had those opportunities growing up. So being able to give
Speaker 4: them those type of opportunities is one of those things
Speaker 4: whereas once in a lifetime. And so I really appreciative
Speaker 4: of the Housewives universe for allowing them that space and
Speaker 4: that opportunity to go that way, and then also just
Speaker 4: starting businesses like this cannabis business.
Speaker 3: You know that I started.
Speaker 4: It's happy EDDI wouldn't be happy Edti if I wasn't on.
Speaker 3: This platform, you know.
Speaker 4: And so I think that the opportunity to meet the
Speaker 4: people I've met, to be in the rooms that I've
Speaker 4: been in, I've been able to I've been one of
Speaker 4: those peop well that said, if I'm going to be
Speaker 4: talked about on this show, I'm going to leverage this
Speaker 4: platform to my benefit. I'm not going to be talked
Speaker 4: about and then I go in the corner and I'll
Speaker 4: cry and I'll say, oh man, they talk about me.
Speaker 3: No, I'm going to take full advantage of the opportunity.
Speaker 4: And so that's what I've kind of prided myself when
Speaker 4: trying to do and not just sitting on the sidelines
Speaker 4: and just you know, eating popcorn and watching the show
Speaker 4: go on.
Speaker 1: It's definitely a springboard to anything you want to do.
Speaker 1: We've been very successful with our CBD company as well,
Speaker 1: and I don't think we'd be where we're at without
Speaker 1: the platform. Although we launched our company in twenty eighteen
Speaker 1: or twenty nineteen, but towards the beginning of the farm Bill,
Speaker 1: so Bravo wasn't very inclined to show anything cannabis. And
Speaker 1: we did a whole you know, one of those parties
Speaker 1: and all the housewives were there, and you got to
Speaker 1: make sure there's a bitch fight otherwise it's not going
Speaker 1: to air, and there was, and they just decided not
Speaker 1: to show it, and that really pissed me off and
Speaker 1: made me really think twice about what am I doing
Speaker 1: on the show if they're not going to you know,
Speaker 1: do their part. So fortunately we were true to our
Speaker 1: brand and built it up, you know, like or just
Speaker 1: a regular business. And fortunately the brand and the products
Speaker 1: spoke for themselves because in this industry when we started,
Speaker 1: you couldn't advertise anything cannabis, not on social media nowhere.
Speaker 1: So we were like, how were we supposed to sell
Speaker 1: you something? We can't tell you it's good for how
Speaker 1: it works for you. You know, it's very challenging. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm really I mean, it's it's a tough business, but
Speaker 1: it's very rewarding because it is it is a medicinal plant,
Speaker 1: and a lot of customers have benefited from it.
Speaker 4: Definitely, I would love the trust of their products too.
Speaker 2: What's the one thing that you would you know, for
Speaker 2: any entrepreneur that's listening to the show or that's maybe
Speaker 2: wanting to get into into a new business, what's the
Speaker 2: number one advice you would give them coming from the
Speaker 2: corporate world, Because I'm sure a lot of fans of
Speaker 2: the show are probably nine to five corporate people that
Speaker 2: maybe dream of jumping into that entrepreneurship. And Eddie maybe
Speaker 2: you could answer that as well, what is the number
Speaker 2: one advice that you would give someone that's thinking about
Speaker 2: maybe getting into entrepreneurship.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say the number one advice I would
Speaker 4: I would give is to seek out I guess you
Speaker 4: call the mentors or seek out a board of advisors
Speaker 4: who are doing what you want to do, and really
Speaker 4: educate yourself on what.
Speaker 3: It is you're trying to get yourself into.
Speaker 4: Because you know, people, believe it or not, they love
Speaker 4: to talk and they love especially when they're experting their field.
Speaker 4: They love to share knowledge and love to be the
Speaker 4: go to person of the knowledge base, and so I
Speaker 4: think seeking out folks who can give you that information
Speaker 4: transfer and can give you that quick cliff notes into
Speaker 4: the industry, and then you take that learning and you
Speaker 4: apply it to you know, what you're trying to do.
Speaker 4: I think that's invaluable, and that's kind of advice that
Speaker 4: you won't be able to realize until you're fully entrenched
Speaker 4: in facing obstacles in the industry, and then you be
Speaker 4: able to call upon those people or call upon that
Speaker 4: advice that you were given, you know, initially.
Speaker 3: So I think that's probably the number one advice that
Speaker 3: I would give.
Speaker 4: To anyone who is venturing out and don't think because
Speaker 4: you're leaving corporate America, you're gonna leave all that learning behind,
Speaker 4: because you're gonna apply all those characteristics, you know, setting meetings,
Speaker 4: setting an agenda, you know, running through your you know
Speaker 4: your outcomes and what you're to do list, like, you
Speaker 4: have to utilize those things in entrepreneurship every single day.
Speaker 4: If you don't, like, you're gonna flounder and waste time
Speaker 4: and it's not going to be good for you. So
Speaker 4: I think that's the number one advice I would give.
Speaker 1: I have to agree one hundred percent, yeah with what
Speaker 1: you said, And the only thing I would piggyback on is,
Speaker 1: you know, it's the hardest. It's like finding a life partner,
Speaker 1: it's finding the right people that are going to be
Speaker 1: on the board, on the ship with you, you know, and
Speaker 1: have skin in the game, because doing it on your
Speaker 1: own is one of the hardest things to do in business.
Speaker 1: You know, you're going to be wearing too many hats
Speaker 1: and it's going to be too difficult to say seed.
Speaker 1: So find a partner or two, or as many as
Speaker 1: you can get that will help you improve your chances
Speaker 1: of success, you know. But again, make sure there are
Speaker 1: people you really trust, you really know they have a
Speaker 1: skin in the game and a real interest in the game,
Speaker 1: because doing it by yourself is too hard.
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, no, I agree with that, and I love
Speaker 2: the answer.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 2: What I would add to that as far as you
Speaker 2: know the importance of association and the importance of mentorship.
Speaker 2: A lot of people say, well, I don't have access
Speaker 2: to those people, and the reality of it is you do.
Speaker 2: With all the YouTube stuff that's there, you could literally
Speaker 2: study people. And I can tell you that one one
Speaker 2: of the ways you can connect with people is if
Speaker 2: you DM them and you tell them something back about
Speaker 2: a story that they told about their life. If you
Speaker 2: could tie that back to like if you can show
Speaker 2: them that you paid attention to their story, they will
Speaker 2: get back to you. So it's got to be something
Speaker 2: speciftiffic that they know. Man, this person took the time
Speaker 2: to study me. Yeah, right, versus just sending them a generic.
Speaker 2: I sent this to one thousand people, and let's say
Speaker 2: if you respond, if you could make it very unique
Speaker 2: where they know it's specific to them, you'd be amazed
Speaker 2: how many people will respond to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or even if you're trying to work for a company,
Speaker 1: you do the research, you know, you look into the company,
Speaker 1: you find out everything about it, and don't send them
Speaker 1: a hey are you hiring? Email? Say hey, I'd love
Speaker 1: to work for you, and here's the reasons why.
Speaker 3: Right, you got to do your due diligence for sure
Speaker 3: to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: And what's next for you, Eddie? What's what do you
Speaker 2: got planned? And what are you looking forward to in
Speaker 2: this new season?
Speaker 3: So this new season it's just getting off the grounds.
Speaker 4: I don't know how. I don't want to be the
Speaker 4: leak if you will, but the new seas is getting
Speaker 4: off the ground. It's going really well. I think this
Speaker 4: next season is going to be a great season. There's
Speaker 4: also some other things in the pipeline for the the
Speaker 4: ocepos and so I think that you know, we have
Speaker 4: some announcements coming up in terms of family announcement, and
Speaker 4: then we also, you know, like I said, I'm expanding
Speaker 4: the brand.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to be traveling a lot.
Speaker 4: Into different states and partnering with different folks that some
Speaker 4: people may know, some people may not know, a lot
Speaker 4: of people probably do know.
Speaker 3: And so just just.
Speaker 4: Trying to make the most of you know, the opportunities
Speaker 4: and really just trying to enjoy the ride.
Speaker 3: While it's still a ride. If you will, love that.
Speaker 2: Love it Eddie Man, you're again very charismatic. Your business
Speaker 2: is obviously I think, going to do very well. I
Speaker 2: love the business you picked. I think it's especially as
Speaker 2: to your point, as more states get a little more
Speaker 2: I guess what's the word, uh lenient. Yeah, I think
Speaker 2: it's it's it's a great business, especially with your platform
Speaker 2: as well. So very excited to see you continue to shine.
Speaker 4: Thanks, Thanks guys. The Eddie's finally squeeze right middle with
Speaker 4: the Eddie Orioles.
Speaker 2: Well you come down to la hit us up man, Yeah, please,
Speaker 2: we'd love to.
Speaker 3: We'll do, we'll do.
Speaker 1: And are you going to Bravo Con this year.
Speaker 4: Probably, Actually I went the past years and I went
Speaker 4: to Bravo Fans did Okay? Probably?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, hopefully we'll see you there because I'm excited
Speaker 1: about it. I I went to the one two years
Speaker 1: ago in Vegas and it was so awesome. I met
Speaker 1: so many you know, other house husbands and you know,
Speaker 1: not a lot of them I like, but a lot
Speaker 1: of my I really got to know, and and especially
Speaker 1: the Jersey boys.
Speaker 4: There are a lot of fun there there there, there
Speaker 4: are a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of fun. So hopefully we'll get
Speaker 1: to see you then, if not before. And thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being on the EDS.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me, guys. I appreciate it.