Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. Today we
Speaker 1: have sisters, Crystal Jones and Kendrill Settle, owners of uplift
Speaker 1: us Marketplace. Uplift Us Marketplace is a retail store that
Speaker 1: dedicates ad of its shelf space to black entrepreneurs to
Speaker 1: probably sell their products while offering consumers a place to
Speaker 1: actually shop black. You don't have to go all over
Speaker 1: the internet, guys. You can go to one store and
Speaker 1: you can actually buy their buy online online. Yes, yes, today,
Speaker 1: what do you have us eating? So? Today we're making um,
Speaker 1: actually a meal that I still love. It's tuna cast
Speaker 1: role and it came back from when I was I
Speaker 1: had three kids by time I was twenty four, so
Speaker 1: I used to make this because it's good and it
Speaker 1: goes a long way. Yes, and it's affordable. I think
Speaker 1: this mail costs roughly five six bucks at the most.
Speaker 1: And it's got a white sauce, so it looks like
Speaker 1: it's gonna taste really good. Um, can you tell us
Speaker 1: what are the ingredients? Yes? So the ingredients our egg noodles,
Speaker 1: Campbell's cream of Mushroom soup, a can of tuna, and
Speaker 1: cheddar cheese. Awesome. So did you come up with this
Speaker 1: yourself or did you google it? You know what, Honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Mom made this when we were little too.
Speaker 1: Our mom used to make it when we were little. Okay, okay, okay, awesome,
Speaker 1: So why don't you start us off? Okay, So first
Speaker 1: I'm going to take the egg noodles and put them
Speaker 1: in this pot. And just so you guys know that's listening,
Speaker 1: we pre cooked them a little bit so we will
Speaker 1: eat faster because it's only a thirty forty minute shoot,
Speaker 1: but on average the meal the noodles only took like
Speaker 1: eight minutes to cook. Yeah, exactly. So you just um,
Speaker 1: you know, boil the noodles, drain the water, which it's
Speaker 1: already done here, so I'm just kind of heating it
Speaker 1: back up the pot, and then I'll take the tuna first,
Speaker 1: so tuna goes first, and then I'll take the tuna
Speaker 1: I'm getting in years so that can get heated at
Speaker 1: Usually it's just for a pack of egg noodles. It's
Speaker 1: just one can't larger can of tuna and mix that in. Man,
Speaker 1: that sounds a little crazy, but no, no, no, I
Speaker 1: used to mix my tuna with mac and cheese. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, today in my house, my husband looks
Speaker 1: at me like I'm white. So I don't like dragging
Speaker 1: about it. But it actually it's really good. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what. My husband thanks the same thing actually about
Speaker 1: this meal. But I like it, k So, yeah, it
Speaker 1: looks like it's it looks like quality for budget, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: And I've never had the couple of mushrooms soup or
Speaker 1: any of that, so I used for actually a lot
Speaker 1: of things. Yeah. So yes, I have a little bit
Speaker 1: of Lowry's seasoning salt just to give it a little
Speaker 1: bit of flavor. You don't want it, you know, to
Speaker 1: be bland. You can add pepper if you want. I
Speaker 1: will add a little bit of that as well. So
Speaker 1: when was the last time you ate this dish? You know?
Speaker 1: It's funny because my uh my daughter who's twenty one,
Speaker 1: still ask for me to make it. Okay, So I
Speaker 1: made it maybe about a month ago, about a month ago.
Speaker 1: I don't make it very often now, but it is
Speaker 1: requested from times to time. So so you said this,
Speaker 1: You made this when you were twenty four, you were
Speaker 1: your mom? Is this when you started your entrepreneurship because
Speaker 1: I know you you've been an entrepreneur for quite some time,
Speaker 1: both of you guys, we started an entrepreneurship a little bit, well, no,
Speaker 1: actually run around then. Maybe when I was right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so, because I had chat I was about
Speaker 1: twenty seven. Indoor play center time together. We've been partners forever, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: and I had and I had two little boys when
Speaker 1: we opened the first business, so it seemed like were
Speaker 1: you guys trying to fill a need? Then? You know,
Speaker 1: we've just always had the entrepreneurship bug, like we just
Speaker 1: always came up with these great ideas. I think one
Speaker 1: day we were just talking and I had an idea
Speaker 1: of like, let's open an indoor play center, and she
Speaker 1: got excited by the idea, and you know what, our
Speaker 1: energy just kind of bounces off of each other to
Speaker 1: where we get excited and we just go for it.
Speaker 1: So one little spark of an idea, then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden we're like, oh, we can do this, we
Speaker 1: can do that. And then next thing, you know, so
Speaker 1: how do you fund these ideas when you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I have this idea, let's go right yeah, well, tiny
Speaker 1: town we actually funded that with loans. We did, and
Speaker 1: thankfully we had like really good credit, so we were
Speaker 1: able to get a loan to open it and it
Speaker 1: didn't take a lot um. The cost wasn't too high
Speaker 1: to open it because we just had to rent a
Speaker 1: you know, an empty space. Yeah, rent an empty a
Speaker 1: large empty space. It's like four square feet and we
Speaker 1: just filled it with fun things, jumpers, and because we
Speaker 1: had little kids and you know, we were always doing
Speaker 1: other things, we really kept the parents in mind. So
Speaker 1: we set it up to where the parents could sit relaxed,
Speaker 1: watch TV, drink coffee, and watch their kids play with
Speaker 1: nice Of course, the parents loved it, so you were
Speaker 1: definitely filling a need. Filling a need. Okay. So now
Speaker 1: fast forward to uplift us Marketplace. What was going on
Speaker 1: at the time where you guys decided we're going to
Speaker 1: create this retail store and we're gonna support a hundred
Speaker 1: percent black owned businesses. Okay. So that was during them.
Speaker 1: It was during the pandemic. You know, we were all
Speaker 1: home and you know, everything was happening. It was a
Speaker 1: major movement at that time with George Floyd everything going on. Yeah, exactly, BLM,
Speaker 1: and we were trying to be really conscious about shopping black,
Speaker 1: you know, and it had to be online. Um, and
Speaker 1: it was difficult. It was I'm sorry, Yeah, you can
Speaker 1: go at the same time. One day, I just like
Speaker 1: VEGGI out on TV because we were home doing the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and I watched like a ton of documentaries on Black
Speaker 1: Wall Street. And as I was watching those documentaries, one
Speaker 1: I was just so moved by seeing the images of
Speaker 1: Black Wall Street years ago and then just hearing the
Speaker 1: statistics now about Um, you know how long the black
Speaker 1: dollar circulates, which is only six hours, unfortunately, and that's
Speaker 1: compared to the white dollar, compared to any other community,
Speaker 1: any other white which circulates for thirty forty five days.
Speaker 1: So you know, that creates a huge, huge gap in
Speaker 1: our communities in just everything that we have. Now. I
Speaker 1: was a little confused when that, Like I was doing
Speaker 1: some research and and you talk about the black dollars circulating.
Speaker 1: I guess my question comes in, like, if the black
Speaker 1: market has so much buying power, why is it circulating
Speaker 1: at such a small time frame. Well, that's not where
Speaker 1: we're spending our money. Yeah, we have the second highest
Speaker 1: spending power in the United States. But when you look
Speaker 1: at the products in any major retailers or even small retailers,
Speaker 1: we only have three percent of the shelf space. So
Speaker 1: when you go, when you're spending your money nine times
Speaker 1: out of team, you're spending it on you know, products
Speaker 1: made by other people, which there's nothing wrong with that,
Speaker 1: but we found that, you know, it's just difficult to
Speaker 1: find the products that are made by us because they're
Speaker 1: not on the shelf. Right, Yeah, so, but this also
Speaker 1: goes back to, you know, before George Floyd, you know,
Speaker 1: I think targets started to pick up black brands, but
Speaker 1: when they did, you saw the hate mail come through
Speaker 1: for them picking up a black brand. I know, after
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter, brands started to become conscious. And I
Speaker 1: honestly think that the only reason why George Floyd had
Speaker 1: like such a positive impact was we were in a pandemic.
Speaker 1: There were no sports too to fluff us over right,
Speaker 1: people literally had to face music. Because this has been
Speaker 1: going on for years. For years, black black people have
Speaker 1: asked for equal opportunities in retail and have been producing.
Speaker 1: It's not like these products don't exist. It's not like
Speaker 1: black entrepreneurs don't exist. It's not like our dollars don't exist,
Speaker 1: our buying power doesn't exist, and there's high quality black
Speaker 1: products out there to use, hair care, there's even toothpaste.
Speaker 1: That's absolutely It's definitely not from a lack of quality
Speaker 1: or lack of availability. It's just being able to have
Speaker 1: the opportunity and and find it. Yeah, and it's well,
Speaker 1: I guess the problem area would be the lack of distribution.
Speaker 1: And that's where uplift us marketplace. You know, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you from experience. I was walking through the Fox Hills Mall.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm used to seeing your typical brands, your
Speaker 1: full lockers or champs, you know, whatever traditional stores we
Speaker 1: all grew up with, and I came across your store
Speaker 1: and it was like we support you know. I think
Speaker 1: it was like over of your products in your store
Speaker 1: are black owned, and I was a hundred percent black
Speaker 1: owned and over eighty brands, and I stopped in my
Speaker 1: tracks as, oh my gosh, you know, and I remember,
Speaker 1: you know, when the Black Lives Matter movement, I did
Speaker 1: have the urge to say I want to shop black,
Speaker 1: but shopping black wasn't as easy and accessible. You know,
Speaker 1: you have your one or two brands that got picked
Speaker 1: up by major retailers since you know, George Floyd and
Speaker 1: and honestly, for me, it's just really not authentic enough
Speaker 1: for me. I feel like we almost had to like
Speaker 1: literally die to get that distribution and to be to
Speaker 1: walk into your store. Of course, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is great that it has all these black products.
Speaker 1: So IM merely walked over to your you know, I
Speaker 1: checked out the products. The products were amazing, everything you
Speaker 1: could imagine, from food to clothing too, bonnets to a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of different items. By the way, me and
Speaker 1: my daughter now have matching bonnets, and uh and uh.
Speaker 1: What I thought was I wanted to ask the person
Speaker 1: that worked there. I just had to know because of
Speaker 1: what happened with Target. And I'm not trying to sing
Speaker 1: out Target or any major retailer, but I felt like
Speaker 1: their obligation to support us was more out of obligation.
Speaker 1: And I had to know if uplift us marketplace was
Speaker 1: black owned, because you do see that a lot. Yes,
Speaker 1: you know, try and represent right exactly. Yeah, And that's
Speaker 1: what we were finding also finding because in our mission,
Speaker 1: once our consciousness was raised and we were trying to
Speaker 1: seek out black products, some things weren't and we were like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I bought this thinking you know, that
Speaker 1: party and it wasn't and then of course shooting fees
Speaker 1: and everything, and that's where the idea came from, like,
Speaker 1: you know what, we need a space that we can
Speaker 1: go to r Yeah. And it's so funny because when
Speaker 1: she had the idea, I immediately thought like, um, I
Speaker 1: thought of the space. I was thinking, I wanted to
Speaker 1: be beautiful, like I wanted to be just like that
Speaker 1: farmhouse look, just something that people wouldn't expect. And it's
Speaker 1: so funny because when we started telling people like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're opening a store that sells, you know, all black
Speaker 1: owned products, and everyone's reaction was, oh, you're opening the
Speaker 1: swat meat, right, that's what they were picturing, right exactly,
Speaker 1: And no, we wanted to raise the bar like you know,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a space where it's absolutely beautiful
Speaker 1: and when you walk in, your surprised and um, you're
Speaker 1: proud experience. Yeah, exactly, the shop there, but kind of
Speaker 1: going back to what you said, and you could definitely service.
Speaker 1: While we're discussing this feel hungry. That's I agree with
Speaker 1: you in the sense where people thought, okay, swap meat,
Speaker 1: because I think maybe a part of the reason why
Speaker 1: I even asked if it was black owned or what
Speaker 1: have you could have been the fact that it was
Speaker 1: such a nice store to walk into. It was like, okay,
Speaker 1: is this really and that's I guess that's kind of bad,
Speaker 1: but you know it's it's it's reality. It's reality exactly,
Speaker 1: and we want to change that whole because also, and
Speaker 1: this is just to be quite honest, sometimes um, even
Speaker 1: talking to people about trying to shop black, I would
Speaker 1: people say I tried to support a black business and
Speaker 1: I got attitude. I didn't have good customer service. We
Speaker 1: want to change that perception that it's not right. Black
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs out here working hard, creating quality products and we'll
Speaker 1: give you the service. So we figured, you know what,
Speaker 1: we'll be that standard. We'll make a place where we
Speaker 1: know we're gonna be. Yeah, it was. It's beautiful. It's
Speaker 1: a beautiful experience. The customer service was above par. Now
Speaker 1: as we get into this meeting, I have to have
Speaker 1: to sample. You're eating more, all right, let's see here
Speaker 1: we go. Mm hmmmmm. It's pretty tasty, right, very tasty.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. I'm gonna going for a second bite. And
Speaker 1: this is an easy Is this your first time having
Speaker 1: This is my very first time having to astroom. So
Speaker 1: what about a twenty minute meal? Yeah, really quick. You
Speaker 1: can't put it in the event if you want, but
Speaker 1: still task. I got see why your daughters still asked
Speaker 1: for It's affordable. We all you college students out there.
Speaker 1: It's a good alternative to Ramen versus us tweaking Ramen
Speaker 1: all the time. So when you were creating uplift marketplace, UM,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you guys had some hard milestones, Toad
Speaker 1: or some challenges. Can you share with us what some
Speaker 1: of those challenges were. UM? I think probably the startup
Speaker 1: costs was probably the first challenge. Um. We ended up
Speaker 1: funding everything ourselves. We got help, We got some help
Speaker 1: from some family and friends. UM, but just trying to
Speaker 1: I would think it the funds to start the business
Speaker 1: would be on the business side of it hard this
Speaker 1: thing because you know, we were a business coming out
Speaker 1: of nowhere, so loans and everything. They're like, yeah, but
Speaker 1: you're in business with yourselves, especially during people the pandemic,
Speaker 1: Like you're opening a business during the pandemic, and when
Speaker 1: you were hit with those hurdles, no part of you
Speaker 1: was like, maybe we should wait till the world opens up.
Speaker 1: You know what. We laugh at ourselves all the time.
Speaker 1: We're just not geared that way. Once we have an
Speaker 1: idea and we think it's good, we go and we
Speaker 1: go hard. So you started ironically, I would have thought
Speaker 1: that you would have started e commerce, but you wouldn't
Speaker 1: directly into retail. Yes, during a pandemic, I have to
Speaker 1: stress that journey. You're like, hey, guys, I know it's
Speaker 1: gonna cost you a lot of money. We're gonna invest
Speaker 1: our personal dollars, husband and you know, husbands and children.
Speaker 1: We're gonna invest our personal into a retail store to
Speaker 1: support black old businesses in the at all of a
Speaker 1: pandemic when people are locked in their house, right, I
Speaker 1: want to I just want to know the thought process.
Speaker 1: We felt like everyone was hungry for the same thing because,
Speaker 1: like you said before, sports was going on, and everyone's
Speaker 1: attention was on what was happening in the United States
Speaker 1: when it came to you know, the black lives and
Speaker 1: just everything that was going on. So we felt like
Speaker 1: this is the time it, you know, despite the pandemic
Speaker 1: everything else, everyone's awareness is heightened right now and we
Speaker 1: had to jump on that. Um also launching e commerce first.
Speaker 1: It's like that was part of our hurdle at first.
Speaker 1: It's finding everything online, not seeing the quality, feeling it, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So we wanted them to see it and fill it.
Speaker 1: And honestly, we were thinking a lot smaller when we
Speaker 1: had the idea. We were thinking of maybe we'd have
Speaker 1: fifteen companies in the store. How do you find these companies? Right?
Speaker 1: So we start we kind of just put the word
Speaker 1: out there. We were looking on Instagram. We reached out
Speaker 1: to a few companies that looked like they had like
Speaker 1: really good products, something unique, you know, right, We set
Speaker 1: up meetings, met with them, and we're spread. Next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, we had sixty We had hundreds of companies
Speaker 1: contact us to get into the store. That shows how
Speaker 1: big the demand was. Exactly hundreds you said, hundreds of
Speaker 1: companies reach out to hundreds and still they d right now. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's that is part of what sparked us. And
Speaker 1: then seeing them come in and these people they didn't
Speaker 1: know us from a cannidy and build the space, but
Speaker 1: they believed in the idea too, and they were willing
Speaker 1: to put their products there. When we were like this
Speaker 1: is and it felt good, It felt right. You know,
Speaker 1: once we start filling everyone's energy to our next thing.
Speaker 1: You know, we had sixty brands that we narrowed it
Speaker 1: down to to start with. And when I say our
Speaker 1: grand opening, it was phenomenal. There were it was. It
Speaker 1: opened at what twelve, It went from twelve to fives,
Speaker 1: It was supposed to go from twelve to five. We
Speaker 1: had a line wrapped around the corner and the entire
Speaker 1: day it was overwhelming. So the demand was for surely
Speaker 1: there was there. And it's crazy because you feel now
Speaker 1: hearing this, you feel like, I, for lack of better word,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's chains. There's still those barrier of
Speaker 1: chains that's wrapped around black and brown folks. Because here
Speaker 1: you open a store, over a hundred brands are reaching
Speaker 1: out like please give me the distribution, and then you
Speaker 1: have customers, please sell me the product. And then you
Speaker 1: look at our buying power, which is what one point
Speaker 1: seven billion you said, are on one point seven billion
Speaker 1: dollar buying power, and yet only three of our products
Speaker 1: are in the market available to us. And you guys
Speaker 1: had to literally look on the rocks and softly you
Speaker 1: spread the word, but the word spread all on its own.
Speaker 1: The great thing about is because we have all of
Speaker 1: these businesses within our business, they're all spreading the word
Speaker 1: about so it's a great collaboration and we see it
Speaker 1: going very far. Because I had so much pride and
Speaker 1: like love and I can't even described the motion when
Speaker 1: I saw your store, I said, oh, you know, I
Speaker 1: was with my daughter. I feel like I had been
Speaker 1: locked out of a room with the steak and the
Speaker 1: inside and I had been starving and here it's like yo,
Speaker 1: just a glass wall between us and the door opened,
Speaker 1: and it was it was a sense of pride, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's what we want to give. Want the businesses
Speaker 1: to be proud to have their stuff there, and we
Speaker 1: want every customer to feel proud when they come in.
Speaker 1: And you know, we have all nationalities coming in shopping
Speaker 1: and all of them are feeling that same pride and
Speaker 1: export you're excited. I don't. I don't think I even
Speaker 1: looked at the price that I said, is it You
Speaker 1: just feel like this is a mission based price? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, you're shopping with purpose, you know. And
Speaker 1: because the products are, like I said, they're high quality
Speaker 1: practice therefore everyone they're made by black people, but they're
Speaker 1: for every everyone. Yeah, and and really our price points
Speaker 1: are really good. I would say, no, one's really jacking
Speaker 1: their prices up or we're not their good prices. And
Speaker 1: they're all small businesses on top of black owned businesses,
Speaker 1: so it is a purpose every sell. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: excited every sell is making a difference. So what would
Speaker 1: you say? And I hate the point like focus on
Speaker 1: pain points, but I know as an entrepreneur, it's like,
Speaker 1: we walk up, we see this beautiful store location, we
Speaker 1: see sisters that actually get along, which shout out to
Speaker 1: my sister because you know, she barely enswers my phone
Speaker 1: calls right now. But we have sisters, you know, and
Speaker 1: everything looks great from the outside. But I kind of
Speaker 1: want to unpackaged some kind of the weeds to how
Speaker 1: you boom to flowers sort of say, um, as far
Speaker 1: as our journey open, Yeah, well, I will say again,
Speaker 1: because we're working mothers. That is hard trying to find
Speaker 1: that balance to put in enough time to make the
Speaker 1: business successful and enough time doing all the mother things,
Speaker 1: white things, everything that you need to do. It's it's
Speaker 1: a constant struggle. It is. I don't know when that
Speaker 1: will go away. But we're in the middle of that field,
Speaker 1: right man. I have a question as a mom, I
Speaker 1: have two questions. Okay, do you where do you? I
Speaker 1: would say, lose your balance? Like I know, for me,
Speaker 1: like cooking has like I don't even remember the last
Speaker 1: time I cooked. My husband has became the chef, like
Speaker 1: he's cooking. He's cooking things that I'm like, oh, the
Speaker 1: housemas like you became a chef, you know. So it
Speaker 1: is that, like I'm sure something has to give right
Speaker 1: where the sacrifice does. That's definitely been one of the
Speaker 1: sacrifices for me. Think goods. My husband enjoys cooking and cooks,
Speaker 1: but I mean I'm so exhausted by time. I mean,
Speaker 1: if he asked, what's for dinner? I try to play
Speaker 1: it like you're like, I'm great at ordering. But yes,
Speaker 1: that's definitely one of the things that that I just
Speaker 1: don't do like I used to. And my day is
Speaker 1: just alone. I'm going to be it later because that's
Speaker 1: my time when the kids are sleep to say, okay,
Speaker 1: let me work on this, let me work on that.
Speaker 1: And I would say for me, thankfully, during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: while we were home, I taught my boys who are
Speaker 1: fourteen and eighteen, how to cook. So we kind of
Speaker 1: that that has been They have been so helpful with
Speaker 1: this because like, if I come home exhausted, I say,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll buy something for one of them to cook,
Speaker 1: which is great, But I would say the biggest struggle
Speaker 1: struggle comes in where when I'm exhausted and my fourteen
Speaker 1: year old and he's help with his homework and I
Speaker 1: am tired, you know, and before I would have the
Speaker 1: energy for that, but you know, they're understanding. I just
Speaker 1: feel bad that sometimes I just don't have the energy.
Speaker 1: It's like, if you're giving all your energy at one
Speaker 1: point to the business, then you feel bad at home.
Speaker 1: If if you shift that, now you're giving most of
Speaker 1: your energy at home, you're like, oh, the business will
Speaker 1: be doing better if I did. So it's really just
Speaker 1: trying to find that balance being easy on ourselves and
Speaker 1: for me. All my kids are you know, pretty much
Speaker 1: old enough to understand, so communicating with them, Let's say,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm here if you need me, if something
Speaker 1: is important that this is also something working. Has the
Speaker 1: business hit the all the milestones you imagine, didn't exceed
Speaker 1: it or didn't miss a couple we're still working at Yeah,
Speaker 1: like we're really trying to build our online business. We
Speaker 1: just launched that February first, So that's been a lot
Speaker 1: of work because that's what does marketplace dot com exactly
Speaker 1: dot com amazing products, online, fast shipping. Um, So trying
Speaker 1: to grow that part of it has been a challenge.
Speaker 1: Um the marketing, you know, things like that. So we
Speaker 1: haven't hit because we don't have the funds to hire
Speaker 1: someone to do our marketing and hire build our website
Speaker 1: to I mean, have you reached out to some of
Speaker 1: our influencer friends out there are black and brown not
Speaker 1: we need to some of them? Please do yes them
Speaker 1: because that does help we do need. Course, you look
Speaker 1: at fashion Nova and they Fashionova actually where we tape
Speaker 1: for all you listeners in the Panorama City Mall. Fashion Nova,
Speaker 1: the young man that owns it, who just bought like
Speaker 1: the most expensive home in l A. His founding store
Speaker 1: is actually here in Panama City mall. And so ownership
Speaker 1: of the mall always jokes with me about when Fashionova,
Speaker 1: when he couldn't even pay his bills and when he
Speaker 1: had to lie about his sales, and they used he
Speaker 1: would always tell them like one day I'm to be
Speaker 1: big and they would all laugh because he was always struggling,
Speaker 1: and he struggled for over ten years before he's now
Speaker 1: obviously a kazillionaire. Um, but a lot of people don't
Speaker 1: realize that struggle behind Fashion Nova. But it was the
Speaker 1: digital platform and it was social media, social media air
Speaker 1: forces that stepped up and really helped his brands all.
Speaker 1: Definitely the struggle we're still in. I mean, it's doing
Speaker 1: great obviously, and it's growing. Everyday. New people were finding
Speaker 1: out about us, but we're definitely not yeah, exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's the awareness that's kind of where well, that's what
Speaker 1: we're doing this show, right, Absolutely, yes, thank you so
Speaker 1: much so. Kim Kardashian recently issue to Stay bron I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys have seen it online where
Speaker 1: she was like women, my advice as you go out
Speaker 1: there and work. I was torn because I get what
Speaker 1: she was saying, but I hate to say it, but
Speaker 1: the messenger was kind of it was a little hard.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I think Trevor Noah had issued
Speaker 1: a statement saying, you know, not everyone, you know, some
Speaker 1: of success is a little bit of luck. You know,
Speaker 1: when I look at businesses, I look at you know,
Speaker 1: all these elements that could contribute to it, the tipping
Speaker 1: point you say, in your Guys case, you know, there
Speaker 1: was a definite need that George Floyd's situation happened. The
Speaker 1: kneed came up, the kneed kept coming up. The need
Speaker 1: has been coming up for a while. But luckily because
Speaker 1: of a pandemic. You know, again, a whole marriage of forces,
Speaker 1: you know, allowed it to be successful. But then you
Speaker 1: have people like say Kim Kardashian, that's like, women go
Speaker 1: out there and work. What is your what was your
Speaker 1: stance when you saw that? Yeah, I felt like, like
Speaker 1: you said, the messenger, you know, you know, maybe she
Speaker 1: had good intentions when she was saying that, but I mean,
Speaker 1: not everyone is in the position to do that. There's
Speaker 1: so many women that are working hard. They're working so hard,
Speaker 1: and they just you know, they're not making nearly as
Speaker 1: much money as someone else that's not working as hard,
Speaker 1: you know, and that I mean I was in that
Speaker 1: those shoes for a long time, working hard. I mean,
Speaker 1: I am hard working, and you're doubling of my soul.
Speaker 1: And it's just like if you don't have you know,
Speaker 1: some of those those things handed to you. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: felt I felt like for her it was just like
Speaker 1: you were born into wealth, you know, your your playmates
Speaker 1: were like Paris Hilton, you know, and added to that
Speaker 1: like no disrespect to her, but you know she did
Speaker 1: have this the video that came out that also helped
Speaker 1: her correct and granted. I will never take anything awa
Speaker 1: from the Kardashians and the generals. They worked hard hard.
Speaker 1: But to say the message to other women is to
Speaker 1: work hard is like we didn't have Senu waiting that
Speaker 1: we're not working hard already and we are what I mean,
Speaker 1: imagine how many stories we would have if we could say,
Speaker 1: oh dad, can I have a million dollars? Or are resources?
Speaker 1: We had all these celebrity friends that can't help. Not
Speaker 1: everyone has the same resources no matter how hard they work.
Speaker 1: I mean, what advice do you give to women like
Speaker 1: yourselves that came from eating while broke days, that are
Speaker 1: moms that are juggling mom, wife and food, you know,
Speaker 1: putting food on the table and aspiring for their dreams? Like,
Speaker 1: what advice do you give a woman? My advice would
Speaker 1: be um to be easy on yourself because there's work hard,
Speaker 1: have your dreams, but there's gonna be times when you
Speaker 1: feel there's gonna be times when you're too tired. There's
Speaker 1: gonna be certain times and a lot of times as women,
Speaker 1: I think we hold ourselves to such a standard week.
Speaker 1: We're really hard on ourselves that it can get us down.
Speaker 1: I would say, be easy on yourself and go through
Speaker 1: the journey because that's where you learn so much, and
Speaker 1: that's where you grow so much, and there's so many
Speaker 1: gyms in that. It's just enjoy the journey and be
Speaker 1: easy on yourself for all the way right. And self care,
Speaker 1: you know, self care is so important. You know sometimes
Speaker 1: we grind and grind, but it's like we're not taking
Speaker 1: care of our mental and you know, taking time for ourselves,
Speaker 1: you burn out and then you know, when you say
Speaker 1: self care, it kind of reminds me of like self
Speaker 1: love and I when I describe self love to feed
Speaker 1: other people. It took me almost thirty years, thirty three,
Speaker 1: thirty five years to figure out what self love was.
Speaker 1: I used to think it was just buying yourself some movies,
Speaker 1: going to going on a date with yourself. Oh that's
Speaker 1: self love. But really self love isn't really that. So
Speaker 1: I'm curious when you say self care, what does self
Speaker 1: care really look like I would say, well, first of all,
Speaker 1: you have to have self love to not feel guilty
Speaker 1: about self care. You know, like to where you know
Speaker 1: if you need to say no, say no. If you know,
Speaker 1: if you don't have the capacity when you know to
Speaker 1: do something it's too much for you, it's okay to
Speaker 1: say now and to take a break. And that's what
Speaker 1: I mean. M'd be easier. I just can't do everything
Speaker 1: and everything. And funny story is who taught me to
Speaker 1: look at myself is my daughter. When she was about
Speaker 1: I want to say, maybe eight years old. We were
Speaker 1: driving in the car and I mean, I'm from the
Speaker 1: time I had my oldest daughter. I was mom mode,
Speaker 1: mom mode and my entire day consisted of that. And
Speaker 1: we were driving one in I'm like, what do you
Speaker 1: guys want to do today? And she says what do
Speaker 1: you like to do? And I mean I literally sat
Speaker 1: there driving silent, like I don't know, I hat write
Speaker 1: about me and so long. And that was really a
Speaker 1: changing point in my life where I started to think
Speaker 1: about what I like to do and what makes me happy.
Speaker 1: Other obviously being a mom made me happy, but their
Speaker 1: stuff outside of that too. So yeah, now I as
Speaker 1: a mom. Sometimes I'll have an opportunity, financial opportunity, and
Speaker 1: I was say, man, I can't turn down that dollar.
Speaker 1: I don't know when another dollar's comment, especially as entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can afford to turn it down.
Speaker 1: But then I'm like, maybe putting too much on my plate?
Speaker 1: When do you know to turn down the checks? Well,
Speaker 1: I say, following your spirit, you know, And sometimes that
Speaker 1: takes a lot of work to know how to listen
Speaker 1: to that, How to follow your spirit when something doesn't
Speaker 1: feel right, When something's nagging at you, no matter how
Speaker 1: good it looks, but something your spirit just doesn't feel right,
Speaker 1: you have to listen to it. Otherwise you'll find out
Speaker 1: later that you should have no matter how. And I
Speaker 1: also say to that, like when the opportunities for you,
Speaker 1: it's for you, and it's going to be there if
Speaker 1: you have to. You know, I can't do it today,
Speaker 1: I have do it next week, or I can't do
Speaker 1: it at all. When something's yours and it's your path,
Speaker 1: it's going to be there. Yeah, it's smooth and it
Speaker 1: feels right. Yeah, okay, okay, yeah, I like that. I
Speaker 1: like that. I like that. So what are some of
Speaker 1: the milestones you'd like to see happen for Uplift Marketplace. Oh,
Speaker 1: we'd like to see UM awareness across the United States,
Speaker 1: for one, you know. That's why another reason why we
Speaker 1: launched our online store, because we want our products available
Speaker 1: to everyone, you know, someone in New York or you know,
Speaker 1: Atlanta or Houston wherever, to be able to purchase our
Speaker 1: products and to be I guess kind of a household name,
Speaker 1: like I know I've left us marketplace, you know. And
Speaker 1: of course we would eventually UM like to open stores
Speaker 1: and other locations because each store that we open, we
Speaker 1: can provide that many more small businesses and black owned
Speaker 1: businesses opportunity, you know, So to do that all across
Speaker 1: the United States whenever possible. I like that. Now, as
Speaker 1: you guys grow, have you have you been reached out
Speaker 1: to by other entrepreneurs of other ethnicity saying please, I
Speaker 1: would love to still be in your store. I have
Speaker 1: a product that maybe caters to black, but I'm not
Speaker 1: black owned. No, not really. I think most people get it.
Speaker 1: They get the mission and it's it's not a knock too.
Speaker 1: It's just in and I don't want to speak for
Speaker 1: you guys, but the mission is to provide opportunity and
Speaker 1: access correct and distribution. Um, it's not to omit or
Speaker 1: to what it was the correct We're not repressed, right,
Speaker 1: It's just I just want to necessarily other you know,
Speaker 1: even though black topic, we just want to highlight them.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not that and like we said, their
Speaker 1: products for everyone. So there may be people that come
Speaker 1: to our store that um that may not like the idea.
Speaker 1: They come and they leave really quickly. Other nationals really
Speaker 1: but yeah, or even some will come in question by
Speaker 1: the time and they have a conversation with us and
Speaker 1: ask us like, oh, you know, what's going on here,
Speaker 1: And once we explain what we're doing, they love it.
Speaker 1: They appreciate it. You know, most of them, they get it.
Speaker 1: Have you had any negative feedback online? We've gotten a
Speaker 1: couple of comments before that you know, we're again we're
Speaker 1: excluding people and it's it's they're more about diversity and
Speaker 1: that type of thing. And you know, that's okay. There's
Speaker 1: always going to be those people because some people just
Speaker 1: don't get it. They're coming from a place of opportunity,
Speaker 1: so they don't understand us trying to create that opportunity
Speaker 1: for ourselves. Do you point them back to the name
Speaker 1: of the store, Yes, have you know, gone back and forth,
Speaker 1: but you know, some people just want to get Yeah,
Speaker 1: when you guys were coming up with the name, I'm
Speaker 1: sure a bunch of names came around. How did you
Speaker 1: guys land on uplift us? I think the word came
Speaker 1: to me first word of lift, and and then we
Speaker 1: played with the marketplace. I think when we set up
Speaker 1: lift where like, that's it? Like, because that's what we're
Speaker 1: doing and I don't even know. Yeah, we were just
Speaker 1: bouncing things off. I was like, oh, I like that,
Speaker 1: and then we have to kind of find a symbol
Speaker 1: that went along with it, um and the hands just uplifting.
Speaker 1: It just it just hit We just knew that was it.
Speaker 1: This feels right, okay. And then when you guys got
Speaker 1: into retail. For anyone that doesn't know brick and mortar,
Speaker 1: what does that process look like? Do you have to
Speaker 1: prove a lot of stuff to be able to say,
Speaker 1: let me sign that least or do you have a
Speaker 1: lot of g yes to where? Yeah? Halfway through I
Speaker 1: called her, I said, what have we gotten ourselves into? Yeah?
Speaker 1: We're like can we do this? I mean things that
Speaker 1: we had never done before. Between plans and the stuff
Speaker 1: you had to submit, it was the permit, the design
Speaker 1: to have permits to buy retail space. Well in the
Speaker 1: there's a lot of requirements that you have hit and insurances. Right,
Speaker 1: all that was insurance crazy. I'm not gonna li when
Speaker 1: people insts. I'm like, oh, who can fraud? Let me
Speaker 1: create this paper money right if we're done in the
Speaker 1: store and contractors and all that, because like my husband
Speaker 1: is a very handy, he does all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: So we're thinking, oh, we'll get the space and my
Speaker 1: husband will go and do everything. And they're like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: you need a contractor with all this millions of dollars
Speaker 1: of insurance and stuff, and that of course changes the
Speaker 1: budget drastically, and then just everything to go. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was over. We were looking at each other like st
Speaker 1: and no. Part of me was like run for the hills,
Speaker 1: Run for the hills, or did you already have the
Speaker 1: money invested? And was like okay, point and we just
Speaker 1: kept saying no, yeah because you know what I told
Speaker 1: myself because as a whole, it just felt overwhelming. And
Speaker 1: then I told myself, look, there's so many other stories
Speaker 1: in this small if they can do it, we can
Speaker 1: do it. I love it. And we have that conversation.
Speaker 1: We said, okay, let's because they sent you this email
Speaker 1: with like, yeah, it was like its incredible after we
Speaker 1: had signed the least after we signed the LEAE and
Speaker 1: then you gave him a check. Yes when my god.
Speaker 1: So we told each other, Okay, you know, at our
Speaker 1: breaking point where we're probably both ready ban tears, and
Speaker 1: we said, let's break it up in pieces. Yeah exactly,
Speaker 1: step by this small piece and we're just gonna eat
Speaker 1: away at it and get it. Ignore everything else handle
Speaker 1: this because I like you, look at it at a hole.
Speaker 1: It was too overwhelming. You know, it's like, forget to check.
Speaker 1: And during all of this, none of you guys broke
Speaker 1: out in a sister fight. But you know, it's so
Speaker 1: hard to believe that there was no sister fight. It is.
Speaker 1: It's our personalities and it just happens to just Mesh.
Speaker 1: I'm super easy going. She's easy going to but I'm
Speaker 1: like super easy going and I'm easy one for the
Speaker 1: most part. When I really care about something, I really
Speaker 1: care if she does okay, yeah, and you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: we call her. We call her shook. Some fun Okay,
Speaker 1: that's when I really care. And I have another question.
Speaker 1: So there's this brand's helfare have you heard about it?
Speaker 1: So what are the chances of you guys, because now
Speaker 1: you've been in the market place and they're always in
Speaker 1: high demand. Correct, Like you can't even get your hands
Speaker 1: on their back. I feel like they need to like
Speaker 1: work with you. I would let just because you was
Speaker 1: there before. Right, we have we've talked about having Telfare
Speaker 1: in the store. We had we would love it. But
Speaker 1: I can say we do have a purse brand in
Speaker 1: our store. It's called it's called Susu High Quality. Like
Speaker 1: I feel like this purse brand should be on the
Speaker 1: lines of Telfare and it's just it's okay, I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it. I fell in love with this person.
Speaker 1: I was like, we have to get these purses in here.
Speaker 1: There's no reason why these are these are high quality,
Speaker 1: high end person but people just you know, I want
Speaker 1: to carry a purse that everyone knows about. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: there was they started off that lay pretty car first.
Speaker 1: I think Beyonce is the one that launched them into Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's what it's all about. But you know what,
Speaker 1: it's what I love about uplift us is you're gonna
Speaker 1: uplift some brands that are going to be the next
Speaker 1: Telfares are, you know, and I get to we get
Speaker 1: to talk about do you remember when such a was
Speaker 1: Susu what was it Susan? When her person was in here,
Speaker 1: you know, we were the first want to give her
Speaker 1: a distribution? You know? That is our goal. It just
Speaker 1: makes us so happy one so we just want to
Speaker 1: see everyone wine, everyone win. It's it's really not even
Speaker 1: about us. It's just like we want to see these
Speaker 1: brands win and and launch and going into greatness. And
Speaker 1: a lot of it is, you know, mindset to with
Speaker 1: our people were very brand you know oriented, I guess,
Speaker 1: and we have to get away from that a little
Speaker 1: bit because there are some great quality products and things
Speaker 1: that aren't necessarily named brand that you would know all
Speaker 1: the time. But to feel proud carrying that person knowing
Speaker 1: it's black owned inter Beautif and not to say you
Speaker 1: can't still have brandow you know, brand name versus, but
Speaker 1: switch it out. So now, if when this episode drops,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there are gonna be a plethora of entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: that aren't in your retail space that are going to
Speaker 1: be like I want in. What does the process look
Speaker 1: like for them to get in? Well, so what we
Speaker 1: do is we get a lot of emails. UM, they'll
Speaker 1: email us. They can go to our email, our website
Speaker 1: and email us, and we just kind of go through
Speaker 1: the emails. We tried too, and I apologize to anyone
Speaker 1: who didn't get a response from us, but it's very
Speaker 1: overwhelming to respond to everyone. But UM, we kind of
Speaker 1: will go through the emails and kind of make note
Speaker 1: of either something we don't have, if it looks if
Speaker 1: it's unique, super high quality, UM will make a separate
Speaker 1: list and once we have space for that product or
Speaker 1: a need for it, UM, we'll just reach out to them,
Speaker 1: you know, see if they're still interested. And then the
Speaker 1: paperwork requirements and everything. Now does the brand have to
Speaker 1: be a certain financial level to get in, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: we really want to provide the opportunity for just as
Speaker 1: if you have a good quality product and we'll we'll
Speaker 1: look at it, we'll test it and all that stuff
Speaker 1: to give our then we have space for it. They
Speaker 1: could have just launched it and if it's phenomenal. A
Speaker 1: lot of our businesses launched during the pandemic. Yeah, they're well.
Speaker 1: Thank you both for coming by and feeding us. We
Speaker 1: didn't really do a lot of eating. I will have
Speaker 1: to reheat this um and thank you for sharing so
Speaker 1: much insight on the black dollar and how to circulate
Speaker 1: it and how you guys are helping circulate the black dollar.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Than coming into our store to begin with
Speaker 1: is a great opportunity. Thank you so much. They're going
Speaker 1: to change so many people's lives by taking the chances
Speaker 1: you guys took in acting upon them, like right when
Speaker 1: that impulse hit and somehow you have to teach a
Speaker 1: lesson on how sisters get a long on the next
Speaker 1: episode of a Man Class on the House since just
Speaker 1: get along. Thank you guys. Thank you to all our listeners.
Speaker 1: Check out Eating Wall Broke wherever you get your podcast, Spotify, Apple,
Speaker 1: Eating While Broke dot com. You can even watch our
Speaker 1: live videos on YouTube. For more Eating Wall Broke from
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and The Black Effect, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple poc Ask, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows in While Brooke Brooke, Brooke