Speaker 1: A word with me here. You know, BT's so low
Speaker 1: shout of O C T. No what we see whole
Speaker 1: game read the butler something. Oh you can't stand on
Speaker 1: their own, Susie. I already know you can't involved with
Speaker 1: me because with the squad of me, they get a
Speaker 1: little they called me.
Speaker 2: Love boiler alert. Is O T T with that?
Speaker 3: bestI Sola, it is.
Speaker 4: Your boy BT.
Speaker 2: Prayers up for Jasmine Sellivant, who recently just lost her mother,
Speaker 2: and also prayers up for Brownie James, who suffered cardiac
Speaker 2: arrests during his workout at USC.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was that was pretty shocking.
Speaker 5: You know, I definitely don't like people's speculations on what happened.
Speaker 4: Are the speculating, I mean people.
Speaker 5: Are speculating, you know, just crazy stuff that I've that
Speaker 5: I've been seeing on the internet about like the VACS
Speaker 5: scene and stuff like that, and you know how people
Speaker 5: are saying like the vaccine is creating like blood cloths
Speaker 5: and stuff like that that's causing people, young people to have,
Speaker 5: you know, health issues. So I mean, just prayers up
Speaker 5: to you know, Bronnie James, man, damn man. You first
Speaker 5: practice and you know something like that happened you know,
Speaker 5: I can only imagine how Lebron and Savannah feels, you know,
Speaker 5: hearing some.
Speaker 4: News like that.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's terrible that people would assume anything. I
Speaker 3: am one of those people who does feel like the
Speaker 3: COVID nineteen vaccine was out too quickly. There was there
Speaker 3: weren't enough studies on it. We do not know how
Speaker 3: people's bodies are going to react to this until later
Speaker 3: on down the line. I don't know that it's associated
Speaker 3: to that, that his incident is associated to that, But
Speaker 3: I also understand why a lot of people are fearful
Speaker 3: of the effects of the COVID nineteen vaccine.
Speaker 2: We speaking of prayers of Jamie Fox has finally thank Yeah.
Speaker 5: Now, when I said this, When I brought this up,
Speaker 5: y'all thought I was crazy.
Speaker 3: It's not a y'all situation. It's just that some people
Speaker 3: hadn't heard that. People were upset about him not thanking them.
Speaker 3: I was not upset. I felt that if you were
Speaker 3: mad at him, then you should have kept your prayers
Speaker 3: because clearly it wasn't authentic.
Speaker 2: But is he a call? Is that him?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 4: That's Jamie Fox?
Speaker 3: It's BASICOK, A lot different.
Speaker 5: It looked longer I mean, he could have lost he
Speaker 5: could have lost a little bit of way, you know,
Speaker 5: been in the hospital, you know, for the time that
Speaker 5: he was there. I just don't like the fact that
Speaker 5: people feel like celebrities owe us something just because we're
Speaker 5: sending prayers and because we're fans.
Speaker 4: That man still has a private life.
Speaker 5: He's still you know, he's Jamie Fox to us, you know,
Speaker 5: and he's somebody's dad, you know, he's somebody family members.
Speaker 5: So people got to keep in mind, man, these celebrities
Speaker 5: don't owe us anything.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's common decency to say thank you, you know,
Speaker 3: when people send you love and prayers, thank you. The
Speaker 3: story for people to have been in an uproar like
Speaker 3: they word, like to not like give the man a
Speaker 3: minute to come outside and enjoy himself. Like I promise
Speaker 3: that man was gonna say thank you, Like relax, h
Speaker 3: they got he's okay. I'm glad he's okay. And I'm
Speaker 3: about to watch the movie.
Speaker 4: On Nesis, I watched the movie and it's really good
Speaker 4: that movie.
Speaker 3: Man, you know, then I only saw the first like
Speaker 3: fifteen minutes. It's crazy, Lawren, just because I was.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm a big fan Paris. I love that she
Speaker 2: has been able to stretch her acting. She's been in
Speaker 2: The Candy Man.
Speaker 5: You know, she's the main lady right in the movie. Oh,
Speaker 5: she's hilarious. I love her away Now I got to
Speaker 5: see it a.
Speaker 2: Movie. I just like, uh, what was it? What's the
Speaker 2: old main character?
Speaker 5: Yeah, the dude John boyeg yep, John Boyego. He is
Speaker 5: hilarious on it. And you know he has such a
Speaker 5: thick accent. But like when you see him in a movie.
Speaker 4: It's the dude.
Speaker 3: I mean that's the part of accent. You gotta throw,
Speaker 3: you throw your voice, you gotta switch it up. He's
Speaker 3: an amazing actor though, Like that man really molds into
Speaker 3: any roll that he gets. Like I thought he was
Speaker 3: a real thug, Like I thought he was a gangster
Speaker 3: and American gangster at that.
Speaker 4: What about that? What about that chicken scene?
Speaker 3: See, I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: It.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, man, if you haven't seen They Clawed Tyrone,
Speaker 2: definitely check it out. It's definitely I say, it's kind
Speaker 2: of like Jordan peel Esk. It makes you really think,
Speaker 2: you know, watch it tonight, Yeah, it makes you really think.
Speaker 2: Let us know what you think about it. Check it out.
Speaker 6: It's on Netflix.
Speaker 2: Carly Russell, y'all. I refrained from speaking about this story
Speaker 2: or bringing it to this platform because it was so
Speaker 2: many moving parts at the time, and now it's just
Speaker 2: all coming together and making sense.
Speaker 3: She lied, y'all, Carly Russell, girl, let me tell you
Speaker 3: how much I love you, how much I care about you.
Speaker 3: I almost packed up the Mini well.
Speaker 2: For herd On souf can you give him a breakdown
Speaker 2: or what happens? Okay?
Speaker 3: So apparently Carly had called the law. She called her family.
Speaker 3: She was driving on the interstate and said that she
Speaker 3: saw a time. I don't know what she was driving,
Speaker 3: whatever it was, she was driving a car saw toddler,
Speaker 3: decided to get out to help the toddler, and then disappeared.
Speaker 3: Her personal belongings were still in her car. Her wig
Speaker 3: was snatched up off her head and left in the car,
Speaker 3: which furthermore led us to believe that she did get abducted.
Speaker 3: Somebody took this woman. So now everyone's looking for her.
Speaker 3: Her family's going crazy. Social media done got a hold
Speaker 3: of it. Black folks want her to come home. I
Speaker 3: almost packed up the Mini and drove to Hoover to
Speaker 3: go find you girl, and you was at a hotel.
Speaker 3: You was checked in at a hotel while the world
Speaker 3: was going crazy looking for your sorry ass, and you
Speaker 3: was okay.
Speaker 2: And real women missing out here, real women.
Speaker 3: Well, something's not right now. It could be just for Cloud,
Speaker 3: it could be for men in a in a different
Speaker 3: type of way, like maybe she's not together all the way.
Speaker 3: Maybe she wanted to make her boyfriend mad or something.
Speaker 3: I don't know what it was, but I don't think
Speaker 3: that she intended for it to get this big. I
Speaker 3: think she thought it was gonna be a local, little thing.
Speaker 3: She was just making her family mad, her boyfriend mad,
Speaker 3: and the thing went global. I don't think she meant
Speaker 3: for it to blow up like that.
Speaker 4: You know what made me mad? If she sent the
Speaker 4: damn lawyer to tell.
Speaker 3: Us she was lying, she was gonna tell you herself.
Speaker 4: She should apologize to the whole world.
Speaker 5: For her to feel that shame, Yeah, feel that shame
Speaker 5: because she has so many people supporting her. I've seen
Speaker 5: so many blogs posting about her, so many people that
Speaker 5: I follow posting about her like this.
Speaker 2: Did you call you girl?
Speaker 7: Ooh?
Speaker 2: Did you post about her?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just really unfortunate. There are so many
Speaker 2: people lost in real life. I mean I lost, but
Speaker 2: have been abducted in real life.
Speaker 4: And you took the taxpayer's money.
Speaker 5: You know, the people got paid taxes for those resources.
Speaker 2: Now now she she may be looking at the criminal tale.
Speaker 5: I hope she don't go to jail, man, I hope she.
Speaker 5: I don't want to see nobody go to jail.
Speaker 3: I don't think she should go to jail before they
Speaker 3: do an evaluation, like, let's make sure she's okay mentally.
Speaker 3: Let's see what's going on with her jail.
Speaker 4: She's obviously not there mentally.
Speaker 5: If you come up with a lie to say that
Speaker 5: you got kidnapped and got to be there.
Speaker 3: She could be together mentally and just made a bad decision.
Speaker 2: A lot of people are saying it has to do
Speaker 2: with her boyfriend. She was trying to get his attention.
Speaker 3: What do you guys think your boyfriend got your back?
Speaker 3: He still got your back till this day. Okay, he
Speaker 3: will he offended. He defended you the first time, the
Speaker 3: first day one he defended you again the other day. Y'all, man,
Speaker 3: I don't know how. It seemed like he gives you
Speaker 3: a lot of attention. It seems like he gives you
Speaker 3: unconditional love, because the way my man would have left
Speaker 3: me if this was me her, that man love you.
Speaker 3: I don't know what money you want from him, Jesus,
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna hope that's not the reason why she
Speaker 3: said that she was kidnapped. He's gonna pop up at
Speaker 3: the house two days later after enjoying home service while
Speaker 3: the whole world was going crazy about you, girl, I
Speaker 3: almost drove to Hoover, Alabama on your pie.
Speaker 4: Think about it. You know what, the cops probably was thinking,
Speaker 4: we don't show up.
Speaker 2: But you know what, the sad truth is, the sat
Speaker 2: truth is, that's probably what she thought. You know what's
Speaker 2: gonna happen. They was gonna ignore it, and it'll just
Speaker 2: be like a little family.
Speaker 3: A woman missing that They don't care about girls.
Speaker 5: You said, she thought it was gonna be micro small.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, and she could just give her a boyfriend
Speaker 5: a little heart attack.
Speaker 3: Yeah up. We don't all lied before. Okay, we don't
Speaker 3: all lie before. Now, sometimes we have told a big lie,
Speaker 3: but it was to a small group or a small scenario.
Speaker 3: It didn't blow up. She lied. It blew up. Now
Speaker 3: look at you. You know lost your damn job.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of more ruckers in the social media streets,
Speaker 2: just hilarious. You know, in this whole trends community, have
Speaker 2: you all been keeping up with that?
Speaker 7: The audacity and just the arrogance for SIS women to
Speaker 7: believe that they own periods, that they own womanhood.
Speaker 4: You don't.
Speaker 6: Okay, you don't own periods.
Speaker 4: You don't own womanhood.
Speaker 7: You experience both and both are different for every person,
Speaker 7: but as a SIS woman, it doesn't belong to you,
Speaker 7: so you can't gatekeep it gay.
Speaker 4: Wait wait wait, wait, whoa whoa whoa whoa?
Speaker 6: Okay, who the fuck stands up for us? And us?
Speaker 1: I mean women, real women, biological women, women who were
Speaker 1: born with all the parts that you, guys wish that
Speaker 1: you were.
Speaker 2: When does the delusion stop?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 3: Really, who is protecting women? Because we just all out
Speaker 3: here getting our ass handed to us, fighting for our life.
Speaker 3: I don't have a problem with the way anybody chooses
Speaker 3: to live their life. If a transgender wants to be
Speaker 3: known as something other than what they were born as,
Speaker 3: I don't have a problem with it. If that is
Speaker 3: who you believe that you are, I support that. I
Speaker 3: don't support the community calling now natural born women's women.
Speaker 3: I'm not a CIS woman. I'm just a woman. Sorry
Speaker 3: that I have a natural period. I cannot help that.
Speaker 3: And I promise you I'm not gatekeeping no period. If
Speaker 3: I could switch with you, I would, okay, Like I.
Speaker 2: We don't want no period.
Speaker 9: We don't want to.
Speaker 3: Plead everyone pms, the cramps, like come on now, and
Speaker 3: to be disrespected at that too, like come on, we
Speaker 3: don't want that. But gatekeeping is a reach to say
Speaker 3: that we're gatekeeping periods is a reach.
Speaker 2: The whole gatekeeping periods through me, Like, I'm like, huh.
Speaker 3: Just because you're a woman and you bleed, you possess
Speaker 3: both those things. You don't own womanhood. I don't think
Speaker 3: anybody is trying to say that we own anything. But
Speaker 3: we are natural born women. We're going to have what natural?
Speaker 2: That's it?
Speaker 3: Like we accept I accept you for who you are,
Speaker 3: respect me. That's it.
Speaker 5: So what is I heard this? I was just That's
Speaker 5: exactly what I was about to ask. What is what
Speaker 5: assist woman means?
Speaker 3: I don't know the only transgender people called natural women
Speaker 3: CIS women?
Speaker 2: Like what the so? Then tis Madison goes into it
Speaker 2: and she says, there are so many real women, they
Speaker 2: get mistaken for being transgender women, and that's where a
Speaker 2: lot of the anger comes from. I do hope they
Speaker 2: take a good look at how transphobia affects all women.
Speaker 3: For you to make that comment, you are completely disregarding
Speaker 3: the hurdles and the challenges that natural born women go through.
Speaker 3: You are doing to natural born women what you don't
Speaker 3: want done to you. You are discrediting our experience, you
Speaker 3: are belittling who we are. You're literally doing to us
Speaker 3: what you don't want done to you.
Speaker 2: That's crazy, I think, just like how they have so
Speaker 2: many rules, you know, that we have to follow and
Speaker 2: make them feel comfortable, like we should be okay with
Speaker 2: saying I don't want to be called sis.
Speaker 3: That's it, and I'm not. I'm not a I'm just
Speaker 3: a woman, that's it. Like I never heard of the
Speaker 3: term CIS women prior to the revolution, essentially, you know,
Speaker 3: being as big as it is. I don't have a
Speaker 3: problem with you fighting for representation because you matter. Representation matters.
Speaker 3: There are millions of other people that are going through
Speaker 3: identity crisis. They're trying to find themselves. I respect your journey. Cool,
Speaker 3: no problem, Do not call me a woman. I'm just
Speaker 3: a woman. Don't call me anything to appease what you
Speaker 3: want to do or be for yourself, Like don't And.
Speaker 2: This revolution kind of like as you just stated, kind
Speaker 2: of happened for you know, posts growing up because I
Speaker 2: didn't grow up learning that.
Speaker 3: I don't know anything about it. That's another thing. So
Speaker 3: many people within that community, not everybody obviously, but so
Speaker 3: many people in that community are mad at what we
Speaker 3: don't know. We're learning right now. We're open to learning,
Speaker 3: We're open to receiving who you are and understanding your world.
Speaker 3: But you not gonna slam me every single chance that
Speaker 3: you get and disrespect me for just being a woman.
Speaker 3: I am just that, That's all I am.
Speaker 2: And maybe we can get a little bit more clarity
Speaker 2: on it, like we invite to as in any other
Speaker 2: trans gendered people to come and educate us here on
Speaker 2: the Baller Alert Show.
Speaker 3: Open dialogue, just open, respectful dialogue.
Speaker 2: Well we about to have some open dialogue because Angel
Speaker 2: from the Spice Sweet stop about the Bailer Alert Show
Speaker 2: even get spicy right here.
Speaker 8: We'll be right back with more of the Baller Alert Show.
Speaker 8: You're listening to a special edition of the Baller Alert Show.
Speaker 9: Te Se, y'all, this is Angel Gregorio and you are
Speaker 9: now tuned into the Baller Alert Show. Miss Angel in
Speaker 9: the building of the Bler Alert Show. Let's take it
Speaker 9: back to the beginning. So I started in education randomly.
Speaker 9: I started working at a youth jail, and I thought
Speaker 9: that I wanted to become a forensic psychologist. I have
Speaker 9: multiple degrees in psychology, and I knew I wanted to
Speaker 9: work before I talk to crazy people, not crazy, talk
Speaker 9: to folks impacted by mass incarceration, okay, right, And I
Speaker 9: knew that I wanted to do that.
Speaker 4: The audience.
Speaker 9: Forensic yeah, no, Forensic psychology is working with folks who
Speaker 9: were impacted by the justice system. And I knew I
Speaker 9: wanted to work in the justice system because I have brothers.
Speaker 9: My mother and father have all been incarcerated. I have
Speaker 9: brothers to brothers serving life in prison, and so for me,
Speaker 9: I wanted to go back and hopefully be the person
Speaker 9: that I wish they had saw that could have changed
Speaker 9: their trajectory. And when I went into the prison thinking
Speaker 9: I was on this path to psychology, I met this
Speaker 9: girl who became my best friend, who was a math teacher,
Speaker 9: and I saw her teaching, and it made me realize
Speaker 9: that I wanted to impact the kids like that, and
Speaker 9: so I went back and got certified to teach, and
Speaker 9: then I ended up becoming a teacher dean and then
Speaker 9: an assistant principle and stayed in education and thought I
Speaker 9: would be in education forever until you know, I became
Speaker 9: a spice girl.
Speaker 3: How many siblings do you have. I have four siblings,
Speaker 3: and two out of the four are both server licenses. Yes, wow,
Speaker 3: how is that affected your family?
Speaker 9: I mean it's lost, right, so it's grief. I think
Speaker 9: that folks don't realize that having folks who are incarcerated
Speaker 9: is a lot like losing them. And I don't want
Speaker 9: to pit pain against pain, but it almost feels like
Speaker 9: even more difficult because they're here. So it's like you
Speaker 9: can see them, but you can't touch them in a
Speaker 9: way that you want to. You can talk to them,
Speaker 9: but the conversations are very different. Where you're watching them
Speaker 9: grow up there watching you grow. But you guys really
Speaker 9: still don't understand each other. Right, Like my brothers and
Speaker 9: I have a very nuanced relationship because we've grown so
Speaker 9: much over the years that they've been incarcerated. And they
Speaker 9: think they know me, but they don't. And it's same
Speaker 9: for me. I think I know who they are, but
Speaker 9: I don't really know them. But those are my brothers.
Speaker 9: So there's some like real intense grief around not being
Speaker 9: able to love your siblings the way you want to
Speaker 9: love them due to the circumstances impacking them.
Speaker 3: Are you the only person in your immediate family who
Speaker 3: has not been arrested?
Speaker 9: I am the only person in my immediate family that's
Speaker 9: not been in prison year.
Speaker 3: So what's the difference between you and everyone else in
Speaker 3: your family?
Speaker 6: I think I tell people that all the time. We
Speaker 6: are the same.
Speaker 9: My brothers and I have the same We have the
Speaker 9: same mentality, we have the same hustle, we have the
Speaker 9: same drive. We just have a different product. Right, Like
Speaker 9: where they chose cocaine and weed, I chose you know,
Speaker 9: other things. And I also was attached to different people,
Speaker 9: my friends. My circle of friends was very different. Education,
Speaker 9: which is why I went into education treats boys and
Speaker 9: girls very different.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: I had a smart mouth and still do.
Speaker 9: But when I had a smart mouth, it was just
Speaker 9: you know, a note on a report card talks too much.
Speaker 9: But when my brothers got smart. They went to the
Speaker 9: office because they were aggressive, and then that led to suspensions,
Speaker 9: and then there's the school to prison pipeline that starts
Speaker 9: to happen. So I think it just makes me think
Speaker 9: about how we need to treat boys and girls more
Speaker 9: similarly when it comes to how we redirect behavior, because
Speaker 9: we don't know the path that we're putting them on
Speaker 9: when we started punishing them, you know, too harshly, too early.
Speaker 4: That's an interesting statement.
Speaker 5: It makes me want to bring up about what Florida's
Speaker 5: doing with the educational system. How do you feel about,
Speaker 5: you know, what their governor is doing and trying to
Speaker 5: you know, a race.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean it's so it's criminal period. It is
Speaker 9: also exactly what white people have been doing in this
Speaker 9: country for centuries.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 9: So it's almost like how we talked about Trump when
Speaker 9: Trump was in office. I think every black person talked
Speaker 9: about how he's just put in a spot on, you know,
Speaker 9: the issues of racism that have always existed, what the
Speaker 9: Santus is doing and Florida is not foreign to any
Speaker 9: of us, right Like, And the the part of it
Speaker 9: that is difficult is we can keep the black history
Speaker 9: in the textbooks, but the educator is still not teaching
Speaker 9: it right, so he's just saying, let's take it out,
Speaker 9: which is trash, right, and it's trifling. But we still
Speaker 9: have educators who look like us, who aren't teaching our
Speaker 9: kids the history that they need to line in school.
Speaker 9: So we just need to do a whole reform of
Speaker 9: the education system, the prison system, all of it. But
Speaker 9: I'm also an abolitionist. I don't believe in the prison system.
Speaker 9: I believe in reform and abolishing it completely. So my
Speaker 9: views are really radical around things like.
Speaker 5: That, because it just seems like Florida is making it
Speaker 5: a big deal. Like it doesn't seem like people in
Speaker 5: Florida really making it a big deal. It's kind of
Speaker 5: like something that you actually got to go read about
Speaker 5: and like actually go do your own research to see
Speaker 5: what's going on.
Speaker 9: And I think that's the issue with us relying on
Speaker 9: our media to tell stories about things that are impacting
Speaker 9: us the same way. You know, I spoke to a
Speaker 9: group of kids who came to the Spice sweet to
Speaker 9: visit me last week, and we were talking about travel,
Speaker 9: and I asked them where they wanted to go, and
Speaker 9: they it was about twenty kids and they named different countries.
Speaker 9: None of them named the single country in Africa, and
Speaker 9: so I paused and I was like, why don't you
Speaker 9: guys want to go to Africa? Name the rename things
Speaker 9: you've heard about Africa. They were like dirty feet, dirty
Speaker 9: water huts, dirt roads, like they named all these archaic
Speaker 9: things that we've been fed from media about a country
Speaker 9: that is absolutely vast, beautiful and rich.
Speaker 6: Right, total opposite of what they think.
Speaker 9: And it's the same with the history, right, Like I
Speaker 9: think we just were relying on mainstream media to teach
Speaker 9: us things that will empower us and that will advance us,
Speaker 9: and that's not their goal.
Speaker 6: We had two different agendas.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's why I believe that we all should do
Speaker 5: our own research. Because I actually followed this goll on
Speaker 5: YouTube that's in Africa and he shows.
Speaker 6: Silent he's smiling with it because I'm.
Speaker 5: Like, he shows like Africa like really what it is,
Speaker 5: and it's like really like like there's real cities, there's.
Speaker 4: Like wealthy people, there's beaches.
Speaker 5: Like there's like rich minerals that other are trying to
Speaker 5: go over there and still get to this day. And
Speaker 5: that's what made me smile because I remember me you know,
Speaker 5: being in Arkansas and going to school, and it was
Speaker 5: like Africa was just always planting us that it's like
Speaker 5: nothing there but dirt and huts. And I've seen this
Speaker 5: god YouTube and I was like, wow, this is what
Speaker 5: Africa looks like.
Speaker 9: I've been to about thirty nine countries, and the most
Speaker 9: beautiful countries I visited are in Africa.
Speaker 6: The most beautiful beaches.
Speaker 9: There's nothing like the Indian Ocean, right, And we think
Speaker 9: about like Mardi's It's like it's beautiful, but that's still
Speaker 9: a part of Africa. Unesia tries to claim it, but
Speaker 9: it's still African soil, say shells ease your Morocco beautiful places.
Speaker 9: So I think we just need to also encourage each
Speaker 9: other to travel more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we traveled a lot because you went to like
Speaker 2: over twenty six countries to learn about spices.
Speaker 9: Yeah, so that's a part of my business and now
Speaker 9: I just spend a lot of my time. I've not
Speaker 9: traveled in a while, and I'm sad about it.
Speaker 6: I'm like counting down. That's true. It has been a year.
Speaker 6: It hasn't been too long. It's been a year.
Speaker 9: I'm counting down the days to my next vacation to
Speaker 9: travel again. But yeah, I literally spend my time traveling
Speaker 9: the world to sorece spices and get inspired for new
Speaker 9: spice plans.
Speaker 3: Ooh, I bet you'd be good.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, what was gonna say.
Speaker 3: I'm a victim of that. So I'm first generation American
Speaker 3: by way of the Ticular region in Ethiopia. I did
Speaker 3: not want to go to Ethiopia when I was fifteen
Speaker 3: because I told my mom, I don't want to see
Speaker 3: all these hungry people, all these poor people. And when
Speaker 3: I tell you, I cried like a baby. When it
Speaker 3: was time to come back to the States. It was
Speaker 3: the complete opposite. So shout out to you for not
Speaker 3: only acknowledging that but preaching it, like letting people know,
Speaker 3: why don't you take your behind to Africa? Everybody wants
Speaker 3: to go to these European countries and say crash.
Speaker 2: Yeah, boring.
Speaker 6: The heart is boring. I mean boring.
Speaker 2: You said it, not me. Well, going back to DC,
Speaker 2: you know, when we were talking about you in an
Speaker 2: educational field, where did the idea come from that I'm
Speaker 2: going to open a spice store.
Speaker 9: It was random and sciendipitous. I feel like that is
Speaker 9: like the theme of my life as I, you know,
Speaker 9: go deeper into adulthood. I saw this random for lease
Speaker 9: sign on a building when I was leaving a nail salon.
Speaker 9: It was a black old nail salon side you know,
Speaker 9: wanted to frequent that shop, and when I saw the
Speaker 9: for lise sign, I had no idea what I wanted
Speaker 9: to do. I didn't have a business plan, I didn't
Speaker 9: have a budget. I didn't even have a desire to
Speaker 9: own a business. I just thought it was like an
Speaker 9: apartment where if you asked the landlord the rent, they
Speaker 9: tell you the rent. But the landlord had legitimate questions
Speaker 9: like what do you want to do with my space?
Speaker 9: And so I was like, sir, oh, I don't know,
Speaker 9: don't worry about it.
Speaker 6: He said, well, we're.
Speaker 9: Looking to make a decision in a couple of days,
Speaker 9: let me know. And I was like, I'll open a
Speaker 9: spice shop. Can you just tell me the price? And
Speaker 9: then when he told me the rent, I was like, Oh,
Speaker 9: that's not bad. I don't know what bad was, right,
Speaker 9: because I didn't have any frame of reference, but I
Speaker 9: was just like, oh, that's not bad. And so I
Speaker 9: decided I was going to do it. I negotiated the lease.
Speaker 9: I had a friend in real estate development who helped
Speaker 9: me to negotiate the lease to get a couple months free.
Speaker 9: And so I'm like, if I'm gonna get a couple
Speaker 9: months free, I'm gonna stack this money while I can,
Speaker 9: you know, before I have to pay him rent. And
Speaker 9: so I decided to open a spice shop. And at
Speaker 9: that time, there were six other spice shops in DC,
Speaker 9: and we're now the only spice shop in DC.
Speaker 2: Woow.
Speaker 3: So the other ones are out of business.
Speaker 9: They tried to sell to me, Yeah, most of them
Speaker 9: tried to sell to me, but I didn't want to know.
Speaker 9: I don't want to inherit their bad.
Speaker 4: It's such a.
Speaker 2: Competitive I'm good.
Speaker 3: There are so many seasoning brands. It is such a
Speaker 3: competitive space. How did you go from zero to one hundred?
Speaker 6: We went from zero to a million?
Speaker 2: Okay, we.
Speaker 9: Went I mean we went there kind of quickly, right,
Speaker 9: but there was this steady upward trajectory. And I'm super
Speaker 9: grateful for that because I know a lot of times
Speaker 9: when we tell stories about business and business ownership, we
Speaker 9: always focus on like the hardship and the struggle, and
Speaker 9: I think a lot of times we struggle onnecessarily in
Speaker 9: business because we don't want to make the hard decisions.
Speaker 9: If we make the hard decisions quickly, then we can
Speaker 9: move out of the bad space and into the part
Speaker 9: where we get to harvest and you know, reap the
Speaker 9: harvest of what we've sound. And that's been the case
Speaker 9: for me. Like we've had some difficult times, but it
Speaker 9: was really me investing in community that has helped my business.
Speaker 9: I really feel like that was the key to my success,
Speaker 9: is that I made sure to bring as many black
Speaker 9: people along the journey with me as possible and not
Speaker 9: feel like I can go alone.
Speaker 2: So where did the spice sweet name come from?
Speaker 9: My best friend and I the one who was teaching Rachel.
Speaker 9: She and I when I text her, I think I
Speaker 9: text her or called her immediately after I called the landlord.
Speaker 9: She might have been the first person I called. And
Speaker 9: so we started texting and I'm like, I'm opening a
Speaker 9: spice shop. And because she's my best friend, right, so
Speaker 9: she's riding no matter.
Speaker 2: What I say.
Speaker 9: She don't even know what a spice shop is, but
Speaker 9: she's like, okay, well we calling it and I'm like,
Speaker 9: I don't know. I want something cool and She's like,
Speaker 9: all right, sweet and spicy.
Speaker 6: I'm like that's whack.
Speaker 9: And we're going back and forth, and she kept using
Speaker 9: the word sweet but spelling it sweet and I'm like
Speaker 9: saying it and I'm like, no, I like sexy, you
Speaker 9: know me, I believe in all things sexy.
Speaker 6: Let's call it spice.
Speaker 9: Sweet because like a hotel suite, but also a sweetest,
Speaker 9: all encompassing, right, a sweetest also luxurious because that is
Speaker 9: the most expensive place in the hotel.
Speaker 8: Right.
Speaker 9: So it's just had all these other meanings for why
Speaker 9: we would use the word sweet. And of course the
Speaker 9: play on the words sweet and spice is as opposing tastes.
Speaker 2: No, for sure. How do you come up with your
Speaker 2: spice blends?
Speaker 6: I tell it.
Speaker 9: My motto is food is fashion, and I really believe
Speaker 9: that people should play in their kitchens, in their closets.
Speaker 9: So I start creating spice blends in the same way
Speaker 9: that I get dressed.
Speaker 6: So sometimes you start with.
Speaker 9: Something really basic, like this little tank top, right, And
Speaker 9: that could be garlic or paprika or salt. Something is
Speaker 9: super familiar, whether you cook a lot or not. When
Speaker 9: I say those things, you know what they taste like,
Speaker 9: what they smell like. And then you layer and you edit,
Speaker 9: so you literally keep adding things. You add garlic, you
Speaker 9: add hullman, you add coriander, you add parsley, you add
Speaker 9: all these things on top. And then at some point
Speaker 9: I either decide like this is bomb, I'm about to
Speaker 9: name it something, or it's like an outfit when you
Speaker 9: try it on and it's like, oh, this dress is fire,
Speaker 9: but I don't have a shoe yet, So you just
Speaker 9: sit it sits in the closet until you get the
Speaker 9: right shoe, and then you come back to it and
Speaker 9: you're like, now I'm ready to wear this dress because
Speaker 9: I have the shoe, the hair, all the things that's
Speaker 9: gonna make the look what I want it to be.
Speaker 9: So it really is just a playful thing that I do.
Speaker 2: One of the sayings that you have and it's all
Speaker 2: over your T shirts and all that is what I
Speaker 2: love is we have it at home. Got at home. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And everybody say that, how did you come up with that?
Speaker 6: Being black?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 6: I think it's here, growing up.
Speaker 2: We got food at.
Speaker 6: Home, growing up black.
Speaker 9: Right, You pass McDonald's and you ask your grandma, your
Speaker 9: my auntie, whoever to get you McDonald's and They're like,
Speaker 9: we got ground beef at home, and they know it
Speaker 9: don't taste like McDonald's, but they're not about spending money.
Speaker 9: They the ain't nothing at home, but they're gonna tell
Speaker 9: you that. And so I think I started it as
Speaker 9: a joke, right to remind people that we got food
Speaker 9: at home of their childhood. But it also is me
Speaker 9: wanting to encourage folks of my generation to cook again,
Speaker 9: because I feel like we are so much of the cost.
Speaker 9: Sure of like brunching on Sundays and trying all the
Speaker 9: new restaurants, which I also enjoyed doing. But there's something
Speaker 9: to be said about the family and community that happens
Speaker 9: when you sit down and eat together. It really you
Speaker 9: by yourself, you and your significant other, you and your family.
Speaker 9: I just think that there's something to be said about
Speaker 9: pausing and taking time to eat out, even just.
Speaker 3: The process of cooking, right, Like you could be talking
Speaker 3: about this, that and the third or maybe you find
Speaker 3: out that this cousin feels like this spice would be
Speaker 3: better with this, and you try it out, like it's
Speaker 3: just such a family oriented experience, And I do feel
Speaker 3: like you learn something when you cook as a community.
Speaker 4: There you find out how.
Speaker 3: How do you go spice shopping? Like how do you
Speaker 3: wake up one day and say, okay, not only am
Speaker 3: I going to start the spice business, but I got
Speaker 3: to go find the spices. How do you go spice shopping?
Speaker 9: So it started with this guy Boat, he's a comedian.
Speaker 9: We met randomly in Safeway and when I posted on
Speaker 9: Facebook that I was going to start a spice shop,
Speaker 9: he hit me and was like, Hey, I'm about to
Speaker 9: go to Kuwait and I want to send you some spices.
Speaker 9: And I was like, okay, cool, like thinking he's gonna
Speaker 9: send me a little sampful, a little pat sent me
Speaker 9: kilos and kilos and spices, and before I could even
Speaker 9: open it, I smelled it and before I even opened it,
Speaker 9: like open each package, I was like, this is what
Speaker 9: I gotta do. I have to travel the world for
Speaker 9: spices because whatever is in this box, whatever these things,
Speaker 9: I didn't even know what it was, yet, this is
Speaker 9: what I have to bring to my customers. And so
Speaker 9: I traveled to Puerto Rico first because there's a spice
Speaker 9: shop there that is owned by woman and she's the
Speaker 9: only spice shop in Puerto Rico and she's been there
Speaker 9: for twenty plus years, and so I just wanted to
Speaker 9: stand in that space that was built by a woman
Speaker 9: and see what that felt like and feel that energy.
Speaker 9: No interview, I just wanted to go there and spend
Speaker 9: some money with her and support. And then after that,
Speaker 9: I just started traveling because I figured everybody eats right,
Speaker 9: so I don't have to have an agenda. I don't
Speaker 9: go to any country looking for a particular spice, per se.
Speaker 9: There's some places, right if I go to Morocco, Dubai,
Speaker 9: I'm looking for saffron because it's expensive and I need
Speaker 9: to get it there. I've learned what you know is
Speaker 9: unique to certain places. But otherwise I just go. I
Speaker 9: just go travel and try things.
Speaker 3: You probably eat some of the local food, and you're
Speaker 3: life always what is that? Whatever this is? I need that.
Speaker 9: I try to eat local, and I try to cook
Speaker 9: while I'm there with locals, not like a cooking class
Speaker 9: that you book online. I try to like literally, I'll
Speaker 9: pay somebody like all your auntie let me come and
Speaker 9: cook dinner with her.
Speaker 2: Period that cook cooking you do cooking on your Instagram
Speaker 2: and things of that nature, which I love too. You
Speaker 2: be having the gyms going That's why I put on
Speaker 2: that try to catch you vibe. What are some of
Speaker 2: your favorite recipes.
Speaker 9: I don't necessarily follow recipes, but some of my favorite
Speaker 9: things to make are veggies. I love making like different
Speaker 9: vegetables and having fun with them because I feel like
Speaker 9: it is the most surprising thing for the folks on Instagram, right,
Speaker 9: like when you make Brussels sprouts and make them look
Speaker 9: good or sound good, or green beans or carrots, you
Speaker 9: know things like that, folks. I mean, we all do
Speaker 9: salmon and chicken and all, you know, the kind of staples.
Speaker 9: But when you have fun with vegetables, I think it
Speaker 9: changes things. And as a mom, I want my kids
Speaker 9: to experience vegetables and love them and not think of
Speaker 9: them as these like soggy, bland things like I did
Speaker 9: growing up.
Speaker 3: No, that's a good point, because everyone does really feel
Speaker 3: like vegetables are bland. So you're either gonna have bland
Speaker 3: vegetables soggive it don't cook the nutrients all out of it,
Speaker 3: or you're gonna have to overcompensate with heavy seasoning. And
Speaker 3: I don't like doing that. I feel like if you
Speaker 3: have to use a lot of seasoning, either what you
Speaker 3: have isn't hidden, it's not flavorful enough, or you're just
Speaker 3: trying to clog yourself up like it's one of the
Speaker 3: other I.
Speaker 8: Don't We'll be right back. Stay tuned with more of
Speaker 8: the Baller Alert Show. You're listening to a special edition
Speaker 8: of The Baller Alert Show.
Speaker 9: Teaw this is Angel Gregorio and you are now tuned
Speaker 9: into the ball Alert Show.
Speaker 2: When you had the Spice Sweet and that was very successful,
Speaker 2: especially after the pandemic, I know Covid was good to you.
Speaker 2: After that, you came up with the Black and Fourth.
Speaker 2: You let us know about that.
Speaker 9: So Black and Fourth came about. The name Black and
Speaker 9: Forth came about a few years ago. I was on interviews,
Speaker 9: maybe like a year into business this. I have this
Speaker 9: business model where I have these black women who have
Speaker 9: products that are handmade or uniquely sourced, and they pop
Speaker 9: up at my store regularly on a recurrent basis and
Speaker 9: exchange for them having a space to pop up, they
Speaker 9: work at the store, so I don't have to pay
Speaker 9: staff to work at my store.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 9: So it's this unique business model and I called it
Speaker 9: a barter. I was doing these early interviews and I'm like,
Speaker 9: I bartered with black women, because that was the best
Speaker 9: way I knew to describe it. And I got a
Speaker 9: call from the US Department of Labor's legal department and
Speaker 9: the guy was like, yeah, so I heard you're doing
Speaker 9: a barter, but we don't see anything on file with
Speaker 9: like the IRS.
Speaker 6: And I was like, so I lied.
Speaker 9: Because if the RS has to get involved, then I
Speaker 9: definitely said the wrong thing.
Speaker 6: Let's stop there. It's not a barterer.
Speaker 4: What do we call this?
Speaker 9: And he's like, no, no, no, I'm not trying to
Speaker 9: trip you up. I just want to understand your business model.
Speaker 9: So I started talking it through with him, and he
Speaker 9: tells me the different employment types as the DL describes them,
Speaker 9: and he was like, what you're doing does not fit
Speaker 9: in any of our employment types. And I've actually never
Speaker 9: heard of it. I've been here about ten fifteen years.
Speaker 9: I was It's like, well, if he's never heard of
Speaker 9: it and it doesn't fit any of them, then I
Speaker 9: need to own it in trademark. And so I said,
Speaker 9: now I need to call it something. What is this
Speaker 9: idea of me going back and forth with black people.
Speaker 9: It's black and forth. I go back and forth with
Speaker 9: black people. So black and forth became the name of
Speaker 9: my business model, and then when I went about purchasing
Speaker 9: a commercial property, it was the name of my real
Speaker 9: estate holding company. And now the name of the mini
Speaker 9: strip mall that I own in DC, I call it black.
Speaker 6: And for.
Speaker 8: Right.
Speaker 3: I love that you actually kind of you know, this
Speaker 3: is just what comes to mind. You remind me a
Speaker 3: little bit of Pinky Coal, Like when I hear her
Speaker 3: story Shield talk about something that was like an everyday
Speaker 3: experience for her and how that everyday experience, that moment
Speaker 3: sparked an idea for a business that ended up being
Speaker 3: extremely successful. Like you know, for you to have the
Speaker 3: black and forth that came from something that you were
Speaker 3: actually just doing. It just came to you naturally, you
Speaker 3: wanted to do it. And now it's a whole it's
Speaker 3: a whole extension of who you are and what you
Speaker 3: offer the communities. That's really dope.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 5: What's some advice you would give? You know a lot
Speaker 5: of black businesses that ideas that you've used to be successful.
Speaker 6: You know some of it.
Speaker 9: I typically give the same two pieces of advice, right,
Speaker 9: and it's starting now perfect later, because sometimes we get
Speaker 9: in our own way and we talk ourselves out of
Speaker 9: starting something because we're waiting for it to be perfect.
Speaker 6: Our labels have.
Speaker 9: To be perfect, the website has to be perfect. We
Speaker 9: have to, you know, have a certain amount of followers
Speaker 9: before we launch it on Instagram all the things, so
Speaker 9: that start now perfect later. And secondly, I always say, like,
Speaker 9: be careful who you dream out loud around because sometimes
Speaker 9: people can't see for you what they can't see for themselves,
Speaker 9: and they will stop you from moving forward because they
Speaker 9: will impart their fear on you.
Speaker 6: And that's scary.
Speaker 3: Okay, So all of these Instagram chefs and you know
Speaker 3: black Instagram entrepreneurs that swear what they got is the hotest, say,
Speaker 3: try my season and it's so flavorful, but then you
Speaker 3: see them dumping like a pound of season on something.
Speaker 3: Clearly it's not good if you have to use so
Speaker 3: much seasoning. What is an easy recipe that anybody, any
Speaker 3: girl can make for her man or you know she
Speaker 3: just wants to impress a guy for the first time.
Speaker 3: What is the easiest, like full proof meal that you
Speaker 3: would suggest.
Speaker 9: I guess, so, I don't know if there's like a
Speaker 9: quick recipe, right, but if I'm thinking like someone's coming
Speaker 9: over and you wanted to make something easy.
Speaker 6: Spinach dip.
Speaker 9: Right, spinach dip is easy, so you can elevate that
Speaker 9: a bit by doing like a spinach and collar dip.
Speaker 9: So some frozen spinach, frozen collar greens, you get whatever
Speaker 9: type of cheese is you want. Good cheese makes things better.
Speaker 9: Write some Manchego cheese, some Gouda cheese. You mix those
Speaker 9: together and get some A good seasoning blend, preferably the
Speaker 9: spice sweet. Right, preferably the spice sweet. And we don't
Speaker 9: necessarily recommend certain blends for specific things, so I don't
Speaker 9: believe that, like there's a steak blend or a vegetable blend,
Speaker 9: and then you mix it a little bit of mao
Speaker 9: in that, some sour cream and then you mix it
Speaker 9: up and literally bake it. And that's a quick, easy
Speaker 9: spinach dip. And that's something to have, you know, even
Speaker 9: if they're not staying long. Right, like you have a
Speaker 9: you're talking about somebod he's trying to impress their man.
Speaker 9: He's picking you up, and you guys are about to
Speaker 9: hang out for the evening, and you want to just
Speaker 9: have a cute little appetizer before you guys leave. You
Speaker 9: want to have a drink, a little appetize at the
Speaker 9: house before you leave out. You can make some quick
Speaker 9: spinach dip.
Speaker 4: That's what that was about to say. Now Sue just
Speaker 4: asks a person question.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna get what I do.
Speaker 2: I like.
Speaker 3: The people, I am, the people.
Speaker 2: Sweet is in the building. What does black owned business
Speaker 2: mean to you?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 9: I think black owned business is about legacy. It is
Speaker 9: about reclaiming our space in this country, and it is
Speaker 9: about setting an example for our kids. It's so important
Speaker 9: when people bring their kids by black and forth and
Speaker 9: they're like, I just bought my son my daughter to
Speaker 9: like see you, to meet you, or to to see
Speaker 9: this space, Like that means so much to me because
Speaker 9: it's like you brought you traveled here to see this,
Speaker 9: which means it doesn't exist where you are, which makes
Speaker 9: me sad, right, but it also makes me grateful to
Speaker 9: know that I created something that is syesthetically beautiful enough
Speaker 9: that you found it worthy to bring your children, but
Speaker 9: also has enough significance historically and you know, just thinking
Speaker 9: about future, that you wanted your kids to like stand
Speaker 9: in my space and be a part of it as
Speaker 9: if it's this historical landmark. So black business is really
Speaker 9: it's also ordinary, right, And when I say ordinary, I'm
Speaker 9: not saying it because black businesses are basic. But I
Speaker 9: think that so many of us have created so many
Speaker 9: things that are just like what we need to be
Speaker 9: purchasing every day, that we need to start buying black
Speaker 9: out of just it being what we do and not
Speaker 9: out of protests, right, Like, we don't have to wait
Speaker 9: for some big brands to mess up before we start
Speaker 9: putting out the list of places that we should buy from.
Speaker 9: Like there's black people to make deodorant and lotion and soothpaste,
Speaker 9: light bulbs, band aid, like literally all of your necess
Speaker 9: of these, I can name a black brand that makes them.
Speaker 9: So we don't have to wait for somebody to mess
Speaker 9: up before we start shopping black. And I really hope
Speaker 9: that we start to embrace that more. I feel like
Speaker 9: we're turning that corner slowly, but I feel like we
Speaker 9: need to put the put our foot on the gas
Speaker 9: on that one.
Speaker 5: It's hard because that's that's crazy that you said that,
Speaker 5: because literally yesterday I was just talking to somebody and
Speaker 5: I said, you noticed Uber East.
Speaker 4: Don't tell you what the black restaurant said anymore.
Speaker 5: Mm.
Speaker 3: It was a moment Wow, you.
Speaker 5: Noticed Netflix don't tell you the black movies anymore?
Speaker 6: Like, oh why, yeah, they did. Used to have that section.
Speaker 5: It used to be a section of everything, like if
Speaker 5: you wanted to support black at some period of.
Speaker 4: Time, it would let you know everything.
Speaker 6: But now, like y'all did, y'all.
Speaker 9: Did too much. Y'all supported too much. I supported y'all,
Speaker 9: y'all too much.
Speaker 6: Yeah, just too.
Speaker 9: Black History Month, no rider, Yeah, yeah, they ain't protesting
Speaker 9: no more.
Speaker 2: So All things spice sweet at spice sweet dot com.
Speaker 9: That's spice suite dot com. Yea, I'm at the spice
Speaker 9: feed on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Okay, I've seen y'all had merch on there. Y'all had
Speaker 2: all the spices. You can get a box, a monthly box, yep.
Speaker 2: And you have like a cookbook on there, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: So I created an ebook.
Speaker 9: It's old, but I left it there just because folks,
Speaker 9: you know, kind of still want to use it as
Speaker 9: a guide in which I think cookbook cookbook should be anyway,
Speaker 9: not necessarily prescriptive. But I created that cookbook years ago
Speaker 9: when I was on Master Chef. When I was on
Speaker 9: Master Chef, we were sequestered, right, so you can't talk
Speaker 9: to anybody. You don't have your phone. All you have
Speaker 9: is a journal and a notepad. And so every day
Speaker 9: while I was there cooking, I was writing recipes and
Speaker 9: testing recipes, and so there was like a range. So
Speaker 9: this recipe book is not like Southern food or Caribbean food.
Speaker 9: It is all the things that I made their like lebanies,
Speaker 9: Greek food, American food, soul food. So it's a combination. Yeah,
Speaker 9: it's a combination of things. And so when I came back,
Speaker 9: I literally turned that journal into a cookbook and we
Speaker 9: used to print it. And now because printing calls just
Speaker 9: got so ridiculously expensive, we made it into an ebook.
Speaker 2: Will there be another one coming soon? Taking all the
Speaker 2: idiots A writer?
Speaker 6: I do not feel like.
Speaker 4: Writ She just told you she ready to travel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't want to work.
Speaker 2: You made this one recipe on your Instagram. It had
Speaker 2: like it was a soft shell crab and the shrimp
Speaker 2: with the guacamole stuff. I was like, oh my god, what's.
Speaker 3: Your favorite spice?
Speaker 9: So I tell you I don't have a favorite spice,
Speaker 9: right Like, I cook with all of them. We have
Speaker 9: over one hundred and two spice recipes. I am constantly
Speaker 9: creating new recipes and roastating things and then.
Speaker 6: Out of the store.
Speaker 9: So I tell folks I don't have a favorite. And
Speaker 9: when people come into the store and ask me, like
Speaker 9: what's your favorite or what do you recommend for chicken
Speaker 9: or salmon? I always say like, girl, I don't even
Speaker 9: know you. I don't know what she wants your chicken
Speaker 9: to taste like, right, so I have no idea. And
Speaker 9: it is really akin to going into Macy's and saying like,
Speaker 9: I want some perfume. What do you suggest I smell?
Speaker 9: Like they don't know what you want to smell. They
Speaker 9: could be super sealsy and like try to pitch something
Speaker 9: to you. And I could do that, right, Like I
Speaker 9: could try to name three spices and they're gonna sell
Speaker 9: out just because I said they're my favorites. But I
Speaker 9: really want people to take their time and explore and
Speaker 9: find their favorite, because it really is like fashion, like
Speaker 9: I'm not sure, and it's not about what's trendy and
Speaker 9: what's popular. My least popular spice, you know, on paper,
Speaker 9: on terms of sales, could be the one you love.
Speaker 5: The Most's see, that's why that's how I know your
Speaker 5: business one because you like I ain't about to pick
Speaker 5: three spices. Dolls is gonna come in here and say
Speaker 5: I want those three spices. Now, y'all gotta try a
Speaker 5: one hundred and twenty.
Speaker 2: I got way more than I'm excited to go on down.
Speaker 2: Everybody going down to DC the Spice Sweet and check
Speaker 2: her out because I know I'm gonna make my way
Speaker 2: down there.
Speaker 3: Not online, right, Yeah.
Speaker 6: So our model online is we do boxes.
Speaker 9: So we created this almost like hype beast kind of
Speaker 9: hype around our products. So kind of like our sneakers
Speaker 9: and things drop, we would drop boxes online and we
Speaker 9: tell you what's in the box, but that's all you
Speaker 9: can get, So you can never go on our website
Speaker 9: and like point and click and add specific items. You
Speaker 9: have to take the box as is and you know
Speaker 9: what's in it. So it's not like a myster But
Speaker 9: that's how we do our online. But we also have
Speaker 9: personal Shoppers, which are a group of black women that
Speaker 9: decided they love the Spice Suite and they want us
Speaker 9: to come in and shop for people who were out
Speaker 9: of state and they can purchase any item in the
Speaker 9: store and shipping anywhere in the world. And so I
Speaker 9: created a separate website for our personal shoppers where you
Speaker 9: can link with them that you pay them. I don't
Speaker 9: take any money out of that. You pay them to
Speaker 9: shop for you, and I give them access to my store,
Speaker 9: which of course allows me more money to have my
Speaker 9: product and more hands, but it also allows me to
Speaker 9: support some black women who really want to be able
Speaker 9: to earn some extra money by doing what they love,
Speaker 9: which is coming to the spice.
Speaker 3: Wee, so are they? The Spice girls are the personal shoppers.
Speaker 6: They're separate. So there's a lot of black women.
Speaker 9: There's the Spice Girls, and then they're the personal shoppers.
Speaker 9: The Spice Girls, they are black women who have their
Speaker 9: own businesses. So they sell everything from vintage clothing, beer products, waste.
Speaker 6: Beads, skincare, all the things.
Speaker 9: And they pop up on a regular recurring basis, so
Speaker 9: one of them might be there every first Sunday, another
Speaker 9: one could be there every second and fourth Thursday. And
Speaker 9: they have their schedule and while they're there, they're selling
Speaker 9: their products and my I love it.
Speaker 2: We ain't talking about spots up your life. No, they're
Speaker 2: not thing. They're not a girl. Yeah, so and the
Speaker 2: spices the spice sweet miss ANGELI thank you so much
Speaker 2: for pulling up on us and sharing it having me
Speaker 2: and I can't wait to be down there. You know.
Speaker 2: I got to watch it in DC though with my
Speaker 2: pockets because y'all got I was just down there and
Speaker 2: they had like a some other tax i guess is
Speaker 2: to pay for the building, like because COVID or something
Speaker 2: it was. I was just like really young.
Speaker 6: So the restaurants have started being crazy. They'd like COVID
Speaker 6: tax and all.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, them have saying about cooking at home.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Before we get out of here, we got a pep talk.
Speaker 9: My name is Angel Correo CEO on the spice Sweet,
Speaker 9: I'm black and forth. My advice to anybody who's looking
Speaker 9: to start a business, has a dream that they no
Speaker 9: longer wants to defers to get out of your own way.
Speaker 9: Sometimes we overthink things. We allow other people's perceptions or
Speaker 9: fears about what we want to do to get in
Speaker 9: the way of us getting started. So you can always
Speaker 9: start now and perfect your journey along the way.
Speaker 8: Can't get enough of baller Alert. Follow us on all
Speaker 8: social media platforms at baller Alert. Log on to baller
Speaker 8: alert dot com