Latest / Earn Your Leisure / She Built Slutty Vegan Into a $100M Brand, Lost It, and Bought It Back—Pinky Cole Tells All

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She Built Slutty Vegan Into a $100M Brand, Lost It, and Bought It Back—Pinky Cole Tells All · Earn Your Leisure

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• 1:51
  Speaker 3: All right, all right, guys, welcome back.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: This is a special episode of Earning your Lisia. Yes,
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: so we're not even seen you time on. You probably
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: heard a lot of stuff on social media about Sludy
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Veg and Pinky col and you know, earned your leisure.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: We had to get the real, in depth vibe. It
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: was only it was only right, Yeah, for sure.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: So this is a teachable moment. I feel like for
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: our community, Pinky somebody that we've seen rise Like I
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: feel like, you know a lot of people have seen
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: your journey right and they've learned from your journey from
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: business to family, being a mother, being a wife. But
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: everything there's trial and tribulations, right, So there's some stuff
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: that we did not know. As far as you know,
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: you got into a car accent glad that you're doing well,
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: and then you had an issue where you lost a
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: certain part of the company.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: You had to buy it back.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: So all right, we're gonna we're gonna jump right into it.
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: We're gonna jump right into it. So okay, like I said,
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: we can go right to it. You're a familiar face
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: at this point, so everybody knows you.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: So okay.
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: So we saw on social media that you put a
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: post up think you did an article with people, and
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: you said that you know, I'm the new owner of
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: sloody V getting slightly thinking two point zero.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: I was telling you I was reading the comments. People.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: For a lot of people thought it was.
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: Able fools joke because people don't read.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Well, that's that's true. That's true.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: First glance, I was a bit confused, and then I
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: swiped and I was like, I get it.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So some people thought it was an able fool's joke.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Some people thought it was just a publicity stunt. Some
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: people actually thought that you were serious, but still didn't
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: understand fully, So.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, no, no. Then the Moury thing came and I
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: was like.
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: Well that's why, That's why I thought, Okay, so what
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: what happened?
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: Well, first of all, it's interesting because I want this
• 3:42
  Speaker 6: episode to be a true educational episode for people. I
• 3:47
  Speaker 6: want when they walk away from watching this, they've learned
• 3:51
  Speaker 6: so much they have a different perspective on what entrepreneurship
• 3:55
  Speaker 6: really is. Because oftentimes people see the they see the flowers,
• 4:01
  Speaker 6: they see the accolades, they see the accomplishments, but they
• 4:04
  Speaker 6: don't see those sleepless nights. They don't see when you
• 4:07
  Speaker 6: have to make difficult decisions on how to maneuver and
• 4:09
  Speaker 6: navigate through your business. And I want to be able
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: to show all sides of that because I feel like
• 4:15
  Speaker 6: when entrepreneurs have ranged, that is what makes them able
• 4:20
  Speaker 6: to be able to go in the room and dominate.
• 4:22
  Speaker 6: And I just like to consider this whole experience now
• 4:26
  Speaker 6: when I look at it, Hindsight twenty twenty as an
• 4:29
  Speaker 6: opportunity to add more to my resume of range so
• 4:33
  Speaker 6: that I can be able to inspire other people.
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: So let me take you back.
• 4:38
  Speaker 6: Y'all know, I had this company since twenty eighteen, and
• 4:41
  Speaker 6: Slutdy Vegan has done a lot. We have grown tremendously fast.
• 4:47
  Speaker 6: We have gotten a lot of accomplishments. I've graced the
• 4:50
  Speaker 6: cover of Vessence magazine, Ink magazine, made the Time one
• 4:53
  Speaker 6: hundred lists, all the Bloomberg lists, everybody, Ebony, Pot one
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: hundred headline investment, Everything that you think of, we have
• 5:02
  Speaker 6: done it.
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: There's nothing that I have not done.
• 5:05
  Speaker 6: I have crossed off every single list, right, and we
• 5:09
  Speaker 6: have done a lot of great things over the years.
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: So I had a really strong six and a half
• 5:15
  Speaker 6: year run just as far as marketing, media, press, publicity, right.
• 5:20
  Speaker 6: And you know, when you think about restaurants, restaurants have
• 5:22
  Speaker 6: like a shelf life of about two years, right, and
• 5:26
  Speaker 6: once you get into.
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: That third year, it usually gets a little rocky.
• 5:29
  Speaker 6: But fortunately, fortunately for me, I built something that the
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: world knows, loves and appreciates. So y'all know, I went
• 5:36
  Speaker 6: off and I had kids. I had a baby in
• 5:39
  Speaker 6: twenty twenty, twenty one, twenty two, and twenty three. So
• 5:44
  Speaker 6: while I was focused on being the mascot in the
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: face of the brand and doing brand partnerships and doing
• 5:50
  Speaker 6: the things that I love because as an entrepreneur, there's
• 5:53
  Speaker 6: a point in your professional career where you have to
• 5:56
  Speaker 6: dominate in the spaces where you do well in domination,
• 6:00
  Speaker 6: You understand what I'm saying. So I did that and
• 6:04
  Speaker 6: we did a raise. We raised money to grow the business.
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: We grew up to fourteen locations, and that was great, right,
• 6:11
  Speaker 6: Like we did a lot of great things.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: One hundred million dollars right.
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: Value that.
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: We got twenty five million dollars for twenty five percent, yes,
• 6:20
  Speaker 6: and the company got valued at one hundred million dollars, right,
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: So we've always made money.
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: Money has always been good. That was never the issue.
• 6:28
  Speaker 6: But what happened was is our overhead got higher than
• 6:32
  Speaker 6: the money that we were bringing in.
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 6:35
  Speaker 6: So you know, there's some businesses that bring that that
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: have like one hundred thousand dollar bills a month. Our
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: bills were like a million dollars a month upwards too, right,
• 6:44
  Speaker 6: for all the location, for all the locations. So when
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: you're growing really really fast and you got this really
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: good thing and everybody's coming off, you get sold a
• 6:54
  Speaker 6: lot of stuff.
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: So, Like there's software, there's technology, there's all of these things.
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: So the leadership is just bringing all of this stuff in, right,
• 7:03
  Speaker 6: and it works with what we have going on because
• 7:05
  Speaker 6: AI is the future. All of these technology is the future.
• 7:08
  Speaker 6: But what we didn't realize is up under the hood
• 7:10
  Speaker 6: was suffering.
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 7:12
  Speaker 6: So back in twenty twenty three, we realized that like, okay,
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: we have in some we got a problem, and the
• 7:20
  Speaker 6: problem is in today. The problem is in the future,
• 7:22
  Speaker 6: and we got to figure it out. Like future guidance,
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: this is future guidance, right. And again, revenue still coming in.
• 7:29
  Speaker 6: Bringing in money is not the problem and has never
• 7:32
  Speaker 6: been the problem. It's the overhad and I've always been
• 7:34
  Speaker 6: public about that, right. So I talked about how my
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: corporate overhead was ten million dollars and that is high
• 7:40
  Speaker 6: for a business of my science.
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: Right. But again, you know, I ain't never grown no company.
• 7:44
  Speaker 6: Before, and I stepped outside of the business temporarily to
• 7:47
  Speaker 6: have kids and be a mom and do these things
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: and do the marketing.
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: But neither here nor there, this is where we are.
• 7:53
  Speaker 6: So in twenty twenty four I came back in the company,
• 7:56
  Speaker 6: and I let go of the whole c suite and
• 8:00
  Speaker 6: I came back in the company January twenty twenty four,
• 8:02
  Speaker 6: and I'm literally like boots on the ground, no pun intended.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: So you fired everybody?
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, everybody got because you felt that they were getting
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: paid too much or that they was doing It.
• 8:11
  Speaker 6: Was a combination of a lot of things, right, but overarching,
• 8:14
  Speaker 6: like when a ship is sinking, you got to be
• 8:18
  Speaker 6: able to start patching holes, you know what I mean.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: And those people.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Probably in the hindsight, you're thinking, like, this is the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: scaling model that they've said that it's going to work.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I'm looking at this now, this isn't work.
• 8:31
  Speaker 6: It just wasn't worth reverse, right, And there were so
• 8:33
  Speaker 6: many different variables, and obviously to protect the interests of
• 8:36
  Speaker 6: the people involved, there were so many different variables that
• 8:40
  Speaker 6: came with it, and I had to do what was
• 8:41
  Speaker 6: best for the business, which I realized that the business
• 8:46
  Speaker 6: is what comes first cut all those things. Had a
• 8:50
  Speaker 6: couple million in real estate, started selling off the real estate.
• 8:54
  Speaker 6: But I realized that we were too far gone, and
• 8:58
  Speaker 6: for a couple months I was fighting it. Right, the
• 9:00
  Speaker 6: conversation was like, hey, we need to put this into
• 9:02
  Speaker 6: a restruction.
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: I didn't want to do that.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: Were you in debt or you was just were you Yeah,
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: were you in debt or were you just on pays
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: to be in debt?
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: We were in debt.
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: You were in debt, Yeah, we were in debt. You
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: start liquidating, Yeah, we started liquidating. We started liquidating. It's
• 9:17
  Speaker 6: funny enough, and I hope you don't get mad at
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: me saying this. Actually, so one of my properties to
• 9:21
  Speaker 6: Robert Smith. Oh yeah, yeah, my DC property to Robert Smith.
• 9:25
  Speaker 6: And let me tell you something. It pays to have
• 9:27
  Speaker 6: people in your corner, right one who are resource qualified.
• 9:32
  Speaker 6: Do you know what I mean when I say that,
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: because that was a pick up the phone. Hey Robert,
• 9:37
  Speaker 6: I know everybody lean on you for everything, but I
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: got this portfolio.
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: I got this ten million dollar portfolio. Let me tell
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: you one of my properties.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: I had a relationship prior to that moment.
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: I could pick up the phone and call him. He
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: always give me advice anytime I reach out to him.
• 9:48
  Speaker 6: But to have somebody to do that for me, right,
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: It pays to have people who are aligned with your
• 9:54
  Speaker 6: vision and your mission to be able to pull the
• 9:57
  Speaker 6: trigger real fast when you need them to do that.
• 9:59
  Speaker 6: That's why I relateationships are so very important.
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: So I started selling off property did not want to
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: do a restructure because I'm like, we can fix this,
• 10:08
  Speaker 6: and I'm like, I get to the point where I'm
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: stressing myself out trying to fix this. It's compromising my
• 10:13
  Speaker 6: quality of life. You know, I'm tapping into my personal
• 10:17
  Speaker 6: life to make sure that the business is still sustaining.
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: Again, money coming in the business was not the problem.
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: It's making sure that, like my one hundred thousand dollars
• 10:25
  Speaker 6: a week burned can be covered. You understand what I'm saying.
• 10:29
  Speaker 6: So one day I remember waking up and I'm just like,
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: you know what, I can't do this no more. I'm
• 10:34
  Speaker 6: too busy worried about reputation, right, and I'm too busy
• 10:37
  Speaker 6: worried about what's going to happen in the opinions of
• 10:40
  Speaker 6: other people. This is the ebb and flow of business.
• 10:43
  Speaker 6: The biggest businesses in the world have gone through changes,
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: right Like you think about the Hooters and the Red
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: Lobsters and the Bumbles and all the big businesses that
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: are very reputable have gone through changes.
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: The difference between them and me and a lot of
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: other businesses.
• 11:00
  Speaker 6: Most people don't talk about it, but I said, you
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: know what, I'm going to use this as a coaching
• 11:04
  Speaker 6: opportunity and as an educational opportunity to show entrepreneurs, especially
• 11:09
  Speaker 6: startup founders, this is what happens when you do this.
• 11:13
  Speaker 6: This is what happens when you hire too many people
• 11:16
  Speaker 6: at one time.
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: This is what happens when you scale a business.
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: If you would have told me seven years ago that
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: I would be going through this, I'd be like you line.
• 11:24
  Speaker 6: But guess what, I realized that I'm an educator and
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: beyond slutdy Vegan. The vessel for me is to be
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: able to show other entrepreneurs that you can do this,
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: but there is.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: Strategy and strategic ways to do it.
• 11:37
  Speaker 6: So on March on February thirteenth, the company went into
• 11:42
  Speaker 6: official restructure this year of this year, So that meant
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: for forty three days I did not own my company.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Explain this official restructure? Can you just explain this?
• 11:52
  Speaker 6: So when a company goes to an official restructure, that
• 11:55
  Speaker 6: means that the board resigns, I no longer own the
• 11:59
  Speaker 6: company and it goes into the hands of an assignee,
• 12:02
  Speaker 6: right and during that time like I have no responsibility,
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: but obviously my name is still on it. My name
• 12:09
  Speaker 6: is still on the door. So during that time, guess
• 12:11
  Speaker 6: what I did. I'm still in the stores making sure
• 12:14
  Speaker 6: that everything is good. I'm like making sure that the
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: store is opening.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: And the public doesn't notice.
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: The public has no idea it's a company.
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: Oh yeah, So during that time, I'm still in the
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: stores making sure that the stores open up, do what
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: they need to do. Because at the end of the day,
• 12:29
  Speaker 6: my name is the only currency that I have. And
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: this is with no shorty that I would get my
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: business back. I would be able to bid for my
• 12:36
  Speaker 6: business because obviously I got a very popular company.
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: People can bid to buy the business.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: This is because that's very interesting, right, Like you know
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: that internally. But at the same time, I'm assuming people
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: can now bid for the company that you help, I
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: mean build. You're watching this transaction, like, are you seeing
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the bids you have access to that?
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: Are you just limited access?
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Wow?
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: Limited?
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: But let me tell you, when you call yourself an
• 13:02
  Speaker 6: entrepreneur and you really love the shit that you're doing,
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: like you're going to do things that people are going
• 13:06
  Speaker 6: to call you crazy for because everybody called me like pinky,
• 13:09
  Speaker 6: like the company went.
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: Through a restructure. Why are you still in the stores?
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: What are you doing?
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: Why are you still like making sure that the store
• 13:15
  Speaker 6: has what it needs? And because my name is on
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: this and I'm doing what's required, and I know that
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: I'm not going to walk away from the thing that
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: I built because I love it that much, so that
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: the process was very It was a gruesome process, not
• 13:29
  Speaker 6: for them but for me, right because my pride and
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: my ego got in a way. This is something that
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: I love and you know, I put my blood, sweat
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: and tears in this business. This is all I know
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: for the last seven years, you know what I'm saying.
• 13:41
  Speaker 6: But then I got really really still. So if you
• 13:44
  Speaker 6: know this, I went dark on social media. But I
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: didn't go dark because I was sad and depressed. I
• 13:49
  Speaker 6: mean that there was a little bit of that sprinkle,
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: but I'm like, I gotta go in the strategy mode.
• 13:53
  Speaker 6: I got to figure out, like what is my next
• 13:55
  Speaker 6: move going to be? What am I going to do?
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: You know, as an entrepreneur and somebody who built a
• 14:00
  Speaker 6: multimillion dollar business. For the life of my business, I
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: made like seventy million dollars. This ain't no mom and
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: pop shop. You understand what I'm saying. So I'm like,
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: all right, I gotta figure it out. So I'm going
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: in a strategy mode. I'm getting still. I'm not answering
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: the phone for nobody, So everybody think I'm dead.
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: What's going on with Biggs?
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: You in the hospital, what's wrong? Because I've never been quiet.
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: I'm a vocal, very vocal person. But I realized, guy
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: hit my experience, say you gotta get still, you gotta
• 14:25
  Speaker 6: get really still. And I did that and for forty
• 14:28
  Speaker 6: three days. Let me tell you, you know, I'm spiritual, y'all,
• 14:30
  Speaker 6: So you know, four plus three or seven, that's the
• 14:32
  Speaker 6: number of completion. So for forty three days, I went
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: through a period of just trying to figure out, like,
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: what does the professional life of this business?
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: What does the legacy of Slutdy Vegan look like?
• 14:43
  Speaker 6: And the bid opened to buy the business, and there
• 14:48
  Speaker 6: were a couple bidders, but obviously I'm the face of
• 14:51
  Speaker 6: this brand. Who gonna come and buy study Vegan and
• 14:53
  Speaker 6: not bring me with it? It didn't make sense. So
• 14:57
  Speaker 6: I put the bid in for the business and to
• 15:00
  Speaker 6: be totally transparent, because I don't tell a lie. I
• 15:03
  Speaker 6: had a strategic partner. At first, I had a strategic partner.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: So this in between us forty three days where we're
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: at now. So just the thirteenth, right restructuring. We know
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: that March twenty eighth is a significant day.
• 15:16
  Speaker 6: Let me give you a even better timeline. So the
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: thirteenth was when the restructure happened. Then I look on
• 15:21
  Speaker 6: the internet one day and Spelman College closes and it
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: wasn't me, And I'm like, damn, Spellman is closing.
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: Closed, I mean they closed, they closed the location.
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, they closed the locate.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: I didn't even know about it.
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: I didn't know.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we've seen it, Like, oh okay, yeah.
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: I've seen it too.
• 15:41
  Speaker 6: But I also can get mad because this is the
• 15:44
  Speaker 6: nature of business. And I think oftentimes as entrepreneur, startup founders,
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: and I've been guilty of it up until two point zero,
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: we are always so emotionally tied to business that we
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: let our emotions get the best of us when it's
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: just a business decision and it's nothing personal.
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: You understand what I'm saying.
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: And you know, I was just like, okay, all right, now,
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: I got to strategize. I got to do what I
• 16:07
  Speaker 6: need to do. Okay, cool boom. So I seen in
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: the news. All right, let me still get dark, Let
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: me still get still. The bid came out, maybe like
• 16:15
  Speaker 6: it happened pretty fast, maybe like eighteen days. It took
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: about eighteen days the bid came out. There's a package
• 16:23
  Speaker 6: to say, hey, Sludy Vegan is for sale, and.
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: I'm like, I can't let nobody else buy this business.
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: It's mine.
• 16:29
  Speaker 6: It belongs to me, like my name, my likeness, my brand,
• 16:32
  Speaker 6: the energy when you walk in the store and they
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: call you a slept that's my personality.
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: Can't nobody else by this?
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: This mine?
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: And because I got some good my celles are increasing
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: week over week twelve percent, right, So it's like.
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: I ain't got a dud. Why would I walk away
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: from that? I would never do that.
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: So I put the bed in and I gave it
• 16:49
  Speaker 6: to God and I surrendered. And you know, that was
• 16:52
  Speaker 6: the first time in my life that I actually met God.
• 16:55
  Speaker 6: And I don't know if you understand what I mean
• 16:57
  Speaker 6: when I said that, like God always knew me, but
• 16:58
  Speaker 6: I really just met God.
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: God.
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: But it took for this experience to bring me to
• 17:03
  Speaker 6: my knees because it made me get even more spiritual.
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: It made me realize that you got to surrender everything
• 17:09
  Speaker 6: and everything that's supposed to happen is going to happen.
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: And I can remember getting a call from the assigned
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: ese Sam Pinky got some good news. You want to bed,
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: And there was like a sense of calmness instilled that
• 17:22
  Speaker 6: went through my body because all of this time that
• 17:25
  Speaker 6: I was worrying and stressing about the future and what
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: was going to happen, it was mine all along. I
• 17:30
  Speaker 6: just had to go through this period of pruning to
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: be able to understand who it belongs to and who
• 17:37
  Speaker 6: I belonged to. And as a result of that, I
• 17:39
  Speaker 6: got my business back. And I signed on March twenty
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: eighth at two point fifty three pm and I signed
• 17:46
  Speaker 6: and I got my company back, and that was the
• 17:49
  Speaker 6: best feeling in the world, because I'm like, all right,
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: that was go time.
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: Well let me ask you this. Let's let's bring it
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: back a little bit right, Okay. So you own one
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: hundred percent of Slightlyvegan when you start the company, yep,
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: Sluody Vegan goes viral, make a bunch of money, and
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: you have an opportunity to just scale, right, and you
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: scale by raising money. Yeah, you raised twenty five million dollars. Yeah,
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: but twenty five percent of your company. Correct to me,
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: that means that you own seventy five percent, right, am
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: I right? So far, which value your company at one
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: hundred million. Then you start to go into debt and
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: you start to have some problems.
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: Well, no, it didn't happen like that. So I want
• 18:31
  Speaker 6: to make sure you got the timeline right. So we
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: raised the money. We opened up fourteen location. Just to
• 18:35
  Speaker 6: give you some math, it cost about eight hundred and
• 18:38
  Speaker 6: seventy five thousand dollars per box to build a sludy
• 18:41
  Speaker 6: Vegan And then we did that in the heart of inflation,
• 18:43
  Speaker 6: the heart of the pandemic, so supply chain everything. There
• 18:46
  Speaker 6: was a lot of variables that came with this, right,
• 18:48
  Speaker 6: So we did ninety five percent of what we said
• 18:50
  Speaker 6: that we would do. Right, there's just life cycles and
• 18:53
  Speaker 6: business and that happens unless you can raise more money.
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: And if you don't raise more money, then that life
• 18:59
  Speaker 6: cycle pretty much in.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Let me finish it.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: So what I'm what I'm trying to see is, Okay,
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: I'm trying to see you own seventy five percent of
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: the company, right, How did your ownership get diminished to
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: the point where it was up for sale or like
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: you didn't have full control, right, Like, that's the part
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: that I'm going to copy that.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: So it doesn't work like that.
• 19:20
  Speaker 6: When you go into a restructure, you can own one
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: hundred and five percent, it doesn't matter.
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: It goes into the hands of almost like in a state.
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: Right, So you basically say the company it's an assignment
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: for the benefit of creditors. So you basically say, yes,
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: I own this percentage of the company, but because of
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: the company's debt, I am willing to sign this over
• 19:41
  Speaker 6: to lose ownership so that somebody can somebody else can
• 19:44
  Speaker 6: control the business.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: It's like having credit card debt and then okay, so down.
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: Similar to that. But it's not a bankruptcy.
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: I want to be clear, because bankruptcy and an assignment
• 19:54
  Speaker 6: for the benefit of creditors are totally different.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:56
  Speaker 6: A bankruptcy is what it is. It's a bankruptcy. It's hard,
• 19:59
  Speaker 6: it's ugly. This is not that A lot of companies
• 20:02
  Speaker 6: go through a restructure. Most companies don't talk about it
• 20:04
  Speaker 6: because it never gets public. It never becomes a public thing.
• 20:07
  Speaker 6: If I never said anything about it, nobody would ever
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: knew about that.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: And you went through the restructure because of debt.
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: I went through the restructure because of the debt.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: And so okay, so even though you owned seventy five
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: percent of the company, that didn't matter. Somebody could have
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: still purchased the company and then they would have paid
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: you whatever amount was paid, and then they would have
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: owned the company one hundred percent.
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah, they would have paid the trustees.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: And then they trustee would have made and they would
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: have owned the company.
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: Correct.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: How much of a factor did the form of valuation
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: of the company play inside of the potential sale or
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: bid when it got to you.
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: It played a part. There were so many variables.
• 20:44
  Speaker 6: There was the debt, there was the valuation, how many stores.
• 20:47
  Speaker 6: It played a part. Everything mattered.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: There was the ip, the likeness of the business.
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: It wasn't just one thing that said, okay, we're going
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: to give the business back to her. Because technically I
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: didn't have to go back and purchase my business. I
• 20:59
  Speaker 6: could have said, all right, off to my next project.
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: Somebody else could have just went up and got in and
• 21:03
  Speaker 6: won the bid, and you know, could have did what
• 21:05
  Speaker 6: they did. But it was important for me to reclaim
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: my legacy. That was important and when we did that.
• 21:10
  Speaker 6: When we went to the restructure, I actually had sixty
• 21:12
  Speaker 6: one percent because I had other investors, So it went
• 21:15
  Speaker 6: down from seventy five to sixty one percent because I
• 21:17
  Speaker 6: did other money raises.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: You understand, Yeah, I'm back.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: But you said you had a strategic partner. Did that
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: partner stay on or no?
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: No? So that that is no I did.
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: In the process, and right before I closed, I decided
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: that I didn't want that strategic partner anymore.
• 21:34
  Speaker 6: He's a really nice guy, but you know, just the synergies,
• 21:37
  Speaker 6: it just wasn't the right alignment. And I had to
• 21:40
  Speaker 6: be honest about that, which for all the people that
• 21:42
  Speaker 6: are watching this, and no disrespect to him, but the
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: people that are watching this. When you go to raise money,
• 21:50
  Speaker 6: when you go to get investors, when you get a
• 21:52
  Speaker 6: new partnership, this is a marriage.
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: So you got to make sure that that marriage.
• 21:58
  Speaker 6: Feels right, it feels writing your spare, you can properly
• 22:01
  Speaker 6: communicate with that person like you don't have any apprehensions,
• 22:04
  Speaker 6: you don't have any reserves or reservations, because if.
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: You do, you're gonna regret it in the long run.
• 22:10
  Speaker 6: And I wanted to make sure that I was very
• 22:12
  Speaker 6: intentional about who I brought with me to the other side,
• 22:15
  Speaker 6: and that was important for me, and it was a
• 22:17
  Speaker 6: hard decision to make, but I'm like, you know what,
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: I'm going to the other side with peace because I
• 22:22
  Speaker 6: didn't always have peace at first, and I wanted to
• 22:25
  Speaker 6: have peace this time.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: We getting those conversations a lot.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: People talk to us like you gouys should raise, you
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: got to YOURLD raise and even we've had conversations prior
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: to this one. It was like, it's cool to be independent,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: it's great, right you take on partners. Now you have
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: people that you're married to. Now you've been on both
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: sides of it. Like, what are some of the biggest
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: lessons for people who are in that that phase of like, hey,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I want to raise capital because I want to scale,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: versus hey, we're doing this thing independent and we're going
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: to scale, you know, at our own pace.
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: So so I'll be honest because I can't tell you
• 22:53
  Speaker 6: a lot. I'm gonna tell you the pros and the cons.
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: So the pros of getting investors right and shout out
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: to my investors initially funded my dream right, and because
• 23:03
  Speaker 6: they initially believed in my dream, it got me the
• 23:06
  Speaker 6: opportunity to be able to do all the things that
• 23:08
  Speaker 6: I needed to do in the business. And I'll never
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: take that away from them, right, it is what it is.
• 23:11
  Speaker 6: I'm a professional, right. But what I realized is when
• 23:16
  Speaker 6: you want to scale, scaling is always a good thing.
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: And if you can get private equity dollars, if you
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: can get investment dollars, you absolutely should. But you have
• 23:25
  Speaker 6: to make sure that the terms make sense for me.
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: I'm a creative right, and having creative control is important. Oftentimes,
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: when you raise money, you are technically working for somebody else.
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: You are working to get them their money back.
• 23:38
  Speaker 6: No matter how you put it, you want to put
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: in Spanish in French, you got a job. Now it's
• 23:44
  Speaker 6: a different kind of job. And what kind of job
• 23:46
  Speaker 6: you want to have is really up to you. Like
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: do you want to sit and answer the people all
• 23:51
  Speaker 6: the time or are you an independent and say, you
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: know what, I don't want to have to answer to nobody.
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: I want to do my own thing. That's a decision
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: that you have to make.
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: Most people who want to scale and get these big
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: valuations and exit for a high number those people are
• 24:04
  Speaker 6: okay with bringing in partnership because there's a plus to that.
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: It's strategic if it's right, and strategy and resources together
• 24:11
  Speaker 6: is a recipe for success. So when you got good partners,
• 24:15
  Speaker 6: they help you with new relationships, they help you get
• 24:17
  Speaker 6: more money, they help you grow in scale, and then
• 24:20
  Speaker 6: it's a recipe for something so beautiful that will go
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: down in history. Now, if you want to be independent
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: and you want to do it your own, you can,
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: but it's going to take you a little bit longer,
• 24:30
  Speaker 6: but you might have more peace right and you might
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: have more ability to own the control of what it
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: is that you're creating.
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: For example, y'all got earn your leisure?
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: Who knows you may bring in investors and they're like,
• 24:42
  Speaker 6: we want it to be earn your leisure, and this
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: is how we want to do it, and we want
• 24:46
  Speaker 6: to do it this way. And you I be okay
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: with that if you takeing somebody money, Because what I
• 24:50
  Speaker 6: realized in business is just like we're trying to build
• 24:53
  Speaker 6: our legacy, investors are trying to build their legacy too.
• 24:57
  Speaker 6: Were trying to fund the dream, and they're trying to
• 24:59
  Speaker 6: get a return on their investment. So you can't get
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: mad at them for wanting to get a proper return
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: on investment and asking all the questions and then you
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: got to be honest with yourself. Is that the kind
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: of relationship that you want with investors? Ask for me
• 25:10
  Speaker 6: and mine. I'm at a place where I'm going to
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: do what I did in the beginning and grow my
• 25:15
  Speaker 6: business all over again. What I did do is though
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: I showed some love to the people who initially invested
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: in me, the smaller investors, the people who used their
• 25:24
  Speaker 6: four on one K and all of that stuff, because
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: I know how much that meant to them to support
• 25:28
  Speaker 6: my dream with what they had. So I rolled some
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: of them over and that was important for me to
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: do that. But who knows, I may get investment again.
• 25:36
  Speaker 6: Shout out to Fearless fun Arian Simone is like the goat,
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: like she was there to support me through this process
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: and made it difficult. Ken Blackwell, Door Whitley, my husband,
• 25:50
  Speaker 6: Like I had some people in my corner that was
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: roding and rocking with me when the lights was off. Metaphorically,
• 25:58
  Speaker 6: you understand what I'm saying. Where I felt like I
• 26:00
  Speaker 6: don't want to do this no more.
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: I'm tired.
• 26:01
  Speaker 6: I can't believe I got here when people were encouraging
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: me to keep going and not giving up. And my
• 26:06
  Speaker 6: best friends who like really helped me down in this
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: process because it's hard. Somebody wouldn't have never been able
• 26:11
  Speaker 6: to get through what I've been through. So now I'm
• 26:13
  Speaker 6: going to share my story and inspire the people that
• 26:16
  Speaker 6: if you want to do this business, it ain't just
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: about Instagram posts and getting titles in magazines. You really
• 26:23
  Speaker 6: got to do the work. And if you don't do
• 26:25
  Speaker 6: the work, it's going to show up in the long run.
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: So when you brought your business back, right, I'm assuming
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: it was a pretty substantial amount. So being that you
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: did it by yourself, was that like something that you
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: had to actually figure out financially, like how am I
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: going to get this money to actually buy it? And
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: then was that something that you thought about, like, you know,
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: is this a good financial decision because you're still going
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: to have to spend more money right on the store.
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: It's not like this is just the only time you
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: got to spend money. So, being that you did it
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: by yourself and not outside capital, what was your thought
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: process in that.
• 27:00
  Speaker 6: The good thing about this is that because the business
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: still makes good money, I knew that it was a
• 27:05
  Speaker 6: good financial decision. I'm actually in the process of doing
• 27:08
  Speaker 6: a raise, but I knew that, all right, the business
• 27:11
  Speaker 6: could sustain itself, so it just made sense. If it
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: didn't make sense, I wouldn't do it right because I
• 27:16
  Speaker 6: got ten other businesses that I'm running. But it made
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: financial sense for me to do it. And now I'm
• 27:22
  Speaker 6: thinking about the rebrand and bringing in strategic leadership. By
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: just bringing some strategic leadership to help me grow and scale,
• 27:29
  Speaker 6: this person has scaled their business to multiple locations and
• 27:33
  Speaker 6: they had an exit in twenty twenty one.
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: So now I'm aligning with best in class.
• 27:37
  Speaker 6: So before it was just like all right, loyalty, loyalty, loyalty,
• 27:41
  Speaker 6: and people who love the brand, but now need expertise,
• 27:43
  Speaker 6: real true expertise that'll take me to the next level.
• 27:47
  Speaker 6: And that really is important for this side of things
• 27:51
  Speaker 6: because now the focus is international.
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: We talked about Africa before we got on camera, like that's.
• 27:57
  Speaker 6: One of the first places that we're thinking about, going
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: to Africa, doing India, doing the UK, possibly franchise and
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: who knows. But we got some things in store and
• 28:07
  Speaker 6: this time it is all about strategy. And before Sludy
• 28:10
  Speaker 6: Vegan was a passion project. This time it's time for business.
• 28:14
  Speaker 6: And what business looks like is getting the proper operators right,
• 28:18
  Speaker 6: getting the people that really know about Ibada and know
• 28:22
  Speaker 6: about operations and profit and laws and like really communicating
• 28:25
  Speaker 6: the business, and me sticking to what I know how
• 28:27
  Speaker 6: to do best. And I'm a marketing genius. I know
• 28:30
  Speaker 6: that for a fact. So if I can apply and
• 28:32
  Speaker 6: put the right people in place and still drive the ship,
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: then I know that it's a recipe for success.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: You talked about the people being in your side.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm always going to root for Derek, you know,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: as a husband, as a father, I'm always room for him.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: But now we have the Hayes Hospitality Group.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, so talk.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: About how we're going to leverage you know, the collaboration
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: and what that looks like for y'all.
• 28:52
  Speaker 6: You know, Well, shout out to Derek because it's interesting
• 28:55
  Speaker 6: because I've watched his journey for so long and the
• 28:58
  Speaker 6: ebbs and flows he had in business. So as I'm
• 29:01
  Speaker 6: rising to the tip and my celebrity and business is
• 29:03
  Speaker 6: rising out, I'm doing all these things, he's on the
• 29:06
  Speaker 6: back end, shuffling, digging, trying to fix his business. So
• 29:09
  Speaker 6: now he got the team, right, so he gets to
• 29:12
  Speaker 6: grow his business, and I see the elevation happening in
• 29:15
  Speaker 6: real time, and I'm proud to be connected to that
• 29:17
  Speaker 6: because that's a part of our household.
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: So a win is a win.
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: If I win, if he win, we all going win
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: together because that's my husband and we're building his family.
• 29:25
  Speaker 6: So when we think about Hayes's hospitality, we're like, all right,
• 29:27
  Speaker 6: you got this multimillion dollar business. I got this multimillion
• 29:31
  Speaker 6: dollar business today were bringing in half a million dollars
• 29:34
  Speaker 6: a week in business right as a household in our businesses.
• 29:38
  Speaker 6: So we need to do what the big companies do.
• 29:40
  Speaker 6: They come together. They build these big firms and utilize
• 29:44
  Speaker 6: their resources to be able to strategize and grow. Why
• 29:47
  Speaker 6: aren't we doing the same thing. Why you got a
• 29:49
  Speaker 6: separate HR and I got a separate HR. And why
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: you got a separate operations person and I got a
• 29:53
  Speaker 6: separate operations person. We need to figure out a way
• 29:56
  Speaker 6: to come together so that we can save money. Right,
• 29:59
  Speaker 6: so when it's time to sell or do whatever we
• 30:01
  Speaker 6: do or go public, it makes sense. And that's what
• 30:03
  Speaker 6: bigger corporations do. But nobody ever taught us that right.
• 30:06
  Speaker 6: We had to learn by falling on our face trying
• 30:09
  Speaker 6: to figure it out. So we came up with the
• 30:11
  Speaker 6: ideas to do Hayes's Hospitality. And what Hayes's Hospitality is,
• 30:15
  Speaker 6: it's a hospitality company that houses all of our companies.
• 30:19
  Speaker 6: That is Big Dave's Cheese Steaks, Slutty Vegan Sea Boys,
• 30:23
  Speaker 6: which is Derek's new concept.
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: I got a new concept that I'm about to announce.
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: It's about to change the gang.
• 30:30
  Speaker 6: And yeah Vegan, Yeah, you know what, it actually might
• 30:36
  Speaker 6: be good to announce it should I Okay?
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: So are you.
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: You haven't been to Jersey Mikes before?
• 30:44
  Speaker 6: Yes, So I'm creating the Vegan Jersey Mics and it's
• 30:48
  Speaker 6: called Vogue's Vegan Hogies.
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: So Vogue's damn good.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Hogiest to Philly.
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah, shout out to Philly.
• 30:56
  Speaker 6: So this this is a part of the slutty Empire,
• 30:59
  Speaker 6: and I'm about that because now I got the slutdy
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: Vegan brand. It's for the sluts and you want to
• 31:04
  Speaker 6: eat a burger and fry and you want to turn
• 31:05
  Speaker 6: up and get litt and be called a slut all day.
• 31:07
  Speaker 6: And then I got this crossover brand, right that is
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: going to really be focused on catering and corporate sales
• 31:15
  Speaker 6: and going in stadiums and doing all of these things,
• 31:17
  Speaker 6: and that will be under Hayes Hospitality Because what I'm
• 31:20
  Speaker 6: doing is I'm building an empire that people can love
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: and appreciate, whether it's vegan or not.
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: I mean, I'm focused on the.
• 31:29
  Speaker 6: Vegan side, and Derek is going to focus on the
• 31:31
  Speaker 6: non vegan side, and together we're gonna.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Win real big congratulations. No, that's right.
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: So let me ask you this in retrospect, right, what
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: do you think with some of the issues with Sludy
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: the obviously you said that you know you grew too fast, right,
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: so yeah, like looking back on it, what do you
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: think could have been some of the issues that you
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: could have probably done a little differently if you had
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: a second opportunity. And the second part to that question,
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: the criticism have you do you ever listen to because
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: there's a lot of people inside the vegan community.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: This is not something new, right.
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: But of course people like to take shots of people
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: when they think that they're down.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: So I've seen this.
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: More prevalent on social media now, like at least a
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: couple of weeks ago.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: They're like, oh, Yeah, that's because it's junk fold stuff
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: like that.
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: So is that's something we're thinking, like, Okay, maybe we
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: have a garden burger of just plant based, like you
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: know what I mean.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: So you know those are my two questions.
• 32:32
  Speaker 6: Okay, so I'm gonna answer that question first. So I
• 32:35
  Speaker 6: don't listen to the noise, you know, especially through the silence.
• 32:40
  Speaker 6: I don't listen to the noise because what I realize
• 32:42
  Speaker 6: is you can get so consumed in that stuff, and
• 32:45
  Speaker 6: it's important for me to make sure that I got
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: a clear mental because that's the only way that I
• 32:49
  Speaker 6: can operate. If my mind is polluted with negativity, there's
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: no way that I can win.
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: So I don't tap into negative energy. That's the first thing.
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: The second thing.
• 32:58
  Speaker 6: Is what I did realize is that you know, I
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: have a burger and fry brand for people who love
• 33:02
  Speaker 6: burgers and fries, and this is a starting point for
• 33:04
  Speaker 6: people who want to learn about veganism but either don't
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: know how or don't want to start with a salad.
• 33:09
  Speaker 6: What I am doing, though, is I'm adding and increasing
• 33:12
  Speaker 6: menu options to my MENGI So I am adding a
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: Southwestern garden burger, right, I am adding a gluten free bun.
• 33:20
  Speaker 6: I am about to add salads, so now everybody can appreciate.
• 33:23
  Speaker 6: If you don't want to eat soy, you ain't got
• 33:25
  Speaker 6: to eat soidt come against something else. It's something for you.
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: So Sludy Vegan ain't for everybody. This is not the
• 33:31
  Speaker 6: brand that you're gonna find on every corner. That's not
• 33:33
  Speaker 6: what I created it to do. But it's for the
• 33:36
  Speaker 6: people who love burgers and fries, who love vegan food,
• 33:40
  Speaker 6: or who want to start out for the first time.
• 33:42
  Speaker 6: Seventy percent of the people who come to Sludy Vegan
• 33:44
  Speaker 6: are not vegan. They are meat eaters trying vegan food
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: for the first time. So that's my audience, and I'm
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: going to continue to stick to my audience. Seven years
• 33:52
  Speaker 6: later and I still got a great audience. People are
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: still coming, people still love the brand, people still appreciate
• 33:58
  Speaker 6: all that we've created, and I'm excited about all the
• 34:01
  Speaker 6: new menu items that are about to come.
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: So that's the first question. The second thing.
• 34:07
  Speaker 6: Not what I would do differently, but what I would
• 34:09
  Speaker 6: tell the audience watching this. Your talent is your business.
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: You got great talent, You got a great business. You
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: ain't got great talent, you ain't got no great business.
• 34:18
  Speaker 6: And your talent is your culture, and all of those
• 34:21
  Speaker 6: things web together. So I am more intentional now about
• 34:25
  Speaker 6: the talent that I bring into my business. I just
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: brought on a headhunter to find me the best talent.
• 34:30
  Speaker 6: I want best in class. I went to LA and
• 34:33
  Speaker 6: everybody kept saying best in class.
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: Best thing. I'm like, well, why everybody keep saying best
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: in class?
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: Because if you want to be the best, you got
• 34:39
  Speaker 6: to align yourself with the best. And best in class
• 34:42
  Speaker 6: means the people who are not just looking good on resume, right, personality, energy, experience.
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: I want to know that you.
• 34:49
  Speaker 6: Failed a time or two because then you know how
• 34:52
  Speaker 6: to identify when you see it and you know how
• 34:54
  Speaker 6: to help me fix it. And I want people to
• 34:56
  Speaker 6: have that kind of experience. So best in class to
• 34:58
  Speaker 6: me is people who have, like I said in the
• 35:00
  Speaker 6: beginning range, So, if you are an entrepreneur with a.
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: Camera, who I'm talking to Ray.
• 35:05
  Speaker 6: If you are an entrepreneur, okay, and you are growing
• 35:08
  Speaker 6: a business and your business is booming and doing all
• 35:11
  Speaker 6: the great things, it's not enough for you to try
• 35:13
  Speaker 6: to figure out numbers. When you are a creative you
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: need to find a person that is at the top
• 35:20
  Speaker 6: of the food chain in their business to come in
• 35:23
  Speaker 6: and teach you a thing or two. That doesn't mean
• 35:25
  Speaker 6: that you don't pay attention to it. That means that
• 35:27
  Speaker 6: you oversee what's happening and you get to learn along
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: the way. That is what I would tell any entrepreneur,
• 35:33
  Speaker 6: because if you want to be the best, you have
• 35:35
  Speaker 6: to align yourself with people who have scaled companies before.
• 35:38
  Speaker 6: And it may cost you a little bit more, and
• 35:39
  Speaker 6: you cannot cut corners. I'm guilty of cutting corners with
• 35:43
  Speaker 6: the leadership that I brought in, Like okay, all right,
• 35:45
  Speaker 6: well let me offer them them pay people with they
• 35:47
  Speaker 6: weigh if they good, pay them because they're gonna work
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: harder for you, and if they're happy, they're gonna work.
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: And if they work, the job gonna get done. And
• 35:54
  Speaker 6: if the job gonna get done, the business is going
• 35:56
  Speaker 6: to continue to be successful. You know what I'm saying.
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: That's really what I would say to entrepreneurs again, entrepreneurship,
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: it's hard. It's the luck of the draw to be honest,
• 36:07
  Speaker 6: and you really got to like stay dialed in and
• 36:10
  Speaker 6: stay focused and not take your hands off the wheel.
• 36:13
  Speaker 6: And I'm excited to do it all over again. One
• 36:15
  Speaker 6: thing about me is I'm a grizzly bear, so like
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna turn this shit up like I did before.
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying, and this time I'm aligning
• 36:22
  Speaker 6: with the best, and being aligned with the best is
• 36:25
  Speaker 6: really going to show people that like, you can get it,
• 36:27
  Speaker 6: you can lose it, you can get it again, you
• 36:29
  Speaker 6: can have hiccups, you can have ebbs and flows, and
• 36:32
  Speaker 6: if you got something special, which I know that I do,
• 36:34
  Speaker 6: it will continue to do what it's.
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: Supposed to do.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: It's a powerful testimony. I always every time we travel,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: we seem to run into y'all. I'm like, all right,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: we're in.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: The right space every time.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: That's why hearing it from you and hearing the trials
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: and tribulation, the ebbs and flows, hearing you know this
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: testimony means so much. When you talked about hospitality, in
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: my head, I'm sorry to think like young brands and
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking darted and I'm like, yeah, this makes a
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: lot of sense. Part of that is or just in acquisitions,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: I know, at the early stage, but looking at the
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: vision board, are you guys looking to find other restaurants, tours,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: or other businesses that you don't have to add to
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: the portfolio. I remember asking you, like, what's up with
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: the desserts. You're like, you know, we tried it before,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: but everybody, we can't do everything. So is that like
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: that's something that you guys are looking out into the
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: future for.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 37:18
  Speaker 6: So we got a couple conversations right now, and I
• 37:22
  Speaker 6: realized we can go stronger together. So there's a couple
• 37:24
  Speaker 6: of vegan brands, great vegan brands that I've been talking
• 37:27
  Speaker 6: to about acquiring them and making them Slutty Vegan right,
• 37:30
  Speaker 6: because Sludy Vegan is bigger than just a burger and
• 37:32
  Speaker 6: fraud concept. Slutdy Vegan is a lifestyle brand, right. Slueddy
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: Vegan is a dessert shop, Sleddy Vegan, takarias, Sludy Vegan,
• 37:39
  Speaker 6: African foods, Sluady Vegan Jamaican food. So when you think
• 37:42
  Speaker 6: about vegan food, it doesn't just have to be one cuisine.
• 37:46
  Speaker 6: And I'm tapping into different vegan restaurants that may be
• 37:50
  Speaker 6: smaller in size, but mighty and menu, right, And those
• 37:53
  Speaker 6: are the kind of businesses that I want to align
• 37:55
  Speaker 6: myself with because now we can bring your revenue into
• 37:58
  Speaker 6: what I have going on. We can pull so it
• 38:00
  Speaker 6: goes under the umbrella of Hayes Hospitality. You get some
• 38:04
  Speaker 6: equity and study Vegan and we all went together. And
• 38:07
  Speaker 6: that's how the big boys do it, right, Like there's
• 38:09
  Speaker 6: a couple of brands, big brands out here right now
• 38:11
  Speaker 6: that's acquiring all of the symbolar brands to what they
• 38:14
  Speaker 6: got and increasing their evaluation size and growing their business.
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: So I'm not gonna do anything different. I'm gonna do
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: the same, exact same.
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: Are you still interested in I know before it was
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: real estate was a major part of your business model,
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: right where you were trying to own the actual real estate.
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: And then when we talked to you for our book Toy,
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: you said that that wasn't really a top priority for
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: you at the moment. So being in the restructure phase
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: going forward, is that something that is still of importance
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: to you or no.
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: It is important.
• 38:46
  Speaker 6: It's funny because I was like in the heart and
• 38:47
  Speaker 6: soul of dealing with that when I sat with y'all
• 38:50
  Speaker 6: in that interview.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: Think about the time of head j Man, you.
• 38:54
  Speaker 5: Don't look like what you go through.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: I tell you that that's that's important.
• 38:57
  Speaker 6: That's important as an entrepreneur face God, to have that
• 39:01
  Speaker 6: poker face when everything else is crumbling around you. You
• 39:04
  Speaker 6: got to make sure that you stand ten toes down
• 39:06
  Speaker 6: and you keep your chin up no matter what because
• 39:08
  Speaker 6: people are always watching. But real estate is really important,
• 39:12
  Speaker 6: and that's a part of the international expansion.
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: Real estate.
• 39:16
  Speaker 6: You know, we've all watched the Founder, but that's initially
• 39:19
  Speaker 6: where I got the idea from, like owning that real
• 39:22
  Speaker 6: estate and.
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: Doing it big that way.
• 39:24
  Speaker 6: So I've brought in some people who have the expertise
• 39:26
  Speaker 6: there to support with me. So now it's all about
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: deploying the business by way of the expertise. And this
• 39:33
  Speaker 6: time I'm taking my time and I'm strategically doing it.
• 39:36
  Speaker 6: And it's not a matter of like growing extremely fast.
• 39:39
  Speaker 6: It's about making sure that operationally wererior sound, that I
• 39:42
  Speaker 6: have the right people, that the culture has continued to
• 39:45
  Speaker 6: be sound, and that's how you win in business. That's
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: what I'm learning. So, yeah, the real estate is still happening.
• 39:51
  Speaker 6: We are just prioritizing, like what comes first in this
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: whole rebrand restructure sludly begin two point zero.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: My final question is this look into this camera, what
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: should people expect from Sludy Vegan two point zero?
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: What a skin look like? What does growth look like?
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: What does the stores look like?
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: Growth looks like a lot of things.
• 40:11
  Speaker 6: First of all, I am actually going around to tell
• 40:14
  Speaker 6: my story starting on the twenty eighth of April, and
• 40:17
  Speaker 6: it's called Hustle to Empire Tour. Yeah, yeah, it's called
• 40:22
  Speaker 6: It's called Hustle to Empire And I'm basically telling this
• 40:24
  Speaker 6: story but more in depth, and We're going on a
• 40:27
  Speaker 6: twenty eight city tour and I'm excited about that because
• 40:31
  Speaker 6: I'm getting raw with you know, what happened in the
• 40:34
  Speaker 6: business where I'm going, you know, and as a cautionary
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: tales to inspire other entrepreneurs. A lot of entrepreneurs are
• 40:40
  Speaker 6: suffering in silence. So when you're watching this, there's some
• 40:44
  Speaker 6: people that are still trying to figure out how to
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: pay their bills, how to pay they payroll, how they
• 40:47
  Speaker 6: gonna make it the next month, and they put a
• 40:49
  Speaker 6: smile on their face, and nobody talks about it because
• 40:51
  Speaker 6: nobody usually is brave enough to talk about it, or
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: they don't want to be embarrassed, they don't want the
• 40:55
  Speaker 6: fear of judgment. But just know that I see you
• 40:58
  Speaker 6: and I feel you, and I under stand what you're
• 41:00
  Speaker 6: going through. But this is the space, so we're going
• 41:02
  Speaker 6: to have those real hard conversations and it's called hustle
• 41:05
  Speaker 6: and empire. So I'm excited about that. I'm excited about
• 41:07
  Speaker 6: the growth of Slutty Began. I got some really really,
• 41:10
  Speaker 6: really really big announcements coming with Slutty Vegan. But then
• 41:12
  Speaker 6: I'm also continuing to look for the best. So if
• 41:15
  Speaker 6: you are the best, come hile at me, like I'm
• 41:18
  Speaker 6: looking for the best. To align myself with the best,
• 41:21
  Speaker 6: and it's just gonna be bigger and better, and I'm
• 41:23
  Speaker 6: gonna rebuild the business in front of the world. So
• 41:27
  Speaker 6: instead of me doing it behind closed doors every step
• 41:30
  Speaker 6: of the way from my branding to my marketing, to
• 41:33
  Speaker 6: operations to the changes that we're making in business, I'm
• 41:36
  Speaker 6: doing it in front of the face of the world
• 41:38
  Speaker 6: so that they can see this is how you can
• 41:40
  Speaker 6: rebuild and do it again. My cousin got a song
• 41:43
  Speaker 6: called I'm Gonna do It Again, and I'm gonna literally
• 41:46
  Speaker 6: do that again, and I'm gonna rebuild something that's already great,
• 41:50
  Speaker 6: already a household name, something that people already like and
• 41:53
  Speaker 6: when you know you got something special, you fight for it.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: Man. That's a fact.
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: Well, Pinky, thank you for coming and clearing the air. Everybody,
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: go support Slutdy Vegan. Two point zero fact. How many
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: locations do you have come?
• 42:09
  Speaker 6: So we went to the other side with seven locations
• 42:12
  Speaker 6: in two food trucks.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, so we still got the New York one.
• 42:16
  Speaker 5: We've still got the New York all right, then we
• 42:18
  Speaker 5: have to.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: Have another conversation.
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: So I'm sure you know, hopefully we can get the
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: food truck back out investments this year as welcome.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: But yeah, thank you for your time.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you so support go support, go support, support even
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: more than you did before.
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: Keep up, keep up. And I appreciate the education because
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: even I learned some stuff. So I think that I
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: know the audience is going to learn a lot from
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: your testimony.
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: So thank you, Thank you, I appreciate you.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you. All right, guys, that's it. Appreciate you
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: for rocking on. U see you next week. Peace. Peace.
• 42:48
  Speaker 7: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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  Speaker 7: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
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  Speaker 7: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
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