Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Pinky Cole Talks 'Slutty Vegan' Bankruptcy, Bounce-back, Entrepreneurial Lessons + More

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INTERVIEW: Pinky Cole Talks 'Slutty Vegan' Bankruptcy, Bounce-back, Entrepreneurial Lessons + More · The Breakfast Club

0:01
Speaker 1: Every Day Up the Breakfast Club finish for y'all, Dunk Morning.
0:07
Speaker 2: Everybody is DJ Envy just hilarious, Charlamagne the guy. We
0:10
Speaker 2: are the breakfast Club Lawn the Roses here as well.
0:13
Speaker 2: We got a special guest in the building. Ladies and gentlemen,
0:16
Speaker 2: Pinky Cold.
0:17
Speaker 1: Welcome Pinky Girl in Morning. It's real Baltimore here we
0:22
Speaker 1: got from Sloody Vegan.
0:24
Speaker 2: We know Pinky from now Real Housewives of Atlanta, which
0:27
Speaker 2: starts on the fifth of next month.
0:29
Speaker 1: So why did you jump into that?
0:30
Speaker 3: Christy?
0:32
Speaker 2: I'm surprised because you're very private when it comes to
0:35
Speaker 2: your family, like drunk.
0:37
Speaker 1: I don't know.
0:39
Speaker 3: You know, I'm a.
0:41
Speaker 1: Cat, Okay, I've been a television producer. I have been
0:45
Speaker 1: a restaurant tour I've been a pageant girl, and doing
0:49
Speaker 1: reality TV was just something else to like knock off
0:52
Speaker 1: the List, and when the opportunity present us, I would
0:54
Speaker 1: say I might as well do it, like you know,
0:57
Speaker 1: and I'm happy that I did. It was actually a
0:59
Speaker 1: very interesting experience, really yeah, very interesting.
1:04
Speaker 4: Talk about them approaching you for the show or like,
1:06
Speaker 4: how did it because I know you worked in casting
1:07
Speaker 4: to at one point, right.
1:08
Speaker 1: I did. I used to be a producer for The
1:10
Speaker 1: moriy Show. Yeah, and a whole bunch of TV shows.
1:13
Speaker 1: So the timing couldn't have been better, you know what
1:16
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like this was right after we saw it,
1:19
Speaker 1: Like I went through the restructure in my company, had
1:21
Speaker 1: twenty million dollars in that bought my business back forty
1:24
Speaker 1: three days later. And then right when I bought my
1:27
Speaker 1: business back, it was like the conversation was the timing
1:30
Speaker 1: couldn't have been no better. And I'm like, you know what,
1:32
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try this. I'm gonna do this, and you know,
1:34
Speaker 1: doing it really exposed a lot of things in a
1:37
Speaker 1: great way. I got to meet some new friends and
1:39
Speaker 1: so many people like picking up why would you do
1:41
Speaker 1: that show? And I'm like, I'm a mastermind, That's why
1:44
Speaker 1: were you nervous at first? Like I don't know if
1:46
Speaker 1: I'm trying to jump and jump out that on, I
1:48
Speaker 1: don't get nervous.
1:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got you, And you don't mind because you're
1:51
Speaker 2: very a private person when it comes to your personal life, right,
1:55
Speaker 2: personal life, yes, yes, yesself your open book. But you
2:00
Speaker 2: know in the Housewives, they get into personal lives.
2:03
Speaker 1: What did that ball do at all? No? To be honest.
2:05
Speaker 1: At that point, the whole world knew what happened. I
2:07
Speaker 1: literally went publicly and say, hey, I lost my company.
2:10
Speaker 1: I don't own my company anymore. So like you're not
2:13
Speaker 1: just gonna laugh at my story, I might as well
2:15
Speaker 1: capitalize off of it. My dad'slf, you know what I'm saying.
2:18
Speaker 1: So when everything happened with my business, I said I
2:20
Speaker 1: might as well, like because I could be a testimony
2:23
Speaker 1: to entrepreneurs who are going through difficult times. Because what
2:26
Speaker 1: happens in entrepreneurship is everybody got this pride. They only
2:30
Speaker 1: show the highlight reels, like all the things that are
2:32
Speaker 1: really good. But like, I really went through some really
2:35
Speaker 1: heavy times, some really dark times. I almost lost my mind.
2:38
Speaker 1: And I did that in private. So because I did
2:41
Speaker 1: that in private, when it was time to go public
2:43
Speaker 1: about it, I'm like, somebody else life can be saved
2:46
Speaker 1: if they hear my testimony and what I went through,
2:48
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Like there were nights where
2:50
Speaker 1: I'm like it's just me and my pillow in God,
2:52
Speaker 1: and I'm like I don't want to do this no more,
2:55
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like this is too much
2:56
Speaker 1: for me, Like it might be better if I'm not here.
3:00
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't talk about stuff like that.
3:01
Speaker 1: So if I could be the vessel right to show
3:05
Speaker 1: somebody else that, like, you can keep going, you don't
3:08
Speaker 1: give up. People will talk, people will have an opinion,
3:11
Speaker 1: but like the purpose is bigger than a circumstance, then
3:14
Speaker 1: somebody else's life is gonna be saved because of what
3:16
Speaker 1: I went through. Legend having the right people around you.
3:21
Speaker 1: You know how people say, like you need the right team,
3:23
Speaker 1: Like it is so critical. It is like an iPhone
3:27
Speaker 1: that needs a battery, Okay, Like I need to have
3:29
Speaker 1: people around me that's going to charge me up when
3:31
Speaker 1: I feel depleted. You understand what I'm saying, Like when
3:34
Speaker 1: they say that ten percent, when you ain't got nothing
3:36
Speaker 1: left in you, you need somebody that's going to take
3:39
Speaker 1: you back up again. And that's relationships, partnerships, it's friendships.
3:43
Speaker 1: It's having a good manager. We all got management, right.
3:46
Speaker 1: It's having a good manager. If you around somebody all day,
3:48
Speaker 1: every day and they're like, that's not gonna work, don't
3:51
Speaker 1: do that. I don't believe in a dream. You're just
3:53
Speaker 1: sitting there like, damn, who I got on my side?
3:55
Speaker 1: So having the right team and just you know, I'm
3:57
Speaker 1: a mom. I got three kids full three and two.
4:01
Speaker 1: So I realize now, like, all right, this is bigger
4:03
Speaker 1: than me, Like I can't I cannot lose. I might
4:06
Speaker 1: throw the towel in, but for some reason, a towel
4:08
Speaker 1: get thrown back in my face because I got so
4:10
Speaker 1: many people looking at me and expecting me to win.
4:13
Speaker 3: How is your husband during this time?
4:15
Speaker 2: Because his business is connected to your business, which is
4:17
Speaker 2: the family business. So it's not like you can do
4:20
Speaker 2: something that doesn't affect him or he can't do anything
4:21
Speaker 2: that doesn't affect you.
4:22
Speaker 1: So how was he during that time? You know, I'm
4:25
Speaker 1: gonna be honest with you. So Derek is doing incredibly well,
4:29
Speaker 1: Like he's at number sixteen going on thirty FRANCHISESE. He
4:33
Speaker 1: just gotn in top six French restaurants in the country.
4:37
Speaker 1: He just made the cover of QSR magazine for the
4:40
Speaker 1: April issue. So like he's popping. So can you imagine
4:43
Speaker 1: being young, married to a very successful man and also
4:46
Speaker 1: being very successful and while my ship is crumbling, okay,
4:50
Speaker 1: he is elevating in real time. So when you're in
4:53
Speaker 1: a relationship with somebody and one is winning real big
4:56
Speaker 1: and then the other one is falling at the same time.
4:58
Speaker 1: We had to navigate that and that it's incredibly hard.
5:01
Speaker 1: So like he wanted to be happy with me, but
5:03
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in the corner sad. You know what I'm saying.
5:05
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in the corner trying to strategize, like, Okay, congratulations,
5:08
Speaker 1: but I got this going on. And the reason why
5:10
Speaker 1: I'm being transparent about that because a lot of people,
5:13
Speaker 1: especially entrepreneurs in relationships, they don't talk about the dark
5:17
Speaker 1: side of what happens if one person is winning any
5:20
Speaker 1: other person is not. You know what I'm saying, Like,
5:22
Speaker 1: that was hard. It almost cost me my marriage.
5:23
Speaker 4: I'm just gonna ask you a lot of times when
5:25
Speaker 4: you hear those stories, especially how dark things got you
5:28
Speaker 4: sing God for you, people don't make it out of that.
5:30
Speaker 1: No they don't.
5:31
Speaker 4: So what were those days like of like trying to
5:34
Speaker 4: make sure that you didn't lose the marriage? And what
5:35
Speaker 4: was the day like when you guys sat down and said,
5:37
Speaker 4: maybe we don't need to do this right now.
5:38
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, we ain't got no prenupt so
5:40
Speaker 1: I ain't going nowhere and go nowhere. Okay, see your
5:46
Speaker 1: hands on the couch. Oh yeah, but I realized that
5:50
Speaker 1: I'm only how old am I? I'm thirty eight years old?
5:53
Speaker 1: My husband about to be thirty nine years old. We
5:56
Speaker 1: live in a country club. We have a life that
5:59
Speaker 1: people have prayed for. But we got a beautiful family.
6:01
Speaker 1: We do beautiful things with our family, and I'm like,
6:05
Speaker 1: it's bigger than us now. So, yes, we have our days,
6:08
Speaker 1: and yes it gets incredibly difficult, But tell me when
6:11
Speaker 1: the last time y'all seen two black entrepreneurs who both
6:14
Speaker 1: separately own multimillion dollar companies, who have both made history
6:18
Speaker 1: separately and together. What the last time you've seen that?
6:21
Speaker 1: As beyond say and jay Z. But in the restaurant space,
6:24
Speaker 1: you ain't never seen it. So we have the opportunity
6:27
Speaker 1: to really change the trajectory of how black entrepreneurs, especially
6:31
Speaker 1: see success in business. And yes, it gets comfortable, But
6:34
Speaker 1: what I believe is is that God has made us,
6:38
Speaker 1: has put us on display, right, And sometimes when you
6:41
Speaker 1: get put on display, being on display is uncomfortable. Okay,
6:44
Speaker 1: It's just like a merchandiser goes into a retail spot
6:48
Speaker 1: and puts clothes on the mannequin. Okay, but when you're
6:52
Speaker 1: on display. The people who want to see you are
6:54
Speaker 1: going to walk by and say, hey, I want that.
6:56
Speaker 1: So being on display ain't never mean that it's always
6:59
Speaker 1: going to look good. But sometimes it's going to hurt.
7:01
Speaker 1: Sometimes you're gonna cry, sometimes you're gonna feel isolated. But
7:04
Speaker 1: in order to evolve and elevate in who you are
7:07
Speaker 1: trying to be, isolation is going to come with that.
7:10
Speaker 1: And we know that. And because we know that, we're
7:12
Speaker 1: so much better off as a couple.
7:13
Speaker 2: Well, we got so hard because most people would think,
7:15
Speaker 2: if if I'm efed up, my husband got me. My
7:18
Speaker 2: husband he gonna pad me and make sure I'm good,
7:20
Speaker 2: and vice versa. If he's fed up, got him. So
7:22
Speaker 2: what got so crazy? Like what made it seem like
7:25
Speaker 2: that you almost got a divorce?
7:26
Speaker 3: What was that? Bottom line?
7:27
Speaker 2: Because both of y'all in this situation where y'all y'all
7:29
Speaker 2: got each other.
7:31
Speaker 1: So you ever heard sometimes when people come from a
7:33
Speaker 1: space of love and some people come from a space
7:35
Speaker 1: of survival. Of course, so when I'm in a space
7:38
Speaker 1: of survival and he's navigating through his space of love,
7:43
Speaker 1: like that's like oil and water, you know what I'm saying?
7:46
Speaker 1: And I'm literally speaking from a place of truth here
7:49
Speaker 1: because a lot of people won't vocalize this, but like
7:52
Speaker 1: it got really incredibly hardware. Like here it is. I
7:55
Speaker 1: have this one hundred million dollar brand, but my payroll
7:57
Speaker 1: is three hundred and fifty thousand dollars a week, okay,
8:00
Speaker 1: And I'm not getting financially supported by the people on
8:03
Speaker 1: my team so that I can get out of the
8:06
Speaker 1: debt that I'm mental, that I can continue to grow.
8:08
Speaker 1: And now my husband is raising money, he's doing all
8:10
Speaker 1: of the things. So you have outside noise, right that
8:14
Speaker 1: are coming in to try to corrupt and poison the
8:17
Speaker 1: bond that we've created. So we really had to put
8:20
Speaker 1: like a barrier over our relationship to understand, like it's
8:23
Speaker 1: us against the world, right, we got these five little
8:26
Speaker 1: kids that are looking up to us and expecting us
8:29
Speaker 1: to win, and we're not going to let the outside
8:31
Speaker 1: world win. So like whatever it takes, we're going to do,
8:34
Speaker 1: and that's what we're doing in real time.
8:35
Speaker 4: How is the reality show going to help that though,
8:39
Speaker 4: because like it's not going to bring back up things
8:41
Speaker 4: for y'all, Like Rea trigger situation.
8:43
Speaker 1: We already were so solid, We already have been there
8:46
Speaker 1: done that.
8:47
Speaker 2: How long you been married twenty four years? You've been
8:50
Speaker 2: married thirty one.
8:51
Speaker 1: You've been married for thirty one years. And I'm sure
8:54
Speaker 1: that you and your wife have had your challenges in
8:56
Speaker 1: your marriage. But what did it do? It made your
8:59
Speaker 1: marriage strong?
9:00
Speaker 3: Right?
9:00
Speaker 1: What did it do? It really like put a glue
9:03
Speaker 1: within your bond? And oftentimes it takes for you to
9:05
Speaker 1: go through the difficult times in your marriage. You just
9:08
Speaker 1: got married, right, Yeah, so you understand we're newly weds, right,
9:12
Speaker 1: so sometimes you have to go through those things. Nobody
9:15
Speaker 1: can give you a rule book on marriage. Okay, every
9:17
Speaker 1: marriage is made differently, and you got to do yours
9:20
Speaker 1: how you do yours. So now that we're on the show,
9:22
Speaker 1: we've already gotten through the hard part. People already talking.
9:25
Speaker 1: Let them have their opinion. So what we locked in?
9:28
Speaker 1: Locked in like skin? And it is what it is?
9:29
Speaker 3: Who's your friend on the show?
9:30
Speaker 2: Like? Because usually on Real Housewives you come in as
9:32
Speaker 2: a friend. Who is your friend on the show?
9:35
Speaker 1: Well, you know there's a lot of peaches on the show.
9:39
Speaker 3: You have a peach, right, You're not a friend of
9:40
Speaker 3: a peach.
9:40
Speaker 1: No, I'm not no friend. Okay, I'm not an ensemble
9:46
Speaker 1: kind of girl. I'm just within an ensemble. Okay, there
9:49
Speaker 1: are some great peaches, some rotten peaches in a mix.
9:51
Speaker 1: But the peaches that I do like, I love Kay,
9:54
Speaker 1: that's my girl, that's my.
9:57
Speaker 3: Whos new on the show this ship?
9:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's my girls we like?
10:00
Speaker 3: Okay? Who else?
10:02
Speaker 1: I love Kelly? Love Porsche? Yeah love she media all listen.
10:09
Speaker 1: What I will say is every single woman on this
10:11
Speaker 1: show is dynamic for a reason, and that's the reason
10:14
Speaker 1: why they're on the show. So I could say my
10:16
Speaker 1: personal opinions on how I feel about some of them,
10:18
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, somebody saw something
10:20
Speaker 1: great in them. Okay, God loves you and that's why.
10:23
Speaker 1: Who's the rock?
10:24
Speaker 3: Who's the rotten peach?
10:26
Speaker 1: Watch it? April Fat didn't mention Drew.
10:29
Speaker 4: You didn't mention you mentioned, you didn't mention Angela.
10:36
Speaker 1: So I love as my girl. But so Drew and
10:44
Speaker 1: Angela are not Now what you're saying. Drew, who with fine?
10:57
Speaker 1: I like just really beautiful?
10:59
Speaker 3: Now what about miss Hope?
11:00
Speaker 1: She co she called me mister clean, but I'm like,
11:02
Speaker 1: thank you, but she don't knock out. I'm working on
11:07
Speaker 1: my next business. Mister clean. Okay, my next clan, No,
11:13
Speaker 1: I like jer Dre's school.
11:13
Speaker 3: I'm Jai.
11:14
Speaker 4: Well, you talked a lot about the debt that you
11:16
Speaker 4: were in, like and that being a storyline on the show.
11:19
Speaker 4: So going back to the beginning with the having to
11:23
Speaker 4: buy back your business. When you had to buy back
11:25
Speaker 4: your business, you were talking about all of the overhead.
11:26
Speaker 4: I think it was like ten million dollars in twenty
11:28
Speaker 4: million dollars in overhead that you were facing, right, because
11:31
Speaker 4: of expansions and things of that nature. Then you buy
11:34
Speaker 4: back the business, then you file for bankruptcy. Can you
11:37
Speaker 4: talk us through because I know a lot of people were, like,
11:40
Speaker 4: I saw the skit that you posted on Instagram. A
11:42
Speaker 4: lot of people thought that that meant that you had nothing.
11:44
Speaker 4: You were down and out. Talk about your decision to
11:46
Speaker 4: file for bankruptcy after buying your business back.
11:48
Speaker 1: Okay, So entrepreneurs, I need y'all to hear me. I
11:50
Speaker 1: don't know if y'all saw a video circulating where I said,
11:53
Speaker 1: do not put anything in your personal name. Have y'all
11:55
Speaker 1: seen that clip? Find it after this interview. So the
11:58
Speaker 1: reason why I said that clip is because here it
12:01
Speaker 1: is at my peak fourteen locations Slutty Vegan. It cost
12:04
Speaker 1: me between eight hundred thousand to a million to open
12:06
Speaker 1: up each location. I raised twenty five million dollars in
12:10
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Company got valued at one hundred million dollars.
12:13
Speaker 1: We kicking in the middle of a pandemic, in the
12:15
Speaker 1: middle of a time where inflation is through the roof,
12:17
Speaker 1: you know, right, inflation is through the roof. Supply chain
12:20
Speaker 1: is crazy, so like there's like a six x on everything.
12:24
Speaker 1: So we did everything that we said that we were
12:26
Speaker 1: going to do in business. The problem is is that
12:29
Speaker 1: when you grow that fast, right, sometimes you put basketball
12:34
Speaker 1: players on the golf course. You understand what I'm saying.
12:37
Speaker 1: So you got people that do an incredible job and
12:39
Speaker 1: their skill set, but then you position them somewhere else
12:42
Speaker 1: and they can't do what you need to do to
12:44
Speaker 1: take you where you need to go. So as a result,
12:47
Speaker 1: we got twenty million dollars in debt, right, and as
12:50
Speaker 1: a result of that debt, we were drowning. So yes,
12:53
Speaker 1: we were making money, double digit millions. But if your
12:55
Speaker 1: payroll is high, and if you have all of these
12:58
Speaker 1: costs and everything is adding up, your bottom line is
13:00
Speaker 1: going to be read. But what I didn't know is
13:03
Speaker 1: when we were growing the company everything, I'm just signing
13:05
Speaker 1: my name on personal guarantee because nobody ever thinks about
13:08
Speaker 1: the business that it will fail. Nobody thinks like, Okay,
13:10
Speaker 1: this ain't gonna work one day, so don't do that,
13:12
Speaker 1: especially not me. Like I have this company lines down
13:15
Speaker 1: the block. Everybody loves this brand, and then one day
13:17
Speaker 1: I look up and I got all of this that,
13:19
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, cool, I can file an assignment
13:22
Speaker 1: for the benefit of creditors. Okay, do y'all know what
13:24
Speaker 1: that is? That is bankruptcy's first cousin. Okay. So it's
13:28
Speaker 1: an out of court procedure that you file if you
13:31
Speaker 1: need to restructure your business. It cleans your cat table.
13:34
Speaker 1: So if you have investors, you no longer have investors.
13:37
Speaker 1: I was no longer the CEO, none of that, okay.
13:40
Speaker 1: So I did not own a company for forty three days,
13:42
Speaker 1: and an estate that took the company. They took the assets,
13:46
Speaker 1: and they took the debt so that they can sell
13:48
Speaker 1: off the assets so that they can pay off the debt. Okay,
13:51
Speaker 1: and then they sell the business to somebody who wants
13:53
Speaker 1: to buy, but who else gonna buy study vegan stuff
13:55
Speaker 1: for me. So forty three days later, I bought the company.
13:59
Speaker 1: But here's kicker. After I bought the company, I'm like, okay, cool,
14:03
Speaker 1: everything is good. Next thing, I know, the creditors are
14:05
Speaker 1: coming after me personally because I'm the party responsible from
14:11
Speaker 1: the old co. So even though the old co is
14:13
Speaker 1: dead and I don't have to deal with the old
14:15
Speaker 1: co no more, they're coming after me because they're like,
14:18
Speaker 1: all right, she's a public figure, she got it, she
14:20
Speaker 1: can pay for. But smart entrepreneurs know is that you
14:24
Speaker 1: don't really hold no assets in your personal name on paper.
14:27
Speaker 1: I ain't got nothing personally, and as it should be,
14:30
Speaker 1: So okay, all right, you have to file for bankruptcy
14:33
Speaker 1: because you got I got lawsuits. I'm walking into Saint Regis.
14:36
Speaker 1: I'm getting served lawsuits all of these things from old co.
14:39
Speaker 1: So now this becomes a part two of that restructure.
14:43
Speaker 1: But you know the internet, the Internet.
14:46
Speaker 3: So now you have currently how many active locations you have?
14:49
Speaker 1: I got seven, and then I have over a dozen
14:52
Speaker 1: franchises in the pipeline.
14:54
Speaker 2: Now you said you had fourteen at one time. Yeah,
14:56
Speaker 2: what was the reason that a lot of those franchises closed?
14:59
Speaker 2: Because I mean it seemed like you said there was
15:02
Speaker 2: lines around the corner. I mean during covid is management.
15:04
Speaker 2: I mean it was it was packed. It was pnishment music.
15:07
Speaker 2: I've been to a couple of events. So what happened
15:10
Speaker 2: that allowed that made those locations close.
15:13
Speaker 1: So as soon as we did the restructure, the estate
15:16
Speaker 1: closed majority of those locations.
15:17
Speaker 3: Even though they were making money.
15:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, even though they were making money, they just didn't
15:20
Speaker 1: have the people to run those companies. Like, you know,
15:22
Speaker 1: I had Spellman and they closed Spellman. It was this
15:24
Speaker 1: whole big thing. I didn't close Spellman, the estate closed Spellman.
15:27
Speaker 1: You understand what I'm saying. So the estate came in
15:30
Speaker 1: and closed the locations that they just didn't want to
15:32
Speaker 1: deal with. All of my stores make money, all of them.
15:35
Speaker 1: I could my my lowest revenue stores do better than
15:39
Speaker 1: the average restaurant, but they just didn't want to deal
15:41
Speaker 1: with them. It's an estate company. They come in, fold
15:43
Speaker 1: everything over it. They just want to kind of like
15:45
Speaker 1: streamline and limit down. Which is okay, because what that
15:48
Speaker 1: did is it made me a smarter entrepreneur. Right, Like
15:51
Speaker 1: even my lowest revenue store I would hold on to
15:53
Speaker 1: because of ego. Right, But I had to learn in
15:56
Speaker 1: the process. If you got a store that ain't doing
15:58
Speaker 1: at least one point two million, you might need to
16:00
Speaker 1: close that store up and do something different, you know
16:02
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So, like, there's so many things that
16:05
Speaker 1: I have learned as an entrepreneur in this process, and
16:08
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that I had the hiccups. I'm so
16:10
Speaker 1: glad that sometimes things didn't go right because it really
16:12
Speaker 1: only made me stronger and wiser, you know what I'm saying.
16:15
Speaker 1: So when I do it again, I know exactly what
16:17
Speaker 1: to do differently.
16:18
Speaker 3: Are you opening up and spelming again?
16:19
Speaker 1: No?
16:20
Speaker 3: Why not?
16:21
Speaker 1: Just college campuses? Like it's not a year round business,
16:25
Speaker 1: so like you're relying on them in school. It's just
16:27
Speaker 1: it's not lucrative enough. To be honest, Spellman was great,
16:29
Speaker 1: shout out to Spellman, but it's just not lucrative enough.
16:31
Speaker 2: Now we also seen something that they they change your house.
16:37
Speaker 3: Your house, so you know, said you have to sleep outside.
16:47
Speaker 1: Okay, and I ain't got no hair, no umbrella, so
16:53
Speaker 1: it's just going to roll off. So what happened was
16:57
Speaker 1: is you're in real estate, so you can also speak
17:00
Speaker 1: to this. So I had a tenant tenant moved out,
17:03
Speaker 1: the house was abandoned. So I'm just going to assume
17:06
Speaker 1: that the creditors locked the doors because the house was abandoned.
17:09
Speaker 1: Because the house was abandoned, the grass didn't get cut,
17:12
Speaker 1: so they changed the locks. Not my mortgage company, the creditor. Okay,
17:18
Speaker 1: So my realtor was like, hey, Piggy, somebody changed the locks.
17:21
Speaker 1: We can't get in. I'm like, what you're talking about?
17:23
Speaker 1: We calling everybody. So my attorney go down to court
17:26
Speaker 1: and file an emergency motion so that they can change
17:28
Speaker 1: the locks. We could. We still till this day, we
17:31
Speaker 1: don't even know who the company is. They didn't show
17:33
Speaker 1: up to court at all.
17:35
Speaker 3: So they tried to force bankruptcy on that house. That's
17:36
Speaker 3: what it seems like they tried.
17:37
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no. The house wasn't delayed on payments. It probably
17:41
Speaker 1: was the HOA. I don't know that to be true
17:43
Speaker 1: because they haven't responded. The house was. The house was
17:47
Speaker 1: occupied for three years and then vacant for two years.
17:49
Speaker 1: So because it was vacant, we're me and my attorneys
17:52
Speaker 1: were just assuming that because it was vacant, they considered
17:55
Speaker 1: it abandoned. And you could do that if you feel
17:58
Speaker 1: like a house is the band house.
17:59
Speaker 3: Wasn't for two years?
18:00
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no for two months? Yeah, the grad again
18:04
Speaker 1: my assumption. So we went to court and I won.
18:07
Speaker 1: Not only did I win, I want attorney's fees. And
18:10
Speaker 1: then obviously we're taking further action because that's really some
18:12
Speaker 1: real reputational damage on somebody when you assuming that they
18:16
Speaker 1: lost their house, you understand what I'm saying, This is
18:18
Speaker 1: an investment property. Then they put my personal house on
18:21
Speaker 1: the internet. It's crazy, but I realized that one people
18:25
Speaker 1: on the internet don't read okay to just really take
18:28
Speaker 1: a salacious headline. No, I really realize that now. But
18:31
Speaker 1: I'm so secure within my skin that it don't bother me.
18:35
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, keep it moving. So now I'm
18:36
Speaker 1: ConTroll y'all ass back. So when you see my little skits,
18:39
Speaker 1: that's why you see my skits because if I got
18:41
Speaker 1: you watching, now, I'm gonna give you something to watch.
18:43
Speaker 1: So a creditor can just do that, they can just
18:46
Speaker 1: I just learned that. Yes, I just learned that it
18:49
Speaker 1: was not my mortgage company. And see I'm not like
18:52
Speaker 1: I have almost a dozen properties, so like real estate
18:54
Speaker 1: is not the thing that I'm really good at to
18:56
Speaker 1: be honest, it's not my thing, but I learned so
18:59
Speaker 1: much in real estate. Now I'm like, damn, they can
19:01
Speaker 1: really do that. But they ain't even show up the court, right,
19:03
Speaker 1: And they can't. They don't have to. They don't get
19:06
Speaker 1: penalized for not showing up or not. They got penalized
19:09
Speaker 1: because now you got pay my lyricals because yeah, but
19:12
Speaker 1: I'm going to take further action because the way that
19:14
Speaker 1: they did it, they disobeyed the law. Basically, there's a question.
19:18
Speaker 4: Some of the like the reports when it happened, were
19:20
Speaker 4: saying that they had First they were saying that was
19:23
Speaker 4: Guardian Asset Management, So it wasn't them, it was them, Okay,
19:26
Speaker 4: So those are the other people that didn't show up
19:28
Speaker 4: the court.
19:28
Speaker 1: Yeah they didn't, okay. And then but they didn't take
19:31
Speaker 1: the house because I owed anything, gotcha? I think it
19:33
Speaker 1: was because it was abandoned. I didn't owe anything.
19:36
Speaker 4: So then I saw some reports that they were like
19:37
Speaker 4: they were putting notices on well, they are saying that
19:40
Speaker 4: they were putting notices in different things on the door
19:42
Speaker 4: and like almost like they were trying to be in
19:43
Speaker 4: contact for whatever the reasoning was. And that wasn't answer,
19:46
Speaker 4: So that's why they went ahead. And I mean they
19:48
Speaker 4: violated this day, which worked in your favorite but that's
19:50
Speaker 4: why they went ahead and ignored this day. So what
19:53
Speaker 4: were the notices or like, what was the point of
19:54
Speaker 4: communication if any.
19:56
Speaker 1: You know what's funny, My first time ever going to
19:58
Speaker 1: that house was when I went to change locks to
20:00
Speaker 1: get back in ever and I've owned that house for
20:02
Speaker 1: probably almost four years. Yeah, I've never ever stepped foot
20:06
Speaker 1: in the house. It was my cousin house. I bought
20:07
Speaker 1: the house for my cousin. He wanted to get off
20:09
Speaker 1: the house, and I bought it and just added it
20:11
Speaker 1: to my portfolio. I've never been to the house, you understand.
20:14
Speaker 1: So like when I finally go to the house and
20:16
Speaker 1: change the locks, I don't know how many notices they
20:17
Speaker 1: put on the door. But my realtors were also involved.
20:20
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, it's a learning
20:23
Speaker 1: lesson for me because I learned how this process works.
20:26
Speaker 1: But like, victory will prevail and I'm vindicated because like
20:29
Speaker 1: give me my stuff at and they got hit my
20:32
Speaker 1: fees and I'm taking further action.
20:34
Speaker 3: So you're so serious.
20:35
Speaker 2: About your name, right, And that's one thing I know
20:37
Speaker 2: about Pinky. You ever to think about suing some of
20:40
Speaker 2: those people that have been going at you?
20:42
Speaker 3: Wat?
20:42
Speaker 1: Should we work? Wat? Should we work? Yeah? I'm a
20:47
Speaker 1: solid assassin, Like why should we work? Because your name
20:51
Speaker 1: is all that you have? Like you can have all
20:54
Speaker 1: the money in the world, but if you got a
20:55
Speaker 1: bad name, nobody will touch you.
20:57
Speaker 3: Right.
20:58
Speaker 1: The currency is who you are. My mouthpiece is a
21:01
Speaker 1: country club. I can lose it all today or tomorrow,
21:04
Speaker 1: but as long as I got my mouthpiece, I'm good.
21:06
Speaker 1: So I'm always use my mouthpiece to stand and represent
21:10
Speaker 1: who I am as an individual, somebody from Baltimore, a
21:13
Speaker 1: Jamaican and an entrepreneur, somebody who has worked hard for
21:17
Speaker 1: every single thing that I've gotten in my life. And
21:19
Speaker 1: I'm a flex on myself for a second. I made
21:21
Speaker 1: the cover of Essence magazine, made the Times one hundred lists,
21:24
Speaker 1: made the Forbes List twice. Okay, in magazine, cover all
21:27
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg lists, everything you can think of. You think
21:29
Speaker 1: I'm a less somebody play with my name when I've
21:31
Speaker 1: worked so hard for my legacy and for my children
21:34
Speaker 1: and for everything that I'm created. You're out your mind.
21:36
Speaker 3: But how much is it worth it?
21:38
Speaker 2: When you know they have nothing and the money that
21:40
Speaker 2: you spend in lawyer fees is probably.
21:43
Speaker 3: Less than they even half.
21:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I don't you do it right? You ain't
21:46
Speaker 1: gotta pay no lawyer fees, you know what I'm saying. Yeah,
21:50
Speaker 1: you get the right people to represent you. You don't have
21:52
Speaker 1: to pay lawyer fees. They do it.
21:54
Speaker 4: What do you I know? In June you go back
21:56
Speaker 4: to court for the bankruptcy in Nate. You have to
21:58
Speaker 4: or you have to submit your restructure plan to the court.
22:01
Speaker 1: So what it seems like you've learned this stuff. God
22:05
Speaker 1: can't bring you up, ye know what I mean?
22:07
Speaker 4: And I just feel like too the way that people
22:10
Speaker 4: can learn from this, That's how I'm getting into all
22:12
Speaker 4: the other side of it. But what would your restructure
22:14
Speaker 4: and plan look like? Because, like you said, now, you
22:17
Speaker 4: have so much that you've learned. So what are you
22:20
Speaker 4: going to tell the court will be different or how
22:22
Speaker 4: things will be paid, or like how that works?
22:24
Speaker 1: Well, most ninety nine percent of my debt is business.
22:27
Speaker 1: Step from the old code. It's not personal debt. Most
22:29
Speaker 1: of the debt is business that so I'm excited about
22:33
Speaker 1: putting a plan together and basically what that plan is
22:36
Speaker 1: is that my attorney and myself we come up with
22:38
Speaker 1: a plan we presented to the courts. This is how
22:40
Speaker 1: much based on how much she's making so now, and
22:42
Speaker 1: this is a coachable moment. I haven't been on payroll
22:45
Speaker 1: personally for the last three and a half years. I
22:48
Speaker 1: don't get a W two. I don't pay myself personally,
22:50
Speaker 1: literally on paper like, I don't have anything personally. So
22:53
Speaker 1: now I got to put myself on payroll. You understand
22:55
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And that's okay because now I can
22:57
Speaker 1: get a W two and I can pay myself. But
22:59
Speaker 1: I'm excited about the fact that the courts are willing
23:02
Speaker 1: to work with me so that I could put a
23:04
Speaker 1: plan in place so that I can dissolve all of
23:06
Speaker 1: the things from my past. You know, we as entrepreneurs
23:10
Speaker 1: don't realize how oftentimes your past can corrupt you if
23:13
Speaker 1: you don't clear the plane field. So I get the
23:16
Speaker 1: opportunity to do that. But for the entrepreneurs who are
23:19
Speaker 1: thinking about bankruptcy, it is a tool. Okay, there is
23:22
Speaker 1: no shame in bankruptcy. You're not broke because you filed bankruptcy.
23:26
Speaker 1: Think about it. Delta Airlines filed and what two thousand
23:29
Speaker 1: and five they filed Chapter eleven, the same thing that
23:31
Speaker 1: I filed in two thousand and five, and then they
23:34
Speaker 1: got out of bankruptcy in two thousand and seven. And
23:36
Speaker 1: that's the number one preferred airline in America. Okay, it's
23:39
Speaker 1: given domind medallion. All right. So just because you filed
23:43
Speaker 1: for Chapter eleven or Chapter fifteen, which is for people
23:47
Speaker 1: who have international businesses, or Chapter seven, if you want
23:51
Speaker 1: to close your business, that is really a restructure. Your
23:54
Speaker 1: president done, did it several times, So utilize the US
23:57
Speaker 1: Bankruptcy Code as a tool. I am not in any
24:00
Speaker 1: but what I will say is the level of relief
24:03
Speaker 1: that I've gotten in my life as an entrepreneur when
24:05
Speaker 1: I put an automatic state on everything that was coming
24:07
Speaker 1: after me. Money could not buy you.
24:10
Speaker 3: Feel like you have anything to prove to anybody.
24:12
Speaker 1: No, No, And I'll tell you why, because I'm gonna
24:17
Speaker 1: take you back to that dark place that I was in.
24:20
Speaker 3: Right.
24:20
Speaker 1: Nobody understood that cry. Nobody understood when the people that
24:24
Speaker 1: you love the most turned their back on you. Has
24:27
Speaker 1: that ever happened to y'all? Absolutely? Yeah, Nobody understood how
24:31
Speaker 1: that felt when you put you and trusted yourself and
24:34
Speaker 1: people that you partner with or that you've worked with,
24:37
Speaker 1: and they flip a light switch when the things don't
24:40
Speaker 1: go their way. That is very difficult. So that is
24:43
Speaker 1: you got to build a coat of armor so tough.
24:46
Speaker 1: After that happens, that like your guard, your third eye
24:49
Speaker 1: is always open. So now I'm clear. And I said
24:52
Speaker 1: this to my friend the other day. Sometimes when it's cloudy,
24:54
Speaker 1: that's when you get clear. And in my cloudy days
24:58
Speaker 1: is the moments where God, little you like, created a
25:01
Speaker 1: path for me so that anytime something comes my way,
25:03
Speaker 1: I ain't got to prove none of y'all. I know
25:04
Speaker 1: who I am. I know whose I am. And now
25:06
Speaker 1: I'm about to do this show on April fifth, and
25:09
Speaker 1: you really get the opportunity to learn about me and
25:11
Speaker 1: my family and all of the great things. And I'm
25:13
Speaker 1: just proud of that. I'm proud of the visibility. Like,
25:16
Speaker 1: there's two things in your professional life as entrepreneurs. You
25:19
Speaker 1: got your money engine, right, and you got your visibility engine. Okay,
25:23
Speaker 1: I already got the money engine. Now it's time for
25:25
Speaker 1: the visibility engine, okay. And guess what I'm doing selling
25:28
Speaker 1: more franchises like the negativity is really converting that fun.
25:32
Speaker 1: It was converting to more people interested in my brand.
25:35
Speaker 1: I got literally over a dozen people that want to
25:38
Speaker 1: franchise right now. So I'm taking it all and I'm
25:41
Speaker 1: excited about this next season of my life. But the
25:44
Speaker 1: next season of my life is the rocket ship, and
25:47
Speaker 1: everybody can't go on at rocket ship period. Okay.
25:49
Speaker 4: I was wondering how that was working for how this
25:51
Speaker 4: was all going to like play out after bankruptcy ruling
25:54
Speaker 4: or whatever, because of you know, people see headlines and
25:57
Speaker 4: they see all the conversation and then them franchising me
26:00
Speaker 4: that they're standing next to you in business, even if
26:01
Speaker 4: not directly.
26:02
Speaker 1: But so you're saying it's having a positive impact. It is,
26:05
Speaker 1: you know why, because the people who know who I am,
26:08
Speaker 1: I'm solid as a rock. I am solid as a rock,
26:12
Speaker 1: and you can smell that. You understand that, like you
26:15
Speaker 1: can literally identify when somebody is real, authentic, genuine. Yeah.
26:19
Speaker 1: I may have a little hiccups, but if people still
26:21
Speaker 1: love my brand despite the hiccups, what does that tell you?
26:25
Speaker 1: Slutty vegan as weatherproof. Slutty vegans weatherproof. So I'm excited
26:29
Speaker 1: to show what resilience look like for people who have
26:32
Speaker 1: lost their businesses and trying to figure out the next
26:34
Speaker 1: steps and how to navigate. And yeah, I show the highs,
26:36
Speaker 1: but I also show the lows, and that's what makes
26:39
Speaker 1: you a leader.
26:40
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask, what do you want people to
26:41
Speaker 2: learn from this story?
26:45
Speaker 1: I want people to learn that you only get one shot.
26:49
Speaker 1: Do not miss a chance to blow because opportunity comes
26:52
Speaker 1: once in a lifetime. A wise philosopher, A wise philosopher
26:59
Speaker 1: one said, I want people to understand that no matter
27:02
Speaker 1: how many times you get knocked down, right, it's like
27:05
Speaker 1: we in a boxing ring. Okay, in a minute, how
27:08
Speaker 1: many times you get knocked down, it's gonna hurt. That's
27:09
Speaker 1: what you got in your corner God. And God is
27:12
Speaker 1: right here with the what is it with the tissue,
27:14
Speaker 1: putting the ice on your face, making sure that you're good,
27:16
Speaker 1: and throwing you back in the ring. And as long
27:18
Speaker 1: as you got God in your corner, you will forever
27:20
Speaker 1: be all right, okay, because God will always provide and
27:23
Speaker 1: prevail and make sure that you have what you need
27:25
Speaker 1: so that your business will always be successful. All of
27:27
Speaker 1: this says is a testimony I literally everything that I've
27:31
Speaker 1: been through now I got color. I want to be
27:33
Speaker 1: around people that God experience. You understand what I'm saying,
27:36
Speaker 1: so that when I speak on large stages, I can say, Hey,
27:38
Speaker 1: I know what it feels like the fail, I know
27:40
Speaker 1: what it feels like the wind. I know what it
27:42
Speaker 1: feels like to eat on a glass plate. And I
27:43
Speaker 1: also know what it feels like to eat on a
27:45
Speaker 1: paper plate. And I got color. So now I'm not
27:48
Speaker 1: I'm not giving you fluff. I'm giving you real deal
27:50
Speaker 1: because I've been through.
27:50
Speaker 3: It, all right, I got six kids, so it's paper plate.
27:58
Speaker 3: We appreciate you for joining us.
28:00
Speaker 2: Season of Real Housewist of Atlanta starts on the fifth
28:03
Speaker 2: of next month, April fifth. Make sure you definitely check
28:05
Speaker 2: it out and check out her seven locations. I know
28:08
Speaker 2: the Jonesboro, the Edgewood, the Birmingham, Brooklyn of course in Florida.
28:13
Speaker 3: Baltimore is the other one. I missed one.
28:14
Speaker 2: You said that I got to in Baltimore too, in Baltimore. Alright,
28:17
Speaker 2: make sure you go check it and support and.
28:18
Speaker 1: We're franchising, okay, So go to sludyv at atl dot
28:21
Speaker 1: com if you want a franchise, get on the winning team.
28:24
Speaker 1: How much is the franchise forty thousand dollars to buy in.
28:26
Speaker 2: Forty thousand dollars to buy in. And then do you
28:28
Speaker 2: guys take care of build out or they have to
28:30
Speaker 2: take they have to take care of the build out.
28:31
Speaker 1: But it depends on Like if you want to get
28:33
Speaker 1: a second generation location, it could be two hundred thousand
28:36
Speaker 1: or five hundred and fifty five thousand and two a million.
28:38
Speaker 1: It just depends on where you want to go. Ok,
28:40
Speaker 1: what's going on with the session? Oh, we're about We're
28:43
Speaker 1: about to go on the road. So I can't say
28:46
Speaker 1: the full announcement, but it's about to happen. Oh the
28:48
Speaker 1: last thing that I did not say, and I have
28:49
Speaker 1: to say this. So I've partnered with Earn your Leisure
28:52
Speaker 1: and we are doing a online digital YouTube series teaching
28:57
Speaker 1: adults financial literacy. So y'all see my video that I
29:00
Speaker 1: did Miss Rachel parody. Yeah, we're gonna be doing more
29:04
Speaker 1: of that because I realized that sometimes people don't get
29:06
Speaker 1: it unless you put it on eight o weeks.
29:09
Speaker 2: All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's Picky col It's the
29:12
Speaker 2: breakfast Club.
29:12
Speaker 3: Good morning, hold up every day.
29:15
Speaker 1: A week ago. Click your glass up the breakfast club
29:18
Speaker 1: you're finish for. Y'all done,