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PINKY COLE - A Sandwich, a Setback, and a Second Empire · Eating While Broke

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: very special guest. Work very hard. Didn't know how to
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: pull some strings to get this special guest, Pinky Coal.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Entrepreneur Pinky Coal is in the building. You guys may
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: know where as the owner of Slutty Vegan. You may
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: also catch her on Real Housewives of Aunt Lanta. But
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I want to focus mainly on Slutty Vegan and the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: entrepreneur herself, self made entrepreneur Pinky Cole today and her
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: journey to getting where she is today.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I'm so happy to be here.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I am beyond thrilled. Like when I say there was
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: a small chance we were going to miss each other
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: and I was devastated.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I'm here and everything happy right here.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: And what are you gonna have with us eating today?
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: So today we are eating my favorite go to snack.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: It's a toe fergy sandwich. Okay, so for the people
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: who are vegan and not vegan, this is vegan lunch
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: meats and we're gonna have it with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mayonnaise,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: and mustard. Do you like vegan food?
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I like vegan food. I will say, though I was,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I have never made it on my own. You have not, no,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: not at all. And I will say I learned something today,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and I don't want to scare you. I hope this
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: doesn't deter you from this. But the pinky you were
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: like very clear, like artesian bread with no milk in it.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: And so we were in the grocery store and we're like,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: but it' said no milk, no eggs. And I said,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: but where's the vegan sign.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: No, it won't say vegan. And it's funny that you
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: said that because a lot of people don't know. Just
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: because it doesn't say vegan doesn't mean that it's not vegan.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: You gotta read the labels. So the labels the alligence.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: It'll be like eggs or.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: It literally says no eggs, no dairy, no this. Yeah,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: we were over there looking like dumb and dumber up
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in there. We were like, it says all these missing
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: ingredients that look like I learned it cool because we
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: had Country Wayne on and this is the only reason
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: why I panicked, because Country Wayne was like, I want
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: baked beans and it has to be vegan baked beans.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Baked beans but.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: It was vegetating, said vegetarian. Baked beans and big beans
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: are vegan, but only a vegan would know that.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: No, he was like, it has to say vegan on it.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I said, there is no veget it does not. It's vegetarian. Okay.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: See that's how you know I have trauma from that episode. Yes, okay,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: so you did good.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: You got soy free vegan a's yes, okay, so that
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: is vegan mayonnaise. You got all of my good stuff.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So I just skipped out on your mustard, and I said, boy,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I hope mustard doesn't have anything.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Mustard is mustard, so you know.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't have anything. Okay. I noticed eating vegan
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: is pricey, though your thinks. So this male was like
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: seven dollars it was so good. No, they're going to
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: find it. I'm going to find out with you. As
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a matter of fact.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Yes, you get you some bread.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: And this bread came specially sealed. I'm guessing because it
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: didn't have all the other ingredients in it. There.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Well, when stuff is vegan, it can go bad fast, okay,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: because it doesn't have a whole bunch of shit in it.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: But you would think it would be the opposite. Yeah,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: you're right, because the male was even in the fridge.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I gotta stay to fridge.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: But it's so weird that dairy and eggs would be
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: not frigerated, ain't it where? But then the vegan is
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: free it would.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Science is crazy. Science is crazy.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Or maybe that's a testament why vegan is healthier.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Because it got stay of ridge.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because isn't it like McDonald's you eat it
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and then I'm not trying to mention McDonald's because vegan,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: like you leave it in a bag somewhere and it's
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: like stays in its original So maybe that's why.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Okay, yes, like vegan is not doing that.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. Like the vegan clearly has a
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: shelf life.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really does. But I've been vegan for a
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: very long time. I have not eaten meat since two
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: thousand and seven, So it's game.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: What made you switch over?
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: My mother is a Rastafarian, so I grew up like
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: with a conscious way of thinking and eating, and in
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: two thousand and seven I just decided to ditch meat
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: all together. And I was eating fish and eating cheese
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: and then I opened up but jam making restaurant in
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Harlem because you're from New York, so you get it, Okay,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: you know if you know? Yes, Okay, So I had
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: this Jamaican restaurant in Harlem.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: How old were you when you did this. I'm not
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: trying to time stand.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: No, I'm a little up there, but I was twenty
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: four to twenty six. Yeah, so you was. I was
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: a television producer for The Mory Show. So I was
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: like doing all the things, and then I opened up
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: this restaurant and I just was moving and shaking, and
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: I just woke up one day and say, you know what,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: I want to be vegan. I don't want to eat
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: none of what I jake in restaurant at Jamaican restaurant
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: selling oxtale. Yeah, I can sewt fish, curry, chicken, jerk chicken,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: goat all of that. And I decided to go cold
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: turkey vegan. And maybe that's why my restaurant quote on fire. Yeah.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: At first all I can't imagine to give it up
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: that type of meat. I'm allergic to red meat. Let
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: me tell you something. I will make the exception for
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: some oxdaln. I like literally like you know what I'm
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: gonna be sick.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: I'm never in my life had oxtail as a Jamaican,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: A real Jamaican. I ain't never had oxtail in my life.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Now I had vegan Oxdale.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: How you opened a Jamaican restaurant, never had oxdale?
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: I don't know. That's a good question. Now I think
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: about it, I'm like the math, don't math. It didn't
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: make sense, but it worked. I had a line down
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: of black people was coming. I wasn't even curious, dippy
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: little no, no gravy, no nothing. I had a chef, crazy,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: right girl? I know?
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: And you did you have to go through?
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: I think I had goat like once. Yeah, some called mutton.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: But you became vegan after you opened it, so I
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: became vegan.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Would you eat it before?
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Didn't you know if that's why you went vegan? If
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: you would have tried oxtail, I don't know. You don't
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: think so you think that I would have been you
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: would have tried oxtail?
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: You know what it is.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: When I was young, there was this neighbor in Jamaica.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: His name was mister Tom, Mister Tim, mister Tomba one
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: of them, but he would slaughter the animals in the
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: backyard and all the kids would come around and watch it,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: and while everybody else was excited, I'm like, this shit
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: is crazy. I don't want to watch. Why am I
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: being subject to this? And I used to watch him
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: do that, and I just felt so bad for the animals.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: And at that time, I'm just like, I'm not gonna
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: eat meat. And I feel like he scarred me and
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: maybe more kids.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Need to see that when they but you ate it,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: though you wouldn't turn vegan until later.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: I was vegetarian. Oh, you were vegetarians. My mother didn't
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: eat that right, so all we ate was fish. My
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: grandfather was a fishman, like I.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Come, and these are Jamaicans.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Jamaicans.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I saw mom, Look, I'm a Jamaican. My mom and
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: then cooked turtles that were in.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: The stream, turtles, frogs.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: She's an immigrant. She has cut a chicken in front
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: of us.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: We saw around.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: And we still was like, past, give me that.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Pl You know, now that I'm older and I have kids,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I don't see myself ever going back to eat me.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I just don't. I'm like, this is who would have
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: thought that I would create one hundred million dollar brand
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: off of just eating vegetables, and I think that was
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: the path that was aligne for me early on, and
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: now here it is I can teach people about veganism,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: which is the part that I love. Right here it
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: is I got sluty vegan. People come up to me
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: and be like, damn, Pinky, I didn't even know fries
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: were vegan, And I'm like, damn, there's a lot of
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: education to be taught about veganis vegan? It depends what
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: do you mean? It depends, Yeah, because if it's cooked
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: in beef tallow or whatever you call it, it's not vegan.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: But people come up to me like they don't have
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: the level of education. And that's why slutty vegan is
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: so critical because I get to meet people where they
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: are right So, like, my audience is not even a vegan,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: it's the meat eater.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I believe that. I guarantee you when I'm in Atlanta,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: that's I'm going to study vegan and I am a
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: media vegan.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: No, oh, okay, we're having it now like you're consuming.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I've got the first of all I got. I got
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the level when I got here. I'm probably going you
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: see this picture right here, Okay, I'm gonna skip these
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: red onions.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Though you don't like red onions? Should I try your
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Caribbean Spanish?
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: I'm Jamaican, I'm Jewish and Jamaican.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Really, you Jamaican and you don't like onions? Cooked?
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Cooked, cooked onions?
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Okay, raw ions just hit the spot.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna try it because I want to live
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: your life right now. I want to be taken back.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: So take me back to what was going on during
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: the Look at how she does it. We're gonna zoom
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: in on her. Zoom in on that because.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: It's close on this level of design right here, because
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: it takes a little bit of craftsmanship.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Because I tell you, if I would have done it
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: would have been like it would have been three slices,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: like this is hickory.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: It's all the same. It's just a slave.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: But I didn't know if does hickory mean hickory ham?
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah? But vegan version.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to try this.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Don't you love that? Don't look good?
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: It looks good the way you're preparing it. But I
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: promise you I'm not only going to try this, but
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I'm going to force Jared to try it too, because
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: he looked at that and he's what is that.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: That looks so good? I'm really gonna eat that in.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Real And just so you know, I'm judging this sandwich,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: but I'm doing it just the way you did it,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: just because I need to.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: I need to feel your energy.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: So take me back to what was going on when
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: you were surviving off of this or not surviving, like
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: survive survivor like where this became a staple. I can
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: go to staple.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Every time I ever got pregnant, I would eat this.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: This is like my and I grew up in Baltimore's.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: I love cold cuts. I love hogi's, I love cold cuts.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: I love anything cold, like a cold sandwich. Okay, okay,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: what is it given?
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't know if I was allowed.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: To do it. But is it good? Okay? Do you
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: eat ham?
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: It tastes like regular meat.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I love mustard too.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: It actually pretty Yeah.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: I taste fue yeah.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: See, but I feel like good. Vegan tastes good.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but you just got to know the right vegan. Yeah.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I just don't want to ever eat vegan. And it
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: feels feels like it's not meat. I don't know if
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: that's you get what I'm saying.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: It just feels healthy it.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Did you put a lot of mustard?
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah? For me, but for your life.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: No, I'm trying to be I don't want to have
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the pinky experience the whole thing.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Here we go.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: There, but you put chips in your sandwich?
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: No, I put it on the side. You could. This
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: is gonna be so good. The only thing that's missing
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: you Caribbean like meat pepper.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: They had a peppered version of this. If you tried it, yeah,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: the pepper one. Yeah? Did you like? Do you like it?
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I like spicy food like I was like, I wonder
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: if you eat I love spice? Here to I love
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: love spice. I could eat spice all day long.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Okay, here we go.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: We're gonna try this, and I want to see you
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: eat like you are.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Oh I'm I'm hungry time reading.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, here we go.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Okay, guys, give me thank you for this food. We
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: thank you for the hands to prepare this meal us
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: and amen. Okay, let's see. Now this wouldn't have been
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: my bread of choice. However, you got close.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: This was the closest I could get.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Trust me. Okay, okay, put a little chip in your mouth.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not even mad at the onion.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: It's good. That's pretty dark. And I'm not mad at
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: the bread.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Is there nothing in the bread?
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: I think? So? Sorry, Yeah, I'm not.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Nope. Well, the onion had a nice crunch, but that's
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: where it landed.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: That after taste. That was a strong one too. That
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: was a strong onion. Oh that's good. No, not that onion.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: All right, that's dead.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Take me back. It's great without the onion.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: I good with the onion.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: We gotta like onion, and I would have lathered way
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: more meat.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: You would have more meat on it. No, only think
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: this makes a little.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Spice, but you know what it is. It's all the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: condiments that make it also good.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, o, good story.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I don't take advantage of every minute of you. The
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: tomato makes it pop. You can't even do a sandwich
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: without tomato.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: After that, you have to with leton a little strong.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: You're right that onion.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Was because it was thick.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: I guess since this was like more of a regular
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: go to for you, let's go back to the beginning days.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: We grew up Caribbean parents. They did not eat a
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: lot of meat.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: My mother didn't eat meat, eat fish.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Fish, Okay, So you grow up, you go to college, Okay,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: you know from day one that you're gonna be an entrepreneur.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Yet, my father did twenty two years in prison, and
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: while he was in prison, he would always give me
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: life lessons. I was just talking about this earlier. How
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: even though he was physically behind bars, mentally he was free.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: So at an early age, I was able to get
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: trained on mindset right because he wasn't a prisoner to
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: his circumstance. So as a kid, I wanted to be
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: an entrepreneur. My mother was and still is, a leading
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: of a reggae band. So I used to literally go
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: to her shows. She took all the kids. She's this
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: town called Ocean City, Maryland. She used to always perform
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: in Ocean City. She would always take us. We would
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: be on stage watching her perform. So I wanted to
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: be a star like my mom. I wanted to make
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: it I'm gonna be like her when I grew up.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: And people her hair is really long and it touches
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: the ground. She has locks, so everybody just wanted to
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: take pictures with her. I'm like, oh my goodness, I
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: want to be like mommy. When I grew up. And
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: it's so funny because it's a full circle moment because
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: here it is. Now I'm on TV. I'm doing exactly
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: what it is that my mother did, obviously in a
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: different capacity. But people love my mother, people love me.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: People wanted to be next to my mother. They want
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: to be next to me. That's why it's so critical.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: I know, you say you had one child. It's so
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: critical to expose your children to the life that you
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: want them to have, or to the life that you live,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: and live loudly and live out loud. Because now that
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: I have my young daughters, my baby looks at me
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: and now she gets in front of the camera and
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: she want to take photos and she just wants to
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: be a star. She Didne did a song with Jazzy Fay.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: She just wants to be that girl. But it's because
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: she sees mommy and how I get up and I
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: go to work, and I take my pictures and I
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: do all things, and even when I'm talking to people
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: and I'm motivating other people, my daughter is right there,
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: literally right there. Entrepreneurship was instilled in me early on,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: and I'm so glad because I could not imagine me
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: doing anything else in this world nothing at all.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: How old were you when your dad went to jail
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the day that.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I was born. He was being sentenced. Jeez, can you
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: imagine the when I came out the womb, he was
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: losing his freedom.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: That's heartbreaking.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't know what the time.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: But why was it important to your mom to keep
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: that contact with you two? I know that sounds like
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a weird question, but.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's not weird. My mother was actually married
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: to my father for the first thirteen years of my
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: life in prison, so she held him down. Okay, but
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: my mother also had to move on with her life.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: At the time, she was an immigrant, right. She ended
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: up getting her citizenship after that, and she had to
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: put her dreams on hold. She was traveling the world
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: to be a dancer. And then she started having kids
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: and my father was having children with other women. So
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: you know how it got I mean right before right, Yeah,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: so my mother had to deal with that. So there
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: was a lot of betrayal growing up. So she stuck
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: beside him, okay, Pop, She stuck beside him until I
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: was about thirteen years old, and she filed for divorce
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: and she moved on with her life, and I'm happy
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: that she did. She needed to regain her independence and
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: she put her life on hold. So now my success,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: I'm so happy because my mother gets to live vicariously
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: through me.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Was it hard to see them split up? Or was
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: it easier? Because did you get to did you have
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: to see some of her pain?
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: My mother has just always been a warrior, and that's
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: where I think I get it from my mother. She'll
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: never let me see her cry, you understand what I'm saying.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: She'll go in the corner and cry before she let
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: anybody else see her weak. And she's just always been
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: so independent. I don't know my mother to be weak
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: at all. Now in my big age, I'm almost forty
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: years old, and I'm still thinking here, I do not
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: know my mother to be a weak woman, you know
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So I didn't get to see that
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: side of her because she just showed us that one side.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Go make your money, go handle your business, do what
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: you need to do for your family.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: How many siblings was it?
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: My father has eight and my mother has four of
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: the eight. Okay, yeah, and we all got a sibling
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: that's the same age as us.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Almost I honest, you said that she didn't cry. I'm curious, though,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: do you cry in front of your children, not in
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: front of my children?
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: But I do cry. Just recently, I've been more emotional
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: because my company went through a restructure and somebody asked
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: me this earlier. So you cry a lot on the show,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, if you lost a hundred million dollar brand,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: you will cry too. You would definitely, you would definitely
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: be crying too. But I believe that level of vulnerability
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: is just a symbolism of growth. Right, It's okay to
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: be vulnerable, It's okay to show your scars. I am
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: not perfect. I don't strive to be perfect. I used to,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: but like I'm imperfectly perfect, right, and I've gone through
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: I take some I took some blows.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: You took some blows. But sometimes I feel like, as
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, it's not necessarily tears of hurt, but tiers
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: of frustration.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's frustration because you know you're the best, You
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: know that you can conquer all and sometimes some blocks
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: get in your way and it hurts. Especially what I
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: just went through the last few years of my life
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: probably had to be the hardest people couldn't walk half
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: a mile in my shoes. Okay, here it is. I
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: built this hundred million dollar brand, made the cover of
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: all of these magazines, made all of these big lists,
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: all of these accolades. Been that girl for so long. Okay,
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: everything that I've ever put my hands on, I've gotten
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: to one day wake up and it crumbles right in
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: front of me. To one day. You ever had something
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: where the people that you normally talk to you, one
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: day you're picking up the phone and they won't even
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: answer the phone for you. No more. So you've realized
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: that the relationship was transactional.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like that's more in the I feel
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: like in the entertainment business than a lot especially if
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: you're at the I've never made it to the top
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: of the entertainment business. I don't know if it's different
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: when you're like huge and maybe the relationships are more solid,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: But I know when I was like in the entry
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: level of it. Man, you leave a company, you shut
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: down a company, you out, they they never talked to
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: you again.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: That's transaction. And that was my family exactly. So my
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: mindset with a lot of people was like I thought
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: we were family. So when you see me cry and
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: you see me hold that her. It's because I always
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: come from a genuine space as an entrepreneur. But I
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: also realized that those things really don't go together. They're
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: no friends in business, and I had to learn that
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: the hard way. It's no friends and no friends or
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: few friends. There's no friends in business.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Dang Pinky, it's a sad her first gem of the day.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: It's a sad truth. And I had to realize it too.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: It ain't no friends in business. Outside of business, we
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: can be friends, but when it comes to business, there's
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: no friends in business. It's called business for a reason.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: And that was one of the very big lessons that
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: I had to learn through this whole process, because people
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: who I thought was my family, people who I would
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: go hang out with, people who would come and play
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: with my kids, were the same people who turn their
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: back on me in my darkest moments. And I'm not
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: even mad at those people now, but they just taught
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: me a lesson about like valuable lessons. A valuable lesson. Yeah,
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: and you can't put too many expectations on people, Okay.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: I used to expect people to operate in a way
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: that I operate you cannot do that.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: No, you understand what I'm saying. And that's where a
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: lot of the pain and frustration comes in. I'll tell
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: you right now. You have those I am constantly hearing
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: that Colleen doing click. They're gonna act the way you act.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: I think the way you think of Like, why God
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: don't they have the moral code?
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah? No, we were raised different, that's the thing.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: So prior to getting to Sludy Vegan, what was that
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: roadmap in between?
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: So before Sludy Vegan, in high school, I used to
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: throw the biggest parties in Baltimore. I was the youngest
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: party promoter. I used to have a thousand people coming
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: to my parties.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Are these high school?
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: High school parties?
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: And your mama's okay with it?
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she was a party But we were like local
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: celebrities growing up. Everybody need my family. My mother would
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: have all the biggest Jamaican celebrities coming to the house.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: We would have basement parties. So I just grew up
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: in the limelight, if you will. And I used to
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: have these parties and I remember making more money than
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: my mother at fifteen years old. I used to be
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: counting money on the floor.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Did you ever tell her.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: She was right there counting with me. You understand what
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: I'm saying. So I'm like, yeah, I'll take her cut. No,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: I would help her. I would give her money.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I love this.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: She didn't need my money because she had multiple jobs.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: That was my first taste. I want more of this.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. As a mom, I don't
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: think there's a prouder moment than that, you know, you
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: hit that you touch, that first touch on the trophy
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: with your kid out us.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Let me tell you the best moment that I ever
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: had in my life, as it released to my mother.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: My first big chunk of money. I called Sally May.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: This is when it was Sally May, and it was
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: a lady named Judy. I think her name was like
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Judy or something. And my student lows was like two
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: hundred three thousand dollars. Do you know? I paid it
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: off in one check and then when I got off
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: the phone, that's what I did. I picked up the
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: phone and I paid off her mortgage. I called the
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: mortgage company and paid off her mortgage the house that
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: I grew up in. I paid it off and surprised
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: her so that feeling where you could give that to
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: your mother, everything that gave to you. Money could never
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: buy that. That was so priceless. But it's an end
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: result of who I was growing up throwing the parties.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I packed up my bags and I went to college,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: the first one in my family to go to college
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: and stay there. Yeah, okay. I became Miss Junior, Miss
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: omegasci Fi Delta Sigma Theta the Head Delta, Miss Clarke
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: atlanda Universe. So I literally immersed myself because I knew
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: that I was going to be great little pinky with
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: my Jamaican grandmother. I used to watch Laverne and Shirley
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: and Golden Girls, and I used to be looking up
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: like I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna be a star,
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: and everybody would laugh at me, like, Pinky, you gonna
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: be crazy. I'm like, all right, watch me.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: No, I definitely believe you understand what I'm saying. Even
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: if you were a little pinky, I feel like I
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: would be like, oh, I believe it.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, everybody that knows me, I'm like, I'm gonna make it.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: And that is why the power of the tongue is
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: so real even as entrepreneurs. Okay, because what you believe
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: will become. Okay, what you think about will manifest. Every
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: single thing that I said that I was gonna be,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: I became.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Did you know everything have self doubt?
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Who don't have self doubt?
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I was just curious because you are confident, but I
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: just wanted to.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Know everybody have self doubt. But at the end of
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: the day, like I beat that self out with a
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: bad You understand what I like that every single time,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: there's something called beautiful fear. And there's a lot of shit.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: This beautiful fear, beautiful fear by accent fear fear, it's
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: a beautiful fear. It's like it's scared the living shit
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: out of you. But at the end of the day,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: you still gonna conquer that thing.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: And you're still gonna beat that thing in the head
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: so that when it's all set and down, you're like,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: I did it, and there's a rush that you get
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: that adrenaline. It's like endorphins. That adrenaline that you get
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: from conquering the things that scare you crazy. That is
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: what makes me keep going as an entrepreneur.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Now does the ceiling for you? How long does that high?
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Have I conquered it? Before you put a new ceiling on.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Every day. It's a new ceiling every day. It's called entrepreneurship.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: The entrepreneur like that high is so short. It's so short. Okay,
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: what's the next call. I'm not saying why. I see
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: why people do correct, but I'm listen, like the window
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: is so short. Okay, I'm looking for that next high
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: for real. As an entrepreneur, like every single day we
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: get to conquer something different every day. It's like, all right,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: it's like pinking a brain, all right, brain over the
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: world today.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I have a miror that I painted in my garage
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: of Pinky and the Brain. During the pandemic. My neighbors
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: were driving by and it was this concept of this show.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, so you'll see it literally broke.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: I'll send you a picture. Has send it to Jerry.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: But okay, so how did the Maury Show end up
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: in the middle of that journey?
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: Okay? So after I graduated from high school, I could
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: not find a job here. It is, I'm the most
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: famous person on my campus, the most popular. Everybody loves me.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: I'm that girl. But just because you that girl don't
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: mean nothing. When it's time to make that coin Okay,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: I know a lot of that girls that are broke.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: I could not get a job. Nobody will hire me
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: except for Teach for America. Have you ever heard of
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Teach for America. No, I don't think so, especially like
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: a teaching program. And they offered me forty five thousand
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: dollars to go to Houston, Texas to teach eighth grade English.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, I don't want to teach no bad
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: ass kids and I barely want to be in.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: A coloss after college.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Not yeah, this is college. So I did it anyway
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: because I didn't have anything lined up and I didn't
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: want to be an embarrassment. This was in the height
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: of the pandemic, so I'll never forget it. I moved
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: to Houston, Texas with my dog Rudy, and I was
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: out there and on day five, I'm like, I can't
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: do this in the height of the pandemic. Not the pandemic,
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: all of it's the same.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: What is it called another one of those crashes, like
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: an economic crash two thousand and eight crash?
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Which crash? Are we talking about that one? Okay? Because
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: I went into I graduated in two thousand and nine.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: That crash no, I got different titles on it. You
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: know what I'm saying.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: I was like, wait, what, Okay, the recession I remember
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: that it was very a noticeable impact.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, so it was doing a recession and I
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: didn't know when the next opportunity was going to come.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: So I went. But on day five, I'm like, I
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: can't do this no more. So my friend who was
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: also there, I asked him if he could give me
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: enough money to go to the airport. He gave me
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: forty dollars. I ain't had no money. I will never
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: ever in my life wanted to be that broke again. Yeah,
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: he gave me four in life. Okay, he gave me
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: forty dollars. And I went to the airport and it
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: was me and my dog, Rudy, and it was a
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: guy from It's funny because years later he actually sent
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: me a DM but it was a guy that worked
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: at Southwest Airlines. I was just balling, crying and he
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: walked up to me and he was like, what's your name?
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: Was wrong? And I told him, I'm like, I'm so defeated.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: I just don't know what's going on when my path
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: and life is everything that I've ever touched has turned
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: to go. I've always been that girl. He said, I'd
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: be right back. This man left, he came back, and
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: he gave me two hundred and forty dollars so that
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: I can get on air tran. That's how it long
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: ago was. Okay, you'm a bad tran. See I might
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: be older than you. I don't know, but it was
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: something called air tran for me and my dog to
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: get on that plane. And I feel like that was
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: one of my big lessons in life, that you don't
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: do anything that does not make your belly leap. Okay,
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: you are in control of how you show up in
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: the world, and if it doesn't feel right to you,
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: if you do not feel comfortable, you do not do
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: that thing. Because I will never do anything that makes
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: me uncomfortable, that makes me unhappy ever again. And the
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: rest is history. After that, I packed up my bags
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: and I moved to LA for the first time. I
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: lived in La twice. Okay, yeah, so I moved to
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: LA with a duffel bag, a suitcase, and a Bible
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: and thirty resumes that my mother printed out for me.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: From work and how much money in the bank account.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: I have two hundred fifty dollars.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Oh la, whooped you?
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: But they would be okay. But when I came and
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: I fared it, the two fifty last not long. But
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: in the first six days I got two jobs. Oh okay, yeah,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: one working at DSW and then the other one work
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: at Universal Studios. It's sugar. I don't even know if
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: that's still there. Remember that I had. And then I
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: got a job working at the Census. I saved up
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: enough money and damn, I'm really having a full circle
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: moment right now.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: I'm just curious. Oh, I don't want to interrupt the
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: full circle.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: No, you know, I had a full circle moment because
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: I can remember I literally found somewhere to stay on Craigslist.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: I put my life at risk to follow my dream,
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: and my mother allowed me to do it. But it's
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: important to have people around you that believe in what
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: it is that you're doing. She ain't even ask me
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: no questions. You let your daughter go to this form
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: place by herself, with no plan. I had no point.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: You got to understand if you were my child. From
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: everything I've heard, oh yeah, I'm betting on you. She
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: let me go and she it sounds like there was
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of faith in your household where she knew
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: God was going to protection.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: She let me go and I went out there, got
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: to place the live on Craigslist. That didn't last long.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: Found another place from craigslist.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Oh did?
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: It was ten of us in a three bedroom house,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: three of us in one bedroom, paying three hundred dollars
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: a month in LA. You know that la living? Okay,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: when you're trying to grind.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Now, I'm curious you had such a strong resume from
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: being younger, seeing yourself sign yourself a task and complete it.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: As an entrepreneur, you're applying for these jobs, which is
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: kind of unique because you've already proven. I think once
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: you get that first hit of I can produce money
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: on my own, your body starts to look at things
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: in opportunity. Now, of course, so were you doing were
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: you picking up side hustles while these jobs? Was the
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: entrepreneur and you still like, hey, I got a meal.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: It's funny because I started doing background work and I'm
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: aging myself. But this was when Glee was out, so
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: I would do background work for Glee. And you remember
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: that show Glee? Yeah, stop asking me, you remember? You
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: don't remember Glee? Oh my goodness, your audience is gonna
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: be like, what.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: In the hell.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: But Glee was living in a box. Glee was a
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: really big show once upon a time. Do you remember Glee? Yeah,
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: Glee was a big show.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: You didn't remember. He's like twenty, How old are you?
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I'm forty two?
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Good night, Glee.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: God, I lived in a box. Okay, So anyways, and
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: a Jamaica mom soul.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you understand it? Okay, Okay, So Glee you
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: really Jamaican? So Glee my ass.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Whooped Jamaican immigrant mom Jamaican.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Okay. Glee was a big show. And I was doing
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: background work on Glee and then I got an opportunity
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: to work as a production assistant on a show called
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Judge Karen's Court. Okay, okay, and surprisingly I was really
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: good at that. I'm like, how the hell I want
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: to be in front of the camera, not behind the scenes.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: And my sorority sister got me the job there. And
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: while I was there, I got a call from a
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: show in New York called The Jeremy Kyle Show.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: I feel like I've heard it, okay, and it was like.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Hey, we want you to come to New York. And
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: I'm like, shit, i'll pack my bags up, I'll go
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: to New York. Ain't nothing stopping me. And this was
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: probably a year into being in l and then I
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: moved to New York and I was working on the
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: show for two years. And then that's when the Maury
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Show called me.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: And you're moving up the ranks, your reputation is building,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: you're passionate about it.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize that I was gonna say if you're
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: good at it, yeah, and it was like.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: We like you, we want you to come over to Maury.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: So I left and I was working at More for
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: almost three years. Wow, And that was kind of like
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: my first real opportunity to realize that we all got problems.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let me tell you something. I was the Murray
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Show Jerry Springer Error, you know where every time you
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: turned on the TV you watched it. But I will
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: tell you I learned something really funny about that show.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know anyone else that took this away, but
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, don't you ever fall in love
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: with a guy with no tea or whatever, some discussing
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: guy and end up fighting over this guy. So I
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: remember one time in my life I dated this really
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: unattractive boyfriend for years, and I know you do that.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: I just thought he was smarter than me, and I
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: liked it, like almost like the intellectual thing. Didn't treat
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: me great. But I remember being like jealous, and I'd
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: be like.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Don't be jealous.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Remember the cherry springer. He is not cute. You're just
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: in love. And I would tell myself that all the time.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: It'd be like, yo, he's ugly and remember that. Yeah.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: I've had a couple of them in my Yeah.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: See, all done it. Yeah. And also what I also
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: learned is that just because they're ugly doesn't mean they're
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: going to treat you better either.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Sometimes they would treat you worse.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like it's terrible. I was like, my
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: girlfriend saw me, she was like, what is wrong with you?
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Coming? I'm glad you graduated from that?
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Oh I did? Okay, So I just wanted to let
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: you have a biteen, because I know you're hungry.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: So good. Okay.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: So you start to move up the ranks. What happens
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: at the Mars show where you pivot.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: One of my friends who owned a Jamaican restaurant, he
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: told me that there was a restaurant available that I
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: could sublease, I could take over somebody's lease, and it
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: was like twenty four hundred dollars a month. I'm like,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: hell yeah, I'll do it. And I I didn't know
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: anything about the restaurant business.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: The toughest business in what tough Oh my god.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: But I went in there and I just started putting
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: stuff together and I opened up my first Jamaican restaurant.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: It was called Pinky's Jamaican an American restaurant, Wow, and
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: it was one between seventh and eighth shout out to Harlem.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: And I literally made a living for myself. And at
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: the time, I was making like thirty thousand dollars a month.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: That's not a lot now, but that was.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: A your girl month right now.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: A restaurant.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm like, okay, but grosser that you were taking
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: home gross Okay, yeah, But at the time that was good.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: Right for where we were in the world. But I
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: did not have fire insurance when I opened up that business.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: So I remember one.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Day in a restaurant business, in the.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Restaurant business, like, why wouldn't you get the fire insurance.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: That's a part of one of the things I talk
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: about in my book, I hope you fail. Get the
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: fire insurance. You need to get the security. I closed
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: the store one day and the department called me when
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: I went home and he said, hey, ms Cole, you
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: need to come back down here. Your restaurant is on fire.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: And this is a space where I was working day
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: and night. I'm talking about blood, sweat and tears, still
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: working at Maury.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: I would go to me, you were doing both.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, I told you I was Jamaican, Yes, yes, Ja Okay,
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: I was doing both and coming home and just grinding out.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: And that was in Connecticut. Okay, Maury was in Connecticut.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: So you were going back and forth from Connecticut to Harlem. Yes,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: so you were over grind time. You were probably burnt
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: out a little bit too.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been grinding for a long time. Yeah. And
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: I went and I saw my restaurant and I was
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: looking like, damn, everything that I worked for, I'm watching
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: it crumble in real time. But let me tell you
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: this is for the entrepreneurs too. When things feel like
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: it's crumbling, it really is only a gateway for something
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: else that's better. Because a week after that, I got
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: a call from an executive producer for a show called
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: EONLYM Fixed My Life. Are you familiar with that show?
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Stop asking you?
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Yeahanna Fixed my Life?
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, you know that one. Stop. Oh my gosh, I'm
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: about to take your card from you whatever called all
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: your guards okay, your Irish card, make all them.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Just blame it on the white The white side of
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: me is so.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: Fixed My Life was a really big show. It was
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: a really big therapy show, so on the own network.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: So I got a call to work on that show,
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, you know what, I'm packing up all
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: my stuff. I ain't got none to lose here it is.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to fight this. I'm fighting this eviction. I'm
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: getting kicked out.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: It's fiction from what the fire.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, I lost everything I had to because you.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Went money up.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, money ship.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: So I'm just curious you were crying during that era, right,
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: it's a lot.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: I was depressed. Then I was in a bad relationship.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: You know, I go yeah, And so that was the
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: call that saved my life. You know how to say
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: saved by the bell. That was the bell that saved me.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Because when I said yes to that, I literally packed
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: my bags up and I moved to La. It was like,
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: how much you want to make. I'm like four thousand
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: dollars a week and they was like, sure, we'll get that.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: You were like after you hung up, I should have
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: asked for more.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: But that was the most that I've ever gotten. So
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: I'm like, hell, yeah, you understand what I'm saying. I
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: can Damn there I made. Yeah, it's a lot of money,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: especially with what I just went through. So I moved
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: to l.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: I was right after.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: It was right after the time. I'm telling you, God
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: had to peel me up off the ground. God said,
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: I got you. That's why I'm always patient with God.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Before I used to be like, ah, why is this
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: happening to me? What's going on? But God will really
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: take you out of a tough situation uncomfortably, just so
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: that you could be somewhere better. And while I was
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: in LA, I was working on the show for almost
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: three years, living in LA for the second time, and
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: then I got the call to work on the show
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: in Atlanta, and I'm like, Okay, I'm going to Atlanta
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: for three months. This makes sense. And while I was
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: down there, I was in my two bedroom apartment and
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: I was in a relationship at the time he shall
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: not be named job and lead that sucker. There was
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: a strong strand of marijuana in that room that I
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: smoked and I'm not even a smoker, and that was
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: the best way that I ever smoked in my life. Girl. Okay,
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: because that is when I came up with sletty Vegan.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: You're hilarious. I was like, where did the weed tout?
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Where the story was going? He said, yes, that is
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: how I came up with slutty Vegan. And if I
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: can't find that straight again, I would become a dealer.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, because okay, so you're high and you're sitting there
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: and you're thinking, take me through this thought not the
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: name obviously.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: There, I'm like slutty Vegan and it hit me out
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: of nowhere, and I called my friends. I'm like, luty Vegan,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: what ch'all think about a name? And they was like,
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: we love it.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: It's such a catchy name.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: Thank you. And everything that I've ever done prior to
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: that point made sense, right because I'm like, I'm a
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: television producer. I got to make something that's racy and
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: raunchy that that's not going to make sense to the
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: naked eye. But it makes sense to me, and it
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: sparks conversation and dialogue. This is genius.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: I promised you. I didn't catch it until you said it.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: I said, oh shit, the lines, everything lined up.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: Everything lined up. That's why I said, the story is
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: already written right. Our stories and life as individuals, as entrepreneurs,
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: whether it's good, bad, every single thing that we go through,
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: it's for a reason. Your bad relationship was so you
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: didn't get no more bad apples, so that you can
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: identify who your husband will be men. You understand what
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: I'm saying that me losing it all was so that
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: I can gain a new era of clarity to be
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: able to create one hundred million dollar brand that probably
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: would have never happened. If my restaurant didn't catch on fire,
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: coming up with a name slutty Vegan and know what's
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: going to make people pay attention. I probably would have
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: never gotten that if I didn't work as a producer
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: for the moriy Show. You understand what I'm saying. So
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: all of these things have worked together for my good
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: and it's allowed me to create something that helps people
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: to reimagine food that has made history time and time again.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Time and time again. So once you come up with
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: this idea, what are your next steps? Are you sharing
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: any of this information? I see you you reached out
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: to some friends and said, hey, what do you think
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: of this, which I'm always afraid of. Now that I'm older,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't tell people stuff in the ink.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: State more because now just something just recently happened. I
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: went to a production studio and I gave an idea
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: to like a really big production house, and I see
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: the idea all over the internet, and I'm just like,
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: I know that came from me.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that sucks. At your level, I definitely wouldn't.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh no, not again, because I know I have
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: really good idea.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: We need to hang out with you and you're.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: High, okay that part okay, Okay.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: So you come up with this idea and you go
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: full fledged into it. You're still working in production, you're
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: making good money. You kick loser boy to the he
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: was not loser, but that.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: We will not name Willim.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, you kick him to the curb, Okay, And you
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: pursue sludy Vegan.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: I was pursuing Slutty Vegan and I was still working
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: at the time, which isn't new for you at this point. No,
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: but I got fired. That was new.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, damn another setback.
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: But every setback in my life has set me up,
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: every single one.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: But at this point are you believing this at that time?
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Are you?
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: But I'm telling you full circuit, which is wild. I
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: want to be like the Halo messenger for entrepreneurs who
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: are going through a tough time. Because when I got
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: fired from my job, do you know that same day
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: I fed Jermaine Duprix, Snoop Dogg and little Duval after
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: working a sixteen hour day going to something called jju
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: was like a twenty four hour spa, and Jermain de
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: Prix called me like, hey, Snoop Dogg, want to try
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: to food? Can you bring the truck? This was the
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: day that I got fired. This is the day that
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: I'm feeling defeated, like, all right, what I'm going to do?
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: What's my plan? I got this truck. It's popular, but
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: I needed the supplemental income. And literally, when Snoop dogg
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: ate dead food went up like a rocket ship, Wow
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: went up like a rocket ship. And getting fired was
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: the best thing that could have happened because it forced
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: me to lock in on my business. So you see
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: the through line here. Bad things happened for a reason.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: They're really not bad. It's just a part of your
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: testimony and your story. I'm sure that you've been through
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: stuff in your life, right. So now at my big age,
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: when things happened like this. Recently, I filed for bankruptcy, Okay,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: personally because I had a restructure in my company. I
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: had twenty million dollars in debt. But every time I'm
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: feeling defeated, I think about the time where I lost
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: everything and I got an opportunity. Do you know when
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: my business restructured, that was when I got the call
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: to do Real Housewives of Atlanta. So just because bad
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: things may happen, better things happen right with it.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: But when you were going through it, and I only
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: want to highlight this not to be negative, but I
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: want entrepreneurs and people out there to know that while
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: you were going through it, it felt it did feel real.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: It did feel it was real while I was going
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: through it.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: But no, because you come out on the other ends,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: if sometimes people could look at you and say, oh,
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: she survived it, and she's thriving again, and I'm curious
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: to that too. If you survive a storm, you thrive.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: You survive a storm and thrive, does do you still
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: have a limited less confidence even though you've whooped but
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: on storms.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: Listen, somebody who is in remission from cancer. That doesn't
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: erase the story just because they survived it. The history
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: is still there, the trauma is still there. To RaSE that,
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna sit here and be like, oh, I
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: don't feel like that. No, but that's not true.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Yah.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: The trauma of the past still lingers. But it's all
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: about your mindset, you know what I'm saying. I like
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: to live my life optimistically. Anybody that know me, like, yeah,
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: bad shit may happen, But I like to live my
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: life on the up and up, because at the end
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: of the day, what you're gonna do, You're gonna sit
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: and cry all day. Yeah, I'm gonna have my moment,
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: but I'm gonna keep a pushing and I'm gonna find
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: a better avenue to be able to deal with what
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: it is that I'm going through. So, yes, I look
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: back and I see some of the things that happen
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: to me. But you know how many lives that unsaved
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: from my story. You know how many people I've encouraged
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: just because of the things that I've been through. You
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: understand what I'm saying, and I don't take that for granted.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: And this is not like cliche. There's so many people
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: that I've been able to blest just by way of
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: my visibility and my transparency.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, No, I appreciate you. That just the case that
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: stays in the edit, I just find out picking on
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: his five more minutes. Okay, I'm gonna take advantage of
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: my Okay, so you built Slutty Vegan. I watched your success,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: very excited about it. It blew up. Every celebrity and
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: influencer was like all in it. It went from a
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: truck to the what do you call it? What do
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: you call it? Brick and mortar? That's the term. I
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: should know this. Now, do you think a part of
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: the some of I don't want to and I really
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: wants you to share this, but do you think some
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: of the what led to bankruptcy was how fast you grew?
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Could you have grown? Was it a too fast growth situation?
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: My situation wasn't a too fast growth. My infrastructure was
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: always clean. Okay, businesses grow fast all the time. I
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: just didn't have the right team that needed to go there.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: I had good people, but I didn't have the right team.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: Did you hear what I said? You can have good
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: people and it's still not be the right team.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: How do you determine the right the good people versus
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the right team?
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: If I could turn back the hands of time, you
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: have to get people that are in alignment with the
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: level of scale that it is that you're trying to
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: get to. Okay, So say you want to start a
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: basketball team, okay, and you know you need to find
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: the players. You're not going to get advice from somebody
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: who got a pickleball team, okay, because they're gonna give
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: you pickleball players. You're trying to build basketball. You understand
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying. And that is the biggest mistake that
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: I made. I was putting pickleball on a basketball court, right.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: So they were great, they were pros and pickleball. Yeah,
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: but when it came time to play basketball's okay, I
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: ain't never do this before. Let me figure it out.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: That's really what happened. Right.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Do you as an entrepreneur, do you think that as
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: you grow you it's your responsibility to do your research
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: to find the right team.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: It is absolutely my responsibility. The breakdown in my business
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: is absolutely my responsibility. It may not be my fault
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: getting to twenty million dollars a day. It may not
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: be my fault that I got lawsuits and business that
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: I didn't know about. It may not be my fault.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: But it is my responsibility. You know why, because you're
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: the leader, because I'm the leader. And when you lead,
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: take it, thank you. You take the good with the bad.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: I could be out and a whole bunch of people
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: right now, But for what it's my responsibility. I created
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: this business. I allowed certain things to go on in
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: my business, and I didn't pay attention when I needed
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: to pay attention. And this is the end result. It'll
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: never happen again.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: How how did your ego play a role in any
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: of this?
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: Oh? It killed it. It killed my ego.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: And then did you actually have to have a talk
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: with yourself about it?
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Every day to say, hey, this is your ego versus
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: this is who you are.
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: For a long time, like, I could have saved myself
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: a lot of stress when my business was going through
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: its period if I would have just said, you know what, Okay,
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: let's restructure now. But I kept holding on because my
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: ego was in a way here it is one of
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: the most powerful entrepreneurs in the world, and I was
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: too worried about the opinions and judgments of other people.
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: If I looked like a failure. That was my ego.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: I wasn't thinking like a business woman, because if I
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: was thinking like a business woman, I would have cut
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: my losses early. You want to stand what I'm saying.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: But now it's like I needed to go through that
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: at this level in business because where I'm going I
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: have not seen and I need to learn these lessons
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: now so that when I get to where I'm trying
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: to go, it's going to be that much easier and
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: it won't be as expensive.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now we're going to get to the fun part
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: we need to talk about. I'm sure we're cutting close
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: the book and I want to talk about franchise opportunities
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: because I want to take notes, you know, on what
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: does it take to qualify to become a franchisee up
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Slutty Vegan.
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you asked. So we are franchising. We've already
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: closed several deals, which I'm excited about. If you want
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: to be a franchisey, you gotta pay for eight thousand dollars. Okay,
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: that's to buy in and then on my FDD it
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: costs between five hundred and fifty five thousand to one
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: point one million dollars to open up a slutty Vegan. However,
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: what's FDD mean for the franchise Disclosure Document? Okay? God?
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: Basically it's the bible for your business, okay, okay.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: So so they need that much money in a bank sitting,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: or you.
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: Got to have that buy in fee. You can go
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: and get an SBA loan, loan, you can get private equity.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: But what most people are doing now is they're finding
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: second generation location, so locations that already exist, so then
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: it can cut your costs.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: When you say locations that you mean sludy Vegan locations
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: that are already or.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: Restaurant restaurants that have already existed as a former burger
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: and fry joint that you can go and get your spot,
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: see what I'm saying. But yeah, we are franchising in
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: real time, and that's really what two point zero is.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: I'm scaling the business when somebody else's down. I'm finding
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: the best operators and still looking for the best operators
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: that want to own their own slutdy Vegan. I have
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: an incredible brand, you.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: Do, And then I have another question. Do you so
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: they get the Bible? Right? This is speaking from a
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: normal entrepreneur who loves the brand. But they come to you,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: they pay the feed. I guess you accept the application,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: they pay the feed, they gain access to the money.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: Is there a training or like you know how some
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: people have a universe or something.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: To we have Slutty University. Okay, so it is a training,
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: so we give you all of the tools, like you
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: come on board. We show you every step of the
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: way how to open up a Slutty Vegan and how
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: to do what it is that we do and ensure
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: that you will be successful.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, And then are you comfortable talking about what the
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: splits kind of look like as a franchiseing.
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: So basically, we get six percent of the net sales
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: of whatever it is that you make, Okay, So all
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: the other money goes to you, but six percent of
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: net sales goes into my pocket.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: And then do you guys help with the sourcing of
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: the ingredients with everything.
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: It's like us and that's why people franchise, because they're
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: buying into an already existing engine.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Oh it's so exciting.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: And then now, is it possible for say a city
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: like California, if someone wanted to come in, is it
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: completely off the grid to have a slutdy Vegan truck?
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: Is that still possible as a franchise.
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: It's very possible.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Do you want Yes, I'm totally asking for Okay, okay,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: you got.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: Your team is killing me? All right.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: I want to hear about the book and then I
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: will follow up with it. I already been trying to.
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I hope you fail. It is a book
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: that is a bible for people who want to shift
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: their mindset. I'm a mindset shifter. I've gone through a
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: whole lot in my life, as you can tell. But
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: I've also been able to learn some valuable lessons from
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: the things that I've gone through, and I'm teaching people
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: just like you how to utilize your mindset to turn
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: that negative into a positive. So that book is available
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: everywhere right now, right now.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: Old shoot, I gotta get it before I go to
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: the airport. You didn't bring a copy I should have
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: got you.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: Got to get it, and I'll sign it. I hope
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: you fail.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: You promised. Yes, I'm gonna hold you to it. When
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: I get my franchise. We're gonna get some videos, yes,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: and the book signing together.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: And I love that you didn't ask me a lot
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: about the show. But I'm gonna plug it anyway. Oh sorry,
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: Real Households of Atlanta every single Sunday, so you'll see
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: a lot more of this resilience on the show.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, I hope you fail. Sludy Vegan and watch the show.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys for tuning in.
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: Peace out. Thank you.