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From Baltimore to Soho: The Rise of Cloudy Donuts · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The last time that we spoke on the episode you
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: had the restaurant Homemade in Baltimore, and the reason why
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the episode is so leg you know, you guys should
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: check it out episode eleven, is that you kind of
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: you broke down your business model. You broke down the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: streams and it was very detailed as far as numbers
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and all that, and people wasn't really familiar with. I
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: think it was kind of new. Yeah, like that wasn't
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: something that people really did before, right. I think you
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: kind of changed the game where you opened the door
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: as far as transparency. But since then a lot has changed.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: You moved from Baltimore to New York. Yeah, yeah, you
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: switched from the restaurant to we had Cloudy Donuts. That's
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: your new operation that you got running. So a lot
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: of a lot has changed, right, So let's catch the
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: audience up to speak. How did you transition from Baltimore
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the restaurant to SOHO the vegan donut spot.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: You know, you know, my thing is this, I always
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: tell the person, when you go fast, you grow fast.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. So nothing really educate you
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: more than just living real life and doing it at
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: a fast space. So when y'all saw me in the
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: restaurant space, it was more about getting settled in and
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: coming home. I had one goal when I came home,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: and that was to be legit. I had an advantage
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: with that because it was like I saw the world
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: through the lens of a criminal, somebody who was just
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: coming home, and like, Yo, shit, I can't believe I
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: got a legit spot. I got people on payroll, my
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: mother got come see this. You know what I'm saying,
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: because I grew up just straight immersed in the criminal lifestyle.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: So when I had the opportunity to come on the show,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: I had built out the brunch restaurant, I had the
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: food trucks, and it was really about the supper club
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: and creating verticals within my business that would allow me
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: to grow. Now, what I always encourage entrepreneurs to do
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: is to focus on the main thing, keep the main
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: thing the main thing, And for me, after I got legit,
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: it was really about making some real money. So in
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: the midst of the restaurant, you deal with a lot
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: of nuances, whether it's dealing with staff coming in front
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: of the house, back the house managers and so on
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: and so forth. So I was like, yo, let me
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: do a little bit more history, because once you over
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: the excitement of being legal, you got to deal with
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: the excitement of ambition and wanting to get some money.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: And I always tell people, once you get over the
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: good look, you get some good money. Right. So I
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: got to a place where where I was at was enough,
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: and it was like, all right, what's next for me?
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  Speaker 3: So I begin to focus on one singular product, and
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: for me, it was a donut. And the reason why
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: I focused on that is because if you get a
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: donut right, you don't need to catch up hot sauce, mayonnaise, mustard.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: You're not looking for a refill, You're not looking for
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: a way that they give you a check. It reminds
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: me of the game. It's straight product driven. If I
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: got a quality product, it's over the counter service. You're
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: coming in out the space. It reminds me of like
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: a trap house. I give you the product, you don't
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: even know who I am, you gone, and I'm able
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: to scale that. So it was a scalable model as
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: opposed to a traditional restaurant where you're dealing with so
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: many elements and components. And that's why I chose donuts.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: So the transition because homemade everybody remembers. For that episode,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: we had the supper club piece too. We left all
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: that we came here. What was the transition like from
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: a business standpoint of, all right, this is a new city.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: I may not be familiar with the ins and outs,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: the demographics are different. Talk about that piece.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: It was all like hustling out of town. It was
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: all it was all about. It was so crazy because
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: and I'm so excited for my partner, so d two
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: to talk because as you as any hustler, when you
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: go out of town, you get through a woman and
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: you get to the community, right, like, for example, what
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: my superpower was my partner? And it was really about
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: us strategizing, like, all right, here's this life that we're
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: gonna bail, here's this brand we're gonna build, and how
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: are we going to be able to connect with the
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: people in an unconventional way. So when I came to
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: New York, I knew a few things. I knew that
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: I had to get familiar with the landscape, be respectful
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: of the people, and provide them with a phenomenal product.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: So when we used to sell dope, we call it
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: dropping teas. I don't know if they're seeing it in
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: no wire, but like dropping t's is basically like if
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: you get a couple ounces of dope, you get some grams,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: you put them together with some quinin benita, and then
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: you pass out test us. So like on the why
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: they would say dropping teas because now all the dough
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: things will congregate to that because it's like, oh, all right,
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  Speaker 3: they're giving out these teas. So my teas was complimentary donuts.
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  Speaker 3: It was like, yo, I believe in my product is phenomenal,
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  Speaker 3: let's just give it away. And that created word of
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  Speaker 3: mouth along with her being behind me and in most
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: cases beside me, but also behind me doing additional work
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: or like yo, I'm gonna make sure that I get
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  Speaker 3: your product to everybody who don't know you, and trying
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: to sensor a global phenomenon. So it was really about
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: the work that she put in were connected with community
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  Speaker 3: and me just being in the lab making sure we
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: had the best shit going out.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: So Soho, how'd you end up in Soho? Because most
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of the time, and you start thinking it was in
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  Speaker 1: Brooklyn at first, even that was a different type of area.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, you as a black entrepreneur, they would
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: probably expect you to be in hall on MM or
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: you know best, or a black neighborhood. Why why did
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: you grab towards soho?
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, everything that I do relates directly back to who
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: I am as a man. I don't it's no gimmicks, No,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: nothing is fatty over here or trendy, right. So, like
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: when I was trapping, I had some real money and
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: I was living in good neighborhoods, but I always felt
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: there wasn't a true place for me in the midst
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: of white afflaunce. I mean, like, think about it. We
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: drive down Rodeo Drive, we got our phone out, we
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: take a bunch of pictures, but black people don't own nothing.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: Then we go on Madison Avenue, we got our phone out,
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  Speaker 3: We buy a bunch of pocket a bunch of purses
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  Speaker 3: and jackets, but black people don't own nothing. And I
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: always lived in these particular spaces, and I felt like, Yo,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: where's the space for us, Where's the space for the
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: black man who's successful? Everything doesn't have to be like
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: a charity case, right, So I was like, Yo, I'm
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: gonna put the donut shops in areas that I was
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: specifically living, and it was the same thing in Baltimore,
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: and Baltimore we in white neighborhoods. That's the flowing as
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: well too. It's not intentionally trying lane in the white folks,
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: but it's just really just following my own path of
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: where I would live. And I felt like from what
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: I've seen other brands, whether it was Kissed or Ald
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: or Supreme, I felt like that for black people to
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: get seen in a different light and to be global phenomenas,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: you needed global retail positioning. So it's like the only
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: way I'm going to become successful is to position myself
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: next to the other people. So I was never comfortable
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: being like the biggest lion on my block. I want
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: to get in a den with the other lions and
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: show you what I got. We're here now,