Latest / Power Moves Media / Power Moves Ep. 8: Samantha Abrams on Capital, Discipline & Building a Sustainable Business

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Power Moves Ep. 8: Samantha Abrams on Capital, Discipline & Building a Sustainable Business · Power Moves Media

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to PowerMoves on Lit 106, where we discuss the people, partnerships, and opportunities shaping business and economic growth across Prince George's County and throughout the DMV region.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Alexander Austin, enterprise value strategist, business owner, and nonprofit CEO.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm Rose Johnson, founder of the Spotlight DMV.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_05: On today's show, we'll be joined by Samantha Abrams, founder and CEO of Zapadilla's Caribbean Restaurant and Catering.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_05: We're talking Vision Meets Discipline, why she decided to expand Zapadilla's with a second location in historic Anacostia, what it takes to build and operate a restaurant in today's environment, and the business lessons she's learned along the way.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_05: But first, I want to get into some of what's happening in business and economic development.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_05: So, Alex, you know, I went to the National Black and Latino Economics Summit in Florida at the beginning of August.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_05: Let me tell you, it was my first time, and it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had at a conference.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_05: And so this conference was sponsored by 18 financial institutions.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_05: And a big piece of it was that it was not just about talking about access to funding.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_05: They were really, really in the room to tell you about who they are, what their missions are, what their priorities are, what are some of the projects they have already funded, what are they looking to fund so that if you have that type of project, then you can come and talk to them directly.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_05: And I want to tell you about the um the organizer of the summit, or the late organizer, Al Pinha.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_05: And what I learned about him is that he was a huge advocate for black and Latino businesses having access to funding.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_05: And uh he was the type of person that had relationships with a lot of the leaders and the banking executives that were there in the room.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_05: And a lot of them told stories about, you know, when um when he felt that he sent them a client that should have got approved for funding and then they got denied.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_05: And he picked up the phone and like, hey, what's happening?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_05: Because I know that they qualify for this funding.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_05: So what is going on?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_05: Why are they not able to get what you're saying that you have access to?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_05: And so that is who built the backbone of this summit, and that's what it was all about.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: That is amazing.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_03: That is amazing.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_03: I love the accountability.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, it was to the point where uh what they said was that he would send emails, and if he wouldn't get the response that he wanted, that he he might copy an executive on there, or he'll copy an agency so that they know I'm not playing with you.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_05: You better return my call, you better answer me and give me a proper answer so that I would so that we can move past this.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_05: And so it was really good learning about him, but a piece of it as well was about faith organizations and the work that they're doing.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_05: And so the keynote was Jamal Bryant, and um he came in, he fired us all up, got us ready for the entire conference, and he talked about um what his organization is doing and some of the projects that they have worked on, and how he leveraged over 300 acres of land where at one point all they had was, I think he said a basketball court and maybe like a warehouse and then the chapel.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_05: And he was able to leverage those hundreds of acres of land to build housing for seniors, to build programs for young people and things of that nature.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and so just hearing that story, and then later on hearing on some of the panels, some of the faith organizations that are doing the same things, like they're working.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_05: There was an organization in particular that all they do is uh help faith organizations navigate with developers on how to use their land.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, Pastor Bryant was not the only pastor in there with a story like that.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_05: There were others that were in Tampa talking about the work that they're doing, the housing that they're building, housing for veterans, housing for seniors, housing for young people that aren't able to afford in this climate.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_05: Um so it was just it was it was really good.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_05: And guess who else I saw?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Who'd you see?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_05: Dr.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_05: Zena Pierre.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_05: She was there.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness, man.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: Did you get a foot?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: Did you get a photo with her?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_05: I did get a photo with her, and I spoke to her, reminded her that you know, she talked at our window Wednesday.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_05: I think that was at the end of last year.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: Amazing, amazing speaker and just story.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, yes.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_05: And so from your perspective, how important is the relationship piece when businesses are looking for capital?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's extremely important.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, one of the things that I think we we overlook is it's rarely about the numbers when we talk about capital.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, it is really about trust, credibility, and confidence in the owner, in the business owner, but also in the business and whoever is lending them the money.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um and so, you know, from an advisory standpoint, one of the things that I try to emphasize in the owner's lab philosophy is that the business owner shouldn't wait until they need capital to start building relationships with banks, investors, you know, advisors, et cetera.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: But you want those relationships established well before you ask.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so the question is, how do you establish those, right?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes it's hey, you're going to group dinners, you're at conferences, you're playing golf, you're at the games uh constantly, and you're having those quarterly touch points.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: You're every time you may have a win or an adjustment to your capability statement, you're sending that out to your network so they know what you're doing, right?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_03: And here's one thing that I saw in the banking world is you want to also send record of your success, even if you're not asking for capital.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: Let them know, hey, we just created, completed a transaction, we just completed a project, right?
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: Let them know things that are happening so that when it's time, they can see a track record of wins of success.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: And equally important, you have to understand, you know, what the person, again, on the other side of the table, is actually looking for.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: And Rose, I can't tell you how many times I've worked with clients or advised clients who say, hey, I can't get a loan from this bank and come to find out that the bank does not lend to your industry.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_05: Right?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's a rip, and that's one thing that gets overlooked.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: Because they're a bank doesn't mean they lend to every industry.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_03: And it's and it's cyclical and it can change, right?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_03: You have banks that will lend for real estate, but if commercial real estate is uh in a downswing, they're not going to lend.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_03: There are banks that won't lend to restaurants because of some of the impacts of COVID.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: There are banks that stop lending to the trucking industry because of where the trucking industry is going and alternativous vehicles and all the things that are happening.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: So we have to really understand who our partners are and do they necessarily lend for the industries that we are in and that we work in.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_05: Mm-hmm.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_05: That was a huge takeaway from the conference.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, I'm new to all of this, to economic development.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_05: And so these are things that some seasoned folks like yourself may know.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_05: But um, that was uh there was uh a gentleman from MIT Bank, Richard, I cannot pronounce his last name.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_05: Richard Ur Uraji.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_05: Ujuri.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_05: Richard Ujuri.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_05: And he's in this area, and he that was I asked a question.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_05: So first I asked about how to make sure, you know, how do we build these relationships with people like you?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_05: And so Richard is vice president and relationship manager for um business banking at MT Bank.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_05: And when I tell you that he was very straightforward about the advice that he was giving.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_05: And so that was one thing that he was he did talk about was knowing what the banks are looking for.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_05: What are they funding?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_05: What type of industries, what type of projects?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_05: And um, he even said that, you know, even though it might not work with his bank, it might work with another bank.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_05: Um I I asked about the relationship building part, and I was like, do I need to be texting y'all?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_05: Like, how do I how do I keep and it basically it was the same answer that you you just gave, you know, sending out those emails and letting us know what you're working on, those projects and things like that.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_05: So great insight, great advice on tapping into funding.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's a power move, Rose.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_05: That is build a relationship before you need the money.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly, exactly.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_05: And so, Alex, another thing that I really appreciated about the summit was getting to hear about projects from different sides of the table.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_05: I got to hear what does the developer need?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_05: What does the funder need?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_05: What does the city need?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_05: And ultimately, what is this project supposed to do for the community?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_05: So I got to hear all those different perspectives.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, from a business owner's perspective, why is it important to understand that that bigger picture when development is happening in your community?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean, it's critical.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: You know, the bigger picture is all is mission critical because when development happens in your community, it creates an entire ecosystem of opportunity.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and when I've advised business owners, I encourage them to look beyond what's being built and always ask the question where do I fit in in the economic activity being created?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: You know, this is where master development plans come into play.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: What's the long-range plan?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: A new development can mean construction contracts today, but it also can mean new customers, partnerships, and investment opportunities tomorrow.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so the challenge is too often small business owners learn about these opportunities after major decisions are already being made.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then you hear, well, there's not enough opportunity, right?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, this is why understanding what's happening in a community and building relationships within that ecosystem really matter the most.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: As owners, uh, we have to move from simply reacting to opportunities to position our businesses for those opportunities decades before they happen.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_03: And that's the waiting game, right?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: And ultimately, that's really the bigger picture.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: And development shouldn't just happen around local business, it should create opportunities for those businesses to grow and build true enterprise value and participate in the wealth being created.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and again, another power move, right?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: Another power move is not to just watch the development happen, but position your business to participate in it be well before it happens.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_05: And listen, I've seen those master plans, and so it's vital to your business to understand what your community is planning.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_05: And so we're gonna keep the conversation going because after the break, we're talking with someone who knows firsthand what it takes to turn a vision into an actual business.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_05: Samantha Abrams, founder and CEO of Zapodillas Caribbean Restaurant and Catering, joins us to talk about expanding in Anacostia.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_05: Vision meets discipline.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_05: Our guest today knows what it means to take a vision and continue building on it.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_05: Samantha Abrams is a serial entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Zapodillas Caribbean Restaurants and Catering.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_05: What began as a college assignment became a family business, and in 2007, the first Zapodillas brick and mortar location in Fort Washington, Maryland.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_05: What up, PG?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_05: Nearly two decades later, Samantha has expanded the brand with a second location in historic Anacostia, a flagship concept focused on fine dining and Caribbean gastronomy.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_05: And she's done all of that while building a 25-year career spanning the private sector, nonprofit leadership, consulting, investing, and global entrepreneurship.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_05: Samantha, welcome to PowerMoves.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: And the food is amazing.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, yes.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_05: Listen, I have not had, I don't think I've ever had like just Guyanese food.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_05: And I know uh your restaurant says Caribbean.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_05: So is the focus on mostly Guyanese food?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_04: It is centered around Guyanese food, our techniques, a lot of the spices.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but we broad stroke the Caribbean because the Caribbean is my home, it's my region, it's where I do a lot of business.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_04: My husband is Jamaican, so um, we really do make sure that we're incorporating even in the bar, and we can get into a little bit about that later, but we feature rums and um all types of different uh beverages from across the Caribbean and the diaspora.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I I get so excited when I start um hearing about Caribbean beverages being sexually.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_05: My parents are from the Caribbean, they're from the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, and so you know, even the name Zapadillas, and we call that fruit mommy.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_05: That's thank you because we call it mommy.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, so I was like, okay, I see the connection here, and so let's let's jump into it.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_05: You know, Zapodillas is just over a year into this newest chapter with the second location, but the story behind it goes back much further.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_05: Take us back to the beginning.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_05: Where did the idea for Sapodillas come from?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I came to the United States with my family, my three siblings and and parents in 1993.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_04: It was cold, it was in New York.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I have to always shout out New York, Brooklyn, Bushwick.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, went to high school in Forest Hills, and but I just didn't see a future for us in New York.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_04: I I saw more for us.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_04: I knew what my parents had given up.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_04: We had a garment factory back home.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so we were entrepreneurs.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_04: I was used to being in the space of business.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_04: My grandmother was an entrepreneur.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so I started visiting Prince George's County, Maryland in about 95-ish, and fell in love with Prince George's County.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I saw the ability to just spread our wings and do what we came to accomplish.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_04: My parents knew that coming back to North America, they had previously previously lived in Canada, but they knew coming back to North America would give us the most opportunities ever.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_04: And I saw that in Prince George's County because I saw people who look like me, who were doing well, whether you were a degreed, multi-degreed business owner, you know, the from the electricians to the plumbers to the welders, people were able to make life here.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_04: I and I just didn't see it in New York.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_04: And in the early 90s, as you all know, many of you know, especially those of us who remember uh that era, that was the biggie era, right?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_04: And I was in I was in Bushwick, I had a four-year-old brother, and I was primarily responsible for him because my two older sisters work and my parents went to work.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_04: My mom was um doing live-in work, uh, making$4.95 taking care of old people.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_04: And they were so harsh to her, they wouldn't even let her call us as her children to just check in.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_04: I was a teenager trying to care for my brother.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_07: Wow.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_04: Long story short, I was like, I don't even want this baby boy in this environment.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_04: I just don't see it.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I convinced my parents that we should move.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_05: Listen, being able to convince Caribbean parents that they're getting right there, that already shows that's it right there.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, in retrospect, that was like another hard pitch.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_04: And and they, you know, my mom's sister was here because she had her husband's sister who would move, so it's an immigrant story, right?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_04: You have somebody who comes and paves the way, and then somebody else comes.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_04: And so they said, you know what, we can try.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_04: So we tried in 96, it didn't work.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_04: Tried in 97, boom, it worked.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_04: And by 99, I'm sitting in this research statistics class with Dr.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_04: Reback, um, God rest his soul, at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_04: That is where I found a home.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_04: Again, I saw people who look like me, I saw people who were excited about education because in Ghana, in the Caribbean, and a whole you know, education is really, really important to us.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_04: And I was just one of those really smart girls, and I knew I was bright and I knew what I was working towards, but I couldn't afford much.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_04: I wanted to go to Pepperdine, and that was just not in the books.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_04: So I went to Eastern Shore because it was affordable, and the campus was pretty.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um it felt like home, it was small.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I found a big Caribbean population.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_04: My African brothers and sisters were there.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_06: That's right.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_04: Dr.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_04: Aqua, who would watch out for us, were there, and then I sat in this man's class and he was like, I need you all to write a business plan.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_04: And it used to be 30 pages with his his pipe.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_04: He he had a pipe, he didn't smoke it, of course, but he had a pipe in his in his mouth and it and a rolled uh mustache.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, What the heck is that?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, what is he talking?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm sitting there like adhering headlights because you know, again, I'm still new, right?
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_04: Trying to figure out this American business philosophy.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_04: And he said, but write something that's convincing.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_04: Write something that you think you can make happen.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_04: Make something, write something you're passionate about.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, Well, I really want to thank my parents for giving up their lives and our home and everything as we knew it.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I knew we couldn't do garments because that didn't make sense.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_04: And the next best thing was food.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, Oh, we come from food, we know food, and my country has good food, yeah, you know, always being proud.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_04: So I I literally wrote a plan for this business called Sapadose Caribbean Restaurant and Catering.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, wow, that that's just that's amazing and very interesting.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, that at a young age you had the entrepreneurial spirit, and you can tell it started with pitching your parents to move, right?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's number one.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: Number two, you mentioned something, and and Rose and I talk about this all the time is the boom of Prince George's County in the 90s and early 2000s, right?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: I I think it was something that you had to be here, you had to live it, you had to experience it because it was nothing like it.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and you had to see it, right?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_03: Because it was just something that you could just walk and walk down the street, you can go to, you know, your favorite store, your restaurant, friend's house, and you just saw prosperity everywhere.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I'm very, very hopeful and optimistic that we'll get back there, but it's going to be the business owners that drive it, right?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's going to be the businesses such as yourself that invest in the community, that also lead by example, um, because you have these great business models.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, you're sitting in this college classroom and the and the epiphany hits right then and there, like, you know what?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's a that's another good point.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: When you are learning something, you put it into practice immediately.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's something to be noted, right?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_03: Because many entrepreneurs or soon-to-be entrepreneurs wait until the quote unquote right time.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: And you were led to say, not only am I going to develop this concept, which I think that's God talking to you directly, but you acted on it.
• 21:04
  unknown: Okay.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: And so, what did you learn about entrepreneurship once you actually turn that idea into a business?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you know, like I said, my parents were entrepreneurs.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_04: It was first my mom.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, she never really worked for anybody until she came to America.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_04: My dad was uh a government worker and would travel to Cuba often.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so from the age of three, I think I remember my my earliest memory of hearing my mom pitch.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_04: So she would she developed her own patent for pot holders and other mittens.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_04: And we would go down to the general stores, the big general stores that everybody would shop at in Guyana, Fogerty's and Guyana stores, and she would pitch this this product.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_04: And um, my mom never left me with anyone, so I'll be right there with her and toe.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_07: Oh, wow.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_04: Eventually she started dropping.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Dropping me off to like um play school, but that's really what it was.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_04: But really and truly, for me and my family, um entrepreneurship is in our DNA, it's literally something that has been passed down from generations to generations.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_04: My great-grandmother, uh Grandma Rosaline was an entrepreneur.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_04: She used to plant um and sell her product, her produce and and um whatever she was able to harvest.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_04: My grandmother, um, again, you know, four 14 children, and 13 were um 12 lived to adulthood.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_04: The the the other one who died, he died in his early 20s or around 20, something like that.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_04: So she essentially raised 13 kids.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and to help supplement and support her home, she started at a very um young age exercising her own entrepreneurial uh journey.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_04: She started making um planted flower porridge, which is a very popular thing in our diaspora.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_04: So you take the green plantains, you dry them, and you grate them and you make porridge.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like when I tell you some of the best porridge you can ever have in your life, you get a coconut from the tree, you grate that coconut, squeeze that milk, and you actually have a high fiber iron, um, potassium meal.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_04: And so giving that to babies was a big deal, right?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_04: Even though they considered poor.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_04: My mother at the age of 10 was responsible for taking that packaged product.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_04: We're using language that we're familiar now with, right?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_04: Taking that packaged product, taking it to sell it before class at 10 years old, returning with the bank to my grandmother, and then going to school on time.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, wow, and and these were these are river people.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_04: So my mom and and um her siblings were born and raised in a in the kind of the gold town of Guyana, Bartica, which is up the Esukibo River.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_04: The Esuquibo River is one of the most powerful rivers in all of Guyana.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um, the opening of the mouth of the Esuquibo is 27.1 miles, I believe.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um so these are river people, these are people who grew up, you know, with lots of gold, you know, um lumber, uh, just lots and loads of resources.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_04: But that's how my mom started, and that's that that generational um transfer of knowledge that you can't really codify in a like you can't write, you have to like see it put into action.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_04: You're like, oh, wait a second, that's that's not just something that you learn in the schoolyards that's right or the classroom.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: You were an apprentice.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_05: That's 100% you were an apprentice, and you know, I find that a lot of uh of people that are good at business, it's because they have watched it over and over again.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_05: They've seen their family doing it, and and so I absolutely love that.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_05: And I that's a part of why I am a huge advocate for entrepreneurship in Prince George's County Public Schools.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_05: I think it's such a beneficial thing for our kids to see and to be a part of, to come up with ideas, to pitch for funding for their ideas.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_05: So, yes, I love that.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I was cutting, I was cutting patterns by seven.
• 25:53
  unknown: Wow.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, the patterns that they were putting out for whether they were making school uniforms or if they were uh making uniforms for the bank, because you know everything in the Caribbean is is like a uniform system.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_04: So you can identify people and what they do, where they work based on their uniforms, what school you went to is uniform.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: So we got a lot of business from that.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_04: And the teachers, my teachers, my educators would come to my mom.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, my friends' parents would come to my parents to have them sew their uniforms.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_04: And then the last thing, which is why I felt very passionate about this whole concept of entrepreneurship in America, in the United States of America, is because um we were awarded uh the contract to sew the uniform, the overalls for the sugar estates in Guyana just as we left.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_04: So they they turned that down on the brink of explosion for the business on the cusp of like serious, you know, success.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_04: And they were like, no, we gotta take the kids to you know to the US and give them her chats.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_03: You're talking about vision and seeing seeing something bigger.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_04: They were crazy.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, I don't know if I'm in my 40s.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I know we're I know we're gonna segue real quick, but but Sam, Samantha, I think one of the things I heard was how systems, the systems have passed down generation, the systems in process, right?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: The things that your grandmother was doing, yeah, you learned at a young age, your mom did at a young age that you learned at at a young age.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_03: And it's just it's amazing to see just the generation, that's generational wealth, though, when you think about it, right?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's the it's the passing down of the system that creates the revenue and the wealth.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I'm I've now passed it on to my children.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_04: My daughter worked for me all summer.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the but they've been working in the business since I mean, since they're really born.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_04: Because Zoe, the eldest, she was born a week prior to us signing the papers for the business.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_07: Oh wow.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I mean, the thing is, my my parents were they've been such staunch supporters of me and my crazy ideas that you know, when I shared this with my parents, their mom said, Yeah, we need to do this because she was already baking and selling stuff to the church people.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_04: So it was it was natural, and she didn't really want to work for anybody, and I didn't want my mom working for anybody.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_04: She so she's been my mom is like my MVP because she's been holding it down in Fort Washington while dad and I held on to corporate jobs and would go in the night and take off our nice clothes and put on aprons to sell to our customers.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_05: Wow, so let's let's kind of dig into that because you know you took the business plan, the 30-page business plan that you did at UMES, and you put it into action right here in Fort Washington.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and you opened a restaurant.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_05: But what was what was that like opening a restaurant here?
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_04: Honestly, so we had transformed, we we purchased our our home, which is still our family home in Cam Springs in 2001.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_04: It was a complete dump, it was a foreclosure, and we walked in there, the people had like totally wrecked it.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_04: And mom and I were like, Wow, this is a good one.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: See the opportunity.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: Beautiful.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_04: We're like, all we need to do, and dad is like, Yeah, I can I can do that, I can easily clean that up.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_04: And oh, we just we'll get Wayne, her brother.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we just get Wayney to do a new kitchen.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_04: We were literally going in, and I mean, it looked awful.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_04: And a couple two years later, I think we took the garage because it was just sitting there, nobody was parking their garage, the door wasn't working, and we were like, let's transform this into catering because we can't cook in the kitchen, and people were always calling us for food.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_04: So we we transformed it into a catering kitchen, and we kept looking for spaces.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_04: We looked at places in college park, we looked all over, and then we vent we were vending at the US, um, excuse me, the Guyanese embassy.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_04: They host events every year, and this lovely Guyanese couple came up to us and said, Oh my gosh, y'all food so nice, y'all hands sweet.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we have this, we have this restaurant in Fort Washington, and we have no idea what we're doing.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's it's just not doing great.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_04: We own a daycare, that's what we know.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_04: Don't y'all want to buy it?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_04: And that was fall of 2006.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_04: Started looking to borrow money because we were like, oh my god, that is so much money.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_04: How are we gonna find it?
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_04: You know, 2006, any money was kind of big money, right?
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_04: So we're like, where are we gonna find this money?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_04: My wonderful uncle, who was my mentor and and just supporter and champion, Uncle Milton in London.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_04: I would call him from my Geico phone.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_04: Sorry, Geico, and and he would say, Okay, okay, niece, um, we need to beef up this this planet.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_04: It has too many chewing gum words, too many soft words.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_04: And if you're gonna go into the bank, nobody would lend us.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_04: We had all we had my parents had their home, I had my home, I had a stellar 401k because Geico did profit sharing.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_04: I had I had a pension, like all the things that they said you should have when wanting to launch a business, and nobody would lend us a penny.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, wow, no, can you unpack the deal a little bit more?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_03: So the bros, this goes in the ETA, right?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_03: I was thinking just about ETA, entrepreneurship through acquisition.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_03: I would love to hear the schematics of the deal.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_04: Well, what we came to a number that we could agree on, and um it took a while to source it.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_04: After a while, we just looked at each other.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_04: We're like, you know, nobody's gonna give us anything, and we have to be our own cavalry, and so we're just gonna bet fully on ourselves.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_04: So I took out money, my parents took out money from their home.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_04: We went into our savings.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_04: My parents have been very conservative people.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, again, even with that good credit, it just didn't matter.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_04: So we worked out a deal with them, and we got to the point where um it just was the right time, and we sat in a room right after I had my baby, um, moved all the money into a bank account, went over to the restaurant, drove over there, wrote them one check.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_04: Here's your money, and then I remember paying the attorney who completely ripped me off.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_04: I wrote him a personal check to pay for the transaction.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I wrote him a personal check, and that was the deal.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_04: And the very next day we went in and started operating on underneath this awful brand, this failing restaurant.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_04: We're like, okay, we're gonna hurry up and get a new sign up and let people know there's new ownership and there's a new name.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_04: And the lady who was working there at the time, like just kind of helping out.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um, she was so wonderful, had some developmental delays, but we just we kept her on.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_04: We were like, we're not gonna fire you.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_04: Just stay on, stay with us, you know, don't worry.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_04: And then I used to take my little six-pound two-ounce baby and just say, Okay, don't drop the baby, okay.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_04: And poor Zoe, she, I said, 'Zoe, you're gonna be my curry baby because she was in there with me from three weeks old.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_04: That baby was in that business, and wow, she started working at the register at 10 and like just supporting however she can.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_04: And wow, it's just been a family business.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_04: My siblings, my brother, my sister in particular, they showed up when they could, and I don't know, we've just been building ever since.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_04: Zoe worked at the restaurant all this summer as my my hostess, and she did exceptionally well.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Zion learns the business to the point where he is now uh uh officially a senior Demapa Catholic, and um he wants to pursue business with finance, and he's like, I just want to be an entrepreneur, I want to do what you do, mom, but I know I need to learn some stuff.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_04: So nice.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_04: He runs, he actually runs his own e-commerce business now.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_04: He's been running it for like three years.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Very nice.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Very nice.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_04: The kid makes money.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_05: What does he sell?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_05: What kind of products?
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_04: So he is six foot four, almost five, and he likes um his feet are pretty big, anywhere from 13 to 15, depending on the brand.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_04: So he likes to buy sneakers and resell, like, or he'll look for vented stuff.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_04: He's a thrifter.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, he'll find hoodies that are kind of one-of-a-kind collabs, especially stuff with off-white.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_04: The kids, the stuff that they taught me.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's cool.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_03: We gotta get your son on the show.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, I would love that.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, love that.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, so now you decided to open a second location.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_05: About this is about 20 years in between.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_05: First location we have Fort Washington, Maryland, and now you have a second location that is in Anacostia, and I absolutely love that you chose Anacostia.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_05: Give us some insight into why that location it chose me.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_04: Every time I think about it, it's it's um my life is so ordered.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um what I've what I've come to learn about myself is that I'm pretty obedient, and I've been listening to God for a really long time.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_04: I don't do everything, right?
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: You said, but I'm listening, but I hear you, I hear you.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_04: Like, but um, I was just having breakfast with a girlfriend, and it took us two months to like put this meeting or this connection on the calendar.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_04: We said, you know, I committed to it being in my diary, and I said, We're not gonna change unless something drastic happens.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and we met up and we just had such a good time catching up.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_04: And she's like, Girl, you ever thought about opening another restaurant?
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, all the time.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_04: I said, but I'm so enthralled in my, you know, my nonprofit leadership work and so busy and the kids, you know, raising the kids, and I don't know how to do it, it's so expensive.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I can't go to DC.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_04: DC's crazy.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_04: She's like, Well, have you ever thought about Southeast?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, Oh my god, I love Southeast because in my corporate um tenure, you know, almost 15 years, 13 at Geico, I fund work in a community in communities across the country looked that looked like Southeast.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_04: So I was so comfortable.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_04: I knew Marion Barry very, very well.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_04: I knew what he had single-handedly done for Prince George's County, made a class as well with that summer program um that allowed people the ability to start work.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_04: I had several friends who lived in Prince George's County who worked in government while we were in college.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_07: Oh, yeah.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_04: And I was acutely aware of that.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um I was acutely aware of the community, and and but what I was not aware of was how it was rapidly changing.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_04: And and this this drive for revitalization and a revival.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_04: And I swear to you, this was Thursday morning.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_04: We had a good old time.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_04: She's like, Well, I'm I'm the SVP for this this project, but you should just come check it out.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, girl, all right, I'm gonna come bring my parents because my parents are like my business partners, but they're my homies.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, I love that.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_04: And they're my voice of reason.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_04: Like everything I do, I check in with my parents.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_04: They're like my best advisor.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_04: My dad is one of the most sound reasoners you can ever encounter.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_04: The man is a gift, and we went there that Monday afternoon.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_04: I walked in that door, it was just dirt all over the floor and debris, just dirt and debris with a structure that was you know pretty fortified, I would say.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um and I was like, Oh my god, I want it.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_03: So wait, going back, going back to the house to the foreclosure, right?
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, going back to that.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_03: That was preparation.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_05: She sees it.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_03: You know what?
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so I'm walking through the place.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, Yeah, a bar can go here, and she was like, Sam, how are you seeing this?
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, I don't know, I just see it and I want it, and it just all happened at the right time.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_04: Is again that preparation meets opportunity and the willingness to bet on yourself and rely on community.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_04: Because I had a lot of people who held my hand during this process, and huge shout out to Mayor Bowser and the entire Dempet team because it would not have been possible without them.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um, that's how I really got my kind of clarity of oh goodness, we're we're gonna be able to move this forward.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_04: And I really was proud to be a part of something that is so historic.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, just the fact that it's named Historic Anacostia, yeah, and knowing that I sat on sacred ground because I too come from a country where we have so much reverence for our land.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um, although our country is very diverse, it's made up of six people, which is why the food is so uh diverse and it's filled with gastronomy and it's just a party in your mouth every time you eat.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_04: It's because of our people.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but our indigenous brothers and sisters in Guyana, um, I can't remember my teaching, but I think we have seven or eight tribes: the Tainos, Arawaks, Caribs, Tesho, like we have indigenous people.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_04: And um, so I I've always been familiar and understanding the need to um really be a part of something and not wait for somebody to tell you what to do and charting our own path and and not, you know, everybody, not everybody, people like to say, well, oh, this person and that person comes in and um why them because this is for us.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_04: You can't wait for somebody for the community to to be prim and proper, yeah.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, to be perfect, to be buttoned up, and to say, these are my people.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not I've never had any issues in historic Anacostia.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_04: I'm going on four years in the community from the time I saw the building and started the process to now.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I see the young people on the side of the streets, and I'm like, yo, what's up?
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_04: There was a fight on the bus that I had to help break up the other day.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_04: Two beautiful young ladies.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_04: I went and inserted myself.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_04: That might sound crazy and dangerous, and probably is in hindsight.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe she could have been upset with me and did something else.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_04: But those and those encounters are so rare.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_04: But that is the that is what people try to lead with.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_04: As opposed to no, like this is a community that is worth fighting for and standing up and being part of this revival that Harriet Tubman traversed the very streets in which we traverse today.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_04: Frederick Douglass's home is around the corner.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so for me, as I said before, it's a gift and it I was instructed to make this come to life.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_04: And every single day with all of my being, I literally work to make sure that the people on my team are my first customers.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_04: So my retention rate is high on my team, right?
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_04: And if and if you if you don't belong there, I am happy to abbreviate your time.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, slow, fire, fast, huh?
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, yeah, high, slow, fire, fast.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_04: But the folks who live in the community and the folks who come from all over the world, literally, because my work does expand beyond borders, and so the network has really stood me up as well.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, from getting catering contracts to folks coming and swiping their corporate card for events and It's literally taken a village.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_04: And y'all know last year was not easy for hospitality with um the current administration's view uh in our communities and and uh various agencies descending on our communities that really put people into a flight or fright stage um to the awful heat that we experienced last year.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I'm I'm really making the project sound almost like rose-colored glasses, and it wasn't.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um the the the build out, the the folks that I had to interact with, the challenges that I had, the I mean, some nights I would go to bed asking God, like, what am I to do?
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_04: Because I cannot do this anymore.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_04: And and some I would go to sleep so heavy, and I would wake up the next morning with such clarity.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I believe that God wanted me to be in that extremely vulnerable state because it was difficult.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_04: I remember something went completely sour on a in a what I thought was going to be a good partnership with someone very close in in close proximity to us.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_04: And they came back and said, We're not doing it.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_04: We're not doing it.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_04: And it was such a callous response, and nobody could understand why they were performing this way.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_04: They had all good reasons to be engaging with me, and I remember crying profusely, just like letting it all like wailing, and just it was so hard.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_05: And then I just remember God picking me up and holding me up, and you know, I really do want to talk about, you know, you talked about um Mare Bowser and Demped, and I know that um that they did focus a lot on revitalizing, on black women being owners, because I know that um Spice Suite was also able to get her mall, Angel Gregario was able to get her mall through the help of um funding and and uh some of the things that uh Mayor Bowser wanted to achieve.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_05: And so in 2006, you had to fund all of that yourself.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_05: What did that piece of it look like this time around?
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_04: It the I had a significant investment from the city, and then we had to put up a significant investment again.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_05: And I want people to understand that because a lot of times people are are looking to get something funded and they don't understand that you have to come to the table with something as well.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_05: Gotta have skin in the game.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_03: Say it again, Rose.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_03: Say it again.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_03: You have to, especially in this environment.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_04: You have to have skin in the game.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_04: And look, I um I was giving myself the own got my own guidance, right?
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_04: Because I the the last part of my my work still is, but in a in a formal environment, formal work environment, and uh an organization I was attached to, halcyon.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it is a global uh incubator.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_04: And so at Halcyon, I say we still, because I'm still involved, even though my dear good friend Dan Barker is the president CEO.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we sourced entrepreneurs from all over the world who believed that impact and profit could run in alignment.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_07: Yep.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_04: And we brought them uh to the United States of America, invested non-diluted funding.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um they uh got the best support from folks like Deloitte and Arnold Porter and Amazon.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_04: But we wanted to make sure that the entrepreneurs were committed fully.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_04: And and and okay, if it wasn't you know the CEO, they had a CFO or a CTO or a COO.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_04: We you you have to show your ability to have your lens, like you have to focus.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I made that decision in 2023 when I stepped down from my formal role as the CEO of an organization, and I was just like, I'm gonna bet on myself again.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I like I don't have a ton of money to pay myself, but I went out and I hustled.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_04: I built up our catering line at Fort Washington so that allowed me to pay myself something while building this thing over here that had like zero dollars.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_04: I had to really just invest everything and allocate everything.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_07: Yep.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I took I took every single credit card that I had and maxed them things out.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_03: Listen, you gotta tell the truth.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, business ownership is not easy.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I mean it's not, you know, and and Samantha, I I wanna I've heard so so many gems, I want to kind of segue a little, you know, kind of go back a little bit because part of what I've heard you say is that the work ethic was there, right?
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_03: The faith and commitment was there, um, the perseverance was there, the discipline.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_03: I've not heard you once say, Oh, I'm trying to make money.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_03: You said I'm trying to build a business.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_03: That's not a bad thing.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just I point that out because you spent your own money and you you built the system, right?
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_03: You worked the system, you worked it every day, and and as a result, the ROI is there.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_03: But I want to go back to something that's spiritual, right?
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_03: You said you said there was there was a time where you got fatigued and you were tired, and you asked God, you say, Hey, what's happening?
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_03: Because I can't do this anymore.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_03: That's the moment where God wants you to know that He got you.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_03: That was the moment right there, just to show, hey, I know you're tired, but now let me handle it and I'm gonna take it from there.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_03: And and I've and I'm hearing you say over and over and over, like, hey, I'm gonna just let him lead.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_03: And then as soon as he gave me the direction, I'm gone.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm on it.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_04: So I just it's and it was plenty like that.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_04: It it was it were so many moments and times.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_04: I'm telling you, I would go to sleep confused, and I have because I GC'd the project, I didn't hire someone to oversee the build out.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_04: I did that now.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, some would say, well, that wasn't smart, and I had hindsight, I was like, oh, I could have done better, or I should have known whatever.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_04: But I did it, and I had a builder, and I, you know, I had folks that I brought in because I wanted to make sure that um some of the work was done by people that I really trust.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I would be there early in the morning, leave, go shop, go back to Fort Washington, cook, cater, deliver to Capitol Hill, serve the food, get home, sleep, repeat every day for almost two long years.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_03: People don't understand, people don't understand that is and I still cook, I still cook, I still cook.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, but that level of perseverance and dedication is is not everyone can do that and understand that you are doing this in blind sight, right?
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like you there's no clear it, that's it, right?
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so you can't explain what drives you, it just does, and you just move forward.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm just someone who I'm a farseer, uh I'm a practitioner of manifestation.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_04: I know that I have the ability to manifest exactly what I want to see happen, and it will be.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_04: It doesn't mean that it is not gonna be swervy and zigzaggy and tumbling and bruising up my knee, busting my face.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_04: It could be a whole well, no, not my pretty face.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but come through, Prince.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know, I get some bruises on my elbows, keep it to the elbows, right?
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_04: You know, but it it and the one thing that corporate America taught me, specifically Geico Corporation, because that's really where I grew up, and I had some amazing leaders who invested in me and they let me run because I delivered.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and the more I delivered, the more they let me just do to the point where I was just I was running and just hey, we're gonna do this, this and they trusted me.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_04: And that kind of trust, uh, for someone, especially I was so young, I was running PL by 22.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, nice, nice, um, making the company money by 22.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_04: And didn't but didn't have the wherewithal to there was so much naivety in my young mind because I was just I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing, wear my cute little tweed skirt sets, you know, and and and and and talking, negotiating these multi-million dollar deals with people who had three, four degrees higher than me.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_04: But I've never let that just determine who I am.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_04: Like that's the one thing about my parents.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_04: They they instill a level of confidence in me that I honestly have no idea where it came from.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and it's like the older I get is the the more, especially girl, you know, once you get into that sweet little age, you're like whatever.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you can't tell me nothing.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_04: Nothing, yes, not not not nothing, nothing, nothing.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_04: So but but is that that what I learned is that foundation is key, funny, yes, and when you build the foundation right, and I grew up in a company, you know, I was on an executive track, and so I learned all about systems and processes.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_04: And when you when you systemize everything and you process everything is a process and it's controlled by technology, yes, scale.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_00: Gucci, yeah, that's it.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I didn't have the ability, and to be frank, some of the training to do this kind of infrastructure build prior to this.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_04: All the stuff that I've done fed into where I am, and more importantly, all the things I did, the roles I led, the places I've been helped to inform my friendships, my relationships, that I can tell you and look to this person and that person, it's like, gosh, if I didn't have them, then what?
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, um, so you have to really understand that time is fleeting, time is also illusionist, the the time that we exist in and our understanding and concept of time, right?
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_04: That our time is no match for God's time.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_04: And um, if you do believe that um your life is ordered, then you'll subscribe to the alchemist's machtoop, which is it is written.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_07: That's right.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_04: And so I just kind of lean into it.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_04: And I always think worst case, because I'm a risk, I you know, I grew up in risk management, I'm a risk mitigator.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_04: I'll be like, what's the worst that can happen?
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's the worst.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, let me work backwards then.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna put that in place, this in place, that in place.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_04: Like half my morning was risk mitigating with my team, right?
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so you have to take the time to your point, Alex, is to you have to build the infrastructure.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_04: And I purposely did not try.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_04: Well, no, I'm lying.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_04: We tried once before, and it was right around COVID, and it come the deal completely fell through.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_04: And I was ever so grateful because had we launched that effort, um, we wouldn't have had DC.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's so timing like that.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, exactly.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_05: Like something falls through, and you think it's the biggest, the worst thing in the world, and it turns out you're like, man, I'm crazy dancing.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_05: That was alignment right there.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, yes.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, when we talk about alignment, you know, Samantha, you've experienced access to capital from several sides.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_03: And one as a business owner, as an advisor to entrepreneurs, and as an investor.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_03: So, what do you think business owners need to understand about capital before they go looking for it?
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_04: My number one um advice and caution is understanding what kind of capital.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_04: And do you really need the kind that you think you're asking for?
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um, oftentimes, particularly in our community, our our fluency is not where it needs to be on the business side.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_04: And so we're thinking, like, I I literally experienced uh an entrepreneur was like recent race series A.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, What?
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_04: Right, and you what you what kind of revenue you got, yeah, and it and and it wasn't a jab at them, but it was more so okay, I now understand where you are, understanding what this this uh investment kind of like track looks like.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_04: So let us do everything that we need to do, particularly for people who are from my region and from the continent.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um less the continent, because they've been accelerating, growing, and moving lightly, but we're still we're still experiencing stuff.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_04: So my job out there right now is to support those entrepreneurs who are trying to grow and build, um, especially entrepreneurs.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_04: As of late, I've been involved in some climate adaptation and climate resiliency work in the Caribbean.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we are hit hardest and we don't have representation.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and we really have some smart, uh, innovative entrepreneurs who are trying to make sure that we disrupt what's happening in our countries and our islands.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_04: Look what happened in Jamaica uh almost a year ago.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_04: And the displacement, you know, Ghana doesn't have hurricanes, so we're thinking strategically about how we become a hub, a safe haven.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but again, from that private sector entrepreneurial side.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so it's just, you know, it's that's the big advice.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_04: Understanding what you really need and and when, um, and and building the infrastructure before you run out because investors really need to understand and see what you've built so far.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, they need to have confidence uh that it's actually going somewhere.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah um and and that's why I'm I'm especially proud of Mubarak Somalia out of um of Ghana.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_04: We're building the first ever digital Islamic bank.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_04: Mubarak spent this is the second company.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_04: He has it the first one.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_04: The second one, because it's such a highly regulated environment, Mubarak has worked over time to build the relationships and understanding what the regulators want to see, as opposed to building a product and then jumping out to tell the regulators, hey, I want you to approve it.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_04: Doesn't work like that.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_03: So, uh Samantha, when you say, you know, knowing capital, I want to talk a little bit about entrepreneurs knowing the numbers.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and just kind of briefly touch on it from a standpoint of owning a restaurant.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_03: If I'm if I'm looking to own a restaurant, what what do I really need to know about my revenue stream, my cost of capital, my customer, my cost of goods sold, right?
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_03: Like how do I break that down if I'm if I'm new to the business or I'm um I got a great idea, I have a great skill, but oftentimes restaurants, one, they come in lever over leveraged, right?
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_03: And they don't have the ability to sustain.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_03: But uh what we find after the fact is they didn't really understand the number.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_04: And oftentimes, I share this a lot with food entrepreneurs because food entrepreneurs are so passionate and they have a right to be.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um, because everybody has to eat.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and we are literally fed, our souls are fed through food.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_04: That's why we have to be careful with what we consume.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um but really understanding the market and the audiences, uh, you see, our food crisscrosses through, right?
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and what what I did with the company was also build up a solid catering reputation.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_04: And we're a full service caterer.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_04: So it's not just, oh, you come get a pan of food and then we, you know, it or we deliver it and that's it.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_04: No, we execute, we are uh what I like to call um hospitality producers as far as food production.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_04: Uh we actually produce food, we style food, you know, when we do conferences and and and you know, galas and all that, you want that plate to look pretty.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_04: And we also know that most, especially in the DMV, most of those uh opportunities don't come down to people look like me.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm constantly beating the pavement.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_04: I am the chief development officer, I'm the chief growth officer.
• 1:02:07
  SPEAKER_04: So, like I wear a million and one hats and it's fine.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_04: I'm comfortable.
• 1:02:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I see already how this is moving and how we're we're going to be growing because we have opportunities in front of us that we never had before, that we're only able to have now because A, we understood our audience, B, we are diversifying our revenue stream.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_04: So you have to treat, and this is kind of where I speak a lot about, particularly Caribbean and ethnic food restaurants, you have to treat it like you're running a corporation.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_04: But if you really think about it though, the people who are starting these businesses, do they most of them have corporate experience or have somebody the luxury to have someone come in and even keep, you know, a CPA to run their books or even accountants, you know.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_04: So the tools and the resources that we we may or may not have play a huge role in our ultimate success.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and and really and truly, we all know entrepreneurship, I hate saying this, but I have to say it, it's oftentimes lonely.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's why I have my tribe.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_04: Like I have my my one of my best friends is an entrepreneur.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_04: You know Sanjay Alex.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_00: I do, I do.
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um and we we literally rely on each other.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_04: She'll pick up the phone, girl.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_07: I mean like girl, who want to go first?
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but even even like you know, trying to solve for, I remember I had some like cash flow issues.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, what am I gonna do?
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_04: You have to be vulnerable too and talk to people who might have ideas, who might have a connection, who might say, yo, um, I know so and so and so who needs a a cater for this event.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_04: Why don't you call Samantha?
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_04: But you you have to have that reputation, right?
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we're we're not late, we execute flawlessly, and I'm hard on my team, but I'm hard on myself.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_04: You know, when I go into the restaurant at three, four o'clock in the morning because we're catering for Congress, I know how many checks, check stops, your security checkpoints I have to go through.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_04: I know how much time I need to bake in for loading.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm designing my menu that's gonna give me a menu with ease.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_04: So sometimes we overcomplicate things and we want to show off and do this and do that.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_04: No, sometimes keep it simple.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_06: That's right.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_04: Keep it simple.
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_04: Look at your menu, what's selling, what's not.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I've had people come into my restaurant saying, Oh, they're not enough options.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_04: I said, Well, too tough.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_05: Because based on what we have laid out, this is what's going on.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_03: And it's not a bad option, it's not bad either, it's really good.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you gotta go switch for yourself.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_04: Like, still hasn't gone through the whole menu, and he's been there a couple times.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_07: Yep, yeah.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_04: So, and we're always adding things, but you have to be comfortable.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_04: This is the one of the best things I could say to anybody listening.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_04: Be comfortable saying no.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_03: Or this is Power Moves on Lip106 coming up next, the Power Move.
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_03: We'll be right back.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_03: We're back with Power Moves on Lip 106.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_03: We're business speech community.
• 1:05:36
  SPEAKER_03: Let's get into it.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_05: Listen, I've been having that conversation with myself over the past couple months as I become clearer on the things that I want to do, because I've been doing a lot of things, you know, when you're in a position sometimes and you need to be bringing in money.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_05: And so you say yes to things, not that I don't want to do them.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_05: But I didn't know I didn't want to do them until after I did it.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, yeah, that ain't for me.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_05: That ain't for me.
• 1:06:09
  SPEAKER_05: And then it worked out, right?
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_05: It worked out.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_05: But you know, so I get invited to a lot of events.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, I I'm a huge supporter and I like to go.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, I get invited because I have this media platform and people know I'm going to talk about it and recap and do all of this and that.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_05: But some of them, I'm just too old.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, sister girl, cannot go to these things that start at 10 o'clock and it's over at 2 a.m.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_05: But I can't do it.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm I'm I'm definitely not wearing heels.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, I really, I really love uh where we are in the journey, you know.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_05: And so now we're on the other side of opening, the second location.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_05: It's been over a year now.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_05: What like a year and a year?
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_04: It's a year and it's a year and almost eight months.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_05: A year and eight months, yes.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_05: And so here we are, uh up, open, running.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_05: What's been the harder, what's been harder than you anticipated?
• 1:07:17
  SPEAKER_04: Geez, you only want me to pick one thing?
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_05: Give us the rundown.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_04: I you know, there's like two things.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_04: First of all, we had just such a interesting year started off, and then all the things that happened were completely outside of our control.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_04: And you start a new year, you're like, yes, good scroll.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_04: And then there's this big ass mother nature ice dump.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_04: And that was something different.
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_04: That tested me and the team, and our I mean, some days last year, I remember sitting in the restaurant with my GM Tara, and it was so hot, people didn't want to come outside, and and like as I said, ice was out there.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_04: We 900 something for what for what what am I supposed to do with this?
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_04: And nobody would come in.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_04: And I think the big part of again, just stay in the course.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it's a hustle every single weekend.
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_04: We can't we can't afford to miss a weekend.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we we literally, because you know, margins in hospitality, particularly full service, it's really, really hard.
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um I you know owners in all types of businesses, we go without pay, uh, and you make the sacrifice, your family makes the sacrifice sacrifice along with you.
• 1:08:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and you know, this while my retention rate is high, I've also lost people and or had to abbreviate.
• 1:08:56
  SPEAKER_04: And so the biggest thing is always making sure that we have the the talent, uh, and the right kind of talent and the right mix of talent.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but the perseverance, and you have to, as a leader, I have to show my team every day that we can do this.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, that's right.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_04: I I've I've been able to convince them that we're going in the right direction.
• 1:09:25
  SPEAKER_04: And not just by saying it, but modeling and showing them like real evidence of work.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so that's just it's hard, it's tiring, but I take a lot of breaks.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um I have a leadership team that performs and it allows me to do the other things that I need to do, and it also allows me to take rest because my plate is really, really full.
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_04: But I only do these things because I know that's the mandate, and I have a lot of people who are relying on me to get this right.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I just I don't know, I just kind of go, just do it.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_04: Even when I'm like, what's payroll looking like next week?
• 1:10:15
  SPEAKER_04: Um am I on payroll next week, or do I need to remove myself off payrolls next week?
• 1:10:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_04: Listen because that's a real conversation, right?
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_03: That's a real conversation.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta move to a dividend payment for yourself later.
• 1:10:27
  SPEAKER_03: We'll have that conversation later.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_03: But uh, Samantha, you know, um from a business standpoint, like how do you know that you've moved from, hey, we're open to we have a sustainable business.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_04: We're getting there.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_03: We're what are some indicators?
• 1:10:48
  SPEAKER_04: It's sustainable because of the things that we have in place, not necessarily because of what the money is in the bank or whatever, you know, it's it's sustainable too because the people we have in place, and the fact that the culture supports the vision, yeah.
• 1:11:09
  SPEAKER_04: So there's a culture that the business has, and I have everybody who has bought into this, and we're all marching to the same drumbeat.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_07: Nice.
• 1:11:23
  SPEAKER_04: I think I think that I believe I firmly believe that is what is going to be the game changer because we're not a big brand that comes in and could put in people and you know moves people from different locations.
• 1:11:38
  SPEAKER_04: We're not that.
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then of course, an indicator is that I no longer have to reach into my empty pocket because I ran out of money, to be frank.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I've run out of money, so I can't afford that's why I say I can't afford to miss because if I miss, like I have nothing to pull it from.
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_04: So we've been able to make payroll every single two weeks that we've been open, which is a gift and a blessing.
• 1:12:06
  SPEAKER_04: And that that alone builds trust amongst my team.
• 1:12:12
  SPEAKER_04: They trust me to do that with and for them.
• 1:12:15
  SPEAKER_04: But because they know that they're they they I have faith in them that they're going to then deliver, you know.
• 1:12:22
  SPEAKER_04: So it's a it's uh we say in Ghana, hand wash, hand, make, hand come clean.
• 1:12:27
  SPEAKER_05: Nice, yep, nice.
• 1:12:30
  SPEAKER_05: So after doing this more than once, having a restaurant opening going forward, and I know location two is still very young, but what girl, we gone, we already doing it.
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_05: Listen, we doing it, we are doing it, and so what would you tell someone who is dreaming of being a restaurateur?
• 1:12:54
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm gonna say this.
• 1:12:55
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, so we have the fast casual model, we have our catering line that's been in existence before our first, you know, location, our brick and mortar.
• 1:13:06
  SPEAKER_04: We have flagship, so that's three, and then there's a fourth coming soon.
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, you are not playing with us.
• 1:13:14
  SPEAKER_04: So a fourth vertical, God willing, and it will again continue to diversify our skills, ability, and our passion for food across service lines, right?
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but for folks who I I have a friend.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_04: Let me tell you this quick story.
• 1:13:38
  SPEAKER_04: I have a friend, he owns a carabin, a Guyanese restaurant.
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_04: He doesn't want to grow, he's absolutely content.
• 1:13:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's a sweet little business, everybody loves it.
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's a neighborhood staple, the food is good, and he's just content, he is happy.
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody has to be okay with where they want to be.
• 1:14:03
  SPEAKER_04: Define what it is that you want to see for yourself and just move to it.
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_07: That's right.
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um, for food entrepreneurs, it's just tough, but you have to really understand what you're offering.
• 1:14:18
  SPEAKER_04: It is a product and it's also a service, right?
• 1:14:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, and Alex can tell you can't wait to host you, Rose.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_04: But one of the things that we are exemplars of at Zapadillas DC in particular is service.
• 1:14:36
  SPEAKER_04: Amen.
• 1:14:36
  SPEAKER_04: Because people want to come into an environment that looks like that and have stellar service.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_03: Rose, is that the first thing I told you?
• 1:14:45
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Rose, you gotta go.
• 1:14:46
  SPEAKER_03: I'm telling you right now, the customer service is top notch.
• 1:14:49
  SPEAKER_03: Top notch.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_04: Which is why I go back to the whole my team is my first customer.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that's a big piece of it, especially in these days now.
• 1:15:01
  SPEAKER_05: You know, um, we have so many options and service, that experience.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_05: Once people walk through the door, that is what will keep them.
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, yes, the food has to be good, and the service also has to be top notch.
• 1:15:20
  SPEAKER_05: You know, it's those little things that you pay attention to that make people feel special and feel appreciated.
• 1:15:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_05: I love that.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_05: Listen, I can't wait to stop in.
• 1:15:33
  SPEAKER_05: I'm excited.
• 1:15:35
  SPEAKER_04: We, you know, we try the pre the business is pressure, hope, faith.
• 1:15:39
  SPEAKER_04: The pressure to come in and get it better than the day before.
• 1:15:42
  SPEAKER_04: The hope that you know we will execute the way we want, and the faith that people will walk in the minute we open the doors.
• 1:15:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's some days if we get it wrong, like I tell people, give me grace, and we always fix it.
• 1:15:58
  SPEAKER_04: Thankfully, that is so minimal, like you know, because we just try so hard.
• 1:16:06
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm I'm I walk around the kitchen often and I'm I'm running QC.
• 1:16:11
  SPEAKER_04: I'm looking, I could look at something and say that doesn't look right.
• 1:16:13
  SPEAKER_04: That that doesn't have it's not the right amount of curry.
• 1:16:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, that's not my tambrand gira.
• 1:16:19
  SPEAKER_04: That my cotton fritters, it needs some more flour.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_04: You know, like all I can see it.
• 1:16:24
  SPEAKER_04: That's why I too need to be in the business.
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_04: In as much as I'm doing other things, I'm there.
• 1:16:31
  SPEAKER_04: I'm and I'm with my team.
• 1:16:33
  SPEAKER_04: I am showing them that I can do anything and everything that needs to be done.
• 1:16:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so when they're short, guess who's jumping behind the line?
• 1:16:41
  SPEAKER_04: Guess who's putting on a chef coat and going behind the line?
• 1:16:45
  SPEAKER_04: It's me.
• 1:16:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:16:47
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, 100%.
• 1:16:49
  SPEAKER_05: Love it.
• 1:16:50
  SPEAKER_05: So this has been an amazing conversation, Samantha.
• 1:16:53
  SPEAKER_05: Learning about you, about how you have gotten into the hospitality industry, how you convinced your parents to pack up and move to Prince George's County.
• 1:17:05
  SPEAKER_03: At the right time.
• 1:17:06
  SPEAKER_03: At the right time.
• 1:17:07
  SPEAKER_05: At the right time, yes, yes.
• 1:17:10
  SPEAKER_05: And so we are at the part of the show that is my very favorite part.
• 1:17:14
  SPEAKER_05: We call it the power move.
• 1:17:17
  SPEAKER_05: Every successful entrepreneur has one.
• 1:17:20
  SPEAKER_05: It is a decision, a risk, a pivot, or even a step back that ultimately changed the trajectory, the trajectory of your career.
• 1:17:30
  SPEAKER_05: And so when I look at you and your journey, there are so many possibilities because we didn't even really talk about your other or look, your other work.
• 1:17:42
  SPEAKER_05: And so when you look back over it all, what was your power move?
• 1:17:48
  SPEAKER_04: I have to say, my power move was deciding to leave Geico Corporation, even though I was told not to.
• 1:17:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, because uh of some interesting uh things that had occurred, and my leaderships, you know, they they said no, we'll we'll figure it out, we'll we'll fix it, da da da.
• 1:18:13
  SPEAKER_04: But I knew in that moment that my value and my worth was so much more, and I took a risk again.
• 1:18:26
  SPEAKER_04: Some of that uh I don't want to call it naivety, but just unknown.
• 1:18:33
  SPEAKER_04: I I had two young kids, I had a cushy job, I could have just stayed and continued on my my track, but I didn't like what I experienced, I didn't like where it was going, and um, you know, when you're too many black women are passed over for roles that they should have had, and I was already doing the work, so I felt some kind of way.
• 1:18:59
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, this person doesn't have any experience, like never worked in my department, never even worked in the the the I was running the thing, like what?
• 1:19:10
  SPEAKER_04: And um, I decided that I was not gonna stay in stand for that.
• 1:19:15
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, deuces, and I I took a bet, and it's a bet that I've never regretted.
• 1:19:23
  SPEAKER_04: And the interesting thing is is that I remained friends with so many of the executive leadership to this day.
• 1:19:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, one of them I'm very, very close to.
• 1:19:32
  SPEAKER_04: I had a chance to like FaceTime with my CEO last year, my forever CEO.
• 1:19:37
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, these are these are people who taught me.
• 1:19:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and most of them are like old white men, taught me, raised me up.
• 1:19:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I'm incredibly grateful for my time there and also the decision that I made because I don't I know, like this is a very long story, but I'll tell you one day, Alex.
• 1:20:00
  SPEAKER_04: But I know, and Rose, you should come to dinner too.
• 1:20:04
  SPEAKER_04: I know had I not left Geico, the odds of me meeting my girlfriend Melissa to be introduced to this opportunity, I I really I cannot tell you how it would have happened.
• 1:20:24
  SPEAKER_05: Man, and listen, you've been talking about, you know, God speaking to you and calling you and uh and all of that.
• 1:20:32
  SPEAKER_05: And so we kind of have similar stories in walking away from our job, and I think about that a lot too, because it's it took me a long time to, it took me like almost eight months to really say, okay, I'm leaving.
• 1:20:46
  SPEAKER_05: But I was feeling that squeeze, and you know, I had enjoyed my time at the company and learned a lot and until it was time to go, and then I started feeling that squeeze because I wouldn't, when I first felt it, I wouldn't just be like, you know what, I gotta go.
• 1:21:03
  SPEAKER_05: But when I felt it and I was obedient to it, that's what that's what resonated with me through your story, where you were like, I'm just obedient.
• 1:21:12
  SPEAKER_05: Like, listen, when you are obedient, that is where you find the angels along the way that make the path that you didn't even know was there.
• 1:21:24
  SPEAKER_05: That next, that's right.
• 1:21:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so so look at you.
• 1:21:28
  SPEAKER_05: I love it.
• 1:21:29
  SPEAKER_05: Listen, I'm coming to dinner so I can hear the full story.
• 1:21:32
  SPEAKER_01: The food is amazing, the service is great.
• 1:21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Drinks are firmless.
• 1:21:36
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I I literally need to put this in my memoir.
• 1:21:39
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I need to like write it out because it's it's literally the most magical experience, and even my role after Geico, I went to Silicon Valley.
• 1:21:53
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I was working here, but I was really working for a company out there, a startup that was super wealthy, and I learned so much of the startup world that informed how I led in my incubator executive role.
• 1:22:11
  SPEAKER_07: Wow, you can't, you can't, right?
• 1:22:13
  SPEAKER_02: I yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:22:16
  SPEAKER_05: You could have never planned that, right?
• 1:22:18
  SPEAKER_05: No, I'm I'm smart, not that smart.
• 1:22:21
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like uh uh no, so God is good, my friends are good, uh you know, I I have great supporters and uh great allies and and just amazing people who want to see us win um this company.
• 1:22:42
  SPEAKER_04: We employ almost 40 people between our uh our part-time, full-time, and catering staff um out of DC, and then about another 10 uh out of Fort Washington.
• 1:22:57
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, I go to sleep every night trying to make sure that both locations are gonna be okay and that that my parents, I could, you know, soon transition them out.
• 1:23:11
  SPEAKER_04: But my mom kind of just likes working in there.
• 1:23:13
  SPEAKER_04: She has she she likes it.
• 1:23:15
  SPEAKER_04: That's her that's her jam.
• 1:23:17
  SPEAKER_05: I love it.
• 1:23:17
  SPEAKER_05: Love it.
• 1:23:18
  SPEAKER_05: I love it.
• 1:23:19
  SPEAKER_05: Well, Samantha, this has been amazing.
• 1:23:22
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much for joining us today.
• 1:23:25
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
• 1:23:26
  SPEAKER_05: So, where can folks connect with you to follow the rest of the story?
• 1:23:30
  SPEAKER_04: The story or the restaurant?
• 1:23:33
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, I love it.
• 1:23:36
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna start writing again on LinkedIn because I do write a lot.
• 1:23:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but LinkedIn is just Samantha Abrams uh on IG.
• 1:23:47
  SPEAKER_04: I'm kind of sort of there.
• 1:23:48
  SPEAKER_04: It's at I am Sam Renee with the little underscores in between I am Sam Renee.
• 1:23:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um sappadillas DC, of course, is where we post uh everything for the restaurant, and we also post for sappadillas for Washington.
• 1:24:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, can can't wait to welcome folks.
• 1:24:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um, there's a parking lot, right?
• 1:24:12
  SPEAKER_04: Three minutes walking, so don't call me complaining about parking.
• 1:24:15
  SPEAKER_07: It's right there.
• 1:24:17
  SPEAKER_04: We turn left on left on 13th Street, and the park is safe and secure.
• 1:24:22
  SPEAKER_04: And that's the other thing.
• 1:24:23
  SPEAKER_04: The community, we know we have MPD out there, we have park, uh honestly, just feeling so welcomed and making sure that our patrons are also feeling welcomed because we get members, um, you know, the house and and also senators come and dine at the restaurant.
• 1:24:44
  SPEAKER_04: So um, and just our everyday folk, you know, we're we're there, we're thriving collectively.
• 1:24:51
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, folks.
• 1:24:52
  SPEAKER_05: So make sure you head down to Anacostia and you support Zapadilla's.
• 1:24:58
  SPEAKER_05: Um, give us the address as well.
• 1:25:00
  SPEAKER_04: It's 1215 Marion Bari Avenue, Southeast Washington, D.C.
• 1:25:06
  SPEAKER_04: And Fort Washington is 11396 Livingston Road in uh Fort Washington, Maryland.
• 1:25:14
  SPEAKER_04: Just like literally before you get to the post office in the hospital.
• 1:25:18
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, awesome.
• 1:25:19
  SPEAKER_05: Well, thank you so much, Samantha, again.
• 1:25:21
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you, Bubbles.
• 1:25:22
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you so much.
• 1:25:24
  SPEAKER_05: Before we get out of here, it's time for On Our Radar, a few events and opportunities we think should be on your radar.
• 1:25:32
  SPEAKER_05: Alex, kick us off.
• 1:25:34
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Rose, first up, a couple of things happening within Prince with the Prince George's Chamber of Commerce.
• 1:25:39
  SPEAKER_03: Number one, our coffee connections is our monthly networking event held on the first Tuesday of every month.
• 1:25:45
  SPEAKER_03: You can visit our website at www.pgcoc.org for details of the next one, which will be early October.
• 1:25:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then Saturday, October 3rd, we're headed back to the MGM National Harbor for our Excellence in Business Awards Gala, celebrating businesses, leaders, and organizations making an impact across Prince Rogers County and the DME region.
• 1:26:09
  SPEAKER_03: Tickets and sponsorships are available now at www.pgcocala2026.org.
• 1:26:18
  SPEAKER_03: www.pgcocala2026.org.
• 1:26:25
  SPEAKER_05: And guys, I want to remind you that we have announced the lifetime achievement winner for the Excellence in Business Award for the Gala.
• 1:26:34
  SPEAKER_05: And it is Mr.
• 1:26:35
  SPEAKER_05: Tom Graham.
• 1:26:36
  SPEAKER_05: Congratulations, Tom.
• 1:26:38
  SPEAKER_05: Congrats, Tom.
• 1:26:40
  SPEAKER_05: And coming up on community events on Wednesday, September 16th, Prince George's County Executive Aisha Brave Boy will host the 2026 Congressional Black Caucus Week reception.
• 1:26:52
  SPEAKER_05: That's a mouthful.
• 1:26:54
  SPEAKER_05: It'll be at the MGM Grand Ballroom.
• 1:26:57
  SPEAKER_05: And this reception brings together leaders from business, government, philanthropy, and the arts during CBC Week.
• 1:27:04
  SPEAKER_05: It starts at listen, we got to be there.
• 1:27:08
  SPEAKER_05: There are so many events happening during that week, but let me close out the events because we could talk about that all day.
• 1:27:16
  SPEAKER_05: So that reception starts at 8 p.m.
• 1:27:19
  SPEAKER_05: And you can find more information through the Prince George's County Economic Development Corporation at PGCEDC.com.
• 1:27:27
  SPEAKER_05: And then on Saturday, September 19th, the Baltimore County African American Cultural Festival celebrates its 30th year, and it's happening in Towson and celebrates Black culture through music, food, art, and community.
• 1:27:43
  SPEAKER_05: You can get the details at bcaafest.org.
• 1:27:48
  SPEAKER_05: And finally, on September 19th, Community Con presented by the Co-op Project is happening in Bowie.
• 1:27:56
  SPEAKER_05: You can find more information on their social media at the Co-op Projects.
• 1:28:02
  SPEAKER_05: And as always, you can find more events happening around the region by following the Spotlight DMV at the Spotlight DMV.
• 1:28:11
  SPEAKER_05: And if there's an event you think should be on our radar, email us at infopowermoveshq.com to learn how to get featured.
• 1:28:21
  SPEAKER_03: And that's going to do it for this week's PowerMoves.
• 1:28:23
  SPEAKER_05: And that wraps up our two-part conversation with Samantha Abrams.
• 1:28:28
  SPEAKER_05: We talked about everything from betting on yourself and accessing capital to building your systems and processes that allow a business to grow.
• 1:28:38
  SPEAKER_03: It was a great conversation, a wonderful conversation.
• 1:28:42
  SPEAKER_03: And ultimately, you know, this is where vision meets discipline.
• 1:28:47
  SPEAKER_03: Having an idea is one thing, but building the foundation that can actually support it is another.
• 1:29:16
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm Rose Johnson.
• 1:29:18
  SPEAKER_05: You can connect with me on LinkedIn at Rose Johnson and follow the Spotlight DMV at the Spotlight DMV on all social media platforms.
• 1:29:28
  SPEAKER_03: Rose, this was another great episode.
• 1:29:31
  SPEAKER_03: We'll be back next Tuesday at 3 p.m.
• 1:29:34
  SPEAKER_05: Right here on Lit 106.
• 1:29:36
  SPEAKER_05: Until next time, keep making power moves.