Latest / Eating While Broke / MEL ZAKOUL - Garri, Sugar, Canned Milk, Shito and Sardines

Transcript

MEL ZAKOUL - Garri, Sugar, Canned Milk, Shito and Sardines · Eating While Broke

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Milo you're saying it's cool, It's cool cool. Hey, y'all,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: welcome to another episode of Eating Wild Broke. I'm your
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: host Colleen Witt, and today we have special guests Melzaku,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: hosts of Meet You Where You Are podcasts, and the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: owner of Head Attire Trendsetting Clothing. What do you have
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: us eating today? Um? The brokent dish ever? Because this
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: is literally what I ate when I was in Africa,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: West Ghandian dish. This is called gary. Literally it's like
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a grain of sand and you will mix it with
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: water eating broken. Since we're in the market, I said,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna best with his dish too. I'm gonna bring
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: a dish, so I'm gonna add some flavor boats today.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: What do you have us eating? What are your ingredients? Yes? Okay,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: so this is probably gonna be the brokent dish ever
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: on the show. I don't know what it's broken is
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: definitely the second broken. Yes, I'm on the bet that
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: this is the brokest broke because you know why, because
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: you don't even need a stove. So okay, So I'm
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: gonna be honest. We had to, I told myself looking
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: at your dish, that this was going to be the
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: second brokest because the other one was free and it
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: didn't require stove. Did it come with a lunch ticket?
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I heard a free food? So this is called gary
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that's that's the greeds we're using. Which is this It's
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: like it looks like saying it feels like saying, but
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: this is an African distract from Ghana, the motherland where
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: my parents are from natives there. So when I was
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: out there for a few years, real struggle I'm talking about,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: you were lucky to have water to add to this.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: So you add water dinner. We don't really we have
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: water in our cups. He's really going and it was
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: so bad that we didn't have your tensil. So you
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: literally gotta eat this with our hands if we're really
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: gonna get down. Yeah, okay, we're gonna do the real deal. Okay. Cool?
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: And then, so what are the ingredients you have? You
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: said gary gar sugar and milk can milk because they
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: have we don't have refrigerator for real milk because we
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: have electricity. Camical was a thing back. Now what are
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: these two extra ingredients you have? Um? And this is
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: dinner right here. So this is called it's the hottest thing,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: but the spiciest thing is what ghania is love. It's
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: like a cheap way to spicing up your food, to
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: season it up without actually using real season. Yeah so,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: and it lasts forever, like it could be in that
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: camp for three years, okay, and then and then sardines.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Sardines is a poor man's food here out there as
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: a rich man's food, believe it or not. So this
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: dish you had mentioned was like versatiles, so you have
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: this is actually breakfast and it can be dinner. Yeah.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Well this is more like a dessert with the sugar
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: in the milk. But we're broke with eating it for dessert, dinner, lunch, anything.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: And this is more like a luxury, like I said,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: because sardines are a luxury out there, all right, So
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: for all you guys listening out there, like gary definitely
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: looks like sand and it comes in a sandwich back,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I'm guessing because it's important. Yeah yeah, and you can
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: get this at African market. We literally google the African
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: market and then we called it in. I'm really excited
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: about experiencing this because I get to participate in making
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: this dish and today, I wanted to bring a dish out. Okay,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: so this is what I used to see back in
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the day with my mom used to send me and
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: my siblings down to the basement when we were acting up.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: It sounds really horrible, but hey, coming from my child
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: to do a dip dve. But anyways, we see my
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: low in our basement and we see it raw. So
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: I'm going to challenge to take a spoon from with me.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: You're the first guest on the show where I actually
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: you know, it's like we're gonna do this. I'm excited.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: So um, let's let's go ahead and you you teach
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: me how to make this. So first we're gonna get
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: into the dinner part of it since we have Yeah,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: back in the day, Biggie said, I'm so broke. I
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: used to have stars for dinner. I mean he was
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: lucky to have stardans for dinner. Views in Ghana, this
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: is a luxury. Literally, we're lucky to have sardines with
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: our dish. So we're gonna add the gallery right here, right,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: gonna stand up? No, okay, cool, what do I do?
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: You could take a handful spoons. No spoons were gonna
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: do like how we did it back home. Take a
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: handful and just just actually, you know what, no, put
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: it in that because we're gonna do put it in
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the ball. Yeah, okay hands. By the way, we did
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: wash our hands, so don't judge me. Is that enough?
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: You're a little bit more, a little bit more, Okay.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Now I'm going to be that person and just try
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: it wrong and then we're gonna add water. It tastes
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: like saying huh for all your listeners, definitely don't do
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: it raw. Definitely don't do it wrong. Okay, um, and
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: then you're gonna add a little bit of water. Just
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: a little bit of water. Yeah, you're doing yours. That
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of water. That's you could actually just kind
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: of mix it with your with your finger. Oh yeah,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: if you don't, if you really don't want to, because
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna yeah, if it's gonna be real,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: go ahead, let's do it real. Okay. Oh that's oh,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: it's like it's tring to get thick, like yeah, yeah,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: take something yeah. Yeah. So for all your listeners, we
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: are sculpting the gawi essentially with our hands. I might
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: add a little bit too much until it gets like
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: like we want to make a sand castle or something
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: with it. You feel like that for all your ladies,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: if you have nails on, don't do this, and don't
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: do this, don't do this with your hands. Yeah, so
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: it feels good. It feels good though. It feels like
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: you know when you go to those really expensive stores
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and they have like that sand, that premium sand that
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: you buy your kids to destroy your house with. That's
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: what this feels like. So normally out here will pour
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: out the you know liquid in here. We're just gonna
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: take a piece out. You can just take me. Yeah,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: you don't have to use your hands for this. You came, okay,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: thank you, thank you for sparing them. I'm gonna sparing
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: you on this one here. Okay, So we're gonna pull
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: out the sardines. Boom, boom, and I got look look,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I'm okay, cool, okay, cool. You can leave it like
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: down the side, or you can mix this optional oh no,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: you know you can. You can mix it up with
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: the gori, or you can't eat it together. See boom.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: This is a luxury okay, okay. And then for the
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: final touch, this is what we've got here called this
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: is the like spiciest, hottest dish, but people love it
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: out there. So I don't know if you can handle
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: spicy like that. I can't really, but I'll try for
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: this one. So I just use a little tiny drop
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: because I don't have faith in myself. Okay, that's probably
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah, this is powerful. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: about to get a little bit because this might have
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: me and tears, but that's what they eat though. You
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: can smell how you can smell, might be over here
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: crying in a minute. Okay, so we're gone, Which camera
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: should I point this to? I just want you guys
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: to see. This is the sardine with the red what
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: is this called? And sardines? And yeah, and we're gonna
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: are we gonna mash it up to So what you
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: do is you just kind of mash it up a
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: little bit like that, and you can take a scoop
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: with your hand, right and you want to dip it.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: You can take a little bit of the sardine like this, okay,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and then dip a little bit of the sitto on it, liking,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and then just don't start eating. No, it is a
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: dish and it's all cost you about thirty cents Honestly,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I could totally eat this. What's crazy is is that
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: we didn't even need a stove. So my roller thumb
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: on the show is the broker the dish to better
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the story. So where were you? What was going on
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: when you were eating this dish? I was a teenager
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: when I got introduced to this dish, and um sixteen
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: years old in West Africa and Ghana where I was,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I was sent there. Yeah, normally we were sitting here.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I was sitting there and then your mom was like,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: you know what, teenage, I wish it was that way.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: That way I would have never went. So they were slicked.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: My mom and dad had split and they by then
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I hadn't seen my dad about five years. He said,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: I want you and your brother go visit your dad
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: for a two week vacation. They ended up turning a
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: three year vacation. Oh yeah, like that, you didn't. We
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: don't even look at the ticket. And we talked about man,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I mean a rural area. I mean they don't even
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: have water, no electricity. I mean coming from living in
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the l a your whole life to a city, from
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the city to like a rural area that's basically like
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: living in the jungle, didn't have payment on the ground.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I mean it was it was run sixteen at that time.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Internet friends like yo, save me. This is in the nineties.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: We didn't even have a regular phone. Straight culture, shock
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: and culture. What was What were you thinking at that point?
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Like at one point, I was suicidal. I was real depressed.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: I thought about that. Um, I don't know what's the thing.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: I was just going through a lot. After it finally
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: settled in about about almost nine months to a year,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: I just had it. I'm gonna stay out here and
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: just live the life of a native, you know what
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I mean. But it's crazy because you would get loved,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: but then you would also get getting so you know,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: coming from America at the time, I try to blend
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: in but really couldn't because I don't have the accent
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: that they had. So people are really drawn towards you.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: So they always one of the stories. And I had
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: braces on my teeth. They didn't know what that was
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: at the time. I wonder what your secret. I just
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: got racist and moved out there. They didn't have an
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: orthodons there and people don't know what braces were. They
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: were like, look at this wol the diamonds done in
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: his mouth. I'm like, how he's not dyings or whatever,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: and they think he's come from money. Yeah, but my
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: dad was out there really struggling. He was out there
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: because he was stranded. He was a businessman that got
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: swindled out on the deal. There's a lot of scams
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: and kind of artists out there. They're doing that for
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: professions out there, and he got swinted out a couple
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars on his first business deal and he
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: got stranded in Ghana. So he's getting his life try
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: to help splick yeah yeah. And so he's coming out
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: of the struggle now, getting his two sons back. We're
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: going through the struggle with him. So we really didn't
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: have money for real. So what people looking at us like,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: we're from America, we have money. Yeah. I'm like, we're
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: out here like y'all, I We're just trying. Yeah. So
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: that's how he came with these times of dishes. So,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: so where did the inspiration for like kind of fast
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: forward me, So you come back to America, you create
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: this brand head of tire, Like I'm skipping a whole
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: bunch of steps. So how did we get to head
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: of time. Okay, so we got to head to tire.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Um I stumbled on head of tire. I had other
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: businesses while I was working. I was working as a
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: full time and play for UPS for twenty years all
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: throughout that journey. Yeah, I had side businesses. So I
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: had a carrying business that I started. It felt because
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: I couldn't put all my energy into it. A couple
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of other things, and then I finally took a leap
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: of faith in twenty nineteen and left. I was depressed
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: at my job. It was an easy job, but it
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: just wasn't for fun of So left, What were you
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: doing at UPS where you like one of the delivery guys? No, No,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I wasn't. Actually was like working in a facility kind
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: of under management. So I just had an easy cake job.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: So it wasn't even like the job itself that was hard.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: It was just being there and on somebody's time, especially
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: as an entrepreneur. And you're like, yeah, I would imagine
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: like as an entrepreneur you daydream a lot, like I
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: have my best ideas in the shower, but I gave
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: dream about my like ideas. You know, you're working this job,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: you're getting these two week checks. You're comfortable, but you're
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: depressed because you you you see the future, right. What
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: really got me in depressing is during that job towards
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: an end in seventeen, I got divorced. So what forced
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: me as entrepreneur w to be a full time entrepreneur
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: was that because I didn't want to just be a
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: weekend that because that's when I become Yeah, so for
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: me to be at my kids full time, I didn't
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: change my lifestyle, like I cannot work for anybody. So
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: that that that was that that was my leap of
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: faith for sure. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, So that's what
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: drown me. So I didn't know what I was gonna do.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I just took a leave of absence until I figured
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: it out. I discovered Head to Tire by accident. I
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: was watching the Joe Buttons podcast. He was an interviewing
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Vince Stable. If y'all want to see it, check it out.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: It's on YouTube now. He's wearing a red hat regular
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: T shirt and I was like that for Doors dump.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I was wearing for Doors forever. But I can only
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: get the brown, the black, the basic colors. They sell
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: out him and stuff. He had a red. When I
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: searched for like a year, I couldn't find it anywhere.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Ran into one of the girl who was the stylus
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: at the time. She's like, yo, I know where to
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: get the hat. She took me to the flu whinning God.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I just wanted was a personal thing. I wanted it
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: for myself. He had about five colors, I said, I
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: just wanted the red. I wore it. Literally. I got
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: stopped everywhere in l A Holley, with wherever I was
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: at by all kind of all kind of people, every
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: walk type of walk of life would stop me, where'd
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: you get this? What you get that? And I'm like,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: this is add I get attention, but not like this,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: you know. And then that happened for about a month.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I said, let me go back and get it blue,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: and I'm when he got the dodge of blue and
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: the same same um effect. I'm like, I gotta start capitalizing.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: So instead of me trying to send him to the bug,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: let me be the plug and let me be So
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I started taking numbers, emails, things like that. And then
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: I just took a leap of faith and went and
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: bought a bunch of hats just out of my trunk
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out how to set it up. And
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: you see, I have my consult with me. He actually
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: helps out up my website to make it a real business.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: So I made it a real business in September and
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the September tween nineteen didn't know how I was gonna
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: actually sell them, you know. Um, So I ended up
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: at this brunch. What really launched it for me is
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I ended up in this brunch that we used to
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: kind of I didn't really go to, but I knew
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of people went to my boys. He just
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: flew into town. He's like, I got this ticket meet
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: me at this brunch. Cool. I brought my hats. Literally
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: we left the punch. I was board. We're in the
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: parking lot and I'm trying to get content to start
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: my g page. So I started taking to the women
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: coming out of this brunch, like yo, I just need
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: photos of the women with the hat. They would try
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: it on and they said, well how much you want
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: to buy? So they started buying the hats, like a
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: crowd around me and this part trying to get out
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, cool cash app. The owner comes
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: out and it's like, wait, you can't do that here,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: you can't, so listen, but you know what, come back
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and signed on to be invented. We do this every month.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Shout out to brush the Bomb because they're the ones
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: that put me on right right, DJ Benjamin Walker, you
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: know Adrian Read. They really helped me out. Signed up
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: to be a vendor. I mean, it's just like a
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: launch pad. It took off the following month. It started
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: picking up so much that I had to hire employees
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: to come with me. Yeah. So my goal was to
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: do like one of these every month, which I was doing,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: but then add other events to it. So it was
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: doing good and then boom, pandemic. It lost everything. When
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: you lost everything, yeah, you're you're saying, like, well, you
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you didn't really have a place to sell anymore, right yeah,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: because nobody go offside, So now you really have to
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: rely on your commerce and right right, which I did
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: because it was new. I was selling some things online
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: but not a lot, so I was heavily dependent on
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: like the in person sales. You know. So what happens
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: is all this is going on indement and you have
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: two children, two children, and you have an ex wife
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: x wife, and I'm pretty sure she's getting paid. Yeah,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: you're you're you're giving her money. Sure, And so at
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: some point someone's got to be like, yo, bro, you're crazy.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Go back to U B. S. Or right? What does
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: that conversation look like? And how are you feeling when
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: people are like are you insane? And rolling their eyes?
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: I want to know the experience you went through. Okay,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: So it's like what we talked about in the car.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: You just have to know yourself because people that go
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: to these jobs, they're there for a lifetime because they
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: offer you that four one K off your retirement. You know,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: you get paid, good benefits, the whole thing. But like
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: I said, it wasn't fulfilling and I need to be
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: my kids. So I didn't expect him to understand, you know,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: so I knew I wasn't going back. I just had
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to figure out how to make this work. And I
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: did other things as well. During the pandemic, you know
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the SUS suits and all that stuff that was going on,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: I jumped in all that stuff. Suits. Yeah, I don't
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: know if you heard about suit suits, but everybody put
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: their money in and they the first one work in
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the second one that flops. So I kind of ended
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: up breaking even actually lost a little bit. I can't
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: even tell y'all what I did. I was invested in
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: all types of stuff. Say, I lost eighty three thou
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: dollars on one of my inventors. Man, I thought I
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: was bad. My husband still has comments about it. Yeah.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: I don't even like talking about in my house. Yeah,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: we don't have to talk about this. Everybody was scrambling.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: What the heck, like my businesses went under in the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: beginning of the pandemic. We didn't know about p p
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: P or you know, like what the bailoffs were looking at.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: It looked like all the big companies were getting bailed out,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: and all those little people were like, oh ship, and
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: if you didn't have your paperwork together, you weren't even
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: gonna get bailed out. You weren't paying taxes. Prior to
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: P p P or the pandemic, you were basically you know,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: you became either a street farmers, this delivery person. No,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: that's a d facts, you know. But yeah, I jumped
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: in that I didn't have to do the street pharmacist thing.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I came very close. I lost quite a bit of money.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: You can't imagine I lost it. I came close with
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the deal and go through either. But I was really
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: on the edge, like what are we gonna do? You know?
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: So I feel it. Um, so yeah, during the pandemic,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: all that stuff, you know, we're trying all these investments
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: something when it but it's slow, but you're using the
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: savings from your original job. I'm going through my savings,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: your whole squad. I want to hear, like what are
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: they saying while you're like, Hey, I got this idea.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I want to pursue selling these doors, and but I then't.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I was already in it, but how am I going
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: to do it? During the pandemic was like the question? Right,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: So um, I didn't even know how I was going
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: to do it. But I'm good at networking, so I
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: got a lot of friends and I always meet people.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I met this girl. I was my neighbor and she
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: was kind of selling head wraps and stuff, and so
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: were trying to get content for each other. We take
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: pictures we're hanging out and stuff like that. We went
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: to a market because they just kind of started opening up.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: This is like a year into the pandemic. They started
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: doing outdoor markets and stuff. We met this guy that
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: was um that was selling out of market, and he
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: was in a store that was about to open called
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: so Folks in the Right Park. I don't know if
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: you've heard of it. So it's a black own co op,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: but they've bring all these black brands. Yeah yeah, similar
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to that. But this was the only thing open during
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: the pandemic because everything was shut down, but they stayed open.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I guess they preserved that place for us, so they
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: let him do what they want. So I went down
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: there and the manager um, who happened to be a
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: lady that I was going to be invented with right
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: before the pandemic hit. I told you I got four
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: spots because I wanted My goal was to get one
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: every week, and then the pandemic had everything shot down.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: I was. I had an issue with her because I
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: wouldn't get she didn't get my money back, so we
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: had we had this exchange, but she ends up being
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the manager. I have to go through to getting this story,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: like hope, at least she of you the money right
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: because we're in a better position because it's like, well
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: the money, so you you owe me a favor. She
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: just see it that way because it was a bad
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: exchange and we didn't know each other because she's like, well,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: why did you go about it this way? So it
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: was a little back and forth. I never got the money,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: but I hold what she doesn't. She's like, yeah, I
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: remember you. I'm thinking I'm not gonna get in the story,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: but she still They let me in and then when
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: I came in, there like we need somebody for hats,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: and I had a lot of doors at the time.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I had a few T shirts. And once I got in,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: they said, you know what you're You're free to create
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: other things if you want. And I was always good
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: at creating because as a child, my passion was drawn.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: I always drew as a child, like three years old,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: I would draw clothes and stuff. Back in the day,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: it was cross colors and things that we couldn't afford.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: I'ma drawing characters with these clothes, clothing on them, something
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: like okay, cool, I get to bring this to life.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I was doing that. They're moving slow, and then opportunity
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: came from that. I wour network. The good thing about
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: these copses they got a lot of They've got a
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: lot of business people that come in and so you
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: get to meet a lot of people with other businesses
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: that get opportunities. That's how I think I was able
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: to get into up lift us. Lift us someone referred
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: I didn't know who they were, and I just started
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: following them on line and they reached out to me
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: because I had these like really nice for doors at
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: the time. Now it's promoting on Instagram. They say that
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: we're opening up store. Would you want to be a brand?
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, yeah, absolutely, But I noticed you don't
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: just focus on hats. No. No, See it's called head
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: of tired trend Setter. So the acronym is HAT. What
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: it's called leading a tired trend setter, right, But people
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: think hat if they see h a T. So what
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: I did is I blurred the logo and they like
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: blurd the letters to make it a logo so that
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: way people don't get confused. Is it's only being solely hats.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: So it's it's a little bit of everything. It's it's apparel,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: it's hats, it's necklaces, now's jewelry. Successories is everything is
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: a full online So I found about your brand through
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: uplift us marketplace. Shoutouts to them and everything that they
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: do for the black community for sure. Um, one of
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the things that stood out to me about your brand
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: is one the number one thing was that I noticed
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: your brand represents a lot of helf love. Yeah, and
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: then to coming from a male perspective, it's like, um,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: you know you always hear women constantly self love, stelf
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: love yourself, but I never hear like a man represents
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: self love? Like why self love? Like why is that
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the important staple in your brand? Well, you know what, man,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: we need love to before you get love, you need
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: to love yourself. So me just going through the journey
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: because like I said, I got divorced, I went through
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the dating and had girlfriends and their girlfriends. I'm like,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: that's a lot of mental illness. And you know, mental
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: awareness and health away, and mental health awareness is up now,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: and I just think that we first need to love
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: ourselves before even enter this pool of dating. Knowing yourself.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Loving yourself is like the most important. So I wanted
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: to make a pal that represented that, but I wanted
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: to make it fashionable, not just like self love. And
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: that's it. So I said, I saw, you know, me
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: being an artist that I am, I said, let me
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: reverse it, you know, make it mere reflective. So that way,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: when you're looking at Mary, it can be reminding you
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: every time as you get that love. So that's how
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: it started. So now that, yeah, I'm all about the
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: sweet tooth. So make dessert. While you show me how
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: to make dessert. I want you to tell me what
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the definition or what you feel self love is? Man,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: self love, Man, it can be defined in so many ways,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, it's pretty self explanatory.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: You know, love yourself, believing yourself, trust yourself. Don't look
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: for someone else to give you something that you don't
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: have already, which is love, right, So don't don't find
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: it in others if you don't have it in yourself, right. Yeah,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: So that that's what it is right there. Okay, so
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: with this, we actually shouldn't used the boat, but I'm
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: trying to make it. We're gonna make it work. We're
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: gonna make it. Okay, So we're gonna do the same
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: thing here. We're gonna go our hands again. I mean, man,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: you know what, man, this is the most handsiest I'm okay.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: We have the gary for all my listeners. It's like sand.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: We're handling it with our hands. Normally this would be
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: in the bowls. I messed up. I probably should have
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: put that in the dish. Well, make it work, it's yeah.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: And then with this one. So this is to me
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: like a dessert, right, so people eat this breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: You're gonna just add add a little bit of he's
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: so polite yo for all y'all women out there. I
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: don't know if he's no great nice teeth women, nice teeth.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: All right, I take the So this is a can
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: of evaporated milk. So I'm gonna pour this on on
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: the bar, ye, and we're gonna kind of okay, start
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: it up. It feels like the sand box I'm sorry,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: like the sand castle type feeling. Yeah, okay, okay, and sugar.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Add some sugar. Uh, I'm excited about anything sweet. I
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: have a At one point, I had sixteen cavities, and
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: needless to say, I was too broke to uh fix them.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: And I had bought my house and I was like, oh,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: I put all my money in my house, but I
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: moved in with sixteen cavities, and all the dudes that
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: were like talking to me like gross, and I'm like
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I'm gross. But I own a house. Yeah you know,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I didn't use the equity to get the teeth fixed
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: by about teeth. Fis look good? Now are you good? Now?
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: These are naturals okay, okay, So now we got the sugar.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Can we eat it now? Yeah? Nice? Mixed a little
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: bit more milk. Okay. See that's how you know he
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: knows this stuff, because he was like enough, Yeah, like
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: it should be in a ball, so it should be
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a little more soupy. You can't want. I don't really
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: know what evaporated milk is. Essentially, it's like tan milk
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: in a can from the way it looks and should
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: be in the ball. And we're gonna take a scoop
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: non eat it with a spoon. But you can actually
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: grind it up like that if you want to have it.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Time to see these little balls. I like it. It's
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: not bad, it's all right. It is just for the record.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Like there are some dishes I say I will make
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: at home. This and the other dish that doesn't require stove.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: It's kind of good. This will be the one in
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Donnors good. But this is good, like honestly, like my
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: eight month old daughter what she keeps telling me no,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: this is what she's gonna eat for dinner for real,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: But this is good. I might not be a punishment.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: She might like it. You know what. Actually I kind
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: of do like it. I think if I just wouldn't
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: do it with my hands. For you guys at home,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: you don't have to do it with you and the spoon.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: It's easy, but it's kind of good. Though. One last
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: thing I want to do before I as be a
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: million more questions. We gotta introduce mine little dish where
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: y'all this is called Milo. When me and my siblings,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: I have shoutouts to my siblings. I have a lot
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: of siblings, but we're get in trouble a lot. And
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you come from the Tales from
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the crypt Era, do you remember that? Yeah, like you
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: were definitely afraid of the basement. So every once in
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: a while, my mom will sent us to the basement
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: and we'll be down there for hours. Okay, I'm Jamaican,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: so my mom is very scary. And we'd find hands
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: of Milo in our basement and we would take a
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: spoon or our hands, but in this case we'll use
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: a spoon. We take the Milo like this go ahead.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Ha ha, I finally got a broken so ready yeah, cheers. Okay,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: I'll let you go first because I don't even know
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: what this is legal. Yeah, I'm not gonna die, bro No,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Bally's kind of good. Right, Yeah, I'm telling you this
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: is the lit. Okay, you don't need water. You know
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: you'll be thirsty after Lacy suck this down all the time.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: It doesn't taste like it tastes really good, right, yeah,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: it really right. It tastes like like eat it like
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: that like in the year y'all eat candid is shoutouts
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: to Milo. Um, so that was like the silver light.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Oh well, you could keep eating them, but I get
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: sixteen caffies. Stop playing. So what is self love to you? Self?
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Self love starts with you. So let's put these things
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: on my peril um and if you don't mind, actually
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: I have self something for you. Oh I'm excited. Can
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I get it? I can't wait. I can't wait to see.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Since you can't wait, let's do it now now, yeah,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: said when we talked some you know, at your at
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: your request. Here, I'll be I'll be all up in
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: his I had to give it to you, all right,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I'm one that love is the plastic too much for
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: the sound? Okay, can I open this? Yeah? Of course,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: what did you want a smaller medium, because that's the
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: medium if you want to go. Just so you guys know,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: these are Letterman jackets and they say self love on them.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: And I see a lot of people on Instagram rocking
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: these letterman jerseys, but these are firing. Every time he
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: drops a color combo, I'm like, oh, that color coumbo
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: than the last. So I'm pretty sure he sees my
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: comments and it's like, yo, just two days ago, she
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: said that brown was the freshest one. Then I was like, no,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the black of red, And of course I said black
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: and red because if you look at the eating wall
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: broke colors, you know what I'm saying. So I was
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: happy that you probably noticed my d m s and
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: my comments. But yes, straight out of the back right
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: there for you look at this self love. And the
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: reason why I wanted to ask you about self love
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: is I think self love is one of the hardest
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: things that I've had to learn in my lifetime. And
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: all my girlfriends, all my girlfriends, they they go through
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the same struggle. So the biggest question is like, what
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: is self love? And so I wanted to hear from
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: a male's perspective what is self love? Especially a male
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: that like promotes it as hard as yeah, And I'm
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: gonna pull this out for a second, because self love
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: is something that you constantly to remind yourself that you have.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: So that's why I put it on a lot of
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: my apparel. Now I'm putting it on shirts and I'm
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: putting it on necklaces like this, because it really does
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: start with you, you know, and me going through honestly
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: with taught me someone not even just for me because
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I've always had confidence and I love myself right, but
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: more for others because I'll come across people that I
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: felt really didn't love themselves, didn't know how to love themselves,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: so how can they love someone else? So I wanted
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: to promote it in a way that was fashionable because
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: that way they can also wear remind themselves and others.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: People want to put it to the words together, Oh
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: that's doulf self love. I want that I need, that
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: I need, and it's it's more powerful than we think.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: I think. I love what self love represents. But I
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: wanted to kind of focus on this for even the listeners. Um,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: self love is I think people assume, like, Okay, I
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: get dressed up in the day, I drive a Ben's
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: a Jaguar, I look good. I wear these stilettos. I
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: love myself and that's self love. And or I take
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: bubble bats and I do these posts on Instagram and
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: I have a really great body, and that self love.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: And I think there's a little bit of confusion there.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: You know, self love is not as glamorous as I
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: think people make it out to be. I think self
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: love is setting boundaries um and standing but behind your
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: own intuition. And I think it gets blurry when you
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: love others, or you're empathetic, or you come from abuse,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: or you come from whatever background you come from. I
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: think we got to stop making self love about an
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: exterior parents and like more about what's going on on
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: the inside. And you really aren't faced with the demons
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: of self love until you're in a relationship. I don't
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: care if it's with your parents or with a lover.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: You won't really understand whether you have that challenge. I'm
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: gonna say challenge because it's a dilemma and it's a
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: slow dilemma, But you don't understand you have that dilemma
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: until you're forced to choose someone else over yourself. And
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: a lot of times you think, well, that's love. Okay,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: I love this person, so I'm gonna put up with
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: the way they treat me. Oh, I'll forgive this person.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: They had this horrible background. And it's like, what you're
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: not understanding is that you need to establish certain boundaries
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: and love. And and I'm glad that it was a
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: male that talked about self love because you see online
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of times too. Men get abused and men
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: put up with this stuff. And a lot of time
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: we see movies and we see TV shows and we think, oh,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: that's love, but your trigger factors. At the end of
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the day, your parents are your first relationship. So however
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: your parents talk to you. Love is the is basically
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: the foundation of uh um, what your explosion and what
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: your experience to love is. But it doesn't necessarily make
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: it right. You have to go within yourself and figure
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: out what your boundaries are, what makes you uncomfortable, what
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: makes you sad, and draw the line at it as
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: difficult it is, maybe, And it's almost like when I
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: compare love to to heroin or or something like addictive
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: like that, because when you're pulling away from something, you're
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: making that difficult decision to choose yourself, you feel bad,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: or the other person may make you feel bad or
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: you know, what have you. But you it's one of
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: the most difficult things that I think people will ever experience.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: But it's just not talked about enough, and it's glamorized,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: and it's stupid to glamorize. You know. I could look
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: like I love myself because I drive a nice car, right,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: have a podcast, and I look great in bikini's, But
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: that does not mean self love. Self love is like
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: what happens with you alone with yourself, Like are you depressed?
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Be happy? And I like Head of Tire because you're
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: talking about these difficult issues and you're bringing it to
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: the forefront. You know. I love your journey. You know,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: I did not know that it had anything to do
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: with your children, you know, Oh man, it has everything
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: to do much other That's what I live for, and
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: you know, very involved, you know, and and and like
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: I said, this actually saved my life. Head to Tire.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I've done other businesses and a lot of times and
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: I know, you know, because you've done a lot of
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: other businesses yourself, you can get trapped in your business,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: so you become an employee of your business. I'm like,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: I'm there now, so how do you not getting how
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: do you not end up there? So I'm trying to
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: build a team that's it's growing, because it's growing again,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: it's so I want to make sure that I'm not
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: a prisoner, and you know, basically to my own system
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: that created and the flexibility to be my kids throughout
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: the day, like it's beautiful. I love him like I'm
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: literally my daughter's here with now, you know, during spring breaking,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: were just at the park hanging out like it's a
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: dream come true. That's real. Well to me, yeah, you
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, being able to be with my
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: kids at any given time. And I've been stuck on
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: the job. So just find your passion. I love what
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: you're doing here. You know, when you're scaling your business essentially,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: that's what we're talking about, right. I would consider myself
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: there's self employed and then you're a small business owner.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Self employed is you basically work for yourself, which essentially
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: you work for your customers and your slave. But you're
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: getting paid really bad. Now. The next level to self
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: employed is you own a small business and you're scaling it.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: You're saying, you know what, I'm gonna hire you and
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: you and you and hopefully and I think leadership is
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: very tough. Like I struggle leadership. I have to constantly
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: check myself, like you know, like one of my team
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: members are like, oh, you were hostiles, and I'm like,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: really it, I'm scared that it can happen. Well. Yeah,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: when you own a business, you're you're juggling a lot,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: right for sure. Um, and the money isn't there, right,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: and sometimes you're working with smaller budgets. You have casual problems.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: I want you to talk about some of that. Okay, Yeah,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: I started everything like I didn't go with any PPP
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: on and get into that. I don't get no bel out.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: I started with every single dollar that I had. When
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: I didn't have it, I had to go to my
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: friends for hard money loans, you know, like, yeah, I
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: need to fulfill in order I don't have I don't
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: have it, you know, but you know what, I'm going
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: to get it, and you know, you know, his his
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: in thirty days whatever, you know, what I mean. And
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: so my my my friends. I've known for twenty plus years,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: most of them, and so these are it's like family
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: to me. So they like, they believe, and you know,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: we all pushed together. And as we're growing, I want
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: them to come with me because they saw me at
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: the bottom. They started with me. So other people want
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: to team up, and people do want to have partnerships.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: People wanted to collaborations with me, but I really like
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: because again self love, Like even when you're going in
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: the business with people, they say it's business, not personal,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: but how can it not be personal? Yeah, it's basically
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: a relationship and basically yeah, And so I don't want
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: to get into certain situations, even if the money is
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: there on the table, because I don't want to go
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: through the stress I'm dealing with somebody and even what
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: they come with some very particularly, So I'm starting with
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: my own people first. As we're scale, we're trying to
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: get in some more stores now as we speak, I
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: had a meeting yesterday when that went well, we possibly
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: maybe doing a partnership. So great things are happening now.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Building that team around me is gonna start with my
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: people first, you know, And I sorry if I don't
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: answer your question. When you go into so when you're
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: building your business, you're using your savings initially, right, so
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: when your savings get slow, you you start to reach
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: out to friends. What is the emotional experience? Like I
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: want our listeners to really understand, like what your thought
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: processes as you're draining your savings pursuing your dreams. Oh man,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: um not how but I'm going to get it, you
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. And it's almost something that you
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: have to have in you, Like you have to have
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: that that confidence and that I'm just going to leave
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: a faith that I know it's going to happen, even
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: literally when I didn't know how, but it always happens,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Um, So sorry I might
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: have gone away from your question. I want to make
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: sure I answer correctly. You did answer it, Like there
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: were times when I had a magazine prior to this
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: and we you know, we wouldn't have the money for
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: the print bill and you know, the printers were going
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: to all the printer's money in three days. And my
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: staff is like or you know, they're like, she'ld be
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: even designed the next issue, and I'm like, no, design
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: and they're like, you ain't got no money. I'm like,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: you know, you you have to You're the leader, right,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: you have to be like, don't worry, we'll figure it out.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Just keep doing your job. And you're like sitting there like, yeah, Ship,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm probably gonna have to skip rent, Like
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: you know, I'll never forget. One time Chipotle had owed
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: me like nine thousand dollars. Really the money was supposed
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: to come into mail. Yeah, they were one of my sponsors,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: and I had the print bill that was gonna you
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: in like five days my rent my cardinal and I'll
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: never forget. Like Ship, I'm gonna have to call in
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: their cannon and be like you you'll have to pay
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: my rent this month, you know. And it was a
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: difficult decision, but my team was looking at me like
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: I was crazy toy, like call, You're just having all
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: these cats, real problems, And I'm like, I know, if
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: this check could just arrive, you know, and I'll never forget.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: I start calling my uncle, Hey, yo, I know you're
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: not gonna believe this, but I got like nine thousand
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: dollars coming into mail soon. Can you just throught me
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: this rent money? And they were all like, hell, no,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: you got nine grand coming because they're like yeah, right, Um,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: they didn't believe me. But needless to say, the check
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: showed up in time, and I paid my rent and
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: paid the print bills. But there were so many instances
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: like that that, you know, people look at it and
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: they're like, oh, you have this brand or you you
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: must be successful, and you're like at home, like they
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: don't understand, like the struggle. Yeah, and it doesn't through
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: that yeah, and it looks grammarous. Like if I saw
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: this Letterman jacket, was like, oh my god, you brand
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: that has the Letterman jackets a couple of just marketplace
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: and online and all these celebrities are wearing your stuff. Yeah,
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: of course you're successful. There's no way through your Yeah.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: I've burned through that trying to get it to this point.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: You know. But because this thing, this takes, it's a
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: long process, you know, to get this quality and material,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: like it's quality of jacket. May it takes its really
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: quality real leather and everything. So it takes about six weeks. Wow,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: you have to front. You're gonna be out of money
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: for about two or three months when you don't free
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: sell it. So you're really taking a risk everything. I'm front. Yeah,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I'm not pre selling anything. What are you thinking if, like,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: say you order a bunch of largest and like all
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: the mediums in the smalls, Like what are you thinking? Now? Wow?
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: But you're not thinking like dang, I'm never going to
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: order largest again. No, no, no, I have all sizes
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: because it was from all walks of life come. So
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: I have to make sure that also have supplies so
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: if I get paid, because I mean the checks do
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: come and when they come there nice. It's just like
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: the game, gotta go and re up. Yeah, And so
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: I'm always thinking to three months ahead. That's how the
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Peril game works. So um, it's always money coming in,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: but it's kind of going out too, because the bigger
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: you grow, the more you have to spend. And that's
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: just what it is now. I tell my team here,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: I'm always talking to them behind the scenes about like finances,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: and I always say, when you have a company, you
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: actually don't if you're generating, say ten thousand a month,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: your your goal shouldn't be to actually be your overhead
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: should not be at ten thou because you will end
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: up with a cash flow problem. Can you explain to
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: our listeners, like from your perspective, like what it looks like.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: I know, for me, I try to keep it my
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: overhead when I have a business close to thirty percent,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: but it usually ends up at fifty or sixty. But
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: but I always try to leave that cushion room because
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: that's the only way you can develop cash froll. But
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: can you explain it from your perspective, like what it
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: looks like? Money more problems? Let me stop playing more
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: money less problems if you handle it right. So now
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: we have the system in place, like I make sure
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: kind of like you have a cushion. So when the
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: check that's coming in. Another thing is we get paid monthly? Yeah,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: sometimes it's in that sixty. So we're getting paid every
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: month now. And I have my own my personal sales too,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: but I'm talking about through the stores. It's in that thirty.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Oh it's that dirty. So after they sell, you still
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: waiting for the path you have to Yeah. I didn't
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: know that. Yeah, so you have to be real strategic
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: with your money, right, So as you have this money
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: coming out, I have orders that I need to you know,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: if it's always have something coming like that, there's never
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: money not coming in or going out. It's a cycle.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: It's like an engine, it's always running. Now, when you're
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: in a clothing brand and you're in a retail store,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: is that considered consignment because it doesn't sound like what
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: you do is consignment or how or do they buy
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: a wholesale? No, it's consignment. So it's the way. The
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: way that we have different deals, but how most of
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: them are structured is a co op. So you're the owner,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: you're the brand right um, and then they negotiate whatever
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: their percentage is because they're gonna make their cut. You
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: have to pay a space, right, insurance, everything. So yeah,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: it's still be consigning. You're responsible for everything. Wow, but
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: you're dealing with you're dealing with a lot of different
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: types of vendors because you're dealing with your customer that's
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: buying directly from you. Then you're dealing with your retailers
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: while you're wearing multiple fests on top of being the designer.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: So you definitely and I designed, Yeah, need to scale
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: up and then you have the source and all that. Yeah,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: but like I love it though it doesn't feel like
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: work when you actually enjoy and back to the ups thing.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: It was easy money. Literally I would sit there at
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: work and play on my phone and just do whatever.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: But it was just so boring, you know, time is
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: just taking it. But here, like I actually enjoyed because
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: like this was literally drawn out. I can show you
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: camera like I literally drew this out. And to see
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: it come to life and to see people like you
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: appreciate it, it's a real satisfaction I get from it.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: So it doesn't feel like work, you know, even though
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: it sounds like it was a long running thing. I enjoyed.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: I stayed up to like two or three in the
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: morning drawing and sketching and stuff out. Why did you
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: put mirror and mirror on the jacket? You know the
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: thing mirror, mirror on the wall. Yeah. Yeah, I kind
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: of like that. And that's why one is reversed and
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: one is forward. Like that. This is always the constant reminded.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: And know what, if you're looking at yourself and it
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: shows you like this isn't you know. You see brands
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: where they'll throw their logo on something, there's like I
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: hate to say it, but there's no real thought process.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: You feel like their their goal is to make money.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: This I feel like your goal isn't to make money.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: This is something you're passionate about. Yeah, and you happen
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: to be making money. While that's the win, right, you know,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: enjoy something you're doing, find a way to make it
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: make you money. So literally, like I really feel like
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: if you really enjoy something, the money is just gonna come.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: That's just my belief system, you know. And so that's
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: just what I'm go on. Like I make it wearable
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: art literally like art appreciates, so I try to make
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: things that are going to be if Ever, I don't
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: really follow the trends when I call myself trend setter,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: because I want to set the tone I don't want
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: I don't even look at what people do online or
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: I don't look at seasons anything. I just do what
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: I want to do. I love it. That's how I dressed,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: by the way, But that's why my wardrobe isn't the best.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: But but but I appreciate you coming out and showing
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: us love and really giving us a dish that was
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: true to you. I feel like every Gunny and and
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: everybody is going to really appreciate the fact that you
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: shared not just your dish, but like a part of
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: your culture with us, and I'm gonna be honest. Out
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: of all these dishes here today, I'm gonna rate it um.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: I will say the dessert was the best. It was
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: as much as I wanted to, like say, I wouldn't
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: do it again, which I probably gonna be honest. I
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: probably wouldn't do it again. But it's only because we
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: made it with our hands. But like if my daughter
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: and I were at home right now, I would totally
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: do it. I would totally do it. And I would
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: say the sardine dish, I ate it all. Yeah, I
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: ate it all. It was gonna say the whole thing
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: worked out. I would rate it on I would. I
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: would rate it overall. I would say six for the
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: taste and everything okay, and I would say for survival,
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: would be like editant, like you could totally survive. I
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: can live with that. You would totally survive with that.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: Prove that I survived. This is like two years and
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: your teeth look great. It looks great, ladies, who's watching this?
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: He said? He would say, I don't know I who's
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: sinking when it airs, But the way it self, love
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: is gonna but my mom is gonna be extremely disappointed
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: because this is not supposed to look like this. So Mom,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: if you watched it, not apologize, okay, but honestly, yeah,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: it's not supposed to look grainy. But really no, it's
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: not supposed to be kind of souping and stuff. That's
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: because we use the ball. Didn't do rightn't do it right.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: But you think, what did you think of the life?
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: That was good? But to be honest, I think if
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: I ate a whole candidate, I'll be sick. Imagine your mom, Like, Yo,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: we're about to come up. But that's good. Shout out
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: to like Yo, shout out Milo. We didn't even add
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: like milk or um water. We just used to eat
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: this straight out the can. Yeah, thank you so much,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Mel for coming over here and showing us what you
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: ate when you were broke. Yes, shout out to Head
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: a Tire and thank you so much for blessing me
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: with this letterman jacket. Where can our fans and our
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: listeners get Head of Tire at um If you're in
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: the l A area, definitely stopped by the cover City
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: mall Um in Culver City and pull up at uplift.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: This marketplace a bunch of black brands and never dupe stuff.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: You can also catch me at so Folks that's in
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: the merd Park another black coot and I'm all throughout
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: those stores if your local. You can also go online
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: at head of Tire dot com if you want even more,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: and look for us to expand very very soon, um
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: in the summer where we probably up north in a
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: few more we're working on a few more states. Yes,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: and I didn't notice you are active on Instagram. So
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: if you are read tailor or distributor and you would
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: like to pick up the brand, shout outs to y'all. Um.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: It would be a great brand having your stores. Um.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: But the easiest way I found to contact Mel was
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: through Instagram, So you can d M him and comment, comment, comment,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure you'll grab his attention. All right, Well,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for stopping by the Yeah, thank
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: you for being here as an honor. Thank you for
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: letting me bring my eating while broke dish. This is
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: probably the brokest dish you're gonna find. I just want
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: to plug in how much it costs? Oh, go for it. Okay,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: So this whole dish right here, you can probably feed
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: a family of three for about two weeks, you might
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: need a few more Kansas stardine. But you know, if
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: you want to just go with the some water so
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: and that whole thing probably costs less than ten dollars
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: if you're out there. Yeah and family and three for
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: two weeks, that's pretty good. Yeah, So I appreciate the
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: time for more Eating while Broke from I Heeart Radio
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: and The Black Effect. Visit the I heart Radio app,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Eat and while Broken and My Broken and My Broken
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: Broom