Latest / Creative Roots Podcast / Good Food, Big Moves & a Little Controversy - Chef DJ | Ep. 79

Transcript

Good Food, Big Moves & a Little Controversy - Chef DJ | Ep. 79 · Creative Roots Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you you wake up and you have a certain routine.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: You don't worry about it.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: But when it's something different, it's like, okay, wait.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I'm thinking for every person.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: My main thing here is to By the way, this bowl is heavy.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna put that out there too.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm about to hurt my wrist because I don't want to put it down yet.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: But so it's having people that like see your vision and they're gonna amplify you even more, right?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Truth in the air, let it speak.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, all is well though, man.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm blessed, bro.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't gonna lie.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's been heavy, but it's it's like finding a balance with like I prayed about this and now I'm here, you know, and then it's like then you be like thinking about how much you grew.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I be thinking about that all the time, man.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I be like grieving the old the old you sometimes.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it sucks sometimes, bro.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't gonna lie, but gotta keep pushing through, man.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's the name of the game.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: I heard somebody say something along the lines of pray for what you want, but when you get it, don't complain.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm heavily paraphrasing it.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, because I know some days when we be busy, I'd be like, I need a break.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: And like you say it earlier, you know, be careful what you say.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Cause then that break comes and it's like, hold on now, whoa, yeah, yeah.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Where the people at?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I say it all the time, bro.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you, like, I always gotta be careful with how I word things.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Cause, you know, if you say the wrong thing the wrong day, even speak like certain something over your life, then next thing you know, it's the reality.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: Go ahead and kill yourself if you want to.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Just leave me out of it.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: You know, for real.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's exactly how I be feeling about like, man, God dang, man, we we got all this stuff going on this month.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, dang, we stacked for two months.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's like, Tay, what we doing?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be like, Shamal, I don't know.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: What are we doing?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: He like, uh, I don't know.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: And next thing you know, we be sitting here like, uh, okay, God, my bad.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, for real.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: My bad.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: I learned my lesson.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: I be uh I be thinking about like what that season was like when things wasn't going your way, you know?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's how that's that's what I always connect to.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then I then it's like, all right, all right, all right, all right, DJ, you know.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and just praying about it, because like uh I think like survivors from Morris, that's a real thing.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um so much, bro.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Just like just a little guilt with like making it and the people that you thought was gonna be there are not there, that's like that's probably the worst part, you know what I'm saying?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that's that's something that um I heard a pastor say, I think it may be two or three pastors saying they say um include everybody, let them exclude themselves.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, and you know, the higher you go, yeah, the higher you go, that you're gonna fall off.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you ain't gotta do nothing.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like when you say God get rid of, you know, put the right people in my circle.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, he got to move some people out to move some people in, you know.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: When God separates the weak from the tail, why are we doing this today?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: I did not come in here to preach, y'all.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: But when you ask, you know, it's a separate the weak from the tail.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: I need to know who's gonna be here.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't need to know who's gonna be floating in the wind.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: All right, I don't need nobody, you know, riding on my coattails.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we need people that's gonna be solid with us for us, you know, by God.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: Why am I preaching to that shit?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, for real.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is entrepreneurs, like it's yeah, it's big to have like a community around you and building things.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so I don't know.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm just hitting like this thing.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: This this month made three years since I've been in Charlotte.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, welcome, welcome, welcome.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So all my little goals that I thought, my little five-year plan, I done moved them up like two and a half years.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So nice.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Keep it moving, man.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we just gotta keep going, man.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um the little nuggets that you take from every restaurant that you work at, from every line cook, from every boss, you gotta just take nuggets of everything and then like apply them to your business acumen.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's probably like my biggest thing, especially like in culinary.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's like this guy named Chef Oscar.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I I would just watch him and just I would do his job for him so I could know what it would feel like whenever I got here.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, obviously not the owner, but like he wasn't the owner of the restaurant.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he was like the head chef of the entire hotel at the Marriott, whereas Aura, Caroline's, and Dean's Italian Steakhouse, you know.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So um I would like study his job and the person below him, the exec sous chef, and just take everything I could take from everybody, learn, ask all the questions everybody else, nobody else asking.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when you get your opportunity, it don't feel like you gotta work as hard.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because you already know, you know, just getting used to those five o'clock mornings.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: They tell you, oh, you on schedule from eight to three, yeah, but it's 6 30 and you still there, you know.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, it's I just I I have my days where I'm just like, all right, now I gotta get out of here.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: But it's been a lot of days.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, I just want to stay because I done been here and I I need to condition myself for like 12, 14 hour days.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, because when you have this, so welcome back to another episode of Creative Roots Podcast.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: Tay and my DJ over here cooking already.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: But I want to thank everybody for tuning back in.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, yes, yes, this was a um a returning guest, right?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh highly anticipated as well.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because on that first episode, we were talking about the comings of the restaurant.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't give us no details on that episode.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: You remember that too?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't tell those dates.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: I let you know.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: I let you know.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: And now we're here, baby.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And they're already jumping into uh how it's been going, but we're gonna get that conversation going even more.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to quickly shout out Alan Lux Studio, Charlotte Podcast Studio at Artbox Charlotte.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: I would like to thank us.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's this Jamar is here.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: We gotta get Dina to get that right.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's cool.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: So listen, y'all.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: Jamar has already given the intro.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: If you know, you know.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: We are sitting here with the owner, Chef Darius J, Chef DJ, the man of the hour, the man with the plan, staging citrus, nota, right?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Camp North.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: Camp North end in the wrong spot.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: See, I live, I don't live in Charlotte.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: That man Papa, he done forgot everything about you.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Come back home, man.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: My bad.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: My bad, y'all.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't mean that.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Cam Northin.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Cam Northan, yes, sir.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um you can't miss, just follow the smell.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's right there.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was riding to Myrtle Beach last year, and I looked at the calendar like while I was riding, because I was like planning my week as I was driving.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the life of a business owner, right?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Look at that calendar saying October 4th.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, did they make six months since we owe for saves and citrus, right?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: So six months, like, man, it's so many lessons, like so many blessings, too.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I done lost a lot by gain just as much as I lost.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's heavy some days.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think the the big thing is like we're going live, baby.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, this live is going to be off the chain.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: We already have people lined up, previous guests, but we're not gonna get no names yet.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: We're trying to keep everything exclusive.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, speaking of exclusive, make sure you sign up for that VIP experience.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: Get that exclusive sweatshirt.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: Come hang out with us an hour before everything kicks off.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then at the end, we'll take a group photo.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I got for y'all.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think y'all done heard enough from me.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: Back to the episode.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Lost a lot by gained just as much as I lost.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's heavy some days.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think the the big thing is like working full time while building this thing.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: We started this concept.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I started with my first restaurant in 2019, Columbia, South Carolina.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like we talked about that before, but that was my first like welcome to the restaurant industry.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of hits, took a lot of hits super early, and we turned all of those into lessons, and then we applied it to what we're doing right now.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm super grateful.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what I did in I I was talking about this on Instagram one day.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm not a boaster, I don't brag, I don't care about none of that stuff.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I just like to work.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: I like to work and I like to let the work speak for itself.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So what I accomplished in two years in my first restaurant experience, I did that in seven weeks in Charlotte.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Seven weeks.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Seven weeks.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: By the time I hit seven, uh, seven, my seventh week, I had already hit the same number that it took me two years to make in South Carolina.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: So because you knew.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you learned all you do is just get better, get sharper.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and just like I was saying before, just taking all those nuggets.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And far from perfect, right?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've just so much stuff that I've still gotta like work on.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Things I feel like I could have been sharper on, right?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: But it is a lot.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even gonna affront like it don't be a lot, like it'd be a lot some days.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, I think about failure, I think about um just walking into the thing that you done been thinking about for the last five years, every single day.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, every day.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: It ain't been a day that since I closed my first restaurant where I walked out one day, I said, I can't walk back in here until I get myself together.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I walked out that day and I started going to the gym, you know, and it just went from there, right?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I started like taking that really serious.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, but it's just about just being resilient, you know, and um it ain't about numbers, it ain't about making a certain dollar because I ain't chasing a certain, you know what I mean?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like whatever I when I projected this, I was wrong, right?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I put it in front of some people that um I feel like could grow my brand um with railroots hospitality.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, they just I feel like they aligned with what I was trying to do.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so you think about restaurants like Fin and Fino, uh Dresslers, uh Chapter Six, those restaurants right here, right here in Charlotte.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I've been to every last one of them.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, the food is good and the service is good, and I can learn something here, right?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we put it in front of them and they say, hey, you need to go back and look at this again.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Cause I thought I was right with my numbers, you know.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think I had like, I'll be honest, I was like 750k first year, something like that.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, you need to go look at this again.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: You need to, you know.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: So it's having people that like see a vision and they're gonna amplify you even more, right?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like you still gotta do the work, but it's like having a group of people or that have done it already, not just people that's just on Instagram talking or people that just chasing a certain whatever.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like you gotta like listen to people that bend where you're trying to go, right?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: So um I wanted to build it where whenever I could I could still go to work, right?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the structure doesn't change, the blueprint of the business doesn't change, right?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's taking all those nuggets from working at Dean's, working at Tupelo Honey, being a line cook at first watch.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: That was my first line cook job.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I didn't lie my way to get in the door, right?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's like I'm coming from I'm coming out the streets.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just a a caterer, right?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I just do a little few little little things.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I I can get a job.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna throw it in.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: The military helps, right?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: The military, being in a become from military background, but them seeing that you already own a catering business.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, well, he knows something about food, right?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: So um I went in there as like a my day first few weeks, screwing up a little bit, but I'm looking at everything that people are doing.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: My boss, the other line cooks, how they prep everything.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at everything, right?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Paying attention to details and everything, organization, the brands that they use for like the everything all the way down to the grill cleaner.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at everything, like you know, yeah.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that was my line cook job, right?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I just look back and I didn't stay there very long because it's like I'm bigger than this, right?
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was a little ego, but it was me being honest with myself.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm I like this, but it's cool.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: But everything, everything I need to see, I didn't saw it already, right?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: You done grabbed them nuggets, you know what I'm saying?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and they had like the best, I still think they got like some of the best French toasts.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I love these French toasts.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: They used to have them good pancakes, but it's I learned a lot in a very short period of time and uh took that and uh you know just proceeded to grow my career.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like going to certain kitchens, it's like I think Dean's Tupelo was cool, but Tupelo wasn't challenging, right?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: It was a lot of learning points, but it wasn't challenged.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: The food doesn't challenge me at all.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like fried chicken, mac and cheese, you know, with the basics, waffles, you know, like, oh, this is cool, but this don't challenge me, right?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, let me just figure out.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I one of the prep cooks says some really off-the-wall stuff to me my first day, my first weekend there, and I was like, I ain't gonna be here long, you know.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, let me just learn what I can learn.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I took everything I could from there, that short period.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think I might have stayed at like three or four months, but I still learned a lot in that three, four months, right?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: From opening to leaving the last period, you last person, it's 12:30 in the morning, last person walking out the door, you know.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's a lot of stuff that I picked up in a short period of time that like propelled me.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I tell people, it's like whenever you like want to do a certain thing, you gotta work the job that you want to get to.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And put yourself in jobs that like this is only gonna challenge me, this is only gonna make me better, right?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: So when I went, so I left there, I went to Dean's and I gave them all my weaknesses.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I need to work on this, my knife skills suck, I need to work on this, you know, you know, just overall organization and stuff like that.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: And like it was more so like I'm bringing a certain level of leadership from my army career, and I have worked in kitchens, I have, you know, but this is where I'm trying to go, right?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And um Chef Oscar was just patient with me, you know.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody that were I worked with, they were just patient with me.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, um, and that was my step into like the real restaurant industry.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I didn't hire two of my cooks from Deans because I I when I left, I said, I'm gonna, when I opened this restaurant, this was years ago.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: When I opened my next restaurant, I'ma I'm gonna I'm gonna come, I'm gonna go after him.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go after him, I'm gonna go after him.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't get everybody that I wanted, but I got two of the best people that was there because they saw my vision, right?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And one of one of one guy, he just he ended up getting a better position, but um one, you know, Sebastian's still there.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, rock star, great guy, great kid, um, and very, very uh modest about his work, you know, very just a hard worker.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I always cherish certain things about uh some of those cooks, and I would like to bring them with me.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: So here we are now, Sage and Sisters, uh six months, um lifelong.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm trying to be here forever.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't know if Camp Northern is my final destination, but I'm definitely looking at drive-throughs.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm definitely looking at um some uh in-caps spaces that we could, you know, turn this thing into like a real wellness.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Some major expansion right there.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, fast food.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm I think about that just like I told you, I've been la I ain't been a day in the last five years.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't thought about that grand that next grand opening.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, man, look, before I can open the next, I gotta be a little bit more mentally strong.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you gotta have tough skin in the in the Worst Guard industry, so it's like I'm just gonna start with me taking my to the gym.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let me get in this gym, right?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you start seeing results here, results there, you know, like, all right, cool.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Man, during the pandemic, I lost 57 pounds.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Just being broken on the inside, right?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like now I'm like in a better position.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: I said, before I open another restaurant, I'm gonna get in the best shape of my life.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I went and did that, right?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be 35 here in a couple months.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I just said before I turn 35, I want to be the sharpest I could be.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be the best I could be, and I can't do that unless I'm in the best shape of my life.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you gotta everything, all of that, you know, um mentally, physically, because it all plays into your emotion as well.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, you know, decision making, yeah, discernment, yeah, the whole nine yards.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: So here we are, six months into Sage and Citrus.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um you had the um Influencer Day.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was my first one.
• 18:28
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I definitely appreciate the invite.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: I was a little confused about it.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: I hate I couldn't make it, man.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: What was I out of?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was out of town or I had a shoot or something, but I'm glad I was.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think you was out of town doing a shoot.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yes.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was something like that um that weekend that you wasn't here.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, oh, I thought you was about to say somehow.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, he not.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: So, but yeah, we we're here.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, that day I'm like not living in Charlotte anymore.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, I forget how many people are here.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you you don't really see everybody as far as influences go.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I was able to meet some people that I've never, you know, seen before.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I'm not on Instagram, I'm not on social media like that.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on there, but I know I'm with you.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I I met some people like uh Neaboo, um Chris King creates, and um, it was a couple other people.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, just it was to me, it was more of a networking event for me, plus you know, capturing the stuff that we was able to capture for you.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, yeah.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: And um man, that that was uh to me, that was even a big day for me.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, like yeah, it was about hey, we open in the next couple weeks, yeah.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and then you get your your promo and stuff out.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um did the phone start ringing after that?
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm sure they did.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Phones, phones, phone ain't stopped ringing since that day.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't gonna lie, it hasn't stopped ringing.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: It literally like it's been um good calls, some of them not some of them not as much, but most of them good calls.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's been busy, bro.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's been busy.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I know we're going into our first cold season, so um, we got breakfast coming.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we I just did a photo shoot for that like like three weeks ago.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: So um what's on what's on the way is is big.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um just refining some things.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: It took me six months of data to really kind of dial into what's selling, what's not selling.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it might be some other changes to the menu, but I got some cool stuff on the way.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: So Camp Northern is it's been great, it's been a good experience uh for the most part.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but um I can't wait, man.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's gonna be dope.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Just don't take that mushroom burger off because you know I know some people are gonna be so upset about that.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: They was mad about I had to the veggie burger off.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: I took the veggie burger off.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: I I had to because it wasn't selling, and I got a lot of product that's going to waste, so it's like we gotta, we gotta, we gotta get rid of this, right?
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um we uh replaced it with a mango ginger chicken sandwich, this grilled chicken sandwich.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: I might uh have to uh we we replaced it.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: So so um fried oyster did exactly what I thought it would.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: I knew it was gonna be the one.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this is one particular NBA player that I was cooking for last the last few seasons here in Charlotte.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, since I moved here, and I made it for his agent one time.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like it was his agent, and I made it for his mom.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: I would make it for his mom all the time.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when I would see how she would react, I said, nah, we gotta sell this.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta sell this.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's on the menu react.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: So as I was like, This kind of since like I said, Sage and Sisters has been sitting in my phone for like um really like five, six years, right?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Five, six years since like 2021.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's been there.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um every time I go places, try different stuff.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm up two o'clock in the morning researching a little stuff.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm just tweaking the menu as I go, but I said, nah, this fry with the mushroom, gotta sell, right?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it did exactly what I thought it would.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, I got a credible team, they've been holding, holding me down.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: I I wouldn't be able to be here right now if it wasn't for uh, you know, a competent staff.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, so shout out to the team for allowing that man to you know take a quick break to come chill with us, you know.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sunday, Sundays is always my low labor day, right?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm there mostly all day on Sundays.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but you know, it was the best time for me to connect with y'all.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, the guy's just holding it down today.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been cool, man.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a great experience.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh definitely a lot of challenges, a lot of wows, a lot of WTFs, you know, oh yeah, and disappointment, right?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um Chef Scott, um, one of my buddies with the hospitality group, he uh he said, you just wake up knowing somebody's gonna disappoint you, you know.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been it's been good, but it's been a lot.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a lot.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, just you know, cleaning up house, um, you know, attracting the right talent that sees the vision in the big picture, you know, it's a little bit of everything, man.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, just wanting wanting to be a my biggest thing outside of like the healthy stuff is just wanting to be a resource for the community.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's it, right?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: We encourage people to eat a little cleaner, eat a little healthier.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody can say you go hang out with your homies and have a little drink or two, but you know, we're in this era now, we really need to be mindful of our um food intake and everything that we, you know.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you cut on the news, they got a million things that's getting recalled right now.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: Nigga's a 3D printed steak.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: You understand what I'm saying?
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's and it's it's a scary time right now.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: So um if the most I can do right now is um promote a product that's gonna benefit the human body, then that's what that's what I'm here for.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: And also just wanting to be a resource for employment, you know, and and build up these other young guys that might see a future in the culinary world.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's where my mind be at.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, scholarship opportunities are that's that's what I'm wanting.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's bigger than just that elevated mindset, you know, it's bigger than 350 square feet of stall.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm I'm thinking about how many people we can change, how many lives we can change, how many people we can help, you know.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my biggest thing.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a movement, it's a lifestyle, yes, sir.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I I wanna I want to talk about this menu.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, y'all.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: Tay ain't big on certain health foods, but that black bean burger, tell me that's still on the menu.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, black bean is gone.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: The black bean burger is gone.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you will see it in the I gotta put in a special request.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you yeah, for you, you gotta put it.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yo, yo, D, I'm in the area.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Can you rock one?
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: I got you, bruh.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you, I got you.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: But like I said, it just wasn't selling, and it was just an executive move to make.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: I I wanted to keep it, yeah, but you I can't depend on those five people to come every day.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Right, yeah.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like I was throwing away so much, so much of it, and I like to serve it fresh.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like to serve it frozen.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: I did it frozen a couple times.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, damn, it's just not the same.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Ain't the same.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: It ain't the same, but you know, but for the first, let's say four to six weeks, yeah, it was it was selling, then it died off.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, all right, you know, you probably sell one or two a week.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, we can't make it like this, you know.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one thing that you know the market tells you, you know, even if you want to keep it and stuff, you gotta listen to the market just like you say the data.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, all the data.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever data that you have.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we got this thing that pull up and tell you how many you sold for the month, sold for the week.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm going back, it's like, um, gotta do it, gotta do it.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I gotta do it.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, so I still will put it out there as a special though.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like I got this thing on there, it's called like the Chef Special, the Chef Monthly Special.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you will see like it in, you know, um a uh Smash Burger form or see it in like a um a Midwood, uh a Midwood smokehouse form with some mushroom, with some roasted mushrooms on the top, you know.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: You it's you just don't know, man.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: But definitely one of my favorite things.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like I used to make them so much.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: I used to make them so much when they were on the menu.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, but I was like, if I ain't eating them, they ain't selling, you know, and a couple other guys at the restaurant like that would like make them and everything.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like they love the black bean burger, but it just wasn't selling as much as I thought it would.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but if if I open, if I open, sorry, when I open, right?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: When I open the next location, when I open the next location, you will see that again.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's going back on the menu.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Korean barbecue, we we had some little tension with the other tenants, so it's some of those sauces I changed just to kind of draw a line in the sand.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: But um, Korean barbecue will be back, you know.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um the uh ginger soy vinaigrette is gonna be back.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like those are some of my favorite sauces.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I just put some other stuff out there just to kind of make it make some peace.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they feel like you were competition.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, that's we can we can sit here and rap about that all the time.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: She already already knows like she I done told her, like, it's been like that, bro.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's these people out here are wild.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: They are wild.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's it's it's it's gotten to the place where like I got customers telling me that people are DM DMing them, that they are DMing customers to not shop at my restaurant.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy work.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow, because my sauce is better than yours.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um okay, um petty level back now.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: Let's bring it back up.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the thing for me is why is it competition?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like, because I know it's not intentional.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: You had these sauces before.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: I told them, I told him the scene look, this concept been on my phone for this amount of years.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Here are the notes, right?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and man, I I knew that it would be like something, some type of pushback with the concept and like foot traffic, and you know, yeah, I knew it was gonna be something, but I didn't think it would get like like I had some cooks came to me and said, Chef, I went to this restaurant, I went to this restaurant, and they won't serve me because they says I work at Sage and Citrus.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like we like this the 1920s.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy work, but it's it's it's it's like I had to I have to like check myself because you know, I like to go there, right?
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, yeah, I like to go there.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: No, we can.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: I like to go there, right?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like I saw me on Insta like on Instagram said like um, you know, I'm super lady back, but I don't mind leaning up.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like yeah, like uh DJ got lean up.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna need that.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna hey put that in the notes.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_02: Put that in the notes.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'ma lean up real quick.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna lean forward real quick.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I just like I said, I I've been very, it's been a little embarrassed.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: That part's been embarrassing because it's like I wouldn't call it embarrassing, man.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm talking about like embarrassing in the ad not for me, I'm talking about for them because it's like Then we're gonna call that embarrassment, you know what I'm saying?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm just saying, like, like, but think about the climate we live in, right?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Where all it takes is somebody getting on the Instagram, on the face, Facebook Live, on the TikTok, on uh, you know, what Snapchat, whatever, and all it takes is one video and not nobody coming to your restaurant.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's the world we're living in, right?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, and so, and you know, I I already told property management, I'll call for a public boycott if y'all don't meet them.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: Come on now, public boycott, come on, because that's not cool.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's grounds for lease termination, right?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I already know, just like I said, I I was talking about on Instagram, but you don't be on there like that, right?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: So um, I think that like one, just being a little young, being younger than these people already is a little confusing.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: They like, who who this guy think he is?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: He's black, all the stigma that come along with being a confident black man right now in this crazy world.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have the audacity to be successful.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: They see traffic coming there and stuff.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that's what that's exactly what it is.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so then it's healthy food, right?
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it's you know, and I very like I said, it's been underwhelming, like just how I've been having to navigate that because it's like everybody will, I'll be waking up thinking I'm I'm hard on myself enough, right?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you think I'm killing it, and I'm like, I ain't nowhere near where I want to be.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, because I mean, even in this building, we there are multiple photographers, there are multiple studios here, but we basically collaborate with these, you know, these other photographers.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: We talk to them.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: We don't be like, hey, hey girl, put that camera down Monday through Wednesday.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: You better not take no pictures.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we're not doing that.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: DM and clients talking about don't work with them.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because they backdrop paper don't look like ours.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_02: Put the sticky note on the telephone.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I had to change my perspective because like I said, I like to go there.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mind going there.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: I will don't mind making a scene, I will body slam somebody.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: We can furniture.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you did, and I'm glad that you reserve yourself because if you did, that'd be the first thing.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: See, I told you, look at them.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's what they want, right?
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right, but it's like when you got like a calling on yourself, then you gotta expect some of that, right?
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I just didn't expect it in the 1920s.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we're not gonna serve you because you work at like when it gets like that, like now it's like, all right, nah, that's that's a form of bullying.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, because I mean, so you don't want my money, right?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you turn it around, like, I don't trust nobody, man, woman, whatever.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you are turning pain customers around for no real reason, like I don't even trust you, right?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, so in my head, it's like it don't matter what property management says now, I don't even respect you because you're taking food out your own mouth for an ego to preserve your ego.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy work.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: My thing would be like, oh, I know the food down there is good, but he's still coming here.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: You should welcome that gladly.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: We but how do that's almost like self-cnibalism.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_02: You're killing yourself because you're you're telling people no.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: Y'all not know their history, huh?
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: You said what that's what they do, yeah, yeah.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but but like I said, I wasn't expecting it to be like that.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'll be I'd be when I go home at night, I'm like, man, I didn't hit my goal today.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: I wish this would have gone right.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: This didn't go right, this person didn't cook this right, they sold this overcooked.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm over here thinking about all the things that obviously I'm I'm highlighting the good stuff too, but I'm thinking about what do I need to do to be sharper for tomorrow?
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I think about it.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's how I am, you know, like even with Swan Spark, like, hey man, that was a good feed.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, so what was wrong?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like I hear you just appreciate it, but a shade of perfect uh perfection, perfectionists, yeah.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like I want to be, I wanted to be almost perfect.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't respect nobody, nobody has taken food out of their own mouth to prove a point that still ain't been proven, right?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: And you've only been here six months.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's only been here six months, but it's been going literally been going on since my second week in there.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's been going on ever since.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: So instead of collaborating with me, hey, I I see this.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_02: Can you give me some pointers?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know, because to me, that's like me and Shamar being two separate photographers, and I see a skill set that he's got can you teach me?
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: Teach me.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm willing to pay.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Teach me.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you and me think because that's just who we are by nature.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you got if you got um uh an ounce of hate or jealousy or bitterness or whatever in your heart, it don't matter what you offer.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: They told us y'all copying us with the Korean barbecue sauce.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: I took it off.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: Say, you know what, DJ, you ain't gotta take it off.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know I don't, but guess what we're gonna do?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna take it off to prove a point.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: We replace it with mango ginger.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: How much, how much do you, how much do you think mango ginger is done?
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's the answer.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta hit in your heart, let it out.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_03: You do what your pill said.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: So so that's how, right, exactly.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's just that's how I look at it.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like all the numbers are in your data.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I I was gonna take Korean barbecue sauce off anyway, not because it wasn't good, but because cocoa aminos was ska high, still is ska high.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and my none of my sauces have soy in them, right?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't have to change it because y'all got soy and everything that y'all got, and I don't, right?
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: So completely different ingredients, right?
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not even close.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, um very underwhelming, man.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't gonna lie, that's a little disappointing.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, people that you want to see win, I don't respect it.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're rooting for you.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's a good one.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna keep going, man, nonetheless.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna keep going.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what about the uh the the customers, the consumers?
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: How how are you all received from the neighborhood?
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Most of them, most of them have been great.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'll say 97% of them have been good, you know, and it's a mixture of every ethnicity, every background, uh, but you know, I don't care about the black-owned stuff.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: That stuff don't mean nothing.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, it's not a marketing tool, so I don't lead with that.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: If people come up and ask, sure, I'm the owner, but I don't lead with that.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: It don't, it don't do nothing for your business.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but the the the response to the overall community from the overall community, other business owners in the area are supporting, and you got people that's coming.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: I got people that's traveling to Charlotte, and that's like we looked this up.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a good sign.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: TikTok and TikTok's big, um, Instagram's been big.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh threads, threads has been big.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's that's I'm still kind of new to that, but it's it's been big.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: So the overall response has been great, very positive.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um everybody, obviously, not gonna make everybody happy, but um, I've got some really good reviews, some really good feedback, and a lot of it to build on going into these next six months.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it's gonna be dope, man.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm super amped, super like I'm I'm nervous because that's how I feel about it, right?
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: With this breakfast and stuff coming, I'm so nervous, not because I don't think it's not gonna work, but because I'm like, I think it's gonna hit, and I think people, I think the feedback is gonna be good.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, I just gotta make sure I got like all the tools and the right people in place to drive this thing home.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta have a bit of nervousness in there, man.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: If it is, you gotta do it scared.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it ain't that much of a challenge or something to really kind of like push for.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if it's like, you know, you you wake up and you have a certain routine, you don't worry about it.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: But when it's something different, it's like, okay, wait, okay.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_02: Let's try to be perfect, but let's not be too perfect.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think being there like most mornings before I go to the gym, I always stop there.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure I got, you know, make sure everybody's set up for the day on my way to the gym, right?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm always making sure I make time to get there before anybody does.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm always on campus before most business owners get there, and I'm like the last person to leave most nights, you know.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a lot of stuff that you see that everybody don't see.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, um, it's a lot of pointers I could give everybody in that's right there in the little area we in, but man, nobody wants to hear it.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want to hear it because there it's gonna require you to show up differently for your business.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it is what it is, man.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're gonna win nonetheless, so it's all good.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: All I do is win, win, win no matter what.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it don't matter what as long as you know, as long as you working hard, you're gonna get everything you want, man.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: I tell I said uh um one day I said on on Instagram, um all the answers are in your are in your habits.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: All the answers are in your habits.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Look at every single habit you got, and everything you think is gonna happen for you is it's there, right?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: And as somebody that just grew up watching people being overly, overly, overly observant of every single thing, you can almost predict what somebody's what's gonna happen next with somebody based on how they're moving right now.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I learned a lot of things to stay away from and a lot of things not to do by just watching how other people move, right?
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you are somebody that's drinking from your 20s to your 40s, then you can almost depict how what their late 40s to their 50s plus 60s, what it's gonna look like.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you eat fast food and that's like your thing, then you can almost depict what that what what the results are gonna be in the next 10 years, right?
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's a health, health, weight, any of it.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just being observant.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, it's it's uh all the answers are in your habits.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: All your all every decision that you make, it has a consequence.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta have a self-examination with that stuff, man.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because I know for me, I'd be like, man, I need to do better with what I eat.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_02: And it'll be two or three days.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_02: The next thing I know, I'm like, man, I just want that greasy cheeseburger, bruh.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta have that greasy cheeseburger.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, well, well, but I love a good cheeseburger too.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it ain't nothing wrong with having it, but I think it's just the consumption of how much are you consuming?
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because surefire got the best.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think surefire got the best.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you ever in Camp North fan, go to go to go to uh Surefire.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: They got some of the best burgers in Charlotte.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: I I I know I go there at least once or twice a week.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_02: So you know I'm about to stop by right after I leave you.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm out to stop by.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: They got one of the best smash burgers in the city.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: And that's coming from Chef Darius J.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, one of like I done went there so many days, and yeah, it's good.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely get the surefire.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: Speaking of good, one of the biggest smoothies for me, well, really the only one I could drink because uh uh I think one of them has strawberries or something like that in it.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: That holy grail.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: Holy Grail, holy grail, man.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is such a long story with the holy grail, but I'm gonna keep it short.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um Nipsey Blue, right?
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it the ingredients are mangoes, uh fresh um fresh orange juice.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um you can add vanilla whey if you you know the post-workout.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um has chia seeds um and lemon test, right?
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: Probably, uh not probably, it is the top seller out of all the smoothies, but it takes me back to 2019 because that's how long it's been around, right?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: Same smoothie, just fresher ingredients, and just a better process with delivery, right?
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um Nipsey Hustle was originally inspired by Nipsey Hustle.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: We called it the Marathon when I opened my first restaurant.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was called the Marathon.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Same, same smoothie, same everything, just fresher ingredients.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: So um that was the same year Nipsey died, um 2019.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that was March 31st, 2019.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we we had our grand open in November 10th, same year.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: So um Nipsey and Nipsey originally inspired Dow.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: It was a musically inspired concept, and uh Nipsey inspired that one for us.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's called the Marathon.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was just, you know, and it's still the same thing.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Keep going, right?
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, keep going.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: Keep going.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it has all the health properties for you to keep going.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it literally, my literally top seller, but I like the peaches and green.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: Peaches and green is probably my favorite, personal favorite.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the Cosmo.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: I I drink the Cosmo every day after the gym with protein powder and um vanilla milk.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I saw that on the menu too.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, vanilla whey, um, and oat milk.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: So um, in that order, I would say holy grail, peaches and green, um, the Cosmo, and um man, we we just switched to one called the Dragon Glow.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a dragon fruit.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Smoothie is dragon fruit, mangoes, passion fruit, and um it's a lemon base, and we put um mint leaves in it.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it gives you a really fresh burst.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um a lot of everything organic, everything is completely fresh juice.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: So probably my personal favorite.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um for like um as far as new additions, the dragon glow is a big hit.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, dragon glow is a big hit.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like the response that I got from that, we went away with the palm berry, but that one's only been out for like five weeks now, and it's lapped the palm berry.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: So the palm berry was still people still ask about it, but I'm like, yeah, we went away with that one.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it was the same way with the it was the same thing as the um the black bean burger.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because it it just wasn't selling, right?
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you just got a whole bunch of berries that are just sitting in the freezer, and you know, people buying it, it's just not buying it enough.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: So we went away with that one.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Dragon Glow is like all my adjustments so far have been, I've been low-key spot on with, you know, as far as like the return on um and like just crossing other ingredients to make another smoothie.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Eliminating one is just crossing over the mangoes and the dragon fruit.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: We got a dragon fruit lemonade.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um probably the top seller with as far as lemonades go.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's a dragon fruit lemonade, dragon fruit mint lemonade.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's uh the Ab the Dragon.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um the um what's it called?
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um the Eden Well.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: Eden's well is um strawberry basil lemonade, and then the Sage Classic is just a classic lemonade with uh mint leaves, mint leaves in it.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: So um I think how do you how do you approach um creating the recipes?
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: Creating the recipes, it comes from just deep research.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've traveled places throughout between here, the whole South, Texas, um go to different restaurants and I try their stuff, you know, and I don't copy anything.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: I just oh I like how this tastes with this, right?
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I just write everything down.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: So literally the last five years has been just that.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: Even LA, I didn't I went to LA last uh like two years ago um with my well with my daughter on spring break, and uh we found some cool juice bars out there, right?
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: So um that was that was cool, and I just wrote, I just took a lot of data, and um most of these smoothies though, the smoothies are about seven years old.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: They just fresh your ingredients, right?
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really all it is.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: I I've been working these these these were all recipes I came up with like a long time ago.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just kind of refined a few of them.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh the the the mint lemonade is I kind of wanted the um the dragon fruit lemonade and the strawberry basil lemonade, I kind of want them to kind of be like um kind of match the name sage and citrus, right?
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: When you think of sage, what do you think of?
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_02: Man, I don't know, honestly.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_02: When I say sage, I'm thinking more like a plant, something like something fresh.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: But what do people use sage for in the house, right?
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: I know you've seen people like use sage for like smudging, they're clearing out that word and protecting, covering.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, so the name came oh the name came like last summer, right?
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: Cause I was just like, where I'm I just had to go into a deep place, right?
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where as far as like what I wanted to call it.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, mint and something.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, uh sage, sage is the hit, right?
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because everybody loves sage.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh sage has its own health properties, but it but it also people use it in their house for cleaning, cleanse, and healing, right?
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: So when you think of citrus, you think of oranges, you think of lemons, you think of limes, you think of fresh fruit.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: So healing fresh.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: Fresh healing.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how that's how it came about.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know, um, it it just I was just sitting up and I was I was just talking, I was like, Sage and citrus would be a good hit.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and that same night I started drawing up uh logo ideas same night, and uh that's just how it came, man.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: I had some cool names in mind.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it was like Nectar or something, Nectar Life Cafe or something like that.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, yeah, Sage and Citrus is way more marketable, right?
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so so I went with the most marketable name, and uh it's been a tremendous response.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, plaid penguin is responsible for the design.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I have my own stuff because I like to create my own stuff, but uh you know, we we came into it with basically everything already drafted.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, help me refine this.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: And this was like Valentine's Day, Valentine's Week this year.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, got that call that they wanted to meet, and they showed me the layout.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, that's what I wanted.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I wanted.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they gave me the green that I wanted.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was because it was other creatives and other painting companies and other design because like, oh, I think you should go at lime green.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm not having a lime green building, man.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, man.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I like this green.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: They told me to go away with that green.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Don't go that, don't use that green.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: And when they did the rollout, I said, That's the one.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's the logo I wanted.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted something simple but bold that catches people's attention.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted a color that was gonna draw people in, and green draws green draws people in.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that's how it came about, man.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, probably one of the happiest weeks I had.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just remember going out and just just drinking, just just drinking after that.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: That was like one of the happiest days.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: I went to celebrate.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: I went to stir.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: I got done.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let me go turn up and have a little celebration, man.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a good, it was a good day.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, super grateful to be here.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that I prayed about, everything I done worked hard for.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: Man, we we here now, and uh only thing I'm trying to do is grow and build and uh just keep this concept going and just pushing the message forward about healthy eating.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's all here for you.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_02: Speaking of healthy eating, I'm glad you said that.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because what me and Schmidt forgot to mention is welcome to uh Thanksgiving episodes.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: There we go.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yay.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, y'all know how we do Thanksgiving.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_02: We we sit with, you know, some special people.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_02: Some special people in the kitchen cooking it up, chefing it up.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_02: I can get on the grill and I can smoke some.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_02: But you want me to put something in a pot?
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_02: It ain't gonna come out right at Jamar.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_02: It ain't gonna work, you know.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_02: So um as personal usual, Chef Darius got a meal for us, and I haven't had this, but I ain't worried about it.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's coming from the Chef Darius, right?
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_02: And the funny thing is, we all got the same thing.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_02: So there was no variety here.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, we didn't.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: No, we all got the same thing.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I didn't know that.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think one person had no mushrooms on theirs.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: That was me.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: I got no mushrooms.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: But you said boo.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love mushrooms, I gotta eat mushrooms.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: I love I eat mushrooms in any variety, anyway.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love I'm definitely a big mushroom fanatic.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_02: I might have to try one one day where nobody can be like, see, I knew it was nasty, you know, because I'm like, me and mushrooms, it is I can do cream of mushrooms.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_02: But what?
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like the flavor, you like the flavor of the mushroom, but just have the extra mushroom.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_02: I might be like the little kids, you know, but yeah, man, Thanksgiving, man.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we here.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it's gonna hold you.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_01: You and your dramatic pauses, okay?
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_01: So when we gonna get to the sampling of it, I mean, come on.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, let's do this right now.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_02: Let's do this.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_02: Who?
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I gotta get up and get it?
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, while you're doing that, I don't know.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I I have something to do.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_02: You really did, I'm dead.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know uh if it was on camera or not, but you were talking about, you know, the loss at the beginning when y'all sat down.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_01: And it resonated with me because I have my two friends of 30 plus years.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we our our friendship ended.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: Never would have thought that.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_01: And to your point, it wasn't even anything.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, and it's just like, you know, as I I I processed through it, I started to understand that, you know, that season was done, right?
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then, honestly speaking, you're getting prepared for the place that you're headed to.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we know everybody can't go with you, but the crazy part about it is, is that like, I didn't think it was you.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yeah.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, a little bit on that uh how you Man, I can I can go back to my first bring your mic back in.
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll go back to the very first time I experienced this as I was building the groove, the smoothie juice bar that I had.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um and man, I I just remember I remember hiring my best friend, literally hiring my best friend, my childhood best friend.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_00: And um, that was when I knew I had an attack on me.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_00: I got I can't just be having anybody around me, right?
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: Where you know, we came, I'm talking about Kenny Garden up, our kids just got the same name.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_00: Got it.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, right.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hired this guy.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_00: I said, man, how many?
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's wasn't working at the time.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_00: I said, how much money was you making?
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was making 16 an hour.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_00: All right, bet.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_00: You getting 16 hours.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: You my man's right.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_00: And um, this is just it's just it's just this story that like set me up for like the best, like just changing my mind with feeling like I gotta bring everybody with me.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_00: I went through that and um I'm talking about this guy was stealing money out my cash register.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, was trying to hit hit on the girl I was dating at the time.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was like that.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um, when I rock when I finally put a light bulb to stealing from me, yeah, I done called a man named whatever.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_03: We just don't mean okay.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you're on here, clear that out.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_01: Clear that out in the post.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_01: Mute that, man.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, so so this guy is stealing from me, and the light bulb cut on my head like midnight.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I gotta fire this guy tomorrow.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_00: And on Fridays, I open at 7 o'clock.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: Every other day, I open like 9 o'clock, you know, 10 o'clock.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_00: Cause you know, but Friday was my freestyle Friday.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: I always open at 7 o'clock so people come 80 on smoothies.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_00: Got it.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I got to the somebody called me.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, if you don't move that mic, I hear all that.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's good.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get you to talk about it in a second.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody called me about 9 45, said, Man, ain't nobody at the store.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I got out of bed and I said, he's going.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_00: I got to the store, all his shirts were stuffed under the cash register, can't make this stuff up, right?
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_00: Never saw the guy ever again, never saw him again.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_00: Man, right.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_00: So when I think about like having that like attack on you, having people like attack you, like you're gonna experience that if you build in something that people can see.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of us, a lot of people give up before they get to the big old.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not a for me, it's not about proving any points.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about, yeah, I told you I can do this without you.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about that.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I've always been a person that's like overly helpful, go out my way to help anybody, right?
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you need a job and you come make, look, I can't give you no money, but you can come in here and work, right?
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right, you know, and always down at my sibling, right?
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: My siblings, so um, I just always been a helper.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like that was like my intro to like, like I never, I was always naive to hate and jealousy because like I don't hate and I'm not jealous of nobody.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_00: So but the same reason why a lot of people love you, others hate you.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right, absolutely.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they hate that you can give, give, give, give, and still be fruitful, right?
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people, like you're gonna draw, you're gonna attract people that's like good for you, and then you're gonna attract people that's like there just to take, take, take, take, right.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that was that was like one of my hard lessons.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_00: So um this particular, this particular uh process, just um anything, everything.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've dealt with everything from um well it's cashless now, so you can't steal.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can't steal.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like that was that if I had to if I had to tell one lesson, it's like nah, just go cashless for a concept like we got, you don't need to have no money, no cash register, no none of that.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's make people pay with a card, and everybody ain't gonna pay with a card, and that's it's fine, right?
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you just gotta go and come back and bring a car with you, you know?
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um it's just a hard lesson, bro.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, that that was probably one of the things that hurt me all the way down on my brother, kind of like backdoors.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is it's a lot, man.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's um definitely definitely come with some hits.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, and you gotta be like ready for that, like mentally prepared that this person could screw me over.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: I hate that that's how my my mind's kind of wired now because I know it's a lot of good people that like y'all like genuinely want to see me win, right?
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: But then it'd be people that's like literally there just to take.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_01: Take.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then like you said, you gotta be prepared for that.
• 58:16
  SPEAKER_01: But then on the flip side, that's when you get connected with peers and the people like you just mentioned uh earlier on in the show.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_01: You took them your numbers, and they were like, No, you need to go look at that again.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're helping you, they're pushing you forward.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_01: So aligning with your peers, aligning with people that want to see you win, oftentimes it's people that are not even in our circle, right?
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, yeah.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that was that was probably like it was gut-wrenching.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was like somebody stabbing you and turning the knife type thing, right?
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like um everybody just can't go, right?
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like I had to like start like training my mind to not get too attached to people that if you know if you don't come, that ain't gonna stop me from doing what I gotta do.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, like Goody Mom said, one monkey don't stop no show.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, one monkey don't stop no show.
• 59:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it it might slow you down, they might stumble you, you might get a little distracted, but you gotta keep going.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's you know, the process itself, just whether it's from dating to having the homies around to going out.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was, yeah, I had some of my day ones come in town a couple weeks ago, bro.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was in the section drinking orange juice.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't that person I used to be.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't even excited to be here.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to go and give I gotta I gotta open in the morning.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm over here thinking about what I gotta stop at the store and grab before I open in the morning.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's just the way life is now.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it does get a little frustrating at times.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a human, it does get lonely, but man, look, everybody that's supposed to be here, they here.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's all that's about that all day, man.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's all that matters, right?
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_00: The people that's supposed to be here right now, serving in this season, even if they're not here to stay, they are here right now.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't be too focused on what didn't work or who didn't stay or who didn't see, you know, the vision.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, man, I got DMs right now.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: Homie, one of the homies that was like like was literally, I had people that was taking credit for my oh, I gave DJ all the money to start dot dot dot.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm doing everything I can.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_00: I never even think about somebody did that to me, but go ahead.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's crazy.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm literally giving, I gave, I remember this one guy, I gave this guy a place to stay.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_00: Girlfriend kicked some out, did crazy work.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and he's telling people the whole time, DJ stay with me.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I gave DJ the money to do this, this, this, right?
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_00: And just like literally like taking credit for my success.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I never caught hate or weird energy from younger people.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's always the people that project their stuff onto you.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's never the other way around.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's always the people that he's young.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I one of my homies, he's a chef up in New York.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_00: We had a late night conversation.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was in New York and we were just talking about success and being young and doing the things that people think about doing, right?
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that was one of the things that we said.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_00: We said sometimes older older, uh, being younger and like being younger than your peers, like all my people that I look up to, they older than me, right?
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you think those people just gonna naturally be happy for you, and that ain't always the case.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes that sometimes that young success confuses people that may have had the opportunity, may have had the window, and they missed their window, they missed their prime.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_00: And now you there doing it, right?
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you still helping them and helping others along the way, right?
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that that I I've experienced some like very like, dang, like, it's good to know that you feel like that, but dang, you ain't had to, you know.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna bring you.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_02: You ain't gotta feel like you know what I mean.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was gonna bring you with me.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it sucks a little bit, but it's still like, um, and you know, I feel like Tyler Perry said something along those lines about like just reaching certain altitudes and just stuff just dying, people flying, like things just leaving.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's I gotta apply it in my life because it's like, man, if if I ain't doing that, then I'ma just be sitting around thinking about why they ain't here no more.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_00: And right now, they over, they screwing somebody else's life up.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, they living their own life.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_00: They they still doing the same stuff because when certain things are in you, like, and it's like this, bro.
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, I got DMs right now, people that's trying to come back.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_00: Nope.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like you sh, you know, you made your choices.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, live with them.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: When they done, doesn't it?
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, and I and I'm the I'm the grace giver.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_00: I give everybody extended grace every day, all day.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_00: But sound like somebody I know.
• 1:03:01
  unknown: Right.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm about to say, when is your birthday?
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_01: Are you a Leo?
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_01: Nah, I'm a I'm a I'm a Saj 12.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, five.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_01: 1214.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, yep.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_01: He's 12-4, but uh yeah, very similar.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_01: Them fire signs.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_01: I I see it, I get it.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, now I want to fly and be on cloud nine right now, real quick.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, can you talk to us about what we about to uh eat?
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_00: All right, bet, bet, bet.
• 1:03:21
  SPEAKER_00: So today everybody got the uh one of them had it written on the side.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it said one of them had no mushroom.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_00: So whichever one got no mush.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's your I gave John my food.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, bruh.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let me get that.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_02: This was yours.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I did start nigging in this.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, so so today, um, this is uh this is a uh Korean inspired, Korean-inspired dish.
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's this it's the uh beef short rib bowl.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the bowl has your choice of uh collie rice or herb brown rice.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have some roasted carrot carrots on there, um arugula.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um oh, and the bag has multiple.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_00: I bought two sauces for everybody.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_00: So y'all can um oh we got sauce.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a mango barbecue sauce and a Thai basil.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I want both.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so uh for this particular bowl, they brought two for everybody.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um just just just just just for the sake of the mango ginger going with this particular bowl.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say try it with the mango ginger first.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm a big fan of the top basil and the garlic herb.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, so this uh is this one of them replacements?
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into that real quick.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into that real quick.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, man, I like when people, I like responding because I tell people all the time, one of my favorite phrases is um people can't argue with results.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_00: People can say, think, and feel, they can talk all the smack they want to talk, but people cannot argue with results.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the microphone.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm listening, brother.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yo, we do that too, right?
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_01: Goodness.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is good.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_01: I ain't even put no sauce on the list of good.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_00: People cannot argue with results, right?
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_00: So mango ginger bad, you know.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm like like just reading certain books and studying certain leaders, it's always cool to um leave the enemy thinking that they want something, right?
• 1:05:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the minute we started catching, you know, whatever, whatever from the other people, I'm like, I've been wanting to put mango ginger out for a minute anyway.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_00: We appreciate that.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_00: They can catch up, you know.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_00: So so so I I watched this do um about 40% more sales because of the now.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: People came back and said, 'Man, you ain't got that Korean barbecue no more,' right?
• 1:06:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right, but this was the right answer.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is how this is how you respond.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_00: You respond with something better, right?
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, literally, one of my favorite sauces.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I eat the mango ginger chicken sandwich all the time, all the time.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I do a lot of like short rub ground beef bowls throughout the week with sweet potatoes, and mango ginger is always my choice to go on that, on that uh particular bowl.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_00: So literally, literally, I think I would say this right here is probably um second top seller between this and the chicken and then the salmon as well.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but one of my faves, bruh.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um so y'all was trying to be like me, I put my order in first.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_01: Both of y'all just said, ooh, I'm gonna get that too.
• 1:06:51
  SPEAKER_01: That did sound good.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_00: And um fast forward to the collie Mac.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh yeah.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's what this is.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I had I'm gonna tell y'all a story about the collie Mac because a few of the people that I first hired, they kept saying, Collie Mac, Cauley Mac, man, you don't need to put Cali Mac on the menu.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need to do blah blah blah blah blah.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh touch my food.
• 1:07:13
  SPEAKER_00: And what do you think is the number one selling side right now?
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_01: Ohly Mac.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_00: The Cali Mac is the number one selling side.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um I ain't even touched it yet.
• 1:07:27
  SPEAKER_00: It is 100% dairy free, 100% gluten-free, and um it's uh you know made with uh vegan cheese and uh vegan uh vegan uh sharp cheddar, vegan parmesan cheddar.
• 1:07:40
  SPEAKER_01: Oh I'm sorry, but yeah, yeah.
• 1:07:45
  SPEAKER_00: You say a vegan cheese?
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_00: Vegan cheddar.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's all sharp, it's sharp cheddar, parmesan in there, and uh yeah, it's just it's really good, man.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's really good.
• 1:07:53
  SPEAKER_00: So so the so the the response to that is has been good.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_00: And um I've been giving out samples of before I put it out there on the menu.
• 1:08:03
  SPEAKER_00: I just made like a few pans of it, and I just would just give it out as samples.
• 1:08:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh one lady came back like the next day to try to get a whole pan.
• 1:08:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, nah, it's going on the menu, it's going on the menu now, and ever since then it's it's been on the menu.
• 1:08:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I I got a question.
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_02: Are you putting these sauces for sale?
• 1:08:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it's good coming soon.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_00: Coming soon, 2027.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the mango ginger will be out there.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm gonna take the avocado shallot off as much as I love it.
• 1:08:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um avocado.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_00: Avocado shallot.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_00: So avocado shallot came after grand opening there.
• 1:08:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we got rid of ginger, soy, vinaigrette, and we replaced it with avocado shallot.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we replaced the Korean barbecue with the mango ginger barbecue.
• 1:08:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm still here, y'all.
• 1:08:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was fighting in the background because they're trying to steal my uh cauliflower mat.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_02: So so this mango ginger.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's sweet, bold.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not the ginger is not overpowering.
• 1:09:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and the barbecue of it is just subtle.
• 1:09:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_00: It has a nice smoky flavor to it.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like I said, all the sauces are vegan as well.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, plant-based.
• 1:09:19
  SPEAKER_02: Did they get some of that mango ginger?
• 1:09:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, yeah, I think everybody should have had it.
• 1:09:23
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody should have had.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_00: The only one I didn't bring was the avocado salad because I just went and put it with the beef.
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_00: But um, it's been a good thing.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_02: See, that man knows what to bring.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I said I'm gonna let them try.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_00: I want I wanted y'all to try like all of them so that so that y'all could just kind of make a pick on whenever y'all come back, what whatever, you know, what sauce you'd like.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm gonna say this too.
• 1:09:46
  SPEAKER_02: This is the only cauliflower rice I eat.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_02: This is the only one.
• 1:09:52
  SPEAKER_02: I feel if I go somewhere else, they're gonna let you down, they're gonna ruin it for me.
• 1:09:57
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'm gonna have to lean forward a little bit before I lean back.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_02: So the the way that this mango ginger is with everything, including the carrots, it just sits well.
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_02: So, yes, shout out to you because you you know what you're doing.
• 1:10:17
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, I know that.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_02: They shouldn't know.
• 1:10:20
  SPEAKER_02: Look, and I'm trying to, you know.
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_00: All the house, all the sauces are made in-house.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, uh, I'm still teaching the staff on how to like do them like exactly how I want them.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_00: But um this has been these are these are like these the all three ones y'all got, those are like my favorite sauces out of all of them.
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but um be on the lookout for I do want to put a um Peruvian, I'm looking, I'm not a Peruvian, uh Polynesian vinaigrette.
• 1:10:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking to add a Polynesian vinaigrette for like the chicken and um it's another one I said I was gonna do um cucumber lime vinaigrette.
• 1:11:01
  SPEAKER_03: Ooh, yeah.
• 1:11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's it's it's some cool stuff that I'm still working on.
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_00: But uh as far as the sauce launch, uh you probably could look for that maybe like next summer.
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Next summer.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, and I'm going launching.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I gotta wait till next summer.
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Can I do that?
• 1:11:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think the beautiful thing about this is you know, you don't feel like you're missing anything.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know what I mean?
• 1:11:23
  SPEAKER_01: So you you're focused on helping us eat healthy, and this would do it, you know, because even with the mac and cheese, you know, most people, us being from the south, you know, that comfort food and you don't mess up mac and cheese, this and that, literally, you are not missing it.
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_01: This is just as good, even better, especially because I know that it's healthier, you know.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my God, it's good.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's and I'm like I said, I'm thinking for every person, my main thing here is to um have a reintroduction to what fast casual is and just mainly pushing and promoting a product that people can truly benefit from, right?
• 1:12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, you can walk away without feeling sluggish, without feeling healthy, healthy, I'm sorry, without feeling heavy, and you can walk away feeling confident like a lot of times that we don't understand how much the food intake affects your mood, right?
• 1:12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that you put into your body is just gonna, it's that's really why you feel the way you feel.
• 1:12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Bottom line, it don't matter what it is.
• 1:12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um what you eat, right?
• 1:12:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you go in, it's a lot of a lot of a lot of this, my mindset didn't change until I had like I was like, even me getting in shape, it's like I gotta be the example, right?
• 1:12:39
  SPEAKER_00: If people see that this is the product of that, then they'll they're they're they they uh attach themselves to that, you know, they're they're attracted to that thing, right?
• 1:12:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like um, you know, like I said, just like I told you, surefire burgers.
• 1:12:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna eat me a surefire burger, but this right here is where it's at.
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's um, you know, proper meal consumption, um, everything's macro counted.
• 1:13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you looking at you looking at at least 40, 42 grams of protein in both in all three bowls, right?
• 1:13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you you never gotta, you never can eat enough vegetables, right?
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_00: So um literally, literally, um my main thing is just kind of having this whole reintroduction to what fast casual food is and um only offering people something that they can truly that can help them, right?
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's the name of the game.
• 1:13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a deep bowl.
• 1:13:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like it may not look that deep, but bruh.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_02: And it is filled up to the top.
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, yes, sir.
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 1:13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Nothing's missing, nothing's lacking.
• 1:13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, one of one of my favorite bowls right here.
• 1:13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I eat I eat at least one oyster mushroom sandwich a week.
• 1:13:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't eat a lot of fried foods, but I will eat the oyster mushroom sandwich.
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's really good, and I eat a lot of sweet potatoes.
• 1:14:01
  SPEAKER_00: So um, everything that's in front of you is only here to fuel your body and to create a help create a better you.
• 1:14:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying not to eat too much while we still sit here on camera.
• 1:14:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to take a break because at some point I'm gonna show my face and you're gonna be Yes, sir.
• 1:14:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I asked you this the last time you were on here, and I have to ask again.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the last time I asked, you know, how do you continue to stay uh fit, you know, uh in this industry, but to hear you also do a lot of research and go out there and try different restaurants and stuff.
• 1:14:33
  SPEAKER_01: So how do you maintain it?
• 1:14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the the maintenance, uh, I mean, it's all most of it's mental, right?
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because and I I'm definitely somebody that like still battles at times because I'm just hard on myself with trying to be perfect, trying to, you know, but it's all about how you start your day.
• 1:14:51
  SPEAKER_00: For me, I'm up 4:30 every morning.
• 1:14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Don't matter rain, sleep, hail, or snow.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, now this morning, I did.
• 1:14:57
  SPEAKER_00: I woke up late this morning.
• 1:14:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was the Sunday, right?
• 1:15:00
  SPEAKER_00: But at least five days a week, I'm at the gym.
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of it, a lot of like that's where I make my best decisions, right?
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I plan on how I'm gonna plate my food for the day, right?
• 1:15:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I'm how I'm planning, I'm gonna approach my team meeting for the day.
• 1:15:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about all these things while I'm doing something that helps me.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:15:23
  SPEAKER_00: If I go, I go, I done been in the gym, you know, just you know, let's just say the last four or five years, like I've really been active.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_00: But it also be me thinking about my account being$1,500 in the negative, and you don't know when that bread is coming.
• 1:15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 1:15:42
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't going out there crashing out.
• 1:15:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just going here and lift this thing out, and I got a different way to plan and attack the day, even though I'm$1,500 in the hole.
• 1:15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's all like mental warfare, right?
• 1:15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just me going at the best version of myself while pursuing food, right?
• 1:16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And like I think with cooking for athletes here in Charlotte, um, man, I'm doing something that I already like to do, right?
• 1:16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And they it's almost like an unspoken trust where they just look at you, your physique says it all.
• 1:16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:16:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I I'm still nowhere close to where I want to be at, by the way.
• 1:16:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm nowhere close to where I want to be at.
• 1:16:38
  SPEAKER_00: But just having a certain type of discipline along with studying food, it's just like uh a lifelong dream, right?
• 1:16:48
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 1:16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just working hard enough to where I can take a step back and work on myself while cooking food that helps people.
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_00: So um a part of that fuel just comes from just knowing that I'm helping others, right?
• 1:17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Waking up every day, knowing that everything that I do, whether it's a dumb dumbbell curl or whatever the case may be, like everything that I'm doing benefits my kids, it benefits my mom, my dad, it benefits everybody that's within my domain, that I want to see when.
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
• 1:17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:17:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's like the blueprint of like just staying focused, right?
• 1:17:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if I I've learned that over the years that if I'm like, like I do 45 minutes on a treadmill every day.
• 1:17:39
  SPEAKER_00: No question, right?
• 1:17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Might have to do 30 some days, but it just depends on what type of day I'm about to have, right?
• 1:17:46
  SPEAKER_00: But more times than not, I'm getting on a treadmill and doing 45 minutes.
• 1:17:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just a mental thing, right?
• 1:17:52
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be some days I get 37 minutes, 39 minutes, I'm like, man, FDs last six minutes, you know what I mean?
• 1:18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:18:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I learned that my mood is better and I show up better during the day if I don't short myself there.
• 1:18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 1:18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:18:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's just that's the secret.
• 1:18:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's like if I don't short myself here, I walk out here knowing that I already set myself up for complete success today, and you're and it helps your decision making throughout the day.
• 1:18:23
  SPEAKER_00: It makes you more confident to make that decision, even if it's wrong, right?
• 1:18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're taking a risk on something, I got more confidence walking into the day knowing that I finished that last six minutes.
• 1:18:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it just becomes a repetitive cycle, right?
• 1:18:39
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, and all that I started doing all this while I was like fighting depression and fighting things, right?
• 1:18:46
  SPEAKER_00: And um every single day, I told I told this story last time I was on here, just like walking out the gym one day, and somebody like I'm I'm like, it's over with.
• 1:18:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm cool with not being here no more.
• 1:19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then somebody's like, I got these ear pods in my ear, and somebody like weighs me down, taps me down.
• 1:19:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, yo, like keep going, black man.
• 1:19:09
  SPEAKER_00: You you like motivating a lot of people.
• 1:19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I went and sat in my little car, and I'm like, I I can't stop.
• 1:19:18
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta keep this thing going, right?
• 1:19:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it's somebody watches, you know.
• 1:19:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you never know who who you're helping, who's benefiting from your hard work, right?
• 1:19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's just one of them things, man, that you know, like I said, and just being a blueprint for the family.
• 1:19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I want people to, I always want to be a reflection of hard work and resilience, right?
• 1:19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because you can't, none of us, I'm pretty sure all of us, none of us look like what we've been through.
• 1:19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right, right.
• 1:19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:19:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like you can't look at me and see none of my scars, right?
• 1:19:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can't see none of the stuff that I've been through, right?
• 1:19:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I always want to be a reflection of what that looks like, right?
• 1:19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And give my kids like, look, like my dad wasn't a perfect guy, wasn't there, but he took care of himself.
• 1:20:04
  SPEAKER_00: He was very disciplined, and and if you can give that, give those nuggets to your kids, then you already rich.
• 1:20:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you already rich.
• 1:20:11
  SPEAKER_00: So if you if I that's the least I could do um outside of just being a hard worker, going to the gym, making that a making that a thing.
• 1:20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like my son grew up, he's gonna, even if he don't lift weights every day, he's gonna be like, my dad used to lift weights.
• 1:20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I talk to my daddy, he was always at the gym.
• 1:20:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's always it's always been like that.
• 1:20:28
  SPEAKER_01: So tell us uh, is that the holy grill?
• 1:20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, tell us about it.
• 1:20:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's almost gone.
• 1:20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Clearly, much to talk about, you know, clearing it out in the mic, too.
• 1:20:40
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, and I was like, oh my bad.
• 1:20:43
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, you know, uh this is this is mine.
• 1:20:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I can say.
• 1:20:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, my name's gonna be up on the you know, you look up holy grill and be like this with it because it's so refreshing.
• 1:20:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you know, uh, I'm all back there enjoying that bowl.
• 1:21:03
  SPEAKER_02: I seen it's like um, and by the way, this bowl is heavy, y'all.
• 1:21:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna put that out there too.
• 1:21:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm about to hurt my wrist because I don't want to put it down yet.
• 1:21:11
  SPEAKER_02: But this is exactly you know how you described it.
• 1:21:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's refreshing, it's smooth, um, it's a smoothie.
• 1:21:20
  SPEAKER_02: All the uh citrusy, it's citrus citrusy.
• 1:21:25
  SPEAKER_02: I can't talk today.
• 1:21:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, all of the flavors, oh, don't drop that.
• 1:21:29
  SPEAKER_02: I need that.
• 1:21:30
  SPEAKER_02: And you see, I'm trying to hold on to that too.
• 1:21:32
  SPEAKER_02: But like I said, this was the only one I could drink without um uh uh worrying about uh allergies, right?
• 1:21:41
  SPEAKER_02: But when I saw everybody else drinking everything else, I was like, So, yeah, you know, I was a little upset, you know.
• 1:21:47
  SPEAKER_02: And me and Dina was there, she was like, oh, I hate you, can't drink this one.
• 1:21:50
  SPEAKER_02: So everything that you you handed out that day, I was just sitting there like, I just need another holy grail.
• 1:21:56
  SPEAKER_02: And it just is one of those things that just sits with you.
• 1:21:59
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you you know what it's gonna taste like every single time, and you go back and you go and get it.
• 1:22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Blue sparrowina has a lot of health properties, all the way down to the vitamin intake, along with just clearing up your skin as well, uh, helping you think more clear, clear your mental, all the things.
• 1:22:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's a lot of health properties, a lot of money in that smoothie, you know.
• 1:22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so uh definitely appreciate y'all's uh feedback on all food, um, all all the everything we brought today, man.
• 1:22:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna always be good food, good fellowship.
• 1:22:33
  SPEAKER_00: When I'm rocking with y'all.
• 1:22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 1:22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Always, always, always.
• 1:22:36
  SPEAKER_01: And can you tell uh all the folks where to locate you, where to find you online and in person?
• 1:22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, uh Camp North and uh Sage and Citrus.
• 1:22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if you're coming off of North Graham, look at look for a um big green building, right?
• 1:22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um right next, we're right across from YVY.
• 1:22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um shout out to Curtis, uh great guy um over there at Camp North End.
• 1:23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um man, Instagram, Sage and Citrus NC, Chef Darius J on Instagram.
• 1:23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think I'm the same thing on everything, on all the Chef Darius J on uh all platforms.
• 1:23:14
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, appreciate y'all, man.
• 1:23:16
  SPEAKER_00: 1,000%.
• 1:23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, we appreciate you coming back.
• 1:23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, DoorDash, Uber Eats.
• 1:23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, I'm on all that, man.
• 1:23:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on I'm on all of that.
• 1:23:27
  SPEAKER_00: So DoorDash, Uber Eats.
• 1:23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and as we go into the cold season, uh definitely gonna be like some um for like anybody that's listening, that's in Camden Orphan, whether you attended um, you know, a resident at uh kinship um kinship apartments, but definitely we'll be offering like on-site deliveries.
• 1:23:51
  SPEAKER_00: I like that.
• 1:23:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you know, probably not gonna tell us because he didn't tell us to open it neither.
• 1:23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh when does breakfast come?
• 1:23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh breakfast will be here in the next three weeks.
• 1:23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 1:23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah.
• 1:24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Breakfast will be here around the top of the month.
• 1:24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it right before it gets cold.
• 1:24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and I got sweet potato waffles, man.
• 1:24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sweet potato waffles, sweet potato waffles.
• 1:24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I got the avocado toast.
• 1:24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can come build your own breakfast bowl with your proteins, eggs, and so forth.
• 1:24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's gonna be big, man.
• 1:24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um I can't wait, bro.
• 1:24:24
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't gonna lie, man.
• 1:24:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can get you some fresh juice um in the morning, fresh cold-pressed juice in the morning.
• 1:24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think we're gonna do a little berry bowl, too.
• 1:24:32
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about adding a little berry bowl so people have a little fruit option on the side with their breakfast.
• 1:24:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's gonna be dope, man.
• 1:24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like I said, you know, my my big plans, they none of that stuff is changing.
• 1:24:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still growing, still building.
• 1:24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's a lot of stuff I gotta work on before I can take that leap of faith with another location.
• 1:24:52
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, but I know it's coming.
• 1:24:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know God is gonna keep fueling me with the energy and the mindset and just putting the right people around me.
• 1:25:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna keep helping me drive this thing forward.
• 1:25:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't wait, man.
• 1:25:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
• 1:25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Good stuff.
• 1:25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Good stuff.
• 1:25:06
  SPEAKER_02: So listen, I'm I'm gonna end it on this.
• 1:25:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um the question that I ask everybody now, you know, because around this time last year, we were in some deep conversations, you know, on camera, off camera.
• 1:25:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um so you you were one of the people that helped create this question.
• 1:25:27
  SPEAKER_02: And the question is just simply, how's your mental?
• 1:25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Mental is great.
• 1:25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Mental is great.
• 1:25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I still have my days where I'm not as sharp, I'm not as as good, but like I said, it's good to have people around you that's pouring into you, right?
• 1:25:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can't, especially as it's been on business owner stuff, like you can't be the only one pouring, right?
• 1:25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or you're gonna end up with a felice sign in the door, right?
• 1:25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Can't overextend yourself.
• 1:25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um definitely doing some.
• 1:25:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's been this this year has been like hard outs.
• 1:26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's been my best year of business, but it's been my hard year, hardest year as a dad, you know, like making sure I'm still showing up and doing all the things and being here, you know.
• 1:26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and being here running the restaurant, because you know, anything is really inside of like five years, it's a baby, but it's this thing's six.
• 1:26:20
  SPEAKER_00: I got a six-month-old kid right now with this restaurant stuff.
• 1:26:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's hard work.
• 1:26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's it's just uh propelling me to everything that I'm due for.
• 1:26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um but overall, man, mental is mental has been good.
• 1:26:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I haven't I I still see a therapist once a week.
• 1:26:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I definitely got my, you know, you it's it's always good to have your source for when you need that, you know, that fuel, that, that, that um, just somebody that's pouring people that are pouring into you.
• 1:26:49
  SPEAKER_00: So um I got the right people around me, man.
• 1:26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, my mindset, I'm just taking it a day at a time, bruh.
• 1:26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And just, you know, staying where my feet are right now.
• 1:27:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just um I get caught up in the hustle and bustle and the business and the running and getting up and routine and you gotta truly sit in it and just be like, I remember we talked about this.
• 1:27:14
  SPEAKER_00: I remember we said we would do this thing, and it started with a pen to a pad, you know.
• 1:27:20
  SPEAKER_00: So um some days I have to like tell myself, I'm walking in the door, I'm putting the key in the door, it's like, God thank you.
• 1:27:29
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right, you got it.
• 1:27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then you go in and attack the day, right?
• 1:27:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been several days that I've had to do that, that it's just like you just get so caught up in it sometimes, you forget that man, I'm in the I'm walking and everything that I said that I would do, and then like the restaurant stuff, like I you know, well, I'm I'll be 35, so let's just say 28, let's say 20, let's say 10 years ago.
• 1:27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go back 10 years, let's go back to 25.
• 1:28:01
  SPEAKER_00: I never thought that any of this was real.
• 1:28:06
  SPEAKER_00: I never thought it was possible.
• 1:28:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was a version of me that didn't think that I would live to see 30.
• 1:28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:28:15
  SPEAKER_00: I I used to think like that, right?
• 1:28:17
  SPEAKER_00: On some just survival mode stuff.
• 1:28:20
  SPEAKER_00: So walking into 35 feels like I made it, I did it, right?
• 1:28:30
  SPEAKER_00: And all I can do is just keep pressing forward and keep uh, you know, pouring into people that's pouring into me.
• 1:28:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's it, man.
• 1:28:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's been heavy this year.
• 1:28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it's been a great year of business, but it's been heavy in other aspects of my life.
• 1:28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Just, you know, but uh, you know, I'm grounded and I'm just happy to be here, man, and just, you know, super thankful as well.
• 1:28:52
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we're glad you're here too, man.
• 1:28:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm glad you're here.
• 1:28:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, not just here in the studio, but you know, you that one person that tapped you on your shoulder.
• 1:29:01
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm I'm glad that you listen.
• 1:29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:29:03
  SPEAKER_00: I I just couldn't imagine what life would be like if I wouldn't have been here right now.
• 1:29:08
  SPEAKER_00: I would like, you know, not even thinking about the business and all that stuff, but just in general.
• 1:29:13
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't imagine not walking into this chapter of me.
• 1:29:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 1:29:19
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't imagine, you know, um, you know, going into my just being that damn blink your eyes and my kid, I'm sitting in the back of my kid's classroom, right?
• 1:29:30
  SPEAKER_00: If I would have made that choice, ain't no telling where I would, you know, or how that would have affected them.
• 1:29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:29:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I think about all of it, man.
• 1:29:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um, and like I said, you know, I'm still a human, so I still have my struggles, I still have my days where I'm not as sharp, but you gotta have your source whenever whenever those moments come and those days come, you gotta have people around you that's like letting you know, like you're gonna be all right, bruh.
• 1:29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I know you're carrying what you're carrying, but it's been a lot, you know, and and uh I'm just thankful, man.
• 1:30:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
• 1:30:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we thankful too.
• 1:30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:30:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, overall, but overall, like, how's your mental role?
• 1:30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, where are you?
• 1:30:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, he didn't.
• 1:30:10
  SPEAKER_00: You hear that?
• 1:30:11
  SPEAKER_00: And here we are.
• 1:30:12
  SPEAKER_01: So how is it?
• 1:30:13
  SPEAKER_02: How is it?
• 1:30:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we we had this conversation earlier.
• 1:30:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's um that's literally what I asked him earlier.
• 1:30:19
  SPEAKER_02: Literally, um it's a process, it's a process, you know, because um race horse blinders on.
• 1:30:34
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, okay, stop, guy, am I going in the right direction?
• 1:30:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um we have so many things going on, so many things that we're planning for, not just the rest of this year, but going into 2027, you know, um mentally planning out what does creative roots look like?
• 1:30:58
  SPEAKER_02: What does um Charlotte Podcast Studio look like?
• 1:31:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, where's my creative journey going?
• 1:31:05
  SPEAKER_02: And in the midst of all of that, it's like being able to spend time with the family, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:31:12
  SPEAKER_02: So like it's it's a process, it's an ongoing self-check, uh help check, um getting called out.
• 1:31:25
  SPEAKER_02: You good?
• 1:31:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, you know, because we we we used to saying, yeah, I'm good, yeah, but yeah, we ain't always good.
• 1:31:32
  SPEAKER_02: Ain't always good, you know.
• 1:31:34
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just it's an ongoing process for me.
• 1:31:39
  SPEAKER_02: If I put it on a scale to one to ten, seven and a half, eight.
• 1:31:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's a and that's a that's a that's that's a life ain't perfect, but yeah, that's a good place to be.
• 1:31:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm right, I'm I'm liking the seven seven.
• 1:31:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm above average, but I ain't perfect.
• 1:31:59
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't perfect, yeah.
• 1:32:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so because like I said, there's there's a lot of things that we're planning for.
• 1:32:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we're we're getting ready to leave.
• 1:32:07
  SPEAKER_02: By the time this episode comes out, we'll probably already be gone.
• 1:32:11
  SPEAKER_02: Or heading out.
• 1:32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Gotcha.
• 1:32:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
• 1:32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you don't know what you're talking about.
• 1:32:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about that.
• 1:32:17
  SPEAKER_01: Where they going?
• 1:32:19
  SPEAKER_02: We're going up beyond.
• 1:32:23
  SPEAKER_02: We um we have an international conference that we do every other year.
• 1:32:27
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 1:32:27
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll be we'll be gone.
• 1:32:29
  SPEAKER_02: Gotcha.
• 1:32:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so and that's a lot.
• 1:32:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a lot, but we enjoy it though.
• 1:32:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so well, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 1:32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we appreciate everyone tuning in to this episode.
• 1:32:44
  SPEAKER_01: This food was amazing.
• 1:32:45
  SPEAKER_01: And the thing about it is you get satisfied, and I still have some left for later.
• 1:32:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm excited about that.
• 1:32:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
• 1:32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:32:51
  SPEAKER_01: So again, y'all can check out Sage and Citrus down at North.
• 1:32:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm seeing, yeah.
• 1:32:59
  SPEAKER_01: You said no though.
• 1:33:01
  SPEAKER_01: North End.
• 1:33:04
  SPEAKER_02: Close as I so um thank y'all for tuning in to another episode of Creative Roots Podcast.
• 1:33:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um become a business.
• 1:33:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, come on, man.
• 1:33:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's Thanksgiving.
• 1:33:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, make sure y'all enjoy this whole month with us.
• 1:33:19
  SPEAKER_02: Make sure y'all hit yes, I said that.
• 1:33:22
  SPEAKER_02: Make sure y'all um, what is it?
• 1:33:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we're going live, December 12th, through the five.
• 1:33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Make sure y'all chime in for that.
• 1:33:28
  SPEAKER_02: Uh VIP tickets coming soon.
• 1:33:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's all I got for y'all today.
• 1:33:32
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out to uh Alloc Studio, Charlotte Podcast Studio, and Artbox Charlotte.
• 1:33:36
  SPEAKER_02: I would like to thank us.
• 1:33:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's it for this episode.
• 1:33:39
  SPEAKER_02: We'll catch y'all in the next one.
• 1:33:40
  SPEAKER_02: Peace.