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EYL Case Study: Famous Amos Lost His Company And His Name In One Deal · Earn Your Leisure

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Speaker 2: For today's story is teachable moment. Yeah, it's actually a
0:49
Speaker 2: little different for us. It's pretty sad. Most of the
0:51
Speaker 2: story times are like upbeat, but this is a story
0:55
Speaker 2: and it's definitely a teachable moment. It's a story to
0:58
Speaker 2: learn from, but it's not really the most.
1:02
Speaker 1: I think most of our stories, there's always like a
1:04
Speaker 1: triumph and it's like, oh wow, I can't believe they
1:06
Speaker 1: came from those odds to do this, or they use
1:08
Speaker 1: their intelligence, their network to do that, and this one's
1:13
Speaker 1: a little different.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's still a story that needs to.
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Speaker 1: Be to absolutely learn from the mistakes.
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Speaker 2: Yes, So Wallace Wally Amos Junior. You know, it's crazy.
1:26
Speaker 2: So most people, if you heard of the cookies famous Amos,
1:30
Speaker 2: that's that's him, probably know him for that. Yeah, they
1:32
Speaker 2: probably know him for that. But I didn't actually know.
1:34
Speaker 2: I was doing some research, so I know he did that.
1:36
Speaker 2: But what I didn't know was that in nineteen sixty
1:38
Speaker 2: two he became the first black talent agent with William
1:41
Speaker 2: Morris agent yep. And he had Diana Ross and the Supremes,
1:44
Speaker 2: Marvin Gay, Sam Cook.
1:46
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and he had Simon and Golfing.
1:49
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. That was a old town.
1:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty extremely big think about, like Diana Ross,
1:55
Speaker 2: Marvin Gay and Sam Cook.
1:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's crazy if I like, who does that? Who
2:00
Speaker 1: finds that type of talent?
2:01
Speaker 3: Yeah?
2:02
Speaker 2: So, but he's he was raised in Tallahassee, Florida. Shout
2:06
Speaker 2: out to Tallahassee, tally Ho's what they call it, fam
2:11
Speaker 2: you Tallahassee Community College, Florida State University. Yep, it's a
2:17
Speaker 2: college town. Shout out to Tallahassee. So he's from Tallahassee.
2:20
Speaker 2: He's born in nineteen thirty six, so that was like
2:23
Speaker 2: what he's still living, still living, man, still living, still
2:25
Speaker 2: going shout him. You know, come from a no Southern
2:28
Speaker 2: background and his aunt apparently.
2:30
Speaker 3: Made homemade cookies ant della. Yeah.
2:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was famous in the neighborhood and everybody loved it.
2:38
Speaker 2: You know, just a traditional type of just in the
2:40
Speaker 2: in the kitchen, just making.
2:41
Speaker 1: Cookies, making chocolate chip cookies.
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Speaker 3: So that never really left.
2:44
Speaker 2: Him, even though he went to you know, pursue a
2:47
Speaker 2: career in you know, managing artists and things of that nature,
2:50
Speaker 2: and eventually went to Hollywood, but he always had his
2:52
Speaker 2: down South roots of cookie.
2:54
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:54
Speaker 1: That actually was what he would give to some of
2:56
Speaker 1: his artists. He would present them with cookies like so
2:59
Speaker 1: like and the arts of coming and he had like
3:01
Speaker 1: a snack before there was riders and you had to
3:03
Speaker 1: have all those things, like, he would bring the cookies
3:05
Speaker 1: to them.
3:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he actually went to culinary school also before
3:08
Speaker 2: before he became a talent agent. He went to culinary school.
3:10
Speaker 1: Was no joke.
3:10
Speaker 2: So yeah, So so, like you said, he used to
3:14
Speaker 2: gift his clients cookies and that kind of branched off
3:19
Speaker 2: to people saying like he should probably start his own company.
3:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, and those same clients who you know that he
3:26
Speaker 1: brought the talent from, they became people that like, listen,
3:29
Speaker 1: we loved it what you got, we love the product.
3:31
Speaker 1: We're gonna help you, We're gonna become investors.
3:33
Speaker 3: Investors, man, that's important.
3:34
Speaker 2: That's a fact because it started because yeah, he was
3:38
Speaker 2: doing William Morris. He tried to branch off and through
3:40
Speaker 2: his own thing with that, and that didn't really work out.
3:42
Speaker 2: So the relationships that he established, they said that they
3:45
Speaker 2: would bankroll them. So it cost twenty five thousand dollars,
3:47
Speaker 2: which was a lot of money in nineteen seventy five. Now, man, Yeah,
3:51
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. Nineteen seventy five, that's like
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Speaker 2: a couple hundred thousand, and that's where he started his
3:57
Speaker 2: company with.
3:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: I think Marvin Gaye was the first guy to say, like,
4:00
Speaker 1: IM gonna help this guy.
4:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, he started his company with what you called famous
4:03
Speaker 2: amos and uh first year and Bitter said three hundred
4:06
Speaker 2: thousand dollars.
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Speaker 1: So that's crazy. I read that. I said the way
4:08
Speaker 1: that three hundred and seventy five. Yeah, he's multa.
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Speaker 3: No, he was, he was. He was good.
4:13
Speaker 2: So he hit he hit, He hit it out the
4:14
Speaker 2: park right away, and by nineteen eighty two he did
4:18
Speaker 2: twelve million dollars in revenue.
4:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. So after the first story, he started franchising. He
4:22
Speaker 1: was on Sunset Boulevard and Cali Man was doing it big.
4:25
Speaker 1: But he started franchising the stores out and generated some
4:28
Speaker 1: more income.
4:29
Speaker 2: Yeah. So he really became a big name, a household name.
4:32
Speaker 2: He you know, he's in the Smithsonian Institute. Yeah, he
4:36
Speaker 2: has his hat and his shirt.
4:37
Speaker 1: I saw his commercials.
4:38
Speaker 3: Man.
4:38
Speaker 1: He said, like, he got so good at selling cookies
4:42
Speaker 1: because he used to have to pitch talent to record label.
4:46
Speaker 2: And he had the relationships and it was a good
4:48
Speaker 2: product too. Famous Amos Cookies was legit.
4:50
Speaker 1: They still legit.
4:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, what I'm saying they changed the rescue BASTI. So,
4:53
Speaker 2: so in nineteen eighty two, he's twelve million dollars. So,
4:56
Speaker 2: like I said, twelve million dollars in the early eighties,
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Speaker 2: probably thequivalent of forty million.
5:01
Speaker 3: Now, like a lot.
5:02
Speaker 2: It's a lot of money, right, So he became a
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Speaker 2: household name, and he starts to you know, buy property
5:11
Speaker 2: and he's living a high life, right, So in nineteen
5:13
Speaker 2: eighty five that's when things start to kind of fall
5:17
Speaker 2: in story changes. So he still did pretty decent that year,
5:20
Speaker 2: but they made ten million instead of twelve million. So
5:23
Speaker 2: now he's you know, it's a loss, like first year
5:25
Speaker 2: when he's starting to like go backwards. He was going
5:27
Speaker 2: up and then now he's starting to like go down
5:29
Speaker 2: a little bit, right, So he makes some changes, He
5:32
Speaker 2: fires some managers and put some other people in positions.
5:37
Speaker 2: So he said admittedly, like he was never he didn't
5:39
Speaker 2: really understand how to run business. He's a talent agent
5:42
Speaker 2: and he's a cook.
5:44
Speaker 1: To his own credit, admitted, I don't know how to
5:46
Speaker 1: run a business.
5:46
Speaker 2: But he didn't have any mentorship and even in his
5:48
Speaker 2: people that he's around, an artist and things that nature,
5:50
Speaker 2: he didn't really know what was going on.
5:52
Speaker 3: So it's all good, make twelve million.
5:54
Speaker 1: I don't know how to run a business.
5:56
Speaker 2: That's astonishing, Yeah, yeah, it was. And it's it's crazy
6:01
Speaker 2: too because remember we interviewed Ryan Leslie and he said that,
6:06
Speaker 2: you know, scaling can be like detrimental to you, like
6:10
Speaker 2: if you're not properly prepared and you're growing too fast,
6:14
Speaker 2: that can actually hurt. He's actually better to have a
6:16
Speaker 2: smaller audience or to grow the slower pace, but to
6:20
Speaker 2: be able to manage it, because like when you can't
6:22
Speaker 2: manage your scale, now you're really screwed.
6:24
Speaker 1: That's his whole blueprint too, That was that's Ryan Lesli's
6:26
Speaker 1: blueprint that even with the smartphone, was like smaller audience.
6:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's what you said like before, like less
6:32
Speaker 2: it's less is more sometimes, so now it starts to
6:37
Speaker 2: like just fall apart. He's on vacation and he finds
6:40
Speaker 2: out that he has a house in Hawaii. Shouts to
6:41
Speaker 2: all the good.
6:42
Speaker 1: People he lives there now.
6:43
Speaker 2: Alohallow, does he still live there now? Yeah, everybody knows
6:48
Speaker 2: I used to live in Hawaii. Tell the whole vibe
6:53
Speaker 2: out there. So he finds out that his house is
6:56
Speaker 2: actually being auctioned off.
6:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, like that's crazy.
7:02
Speaker 2: That's the crazy news to just wake up to, Like, oh,
7:04
Speaker 2: by the way, they auctioned your house three pm? Like
7:06
Speaker 2: what he didn't even know his house was in foreclosure.
7:09
Speaker 2: Like when this happens, we're making light of it, but
7:15
Speaker 2: it's just crazy. So it's like but once again that
7:17
Speaker 2: just goes to show you, like especially like a lot
7:19
Speaker 2: of celebrities, and you know, like even with the Fat
7:24
Speaker 2: Joe situation, people know, like he went to jail for
7:26
Speaker 2: tax evasion. He was telling his story. It was like
7:29
Speaker 2: he had his accountant that was paying all his bills
7:31
Speaker 2: for him, and you know, he's being a rapper and
7:33
Speaker 2: he felt like, you know, he's not really paying Jim
7:36
Speaker 2: Jones like, yeah, Kevin gart bunch of So what happens
7:42
Speaker 2: with Fat Joe is that the accountant apparently started like embezzling,
7:46
Speaker 2: stealing money, not paying his taxes, not paying his bills.
7:49
Speaker 2: He found out because he's like he always had excellent credit.
7:52
Speaker 2: He tried to get a car and it was like
7:53
Speaker 2: his credit was like four fifty and he's like what
7:55
Speaker 2: And then he realized that all of his bills haven't
7:58
Speaker 2: been paid for months, and and also along with bills,
8:01
Speaker 2: they had his account never paid his taxes. He had
8:05
Speaker 2: to do like six months in federal jail. So I say,
8:07
Speaker 2: I have to say, this is something that's unfortunate. It's
8:09
Speaker 2: been going on for a long period of time when
8:10
Speaker 2: people like put trust in other people to take care
8:14
Speaker 2: of their finances and they don't know what's going on
8:16
Speaker 2: with their own money and by the time they realize.
8:19
Speaker 3: It, it's too late.
8:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, we see it having too much man, way too much.
8:22
Speaker 2: So so yeah, so so that was just like when
8:25
Speaker 2: he realized like, okay, things is really starting to go
8:28
Speaker 2: down crazy. So now he's scrambling and he brings outside
8:33
Speaker 2: investors in to help out with this company because now
8:38
Speaker 2: he's starting to lose money company. Yeah, so he took
8:41
Speaker 2: I think like three million dollars of investors' money, but
8:45
Speaker 2: that didn't really work out but those alone, so now
8:49
Speaker 2: he has to pay that back. But then they left
8:50
Speaker 2: and the company's losing even more money. So now it's
8:54
Speaker 2: it's like spiraling out of control at a very rapid pace.
8:57
Speaker 1: And what are you going to do when that havings?
8:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, so in nineteen eighty eight, he sells the company
9:03
Speaker 2: to three million dollars. He sells it for three million dollars.
9:07
Speaker 2: He sells the company in nineteen eighty eight to the
9:09
Speaker 2: Shansby Group. I think I'm pronouncing that correctly for three
9:11
Speaker 2: million dollars. So the crazy thing about it is that
9:15
Speaker 2: now he sells the company for three million and they
9:17
Speaker 2: keep them on as a brand ambassador. So he makes
9:20
Speaker 2: it deal with them, and he's not allowed to use
9:23
Speaker 2: his name anymore.
9:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, because part of the cell is the trademark.
9:26
Speaker 2: Yep, so famous and amos he can't his name is
9:31
Speaker 2: he can't use his name, can't use it? So but
9:34
Speaker 2: he can. So it's crazy. So he built the company
9:37
Speaker 2: from scratch, from nothing, right, built it to a multimillion
9:40
Speaker 2: dollar corporation, sells it for way less than what it
9:45
Speaker 2: was value for just a few years earlier.
9:47
Speaker 1: He was hurting.
9:48
Speaker 2: Not only do they tell him that you can't use
9:50
Speaker 2: your name, but they keep they give him a job
9:54
Speaker 2: to be the spokesperson for the company of the name
9:57
Speaker 2: that he can't use. Yeah, he's doing that, which it
10:02
Speaker 2: has to be extremely like think about that, like think
10:04
Speaker 2: about like you start a company named Troy's Sneakers, right,
10:08
Speaker 2: you love sneakers, and you build it to a multi
10:10
Speaker 2: million dollar company, and ten years down the line, you
10:13
Speaker 2: got to sell it and they're saying you can't use Troy,
10:16
Speaker 2: you can't use sneakers anymore, but we want to pay
10:19
Speaker 2: you a salary to go around the country promoting Troy Sneakers.
10:22
Speaker 3: Yeah.
10:22
Speaker 1: I mean he found out about it when he tried
10:24
Speaker 1: to start a new cookie company.
10:25
Speaker 2: We're gonna get to that after a while it was like,
10:28
Speaker 2: it's not after you ates, I can't do this, and
10:31
Speaker 2: he leaves and he's like he tries to start a
10:33
Speaker 2: new company, and they.
10:35
Speaker 1: Soon they're like, now you can't use that name for yeah,
10:38
Speaker 1: we don't know, infringement part off.
10:40
Speaker 3: So then he starts the company called Uncle No Name.
10:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, uncle names may yeah, which.
10:46
Speaker 2: Is a play on that he has no name. Now
10:48
Speaker 2: it's really unfortunately, it's really really tragic, tragic. It's really
10:53
Speaker 2: tragic situation all the way around.
10:55
Speaker 3: Man.
10:55
Speaker 2: That so yeah, so Uncle no Name he starts that brand.
11:02
Speaker 2: But so the crazy thing about it is that as
11:07
Speaker 2: he's doing the Uncle No Name, the company gets sold.
11:11
Speaker 1: This is the worst part again, Yeah, it's the worst part.
11:13
Speaker 1: So this is the worst part of the story.
11:16
Speaker 2: So now because he even said like he had depression
11:20
Speaker 2: for a little bit, he stopped baking at all, like
11:22
Speaker 2: three years because Uncle Noman didn't work out.
11:24
Speaker 1: Really yeah, I think they started making muffins. He went
11:25
Speaker 1: away from.
11:26
Speaker 2: Cookies, so he stopped baking. He cut his beard off.
11:30
Speaker 2: His whole thing with trademark was his beard in the hat.
11:32
Speaker 2: He stopped wearing a hat, cut his beard off. He
11:34
Speaker 2: did even want people to recognize him in the street.
11:36
Speaker 2: It's like, I don't want people. I don't want to
11:39
Speaker 2: it's sold. I don't want them like this depressing, you
11:41
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. So but as all of that's
11:45
Speaker 2: going on, Shansby the company that he sold to for
11:48
Speaker 2: three million in nineteen ninety two, they sold.
11:52
Speaker 3: It a company four we might have heard of. Yeah,
11:56
Speaker 3: sixty one million.
11:57
Speaker 1: Yeah to Kellig, big, big breakfast company.
12:01
Speaker 3: Man.
12:01
Speaker 2: So yeah, they sell it, he sells it. They sell
12:04
Speaker 2: it for sixty one million in nineteen ninety two, and
12:08
Speaker 2: then it gets sold again in nineteen ninety eight to.
12:14
Speaker 3: Keepler Crazy that's what the elf ye keeper cookies? Aye? Yeah?
12:19
Speaker 2: So then so then they so. Then in nineteen ninety eight,
12:23
Speaker 2: Keebler decides to bring him back as a brand ambassador.
12:28
Speaker 3: It done got.
12:28
Speaker 1: Flipped fives ready, they kind of flip over comes, you
12:32
Speaker 1: know what they did. You know he said when he
12:34
Speaker 1: came back and hurt his heart. I mean he had
12:37
Speaker 1: he tried the cookies, but they changed his recipe and all.
12:39
Speaker 1: Now they changed the rest respect like that. Everything.
12:42
Speaker 3: Oh man, they let so.
12:44
Speaker 2: But but at least he was able to work a
12:46
Speaker 2: deal out where he made a deal with Keebler for
12:50
Speaker 2: Uncle Wally's muffins. Yeah, so they let him have a
12:55
Speaker 2: I guess like a subsidiary company within the company. That
12:57
Speaker 2: way thinks of that nature. And now he gives some speeches.
13:03
Speaker 2: He's still a lot.
13:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's still a lot. He's still I think he
13:07
Speaker 1: lives in where he was living in Hawaii, and now
13:09
Speaker 1: I think he's back in South Carolina. He's back south,
13:13
Speaker 1: but he's still making cookies. He's still making cookies. I
13:16
Speaker 1: think the original idea came from his aunt Deela, and
13:20
Speaker 1: so that's what he's going back to. His new company
13:23
Speaker 1: is at Della's Cookies because he can't use famous amis.
13:28
Speaker 2: So I mean moral of his story. There's so many
13:32
Speaker 2: different morals of his story points and learning points. It's
13:36
Speaker 2: just like where do you begin? But I think the
13:38
Speaker 2: first one is business. Everything is a business. Like a
13:42
Speaker 2: lot of time people look at it like I'm a
13:43
Speaker 2: good chef. Well I'm a recording artist. How many times
13:46
Speaker 2: is like that's not good enough. You gotta be able
13:49
Speaker 2: to understand that no matter what you're doing, is a
13:52
Speaker 2: business behind it.
13:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, just think about it. If he had
13:54
Speaker 1: licensed his name instead of selling it in that deal.
13:57
Speaker 1: He could have done that, you know what I mean,
13:59
Speaker 1: Like his fortune, his fortune would have been a lot different, right,
14:04
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like you, he's done now
14:07
Speaker 1: he can't use his own name.
14:09
Speaker 3: Nah, you can't.
14:11
Speaker 2: And it's like mismanagement is a lot of and it's
14:15
Speaker 2: a lot of people say a lot of time like
14:16
Speaker 2: ignorant and bliss. It's really not. It's extremely dangerous, especially
14:20
Speaker 2: when it comes to business. And like we did an
14:22
Speaker 2: episode on trademarks and licensing and and the legal side
14:26
Speaker 2: of it is extremely important as well, right, Like the
14:28
Speaker 2: people understand that, Like you got to understand the legal
14:30
Speaker 2: start or have a lawyer at least to help you.
14:32
Speaker 2: And it's important to people get taken advantage off.
14:36
Speaker 1: You think he would have. I mean if he sold
14:38
Speaker 1: it for three million, right, Like what did he get
14:40
Speaker 1: the proper valuation even know what evaluation was at that.
14:42
Speaker 2: Point, or he probably just needed the money, just need
14:44
Speaker 2: some money. I'm gonna sell it like you saw it
14:46
Speaker 2: three million. Then ten years later they get sold for
14:48
Speaker 2: sixty one million and you can't even use your name.
14:52
Speaker 1: Nah, man, it's crazy.
14:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like I said, man, it's a tragic, sad
14:58
Speaker 2: learning experience. Nonetheless, it's still a learning experience, and I
15:03
Speaker 2: think entrepreneurs, business people, inspiring entrepreneurs, inspiring business people can
15:07
Speaker 2: learn from You gotta learn from other people's mistakes.
15:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and he still has his health at
15:11
Speaker 1: the end of the day, he's still alive and breathing
15:12
Speaker 1: to tell the lesson. So I mean, at the end
15:14
Speaker 1: of the day, somebody gonna learn from his mistakes.
15:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean. That's the worst thing in the world.
15:18
Speaker 2: Where somebody take your name, you can't use it, like that's.
15:21
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, I mean, like you said, it broke his heart.
15:24
Speaker 1: He takes the cookies, He's like, yeah, they change the recipe,
15:26
Speaker 1: nothing is the same, but his name lives on. Like
15:29
Speaker 1: that's those are like we talked about the Vendom Machine episode,
15:31
Speaker 1: Like those are still in vending machines right now today.
15:33
Speaker 1: Somebody's eating famous same as cookies. Earners up. You ever
16:00
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17:19
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17:27
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17:33
Speaker 1: Let's Square handle the back end so you can keep
17:35
Speaker 1: pushing your vision forward