Latest / Black Girl Interrupted Podcast / Black Owned Businesses vs Keith Lee

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Black Owned Businesses vs Keith Lee · Black Girl Interrupted Podcast

• 0:11
  Black Girl interrupt y'all already know how y'all already know how you Oh lord,
• 0:43
  y'all, Happy Tuesday, y'all, welcome back to another episode of Black Girl
• 0:49
  Interrupting. I just saw y'all last week. It seems like I just saw
• 0:53
  y'all yesterday. But y'all, welcome back, Welcome back, Welcome back to
• 0:58
  another episode of Black Girl's. Oh y'all, excuse me, I gotta try
• 1:02
  to get myself situated over here. But anyway, Happy Tuesday. I hope
• 1:06
  everyone is having a great day, as y'all say. I got my black
• 1:10
  own for black owned businesses, baby look, and I support black fashion businesses.
• 1:17
  So y'all just know this is let me say this tonight's episode is for
• 1:22
  black business owners like this is for y'all. And the reason I wanted to
• 1:27
  step into this conversation tonight because I'm a black business owner and I've had my
• 1:36
  fair share of black business owners and dealing with black businesses. And I will
• 1:42
  say my customer service has not always been the best, but it's not always
• 1:48
  been the worst, I you know, regardless of what I've encountered with black
• 1:53
  businesses. Just because I've had an issue with one doesn't mean I'm going to
• 1:57
  cancel out all black business owners because not everybody is the saint, but for
• 2:04
  everybody that knows, Uh, hey, cousin, I love you, baby
• 2:07
  good. That's see you tonight. Pull up, y'all gotta wait, let
• 2:12
  me learn to get my fingers together. Pull up. There we go.
• 2:14
  Here, you gotta get your lot hard. There you go. But I
• 2:19
  really wanted to talk to my black business owners because, by bet, when
• 2:24
  I tell you, keep Lee then shook the table own black businesses in Atlanta.
• 2:32
  But I don't believe it just affects Atlanta. I believe this is for
• 2:36
  all black business owners, no matter the city and state you reside in or
• 2:40
  where the business is. But he really exposed a lot of things that need
• 2:45
  to be put on the forefront that maybe some of you black business owners need
• 2:49
  to take heed too, because Babe, I got some stories for y'all.
• 2:58
  But again, I still love and I'm gonna always continue to support black owned
• 3:02
  businesses. But y'all already know how I start my show. Y'all know I
• 3:08
  do this every episode. I have to do my mental health check in.
• 3:15
  I gotta check in with y'all. I have to make sure y'all are good
• 3:19
  mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. I know we're coming up on these
• 3:24
  holidays. A lot of people are missing loved ones around this time of the
• 3:29
  year, so I know it gets a little difficult me as such, so
• 3:32
  I definitely want to check in. I want to make sure your mental is
• 3:36
  good. Y'all know I always play something empowering, encouraging, inspirational before I
• 3:42
  even jump into tonight's. Before I jump into any one of my episodes,
• 3:45
  y'all know, I always have to do my mental health check in. So
• 3:47
  here's a little something cute for y'all tonight, and then we're gonna jump into
• 3:52
  tonight's conversation cause I believe it's gonna go up. I believe I'm gonna trigger
• 3:55
  some business owners. But it is what it is. Here we go when
• 4:04
  everybody it's against you or don't believe in you no more, it's a lonely
• 4:10
  feeling. Oh it hurts very badly. I know what that's like. And
• 4:15
  look at you with that look and say, why don't you try something else?
• 4:18
  Why don't you give up? Get away from these people that's in your
• 4:24
  life that ain't doing nothing. Get away from people in your life. That's
• 4:27
  haye. Get away from them, Get away from them. If you take
• 4:31
  an oak tree seed and you put it in a two foot pot, that
• 4:38
  seed will never become the oak tree that oak trees are capable of becoming,
• 4:43
  because it's gonna get stifled by the two foot pot. New check this out.
• 4:48
  They' nothing wrong with the seed. Seed just fail prey to the environment.
• 4:54
  Don't you allow your environment to dictate the oak tree that you Hey,
• 5:00
  time you moved for being normal to trying to be exceptional. People aren't gonna
• 5:04
  like this. Normal people. It makes them feel like it's they're gonna touch
• 5:09
  you. And that's why every true leader they're called weird. They're called eccentric.
• 5:14
  When you do the things of real leadership, you're gonna be called strange.
• 5:18
  Get strong enough in your own skin that when people laugh at you,
• 5:23
  or when they throw stones at you, you keep on going. I respect
• 5:28
  any motherfucker that wakes up every day and work. They ass off to live
• 5:32
  their life and lifestyle, clubbing, party and hanging out. That ain't from
• 5:39
  me. I'm gonna be out here running in the hot sun, practicing while
• 5:43
  everybody else is clubbing and hanging out. You got your focus right. Don't
• 5:46
  expect people to understand you. Don't expect it to make sense to anybody.
• 5:50
  Why you have got to do this, Why you have got to go?
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  Why you leave? This is a good job. I'm going, they pay
• 5:58
  you well. I'm going. Why I don't understand you don't have to I'm
• 6:01
  going for me. This is something I have got to do. How are
• 6:05
  you going to make it? I don't know what I will? The universe
• 6:11
  responds to the man or woman that refuses to be denied, because that is
• 6:15
  your commitment, that business that you want, that book you want to write,
• 6:19
  that dream that you have of controlling your destiny, that is yours.
• 6:25
  That's available to you. But you've got to be willing to stand there and
• 6:29
  face disappointment, not have support, feel lonely, doubt yourself, sometimes be
• 6:33
  rejected again and again and again, become bankrupt if necessary, again and again
• 6:39
  and again, and refuse to turn around until life gives it up. Life
• 6:44
  will always be, to a loge extent, what you make, not what
• 6:47
  circumstances will make of it, not what other people will make of it,
• 6:53
  not what other people say it will be, not what the environment will try
• 6:56
  and dictate to you, but what you make of your life. So when
• 7:00
  you're uncommon, get ready for the criticism. When you're uncommon, get ready
• 7:03
  for the opposition. When you're uncommon, get ready for the common people not
• 7:06
  to understand you. If I decided to experience the fear of rejection, the
• 7:13
  fear of know the fear of failure, the fear of standing by myself,
• 7:19
  the fear of people not liking me, what else is available? Of taking
• 7:24
  a chance, a fear of losing it all? What else is available to
• 7:28
  me? People are going to think you're crazy. You don't have nothing but
• 7:32
  lit in the court of your pockets. You already talking about living your creed,
• 7:36
  and people laughing at you, and they're doubting you. In case,
• 7:42
  God's ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you I believe in revenge. Like
• 7:45
  Frank sinafre he said, the best revenge is massive success. Is it a
• 7:50
  kunu with kindness towards you? With a success? All? Right? Again?
• 8:20
  Again again again again again. Y'all know I always have to do my
• 8:22
  mental health check ins. I always have to make sure y'all are good.
• 8:26
  I say this each and every episode that I do. Your mental health means
• 8:28
  everything to me. I know it's only talked about certain times, but I
• 8:35
  feel like we have to consistently stress mental health because again, it is definitely
• 8:41
  affecting our community in more ways than one. We have to create safer spaces
• 8:46
  for us to be able to come and speak in without the judgment. Because
• 8:50
  see, a lot of y'all love the gossip about what people have going on
• 8:54
  in their own household, and you ain't even swept around your own feet yet.
• 8:58
  So I'm gonna leave that there for a whole nother day, for a
• 9:01
  whole nother conversation, because y'all know I don't mind so anyways. But again,
• 9:07
  happy Tuesday. I hope everyone is having is having a phenomenal day.
• 9:11
  I hope your week has been good so far. Again, I haven't seen
• 9:13
  y'all since last week, but I hope those last six days that I saw
• 9:18
  y'all, I hope were phenomenal. I hope they were great. And I
• 9:22
  hope whatever storm that you're standing in the midst of, I hope you are
• 9:24
  able to overcome and achieve and not to ever give up. Regardless of how
• 9:30
  tight your circumstances get. Somebody's dependent on you, so remember to always focus
• 9:37
  on the quality and not so much the quantity. That's why I show up
• 9:41
  for myself every Tuesday, every Wednesday with my show. All right, all
• 9:48
  right, all right, without further ado, let's jump into the nice conversation,
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  because Baby, I am so disappointed and the way we as black people
• 10:03
  have treated Keith Lee, I'm very disappointed. So tonight's conversation is we're talking
• 10:09
  about black owned businesses versus Keith Lee. Huh. I am absolutely just.
• 10:18
  I can't believe the way we have showed out for a behind a person that
• 10:26
  gave constructive criticism to some black owned businesses that he visited while in Atlanta.
• 10:33
  Y'all mad at Keith Lee. Y'all should be jumping on mister chime Time because
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  Baby, let me take you and I love him because mister Timetime gives y'all
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  the raw and uncut truth. If your food is nasty, he gonna tell
• 10:46
  you your food is nasty. But I specifically, I am glad that this
• 10:52
  situation came to light because again, I'm a black business owner and I interact
• 10:56
  with a lot of black business owners and some of y'all. I'll never come
• 11:01
  back to your establishment. I'm just gonna keep it a buck around here.
• 11:05
  I will never come back to your establishment. Well, and I will get
• 11:11
  into that later on into the show, but I want to open the conversation
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  again. We're talking about black owned businesses versus Keith Lee. So most of
• 11:20
  you know by now Keith Lee is a food block. He's the influencer who
• 11:28
  used to be an MMA fighter who is now going around and he critiques businesses,
• 11:33
  black owned businesses in particular. I love exactly what he's doing. I
• 11:39
  support everything that he does, but I do not like the backlash that this
• 11:43
  young man has faced because he's opened Pandora's box when it comes to black owned
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  businesses. So two restaurants in particular that he visited were Old Lady Game,
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  which is Candy Burris, his mother's business, and then The Real Milk and
• 12:01
  Honey. I myself, I've never been to the Real Milk and Honey.
• 12:07
  I'm not sure when it opened, but I had been to Old Lady Gang.
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  And I'm gonna say this and again this is my own unbiased opinion.
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  I was not particularly fond of the food at Old Lady Gang. There's no
• 12:24
  way in the world I would stand outside for two hours to wait to get
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  a table at Old Lady Gang. And again this is no shade. I'm
• 12:33
  giving y'all my unbiased opinion. Y'all take it how you want. But I
• 12:37
  was not particularly fond of the food. I didn't like. Maybe I don't
• 12:41
  know, maybe it was what I ordered, I don't know, but I
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  didn't particularly care for it. So let's start off first with the video of
• 12:52
  Keith Lee and his review of the Real Milk and Honey, and then we're
• 12:56
  gonna jump back into the conversation. And my family are in Atlanta, and
• 13:01
  currently we're at the Real Milk and Honey. I got it, Let's try
• 13:05
  it, and righton went through team. As we see, I don't have
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  any backs of my hands. You're at the Real Milk and Honey on Main
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  Street and College Park. Before we came, we attempted to call our order
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  in. We were greeted with an automatic message that said they do not take
• 13:13
  calling orders. The automatic message and the only way you could do pick up
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  is through door dash. We went through door dash. They was closed,
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  but online it's said they closed at five o'clock. We went on door dash
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  at four o'clock, but we were already here, so we just went inside
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  I stay in the car and my family went in and they told them they
• 13:28
  were closed early for deep cleaning. Yet the doors wide open and it's people
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  still going in and graphing orders. Now we have no idea if those people
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  order beforehand or with the casey. Also, the people who relate this message
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  my family said were really nice. It's just the rules, and so far
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  being in Atlanta, I found some places do have unique rules, and this
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  is one of them. I want to be very clear, we're not blaming
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  one person or saying one person was rude and playing terms. Don't call this
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  restaurant trying to get nobody fired. Ain't nobody do nothing. This is the
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  rules they had. If you don't like they rules, they rules not for
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  you. If me and my family the rules is went for us. We
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  just know they target audience for the record. Afterwards, I did walk in
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  and they did recognize and they attended the services, but I respectfully declined I'm
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  a normal person. I paid for my food like everybody else. I'll walk
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  in spots like everybody else. We are all knowing people respectfully. If you're
• 14:03
  not gonna do it, then don't do it now, y'all. Bless you,
• 14:05
  yeah, we're just trying to get some food. But I am gonna
• 14:07
  make this very clear. I do not support condon't or agree tearing down these
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  businesses. While we personally may not have the best customer service experience, but
• 14:13
  does not mean you will have the same experience. That also don't mean go
• 14:18
  on Twitter and tear these businesses down. At the end of the day,
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  business owners are people. Never know what people are going to do. The
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  only reason I'm even making this is share my authentic and real experience like I
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  always do. Don't mean a harm, I'll had no malicious intent. I
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  always say I'm gonna be one hundred percent honest and that come with the good.
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  And then also, you don't know what nobody going through, So what
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  we can't do is just judge off of somebody else's experience. If you would
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  like to go to these places or any other place that I've been to,
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  I encourage you to go try it for yourself and make your own opinion.
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  But we still in Atlanta, and we on mainstream, and it's a bunch
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  of spots here, so we're gonna go to a different spot. Y'all.
• 14:43
  Bless you have an amazing day. Y'all be safe. So do y'all see
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  how respectful this young minute, very well spoken, articulates every word. And
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  again he y'all, I do not condone violence, disrespect, or tearing down
• 15:05
  black businesses. Again, he gave y'all his unbiased opinion. It was the
• 15:11
  backlash that Keith Lee received with regards to the real milk and honey. And
• 15:24
  I'm just absolutely embarrassed, because why are you guys upset at his opinion?
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  Why are y'all mad about that? The death threats completely unnecessary. I think
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  it's taggy and it's class list. I think that's gutter rat behavior. And
• 15:48
  I'm just gonna see because see a lot of y'all try to sugar coat and
• 15:52
  oh no, that was absolute gutter rat behavior to say we're gonna unalive this
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  man all because he said how they how they treated him. He didn't want
• 16:07
  to be treated like a celebrity. He wanted to be treated like a regular,
• 16:11
  everyday person. And he said that I'm a regular everyday person. I'm
• 16:14
  not a celebrity. I'm just Keith Lee at the end of the day.
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  And so I didn't post let me see that. I didn't grab the response
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  because it upset me, But it was the fact that you try to downplay
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  who this man. You knew who this man was. Y'all know who he
• 16:34
  was because he said the moment he walked in there, then the whole attitude
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  and demeanor changed and respectfully he declined the service respectfully. So you black business
• 16:52
  owners, you are not above being corrected. And that's the problem with some
• 17:00
  of you black business owners. You guys allow your ego and your emotions to
• 17:06
  get the best of you. Instead of taking constructive criticism. You decided to
• 17:14
  act in your ego. You decided to You couldn't put your pride to the
• 17:18
  side. Because the problem is, you guys know every damn thing, or
• 17:21
  we know everything. We don't need to be told yes you do, yes
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  you do. Because some of you black business owners, you don't respect the
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  people that help put food on the table and help provide the roof that goes
• 17:36
  over your head. Y'all don't respect that. Y'all do not respect that.
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  You don't respect your patron's time or you and you don't value their money.
• 17:52
  You feel like you can treat people any kind of way. No you can't.
• 17:57
  It's one particular business owner that I stop frequently. I stopped frequenting their
• 18:02
  business because you don't respect the time I'm paying you every month, and yet
• 18:11
  I have to wait a month before I could get in to you. No,
• 18:17
  I'm gonna go somewhere to somebody that respects my time and values my money
• 18:22
  and treats me with the utmost respect, customer services everything. A lot of
• 18:30
  y'all don't realize word of mouth can make or break your business. So if
• 18:34
  I were to go and one thing I'm not gonna do. I'm not gonna
• 18:37
  bash this business owner because I love them and I think they're a very amazing
• 18:44
  person. It's just you don't respect the time, and I really don't think
• 18:52
  you really truly value your business because you overbook lot of times. I feel
• 19:00
  like, if I'm coming to you and I'm paying for a service, I
• 19:03
  want that one on one service. I need that service to be about me
• 19:07
  and not you running in between me and someone else. Or if I get
• 19:12
  to your business, I still have to wait because you're still servicing another client
• 19:18
  because you've overbooked. No, No, I wish this person well in their
• 19:26
  business because they do phenomenal work. I just myself will no longer come and
• 19:30
  spend my money with you. Period. I'm not interested in trying to sit
• 19:37
  down and have a conversation because this has happened too many times and I've let
• 19:44
  it slide once. I've let it slide twice. I'm gone. So now
• 19:49
  I see another person for the services that I need to have rendered. They
• 19:56
  are one on one. They're not into overbooking because they believe in that one
• 20:02
  on one service. Customer service phenomenal. My very first time visiting this person
• 20:11
  a one customer service. I love how the person greeted me. I love
• 20:18
  how it was all about me as I was getting my services rendered. I
• 20:23
  love how it was about me. This person told me how they got started
• 20:30
  where they started. They're ups, the downs, the highs, the lows.
• 20:34
  We got to know each other. We've established a relationship and I will
• 20:37
  be going back. But some of you business owners, some of you black
• 20:42
  owned business owners in particular, very disrespectful. I really honestly don't even see
• 20:52
  how some of y'all are even still in business. But I'm gonna keep it
• 20:57
  moving and we're gonna we're gonna get back into this Keith Lee conversation soul because
• 21:03
  we're gonna get further into that. You know what causes black businesses to fail?
• 21:07
  What can black businesses do to improve? These are tips for y'all.
• 21:12
  This is the help, not hinder and a lot of y'all. You put
• 21:15
  your ego and you put your pride to the side, your business will flourish.
• 21:22
  Your business will flourish some of y'all. And again, I don't wish
• 21:26
  ill on black businesses because I want to see us all win. God created
• 21:30
  a table big enough for all of us to sit down and eat it.
• 21:34
  But there are some things that y'all need to work on. Your attitude for
• 21:38
  once. For once, let me say that your attitude. Y'all need to
• 21:42
  check y'all attitudes y'all really truly do you need to represent your brand better than
• 21:51
  what you do, because I see the way a lot of y'all carry yourselves
• 21:53
  and y'all are business owners, how gutter rent behavior, but you're trying to
• 22:03
  run a top notch business. But I'm gonna leave that alone because I may
• 22:10
  offend and trigger some people, but it's okay, that's what I'm here to
• 22:12
  do. Sink me later. So oh hold up, I got a comment.
• 22:18
  He's us, hey, baby, And that's another black business on an
• 22:25
  hold up, let me get my fingers together, let me give you a
• 22:26
  little hard Okay, there you go. I love you, Good to see
• 22:30
  you. That's another black business owner. So back to the Keigh Lee situation.
• 22:36
  So Keith Lee went and he visited the real Milk and Honey and their
• 22:40
  response was absolutely taggy. It's it was almost disingenuous because they never addressed the
• 22:52
  issue. You just kind of skated over, same way with Old Lady Game
• 22:59
  and the response that candy Gate. You didn't even address the issue. But
• 23:03
  what I don't understand is y'all will cater to these celebrities, but you won't
• 23:10
  cater to us, comment folks that come and we're our dollars or what hell?
• 23:15
  Keep your businesses afloat and we don't get the five star treatment, but
• 23:22
  you'll roll out the red copper for these celebrities that only come every so often.
• 23:27
  It's not like these celebrities coming to your establishments every day. It's common
• 23:32
  folks like me and my viewers. That's who comes in. That who spends
• 23:37
  their money, our hard earned money. We come in to support your businesses.
• 23:45
  The model is treat a CEO the same way treat a janitor the same
• 23:51
  way you would treat a CEO, because the janitors who's gonna come spend the
• 23:56
  harder money. Those celebrities they come only when they're in town. They freeze
• 24:03
  on through hey blah blah blah. They may spend three, four, five,
• 24:07
  six, seven, eight, nine, ten thousand dollars in your restaurant,
• 24:10
  and then it might be another six months before they come back to your
• 24:12
  establishment, But you won't recognize or celebrate your everyday patrons that come in there.
• 24:21
  And those are your your nine us regular people. We're not celebrities.
• 24:26
  Well we may be celebrity, you know, I consider myself a celebrity in
• 24:30
  my own right, but we want that same treatment. We want the same
• 24:36
  respect that you would give to your CARDI B's, to your beyonces. We
• 24:41
  want that same treatment because we come in and we spend our hard earned money.
• 24:45
  But a lot of y'all businesses, y'all don't appreciate that. Again,
• 24:52
  I don't see how some of y'all are even still open. I really don't.
• 24:59
  I sit back at I look at my timeline because I follow a lot
• 25:02
  of black business owners, and let me recognize and say this to the ones
• 25:10
  that are booming. I speak positive over your business. I pray that your
• 25:17
  businesses continue to flourish in twenty twenty four. I pray that this last month
• 25:22
  and a half of twenty twenty three is good to you, but I pray
• 25:26
  twenty twenty four is better for you. I speak prosperity over your business.
• 25:33
  Okay, I speak love and light into your businesses. To you other business
• 25:40
  owners that have that display godter rat behavior, I pray that you take your
• 25:45
  criticism and you make the necessary changes so your business can flourish in twenty twenty
• 25:52
  four. Let me say this, this is not a show to bash black
• 26:00
  business owners. This is not what it's about. So don't get up here
• 26:04
  on this platform trying to bash and tear down black businesses because I don't tolerate.
• 26:11
  I'm not gonna accept that. But I am here to continue to pull
• 26:18
  the band aids off of these black owned businesses that don't respect the everyday folks.
• 26:26
  That's what this show is about tonight. It's not to bash, not
• 26:30
  to disrespect, but for me to give my unbiased opinion about some black businesses
• 26:37
  that I've frequented and black business owners is that I've dealt with in the past.
• 26:45
  That's what it's about, my unbiased opinion, mine and mine alone.
• 26:49
  We may not share the same opinion about particular businesses. Our taste paletta are
• 26:56
  different, our sense of styl is different. The way we think, the
• 26:59
  way we it's different. So the way you feel about it may not be
• 27:03
  how I feel about it. And everyone is entitled to their own opinions,
• 27:08
  but we're here to encourage them. We're here to empower. We're here to
• 27:11
  say, hey, this is what you need to do. Do better because
• 27:18
  we want to see your businesses flourished. We want to see Bob's win.
• 27:22
  I would love love, and and and the thing about it. I just
• 27:25
  had this conversation with my son the other day and I told my son,
• 27:29
  I said, you know, I speak prosperity over these businesses. I would
• 27:34
  love to see us get back into a black Wall Street. I would love
• 27:38
  that. I would love to see us have black on grocery stores, black
• 27:42
  OneD libraries, black OneD hospitals, black on clinics restaurants. But you know,
• 27:52
  I would love to see black owned tight Starbucks. I would love to
• 27:57
  see that. And I don't think y'all really realize how beautiful black owned businesses
• 28:03
  are. I want to see more black fashion designers, more black makeup artists,
• 28:08
  more black makeup lines. I want to see this. I want to
• 28:12
  see more black on interior designers. Again, I want to see more black
• 28:22
  everything. That's what I want to see. This is not to discredit other
• 28:30
  businesses. So let me say that because some of y'all get your pants in
• 28:34
  a bunch and oh she just no, no, But I want support for
• 28:41
  people that look like me. I want to see more businesses owned by people
• 28:45
  that look like me. Just because I'm pro black doesn't mean i'm anti white
• 28:52
  or any other rates. So let me say that first, because some of
• 28:56
  y'all come in here hot, and y'all know I come with all the smoke,
• 29:02
  and y'all know I'm always tell y'all to find something safe to do always.
• 29:08
  But let me get off my soap box. But again, I do
• 29:11
  I want to see more black owned businesses. I want to see more black
• 29:18
  owned gamers. I tell my son all the time, y'all, like,
• 29:21
  I don't think y'all understand. My son has a gift. My son does
• 29:26
  edits, he does edits, video edits. It's not major for us but
• 29:36
  I tell my son, I would love to see you do more edits.
• 29:40
  I would love to see you have a business where that's what you do.
• 29:45
  I can want, I can want, y'all. I can want that for
• 29:48
  my son. I want to see more black owned businesses. I do,
• 29:56
  but there are some changes that have to be made and warranted and all the
• 30:00
  for our black owned businesses to thrive, and your customer service is one.
• 30:11
  So Keith Lee again, y'all know he went and he visited the real Milk
• 30:17
  and Honey in Atlanta. He also stopped into the Old Lady Gag. Here's
• 30:22
  the video of him going to the Old Lady Game. Here we go.
• 30:27
  Yesterday, me and my family were rat the One Music Festival. Somebody who
• 30:30
  works with Candy Birds walked into us and said they've been trying to reach us
• 30:33
  since we got to Atlanta. He said he'd been constantly emailing me and constantly
• 30:36
  dming me for me to come the Old Lady Gang. I got it.
• 30:38
  Let's try it. Ready one with ten. As you can see, I
• 30:41
  don't have any bags in my hands. Me and my family showed up and
• 30:42
  we attempted to order. Before we got here. We called the number they
• 30:45
  had connected on yop three times, no answer. We tried to order it
• 30:48
  through door dash and they said it was temporarily closed. So when we put
• 30:51
  up, I sent my family in to order for us. They sat on
• 30:52
  the weekend due to being busy. They don't do any take out at all.
• 31:00
  Yeah, thanks, which is completely understandable. So what we decided to
• 31:04
  do is my family's gonna go eat. That's gonna come bring the food out
• 31:07
  while I'm sitting in the car, so they have no idea I'm here.
• 31:10
  My family asked how long the way was to be seated. They said an
• 31:11
  hour to an hour and a half. Yeah, okay. She also said
• 31:15
  they didn't have any reservations available, so they didn't take out any number,
• 31:18
  any contact information, nothing. My family then came and relate that message to
• 31:22
  me, and I decided to go in myself. We walked in and we
• 31:25
  were greeted by a nice young lady, and then I met some amazing people
• 31:26
  who were eating there, and we took some pictures. God is amazing.
• 31:29
  As soon as me and my wife were done taking pictures, the lady said
• 31:32
  the table was ready as always. I don't know any special treatment I want
• 31:34
  to be treated like everybody else. I pay for my food like everybody else.
• 31:37
  I'm a normal person, I'm a normal customer. Things like this is
• 31:40
  exactly why I do refuse the way I do. Just because I have a
• 31:41
  certain amount of followers on social media don't make me different from nobody. My
• 31:45
  mom, my mom in law, and my sister. They all paying customers
• 31:48
  just like me, so I want them to be treated just like me.
• 31:49
  So I asked how long the wait time has been today? She said an
• 31:52
  hour to an hour and a half, so which I didn't ask. How
• 31:55
  were you able to sit me in five minutes? This is her response,
• 31:57
  How long was I I wait to see? Call came and that was whoever
• 32:09
  again? My family just attempted to eat there less than two minutes ago.
• 32:12
  I then told her I changed my mind. We're gonna go eat somewhere else,
• 32:14
  and I said, God bless you, and I walked out. I
• 32:15
  was second thought, it's okay, you gonna so. I appreciate itself for
• 32:20
  show. Thanks. I have a great day every day. I'm'a be very
• 32:24
  transparent and honest. I am frustrated. Me and my family just trying to
• 32:28
  eat food. That's all we try to do. At the same time,
• 32:30
  I am frustrated. I understand we are all humans. I do not agree.
• 32:32
  I am not support I do not condone shame in this business. Based
• 32:36
  on my experience, like every city we've been to since we've been on food
• 32:37
  tour, I go to a ray of restaurants, from mom and pop shops
• 32:40
  to staples of the community to super popular to places nobody know about. And
• 32:45
  Atlanta has definitely been a unique experience for me and something I'll never forget.
• 32:47
  Thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it from the bottom of heart,
• 32:50
  genuinely, but I'm a normal person and I wanted to be treated like everybody
• 32:52
  else. God bless you have an amazing day. I'll be safe and I'm
• 32:55
  not playing. I understand everybody got their own opinions on situations, but don't
• 32:59
  go leaving them to year star reviews. You ain't never been here before.
• 33:01
  If you'd like to come experience with yourself and themly year reviews, but just
• 33:05
  leave a review based on my experience. It's crazy in my opinion. God
• 33:07
  bless you, let me take this in for a moment, because that was
• 33:22
  the most disheartened video ever. Again, he went into old lady gag well
• 33:30
  the family he called on YELP three times, number did apparently did not work.
• 33:37
  Tried to order the food on door dash said they were closed. Mister
• 33:44
  Lee sends his family. They're told, oh, to be an hour to
• 33:49
  an hour and a half week. Okay, he walks in all of a
• 33:58
  sudden, y'all are gonna have a table ready for him and five minutes.
• 34:06
  How does that work? How does that work? Again? You just told
• 34:15
  the family, excuse me, that would be an hour to an hour and
• 34:20
  a half. Wait, soon as you see mister Keith Lee walking the door,
• 34:25
  all of a sudden, now y'all are gonna have a table ready for
• 34:28
  him in five minutes, so which leads me to believe that you bumped somebody
• 34:36
  that may have been on the wait list to accommodate mister Lee. Let me
• 34:46
  run that back one more time. You didn't have a table two minutes ago,
• 34:54
  but all of a sudden, you see mister Keith Lee walking the door.
• 34:57
  Now you got Now you're you're getting a table set up for him and
• 35:00
  his family right now. Again, that leads me to believe that you bumped
• 35:06
  someone that may have possibly been waiting to accommodate mister Keith Lee, and I
• 35:13
  give him a round of applause or respectfully declining to eat at that establishment.
• 35:24
  I respect him for that drop in the comments. Y'all, let me know
• 35:30
  what you think about that. Again, he was just family was just told
• 35:37
  two minutes prior to him going in that it was an hour hour and a
• 35:45
  half way, hour to an hour and a half way. But as soon
• 35:50
  as he walks in the door, y'all gonna have her table ready for him
• 35:52
  in five minutes. Really, again, you need to treat your locals the
• 36:04
  same way you treat these celebrities. If you can roll the red carpet out
• 36:07
  for a celebrity, that same red carpet needs to be rolled out for the
• 36:10
  people that come in and support your establishment. That part right there, watching
• 36:17
  that video upset me. I'm just gonna keep it a buck with y'all.
• 36:22
  I was disgusted by that because how did you just say, before you knew
• 36:34
  who his family was, you didn't have a table available. They had the
• 36:37
  wait hour to an hour and a half wait time. Again, that leads
• 36:44
  me to believe that some family was bumped to accommodate mister Keith Lee. Why
• 36:53
  who does that again, y'all will y'all will cater to these celebrities who don't
• 37:05
  know you, who don't see you on a regular basis, but you will
• 37:09
  shit on the very same people that come and frequent your establishment day in and
• 37:15
  day out. I don't understand that. For the life of me, I
• 37:23
  do not understand that. Yes, I had to close my eyes on that,
• 37:28
  because I'm living about that. I'm absolutely living because you again, you're
• 37:42
  kicking the very same people that come into your establishment's week day and week out
• 37:51
  to roll out the red copper for these celebrities that don't frequent your establishments every
• 37:54
  day. I don't get it. Maybe that's just I don't know. Maybe
• 38:04
  that's just not something for me to understand. I don't know, but it's
• 38:09
  disgusting to me. And then you wonder why these black owned businesses don't make
• 38:17
  it so, Jules says, let me just recommend this black onned restaurant called
• 38:24
  the Fish Time here an act worth. You won't be disappointed, she say,
• 38:29
  Even with a packed house, we were seated in under ten minutes and
• 38:31
  greeted with the utmost respect. That's what my sister went for her birthday and
• 38:37
  whatever she was drinking, don't drink it. Okay, whatever whatever it is,
• 38:40
  don't drink it. So again, y'all, here's a black owned business.
• 38:45
  To anyone that's in it in the Atlanta area, whether you're in Smyrna,
• 38:49
  Marietta, Atworth, can A, can A, saw Decatur College Park,
• 38:55
  y'all go check out this restaurant called Fish Time. It is an apt
• 39:00
  Worth And again, my sister says, you won't be disappointed. She says,
• 39:06
  the drink orders were taken and questions we had about drinks were explained,
• 39:10
  and the food was exceptional. That's what I'm talking about. When you go
• 39:15
  to a restaurant, we get it on the weekends, these these fool places
• 39:23
  uppack to the top. We get it because no one nobody wants to cook
• 39:25
  on Fridays and Saturday nights. You know. Heck, maybe on Sunday you
• 39:30
  may not want to cook. But I was on the phone. Let me
• 39:35
  say this. I was on the phone with my sister while she was visiting
• 39:38
  this establishment and they were talking, and I did hear them talk about the
• 39:45
  drinks, and they explained what was in the drink. You know, is
• 39:51
  this like a particular you know, is this like a restaurant favorite, you
• 39:55
  know, and then they gave recommendations. Now, I was on the phone
• 39:59
  with her for the Even though even though it was loud in the background,
• 40:01
  it was a lot of people, I still could hear them discussing the drinks
• 40:08
  and like what was like a fan fade in that restaurant. But you business
• 40:16
  owners, particularly restaurants, greet these people with the same respect that you will
• 40:24
  want because at the end of the day, you're a consumer too. Even
• 40:28
  though you're a black business owner, you're a consumer too. So you want
• 40:30
  to go into these establishments and you want to be treated the same way you
• 40:35
  expect to be treated. Am I right or wrong? So you have to
• 40:39
  give. You have to put out what you want in return. If you
• 40:45
  have gut or rat behavior, Baby, I'm not coming to your establishment.
• 40:50
  I'm not gonna do any type of business with you. I'm just gonna keep
• 40:53
  it a buck with you. But we have to do better. We have
• 41:04
  to do better. Y'all have to put your egos and your pride to the
• 41:07
  side and stop acting like you are above being corrected. Some of y'all business
• 41:16
  owners are dumb, know it alls. I'm just gonna see it. I
• 41:23
  had this conversation the other day on TikTok and I heard some very disparaging things
• 41:34
  about some black business owners. And I've even shared my experience with some black
• 41:42
  with some black owned businesses. Well, that detore me to tear me from
• 41:47
  supporting black owned businesses. Absolutely not, Because just because I've had multiple bad
• 41:54
  experiences with black business owners doesn't mean I'm not gonna support anyone black business owner
• 42:00
  at all. No treat these relationships. Just because you've had one bad relationship
• 42:08
  don't mean your next relationship is gonna be bad. And that's the way I'm
• 42:12
  looking at it now. Just because I've experienced some bad things with some black
• 42:15
  business owners, I'm not gonna stop supporting black owned businesses. But one of
• 42:21
  the things I'm not gonna support is your gut or rad ass behavior and your
• 42:25
  lame customer service. I'm not supporting that. I'm not co signing for that,
• 42:32
  because y'all are consumers. When you go into these white owned establishments,
• 42:39
  they treat y'all like dirt, but you still keep going back. But you
• 42:45
  put down a black business owner all because you've had one or two experiences with
• 42:52
  black business owners. Stop putting them all in one bunch. Stop putting them
• 42:59
  all in one bag, because it may take you two or three times before
• 43:04
  you find a good restaurant, a good black OneD restaurant, or a good
• 43:08
  black owned a cosmetic line. But I'm not bashing all of them. I'm
• 43:15
  not dragging all of them. Again. Yeah, I've had some bad experiences.
• 43:20
  I went to a restaurant here in Houston, maybe about three years ago
• 43:24
  and ordered, uh some food. Matter of fact, I went to Grooves
• 43:30
  Grows of Houston and I ordered the I believe it was like the shrimp and
• 43:32
  grits I think is what I ordered. I know it was something that had
• 43:36
  shrimp in it. And I sent the food back number one because the shrimp
• 43:39
  tastes they tasted like they were overcooked, very rubbery. And the grits,
• 43:45
  let's just say I would I they weren't some my liking. So when I
• 43:51
  sent the food back, I was met with the attitude they come out and
• 43:59
  you know, so their demeanor was everything. Before they even opened their mouth,
• 44:04
  I knew, yeah, I'm gonna just go ahead and ask for my
• 44:07
  money back, because how are you upset with me because I tell you about
• 44:12
  the quality of the food. Because I tell you I didn't like the taste,
• 44:15
  because the shrimp tasted like this, because the greats taste like this.
• 44:19
  Now, the drinks were good, I'll give them that, but my entree
• 44:22
  was not. I didn't like it. I was gonna actually order something else.
• 44:30
  But the attitude that I was met with, oh no, baby,
• 44:32
  give me my money back, because I don't even trust you to go make
• 44:37
  anything else for me, because you may do something to my food. And
• 44:40
  I was very nice, very respectful, very pleasant. I didn't get loud.
• 44:46
  I was very calm and collected, just said, hey, you know,
• 44:51
  don't really particularly care for the food. I can't remember verbade on what
• 44:53
  I verbat on what I said, but I know it was along the lines
• 44:57
  of, you know, I just was not very please with this, And
• 45:01
  it was the the facial expression, Okay, yeah, just go ahead and
• 45:06
  give him my money back. Just give me my cash back, and y'all
• 45:10
  have a good day. I'll go somewhere else. That's what I mean when
• 45:15
  I say you need to work on your customer service instead of just coming out
• 45:21
  and saying, you know what, we do apologize that this was not to
• 45:23
  your liking. Maybe there's something else on the menu that maybe we could we
• 45:29
  could recommend. I got none of that. Okay, thank you giving my
• 45:36
  money, and I'm gonna see y'all later. Do this. I'm gonna go
• 45:39
  somewhere else. Went to the turculate cut that customer service there is a joke.
• 45:52
  And again, this is my opinion. This is my opinion and my
• 45:57
  opinion alone. Some of you all love that hood rad behavior. I don't.
• 46:04
  I'm above that. Now let me stop, because I can get good.
• 46:07
  I can get good a red at times too. No, but seriously,
• 46:09
  on a serious note, very rude. The turkey leg that I got,
• 46:19
  I believe it was like the Alfredo stuffed turkey leg or something. Didn't
• 46:23
  like it. Turkey leg had no taste. I didn't like it. I
• 46:31
  feel like it's overpriced. It's overrated, period. And again that's my opinion
• 46:39
  and my opinion alone. This is not to bash that business, this is
• 46:45
  not to tear it down. But I'm giving you my honest, unbiased opinion.
• 46:49
  I didn't like it. I've eaten at the breakfast club. Don't like
• 46:53
  it. Service, they're nice food I don't like. Again, everyone's palate
• 47:01
  is different. I was telling my sister the other day, I said,
• 47:05
  you know, since I've gotten better customer service at these little hood spots,
• 47:09
  these little mom and pop spots that I have in some of these names,
• 47:15
  these top name restaurants, these black owned businesses, I will say. I
• 47:22
  went to is it Alfrida's over there? And Third World, the soul food
• 47:27
  restaurant I think it's called Alfrida's. Food was okay, but the customer service
• 47:31
  was amazing. I laughed, joked with the people in there. I've been
• 47:37
  there numerous times, customer services everything, as a family owned restaurant, and
• 47:45
  you could tell still a lot of love in that in that restaurant, and
• 47:49
  that restaurant has been around for years. And I think that's the problem in
• 47:57
  this day and age is these black on businesses, there's no love in them.
• 48:06
  A lot of these black owned businesses, not all, but some y'all
• 48:10
  going and your open these businesses with the wrong intent, Which leads me to
• 48:19
  my question right here, why is it so hard to support black owned businesses?
• 48:25
  Why I just gave your mind your customer service. Y'all gotta do right
• 48:37
  by people. Y'all got to do better with people you want us to support,
• 48:45
  You gotta do better. You have to be willing to accept the criticism.
• 48:50
  You go into a business, you gotta have tough skin because guess what,
• 48:54
  You're not gonna be able to satisfy everybody that comes into your establishment period.
• 49:06
  Representation is everything. You are your brand. Anytime you're out publicly,
• 49:16
  you have to carry yourself like your your brand. That's like hairstyles, you
• 49:27
  have to represent your brand. You have to carry yourself in a professional manner
• 49:31
  when you're interacting with people. Because I'm here to tell you, baby,
• 49:37
  word of mouth is everything. Word of mouth will make or break your business.
• 49:45
  But I always tell people you go see for yourself. Don't go hey,
• 49:51
  just because I didn't like it. You may like it. To each
• 49:54
  his own. Your palate is different from mine. The particular makeup my know
• 50:00
  that you like, I may not like. Close everything, whatever, whatever
• 50:04
  it is, Go see for yourself. Don't go based off of what I'm
• 50:08
  telling you, because you may have a different experience than me. Maybe when
• 50:13
  I went in that day, maybe they were just having an off day.
• 50:15
  I don't know. But if I've gone in two times, three times,
• 50:21
  four times and I'm still experiencing the same type of behavior I experience of every
• 50:24
  first time, I'm no longer coming back. I'm no longer coming back period.
• 50:35
  I'm not gonna bass your business, but i will share my experience that
• 50:38
  I had with your business. That's one thing I'm gonna do. Because y'all
• 50:43
  want us to leave reviews. So if you want us to leave reviews,
• 50:47
  you can't get mad at the ones that we leave. If we say we
• 50:52
  didn't have a good experience with your business or at your establishment, you cannot
• 50:57
  be upset about that. You can't be I'm in this group on Facebook.
• 51:05
  I believe it's called Houston Black Owned Restaurants or something like that. But I'm
• 51:09
  in this group on Facebook, and there was a lady and this was like
• 51:15
  last year, maybe maybe two years ago, but a I want to say,
• 51:20
  yeah, I want to say it was like almost two years ago because
• 51:22
  it was during the time, excuse me, in the height of COVID where
• 51:27
  they were just doing like deliveries only and you could do pickups. So a
• 51:32
  lady in this group went and picked up some food for her neighbor. And
• 51:36
  of course, you know anytime you do like maybe a door dash order whatever,
• 51:40
  or you a pickup, they always have a brake seal on there to
• 51:44
  make, you know, to verify that your food hadn't been tampered with.
• 51:46
  So the lady went and picked up the food for her neighbor and got the
• 51:51
  food to the neighbors. So by the time you know, she got the
• 51:52
  food to the neighbor, the neighbor opened the food and was like, I,
• 51:55
  I you know, I believe she ordered some kind of fish place.
• 52:00
  And so she said the fish, you know, it was old, it
• 52:04
  was cold. They tried to contact the business. They were given the run
• 52:09
  around. Said, oh, the manager will call you back. Oh yeah,
• 52:12
  we'll give you a refund, it'll take five to seven business days.
• 52:15
  Blah blah blah, just basically giving them the run around. So the lady
• 52:19
  came in the group and made a post and she said, you know,
• 52:22
  this is not to bash the business or whatever, but I just wanted to
• 52:24
  share my experience if you ever go and you frequent this business. So she
• 52:30
  gave very nice, very respectful So the business, I don't know if that
• 52:32
  was the owner or maybe that was someone that just runs the social media page
• 52:36
  for this particular business, came and addressed on the posts. They came in
• 52:42
  on the post and said, first of all, you are thirty minutes late
• 52:45
  picking up your order. WHOA okay, y'all coming in on ten already.
• 52:52
  And like I said, I don't know if this is the person that runs
• 52:55
  a social media page for this particular business, if this was the actual worker,
• 53:00
  I don't know who it was. So because I thought about checking this
• 53:06
  business out, but after seeing that, I said, oh, absolutely not.
• 53:12
  So now this this business is no longer open. And I said,
• 53:16
  see, this is what I mean when I say word of mouth can make
• 53:21
  or break your business. But they go on to say, first off,
• 53:27
  you were thirty minutes late picking up your order, so that's why the order
• 53:30
  was cold. You called, and you were very rude when you called,
• 53:36
  demanding your money back, and the lady said, you must have the wrong
• 53:39
  person, she said, because I was very respectful when I called, and
• 53:44
  she, you know, put the person's name that she has spoken with.
• 53:46
  And they say, oh, that person doesn't work here anymore. Okay,
• 53:52
  But not once did you attempt to try to rectify the issue because you came
• 53:58
  on the post. I'm in very hot with that attitude. And now y'all
• 54:06
  are closed. And that's what I mean when I say, you guys have
• 54:12
  to learn how to conduct yourself in a respectful manner, regardless of how ignorant
• 54:23
  customers get with you. You're supposed to always go high. You never go
• 54:28
  low. You never stooped to the label I mean, to the to the
• 54:31
  level of the customer. You never do that because see people are recording you
• 54:38
  get what I'm saying in the moment, they see you acting and radit the
• 54:42
  first thing they're doing. They're uploading that to social media, and we don't
• 54:45
  even know the whole story. So now you're being judged off of a clip
• 54:50
  that someone has uploaded that didn't even get the start of what happened. So
• 54:57
  you'll have to be mindful. But I do want to know. Here's the
• 55:00
  question. Why is it so hard? Y'all let me know in the comments.
• 55:02
  Why is it so hard to support black owned businesses? That's what I
• 55:07
  want to know. Why is it so hard? I just gave y'all a
• 55:14
  few attitudes your customer service. You don't respect people's time. I think that's
• 55:25
  why. I think customer service is really number one why it's so hard.
• 55:31
  But doctor Boyce can sum it up. Here we go. Black businesses don't
• 55:42
  have the tradition in the culture of ownership and their families, so that a
• 55:46
  lot of them are first generation entrepreneurs. Just like first generation college students don't
• 55:51
  tend to do as well in school as second and third generation college students,
• 55:53
  well, the same thing is true with business owners. And then on top
• 55:57
  of that, it's hard when you get hated on by your own family and
• 56:00
  your own people. The people that are supposed to be backing you are the
• 56:02
  ones who are attacking you. How is it that when your backer is an
• 56:06
  attacker? How the hell can you win when the person that's supposed to protect
• 56:09
  your back is jabbing a knife into it. That's what a lot of black
• 56:13
  business owners go through. Give me, yes, if you've gone through this,
• 56:15
  it's hard as hell, right, So ultimately it's you know, this
• 56:19
  is one reason why I just try. I want to support you know,
• 56:22
  as much as I can, But it's hard. It's really it's not for
• 56:24
  the faint of heart. Because because I have lost money. There are people,
• 56:29
  there are people I could name right now that I loan money to that
• 56:30
  I supported and back or whatever, who did not pay me back, who
• 56:35
  did not come back with any form of success rate. And the reason I
• 56:37
  don't feel bad about it is because at least I tried. You can't say
• 56:42
  I didn't try. I didn't go out on the battlefield ready to get shot
• 56:46
  down on the battlefield on behalf of what I believe in. That's that's what
• 56:50
  I call an economic soldier, and a soldier understands that even if you do
• 56:54
  everything right, even if you prepare, even if you do all the analysis,
• 56:59
  you still might get shot. But the reason you're out there fighting is
• 57:01
  not because you're hoping that you're gonna survive. You're out there fighting because you
• 57:07
  have a belief. You have a core belief, and you're saying, look,
• 57:08
  I'm ready to go to the line on this. So I think if
• 57:13
  you want to build black economics, you got to show that you have as
• 57:15
  many as much balls as the white man. Does you know, do you
• 57:17
  think that it was easy when those people went out went out west and started
• 57:21
  digging for gold in California, Or when the Mormons got got in the covered
• 57:25
  wagons and went looking for the Great Salt Lake, where a third of them
• 57:30
  died, actually more than a third, I think two thirds of them died
• 57:32
  trying to find the damn salt lake. Do you think that they you think
• 57:36
  that that was for That was an easy job. I'm not saying putting them
• 57:38
  on a pedestal, but I'm telling you that if you're gonna go create something
• 57:42
  new, you gotta have the guts to go do it, and you gotta
• 57:45
  be able to take the losses and take the hits, and take the arrows
• 57:47
  in your back and still say, look, at least I tried. At
• 57:51
  least I gave my all, because me taking an arrow on my back means
• 57:53
  I paid the way for somebody else to do a little bit better than me.
• 57:55
  That's what it's gonna take. If you don't have that in you,
• 58:00
  and you will probably never achieve anything great. That's just the reality of it
• 58:02
  all. So to all the cowards that sit on the sideline and laugh,
• 58:07
  like Dave Chappelle said this, Dave Chappelle said that when a hero falls,
• 58:12
  the cowards rejoice. Bingo. People always laugh at your failure and never clap
• 58:24
  for your success. I'm a living witness to it. I've been doing my
• 58:32
  podcast now for three years. It's all my little memories are starting to pop
• 58:37
  up, and I've gone back and I'm like, I've supported so many black
• 58:45
  owned businesses and not once did I ever get a share, but I get
• 58:50
  more inbox messages asking can you do this? Ashley? Can you do that
• 58:55
  for me? No? I can't because I'm not going to keep giving and
• 59:05
  allowing people to keep taking from me and I don't get anything in return.
• 59:09
  So no, no favors, because I feel like the support should be reciprocal.
• 59:21
  So support goes both ways, and some of y'all need to learn that,
• 59:29
  because some of y'all only support when it's convenient. See me, let
• 59:31
  me say this. When I support, I support wholeheartedly. I support and
• 59:37
  never expect you to do anything in return for me. But if you have
• 59:42
  never liked share, even shared one of my episodes, but then you turn
• 59:46
  around and say, oh, Ashley, can you I can't. I can't,
• 59:52
  and that's effective today going forward. I cannot. I cannot do it.
• 1:00:00
  I'm so sorry. But that's why it's hard to support, because people
• 1:00:09
  want you to support, but a lot of people do expecting something in return.
• 1:00:17
  No, No, let's help each other. You get what I'm saying.
• 1:00:24
  Let's let's let's help each other. Let's support each other and do it
• 1:00:32
  genuinely, because see a lot of y'all do this with motives see when I
• 1:00:38
  support, if I like, if I share, if I comment, repost,
• 1:00:45
  I do that from the kindness of my heart. I do that genuinely.
• 1:00:49
  I don't do it because I want something in return. But a lot
• 1:00:53
  of y'all, it takes this much to support. It takes nothing away from
• 1:00:58
  you to share a post, to like, to comment, It takes nothing
• 1:01:01
  away from you. But the problem these days some of you black folks,
• 1:01:06
  y'all view each other as a competition and not as a team player, because
• 1:01:14
  y'all are so afraid of someone getting ahead of you, or someone making a
• 1:01:17
  dollar more than you. Hell, maybe fifty cents more than you. Let
• 1:01:22
  me say this, I want and I stand on this. I want all
• 1:01:28
  black businesses to win. You know what. Let me repeat that, I
• 1:01:32
  want all black business owners to win. I want to see you at the
• 1:01:38
  top. Ain't no hayten and my blood baby. If you get to the
• 1:01:45
  finish line before me, God bless you. I'm proud of you. I'm
• 1:01:53
  not in competition with nobody. I know it's fifty million podcasters out here.
• 1:01:59
  I know it is. But when it comes to me, I prefer the
• 1:02:05
  quality over the quantity. And that's the problem with y'all. Y'all are so
• 1:02:08
  focused on the quantity and you care so less about the quality. And I
• 1:02:15
  say that because y'all are more concerned about how many likes and views and followers
• 1:02:19
  you have, but you're not putting out quality work. Hello, somebody,
• 1:02:27
  somebody needed to hear that. But that's what y'all do. You focus on
• 1:02:34
  how much the quantity is and less on the quality. And I've noticed that
• 1:02:39
  with some business owners. You start out, you know, in your little
• 1:02:44
  mom and pops, maybe in the garage, maybe in your living room,
• 1:02:46
  maybe in your bathroom. I don't know. But the moment you get up
• 1:02:52
  to the top, the moment you start to succeed, the quality starts to
• 1:02:54
  fall off and you don't care as much. You're not putting the love of
• 1:03:00
  into your business. Do I fall short sometimes in my business? Absolutely I
• 1:03:07
  do. And I take accountability for that. Do I take the criticism that
• 1:03:14
  people give me in when they say, Hey, Ashley, try doing this
• 1:03:15
  on your show, Try doing that. This will help your game or followers
• 1:03:21
  you know are more subscribers, Try doing it this away? So I take
• 1:03:25
  all the criticism, I take all the feedback that people give me with regards
• 1:03:30
  to each and every episode that I put out every week, and I try
• 1:03:34
  to do something different every time. If I see something's not working this way,
• 1:03:39
  let me move on the Plan B. Okay, I've tried Planing A
• 1:03:43
  and Plan B that's not working. Let me go over here to Plan C,
• 1:03:46
  let me go to Plan D. I'm gonna keep trying until I figure
• 1:03:51
  out what works, what's gonna get people's attention, what's gonna keep people tuned
• 1:03:57
  in. That's what I'm working on, and I receive all types of criticism.
• 1:04:02
  It's I've gotten to the point where I've received messages where I've been utterly
• 1:04:08
  disrespected, and not one time have I ever came back and blasted y'all and
• 1:04:12
  said ABC because somebody's watching me, somebody's waiting on me to fail. But
• 1:04:25
  then there's more people that are looking at me to win. So I focus
• 1:04:30
  more on the ones that want to see me win and less on the ones
• 1:04:31
  that want to see me fail, are hoping that I fail. But that's
• 1:04:39
  why, not only is it patriot, but family is why it's so hard
• 1:04:45
  to support black owned businesses. Your family, your own family don't want to
• 1:04:50
  see you win. And that's the sad part, and you would think family
• 1:04:55
  would support you more, but they don't, not all, but some.
• 1:05:04
  But again, when you get into the ring of your own being a business
• 1:05:10
  owner an entrepreneur, you gotta be willing to roll with all the punches that
• 1:05:15
  come along with it, because it's not easy. Entrepreneurship is not easy.
• 1:05:19
  See a lot of y'all are so focused on the after that you're not even
• 1:05:25
  looking at the before. You're not even looking at the blood, sweat,
• 1:05:28
  tears and the pain that goes in behind to making these businesses successful. You
• 1:05:31
  don't know how many l's that person had to take before their w started to
• 1:05:35
  fall in, because I've taken a lot of hits. But it's the people
• 1:05:43
  that support that say, Ashley, keep going. It's the people that say,
• 1:05:47
  you know what, Ashley, your podcast is something that people need because
• 1:05:50
  you talk about real life. You have real live conversations, you have those
• 1:05:56
  uncomfortable conversations, you have those real life top that people are afraid to go
• 1:06:00
  into. So that's why I keep going. I keep showing up for me.
• 1:06:08
  I keep showing up because, you know what, my children deserve to
• 1:06:11
  see me winning and not so much losing. So you gotta support and you
• 1:06:19
  do it genuinely, do it wholeheartedly. Baby. Let me tell you,
• 1:06:26
  even though me and and and some people no longer speak, I still support
• 1:06:31
  the brand. I still support the brand, still support and that's what you
• 1:06:42
  do. I don't care how many times we fall out personally, I'm still
• 1:06:48
  gonna I'm not gonna go and bash your business. I'm not gonna trash you
• 1:06:51
  to people. I'll still I'll still do business with you on a business level,
• 1:06:59
  just no longer per period. That's not a shot. That's not shade
• 1:07:08
  to anybody, because I know a lot of y'all are like, ooh,
• 1:07:10
  she No, I'm not because I'm gonna always respect the hustle because I'm still
• 1:07:18
  hustling. Baby, I'm still pushing for Black Girl Interrupted to be a household
• 1:07:25
  name. And I'm not gonna give up until God says period. So that's
• 1:07:31
  why it's hard to support black owned businesses. You know, you go back
• 1:07:38
  and you look at the hate. Why is there so much hate for constructive
• 1:07:45
  criticism? Why is it so hard for black folks to accept the criticism?
• 1:07:55
  Why is it so hard for black folks to put their pride in their egos
• 1:07:59
  to the side and say you know what, you're right because we know it
• 1:08:06
  alls we think we know everything. We feel like we can't be corrected because
• 1:08:10
  what we're doing is not wrong. Apparently it is, especially if you have
• 1:08:16
  people that are saying the same thing. There's something wrong with you that you
• 1:08:21
  need to fix. I know. Jules said, let me go back.
• 1:08:26
  She says, I'm definitely going Definitely, I'm definitely going to be going back.
• 1:08:33
  She said, the best brussette I've ever had. She said. The
• 1:08:36
  appetizers were on point two. Whoa, that's what she said. So again,
• 1:08:42
  y'all, let me repost that restaurant. It's called fish Time. And
• 1:08:45
  again she says, it's an act worth Georgia. Y'all for the people that
• 1:08:51
  don't live in Georgia, it's an act worth Georgia. It is called fish
• 1:08:55
  Time. She said. You won't be disappointed. She said, even with
• 1:08:59
  the packed house, they were seated in another under ten minutes, and they
• 1:09:01
  were greeted with the utmost respect. So sometimes you have to make the necessary
• 1:09:06
  accommodation. You have to make the necessary changes to accommodate your everyday people that
• 1:09:12
  come in there, because there's not gonna there's gonna be days where you're not
• 1:09:16
  gonna make fifty thousand dollars that day or one hundred thousand. I'm just saying,
• 1:09:20
  I don't know because I'm not in the food industry. But treat your
• 1:09:27
  everyday people that come in there like CEOs. Treat them like their celebrities.
• 1:09:30
  Roll that red carpet out for them. But also when someone comes into your
• 1:09:35
  establishment, take the constructive criticism. That's what you do. This word right
• 1:09:43
  here is imperative constructive criticism. Take that, Take that constructive criticism. Make
• 1:09:50
  the necessary changes to make your business better. That's all you do. No
• 1:09:59
  one's asking you to make major changes, but start with the little bitty ones
• 1:10:03
  and see how that works out for you. First off, hire some people
• 1:10:09
  that have customer service skills because I'm here to tell you. Let me go
• 1:10:12
  right here, because I'm here to tell you right here, customer service is
• 1:10:17
  everything. Okay, If y'all can continue to give Walmart and all these other
• 1:10:27
  big chains chance after chance after chance, and you're disrespected every time you go
• 1:10:32
  in there, you can do the same for a black business. But black
• 1:10:38
  business owners, you gotta work on your customer service because customer service is not
• 1:10:42
  tall. You either have it or you don't. Y'all need to hire people
• 1:10:49
  that have good customer service skills, that are good with people, that are
• 1:10:55
  people people, because some of these business owners, y'all got people up in
• 1:11:01
  here working at your establishments that have no people skills, and then you wonder
• 1:11:05
  why no one's coming back in there. I'm here to tell you customer service
• 1:11:11
  is everything. You see. I put that in bold everthing, baby,
• 1:11:15
  e ve e r y th h I n G. Customer service is everthink.
• 1:11:23
  Customer service will make or break your business. A lot of y'all maybe
• 1:11:31
  maybe y'all need to get a PR team. I don't know, baby,
• 1:11:34
  I don't know what it is that y'all need, but this here, your
• 1:11:42
  statement is everything. Customer service is everything. I push for that, I
• 1:11:48
  advocate for that. I'm very respectful when I'm in conversations with people because I
• 1:11:58
  don't know who's looking, and I don't know who's listening, and I don't
• 1:12:00
  know who's watching. Well, I said that looking I don't know who's watching
• 1:12:03
  and I don't know who's listening. Be mindful with the company you keep.
• 1:12:13
  Again, customer services everything. I understand we want to pull family up when
• 1:12:18
  we make it, but Sometimes family don't have your best interests at heart.
• 1:12:27
  Sometimes they don't your friends. You know, I get it. You're trying
• 1:12:31
  to keep it in the family. You're trying to old girl when I make
• 1:12:33
  it to I get it. I get it. You're trying to pull everybody
• 1:12:36
  up with you. But some people are made to be left at a bus
• 1:12:41
  stop. Some people are made to be left there. But I want you
• 1:12:48
  black business owners to take key to that. Customer services. Everything without customer
• 1:12:57
  service, who have no customers. And again, you have some people that
• 1:13:00
  come in that love and don't mind you're talking crazy to them and disrespecting them
• 1:13:05
  and not showing them any value. You have some people that love that,
• 1:13:11
  but me, absolutely not. One thing I'm not going to do is sit
• 1:13:16
  in an establishment where I'm disrespected. Absolutely not. And I say this all
• 1:13:20
  the time. Stop going in. Stop supporting businesses that tolerate you, Support
• 1:13:27
  businesses that celebrate you. Some of you blackout owned business owners, y'all get
• 1:13:30
  a little too cocky for me at times. Humble yourself because the way God
• 1:13:35
  blessed you, God could absolutely take it away in a matter of moments.
• 1:13:44
  Again, I'm not saying or to take the abuse from customers. I'm not
• 1:13:49
  seeing that at all. But what I am saying is if a person has
• 1:13:54
  an issue, it's all about how you respond. Because again, baby,
• 1:14:00
  when I tell you, I have seen the responses that some of these business
• 1:14:04
  black business owners give to patrons when patrons say they didn't get good service,
• 1:14:12
  I've seen this. I've seen this, and I love black business owners.
• 1:14:19
  I love y'all. Gosh, when I tell y'all, I just I get
• 1:14:25
  emotional when I talk about black businesses. You want to know why, because
• 1:14:30
  I'm so excited for all these new black entrepreneurs that are coming out and I
• 1:14:38
  want to support you in the worst way possible. I'm getting just excited because
• 1:14:46
  I've sat in spaces with some of the most beautiful black business owners that have
• 1:14:51
  given their blood, sweat and tears, that have gone above and beyond for
• 1:15:00
  customers, only to not be supported. If you, guys, can support
• 1:15:06
  businesses that disrespect you on a consistent basis, go support some of these beautiful,
• 1:15:14
  these other black owned businesses that you had that you have had beautiful experiences
• 1:15:19
  with. We got another. We got another beautiful black business owner. Her
• 1:15:29
  name is Adorned Impressions by Jewels. Go follow her. Go support her.
• 1:15:36
  Her name is adorned impressions by jewels. Go follow her Facebook page, Go
• 1:15:42
  see what her business is about. It may not be for you, for
• 1:15:45
  share it, because it may be for someone else. That's another thing.
• 1:15:51
  Okay, the business may not be for you, but it may be for
• 1:15:56
  someone else. Share it, Share it. What does that take away from
• 1:16:02
  you? What are you afraid of? Why are we viewing our black brothers
• 1:16:08
  and sisters as a competition? Stop that? Stop that, mister Dorn says,
• 1:16:17
  that's life too. It's about how you respond to all situations. Absolutely,
• 1:16:23
  when I tell you, since I've been in groups where they have drug
• 1:16:30
  black business owners and then the responses are even worse, gutter rat behavior.
• 1:16:42
  If you don't have this customer service, how do you expect your business to
• 1:16:47
  boom? How do you expect your business to flourish? If you do not
• 1:16:51
  have this black business owners? I know it's hard, I know it's difficult.
• 1:17:01
  I know you're ready to get to the finish line, but please celebrate
• 1:17:06
  those l's because a lot of those l's will get you to your w Okay,
• 1:17:13
  they will get you to those ws. But when you make it,
• 1:17:18
  do not lose this. Your customer service. Do not lose that, because
• 1:17:26
  that's what got you where you are. A lot of your business owners you
• 1:17:30
  forget, you stop and you forget those humble beginnings. You get what I'm
• 1:17:35
  saying, You forget that when you make it, you lose this, You
• 1:17:44
  lose that. Customer service is everything. How you respond makes a difference.
• 1:17:57
  Rectify the problem. If an any moment you feel yourself getting like this with
• 1:18:02
  a person, excuse yourself from it, decompress, and then come back.
• 1:18:11
  That's what you do. Stop going tick for tech with customers. I apologize
• 1:18:19
  that this was not to your liking. What can we do to rectify the
• 1:18:23
  situation? You know what, Let's do this. Let me recommend this,
• 1:18:27
  let me make it right. Find out what it was about. Find out
• 1:18:35
  what the issue was. Okay, let me say that. Find out what
• 1:18:38
  the issue was. What was it about the product or the food or whatever
• 1:18:42
  whatever your service is that you provide. Find out what it is that they
• 1:18:46
  did not like. Have a private conversation with them if they comment on your
• 1:18:53
  post, take that conversation away from that post. Okay, remain preferredes at
• 1:19:00
  all times. Be mindful with how you respond. That all goes back to
• 1:19:04
  Customer service Ladies and gentlemen, some of y'all don't have it. Take the
• 1:19:11
  conversation away from social media. Maybe a phone call, maybe a zoom call,
• 1:19:17
  something I don't know. Find out how you correct ify the issue.
• 1:19:27
  You're welcome SYS again, y'all tap in with adorned impressions by jewels. I
• 1:19:33
  definitely will be supporting this young lady right here. I will definitely be supporting.
• 1:19:38
  I will be sharing whatever it is, and I do it genuinely.
• 1:19:43
  I don't ask for anything in return. I don't expect anything in return.
• 1:19:45
  If it's something you want me to wear on a shoulder, promote your brand,
• 1:19:49
  I do it. I don't charge for promotions like some people do.
• 1:19:54
  Some people try, Oh it's fifty dollars, but too No, I'm not
• 1:19:58
  charging you to promote your because you know what, I'm going to get my
• 1:20:02
  blessings in the end. I'm gonna get that in the end. Okay,
• 1:20:10
  God is gonna bless me. God has already blessed me with this gift to
• 1:20:15
  be able to have a platform such as God bless me. She says,
• 1:20:20
  Amen, and then she says, stop popping off for no reason. Bingo
• 1:20:27
  again. Customer service is everything right here, It's everything. Customer service is
• 1:20:32
  everything. Again, your customer service, word of mouth can make them break
• 1:20:36
  your business. But I also want business owners to remember, you're not gonna
• 1:20:44
  be able to satisfy everybody. Out of five people, you may not satisfy
• 1:20:50
  one, you may not satisfy two, but you may satisfy those three.
• 1:20:58
  And again, don't worry so much on the quantity. Focus on the quality
• 1:21:04
  because your quality may be good, but your customer service may suck, and
• 1:21:13
  that's gonna ruin the quality of your product. Man, she's got beautiful jewels,
• 1:21:19
  but her attitude is nasty. She makes beautiful clothes, or she designs
• 1:21:27
  beautiful shirts or beautiful tumblers, but man, her attitude. Did you see
• 1:21:31
  the way she responded to that customer. I don't think I want to do
• 1:21:34
  business with her. I just told y'all, just gave you another gem.
• 1:21:45
  In regards to why black businesses failed, you're looking at this customer service is
• 1:21:55
  the number one reason, and then the lack of support. The lack of
• 1:22:01
  support. One thing I want to say to you, patrons, because I've
• 1:22:09
  spoken enough about black business owners, but I want to say this to you
• 1:22:14
  patrons. Stop going to these businesses and asking for a discount. Stop going.
• 1:22:21
  Let me say this louder, stop going to these black business owners asking
• 1:22:27
  for a discount or a handout, because you do not go into those white
• 1:22:32
  establishments and ask for a discount or hook up. If you could go into
• 1:22:41
  the Gucci store and pay five, six, ten thousand dollars for an item,
• 1:22:46
  spend that with your local business, your local black business owner. That's
• 1:22:50
  giving you the phenomenal customer service. I'm not saying because some of y'all will
• 1:22:57
  say, oh, she no, let me rein. Let me repeat that,
• 1:23:00
  and let me make it clear on what I'm saying. Support black businesses
• 1:23:08
  without asking for a discount or a handout. Maybe that that's the correct way
• 1:23:15
  for me to see that. See again, I'm not above being corrected.
• 1:23:20
  But the same way you go into these white establishments, you never ask them
• 1:23:26
  for a discount or a hookup. I don't care how long you've been doing
• 1:23:29
  them, you're never going there and you're never ask them for discounts. So
• 1:23:32
  stop doing black business owners that way. I don't care if that's been your
• 1:23:36
  friend since the wound, baby, I don't care if y'all shared the same
• 1:23:40
  womb I don't care if you came from the same I'm the same neighborhood.
• 1:23:42
  Stop asking black business owners for discounts. If they decide they want to give
• 1:23:49
  you a little something off for the first time ordering who but stop going and
• 1:23:55
  expecting that because you don't know what they have going on. Can they afford
• 1:24:03
  to give you a discount? Run you know if they run a special every
• 1:24:09
  now and again and you missed the special, you just missed the special.
• 1:24:15
  Let me say this. The person I was getting my lipstick from used to
• 1:24:20
  always say, oh girl, you get a discount. You know you're the
• 1:24:23
  brand ambassador. I don't want no discount, And if we were still speaking,
• 1:24:30
  she would tell you the same thing. I believe I may still have
• 1:24:33
  text me where I told her, no, girl, I'm gonna buy it
• 1:24:36
  at full price. I don't want no discount. I don't want no hookups
• 1:24:45
  because I'm not. I can't go into the Gucci store and say, hey,
• 1:24:47
  give me fifty percent off or let me use your let me use your
• 1:24:50
  employee discount. You can't go into those establishments and do that. To stop
• 1:24:54
  doing black business owners like that, patrons, Black folks talking to y'all because
• 1:25:00
  y'all are infamous for going into black businesses and are wanting and expecting them to
• 1:25:05
  give you a hookup because or that's your home or or that's your homegirl,
• 1:25:10
  or hey, I started with you at the bottom. I remember when I'm
• 1:25:15
  gonna pay full price like everybody else, And anybody that knows me will tell
• 1:25:20
  you that. Anybody that I've done service with or purchased items from will tell
• 1:25:26
  you I never asked for a discount. They'll get mad, why you didn't
• 1:25:32
  use your discount for what? I'll use it when I need to. But
• 1:25:40
  right now I have the money to buy it full. Hey, I'm gonna
• 1:25:43
  do it. And if I don't have the money to buy it full,
• 1:25:46
  buy your right then full price. I'll wait because I don't want you to
• 1:25:51
  give me any type of discount. I don't want to. I don't want
• 1:25:53
  you to give me any type of hook up. No special treatment, because
• 1:25:56
  guess what, you're getting it out the mud, just like me. If
• 1:26:02
  they run a special cool, if they don't cool either way, I'm still
• 1:26:06
  gonna buy a support either way. Mister Doran says, treat them like you
• 1:26:15
  want to be treated. When it comes to black owned businesses. I love
• 1:26:24
  y'all, and I really really, really really really truly want to see you
• 1:26:30
  black business owners win. I really do, God, I want to see
• 1:26:35
  y'all make it. I want to see y'all in Black Enterprise magazine. I
• 1:26:41
  want to see your your name and lights. I want to be able to
• 1:26:44
  say, oh, man, I remember when he or she started at the
• 1:26:46
  bottom. Look at y'all. Now, I remember when you were just doing
• 1:26:50
  this out of your garage, and now look at you. You you you
• 1:26:53
  in a studio, or you're in a suite, or you're in a brick
• 1:26:56
  and mortar. I want to celebrate your accomplishments. I want to celebrate those
• 1:27:04
  small achievements. I want to do that with you, and I do it
• 1:27:15
  from the heart. I do a genuine I don't ask for anything in return.
• 1:27:23
  That's the beautiful part about me. But I hope some of you business
• 1:27:29
  owners, you black business owners. I hope maybe y'all will change as we're
• 1:27:33
  going to a new year. I really want to see y'all make it.
• 1:27:40
  I really truly do. As I get ready to bring this episode to a
• 1:27:45
  close, I just want to play a little a tidbit of an interview that
• 1:27:50
  I saw on The Isaiah Factor, which is a it's a segment here in
• 1:27:58
  Houston on Fox twenty six where they discussed the rocky relationships between black businesses and
• 1:28:05
  then I'll come in and do my final thoughts. Just a few minutes,
• 1:28:09
  not not the whole because it's about eight minutes long, but just a couple
• 1:28:13
  of minutes. Here we go. You're watching The Isaiah Factor uncensored. Welcome
• 1:28:20
  in, Thank you for joining us for the second half hour of The Factor
• 1:28:24
  on cins It tonight. We're talking about a very complicated relationship between some black
• 1:28:29
  owned businesses and their customers. Popular food critic Keith Lee's trip to Atlanta has
• 1:28:36
  highlighted the issues at some of the city's black owned restaurants. He said he
• 1:28:42
  walked away empty handed after visiting the Real Milk and Honey. According to Lee,
• 1:28:46
  he sent his family inside the restaurant for service. He says employees told
• 1:28:53
  his family they would be unable to serve them because they were closed for deep
• 1:28:58
  cleaning. However, Lee says employees change your tune after he walked in and
• 1:29:03
  they recognized him, offering him a table to each, which he declined.
• 1:29:10
  Lee's retelling of the experience has gone viral, leading to some people on social
• 1:29:15
  media sounding off about some black owned businesses have an elitist problem, among other
• 1:29:21
  issues, joining me now to talk about it, black owned business patron,
• 1:29:28
  you're black owned, You're a black pay business patron. There you go.
• 1:29:34
  Bevin Biggers, the owner of Meeks Vegan Pizza, Demitris Walker, owner of
• 1:29:41
  Swamp Chicken, Terry Mason, and KB who owns multiple businesses. Glad to
• 1:29:45
  have you all here on the fact ground. Censor so Terry, when you
• 1:29:48
  hear some black customers say I am not treated with respect when I walk into
• 1:29:57
  a black owned business, It's like, what do you want? And it's
• 1:30:00
  not proper protocol that they may give another race. Your thoughts on that,
• 1:30:08
  I can attest to that. However, being from Louisiana, our first goal
• 1:30:14
  is to treat everyone hospitable. That's how first, that's out the gate,
• 1:30:19
  and that's how we are and that's what we do. However, when actually
• 1:30:26
  hiring help, it's hard to really know who you hire because you don't know
• 1:30:34
  you. I mean, these people sometimes they do, they are rude to
• 1:30:39
  customers. However, it's as a business owner you want to you want to
• 1:30:48
  provide the best service all the time. You don't get the best servers to
• 1:30:55
  provide the best service. Do you agree with that? Sometimes you can't control
• 1:31:00
  your employees mouth. That's an agree, I agree, But that's one of
• 1:31:04
  the reasons why in my business, or the businesses I got, I'm self
• 1:31:08
  employed. I do it all by myself. I'm control customer service and all
• 1:31:12
  that from top to bottom. If I cut you out, I guess who
• 1:31:15
  you got to turn to to complain to the manager? Me? Yeah,
• 1:31:19
  like the problem. I work in logistics, So what I do is I
• 1:31:24
  come in, I build you menu, help you with your bar, help
• 1:31:27
  you get set up. The problem is a lot of owners don't even know
• 1:31:30
  how to hire. They don't know how to properly vet people, and they
• 1:31:33
  don't know how to train them. So it's not really the service the server's
• 1:31:39
  fault. It's really the owner because you don't know what you're doing. You
• 1:31:43
  know. So if you get an employee in and you say this is how
• 1:31:46
  you're going to treat the customers like a Chick fil A. You're going to
• 1:31:50
  be respectful, You're going to always be proper with them, then there's a
• 1:31:57
  difference. If the employee lays down the laws. A lot of these bars,
• 1:32:00
  they literally will open it and then they look for servers and bartenders a
• 1:32:04
  week two weeks prior, with no proper training. I've seen it a million
• 1:32:10
  times. They don't even try. They see the margins of how much money
• 1:32:15
  you can make from a bar or a restaurant, and they're like, Oh,
• 1:32:17
  I want to be I want to open a bar because I'm going to
• 1:32:18
  be well. Basically, I've seen it from you as a business owner of
• 1:32:25
  V and Pizza tell us about that. Yeah, you know, I think
• 1:32:28
  it's really important. I make sure that my employees know that mood and food.
• 1:32:32
  There's a reason why those two words are so similar, because you know
• 1:32:36
  your mood is going to affect how you feel about the food, and so
• 1:32:40
  it's really really critical that we give everybody an A plus experience when they walk
• 1:32:45
  through the door. I don't care if it's Beyonce or whether it's Ray Ray.
• 1:32:49
  We need to make sure that everybody is satisfied with their experience because the
• 1:32:54
  food is going to taste better when you feel better about your experience? Can
• 1:32:56
  you satisfy every customer? Those Sometimes they come in like these only twenty three
• 1:33:00
  customers. These not the nineteen ninety nine customers. These these people today are
• 1:33:04
  have a high level no, they have a high level of sense of entitlement.
• 1:33:10
  So when you come see I run parking lots in the club area.
• 1:33:13
  So either way, whatever energy and attitude you give it, guess we're giving
• 1:33:15
  it back. Maybe park that car, give me your money and getting the
• 1:33:18
  club. You come around that corner drunk. That is not my fault.
• 1:33:20
  I'm gonna give you what you give now. For restaurants and stuff, I
• 1:33:25
  can completely understand. But if you come in with an attitude and I'm giving
• 1:33:28
  you everything I can from top to bottle, and you complain about everything,
• 1:33:30
  maybe customer ain't always right. At the end of the day, I'm gonna
• 1:33:33
  give you my best foot forward. We're gonna put our best food forward.
• 1:33:36
  But if your attitude up walking in this dough, maybe kick rocks next time.
• 1:33:41
  Just pick it up to go. And that's why that's why a lot
• 1:33:43
  of black businesses don't last, because they right, and that's why people feel
• 1:33:47
  like they can come in there and act however. You act out however,
• 1:33:50
  and it reflects on your customers, Yes it does. I go to a
• 1:33:54
  lot of restaurants, so many restaurants, and there's a big difference experience,
• 1:34:00
  my Black experience versus going to other restaurants. There's a big difference number one
• 1:34:04
  Black restaurants and bars. Why do you cost so much? Why am I
• 1:34:09
  spending three times as much for one drink versus somewhere else? And it's a
• 1:34:13
  better quality cocktail or dish. I'm getting the same meal at every Black restaurant.
• 1:34:19
  You don't even switch it up, don't even try all the same stuff.
• 1:34:27
  Yeah, but I can beg to differ on that because I've gone to
• 1:34:30
  Steak forty eight and I've gone to other restaurants around the I think that sometimes
• 1:34:40
  our mental, the mental of wheat, are going to expect more from a
• 1:34:47
  Caucasian or different restaurant versus a Black restaurant because we have people. We're not
• 1:34:54
  fast food, none of our restaurants we are not fast food. They sit
• 1:34:59
  down, we have servers, we have a bar. They want fast service,
• 1:35:04
  but if they wait thirty minutes, they're angry. But if you wait,
• 1:35:10
  you wait in the parking lot at Waterburger for thirty minutes, and it's
• 1:35:14
  fine. It's fine, all right. So let's hear from you really quick.
• 1:35:19
  Well, you know, I just want to say, I think,
• 1:35:20
  you know, we do have room for improvement, and I think, uh,
• 1:35:24
  you know, Keith Lee highlighted the fact that we do have plenty of
• 1:35:27
  room for improvement improvement as black owned businesses and black owned restaurants, and you
• 1:35:32
  know, I think this puts the pressure on us. We have to do
• 1:35:35
  better and our community deserves better. Really quick. This is my experience in
• 1:35:42
  the South. I used to work in hospitality in the East Coast and it
• 1:35:45
  was not like that. It's a Southern problem. They're not just a black
• 1:35:49
  problem of Southern black Southern I did not have. This is your East Coast,
• 1:35:54
  all right, Thank you guys for joining us here on the Factor kb
• 1:35:58
  KB you have your face and your eyes don't go anywhere you're watching the Factor
• 1:36:04
  on since KB A gonna never get it right, y'all. I've really I
• 1:36:13
  and my whole intent was not to play the whole clip, but it just
• 1:36:17
  really made sense because that brings me into my final thoughts on black owned businesses.
• 1:36:25
  I think what everyone said in that little in that particular segment, which
• 1:36:30
  was like eight minutes long, everyone had valid points. I will disagree with
• 1:36:36
  the young lady at the end with the dreads because you have to stop matching
• 1:36:41
  energy with people. Okay, you gotta stop doing that. It's so easy
• 1:36:49
  for people to pick up cell phones and record and upload it to social media,
• 1:36:55
  and now you've gone viral because you got ignorant with a customer. Sometimes
• 1:37:02
  you gotta pick your battles. Baby, you gotta pick your battles. You
• 1:37:06
  have to pick your battles. You have to be the bigger person and say,
• 1:37:12
  you know what, I'm gonna let y'all have it. That's what you
• 1:37:15
  gotta do. That's what you gotta do. Sometimes it's not even worth the
• 1:37:20
  energy. But like the lady that owns swamp Chicken, if you will wait
• 1:37:31
  forty five fifty minutes, an hour and a half at these white owned businesses,
• 1:37:38
  give the same respect to black owned businesses. But that in tune also
• 1:37:42
  says you black business owners have to get better. You have to do better,
• 1:37:48
  gotta do better. And it starts with customer service. You know what.
• 1:37:55
  Let me back up, it starts with the owner, because you need
• 1:38:00
  to be mindful with who you're putting in your restaurant or your whatever type of
• 1:38:03
  establishment that you have, whatever type of business you have, you have to
• 1:38:06
  be mindful with the people you're putting in those positions. Okay, because again,
• 1:38:12
  I've dealt with a lot of black owned businesses and some of the people
• 1:38:15
  that y'all have working for them, I've really wanted to grab and bottom mouth
• 1:38:18
  and crump their lips up like a ball of pap like some paper. I've
• 1:38:21
  wanted to, But at the end of the day, you are what you
• 1:38:30
  hire. You hire gut or rats, you're gonna get gut or rats service.
• 1:38:35
  You hire people that have beautiful customer service skills, You're gonna get great
• 1:38:41
  customer service. Like the young man said, food and mood go together.
• 1:38:46
  You're in a good mood, your food is gonna taste better. You're in
• 1:38:49
  a bad mood, your customer service and your food and everything else is gonna
• 1:38:53
  be trash. So I hope that all you black business owners out here hold
• 1:39:00
  on. Let me respond. So mister Dorn says, thank you Sis for
• 1:39:03
  your podcast. Much needed shared your podcast out You are amazing. I want
• 1:39:08
  to say to you, thank you so much for tuning in tonight. Thank
• 1:39:12
  you for coming and loving on me. Thank you for supporting Black Girl Interrupted
• 1:39:15
  podcast. I look forward to connecting with you because I do have another venture
• 1:39:20
  that I'm going to be bringing to the forefront that will be spotlighting black business
• 1:39:26
  owners. But I'll get with you on the back end about that so we
• 1:39:30
  can connect and really spotlight your black owned business because I do want to know
• 1:39:33
  your story. Hey, honey, my baby tuned in. Hi babe,
• 1:39:38
  I hope you're having a good night at work. I love you so but
• 1:39:45
  I speak again. I really want to see you black business owners make it.
• 1:39:50
  I pray that you guys get better with your customer service. I pray
• 1:39:54
  that you guys respect your patrons, respect their time, get better management skills.
• 1:40:01
  If it's just you running your business and you're getting a little overwhelmed,
• 1:40:04
  maybe get someone in that could possibly help to alleviate. But to you black
• 1:40:11
  business owners twenty twenty four were going up, shout out to every black business
• 1:40:17
  owner, every black business all across the world, from Houston all the way
• 1:40:24
  from I'll say, from the East coast to the West coast, to the
• 1:40:28
  South, to the Midwest to the north, I speak prosperity and to all
• 1:40:34
  you beautifully black owned businesses. Y'all do a lot, but I really want
• 1:40:40
  you all to get better with your customer service. Put better people in positions
• 1:40:45
  you know they're going my ant right there. Let me tell y'all. Anybody
• 1:40:48
  that resides in Houston or in the Sugarland area and you have Nita rental car,
• 1:40:55
  go to Avis right here one zero zero zero five South Highway six,
• 1:41:00
  sugar Land, Texas seven seven four seven eight. She works for Avis.
• 1:41:04
  She is not that she doesn't work. She owns her own abas. She
• 1:41:09
  is a black business owner. One thing, let me tell you about this.
• 1:41:12
  Just because I refer you to her, does not mean you get a
• 1:41:15
  discount or a hookup. If you can go to Enterprise, you can go
• 1:41:17
  to Hurts and you can spend your full and pay full price with them.
• 1:41:23
  You can do the same for this black business owner right here. This is
• 1:41:25
  my aunt. I love her dearly. She has my heart. She knows
• 1:41:28
  that regardless of how many ups and downs, I still go to her business.
• 1:41:31
  I go nowhere else for all my rental car needs. So anyone that
• 1:41:34
  may need a rental car, if you're in the Sugarland Richmond Rosenberg area,
• 1:41:39
  even if you live up Highway six on Beaching up Bising that whatever, come
• 1:41:42
  right here address again one zero zero zero five South Highway six. They are
• 1:41:47
  right next to They are in between churches and that little shopping plaza where the
• 1:41:56
  nail shop is, so they're they're in between there. You'll see them.
• 1:41:59
  They're right next to a five work stand. But all your rental car needs,
• 1:42:01
  please go high and miss Soigna bell at the Avis again. One zero
• 1:42:05
  zero zero five one zero zero zero five South Highway six again, Sugarland,
• 1:42:11
  Texas seven seven four seven eight again tell her I sent you. But please
• 1:42:15
  let me tell you one thing. Do not go in there thinking you finna
• 1:42:18
  get a discount or a hook up or whatever else. Again, if you
• 1:42:23
  can go to Hurts Enterprise dollar thrifty and you can pay full price over there
• 1:42:29
  with them, you can come over here to this black owned business. Let
• 1:42:31
  me pull st her back up. You can go right over here to this
• 1:42:33
  black owned business and you can pay full price for a rental. Okay,
• 1:42:39
  now, I'm gonna tell you this. She's busy, but she's gonna give
• 1:42:44
  you great customer service. I promise you that. Okay, you don't have
• 1:42:48
  to thank me because any like I told you, I give support and don't
• 1:42:56
  expect anything back. You are a black business owner. You need to be
• 1:43:00
  spotlighted. You need to be spotlighted. So again, all your rental Carnes
• 1:43:04
  or how let's sign sign your pe bill. Okay, that's who you go
• 1:43:09
  talk to David's till I Ashley sent you. But again, don't go on
• 1:43:13
  that thing. Youin't gonna get a discount, because I promise you you're going
• 1:43:15
  anything. You're gonna get a discount in a hook up. You're gonna get
• 1:43:18
  a rude awaken And I'm just letting you know. Okay, but just like
• 1:43:21
  you walked in there, she can sing you right on out the door,
• 1:43:25
  trust me. So those are my final thoughts on these beautifully black owned businesses.
• 1:43:32
  All right, tomorrow night, Tomorrow night, y'all. Let me tell
• 1:43:35
  y'all, so we are gonna be talking about this the Cheesecake Factory girl and
• 1:43:41
  this infamous first date list that has gone viral. That's tomorrow night. I
• 1:43:46
  want to know, does where a man takes you on your first date?
• 1:43:49
  Does that determine how much he likes you or doesn't like you. We're gonna
• 1:43:56
  talk about that, but anyway, I'm gonna go ahead and bring this episode
• 1:43:59
  to a close because I gotta go jump over on TikTok. I got some
• 1:44:01
  people over that way on me on TikTok. I got to go live over
• 1:44:03
  there. But I want to say I love y'all. Thank y'all so much
• 1:44:06
  for tuning in to another episode of Black Girl Interrupted. Y'all know I am
• 1:44:10
  live. You see it streaming down at the bottom. I'm live every Tuesday,
• 1:44:14
  every Wednesday eight thirty pm Central Time nine thirty pm Eastern Time. You
• 1:44:18
  could catch live on Facebook and YouTube, or if you want to, if
• 1:44:24
  you prefer to listen, put in black Girl Interrupted podcast. I stream on
• 1:44:29
  every platform wherever you listen to your podcast. That's where black Girl Interrupted is.
• 1:44:32
  I'm on Twitter even though I don't interact a lot, but I'm on
• 1:44:36
  TikTok again, y'all. Effective the first of the year, Effective January one
• 1:44:42
  of twenty twenty four, black Girl Interrupted will no longer stream on Facebook on
• 1:44:45
  Wednesdays now Tuesdays. I will still do my live episodes on Tuesdays, but
• 1:44:50
  on Wednesdays I will be on TikTok doing the episode. So again, don't
• 1:44:56
  forget to like, share comments, subscribe, tell a friend, bring a
• 1:44:58
  friend. Hey, We're going up. For the rest of twenty twenty three,
• 1:45:01
  but guess what, twenty twenty four, we come up for everything that
• 1:45:04
  the devil took from us. So on that note, I love y'all,
• 1:45:08
  Happy Tuesday. I hope everyone has a great, beautiful night, regardless of
• 1:45:13
  whatever you have going on. Stand firming your convictions. Baby. If you
• 1:45:16
  are a black business owner, I want to connect with you. I want
• 1:45:20
  to know what your product is. I want to like, share, subscribe,
• 1:45:23
  comment, whatever it is I have to do to bring more awareness to
• 1:45:26
  your business, I do it. Let me know, let's connect, let's
• 1:45:29
  work. I love y'all again, Happy Tuesday. I will see y'all tomorrow
• 1:45:31
  night, same time, same place. Everyone, sleep well, see you
• 1:45:35
  tomorrow. Love you,