Latest / Earn Your Leisure / EYL #255 Business Blueprint: Mental Health Franchise, Cosmetic Empire & Restaurants ft Chris & Janeen Simone

Transcript

EYL #255 Business Blueprint: Mental Health Franchise, Cosmetic Empire & Restaurants ft Chris & Janeen Simone · Earn Your Leisure

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  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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  Speaker 5: We have the honor of having a conversation with two
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  Speaker 5: of Baltimore's brightest entrepreneurs, really killing the game. And they're
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  Speaker 5: also a couple as well. So this is going to
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  Speaker 5: be a very through conversation about business, about family, about
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  Speaker 5: how to balance that and really growing different verticals, something
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  Speaker 5: that I think any entrepreneur needs to learn. You can't
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  Speaker 5: rely just on one stream of income. That's extremely important,
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  Speaker 5: and you guys have built the very impressive portfolio for
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  Speaker 5: being joining us in this conversation will go over but
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  Speaker 5: first and foremost, thank you for being joined us in
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  Speaker 5: this conversation.
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  Speaker 6: Appreciate it.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, and it means a lot, right we talk about
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  Speaker 4: going back and giving back. The fact that we're here
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  Speaker 4: in Morgan, the fact that your alumni for Morgan, the
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  Speaker 4: fact that you've got some business skills from here, it
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  Speaker 4: means that much much, that much more that you're coming
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  Speaker 4: back and give it to the community that helps you
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  Speaker 4: with some of yourself.
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  Speaker 6: Clap it up for Chris with being back in the building.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.
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  Speaker 5: So I want to I want to just over some
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  Speaker 5: companies that you guys have. So you have BTST Services,
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  Speaker 5: which is a mental health company, right.
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  Speaker 3: You have Selfish, which is a beauty spa in event space.
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  Speaker 5: You have Carpe Dim, which is a management company that
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  Speaker 5: supports startups and small businesses. You have Outcrowd Restaurant Group,
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  Speaker 5: which is a company that develops and manages a chain
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  Speaker 5: of food and beverage and entertainment venues. You have black Swan,
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  Speaker 5: a restaurant in Baltimore that's part of the group. You
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  Speaker 5: have Signment Enterprises, an investment firm with business holdings in
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  Speaker 5: Carpe Dim, BTSD, and all of the other companies that
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  Speaker 5: you have, and then you also have the BTST Cares,
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  Speaker 5: which is a nonprofit organization that serves poverty stricten individuals
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  Speaker 5: in the DMV area. So did I leave anything out?
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  Speaker 5: Maybe like ten, So extremely impressive portfolio. We'll talk about
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  Speaker 5: each one of them individually. But just before we start,
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  Speaker 5: all of those businesses, all those businesses doing well, was
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  Speaker 5: this your plan from the beginning? Did you guys know
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  Speaker 5: that you were going to be successful entrepreneurs? Did you
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  Speaker 5: know that you was going to have multiple businesses up
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  Speaker 5: and running.
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  Speaker 3: To do something?
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  Speaker 8: And I knew I wanted to have impact. Would I
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  Speaker 8: think that you know, we've been dis diversified and a
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  Speaker 8: successful and operate in these businesses. I would say, no,
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  Speaker 8: we've been blessed to reach some phenomenal heights. And when
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  Speaker 8: I first started out, I mean I probably only wanted
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  Speaker 8: to achieve a fraction of this. I think she saw
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  Speaker 8: more in me at the time than I did, and
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  Speaker 8: saw more for us as well. So you know, I
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  Speaker 8: think one thing leads to a leads to the next.
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  Speaker 8: So I didn't go into it saying, hey, this is
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  Speaker 8: exactly what we want to do, this is how we
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  Speaker 8: want to create these businesses. This is what we want
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  Speaker 8: our portfolio to look like. I think just continue to
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  Speaker 8: just connect yourselves with great individuals, put yourself in the
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  Speaker 8: right RUMs. I saw a video the other day where
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  Speaker 8: you was talking about exposure, and I think exposure, you know,
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  Speaker 8: has been great for me, you know, and for us
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  Speaker 8: continuing to you know, when when you're around certain things,
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  Speaker 8: now you can begin to normalize it. You can normalize
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  Speaker 8: it to know that you can achieve it. You like
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  Speaker 8: I like black Swan. A lot of people I know
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  Speaker 8: a few guys I know tried to open head restaurants before,
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  Speaker 8: and I'm like, oh, this dude looks like me. He
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  Speaker 8: can do this. I know I can do this. Not
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  Speaker 8: from a cocky perspective. I just like, I know I'm
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  Speaker 8: smart like he is, or whatever else, and just people
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  Speaker 8: who throw on the events and stuff like that. And
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  Speaker 8: we was just talking with her dad. It's not just
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  Speaker 8: the exposure from the perspective of, hey, I can achieve this,
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  Speaker 8: but the exposure that now you know how to move
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  Speaker 8: in those RUMs when you're there, right, You learn to
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  Speaker 8: get comfortable, You learn what the conversations are, You learn
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  Speaker 8: how people live and how they structure their lives and stuff.
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  Speaker 3: Like that.
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  Speaker 8: So I think just exposure helped create opportunities for us
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  Speaker 8: and kind of let us know what was possible, and
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  Speaker 8: then I think things just continue to happen from there.
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  Speaker 6: What you say, sir, you said something very important.
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  Speaker 4: You said you saw something to you that you didn't
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  Speaker 4: from the beginning before all that some of those characteristics
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  Speaker 4: that you saw from the beginning, before all the success
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  Speaker 4: before I mean during the T shirt did what did
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  Speaker 4: you see in them?
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  Speaker 6: And I guess vice versa what you see in her?
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  Speaker 4: And said like, this is going to be somebody that
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  Speaker 4: I can spend my life with, but this is also
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  Speaker 4: somebody that I can actually build business with.
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  Speaker 3: You can share it, you can start at my incredible looks.
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  Speaker 9: Oh yes, of course. My answer is totally different than his.
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  Speaker 9: I did not aspire to be an entrepreneur. I was
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  Speaker 9: not that kid like, oh, I want to own a business.
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  Speaker 6: No.
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  Speaker 9: I thought I was going to go to college, get
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  Speaker 9: a degree, and get a nine to five. That was
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  Speaker 9: going to be my life. I was okay with it,
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  Speaker 9: and that was all I saw. But it wasn't until
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  Speaker 9: we met that I realized that he had a level
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  Speaker 9: of freedom that I didn't have.
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  Speaker 2: So I got up.
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  Speaker 9: I went to work every day, I'm slaving away at
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  Speaker 9: a desk, and he would call me from a golf course, so.
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  Speaker 3: We'll do it.
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  Speaker 9: It created a level of envy, it really did. And
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  Speaker 9: eventually over the years I left and came on board
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  Speaker 9: with him. But he also was one of the hardest
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  Speaker 9: working people that I had ever met.
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  Speaker 2: So that was what I saw.
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  Speaker 9: Regardless if it was a small business, a medium sized business,
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  Speaker 9: whatever it was, he would get up every day and
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  Speaker 9: go for it. And that was kind of what I
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  Speaker 9: saw that I and I understood that he had a
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  Speaker 9: gift and I could trust that the businesses he was
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  Speaker 9: starting were going to be successful.
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  Speaker 5: That's sweet, you should say, so, Chris, let me ask
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  Speaker 5: you this at Morgan stage, So.
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  Speaker 8: Can I can I tell what I say? I didn't
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  Speaker 8: want it to be one sided. I guess with her.
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  Speaker 8: You know when we we we we were brought up
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  Speaker 8: like two different ways but similar, but two different ways.
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  Speaker 8: And so you know the way that she sees the
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  Speaker 8: world sometimes it is opposed. It used to pose sometimes
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  Speaker 8: the way I see the world. And some people can
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  Speaker 8: look at that and see like, oh, that's just create
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  Speaker 8: just great opposition, Like we have great value in the
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  Speaker 8: way that she sees it's the same. We don't see
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  Speaker 8: eye to eye, but there's great value in the way
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  Speaker 8: that she sees the world. I may be a little
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  Speaker 8: bit more risky, she may be a little bit more conservative,
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  Speaker 8: and she kind of helps balance out that risk exposure.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 8: But even outside of that, she saw like that with
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  Speaker 8: the healthcare company, she was like, I only provided one
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  Speaker 8: small service of it of the total portfolio of the
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  Speaker 8: total company that we provide now and the year she
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  Speaker 8: was like, you should just go ahead and have your
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  Speaker 8: own clinic. You should do this while you're waiting on
• 8:43
  Speaker 8: them for a referral. And I was comfortable, and I'm like,
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  Speaker 8: because I like this. You know I'm doing I do
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  Speaker 8: well at what we do. And she she sees the
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  Speaker 8: world differently. So I admire that perspective in her and
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  Speaker 8: her her structure and her order. You know, like you
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  Speaker 8: need to mighty that can see the world differently and
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  Speaker 8: provide great balance for that.
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  Speaker 3: You know. She was our first HR director.
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  Speaker 8: So when she left her job, she I was upset
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  Speaker 8: that she like she said that she was I was
• 9:12
  Speaker 8: at work. I mean I was I wanted to go
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  Speaker 8: on vacation and she had to go work flex time
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  Speaker 8: and work extra hours, and I'm like, dude, this is
• 9:18
  Speaker 8: killing our vacation, Like I need you just need to leave,
• 9:21
  Speaker 8: Like let's go. You can come here. I have a
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  Speaker 8: bunch of files and this file frum. Come organize these.
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  Speaker 8: And so the company began to grow and you got HR.
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  Speaker 8: But it really doesn't work when your wife is HR
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  Speaker 8: of your company. Nobody really has a safe space. And
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  Speaker 8: not that they needed one, but I'm just saying nobody
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  Speaker 8: had a safe space to complain. So and then she
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  Speaker 8: just continued to be a mom and then started her
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  Speaker 8: own stuff.
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  Speaker 3: So I just love the way that, you know, she
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  Speaker 3: sees it.
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  Speaker 8: It's frustrating at times, but I love the way that
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  Speaker 8: she sees the world differently than me.
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  Speaker 5: So we have Morgan State, and I know that there's
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: at least a few students here. So I want to
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  Speaker 5: ask this question, what are some important lessons you learned
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  Speaker 5: at Morgan State University's Graduate School of Social Work that
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: you applied to be tst Services.
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  Speaker 6: Go Bears.
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  Speaker 8: First thing I learned is that you, yeah, it's this
• 10:16
  Speaker 8: bridge at Morgan where everybody hangs out at and you
• 10:18
  Speaker 8: just you know, you just can't stay there for too long,
• 10:20
  Speaker 8: or you'll wind up doing an extra year of college
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  Speaker 8: like I did.
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  Speaker 3: A couple who's counting, see this is the world.
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  Speaker 8: I'm looking at it optimistically and she's looking at it
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  Speaker 8: very rationally right now. But you know, when I was
• 10:35
  Speaker 8: so my undergrad was in business and my graduate degree
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  Speaker 8: was in social work, so I understood I was able
• 10:42
  Speaker 8: to learn how to market, right I always I had
• 10:44
  Speaker 8: a few businesses before I came to Morgan, but I
• 10:48
  Speaker 8: was able to take this understanding of how to market
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  Speaker 8: and brand and formalize it into constructural business terms and
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  Speaker 8: then just learn understand how business operates on a macro level.
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  Speaker 8: And then you mix that with the understanding of psychology
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  Speaker 8: and social work, so you understand human behavior. So now
• 11:06
  Speaker 8: you understand human behavior and you match that with marketing.
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  Speaker 8: Now you can understand you can create things that you
• 11:13
  Speaker 8: understand how people respond to and what is their need.
• 11:15
  Speaker 8: Their need is to be heard, their need is to
• 11:17
  Speaker 8: be feel to feel validated, to feel accepted, at all
• 11:21
  Speaker 8: of these other things. So then you create concepts and
• 11:24
  Speaker 8: experiences that you know make people feel these ways. So
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  Speaker 8: that was one of the biggest things that I've learned
• 11:29
  Speaker 8: that Morgan, And yeah, what are.
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: Some of those, like, can you give an example of
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: like something? Because you're right as far as the psychology,
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  Speaker 5: a lot of times people don't think psychology and business go.
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  Speaker 3: Hand in hand.
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  Speaker 5: Even when I was learning business sales, I learned a
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: lot of things about psychology and the art of selling
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: to get people to buy into things. So anything in
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: particular that stands out that you learned that you carried
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  Speaker 5: over to business.
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  Speaker 3: I mean I learned this before Morgan.
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  Speaker 8: I used to work at a telemarketing firm NBNA, selling
• 12:06
  Speaker 8: credit cards and getting people give you a response. And
• 12:11
  Speaker 8: so when people give you a response, they told you
• 12:14
  Speaker 8: how to cushion it to be like, hey, I understand
• 12:16
  Speaker 8: what should we learn later learn as validation or affirment.
• 12:21
  Speaker 8: So you provide them that statement and then you cushing
• 12:24
  Speaker 8: it and then you rebuttle so you don't just take
• 12:26
  Speaker 8: no for the answer. You're like, hey, I understand why
• 12:28
  Speaker 8: you feel that way, however, you know, so making sure
• 12:31
  Speaker 8: and just you know, you really don't take no for
• 12:33
  Speaker 8: an answer in that type of environment.
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  Speaker 3: So that's something that sticks with me.
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  Speaker 8: I always tell my son, like, no, it's not a no,
• 12:39
  Speaker 8: you just haven't said the right thing yet. Or met
• 12:41
  Speaker 8: the right person for that to become a yes. So
• 12:44
  Speaker 8: that kind of sticks out to me.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: I'm thinking the years two thousand and eight and you're
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: going into the mental health here field not the most
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: popular field at the time.
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  Speaker 6: Most people are probably even thinking that this could be
• 12:56
  Speaker 6: a lucrative field.
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  Speaker 4: Is the study of human behavior would make you feel
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: so confident that this could be something number one that
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: could change your community and number two we can build
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: business around.
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  Speaker 8: So I would like to say that, but I started
• 13:09
  Speaker 8: BTSC before I went back and got my Masters of
• 13:11
  Speaker 8: Social Work. So I when I used to own a
• 13:16
  Speaker 8: clothing store called c Note and so it was it's
• 13:18
  Speaker 8: an urban clothing store. We designed our stuff and we
• 13:21
  Speaker 8: had a store for it. And you know, it's a
• 13:23
  Speaker 8: sales driven business. So the first set of sales and
• 13:27
  Speaker 8: we were working with limited capital, so the first set
• 13:29
  Speaker 8: of sales we were put back into our reup and
• 13:31
  Speaker 8: getting new merchandise. So I didn't get paid until like
• 13:34
  Speaker 8: the third set of sales, and a lot of times
• 13:36
  Speaker 8: those third set of sales never came. So I've got
• 13:40
  Speaker 8: a part time job, and I was working at group
• 13:42
  Speaker 8: homes and I was working at overnight at just mentoring companies.
• 13:46
  Speaker 8: So I kind of saw I got my experience in
• 13:49
  Speaker 8: my end too social work and working in these type
• 13:51
  Speaker 8: of organizations there, and from there I just developed a
• 13:54
  Speaker 8: love for passion for helping and for and just like
• 13:57
  Speaker 8: helping improve these individuals' lives.
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  Speaker 3: But then I also saw.
• 14:01
  Speaker 8: A lot of the gaps in service delivery, and I
• 14:04
  Speaker 8: was like, man, they're really doing these We were just talking
• 14:05
  Speaker 8: about this in the back. They weren't providing holistic you
• 14:09
  Speaker 8: know what. We were just talking about this in the back.
• 14:10
  Speaker 8: They weren't providing you know, teaching them about how to
• 14:14
  Speaker 8: manage money and stuff like that and uh, employment skills.
• 14:18
  Speaker 8: So I wanted to build a program that embodied those
• 14:21
  Speaker 8: different characteristics.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: And that's kind of how I got into it.
• 14:24
  Speaker 8: And then when I went back to social my master's degree,
• 14:27
  Speaker 8: I didn't even want to go back for my masters.
• 14:28
  Speaker 8: One of my buddies was like, you you're nothing without
• 14:31
  Speaker 8: those letters behind your name. And I'm just being arrogant.
• 14:33
  Speaker 8: I'm like, I do better than the teachers. What am
• 14:36
  Speaker 8: I going to go do go back to school for
• 14:37
  Speaker 8: or whatever? Just ignorance and he was like, you're nothing
• 14:40
  Speaker 8: without those letters behind your name. So I went back
• 14:42
  Speaker 8: and got my license, and then doing that I learned
• 14:45
  Speaker 8: about that this isn't not just like a hustle you're
• 14:48
  Speaker 8: just not working with these individuals.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: You can really build.
• 14:51
  Speaker 8: A sustainable like and like scalable business and really have
• 14:56
  Speaker 8: tremendous impact throughout the community.
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  Speaker 5: So either one of you can answer this question what's
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: the business model for this? Like how do you actually
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: make money from mental health services?
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  Speaker 2: I know you're not asking me, don't look at me.
• 15:12
  Speaker 8: Well you should know too because you actually she actually
• 15:14
  Speaker 8: worked in the billing department, which is me and her billing.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: We were a small business when she had a baby.
• 15:19
  Speaker 8: We were we were in the hospital billing and everything else,
• 15:22
  Speaker 8: like a few hours after she gave birth.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: So we definitely know how to build a part of it.
• 15:28
  Speaker 8: But the way we it's it's so you provide needed services.
• 15:33
  Speaker 8: It's no different than you going to your doctor for
• 15:36
  Speaker 8: a physical or you going to your for your primary
• 15:41
  Speaker 8: care of obg yn. Right, they've been able to or
• 15:44
  Speaker 8: a company like Cosa Permanente. Right, they just created an
• 15:47
  Speaker 8: ecosystem where, hey, we provide services that consumers need. Right,
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  Speaker 8: So we provide therapy, we provide these other support services.
• 15:55
  Speaker 8: We provide psychiatry medication management, and for that, insurance companies
• 15:59
  Speaker 8: pay us, right, So it's I guess it's just scale,
• 16:02
  Speaker 8: you know, and we have the better that we are
• 16:06
  Speaker 8: able to do, you know.
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  Speaker 3: And we have several facilities throughout the state.
• 16:10
  Speaker 8: Of Maryland, and we provide telehealth, so we service basically
• 16:12
  Speaker 8: the entire state of Maryland. So I guess we've just
• 16:15
  Speaker 8: been able to build a significant footprint that allowed us
• 16:19
  Speaker 8: to scale and just have a lot of individuals who
• 16:21
  Speaker 8: patronize the business.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: But I think you also left out.
• 16:24
  Speaker 9: We started off with children, right, and we were treating
• 16:27
  Speaker 9: children that had I guess they were mild diagnosis, right,
• 16:31
  Speaker 9: But we started realizing that the PTSD and the ADHD
• 16:34
  Speaker 9: was starting deeper than.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: Within those children, but it was coming from the home.
• 16:37
  Speaker 9: So then we decided to treat the parents, and so
• 16:40
  Speaker 9: then we grew to service and adults as well, and
• 16:43
  Speaker 9: then from there it was almost as if every time
• 16:45
  Speaker 9: we grew it was because of a need that the
• 16:47
  Speaker 9: community had, not necessarily something that we saw, like you.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: Were talking about just creating those verticals.
• 16:52
  Speaker 8: So we have this example like Disney World, Right, you
• 16:55
  Speaker 8: go to Disney World, you typically stay in the Disney park,
• 16:59
  Speaker 8: you eat it Disney restaurant, you go to a Disney park,
• 17:01
  Speaker 8: you buy Disney merch all.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: Of that other stuff.
• 17:03
  Speaker 8: They created an entire ecosystem that wraps you up and
• 17:06
  Speaker 8: Disney related stuff. We want our client to come to
• 17:09
  Speaker 8: us and get total care. So if you come for
• 17:11
  Speaker 8: us for you were you know, maybe just hyperactive in school.
• 17:19
  Speaker 8: So hey, they referred to us for a diagnosed I
• 17:21
  Speaker 8: mean referred to us for an evaluation. We complete that
• 17:23
  Speaker 8: evaluation and from there we identify that they need therapy,
• 17:26
  Speaker 8: and then from their therapy, it's not enough to maintain.
• 17:28
  Speaker 8: So we want to you know, give them a you know,
• 17:30
  Speaker 8: you want to engage the psychiatrist for medication management, and
• 17:33
  Speaker 8: then we have support services associated with that, and then
• 17:36
  Speaker 8: we have you know, SUID because substance abuse is a
• 17:39
  Speaker 8: major problem as well that it runs co currently with
• 17:43
  Speaker 8: mental health. So we created this whole ecosystem of those things.
• 17:48
  Speaker 8: And then some of the sub clients also need places
• 17:50
  Speaker 8: to live, so that you can create housing opportunities.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: And stuff like that.
• 17:53
  Speaker 8: So you just build a whole ecosystem and it's not
• 17:55
  Speaker 8: from like a capitalistic perspective, it's from a need perspective
• 17:59
  Speaker 8: and if you can, and mental health is that people
• 18:01
  Speaker 8: running And a lot of problem with social workers and
• 18:04
  Speaker 8: mental health is that people do stuff because they love
• 18:06
  Speaker 8: the work that they do, but then they don't have
• 18:08
  Speaker 8: the business acumen behind it. So you get a lot
• 18:11
  Speaker 8: of passionate people and they would operate in a deficit
• 18:15
  Speaker 8: if it was up to them because they just love
• 18:17
  Speaker 8: the work that they do. And my partner Jada always
• 18:20
  Speaker 8: says that the two doesn't have to be mutually exclusive.
• 18:23
  Speaker 8: You can do great work then and be also run
• 18:26
  Speaker 8: a successful business as well. So you know, that's kind
• 18:28
  Speaker 8: of like you know how a business model works.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: You brought up Disney, and part of our conversation backstage
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: was if you go to Disney World, the chance of
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: you seeing Bob Eiger Price slim, right, You're not going
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: to see the CEO there.
• 18:42
  Speaker 6: And a lot of times in our communities when we.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: Create businesses, we create them because we like them, but
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: we become employees to the business. So talk about scaling
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: your business but having systems in place that they can
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: run where you don't have to necessarily be there every
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: day on the clock.
• 19:00
  Speaker 9: So the term we've coined is sustainable systems.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: Right, sustainable, replicatable.
• 19:05
  Speaker 9: All right, sustainable and replicatable systems. And the reason why
• 19:10
  Speaker 9: is because the goal is not to be a slave
• 19:12
  Speaker 9: to your business. The goal is to be able to
• 19:15
  Speaker 9: create the business, make it operable, hire people that can
• 19:18
  Speaker 9: now run the business that you've created, and now you're
• 19:20
  Speaker 9: able to move on to something else. If you're in
• 19:23
  Speaker 9: there every day, you it's hard to see the it's
• 19:27
  Speaker 9: hard for you to focus on everything that the business
• 19:30
  Speaker 9: needs because you're in the middle of it, in the mud,
• 19:32
  Speaker 9: doing it every day. You can't necessarily come up with
• 19:34
  Speaker 9: the marketing plans or the business plan or learn how
• 19:37
  Speaker 9: to grow the business if you're basically just operating.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: It day to day.
• 19:42
  Speaker 9: So what we like to do is create systems that
• 19:45
  Speaker 9: we can now right write up, train someone to do them,
• 19:49
  Speaker 9: hand it off to them, and now they're able to
• 19:50
  Speaker 9: go off and do something.
• 19:52
  Speaker 8: Well, even things that we don't have to write out.
• 19:53
  Speaker 8: It's funny people some people are like, Janine, what do
• 19:56
  Speaker 8: you do?
• 19:56
  Speaker 7: Like?
• 19:57
  Speaker 8: I don't want to work in the business. I don't
• 19:58
  Speaker 8: want to choose like I invest, I invest. I don't
• 20:01
  Speaker 8: want to work in the business. I don't want to
• 20:02
  Speaker 8: be the chef. I don't want to be the GM.
• 20:04
  Speaker 8: I'll invest in the business. I'll help with creative concept,
• 20:07
  Speaker 8: I'll help get it there. We'll interview the correct people
• 20:10
  Speaker 8: and put them in place. But the best thing you
• 20:12
  Speaker 8: need to do is is I don't want to create
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: the policy. You know, I don't have a formal background
• 20:17
  Speaker 8: in each business that we own. You want to hire
• 20:19
  Speaker 8: the individuals who have that knowledge, who are smarter than
• 20:22
  Speaker 8: you create a team that people sometimes think that when
• 20:24
  Speaker 8: you hire smarter people in these respective fields, that they're
• 20:27
  Speaker 8: a competition there, that you should be intimidated. It's like, no,
• 20:30
  Speaker 8: I know what I want to create. Here's the vision.
• 20:33
  Speaker 8: How do we do this, Let's bring this the market,
• 20:35
  Speaker 8: how do how do we how do we make this happen?
• 20:37
  Speaker 8: How do we make this experience? And then we'll chime
• 20:39
  Speaker 8: in high level about you know, feedback and stuff like
• 20:44
  Speaker 8: that of what we want to see from it.
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: So she's a little bit more hands off.
• 20:47
  Speaker 8: I'm managing some of the managers at some point through
• 20:50
  Speaker 8: like our you know, our KPI meetings or whatever else
• 20:52
  Speaker 8: like that.
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: Got just a quick follow up.
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: So when we're talking about scale, you said that you've
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: moved throughout the state. When do you know it's the
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: appropriate time to now have multiple locations because that's something
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: where we're in our business, it's like, yeah, we're doing
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: great here, but we want to test the waters and
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: see how far our reaches.
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: How do you figure that part out?
• 21:08
  Speaker 8: I want to answer that by going back to the
• 21:11
  Speaker 8: question that you asked at first. I think what we
• 21:13
  Speaker 8: have to do as a community. We look at hey,
• 21:16
  Speaker 8: we I'm a I'm a baker, so I want to
• 21:18
  Speaker 8: start a bakery. Right, We got to get used to
• 21:21
  Speaker 8: owning businesses that we don't operate and that are in
• 21:23
  Speaker 8: fields that we have no experience in, right, Because the
• 21:26
  Speaker 8: goal isn't to be a slave to the business. You
• 21:28
  Speaker 8: you have the idea and you want to build it.
• 21:31
  Speaker 8: And if you if it's just you, how many cakes
• 21:33
  Speaker 8: can you bake?
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: So how many? How can you scale that? Right?
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: Uh?
• 21:36
  Speaker 8: So what we've been able to do is it's been
• 21:38
  Speaker 8: a blessing that we've been able to scale because the
• 21:42
  Speaker 8: need we the meet.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: The need calls us.
• 21:44
  Speaker 8: Right, So before we go open the office in a
• 21:47
  Speaker 8: specific location, we've already had referral sources there. We've already
• 21:50
  Speaker 8: been working in that area in some sort, So us
• 21:53
  Speaker 8: open the office is just a form of say it's like,
• 21:54
  Speaker 8: we like to go with a demand in there, but
• 21:57
  Speaker 8: we what I like to say is like we like
• 21:59
  Speaker 8: to go with a demand this and where the resources
• 22:02
  Speaker 8: they are like, because you could have a demand and
• 22:03
  Speaker 8: then not have the staff.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: We had that in Secil County. We had a great demand.
• 22:08
  Speaker 8: People are saying, come out here, there's no other organizations
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: out here.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: We're like, perfect, we got out there.
• 22:12
  Speaker 8: The workforce wasn't there, so there was a reason why
• 22:15
  Speaker 8: people weren't out there, right, So where the where the
• 22:17
  Speaker 8: where the where the demand and where the resources in
• 22:20
  Speaker 8: a sect is where we like to be. And but
• 22:24
  Speaker 8: you have to create systems that are And it's so
• 22:27
  Speaker 8: funny that, uh, when my partner, Jada, she had joined
• 22:32
  Speaker 8: us when we were just when we were scaling the clinic, right,
• 22:35
  Speaker 8: and she was like, we have to I had paid disparities.
• 22:38
  Speaker 8: Somebody in pg got paid this thing, somebody in Baltimore
• 22:41
  Speaker 8: got paid this thing.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: We had no vacation policy.
• 22:44
  Speaker 8: The policy would just go whenever you want, just don't
• 22:46
  Speaker 8: be abusive or whatever else. She was like, no, we
• 22:49
  Speaker 8: have to have the same policy everywhere. The people's role
• 22:53
  Speaker 8: have to be the same the pay has to be
• 22:54
  Speaker 8: the same everything. So that's creating a system, right, and
• 22:58
  Speaker 8: then how do we manage these companies in other areas.
• 23:01
  Speaker 8: We have to have touch points, right, we have to
• 23:02
  Speaker 8: have dashboards and touch points. We have to have these
• 23:05
  Speaker 8: these different meetings that allow us to touch in but
• 23:08
  Speaker 8: without actually being there.
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 23:10
  Speaker 8: So, but in your payroll system, just different things like payroll, right,
• 23:16
  Speaker 8: making sure that people are put in the right way.
• 23:17
  Speaker 8: Make sure that you're how we running payroll. Let's do
• 23:21
  Speaker 8: it this way, whether this is a small business or
• 23:24
  Speaker 8: whether this is a corporation, because we know we want
• 23:26
  Speaker 8: to scale up to that. Like right now, black Swan
• 23:29
  Speaker 8: has more employees than the needs and it has a
• 23:32
  Speaker 8: very overwhelming management system. But we're not building this for
• 23:36
  Speaker 8: one black Swan. We're building this for eight black Swans.
• 23:39
  Speaker 8: So it may seem od to people who are in
• 23:41
  Speaker 8: the restaurant industry now, but when we're eight restaurants in,
• 23:45
  Speaker 8: they'll already have their rhythm when we'll be able to
• 23:47
  Speaker 8: run to the next thing.
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: So the healthcare business in America, as far as it's
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: the largest business in America, as far as expenditures federal government,
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: I think it's like thirty five percent of the budget,
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: more money spent on healthcare than the military. And most
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: people when you think about healthcare, you think about, you know,
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: doctors and disease and surgery, but mental health is a
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: is a very big part of it is unfortunately getting
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: bigger and bigger. So the business is actually a pretty
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: brilliant idea, but it seems costly to start How what
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: was the startup cost? And like for anybody that's looking
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: to get into the space, what do they need, like
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: what certificates with certifications, what do you need to actually
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: get into the space that you guys are in.
• 24:42
  Speaker 8: So to your point, behavioral health is something that is
• 24:46
  Speaker 8: like it's growing substantially, Like well, it's a good and
• 24:50
  Speaker 8: a bad thing. The need for behavior health has grown,
• 24:53
  Speaker 8: which is a sad thing because you know, people are
• 24:55
  Speaker 8: dealing with a lot of traumas and a lot of
• 24:57
  Speaker 8: disorders and people have been dealing with these things previously.
• 25:01
  Speaker 8: Is just that now they understand what they're dealing with.
• 25:04
  Speaker 8: So imagine you've been struggling with something and there was
• 25:07
  Speaker 8: no doctor, there was nobody that could speak to you
• 25:09
  Speaker 8: about what you're going through.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: If I if I hurt my leg, I know, I
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: can go.
• 25:13
  Speaker 8: To an orthopedic or something like that and they could
• 25:15
  Speaker 8: tell me what I'm going through, right, But I know
• 25:17
  Speaker 8: I'm feeling flood, I'm feeling fluttered, and I'm feeling nervous,
• 25:21
  Speaker 8: and I don't you know, some people might not know
• 25:23
  Speaker 8: that that labeled that as anxiety, right, I mean, obviously
• 25:26
  Speaker 8: there's other diagnostic criteria associated with that. But uh So,
• 25:30
  Speaker 8: now it's great that the market is growing, there's an
• 25:32
  Speaker 8: awareness around that, and that there is even more of
• 25:35
  Speaker 8: awareness growing, especially in the urban communities, because for years
• 25:38
  Speaker 8: we've suffered in silence, right, We've we've dealt with you know,
• 25:41
  Speaker 8: trauma from murders and all this other stuff. We suffered
• 25:44
  Speaker 8: in silence. But now there's an awareness growing for and
• 25:47
  Speaker 8: there is a market. Firms like for us, the big
• 25:50
  Speaker 8: businesses are seeing this. Private equity firms like for us,
• 25:54
  Speaker 8: like our company was just acquired by a private equity firm,
• 25:58
  Speaker 8: Webster Webster Equity Partners, thank you, and so they it's
• 26:05
  Speaker 8: the first time we actually announced that, thank you, but
• 26:08
  Speaker 8: we were acquired. I mean, we're still we're still part
• 26:11
  Speaker 8: owners in it as well, but they wanted to they
• 26:14
  Speaker 8: believe in what we are doing. Like these are bankers
• 26:17
  Speaker 8: who have no aspiration to be service providers, but they
• 26:20
  Speaker 8: know that this is a hot market right now. And
• 26:23
  Speaker 8: what they saw on us is that, Hey, you have
• 26:24
  Speaker 8: this great platform, you built this great business. What do
• 26:27
  Speaker 8: you need to continue to expand throughout Maryland, neighboring states
• 26:31
  Speaker 8: across the country. One of the biggest things we need
• 26:33
  Speaker 8: is access to capital. So now that Webster has a
• 26:36
  Speaker 8: fund of almost two billion dollars that they've raised, that
• 26:38
  Speaker 8: we have access to you to continue to do more
• 26:41
  Speaker 8: of what we do, but then buy other companies throughout
• 26:44
  Speaker 8: the state of Maryland, companies who are already existing doing
• 26:47
  Speaker 8: great work that you know may be looking to expand,
• 26:50
  Speaker 8: maybe looking for access, strategy and stuff like that, or
• 26:53
  Speaker 8: just who never thought about selling or stuff because they're
• 26:56
  Speaker 8: strength in numbers. If and and the best thing about
• 26:59
  Speaker 8: in then the process, and especially when you roll equity
• 27:01
  Speaker 8: in is that I get the I benefit from your
• 27:04
  Speaker 8: success and you benefit from my success. So we want
• 27:07
  Speaker 8: to continue to work together. So it's like, hey, five
• 27:10
  Speaker 8: or six of us, we're doing well individually. I was
• 27:13
  Speaker 8: watching Mike Sisseski. He was saying, if you punt somebody
• 27:17
  Speaker 8: like this, it doesn't hurt, right, you'll wind up hurting yourself.
• 27:19
  Speaker 8: But if you punt somebody like this with five fingers
• 27:21
  Speaker 8: put together, you're gonna have more of an impact. So
• 27:24
  Speaker 8: just to think about the amount of impact that we
• 27:26
  Speaker 8: can have in these communities if we can come together
• 27:28
  Speaker 8: and form these bigger organizations.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: But if you're looking to get started.
• 27:32
  Speaker 8: Obviously there's a totally different process than that we're fifteen
• 27:35
  Speaker 8: years in.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: In Maryland.
• 27:38
  Speaker 8: You gotta go through like Maryland Medicaid, you gotta be
• 27:40
  Speaker 8: a Medicaid provider. You gotta go through CARF get your
• 27:43
  Speaker 8: car for accreditation. Like this isn't just something why I
• 27:45
  Speaker 8: wake up and say stuff like that. Right with Big
• 27:47
  Speaker 8: Brother program I want to work with adults.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: I want to you know, they have YMCAs for stuff
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: like that.
• 27:50
  Speaker 8: Right with Big Brother programs, this is we're treating people's
• 27:54
  Speaker 8: mental health. So this is a very serious thing, you know.
• 27:57
  Speaker 8: I see some programs people are just like, you know,
• 28:00
  Speaker 8: playing basketball, and if there's a treatment model associated with that,
• 28:03
  Speaker 8: then that's perfect, you know. But some people are just
• 28:06
  Speaker 8: doing other things that aren't really clinically sound. So when
• 28:09
  Speaker 8: people are getting into this, you have to first make
• 28:10
  Speaker 8: sure that you're getting into this from a clinically sound
• 28:12
  Speaker 8: perspective as it relates the startup costs. I mean, if
• 28:16
  Speaker 8: you're starting to PERRP, if you're starting a clinic, or
• 28:18
  Speaker 8: you're starting to sub program.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: I'll give Jeanine her credit. This had I had BTSD.
• 28:23
  Speaker 8: We were mentoring program, we were trying to get into
• 28:25
  Speaker 8: becoming a medicaid provider and provider and more services. And
• 28:29
  Speaker 8: I had contracts that were I'm paying me. I wasn't
• 28:31
  Speaker 8: keeping proper ar reports and stuff like this. I just
• 28:34
  Speaker 8: need they owe me money. And I needed to expand
• 28:36
  Speaker 8: into this healthcare thing and they needed, you know, I
• 28:39
  Speaker 8: think I needed I can't remember how much. But Janine
• 28:42
  Speaker 8: look with data, her full one K.
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: It's beautiful. She looked with data. I almost got joke
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: up now thinking about it. But she looked with data.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: Her full one K gave me eleven thousand dollars. And
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: she was like, yo, your.
• 28:55
  Speaker 9: Parents don't notice she's just announced it to the world.
• 28:57
  Speaker 9: You say, what, my parents don't know that?
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: Oh, well they should be happy it's been replenished.
• 29:04
  Speaker 8: So she she was like one of my first maybe
• 29:08
  Speaker 8: only investor, you know, and and bt s T she
• 29:11
  Speaker 8: invested eleven grand got hor and this was within months
• 29:14
  Speaker 8: of dating.
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: So you know, I was we.
• 29:18
  Speaker 9: Were married married, yes, I don't know that.
• 29:25
  Speaker 8: It might well we weren't married, but and she was
• 29:29
  Speaker 8: at her job.
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: She was like, yo, listen, that's a big difference between
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: months and dating, and.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: Had looking like tenderless swindler, like I just finished.
• 29:39
  Speaker 6: You two days is all it took.
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: Yes, by the way, that's a new line.
• 29:48
  Speaker 6: Yes, they really loved me.
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: If you really really loved me, that for me, real
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: quick show, that's.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: Not what happened. I was not recommend that to anyone's daughter,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: but I.
• 29:58
  Speaker 6: Know it was.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: It was scary for you, regardless of being married or not.
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  Speaker 4: pushing your vision forward.
• 31:54
  Speaker 8: It was scary, and she gave it to me, and
• 31:55
  Speaker 8: we were now able to become and we had to
• 31:58
  Speaker 8: resent capital we had mixed with at our capital that
• 32:01
  Speaker 8: they needed to see. And then when we decided to
• 32:04
  Speaker 8: advance to a clinic, you know, that was a whole
• 32:06
  Speaker 8: different story about how that needed to go. But you know,
• 32:08
  Speaker 8: I would say you can get in it pretty reasonably,
• 32:10
  Speaker 8: you know, fifty thousand dollars or less, you know, depending
• 32:13
  Speaker 8: on the size of your program, how robust you're trying
• 32:16
  Speaker 8: to be or whatever.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: You know, I would say that. But outside of that,
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: one thing.
• 32:19
  Speaker 8: I would like for people to understand is that, you know,
• 32:23
  Speaker 8: it's good to use our own money, but if we
• 32:24
  Speaker 8: can use other people money, that is excellent. So if
• 32:26
  Speaker 8: you can build lines of credit, work a great banking
• 32:31
  Speaker 8: relationship with someone so that you can kind of expedite
• 32:34
  Speaker 8: that growth, because for years, we got our first line
• 32:37
  Speaker 8: of credit in twenty twenty in the middle of a pandemic.
• 32:39
  Speaker 8: I still don't know how we got a line of credit.
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: In the pandemic.
• 32:43
  Speaker 8: Well, actually I do know, because they changed healthcare providers
• 32:46
  Speaker 8: and they owed us a crap a lot of money.
• 32:48
  Speaker 8: So we finally had an AR report. But there was months.
• 32:52
  Speaker 8: I mean when she had our son, we were growing
• 32:55
  Speaker 8: our program. Another company tried to take us out, and
• 32:58
  Speaker 8: so we had to like start another office and another
• 33:01
  Speaker 8: office and we had to come on Jada join and
• 33:05
  Speaker 8: we literally went months without being paid. Like we made
• 33:11
  Speaker 8: this total investment into the program. We drained our complete savings.
• 33:16
  Speaker 8: I mean, we were like getting there, we were getting
• 33:18
  Speaker 8: it was about to get bad, right, and she was thinking, like, Yo,
• 33:21
  Speaker 8: this might not have been the greatest decision.
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: Now, but we went months without being paid.
• 33:25
  Speaker 8: But if we had a line of credit, we could
• 33:27
  Speaker 8: have still grow and not have to worry about not
• 33:30
  Speaker 8: paying ourselves. So if the facyt it is initially working
• 33:34
  Speaker 8: capital and stuff like that, the better it is initially.
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: That she means having flashbacks.
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: So I mean, you went from one employee and we
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: talked about not becoming a.
• 33:45
  Speaker 6: Slave to the business at three hundred employees. What's that?
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, especially in our community, the retention process, right,
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: we've talked about this, trying to hire the right people
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: and trying to give back to the community and making
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: sure that you know, we're giving opportunities to people that
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: look like us. What what is that like for your business?
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: Obviously going from one to three hundred, the retention process, it.
• 34:06
  Speaker 9: Depends on which business we're speaking of, right, because what
• 34:11
  Speaker 9: day to day looks like at BTSD is completely different
• 34:14
  Speaker 9: than what the data looks like at Selfish Beauty. Our clients,
• 34:17
  Speaker 9: not our clients, I'm sorry, our employees have We try
• 34:20
  Speaker 9: to keep happy back by their commission honestly, their commission
• 34:25
  Speaker 9: base and they are technically ten ninety nine employees, so
• 34:30
  Speaker 9: they like to feel like they're self employed and they're
• 34:33
  Speaker 9: not employees of us, when at the end of the day,
• 34:35
  Speaker 9: they're still under the same umbrella. But we we always
• 34:40
  Speaker 9: treat everyone with respect.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: We try to be really nice.
• 34:42
  Speaker 9: We know that the field that we're in, which is
• 34:44
  Speaker 9: the beauty industry, you could go anywhere, you can work anywhere,
• 34:47
  Speaker 9: you could go to a suite, you could leave us
• 34:49
  Speaker 9: in any moment, So we try to create more of
• 34:51
  Speaker 9: a family culture.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: We are all a big family.
• 34:54
  Speaker 9: We look out for each other and we know that yeah,
• 34:57
  Speaker 9: we could go anywhere.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: Else, but we're happy here.
• 35:00
  Speaker 9: That's kind of the culture that we create a selfish
• 35:03
  Speaker 9: but BTSD, I guess it's similar.
• 35:05
  Speaker 8: Why we even say its selfish is it's it's different,
• 35:07
  Speaker 8: it's it's tough. Still, retention is tough because while the pandemic,
• 35:12
  Speaker 8: you know, it put a lot of people out of work,
• 35:14
  Speaker 8: but it also motivated and created a bunch of entrepreneurs
• 35:17
  Speaker 8: at the same time, right, and definitely a lot of
• 35:19
  Speaker 8: work from home people. It's hard to get people to
• 35:21
  Speaker 8: come in office of retention. You got to be flexible
• 35:23
  Speaker 8: first of all, right, because some people just don't want
• 35:25
  Speaker 8: to come back in. But that but in that entrepreneurship
• 35:29
  Speaker 8: meant people like, hey, I can be an entrepreneur. Taking
• 35:31
  Speaker 8: this and exaggerated it right, people like, hey, I can
• 35:34
  Speaker 8: be an entrepreneur, I could be a nail tech. I
• 35:36
  Speaker 8: can go open my own suite. You can, but can
• 35:39
  Speaker 8: you generate your own referrals as well? Because what you
• 35:41
  Speaker 8: try to do is take our clients and go open
• 35:43
  Speaker 8: your own that's not true entrepreneurship in this in this.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: Case, and then they put CEO in front of it
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: there exactly.
• 35:48
  Speaker 8: So retention is hard, especially when people have all of
• 35:51
  Speaker 8: these options, which is great. Optionality is great entrepreneurship is great,
• 35:55
  Speaker 8: Like we're just preaching like, hey, you don't might not
• 35:56
  Speaker 8: want to be a slave to that job, right, but
• 35:59
  Speaker 8: it also creates a vulnerability in the market of like
• 36:04
  Speaker 8: hiring and maintaining people. So what you have to do,
• 36:06
  Speaker 8: like she was saying, is create a great environment where
• 36:09
  Speaker 8: people feel valued, they feel respected, and that one that
• 36:12
  Speaker 8: they feel compensated appropriately for their job. But they also
• 36:15
  Speaker 8: believe in the mission in what you're doing.
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 36:17
  Speaker 8: So a lot of the staff we have, they will
• 36:20
  Speaker 8: run through a wall for BTSD or even black Swan, right,
• 36:24
  Speaker 8: So they believe that the black Swan we had people,
• 36:27
  Speaker 8: you know, we never black Swan was set up where
• 36:30
  Speaker 8: it was just hey for everybody, right, and it was urban,
• 36:33
  Speaker 8: but it was for everybody. I guess people thought.
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: Black Swan meant black black Swan.
• 36:37
  Speaker 8: Right, So they're like, yo, everybody that we hired was
• 36:40
  Speaker 8: all black, right, I mean all shades of black, all
• 36:42
  Speaker 8: styles of black, everything, right, and so but after but
• 36:47
  Speaker 8: they what they believe the reason why that was is
• 36:50
  Speaker 8: because they believe, like yo, this is a black owned
• 36:52
  Speaker 8: restaurant in Harbor East and body in the culture. It's elevated.
• 36:55
  Speaker 8: It's still sophisticated. I want to be a part of that.
• 36:58
  Speaker 8: People like man, there's three beautiful women that are running
• 37:00
  Speaker 8: Selfish Beauty. They're cool, they're business women, they are successful.
• 37:04
  Speaker 8: I want to be a part of that. I want
• 37:06
  Speaker 8: to be in that environment. And the same thing with
• 37:07
  Speaker 8: BTS today. Believe in the work that we're doing and
• 37:10
  Speaker 8: the commitment that we have to these communities, and they
• 37:12
  Speaker 8: really want to be a part of that as well.
• 37:14
  Speaker 8: But I would say, you got to stay flexible and
• 37:16
  Speaker 8: create these work environments.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: Okay, we know that that's the threat.
• 37:19
  Speaker 8: So how do we create these work environments that make
• 37:21
  Speaker 8: people feel as independent as possible, but still provide the
• 37:25
  Speaker 8: god rails and the.
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: Support selfish institution.
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: So I want to talk about Selfish completely different business
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: from mental health space where you're in the beauty spa
• 37:40
  Speaker 5: event space. Right, So how does that idea come about?
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: And was there any hesitation in doing too many different
• 37:51
  Speaker 5: things at one time?
• 37:54
  Speaker 9: So let me start by I guess reverse engineering this.
• 37:57
  Speaker 9: Before I left my my job and went to BTST,
• 38:02
  Speaker 9: I had done a multitude of things. I had worked
• 38:04
  Speaker 9: in health care for the health insurance company. Then I
• 38:07
  Speaker 9: left that and went to Social Security. I did work
• 38:10
  Speaker 9: at best Buy as well.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: Then I want to I want to.
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: Shout out for the best lives.
• 38:15
  Speaker 8: She was working at the at the at the healthcare company,
• 38:18
  Speaker 8: at best Buy and getting a graduate degree and being
• 38:20
  Speaker 8: pregnant at the same time.
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did all the same time.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: Thank out the.
• 38:25
  Speaker 6: Reward points for that.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: And you made a cash out of for one K.
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: What are sources and income?
• 38:34
  Speaker 9: I'm like, god us, but you talk about climbing the ladder.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: That was literally the definition of climbing the ladder.
• 38:41
  Speaker 9: I was just doing whatever I could to get whatever
• 38:44
  Speaker 9: experience I could, and at the time, honestly, when I
• 38:46
  Speaker 9: was working for Blue Crossman Shield, they were paying for
• 38:48
  Speaker 9: me to be in grad school, so it all just
• 38:50
  Speaker 9: made sense. So Nita to say, I picked up a
• 38:53
  Speaker 9: lot of skill sets in each one of those jobs
• 38:56
  Speaker 9: that I needed to further me on where I was
• 38:59
  Speaker 9: going to ultimately end up. But I had no idea.
• 39:01
  Speaker 9: I was just doing what I thought was best. So
• 39:03
  Speaker 9: then you fast forward to me leaving Social Security and
• 39:05
  Speaker 9: coming on to BTSD Well, the only reason why I
• 39:08
  Speaker 9: knew how to do HR and human resources things was
• 39:10
  Speaker 9: because when I worked at care first, I was in marketing,
• 39:14
  Speaker 9: but they also had me doing a lot of data
• 39:16
  Speaker 9: entry things with people's information, and I kind of learned
• 39:20
  Speaker 9: how to process it. So needless to say, I kind
• 39:23
  Speaker 9: of just picked up all in. I continue to just
• 39:25
  Speaker 9: add from the different careers that I had, and I
• 39:28
  Speaker 9: continue to just add it to my resume. So now
• 39:32
  Speaker 9: I'm at BTST, I'm doing HR and clearly, like he said,
• 39:37
  Speaker 9: you can't be the owner's wife and BEHR. And then
• 39:41
  Speaker 9: as we were growing, it was just too many employees
• 39:43
  Speaker 9: for me to honestly handle. So once I had our
• 39:47
  Speaker 9: second son, I just kind of took some time off,
• 39:49
  Speaker 9: and during that time off, I was able to kind
• 39:52
  Speaker 9: of like develop my own ideas and identity and things
• 39:56
  Speaker 9: that I really liked for myself, and I realized that
• 39:59
  Speaker 9: beauty was one of them. So I kind of reached
• 40:01
  Speaker 9: out to two of my friends and the three of
• 40:04
  Speaker 9: us agreed that there was a need for more of
• 40:08
  Speaker 9: the spot salon feel. A lot of people were going
• 40:10
  Speaker 9: to sweets and that just wasn't what we grew up knowing, right, Like,
• 40:14
  Speaker 9: we wanted a one stop shot where you could come
• 40:16
  Speaker 9: and get your nails done, get your lashes done, get
• 40:18
  Speaker 9: a facial, get your hair done. You could do it
• 40:20
  Speaker 9: all and in the same spot, but enjoy it while
• 40:22
  Speaker 9: you were there. You can have a drink, you can
• 40:24
  Speaker 9: do your work, you can literally make a day of it.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: And it's beautiful. Yes it has art installations and it's
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: a beautiful place. She comes to come see it.
• 40:32
  Speaker 9: But that was the actual main motivating driving force behind it,
• 40:37
  Speaker 9: like wanting to create a place that we personally would
• 40:39
  Speaker 9: have wanted to go to. And as far as knowing
• 40:42
  Speaker 9: if we could do it, we had adults.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: We were definitely nervous. We were scared.
• 40:46
  Speaker 9: We don't provide services at all, neither one of us,
• 40:49
  Speaker 9: none of us. Like we don't do hair, we don't
• 40:51
  Speaker 9: do it, nail, nothing. So it definitely was a matter
• 40:53
  Speaker 9: of encouraging people to believe enough in us to work
• 40:58
  Speaker 9: for us, and that probably was the most difficult part,
• 41:02
  Speaker 9: but they did and then once we hit the ground running,
• 41:07
  Speaker 9: it kind of was a go from there. Now we
• 41:08
  Speaker 9: had a hiccup because we had only been open for
• 41:10
  Speaker 9: three months in COVID hit so then we had to close,
• 41:13
  Speaker 9: But it ended up being a blessing for us because
• 41:15
  Speaker 9: it gave us a chance to figure out our pivots,
• 41:17
  Speaker 9: things that may have not worked the first three months
• 41:19
  Speaker 9: we were open or recalibrate and figure it out.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: That's a change.
• 41:23
  Speaker 9: Now we had six months to sit back and recalibrate
• 41:26
  Speaker 9: and figure it out. So then we opened up. And
• 41:28
  Speaker 9: when we, I mean we reopened. And when we reopened,
• 41:30
  Speaker 9: we had zero staff. We had lost everyone because they
• 41:33
  Speaker 9: got PPP loans and they were doing nails and god
• 41:36
  Speaker 9: knows where at this point, and so we had to
• 41:39
  Speaker 9: start all over again. But it just gave us more
• 41:42
  Speaker 9: grind and grit and we've kind.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: Of figured it out.
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: Chris, as I'm listening to the story of Selfish, I
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: wrote down the quote, not only do we treat the exterior,
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: but we feed your interior. And when I hear that,
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: I think mental health. Right, it's self care, like that's
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: part of mental health. And so as the ideas coming
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: about seeing it and you start the business, are you
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: looking at this like this is another value add inside
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: of the first system that I created.
• 42:06
  Speaker 8: Yeah, so I thought that investing in that business would
• 42:09
  Speaker 8: be cheaper than her continue to get these services a
• 42:11
  Speaker 8: la carte elsewhere.
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: But it really wasn't.
• 42:16
  Speaker 8: But no, so Selfish, like we were they were thinking
• 42:18
  Speaker 8: about the name. It was like selfish and I was,
• 42:21
  Speaker 8: we were like selfish. It was like, yo, that's perfect,
• 42:23
  Speaker 8: like because you need to own that. It's okay to
• 42:25
  Speaker 8: be selfish. That's one of the taglines, like it's okay
• 42:28
  Speaker 8: like we women sometimes sacrifice themselves to give to everybody else.
• 42:32
  Speaker 8: They put their mask on last on the plane and
• 42:35
  Speaker 8: everything else like that, and never make time for themselves.
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: So it's like, it's okay to be selfish.
• 42:41
  Speaker 8: And then so while they were doing it, I'm like,
• 42:43
  Speaker 8: we should add a mental health component to this because
• 42:45
  Speaker 8: we have this lounge and selfish. So we started getting
• 42:48
  Speaker 8: mental health professionals who did like something Tuesdays.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: It's called self care.
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: I don't know, it was on a Tuesday. Yeah, and
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: people would come in.
• 43:00
  Speaker 8: When these women who came for all of this beauty stuff,
• 43:02
  Speaker 8: it was like, yes, you're looking good on the outside,
• 43:05
  Speaker 8: but how do we also treat that inside as well?
• 43:08
  Speaker 8: And so people will come to these different panels and
• 43:11
  Speaker 8: just hit these conversations and just leave fuller, you know,
• 43:14
  Speaker 8: inside and outside.
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: So so what's the stations all through that to have
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: a chain of locations all throughout you know America? Like,
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: what's your vision for that?
• 43:28
  Speaker 9: Honestly, we would love to have more, and that is
• 43:31
  Speaker 9: the goal to open more in different locations in different states.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: But employing staffing is hard, It really is hard.
• 43:39
  Speaker 9: And so while we're here and in Baltimore and we
• 43:43
  Speaker 9: have a good thing going, we're kind of just trying
• 43:45
  Speaker 9: to put all of our focus and emphasis into that one.
• 43:48
  Speaker 9: And at some point we'll open another location another state,
• 43:51
  Speaker 9: but when we feel like the time is right and
• 43:53
  Speaker 9: when we feel like we have found the staff that
• 43:57
  Speaker 9: we can hire, because client tele isn't really our issue,
• 44:00
  Speaker 9: it's making sure that we have technicians that can serve
• 44:02
  Speaker 9: as the clients.
• 44:04
  Speaker 8: You were going to say something, well to your point,
• 44:07
  Speaker 8: you asked, how do you know when you're ready to scale?
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 44:10
  Speaker 8: You got to make sure you have those operating systems
• 44:12
  Speaker 8: in place first, Right, So if we know, hey, we're
• 44:14
  Speaker 8: a little deficient in this area, our ordering is this,
• 44:17
  Speaker 8: or our pay rates to this, or our turnover is this,
• 44:21
  Speaker 8: we might not be ready to scale yet because we
• 44:23
  Speaker 8: got to get this one together. Like people love black
• 44:25
  Speaker 8: Swall and they were like, hey, you guys need to
• 44:26
  Speaker 8: take black Swall somewhere else.
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: I'm like, we're probably.
• 44:29
  Speaker 8: About three months out right now of where we need
• 44:31
  Speaker 8: to be finalizing our systems, looking at our financial reports,
• 44:35
  Speaker 8: all of that other stuff, getting our labor costs down.
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: To be able to scale.
• 44:38
  Speaker 8: So, I think, to Jenning's point, once they continue to
• 44:41
  Speaker 8: tighten those screws, because people just want to run, and
• 44:43
  Speaker 8: Instagram make people want to run because they want to
• 44:46
  Speaker 8: be seen and give the appearance that they're doing something.
• 44:49
  Speaker 8: But you need to make sure that that you have
• 44:52
  Speaker 8: this foundation and that you have the footings, not just
• 44:55
  Speaker 8: the foundation, because the footings go below the foundation. That
• 44:57
  Speaker 8: you have these footings in place allow you to build this,
• 45:01
  Speaker 8: you know, this this high rise that you're attempting to build.
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: So who's rue of the day to day operations of
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: the SWA Me, that's a lie.
• 45:10
  Speaker 9: I don't even know the last time he has stepped
• 45:11
  Speaker 9: foot in the SPA. Actually, the three of us flit
• 45:14
  Speaker 9: everything evenly, but anything as far as their life more
• 45:17
  Speaker 9: hr compliance, anything as far as they're licensing or just
• 45:23
  Speaker 9: managing the people right.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: And then my partner Kelly is the money girl.
• 45:26
  Speaker 9: She handles all of our bookkeeping and the pay well
• 45:30
  Speaker 9: I do payroll, but she had like the register and
• 45:33
  Speaker 9: she also does a lot of our marketing. And then Keisha,
• 45:37
  Speaker 9: who is our third partner does like systems, she does ordering,
• 45:40
  Speaker 9: she does our booking system, anything that's like our computer
• 45:44
  Speaker 9: data and.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: Everything else needs to be done.
• 45:46
  Speaker 9: But the three of us have three very different skill
• 45:49
  Speaker 9: sets and it makes one collective perfect person. Like if
• 45:52
  Speaker 9: you could put the three of us into one person, we.
• 45:54
  Speaker 6: Would be vultual.
• 45:56
  Speaker 8: I think that's important what she's saying, and for everybody
• 45:58
  Speaker 8: out there is you can't be afraid of partnerships.
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 46:01
  Speaker 8: A lot of people want to do it all on
• 46:03
  Speaker 8: their own, or they get into partnerships, but the wrong partnerships.
• 46:06
  Speaker 8: You got to get into partnerships where there's where you
• 46:09
  Speaker 8: guys benefit each other, where you're the ying to the
• 46:11
  Speaker 8: other person's yang, right, where hey, I might be good
• 46:14
  Speaker 8: at marketing, but somebody is better at operation, or this
• 46:17
  Speaker 8: person can do this and they can do this because
• 46:19
  Speaker 8: the goal in partnership, whether it's marriage or anything else,
• 46:22
  Speaker 8: is to lighten each other load. Right, to make that
• 46:24
  Speaker 8: so I can benefit from your skill set, you can
• 46:26
  Speaker 8: benefit from my skill set, and you don't have to
• 46:28
  Speaker 8: do everything. And when stuff hit the fan, we can
• 46:31
  Speaker 8: do a capital raise together and it's not all coming
• 46:33
  Speaker 8: out of my pocket. Right, So partnership you shaying the highs,
• 46:36
  Speaker 8: you saying the loads, but you also work to reduce
• 46:39
  Speaker 8: the burden. So partnership is a great thing.
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: Speaking of partnership and being that you're inside of the
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: mental health space with the with the SPA selfish and
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: obviously with BTST, how do you ensure yours right because
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: you're adding a lot to your plate. There's parents, there's
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: obviously the relationship that you have as a couple. How
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: do you ensure that you're making sure that your mental
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: health is where it needs to be so that you
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: can function that.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: All over therapy.
• 47:06
  Speaker 9: We we've been in therapy for god knows what ten
• 47:08
  Speaker 9: years and it's and it's not always because there's a
• 47:11
  Speaker 9: problem we have, we lessen the problems or don't, or
• 47:14
  Speaker 9: we be and together. And it's to ensure that we
• 47:17
  Speaker 9: lessen the problems or don't or we run into its
• 47:20
  Speaker 9: least amount of problems as we can, because without it,
• 47:22
  Speaker 9: it's us trying to figure it out on our own.
• 47:24
  Speaker 9: And to add, he's a licensed therapist and he tries
• 47:27
  Speaker 9: to do the therapy on me and it doesn't work.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: It doesn't work.
• 47:30
  Speaker 8: A compliant client. It's not my skill set. It's just
• 47:33
  Speaker 8: that you're a tough client for anybody. But and and
• 47:38
  Speaker 8: it's hard. And when you're a therapist, you're not It's
• 47:40
  Speaker 8: it's certain code of ethics. You're not supposed to like
• 47:44
  Speaker 8: sleep with the person that you're doing therapy with.
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: So you know, I kind of jack that up.
• 47:49
  Speaker 8: But uh, but I would say, like she said, as
• 47:54
  Speaker 8: a as a licensed therapist, one of the things they
• 47:55
  Speaker 8: tell you when you're in school is that before you
• 47:57
  Speaker 8: do therapy, you need to sit in the chair of
• 47:59
  Speaker 8: a client and make sure that you receive therapy so
• 48:01
  Speaker 8: that you understand the process and the vulnerability associated with it.
• 48:04
  Speaker 8: But in addition to that, when I was talking about
• 48:06
  Speaker 8: that balance, I'm run, run, run, run run.
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: Like at work, we.
• 48:09
  Speaker 8: Created this, this this program, this the way we evaluate opportunities.
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: Right. We call it like incubation and incubation stage.
• 48:17
  Speaker 8: You can just think as much as you want, you
• 48:19
  Speaker 8: can create as much as you want, and there's no limits.
• 48:21
  Speaker 8: Janine used to limit me in my incubation stage, right,
• 48:24
  Speaker 8: So we're like, hey, you gotta let Chris think, right,
• 48:28
  Speaker 8: and then you have operational stage. Operational stages when we
• 48:32
  Speaker 8: we we really work through the nuts and bolts of
• 48:35
  Speaker 8: these ideas. We try to bring them down and say,
• 48:38
  Speaker 8: is this a real opportunity? What does this looked like?
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: Is this a win? Is this a loss?
• 48:41
  Speaker 8: How does this look And then if we decide to
• 48:44
  Speaker 8: go forward, so we will say no to it at
• 48:45
  Speaker 8: that point, or we decide to go forward, and then
• 48:48
  Speaker 8: we decide to go forward, it's called implementation. So then
• 48:50
  Speaker 8: we implement in that idea and then we're gonna evaluation
• 48:54
  Speaker 8: as the last stage, right, so then we're evaluating for
• 48:57
  Speaker 8: us to create this idea, for us to do that,
• 48:59
  Speaker 8: what was the win?
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: What did we lose for gaining that win?
• 49:02
  Speaker 8: Because even when you're winning, you're gaining you're losing something
• 49:05
  Speaker 8: to do to do a big event or something we
• 49:07
  Speaker 8: might have spent a lot of time, a lot of
• 49:09
  Speaker 8: money thing something they could have been doing.
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: Micro lose. We lost.
• 49:12
  Speaker 8: We took our marketing team off of this thing and
• 49:14
  Speaker 8: something they could have been doing micro marketing on because
• 49:16
  Speaker 8: we're doing this macro marketing.
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: But I'm sorry, what was that going with that?
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: We were talking about our mental health.
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: And oh yes, so I like to run.
• 49:27
  Speaker 8: I'm in that incubation stage a lot, and where Janine
• 49:30
  Speaker 8: is like, Chris, I'm not signing up for another thing else.
• 49:34
  Speaker 8: Right now, we're trying to get this family in order.
• 49:35
  Speaker 8: We're trying to do that, and then you'll plan three
• 49:37
  Speaker 8: vacations for us to go on. But she's like, hey,
• 49:39
  Speaker 8: we need to slow our life down, right. So it's
• 49:41
  Speaker 8: that yin and yang. I'm like running like, oh no,
• 49:43
  Speaker 8: this would be a dope idea, this would be great, great, great,
• 49:45
  Speaker 8: And she's like yeah, yeah, yeah, And I'm like, yo,
• 49:47
  Speaker 8: you're not handing me. No, you're really not listening, Like, Yo,
• 49:49
  Speaker 8: this is great, come on, let's go. Why aren't you excited?
• 49:52
  Speaker 8: Because she's like, because I see you getting burnt out.
• 49:55
  Speaker 8: I see you getting overwhelmed. I see you getting frustrated.
• 49:57
  Speaker 8: I see you not being here. I see you know,
• 49:59
  Speaker 8: me having a this, I see all of these other things.
• 50:02
  Speaker 8: I see the investment. I see all of this. So
• 50:04
  Speaker 8: let's kind of balance this oude a little bit so
• 50:06
  Speaker 8: to help my mental health. Like that ying to the Yang,
• 50:09
  Speaker 8: She's like, slow down, let's eat what's on our plate first,
• 50:12
  Speaker 8: and then let's think about how to how we want
• 50:13
  Speaker 8: to move forward.
• 50:14
  Speaker 6: Stop it up with you.
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: So before we leave with the thing, I'll talk about
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: the restaurant.
• 50:22
  Speaker 5: So you go into the restaurant business, which is probably
• 50:26
  Speaker 5: the hardest business to be successful and extremely difficult. And
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: you already have all the other stuff that you're managing.
• 50:35
  Speaker 5: What's the inspiration for opening a restaurant.
• 50:39
  Speaker 8: So a part of these vacations that she picked there
• 50:42
  Speaker 8: and all these random places throughout the world, and so
• 50:44
  Speaker 8: we would go across the country all over and get
• 50:48
  Speaker 8: these great dining experiences, right, and then we would come
• 50:51
  Speaker 8: back to Baltimore on with energy like Yo, let's go,
• 50:55
  Speaker 8: let's keep this going.
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: We just got home, let's go hit another restaurant.
• 50:57
  Speaker 8: And then the dining experience is what the donning scene
• 51:00
  Speaker 8: wasn't what we were getting in other places. And Baltimore
• 51:02
  Speaker 8: has a great dining experience, is great food and everything else.
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: But it wasn't that energy that.
• 51:07
  Speaker 8: I was like that or matting Dog, let's tell or
• 51:09
  Speaker 8: I was getting that tow or somewhere else like that
• 51:12
  Speaker 8: or matting Dog or something. Right, So it wasn't this
• 51:14
  Speaker 8: just this this metropolitan trendy energy right where music, fashion
• 51:19
  Speaker 8: and food connected.
• 51:21
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 51:22
  Speaker 8: So I would just get frustrated. I'll be at restaurants.
• 51:25
  Speaker 8: I'd be like jenin look at this light mixture. They
• 51:27
  Speaker 8: could have did this, and it had been cooler listen
• 51:29
  Speaker 8: to this playlist if they'd have put if they'd put
• 51:32
  Speaker 8: you know, Shaka khan On, I guarantee you sales at
• 51:34
  Speaker 8: the bar will go up by this percentage and everything else.
• 51:37
  Speaker 9: Can y'all imagine literally thinking you're going to dinner and
• 51:40
  Speaker 9: this man is ripping this restaurant to shred.
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: I literally went to one of the owners.
• 51:43
  Speaker 8: I said, play this playlist and let me know off
• 51:45
  Speaker 8: sales go up.
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: I said, I said, play this, play this, let me
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: off sales go up.
• 51:51
  Speaker 8: I guarantee you he ain't played that other playlist since
• 51:53
  Speaker 8: it was Charles and said trunk. And then so I
• 51:56
  Speaker 8: just started connected with other restaurant tours and I'm just like, hey,
• 52:00
  Speaker 8: why don't you guys do it like this?
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: How do you do it like this? What's the passion?
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: How does this work?
• 52:04
  Speaker 8: So just putting myself in the in the in the
• 52:07
  Speaker 8: in the educational phase of meeting the people, understanding the
• 52:10
  Speaker 8: field a little bit more before I was in there,
• 52:13
  Speaker 8: just preparing myself for the opportunity whenever I wanted it to.
• 52:16
  Speaker 8: And then one of my buddies called me one day
• 52:18
  Speaker 8: and said, hey, Chris, this restaurant is going out of business.
• 52:21
  Speaker 8: I think that we could do this. You can come
• 52:23
  Speaker 8: and decorate it however you want. You could have the
• 52:25
  Speaker 8: light fixture that you want and everything else, and you know,
• 52:28
  Speaker 8: I'll do the food. But then the pandemic happened, and
• 52:31
  Speaker 8: he had other a few other investments that he of
• 52:34
  Speaker 8: restaurants that he wanted to make sure. But it was
• 52:36
  Speaker 8: perfect because I was able to find our chef chefs
• 52:38
  Speaker 8: say on Bryce and have him if y'all y'all know,
• 52:41
  Speaker 8: chef y'all got to make some noise for his land shops,
• 52:44
  Speaker 8: thank you, and so you know, uh, we were able
• 52:50
  Speaker 8: to it. Just the opportunity. I was ready for the opportunity.
• 52:53
  Speaker 8: I had already talked to the people. I understood how
• 52:56
  Speaker 8: this worked and everything else. But again I have my partners, right,
• 53:00
  Speaker 8: So my partner Jada and Chris Chris was managing partner,
• 53:04
  Speaker 8: and who have like several years. And then you bring
• 53:07
  Speaker 8: in Keisha and Jamil, who have like a different perspective
• 53:11
  Speaker 8: and who will just like just have high level relationships
• 53:15
  Speaker 8: or whatever. So we decided we were going to start
• 53:19
  Speaker 8: this restaurant. It was just you know, and we had
• 53:21
  Speaker 8: prepared ourselves so I think just putting yourselves in those
• 53:24
  Speaker 8: runs before you're ready to be there.
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: You know, you don't have to feel insecure.
• 53:26
  Speaker 8: Start learning us, start learning the field, doing your research
• 53:29
  Speaker 8: and everything else like that. And so, like Janine said,
• 53:32
  Speaker 8: Janine was very meticulous on the cocktail menu we set
• 53:35
  Speaker 8: with chef. We went over the food, he said this.
• 53:37
  Speaker 8: He was like, no, we're going to do it like this.
• 53:38
  Speaker 8: That's how do we bring these two together or whatever
• 53:41
  Speaker 8: else like this, because chef cooks up here and I'm like, Chef,
• 53:44
  Speaker 8: we have to bring the menu down here to make
• 53:46
  Speaker 8: sure that it's palatable and that it's consumable, and that
• 53:48
  Speaker 8: people feel like they can eat there three four days
• 53:50
  Speaker 8: a week if they desired. And so we were able
• 53:52
  Speaker 8: to create that and then we put the right management
• 53:54
  Speaker 8: system team in place. But I won't sell you any
• 53:57
  Speaker 8: dreams and say, hey, we just turned it over to
• 53:59
  Speaker 8: the management team. Three months after that, we lost our
• 54:01
  Speaker 8: GM and the first night in the restaurant, Jeanne, me
• 54:05
  Speaker 8: and Jeannine both trying to touch tables run help with reservations.
• 54:09
  Speaker 8: It was it was a mad house because I mean
• 54:10
  Speaker 8: it sold out in the first thirty minutes. For three months,
• 54:14
  Speaker 8: it was just a mad house. We had to turn
• 54:16
  Speaker 8: away the owner, the Washington Nationals.
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: It was so bad.
• 54:19
  Speaker 5: But why why was it so successful so early?
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: I think marketing, marketing.
• 54:24
  Speaker 8: It was that understanding of human behavior and marketing. Our
• 54:27
  Speaker 8: rollout was incredible. We sent black boxes with black champagne, flutes, champagne,
• 54:33
  Speaker 8: an invitation, say you're invited to this black swan. I
• 54:36
  Speaker 8: mean we had Baltimore's Who's who there, people came from
• 54:39
  Speaker 8: out of town and we had.
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: What three grand opening events?
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we had several grand opening events.
• 54:44
  Speaker 8: Like the anticipation was there, and we started a lot
• 54:47
  Speaker 8: of businesses not out of trying to fill avoid right.
• 54:51
  Speaker 8: He was asking me for like, how do you why
• 54:53
  Speaker 8: do you start these business It's like healthcare.
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: We wanted to fill avoid in a healthcare thing.
• 54:57
  Speaker 8: Beauty wanted to creative void where and where black people
• 55:02
  Speaker 8: all of this, and then restaurant where and they could
• 55:04
  Speaker 8: see technicians that look like them and it's not all
• 55:06
  Speaker 8: of this And in restaurant there was nobody providing that
• 55:09
  Speaker 8: style of dining, right, So I think that people were
• 55:11
  Speaker 8: just so excited to have a style of dining like
• 55:14
  Speaker 8: this that was also sophisticated.
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: And everybody just signed up Man to come out and
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: the food, and the food is amazing.
• 55:21
  Speaker 9: But I don't want to make it seem like it
• 55:23
  Speaker 9: was all uniforns and rainbows because he drags me into
• 55:27
  Speaker 9: the restaurant business, kicking and screaming. I wanted no parts
• 55:31
  Speaker 9: of opening a restaurant. But you know, as the ball
• 55:35
  Speaker 9: got rolling, I started really like saying that there was
• 55:38
  Speaker 9: a vision for this and it was okay, and there
• 55:40
  Speaker 9: was a need and it was gonna be good, and
• 55:42
  Speaker 9: it turned out to be amazing. But I didn't see
• 55:45
  Speaker 9: the vision at first.
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: For that one, it's a risk.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: My father, it was a huge risk.
• 55:48
  Speaker 8: My father used to own a West Side carry out
• 55:51
  Speaker 8: and I saw the lows of this man. I saw
• 55:53
  Speaker 8: him and his partner's fighting. He's making food, they're not
• 55:56
  Speaker 8: using proper purveyors and all that other stuff. They're going
• 55:59
  Speaker 8: to the grosscery store and everything. So I've seen the
• 56:02
  Speaker 8: ills of it, man, And honestly, we've just been blessed.
• 56:06
  Speaker 6: Man.
• 56:06
  Speaker 8: We've been blessed by the support of everybody that comes out.
• 56:09
  Speaker 8: All the time people just advocate, people speak about Black Swan.
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: They put us in the RUMs.
• 56:14
  Speaker 8: We catered the Preakness, We were one of the catas
• 56:17
  Speaker 8: for the Preakness. They put us in the hospitality tents
• 56:20
  Speaker 8: for all our like the very expensive tints of the
• 56:22
  Speaker 8: finish line. That's because somebody else was in a rum
• 56:27
  Speaker 8: and they put us in that room verbally right, and
• 56:29
  Speaker 8: they advocated that Salanda Robin, They like, hey, we need
• 56:33
  Speaker 8: more representation of like us, and so we're going to
• 56:36
  Speaker 8: advocate and put you in that room.
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: So I wish it's a community, man, it's not just us.
• 56:41
  Speaker 6: That's incredible.
• 56:42
  Speaker 4: So the obvious question now is what are the growth
• 56:45
  Speaker 4: goals for black Swan. I mean, are we figuring that guests.
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: We got Harbor East, but maybe we expand some other places.
• 56:53
  Speaker 8: Yeah, so again it's outcrowd, right, So black Swan is
• 56:55
  Speaker 8: one concept of outcrowd. So we want to take black
• 56:57
  Speaker 8: Swan and DC Atlanta the concepts that we're opening, right,
• 57:00
  Speaker 8: I really want to see in LA. But then we
• 57:03
  Speaker 8: have other concepts that we're opening, right. We're under some
• 57:05
  Speaker 8: were negotiating some lois right now to bring a concept
• 57:09
  Speaker 8: to market by the end of the year.
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: We have a few others.
• 57:12
  Speaker 8: So just continue to just you don't make you know,
• 57:15
  Speaker 8: you don't do just phenomenally great in one restaurant, right,
• 57:19
  Speaker 8: you need to have scale to pennies need to add
• 57:21
  Speaker 8: up to make some dollars in restaurants, right, so you
• 57:24
  Speaker 8: need to have multiple of them.
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: But continue to use Black Swan as a vehicle.
• 57:28
  Speaker 8: So many people come through there, and people for some
• 57:30
  Speaker 8: reason they feel like if you know food and you
• 57:32
  Speaker 8: can create environment, you must know great business.
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, that's not most restaurants.
• 57:36
  Speaker 8: People, you know, like those restaurants go out of business
• 57:39
  Speaker 8: in six months and we just celebrated our two ye anniversares.
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: So it's a blessing. But literally, thinking.
• 57:45
  Speaker 8: It's a vehicle connect with people, build with people. I
• 57:48
  Speaker 8: mean people from Ben Crump to just Jesse Jackson was
• 57:51
  Speaker 8: there last week. Lamar comes through just everybody and anybody
• 57:55
  Speaker 8: that's in town.
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 57:57
  Speaker 8: I was about to say he's gonna come through to night,
• 57:58
  Speaker 8: but I was and say that. But there it is
• 58:01
  Speaker 8: like now they have a place that they can go
• 58:03
  Speaker 8: and it feels like, hey, this is the energy, this
• 58:05
  Speaker 8: is the vibe.
• 58:07
  Speaker 5: Well, Christian Jannine, you guys are amazing. Thank you for
• 58:11
  Speaker 5: joining us. Make some noise.
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: Can I say something before you close out?
• 58:18
  Speaker 8: I want to give you guys your flowers and give
• 58:20
  Speaker 8: you guys your roses and say thank you for you guys, right,
• 58:25
  Speaker 8: shout out to Raven and Tony for putting us together
• 58:27
  Speaker 8: first of all, having a vision to be like, hey,
• 58:31
  Speaker 8: I need to connect people. We need to talk about
• 58:33
  Speaker 8: wealth and our community in a real way. And you know,
• 58:36
  Speaker 8: we's so funny. We met last week at Essence where
• 58:39
  Speaker 8: people are just sharing wealth.
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: Man, it was just so great.
• 58:41
  Speaker 8: But with you guys are doing, our communities haven't had
• 58:46
  Speaker 8: access to you for a long time, Right, Like that
• 58:49
  Speaker 8: exposure that we were talking about. When people know that
• 58:51
  Speaker 8: you can do something or see that someone can do
• 58:53
  Speaker 8: something they like, it just becomes a lot brighter. What
• 58:56
  Speaker 8: you guys are providing is that the ambitious dream, right.
• 59:00
  Speaker 8: But what you guys are providing is that is that
• 59:03
  Speaker 8: is the lens for that exposure.
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 59:05
  Speaker 8: You're sitting down with people who they never had access to,
• 59:09
  Speaker 8: teaching policies and business ideas and concepts that they would
• 59:13
  Speaker 8: have never been able to go one. They're not teaching
• 59:16
  Speaker 8: them in publish our school systems. They're actually not teaching
• 59:19
  Speaker 8: some of this stuff in college because a lot of
• 59:21
  Speaker 8: this stuff is real work, real on the job experience
• 59:24
  Speaker 8: that helps you navigate these things. And you guys are
• 59:26
  Speaker 8: bringing this to people's TV screen right now or computer
• 59:30
  Speaker 8: screens or telephones.
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: And that is remarkable.
• 59:33
  Speaker 8: Man. You're I don't think that you under I hope
• 59:35
  Speaker 8: that you understand the level of impact that you're having
• 59:38
  Speaker 8: in our communities. And that impact you might not see today,
• 59:41
  Speaker 8: but somebody who might have thought that something was impossible,
• 59:44
  Speaker 8: they now have faith and have optimism because of that.
• 59:47
  Speaker 8: So continue to do and invest, pass and you'll just
• 59:49
  Speaker 8: continue to take it to another level. Continue to do
• 59:52
  Speaker 8: the great work that you're doing.
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: Man. Our communities needed, honestly appreciate it.
• 59:56
  Speaker 5: Thank you making some noise for this wonderful couple right here.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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• 1:00:55
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• 1:01:00
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