Latest / Earn Your Leisure / Create 7 Streams of Income: Derrick Faulcon’s Blueprint for Hustling, Business & Taking-Over NYC

Transcript

Create 7 Streams of Income: Derrick Faulcon’s Blueprint for Hustling, Business & Taking-Over NYC · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:01
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  Speaker 1: You ever walk into a small business and everything just
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• 1:51
  Speaker 3: All right, Welcome back, Welcome back. This is a special
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: episode we on set, something that we haven't done in
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: a long time. But it's a very nostalgic feel. If
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: you've been walking with Earn your lesion from the very beginning,
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: you know episode eleven, game changer. Yeah, that was when
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: we were still in the dining room, right right right
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: early in the trenches.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: In the trench.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Fact, so if you've been listening, we've always referenced that
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: as probably the most impactful and always our favorite episode.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: That's a fact. So I met Derek Falcon on Instagram.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Don't remember the store, you DM me?
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I remember it like it was yesterday. Man.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: First of all, I'm super excited to be here. We're back,
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. So I feel great about it.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: We've been able to maintain a relationship for quite some time.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: And it all start on Instagram. So I remember it
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: was like January twenty nineteen, before cold, before everything, and
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: I just saw this page that kept coming on my timeline.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: I'm like, yoho, it is this sky dropping all this
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: dope ass content. Right, it was crazy, and it was like,
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: you know, some people kind of compared to like more
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: of like the financial shap Room. For me, I saw
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: more for like a transition of black power and us
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: controlling my narrative and taking back our own stories. So
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: it was bigger than just like typical financial reporting. It
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: was impactful. So at the time I had just came home,
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: I was operating a restaurant and I was like, yo,
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: I got some ship to say, how can I connect
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: with this person and how can we build? And I
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: reached out to Shotty him being a real man that
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: he is, he called me right back like two days later,
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: we wound up talking on the phone for like forty
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: five minutes an hour, and he straight dropped the addiye
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: on me, and I came through he dropped, I breezed
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: throughing it. It was what it was. But yeah, man,
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: I'm excited that it's excited to be here. Yeah.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I had no idea of that. Yeah. Yeah, So
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: he dropped the addy, I opened the door. I sell
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: who is this guy?
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely that's a fact. But here we are six
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: years later. So when we first met, well, first of all,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: thank you for everything and thank you. So he thought
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: the bunch of stuff. You did a live show with
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: us in the DC Arena. That was crazy. Just did
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: the book book toward us and.
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: Then we did it university. Remember this this is this.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: Is around two for the for the show. So okay,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: when we when the last time that we spoke on
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: the episode, you had the restaurant homemade in Baltimore. The
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: reason why the episode is so legend that you guys
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: should check it out episode eleven is that you kind
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: of you broke down your business model and you broke
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: down the streams and it was very detailed as far
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: as numbers and all that and people wasn't really familiar with.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: I think it was kind of new, like that wasn't
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: something that people really did before, right. I think you
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: kind of changed the game where you opened the door
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: as far as transparency. But since then a lot has changed.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: You moved from Baltimore to New York. Yeah, yeah, you
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: switched from the restaurant to we had Cloudy Donuts. That's
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: your new operation that you got running. So a lot
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: of a lot has changed, right, So let's catch the
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: audience up to speed. How did you transition from Baltimore
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: at the restaurant to Soho the vegan donut spot. Yeah?
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: You know, you know my thing is this. I always
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: tell the person when you go fast, you grow fast,
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. So nothing really educates you
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: more than just living real life and doing it at
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: a fast space. So when y'all saw me in the
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: restaurant space, it was more about getting settled in and
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: coming home. I had one goal when I came home,
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: and that was to be legit. I had an advantage
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: with that because it was like I saw the world
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: through the lens of a criminal, somebody who was just
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: coming home and like, yo, shit, I can't believe. I
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: got a Legit spot, I got people on payroll, my
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: mother got come see this. You know what I'm saying,
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: because I grew up just straight immersed in the criminal lifestyle.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: So I when I had the opportunity to come on
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: the show, I had built out the brunch restaurant, I
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: had the food trucks, and it was really about the
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: supper club and creating verticals within my business that would
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: allow me to grow. Now, what I always encourage entrepreneurs
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: to do is to focus on the main thing, keep
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: the main thing the main thing, And for me, after
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: I got legit, it was really about making some real money.
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: So in the midst of the restaurant, you deal with
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: a lot of nuances, whether it is dealing with staff
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: coming in front of the house, back of the house,
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: managers and so on and so forth. So I was like, yo,
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: let me do a little bit more history, because once
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: you over the excitement of being legal, you gotta deal
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: with the excitement of ambition and wanting to get some money.
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: And I always tell people, once you get over the
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: good look, you get some good money.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: So I got to a place where where I was
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: at was enough, and it was like, all right, what's
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: next for me? So I begin to focus on one
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: singular product, and for me, it was a donut. And
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: the reason why I focused on that is because if
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: you get a donut right, you don't need catch up
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: hot sauce, mayonnaise, mustard. You're not looking for a refill,
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: You're not looking for a way that they give you
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: a check. It reminds me of the game. It's straight
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: product driven. If I got a quality product, it's over
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: the counter service, you coming in and out the space.
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: It reminds me of like a trap house. I give
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: you the product, you don't even know who I am,
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: You gone, and I'm able to scale that. So it
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: was a scalable model as opposed to a traditional restaurant
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: where you're dealing with so many elements and components. And
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: that's why I chose donuts.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: So the transition right because homemade, everybody remembers for that
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: episode you.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Had the supper club piece too. We left all that,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: we came here.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: What was the transition like from a business standpoint of,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: all right, this is a new city. I may not
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: be familiar with the ins and outs, the demographics are different.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Talk about that piece.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: It was all like hustling out of time. It was
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: all it was all about. It was so crazy because
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: and I'm so excited for my partner, so D two
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: to talk because as you as any hustler, when you
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: go out of town, you get through a woman and
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: you get to the community. Right, So like, for example,
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: my superpower was my partner, And it was really about
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: us strategizing, like all right, here's this life that we're
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: gonna bail, here's this brand we're gonna build, and how
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: we're going to be able to connect with the people
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: in an unconvention no way. So when I came to
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: New York, I knew a few things. I knew that
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: I had to get familiar with the landscape, be respectful
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: of the people, and provide them with a phenomenal product.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: So when we used to sell dope, we call it
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: dropping teas. I don't know if they' seeing it on the wire,
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: but like dropping tas is basically like if you get
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: a couple of ounces of dope, you get some grams,
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: you put them together with some quinin benita, and then
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: you pass out test us. So like on the wire,
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: they would say dropping teas because now all the dope.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: Things would congregate to that because it's like, oh, all right,
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: they're giving out these tea's, so my teas was complimentary donuts.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: It was like, yo, I believe in my product is phenomenal,
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: let's just give it away. And that created word of
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: mouth along with her being behind me and in most
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: cases beside me, but also behind me doing additional work
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: of like yo, I'm gonna make sure that I get
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: your product to everybody who don't know you, and trying
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: that sense to a global phenomenon. So it was really
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: about the work that she put in were connected with
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: community and me just being in the lab making sure
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: we had the best shit going out.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: So Soho, how'd you end up in Soho? Cause most
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: of the time, I mean you start think he was
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: in Brooklyn at first, even that was a a different
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: type of area. But you know, you, as a black entrepreneur,
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: they would probably expect you to be in hall On
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: mm hm or you know, Bestyle or a black neighborhood.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: Why why did you gravitate towards Soho?
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, everything that I do relates directly back to who
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: I am as a man. I don't it's no gimmicks,
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: no nothing as fatty over here or trendy.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: So like when I was when I was trapping, I
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: had some real money and I was living in good neighborhoods,
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: but I always felt there wasn't a true place for
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: me in the midst of white affluence. M I mean, like,
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: think about it. You. We drive down Rodeo Drive, we
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: got our phone out, we take a bunch of pictures,
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: but black people don't own nothing. Then we go on
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: Madison Avenue, we got our phone out, we buy a
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: bunch of pocket a bunch of persons and jackets, but
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: black people don't own nothing. And I always lived in
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: these particular spaces, and I felt like, Yo, where's a
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: space for us? Where's the space for the black man
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: who's successful? Everything doesn't have to be like a uh
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: a charity case, right. So I was like, Yo, i'm'a
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: put the donut shops in areas that I was specifically living.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: And it was the same thing in Baltimore and Baltimore
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: we and white neighborhoods. That's the flowing as well too.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: It's not intentionally trying and laying in the white folks,
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: but it's just really just following my own path of
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: where I would live. And I felt like from what
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: I've seen with other brands, whether it was Kissed or
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: Ald or Supreme, I felt like that for black people
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: to get seen in a different light and to be
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: global phenomenas, you needed global retail positioning. So it's like,
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: the only way I'm going to become successful is to
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: position myself next to the other people. So I was
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: never comfortable being like the biggest lion on my block.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: I want to get in a den with the other
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: lions and show you what I got. We're here now,
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: that's a fact.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: One of the things that throughout the years, we've got
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: these conversations about entrepreneurship in the state of the black entrepreneur.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Now, remember you talking to us about ordering our best talent.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Right, we sent our best talent to the worst environments, right,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: or we try to get a discount on the talent.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: As you've navigated business over the past six and use transition,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and we've met a lot of the workers and a
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: lot of people who've been employed by you. What's your
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: mindset now when you see the state of entrepreneurship, especially
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: in our community.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: I feel like when it comes to black people, you know,
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: we tend to generalize and say we want to create
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: generational worth, generational wealth, what we want to unify, But
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: I really think it's about getting the best talent in
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: the room with the best talent, and they might not
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: always be black. I tell people this, sometimes the motherfuckers
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: that you want to do it with are going to
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: be the people that you can't do it with. The
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: people that you want to do it with the most
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: are going to be the people that you probably most
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: likely in our community can't do it with. You'll talk
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: to your brother over and over again, but a stranger
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: will automatically get it, and then now the people who
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: we don't give a shot are the people for So
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: I just learned to focus on skill set as opposed
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: to just like, oh, we from the same neighborhood. I
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: learned to focus on mindset as opposed to like, oh, well,
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: this is something I should be doing for my community
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: because I'm black. And I also think that the community
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: has to become a little bit more micro. So I
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: think the first thing that allows you to come into
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: the community is you black. The second thing is that
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: you're black with the same mindset or else that shit
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: ain't gonna work.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: So so like to talk business because I know you
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: know you're a great business mind. Marketing, right, that's the
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: lifeline on any business area. What's your thoughts on mark,
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: what lessons have you learned from marketing? And what's your
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: thoughts on you know, marketing in twenty twenty five as
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: far as your business For any entrepreneur.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: My core marketing strategy consisted of basically like a handful
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: of pillars, whether it was cold called email DM, giving
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: product away, showing people who will influence you that came
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: into the space, and more specifically like word of mouth,
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: so like it's it's it's for me. It's just like
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: selling coked op and weed. If I got the best product,
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: somebody's gonna tell someone. If I pass out the teas,
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: they're eventually gonna come back. If I put myself in
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: a space where influential people can come in to my establishment,
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: then I can position myself as a global phenomenon. So
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: with the marketing I would have to lead. I would
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: definitely have to credit Zo D two for that because
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: she does a phenomenal job of bringing people who are
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: influential into the space. And then I kind of do
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: a home run of giving them the product. So the
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: marketing has been very organic. We've never paid for marketing.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: The people who come into the space really walked in
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: because they know us and they loved us and what
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: it is that we stop for. I think on the
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: outside they see us as two black people with a
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: dream and they buy into that. I think a lot
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: of people just see us as a brand with a
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: high quality product and they buy into that. So what
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: we have to understand when it comes to marketing is
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: you have to find out all of the things that
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: are going to draw people to your space and pull
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: on all of those strings, because no buy ain't gonna
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: give us nothing.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: I think what makes you very unique is that when
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: you think about competitors inside of I guess this specific right,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the dunkin Donuts of Christmas Kent. I don't even feel
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: like you look at the competitors, right. This is quote
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that you've always said that in the world of people
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out who they are, I know who
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: I'm not so expond upon that, And like how that
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: has translated into your business acumen.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: I got a tunnel vision I'm trying to get on.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: I'm trying to become successful. I mean, I'm gonna be
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: honest with you. I still got cars I'm looking at
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean that I ain't getting yet,
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: or you know, it could be something small as having
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: things in your cart that you wish to acquire that
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: you just can't get right now. So everything is about
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: a vision board. And what I always tell my community
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: to do is like envision your perfect day and then
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: put a comparable number to that day, so like it
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: could get real specific, like whey, I'm go get up
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: where I'm gona wake up at, what type of apartment
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna have, what type of comma be driving? And
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: that kind of like for me that drives the needle
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: for me. So I always swim in my own lane.
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: I don't look to the left or look to the right.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: And what I specifically tell black men because it's the
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: easiest way I can explain it for you, right, is
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: that you never wake up and look at the next man, Dick,
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: You focused on yourself. If you wake up and you
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: six foot tall, you never woke up and wanted to
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: be eight foot tall or even five foot Tell you
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: happy that you six foot So once you become happy
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: with who you are and where you try and go,
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: things will get much easier. So yeah, in a world
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: where people trying to figure out who they are, the
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: most important thing you could know is who you not.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: And I know I wasn't a corporate guy, so there
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: will be no five hundred stores, and I knew I
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: was a hustler, so yeah, I'm gonna get that product out.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: So it's different. It's different pros and cars that I
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: know about myself, and that's kind of like how I
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: lean into my personal life and how I built my
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: brand in my business. The people that we invite into
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: the shop are the people who I see online who
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: I'd hang out with. I even tell Zode all the time,
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: I said, listen, if a person wouldn't get along with
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: you in a real world and you didn't have this business,
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: they probably not going to get along with you when
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: you have the business. If I wouldn't hang out with
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: you without Cloudy Donuts, I'm not going to hang out
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: with you with Cloudy Donuts. A lot of times our
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: businesses are me that bring people into our world, and
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: then we wonder why we don't necessarily get along with
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: those people. It's because if you ain't had that business
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: or that product or service, they never would have fucked
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: with you in the first place.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Was there a change though, right from a monetary standpoint?
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: At a certain point, did you have a fiscal goal?
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: And as you got into business you realize that, you
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: know what, that ain't really the thing, right, It's really
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: about the impact, Like was there a transition?
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: I mean for me everything was. It was a combination
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: of like a fiscal and a social goal. So my
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: first fiscal goal, my number was ten bands. If I
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: could make ten thousand dollars a week, it would I
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: would resist the urge to break the law, so I
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: wouldn't be in a space where like that was even
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: on my back because I had a monkey on my
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: back coming home. I'm like, yo, I can't just work
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: at Walmart. So I had this fiscal goal and it
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: was really about like how can I make enough money
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: to be able to avoid the urge of breaking the law,
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: but more specifically build my brand. And then I had
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: a social goal of hiring all black And that has
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: worked for me at times and sometimes it's been a
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: against me because now I got on blindness and I'm
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: focusing on people, just mainly on the color of their skin,
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: not on the content of their character. But what I
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: learned is that you can still build with your community,
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: but you definitely have to be more socially aligned. And
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: that's how I really was able to build a brand
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: when I look for people who were more harmonious to me.
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: Because when you start, you start with your friends and family,
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: they the closest to you, and then they might not
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: have the same mindset. So then the next play is,
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: all right, well, I'm gonna bring on all these professionals,
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: and then the professionals don't got the morals that you got.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: So now I think it's a combination of finding a
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: person with a mindset and morals, and the bonus would
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: happen to be if they people of color, but if
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: they not. Like I said, sometimes the people you want
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: to do it with won't be the people you can't
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: do with.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: So let me ask you this. As far as in Baltimore,
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: you had the business model of you own the real estate.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: It was only open two days or like three days
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: I think a week, two days in two days a week.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: You had seven items on your menu. It was very specific, right,
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: So how has that change? Obviously now you're in soho.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: So I'm like, your mindset on business? Are you still
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: open three days a week? Is it still goals to
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: try to or is it like, how have you shifted that?
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: Oh, it's a much more vast pilote when you're going
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: to a big city like New York.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: So I always tell people the lessons you refuse to learn,
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: life will teach you.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: So I came in to New York with my big
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: hat on, thinking I had to figure it out, and
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: she had something for my ass.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: So the retail overhead is much higher, the customers have
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: way more options, and in New York, I mean, it's
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: the greatest city in the world and you can pretty
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: much do whatever you want when you want to do it, right.
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: So it's like, now, how do you get out of
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: your comfort zone and what you think work and listen
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: to your customers and figure out what works for them. So, yeah,
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: we expanded the palette beyond donuts to cinnamon rolls, pound cakes, cookies.
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: We expanded the days from three days a week to
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: five days a week. I think it's really about entrepreneurship
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: in general, is about being ambitious and being arrogant about
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: your product or your service, but also being humble when
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: it comes to listening to your customers. So that really
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: changed me when I came to New York. And it's
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: been a beautiful thing because it allowed us to get
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: more exposure and more market share and brand awareness. But
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: on the flip side of it, I think it kind
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: of reminds me of the streets. So like you gotta
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: do your homework before you go anywhere. You really got
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: to do your homework and know who you're dealing with.
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: Because the customers are even different from Brooklyn to here.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: So like take Brooklyn, right, people are more nestled than
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: their homeowners. It's more family. It's a lot of kids, right,
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: So it's really about people walking into the space and
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: bond donuts not just for themselves but for the entire
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: family because they gonna have an outing. But then you
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: in Soho and it's much more of a retail heaven
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: where a person want one donut because they shopping. They
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: don't want to carry a bunch of donuts around with
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: them the whole time. You see what I'm saying. Some
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: people aren't from America, it's their first time here, so
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: they just want to try it donut because they never
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: had it, So it's a total different mindset depending on
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: where you're going and how it's looking. Same thing with
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: La is much more of a vegan conscious city and
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: that people are concerned about like gluten or sawyer things
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: like that, so they much more ingredient based markets. But
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: I think, like always tell people, when you go fast,
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: you grow fast, and those things really help me grow
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: as an entrepreneur a business mind.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: It sounds like there's some fluidity now, right, Like I know,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: our first conversations it was like, I'm so, I'm gona
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: figure this thing out, and I'm hearing the fluidity now
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: as you're speaking when.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: You talk about Brooklyn the soho.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I know, we don't want to get the five hundred,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: But what does expansion look like for Cloudy Donuts? Is
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: there a goal to say, hey, we're gonna we have
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: in the New York market. There's some other markets we
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: want to tackle.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think the goal for Cloudy Donut
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: is it's a brand built off possibility, right, So who
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: am I? I'm the black Man's possibility and you know
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: my partner's OD two she says it all the time.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: You know, our lifestyles in general, are just inspiration enough
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: for black people to feel they can galvanize themselves and
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: get up and do whatever they want to do. I
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: think that sometimes we look at the measuring stick of
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: other people and say, well, this is what they're doing,
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: so we should be doing something similar. But like I said,
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: like coming from the streets, I always knew what I wanted,
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: So I'm basically in a space where I got almost
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: what I wanted. So my goal was seven streams, right,
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: So that's a docuseries that I'm shooting right now about
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: my life and about what is it going to take
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: for a black man to come from nothing and get
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: to seven streams of income Because, as I've said before,
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: the average manion it has seven streams of income, and
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: you're not going to make a lot off of one thing.
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: You're gonna have a bunch of little things that you
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: can make a lot off of, and you can accumulate
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: those things and create wealth. So like I did it,
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: I came home, I got legit, we got seven assets.
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: The goal is to get all those assets running at
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: the same time to continue to employee black people and
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: provide them with opportunity with more or less inspiration and
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: possibility So when it comes to a scaling model, we're
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: going to have a lot of vertical scaling, Like we're
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: gonna have events, we're gonna go to, We're going overseas
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: next year. You know, we're going to career. We're going
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: to do Paris Fashion Week. We've already talked about doing that.
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: And those are the things that we're most excited about.
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: And I always tell young people, don't look the white
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: folks and what they got, thinking that that that's our model.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: You got to understand your model. So your model is
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: who are you and what do you want? And how
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: can you take a scale or ability whether you're a
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: plumber or electrician or mechanic or your self donuts? And
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: how can you architect the life from that? So I
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: told you my first number was Tan gryand I'm already
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: on You see what I'm saying. And I think that
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: if we could pump the brakes on scale and focus
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: more on social impact, then our young people will have
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: a different lifestyle and they chase different things. But if
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: I try to get the yard, get the helicopter, now
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: they're in that space. But if I tell you, I'm like, yo,
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: sit your black guys down, and just focus on that
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: one thing that you're doing right now, focus on being
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: the best plumber you can be, and drive the hell
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: out of that that you got and then get another van.
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: You're gonna get there.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: You spoke about the seven streams. I want to talk
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: about that your series, your docu series that you're working on,
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: but also what's your thesis on seven streams of income?
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: Because you broke it down the first time. People here
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: seven streams and it's confusing. Everybody has different ideas of
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: what's seven strains of income? But from your personal perspective,
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: how did you get seven streams? And what's your viewpoint
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: on that whole seven.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: Stream Strategfinitely, I think the goal is to take one
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: thing and master it that one thing and then find
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: services and products that are a byproduct of that one thing.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: So like, for example, like I'm gonna talk about my streams,
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: and we started with a donut shot, which was the
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: first stream, which we focused on the three essas saving
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: plus sacrifice ego scaling. That allowed us to now stay
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: down and stack. You see all the asks saving plus
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: sacrifice equal scaling, and you stay down and stack until
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: you saved sacrifice and you scale right. So we had
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: the one shop and we just saved. I drove a
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: Mini Cooper, right, I drove a Mini Cooper. I lived
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: in a studio apartment. And then I got another shop,
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: and then we just saved, and then we got a truck,
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: and then we just saved, and then I got another truck.
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know, then I got another shop, and
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: then I got another shop. So that's five shops. But
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: two of the shops that I got I own and
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: they have residential units. So that's the seven streams.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: So it was really this mindset of how can I
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: take this one ability that I have not be distracted.
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: We're doing other things. Now, try to become a djail
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: or sell heir on the side. Now I try to
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: sell bundles of body wraps. Just focus on the donuts.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: Get seven streams. And if those seven things could just
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: make me one thousand dollars a week, that's two million
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: dollars a year, that was it for me. If I
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: made two million dollars a year, I know I could
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: easily live in a two million dollar house. I know
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: I could easily afford a four million dollar house with
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: a mortgage. So I comped my life out by saying,
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: if I can just take this and get there, So like,
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: think about that one lady who got that salon, who
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: making three thousand a week, and how goal is nine thousand?
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: Just get two more salons. Don't try to be a
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: DJ on the side and don't start selling dinners a place.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: Get two more salons. It might take you longer. We
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: vastly underestimate what we can accomplish in the long run,
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: but we always overestimate what we can accomplish in the
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: short run. My marathon been going on six years. I've
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: been doing it. I started ten years ago. But I
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: got it though. See that's where I'm at with it.
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: I got it. I'm not in a position where I
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: got a bunch of debt out on awe bunch of
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: people and I could control it. So any given moment,
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: I could activate the seven streams, and as long as
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: I now maintain it, which is a different mindset, I
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: can always have the option to perpetuate it. But what
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: we gotta understand is Black people is that YO, listen,
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: sit down and focus on maintenance. Got people who want
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: to do a podcast, they want DJ and they want
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: to do hair. Figure out the DJ in first, whatever's
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: going to make you the most money. Then I always
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: tell another person this, once you get over the good look,
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: you get some good money.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: Stop focusing on everything that you specifically passionate about. Focus
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: on what's going to bring that number in. That's what
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: white folks do. They not passionate about owning three thousand buildings.
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: Trust me, they know that that portfolio won't get them
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: what they want out of life. So it's about giving
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: it everything you got and it'll give you everything you want.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: And then also, so when you came first time, you
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: talked about even having multiple streams off of one business. Yeah,
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: so it's like as far as a restaurant, you could
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: cater you can have your ads, you can have a
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: cooking show.
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: So let me break down the substreams that I got.
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: So this is my this is how my industry works.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: Typically, when you see a donut shop, you think, and
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: they make the most money from a person walking in
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: and buying a donut, not me. We get our money
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: from brand collaborations day at the top, because we can
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: be our natural selves and the company will give you
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: a bag. Right, And after brand collaboration, we got what
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: we call corporate pickup and drop off where a company
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: can call us and they can establish a weekly catering,
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: not an annual catering, but a weekly catering, so it's
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: like a subscription package. After the catering, we also got
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: the truck. With the truck events, we got we could
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: do private events where we could also pull up with
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: the truck and do street venting. After the truck events,
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: we got people walking in the store. Then we still
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: got the seven strings where we educate people about all
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: the things that we've done. And then on top of that,
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: we got digital product that we can ship that's six
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: strings within one string. So now it's just it's a
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: domino effect, and I'm telling you it don't bring I
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: don't make a lot of money off of each stream.
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: I make a little off of each stream. I might
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: get one catering a week, but that's one thousand dollars.
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: People might come into the store this weekend, but that's
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: three thousand dollars. I might get a brand that called
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: me and give me ten thousand dollars. And what I
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: do is I can bind all of that and I
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: cumulate wealth and I stay in my line.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: So again, you've done this in a I mean a
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: real meticulous way.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: But you haven't done it alone.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I wonder at times, Like I said, we've had a
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: relationship for six years, and so I've been privy enough
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: to have some of these conversations that the times when
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: it's rough and the times when it's great, it's still
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: you until you find somebody that you can share this
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: passion with.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: So talk about that process, because the people.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: That you grew up with, your family members, they're not
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: seeing this the same way you're seeing this. In fact,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: you're accustomed to a certain life coming from the communities
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: that we come up in. But you've kind of decoded
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: the matrix and.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Made it out of there.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Talk about going on this journey, not doing it by yourself,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: but leaving some of the people that you obviously grew
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: up with and family members behind.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: On this path, you're all alone. Especially if you're grading
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: you black, you definitely all alone. So for me, I
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: was on my journey for a while by myself. And
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: after you know, because I come out of the street.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: So the people that came out in the street with
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: they laughing. You're doing selling breakfast like I gotta fanom,
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: I got a coloring, you know, what I'm saying, like
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: what you doing? They couldn't really understand the transition, and
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: I was all alone for quite some time. And then
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: my best friend he got indicted, and I just really
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: felt like it was a singular journey. But my life changed.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: I was lucky enough to meet somebody who strived for
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: stride with me, and then a lot of instances astride
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: in front of me and meeting ZOD two really transitioned
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: my life because if I hadn't meant her, because I'm
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: gonna tell you, like this, fuck everything else. I got broke.
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: I went bro I was broke because you gotta think
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: about it like this. It was cyclical. I always had
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: a store that I was opening, right, I always had
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: a store that I was working on, and then I
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: had a store I was maintaining. So I was running
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: through this three phase economic plan that at times, if
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: one egg didn't work, the other two eggs are crack.
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: So just imagine I got the brunch, I'm buying the
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: donut shop. Now all the money I make from the
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: brunch got to go into the shop, so I don't
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: got no money. Then as soon as I get the
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: new donut shop open, I'm looking for another shop, So
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: I always had the brunch that I had to maintain
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: the new shop I'm opening and then I'm looking for one, right,
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: So meeting her it really helped balance my men, know
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: more than even my economic because now you have another
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: person who's equally invested, who you can give some of
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: the way to and who shares the same journey in
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: the same path with you. So that really helped me,
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: and I would encourage all couples, so any type of relationship,
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: your best friend, the person who are around you, to
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: build with those people because those are the people who
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: know you best and you can build a journey with them.
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: So that was really an eye opener for me, finally
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: finding somebody who understood that. So she came into the
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: brand in twenty nineteen and the primitive stages of the
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: brand just helped me, helping me while she maintained her
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: job as a teacher. But it was always my goal
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: for us.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: To work together.
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: I mean, it just made perfect sense for us to
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: be able to build one another. And she's brought contrast
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: to my life and more specifically to the business that
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: has helped propel me to this space.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: Well, speaking to your partner let's let's bring let's bring
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: her on, bringing, Let's bring her on.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me, Oh, thank you, thank you,
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: thank you for all of this.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Where does the journey start for you when you're watching
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: this entrepreneur for Baltimore who's just sliding in DMS.
• 31:12
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 31:15
  Speaker 6: So when I met Derek, I remember.
• 31:18
  Speaker 7: Our first phone call, and we had literally were in
• 31:22
  Speaker 7: constant communication ever since we met. And then we met
• 31:25
  Speaker 7: actually on March twenty at twenty nineteen. So that's where
• 31:28
  Speaker 7: I feel like the love story really happens, because I
• 31:31
  Speaker 7: don't remember like going home after that. I feel like
• 31:35
  Speaker 7: I went like maybe on a Thursday, and I stay
• 31:38
  Speaker 7: till Sunday. I fell in love with him partially because
• 31:41
  Speaker 7: of homemade brunch, Like he was feeding me all the food,
• 31:45
  Speaker 7: and that was a really it was a really beautiful
• 31:49
  Speaker 7: space to not only meet the man himself, but learn
• 31:53
  Speaker 7: about him through through design, through food, through the story.
• 31:58
  Speaker 7: So we met Mark twenty nineteen and we've been together
• 32:02
  Speaker 7: ever since, and it's it's been quite the journey. It
• 32:08
  Speaker 7: has been quite the journey, but it's been worth it.
• 32:10
  Speaker 7: I mean, I've I've always wanted to I'm someone that
• 32:13
  Speaker 7: loves to be challenged. You know, I get bored easily.
• 32:16
  Speaker 7: This is not the space where you get.
• 32:18
  Speaker 6: Bored at all.
• 32:18
  Speaker 7: You're constantly you know, on your toes, something's in motion,
• 32:22
  Speaker 7: something is happening. But more than anything, like, I've grown
• 32:25
  Speaker 7: so much as a woman because of the man that
• 32:28
  Speaker 7: I'm with. I think Derek is beyond just you know,
• 32:30
  Speaker 7: I like my partner in life and in the business.
• 32:33
  Speaker 6: He's also like a tremendous mentor you know, so.
• 32:36
  Speaker 7: All the gyms that you you know, people get to
• 32:39
  Speaker 7: hear him drop and stuff like that's literally like our
• 32:41
  Speaker 7: home life. Like he talks to me the same way
• 32:44
  Speaker 7: he talks to y'all, you know, and I'm really empowered
• 32:48
  Speaker 7: by that and I'm really inspired by him. It's a lot,
• 32:51
  Speaker 7: It's a lovely a lot.
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So if you guys didn't obviously catch it, they're
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: not only business partners, but life partners as well. So
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: how so, yeah, a lot has changed since the last
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: time that we spoke.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Definitely.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so a lot of people, you know, they
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: relate to your story because you know, you're a hustler. Yeah,
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: and you know, you give inspiration as far as like
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: people that's trying to figure it out right, So, how
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: has been in a relationship changed? Help you know, modify
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: your situation? Because when you're hustling, you by yourself, you know,
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: it's twenty four hours a day, you answer, you don't
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: answer to anybody. But when you're in a relationship, obviously
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: there is changes and compoages. Right, So how how has
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: that you know been for you as far as that
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: hustler mentality?
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Shit real?
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: I mean like you gotta realize like this right, so
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: when you when you when you focusing on yourself, she
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: could seem so easy. You like, yo, I know if
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: I go, I can get a meal for one person,
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: if I wasn't spending this amount of money, if this
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: didn't happen, right, And then you go through the mindset
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: of like, all right, am I ready to be in
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: a relationship right now? What do it look like? And
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: then coming from the streets, you know, you see all
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: the dirty shit, so you see you know, niggas go
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: to jail, they girl don't take care of them. You
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: see people cheating and all that type of shit. But
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: one thing I know about me was like I'm a
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: real man, you feel me? So I felt like if
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: I bring any type of plan to a real woman.
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: We're gonna build a real thing. And I think, like
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: that's what really was the difference. And like what I
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: mean by that manhood is like is it times where
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: a nigga like nah, I mean I wish I was
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: by myself, Like yeah, early on, not now, but early on,
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: because you know what you're gonna deal with as a man.
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: Is you gonna be mentally fucked. You're gonna be mentally fucked.
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: I mean when you had your first kid, you might
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: deal with the anxiety, like with this a good move.
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: I can't afford a mortgage, you know what I'm saying.
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: So I went through all the ups and downs, bro,
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: I went through all the ups and downs, the long walks.
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: I used to work out a lot, but Zodie was
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: always certain that it would pan out for us, and
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: I always believe that if we did right, we would
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: get right. It definitely was different for me, but it's
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: the most it's the best decision. So like when I
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: always tell people, you don't let your next move be
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: your best move, that was my best move by far
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: being in a relationship with her and deciding to build
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: a brand with her because I couldn't have done it otherwise.
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: And then I think I always been lucky, Like whether
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: it was indictments or being in the streets, God always
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: threw me a bone, like you know you're gonna be down,
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: but I ain't gonna let you get too down. So
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: like I was telling you, like yo, when I had
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: by the time I mention, I was fully legal, like
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: I might do lord shit, you know, motherfucker by a
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: food stamp. You know what I'm saying. You know what
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: I'm saying, But I ain't.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: I ain't.
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: I was fully legal. So being fully legal, I kind
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: of was lucky because I came from the streets and
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: I started this brunch and it immediately hit. But like
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: when we got to New York and we started building
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: the donut shops, and I think that recipe that I
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: had that I thought was so functional at Baltimore, I hit,
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: I hit a curve, and if it wasn't for Zodeto,
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't have gotten through that. Not only men, but
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: just more or less, like having somebody that I could
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: vent you, like I might be dealing with some issues
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: with construction or with the landlord, and like I can't
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: call my man phone it's tap. Probably or he probably
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: in a mix. You know what I'm saying. I can't
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: go to a working man. He's still he complain about
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: his boss and shit, I'm like, I just lost two
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: hundred and fifty bands fucking with this store. It's still
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: ain't open yet. But she could understand because she helped
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: me work for that. She saw me spend that, you
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. What was real? So like I think,
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: like what I always tell guys when it comes to
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: life in general, is that there's a few decisions that
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: men have to make, and it's the work that we
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: decide to do, the place we decide to live, and
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: a woman we decide to choose. And if a man
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: even get two of those three things, he could win.
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: Like even if you don't got the woman and you
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: in the right place and you getting some money, you
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: feel confident, like y'all know I could find the right
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: woman in position. You see what I'm saying. If you
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: ain't got no money, but you got the right woman
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: and y'all on the right thing, you feel like, I'm
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: get some money. So it was really all about, Like, Yo,
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: I had gone through so much being an inmate, being
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: in the ghetto, being in the trenches, I knew what
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: the bottom looked like. I knew what the middle felt like,
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: and I knew what the top looked like. So like
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: when we go through our shit, I serve as a
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: mentor to her, like she said, because a lot of things.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: I'm experiencing a lot of things we experienced and she
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: never saw. So I'll be like, I'll be knowing like, yo,
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: look we right open up the store. We're gonna be broke.
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: We're gonna be fucked up. And she might be always happy,
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: like what's the news story? They gonna come like, Man, listen,
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: check this up. We're gonna be broke for a while.
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. I think women naturally have
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: a nurturing quality and they very optimistic, and I think
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: as men we focus on more practical approach and what's realistic.
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: So I really it was really just about doing my
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: numbers on our relationship. I think it's man, we calculate
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: things like you calculated you you going on a deck,
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: You're seeing where they work, how many people they know,
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: who they slept with? Do they know your friends? You
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: know what I'm saying. You calculating and you downloading all
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: the data, and every time I downloaded my data, she
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: was percent.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Never trust nobody, you ain't been broken. I mean it
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: speaks to the beauty of relationships and growth. And there's
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: a contrast here, right, like I've known you and I
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: had the pleasure meeting a few times.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: But there's a contrast that works. Even from the standpoint.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I love that you're using the word brand right because
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: a lot of times we won't support something because it's Derek's,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: but we might support homemade because we don't know who
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: it is. In fact, we didn't even know who he
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: was until we got to homemade and we got to
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: taste the food.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: So the product spoke for itself.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Now, building Cloudy Donuts and the beginning stages, it was like,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: it's the donuts, it's the product.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: It's the product.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: I see you now more forward facing as almost like
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: the face of the brand or maybe the spokesperson for
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: the brand, talk about that journey and understanding like yo,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: that might not be his strengths, so it has to
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: be Yeah, you.
• 38:49
  Speaker 7: Know, I think that even going back to your point
• 38:52
  Speaker 7: and to answer your question, Derek, when you were like,
• 38:55
  Speaker 7: women can be much more service based and optimistic.
• 38:59
  Speaker 6: I think that also we can be like it's not.
• 39:03
  Speaker 7: Necessarily optimistic as much as it's like, I know, I
• 39:06
  Speaker 7: have to make a way. So a man will have
• 39:07
  Speaker 7: a plan and a woman just has the innate feeling
• 39:10
  Speaker 7: that like I've got to figure this out.
• 39:12
  Speaker 6: I have to make this work.
• 39:13
  Speaker 7: And you know, I think that with Cloudy Donut, we
• 39:17
  Speaker 7: definitely led with.
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: The product, you know, the revamp of the page.
• 39:20
  Speaker 7: When we first started, it was all donuts, right, and
• 39:24
  Speaker 7: then we saw over time, because I did come with
• 39:26
  Speaker 7: that community aspect, because it's near and dear to who
• 39:28
  Speaker 7: I am, we started to show more people and then
• 39:32
  Speaker 7: we saw the engagement on the page grow. A lot
• 39:35
  Speaker 7: of people wanted to see reflections of themselves, and then
• 39:38
  Speaker 7: over time we would see when people come into the
• 39:40
  Speaker 7: space and I'm working in the front of the house.
• 39:42
  Speaker 7: I've always explained our dynamic as Derek builds the world
• 39:45
  Speaker 7: and I bring people into it. So if you come
• 39:47
  Speaker 7: to Cloudy Donut, you will probably see me. Every store
• 39:51
  Speaker 7: that we've opened, I've I've managed to maintain the front
• 39:54
  Speaker 7: and I'm typically working the space, you know, So we
• 39:59
  Speaker 7: are literally like in my home right now, like this
• 40:02
  Speaker 7: is my little oasis, and we saw that people were
• 40:06
  Speaker 7: they regardless of what it says that Derek is, which
• 40:09
  Speaker 7: is true. Derek is the founder and CEO. People romanticize
• 40:13
  Speaker 7: the idea that this is my shop, so it's like
• 40:15
  Speaker 7: you're the owner, this is it, you know, and we
• 40:17
  Speaker 7: decide like, okay, I'm not going to keep going against
• 40:19
  Speaker 7: the grain, like if you see articles, I'm the owner,
• 40:22
  Speaker 7: I'm the operations manager, I'm the I've made up so
• 40:26
  Speaker 7: many titles within this role because both he and I
• 40:29
  Speaker 7: know what we're here for.
• 40:30
  Speaker 6: So it's not about a title.
• 40:32
  Speaker 7: It's not about how I'm presented, but it's what I represent,
• 40:35
  Speaker 7: which is us.
• 40:37
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 40:37
  Speaker 7: So when they come into the space and they think
• 40:40
  Speaker 7: I'm the owner, they've seen that and they feel really
• 40:42
  Speaker 7: good about that, you know. So for us, it's really
• 40:45
  Speaker 7: just been about how can we sell our product, maintain quality,
• 40:50
  Speaker 7: stand on who we are, and provide the customer with
• 40:54
  Speaker 7: an experience.
• 40:55
  Speaker 6: Over time, I mean.
• 40:55
  Speaker 7: That changes a lot people are, you know, as you
• 40:58
  Speaker 7: mentioned earlier, like one of our our friends told us,
• 41:00
  Speaker 7: we're transitioning more into like a metail space of like
• 41:04
  Speaker 7: people just want to see what they want to see
• 41:05
  Speaker 7: when they want to see it, you know, what's convenient
• 41:07
  Speaker 7: for them. But it's been a beautiful thing to be
• 41:10
  Speaker 7: on this journey with someone who has truly allowed me
• 41:13
  Speaker 7: the space and the grace to be exactly who I am.
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: And a lot of that come from this, right So
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna just give it to you know, I'm talking
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: to the guys right now. A lot of that come
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: from this. We have mutual and individual goals, So that
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: don't get that. We can't get that screwed up. So like,
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: for example, like we have a mutual push that's bigger
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: than cloudy donut, then we have individual goals it's bigger
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: than cloudy donut. So people don't understand that what really
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: pushes the shot is the individual and mutual goals that
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: we have, and that is to become financially independent, to
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: get to a space where there's a level of wealth
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: that can support us in our personal lifestyles. And then
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: also the transcend the narrative of what has existed in
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: our families for generation, which is in my case, drug abuse, neglect,
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: growing up in households where you know, I didn't have
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: access to certain type of resources of capital. So like
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: that's what really pushes. So what really brought me and
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: her together, was like, listen, I give it to it
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: like this, Listen, if we push this shit and we
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: get on, whether we together or not, we both on.
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: I've seen it with Hove and Dane, like, regardless of
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: how they feel about each other, they both rich. Now
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: what you decide to do after that is up to you.
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. And it's the same thing
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: in y'all case, Like you can't reverse those followers, y'all God,
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: you can't reverse those festivals in those episodes. And I
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: think that a lot of our people are living in
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: the head of, well, if I give this person my all,
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: what if it doesn't work out right?
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: So, like our whole thing was like, listen, do it
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: makes sense for us to work together? And can we
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: push the brand in ourselves further individually and collectively. I'm
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: not in a space as a man like yo if
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: she leave or she not in a space. So if
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: I leave, it makes perfect sense. She can't take the
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: followers that she got me. I can't take back the
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: donuts that I made. So you have to now focus
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: on an agenda that's really clear, but also more specifically
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: really per you see what I'm saying, so everything that
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: I ever did, and I'm gonna be honest with you.
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: I'm a man. I make mistakes, but everything I ever
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: did with anybody was always per Shit might not have
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: worked out, might have went bad, it was peer. So
• 43:20
  Speaker 4: like with our relationship is per. I think people see
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: you and they want to be like, well you married
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: and say you're gonna be with me one hundred years
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: or else. Sign't doing the admin? Like yo, all right?
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: So if you don't do the admin and I keep
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: working at Amazon and you keep working at ups, how
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: that shit look right? You know what I'm saying, So like,
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: snap out of it. So always tell our people these
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: three things. Enough is enough because we don't have enough.
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: And what I mean by that is yo, enough of
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: the bullshit, enough for the back and forth, because we
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: already grew up without enough. So now you get to
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: a place where it's house money, right, what is it
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: for me as a thirty something year old black man
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: in the early thirty something, I mean thirty something year
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: old black woman for us to get together and try
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: and make this shit shape. I've been trying to make
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: shitshakee with niggas that I knew my whole life it
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: ain't happen. So a lot of us we become, especially
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: now in a time where mental health is so so amplified,
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: we oversensitize things and we like, yo, oh, but if
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: it don't work, If it don't work, but you still broke,
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: you've been broke. Yeah.
• 44:18
  Speaker 7: And I think and I think also like to an
• 44:21
  Speaker 7: emotional part of that, cause I think you do speak
• 44:23
  Speaker 7: from a space of logic, which is why you specifically
• 44:25
  Speaker 7: like when you're talking, you speak to like the black man, right.
• 44:28
  Speaker 7: But I think that when a woman hears what you're saying,
• 44:31
  Speaker 7: it's also important for her to understand, like, like you said,
• 44:35
  Speaker 7: like you have to like I had to have. I
• 44:37
  Speaker 7: had to come into my way of like what am
• 44:39
  Speaker 7: I doing this for outside of I love this man,
• 44:42
  Speaker 7: because that's how I came into it, like I love you.
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: You're doing this thing that sounds great.
• 44:45
  Speaker 7: And I didn't really think long term about like how
• 44:47
  Speaker 7: I was going to dedicate basically my early thirties to this,
• 44:52
  Speaker 7: to this band, to this brand. You know, I wasn't
• 44:54
  Speaker 7: really thinking about that. I wasn't thinking about the sleepless
• 44:57
  Speaker 7: nights or you know what I'm saying going broke and
• 44:59
  Speaker 7: all of these differ and transitions that we had, and
• 45:02
  Speaker 7: over time, I really had to sit with myself and say, Okay,
• 45:05
  Speaker 7: what do you want out of this? Because I can't
• 45:07
  Speaker 7: equate my happiness to how he feels or what we
• 45:11
  Speaker 7: do together. And I think that a lot of times,
• 45:15
  Speaker 7: as women, we have this ideology that like, well, we're
• 45:18
  Speaker 7: in this together, we're doing this together, and that's a
• 45:21
  Speaker 7: beautiful thing. But you have to find your way, like
• 45:24
  Speaker 7: you have to find yourself within that way, or else
• 45:27
  Speaker 7: you will get lost, you will have.
• 45:28
  Speaker 6: Resentment, you know.
• 45:30
  Speaker 7: And so there there were times where you know, we
• 45:32
  Speaker 7: were like, maybe this doesn't make sense for us, but
• 45:34
  Speaker 7: I damn sure was never leaving the brand.
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: It's just like yes, exact yeah, which sounds like our
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: personal relationship have been rocky or we because we run
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: into a lot of obschools, right, So it's not like
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: the business. The business might be fucked up. I might
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: be like, man, shit, I don't know, you know what
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: I'm saying, like, listen, you just focus on your job
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: and focused on mine and we can get back to
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: the relationship later because you in that duck place, right.
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: But like like I said, she not leaving a brand
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: because she thinking like, help you build this shit? Yeah,
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: and like we not outside of the relationship, Like I'm
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: not outside dating nobody you're thinking of nothing like that.
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: I'm building And I just feel like that everything that
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: we built had been mutually beneficial for both of us
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: no matter how it goes, it's a super win. So like,
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: even like the way in which we interact and engage,
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: I don't have a problem taking a back seat on
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: like the founder title or none of that shit. I'm
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: trying to win, like I don't, you know whatever, however
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: it gotta look is I'm always like I quit myself
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: to like Dennis Rothman, like most people not gonna like me,
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: but I'm gonna give you nineteen boards and we're gonna
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: get the.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: W There's a peace there, right because you say, like
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: sometimes the business isn't working. I know you're in education
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: where you when did it become full time entrepreneurship full
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: time is cloudy donuts? Or was it like, Hey, I
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: gotta keep this this job until I can make this
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: a full time thing. Because sometimes you gotta make that
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: sacrifice and look at my super powers and like, hey,
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: I'm great at this here's where I could bring to
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: this business and do time.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: Was there a planet to strategically stuff?
• 47:02
  Speaker 7: Yeah, there was a plan you could you could tell
• 47:04
  Speaker 7: the plan, We'll give.
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: It to you.
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's COVID right boom. She teaching on
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: my iPad. She teaching because we never, to be honest,
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: I never wanted a dynamic where a woman had to
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: work with me. I kind of thought like I was
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: gonna be up, and then there was this soft life
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: where she could support me, you know what I'm saying.
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: So the first year and a half she worked, I say, yeah,
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: not even in that maybe a year. She kind of
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: helped sporadically, just wanting to help for free, like just
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: and was doing I thing. So COVID hit and she
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: a teacher. You know, DC teachers don't make much as
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: y'all know, right, So she probably about sixty.
• 47:36
  Speaker 7: Yeah, And I was a theater teacher so before COVID,
• 47:40
  Speaker 7: So basically my entire educational career was teaching creative writing
• 47:43
  Speaker 7: and theater. When I first met Zrek, I was teaching
• 47:46
  Speaker 7: seventh middle school, so seventh, sixth, seven, eighth, seventh grade
• 47:51
  Speaker 7: was wild, and I was like, these kids are.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: Wild, wild this age group is middle wild.
• 47:56
  Speaker 6: I was like, what's happening? So what I decided to do?
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 48:02
  Speaker 7: He used to always yay Yo.
• 48:04
  Speaker 6: They used to.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: They used to.
• 48:05
  Speaker 7: They used to fry me and everything. I'd come into
• 48:07
  Speaker 7: the school, they'd be like, yo, what's your got on?
• 48:09
  Speaker 7: Like crazy crazy, crazy and so. And then I also
• 48:13
  Speaker 7: look super young, so like no one really took me seriously.
• 48:15
  Speaker 7: I'm teaching an elective. You're not getting a grade for it,
• 48:18
  Speaker 7: you know whatever. And I never was a teacher that
• 48:21
  Speaker 7: raised my voice, and whenever I was wrong, I would
• 48:23
  Speaker 7: apologize or help myself accountable, which is what they weren't
• 48:26
  Speaker 7: used to seeing from adults. Okay, So I was like,
• 48:29
  Speaker 7: all right, seventh grade is crazy. I want to kind
• 48:32
  Speaker 7: of reverse. So I decided to go into early education
• 48:35
  Speaker 7: because I really wanted to understand the psychology of like
• 48:38
  Speaker 7: how do we get here, like the formative years. So
• 48:41
  Speaker 7: I was already Derek and I had been dating for
• 48:43
  Speaker 7: like a few months, and that's when I was teaching
• 48:46
  Speaker 7: preschool and then I'll never forget. Actually, the weekend before
• 48:52
  Speaker 7: the world basically shut down, Derek had come to pick
• 48:54
  Speaker 7: me up on like a Friday from Baltimore, like.
• 48:58
  Speaker 6: Late at night and I he was.
• 49:00
  Speaker 7: I was just like, I'm gonna call out. I called
• 49:02
  Speaker 7: out Monday, but everything was shut down. We were so
• 49:06
  Speaker 7: now we fully transition to zoom. So this is where
• 49:09
  Speaker 7: like we're on zoom the whole time.
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: No, So she on zoom and me, I tell you,
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: I'm a realistic person. So I'll go over the numbers, Like,
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: all right, so you're making like sixty, you're bringing home
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: like forty, that's eight hundred a week, You're catching ubers
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: to go to meetings. You gotta paid for full all
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: this type of shit. So her net was like two
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: fifty three hundred dollars a week. So I'm like, I
• 49:32
  Speaker 4: don't know, I can't. I could pay you that. So
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: she was on a lunch break and it was like
• 49:36
  Speaker 4: a small room that the teachers ate in, and I
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: was like, look, I went over the numbers. You shouldn't
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: be working there. And she said, well, well, I said,
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: let me show you what you're dealing with. So basically,
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: you make fifteen thousan dollars a yeah, you could come
• 49:47
  Speaker 4: with me. We could double down on what I got
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: going on, and we can go to the moon. I
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: showed her the numbers. Shit took two minutes. She went,
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: she got off the lunch break and put the two
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: weeks in. Yeah, but see and see a lot of
• 49:58
  Speaker 4: people looking for that play. So you got to understand
• 50:01
  Speaker 4: at that point, my debt to income ratio was like
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: ten percent, So I'm taking home ninety percent of my income.
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: I own the building that I had, I had the brunch,
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: I had two trucks at the time, and I lived
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: in an apartment where I can afford to pay my
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: bills for the year. So it gave her enough foundation
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: as a woman, and I was serious about myself. Eight
• 50:23
  Speaker 4: hundred credit school or all of that.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 50:25
  Speaker 4: I ain't had no mess. We never had no mess.
• 50:27
  Speaker 4: Women call, no none of that. I don't got no kids,
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: none of that. I don't drink, I don't smoke, none
• 50:31
  Speaker 4: of that. So a lot of times and the reason
• 50:33
  Speaker 4: why I have to give you that context because other
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: guys all see it and be like, y'all don't know
• 50:36
  Speaker 4: how my girl ain't doing. Yeah, you got to get
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: your shit together.
• 50:39
  Speaker 7: And also, I guess in that transition period too, I
• 50:42
  Speaker 7: was one year sober, so I had just became like
• 50:46
  Speaker 7: newly into my sobriety. I'm seven years sober now, and
• 50:50
  Speaker 7: I was already also in a space of transition for myself.
• 50:54
  Speaker 7: So he was in a pivotal space where, you know,
• 50:57
  Speaker 7: he was a very serious I'm sure man, but I
• 51:00
  Speaker 7: was also a woman who was ready for something new
• 51:03
  Speaker 7: and something different, and I was really stepping into that way,
• 51:07
  Speaker 7: and I didn't really know what that looked like for me.
• 51:09
  Speaker 6: So I was just kind of like, all right, well,
• 51:11
  Speaker 6: let's see.
• 51:12
  Speaker 7: And Derek put me on pre order and social media,
• 51:18
  Speaker 7: and he told me years later he put me on
• 51:20
  Speaker 7: social media because I was always on my phone, which
• 51:22
  Speaker 7: was very smart.
• 51:25
  Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, man, you.
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: Know, and that's kind of like how I built this.
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: So I'm like, are you always on the phone, You're
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: always looking at social media? Boom, run a social Because
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: I'm just a numbers guy. If you're working for me
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: seven days a week and I'm able to give you
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: the same three hundred and we're doing it together, we
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: can build. So I wasn't get I gave him more
• 51:44
  Speaker 4: than that, obviously, but it was in a situation. It
• 51:46
  Speaker 4: was a situation that was been mutually beneficial for both
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: of us. So now from there, she moved with me.
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: So now it's like, all right, well we can actually meet.
• 51:54
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you how I look at it. I'm
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: brand guy. So like we could work in the brand
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: seven days a week. We can be personal and professional.
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: We were able to take walks, we worked out together,
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: and then our bond just amplified because like dog, yeah,
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: we got a dog. It was all it was.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: It was it was dogs. Man, y'all love him?
• 52:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: As I'm hearing y'all speaking, I just had read this
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: book and it was talking about submission and in terms
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: of a marriage, right, a man and a woman, and
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: they were like, if you think about the word submission,
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: somebody has to submit, but somebody has to have a mission.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: And as I'm hearing y'all speak, it was very clear
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: that you laid out the mission, so.
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: It was easy to fall into that.
• 52:31
  Speaker 4: It was easy. And then I think small successes gave
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: her the confidence to believe in me that larger successes
• 52:36
  Speaker 4: could happen. So like I promised her, like yo, I'm
• 52:38
  Speaker 4: gonna get your LLC. I got you. I took her
• 52:41
  Speaker 4: straight to the bank, got an LLC, put money in
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: that bank account. Then I had American Express at the time,
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: so I put on all my accounts as an authorized user.
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: So I built it from no credit to a seven
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: fifty credit score. So then she had the credit lines
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: and she had the LLC and she said like, all right,
• 52:55
  Speaker 4: this shit real. Then everything I said I was going
• 52:56
  Speaker 4: to do, I did it, Like if I said I
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: was going to get another show. I was constantly on it.
• 53:01
  Speaker 4: I worked out in the morning, I stayed strict, I was,
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: I was on it. So then I think, and in
• 53:06
  Speaker 4: my case as a man, I always believed like the
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: small wins allow you to build trust, and they deposits
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: in the trust bank account. So then over and over time,
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: now you can get with droves back and you can
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: say like, well, now you've seen how I did that,
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: so I need you to do this. So a lot
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: of times people don't see the dedication that we have
• 53:22
  Speaker 4: for one another, but it really comes from making a
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: lot of big deposits in that trust bank account.
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: So how's the how are you able to get the
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: corporate accounts?
• 53:32
  Speaker 6: Yeah, So we learned.
• 53:34
  Speaker 7: One of the things that we learned right when we
• 53:36
  Speaker 7: were working in the store, because we were actively working
• 53:39
  Speaker 7: in the store, was that a lot of the people
• 53:41
  Speaker 7: that come to our space, they have jobs, so they're
• 53:44
  Speaker 7: working for somebody, right, or they're working at an establishment,
• 53:47
  Speaker 7: or they have their own businesses. And so it was
• 53:50
  Speaker 7: a lot of just like active conversation with our guests.
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: And it was and it was genuinely interested in They
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: were exactly like, y'all fuck with us. It's a layup
• 53:59
  Speaker 4: for me to do investment. So it really came from like,
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: so what I did with the brand is I meant
• 54:05
  Speaker 4: towards Zody how to attract customers and build sales. And
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: then she knew relationships so me, I know, like, if
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: I'm selling you grass and I'm like, y'all got some
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: pills there? You right here? I got you. You know
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: what I'm saying, Like nine times out of ten of
• 54:19
  Speaker 4: a nigga gonna get some brown from the liquor store,
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: he probably gonna buy some weed. So that's the reason
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: why like brands like Panera brand existed. Panera started as
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: a cookie shop and then he saw they would go
• 54:28
  Speaker 4: across the street and buy sandwiches, and that's how that's
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: the Panera story. So it was really about how can
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: we keep the customer fully immersed in the world, and
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: how can we build verticals. So It's like if I'm
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: sitting there, you like ying with eyl shit, y'all, gottavest
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: fast ht what's up? Hit my number? So I already
• 54:43
  Speaker 4: had you on the hook. So what they don't understand
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: is it's three things that I toard Zody, which is
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: you got a hotlya meaning a person already come and
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: spending some money with you. You got a warmly, a
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: motherfucker welcome by saying they heard about you. Then you
• 54:55
  Speaker 4: got a coldly, a person who don't really know nothing.
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: So like a warm ly with me, it'd be like, Yo,
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: I saw this dude was on an episode. Link me
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: with him. That's a warm lead. I know you gonna
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: put me with him, And now I got to build
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: a hot lead. Is like, yo, I got the pound
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: cakes for you right now, pull up. And we didn't
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: done that, you see what I'm saying. So I was
• 55:13
  Speaker 4: able to teach her like, Yo, you got to understand
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: when people come into the store, it's verticals that you
• 55:17
  Speaker 4: can catch. But everybody kind of in Lilah Land. So
• 55:20
  Speaker 4: like when you want to average coffee shop, it's a
• 55:22
  Speaker 4: teenager with they hear down, not thinking, but in that
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: coffee shop, I'm thinking like, Yo, this is a working
• 55:27
  Speaker 4: class environment. You work somewhere. How can I cater that?
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: How can I build a rapport? So ninety percent of
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: our revenue outside of the shop has come from just
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: building organic relationships. That's how we literally got the corporate account.
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: Somebody coming in they like us. And then also, I'm
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: not afraid to spend some money first, So I want
• 55:44
  Speaker 4: to teach people that too, because people get so caught
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: up and what their budget is and what numbers is
• 55:49
  Speaker 4: because they had bad interactions with other customers, so they
• 55:52
  Speaker 4: kind of put up this wall and say like, well,
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: you could just go to my email, you just go
• 55:55
  Speaker 4: to my website.
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: Listen.
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: It's nothing like that hand to hand combat. It's nothing
• 55:59
  Speaker 4: like telling the person like, look, I got a box
• 56:01
  Speaker 4: for you, let me drop something off, let me follow
• 56:03
  Speaker 4: up call you. It's the same, the same principles that
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: I had in the street. If I bring you seven
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: grams of grass and I'm trying to sell you pounds,
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna give you the best grams I could give you.
• 56:13
  Speaker 4: Then I'm gonna follow up like, Yo, was you fucking
• 56:15
  Speaker 4: with the grams? Shit? Even if you can't cop right now,
• 56:17
  Speaker 4: let me know if you ever need something on right here.
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: So people not understanding like, yo, nothing changed. We didn't
• 56:23
  Speaker 4: go to business school. We didn't all of a sudden
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: get an epiphany. It's really a nigga who come from
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: flat foot hustling using those same principles today.
• 56:31
  Speaker 7: Yeah, and those principles also to be applied to the
• 56:34
  Speaker 7: consumer's way of thinking, like because a lot of time
• 56:36
  Speaker 7: the consumer will think like, oh, well, if I came
• 56:38
  Speaker 7: in and bought it, donnut I'm supporting you. And that's
• 56:40
  Speaker 7: just one level. But it's also like, Okay, if do
• 56:43
  Speaker 7: you work somewhere, do you do you do events? Do
• 56:45
  Speaker 7: you go to events? Like how can you spread that,
• 56:47
  Speaker 7: like you said laterally, to really help amplify the brand
• 56:50
  Speaker 7: that you love so much?
• 56:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's educating the consumers too, because black people
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: we only know what we know because everything we everything
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: that we know had to be self told to learn
• 56:59
  Speaker 4: right through through negative experiences in most cases.
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: Right, So you.
• 57:02
  Speaker 4: Gotta realize, like, let's talk about Travis. You put me
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: on with Travis shout out to Travis Brown. Put my
• 57:10
  Speaker 4: me Travis at the event, right, I kick it with him?
• 57:13
  Speaker 4: He liked my energy, Yo, give me your real number.
• 57:16
  Speaker 4: I'm not too big you feel I'm saying. Sometimes we
• 57:18
  Speaker 4: act too tall to be small sometimes. So it's like
• 57:21
  Speaker 4: with Travis, I'm like, all right, give me your number
• 57:23
  Speaker 4: of traps. So y'all like your energy. I like what
• 57:24
  Speaker 4: you got going on. I'm with the public school system,
• 57:27
  Speaker 4: so me hustling. I know it's several ways to carve
• 57:30
  Speaker 4: a fish. Oh you with the po Yeah, what's up?
• 57:33
  Speaker 4: I know you got some money for the tea. I got, y'all,
• 57:35
  Speaker 4: And I'm an over deliver some I'm overdeliver because you're
• 57:38
  Speaker 4: my mind, because you black, you're in an education space.
• 57:41
  Speaker 4: I love all that shit. So it's like, now, guess what,
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: Trav give me his wife number. You're my wife teaching
• 57:46
  Speaker 4: l e s. And people don't even see how we
• 57:49
  Speaker 4: moving because we're putting our ego to the side. You know,
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: many times I don't walk into a spot and be
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: considered like the doughnut delivery guy. Whole time is forty
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: on my wrist. I ain't worried about none of that.
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: Once you get over the good look, you get some
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: good money. That's how we really built this shit out,
• 58:04
  Speaker 4: and people not understand it because they're so caught up
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: on like, well, if you want order, you know it's
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: an email. Man, what's up?
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: I got you.
• 58:10
  Speaker 4: No, I'm a real mand man, what's up? And like
• 58:13
  Speaker 4: we as black people have bought into white society's way
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: of building socially that we don't understand. Like, Yo, you
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: don't have the privilege to just send somebody to the email.
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: You got a group of people and investors and resources,
• 58:24
  Speaker 4: and you just gonna get that transaction. You gotta see
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: that transaction through.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: That's the fact. That's the fact, and that's the reason why.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: And I said this to you the other day. It's
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: like when we go out this opportunity, I'm calling you.
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: So we got a book event, Bring Cloudy Doings, Yo,
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: were going to the radio station, Bring the doings. It's important,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: right because support doesn't just mean hey, I bought a donor.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: It means like, Yo, are you speaking my name in
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: the rooms that I'm not in and I haven't been
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: in yet. I want to talk about Brown Collective though,
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: because I know that was one of the focuses about
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: spreading the lifestyle and the core for entrepreneurs and people
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: in the space who hadn't gotten to space that you
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: were at yet and trying to become that mentor because
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: I know one of the things that people probably don't know.
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: And if they've come to the shop, they probably realize
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: that fashion is.
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: A thing for you, but the core is a thing
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: for you.
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: Definitely.
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: I saw the crown molding, we talked, talked about the
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: lime stone walls.
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at the great ground in the subway towel.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: All of this is done very intentionally, and you wanted
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: to help people in that manner. So what what where
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: does the Brown Collective stand now? And what's this mission?
• 59:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's all about putting black and brown faces in
• 59:29
  Speaker 4: white spaces and creating a level of I would say
• 59:34
  Speaker 4: pushback to what how we traditionally sing. I think, you know,
• 59:39
  Speaker 4: it's easy for me to come to New York and
• 59:41
  Speaker 4: it makes sense for me to be in Best with
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: a fried chicken spot. I think it don't make sense
• 59:46
  Speaker 4: for me to be in Soho with a vegan donuts shot.
• 59:49
  Speaker 4: And I've always done things that don't make sense because
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: I've always done things that are true to me. I've
• 59:56
  Speaker 4: never been afraid for me. If I ever was to
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 4: have a legacy, obviously that's up to the people but
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 4: it would be tied to a level of fearlessness, not
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 4: tied to a number or an award. It's fearlessness, right.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: So the Brown Collective was meant to be a force
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 4: field amongst people who were once afraid. It was meant
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 4: to be a pillar in a community for people who
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: didn't have an opportunity. It's meant to be an education
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 4: space where people could come and learn about the things
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: that's going to help you navigate through life beyond school.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 4: So it was really about subconsciously, and Zodi coined the
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 4: term verge gentrification, right, which obviously means putting black and
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 4: brown faces in white communities and spaces through business or
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 4: through any type of you know, residents in general.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: But I had been doing the shit just subconsciously, Like
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: I just bought this spot down here, well why because
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: it's flying. I would lie down there. Then over time,
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 4: you look up, because when you work really hard, you
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 4: look up and you see like that I built the
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 4: village and I got like a small fortune. Right, It
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 4: was never really for me, Like I told you, I
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 4: was just trying to get legit. Then I was trying
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 4: to hit a number. Then I look up and it's
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 4: like I got all this shit. What I'm gonna do
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 4: with it, and naturally for me, is about giving black
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 4: and brown people an opportunity to participate in it. But
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 4: we have to see it in order to be it.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 4: So that's the key, right. So it's like how do
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 4: we get out of our own way? That's the narrative
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 4: going into the future.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 4: So with the Brown Collective, we want to continue to
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: work with black and brown talent, but they have to
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 4: have the same mentality that we have, and that's the
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 4: mentality of humility, grit, hustle, and the ability to be teachable.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 4: I think, like we talk about the education system, right,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 4: and I think the ability to be teachable and coachable
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 4: shows you longevity. Like shoddy come from the sports space, right,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 4: So like let's talk about like Robert Rory versus a
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 4: more problematic player, right, Robert or able to have that
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 4: level of sustainability, get multiple championships, understand his role, and
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 4: then you get people like say DeMarcus Cousins who might
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: be a little bit problematic for that sis. I'm not
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 4: saying he's a bad guy, but for that system, and
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 4: then now you can't get the longevity that you're looking for.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 4: So specifically when it has come to talent, they think
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 4: that the Brown Collective is solely based on creativity, where
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: it's really based on the mindset and the ideology that
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 4: you're going to work in an ecosystem of black people
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 4: to accomplish a macro goal, even if sometimes you gotta
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 4: play number two. So I always tell people who want
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 4: win in life, right, sometimes being number one is playing
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 4: like you number two.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 7: Yeah, And I think I think to that point too,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 7: I think it's really true. I think it always was
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 7: an ideation and it's really transcended into uh, just an
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 7: understanding of what is possible, you know. So I always
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 7: say that, you know, after meeting Derek in particular, you
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 7: know that we created a world that was made for us,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 7: because this world was not made for us.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 6: And so initially when we started the Brown.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 7: Collective understanding that you know, Cloudy Donut is the first
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 7: one hundred percent black on vegan donut shop, like okayyay,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 7: you know, And then you go to Brooklyn Heights and
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 7: you learn that we're the first black owned food and
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 7: beverage business. And then you come here and you learn
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 7: the same thing. You know, on the outside, looking at
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 7: people are like, oh my god, that's so amazing. It's historical,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 7: but we also understand that that means that there's still
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 7: so much work to do. So our goal initially was
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 7: to you know, we're kicking down these doors, and it's
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 7: to use this door as a bridge to bring other
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 7: people in.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 6: And I believe that over time, you know, especially for me.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 7: You know, Derek speaks a lot to like, you know,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 7: the black man I speak to, you know, to the
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 7: black woman and the woman in general, understanding that.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 6: We have to see what's possible for us.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 4: Because yeah, no, and that's why now we got specific opportunity.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 4: So I wanted to talk about that. So we're looking
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: for operators right for all of our spaces, So like
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 4: that's the biggest announcement that we're going to make. So
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: it's a level of get back. So like specifically with
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 4: four shops to in Baltimore and two in New York
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 4: and the truck, we're looking to take at step back
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 4: and we're looking for five operators that fit a mindset,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, and that's what's going to
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 4: be next for me. So like that's how our plan
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 4: to automate my business. It's not to bring on like
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 4: any type of capital, it's not to sell to a
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 4: large investment group. It's definitely to look for some operators.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 4: So if people send us an email and they interested
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 4: in operating the space, sent us a resume, but more
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 4: specifically send us a video or why you deserve an
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 4: opportunity to operate those spaces, you know, but we're looking
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 4: for operators right now. Like that's what's going to be
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 4: next for us.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: So okay, talk about the seven streams, the show, the
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 3: series however you plan on putting together, like explain the
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 3: thought process and when will that be out?
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 4: And yeah, sure, what's next for us? Like I always say,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 4: when you go fast, you grow fast. Right, So now
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 4: here we are. We got these four donut shops. We
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 4: got a truck and we documented the So the donut
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 4: shops are one we have one in Brooklyn Heights, we
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 4: have one in Soho or no Leader for that matter,
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 4: one at you on nine Man Street, one at fourteen
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 4: Columbia Place. And we also have two donut shops in Baltimore,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 4: Maryland and Federal Hill at ten forty nine South Charles
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 4: Street and another one at forty three eleven Half for Road.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 4: We have a truck that goes between the D and
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 4: V New York. It's national, so the truck is much
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 4: more of a nomadic concept. If you're in La, hit
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: us up. We're gonna be doing a tour in La
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 4: late April early May, so that's how you can directly
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 4: reach us. Also, we have an Instagram. I've turned the
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 4: homemade Instagram into seven streams. So shout out to Troy
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 4: forgiving me that advice, amongst many other pieces of advice
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 4: he gave me. But it's really about people being able
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 4: to pull up to the shops and connect with us
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 4: in that way. So we are thriving, We're not surviving.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 4: I'm not even gonna sit up here and act like
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 4: I'm maturity case. That's not even like mymo So I
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 4: would never be a person that, even if I was
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 4: going out of business, would start begging or nothing like that.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 4: But as you know, it's still twenty twenty five, we
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 4: still got a long way to go. So me, I
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 4: really proud myself on being able to grow my business
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: through my community. So I'm looking for people to come
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 4: into the shop fuck with me. If you see Zoe
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 4: speak to us. We really work. I work every weekend,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 4: it's not this facade and like a god and assistant
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 4: and there's twenty five people in front of me. Every weekend,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 4: I go into the shop and I make sure the
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 4: production is what it is. And every weekend she's at
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 4: the Soho shop.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 6: I am looking for an assistant.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, asistant.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 4: So it's like it's like like the best thing for us.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 4: Like Shaddy was saying what the Seventh Straings was, it's
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 4: a documentaries of how I got all the shit from
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 4: jail to my grandfather house, how I was raised. Yeah yeah,
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 4: Classic on the couch. Yeah yeah, yeah, it's a it's
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: like a it's like a dope. Like it's like vice
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 4: style or like the like my man said, remind him
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 4: of like the Last Dance, like mic style. So it's
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 4: a very like vlog style form of economic and entrepreneur entertainment.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 4: But it's really about ME giving you a principal, living
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 4: that principle out in real life, and then kind of
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 4: covering that with a quote that I have that people
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 4: can live by. So, like how Biggie had the Ten
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 4: Crack Commandments, which I grew up on. I created the
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 4: Ten Black Commandments and the Ten Black Commandments are just
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 4: things that I personally lived by and my laws and
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 4: my life that can allow any entrepreneur in any space
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 4: to be able to navigate through a form of grit
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 4: and tenacity. So we got the ten Black Commandments within
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 4: the Seven Streams. So people should be excited to look
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 4: at that because like just imagine, like, Yo, I'm showing
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 4: you I so crack at. I'm showing you like my
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 4: first hustles, I'm showing you my first store. I'm showing
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 4: you my first real estate play. You know what I'm saying. So,
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 4: like all of these things are key and intricate for
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 4: people to show the dark side. So we always talk
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 4: about entrepreneur from a more celebratory standpoint, and that's cool,
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 4: But like what you get with seven Streams is you
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 4: get the doc shit, you get the gritty shit. I've
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 4: been broke my account being overdraft a couple of times.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 4: When I started this store, I ain't have no money.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 4: I built this store one way because y'all came to
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 4: the Premier. It wasn't working. We had to build a
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 4: store again. I was fucked up for two months. I
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 4: couldn't generate no revenue. My credit cards was maxed out.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 4: I done lost credit cards, I done lost bank accounts.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 4: My credit score went from my eight hundred one I
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 4: met her till like down on like a five seventy five.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 4: My truck got stolen, my other truck got told I
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 4: drove a U haul here today, Like that's real shit.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 4: Like with all the things that would come, it's like
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 4: I'm still in the midst of it. So I'm still
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 4: so hands on. But I know who I am and
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 4: I know what I got. Like fuck that you, I
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 4: got the seven yeah, seven streams.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 2: That's the fact, man.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 4: I just want to say thank you.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because because for about I feel like two years,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: we talked about this, and every time I was just like, now,
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: you gotta do this, you gotta do this. Because I
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: think people hear the entrepreneurial journey and it sounds like
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: it's the best thing and that there are some great
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: things that come from it and.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: You learn a lot, but they don't hear that side
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: of it.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: And I think there's the same way we kind of
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: democratize financial education, right, there's a certain demographic that needs
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: to hear your voice in the world of entrepreneurship. So
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: when I watched the piece that you're saying. I was like, yo,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: you did it. But then I was proud to see
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: it because we had been talking about it.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 2: I wonder, as you watched it, and as you were.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: Filming it, and as it's being put together, what are
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: the things when you look at it that you're learning
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: about yourself? Right, Because a lot of times we on
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: this journey, we never looked through the rearview mirror because
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: everything has to be straight ahead. But as you look
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: at the body of work that you're putting together, the
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: stories that you share with your family, going back to
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: the first shop, going back to homemade, and looking in
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: the kitchen like yo, yo, you got my mixer. Some
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: flashbacks are like what you learn about yourself as you
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: as you come back and look at the body of
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: work that you put together.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 4: There's so many levels. First of all, I'll be looking like, yo,
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 4: I've been through a lot of shit, and in the
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 4: midst of my professional journey, like I didn't accumulate it,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 4: a lot of shit, just really grinding on some day
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 4: by day type shit like yo, I remember days making
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 4: five hundred, like in the shop, like that's all we made.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 4: I remember days making five thousand, and when I look
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 4: at the body of work and really, because I when
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 4: you're in the dark and you're from the ghetto, its normalized.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 4: Like I never I never knew I lived in the projects.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 4: I lived in a happy home, you know what I'm saying.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 4: And I always tell people to three e's education plus experience,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 4: creature and exposure creates entrepreneurship.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 4: So my first interaction coming out of my community was crazy, like, oh,
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 4: I live in a fuck up spot. So looking back
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 4: on my whole journey, I'm like, Yo, from my elementary
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 4: school to my teachers, I'm like, y'all did it. I
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 4: came from the back. It made me really feel like
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 4: anybody could do it because I don't really feel like
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 4: I'm crazy special with it or nothing, you know what
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 4: I'm saying. So that the thing I was most proud
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 4: of is that I stuck toward I stayed sober, I
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 4: stayed sane, and like, I just really just stayed at
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 4: it like I was Yo. I was at it like yeah,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, Like, yeah, I just really
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 4: just I think that's the biggest thing I would say
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 4: is my consistency and my persistence through all of my
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 4: my setbacks, and my trials and my tribulations. So I
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 4: think the thing I'm most proud of is my consistency
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 4: and my persistence. And when I look back on it,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 4: I'm proud of it because it's such a it's such
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 4: an embodiment of who I am, and the like the
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 4: brick by brick, Like I told you the Coke League,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, the we lead to the coke and the
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 4: coke leading to the dope. Once you got that briage
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 4: a dope, you feel like you're on, Like you feel
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 4: like you made it, bruh, Like you know what I'm saying.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 4: So when I be looking back at I'm like, damn,
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 4: nigga made it. But to your point, like another thing
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 4: I learned on this journey, specifically from my relationship with y'all,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 4: with Shaddy and you giving me so much advice through
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 4: the hard times, through the dark times, and always tell
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 4: y'all like you know, if you give me the advice,
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna run with the rest. You know what I'm saying,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 4: And everything that you ever told me, I always implemented it.
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 4: So you said two years, but I really got to
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 4: go back six years because when you first saw me,
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 4: you said, yo, you're a megastar, and you you need
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 4: to be on the global stage. And for so many
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 4: years we fought the by my ability to be more
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 4: public and more extroverted, and a lot of the things
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 4: that I've done have been a direct byproduct of the
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 4: advice that you've giving me. So it's so beautiful to
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 4: be here with all three of y'all because y'all have
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 4: had the largest impact on my personal development and growth
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 4: as a man, and more specifically, my brand. So looking
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 4: back at all of it, it really is like like
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 4: a fucking whirlwind, bro, because I really I did a
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 4: lot of fucked up shit. I did shit to stay
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 4: on you feel me, like you know what I'm saying.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 4: I remember just like you say, like riding around all
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 4: kinds of shit stolen, like you know what I'm saying.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 4: Breaking my first store, I was selling weed, You feel
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 4: what I'm saying. Like at that first store, I had
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 4: weed under the account. I still was hitting place, driving down,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 4: like telling a nigga like cause I don't want nigga
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 4: know I got the spot, But meeting nigga two three
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 4: blocks down, hitting a cell and putting that in a
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 4: register with the legit money. You know, what I'm saying.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 4: When we went to LA last year, we did the
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 4: truck tour, like, yo, we ain't he passed the inspection.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 4: We still did the tour, like went out that betch
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 4: drove out there with the truck. We're trying to get
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 4: the truck inspected. They're like, nah, you failed the inspection.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 4: Shit they paid us. We out this bitch. We doing this,
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. So like it it really
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 4: tell me like how wild I am in my in
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 4: my pursuit of my goal. You know, I grew up,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 4: I grew up hard body, so like I don't even
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 4: I never It's so many things I did subconsciously that
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 4: I think the normal person would have been like, noah, wait,
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 4: we can't do this, and I did it.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 3: So and is there's something attached to the seventh streams
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 3: like a digital.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so definitely. People can access the seven streams through
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 4: subscribing to the Brown Collecting Right. So it's two it's
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 4: two things that I'm doing and I got this from
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 4: from Troy. I'm over delivering. So the content that I'm
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 4: providing people is going to be free. What I want
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 4: to put, what I want to show people is the
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 4: power possibility of the brand, and I'm really excited for
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 4: people to try my product. So how you can get
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 4: access to the seven strains and you go online, you order.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 4: We dropping pound cakes four times a year, so we
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 4: doing full seasonal boxes and if a can bring me
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 4: the box, we can show the box. But were doing
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 4: full seasonal boxes, and we doing content with the boxes,
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 4: so that can work some sort of way where like
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 4: people can know like all right, I can get a dessert,
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 4: but also can learn about these people's story in a
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 4: much more intricate manner. So like I think typically when
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 4: you see entrepreneurs in a dessert space or even in
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 4: the food and better space, you just see an end result.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 4: You don't see the backstory or the process. So I'll
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 4: go with to shoot content every three months at least
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 4: the content online with a box of desserts and then
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 4: gift our community with the desserts. But also the content
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 4: is going to be free. And I got that from
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 4: you because you over deliver and when I mention you,
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 4: you allow me in your space for free. I remember,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 4: like y'all niggas even treated me like to the snow
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 4: a lego content You're probably gonna remember, but y'all and
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 4: did so.
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 5: Many things that classic Yeah, yeah, so you didn't do
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 5: so many things for me. So when you brought up
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 5: over delivering, I was like, Yo, I know what I'm
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 5: gonna do. All of the money that I make specifically
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 5: developing the content, I'm gonna just put it all back
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 5: into the community by giving the people my story for
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 5: free and hopefully they buy into the desserts as well,
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 5: and then for people who might not necessarily want the
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 5: dessert but there for the content, that's a bonus as well.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 4: So it's kind of like you can't lose either way.
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 3: So what's the website and all information side website?
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 7: Yeah, so our website is just too subscribe to get
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 7: the seven Streams and the pound cake drop is the
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 7: Brown Collective right now, When you go to the Brown Collective,
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 7: you'll it will tell you it will get your information immediately.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 7: So that way, when we have the drop, it's going
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 7: to be right there for you. So that's how you're
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 7: going to find the seven Streams and the educational pieces
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 7: that both Derek and myself share. If you're looking for
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 7: cloudydonut or cloudydonut dot com with the four stores, the
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 7: truck is going to be moving around.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 6: We're about to get ready for the truck to.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 4: The truck gonna be in La. If you're in La,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 4: pull up on this. All of the truck information is
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 4: on Instagram. We're doing the first pound cake drop is
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 4: the first week in April, So whoever like you know,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 4: and I'm gonna be honest with you. So we're only
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 4: doing a thousand boxes. So we're only doing a thousand
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 4: boxes to start off, and then we're going to continue
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 4: to build from that. But I'll go it's just focusing
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 4: on craftsmanship, making sure the customers got the right thing.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 4: And so we're doing a thousand boxes and if you
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 4: subscribe to the content, you can get that as well.
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 4: If anyone subscribed to the content outside of the thousand boxes,
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 4: you will get those boxes additionally, but it'll be like
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 4: a two week time because we want to make sure
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 4: everybody get the right thing.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah you haven't, ladies and gentlemen.
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: And if the product has been tested and improving, I'm
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: not talking I'm talking to any donors, not specifically Vegan.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 2: Yes, because it's vegan.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: It's incredible, and yes you are brother, the product is incredible.
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 2: I thank you. The donuts is just phenomenal and the
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: way that they look.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but dreams from true. That's tell them floudy donut,
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 4: you know, don't stop believing.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 2: And they're gonna they're gonna.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: They told me that they're gonna name a donut after
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: us at some point, some point.
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 2: But we appreciate you, my brother.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 3: Man, thank you, appreciating much success. Continue the blessings and
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 3: keep inspiring the people.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 2: Support. Tell them we sent you when you come down.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah that's a fact. And then if you hear I'm
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: just I'm gonna give you all. This is a tipot.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: If they got the sweet potato rolls, get about four
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: of them, Sweet.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 4: Potato cinnamon rolls. Some of the flavors that we got
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 4: brown by the chocolate chip, sweet potato pie cinnamon rolls.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 4: We got brown sugar Pine, the website down cake, and
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 4: I'm really excited about the basil olive oil cake. That's
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 4: my thing.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 2: You know. Oh that's new.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, I thank.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 6: Y'all, Thank you guys.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 8: That's an illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 8: child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 8: Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 8: with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 8: just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 8: President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 8: States Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 8: border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 8: over one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 8: you are here illegally, your next you will be fine
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 8: nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported, you
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 8: will never return. But if you register using our CBP
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 8: home app and leave now, you could be allowed to
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 8: return legally. Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 8: America's laws, border and families will be protected.
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.