EYL #11 Million Dollars Worth of Game.

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Welcome back, Welcome back, and you leave your episode eleven.

We are back eleven weeks in Yeah, eleven weeks in.

Man. This is unbelievable, as the support has been unbelievable.

Thank you for everybody who's tuned into YouTube, subscribed it, everybody on Instagram. Our growth has been monumental and it's more than we could have expected.

So this week we got some special We got some special plan for y'all.

We usually saved the last segment of each episode for our story time, but this week we had to start with it, and West we got a special guests.

As the fact, so yes, we have a special guest this week. So if you know, Storytime is usually the last segment of the show, and we highlight entrepreneurs and businesses, like the backstories and interesting stories about business how they actually got to that point, like how Airbnb got to be an Airbnb.

And how Google got to be Google.

But people like that segment, but they were asking for more relatable stories and to bring you know, a business owner and that's from the community small business owner success story. So we said we would and we kept our word, and that's what we're doing this episode. So we're gonna give you the backstory, we're gonna reverse engineer the show. We're gonna do story time first, but it's not gonna

And our guys, you have a.

Very special guests, Like I said, we have Derek Falcon and Derek is a business owner. He has a restaurant in food Trucks in Baltimore, Maryland. And if anybody's not familiar, Baltimore has a special place in my heart because I.

Went to school in Baltimore for two years.

And if you listen to the podcast, you know that I went to school everywhere in the country, so Hawaii, Florida, Baltimore, Massachusetts. And that's because I used to be an exceptional basketball player.

Exceptional would you say, Troy.

Yeah, you were good man, you were talented.

I wear many hats, so yeah.

So Baltimore, shout to Baltimore, Shout out to Maryland, Montgomery County, PG County, shout out to DC, shout out to Virginia, the whole d MV.

We have love for DMV.

So we have Derek, and I'm just gonna give the quick I'm I'm gonna start at the beginning and then the end, and then Derek's gonna fill in his story. He's gonna tell the storytime for himself, because who can tell the story.

Better than the actual person.

So we're gonna start started at the bottom to the top, right. So Derek got out of jail, and six years later, six years later, he has a restaurant in three food trucks that are bringing in well, a restaurant alone is bringing fifteen to twenty thousand dollars a week, millions a year, A million dollars a year, A million dollars a year. That's yeah, yeah, the year sounds better than the week. So a million dollars a year in revenue. Okay, that's the end goal. I cued it up.

I cued it up for Derek's gonna tell his story in the storytime.

He has a little story that must sitting up gangsters and hunts with your head done.

The best story teller stuff down right up, pray up, straight down, straight.

Down, straight down. All right.

So you know I started, uh, I guess I would have to say.

I started in the fitness industry, and then you know, I started in the finish industry, and I want to focus on something now I was more passionate about, which was at the time and still is until your design, fashion, music and food. And I felt like a restaurant was where a place where you could bring all those things together.

So we we.

Clearly came to the consensus that we needed a bigger space. And when I got the restaurant, I got it with the food truck attached to it. So the restaurant was five grand, so I had the five grand. Then they gave me an entry way to the restaurant, which created a relationship with the woman who had the food truck.

So I was like, all right, cool, you know it's natural.

For me to humulate for me to get the phone truck because I'm like, it goes hand in hand with the restaurant. And then that led to the restaurant doing really well and us moving to a bigger space. Once we moved to the bigger space and we were able to really expand our brand, it provided opportunities for us to get the other two trucks, so we're really excited about that. The trucks are different dynamic than the restaurant. Obviously,

Being everywhere creates market share and brand awareness.

So for me, I'm big on a wealth strategy, and you know what part am I going to play in the history books in terms of influencing the culture, inspiring the youth, but also making sure that we got some real tangible assets in the miss.

So when we started, you actually, all right, talk about a little bit like until you were in prison, right when you came home, you were living in your dad's basement.

Right, Yeah, I came home. I was living in my dad's basement. I stayed there for about six months. It allowed me to accumulate the money that I had to invest in the store, So I took a huge sacrifice. And I always say, like, you know, happiness is the ability to subordinate what you want to day for what you really want tomorrow, Like you know, like you can leave out of here and you want a veness, but you really want jet you know, just stay down till

That's important because delayed gratification the lay gratification. And like you said, you gotta stay down till you come up. So the fact that you were able to stay in the basement humbling, right, humbling experience, but you saved your money and you got your first restaurant, you got and then you build from there. And that's important, right. It doesn't happen overnight.

Yeah, because a lot of people want to get rich for contingencies subject upon this if it looks this way, you know what I mean. Me, I just I'm an end result type of guy. So I'm not really caught up on how I get there. Like, if we leave out of here right now, we try and get in the city, It don't matter who drive, you.

Know what I'm saying.

It don't matter you know if a stop, like we're gonna stop, but we're gonna keep going and I think for me, that's been my determination.

Even with the trucks, it doesn't stop there.

My plan is four stores nationally, win in San Francisco, one in LA one in New York, and maybe one in DC or keep the Baltimore one, you know what I mean. And all makes use property because that's what we have. We have to make use property side, and all of them with a mobile with a mobile.

Presence.

So like for me, I felt like, all right, well, if you got a store and then that's a bricking mortar, then you got a mobile presence. But then we got product like we make our own jam from scratch that we sell, we make our own serat from scratch, you know what I mean. And then you got these products, and then the products can go on a website, so now you have a web presence too, just activating the

Yeah, that's what.

And then we were talking off camera, he said that you you had a s estanential amount of money going into business, right, which is important, So can you talk about that, like because a lot of times people financing is important and they don't have money to start a business. But you saved your money from working as.

A Yeah, yeah, I saved my money and then, like me, I'm real scrappy, so I was willing to do whatever it took.

But I had close to one hundred grand when I started, you know what I'm saying, And people said, well.

How did you?

How were you able to do that?

Like, you know, I saved and I stayed down man like I stayed in my dad's house and then basement for six months, but then my dad and.

My stat Mon's house.

And then also I built my credit up and then I constantly got uh in credit increases and I constantly was saving money.

It's hoard in cash. Like right now, I'm hort in cash for a big event.

I want to do something comforable to like Broccoli City or you know, Coachelling, things like that. So I'm hort in cash and I'm cultivating relationships. Yeah that's always key, but it really ain't. It's hard, but it's not as hard as we make it seem.

But in our culture, we refuse to sacrifice.

So I've had conversations with people where it's like Oh, you know, I do want the business, but I ain't trying to stay with my mother for a year.

Oh you don't want the business.

Yeah, yeah, Like you know what I'm saying, Like you don't want it when you wanted, you willing to do whatever.

I'm willing to do whatever.

You know what I'm saying. So and I've done it all. Like I say, servanty was busting. I like the fact that I really put a lot of grit and sweat into my business because it allowed me to master all the different positions in the components and elements that go into what makes homemade homemade. I got better as timing on because my first restaurant took me six months, the second one took me four, The third one, the second

If you got a purpose.

You said something really important about home maybeing experience.

You told us behind the scenes that there was a story where you were bringing the food out to people, right, because that was something that you were doing in your everyday life, right.

Yeah, it was always the tone, the undertone to the restaurant is always my real life. Everything I do is my real life, you know what I'm saying. And I can't give you anything that's inauthentic, So I have to be who I truly am. And that's where like like you say, the hoodies and you know, man like vapor Max and stuff like that really coming to what we do because we didn't we didn't need your entrepreneurs.

You know, we were born in the eighties and you know it raised you and.

It is what it is.

Yeah, and now it's a place where the dude and the vapor Max has employed the god in the suit.

You know what I'm saying, That's just what it is, Like you be surprised, you know what I'm saying. So yeah, I think I think that that was important for me, being able to build out a brand in a way in which it could be authentic.

Yeah, so we went from Homemade to the supper Club.

Yeah, so the supper Club is a continue on my homemade. It's more of a it's like you ever watch like a drama than you're waiting for next week, like Empire, Your Power or something like this wait.

So like for me, it took me so long because things had to be authentic. I really had to live things.

And when I lived things, and like for me, I'm a romantic type of guy, so like everything for me falls back to a love story.

Like even when I designed.

When I designed, it's a feel So it's like, you know, this person made me feel this way and now I'm going to manifest that in a way on which I deal with space.

It's like a true story.

Yeah, this sh is a true story.

And that's how I was saying, like I can't run off and do like a sushi restaurant. It's not my life, you are, Yeah, it's not my life, and it would be forced. And I see so many people they cast a wy net because they're really trying to force it. So you like, you know, you might call somebody to cut head, like you, hey, well I'll cut all type of hey.

You know what I'm saying.

So, yeah, that was important for me to kind of narrow with down and keep things out in it.

All right.

All right, well so now okay, so now we had the backstory, but more importantly, we're going to go into the business side of things. How to run a business, how to have a successful business, your day to day operations. As I said, you went from making zero to a million dollars a year in revenue. So now it's like, okay, well, how how does that work? How does that happen? And so we're about to give you guys a free game.

Okay, we get that, but people are saying, Okay, how do I do this? Right? So the first thing, the biggest issue that any entrepreneur, any business, any person period, but definitely in business, has his funding finance. Right.

So you mentioned your story as far as having a certain amount of money when you started and buying it. So how did you go about funding your operation? Like, what's your personal story for that? Yeah?

So for me, it always start with sacrifice and trying not to look cute. So, like I told you, I stayed with my father for six months, right, So the six months that I saved my father, I ain't pay nothing. So now I come home, I'm training people, I'm taking cash, I'm taking cash your personal check. I'm training all on by myself. I cut out the middle man. I accumulated all this money and now I'm able to build out

You see what I'm saying.

Yeah, yeah, So all right, Troy, you got a question.

So we got the hundred thousand and now the one of the key parts of businesses location location.

Location. So you are located what part of Baltimore.

I'm located in the Federal Hill Locust Point part of them, which is directly like you can.

See the harbor for my restaurant, and you chose that location.

Is that I always like to choose more affluent white neighborhoods.

Just to be honest with you, The reason why is because I like to come in the neighborhood and kind of where they go gentrify.

I like to fuck it up the wise because like, yo, it's not enough of that.

So the reason why I got into the brunch because I'm like, yo, I want to do something that's a different model for us, because it's easy for them to see me pushing pig feet or chilling's you know what I mean. But I wanted to do something that's very sophisticated, very very upper crush. Yeah yeah, so, and I always believe in fighting us, so I felt like I can do it in a white neighborhood.

I felt like, as long as you bring value to.

The marketplace and you do something that's extremely exceptional people who come.

Yeah, I think one of the brilliant things that you're doing is you specialize in an area right where the restaurants will say they'll try to be everything for everyone and please every customer that they have, and you guys are like, Hey, we do breakfast and we do lunch, and we do it great and it's a whole experience. I think that's one of the bringing about were you guys thinking that going?

Yeah, I feel like as an African American business owner, you can't cast a wide net because the whole world isn't your oyster. It's a different piece for you, you know what I'm saying, It's.

A total different piece.

So for me, I felt like I had to speak directly into the voice of the people who I knew woul support me. And then you also have to know how to glow your business latterly, you know what I'm saying. A lot of times we go outside the scope of our business and try to rail in people who aren't interested in us, be interested in the people who are interested in you.

So that was easy for me to be able to.

Focus down on the handful of things like I know, millennial black women not trying to eat avocado chosen sushi all day, you know what I'm saying.

But I know that they do partake in that as well, you know what I'm saying.

But for me, it was always about what made sense for the culture and the brand and not trying and doing things with a certain sense of timelessness and a certain level of purpose where I can pass it off to my kids. I'm proud of my I'm proud of my brand, I'm proud of the storefront, I'm proud of the trucks, and I know that there's something that can be bequeath.

So it's interesting because your your restaurant is only open three days a week, right, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

But you're you're still.

Profitable, right, So how are you able to make a profit when it's only open three days a week?

Like, can you talk about the actual business model behind it?

Yeah?

I treat the model.

So you know, from the time when I was young, like you killing the guys, I familiarize you what you know, my story about when we're being young, always had a model of cutting out the middleman, right, So Like, if you take my restaurant, I sell breakfast and brunch.

How many times have you been to brunch on a Monday morning? Never?

Man?

Yeah?

Right, So now I'm in the industry in which.

Seventy percent of my customer base is gonna come Saturday Sunday. Right, And then I'm in a white neighborhood. So a lot of my clients I was black, which means that they drove to the restaurant.

Right.

I don't have parking, so you drove, you had to go out of your way, you know.

And then from when you finally get in there, you're looking for an experience, and that can't happen in thirty minutes. So being able to really identify who my customers are and what they want allow me to really focus on just a small nache audience. So most people can admit they have a mentor a brunch on Tuesday. Less you live in LA you're like wealthy issue, you know what I mean? You know what I'm saying, So like it was easier for me to be able to figure out what really means.

I'm also a several pieces to it. I don't have to cut labor.

Everybody coming in the same time, everybody get paid the same amount of thing, they can go home and kind of gazing labor in that way, no food goes the ways we run everything a small bash and when we're out of things, we're out of things because people understand the concept, right, So those things really made sense. And then also I knew that it would creating the lure in the sense that people would want to come there

That's really remarkable.

It's like a limited quantity of Yeah.

It's limited quantity.

Yeah, you know, that approach in that model is pretty pretty brilliant.

The fact that y'all is doing it.

Because one of the fastest growing chains in America's called First Watch. It's like this restaurant chain and they have a similar model where they've specialized just in breakfast and brunch, but they're only open from seven to two thirty, and their thing was like the same thing.

He says.

It's like the work quality of it, like everybody loves coming because it's not just one shift. And then the employee retention rate is great because people have work home balance where they can get home thet great kids up and they can still make dinner and everybody loves it. So like, that's interesting that you guys are doing because it seems to be a trend that's started happening in a country.

And also all right, so because in this show, so a lot of shows I watch on YouTube.

I'll watch these gurus.

Quote unquote g urules on YouTube for forty five minutes and I don't I don't know what I actually watched. It's like they talk in circles for forty five minutes and then it's like, Okay, subscribe to my private YouTube channel premium nine hundred dollars im more for go to my seminars. So it's like we're going to give you the straight blueprint of how to be accessful. Whether you take it or noyes up to you, but we want to give you all the tool that you need to

Do the list.

Barber shop here, salon number one, that's number one, right, and then clothing store yep, and then a restaurant. I don't know why, but everybody is, like everybody's dreaming to have a restaurant, right, and it's one of the hardest businesses to actually be successful.

And like I think like ninety five percent of restaurants.

Kind of came to the conclusion that it's a status thing.

But yes, your model, but Jos is actually worked, it's working, and it's still a status yeah. Yeah, So it's about revenue and like, how yeah, can you say in a.

Restaurant industry, just specifically in my industry, you have three general custs, which is you have label costs, you have food costs, and then you have overhead, right, so overhead or the fixed costs, which is the cause of the building operating expenses, whether it's trash and moval, grease removal, gas, electric, your cable things like that, those things won't go away.

They're fixed, right.

And then you have labor cause which is obviously the cost of having people on staff that can officially execute whatever it is.

That you want to do. And then you have food costs.

So I scaled them model in a way in which the profit was already built in. So it was I like to call it winning at the table. So I went at the table, like for example, when me, my highest price selling item is the chicken and.

Waffle, but it's the most highly consumed item.

A lot of times, people who are in the restaurant industry, they tend to sell things because they having a lower to them, or they look really nice, or they think it's going to attract a certain crowd of people, not considering food costs. Food costs can really sink the ship if you don't really focus on that. My fixed costs

And I'll ask a young kid, so what are you selling for this a six dot?

Why?

Because that's what I thought I should sell it for first. It just like if you take me, I'll take the chicken off for a two bucks, and I know I want my food costs to be twenty percent right side times about five, So I've.

Already won at the table. I don't have to make an assumption.

But then I might add a two dollar margin on it and sell it for twelve dollars a wild because.

Now you're gonna take you ten soils. You're gonna want syrup to go.

You know, it might be a situation where they might burn your chicken the off and then you gotta make another, so you have to win at the table. In my industry, the margin is about five to six percent for the owner of what you'll typically make, which you'll typically net. I'm netting me twenty five thirty percent. So I'll break the model down as real simple. My fixed costs weekly had seven hundred dollars between the supper club and homemade

Right.

I already told you that my fixed cost was seven hundred, right, which leads me roughly at forty seven hundred. That is me at fifteen three.

Right.

I run a seven man band, I pay all of them a salary, So all seven people get seven hundred.

Dollars a piece. That's forty nine hundred. Right. That leave me with ten grand gross.

By the time that now that is extracted, maybe I might walk away with seventy five hundred maybe eight grand. You know, considering that I got stay taxes and I also got my personal income tax. So now how is it that I'm able to make three hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year when we only grossing a million dollars. But in a technical restaurant for me to make three oundred fifty thousand dollars a yeah, I had to gross five million dollars. It's a winning model. Why because my

That way I don't get caught up in hourly in dollars. So it makes sense for us right.

Now, Blueprint. That's that's I know, ye take think we appreciate.

First of all, I want to thank you for saying that, because a lot of times people they don't give the blueprint right, or they don't they're like sting you with their numbers, or they're like it's hit, it's hit a secret.

So I want you to fully appreciate store with you.

They don't believe the trucks.

That's not even I want you to fully appreciate somebody just coming in and laying it on the table, right, Like I said, we want I don't know what else we can do. We try to help you out the best way we possibly can't. But it's important to have a plan. That's the thing I like when we spoke on the phone. You have a plan in place.

Right.

Then Another quick piece I will advise people to really focus on, too, is play small ball for a while. Don't get so caught up on perceptional what people think. So like, for example, if you were to say, Derek, well, how would you scale your brand if you had no money? Let me give you that right, So all right? For example, if I had no money, I had the same food, what I would do is I would do a pop.

Up and I would do collapse. And you see what I'm saying.

Like, say, for example, you guys have a podcast, I'm sure you gotta eat eventually, and I would say, well, let me pop up at.

The podcast Ernest, What's up.

You ever walk into a small business and everything just works like the checkout is fast, the receipts of digital tipping is a breeze, and you're out the door before the line even builds odds are they're using Square. We love supporting businesses that run on Square because it just

An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from El Salvador accused of murdering a Texas. Man of Venezuelan charged with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some of the heinous mic criminals caught because of President

Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

Thanks some attention to my brain and I'll make you guys, chicken and walks.

Right.

Pop ups create collapse because now draw attention to who you are. So the things that you can focus on what I'll free, which is your content that you can produce and put out right, the image of your brand and the projections and the messages that you convey, and then the relationships that you can create based off of the that you created, which can allow you to a further part of your brand.

That's the reason why I'm here.

So now those collabse create situations where now you can generate enough money to maybe not get a restaurant, a brick and mortar, but maybe a food truck, maybe a car, and then the car generates flow.

You have to understand, and flow is data.

So all the customers who come into my restaurant, I make sure that they're aware that I have a separate club. I make sure that they connect with me through social media. I make sure I got your phone number, and I make sure I got your email. So now I'm texting you pictures of the chicken and off of while you at work all day. You know what I'm saying, and

It's easy to scale a brand that way.

And that's like one of the things again that we're starting to see the restaurant industry go to is like the ghost restaurants, So the stay at home restaurants with people are making them based on their orders, you know what I mean. And Chick fil A actually just created two fulfillment centers where it's just delivery, so you order it and then just ship it to you again and saves money on food costs because we're only making it when somebody orders it.

And the data, like you said, that's important.

The data what you said, data is you said something.

Data is information, you said.

So I'll say it to say this.

Be interested in the people who are interested in you, so like casing for them. You and your wife come into the restaurant, right, It's full of you guys, So I've already brought you in, so it's easier for me to sell laterally, which means that now I could feel like data from you and say, look, I know you're interested in the brunch.

How would you feel about a sell, How would you feel about a wedding? How would you feel about an event?

And then grow your business latterly with the people who are coming in. I learned that my first store and just being ron being real that you know, I thought I had all these great products and I thought that people needed them, So I would go outside to the people who I felt needed them and they weren't interested in them. But you guys are sitting here right now and you want to and it's easier for me to be able to.

Grow my brain.

Also in terms of wealth accumulation, it's always easy to grow latterly so that you can accumulate.

Well, what do I mean by that?

Meaning like, as opposed to me getting seven stores, I can find seven streams in one store. So now you got to realize that I can I can coach, I can consult, I can speak.

I got the restaurant, I got the food truck, I got events, I got the brunch and go.

That's seven streams of income. The average manionnaire got six to seven streams of income. I don't need anything else for me to get wealthy. I just need to perfect the things that I'm doing.

All right.

So yeah, so all right, So the next topic we're want to go to is scaling your business and taking your.

Business to the next level.

Yeah all right, so now you have the backstory, you have the current story, but we're gonna take it to the next level. Before I even start, we were kind of the band whether it be going to do the last segment on some other stuff that's in the news right now. It's entertaining, but this is more important. Rights we're gonna we're gonna get back to that next week. We're gonna give you some more entertaining stories next week.

All right?

So for me, it always starts with the end in mind, you know what I mean. So the only way that you can scale is no where you're trying to go. Always related to like if we get out of here right now, we're all going somewhere, whether it's a real light, whether a deer run across the room, or whether it's the stop sign, you continue to go. A lot of entrepreneurs are just starting, so it's like you start the ignition up to the car.

And like now you're waiting. No one's going to give you direction because we don't have any mentors.

Speaking from an African American perspective, what I'm saying, So in terms of the scalability of the brand, you have to have a vision as to how you see opportunity in your industry for you to be able to grow in prepetuity.

So it always start for me with my grandkids.

So like we say, I don't hustle for my first name, I hustle for my last right. So like why get the trucks because the stores already told you the store model, right, So the trucks are for my grandkids. So when it comes to scaling your brand, you have you have to be focused on a handful of things. You have to have low overhead, you know what I'm saying. You have to know how to grow to your brand laterally in a way in which that you can generate multiple streams

So I'm not selling anything else.

If you don't buy that brunch, I'm gonna dim the lights down.

You're gonna buy to night.

Yeah, so you know what I'm saying. It's like, we have to understand what it's gonna take. So I think low overhead is key. I think bringing in partnerships, creating partnerships is definitely key for black businesses. If you don't create partnerships, the days of being self employed and sitting in your house doing someone taxes and think you're gonna be on a fortune five hundred, it's over with.

Yeah, that's a partnership collaboration.

A lot of times in our community, we are so hesitant to work with each other because it's like I.

Want to make it out.

I want to make it out, not knowing that if we look across like that, persons trying to make it too.

Yeah, Like I told you, Like with the supper Club, it's Randy Problay, who's a partner of mine and Kevin Vaughan, these gentlemen have come on and endure the stresses of starting up something new, but I've gotten better and better too, so constantly challenging myself. Like when I built out the first restaurant every six months, the second one was four months. I built up the supper Club in four I'm talking about we had no menu, we had nothing.

We just had a general feel and the message that we want deliver, and we built out for that.

So in order for you to scale your brand, it's gonna definitely take collaborations, especially if you're black. It's definitely gonna take a minimum overhead, doing as much sweat equity as you can to make sure that everything kind of remains intact in terms of financing. But then also coming under the fold is someone who's graded in yourself. Like for me, I'm in a rare space because it's no black five star restaurants in Baltimore, so I kind.

Of set the standard for what is to be.

But also I have to navigate through a lot of valleys and hills first. So like always equated to like cowboys and Indians, where like you know, the cowboy will look out and all the Indians were shoot them with the going arrows.

I gotta get shot first.

But I'm willing to do that if it provides a gateway or a path for you. So it's more specifically when it comes to scaling businesses, I think that you have to have a plan and a way in which you see yourself in that business years from now.

So always think about your grandkids and then reverse engineering.

So like, that's what I do when I solve problems in my I don't focus on the shit that's good, Like, oh, the food is nice, and you know that the core is nice, But what about the fact that every week when they say they come here, they feel like the lines are too long, or you know, maybe they all want hot seal with the pancake.

Instead of just you know, room tip much your seruf. So I think you got a reverse engineer. So it all goes into how you say it.

So in terms of my business model, we all know I like the real estate peace so it's a mixed use property.

It's commercial downstad.

He talk about that. I don't let me talk about that, okay.

So it's real something with my piece, you know what I'm saying.

So I have a mixed use property right, which means that it's commercial slash residential.

There are tennants upstairs. The tennis pay their runt upstairs.

And now I have to deal with the rest of it downstairs, which leaves me with a minimum to no overhead because now you have people who've leveraged the cost. So I speak to entrepreneurs who have a brick and mortar find other ways to use what you already have outside instead of going outside of the scope of what you're doing.

So like say, if you.

Have a beauty salon and then you can allow someone to double it and use the space as a barber shop. Stop getting so caught up in the thick of are they thin things? I call it we major and minor things? So Black people we tell the major and minor things, and we make things that are really important, we sit them behind the minor thing. Like what are people gonna think of me versus creating wealth? You know what I'm saying? How am I gonna be perceived if I rent my space?

You know what I'm saying. So those things are extremely important.

How we look is extremely like it's a very big thing towards Whereas for me it was like, yo, when I first started my brand, like I told you, I came into the game with one hundred grand, right, I could have gotten caught up an ego and been like, well, I'm not gonna clear this plate or I'm not gonna watch these dishes because this is not what count.

But I think the division always allows you to surmount. So even when you busting tables, you're thinking about.

I'm going eight locations in ten years, so what does it matter, Or you're thinking about your last name, think about the long term, keep the overheard head, low us on collaborations, and get other people who have monage.

Now that's meant well, just one minute before you go choice, because what you said was very important. I don't want that to go over people's heads. So you're making money from the tenants upstairs, and that's pretty much covering the cost stuff the restaurant, so that saves you.

Yeah, the tendants up says cover about roughly sixty percent of the no.

So that's important to understand because you have to find creative ways to leverage.

And that's the scaling model in general.

So when people come to men and they say, well, Doc, I think you look great in the strip mode of shopping, sol it don't fit the model. So the only way I could grow my brain is still makes use properties that a townhouses or apartments in which I'm at the bottom. That's what that looks like. So now now let's really think about it and break it down. It's no longer a restaurant play.

It's a real estate play.

Yeah, exactly. So that's the true.

So some of the things that people want to know is like, what are the qualities you need to be in owner? So we did a little research and likabilities one being able to multitask, being able to delegate.

And one of the most interesting things I read was being able to thrive under stressful conditions. And I think that gets overlooked. You want to talk about some of the setbacks.

It's never all good.

It's never all good. It's never all good for me.

Yeah, I mean, especially as a black person, because you know, my restaurants all black.

You know, the staff is black.

We hire any and everyone was qualified, but I focused on black you know, because we need it.

So they the hardest to work you know, Yeah, they the hardest to work with.

And the reason why is because we don't have models, so like when you have, When you got models, you could buy any things. I always speak, I've generally I

To focus on today.

It's very difficult as a black entrepreneur because we get the most resistance from our people. So I'll explain to you how what I mean when I say that. Let's talk about consumerism. So that's something that's.

Big to me, right, versus support. Well, I support black business. Well. Support is more of a philanthropic thing.

So if you see that I'm doing what I'm doing, or you decide to cash at me, or you or you know someone that might be in my industry who can help provide an additional service or more mentorship, then that's support. But if you come to me and you pay for a chicken and waffle because it's great, because you like it, then that's consumption. And we really have to educate the consumers on what consumption really means. Support doesn't mean that because you came to my restaurant and

In support it, y'all. You know you don't, right, Yeah, But with us, it's a certain level of life. You owe me, Yeah, you owe me, you know entitlement. Entitlement comes with it.

Show with that entitlement, we have to understand what that looks like to Because okay, this is another way in which you can scale black business. A robust top line. You gotta make sure that you funnel any and every day or not. Just you come by the chicking and while keep doing your thing. Bro, hey appreciate you since y'all have a governa. Really pile on that shit on your mother's birthday, valentized day, your anniversary, add to your

For real, for real, I can scale. I can have a.

Medio a business, but if I'm generating a lot of sales, they're not gonna scale.

McDonald's.

They know, not the best burger you ever had, but they got a system, they got a consistent flow, and scalability looks likely.

Yeah, you know what I mean.

Versus your uncle. We make a great burger, but you go once in a while. You gotta keep going. You gotta keep.

Going and going and going and going and going.

And you gotta also understand that these businesses are in a different place than most businesses, so you're gonna have to endure failures as a customer. Like, for example, if I'm working on an iPhone and it ain't working out, I can take this shit back to a research lab and figure it out first. As if I say, look, I'm gonna try this new syrup this weekend, it directly goes on your plate and it has a direct effect on you as a customer, which can come directly back

You know, we want to thank you for coming in and to being so honest and opening up you know, your playbook, right, because you didn't have to do that right. And this is something, like I said, with this show, were taking a unique approach to it where we really want to educate, you know. And I think that entrepreneurship is something that's very important and even in college, right, Like they don't teach you this certain stuff in business

The community, somebody from the neighborhood.

Is uh, it's encouraging and and and it's also it's important.

It's important and for those of us who are in culinary school and then like can't figure it out like this is we built this.

We built this from the ground up.

Yeah, and there was no formal school that you went to and built this from the ground up from based off experiences and one avenue just resonating in to another one, you know what I mean. In one medium you took some some ethics and some some mobils and you brought into a different one.

And that's powerful and it's all.

Don't not to cut you off, but it also can be related to any business, not just restaurants. Right, So we're talking about the restaurant business today because you're in a restaurant, but the business model and the ideas and the general principles of business can be applied to anything, like you said, whether it's a hair salon, whether it's a restaurant, whether it's a sneaker store, no matter what

And you gotta respect the entrepreneur too, because that's another thing I don't really feel I touched on enough.

Like black people, you know, like to speak to them. Yeah, so black people, like you know from.

The consumption stile, understand what it looks like when a black person is establishing a business or entity and what it's gonna take for you to grow them. But more specifically, young black people who work for black people know what.

That takes to be able to build out that brand.

Dedicates your sweat equity to those companies because they need you more than a white entities. Like we talk about it all the time, Ruth, Chris rich enough, nor Strom's rich enough, Macy's rich enough. So it's so crazy because like when you're speaking about the Color n I School, the young black kids come out to color Nized School, they gonna work for the fucking four seasons.

And you're like, yo, you ain't never think that.

Allocate even my customers, my customers come in the store, right, your son or come out of culinary school. You'll let him work for the four seasons. But your cousin who getting out of jail. You pulled me straight up, You pulled me straight up. Look mind, just to let you know, you know, my cousin just got off the joint.

He need a job. Or what about your daughter? She got a master's degree, she need a job, Yeah, she need a job. Stop sending out.

In some cases, I would say worse potentially at your best talent, because we don't do that with Lebron and all them. When we see that a young black kid is he's fifteen years old and he's six y nine and he could.

Driple, we gotta make sure he yo.

We clambering like, keep him out of trouble and make sure he get home.

But when you see the young black entrepreneurs twenty years old, who's selling nachos, You know, like my young man killer from Nacho Bang, he sell the nachos, You.

Throw him to the walls. Oh you know my cousin, my uncle, my craggy uncle. Can he sweep the steps up?

Nah?

Stop doing that. Because they do that all the time.

They tend to undermine the value of our entrepreneurs where and essentially our entrepreneurs and our creators all the future. Because I don't give fuck how high he could jump. Eventually he got a retalire. I only for how fast he runs. Somebody gonna run fast.

That business is forever.

It could last in perpeturity. The dualation of a business can go on for generations. It could go on for decades, so a person could do business up until the time the eighty five ninety we still got ninety year old CEOs and shit like Al Davis who ran the Raiders until he was like fucking ninety.

Then he got right then like a Jerry Jones. That shouldn't go on forever.

So you know, the musicians, the creatives, the entrepreneurs, they have to be supported the same way the athletes to support I'm not taking anything away from the athletes, but to me personally, I feel if my son could read, and he could, he could he could assimilate information, and he could impart that information out and he could get his ideas out of the world that he could make more money than Lebron James, he could create more opportunity

Wouldn't looked like the consumer for the black man. Eight three different perspectives that the.

Fact that's a fact, we're gonna have to do it follow follow you going on.

But now once again, then we want to thank you for coming in. We appreciate you coming and yeah, we want to encourage everybody to keep hitting us up because this is an example. Like I said, we we said we was going to bring on entrepreneur highlight business that you could support in real life, right and so a make sure you support the business. Can you just tell the people the information for Yeah.

So I'm the name of the restaurant's Homemade h O M E M A I D. And we on social media under Homemade Underscore H. We are located at fourteen hundred Key Highway in Baltimore, Maryland, two one two three zero. The hours are Friday from sixty eleven. We run a supper club. We run a brunch on Saturday morning from nine to four, of which we run a supperate follow on you net from six to eleven, and then we also have another brunch.

On Sunday, which is a really big deal whole.

Yeah, So if you're in Baltimore, if you if you're in DC, if you're in the area, so you love man, stop buy show us your social support. Man, I'm definitely gonna come through very soon, very soon. Before we wrap it up, though, I want to talk about the merch. Don't forget the merch guys. Like I said, we have new merch up. We have dope shirts, hoodies, v next for the ladies. We got all kinds of stuff, Dad hats.

Dad has. We got them in a few colors, camouflage, somebody can play like yo, I need one in white. So you know it's nothing for us to just add.

It's important, and especially like I said, in our culture, we make statements by what we wear. So we can plain about Gucci, we can plain about all these clothing companies that we know don't care about us. So why don't we make statements with our clothes as well. So all of the clothes has financial literacy on it. So you talk about Hustle for you last name, that's one of the shirts, Hustle for your last name. I got to ask this aliability shirt toy has a signature shirt.

Like I said, we have some new features that are going up on there a new topic that we're gonna be doing called Hometown Heroes, where we're going to be highlighting some people who are doing things in your hometown or in our hometown.

We got some people up there already. I told you.

Our goal is to reach one hundred and then when we get there, we're gonna start calling people to have an Apple conversation with them. We're gonna choose five people from our page, our patreon page. So keep checking that out, keep supporting that, keep subscribing to our YouTube. We're doing We're doing all right on your YouTube.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, subscribe to the YouTube though.

And yeah, the patreon is Nipsey Hustle, right, he's a he's our guy.

So he had a campaign called called Proud to Pay right where.

We're gonna give you the information for free, but if you would like to financially support the podcast so we can travel to different cities and we can bring on other entrepreneurs and we can do different things that we want to do. It's a way to be Proud to Pay and financially support us. Since financially support the podcast, it's not supporting us supporting the podcast, right, So we can spread the message of financial literacy.

To the world.

Yeah, and but you know we have done and we should have with just some people behind the scenes who work on our podcasts as well. So let's let's give them a little bit of time. So shout out to said, you know, he does all the magic.

He makes sound great.

There's no podcast without that's a fact.

Shout to Larry Mike Bam. Uh So those guys behind the scenes that are working to make this thing, you know, take off.

That's that's important.

Way you can't Nothing great has ever done by yourself, right, And we talked about collaboration, like it's important.

You can only go so far.

I used to play sports, so I'm big on team You can only go so far as an individual. You have to surround yourself with good people and you have to be humble enough to be able to work with good people. So, yes, there's no podcasts. You see me and Troy, but there's no podcast without the other three gentlemen that he just named. And there's no podcasts without you guys actually tuning in and supporting us. So we appreciate it. Before we leave, I say a book that

I didn't read that. I had my book, which is The New Gym Crow.

That's another just just because I'm working on something right now in the school district where we're gonna be combatant.

That School of Prison pipeline.

School of Prison Pipeline. We got something special about that for sure. So all right, guys, thank you for rocking with us. Another episode, another monumental episode in the books. Hopefully you guys learned something that you can apply to your real life. And we will see you guys next week.

Peace.

Hi.

I'm Sherry Harris, owner of Life Source Water. As a new grandmother in lifelong Californian, I care about what's in the water my family uses every day. For over forty years, our whole house water system has protected Bay Area families with filtered water from every tap. Now we are offering a double dip in savings, free basic installation plus an extra two hundred and fifty dollars off. That's up to

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