EYL #195 Marcus Davis on Building The Breakfast Klub, Restaurant Empire, & Real Estate

how you doing. You'll do it. I'm good. Good. He looked at me like, hey, But I was just genuinely excited man, to see y'all, because I was genuinely excited about you know this, this, this movement that that that y'all have been on the forefront of changing the dialogue in the barbershop and and and beyond.

you know, ask me what do I do? I create spaces that facilitate memories and moments of fellowship. And that came from my father, you know, putting food on the stove and inviting folks over, and you know the laughter that occurs in your house from folks enjoyed themselves. And that was my interest into the food business. He had a side aside, catering business. First place I got hired, First place I got fired. Yeah, very important, both of

them both important. Yeah yeah yeah, Pop Pop Pops fired me. So he had this catering business, right and uh he he did weddings and banquets and things like that. And so he would bring my brothers and I to go and work the events. And uh, working the event meant working the front side and the backside. The backside was all the prep work. The front side was putting on our bow ties and combo bums and survey. So one day I was slacking just a little bit and he

told me. He warned me. He said, hey, you keep slacking, you're not gonna make the trip, which was which was kind of devastating because my cousins and my brothers it was fun, but we also made money paid us. Yeah. I didn't make that trip. He told me. I had to sit this one. I so, yeah, he fired me. I got it, I got it backed up. But go ahead.

a nice position in the corporate office. With the corporate house. I said, I was a troubleshooter for a particular region. But nonetheless, when I when I left the company, I said, well what am I gonna do now? And I started teaching school. I went to the family business. Mom and dad both thirty year educators. So I went into the family business. But to ask you a question about when

did I know it was time to go? I knew it was time to go when that that this ease started to set in right where I was not comfortable where I was, and I knew I was supposed to be somewhere else, and uh, there was a moment. Oh, speaking of real estate, this is how I found the location for the breakfast club. I was dabbling in real estate right when I left corporate. I left for a six figure job, and so when I went into teaching,

you know, it wasn't a six figure job. So I had to find a way that I had to find a way to subsidize my income and I had to find a way to fulfeel that entrepreneur me. So I started dabbling in real estate, buying little pieces of property, putting my plan together on how many little townhomes and condos I was gonna build and how big I wanted the portfolio to be by the time I got to this age and when I could retire and so and so forth. Because if I was gonna be in education,

you know, I had to have something to do. But I'm going through the newspaper. And as I'm going through the newspaper looking for spots, I found a spot for a restaurant, uh, and it kind of piqued my interests. Drove down and looked at it, talked to the lady, left work on my lunch break, talked to the lady about the spot, told I'd be back tomorrow. I went back to my office, pulled out a legal pad and wrote my resignation. I knew the menu, and I walked

in that building and saw that space. So I went I went back to the office, pulled out a yellow no pad, and I wrote my resignation because you know, I saw the spot and I knew that it matched where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do as much. Don't get me wrong. I love the kids, right love. I loved teaching right But but but I knew, you know, deep down inside that that you know, restaurant was what my passion was. And I knew deep down

inside that I was. I was an entrepreneur. And I can't cage an entrepreneur.

you gotta give birth. You're dealing with labor paints. Look, I tell you, after I wrote the Resigonation, that wasn't that wasn't the highlight of the story. It was a two year drought before I actually got to open the restaurant. Uh, and the time I quit my job, so I went a whole lot of you know, showing up at my mama house and my baby. Don't you think you ought to go back and get you man? Look that over those two years, my nickname had become Marcus gonna open

a restaurant Davis. That's what the fellas called me behind my back, right, and and it was it was so crazy. I was I was out one day and I went to higher at the fellows. What's up? Man? So we talked and you turn your back and you walk away. And when you turn your back and you walk away and you allowed laughter? Was that me? Right? And so Uh, I just took it grain of salt and kept and kept it moving because I knew where I was gonna do, right. I knew it was taking a long time. You know,

I quit my job eighteen months before. Uh, and it ain't looking so great. I've been turned down by bank after bank, investor group after the investor group. But I still believed in the picture that I saw the day I walked into that building.

to me. One was, uh, save your money you know, be a saveror Two was because he didn't know how to he didn't know how to invest. Two was keep your credit clean. And then the third one was know how to bust your ass. You gotta work hard. And so those three things paid off for me. And so when I went to the bank, I had a seven hundred credit school. Right when I went to the bank, I did have some money stocked up in my savings account. But it still wasn't enough for them. It still wasn't

enough for them, but they still rejected me. They still turned me down. And here's the crazy part. They were turning me down because restaurant has such a high failure rate. And I heard that speech over and over and over again. I got tired of hearing. I got so tired of here, and I went to find out. I said, let me find out what is it that makes because I'm sensitive. This is my industry, and why y'all saying my industry has such a high failure rate? And I bought it

down to a couple of things. One is lack of capitalization. Right, a lot of restaurants failed because they started out underfunded. Second one is a lot of people go into this business because it's sexy and they don't have the experience to know how to work in this business. My approach to the bank turned different. I started going into the bank and told him I had done my research on you know why they were failing funding and experience, And I said, look, I got eleven years in this business.

I've you know, turned p and ls from losing two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a company to making that store profitable. So I got eleven years in this business, and you got a tank of money back there. We can solve this problem. Just give me some of them so I can open the restaurant. Yeah, he wouldn't. He wouldn't buying it. He wouldn't have it.

I showed him my plane. Uh, he agreed to meet me at the location. We met at the location, and uh, he wrote me at check, what a bit chack? What did you see? Right?

so common that I started answering it before. And the reason I started doing that was because I wanted them to understand the power of vision. Right. So when I took that exit, I saw something completely different than the dilapidated building that sat there. It was run down, it was unattractive, it was in a desolate area. But that's not what I saw, right. I saw this nice esthetic. I saw this nice, bright yellow building. I saw on the inside where the dusty tables and cheers were in

the torn out ceiling. I saw, you know, nice mahogany wood with colorful walls and paintings on the wall. And I saw people sitting in there, and I heard Miles Davis, I heard John Coltrane playing. So my response to that is, yes, I did think it was gonna happen. I saw you here before you got here, and so I shared with

and so you asked about that twenty four months. The reason that vision is so important was because after being turned down by bank after bank, and that investor group after invest room, the only thing I had to hold on to was a picture that I hate in my head, and that's what kept me sane at night, and that's what kept me hopeful in the daytime.

of the mind. There are no limits, Hennessy. Never stop, never settle twenty one and over. Please drink responsibly.

a wall at one point, kind of like the moment we have in right now, right, two thousand and six, Yeah, think about it. Two thousand and six, gas went up, right, the last two years of Bush. I'm not blaming him. I'm just giving you know timeframe. Last two years of Bush, gas went up, and the price of food shot up, skyrocketed. It was the highest food had been since the nineteen eighties. Right, So we had these transportation surcharges, right, We had We

had food that calls there was outrageous. And the problem I ran into is that I couldn't move my prices up fast enough. And I'll never forget, man, I'm having I'm having, you know, a moment because this is this is, this is when I think, oh, man, I've been successful for five or six years, and it's about to something's about to happen. And man, I called one of my mentors who had been in business for thirty years Frenchish chicken.

They ever, you know that long standing chicken business in the city of Houston, And next time y'all come, we gotta take it to get some go there. You gotta go, Okay, I gotta go. So I called him and I said, hey, I want to talk to you because I don't know how to figure this out. And he came in and it was a five minute conversation. Was less than that. He walked in. He said, first of all, stop always god damned crying. I can't hear what you're saying over there.

I'm keeping it real. I'm keeping it real. If you ever had some long nights and days as an entrepreneur, you know, yay for you, but they come, they happen, and so uh, he said, you know, this is what you need to do. And he looked at the menu and he had me make the price to Johnson and I said, mister King, I can't. I can't make the adjustments that quick because I'm gonna run people away. He said, if you don't, they're gonna run away anyway, right, because

your door's gonna be closed. So I learned the value blessing. Going back to what you're saying, So I from from that day forward, I never priced a grit or a piece of chicken based on today. I always priced it based on tomorrow. And then I moved from pricing for tomorrow to moving it to next month and next year, and today I tell entrepreneurs, do not be afraid to price for being in business next week, next month, and next year. Don't get caught where you have to catch up.

And there's a whole lot to not pricing for today, right, there's a lot to it. It's a lot to pricing for tomorrow. That means not just having payroll, not just having rent, but it also means making sure that you have the right insurance policy for when you have things like hurricanes. We have a little thing called hurricanes down in Houston, right making sure that you have the right

attorney on retainer. Because the insurance company ain't gonna want to give you the money that they're supposed to give you. You got to go and fight them. Making sure that you have the right CPA where your books are in order, so that when the disaster relief come, you can just pick up the phone or shoot an email to your CPA and say, hey, they say they need this, send it over to them. Right, So, all of those things

come into play. And the other one, which is probably one of the most important, if there's one more important than the other, it's cash reserves. Making sure that you price so that you can save money. And if you price where you can save money when the days come where ain't no business, when the weeks come where you know sales are low, when the months come where there's a pandemic or an ice storm or what have you,

you can keep the ship afloat during that time. And so that that's how I've been able to over the last two decades do that is make sure that we price accordingly and make sure we do the right thing with the resources that we are keeping the reserve.

but they fall within a similar range. Right. The science behind what you're asking about is making sure that you're not just trying to hit that number, but that you actually having enough to Okay, my general council costs X amount of year, right, which is X amount of month, right, So I got to make sure that I got enough to cover that. My insurance policy costs this much. I got to make sure I have enough to cover that.

So whereas you might go in and do the price and just to hit that percent, but then you also go in and price so that you can cover those additional costs.

when major shifts happen, they don't just go back. They go back ten percent, fifteen percent percent, but they never go back one hundred percent. Right, So we won't get back to what we were doing as a restaurant or as a country. Right from from restaurants to to you know, fortune five hundreds, nobody is going back to get you know, they had a million square feet of office space, right and when the pandemic hit, they realized, I don't need a million square feet of office space. I only need

one hundred thousand or five hundred thousand. So they're not going to go back and get that million. Similarly, in every business, that's something that's not going to change. It's going to it's change forever. Right. So, But but in terms of people, you know, it takes time to build a staff, right, and building a staff you said everybody was happy. Building a staff means building a culture, setting a standard, setting expectations, and holding people to those standards

and expectations. Right, So I don't I personally don't do you know, I hire managers, but I don't personally hire day to day. My managers do that, but they're charged with making sure that people who apply for this job understanding where they're coming to work and understanding who you're working for. Right when I did, when I did interviews, it was it was cold, but it was but it

was it was real. You know, somebody come in and say I want to work here, and you know, we got articles on the wall and I would point to them, I say, look, you see all those articles on the wall. It's like, yeah, we have that already. We're known from the Pacific to the Atlantic. What are you adding to this? Right? What do you bringing to the table? And not only what are you adding to this? How can I trust you with these people who come in and inspect those things.

So it's it's it's about setting the stand to making sure people understand, uh, the place that you work. I was saying that at at at the restaurant, it's the TVK way. This is who we are, this is what we're about, this is what we do, and these are the things that we do not do. Mm hmm.

they can't fill those jobs. So how have you been able to keep a staff and how have you been able to you know, handle during that time or has it affected you?

we are and what we're about. And that's you know, one of the things I share with my team is, you know, I'm quick to tell a team member how this is impacting you. You think that Johnny not doing what he's supposed to do just affects Johnny. Then you're solely mistaken. If you, as a teammate, don't hold your teammate responsible for running the ball, for running the play, shooting the shot, for you know, running the play that

we're supposed to run it, then we don't score. And once you communicate that to them, then they start to take ownership. Additionally, you know, my team understands I'm here with y'all right now, I haven't I haven't fried a wing or stirred a grit in quite some time now. And I make sure that they understand that when people show up for three block long lines, that they're coming

to see the work that they are producing. It's not the work that I'm producing, right, And so I get them to take ownership and pride in the work that they're doing. That people are coming and waiting and sat in the line that they heard about. They're coming to see what you did, so show up, show out.

But I did it before we could reach you know, people across the country with a single stroke of a thumb, right, right, And so man, it was straight up guerrilla marketing, bro, it was straight It was straight up gorilla. My first day opening, I had a habit of getting out in the street my day opening. This is true. So this is what I did. I had flyers because I didn't have I didn't remember. I told you that my family

and friend lost some money. Right, it was ten percent of what I had projected this to be I built. I put up you know, a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars project costs, right, and we started with ten percent of that if that right. So there was no money to do the build out. There was no money for this major marketing plan. Uh. The buildout was done by me and my friends, me and my homeboys. Right.

I got to pitch in my office, me and my mother building a table together, pitching my office, me and my homeboy painting a wall together. Right, And I'm I'm sure that y'all have had times where you know, people kick in and for the costs, and so that that's how it started. So we didn't have the marketing budget. So I had, you know, I remember my business plan, business plan important. I remember my business plan talking about you know, advertising on the radio, advertising the newspaper, how

much I was gonna do that. All of that was a wash. What I I had to do the start this thing was I printed up these flyers and at the corner of Alabama and Travis. I picked this location because when you come off the highway, it's the entry way into downtown. And so when when people will stop at the light, I would go to their car and panhamd them, try to sell them some grits. I'm shoving flyers in in your wonder, in your wonder, in you wonder, and I'm you know, I dart across the street before

before the light changed. Then from there I went back in the restaurant and I gathered these. Uh. My nickname was the muffin Man in the in the neighborhood, right in the in the in midtown because I would get these muffins and I would go from business to business, knock on the door and then introduce myself right and drop off some muffins so they can know who we are. Left a little something some for So I mean that that that was. That was honestly the organic. Uh. It

was a lot of grit. It was a lot of grind and his the thing. So, yes, we have Instagram to day and we use it. Yes we have Facebook today and we use it. Yes we have Twitter and we use it. But I don't dismiss grit and grind at at at any time because I think you know that sheer hustle uh is a compliment to the social media.

when I pitched you to him. I mean that's it's a longer story. When somebody introduced me to Jay and we met, we talked, He came to the building and the whole time, my mind has just blown. Right. He was like, yeah, I'm gonna meet you. So he met me. Mem me solo showed up. I gave him walked and walked it through. He liked it. He actually liked it a lot. That was some other things that came that came up during that time that he had to handle, and you know, we decided to call it a day.

But Jay was one of those people that when I said I got turned down, that was one of those turndowns. So but but but you asked, what was that moment, right, I can't say, you know, a single moment. I can't tell you. I can't tell you one one big moment, right. And it's going back to that guerrilla tactic, right and not having because my goal from day one was to be known as a national eater. Right in two thousand and one and ninety nine when I wrote The Big Playing,

the goal was to be known nationally. Even though there's not a path there's a path forward today for that. Right. Matter of fact, if you out there and you're doing something good, and you're doing something well and you're not known nationally, you're not known across your state or across the region, then something you're not doing right. Because it's so much easier and have so much access to everybody.

I mean, social media has just really changed and opened things up to where I don't have to think solely about marketing to the people around the corner, of marketing to the people up the street. But I can deliberately market to people in Atlanta. I can deliberately market to people in Dallas, San Antonio, uh, so on and so forth and so but but back then that didn't happen. But I still had the desire to be naturally known and I had to figure it out. So this was

one of the things that I did to figure it out. Uh. They used to be you're familiar with Tom Joiner right, had the hottest radio show on Earth right, And I was like, man, I got to get on a Tom Join and warning show. Get on that. I ain't got Tom drying to show money though, so I can't, you know, I can't just write a check. So they did this thing called a sky Show where they would travel from city to city and it was a big deal. Right, they go to each city, everybody would come and you know,

they played on the radio. And I looked on the thing they said he coming to Houston. I was like, I gotta get on a Tom Join in the morning show. What am I going to do? So I went out and I dial in Houston is one O two, right. So I went out and bought one hundred and two Neon yellow shirts with with our logo on now got up at four o'clock in the morning to go out to the the to the coliseum where they were and

passed out one hundred and two shirts. Hey, put this on, put the phone, put this on, and if I see you on this side with the shirt on, free grits on me. When we get back to the restaurant. And when we got in the and we got in the auditorium, got in the coliseum, it was, yeah, there's five thousand people in there, but one constant throughout that room with five thousand people, it's these little yellow specs And it caught the attention to one of the dj It's like,

what these yellow shirts? One of them got it. It was a dance competitions. One of them was on the stage with the dance competition. One of the DJs mentioned, next thing I know, we're back at the restaurant at the end of the show, and all those people I promised chicken too. They showed up and that that line was out there, and I was like, we got to feed them.

But it paid off. Why because one of the guys who was on the on the show ended up walking in the restaurant, sitting down eating eating some chicken and grips next thing. You know, Tuesday morning here on Monday morning here on the air, It's like, man, I had the best chance of the brine. Man, I had the best fried chicken in Houston ever. You see what I'm saying. Yeah, so you know that that was that was That was a moment, but it was it was. Yeah, there's a

stroke of luck that's involved in that. But you know, luck ain't worth nothing if you're not prepared for the moment. You know, I could have just waited and said, well, you know when it gets to come to come, I hope it happened. Nah, it's faith, man, you got you. It's fading and busting your ass. You know, you gotta you got, you gotta at the working and you got

to be courageous about it. I have a stick on my in my office on my deck behind my desk that says build a courageous company, right, and it just simply means be willing to do the wild thing that will wild folks, Right, those crazy ass ideas that you come up with. Did you think, like, hey, man, I heard Eyl come to town. Let me call get see

if they want to come to breakfast, Right, what's gonna hurt. Right, you gotta be courageous and in your effs as an entrepreneur, because if you're not, I can guarantee the result of courageousness won't happen. If you are, then the result can.

I listen, here's a little nugget, right, as an entrepreneur, when you have knee jerk reactions, I'm not telling them be anybody to be undisciplined or irresponsible with them with their money, right, But when you're too afraid to lose something that you hold, hold, hold, I guarantee you're gonna lose something. Right. So let's take a common occurrence that happens in the restaurant. I probably shouldn't say this on TV.

Let's take a common occurrence that that happens in the restaurant, right, you know, when when when guests come in and they are trying to get a little something extra. Here's a rule if you if you're in the restaurant and you say I ordered this and I don't see it, I'm not about to We're not about to go back and forth. The most important thing is you wanted grits when you got in the store, and I want to get them

to you. We'll worry about whether or not you're getting in that five dollars and eight or seven cent later, but right now you need to eat now. You know, somebody come up and say I want to pay for my grips. But if I would hell that from them, and it's the reupted them, why because I want to hold on with the grips. It's not that serious.

taking them grits, right. And you're like, oh man, you giving away food. You got to give him something to get him in the door.

Call of the day and his goal was just to see me. He didn't have an interest in so.

people to start investing in businesses. Right, It's one thing to invest in the stock market, but when we moved that into investing in entrepreneurship, when we would man everybody from Malcolm to Marcus Mosaic Garft to Martin King talked about the importance of building businesses in our community. Each of them listed that as a cornerstone to liberation from opressure. And you know, Malcolm Win as far as saying, if you are if you are not building your own factory,

creating your product earners. What's up?

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He had big vision, you know. Malcolm followed it up by talking about the importance of being involved in industry in your community. Martin the night before, if you, if you, if you haven't get a chance to go back and watch the last the last speech of doctor King the night before, he was murdered, not not not a week, not two weeks, not three weeks. Go back and watch the very last speech to doctor King Gay before he stepped on that balcony the next morning. In that speech,

he said some of the most courageous things. One, he told black people the power of their money and stopped giving it. He stood on the stage and said, don't spend your money with Coca Cola, don't spend your money with Heartspread, don't spend your money. He listed out companies because those companies weren't doing right by the African American community. Right.

But the flip side, the flip side is when he said, not only that, go take your money and put it into Try State Bank, which is the black bank that was in Memphis at the time. Go out and put by your insurance with these insurance companies, these black owned insurance company. Martin was advocating for us building ourselves as a people by opening businesses and by putting our money in our business.

that restaurant. Integration meant I now have the privilege of not being treated inhumanly by turned away at the door. But I'm still going to build a businesses in my community with me. Yeah. Yeah, And that's why, you know, that's why I'm I'm an entrepreneur that happens to be in the food business because I believe entrepreneurship is important for two reasons. One, it is the path to get in the foot of the oppressors, the foot of oppression

off of my neck. Two, I believe that people suffer from disease if they're not doing what they're supposed to do with their calls to do with they were meant to do, what they were made to do. And I think entrepreneurship is our ultimate emulation and imitation of the creator. Think about it next, to childbirth. Entrepreneurship is that you are creating the way the Creator did. You're bringing something into existence that did not exist. And the truth be

told is it was designed for you to do. And when you don't do it, then you are going against what the universe has you here for. And not only are you going against what the universe has you're here for, you are creating disease in yourself. But in addition creating diseases in yourself, you are depriving someone else of the gift that you were supposed to bring into the earth. And if you think about it from a standpoint of nature,

trees don't inhale what they put out. We breathed that in bees don't eat what they pollinate, eat that the universe needs them doing their part. The sign doesn't benefit from vitamin D. We do it, puts it out, we receive it. So whatever gift the Creator is given you, whatever dream the create has given you, whatever he's putting your heart in your head, you have a responsibility to the universe to bring that into fruition. Prowf word prof

for word. Living in the dream that makes doctor Martin Luther and.

are locations that are good lease locations. Right. You can't turn away a space just because it says, uh, it's it's the least because it may be on the corner of what not in what had and it's a thousand cars going this way every hour and a thousand cars going this way and out, and you might just have to take that right. But the other part of it is, you know, if you if you're in the food business man,

you have the opportunity today. The way I look at it is, you know, I have the opportunity to acquire assets. The company acquires assets that the grits can pay for, and that's that's the mouth, right, look for what the grits can pay for we look for what the grits can buy because at the end of the day, when there are no more grits being sold, you know, the dirt's still there, the assets are still there.

And but I say that to say it's like, think about how many party promoters and how many people had it, but they got money, but it was quick money, right, he actually.

the restaurant, said I did it for thirty years. I'm done. But now at least the locations that I used to run as a restaurant. So with your real estate, you know the story of of Ray Crop. Oh yeah, know so you know when he asked the Harvard the urban legend or not, you know, sitting around at a dinner with the Harvard students and asked them what business is the in and they laughed and said, you're in the

burger business. And explained to them, now I'm in the real estate business, you know, and and and and whether it's real estate or not, whatever business you're in, you know, gaining assets right overliability, by the way I did it, by the way, you know, it's crucial.

is incredible. I mean, it's incredibly important that you have systems in place that the machine is running the way it's supposed to run, right, I mean when you turn the call on, right that that thing everything fires and does what it's supposed to do, and that's the way. That's the way the business is supposed to be. Of course, these are people, you know, it's humans, so hands involved, so you're going to have your hiccups, ups and downs.

But the goal is to have a standard and a set of systems that in place that allows you to function in what I call my recipe for success, uh quality, product, quality, service all the time. Right, So when folks are talking about, uh, you know, what how do you what advice you have or what how do you you know, guide people towards success or how did you become successful quality product I I do not compromise on the quality of product that I offer, I guess, and this is not just about food.

This is in any business that you're in. Right, if you're offering a good or a service to the marketplace, you should do your best to make sure that it is of great quality. Going back to the price and think, what made me feel comfortable about making those moves that we discussed was the fact that I know that I'm not going to buy a product that's inferior just because it's cheaper. Right, I know that I'm not going to

skimp on something. You know, you bring a new product to me, you got to convince me that it is the same or better before you talk to me about the price, Because if you come in just talking about the price, that's not important to me. It is important after I know that it is a quality product. It is important after I know that my guests are not going that we're not going to miss a beat. Right,

Then you got quality service. You got the folks who deliver that product making sure that they are as pleasant and as positive and as you know, as what you said, everybody was happy, happy to be there, happy to be there as you possibly can. And the last thing in that is making sure that you do those two things every time you unlock that door, because if you do the two things once or twice, it's not sufficient. You

got to make sure that you are consistent. And if your goal is consistency, it's a good chance you're gonna meet Yeah.

their own way of adding their flavor to it. But the meat got to be there, the core got to be there, right, So you know, making sure that you have your positions, making sure that you have the details of what each position entails, what role they're playing. Then in the back, same thing for the kitchen. But that's where uh the recipe comes into place. Making sure that you have recipes and that they're that they're followed, right, and that's so crucial. Let me tell you how big I

am on consistency. I told you my dad fired me, right, and I told you I got him back. So my old man, best chef I ever met, right, my man was this I big. This is what I think of my consistency and why I think is important in business. Uh, my pops who was who was a great cook. He was making uh, some dishes for us for us to start serving. We were making these green beans, and one day he changed them up. I was like, Pops, those are delicious, but they're not the same flavor profile that

the guests had last week. You know, we you know, we can run some specials, but if this is our standard every day dish, then it has to taste this way every day. Right. Then we got we got into it one day because we're coffee shop, right, we serve all of the the latte is, the mocha's, the caramel and machiato's all that this stuff. So my pops was making this drink one day and this lady came in.

She said, I want Carara macato, but white raspberry mocha, but I want him to make it and me being big on because that's how that's how I cut my teeth in corporate, making sure that we followed the rules, making sure that we followed the steps. So that's what I was trying to bring to my community because I

knew in my research that was something we lacked. Me going from restaurant to restaurant to restaurant in you know, the late nineties, looking at our restaurants and trying to find out, how can we bring something new, something better, something different to our community. Because let's just tell the truth about it, right, restaurants had a bad rap in the African American community, and I wanted to I wanted to put a din in that, right. I wanted to be I wanted to be on the front of changing that,

at least in my city and beyond. So everything that I did for corporate, that was a one I wanted to do it for my people and so consistently was part of it. So I told the lady, I said uh, Now, anybody can make it. We cooked I had a saying we cooked by process, not by person. Right. That means that anybody can make this dish as long as we have the training, We have the the procedures in place. So she gets her drink and she goes over to

the table and she said down. And I walk over there with my chest out and I said, how it takes. She says it's good, and I said, but what it's good? But he makes it better. So I went I said, Pop, so are you changing the recipe? And he got a little you know, a little high way. I mean, he was like, I know what I'm doing. I was like, yeah, buddy, we follow recipes and everybody that's gonna be here has to follow recipes. And if they not go follow recipes

and everybody can't be here. He said, you fire me. I said, everybody that's gonna be here, go follow the recipe. And if they're not following the recipes, they can't be here. Now here's here, now here's here's Here's where you learn. Because there's one thing to be stirring on your rules, but there's also another thing. Like in King Richard, he said, I wrote the plan, but he was willing to look whether the plan could be better, could be enhanced. So I took what he was making and sample that I

compared to what we were already making. What he was making one so guess what that was the new recipe. But everybody had to follow that couldn't go back. So over right, quality product, quality service and doing that all the time is incredibly important.

because you don't want it taint it. You want people to understand it I like when people say you work at the breakfast club, right, because that and they like it when when people say that right. So that's that's one way let them know that the place that they are part of has value too. You continuously remind them, as I mentioned before, continuously remind them that they are adding value. You know, as I mentioned I'm start of

grid in a minute. They do, and so I continue to remind them that it's their work that the people are lining up three blocks to see, right. I continue to remind them that, you know, I think it's important that your team understands how this works. When you get your paycheck on Fridays, it's not coming out of your pocket, right, it's coming out of what you've produced that goes to the bank that then filters into So I communicate to my team that, hey, guys, these people are walking through

these doors. They help us pay our rent, they help us pay our mortgage, they help us put food on our table. And when you communicate in that language, I think it resonates differently. So One, make them understand that they're part of something good. Two, make them understand that they are adding value to this good thing. Three help them understand that Ah, this is how we actually live. And I think those things add to that that culture that you described. And you got to be deliberate about it.

You know, you have to be intentional about it. You can't. I caution anybody that wants to start the business. And I know it's kind of a popular thing, but I cautioned anybody wants to start their business, I want to hurry up and be out of that. Yeah. I only spend a little time in my business. You know, if you have not made it and molded it the way it needs to be, then it could be you said that generously, could be a recipe for for a disaster. So in terms of no, no, none.

Could you have mentioned that right coming to America was a great intellectual properties uh lesson, right, because it gave people the idea that if you change it just a little bit, then you're not infringing the rule in in in uh, trademark is opportunity for confusion, right, the is there an opportunity for this to be confused with that, and if it isn't, the one that holds the market and the one that started is the one that is entitled to it, right, So the golden arches worth the

golden arts. Yeah that that that didn't work. That that didn't work. That man, that that that you know, intellectual property is is a big deal because it is someone's It's just that it's someone's property, and there is a property of their intellect. It is property of their thought process.

then you know you're doing yourself a disservice. Right, So if you have one product that can be used in three different things, then it's more advantageous for you. Right. So that's like so on the hand, example, on the hand, we use it for the breakfast special. On the hand we use it for a sandwich. On the hand, we use it for anoma. So we're not buying ham just for one plate. Right. So that that's that's one thing too.

The more the bigger your menus and the more complex it is, then the bigger, uh and more complex your kitchen is going to be. Right. And this's just this is just my my, my belief, my rule. Right, if you want to be successful, you have to find areas

where you minimize the confusion, that you minimize the chaos. Uh. And so the simpler you make the menu, then I can tell you this a chain right now that you know doing a couple of hundred million dollars and they ain't got before items and all of them are chicken strips. You can think of the rest the morning chicken ships. It's all Look at what does kness? What is king? Sir kings? Or you don't have a king? Okay, yeah, yeah, all right, but that's that's what.

I wanted a tight ship run from seven in the morning to two in the afternoon and call it a day. Not call it a day because the work is never done right. Call of the day, like we ain't got nothing else to do, call it the day. In terms of operations in terms of service. Doesn't mean that we'll never open the night. You know, who knows, who knows the future, But it won't be simply because you know, we can get a few more dollars, right. I think my personal opinion has to be more to it than that.

You didn't get that. It wasn't happening right. Matter of fact, for the big boys, breakfast was an afterthought, right you have you have you know, a big company, They served breakfast just as a way to make a few extra pennies because we already got to be there during the prep time anyway, and we can make a few extra extra dollars. And then in the one of the reasons.

So I'm sorry I failed to give my definition of entrepreneurship, which is filling the void in the marketplace that the marketplace is calling for consciously are subconsciously that's that's the definition of entrepreneurship, looking at what the marketplace has, what it needs, what's missing. How do you feel that void? And in two thousand and one, or in ninety nine when I wrote this business plane, you can count breakfast restaurants in the in midtown, in my city and across

the country. You can kind of them. On one hand, right, you didn't have a lot of places other than your big boys, like your eye hops and your dentist. You didn't have a lot of places that just featured breakfast, not soul breakfast, featured breakfast. So you know, in ninety nine, the you know, the breakfast market was wide open, and I saw that was an opportunity to fuel the void.

And you know, if you look to that, man, Look, I know this may sound a little strange in twenty twenty two, but you'd be hard pressed to find a fish and a grip and a winging a waffle on one menu across the country in two thousand and one. Right, you'd be hard pressed, let alone to find it on a breakfast menu. And so here in twenty three. That's why when you said brunch today, those dishes have become very popular and the brunch thing has become wildly popular.

Now I'm gonna take a little credit because, uh, you know, I like to think we had something to do with that, you know, Uh you know, I mean, truth is true. Right, If it wasn't happening before you start doing it, and then you start doing it and then it's happening, then I think, you know, But no, I've seen I've seen a number of people. I'm an entrepreneur, man, and I get inspired when people are inspired, right, And I've I've had people come to me and tell me, man, you

inspired me. Told my brother here doing well, and you inspire me to open my bills, open my restaurant and uh, you know it's it's you know, it's it's it's a reality. But you know that I'm I'm and as much as I am crazy about that, I'm more inspired when I when I discovered that as an entrepreneur in the restaurant business,

I've inspired people who weren't in the restaurant business. So when the first time I had, you know, an attorney come up to me and say, man, I won't you inspire me to my practice or Dennis or doctor, I'm like, how did how did that happen? I say, of Grich, you have a terminal degree. How does that? And I came to realize this concept of uh, see touch field right, it is necessary for a lot of folks to see it in order that they believe it. To touch it

and they believe it. You know. We I know people like to you know, like to dump on Thomas and said he was a dollar, right, But Thomas said it was a dollar. He said, I'm gonna believe it if I touch it. And the truth be told, the majority of people have Thomas faith. They need to be able to touch it before they believe. And so I'm grateful to be have been in the space for the last two decades that people can touch entrepreneurship and be inspired to go out and do what they've been called to do.

And so my goal is in the next few years is one to continue to inspire entrepreneurs to go into business to open their restaurants. My goal is to to mentor and consult restaurant tours. All it's gonna be my first, my first client. I want to see us successful in the space. I believe that the food industry is an untapped market for African Americans. We're talking about everything from

restaurants and I'm not just just talking about restaurant. We're talking about the butcher, the baker, and the hot sauce maker. We're talking about everything from inside the restaurant with plates and forks, to purveyors to the people who sell and grow the products. We're talking about retail. I mean, think about it, brother, we don't have if you're talking about restaurant, we don't have national change, African American owned, right name name,

name one concept that stretches across the country. Yeah.

a lot of it. So my goal in the next five years is to get into those spaces and operate and encourage others to get in those spaces and operate. We need a hospitality company that stretches across a region, stretches across the country. And whether I'm the person to do it or whether it is the next person do it, I carenot. We just need those dollars circulating in our community.

space for well, I know there's a space. I get emails every day, I get inboxed all the time, so I believe there's a space for folks to come and learn how to successfully run a restaurant. So it's going to start off with mentoring and then it's going to move into something a little bit more because I think consulting is incredibly important and as African Americans, we have to begin to believe in professional services and going out and getting the professional services that we need in order

to be successful. We can't be afraid of that.

of industry you could think of. So it's extremely important for people to seek out those people that have already had success and already went through those mistakes because they can help.

I don't get to be where I am today. Your growth, I said, your growth, oh, without a doubt, man, without no question, asked.

Systems are incredibly important. And I have a I have a restaurant that we acquired just based on me being able to see that, Hey, this is a great concept. They just need some systems in place. And I give you an example. Right, so you order a dish the a shrimp dish, right, And what they were doing was they were peeling the shrimp when you order. They were declicing the vegetables when you order, they were making the sauce when you order. So you food to forty five minutes, right,

So I'll go what's to go? And okay, what do we take the steps? Right? We pre peeled, we pre season, we pre slice, and this is all fresh. We're just doing these steps ahead of time. And then you get to a point where we have to know we have an idea of what you're going to serve that day. I know if the line is three blocks long, about how much chicken we're gonna sell every hour? So we keep frying. Right now, here's the kicker to that, going back to that not being willing to lose in order

to win. If going back to quality, if I fried a chicken and they don't order it and it goes over my whole time, I got to have the courage to pull it. A lot of times entrepreneurs, particularly in the restaurant business, they want to sell it to you anyway because they don't want to lose that five dollars, not understanding that you've already lost that five dollars because you put in for your product in front of your guests.

So systems system system. The last one is you know the presence of the You know, I'm in my store a lot, not because I have to be, but because I want to be. I like going to work. It was to saying, if you love what you do, it's not really work. I love going to work. I love creating places to where people fellowship and I love being there with them. But there's also something that I that I found as a business term that makes this relevant,

makes this important. If you go I went to buy a piece of property, right and this first piece of probably have a ball, and the bank asked me it was in a complex, it was a conduct. The bank asked me, what is the owner eccupency rate in this complex? Not an understand and I didn't understand why they were asking. So I asked, what does this mean and why you're asking? Said, well, the bank says that the property value is a little bit higher if the owner's present. And that's the philosopher

at keeping my business. I go to work because it adds value to the guests, it adds value to my team, it adds value to my community.

Two didn't didn't a little little just come out about y'all cheating in the same year leisure. That was a leg that. There's just proven his alleged difference.

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