Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host Coley Witt, and today we have very special guest, Blake van Putton in the building. Did I say that right?
You did?
Yeah?
I did say that right, owner, founder, creator of fashion house brand Sice is in the building.
Yes, yes, So I'm.
Really excited to have you. I feel like I did the grocery shopping guys, so I know what he's making us is extremely healthy and budget friendly. Yes, so go ahead. What are you going to have me eating today?
So today we have overnight oats, very very basic. But the good part about it is you can get as specific and as curated as you want, depending on your budget and how many you're trying to make.
Oh I thought this was like a yogurt parfe or something.
It is it is. So. The way it is is it has a liquid base which is going to be like the oat milk and everything that's in it, and then has the oatmeals that absorb it. Then you top it with whatever types of like food and everything that you want on top of it. So you could get as intricate as you want, you could get as basic as you want.
I'm nervous about this dish. But is this now? Is this considered vegan? No?
Huh because of the Greek yogurt. It could be depending on your ingredients. But I was using what I had in my kitchen.
Okay, And you ate this when you were broken?
Yeah.
See, I was like talking smack when I was buying this.
Uh.
I was actually shopping with my dad, and I was like, I called bullshit. I called bullshit. He was eating this at a Mason Jars, Like, come on, man. But then I was driving and I was like, you know, technically it could be considered broke because your oats, your honey, your chi seeds, they're the staple, right, And I'm guessing oat milk doesn't go bad because it wasn't in refrigerated section, So the only moving parts of this dish that you would have to rotate out would be the fruit and
the yogurt. So technically, i'm guessing based on this this this dish costs me about forty five dollars, guys, and that included the Mason jars. So typically I'm guessing this could be your breakfast for at least a week, and it would probably run you about twelve dollars if you already have the staple ingredients.
Yeah, and for a lot of it. You have a lot of this stuff at home. A majority of people have well my assasion, they have honey, they have oats, they've got some type of like milk or anything like that. Any milk work, yeah, any milk can work. I just like oat milkause it's a little easier on my stomach. But I've used almond milk. I've used two percent and anything that's good. And then, just like I was saying before, as you want to curate it, make it more special.
You can make it high protein by putting protein powder in it. You can add a lot of stuff. And then Mason jars. You could just get them from like the dollar store. The fruits are nice.
Yeah, you can get everythingle all right, But when you make these at home, do you make them like on the spot, like when you're making cereal, or do you like have these in your fridge?
Why the mason jar? So, the mason jar is good because it kind of ferments it, right you. I usually make them the night before, so planning a lot of them, I'll do my meal prep for the week. So I'll make probably about five or six of these in one in one go, So it's really really easy to make.
But that's not the night before. If it's like, you.
Can still make it like really quickly. It's just the flavor absorbs into the oatmeal the longer you wait, so it could be really dense and kind of just not as hard to eat if you're just like really in a quick like punch. But you can also make it and plant it out, so the meal that you make that night before three days later would be even better and even sweeter from like the fruits and like the honeys and stuff that absorb into it the longer you wait.
I'm just genuinely curious if you make it, say I'm I'm like, I love this dish. It's fantastic. I'm going to make these at home. And I like to meal prep on Sundays. I'm a huge meal prepper. Okay, yeah, but my whole thing is consistency. Like if I make this on a Sunday and I go and eat it on a Wednesday, is everything going to be like mushy and slimy?
It depends if you go and put fruit in it and stuff, Like the fruit eventually can start to get like mushy and things. I'm the type of person that I can make something on Sunday and eat the same dish over and over and over and over. Yeah, if you want to make sure it's not like a crazy consistency, you can always put like the fruit in at the end. So when you're about to eat it, maybe just like Garners shit and put it on, you're going to.
Say the milk was gonna make it nasty. All right, let's how to make it. I'm excited, Mason jars out. All right, what's the first ingredient?
So the first ingredient? You want to put the liquid in first. A lot of people put the oats in first, but I find that it absorbs easier when you start off with the liquid. So, okay, we got the oat milk. Care show me how it's done.
You're making two by the.
Way, Okay, perfect one's going to be all I display take.
We're gonna shoot pictures with it because I'm probably gonna like this dish and be like this is amazing. All right, So we got the oat milk. For the oat milk how much?
So we do like half a cup like.
Big Mason Jars so use the little ones at home.
I used the little cheap ones that I just got because I got like fifty of them. I've got I don't know, I don't.
Because they were selling the little ones at rouse and they were so cute and I was like, we should totally get it. But it was like sixteen bucks and these Mason jars were.
Three and I was like, Yeah, the funny thing about it is you get so many and then you eventually lose the lids and you eventually like lose them and put them different places. Yeah, so this is just kind of one of those things where you have a whole bunch but you kind of don't know where they came from, and as long as they're all the same size, you're good to go.
So all right, so we're not going to fill these Mason jars ideal?
No, absolutely not. So it says the measurements on it, which is also like a cool little hack. I eyeball stuff in general, but I use pretty much half a cup, so it's like a two to one ratio. So the oatmeal is going on cups today. No, I'm not eyeballing, No.
No, no, you eat this still to this day or.
No, sometimes no my stomach for a lot of the most part is I've done a lot more stuff of being more gluten free and more considerate of it as opposed to before I could just kind of have the same thing every single day. So I have to be a little bit more intentional with what I'm prepping so you.
Can be like, okay, yeah, have fun. Yeah all right. So what was going on in the time of Mason jar are cereal whatever be called? Second you add this milk to it, I'm I'm nervous. I thought this was gonna be a.
Part fait it kind is at heart right During this time, I was I was starting my business up, and I'm very as you probably know, like when you start your business up, you're very hard on yourself. Where all the money goes in that you're making right back into the business exactly. So I wasn't investing a lot of it into anything else aside from strictly the business and the brand. So I didn't have that extra time where I was
going to the grocery store. I go to the grocery store a whole bunch of times a week now, but before I was just what do I have on my pantry for a couple a week I do. I go twice. I go twice, but it's mainly because I forget to get everything the first time.
Yeah ye.
So nowadays, uh, I'll just go and I have a lot of this stuff at the house, so it's fine and it's easy to just put together. But when I was building my business out, I wasn't getting any haircuts. I wasn't like going outside.
I was just as lovely as you do today.
Oh man. I was just strictly just deoderant, deodorant in lotion. That's that's all.
I that's right.
You know what.
I have a rule on every company I own, because I've been an entrepreneur since I was nineteen, especially after my first company, I don't take on my second company. I don't take a paycheck until year three. I make it a rule, absolutely not, and year three the company has to have a really nice cash flow to budget for the year.
I like that rule.
Okay, if I can't cover all the expenses without another dime coming in for the year, then absolutely not.
In my pulling.
And when I say a paycheck, I mean like it can pay the mortgage.
You know what I'm saying.
It's not paying for anything outside of like mortgage, gas car, you know, and then you know, typically year three and four, by four or five, you start to see, oh, she has a little bit of money, I'm saying, But yet I feel like cash flow is the king and the life and death of a company. So definitely, like you're pretty much working with like a side hustle and your business.
But your side hustle is like a full time job, and your business is a full time job, and your lover and your boyfriend and your cousin and your whatever, there is no life. When I meet people that are entrepreneurs and like I volunteer, I'm like, yeah, you're not there yet. You're not there yet, So pour some oats in this because we are going to eat.
During the episode.
So the next thing is oats. So you're building SI Sprand how long has SIS been around?
Has been around for four and a half years right now, geez.
Yeah.
And to your point earlier, I think it's important to note that I am the same way when it comes to like paying myself for the business, because I would hate to be in a position where the business tanks because of my personal wants. When it comes down to like a paycheck before, just like waiting that investment in the future. Right, So if I knew that I was out going getting something crazy to eat for dinner and bawling out the first couple of years, year three, we're
no longer able to stay afloat. It's because of those personal reasons. I just like to kind of thug it out. Just make sure we keep your head low, keep the costs low, and you also get creative. You might start off and say, hey, I want to sell a couple of items, but then you find out that you completely pivot, which is yeah, if that's what our brand did. We started with T shirts and hoodies, and then we eventually hand back.
Oh okay, you started there, Okay exactly. Now you can multitest. You can do this every time. Every time he starts talking, y'all, he's like, he puts down the oats, and I'm like, no, we still got to eat on this show. It's okay. If you make a mess, I am the being. I'm like the I clean kitchens, I do the groceries, I wash the fruit.
Got it.
But another reason why I think it's important to skip
payroll is one, yes, you're talking pivots, but two. There's nothing worse than having someone that is working for you and they're not really making the adequate money, and then you messed up the cash flow and you technically can't pay them to me, Like everyone has to get paid around me, and I don't want to mess around because chances are in the beginning, when they're starting out, they're not making the type of money that you know they're worth.
So you have to be a very good employer. You have to be extremely you know, gentle, but you also got to make sure that when they ask for their money, like it's in their pockets immediately. That's the difference between them being like, yeah, I guess I'll make a couple of bucks, and man, he ain't paid me a two weeks again, you know.
Yeah, there's never been a position where people have asked to be paid for me, so I was. I always make it a rule and a point that you never have to ask me, like, hey, so what's up with the money? You'll know ahead of time before working with me at all, because I know that people people translate that to their work right where I like, I don't get paid enough to do this and anything like that is nobody will ever say that working with me is because we will make sure that you're taking care of
and anything. The expectations are upfront. And I'm also the type of person that's like, if we have enough payroll to pay for three people and we have four people on the team, I'll take that cut, Like I'll take the one hundred percent loss on that and make sure everybody else is good, but before myself, because I know I'm the one that cares the most about the business compared to anybody else. Like anybody else who comes to work for us, they will love the company and love everything
part of it. But I'm going to be the one that's putting all my investment in compare to everybody else.
So what made what's the what a site stand for? So are definitely not your initially.
No, it's not. I went to school at Howard in DC, and at Howard, to size something in DC means to like hype it up. Yeah, just eyeball it. It means to hype something up. And part of CYSE is to uplift and celebrate the black community. So we sice it up. That's what it is. And then I always write an all caps So that's why it looks like an acronym, but it's not.
Okay, so you've sized it up. So you started with clothing.
Yes, we started clothing back in twenty twenty. We started with the murder of George Floyd. We felt as if we were operating as an agency, and as an agency, we were creating clothing, so if you wanted to make something for like your show, we could create the start to finish, from the designs to the websites everything. We felt as if George Floyd was murdered, that's literally not helpful for us to just make like T shirts for
you guys. So we pivoted to be more for the community and we donated to the first organization, which was Anti Racism Fund. So after all of that, we came out with the first collection called Tech Black People donated all the proceeds to different nonprofit organizations that were focused on celebrating the black community.
And this is around when George Floyd. So you was giving up a lot of money, all of it. Yeah, and you just was signing a money yeah. Yeah, And the devil wasn't like, hey man, you shouldn't want to go to don a seventy percent because during that time, I'm sure that was a lot of money.
It was a it was a dark time. I felt as if a lot of times where people felt I felt so hopeless. During that time, I would come into just environment of people not understanding what it's like carrying the burden of not knowing somebody and feeling the pain of his death and like his murder that I just didn't know what else to do, and I felt like everything I was doing I had a guilty conscious that I wanted to pivot and I wanted to do it
in my own way. So all of that money, it was never a thought to me about how it could be a business out of it. It was really a side project. I was trying to do the agency side first because I was helping these black owned businesses with their production of clothing. So it was very easy because I saw other people involved in things, and I'm very much big supporter of if somebody's better in something, I'm gonna let them do that. Yeah, And there were different
organizations that are very strong within the community. The I'm like, let's just donate all the proceeds, because if I tried to start the organization up that's trying to help the Black community specifically, I didn't have the pillars and the structures that these other companies and organizations had.
So is that why you call it a fashion house? Because you initially started as like a creator of clothing for different brands exactly particular in particularly slice like in the black community.
Exactly to help build the branches out. If you think of an entity, and the entity like branches out where we have the agency side of it, we have the clothing side of it. Everything around it is its own entity in its own face. Where the fashion house aspect of it we go beyond just like a T shirt. We started with that in mind, but there's so much
that goes into it. Even when we were talking earlier about what goes into like a five dollars T shirt versus actually construction of the shirt, from like the overall grading of a shirt to the fit of it, there's a lot more that people don't really think about, and I want that to be the business. So a fashion house celebrates where it's not just oh yeah, we have a clothing brand. It's not just another clothing brand. It's focused on the purchase you make goes beyond the items
that we have. We have statement pieces, but it goes deeper than that, and people can feel that in the clothing that they wear.
So but now if someone buys the Protect Black Women bag or the Protect Black People back, do those proceeds actually go to SISE now or do they still go to Anti Racism?
So that was a partnership with the organization when we first started with Anti Racism Fund. Now we do a lot of contributions externally and internally for our proceeds. So a purchase of a size back, the campaigns that will produce will hire like black photographers, videographers, editors, producers, social media managers, the set and the crew will be like
focused on the black community. We also do like in kind donations where we're working with organizations now within like Los Angeles and the US to help like uplift and celebrate the community. To date, we've donated over sixty thousand dollars in products to different black owned organizations and eighty thousand dollars monetarily to different orgs. So we take like part of the proceeds from the sales to do that.
And then the way we operate, like our team is completely like black lad and just we focus on just celebrating and all in all building the community around us.
Nice. Yeah, we got milk, yeah, oh.
Yes, you want to stir it a little bit though, Oh, I got to stir it just a little bit so that way it can like absorb it.
Do I really want it to absorb it?
Though?
I feel like I put way too many.
It's gonna be too It's gonna be too much on the stomach. If you're just like eating it, it's.
Gonna be mushy.
Nah.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
Guys, you're doing good?
All right? Do I have too many oats? Is it supposed to be this?
Like this? You can always add more like if it's not working out, we can always add more more oat milk.
Okay, So their mine looks all cereal esque. Yeah, just so you know, I'm not a huge fan of oatmeal.
It looks like a little granola bur aunt.
Yeah, except for it doesn't have anything sweet in it.
Yeah.
Yeah, all right, what's the next step.
So the next thing that we'll do is we'll add y yogurt that'll give.
It more of a Is there a reason why we have vanilla flavored?
So that way you don't have to addohole bunch of like sweeteners and stuff. It gives it its flavor without having like ado whole bunch of sugar and stuff that comes with it.
Here, you want to use different spoons?
I personally don't care. Oh yeah, just kidding. I care a lot.
Yeah, I like this sho yeah yeah, here here, oh just use I'll just you're using it just to right, You're right, I'm helping you, Okay, okay, So we're putting a spoon.
Two spoons, two or three tablespoons in it? Nice on your consistency? Do you want it more like running consistency? Do you want it thicker? How do you like if you were to choose thicker?
I just don't want it mushy? Okay, all right, this definitely Oh man, here we go. Okay, all right, here we go. I'm gonna all right, what's the next step after this?
We're gonna add our garnish in here. So cheese seeds, cheeseas are really good for fiber and like digestives, Like when you have things like oatmeal and stuff, it's pretty heavy on the stomach, so it'll keep you full. And I just like to add a little bit of cheese seeds in it to get the fiber side of it, but they have to soak up in the liquid. So I just add just really a third of it, tablespoon in here, just a little bit, because seeds can get kind of.
Crazy crazy as in mushy, yeah, mushy, or you'll be on this kind of both.
That's too much.
We bought this big bag of chis seeds just for this.
I could have brought something from home.
All right, Is that enough? Or do I need to put less?
That's good?
Okay, that's good. I'm gonna end up in the middle of interviews. All right, So we got the chis seeds on the Greek yogurt.
It, honey, you add stuff on top of it, honey, makes it a little week sweeter too.
Yeah, let's do that.
You know.
You better put a lot. I'm joking. I mean, that's not even mine. Who knows. I know, the one with the least is probably gonna be yours mine. I'm gonna treat it like it's syrup.
Here we go, and then mix it. Just make sure that consistency. I know, it's just mine doesn't look too good right now, so why I just don't like the way it looks.
It doesn't look right.
This one doesn't. This one looks fine. Yours looks good too.
Why don't you eat the one that looks fine?
You gotta give GC some time otherwise it's gonna be like too hard on your stomach.
You keep saying hard on your stomach. You're making me nervous.
Wells is like absorbed with the consistency and texture that they have with it. So when you put chiese seeds into these different yeah, just a little bit, but chis is also absorbed to about like ten times the size of it. So you don't want to just be like crunching on them. It's not supposed to be all that.
I'd rather crunch in slickery slick.
No, it's not gonna do all that just cause you got like a little tea spoon of it.
Okay, this looks like uh, is mine supposed to look like soup?
You should probably put like a little bit more oatmeal in it.
Oh alright, guys, so when you're making it at home, it's not supposed to look too soupy. Alright, When do we hit the fruit?
That's the last step, to be honest. So that's right now, Thanks, alright, there.
I love this one.
Mm hm like hm or mmm.
It's pretty good.
Okay, there you go. And the cool thing about the fruit is that the longer you let it sit, so if you're making them overnight, the fruit, it's natural sugars go into the oatmeal. So it's it's good.
There's it good because of the honey or the yogurt.
I think it's just a culmination of everything. What I like to do now is when I do make it, I'll add a protein powder in it, and the protein powder I have would be like either like a chocolate or like a honey protein powder.
I'm not gonna front it's good, right, as long as it doesn't get too soggy, I'm with it. Yeah, all right, I'm not gonna be all being septical loves right now.
No judgment, no judgment.
All right, we got the little fruit in there?
Yeah, you got the fruit.
I thought this was gonna be a yogurt parthe.
Yeah, that's why I said kind of right, because it kind of looks like it, but it's also not.
So are we supposed to smash the fruit in here?
You can? I don't like that just because it's like, what am I eating, but.
Oh, yours looks I put a way too.
No, No, it's cool, all right, let.
Me see, No what I can get good down with this. But I would never male practice hmmm, because I'm afraid that it would be mush m.
Yeah, it's good if.
It's probably two week because I'm not trying to let it soap. But I like it. Yeah, as long as the consistency is more like this, because I promise you, I feel like in a couple of hours this will be mush.
And then you can always add more oatmeal, just kind of how you had a lot going on earlier, but you add more so it's not too much. If you're prepping it in the morning or you're doing it on the go, you can maybe do like half of it and then mix it so it's like maybe like half of it might be a little bit more soggy compared to like half of it is not as much.
If I get in the bottom, is it gonna be really soggy?
I don't think so.
I don't know. I'm impressed.
See you were questioning it before.
I was questioning the whole time.
This is really good and I would make a lot of them at the same time because you can just have it. Some people like it a little bit runnier. I don't because I like to have a hearty feeling. If it's if we're looking like a breakfast and stuff, I like it to be a little thicker.
And why do you like the oat milk with the yogurt? Is there a reason that if someone wanted to just do it with the yogurt and the oats, would it work?
Mm hm. I feel like it wouldn't be as good. It would be like a little harder. So it's just like eating dry oatmeal. I love it.
Yeah, I love it. I don't know it's because I put a lot of sugar in its.
Right, you know, it works.
It's a definite win for affordability mm hm, portaste, and I guarantee I won't be hunger.
Yeah, it's definitely feeling. And you have a lot of it, you don't have to eat it all in one go. You can always add more to it.
The fruit are just amazing in it.
And people will put like chocolate chips and stuff in it. Yeah, it depends on what you're trying to do. Right, Like when I was first starting my business, I didn't have all those chocolate chips and all that stuff. I wasn't like baking cookies. This was eating this.
Yeah during the pandemic.
During the pandemic, you didn't try to get.
Did you get unemployment during the pandemic?
I did? But like it? Yeah, like especially just from like my livelihood perspective, it wasn't. I'm also a person of habit. So I'll eat this and I'll just continue eating it until I just get sick of it, and then I have another obsession.
Not mean, not me.
You want variety.
It's weird. I'll meal prep for the week. This week it's sprends. You know. Oh, let me tell you something. Someone better email me if you're listening to this episode about how to properly cook benzino man, because when I go to the store, they cook it in a way where it's really soft. Yeah, but when I cook it, I cook it on a very low heat in butter. Now, I do add a lot of flavorings of mine. Is like taste great, But I can't seem to get the benzino to be soft without going dry. And I don't
know if it's because I'm paranoid. Because some parts of the fish don't look fully good. Yeah, you know, it's like it looks cooked, but it doesn't look cooked.
Yeah, I'm very big proponent of overcooking instead of undercooking.
That's not say like when you try it today, Like, but I'm like, yo, try this benzino. You're gonna be like, it's good, but it's a little dry. But then I'll go to like a restaurant and they make it perfect and I'm like, what the fuck are you doing? Can someone just tell me how to cook brenzino?
Man.
I went to this restaurant when I was in New York for a New York Fashion Week and it had a They had this branzino. It's the best branzino I've probably ever had, But it was on top of this dish. It was boiling in a stew the whole time, so it was still cooking while all of the juices inside of it were kind of marinating it.
Where was that.
It's a place called fish Cheeks.
Fish Cheeks, so we need to go hit a fish.
I'm going at the best one brazino I've had.
Really Yeah, that sounds really good.
It was really good.
I love me a good bronzino, but I still haven't perfectly mastered cooking.
Yeah, it's the art.
Yeah it's I know it's a low heat. It's got to be a low heat. Question is is like I always get nervous, like it has to be cooked.
It has to be cooked. You can't have that under But.
You see how they make it in the restaurant where it's like just the perfect texture and.
You're like, what are you doing?
Are you like, is it like the type of butter or because you got to be cooking it in a butter. I would imagine.
Something like that. Got probably covering it and doing.
You think covering it? Maybe I was thinking that yesterday actually covering it.
Maybe I don't cover it. You know, one part of it's going to be really good and the rest is like, okay.
I love me. By the way, guys shout out to Trader Joe's because Trader Joe's sells uh Brenzenore with all the bones out lace bag.
I had their cod. I didn't have the branzino.
Oh do you know how a cood cod?
I try? We talked about burning stuff. I'll try it on. Try it.
Okay, So let's go back into sice here you can slide all these ingredients. Ober, Now we know we could make affordable, healthy meals exactly. So take me back to siss. Yeah, under the bags into the picture.
The bags entered the picture a couple months after the first collection we came out with. So the first collection, we donated all the proceeds to Anti Racism Fund. And then I just remembered I have a background in finance, so I used to work in New York, and in New York I did project management, and a big thing people cared about were watches and purses. I knew that the way that somebody cared about like collecting, you're even talking about like cars in general, the way people I.
Love me to watch. I was trying not to say it because I'm broke, so I don't have the Rolexes yet, but yeah, I dream of rolex.
All the time. And I think that that's the feeling I want people to have when they have my products, is that it's the even if I'm not buying something immediately, I want to aspire to have that or I want to be around that. It's not just the status symbol. It's like the acquiring it's you look forward to it.
So that feeling and seeing people I'd see people get so excited about the handbags and I didn't understand it at first, and I said, I want that same feeling with the clothing that we make, especially with the messaging we make. Because the messaging we say says protect black people, protect black women. Those are statements, and when you think of the messaging that you have from that, it's very easy for the messaging to get carried away if the
branding is not very intentional. Yeah, and I think a lot of times when you look at iHeart New York t shirts, people slap that on a whole bunch of shirts. You don't know who originally started it and how it became what it is. And I don't want that for the brand. I wanted to be like, protect black people, how this is the brand of cis, this is how
we do. So I've translated that over to handbags, and I wanted to do an embossing effect, and with the embossing effect that way, it's not just like a big, bright, screen printed design. I wanted to be something that's still subtle, bold and stands out.
With the definitely stands out. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, it is right there, exactly out there. So how hard was it to do that transition into back.
It was interesting. A lot of my community didn't believe in me making them, so at first my friend was like, you don't know how to make handbags. You're never going to be able to do that.
Is that friend still your friend?
Yeah? Yes, shout out to JB YEA.
All the way out there. Okay, he's very I don't know if he's gonna be a friend after this interview. No.
It's funny because he always like, there's absolutely no way this can work. This is the dumbest thing ever, Like, there's no way that you can do the bus. But as the brand started to build up, he would call me and he's like, I just saw the release that you did, and I've been doubting you all this time, and I just like to say, I'm sorry everything I doubted about you making this like you did it.
He's like, now when you call me, you can say that you're making Tou Tou and I'm on board. Does I know you're gonna do it?
Yeah? So he when that happened, he would call me for every release, and it was so funny because he would call me and be like, I just didn't think that you could do it and you're really doing it. He bought his family bags, he bought like everybody friend. Yeah, so it's it's not yeah, but I'm the person that's like, when you say I can't do something, I'm gonna go out of my way to try to figure out how to do. So.
He's a really close friend. He's a close so when he said it, you were like, all right to challenge mofo. Exactly, Okay, exactly, Thank you JB for your contribution towards this bag that we all now can celebrate and rock. Yes, because of you and Blake, it's possible.
Yes. And then my other best friend Vernon, so Vernon was like, yeah, don't listen to him. You can definitely do it. He was a very big proponent when we started as an agency. He makes grooming products, and with his grooming products we made hoodies with like satin lining on the inside to be protective hair. He was one of our first clients, so as we were starting to like produce clothing for him because he's focused on grooming, he wasn't focused on the apparel side of it. He's like,
you just need to do it. This is something that's like maybe might not be in your wheelhouse, but you can learn it take the steps to it. So Vernon was like my crutch in terms of like, oh, do you think that this is a realistic thing that I can accomplish? And Vernon helps a lot with like the thought and intentionality for programming for me. So my community has been like even if it was like a form of doubt, that form of doubt has been a pillar
to the success and the growth around. Instead of it being like people behind my back saying that you can't do it and wanting me to fail, it's more so like saying that this is a challenge, you can overcome it, but there are requirements to be able to do that. So I'm very thankful for the people that are running me.
Well. They also sound very much like because you have the guys that are like, you can't do this, and they're like whatever. But when he calls and he says like, hey, wow, you did it, and I'm not only gonna you know, you know, just be like shout out. So I'm gonna buy it from my family and friends like oh yeah, that's a really good Yeah, it sounds like you have a good set of friends.
Yeah, And the community. I wouldn't be anything without the community around us. So not only my friends, my family, the people who I don't know were the people that launch and got the business to where it is. So without them, when we were originally starting to advertise, we couldn't advertise because of the presidential election in twenty twenty.
Anything that's considered a political message was paused. It was illegal to promote any type of political statements, so we couldn't do any type of paid advertisement on Facebook, Google, Instagram, you couldn't do anything like that. So everything had.
To be I don't even know that was a rule, it was.
It was. It was started back in September of twenty twenty, I believe, and it was supposed to only go through the election, but they pushed it all the way from September up until I believe March or April of twenty twenty one.
And these are like social media.
This is like Facebook, Instagram, this is the start of everything for the brand. So our brand was all social media. So if you were focused on that and you're focused on paid advertisement, it would have killed our business. So the community around us was really like, we're promoting you the word of mouth We had a lot of celebrities wearing our items without asking them to do it. They
were just part of the community that built us. And it's funny because the original start of it was for the community, but the community was the backbone to actually help us thrive as well.
You got to clarify when you say community because it sounds like I don't know what you're talking about when you say that.
So community to me would be the people I work with, the customers, it'd be family, friends, anybody who's in charge of like having opportunities to be on a show like this. This is like community to me. And I think community is somebody that wants you to be around in any type of environment they see fit. So that would be if I can see success in other people without any benefit, that's community to me. So if I were to say that, oh, do I know a good show that I want to
invest in, I think of your show. I'll be like, hey, look at this show. This is a good opportunity for me. I might not get anything out of it, but because you are there for me, that vouch is the community, and people would buy these items, buy the handbags and be like, regardless of if I know you are not. This is what I stand for, this is what I represent. I'm part of the thing.
And then they're in, they're posting this and they're like integrating in any power that they can't. Oh, okay, that's amazing yea. So even though you couldn't advertise, the community was the one that really built the brand. Yes, that's awesactly. Now take me back to like the very beginning first steps. You said you had a background in finance. Yes, so let's backtrack a little bit. Yakay, what's going on there?
I used to study supply chain management before going to Howard. I did a lot of T shirts and I had like a brand where I was creating T shirts, screen printing and doing a lot of that, and I was doing international design. So with that, I was creating varsity jackets,
T shirts for fraternities and sororities on campus. I wanted to figure out what the business side of it was, so I wanted to take a job on Wall Street and that's when I did project management under financial institution groups, which in it like.
Give me an example of financial institution.
So like a credit rating agency, you will issue a bond for a company if they're able to secure like a loan or like a large amount of money. It rates the likelihood of them paying them back or not. I was doing the operation, data and control side of it, so any of the operations internally within the company. I was helping them build that out from like a project management soe of like saying that you guys need to do this in order to succeed. Here is what I
was doing. I was learning the business intricacies of how to build the business and how the corporation was running from like a day to day perspective.
That's a lot. Yeah, I think that's the first time where I almost would need us to go off camera and take that down. Okay, that's a lot. I'm not even gonna entertain how intrat that just went down a hole that I it was almost like you speak at Chinese. But okay, so you were in this line of work and then what happens.
I broke my ankle. I was at a rollerblading birthday party, and I thought I was better than what I was. You've seen a roll bounds, right. I'm having the time of my life. I used to play hockey as a kid. All of a sudden, I am just getting too conceded. I'm going around the rink doing like three sixties and all that, and I fell back clip my broke my ankle.
I mean I would have been mortified.
It was crazy. So I ended up calling an uber to the hospital and they're like, yeah, you broke it really bad. You need to have surgery on your ankle. And I remember, I'm like, oh, I don't have time for this. I flew from New York to LA to go to to have surgery on my ankle. My mom had knee replacement surgery and I took care of her, so I was like, I'll just go to the same place that she went to have the surgery that comes
with it. And I just remembered how happy I was being back in LA because everything I described to you was exactly how it felt working in that office. It was just very structure, structure, structured. It's confusing what am I doing on a day to day basis. My habits were very like New York. Every single day was very repetitive, and I remember that when I had surgery. It's it's
fun to come back and visit. I love coming back to visit New York, but I'm glad that I moved, like, I'm glad that that chapter has So.
You went all the way home to do.
The surgery, to have the surgery.
And what's your job saying at the time.
I don't know because I sent an email I said, broke my ankle going to LA to have surgery. I'll be back.
And they were like, oh, it's cool.
Probably not because at the time it wasn't popular to work remote. So this is before this was before COVID, and I was saying that, hey, I should do a remote role. They're like, that's never going to work. That's never going to work, anything like that.
Okay, got you got fired?
No, I didn't you. I didn't. I was like, okay, cool, I'll come back. So after I healed, I flew back to New York and I was like, okay, well, I was really happy in LA. Do you think I could do remote? And They're like, hmmm, probably not. I don't see how that could work in the foreseeable future. So I said, okay, well, I really want to pursue for my own happiness, like clothing and production and apparel. I put in a month's worth of notice before.
I left my job, so you literally told them that. Yeah, yeah, I said, so I want to go do this. Yeah, we got four weeks to figure it out out. I'll train whoever.
Yeah, because normally people will give like two weeks or even if if company is very confidential, if you tell somebody about to leave, they'll kick you out the same day, depending on.
The company they valued you. You were like, I'm going to LA. They're like, there's New York hospitals all over yeah.
Yeah yeah. And then being in La, I just felt really happy and I didn't think about it is just so great because I could do everything. I was sitting at home eating better.
You can't eat pizza over there. There's no good Chinese. But okay, there's good Chinese here. There's good Chinese food here. There's a couple not there are spots, I'll tell you. Yeah, so comparable.
No, it's not as good, but it's comparable. It is comparable. Like you can't get that.
Okay, So you're eating you know, alts and stuff in La, got it right?
Yeah. So going from the job of that, it was a complete change, because it's a bleat change that I didn't have a job. I didn't have anything like that. I had my family back home. I wasn't making the income I was making in New York, so I had resources that I could always fall back on. I'm very privileged to have that, but I didn't have it to just be like, you know what, We're gonna get a haircut every single week.
So did you move back with your mom?
I moved back in with my mom. Yeah. Shoot, I moved back in with my mom. And my mom didn't know what I was doing. She's like, what do you do for a living? I was like, I'm trying.
Like so you you went, showed up to work, gave a month notice, and I'm the fallback.
It was kind of like I'm going to send all my stuff back home. She's like, what do you mean? What do you mean I got Yeah, I started shipping and stuff back back.
I already moved into your room.
Yeah, she decorated it. It was like a little area that her friends would get together. So I didn't have a room for probably about six months when I moved back. Because she didn't believe I was trying to move back. She's like, it's nuts that you're trying to come back.
To try to come back, it soun like, yo, you really ain't got to come back here.
I don't have anything for you.
Yeah.
So I was.
There and she forced it.
You forced it. I told her stuff was on the way. The stuff was on the way, and it's.
Like wise like, Okay, you come back and you're gonna put in on these bills.
No, because I was I would give her money before she asked. And that's just like I was saying before payroll is like, let's get it over with before people feel as if you're taking advantage of them. And that's like the biggest advice I give to anybody is like, put those expectations up front. And I told her It's like it never surprised her that I was moving back, Like I never blindsided her. She may not have wanted it, but I moved back.
Yeah, so my mom, you're gonna tell I know this story is gonna end.
It's gonna be great. So my mom never knew what I did. And I was creating clothing for all these different businesses, and as it started to get larger and larger, I helped design my grandmother's obituary. I did like all the design for it because originally just standard obituaries they put the wings on people, and it's like the background, it looks kind of crazy. So I was like, let me redo everything, and that's when she understood the branding side of it.
But go back before you get to the obituary. Respectfully, you said you were doing this for other brands. You move here from finance, you don't have I don't have anybody, So how are you picking up these brands?
Just word of mouth. I'd reach out to people and pitch these ideas, and I think that that was like a pivot point for me. Is because a company like a grooming company, does not make apparel.
So what'd you call? You were going through not the Yellow Pages obviously, Well who were you calling? Like what was your mindset? I'm going to land at home. I'm gonna call oatmeal companies, Like what. I want to know exactly what that plan was? Like, you fly in, your mom's like he's crazy. Hopefully he leaves in a week. You're sitting at home. You're like, I know, I want to do this fashion brand. Yeah, what are your exact next steps?
I just started reaching out to anybody I knew who had a company or anybody who had an idea for a company, and I just started talking to people and you get creative. When the first couple of years of my business, I was just I'd make T shirts for this brand, I would make hoodies for this brand. I would call somebody say, hey, have you thought about making a clothing brand? They're like, no, I haven't. Oh well I made designs for you. I make the designs for them,
and then if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. And I think that that was a turning point for me is that with the murder of George Floyd, it showed that the clothing that I would make for another business may not be conducive as a black business to support them. So making T shirts for a grooming company was not helping them open up a new stream of revenue. It was just kind of like a side
project for them. So I wanted to instead of it being like we're trying to solve the problem for businesses that they never had, I wanted to pivot it and use the intention that we have with our branding for the clothing, and that contribution would give back to the organizations around us.
So you're physically designing, though.
Yeah, you not outsourced designing. I was making the websites of learning how to code. I was just doing anything because I just wanted to be involved. And then I realized that as time progressed, what is the intentionality behind what am I doing with these businesses? And that's refining it from business to business to business to consumer. And that started the brand of SIS as a clothing brand.
Okay, Now going back to the grooming. So you call me grooming as in pets are grooming as.
An adult neck beard?
Okay, yeah, groom and beard. Just you're like, hey, man, have you ever thought of peril? Absolutely not. I groomed beards. You know. You're like, okay, well, let me shoot you some ideas on some designs. You see, this is designs. He's like, that's great man. You know, as a business owners, he's going to say, how much is it? It's great? Maybe I will consider who knows, maybe someone will buy it. How are you even coming up with the numbers on
what to charge them? Or is it like I'm doing this pro bone if you're in this is the package that you get with it?
Oh, I'm making it up. Like I'm making it up. I would lose a lot of money when I first started because sometimes I would spend my I wasn't charging for my time.
Mm hm.
So if I made all these designs and like, oh, yeah, but I don't have the money for it, I lost the time on that, Yeah, so it doesn't really matter. But then I would charge. It'd be like, hey, maybe this could be like a couple hundred dollars i'd make or maybe this would be this. I would lose some
money on stuff. I would make money on things. And then sometimes I started to realize that with business there's always an extra expense you didn't think about where maybe we need to fix the spelling on a sweatshirt, or we need to change some things that the size and the fit doesn't work. I'm just trying to figure it out. But I wasn't trying to take on too much that it would become a problem for me.
Did you have a fat savings.
I No, I didn't because I just spent a lot of my savings on my surgery. So a lot of that was you.
Are a high risk mom. You you can come to LA, but you just can't stay exactly. So how long did you have to stay with her?
I was staying with her for about almost a year, but six months I was on the couch in her house and I was just doing designs and building stuff out. And then one day I was packing orders. She was trying to but I heard about it every day because I used to work in the kitchen, so I had like a little desktop set up in the kitchen. She come and cooked, She's like, what do you what do you what are you doing. I'm like, I'm designing, and
she's like, please go back to work. So but eventually she saw me get a lot of My dad, unfortunately passed when I was in college, but he was always like an entrepreneur and had his own like his own businesses and stuff like that. So she always supported that. That's something that she's always known.
Okay, okay, okay, So George Floyd happens during the pandemic for the first time. I'm gonna say this is gonna sound terrible, shout out to my white fans, but you know, white America started paying attention to something that's been going on for years.
Right.
I really blame sports for taking a knee, because I think if we had sports during the pandemic, George Floyd would have been another you know, because it was happening this this was happening, happens every year for black people, it's it's the norm for us, right, But for White America, I felt like to really take it serious. It took the whole world coming to an end for them to be like, oh damn, this is crazy, and it's like, Yo, it's been happen. It's been it happens every six months,
it happens all the time. But so this huge thing happened. You know, at this point, I feel like I'm so I become numb to it.
Yeah.
For me, I was just like, look, they catch these police doing everything on camera, yeah, and they still get acquitted. So in my mind, it's just like I am numb. Just that's just where I was at. I was not I was more dealing with how we're going to survive this pandemic exactly. But you, you know, you took it personal, and so you what was your next step.
I think that there was always It's always happened within the black community, just in terms of anything from segregation to like discrimination, like that's the reality of being black. I think that there were a lot of organizations that were built in response that kind of forced the hand to make change, right, So with fifteen percent pledged for Aurora James. She started organization and to force corporations to do fifteen percent of their shelf life for black owned
businesses and stores like Target and like all that. So there was response from that. One of the organizations we worked with, walk Good, they started as a wellness company. They started as a wellness company to host different events within the black community from like meditation and everything like that. And I think that my reality is that everything I was warped around, whether it's having a black owned business, we're working with companies like fifteen percent pledge my wellness
and my mental health. We're working with companies like walk Good, everybody that I kind of surrounded myself with. That's what built the business. So it's it's really something that was the trauma was translated into something that's a little bit different than what any of us could expect. And it was a it's a weird paradigm and the shift between how people are acting in the situation where I had I had random white people calling me every day like what can I do? How can I be involved? It
was a it was a weird time. Yeah, it was a weird time.
It was like the first time they heard the cry exactly.
And it's give and take, because it's good that the conversation is happening, but like, at what cost is it? It takes all of this to happen to be in response to what we're building out. But it was something that I think the organizations did a good job in leading how people should handle these situations, right, Like, instead of it being like the black square, everybody posts the black square and now that solves racism, It's like, no, that's not you can post the black square all you want.
But there were companies that were tracking. You said, this is the commitment and you're making to these black owned companies, and these organizations were holding you to it. And I think that that was.
There were companies behind doing like actually tracking.
Absolutely. I think that fifteen percent pledge was really big on that. I think Anti Racism Fund was good for pillars for organizations within the community. I think that that's kind of the before cancel culture. I think that that was like the accountability of people boycotting businesses if they weren't standing next to the obligations that they were promising
to their consumer. Yeah, and I think that that was the reality that we were living is like, we're tired of spending money on these places and people that don't value us. Yeah, and enough is enough. Let's change that. And I think it translates back to when people start to see it as a regular where people aren't talking about this as much as they used to a couple of years ago, but people are still having the conversation.
And I think having the opportunities and educational resources that is what controls where people will be in the world.
Yeah, wow, that's interesting. Oh yeah, I remember after Black Lives Movement, I saw a lot of corporations step up and it was like bittersweet because it was like, damn, it took all this, but thank god, you know, but it was also like why did it take all this? And to see that that change is still in effect in twenty twenty for I'm thankful, you know, I'm thankful. I a walk into Target or any store and you know see black owned brands, Yeah, you know, making headway.
Brands that you know, we're mainly online or boutiqui are now getting picked up by major chains. Huge, huge deal. I know Afro Unicorn shout out to them. They had the license at first, like licensed character in a major retailer, you know, and it was like a black unicorn. It's brilliant, you know. And now even when I go shopping and I see a white one, I'm like, ah, there's a black.
One somewhere around here, like Santa yeah, black Santa, Yeah.
I I know, I'm want to see this. But like I tell my dad all the time, like, you know, this is the first year actually registered to vote ever. Matter of fact, I thought I was voting. And then I was talking to Tony card AND's wife was congressman and I was like calling her about Kamala Harris and I was like, yeah, I'm voting this year. She was like, yeah, did you register? I was like, what's that was like, She's like, maybe you're just calling so you can learn
how to register to vote. And she like sat on the phone and help me register. And luckily she was like, do a register by mail and she was right because I'm going to be in New York. So I was like, thank god she helped me with it. But I told my dad, this is intentional. I'm specifically voting for Kamal and I'm not afraid to say it because she's a black woman. Now she was out here murdering kids and all that. You know, I would be like, okay, but
I'm not going to get to anything past. It's about damn time my daughter or myself can say, like my daughter can be like, you know, I want to be president. I'll be like, you know, yes you can. And here's an example. And I was even telling her the other day, if you become president, forget it. I'm in heaven as an adult, like, forget it. Like if that ends up being the case, girl, there is no greater gift you can give me, you know. And she's only three, But I only believe in it now because of comea.
Yeah, I think the resources and opportunity people around you was not a thing that we had where being the first black president was like a dream as a kid that you would say, that's adorable, but it was not a reality that people were really facing. And I think that now as the world is starting to have figures that are standing and sitting in that presence of it, the change is coming for sure. And I think that
representation and resources really matter a lot. So like for you, you've never voted before, you could have had the resources to vote, but the resources weren't enough to provide you with reason to be like, here's a reason why I'm actually going to vote, and they're I think that that's the same thing, especially like the community that we're in, is that things have to be set up properly, but they also have to be set up properly for you specifically.
And I think a lot of times when it comes down to like voter registration, for me, it's like I've registered to vote, like I've voted several times. My journey compared to like somebody I've been classed with or I'm sitting next to be completely different because my reality is like the neighborhood I grew up with, like everybody went to go vote on the special day, everybody had like I voted sticker, Like that's my reality, and sometimes some
people just don't. Like I even have people in my family that are like, they don't prioritize things the same way. But I think between having more resources, more role models, and more people that are actively like getting on platforms and speaking about it, it's a really really dope thing. And then the things that we're instilling in kids and we're instilling in the next generation is more so not like this is a dream that could possibly happen, is
like this has actually happened. The statistics on it compared to like everybody else is lower, but it's still an opportunity, whereas like we I'm so used to Even when I was applying for colleges, my college advisors were like, don't apply for this college because you like there's nowhere you're going to get in. Don't apply for this like instead of maybe there's an opportunity, That opportunity of like slight possibility even is like less than one percent if it's there.
I think that that is what allows people to really just be dedicated to stuff around us.
Yeah, but I also think that, like one of all other reasons why I ended up voting or registering to vote was I actually had congressmen on the show, Okay, and he broke down like how he was able to win or win his first like electoral race because he was reaching out to the Brown community. It was like Latinos people that like the other competitors weren't even wasting
their time. They were like not even wasting their time, and he just he like was able to articulate like what happens when you don't vote, yeah, and like the damage that can happen and what happens when you do. But he was very much able to articulate, like how the government is run when you sit silent, And I think there just really isn't enough education for those that are like nobody listens to us, Like that's so out of there. I'm trying to figure out how to put
groceries on my table. But I feel like from the midllennials on up, they more care about, like what's the brand's mission and purpose and who do they support when they purchase. I'd be honest, I'm much like if I see what I like, I like, I buy, you know, mission or no mission, as long as you're not harring you know, sounds terrible, but this.
Just that's that's your moral compass. And I think that there's like an opportunity cause right, like so somebody might be like, I don't buy any fast fashion. To not buy fast fashion is expensive?
What's fast fashion? Like fashion?
Ova? Like shean sh t MoU like any company that exploits workers in exchange to make it's cheaper.
That's what they do.
Or yeah, for sure, oh like to make clothing from fabric perspective, and like working you cut costs and like how much cost can you cut before it starts to be like lower quality or somebody else's livelihood, you know. And that's the conversation that you have, is that if you're like I no longer support any of these brands, you have to have the money to pay for that,
or you need to find some opportunity. And I think that there's a given take, just like a business being sustainable, Like we have products that are sustainable, but the whole business to be a completely sustainable business requires a lot of effort for that specifically that that might not be
It's like a give and take. My prices may be higher if I were to like source packaging from somewhere else to be like completely sustainable and biodegradable as opposed to like this is like packaging, maybe we are focused on tissue paper that gets thrown out. We don't really care as much on that. It's a give and take.
And I think a lot of times with apparel, the reality is you wear clothes every day, so people aren't being like, oh, I don't support this and all that, Like go to the liquor store, get a T shirt and all that, like you spill on it, what are're gonna do? Oh, now I have to go buy like a high end brand, it's very difficult to get like in the weeds. And I think that we are so like very big on like I want a company with
the mission on it. But I think that having a brand with the beliefs of it and understanding that if you are purchasing like cargo pants for my brand, aside from a bag that says protect black women, you know that the same effect is still happening within our brand is because our contribution aside from being like we donate x amount from the sales of bags, it's like our brand is focused and mission driven for this it makes
it better. And there are some people that purchase the brand not because we're black owned, but they like the messaging. Everybody's intention is different, and I think that when you understand your intention behind it, and like, I don't shame people because I don't know the full extremity on what it is. Like some people they might be like I wear three dollars tea every single day. There's my one outfit. I don't have anything else in the budget for that.
People have kids all my money goes to my kids. You don't know what people are going through, but I think that when you know what your moral compass is, and I think that not everything needs to be like a moral and ethical decision, but like where you decide to put that, Like maybe my moral compass, for like my tithing goes here, and maybe it goes to that. But not everything needs to be like a dissertation or like a deep dive in it. And I think that we make things a lot more than it actually is.
But it's interesting. It is interesting why.
People that when it comes to sit people can purchase your clothing and your bags online, Yes, and where else.
We're currently only online. So the goal right now is to be into different retailers.
Yes, and prior to us recording, you said you wanted to be in specifically two retailers.
Yes, go ahead. So I want to be in Sacks, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, places that I like to shop and everything, and I also want to be in local boutiques. I think that being in boutiques is really cool because we know some of the boutique owners and being in those spaces that you shop is really cool and it's part of the community. That helped build us around.
Yes, your price point on your bags and your clothing is.
It's on average, a canvas tote bag is forty dollars. The handbags are between one fifty to one ninety five depending on the material in the size of it.
And you have a cool hard wallet.
Yeah we do. We've got the Charlotte card holder.
I feel like, what was the price point on them.
That was forty?
It was?
Yeah? Was it? Yeah? What was it?
Why do I feel like it was a lot more?
That's good? Yeah it's forty.
Yeah, okay, But you want to be in but you don't want to Why would you not consider, like because those price points you could be in like a Tarja Yeah, tarje I was. I would say Walmart, but I don't know if any you know Walmart accounts. But why would you be opposed to going inside a Target?
I'm not opposed to it. I think that there's a way to curate it right where if you look at a company like north Face. North Face has the Purple label and that's their lux line that's only in designated locations, but they also are in places like TJ Max and Marshals there.
Like how guessed by Marciano is like, guess, yeah, there's different branches in each one that comes out. Would you be opposed to that?
No, I'm not against it, okay, yeah.
So and then where do you see yourself in like a couple of years.
I see it. I see SISS as a big brand that houses everything where either we have ownership or we work with direct companies in things that we don't specialize in. Right, so for a media company, we're not a media outlet, but it would be really cool if we work with a black owned media company to.
Like us exactly.
Okay, okay, what we wouldn't take the ownership of that, but we know that it's like, okay, if we want to have a show and an audience of people, we can now be a supporter of your show. If people wear clothes, like we could make the clothes for this show, and that would be like something that would be part of it we can make and be big with. Now the people that come in, they have an awareness for programming. We have hosted events, but there are other companies we
work with to be part of it. So being an entity that's like ancillary and supports other businesses is really the goal and to sit in these big retailers. We do want to have our own brick and mortar store, but I do want it to be like this is a luxury upscale business. Those are like heavy hitters and like Sacks and Norsetrum that are sitting there. We are also in an everyday accessible company like a Target. I want to have those and like curate it tastefully to be able to be.
Like all in all, how hard is it to get in a Sax and a Norseum? Tell, have you made the calls? What does it take to get in there?
It takes a lot. I think that when you're looking at companies nowadays, people are very digital. So you can be on a website like Macy's. Macy's will have a program where you can sell and never be in their physical store. You could be on like Macy's dot com.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it's a good opportunity. But the curation piece of where it sits on the floor if you were in store is also different. So on Macy's dot com. When you see all of the listings on Macy's, Macy's has like tens of thousands of items online. Where's your brand going to be? And if somebody is just like, let me just see what I can get from Macy's and I go to handbags. How many companies do you know
make handbags? So I think that the curation piece on it is like more intentional to be in store, which is what we thrive for.
You're so good at online. And like even when I shop at Macy's, which I rarely do now because the a riodte takes all my money, but I usually will type in like if I type in shoes, I'll be like Booty's and then it'll be like price point this dollar amount to this dollar amount. So I do like that about Macys. So like if I were to if Seyss was in macy I would just be like handbags this price point, yeah, you know, and then obviously I always go over that budget because sometimes the nicer bags
or more or whatever. But I do think that, like if everything's going online, because I can't even remember the last time I like walked into Macy's. Yeah whatever, what's wrong. I do for the shoes, you know, because she's yeah, you know, every girl's addiction. But for the most part, yeah, like I would so if you had an opportunity be on Macy's. Would you be like, Eh, No.
I'm open to it. I think that we're not too good for any opportunity. I think it just needs to make sense as an opportunity for the business.
And then but how are you how do you get into the stores? Like who are you calling? Or or have you made the calls?
We've We've made calls and we're in conversations with different companies. But there will either be like a buyer for the specific department. So Seise could be a brand inside a place like a Macy's, but it might be Sis's handbags, not the apparel. And it depends on like your or strength as a business. And it also depends on like a buying calendar. If we have right now, it's fall. If we're selling a whole bunch of like tank tops and stuff right now, people in New York are probably
not going to buy tank tops. So from a buying perspective, listing it online as opposed to in store two different beasts. So it just depends on how we're going to be. But I think that accessibility should be open to everybody. You go online and you purchase stuff online. I buy all my stuff online, or I like occasionally go to the mall. My mom doesn't believe in buying anything online.
She has to see she is, but she's part of like the clientele that purchases from me, and like her friends would purchase from it, and they have to feel the items. No matter how sell them, you got to be in person. Will either do like pop ups or be in a store or like I'll have to bring it to people. Like there's just certain things that I think that we lose and I don't feel as if a brand were too big to do those things right.
Like my mom is spending the same amount of money that somebody else would spend on something, but she's like a loyal customer. She does not know of new brands that come out like on a consistent basis, because she sticks with her consistent businesses.
Yeah, yeah, she's like me and.
Yeah, and I want that for people where it's like I want some people that have a whole bunch of brands. I want people that want like a culmination of black owned businesses. I want people that just want handbags. I want it all, and we're not too big to be in anything like that. I just think that there are certain aspirations that we have. I think that even if we're not in stores, the business will be successful.
Yeah, it will. It is successful, and it's a beautiful brand. I particularly want to go and get the car Ballet. For some straight reason, I thought it was more and I don't know why. Maybe I was like doing too many things at the same time. Yeah, because I do that sometimes, I'm sure. Because John was like, you have to you have to get to Blake. You have to get this guy Blake. I was like, all right, John, it's not why I'm calling, but okay, send me his info.
And I was like, oh, yeah, we should definitely get I looked at your stuff, that's right. I remember I was in Beverly hos And I was looking at your stuff and I said, oh, his stuff is pretty amazing.
Thank you.
But that's a high recommendation. It was a very high recommendation. He was like, you got to hear his story. He worked very hard and this is a John from Hustle to create what's his coffee? Coffee Don Mundo shout out to coffee Don Mundo. All right, tell all our listeners where we can keep up with everything Seise related.
Yes, you can check us out at Seise dot Store, CI s E, Dot S, t O r E. We're on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, We're on everything.
Yes, And if some brands or particular brands, since you are very intentional with the black footprint, if some organizations wanted to reach out to partner or to do business with you, because it seems like SEIS is very open to that, how would they get a hold of.
You as a DM And like our emails are connected to everything as well, So.
Okay, perfect, Thank you so much for sharing and affordable, very healthy, and I will give you this like most of my jar is actually eight look at that. It's really good. Shares to this dish. I absolutely love it. Thanks for listening, y'all. Peace out for more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.