MANDII B -Over Easy Eggs Run that Rice

She recently launched a subscription box for women called Official Box Owner, focused on feminine hygiene, sexual health, and normalizing conversations about womanhood. And I can definitely speak from personal experience. I definitely appreciate everything that you do for women and and the movement of conversating because I still get nervous, you know, buying tampons, and like I literally will go to the register that has maybe a woman or try and pile on a bunch of stuff. It's for a tampons.

It's crazy that I have this now because I'm also someone that hid my pure from my mom for the first year. So I am now learning the conversations and how important it is, especially like you know, I went through my little home phase with with my partners, and I thought I thought it was just also very important to know the smells. Um, what tracking your own ovulation.

I mean, there's a lot of women now, of course I'm in my thirties, so planning on on being a mother, what that looks like, what's the best time of the month should be? Um? And then also just normalizing the conversations with the partners you have about what pleasures you, what doesn't pleasure you. Those are all conversations I think we should be having now. So um, that's kind of

how my box came about. So what I like about you is that you have the podcast, you have your box, and not only are you a personality, but you're an entrepreneur. Oh god yeah. And I came from corporate, so I'll be honest with you too as this entrepreneur thing. Um, first off, I used to work like seventy eight hours as a tax accountant, and I was like, I just want my own business, so I don't have to work

as much. Now, you work more, No one told entrepreneurs, and no, you're just not gonna sleep Like I've literally gone through therapy and had to set my boundaries to let my team. Know, hey, nine to nine after nine pm, can you please like, that's still a twelve hour day. It's still a swem our day. I love how you admit that to people are always fool Like, I can't wait to work for myself because then I'll be my

own boss. And like, there's no such thing as your own boss, either your customers or your boss, your vendors or your boss, some und your boss. So I had a baby in my fourteen pound baby is my boss? Now I was like, how did that happen? For sure? And I mean that's the thing too. I still wake up at like seven, so I really have like fourteen hour days to be real. Um and then, unfortunately, to so many if you're an entrepreneur, social media is a large part of that. We're on our phones all day long.

So if you really want to include social media, you probably realistically are working. I agree. So what did do you have us eating today? All right? So the dish um that I brought for you today is one that got me through many, many, many times. So it's just white rice, um, an egg over easy and then catch up. Okay, Okay, you could also do hot sauce if you want salt pepper for some season as well. Um, and that's the dish. This looks like a definite broke dish. I never had this.

I'm really excited because I like seeing the different broke dishes, and I've been lucky and fortunate enough to not have had the same dish twice. I get to get find out where the root of this dish came from. So what was the last time you ate this? Okay, first, I guess I'll start by at least putting. Um. Now we can say and put the rice down. Thank thankfully you cook that for me already. Um. So the rice

is already cooked. Rice is just something you always have around. Yeah, you put it with every meal, and you have to. It's a good filler. It's a good filler. Um. And then eggs. Everyone also always has eggs. Um. So the last time I have this dish, I would say, can I go to get this is going in? You don't if you don't feel okay, I'm staying up. I'm probably gonna be the same height standing up, so you want

have to change any cameras. Um. The last time I had this dish, I would say was probably why right, I was still in college. I was still in college because I thought I made it big once I made it to corporate. Once I made it to corporate, I was like, oh, I'm making sixty one dollars. I'm so rich now, you know. You know I don't have kids. So I was, but I wasn't living off of Sally

May anymore. Um so, I would say this was probably the last time with two thousand eighteen non traditional college students. So I graduated college in Um. Yes, so I graduated. I was supposed to be a tax accountant. I'm gonna let this get a little hot before I put the butter on it. Um numbers, Yes, I love numbers. So I was in school. You couldn't tell me I wasn't gonna be a c p A. So I did a hundred of fifty one credits in four years and got my b s and accounting and a another bachelor's in

Business administration. Want to focus on marketing because in New York to get you to sit for the CPO, you have to have a hundred and fifty credits. I wasn't gonna pay for a master's. That's coming out of pocket. That's too expensive. Um so yeah, So I ended up leaving my first job at Goldman Sachs and going to earn Sina, and then I left that ship after one year to the podcast. So that's that's amazing. Uh So

when you were in school, were you working? When I was in school, I did some internships, um, and then I bartended maybe the first two years. I also studied abroad. I was living off scholarships and can I say these uh how I'm just saying? Oh? No, I had quite a few men on the docket helping me pay because, like my initially covered regular tuition, but in order to graduate fast, I had to take winter and summer courses. So I had one guy paid for those. Another guy

had me as a fake employee on his business. Yeah I'm not gonna say who that was. I don't know, but yeah, I was getting a check every two weeks from him. Um. So that's how I was able to really, like you know, get through school without having to work. Are you still cool with these people that? Oh yeah, they're still friends friends today? You guys ever group chat? Like, can you believe this group group chat with my lovers? No? Girl? UM, I mean to be fair, they all knew about each

other because I'm a very honest person. Um but yeah, no, so what was the last question? Look now now I'm trying to focus here. Yeah, I don't want to get too off, but how do you how do you go from c p A to all about women empowerment? Um? Well, I mean I'm a girl's girl on my and like I like girl trips. I love being around my friends. That was probably one of the reasons for my recent breakup too, is my friends come before everybody. Really, my

friends come before you tell guys that. Yeah, yeah, yeah? And what slocks too is my friends also come before my family, which is very different for most people. My family, I feel like I grew up with Osbourne's so it's just like we needed a television show because it was so toxic. So once I moved out, I moved out of eighteen, I was like, my friends have always wrote for me if I ever needed anything, my friends always had me. So yeah, I tell them that, And um,

is that gonna okay? They know it's a cooking show, all of you. Listener, she's cracking an egg. I'm cracking an egg and I haven't worked on an electric top in a while. I probably should have let it get more hotter. More hotter is not a word, by the way, I will make up boards, this entire fun this fine? Okay? Um, so where where are we with with with the journey? How did I get to podcasting? What's crazy is my

co host Squeezy came to me. This was my last year of college, um, and I was like, girl, I'm I'm about to be studying for the c p A. It's about to be busy. And she was like, I just went on this other podcast and I did so great and they said I should have a podcast. It was so cool and we were talking about dating and sex and you know, I was thinking, who else would talk dating and sex? And it's just as big as oh as I am like many, let me see if

Many wants to. And we had actually just rekindled a friendship we hadn't spoken for maybe five years, um, and we literally got into the podcasting for what girl, I had a Twitter. There was nothing worse than I could have said on a podcast that I didn't tweet about, which min you I just had to go through and delete a hole. Have you went back to your Twitter? Girl? Do you know they look at your tweets and background

checks now just letting you know. Oh yes, ma'am. I think personality you're you're more nervous right because because they it's cancel culture right now. I looked at them tweets, I said, what personalities? That That ain't me? I was. I was like, I was imparrased. Oh my god, no one was. Let me see. One was really bad. One was like, I don't sell drugs or pimpos? What is rap music? Girl? I love rap music. I was like, I tweet, um, but yeah, So she came to me.

It was like, we should do a podcast. By episode three, UM shout out to a King A King from Law Speaker Network. UM reached out and at the time Charlemagne was a part of that as well. UM and a year later they brought us on board and we just like full sale went and and we like we went on Brilliant Idiots again. Shout out to to Charlemagne and Andrew Chultz for that opportunity, just that one feature. How did you get to Charlotman? Did I miss that? King?

So A King introduced us to Chris Morrow, who also worked with Charlomagne. Who that's where Brilliant Idiots the read friend Zone all the Top Black Black podcast. We're a part of a lot of speaker network and so we got introduced and we're able to kind of be a part of it. So we signed on and it was like that's all she wrote, That's all she wrote, and like again, probably just being in New York too, right, I don't want to say that there's any one way

to be a successful podcaster. Right. So growing up or being around New York, we saw Disamaro brilliant idiots. They were having live shows the read so we were like the next step of the live show, we had to do a live show. So we self funded our own

live show, sold out. Next thing you know, we're looking at our analytics on SoundCloud, looked at our major cities, and we're googling theaters, event spaces, renting them out ourselves and putting tickets on event right, and we put ourselves on an a city tour wow where we profited every show because we sold out every while. And where you any part of you guys doubting yourself during the journey, and then are you making two eggs. I'm gonna make two I'm gonna make tours. I'm gonna make it quick.

I didn't. You're just trying not to. Yeah, I didn't want to have to. I need space. Normally I do a little pile on a micromanager. Listen, Normally I do the little fans. This is a big old fan. I'm trying to make sure I don't work the yoke here and if y'all are looking at s where I know how to cook. But I wasn't gonna come on here and say we're gonna look what you did it. So were you nervous at all during any of this experience?

Did you have any like see things of doubt? Because I know even me starting this, I always have the little devil on one shoulder that's like questioning the ability or whether it's going to be successful. Did you have any of that? I'll be honest with you and again through therapy, Girl, I just got told I live in fear. So every day I woke up, I said, there's no way I'm making this much money. It's gonna end. I'm

gonna have to go back to work. And so a lot of like what I did was just like I have to stay working, which is probably why I have thirty jobs. Now, Um, you do you do? I live in full fear. That's how I live. And it's not healthy. It is not it is not healthy, it's it's not something to do. And what's crazy is I live in in the fear firm like almost where I want to disconnect from the past. I'm scared of the present, and I looked to the future, and the future scares me.

So the fact that there's the future scared you. Um, the future scares me because that we just had a pandemic. You would have told me we were about to live through and now we're about to live through a world war. So to me, the future scares me because I'm I don't want to call myself with my manager, but my team has been letting me know on such Um. I hate to not feel like I'm in control of things, and so doesn't matter what my goals are, it doesn't

matter how hard I work towards them. There's a lot of uh variables that are out of my control. And so that's what scares me is that all of this hard work could end who knows, with a fucking nuclear bomb at this point, So you know what I mean. And so that's what what scares me is, Like what am I working towards and so now I'm just like trying to live in the moment. That's what I'm working on a therapy now is just like enjoying my successes as they come and not looking for the next high

if that makes me Yeah. I When I interview people on this show, one thing I've noticed is that every time someone hit a goal, the goal capt moving, so it was like impossible for you to find your happiness in hitting that milestone. Yeah, I mean I grew up in a single parent household, right, so six figures that I feel you just six figures seems like oh my god, will I ever obtain? And now it's like all right now.

You also don't realize when you talk to six figures, there's a huge difference between a hundred thousand and nine hundred and nine thousand and nine. So now, yeah, like I'm working towards seven figures. Do you find yourself ever? And speaking from experience, but do you do you ever find yourself because you're working so many jobs? Do you keep yourself on a strict budget to survive or do you do you do you live a little when it comes to your finance? Do you put what okay, Okay,

so you budget. I lived on a budget so for so many years, like literally this this meal reminds me of like back when I had to choose between toilet paper or food. Yeah, like I had roommates, I was like literally the financial aid office like nah, I need that to hit or I was calling not somebody like

nah I need that now. Um and again back back in those days, which also is not too long, but having to go to Western Union, not having cash, that, not having zail, the way of getting means from people like it wasn't wasn't really you know, it was very expensive. I made two good eggs. Y'all can't tell me nothing. Okay, um, turn that So what at what point did you stop living on a budget. Was it like you hit six figures and you said screw it? Do you don't live

paychecks and paycheck? Because I feel like most entrepreneurs don't do that. They know better, because I mean again, I think one of the things that I never had the luxury of doing when I was eating meals like this was even having a savings was knowing that another check was coming in or I mean I had to budget when I got to check every two that's all you're seeing, you know, the taxes that are being taken out and a lot of times, and that's how I was raised.

Can I can I hug you up? She's adding up everybody. Okay, really good and then you know the little yo gonna break and it's gonna be delicious. Um. I now have took this out and I do not poison sauce. Um. And I also like sour cream, but I gotta stay away from dairy. I'm trying to stay away from dairy. Um. But this was this was my go to. I'm gonna bring my seat back over so we can sit and eat because the bitch is hungry, and you break the yoke, let it get into the rise. If you need some more,

like I love everything super saucy and gooey. That's me, then you might. I definitely will because I love seeing all that sauce. A lot of people don't. I'm surprised so many people don't like they over easy, but I love it. I feel it's okay girl. When they don't know, they just don't know, like if they're sausage and pancakes, I let that sauce. You have to you have to. Okay, here's the thing. And I'm gonna tell you secret. If they don't like over easy eggs or runny eggs, they

order their steaks well done. And you can't trust those people, you know what. You can't trust themand don't trust them. You can't trust them. You can't trust you know what? He does both. He likes him, so he doesn't eat him runny, and he eats his steaks while done. Oh not him eating beef turkey. Yeah, tell me what you think about it. You can do that. Well. I didn't cook the rice, but so shout out to whoever made the rice. This is jasmine rice. This is a little passage.

I love those jazzin rights is my favorite. Doesn't it taste great? No? This is great m and literally to like. Um, my friends make fun of me, and I talked about this on the pot. I will put an over easy egg on anything, because I never so to me. As long as you put an egg on it, it's part this so so so good. It's good right right, I'm definitely gonna it's filling. Do you have you you have your protein. It is gooey, you have your protect I don't know if gooey is a good word to explain

it saucy there, it's very saucy. I love saucy. Just soak my stuff, a gravy, anything, making a little hotter, that's my thing. You know what. Every once in a while we come across the dish that I say I'll make at home. This I will definitely. It's fast, it took you. It's five minutes fast, and supporta's affordability. This whole meal. If you buy a bag of rice and eggs, you have um at least five or six meals for under four bucks. Five or six meals. Girl, there's a

dozen eggs in a container. If you six meals, isn't like you're trying to have a Thanksgiving dinner style with eggs. You have six Now eggs, I don't think if hit the inflation button yet, so you could still get them for like three nine rice you just always have and then catch up. So I mean, if you do the math, this dish maybe costs less than the dollars. So anyone looking to save money, this beats the beating faster and it's much faster. It does, and it's fast. Yeah, so

I love it. Yeah, Now I don't I don't need this anymore, so when it came to the official box. Yes, you started that business during COVID. So the idea came in May, Um, I'm not gonna lie. I started a whole another podcast because I was like, oh, let me um journal, what this you know breakdown is like? And then by April I said, oh, we're not getting out, We're I getting out. I thought it was only gonna be two weeks. You know they told everyone just two weeks,

say in your house, was only gonna be two weeks? Yeah, No, it wasn't. Um and I think that that's when the panic hit because we are our tour got canceled, so we missed out on six tour dates for horrible decisions. And then it was just like everything went down. Like I was just like, what else is gonna do? We only have ads coming in. This was before we joined Black Effect, and I was like, ship, what else can I do at We were all out speak her at

the moment. We weren't with pocketfe yet and um so my home girl hit me up and she was just like, girl, you have this this audience you have, you know, you have a fan base. You need to sell something. I was just like, what you had a good circle. I love my circle. I can see why I love my friends. I love my circle is vicious. I love my friends. They're like, no, girl, why are you not selling anything? So I was like, I don't want to sell sex toys. I don't want to do that. And I mean, she

knew like kind of where my journey was. Um, A lot of again, a lot of my friends. We talked about pH balances. We did this, and I was just like, let's look up subscription boxes. Um. And we had the idea of a quarterly because it was gonna be too much to do it monthly. And we were getting products from black owned and women owned businesses. How are you? They were just reaching out to you guys, saying, check out our products. They were No. I emailed everyone, so

I was deeming them. I used that blue checkmark for something. I said, listen, um, this is what the value of promotion on my Instagram page would normally be. UM. I also just released another podcast, period sst to go with the subscription box. Um. And this is what I'm offering. This is how many products I need an exchange for promotion. Yeah. So I got all those the products for free, got my boxes from China. Um so we ended up up uh figuring out the profit margins for that, and so

we released by October. So this was a five thousand dollar investment total for me for the design the website. Again, my homegirl does graphics, my homeboy does websites, so everyone I paid them a little song. Um so, five thousand dollar investments. And in year one we sold out day one of the of the drop and then how did you promote it? Just on just on my Instagram, Just

on my instagram, just on my Instagram. And in day one we sold out all of the boxes in twenty four hours and I saw twenty dollars hit my account, and again, this is October Derrin pandemic, and so what were you thinking at that point? Oh god, I was like, oh this is kind of nice. And here goes my partner shout out to sid. She was like, we're not gonna touch that money. Now, let's make our own product. So we took all of that into white labeling and took that money from the first box and invested in

the inventory. We did work acids depositories and apple side of vinegar gummies, and we white labeled our own products, which means we went to a pharmaceutical that already had the products, so I didn't go into the kitchen and whipping day up. But it was UM, a pharmaceutical company that already sold it, and pretty much we paid them for the product, and white label means we placed our label UM and then Yeah, so we made our Our one year was October and by then we were at

a hundred and seven thousand dollars in sales. So during the pandemic in an e commerce space, I had not been familiar with it all. We did over six figures and sales in our first year. Yeah. So when you you're a personality on horrible decisions, you have your other podcasts, yes, which is how do I see the thing is? See the thing is? And you have this box yes your personality.

Do you ever get people that underestimate your power because you have this huge personality but you're a serious entrepreneur. I mean all the time, I think like that's been the issue too with Wheezy and I coming into the space with horrible decisions. UM. You know, we'll sit down on other podcasts and they'll be like, hey, we have the horrors in the building, and it's like yeah, like that that completely diminishes an undermines everything that we built

um as far as branding, marketing. I mean, for the first year of the podcast, I edited the audio, I boasted things. We still make the descriptions, we're still very hands on. UM. So I think it undermines who we are, Like I mean, we could be boss bitches and sut dick, you know what I mean. And they try to separate And I say this to everybody. I don't care who's listening. Hey, no edit here, don't no edit out. No. I'm a firm believer that every girl goes through a whole face.

I don't give a crap. I mean, girls all the time they're like, oh, I haven't gone through mine. I'm so innocent. I'm like, bullshit, Okay, I'm sorry. I mean, I'm I'm about to renswer one. Yeah. Yeah, I think at least, I just say, at a minimum, at least once in your life you go through a whole phase. I'm not gonna say whether it's multiple times or not, but I just I think the blanket thought that oh, this girl is a whole r versus this girl, it's like, no,

you know she's a virgin today. Well you know next week, but like, but also that term. I think the reason why we even named sorry, why we named the podcast that you know, we put horror out there, and it's because it's a It's a word that stems from patriarchy. It's a word that men have pushed onto us to make us feel less than for enjoying the things that we enjoy. It just is what it is. And so if we can reclaim that it now doesn't mean anything.

So now you're calling me that doesn't doesn't mean anything bad, you know what I mean. But I still think the negative connotation surrounding the word is why I'm glad you didn't sit and say, yeah, we have a hole in

no house like you know. And again, I've shared my sexual life, my my womanhood, UM, the things that I've dealt with with my body, with reproduction, with UM, my relationship so publicly that unfortunately it does get used against you as a woman, UM in terms of maybe them not feeling like you could show up the same way

a man can. And I think I've done pretty well in this space, and I've been attached to a lot of the other men in this space as well, so you like, it's not not attached, not attached romantically, not attached romantically. I actually would never date a podcaster. So if you're watching this and you have high hopes, sorry, I want no one in this industry at all, um, but like being a part of the Black Effect Network and Charlemagne believing in um, what I'm capable of doing

in this creative space. And then Joe Budden approached me to be the first pod under his umbrella for his network. So again, those are two very well respected men in this space. And I like to say that I'm the only woman that really got that opportunity to work with both of them, so you can, well, you could definitely say that, yeah, yeah, I feel like when when I met you, you know, I've heard I've definitely heard different things. I'll do what I know on a good okay, But

what I hear most of all is your entrepreneurship. I don't really hear. I mean, I see the personality, but I more see the brains in the perseverance and the street smarts mixed with college education. So it's interesting that you have this show and I'm sure that there's like you're you're dealing in two different worlds. I'd say right. Yeah. I mean that's the thing too. As an entrepreneur, I know so many people want to just get right into

the space. I don't feel like I would have been the savvy or prepared for a lot of the things that I've had to deal with had I not gone to college. So in terms of even responding to an email, do you know how many people don't know how to reply all? You'd be surprised, like when there's a c C and you see multiple people on the email, Like I'm dealing with people that forget to reply all something

something as simple as that. Um, of course budgeting businesses that I don't Yes, I have a huge accounting background and my focus was on taxes, so I definitely get into the nitty gritty and handle that. I mean, I do have a h an account now to help me your hands, Oh, I'm so. I look in the account and I'll be like, um, who spent two dollars in

thirteen cents? I think you swiped the wrong card. I'll call my business partners quick or I need an explanation on what is this and where where wasn't so you do have business partners. I have business partners in everything. Oh, God. I always fair business partners because I feel like it's it's tough where if to get both people to be extremely passionate at the same time. I mean again, therapy

has helped. Um. Here's the thing. You can't expect everyone to show up the way that you do and anything as a friend, as a partner. UM. In business, a lot of people have different ways of communicating UM, different passions, things that they want. I mean, I think it's very you have to know how to compromise, communicate. It's definitely not easy, not even a lie. Um, we've put everything on paper, so very headed ahead of time, right, so

been been in some not so great places. So if ever we're just out of stand still where we don't know what to do. All right, let's get the lawyer in vault. And all your partners are women. All of my partners, all of my partners are black women. Wow. And you know, when I think of the Black effect, what I think is special about them shoutouts to Black effect, shout out to Black effect, is that it is all women. Then you get when you get all that quarterly cold,

it's nothing. Shout out to all of the women on black fact is you don't really run a stuff. Is what I like about working with black women. I think we know how to support each other in a way where we, you know, because black women are we're strong, we're resilient. We carry that crown very well, I think in a corporate space, but I think when we have to take it off and be vulnerable and like be that shoulder lean on, we're very good at it well. And see that's that's the thing that we allow each

other to do. Unfortunately, in the spaces where I have worked with men um and again being on just networks and being in rooms of men that may or may not have been involved with anything that I'm doing, there's been a lot of pushback with men, Like if I come into the room and I say something, they'll immediately disregard what I'm saying is me being emotional, not that I'm coming with something that I'm seeking solution for, not something that I genuinely have a problem with, not something

that I think is bad business. They completely just undermine what I'm saying based on, oh, you're just emotional. And so I think that when you come in as a strong woman to get mental listen to, you become harder so me working with women is it's just it's been a little bit more easy, I feel like, and it's also a safe space. Again. I love my home girls. They all helped me and we all have these business savvyest minds. Like my other best friend is a fucking

truck owner. My other best friend owns a has an ice cream shot. Um, and this is all in the East Coast. All both of them are in Atlanta. Um. But yeah, like again, like I'm in New York. A lot of my friends like just do so many dope stuff, like they scream right. They have their own shows and and podcasts as well. Like I love women that go out and get it, and a lot of them do. When did you feel like you're arrived, like from from eating here. I'm sure there was a point where you

were like, you know what I am? This ship? You know you know what's crazy? Again? Maybe back to living in fear. I I have to remind myself as the things I've done and the things that should be proud of. Um. Going on the Breakfast Club was like, am I really on the Breakfast Club? Again? Shout out to Charlottagne in the Black Effect. I mean again the conversation was around sex, but we were promoting horror decisions. Um, that was like, whoa, I'm wow. Um, wasn't your first time meeting Charloman? No

oh no, I've again. I felt, yeah, I worked with him before. But the breakfast club that's a big deal. Was my pussy stock going. And then I mean to be fair too. And in January was I was just on a billboard in Times Square that was like that was Trump. I was like, Mama, my name is in life. Yes, yes, Um, I mean it's it's crazy though, Like I've been in a documentary on HBO Viceland. Some of the friends and people I hang around is just like I'm in this room and I feel like there's still so much more

for me to do. So I still don't feel like I made it. I'll be honest though, probably the only time I feel like I'm in the right direction. Um, my apartment in New York, it's fly? Is it fly? Is it all glass? It's all glass? And here's how long I've been in New York. I'm like, I got a washer dry and um, but it's I have my my friends say that my view is the big rich town. So if you watch power. This is a big rich town. I just my view is all of Manhattan, So I loo,

we should have done a special. So y'all, yeah, if ever y want to come to New York. I love like I love my kitchen, I love my apartment, and I moved there from the Bronx. At one point I was in a three bedroom, one bad basement apartment eating this meal. How long ago was that? To no, no, no, the three the basement apartment, that was. But I left the Bronx in But I left the Bronx in Wow. I just left the Bronx because they had COVID specials. Thank you to everyone who moved out of New York.

Ya made y'all made the rent drop and I was able to get my dream apartment right back up the second the two year lease. Yeah, I'm smart. I was like, oh, the world go back, this rent gonna go right back up. But my view, so I'll sit on my cap sometimes and be like I would have never thought I would have ever even been able to live the way I'm living in New York because New York is just so expensive, and so of course they say, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere I thought I

was making it in my little basement apartment with two roommates. UM, and now this is You're able to live this week all off of your businesses. I love there by myself, but you don't have any accounting jobs or any side hustles. This is strictly your podcast and and my podcast and my box and UM I'm opening my own studio in Brooklyn next month. Look at you, your your serial serial entrepreneurs. Like so where everyone is like okay, all right, so and I'm like so down for what is what I

could do it? I I am really curious about when you left your accounting jobs to pursue this full time. What was that ache or day or with that process like to come to the decision. And I want to know, like what those last days were, like you know what's so crazy? And I haven't shared this so you are. This is how fed up I was. First off, So in accounting, there's a high turnover. I worked at a big four firm. UM, I was at Ernsting Young. I could go out and say that. Now I've said it enough.

So for anyone who works big for UM, it's it's a lot. It is a lot. UM. The turnover is high, and so I had seen a lot of people leave before me, and so I knew the week I was gonna quit because I had paid off all my credit card debt, got ten thousand dollars in savings, and got my new furniture. Those are the three things I wanted to do to feel comfortable. And I was like, I did all that and have money left over. I said, oh, yeah, it's time for me to leave, to leave my job.

And so I walked into the partner's office and I was like, hey, um, I want to put in my two weeks and he was like all right, and he was like why, And I told him at that point, literally, I want to say the week before, uh maybe maybe maybe the month before, we had a sold out show at Carolines. So I was touring every weekend. I was like, I'm leaving to work for myself. I have a podcast, I go on tour, I do these really dope things and it's making me a lot of money. I've actually

made my salary in five months. So I think it's time for me to put more energy where the money's coming. And so the week before I left, I know that they normally fucking ordered banana pudding from mcnolia Bakery and get everyone in the office and they all say goodbye and how they're gonna miss you. I told that partner, I said, I don't do that. I don't like most of the people in this office. I don't need to they fake goodbye. I actually don't care about any of them. Said,

there's three people in this office. I like. He said, what three? Told him the three, and he put it on the calendar to take me and the only three people I liked all to lunch on my last day because it was the last day, said Margarita's we're doing shots right, and I got drinks. But I didn't want the fake corporate goodbye like I had seen so many people even I was like, yeah, and I'd still talk to the people that I invited to that lunch, but yeah, I didn't want the audi pic ship. So that was

my last week, Like save save the banana pudding. Since you left, have you had any like see things of doubt or have you just been looking onward and it's been nothing but positive? Has any hiccups come? Like the panorama, like the whole pandemic girl, Like I quit sick some months before they shut the world down. So I was like, uh, I said, Okay, we're gonna do this little podcast thing on Zoom, but so how how are we making money now?

And then you know, you came in with the subscription box and that came in May again, I thought that the pandemic was gonna lie. Are you able to get any type of COVID relief or I don't hold on now that don't know. I ain't gonna have y'all edited that out. I'm just not answering. Now you're asking a lot. Now you're digging into something people going to jail, when people getting locked up. But I mean I did everything correctly.

I didn't have a little bit out I did. I did, and I'll just say when my business, my business came to a complete hole. So I was like, I went through all the shades of grief. Like I was depressed, I was shocked, I you know, I was mortified, you know, but I had applied for like I was able to get that. Yeah, got the p PP, I thought, I said, everybody getting this thing. My accountant said, the way you don't payroll set up p PP doesn't have fly it. Then my homegirl was like now you can get it

through the PayPal. I said. I was like, you know what, Nah, I'm gonna just stick to that, to to the s b A got got that little bit of change. And like I said, though, like I just was like trying to create a way. And then to be fair, See the thing is my other podcast I launched in October, so literally the same week I launched a new podcast

and the subscription box same week. So you were working pretty much through COVID, dealing with the goddamn China getting things to the US, oh my god, dealing with just and and and again, starting an e commerce business where things are the male system is not being the same, nothing is acting, you know, the right way. And then I didn't realize how much Amazon has pulled us all I am delivering this out of my home the way they thought they was just gonna get the box. The

next day, I say, give some time. Did you put a little disclaiming They had to. I said, let me add that business days, you know don't include the weekend. So I mean and again just did the research of all that, you know, I stay working. I felt like I had to, Like I wasn't just gonna get lazy. What tips would you give to business owners or anyone trying. I would say business owners that are trying to get into the position that you're in currently to date. Here's

the thing, learn every position. Learn every position. Also, you're gonna need a team, but to me, you need to learn every position so that if there's a break in anything, your whole business isn't on the whold because now you can step in and do it. I think like from podcasting, I learned everything from Yeah, I learned how to edit audio very easy. All this video editing ready for y'all. It's like it's a whole another bees. But like again I looked up, you can get Premiere Pro. You can

get the entire Adobe and just YouTube University girl. They also even Premiere comes with the comes with But then again that's time, that's sweat equity, that's in your time, So you have to you have to definitely do your own research. Literally, that would be my bit of advice, not only to get a competite team, but you need to know every part of the business that you're a part of. You just have to agree with that. I agree with that. Well, it was a pleasure to have

you on the show. Thank you so much here, I feel like we're going to be vested. I'm I'm saving, we're hanging out. I'm here for like a week and a half. Girl, Thank you guys so much for checking out another episode of Eating Wall Broke featuring Mandy B. Thank you for having me out her official box and her podcast. That's why I make sure you guys go

to official box owner dot com. Um we are currently rebranding, so you can get everything right now for ten dollars except for the box, but you can get work acid suppositories, applesider of Internet gummies, and also feminine pouches just so that you don't have to walk around with your tampons, your paths, your condoms, your loops, uh, those things just free flowing. And then yeah, you can check out my

podcast Horrible Decisions on the Black Effect Network. We dropped every Monday, and my other podcast, See the Thing Is, with my co host Bridget Kelly, we dropped every Tuesday and Friday wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Girl, I'm gonna be do you hear this voice? Yes? And I and I have to be on set all week. I don't know how. I'm like, yeah, here, came straight here. I respect you, and I'm so thankful that you gave

us the time. Thank you so very much. For more eating while broke from I Heart Radio and The Black Effect, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.