Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
Speaker 1: advice to many occasions. In the case you didn't notice,
Speaker 1: I'm not broke, you know he'll be interview with celebrity CEOs,
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do,
Speaker 1: it's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
Speaker 1: hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations. Here
Speaker 1: we come. Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Roushan McDonald. It is important to stop reading other people's
Speaker 1: success stories and really start writing your own. I always
Speaker 1: tell people to leave with their gifts as meaning to
Speaker 1: leave with your passion, your your belief, it what you
Speaker 1: want to do, and don't let your age, friends, family
Speaker 1: or coworkers stop you from planning or living your dreams.
Speaker 1: My interviews I do on Money Making Conversation consists of celebrities, CEOs,
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. My next guest is Lindsay Davis.
Speaker 1: She is a best selling author of the world is
Speaker 1: Awake and one Big Heart. In February, Lindsey was tapped
Speaker 1: to anchor the weekend broadcast of ABC News World Tonight
Speaker 1: and She's All And She also anchors ABC News Lifetime
Speaker 1: Live Prime, Excuse Me, the network streaming even newscast. She's
Speaker 1: also corresponding for World News Tonight, Good Morning America at Nightline.
Speaker 1: Please welcome to Money Making Conversation. The anchor of ABC's
Speaker 1: weekend World News Tonight and ABC News Live Prime, Lindsey
Speaker 1: Davis Rushan, thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 1: I try to get it all in. I try to
Speaker 1: get it all in because you know the thing about
Speaker 1: our business business long enough to see faces like yours
Speaker 1: that are not normal. They're normal now, but you know
Speaker 1: one Pine in his time and his industry, they weren't normal,
Speaker 1: especially if a female face being normal. And you know
Speaker 1: Ed Bradley was our man at one time, and then
Speaker 1: so as you start ascending, That's why I wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure people saw the body of your work. And
Speaker 1: this is only a small body of your work, but
Speaker 1: it's an important body of work with yours. You as
Speaker 1: a host, as an anchor, get to articulate our stories
Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure in as an African American, as
Speaker 1: a female, and some of the stories that were put
Speaker 1: out there, how are you able to balance the actual
Speaker 1: reporting of the news and then the detachment of what
Speaker 1: you were reporting? Well, you know what, Look, it's always
Speaker 1: about the facts, and I think that it's also about
Speaker 1: knowing what you don't know. And so I think that
Speaker 1: when you don't have a lot of variation, a lot
Speaker 1: of variety of perspectives and lenses and experiences at the
Speaker 1: proverbial table, um, then you're missing some of the nuance
Speaker 1: to the story, right, and some of the relevant facts, um,
Speaker 1: get thrown aside. And so UM, I don't think that
Speaker 1: I'm coloring it, if you will, with with anything except
Speaker 1: that I do come with the perspective and the experience
Speaker 1: of of being a black woman in America, and so
Speaker 1: I think that I may have certain questions that I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask or that I'm going to lean into
Speaker 1: based on my own experience. UM. And I think of
Speaker 1: as you talk about how we haven't had many people
Speaker 1: who look like me. That was why it was so
Speaker 1: important on my first night when I assumed the chair
Speaker 1: of Weekend World News Tonight on Sundays. I had an
Speaker 1: interview that I did with Carol Simpson, who was the
Speaker 1: first black woman to anchor any network newscast back in
Speaker 1: the eighties. And you know, I look forward to the
Speaker 1: day my son is seven, and I look forward to
Speaker 1: when he grows up that we won't still be talking about, well,
Speaker 1: this was the first or the second, right, because hopefully
Speaker 1: the idea and the ideal will be that enough people
Speaker 1: at that point would would have ascended to various ranks
Speaker 1: that it just becomes oh, another person, right. And and
Speaker 1: so for my son, I really do look forward to
Speaker 1: where it becomes so commonplace that we're not still counting,
Speaker 1: you know, the first or or the second. You know,
Speaker 1: it's really interesting, especially entertainment. You know, I remember when
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey, now back way back in the eighty three,
Speaker 1: when he had his first opportunity ABC offers in the
Speaker 1: first sitcom. I remember we came to Mr Jian, ABC
Speaker 1: wants me to do a sitcom. I went, you let
Speaker 1: up because it was just it was just so far
Speaker 1: I could not even fathom. Somebody I knew, black Man,
Speaker 1: he was a comedian populic commedia was being offered a
Speaker 1: TV show on ABC was a pilot at the time,
Speaker 1: and then I fast forward and as you're aspiring to
Speaker 1: these heights, I wanted to be on the news, wanted
Speaker 1: to deliver the news, to be a face of the
Speaker 1: news and faced in media. What was that? What was
Speaker 1: that journey like in college and your friends and your
Speaker 1: peer groups, when you're telling them this is what you
Speaker 1: wanted to do. Sure, you know, I think that I've
Speaker 1: had the luxury or the benefit of having especially within
Speaker 1: my own uh my own home and so not just
Speaker 1: my parents, um, but in the extended family as well,
Speaker 1: where there was an expectation that you could do what
Speaker 1: you wanted to do. And so I never felt limited
Speaker 1: or constrained because of my race or gender, because there
Speaker 1: was a mindset that if you want to do it,
Speaker 1: if you want to run for president, run for president.
Speaker 1: You know, no one was really telling me the likelihood
Speaker 1: of success or how it was going to be so
Speaker 1: much more difficult or so much harder, or no one
Speaker 1: has done this before or whatever. It was just like, Hey,
Speaker 1: you want to do that, here's some tools. We're gonna
Speaker 1: give you, some exposures, some opportunities, and you run with
Speaker 1: it and you take it as far as you can.
Speaker 1: And so when I decided when I was in college
Speaker 1: that I wanted to become a journalist at the time,
Speaker 1: in particular reporter um. You know, my parents were just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what do we have to do? What do you have
Speaker 1: to do? And so at the time, you still had
Speaker 1: to get a college credit for an internship, and I
Speaker 1: had missed that opportunity because I was about to graduate.
Speaker 1: I was at University of Coregunitay. So then I I
Speaker 1: did what I've I've told subsequently that I had my
Speaker 1: parents pay fifty thou dollars so I could get an
Speaker 1: internship because I went to n y U for for
Speaker 1: grad school to get a master's. You don't need to
Speaker 1: have a master's to be a journalist, but at the time,
Speaker 1: I needed to get that extra year in order to
Speaker 1: get an internship and to get credit for it um.
Speaker 1: And so I would say that anything that I needed,
Speaker 1: my parents were there right along with me, anticipating that,
Speaker 1: you know, if I wanted to do this, it could
Speaker 1: be done. And my friends never batted. And I I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that there was just this mindset of if you,
Speaker 1: you know, work hard and put your mind to it,
Speaker 1: you know you can achieve and so I'm glad that
Speaker 1: I didn't have um the naysayers uh too loudly in
Speaker 1: my ear, But they are, they are, They have just
Speaker 1: reciting some of my experiences. I remember when I left
Speaker 1: IBM to pursue a career as a stand up comedian.
Speaker 1: Of course it's totally otlers from the news. People look
Speaker 1: at you're gonna be a comedian. I thought I would
Speaker 1: be the next Eddie Murphus, somebody, somebody great like that.
Speaker 1: Richard Pryor had it. Nobody could ever be him. He's
Speaker 1: like the Michael Jordan of comedy. But then but you know,
Speaker 1: but it was always you know, people I didn't stand
Speaker 1: in my way, but they always went okay, okay. But
Speaker 1: then you started seeing little little steps well in the way,
Speaker 1: little crumbs of opportunity became a reality. And then people
Speaker 1: started realizing, and you started and I started realizing, you know,
Speaker 1: I think I can really do this. Because even though
Speaker 1: you can dream something, that doesn't mean it's gonna come true.
Speaker 1: So as you were starting to go up there, like
Speaker 1: you said, you did the intern, you went up to
Speaker 1: n y U and you know, got the masters. But
Speaker 1: when did you start really starting to fall start to
Speaker 1: fall in place for you, lindsay, sure. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that there are a lot of baby steps
Speaker 1: and milestones along the way. And I was just a
Speaker 1: self starter in a way that I would say, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna by the time I'm twenty five, i want
Speaker 1: to be in the top market. By the time I'm thirty,
Speaker 1: you want to be at the network. And I made
Speaker 1: both of those. One the first goal by the skin
Speaker 1: of my teeth, because I was just about to turn
Speaker 1: twenty five and I made it to Indianapolis, which was
Speaker 1: the market. Um. But then you know, a few months
Speaker 1: shy my thirtieth birthday, I made it here to ABC
Speaker 1: News and I've been here now for about fourteen years. Um.
Speaker 1: And I would say when I was local news, I
Speaker 1: was able to make a lot of jumps. So I
Speaker 1: I started out in Syracuse it was market like eighty one,
Speaker 1: and I went to Flit in Michigan it was market
Speaker 1: sixty four that went to Indianapolis market. And so I
Speaker 1: was able to make a lot of those um jumps
Speaker 1: based on you know, my own goals that I had set.
Speaker 1: And I would say once I got to the network,
Speaker 1: it was a little bit harder to set a milestone
Speaker 1: or set a goal and and then achieve it because
Speaker 1: you know a lot of the people who make it
Speaker 1: here are very talented, right and in some cases there
Speaker 1: are some sharp elbows, or in some cases they may
Speaker 1: have better relationships, or they may just be better positioned
Speaker 1: for you know, opportunity or for growth. And so I
Speaker 1: think that that did become a struggle for me kind
Speaker 1: of finding my way once I got here to the network.
Speaker 1: But I would say when I was given the opportunity
Speaker 1: in September two thousand nineteen to be one of the
Speaker 1: moderators at the Democratic Debate, that was career changing. That
Speaker 1: that moment um, and that I went on to moderate
Speaker 1: another debate again with David Neuir and George Stephanopolis in
Speaker 1: February of the following year, and uh, in both cases,
Speaker 1: you know, people gave very good feedback and reviews of
Speaker 1: of my work um sitting there at the as a moderator,
Speaker 1: and I think then that was the moment where people thought, oh, wow,
Speaker 1: you know you could really do this. Now that was
Speaker 1: many years in, right, Uh, it's the game that that
Speaker 1: I finally kind of got that recognition that that I
Speaker 1: believed that I was capable of, but you know, it
Speaker 1: was really kind of waiting for the opportunity. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's really interesting that we all involved in journeys, and
Speaker 1: we all involved in trying to reach those dreams and
Speaker 1: then but then then their sacrifice, like you mentioned Indianapolis,
Speaker 1: Mrs Syracuse, I remember when I left I I reterally
Speaker 1: got married and I moved to New York and my
Speaker 1: wife was she still in left time. She stayed in Houston,
Speaker 1: and so so I'm living New York. And then I
Speaker 1: moved to l A and I lived there and she
Speaker 1: still was staying in Houston. So they are sacrifices we
Speaker 1: all make. And in those sacrifices, a lot of people
Speaker 1: might call them selfish, but they're part of the goals.
Speaker 1: They're part of the path that you gave. And then
Speaker 1: you said, Richard, that was instrumental when you did the debates.
Speaker 1: How first of all, how did they how did the
Speaker 1: opportunity come to you? And then how did you prepare
Speaker 1: for that opportunity because you knew it was big? Yes, Um, well,
Speaker 1: I think that in part it was due to the
Speaker 1: Democratic National Committee because they had set uh some rules
Speaker 1: basically so that to prevent the moderator panels from uh
Speaker 1: not being diverse. They they set some prerequisites basically where
Speaker 1: you had to have diversity by gender, by race and so. UM.
Speaker 1: I think because ABC had already decided that they were
Speaker 1: going to have you know, David and George, and at
Speaker 1: first debate in September that we had for ABC was
Speaker 1: going to be at an HBCU, and so I think
Speaker 1: that there was probably a feeling. No one ever told
Speaker 1: me I wasn't in the room when the decision was
Speaker 1: made that that I would be, you know, the third moderator,
Speaker 1: but I would have to imagine that that both of
Speaker 1: those played into it. Um. Look, I would say that
Speaker 1: I probably never prepared more for anything in my life
Speaker 1: than I had for that first debate in September two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen. You know, I I was kept trying to
Speaker 1: minimize it in my mind so that I wouldn't over
Speaker 1: hype myself and and and the let the anxiety run
Speaker 1: two wild. Um. But I I it was September and
Speaker 1: so August leading into it. I remember I had a
Speaker 1: pre planned vacation and I was on the beach with
Speaker 1: a big three two three ring binders. Um. Just studying
Speaker 1: and researching and reading and preparing and um, it was
Speaker 1: a lot. But the benefit of it was that by
Speaker 1: the time that date came in September, I felt prepared.
Speaker 1: And I think that that preparation gave me confidence that
Speaker 1: in prayer I gotta say right, but um, but I
Speaker 1: felt that I was ready on that day, and leading
Speaker 1: up to it, I wasn't so sure. But I think
Speaker 1: that there's you know, the preparation was key. And you know,
Speaker 1: I couldn't express to anyone, you know, for whatever kind
Speaker 1: of position you have, right, no matter what kind of
Speaker 1: field you're entering into, I think that there's nothing that
Speaker 1: beats feeling like you're ready. I know, it's it's uh
Speaker 1: and even when you're ready, there's that fear that you're
Speaker 1: not ready and and so and as you go along
Speaker 1: and you start building this brand. And let me step
Speaker 1: back and just talk about news in general, because I'm
Speaker 1: kind of confused as to what is news and what
Speaker 1: is commentary, you know, and like what I think this
Speaker 1: is my perception, what I think what I see on
Speaker 1: Fox is commentary are and I want you to educate
Speaker 1: me too, And it's what I see you do, what
Speaker 1: I see you know, do you did it? Lets the
Speaker 1: Holts and the David Meirs of the world, you're doing news.
Speaker 1: To me, what I see a lot of times on
Speaker 1: on CNN and what I see on Fox is a
Speaker 1: lot of commentary. Am I wrong in saying that? Or
Speaker 1: it's a blend of news and commentary. You know, I
Speaker 1: would say, wherever you're hearing a lot of opinions, then
Speaker 1: that's more editorialized, right, that is more commentary. And so
Speaker 1: that's I guess up to the viewers to decide, you know,
Speaker 1: how they want to hear their news presented. Do they
Speaker 1: want to just get the facts, ma'am so to speak,
Speaker 1: or do you want to hear more of what you
Speaker 1: already think, you know, for that to be reinforced by
Speaker 1: the programming that you watch, um. And you know, Fox
Speaker 1: News for example, has great ratings, and so I think
Speaker 1: that in a lot of cases, people do want to
Speaker 1: hear and get their ideas seconded and get support for
Speaker 1: you know, certain arguments, um that they believe are true.
Speaker 1: And they may be true. You know that that's again
Speaker 1: up to the viewers to to really decide. But you know,
Speaker 1: my understanding and what I learned in journalism school was
Speaker 1: always about just presenting what cannot be debated really right.
Speaker 1: And so certain facts of let's say a house fire,
Speaker 1: um cannot be distorted or changed based on your opinion.
Speaker 1: You know, it was either a three alarm fire or
Speaker 1: was not. It either went up in flames at twelve
Speaker 1: o'clock on Brady Avenue or it did not. And so
Speaker 1: there are certain um uh styles. I guess that that
Speaker 1: some of the networks take, especially the cable news outlet's take.
Speaker 1: But um but for us, it is very much just
Speaker 1: what the facts, the facts of whatever it is that
Speaker 1: we're presented. Now. I mentioned two of your children's books
Speaker 1: at the top of your intro, and now you have
Speaker 1: a third one. It came out stayed this way forever,
Speaker 1: came out in February of this year. How how did
Speaker 1: that developed? How did you know I would? I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just say to your hard charging news that the facts, ma'am,
Speaker 1: just the facts, ma'am to a children was a popular
Speaker 1: bestselling author in the children's genre. How did that come about? So?
Speaker 1: I again, I have a son who's seven, and when
Speaker 1: I was reading books to him early on, I was thinking,
Speaker 1: well I could do this, and over time that could
Speaker 1: became should I should do this because I was having
Speaker 1: a hard time finding books that had characters who look
Speaker 1: like him, and I felt that that was really important.
Speaker 1: And while in general terms, you know, the news industry
Speaker 1: is very different from you know, authoring children's books, at
Speaker 1: the heart, at my center, I consider myself to be
Speaker 1: a storyteller, and so UM, I felt like it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be that much of a stretch for me to kind
Speaker 1: of let my creative juices flow and talk about the
Speaker 1: good news, really and uplifting because quite often what I
Speaker 1: do with news, which was also kind of part and
Speaker 1: parcel to this, because my son would want to see
Speaker 1: Mommy doing the news, and I felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: quite often the subject matter what we're talking about is
Speaker 1: just too much for um, a young person like he
Speaker 1: is at this at this young age, and so writing
Speaker 1: books I felt was something that I could just share
Speaker 1: with him one without any kind of filter or concern
Speaker 1: about the messaging that was being you know, instilled in him.
Speaker 1: But I could use it as a tool to inspire him,
Speaker 1: and so UM, initially I really focused on the mirror aspect.
Speaker 1: There was an essay a while ago that talked about
Speaker 1: how you need mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors in
Speaker 1: all children's books. The idea of mirrors so kids can
Speaker 1: see themselves reflected in the pages of the books, windows
Speaker 1: so they can perhaps pure into a world that's unfamiliar
Speaker 1: to their own. And if that sliding glass door is
Speaker 1: to really be effective, it can serve as a way
Speaker 1: to transport them into an unfamiliar world. So with the
Speaker 1: first book, it was really a matter of, Okay, let
Speaker 1: me provide more mirrors for my son. But ultimately it
Speaker 1: really became about and this was before George and the
Speaker 1: first book protests called racial reckoning, was that the was
Speaker 1: that the One Big Heart or The World Is Awake?
Speaker 1: Which one was the was the first one. The first
Speaker 1: one was The World Is Awake. The second one was
Speaker 1: One Big Heart. And that was where I really talked
Speaker 1: about the need for or I felt the need for
Speaker 1: windows in the book so that kids would be able
Speaker 1: to be exposed to kids who don't look like them,
Speaker 1: because I think quite often parents look at books that
Speaker 1: have black and brown characters and they think, oh, they're
Speaker 1: just for black and brown children, and that couldn't be
Speaker 1: further from the truth, really, because it does no benefit
Speaker 1: to your child if They're only seeing mirrors all around them, right,
Speaker 1: and they only see their own reflection in their books
Speaker 1: and their toys and in their neighborhood and their church
Speaker 1: and their place of worship or you know, school ors
Speaker 1: place of worship. And so I felt like parents can
Speaker 1: start with books and with toys that they're looking to
Speaker 1: expose themselves or expose their children to more diverse people.
Speaker 1: And this was something that you heard, especially during the
Speaker 1: summer and the so called racial reckoning, where parents were saying,
Speaker 1: you know, what kind of conversations can I have? How
Speaker 1: can I raise more empathetic children? And I think you
Speaker 1: can start by giving them a book that has a
Speaker 1: character who doesn't look like them, right. And my son
Speaker 1: has such a diverse book collection that he never talks
Speaker 1: about the race of the characters who are in the books.
Speaker 1: And I would venture to say that most kids won't.
Speaker 1: You know, parents will often say like, oh, kids don't
Speaker 1: see color. Kids do absolutely see dou see color. They
Speaker 1: just don't assign a value to to color. You know.
Speaker 1: It's adults who do that. Um. But I think that
Speaker 1: early on, if they're all used to and accustomed to
Speaker 1: seeing a variety of shades and hair, colors and features
Speaker 1: in their books. They're they're not going to point out
Speaker 1: it is being so far and unusual because they're used
Speaker 1: to being exposed to it. So that's now what I
Speaker 1: kind of shifted from. In addition to focusing on the mirror,
Speaker 1: I've found additional value in the window as well. Now
Speaker 1: they stay away forever. That that's the third book. Stay
Speaker 1: this way Forever? What is that? What? What? What lineup
Speaker 1: communication are you trying to get out through that book? Yes?
Speaker 1: So so stay this Way Forever? Is really any parent
Speaker 1: I think will relate Who's ever thought, boy, I wish
Speaker 1: I could just freeze this moment in time and press
Speaker 1: the pause button and you know, savor these moments that
Speaker 1: you know are fleeting right that are gonna uh leave
Speaker 1: the playground of childhood. And one thing that I would
Speaker 1: say there, you know half the things that you know
Speaker 1: your kids are gonna outgrow. But I would also venture
Speaker 1: to say, there are a lot of qualities that you
Speaker 1: hope that they bring with them into adulthood. So you know,
Speaker 1: my son's curiosity or his creativity and his joy, you know,
Speaker 1: all the nights that he says tells me his plans
Speaker 1: for the next day, and sometimes I'll say tomorrow is
Speaker 1: gonna be the best day ever. And I hope that
Speaker 1: he keeps that with him into adulthood, where he's excited
Speaker 1: about the possibilities of of tomorrow. But this was really
Speaker 1: kind of a way of journaling all the different moments,
Speaker 1: because you never know what it's gonna be the last
Speaker 1: time and a child, you know, falls asleep in your
Speaker 1: lap or reaches for your hand to hold, or a
Speaker 1: peter patter of feet before they, you know, jump in
Speaker 1: bed with you in the morning. And so this was
Speaker 1: kind of paying tribute to all the different stages of childhood.
Speaker 1: And the theme that has kind of been consistent through
Speaker 1: my books is the idea of love. The first book
Speaker 1: is basically, know that you're loved by God, the second
Speaker 1: one is love each other, you know, love your neighbor,
Speaker 1: and this one is no, You're loved by your parents
Speaker 1: and your grandparents. And I hope that kids will read
Speaker 1: it and not only know that their loved, but just
Speaker 1: how much they're cherished and adored, and and especially for
Speaker 1: the cute little little things that they do at these
Speaker 1: various stages of childhood. My daughter, she's twenty three nine,
Speaker 1: and I always remember I always tell my favorite moment
Speaker 1: one years old when she was just laying on my chest.
Speaker 1: She hadn't yet had the ability to push off. She
Speaker 1: just fell aslips I know exactly. And listen as you
Speaker 1: go through that moment, it just takes me back to
Speaker 1: a place where you know, I'm glad my daughter has grown,
Speaker 1: but it's always those precious moments of being able to
Speaker 1: experience when trying to set her up to take pictures
Speaker 1: in the spine wasn't strong enough and you have that
Speaker 1: pillows on both sides to get that picture that you
Speaker 1: want to that they stay with you forever. And but
Speaker 1: I wanted to before I get out of here, I
Speaker 1: wanted to say, like, you have a lot of rhymes
Speaker 1: in your book. Now, I grew up with them. Function function,
Speaker 1: what's your junk confunction? So what are these rhymes? And
Speaker 1: that's that that little flavor there that you that we
Speaker 1: can go read out loud, your little raps in the book.
Speaker 1: We're gonna one day function? Come on, now, come on,
Speaker 1: let's when we got here. I think these rymes, so
Speaker 1: you're wrapping up growing up the books that I read,
Speaker 1: you know, shel Silverstein and Doctor since they were rhyming books,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted I love it my whole thing.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to give my audience a look at you,
Speaker 1: your your special talent. Let's let's put that way. And
Speaker 1: and how did you get that? I wanted. I'm glad
Speaker 1: you are willing to share a part of that story
Speaker 1: how you get there, because so many people just see
Speaker 1: the end results, and that in results doesn't really tell
Speaker 1: the journey. And like I said, I have a journey,
Speaker 1: and uh, Stephen A. Smith, Josey Harvards, so many people
Speaker 1: that like Nick Cannon has a journey. Is a great
Speaker 1: job you did on Solo Nation with that interview with him,
Speaker 1: and that I love seeing you and I want to
Speaker 1: see more interviews out of you create and pulling out
Speaker 1: information and very uncomfortable information and maintaining a very comfortable
Speaker 1: environment when you get in those situations. Telling my audience
Speaker 1: as we close out this interview, what are you trying
Speaker 1: to accomplish the most when you're doing sit down, one
Speaker 1: on one interviews. You know, I'm a very curious person
Speaker 1: by nature, and so anybody can go and google somebody
Speaker 1: and kind of see a bio or some statements they've made.
Speaker 1: But I really want to know what was beyond that.
Speaker 1: You know, what motivates you, what caused you to say that,
Speaker 1: what caused you to feel that way? Help us to
Speaker 1: understand and explain, you know, beyond just the superficial surface
Speaker 1: stuff that we see. So I really want to engage.
Speaker 1: I want to have in depth conversation. I always say
Speaker 1: in my personal life, I never know what questions are
Speaker 1: appropriate or now because in my professional work life I'm
Speaker 1: able to kind of delve in and ask whatever, um.
Speaker 1: But I love having that kind of interaction and engagement
Speaker 1: with with someone just to help us as humans just
Speaker 1: get to understand why people think, or feel or say
Speaker 1: the things that that we do. I think that it's
Speaker 1: a benefit to us all when we hear, you know,
Speaker 1: the diverse um perspectives that are out there. Well, I
Speaker 1: want to thank you Lindsay for coming on my show,
Speaker 1: money making conversation and sharing your story and again the book.
Speaker 1: Please tell your people to send me some. I got
Speaker 1: a weekly newsletter goes out in eighty thousand people every Thursday,
Speaker 1: nine am, and I got a little popular social media
Speaker 1: following over a million. I love the post your book
Speaker 1: and your banners. Just to additionally put out the brand
Speaker 1: of you, because you are a great brand and your
Speaker 1: brand that a lot of young ladies like my daughter
Speaker 1: look up to. Okay, thank you so much for Sean.
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Speaker 1: of a wizard with arms outstretched to the sky. They
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Speaker 1: Hi right, Richard All, the host of Money Making Conversations
Speaker 1: dot com. The Cafe Morcha Swag Award is a celebrating
Speaker 1: the black men who are making a difference in our
Speaker 1: community by empowering others to reach their life goals. Fromcifically,
Speaker 1: there's businessman, activists, celebrities, and everyday dads. The Kafee Mocha
Speaker 1: Swag Award winning this week years Mark Lennon. After Mark
Speaker 1: was inspired by video feature Steve Harvey, he decided to
Speaker 1: follow his passion and started baking. He took that passion
Speaker 1: and started his business, Brother Bakes. Brother Bakes is an
Speaker 1: online bakery based out of Houston, Texas. He specializes in
Speaker 1: cakes in the jar that can be shipped all over
Speaker 1: the country. I just want to say to people, go
Speaker 1: for it. You know. I talked to people all the
Speaker 1: time and they they're always talking about how you did it.
Speaker 1: I just went for it. Everybody has a dream. You're
Speaker 1: currently not doing your dream, so why not give it
Speaker 1: a try. If it works out, great, I mean if
Speaker 1: it doesn't and you're still not living your dream. But
Speaker 1: if it does happen and then it changes your life.
Speaker 1: The Cafe Morcha Swag Award represents men who have strength,
Speaker 1: whose wisdom is assertive, and who is genuine in their spirit.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Money Making Conversations with your host Rashwan McDonald.
Speaker 1: My next guest on Money Making Conversation is Denise Water.
Speaker 1: She is the founder and CEO of Partake and line
Speaker 1: of nationally distributed allergy friendly snacks. Inspired by her daughter's
Speaker 1: experience with food allergies, launched the seventeen Partake products, which
Speaker 1: includes cookies and baking mix, can be found in more
Speaker 1: than six thousand retailers nationwide, including Targets, Sprouts, Whole food Markets.
Speaker 1: Will be and we will be discussing her growing business.
Speaker 1: And I also ordered her Partake five and one baking
Speaker 1: mix by the way, you know, because I love her
Speaker 1: the cook y'all don't know my history by cooking and
Speaker 1: desserts always on my Facebook. You can get fat watching
Speaker 1: my timeline. Please work with the money Making Conversation. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna calling my good friends. She's out of New Jersey.
Speaker 1: Denise Water, How you doing great? Good morning? How are
Speaker 1: you awesome? Seventeen? I was just gonna be real about this.
Speaker 1: You launched in twenty seventeen. Here we are. We had
Speaker 1: a pandemic year, we're in one and you in more
Speaker 1: than six thousand retailers. Come on that. That's uh that's
Speaker 1: a crazy number in a good way. Talk to tell
Speaker 1: us about how how can you launch in seventeen and
Speaker 1: then being six thousand retailers but roughly les in four years.
Speaker 1: Baby steps we started in August of seen with three
Speaker 1: flavors of cookies. Um Our business was self funded, so
Speaker 1: I was dipping into my family's savings account and it
Speaker 1: was self distributed, which meant I was selling cookies out
Speaker 1: of my car to natural food stores in New York
Speaker 1: and New Jersey. And I did that for nearly a year,
Speaker 1: and it was the most valuable time UM I spent
Speaker 1: in the company, I think, because it allowed me to
Speaker 1: meet our customers, to understand who who are consumer was,
Speaker 1: who they weren't, what they liked about the product, what
Speaker 1: they didn't, so that we could listen and we could
Speaker 1: make changes. And then in the summer of eighteen a
Speaker 1: year later, we launched a region of Whole Foods and
Speaker 1: we launched Wegmans, and that was our next baby step.
Speaker 1: You know, go into these eight stores, prove ourselves, understand
Speaker 1: what's different about this than in the independent New York market.
Speaker 1: And we did that for nearly a year. And then
Speaker 1: in the summer of twenty nineteen, we raised a million
Speaker 1: dollars seed round of funding that was led by Marcy
Speaker 1: Venture Partners, of which Jay z is a co founder.
Speaker 1: That really gave us the capital we needed to begin
Speaker 1: to scale the business a bit more, to begin to
Speaker 1: hire UM and then we knew it was going to
Speaker 1: be a big year. UM but in all the ways
Speaker 1: that it surprised us, it also surprised our business. And
Speaker 1: we started the year and about three hundred and fifty stores,
Speaker 1: and now you can find us in about six thousand
Speaker 1: stores who closed to five million dollars Series A at
Speaker 1: the end of have lots of new products coming out
Speaker 1: that are not just cookies, and so really excited about
Speaker 1: what we're building here. Wow, you you just said that's
Speaker 1: so smooth, and you just smooth. You're just a smooth operator.
Speaker 1: You just rand long that information, not just hurt by heat.
Speaker 1: The success is the rapid rate of success. When you
Speaker 1: say because a lot of people, you know, they try
Speaker 1: to get any store like Whole Foods and Targets and
Speaker 1: things like that, there, it is met with some success.
Speaker 1: But when you say you listened to the customer, was
Speaker 1: it tied to the packaging or some of your cookies
Speaker 1: you thought were your favorites. They didn't like them because
Speaker 1: you was on the ground, Like you said, you were
Speaker 1: hands on, and talk to us about that process because
Speaker 1: you said you had eight stores initially and then that
Speaker 1: was like a test. They are either going to test
Speaker 1: you online or they're gonna test you in the limited
Speaker 1: store distribution. Tell us about that process and how nerve
Speaker 1: racking that was. So in talking to the customers on
Speaker 1: the ground, I thought, because I started the company as
Speaker 1: a food allergy mom, that that's who our primary consumer
Speaker 1: would be. And I realized very quickly that was actually
Speaker 1: the customer who wouldn't touch our product with a ten
Speaker 1: foot pole because they didn't know us, they didn't trust us.
Speaker 1: We hadn't build any credibility with them, and so they
Speaker 1: were like, oh, we love the idea. However, my allergiest
Speaker 1: hasn't told me about this. I haven't seen it in
Speaker 1: my Facebook mom group for people with food allergies, so UM,
Speaker 1: not going to try it. But they were thankfully much
Speaker 1: broader consumer groups. People who wanted to support our women
Speaker 1: or minority owned business people who were exploring plant based
Speaker 1: or gluten free diet for other reasons. UM moms whose
Speaker 1: kids didn't have allergies, but needed a school safe snack
Speaker 1: to take to school to share with other kids. And
Speaker 1: so that's how we got that information, and that's the
Speaker 1: type of information that we learned. Got lots of feedback
Speaker 1: on the packaging. UM. You know, as a mom, I
Speaker 1: thought the idea of trying to sneak fruits and vegetables
Speaker 1: in would be really interesting. We realized people just want cookies.
Speaker 1: They don't they want under ingredients they can understand, but
Speaker 1: they didn't like that idea of me trying to sneak
Speaker 1: carrots and beats into their cookies. And so we took
Speaker 1: all of that data, updated our packaging, updated our formulas,
Speaker 1: and updated our marketing strategy to reflect that. And then
Speaker 1: to go into Whole Foods and Wagmans, we specifically picked
Speaker 1: retailers that would allow us to do demos because we
Speaker 1: had done that in the New York market and we
Speaker 1: knew that when people tried the product, when they heard
Speaker 1: the story, they converted to customers and they told their
Speaker 1: friends about it. And to get into Whole Foods and Wagmans, um,
Speaker 1: it was a lot of nose for our whole Foods relationship.
Speaker 1: I cold emailed our LinkedIn message every single person on
Speaker 1: LinkedIn I could find that had Whole Foods category manager
Speaker 1: and their job title. And thankfully, a gentleman out of Boulder,
Speaker 1: Colorado took pity on me and pointed me in the
Speaker 1: direction of the right person. And that's how our relationship
Speaker 1: with Whole Foods started. Oh that's so I always tell
Speaker 1: people by LinkedIn LinkedIn, I always tell people if you
Speaker 1: don't have a website, have a LinkedIn account. It is
Speaker 1: your version of a website. Plus you can create relationships
Speaker 1: and plus you can message people. Depending on the premium
Speaker 1: level of your account. You know it can it give
Speaker 1: you a limited on the messaging and you can message
Speaker 1: people who who will friend you. I want you to
Speaker 1: follow you or follow you, then you can friend the
Speaker 1: message them all the time. But you can go to
Speaker 1: a certain level you can buy and it gives you
Speaker 1: a limited premium requested you can direct message these individuals.
Speaker 1: So with your success, you know you. I love when
Speaker 1: you say you try to sneak veggies into these uh
Speaker 1: these into these cookies. You try to be slick, and
Speaker 1: I see these commercial whether they try to. Kids are smart,
Speaker 1: and then parents are also that I have a daughter
Speaker 1: she's grown now, but I can remember giving my daughter
Speaker 1: that that the green the green baby food that they
Speaker 1: always spit up. You know, I don't care. I don't
Speaker 1: care if you put a little apple sauce on top over,
Speaker 1: they're gonna spit that right back out. So what was
Speaker 1: your whole process? I know? And when can I ask?
Speaker 1: What was the allergy that your daughter was tattooed? It
Speaker 1: really inspired this, uh, this this line of baking and
Speaker 1: a cookie cookie cookie cookie samples. Sure. So it was
Speaker 1: actually the combination of allergies that she has. So she's
Speaker 1: allergic to eggs, tree nuts, corn, and bananas, and so
Speaker 1: it made it really hard because often like if you
Speaker 1: don't put egg in something, you mash up a banana
Speaker 1: to be the substitute. Um, if you don't eat corn,
Speaker 1: if we don't eat a lot of gluten in our house,
Speaker 1: and oftentimes they use corn flour as the substitute. And
Speaker 1: so it was a combination of allergies that she had
Speaker 1: that made it so hard for me to find things
Speaker 1: that tasted good that I felt good about nutritionally. Wow.
Speaker 1: So with that being said, you you go through in
Speaker 1: six thousand stores now and you said you have more
Speaker 1: product coming out. We've talked about the funding rounds. Now,
Speaker 1: let's go back that a little bit because a lot
Speaker 1: of people who ask me that question, because what exactly
Speaker 1: does that presentation look like? Is it of the one seeter?
Speaker 1: Is it ten pages? Is it did you hire somebody
Speaker 1: to help you put it together or usually sat down
Speaker 1: with your power point and did it on your own.
Speaker 1: How did that work out? Well? I just sat down
Speaker 1: with my power point and did it on my own.
Speaker 1: It was important to me that we put every dollar
Speaker 1: back into the business, and so the deck we have,
Speaker 1: I still sat down at a computer and did my
Speaker 1: power point because I figure any investor that wants to
Speaker 1: partner with us wants us to be investing in the business,
Speaker 1: not investing in pretty graphic designs to try to try
Speaker 1: to get money. Um. And so that's how we did
Speaker 1: the presentation. It was about ten pages, and it was
Speaker 1: really just me and Google trying to figure out what
Speaker 1: a traditional pitch deck looked like. You know, what's the
Speaker 1: problem you're addressing, what's the market opportunity? Who are your competitors?
Speaker 1: What makes you better than the competitors? But I think
Speaker 1: the most important thing is trying to get either a
Speaker 1: warm in trow or get time with those investors, because
Speaker 1: it's really when you sit down as a founder and
Speaker 1: share why you're doing what you're doing, what inspires you,
Speaker 1: what your mission is behind the company that I think
Speaker 1: really gets investors to buy in at the earliest of state,
Speaker 1: at the earliest stages of the business. Not you know,
Speaker 1: not information on a piece of paper, but you in
Speaker 1: the money making business. So now you know the great
Speaker 1: thing about is your daughter inspired this, But you're in
Speaker 1: the money making business. You're a cookie making business. So
Speaker 1: these cookies. Talk tell us about the cookies, and then
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the five and one mix
Speaker 1: that I ordered online, which by the way, was a
Speaker 1: really good experience. And just tell everybody went online and
Speaker 1: then they give you an option of a discount. If
Speaker 1: you put in your your email and your telephone no information,
Speaker 1: you can get discount on your purchase. I opted not
Speaker 1: to do that, so I went on and just bought
Speaker 1: one package. I think it was twenty three dollars and
Speaker 1: something for I think you said three and I experienced
Speaker 1: that and it was and then the receipt came to
Speaker 1: me afterwards, and then another email came saying, hey, you
Speaker 1: forgot to buy cookies, and so it's really so it
Speaker 1: really was a fun experience and also more importantly, a
Speaker 1: professional experience. And I think that's really important because I
Speaker 1: was not you know, you can you go online, and
Speaker 1: sometimes it can be frustrating, especially for new businesses. They
Speaker 1: think they got the Shopify the shopping car set up
Speaker 1: correctly and it's not. But your your shopping car was fun.
Speaker 1: What what was the approach and what was the mindset
Speaker 1: behind that shopping car design? Because again, after I made
Speaker 1: my purchase, it came back and said, hey, you forgot
Speaker 1: to buy cookies, And I thought that was cute, and
Speaker 1: I said, well, I wasn't thinking about buying cookie, but
Speaker 1: not that you think about it. I went back and
Speaker 1: looked at your cookies. So it did drive me back
Speaker 1: to your website, even though all I wanted was the
Speaker 1: five and one baking mix. Talk to us about that. Sure.
Speaker 1: So when we first launched, we launched our website on
Speaker 1: Squarespace and it was a much simpler website. But similarly,
Speaker 1: I think it's really important to get feedback from people
Speaker 1: who are your potential customers, from other brands that have
Speaker 1: had success, from other brands that might not have had
Speaker 1: success and wish they would have done things friendly. So
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of kind of sharing where we
Speaker 1: are and asking for feedback on what can make things better.
Speaker 1: We moved our website over to Shopify when we start
Speaker 1: to focus more heavily on e commerce in late twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen UM and very similarly, feedback, feedback, feedback, But also
Speaker 1: now we have the capital to be able to invest
Speaker 1: in data to understand you know, what points up what
Speaker 1: pages on our website, our customers spending more time on
Speaker 1: what products are they often buying together? How can we
Speaker 1: then tell them, you know, they forgot something or offer
Speaker 1: or somebody who doesn't make a purchase, you know, offer
Speaker 1: some incentive to come back and make a purchase. And
Speaker 1: then how do we keep sharing content that's relevant, that's engaging,
Speaker 1: so that the customers that do sign up with their
Speaker 1: email or phone number are interested and want to hear
Speaker 1: from us, and that it's not just sales tactics that
Speaker 1: were actually providing a value to our customers. Well you
Speaker 1: I have fun with it, in fact, like I told
Speaker 1: you are in my previous conversation though that were discussing,
Speaker 1: I went back and looked at the cookies and I'm
Speaker 1: a big girl Scout cookie so so I would like
Speaker 1: the boxes were cute, and like I said, I was
Speaker 1: just not interested in buying because I went on for
Speaker 1: the five and one. Now the five and one I
Speaker 1: found rather interesting. I've asked you are you are you?
Speaker 1: Are you? Are you a chelf or your pastry shaff
Speaker 1: or your chelf with the school? Are you a how do?
Speaker 1: What did your skill level come from to get into
Speaker 1: this business? Well, I will say that thirty nine dollars
Speaker 1: a month for the LinkedIn premium subscription is the best
Speaker 1: money I've spent because I failed horribly when I got
Speaker 1: into the kitchen and tried to develop the cookies. But
Speaker 1: thankfully I was able to find a product developer food
Speaker 1: scientists who had experience in allergy friendly UM products who
Speaker 1: was willing to take a leap and work with us,
Speaker 1: and we still work with her to this day. UM.
Speaker 1: I think on my background is more in the consumer
Speaker 1: package good space. So I spent nearly a decade at
Speaker 1: Coca Cola prior to starting Partake, and most recently in
Speaker 1: my time there, I was able to lead sales for
Speaker 1: a segment of their venture and venturing an Emerging Brands division,
Speaker 1: so brands that Coke had a A fied to invest
Speaker 1: in or acquire, I was leading sales and helping integrate
Speaker 1: those brands into the Coca Cola system. And so my
Speaker 1: background really leans much more heavily on the sales and
Speaker 1: marketing side of consumer package goods UM. And then I'm
Speaker 1: a food allergy mom. So like our five and one
Speaker 1: baking mix came to life because of a problem my
Speaker 1: family was facing during UM quarantine. Are my daughter's favorite
Speaker 1: baking mix that we used to make all of our
Speaker 1: pancakes and waffles got discontinued And I called our product
Speaker 1: developer frantically, and I was like, what do I do?
Speaker 1: There's literally nothing she can safely eat. And she whipped
Speaker 1: up something that we thought was just so wonderful that
Speaker 1: we needed to share it with our customers too. And
Speaker 1: that's how our baking like baking mixed line came to be.
Speaker 1: Okay again, you're so smooth. You just say all these
Speaker 1: things so quickly and so articulately. Articularly is so fantastic.
Speaker 1: So five and one mix, okay, is cake? Is muffins?
Speaker 1: What waffles? And it was two other things? What were
Speaker 1: the pancakes and banana back. Can't pancakes and banana bretta
Speaker 1: um round out the five Okay? Cool? Now you said
Speaker 1: your daughter is allergic to bananas, right, yes, so she
Speaker 1: cannot do banana bread. So we've been experimenting with different
Speaker 1: ways to just turn that into like a more of
Speaker 1: a coffeecake option. Okay, cool. So I when I get
Speaker 1: when I get the five and one micks Okay, off air,
Speaker 1: you said, Rochelle, you gotta make this. What are your
Speaker 1: favorites to make out of the five and one mis muffins?
Speaker 1: I woke up this morning at five thirty because my
Speaker 1: daughter let me know that she would love to. She
Speaker 1: wanted to have fresh baked muffins for breakfast this morning.
Speaker 1: So easy. The pancakes and waffles we do a lot
Speaker 1: because those are just add water and even with the
Speaker 1: complicated recipes of muffins, it's just pantry staples or kitchen
Speaker 1: staples like butter um, sugar and water that you're adding
Speaker 1: to it. So they're all you know, you can whip
Speaker 1: them up in five minutes or less, which is really nice,
Speaker 1: and they all have ingredients that you can feel really
Speaker 1: good about and they can be shared really easily no
Speaker 1: matter who's coming over for breakfast or brunch, because they're
Speaker 1: free of the top eight allergens, they're gluten free, they're vegan,
Speaker 1: their non gmo there kosher, and so they meet most
Speaker 1: people's kind of diet Harry restrictions. Now, I love I
Speaker 1: always see recipes and say add water. I always want
Speaker 1: to add my two percent milk. Would that change the
Speaker 1: recipe if I added two percent milk instead of water.
Speaker 1: We have one of our investors at Oat Milk, and
Speaker 1: he had very good results, So I think that you're safe.
Speaker 1: I will say I haven't tried it. I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: that disclaimer out there. I just add water, but I
Speaker 1: know that oat milk works. I'm assuming that two trying.
Speaker 1: You know, we we're for friends now, so I'll let
Speaker 1: you know how it goes. Because I love adding that
Speaker 1: extra little flavor because water is just water. You know,
Speaker 1: Milk give you a little texture, a little flavor and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And I'm not allergic to milk, so
Speaker 1: I enjoy milk on everything that I cook with. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna add little milk to mine and muffins. So
Speaker 1: so now that now, now you just listen to me,
Speaker 1: so I'm not allergic to anything right now, other so
Speaker 1: that I know of. So I'm running across something this
Speaker 1: just send me send me south yet, but I will
Speaker 1: tell you. So if I take your muffins and I
Speaker 1: can add some cons in it, right can id? I
Speaker 1: can add blueberries? We did? I typically do blueberries, or
Speaker 1: add chocolate chips. You can add whatever your heart desires.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm tasting blueberry muffins or the bomb. Okay,
Speaker 1: So so okay, So what I'm gonna do is I'm
Speaker 1: gonna this this week. I'm gonna take some pictures. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do your mix. Whenever I get it. It should
Speaker 1: be if it comes this week, because I ordered it yesterday,
Speaker 1: it should come this week. Okay, So when it comes,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna immediately I'm gonna do some blueberries. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do the milk things. Just show you have fun with
Speaker 1: I'm not trying. I'm not no, I'm not no food doctor.
Speaker 1: You know where I just disseminate things to go. Well,
Speaker 1: it just just not work that I'm just going to
Speaker 1: do it. I like to have fun. And so I
Speaker 1: have a TV show that I'm launching, and uh, the
Speaker 1: Atlanta market isn't gonna be in two million homes. I
Speaker 1: love to be able to introduce your product on that
Speaker 1: because I love doing simple things that can. My whole
Speaker 1: thing is about So I'm not a guy who sits around.
Speaker 1: I'm like my degrees in mathematics, I have not I'm
Speaker 1: not a trained pastry chef and mother train cook or chef.
Speaker 1: I just have natural gifts. And so so what I
Speaker 1: do is I like to do things were fast. So
Speaker 1: I would like instead of going to the apple pie,
Speaker 1: I go get the cans on the shelf and put
Speaker 1: that in my apple pie. You know, some people lose
Speaker 1: their mind over there at the knees. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: theseus can apples. Hey, hey, calm down the people out
Speaker 1: there there on this shift. Obviously for a reason because
Speaker 1: somebody out there by okay, So with your product, I
Speaker 1: feel that your products to say way, some people are
Speaker 1: looking at it. Go I've and one. You know it's
Speaker 1: not you know, it's not breaking it down. But there's
Speaker 1: a customer out there that wants to use your product
Speaker 1: because they don't have time, or they may have never
Speaker 1: experienced that level of shop or baking ability. And so
Speaker 1: that's why I'm really excited about your product? Was that
Speaker 1: the thought process? I know you were saying, hey, your daughter,
Speaker 1: the the battery they was using for your daughter was
Speaker 1: not available. What is really driving you as a business owner?
Speaker 1: Are you trying to other than the allergy free? You know,
Speaker 1: because you're black sea or your female, your entrepreneur, it's
Speaker 1: a certain degree of passion that is driving you behind
Speaker 1: all this, this whole food industry that you're right now
Speaker 1: doing very well because you're in six thousand stores nation.
Speaker 1: I will say that when I started the company, the
Speaker 1: name Partake came from the idea of people with food
Speaker 1: allergies like my daughter being able to partake, but as
Speaker 1: a woman, as a person of color, as a first
Speaker 1: time founder of first time My parents didn't go to
Speaker 1: graduate from high school like first time college generation first
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? First generation college graduate?
Speaker 1: Excuse me? Um, I realized that there were a lot
Speaker 1: more people who needed an opportunity to partake um pun intended.
Speaker 1: And so what our business is really all about is
Speaker 1: inclusivity and lifting as we climb. And the way that
Speaker 1: we bring that to life is you know, as we've
Speaker 1: grown the business, the thing that's made me the most
Speaker 1: excited is the impact that we're able to have on
Speaker 1: underfunded and underestimated and underrepresented groups of people. UM. And
Speaker 1: so those partnerships have been We partner with a group
Speaker 1: called the Food and Food Equality Initiative UM. It was
Speaker 1: a it was It's a nonprofit that was started by
Speaker 1: UM Emily around a black woman that's based in Kansas
Speaker 1: City and her family was experiencing food and securities and
Speaker 1: they had the double whammy of her children also have
Speaker 1: food allergies, and they went to their local food pantry
Speaker 1: and there was literally only two things her kids can
Speaker 1: safely eat, tomatoes and potatoes. UM and food allergies have
Speaker 1: a much higher incidents in the Black and Latino communities,
Speaker 1: and so how do we get foods like hours that
Speaker 1: everyone deserves to eat. How do we get education and
Speaker 1: advocacy for these communities? And so we've been able to
Speaker 1: partner with Emily's group and feed thousands of family through
Speaker 1: monetary donations, through product donations UM and the other UH
Speaker 1: cause that we're really really working a champion is diversity
Speaker 1: in the food space. I think that far, far too long,
Speaker 1: there have been folks who don't look like us who
Speaker 1: are making decisions about what we put into our bodies,
Speaker 1: and so how do we create a more diverse food industry? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, companies that startups it seems like we all
Speaker 1: started New York and San Francisco are Austin and giving
Speaker 1: acts us to founders from all over, giving access to
Speaker 1: college students to get the entry level positions, whether it
Speaker 1: be at startups, are big CpG companies to help make
Speaker 1: the decisions and grow into the leadership roles that are
Speaker 1: going to change and shape our food economy moving forward.
Speaker 1: And so we launched a fellowship program in called the
Speaker 1: Black Futures and Food and Beverage Fellowship. We partnered with
Speaker 1: five HBCUs. We selected eight fellows and we provided an
Speaker 1: eight week curriculum of the nuts and bolts of the
Speaker 1: CpG industry and then it culminated with an opportunity to
Speaker 1: either get a full time interns of summer internship or
Speaker 1: full time entry level job. And I'm really excited for
Speaker 1: that program to be even bigger. This there, we're partnering
Speaker 1: with several most more schools, hoping to be able to
Speaker 1: impact more fellows. And so, you know, how do we
Speaker 1: provide access, how do we leave the door a little
Speaker 1: bit wider open than it was when we started. Partake Well,
Speaker 1: Partake has the Black Futures and Food and Beverage Fellowship
Speaker 1: Program for the active HBCU students. HBCUs became the fourth
Speaker 1: on a lot of news, a lot of high profile
Speaker 1: corporate executives and firms decided to donate the hpc US
Speaker 1: or what is when you say the Black Futures and
Speaker 1: Food and Beverage Fellowship Program, what exactly is that? So
Speaker 1: we were fortunate enough to be a part of a
Speaker 1: Tabanis incubator program back in ten and the founder of Tavani,
Speaker 1: Hamdi Ulakaya wanted to make it easier for food startups
Speaker 1: to bring better food to more people. And he had
Speaker 1: been on this journey you know that took ten years
Speaker 1: to build a billion dollar brand, and he was like,
Speaker 1: what can I do to make y'all's journey a little
Speaker 1: bit shorter? And so similarly, I'm coming from big CpG
Speaker 1: and now I'm out of food startup. And the thing
Speaker 1: that has remained true across both is, unfortunately there aren't
Speaker 1: that many black or brown folks in leadership roles. So
Speaker 1: how can I provide access, whether it's through education or
Speaker 1: through social capital through introductions, through access to executives in
Speaker 1: the CpG space to help these students get the opportunities
Speaker 1: and the education that they need to throw even the
Speaker 1: food industry. And so for us, that was we opened
Speaker 1: up an application process. We ran an eight week curriculum
Speaker 1: where we taught, you know, all the different facets of
Speaker 1: the food industry in a condensed period of time, supply chain,
Speaker 1: food safety, UM, E commerce. Because I know that when
Speaker 1: I was in college, I assumed that if you worked
Speaker 1: for a big food company you could do marketing. I
Speaker 1: didn't think about all the other aspects that it takes
Speaker 1: to run a food business. And so we want to
Speaker 1: give those students that education. And then it culminates with
Speaker 1: a virtual Career Day, which we hope to be in
Speaker 1: person this year UM and we had attendees from companies
Speaker 1: like Ubani, from Beyond Meat, from Once Upon a Farm
Speaker 1: that we're there to give the students internships or job
Speaker 1: offers and to learn more about the students, and so
Speaker 1: it was really exciting to see how that turned into
Speaker 1: something actionable. I think often women and people of color
Speaker 1: are over mentored and not there's not enough action. Like
Speaker 1: I always go to the simple phrase of send the
Speaker 1: wire or make the higher and so that's what we're
Speaker 1: trying to do. We're trying to be action oriented to health.
Speaker 1: The students get jobs or you're fantastic. And uh, I
Speaker 1: know I've talked a little bit about your five and
Speaker 1: one baking mix, but we didn't talk about the cookies.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk about the different cookies, and
Speaker 1: they also want to talk about the future products that
Speaker 1: you have coming out. Let's talk about the cookies that
Speaker 1: I have not ordered yet that I will be ordered
Speaker 1: because I've been reminded politely I forgot to buy the cookies.
Speaker 1: So tell us about the cookie line. Well, you might
Speaker 1: get another email. You're gonna come back to me the
Speaker 1: way that our system is. But the cookies, we have
Speaker 1: eight flavors, um, five crunchy flavors, three soft baked flavors.
Speaker 1: Everything's free of the top eight allergens. Everything's gluten free
Speaker 1: and vegan and made with less sugar than our competitors.
Speaker 1: And the gluten free and vegan space made with really
Speaker 1: simple ingredients that you can understand. And then we have
Speaker 1: two seasonal We're actually going to come out with three
Speaker 1: seasonal varieties this year. So we have a pumpkin spice
Speaker 1: and then two seasonal varieties that come closer to the
Speaker 1: Christmas holidays. Um and that was our first flagship products.
Speaker 1: So we have three flavors when we launch. So it's
Speaker 1: been exciting to see that grow to ten flavors of cookies. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I am a dessert nut. Everybody knows I
Speaker 1: eat my dessert for eat my meal from in a restaurant.
Speaker 1: You sit down with the nies before when you auder
Speaker 1: your honest, excuse me, I need to dessert men. That's
Speaker 1: how much of a dessert person. I am. So so
Speaker 1: when I'm so, I'm excited about these cookies now because
Speaker 1: you know, I like to crumble up my cookies and
Speaker 1: I like to put some nice ice cream on top,
Speaker 1: and I put a little whooped cream and put a
Speaker 1: little I put a lot of extra that comes on
Speaker 1: top of it. So, so what do you because are
Speaker 1: you are? You? Are? You are a fan of your
Speaker 1: cookies From the standpoint, do you what do you do
Speaker 1: with your cookies? You do it with what do you
Speaker 1: eat your cookies? Just eat them individually. I eat them
Speaker 1: individually in the afternoon for like a pick me up
Speaker 1: with like a coffee or tea. I do crumble them
Speaker 1: on top of ice cream sometimes sometimes I make ice
Speaker 1: cream sandwiches with them. Um, I used them for a
Speaker 1: cookie for a pie crust before, like our our carrot
Speaker 1: cake arch and just sumer there. So I do lots
Speaker 1: of stuff with So you say you you crumbling them
Speaker 1: up for as a crust. That sounds which which brand
Speaker 1: do you use? What brand of cookie do you use
Speaker 1: as your crust? So we have a ginger snap and
Speaker 1: we have a carrot cake, and so they make a
Speaker 1: really nice substitute for like a Graham cracker crust. So
Speaker 1: if you just, like um, crumble the cookies up and
Speaker 1: mix it with like a melted butter melted and you
Speaker 1: kind of pack it in, you can create a pot crust.
Speaker 1: Wow you really? So you're really excited me about because
Speaker 1: because I I do a cheesecake, I think that'd be
Speaker 1: cool to use as my cheesecakes. I have a lot
Speaker 1: of like I got about eighty different recipes in my
Speaker 1: recipe app and I think they're using that as because
Speaker 1: I just put that in the mix and just ground
Speaker 1: it up and it becomes very fine. And now can
Speaker 1: I put sugar with that and you do you put
Speaker 1: sugar with the crust, with the butter or do you
Speaker 1: just lose just the butter and the crust when you
Speaker 1: grind it up. I'm talking about the ginger snaps. I
Speaker 1: use just the butter and the crust. I'll send you
Speaker 1: since we're friendly now, I'll send you a recipe. And
Speaker 1: we actually did one with the cheesecake, so I'll send
Speaker 1: you the recipe that we use. But I don't typically
Speaker 1: add extra sugar. Um, but you totally could. Yeah, send
Speaker 1: me that recipe and I do it on my show. Okay,
Speaker 1: because it sounds the man is because are your person?
Speaker 1: Does your recipe include sour cream? Is no sour cream?
Speaker 1: It doesn't have sour creamy just because we try to
Speaker 1: avoid dairy. We can see me and you, Saint Paige.
Speaker 1: I do not put sour cream in my cheese, in
Speaker 1: my and my and my cheesecakes at all. I don't
Speaker 1: know why you're gonna add all. You gotta add extra
Speaker 1: sugar to offset the sour So we're on the same
Speaker 1: page right there. I'm gonna stuff it with some apples.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do you up right and make you proud
Speaker 1: of me when I do my cheesecake your way, So
Speaker 1: send that recipe to me, it would be great. And
Speaker 1: then closing, what's what's the future. You have six thousand
Speaker 1: stores and we're talking about worldwide. You're you're you're fantastic
Speaker 1: post person. Uh, your incredible mom, incredible young business person.
Speaker 1: I love the mentorship campaigns that you have out there,
Speaker 1: especially involved in HBCUs. What is the future Partake? My
Speaker 1: goal is that will continue to grow across multiple product
Speaker 1: lines that one day you'll see Partake in every isle
Speaker 1: of your grocery store, are UM and in stores around
Speaker 1: the country. While six thousand is a big jump from
Speaker 1: where we were, I think there's a ton of opportunity
Speaker 1: ahead of us UM. So we're excited to grow the
Speaker 1: business and along the way, continue to grow the impact
Speaker 1: that we're having on our community. Okay, cool, here's our relationship.
Speaker 1: You O your Mia cheesecake recipe. Okay Cool, I've ordered
Speaker 1: my five and one mix, so I owe you some
Speaker 1: some pictures at least of me making the product. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do Blueblirer Muffriends, I gotta do. I've yet to
Speaker 1: do Blueberry Muffriends, so I'm gonna I'm gonna take your
Speaker 1: mix and do a blueberry mums. I've done the banana nuts,
Speaker 1: I've done all the crumbles and all that, the apple crumbles.
Speaker 1: Now blueberries. I'm excited about that because you warm blueberry
Speaker 1: muffin for breakfast is like outstanding. I'm gonna do that
Speaker 1: and so and from there, we're gonna go first and
Speaker 1: we just see where our relationship goes from there. Is
Speaker 1: that cool? That sounds like a plan. I appreciate you
Speaker 1: having me. It was wonderful chatting with you. Okay, thank you,
Speaker 1: and thank you Dennis Water for coming on money making conversations.
Speaker 1: And we're live here outside the Perez family home, just
Speaker 1: waiting for the and there they go, almost on time.
Speaker 1: This morning. Mom is coming out the front door strong
Speaker 1: with a double arm kid carry. Looks like dad has
Speaker 1: the bags. Daughter is bringing up the rear. Oh, but
Speaker 1: the diaper bag wasn't closed. Diapers and toys are everywhere.
Speaker 1: But mom has just nailed the perfect car seat buckle
Speaker 1: for the toddler. And now the eldest daughter, who looks
Speaker 1: to be about nine or ten, has secured herself in
Speaker 1: the booster seat. Dad zips the bag clothes and they're off.
Speaker 1: But looks like Mom doesn't realize her coffee cup is
Speaker 1: still on the roof of the car, and there it goes. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's a shame that mug was a fan favorite. Don't
Speaker 1: sweat the small stuff, just nailed the big stuff, like
Speaker 1: making sure your kids are buckled correctly in the right
Speaker 1: seat for their agent's eyes. Learn more n h t
Speaker 1: s A dot gov slash the Right Seat visits h
Speaker 1: s A dot gov Slash the Right Seat, brought to
Speaker 1: you by MIZZA and the AD Council. What grows in
Speaker 1: the forest trees, Sure no one else grows in the forest.
Speaker 1: Our imagination, our sense of wonder, and our family bonds
Speaker 1: grow too, because when we disconnect from this and connect
Speaker 1: with this, we reconnect with each other. The forest is
Speaker 1: closer than you think. Find a forest near you and
Speaker 1: start exploring. I Discover the Forest dot org, brought to
Speaker 1: you by the United States Forest Service and the AD Council. Hi, everyone,
Speaker 1: I'll roker here as a guy with his own catchphrase.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that Smokey's only said only you can prevent wildfires,
Speaker 1: but I'm filling in because there's a lot more to report,
Speaker 1: like when they're parched or windy conditions out there, you
Speaker 1: gotta be extra careful with things like burning yard waste.
Speaker 1: After all, wildfires can start anywhere, even in your neck
Speaker 1: of the woods. Go to Smokey Bear dot com to
Speaker 1: learn more about wildfire prevention. Brought to you by the U. S.
Speaker 1: Forest Service, your state Forester, and the AD Council. Today,
Speaker 1: my guest is one of my favorite people on the
Speaker 1: Food Network Challenge. Any challenge deals with food, it's Duff Golden.
Speaker 1: When he when his dream of rock starting wasn't playing
Speaker 1: paying the bills, like my dream of being a comedian
Speaker 1: wasn't paying the bill, he turned his pastry talents and
Speaker 1: found the Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, Maryland in two
Speaker 1: thousand two. He's an entrepreneur. His cakes are soldo on
Speaker 1: gold Belly and are available nationwide. Do shipping and you
Speaker 1: also can buy Duff cake mix. He really released his
Speaker 1: first kids cookbook, Super Good Baking for Kids, and in
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty one he became a proud paper which
Speaker 1: I love to talk about. Boy changes your life. I
Speaker 1: got the only daughter and changed my life. Duff is
Speaker 1: on the show to talk about his new Discovery Plus
Speaker 1: original series, Duff's Happy fun Baked Time premier April Tune
Speaker 1: in eight on Discovery Plus. Please walking the money Made conversation.
Speaker 1: He's gonna make a smile. I know he is duff.
Speaker 1: Now you got you just marketing it all. You got
Speaker 1: the T shirt all. I don't know what kind of
Speaker 1: bull you got on your shirt. You're just doing it
Speaker 1: looking good man, A proud proper to talk about that,
Speaker 1: being a proud paper man. Oh man. So we have
Speaker 1: a daughter and she is three months old, and I
Speaker 1: feel like I feel like I finally have proposed in
Speaker 1: my life. There I understand now the reason why they
Speaker 1: put me on this earth. It was to be a daddy.
Speaker 1: I love it. I just love it. It's really amazing,
Speaker 1: you know, I know, I you know, fortunate to have
Speaker 1: a daughter, you know, and as well and just the
Speaker 1: the you know, it's it's just unconditional love, you know.
Speaker 1: And then and then you get to that part stuff
Speaker 1: where you know you you can't hurt them, you know,
Speaker 1: even though they followed, they can't sit up because they
Speaker 1: don't have a spine yet strong enough to hold them up.
Speaker 1: And the whole processes is it really does give you
Speaker 1: a sense of purpose, man, you know, because I'm not
Speaker 1: saying you don't have it, but it gives you a future.
Speaker 1: It becomes part of your what what you know, you
Speaker 1: have a purpose of planning this young child eighteen years
Speaker 1: all the years that you had in your head about
Speaker 1: your life to people have talked about now as being
Speaker 1: transferred into this child. Tell us about it. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: if there's something about like raising a child and then
Speaker 1: you think about like my own childhood and I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what do I like about myself? And how do I
Speaker 1: foster that into her? And what what would I like
Speaker 1: to not have? Like you know, there's we all have
Speaker 1: things where we're critical of ourselves, and how do you
Speaker 1: when you're raising a child, like how do you make
Speaker 1: sure that you know they are equipped with the things
Speaker 1: that will help them through those problems better than you
Speaker 1: were when you know, you were trying to figure that
Speaker 1: out and just trying to understand, like how do I
Speaker 1: articulate these things to my child as she's growing up?
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, that's that's important because you know, you're
Speaker 1: you're moving your your industry has always been adult driven.
Speaker 1: It's not kind of moving in that direction of children.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you some I've watched the show
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about, and I'm gonna jump around little
Speaker 1: bit because I'm talking really moving into the dulf happy
Speaker 1: fun bag time because they see me a bunch of
Speaker 1: clips on the show because the premier you know this,
Speaker 1: And so when I watched the clips, who audience are you?
Speaker 1: Let me ask you first? What audience are you shooting
Speaker 1: folk for the show? Let me ask you that first. So, um,
Speaker 1: I really want everybody to watch it. I want kids
Speaker 1: to watch it. I want their parents to watch it
Speaker 1: with them. I wanted it to be like not just tolerable,
Speaker 1: but really enjoyable for adults. But I want people who
Speaker 1: don't have kids to watch it too. And my last
Speaker 1: cookbook was for kids, and I wrote that book especially
Speaker 1: so if kids get it, they're gonna be stoked. If
Speaker 1: adults get it, they're going to be stoked too, because
Speaker 1: all the recipes are real. I tend to find that
Speaker 1: if I talk to kids an adults the same, like
Speaker 1: like if I talk to the kids like adults, kids
Speaker 1: respond much better. You know, when you when you really
Speaker 1: kind of like slow it way down and really talked
Speaker 1: down the kids too, Now they're like, I don't got
Speaker 1: time to that, you know, and so um hopefully for
Speaker 1: dust Happy Fund Big Time. I hope everybody a fross
Speaker 1: across the spectrum was that high school kids, college kids, adults, kids, parents, everybody. Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a big hit with millennials
Speaker 1: because millennials are into that, you know, you know, do
Speaker 1: it yourself. They they are used to the podcast. They
Speaker 1: grew up on the video, the YouTube, so they used
Speaker 1: to watching stuff and being told what to do through
Speaker 1: a screen and also until some adult telling them what
Speaker 1: to do. But I'm gonna tell you watching the videos,
Speaker 1: one thing I did notice this it's really good, is
Speaker 1: that because you're moving kind of slow, you know, because
Speaker 1: because you're dealing with Jim Hanson characters around, you have
Speaker 1: to respond back to them. It really helped me and
Speaker 1: I can bake it. I can cook. But when I
Speaker 1: normally watch TV, you guys are so smooth, You're so
Speaker 1: fast that sometimes you know you have to put pause,
Speaker 1: and really watching you, you don't have to put them
Speaker 1: you you almost follow you and bake it at the
Speaker 1: same time. Right, It's good, you know. One of the
Speaker 1: things that I try to do and we do it
Speaker 1: on Happy for Big time too. Whatever I'm cooking on television,
Speaker 1: I always tell them leaves the mistakes, and if you
Speaker 1: make a mistake, I want everybody to see it and
Speaker 1: then they can hear me talk myself through it. And
Speaker 1: that way, like when I'm learning, if I if I
Speaker 1: do something, I'm like, okay, I messed this thing up.
Speaker 1: I need to think about my process. I need to
Speaker 1: think about what I'm doing. I do it out loud,
Speaker 1: and I talked through my thought process and that way
Speaker 1: everybody at home understand how I'm thinking about that, and
Speaker 1: it goes. It doesn't. It becomes an opportunity. They're not
Speaker 1: a mistake anymore, and now everybody's learning good. Well you
Speaker 1: know that that thought that was really important that I
Speaker 1: got that out to you because you know videos of
Speaker 1: you know, you have these little quick videos on buzz
Speaker 1: and all buzz feed and all that stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: they moved so fast you have to pause, pause, pause
Speaker 1: pause watching your show. Are the clips that they sent
Speaker 1: to me of your show. I was like, wow, I
Speaker 1: could actually simultaneously do this as he as he doing it,
Speaker 1: and I'm adult. So that's why I asked you earlier,
Speaker 1: who are you really playing too? If you plan for Key.
Speaker 1: It's I think a lot of adults are gonna glob into,
Speaker 1: you know, gonna watch this show because I can follow
Speaker 1: it and it's very important. Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1: I mean I really think that. Um, the tone of it,
Speaker 1: it's very funny. Uh. You know, my sort of biggest
Speaker 1: influences are, like, I like everything absurdists, So you know, money, Python,
Speaker 1: kids in the hall, things like that. Um, I love
Speaker 1: Pewee's Playhouse growing up. You know, that was another sort
Speaker 1: of big influence, you know, and I just you know,
Speaker 1: just Pewee's you know, Paul Rubin's just imagination. It's just
Speaker 1: through the roof. I just love the way he thinks.
Speaker 1: And so you know, there's a lot of those kind
Speaker 1: of influences really went into the show. When you watch it,
Speaker 1: there's some really absurd, silly fun stuff like there's, um,
Speaker 1: there are six eggs in the refrigerator that are puppets.
Speaker 1: Each one of them is a different grandmother and so
Speaker 1: any anytime I opened the fridge, all the grandmother's you know,
Speaker 1: they kind of you know, yell at me. And it's
Speaker 1: really funny. It's really Okay, Well you gotta start. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about these characters. You got cous cous, Dizzy Eggers
Speaker 1: later dragging oven, and your boy Jeff. So let's talk
Speaker 1: about it, look like, let's Jeff, let's talk about each
Speaker 1: one of those characters because off area and I gotta
Speaker 1: bring it on the air. You know, I'm a little
Speaker 1: older than you. It reminded me of watching a great
Speaker 1: cooking version of uh Mr Rodgers Neighborhood. It reminded me
Speaker 1: of Captain Kangaroo, and you know, so it was refreshing
Speaker 1: watching this show. But I also know, you know, it's
Speaker 1: a risk too, because people can come across as silly
Speaker 1: and can come what is he doing? It looks crazy,
Speaker 1: but it really comes across as entertaining. And you have
Speaker 1: a really good sense of humor and perfect comic timing,
Speaker 1: perfect comic time than you know. I grew up listening
Speaker 1: to like comedic records. You know, my parents had a
Speaker 1: lot of comedy on records that he used to listen
Speaker 1: to him over and over again. And I think I
Speaker 1: developed like comedic time and relatively early without even think
Speaker 1: thinking about it. So, like all the characters there, let's
Speaker 1: start with Jeff. So, Jeff is my real life, you know,
Speaker 1: a partner chef de cuisine. I mean he's been my
Speaker 1: sux chef since you know, almost day one. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I started Charge to the Case in two thousand two.
Speaker 1: Jeff started working for me in two thousand three, and
Speaker 1: we've known each other since college, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: we've been friends forever. And um, so Jeff is also
Speaker 1: a musicians and I'm a musician. A lot of the
Speaker 1: people when we started Charging to the Case, it was
Speaker 1: all my friends who were in band who needed a job,
Speaker 1: and so we started this bakery so we could all work.
Speaker 1: And so, um, Jeff is in in happy fun daytime.
Speaker 1: He's the purveyors. So whenever I need ingredients, flower but
Speaker 1: or whatever, Jeff shows up and brings it to me.
Speaker 1: Jeff is also an amazing singer songwriter, So every time
Speaker 1: Jeff comes and drops off the groceries, he pulls out
Speaker 1: a guitar or ukulele or something and he sings a
Speaker 1: song about whatever it is that we're doing in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: And it was just kind of like a fun way
Speaker 1: to sort of like get Jeff like other talents that
Speaker 1: cake decorating, you know, as part of the show. The
Speaker 1: music is a big, big part of it. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: now we have you, now, Jim Hedson, we cannot forget.
Speaker 1: Let's let's go back to all these all these puppets
Speaker 1: that are powered by Jim Hidson's genius, his brand genius,
Speaker 1: and now you doff. Okay, did the idea come to
Speaker 1: you or did you pitch the idea to them? And
Speaker 1: then let's talk about these characters that were developed around
Speaker 1: you while you doing these cooking sessions and baking sessions. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I was in my apartment and I was baking,
Speaker 1: and I was watching Esthome Streets. Um, I watched a
Speaker 1: lot of kids shows, like just I really do enjoy them,
Speaker 1: like not just as research or anything. I just I
Speaker 1: like watching Testhme Street. It's fantastic show. And so I
Speaker 1: was baking and watching TV and baking, and I'm like
Speaker 1: looking at it and I was like, you know, this
Speaker 1: would be a really good idea, right, baking and you know,
Speaker 1: having puppets and like being able to do all like
Speaker 1: the really conceptual view the full artwork that that they
Speaker 1: did on Sesame Street. So I wrote basically like a
Speaker 1: like I wrote the first episode, right. My wife and
Speaker 1: I created these characters and we kind of came up
Speaker 1: with like how we're explaining the science of how an
Speaker 1: egg works. And then um, I wrote this whole thing
Speaker 1: and I brought it to Jim Henson, h the Jim
Speaker 1: Henson Company, and I was like, Hey, here's my idea
Speaker 1: and I kind of like act it out the whole show,
Speaker 1: and uh, they were like, yes, we're gonna we want
Speaker 1: to make that. And then we brought the Food Network,
Speaker 1: and we brought to Discovery and we're like, hey, I
Speaker 1: got this idea. It's not like, you know, there's no
Speaker 1: scripted television on Food Network or really on any Discovery.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I really want to do this show.
Speaker 1: I think it's great. They're like, we do two, let's
Speaker 1: make it. I'm like, oh my goodness. Yeah, like you
Speaker 1: understand how this business works. Like the fact that something
Speaker 1: this different and kind of you know, just like there's
Speaker 1: not really a model for what we did. The fact
Speaker 1: that something like this got made is I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a million one and you know, well that's the power.
Speaker 1: That's the power of streaming television, because you know, it
Speaker 1: was like if it was on the where we slopped
Speaker 1: this on the Cooking Channel, why do we slopped this
Speaker 1: on the Food network, but in streaming, you know, it's
Speaker 1: everything is a category and your and your brand. So
Speaker 1: they go, well, this is a duff new show. And
Speaker 1: I just love the fact that you know, I know,
Speaker 1: you said Sesame Street. And the reason I went with
Speaker 1: Captain Kangaroo and I went with, uh, you know, Mr
Speaker 1: Rogers neighborhood is because there was an individuals and individuals
Speaker 1: and I was just saying, it's just me just talking
Speaker 1: about your talent, and you was just a curismatic, fun
Speaker 1: entertaining guy, you know, And we're gonna talk about charm
Speaker 1: City in a minute. Because the fact that that evolved
Speaker 1: around just just just individuals who just thought out of
Speaker 1: the box and the kitchen is amazing to me. But
Speaker 1: that's why I thought that it was special, because you know,
Speaker 1: every every era, every twenty years, you know, there's a
Speaker 1: new individual that comes along that just really separates himself
Speaker 1: in that educational platform because this is what this really
Speaker 1: is a cation for the young people to make them
Speaker 1: understand and be safe in the kitchen because you teach
Speaker 1: all those tips and you have all these devices that
Speaker 1: the oven talks and and all these things, and the
Speaker 1: robots sitting right next to you with the big eyeballs
Speaker 1: and all these different things. And Slater, you know, the
Speaker 1: slow movie Sloth is over there, just just you know,
Speaker 1: hanging off on you. That that really and and it
Speaker 1: helps me out. And I think that because you're a
Speaker 1: new father now, you know, this is even more exciting
Speaker 1: because of the fact that it's gonna repeat, repeat, repeat,
Speaker 1: and your child's gonna grow up on this and you're
Speaker 1: gonna have a whole new army of bakers and cooks
Speaker 1: because of you do. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it well you know, it's it's nice like
Speaker 1: so with all the other characters. So couscous is my
Speaker 1: sous chef, and she issus is really in charge of
Speaker 1: the kids. And she is a robot that I made
Speaker 1: out of old kitchen part and she kind of keeps
Speaker 1: the rest of it to mind because everybody else is
Speaker 1: a little crazy, including me. Um. So there is uh,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a blue crab from you know, chest Peak, Babe.
Speaker 1: You know, I wanted to give a little nod to Baltimore.
Speaker 1: So there's a blue crab who's real crabby and another
Speaker 1: little nod to Baltimore. His name is Edgar after ed
Speaker 1: Ground Poe who was born in Baltimore. UM. And then
Speaker 1: let's see there's Slater, who's kind of like the slacker
Speaker 1: sloth who lives in the ceiling and he kind of
Speaker 1: comes down every once in a while. And Yeah, the
Speaker 1: nice thing about Slater is that he's the one that's
Speaker 1: asking a lot of questions. Right, He'll be like, why
Speaker 1: are you doing that? What's going on here? Why are
Speaker 1: we going to stick that thing in the mixture? You know,
Speaker 1: He's always asking questions. And so by asking questions, he
Speaker 1: gets me to to, you know, sort of like, you know,
Speaker 1: save the things that are really kind of the meat,
Speaker 1: you know of like, well, let me show you how
Speaker 1: eggs work. Let me show you how the gluten in
Speaker 1: flower makes pasta chewy, you know, things like that. Um.
Speaker 1: There's also our oven is a dragon and he based
Speaker 1: everything in his mouth. So when we need to base something,
Speaker 1: he gives a big roar and steen comes out. We
Speaker 1: put the food in his mouth, he closes it and
Speaker 1: he bakes it and pull it back out. I love
Speaker 1: that we do. The beauty of UM. The mixer is
Speaker 1: I was looking at my mixer and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: you need a mixer, and I was kind of thinking
Speaker 1: of Cherry from TV's Playhouse Big Chair that talks. I
Speaker 1: trying to think of like what's like, what does mixture
Speaker 1: like look like? And I just thought, you know what
Speaker 1: if there was an elephant, right, like, you know, you
Speaker 1: can kind of this big years and then she would
Speaker 1: mix her and she mixes everything with her trunk. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just say, this guy is really to engage with
Speaker 1: this show. But I am because I'm excited about what
Speaker 1: you're doing. Because first of all, it's a lot of
Speaker 1: hard work because the scripted and so a lot of
Speaker 1: so you you pitched the idea that really, unlike the
Speaker 1: other shows you've done, which is natural talent and prov
Speaker 1: you have a script that you have to memorize and
Speaker 1: because when you throw a joke, somebody got respond to
Speaker 1: the joke. How much work was that was involved in
Speaker 1: the in the in the table reason description of the
Speaker 1: stuff and you staying on point with your conversation. Um man,
Speaker 1: I gotta say it's it was very uncomfortable, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like I really had to like, wow,
Speaker 1: I have to say a thing that I have to
Speaker 1: I have to I actually have to know what's about
Speaker 1: to come out of my mouth because like usually it's
Speaker 1: just you know, it's just coming out like now I
Speaker 1: have like a specific thing that I have to say.
Speaker 1: I'm not good at that, you know. And when it's funny,
Speaker 1: when I first pitched the show to Jim Hinson Company,
Speaker 1: I assume that somebody would be playing the head baker
Speaker 1: that you know, the person, and they're like, no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: it's got to be you. And I was like, not
Speaker 1: an actor, you know me, Like I'm a decorator, Like
Speaker 1: it has to be you. And I was like, I'll
Speaker 1: give it a shot, you know, um, and uh so
Speaker 1: you know we did, but it was it was it
Speaker 1: was really difficult. But it was also because the puppet
Speaker 1: heers are so amazing. They kind of remember like these
Speaker 1: are the best and the best in this industry. I mean,
Speaker 1: these guys like they were, um, you know what wanted.
Speaker 1: The puppet lead on Duff Topping Fund Baking Punt was
Speaker 1: also Augre in the Dark Crystal, And when I found
Speaker 1: that out, I'd like kind of like I got like
Speaker 1: a little star struck, you know, because I mean I
Speaker 1: just the puppeteers that were on the show was just
Speaker 1: really really good. And one of the things that They're
Speaker 1: great at is improv and you know, I am a
Speaker 1: total nubie. I've never acted. This is the first time
Speaker 1: I've had a learned lines and like, you know, interact
Speaker 1: with I've never worked with puppets before. I mean, this
Speaker 1: was all new to me. But they were so good
Speaker 1: at what they do. They could take somebody that had
Speaker 1: never been seen any of this world, you know, any
Speaker 1: of it, and they brought me in and just they
Speaker 1: made me good. You know, it was magic. You know.
Speaker 1: The thing about it is that, first of all, I'm
Speaker 1: excited for you. You were your great man. Uh, I
Speaker 1: love you. But it all started somewhere and then all
Speaker 1: started with a with a like a Madhouse genius. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna use that word, the Madhouse gez in two thousand
Speaker 1: two at Chalm City Cakes. Can you at least tell
Speaker 1: my listeners and viewers how did that come about? And
Speaker 1: then how did TV discover you? So? Um? I was
Speaker 1: I graduated culinary school in ninety seven, and I was
Speaker 1: working in hotels and restaurants, and I was I was
Speaker 1: basically just driving around the country and kind of bumming
Speaker 1: and and you know, doing different things, just trying things out.
Speaker 1: I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to cook, but I wasn't sure like that,
Speaker 1: I want to be a Patriot chef at the hotel.
Speaker 1: Did I want to work in the bakery? Did I
Speaker 1: want to own a bakery? And then I want to
Speaker 1: work in the cake shop for a restaurant. They want
Speaker 1: to be the pastry chef in a five started you know,
Speaker 1: a really crazy place. I didn't know where I sit
Speaker 1: and um, eventually I got back to Baltimore. Um, and
Speaker 1: I was working as a personal chef for a family. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they had four kids, and I was, you know,
Speaker 1: I was really good with the kids. So that was
Speaker 1: kind of where I first realized. Was like, I don't
Speaker 1: know why, but for some reason, kids like responsively. But then, um,
Speaker 1: I kind of wanted to put my cooking career on
Speaker 1: hold because I'm also musician and I wanted to see
Speaker 1: a fact could actually make it as a working you know,
Speaker 1: musician in a rock band. So I quit my job
Speaker 1: and I started making cakes in my apartment so I
Speaker 1: could play the rent while I was becoming you know,
Speaker 1: a big famous rock star. And so, uh, I'm still
Speaker 1: I'm still a waiting for that to happen when, um so,
Speaker 1: I was just making cakes to my apartment, and like,
Speaker 1: Baltimore is not a big city, right, It's a you know,
Speaker 1: medium size city. And so when somebody who's like in
Speaker 1: their early twenties, covered in tattoos, who's in a rock band,
Speaker 1: is making you know, really beautiful wedding cakes, like people
Speaker 1: talk about it. They're like, well, that' weird. And then
Speaker 1: I started getting more business, and when people start realizing like, oh,
Speaker 1: this guy is actually good at what he does. And then,
Speaker 1: um so, then I hired my friend Jeff, and then
Speaker 1: I hired a bunch of other of my friends. Um
Speaker 1: some of them were going to art school in Baltimore,
Speaker 1: but they're all friends from the kind of the music
Speaker 1: and art community of Baltimore is very very sight community.
Speaker 1: Um well, then we got a call from Food Network.
Speaker 1: They wanted us to be to compete on one of
Speaker 1: the competition shows, and so Jeff and I were like, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: let's do it. And so we went and we competed
Speaker 1: and like, you know, we failed, Like you know, I
Speaker 1: think we're out like third or fourth place, like did
Speaker 1: not make a big splash as far as like our
Speaker 1: cake decorating skills go. But we were really funny, so like,
Speaker 1: you know, we're just we kind of have like a
Speaker 1: very natural banter. We've known each other forever, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, so he's kind of like the straight man
Speaker 1: on the kind of wild man. And they liked this, like, hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to compete, you know, on another one?
Speaker 1: And I was like, well, we didn't win, and they're like,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. You guys are great, you're funny. So
Speaker 1: they kept having us on even though we never went right,
Speaker 1: we never won. We weren't even like, you know, the
Speaker 1: top three, like we were always you know, kind of
Speaker 1: floating around the middle. A couple of times we were
Speaker 1: all the way to buy them, like our cakes could
Speaker 1: fall apart, to catch on fire and stuff. But they're like,
Speaker 1: you got some great TV. So then they came they
Speaker 1: wanted to shoot some b roll. So in TV, b
Speaker 1: roll is like the kind of like the footage that
Speaker 1: somebody talks over and so if you're seeing a you know,
Speaker 1: a city state, but you hear somebody's voice, that's b roll, right,
Speaker 1: So they wanted to get some b roll in the bakery.
Speaker 1: And so when they came to the bakery, everybody in
Speaker 1: there was either in a like a rock band or
Speaker 1: was going to art school. So everybody was very unique. Right,
Speaker 1: A lot of tattoos, had a weird colored hair, a
Speaker 1: lot of you know people just dressed weird, like we're
Speaker 1: just you know, a bunch of weirdness. And so they
Speaker 1: were like filming, They're like, oh, there's a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of you guys. You know we should we should do
Speaker 1: a show in your bakery because we've never receiving anything
Speaker 1: like this. There's a bunch of weird art kids with
Speaker 1: you know, power tools on the wall making insane cake. Wow.
Speaker 1: Well you're you're a man. You're a genius. Discovery plus
Speaker 1: original serious. Duff's Half a Fund Bake Time premieres April
Speaker 1: Twining Name. Thank you for the conversation. Thank you for
Speaker 1: allowing me to speak to somebody I consider a genius
Speaker 1: in the baking, in the culin area, in that world
Speaker 1: that I aspire to. You said you want to be
Speaker 1: a rock star. I want to be a bake star.
Speaker 1: How about that? If you're ever out in l a man,
Speaker 1: look me out, come on over with appreciate you. You
Speaker 1: would be doing my boys Stephen a show today. Right,
Speaker 1: you're doing this show. That did this show right, Steven, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's my TV show too, executively douce that show.
Speaker 1: Oh cool, he's amazing. Yeah, I'm I got love for you, Duff,
Speaker 1: I got love for you. Okay, I appreciate I gotta
Speaker 1: let you go, man, they pressed me. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Talk soon. Bye bye, everybody. If I could be you
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Speaker 1: I Discover the Forest dot org, brought to you by
Speaker 1: the United States Forest Service and the ad Council. Hi
Speaker 1: I am Rashan mcdonalerd host the Money Making Conversations dot com.
Speaker 1: The Cafee Mocha Swag Award is a celebration of black
Speaker 1: men who are making a difference in our community by
Speaker 1: empowering others to reach their life goals from civically this businessman, activists, celebrities,
Speaker 1: and everyday dad's. The Cafe Morka Swag Award winner this
Speaker 1: week is The black Man Project. The black Man Project
Speaker 1: founders are a filmmaker Brian Ellison, a sculptor, Anthony Super,
Speaker 1: an anthropologist, wall In Hall, they travel the nation archiving
Speaker 1: the storage Black men tell of masks and life's meeting.
Speaker 1: They're rooted in creating safe spaces for healthy conversation. Are
Speaker 1: exploring the many nuances that affect men of color. The
Speaker 1: need of of these conversations and this project. It is
Speaker 1: something that has gone for so long unnoticed. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of us are, you know, suffering day to
Speaker 1: day and a lot of times, you know, we're moving
Speaker 1: without actually going anywhere, and so we're spending our wheels
Speaker 1: and essence when we need to tap into that, that
Speaker 1: inner self and be able to reflect and be mostly healthy. Really,
Speaker 1: the Cafe Morcha Squag Award represents men who have strength,
Speaker 1: whose wisdom is assertive, and who is genuine in their spirit.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to money making Conversations with your host, Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 1: My next guest is an entrepreneur. Her name is Liz Rogers.
Speaker 1: She's the executive chef and CEO of the cream Elicious brand.
Speaker 1: That's right, cream Alicious brand, a might already owned business
Speaker 1: that is implementing their innovative approach to desert category. We're
Speaker 1: talking about ice cream. Y'all ice cream, everybody, I love
Speaker 1: ice crea ice cream chef. I know, I get excited.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Let me calm down. Chef le Rogers honed
Speaker 1: her passion for cooking and cooking for others growing up,
Speaker 1: and they're cleaning on higher area, you know, Steve Harvard Country,
Speaker 1: under the watchful eye of her mother and grandmother. She
Speaker 1: prides herself on being truly innovative with a two and one.
Speaker 1: Desserts that pair fresh based pastries with homemade ice cream,
Speaker 1: made with only the freshest agreements. Please welcome to money
Speaker 1: making conversations. I met her in person, she drove down,
Speaker 1: gave me some of that ice cream in person. Then
Speaker 1: I all just saw him online. The Queen of ice cream,
Speaker 1: that's what I call her, the Queen of ice cream.
Speaker 1: MS cream alicious herself, Liz Rogers, how you do on list?
Speaker 1: I'm great? Thank you so much for having me today. Cool? Uh,
Speaker 1: Liz um ice cream? Why ice cream? Ice cream is
Speaker 1: the world's number one dessert. Ice Cream makes people happy.
Speaker 1: It brings the world together. You know, we don't have to,
Speaker 1: you know, wonder what it is or what it tastes like.
Speaker 1: We just know that it's good. So ice cream just
Speaker 1: brings everybody together. So you can do so many whimsical
Speaker 1: things with it and just be as innovative as you
Speaker 1: want to be. Well, you know the word innovative, now,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just I'm just gonna tell you, I'm
Speaker 1: just a guy who eats the ice cream. Okay, there's
Speaker 1: certain ice cream don't really like. I'm not going trash
Speaker 1: and ice cream that I don't like, but I'm a
Speaker 1: big fan of a certain ice creft come from Texas,
Speaker 1: which is blue Bell ice cream country, So I kind
Speaker 1: of like grew up on blue Bell ice cream. And
Speaker 1: then you came to town Atlanta, Georgia. That's my town
Speaker 1: with your creamer isious ice cream, you know, just out
Speaker 1: of the blue. A friend of mine Los Angeles recommended
Speaker 1: I should eat your ice cream and outstanding ice cream
Speaker 1: was outstanding, Liz. But you, but you, but you, But
Speaker 1: you knew that though, But you you you you have
Speaker 1: the confidence in yourself to know you have a top
Speaker 1: of the line brand. Correct. Well, I'm an executive chef
Speaker 1: by trade and restaurateur, and I really wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure that I worked with the top food scientists in
Speaker 1: the country to um just really bring my brand to light.
Speaker 1: I am like I really did not want to go
Speaker 1: in and put my label on a private label, someone
Speaker 1: else's brand. I really wanted to create my own intellectual property,
Speaker 1: things and formulas that would be proprietary to crem Alicious.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to make sure that ice cream was
Speaker 1: extremely creamy. I wanted to make sure that all the
Speaker 1: pastries and the crust and everything was exactly the texture
Speaker 1: that it needed to be and it wasn't soggy. So
Speaker 1: there was just a lot of time and a lot
Speaker 1: of thought and a lot of research that went into
Speaker 1: creating the ice cream before UH this brand was actually
Speaker 1: created and able to go on the shelf. Now, before
Speaker 1: we get more detail about about your crew Relicious brand,
Speaker 1: there's always a journey to get here. You know, your
Speaker 1: four generations. You know we mentioned your mom and your
Speaker 1: grandmother talk about that relationship that led you to the
Speaker 1: life of being an executive chef. And I'm the oldest
Speaker 1: of of UH four, so I'm the big sister. I
Speaker 1: have three brothers, and my mom was a single parent.
Speaker 1: She was a welder, and so she taught me how
Speaker 1: to and I used to cook for my brothers and
Speaker 1: take care of them while she was at work. And
Speaker 1: so the really cool thing was I spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time with my grandmother and I noticed she made
Speaker 1: just everything from scratch as well. She just really made
Speaker 1: a lot of things from scratch. And we would make
Speaker 1: up stuff like pound cake and make jello and and
Speaker 1: top the pound cake with the jello with some whipped cream,
Speaker 1: just gave it a lot of different textures and flavors
Speaker 1: and just you know, we just did whatever we wanted
Speaker 1: to do. And that was my opportunity to really spend
Speaker 1: time with my family and my mom and my grandmother
Speaker 1: and just really just build a bond. And that was
Speaker 1: our way of communicating love. And it's it's just full
Speaker 1: of amazing memories for the both of them. Pound cake
Speaker 1: topic with jello and whipped cream, Girl, that sounds pretty
Speaker 1: good to me. It's just a light, delicious dessert. So
Speaker 1: it wasn't heavy and it was flavorful. So you you
Speaker 1: do the strawberry jello on top of a butter pound
Speaker 1: cake and some whipped cream, and it was just something
Speaker 1: we made that you know, we would sit on the
Speaker 1: porch when it rained. My grandmother, she uh, she she
Speaker 1: loved like all these plants. She had a green thumb,
Speaker 1: you know, and and we would sit there while it
Speaker 1: rained and you know, on the porch with like a
Speaker 1: thousand plants and eating this little dessert and it it
Speaker 1: may not be much today, but back then it was
Speaker 1: just a really big deal for me. Well, it's a
Speaker 1: big deal to me right now because I'm trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how I can get some Yeah. Well, the
Speaker 1: cool thing about is you have history and food. Now,
Speaker 1: you had a very popular restaurant in Hamilton, Ohio, believe
Speaker 1: with the name of it was Mahogany Now, now, what
Speaker 1: type of restaurant was that in the Ohio area? Tell
Speaker 1: me a little background on that. Mahogany's was like a
Speaker 1: Southern cuisine restaurant. We made everything from scratch, but it
Speaker 1: really um we we really we could give you an
Speaker 1: amazing plate of food, but it really was about the experiences.
Speaker 1: We had karaoke, live entertainment. It was very intimate, very
Speaker 1: small kitchen was probably smaller than a submarine kitchen, I feel,
Speaker 1: but we did so anything's out of there. And I
Speaker 1: think the big thing was we knew all of our
Speaker 1: customers names. We were able to provide just this amazing
Speaker 1: welcoming experience and people would come there and eat and
Speaker 1: it was almost like you were eating out of your
Speaker 1: mom or your grandmother's kitchen because that's how we cooked.
Speaker 1: So we peeled our our yams, We didn't cook any
Speaker 1: yams out of the can. We picked our collar greens um,
Speaker 1: we smoked our wings. We had amazing dry rubs, and
Speaker 1: it was just a real good experience. And you never
Speaker 1: knew who you were going to meet when you came there,
Speaker 1: and you just felt like you were home. Now, when
Speaker 1: you have something like that, it feels it's more of
Speaker 1: a passion tied to the bottom line. But you're an
Speaker 1: opportunity to the move to a new location. Now, why
Speaker 1: did you make that move? Because that new location it
Speaker 1: sounded like a good idea, but it turned out not
Speaker 1: to be the right idea. Correct. You know, as an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: you know you you want to see your your brands
Speaker 1: make it. You want to see everything expand. And Um
Speaker 1: a year and a half after being open, um we
Speaker 1: became a really big destination. So it was Mahoganies in
Speaker 1: Hamilton's was in a very small area, residential area, not
Speaker 1: the best area, but Hamilton's was just an amazing, welcoming town.
Speaker 1: They really took a chance on me. I took a
Speaker 1: chance on them and had to really uh come to
Speaker 1: town and just we just made something together. I feel
Speaker 1: the community really supported it. So we ended up having
Speaker 1: people driving for two hours away and buses coming from
Speaker 1: Florida to come to this little bitty place and only
Speaker 1: had about thirty or forty seats. And I had the
Speaker 1: city of Cincinnati come to me and the mayor asking
Speaker 1: what I moved my brand to the banks of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: So I ended up being uh the first male or
Speaker 1: female African American to be part of a major multi
Speaker 1: meandour development in the city of Cincinnati. UH. And I
Speaker 1: didn't take the the offer at first, but with some
Speaker 1: of the leadership in Cincinnati, they thought it would be
Speaker 1: a really great idea, and based on the packages and
Speaker 1: the different things that I was offered, I thought it
Speaker 1: would be a good idea too. But it it ended
Speaker 1: up not being the best business move. So I learned
Speaker 1: a lot of lessons, but for me, it didn't mean
Speaker 1: I had to live in my lessons and essentially just
Speaker 1: ended up making a really bad decision on expanding my
Speaker 1: brand and pretty much lost everything. So I always say,
Speaker 1: as an executive chef, I don't cook with politics, and
Speaker 1: you know, that was just something that I wasn't really
Speaker 1: familiar with and I pretty much ended up being extremely
Speaker 1: famous in town for taking that deal and uh losing
Speaker 1: everything and then coming back. Well know, that just shows
Speaker 1: about money making conversations also about advice is also I
Speaker 1: always like to take those little nuggets because you said
Speaker 1: you learned a couple of lessons about this. Because you
Speaker 1: want the show about the success of crem Malicious and
Speaker 1: storage nationwide, you to make an appearance on um Ellen Show,
Speaker 1: which is a national TV appearance. When you say, because
Speaker 1: I always tell people, you know, follow your roam, and
Speaker 1: a lot of times people will give your advice but
Speaker 1: they have no like you said, they have no bone
Speaker 1: in the fight or no financial commitment and fight. Did
Speaker 1: you got good ideas? So that seems to me what
Speaker 1: happened a lot of people with a lot of good ideas.
Speaker 1: And it's for sure the city is going to support you,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody. The traffic is going to be natural
Speaker 1: down there. What lessons did you learn? Because a lot
Speaker 1: of people get these these big opportunities and these good suggestions,
Speaker 1: but they need to do their homework on the suggestion. Correct,
Speaker 1: That's correct? You know you first of all, you need
Speaker 1: to to research things more. UM, it's about partnerships. Uh.
Speaker 1: If everyone in the partnership is a good steward and
Speaker 1: everyone's doing exactly what they committed to do and what
Speaker 1: they say that they're going to do, things should work
Speaker 1: out right. But when you have a partnership and there's
Speaker 1: uh other agendas and people aren't willing to make sure
Speaker 1: that you're successful, or maybe you were offered something just
Speaker 1: as upon maybe you were it was a token situation.
Speaker 1: Every business should have the opportunity to succeed or fail
Speaker 1: on its own merits. UM. I went through a lot
Speaker 1: being called the N word, a great amount of racism. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, I I struggled with a lot from uh
Speaker 1: the African American community, some that felt that, you know,
Speaker 1: perhaps I was leaving them behind when essentially I was
Speaker 1: really trying to expand my brand and really take care
Speaker 1: of my family. UH. Dealt with a lot with the
Speaker 1: Caucasian community that really felt like I didn't have the
Speaker 1: right to be on the banks on the riverfront with
Speaker 1: the beautiful restaurant. UM. So you know, I kind of
Speaker 1: caught it from both ends. But through all of that,
Speaker 1: I was able to create cremalicious and um, just deal
Speaker 1: with things on the other end and staying really really focused.
Speaker 1: So I always say that if you're going to be
Speaker 1: involved in something, understand the rules of the game. If
Speaker 1: you're gonna suit up. Because I didn't sit on the
Speaker 1: bench right I was in the game, you know, and
Speaker 1: I'm the type of entrepreneur I'm just gonna go for
Speaker 1: it and fear paralyzed as us. We have to understand
Speaker 1: that at the end of the day, you just got
Speaker 1: to go for your dreams. You know. You have to
Speaker 1: understand that these are the rules and they're not gonna
Speaker 1: be fair. And we can't sit around and say, oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't get the same treatment, because you're not gonna
Speaker 1: be be treated the same, especially as a minority business.
Speaker 1: And you have to own everything. I own all of
Speaker 1: my mistakes, I own all decisions I made. I'm a human, right,
Speaker 1: we all make mistakes. Um, we all are human. Uh.
Speaker 1: In business, we're learning said, my situation was a little
Speaker 1: bit more public, but I was able to really give
Speaker 1: a lot of minority chefs and opportunities to shine, give
Speaker 1: them a platform to be leaders, give them a platform
Speaker 1: to be a part of something great. So we have
Speaker 1: to understand that even if it's five seconds on the
Speaker 1: clock and I get the ball on the fifty yard line,
Speaker 1: I'm going for it. So I got a fifty fifty
Speaker 1: chance of either making a touchdown or I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: thrown to the ground. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: there's always another day to play, you know. And that's
Speaker 1: where on that well, you're fantastic. You're articulated as well
Speaker 1: as I would have wanted to articulated to people who
Speaker 1: are watching this or who were listening to its own podcast.
Speaker 1: It's about money making conversation. Now, your desserts and your
Speaker 1: and your bio say, you craft your desserts by harnessing
Speaker 1: the familiar experience that Southern comfort food brings blended with
Speaker 1: cooling airy artistry, which is your skill level. I'm just
Speaker 1: an eater, okay, But it's the art that you put
Speaker 1: it together. Because when I dug into your ice cream
Speaker 1: and you was watching me, you know, I saw I
Speaker 1: saw the vanilla waitfer, you know, I the red velvet
Speaker 1: tasted like red velvet. Talk about that whole process, because,
Speaker 1: like you said, you wanted to make sure that that
Speaker 1: cookie wasn't Sggy you wanted to make sure that the
Speaker 1: dessert felt like the dessert that you were selling on
Speaker 1: the as far as the brand of the name, because
Speaker 1: I'm gonna we're gonna get into the name of your
Speaker 1: funny dessert names that you put on here. But talk
Speaker 1: about that process and and then you know, because some
Speaker 1: people say, some people level of satisfaction could stop here,
Speaker 1: but you pushed it beyond death satisfaction to reach your
Speaker 1: standards correct, right, So Cremolitious, it's it's not just the
Speaker 1: dessertest and experience, you know, I want to take you
Speaker 1: on a journey where the storytellers, right we we want
Speaker 1: to take you to better times. There's so many unprecedented
Speaker 1: times that we're having, you know, in the world right now,
Speaker 1: and I just want to let people understand that, you know,
Speaker 1: we all have something in common. We're not that different.
Speaker 1: We all love ice cream, right of different variations of
Speaker 1: ice cream, whether we're vegan or lactose intolerant. We want
Speaker 1: to make sure that Cremolitious is in a dessert category
Speaker 1: of its own. There there is no other ice cream
Speaker 1: on the market like Cremolitious at this point, and I
Speaker 1: don't feel there will be because we all have our
Speaker 1: own niches, and I felt like I can carve my
Speaker 1: own niche by first of all being extremely authentic, um
Speaker 1: making sure that we have good comfort foods to basically
Speaker 1: comfort us during these crazy moments that we're having in life.
Speaker 1: You know, when you eat that slap your mom a
Speaker 1: banana pudding, it just makes you feel happy. Poward to
Speaker 1: the customers. They you know, it's just so funny in
Speaker 1: different parts of the world just looking at some of
Speaker 1: the video, they always say, oh my god, I just
Speaker 1: feel happy, right, And so you know, just taking that
Speaker 1: second to just enjoy your dessert, making sure that that's
Speaker 1: sweet potato pie taste exactly like a slice of sleep
Speaker 1: potato pie. You having those notes of nutmeg and cinnamon
Speaker 1: and fresh vanilla bean and a puree of uh sweet
Speaker 1: potato with the actual butter butter nut crush. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, like we need that short red crust and
Speaker 1: and everything in that dessert is homemade and it's from
Speaker 1: an actual recipe that came from my mom and my
Speaker 1: grandmother's kitchen. So I just want people to experience that
Speaker 1: and not just have some ice cream and a pine.
Speaker 1: I just want to be a part of their lives
Speaker 1: and the experience at that moment. Now you need I
Speaker 1: gotta come on in. Now you kind of mentioned a
Speaker 1: little you teased us a little bit on some of
Speaker 1: those names. I almost lew everybody down. She was just
Speaker 1: not throwing out names to be funny. Those are some
Speaker 1: of the actual names on the actual cardins of if
Speaker 1: I can by now. This morning I got a prode
Speaker 1: to my interview with her. I ordered you can order
Speaker 1: what they called the seven Indulgent flavors. There's seven of them.
Speaker 1: You can order seven. Nice little discount you get on it.
Speaker 1: They ship it immediately via ups Already I ordered this morning.
Speaker 1: I already got my notice roughly four hours later that
Speaker 1: the shipment is on the way. That's how fast they operate.
Speaker 1: The packaging, that is fantastic. Let's let's let's go before
Speaker 1: I start getting into flavors. The packaging because and how
Speaker 1: did you come up with the name cream malicious? Because
Speaker 1: instead of delicious, I wanted it to be cream malicious,
Speaker 1: you know, um just whimsical, Like I didn't want it
Speaker 1: to upscale because it's an up scale dessert. But I
Speaker 1: feel like upscale casual um southern um mainly just a
Speaker 1: southern sojourn, you know, just like really like a Surrey
Speaker 1: where you're just like, you know, just having an amazing
Speaker 1: time and dancing and just just enjoying everything that there
Speaker 1: is to enjoy about this particular dessert and just the
Speaker 1: creaminess of it. It's really really creamy. Um. It's a
Speaker 1: lot more creamier than most and it's a super premium item,
Speaker 1: so it's it really is a very high high product
Speaker 1: that we've made very decadent and very indulgent as well,
Speaker 1: so we didn't spare on anything. We do not use
Speaker 1: any artificial flavoring or coloring. Um. We don't use a
Speaker 1: lot of high fruit toast, corn syrup or anything like that. So,
Speaker 1: you know, while it does have a lot of catt calories,
Speaker 1: I don't suggest eating a whole uh pint if you're
Speaker 1: looking out for those calories. But if you are going
Speaker 1: to cheat, I need you to cheat with cream Alicious.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna let you know I did eat a
Speaker 1: whole paint. In fact, how many when you visited me?
Speaker 1: How many did you leave me? But seven? I left
Speaker 1: you the seven and dog pla. We have all two left, okay,
Speaker 1: my staff my staff ate one total, you know, we
Speaker 1: all sampled a little bit of but I'll just tell
Speaker 1: you they probably consume one. So so that statement about
Speaker 1: don't eat one consume when I've done that and I apologizically,
Speaker 1: was just that good, you know, I put it on.
Speaker 1: I even have fun. I had a slice of sweet
Speaker 1: potato pie and I put my little, my little cream
Speaker 1: alicious sweep potato pie right on the top, and then
Speaker 1: I had the slice of peach cobbler. I was just
Speaker 1: having fun with you because I can bake as well.
Speaker 1: So in my kitchen, I just happened, we got I
Speaker 1: happened to put it out there, and so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: post you on Monday under my motivation On Monday, I
Speaker 1: always post people on motivation about overcoming the arts, and
Speaker 1: I want to post you and recognize you overcoming an
Speaker 1: arts and now have established a national ice cream and
Speaker 1: you're the queen of ice cream. You're You're cream Alicious,
Speaker 1: your Liz Rodgers, and I want to I want to
Speaker 1: talk about that. But that's what you're trying to do
Speaker 1: right now. You're trying to get your brain out there.
Speaker 1: You're willing to become in the face of your ice
Speaker 1: cream brand, and that's important. Correct is very important. You can't.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely not ashamed of of anything. You know, everyone
Speaker 1: has a story. Um. You know, sometimes we just can't
Speaker 1: keep getting so caught up in the things that we read.
Speaker 1: I I just learned that just a regular person being
Speaker 1: a chef and just a regular person, just um, being
Speaker 1: involved with people writing stories and dealing with journalists and
Speaker 1: news and media and different things. That was a different
Speaker 1: world for me. That. You know, you can truly have
Speaker 1: an interview and then it turns into something else that
Speaker 1: and you know, you can be painted a different way.
Speaker 1: But I feel like the people that know me and
Speaker 1: understand these struggles and how hard it is to have
Speaker 1: a small business. Um, what I'm doing and what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to do, especially with the ice cream right now. Um,
Speaker 1: I the scream Alicious is it's bigger than me, you know,
Speaker 1: um being one of the first African American ice cream
Speaker 1: manufacturers and mass production in the whole world today. You know,
Speaker 1: I really want people to understand that this is really,
Speaker 1: really a big deal. There's a lot of ice creams
Speaker 1: out there on the shelf. Um. I went to a
Speaker 1: lot of different retailers and I had many many doors
Speaker 1: slammed in my face. You know, they were like, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: you're a minority business, so we're not going to take
Speaker 1: a chance on you, or they won't return your calls,
Speaker 1: and um, then they taste your ice cream and then
Speaker 1: there's all these things going on and then you start
Speaker 1: to get called. And I was really appreciative that Walmart
Speaker 1: and Meyer and Chinooks just really took a chance on me.
Speaker 1: Walmart is the biggest retailer in the world, and they
Speaker 1: just really really believed in what I was trying to do.
Speaker 1: Prior to everyone doing things for African American businesses, I
Speaker 1: really just wanted Cremolicious to stand on its own, you know.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to be a token. I want
Speaker 1: to earn my space on the shelf and compete just
Speaker 1: like anyone else. But I always say I'm going to
Speaker 1: compete with myself because I'm I'm innovative, I'm forever changing,
Speaker 1: going to ever be creative and really give the consumer
Speaker 1: something different every time. Well, you know, let's let's go
Speaker 1: down these indulge in flavors that I'm about to receive,
Speaker 1: and uh, I'm gonna say. What I'm gonna do is
Speaker 1: when I get them, I'm gonna stack them all up
Speaker 1: in front of me, and I'm gonna take a picture
Speaker 1: and send it to you. I'm gonna post it, you know,
Speaker 1: because everybody know I love switch. Now you have ain't Poonies,
Speaker 1: that's right, ponies, right, yeah, ain't poonies, caramel pound cake now,
Speaker 1: and then you have uh, then you have writer's rain,
Speaker 1: red velvet cheesecake, thick as thieves become pie slap your mama,
Speaker 1: banana pudding, porch like peach cobbler. We all know you
Speaker 1: in the hood. You know about that porch light. Boy,
Speaker 1: if you got home before that light that's on, we're
Speaker 1: gonna have problems. I had that conversation with my dad
Speaker 1: several times growing up. Uncle Charles Brown's sugar bourbon cake
Speaker 1: and then Grandma Ggs sweepertato pie. Now, those stories. You know,
Speaker 1: people need to understand the history of the South with
Speaker 1: the desserts. You know, the red velvet cake was considered
Speaker 1: a celebration cake when African Americans received their freedom. Uh,
Speaker 1: porch like peach cobblers. Just like what you said, you know,
Speaker 1: like we'll lead the light on for you. You're welcome.
Speaker 1: This house is safe. You know, it's it was just
Speaker 1: you know, it was just really a big thing. You know. Um,
Speaker 1: I have one called quite Cake that will be out
Speaker 1: this summer and it's a Southern white cake and it
Speaker 1: was one of the first cakes that they made in
Speaker 1: the South and it was considered a peace offering cake.
Speaker 1: Um Ponies caramel pound cake. She was my godmother and
Speaker 1: she actually made that pound cake and a cast and
Speaker 1: skillet that was passed down from generation to generation to
Speaker 1: her daughter Patricia, and they still have this cast aren't skillet.
Speaker 1: And then finally, um, Uncle Charles Brown sugar Bourbon. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody has the Uncle Charles that that was the cool
Speaker 1: uncle that you couldn't wait for him, the como re
Speaker 1: always had his brandy, always had his stash and his flask.
Speaker 1: He's always drinking. But he was that uncle that everybody
Speaker 1: loved and and couldn't wait to see at the holidays. So,
Speaker 1: you know, crimal Isious is each one of those brands.
Speaker 1: They're very authentic. They're about real people, real times, real stories,
Speaker 1: and we tell the stories where the storytellers. So people
Speaker 1: should know what they're eating, they should be a part
Speaker 1: of each one of those flavors. I feel that someone
Speaker 1: can actually relate to Uh, better times, you know, in
Speaker 1: their lives and their family. Now do you are we are?
Speaker 1: We do we see any cream Alicious ice cream stands
Speaker 1: and pop up stands? Uh? That's coming along the way
Speaker 1: because it sounds so fun. It sounds like in the
Speaker 1: middle of summer, I should see a Creamalious pop up
Speaker 1: somewhere just to surprise people. Are some of some quick
Speaker 1: stories that that will pop up during the summer selling
Speaker 1: this brand, of serving this brand because it's so fun
Speaker 1: that your storytelling is amazing and so authentic. That's what
Speaker 1: I love about it, because you know, like you said
Speaker 1: when you just said grandma, gig, I know, grandma, and
Speaker 1: then you have slap your mama. You know that's like
Speaker 1: a running to a ball at foods making one slap
Speaker 1: your mama. Boy, I'm telling you you know, and we
Speaker 1: know we've heard that so many times growing up, but
Speaker 1: every time we heard and we smiled, we laughed, And
Speaker 1: so that's what you were saying, Like you said, you know,
Speaker 1: love not hate. You want your ice team to bring
Speaker 1: people together, and that's part of your brand, and that's
Speaker 1: part of your mantra that you really believe it and
Speaker 1: you're really selling correct, right and I you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's crazy because you know, what is what is
Speaker 1: your purpose? You know, like if you open that top,
Speaker 1: it clearly says there's a dream in every scoop. And
Speaker 1: I really believe that because even though it was hard,
Speaker 1: you know, I felt like I wanted to give up,
Speaker 1: you know sometimes, and and I didn't, you know, I persevered.
Speaker 1: It's almost I always tell the story. Um, we all
Speaker 1: have driven in the card driving on fumes, hoping the
Speaker 1: goodness that we can get to the exit to get
Speaker 1: some gas before we run out. And that's what hope
Speaker 1: is hope for me, if you me, even when I
Speaker 1: went through so many failures and successes of launching my
Speaker 1: brands and my restaurants, you know, I was like, please
Speaker 1: just let me get to the exit and fill up,
Speaker 1: you know, on hope and so that I can get
Speaker 1: right back on the on the road. So for me,
Speaker 1: it wasn't about the destination because I know exactly what
Speaker 1: that destination is and where I'm going. It's more about
Speaker 1: the journey. Who am I meeting along the way. You know,
Speaker 1: I may stop off at this town, I may you know,
Speaker 1: meet this person, and maybe this person may even get
Speaker 1: in the car with me and ride with me to
Speaker 1: a town here and there, you know, a few miles,
Speaker 1: and then they got to get out of the car,
Speaker 1: and then I realized, you know what I'm dealing with.
Speaker 1: But even in those lessons, you know, you know what
Speaker 1: dead ends are, you know what street to turn down,
Speaker 1: you know what's gonna work and what's not. And then
Speaker 1: you're you're you're learning. And I'm praying to you know,
Speaker 1: launch my foundation, because that's essentially why I launched Crimalicious,
Speaker 1: Because there is a dream in every scoop and there
Speaker 1: are many entrepreneurs out there that they're afraid. They're afraid
Speaker 1: to fail, and I just want to say today, don't
Speaker 1: be afraid to fail. You have absolutely nothing to lose.
Speaker 1: You may make the more you try and the more
Speaker 1: you go for it, You're eventually gonna make it. And
Speaker 1: I just want you guys to know that I'm here.
Speaker 1: I'm looking for you, like Professor Xavier on x and
Speaker 1: then like I'm looking for those entrepreneurs that I can
Speaker 1: help build teams around them, give them resources. It's not
Speaker 1: like somebody can come and give you five million dollars,
Speaker 1: but that's not gonna guarantee your success. So that you're
Speaker 1: going to stand business right. Multimillion dollar brands have money
Speaker 1: injected into them all the time. What we need as
Speaker 1: minority businesses is we need c p a s. We
Speaker 1: need advisors, we need attorneys, we need people that's going
Speaker 1: to help us with our operations. We need to learn
Speaker 1: how to build teams. We need to learn and have
Speaker 1: resources that's going to sustain our business. And through buying
Speaker 1: a point, if you're buying a point, what I'm praying
Speaker 1: to build is you are inadvertently helping another entrepreneur with
Speaker 1: their dream. That's why I say there's a dream in
Speaker 1: every school. So I just want people to understand that
Speaker 1: they can be a part of something great through this
Speaker 1: pint because that's what it's all about for me. Wow,
Speaker 1: you are incredible. I'm just gonna tell you that right now.
Speaker 1: Interview with six people, the gems you're dropping, Dr George
Speaker 1: Fraser is the closest I've had on this show that
Speaker 1: come that has come to you as far as being
Speaker 1: able to recognize that the battles of being an entrepreneur
Speaker 1: and how to advise and also how to inspire, you
Speaker 1: are incredible. Now, Liz, before we leave the Cream Alicious
Speaker 1: brand is expanding. You said you have some vegan products
Speaker 1: that are coming out. Are the other line brands that
Speaker 1: we need to know about before we wrap up the interview.
Speaker 1: The pre Militias does have a vegan line coming out
Speaker 1: this summer and an additional seven flavors UM like the
Speaker 1: Apple Cobbler, the Piece and Quiet Cake. We have a
Speaker 1: strawberry crunch cake. We have a Mama Woes chocolate brownie.
Speaker 1: We have Baby Listen and that Baby Listen is a
Speaker 1: white chocolate brownie. So I don't know if you've ever
Speaker 1: had the Wilbe's white chocolate brownie. UM with the maple crema,
Speaker 1: I mean, we have some really amazing flavors. And then
Speaker 1: for the vegan line, UM, I pretty much developed a
Speaker 1: Southern mimosa and sangria line, so it's dairy free UM
Speaker 1: and it's completely made with fresh juices and fruit. So
Speaker 1: we'll have people that are a little bit more health
Speaker 1: conscious and vegan and if you're lactose intolerant, I just
Speaker 1: wanted to create a line for you as well. UM,
Speaker 1: and so we have some really amazing things and cream
Speaker 1: Alicius does have a complete frozen dessert line, so each
Speaker 1: one of those points that you have, they have a cake,
Speaker 1: a cobbra or pie to go with those points. Every
Speaker 1: every dessert is a match for the pint. Wow, thank you,
Speaker 1: You're incredible. Now you know when that line comes up,
Speaker 1: you got your boy? Okay, now you got me right,
Speaker 1: you got me right? Come on, because because I got
Speaker 1: this already, I got this already. It's coming this for
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take some photos putting on social media. More important. Congratulations,
Speaker 1: I'm a fan. I'll be there whenever you need this
Speaker 1: phone call of support. We're gonna sit down and talk
Speaker 1: about some marketing ideas because you really really are special
Speaker 1: and the world needs to hear your story. Okay, Liz,
Speaker 1: thank you sir, and I appreciate you and your team support.
Speaker 1: I just really wanna, you know, just ask that you know,
Speaker 1: everyone get behind us, because you know it's I can't
Speaker 1: change the world by myself, nor would I ever tried.
Speaker 1: But I can reach out and touch someone. I can
Speaker 1: make ripples in the pond. I can touch someone and
Speaker 1: they're reach can touch someone, and then before you know it,
Speaker 1: we're across the globe. You know, it's just about having
Speaker 1: purpose in life, and this is God's purpose. For me
Speaker 1: and my passion. I just want to get out here
Speaker 1: and help other entrepreneurs and inspire them to not just
Speaker 1: exist but start living. Whore you're doing that. Thank you
Speaker 1: for coming on Money Making Conversation. Liz Rogers, the Queen
Speaker 1: of ice cream Miss cream Malicious. Thank you. If you
Speaker 1: want to hear or see any interview as of Money
Speaker 1: Making Conversations, please go of Money Making Conversation dot com
Speaker 1: or subscribed to my YouTube chapel. I'm Rashan McDonald. I
Speaker 1: am your host. Please remember always leave with your gifts
Speaker 1: and don't let your age, friends, family, or co workers
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Speaker 1: For those who like to keep it cozy, find fleeces, sweaters, loungeware,
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