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Speaker 1: the AD Council. Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the
Speaker 1: show that she has the secrets of success experience firsthand
Speaker 1: by marketing and Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know
Speaker 1: he's given me advice on many occasions. In occasion didn't notice,
Speaker 1: I'm not broke. You know. He'll be interviewing 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 go. Welcome to money Making Conversation. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. I tell people every week it's time to
Speaker 1: stop reading other people's success stories and start writing your own.
Speaker 1: And people always talk about their gifts and their passion
Speaker 1: and if you have a gift, lead with your gift.
Speaker 1: And if you don't, if you're gonna do that, then
Speaker 1: don't let your age, friends, family or coworkers stop you
Speaker 1: from planning or living your dreams. People always talking about
Speaker 1: the interviews I have on the shows, feel like I'm
Speaker 1: always reminded people as what I'm trying to do with
Speaker 1: money making conversations. Yes, I have celebrities, CEO of entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: and what I like to call industry decision makers on
Speaker 1: money making conversation. My goal is to get them to
Speaker 1: tell you about their secrets to their success, their nuggets,
Speaker 1: drop some gems on you. You hit these gems, you
Speaker 1: use them. But because it's going to be tied to work,
Speaker 1: nothing is luck. Nothing has been at the right place
Speaker 1: at the right time. It's all tied to proper planning,
Speaker 1: proper effort, and realizing that hey, you can't be selfish
Speaker 1: in pursuing your own dream. You have to put forth effort.
Speaker 1: My next guest is Marcus David's been knowing him a
Speaker 1: long time. Straight out of Houston, Texas. He's the host
Speaker 1: of Fish, Grits and Politics. He's an entrepreneur, restaurant owner,
Speaker 1: and motivational speaker. Like I said earlier, he's located in Houston, Texas. Houston, Texas,
Speaker 1: Marcus the spirit and entrepreneur. My my the mind behind
Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club, which is nationally recognized. It first came
Speaker 1: to fame and Oprah way back in I had the
Speaker 1: blessing of inviting him on the Steve Harvey talk show.
Speaker 1: Blew him up even more. If you go there right now,
Speaker 1: there's a line at the door. The people are nice,
Speaker 1: the food is great, the reggae hood, the Alec catbar allowed,
Speaker 1: and the culture. He is best known for his charismatic personality,
Speaker 1: authentic customer appreciation, and his tireless commitment to the community.
Speaker 1: That's what it is. Marcus Restaurants are rooted in principles
Speaker 1: of faith, family, community, with a K and empowered. They
Speaker 1: treat every customer like family and believe that family is
Speaker 1: the corner stone of any community. So if they placed
Speaker 1: an emphasis on supporting activities and causes that enriched and
Speaker 1: strengthened family, he has created one of the most phenomenal
Speaker 1: restaurant success stories in the country. If you landed in
Speaker 1: the intercoming on the airport, is there his footprint is there.
Speaker 1: When I saw that man, damn their crimes, brother man,
Speaker 1: the breakfast the breakfast club at you know, yeah, that
Speaker 1: the terminal, my Delta termina. That's when I fly to
Speaker 1: the Delta terminent over there, he's working to money making
Speaker 1: conversation Marcus Davids, how are you doing, Marcus Man? After
Speaker 1: after listening to you and that that that, uh man,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling great. You just made me feel real well
Speaker 1: every time because because I fly on Delta, I'm based
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, so I always fly on Delta. And when
Speaker 1: I when I first landed Man, and I was telling
Speaker 1: my wife, I said, I think my boy, I think
Speaker 1: they're putting some up with in the Condal Airport. As
Speaker 1: she said, well, I think I think he's at the
Speaker 1: Coundonal Airport. Now your restaurant black owned, right and uh
Speaker 1: one of the busiest airports in the country. Walkers to
Speaker 1: the steps of how that came about Marcus in Houston,
Speaker 1: Texas and knowing the journey of the Breakfast Club. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny you said that because I've never
Speaker 1: been uh doung hole about the airport. I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people in business, a lot of people in restaurant. Uh,
Speaker 1: they are airport, airport, airport. And I'm a street side
Speaker 1: guy and and I was like, man, give me a
Speaker 1: good location on the streetside and I'll be good. And
Speaker 1: you know, years ago we started getting approach with questions
Speaker 1: about being in the airport, but we never pursued it.
Speaker 1: And then I got to working on the Convention of
Speaker 1: Business Bureau board. I was on the board here in Houston,
Speaker 1: UH to talk about, you know, visitors who comes here,
Speaker 1: how do we get more here, how do we elevate
Speaker 1: the brand of the city, the awareness of what Houston
Speaker 1: is about, how much better than Atlanta it really is,
Speaker 1: and all that good stuff. So yes, like sleeve that
Speaker 1: in there right absolutely, But you know, I'm magnoring you.
Speaker 1: I'm magning you. But and and while while doing that,
Speaker 1: you know, I saw that there was a need uh to.
Speaker 1: I believe in my definition of entrepreneurship, let's just started off,
Speaker 1: is filling a void in the marketplace that the marketplace
Speaker 1: is calling for consciously, our subconti entrepreneurship feeling a void
Speaker 1: in the marketplaces the marketplace is calling for consciously, our subconsciously.
Speaker 1: And one of the things we discovered was that people
Speaker 1: who came to Houston didn't really get the taste of
Speaker 1: Houston because of the number of flights that came into
Speaker 1: the airport where people just transferring UH to another plane
Speaker 1: to another city and never knowing the great food that
Speaker 1: we the great culinary city that that that that we are.
Speaker 1: So there was this effort to one bring about the notoriety,
Speaker 1: but to the need to put concepts in in uh,
Speaker 1: into the space. So I felt compelled being an ambassador
Speaker 1: of my city, being uh, you know, one to put
Speaker 1: on from my city and red for my city. I
Speaker 1: felt compelled to make it a point to be a
Speaker 1: part of that. I keep talking about it if I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna be about it. But to you to your
Speaker 1: other point, I have found how great it is to
Speaker 1: be a black owned restaurant in the airport, simply because
Speaker 1: it's in the space that African Americans typically say we're
Speaker 1: not in and so to have African American representation in
Speaker 1: that space was was was quite gratifying and part of
Speaker 1: the gold part of the motive. Well, you know, it's
Speaker 1: really and I say that, and i' gonna stay on
Speaker 1: this for a minute, being that you know, you do
Speaker 1: have a I'm in Atlanta, so you know this is
Speaker 1: a persided that's recognized for Black forward movement. You know,
Speaker 1: you know there are a number of black entrepreneurs who
Speaker 1: do have restaurants at Heartfield Apple, which is classified as
Speaker 1: the biggest businest airport in the world. And so I've
Speaker 1: had people friends of mine setting photos like you're turning
Speaker 1: your restaurant over at the Incoming Apple into a tourist
Speaker 1: spot out of pride and say, you know, taking pictures
Speaker 1: of the food. So they ate here talk about this
Speaker 1: slower down man, because we know where the original spot is, okay.
Speaker 1: And then be at the airport. You know, I know you,
Speaker 1: I know you. You've been in the public side've been
Speaker 1: doing the morning show, doing public awareness and that from
Speaker 1: the basically being a voice of the people on the
Speaker 1: radio in Houston, Texas Caucuses. But to be part of
Speaker 1: something that you know is different and that has been
Speaker 1: at the airport. Really talk about how people the pride
Speaker 1: that people really took it to the next level with you,
Speaker 1: they also saw as a possibility it can be them too,
Speaker 1: right right, And and you know, we're getting ready to
Speaker 1: celebrate uh twentieth year in business this fall, and I
Speaker 1: look forward to having me back on to talk about
Speaker 1: that in in the fall. We're getting ready to celebrate
Speaker 1: our twenty year in business. And the model that I'm
Speaker 1: rolling with this twenty years of inspiration. We've been on
Speaker 1: the corner of Travis and Alabama, inspiring our community for
Speaker 1: over twenty years, inspiring entrepreneurship for twenty years. So to
Speaker 1: answer you a question about what does that feel like,
Speaker 1: it feels the same way as it does when we
Speaker 1: unlock the doors at thirty seven eleven Travis. To see
Speaker 1: the number of people that come through the door that
Speaker 1: are amazed, that are fascinated, that are impressed, that are
Speaker 1: proud of uh this establishment. When they look and they whisper,
Speaker 1: and they lean over the its like on and you're
Speaker 1: telling me, yes, it is for one of these one
Speaker 1: of these numbers, and and and and they all excited
Speaker 1: because they had a great experience. The professionalism, the quality
Speaker 1: of product, qualitive service, qual of the people that served them,
Speaker 1: UH was was fascinating to them. So UM we where
Speaker 1: we where they were pride. Similarly, when we stepped into
Speaker 1: a new space that we knew was a travel space
Speaker 1: and space that brought people from all over the world,
Speaker 1: we knew that we were stepping it up to another level.
Speaker 1: So UH it gave us an opportunity to want to
Speaker 1: be on a bigger platform for guests, but more importantly,
Speaker 1: on a bigger platform for entrepreneurs to see what is possible,
Speaker 1: what we're capable of doing you know, talking about again,
Speaker 1: I'm a street side got there, I know it. But
Speaker 1: you know, but but you're a smart guy because street side.
Speaker 1: But you're a smart guy because of the fact that
Speaker 1: when people give you a shot an opportunity, you deliver.
Speaker 1: When I say that we're gonna go back to Oprah,
Speaker 1: you know, giving an opportunity to feature your your brand,
Speaker 1: and this is open when she was on every day,
Speaker 1: five days a week, when everybody was watching her. And
Speaker 1: and then because even today, man, you have people lining
Speaker 1: up to come into your restaurant. That's twenty years man,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about if you I keep you not ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, you go you try to just think you're
Speaker 1: just gonna walk into this restaurant. That's not going to happen.
Speaker 1: Well if you tell them, if you tell them that,
Speaker 1: uh put it on Rashawn's tab and you know, don't
Speaker 1: do it like that. Market are you talking about back
Speaker 1: on my show in the fall, Because because I've been
Speaker 1: there several times and like I said, I've done my duty.
Speaker 1: I I you know you're gonna do it two ways. Team,
Speaker 1: You're gonna get there with the restaurant immediately opens up
Speaker 1: then you can slide on it or slide on it,
Speaker 1: but you let an hour or two hours slide in.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be inlive at the breakfast Club. Yeah we
Speaker 1: we we we do here. I mean, I am grateful
Speaker 1: that people support us in an outrageous fashion. People come
Speaker 1: in and they say, hey, man, I'm proud of you,
Speaker 1: and I tell them, no, I'm proud of y'all. Y'all
Speaker 1: want that showed up. I share with my team every
Speaker 1: morning when you show up at seven am, every one
Speaker 1: on one unlocked the door. The first guests that walks
Speaker 1: through the door gets around to applause from my staff
Speaker 1: right for my team. And the reason is I try
Speaker 1: and share with my team that one we can never
Speaker 1: take for granted that we unlock that door, somebody's gonna
Speaker 1: walk in. We have to be grateful for every single
Speaker 1: person that walks into that door. We have to show
Speaker 1: them the gratitude that they deserve for choosing us as
Speaker 1: their destination for dyning over the other nine and ninety
Speaker 1: nine restaurants that are in the city of Houston. So
Speaker 1: um we we we we We are extremely grateful of
Speaker 1: the number of people that come from within the city,
Speaker 1: within the state, from throughout the country and beyond the
Speaker 1: Atlantic and the Pacific to visit thirty or seven eleven traps.
Speaker 1: I'm bragging a little bit, um, I tell folks, we
Speaker 1: we did this pre I G right, you know how
Speaker 1: you date things by BC and A V right right
Speaker 1: right right right, I tell I tell I tell, I
Speaker 1: tell you these young casts is doing will and congratulations
Speaker 1: to them, to all the ones that are you know,
Speaker 1: having success to day, I said, but how let you
Speaker 1: boar when you've been doing it for two decades and
Speaker 1: and and and and and take this out. We created
Speaker 1: that buzz with no instagram a face. That's why, that's
Speaker 1: why I want to score down with you, because you
Speaker 1: know Markus, you know, because first he naturally funny, as
Speaker 1: you can hear the interviews, He's a natural entertainer, and
Speaker 1: amiss all that. Sometimes you can go past the hard work,
Speaker 1: the commitment and the planning and the professionalism because I'm
Speaker 1: telling you you go into any of his restaurants, it
Speaker 1: is a professionalism. And I'm gonna tell you something what
Speaker 1: happens with black businesses because sometimes people kind of like
Speaker 1: knock us. You know, you know, the servis, the food
Speaker 1: quality and all that stuff and who you compared to. Now,
Speaker 1: if you know anything about Houston, Texas, it is the
Speaker 1: culinary game in Houston, Texas is a beast. I mean
Speaker 1: it is, it is. I mean, it's top notch. We
Speaker 1: we we have I think at one point we were
Speaker 1: we were the number one restaurant presquact uh for the
Speaker 1: for a capita in in in the nation. But we
Speaker 1: by far have uh we rank in the top. And
Speaker 1: the number of restaurants, the number of different cuisines uh
Speaker 1: that that we have because of the diversity of the city.
Speaker 1: And yes, flavor for sure, we and and look, look,
Speaker 1: I know I know you loved A, but I tell you,
Speaker 1: man that A can't touch the age when it's I'm
Speaker 1: the food. Don't get you on the phone to call
Speaker 1: all the fellows. Don't get me on the phone to
Speaker 1: call around to all the cats in the age. We
Speaker 1: just need to go ahead and put it down. We
Speaker 1: just need to put it down in restaurants. You're not
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna ever. I know I was born to
Speaker 1: raised in Houston. The food in Houston, man, is a beast, dude.
Speaker 1: I mean the seafood, the Mexican uh. The text of
Speaker 1: ex food the the the barbecue combibecu, you can just
Speaker 1: shut it down the breakfast spots. And so that leads
Speaker 1: me to my question is you had this hit, the
Speaker 1: Breakfast Club, and you needed to expand because you saw
Speaker 1: all of this diversity, you saw all of this opportunity
Speaker 1: and and Parlia and your reputation as as a of
Speaker 1: having a hit restaurant. Was that the need to expand
Speaker 1: into the reggae hud, the ally Cat bar and lounge,
Speaker 1: and the culture. So the that need goes back to
Speaker 1: the original. And that's why I gave the definition at
Speaker 1: the beginning, because I'm always come back to a filling
Speaker 1: the void in the marketplace that the marketplace is calling
Speaker 1: for consciously, subconsciously. And so the breakfast club was was
Speaker 1: a response to Midtown not having a breakfast spot. Uh,
Speaker 1: this new area of of Houston that was third wards,
Speaker 1: last fourth ward that was created and turned into Midtown, uh,
Speaker 1: not having a breakfast either in the city of Houston,
Speaker 1: having a space open for a Southern big breath breakfast concept.
Speaker 1: And quite naturally, quite honestly, rather you know, I wanted
Speaker 1: a you know, I go from the get go, was
Speaker 1: to be synonymous with the city of Houston. I wanted
Speaker 1: people saying when I go to Houston, I'm going to
Speaker 1: the breakfast club. I wanted that to move into I
Speaker 1: am going to Houston because I want to go to
Speaker 1: the breakfast club. And now today, twenty years later, I
Speaker 1: tell folks, if you have been to Houston and have
Speaker 1: not been to the breakfast club, then you, my friend,
Speaker 1: have never been to Houston. Absolutely absolutely talk talk talk
Speaker 1: the game, because the game is you my friend. Now,
Speaker 1: now let's talk about it. But but I want to
Speaker 1: make sure. I want to make sure I answer I
Speaker 1: answer your question. Uh. Those those other concepts the radio
Speaker 1: hud uh Alec had borne, lounge and culture were all
Speaker 1: birth out of the knee listening to the marketplace and
Speaker 1: what it was asking for looking at the marketplace and
Speaker 1: seeing what's what's what's what's not there, and being the
Speaker 1: go between, which is the original definition of entrepreneur, the undertaker,
Speaker 1: the person who would take on, uh this this challenge
Speaker 1: of this opportunity that that that's in front of us.
Speaker 1: And so the Regga hell was an existing business. The
Speaker 1: Reggio had started five years before t VK Regga had
Speaker 1: started and had its success. When I was still a
Speaker 1: senior UH at Texas and then I and then I
Speaker 1: went off and came back and opened the Breakfast Club
Speaker 1: and it was still going in and as an institution
Speaker 1: in our community. Our community wanted it to be open,
Speaker 1: to behold. So when it started to have it, it's
Speaker 1: its troubles. I put into practice the fourth principle of quanza,
Speaker 1: which is co operative economics. I took the money that
Speaker 1: the people were putting in the cash registered at thirty
Speaker 1: seven eleven Travis, and went and saved salvage a concept
Speaker 1: in Third War that our community needed to have sustained.
Speaker 1: And I say needed, and I closed on this. I
Speaker 1: say needed because in the African American community, we are
Speaker 1: hurt every time one of our business is closed, right
Speaker 1: it it tears at the moral and the morale fabric
Speaker 1: of our community. We may not express it, we may
Speaker 1: resting in the wrong way. Sometimes we may say stuff
Speaker 1: like see that I told you it was going to close,
Speaker 1: and we're saying that out of her out of pain.
Speaker 1: It's painful when I when our businesses in our community closed.
Speaker 1: So we fifteen years ago acquired the Reggae Hut to
Speaker 1: keep an institution in our community open to keep an
Speaker 1: additional place for us to circulate our dollars and to
Speaker 1: serve jerk Chicken. Of course, brother jerk Park. On my end,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people, Oh hey have it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I got it for you know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. I'm but I'm gonna ask you this question,
Speaker 1: Marcus woman, say, okay, look, you got a popular The
Speaker 1: breakfast club is popular. Why don't we see another breakfast club?
Speaker 1: You know? You know they do it with Bojangles, they
Speaker 1: do it with you know, Chick fil A. Why don't
Speaker 1: we have like I know you're the airport, but why
Speaker 1: don't we have like four or five breakfast clubs with
Speaker 1: a k running around running around the city of Houston?
Speaker 1: And then't expand it in Texas? Man? You you you
Speaker 1: bring up an absolute perfect point. I've got a meeting
Speaker 1: today with a brother who is who is about to
Speaker 1: uh do something super spectacular. Uh. There's a void in
Speaker 1: the marketplace, right we as African Americans in the restaurant industry.
Speaker 1: The void that we have is there's not an African
Speaker 1: American concept that stretches across a region. That's not an
Speaker 1: African credit concept that stretches across the nation, we don't
Speaker 1: have a national concept we have, Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: We have successful restaurant tours, brothers that can buy a
Speaker 1: hundred uh taco bills or what have you, But we
Speaker 1: have no concepts where we're selling one hundred franchises. And
Speaker 1: that's where African Americans have to graduate too. If we're
Speaker 1: gonna do this business thing seriously, right, if we're gonna
Speaker 1: be serious about uh generational wealth, if we're gonna be
Speaker 1: serious about making rebuilding Black Wall Street running it back,
Speaker 1: if we're gonna be serious about building Wakonda, then we
Speaker 1: gotta start with our dollar. And the only way we
Speaker 1: can get those those things that you describe one to five,
Speaker 1: five to ten, ten to twenty across the country is
Speaker 1: if we're deliberate in our dollar. And that's where African
Speaker 1: Americans have to step in and step up to the plate.
Speaker 1: And yes, we do need to make sure that the
Speaker 1: concepts that are presented are are are desirable, uh, that
Speaker 1: they are palatable, that people love them, that they adore
Speaker 1: there they embrace them. But the one thing I do
Speaker 1: ask for the from the marketplace, from the African American marketplace,
Speaker 1: is fairness. And when I say fairness. When we're judging
Speaker 1: businesses from restaurants on down, keep that same energy, because
Speaker 1: we will walk into a nail salon and let them
Speaker 1: talk dirt to us and we take it. We will
Speaker 1: walk into beautisalon and let them follow us along the
Speaker 1: around the thing, and we still buy from them. Right.
Speaker 1: We will walk into a restaurant that has the highest
Speaker 1: level of discrimination I mean of of a bad service,
Speaker 1: which is discrimination, and we will try and force them
Speaker 1: to take our dollar. We're still trying to make somebody
Speaker 1: take our dollar. But you know, so those days have
Speaker 1: have to be gone. We have to have the same
Speaker 1: amount of patients and tolerance and persistence with building our
Speaker 1: business as we do with the tolerance that we have
Speaker 1: with others. Last one on this, no, last one. I
Speaker 1: just finished watching this another night when when when people
Speaker 1: ask you don't want how much tolerance? How much patients
Speaker 1: are we supposed to have? If you're talking about building
Speaker 1: your community for real? I encourage everybody to go back
Speaker 1: and look at the Montgomery Boycott West Boycott three hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty one days. That community was very intentional about
Speaker 1: accomplishing their goal. They had to do the big s,
Speaker 1: which we are not comfortable doing, which is to sacrifice.
Speaker 1: And if we want to rebuild Blackwall Street, if we
Speaker 1: want to build with Kanda, if we want a fortune
Speaker 1: five hundred restaurant company, if we want to restaurant food
Speaker 1: service comming and traded on the NASDAC, then we've got
Speaker 1: to be deliberate and where we circulate our doubts. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna slow you down on that one because I love
Speaker 1: because because you know, you know, you know, I'm the
Speaker 1: sun grand son and great grand son of the Black
Speaker 1: Baptist preachers. And it's what they're ever gonna stop here,
Speaker 1: They ever gonna stop now, but as a microphone around
Speaker 1: here somewhere. But as a black entrepreneur, you know, there's
Speaker 1: always been that fear if I tell people who I am,
Speaker 1: will I get the same reaction, you know, especially from
Speaker 1: the white community. And then when we all we had
Speaker 1: a great ground swell that was laid behind our tragic
Speaker 1: death of you know, uh, George Floyd, I apologize for
Speaker 1: the forking this name and uh. And so then of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the injured that the corporation said, hey, we
Speaker 1: want to know if you are black owned business. Google
Speaker 1: actually went out and said we have a little marker
Speaker 1: that you can actually say, if you my only business,
Speaker 1: check this. And so now you have black businesses saying,
Speaker 1: you know, we could actually come out of the dark
Speaker 1: and and and be appreciated. You know all the time
Speaker 1: you even say he was a black business, you could
Speaker 1: just sign up doing the right. Nobody would tear down
Speaker 1: your building. That's when you say you were black home.
Speaker 1: Prior to that, you didn't want to recognize it and
Speaker 1: be recognized at all. But we now at a point differently,
Speaker 1: like I said, post I G And that's the life
Speaker 1: we live in now where you could be proud, you
Speaker 1: can brag, you could promote that you're black owned business.
Speaker 1: Is that important? Marcus? Look and and I wish those
Speaker 1: people that you're talking about, I wish you had had
Speaker 1: pointing them out to me before, because I I, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, and I've seen it. I'm aware. I've
Speaker 1: seen what people will make an effort to conceal or
Speaker 1: two and I just see I'll say this, uh, post
Speaker 1: traumatic slave, this order is real. Right, anytime you decide
Speaker 1: that you gotta hide or have a fear of letting
Speaker 1: people know who you are or what you're about, you know,
Speaker 1: I deliberately from day one, September October two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: deliberately wanted folks to know that this was an African
Speaker 1: American owned established right now. That didn't mean that all
Speaker 1: of our all one hundred seats were for African Americans.
Speaker 1: It just meant that the person who had their name
Speaker 1: on the door, on on the martage, on the least
Speaker 1: on the partmit was African American. But we're gonna deliver
Speaker 1: a product that is good for the general market. And
Speaker 1: that was a goal, right some reason, For some reason,
Speaker 1: African Americans, well, for the obvious reason that that that
Speaker 1: phrase I just gave post traumatic slave disorder. African Americans
Speaker 1: have been denied the knowledge that we have the ability
Speaker 1: to create a product for the general marketplace. We've been
Speaker 1: convinced that the only market, the only product that we
Speaker 1: can create for the general marketplace, not just for black folks,
Speaker 1: because the whole pie was whether we can run fast,
Speaker 1: we can jump high, or whether we can sing or
Speaker 1: whether we can dance. Those were the only places where
Speaker 1: we felt our gifts, our talents, our skills were worthy
Speaker 1: of the general marketplace. And I'm here to say not so, right,
Speaker 1: I am here to build black business. I am here
Speaker 1: to build black business that will flourish in the general marketplace. Awesome.
Speaker 1: Now that that leads me to your stupid or your
Speaker 1: show host of fish. You know, because we've been actually
Speaker 1: having scripts and politics talk this entire interview, and that's
Speaker 1: how you know he's an entrepreneur, he's a game changer,
Speaker 1: and tell us about the show, tell us about the
Speaker 1: need for the show and what's the goal of the show.
Speaker 1: So you know you mentioned in in the in the opening,
Speaker 1: I spent some time uh doing uh commentary and this
Speaker 1: community voice community activists, whatever title it is, and my
Speaker 1: big mouth got landed me a seat on the radio,
Speaker 1: uh sitting next to my mentor. Uh sister died a
Speaker 1: K eight to atwards. She was she was a radio
Speaker 1: host in Houston for a number of years on the
Speaker 1: community program. And so I sat at her at her
Speaker 1: foot and learned from her and then went on to
Speaker 1: become the host of Magic one of two Sunday Morning
Speaker 1: Live for for ten years. I don't know if ten years.
Speaker 1: Thank you for falling, said, okay, all right, see he's
Speaker 1: seen me, Marcus and saw me all the way back
Speaker 1: to hip hop comedy stopped stopped. So, man, look, you
Speaker 1: know I had saved that. I had saved that to last,
Speaker 1: but since you brought it up, I'm gonna go ahead
Speaker 1: and talk about it. Now. Entrepreneurship is contagious. It is
Speaker 1: absolutely contagious. The day that I walked into the hip
Speaker 1: hop Comedy Stop and I did the same thing that
Speaker 1: people walking to the Bush Club. It's black home, it's us.
Speaker 1: Immediate spoils up. You know, you're standing a little taller.
Speaker 1: You know you're here. You get a little higher because
Speaker 1: you know this, this, this is us doing something. So
Speaker 1: when I heard those commercials running you and brother David
Speaker 1: uh and I win, I saw, and I went, and
Speaker 1: then it happened to go one night when Steve was
Speaker 1: there and I just you know, my ribs steel cracked
Speaker 1: from one of those late night shows. Man, where I
Speaker 1: just you know, the thing that Marcus is that you know,
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship is contagious. So I have to tell you that,
Speaker 1: uh that that that was a source of fertilization, uh
Speaker 1: for the entrepreneur. Uh see, that was inside of me.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate you and your brother's stepping out on
Speaker 1: faith in doing that. Well, you know, sometimes you know
Speaker 1: I've looked at my life and I just like I said,
Speaker 1: do it on faith. I do it on belief. I
Speaker 1: believe that somebody can't tell me no. If you're gonna
Speaker 1: tell me no, you're gonna tell me why, and speaking
Speaker 1: no stop to a lot of people. When you tell
Speaker 1: me no, you have to tell me explain, explain. Don't
Speaker 1: just tell me no. You have to explain to me
Speaker 1: to why, because that way I can If you tell
Speaker 1: me why and explain to me, I'm gonna figure out
Speaker 1: that I can do it because well, and you know
Speaker 1: part of why why it is were showing I've discovered
Speaker 1: part of why that is. And this goes back to
Speaker 1: your question about why not one team fifteen stores. Part
Speaker 1: of why there you hear the know is because what
Speaker 1: people are doing is they're attempting to project their fear
Speaker 1: and their faithlessness onto you. Right. What they're telling you,
Speaker 1: what they're saying when they say no, you can't do it,
Speaker 1: is they're saying, I've seen that I can't do it.
Speaker 1: I don't have the faith to do it. So I'm
Speaker 1: telling you how I feel and I'm gonna project it
Speaker 1: onto you. I'm not saying that they're doing a delivery.
Speaker 1: I think it's being done unconsciously right right. Uh, But
Speaker 1: but people have to understand that you cannot allow others
Speaker 1: to project their fearfulness onto you. You've got to stay in,
Speaker 1: flat footed and faithfully on the dream, the golden vision
Speaker 1: that was placed inside of you if you wanted to
Speaker 1: come into fruition. So going when when? The reason I
Speaker 1: mentioned the one that tends a hundred is because every
Speaker 1: time you have a restaurant concept and people talk about expanding,
Speaker 1: if you listen, the marketplace will tell you, oh, I've
Speaker 1: literally heard this. I took surveys and I've literally heard
Speaker 1: people say, don't do this. Every time we do this,
Speaker 1: we lose. And I point out to one young lady,
Speaker 1: I said, I can guarantee you I can in your day,
Speaker 1: I can point out three or four concepts that you
Speaker 1: support that wants one store operations. Right when you go
Speaker 1: get your coffer in the morning at that buck place,
Speaker 1: they started out as a single store. When you go
Speaker 1: get your nuggets at that filate place, they started out
Speaker 1: as a single store. And to be told, we are
Speaker 1: the ones that are financing the whole arm and leg
Speaker 1: of this growth of this expansion. And so we just
Speaker 1: have to turn that faith around and believe that we
Speaker 1: have the ability. We already have the bill. You know,
Speaker 1: McDonald's don't run McDonald's three six five for no reason.
Speaker 1: They run three six five because we're in there three
Speaker 1: six and five. Absolutely, And Marcus Uh. First of all, Man,
Speaker 1: I knew I was talking to your our conversation now,
Speaker 1: you know you're coming back for your twenty and adversity.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be really about that. But but I just
Speaker 1: want to get to these season, these these flavors behind you,
Speaker 1: because you know, I got a TV show called Rahard's
Speaker 1: Kitchen Now and a little a little Birden told me that, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and so I gotta get that stuff so I can
Speaker 1: start making stuff and start posting on my social media
Speaker 1: and support you this way. So tell us about the
Speaker 1: season and talk about the extension of going in the
Speaker 1: online packaging and grocery stores and stuff like that, because
Speaker 1: I gotta feature this stuff for Roosarge Kitchen. I gotta,
Speaker 1: I gotta. I gotta a cook. Of course, you know
Speaker 1: I can cook and bake and so and I just
Speaker 1: do it just anywhere from beans, the steaks, the fish
Speaker 1: now everything. Talk about your whole line of seasoning and packaging.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so man, we um we have a line
Speaker 1: of products that give you the ability to uh take
Speaker 1: us home with you, right, you can? You can. You
Speaker 1: want that same great flavor of the chicken, You want
Speaker 1: that same great flavor of the fish, You want the
Speaker 1: same great favor flavor of the waffle. Uh. Then we
Speaker 1: have a lot of products. So we have where have
Speaker 1: our chicken fry, fish fry, We have our pancake and
Speaker 1: waffle mix. Where our coffee beans because we are a
Speaker 1: full service coffee shop. You can get the whole bean
Speaker 1: or you can get them ground up. And then most
Speaker 1: importantly less and most important, sorry're gonna do the selfless
Speaker 1: club we have we have our all purpose seasoning. Right,
Speaker 1: That's what I want, right for my being, for my
Speaker 1: green that look yeah man, I'm gonna tell you look club.
Speaker 1: I tell folks. So, my father, who was the biggest
Speaker 1: influence in my career because he was a great educator,
Speaker 1: he was a great musician, but he was also a
Speaker 1: great chef. He was I mean, this food was just
Speaker 1: absolutely dynamic, and he taught me what great great flavor
Speaker 1: uh actually was. And so fortunately is my first year
Speaker 1: in business, he was here with me to help formulate
Speaker 1: the recipes and and and the menu and all that
Speaker 1: good stuff. And this is a result of what he
Speaker 1: taught me. It's the base for everything that we do
Speaker 1: at the Breakfast Club. And I tell people because I've
Speaker 1: had people ordering and they and they're like, man, I
Speaker 1: can't believe how good that was. I was like, you've
Speaker 1: eating at the restaurant thirty seven thousand times? How not?
Speaker 1: I just I just didn't know. So for those who
Speaker 1: cooked anywhere that you and I'm not gonna give nobody
Speaker 1: else no props anywhere that you use those other people
Speaker 1: season right, stop, put it down and pick this up.
Speaker 1: So if you use that T word, yeah, substitute right here.
Speaker 1: If you use that slap yo whatever, whatever, whatever, substitute
Speaker 1: right here. Anywhere you're using an all purpose season I
Speaker 1: invite you to get the Breakfast Club season and take
Speaker 1: us home with you. I'll just tell you, We'll tell
Speaker 1: you Mark, don't don't send me nothing. I'll be ordering
Speaker 1: that today, okay. Because you know me, I always support
Speaker 1: black businesses, and in that way, I know I use
Speaker 1: all purpose seasoning. I have another young black lady who's
Speaker 1: really talented. I use her and she's African American season
Speaker 1: and stuff. But I gotta invite you into my kitchen,
Speaker 1: man Rashawn's kitchens talking about the product and all that
Speaker 1: good stuff. But again, man, the greatest talker and motivator
Speaker 1: in the game, in the restaurant game. His name is
Speaker 1: Marcus straight out of Houston, Texas. He'd be back on
Speaker 1: in the fall celebrating the twentieth year of the Breakfast
Speaker 1: Club in Houston, Texas, because we're gonna talk about a
Speaker 1: lot of great things. Thank you for coming back on
Speaker 1: the show. Man. You're a beautiful brother. Man. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate, I appreciate the invite. Man. You look great,
Speaker 1: you look fantastic. You look healthy. I'm glad. I'm glad
Speaker 1: you're taking care of yourself. We want you and need
Speaker 1: you here for a couple of more years, a few more,
Speaker 1: a lot of thank you, thank you, thank you, all
Speaker 1: right and and amen and thank you. I gotta say,
Speaker 1: you know, we we we we we got some national recognition,
Speaker 1: uh in our first couple of years of business. But man,
Speaker 1: we hit it big. We hit it big. Shan call
Speaker 1: and said, hey, man, y'all gonna be on the Steve
Speaker 1: Harpers Show. Man. Yeah, thank you Marguts for coming on
Speaker 1: money making conversations. Brother. I appreciate you. Brother. We will
Speaker 1: be right back with more money making conversations with your
Speaker 1: host Roshan McDonald. It's finally here, the season of celebration,
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Speaker 1: are now tuned into the money making conversations. Minute of
Speaker 1: Inspiration with Rushan McDonald I recently interviewed Gina Yasay, a
Speaker 1: British comedian of Nigerian heritage. She has the co creator,
Speaker 1: co executive, ducer, writer and actress on the hit CBS
Speaker 1: series Bob Hart Abashola. Gina is released in our first book,
Speaker 1: a memoir, Cat Candy Puts chronicles her odyssey to get
Speaker 1: to America and break into Hollywool. I wrote the book ovinually.
Speaker 1: It started off as just on Instagram. There was a
Speaker 1: hashtag fowback Thursdays where you past old pictures, and I
Speaker 1: was posting all pictures and writing the story behind the
Speaker 1: pictures by post a picture and writing elaborate post explaining
Speaker 1: the history behind the picture, and people were really interested
Speaker 1: in saying, oh my god, your story is so good,
Speaker 1: why don't you write a book? So I started keeping
Speaker 1: those and I want to school about my history because
Speaker 1: people don't seem to realize that the UK started safely.
Speaker 1: If you want to hear the full interview with Gina Yasharai,
Speaker 1: it's available on money Making Conversations dot com. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversations with your host, Rashan McDonald. My
Speaker 1: next guest is one of my favorite people. Her name
Speaker 1: is Snoop Dillard. She's the owner of Dillard Hospitality Group.
Speaker 1: D HC. Dealer Hospitality Group is Atlanta based hospitality company
Speaker 1: that takes pride and delivering high quality care and customer service.
Speaker 1: With five restaurants, three salon suites, a charity organization to
Speaker 1: tourism and travel agencies, a real estate investment and business
Speaker 1: consulting agency. D h D has become a leader and
Speaker 1: provide in Atlanta now excellent examples of optimal delivery within
Speaker 1: the service industry of Atlanta, Georgia. On the show to Day,
Speaker 1: Snoop and I were going to talk to her about
Speaker 1: her road to recovery and also our mentorship program because
Speaker 1: last year both she and I were frustrated with this
Speaker 1: COVID nineteam when they were both entrepreneurs and also talking
Speaker 1: about putting your business back on the fast fast track
Speaker 1: to success. If anybody can talk about that because of
Speaker 1: our diversity of her portfolio, is her, Please welcome to
Speaker 1: the show Money Making Conversation, Snoop Dialard, Hey do snow
Speaker 1: thanks to having that phenomenal uh, that phenomenal phenomenal well
Speaker 1: you know you know those two are you one of
Speaker 1: my favorite people. And last time I had you on
Speaker 1: the show, COVID with beating us up as entrepreneurs was
Speaker 1: beating us both of you know, uh, your your your
Speaker 1: birthday tour got canceled everything, and I could I could
Speaker 1: hear in your voice you were frustrated and because there
Speaker 1: were no answers, can you walk us back to as
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, as a business owner, as a restaurant owner,
Speaker 1: because that was really scary because customers couldn't come in
Speaker 1: your business and talk about that whole process. Yeah, absolutely
Speaker 1: so um as you all know, of course, you know,
Speaker 1: we all went through the same thing with COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: and I think it was probably around the beginning of
Speaker 1: April or the end of March the human I spoke
Speaker 1: last year, And of course, definitely frustrating time. That was
Speaker 1: around the time when everything was just being shut down.
Speaker 1: We were unclear on when things would open up and
Speaker 1: when everything would even turn back to any type of
Speaker 1: normalcy or if there ever would be normalcy, and what
Speaker 1: that would look like, you know, um for months and
Speaker 1: years to come. So um, absolutely a frustrating time. As
Speaker 1: you mentioned, our own five restaurants. So it's just having
Speaker 1: all of those clothes that once was very very scary, UM,
Speaker 1: made me have to be super innovative. Um and really
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of think out of the box. Uh. Now,
Speaker 1: Fortunately we were able to open back up, you know,
Speaker 1: about a month after month later after we spoke you know,
Speaker 1: uh during that time last year. And so I was
Speaker 1: very surprised that we were able to open back up
Speaker 1: as quickly as we were, UM and even more so
Speaker 1: surprised and pleased to see people coming out and patronizing
Speaker 1: the businesses like they did, you know, once we were
Speaker 1: able to open back up. And so I went on
Speaker 1: to open up three new businesses during the pandemic. So
Speaker 1: that was definitely it was kind of like turning you know,
Speaker 1: lemons into lemonade, you know, making a bad situation and
Speaker 1: turning that into a positive situation. So um, everything ended
Speaker 1: up turning out all right. But it was definitely you know,
Speaker 1: a scary time, you know, for all of us. Then
Speaker 1: I think the time that will you know all never forget.
Speaker 1: We know, it's really interesting because you're always upbeat, You're
Speaker 1: always a positive and you know, and as a and
Speaker 1: I want to call your friend of mine, just hearing
Speaker 1: your voice and hearing the the the uncertainty and your
Speaker 1: voice doing COVID as an as an entrepreneur, because you're
Speaker 1: not only that you try to get customers the door,
Speaker 1: but you have people you're employing, and you're hearing their
Speaker 1: stories and their their checks and their bills that they
Speaker 1: cannot pay. But with that being said, there has been
Speaker 1: a difference in customer service now because now online or
Speaker 1: to go has become a has changed the dynamics, especially
Speaker 1: in black restaurants. Talking about how that has shifted your
Speaker 1: business model, well, you know, while we were shut down,
Speaker 1: we were when we were allowed to stay open just
Speaker 1: to do take out. Uh, So that made us have
Speaker 1: to focus, you know, on that aspect of the business
Speaker 1: much more than we ever had before before. You know,
Speaker 1: we always were more so concerned and cater to the
Speaker 1: customers that were coming into the business. So we ended
Speaker 1: up seeing a lot of our profits from you know,
Speaker 1: uber eats, grub hub, things that nature nature and even
Speaker 1: changing our platform um to see how we could do uh,
Speaker 1: take out and delivery without using those platform forms which
Speaker 1: take you know a certain percentage of profits. So, uh,
Speaker 1: it was definitely a time to kind of change some
Speaker 1: things change our we even looked at changing our to
Speaker 1: go containers, you know, to preserve food and make sure
Speaker 1: that our to go food was fresh just like it
Speaker 1: would be in the restaurants, you know, once you get
Speaker 1: it there at home. So UM, definitely a lot of
Speaker 1: thinking outside the box, you know, during this time period
Speaker 1: and some things that we've carried on up until now.
Speaker 1: You know, we've even implemented curbside windows that several of
Speaker 1: our locations UM and still keep those going to this day,
Speaker 1: even though people are coming back into the restaurants now.
Speaker 1: It was really interesting. I was with a friend I
Speaker 1: was at I was at the waffle House and we
Speaker 1: were sitting up at the bar eating and I could
Speaker 1: tell you it was actually the the the go pick
Speaker 1: up area at the end of the bar for Waffall
Speaker 1: was like amazing. It was like it was like a constant,
Speaker 1: steady flow. So I know the mentality of the customer
Speaker 1: now is they have no problem coming in, picking up
Speaker 1: their their food and exiting out of the facility. Is
Speaker 1: that it may be tied to maybe a fear or
Speaker 1: it's just a habit that was built. Droughing COVID a
Speaker 1: team when it comes to future restaurant customer. I think
Speaker 1: it was a habit that was built during that time period,
Speaker 1: and so that enabled you. That's why you said, Okay, Rishan,
Speaker 1: we used to have a certain way that we delivered.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to Snoop dialer, then her customers. She has
Speaker 1: five restaurants in the Atlanta area. And Snoop when we
Speaker 1: were talking about this, the ability to say, you have
Speaker 1: different things you have to You have the seal containers
Speaker 1: that you can just put a lid on top of it,
Speaker 1: and then you have the little the little style foam
Speaker 1: that you would just fold down and just walk out
Speaker 1: of there. So I'm assuming that you went more to
Speaker 1: a seal container as far as your to go and
Speaker 1: even with the styrofoaone, you know, we went to a
Speaker 1: more breathable styrofoam container that would you know, keep wings
Speaker 1: and fried foods, you know, fresh shirt by the time
Speaker 1: we got those to the to the home location. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: But let's when we were out of that. You know,
Speaker 1: we're into two were playing it only because I know
Speaker 1: you're you know, you're not a person that six thirty
Speaker 1: days are you're playing a year in advance. You got
Speaker 1: the five restaurants, the three so long, sweet break down
Speaker 1: to everybody. Your five restaurants in the line of areas,
Speaker 1: so we get a sense of what the the hospitality
Speaker 1: the group is doing from a restaurant perspective. Absolutely, We've
Speaker 1: got Escobar Restaurant the top of Us, which is located
Speaker 1: downtown on Peter Street at three seven Peter Street. We've
Speaker 1: got Escobar South which is on the south side, and
Speaker 1: Moron George at eleven forty Mount Zion Road. And we've
Speaker 1: also got members only Lounge and Restaurant which is located
Speaker 1: at one third nine Ralphe mcgheo once again downtown. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then we've got Crazy Restaurant which is located in
Speaker 1: a little five points uh. And then I also owned
Speaker 1: Esco Sea Food, so that one was opened up during
Speaker 1: the pandemic and it's located at four or forty seven
Speaker 1: edge Wed Avenue. This opening up a restaurant during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: talk to me. You know people out there can't even
Speaker 1: get p P pay people out there, and you made
Speaker 1: a decision. Was it was that in the works already
Speaker 1: now it was not the reason why I made the
Speaker 1: decision to open up Sco Sea Food is because I
Speaker 1: saw the influx of people that were coming to Atlanta,
Speaker 1: being that we were one of the only cities that
Speaker 1: were opened up the way that we were during the
Speaker 1: pandemic UM, and just kind of wanted to take advantage
Speaker 1: of that. Also, there were some unfortunate restaurants that did
Speaker 1: have to close down run the pandemic, and so, uh,
Speaker 1: there were several second generation restaurant location is available UM
Speaker 1: that would allow us to get open pretty quickly. UM.
Speaker 1: And so once I found that location on Edgela, which
Speaker 1: is a pretty sought after, you know areas to be on. UM.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of walk up traffic on that street. UM,
Speaker 1: I figured that that would be a good area to
Speaker 1: start our sea food chain UM and go ahead and
Speaker 1: get that going. And so we actually get that, got
Speaker 1: that location open and about three months we opened December
Speaker 1: ninth of last year. Well, I'm good to be honest
Speaker 1: with everybody. When I talked to Snoop deal it, she's
Speaker 1: a visionary. I tell her that all the time, and
Speaker 1: she but she's also a grinder. When I say a
Speaker 1: grinder means that she's out there grind and she doesn't
Speaker 1: even realize how. She knows she's talented, but may not
Speaker 1: realize that how talent and the impact that she makes
Speaker 1: on other people. Well, she has a program mentorship program
Speaker 1: that uh that the Road to Mentorship program. Talk to
Speaker 1: us about that Road to mendorship program and why it's
Speaker 1: important and why did you started? Absolutely so, who is
Speaker 1: Snoop's Road to Millions mentorship Program? I pretty much started
Speaker 1: this mentorship program during COVID. One of the things that
Speaker 1: I did while we worshiped down was to film various
Speaker 1: courses that I felt would be helpful to people who
Speaker 1: wanted to get into entrepreneurship, who wanted to start saving
Speaker 1: and investing, who wanted to get into restaurant ownership UM.
Speaker 1: And then also during COVID UM, I took the course
Speaker 1: myself to sharpen my skills by a friend of my
Speaker 1: name Marcus Barney. He has this whole recession recession through
Speaker 1: family where he teaches financial literacy, credit repair, UM, funding,
Speaker 1: business credit, things of that nature. So UM. And just
Speaker 1: kind of pulling all of that together and combining some
Speaker 1: of the things that I've been teaching and questions I've
Speaker 1: been answering through my business consultation to the past few years,
Speaker 1: I said, well, let me kind of put together a
Speaker 1: mentorship program that would encompass all of this information UM
Speaker 1: to be able to help individuals with my platform form
Speaker 1: UM get to the point that they can be millionaires
Speaker 1: or get to the point that they can reach their goals.
Speaker 1: And so that's what it is that I'm doing. UM.
Speaker 1: It's a mentorship program at last about four weeks. UM.
Speaker 1: It encompasses teaching people how to invest, teaching people how
Speaker 1: to save UM, teaching UH, fixing individuals credit UM, showing
Speaker 1: them how to be a business credit, showing them how
Speaker 1: to get funding, showing them how to start businesses, how
Speaker 1: to scale businesses excuse me, UM, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of one on one with my mentees. So UM it's
Speaker 1: been a great program. People have really really been and
Speaker 1: been enjoying it. UH. Started off wanting to take about
Speaker 1: ten mentees a month, kind of scale back so that
Speaker 1: it kind of became a little overwhelming. So right now
Speaker 1: I kind of take on about six to eight mentees
Speaker 1: per month UM and it's a great program. People can
Speaker 1: find out more information about it by going to my
Speaker 1: website at www dot Who is snoop dot com? Well
Speaker 1: here's the thing I'm talking to. She's on them deal
Speaker 1: at Hospitality Group. If you're not aware, it's an Atlanta
Speaker 1: based hospitality company takes pride and delivering high quality care
Speaker 1: and customer service. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: this all started with a party of bus you know,
Speaker 1: in the Atlanta way back in the day. And this
Speaker 1: is an idea of stepping out on some people. Some
Speaker 1: people use the word faith. Uh, you and I were
Speaker 1: kind of like, we got faith, but we also are
Speaker 1: planners and we also have a budget tied to the plan.
Speaker 1: So give people advice on that whole process because you know,
Speaker 1: you know, prayers used a lot when people make a decision,
Speaker 1: but also within that prayer, it has to be a
Speaker 1: sense of reality, a sense of revenue that you can
Speaker 1: generate out of your dream. And how do you put
Speaker 1: your ideas together, especially in the early days of starting
Speaker 1: your company and the building your I want to say
Speaker 1: the word empire. I think it starts with number one,
Speaker 1: first and foremost, having a good plan, as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, and when we talk about playing a business plan,
Speaker 1: and you know a lot of people are excuse me,
Speaker 1: starting businesses without even having a business plan. Um, So
Speaker 1: it really starts there, you know, it starts with um.
Speaker 1: Having the business plan during the research UM, having good
Speaker 1: mentorship no individuals that are in the line of work
Speaker 1: that you're trying to get into or that have businesses
Speaker 1: similar to what you're trying to do, UM, and really
Speaker 1: studying and scaling those businesses and and putting the research
Speaker 1: together with the grind and the hustle UM because a
Speaker 1: lot of times people really don't research what it is
Speaker 1: that they're trying to do, and I end up spending
Speaker 1: and wasting a lot of money trying to learn along
Speaker 1: the way. So UM, that's been a big thing for me. UM.
Speaker 1: It's just having great mentors UM and having good planning skills,
Speaker 1: you know, UM. And also you know, having that funding,
Speaker 1: you know, saving and having the finances UM to be
Speaker 1: able to back up you know, those dreams and aspirations.
Speaker 1: But its interesting thing when I when I sit down
Speaker 1: and talk with Snoop Dealer, is that there's always a
Speaker 1: level of confidence but you and I would tell you
Speaker 1: that I I don't understand balance. You know, you seem
Speaker 1: to be able to understand. Hey, I can relax, I
Speaker 1: can go on vacation, I celebrate with my friends. How
Speaker 1: are you able to do that? Because I would tell you.
Speaker 1: I love you know, I tell people I love the work.
Speaker 1: I love the bought the building and doing covid use
Speaker 1: at that restaurant. I bought the building. Okay, So I
Speaker 1: bought into myself and believed in myself. And one of
Speaker 1: the great business decisions I've made in the past several years,
Speaker 1: how do you balance being able to be exceptionally busy
Speaker 1: as an entrepreneur, but then also having a family life,
Speaker 1: a social life, a life to be able to know
Speaker 1: your friends and spend time with your friends. Absolutely great question.
Speaker 1: I think for me, I made the decision a few
Speaker 1: years ago that it was just something that I have
Speaker 1: to do because it's extremely important to me. You know.
Speaker 1: I think that you know, we're all here for a reason,
Speaker 1: and that you know when we leave this earth. You
Speaker 1: we look at tomb stones and I've never walked by
Speaker 1: anyone tomb stones that said a great athlete, great business person,
Speaker 1: owner of such and such. You know, it says mother, father,
Speaker 1: and sister, doorter, friend to whoever. Um, and those are
Speaker 1: the relationships that I feel like are most important that
Speaker 1: we need to make sure that we make time for.
Speaker 1: So UM, it's definitely about having that balance and scheduling
Speaker 1: those things, and uh, it used to be a point
Speaker 1: in time where I would you know, be up all
Speaker 1: night checking emails, because in the middle of the night
Speaker 1: emails working. And so I've decided that, you know, I've
Speaker 1: got to have a cut off point because there are
Speaker 1: things that are also important in life that don't evolve
Speaker 1: around money in business. Well, before I get into the
Speaker 1: the good credit and credit repair company, I want to
Speaker 1: talk about your charity organization. And then I also want
Speaker 1: to talk about something that African Americans really don't get into,
Speaker 1: is that the tourism and travel business. And we know
Speaker 1: that's about to take back off. Just this past weekend,
Speaker 1: cruise ships have been released. They're starting to go back
Speaker 1: out into the waters and travel with this world. I'm
Speaker 1: a big component of a friend, a big fan of
Speaker 1: people doing cruisers, especially black people. They don't realize that
Speaker 1: you go out there, you get your room, you get
Speaker 1: your food, you get your experience. It's done. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Closer, it's all inclusive. So talk about
Speaker 1: first about your charity, and then we're going to go
Speaker 1: over into the tourism and travel agencies and encompasses. On
Speaker 1: the d h G absolutely, as so my charity organization
Speaker 1: as Her Impact Foundation UM. And what we do is
Speaker 1: we just try to help the community in any way
Speaker 1: so that we can. So we have UM movements where
Speaker 1: we feed the homeless UM and set up you know,
Speaker 1: UM coalitions you know, with various organizations in the community
Speaker 1: to be able to do that. We also help UM
Speaker 1: kids you know that are going back to school that
Speaker 1: aren't able to you know, whose parents aren't able to
Speaker 1: provide you know, their school supply and things of that nature. UM.
Speaker 1: We've got a Friends Giving UH event that we do
Speaker 1: which is also just based around during the Thanksgiving time UM,
Speaker 1: feeding the community UM and giving back to some of
Speaker 1: the homeless individuals. So UM definitely try to focus a
Speaker 1: lot of efforts and that UM. I was a single mother,
Speaker 1: so we do. I do a diaper drive as well
Speaker 1: once a year, and it's just UM basically you know,
Speaker 1: getting donations you know of pampers UH and diapers and
Speaker 1: donating those two mothers that are in need. UH. So
Speaker 1: we do a lot of different, you know, combinations of
Speaker 1: different efforts to give back to the community here in Atlanta, UM.
Speaker 1: And then moving over to the travel UM leg of things.
Speaker 1: So UM we're actually kind of in the works of
Speaker 1: putting that together right now. But it's just hoping individuals
Speaker 1: to be able to see the world um and travel,
Speaker 1: you know, UM and be able to you know, because
Speaker 1: right now travel is so high. Last year it was
Speaker 1: you know, the dropping prices on everything because not as
Speaker 1: many people are traveling, and now that everything is kind
Speaker 1: of opening back up, they're hitting everybody over their head.
Speaker 1: So UM. But they do have programs where you can
Speaker 1: get tickets on the Old Way and things of that nature.
Speaker 1: But a lot of people don't realize, you know, how
Speaker 1: reasonable it can be, you know, to travel and just
Speaker 1: what the importance of it is and being able to
Speaker 1: have that culture um and expand your mind a lot
Speaker 1: of times, you know, as your I see things, um,
Speaker 1: your mind expands um and it and it cultivates and
Speaker 1: creates different dreams for you um and different goals that
Speaker 1: you may want to reach. So I think everything is
Speaker 1: all connected. Well, I know you do. I see a future,
Speaker 1: you know, talk join the type cruise in your future.
Speaker 1: I know you. I know you. I tell you that
Speaker 1: you know you just to party. But that's how I
Speaker 1: al started. That's just a bigger version of that to
Speaker 1: get to travel and safe and friends and family. Well,
Speaker 1: how how big you want to go with this now,
Speaker 1: because you know we're doing anything small, it's always in
Speaker 1: the smallest the planning stage. But once the planning states
Speaker 1: go on, that come on that the whole process of
Speaker 1: getting the African Americans out into the travel space. And
Speaker 1: like you said, because of COVID, car runnods are extremely
Speaker 1: high nowadays. You know, getting a good car is ridiculous,
Speaker 1: especially begetting to the Florida area. So getting with the
Speaker 1: travel agency or tourism organization that can protect you and
Speaker 1: provide you with information. You really can't just jump out
Speaker 1: there like you used to. You know, gas prices are
Speaker 1: high in certain states, in certain places, parts of California's
Speaker 1: five dollars a gallop in California. So that's the type
Speaker 1: of information that that comes to your organization when people
Speaker 1: come to you. It's like basically you protect people, providing
Speaker 1: them with information that makes you steering them in the
Speaker 1: right direction. Correct, absolutely, absolutely. Now let's talk about good
Speaker 1: credit bad credit. Black people are notorious that we have
Speaker 1: a history. I'm not saying we do, but we always
Speaker 1: hear the jokes. You know, you you put your your
Speaker 1: child's name or your on your own, your own, your
Speaker 1: gas bill or your life bill that your po child
Speaker 1: grew up they realized they got bad credit. We've we've
Speaker 1: we've seen these stories. We've heard these stories and been
Speaker 1: a part of this story. Depending on who's listening to
Speaker 1: this interview. When you talk about good credit in your
Speaker 1: repair company, to help that out, let's talk about what
Speaker 1: exactly is good credit? Snoop, you know, good credit they
Speaker 1: used to be a seven twenty or better, but you
Speaker 1: know they're saying it nowadays that doesn't even cut it. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, a good credit report number one is
Speaker 1: at least you know, ten open positive accounts. Zener wrote
Speaker 1: the rocket story accounts zero late marks, zero items and
Speaker 1: collections and only two to three inquiries, um. You know
Speaker 1: over the past couple of years, um. And that could
Speaker 1: be easily attainable, you know, just by hiring your credit
Speaker 1: re scare something and kind of show show you what
Speaker 1: it is you need to do. Even a lot of
Speaker 1: people that I know they have good credit, they don't
Speaker 1: need and know how they've gotten there, especially a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, people from you know, our our older
Speaker 1: generations and things of that nature. So I think it's
Speaker 1: so important to have that literacy behind it because you know,
Speaker 1: it used to be like cash is king, um and
Speaker 1: I still believe that to this day. But hey, if
Speaker 1: you've got good credit, you can keep a lot of
Speaker 1: that cash in your pocket. Um. You know, and if
Speaker 1: if you've got good credit personally, then you can build
Speaker 1: and establish the business credit. UM end up getting a
Speaker 1: lot of things in your business name, and they don't
Speaker 1: have to go on your personal credit report um and
Speaker 1: affect your debt to income ratio. So UM. I think
Speaker 1: it's probably one of the most important things I'm doing
Speaker 1: right now is you know, my credit repair business and
Speaker 1: helping individuals be able to repair their credit because UM,
Speaker 1: a lot of people's financial goals and dreams are based
Speaker 1: are based around having a good credit score. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: it's hard to buy at home if you don't have
Speaker 1: a good good credit you know. UM, it's hard to
Speaker 1: get the dream are that you want if you don't
Speaker 1: have the credit. You know, it's hard to start that
Speaker 1: business if you don't have the credit. So UM, that's
Speaker 1: one of the things that I took courses on and
Speaker 1: did a lot of research. One during the pandemic UM
Speaker 1: and I'm using that information now to be able to
Speaker 1: teach that to other entrepreneurs and just other individuals. You know,
Speaker 1: it was interesting I would tell people for some reason
Speaker 1: when I was eighteen years old, always protected my credit always.
Speaker 1: I was always protective of paying my bills on time. Now,
Speaker 1: when you when somebody comes to you your credit repair service,
Speaker 1: you know they confused. Obviously is messed up. That's obviously
Speaker 1: the case. One of the course of the steps and
Speaker 1: sitting down with a person and getting them pointed in
Speaker 1: the right direction because they have to do something to
Speaker 1: you know, because they wouldn't be sitting in front of
Speaker 1: you if they didn't do it right. Okay, right, Um,
Speaker 1: So one of the first steps for me is number one,
Speaker 1: finding out what their goals are. You know, what are
Speaker 1: your goals for your credit? Because you know, you can
Speaker 1: fix somebody's credit, but you know, if they don't have,
Speaker 1: you know, the right amount of trade lines or the
Speaker 1: right mix of credit, a lot of times it's still
Speaker 1: hard for them to get what it is that they're
Speaker 1: looking to obtain. So the first and foremost thing is
Speaker 1: finding out what their goals are. Um. Secondly, um, it's
Speaker 1: hoping to create a budget for them because as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: there are still some things that they're gonna need to
Speaker 1: do on their own, and they're gonna need to they
Speaker 1: may have to pay some things down or whatever the
Speaker 1: case may be. UM. Third, it's pulling their credit report. UM.
Speaker 1: So getting those three credit reports and seeing exactly where
Speaker 1: it is that they are and what we need to do,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's getting things removed off of their credit,
Speaker 1: whether it's paying some of our credit cards down. I've
Speaker 1: got some people who come with decent credit and they
Speaker 1: just need to know how to UM hide their utilization
Speaker 1: or they need to know how to manufacture they're spending
Speaker 1: UM so that they can get higher credit limits. UM.
Speaker 1: So it's it's a up the different things. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: selling trade lines to individuals, are helping provide them with
Speaker 1: trade lines so that they get more established credit history um.
Speaker 1: You know, to show their potential creditors. So UM it's
Speaker 1: a basic looking at it. And then one thing that
Speaker 1: I offer is a free consultation. So a lot of
Speaker 1: times people will go to credit repair individuals and their
Speaker 1: fixed their credit, but they have no information on how
Speaker 1: to keep that credit score up. UM. And so that's
Speaker 1: one of the things that I teach is just you know,
Speaker 1: how can you keep that credit score up? Um? What
Speaker 1: is it that the credit bureaus and the credit report
Speaker 1: agencies are looking at? How do we get this scoore
Speaker 1: or what is this score comprised stuff? So there's also
Speaker 1: some education that goes behind it as well. Where when
Speaker 1: we were as we wrapped up this call and we
Speaker 1: talk about you know, black people in general trying to
Speaker 1: be mobile. We've we've had the social movement we recognize
Speaker 1: as a credible part of this country and and still
Speaker 1: being demon That is because people don't want to acknowledge
Speaker 1: that there is a problems as a as a black
Speaker 1: business owner in the city of Atlanta. What are the
Speaker 1: advantages that you are achieving and what are the negatives
Speaker 1: that you're still having to overcome? Um. I think some
Speaker 1: of the advantages just being in a black city, of
Speaker 1: black city where when you go down to city hall,
Speaker 1: a lot of those individuals and officials that are making
Speaker 1: decisions look just like you. They're the same color as
Speaker 1: you are. Um, they're here is the same way, etcetera.
Speaker 1: I just think that that is very very helpful and
Speaker 1: very very inspiring, especially coming from a city like Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: You know, I went to high school and college in Nashville, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: originally from Detroit. And so um, I've seen both sides
Speaker 1: to the coin and how difficult it can be when
Speaker 1: you don't live in a black city, UM and you
Speaker 1: don't have the help of you know, city hall and
Speaker 1: various council members and things of that nature. I think
Speaker 1: some of the negatives is just some of the influx
Speaker 1: of prime that we've seen here in Atlanta do to
Speaker 1: covid Um. It definitely was not like this before the pandemic.
Speaker 1: We get a lot of people who moved here from
Speaker 1: other cities, a lot of people who traveled here, you know,
Speaker 1: from other cities, UM to be able to take advantage
Speaker 1: of a lot of the great things that we have
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta. UM. And I think that we definitely
Speaker 1: need that uh revitalization and reconstruction you know, down in
Speaker 1: city Hall. And it starts with you know this this
Speaker 1: mayor race that you know we're gonna have in the
Speaker 1: next four or five months. So UM, I think that
Speaker 1: that's probably one of the biggest negatives. Are really don't
Speaker 1: see too many outside of that. Hey, you know, Atlanta
Speaker 1: is a great city and it's been great to me. So, um,
Speaker 1: can really come up with too many negatives other than
Speaker 1: just some of the things that we're battling now that
Speaker 1: we're due to the pandemic. Absolutely, you know, always fantasy.
Speaker 1: First of all, happened to the smile back? Okay. Secondly,
Speaker 1: I'm finally gonna get to you on your restaurants to
Speaker 1: sit down and eat with you and Dad, because you
Speaker 1: invited me to a couple of testings taste testings that
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to make it. So that's my goal
Speaker 1: this year. Congratulations are always success and I always keep
Speaker 1: me posting and I got a Outum, I always gotta
Speaker 1: have my annual you know, Snoop check in Okay, it's check. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you so much. It was so good to
Speaker 1: see you this morning. Okay, Cool, you stay strong and
Speaker 1: we talked soon, okay, Snoop, alrighty, thank you. You have
Speaker 1: a good one, Okay, Cool. We will be right back
Speaker 1: with more money making conversations with your host Roshan McDonald.
Speaker 1: At ADP, we understand the importance of building the right
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Speaker 1: a forest near you and start exploring. I discover the
Speaker 1: forest dot Org, brought to you by the United States
Speaker 1: Forest Service and the AD Council. And we're live here
Speaker 1: outside the Perez family home, just waiting for the and
Speaker 1: there they go, almost on time. This morning, Mom is
Speaker 1: coming out the front door strong with a double arm
Speaker 1: kid carry. Looks like Dad has the bags. Daughter is
Speaker 1: bringing up the rear. Oh but the diaper bag wasn't closed.
Speaker 1: Diapers and toys are everywhere. Oh but mom has just
Speaker 1: nailed the perfect car seat buckle for the toddler. And
Speaker 1: now the eldest daughter, who looks to be about nine
Speaker 1: or ten, has secured herself in the booster seat. Dad
Speaker 1: SIPs the bad clothes and they're off. Ah, but looks
Speaker 1: like Mom doesn't realize her coffee cup is still on
Speaker 1: the roof of the car and there it goes. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's a shame that mud was a fan favorite. Don't
Speaker 1: sweat the small stuff, just nailed the big stuff, like
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Speaker 1: brought to you by NITZA and the ad Council. You
Speaker 1: are now tuned into the money making conversations. Minute of
Speaker 1: Inspiration with Rashan McDonald. I spoke with Sean Robinson, the
Speaker 1: Emmy Award winning journalists and executive producer who was a
Speaker 1: proud graduate of Spellman College and HBCU in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 1: We discussed how Spellman College shaped her life. You know,
Speaker 1: Spellman gave me an appreciation, a real appreciation for sisterhood
Speaker 1: and also when you empower a girl, she can change
Speaker 1: the world. I would not trade my education at Spellman
Speaker 1: for anything in the world. It just taught us that,
Speaker 1: you know, first of all, taught us the value of
Speaker 1: education and us real connection about our ancestry and where
Speaker 1: we came from, and the fact that it was up
Speaker 1: to us to help change the world for the better
Speaker 1: for all these little black girls coming after us. If
Speaker 1: you want to hear this full interview with Sean Robinson,
Speaker 1: visit money Making Conversations dot com. Keep winning. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversations with your host, Rashan McDonald. My
Speaker 1: next guest is Terry Dennison. She's the Georgia District Director
Speaker 1: of the U s Small Business Administration you know as
Speaker 1: the s b A, and this role has made two
Speaker 1: thousand two. She's responsible overseeing the implementation of the SBA's
Speaker 1: financial counseling, training, and business development program for small business
Speaker 1: throughout Georgia. The SBA is the only cabinet level federal
Speaker 1: agency fully dedicated to small business and provides counseling, capital,
Speaker 1: and contracting expertise as the nation's only go to resource
Speaker 1: and voice for small business. If you're a small business
Speaker 1: own listen up. This is a show you want you
Speaker 1: don't want to miss. She's my friend. Every time I
Speaker 1: get a chance to bring on the show, she drops
Speaker 1: pearls of wisdoms to all entrepreneurs people who want to
Speaker 1: go into the entrepreneurial space. Even in the chaos of
Speaker 1: this situation, small business owners still so opportunities, and she
Speaker 1: was there to help them seize that opportunity. Georgia District
Speaker 1: put process over one billion dollars for traditional sp A
Speaker 1: loans over the past year, despite the challenges of COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: Please work with the money making conversation to Georgia District
Speaker 1: Director of the s p A, Terry Dennison, How are
Speaker 1: you doing, Terry? I'm doing fine. Great to see you again.
Speaker 1: Wait too long? Thank you? You know well, I call
Speaker 1: you my friend. I call you my friend because you
Speaker 1: come on my show and you enlighten people about an
Speaker 1: organization that quite frankly, a lot of people know nothing about.
Speaker 1: And it's true. How do we how do we change that? Because,
Speaker 1: like I said, I learned about it when I opened
Speaker 1: my comedy club way back in the day when I
Speaker 1: was living in Houston, Texas. I went in there. Resources
Speaker 1: were free, Counseling was free. You guys, who are the
Speaker 1: organization of Texas which is just the same like the
Speaker 1: SBA here, we're there to want to want me to
Speaker 1: be successful. If I was opening a nightclub, they will
Speaker 1: tell me you here's a book you can this is
Speaker 1: how you can work out your budget, they had counseling
Speaker 1: and organizations and things like that. So you've been at
Speaker 1: this hym asince two thousand two in the State of
Speaker 1: Georgia talk about the growth and then technology accelerating some
Speaker 1: of the opportunities are working as an entrepreneur with the
Speaker 1: s b A well. Definitely, this past year has really
Speaker 1: tested the idea of connecting with people virtually. It's not
Speaker 1: necessarily in all cases the best option, but it was
Speaker 1: an option that we could use, and I think it
Speaker 1: forced us to cut up our game in terms of
Speaker 1: our technology and the application of that technolog energy to
Speaker 1: reach across the state because our office is responsible for
Speaker 1: the entire state of Georgia and so this is definitely
Speaker 1: a tool that we can use for that. We also
Speaker 1: have a new program that is coming up. It's a
Speaker 1: pilot program under the American Rescue Plan called Community Navigators,
Speaker 1: and that's where we would UH grant to key UH
Speaker 1: community organizations and stakeholders who have networks within the communities
Speaker 1: across the state UH to basically be that liaison between
Speaker 1: US and the small business community UM. Sometimes it's hard
Speaker 1: for us as a federal government agency, being the government
Speaker 1: to UM connect or people feel they can connect to us,
Speaker 1: and this is a way for us to utilize those
Speaker 1: stakeholders that already have a reputation in various communities um
Speaker 1: to be more knowledgeable about us and to help connect
Speaker 1: us to those small business owners existing and uh perspective
Speaker 1: in those communities. Well, you know, you're just really interesting
Speaker 1: you're saying that because let's just use the terminology when
Speaker 1: you when they always talk about the police, they always say,
Speaker 1: if the police would be in the neighborhood, then it
Speaker 1: would be better served for that neighborhood. So it sounds
Speaker 1: like you're taking your the brand, which is a national brand,
Speaker 1: there's also localized in each state, and now you're taking
Speaker 1: it more into the community. Let's let's stay on that
Speaker 1: a minute, because I think that's really uh important. We
Speaker 1: talked about the Community Navigator, which is a program and
Speaker 1: established to provide grants to organizations and local communities that
Speaker 1: help small businesses connect to local sp A resources, and
Speaker 1: that's what we're talking about the very top about. I
Speaker 1: know about the s b A, but a lot of
Speaker 1: people who need to know about the s b A
Speaker 1: know nothing about it. And that's what the Community Navigator
Speaker 1: will be able to help in this role. Correct, That
Speaker 1: is correct now when they serve as a link between
Speaker 1: in these small businesses existing and the startups. Now, let's
Speaker 1: let's talk about if you can walk me through and
Speaker 1: slowers down because we always hear about the opportunities terror
Speaker 1: you always hear about well you know this is available
Speaker 1: to you, but still how do you access it? So
Speaker 1: we have this great community navigated program, how do I
Speaker 1: access that program? Uh? And also I'll be interested in
Speaker 1: knowing how I can be a part of that program.
Speaker 1: It feels like something that my organization of me and
Speaker 1: general should be naturally associated with because I'm always trying
Speaker 1: to be that connected dot with local local businesses and
Speaker 1: that's local businesses, local entrepreneurs and a lot of times
Speaker 1: people need to understand it's not always a brick and mortar.
Speaker 1: You know, entrepreneur has a wide range of opportunities where
Speaker 1: and so don't be confused that you gotta you gotta
Speaker 1: be selling the you gotta be a restaurant, you gotta
Speaker 1: be a mechanics store, or you gotta be a place
Speaker 1: of a full flshed business. You are a business and
Speaker 1: you have to reach certain requirements. Now, this community navigator,
Speaker 1: how long has it been in place theory well as
Speaker 1: actually just was passed back UH in this that would
Speaker 1: be in March when the American Rescue Plan was UH enacted,
Speaker 1: And we're really just getting the program off the ground. Currently,
Speaker 1: the agency is accepting proposals from various organizations what we
Speaker 1: call hubs, which would be like the lead organization, and
Speaker 1: they will be presenting proposals on how they utilize SPOKES
Speaker 1: or other smaller organizations within a certain area. It could
Speaker 1: be nationally, it could be statewide or within a certain
Speaker 1: geographic area says city or county. UM. So that actually
Speaker 1: that application process goes through July was actually extended to
Speaker 1: allow the maximum number of applications to be submitted as possible.
Speaker 1: So we're at the very beginning of ample manating this program, okay.
Speaker 1: And the purpose of the programs we stated earlier is
Speaker 1: kind of creating more a more granular or more localized
Speaker 1: level of communication. It can be somebody in your church,
Speaker 1: it can be people that you walk down the street,
Speaker 1: you hang out with. Basically, then you know that the
Speaker 1: difficulty of being able to relate to the sp A
Speaker 1: isn't as difficult as you think. If you know somebody
Speaker 1: and you feel comfortable with extending the conversation because a
Speaker 1: lot of people feel they just it's just this program
Speaker 1: may beyond their needs and their means because the s
Speaker 1: c b A offers loans and we're gonna break that down.
Speaker 1: But I want to talk about this program is a
Speaker 1: little bit more so through July twenty three. You say,
Speaker 1: individuals can go online at the website. Where can they go?
Speaker 1: They would go to grants dot gov, which is the
Speaker 1: official federal government portal for submitting grant applications. So you
Speaker 1: didn't look up community navigators and grant that. It will
Speaker 1: take you to the page, give you all the updates
Speaker 1: art the request for proposal document and what's being asked
Speaker 1: and of course what documents need to be submitted. Okay, cool, well, good,
Speaker 1: good for your boy. Gonna get on that. Not Terry,
Speaker 1: I'm excited about this opportunity, and so let's talk about
Speaker 1: the National Small Business Week. You know, usually sometimes I'm
Speaker 1: just getting ahead of the curve now, because I've learned
Speaker 1: that if you don't get ahead of the curved terry
Speaker 1: with information, people always say I didn't know, I didn't know,
Speaker 1: Nobody told me. So we know that National Small Business
Speaker 1: we will be celebrating mid September, you know, and no
Speaker 1: wards be given this year, but it would be recognized
Speaker 1: the when I like to call we have been, Uh,
Speaker 1: I've been. I've been. I've been interviewing people from Texas,
Speaker 1: from California, from New York, and I say that I'm
Speaker 1: talking about small business owners and it has been a
Speaker 1: challenge to understand how you can keep your bills on
Speaker 1: the table, your people are employees employed. What has been
Speaker 1: the most trying, um controversy I shouldn't say they word,
Speaker 1: but trying opportunity of trying to keep these businesses afloat
Speaker 1: other than the p PP program a loan programs. Terry Well,
Speaker 1: I think even before we get to the money aspect,
Speaker 1: one of the biggest challenges is that was you know,
Speaker 1: people's business models, and if you had a business model
Speaker 1: that was dependent upon people coming into a location or
Speaker 1: you interacted with them face to face. UM, now you've
Speaker 1: got to change that dynamic because of the restrictions, you know,
Speaker 1: the social distancing and business is actually being closed for
Speaker 1: a time and then once they reopened, they had to
Speaker 1: meet certain guidelines, uh for safety and health purposes. So
Speaker 1: a lot of businesses were just trying to figure out
Speaker 1: how do I now deliver my good or my service
Speaker 1: in a way that I had not envisioned originally or
Speaker 1: normally we would not h people had to rethink things like, uh,
Speaker 1: there's supply the supply chain, because even if I'm operating
Speaker 1: to some degree, now the suppliers that help provide the
Speaker 1: good or service that I'm delivering, those have been disrupted
Speaker 1: as well. And now we've got to try to figure
Speaker 1: out how do we get what we need to keep
Speaker 1: the business going. So I really my hand my hats
Speaker 1: off to our resource partners such as SCORE in the
Speaker 1: Small Business Development Centers and the Women Business Centers, who
Speaker 1: have really helped the Georgia District Office in working with businesses,
Speaker 1: not only in terms of accessing the various resources UH
Speaker 1: with p PP and the Economic Injury disaster loans, etcetera,
Speaker 1: but helping people figure out how to manage and structure
Speaker 1: their organizations and their operations to meet the challenges of
Speaker 1: the situation. Well, you know, and you never know where
Speaker 1: the challenge comes from or whether whether because I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you when the Panama Command when that that ship
Speaker 1: got trapped and just I, um, it affected me personally
Speaker 1: because I I take cows and pills and I went
Speaker 1: into Walry when the CVS and I was like, finally,
Speaker 1: I said, excuse me, what's going on? Easier man? He said,
Speaker 1: that ship there's blocking the Panama Canal is shutting down
Speaker 1: all available transport between that canal. And so that's what
Speaker 1: we just need to know. This may be in the
Speaker 1: COVID name team, but there are other scenarios out there
Speaker 1: that can stop you from becoming a resourceful company if
Speaker 1: you don't plan ahead or you don't have alternative sources
Speaker 1: to move your product forward. That's what you were talking about, right, Terry. Correct.
Speaker 1: And one of the things, you know, we talk about
Speaker 1: business plans. Of course, a lot of people don't bother
Speaker 1: with business plans, which, of course that's another discussion why
Speaker 1: you should do one. But even when they do the
Speaker 1: business plan, they kind of focus on the maybe the
Speaker 1: most likely scenario or the best case scenario, But we
Speaker 1: never look at the other end of the spectrum. What
Speaker 1: if things don't go according to plan? You know, what
Speaker 1: if my UH supply chain and delivery systems are compromised
Speaker 1: because of a given situation or emergency. Um, what if
Speaker 1: my revenues go down, Uh, what does that look like
Speaker 1: in terms of my bottom line or my expenses go up?
Speaker 1: You know with COVID nineteen people now I had to
Speaker 1: think about additional cleaning, you know, methods, more frequent cleaning,
Speaker 1: Certain types of equipment they had to think about ppe
Speaker 1: of course, personal protection equipment. That was extra expenses they
Speaker 1: had not envisioned, uh, prior to the pandemic. So when
Speaker 1: you're doing business plan and you really got to look
Speaker 1: at the full range of possibilities and have at least
Speaker 1: an outline of a game plan on how you can
Speaker 1: counter or mitigate some of those situations when they occur. Well,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the budget. It seems to be nobody
Speaker 1: wants to do a budget, but everybody wants to run
Speaker 1: a business. How can we convince people? Terry, come on,
Speaker 1: help me, I tell you this. A budget. You got
Speaker 1: to know what your expenses are, not just how much
Speaker 1: you're trying to generate. That there has to be a
Speaker 1: plan special If we're not talking about a one off party,
Speaker 1: one off party, you probably get away with that. If
Speaker 1: you're trying to do sign elites with somebody, if you're
Speaker 1: trying to lockdown employees, if you're trying to generate revenue
Speaker 1: on a consistent daily, weekly, and monthly and annual basis,
Speaker 1: there has to be a budget tied to that and
Speaker 1: that's where the SCORE organization, which is part of s
Speaker 1: p A, can assist young, old or people who are
Speaker 1: trying to follow their dreams with the budget planning part. Correct, Terry, Yes,
Speaker 1: we have SCORE that can help with that. The Small
Speaker 1: Business Development Centers we partner here with the University of
Speaker 1: Georgia have numerous locations around the state, as does SCORE.
Speaker 1: We have a Women's Business Center that can provide assistance
Speaker 1: UH for women entrepreneurs particularly, but they insisted the mail
Speaker 1: owned businesses as well. But there's a lot of different
Speaker 1: resources and expertise that can sit down with you and
Speaker 1: kind of help you work through those types of questions
Speaker 1: and issues. And the counseling is free. Say that one
Speaker 1: the counselors right now, the counsel you do not have
Speaker 1: to pay for the counselor, but in a way you
Speaker 1: have because as a taxpayer, your tax dollars go to
Speaker 1: help under right, SCORE and the small Development Centers, Women's
Speaker 1: business Centers, etcetera. So you're just recouping on the investment
Speaker 1: you've made as a taxpayer. Really, and and here's is
Speaker 1: never packed. It's people are in there, but it's never
Speaker 1: like a line out the door. So you will not
Speaker 1: be discouraged by going in there, and then they're receptive
Speaker 1: to you. I'm just talking about my experience, right, you know.
Speaker 1: I I have a relationship and in Texas, have a
Speaker 1: relationship in Georgia with the s b A. And I'm
Speaker 1: fans of trying to tell people how important it is.
Speaker 1: It was a young man, uh and his brother, Uh,
Speaker 1: we're looking at opening up a local restaurant. Look kind
Speaker 1: of like a subway type set up, you know, but
Speaker 1: it was original food. And I asked him it was
Speaker 1: like three weeks ago, Terry, I said, uh, he kept
Speaker 1: asking me questions. I said, you gotta put together. But
Speaker 1: I got there, sir, he said. I said, well, you
Speaker 1: need to get a design layout, because you really can't
Speaker 1: get a layout of before they're working. I said, have
Speaker 1: you been to the SPA? He went, what you're talking about?
Speaker 1: I said, wow, okay, cool, here we go. Here we go.
Speaker 1: Now you gotta go there because it's free and you
Speaker 1: gotta start talking. And they have mentors. There's like mentors.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling everybody there's being like mentoring. They're mentoring
Speaker 1: young businesses to be successful. Because the goal is the
Speaker 1: current administration has a new goal to increase small disadvantaged
Speaker 1: business contracting goals from five to fifteen percent. Okay, this
Speaker 1: is an initiative to empower underserved communities. Now you might
Speaker 1: say I'm not underserved. Well, if you don't know any
Speaker 1: information about how to run your business, you are underserved
Speaker 1: and you need to gain information. And that's what this
Speaker 1: BA is about. Talk about what I just said about
Speaker 1: increasing the goal of disadvantages business contracting goals from five
Speaker 1: percent to fift because what I'm just trying to tell everybody, Terry,
Speaker 1: is that you are on a mission. You've always been
Speaker 1: on a mission, and your mission and your organization is
Speaker 1: to really tell minorities and invite them into this diverse
Speaker 1: pool of entrepreneurial opportunities. Correct, yes, that is correct and
Speaker 1: um with in terms of the small disadvantaged business though,
Speaker 1: you know, the federal government buys a lot of products
Speaker 1: and services and a year, uh, we spend government wide
Speaker 1: five hundred billion, six hundred billion dollars and goods and
Speaker 1: services throughout the federal various federal agencies. So there's a
Speaker 1: lot of opportunity things that you wouldn't necessarily think of
Speaker 1: the government purchasing, you know, at first thought, you realize
Speaker 1: they do. So it's always been a goal. How do
Speaker 1: we make sure that all segments of the small business community,
Speaker 1: as well as the small business community as a whole,
Speaker 1: right from uh participating in the federal procurement system. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we do have programs and tools to help people
Speaker 1: who are looking to enter the federal contracting market or
Speaker 1: to expand their presence and activity in that market. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, it's really it's really amazing. When I talked
Speaker 1: to you, Terry, you know some ways that you know,
Speaker 1: you know, you know me, I can get frustrated because
Speaker 1: I just want to give information. I want people to win.
Speaker 1: And I'm talking to If you don't know who I'm
Speaker 1: talking to, Terry Dennison. She's a Georgia District director of
Speaker 1: the US Small Business Administration you know it as you
Speaker 1: know it as the s b A. She's been in
Speaker 1: the roles has made two thousand two when I came in,
Speaker 1: and is marketing with money Making Conversation. She's one of
Speaker 1: the very first guests that I brought on the air
Speaker 1: and when and and it really and our reason. That's
Speaker 1: what money making conversations about. It is about letting you
Speaker 1: see and talking to I call industry decision makers. That's
Speaker 1: what she is. Yeah, she's not a celebrity, she's not.
Speaker 1: She's an industry decision maker. When of words, she can
Speaker 1: give you information that can change your life. And when
Speaker 1: I say change your life, we're talking about so many
Speaker 1: people who are trying to open up businesses and trying
Speaker 1: to run a business and have no knowledge of that opportunity.
Speaker 1: And so tell us the primary role of the s
Speaker 1: b A. And I'm gonna ask a couple of more
Speaker 1: questions before I let you get you out of here. Okay, Oh,
Speaker 1: what is our role? Okay? Well, of course we're a
Speaker 1: federal government agency. A lot of people don't realize that.
Speaker 1: They think we're a nonprofit corganization, But we are part
Speaker 1: of the federal government and we've been around since nineteen three,
Speaker 1: and our mission has always been to support the U.
Speaker 1: S economy through supporting small business in terms of small
Speaker 1: business creation and uh uh growth. We do that in
Speaker 1: a variety of ways. We have our loan programs, mainly
Speaker 1: our loan guaranteed programs, where we guarantee loans made by
Speaker 1: commercial lenders. We also have a micro loan program for
Speaker 1: those UH and UH businesses that maybe their home based
Speaker 1: or as a sole preneurs. They don't need a lot
Speaker 1: of capital, they don't need millions of dollars, but they
Speaker 1: need what they need when they need it, so they
Speaker 1: provide loans up to UH fifty dollars and those are
Speaker 1: done by nonprofit community development financial institutions, so they may
Speaker 1: have a they have a little more leeway in terms
Speaker 1: of how they look at credit compared to a commercial lender.
Speaker 1: For profit UH. We've talked about the counseling and education
Speaker 1: resources that we have for people who are got an
Speaker 1: idea and don't know what the next step should be.
Speaker 1: To someone who's been in business, they've gone through the
Speaker 1: start up stage. Now maybe they have new challenges, new
Speaker 1: opportunities because of their growth, and now they need to
Speaker 1: prepare and situate that business to be able to enter
Speaker 1: the new stage of that business life cycle. And then
Speaker 1: the government contracting peace which we alluded to earlier, to
Speaker 1: help small businesses that want to enter that market from
Speaker 1: five percent up to now before one area I wanted.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things that were created during COVID
Speaker 1: nat pandemic. The SBA delivered various relief programs. I want
Speaker 1: to ask you if these programs not trying to put
Speaker 1: your bot. If you unaware of the UH, please let
Speaker 1: me know. But I wonder know if they're still in existed.
Speaker 1: If they are still in existence, what purpose do they serve.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start off with their Paycheck Protection Program program
Speaker 1: that I used UH in the month of May UH
Speaker 1: to help pay my staff when the country was shut down.
Speaker 1: So talk about their payroll Protection program. Is that's still
Speaker 1: available and where how is it serving a purpose now
Speaker 1: that the country's opening back up. Well, actually, the Paycheck
Speaker 1: Protection Program or p p P sunset on. It's sunset
Speaker 1: it on May thirty one. Okay, so uh, SBA no
Speaker 1: longer took applications from participating lenders and we've actually cleaned
Speaker 1: out the backlog of applications and it's totally shut down
Speaker 1: as of June thirty Okay, cool, Great. What about the
Speaker 1: Restaurant Revitalization Fund program? Is that still available? Actually? That
Speaker 1: is not UH. It was a case of a lot
Speaker 1: of demand versus what was allocated for the program. Twenty
Speaker 1: point six minute excuse me, billion was allocated for the program.
Speaker 1: We received applications nationwide totally around seventy billion, so that
Speaker 1: money went pretty quickly. So currently the program is closed,
Speaker 1: and I know there's been some discussion of maybe Congress
Speaker 1: providing more funds and we'll just have to wait and
Speaker 1: see about that, but it is closed as of now.
Speaker 1: So basically letting everybody know that the country is coming
Speaker 1: back to normal. The supports system that you may have
Speaker 1: experienced or may have been a part of previously during
Speaker 1: the COVID of has changed, but you do have programs,
Speaker 1: new online programs and learning coaching platforms like the Ascent
Speaker 1: for Women business Owners. That is that new or that's
Speaker 1: something that that's been around it I'm just made aware
Speaker 1: of through this interview. No, it's relatively new. It launched
Speaker 1: back in January of this year. It had been several
Speaker 1: years in the making, but it was really created to
Speaker 1: help women owned businesses who have gone through the start
Speaker 1: up phase and now they're in a position or considering scaling.
Speaker 1: That's been one of the biggest challenges I think the
Speaker 1: women owned businesses and probably other underserved communities as well.
Speaker 1: You know, when we're may be able to get the
Speaker 1: business started, but it remains basically a self employment. Awesome.
Speaker 1: I want to wrap so this is about how you
Speaker 1: get to that next stage, especially if you have the
Speaker 1: market and the product of service that iscalable. And I
Speaker 1: want to just close out by bringing up the Community
Speaker 1: Navigator's program again, which I'm very excited about. You said,
Speaker 1: just go to if it's available on grant dot gov. Right,
Speaker 1: if you go there and this isn't this is an
Speaker 1: RFP type or response to this if you want to
Speaker 1: be a part of being considered for this in the
Speaker 1: state of Georgia only correct. Well, actually it's nationwide. Okay, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: it's nationwide, so they're looking to give rewards out across
Speaker 1: the country. Uh. What I would say is, once again,
Speaker 1: it's for organizations, so nonprofit entities, government entities that uh
Speaker 1: or you know, provide technical assistance to small businesses. So
Speaker 1: it's not to finance small businesses themselves. Okay, cool. And
Speaker 1: I want to clear so the Community Navigator has to
Speaker 1: be a nonprofit that is correct, Okay, cool? Great. I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that everybody understood that. Again. Terry
Speaker 1: Denison thank you for coming on my show. You've been
Speaker 1: fantastic as usual. Like I said, when I go live
Speaker 1: with on w c OK in the fall, I want
Speaker 1: to bring you back and we celebrate and take some
Speaker 1: phone calls to the properly screen of course, to talk
Speaker 1: about how we can move forward and continue to grow
Speaker 1: entrepreneur especially in disadvantaged ofhoods, especially in minority community, because
Speaker 1: my goal, my passion is to let everybody know that
Speaker 1: sp A is there for you. As she clearly stated,
Speaker 1: it's your money. Your money is being spent. That's why,
Speaker 1: that's why our scorer is there, That's why all these
Speaker 1: organizations are there. So why not use resources that you've
Speaker 1: already paid for. Thank you again, Terrynion Dennison for coming
Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversations. It's been a pleasure. I look
Speaker 1: forward to seeing you again. Okay, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: We will be right back with more Money Making Conversations
Speaker 1: with your hosts ros Sean McDonald. Adoption of teams from
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Speaker 1: You are now tuned into the money making conversations. Minute
Speaker 1: of Inspiration with Rashan McDonald Molly Music is a Grammy
Speaker 1: Award winning musician, songwriting and producer. He is an artist
Speaker 1: first and foremost, but he will not be put in
Speaker 1: the box. He loves the freedom of creating amazing music
Speaker 1: no matter whether it's gospel, R and B, hip hop
Speaker 1: or rock. You open up the doors to be heard
Speaker 1: out by different races. Then it gets uncomfortable for just
Speaker 1: because you start bringing out different issues. I recently traveled
Speaker 1: to Nashville to do some song writing Chad Lee saying
Speaker 1: Christian rock band Unspoken, and it was a challenge for me,
Speaker 1: especially coming from soul background gospel background, but I had
Speaker 1: to remember I have songs that have rock feels for it,
Speaker 1: so man, the spreading and the falling of the genres,
Speaker 1: it's definitely good. I've been watching it happen to hip
Speaker 1: hop and other genres for a long time, and I'm
Speaker 1: glad that it's finally made it to the gospel. If
Speaker 1: you want to hear the full interview with Model Music,
Speaker 1: it's available on money Making Conversations dot com. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversations with your host, Rashaan McDonald. My
Speaker 1: next guest is Philip Ashley Rex. Philip Actually Chocolates is
Speaker 1: one of the world's pre pre eminent they were right there,
Speaker 1: pre eminent ships and designers of luxury chocolate. He is
Speaker 1: an award when the chocolate Chocolate Tour. Is that that
Speaker 1: just that correct, Philip Chocolate Tour. Yeah. Founding in Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: That's right up, I mean Atlantis. That's just a little
Speaker 1: bit up. No, you know, we all know about the barbecue.
Speaker 1: We know about that hot chicken in Memphis. Now you're
Speaker 1: about to find out by Philip Astley Chocks in twenty two.
Speaker 1: That's when it all start. The brand has an international
Speaker 1: following and is retained by high profile clients, top corporations
Speaker 1: and major events to offer premium gifts. And we all
Speaker 1: know about the COVID nineteen pandemic shut down this country. Well,
Speaker 1: in February twenty prior to the code COVID shutting down
Speaker 1: a company, he had a lot of major eights on it.
Speaker 1: He was on the Food Networks Chop Sweet to the
Speaker 1: Finals and then in November that same year Oprah's Favorite
Speaker 1: Things to Listen to, buy the book to putting your
Speaker 1: Gifts for Christmas for whatever you wanted to do. Philip
Speaker 1: is also known for his branding and marketing expertise that
Speaker 1: checked this out. In twenty one, he found an Uncommon
Speaker 1: Hospitality Group, a real estate development company focused on driving imagination, innovation,
Speaker 1: and impact in the mixed used commercial real estate space.
Speaker 1: Please welcome to the show. An innovator. I want to
Speaker 1: I wanna call him an instigator because he got chocolate,
Speaker 1: you know, but he looks like my little twin brother.
Speaker 1: But believe for the show, Philip. Actually Rex, how you doing, Philip?
Speaker 1: How you doing? Thanks for having me? You know a
Speaker 1: good looking guys. So I got I got throw that
Speaker 1: that right now. You know, I got the big got
Speaker 1: the glasses so so. But you clean every every week,
Speaker 1: every week, and people don't understand, you know women. Women
Speaker 1: was like like, it's hard, looking like us, it's hard.
Speaker 1: You gotta keep you gotta maintain this. This is a
Speaker 1: weekly process. I go to the barber, get us straight
Speaker 1: right every Saturday morning. So you know. That's why I
Speaker 1: just want to let everybody know because I got an
Speaker 1: identical looking guy on the phone on video on my
Speaker 1: on my talk show today. It looks like me. I
Speaker 1: put in the work every day to just get up.
Speaker 1: I wish I could just walk out of that door, Philip.
Speaker 1: But people were like, I'm broke. They were looking like
Speaker 1: I'm sick. They won't ask me what's wrong? All those things?
Speaker 1: So you are a brand, correct fellow, Yes, sir, yes, sir.
Speaker 1: And and like you said, they think that you know
Speaker 1: everything takes you know, curation management, you know. So like
Speaker 1: I said, if we I don't have hair, you don't
Speaker 1: have but that there's a process, you know, because you
Speaker 1: can you come out there with a little scattered half,
Speaker 1: people act like what's wrong man? What you do? You
Speaker 1: have time? You have time. So because we just started
Speaker 1: out like that talking about image, talking about brands, talking
Speaker 1: about because that's part of what you are pursued about
Speaker 1: marketing and branding, and a lot of people throw those
Speaker 1: words out because you hear, but what's my because you're
Speaker 1: branding a lot and some people just saying they don't
Speaker 1: even know what that means. And then because sometimes they
Speaker 1: put the word branding. They're marketing together, thinking it's all
Speaker 1: one world, and that's not true. You know, brand, you develop.
Speaker 1: Marketing is what you do to get the word out
Speaker 1: about your brain. So talking about being one of the
Speaker 1: sought off most sought off people in that area, and
Speaker 1: how did that really start launching your own brand? How
Speaker 1: did that manifest itself into your brand? Philip? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: really it started two thousand seven. I was living in
Speaker 1: Baltimore at the time, living in Baltimore, working in Corporate America. Uh,
Speaker 1: three o'clock in the morning, woke up from the dream.
Speaker 1: It was like, Okay, I'm gonna be a chocolate teer
Speaker 1: for the rest of my life and make chocolate for
Speaker 1: a living. And and that's literally how it happened. Uh.
Speaker 1: And from there it just became an obsession. You know.
Speaker 1: I was already in the consumer packaged goods industry, moving product,
Speaker 1: working with companies and individuals. Uh. And I've been cooking
Speaker 1: for a long time. I was I started learning how
Speaker 1: to cook for my grandmother at five and so I
Speaker 1: was always a really good cook. But you know, so
Speaker 1: a lot of things kind of fell into place, ended up,
Speaker 1: you know, pursuing chocolate and so I spent the better
Speaker 1: part of five years, the first three in particular, teaching
Speaker 1: myself about chocolate, learning everything about food. You know, how
Speaker 1: do you taste? Uh, you know, the zones of the palette,
Speaker 1: studying herbs, spices, proteins, you name it. And then you know,
Speaker 1: my main goal was to recreate that stick of gum
Speaker 1: from Willy Wonka. I was always fascinated with that story, um,
Speaker 1: and particularly that concept where he had the roast beef,
Speaker 1: the blueberry pie uh, and the potatoes in one thing.
Speaker 1: You know, It's like, I want to do that in
Speaker 1: real life. Uh. And so subsequently, that's what we've become
Speaker 1: known for in putting blue cheese and chocolate one of
Speaker 1: our our most popular flavor. One we've won a Good
Speaker 1: Food Awards, which is kind of like a Grammys for food. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's the thing is our French blue
Speaker 1: cheese chocolate calls some boy. Uh. And you know we've
Speaker 1: won awards for a number of chocolate, barbecue, chocolate, sweet
Speaker 1: potato chocolates, you know, chocolates that really tell stories. And
Speaker 1: so you know, what does your show takes like? And
Speaker 1: so we create something that has your person out with
Speaker 1: your DNA, your favorite foods, your favorite colors, and we
Speaker 1: kind of create and craft and extract the flavor and
Speaker 1: turn it into a bon bon well, you know we
Speaker 1: we always um you know, sweech grabs anybody's attention, you
Speaker 1: know their palate, as they say. And chocolate is also
Speaker 1: you know that that version. My wife loves chocolate. She
Speaker 1: but but there's a different chocolate. You don't have to do.
Speaker 1: And because you're gonna educate me here a little bit, Philip, okay,
Speaker 1: because you have your premium chocolate, like my my favorite
Speaker 1: premium chocolate candy is turtles. Okay, I love those. Now,
Speaker 1: by the way, I went to your website now and
Speaker 1: ye out of turtles. So I was mad at you, Philip,
Speaker 1: because I like that that we just hearted back all
Speaker 1: the day. So because because because when I try to do, Philip,
Speaker 1: when I interviewed somebody like you have food, I always
Speaker 1: like to test your product and trust the whole system.
Speaker 1: How does it work? So I go online and order
Speaker 1: and I said, okay, it came. I got notified K shoes,
Speaker 1: and because that lets me know where they staying as
Speaker 1: far as trying to get the product to the customer.
Speaker 1: Because we're coming on my show, money making conversation. I
Speaker 1: get assists of who you are, and so I went
Speaker 1: on there and I said, so turtle, oh May out
Speaker 1: of turtles because that's my favorite man. So so you
Speaker 1: you have something on the way, So we will be
Speaker 1: very I'll be very happy and I'll be posting it
Speaker 1: on my social media to me eating that you're through
Speaker 1: Philip Ashley chocolate turtles, because tell us why what is
Speaker 1: between me just grabbing something off the shelf and let
Speaker 1: me just know, not just being derogatory like a Snickers
Speaker 1: ball has chocolate it around it U or anything like
Speaker 1: that versus your premium chocolates that you serve. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that's a great question. We what we really focus on,
Speaker 1: like I said, is that storytelling element. And so it's
Speaker 1: not just chocolate or a box of candy. It really
Speaker 1: is an experience. You know, where else are you gonna
Speaker 1: find a chocolate that has sweet potato in it or particular?
Speaker 1: We have chocolates that are a collar green and corn
Speaker 1: bread chocolate that tastes good and tastes like the things
Speaker 1: that we say are in it, and so you know,
Speaker 1: truly handcrafted, like we are in here in Memphis. I'm
Speaker 1: in my chocolate factory, the two point o version of it. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we make everything by hand. I'm sourcing the best ingredients.
Speaker 1: We're constantly scouring the earth for the best cocoa beans
Speaker 1: out of Ghana, out of coach before you know, where
Speaker 1: can we get the best strawberries from? Whose farm do
Speaker 1: we need to go to? Um? You know, it's just
Speaker 1: always in this constant, perpetual state of daydreaming new flavors
Speaker 1: and new ideas and then how do we bring those
Speaker 1: to fruition uh in the chocolate and and so that's
Speaker 1: what you're getting. Different from your standard variety chocolate on
Speaker 1: the shelf, you know, we we have chocolate something else
Speaker 1: that's on its way to you. We do a collection
Speaker 1: for Uncle Nears, which is a premium whiskey, the amazing
Speaker 1: whiskey makers. That distillery is here in Tennessee, not too
Speaker 1: far from us, just out of side of Nashville. And
Speaker 1: so we have an entire collection that captures the whiskey
Speaker 1: as they have, but not just that. We didn't just
Speaker 1: throw whiskey in the chocolate. We said, okay, what's the
Speaker 1: story of Uncle Nears, what's the story of Lincoln County
Speaker 1: and the process that differentiates Tennessee whiskey from bourbon. How
Speaker 1: do we convey that through a bond? Bond? And so
Speaker 1: that's really what you're getting now. When when we talked
Speaker 1: about you, you based in Memphis, Tennessee. Like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: barbecue chicken, you know, the little ducks, you know music,
Speaker 1: and then you the chocolate tier. Now you said you
Speaker 1: was in Boston. You know two thousand seven, he was
Speaker 1: in Boston. Now you're down in um Memphis. What made
Speaker 1: what inspired you to go in this direction? Other than
Speaker 1: the fact it was a passion, It was carried off
Speaker 1: from a childhood dream Willie Wonker. Because a lot of
Speaker 1: people a doubt you. A lot of people tell you, man,
Speaker 1: you know that you need to be making a soul
Speaker 1: food restaurants, something that people gonna buy a lot of,
Speaker 1: because people don't conceptualize this business. Like I always tell people.
Speaker 1: People understand the ninety five when I left my job
Speaker 1: to tell people I wanted to be a stand up comic,
Speaker 1: they went, how are you gonna make money? Well, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: I couldn't really tell you either, but I knew this
Speaker 1: is what I wanted to do for my life, my dream.
Speaker 1: And so when you made the decision to do what
Speaker 1: you had to do. There was a lot of doubts
Speaker 1: talk about walking through that process and then when he
Speaker 1: started clicking for you professionally, Yeah, and I believe you
Speaker 1: can attest this. I think when when you really are
Speaker 1: driven by you know, purpose, passion, in a in a
Speaker 1: real desire like you said with comedy, you know, and
Speaker 1: you've obviously learned this that you know that's gonna make
Speaker 1: way for you and make room for you, particularly when
Speaker 1: you're you know, You're like, I was just driven, like
Speaker 1: I couldn't do anything else if I wasn't doing this essentially,
Speaker 1: and I can do a lot of other things just
Speaker 1: by the means of survival so to speak, but you know,
Speaker 1: to truly live. And it didn't matter about struggling or
Speaker 1: not struggling, you know. It was like, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: something that I have to do. Uh and and so
Speaker 1: through again, you know, and I've always just been different
Speaker 1: and I learned real early. I think, like my sophomore
Speaker 1: year in college, I was working a part time job
Speaker 1: at a call center, and I knew then that entrepreneurship
Speaker 1: was the way I was going. And again and I'm
Speaker 1: I never I'm always and for and understand the need
Speaker 1: for nine to five. Heck, we have people that work
Speaker 1: for us, you know, and that's we love our employees.
Speaker 1: Were working well and hard for them to make sure
Speaker 1: that they make a living wage and all of that.
Speaker 1: But I knew for me personally, I wanted to be
Speaker 1: the employer. And then I wanted to create something through
Speaker 1: the talent and then in the imagination and the gifts
Speaker 1: um that I've been fortunate to be blessed with and
Speaker 1: and chocolate again was that medium. And like I said,
Speaker 1: you know, their writers, their directors, there's actors, there's all
Speaker 1: sorts of storytellers. And I've always been fascinated by the
Speaker 1: storyteller world, play rights, etcetera, etcetera. You know, just growing up.
Speaker 1: You know, I've written plays in school and all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff. And I was like, you know, but I
Speaker 1: wanted to marry three things, you know, my passion for storytelling,
Speaker 1: my love of food, and in my deep interest, uh
Speaker 1: in the consumer package goods industry. And I understood very
Speaker 1: early on that creating a product, in being able to
Speaker 1: move product across the supply chain, and then creating a
Speaker 1: sustainable one is where it's at. Uh, and so I
Speaker 1: wanted to bring those three things together. Now, in bringing
Speaker 1: those things together, two things that happened to you in
Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna break it apart. One was the
Speaker 1: parents on Food Network, the competition and then Oprah's Favorite
Speaker 1: Things List. Now me if I was your manager, sir,
Speaker 1: and I go, okay, you you have a popular brand
Speaker 1: out there. Why would you go on a competition show
Speaker 1: where if you don't win, you know, you considered a loser. Okay,
Speaker 1: So you made the finalist Food Network? Hey, we know
Speaker 1: I watched the Food Network all time. I know who
Speaker 1: you are, Okay because I saw your Food Network Okay, Chops,
Speaker 1: which one of my favorite show. So when you start
Speaker 1: that's the part of the brand. We're talking about your marketing,
Speaker 1: your branding. Okay. So when you made that decision, what
Speaker 1: was the idea and the concept? Because it was about money,
Speaker 1: So what was it about? Well, just a general spirit
Speaker 1: of competition. You know, I wanted to go on what
Speaker 1: what I feel like, it's a big stage for food
Speaker 1: and for for chefs and compete. You know, I played
Speaker 1: sports and it's rare nowadays that we actually have a
Speaker 1: chance to at least for me to to compete against
Speaker 1: others and in in a true arena, so to speak.
Speaker 1: And so I thought that was fun. Then of course
Speaker 1: it's Food Network. I mean love Food Network. Grew up
Speaker 1: watching it, always been around it, you know, particularly at
Speaker 1: you know, at its hype. Uh And so chip was
Speaker 1: a has definitely been a favorite of mine. And so
Speaker 1: when they came out with the sweet version, I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course I want to do it, you know, I
Speaker 1: do the regular one. So the original so um that
Speaker 1: was that was really the thought process behind net um.
Speaker 1: You know, Losing or not finishing was never entered my mind. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and I even think you know, and and
Speaker 1: my friend Ambercroom, who I know, uh so, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: she did a fantastic job. You know. Of course the
Speaker 1: competition or the competitor in me is like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: should have won the same time a great job as well.
Speaker 1: You know, she's very talent, Amber, I know it very well.
Speaker 1: Uh and so so so that, but what did it
Speaker 1: do it far as your popularity? Did he bring, visual recognition?
Speaker 1: Did it bring did it bringe sales to your brand?
Speaker 1: News articles of course, especially in the market of Memphis,
Speaker 1: talk about that part of the the the blessing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was definitely one of those things, you know, continue
Speaker 1: to seek national uh acclaimed visibility, which leads to growth,
Speaker 1: and that was the real motivation behind it. This is
Speaker 1: a large stage where I get to showcase not only
Speaker 1: my talent, but talk about my brand, my business uh
Speaker 1: and my product uh and and on in a um
Speaker 1: media or on a medium that put us in front
Speaker 1: of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people
Speaker 1: viewers around the country and even the world. And so
Speaker 1: you know, we we ship internationally and so you know,
Speaker 1: I've always been thinking beyond the four walls of Memphis,
Speaker 1: you know, and and that's really the main thing. And
Speaker 1: like I said, my goal was to uh you know
Speaker 1: when of course, but if not when have a good showing.
Speaker 1: And I felt like that would would know who we
Speaker 1: were and what we do here. Absolutely, you you've accomplisated,
Speaker 1: like because you came on my radar. You came on
Speaker 1: my radar. And so so now we're talking to Philip
Speaker 1: all you know, he's defied in CEO of Philip Ashley Chocolates.
Speaker 1: Now that's fast forward to November that you know, Oprah's
Speaker 1: favorite things. That's a definitely different conversation. Now, you know
Speaker 1: the beauty of life man, Oprah. There's two black people
Speaker 1: in America that you always want to be associated with. Tyler.
Speaker 1: If Tyler peer call you and me, you got acting job.
Speaker 1: If Oprah call you and me, she likes something you're doing. Okay,
Speaker 1: In this case, o people call you contact you said, hey, man,
Speaker 1: you're chocolates. What was your reaction to that man and
Speaker 1: what did you do to capitalize on that opportunity she
Speaker 1: gave you to be on that list? Yeah? Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, I was just grateful and and and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm all about, you know, setting goals, creating a vision,
Speaker 1: working to manifest it, and you know, and a lot
Speaker 1: of it is, you know, timing opportunity, um favorite look,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I said eight years ago when I found the coming Man,
Speaker 1: we should be one of Oprah's favorite things. Clearly we
Speaker 1: weren't ready then, even when we got the call, which
Speaker 1: would have been this time last year, when we got
Speaker 1: the original call saying hey, we're looking at you, uh,
Speaker 1: and then when we months later when we got the
Speaker 1: final hey, you know you're one of them and we
Speaker 1: want the perfect turtle Uh that product and we make
Speaker 1: a really good turtle. I think you'll enjoy it. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so it was a huge thing. Of course, it's oprah,
Speaker 1: you know, the amount of attention. UM. Of course we
Speaker 1: had to also contend with the pandemic. So uh in
Speaker 1: a year where one of the biggest things that could
Speaker 1: happen to us, the world is essentially um on hold
Speaker 1: and you know, all the things that all the challenges
Speaker 1: that came with that, I'll tell you was you know,
Speaker 1: but ultimately that it was a great opportunity, huge momentum
Speaker 1: generated behind that, which put us again on an even bigger,
Speaker 1: more national and international stage than Food Network. UH. And
Speaker 1: then that led to other opportunities and other visibility UM.
Speaker 1: You know, and we also I'll tell you we had
Speaker 1: some some mighty challenges um navigating uh that world because
Speaker 1: as you know, growing growing really really quickly is difficult.
Speaker 1: UH it's even harder when you know, again not to
Speaker 1: make excuses, but the pandemic created challenges that you know,
Speaker 1: we I had to figure creative ways around and so
Speaker 1: uh dealing with backlog, dealing with uh, you know, only
Speaker 1: being able to have so many people uh in in
Speaker 1: an area for so long that kind of thing. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, so it was tough, but I'll tell you what,
Speaker 1: it definitely taught me a lot, not only about myself,
Speaker 1: but how I see the business, how I operate. And
Speaker 1: we've been making some incredible enhancements to our operations to
Speaker 1: increase production, to um communicate with our customers more efficiently
Speaker 1: and effectively, and really again just make the experience from
Speaker 1: start to finish that much more favorable, uh and and
Speaker 1: more enjoyable. So ultimately, I'm super grateful that she found us,
Speaker 1: even with the challenges that came our way and the
Speaker 1: things that we have to navigate. You know, I think
Speaker 1: you learned the most kind of things like that. You know,
Speaker 1: if it were just, oh, you know, over called us up.
Speaker 1: You know, we saw and we did well in sales.
Speaker 1: But also if there was no challenge behind it or
Speaker 1: nothing that really pushed me. I mean you may we
Speaker 1: may not be talking and it would just be like
Speaker 1: another thing, you know what I mean. Well, you know
Speaker 1: the thing about it, I think from a standpoint of
Speaker 1: we all know how minority business, of business of color
Speaker 1: and African or were impacted by COVID. But the blessing
Speaker 1: of it is that I think as restaurant owners and entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: we learned, we learned, We learned that we will kind
Speaker 1: of like cheating ourselves on how we should be doing
Speaker 1: our business model. And COVID and all the pandemic said, okay,
Speaker 1: there's a model to win with long term and you
Speaker 1: you to have a plan B, and the plan B
Speaker 1: should move you forward. The plan B is not a
Speaker 1: plan that's to say you're trying to shortchange yourself. Is
Speaker 1: to let you know that the perfect world does not exist,
Speaker 1: and you should have options how you sell your product.
Speaker 1: And when you were saying what Philip is saying about
Speaker 1: is that you could be selling business, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean when you're selling stuff, that means that your your
Speaker 1: dollar comes back to you as fast as you sell it.
Speaker 1: So that means when somebody like an Oprah, if a
Speaker 1: massive business, come and say we want a lot of
Speaker 1: your product, Okay, there's a payment period that you gotta
Speaker 1: also also be able to deliver to the people and
Speaker 1: say hey, I got to buy the product, I gotta
Speaker 1: make the product, and I got to shift the product.
Speaker 1: So you got to have revenue or income sitting there,
Speaker 1: or some type of investor to come in and be
Speaker 1: able to help you move that product to the level
Speaker 1: so you can deliver on time and be and be
Speaker 1: recommended as a company of choice and also be recommended
Speaker 1: as a company that can deliver what they say. That's
Speaker 1: what people have to understand when you're talking about these products.
Speaker 1: And that's what thats one of the great skills that
Speaker 1: you developed that you talk about and people come to you,
Speaker 1: right Philip, in regards to these levels of conversation, talk
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, you know, just talk to Shelby County
Speaker 1: government Mayor Lee Harris had me talked to his folks
Speaker 1: about that very thing. And really you know, focusing, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and and and that's what we've had to do.
Speaker 1: Focus and me personally as the business owner. There's so
Speaker 1: many things, and you know, people are always kind of
Speaker 1: coming at you with this or that. You know, really
Speaker 1: focusing on ensuring the long term success of the business. Uh.
Speaker 1: And and part of that is is really being agile
Speaker 1: and and how to pivot, you know, and and create
Speaker 1: opportunities out of even you know, the rest in a sense,
Speaker 1: you know, well, what are the difficult things that have
Speaker 1: come via uh this opportunity? What mistakes did we make? Uh?
Speaker 1: And how can we improve on them in hands and
Speaker 1: then prevent those same things from the current next time.
Speaker 1: And so um, that's again just just understanding how to
Speaker 1: develop the business to scale it, you know, because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to five x tenets this thing and beyond.
Speaker 1: And so how do we improve our standard operating procedures,
Speaker 1: how do we bring in employees, trained them more effectively,
Speaker 1: how do we refine our product? You know, how do
Speaker 1: we communicate and market and even be on stages such
Speaker 1: as this and on your show then let people know that, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know, we are a small business that's growing. We
Speaker 1: are black owned business, but you know we we do
Speaker 1: an amazing job at what we do. Let let's talk
Speaker 1: about because you kind of walked about which I what
Speaker 1: I want to lend into my next question is about
Speaker 1: putting young black men and women in this in the
Speaker 1: craft trade environment. Talk about that and then I want
Speaker 1: to close what you're talking about your uncommon hospitality group. Yeah, so, um,
Speaker 1: it's really important. And I mentioned you know earlier about
Speaker 1: just uh curing a sustainable supply chain, and for me,
Speaker 1: that's both in sourcing UM raw materials, so from our
Speaker 1: coco um beings and things of involvement in Africa and beyond,
Speaker 1: but also with our employees, with our with with the
Speaker 1: labor uh. And particularly being in Memphis. Memphis, like a
Speaker 1: lot of other cities, UM, we have a we're seventy
Speaker 1: African American. You know, seventy percent of Memphis is black.
Speaker 1: And so with that, you know, my focus from an
Speaker 1: employment standpoint has really turned the focus on young men
Speaker 1: and women African American and of color between the ages
Speaker 1: of eighteen and twenty one, specifically because these are folks
Speaker 1: that you know there if they're not going to college. Um,
Speaker 1: and and these just hired another young man yesterday, he
Speaker 1: started today, eighteen, just graduated, wasn't going to college. But
Speaker 1: of course high schools aren't really focused and on trades
Speaker 1: anymore either. UH. So bringing them in, showing them a
Speaker 1: craft trade, uh and then saying, look, you know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna pay you fifteen dollars an hour uh for the
Speaker 1: first year, but by the end of the first year
Speaker 1: you will be upwards to twenty dollars an hour. So
Speaker 1: at nineteen barely twenty, you're gonna be making forty plus
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in a city where the median income or
Speaker 1: the partner lies like thirty five, So we got you
Speaker 1: above that at a young age. But I'm also working
Speaker 1: with uh folks like my friend up in Pittsburgh, Manya Erick.
Speaker 1: Um that will help with financial planning and doing all
Speaker 1: those kind of things. Uh, that will work with these
Speaker 1: young folks to not only make money, but when they're
Speaker 1: twenty five, thirty five and forty five, they understand the
Speaker 1: value of the dollars that they've earned and they can
Speaker 1: go off and do investing and do other things. And
Speaker 1: so that's the bigger picture. I suggest employ them today
Speaker 1: and pay them fifteen bucks or twenty bucks, but really
Speaker 1: set them on a course of success and and and honestly,
Speaker 1: looking at some of the things that I had to
Speaker 1: navigate between eighteen and forty two. Uh, and if I
Speaker 1: can knock out a few of those roadblocks, you know,
Speaker 1: then you know, hopefully it's it's a good thing. And Uh.
Speaker 1: The Uncommon Hospitality Group, Yes, Uncommon Hospitality Group is something
Speaker 1: that you know, is really a part of me in
Speaker 1: my next kind of phase of of bringing a real
Speaker 1: chocolate factory to life. But again, I'm all about the experience,
Speaker 1: you know, So I curate things like a Grand masterade
Speaker 1: ball in the uh in November. You know, we do
Speaker 1: all these really cool tastings, virtual tastings, live tastings. Uh.
Speaker 1: So you know, again the chocolate is a big experiential element.
Speaker 1: And so taking that field and that brand to commercial
Speaker 1: real estate where mixed use um. You know, so then
Speaker 1: bringing in black owned businesses, wine companies, restaurants, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: commercial businesses and even residential and so that's what it's
Speaker 1: all about, starting here in the heart of Memphis, working
Speaker 1: to source several properties to put together just a really
Speaker 1: cool experience for people to come. Not only experienced Philip
Speaker 1: ashially chocolates, but that's that's the anchor of core. But
Speaker 1: then just kind of see a community uh that that
Speaker 1: is business oriented uh and focused on consumer goods and
Speaker 1: focused on consumer experience uh and and and and living
Speaker 1: in a downtown community. Uh and just kind of showing
Speaker 1: people that there are other folks that can develop, you know,
Speaker 1: really cool things uh in a city as well. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1: He's based in Memphis. Uh. You can buy his products online, international, domestic,
Speaker 1: But more importantly, when you go to Memphis nowadays to
Speaker 1: go out film for the blues, go there for the
Speaker 1: hot chicken going there for the barbecue. Now you go
Speaker 1: up there for the turtles, the perfect turtles down there
Speaker 1: that Philip Ashley chocolate. Hey, Phillips Man. Thank you for Philip.
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on my show man Money Making Conversation.
Speaker 1: Pleasure and you know it's always nice. Looking at my
Speaker 1: twin brother too. I love it. I love it. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get up to Memphis, man. And you said
Speaker 1: in the fall you do some things. I want to
Speaker 1: come up them and be part of it. Just hang
Speaker 1: out with the calendar out and also when you do
Speaker 1: the next virtual testing center to me so I can
Speaker 1: post them on social media and put my news letter. Okay,
Speaker 1: we'll do. Thank you, my brother. Thank you Philip for
Speaker 1: coming on Money Making Conversation. If you want to hear
Speaker 1: or see any of my interviews, please go to money
Speaker 1: Making Conversation dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald. I am
Speaker 1: your host. You are now tuned into the Money Making
Speaker 1: Conversations Minute of Inspiration with Rushan McDonald. I sat down
Speaker 1: with the legendary actor Bill Duke. He is the founder
Speaker 1: of Duke Media Foundation and Unite Network. He was on
Speaker 1: the show to discuss his star role and Steven Starterberg's
Speaker 1: new crime drama No Sudden Moves, available on HBO Max.
Speaker 1: If you were black, you had to be able to
Speaker 1: play chess in the chess teams, so if they had
Speaker 1: negotiators with them, you have to negotiate. If the negotiations
Speaker 1: didn't go well and they had guns, you had to
Speaker 1: have guns. So you know, you could not negotiate with
Speaker 1: someone who felt you were weak and unprepared. The only
Speaker 1: way you could negotiate with them is to look him
Speaker 1: in the eye, and they understood the consequences of disrespect.
Speaker 1: So I played the head of the black game and
Speaker 1: we negotiate over some issues. If you want to hear
Speaker 1: the full interview with Bill Do, it's available on Money
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