Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Anne Burrell- Chef and Food Network Co-Host; Donatella Arpaia - The Meatball Queen; Dante Simpson- Co-Founder of esports digital media company; Tommy Duncan- CEO of JetDoc.com; and Navarr Grevious & Mikael Pyles founders “QuickLiq”

Transcript

Anne Burrell- Chef and Food Network Co-Host; Donatella Arpaia - The Meatball Queen; Dante Simpson- Co-Founder of esports digital media company; Tommy Duncan- CEO of JetDoc.com; and Navarr Grevious & Mikael Pyles founders “QuickLiq” · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
0:07
Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
0:10
Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
0:13
Speaker 1: advice to many occasions. In in case you didn't notice,
0:15
Speaker 1: I'm not broke. You know, he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs,
0:19
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do,
0:22
Speaker 1: it's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
0:25
Speaker 1: hear from my man, Rashan McDonald. Money Making conversations. Here
0:29
Speaker 1: we come welcome to when they're making conversation, I'm you
0:31
Speaker 1: a host from Sean McDonald. It's important to understand that
0:34
Speaker 1: everybody's travels a different path to success. That's because your
0:37
Speaker 1: brand is different. The challenges you face in your life
0:39
Speaker 1: are different. So stop reading other people's success stories and
0:42
Speaker 1: really start writing your own. Now. You can be motivated
0:44
Speaker 1: by this success because their stories can offer direction and
0:47
Speaker 1: help you reach your goals through your planning and committed effort.
0:50
Speaker 1: That's why I bring guests on the show to talk
0:51
Speaker 1: about their life. They're planning, they're committed effort, and the
0:54
Speaker 1: challenges that they may face and also the longevity story
0:58
Speaker 1: of trying to be successful over the extend this period.
1:00
Speaker 1: My next guest is one of my favorites. She's always
1:02
Speaker 1: on my show once a year. And Burrell. She has
1:05
Speaker 1: the trademark sparky blonde hair and sparking personality. And Burrels
1:10
Speaker 1: he's hugely popular and fan favorite host The Worst Cooks
1:13
Speaker 1: in America, my daughter's favorite show. You're also seeing Works
1:16
Speaker 1: Cooks in the American celebrity edition, but we'll be talking
1:18
Speaker 1: about Worst Cooks in America everyday. People. Well, she's on
1:22
Speaker 1: the show to talk about that show. Worst Cooks in
1:24
Speaker 1: America airs on Food Network every Sunday at nine pm,
1:27
Speaker 1: so you know where to find meat. She's this year
1:30
Speaker 1: with My Girl Call the Hall, facing off against My
1:33
Speaker 1: Girl and Burrell to see who can transform these these
1:37
Speaker 1: kitchen disasters into cooling error masters. Please work with the
1:41
Speaker 1: money making conversations. And Burrell, well, Hi, it's so nice
1:47
Speaker 1: to be well, you know, it means that we're both
1:50
Speaker 1: are working and that's a good sime during the pandemic.
1:53
Speaker 1: And uh, I'm thankful that I get to work every day. Absolutely,
1:59
Speaker 1: did it affect? Did the effect into your productions in Um. Well, luckily,
2:07
Speaker 1: I will have to say, we did a season of
2:10
Speaker 1: Worse Cooks before everything shut down, and then right around
2:15
Speaker 1: like after Labor Day in September, under September and October,
2:21
Speaker 1: when things were sort of calmed down a little more,
2:23
Speaker 1: we did a couple more seasons. So the season that's
2:25
Speaker 1: airing now, um, and and then one that will air
2:29
Speaker 1: in May. I think so. I mean, I've had some
2:33
Speaker 1: things cancel, you know, like in person stuff and food
2:37
Speaker 1: and wine festivals, but luckily, um, most of the big
2:41
Speaker 1: stuff has been able to carry on thankfully. Well, I'm
2:46
Speaker 1: gonna ask you, like I always telling you, my I'll
2:48
Speaker 1: watch the show. First of all, you're a fantastic host.
2:51
Speaker 1: You you have the right personality that keeps me engaged
2:53
Speaker 1: because you care, you know, because this this could be
2:56
Speaker 1: an interesting show for a host, because they could come
2:59
Speaker 1: across negative because you deal with people who really aren't
3:01
Speaker 1: good at what they do, and you're trying to motivate
3:04
Speaker 1: them to be pull what little talent they may have
3:07
Speaker 1: and put it in let's put it on display in
3:10
Speaker 1: the kitchen. What makes you and you are to show
3:13
Speaker 1: so much? Anne, Well, I have to say, I really do, um,
3:20
Speaker 1: I feel like every season when I start afresh, Um,
3:24
Speaker 1: it's like I start over and I take the journey
3:27
Speaker 1: with these people. And to see where they start and
3:31
Speaker 1: to see where they end up makes it all worthwhile.
3:36
Speaker 1: And to know that these people come into boot camp
3:41
Speaker 1: really pretty disastrously, and then you know, whether they say
3:47
Speaker 1: a little time or a long time, they somehow leave
3:51
Speaker 1: better cooks and they take it home to their families
3:54
Speaker 1: and they cook with their families and it really does
3:57
Speaker 1: change lives. And I take that, um as a responsibility.
4:02
Speaker 1: So I do everything I can to bend over backwards
4:06
Speaker 1: to really teach these people. And these people this season,
4:11
Speaker 1: you know, um, they have more Southern accents on this
4:18
Speaker 1: season than in the history to show. Everybody has an
4:21
Speaker 1: accent on this show. And uh yeah, am I am?
4:26
Speaker 1: I Am I wrong in saying that, No, you are
4:29
Speaker 1: absolutely not. I mean, I mean, I'm from Houston, Texas,
4:34
Speaker 1: and I know a Southern drawer without here, and it's
4:36
Speaker 1: dominating the show. But that's a good thing. I'm not
4:38
Speaker 1: saying nothing negative, but it means the characters of characters
4:40
Speaker 1: that you have to deal with on this show. And
4:42
Speaker 1: but when they couldn't open an didn't know how to
4:45
Speaker 1: use a can open. I really had to take a
4:47
Speaker 1: back seat to that. It does it really get that bad.
4:53
Speaker 1: It really goes down to that base of a level
4:58
Speaker 1: that we have to teach people out of open cans.
5:01
Speaker 1: And I mean, uh, Joey Uh, the guy that couldn't
5:06
Speaker 1: open the can on last night's episode was the sweetest guy,
5:11
Speaker 1: but he really was caned opening challenge. I mean, what
5:18
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't just him, It was my girl too.
5:20
Speaker 1: She didn't know either that MICHAELA right. I mean, UM,
5:26
Speaker 1: and it just it's one of my favorite things every season.
5:30
Speaker 1: I mean, Carla's reactions are so fantastic, but every co
5:35
Speaker 1: host that I have, UM really does have some form
5:40
Speaker 1: of that reaction uh in some way or another to
5:43
Speaker 1: the recruits. And they look at me and they're like,
5:46
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, how do you do this season after season?
5:51
Speaker 1: And I'm like, to me, I just find it so
5:54
Speaker 1: sort of delightfully endearing. UM. And then I finished it
5:58
Speaker 1: up with an eye roll the part. And that's what
6:02
Speaker 1: I'm saying that this is, UM, you've been a host.
6:05
Speaker 1: It takes a certain personality because they're trying and there's
6:10
Speaker 1: no gamick here that they actually can't cook. And then
6:14
Speaker 1: finally they're thrown into a competition, and that's really their
6:19
Speaker 1: flaws are even magnified in the competition. And so when
6:23
Speaker 1: you're looking at talent, like first, as Joey we just
6:25
Speaker 1: mentioned was on a recent episode he was voted off.
6:30
Speaker 1: He was cutting himself every episode. I think he had
6:35
Speaker 1: a band aid on almost every single finger. And I
6:40
Speaker 1: loved his statement saying that, like, yeah, I've gotten to
6:43
Speaker 1: know all the medics and then he named them all.
6:45
Speaker 1: Um I just here. That was still liful. That was hilarious.
6:52
Speaker 1: But there's prize money involved here, twenty five thou dollars, Yes,
6:58
Speaker 1: a big prize money for whoever wins. And then it's
7:02
Speaker 1: also sort of eternal bragging rights between myself and my
7:06
Speaker 1: co host who is Carla this year? And um, and
7:11
Speaker 1: it's it's between us to see who is the better teacher.
7:16
Speaker 1: So it's like we are really striving to have our
7:19
Speaker 1: our recruits improved here because that's just a little funny
7:23
Speaker 1: competition between the two of us right now. But I'm
7:28
Speaker 1: got just tell you dollars for people who cannot cook,
7:33
Speaker 1: there's a nice hunk of money. You learn how to
7:36
Speaker 1: cook and you walk away with. Now, have Maybe I'm wrong,
7:42
Speaker 1: yere have you guys did a have you brought back
7:45
Speaker 1: any past champions yet and did a best of best
7:49
Speaker 1: of worst cooked championship series? Yet? We have not yet,
7:55
Speaker 1: But I M I think that might be uh something
7:59
Speaker 1: to consider, and I've pitched it to the Food Network before.
8:03
Speaker 1: I think it might be something that they might uh
8:05
Speaker 1: take under advisement, because because I would love because I
8:10
Speaker 1: would love to pick up with these people where we
8:13
Speaker 1: left off. You know, we only get a few short
8:17
Speaker 1: weeks with them, and I feel like we just get
8:21
Speaker 1: to scratch the surface of where they can go on
8:24
Speaker 1: their culinary journey or they may have fallen off. And
8:29
Speaker 1: that's another part of the show too, because that is true.
8:34
Speaker 1: A lot of people, after words, cooks don't really carry
8:38
Speaker 1: on cooking in the kitchen. A lot of them do,
8:40
Speaker 1: but a fair amount of them don't, you know. And
8:44
Speaker 1: so let me just ask you this question, and you
8:47
Speaker 1: come on my show we talked about you know, I'm
8:48
Speaker 1: a big fan of yours and the show which you
8:51
Speaker 1: can see every Sunday night on a nap um Eastern
8:54
Speaker 1: Standard time on the Food Network. Why why do you
8:57
Speaker 1: think people like me enjoy watching the show? Well, I
9:02
Speaker 1: think that there's a few levels that on which people
9:05
Speaker 1: like worst cooks. I mean, uh, people look at other
9:09
Speaker 1: people making mistakes that they're like, oh gosh, um, I
9:14
Speaker 1: feel like maybe I just learned something from watching someone
9:16
Speaker 1: else to make a mistake, or they think, oh jeez,
9:20
Speaker 1: I'm not that bad, so it makes them feel a
9:22
Speaker 1: little better about themselves. But then there's also the educational
9:26
Speaker 1: part where people actually learn something, and I mean at
9:31
Speaker 1: the beginning and the end of the days. To me,
9:33
Speaker 1: it's a very sweet show that there's a lot of
9:36
Speaker 1: layers in it. You know, people come into boot Camp,
9:40
Speaker 1: we start laughing I would say, with them because they
9:43
Speaker 1: know they're bad, so we're not really laughing at them
9:46
Speaker 1: so much. Um, but they are funny and um. And
9:50
Speaker 1: then you see the progress that they make by getting better,
9:55
Speaker 1: and that to me makes me feel like a proud
9:58
Speaker 1: mama every single time. But I think that you know,
10:01
Speaker 1: there's a lot of um, there's a lot of humor
10:04
Speaker 1: in the show, but there's also a lot of learning
10:06
Speaker 1: and a lot of good feelings. This is one of
10:09
Speaker 1: the reasons I like to show is that when you
10:12
Speaker 1: guys are explaining what they have to make, you know,
10:17
Speaker 1: you're explaining from such a common sense, basic level that
10:21
Speaker 1: I've been able to cook some things myself by watching
10:25
Speaker 1: you and the competing chef that's on the show of
10:28
Speaker 1: the show, because that's really cool that, you know, because
10:31
Speaker 1: it's such a Sometimes cooking can be so um so daunting,
10:36
Speaker 1: because it seems like if you open a recipe book
10:38
Speaker 1: and a teaspoon of this, and a couple of this
10:41
Speaker 1: and all this, and you gotta be said, at this
10:43
Speaker 1: certain amount of tempts you can't over over over cook
10:46
Speaker 1: certain things, or you or it becomes a gluten It's
10:49
Speaker 1: so many things you can do wrong. But when I
10:51
Speaker 1: watch you guys do that segments that right now, and
10:54
Speaker 1: they little notes so they can go into kitchen and
10:56
Speaker 1: mess up or deliver what you request. That part of
10:59
Speaker 1: the really right there, I find really informative with me,
11:03
Speaker 1: and I really get a big kick out of it
11:04
Speaker 1: because somethings y'all tell me I would never have done
11:07
Speaker 1: it that way because I would never saw it that way.
11:09
Speaker 1: But by seeing it being broken down to the basic levels,
11:13
Speaker 1: it really helps me as a cook. I agree, And
11:17
Speaker 1: that's why I teach the way I do. I mean,
11:20
Speaker 1: I remember when I was in culinary school learning new things,
11:25
Speaker 1: and I learn so much better by actually watching and
11:30
Speaker 1: doing than just by someone talking to me or reading
11:34
Speaker 1: it in a book. And when someone's uh explaining things
11:39
Speaker 1: to you and they can explain the wise, the why
11:43
Speaker 1: you do things and that kind of stuff, um, it
11:46
Speaker 1: kind of connects the dots and makes so much more sense.
11:50
Speaker 1: And it's also sometimes when you're reading recipes and you
11:52
Speaker 1: don't know what certain cooking terms mean, then that as
11:57
Speaker 1: another layer of difficulty. And that's what I'm saying that
12:02
Speaker 1: that is so nice because if I'm watching and I'm
12:05
Speaker 1: talking to Ambarrel, she's the the fantastic host of uh,
12:09
Speaker 1: you know, the worst cooks in America that you see
12:11
Speaker 1: them food. They they work on Sunday nights at nine
12:14
Speaker 1: pm Eastern. The thing I've really enjoyed that, especially during
12:19
Speaker 1: the pandemic time, you know, because we were all trapped
12:21
Speaker 1: in our home and we still trapped in our homes.
12:23
Speaker 1: I apologize and being able to and so a lot
12:25
Speaker 1: of home cooked meals and people are going to the
12:28
Speaker 1: grocery store shopping and buying things so they can cook
12:31
Speaker 1: at home and feel safe. That has really been a
12:34
Speaker 1: blessing watching your show, and there's just you know, pay
12:39
Speaker 1: per view. I can go and go back into in
12:41
Speaker 1: demand and watch your past show. That's what my daughter does.
12:43
Speaker 1: So it really is it really is fun watching it.
12:46
Speaker 1: Have you seen that play out or you on your
12:48
Speaker 1: social media? People being engaged because of the fact that
12:51
Speaker 1: you're providing them while they're trapped in their homes or
12:55
Speaker 1: or the mundane life because of COVID nineteen. Oh, I'm slutely,
13:01
Speaker 1: very much so. And the nice thing I have to say,
13:05
Speaker 1: you know, we're always looking for silver linings during the
13:09
Speaker 1: pandemic time. And I've been reached out to by so
13:14
Speaker 1: many former recruits that say, oh my gosh, thank you
13:19
Speaker 1: so much for everything I learned. Because I'm cooking all
13:22
Speaker 1: the time now and now I can cook during the
13:26
Speaker 1: pandemic and this has been a lifesaver. So, I mean,
13:30
Speaker 1: I just it warms my heart. It makes me so happy.
13:34
Speaker 1: What makes me happy? And next, it's the new season
13:37
Speaker 1: The Worst Cooks in America. Every Sunday and Nappy I'm
13:40
Speaker 1: on the Food Network. I'm talking to the host and
13:42
Speaker 1: Barrel first Prize. It's twenty five dollars Sunday finale February
13:48
Speaker 1: to the two most improved recruits, but all their newly
13:51
Speaker 1: learned calling theary skills to the test to press an
13:54
Speaker 1: panel of food expert and again I always thank you
13:57
Speaker 1: for coming on my show. I'll have a good time
13:59
Speaker 1: because like I have a good time watching your TV. YEA, well,
14:03
Speaker 1: it's always so nice to talk to you. Thank you
14:07
Speaker 1: for having me. Be safe now and need taps and
14:10
Speaker 1: we'll talk soon. Okay, thank you very much to my friends.
14:13
Speaker 1: Thank you, they thank you to absolutely. If you want
14:17
Speaker 1: to hear more Money Making Conversation interviews, please go to
14:19
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation dot com. I'm with Sean mcgung. I
14:22
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Speaker 1: That's O T T e r dot Ai. My next
16:22
Speaker 1: guest is truly a dreamer. She's a person I met
16:24
Speaker 1: several years ago on air and I called her the
16:26
Speaker 1: meatball Queen and affects me, you know, I said like
16:30
Speaker 1: that because I've always interviewed her via podcast. It is
16:33
Speaker 1: the first time I've seen her and they called Donna
16:35
Speaker 1: tell her, I'll pay you a meatball queen doesn't fit.
16:38
Speaker 1: It doesn't fit. It's nice to see you in personally.
16:48
Speaker 1: We have a lot of money making conversations to talk
16:50
Speaker 1: about on this show, because in twenty sixteen, you know
16:52
Speaker 1: the debate of the quick service prof of Pizza Ball,
16:55
Speaker 1: which I've been to twice, by the way, and the
16:57
Speaker 1: very first time I interviewed you, I went there and
16:59
Speaker 1: had an amazing time. I took two friends, I got
17:01
Speaker 1: photos and all that stuff. But you're gonna probably expand
17:04
Speaker 1: on that, and you have another Probra Pizza bart Maxi
17:06
Speaker 1: New York City, NYC Times Square Hotel. And so now
17:10
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about you being a regular co host.
17:12
Speaker 1: I'll CEO TV all the time. And it's amazing what
17:15
Speaker 1: you're doing in your life, your collection at Frank Gate.
17:18
Speaker 1: So it's a business show that we're talking about. We're
17:20
Speaker 1: gonna talk about all the brands of what she offers.
17:23
Speaker 1: Please welcome to money making conversation for the third time,
17:26
Speaker 1: the third time, Donna tell you, I'll pay you so much.
17:32
Speaker 1: Thank you. Well down to tell you. You know, you
17:36
Speaker 1: know you know him from Houston, Texas, and you know
17:37
Speaker 1: I got this Southern accent and I tried my best
17:41
Speaker 1: to spin the rotate those words and those curved those
17:44
Speaker 1: ailes and those a's and and I hope I'm doing
17:47
Speaker 1: a good job with your name. You're pretty good. Don
17:49
Speaker 1: tell you're gonna see stop stop you're just messing over.
17:54
Speaker 1: It's just stop. Let's talk about you. You know you
17:56
Speaker 1: we know we know. First of all, you look fantastic.
17:58
Speaker 1: You know, look, thank you for going to my restaurant.
18:01
Speaker 1: And yes, a few years ago, I launched Proba Pizza
18:05
Speaker 1: Bar in Grand Central Terminal in UM in the Moxie
18:10
Speaker 1: Square Times Square and obviously doing fantastically well until COVID,
18:16
Speaker 1: which right now happens to be the heart of the
18:20
Speaker 1: pandemic in those two locations. So it's very interesting to
18:24
Speaker 1: see how we're adapting. But we're still um fighting the
18:28
Speaker 1: fight and and looking at other locations because even though
18:33
Speaker 1: I think the hospitality industry as a whole has completely
18:38
Speaker 1: changed because of COVID, there's also tremendous opportunities. So you
18:42
Speaker 1: have to be resilient, you have to adapt, and you
18:46
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta fight the fight every day. Well, an
18:48
Speaker 1: interesting thing about let's talk about you know where I
18:51
Speaker 1: went at First, We're gonna talk about a lot of
18:53
Speaker 1: your other enterprises. You have available to pizza bar, which
18:56
Speaker 1: is casual dining, correct, Yes, I want to to be
19:00
Speaker 1: like what you know. Shake Check was the answer to
19:03
Speaker 1: Burger King. I felt like there is a need for
19:07
Speaker 1: artisanal pizza. I have a very unique pizza and with
19:12
Speaker 1: all natural ingredients, and the pizza has a long rise
19:15
Speaker 1: and it's highly digestible, high water content. I am from Naples,
19:20
Speaker 1: my father's birthplace, and I studied in Naples, and I'm
19:23
Speaker 1: really using fresh quality ingredients because you know, you get
19:27
Speaker 1: what you pay for. And a lot of the pizza
19:29
Speaker 1: chains out there, you know, you can get pizza for
19:32
Speaker 1: you know, five dollars, but a lot of times it's
19:34
Speaker 1: not really pizza and it's not really cheese. And and
19:38
Speaker 1: so we really I'm committed to the best ingredients, the
19:42
Speaker 1: best meatballs, of course, because I am the meatball queen.
19:45
Speaker 1: And uh yeah that that that's the goal. And it
19:49
Speaker 1: really was a huge success. Um And to launch in
19:53
Speaker 1: places like Grand Central in Times Square is where you
19:56
Speaker 1: want to launch brands. And I'm gonna tell you, I
19:59
Speaker 1: always be a see whenever I went, always packed. The
20:02
Speaker 1: service was always fantastic because the reason I say that
20:05
Speaker 1: is that because Grandson was a touristy. You know a
20:08
Speaker 1: lot of people come through their fast traffic, and so
20:11
Speaker 1: sometimes you get whatever type service. I'm gonna tell you something,
20:13
Speaker 1: the two times I went there, I never told him
20:15
Speaker 1: I knew you I went. I always like to do that.
20:18
Speaker 1: I don't come in there trying to get anything free
20:20
Speaker 1: and cut me a deal. And because I really want
20:22
Speaker 1: the experience, and I enjoyed it. I took photos and
20:26
Speaker 1: and all that, and I posted it on my social
20:28
Speaker 1: media and I said, well, you know, that was one
20:31
Speaker 1: time I went through they let me go back through
20:32
Speaker 1: their a gee because New York tea is my favorite city,
20:35
Speaker 1: so I always I brought a couple of more friends.
20:37
Speaker 1: I brought one of the first time she was female,
20:39
Speaker 1: and I brought two of my buddies. You know, guys,
20:41
Speaker 1: you know, bring us some rough people into your place.
20:44
Speaker 1: And they all loved the pizza. Cuse hamburgers and pizza
20:48
Speaker 1: and and is my two favorite things. And so your pizza,
20:51
Speaker 1: you are right about the dough. The dough is different,
20:54
Speaker 1: and it and it and it and it was very
20:56
Speaker 1: fresh and it was it was amazing. And so when
21:01
Speaker 1: when you talk about the service, you talk about quality.
21:04
Speaker 1: Now you're talking about I hear you the word dominot.
21:06
Speaker 1: How you word shape check. That means you're trying to
21:08
Speaker 1: take your brain in a national platform, which means that
21:11
Speaker 1: quality control is very important. How do you maintain that? Yes,
21:15
Speaker 1: quality control and consistency is everything. Um. You know, I've
21:19
Speaker 1: been in the restaurant business for twenty years and I
21:22
Speaker 1: came from fine dining. So thank you for the compliment
21:25
Speaker 1: on service, because I do feel that even if you
21:27
Speaker 1: have casual, service is important and more than ever, I
21:31
Speaker 1: think we lack the personal touch. And when you get
21:34
Speaker 1: good service and you get an actual smile from someone,
21:37
Speaker 1: people remember. So that's really important. And Grand Central is
21:41
Speaker 1: very touristic, but it also has a lot of consistent people,
21:44
Speaker 1: so we have a lot of regulars. The bar there
21:46
Speaker 1: is like cheers at night. So, but quality control is everything.
21:50
Speaker 1: It's about systems, a lot of paperwork, protocol, consistency, um.
21:57
Speaker 1: You know, you have to really build can existency. It's
22:00
Speaker 1: all about consistency when you grow. So hopefully as I
22:04
Speaker 1: expand to other cities, if you get my meatballs in Texas,
22:08
Speaker 1: maybe I'll come to Texas will be the same as
22:11
Speaker 1: New York. That's the goal. And I think the most
22:13
Speaker 1: important thing is to not expand too quickly, but not
22:17
Speaker 1: too slowly either. So if you have a good team,
22:20
Speaker 1: you reward them well, set up incentives and and you know,
22:25
Speaker 1: keep things consistent all the time and stay true to
22:27
Speaker 1: your brand. Well, you know, the reality is we are
22:29
Speaker 1: in COVID and it's talks about people. And you like
22:32
Speaker 1: said you landed in great locations because they were heavy traffic,
22:37
Speaker 1: natural heavy traffic. Then you hear COVID hits starts limiting people.
22:42
Speaker 1: Travel starts limiting, especially on transportation, especially on a tourist area.
22:46
Speaker 1: That's where the town Square is really tours because people
22:49
Speaker 1: come down there, and then transportation wise, the Grand Central
22:52
Speaker 1: station was perfect location. How did you pivot in those
22:55
Speaker 1: two locations? I'm sorry, how did you pivot in those
22:59
Speaker 1: two low ocasions with traffic being diminished in those two
23:03
Speaker 1: locations in Times Square as well as Grain Central. Yeah,
23:07
Speaker 1: it's been very difficult. I mean we have to. You know,
23:09
Speaker 1: we're just talking with the landlords about renegotiating rents right now.
23:14
Speaker 1: Delivery is also an option, but to be honest, New
23:18
Speaker 1: York City is a tale of many cities right now.
23:20
Speaker 1: So you know, on the Upper east Side and Lower
23:23
Speaker 1: east Side, the residential areas, the restaurants are doing well,
23:27
Speaker 1: but Midtown right now is a bit of a ghost town.
23:30
Speaker 1: So it's it's very difficult. The idea is just to
23:34
Speaker 1: stay consistent and to work with landlords and do the
23:37
Speaker 1: best we can right now and ride this out. I hope,
23:40
Speaker 1: let's hope. There's only so many things. I'm usually the
23:44
Speaker 1: type of person I think most restaurateurs and entrepreneurs are
23:47
Speaker 1: that we always find a way COVID is something, you know,
23:51
Speaker 1: it's a once in a century pandemic, and the way
23:55
Speaker 1: it's impacted New York, especially in Midtown, has been quite
24:00
Speaker 1: devastating because you have all the people in the offices
24:03
Speaker 1: still not coming to work, they're working remotely, and tourists
24:07
Speaker 1: obviously are not there. So you're starting to get weekenders. Slowly,
24:12
Speaker 1: I'm starting to see the light a little bit. So
24:15
Speaker 1: that's that's been a little. Um, that's been a little difficult.
24:20
Speaker 1: You know, we keep I've been through worse things before,
24:23
Speaker 1: and um, the product is excellent and we're consistent and
24:28
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna keep at it. Well, you know,
24:30
Speaker 1: you still do your TV, and that's that's that's been
24:33
Speaker 1: a huge opportunity. So interestingly enough, during COVID everyone's talked
24:38
Speaker 1: about food and medicine. And I'm married to a world
24:43
Speaker 1: right no heart surgeon and in February now upcoming as
24:47
Speaker 1: heart health months, so everyone was constantly interested in how
24:51
Speaker 1: to cook at home because for the first time people
24:53
Speaker 1: how to cook at home. You couldn't go out to eat,
24:56
Speaker 1: you couldn't get take out. And you know, I'm a
24:58
Speaker 1: working mother too, been though I'm a chef. I'm zooming
25:01
Speaker 1: into wonderful shows like you, and I still have to
25:04
Speaker 1: get dinner on the table. So other beautiful opportunities came about,
25:08
Speaker 1: which is I've become the brand ambassador to Phillips air
25:13
Speaker 1: Fryer and their Home Whole Home Kitchen Appliances Network, where
25:19
Speaker 1: I'm creating recipes for them and for the busy mom
25:24
Speaker 1: who's working or staying at home or doing remote learning.
25:26
Speaker 1: It's been trying, but through that many opportunities have occurred.
25:31
Speaker 1: So this has been a very exciting new partnership that
25:34
Speaker 1: I have with Phillips Hotel. You're telling me that you're
25:38
Speaker 1: the brand a browsador for Phillips for us. Yes, do
25:41
Speaker 1: you know? I'm so man that you I bought one
25:45
Speaker 1: in September from my house and didn't know what did
25:48
Speaker 1: you become the brand ambassador? It just happened. So I'm gonna, well,
25:53
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna have to send you there
25:55
Speaker 1: other products? What do you have an air fryer? Absolutely absolutely,
25:59
Speaker 1: having a fun air friar is the best. And you know,
26:02
Speaker 1: for me, it's very important how you attach yourself to brim.
26:07
Speaker 1: I just started using the Phillips air Friyar at home
26:10
Speaker 1: and it came authentically um, and I became obsessed with
26:14
Speaker 1: the product. And yes, so I'm going to create a
26:17
Speaker 1: whole website of content and they will be giveaways and recipe.
26:21
Speaker 1: You're gonna be part of my next competition. We have
26:24
Speaker 1: a postamator. Maybe I'll send you one if you're a
26:26
Speaker 1: good boy. I'm you know the posta that's a little work, though,
26:30
Speaker 1: I would just tell you, I'm I'm telling you, no work,
26:34
Speaker 1: No put it in the pasta. You kidding me? Because
26:41
Speaker 1: the posta can. I got the little thing you put
26:43
Speaker 1: on in front of the d I got that. I
26:44
Speaker 1: got the kitchen aid to make the work. Oh my god,
26:49
Speaker 1: I'm if that's why, that's why I throw my hands up.
26:52
Speaker 1: I am not doing that. But if you tell me
26:55
Speaker 1: that I could do something with pasta because I love
26:57
Speaker 1: pasta and it's easy, you got it. You got me.
27:02
Speaker 1: That's when in five minutes, I'm telling you, and then
27:05
Speaker 1: I want you to make a recipe for me and
27:08
Speaker 1: posted on social media. You know I do that. That's
27:11
Speaker 1: that's easy. Now. Now now that I know that you
27:14
Speaker 1: part of Phillips, I gotta show people take photos of
27:17
Speaker 1: me and the photo of you. This is MC girl,
27:19
Speaker 1: This is my girl right here, Phillips, because I got
27:21
Speaker 1: the Africa, because I bought a building and I got
27:23
Speaker 1: another a friar here and my new building I bought
27:27
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, and I'm gonna have to send you another one.
27:30
Speaker 1: Then they're the best. They're the best, and so so.
27:33
Speaker 1: Now now, but let's talk about this pasta maker, because
27:36
Speaker 1: like I said, I got all the little adapters from
27:39
Speaker 1: my kitchen aid, I swear to you, don't tell her
27:42
Speaker 1: I do not use it. I used it one time
27:44
Speaker 1: in Chicago when I bought it in that's what I bought.
27:50
Speaker 1: I got wise I saw it, I went to I said,
27:52
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do this ever again. So well, that's
27:56
Speaker 1: the whole thing about Phillips, and I am attracted to them,
28:00
Speaker 1: and I'm not just the brand ambassador. I'm creating tutorials
28:03
Speaker 1: because you know today everyone when they get whatever equipment
28:07
Speaker 1: you get, it's no use unless you take it out
28:09
Speaker 1: of the box. Yes, and so I'm gonna have video
28:12
Speaker 1: tutorials to make it easy. But I'm telling you, you
28:15
Speaker 1: put flour, water and egg, you jump it in and
28:17
Speaker 1: pasta shoots out in five minutes. It's that easy. And
28:21
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna have a lot of videos, a lot
28:23
Speaker 1: of tutorials. It's very exciting stuff, very exciting just between me.
28:28
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you, I'm announcing something to you because
28:31
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of people don't know there's
28:32
Speaker 1: done to tell them I am. I'm gonna launch my
28:35
Speaker 1: own Rochan's Kitchen. It's gonna be a local in the
28:37
Speaker 1: Georgia area by two million householders. And I love it.
28:42
Speaker 1: At the top of the show, I always either bake
28:44
Speaker 1: something or cook something at the top of my show.
28:47
Speaker 1: In a launch of April, I want to do if
28:50
Speaker 1: you say it's that easy, If you say it's that easy,
28:53
Speaker 1: I want to do it on you on my show.
28:55
Speaker 1: That's the first recipe I want to do on my
28:57
Speaker 1: show if you say it. Because because I'm telling you
29:00
Speaker 1: is that if he was on the show, I would
29:02
Speaker 1: get I would bring this box and said it right
29:04
Speaker 1: on this death right here and show you. I've only
29:07
Speaker 1: opened his box one time, and when I used it,
29:10
Speaker 1: I put it right back in his box. That's the
29:12
Speaker 1: last time I've ever attempted to make pasta ever. Yes, well,
29:16
Speaker 1: and you know what the good thing about this, you
29:19
Speaker 1: know during COVID. Like I said, my husband Dr Alan Stewart,
29:22
Speaker 1: he's a world renowned heart surgeon, and we have to
29:25
Speaker 1: I love food, so I'm not going to be puritanical here,
29:28
Speaker 1: but we have to be healthy and I love pasta.
29:31
Speaker 1: With this pasta maker, you can make keto pasta. You
29:33
Speaker 1: can make high protein pasta, so you don't even have
29:36
Speaker 1: to feel as guilty. And obviously the air friar too,
29:39
Speaker 1: you're cooking with less fat. So I'm trying to come
29:42
Speaker 1: up with a lot of recipes that still are delicious,
29:46
Speaker 1: but you know, are nicer on your waistline because as
29:49
Speaker 1: you know, I had twins a few years ago and
29:51
Speaker 1: and I was a little bit older, so you know,
29:54
Speaker 1: getting the weight off took a while. And health and
29:58
Speaker 1: health and being an entrepreneur and how you feel is
30:00
Speaker 1: very very important for that equation too. So okay, now
30:04
Speaker 1: let's talk about Now you still have your lifestyle brand
30:06
Speaker 1: in front Gate, I do. I have a lot of
30:10
Speaker 1: products there and I'm also the brand ambassador for Galbani Professional,
30:15
Speaker 1: which is the number one cheese of Italy. And that
30:19
Speaker 1: happened because I did a blind tasting for cheese at
30:22
Speaker 1: my restaurant Pro BA and so I do wonderful work
30:26
Speaker 1: with them and the restaurant industry, and I really promote
30:30
Speaker 1: because they are to me, the best cheese in the industry.
30:33
Speaker 1: And I create a lot of delicious recipes there too.
30:36
Speaker 1: And do you like dessert? I'm so, what's your weakness dessert?
30:42
Speaker 1: Let me take some, don't tell you. Here's the funny
30:44
Speaker 1: thing about it. Front Gates my favorite store. Okay. All
30:47
Speaker 1: my outdoor furniture in my home in Houston and in
30:51
Speaker 1: uh Atlanta is front Gate, and so I'm to figure
30:55
Speaker 1: that's the highest quality. If I turned my camera, you
30:59
Speaker 1: could see my outside to the best customer service, the
31:04
Speaker 1: little the little brandy. Um. Yeah, I can't wait to
31:07
Speaker 1: start working with them again and creating a new collection. Okay, cool,
31:10
Speaker 1: because you gotta tell me, because I do want to
31:12
Speaker 1: buy some more things because I gotta outdoor a fireplas
31:15
Speaker 1: area that I want to I want to upgrade the
31:17
Speaker 1: furniture there. So let me know what. Because I do
31:19
Speaker 1: buy from front Gate. That's why it's so funny. I
31:21
Speaker 1: bought a bought Phillips. Didn't know you was part of
31:24
Speaker 1: that brand. By all my outdoor furniture from front Gate
31:27
Speaker 1: didn't know you had an entertaining collection and at front
31:30
Speaker 1: gates and so in our Garbani professional chief, I love
31:35
Speaker 1: that cheese. So I'm trying to figure out. I'm gonna
31:38
Speaker 1: send you some cheese. I'm trying to figure out. And
31:42
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna let you know this. This is the
31:43
Speaker 1: funny point, because I don't want to like I don't
31:45
Speaker 1: try to blow smoking people. I don't try to act
31:46
Speaker 1: like I do these things. This is my life, you know.
31:50
Speaker 1: And the fact that you're doing all these things and
31:54
Speaker 1: I'm a fan, our purchaser of all these products is
31:58
Speaker 1: a testament that even living the right life, I'm heading
32:01
Speaker 1: in the right direction. We're gonna bump heads somewhere, you
32:06
Speaker 1: know what. Maybe come visit you and Georgia sometime when
32:09
Speaker 1: all this craziness ends and we'll cook together. That's you
32:14
Speaker 1: in my office. When I bought the building, it has
32:16
Speaker 1: a full kitchen in it, it has an oven, It
32:19
Speaker 1: had my staff. Like, for instance, I have some people
32:22
Speaker 1: coming in from another office. We're gonna cook some red
32:25
Speaker 1: beans and rice and as a corn bread background in
32:27
Speaker 1: your cheese, I'm an bake some chicken. I'm gonna have
32:30
Speaker 1: to cheesese cakes. So you asked the question. I gotta
32:33
Speaker 1: answer because everybody knows I'm a dessert nut. I have
32:36
Speaker 1: eighty recipes I have on the app. So what desserts
32:38
Speaker 1: were you talking about this? I'll pay you. What dessert
32:42
Speaker 1: are you trying? What kind of desserts are you trying
32:45
Speaker 1: to get into my You a chocolate person or like,
32:48
Speaker 1: tell me, okay, my wife loves chocolate. She loves chocolate,
32:53
Speaker 1: so so okay, So for Valentine's Day, I'm gonna send
32:56
Speaker 1: you my recipe. It literally takes seven minutes for the
33:01
Speaker 1: molden chocolate lava cake and the air fryer. It comes
33:04
Speaker 1: out perfectly in the Philip's air fry. I just made it.
33:07
Speaker 1: I'm gonna post it on my social media site, Donna
33:10
Speaker 1: Teller are Pie. You gotta follow me on Instagram and
33:14
Speaker 1: I'm telling you you're gonna have chocolate lava cake and
33:17
Speaker 1: it is so good. So it's all about getting good
33:21
Speaker 1: quality chocolate and in seven minutes you can have chocolate
33:25
Speaker 1: lava cake. You're making me. You're making me happy man.
33:29
Speaker 1: Happy man. Happy man is meaning that all these things
33:34
Speaker 1: I've walked away because it's been so difficult. Now you're
33:37
Speaker 1: telling me we shall come back to the dog side.
33:40
Speaker 1: Come back over here, come back overa, come over here
33:42
Speaker 1: to the d A. D A got something for you.
33:45
Speaker 1: We got some easy pasta. We've got some easy chocolate
33:48
Speaker 1: to search for you to make. I'm a post it
33:50
Speaker 1: on my social media tell the world. Indeed, you know,
33:56
Speaker 1: I think, uh, I knew. It's so good to finally
33:59
Speaker 1: see you because I knew when I spoke to you
34:01
Speaker 1: that you were a food person, that you love food.
34:04
Speaker 1: It's just the way you speak about you know. I
34:08
Speaker 1: had interviewed a lot. You can tell that the hosts
34:10
Speaker 1: that are into food and that are not into food.
34:13
Speaker 1: I think people that are into food have an extra
34:16
Speaker 1: passion for life, which is the key to success with anything.
34:20
Speaker 1: It shows. It's authentic, just like your show. You love
34:23
Speaker 1: what you do. And I thank you for being a
34:26
Speaker 1: guest again today because you just are, you know, infectious
34:30
Speaker 1: the way you interview. So I really thank you and
34:32
Speaker 1: I and I'm so glad that you went to Proba
34:35
Speaker 1: and you loved the food. And I am a meat
34:38
Speaker 1: poke leon. I'm very proud of it, very proud of it.
34:41
Speaker 1: I want meat ball madness two years in a row,
34:44
Speaker 1: and now I'm coming up with some meat all air
34:46
Speaker 1: fryer recipes to cut on the fat so we can
34:49
Speaker 1: save room for a little dessert so that we can
34:52
Speaker 1: stay hard healthy. So it's good. It's good. Life is
34:55
Speaker 1: you know what. It's been a trying year, but it's true,
35:00
Speaker 1: which does not kill you makes you stronger. And I
35:03
Speaker 1: think I've come out of COVID stronger with exciting new
35:07
Speaker 1: opportunities that would have never come up before with Phillips
35:11
Speaker 1: and my continuing relationship with Galbani, and there are some
35:15
Speaker 1: pizza restaurants in the future expanding. I'm just I'm just
35:20
Speaker 1: waiting a little bit right now until this all calms
35:23
Speaker 1: down with the vaccines here. So hopefully my husband seems
35:26
Speaker 1: to think that by the fall things should normalize again.
35:29
Speaker 1: Well I hope so. Well, I want to stay. First
35:32
Speaker 1: of all, you're amazing and for me for and to
35:35
Speaker 1: call you the meatball Queen, and you're beautiful that you know,
35:38
Speaker 1: it really a struggle. I'm just going to the struggle.
35:40
Speaker 1: But you you wanted twice, you deserve that title. Secondly,
35:44
Speaker 1: I'm I'll tell you pr people to contact me. I'm
35:47
Speaker 1: gonna send you a photo of my kitchen so you
35:49
Speaker 1: can see because what I want you to understand, d A,
35:52
Speaker 1: is that I'm the real deal. When I come to food,
35:55
Speaker 1: I will I get up at four o'clock. I probably
35:58
Speaker 1: get him off for his six must have come in.
36:00
Speaker 1: They have muffins, wig known, they have some corn bread.
36:04
Speaker 1: I've done taco salads for them. I've done barbecue settings
36:08
Speaker 1: for them. I enjoy That's the part that relaxes me.
36:12
Speaker 1: I don't smoke, I don't drink, and that this is negative.
36:14
Speaker 1: I just enjoyed life. And that's part of the you know,
36:17
Speaker 1: God gave me the gift and I can do with
36:19
Speaker 1: things and I can share. And so I'm just telling
36:22
Speaker 1: you is that I'm gonna send you my address, and uh,
36:25
Speaker 1: let you know you better. I'm gonna send you lots
36:28
Speaker 1: of Phillips stuff, and we're gonna start cooking together. And
36:32
Speaker 1: hopefully you'll see all the exciting things that I'm doing
36:34
Speaker 1: with Phillips this year. We really are are. It's it's
36:38
Speaker 1: an exciting relationship that we started. And you know what's interesting.
36:43
Speaker 1: The number one Google search that occurred with food when
36:48
Speaker 1: COVID happened was not what recipe, but how to cook?
36:51
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping and I think you're the same way
36:54
Speaker 1: that there is a return to cooking because it's a
36:57
Speaker 1: way to show joy and love. You know, I'm first
37:00
Speaker 1: generation from Italian immigrants that sound My mother, God rest
37:03
Speaker 1: her soul, showed her love to me every day. And
37:08
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this really quick. I
37:10
Speaker 1: used to be a lawyer for half to half a minute,
37:12
Speaker 1: but I left to follow my passion for food because
37:16
Speaker 1: I love to feed people and I love to bring
37:19
Speaker 1: people together, and I think at the end, that's what
37:21
Speaker 1: it's all about. And when you follow your passion, success follows. Well.
37:27
Speaker 1: You know, I remember that I've read that we talked
37:29
Speaker 1: about it for the first time when you left your
37:31
Speaker 1: career as a lawyer, I think the age of twenty seven,
37:33
Speaker 1: I believe. Yeah, I remember, and I always because that's important,
37:42
Speaker 1: because it was important for me because a lot of
37:44
Speaker 1: people don't follow their dreams because they fear they areknown.
37:47
Speaker 1: And I see the journey that you've been part of,
37:49
Speaker 1: and I'm really the reason I like my show is that,
37:53
Speaker 1: you know, I've watched my relationships grow and I consider
37:55
Speaker 1: you one of those great relationships. And to see that
37:58
Speaker 1: you were a couple of unknown people you came on
38:00
Speaker 1: mar show, respected what I was trying to do, and
38:02
Speaker 1: I promoted your brand. And to see now that you've
38:04
Speaker 1: being such a strong entrepreneur. And the funny part about
38:07
Speaker 1: it is that I'm already purchasing. I participating at front Gate,
38:11
Speaker 1: and I bought the Phillips already and got Banni. And
38:14
Speaker 1: you're gonna You're gonna send me a recipe or some
38:16
Speaker 1: device on how I can be five many uh pasta,
38:20
Speaker 1: which is crazy, and this recipe on how to do
38:22
Speaker 1: chocolate in seven minutes. I'm gonna tell you you have
38:25
Speaker 1: no have no fear Rashard McDonald. The thing I want
38:29
Speaker 1: to do first is please tell your PR person to
38:32
Speaker 1: email me. I won't let you see that Rashan is
38:35
Speaker 1: very serious about this kitchen. I will send you a
38:38
Speaker 1: photo of my kitchen in my office, in my office,
38:42
Speaker 1: and you go, He's the truth, Because when you talk
38:44
Speaker 1: to me, I want you to know you're talking to
38:46
Speaker 1: the truth, not a hype man, not a man trying
38:50
Speaker 1: to make Dinna, trying to make a fie get inside.
38:53
Speaker 1: I'm the real deal. I love dessert, I love food.
38:56
Speaker 1: I like it's more. People come on my show. Who
38:59
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39:42
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Speaker 1: Sean McDonald host the Money Making Conversations. The Cafe Marca
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Speaker 1: making a difference in our community by empowering others to
41:14
Speaker 1: reach their life goals from civic leaders, businessmen, activists, celebrities
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Speaker 1: and everyday days. The Cafe Marca Swagger Award win this
41:22
Speaker 1: week is James Lopez. He is the president of Willpacker Production.
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Speaker 1: As a producer, his films like Girls, Trip, Night School,
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Speaker 1: Think Like a Man, The Perfect Guy, and many more
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Speaker 1: have grossed more than eight hundred million dollars at the
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Speaker 1: The Cafe Marca Swagg Award represents men that have strength,
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41:56
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Money Making Conversations with your host Son McDonald.
42:01
Speaker 1: It is important to understand that everybody travels a different
42:03
Speaker 1: path to success. That's because your brand is different the
42:07
Speaker 1: challenges you're facing, your life will be different. So stop
42:09
Speaker 1: reading other people's success stories and really start writing your own. Now.
42:13
Speaker 1: You can be motivated by their success because their stories
42:16
Speaker 1: can offer direction and also give you an opportunity to
42:18
Speaker 1: see how they were successful at what they did. But
42:22
Speaker 1: it's about what you're trying to do with your life,
42:24
Speaker 1: how you plan it out, and what commit commitments that
42:26
Speaker 1: you make to your efforts. That's why I bring guests
42:28
Speaker 1: on my show. Just like my next guest, who is
42:31
Speaker 1: Tommy Duncan. He started his first healthcare company at twenty
42:34
Speaker 1: six years of age, then he sold it. Then he
42:37
Speaker 1: started Trusted Health Plan and Medicaid managed care company that
42:41
Speaker 1: ensued fifty thousand people between DC and Detroit. Then he
42:44
Speaker 1: sold that in January of the Blue Cross Blue Shield.
42:48
Speaker 1: A week later, he started jet Doc. Jet Doctor is
42:51
Speaker 1: a telehealth platform provided an immediate virtual urgent care visits
42:55
Speaker 1: plus access to the prescriptions and pharmacist across the country
42:59
Speaker 1: for the twenty dollars per visit or ten dollars per month.
43:02
Speaker 1: Please working the money making conversations. He's ever selling and
43:05
Speaker 1: he's ever moving. My man, Tommy Duncan, Hey, Tommy, Tommy
43:12
Speaker 1: first of all at a young age, let's let's talk
43:15
Speaker 1: about your dude, your college background. Is that college in
43:18
Speaker 1: your past history? Or you a guy who just has
43:21
Speaker 1: a strong entrepreneur spirit. No, we don't want to FAMU Okay,
43:26
Speaker 1: fam mute, HPC. You know I knew that, but I
43:30
Speaker 1: want you to have a little bit more energy be
43:32
Speaker 1: having man because you know you say, fam mute, you
43:34
Speaker 1: got the bunch of basing all the way, okay, because
43:40
Speaker 1: you kind of got underrated if HBCU second place to Howard, right,
43:48
Speaker 1: but fam is the truth. We're gonna tell you something.
43:51
Speaker 1: You made me a lot of successful attorneys, right, doctors right,
43:56
Speaker 1: Howard right in these other HBCUs, which I'm a big
43:59
Speaker 1: supporter of, leve them right. But when you find entrepreneurs
44:04
Speaker 1: that's successful in business fan news where they come from,
44:08
Speaker 1: well I can't argue with that. You know, I think
44:10
Speaker 1: that when you look at what has happened this year
44:12
Speaker 1: with their COVID and eighteen somehow people have discovered I
44:16
Speaker 1: say people, the general market, the general public, the the
44:21
Speaker 1: donors have found HBCUs. Why do you think it's popped
44:25
Speaker 1: out like this? Why do you think they recognition for
44:28
Speaker 1: HBCUs being a critically acclaimed academic institution for African Americans
44:32
Speaker 1: or people of color. You know, I'll be over with
44:35
Speaker 1: you man. You know, in my travels and business, um,
44:40
Speaker 1: a lot of people go to majority schools and define success.
44:44
Speaker 1: But in my experience, some of the most successful people
44:47
Speaker 1: with HBCUs, Right, that's just I'm talking about those that
44:52
Speaker 1: are high up in corporate America that I come in
44:55
Speaker 1: contact with, or those of entrepreneurs, they went to HBCU.
44:59
Speaker 1: And I talk a lot about FAM because that's where
45:01
Speaker 1: I went with Howard Moore, house Held, and I mean,
45:08
Speaker 1: you name them. A lot of successful people come out
45:11
Speaker 1: of HBCUs, and I think a lot of it is
45:13
Speaker 1: because I just think there's a competitiveness amongst our people
45:21
Speaker 1: that in the HBCU environment just creates very successful, driven,
45:27
Speaker 1: gritty entrepreneurs and business people. And I think it also
45:30
Speaker 1: helps when you look at the fact that Kama Harris,
45:33
Speaker 1: you know uh has been Vice President elect, is from
45:37
Speaker 1: HBCU Hollywood. I come from Houston, Texas, so I'm surrounded
45:41
Speaker 1: by HBCU schools, you know, pre View and m Texas,
45:43
Speaker 1: Southern Gramlar and Southern you know, going down the line,
45:46
Speaker 1: Dillard go down go up to Jackson State is twelve
45:50
Speaker 1: HBCUs in the state of Alabama, which has the most
45:53
Speaker 1: hbc used in North Carolina. I think that's the second
45:56
Speaker 1: most at ten, but they're they're based in the southeast
45:59
Speaker 1: part of the tree. What what invited you to come
46:01
Speaker 1: to an HBCU. What what attracted you? I should say,
46:04
Speaker 1: to go to an HBCU. So I went to a
46:07
Speaker 1: majority of white high school, and I kept trying to
46:11
Speaker 1: persuade my mother to let me go to the schools
46:13
Speaker 1: in the city, which where all my friends went and
46:17
Speaker 1: my girlfriend's, but my mother won't let me do it.
46:20
Speaker 1: So FAMU In, which is a year before I graduated
46:24
Speaker 1: high school, had one the Prince Review top ten business
46:30
Speaker 1: schools in the country, and the president at the time
46:35
Speaker 1: was coming to the Midwestern cities Detroit, Chicago and really
46:40
Speaker 1: marketing Family as a place for us for students to
46:43
Speaker 1: go to college. I found out about it, went to
46:46
Speaker 1: visit for homecoming. You know how that goes. You know
46:51
Speaker 1: I went for homecoming once and don't want to go
46:53
Speaker 1: back home. How was it homecoming? Now home home coming
46:57
Speaker 1: and a black school is come it okay? Come on
47:03
Speaker 1: high bus? Tell us tell us about tell us about
47:10
Speaker 1: a familyes his first, of all, family has always been
47:13
Speaker 1: known for marching band. Family has always been known for
47:17
Speaker 1: a successful football program. Okay, and now to my understanding,
47:21
Speaker 1: they're going to the Squack. They transferring their football program
47:24
Speaker 1: to the Squack, which is even more incredible because you've
47:26
Speaker 1: got Dion Sanders down there in the Swacks with Jackson State.
47:30
Speaker 1: So I look at the Squack has becoming like a
47:33
Speaker 1: sec version of HPC for the HBCU, a powerhouse where
47:38
Speaker 1: the top athletes are gonna come and it's gonna put
47:40
Speaker 1: them on the map. So that's why that's what Family
47:43
Speaker 1: is about to get into. But from but where I
47:45
Speaker 1: hear you talk from Jump ro Sean, it's about the academics.
47:48
Speaker 1: It's about that's what attracted to YouTube. I went to Homecoming.
47:51
Speaker 1: But but the top business school in the eighty seven
47:54
Speaker 1: be recognized that it's really what really caught your eye,
47:58
Speaker 1: caught the eye of your mom. That's right. It was
48:01
Speaker 1: the School of Business and Industry, which has been acclaimed
48:05
Speaker 1: as being one of the best business schools UH in
48:08
Speaker 1: the country. Agnostic to hbc U or otherwise deemed mildly
48:14
Speaker 1: created the program, and it just so happens that the
48:18
Speaker 1: year she retired as year I graduated two thousand and three. Right, um.
48:23
Speaker 1: A lot of success of people came out of that
48:25
Speaker 1: program and still do. It's a school of business and industry.
48:29
Speaker 1: The program was so strong that every week we would
48:32
Speaker 1: have a CEO from a fort five of the company
48:35
Speaker 1: come and spend a full day with and I think
48:38
Speaker 1: that experience and there is this program called professional development,
48:41
Speaker 1: which is all around the soft skills of leadership and
48:44
Speaker 1: confidence in entrepreneurship because you can be an entrepreneur in
48:51
Speaker 1: corporate America, right right. You don't have to own your
48:54
Speaker 1: business be an entrepreneur, but all of those tenants and
48:58
Speaker 1: in skill sets we learned through that program and and
49:03
Speaker 1: I think more than anything, it gave us confidence to
49:07
Speaker 1: be leaders and to speak our mind and to uh
49:10
Speaker 1: and have confidency to growing something. You know the time
49:13
Speaker 1: you said something, cause I always tell us to people
49:14
Speaker 1: always tell this about being entrepreneurs, I said, I said,
49:17
Speaker 1: A forty our week jaw really is the best training
49:20
Speaker 1: to be an entrepreneur because you can't accomplish the responsibilities
49:23
Speaker 1: of a forty all week job, arriving at work on time,
49:26
Speaker 1: meeting your deadlines, being able to be accountable for the
49:29
Speaker 1: responsibility to given to you and also walk working outside
49:32
Speaker 1: of that for the our window, then you won't be
49:34
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. That's basically what you're saying when you said, hey,
49:37
Speaker 1: you could be an entrepreneur working a ford our weak jaw,
49:40
Speaker 1: because the same responsibilities are built there if you wanted
49:43
Speaker 1: to come an entrepreneur, and I am I defining that correctly.
49:47
Speaker 1: That's exactly right, exactly right. You know, it's funny. I
49:51
Speaker 1: saw the OUs versary young I was actually had fami.
49:53
Speaker 1: I started like a little Friday sailor shop and at
49:57
Speaker 1: one point I was in the UH in the mall
50:00
Speaker 1: and I got into the airport. So I was twenty
50:01
Speaker 1: two years old. I had a little sandwich shop and
50:04
Speaker 1: the airport. Um. So that's not easy, Tommy, that's not easy. Now, No,
50:09
Speaker 1: it's not easy. It's not easy at all. But I
50:13
Speaker 1: did that. And if I said, this entrepreneurial kind of
50:17
Speaker 1: spirit if you want to call it that, and my
50:18
Speaker 1: parents were entrepreneurs, so I had that in my in
50:21
Speaker 1: my blood. But one of the best de cities I
50:24
Speaker 1: made as I started another a small healthcare company that
50:28
Speaker 1: I sold, one that you referenced earlier starting seven. But
50:33
Speaker 1: the company I sold to decided to buy my company
50:37
Speaker 1: for stock options and theirs, and so essentially became a
50:40
Speaker 1: job offer with equity associated. And that was my training ground.
50:46
Speaker 1: And when I went to work for them, was a
50:48
Speaker 1: corporate corporate company end up on the New York Stock
50:50
Speaker 1: Exchange UM called a Creative Health out of Chicago. I
50:56
Speaker 1: learned how to operate at the highest level of wills
51:00
Speaker 1: said in corporate America at that moment in time. And
51:03
Speaker 1: it was from that training that I took that to
51:05
Speaker 1: my most latest company that I just sold to go
51:08
Speaker 1: across from shield on how to operate at the highest
51:11
Speaker 1: motels you know what meant, how to be analytical, how
51:14
Speaker 1: to in the in the world of big data, how
51:17
Speaker 1: to identify the data message that actually move the needle,
51:21
Speaker 1: and then how to create operational rigor around it to
51:23
Speaker 1: make sure we continue to improve our numbers across the board.
51:27
Speaker 1: And so when I sold my last company of trusted
51:31
Speaker 1: in our industry, the average medicaid maniacare company did one
51:35
Speaker 1: percent profit. Mind I was doing temperacent profit marnd smoking
51:40
Speaker 1: for but I was smoking because of the skills I
51:43
Speaker 1: learned work from corporate America. So as you talk about
51:45
Speaker 1: the soft skills are showing up at word, you know,
51:47
Speaker 1: coming to early, staying laid and all that kind of
51:49
Speaker 1: stuff critically important, but then learning how to operate at
51:53
Speaker 1: the highest level, because when you operate high you have
51:56
Speaker 1: higher performance and you should have higher profitability. And that's
52:00
Speaker 1: how you create founder. And that's really what you're saying
52:03
Speaker 1: right now. You know, It's just the thing that I'm
52:05
Speaker 1: talking to you, Tommy, is like, first of all, where
52:08
Speaker 1: did this start? Because, like you said, it's in your
52:09
Speaker 1: DNA because you're both of your parents with entrepreneur But
52:12
Speaker 1: when did it? When did that DNA get into your system?
52:14
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, When you went, Wow, I
52:17
Speaker 1: can be I can be a self made man. I
52:19
Speaker 1: can go out there and do what they do. Is
52:21
Speaker 1: this It's important because they were like mentors to you.
52:24
Speaker 1: They were parents, but they also were like mentors to
52:26
Speaker 1: you as well. Correct. Yeah, I think, um, I think
52:29
Speaker 1: you aspired to what you're exposed to. And in my
52:33
Speaker 1: household and my parents friends, there was a lot of entrepreneurship,
52:38
Speaker 1: So I always expected to own my own business. A
52:40
Speaker 1: matter of fact, when I was in I'm like the
52:42
Speaker 1: average entrepreneur. Right when I was in middle school, I
52:46
Speaker 1: had a psychic hot line. This is remember back when
52:50
Speaker 1: when you were actually a magazine and you have all
52:52
Speaker 1: little ads in the back of the magazine, right like
52:54
Speaker 1: remember Cleo called me. Now I had one. I was
52:58
Speaker 1: in eighth grade, you know, and so I had that.
53:02
Speaker 1: I went to family. I had ice cream truck because
53:04
Speaker 1: to my surprise, you go to Florida and there weren't
53:08
Speaker 1: many ice cream trucks, right, So I had an ice
53:10
Speaker 1: cream truck, and so I thought that kind of thing
53:12
Speaker 1: sold on, Hold on, hold on the topic the ice
53:14
Speaker 1: cream trull. You know that that's the truck to come
53:16
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood, you know, stops traffic with kids. Now, yes,
53:21
Speaker 1: And I talked about how you by you you came
53:23
Speaker 1: about getting the ice cream truck, and what would the
53:25
Speaker 1: whole concept been making money? Because like, since all my
53:27
Speaker 1: profit margin with you, because I understand that's what happened.
53:30
Speaker 1: So I come to Florida and at many ice ice
53:34
Speaker 1: cream trucks, which when you're from Detroit and it snows
53:37
Speaker 1: nine months out the year, you can't understand how place
53:41
Speaker 1: that's always hot doesn't have ice cream trucks. So but
53:45
Speaker 1: I was a freshman in college, so I converted I
53:49
Speaker 1: had a truck. I converted that to an ice cream truck,
53:52
Speaker 1: and I would play masterpiece ice cream. Man. It's a
53:54
Speaker 1: little more little, a little more adult ice cream truck
53:59
Speaker 1: than the average one kids, right, right, right, But then
54:02
Speaker 1: I learned you gotta have you know that hot I
54:05
Speaker 1: used to keep the cold and myself was melting and
54:07
Speaker 1: become a disaster of a business. Right, So how did
54:11
Speaker 1: we get to healthcare? So we were ice cream the
54:14
Speaker 1: little little little a little sandwich shop in the airports,
54:18
Speaker 1: the airport, the healthcare. What shifted you to that? That
54:21
Speaker 1: that uh, that angle of business because my parents were
54:25
Speaker 1: in healthcare and all those other businesses are felt reasonable, right,
54:29
Speaker 1: so there were disasters. But I grew up in healthcare
54:36
Speaker 1: and I just had conference. I don't know, you know,
54:38
Speaker 1: I came home to help us. So I graduated from
54:40
Speaker 1: Family two thousand three with my NBA, and I thought
54:44
Speaker 1: I was gonna come home and take my family's business
54:46
Speaker 1: to the next level. And instead I came home and
54:50
Speaker 1: literally everything was on fire. Once in a year, everything
54:53
Speaker 1: went in the bankruptcy. So you know, the business went
54:57
Speaker 1: out of business, the home I grew up and with
55:00
Speaker 1: the foreclosure, you know, everything is repossessed. It was like
55:03
Speaker 1: a disaster of of a story. Um, which I think
55:08
Speaker 1: it's hard for most black entrepreneurs and people is we're
55:11
Speaker 1: always starting over. And I think we're starting over because
55:14
Speaker 1: there's a lack of true business guidance and mentorship. Because
55:20
Speaker 1: even my parents who that success of business through the
55:22
Speaker 1: nineties lost everything by the early two thousand's. And but
55:27
Speaker 1: because I grew up in entrepreneurship, you know, and everything
55:30
Speaker 1: went under, I thought I had a confect like gonna
55:32
Speaker 1: start my own company and kind of you know, rebuild
55:35
Speaker 1: the family. Uh business. It didn't go exactly like that,
55:40
Speaker 1: but it ended up getting there through its own path. Win.
55:44
Speaker 1: Now did you did your parents participate and uh and
55:47
Speaker 1: structuring and other business and on the board of your business?
55:50
Speaker 1: How are they How are they tied to enny of
55:51
Speaker 1: your business dealers today? You know it's interesting, man. So
55:56
Speaker 1: my mother and stepfather were together through the nineties, and uh,
56:01
Speaker 1: he was always an entrepreneur who got my mother an entrepreneurship.
56:04
Speaker 1: She was a master in public health, so she just
56:06
Speaker 1: want to give people access to healthcare, but didn't really
56:08
Speaker 1: have a business experience, so that relationship married them too
56:12
Speaker 1: together because he didn't finish high school, you know, or
56:15
Speaker 1: certainly didn't go to college, but he had the entrepreneurial
56:19
Speaker 1: get up and go. My mother's um education and academically
56:24
Speaker 1: as a person was a good marriage. Um. But when
56:30
Speaker 1: they so what happened in two thousand and four, so
56:33
Speaker 1: you have to got out of school and everything completely
56:35
Speaker 1: went into the ground. I was in the kitchen of
56:38
Speaker 1: the house and winter foreclosure, and I was hugging my
56:40
Speaker 1: mother and stepfather, and I said, I'm gonna pull us
56:43
Speaker 1: through this, and my stepfather kind of went his own direction.
56:46
Speaker 1: You know, I think he got real hot in the kitchen.
56:49
Speaker 1: He decided to uh to leave, kind of advocated the throne,
56:54
Speaker 1: if you will. Uh. So, my mother and I when
56:57
Speaker 1: I started mind and she helped me out, and then
56:59
Speaker 1: this business is sold in DC, she was around to
57:01
Speaker 1: help me do it. So she's always been my secret weather,
57:04
Speaker 1: right right. You know it's really because we're all talked
57:08
Speaker 1: about support, because somebody has to support you, and that
57:11
Speaker 1: somebody has to be there because you know, you can't
57:13
Speaker 1: be the smartest person in the room. We know that,
57:15
Speaker 1: but you also have to have somebody that's smarter than
57:17
Speaker 1: you that you can trust and also have been there,
57:20
Speaker 1: done that type of personality, and somebody that you know
57:23
Speaker 1: can you know, I guess you can respond to this
57:26
Speaker 1: time may because being a leader. The worst part about
57:29
Speaker 1: being a leader you can't show weakness. And then you
57:31
Speaker 1: have to pick and choose who you show weakness too,
57:34
Speaker 1: because your weakness to the to the wrong people, then
57:36
Speaker 1: they can take it as a sign of failure or
57:38
Speaker 1: a sign of doubts or lack of confidence. So what
57:42
Speaker 1: was that for you as a leader? A guy who's
57:44
Speaker 1: building companies selling companies in a very white world. Health
57:48
Speaker 1: health care is white. Let's teach real about it, but
57:51
Speaker 1: it also impacts the minority community strongly. And we're gonna
57:53
Speaker 1: get to the jet docum minute, but talk about the
57:56
Speaker 1: support system of being a leader and being able to
58:00
Speaker 1: you know, build your brand, but also being able to
58:03
Speaker 1: have a place to relax and take a deep breath,
58:05
Speaker 1: a place to pause. Yeah, you know, I agree with
58:10
Speaker 1: what you're saying. I think. Uh, when you're on entrepreneurial
58:14
Speaker 1: side of business, you quickly learned the most important thing
58:18
Speaker 1: you have to do is to make payroll. Yes, and
58:21
Speaker 1: so there's always the pressures of making payroll. They come
58:25
Speaker 1: around seem like, uh, you know, too quickly. But you
58:29
Speaker 1: can never show that you're sweating to make payroll because
58:34
Speaker 1: it's you lose that confidence in your people. Then it's
58:37
Speaker 1: like the Titanic. You know, you're not gonna have folks
58:39
Speaker 1: fully committed because they were looking for something that's more stable. Yes, um,
58:45
Speaker 1: but that aside, I think you have to fake until
58:48
Speaker 1: you make it, you know. I think you just gotta
58:51
Speaker 1: keep pushing and keep showing face, keep having that that
58:54
Speaker 1: faith that comes from from within to keep going and
58:58
Speaker 1: had a confidence that you're gonna make it of what
59:00
Speaker 1: you just get up every day and go forward. When
59:03
Speaker 1: you see like this, man I'm in I'm in my
59:06
Speaker 1: third health care company, my tenth business. I've had a
59:09
Speaker 1: thousand and I've had two successful companies in healthcare. One
59:13
Speaker 1: I created, you know, sold it. The company I sold
59:15
Speaker 1: to in publican me a million three when I was
59:17
Speaker 1: thirty years old. Then I started this one from scratch
59:20
Speaker 1: out of nothing, and I just sold it for nine
59:22
Speaker 1: figures UM six and a half years later. And I'm
59:27
Speaker 1: in another company, jet Dot, which is telehealth. Do you
59:29
Speaker 1: see a doctor in his cell phone, twenty bucks for
59:32
Speaker 1: urgent care business virtually and um, you know you have
59:37
Speaker 1: access to pharmacies all across the country eight five off
59:40
Speaker 1: your medications. Every CBS Walk brings war market, you name it.
59:43
Speaker 1: And I'm struggling right now. It's my third one and
59:46
Speaker 1: I thought it's gonna be easy. But I'm back at it,
59:49
Speaker 1: back in the Nicks Weaton every day questioning why am
59:51
Speaker 1: I touring this. I don't have to do it. I
59:54
Speaker 1: got a team depending on me. So you know, I
59:57
Speaker 1: think I did have it in you. And if you
59:59
Speaker 1: really have, then then you'll be doing it. If you
1:00:01
Speaker 1: really don't, then lady, don't give up the sticks. Right.
1:00:04
Speaker 1: But you know the thing about it, when one thinks
1:00:06
Speaker 1: about telehealth, you know, which is it's being able to
1:00:10
Speaker 1: talk to a doctor. Because we didn't think about that
1:00:12
Speaker 1: prior to COVID ninteen. COVID ninteen has brought that to Okay,
1:00:16
Speaker 1: this is the way to go see your doctor now.
1:00:18
Speaker 1: I know at the end of the year, I had
1:00:20
Speaker 1: that option. Do you want to talk to your doctor
1:00:22
Speaker 1: via zoo or do you want to come in? That's
1:00:24
Speaker 1: all I want to come in. You know, I would
1:00:27
Speaker 1: not have said that in May. Now now December, I said,
1:00:29
Speaker 1: I want to come in. I'm a lot more comfortable
1:00:31
Speaker 1: with the environment. How to take care of yourself going
1:00:34
Speaker 1: out in public in this new COVID world that we
1:00:37
Speaker 1: live in. Now, tell her health is jet doctor explained,
1:00:39
Speaker 1: Everybody is a telehealth platform provided an immediate virtual urgent
1:00:43
Speaker 1: care visits, plus access to up the prescriptions and pharmacists
1:00:48
Speaker 1: across the country. Like you said, Walgreen's TVs for either
1:00:51
Speaker 1: twenty dollars pervision or ten dollars pervision. Now in the
1:00:54
Speaker 1: minority community, that twenty and that team my man's is priceless,
1:01:01
Speaker 1: like they said, you know, how did that come about?
1:01:04
Speaker 1: And who or what celebrities involved? And are you using
1:01:08
Speaker 1: celebrities or brands to get your product recognition out there? Yeah,
1:01:13
Speaker 1: So this time last year I was at the closing
1:01:18
Speaker 1: stages of selling Trusted. But a year before that, I
1:01:25
Speaker 1: wrote a book on health care policy and three things
1:01:28
Speaker 1: that could be done to change the trajectory of the
1:01:30
Speaker 1: cross health care system for this country going forward. And
1:01:33
Speaker 1: I met with the number one regulator for healthcare in
1:01:36
Speaker 1: this country and sharing with him my book and the
1:01:39
Speaker 1: three policies, and he told me that it would take
1:01:43
Speaker 1: an active legislation to implement the most important because it
1:01:47
Speaker 1: was enacted into the Afordable Care Act, So that would
1:01:50
Speaker 1: be impossible or highly improbable. And so but through the research,
1:01:56
Speaker 1: writing a book, and the fact that as a company
1:01:59
Speaker 1: we were doing two million dollars in revenue, I paid
1:02:02
Speaker 1: over one million claims um that the biggest cause of
1:02:10
Speaker 1: the rising cost of health care and the the bad
1:02:18
Speaker 1: statistics of the quality of health care is because of
1:02:22
Speaker 1: lack of convenient access to healthcare. Correct. And that's up
1:02:26
Speaker 1: and down the range of economic situation. So somebody who's
1:02:32
Speaker 1: lower income will medicaid all the way up to having
1:02:35
Speaker 1: concierge medicine for commercial insurance. People wait too late to
1:02:41
Speaker 1: get diagnosed and to do something about their issue because
1:02:45
Speaker 1: it's inconvenient to go. You're going to emerge the room.
1:02:48
Speaker 1: No one wants goes to emerge room. You gotta to
1:02:50
Speaker 1: get a doctor. Woman takes to three weeks um. The
1:02:54
Speaker 1: health consystem is just a pain in the backside. But
1:02:57
Speaker 1: to telehealth creates creates a lot more convenient access for me.
1:03:03
Speaker 1: So I decided, Okay, I'm gonna make it super convenient.
1:03:06
Speaker 1: But then to get people to do it, have to
1:03:07
Speaker 1: make it affordable, so I'm gonna do it as cheap
1:03:09
Speaker 1: as possible. So the average tell health visit now is
1:03:13
Speaker 1: eighty bucks to visit. Ours is twenty bucks a visit.
1:03:16
Speaker 1: If you want to do a monthly you can pay
1:03:18
Speaker 1: ten bucks a month for your entire family in your
1:03:20
Speaker 1: household have access to telehealth. Those are doctor visits twenty
1:03:23
Speaker 1: seven and the pharmacy benefits included where you get a
1:03:26
Speaker 1: five shop to cost of medication. That's less ten bucks
1:03:30
Speaker 1: a month. So my vision is make it create admits
1:03:34
Speaker 1: access because it makes it easier through using your cell
1:03:37
Speaker 1: phone you see doctor one twos, and then to make
1:03:40
Speaker 1: it super affordable by making it, you know, lesson ten
1:03:43
Speaker 1: bucks a month or twenty bucks a visit. And when
1:03:47
Speaker 1: I started to do this, it's a pre COVID, right,
1:03:49
Speaker 1: And at that moment in time, the projection was at
1:03:52
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty would have eight hundred thousand telehealth visits
1:03:57
Speaker 1: and less than four percent of people knew what it
1:03:59
Speaker 1: was us. A month later, COVID hit in March, and
1:04:05
Speaker 1: now it's the highest thing in healthcare technology. And instead
1:04:08
Speaker 1: of eight hundred thousand, tell Health business in two thousand
1:04:12
Speaker 1: twenty and there have been over one billion in two
1:04:15
Speaker 1: thousand twenty, so the space has gotten from when I
1:04:19
Speaker 1: started it was a white space needing no one's doing it.
1:04:21
Speaker 1: I can kind of just you know, paint on the
1:04:23
Speaker 1: canvas to being super competitive and me having to figure
1:04:27
Speaker 1: out and this incredibly competitive market, now how do I
1:04:31
Speaker 1: stand out? How do I get eyeballs and attention to something?
1:04:35
Speaker 1: And the celebrity um factor came to play. We launched
1:04:39
Speaker 1: in Florida and on the celebrity side, particularly from our community.
1:04:44
Speaker 1: Rick Ross stands out of someone who's from Miami represents
1:04:47
Speaker 1: Florida in a major way, so reached out to his camp.
1:04:51
Speaker 1: He researched me to figure out who was behind it
1:04:55
Speaker 1: um Research Telehealth, and decided he actually want to be
1:04:58
Speaker 1: a part of it as a real partner. And so
1:05:01
Speaker 1: he and I became partners about six weeks ago and
1:05:07
Speaker 1: he's been a wonderful partner ever since. So Rick Ross
1:05:09
Speaker 1: is involved. We also last week brought aboard Dr Jackie
1:05:15
Speaker 1: from Mary to Medicine, which is a show on Bravo Positions.
1:05:21
Speaker 1: So she's now on the team at Jet Doctor and
1:05:25
Speaker 1: we're just putting together momentum to get the word out
1:05:28
Speaker 1: now here's a great thing the doctor visits that you're
1:05:32
Speaker 1: saying there twenty dollars and ten dollars or that's tied
1:05:34
Speaker 1: to the pharmacist. There's twenty bucks um per visit or
1:05:38
Speaker 1: if you pay ten bucks a month or on limiting. Okay,
1:05:41
Speaker 1: cool now, because I'm just I recently went to Emory
1:05:43
Speaker 1: and I have Humana, and my doctor visit was like
1:05:47
Speaker 1: forty dollars and and so I'm just letting everybody know
1:05:51
Speaker 1: an example of and believe me, I don't play ten
1:05:54
Speaker 1: dollars per month for humanity. Okay, that's gonna be real
1:05:56
Speaker 1: about that, Okay. And so so so I'm playing at
1:06:00
Speaker 1: forty dollars on top of what I paid Humana, all right,
1:06:04
Speaker 1: So with the rate that I'm paying, I should be
1:06:06
Speaker 1: getting it for free and so and so you're saying
1:06:10
Speaker 1: ten dollars promot for ts perfessive. That right? My closest
1:06:15
Speaker 1: statement to you and jet Doc and Tommy. How can
1:06:18
Speaker 1: ru Sean mccow my platform money making conversations? I have
1:06:21
Speaker 1: named two thousand subscribers to my fan club list, I
1:06:24
Speaker 1: got all the roughly a million social media followers. You know,
1:06:28
Speaker 1: how could I? How would you come to me. I'm
1:06:29
Speaker 1: not trying to be a partner in your brand. I
1:06:31
Speaker 1: developed this platform to be able to take entrepreneurs like
1:06:34
Speaker 1: you and make you you're the stars, and but also
1:06:37
Speaker 1: get your platform. You say, hey man, can you post
1:06:39
Speaker 1: this phone me? Can you post this from me? Because
1:06:41
Speaker 1: I want to be an asset to you, because that's
1:06:43
Speaker 1: why I believe that Black entrepreneurship is the key to
1:06:47
Speaker 1: this country going to the next level. And we also
1:06:49
Speaker 1: need to understand that we have value. Sometimes we are
1:06:51
Speaker 1: under value because they want to show the negative time
1:06:54
Speaker 1: side of being an African American mail or email and
1:06:57
Speaker 1: so that's why promote HBC used the way I've promote
1:07:00
Speaker 1: with HBCUs. So how can with jet document a strong
1:07:03
Speaker 1: teller help is a very competitive field. It wasn't competitive
1:07:06
Speaker 1: COVID hit Now everybody wants to use it. So now
1:07:09
Speaker 1: how do you slice that line? How can money making
1:07:11
Speaker 1: Conversation help you? Well, what I want to do is
1:07:14
Speaker 1: we'll offer we'll create a promo code for money Making
1:07:19
Speaker 1: Conversations UM where everyone who puts in your promo code,
1:07:23
Speaker 1: they'll get their first vision for free. Okay, wait, okay,
1:07:27
Speaker 1: this we didn't even about that. I would just be
1:07:30
Speaker 1: honest you I'm not I'm not trying to look for
1:07:32
Speaker 1: a discount because you're trying to build a brain. I'm
1:07:34
Speaker 1: just saying, you know, I appreciate that rushing about. I'm
1:07:37
Speaker 1: also saying I want people to try it right, you know.
1:07:40
Speaker 1: And and the thing for me is, uh, just been
1:07:43
Speaker 1: open with you. My last exit we did well, yes,
1:07:49
Speaker 1: And so I'm not in a rush to make money.
1:07:52
Speaker 1: I am self financing it, which you know get uncomfortable
1:07:55
Speaker 1: with times. But I'm not in the rush. What I
1:07:58
Speaker 1: wanna do is get our people in the healthcare faster.
1:08:04
Speaker 1: And the way to do it is make it super
1:08:06
Speaker 1: convenient and super affordable. So I just when people try
1:08:09
Speaker 1: and and I don't care what it costs, you know. Um,
1:08:12
Speaker 1: I like people just trying to get used to it because,
1:08:15
Speaker 1: like my eyes, she passed away last year. Last year
1:08:18
Speaker 1: is a real situation. I got, man, give you a
1:08:20
Speaker 1: thousand of these, but this one you're you know, you
1:08:25
Speaker 1: have empathy for it. So very sophisticated woman in attorney
1:08:30
Speaker 1: for forty years. Um uh, you know ran every day
1:08:37
Speaker 1: five miles a day. You just catch a running around
1:08:40
Speaker 1: upon the park in Detroit. Super successful, stylish fashion East,
1:08:46
Speaker 1: the best conversations, you know, wine kind of store, just
1:08:49
Speaker 1: an amazing woman. And so she felt a pain in
1:08:53
Speaker 1: her back and she thought from running, so she ignoredered
1:08:57
Speaker 1: for a few weeks. Then after a few weeks she
1:08:59
Speaker 1: decided maybe she just needed a massage, you know, So
1:09:02
Speaker 1: she got a massage, and then a few weeks later
1:09:05
Speaker 1: it still didn't go away. So she finally caught her doctor,
1:09:08
Speaker 1: and then her doctor said, maybe just taking the rest,
1:09:10
Speaker 1: don't run, or do you know all your your robots
1:09:13
Speaker 1: take off. A couple of weeks, she did that, and
1:09:15
Speaker 1: the pain was still there. So she finally decided to
1:09:18
Speaker 1: go to the emergency room and come to find out,
1:09:20
Speaker 1: after imaging was done, she was like a stage four
1:09:25
Speaker 1: and then she died five months later, and it was
1:09:28
Speaker 1: it was blessed to live five months. So what things
1:09:32
Speaker 1: have been different if she had went to doctor the
1:09:33
Speaker 1: first time? Probably now when she went to the doctor
1:09:37
Speaker 1: instead of just doing them assize, if she could just
1:09:40
Speaker 1: do a quick tell health visit, just to talk to
1:09:41
Speaker 1: a doctor, probably and the doctor may have referred her
1:09:45
Speaker 1: to go see go to emergency room, gonna go get
1:09:47
Speaker 1: some imaging done, and it would have been more convenient
1:09:50
Speaker 1: to then you know you gotta go wait two weeks,
1:09:53
Speaker 1: get in front of a doctor, going a way to room,
1:09:55
Speaker 1: parked the car, you know, all the inconvenience of it
1:09:59
Speaker 1: versus just making easy and so well, I wanna tell
1:10:04
Speaker 1: you this, Tommy. I'm a cancer survivor, Thyrod cancer survivor,
1:10:07
Speaker 1: and I survived it by going to a doctor and
1:10:10
Speaker 1: uh and getting the blood test. And so I know
1:10:13
Speaker 1: what what you're saying is truth, you know. And it
1:10:17
Speaker 1: was funny because my the doctor I do my annual
1:10:20
Speaker 1: visit with, he missed it. And in December, my dentists
1:10:24
Speaker 1: missed it because Thyrod's up here and so and so
1:10:28
Speaker 1: my blood the person I went to through my blood example,
1:10:30
Speaker 1: she said, can I just touch around your your your
1:10:33
Speaker 1: throat area? And she said, could I do a biopsy?
1:10:36
Speaker 1: And that's why if I did. If she didn't do that,
1:10:38
Speaker 1: I would have went another year. And so no telling
1:10:42
Speaker 1: what that year. That's what you're saying right there. That year,
1:10:46
Speaker 1: I might not be on the phone right I might
1:10:48
Speaker 1: not be doing this interview right now because cancer would
1:10:50
Speaker 1: have I've been ravaging my system for an additional ten
1:10:54
Speaker 1: months and I may have, like you said, uh, my
1:10:58
Speaker 1: neck is sore, maybe from lifting weights or maybe I've
1:11:01
Speaker 1: just slept with a crook in my neck. That's why
1:11:03
Speaker 1: it's important to get these uh, these these opportunities. That's
1:11:07
Speaker 1: why I wanted to get you on the show to
1:11:08
Speaker 1: talk about jet Doc. I know that black people have
1:11:11
Speaker 1: cell phones, and black people need to understand the value
1:11:14
Speaker 1: of cell phones is not just making phone calls, taking
1:11:16
Speaker 1: pictures and texting, is financial literacy comes out of their phone.
1:11:21
Speaker 1: And now healthcare can come out of the phone by
1:11:23
Speaker 1: the form of the jet dot and we need to
1:11:25
Speaker 1: understand that. And so my, my, my, My commitment to
1:11:28
Speaker 1: you and jet Doc is that I want to help
1:11:30
Speaker 1: promote it on my social media. I want to feature
1:11:33
Speaker 1: you on my Motivational Mondays, talk about what you're doing
1:11:36
Speaker 1: as a brand and your commitment to lower healthcare and
1:11:39
Speaker 1: Twitter dollars per visit ten dollars per month through jet
1:11:42
Speaker 1: doc and it's all about you, my man, your HBCU grad.
1:11:45
Speaker 1: I'm proud to bring on this show and talk to
1:11:47
Speaker 1: and your commitment to just change your lives. Like I said,
1:11:50
Speaker 1: this is self financially self sponsor financially by you. But
1:11:54
Speaker 1: we don't turn that around, so it could all be
1:11:56
Speaker 1: good entrepreneurship, healthcare industry, jet doc. Thank you for coming
1:11:59
Speaker 1: on the show. Tom, thank you brother, thanks for having me,
1:12:02
Speaker 1: and look forward to being on your show again sometimes
1:12:04
Speaker 1: oh you well, you believe me right. One thing about me, man,
1:12:07
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring on the show. I know it's
1:12:09
Speaker 1: a family show we're putting together, but it's just the
1:12:12
Speaker 1: first of the year, and one time, I know, think
1:12:14
Speaker 1: about the first of the year, people tend to listen
1:12:15
Speaker 1: about their health. They tend to listen about their money
1:12:18
Speaker 1: because they're putting those resolutions. So I want to use
1:12:21
Speaker 1: this as an inspiration to say jet doc. Jet doc
1:12:25
Speaker 1: is a form of a resolution for your health care
1:12:28
Speaker 1: as a reason, form of resolution for your health care
1:12:31
Speaker 1: that you should use and sign up for a register.
1:12:33
Speaker 1: That's my mentality because I'm a marketer and so so ah,
1:12:38
Speaker 1: they're listening different in January, then they listen to June. Okay,
1:12:41
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. You could ask any lifetime
1:12:43
Speaker 1: fits that, right, And so so I know that they're
1:12:46
Speaker 1: having you on the show, getting this air and then
1:12:48
Speaker 1: we're getting together, putting some stuff on my social media,
1:12:51
Speaker 1: putting some stuff in my newsletter. H having you back
1:12:54
Speaker 1: on the show a couple of times a year, different periods,
1:12:57
Speaker 1: just to let everybody know the progress of jet Doc
1:12:59
Speaker 1: is still out there. Let's let's build it and let
1:13:01
Speaker 1: that little that little crowd a few let's start, let's
1:13:04
Speaker 1: start put creating a scene, a jet Doc scene for
1:13:06
Speaker 1: you man, and let's keep winning. Brother. Now I want again,
1:13:09
Speaker 1: I want to take you. Thank you for I know
1:13:10
Speaker 1: you busy uh down in Florida, Fort Lauderdale. Thank you
1:13:14
Speaker 1: for coming on the show and finding a place to
1:13:16
Speaker 1: sit down so we can talk. Hey, I made it happy.
1:13:19
Speaker 1: It took me a minute, but that ship I'd just
1:13:22
Speaker 1: stick with it. Thank you. I appreciate you, Tommic, thank
1:13:24
Speaker 1: you for coming on my name. Thank you. And we're
1:13:27
Speaker 1: live here outside the Perez family home, just waiting for
1:13:31
Speaker 1: the and there they go, almost on time. This morning.
1:13:34
Speaker 1: Mom is coming out the front door strong with a
1:13:36
Speaker 1: double arm kid carry. Looks like dad has the bags.
1:13:39
Speaker 1: Daughter is bringing up the rear. Oh but the diaper
1:13:42
Speaker 1: bag wasn't closed. Diapers and toys are everywhere. Oh but
1:13:48
Speaker 1: mom has just nailed the perfect car seat buckle for
1:13:51
Speaker 1: the toddler. And now the eldest daughter, who looks to
1:13:54
Speaker 1: be about nine or ten has secured herself and the
1:13:57
Speaker 1: booster seat. Dad zips the bad clothes and are off,
1:14:01
Speaker 1: but looks like Mom doesn't realize her coffee cup is
1:14:03
Speaker 1: still on the roof of the car, and there it goes. Oh,
1:14:08
Speaker 1: that's a shame that mug was a fan favorite. Don't
1:14:11
Speaker 1: sweat the small stuff, just nail the big stuff, like
1:14:14
Speaker 1: making sure your kids are buckled correctly in the right
1:14:16
Speaker 1: seat for their agent's eyes. Learn more n h t
1:14:18
Speaker 1: s a dot gov slash the Right Seat. Visits dot
1:14:22
Speaker 1: gov slash the Right Seat, brought to you by NITZA
1:14:25
Speaker 1: and the AD Council. What grows in the forest trees?
1:14:30
Speaker 1: Sure no. What else grows in the forest Our imagination,
1:14:33
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1:14:37
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1:14:43
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1:14:50
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1:15:27
Speaker 1: My next guest is Dante Simpson. He's the co filder
1:15:30
Speaker 1: and CEO of Eats bat tv, a premium e sports
1:15:33
Speaker 1: gaming contest agency, content agency and studio seamlessly integrating audience
1:15:38
Speaker 1: into cultural conversations. Each bat TV is a collaboration made
1:15:41
Speaker 1: up the world's most recognizable production studios led by Ridley
1:15:45
Speaker 1: Scott Creative Group and pr G. He He also oversees
1:15:49
Speaker 1: the rapid growth and the expansion of the organization as
1:15:51
Speaker 1: well as provide consult consultation to the company's global perspective.
1:15:55
Speaker 1: His work experience global gaming interests, branding entities, high profile
1:15:59
Speaker 1: in florences are that's me both on content, technical production
1:16:02
Speaker 1: and campaign matters. Please work for the money making conversation.
1:16:05
Speaker 1: Mr East Bad Tv himself, Dote Sampson, Hey Dante, thank
1:16:10
Speaker 1: you so much. For having me. Wow, that sounded like
1:16:12
Speaker 1: a lot. Maybe sound a little special there something when
1:16:16
Speaker 1: you do when you get to Ridley Scott, you kind
1:16:19
Speaker 1: of slow down right there. You know you gotta slow
1:16:21
Speaker 1: down we get to Ridley Scott. I'm just gonna let
1:16:23
Speaker 1: you know that. Now, slow down on Ridley Scott because
1:16:25
Speaker 1: people need to know your relationships from a production standpoint
1:16:29
Speaker 1: and also from a creative creative standpoint before we get
1:16:32
Speaker 1: to really Scott. Tell everybody what East or East Bat is. Sure,
1:16:37
Speaker 1: um East bat is. Come by with two different businesses.
1:16:41
Speaker 1: We have a licensed side of business. I want you
1:16:42
Speaker 1: to think of Getty Images. We license out photos. So
1:16:46
Speaker 1: if you watch somebody, if you watch Lebron do an
1:16:48
Speaker 1: amazing dunk, for example for the Lakers, and somebody captures
1:16:52
Speaker 1: that photo and you see it in Sports Illustrated or
1:16:54
Speaker 1: on ESPN, that's something that for example Getty or Associated Crestment, right,
1:16:59
Speaker 1: you do that exact same thing in the video game industry.
1:17:03
Speaker 1: So we are the only of our type that concentrates
1:17:06
Speaker 1: on licensed content. On the license side of business, I
1:17:10
Speaker 1: have the pleasure of heading up TV UM so TV
1:17:13
Speaker 1: does more than just that transactional business. We are actually
1:17:17
Speaker 1: the home of the creative. UM, so premium content. I
1:17:22
Speaker 1: give you an example of what that means and I'll
1:17:23
Speaker 1: just kind of toss out something for you really quick. Uh.
1:17:27
Speaker 1: We we recently did the free Fire advertisement UM internationally
1:17:31
Speaker 1: with Cristiano Ronaldo. Uh. You know, we did the Cyberpunk
1:17:34
Speaker 1: ad campaign with Keanu Reeves. Some of these things that
1:17:39
Speaker 1: we consider to be premium assets. UM. We are that space,
1:17:43
Speaker 1: so not only commercial but content as well, uh, as
1:17:46
Speaker 1: well as social. So we were partnered with the largest
1:17:49
Speaker 1: social platform, which is Movers and Shakers. So we tap
1:17:52
Speaker 1: into multiple verticals, um for the casual gamer as well
1:17:56
Speaker 1: as for the hardcore gamer, and that is e spat TV.
1:17:59
Speaker 1: And now now are you talking about the the Kiano
1:18:02
Speaker 1: Reads commercial that I'm seeing regular running regular on TV
1:18:05
Speaker 1: right now? That would be it. Absolutely, that's for Cyberpunk
1:18:09
Speaker 1: seventies seven. Uh. So we we received the call, uh
1:18:12
Speaker 1: they wanted to tap into our creatives for that campaign,
1:18:16
Speaker 1: and we were so happy to step in and assist
1:18:18
Speaker 1: with that. So, yes, I'm every time that commercial comes on.
1:18:22
Speaker 1: It catches my attention every time every time it comes on.
1:18:26
Speaker 1: That's why I knew where it is every time it
1:18:27
Speaker 1: comes on. It captures my attention. It's a great commercial.
1:18:31
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, thank you. And we always say,
1:18:33
Speaker 1: and I mean this, this can apply to any culture
1:18:35
Speaker 1: that you're attached to. The key to successful content, the
1:18:39
Speaker 1: key to successful commercials is actually tapping into folks who
1:18:43
Speaker 1: not only research the industries but actually live in them.
1:18:46
Speaker 1: Um and and that's that's who we are. We we
1:18:49
Speaker 1: are we're gamers. We we we played the game and
1:18:52
Speaker 1: we tell the story of So I'm glad to hear that.
1:18:54
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for well, you know, it's really
1:18:55
Speaker 1: interesting Dante when you don't want to stay on Kiano
1:18:58
Speaker 1: read because he's almost like had a career, especially with Matrix,
1:19:01
Speaker 1: you know, where he's almost played like he's been a
1:19:03
Speaker 1: video game. You know, he's almost been a person that
1:19:06
Speaker 1: there's always his career has been transitioning and building time,
1:19:10
Speaker 1: not a series he has now where he's a he's
1:19:13
Speaker 1: an assassin that's kind of like bending time and bending reality.
1:19:17
Speaker 1: And also he's constantly fighting like a video game, you know.
1:19:19
Speaker 1: So that's why that's what I'm saying is that he
1:19:22
Speaker 1: was a perfect charge because his brand, I think I
1:19:25
Speaker 1: have to say it's video game related from a standpoint
1:19:28
Speaker 1: of his career because if you watch any of his actions,
1:19:31
Speaker 1: always action packed. And so every time that commercial comes on,
1:19:33
Speaker 1: I go, I'm thinking it's you know, I'm listening, and
1:19:37
Speaker 1: it holds me through the entire cycle of the commercial.
1:19:40
Speaker 1: And even though I know after that I realize that's
1:19:42
Speaker 1: that commercial, it's still entertaining enough to capture me to
1:19:45
Speaker 1: the end. So congratulations on that man. Thank thank you
1:19:49
Speaker 1: so much. And he's really built. I mean, we remember
1:19:51
Speaker 1: him when he started with Speed Sandra Buck and you know,
1:19:54
Speaker 1: you kind of follow his career through his Matrix and
1:19:57
Speaker 1: you know, just the cult following that I had with
1:20:00
Speaker 1: John Wicks and all of these episode series of of that.
1:20:05
Speaker 1: You know that that was a cult film as well.
1:20:07
Speaker 1: Like you said, his career has really transitioned to being
1:20:11
Speaker 1: the voice of you know, the culture, subculture from that perspective,
1:20:15
Speaker 1: and like you said, it's it's an ongoing video game.
1:20:17
Speaker 1: And absolutely, you know, let say, you know all three
1:20:19
Speaker 1: John Wicks, I've seen all three of them. I don't
1:20:22
Speaker 1: know how at his age, especially in the third one
1:20:25
Speaker 1: he's fighting that much because he's actually doing all of
1:20:28
Speaker 1: the fight scenes, okay, and so and plus he just
1:20:32
Speaker 1: came out he was also in that last year he
1:20:34
Speaker 1: was offering that, Uh, in the Toss Story movie, we
1:20:38
Speaker 1: had a really really engaging character. So you're getting a
1:20:41
Speaker 1: guy that you know, well, you know, we we we
1:20:44
Speaker 1: create these relationships. But I don't think of anybody. You know,
1:20:46
Speaker 1: It's a lot of great people out there. Kevin Hart's
1:20:49
Speaker 1: out there. You know, you have a Rod Johnson's out there.
1:20:52
Speaker 1: But he is perfect for what you're doing because he
1:20:55
Speaker 1: isn't an action figure in that world of incredible you know,
1:21:00
Speaker 1: action engagement. He is actually to me, he's one of
1:21:03
Speaker 1: these guys way you can actually take his movie series
1:21:06
Speaker 1: and make it into a video game. He's that guy.
1:21:08
Speaker 1: But guy so eachs fat TV is hit a home
1:21:11
Speaker 1: run with him. Now let's go over to another guy
1:21:14
Speaker 1: that captured my attention in the intro, Ridley Scot talk
1:21:17
Speaker 1: to us about that. Yes, absolutely, Um, Ridley is amazing. Um.
1:21:22
Speaker 1: A lot of folks may know historically who really is,
1:21:27
Speaker 1: starting in nineteen seventy seven with his film Aliens Um
1:21:31
Speaker 1: and going straight through films that we love like American
1:21:34
Speaker 1: Gangster Withnzel Washington and you know, the Martian and and
1:21:37
Speaker 1: and different things. You know, even going back now to
1:21:39
Speaker 1: the eighties with Alma Louise and things that he's done.
1:21:42
Speaker 1: You know, folks can really have a passion to And
1:21:46
Speaker 1: one of the things that caught my attention is we
1:21:48
Speaker 1: were building this collective. Was not only the work that
1:21:52
Speaker 1: he's done that's on the silver screen, that's that really,
1:21:54
Speaker 1: in my opinion, has him on the mount rushmore of
1:21:57
Speaker 1: directors in Hotwood. But it's actually the stuff that we
1:22:01
Speaker 1: don't know. And I'm gonna you know, ask your audience.
1:22:03
Speaker 1: You know, if you guys are at a computer, you're
1:22:05
Speaker 1: put up on your phone, please go to Ridley Scott
1:22:08
Speaker 1: dot com and familiarize with yourself with some of the
1:22:10
Speaker 1: stuff that he's done. As I spoke to speak to
1:22:13
Speaker 1: folks from my culture, you know, people of of color
1:22:16
Speaker 1: like myself, I say, listen, did you know that he
1:22:19
Speaker 1: was behind Beyonce and you know a lot of the
1:22:22
Speaker 1: work with black is King. Did you know that he's
1:22:25
Speaker 1: worked with Berner Boyd? Did you know that he's worked
1:22:27
Speaker 1: with Childish Gambino? And people are like, oh, absolutely not.
1:22:29
Speaker 1: I never would imagine. And then they go and they
1:22:31
Speaker 1: start to see, you know, the work that he's done,
1:22:34
Speaker 1: you know, supporting Aba dvern A and different people who
1:22:37
Speaker 1: come from a culture that is like mine that you
1:22:40
Speaker 1: would not necessarily associate Ridley with. So one of the
1:22:44
Speaker 1: things that I know that we just came, you know,
1:22:45
Speaker 1: from talking about Keanu Reeves, I would apply that to
1:22:48
Speaker 1: Ridley as well. And that's somebody who may have started
1:22:51
Speaker 1: their their career in a specific place, but it's so
1:22:55
Speaker 1: multi talented that they are transitional in other spaces that
1:22:59
Speaker 1: quite frankly, many people aren't aware of UM. And that's
1:23:03
Speaker 1: something that really caught my attention with him and I
1:23:07
Speaker 1: I always tell you know, their team. To me, they're
1:23:10
Speaker 1: the convergence of content, fandom and creativity and and they
1:23:15
Speaker 1: do all of the above. And when you take a
1:23:17
Speaker 1: look at what they've done in the live performance space
1:23:20
Speaker 1: with Taylor Swift, and I could go on and on
1:23:22
Speaker 1: naming a listers that they've worked with UM that we
1:23:25
Speaker 1: would never really associate or imagine Ridley Scott from the
1:23:29
Speaker 1: UK that's done these you know, blockbuster films. UM has
1:23:32
Speaker 1: actually been a part of that's been supporting our culture
1:23:35
Speaker 1: for quite some time. So he was just such a
1:23:37
Speaker 1: natural fit UM as somebody that understood the world with
1:23:41
Speaker 1: offices around the world, UM and truly speaking to different
1:23:45
Speaker 1: cultures as a parallel, so nicely with gaming um and
1:23:48
Speaker 1: obviously gaming being one of the one of what I
1:23:51
Speaker 1: considered the three universal languages. So you know, you know,
1:23:54
Speaker 1: like I said, his his career. You know, Glad Aider
1:23:57
Speaker 1: Who just one of those. It was one of those movies.
1:23:59
Speaker 1: I'm telling I can if Gladia comes on, I'm watching
1:24:01
Speaker 1: the end. I don't care, I don't turn down, I
1:24:04
Speaker 1: don't care where I'm at. I'm gonna watch the end
1:24:05
Speaker 1: of Glad is that type of work and Aliens to
1:24:09
Speaker 1: which I consider that that that the as far as
1:24:12
Speaker 1: sci fi movies for female leads taking the dominant role,
1:24:16
Speaker 1: Aliens too incredible. So he's always had a history of
1:24:20
Speaker 1: putting women out front and allowing them to lead and
1:24:23
Speaker 1: be a dominant figure. You know, so many projects he's
1:24:26
Speaker 1: done with Denzel Washington, you know, A Man on Fire
1:24:30
Speaker 1: another movie, So I gotta watch the end of that movie.
1:24:33
Speaker 1: And so so with with that type of work, are
1:24:36
Speaker 1: you were you I'm not gonna use this, We'll be honest.
1:24:39
Speaker 1: Were you intimidated by the process of being in business
1:24:42
Speaker 1: with somebody like that? How did you take it from
1:24:44
Speaker 1: h I got it, But then you set back and go, wow, Okay,
1:24:47
Speaker 1: I gotta step my game up. I gotta make sure
1:24:49
Speaker 1: all my teas across my eyes. And how did you
1:24:52
Speaker 1: take that whole positioning with your brand? I'll tell you
1:24:56
Speaker 1: the beauty of it. And this is what I say
1:24:59
Speaker 1: to folks all the time. Look to become very strong
1:25:04
Speaker 1: or a leader or an expert in your space. And
1:25:07
Speaker 1: if you align properly with the right space, the so
1:25:11
Speaker 1: may normally intimidate others actually become very supportive, almost as
1:25:18
Speaker 1: a fan or support of what you do and deep
1:25:21
Speaker 1: you as an expert in spaces that they may not.
1:25:25
Speaker 1: And although you may be pitching them to be a
1:25:27
Speaker 1: part of what you're doing, subconsciously they're actually pitching you
1:25:31
Speaker 1: to select them to be a part of what you're doing.
1:25:34
Speaker 1: So there was an interesting dance that went on in
1:25:38
Speaker 1: the relationship where it was undoubtedly he has a brand
1:25:42
Speaker 1: to um. You know that that is to be respected,
1:25:45
Speaker 1: but from his perspective is to be protected. Um. But
1:25:50
Speaker 1: at the same time he understands the future of where
1:25:53
Speaker 1: content is going. I say the folks all the time,
1:25:56
Speaker 1: we may have grown up on Blockbuster, but our kids
1:25:58
Speaker 1: won't or our grandkids won't. You know, we may have
1:26:00
Speaker 1: grown up on you know, uh, driving theaters, but you
1:26:04
Speaker 1: know that went away, um in in a substantial way,
1:26:07
Speaker 1: although there are some left, and it still went away
1:26:08
Speaker 1: in a substantial way. Being able to understand the future
1:26:13
Speaker 1: and aligned with the future was something that he was
1:26:15
Speaker 1: savvy enough to identify and recognize, and it actually did
1:26:19
Speaker 1: not make it such a dawning conversation. They really were
1:26:23
Speaker 1: more so impressed with our knowledge of the space and
1:26:26
Speaker 1: our ability to identify and stay ahead of the curve. Okay,
1:26:30
Speaker 1: you know the beauty of having brands come to you
1:26:33
Speaker 1: name recognition brand. You know, we're talking household names in
1:26:37
Speaker 1: the industry. It also talent like Travis Scott, you know
1:26:40
Speaker 1: out of Houston, Texas, explained the relationship with Fortnite and
1:26:44
Speaker 1: how that plays a major role in your brand each
1:26:46
Speaker 1: bad TV. Yeah. Absolutely, um. I always feel like we're
1:26:52
Speaker 1: living through a pandemic. We're living through a time that hopefully,
1:26:56
Speaker 1: UM as a society, we won't have to live through again.
1:26:59
Speaker 1: But they always say during these challenging times, opportunities are
1:27:03
Speaker 1: born and those who find success actually are able to
1:27:06
Speaker 1: pivot and aligned with those opportunities. So one of the
1:27:10
Speaker 1: brands that I say, we're actually you know, we we've
1:27:13
Speaker 1: always heard, you know, stay ready, so you don't have
1:27:15
Speaker 1: to get ready. One of the brands that that I say,
1:27:18
Speaker 1: you know, during this time just so happened to be
1:27:20
Speaker 1: Ready and it was so great how they aligned. Was Uber.
1:27:24
Speaker 1: If if you were in California, if you were in
1:27:26
Speaker 1: New York or any any other major cities around the
1:27:28
Speaker 1: country during the height of the pandemic, you may have
1:27:30
Speaker 1: noticed that there were no cars on the road. Um,
1:27:33
Speaker 1: you know, so Uber as a business, I'm sure it
1:27:35
Speaker 1: took a tremendous hit, but simultaneously you had Uber eats,
1:27:40
Speaker 1: and and Uber Eats was actually keeping a lot of
1:27:43
Speaker 1: restaurants in the restaurant industry in business. They had a
1:27:46
Speaker 1: subset business that was actually able to skyrocket during a
1:27:50
Speaker 1: pivotal time when their core business may not have been
1:27:53
Speaker 1: able to. Now with that being sped, you asked me
1:27:56
Speaker 1: about Travis. We haven't seen tours in twenty money. Um,
1:28:01
Speaker 1: you know, we'll see what holds for us. But you know,
1:28:06
Speaker 1: Travis was smart enough to identify, Hey, you know, there
1:28:10
Speaker 1: is an opportunity for me to perform to my audience
1:28:13
Speaker 1: and their home their captive. As a captive audience. Let's
1:28:17
Speaker 1: identify a way to perform to that audience. Fortnite was
1:28:21
Speaker 1: the great way. There was another group that's done this
1:28:24
Speaker 1: tremendously and we'll give a shout out the Swiss Beats
1:28:27
Speaker 1: and UH in Timberland. They've done it amazingly with Versus,
1:28:30
Speaker 1: especially the selection of talent that they've had in utilizing
1:28:33
Speaker 1: iTunes and and and and Instagram. We were able to
1:28:36
Speaker 1: do this with Fortnite. We were able to work that production.
1:28:40
Speaker 1: We were able to actually be a part of the
1:28:43
Speaker 1: creation of that content that those who tuned in were
1:28:47
Speaker 1: able to see. So, you know a lot of parents
1:28:49
Speaker 1: heard about it because their their kids were addicted to that,
1:28:52
Speaker 1: you know, to that ten minutes of content that was created.
1:28:55
Speaker 1: But we were able to optimize UM and we call
1:28:57
Speaker 1: it an MTM. We were able to optimize them moment
1:29:00
Speaker 1: that matters and translate that and transition it into another MTM,
1:29:04
Speaker 1: which is metrics that matter. Million people tuned into that.
1:29:08
Speaker 1: The news came out a couple of weeks ago at
1:29:10
Speaker 1: the time of this recording, UM that Travis made twenty
1:29:13
Speaker 1: million dollars, you know, off of that performance and the
1:29:17
Speaker 1: purchases within that performance. So if it created a blueprint
1:29:21
Speaker 1: for folks to identify to to to appreciate the need
1:29:26
Speaker 1: um and the opportunity within the gaming community. And since
1:29:28
Speaker 1: then we've seen little Nozekx do the same thing with Roadblocks.
1:29:32
Speaker 1: Um he got thirty three million views. Uh, so we're
1:29:35
Speaker 1: starting to see a transition. When Live Nation is is
1:29:38
Speaker 1: not doing tours, when a e G is not doing tours,
1:29:41
Speaker 1: that all of a sudden, we've got a new player
1:29:42
Speaker 1: in the game, and that's the gaming community itself and
1:29:45
Speaker 1: their platforms because of the audiences that they hold. This
1:29:49
Speaker 1: is a platform that started with boxing, you know, to
1:29:51
Speaker 1: pay per view, the old school pay per view, and
1:29:53
Speaker 1: then you elevated the game. Now we're getting into the
1:29:57
Speaker 1: entertainers from a from a musical standpoint, understanding how they
1:30:01
Speaker 1: can do this. And we're not talking about driving the
1:30:04
Speaker 1: theater numbers you know that was really popular. We're talking
1:30:07
Speaker 1: about twenty seven and thirty three million. How does one
1:30:10
Speaker 1: make their money on that? They make it through subscriptions,
1:30:12
Speaker 1: do they may make it for a purview rate? How
1:30:15
Speaker 1: was he able to make his money? The money took
1:30:19
Speaker 1: place in the purchases. So a lot of folks don't
1:30:21
Speaker 1: understand that within the game, you can purchase what's called skins.
1:30:25
Speaker 1: So I'll give you an example of a skin purchase.
1:30:28
Speaker 1: He was selling cactus Jack merch in a virtual space.
1:30:33
Speaker 1: So if you had a gun and you wanted your
1:30:34
Speaker 1: gun to be hoo ho ho. Hold, they're not even
1:30:38
Speaker 1: taking this home. They're not even taking it home. They're
1:30:42
Speaker 1: not even taking at home. So you're buying a shirt
1:30:46
Speaker 1: within the virtual space, and it's living on your avatar
1:30:50
Speaker 1: within the virtual space. Absolutely, and that was the beauty
1:30:56
Speaker 1: of the relationship and of the relationships between artists and
1:31:01
Speaker 1: the gaming industry because now there's an opportunity that steps
1:31:05
Speaker 1: outside of the three sixty relationship with the labels. And
1:31:08
Speaker 1: you know, that's a whole different conversation that will say
1:31:11
Speaker 1: for another day of how the labels are monetizing off
1:31:14
Speaker 1: of folks more than they're monetizing off of themselves. Well,
1:31:17
Speaker 1: now you've got an opportunity to monetize off of yourself.
1:31:21
Speaker 1: And that's what this proved. So you you know, again,
1:31:25
Speaker 1: we we we do the math, right, we do the
1:31:27
Speaker 1: math around here. Um, if if if Travis would have
1:31:31
Speaker 1: would have sold out of stadium at forty thou people,
1:31:34
Speaker 1: and if he would have done a tour of a
1:31:36
Speaker 1: hundred stops at forty people, he would have only been
1:31:39
Speaker 1: in front of four million people million in four days.
1:31:43
Speaker 1: And he's very tired, by the way, he's very tired,
1:31:48
Speaker 1: and there's light and there's lodging, and he never left,
1:31:51
Speaker 1: you know, they never left the convenience of homes. So
1:31:54
Speaker 1: you know, when you're able to look at it from
1:31:56
Speaker 1: that perspective and what that means to the artist and
1:31:59
Speaker 1: kind of the bandwidth that it opens for them to
1:32:02
Speaker 1: do other things. And we've seen what that led to.
1:32:05
Speaker 1: I mean, who took advantage of that rashon We we
1:32:07
Speaker 1: ended up seeing that McDonald's took advantage of that during
1:32:10
Speaker 1: this time. And next thing you knew he had you know,
1:32:12
Speaker 1: he had a product on the menu on the McDonald's
1:32:17
Speaker 1: menu that opened up because he was hot during this time.
1:32:19
Speaker 1: He was relevant during this time and why not capitalized
1:32:22
Speaker 1: during this time? Wow. So with that being said, we
1:32:25
Speaker 1: were talking about the urban perspective, cultural perspective. You know,
1:32:29
Speaker 1: you know uh nas and uh nas X and uh
1:32:34
Speaker 1: and uh Travis Scott their cultural phenomenons, you know, they
1:32:38
Speaker 1: carry us Shorty Mark, Now you have a based in Atlanta,
1:32:42
Speaker 1: Jordy called Community X and the sports league that's UH
1:32:45
Speaker 1: geared towards HBCUs and also people of color. How did
1:32:49
Speaker 1: that relationship come about? I want and and and and
1:32:53
Speaker 1: I don't know the details of that entire relationship, but
1:32:56
Speaker 1: I'd like to talk about the top line of that relationship. First,
1:32:59
Speaker 1: I want to send my greatest support out to Chris
1:33:02
Speaker 1: p and I. I always like to any time I'm
1:33:05
Speaker 1: having a conversation about gaming and the sports mentioned some
1:33:07
Speaker 1: names along the way, So as we continue to talk,
1:33:10
Speaker 1: I'll mention some names because I think it's really important
1:33:12
Speaker 1: for the people of color that have stepped into this
1:33:15
Speaker 1: space where there's there's only very few, UM, you know,
1:33:18
Speaker 1: just to kind of acknowledge them as as I have
1:33:21
Speaker 1: an opportunity to talk about what we're doing. But I
1:33:24
Speaker 1: think that it's it's beautiful what Community X is doing
1:33:28
Speaker 1: UM with the HBCUs, and most importantly UM that they
1:33:32
Speaker 1: were able to tag in a brand like Twitch to
1:33:35
Speaker 1: support what they're doing UH, creating tournament opportunities, creating spot
1:33:40
Speaker 1: scholarship opportunities for students, creating financial beneficial opportunities for students,
1:33:46
Speaker 1: and also not just stopping there, but working with HBC
1:33:51
Speaker 1: used to build out their e sports program. So I
1:33:54
Speaker 1: often say, you know, and I use Little Cross as
1:33:57
Speaker 1: an example. One of the greatest college with lacrosse players
1:34:00
Speaker 1: is Jim Brown. And people don't know that. He obviously
1:34:02
Speaker 1: went on and became one of the greatest running backs
1:34:04
Speaker 1: in NFL history, but he was one of the greatest
1:34:07
Speaker 1: lacrosse players at the University of Syracuse. And oddly enough,
1:34:10
Speaker 1: you know, we don't have a lot of folks who
1:34:14
Speaker 1: play lacrosse, and a lot of that is because of
1:34:16
Speaker 1: just the economics of playing it. That goes along with
1:34:19
Speaker 1: hockey and that goes along with other sports. Just the economics.
1:34:21
Speaker 1: There is an economic factor around gaming. You've got to
1:34:26
Speaker 1: have high speed modems or else you're gonna be slow
1:34:28
Speaker 1: and delayed in in the game. You've got to have
1:34:30
Speaker 1: the equipment and so on and so forth. There are,
1:34:33
Speaker 1: you know, obstacles that exist. And to know that Twitch
1:34:36
Speaker 1: is willing to step in support our you know, you know,
1:34:40
Speaker 1: you know, kids of the future, young men and women
1:34:42
Speaker 1: of the future, is just a beautiful thing. And that's
1:34:44
Speaker 1: truly a commitment that I appreciate. So I always give
1:34:47
Speaker 1: a shout out to Community X and what they're doing.
1:34:49
Speaker 1: UM and what they're building. This is a long term.
1:34:51
Speaker 1: This isn't a one year deal, So this is a
1:34:53
Speaker 1: long term relationship that they formed here, and I definitely
1:34:56
Speaker 1: applaud what they're doing. Well. Your background is music, fashion, sports,
1:35:00
Speaker 1: How does that shape itself into what you're doing TV. Absolutely,
1:35:05
Speaker 1: I think that i've I've I've tapped into UM those
1:35:10
Speaker 1: elements of and I always I always use the word
1:35:12
Speaker 1: culture right UM and and I think i've I've learned
1:35:16
Speaker 1: from each one of them the identification of people, process
1:35:20
Speaker 1: and performance UM. And I think that those things are
1:35:23
Speaker 1: are what's tapped in. I mean, I was a part
1:35:25
Speaker 1: of the Tom Ford era of Gucci. That's a legendary era. UM.
1:35:29
Speaker 1: I was a part of, you know, the moment that
1:35:32
Speaker 1: Sony b MG overtook Universal as the number one UM
1:35:36
Speaker 1: music house in business like, those were legendary moments. And
1:35:39
Speaker 1: as a business development guy and and and and and
1:35:41
Speaker 1: a leader with both organizations, it was great to be
1:35:44
Speaker 1: a part of building something UM. And that is the
1:35:48
Speaker 1: part of this moment that's so intriguing, is that we're
1:35:53
Speaker 1: building things that don't exist. And I always say to folks,
1:35:56
Speaker 1: look for the white space of opportunity at ease something
1:36:01
Speaker 1: that doesn't exist or something that you believe that you
1:36:03
Speaker 1: can do better, but don't only identify it, and don't
1:36:07
Speaker 1: only make a plan, but truly make those goals and
1:36:10
Speaker 1: outperform your own goals. And if you're able to do that,
1:36:13
Speaker 1: then there is an endless opportunity for you in those spaces.
1:36:16
Speaker 1: And this was just a natural progression for me from
1:36:20
Speaker 1: music from fashion. You might start to see and not
1:36:24
Speaker 1: start to see this has already happening. Gucci has tied
1:36:27
Speaker 1: in with gaming, Louis Batton is tied in with gaming,
1:36:31
Speaker 1: Butlinciaga has tied in with gaming. You're seeing fashion come
1:36:35
Speaker 1: in from a merchandise perspective and they're tapping in. You're
1:36:38
Speaker 1: seeing music come in and they're tapping in. So these
1:36:41
Speaker 1: opportunities are less And I just feel like my background,
1:36:44
Speaker 1: the convergence of everything that I've done, um is actually
1:36:48
Speaker 1: taking place right now in the gaming space. Well right, well,
1:36:52
Speaker 1: right now. It's incredible. And uh you articulate the whole
1:36:55
Speaker 1: subject matter strongly. Uh so, what what so with that
1:36:59
Speaker 1: being saying the future of what you're trying to do
1:37:02
Speaker 1: with the goals, you know, because of the fact that
1:37:04
Speaker 1: my mind is flying you know when you when we're
1:37:06
Speaker 1: throughout those numbers and we're about to come out of
1:37:08
Speaker 1: COVID and one there's a there's all parts. What's the
1:37:12
Speaker 1: new model? What is the new model? You know, who
1:37:15
Speaker 1: knows Taylor Swift might be knocking on your door because
1:37:17
Speaker 1: of the fact that this seems so natural to what
1:37:21
Speaker 1: what these artists who have who understand their brands. These
1:37:24
Speaker 1: are brand centric people and that's what that that's what
1:37:27
Speaker 1: you're talking about. People who have are following and understand
1:37:29
Speaker 1: them and engage with their opportunities to be like that.
1:37:33
Speaker 1: Do you seek out the talent or the talent seeks
1:37:35
Speaker 1: you out? I think it's a combination of both. So
1:37:40
Speaker 1: I think that we do have our eye on certain folks.
1:37:44
Speaker 1: But the future of what we're doing right now, and
1:37:47
Speaker 1: I always like to use basketball is the example. Think
1:37:51
Speaker 1: of the different eras of the NBA. So think of
1:37:56
Speaker 1: the colorful basketball era is what I call it, that
1:38:00
Speaker 1: the dr J era, So think of the dr J era,
1:38:04
Speaker 1: and then there was the rivalry era. I'd like to
1:38:07
Speaker 1: say that that's magic first bird um and then you
1:38:10
Speaker 1: throw in the pistons in there as well, and then
1:38:13
Speaker 1: you have what's the current era, and that's the Michael
1:38:16
Speaker 1: Jordan Era. The reason that I call it the Michael
1:38:18
Speaker 1: Jordan era is because he was the first to become
1:38:23
Speaker 1: his own ecosystem, his own conglomerate. He was his own brand,
1:38:29
Speaker 1: and that brand transcended North America and became a global brand.
1:38:34
Speaker 1: That's where we are today with the sports. Part of
1:38:38
Speaker 1: that is how do you not how do you continue
1:38:41
Speaker 1: to engage the hardcore gamer but also engaged with the
1:38:47
Speaker 1: casual gamer um. And that's what our role is going
1:38:51
Speaker 1: to be in the community. So think of if you
1:38:55
Speaker 1: are an HBO fan and you watch Hard Knocks UM
1:38:59
Speaker 1: with you know, the New Our Giants or with the
1:39:01
Speaker 1: Atlanta Falcons on HBO and how they storytelling. You see
1:39:04
Speaker 1: what Brian Gumble does on HBO with Real Sport. So
1:39:08
Speaker 1: you watch Inside the NFL on Showtime. These are shows
1:39:12
Speaker 1: that actually are just shoulder programming that tell this story
1:39:15
Speaker 1: to create a higher engagement. Um, Floyd Mayweather did it
1:39:19
Speaker 1: great with seven series. I love this series. I love
1:39:23
Speaker 1: those cities outstanding, those I love those many I really missed.
1:39:29
Speaker 1: Those are really compelling, man, those are really good storytelling. Yes, absolutely,
1:39:34
Speaker 1: and that's that's the future of this How do you
1:39:36
Speaker 1: get the casual fan to become a fan of a
1:39:39
Speaker 1: specific team, a specific organization, a title, or a gamer.
1:39:43
Speaker 1: And that's what we're doing here, is we're actually, you know,
1:39:46
Speaker 1: telling the story for the casual while also telling the
1:39:49
Speaker 1: untold stories for the hardcore gamer. And that's the future
1:39:53
Speaker 1: of what we're going to be bringing here, Dante. Keep
1:39:55
Speaker 1: me on your roller decks man, some of aising information,
1:40:01
Speaker 1: um beautiful stuff that uh that you know you're a
1:40:05
Speaker 1: hair turner and understand that that's a positive thing to
1:40:08
Speaker 1: say about somebody who walks in the room and it
1:40:10
Speaker 1: goes that's a head turner because they want to talk
1:40:13
Speaker 1: to you, they want to communicate, they want to get
1:40:15
Speaker 1: inside a visionary. That's where you are, your visionary. Like
1:40:18
Speaker 1: you said, you know, I always tell people wouldn't luck
1:40:21
Speaker 1: being at the right place at the right time when
1:40:23
Speaker 1: those the Guccia thing happened with Tom Ford, that sony
1:40:26
Speaker 1: me and my thing happened. Now this is happening, all right.
1:40:30
Speaker 1: I think that's what you do, sir, that's what you do.
1:40:33
Speaker 1: You're a game changer. Don't change. Okay, Well, thank you,
1:40:36
Speaker 1: thank you so much. We will be right back with
1:40:39
Speaker 1: more money making Conversations with your host ras Sean McDonald
1:40:42
Speaker 1: Hi and ras Sean McDonald the host of Money Making Conversations.
1:40:45
Speaker 1: The Cafe Marka Swag Award is a celebration of black
1:40:47
Speaker 1: men who are making a difference in our community by
1:40:49
Speaker 1: empowering others to reach their life goals from civic leaders, businessmen, activists,
1:40:54
Speaker 1: celebrities and everyday days. The Cafe Marca Swag Award winner
1:40:58
Speaker 1: this week is Jeff Clangan. Jeff is an award winning
1:41:01
Speaker 1: producer and innovator and entertainment A long time business partner
1:41:05
Speaker 1: of Kevin Hart. He is the president of Pole Black Films,
1:41:08
Speaker 1: Laugh Out Loud and Heartbeat Digital. Despite Jeff's business schedule,
1:41:12
Speaker 1: he continues to pay it forward with his summer internship
1:41:15
Speaker 1: mentor program that he does every year. Okay, I've been
1:41:18
Speaker 1: doing this for probably the last five years. So I
1:41:20
Speaker 1: take five students every summer and I put them through
1:41:24
Speaker 1: kind of like a boot camp and social media. So
1:41:26
Speaker 1: they they're working on account they have to read books,
1:41:29
Speaker 1: they got to read articles, they got to do a
1:41:30
Speaker 1: predication every week, so they they it's actually like a
1:41:33
Speaker 1: bootcast why they're working and they're getting paid during it.
1:41:36
Speaker 1: The Cafe Mocha Swag Award represents men who have strength,
1:41:39
Speaker 1: whose wisdom is assertive, and who are genuine in their spirit.
1:41:42
Speaker 1: Welcome back to money Making Conversations with your host, Ra
1:41:46
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. When I bring guests on my shows about
1:41:48
Speaker 1: their effort their dreams, some of them start right away,
1:41:51
Speaker 1: some of them will set back this dream. For these
1:41:54
Speaker 1: two gentlemen on my call today starting and win the year,
1:41:59
Speaker 1: my next two guests on the Vore Grievous and Mikale
1:42:02
Speaker 1: Piles there two HBCU Grass and Fraternity Brothers cafside Fraternity Ink.
1:42:08
Speaker 1: You know I'm an make a man, but you know
1:42:09
Speaker 1: I got love for Nat and Level who found it
1:42:12
Speaker 1: Quickly while attending Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia in
1:42:16
Speaker 1: two ten. The company is a digital platform for wine,
1:42:19
Speaker 1: beer and spirit delivery that operates out of Miami, Florida,
1:42:22
Speaker 1: and while and while expanding, they will be in Georgia
1:42:25
Speaker 1: in early one. Quickly is the first black owned online
1:42:29
Speaker 1: alcohol marketplace and seeks to make arderent alcohol easy and convenient,
1:42:34
Speaker 1: while being committed to growing the culture of drinking responsibily.
1:42:37
Speaker 1: That's always important. Please working with money Making Conversations, the
1:42:41
Speaker 1: all grievous and Michale Piles Piles that's your name, right,
1:42:46
Speaker 1: you did, you did, thank you so much so well,
1:42:52
Speaker 1: you know, grievous. You know I had to work on
1:42:54
Speaker 1: that name. You know, that was a whole name. So
1:43:00
Speaker 1: HPCU guys, Atlanta, Georgia and okay, you guys were concerned
1:43:07
Speaker 1: about liquor delivery, it's talk to me, I thought, well,
1:43:15
Speaker 1: actually quickly was succeptualized. In eleven it was right. Michael
1:43:20
Speaker 1: I graduated from Clark Many University, was at a social
1:43:23
Speaker 1: gathering and everything on fine and well, and the party
1:43:27
Speaker 1: started to die down because it was no more liquor available.
1:43:29
Speaker 1: And at the time Michael and myself nobody wanted to
1:43:32
Speaker 1: make the liquor delivery. And we just thought, what if
1:43:35
Speaker 1: we had a website that we can go on and
1:43:36
Speaker 1: have alcohol delivery on every we can call what Theoctor
1:43:39
Speaker 1: circuit delivered alcohol to us. Again, this is in two
1:43:42
Speaker 1: thousand eleven, before its times, before uh East Door Dash Atlas.
1:43:47
Speaker 1: There's a lot of the gality back in two thousand eleven.
1:43:49
Speaker 1: So thus the party, you know, died down and there
1:43:52
Speaker 1: was no solution. Fast forward is when it became legal.
1:43:56
Speaker 1: Party companies like ourselves partner with alcohol store for all
1:44:00
Speaker 1: sorts of make deliveries, and that's kind of what we
1:44:02
Speaker 1: started to running. I live out here in Miami. We
1:44:05
Speaker 1: operate and headquarter in Mighty Beach. We started off as
1:44:07
Speaker 1: just an acpohol delivery and a team, but as we
1:44:09
Speaker 1: started to grow, as they started to change and start
1:44:11
Speaker 1: the partnering with rods Here's company. So now we're a
1:44:14
Speaker 1: full transparent Alllines is a market place for beer winning spirits.
1:44:18
Speaker 1: Now you know he did it? All that information up
1:44:23
Speaker 1: either talking man? Now now somebody coming and talk no
1:44:29
Speaker 1: cago come out of the back. Whoa man, y'all down?
1:44:37
Speaker 1: That was all those beautiful women, pau y'all pick the
1:44:42
Speaker 1: right sitting to kick off this business. Tell micall, tell
1:44:45
Speaker 1: everybody starting in Miami down there, because when I say
1:44:48
Speaker 1: beautiful women, you guys both know I am not lying. Listen, listen.
1:44:54
Speaker 1: You know. The good thing is my eyes are working,
1:44:57
Speaker 1: so you I can tell you sir, you are not
1:44:59
Speaker 1: wide whatever. However, just as a cavey, I I am married,
1:45:04
Speaker 1: you know, so you know I look but don't touch um.
1:45:09
Speaker 1: Starting in starting the business in Miami was really not
1:45:13
Speaker 1: only just a blessing for us, but a no brainer
1:45:16
Speaker 1: business wise. Miami is a multicultural, uh megaplex when it
1:45:23
Speaker 1: comes to demographics and age groups and people from all
1:45:28
Speaker 1: different cultures and walks of life. So starting a business
1:45:31
Speaker 1: in a melting pot like Miami proved to be very,
1:45:35
Speaker 1: very successful from us, not just from a sales and
1:45:39
Speaker 1: revenue standpoint, but from a standpoint of business analysis. A
1:45:44
Speaker 1: large part of what Quickly does is trying to make
1:45:47
Speaker 1: the world of adult beverages more convenient and accessible for
1:45:51
Speaker 1: our customers. So being able to work with Hispanic customers
1:45:55
Speaker 1: and black and brown customers and white customers as well,
1:45:59
Speaker 1: you know, all coming together in Miami has been a
1:46:02
Speaker 1: great success for us to get the business up and
1:46:05
Speaker 1: running and see how our products interacts with people from
1:46:09
Speaker 1: all different walks of life, and also international as well,
1:46:12
Speaker 1: because that's the beauty of starting in Miami. You know,
1:46:15
Speaker 1: you have that Brazilian brace, that Cuban base. You know, it's,
1:46:18
Speaker 1: like like you said, a melting pot, but also domestically
1:46:22
Speaker 1: as well as internationally. It's a great spot to go there. Now,
1:46:25
Speaker 1: you said in the var you were already down there. Yeah,
1:46:28
Speaker 1: I didn't. Living in my five years now and so
1:46:31
Speaker 1: to launch it down there. The whole concept of I
1:46:35
Speaker 1: want to step back for me because I want to
1:46:36
Speaker 1: go back to twenty level and the HBCU experience, the
1:46:40
Speaker 1: black fraternity experience, because you know, I remember making Silti
1:46:43
Speaker 1: fire problem member as your problem members of calf for
1:46:46
Speaker 1: side and the thing about in you know, HBCUs somehow
1:46:53
Speaker 1: started getting donations and people corp right corporations start recognizing
1:46:57
Speaker 1: the need to connect whether diversity. How did that affect you?
1:47:02
Speaker 1: And I let you start in the vau and definitely, Michael,
1:47:04
Speaker 1: I wanted to hear your reaction to this as well
1:47:06
Speaker 1: on hbc US and how it seemed to And it
1:47:09
Speaker 1: was before we had a vice president elect in Kamala
1:47:14
Speaker 1: Harris from hard University, so this was this was momentum
1:47:17
Speaker 1: before her. So talk about in the vault. Yeah, I
1:47:21
Speaker 1: mean that's the whole beauty of going to HBC For me,
1:47:24
Speaker 1: it's the relationships that you know now established going to
1:47:27
Speaker 1: clark Land University and just you know, being a part
1:47:29
Speaker 1: of cap Alpaca. You know, I met other fraternity brothers
1:47:32
Speaker 1: across you know, the US, and for us, you know,
1:47:35
Speaker 1: just being able to expand, expand, you know, our and company,
1:47:40
Speaker 1: you know as a whole. You know, from hbc US establishment,
1:47:44
Speaker 1: it's just meant the lock for us. Yeah, you know,
1:47:49
Speaker 1: um just just to its sound on that as well.
1:47:53
Speaker 1: Coming from an HBCU background, it really fuels our fire
1:47:58
Speaker 1: when it comes to starting this business, growing this business,
1:48:02
Speaker 1: being entrepreneurs and having a platform to really inspire and
1:48:05
Speaker 1: motivate other folks that look like us, that have similar
1:48:09
Speaker 1: backgrounds as us. I'm sure you know Sean that you know,
1:48:12
Speaker 1: the black and brown community in business, especially in the
1:48:16
Speaker 1: tech world, in the entrepreneurial world, we're majorly underrepresented. And
1:48:21
Speaker 1: so coming from PARKT Landing University, you know, an HBCU
1:48:25
Speaker 1: that was founded on the principles of you know, the
1:48:28
Speaker 1: Christian Church and the ideals of young black men and
1:48:32
Speaker 1: young Black women having all of the same opportunities as
1:48:37
Speaker 1: as the as their majority counterparts. You know, it's very
1:48:40
Speaker 1: important for us to reach back to the ABC community,
1:48:44
Speaker 1: to the Greek community, to our communities that we grew
1:48:47
Speaker 1: up in and show them that we can make a
1:48:49
Speaker 1: way in tech in business, and we've been able to
1:48:53
Speaker 1: do that. You know, we're extremely proud of the fact
1:48:57
Speaker 1: that we built quick Lit from the ground up with
1:49:00
Speaker 1: out any outside or private funding. We're completely self funded
1:49:04
Speaker 1: up until this point. You know, we have women on
1:49:07
Speaker 1: our chief executive board. You know we have black people
1:49:10
Speaker 1: on our chief executive board from an h B c
1:49:13
Speaker 1: U s and we're just very proud of that because
1:49:16
Speaker 1: we don't see enough people in the market that look
1:49:18
Speaker 1: like us, and we want to change that. Well, we
1:49:20
Speaker 1: will change that. Now nothing of are he's spent time
1:49:24
Speaker 1: over in China. Now I'm trying to figure out how
1:49:27
Speaker 1: he go over to Beijing. He was an h B
1:49:30
Speaker 1: c U beig not and I am it now now
1:49:34
Speaker 1: you you you're something else. All talk about that experience
1:49:36
Speaker 1: because I always tell people I remember when I left
1:49:39
Speaker 1: my job and uh ibm to tell jokes, you know,
1:49:42
Speaker 1: gonna be the next day Murphy. But it was a
1:49:44
Speaker 1: lot of unknown to that and because you don't know
1:49:46
Speaker 1: when you walk going next year, you don't know what.
1:49:48
Speaker 1: I know, a black man going to China. Why now,
1:49:55
Speaker 1: I'm very adventurous. I love, you know, trying something new,
1:49:59
Speaker 1: going to where else I've never been. And uh me,
1:50:02
Speaker 1: China was was open. Was an open experience for me
1:50:04
Speaker 1: over my eyes because a lot of things we say,
1:50:06
Speaker 1: for granted, you know, working uh in the bathroom, eating
1:50:10
Speaker 1: is things that they don't have. You know, these kids,
1:50:12
Speaker 1: their kids when I say, fourteen thirteen years old working
1:50:15
Speaker 1: sixteen hour ships NonStop and scared to speak to people,
1:50:18
Speaker 1: and you come here in America where you know, we're
1:50:21
Speaker 1: they're crying about eight hour ships or seven hour ships. Uh.
1:50:24
Speaker 1: And it's a lot of things just say for granted.
1:50:25
Speaker 1: So that really shifted my parodigm and just changed my
1:50:28
Speaker 1: way of looking at life. And UH really allowed me
1:50:30
Speaker 1: to take a lot of things that we take for
1:50:31
Speaker 1: granted here in the US and to run with it
1:50:34
Speaker 1: because you know, not to not to make that same
1:50:36
Speaker 1: you know, mistake that I may or I have had
1:50:39
Speaker 1: that same type of energy or I just wanted to
1:50:41
Speaker 1: carry an energy over from China to UH to America,
1:50:44
Speaker 1: because like I said, there's a lot of things that
1:50:45
Speaker 1: we take for granted that we could be you know,
1:50:47
Speaker 1: using to our full advantage here. When when you say
1:50:49
Speaker 1: that take for granted, you know, because you know, we
1:50:52
Speaker 1: take air condition for granted, We take a toilet supposed
1:50:56
Speaker 1: to be a bathroom supposed to be in your house.
1:50:58
Speaker 1: You know, you know, what what are some of the things.
1:51:01
Speaker 1: So if you said there's top three things that we
1:51:03
Speaker 1: take it that we take for granted the United States
1:51:05
Speaker 1: that we should appreciate more precise democracy. Uh, like I said, one,
1:51:10
Speaker 1: like you said, just the bathroom. The way we use
1:51:12
Speaker 1: the bathroom is totally different, uh you know the comfort
1:51:15
Speaker 1: And I just said, it's totally different from the China
1:51:17
Speaker 1: experience of how you use the bathroom. So I use
1:51:19
Speaker 1: the bathroom here in America. That was just a totally
1:51:21
Speaker 1: eye opener because, like I said, I'm sanitary. You know,
1:51:23
Speaker 1: our work life schedule, you know, we have work like
1:51:26
Speaker 1: balanced sort to say here in America where you know,
1:51:27
Speaker 1: work eight hour shifts, work four hours a weekend. We think,
1:51:30
Speaker 1: you know, that's you know, good balance. Whereas in China
1:51:33
Speaker 1: they're working sixty eight hours shifts like it's the norm,
1:51:36
Speaker 1: and you know they're not even you know, it's coming
1:51:37
Speaker 1: up for their breaks like thirty minutes. And I go
1:51:39
Speaker 1: to some of these you know, some of these places
1:51:40
Speaker 1: I was going to China. You know, these their customers
1:51:42
Speaker 1: were here to speak outside of you know, outside of
1:51:44
Speaker 1: their work because this is what they were stricting, you know,
1:51:47
Speaker 1: what they had to do. So that kind of just
1:51:49
Speaker 1: opened my eyes. Is just like man those things that
1:51:51
Speaker 1: we take for granted to work hours, how we eat, Uh,
1:51:55
Speaker 1: you know, a shower, Like I said, they're taking showers outside,
1:51:57
Speaker 1: some of them in certain certain places. Uh. And then
1:52:00
Speaker 1: also like I said, it's it's crazy because in China
1:52:02
Speaker 1: is a communist place, so you know, just driving cars,
1:52:07
Speaker 1: they only can have you know, driving cards six days
1:52:09
Speaker 1: out of the week. Uh. The seventh day they can't
1:52:11
Speaker 1: drive because of the population. So it's just a lot
1:52:13
Speaker 1: of regulations that they have to follow and the bide
1:52:15
Speaker 1: by that. Here in America week you know obviously got
1:52:17
Speaker 1: to free. The free didn't do whatever we want. Wow.
1:52:20
Speaker 1: Now Mr Pas corporate man talking sir. So that's what
1:52:24
Speaker 1: I love talking to about because you guys, and that's
1:52:27
Speaker 1: why I feel you guys are going to be successful
1:52:28
Speaker 1: because I always tell people, you know, when you've got
1:52:31
Speaker 1: people with so many different unique ideas and you're willing
1:52:34
Speaker 1: to compromise and combine those ideas. Because I look at
1:52:38
Speaker 1: the international flavor, I don't getting the vall. He's the
1:52:40
Speaker 1: international flavor. You know, it's he's both of you guys
1:52:44
Speaker 1: went to the HBU school and then you come from
1:52:46
Speaker 1: a corporate perspective. You know that corporate breakdown. Explain how
1:52:50
Speaker 1: that's being an asset to you and building out the
1:52:52
Speaker 1: biggers in the quickly. Absolutely absolutely so. You know, I
1:52:57
Speaker 1: was very fortunate to be able to cut my teeth
1:53:00
Speaker 1: in the corporate world working for large fortune fifty and
1:53:04
Speaker 1: fortunate one corporations such as Target at their corporate headquarters. Uh.
1:53:09
Speaker 1: It allowed me as a young man because I started
1:53:11
Speaker 1: working in the corporate world right out of college two
1:53:15
Speaker 1: years old. Um, I got got into it and had
1:53:17
Speaker 1: a lot of responsibility as a young man in a
1:53:20
Speaker 1: very big pond. And what it what it taught me
1:53:23
Speaker 1: was a few things. In order to make a company
1:53:27
Speaker 1: work and thrive, You need collaboration, You need teamwork, You
1:53:31
Speaker 1: need a diverse set of individuals with different backgrounds, just
1:53:35
Speaker 1: like you said, you know, Navarre bring something totally different
1:53:38
Speaker 1: to quick Lick than I do. And that goes for
1:53:41
Speaker 1: all of the people on our executive board and just
1:53:43
Speaker 1: on our team in general. And another thing that getting
1:53:47
Speaker 1: my start in the corporate world showed me was just
1:53:51
Speaker 1: to have polish and professionalism. You know, for us as
1:53:55
Speaker 1: African American men, really trying to revolutionize an industry that
1:53:59
Speaker 1: thousand severe years old, like alcohol, we have to work
1:54:03
Speaker 1: that much harder and be that much more tight and
1:54:06
Speaker 1: polished and refined in order for people to take us
1:54:09
Speaker 1: seriously and in order to grow this business and make
1:54:13
Speaker 1: the connections we need to take this business to the
1:54:15
Speaker 1: next level. And so getting that experience allowed me to
1:54:18
Speaker 1: work with people from all different backgrounds, people not just
1:54:22
Speaker 1: from HBC used like myself, but also the Harvards of
1:54:25
Speaker 1: the world and the Yales, and that sort of experience
1:54:29
Speaker 1: was invaluable. And then the last thing that working in
1:54:31
Speaker 1: corporate showed me Rushan was that working in the corporate
1:54:36
Speaker 1: world was great as a young man, but in order
1:54:40
Speaker 1: to truly establish generational wealth, which is me and of
1:54:43
Speaker 1: ours goal in life, to have a legacy to leave
1:54:46
Speaker 1: to our family and our kids in our community, you
1:54:49
Speaker 1: need to branch out on your own and take ownership
1:54:52
Speaker 1: of something. So corporate gave me the background and the polish,
1:54:56
Speaker 1: but it also gave me the motivation to say, you
1:54:58
Speaker 1: know what, if I want to get I've been saying
1:55:00
Speaker 1: it the way and I deserve to be compensated. If
1:55:02
Speaker 1: I want to build generational wealth, I can't do that
1:55:05
Speaker 1: working under someone. I gotta get out and bet on
1:55:08
Speaker 1: myself and grow a business like we did with Quickly.
1:55:12
Speaker 1: I want to follow up what you just said, Um,
1:55:15
Speaker 1: COVID eighteen, COVID ninteen hit we saw, you know, the
1:55:21
Speaker 1: ability to do curve side delivery, online delivery. Have you
1:55:25
Speaker 1: know Amazon gonna be announcing where they're gonna they're gonna
1:55:28
Speaker 1: drone in deliveries two people homes probably in late What impact?
1:55:34
Speaker 1: They said, time is everything. Being able to pivot is everything.
1:55:38
Speaker 1: The COVID situation with the launch of your delivery of
1:55:42
Speaker 1: quick Lick, talk about the advantages of that timing to
1:55:47
Speaker 1: the positive impact on your business. Uh yeah, so really
1:55:51
Speaker 1: it was divine time. And say say true, I mean
1:55:54
Speaker 1: we you know, because exceptionalized quickly in two thousand and eleven,
1:55:58
Speaker 1: it became mount in twenty eight when the pandemic happened,
1:56:02
Speaker 1: you know hit us all, you know by a story.
1:56:04
Speaker 1: We had to take a step back. We actually shut
1:56:05
Speaker 1: down operations for two days and kind of get an
1:56:07
Speaker 1: understanding of what was going on with COVID where we
1:56:09
Speaker 1: had to put hand make sure all our delivery drivers
1:56:12
Speaker 1: have mass and gloves of the time. But after we
1:56:14
Speaker 1: got a better understanding of the pandemical was going on,
1:56:17
Speaker 1: and really you know, hit like a light snitch. It
1:56:18
Speaker 1: became a necessity for all delivery. Especially with everything going on,
1:56:22
Speaker 1: Customers no longer wanted to, you know, make get up
1:56:25
Speaker 1: of the house and go to the liquor story to
1:56:26
Speaker 1: get to the bottom. So now having quickly got an
1:56:29
Speaker 1: option where you know, they can select the best beer
1:56:31
Speaker 1: wine expirits with just a click from their website or
1:56:34
Speaker 1: from their phone. We made that option and really, you know,
1:56:37
Speaker 1: ran what we had to make some you know maneuvers
1:56:39
Speaker 1: within our business model. For that's the most part they
1:56:43
Speaker 1: worked in our favor. That was just divine time and
1:56:45
Speaker 1: the bus teople putting their head down. And now that
1:56:47
Speaker 1: when we looked up, you know, it was just the
1:56:49
Speaker 1: perfect time and for the pandemic that happened for quickly.
1:56:53
Speaker 1: Now with that being said, okay, when I go to
1:56:56
Speaker 1: a website that sales lookally, it says click right here.
1:56:58
Speaker 1: If you're a team click you know identified. So my
1:57:03
Speaker 1: number one thought is, okay, who do you don't buy
1:57:05
Speaker 1: in your liquor? That the request in these deliveries? How
1:57:08
Speaker 1: do you protect yourself? Mr Piles, Yes, sir, so um,
1:57:13
Speaker 1: that's a great question. And in this business, you know,
1:57:17
Speaker 1: age verification We call it age gating, meaning you know,
1:57:21
Speaker 1: if you're not of age to drink, you can't you
1:57:23
Speaker 1: can't be on our website, you can't get our product.
1:57:26
Speaker 1: We don't even want to talk to you over the phone.
1:57:28
Speaker 1: You know, quickly has a huge corporate responsibility to make
1:57:31
Speaker 1: sure that we are being gatekeepers, um, to make sure
1:57:35
Speaker 1: that folks of drinking age, not miners of drinking age,
1:57:39
Speaker 1: have access to our products. So what we do is
1:57:42
Speaker 1: we have lots of different age gating sets in the
1:57:46
Speaker 1: process in order to order from us. So as soon
1:57:49
Speaker 1: as you go to our website or as soon as
1:57:51
Speaker 1: you go to our app, it's gonna ask you before
1:57:54
Speaker 1: you can even see the website, are you over twenty
1:57:57
Speaker 1: one years old? That's the first step. And then and
1:58:00
Speaker 1: you can you know, once you verify you are, you
1:58:02
Speaker 1: can go ahead and browse our inventory, see what you
1:58:05
Speaker 1: like to order, and before you check out, you have
1:58:08
Speaker 1: to verify again. And then before our delivery drivers give
1:58:12
Speaker 1: you the bottles, they're gonna check your I D. So
1:58:15
Speaker 1: we have at least three steps in our age verification
1:58:19
Speaker 1: process at all times. That's awesome. Now, so I'm about
1:58:23
Speaker 1: to talk about coming to Atlanta. I gotta go to
1:58:25
Speaker 1: the single guy here. I'm sorry, sir, you you showed
1:58:28
Speaker 1: me the ring. So I know this February campaign and
1:58:32
Speaker 1: got nothing to do with you. That's all the all
1:58:38
Speaker 1: right there, that's all I thought. That's for a fact
1:58:42
Speaker 1: it would look to because Atlanta. You know, you guys
1:58:45
Speaker 1: are coming to uh Atlanta February with a campaign called
1:58:48
Speaker 1: shoot your Shot. I I it sounds like a lot
1:58:51
Speaker 1: of fun the campaign and getting eyeballs and getting engagement
1:58:55
Speaker 1: is always the key to make it happen. Talk about
1:58:58
Speaker 1: the shoot your Shot campaign. Yeah, So, like I said,
1:59:01
Speaker 1: we're excited to be extend to uh Atlanta. You know,
1:59:04
Speaker 1: Mikell and I both went to Clarkland University, so Atlanta's
1:59:07
Speaker 1: home for us. And we thought of a dope marketing
1:59:09
Speaker 1: campaign called shoot your Shots. Amount of Time's day. Now
1:59:15
Speaker 1: it's shoot your shot. It's not just to shoot your shot.
1:59:17
Speaker 1: You know, you got the girl or the girlfriend and
1:59:19
Speaker 1: the girls you've been to Mari and there's all shoot
1:59:21
Speaker 1: your shot at businesses and you know, companies and industries
1:59:24
Speaker 1: that you probably want to you know, you know, pay
1:59:25
Speaker 1: way for it getting or get into uh So it's more,
1:59:28
Speaker 1: it's much more than just shoot your shot for amount
1:59:30
Speaker 1: of Time's Day. But yeah, it's a campaign that we've
1:59:32
Speaker 1: running group. We send our emails marketing the last to
1:59:36
Speaker 1: get the customers engaged. Uh and like I said, we'd
1:59:38
Speaker 1: love to shoot our shot, you know, in the Atlanta
1:59:41
Speaker 1: basket and see what transports from me. Oh, it's awesome
1:59:44
Speaker 1: about there. I'm just gonna let you what they sent
1:59:46
Speaker 1: me the ball. It's at the top of Februar word
1:59:48
Speaker 1: Quickly would want to shoot your shot campaign? What you
1:59:52
Speaker 1: encourage supporters to send their favorite beverage to their crush
1:59:55
Speaker 1: and all their crush, not business, not cousin their crush
2:00:01
Speaker 1: and on our Valenttie's Day. Quickly has been operating in
2:00:04
Speaker 1: South Florida for over a year and we're launch of
2:00:06
Speaker 1: fishing in Atlanta and February. You know, I'm having fun
2:00:09
Speaker 1: with you guys, and like I said, I'm just bringing
2:00:11
Speaker 1: that up and just having more fun. But when I
2:00:13
Speaker 1: see a good campaign and we know that and then
2:00:16
Speaker 1: the month of February, especially valortis that you can't find
2:00:19
Speaker 1: a restaurant. They alsold if you don't have a restaurant
2:00:22
Speaker 1: on the day of you trying to take your girl out,
2:00:24
Speaker 1: you gonna stay home with your girl. And now we're
2:00:26
Speaker 1: being able to realize that putting that campaign out. What
2:00:30
Speaker 1: can I do for you? I love to be able
2:00:32
Speaker 1: to put you on my social media or you're putting banners?
2:00:34
Speaker 1: What marketing techniques are you using not only in nationally
2:00:37
Speaker 1: because you know, but also in the local Atlanta market
2:00:40
Speaker 1: that I can help you out with. Oh, that's that's
2:00:44
Speaker 1: really really great. We would really appreciate that. You know,
2:00:46
Speaker 1: one thing that we really utilize in order to connect
2:00:50
Speaker 1: with customers and spread our message far and wide is
2:00:53
Speaker 1: our social media. So we would encourage you as well
2:00:56
Speaker 1: as all of your followers of your platform to follow
2:01:00
Speaker 1: click on Instagram at quick Lick Underscore. We can also
2:01:04
Speaker 1: be found on Facebook at get Quicklick and look on
2:01:08
Speaker 1: our website www dot get quicklick dot com. That's www
2:01:13
Speaker 1: dot get quick lip dot com. We're gonna be doing
2:01:16
Speaker 1: a very strong media push on our social media platforms,
2:01:22
Speaker 1: especially Instagram. We're gonna have some creative stories, some fresh content,
2:01:26
Speaker 1: some interactive content where people can see, you know, recipes
2:01:30
Speaker 1: and how to engage with our campaigns like shoot your
2:01:32
Speaker 1: shot and so if you can follow us, you know,
2:01:36
Speaker 1: repost something that we're doing on our online platform, that
2:01:39
Speaker 1: would be a huge, huge boom. But you're gonna start
2:01:42
Speaker 1: to see a lot of great content coming out of
2:01:46
Speaker 1: the end of this month as we get into February,
2:01:48
Speaker 1: which is not only the launch of Quicklick in Atlanta,
2:01:52
Speaker 1: which we're extremely proud and excited for, but also Black
2:01:56
Speaker 1: History Month. It was it was actually a strategic for
2:01:59
Speaker 1: us to pick in February because once again, you know,
2:02:02
Speaker 1: we always want to illuminate the fact that we are
2:02:06
Speaker 1: a black owned company, you know, operating as a bluetstrap
2:02:10
Speaker 1: self funded organization and this day and time, and so
2:02:14
Speaker 1: we want to pay homage to the people like Dr
2:02:17
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King and to all of the great ancestors.
2:02:20
Speaker 1: You know that that led the way for us to
2:02:23
Speaker 1: be able to have a business and a platform like this.
2:02:26
Speaker 1: What is it important? You know? We know, one man,
2:02:30
Speaker 1: if you don't understand what each month means, you have
2:02:33
Speaker 1: you know, you have a Father's Day, got Mother's Day
2:02:35
Speaker 1: coming up, got Easter to every one of those days
2:02:37
Speaker 1: in a marketing has to be a tool you used
2:02:40
Speaker 1: to you know, gain leverage for your brand. You know,
2:02:43
Speaker 1: you know, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Black music, mom in June.
2:02:47
Speaker 1: All those days means something. So now, strategically, when you
2:02:51
Speaker 1: guys are sitting down looking at your calendar, how did
2:02:54
Speaker 1: y'all look at strategy? Like like I said, like you
2:02:57
Speaker 1: just told me Black History Month. I just talked to
2:03:00
Speaker 1: Navarre about the Valati's Day. So real, there's two things
2:03:03
Speaker 1: going on there. You launched it strategically in black kid
2:03:06
Speaker 1: your mind, but you're taking advantage of the relationship February
2:03:09
Speaker 1: is also known as a relationship monk. So how do
2:03:11
Speaker 1: you look at strategizic moving forward? You got Miami on lock.
2:03:15
Speaker 1: You're about to move to Atlanta. Old stomping grounds or
2:03:19
Speaker 1: fraternity brothers are gonna come to your aid or alumni
2:03:23
Speaker 1: alumni from from that whole Spellman more House and Clark Atlanta.
2:03:28
Speaker 1: It's gonna come to your aid. What's the what's the
2:03:30
Speaker 1: future of Quickly in the southeast part of the country.
2:03:34
Speaker 1: Absolutely that that's a That's a wonderful question, and it
2:03:37
Speaker 1: was actually you lead right into where I wanted to
2:03:40
Speaker 1: go with the relationships. One of the biggest differentiators for
2:03:44
Speaker 1: Quickly versus our competitors is that we are a lifestyle brand.
2:03:49
Speaker 1: What that means is we go the extra mile to
2:03:52
Speaker 1: truly connect with our customers and our brand partners and
2:03:56
Speaker 1: our account partners and a very local and organic way.
2:04:01
Speaker 1: We don't operate like just a corporate business, even though
2:04:05
Speaker 1: I have a corporate background, you know, that's not who
2:04:08
Speaker 1: we are. We came from the HBCU World Clark Atlantic University,
2:04:12
Speaker 1: where our bands were. You know, you go to homecoming
2:04:15
Speaker 1: to watch the band, not necessarily the football game, right.
2:04:19
Speaker 1: We come from the background of having that flavor, that coolness,
2:04:22
Speaker 1: that slag, and that's how we brand the company as well.
2:04:26
Speaker 1: So to answer your question, and from a strategic standpoint,
2:04:29
Speaker 1: we're always looking at how can we transcend just the consumer,
2:04:35
Speaker 1: the normal corporate consumer interaction and truly differentiate ourselves from
2:04:40
Speaker 1: our competitors. Well, one of the main ways we do
2:04:43
Speaker 1: that is by having the shoot your Shot campaigns, which
2:04:47
Speaker 1: resonate with people whether you're in a relationship or single
2:04:51
Speaker 1: like my mannvar. You know, we we also look at
2:04:54
Speaker 1: the calendar, like you said, ro Sean, in every quarter,
2:04:57
Speaker 1: we're looking at what's going on, you know, super what
2:05:00
Speaker 1: what are things that can connect quickly on a real
2:05:04
Speaker 1: visceral level with our customers Because that's the thing about
2:05:08
Speaker 1: the alcohol industry, and that's why we love it. Alcohol
2:05:12
Speaker 1: brings people together, whether you're celebrating, whether you're commiserating, you know,
2:05:16
Speaker 1: whatever you're going through, you can have a libation as
2:05:20
Speaker 1: long as you're doing it responsibly, and we want to
2:05:23
Speaker 1: be a connector for that in a in a responsible way.
2:05:26
Speaker 1: I love because from all quickly is not about color.
2:05:30
Speaker 1: You know, you know you can every month, you know,
2:05:33
Speaker 1: uh st Patty's Day. Okay, that's on your that's a
2:05:39
Speaker 1: great liquor drinking monk okay. And so that's what I
2:05:42
Speaker 1: love about it. When you look at the diversity and
2:05:45
Speaker 1: the and the potential explosion of this business, especially COVID,
2:05:49
Speaker 1: A lot a lot of restrictions, the curb side lifestyle,
2:05:53
Speaker 1: the touchless delivery, contact delivery, that's people are seeking. Now.
2:05:58
Speaker 1: I know when I get my car washing, I just
2:06:00
Speaker 1: drive right on the end. I just hit my credit card.
2:06:02
Speaker 1: I don't let nobody come inside my car no more.
2:06:05
Speaker 1: And we know that lifestyle. It's not going to change,
2:06:08
Speaker 1: you know, with the vaccination raid and even after you
2:06:10
Speaker 1: get vaccinated, they tell you still should wear a mask.
2:06:13
Speaker 1: So that means that a lot of procedures are gonna
2:06:16
Speaker 1: be it's it's I'm just I just want to say congratulations,
2:06:19
Speaker 1: you know, because a lot of good ideas, the other
2:06:22
Speaker 1: people tend to get them, and you guys are saying
2:06:25
Speaker 1: at the cups of a great idea, not just a
2:06:27
Speaker 1: good idea, a great idea. And I'm just letting you
2:06:29
Speaker 1: know I developed Money Making Conversations because to me, speaking
2:06:33
Speaker 1: to YouTube or like you're the stars, you always see
2:06:36
Speaker 1: your people on the big screen. But you know, you make,
2:06:39
Speaker 1: you pay taxes, you employ people, you keep this company
2:06:42
Speaker 1: moving and more important as black men, you make us
2:06:46
Speaker 1: proud and don't stop even hanging out to China with Noval,
2:06:51
Speaker 1: you know now. But thank you for coming on Money
2:06:56
Speaker 1: Making Conversations man. But again, I'm very honest. I have
2:07:00
Speaker 1: like one point six million people I controlled within my
2:07:03
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation platform, from newsletters to social media to
2:07:07
Speaker 1: to like my podcast and my radio syndication. So I
2:07:11
Speaker 1: extend that free charge. It's not about me trying to
2:07:14
Speaker 1: get something out of it. It's about me trying to
2:07:16
Speaker 1: grow your brand and also give you a voice that
2:07:19
Speaker 1: you can turn to and also a person that and
2:07:22
Speaker 1: I've created this platform to mentor people and I feel
2:07:24
Speaker 1: like it's a mentorship that I'm extended to you guys
2:07:27
Speaker 1: because I'm excited. I want you to grow as big
2:07:29
Speaker 1: as you can. And if you take one of my
2:07:31
Speaker 1: ideas and make a million dollars, I'm gonna be the
2:07:33
Speaker 1: first one to give you the knuckles sandwich you say, man,
2:07:35
Speaker 1: thank you, because if we're just sitting over here doing
2:07:38
Speaker 1: nothing congratulation, you know, we we really appreciate. I just
2:07:42
Speaker 1: wanted to say, you know, first and foremost, thank you
2:07:44
Speaker 1: so much for taking the time to speak with us.
2:07:47
Speaker 1: You know, I have seen your your your videos and
2:07:50
Speaker 1: heard your podcasts and seeing your reach with folks like
2:07:54
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey and Stephen A. Smith, and it's just amazing
2:07:58
Speaker 1: to be in a position to speak to such an
2:08:00
Speaker 1: accomplished and decorated brother like yourself. So thank you so
2:08:03
Speaker 1: much for this platform. You know, we're at the point
2:08:05
Speaker 1: in this company where we're trying to grow this thing big.
2:08:08
Speaker 1: You know, like I said, we're trying to grow a
2:08:10
Speaker 1: legacy with quick Lick, and even though we've been self
2:08:13
Speaker 1: funded to this point, now we are actively and aggressively
2:08:18
Speaker 1: looking for investor partners to invest in this company because
2:08:21
Speaker 1: we want to take this thing to the next level,
2:08:23
Speaker 1: not just Atlanta. We want to go. We want to
2:08:25
Speaker 1: cover the whole Southeast. We want to get out to
2:08:28
Speaker 1: the West coast at the end of this year. So
2:08:30
Speaker 1: we have dreams of grandeur and people like yourself, I
2:08:33
Speaker 1: can't think enough for giving us a platform to get
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Speaker 1: our business out there to the masses. Thank you, Sol
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Speaker 1: wrap up, I mean Michael wrap up. I mean he's
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Speaker 1: a speaker up from start to finish. But no, like
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Speaker 1: I'm beyond all platform to you know with our company,
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Speaker 1: and like Michael said, we're mostly growing Tampa and I said,
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Speaker 1: want to thank you for coming on the show and
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Speaker 1: give me the opportunity to have fun with you man
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