Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Rushion Interviews Founder of Big Dave's Cheesesteaks, Derrick Hayes details his steps making it out of West Philly to create the nationally recognized franchise!

Transcript

Rushion Interviews Founder of Big Dave's Cheesesteaks, Derrick Hayes details his steps making it out of West Philly to create the nationally recognized franchise! · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I am your host,
0:03
Speaker 1: ra Sean McDonald. I recognized that we all have different
0:06
Speaker 1: definitions of success. For you, it may be the size
0:08
Speaker 1: of your paycheck. Mine is inspiring people to accomplish their
0:11
Speaker 1: goals and live their very best life. It's time to
0:14
Speaker 1: start reading other people's success stories and really start writing
0:17
Speaker 1: your own. People always talk about your purpose and gift.
0:20
Speaker 1: If you have a gift, lead with your gift and
0:22
Speaker 1: don't let your friends, family, or coworkers stop you from
0:24
Speaker 1: planning or living your dreams. My guest today is Derek D. Hayes.
0:29
Speaker 1: He was recently featured on the Couple of Essence magazine
0:32
Speaker 1: his vision for his restaurant, Big Dave's Cheesecake beginning twenty fourteen,
0:36
Speaker 1: as he aimed to merge his passion for community food
0:39
Speaker 1: and business. We'll started as a small water water water
0:43
Speaker 1: water ice shop in UH seven throughly seven unfit square
0:47
Speaker 1: food shell, gas station. They're done with the Georgia. Since
0:51
Speaker 1: sixteen has generated nationally on Big Day's Teesecake. If you've
0:55
Speaker 1: not been there, I recommend you go there. He's right
0:59
Speaker 1: down the street from my Bill is my staff. They
1:01
Speaker 1: need they need to have stock in these business that's
1:03
Speaker 1: how much they go. There a thriving cheesecake in power
1:06
Speaker 1: with store and mobile locations all across metro Atlanta. Hayes
1:09
Speaker 1: is also the founder of Dave and Derrick Hayes Foundation
1:12
Speaker 1: and co owner a vegan cheesecake concept, Thinky's with Sloody
1:16
Speaker 1: Vegan Atlanta CEO and vegan restaurant phenom Pinky colt in
1:21
Speaker 1: hayes passion for community and food, lending him an illustrious
1:24
Speaker 1: spot as a four one next one thousand on the REAP.
1:28
Speaker 1: Let's discuss this journey into Big Dave's Cheesecake, being a
1:31
Speaker 1: community leader, being bigger than food. Please, welcome to Money
1:36
Speaker 1: Making Conversations Master Class, Derek D. Hayes. How are you doing, sir?
1:40
Speaker 1: I'm good man. Thank you so much, Mr Shan McDonald's
1:43
Speaker 1: for having me. Man. Appreciate your brother hey man, and
1:46
Speaker 1: had to lay it out there for you, Derek, because
1:49
Speaker 1: because now you did, man, that was good. You know,
1:51
Speaker 1: sometimes hearing you know the stuff that you did, you
1:53
Speaker 1: know along the way, it feels good. You know, uh,
1:55
Speaker 1: oh your heart wreak. You know, somebody else is honer
1:57
Speaker 1: and so it's always a blessed well the thing about it,
2:00
Speaker 1: and you should be because sometimes as I have a segment,
2:03
Speaker 1: I do a local show uh bu show syndicates, and
2:05
Speaker 1: I do it live every Tuesday. I love to invite
2:08
Speaker 1: you only by the Way on w c LK every Tuesday,
2:11
Speaker 1: and it's called a bragging segment, and I encourage people
2:14
Speaker 1: to call in and talk about there what they've done,
2:17
Speaker 1: because we tend to be too humble about our business.
2:19
Speaker 1: And I always encouraged people to remind them that, you know,
2:22
Speaker 1: McDonald braggs forod Braggs, and we need to brag about
2:26
Speaker 1: what we do. So everything that you have accomplished, it's
2:29
Speaker 1: part of your success story. It's not what we see
2:32
Speaker 1: when we get that sandwich because the cheesecakes that, because
2:35
Speaker 1: what happens is there's a journey to get there. So
2:38
Speaker 1: how did I hear the date? I hear the small
2:41
Speaker 1: gas station. I hear seven undred fifty square feet, which
2:44
Speaker 1: is the size of my apartment in college. So I
2:47
Speaker 1: know what that feels like. So talk to us about
2:50
Speaker 1: it because obviously there was a walk in. There wasn't
2:52
Speaker 1: a sit down dinner. Tell us about the whole concept
2:56
Speaker 1: of of what you are turned into an empire so
2:58
Speaker 1: far and it's growing well. Well. First, um, I wanted
3:03
Speaker 1: to start off with saying the mission and you know,
3:06
Speaker 1: and the honor was my father. You know, that was
3:09
Speaker 1: everything that the reason why I built Big Days. Um
3:12
Speaker 1: he passed away from lung cancer and uh two thousand nine.
3:16
Speaker 1: And my dad, Dyane wish was for me to you know,
3:18
Speaker 1: stand on my own ten toes and change my generational
3:21
Speaker 1: patterns and you know, not to get in trouble. And
3:24
Speaker 1: you know, he worked his whole life and he thought
3:26
Speaker 1: he left a lot behind and he didn't. So I
3:29
Speaker 1: was able to see a blue collar working my whole
3:31
Speaker 1: life and now transpiring to me building my brand and
3:35
Speaker 1: honor and my father. It was it was you know
3:37
Speaker 1: a lot of hard work, but it was something that
3:40
Speaker 1: my mission and my passion what I really wanted to
3:42
Speaker 1: do because just think about it, a lot of people
3:44
Speaker 1: build brands just for money. You know, I built this
3:47
Speaker 1: for a purpose of really you know, believing that my
3:49
Speaker 1: father has you know, his dreams and where he wanted
3:51
Speaker 1: before he left fair So it actually helped me and
3:54
Speaker 1: tricked me into the winting more out of my own self.
3:56
Speaker 1: So when I built Big Days, I didn't know anything
3:59
Speaker 1: about business. I didn't know how to you know, pay
4:02
Speaker 1: sales and use text. I didn't know anything about you know,
4:05
Speaker 1: getting a DP. I didn't know anything about food calls.
4:08
Speaker 1: All I wanted to do was better my life and
4:10
Speaker 1: you know, get out of situations I was in at
4:12
Speaker 1: the time. But in the midst of all of this,
4:15
Speaker 1: I was able to start in a small gas station
4:18
Speaker 1: because nobody want to rent me in space out you know,
4:20
Speaker 1: I'm going all over Atlanta what I'm saying. You know,
4:22
Speaker 1: I got the money, you know, you know I need that,
4:25
Speaker 1: you know, need the space, and everybody's like, you know,
4:27
Speaker 1: but you don't have the business experience. It only took
4:30
Speaker 1: me as one shot. I always learned this and like
4:33
Speaker 1: one shot can change your life forever. And that gas
4:35
Speaker 1: station was my shot because the Indian guy rented me
4:38
Speaker 1: that space. And you know, I had no business experience,
4:41
Speaker 1: and I was able to make that nationally known. You know,
4:44
Speaker 1: in seven years of my hard work. Now along the way,
4:47
Speaker 1: I had a lot of roller coaster rides. You know,
4:49
Speaker 1: I got taken advantage of a lot by contractors, um
4:52
Speaker 1: even you know, employees, you know, because I had a
4:54
Speaker 1: you know, soft heart, you know, you know, I wanted
4:57
Speaker 1: to see everybody grow at the time, but it built
4:59
Speaker 1: my tough skin along the way because I had to
5:02
Speaker 1: understand for me to scare this business, I had to
5:04
Speaker 1: become a real entrepreneur. So I started really, you know,
5:06
Speaker 1: doing my Google university, my YouTube university. I'm learning, you know,
5:11
Speaker 1: how to really you know, do these things. And so
5:13
Speaker 1: I don't get taken advantage of because I didn't finish school.
5:15
Speaker 1: You know, I got a high school deplumma, but I don't,
5:18
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't finish college. So and I got
5:20
Speaker 1: forty some tattoos on my body, so I don't look
5:22
Speaker 1: like the average CEO. So when people look at me,
5:25
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta come on my things together so
5:27
Speaker 1: they could take me serious. And the way I did
5:29
Speaker 1: that was to build multiple successful businesses alone the way
5:32
Speaker 1: throughout the years. We'll be right back with more money
5:35
Speaker 1: Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Can I have your
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Speaker 1: Making Conversations in m LS one A two three three
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Speaker 1: four in m l S Consumer Access dot orger. Now,
6:39
Speaker 1: let's return to money story with a regular guy with
6:44
Speaker 1: a dream driven by a passion that was motivated by
6:47
Speaker 1: your passing forth. That's that's that's taught And a lot
6:51
Speaker 1: of people got that passion. Yeah, they got that passion, Derek,
6:54
Speaker 1: But then again, what takes him to that next step? Now,
6:57
Speaker 1: when you saw this gas station. There's a gas stay
7:00
Speaker 1: seven hundred fifties properly they said, you said seven before
7:02
Speaker 1: the Now I'm just gonna say something, give one most
7:04
Speaker 1: grate foot seven fifty something scrap fret Why at what
7:08
Speaker 1: area of town was there? Were done with it? But
7:09
Speaker 1: what area of done withy? And why did you think?
7:12
Speaker 1: And what you you have to bring it because this
7:14
Speaker 1: is a gas station. Now you're cooking in the gas station.
7:17
Speaker 1: So talk about that set up and then being able
7:20
Speaker 1: to sell the concept to the community and to your friends,
7:23
Speaker 1: because the friends really is a hard sale because they're
7:25
Speaker 1: gonna tell you it's not a smart idea. So so
7:28
Speaker 1: that's how I actually winded up in the kitchen cooking
7:31
Speaker 1: myself because I tried to get a cook took the
7:34
Speaker 1: cheese steak, and my friends was like, nah, it's not home.
7:37
Speaker 1: And not to mention, I am in this little gas
7:40
Speaker 1: station with one grill and one fire and it's all electric.
7:44
Speaker 1: You know. I don't know if a lot of people
7:46
Speaker 1: know cooking on electricity and cooking on gases totally different
7:49
Speaker 1: because the grill goes in and out. You know, a
7:51
Speaker 1: temperature is different. When you pick colds, no um items
7:55
Speaker 1: on there you lose temperature. So I had to actually
7:58
Speaker 1: learn how to cook on these disadvantage um you know,
8:01
Speaker 1: equipment that I had, and then I was cooking on
8:04
Speaker 1: used equipment. At the same time, I had no no
8:07
Speaker 1: employees at the time. It's just me being a cash
8:10
Speaker 1: are the cook, accounting um inventory anything that I had
8:15
Speaker 1: to do to make it because I wanted to be
8:17
Speaker 1: successful in the way I had to do that was
8:19
Speaker 1: put myself in all these situations to be able to
8:22
Speaker 1: you know, work hard to do that myself, because I
8:25
Speaker 1: didn't have the money at the time to to you know,
8:27
Speaker 1: give people to help me. Because at the end of
8:29
Speaker 1: the day, I blew my money no and I and
8:31
Speaker 1: I spent my last no building Big Dave. So I
8:35
Speaker 1: really had to get it out the mud. So I
8:37
Speaker 1: would say that self belief is more than anything that
8:40
Speaker 1: I had to do along the way is believing in myself.
8:43
Speaker 1: If you don't believe in yourself, there's no way that
8:45
Speaker 1: you can get somebody else to believe in you. So
8:47
Speaker 1: when I started believing in myself more, I started to
8:49
Speaker 1: get you know, a little bit of traffic. And to
8:51
Speaker 1: be honest, man, I tell everybody, Eve the Rapper, Eve man,
8:55
Speaker 1: she was a big play, you know, a big part
8:57
Speaker 1: of my story because and it missed me, know going
9:00
Speaker 1: through this year and now open, I don't have no traffic.
9:03
Speaker 1: Still I'm going under you know. Of course, if you
9:06
Speaker 1: can't pay the bills, eventually you're gonna have to shut
9:08
Speaker 1: them doors. And she posted me on her social network.
9:11
Speaker 1: Man at this I made a chicken cheese steak for her. Man,
9:14
Speaker 1: And you know, so I did, I did you I
9:16
Speaker 1: did because rapper famous, you know, great following, so loyal
9:20
Speaker 1: following first of all. And so where were you at
9:24
Speaker 1: for that connection to make that you know her? Or
9:26
Speaker 1: she found out about your fude, somebody recommended your food,
9:29
Speaker 1: tells her about that. I was a friend. It was
9:31
Speaker 1: a friend, and it was a friend a friend of
9:33
Speaker 1: a friend. And she was shooting barbershop, you know, she
9:36
Speaker 1: was shooting the movie. And um, I waited for her
9:39
Speaker 1: to come like a kid on Christmas. I'm talking about it.
9:43
Speaker 1: She ain't come, man, you know, you know I didn't
9:45
Speaker 1: get discoverage that. I said, you know, I'm gonna keep
9:47
Speaker 1: on fighting. And the next day she really came. And
9:50
Speaker 1: as I was making this chicken cheese steak. You know what,
9:53
Speaker 1: she told me. She said, if this sandwich is good,
9:56
Speaker 1: I'm gonna post it on my social media networks. Now
9:59
Speaker 1: you gotta think of by that. I'm a kid from Philly.
10:01
Speaker 1: I'm all my rest sides as I exhausted everything, and
10:05
Speaker 1: now I'm like ship my life depending on this. I
10:07
Speaker 1: gotta make the sandwich the best I can make it.
10:09
Speaker 1: And when I made this sound, when she bid it,
10:12
Speaker 1: she wasn't crazy. She said, oh man, you brung me home.
10:15
Speaker 1: And she put it on every social media outlet she
10:18
Speaker 1: had at the time. And when I tell you, the
10:20
Speaker 1: next day, I made five thousand dollars. That was my
10:22
Speaker 1: biggest day ever at the time, and it was just
10:24
Speaker 1: up from there. I started to be able to get
10:27
Speaker 1: the community more involved because they've seen traffic. You know,
10:31
Speaker 1: people eat off of their eyes. You know, they see lines,
10:34
Speaker 1: they say, well, I gotta be good. So I was
10:36
Speaker 1: able to start building lines. And then the next part
10:39
Speaker 1: of my journey that was a very big part of
10:41
Speaker 1: my mission was in two thousand and eighteen, um I
10:45
Speaker 1: was picked to go to a sandwich competition and Orange Beach, Alabama,
10:50
Speaker 1: and I ranked number seven in the world and Orange Beach,
10:54
Speaker 1: Alabama sandwich competition Okay, Now this ain't New York, you,
11:00
Speaker 1: not even Atlanta. You're an Orange Beach, Alabama sandwich competition.
11:04
Speaker 1: So see that's what I love about you. You know
11:06
Speaker 1: you you you tell this story is just so normal
11:09
Speaker 1: to you. But Orange beat Alabama. I don't think going
11:13
Speaker 1: to Orange be Alabama gonna do anything for anybody, but
11:15
Speaker 1: tell us about this competition and why it was important
11:17
Speaker 1: to go. So so it was important to go because,
11:22
Speaker 1: for one, I wanted to represent that not only had
11:25
Speaker 1: the best cheese steak, but I wanted to have the
11:27
Speaker 1: best sandwich. And honestly, it was an opportunity for me.
11:30
Speaker 1: You know, I was hungry, you know, I had the
11:32
Speaker 1: fire in my belly for success. I was waiting for
11:35
Speaker 1: my moment, and when I got picked, I was ready
11:37
Speaker 1: for it. But to be honest, when I got there,
11:40
Speaker 1: you know, it was a little discussion because I was
11:43
Speaker 1: I was cooking on a barbecue grill. Now, mind you,
11:46
Speaker 1: how do you make a cheese steak on a barbecue
11:48
Speaker 1: grill because they don't have flattops. So what I had
11:50
Speaker 1: to do I went to Walmart and gotta skillet like
11:53
Speaker 1: a flattop and I put it over that gas grill.
11:55
Speaker 1: And I got that thing hot, and I made them
11:58
Speaker 1: cheese steaks, just like I was that big days. You know,
12:00
Speaker 1: I took my obscles and I pivoted, because that's the thing.
12:03
Speaker 1: When you don't pivot my stuff happened, you're gonna sink,
12:07
Speaker 1: You're gonna give up. You know, I'm already a disadvantage,
12:10
Speaker 1: you know, to the American society. I'm a black man
12:12
Speaker 1: that come from the ghetto, so I'm supposed to be
12:14
Speaker 1: here anyway, you know. So the way I was looking
12:18
Speaker 1: at it was, this is my opportunity to make some
12:19
Speaker 1: noise for me and my people, to show that I
12:22
Speaker 1: deserved to be here. And I'm saying when you say that,
12:25
Speaker 1: then the diversity at this competition was not much. When
12:28
Speaker 1: you make a statement, I can't I can count on
12:31
Speaker 1: my my uh my fingers, how many blank people in
12:34
Speaker 1: this competition. And the probably was, um, maybe fifteen thousand,
12:38
Speaker 1: could have been could have been no, a little a
12:40
Speaker 1: little less, a little bit more. I'm not sure, but
12:43
Speaker 1: I know that it was a good amount of people,
12:45
Speaker 1: you know, trying to qualify um for this, for this
12:48
Speaker 1: uh cooking competition. And honestly, I never forget I gave
12:53
Speaker 1: bold Jackson A Dave's Way, and I said, I know
12:57
Speaker 1: I had a big shot because I knew I was
13:00
Speaker 1: making this sandwich. But you know, all of my grand
13:03
Speaker 1: my blood, sweat and tears, all these years of me working,
13:06
Speaker 1: I said, I ain't come here to lose, man, you know,
13:08
Speaker 1: I can't here to show out and show on and honestly,
13:11
Speaker 1: and they called Derek Hayes. They said, you know, top qualifiers,
13:15
Speaker 1: top ten in the world. And when they called me,
13:18
Speaker 1: I was talking to somebody because we was in this
13:20
Speaker 1: big facility and I was looking at them like they
13:23
Speaker 1: just called my name. And it was mind blowing because
13:27
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you want to win,
13:30
Speaker 1: you want to get to the mountaintop, you want to
13:32
Speaker 1: get there. But when they really call your name, all
13:34
Speaker 1: your years of your hard work and everything you've been
13:37
Speaker 1: through start to paying out. And honestly, it was emotional
13:39
Speaker 1: for me because again, just like you said, it was
13:42
Speaker 1: an Orange Beach, Alabama and me as a black man,
13:45
Speaker 1: when anything at Orange Beach, Alabama was a win for
13:48
Speaker 1: me on a barbecue grillecue barbecue was killing for Walmart exactly,
13:55
Speaker 1: you know, And that's how a lot of my a
13:57
Speaker 1: lot of my journey was built up of bloss swelling
14:00
Speaker 1: hares and getting it out the month for real because
14:02
Speaker 1: I wanted people to see a real, authentic side of
14:05
Speaker 1: what I was building. I don't want people to, you know,
14:07
Speaker 1: see that anything it was given because I wanted them
14:10
Speaker 1: to see that if the resources were short and they're
14:13
Speaker 1: looking at me, they can do it too well. The
14:16
Speaker 1: beauty of this conversation that I'm having with you is
14:18
Speaker 1: that I know that establishing your brand, because setbacks are
14:22
Speaker 1: part of your old growth now in we all faced
14:25
Speaker 1: the pandemic and that at that point we didn't know
14:28
Speaker 1: what to do, and so you used to word pivot
14:30
Speaker 1: early in your conversation, the word pivot, which I think
14:33
Speaker 1: is really important this conversation, we talked to young oportuneers
14:36
Speaker 1: or have a have a goal setting places this is
14:39
Speaker 1: how I'm going to do it. And sometimes when something
14:42
Speaker 1: interrupts that go, they frustration sets in or they throw
14:45
Speaker 1: their hands up. When when COVID the country was set
14:48
Speaker 1: down in the month of March, how did you react
14:51
Speaker 1: to that and did you have a game playing Dave,
14:54
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say this in a I'm gonna say this
14:55
Speaker 1: in the most humblest way my life was a pivot.
14:59
Speaker 1: I kind of in West Philadelphia. I come from the jungle.
15:02
Speaker 1: I come from Atlanta. Opportunity if you wanted, because you
15:05
Speaker 1: gotta go get it. So when this happened in this pandemic,
15:08
Speaker 1: of course, nobody ever seen this tragedy happened in the
15:11
Speaker 1: world like this, But I knew the city I came
15:14
Speaker 1: from from taking me how to pivot. So I wasn't
15:16
Speaker 1: gonna quit. I was gonna find out a way to
15:19
Speaker 1: help people while I was helping my brand be able
15:21
Speaker 1: to grow at the same time. And the way I
15:22
Speaker 1: was able to do that was I was able to
15:24
Speaker 1: give a thousand plus mills to the community because those
15:28
Speaker 1: same people that was going through those hard times for
15:30
Speaker 1: the same people standing on my lines. And then I
15:33
Speaker 1: wanted to help the healthcare workers, those front line workers.
15:36
Speaker 1: Those were the same people that was paying their life
15:38
Speaker 1: on the line every day for people that had COVID,
15:40
Speaker 1: and we didn't really know how dangerous COVID was at
15:42
Speaker 1: the time, so those people I wanted to help. I
15:45
Speaker 1: had forty plus hospitals in a month of COVID the
15:48
Speaker 1: first month, you know, really, you know, we didn't know
15:50
Speaker 1: what was going on. And I paid my life on
15:52
Speaker 1: the line just as well going to those hospitals because
15:55
Speaker 1: I believe that it was a bigger purpose that they've
15:57
Speaker 1: seen an entrepreneur, a young black kid to come from
16:00
Speaker 1: the ghetto standing up, some other people would stand up,
16:02
Speaker 1: and then we will all stand up together. And we
16:04
Speaker 1: were We were reunite and be able to get our
16:06
Speaker 1: communities back together. In downtown. I was able to help out.
16:10
Speaker 1: I donated twenty six thousand dollars to help businesses get
16:13
Speaker 1: back open. So for me, it wasn't about making the
16:16
Speaker 1: money in the pandemic pandemic, it was about helping others
16:19
Speaker 1: get their doors back open so that people can see
16:22
Speaker 1: what type of person I was and what I stand
16:25
Speaker 1: for and what I represented, what I wanted out of
16:27
Speaker 1: my own self. If you can look through a vision
16:29
Speaker 1: and me, you can look through the vision of the
16:30
Speaker 1: community and we can grow together. And that's what I
16:32
Speaker 1: was trying to do. Well, you did it, and because
16:34
Speaker 1: it was We'll be right back with more Money Making
16:37
Speaker 1: Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now let's return to Money
16:45
Speaker 1: Making Conversations Masterclass with Rashan McDonald. You were recognized by
16:50
Speaker 1: for next one thousand on the read. Now again, you
16:54
Speaker 1: know that goes back to Alabama. You know you got that.
16:57
Speaker 1: You're in a tent. You know they call your name.
17:00
Speaker 1: Didn't know that was gonna happen. You shocked. Now you're
17:03
Speaker 1: doing all this great work for the for the community.
17:05
Speaker 1: You know, like you said, not one point in your
17:07
Speaker 1: conversation when you're talking about selling, you're talking about uplifting, giving, giving,
17:11
Speaker 1: giving twenty six thousand, their thousands sandwich. You' said. All
17:14
Speaker 1: about the drive is if I give, then they show support.
17:17
Speaker 1: It creates loyalty. That's a business model the corporations do
17:21
Speaker 1: all the time and that comes from service. Now, service
17:24
Speaker 1: drives your business. Customer service is a high priority as
17:28
Speaker 1: far as how you communicate with your with your customer base. Correct, yes, yes,
17:34
Speaker 1: but I think I think um with me, um with me, um, sir.
17:38
Speaker 1: I think with me is people see that I'm real.
17:41
Speaker 1: They see the authentic side of it, like I'm not stripted.
17:45
Speaker 1: You know, I showed my flaws. I showed my my
17:47
Speaker 1: my ups and downs, so that you don't make the
17:49
Speaker 1: same mistakes that I made. I'm not selling you food.
17:53
Speaker 1: I'm selling you hope, and I'm selling you a dream,
17:56
Speaker 1: a kid like me believing they want to make a change,
17:59
Speaker 1: and when they see that, they picked the food to
18:01
Speaker 1: the side for a second. They know I make good food.
18:03
Speaker 1: Everybody loves my food, but they also love the passion
18:06
Speaker 1: and the story that I'm petting out because there's so
18:08
Speaker 1: many other people out here in the world that need
18:11
Speaker 1: that help. You think about it. It could be a
18:13
Speaker 1: young kid that looked just like me thirty four years old.
18:15
Speaker 1: He might be in the hood trying to get out
18:17
Speaker 1: of not being no, selling drugs or a bad situation.
18:20
Speaker 1: He can go in and punch on Instagram and look
18:22
Speaker 1: at me and say, listen, I know this kid came
18:25
Speaker 1: from the same thing I came from. I could do
18:27
Speaker 1: it too. That's bigger than me than any money. That's
18:30
Speaker 1: that's the biggest thing for me. You know. I could
18:32
Speaker 1: be walking in the market and somebody will walk up
18:35
Speaker 1: to me and say, hey, man, you don't even understand.
18:37
Speaker 1: You saved my life. You made me want to change,
18:39
Speaker 1: You made me want more out of myself, and I
18:42
Speaker 1: used the food to be able to step and stone
18:44
Speaker 1: the trigger that I was told this once upon in
18:46
Speaker 1: my life. My hunt was bad on cancer In two
18:49
Speaker 1: thousand and five. Her name was Teresa Hannigan. She eventually
18:52
Speaker 1: passed away, But in the middle of this, I went
18:54
Speaker 1: to a church with her and a pastor. He told
18:57
Speaker 1: me in my heir, he said, you're going to be
19:00
Speaker 1: a pastor. Now at the time I'm playing basketball, I
19:02
Speaker 1: had who dreams to make it to the NBA, I said,
19:05
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be no pastor. A pastor is not
19:07
Speaker 1: about getting on the pulpit. It's about spreading the message.
19:10
Speaker 1: It's about giving a message so other people that receive.
19:13
Speaker 1: And right now, every day I spread the message. When
19:15
Speaker 1: these people out here seeing big day build these two locations,
19:19
Speaker 1: young black kid come from the ghetto, bill multimillion dollar
19:21
Speaker 1: companies left and right right now, they get motivated by that.
19:24
Speaker 1: So for me, that's the biggest motivation for me. It
19:27
Speaker 1: ain't about the money. It's about the motivation for my people. Well,
19:29
Speaker 1: you know the interesting thing about it. You know when
19:31
Speaker 1: I saw you on the cover of Essence, So you
19:33
Speaker 1: know usually you know when you're the cover Essence, you
19:36
Speaker 1: know you it us elbow. You know what I'm saying,
19:38
Speaker 1: You know, Michael B. George, what I'm saying, that's man,
19:41
Speaker 1: that's the legendary man. Go co co co. That's it.
19:44
Speaker 1: Now you're smiling, y'all, y'all, y'all, Audio, I gotta tell
19:47
Speaker 1: you he's straightened up a little bit when I started
19:48
Speaker 1: talking about being on the couple of essence, because that's
19:51
Speaker 1: just like, you know, because I'm older than you, that
19:53
Speaker 1: that's you know, that's embony back in my day. That's
19:56
Speaker 1: Jet magazine back in my day. You know you saw
19:59
Speaker 1: that you left that on the coffee table when you
20:01
Speaker 1: wouldn't happen because you know, that was an announcement about
20:04
Speaker 1: your brain. But it's even a bigger announcement for you
20:06
Speaker 1: because it wasn't entertainment driven your parents on there. It
20:10
Speaker 1: was about you as a person, what you do for
20:12
Speaker 1: the community. And you're being able to step out. Like
20:16
Speaker 1: you talk about your background, you come from humble beginnings,
20:18
Speaker 1: You come from Philadelphia, You come from a neighborhood like
20:21
Speaker 1: I came from a neighborhood where people stereotype your success.
20:24
Speaker 1: You know, you know you're driving the neighborhood. Then people
20:27
Speaker 1: will question why you come out. How it's like you
20:32
Speaker 1: you you lucky, use terms like that, you know, like
20:35
Speaker 1: you belong here, like you you're like you don't deserve it.
20:37
Speaker 1: And I think, see, and that's what I'm trying to
20:40
Speaker 1: teach to you know. I was asked this question yesterday.
20:44
Speaker 1: I was having a conversation and they said, why do
20:46
Speaker 1: you think our culture, you know, handle things differently? And
20:50
Speaker 1: the reason what that being is just imagine if you
20:54
Speaker 1: was a kid on Christmas, right, everybody got this toy,
20:57
Speaker 1: but this one kid got the best toy that everybody wanting.
21:01
Speaker 1: That if that kid never was told how to share
21:03
Speaker 1: that toy because he never had the resources to feel
21:05
Speaker 1: good about having anything that feel good, then how can
21:08
Speaker 1: that kid ever know he's going wrong? When you win
21:10
Speaker 1: an environment of everything a certain way, that's what you're
21:12
Speaker 1: accustomed to. Now, what I'm trying to show different is, Okay,
21:16
Speaker 1: we step out of these boundaries of these inner cities,
21:19
Speaker 1: these lower um lower income communities, and now we got
21:22
Speaker 1: social media outlets showing us when it's right from Rome.
21:25
Speaker 1: But the leaders that got the voice got to help
21:28
Speaker 1: out and say listen, now that we got the ball
21:30
Speaker 1: in our hands, let's stick together and change these communities
21:33
Speaker 1: out and get resources. Let's build community centers, centers, Let's
21:36
Speaker 1: build uh financial literacy program so that when kids get
21:40
Speaker 1: to high school, and when they're about get out of
21:41
Speaker 1: high school, they ain't lost on about a credit card
21:44
Speaker 1: or or how they going to do their financial literacy,
21:47
Speaker 1: or how they going to get through college. They know
21:48
Speaker 1: that spending over thirty on their credit card gonna mis
21:51
Speaker 1: state credit up before the bill cycle hit. They know
21:53
Speaker 1: that they can now you know, utilize their their capital
21:56
Speaker 1: before that bill cycle hit, so that now they're not
21:58
Speaker 1: getting pilots for interest. So they rotating this money making money.
22:01
Speaker 1: They know how to get cash back, cash rewards cards
22:04
Speaker 1: when they're spending money to pending, and they save his
22:06
Speaker 1: account when it when it earns enough money to now
22:09
Speaker 1: move the money. And this free money off of spending money.
22:11
Speaker 1: But we can't teach that, and we don't know that,
22:14
Speaker 1: and all we can know is what's going on these
22:15
Speaker 1: communities to survive. Like I said, why I come from
22:18
Speaker 1: that in Philly. I was born to just survive. In
22:21
Speaker 1: my day of living, it was my dead survival. I
22:23
Speaker 1: ain't thinking about tomorrow, So I'm trying to teach my generation. Now,
22:27
Speaker 1: let's worry about tomorrow. Because when you've got kids, you
22:29
Speaker 1: gotta lead them set up for when you ain't here.
22:31
Speaker 1: You gotta take care of them from the grave. You
22:33
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. That's why we're doing as a
22:35
Speaker 1: life insurance initiative right now. Wow, you know I love
22:39
Speaker 1: as we progressed through this interview, Derek, how you your energy,
22:44
Speaker 1: your comfort zone with me have just picked up and
22:46
Speaker 1: keep transferring to an even more positive level. But the
22:49
Speaker 1: number one thing when I talked about and I meet
22:51
Speaker 1: individuals like you because your self made person like you're
22:55
Speaker 1: not ashamed of your journey now because at the beginning
22:58
Speaker 1: I always talk about friends, family, and don't let anybody
23:01
Speaker 1: stop you from living your dream and stop you from
23:04
Speaker 1: planning your dream. Okay, when you talk about the community.
23:08
Speaker 1: In the next step, what is Big Day's future? How
23:11
Speaker 1: do you? How do you conceptualize that? Do? Who do you?
23:13
Speaker 1: Because you know it ain't you know more than seven
23:15
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty square foot Shill gas station by yourself.
23:18
Speaker 1: You have to put a team around you. What does
23:20
Speaker 1: that team look like? So I'll teach so our listeners
23:22
Speaker 1: and our viewers can understand. When you grow, grow has
23:26
Speaker 1: to be surrounded by quality. You have to spend money
23:29
Speaker 1: to keep that quality around you in order if you
23:31
Speaker 1: dream to grow, I like this topic right here because
23:35
Speaker 1: a lot of people, you know, um, they might tell
23:37
Speaker 1: me I'm too top heavy with the locations that I have.
23:40
Speaker 1: But the thing is, if you ain't if you're ready,
23:43
Speaker 1: you ain't gotta get ready, you know when that moment happens.
23:46
Speaker 1: So I'm about to open my third location in Jones, Georgia. UM,
23:50
Speaker 1: hopefully you know the doors are open this summer. You know. Um,
23:54
Speaker 1: a lot is going through with the pandemic, so it's
23:55
Speaker 1: pushing a lot of materials back, you know, and a
23:57
Speaker 1: lot of um stuff is on whold uh what in
24:01
Speaker 1: the midst of in a in the midst of everything
24:03
Speaker 1: that I'm done with my brand, I'm about to pay
24:06
Speaker 1: eight rows in the market where you're about to be
24:08
Speaker 1: able to go in um your nearest stories and be
24:10
Speaker 1: able to make your own eight rows whenever you want
24:13
Speaker 1: big days. And that's gonna be a big thing for
24:14
Speaker 1: me because that's a dream of mind is going to market. Um,
24:18
Speaker 1: I'm coming out with the new Big Dave seasoning. You
24:20
Speaker 1: wanna be able to come in Big Dave Stories and
24:22
Speaker 1: you're gonna be able to pick up the same season
24:24
Speaker 1: that we make the product with. So when you want
24:27
Speaker 1: to become your own big Dave at home. You can
24:29
Speaker 1: do it. Um, you know, I just went for me,
24:32
Speaker 1: Like philanthropy is a big thing for me, you know,
24:35
Speaker 1: building this brand. I love it just as much as
24:38
Speaker 1: I love, you know, the restaurant space. I love talking
24:41
Speaker 1: to people because, for one, I know that I'm giving
24:46
Speaker 1: them real game that I've been through in my life
24:48
Speaker 1: to help them change theirs. No, I don't think I
24:51
Speaker 1: know everything but me at thirty four years old, I
24:53
Speaker 1: was blessed in a lot of ways that you know,
24:55
Speaker 1: a lot of people may not and I have got
24:57
Speaker 1: to yet, and I can now help them when they
24:59
Speaker 1: get to the situation in their life they're not making
25:01
Speaker 1: those same mistakes. That mean, let me tell you something,
25:04
Speaker 1: Mistakes costs in the business. When you're in business, mistakes cost.
25:09
Speaker 1: It costs. When I mean it costs, it's more than money.
25:13
Speaker 1: It hurt you in the finance side, but scaling the
25:16
Speaker 1: business you need. It's c r O to be good.
25:19
Speaker 1: It's CEO to be good, your gms to be good,
25:22
Speaker 1: your assistant managers to be good. Your frog cooks, your
25:25
Speaker 1: grill cooks. Everybody is a is a motor that works
25:28
Speaker 1: together to operate this vehicle and Without that, you can't scale.
25:33
Speaker 1: And it took me years to really be able to
25:35
Speaker 1: get that together because, like I said, I love hard,
25:38
Speaker 1: so I see the best out of people. Sometimes they
25:40
Speaker 1: don't seeing themselves. But I was also told this by
25:43
Speaker 1: multiple different billionaires, and this is my blessing. You know,
25:47
Speaker 1: you're never going to scale if you don't get thick
25:50
Speaker 1: skin to be able to do it, because these same
25:53
Speaker 1: people aren't gonna be with you. The ones that belong
25:56
Speaker 1: with you're gonna be with you because they want to
25:58
Speaker 1: better themselves along the journey. But the ones who just
26:01
Speaker 1: tagging along and the business growing and they're not growing,
26:04
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna eventually have to leave them or
26:06
Speaker 1: the business gonna leave you. And if the business leave
26:09
Speaker 1: the CEO, you know what happens after that goes It
26:11
Speaker 1: goes down the drain and and and that's what I'm
26:14
Speaker 1: not building. Like I told you, this a high This
26:16
Speaker 1: to my father, I know, and the end of this
26:18
Speaker 1: I'm gonna building. I'm building a billion out of business.
26:20
Speaker 1: I'm had big daves everywhere. Um after Jonesboro, we are
26:24
Speaker 1: gonna leave the state because I feel like, uh, it's
26:27
Speaker 1: enough big days right now in the state of Georgia.
26:30
Speaker 1: UM And I don't want to oversaturate the market. I
26:32
Speaker 1: want people to really um continue to love the brand
26:35
Speaker 1: the way they love the brand. UM and I want
26:38
Speaker 1: to keep on setting the bar high and setting the
26:40
Speaker 1: culture and what I got going on outside of you know,
26:43
Speaker 1: just the Big Dave's brand. You know, UM, Me and
26:45
Speaker 1: Pinky we jumped in real estate heavy. We're buying up
26:48
Speaker 1: a lot of real estate right now. And the reason
26:50
Speaker 1: why we're doing that is because we're trying to build
26:52
Speaker 1: up these communities. So and stuff ain't looking right in
26:54
Speaker 1: these communities. Which better to say, it's it's people that
26:57
Speaker 1: look just like the people that's from these community is
27:00
Speaker 1: building them up and ain't developers tearing them up and
27:03
Speaker 1: moving them out. You know what I'm saying, We're gonna
27:05
Speaker 1: keep them. We're gonna keep them and we're gonna give
27:07
Speaker 1: them jobs. And the way we're gonna do that is
27:09
Speaker 1: all these companies were building. I love it. You know
27:13
Speaker 1: some First of all, when jones Burgh opened up, you
27:15
Speaker 1: better contact me, okay, because I want to be there.
27:19
Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm right down the street, uh from
27:22
Speaker 1: your location over there. Brand mark right now, that's for
27:26
Speaker 1: you at I'm right down the street from that, and
27:28
Speaker 1: so so my staff supports it. First of all, a
27:32
Speaker 1: joy they talked to you. Your passion, your information, um,
27:37
Speaker 1: your gift, man, your gift, and a blessing your entrepreneurial spirit.
27:40
Speaker 1: You are what America is built on, a land of opportunity.
27:44
Speaker 1: You know, we should never be denied based on the
27:46
Speaker 1: color of our skin or the education that people perceived
27:49
Speaker 1: we don't have. You are the person that I bring
27:52
Speaker 1: on the show to educate my audience that anything is possible.
27:56
Speaker 1: And I want to thank you for coming up money
27:57
Speaker 1: making conversation, mask class. Thank you man, and I thank
28:01
Speaker 1: you for having me. And I want to I want
28:03
Speaker 1: to release one more thing oka people listening. So it's
28:07
Speaker 1: not about how you start. It's not about what's gonna
28:11
Speaker 1: happen in the middle of that race. You shoot, get untied,
28:15
Speaker 1: you're so getting messed up, you sneak and fall off.
28:18
Speaker 1: Just finished the race. Don't worry about the place you're
28:21
Speaker 1: gonna be in because as long as you finished the race,
28:23
Speaker 1: the job is done. And when the job is done,
28:25
Speaker 1: guess what you can say at the end of the day.
28:27
Speaker 1: I finished the marathon because I wasn't worrying about the race,
28:31
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So at the end of
28:33
Speaker 1: it all, you gave it all you got. As long
28:35
Speaker 1: as you give it all you got, and you finished
28:37
Speaker 1: that line as long as you crossed it. Be proud
28:39
Speaker 1: of yourself and your journey, and stop sizing yourself up
28:41
Speaker 1: to other people, because God got everybody journey for themselves
28:45
Speaker 1: to be able to better other people. You don't know.
28:47
Speaker 1: It may feel like that man or that woman got
28:49
Speaker 1: that success of a night, but you don't know what
28:51
Speaker 1: they've been through to get that success. It's not attract
28:53
Speaker 1: met as a marathon. So I always remember that. I
28:56
Speaker 1: love it because I always tell people that you know
28:58
Speaker 1: they're looking at that's the old it's say, and don't
29:00
Speaker 1: look at somebody else's y'all. You know, you don't have
29:02
Speaker 1: to explain the word I finished versus I quit. I quit.
29:07
Speaker 1: You have to explain I finished me and I made
29:09
Speaker 1: maximum effort to get the job done. That's all you're saying.
29:12
Speaker 1: And I love it. Brother. We're gonna talk in person
29:14
Speaker 1: because I want to sit down and just chat with you.
29:16
Speaker 1: Appreciate your time, man, because you're special. Again, I've had
29:20
Speaker 1: Pinky on the show both of y'all the special but congratulations.
29:22
Speaker 1: You know Mr ins ever a Big Dave's Cheesecake. You
29:26
Speaker 1: know Mr Sexy, Mr Sexy, Mr good looking, got the
29:29
Speaker 1: teeth all out there, you know for the three tattoos
29:32
Speaker 1: straight out of filling Big dave Cheese steak If doing
29:36
Speaker 1: your thing, I see be in the kitchen. Weapon up
29:38
Speaker 1: your cheese steak man. I love it, man, Stay strong,
29:43
Speaker 1: Biese steak man. Thank you. All right, we talk soon.
29:47
Speaker 1: If you want to hear us see any of my
29:48
Speaker 1: interviews or moneymaking Conversations, please go to Moneymaking Conversation dot com.
29:51
Speaker 1: I'm with Sean McDonald. I am your host