Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Brand Building: He turned childhood homemade ice cream memories into a profitable business.

Transcript

Brand Building: He turned childhood homemade ice cream memories into a profitable business. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald hosts weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass show.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The interviews and information that this show provides off for
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: you and everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: success stories and start living your own. If you want
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to be against on my show, please visit our website
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Moneymakingconversation dot com and.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Click to be a guest button.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: If you're a small business owner, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, or
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: influence or nonprofit, I want you on Money Making Conversation
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: master Class.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Now let's get started.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: My guests got the idea for creating unique flavored ice
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: cream while attending college in the North.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: In the North, Yes, he embarked.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Upon a journey they would take him from experimenting on
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: his fraternity, brothers and family.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Where else you gonna start to sell an ice.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Cream out of the truck of his car in nineteen
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: ninety six? But he's in the North, y'all. You can
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: do that for classic like Grandma's old fashioned vanilla, but
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: now a pudding Georgia Pete cobbler, bourbon butter pecan and
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Southern black wallnut ice cream. WHOA please walk with the
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Money Made Conversation Massic class, the one and only y'all.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Y'all Muhammad, how you doing, sir? Absolutely? Bro ice cream
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: in the North? Now ice cream?
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, what part of the North when you are experimenting
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: on ice cream?
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Shot town? Chicago all day long? Okay?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Absolutely? Are you born and raised in Chicago? My whole life,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: whole life. Yes, And we know. Just tell everybody how
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: cold it can get in Chicago.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: And the period, the warm period in Chicago. I'll tell
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: you this. You have to let your ice cream throw out.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Please, your ice cream in the trunk. You got to
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: let it sit on the table before you can scoop it.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: That's how cold it's cold to go to snow, you know,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: we got to get a certain temperature right there.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: It's too cold. You can't get no snow. He's not
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: joking about that. We can laugh about Chicago, but that
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: cold is real. I was fortunate to be up there
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: in twenty twelve to twenty sixteen during the Steve Harvey
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: talk show.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Uh and uh.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: I'd say in May it was fifty degrees and September
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: fifty degrees, so we had like juge Aly. August was
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the only months you could considerable summer months.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Man just looks slight surprise. All you're gonna get houte.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: But it's a beautiful say the great food, great people
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: come on. So just just talk about you and uh
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: experimenting fraternity with fraternity?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Is it another one I'm talking about?
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: I'm talking about of course magasi fast Okay, okay, only one?
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: And and so how did you start? Man? How did
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: this whole process? So I always tell people, you know
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: that I.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Your dream can be manifested as a certain parts and
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: we can walk away from not understanding, of not appreciating
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the gift that's been given to us.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: And not growing from that.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Before you was were you at doing ice cream? Did
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you do other things before you realized ice cream was
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the path for you?
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: It happened organically, of course, you know. Just to give
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: a few bullet points of how this all became about. Well,
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I played baseball as a child, and one day after
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: baseball practice there's a lady sitting on a bench in
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Avlon Park in Chicago, and she had a white bucket.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: It wasn't even hard, but it was homemade ice cream.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: But she was selling cups.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: For one dollar. Wow.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: I had ice cream before, but when I taste that there.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: I knew that that was nothing like anything that I
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: ever experienced from the grocery store. And later on in life,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: I wined. I attended Western Illinois University, graduated and settled
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: down after my bachelor's degree, and stayed for my master's
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: degree and just started experience. Oh what was your bachelor's degree?
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: And what was your master's No sociology, No sociology, And
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: so I started experimenting on the brothers turney brothers and
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: family members and friends, and oh.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Then, Jael, you missed some steps down there, and you
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: have to speak spirituals. Be you walk through this now?
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Because I like it was an entrepreneur show for small
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: business owners.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: I understand that journey absolutely ups and downs and how
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: you have to refuel it because you went from baseball
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: tasting like an ice cream you never tasted in your life,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: to a master's degree in sociology along the way. Will
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: you experiment on any ice cream? Will you recreate any
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: ice cream? So you had walked away from ice cream
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: but remembered that taste.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: I never no one in my family ever made ice cream, okay,
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: but my mother can burn, okay. I came from a
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: family like most of us that can throw down.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Okay. So that was no, there's no stranger the good food, okay.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: And so, of course I grew up like everybody else
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: in the community, went to high school, played ball, and
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: left the one away to college. Never ever even had
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: the thought of even making home made ice cream, okay.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: And it was of.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Course, you know, after grad undergraduate, you kind of settled
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: down a little bit, and while working on a master's degree,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: of course, the creator side came out and I said, well,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: let me just go ahead and see if I can
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: recreate that experience and just kind of shared with others.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: I had no idea that it would take about six
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: years to learn how.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: To make it. Wow, it was.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: It wasn't overnight, okay, Okay, recipes didn't cut it in
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: the recipe.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: But right right, right, right, right right right.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: So so you went on a six year journey to
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: try to replicate an experience you had as a child,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: which we all know can be exaggerated as you grew older.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: You know, it's like it's like the fishing, you know,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: how big was the fishing.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Was that big?
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Your hands that wide apart, and the fish really is
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: just that big?
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Yes, sir, so I find that rather interesting because you
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: may have perfected a brand that was better than what
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: you first taste. Let me tell you absolutely what all
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: due expect you and I stand on those brideshows, and
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: I always like to give credit always. Of course, Chicago
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: had a nostalgic ice cream business that my mom took
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: me to as a child, Black owned named Baldwin's, and
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: so that's a part of my memory bank.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: I was blessed to having a grandmother that was in business,
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: so I got a chance to actually see us in business.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: As a child.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: I would run around her business while she's doing what
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: it is that she was doing. My uncle in architecture,
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: I saw him and other architects at his business doing
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: their things.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: So the seed was planned in my mind.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: I was blessed after I got out out of college
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: all praise due to a lot I got. I found
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: and heard the teachings of the most Sonabolized Muhammad and
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: the programmer do for self through the Honorable Minister Louis
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: Fara Khan, and that gave me the ideal and the
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: inspiration to actually do business. And so all of those
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: things are part of my recipe, along with the trial
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: and error, the struggle and development of just bringing it
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: sent my mind into reality. It took so long because
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: when it comes to ice cream, I would like to say,
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: that's my art.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: I'm a perfectionist with it.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: And if they've made a better cow, right, I'm still
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: in class, right, right, right. And so the journey continues,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: and I'm so glad that I embarked upon it because
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: it just did not happen. After I graduated from college,
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: I went into the field and became ah. I got
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: into the field of social service, eventually became a director
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: of foster care. Meanwhile selling ice cream out the trunk
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: of my car.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, well just see you love the jump steps though me,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: yah y'all. Okay, I'm talking to yah y'all. Bahama, yes, sir,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: he started selling ice cream out of the truck. Were
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: about to get to that, you know, classic flavors and
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: based in Chicago.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Absolutely two locations, yes, sir.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Two locates of Chicago flavors like Grandma's old Vanilla, fashion Vanilla.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: But now the pudding this we're cookies. Oh we got
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: of course the supreme cookies and cream. I'm talking right that.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: Georgia pief Kab come on, come on right that man,
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: I mean some crust, but become and Southern black Wall
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: bought ice cream, sir, and so many more.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we got more flavors than that. I'm just all
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: that fits on my car here.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Talk about the journey of re establishing the dream, because
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: you're a real good example of that. Because I always
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: talked about people. I mentioned a lot of my show
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: between the ages of eighteen and twenty two. That's a
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: period where you really are living a life you want
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: to live, generally, and then after twenty two we kind
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: of get shifted from that dream and start doing things
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and get married, join the military, get a job, or
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: something takes you off track and you may never get
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: back to that track.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: You said, so you've gotten back on track. How did
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: you get back on track?
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Because you said it was six years you was trying
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: to get that flavor down pack. Well, you're working on
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: one flavor, y'all, y'all or multiple flavors that you were experimenting,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: And what were you experimenting with in your kitchen?
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Talk to us.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Literally, I was working on several flavors, and while in
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: the laboratory, I was still sharing ice cream. I never
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: stopped even while working a full time job. I literally
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: kept making ice cream. I literally opened up a business
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: even while still working in nineteen ninety eight a full
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: time job. I even re constructed my career so that
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: I could work midnights that would allow me to be
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: able to be available to work on my dream during
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: the daytime. I believed it, I committed to it. I
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: accepted the challenge. I never, of course, I had difficulty factors,
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: and I had moments where I just wanted to wanted
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: to just throw the towel in, but God would always
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: deliver a sign to tell me just to keep going.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: So I've been making ice cream none stops since nineteen
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: ninety four. Wow, first flavor, now, of course you would
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: think it's vanilla, right, Yes, yes, believe it or not.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: Of course, it's my canvas to draw my culinary yard.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: It was honey cinnamon Graham cracker honey, my first flavor
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: that I ever created, and.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: That's the one that now, okay, which flavor made you
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: realize this could be a business.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Of Course, it's always vanilla, because if you're talking about
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: homemade ice cream, you can't go back to Grandma's house.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: She's not putting honey in Graham Crackers in that turn
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: in the shot. We got the old school, big churn
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: as soon as you walk in with the big old
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: handle that you would take turns on on the porch,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: and you know how the story goes. Absolutely so it's
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: always vanilla vanilla. I literally that's a part of what
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: we do. I always remind my staff, I don't care
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: what you want to order, give them a big old
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: spoon of vanilla when they walk through that door, because
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: our goal is to take you right back down memory
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: lane and hope that you bring your children to Now I.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Be remiss, man, You've been very popular. A lot of
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: television's coming your way.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Why are they coming to you, ya, yach Why is
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: the media certainly turning attention on a little low ice
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: cream shop and two locations in Chicago.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: Well, the question is, well, she gonna go and get
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: Grandma's ice cream in America?
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Where you gonna go? I'm just saying, you know, we're
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: gonna go and get that that real.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Tell you, ya ya, you got personality, you got energy
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: when you walk in the shop, are you there are
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: people there to see that get the ice cream what
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: you want?
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I'm there and sometimes but even with the.
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: Staff, it's like your favorite ministry. You should feel better, right.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: I never heard of a treat that you're going to
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: have a treat and you leave out feeling worse.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Something went wrong. Right.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: And with my staff, I always remind them that that
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: the food is not the number one thing. The number
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: one thing is the service. The number one thing is
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: how we make the people feel.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, you know what I mean. The food is.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: Like the utensil to do something to make a difference
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: in somebody's life for it. So I don't have workers,
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: I have helpers and I you know.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: You go and you can look at the size.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: You can turn on the TV and you see animals
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: just training to do everything. But I'll put these young
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: folks up against any establishment in the country because they
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: believe in doing something to really make a difference when
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: you walk through that door. And then with sharing what
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: was shared with me that gave me something memorable as
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: a child, but.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: To all show you establishing good practices in young people,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: you know, because that's what we're missing. They're not just
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: let's be honest, that's why Chick fil A is so good.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: You think got good food, but you talk about that service.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: Every time wait.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: It might be the line you have to wait because
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: you know they're gonna get to you, and when it
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: get to you, it's gonna be service.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: Well, you get the food, you're gonna come back for
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: that service. Service means everything, man, and a lot of
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: people don't get that. I appreciate on this show. How
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: did you figure that out? Y'all? Y'all? Well, I tell you.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: It's an old saying.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: That reminds me of what it is that I enjoy
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: about establishments, and it says three things you can just
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: you can have customer service, pricing, and the other the
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: one that's quality. Picked two right, that's hard to do,
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: but the experience is something you never ever forget when
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: you go to an establisher. I always compliment great service.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: I always remark when I see someone that does something special,
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: and I remind them that you're actually in business for yourself,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: because guess what, you're your own brand. I have those
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: who've worked with Seann Michelle's, who helped the Shawn Michelle's,
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: and they're in big positions and other places. Because I'm
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: a retired Chicago police officer and one of my former
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: sergeants who retire he's over one of the other municipalities,
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: and he came back and he asked me about an employee,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: a help of mine, and he wanted to know that
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: I think that she would work good in administration in
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: the city where he's serving. And she's been there ever since.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: So you never ever can really put a some type
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: of qualificle value value on how important it is to
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: want for others what you want for yourself and doing
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: to others as you have them doing to you.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: And so that there, Sean Michelle's is.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: In the business of putting smiles on the faces.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Stay with us.
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: More money Making Conversation mastic Lass coming up next. Welcome
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: back to money Making Conversation mastic Lass with me Rashaan McDonald.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: And if you don't know, now now you.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Know, Sean Michelle is the name of the ice cream stores?
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Is it right? For restaurant? What is ice cream? What
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: it's an ice I call it the ice homemade ice
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: cream Studio. Okay, cool, Now let's go through that. Meet
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: you now. Now you gotta tell you make banana.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: Put that, banana putting ice cream, putting ice cream, banana
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: putting ice cream. Just just just just tell me how
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: you make that oh, yes, ice cream, not to put
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: an ice cream.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Okay, okay, put ice cream. Okay.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: When you enjoy a cup of homemade ice cream, you
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: get lost in the moment.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely, I can go try and put a banana
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: on your ice cream.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Right, you might you might have a problem because when
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: that homemade ice cream store to me, that you start
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: to experience what makes that that different? You just want
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: a moment of silence. You know, you might have had
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: an idea to bring your children, but that will become
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: your getaway. You know, once you lean your should you
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: go into is right? But back to the banana putting
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: ice cream. The banana putting ice cream, it's made to
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: taste exactly like the cut custard that you make on
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: your stove. Right when you laid banana putting put it in.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: That's baked, y'all, that's baked. That's what he's talking about.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: You don't wus banana? Lord, have mercy banilla, have mercy.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Lidvanilla wave first, come on down?
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: You talking about yes, sir, yes, sir.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Now we know when we think about being a community anchor,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: you have a uh you know you're a former police officer.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Absolutely and so community means something. Black people in our
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: community mean something. Tell us exactly where it's Chicago, your
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: original location is, and where the new location the second
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: location is.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: Absolutely so my original location. That's a big thing. I
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: grew up in an underserved area seventy ninth right off
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: of Cottage Grove Quarter Speets in the City.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Of Chicago's Police Department.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: I grew up in an area where the gangs recruited
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: every day after school and through our school. They closed
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: one of my schools down because there was so much
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: gang activity. They had to shut it down, and they
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: sent us all somewhere else. But guess what. Two blocks
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: from where I grew up is where my first location was.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: And I always like to say that's a part of
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: my recipe. I had a chance to get out and
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: to dream.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: I dream, you know. I saw where I was at
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: and we just crossed Cottage.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: Grove and it's just a whole nother different area where
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: we didn't have to worry about the things that we
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: had to worry about on outside. So my life prepared
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: me to dream big into vision. And so what the
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: community means so much to me. I want to be
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: a part of the inspiration that plans to see and
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: give the betid to the next generation that's gonna take
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: it even further. You know, we all know that the
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: urban areas need a lot and I don't know if
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: it's anything we need more than to be inspired by
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: those who we can relate to look like us, and
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: that plans to see that, Hey, I want to be
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: just like just like ra Sean McDonald when I go
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: you know, I can do it too, you know, And
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: so so that's very inspiring for myself.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: We hire uh from the community.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: We work with programs in the community to mentor the
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: young guys, you know, to man just give them a
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: taste of what it feels like to serve.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Wow. That's powerful in the sense that it's also sad.
• 19:18
  Speaker 6: Yes, yes, because, like you said, the fact that your
• 19:21
  Speaker 6: life can not be pointed in the right direction because
• 19:25
  Speaker 6: other people want to take over it, take over, they
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: take over your lives.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: But the fact that you had the courage. I'm gonna
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: tell you something, I've been in these neighborhoods you talking about.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: If you black and you go a neighborhood and you
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: nervous about being in a black neighborhood, that's.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: A bad neighborhood. You know, I'm talking about y'all. Y'all
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: you go in the black neighborhood.
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: You that's some bad neighborhood.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: And you know the talk away laughing because you go
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: go where am I?
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: I remember I took an exit over. I was somewhere getting.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Gassed the other day and I took the wrong exits
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: to where Atlanta went. I was propagain, and I went, Okay.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: You're not in the right part. Left her. Boy, not
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: with this view. I hurry up and put that gas
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: against I have there.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: We're gonna be enough, brother, because life can turn bad
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: for you. But you decided on your own to do
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: it there. And what was the reaction of the community.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Because that's because that's the problem we have in community.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: We become food deserts.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: It becomes locations where you can't get things that everybody
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: else can get.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: I've always received support. Now, of course, the science of business,
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: that's a whole nother the feasibility plan, that's a whole
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: nother objective.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: But I started.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: I never had a business class, I never had a
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: business mentor all of this was. I like to say,
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: my faith, My journey is a faith journey because my
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: faith and belief in being able to do this has
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: always just been rewarded doing have just been open. But uh,
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: of course you know that it was. It was in
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: an area that was very challenging. A lot of people
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: didn't want to travel into that area to support and
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: so but it was the beginning and I stayed there
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: until shortly after my sister Sean was killed in a
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: car accident. And after my sister Sean was killed in
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: the car accident untimely death, I took a moment for
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: about two or three years, and I decided that this
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: business was going to be dedicated to my sister. She
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: was also in the culinary arts exactly, and I always
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: like you for sure she can burn.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Hey, I've been blessed.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: I know what good food tastes like you know, and
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: and so we like to say the spirit of Sean
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: Michelle's and Seann Michelle's right, she helped to inspire me
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: to go into business, right and help you know.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that business, because I always like to
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: hear like you said, you had no mentors, there wasn't
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: no SBA or score, or you didn't even know how
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: to find.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Score, which is a great mixture.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: But you know what I'm saying, which is a great
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: program to be a be aware of their use.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: You know the score. That's part of the SBA. When
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: you when you when you like I started my business wrong.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: I didn't know. I just had a great idea. Charge
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: people ten dollars open the doors up by the location.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: I'm back.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Then I figured out how to run a business, which
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: is not how you're supposed.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: To run a business. How did you start your business there, y'all,
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: y'all the same way. I didn't even have a business license. Again,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: I just believed, and.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: I'm glad that it happened so fast. I never I
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: didn't think about it long enough to even to change
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: my mind, you know I had. I went from the
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: trunk of my car cool in the wintertime on the
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: corners right and to rent our rooms and others establishments.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Now I'm not talking about restaurants. I rented out a
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: small room in the back of a beauty salon I
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: was making ice cream going out to sell it.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: I had.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: I had a small room and a small location that
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: another one of the brothers had, and I eventually just
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: rented out a storefront because I had already accepted the ideal,
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: accepted the I accepted the challenge, and I opened up
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: the store.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: And went out and bought used equipment.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: Had a brother put up a petition, and after.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Wow, this I just came. I said, you gotta get
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: a license for this.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: And that was the beginning of legitimately during the risingess
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: and I haven't stopped since, just a small pause when
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: my sister was killing a car accident, but have been
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: doing it every since. Went from seventy ninth Street to
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: ninety fifth Street, about a two miles down, a little
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: bit better community from street nineteenth Street and west, the
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: third location a little bit better than the second location.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: After that eighty seventh the nether line and the small
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: system that came with the location lines through the door
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: board to line came in the city of Chicago, and
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: I started, I said, am I serving with the lady
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: had in the bucket? Because you know it wasn't hard right,
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: and uh that line. Of course, you know this is
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: an area that's an upscale area. So it just showed
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: I wasn't ready at that time, but the blessing still came.
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: But the door was opened up in the rosen Wall building,
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: one of the Bruhs, that's in real estate.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: He gave me a call.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: He said, yeah, yeah, they're looking for a business that
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: the community loves, a nostalgic business someone would experience. And
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: they referred me to the owners of the Rolsen Wall
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: building and that area there that's historical Bronzeville. The building
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: that I member is the one that I'm in now,
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: is were not Keen Cole. I mean you you talking about.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: It's a nostalgic building for the city of Chicago, you know.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: And you know when we opened up the doors and
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: the line just never ever stopped.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Congratu faith just rewarded.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: And it got to the point where we had a
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: line all the way down to the next corner. Wow
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: in Chicago during the summer time, right, but still learning,
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: still learning how to serve, you know, still uh you know, man,
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: just figuring out ways to to.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: To make it better and better and better.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: And so now we're just ready to take the show
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: on the road, you know, and go from three months
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: of summertime, you know, to some place that can that's
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: a little bit more.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Uh. But you you open your round, correct, year round,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: seven days a week. Okay, cool, So you in November
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: December January.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: They come then days and week, three hundred sixty five
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: days a year, of course except.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: For days, right, absolutely, yeah.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: But you know the thing about it is that a
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: line though, Yeah, yeah, just talk about the line, sir, Yes, sir,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: come from my idea blue board, white bucket ice cream. Yes, sir,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: six years you try to replicate that experience, that experience
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: that that that culinary, culinary moment you had there your
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: sister pass away. Yes, Sel Michelle is the name of
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the ice cream business. Absolutely lying at the door.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Talk to me.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: Again, faith rewarded and those really showing that they appreciate
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: the values of Sea Michelle's.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: You know, we're still doing it the old.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: Fashioned way of course, you know, you know, in the
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: market that we're in it could be marginally challenged.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: You have to find.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Creative ways to still make it the feasible. But you
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: know I have customers still to this very day. That's
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: been around since seventy ninth street. I was out of
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: school one time and there was a gentleman who was
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: there picking up his son. Right, We having a good conversation,
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: like with conversations, right, and I saw his whole in
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: time mood had changed and I'm wondering.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: I'm asking the brothers everything.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: Okay, he said, brother, when I was a child, my
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: father's not alive anymore, but he used to take me
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: to your ice cream shop. And this brother hath to
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: have been about thirty seven years old. And I've been
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: doing it for that loan and so Sean Michelle's in
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: Chicago and now have become a part of the community,
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: of the community, a part of the instance and memories.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: You have so many people who come to Sea Michelle's
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: for the first time and they just it brings into
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: tears because it reminds them of Grandma, it reminds them
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: of Auntie, reminds them of certain rememberable moments in their life.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: They're special to them.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: And that's what Sean Michelle's represents because we're striving to
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: salute the lady who got put on that bench.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: See she was I'm just saying she is, like she
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: was there just for me.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: Well, you know I first of all, I just loved
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: interviewing you. I love you.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I love the authenticity, the storytelling, You're good at it.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: The fact that you understand the value of customer services.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Now you're trying to get expand beyond Chicago. Talk to us.
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, Atlanta, it's the mecca. Started in Chicago. Grow from
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: Atlanta a lot more warm, a lot more.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: Mercy.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, can you give us any when I bought the
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Houston we wait through you.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Any things you can reveal to us or you just
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: out in our areas. Uh, these sincere statements you're making
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: to us on money making conversations. Masterclass about the future
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: of Sean Michelle's.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Is to be attitude.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: Come on now, hey, being it is right, and so
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: we're gonna receive it and hey and bring it into
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: reality with the help of God.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I really.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Being all my life allows me to be able to
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: talk to Chicago like I've been there five years, born
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: and raised in Houston, Texas. Been many years in New York.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: A lot of places in this country I can go,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: go there, go to it. I'm disappointed I was in
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: five years in Chicago.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: So I'm kind of knowing right now, you know, because
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: I love we got something. I love ladies and gentlemen.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Everybody knows that when when you talk about your business,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: you talk about your family, you talk about your employees,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of passions that's beyond your ice cream.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: And I think that's the book on you. Man.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: The book on you is that, Yeah, I'm a great
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: ice cream parlor, so to speak.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: But man, when you come to that door, I care
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: about you and your experience. It is talk to us.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: I've been blessed, and I'm thankful, and I get thanks
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: to God for the business. I get thanks to God
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: for the help us. I get thanks to God for
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: those who have supported us. I get thanks to God
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: for my experience in life. And again, the same ones
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: that we look at on TV, that we read about,
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: the same ones in the community that others might not
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: want to really have around. I want to be a
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: part of that that helps to give them a new deal,
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: to give them.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Hope, to inspire them.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: Because I also grew up again in an area where
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: I wasn't. I shouldn't I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing,
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: but I was blessed to get out and see something different.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: Going to play baseball was in another community. It's nice.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: I went to a high school in another community. I
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: went away to college, so I saw something different. I
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: always tell our staff, in order to be something different,
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: you have to see something different, and so I've been
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: blessed and taught to aim high.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Right. But I have to say as well, Okay, when
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: I went.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: Away to college, to Western Illinois University, because I gave
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: credit earlier, I forgot to mention the effect that joining
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: Omega Sci Fi Fraternity had on my life as well,
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: because I learned principles, immutable principles that I've been striving.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: To all life. Come on, cardinals, come on.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: I had a chance to see others who held me accountable.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Man, and we had the number one TV on the college.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: Of course he was a students you know, but that scholarship.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: So I've been truly, truly blessed in my life. So
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: this is all a part of again my makeup. The
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: guy has blessed me.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: To I tell people all the time that I played
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty one. Yes, sir, I would not be
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: sitting here if I did not plage or makers I
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: five and I think they brought uh. I was a
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: struggling college student, Yes, sir, My JP was just high
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: enough to let you put me online when they put
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: me online last lit love online and he told me,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: you told me six weeks run up in thirteen weeks.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: But it changed my life, brother, It changed my life
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: and uh and for the better and uh and it
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: allows me to have this interview you and I know
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: exactly what you're saying when you say it changed your life.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: It changed my life, man, and I and I always
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: would know that I cannot.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: I can stutter because I know the different.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Paths that I could have gone if I didn't plage,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: and they would not be a path. Sitting in Atlanta
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: talking to you, you know, being in the position to
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: highlight the success of another fellow fraternity brother who plays
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: in ninety one, ten years after I played, Sean Michelle.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: He's coming to h He's coming to a.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: In Chicago, y'all, Chicago, Sean Michelle, thank you for coming.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: No Money Making Conversations Master Class, y'all, y'all, Mohammad you said,
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: thank you, brother.
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: This has been another addition of Money Making Conversations Master
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: Class hosted by me Rashaan McDonald. Thank you to our
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: guests on the show today, and thank you our listening audience. Now,
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: if you want to listen to any episode, I want
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: to register to be a guest on my show, visit
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: Money Making Conversations Dot com our social media handle is
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: Money Making Conversations.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: your gifts. Keep winning