Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Entrepreneur: Big Dave Cheesesteaks’ founder Derrick Hayes started in a 749 sq. ft Shell gas station, now it's nationally known.

Transcript

Entrepreneur: Big Dave Cheesesteaks’ founder Derrick Hayes started in a 749 sq. ft Shell gas station, now it's nationally known. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: If you're about to make a change in your life
0:03
Speaker 1: and you feel uncomfortable, that's the best feeling you can
0:06
Speaker 1: have because for the first time in your life, you'll
0:10
Speaker 1: make a new decision that's going to be best for
0:12
Speaker 1: you and not what somebody told you to do. And
0:16
Speaker 1: that's when all bets are off. Welcome to Money Making
0:18
Speaker 1: Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host with Shan McDonald. Our theme
0:22
Speaker 1: is there's no perfect time to start following your dreams.
0:25
Speaker 1: I recognize that we all have different definitions of success.
0:28
Speaker 1: For you and maybe the size of your HM. It's
0:31
Speaker 1: time to stop reading other people's success stories to start
0:33
Speaker 1: living your own keep winning. My guest today is Derek D. Hayes.
0:43
Speaker 1: He was recently featured on the cover of Essence magazine
0:46
Speaker 1: his vision for his restaurant, Big Dave's Cheesecake beginning twenty fourteen,
0:50
Speaker 1: as he aimed to merge his passion for community food
0:53
Speaker 1: and business. Well started as a small water ice shop
0:56
Speaker 1: in seven half roughly seven hundred fifty square food gas
1:00
Speaker 1: station and Donewoodie, Georgia. Since twenty sixteen has generated nationally
1:05
Speaker 1: and on big days cheesecake. If you've not been there,
1:08
Speaker 1: I recommend you go there. He's right down the street
1:11
Speaker 1: from my business. My staff they need, they need to
1:14
Speaker 1: have stock in these business that's how much they go. There.
1:16
Speaker 1: A thriving cheesecake empire with store and mobile locations all
1:19
Speaker 1: across Metro Atlanta. Hayes is also the founder of Dave
1:22
Speaker 1: and Derek Hayes Foundation and co owner of vegan cheesecake
1:26
Speaker 1: concept Dinkies with Sludy Vegan Atlanta CEO and vegan restaurant
1:30
Speaker 1: phenom Pinky col In twenty twenty one. Hayes' passion for
1:34
Speaker 1: community and food landing him an illustrious spot as a
1:37
Speaker 1: Forbes twenty twenty one next one thousand on a rate.
1:40
Speaker 1: Let's discuss this journey into Big Dave's Cheesecake, being a
1:43
Speaker 1: community leader, being bigger than food. Please, welcome to Money
1:47
Speaker 1: Making Conversations, Masterclass, Derek D. Hayes.
1:51
Speaker 2: How you doing, sir, I'm good man. Thank you so much,
1:54
Speaker 2: mister Rashan McDonalds for having me. Man.
1:55
Speaker 3: I appreciate you. Brother.
1:57
Speaker 1: Hey Man, had I had to lay it out there
1:58
Speaker 1: for you, Derek, because you don't Because now you did.
2:01
Speaker 3: Man, that was good.
2:02
Speaker 2: You know sometimes hearing you know the stuff that you did.
2:05
Speaker 3: You know along the way it feels good.
2:06
Speaker 2: You know, ah, your heart wreak, you know somebody else innerness,
2:09
Speaker 2: So it's always a blessing.
2:10
Speaker 1: Well, the thing about it is you should be because
2:13
Speaker 1: sometimes I have a segment I do a local show,
2:16
Speaker 1: Must Show Syndicates, and I do it live every Tuesday.
2:19
Speaker 1: I love to invite you on it, by the way,
2:21
Speaker 1: on WCLK every Tuesday, and it's called a bragging segment,
2:25
Speaker 1: and I encourage people to call in and talk about
2:27
Speaker 1: what they've done. Because we tend to be too humble
2:30
Speaker 1: about our business. I always encourage people to remind them that,
2:33
Speaker 1: you know, McDonald brags for brags, and we need to
2:37
Speaker 1: brag about what we do. So everything that you have
2:40
Speaker 1: accomplished is part of your success story. Is not what
2:43
Speaker 1: we see when we get that sandwich because that cheesecake sandwich,
2:47
Speaker 1: because what happens was there's a journey to get there.
2:49
Speaker 1: So how did I hear the date twenty fourteen? I
2:52
Speaker 1: hear the small gas station. I hear seven hundred and
2:55
Speaker 1: fifty square feet, which is the size of my apartment
2:58
Speaker 1: in college. So I know what that feels like. So
3:01
Speaker 1: talk to us about it because obviously there was a
3:03
Speaker 1: walk kid, there wasn't a sit down diner. Tell us
3:05
Speaker 1: about the whole concept of what you have turned into
3:09
Speaker 1: an empire so far and it's growing.
3:13
Speaker 2: Well, well, first I want to start off with saying
3:17
Speaker 2: the mission and you know, and an honor was my father,
3:20
Speaker 2: you know, that was everything.
3:21
Speaker 3: That the reason why I built big days.
3:24
Speaker 2: He passed away from lung cancer in two thousand and nine,
3:28
Speaker 2: and my dad dying wish was for me to you know,
3:30
Speaker 2: stand on my own ten toes and change my generational patterns.
3:33
Speaker 3: And you know, not to get in trouble.
3:35
Speaker 2: And you know, he worked his whole life and he
3:37
Speaker 2: thought he left a lot behind and he didn't.
3:40
Speaker 3: So I was able to see.
3:41
Speaker 2: A blue collar work of my whole life and now
3:44
Speaker 2: transpiring to me building my brain and honor and my father.
3:48
Speaker 2: It was it was you know a lot of hard work,
3:50
Speaker 2: but it was something that my mission and my passion
3:53
Speaker 2: what I really wanted to do because just think about it,
3:55
Speaker 2: a lot of people build.
3:56
Speaker 3: Brands just for money.
3:58
Speaker 2: You know, I built this for a purpose of really,
4:00
Speaker 2: you know, believing in my father, you know, his dreams
4:02
Speaker 2: and where he wanted before he left their So it
4:05
Speaker 2: actually helped me and tricked me into one and more
4:07
Speaker 2: out of my own self. So when I built big days,
4:10
Speaker 2: I didn't know anything about business. I didn't know how
4:12
Speaker 2: to you know, pay sales and use text. I didn't
4:15
Speaker 2: know anything about you know, getting ADP. I didn't know
4:18
Speaker 2: anything about food costs.
4:19
Speaker 3: All I wanted to do was.
4:21
Speaker 2: Better my life and you know, get out of situations
4:23
Speaker 2: I was in at the time. But in the midst
4:26
Speaker 2: of all of this, I was able to start in
4:28
Speaker 2: a small gas station because nobody went to rent me
4:31
Speaker 2: in space out you know, I'm going all over Atlanta.
4:33
Speaker 2: I'm saying, you know, I got the money, you know,
4:35
Speaker 2: I you know I need that, you know, need the space,
4:37
Speaker 2: and everybody's like, you know, but you don't have the
4:40
Speaker 2: business experience. It only took me this one shot. I
4:43
Speaker 2: always learned this in life. One shot can change your
4:46
Speaker 2: life forever. And that gas station was my shot because
4:49
Speaker 2: that Indian guy rented me that space. And you know,
4:51
Speaker 2: I had no business experience, and I was able to
4:54
Speaker 2: make that nationally known. You know, in seven years of
4:57
Speaker 2: my hard work. Now along the way, I had a
4:59
Speaker 2: lot of roller coaster rise. You know, I got taken
5:01
Speaker 2: advantage of a lot by contractors, even you know, employees,
5:05
Speaker 2: you know, because I had a you know, soft heart,
5:07
Speaker 2: you know, you know, I wanted to see everybody grow
5:09
Speaker 2: at the time. But it built my tough skin along
5:12
Speaker 2: the way because I had to understand for me to
5:14
Speaker 2: scale this business, I had to become a real entrepreneur.
5:17
Speaker 2: So I started really, you know, doing my Google university,
5:20
Speaker 2: my YouTube university. I'm learning, you know, how to really
5:23
Speaker 2: you know, do these things. And so I don't get
5:25
Speaker 2: taken advantage of it because I didn't finish school. You know,
5:28
Speaker 2: I got a high school diploma, but I don't, you know,
5:29
Speaker 2: I didn't finish college. So and I got forty some
5:32
Speaker 2: tattoos on my body, so I don't look like the
5:34
Speaker 2: average CEO. So when people look at me, you know,
5:37
Speaker 2: I got to come on my things together so they
5:39
Speaker 2: could take me serious. And the way I did that
5:41
Speaker 2: was to build multiple successful businesses along the way throughout
5:44
Speaker 2: the years.
5:45
Speaker 1: Now, when you show this gas station, there's a gas
5:47
Speaker 1: station seven hundred and fifties roughly, they said, you said
5:50
Speaker 1: seven forty nine. I'm just gonna say, se get one
5:52
Speaker 1: more square for seven fifty seven fifth square free. Why
5:55
Speaker 1: at what area of town was they done witty, But
5:57
Speaker 1: what area of doun witty? And why did you think?
6:01
Speaker 1: What did you have to bring it? Because this is
6:02
Speaker 1: a gas station. Now you're cooking in the gas station.
6:05
Speaker 1: So talk about that setup and then being able to
6:08
Speaker 1: sell the concept to the community and to your friends,
6:11
Speaker 1: because the friends really is a hard sale because they
6:13
Speaker 1: going to tell you it's not a smart idea.
6:16
Speaker 3: So that's how.
6:17
Speaker 2: I actually wounded up in the kitchen cooking myself because
6:20
Speaker 2: I tried to get a cook of cheese steak.
6:23
Speaker 3: And my friends was like, nah, it's not home.
6:25
Speaker 2: And not to mention, I am in this little gas
6:28
Speaker 2: station with one grill and one fryar and it's all electric.
6:32
Speaker 3: You know. I don't know if a lot of people know.
6:34
Speaker 2: Cooking on electricity and cooking on gas is totally different
6:37
Speaker 2: because the grill goes in and out.
6:39
Speaker 3: You know, temperature is different.
6:40
Speaker 2: When you pick cold no items on there, you lose temperature.
6:44
Speaker 2: So I had to actually learn how to cook on
6:48
Speaker 2: these disadvantage you know, equipment that I had, and then
6:51
Speaker 2: I was cooking on used the equipment. At the same time.
6:54
Speaker 2: I had no employees at the time. It's just me
6:57
Speaker 2: being a cashier. The cook accounting inventory, anything that I
7:03
Speaker 2: had to do to make it because I wanted to
7:05
Speaker 2: be successful in a way I had to do that
7:07
Speaker 2: was put myself in all these situations.
7:09
Speaker 3: To be able to you know, work hard to do
7:11
Speaker 3: that myself.
7:12
Speaker 2: Because I didn't have the money at the time to
7:15
Speaker 2: to you know, give people to help me. Because at
7:17
Speaker 2: the end of the day, I blew my money, you know,
7:19
Speaker 2: and I spent my last you know, building Big Dave.
7:22
Speaker 2: So I really had to get it out the mud.
7:24
Speaker 2: So I would say that self belief is more than
7:28
Speaker 2: anything that I had to do along the way, is
7:29
Speaker 2: believing in myself. If you don't believe in yourself, there's
7:32
Speaker 2: no way that you can get somebody else to believe
7:35
Speaker 2: in you. So when I started believing in myself more,
7:37
Speaker 2: I started to get you know, a little bit of traffic.
7:39
Speaker 2: And to be honest, man, I tell everybody, Eve the rapper,
7:43
Speaker 2: Eve Man, she was a big play, you know, a
7:45
Speaker 2: big part of my story because in the midst of me,
7:47
Speaker 2: you know, going through this year and now open, I
7:50
Speaker 2: don't have no traffic.
7:51
Speaker 3: Still I'm going under. You know.
7:53
Speaker 2: Of course, if you can't pay the bills, eventually you're
7:55
Speaker 2: gonna have to shut them doors and she posted me
7:58
Speaker 2: on her social network.
7:59
Speaker 3: Man, I made a chicken cheese steak for her.
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Speaker 1: Man right, and you know, so I did? You I
8:04
Speaker 1: did because rapper, you famous, you know, great following, so
8:08
Speaker 1: loyal following first of all. And so where were you
8:11
Speaker 1: at for that connection to make? Did you know her?
8:14
Speaker 1: Or she found out about your fusion recommended your food?
8:17
Speaker 1: Tell me about that stuff.
8:18
Speaker 3: I was a friend. It was a friend.
8:20
Speaker 2: It was a friend, friend of a friend, and she
8:22
Speaker 2: was shooting barbershop.
8:24
Speaker 3: You know, she was shooting the movie.
8:25
Speaker 2: And I waited all day for her to come, like
8:28
Speaker 2: a kid on Christmas, I'm talking about.
8:31
Speaker 3: She ain't come.
8:32
Speaker 2: Man, you know, you know I ain't get discoveraged that.
8:34
Speaker 2: I said, you know, I'm gonna keep on fighting. And
8:36
Speaker 2: the next day she really came. And as I was
8:39
Speaker 2: making this chicken cheese steak. You know what she told me,
8:41
Speaker 2: She said, if this sandwich is good, I'm gonna post
8:45
Speaker 2: it on my social media networks.
8:47
Speaker 3: Now you gotta think about it. I'm a kid from Philly,
8:49
Speaker 3: I'm all my red sizes. I exhausted everything and now.
8:53
Speaker 2: I'm like ship my life depends on is I gotta
8:55
Speaker 2: make the.
8:55
Speaker 3: Sandwich the best I can make it. And when I
8:58
Speaker 3: made this sandwich, she bit it.
9:00
Speaker 2: She went't crazy, she said, oh man, you.
9:02
Speaker 3: Brung me home.
9:03
Speaker 2: And she put it on every social media outlet she
9:06
Speaker 2: had at the time. And when I tell you, the
9:08
Speaker 2: next day, I made five thousand dollars. That was my
9:10
Speaker 2: biggest day ever at the time. And it was just
9:12
Speaker 2: up from there. I started to be able to get
9:15
Speaker 2: the community more involved because they seem traffic. You know,
9:19
Speaker 2: people eat off of their eyes. You know, they see lines,
9:22
Speaker 2: they say, well, got to be good. So I was
9:24
Speaker 2: able to start building lines. And then the next part
9:27
Speaker 2: of my journey that was a very big part of
9:29
Speaker 2: my mission, was in twenty eighteen, I was picked to
9:33
Speaker 2: go to a sandwich competition and Orange Beach, Alabama, and
9:39
Speaker 2: I ranked number seventh in the world.
9:40
Speaker 1: Okay, Orange Beach, Alabama sandwich competition. Okay, now this ain't
9:45
Speaker 1: New York.
9:46
Speaker 3: This ain't that like, You're not even Atlanta.
9:49
Speaker 1: You a Orange Beach, Alabama sandwich competition. So see, that's
9:53
Speaker 1: what I love about you. You know, you tell this story.
9:56
Speaker 1: It is so normal to you. But Orange Beach, Alaba,
10:00
Speaker 1: I don't think going to orangeby, Alabama gonna do anything
10:02
Speaker 1: for anybody, but tell us about this competition and why
10:05
Speaker 1: it was important to go.
10:07
Speaker 2: So so it was important to go because, for one,
10:11
Speaker 2: I wanted to represent that not only had the best
10:14
Speaker 2: cheese steak, but I wanted to have the best sandwich.
10:16
Speaker 2: And honestly, it was an opportunity for me. You know,
10:18
Speaker 2: I was hungry, you know, I had to fire in
10:21
Speaker 2: my belly for success. I was waiting for my moment,
10:23
Speaker 2: and when I got picked, I was ready for it.
10:26
Speaker 2: But to be honest, when I got there, you know,
10:28
Speaker 2: it was a little discussion because I was cooking on
10:32
Speaker 2: a barbecue grill. Now, mind you, how do you make
10:34
Speaker 2: a cheese steak on a barbecue grill because they don't
10:36
Speaker 2: have flat tops. So what I had to do. I
10:39
Speaker 2: went to Walmart and got a skill it and like
10:41
Speaker 2: a flat top, and I put it over that gas
10:43
Speaker 2: grill and I got that thing hot and I made
10:46
Speaker 2: them cheese steaks, just like I was at Big Days.
10:48
Speaker 2: You know, I took my obscoles and I pivoted, because
10:51
Speaker 2: that's the thing. When you don't pivot when stuff happened,
10:54
Speaker 2: you're gonna sink, You're gonna give up. You know, I'm
10:57
Speaker 2: already at disadvantage, you know, to Americans. I'm a black
11:00
Speaker 2: man to come from the ghetto, so I was supposed
11:02
Speaker 2: to be here anyway, sure, you know. So the way
11:05
Speaker 2: I was looking at it was, this is my opportunity
11:07
Speaker 2: to make some noise for me and my people, to
11:09
Speaker 2: show that I deserve to be here.
11:11
Speaker 3: And when they.
11:12
Speaker 1: Show what I'm saying when you say that in the
11:14
Speaker 1: diversity at this competition was not much, when you make
11:17
Speaker 1: a staatemle.
11:18
Speaker 2: I can't I can't count on my my fingers how
11:21
Speaker 2: many black people in this competition. And it probably was
11:25
Speaker 2: maybe fifteen thousand, you know, could have been could have
11:27
Speaker 2: been a little less, a little bit more, I'm not sure,
11:30
Speaker 2: but I know that it was a good amount of people,
11:33
Speaker 2: know that's trying to qualify for this, for this cooking competition.
11:38
Speaker 3: And honestly, I never forget.
11:41
Speaker 2: I gave Bo Jackson a Dave's Way, and I said,
11:45
Speaker 2: I know I had a big shot because I knew
11:47
Speaker 2: I was.
11:48
Speaker 3: Making this sandwich.
11:49
Speaker 2: But you know, all of my grind, my blood, sweat
11:51
Speaker 2: and terrace, all these years of me working, I said,
11:54
Speaker 2: I ain't come here to lose, man, you know, I
11:56
Speaker 2: came here to show out and show on.
11:58
Speaker 3: And honestly, and they called Derrick Hayes.
12:01
Speaker 2: They said, you know, top qualifiers, top ten in the world.
12:05
Speaker 2: And when they called me, I was talking to somebody
12:07
Speaker 2: because we was in this big facility, right and I
12:10
Speaker 2: was looking at them like they just called my name.
12:13
Speaker 2: And it was mind blowing because at the end of
12:16
Speaker 2: the day, you want to win, you want to get
12:18
Speaker 2: to the mountain top, you want to get there. But
12:20
Speaker 2: when they really call you a name, all your years
12:23
Speaker 2: of your heart.
12:24
Speaker 3: Work and everything you've been through start to pan out.
12:26
Speaker 2: And honestly, it was emotional for me because again, just
12:29
Speaker 2: like you said, it was an Orange Beach, Alabama, and
12:32
Speaker 2: me as a black man, winning anything at Orange Beach, Alabama.
12:36
Speaker 1: Was a win for me on a barbecue grill on
12:38
Speaker 1: a barbecue grill on a barbecue was skill it for
12:41
Speaker 1: Walmart exactly.
12:43
Speaker 2: You know, That's how a lot of myo a lot
12:45
Speaker 2: of my journey was built off of blood, sweat and
12:47
Speaker 2: tears and getting it out the mud for real, because
12:50
Speaker 2: I wanted people to see a real, authentic side of
12:53
Speaker 2: what I was building. I don't want people to, you know,
12:55
Speaker 2: see that anything that was given because I wanted them
12:58
Speaker 2: to see that if the reason verses with short and
13:01
Speaker 2: they looking at me, they can do it too.
13:03
Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
13:06
Speaker 4: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
13:13
Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan MacDonald.
13:17
Speaker 1: Well, the beauty of this conversation that I'm having with
13:19
Speaker 1: you is that I know that establishing your brand because
13:22
Speaker 1: setbacks are part of your growth. Now, in twenty twenty,
13:26
Speaker 1: we all faced the pandemic and at that point we
13:29
Speaker 1: didn't know what to do, and so you used the
13:31
Speaker 1: word pivot early in your conversation, the word pivot, which
13:34
Speaker 1: I think is really important this conversation. When we talked
13:37
Speaker 1: to young entrepreneurs who have a goal set in place,
13:40
Speaker 1: this is how I'm going to do it, and sometimes
13:42
Speaker 1: when something interrupts that goal, they frustration sets in or
13:47
Speaker 1: they throw their hands up. When COVID the country was
13:50
Speaker 1: set down, how did you react to that and did
13:52
Speaker 1: you have a game plan?
13:53
Speaker 2: Dave, I'm gonna say this. I'm gonna say this in
13:56
Speaker 2: the most humblest way. My life was a pitvot. I
14:00
Speaker 2: come from West Philadelphia. I come from the jungle. I
14:03
Speaker 2: come from Atlanta opportunity if you want it, because you
14:06
Speaker 2: got to go get it. So when this happened in
14:08
Speaker 2: this pandemic, of course, nobody had ever seen this tragedy
14:11
Speaker 2: happened in the world like this, But I knew the
14:13
Speaker 2: city I came from taught me how to pivot, So
14:16
Speaker 2: I wasn't.
14:17
Speaker 3: Going to quit.
14:18
Speaker 2: I was going to find out a way to help
14:19
Speaker 2: people while I was helping my brand be able to
14:21
Speaker 2: grow at the same time.
14:22
Speaker 3: In a way I was able to do that was
14:24
Speaker 3: I was.
14:25
Speaker 2: Able to give a thousand plus meals to the community
14:27
Speaker 2: because those same people that was going through those hard times.
14:30
Speaker 3: Were the same people standing in my lines.
14:33
Speaker 2: And then I wanted to help the healthcare workers, those
14:35
Speaker 2: frontline workers.
14:36
Speaker 3: Those were the.
14:37
Speaker 2: Same people that was patting their life on the line
14:39
Speaker 2: every day for people that had COVID, and we didn't
14:41
Speaker 2: really know how dangerous COVID was at the time, so.
14:44
Speaker 3: Those people I wanted to help.
14:45
Speaker 2: I fed forty plus hospitals in a month of COVID
14:48
Speaker 2: the first month. You know, really, no, we didn't know
14:50
Speaker 2: what was going on, and I put my life on
14:52
Speaker 2: the line just as well going to those hospitals because
14:55
Speaker 2: I believed that it was a bigger purpose that they
14:57
Speaker 2: seen an entrepreneur, a young black kid that come from
15:00
Speaker 2: the ghetto standing up. Some other people would stand up,
15:03
Speaker 2: and then we will all stand.
15:04
Speaker 3: Up together, and we were reunite.
15:06
Speaker 2: And being able to get our communities back together in downtown.
15:09
Speaker 3: I was able to help out.
15:10
Speaker 2: I donated twenty six thousand dollars to help businesses get
15:13
Speaker 2: back open. So for me, it wasn't about making the
15:16
Speaker 2: money in the pandemic pandemic, it was about helping others
15:19
Speaker 2: get their doors back open, so that people could see
15:23
Speaker 2: what type of person I was and what I stand from,
15:25
Speaker 2: what I represent, and what I wanted out of my
15:27
Speaker 2: own self. If you can look through a vision of me,
15:30
Speaker 2: you can look through the vision of the community.
15:31
Speaker 3: And we can grow together. And that's what I was
15:33
Speaker 3: trying to do.
15:34
Speaker 1: Well, you did it, and because you were recognized by
15:36
Speaker 1: four twenty one, next one thousand on the red now again,
15:41
Speaker 1: you know it goes back to Alabama. You know you
15:44
Speaker 1: got that, you're in a tent. You know they call
15:46
Speaker 1: your name. Didn't know that was going to happen. You shocked.
15:49
Speaker 1: Now you're doing all this great work for the community.
15:52
Speaker 1: You know, like you said, Now, one part in your
15:54
Speaker 1: conversation where you're talking about selling, you're talking about uplifting, giving,
15:57
Speaker 1: giving given twenty six thousand, there thousand sandwiches there. All
16:00
Speaker 1: about the drive is if I give, then they show support.
16:04
Speaker 1: It creates loyalty. That's a business model that corporations do
16:08
Speaker 1: all the time, and that comes from service. Now, service
16:11
Speaker 1: drives your business. Customer service is a high priority as
16:15
Speaker 1: far as how you communicate with your with your customer base.
16:18
Speaker 2: Correct, yes, yes, but I think I think with me,
16:23
Speaker 2: with me, sir, I think with me is people see, yes, sir,
16:27
Speaker 2: that I'm real. They see the authentic side of it,
16:30
Speaker 2: like I'm not stripted.
16:31
Speaker 3: You know, I show my flaws.
16:32
Speaker 2: I show my my my ups and down so that
16:35
Speaker 2: you don't make the same mistakes that I made.
16:37
Speaker 3: I'm not selling you food.
16:39
Speaker 2: I'm selling you hope and I'm selling you a dream
16:42
Speaker 2: a kid like me believing and want to make a change.
16:45
Speaker 3: And when they see that, they put.
16:47
Speaker 2: The food to the side for a second. They know
16:49
Speaker 2: I make good food. Everybody loves my food, but they
16:51
Speaker 2: also love the passion and the story that I'm putting
16:54
Speaker 2: out because it's so many.
16:55
Speaker 3: Other people out here in the world that need that help.
16:58
Speaker 3: You think about it. It could be a young kid that
17:00
Speaker 3: looked just like me thirty four years old. He might
17:02
Speaker 3: be in the hood trying to get out of not
17:04
Speaker 3: being no, selling drugs or a bad situation.
17:07
Speaker 2: He can go ahead and punch on Instagram and look
17:09
Speaker 2: at me and say, listen, I know this kid came
17:11
Speaker 2: from the same thing I came from. I could do
17:13
Speaker 2: it too. That's bigger than me than any money. That's
17:17
Speaker 2: the biggest thing for me. You know. I could be
17:19
Speaker 2: walking in the market and somebody will walk up to
17:22
Speaker 2: me and say, hey, man, you don't even understand.
17:24
Speaker 3: You saved my life. You made me want to change.
17:26
Speaker 3: You made me want more out of myself.
17:28
Speaker 2: And I used the food to be able to step
17:30
Speaker 2: and stone and trigger that. I was told this once
17:32
Speaker 2: upon in my life. My eye was bad on cancer
17:35
Speaker 2: in two thousand and five. My name was Teresa Hennigan.
17:38
Speaker 2: She eventually passed away, but in the middle of this
17:40
Speaker 2: I went to a church with her and a pastor.
17:43
Speaker 2: He told me in my ear, he said, you're going
17:46
Speaker 2: to be a pastor.
17:47
Speaker 3: Now.
17:47
Speaker 2: At the time, I'm playing basketball, I had who dreams
17:49
Speaker 2: to make it to the NBA.
17:51
Speaker 3: I said, I'm not going to be no pastor. A
17:53
Speaker 3: pastor is not about getting on a poor pit. It's
17:56
Speaker 3: about spreading the message. It's about giving a message so
17:58
Speaker 3: other people could receive. And right now, every day I
18:01
Speaker 3: spread the message.
18:02
Speaker 2: When these people out here seeing big day build these
18:04
Speaker 2: two locations, young black kid comes from the ghetto, bill
18:07
Speaker 2: multi million dollar companies left and right right now, they
18:09
Speaker 2: get motivated by that. So for me, that's the biggest motivation.
18:13
Speaker 2: For me.
18:13
Speaker 3: It ain't about the money. It's about the motivation for
18:15
Speaker 3: my people.
18:16
Speaker 1: Well, you know the interesting thing about it. You know
18:18
Speaker 1: when I saw you on the cover of Essence. You
18:20
Speaker 1: know usually you know when you on the cover of Essence,
18:22
Speaker 1: you know, you interest Ailblew. You know what I'm saying,
18:25
Speaker 1: you know, Michael B. Jordan, you know what I'm saying.
18:26
Speaker 3: That's man, that's the legendary. Go go go, go go.
18:30
Speaker 1: That's it. Nice smiling y'all, y'all, y'all all the y'all.
18:33
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you he's straightened up a little bit
18:34
Speaker 1: when I started talking about being on the cover of
18:36
Speaker 1: Essence because Essence, like you know, because I'm older than you.
18:39
Speaker 1: That's the you know, that's Ebony back in my day.
18:42
Speaker 1: That's Jet magazine back in my day. You know, you
18:45
Speaker 1: saw that you left that on the coffee table. Wouldn't
18:48
Speaker 1: happen because you know, that was an announcement about your brand.
18:51
Speaker 1: But it's even a bigger announcement for you because it
18:54
Speaker 1: wasn't entertainment driven your parent on there. It was about
18:57
Speaker 1: you as a person, what you do for the community,
19:00
Speaker 1: and you being able to step out. Like you talk
19:03
Speaker 1: about your background, you come from humble beginnings, you come
19:05
Speaker 1: from Philadelphia, you come from a neighborhood like I came
19:08
Speaker 1: from a neighborhood where people stereotype your success. You know,
19:11
Speaker 1: you know exactly you driving that neighborhood. Then people will
19:14
Speaker 1: question why you come out how exactly it's like you
19:19
Speaker 1: you lucky?
19:20
Speaker 2: You turns like that you don't like you don't belong here,
19:22
Speaker 2: like you like you ain't deserve it. And I think, see,
19:26
Speaker 2: and that's what I'm trying to teach too. You know,
19:29
Speaker 2: I was asked this question yesterday. I was having a
19:31
Speaker 2: conversation and they said, why do you think our culture,
19:34
Speaker 2: you know, handle things differently?
19:36
Speaker 3: And the reason what that being is just imagine if you.
19:40
Speaker 2: Was a kid on Christmas, right right, everybody got this toy,
19:43
Speaker 2: but this one kid got the best toy that everybody wanted.
19:47
Speaker 3: That if that kid never.
19:48
Speaker 2: Was taught how to share that toy, because he never
19:50
Speaker 2: had the resources to feel good about having anything that
19:53
Speaker 2: feel good, then how can that kid ever know he's
19:55
Speaker 2: going wrong? When you in an environment of everything a
19:58
Speaker 2: certain way, that's what you're accustomed to.
20:00
Speaker 3: Now, what I'm trying to show different is.
20:02
Speaker 2: Okay, we step out of these boundaries of these inner cities,
20:05
Speaker 2: these lower income communities, and now we got social media
20:09
Speaker 2: outlets showing us when it's right from wrong.
20:12
Speaker 3: But the leaders that.
20:13
Speaker 2: Got the voice got to help out and say, listen,
20:16
Speaker 2: now that we got the ball in our hands, let's.
20:17
Speaker 3: Stick together and change these communities out and give resources.
20:20
Speaker 3: Let's build community.
20:21
Speaker 2: Centers, centers, Let's build financial literacy program so that when.
20:26
Speaker 3: Kids get to high school and when they about.
20:27
Speaker 2: To get out of high school, they ain't lost on
20:29
Speaker 2: about a credit card or or how they going to
20:32
Speaker 2: do their financial literacy, or how they're going to get
20:34
Speaker 2: through college. They know that spending over thirty percent on
20:37
Speaker 2: their credit card going to mess they credit up before
20:38
Speaker 2: the bill cycle hit, they know that they can now you.
20:41
Speaker 3: Know, utilize their capital before.
20:43
Speaker 2: That bill cycle hit so that now they're not getting
20:45
Speaker 2: pittllized for interest.
20:46
Speaker 3: So they rotating this money making money.
20:48
Speaker 2: They know how to get cash back cash rewards cards
20:51
Speaker 2: when they spending money to put it in they savings
20:53
Speaker 2: account when it earns enough money to now move the
20:55
Speaker 2: money and it's free money off of spending money. But
20:58
Speaker 2: we can't teach that when know that, and all we
21:01
Speaker 2: can know is what's going on in these communities to survive.
21:03
Speaker 2: Like I said, where I come from at in Philly,
21:06
Speaker 2: I was born to just survive and my day of
21:08
Speaker 2: living it was my dead survival. I ain't thinking about tomorrow.
21:11
Speaker 2: So I'm trying to teach my generation. Now let's worry
21:14
Speaker 2: about tomorrow. Because when you've got kids, you got to
21:16
Speaker 2: lead them set up for when you ain't here, you
21:18
Speaker 2: got to take care of them from the grave.
21:20
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. That's why we're doing as
21:21
Speaker 3: a life insurance initiative right now.
21:24
Speaker 1: Wow, you know I love as we progress through this interview, Derek,
21:28
Speaker 1: how your energy, your comfort zone with me has just
21:32
Speaker 1: picked up and keep transferring to an even more positive level.
21:36
Speaker 1: But the number one thing when I talk about and
21:38
Speaker 1: I meet individuals like you because you're a self made person.
21:41
Speaker 1: Like I said, you're not a shame of your journey
21:43
Speaker 1: now because at the beginning I always talk about friends, family,
21:46
Speaker 1: and don't let anybody stop you from living your dream
21:50
Speaker 1: and stop you from planning your dream. Okay, when you
21:53
Speaker 1: talk about the community and the next step, what is
21:56
Speaker 1: Big Dave's future, how do you how do you conceptualize?
21:59
Speaker 1: And because you know it, ain't you no more than
22:01
Speaker 1: seven hundred and fifty square foot shell gas station by yourself.
22:04
Speaker 1: You have to put a team around you. What does
22:06
Speaker 1: that team look like? So our team, so our listeners
22:09
Speaker 1: and our viewers can understand. When you grow, grow has
22:12
Speaker 1: to be surrounded by quality. You have to spend money
22:15
Speaker 1: to keep that quality around you in order to you
22:17
Speaker 1: dream to grow.
22:19
Speaker 2: I like this topic right here because a lot of people,
22:22
Speaker 2: you know, they might tell me I'm too top heavy
22:25
Speaker 2: with the locations that I have. But the thing is,
22:28
Speaker 2: if you ain't, if you ready, you ain't got.
22:30
Speaker 3: To get ready. You know when that moment happened.
22:32
Speaker 2: So in the midst of in the midst of everything
22:35
Speaker 2: that I'm done with my brand, you know, I just
22:37
Speaker 2: want for me, like philanthropy is a big thing for me,
22:41
Speaker 2: you know, building this brand, I love it just as
22:44
Speaker 2: much as I love, you know, the restaurant space. I
22:46
Speaker 2: love talking to people because, for one, I know that
22:52
Speaker 2: I'm giving them real game that I've been through on
22:54
Speaker 2: my life to help them change theirs. No, I don't
22:56
Speaker 2: think I know everything, but me at thirty four years old,
22:59
Speaker 2: I was blessing a lot of ways that you know,
23:01
Speaker 2: a lot of people may not have got to yet,
23:04
Speaker 2: and I can now help them when they get to
23:06
Speaker 2: the situation in their life they're not making those same
23:08
Speaker 2: mistakes I made. Let me tell you something, Mistakes costs
23:12
Speaker 2: in the business. Right when you're in business.
23:14
Speaker 3: Mistakes cost. It costs.
23:16
Speaker 2: When I mean it costs, it's more than money. It
23:19
Speaker 2: hurts you in the finance side. But scaling the business,
23:22
Speaker 2: you need it cro to be good. The COO to
23:26
Speaker 2: be good, your gms to be good, your assistant managers
23:30
Speaker 2: to be good, your fry.
23:31
Speaker 3: Cooks, your grill cooks.
23:32
Speaker 2: Everybody is a motor that works together to operate this vehicle.
23:36
Speaker 2: And without that you can't scale. And it took me
23:39
Speaker 2: years to really be able to get that together because,
23:43
Speaker 2: like I said, I love Hardt, so I see the
23:45
Speaker 2: best out of people, sometimes down seeing themselves. But I
23:48
Speaker 2: was also told this by multiple different billionaires, and this
23:51
Speaker 2: was my blessing.
23:53
Speaker 3: You know, you're never.
23:54
Speaker 2: Going to scale if you don't get thick skin to
23:57
Speaker 2: be able to do it, because these same people aren't
24:00
Speaker 2: gonna be with you. The ones that belong what you're
24:02
Speaker 2: gonna be with you because they want.
24:04
Speaker 3: To better themselves along the journey.
24:05
Speaker 2: But the ones who just tagging along and the business
24:08
Speaker 2: is growing and they're not growing, you know, you're gonna
24:11
Speaker 2: eventually have to leave them or the business is gonna
24:13
Speaker 2: leave you.
24:14
Speaker 3: And if the business leave the CEO, you.
24:15
Speaker 2: Know what happens after that, It goes it goes down
24:18
Speaker 2: to dream right, And and that's what I'm not building.
24:21
Speaker 2: Like I told you, this a high this to my father.
24:23
Speaker 2: I know in the end of this, I'm a building.
24:24
Speaker 2: I'm building a billion oile of business. I'ma have big
24:27
Speaker 2: days everywhere, and I want to keep on setting a
24:30
Speaker 2: bar high and setting the culture and what I got
24:33
Speaker 2: going on outside of you know, just the Big Daves brand.
24:36
Speaker 2: You know, me and Pinky we jumped in real estate
24:38
Speaker 2: heavy and the reason why we're doing that is because
24:41
Speaker 2: we're trying to build up these communities. So when stuff
24:43
Speaker 2: ain't looking right in these communities, what's better to say
24:45
Speaker 2: it is it's people that look just like the people
24:48
Speaker 2: that's from these communities building them up, and they ain't
24:50
Speaker 2: developers tearing them up and moving them out. You know
24:53
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, right, We're gonna keep them. We're gonna
24:55
Speaker 2: keep them in, We're gonna give them jobs. And the
24:58
Speaker 2: way we're gonna do that is all these companies we build.
25:00
Speaker 1: I love it, you know. Some Like I said, I'm
25:03
Speaker 1: right down the street from your location over there, Brand Mark,
25:08
Speaker 1: I'm right now, that's where you're at. I'm right down
25:10
Speaker 1: the street from that. And so so my staff supports it.
25:14
Speaker 1: First of all, A George, they talk to you, your passion,
25:17
Speaker 1: your information, you gift man, your gift and a blessing.
25:22
Speaker 1: You're an entrepreneurial spirit. You are what America is built on,
25:26
Speaker 1: a land of opportunity. You know, we should never be
25:28
Speaker 1: denied based on the color of our skin or the
25:31
Speaker 1: education that people perceive we don't have. You are the
25:34
Speaker 1: person that I bring on the show to educate my
25:37
Speaker 1: audience that anything is possible, and I want to thank
25:39
Speaker 1: you for coming out. Money Making Conversation master Class.
25:42
Speaker 2: Thank you man, and I thank you for having me.
25:45
Speaker 2: And I want to I want to release one more thing. Okay,
25:47
Speaker 2: people listening. So it's not about how you start. It's
25:53
Speaker 2: not about what's going to happen in the middle of
25:55
Speaker 2: that race. Shoe get untied, your soul gett messed up,
26:00
Speaker 2: you sneak and fall off.
26:01
Speaker 3: Just finish the race.
26:02
Speaker 2: Don't worry about the place you're going to be in
26:04
Speaker 2: because as long as you finish the race, the job
26:06
Speaker 2: is done.
26:07
Speaker 3: And when the job is done, guess what you can
26:09
Speaker 3: say at the end of the day.
26:10
Speaker 2: I finished the marathon because I wasn't worrying about the race.
26:15
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. So the end of it all,
26:17
Speaker 3: you gave it all you got.
26:18
Speaker 2: As long as you give it all you got, and
26:19
Speaker 2: you finished that line, as long as you cross it.
26:21
Speaker 3: Be proud of yourself and your journey, and.
26:23
Speaker 2: Stop siusing yourself up to other people, because God got
26:26
Speaker 2: everybody's journey for themselves to be able to better other people.
26:29
Speaker 3: You don't know.
26:30
Speaker 2: It may feel like that man or that woman got
26:32
Speaker 2: that success overnight, but you don't know what they've been through.
26:35
Speaker 3: To get that success. Absolutely, it's not attract me as
26:37
Speaker 3: a marathon. So I always remember that.
26:39
Speaker 1: I love it because I always tell people that, you know,
26:41
Speaker 1: don't look at it. So it's saying, don't look at
26:43
Speaker 1: somebody else's y'all. You know, you don't have to explain
26:46
Speaker 1: the word I finished versus I quit. I quit, You
26:50
Speaker 1: have to explain it. I finished me and I made
26:52
Speaker 1: maximum effort to get the job done. That's all you're saying.
26:55
Speaker 1: And I love it. Brother. We're going to talk in
26:57
Speaker 1: person because I want to sit down and just chat
26:59
Speaker 1: with you. I appreciate your time, man, because you're a
27:01
Speaker 1: special Again. I've had Pinky on the show. Both of
27:04
Speaker 1: y'all are special. But congratulations. You know, mister Andrewes Evil
27:08
Speaker 1: Big Days Cheesecake. You know, mister sexy, mister sexy, mister
27:11
Speaker 1: good looking, got the t fall out there. You know,
27:13
Speaker 1: forty three tattoos straight out of Philly.
27:16
Speaker 3: Big Day. Jeez Dak, keep doing your thing. I see
27:20
Speaker 3: you be in the kitchen whipping up your jeez steak man.
27:24
Speaker 1: I love it, man, Stay strong, bro, Big Days Cheez
27:27
Speaker 1: steak Man.
27:27
Speaker 3: Thank you man.
27:28
Speaker 1: All right, we talked soon. If you want to hear
27:30
Speaker 1: us see any of my interviews oh money Making Conversation,
27:33
Speaker 1: Please go to money Making Conversation dot com. I'm with
27:35
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. I am your host.
27:40
Speaker 4: Thank you for joining us for this edition of money
27:42
Speaker 4: Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with through Sean
27:48
Speaker 4: McDonald is produced by thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. More
27:52
Speaker 4: information about thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. Is available at
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Speaker 4: thirty eight to fifteen media dot com. And always remember
28:00
Speaker 4: to lead with your gifts