Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Mark Linen Full Interview
Transcript
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- 1:16Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I am your host, Rashaan McDonald.
- 1:20Speaker 1: Each Money Making Conversations talk show is about entrepreneurship and entertainment.
- 1:25Speaker 1: I provide the consumer and business owner access and celebrities, ceoled, entrepreneurs,
- 1:30Speaker 1: and social influencers. I recognize that we all have different
- 1:33Speaker 1: definitions of success. For some, it's a sizable paycheck. Mine
- 1:37Speaker 1: is helping people wake up and inspiring them to accomplish
- 1:39Speaker 1: their goals and live their very best life. These are
- 1:43Speaker 1: my passions and that's what I'm going to do for you.
- 1:45Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in and hearing this great interview.
- 1:48Speaker 1: I want you to stop tripping over small challenges and
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- 1:57Speaker 1: information to the listener about career and financial planning, entrepreneurship, motivation, leadership,
- 2:03Speaker 1: overcoming arts, and how to live in balance life. My
- 2:06Speaker 1: next guest fun Interview. I'm I'm so excited to interview him.
- 2:10Speaker 1: Uh he's a family man or a wife and two
- 2:12Speaker 1: handsome young men, and he's a truck driver. Turn baker.
- 2:16Speaker 1: Hear me, hear me? There go truck driver turn baker.
- 2:20Speaker 1: I know you know truck you know you you know,
- 2:22Speaker 1: you just got there, just on that road and all
- 2:24Speaker 1: that good stuff. But he's a baker, so I said,
- 2:27Speaker 1: he knows what he's doing. After being inspired by a
- 2:29Speaker 1: video featuring my man Steve Harvey, he does a lot
- 2:33Speaker 1: of inspirational videos on the Regular Divers part of this
- 2:36Speaker 1: YouTube channel, he decided to follow his passion and start baking.
- 2:42Speaker 1: You hear that. He decided to start follow and follow
- 2:45Speaker 1: his passion and start baking. He took that passion and
- 2:48Speaker 1: started his very own business called Brother Bakes as b
- 2:53Speaker 1: O b r O t h A Bakes. It is
- 2:56Speaker 1: an online bakery based out of Houston, Texas. They special
- 3:00Speaker 1: lies and cakes and the ship all over the country.
- 3:02Speaker 1: That's what we're talking about, online bakery that ships all
- 3:06Speaker 1: over the country. Please welcome to Money Making Conversation, my
- 3:09Speaker 1: man houstonian Mark Lennon. Thanks for having well Mark. I
- 3:18Speaker 1: love that introduction, man, making me feel a lot of professionals.
- 3:21Speaker 1: First of all, you're professional today. You delivered uh to
- 3:26Speaker 1: my house for your desserts. They come in the jar
- 3:29Speaker 1: that kicks in the jar. We'll talked about more detailed
- 3:32Speaker 1: but let everybody know one of us called the the
- 3:34Speaker 1: Ready Murphy. I love this guy. You know, he has
- 3:37Speaker 1: a sense of humor and he ties the names of
- 3:40Speaker 1: famous people, but he shifts a little bit of their name.
- 3:43Speaker 1: Do you kind of know what the dessert is tied
- 3:45Speaker 1: to the name of the celebrity that he's married the
- 3:48Speaker 1: dessert to Ready Murphy. I got that today, the banana
- 3:51Speaker 1: Ross got that today. The Germaine dupris, which is German
- 3:56Speaker 1: chocolate cake, which I love. Man, you have me sold
- 4:01Speaker 1: on German ta So is that what to your website? Now?
- 4:03Speaker 1: So German taca k, I was your man. I was
- 4:05Speaker 1: your man right there, and then the Marah carry and
- 4:08Speaker 1: my second favorite cake is carrot cake. So you already
- 4:12Speaker 1: got two of my favorite cakes over there, the German
- 4:15Speaker 1: takak and the carrot cake. So let's talk about well
- 4:20Speaker 1: you take care of it, because guess what this is
- 4:23Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do for you. I'm gonna post you
- 4:25Speaker 1: on social media. Okay. First of all, gonna take a
- 4:28Speaker 1: picture with me holding your product. Okay, I'm gonna post
- 4:31Speaker 1: it on social media. You know, I've got like eight
- 4:33Speaker 1: hundred thousand followers on my Facebook, right and Then this Wednesday,
- 4:37Speaker 1: I'm going to drop your the image that you have
- 4:40Speaker 1: on your Facebook, that beautiful image that you have all
- 4:43Speaker 1: those open jars. I'm gonna drop that on the Facebook.
- 4:46Speaker 1: Put the link in my newsletter that goes out there
- 4:47Speaker 1: naighty thousand fans on Wednesday. So those are the things
- 4:52Speaker 1: that I do on Money Making Conversation, all this stuff
- 4:54Speaker 1: free charge. Then I'm gonna drop you into my my
- 4:57Speaker 1: shopping zone on my Money Making Conversation dot com. You
- 5:00Speaker 1: can go there click shopping Zonus on navigation bar, and
- 5:03Speaker 1: I'm building that for stores that I recommend people to
- 5:06Speaker 1: go shop at because they're incredible and they provide a
- 5:09Speaker 1: great product. So that's that's what you're getting because you're
- 5:12Speaker 1: a great person and you're following your dreams. Okay, oh man, well,
- 5:16Speaker 1: thank you to h We appreciate that. Well good, well, good,
- 5:20Speaker 1: well good. Let let's talk about let's talk about what
- 5:22Speaker 1: inspired Let's let's let's talk about your truck driving life.
- 5:25Speaker 1: Let's talk about that first, and so then because we
- 5:28Speaker 1: want to understand the time that was spent over there too,
- 5:32Speaker 1: before we peep it into the what what what inspired
- 5:34Speaker 1: you do your dream and how you're doing your dream. Okay,
- 5:37Speaker 1: let's talk about truck driving life. All right, Yeah, let's
- 5:41Speaker 1: do that. So a little bit more before we get
- 5:43Speaker 1: into truck driving. I was actually a classic designer for
- 5:46Speaker 1: like fifteen years. Okay, cool man, Yeah, in Columbia, South Carolina,
- 5:51Speaker 1: and I just didn't work out. You know, the market
- 5:54Speaker 1: drive up a little bit. I need to do something. Um,
- 5:57Speaker 1: I'm a guy who's trying to provide for my family.
- 6:00Speaker 1: So the idea of going back to school for three
- 6:03Speaker 1: or four years just wasn't having it for me. So
- 6:05Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, I can get this
- 6:06Speaker 1: CDL in six weeks start working providing for my family.
- 6:11Speaker 1: So that's how I became a truck driver. And I've
- 6:14Speaker 1: been doing that for about four years. Uh, it's been
- 6:17Speaker 1: good for me, it's been good for my family. Is
- 6:19Speaker 1: actually a good break, um from the class design in
- 6:22Speaker 1: the marketing. But then, um, as I'm driving, you know,
- 6:27Speaker 1: and uh, it just wasn't It's just not my full passion.
- 6:30Speaker 1: I do enjoy it, you know, I'm good at it,
- 6:34Speaker 1: but it just wasn't where I wanted to be. Now
- 6:37Speaker 1: you are are you're a local driver or you line
- 6:40Speaker 1: drive from state to state, the city of the city. Yeah,
- 6:43Speaker 1: I'm a local driver right here in Houston Metro. For
- 6:47Speaker 1: those of you familiar with Houston, UM, my route is
- 6:50Speaker 1: anywhere from Houston down to Galveston. Well good, Well, the
- 6:55Speaker 1: reason I found out about you, my friend or was,
- 6:58Speaker 1: of course, Uh, everybody knows Steve Harvey. I've been knowing
- 7:02Speaker 1: each other for thirty years. I was a manager from
- 7:04Speaker 1: official manager from two thousands sixteen, and I read an
- 7:08Speaker 1: article in the Houston Chronicle, the number one newspaper in Houston,
- 7:11Speaker 1: and they talked about you, and then you had a
- 7:14Speaker 1: little note in there that said that you were inspired
- 7:16Speaker 1: by something to talk about that is what inspired you
- 7:19Speaker 1: that Steve Harvey did for you. Yeah, back in um
- 7:23Speaker 1: the early part of the nineteen I'm just sitting in
- 7:27Speaker 1: the barbershop getting my hair cut. My barbera plays this video.
- 7:30Speaker 1: It has Steve Harvey in it, my Huse Monroe in
- 7:33Speaker 1: Denzel Washington, and I'm listening to it and Steve said,
- 7:38Speaker 1: if that alarm clock goes up every morning and you're
- 7:41Speaker 1: not excited about what you're doing, you're not living in
- 7:43Speaker 1: your passion. And that hit me like a ton of bricks.
- 7:46Speaker 1: I was like, man, that it just resonated with me.
- 7:49Speaker 1: So from that point on, I started thinking, Man, what
- 7:52Speaker 1: am I doing? What should I be doing? Where is
- 7:54Speaker 1: my passion? Went through a bunch of stuff that I
- 7:57Speaker 1: was thinking about. And Steve also said that if it
- 8:01Speaker 1: comes easy to you something you do better than anybody else,
- 8:05Speaker 1: Like you give an example, if you cut here better
- 8:06Speaker 1: than anybody else, you should be cutting here. And even
- 8:09Speaker 1: said if you bake better than anyone else, you should
- 8:12Speaker 1: be baking. And I was and that kind of hit me.
- 8:15Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, I'll make some pretty
- 8:17Speaker 1: good cakes. And from that point on it was just
- 8:21Speaker 1: full speed ahead. How can I get this going? How
- 8:24Speaker 1: can I get it started? And Steve really inspired me.
- 8:28Speaker 1: It changed my life, It really did. Okay, Okay, he
- 8:31Speaker 1: motivated you. Okay, but that motivation and execution are two
- 8:35Speaker 1: different things now because a lot of people get motivated,
- 8:37Speaker 1: you know that, Mark right, Oh, I'm excited go out
- 8:40Speaker 1: there and then and say, oh I gotta do all that. Whoa, whoa,
- 8:44Speaker 1: whoa whoa. Okay, cool, now let's talk about it. You know,
- 8:47Speaker 1: they said, graphic designer, you learn how to pivot, trump driver,
- 8:51Speaker 1: smart move and come steady income. Now all these pivot
- 8:55Speaker 1: moves and you're making you have to discuss what the
- 8:58Speaker 1: number one at the house the wife Okay, yeah, I
- 9:01Speaker 1: got two handsome young men there. Okay, So talk about
- 9:07Speaker 1: that conversation that you had with her, and had you
- 9:09Speaker 1: displayed these gifts to her and at that level that
- 9:13Speaker 1: she believed that it was possible. Talk about that. Yeah, yeah, Well,
- 9:18Speaker 1: you know, my biggest fans of my wife and my
- 9:20Speaker 1: two kids, of my baking, they've experienced more of my
- 9:23Speaker 1: desert than anybody else. She knew the product was good,
- 9:27Speaker 1: but she also know that I'm a prop person who's
- 9:31Speaker 1: tried a few things in the past, things that didn't
- 9:33Speaker 1: work out. So she was a little worried at first.
- 9:36Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, and she's say, look, if
- 9:38Speaker 1: you're gonna do this, you need to do it right.
- 9:41Speaker 1: You need to go hard on it, and this needs
- 9:44Speaker 1: to be the thing. It's like, I can't have you
- 9:45Speaker 1: flaking out on me. Um. And once we had that
- 9:50Speaker 1: conversation and I kind of explained to her in my vision,
- 9:53Speaker 1: I was like, well, this is different because I'm really
- 9:55Speaker 1: passionate about it. Excuse me. And she was all on board, welcome,
- 10:00Speaker 1: very encouraging that that's That's that's important because like I said,
- 10:03Speaker 1: you know when we come and when I bring guests
- 10:05Speaker 1: like you on money making conversation because you're startup. You
- 10:07Speaker 1: went from start up to execution. Now is this is
- 10:11Speaker 1: part of the promotion, you know, you helping you get
- 10:13Speaker 1: your word out generating additional This is more of a
- 10:17Speaker 1: thank you Rochan for any of you on me, but
- 10:19Speaker 1: also helped me promote and sell my cakes. What exactly
- 10:23Speaker 1: Brother Bake? What exactly does Brother Bakes do? Okay? So
- 10:28Speaker 1: what we do is we specialize in making cakes. Okay,
- 10:32Speaker 1: say that one more time. To say that one more time.
- 10:33Speaker 1: Now you specialize in whatnot? Whatnot? We put cakes. We
- 10:38Speaker 1: put cakes into jars and we ship them all over
- 10:41Speaker 1: the country, including Alaska, Hawaii. That's what we do. And
- 10:46Speaker 1: they had the equivalent of about two cupcakes. And uh
- 10:50Speaker 1: quite think we are the most delicious cakes you can
- 10:52Speaker 1: find in a jar. Now you know I'm a dessert guy. Okay, yeah,
- 10:59Speaker 1: people look at people always complain about going to my
- 11:02Speaker 1: Facebook page, is said Reich, I'm tired of you make
- 11:05Speaker 1: me hungry. Okay, get on my doring, nervous they said
- 11:08Speaker 1: another word. But but it's all positive when they say that,
- 11:11Speaker 1: you know, from Peach Cobb, the Germany Chocolate cake, sweet
- 11:16Speaker 1: Potato pie care cake. Now, what made you believe, Mark,
- 11:22Speaker 1: that you can put a cake in a jar and
- 11:26Speaker 1: somebody would buy that? What made you believe that? Now, Steve,
- 11:29Speaker 1: Steef Harvey didn't say that to you, Okay, but Steve
- 11:32Speaker 1: didn't say that to me. So how how this all
- 11:35Speaker 1: came about? Yeah, we want to know that. We want
- 11:37Speaker 1: to know that. Now. I knew I had good products.
- 11:41Speaker 1: I was pretty confident about that, but typically the case,
- 11:44Speaker 1: I bake a full sized cakes and I thought about, well,
- 11:47Speaker 1: you know what, sending a cake in the mail for me,
- 11:50Speaker 1: it just wasn't gonna happen. That's just not something that
- 11:53Speaker 1: I wanted to tackle. So I started thinking about it. Now,
- 11:57Speaker 1: I've heard of people doing this before. In fact, about
- 12:00Speaker 1: five or six years ago, as a Christmas gift, I
- 12:03Speaker 1: had some Christmas velvet and a cake that I gave
- 12:07Speaker 1: out to some family members. They loved it, and I
- 12:10Speaker 1: just came back to that idea, like, you know what,
- 12:13Speaker 1: I put these cakes in the jar, I can ship
- 12:15Speaker 1: them all over the place. And not only that, instead
- 12:18Speaker 1: of family having one flavor of cake, they can have
- 12:21Speaker 1: four different flavors, eight different flavors, whatever they want, and
- 12:24Speaker 1: everybody's happy. So that's why where that kind of came from.
- 12:28Speaker 1: That's why I decided to do that. You know, it's
- 12:31Speaker 1: easier to ship jars than it is a full size Kike. Absolutely, absolutely,
- 12:35Speaker 1: But it's it's not so much that you know it's easier,
- 12:39Speaker 1: but just do you have to maintain the quality, you know,
- 12:42Speaker 1: And that's that's the whole process we're talking about right now,
- 12:45Speaker 1: because and you want return customers, you want word of
- 12:48Speaker 1: mouth customers, you want people, you know, especially become seasonal
- 12:51Speaker 1: customers and things like that. Now, now we all know
- 12:54Speaker 1: what hit this year, the pandemic COVID Nati. Okay, when
- 12:59Speaker 1: did you at your business? Let me ask you that question. Mark, Okay,
- 13:03Speaker 1: So I launched my business officially in November. Okay, November, Okay.
- 13:10Speaker 1: Nobody saw a pandemic coming. Nobody saw it coming. Um,
- 13:16Speaker 1: and here I am. You know, I'm selling my cakes
- 13:18Speaker 1: online and that's going well. But I'm like, you know what,
- 13:21Speaker 1: I'm in Houston. Houston is hopping, man, everything's going on
- 13:25Speaker 1: in Houston. So why don't I take some of my
- 13:27Speaker 1: cakes to the markets? Um? Some of the festivals around here,
- 13:32Speaker 1: and as soon as I get up to do that,
- 13:34Speaker 1: that's when COVID hit and so all of that was
- 13:38Speaker 1: shut down. So you know, I had to take a
- 13:40Speaker 1: step back. Like you know what, dream still goes for it.
- 13:44Speaker 1: So I reamp, you know, my efforts, and I decided
- 13:48Speaker 1: to just focus more on the online sales, and um,
- 13:51Speaker 1: that's kind of where we are. Wow. Wow, I'm talking
- 13:55Speaker 1: to Mark Lennon. He's a he's done in by way
- 13:58Speaker 1: of call me in South Carolina, right, Okay, I know
- 14:02Speaker 1: my brother, I know by Columbia Many Day, went down
- 14:05Speaker 1: there and uh did some jokes with me and Steve
- 14:07Speaker 1: out there selling out there. The township auditorioum okay, I
- 14:13Speaker 1: had to hit you with the name. You go, oh yeah,
- 14:15Speaker 1: oh yeah, he for real, he for real of the
- 14:18Speaker 1: man you know about the township? Absolutely, brother, A little
- 14:22Speaker 1: parking lot that surrounds that build. It looks like old church.
- 14:25Speaker 1: Before we get started in that direction about your business,
- 14:28Speaker 1: and and we know what's happening out there. Black lives matters.
- 14:31Speaker 1: We saw what happened to George Floyd. We'll see what
- 14:34Speaker 1: happened to you know, you're black man, just like me,
- 14:36Speaker 1: policemen stopped me and I just could just be honest.
- 14:38Speaker 1: It's not a comfortable feeling for any African American male
- 14:41Speaker 1: to be stopped on I'm sorry. Yeah, it has not
- 14:44Speaker 1: been something. It has been that way my whole life.
- 14:47Speaker 1: It was just I got a driver slice and it's
- 14:49Speaker 1: been that way, and that should not be the case.
- 14:51Speaker 1: You have two young men, uh that you're raising. How
- 14:55Speaker 1: do you approach that and what have you what what
- 14:57Speaker 1: experiences have you shared with them? That's what's going because
- 15:00Speaker 1: sometimes you do limit the amount of expose you do
- 15:02Speaker 1: the kids, our children or teenagers. Tell us about that
- 15:05Speaker 1: experience that you're you're and your wife are dealing with
- 15:07Speaker 1: right now and raising those two young men. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- 15:12Speaker 1: You know, we do live in a time where we
- 15:15Speaker 1: have to have these conversations, you know, with our kids.
- 15:18Speaker 1: And you know, my kids are twelve and fifteen, and
- 15:22Speaker 1: quite thankly we've just been very straight up with them.
- 15:25Speaker 1: We haven't sugarcoated. We let them know that, Look, you
- 15:28Speaker 1: may be hanging with some of your friends and they
- 15:30Speaker 1: may be able to do certain things that you simply
- 15:32Speaker 1: cannot do, just because this is the world we live
- 15:35Speaker 1: in and you're doing the same thing they do can
- 15:38Speaker 1: cause you to get hurt or get yourself in trouble,
- 15:42Speaker 1: and it's not fair, and we explain that to them.
- 15:44Speaker 1: We know it's not fair, it's not right, but that
- 15:47Speaker 1: is the world we live in. I'd rather you be
- 15:49Speaker 1: here tomorrow upset that it happened, and you'll not be here.
- 15:53Speaker 1: So we've been very straight up with our kids about
- 15:56Speaker 1: what's going on in society. It's finally here the reason
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- 17:54Speaker 1: dot ai and it's very important. And then and that
- 17:57Speaker 1: in turn talks about the COVID eighteen. We all know
- 18:00Speaker 1: how it has impacted African American special people of color.
- 18:03Speaker 1: We want to include the Hispanic community. How have uh
- 18:07Speaker 1: you all, LiLine business. I would like to believe that
- 18:09Speaker 1: your your business has not been affected as much as
- 18:12Speaker 1: a as a bricket mortar. Yeah, exactly, it has not. UM.
- 18:18Speaker 1: In fact, you know, despite what's going on, you know,
- 18:21Speaker 1: our sales have gone up, and I think in part
- 18:24Speaker 1: because of Black Lives Matter and there are people that
- 18:27Speaker 1: are supporting more black businesses. That part is true. But
- 18:31Speaker 1: also the fact that people are stuck at home and
- 18:34Speaker 1: they still want delicious desserts and then we can provide
- 18:37Speaker 1: them with that, and I think that is a big
- 18:39Speaker 1: part of of what's going on. UM and all honesty
- 18:43Speaker 1: as well as for me myself, you know, getting connected
- 18:47Speaker 1: with um Next Insurance, who featured me in a commercial
- 18:51Speaker 1: talking about that. That's right, Next Insurance. I've seen those
- 18:54Speaker 1: commercials with the people making a box and other necks
- 18:57Speaker 1: and doing different things with the word next. Talk about
- 19:00Speaker 1: that right quick? Okay, So you know, UM, when I
- 19:04Speaker 1: started this business back in November of UM, I went
- 19:09Speaker 1: hard on it, I really did. I had advertising and
- 19:11Speaker 1: all that. Through one of those advertising UM, this young
- 19:15Speaker 1: lady by the name of Jack found me and she
- 19:18Speaker 1: was like, Hey, would you be interested in doing something
- 19:20Speaker 1: with Next Insurance? How COVID has affected me and I
- 19:25Speaker 1: did you know? I told my story similar what I
- 19:28Speaker 1: said earlier about how I was all get up to
- 19:31Speaker 1: get out here in Houston and promote my business, going
- 19:34Speaker 1: to different festivals and to the markets, but when COVID hit,
- 19:38Speaker 1: I had to shut down that as my story. Next
- 19:41Speaker 1: love that story. So they wanted to feature me and
- 19:44Speaker 1: they did, and from that point on, things have been
- 19:48Speaker 1: going really well for me. What exactly is Next Insurance?
- 19:51Speaker 1: We can tell everybody what it is. You you're part
- 19:54Speaker 1: of it. Let's talk about the small business world, how
- 19:57Speaker 1: how impactful it is, and how we all need that
- 20:00Speaker 1: type of insurance specially that's the last thing we kind
- 20:02Speaker 1: of budget when we start out our business. It's insurance
- 20:05Speaker 1: and insurance should be the top of the line. Okay
- 20:08Speaker 1: to talk about that. You know you in Next Contact,
- 20:10Speaker 1: did you you say that it brought it shinned a
- 20:14Speaker 1: lot of popularity on you. But also you kind of
- 20:15Speaker 1: like a spokesperson too, So tell me what exactly is
- 20:18Speaker 1: Next Insurance? So Next Insurance is um an insurance company
- 20:23Speaker 1: that specialized and providing insurance for small businesses. They have
- 20:27Speaker 1: a website that is so easy to use, you sign
- 20:30Speaker 1: up in minutes. It's nice and affordable, and it's half
- 20:33Speaker 1: were free. Their customer services wonderful and of course not
- 20:37Speaker 1: only do I represent them, but you know I am
- 20:40Speaker 1: a customer as well and has no problems uh when
- 20:43Speaker 1: I need to talk to someone. So Next has been
- 20:46Speaker 1: really good and it is a good insurance for small businesses.
- 20:50Speaker 1: It also grows with you as well, absolutely youth startings,
- 20:53Speaker 1: and they can expand with you. Absolutely. So so let's
- 20:57Speaker 1: talk about your business you started in November. If you
- 21:00Speaker 1: you know, I'm not using the world mistake, but we
- 21:02Speaker 1: all budget certain things, and we all think this is
- 21:05Speaker 1: going to go in a certain direction. And we're not
- 21:07Speaker 1: talking about COVID ninteen or we're not talking about these
- 21:10Speaker 1: the civil unrest is going on all with protesting the streets.
- 21:13Speaker 1: We're talking about starting a business and planning it out right,
- 21:17Speaker 1: who did you seek advice from and how if you
- 21:21Speaker 1: had to restart it differently, what techniques would you put
- 21:24Speaker 1: in place and what guidelines you in place or what
- 21:25Speaker 1: would you budget differently? Okay, Uh, definitely one of the
- 21:30Speaker 1: things that would budget differently is buy an equipment very
- 21:34Speaker 1: least seeing if my house can handle the equipment that
- 21:38Speaker 1: I purchased, you know, so talk about that, talk about
- 21:42Speaker 1: the powerful letter, you know. So, so I'm in this house,
- 21:48Speaker 1: right and it's a little bit of an older house,
- 21:50Speaker 1: and so I decide, you know, maybe some you know,
- 21:54Speaker 1: maybe a refrigerator and uh uh stove in the garage
- 21:58Speaker 1: would be a good idea, but you know, purchased it
- 22:02Speaker 1: without talking to the electrician for us and realized that
- 22:06Speaker 1: it would be a lot of work to get this
- 22:08Speaker 1: house uh to where it needs to be. Honestly, I've
- 22:13Speaker 1: handled that equipment, so you know, I am. I have
- 22:16Speaker 1: the equipment, but at the moment, I can't use it.
- 22:18Speaker 1: So that's one of the things, um, that I learned
- 22:21Speaker 1: that I needed to. Uh. Let's definitely take a step
- 22:24Speaker 1: back before week we do too much and kind of
- 22:27Speaker 1: see what all needs to be done before you start
- 22:29Speaker 1: purchasing equipment. Now let's talk about going online, and that's
- 22:34Speaker 1: brother Bakes dot com. Can I go through the different
- 22:38Speaker 1: desserts and can you describe the people each one of
- 22:40Speaker 1: the desserts? And why did you come over? The titles?
- 22:43Speaker 1: Why did you bring what which I find very humorous
- 22:45Speaker 1: and very entertainment. Tell us about the titles before we
- 22:48Speaker 1: need to get into the various desserts. Okay, So you know, um,
- 22:54Speaker 1: I love Black culture. I love my people, you know,
- 22:57Speaker 1: and I wanted to celebrate it. That was a first thing.
- 23:00Speaker 1: Even Brother Bag the logo is a picture of myself
- 23:04Speaker 1: style lies and the name brother you know itself just
- 23:09Speaker 1: kind of sounds black, and so that's where it all
- 23:13Speaker 1: started out. But with the names, you know, I'm sitting down,
- 23:17Speaker 1: I'm thinking I didn't just want to call it call
- 23:19Speaker 1: it a red velvet cake. I wanted something that was catchy,
- 23:23Speaker 1: wanted something that was connected to African American culture. So,
- 23:28Speaker 1: kind of tapping back into my graphic design and marketing background,
- 23:32Speaker 1: the name ready Murphy just kind of popped up and
- 23:35Speaker 1: I was like, and I kind of like that. So
- 23:38Speaker 1: then after that Murphy, which is read when it is
- 23:44Speaker 1: the yea, And from that point it was just coming
- 23:48Speaker 1: up with names for all the other cakes that uh
- 23:51Speaker 1: that kind of tie into our culture. The next case
- 23:54Speaker 1: is this is my favorite name though, the choco con.
- 23:57Speaker 1: That's funny, you know, the the Anstes. That was actually
- 24:01Speaker 1: the second name I came up with, the chocolate. Now,
- 24:07Speaker 1: at what point is the whole thing? Did your wife
- 24:09Speaker 1: said you're silly? What's your wife said? You? Sill it? Mark?
- 24:11Speaker 1: You said it? You know she loves because she knows me.
- 24:15Speaker 1: He knows that's who I am, right, he knows That's
- 24:18Speaker 1: what I'm all about. So she she was just dying
- 24:20Speaker 1: and it's like, oh yeah, let's go with it, right,
- 24:22Speaker 1: And that's what that's That's all that we were saying about,
- 24:24Speaker 1: following that passion, you know, getting up out of bed.
- 24:27Speaker 1: I always tell people, if it's difficult for you to
- 24:29Speaker 1: get out of bed, then that means you didn't plan
- 24:31Speaker 1: to get out of bed in the first place. And
- 24:33Speaker 1: so if you're smiling and you're laughing and you're enjoying,
- 24:36Speaker 1: you're having fun building your dream. When you get out
- 24:39Speaker 1: of bed, you can out of bed and find out
- 24:40Speaker 1: how many more cakes you can get sold. And that's
- 24:43Speaker 1: a different passion than to say a delivery I gotta
- 24:46Speaker 1: make in Galveston. That's different. Yeah, so so much different. Yes, okay, cool,
- 24:51Speaker 1: let's go to move the next one off. But now
- 24:53Speaker 1: the Ross. But now the Ross. No mountain, high enough, valley,
- 24:57Speaker 1: lord enough a river wild enough to keep be away
- 25:00Speaker 1: from this dessert. I love it exactly. Yeah, definitely. Uh
- 25:07Speaker 1: A little tribute to the clean Diana Ross on that one.
- 25:12Speaker 1: We take a Morsh banana cake and top it with
- 25:15Speaker 1: fresh bananas and a vanilla putting frosting. Try this and
- 25:18Speaker 1: you'll be upside down inside out and go round and
- 25:21Speaker 1: round for more. Man, You're crazy. That is the That
- 25:26Speaker 1: is the Banana Ross. We all, we went through the
- 25:29Speaker 1: Ready Murphy, We went through the Chaco Con, which is
- 25:32Speaker 1: the second name he came up with. Now with the
- 25:34Speaker 1: Banana Ross. Now let's go on down to it. German
- 25:40Speaker 1: dupri which is Germaine Duprix. Yeah, actually lived in Atlanta
- 25:47Speaker 1: for a little while, so I had to give a
- 25:49Speaker 1: YouTube The Dirty South, The Dirty South. Okay, yes, yes,
- 25:54Speaker 1: you you don't have to be in Atlanta icon to
- 25:57Speaker 1: enjoy this one. We take a traditional German chocolate a
- 26:00Speaker 1: cake and mix it with chocolate icing and a classic
- 26:02Speaker 1: German chocolate coconut frosting. Tried it and we think, wow,
- 26:07Speaker 1: that's hot, man, and it contained nuts. That's hot right there,
- 26:12Speaker 1: right there. Let's go to the next one here, Lamon James. Yeah, yeah,
- 26:20Speaker 1: that's the way, James. That's my lemon cake. And I
- 26:23Speaker 1: would have loved it. Called it Michael Jordan's. But hey,
- 26:26Speaker 1: and you know I love LEBRONI hey, my man, Lebron.
- 26:30Speaker 1: First of all, you know why I like Lament James
- 26:32Speaker 1: a businessman, Okay, he takes care of community. You know,
- 26:36Speaker 1: he's fearless and uh again like you man, he says
- 26:40Speaker 1: his story. He's you know that's saying Michael isn't pro black,
- 26:43Speaker 1: but you when you look at you, when you look
- 26:45Speaker 1: at Lebron James, Lebron James stands up for his community fast,
- 26:50Speaker 1: my friend. He steps out there. So I thought that
- 26:53Speaker 1: was a perfect Lament James for lemon cake. It's perfect
- 26:56Speaker 1: right there, So don't shy away from that. Michael Jordan's great,
- 27:00Speaker 1: But Lamar and James community and great, okay. And then
- 27:03Speaker 1: it's it's crazy at the at the Palm restaurant, they
- 27:07Speaker 1: have a carrot cake man the order. It's the biggest
- 27:10Speaker 1: slice I've ever seen in my life. So I always
- 27:14Speaker 1: go there and get my huge carrot cake. But see
- 27:16Speaker 1: now that I can order my carrot cake online from
- 27:19Speaker 1: a man brother bakes dot com. Tell us about the
- 27:23Speaker 1: Mariah carry which is a tribute to a tribute to
- 27:27Speaker 1: Mariah Carry. Well talked about that one. Yeah, so that's
- 27:31Speaker 1: my carrot cake. Um, true story. I was never a
- 27:34Speaker 1: saying of carrot cake. Now, come on, nae, come on,
- 27:37Speaker 1: come on now. I love carry I got some carrots
- 27:40Speaker 1: and I got some shredded carrots in my refrigerator right now.
- 27:44Speaker 1: I love carriage man. Yeah, well, you know, I just didn't.
- 27:48Speaker 1: I couldn't picture carrot and cake at the same time
- 27:50Speaker 1: until I tried it. And oh man, I really like
- 27:53Speaker 1: carry cake. So when it came for me to, um,
- 27:57Speaker 1: you know, have another flavor other than you know, the
- 28:00Speaker 1: ones I already had, I tried to excuse me. I
- 28:02Speaker 1: tried carry take came up with a recipe that I
- 28:06Speaker 1: really liked, and yeah, I'm hooked. It's probably my favorite
- 28:10Speaker 1: one right now. Never see on the same page. Now
- 28:13Speaker 1: see Mark, you're good people. Now, you're good people. Now okay,
- 28:16Speaker 1: and then we're gonna close out. Thank you. My brother
- 28:19Speaker 1: thingy but Eustonian man, you know as I saw you know,
- 28:21Speaker 1: used to chronicle. I say, I gotta get a man
- 28:23Speaker 1: on the radio podcast. I'm gonna promote you on my
- 28:26Speaker 1: social media, put you my newsletter. All that from an article.
- 28:29Speaker 1: That's why it's important that you promote your brand because
- 28:32Speaker 1: you don't know who's gonna read it, who's gonna see it.
- 28:35Speaker 1: Like I said, that article got you over here, that
- 28:37Speaker 1: ad got you on next Insurance, all those things and
- 28:40Speaker 1: what you have to do to build a brand. It's
- 28:42Speaker 1: never like because some people think you get on TV
- 28:44Speaker 1: one time, that might make it. You get on the
- 28:46Speaker 1: radio either that might. You have to do it all Mark,
- 28:50Speaker 1: and that's what you you didn't hesitate to, have to
- 28:53Speaker 1: take advantage of this opportunity to promote your brain. And
- 28:56Speaker 1: I always know that that's it. You know, even if
- 28:58Speaker 1: you get on Steve Already Facebook live show, get on
- 29:02Speaker 1: adding an open call, you do open you know another
- 29:05Speaker 1: talk show called just keep doing more and more and more.
- 29:08Speaker 1: Because I always tell people if Chick fil A decided
- 29:11Speaker 1: to stop advertising, people will dry about check fil a
- 29:14Speaker 1: and wonder what happened. You cannot stop Costco has advertised
- 29:18Speaker 1: Walmart has to advertise talking half the advertisee. Because they
- 29:21Speaker 1: stopped sending out those little circulars. My friend, people will
- 29:24Speaker 1: stop entering their stores. Now here's the I want to
- 29:27Speaker 1: talk about this one thing on your homepage because I
- 29:31Speaker 1: like to be a part of this here, sir, it's
- 29:34Speaker 1: called the raves and reviews. Now, okay, the raves and
- 29:39Speaker 1: reviews have people initial Okay, I have no problem when
- 29:43Speaker 1: I sample your product today, sir, I have no problem.
- 29:47Speaker 1: You're putting my full name on here. Okay, you know
- 29:52Speaker 1: because I see right here, J L, Q L and kJ.
- 29:57Speaker 1: I'm gonna be sampling today. I'm gonna be taking some
- 30:00Speaker 1: all those I'll be putting it on my social media.
- 30:02Speaker 1: I'll be putting into my newsletter. I'll be promoting the
- 30:05Speaker 1: brand of brother brother breaks dot com. It's b R
- 30:08Speaker 1: O th h A b A k e s dot com.
- 30:12Speaker 1: My my friend, I want to thank you for taking
- 30:14Speaker 1: the time to come on Money Making Conversation. Let me
- 30:16Speaker 1: tell you a story, let me tell your life. And
- 30:18Speaker 1: they also let people know that if you have a
- 30:20Speaker 1: dream and you have a passion, learn how to pivot.
- 30:22Speaker 1: Pivot with a plan. Because he told you about one
- 30:25Speaker 1: mistake he made because he didn't plan it out. But
- 30:27Speaker 1: he also told you that he never stops trying. He
- 30:30Speaker 1: never stopped putting forth an effort to be successful. Any
- 30:33Speaker 1: closing remarks, Mark, I just want to say to people, UM,
- 30:38Speaker 1: go for it. You know, Um, this has been a
- 30:41Speaker 1: god bless I talked to people all the time and
- 30:45Speaker 1: they they're always talking about how you did it. I
- 30:47Speaker 1: just went for it and real quick. You know, everybody
- 30:52Speaker 1: has a dream. You're currently not doing your dream, so
- 30:55Speaker 1: why not give it a try. If it works out, great.
- 30:58Speaker 1: I mean if it doesn't, then you're still not living
- 31:00Speaker 1: your dream. But if it does happen and then it
- 31:03Speaker 1: changes your life, cool, That's all I got. I appreciate you,
- 31:05Speaker 1: my friend. I want to thank you for coming on
- 31:07Speaker 1: the show. You and like you'll be here from me.
- 31:09Speaker 1: Photos are coming your way, rave, reviews are coming your way,
- 31:13Speaker 1: Promotions coming your way. Tell your boys to keep listening
- 31:16Speaker 1: to dad, and keep listening to mom. And tell your
- 31:18Speaker 1: wife high because she allowed you to live your dream.
- 31:21Speaker 1: And guess what you're gonna pay off in the end,
- 31:23Speaker 1: my friend, because I know she's helping you. Thank you
- 31:26Speaker 1: for coming on my show. Mark, Thank you sir for
- 31:28Speaker 1: having alright. If you want to hear more interviews on
- 31:31Speaker 1: money Making Conversation, please go to money Making Conversation dot com.
- 31:34Speaker 1: I'm ra Sean McDonald. I'm your host. In this season
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