BIG FACTS feat. SLUTTY VEGAN

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Speaker 1: Big Bin and DJ Scream bring you the hottest podcast in the streets. Visit the new website today www dot Big Facts pod dot com live for first class sounds. You know who is DJ Scream. We've got some special guests in the building today. We first off Big Big Baby j of course, and the special guest Peaky Cole, CEO and founder of Slutty Vegan and Derek Hey see you on founder of Big Days. She steaks live on Big Facts. What's up people, What's up people? What's going on? What's up? Just happy to be here, happy to appreciate, We appreciate you all pulling up. Yes, So I'm gonna start with the most asked question being that, Uh, first off, congratulations on your your your recent addition to the family and right, but the most asked question where people knew that you guys were coming was how does the household work with a vegan and you're not vegan? Right, vegan and someone who's not vegan. You're pushing vegan and you're pushing chicken and beef, Like, how does that work? You really don't eat beef? You listen, That's funny because a lot of people do ask that question. Um, I do a lot of grill stripping at the house, you know what I'm saying. We got we got a commercial grill, so I stripped it down the grid. So whatever I make, I make sure I clean it real good, you know what I'm saying. So she gets what she wants, her vegetables and all that. But it's so like vegans are like on some ship like where it's almost like an allergy type ship. I never do that, So listen, it's so funny story, y'all. So when we first met, our first little encounter was at a vegan restaurant, so, like, I was very clear about my lifestyle, and before I started dating him, I was like, I'm never dating no guy that ain't vegan, Like that's out the window that and then I met him and then all of that wind. But in the household, that's really cool because I know how to cook for a vegan and a non vegan, and like, he don't impede on my lifestyle and he don't be like why are you eating that? Like I eat what I eat, heat what he eat, and we respect each other. And she could cook you'd be thinking like damn, like how do you make this taste? Like this, not tasting it. She can cook, so that works out for us. Okay, you tried them Vegan hot wens and ship what it is? Everything, all of it. Honestly, since since we've been together, I've been eating a little, you know, a lot different. But I'm patting my my swag and my season on and all that to give it that taste. So it ain't you know, just like you know vegetables. And we're able to help each other out. Like I don't eat beef as much as I used to. Um, I'm more seafood. I love seafo. Anybody to know me, I eat sup for my whole life. So and that's why I throll through the Salma Agro was working big days because I was able to create the season. And you know what I'm saying that people love that, you know get that, Yeah, so I appreciate that. So I'm able to give everybody everything they want, you know what I'm saying, whether this beef, chicken, or salmon. So I'm I got um. I got turned on, like to the whole restaurant. Shout out to my nigga talk that's my brother. Like he turned me on and he was like yo, he was like, my man's got a new spot down there when you were um at the gas station and done with yea like and it was like I went there for the first time and I couldn't even get in or like eat or order or nothing because it was like so crazy. So like when did you understand, Like, Okay, this ship is bigger than snowballs and cheese steaks, and I gotta get to a bigger space because it's two packed in here and it's not gonna work. Honestly. It's when we can no longer control the traffic. And I was getting into every other day and I'm like, you know what, I gotta get my ship together, you know, get these funds together to build this location and get up and running, because I knew that when Eve had posted it and then went viral, were starting to get national attention. And I'm like, this ship bigger than food and and why had the culture? And I can make people understand like you don't got a bead, basketball player or rapper to make it. You could be entrepreneur. So I'm like I got I got the chance to really show people and the opportunity to do that, and I felt like I had it. I wasn't gonna, you know, mess up, so I took it. So I knew the whole time I was selling more than food. Yeah, that's all right. So y'all been on a massive winning streak of featured in Essence, People Magazine, all the publications, right, and of course when people look at social media, they see the winds. But let's talk a little bit about before y'all was having the big wins, like a little bit of the struggle. I know, your first business actually burned down. Yeah, and you know, it's funny, that's a full circle moment because my first radio interview was with you. First radio first brought that She brought me that burger like a crazy tire. But look at us now, right here, right now. Yeah, it wasn't easy for me. Um. I always been an entreprene nere and the hustler. For the people who don't know my story, my father did twenty two years in prison, so I grew up in the prison system. Obviously I wasn't behind bars, but I had to go to prison and get swaddled down. Every single time we went to see my dad. You only got two hours. So like my mindset was like, this ain't my life. I ain't gonna do this. So I became an entrepreneur, and as young as fourteen, I'm throwing parties, I'm selling food, and I'm selling candy. And then I got older and had my own restaurant called Pinkies Jamaican, an American restaurant, and that restaurant was seemingly successful, but I was hustling back that was in New York City. Um, because I was vegan and vegetarian at the time, but I was selling jerk chicken. So I wasn't being authentic who was right? So I was not living in my right. And this is such a serious conversation for people to understand, especially entrepreneurs that are listening to this. You have literally got to walk in your truth because if you don't, it will literally fall apart. And that's what happened to me. But I'm so glad it happened. That I lost my car, got repolled, I got kicked out of my apartment, I went flat broke, and I literally everything that I ever touched that used to turn to go literally was nothing now. But I needed all of those things to happen because all it was was very expensive. At school, you know what I'm saying. So that expensive school taught me how to be a better entrepreneur, how to be a better leader, so that when I create a slutty vegan, I'm like, all right, I've been here before. I know what this feels like, I know what to do different. So the journey has not always been easy. Most times people be like, oh, y'all, overnight, overnight, wear overnight when my way just got garnished, where I had tax issues, right where I was on the verge of being about to close, like this ship. This ship ain't for the week, And being a restaurant tour is probably one of the hardest professions in the world. One because restaurants don't last, right too, because you gotta be a baby sitter. You gotta be a therapist's right. You gotta take care of people, make sure everybody is good, and still maintain your sanity. Ah why paying bills like that ship ain't no joke. So to have to go through all of that, it's very difficult, But the reward is so much greater on the other side, because I would not have it any other way. Yeah, how do y'all deal with That's how y'all deal with like keeping the recipe right because the big thing and some of my chef partners just like, I have to run this restaurant. I can't nobody else cook this ship. Y'all keep it so so honestly, that was a big test for the both of us because of course people love us, right, so coming to the restaurant and you don't see me on the grail, you know, I don't know if I want to sounds, so I know I had to. I had to, you know, get the recipes all the way down so that no matter who making it, you know, you feel confident in the mill and you're getting the same thing over and over, and you can't scale unless you can get the recipes and the procedures down. Like, I don't care how good your product is, what you put together, you'll just have one location that's popping because the other one won't do the same thing and the other would do because they don't taste the same the people. To let me tell you, the culture when you walk into a place is everything, Like we go off of what we see. Like I was telling God other day, he was like, you know, I feel like you need to, you know, work on your ticket times and get your lines down. I'm like, you don't understand the culture. People eat off what they see. You ride past big days and you see the line down the black You like, I want to see what you know what? Yeah, yeah, I don't see nobody. Nobody we do good as you know what we do good at We I think we understand the culture, like I think that pink and our boast like we we really understand what people want. So, you know, growing forward and growing your brain is easier. It's not as hard than another person, you know that's growing a restaurant and gotta really physically sit there and work every day because they're scared to let the next person do the job. We we let people do the job. Were letting people grow. We let people get careers, you know, mastering their own households and being able to take their own lives and their own journeys. And the only way you could do that is if you master the recipes and have faith. So I think that's what we both do well. And you can't grow inside of the store like Bluddy Vegan wasn't able to grow until I stepped outside of the restaurant, right, And that means processes and procedures and getting a co packer to put your season in to together so you ain't gotta make it every single day. The minute that I stepped outside of my restaurant, I saw growth. When I was in there every day all day, trying to be the line cook, trying to shake fries, trying to do schedules and do all of that, I couldn't get nothing done. And then come and do interviews like I'm I'm pouring out of my cup and I'm not able to feel from anybody else's cup because I'm so depleted and I'm so drained because my stuff ain't together. But as soon as I stepped outside of that restaurant, then I started to see evolution in my business and it started to grow. But you gotta have your ship together. Though you can't step out the restaurant if you ship ain't together, because's gonna fall apart. So you gotta have it together. So anybody listening to have together if you're playing on stepping out. But it works when you step out because you get to see what's really going on. You know what you're really working away with your team, right, So I know another A big thing with you is that you make like a concerted effort to consciously place your restaurants in areas that are typically known as food deserts. So what kind of made you aware of like the whole food desert concept and what made you feel like you were the person that was going to change that for our community? So a funny story, I didn't know that I was gonna be that person. Yeah, Like I ain't wake up like I'm gonna be the one that's gonna be this person, Like I didn't like when I started Slutty Vegan, it was really just solving a personal problem. And that's where the greatest passions and purposes come out of when you're just solving the problem for yourself. But then you realize that you really saving the world and helping me. And I'm like me, I'm from East Baltimore, from around the way, I'm saving the world, you know what I'm saying. So when when I solved the problem of wanting some food on a late night because I was tired of eating the size salad and fries from Chick fil A because I wanted some food, right, I created this brand. But I realized they were so many people that looked like us, that didn't know that frogs was vegan, right. They didn't know like, oh, I could eat that, that's vegan, Like what is that? Like? What is vegan food? People don't know a lot of black people did not know what vegan food was before Sele came along. Right. They think you could put eggs in it and it still be vegan. Right, But ignorance is blessed until you educate people. So now I got the opportunity to start educating people on vegan food. So I realized that in certain areas and lower income communities and urban areas which we call food deserts, and areas that are right in the middle of gentrification, they don't have access to healthier options, even if it starts a vegan comfort food, right, So I said, all right, let me do something different. Because I'm a master marketer, I wanted to be able to positive, positively manipulate my situation by putting food in areas that they probably otherwise wouldn't see them. So when you think about vegan fool you think about them in rich white neighborhoods, were putting vegan food in the hood, were put in vegan food in areas that are historic We're making people think about vegan food in a way that they've never thought about it before and finding enough. Ninety seven percent of the people who come to Slutty Vegan are not even vegan. They meet eaters. So I'm like, Okay, the intention is mad. And not only do I do that, I have a seventy percent to thirty percent portfolio ratio where I purchased most of my properties and then I rent the thirty percent of them and the reason why I purchased them because it's not just about food. I'm building an ecosystem where I'm showing people that you can literally go into these communities and raise the value of the community just with your presence alone. I don't know about y'all, but anyway I go, I want to raise the value. If I walk out the door, I want to know that my value was important in that space and I raised the consciousness of everybody around me. And that's exactly what I do with Slutty Vegan. And it's been working. How big of all of it, But neither one of us would have had this level of success if it wasn't for the city of Atlanta. And I'm not from Atlanta, right I'm a transplant. I went to Clark in Lanta University. I became Miss Clark Atlanta University. So I'm a peach by by affiliation, right, But I love honorary honorary peach. Right. You can't taught me nothing different with But one thing I love about Atlanta is if you're talented and you humble and you're hungry, people in Atlanta are going to support you no matter what it is, They're gonna support you. And even til the state it's went almost four years later, they walk around Atlanta and they treat me like the mayor, right, And it feels so good because I'm like, damn, I'm doing something right. I'm pouring into the city and the city pouring to me, and I'm gonna keep doing that as long as I have slutty vegans, as long even when I go to other states, it's always gonna be slutty vegan Atlanta because I'm here because of the city of Atlanta. Right. Yeah. Is it disheartening to know some time ago one of your locations broke into invanalyzing disheartening to see that because you do so much for the city in the community that somebody were violating breaking the slutty. I was angry. I'm gonna lie. So at first I was man like DA's motherfucker. I just remodeled. But then I'm like, you know what, that's great. Press want to destroy my story. Guess what now everybody supporting me and talking about my business, and all press is good press. We can always find a way to make good press. And that ain't the traditional answer that somebody would say. But I'm like, at first I was upset, but I'm like, guess what. Obviously he really wanted the burger, he was hungry. I created, No, he stole tablets. I got five locations and I got a multimillion dollar company. What I care about a goddamn tablet for you know what I'm saying. But at the end of the day, it had me in every single newspaper and on every single news station, and people are talking about slutty Vegan. So the return on investment of him still in my tablets was worth more. Yeah, we got robbed tips. One of my cashiers got right for three a rols, so it was real out here what they do we don't why don't take cash? So, you know what I'm saying, Only take cards. So when they when they want to take his cash, she poured out the pistol and took the ag rols. She good like now, but it's crazy what people are do out here now this. You know, we're in the pandemic, so they're taking full advantage of whatever they think they should. Man, he's thinking stretching that pandemic. Yeah, I don't think Atlanta never really seen the pandemic. I don't think though, because I think that we was able to pivot through and the businesses stayed, people panicked. The people that don't panic, you see, they're still standing. Yeah. Yeah, first, Yeah, Fort Shore one of the big wins. I got to mention y'all just bought a whole block, like a whole well not real state right now. Yeah, um, like she said, uh, you know, you gotta make differences in the neighborhoods. And right now we're bringing up the neighborhoods by like, we just bought the block. So we know, we take a block of homes that ship and make it something the community going down, the value will come up around there, you know, And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to build those ecosystems that black people have, you know, chances and resources to say, all right, well they see two other people that just like them do it. We got some cash laying around, let's go block some blocks, let's go pick some money. They ever do the same thing. That's really all we're trying to do. UM. Just like with our our life insurance initiative, you know what I'm saying, anything that we've done, UM, So right now we're doing this life insurance initiative where um, if you're a black male in your household make thirty tho dollars less than income, we're giving you fifty thou dollar life insurance policies through predential Um. They don't have to pay for not at all. Like there's no gimmick, no nothing on it. Because a lot of peop were like, man, what y'are making off of it? I'm just side of saying, go fund me and fish rivers. I come from Philly. I come from the jungle. You know what I'm saying. Most of my homies, you know what I'm saying, wind up dead in jail. I was fortunate to make it out, so I know, if I can make a change and the difference and she come from bottom are so we come from same environments and we got the ball in our hands. Why not do it when people were listening? You know what I'm saying. We got the voice, and I feel like a lot of people that get the voice, when they get it, they want to hold it because they want to be the man or the woman. And people will say, you know, you look up to them. But use that ship differently, you know what I'm saying. Everybody using it the same way. Use it to inspire neighborhoods and help people out and put on these different communities so people have opportunities. So we ain't gotta make you know what I'm saying, Uh, chances and choices later on that we didn't want to make because we didn't had a resource. And you're like, damn, well, I don't know I could have did this. Now we pinnish it in front of your faces, up for you know, up for you to dum accept it. What type of love and support y'all get from back home? Like? Um where you go at? Um? I love my city man, I'm actually going to Baltomore next week. Um, And they respect and love that. I always hold my city down. Yeah, Atlanta is like what made the business successful, but they know where I'm from, right, and Baltimore is like Baltimore. It's like Atlanta minus the accent. But yeah, Baltimore is having my heart. I love my city. That's what I was gonna ask you, Like, how did how did you feel when like the whole world was cracking on Baltimore trying to get all of the Baltimore people to say too, I was who they're talking to. But you know what, It's cool because there's something distinct to my city, right right, I've been in Atlanta for a long time and I still got my excent. I go, oh, yeah, he loved Baltimore. Crabs. No women, you know what I'm saying. I was about to say women, Look, I just had that. They just they just had that online to the woman. We have cut all these games. You know, you know you got But I want to say this though you mentioned this. We're on thirteen properties right now together. We're about to close on three houses and um week. Yeah, but we've only been together for two years. So I'm talking to the lovers out there, y'all. But you can really like build with somebody and they don't have to take ten twenty years to do it. Like if you if y'all got the same mission in an alignment, y'all can really build together and create. And that's just real estate. Like we got businesses together, kids together. We may together a short time, but we used love to do it in friendship. When you use the money, you know, when you built our money, you'll never make it. I don't know about you, but when you're just chasing the money, that ship don't come that way. What I'm saying, when yeah, when you're doing that authentically, you're just focusing on your craft and then you say, damn ship coming my way now, And I'm starting to get the bag. But with us just spending plans together and things started transpiring into what we wanted. So for us to purchase thirteen properties in less than two years and have multimillion dollar companies together and separately, um, you know, it's a blessing. Yea man? Oh, I think David Sharon's Social pro podcast, he was saying that he realized at a certain point that he wants to be like a multi multimillionaire, but he might not want to be a billionaire because he wants to have balance. So I asked, y'all, like, this year can be stressful, hustling entrepreneurship, It can get stressful, But how do y'all maintain the balance, so y'all don't get stressed out? I think the other person got to be on the same page what I'm saying individually. I know y'all got a team, but I'm saying just now, but that's how it That's how it worked, because I'm gonna get you a game, right. So next week, she gotta speaking engagement, so I'm gonna support her and I fly with her to her engagements. I had engagement out of l a while, did something will Smith. She flew out there with me. We support each other, you know what I'm saying. So we got that system that if we ain't working, well we're working because you're working on working. Because we ain't working, then were working in certain situations that you know, I had an opportunity and I'm pretty sure she had an opportunity. If it don't make sense for the both of us, we don't move on it because we understand we're pushing together, right. Yeah, we do got our own separate you know, situation entities, but we know together we're much more powerful. Yeah. And then for me specifically, when you said the billionaire, I want to be a billionaire. But it don't have nothing to do with money, right. It's the idea of impact and creating something that has never been done before from where I'm from, so that every single little boy and little girl can see me, this regular decular girl from around the way and say I could do it because Pinky Coke did it. So that is a personal goal for me. And again I say this all the time. I'm a magnetum money. I'm always get it right. So like I've touched millions already, and to me, it's just paper, right. I'm more concerned about the idea and impact and changing the lots of other people. And the idea of me getting to a billion dollars tells me that I've achieved my impactful dream and now I can utilize any resource that I want to do whatever I want to transform the minds of people. So I'm on the money mission to get to that billion dollar dream so that I can transform the idea of what people think about money. But people have been clear about the sacrifices you have to make. I guess that's what a lot of sacrifices, and a lot of them. Because while they're partying, you're working. Why you ain't why you ain't buying that that new rolex, so that that new paddock or whatever that came out, or a new card came out. You're investing into yourself. People don't see that part. It's people out here right now that sacrifice and theirselves that may not look, you know, as fortunate than others, but they got more than others because they pinned it all in themselves, Like it cost us over half a million dollars, a better location. I can have right now, a couple of Bentley's Rose races, anything I want. I mean, I have a night shot living the mansion, but I can have more if I chose to put it all out there and let people see it. But I think when you understand that part, you know it's not an inconvenienced for you because you know what you want, like and and I know that I want to be a billionaire, and I know that I want to own hundreds and hundreds of properties, and I know I want my kids to be good and my generations of family after that to be good. So I'm sacrificing that right now. So it don't feel like, you know, inconvenience to me because I know in my mind I just said, yeah, I just said this on Instagram the other day. Um, you control your mind. Your mind don't control you. We all wake up in the morning and you might be like, damn, I don't like the only ship right now, but you just lost you Let your mind just control your whole body. Yeah, you want that, you know what I'm saying. So I think when you understand that, it's no inconvenienced on what you want to be like. And then I want to tapping here real quick. When we talk about sacrifice, A lot of people don't talk about this, but you gotta have a good team. If you do not have a the team, you ain't got nothing. Right. Like, the reason why we are able to do all of the things that we do is because we got soldiers on the ground that's making sure that they are pinky cold and Derek Hay's in the room and we're not in the room. And it's important to get those people that are in alignment with your vision because if they are, they're gonna do whatever it takes to take you there. But if they're not and they're just working for a paycheck, then you're gonna feel the sacrifice. You're gonna feel that the pain and oh I'm tired and I gotta go in and fix it all the time. You're gonna feel that. They gotta have the same ethos and integrity, and when they do, you'll see it. It'll be fruitful you think about it. It's just like relationships. If you're in a relationship with somebody that's pouring into you, you're gonna feel it. The persons gonna look happier, they're gonna look less stressed, they're gonna be more positive all the time. But if you're around somebody that's sucking your energy and depleting you all the time, you're gonna see it. The proof is gonna be in a pudd in. So that sacrifice is only when you don't have the right people. Yeah, you make the sacrifices in the beginning and every single day as a sacrifice, I want to be clear, But when you got the right people around you that's helping you build your empire, that sacrifice won't feel like so much hard work like how we used to. All right, Yeah, what's the first step if somebody want to get into being a successful business person, because drop it on them. So we actually about to solve that problem right now because we're coming out with a game. I'm not yet. That's the don't drop it out. Don't drop that fact. I've been a little bit of a LEAs. We got something special. We got something special that's gonna help entrepreneurs. Like if you never ever new ship about business and the end of this situation, this game, you're gonna know how to go, you know, get your LLC, how to you know, get a trademark, all the above if you never knew it. And we creating resources through this, because that's what it's about information right in the first step for entrepreneurs. And I'm specifically talking to the people that don't know the first thing about being an entrepreneur. I'm talking about you don't know how good an LLC, You don't know nothing. All you got is an idea. It's confidence. People do not talk about that enough. Right. Let me tell you something. I don't care how much money you got in your pocket. If you're a billionaire, a millionaire, a thousand there, I'm a walk in the room with the same energy and that's my level of confidence. I don't care who it is. I don't care if you Kanye West, I don't care who you are. That level of confidence is what gets deals. Confidence gets deals, not products, right, not just story. It's confidence. People. Yes, people will give you a million gazillion dollars if they believe that you are confident in yourself. You are not confident in yourself, Why then do I want to give you some money like that? If you don't believe that, you get it. But if you believe with all of your might, that ain't nothing gonna stop you from getting to the goal. Somebody is gonna be attracted to that, like, oh, I'm willing to bet my body dollar on this person because about when I'm sleeping and I know that this person is still gonna be swaddling her legs and making sure that she's doing what she gotta do to make her dreams come true. So confidence is key. And guess what you can't pay for confidence that whatever the episode, listen to that episode. Listen when you hear the mother talking bro you, when they leave out the room, you'll be like, oh no, they was for real, they got real company. Why, But that's why Kanye it's talked about how he talked about because whether people look at him as crazy or whatever, he's confident, he can't believe him. Yeah, but confidence, I believe you look at the Dame Dashes he's confident. I believe he's confident is the belief in something separate confidence and cap That's what we're talking about, like your confidence and arrogance. So listen, it's it's all very relative. Because I even tell people, you're gonna love me and you're gonna be inspired, or you're gonna be like, who do the state? She is? Right? Yeah, but but there is good arrogance, just like there's positive manipulation and good arrogance hockey, right, but still being humble at the same time. Like I'm gonna give you an example, like I do not wear designer. I got on some Chanelle sneakers. That's about it. That's about probably the most expensive thing that I own materially because I don't need it because this right here is all the material that I need. Say right, So I say all that to say that ain't arrogance. Heaven, I know, I really don't wait designer though everybody like Peggy and I'm not waiting, but listen. But I know my value. But that's not arrogance. That's worse. And when you know you're worth worth Trump's arrogance any day, you know. And I feel like people that think that you arrogant don't understand themselves the confidence whatever it is you're arrogant about. If I'm right now happy about what I'm building, I'm not happy to brag to you. I'm trying to inspire you of what I'm doing. I want to take that that's up to you. You know what. I personal problem when people will say, you know, people are bragging or married times this this person come around, they want to talk about what they're doing. That's because you ain't doing it with yourself. You know what I'm saying, I just told you what God about this ship that I'm doing. I want to be happy about the ship that I'm doing. You know what I'm saying. I'm not gonna keep my mouth clothes if I busting my ass making your hap and I want to inspire people. If you can't handle it, thing, that's up to your personal problem. It's definitely a personal problem. And if you can't handle it and you're negative about it, get that away and another day I want for you too. It's called I'm gonna get y'all the worried what we leave out it? And with my fucking line, it's cap capital nowhere. Yeah, you can't spend that nowhere. It's capital that is getting reject Do you think some people don't become entrepreneurs or because they just scared the bet on themselves, Because that's a big part of that. Everything everything, but you could be the one. But if you don't believe you the one, you're not. I can have right now ten million dollars twenty million dollars in the bank, and I can have a project that caused nineteen million, eight hundred and ninety nine dollars that motherfucker believe in my dream. I know I ain't gonna fail. Every company ever touches a multimillion out of company, I don't. I never want to school to be a chef. You know, I ain't go to court on blues, not that I grow on my shoot out of the streets and everything I touch is a multi million dollar business. So it's off of your confidence level, what you know you can do. It ain't about the education you're learning because you can learn all that in the book, but can you carry it in the real world. But I also believe and I just learned this in the last two years, and I used to didn't think this way. But everybody ain't designed to be entrepreneurs. There's something like the world that are a better support system than just being an entrepreneur. Like how could I be as successful as I am if I didn't have a Kia who is my assistant, who just make sure that my life is in order and she knows how to support people. That's how the world go around, Like you need people that are soldiers. And everybody don't want to be an entrepreneur. And that's okay, but that's a piggy goal, Like that is my life's desire to be able to create my own freedom and opportunity so that I could be able to show the world that you can do. But I also think when people look at us when you're building all of the foundations you're building, by the end of it, they're gonna wanna be entrepreneur anyway because they've been around it so long. Look at all the people blossom. I want to do something, whether it's career wise, and the same under the same roof. It could be under Sluddy Vegan Um, Big Days, whatever, but they want to grow. And that's what it's about. It's about seeing people growth, not want to stay the fry cook or the grill cook. They actually might want to be a GM. That's what it's all about about people seeing the growth from the level of your boss. And you're like, Ship, I want to level up. I know I got people right now that probably would have stuck to being a fry cook or whatever they wanted to do, but they've seen me growing, Like Ship, I gotta take this serious. I want I want to do something, you know what I'm saying. So I think that's what it's all about. Y'alln't have some heavy names walking y'all establishments. So what's that one name with those couple of names that just suck y'all up? Like, who's there for me? I wasn't even there Man Russell Wilson, and Uh, they come through a lot, you know what I'm saying, and I always seem to miss them. But the biggest person for me Um and it wasn't in my restaurant. It was just what I just did in l A And that was Will Smith because that's my that's my idol. You know what I'm saying. We come from like literally blocks apart, and for him to be on the cover of essence and me and make cover of essence and I was able to have that, you know what I'm saying that that transpiring, didn't have him to meet him in that same moment and to give him, you know, the food that I make. I think that was my one of my biggest moments when it comes to celebrity. And I didn't fed everybody, but that moment that I was waiting for the more. You know what I'm saying, That moment for me was was was It was real big for me. It was more of a story. So the day that I got fired, I was a casting director for a TV show while I had Slutty Begin in the beginning, uh, and I got fired that same day they found out about Sluddy begin. I ain't tell nobody, So I'm all bummed out because you know, I ain't never been fired from no job like you're firing me. So I got fired and ended up working the truck that day. So me and my two team members we went to Jju and it was like one o'clock in the morning, and I was tired, and I'm like, damn, what I'm gonna do. What I'm gonna do. J D called me at one o'clock am this after you've been to j before. Yeah, and you get off the shower, you put your clothes, are you're chilling, were eating and j D called me like, hey, I need you to come right now because I got some people at the studio and I'm like right now, and my people they're like, we're tired, We've been working all day. I'm like, yeah, we gotta do it because if j D calling me is somebody big. So literally, as soon as we got comfortable, we put our clothes back on, drove an hour to go get the truck, drove forty five minutes to j D's studio and Snoop Dogg was there. And that was the most impactful experience that I had one because he was hid as my but he was like, I'm just so proud of you and like these fries days is good. At that moment, his energy was just so melodic and I never forgot it because I'm like, this means more to me than a paycheck, right, Like I make the sacrifice to come here and meet somebody who has always been a legend in my eyes. And then fast forward, he ended up doing a song for me that's being released this year by the way, about began, but I can't drop right now for the song. But I say all that to say that one of the most memorable people were Snoop because he's always been supporting Sluggly Vegan since day one. And I never pay him the door. They never asked when the door. He just did it on his own, and I respect that, and I respect celebrities that genuinely do that. They don't need a check to endorse your brand. You're supposed to be down on yourself about getting fired from the little drink of denk job, but sometimes the biggest obstacles in the life of mistakes comes out to the biggest things ever and you're like, you don't even know that happening. Question, guy, you just be like, man, I'm a roll with the punchers, and I promise you something out coming that ship. You're gonna be like a lesson from it, or you're gonna get up from human like, damn, it was worth it. So I don't question no no more. When I'm going through. You get spoiled in this you know what I'm saying, in its life. I mean by that it is like you, you get spoiled to the headlines, that all that stuff that comes with it, and sometimes you gotta be real with yourself, like I can't handle this ship right now. I need a mental break, you know what I'm saying. All Right, So I think that's when you get leverage of your own stuff and not lose yourself. How your family, your family, don't ask me, because I'm gonna tell the truth, the truth, its big facts. Oh, I don't hire a family no more. That's the biggest mistake that I love. If y'all listen to this, I love you, but I will never hire you again. Um. And I think that in universally, right. I'm sure that other cultures are able to do it. But my family specifically, why I love them. I think that people just naturally have a level of entitled. Man, I'm the base, right, So they say, oh, this is just Pinky. No, it's not just Pinky. This is Pinky who was the CEO of this company. You gotta respect my decisions and my boundaries and my boundaries and if you don't respect that, then you got family, she taught me, and people can't respect that. So I just got my last family member out of the business. I love him to death, but I sent him on his way. Um, and it was amicable. And I still love my all of my family members, but I know that in order to grow what I'm trying to grow, I'd rather give them money to start their own business so that they could be right. So the day you got to impede on what I got going on, I got one left. He got it, He got it together though. You know what I'm saying. I got one left work. Yeah, yeah, at the top, you know what I'm saying. But he different, He understands mature enough to understand one for Derek, everybody for people definitely then went through the same ship. I cleaned and cleared them all out because it's the entitlement from it? Should I how you deal with how y'all deal with entitlement? Though? Um, you gotta get away from it. You gotta literally get away from it. You gotta down a hood though. Now I'm gonna tell you why you gotta get away from it, because we all got that phone call, that call, your phone you already know that ship about to be an entertaining phone call, so before you answer, you got the You got the decision whether you want to, you know, you pick it up or not and deal with it. You over there breaking the microphone because let's just for entitlement is real, because it don't just be family. So remember we got startup companies, So there were people that started up with my company that naturally had a level of entitlement. They like, I started this with you, so this's mine too. Well, you get a paycheck to right, or it's mine on paper, right, And you also have to respect the boundaries, and that can get very monkey. Fortunately for me, the people who've been riding with me from the beginning, I all gave them equity into my company because I want to show them that they are just as valued as me and this company. But there have been some people that slipp through the cracks that felt like that their name was Pinky Cole. And sometimes you just gotta really like check it, and if you don't check it, then it can really become a cancer in your business. Yes, oh, I've been dealt with it more than enough time. But you gotta get it. You gotta get your dogs have been rocking with you, somemc with it though the one has that been rocking with you know, and carrying the legacy. You gotta make sure they're taken care of because some people in there working every day sweat and you know what I'm saying, we're mentally growing our businesses. Now it's a different thing. Like I tell them all the time. When I was in there chopping cheese steaks and don't that every day it was more physical. But this way, you don't want none of this stress. You don't want to deal with none of this ship, these bills, everything that comes with it. You're doing interviews, you gotta make sure that everything you put out on the media one of the things you and not what they perceptive or perceive. So and being entrepreneurs, women have that privilege to like rappers and and do bullshit and all that. You know, ye your whole business because like what I mean is we literally gotta walk on a straight arrow, but we gotta give you the game where you can understand it, you know what I'm saying. So that ship ain't easy sometimes, but when you're yourself, nothing can trump that because you ain't listening to the outside world. You know what you represent, you know who you are, and you know what you're buildings. What's a lifestyle like for y'all, like, just step out of entrepreneur I know it's hard, or what's lifestyle like if you just haven't what some said that y'all like like to do or enjoy or some activities or anything. When you guys are not Pinky calling derrikky, slutty Vegan Dave cheesesteaks, you guys are just big Pinky and big Dave. The family we travel were like, I mean, I I smoke, That's why I like. I like the going my little my little smoke room, had my little free time. I turned some yeah, my little man cave, turned some ESPN on and blow it down. But I think we both of us, we we uh we do good at when we um let him know she blazed machine. But no. But honestly, I think when we ain't doing business, what we like to do is travel. We'd like to just see the world. She she actually um when I met her, and she was like, you ain't got your passport. I'm like no, She's like, I gotta get your passport. So I didn't popped a lot of tracks, a lot of end of the day. Bro leaving the neighborhood was enough for me. So when I left, when I left out the Philly, I was I was going to uh. I was in Athens, Georgia. I was playing basketball, you know, my grandparents and all that. So when I used to go to Athens, that was my escape. That would be like me going out of the country and I come back to Philly. You know, at the end of the summer, they're like, you've been going over something. I'm like, yeah, man, you know they got the green grass, the trees and all that. She got the swim pools. So that was me vacation. And so now maybe to see like the rest of the world and see what I worked hard for. Maybe to go fishing. I love fishing because I feel like fishing is life right if you're patient, and eventually you will get what you know what I'm saying. So when I go fishing and you're fishing with somebody that just like, damn, I ain't catch it, and they keep nagging, that's because you ain't gonna never get ship because you ain't patient. You gotta just take your time and relax and wait for your fish to bite, and it might be the biggest fish you ever caught. That might have took you about an hour to to catch that fish. But tell them why you like to fish because of my father. I mean, you know the way I grew up. Have you ever let me ask you this? Have you ever hooked your finger before? I actually did a couple of times, but I still worship let me take you. Oh my god, I still don't not take a fish off the hook though. Really I don't funk with catfish. Listen, I take any fish out catfish? Thank you? Yeah, so I'm sorry. It's a couple of catfish that hurt. Swimming around with the hurt, Like the worst way do you think being a relationship? Keep you ground up for like you said earlier, buying the cars and doing all the ship while you're looking at somebody that blow a million hours in a year. Hell yeah, keep me granted. Like when I came to Atlanta, all I wanted to do was, uh, well, I was disabled for five years. I had an accident, so when I came here, all I wanted to do was like, have a normal life party. I've seen people that look like me. They're driving landbows, and ship and Philly. It ain't like that you get robbed and killed looking like that. So everything was hairy was you can show it up. So why I was out here, you know, blowing my money and I realized in what I was doing, I was setting myself up and go back home, you know what I'm saying. So when I realized everything that I all my mistakes and everything I did in my life, I knew that I would never ever make another mistake to go backwards. So that's what I really wanted, you know what I'm saying. That was everything with it about you you think you'll be, and that first of all, he's a flashy guy. I'm not flashy at all. No, I'm not flashy. I just know right I know I'm from them. We cultured reship. It'll be tad. She keep me, no, she keep me drining because I ain't gonna like I'd be like, I don't got to. I mean, I gotta have a nice car in a nice house. So that's the two things that I like. I gave up on a jury. I ain't really jury crazy. I ain't know rapper, I really know it was really into all of that. But you know, I got a nice car in the house. But I think those are the two things that if you work hard. You know what I'm saying, you want you want to walk outside from your place of business to your vehicle. You want to go into your truth. You know what I'm saying with a penny picture. And I'm proud of it. Right, I'm very frugal, right, as much money as I make and do well. Like, I'm very frugal because I'm Jamaican, So I grew up in the Jamaican house. So we left overs for the next three days. So like, I love leftovers, right, Like I don't really like buying food all the time. So, like, we had a separation and culture. So when we came together, I'm like, were eating again every day. Listen, you see my system. Listen, I'm gonna tell you what it was. It was. It was in the beginning we had to get used to a restaurant. You know what I'm saying that too, But Atlanta got we got good restaurants. But Atlanta does have a lot of bad restaurants. I mean, I'm gonna put it out there, so a lot of people it's not a lot of good cooking. I'm not coming at Nobody restaurants in general. But you know, I don't want to see you overall. I think that we keep don't want your We keep we keep ourselves grounded because, um, we always think about big picture now, right, because like he had two kids before we had our two kids, having two kids, but like now it's about future and like making sure that the kids got five to nine plans and right, and life insurance insurance a lot of people, that's right. That's bigger than like shoes and ship like in real estate. It's important and building generational wealth because I want to be able to leave my children with something and and and I'm sure that people who are entrepreneurs everybody should think that way too, right, But I want to be able to have something that my kids don't have to work if they don't want to, and they can focus on their dreams and not the stresses of paying bills. So all of this right now, it's patient capital. Like we're working hard now and it reinvesting everything back into our businesses. And I mean, we could really live lavishly, but I don't think we live very modest. Would you agree? Yeah, I think we're doing I also think that anybody that lived our life and what we we have, they would pretty much look at it like they sat forever. But we know we want and we know this is a stepping stone. But you gotta have, whether it's man or woman, your partner gotta be somebody understands you and gotta keep you grounded, because we don't make financial decisions just to make them, Like I know, I ain't going to go buyd all of card. We ain't making a decision on you know what I'm saying, what we're doing together. So we already moved as one union, and we was able to make millions together that way. So I think when you out there doing separate ships, you know how you coming the household and then chick might come in there with five six thousand all to no back coming from phips and you're like, damn, we could have did something with that, you know what I'm saying. And it only takes you know, depending on how much you make, it only take three, you know what I'm saying, to go investing yourself to go get a property, you know, or twenty if you if you're doing a bank statement loan I have. You know, you want to purchase a property, But you could take your money that you you know, your fifteen twenty thousand that you probably was gonna go put on a rolex or whatever you was gonna do, drop that into a property six seven months from now, that property might jump sixties seventy thousand dollars. Go pull that money out or just set a property, and you then came up all way around almost a hundred grand when you only invested you know what I'm saying, maybe dollars. So you know, real estate is a patient play, and I think for our culture that's one of the things that we have the hardest time with because we want to see our money in the bank. We don't know how to like, if you got this ship in real estate, it's the same thing. If I'm ready to go tell you I got thirteen fifteen houses, it's like having three four million sitting in the bank account. It's the same way. But when you understand and that you don't got to trick yourself out to cash it out because money don't have a nine in five, it ain't working for you. It's just chilling. Your property is a nine in five because it's actually growing equity on this So why you're pulling your job is actually working. If you got a bunch of cash just sitting, it ain't working unless you're pitting it to work, you know what I'm saying. But we want to go to our money and be like ship, I got forty fifty. I'm gonna pull this sh it out and go to the classy ship in my pocket. Nah, when you talk to me, I'm gonna tell you about my portfolio. Now. I got twenty cribs and I'm doing this, and I'm doing that, and I'm doing this with my money, you know what I'm saying. And I can get around the biggest rappers of anybody right now, and my portfolio and what I built is strong enough to stand with any of them, you know what I'm saying. So let me ask all this. So in the midst of you are frugality, do you guys have any vices? Oh? Yeah, Um, I'm honest, man. I think the most thing that I had to deal with my advice was being honest with myself when I came to Atlanta. You grow through so much ship growing up in life. You think that's the honest and you're supposed to be doing you know, you don't never think you're doing wrong when you end it. Ship, what I'm saying, when you and it, it feels good. I got the opportunity to be around, you know, another family when I came to Atlanta, it was a Jewish family. And what did that teach you? It taught me another side because I've seen a guy send his kids to college off of you know, cash rewards. You know, you get your money back on your credit cards. So imagine eighteen years right, you got a company giving you cash rewards and you're taking it every month and deposit into a savings account and that's your college, your kids college fund. It's free money. So I was able to learn, you know, opportunity and resources through what they was learning. So that ship that I was brought up off of, Like, honestly, I'm not gonna lie. In my family, we was we was blue collar workers, but we had ship that we weren't supposed to have because we thought were supposed to have it. Like my family, my brothers, they all had business and ship growing up. But we might be making forty fifty thousand dollars a year and you got a hunting and twenty thousands of card. That ship don't add up you know what I'm saying. But we we taught them be good, me to look good and don't be good. So now I'm changing the narrative and being good while y'all pretending to look good. I'm actually good. You know what I'm saying, even though you might not see it. Yeah, yeah, I mean, if anybody's smart, they know I'm good what I'm saying this. But what I mean by it is like you everybody out here, like you got rappers, right, but then they got homeboys that look better than them. Why the fund are you dressed better than me? I'm getting paid for the show. Why are you spending five six thousand in the outfit? I'm getting the bag for the five or six thousand in. So that's what we gotta realize is don't waste it bag on something trying to keep up with the next man that's making hundreds and hundreds thousand dollars every other every time, you don't stand at you know what I'm saying, Competition got to stand your own lane and stand your financial lene. You gotta be real with yourself and cool with yourself. So I think that was something I really had to work on myself with because I've always been a dreaming. All my friends almost more time millionaires. Right, so I'm around all this ship. I see it all, but all it was doing was gearing me up for what I wanted more for myself. I didn't know hayting. I didn't know begging, I didn't know asking. I got motivated. Let me be around so you can motivate me so I could be a better meet. That's all I ever asked any man for it. Let me get the motivation. Thank you. I got people on my phone right now. I might send a text mession to I just told DJ Dramma the other day. I tell you know, Drum, thank you for the motivation. Allow me have been around, bro. Let me see this throughout the years. Because now I see another black man do this ship, it makes me now be able to do it. It makes me more you know, believing myself to say, oh, I've seen you know the inside of Rick ross house, sea walking around I see living in the state. That's another black man that did it, or the same thing, vice versus with me. You know, when I was in the in the gas station, know what I'm saying, I was fortunate, you know, meet that the same thing you know, I'm now seeing you know, super mansions, different lifestyles, but this is stuff that you've seen, you know, from a person that looked just like you from the same ghetto, is just like you. How can't you get motivated from that? And one more out of yourself? So my vice is, let's go pinky girls being totally transparent. I have a problem with turning it off sometimes. And when you say I get I know what you mean, but like for those are out there that might not get it quite yet, yea. So it's a blessing and a curse, right. So the blessing here is that it never feels like work for me, that I just love what I do. But the curse, hair is that sometimes it can impede on my relationships because I'm always just on I'm always thinking about the next way to take over the world all of the time, and finding balance is a little difficult at times. But in my world it's just like, well this is my balance, that's my reason. So like when you say, like, what is your vice, I'm sitting here thinking like what do I do that? Like I do an access and it's like like I don't know how to cut my research light off, right, Like, I'm always on the internet research and I always trying to figure it out. And maybe that is not a vice, right, Maybe the most successful people in the world do what I do. Right, Um, but do I do I need to find more balance? Somebody else probably would say yeah, But I mean it's a healthy vice for me. But it works because of the relationship though, because that's like if y'all like y'all doing the radio, it's like, yeah, you're significant that at home. Don't get that all right? If if I ain't doing ready, I still gotta work on the show. I still got ship to do. So the other person got to understand what you're doing. So when other person understand what you're doing to me, so a lot easier. She don't turn it off, but I don't turn it off. And when I'm halfway there, why I do gotta halfway off? She turned it back on for me, so we get back at it. So I think that's why it's easily. I don't think you could be with just anybody. Yeah, I'm not a two ter on Horner with Pinky Coo. I'm just being honest. She gonna worry, like and I'm that nigga. Either you're gonna get war out, bro, or you're gonna get motivated by it because like sometimes sexist building companies, Bro, you know what I'm saying. Of course, if we get it in. We got almost two babies in less than two years. But I'm just saying to us that we'll be four or five in the morning, you know, building something. Yeah, I don't have a turn off, Now you don't. That's probably like that. So I just recently had a kid in October, but that did Did the baby create a switch force? Because it definitely turned me off or saying like there's more to the world and hustling and entrepreneurship, even even they called help, um and if we didn't have to help, then maybe, but we got help, and we got like real help, which I feel like every new mother should have, like and I don't feel guilty of getting that kind of help, right. I feel like when a woman has a baby, there should be somebody around her supporting her and helping her. I was the youngest. I didn't even know how changed the diaper when I had my daughter. I'm being totally transparent, right, So my mother is really my saving grace outside of Derek obviously, but like she came in and make sure sure that everything that we need we got so that we can continue to build our empires because she knows that the work that we're putting in now was going to pay off later. So like, no nothing. And I tell women this all the time, Like I want to show people that you can be a mother, you could be a boss, you could be a partner to your spouse and be all of these things and still be beautiful all at the same time. And you can have it all and you don't have to compromise, you know sometimes but people feel like the minute that you have a baby that you gotta slow down. You gotta like I don't want to slow down, Like I want to be able to be a great mother and still be a great CEO. And you don't have to choose one. You can still be great at both of them as long as you have the support that you need. Remember when she just had the uh, the favorite of and they she want to take it to the hospital. I said, on the second one, you ain't gonna be doing like if you're gonna get used to it. You know, when the baby started teaching, you know, they started getting timbers and all that. Already got two kids. Yeah, I mean I'm telling yeah, but so I think you know you're going through all that, you know the next one to be, you know, even easier because kitchen is closed. Definitely, it ain't hiding the kitchen. No more bro y'all gotta be fither words for the Big Facts supporters and the slutty vegans supporters in the Big Dave Cheese stick supporters, we always like to give game of motivation before we run Big Facts. I started off, I'll let you close, pinky Um. I always tell people in life, it's not a track me, that's a marathon. It's all about how you end. So don't worry about the next man or next woman growing faster to you. Your game plan set so that you can end the race. That's all. It's about ending the race, crossing the line, no matter who finished, for as long as you finish it. So stop worried about you know what I'm saying, who running it up the most? Who getting the most success? Right now? Learning your ship so that you can now finish the race, because if you don't finish the race, then you ain't complete ship. And that's the best device I can give you. It's like almost like reading the book and not understanding the words. You can't just yeah, you can't just live your life to live. You gotta live for a purpose. And if you out here just living a living, you're wasting your life because every day is a clock ticking on. That motherfucking that was good. Yeah, um So. Mine is inspired by my favorite quote, which is a lyric from a rap song, and it goes something like this. You better leave yourself in the moment, the moment you own it. You better never let it go. You only got one shot. Do not miss your chance to blow because opportunity comes once in a lifetime. And that's that's eminadium. And anybody that knows me knows that I live and I die by that verse in that song because every single opportunity that I get, I sees it. I sees that moment because I know that it may never happen again. So when you stay ready, you ain't never got to get ready. When you're always prepared and always ready for that big opportunity, even if you don't see it at the distance, that one opportunity is going to come for you, and you ain't even gotta practice for it. You ain't got to prepare because you've been doing it. You've been practicing, you've been in the trenches. So utilize every single opportunity as as that moment so that when you get it, it'll all pay off. And that's what I've been doing for the last I'm teenth years and a part of the reason why I've been getting all of the success in my life because I utilize every single opportunity, big and small, as that one moment that's going to take me to the next level that's going to change the dynamic of my entire family. For you, cause you see something else for yourself. Right, appreciate y'all pulling up the Big Facts. You know, you're welcome anytime. You're welcome to drop out food anytime too. You know what I might do acause Big Facts Pod dot com salute. You're listening to Big Facts with Big Bank and DJ scream. Follow Big Facts on social media at Big Facts five five, Big Banks and DJ scream Bring you big fat Hey man, it soldway up that merch. Yeah that's right, www dot Big Facts pot dot com. What's the real one? One time? Y'all. Come get y'all some of this merchant mat facts pot dot com Get that merch right now, shot with us Soldoway up. Make fact Merch going down. It's the new website today www. Got Big facts pot dot Com is