Vegas Circle

Behind the brand with Zachary King: The hustle of a multi-industry boss.

• The Vegas Circle

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Dive into the mind of a multi-industry entrepreneur as Zachary King reveals how he built his business empire spanning fashion, restaurants, and candy. From getting Tom Brady to wear his Residency clothing line to managing a restaurant portfolio that includes concepts like Cubana and Earth Cafe, King demonstrates remarkable versatility while sharing the psychology behind his success.

What makes King's approach unique is his deep understanding of customer behavior and his emphasis on relationship-building over immediate profits. "Rich people love free stuff. Everybody likes to be thought of," he explains, detailing how he strategically positions his products with celebrities by first understanding their needs and preferences. This approach has garnered his clothing line endorsements from major names like Lil Wayne, Swiss Beats, and numerous professional athletes.

King offers candid insights about the entrepreneurial journey, likening it to the movie Jumanji—a never-ending series of challenges where "as soon as you beat the monkeys, here come the bees." He emphasizes the importance of starting early, finding your passion, and understanding the personal sacrifices required for success. Most valuably, he shares his concept of "ROR—Return on Relationship," explaining how sometimes giving without immediate expectation leads to the biggest opportunities.

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or an established business owner, King's story demonstrates how authentic connections, psychological insight, and relentless hustle can turn seemingly unrelated opportunities into a cohesive ecosystem of successful ventures. Follow King's journey on Instagram @KingSize and explore his brands at residency3.com and woormscandy.com.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, paki and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success and culture, and this is our platform to showcase people in our city who are making it happen. And today's guest is just that man. This is my motivational speaker. Man Today's guest is a true builder of brands, of culture, of community and from getting major names like Tom Brady, swiss Beats, lil Wayne, rocking his clothing line Residency, he's the co-founder of a Las Vegas Cuban restaurant called Cubana.

Speaker 2:

Cubana. I got my Spanish right here.

Speaker 1:

Basically it means everything, encompassing Cuban Everything there. It is right there, man, and he just launched a candy line. Correct, I understand too, we'll get into also. But let's welcome to the circle entrepreneur and businessman, mr Zachary King. Appreciate y'all having me.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate you doing this. It's truly a pleasure. Great stuff, likewise, man.

Speaker 1:

But let's jump right in, man. So who is Zachary King? Yeah, so I mean, honestly, man, it's one of those things like it's kind of constantly evolves. You and I talked offline last week.

Speaker 1:

I just have kind of a track record of you know, door number one leads to door number two, to door number three, and it's not that I'm trying to be a jack of all trades, but that's just like when you're solid and I think people understand, like your authenticity as a person, then it kind of opens up opportunities for you. And it opens up things where people say look like, even though it's maybe a different industry or different entity, it's the same intangibles, right. And so that's kind of who I am as a professional, as a person, man, I'm somebody who I'm not above anything. I don't mind getting my hands dirty, I don't mind anything. I've kind of put my heart into, I'm going to give 100% and I'm a person, I think, especially in the last five years, who's dealt with adversity and understands how to overcome that and, quite frankly, just try to be an inspiration man.

Speaker 1:

My favorite quote is like try to be a fountain, not a drain, right, just trying to really pour into people, and that's a lot of ways, how I've been blessed. So that's me in a nutshell, but yeah, I mean it's a lot of different stories along the way, but yeah, if I had to sum it up, that's pretty much it Did. You used to rap back in the day, man.

Speaker 2:

You sound like you used to rap, right? I would tell you a story man. I wanted like I'm.

Speaker 1:

I always want to be a ghost writer. That was something. I have a notepad with lyrics. I have that type of stuff. I grew up in a musical family. I'm from my grandfather's own nightclubs. My uncle was, uh, a marvin gaye's uh bodyguard and road. One other uncle was a road manager. So I grew up in a musical family. You know dead ass. Yeah, my granddaddy's nightclub back in the day, um, you know, during what they call like a chitlin circuit, he was almost like a financier for a lot of these entertainers. And how he would do it. He'd say well, if you didn't have the money, I'll loan you the money to record the record or whatever. But the trade is you just come perform in my nightclub, right? And so it's almost like, hey, instead of paying, that's perfect, right. So people like Percy Sledge, james Brown, tina Turner started they would do that. So I always had a musical background.

Speaker 2:

Music was in my family and my passion is writing lyrics and write rhymes, but I can see you know I couldn't tell my mom you got that voice. Yeah, do you think you're a person like you know, kind of going back to the business, like you said, with jack of all trades, a little bit like? Are you a person that you know? You say you follow what's going on? Is that you're following your passion or you following like you know?

Speaker 1:

so, so my is hustling my passion. And when I say hustling, like just the art of just the process, like you have some of these athletes right, like the Kobe mentality, where, like they just love the grind. So I think that's my passion is the hustle and the grind, and it's not so much a financial goal, it's just the fact that it's inspirational, right. It's like the zero to hero. How do you do it again? I have this saying I always say you know you do it once they're going to call it luck. You hit rock bottom and do it again. You're a real hustler. And so, apart from the money, obviously there's a financial goal, but it's just the mindset of you know I did it again. And even within I scale it.

Speaker 1:

So, like you know some of my background, so I have a lot of football players in my stuff. But then I say, well, hey, I didn't play hockey. How do I have a hockey collaboration? How did I get an F1 deal? I mean, my big ass can't get in a race car. How do I, if you're not a real, it can't be luck.

Speaker 1:

At what point? At what point you're in all these different industries, all these different phases of life? It really just speaks to the art of the hustle. So that's what I'm passionate about. But as far as what we're selling and what we're doing, I think that's kind of can be. I mean, obviously I want to be interested in it and it's got to be something that makes sense, but I'm kind of open to if it's the right idea, if it's the right partnership. Then that's kind of where my almost my recipe to say my, my, my, or the organicness of what we're trying to do down, but at the same time, that's kind of what. What motivates me is the passion of turning, you know, zero to hero or something to nothing. You know, that's what's up, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Let's talk about the residency, the three.

Speaker 1:

Let's start first. Start with that. So how did residency start? And I think maybe we'll start off with the foundation of the three, right, okay?

Speaker 2:

for sure, we talked about it at your office, right?

Speaker 1:

Okay, and we're going to do this a lot, just to warn y'all, we're going to go back and forth because that's so much of how it's built, because, like I said, everything is room number one, door number two, door number three right, and as you're going through it, throw in some sprinkles and I still am, but at this point in time I was full.

Speaker 1:

You know, I was literally at the shop every day, or at different stores every day, for cooking, training, hiring, basically, a startup business. People in the restaurant business tell you it's hands on, it's hard work, especially in those early years. So, long story short, this 2010, I had a chicken concept called Chicken Now and at this particular time, in Vegas, nationwide, we had a chicken concept called Chicken Now and at this particular time, in Vegas. In Vegas, okay, nationwide, we had 56. But in Vegas we had three at this particular time. So we started in 07. 2010, I'm at one of my stores, right, just you know, hey, paki, I'm going to give you the day off. Go out to dinner with your wife. Here's a couple hundred dollars. I'll run the store, I'm the CEO of the company, but let me just give you a day off, surprise day off. So I gave one of my managers a surprise day off and I got a surprise. So, long story short, my manager ended up stealing from me right, I could check the safe.

Speaker 1:

you know, a whole nine caught him stealing, but anyway, this positioned me to have basically be the manager, so I'm the co-founder of the company. But now I got to go in here and act like the shift leader right or whatever.

Speaker 1:

Right, whatever. But I use it as almost like a beta test for me, to essentially like a laboratory. I could try a new product out, I could get good feedback with customers and I'm very unassuming, so people would have no idea that I'm the owner or I'm the person who started this. They would tell me the truth. Hell, man, the coast laws is terrible today. All the macaroni and cheese. What happened Right?

Speaker 2:

People just honest with me.

Speaker 1:

I, I can make changes and also can try new stuff. Or let's try a little spicy, or let's try a little this or that. So, long story short, because of my personality, I started to meet people who were in the mall, and the mall employees is where all of my locations were inside mall food courts and the mall employees are the people that keep the lights on. Those are the people that, even if they just buy Coke every day in the course of 10 years, you know they done paid your mortgage. They't bought a Coke every day. For how many days, right?

Speaker 1:

So I had one dude. He was, um, you know, I'm basically a district manager at Tommy Hill figure, and he would come to my store every day. Um, and we became, you know, customer relationship. But then we became friends and we just started chopping it up. Um, so that's like 2010,. I met him and I'm older. He kind of always knew that I had a good business mind or at least was entrepreneurial. Um, so we meet in 2010, and we pretty much were friends from 2010 to 2017, just kept in touch, kind of like you and I. And so fast track to 2017, we're in the Laker game and I'm from Tampa and he was originally from Vegas. So anybody who's moved to Cali has obviously had dealt with cost of living pricing. Right, you know gas in San Diego when I was there was six I lived in california six years ago.

Speaker 1:

Right so people right it's like you have to have, like it's just an adjustment. If you're from there, you're used to it, but if you're not, it's like man, like how do I keep my same lifestyle up, obviously with the price increase? So we're at a lake of game chopping it up. You know we're about 10 drinks in. And he's like zach, you doing it, like how are you able to do these things or this and that? And I told him. I said you know, I'm a little bit older. So I said look, man, you got to have multiple streams of revenue. You just, even if you have a good paycheck, you just rely on your paycheck. You ain't going to make it. You're, you got to have multiple streams. And so he was like man, well, I got an idea. You know everybody got an idea to spend my money or something new. I'm like all right, well, you know, we 10 drinks in right now.

Speaker 2:

Talk to me about the idea tomorrow. Right right, I caught that Right.

Speaker 1:

And so I said you know he had an idea I want to sell baseball caps. I know it'll work. I said, all right, but tomorrow, if you're serious, like let's have this conversation again, and then you're going to have to come to me with a prototype, you're going to come to me with something other than just a conversation. That's the homework you got to do and I can't promise you anything but what I can promise you, and if you come with a prototype and it looks solid, then I'll see what I can do. I'm going to wear it. Let's see what. We just start having conversations. So, unlike most, most people who I give that pitch to, he took me up. He came you know it wasn't a negative. We had a conversation the next day, sober, but then after that he said all right, here's the hat. We started with the LA hat and I'm just wearing a hat, just like, you know, anybody else. It's 2017. I'm just rocking a hat.

Speaker 1:

People start asking like damn Zach, where you get that hat at. I mean, that's a. I'll give you like, all right, now I've got something. I got something because I'm not even trying to sell it and people are already trying to buy it off my head, and then some people I did you know how much do these little tests, so that's just the average person. And I got some homeboys that are super picky or super bougie or they want to be the first one with it, so let me wear it around now, you know, let me see what they say. And they fell for the bait too. Oh man, where you get this? This is old, okay, perfect.

Speaker 1:

So now we got bougie, picky, rich people trying to buy it and then we got random strangers who I don't even know trying to buy it. So we got. We got at least a market here, but at the same time we have a product we don't have a brand right, so a lot of people sell hats.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people, you know, are in clothing lines but they don't know how. The power of branding, and so I'm like, all right, now we something, but we don't get too excited. Now we got to find a way to brand it. So what are we doing? We're selling hats, right, we're selling. What are we really selling? We're selling cities. We're selling where people are from. We're selling a feeling.

Speaker 1:

Right, it's not just a baseball cap or a hoodie or shirt. You're proud to be from Chicago, you're proud to be from Las Vegas, you're proud to be from these different areas. So what's another synonym for city Resident, residency, residence. So we start playing and you come to my office. We whiteboard everything to scale it. It's like the restaurant analogy. I'm trying to sell you food five ways Cater, pick up, dine in to go. I'm trying to sell you the sandwich, right, so it's the same thing we do. So everybody has a house that they have to go to. That's a residence, right? So it's the same thing we do. So you know, everybody has a house that they have to go to. That's a residence. Everybody's from a city, right? Djs have a residency. Doctors, before they have a residency right. Nurses, right, all these different things, um. And then you're a resident as a person, you're an individual who's proud, right.

Speaker 1:

So we find all these ways to scale it um, and at that time 2019, you know, I got a musical background. So ross had that one song vegas residency and I was just that was just in my rotation um, you know, just heavy. And so I was like, all right, you know, this is, you got, you got something here. We got, we got a word play, um. And then that's how we essentially started.

Speaker 1:

Um, so there was a total of three of us who kind of co-founded or co-owned residency in the beginning really two in the beginning and my other partner came along from a tech background to help us. But, long story short, there's three individuals who are essentially kind of the founding group or founding fathers of residency. All of our birthdays kind of match with three. Um, three is my favorite number, I'm big and good or bad shit gonna happen in threes, um. So I'm just big on that and I'm just big on, like, trying to create these call it superstition, but just these core values of a company. And so that's how we started. That was the initial pop and that was kind of how we at least branded the company. To begin with, and I'll be super transparent, we looked on IG and somebody in India had residency, spelled the same way, the normal way.

Speaker 1:

So like, all right, you know.

Speaker 2:

IG is important, you know like.

Speaker 1:

Instagram is important. You know you might have a dope name, but if you can't get access to it, doesn't matter, even if we dm this guy.

Speaker 1:

He wasn't gonna sell it to us no way. You know what you know. So anyway, I was like, screw it, we're gonna change that second e to and exactly. So. That's. That was the birth of the company. That's how we got started and how we essentially came with products and then created a brand.

Speaker 1:

Um, our first three cities were las vegas, la and san francisco. You know, we all had roots in Vegas. My co-founder partner, angelo, he lived in LA and still does, and then we just kind of did a triangle offense right. Like you know, san Fran is obviously a great market. Let's just kind of figure these three.

Speaker 1:

Later on that year, my mom worked for the census as a national director and so we hit up mom and said hey, mom, give me the demographics, give me the how much you know, the annual gross revenue for people to live in these areas, and we thought that would get it to pop. Let's pick in big cities. Well, let's just pick Philly. Let's pick Houston. People got money in New York. Let's do New York right, like all these different, since we're doing cities.

Speaker 1:

That's kind of what we want to do to expand, but what we realized from a marketing standpoint, just because you got a cool logo or big city, you need somebody to push that needle. It's from a high standpoint, especially with fashion, but that was kind of the founding stages of residency and that's kind of from 2017. That, that conversation at that Laker game, which led to where we're at. So what I'm basically saying to people out there you know, customer who bought chicken watched me the whole time. You know he saw me be solid, he saw me. You know we was just nothing but just a customer business relationship. He kind of, you know, befriended me or we became friends and then now, look, that led to something that's, quite frankly, the biggest thing I got going on.

Speaker 2:

I mean that's a great story, yeah, so it's just one of those things I think people don't realize like.

Speaker 1:

I got one of my homeboys. He's Taiwanese and I've known him since I was 13. And I joke with his dad because we got in business together. I was like I've been on a 30-year interview. You met me as a kid at 13 years old, did.

Speaker 2:

I meet him at your office. Yeah, you met him Okay.

Speaker 1:

Right, and this one time this dude had as many stores as the owner of Panda Express, like they were going neck and neck. But my mentor, he was in the food court business and obviously who goes to the mall, but the point I'm trying to make at that time he and Andrew Tam were going neck and neck from stores, but I was on a 30-year interview and I didn't even know that. So I tell people like, look man, you never know. This conversation may sound like nothing, but it may lead to something later on.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, 100%. That's kind of a little background about the residency.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad you broke all in anything, that foundation is crucial. So, brandon, right, right, you got something very special, because I don't know how. To just be honest how the? Hell, you do it. So, okay, yeah, you might have a Tom Brady, correct, you might have I don't even know all the different athletes, musicians how are you able to find out they are wearing your stuff?

Speaker 2:

Okay, so, in the beginning, Because you get pictures of everything For sure.

Speaker 1:

And I'm going to give you all transparent answers. That's just me. I don't mean to be long-winded, but I give people the game right. So the first thing is this it's so much psychology in it so before we talk about a tom brady or little wayne or whoever the case, may be swiss or whoever insert name the.

Speaker 1:

The first thing is you really just have to do the psyche of people. So much of it is just common sense. Um, so let's just take trent williams, for example. It's kind of one of the marketing people that kind of pushed this needle that's a football football yep, highest pager, so people don't write, and this needle that's a football job Football yep, highest pager, so people don't right. We're going to talk about this A lot of times. People don't know football players.

Speaker 2:

If I say you know football, but very few.

Speaker 1:

We call it the helmet syndrome. I don't know football.

Speaker 2:

We don't lie to you.

Speaker 1:

But just for the people who do or do not know Trent, he's the highest paid money than anybody in NFL history other than the quarterback position. And there's no offense. You don't know him A lot of people don't. We call it the helmet syndrome. In basketball you see their face right, but football you don't. So the point I'm trying to make is just the research in that. So now that we know who Trent is, or we find out who Trent is, well, trent went through brain cancer, right, it's called sarcoma.

Speaker 1:

he had that at the time when he and I connected or I was reaching out, so we understand. If you got brain cancer, what are you going to have? You're going to have a surgery, obviously in your head. What are you? Your vein? You know, you know how I'm saying all these different things you want to be thought of.

Speaker 1:

Cancer is a low moment right so I'm walking through the psychology of we ain't just sending people random hats. We're doing the research of what they're going through, what they like, what styles they like, and then we break it down even further. Okay, well now let's just pretend Trent normal, he's fashionable, he's a big dude, he's got a Ferrari collection, he's not your average big guy. He likes wearing custom stuff, he likes being exclusive and in the locker room he's that alpha. So a lot of stuff you'll see with fashion is if you can create the wave, or just with anything in life, it's monkey, see, monkey do. Very few people are visionaries and leaders and a lot of people, unfortunately, follow us. So if you can create that wave, that's what we do. We're trying to create a wave. We call it hype, but it's really a movement, um, as people have to understand that, that's what we're trying to embrace. So before, before we send anybody anything, that's the first thing we do.

Speaker 1:

You got to do the homework right. If you got a fresh line up and you just got a haircut, you might not wear a hat today, but you got a t-shirt.

Speaker 2:

You see how he said that. You see how he said that he's smart. She offered you a hat. Nah, I'm good, I got a clean cut. I'm already.

Speaker 1:

It's common sense, but so many people just overlook, because what they're trying to do and it's nobody's fault, but they're trying to push what they want on somebody. They're like well, I got a hat company Pocky put on the hat, well, is that really what he wants? Some people don't rock hats Right. Some of the bosses don't think like customers. So that's what we do before we do anything. And then now, after we do that research, then we scale it and we service the person, because a lot of times when people get what they want and they fall off, we're not just sending somebody a hat one time, we're continuing that relationship because we appreciate what they've done for us. So that's kind of like my scouting report. I call it ghetto marketing, but in a lot of ways it's genius, right, because it's that guerrilla marketing, it's that hand-to-hand, it's that compoundedness of what we do. And then this is important too before we go on.

Speaker 1:

The next question is I call it strength in numbers. So it's like a roman empire mentality, that type of warfare where trent needs to see you work. Trent is saying you know what memphis does, but jay-z, I'm hove, I'm already rich, you're not rich. So I already got 400 million dollars. Zach, I put on your hat. Now are you done, working like I'm already where you want to be? I need to see you working. I need to see that I'm not the only person. And it's not about being rich or famous or rich or poor, it's just strength in numbers. If Trent goes to drive to the game one day and he sees 100 people wearing my hat, he's like all right, we working, we working. It's not just the superstar doing all the work. And I think that's where a lot of people like, oh, I got you know the Easter bunny in my hat.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, the Easter bunny need to see bugs bunny and everybody else you know, because otherwise they're going to feel like, well damn, you know I'm the only person wearing this. You know I need the confirmation that you're not just relying on me. So when did y'all connect? Like, what was your connection? A lot of people, you know our birth was 2019.

Speaker 1:

So you got to think a lot of this was pandemic, right? So I was. The world was shut down. A lot of this was cold calling and DMS. A lot of this was just constant, you know, just relentless communication. I can't tell you, I used to. I used to just scroll, like my mama would tell you. I used to just sit there in the business part. I used to just scroll and look for content, literally just spend hours praying somebody would wear my hat. Nowadays, you know, somebody will text me something, right?

Speaker 2:

no-transcript because the clothing business is one of the hardest businesses.

Speaker 1:

It's tough and you're in it's tough correct clothing, which is very tough. So that's that's how we find out who's posting and who's not.

Speaker 2:

That's very interesting. You talk about growing business and building a brand. That's very one thing. A lot of people try to push that brand. But what I'm seeing here in your talk is that your insights are very intuitive, correct To your point. You see Pocky's face. You see me wearing a hoodie. You're just very insightful to what's going on.

Speaker 1:

It's right in front of you man, I credit that to just how I was raised. Right, my uncle had a barbecue restaurant and you know, literally anybody in the family restaurant business would tell you you're pretty much slave labor. Right, my uncle maybe bought me a pair of Jordans once a year but I didn't eat the tips he would take during the night. You know, I basically was free labor. So anyway, because of that, when you're serving people you get to see well damn, did he finish his food? It's just food or you know what this and that you get to see things and it's directly influenced by your tip man. You know, if I come around here three more times, you know you just start to pick the psyche of people, especially in the restaurant business. You see how many customers a day I mean so many people just sit there and just go through the motions. But if you really pay attention, people will tell you, like I used to tell my employees a woman comes with three kids, offer them a kid's meal. You know, pretty girl walks in with a yoga outfit. Lululemon offer a salad. Hey, man, we have fresh salad wraps. Big guy comes in there. Hey, chicken wings. It's common sense.

Speaker 1:

But people are just like when I get off at five. Let me just sit here, yeah, well, you can stay till five and not get tipped. Or you can listen and understand and meet somebody who's a business owner and you know they own a law firm and they see me as a cashier but they think I'd be a great, you know a paralegal or something Right. And so people just don't understand. Like I use the quote, like the harder I work, the luckier I get. But a lot of it is just my spirit when I'm, when I'm working, I'm not like oh, god damn, yeah, goddamn, yeah, like I'm I'm really bringing it to the table. So that's how we, that's how we essentially scout the person out. Um, the tom brady example. Or just to be super transparent, let's be honest, tom brady, you know he you don't, even though he's the owner of the raiders. Now you know he he's not gonna wear that pirate. Think about it.

Speaker 1:

think about you really sit down just before we. How, when, who you're? Honest being real it's tom brady cut white guy. You think he really going to wear that pirate? It's a Cholo logo, it's a Santa, it's very dark, it's Raiders and I love the Raiders, but it's one of those things where, like, is he really going to put that pirate on him, just from an aesthetic.

Speaker 2:

I don't think I've seen him wear it yet a little further.

Speaker 1:

He played 20-something years. How many? Times did he beat the damn Raiders?

Speaker 2:

right 5,000 times, if you're really a.

Speaker 1:

Raider fan. You really can't stand Tom Brady as a player. Now you're hoping he brings something to the table as an owner, but as a fan player to player you really can't stand Brady, and Brady knows that, so it's almost not authentic to him, right? You kicked a Raiders ass for 20 years and now you're walking around with the Pirates. Might have been a friend forever.

Speaker 1:

You get what I'm saying. So it's almost like he needs an excuse. He still wants to rep Las Vegas, he still wants to rep his ownership, he's still proud. But that's a business conversation. That's not who. You know what I'm saying, who he kind of is it's a mentality.

Speaker 2:

There we go.

Speaker 1:

So now we just give clean cut logo. There's really no team affiliation, you can kind of play neutral but you obviously are repping las vegas.

Speaker 2:

You also have something with that. You see, I'm saying it's a psychology, it's not just hey tom, here's your package.

Speaker 1:

And then, quite frankly, it's aesthetics. When my patent, when my packages arrive, they look like they deserve, they supposed to be here, even if you didn't order it. You know this. This looks like okay.

Speaker 1:

Well, at least somebody you know yeah, somebody sent something yeah it's not just a brown pasted bag or something that looks out of place, so it's really the whole branding of the packaging, the product and the psyche that goes into. How do you, how do you basically target these individuals? Um, and like I say, rich people love free stuff. Everybody likes to be thought of. A millionaire wants you to treat him to lunch. You know, a famous person wants to be remembered. You'd be surprised. I mean, people got feelings too. They got feelings too, and a lot of times they feel like they've not been a thought of or appreciated for whatever reason. By family, I mean, none of my family members buy a hat or a Cuba sandwich, yet you know what I'm saying. So you know and that's just me. I mean, imagine somebody on that level with that kind of coin. They've got a lot of horror stories of where they've been let down by people close to them. I know Chris has a question, but I want to add on one real quick.

Speaker 1:

I remember when Steven Jackson mentioned that with his original clothing company he said the problem that you have is family, Correct Family and friends. None of them buy that what's?

Speaker 2:

the quote. They tell you they want you to give them the stuff. I know you got a question too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but the quote is if you're waiting on family or friends to support your business, you ain't going to have one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. We need a Zachary King post to live by.

Speaker 1:

I'm trying to tell you, I told you this game.

Speaker 2:

When he come on, I'm just going to shut up and let him talk, man, I love and to be able to make decisions and you know target people. But when you're building a brand, right, you have to generalize statements a lot. You have to be able to target a bigger audience. You know what case do you try not to over-adjust, like, do you ever think about, like, how do you navigate? Like building a business where you can't make a thousand different types of hats, right, okay?

Speaker 1:

So yeah, so it's a great question. So yeah, it's a great question. So it's almost like this balancing act of three or four things, so just stay with it, right. So it's an easy question, but it's complex. So the first thing is, before we do it, we need the hype.

Speaker 2:

The energy behind it.

Speaker 1:

Because people, we got to admit that. You know. Why do you like Versace? Why do you wear Rolex? Why do you like Mercedes? Why do you want a Chanel bag? Somebody has set the standard from a quality, branding hype standpoint. You use, you use. You know the role is going to tell the time, just like the seiko right but you feel difference with that role on your own right. You feel different with that something. Something in your mind, psychologically, has programmed you to think that this is, this is where I need to be right. This is something that I strive for. Why do you want a g-wagon? Well, I want to be part correct.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's first we got to create the standard of branding or hype. Then now, now we understand well, everybody can't afford a G-Wagon, everybody can't afford a Patek, right. So now it's like, well, I've got to have some entry-level products. Even Bentley's got an entry-level. You've got to have some entry-level products that don't water down your brand but, to your point, they make it accessible. Um, so we, just we have different, what we call entry-level products. Our entry-level products will be like our, our market or our mission, or all our hats or products have names. So it's almost like that's your, that's your bentley gtc, that's your 35 dollar hat, that's your entry-level bentley. But you ain't, you're in a bentley, you feel good. Same thing, you know, you got a hat on. It's not the 200 hat trend has on, but hey, man trend, I'm repping too. So you don't want to be. So, basically, be exclusive to people. Where you weed out people or you make people feel that they can't afford it or they're not. More importantly, that they're not wanted, it's not that they can't afford it, because eventually, if there's enough hype, they'll save up and they will afford it. They'll want it. Bad enough, right, but you've got to make them feel inclusive, right when they feel like Right, but you've got to make them feel inclusive, right when they feel like man.

Speaker 1:

I'm a part of this movement. I know I'm not Trent, I know I don't have the $200 hat on, but I got the $40 hat on and I still feel a part of this movement. And I also think too, a lot of it is the individual co-founder or the person doing the marketing. I don't big time anybody, so you know you go to 49's facility, the guard house. The man in the guard gate is going to have on my hat. Is it the $200 Fred Warner Trent hat? No, it's not. But when Trent pulls up in that Ferrari, trent sees him. He's got a hat on. Trent has a hat on. I still feel like I'm a part of this family, even though they might be a big dog in the family. That's my cousin, that's my big bro. It's that type of camaraderie we're trying to build and, like I told y'all in the beginning, strength in numbers. At the end of the day, the $200 hat, the $35 hat, still got 100 people wearing the hat, it's still 100 visuals of his body.

Speaker 1:

It's just like the club, His body's doing it, where it's like man, you know.

Speaker 2:

do we really care If I turn the lights off in Dre's. I can't tell if it's doing all that. No clue, Not at all. And you still have that feeling.

Speaker 1:

I feel like I'm a part of that and, more importantly, we're striving to be to the next person. So you need entry level, but you need hype. I love when you talk about the psychology side of it, because people don't realize that's what brands do with Apple and everything else. It's all psychology. After we do the second, we call it ecosystem. So we talked about it at office when you came. Their phone goes out right now. Apple has done such a good branding job. You will blame your phone man, my phone tripping. It's not Apple.

Speaker 1:

My phone is tripping you ain't never going to blame Steve Jobs. That phone going to break, you're going to go right back and get another one and God forbid, it's the Apple Watch.

Speaker 2:

If it's the iPad, I got everything we call it.

Speaker 1:

you basically are trapped in this ecosystem. You don't even know it, or care, no, I know it.

Speaker 2:

I know it because I pay it for it, you care but you don't even care, because you enjoy it so much.

Speaker 1:

I mean, you just do it. I bet you got Apple too, because I'm in the ecosystem, he wasn't.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you weren't before. Right, Tell them that sucked me in it. You're like I don't even feel like talking. Get this person on the group chat.

Speaker 1:

I don't even feel like talking to this person or you know it's so hard to send stuff or messages or whatever. Right, and no offense to Android who's out there, but that's the feeling, right, you're stuck in this ecosystem.

Speaker 2:

That's what got me about talking shit because we grew sex with him. I'm like damn. I caved and bought all the. I got Apple Watch and everything.

Speaker 1:

That's interesting and you get an ecosystem. Like I bought cars, I didn't even test drive, I'm already in ecosystem. Just in case you love it, I just love it. I'm already sold. Before I pull up to the lot, I'm already sold on you're already sold on the phone. I got two of them all these sides.

Speaker 2:

Please, yes, sir.

Speaker 1:

So you said we can talk about anything 100%. Can you tell the public how many restaurants that you own?

Speaker 2:

Right, so he'll realize how many he owns.

Speaker 1:

So let's start from the beginning.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I'm my family so we start 20 years in 20 seconds Right.

Speaker 1:

So long story short. My family was in the restaurant business since the 1940s. You pretty much have two homeboys 40s my grandfather yeah.

Speaker 1:

For nightclubs, restaurants. Like my grandfather was ahead of his time. His name was Moses White. He's from Tampa. They got a street named after him the whole time.

Speaker 1:

But long story short, you know he before integration, you know he did all of that to kind of start off, start the base. And so that's my, that's my bloodline, my mama's father, and then you fast forward, you know my, you know, 40, 50 years later, here I come around and my best friend, who's Taiwanese? His family was in the food court. Franchising of food court restaurants Started in the 80s, both in Tampa. So you got my grandfather here, you got my right. Two different families, two different backgrounds. But long story short, when I went to University of Florida knew I wasn't going pro and this individual his name is David Wu, but he was almost. He was like my father, right, I mean, that's who he was right. And I was a person where I didn't really grow up with a father in my house. So I call it like you know, make your own daddy, I take some of Rocky's daddy I take some of your daddy.

Speaker 1:

I take some of her daddy. You don't even know I'm stealing your daddy, I'm just throwing my pockets and I'm making my. I'm him my own daddy. And he was one of those individuals, right, I was always like a sponge and he knew that right, and people that kind of come from nothing love people that come from nothing. It's almost like a hustler spirit. It's hard to you know. He's never told me this. We've never. We've never chopped it up. It's a vibe man.

Speaker 1:

You can just tell when somebody is about that action. So he knew I wasn wasn't going pro all that stuff. He's like man, what you gonna do. I was like man, I really have no idea. He's like, well, I got an idea.

Speaker 1:

Um, let's take your grandfather's chicken recipe and with my uncle's head, and let's let's put it in a fast, casual concept. Um, he's like there's a concept that you don't know about. But I want you to go to baton rouge at the time, um mall, louisiana. And he's like I want you to see what raising canes is doing. I want you to see this was this, was 2006, 7. I'm just leave tomorrow, go see what they're doing. I just want you to see. He's like I've been in the food court game 30 years. I never seen anybody give Chick-fil-A a run for their money. But in this mall in Louisiana at that particular time, let's say, chick-fil-a was doing 1.3. Raising Cane's was doing 1.7. So he's like I want you to see the concept, just so you can understand what we're trying to accomplish. Now you'll take your grandfather's chicken recipe, but we're going to add more of a home style flavor. We're going to have the macaroni cheese, we're going to have the banana pudding, we're going to have the kool-aid, we're going to have the seasoned salt on the fries, and so that was our essentially chicken. Now was that concept that we birthed? Um, that was 2007.

Speaker 1:

Um, and essentially I'll be straight up with everybody pretty was a gamble. He basically bet on me, just like he bet the store cost $400,000. He bet $400,000 just like a few days. But the reason why he did it was because in the food court it's like Monopoly. Let's say you go in the food court and there's five, six restaurants there. Well, let's say you own four of them. Well, if you don't put another concept in there, chick-fil-a is going to come in there, panda Express is going to come in there, mcdonald's is going to come in there. So he basically and it's no hard feelings, he used me as a pawn where it's like look, I already got four restaurants on this block.

Speaker 1:

If I can put if I can put I got on four right, because I got the Japanese, the Chinese house on this block then Chick-fil-A don't come in, because if Chick-fil-A comes in, they're going to take $300,000, $400,000 away from my Chinese restaurant they're going to take. It's just simple marketing. Oh, that's Chick-fil-A. You don't even look at the Chinese place anymore, you don't even look at the Japanese place anymore.

Speaker 2:

So he's like, at least if Zach goes in there.

Speaker 1:

he might lose, but he's a Well, what happened was when we opened, I went in and showed my ass. I first opened in Orlando Prime Outlet Mall and we did 1.3. So now you use me as a pawn, but really now I'm big dog. So now he's like holy shit, this was a buffer, but he done hit a home run.

Speaker 2:

He had a home run.

Speaker 1:

It was kind of a facade. Why were we able to do that? Orlando tourist market, high price point, that's how we were able to get there, but anyway it was enough for us to springboard that company. So we opened up 20 stores in basically a year and a half.

Speaker 2:

I'm 23, hiring people A year and a half.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because he had so many contacts inside the mall. I think you've already got 400 stores before you show up. I got landlords.

Speaker 1:

I got people on every block who feel the same pain. Man, you need me. There we go and, let's be honest, I would pay the rents that Chick-fil-A wouldn't pay. Chick-fil-a say, man, I ain't paying this, I'll go on the street. So the landlords liked us too. We were paid exclusive rents. We would open up on Sunday. Chick-fil-a goes and say, nope, I'm paying percentage rent and I ain't opening up on Sunday. God bless you.

Speaker 1:

Malls don't want to hear that. Like I had a store in Venetian, our rent was 30 Gs a month. We would pay those aggressive rents, even if we knew it was a gamble because, to be honest with you, I didn't have the overhead Chick-fil-A did. Chick-fil-a needs to make a million dollars to break even. I didn't. So I had a different bottom line. But anyway, that's how we got started. That birthed my restaurant career. So that group is HIG Management and collectively. Right now, like I said, pandemic wiped out a lot of our stores, recession and, honestly, people just not going to the mall anymore, not going to the mall anymore, we still have about 30 open.

Speaker 1:

But we've been very in the mall business but we've been very selective as to where we go, where we open, and a lot of times we're still playing that same game. So like, for example, I got a couple of stores in Santa Anita Mall and Arcadia will have the chicken now and we also put our crunchies inside the mall too. So we can co-brand that labor, we can co-brand that training. You get off at four at chicken hour, we'll go to crunchies at five, you know. So we can, we can basically make that, make it make a little bit more sense. Um, but at the same time it's selective places where we know there's foot traffic. Um, people are still going to the mall in certain instances, but not to the level that is right now now, locally in town. Um, that same group, hig management, which, which I'm a part of, has Crunchies. We don't have the one on Spring Mountain but all the others in town and we try to franchise that concept nationwide. Then we have Cubani Dodd, which is our Cuban concept.

Speaker 1:

We have three locations of that Total B and Tiki which is at Uncommon's. That's some great drinks over there too 100% yeah they do a great job, man. Our staff talk about how that's been popping. But then also earth cafe. We don't have the one at the win, but my brother, leon, was able to kind of get the rights on commons and we opened up a green valley. Okay, and then, last but not least, we just brought fat sows, two more. We brought fat sows to fremont street. Uh, leon, his type of his mindset was a lot of fat sows.

Speaker 1:

Fat sows is a sandwich shop they originated in la.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, that's right, the big fat sandwiches they have all the type of stuff.

Speaker 1:

It's kind of an la staple, okay, but his logic, my brother's leon logic, was if I can, you know a lot of people are moving from cali here. If I can bring the earth cafes, the, the fat sows people are going to, it's going to resonate I love that cafe, by the way yeah and then, the last but not least, is our pokey concept, which, uh, we've.

Speaker 1:

You know, we talked about it. We used to be a mercadito which was our sandwich shop, but we flipped it into a pokey pokey mart LV. Is that uncommon? I?

Speaker 2:

was going to say, is that uncommon? I don't think I'm missing anything here, but I can tell you it's a lot.

Speaker 1:

It's two different groups. There's a hat group and then there's a restaurant group. I have a great team. We have great employees, chefs and, to be honest with you, man, I'm not as hands-on as I used to be from an operational standpoint, more just like an investment standpoint. But they do rely on me for a lot of marketing, or you know you got people pulling up that type of relationship side, but don't get it twisted.

Speaker 1:

I mean, if I got to go in there and make a Cuba sandwich, I will, but you know, it's one of those things, man, it's. We've been blessed especially these last couple of years, because a lot of restauranteurs are catching hell, man to be able to expand and, quite frankly, be able to bring some of these concepts to life, man. So it's been a blessing. But yeah, that's the restaurant side.

Speaker 2:

Good for you. That's awesome yeah.

Speaker 1:

Talk a little bit about, because I know Earth Cafe gets a lot of the shine. But just real quick on Total Bien. Yes, sir, how hard is it to be a bar next to like, next to a Durango. You know what I mean. Like, how are you guys able to make that work? True story right? Um, you know it starts all with friendships, man. So my brother leon has a great like a track record where people like maddie salazar occurred. There's a couple other people that that kind of handle the day-to-day stuff with that, and why they've been so beneficial is all these people have a background in nightlife.

Speaker 2:

I think I've met maddie before. Yeah, he was at one for a while. He yeah, he's out, I think he's now some something to do with live.

Speaker 1:

I don't know his exact role, but, long story short, he's got that lifestyle, that nightlife background. And so we go back to brandon, right, you know the vodka soda gonna be the vodka soda, even if I drink it at the house. But maddie's bringing some of the magic, he's bringing the djs, he's bringing the different specialty drinks that you're talking about, the theme drinks, right, and so that's the thing. And, quite frankly, you know that area, even though there's a lot of competition in that area, a lot of people live in that area. We'll talk about this. I ain't scared of competition. I'm scared of customer awareness. If you don't even know who the hell I am, or know what I am, probably I'm more scared of that. I'll compete who has the best chicken. I'll compete who has the best sandwich, but if you don't even eat a sandwich, that's hard to change mindset. But anyway, they, the nightlife people, have been huge from an industry standpoint because they're bringing friends.

Speaker 2:

That they've been friends with for 20, 30 years.

Speaker 1:

So they're bringing all that to life, but that's how we've been able to do it and it's been a blessing man, I think we just celebrated our one-year anniversary over there.

Speaker 2:

I like that spot. Man, that's a cool spot. We don't have food. We don't have food, but the drink's on point point, man, and it's all.

Speaker 1:

It's one of those things. So, anyway, it's been a blessing. That's awesome, man. Oh, that's right, we went to j. What's his name? Jk, he was killing it, though he plays all the like yep, yep, yep, I'm piano no, he killed it one night. Yeah, that's the thing too bringing acts right where it's still like that local kind of intimate vibe. Of course it might be bigger spots and stuff like that, but it's not the same. It's not the same sauce.

Speaker 2:

So they might just have a drink with your spouse or whatever.

Speaker 1:

It's a nice little spot, honestly just local. You don't have to be on the strip, just get in enjoy yourself During the week.

Speaker 2:

they're perfect. You'll have a good drink after work.

Speaker 1:

Seriously, it's perfect. A lot of people out here have been going on date nights, that's the new thing. Y'all been there. I'm talking about a random, like it's the first date.

Speaker 2:

Oh, the first date. Okay, I didn't know that. I'm talking about the random. That's a smart place to do it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they do it there because, god forbid, I could pop the Durango if I don't feel like messing.

Speaker 2:

It's an in and out spot that's a good to go up there.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk about Worms a little bit. So you got the candy company. You in the hardest industry so what happens is. What happens is like we meet, we vibe, and then you see, you see Zero the Hero, you see Get Rich or Die Trying and you're like, damn, zach, this is something I always wanted to do. Damn, I always wanted, right, I don't know, man, I'm not trying to just constantly just do these uphill battles, but like that's, I don't know.

Speaker 2:

But you make them work, correct Right.

Speaker 1:

So Worms was another business partner who saw what I did with restaurants and saw what I did with residency, especially residency because he's a huge 49er fan. So when he saw that, he was like my God and he was like Zach. I got this candy and this and that the prototype. Let me try to work, let's see. It. Can't promise you nothing. Gotta sleep on it, gotta pray on it, gotta give it to a couple people and we will see. Um, but I said the first thing we need with this we need a branded package. That's the first thing we need because it's candy, especially people with food they're very particular, they want to see right, so you got to think I'm in a restaurant game, so a lot of it's just presentation.

Speaker 1:

How many restaurants charging arm and leg and the food ain't even that good but it's the presentation or it's the service or something.

Speaker 1:

So what he did was he took me up on it. We came with some prototype bags and you'll see this man A lot of times. I call it like Jay's got this one line. He's like I got that shit on a rope, it's like a yo-yo. I sell it. I don't want to sell it back. So what I did was I, you know, every 49er, before every big game, a lot of times I go to 49 locker room, um, and I use it as my test market. And before, let's say, nfc championship, I got 200 hats laid out. So I know my hats are up up. That's a million dollar, baby. Now let me just throw some other stuff from the table. So I just one day, here we go, yeah, I got the hash laid out and they're like damn big zach, what's this? Oh, this is some candy. Let me know what y'all think.

Speaker 2:

I got the candy there. It's all psychology Right.

Speaker 1:

They take the candy before they take the hat. Oh wow, that's crazy People coming back. Big Zach, what's your Venmo? I'm going to send you some money for the candy I said you know, y'all know this.

Speaker 2:

I said leave you know and keep the stoic face like no, I don't know pressure that's, that's light and so when they hit me like man, I'm like man.

Speaker 1:

We got a winner, because I'm not even trying to sell it. I'm not even trying to sell it. I'm talking about, you know, trent debo wanting a case of candy. Right, I'll give you a thousand dollars, send me, send me a whole crate of candy all right now we got something. And then what I also saw about the candy is it's consumables, that that t-shirt. You know, if you're a fanatic you might have 20 t-shirts in your closet, but very few people are that type of shopper. But with a food item it's consumable.

Speaker 2:

You're going to have to buy more you don't have to buy a new t-shirt you don't have to buy a new hoodie.

Speaker 1:

You don't have to buy a new hat. Very seldom, chris, does it all the time of the same one.

Speaker 2:

That is true. He'll do it if he likes it.

Speaker 1:

That's it, if you don't want to be one. You like it. But let's be real. If that's a black hoodie or whatever, you could wear that three or four times and people wouldn't even know it's the same hoodie. We see it a lot with hats. People buy the black and white hat and I got the hat and I'm. But with food items, you're going to have to get another cup of coffee. You're going to have to get another.

Speaker 1:

That's very true, that's what I saw on the consumable side. What I also saw that they didn't know on the restaurant side is people now shopping with their wallet or eating with their wallet. So what I mean is they get that candy. Is it the healthiest thing? Is it a full meal? Of course not, but it's going to handle that hunger right. So a $3, $4 bag of candy is better than going to even McDonald's right now and spending $20. Is it a full meal? Of course not, but you know where we from.

Speaker 2:

Snacks, it gets me through. Project Babies gets us through.

Speaker 1:

It's something to hold me. And then the craving. And a lot of these athletes they have sugar cravings, they have those type of things. So that's what I was able to see, just from a branding standpoint. But yeah, now what happened? The problem is they ate it so fast. Man, zach, send some more. Well, espn caught people with a hat. Nobody, tom Brady didn't send me a picture. Espn caught Tom Brady. Espn caught Derek Carr. But if somebody eats a candy there's no footage of that. So I was like well damn, fred Warner, like I'm giving you the candy, like I, fred warner, like I'm giving you the candy, like I'm damn deep boat, like can you take a bite? I don't want to ask for a picture, but I'm sure yeah, come on man.

Speaker 1:

You ate two cases of candy yeah, at least get something right, but I didn't, couldn't get it, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So what we started to do and it's been done before, rap snacks and other people have done it we brand our product with, with the essentially the players logo. It's almost like a comic book type approach, where trent has his own logo or so-and-so would have their own design, and that design is on the actual packaging, right. You've seen dispensaries and people do it like that where they branded, right, but that's how we do it from a candy standpoint. So, whether you give me a shout out or not, hey, parker, you know your name, your logo is on here, so I don't care whether you post or not.

Speaker 1:

And you want to done it, you know, get, at least get it popping. Now everything has a different thing, right? So that's the thing people need to realize like it's the same intangibles, but it's still a little different flavor. So I was even me, I was, I was stuck man like damn, I'm gonna pull this off to your point. It's a very oversaturated market. I had one of my investors, you know. He came to me he's a local guy here and he said man, zach, I love you to death, but I don't know how you're going to do it. Like you know, I've seen you do water to wine, but I don't know how you're going to do this.

Speaker 2:

And he brought his baby to the office.

Speaker 1:

I said let got my check, I'm sold. I said now let him cry right now. That's to shut him up as a kid. But let him go and play AAU basketball. Let's have a daughter Now we fundraising. So I hit him with let's stop the tears as an infant. But then when he starts to play for Vegas Elite or other places, let's create a fundraising model. Like Girl Scout cookies, like Boy Scout the popcorn.

Speaker 1:

Let's make money off this right, because with my worm price it's positioned as a premium candy. So if you go online it's $9. And the reason why it's $9 is because I got to pay for shipping. When you charge customers for shipping, you kill conversion. But on the fundraising side, I can wholesale it to you for $2, $3, and you know you got $9, a wiggle room, as long as you don't go over my online price. So that's the fundraising model. So what we started to do with different entities. Right now we're in, I think, five Vegas schools, but it's that fundraising type model. Hey, I'm going to give you a box of candy for sixty dollars, but you know you can make three hundred dollars off.

Speaker 1:

This got cookies it's the same thing, but that was the kicker, and what I'm really trying to do is just once again strengthen numbers. Yeah, I went to university of florida 60 000 people at university of florida. I ain't seen 60 000 people since I left university of florida. Schools have a bunch of people, so even if you're not even making that much money on the margins on the candy- and the alma mater liberty's got 4 4,000 people.

Speaker 1:

Southwest got 2,500 people. You know, clark, you know they got how many kids are there that are seeing your candy? And eventually that fundraising box is going to run out. And then that's when they're going to say well, I want to order my own candy. I want to wait on little Becky to promote the candy, I want to buy my own. And then that's when you got to pay the toll.

Speaker 2:

I think I'm still like a fan of Cadbury, that same model, when I was a kid Cadbury the chocolate, the caramel, the fundraising model is what we did there.

Speaker 1:

So every entity has this different flavor, like, if you put me on the spot, the Cuban sandwiches. Okay, insert concept. Every flavor. Every concept has a different flavor, but it's the same intangibles of how to hustle and how to promote it to people, and you explain it so well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's the hard thing to do, man, to be able to explain it.

Speaker 1:

It's tough, man, but if I can't talk it, as an owner, then how the hell am I going to get you to buy into the customer? Yeah, that's real. It's tough, and if I don't believe it, you know if I wouldn't have my son fundraise this.

Speaker 2:

So one last question on the business side.

Speaker 1:

So because you're involved in so much stuff and I know you're going to keep it real, with everything.

Speaker 1:

What do you tell people that want to get into business for themselves right now whether it's small business or big business or scaling, whatever the situation is, because you're involved in so many different industries what do you tell that person that's listening, all right, so you, man, you have some good ones. I hate to be long. It's not a yes or no, and that's the thing people right, it's not a yes or no. So the first thing is I tell let's start from the beginning. I tell people to start, start young. So I knew I was this person at 17 years old. But my mom would say man, go get a job. I was the same person, probably younger. Why I say start early? At that age you ain't got no car insurance, you ain't got a mortgage.

Speaker 2:

You ain't got no kids.

Speaker 1:

You ain't got, even if it doesn't work. And I knew I wanted to hustle or be an entrepreneur before 17. But let's just say 17. Don't work. Okay, I do two years. I'm now 19. I'm not 45. I'm not 50.

Speaker 2:

You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

I don't have kids, a wife, a mortgage, a car note or, quite frankly, a lifestyle that I've been accustomed to, that I don't want to swallow my pride. Or my wife's been accustomed to Correct 100%.

Speaker 2:

Or kids or anybody.

Speaker 1:

So that's one Start early. If you feel it in your gut, your gut ain't going to change. It's the same, this itch that you can't scratch. That's one. Two find something that you love Now. So for me, I love the whole process. Like I'm a person who I used to change cleats at halftime. I play offensive line. I got a visor and gloves. I'm like you know, Dion, offensive line I love you know. I just I don't, I just love how I tackled you or how I did it. So I'm just a different animal where I just love the process and the grind. But some people are like, no, I only love, you know, Japanese restaurants. I went to Japan, I only want to do that. Oh, I only love tacos. Like, some people are very, almost case by case driven. They just love this entity and that's what they want to do, or that's something they always, you know, they went to comfort zone.

Speaker 1:

And they're so passionate about one particular thing they always wanted to open a winery. But if you tell them to open a liquor store, they don't know how to do it. So it's different. They wanted a winery, they didn't want a liquor store, right? So you have hustlers like that. Then you have certain people that are basically what I call buying a job. That's the franchise model. You buy a Subway. If you only have one Subway, you're pretty much buying a job and there's nothing wrong with that. But it's not a co-founder. There's different levels to hustle.

Speaker 1:

You got to ask yourself that as a business person before you get into this. Do I want, you know, do I want to be quincy jones or do I want to just be? You know, I got a couple different locations and there's nothing wrong with that. But am I buying a corporate job? You know I own one chick-fil-a. You're gonna make it the same thing you would make, kind of, in a corporate salary. And then the last thing is there has to be either you love the entity or you love the thing because it's going. It's going to try you so many different ways where you have to just be understand, that's correct.

Speaker 1:

When you go into this, like this is what I signed up for, like I tell people, it's what you pray for, like you know. So you can't pray for something you're like, well, damn, I damn god he knows gonna be. Like, well, this is what you asked for, so you got to come with it. So it's those things. Start early, then decide what do you want to be? I tell everybody five-year plan, work backwards, where do you want to be? And then now break that down even more. Is it just I'm passionate about this, or am I? You know the Jay-Z quote I'm a businessman. I'm not a businessman. Like, am I trying to own multiple entities or do I just want my little, one little thing?

Speaker 2:

So that would be my advice Do that first.

Speaker 1:

And then after that we off to the races, get some people to think, to really think, man. So when you're not eating at your restaurant, I want to know because?

Speaker 2:

you know good food man, Correct.

Speaker 1:

I always ask somebody about best restaurants in Vegas.

Speaker 2:

What's your favorite restaurant in?

Speaker 1:

Vegas.

Speaker 2:

So my favorite restaurant in Vegas man is actually just an old spot called Pierio's. And if I'm pronouncing it and I wouldn't know, Italian food is excellent.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so that's my spot, why I like it is intimate.

Speaker 2:

They have good service there too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they do. And I'm old school, like I totally I respect Yelp and obviously all our restaurants and platforms are on Yelp. But I'm big man, like if you be mad that day, I do. Like you know, I'm from Florida, so I love the Miami effect, the pull up you see the whip, the valet. I like it's a little dark, so if you in there, you know if you in there you're supposed to be in there ain't nobody going to know.

Speaker 2:

I just a lot you can share. My kids love PO.

Speaker 1:

You're always going to have a doggy bag and the service is on point man. And, like I said that garbage. Caesar salad I love, that's my go-to, and then obviously the veal parmesan.

Speaker 2:

That's what I'm saying. That's two in a row. I feel like that's a sign. Yeah, that's what. I'm saying I'm going there for got a great mind. Yeah, I mean from the business standpoint.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I feel like the only other thing I probably would recommend or just some different things are like tidbits or tips is, you know, I call entrepreneurship Jumanji. So anybody watches that favorite movie, the Robin Williams movie, jumanji, and that's basically what it is, man, so just knowing what you sign up for. So why I laugh or smiling is you know, jumanji? As soon as they beat the monkeys, here go the bees. As soon as they beat the bees, here go the snakes. As soon as they beat the snakes, here goes the floods always coming and that's and that's it.

Speaker 1:

And you have to stay even keel. You got to be stoic and you got to be prepared for it because as a leader, especially that co-founder level, you know if you don't believe, if you, you know if you, if you come up short, right, you, you're just, you never know who's looking man. So you just have to understand that. That's the level to it. But if you're dealing with that type of pressure, then that means you can handle it, or at least you've been chosen to do that. So that's kind of what I like. And then I think you know, you know we talked about offline, but, like you know, it's almost like these, these three different individuals kind of describe me, you know, versus the get rich or die, trying at that famous movie with 50 cent, like that's my mentality, right, like you know, like I'm whatever it takes to get through. And then the next person is Quincy Jones.

Speaker 1:

If it is different documentaries, I can watch, and it's important for people to have a mentor, even if you don't know this person. Have a road map of somebody to look at a mentor from the shy. I'm a big Jordan person, yeah Right, so you just have to. Even if you don't know these people personally, you have kind of a benchmark that you want to strive to. But Quincy Jones is another one man you know. Michael would still record music before Thriller, but Quincy took Thriller to the next level.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, and another person I really from a far look up to is Clarence Avant or Avant, but somebody who was just a connector.

Speaker 2:

He just passed away. Right, he did.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. And why I love him, his story or his mindset, is everything is not transactional, Like I'm going to be blessed regardless. Like people are like, damn, Zach, you get away with 300 free hats and I did, but that's why I'm on ESPN every day. So that's the thing, Everybody's tit for tat, or like they don't want to move unless they know you're going to move and this and that, and like it's too short sighted and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with always looking for an ROI, but I call it ROR return on relationship. So you know the stuff I got, money came by, you know I got people and stuff that right. And so that's the key part where it will be a transaction, it will be. You will. You will get an ROI. But if you go into it so short, short-sighted, where everything is tit for tat and I know that's tough for a lot of entrepreneurs in the beginning because funding is an issue, cash flow is an issue, so you're like, damn, this hat costs 15 dollars. Can I really send that tom brady?

Speaker 2:

is it really gonna get it?

Speaker 1:

you know what happens if you don't get it. Well, what happens if he does get it? So that's the thing, man, you're gonna to know that. So from the business side, that's what I want. I mean personal. We go a whole, nother show.

Speaker 2:

But that's part two. Part two, but from a personal standpoint. Yeah, from a business standpoint.

Speaker 1:

That's it. That's what's up.

Speaker 2:

Man, you got a great mind man Very business, yeah, great business, mind the only thing I would say from a personal standpoint, is so we say in business, the cost of doing business.

Speaker 1:

That's the business analogy. We say you know you pay for your tuition Like I didn't go to Wharton School of Business. I paid. Like you talk about Swiss paid. What do you pay for Harvard? Let me tell you what I paid. You know what's Harvard? 150? I don't even know what it is.

Speaker 2:

Let's just say, let's just say it's 150.

Speaker 1:

I know my son wants to go there. The school of hard knocks. I paid over $600,000 the last couple years just to get residency popping. So I've paid a hard of tuition. I don't have the degree on the wall or this and that, but we call it business, we pay for these losses. How did I meet my co-founder of residency? I met him at a store where my manager was stealing. How much did he steal that day? How much did that cost me because I couldn't go to my other store? Like quantify that. So that's the thing, like you pay for your tuition Overpay, a hundred percent Overpay.

Speaker 1:

And you're still paying. That's on the money side, on the business side, on the personal side, you know it's one of those things, boss, get paid less. You know that's just the money. And then the time away, time away from your family, maybe not having that they basis, especially in those early years. Now, if you know you 15, 20 years in the game. Some of these things is kind of level set, or at least you understand.

Speaker 2:

System, yeah, the system in place.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, at least you understand this is what I got to do. You become better kind of self-reflecting as to what to do, not to do. But in those early years, man, it's the total pay and a lot of people that go along the road with you said you want to get Richard out trying. I said I wanted the Mercedes to get my nails done, like I ain't signed up for. You know, I ain't that crazy.

Speaker 1:

I'm not really a co-founder, I'm just your wife or sister or mama right, they want the lifestyle of it, but when it really comes down to it, you know, I don't want to really have to sacrifice. This ain't what I signed up for, and so many entrepreneurs are constantly growing where that spouse or that partner or that mom or that child, you know, I met you on day one, you know, day 87. I don't know this person.

Speaker 2:

This ain't the person Right, right.

Speaker 1:

And it's not their fault, because they don't have the pressures to make them grow.

Speaker 2:

you 100%.

Speaker 1:

So that's the, that's the personal side. Just understand those are some hard conversations. That's the reality of it, man.

Speaker 2:

You real with it? Yeah, that's the reality.

Speaker 1:

Man keep doing what you're doing.

Speaker 2:

We want to support everything you do, man. What's the social handles people can reach out.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, obviously, king Size is my personal Instagram and King Size even my last name is King, but all I'm trying to do is just uplift, like that, zero to hero. Like you come in small, but I'm just trying to maximize you. I, with the three, obviously for the hats I'll send a link All the restaurants I'd be here all day, but yeah, that's them. And then obviously, worms is, you know, my candy company, w-w-o-o-r-m-z. So that's it on that side and, like I said, I appreciate what y'all are doing. Thank you, man. Obviously, vegas, you know, putting on for the city, spotlighting people of social media now is a facade and if you fall into that trap you really won't get the nitty gritty of what it takes. And I like how y'all are showing both sides of it and, quite frankly, different scales. You know, everybody don't own a casino, everybody don't own, you know, whatever it's, different levels of it and I think that's the thing.

Speaker 1:

when you ask me about what advice, not his Spanish?

Speaker 2:

He said yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo yo yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo yo yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo want to sell three hats a day.

Speaker 1:

You didn't get it. You're crazy. No shit, yeah, because you got to be a little crazy to have that type of vision. So that's the thing. People are so embarrassed Like damn somebody going to see me set peddling. All right, they see it now. And I had the same thing. Well, my mama thought I was crazy, but when Derek Carr put that hat on mama's baby, when I you know what, I'm saying Like, come on, mama, be real, I love you to death, mama but let's call a spade a spade.

Speaker 1:

Like you know, you weren't this supportive, you know, on day one, but anyway it's. You really just have that undeniable faith. You feel very good at betting on yourself. You have to dog. That's things that you're going because you just keep going, because that's all you can control, because, think about it, if you, you, you know what you're going to do to you, you know you can control that variable right, and it's not to say it's easy, but you, you know you can control that. And another thing too, and I'll leave you out with this, is the infant stage of a business, and I call it like a baby right at the beginning of a. If you have a child, you're obviously a father. You're not going to leave your six-month-old son with somebody who you don't know. It's like an infancy.

Speaker 2:

I still don't do it now. You got to nurture, right, but when you get 26, all right bro. Yeah, it's different, I'm on now that's different.

Speaker 1:

It's different. So it's the same thing in the business. It's an infancy, we're calling the baby, we the baby, but that's how we get it, that's how that foundation is so solid so we can scale, and it's the same thing in a business, and people just have to understand that. So, anyway, I'll leave you all with that man.

Speaker 2:

Check us out at thevegaslarkcom. Man, that was powerful man. I appreciate y'all man.