Founders Under Pressure PART #1: Success, Side Hustles & Scarcity Mindset: Kenneth Alexander on the Real Entrepreneur Journey

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Four businesses. Two still active. One award-winning restaurant closed at its peak. And a debate about whether competition is even real that ends with 300 million sperm cells.

In this episode of the Untraditional Entrepreneur Podcast, host Juming Delmas sits down with Kenneth Alexander — author, speaker, serial entrepreneur, and retired corporate executive — for one of the most honest and contentious business conversations the show has ever had.

Kenneth has run a salon, a food truck, an award-winning barbecue restaurant, and a national hair care brand. He closed his restaurant when it was winning awards. He walked away from a hair care brand he tried to turn around for five years. He says success is personal. Juming pushes back on every single definition.

Topics covered:
- Why Kenneth closed an award-winning restaurant at its peak — and whether that was the right call
- The scarcity mindset vs. abundance mindset debate in entrepreneurship
- Whether competition is taught or wired into our DNA (featuring the most unexpected argument in podcast history)
- Why redefining success can be growth — or an excuse to quit
- The real reason hair care brands fail to scale against larger competitors
- Why posting on social media is not the same as marketing
- What Kenneth would do differently if he started over
- The importance of owning full control of your business
- His new book: The Successful Man — A New Vision of Masculinity

Raw. Funny. Genuinely unresolved. That's the un-traditional way.

The Un-Traditional Entrepreneur Podcast with Juming Delmas. Real talk. No filter.

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:03

If you got a restaurant business that's winning awards and getting shit and getting things together, why would you close that business if it's thriving and does not have workers work the business and then you open up another business? I don't understand why the hell would you do that?

SPEAKER_01 0:17

That don't make sense to me. So the original goal was to help my son get out of his funk and to start a family business for the young people in my family. To me, that is success. I built an organization that could train young people and they give them a jump, a head start so they could go off and live the life that they want to live. I already have money.

SPEAKER_04 0:48

How much money you got?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Enough. Enough that I don't really have to work again. I've got money. Are you retired? I am retired. You ain't taking my shit no more. What you gave me was a sperm excursion. And you gave me musical chairs.

SPEAKER_06 1:05

And you gave me damn musical chairs. What are you talking about? I didn't choose the business that I connect with the most. I'm gonna get choose the business that I said. You are automatically in your DNA wired to compete against 300 other million sperm cells to get to one A. You've all you are already competing now. Already 85 years ago. Am I just off man?

SPEAKER_05 1:42

You had enough of this podcast yet?

SPEAKER_01 1:45

No, we can keep going, bro.

SPEAKER_06 1:57

Welcome to the other side of motivation. All right, we're gonna get started. What's going on, world? Hey everybody, and welcome to the untraditional entrepreneur podcast. I'm your host, Jameen Delmus, Kenneth, Kenneth, Kenneth, Kenneth, welcome to the show, man. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Thanks, Jameen. I appreciate it. Glad to be on uh the untraditional entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_06 2:31

Are you an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Man, hey, I, you know, you heard that old term about, you know, uh uh how many jobs, you know, Jamaicans and how many jobs they had. Man, I've I've had at least four uh four businesses, uh, along with working in corporate America at the same time. So I've always had a side gig. Always.

SPEAKER_06 2:56

You have four businesses?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

I've had four businesses right now.

SPEAKER_06 3:00

And past tense. So how many you got now?

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Um I would say I have two right now. I've got I still do, I still do uh catering and have a barbecue food truck, and now I'm author, speaker, uh shit, and writer.

SPEAKER_06 3:23

I got a saying about authors and speakers, man. I don't know if you've seen my previous podcast on authors and speakers. And everybody's an author, speaker, writer. You know what I'm saying? I ain't gonna lie, everybody doing that. But you know, like some some of the most famous people never wrote a book. Never wrote a book a day in their life. And some of the most successful ones they went to. There is that too. True that. That is true. It does. So, real quick, you say you have four businesses. What were the other two businesses that you had?

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Okay, so my we started, my my wife and I, and my sister-in-law, who was a stylist, she started a salon back in '87. We had that, we sold it in 2020. At the same time, doing that, and that's I was working the whole time. Uh at the same time, man, I had some like bailed ventures. And uh then I've had another business where I opened a restaurant, award-winning restaurant, won a bunch of awards in southern Arizona. It's a bar.

SPEAKER_06 4:27

But then it closed.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

I I closed it. Um I closed it on purpose. I closed it on purpose because I was ready to do something else.

SPEAKER_06 4:36

I had it, I I uh Why not leave it open and still do something else?

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Because there's only so much time in a day, and restaurant is a full-time gig.

SPEAKER_06 4:49

You don't gotta work it though. You ain't gotta work it. If you got if you got if you got a restaurant business that's winning awards and getting shit and getting things together, why would you close that business if it's thriving and just not have workers work the business and then you open up another business and let that thrive and make the bread.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

You gotta have the right workers and the right managers and that kind of stuff. So I made the judgment is one is I still have the brand. It was a family business, and my son and my son-in-law worked there, and they both went off to get better jobs after that. Actually, I didn't let them take over the business. I still wanted the brand. Uh, there's still other stuff to do with the brand. We got a barbecue sauce that's just sitting there waiting for me to market. So the brand is still there. The restaurant is not because what does it mean the brand is still there?

SPEAKER_06 5:42

Does it mean the business is still live or it's just an inactive direction? So it's not inactive direct. I don't understand why the hell would you do that? That don't make sense to me. Was the business making money? Was it making bread? It it was It wasn't making no money. It was breaking even. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

But I mean, it did what but the thing about it is, I mean, it's just for how you define success, man. And that restaurant, the reason I opened the restaurant was because when I retired from the corporate gig, I didn't have to work anymore. I didn't do anything. That was I was 55 years old. I didn't have to do anything else. But, you know, I had a son that was struggling. I had a nephew. So anyway, I decided to open a family business. And so I opened a family business. We started with a food truck, uh, which started on a journey across the country to pick it up with my son and I, whose relationship was kind of in a toilet. Uh, and then so we opened up this business. We did the food truck for a couple years, built up a brand.

SPEAKER_06 6:49

Is this the same business that's club that you guys let go and closed down? That was winning awards.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

I didn't let it go. So anyway.

SPEAKER_05 6:57

My bad.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

It's okay. So anyway, so then after a couple years, we did about all we could do with a food truck. So we opened up a restaurant. And then from the restaurant there, that's you know, after the first year, we started winning the Arizona Daily Star Reader's Choice Award for Best Barbecue in Southern Arizona. We were runner up, and then we did it five years in a row. As a matter of fact, the year the I decided to close a restaurant was this we we won it again. And I didn't want to do or go through that cycle again. You know, I mean, the thing is, it's just the business. I mean, and and it didn't, uh it did everything it was one, it did everything I wanted it.

SPEAKER_06 7:41

But you would be, but but to be fair, you be you you would say honestly, accolades and highlights don't mean success, then. That's what it sounds like. Because you can get people can win all the awards in the world, but that doesn't mean they making bread and they, you know, they're making money.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

And then like See, that's that's what I wrote about. So everybody's model of success should be their own. Just because somebody told you that you gotta go out, make a lot of money, and uh buy a big car, house, and all that kind of stuff, or whatever, and and that is the model of success. I mean, look at all the people out there with a lot of money, big houses, restaurants, or whatever, and killing themselves. That was not my model of success. The reason I opened a restaurant had to do with my family. And when I look it back at the value I got from being there, working with my son, my wife, my daughter. I mean, what does success look like for that though?

SPEAKER_06 8:43

And what when you started it, what does success look like though? When you say I'm gonna start this business, what did success? I know you came in, like, what was success gonna look like? You ain't come in there thinking I'm about to make some bread and at least create like a financial stability for them. Like, what was it to say we ran it and then we close it? What is that?

SPEAKER_01 9:00

So the original goal was to help my son get out of his funk and to start a family business for the young people in my family. That is the original goal of it, and to help and model um how to be successful. That was my goal. And and all the So you would agree that it failed then?

SPEAKER_06 9:25

So it didn't, so that so it wasn't successful. I wouldn't. Would you say that it failed?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

I didn't say it failed, you did.

SPEAKER_06 9:31

I'm asking questions. I didn't say shit. I said I'm asking questions.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

You didn't say that it failed. I said it was successful. It did everything I wanted to. And I tell people all the time. The the restaurant, and even to this day, we're still doing catering. And uh, as a matter of fact, got a catering gig tomorrow. But uh it's it's successful. It was successful. It made enough money, did it make me rich, but that wasn't the model of six. I already have money.

SPEAKER_04 10:01

So how much money you got?

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Uh enough. Enough that I don't really have to work again. I've got money. Are you retired? I am retired.

SPEAKER_06 10:13

So you get a retirement check too?

SPEAKER_01 10:15

No, I got all my retirement. I haven't invested. So, right. So I have, so the restaurant, like I said before, was successful. I could put the little quote table. So then it is successful.

SPEAKER_06 10:33

But the but the goal of the business for the restaurant originally was for the family, correct? It was to stick to get your son out of a funk and create a business legacy for other generations to have more than that.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

No, that wasn't it.

SPEAKER_06 10:51

I thought that was it.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

It wasn't to create a business legacy, it was to help, and it was to help the young people in my family to figure out how to be successful or live a life that is for them.

SPEAKER_06 11:13

So they have to do that.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

And when I look at the when I look at the young people that came to my restaurant and look at what they're doing today that they that I doubt they would have been able to do, like going through college while they work for me, and just where they were when they started, to me, that is success. I I built an organization that could train young people and they give them a jump, a head start, so they could go off and live the life that they want to live.

SPEAKER_06 11:47

But we shouldn't have to be able to do that. But you should have still kept it open.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

No, I shouldn't have. Why? It is open.

SPEAKER_06 11:54

It's open in the opening. There's a difference. It's active. It ain't open. It's active.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Yeah. It's open. I mean, it's doing what I want it to do. I have an income producing food truck sitting right outside my.

SPEAKER_06 12:15

So then it's not closed. You said you have two businesses.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

I said the restaurant is closed. So then technically.

SPEAKER_06 12:29

So I'm so okay. Then help me understand because I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

As a matter of fact, the margins on the business today are a lot higher than they were when there was a restaurant.

SPEAKER_06 12:41

Well, yeah, because you don't got an overhead cost of uh you don't got overhead costs of a rent and likes and shit. You just got to trade. Yeah, yeah, that's common. Yeah, common sense. You can you saving it.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

So I closed the restaurant. I didn't close the business, and right now I can do the business when I want to do the business. And as I get gigs and I and I have a certain business model that I only do prepaid events. So, folks, they have to pay up front, and if I bring the food truck, they have to pay for uh just for the truck to be there. They pay for the food, and they pay on top of that the truck to be there so I can provide the fantastic professional service that we provide.

SPEAKER_06 13:24

Help me understand something, because I'm still a little confused. So you got four businesses. You said two of them closed. Had four. So the two that you're talking about is the food truck that's active, and then what's the other one that's still active?

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Well, I well, it's the food truck. I have the city.

SPEAKER_06 13:44

So what are the two businesses that what are the two businesses that closed?

SPEAKER_01 13:49

I so we sold the salon in 2015. The salon. We sold the salon, and then there was a there is a national hair care brand called Hair Rules. And so where we were selling the product over uh Hair Rules. Hair Rules. You can look it up on the internet, hairrules.com.

SPEAKER_06 14:15

Y'all, so so that business is closed now.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

We we decided to stop the hair care portion and sell it.

unknown 14:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Yeah. That business is closed. And uh that's a business.

SPEAKER_06 14:30

So why you still got the website? You just told me to look it up on haircare.com.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

No, I said hairrules.com.

SPEAKER_06 14:38

Hairules.com.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

We still have the website because it's in the process. We already stopped operation. We're in the process of switching over because it was too viable. It was too, it was there. Was two businesses. One is a salon in New York, and the other one is a hair care product brand. We're still keeping the salon open, and but we're closing the uh the brand. I say the brand, we're we're closing selling products.

SPEAKER_06 15:09

So tell me what does it mean to close a business for you? Because it sounds like you still got some shit open. You sound like there's some shit active, there's some shit up. When I think close, I'm thinking everything coming down. We done with the socials, we done with the website, doors are closed, this business no longer exists. Your clothes seem like it's kind of like halfway in, halfway out, one foot in, one foot out. No, like business still there, but it ain't really there. Like, I don't know. What is what does closing mean for you? Like to do that.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Closing means to me that we take, so we took one part of the business and we're closing that part of business selling the hair care products that is closed. We're and that's closed. So the website is not taken down yet. It's in the process of we're taking down the taking down that. Now, there was another portion of that business that's still open.

SPEAKER_06 16:06

My hand is raised. I'm I I'm like a you're like a professor in class. Why not sell the business?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

It I I tried to sell a business a few times. It wasn't, it wasn't, it nobody, they didn't, it was nobody wanted.

SPEAKER_06 16:23

Nobody didn't want it. Nobody wanted. Why? Was it not profiting? Why would I not the only way somebody wants to have to be able to do it?

SPEAKER_01 16:31

It wasn't it wasn't prof itable. It became profitable in the last couple of years, but it wasn't somebody was like, really? Not to a point where somebody wanted to buy it. So long you got three times. So I don't I only I bought I took control of the business in like 2019. And I it I didn't start it. The business had been around for quite some time. And I took control of it at that time.

SPEAKER_06 17:00

And then You bought it? Did you buy it at the time?

SPEAKER_01 17:03

I had the controlling interest.

SPEAKER_06 17:05

I don't know what that means. That didn't answer my question. You didn't buy it.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

I invested in the business and ended up with the control and interest and ran it. That's what it means.

SPEAKER_06 17:13

I didn't buy it. So I bought it. So how does that work? You bought into the business. Right. Like how much money you put into it, would you say?

SPEAKER_01 17:22

A lot.

SPEAKER_06 17:24

Like six, seven figures?

SPEAKER_01 17:26

No, no, no, no, no. It was it was not making that kind of money.

SPEAKER_06 17:30

Yeah, five figures. Okay, so uh you got the business, you invested into it. So there was an owner prior to you owning the business. Right. I don't even know how that.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

That owner's still in the business.

SPEAKER_06 17:42

Is oh he's still in that business?

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Well, I'm saying we were all in the business up until the end, and and yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:48

But you only had it for a year, because you said closed in 2020. No, I didn't say that.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Yeah, the business I I said I had controlling interest. The bitches. I was involved in the business earlier than that. I came in to help them out, but I didn't invest a bunch of money in it. I was just came in.

SPEAKER_06 18:06

But the business, but the business closed in 2020.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

No, the business closed last year.

SPEAKER_06 18:11

Oh, last year, 2024. Right, right. 2025, sorry. Yeah, that's right. We are 2026. Damn. Okay. So then you got the business in 2000. You acquired the business in 2019. The business was already rocking and rolling before you got it.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Oh, yeah. The business was not making money. I was there to try and turn it around. And you didn't turn it around. And then made money in the last two years, but not enough to sell it.

SPEAKER_06 18:35

Why didn't you make enough? Why didn't you turn it around like they hoped you would? What was so hard about that business that you couldn't make money in?

SPEAKER_01 18:45

It's a lot of reasons, but I didn't have the capital to do the marketing and everything I needed to do. Could compete with the other uh yeah, it's competitive, it's a competitive market.

SPEAKER_06 18:55

And it's so crazy because beauty sells.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Yeah. But there's a lot of especially in black culture. I hear you, bro.

SPEAKER_06 19:05

I hear you, but you know, you couldn't keep up with the times, basically.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

It's it like I said, it's a competitive market, and you look out of some of those brands, and especially some of those brands where the big guys were buying them. Uh, you know, the big uh beauty companies were buying brands, and yeah, it's it's hard to compete out there in that. So um, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:33

So that's so in that business, you would say you failed in that business.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Uh you know what? I would say, yeah, we didn't, we didn't, we did not make money in that business. That's what I would say.

SPEAKER_06 19:44

I wouldn't say that's nothing wrong with failing. I what's wrong with failing? I mean I said people sell all the time.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

I I would say why why I didn't make the money I wanted to do in the last couple years, even though we did make a profit in the last couple years.

SPEAKER_06 19:58

Why my question is if you knew the market demand was tough, why would you not understand the market to try to grow? I mean, what were you doing to try to grow that shit? Like, what were you trying to do? Were you trying to do anything to try to grow it? Like, I mean, I mean, I obviously you're trying things, but when you got to a stopping point, you was like, you know, fuck this, I can't do it. Like, you knew you couldn't compete. Because there's people out there that's like that now. There's business owners out there like that now who are thinking, like, damn, I can't keep up with the market.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Like, everybody, you invest. Everybody has their, I've had enough. Okay. I've had enough. And then and everybody's just different.

SPEAKER_05 20:37

You had enough of this podcast?

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Until the time I decided to wind down. What was your question?

SPEAKER_05 20:43

You had enough of this podcast yet?

SPEAKER_01 20:45

No, we can keep going, bro. Yeah. I mean, hey, I I hear you. I mean, this is the untraditional entrepreneur, so and you come it out with some untraditional, you know, you know, your your view of success is pretty limited to me.

SPEAKER_06 21:04

I no. Well, I ain't I ain't even give you my view of success.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Well, it's it's it's in the it's in the questions or whatever you ask. I mean, or the assumptions that you make.

SPEAKER_06 21:18

Assumptions. I'm only asking questions. I gotta ask questions and then I can make an ass, I can make an assessment based off of the responses that I hear from you. That's all I can do. I haven't even given my definition of success. So I'm just trying to figure out when I hear entrepreneurs talking to me, like what is success for them, failure, things like that. That's kind of what I'm trying to get at. I would love to tell you my definition of success, but I want to hear what you're talking about first. I'm asking questions because I'm trying to understand. Because if I don't understand some shit, I ain't gonna sit there and pretend like I do. If I don't understand, Kenneth, Kenneth, Kenneth, Lindsay, I'm not gonna act like I understand. Because I've never opened a storefront business, right? Never did it. Didn't see the I don't believe in wasting motherfucking rent on business. If I'm gonna get a building, I'm looking to buy that building and things of that nature. So for me, I would never understand that. So you agree that the salon failed?

SPEAKER_01 22:11

No, I don't agree the salon failed. You mean the salon failed? What salon? Well, not the salon, the hair.

SPEAKER_06 22:19

The hair thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

So the hair. I've had more than one hair thing. I had a business from 86 to 2020.

SPEAKER_06 22:25

The one we were just talking about, the one we just got acquired in 2019 to 2024.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

I would agree that, yeah, that it never, I never, I never turned the business around where it could be a viable business. Even though I made a profit in the last uh couple of years. Like how I I couldn't turn it around. I couldn't make it a viable business. I didn't have one is I I wasn't willing to invest any more money in it. And you didn't have passion for it? It was too competitive. And I couldn't compete with the big boys, the big, the big women out there that were in the hair care business, and I didn't choose to. I, you know, I I decided that I would spend my time doing something else.

SPEAKER_06 23:12

So you wouldn't give it, so there's nothing you could say to us about, for example, like if you could do it differently to grow it, because I know it's still kind of fresh that it closed. What would like I'm very curious on what things you did differently than the previous owner that you brought a little bit of money, which we don't have percentage on that yet.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

I analyze what would have made the business viable. And what it would have been is one of the things we were trying to do is we were trying to the product line was too big. We had too many uh products or too many SKUs in the product line, and where we had like really three and four really viable products. Uh, and that was a conditioner, it was one shampoo as well. And so what should have happened, instead of trying to expand the product line, we should have cut it down and been smaller and been more focused. And that is what would have really it would have really cut the cost, and that would have made us a viable business. But that's water under the bridge.

SPEAKER_06 24:30

It ain't water under the bridge. I mean, it's this is still relevant. Well, because there's somebody going through that shit right now. My question is then, in this situation, that was it. My question was.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

We're trying to like Yeah, the thing is that what happened was we're out there looking at all these other brands, the big, bigger brands, and they have uh, you know, they have styling products, they have conditioner, they have shampoos, they have all these. And so we're saying, oh yeah, if we're gonna make it, we need to have all that stuff when we should have been contracting instead of expanding. And if we had to contract it and focused on those products that our clientele really loved and in the sizes that they really wanted, then in my view, that was the mistake that we made. And that's why.

SPEAKER_06 25:23

Did you find that out after the business? After you closed the business, or before you're not?

SPEAKER_01 25:26

No, no, no, no, no. I found it out, I I figured it out in the last couple of years, but by then it was too late. You know, I mean, it's too late. The money that it would have taken to do that, I was not willing to invest. It's still.

SPEAKER_06 25:41

How much would you say it was gonna take to do that?

SPEAKER_01 25:42

And I was risk averse at that point.

SPEAKER_06 25:44

And I much money would you say it would have taken to do something like to make to turn that company around?

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Maybe about five million dollars. Five million dollars? Come on, man. Why do you say that?

SPEAKER_06 25:59

Come on, it ain't gonna take no five million dollars to turn that company. I mean, five million dollars to turn any company around.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:08

I mean, how much realistically would it have cost to turn that company around?

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Brands that you're out there going up against, and then to buy the kinds of product that you need, and I mean it's so much involved. I mean, I it's it's you know, it's it's a lot more involved than you think it is that you just I mean I know it's a lot.

SPEAKER_06 26:28

I mean, I could I'm not passionate.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

I was when I gave you the question. I gave you the answer.

SPEAKER_06 26:32

You gave me the answer. My yeah, no, I'm I'm I'm I'm I don't know nothing about the brand. Only thing I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

You asked me a question, and that's right. It sounds like you don't know much about the industry.

SPEAKER_06 26:45

The hair, I don't I don't know nothing about the hair industry, I just know about entrepreneurship. What I am and there's still the same concept in business, though. You still gotta one understand the uh the the market. You gotta also understand, you know, your competitors. So my biggest question then is what was your competitors doing differently that you were not doing? I know you talked about products, but products, people don't buy products, and you know that in business, people don't buy products or services, they buy the brand.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

One is that they had the money to do everything that I needed to do. I mean, and and that is all the social media, all the uh the videos, the content, and all that kind of thing. That those are the things that they were doing that I couldn't do at that point, or I wasn't willing to do at that point.

SPEAKER_06 27:37

And I'm gonna be honest, man, because you just said something. I'm doing a solo pod on this, so you I'm just gonna kind of leak a little bit about. I think a black man's kryptonite is money in business. I think in business and in personal life. I think we sometimes just don't find, I ain't gonna say we, because I ain't like everybody else. I ain't I wouldn't consider myself like most black dudes, but black dudes in business and just in general, they all like money is always like the kryptonite. It's like it's like if I'm not making, it almost feels like if I ain't making money, I ain't about to spend it to make more, not knowing that it costs more money to run a business. I mean, that's just you know, I'm alright with putting dollars behind shit. I'm alright with capping on where I'm at to get what I want. And I think that most black men in business and in personal life look at money as I think they're scary. I think black men are scary when it comes to money. I think they're scared to spend.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Well, I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 28:35

Don't give a fuck. They are. And I think that sounds like this was a scary move. Now I can be wrong. I'm just listening. I'm wrong. I'm just listening. It seems like you guys didn't go out there and say, how else can we get the money to make this work?

SPEAKER_01 28:51

You're just making that assumption, man. You don't have no idea. I just said that. That I just said that. I did go out and try to get the money. But kind of things I was doing. But I wasn't willing to invest my money anymore in the business. And so you come up with, you know, risk. You know, I've already assessed what it would take for the business to be viable. I do. But at this point in my life, I'm not willing to do that.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

I have other stuff I want to do.

SPEAKER_06 29:23

But that's a business. That that I don't I don't I would never understand that. Business is you can't abandon a baby like that. You can't be like, I don't want to take any baby no more. No, you can't.

unknown 29:32

Yeah, it ain't a baby.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

I mean, I I I know that, you know, I create a corporation, LLC, whatever, and you know, the way the government sees it, it is a person or whatever, but it ain't a person. It's just a business.

SPEAKER_06 29:46

You know it's crazy because the only thing that can stay an infant is a baby. You can have a business, I mean, it's a business. Sorry. And the only thing that can stay it that can stay an infant is a business. You can have a business for 15 years and it's still be in its infancy stages. It could be, you're right. And that and that's because people choose not to grow that business the way it needs to grow. So it stays in infancy stages because nobody takes it to the next level. So the only the only thing that could stay an infant is business. And that's because not the business, the person behind the business that keeps it in infancy. Because people can tell me they've been in business 15 years. That shit don't mean nothing to me if the business hasn't grown, if it hasn't done nothing, if it ain't doing nothing. So when I ask, you know, what are you doing differently that the competitors aren't doing, and you like I you just wasn't willing to invest the time and the money, I'm trying to get behind the mindset because it just seems like to me the towel is just like fucking I'm throwing this towel in, I ain't in it. I ain't in it.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Yeah, I think I told you though that You did. I told you about the social media, the video, the marketing. Those are the things that they were doing. I mean, because you know, the best mouse trap doesn't always win.

SPEAKER_06 30:58

But every business has to have that though. Not just salon, every business has to have marketing. I mean, I don't that part, that that's that's the part that threw me. That's another black man cryptonite.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

We had marketing. You had marketing. We spent a lot of money on marketing. On what? On the same things that I'm talking to you about. On social media, developing, yeah, on our.

SPEAKER_06 31:21

So you were meeting with the brand. So you was doing the same thing your competitors was doing.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

Yeah, we were doing the same thing our competitor was doing.

SPEAKER_06 31:28

So why close the business? If you're saying that the reason that you closed the business is because you weren't willing to invest that kind of time that they were doing the business.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Because we weren't making attraction. We weren't making attraction. And it's like, why spend money if it's not successful?

SPEAKER_06 31:43

I'm gonna tell you why. Because y'all was just posting, that's why. There's a difference between marketing and posting. Posting on social media isn't marketing, that's posting on social media.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

You're making another assumption.

SPEAKER_06 31:56

Well, you I'm only going, you told me y'all was posting on social media, you was doing what they was doing. So you and you mentioned an example.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

I said we were marketing, but I mean that's all well and good, man. That's good, that's good. But the the fact is that that business is is I wasn't willing to do it anymore. That's it. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_06 32:16

I think uh, yeah, I mean, I can get behind that. And there's I think that even for me, for my company, I don't like, I wouldn't, I didn't, I wouldn't say I threw in the towel. I just realized we were failing at something. And so what I did, we just pivoted. Like, this shit ain't working. How can we pivot to make this work? So now we went because even us, we went through reiterations of our company. Now we're growing. Now we're like, okay, back. We've been growing for the last two years now. Now I'm like, all right, here's what we gotta do. And I think that oftentimes, and not say, and I'll uh like I always say this there is nothing wrong with failing because we failed. We just didn't close. But we failed at a lot of shit that we did. And now with the way the world is moving, you have to, I feel like you have to think outside of the box for your clientele. Like, what are you doing differently than? Because it there's a lot of you know, I'm pretty sure I don't know where you at. I know you're on another side of the country, but I'm certain that you have a strip, a main road somewhere where there's multiple car lots standing right next to each other. BMW, you got Benz, you got Toyota, you got Lexi or uh G, whatever the case is, all these different brands, car brands, literally are next door to each other. But it's all about they all are figuring out ways how to beat the next person. And I think in business, this is why I always say it's always a constant fight. You're always fighting and competing. People don't understand. Listen, business beef is real.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Yeah, man, you know what? I business beef is real. I you I hear you, but I don't I don't really agree. But you don't agree with me. So I don't agree with the whole competition, the whole business. You know, the thing about it is, I mean, when I look at my restaurant, and I think the restaurant was successful, but the thing about it is, if people want your stuff, they're gonna come and get your stuff. I mean, you could be, you could have two restaurants side by side, and there's enough. Like in this town, there's enough restaurants. There's you see restaurant row and they can all be full. But why would people want your stuff? Somebody prefers one over the other. I mean, you can't they because they like what you do and they don't like what the other person does, but that doesn't stop you just because what I mean, that's the whole scarcity thing, man. I mean, so what don't you agree with then?

SPEAKER_06 34:42

Because that's what I'm saying. What don't you agree with? Because that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

But you're saying that it's a fight, it's a dog fight, and whatever. What's not a fight?

SPEAKER_06 34:51

And business is not a fight. I'm not fighting against another restaurant. Why? It's that's that's what you do. It's called competition. It's a constant fight. And then you're you're you're fighting, you know what you're fighting.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

That's the that's the thing, man. It doesn't matter. You know what you're fighting for?

SPEAKER_06 35:05

You're fighting for, yes, it does. It's you're fighting for you're fighting for attention because people bring business. People bring you business, and you're fighting for a competition. You're fighting for attention from somebody else who's doing the same line of business you're doing. Only time you're not really competing is if you've created a remarkable thing that nobody else is doing.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Look, you can have two barbecue cunt cunt uh right down the street from each other. And if one's doing something, the thing about it, bruh, is if you can put you in the business, and that's what I advise entrepreneurs to do, just like in my town, in my town. So, a friend of mine had a barbecue business, they were on the other side of town. They were both from Louisiana and Florida. And, you know, I'm winning, you know, I have a lot of people coming to my restaurant, they love it, whatever, and they're as they're struggling. I say, look, bruh, you know, you guys, before you started a restaurant, you guys were doing gumbo and doing um Louisiana type cuisines. Why don't you go back to doing that, having that, put you in the business and stop trying to be like everybody else? And once they did that, then they started getting customers. You know, then they turned it around. Then they turned it around because they were trying to do the same thing everybody else was doing. They didn't put themselves into the business.

SPEAKER_06 36:30

That's still competition. Because they stopped doing what other people were doing because that's the compet competition, right? So you're saying it's not competition. You're saying that business, there is no competition in business. I want to make sure I'm clearly understanding.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Yeah, people believe that they're out there competing against other business, but really I say what you're doing is it's yourself. Because if you have something out there that is unique to you and your style is unique, people are gonna come. Regardless of whether you're sitting by another one or not. No, they're not. No, they're not. Because the thing is, you're not competing. So if I got the word out, so all things being equal, we both have social media. We both get our word out. We're doing all that kind of stuff. The people that want to come in and get my style are gonna come and get my style. The people that are gonna get their style, because that's what they like.

SPEAKER_06 37:27

No, it's because you this why is it why is it that's why is it that's what they like? Because that's such a broad response. Why is it that's what they like versus the other competition?

SPEAKER_01 37:38

They like the way this guy prepares the food, they like the taste of that food because and and and they don't like the other.

SPEAKER_06 37:46

So they're going to what hold on. So unless you guys are cooking the same type of food using the same type of ingredients, that would only make sense. But we know that if you making mac and cheese. Go ahead. But no, no. If you making mac and cheese at your company and I'm making mac and cheese at your company, we both making mac and cheese. So they choosing your company because you make better mac and cheese. Bet. But what if I make better collard greens than you? And better. What if I make what what if I make better collard greens than you, you make better, and you make better mac and cheese than me. Who they gonna go to? It's impossible, either one, mac and cheese or actually it can't, because everybody knows everybody can make no down collard greens, and nobody, everybody can't make no mac and cheese. I had watered mac and cheese before, man.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

But you know what? The thing is, man, just because I make, I think it's a great mac and cheese, there's some people that won't sell the mac and cheese.

SPEAKER_06 38:40

Here's here's what I'll say.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

People might want the craft or whatever. I was just saying.

SPEAKER_06 38:44

But here's what I'll say. If you make better mac and cheese than me and I made better collie greens than you, and I got a customer say, damn, this person made better colly greens, but this person, I'm gonna choose the person that I I'm gonna choose the business that I connect with the most. I'm gonna get choose the business that I'm saying. I connect the competition. That's still, but that's still competition. They people buy based off of how they feel. So if you are competing with another business and you make a client or a customer feel a certain type of way, they're gonna go to your business and deal with your badass collard greens versus the competitors because they like the way you make them feel. It's still competition. You still have to make them feel a certain type of way. It don't matter if the food is good or not that good or whatever case, it's still competition. You cannot go into business. If competitions was not a thing, we would not have competitive analysis, we would not have SWOT analysis. If that shit didn't work, just throw it all away. Because then that means it's no longer needed if competition was not important in business. I can't agree with that. If if if Apple is constantly competing with other brands, Microsoft, that Facebook is constantly competing, everybody's constantly competing, and now AI is integrated, so now everybody is not only competing with each other, now they're competing with AI, and then they have to integrate AI into their business to keep up with competition with other businesses. I cannot say that this is incorrect. I can say that if competition was not a thing, why has it not gone away in business?

SPEAKER_01 40:20

In the business world, because it's so brain in our culture, man. We're taught to compete right from little kids. Everything is a competition, everything is a competition. Everything is a competition from the time you're born and and you little baby, you competing for.

SPEAKER_06 40:38

So now you're agreeing with my point.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

I I'm saying that because we're taught to compete, that's why it is. That's why it is. But you are agreeing with my point. I'm not making your point. I'm saying just because I'm not making your point. I'm saying that we're taught from an early age that we have to compete for everything. And I'm saying we have an abundant world. It's abundant. Well, I mean, we're always taking, trying to take stuff from people, man. I'm just saying, but is competition.

SPEAKER_06 41:05

Is competition a bad thing? Is competition a bad thing? Even if we're taught or not taught, is competition a bad thing?

SPEAKER_01 41:10

I think competition based on scarcity, I think it's a bad thing. Why do you think competition is a bad thing?

SPEAKER_06 41:18

You know what, competition is a bad thing to people who are scared to compete.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

No, no, no, that's not that. You know what? I have competed all my life. I mean, football, business, all that kind of stuff, or whatever. I mean, and as far as like this whole success thing, you know, corporate world.

SPEAKER_06 41:41

I ain't even tell you my I ain't even tell you my success.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

Well, I mean, I'm just saying, I'm I'm talking about me now. As I checked all the boxes, you know, and did all the stuff, you know. Uh and I think the way that we do competition in this world or that there's a problem with it. Because it's like win at all costs. Win at all costs. But you should work with it.

SPEAKER_06 42:11

But here's the deal, man. To be fair, that is human. That's that's part of human nature. My human nature is taught. It is. You want to bet? You want to bet. It's not taught.

SPEAKER_00 42:21

It's it's something that's I don't even know what a bet would look like.

SPEAKER_06 42:25

It's something in our DNA, right? I'm gonna tell you a bet.

SPEAKER_00 42:28

That's beat. It is.

SPEAKER_06 42:29

You want to bet. I want you to go, I want you to go.

SPEAKER_01 42:33

And I mean, hell man, you got AI, you got Google, you got all this stuff. Go to a study, go find some some peer-reviewed science that says complicated.

SPEAKER_06 42:44

I'm gonna give you some DNA. I'm gonna give you some, I'm gonna give you some pre-improved science. You ready for this? Peer review science. Here we go. This is basic though for you. This so you help you out a whole lot. Here we go. Okay, here we go. Did you know that there is an average of 40 million to 300 million sperm cells that race to a woman's egg? Competition. The last sperm cell, the last sperm cell that the the the the winning sperm cell gets inside the egg. You are automatically in your DNA wired to compete against 300 other million sperm cells to get to one egg. You've all you are already competing now. Already. So when I say it's ingrained in our DNA, that's what it is. It's ingrained in who we are, starting from the beginning. You got here on this planet 85 years ago. Am I good?

SPEAKER_01 43:43

Am I looking 85 thanks, bro?

SPEAKER_00 43:52

Yeah, I want to look like this when I'm 85. I wanna look like healthy when I'm 85.

SPEAKER_06 44:00

Listen, we got we started you started with competition.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

So I gave you your biology. Getting to the egg.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

I mean, but you're in a in a sperm cells mind. And saying, yo, bruh, I gotta get it. You ain't gotta be because I'm I mean, I've seen all the little videos and that which is even better.

SPEAKER_06 44:18

So you're not even conscious. You you have no awareness that naturally, even without sperm cells. Sperm cells are not conscious. Sperm, well, they're not fully conscious.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

They don't they don't know what's gonna be conscious because they all compete. Well, they compete until they get to the end.

SPEAKER_06 44:32

They have a level of consciousness. They have a level of consciousness because they know. You said they're not, and now you're saying they're saying no, I said they have a level of consciousness because they don't have the they don't have the they don't have the level of I ain't even look, man, ain't no sperm expert. What I do know is that I even came in here and told you in the beginning and told you as now this is I say basic, basic, basic I said period science.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

All you said is that sperm sales, you know, the one exactly.

SPEAKER_06 44:58

I just showed you that, but I showed you that in our DNA by nature, by nature, they go into the egg. You ain't gonna give it to me.

SPEAKER_00 45:05

The first sperm cell don't go is not necessarily the one that uh fertilized the egg.

SPEAKER_06 45:14

It don't fucking matter. What I'm telling you is when you you were once a sperm cell. You were once a sperm cell that competed against 300 million other sperm cells. You competed by nature. That you for some reason you guys knew to go look for the egg. Some people got destroyed on the way. You were the one that made it. So when you say we're taught to compete, I'm like, no, because if you're a sperm cell, you're not you there is no class that sperm cells are sitting in the classroom learning to run to the egg. They ain't being taught that shit.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

I mean, hey, can I listen to a bird talk? Can I hey? Just let me know when you're doing a TED talk on that, okay? Because I'm about to be there. Competition. Listen, man. I listen competition to be helpful. Hey, hey, listen. I want to see that podcast, man. I'm gonna see you running around on the stage.

SPEAKER_06 46:09

I'm gonna run that podcast, man. Hey, look. Hey, hey, editors, bro. Now, damn that editors, make sure y'all put the sperm cells in the talk when I'm talking so he can see it visually when this video comes out. I want I want people to see this.

SPEAKER_00 46:23

300 million. Man, you know what's crazy? Um learning it to uh, yeah, because I went from is telling you that we were we were we were natural, we are wired to compete.

SPEAKER_06 46:38

We are naturally wired. We ain't taught that I just don't agree with that, man.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

I'm telling you, sperm cells racing to the egg. I that that's the reason that you uh I can see why that's the reason you're saying it, but I'm saying that's not how we're taught to compete, bro. And you say it's in the DNA, and I don't think you ain't I ain't specifically say how we're taught study and you need to provide it.

SPEAKER_06 47:01

I gave you basic science. Basic science.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

No, you gave you basic sperm. That's your interpretation of perfect science that sperm brains and the sperms are racing. Do they have on like little tracks shoes that they shoot out of the little?

SPEAKER_06 47:17

No, it ain't 100 meter dads. It takes them about three days, four days to get to that egg. So I know it's longer than that for them. They traveling. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 47:26

So what so I got a question?

SPEAKER_06 47:27

I got a question. So, why is it not only just one sperm that shoots out? Why it's gotta be 300 million? I asked you for to tell me. Well, no, because you said competition.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Can you give me the peer-reviewed study?

SPEAKER_06 47:44

So you ain't gonna take my base.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

See, we got off of competition is in the DNA. So what you said is that I haven't heard anything about DNA. Your statement was competition is in our DNA, and then you came up with the sperm TED Talk.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

So hey, I that doesn't tell me that that's that the statement that you made is true. That competition is in our DNA. That's all I'm waiting for. Oh man, you kicked me off.

SPEAKER_06 48:22

All right, boom. My bad. We back. All right, so you asking me. I ain't giving you no DNA. I ain't giving you, I ain't no, uh listen, man. I'm an entrepreneur, not a scientist, okay? I want you to know that I'm an entrepreneur. I know I ain't claiming to be no damn scientist. I ain't never said that. I didn't even come out of my mouth. That ain't come out of my mouth one time. I what I claim was we are naturally wired for competition.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

And I think that we're taught that.

SPEAKER_06 48:47

All right, we'll let the audience decide who's wrong. No, some one of us is wrong, and you are the wrong one.

SPEAKER_01 48:54

No, no, I you know, I hey, I don't know. When you can prove what you said, that's fine. Uh prove that sperm cells run to the rest of the age. That we are taught to compete from from an early age. I mean, that that's part of our interested.

SPEAKER_06 49:12

What that's part of how do they teach us to compete?

SPEAKER_01 49:17

The first way you learn to compete as you were a little child is the first thing you do uh is I'll I'm gonna give you I'll give you an example.

SPEAKER_06 49:27

I'm hoping for that. That's why I'm asking the question. Give me one example, thank you. Okay. Musical chairs. Not everybody plays musical chairs.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

Damn near everybody plays it when they're little kids.

SPEAKER_06 49:38

What about the people who never play musical chairs?

SPEAKER_01 49:42

That well, can I give my example? Can I give my example? We're talking about it right now, and we'll get to the other ways, but I'm giving you an example where as soon as I said musical chairs, it popped up in your head, and you're saying you know exactly what I'm talking about. And then you're gonna go off and try to say, oh, give me another example and not even let me play.

SPEAKER_06 50:06

I said not everybody played musical chairs. I I know many people have. Many, but I can guarantee what everybody did do in competition. Who is everybody said that down? Everybody on the planet, everybody on the planet race to the egg.

SPEAKER_01 50:22

Man, you look, do you ask me a question? I'm trying to answer it for you. I'm trying to answer. I'm telling you one of the ways that competition is taught to little kids.

SPEAKER_06 50:37

I'm not saying competition is not taught.

SPEAKER_02 50:40

I'm saying that you didn't say that.

SPEAKER_06 50:42

What I'm saying is what I'm saying is we're not saying that some people are not taught competition.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

What I'm saying is all people are taught competition in in to some degree to all degrees. To all degrees.

SPEAKER_06 50:58

Everything is not a competition, though.

SPEAKER_01 50:59

So when you say all degrees competition.

SPEAKER_06 51:02

Wrong.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 51:04

Why you tell me why? I can tell you what it is. Competition is everywhere. It's in our DNA, but everything is not competition. Okay, can I give an example? Can I give an example of what's not a competition? I'm smoking this cigar. Who am I competing? Who am I competing against? You never if I'm smoking this cigar right now, who am I competing against? Who am I competing against? Everything's not a competition. I'm just naturally relaxing, smoking my cigar, arguing with you. You're taking it out of context, bruh.

SPEAKER_01 51:40

You're taking it out of context. Anyway, yeah, so I mean, sitting there doing something on your own is not a competition.

SPEAKER_06 51:48

So everything's not a competition.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

Did you say, did you say everything is competition? Everything is not a competition. But competition is in uh it's taught in our society.

SPEAKER_06 52:04

That's so you're not gonna say competition. So competition is not in our DNA. That's my question to you.

SPEAKER_00 52:10

All I'm gonna say is you why why are you asking me about something that you, a statement you made? Because I need to know me to prove something on your viewpoint. Come on. You don't get my viewpoint. I I'm still waiting for you to show me the very new science.

SPEAKER_06 52:29

You ain't taking my shit no more. Let me see.

SPEAKER_01 52:31

Let's go better yet.

SPEAKER_06 52:32

Let's go to the channel for the book.

SPEAKER_01 52:34

What you gave me was a a a sperm excursion. That's what you gave me. What's wrong with that? And you gave me musical chairs.

SPEAKER_06 52:42

And you gave me damn musical chairs. What are you talking about? You gave me musical chairs.

SPEAKER_02 52:49

I didn't give it to you because you don't let me finish. Everybody don't do it. That's what I'm trying to tell you.

SPEAKER_01 52:58

Man, hey, drop, hey, drop the musical chair. Just because like 10 10 kids compete, only one wins. What do you teach them? Scarcity. There's only one, there's not enough room at the table, there's not enough seats. That's what you start teaching kids right there. Compete. But we what we got on this because we said kids compete for grades. They compete for yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:25

So then go back to the original question. Is competition good? Because you told me no, it's not.

SPEAKER_01 53:30

No. I mean, because what ends up happening, man, what ends up happening is external validation. Because then you have kids growing up, and the only way they can be, uh they're all seeking external validation. They have to do something to be loved. They have to be so do something to be accepted. That's what that's what this whole competition thing does. Okay, wait, hold on.

SPEAKER_06 53:58

What I'm saying, so okay, what I'm okay. My question was very clear. Is is competition is competition good? You're you're only naming. I said competition. My thing is, I do believe that there's bad competition, but I also believe that there's good competition.

SPEAKER_01 54:13

Yeah, but the thing is, my my answer is the way we do competition in this world today is not good. I don't give a damn about that.

SPEAKER_06 54:23

My question is, is it good compet is there good competition? Yes or no? Is there good competition?

SPEAKER_01 54:33

It depends on the outcome. Oh, here we go. The problem with it is that people's self-esteem and their uh that that's how they validate themselves whether they win or lose. And that's not good.

SPEAKER_06 54:49

You still not interested in the company.

SPEAKER_01 54:50

I mean, so like if I win a game and then like Kenneth, is there good competition?

SPEAKER_06 54:54

I just need a yes or no. If you can give me that, I'm good. You know it is.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

If competition is good competition the right way, it depends on the outcome.

SPEAKER_06 55:07

I I'll do you better. Google, I'll go to Google. All right, according to Google, is there good competition? Hold on, no, man. Yes, competition can be beneficial when it dries. Ooh, number one thing, innovation. That's what you need with business. You need innovation, self-improvement, and excellence. So, just based off that definition alone, would you say that compet there is good competition?

SPEAKER_01 55:40

Are you there? Look, there there, like I said before, my answer is that competition, when it's not based on external validation, is it's okay.

SPEAKER_06 55:58

So then, yes, there is good competition.

SPEAKER_01 56:00

There you go.

SPEAKER_06 56:01

When you qualify, when you qualify, right, right, right, right. So, how do we apply good competition to business? Good competition fosters growth, motivation, and higher productivity. It often signals high market demand and offers opportunities for learning and adapting rather than just beating opponents. However, unhealthy competition can cause anxiety and reduce self-esteem. So, here, it even it even further gave examples to say there is bad competition. But it also says there is good competition. Because I agree with you, there is bad competition, but I'm saying there is good competition. You're saying there's only bad competit. You're saying that there's only bad competition, and I'm like, no, there's not good competition. Of course. Oh, so then you would agree that there is good competition, yay? There is good competition.

SPEAKER_01 56:56

Right.

SPEAKER_06 56:57

I'll take that. I can live with that.

SPEAKER_01 57:01

There is. But what I'm saying to you is that's far and in between and our world today.

SPEAKER_06 57:10

That's your world, not ours. Me and you don't share the same world. You don't think there's such things as good competition. And my question is, how do you apply good competition to it?

SPEAKER_01 57:17

I'm looking out a broad so when I say our world, we live in the same world. I mean, we might not be in the same, but when I look across what's happening in this country, other countries, and all that, you know.

SPEAKER_06 57:30

We all have different paradigms. We all have different paradigms. And while we live in the physical world, we all do have different paradigms. And our perception is our reality. And the only reason we all agree that the sun is called the sun is because of the paradigm, the worldview. We all agree that the this the this big glowing object is called the sun, and we agree to call it that.

SPEAKER_01 57:52

But my pretty uh philosophical now, bro.

SPEAKER_00 57:59

Sorry. I mean, we're just cool. Hey, it's all good, man.

SPEAKER_05 58:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:03

So I can I can agree with you that we have different different realities.

SPEAKER_01 58:08

We do. And it's all based on our our view, our experience, our cultural upbringings. I can agree with that. And just like there we are, back to competition.

SPEAKER_06 58:19

I said, my well, I asked the question. I say, is competition good? Because I didn't give you my viewpoint on it until I got my answer. And you still never gave me my you gave me an answer.

SPEAKER_00 58:26

Finally, you ain't gave me a viewpoint on it.

SPEAKER_06 58:29

You gave me a Google.

SPEAKER_00 58:32

I mean, after you looked it up and Google.

SPEAKER_06 58:33

You mad at Google. You you know, you one of them people you have you upset with technology, ain't you? You and Moheads is upset with it. Don't be mad at Google.

SPEAKER_01 58:41

I use technology all the time, bruh.

SPEAKER_06 58:43

You got to in this world. If you don't use technology in this world, you can't.

SPEAKER_01 58:46

You're not using technology. It's hey, it's nothing. Hey, don't make it seem like you was using technologies in the 60s.

SPEAKER_06 58:52

Don't make it seem like you was using technologies in the 30s. Don't make it seem like he was doing that, because you wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 58:59

The 30s.

SPEAKER_06 59:00

The 30s.

SPEAKER_01 59:01

What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_06 59:02

Were you born 1930? What?

SPEAKER_01 59:05

20? What? They had technology then, too, man. I was born. Hey, but you know what?

SPEAKER_06 59:12

What technology they had in the 1930s.

SPEAKER_01 59:14

When I went to college, I started out in doing software. Okay. When you went to college, I've always been using technology.

SPEAKER_06 59:26

You know, I so you saying you was in college in the 1930s using technology?

SPEAKER_01 59:31

Yeah, the 1930s, man. Yeah, but whenever I did go to college, whatever decade it is, but yeah, we started out doing programming. My brother and I, that was our that was our major. And so I've always been on the edge using uh technology.

SPEAKER_06 59:51

Technology. So so now that you're in, so you have you have your current business now. I guess my question, my biggest question to you now is what will you do differently this time that you did not do with the previous business that failed, that you think differently?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:08

The previous business that failed, one of the one of the things that I is that uh that I was not the principal and I was not somebody else created the business, and they were basically the face of the brand. I'll never do that again. So I'll never do that. And from now on, any business I I have full control of it, full control of the business. I won't do another business where I don't have full control. And I then I can always depend on me. And so that was, you know, so that's one reason that I'll never do that again. That's the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:52

Do you really ever do a person really ever have full control of a business? Ever really?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:58

I have full control over what I do. I have, I, you know what? The buck stops here. What happens in the business or what doesn't happen in the business or what I try or what I don't try all rests on me. Whether it's going to be successful or not, I make all the decisions. Now, you can't control everything that's coming, you know, hell. I, you know, I'm present. Right now, I'm here with you on here. Right now, I'm present. And any I can make any decision I want to about whatever business or whatever I'm doing right now. Now, if you don't have that kind of control, then that's all I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:42

I mean, I I don't know how you're gonna come back at me and say, I don't have full control. I do have full control. Now, I don't have control over the outcome, but I have control over what actions I take. And that's what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:56

Well, yeah, everybody has control over what actions they take, even in or out of a business. Yeah, everybody do have control on their own actions. Everybody do. Yeah, they do.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:06

That's what I just said.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:07

Why are you disagreeing with that?

SPEAKER_06 1:02:08

But that ain't got that ain't got shit to do with business. That's just something people got added control over. But you're saying, my question is do you do a business owner or entrepreneur have full control over the business that they run?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:20

They have full control over the actions that they take. So they don't have full control over the business. Nobody has full control of the outcome.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:30

Would you agree that you just said you have full control of your business? Did you not say that earlier, like literally like a minute and 15 seconds ago?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:42

Would you go to Google and look up control?

SPEAKER_06 1:02:44

No, I ain't gonna go there. Yeah, I'm just gonna get my stance and then I'm gonna go to Google. I mean, yeah. That's typically what I do.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:49

Oh, so we can't look up control. We can look up control. But we ain't we we haven't agreed on a control of no control. It's something I have. Control is something that I mean, that's me. It's what I have control over.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:04

I feel like you're not controlling yourself right now. I think you need to control yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:07

Unless I, you know, unless I hear and have some kind of like coronary or something, I have control over what I'm doing. I got a control over what I'm saying to you. Okay, I was gonna say what you're saying back.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:19

Nah. What I'm gonna say is I don't have full control of my business. I don't think no one ever has full control of their business. You are the owner of it. But I don't think that people have full control of the business. You know who I think have full control of the business? The people you serve.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:34

I mean, that's your opinion, bruh.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:36

Can I finish?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:38

You stop it.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:43

Can I finish?

unknown 1:03:45

Let me.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:46

I feel like people have control over your business because people dictate the success of your business. People would determine people will decide if they would like to invest their time in your business or not. Because there's a deal. Say what you want. If you have no people that believe or or invest into your business, you have no business. You can have all the control you want, but if people are not buying your products or services, you got no business. You can't stay afloat. You're gonna close doors. And we already know you be ready to close damn doors.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:16

That don't even make no sense to me, man. You the only person you can control is you. You can't control your. I mean, you can control it. I can say you can control people. You can look like you just started.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:26

Now you now you now now you're getting into other things. I ain't said nothing about controlling people. I didn't say we control people.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:32

You just said that they control your business.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:34

I said people have control over them. No, you can't you actually hold on. You don't have control over people, but your influence and what you do influences their behaviors for your business. What I'm saying is you don't have full control over your business because you don't have a business without people. And without people, there is no business because you can't keep up with operational costs of your business. So the business closed down because you have no income coming in.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:03

So tell me what I I don't understand. So, what do you have control of? You have control over you.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:11

What you do, and what you do with your business will determine if someone wants to invest or be involved in it. You don't agree with that either, huh?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:24

Look, bro, that's so so you can run a business without people? Bro, when we talk about control, and I say the only thing you control is you and your actions.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:37

And then Well no, you said you can control your business. You said you control your business.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:44

That's what I'm saying. And I say, do you really agree?

SPEAKER_06 1:05:46

I say, do you really right? So how do you control your business without people? How can you control a business without people?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:53

By the actions you take.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:54

I just said that. And people buy your actions, people, but people better so. So we're going back to competition. People buy what they feel and what they believe in. So they technically do.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:05

You're going back to competition, I mean.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:08

No, we're going back. Yeah. Well, yeah, we're going back. So we ain't going. You ain't going with me. You're gonna leave me there by myself. Go on. It's all right. It's all right. Cause I raced to my mama egg, and I was the one that made it. I did it by myself. I did it by myself. You did it by yourself. 93 years ago. You did it by yourself, but you made it there. You made it. Listen, hey man, listen. This is listen. This is good. I appreciate this. Listen, where can people find you? Where can they find your book? Talk talk. Tell us where can they find you? Where can they find your book? What you doing now?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:42

All right, man. Yeah, so where they can find me is uh don't get upset.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:45

Don't get upset because you lost the battle and you couldn't and you couldn't and you couldn't just come out and say it. Don't be mad at me because you didn't believe that there was such a thing as good competition, and now you believe you control your business without no people.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:57

I'm mad at the email about the sperm brain. I I'm waiting for you to send me the email on the sperm brain.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:07

But they can find me at kenntgalexander.com, man. I I'm doing a lot of stuff. I write for uh International Men's Magazine. It's called I Am Men's Division Magazine. I have an article in there every month. It just started. I mean, it's free uh to go and read the articles. It just started in January. I got a great article in this uh April edition that just came out. Uh also just wrote a book, uh, The Successful Man, A New Vision of Masculinity, a New Vision of Masculinity, and it talks about uh and it looks at the systems, the un the inheritance that we use to rear children. It looks the impact on men and our communities and the world and how to do it differently. And it's really a book about uh healing, how to heal, how to heal men. Because it's, you know, you look at guys' health, you look at all the stuff they're going through or whatever, and uh, but nobody ever looks at the system and how we got there. So that's what the book is all about. So it's it's doing very well on Amazon right now.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:18

I can tell you we got that through the sperm cells, through the air. We all got that first started from the sperm cells today. So you ever need the roadmap, man? I'm gonna get you while we got there.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:30

Why hey, you know my email address, man. Send that to me. I'm gonna send it to you. Everything I'm doing, you'll find it on kennethgalexander.com, all the links, and uh yeah. It's uh I uh I look forward.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:45

Listen, you now you know most of the people who come on my show, they they send me a free book.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:52

Okay, what that means. Oh, you said am I gonna read it? Maybe you didn't know this. I mean, maybe you didn't, maybe, maybe it's because you can't see my show. Hey, hang on. Maybe you can't see my bookshelf because my book I got a bookshelf over here filled with books. Filled with books, bruh. And I read all the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:16

And he was talking about, you know, being a historian.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:18

And nobody on my being no historian. Huh? I got nobody on my show being no historian. You got a wrong podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:26

I had a wrong podcast. I guess the cat said something about that on your show that he was, and then y'all talking about, you know, read books and all this kind of stuff, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:35

You know, that's great to not listen to my show. Yeah, I do read books.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:38

Yeah, yeah. So do I.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:40

See the book I got now.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:41

So I'll send you that.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:46

Yeah, send me that. This is the book I'm reading right now. It says the little book of data. Yeah. Understanding, understanding data. What you got?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:56

This is the book you need to read, The Successful Man, a new vision of masculinity. Who wrote that? I wrote the book.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:03

I wrote the book.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:04

Yeah, go ahead and send me that Crayola Crayon book so that I can go ahead and start.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:08

I'll send you the book, man. Give you some real uh understanding of what's going on in this daggone world.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:15

Hey, you know what? We gotta we gotta do a part two where we come in and talk because I'm really curious about the masculinity. I think that'll be really good to kind of talk about. I think that'll be like epic. Yeah, you down for that?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:28

Yeah, I think hey, this has been fun, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:31

I've been fun for you. Not without I didn't know we were going to sperm and all that stuff, but hey, listen, you come on this show, you don't know what we're gonna talk about, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:41

We gotta do it the untraditional way because most people don't come on show talking about sperm stuff, especially in business. I'm so type of tired of corporate America, that's why we got this podcast, because I'm tired of corporate America. People tired of corporate America.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:53

Yeah, we never got anything in that, man. You know, I I look, bro, I'd have traveled all around the world, I'd have been the you named the country, the city. I've been there.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:01

Thanks for sharing. And so has everybody else. That don't make nobody else special. I'm I'm still focused on the sperm cell and I'm focused on the competition. So when we come back on.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:17

I know you've been around for a long time, bro. Yeah, there you go. You know, I got a birthday coming up. I got a birthday coming up next week. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_06 1:11:30

Happy birthday to you, man. Happy birthday. Yeah, you're also you're an Aries. You damn skippy. Check out my podcast, one of my clients' podcasts. They just did a podcast on Aries, and they got some special things for you on men and what you guys should be looking to come in the year uh 2026 for Aries Man's. It's called Gifted Psychic Podcast. For those of you who are interested, check out the podcast. Listen, Kenneth, thank you so much for joining the show. I really appreciate it. Listen, we're gonna do a part two because I really enjoyed this show and I really want to dive more into a little bit about the masculinity thing because I know we have some differing we might have some differing opinions on that. I'm a very traditional man, and maybe not. Maybe we might be lined up finally. You know, we might be lined up. You know what I'm saying? We might be lined up. You know what I mean? We started out white, now we're black. Here we are. All right, that's the end of the show. Thank you guys for tuning in. I'm your host, Jameen Delmas, and I'll see you guys on the next episode. Talk soon.