March 6, 2021 • 33 mins
For those of you who know how to cook well, the thought of opening a restaurant may have come to mind. But ask anyone who has a restaurant, its NOT just about the food. Our guest Sanjay LaForest shares what he learned from consulting, marketing and event planning with restaurants. Plus, two of the world’s greatest economies aren’t friends but the do need each other. We’ll take a look at the financial and political drama that exists between the US and China.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Follow the Profit is a production of Gang Ridge three
sixty and I Heart Radio. Relationships require work, especially if
you are two of the world's greatest economies and you're
having a hard time seeing eye to eye on trade
and foreign policy. That's why we're going to take a
look at the financial and political drama that exists between
the US and China, also known as the Chimerica relationship. Plus,
(00:24):
for those of you who know how to cook well,
the thought of opening a restaurant may have come to
mind at a certain point, but ask anyone who has
a restaurant. It's not just about the food. There's marketing,
there's consulting, and even get this event planning. Our next
guest has done that all as a friend of mine,
and he's here to share his insight. I'm David Grosso
and this is Followed the Profit. Are you looking to
(00:54):
get rich quick? There's plenty of podcasts out there for that.
Here on Follow the Profit, we try to deconstruct t
happening economically, politically, socially, and everything that's connected to all
of that, but most importantly, how all of that pertains
to our economy, so that you can use your money
to help you and For many people who cook, they
love to do so. For those that open a restaurant,
(01:16):
it's their passion, it's their lifestyle. For our guests, Sanjay
La Force, it's all of that along with an entrepreneurial spirit.
He started very early by organizing events at his father's
catering hall. The venue had an occupancy of four hundred
people with three event rooms. He hosted a variety of
events ranging from corporate occasions to sweet sixteen's and that's
(01:38):
where Sanjay implemented many strategic marketing tactics for his events
and the venue to be successful as possible. Today, he
has two restaurants and he's the owner and founder of
the Privy Group. I guess we would say Prevey Group
here in the United States, a marketing and the consulting firm.
How you doing, Sanjay, Yeah, how are you? Thanks for
(01:58):
having me? David All entrepreneurship, specifically food entrepreneurship runs in
your family. Tell me a little bit about your origin story. Well,
my parents were always involved in the restaurant industry, and
then they had an opportunity to open their own catering
hall on Long Island, and this was around the age
of twelve. Thirteen, so I grew up with it. I
(02:18):
wasn't really working at that age, but I was definitely
in the restaurant scene and throughout the catering hall scene
for those years. And once it became I turned seventeen,
I was looking for a side job at a part
time job. So I started to work as a waiter
in the catering hall and then I started to learn
the ins and outs of the industry, and the ins
and outs of the kitchen and the and what it
(02:38):
takes to actually run a profitable and good business. And
then after that I started to organize a few smaller
events at the catering hall. So I was I became.
I started as a waiter, and then I became a manager,
and then I started to organize a few events. And
that's my etymology. San Jay is always interesting, right because
(02:59):
you have a named I would associate with the subcontinent
and then left forest. Right sounds very French. So tell
me a little bit about your background and your family
lore and how that's affected your cooking. So my mother
is Indian, my father is Haitian, which he has ties
to Africa and France. So I speak French fluently, and
(03:23):
I definitely have always been geared towards the French culture,
and that's why I chose the name so Quivey in
French means private and exclusive, and we thought that was
the best name to start a company. It started off
as an event planning company and then it went from
event planning to marketing to consulting to our restaurant. So
(03:44):
this ran in your family. You have this bicultural experience,
right and you're bringing it all to the table. Has
really Indian spices kind of influenced the way you view
French and now you own a Mexican restaurant as well.
Are you kind of mixing all of these cuisines to
original dishes? Well, they are mixed together, so we do.
For Lupivita is a classic French restaurant, so we don't
(04:06):
want to mess with the classic French cuisine as much.
Although our was a little bit spicier than others, So no,
I wouldn't say spicy, but it has a little kick
to it, Let's just put it that way. People love it.
That's our most soul dish at the restaurant. But I
do think we infuse more of the cultural Caribbean Indian
spices in our cuisine for sure. So where did you
(04:30):
get the idea to just kind of run your own show?
Because it seems like you were set up with a
turnkey business, right. You could have just stayed in the
family business, did events, You had a reputation, you were
out on Long Island. What brought you to New York
City to do your own thing? I would say it
might be me being the black sheep, to be honest
with you. So I left the comfortable situation on Long Island.
(04:53):
I worked for my mentor, who was a real estate
company on Long Island for a few years after that,
after graduating college, and then I came to the city
and I went to an event at the Trump Towers
World Bar and they met this guy he was organizing events,
and like well, He's like, well, I'm organizing events and
this is what I do for him living. I'm like, wow,
that's pretty interesting living that you're going to organize events
(05:14):
and socialize with people. And I didn't understand how hard
it was at the time, but I thought to myself,
I think I could do this. Well, how do you
make your money? I asked him, and he said, well,
the owner of the Trump Towers World Bar he came
over to me and he gives me of the revenue
for the events that I organized, and I'm allowed to
charge at the door keep a hundred percent of that.
They give me marketing budgets, and they give me budgets
(05:36):
for doing the staffing for the event as well. So
I said to myself, Wow, it was almost like the cartoon,
a cartoon character with like money signs in their eyes.
And I'm like, oh, this might be a good idea,
might be something for me. And at that time, I
was still living on Long Island working for my mentor,
Banana Royalty, who has a real estate company. And then
I decided to go up to the owner of the
(05:57):
World Bar and I said to him, and I had
studied law, and so I came up with this big contract,
this big beautiful contract, and I told him, well, i'd
like to I had no experience. I didn't really tell
him I had no experience. I told him I had
experience in organizing events on Long Island, which might have
been seven or eight years prior to this. To went
in with this big beautiful contract that I learned from
(06:18):
studying pre law. And he's like, wow, you should be
a lawyer. Because this is a crazy contract, and I'm like, well,
I just want to organize one event at your place.
Organized one event at his uh at the Trump Towers
World Bar in Street, and he loved it, and I
invited my friends, my family. I knew nothing about marketing.
I wasn't really I didn't didn't know much about promotions,
(06:40):
and it was just the in the immediate people who
I knew. But I did see how I could generate
revenue doing this on the long term. It took me
about two months to organize an event with a hundred
and fifty people. After that I went through it went
about six years of the organizing events. I started organizing
(07:00):
one event every two weeks, one event every month, and
then once I started organizing an event a week, I
moved to New York City, got my office in a
small doctor's office um and then started hiring people to
help me organize events. And then I could give you
the story from there as well. It's always interesting because
there's always a moment, and I always tell people this,
sometimes the train only comes by once, and it seems
(07:23):
like you equated to the cartoon character with money signs,
and it's something that lightning strikes only once, so you
have to seize that opportunity and just push through. I
did seize that opportunity. Obviously I had no funding. I
possibly had a little bit of savings at the time,
and then I I all I could afford was a
small six by six foot room in a doctor's office,
(07:45):
but I needed an office to look professional, so it
was one of his small office rooms that he wasn't using,
so we rented it. And then I started hiring people
who were in the events industry in New York City
already doing their events as well. So then I started
to have interns from France. So that's what led my
ties to a lot of the French culture and getting
(08:05):
our clients from France as well the French consulate. So
then to three or four years later, we saw that
the business was growing in As you might not might
or might not know, event planning is very closely tied
to marketing because you're showing the impressions that you have
of people who are attending your events are people who
see your events. And then people started to contact me
(08:26):
for smaller brands to do their marketing to start their
startup business, and then bigger groups and restaurants and events
spaces started to contact me to do their marketing and
their promotions and their events, and then it went from
there to wow, I could even do the staffing. And
then I started to learn the systems of the restaurants
that already had a background in. But everything involves, right,
marketing is never the same. It's not the same that
(08:48):
it was five years ago. It's not the same that
it was two months ago. And we were constantly involving,
and then ended up about four years after I had
a penthouse office on Wall Street doing big events for
Salon Ventures, big events um across the country, and then
that the company was booming. But I knew that with
my marketing background and my consulting background, that I always
(09:08):
wanted to own my own space. I had these clients
and they were paying me, and they were paying me
great money for me to build their business and do
the consulting for them and for them to take all
the credit for it. So I knew at some point
in time, whether it was a restaurant, whether it was
a nightclub, whether it was an event space, I knew
at some point in time that I would actually own
my own space. And here we are now David, Wow,
(09:30):
So tell me how are your parents doing? Donna Murray's
on Long Island, and tell me a little bit about
gas over there in New York. And of course you're
Marquee French eaterie Le Prevay. Well, my parents are doing great.
They are currently in Florida in Boca, where I believe
you are. You're in the South as well. Now, of
(09:50):
course they're doing great. Then everybody go out to eat.
They they enjoy wonderful dinners there in their retirement phase.
So they're no longer in the restaurant industry. And Casta
del total that is booming. So as you know, we
opened Casta del Toro in December of twenty nineteen, so
those pre COVID, and two months into it we find
(10:13):
out that we have to shut down because of COVID.
Today we were at capacity. Thank you government, Cuomo for
allowing us to do that. And I see the light
at the end of the tunnel. It's growing a lot.
We're allowed to have outdoor dining. People are coming to eat,
a lot more people are knowing our reservations on Friday
and Saturday. We don't have enough tables for the amount
of people that want to sit at the restaurant. So
(10:35):
it's absolutely wonderful. Lup is a household baby. Now it
has become that. I'm happy to hear a lot of
people who were coming to Lupi. They wore the out
of towners. They were doing their pre theater, their dinner
or after the theater, they would come eat, and everybody
wants to enjoy French cuisine when going to the theater.
(10:57):
We're gonna take a quick break here, be right back back.
So now that we got your history, let's start to
impact stuff. What happened in New York and what have
you done for the past year, because it seems like
that's been the latest chapter in this adventure of San
(11:17):
Angela Forest. Like what on Earth went through your head
when suddenly everything shut down and you're in events and restaurants,
the most heavily affected industry. I'm speech just light now
because I was speechless then when I found out. I
I did not know where to begin. I did not
know what we would do. But more so I understand
(11:39):
we had to close because obviously, this virus is real,
and people die, and and it is contagious, and there
are a lot of things that are wrong that are
dangerous with it. But I think that our politicians definitely
handled it wrong. Look, you're in the South currently, and
the numbers are not are not growing. They they they've
been open more than we have for I believe, six
(12:03):
to seven months. And I'm just in shock by how
the politicians handled this, because the politicians closed down New
York City indoor dining in December and the rate was
a lot lower than what it is now. So I
don't understand the decision making process. The decision making process
does not add up for me. Whatsoever are people going
to survive sanj Like, what percentage of your friends in
(12:26):
New York are actually going to be able to reopen
their restaurants. There's not a large percentage. I know a
lot of my friends have closed their restaurants, some of
them temporarily, because restaurants are only profitable at really, so
if we're only profitable and you're allowing us to only
have a capacity, we're dead in the water, you know.
(12:48):
And that's why I say hold the fort I believe
New York City is very resilient and that I'm confident
and I'm optimistic, and I think that that's in the
nature of being an entrepreneur is that you you have
to be that. And I think that the investment that
people have made, the millions of dollars that they spent
on their restaurant, if they can allow themselves to hold
(13:09):
the fort for a little bit longer, I believe everything
will turn. Yeah. But in the meantime, you know, it's
rumored Goldman Sachs already bought their building down here in Florida.
Are laze fair policies on this are driving your basically
your customer base too here. So have you thought of
(13:30):
leaving and maybe reopening le Privy in in Miami? Is
that something that's crossed your mind. I've always considered opening
lup v in the South and Florida in Miami. But
am I leaving because I don't believe New York City
will will recover? No, It's because I just want to
grow the brand. I do think that the economy in
(13:54):
Miami's booming now, I mean real estates booming. Everything is booming.
And it's it's because the majority of all my friends
they're not here. They're all in Miami, they're all in Florida,
they're all in South Florida, they're all in Orlando. They're
all in Bocca. They're all moving around down there and
spending money and going to eat and enjoying life and
renting yachts and all their capitals being used in Florida
(14:16):
whereas it used to be used in New York and
basically eating at my restaurant. These are the people who
would come and eat and enjoy, and we no longer
have that. So there's a good majority of people who
are in the South. Now are they going to come back? Sanjay?
I think that's the most pressing question that I'm mulling around.
I was late to this interview because I was stuck
in a traffic snarl here in Orlando, and people don't
(14:37):
understand that, like life is normal here. That's that's incredible.
It's beyond me. It's beyond me. Will it come back,
That's a great question. I believe it will. To what extent,
I don't know if it comes back At seventy I
think that we're lucky. I'm here and I continuously invest
in my business, and I'm continuously growing up during closures
(15:01):
and investing in heating and investing thousands and thousands of
dollars because I believe it will come back to what
extent I don't know. I don't think so. We we
used to generate a lot of money from tourism, and
will that ever happen again, I don't know. Or will
it be a five year plan? I don't know. But
do I think that within the next year we will
(15:22):
come back? Yes? I do. So let's be honest about this,
sun Jay for people who haven't been, because this is
the number one question I get. I spent half the
pandemic here in Florida and half the pandemic in New York.
New York is a little grimy right now. I love
New York. I consider it my second home. But how
is New York going to recover? Considering the current state
(15:44):
and the lack of attention to basic things like security
and cleanliness and just common sense government. And I'm struggling
to see how people like you won't just throw up
their ends and take off. There have been many people
who have done so. Maybe I'm stubborn, David. I don't
(16:07):
know if that's what the case is. But just an example,
you mentioned security. They're building homeless shelters a few blocks away,
and all the hotels that used to have our clients
that would come and spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars
on a French meal or a Mexican meal. Um, they
have homeless people living there now, So they are homeless
people roaming around the streets in New York City and
(16:30):
there's there are no controls there. It seems like they
are less police. My managers who have to kick out
a homeless person at the restaurant almost every day. The
insecurity here is is growing. So maybe it's just that
I'm stubborn, But I don't know why many people don't move.
Maybe it's because I'm heavily invested. I spent a lot
(16:52):
of money, I spent a lot of time. I spent
many years on these two babies that we've grown, and
I don't want to see them die. But I understand
why people would leave. So what would you suggest for
entrepreneurs because you're an entrepreneur in a high tech state
and specifically in the worst part, because it's a city
that really does nothing for entrepreneurs. In fact, I would
(17:13):
go as far to say, as it hurts entrepreneurs and
it used to just be the great compromise, right that
this is where you have to come to make your
money because it's New York. But now New York isn't
what it used to be now, So where does that
leave entrepreneurs like you? It's it's always been difficult to
make it in New York. I mean that the quote
if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
(17:33):
I believe that. I think that entrepreneurs have to follow
their own path. That's the thing about being an entrepreneur.
You're creating something new, You're following your own vision, your
own path. You're seeing profit in things that other people
don't see. You're going to follow that to know do
and a lot of us fail. The majority of us
do fail. And you can't be afraid of failure, and
(17:56):
you have to continuously be resilient. That's that's the basic
advice I would give them. And how about geography, would
you suggest they double down on New York or should
they be following economic trends to places like Texas, Florida, Utah, etcetera.
I'm doubling down in New York, and it looks as
though I'm going to be opening a few different restaurants
(18:19):
within because the pricing is better because you're getting a
bargain and because the landlords are currently understanding of the
current situation and they're optimistic of growing back. So entrepreneurs
will find value in different places. I find value here
right now, So I would say New York. Yeah, because
everyone's running away, isn't that fascinating? Sometimes in the darkest moment,
(18:42):
there is business opportunity. So when you see everyone running
one way, that creates an opportunity window for people like you.
So just restaurant one oh one. If you're someone who
wants to open a restaurant, and obviously you own high
end restaurants in New York, but let's just say you know,
you live in Missouri and like where my cousins live,
and you dream of owning your own restaurant. Is now
(19:03):
a good time and what is your advice for those people?
The ground roots for me are completely different than a
lot of other restaurant hears. Some of them are chefs,
some of them just have a large lump sum of
capital that they'd like to invest and it's cool to
open a restaurant, And the other ones like me, come
from a marketing background. So let's just say, for instance,
(19:24):
you have a hundred thousand dollars you're going to invest
in your restaurant. You're gonna build your restaurant. I would
say to build a restaurant, you invest two hundred thou
dollars on the building a restaurant, the systems in place,
and then the rest of the money gets invested in
the marketing aspect, gets invested in the consulting asment. Because
if you build something that's beautiful, let's say you spend
(19:44):
a hundred thousand dollars, if nobody knows about the restaurant
that you built, nobody will come. So it's better that
they know that you actually exist. So I think that
marketing is the foundation for me at a restaurant, if
you're opening any restaurant for that matter. So that's the
advice that would give, Studying the demographics, figuring out if
you can actually get those people there, what the demographics are,
(20:05):
if they're going to enjoy the type of cuisine and
whatever you're offering them, So that that ties into the
marketing aspect as well. And what about right now things
are shifting to delivery, and we've seen a lot of
news on you know how all of these companies with
the remain nameless, but you know who they are. Take
a huge commission. Do you do delivery or do you
just hard pass because it's not profitable. My hard passed
(20:29):
because it's not profitable because these companies take thirty of
your delivery fee. We tried, We did have it at
the beginning of the pandemic, and it was just the
packaging wasn't done. It wasn't proper. To have to reheat
scargo or whole fish a branzino doesn't make sense. Or
to order a nice steak and then have to reheat
(20:50):
it and have it be overcooked and not cooked the
way you wanted. It just doesn't add up for us,
So I stay away from that. Aside of the fact
from the fees that these companies are charging and take
an advantage of the small mom and pop stores. Is
there anything we could do about that because all of
us order delivery? I'm sure you do, sound j it's
sometimes just cold, rainy. You're lazy, like you know, like
(21:11):
it happens to all of us, right Netflix, Jill and
Uber Eats, what's your advice. I'm guilty of actually using
some of these companies. I'm guilty of actually using them
up until about six months ago. I'm on the back
end as well. I know that they're charging. It's just
a click of a button on your phone. That's how
easy it is now. I would say you should call
(21:32):
the restaurant. I would say that restaurants should implement a
system where it's easy for people to click on their
phone to order the food, because it's I mean to
spend another five to seven dollars for you to be
able to click. It's a convenience of things. But to
help these restaurants, I would call them. I would take
the time out because it does add that you have
to give them your credit card over again. You have
(21:53):
to give them the expiration date, so forth, and so on,
and people and where the city that never sleeps with
the city that moves quickly, so people want to move
quickly with with everything they're doing. I would definitely say
take a few more minutes to help the restaurant out
by by just calling them. I'm surprised, Sanjay, no one's
come up with a low commission app. I'm wonder if
that's right for that. I'm surprised as well. I hope
(22:16):
so maybe that's our million dollar ideal, right Dad? Yeah,
well thirty for you know, food in a low margin
business seems a bit abusive, but you know, I'll defer
to your judgment, Sanjay, I don't own restaurants. It's absolutely
is abusive. They're taking advantage of us. Well. On that note, listen, Sanjay,
we really appreciate your time. We'd love to have you
(22:39):
here in Florida. You know, I don't mean to put
on my Florida economic development hat, but I'm looking forward
to the opening of your theoretical Florida restaurant eventually as
of mine. Thank you for having me, David, I appreciate
it greatly. We're gonna take a quick break here, be
right back. So the will to follow the profit is
(23:01):
to deconstruct what's going on in the economy so that
you can use your money to help yourself. So today
I'm going to delve into one of the sexiest, glitziest
portions of the economy. Oh boy, here we go, foreign
trade between the US and China. Some people like to
call it Chimerica. It's very catchy. And there's one thing
you need to know about our relationship. It's that the
(23:23):
US is economically linked to China, probably more than any
country outside of maybe Mexico and Canada. Because they're right
next door. But here's the big deal that you need
to remember. We're economically linked, but we're definitely not friends.
US and China, not in a relationship, just money. Not
(23:47):
so good on the diplomacy front. Our allies are countries
like Japan and Germany and side note, you know, eighty
years ago these were immortal enemies and now there's some
of our best allies and we trade billy millions of
dollars of goods and services with them. However, with China,
it's a different story. If you get into a time
machine and go back for decades after the communist revolution
(24:10):
over there, China in the U S didn't have any
formal relations. That was until one big thing happened back
in two when President Nixon visited China, unprecedented action at
the moment, and a few years later, in seventy nine,
both countries signed a trade agreement, and the amount of
trade at that time was a paltry four billion dollars.
(24:32):
Today it's six hundred billion dollars. So that makes China
America's third largest trading partner. Of course Canada, Mexico or
the other two because there right next door. So take
a look around your house. Everything's made in China. We're
definitely in a relationship. We may not be friends, but
we're dependent on each other. And there's one aspect of
(24:53):
this dependence that is especially scary, US debt. Here's how
it works the US, if you haven't noticed, our federal
government is bloody broke and they're always needing to raise
money to fund our deficits. So the US offers up
T bills treasury securities, and that means someone buys the bond,
so basically they're just buying our debt. It's actually a
(25:14):
stellar asset. A lot of people around the world want
to buy it. So the US government borrows money and
pays back the amount of the bond plus interest, and
for the most part, it's a very reliable form of investment.
And guess what, everyone can buy these things, these T bills.
It's just debt. And everyone knows that the United States
(25:34):
probably will never default, just like Germany will never default
and probably Japan will never default. So there's certain countries
where people just park their money because it's safe to
do so, and that's the case with US T bills.
And what's really interesting, and it's not only individuals right,
and corporations and people right here, but people anywhere can
(25:56):
buy tea bills. So guess what China spotted a lot
of t bills, specifically, the government to the tune of
get this, one trillion dollars trillion gets thrown around a
lot now in Corona times. But do you understand how
much a trillion dollars is? It's numerically challenging to understand
the scale of a trillion dollars. So guess what, China
(26:18):
owns a trillion dollars of our debt. So there's always
been one concern that the US has with China holding
so many treasuries is currency to valuation. So let's let's
talk this out. If China were to start buying up
more US treasuries, the value of the dollar would go up.
A more valuable dollar, would make American products more expensive,
(26:39):
and would therefore make Chinese products less expensive. Yeah, that's
a lot to impact, But basically, you know what, they
have so much control that any sort of buying and
selling that they do, because they're one of our largest
holders of debt overseas, means that they can influence the
value of the dollar. And interestingly, China is a notorious
(27:01):
currency manipulator. You see, everything is made in China. Not
just because you know the system over there makes things
more efficient, because it's just command and control. It's also
because they've artificially deflated there yuan ran mindy, which is
their currency, in effect making their products cheaper. It's made
(27:23):
it so that American companies cannot do business without China.
So guess what, everything's made in China. That's starting to change.
There was a trade war during the Trump administration to
try to diversify our supply chains, but China is so
embedded in our supply chains. Everything from pharmaceuticals, yes, those
(27:45):
pills Grandmas is taking. They have to do with China.
The clothes on my body, the microphone that I'm using
right now, the camera, the computer. I just bought a
new house, half of it is made in China. My
floor is made in China. China is so interwoven into
the American economy and vice versa for that matter, and
(28:05):
the global economy, that how do you begin to disaggregate
this toxic relationship Because guess what, we all have dynamic
economies and industries, and we want China to do well
because the Chinese government may not be our friend, but
regular Chinese people deserve economic opportunity. And here's the problem, though,
the Chinese government is not our friend. They're in fact
(28:30):
our enemy, and we don't see eye to eye on
anything on foreign policy, and they're doing everything they can
to become the next superpower. So in effect, our trinkets,
the stuff we're buying, the cell phone I'm playing with,
the floor in my house, is inadvertently funding our enemies,
(28:52):
and that's not good. In the beginning, it was great business. Really,
China is a big market, right, you know, you have
to understand that China is there were four times the
size of America in population. It's a really big market.
It's hard to say no to China. And it's a
cheap place to manufacture, and they've been losing at that game.
(29:12):
It's getting more expensive to manufacture in China and manufacturing.
If you check out your tennis shoes, so probably made
in Vietnam now because it's cheaper. Nevertheless, China is a
really efficient place to manufacture, and they've really injured woven
themselves into everything we do, not just in America, everywhere.
China is now an essential part of our ability to
(29:33):
do business, and that doesn't bode well for diplomacy. If
you are dependent on someone, how do you begin to
bring them to the negotiation table, if you fund them,
how do you begin to hold them accountable for behavior.
It's very challenging from a diplomatic perspective because there's no carot. Instead,
(29:55):
we tried the trade war. Guess what, it didn't work.
Americans paid those tariffs, it devastated small businesses, and it
needed the tax cuts that Congress passed in TV. So
you know, this is a long term problem. This is
something we can't ignore. And there's a lot of great
things coming out of China. I don't mean to reign
on every China parade, right, but the Chinese government is
(30:19):
actively undermining us around the world, and really democracy for
that matter. So this isn't just America. This is US
and all our allies around the world, and we are,
by accident, paving the path to a new substantial threat
to our way of life on this planet through cheap manufacturing.
(30:40):
Maybe we should begin to evaluate what we're doing and
change what we're doing. And that's going to take some
buy in from corporate America and some incentivization from our
federal government here in America. So thanks to all of
you for joining me as we Follow the Profit, and
a big, big things to Sanjay la Forest. He's gave
(31:02):
us so much insight of such a fun interview into
marketing to the restaurant world. Check out his restaurant, lep
Clive And if you're ever in New York, I won't
be there anytime soon, but when I do, I will
be checking out his stuff. And as always, I am
nothing without my esteem team around me. That includes Emiliano Lemon,
(31:23):
Scott Handler, Cheyenne Read and of course our executive producers,
former Speaker of the House, New Gingrich, and my all
star Debbie Myers. I'm your host, David Grosso. If you're
enjoying the show, give us five stars, give us a review.
We read those. We want to listen to what you
think about the show so that we can make the
show better. Follow the Profit is a production of Get
(31:43):
Rich three sixty and I Heart Radio. For more podcast
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exp us by David Grasso and his guests on the
show are solely their opinions and do not reflect the
(32:04):
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(32:25):
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(32:47):
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Neither David Grasso nor three sixty guarantees any specific outcome
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(33:08):
this website or on the show. Strategies or investments discussed
may fluctuate in price or value. Investors may get back
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This material does not take into account your particular investment objectives,
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(33:31):
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Before acting on information on this website or on the show,
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or investment advisor
Follow the Profit is a production of Gang Ridge three
sixty and I Heart Radio. Relationships require work, especially if
you are two of the world's greatest economies and you're
having a hard time seeing eye to eye on trade
and foreign policy. That's why we're going to take a
look at the financial and political drama that exists between
the US and China, also known as the Chimerica relationship. Plus,
(00:24):
for those of you who know how to cook well,
the thought of opening a restaurant may have come to
mind at a certain point, but ask anyone who has
a restaurant. It's not just about the food. There's marketing,
there's consulting, and even get this event planning. Our next
guest has done that all as a friend of mine,
and he's here to share his insight. I'm David Grosso
and this is Followed the Profit. Are you looking to
(00:54):
get rich quick? There's plenty of podcasts out there for that.
Here on Follow the Profit, we try to deconstruct t
happening economically, politically, socially, and everything that's connected to all
of that, but most importantly, how all of that pertains
to our economy, so that you can use your money
to help you and For many people who cook, they
love to do so. For those that open a restaurant,
(01:16):
it's their passion, it's their lifestyle. For our guests, Sanjay
La Force, it's all of that along with an entrepreneurial spirit.
He started very early by organizing events at his father's
catering hall. The venue had an occupancy of four hundred
people with three event rooms. He hosted a variety of
events ranging from corporate occasions to sweet sixteen's and that's
(01:38):
where Sanjay implemented many strategic marketing tactics for his events
and the venue to be successful as possible. Today, he
has two restaurants and he's the owner and founder of
the Privy Group. I guess we would say Prevey Group
here in the United States, a marketing and the consulting firm.
How you doing, Sanjay, Yeah, how are you? Thanks for
(01:58):
having me? David All entrepreneurship, specifically food entrepreneurship runs in
your family. Tell me a little bit about your origin story. Well,
my parents were always involved in the restaurant industry, and
then they had an opportunity to open their own catering
hall on Long Island, and this was around the age
of twelve. Thirteen, so I grew up with it. I
(02:18):
wasn't really working at that age, but I was definitely
in the restaurant scene and throughout the catering hall scene
for those years. And once it became I turned seventeen,
I was looking for a side job at a part
time job. So I started to work as a waiter
in the catering hall and then I started to learn
the ins and outs of the industry, and the ins
and outs of the kitchen and the and what it
(02:38):
takes to actually run a profitable and good business. And
then after that I started to organize a few smaller
events at the catering hall. So I was I became.
I started as a waiter, and then I became a manager,
and then I started to organize a few events. And
that's my etymology. San Jay is always interesting, right because
(02:59):
you have a named I would associate with the subcontinent
and then left forest. Right sounds very French. So tell
me a little bit about your background and your family
lore and how that's affected your cooking. So my mother
is Indian, my father is Haitian, which he has ties
to Africa and France. So I speak French fluently, and
(03:23):
I definitely have always been geared towards the French culture,
and that's why I chose the name so Quivey in
French means private and exclusive, and we thought that was
the best name to start a company. It started off
as an event planning company and then it went from
event planning to marketing to consulting to our restaurant. So
(03:44):
this ran in your family. You have this bicultural experience,
right and you're bringing it all to the table. Has
really Indian spices kind of influenced the way you view
French and now you own a Mexican restaurant as well.
Are you kind of mixing all of these cuisines to
original dishes? Well, they are mixed together, so we do.
For Lupivita is a classic French restaurant, so we don't
(04:06):
want to mess with the classic French cuisine as much.
Although our was a little bit spicier than others, So no,
I wouldn't say spicy, but it has a little kick
to it, Let's just put it that way. People love it.
That's our most soul dish at the restaurant. But I
do think we infuse more of the cultural Caribbean Indian
spices in our cuisine for sure. So where did you
(04:30):
get the idea to just kind of run your own show?
Because it seems like you were set up with a
turnkey business, right. You could have just stayed in the
family business, did events, You had a reputation, you were
out on Long Island. What brought you to New York
City to do your own thing? I would say it
might be me being the black sheep, to be honest
with you. So I left the comfortable situation on Long Island.
(04:53):
I worked for my mentor, who was a real estate
company on Long Island for a few years after that,
after graduating college, and then I came to the city
and I went to an event at the Trump Towers
World Bar and they met this guy he was organizing events,
and like well, He's like, well, I'm organizing events and
this is what I do for him living. I'm like, wow,
that's pretty interesting living that you're going to organize events
(05:14):
and socialize with people. And I didn't understand how hard
it was at the time, but I thought to myself,
I think I could do this. Well, how do you
make your money? I asked him, and he said, well,
the owner of the Trump Towers World Bar he came
over to me and he gives me of the revenue
for the events that I organized, and I'm allowed to
charge at the door keep a hundred percent of that.
They give me marketing budgets, and they give me budgets
(05:36):
for doing the staffing for the event as well. So
I said to myself, Wow, it was almost like the cartoon,
a cartoon character with like money signs in their eyes.
And I'm like, oh, this might be a good idea,
might be something for me. And at that time, I
was still living on Long Island working for my mentor,
Banana Royalty, who has a real estate company. And then
I decided to go up to the owner of the
(05:57):
World Bar and I said to him, and I had
studied law, and so I came up with this big contract,
this big beautiful contract, and I told him, well, i'd
like to I had no experience. I didn't really tell
him I had no experience. I told him I had
experience in organizing events on Long Island, which might have
been seven or eight years prior to this. To went
in with this big beautiful contract that I learned from
(06:18):
studying pre law. And he's like, wow, you should be
a lawyer. Because this is a crazy contract, and I'm like, well,
I just want to organize one event at your place.
Organized one event at his uh at the Trump Towers
World Bar in Street, and he loved it, and I
invited my friends, my family. I knew nothing about marketing.
I wasn't really I didn't didn't know much about promotions,
(06:40):
and it was just the in the immediate people who
I knew. But I did see how I could generate
revenue doing this on the long term. It took me
about two months to organize an event with a hundred
and fifty people. After that I went through it went
about six years of the organizing events. I started organizing
(07:00):
one event every two weeks, one event every month, and
then once I started organizing an event a week, I
moved to New York City, got my office in a
small doctor's office um and then started hiring people to
help me organize events. And then I could give you
the story from there as well. It's always interesting because
there's always a moment, and I always tell people this,
sometimes the train only comes by once, and it seems
(07:23):
like you equated to the cartoon character with money signs,
and it's something that lightning strikes only once, so you
have to seize that opportunity and just push through. I
did seize that opportunity. Obviously I had no funding. I
possibly had a little bit of savings at the time,
and then I I all I could afford was a
small six by six foot room in a doctor's office,
(07:45):
but I needed an office to look professional, so it
was one of his small office rooms that he wasn't using,
so we rented it. And then I started hiring people
who were in the events industry in New York City
already doing their events as well. So then I started
to have interns from France. So that's what led my
ties to a lot of the French culture and getting
(08:05):
our clients from France as well the French consulate. So
then to three or four years later, we saw that
the business was growing in As you might not might
or might not know, event planning is very closely tied
to marketing because you're showing the impressions that you have
of people who are attending your events are people who
see your events. And then people started to contact me
(08:26):
for smaller brands to do their marketing to start their
startup business, and then bigger groups and restaurants and events
spaces started to contact me to do their marketing and
their promotions and their events, and then it went from
there to wow, I could even do the staffing. And
then I started to learn the systems of the restaurants
that already had a background in. But everything involves, right,
marketing is never the same. It's not the same that
(08:48):
it was five years ago. It's not the same that
it was two months ago. And we were constantly involving,
and then ended up about four years after I had
a penthouse office on Wall Street doing big events for
Salon Ventures, big events um across the country, and then
that the company was booming. But I knew that with
my marketing background and my consulting background, that I always
(09:08):
wanted to own my own space. I had these clients
and they were paying me, and they were paying me
great money for me to build their business and do
the consulting for them and for them to take all
the credit for it. So I knew at some point
in time, whether it was a restaurant, whether it was
a nightclub, whether it was an event space, I knew
at some point in time that I would actually own
my own space. And here we are now David, Wow,
(09:30):
So tell me how are your parents doing? Donna Murray's
on Long Island, and tell me a little bit about
gas over there in New York. And of course you're
Marquee French eaterie Le Prevay. Well, my parents are doing great.
They are currently in Florida in Boca, where I believe
you are. You're in the South as well. Now, of
(09:50):
course they're doing great. Then everybody go out to eat.
They they enjoy wonderful dinners there in their retirement phase.
So they're no longer in the restaurant industry. And Casta
del total that is booming. So as you know, we
opened Casta del Toro in December of twenty nineteen, so
those pre COVID, and two months into it we find
(10:13):
out that we have to shut down because of COVID.
Today we were at capacity. Thank you government, Cuomo for
allowing us to do that. And I see the light
at the end of the tunnel. It's growing a lot.
We're allowed to have outdoor dining. People are coming to eat,
a lot more people are knowing our reservations on Friday
and Saturday. We don't have enough tables for the amount
of people that want to sit at the restaurant. So
(10:35):
it's absolutely wonderful. Lup is a household baby. Now it
has become that. I'm happy to hear a lot of
people who were coming to Lupi. They wore the out
of towners. They were doing their pre theater, their dinner
or after the theater, they would come eat, and everybody
wants to enjoy French cuisine when going to the theater.
(10:57):
We're gonna take a quick break here, be right back back.
So now that we got your history, let's start to
impact stuff. What happened in New York and what have
you done for the past year, because it seems like
that's been the latest chapter in this adventure of San
(11:17):
Angela Forest. Like what on Earth went through your head
when suddenly everything shut down and you're in events and restaurants,
the most heavily affected industry. I'm speech just light now
because I was speechless then when I found out. I
I did not know where to begin. I did not
know what we would do. But more so I understand
(11:39):
we had to close because obviously, this virus is real,
and people die, and and it is contagious, and there
are a lot of things that are wrong that are
dangerous with it. But I think that our politicians definitely
handled it wrong. Look, you're in the South currently, and
the numbers are not are not growing. They they they've
been open more than we have for I believe, six
(12:03):
to seven months. And I'm just in shock by how
the politicians handled this, because the politicians closed down New
York City indoor dining in December and the rate was
a lot lower than what it is now. So I
don't understand the decision making process. The decision making process
does not add up for me. Whatsoever are people going
to survive sanj Like, what percentage of your friends in
(12:26):
New York are actually going to be able to reopen
their restaurants. There's not a large percentage. I know a
lot of my friends have closed their restaurants, some of
them temporarily, because restaurants are only profitable at really, so
if we're only profitable and you're allowing us to only
have a capacity, we're dead in the water, you know.
(12:48):
And that's why I say hold the fort I believe
New York City is very resilient and that I'm confident
and I'm optimistic, and I think that that's in the
nature of being an entrepreneur is that you you have
to be that. And I think that the investment that
people have made, the millions of dollars that they spent
on their restaurant, if they can allow themselves to hold
(13:09):
the fort for a little bit longer, I believe everything
will turn. Yeah. But in the meantime, you know, it's
rumored Goldman Sachs already bought their building down here in Florida.
Are laze fair policies on this are driving your basically
your customer base too here. So have you thought of
(13:30):
leaving and maybe reopening le Privy in in Miami? Is
that something that's crossed your mind. I've always considered opening
lup v in the South and Florida in Miami. But
am I leaving because I don't believe New York City
will will recover? No, It's because I just want to
grow the brand. I do think that the economy in
(13:54):
Miami's booming now, I mean real estates booming. Everything is booming.
And it's it's because the majority of all my friends
they're not here. They're all in Miami, they're all in Florida,
they're all in South Florida, they're all in Orlando. They're
all in Bocca. They're all moving around down there and
spending money and going to eat and enjoying life and
renting yachts and all their capitals being used in Florida
(14:16):
whereas it used to be used in New York and
basically eating at my restaurant. These are the people who
would come and eat and enjoy, and we no longer
have that. So there's a good majority of people who
are in the South. Now are they going to come back? Sanjay?
I think that's the most pressing question that I'm mulling around.
I was late to this interview because I was stuck
in a traffic snarl here in Orlando, and people don't
(14:37):
understand that, like life is normal here. That's that's incredible.
It's beyond me. It's beyond me. Will it come back,
That's a great question. I believe it will. To what extent,
I don't know if it comes back At seventy I
think that we're lucky. I'm here and I continuously invest
in my business, and I'm continuously growing up during closures
(15:01):
and investing in heating and investing thousands and thousands of
dollars because I believe it will come back to what
extent I don't know. I don't think so. We we
used to generate a lot of money from tourism, and
will that ever happen again, I don't know. Or will
it be a five year plan? I don't know. But
do I think that within the next year we will
(15:22):
come back? Yes? I do. So let's be honest about this,
sun Jay for people who haven't been, because this is
the number one question I get. I spent half the
pandemic here in Florida and half the pandemic in New York.
New York is a little grimy right now. I love
New York. I consider it my second home. But how
is New York going to recover? Considering the current state
(15:44):
and the lack of attention to basic things like security
and cleanliness and just common sense government. And I'm struggling
to see how people like you won't just throw up
their ends and take off. There have been many people
who have done so. Maybe I'm stubborn, David. I don't
(16:07):
know if that's what the case is. But just an example,
you mentioned security. They're building homeless shelters a few blocks away,
and all the hotels that used to have our clients
that would come and spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars
on a French meal or a Mexican meal. Um, they
have homeless people living there now, So they are homeless
people roaming around the streets in New York City and
(16:30):
there's there are no controls there. It seems like they
are less police. My managers who have to kick out
a homeless person at the restaurant almost every day. The
insecurity here is is growing. So maybe it's just that
I'm stubborn, But I don't know why many people don't move.
Maybe it's because I'm heavily invested. I spent a lot
(16:52):
of money, I spent a lot of time. I spent
many years on these two babies that we've grown, and
I don't want to see them die. But I understand
why people would leave. So what would you suggest for
entrepreneurs because you're an entrepreneur in a high tech state
and specifically in the worst part, because it's a city
that really does nothing for entrepreneurs. In fact, I would
(17:13):
go as far to say, as it hurts entrepreneurs and
it used to just be the great compromise, right that
this is where you have to come to make your
money because it's New York. But now New York isn't
what it used to be now, So where does that
leave entrepreneurs like you? It's it's always been difficult to
make it in New York. I mean that the quote
if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
(17:33):
I believe that. I think that entrepreneurs have to follow
their own path. That's the thing about being an entrepreneur.
You're creating something new, You're following your own vision, your
own path. You're seeing profit in things that other people
don't see. You're going to follow that to know do
and a lot of us fail. The majority of us
do fail. And you can't be afraid of failure, and
(17:56):
you have to continuously be resilient. That's that's the basic
advice I would give them. And how about geography, would
you suggest they double down on New York or should
they be following economic trends to places like Texas, Florida, Utah, etcetera.
I'm doubling down in New York, and it looks as
though I'm going to be opening a few different restaurants
(18:19):
within because the pricing is better because you're getting a
bargain and because the landlords are currently understanding of the
current situation and they're optimistic of growing back. So entrepreneurs
will find value in different places. I find value here
right now, So I would say New York. Yeah, because
everyone's running away, isn't that fascinating? Sometimes in the darkest moment,
(18:42):
there is business opportunity. So when you see everyone running
one way, that creates an opportunity window for people like you.
So just restaurant one oh one. If you're someone who
wants to open a restaurant, and obviously you own high
end restaurants in New York, but let's just say you know,
you live in Missouri and like where my cousins live,
and you dream of owning your own restaurant. Is now
(19:03):
a good time and what is your advice for those people?
The ground roots for me are completely different than a
lot of other restaurant hears. Some of them are chefs,
some of them just have a large lump sum of
capital that they'd like to invest and it's cool to
open a restaurant, And the other ones like me, come
from a marketing background. So let's just say, for instance,
(19:24):
you have a hundred thousand dollars you're going to invest
in your restaurant. You're gonna build your restaurant. I would
say to build a restaurant, you invest two hundred thou
dollars on the building a restaurant, the systems in place,
and then the rest of the money gets invested in
the marketing aspect, gets invested in the consulting asment. Because
if you build something that's beautiful, let's say you spend
(19:44):
a hundred thousand dollars, if nobody knows about the restaurant
that you built, nobody will come. So it's better that
they know that you actually exist. So I think that
marketing is the foundation for me at a restaurant, if
you're opening any restaurant for that matter. So that's the
advice that would give, Studying the demographics, figuring out if
you can actually get those people there, what the demographics are,
(20:05):
if they're going to enjoy the type of cuisine and
whatever you're offering them, So that that ties into the
marketing aspect as well. And what about right now things
are shifting to delivery, and we've seen a lot of
news on you know how all of these companies with
the remain nameless, but you know who they are. Take
a huge commission. Do you do delivery or do you
just hard pass because it's not profitable. My hard passed
(20:29):
because it's not profitable because these companies take thirty of
your delivery fee. We tried, We did have it at
the beginning of the pandemic, and it was just the
packaging wasn't done. It wasn't proper. To have to reheat
scargo or whole fish a branzino doesn't make sense. Or
to order a nice steak and then have to reheat
(20:50):
it and have it be overcooked and not cooked the
way you wanted. It just doesn't add up for us,
So I stay away from that. Aside of the fact
from the fees that these companies are charging and take
an advantage of the small mom and pop stores. Is
there anything we could do about that because all of
us order delivery? I'm sure you do, sound j it's
sometimes just cold, rainy. You're lazy, like you know, like
(21:11):
it happens to all of us, right Netflix, Jill and
Uber Eats, what's your advice. I'm guilty of actually using
some of these companies. I'm guilty of actually using them
up until about six months ago. I'm on the back
end as well. I know that they're charging. It's just
a click of a button on your phone. That's how
easy it is now. I would say you should call
(21:32):
the restaurant. I would say that restaurants should implement a
system where it's easy for people to click on their
phone to order the food, because it's I mean to
spend another five to seven dollars for you to be
able to click. It's a convenience of things. But to
help these restaurants, I would call them. I would take
the time out because it does add that you have
to give them your credit card over again. You have
(21:53):
to give them the expiration date, so forth, and so on,
and people and where the city that never sleeps with
the city that moves quickly, so people want to move
quickly with with everything they're doing. I would definitely say
take a few more minutes to help the restaurant out
by by just calling them. I'm surprised, Sanjay, no one's
come up with a low commission app. I'm wonder if
that's right for that. I'm surprised as well. I hope
(22:16):
so maybe that's our million dollar ideal, right Dad? Yeah,
well thirty for you know, food in a low margin
business seems a bit abusive, but you know, I'll defer
to your judgment, Sanjay, I don't own restaurants. It's absolutely
is abusive. They're taking advantage of us. Well. On that note, listen, Sanjay,
we really appreciate your time. We'd love to have you
(22:39):
here in Florida. You know, I don't mean to put
on my Florida economic development hat, but I'm looking forward
to the opening of your theoretical Florida restaurant eventually as
of mine. Thank you for having me, David, I appreciate
it greatly. We're gonna take a quick break here, be
right back. So the will to follow the profit is
(23:01):
to deconstruct what's going on in the economy so that
you can use your money to help yourself. So today
I'm going to delve into one of the sexiest, glitziest
portions of the economy. Oh boy, here we go, foreign
trade between the US and China. Some people like to
call it Chimerica. It's very catchy. And there's one thing
you need to know about our relationship. It's that the
(23:23):
US is economically linked to China, probably more than any
country outside of maybe Mexico and Canada. Because they're right
next door. But here's the big deal that you need
to remember. We're economically linked, but we're definitely not friends.
US and China, not in a relationship, just money. Not
(23:47):
so good on the diplomacy front. Our allies are countries
like Japan and Germany and side note, you know, eighty
years ago these were immortal enemies and now there's some
of our best allies and we trade billy millions of
dollars of goods and services with them. However, with China,
it's a different story. If you get into a time
machine and go back for decades after the communist revolution
(24:10):
over there, China in the U S didn't have any
formal relations. That was until one big thing happened back
in two when President Nixon visited China, unprecedented action at
the moment, and a few years later, in seventy nine,
both countries signed a trade agreement, and the amount of
trade at that time was a paltry four billion dollars.
(24:32):
Today it's six hundred billion dollars. So that makes China
America's third largest trading partner. Of course Canada, Mexico or
the other two because there right next door. So take
a look around your house. Everything's made in China. We're
definitely in a relationship. We may not be friends, but
we're dependent on each other. And there's one aspect of
(24:53):
this dependence that is especially scary, US debt. Here's how
it works the US, if you haven't noticed, our federal
government is bloody broke and they're always needing to raise
money to fund our deficits. So the US offers up
T bills treasury securities, and that means someone buys the bond,
so basically they're just buying our debt. It's actually a
(25:14):
stellar asset. A lot of people around the world want
to buy it. So the US government borrows money and
pays back the amount of the bond plus interest, and
for the most part, it's a very reliable form of investment.
And guess what, everyone can buy these things, these T bills.
It's just debt. And everyone knows that the United States
(25:34):
probably will never default, just like Germany will never default
and probably Japan will never default. So there's certain countries
where people just park their money because it's safe to
do so, and that's the case with US T bills.
And what's really interesting, and it's not only individuals right,
and corporations and people right here, but people anywhere can
(25:56):
buy tea bills. So guess what China spotted a lot
of t bills, specifically, the government to the tune of
get this, one trillion dollars trillion gets thrown around a
lot now in Corona times. But do you understand how
much a trillion dollars is? It's numerically challenging to understand
the scale of a trillion dollars. So guess what, China
(26:18):
owns a trillion dollars of our debt. So there's always
been one concern that the US has with China holding
so many treasuries is currency to valuation. So let's let's
talk this out. If China were to start buying up
more US treasuries, the value of the dollar would go up.
A more valuable dollar, would make American products more expensive,
(26:39):
and would therefore make Chinese products less expensive. Yeah, that's
a lot to impact, But basically, you know what, they
have so much control that any sort of buying and
selling that they do, because they're one of our largest
holders of debt overseas, means that they can influence the
value of the dollar. And interestingly, China is a notorious
(27:01):
currency manipulator. You see, everything is made in China. Not
just because you know the system over there makes things
more efficient, because it's just command and control. It's also
because they've artificially deflated there yuan ran mindy, which is
their currency, in effect making their products cheaper. It's made
(27:23):
it so that American companies cannot do business without China.
So guess what, everything's made in China. That's starting to change.
There was a trade war during the Trump administration to
try to diversify our supply chains, but China is so
embedded in our supply chains. Everything from pharmaceuticals, yes, those
(27:45):
pills Grandmas is taking. They have to do with China.
The clothes on my body, the microphone that I'm using
right now, the camera, the computer. I just bought a
new house, half of it is made in China. My
floor is made in China. China is so interwoven into
the American economy and vice versa for that matter, and
(28:05):
the global economy, that how do you begin to disaggregate
this toxic relationship Because guess what, we all have dynamic
economies and industries, and we want China to do well
because the Chinese government may not be our friend, but
regular Chinese people deserve economic opportunity. And here's the problem, though,
the Chinese government is not our friend. They're in fact
(28:30):
our enemy, and we don't see eye to eye on
anything on foreign policy, and they're doing everything they can
to become the next superpower. So in effect, our trinkets,
the stuff we're buying, the cell phone I'm playing with,
the floor in my house, is inadvertently funding our enemies,
(28:52):
and that's not good. In the beginning, it was great business. Really,
China is a big market, right, you know, you have
to understand that China is there were four times the
size of America in population. It's a really big market.
It's hard to say no to China. And it's a
cheap place to manufacture, and they've been losing at that game.
(29:12):
It's getting more expensive to manufacture in China and manufacturing.
If you check out your tennis shoes, so probably made
in Vietnam now because it's cheaper. Nevertheless, China is a
really efficient place to manufacture, and they've really injured woven
themselves into everything we do, not just in America, everywhere.
China is now an essential part of our ability to
(29:33):
do business, and that doesn't bode well for diplomacy. If
you are dependent on someone, how do you begin to
bring them to the negotiation table, if you fund them,
how do you begin to hold them accountable for behavior.
It's very challenging from a diplomatic perspective because there's no carot. Instead,
(29:55):
we tried the trade war. Guess what, it didn't work.
Americans paid those tariffs, it devastated small businesses, and it
needed the tax cuts that Congress passed in TV. So
you know, this is a long term problem. This is
something we can't ignore. And there's a lot of great
things coming out of China. I don't mean to reign
on every China parade, right, but the Chinese government is
(30:19):
actively undermining us around the world, and really democracy for
that matter. So this isn't just America. This is US
and all our allies around the world, and we are,
by accident, paving the path to a new substantial threat
to our way of life on this planet through cheap manufacturing.
(30:40):
Maybe we should begin to evaluate what we're doing and
change what we're doing. And that's going to take some
buy in from corporate America and some incentivization from our
federal government here in America. So thanks to all of
you for joining me as we Follow the Profit, and
a big, big things to Sanjay la Forest. He's gave
(31:02):
us so much insight of such a fun interview into
marketing to the restaurant world. Check out his restaurant, lep
Clive And if you're ever in New York, I won't
be there anytime soon, but when I do, I will
be checking out his stuff. And as always, I am
nothing without my esteem team around me. That includes Emiliano Lemon,
(31:23):
Scott Handler, Cheyenne Read and of course our executive producers,
former Speaker of the House, New Gingrich, and my all
star Debbie Myers. I'm your host, David Grosso. If you're
enjoying the show, give us five stars, give us a review.
We read those. We want to listen to what you
think about the show so that we can make the
show better. Follow the Profit is a production of Get
(31:43):
Rich three sixty and I Heart Radio. For more podcast
from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. All opinions
exp us by David Grasso and his guests on the
show are solely their opinions and do not reflect the
(32:04):
opinions of Gingrich, three sixty or affiliates, and may have
been previously disseminated by David Grasso on this podcast, television, radio, Internet,
or another medium. You should not treat any opinion expressed
by David grass So as a specific inducement to make
a particular investment or follow in particular strategy, but only
as an expression of his opinion. David Grass's opinions are
(32:25):
based upon information he considers reliable, but neither ging Rich
Productions nor its affiliates and or subsidiaries warrant its completeness
or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such.
David Grasso, Gingrich Productions, its affiliates, and or subsidiaries are
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(32:47):
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Neither David Grasso nor three sixty guarantees any specific outcome
or profit you should be aware of the real risk
of loss in following any strategy or investment discussed on
(33:08):
this website or on the show. Strategies or investments discussed
may fluctuate in price or value. Investors may get back
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This material does not take into account your particular investment objectives,
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(33:31):
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