February 17, 2022 • 10 mins
Cleo Harris talks about the value of building a legacy in Greenwood.
Cleo talks about his T-shirt business in the historic district of Greenwood started. He discusses how he incorporates his family to work in the store to learn how to run a business. Cleo and his family even walk us through the process of creating T-shirts and how to start a business.
If you are ever in the historic district, make sure to visit Black Wall Street Shirts.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to the Money Moved podcast
powered by Greenwood. As you know, Marl Hall was able
to make it out to Tulsa, Oklahoma this year for
the anniversary of the Greenwood massacre. There were festivities and
parades and tons of vendors in storefronts, and while there
she happened to run into a rather interesting gentleman by
the name of Cleo Harrick. All right, open the eyes. Wow, production,
(00:36):
full production up in here. Wow. We even have a kitchen.
You know, you gotta head of kids. I got a
baked pizzas you guys, take a look. That's this is
my son over here, that's putting his pink shirt on.
He's uh, he's the co owner. Um, this store. This
(00:59):
is generational, generational wealth and legacy. Yeah. So this is
what our people need to see. Even in the Atlanta
they need to see this. Killer Mike and all of
them need to see what we're doing here on the
original Greenwood. Uh app And we need a network. We
need to pass this down to our children, not just
to the sons, to our daughters too. Exactly. Any questions, No, um, well,
(01:25):
actually I do. How many people do you have working
for you with your family business. I have one, two, three,
four or five six seven. I have seven employees and
you had another son downstairs to yah that's just one
of them. We have four boys and uh three girls.
(01:51):
So Cleo, what was your initial investment to start your
T shirt business? How much did you invest to get
it off the ground? About hundred dollars um. I put
a little money back in. I just start going online
trying to find local businesses, printing businesses that would print
(02:13):
T shirts or I didn't know anything about printing T shirts. Um.
It was a period of a year and a half
of growing and learning this particular business. It wasn't a
whole lot of people doing that. And uh in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
I had a tent and I had a tope with
(02:34):
some T shirts which was killed racism, not me. And
I started just with one black T shirt with some
white images on it and it just started building. But
I did this for six years before I even came here.
I've only been here a year and a half. And
(02:56):
over a year and a half, Uh, this business is
pulling in six figures. I love that. I love that.
So with this business and for anyone that's watching or
listening into the Money Move podcast, what advice do you
have for them to start their own business? What if
there's a twenty one year old out there in in
(03:18):
the neighboring cities of Tulsa, Oklahoma, they wants to start
their own business, what advice do you would you give
to them? For one, find your niche? What what can
you take to the market. If it's ear rings, if
it's an umbrella, if it's tenny shoes, if it's uh whatever.
The first thing you need to do is go get
(03:40):
your tax i D, go get your E I N
or you can use yourself security. Then you register that
with the state. Right, so when you when you go
selling stuff out your trunk or putting your items on consignment,
everything is legal, everything is protected. And then your trade
(04:02):
market or copyright you can poor man copyright until you
do your trademark. What's a poor man's copyright? Uh? It
is a uh mail to yourself type item. So when
you get a stamp on what you mail to yourself,
let it stay seal. Do not open it until you're
(04:24):
able to pay for registry on trademark. Okay, okay, and
I have one more question for you. I see your
son is over here making shirts. Can you show us
the process that he's doing. I see he's working with
some paints, and then I see he's putting the T
shirt through a machine. Could you just explain to us
what he's doing exactly? Okay, So, um, I'll show you
(04:45):
right basically what's going on. So you just get your
T shirts set up? Okay, different sizes, right, and I'm
well versed in this, um, So we're doing what everybody
is selling. Now these are This is an owner's screen.
So there's a process to making this screen too. You
(05:06):
get a transfer paper, you put emotion on this screen,
and then you put it on an exposure machine to
burn then image in. It's just like photography work. So
once you put your shirt on here, your T shirt
on here, this is the plate, it's the screen you
got the uh squeeze you here. And because I've been
(05:29):
doing this for a long time, you just make sure
that this this is flat. We didn't get any sticky
on here, so I gotta be real careful. I'll pull
the screen down. Here's the ink. This is white ink,
and it's gonna fill in the places where it will
show the different values. So I flooded, you can't see
(05:54):
the image. And then I pressed this ink through this screen,
which is like a step, and I just keep doing
this for a little bit and get all the ink
in through here, and I'll pull up and there's you.
There's your image. That's just one color. You have four
(06:17):
colors here, and then some impress are up to twelve
and they get even bigger. So then I'll take my
hands in here and I'll pull my pull my shirt up. Okay,
it's still wet, so you don't want to fold this.
I bring it over to this oven, the same oven
that I told you all that was down in the
(06:37):
store burning were sweating I under. So you let it
run through here this conveyor. This is plaster salt ink.
And what it does it drives as it uh the
infrared heating elements hit it, it comes out on the
other side. And so the see you have your shirt
(07:01):
on this end. I'll let you walk down here. Yeah,
you have to have it at a certain temperature, and
the belt of how this is moving, you slow it
down to match your temperature, which this is eleven hundred degrees.
(07:22):
But the belt determines how hot does get in cooking,
So This is about three hundred and forty degrees, so
you can feel that, feel that toast. And so this
shirt is ready to be sent out. This this is
an online order right here. We had like fifteen of
(07:42):
these come in this morning. So um yeah, this is
pretty much how you you you make T shirts. Good
stuff here, thank you. If you look around, we got
stock of things. This is one of the favorites. And
I like we call this shirt so mercy. It's still
(08:08):
standing today, just like this, Black men are still standing.
We were. We are still holding our hands up like this.
I've done it before where guns were drawn at me
and and and and it hurts my heart. I wish
I knew who this guy was. Nobody knows who he is.
He's just holding his hands up. That was back in
(08:32):
today in we're still holding our hands up. So we
will continue to tell our story through T shirts. And
of course that's a whole another area of doing T shirts.
When you look at this now, I purposely separated the
(08:53):
two because this is more screen printing wet over here.
This is more of DTG digital uh, direct to garment.
So you're dealing with some high dollar stuff over here
that can't be contaminated with this over here. Uh. This
(09:14):
right here is a uh so this is what you
call for stair and you don't use the same method
of drying ink over there with this. This is more
uh for stare to suck the salt in the water
up when you use this machine right here, which is
(09:34):
a VTG machine, and then you have a direct uh
treatment because the shirts have to have a special liquid
in order for the wet based ink to go on here.
And so yeah, this is this is an old we got.
(09:55):
We can do hats, we can do mugs, we can
do play, we can do this about anything. And it's
all right here on Black Wall Street, keeping the legacy going. Yes, ma'am,
thank you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
please go to the Bank Greenwood dot com and check
(10:17):
out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an
I heart radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by
Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcasts on I heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts from
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to the Money Moved podcast
powered by Greenwood. As you know, Marl Hall was able
to make it out to Tulsa, Oklahoma this year for
the anniversary of the Greenwood massacre. There were festivities and
parades and tons of vendors in storefronts, and while there
she happened to run into a rather interesting gentleman by
the name of Cleo Harrick. All right, open the eyes. Wow, production,
(00:36):
full production up in here. Wow. We even have a kitchen.
You know, you gotta head of kids. I got a
baked pizzas you guys, take a look. That's this is
my son over here, that's putting his pink shirt on.
He's uh, he's the co owner. Um, this store. This
(00:59):
is generational, generational wealth and legacy. Yeah. So this is
what our people need to see. Even in the Atlanta
they need to see this. Killer Mike and all of
them need to see what we're doing here on the
original Greenwood. Uh app And we need a network. We
need to pass this down to our children, not just
to the sons, to our daughters too. Exactly. Any questions, No, um, well,
(01:25):
actually I do. How many people do you have working
for you with your family business. I have one, two, three,
four or five six seven. I have seven employees and
you had another son downstairs to yah that's just one
of them. We have four boys and uh three girls.
(01:51):
So Cleo, what was your initial investment to start your
T shirt business? How much did you invest to get
it off the ground? About hundred dollars um. I put
a little money back in. I just start going online
trying to find local businesses, printing businesses that would print
(02:13):
T shirts or I didn't know anything about printing T shirts. Um.
It was a period of a year and a half
of growing and learning this particular business. It wasn't a
whole lot of people doing that. And uh in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
I had a tent and I had a tope with
(02:34):
some T shirts which was killed racism, not me. And
I started just with one black T shirt with some
white images on it and it just started building. But
I did this for six years before I even came here.
I've only been here a year and a half. And
(02:56):
over a year and a half, Uh, this business is
pulling in six figures. I love that. I love that.
So with this business and for anyone that's watching or
listening into the Money Move podcast, what advice do you
have for them to start their own business? What if
there's a twenty one year old out there in in
(03:18):
the neighboring cities of Tulsa, Oklahoma, they wants to start
their own business, what advice do you would you give
to them? For one, find your niche? What what can
you take to the market. If it's ear rings, if
it's an umbrella, if it's tenny shoes, if it's uh whatever.
The first thing you need to do is go get
(03:40):
your tax i D, go get your E I N
or you can use yourself security. Then you register that
with the state. Right, so when you when you go
selling stuff out your trunk or putting your items on consignment,
everything is legal, everything is protected. And then your trade
(04:02):
market or copyright you can poor man copyright until you
do your trademark. What's a poor man's copyright? Uh? It
is a uh mail to yourself type item. So when
you get a stamp on what you mail to yourself,
let it stay seal. Do not open it until you're
(04:24):
able to pay for registry on trademark. Okay, okay, and
I have one more question for you. I see your
son is over here making shirts. Can you show us
the process that he's doing. I see he's working with
some paints, and then I see he's putting the T
shirt through a machine. Could you just explain to us
what he's doing exactly? Okay, So, um, I'll show you
(04:45):
right basically what's going on. So you just get your
T shirts set up? Okay, different sizes, right, and I'm
well versed in this, um, So we're doing what everybody
is selling. Now these are This is an owner's screen.
So there's a process to making this screen too. You
(05:06):
get a transfer paper, you put emotion on this screen,
and then you put it on an exposure machine to
burn then image in. It's just like photography work. So
once you put your shirt on here, your T shirt
on here, this is the plate, it's the screen you
got the uh squeeze you here. And because I've been
(05:29):
doing this for a long time, you just make sure
that this this is flat. We didn't get any sticky
on here, so I gotta be real careful. I'll pull
the screen down. Here's the ink. This is white ink,
and it's gonna fill in the places where it will
show the different values. So I flooded, you can't see
(05:54):
the image. And then I pressed this ink through this screen,
which is like a step, and I just keep doing
this for a little bit and get all the ink
in through here, and I'll pull up and there's you.
There's your image. That's just one color. You have four
(06:17):
colors here, and then some impress are up to twelve
and they get even bigger. So then I'll take my
hands in here and I'll pull my pull my shirt up. Okay,
it's still wet, so you don't want to fold this.
I bring it over to this oven, the same oven
that I told you all that was down in the
(06:37):
store burning were sweating I under. So you let it
run through here this conveyor. This is plaster salt ink.
And what it does it drives as it uh the
infrared heating elements hit it, it comes out on the
other side. And so the see you have your shirt
(07:01):
on this end. I'll let you walk down here. Yeah,
you have to have it at a certain temperature, and
the belt of how this is moving, you slow it
down to match your temperature, which this is eleven hundred degrees.
(07:22):
But the belt determines how hot does get in cooking,
So This is about three hundred and forty degrees, so
you can feel that, feel that toast. And so this
shirt is ready to be sent out. This this is
an online order right here. We had like fifteen of
(07:42):
these come in this morning. So um yeah, this is
pretty much how you you you make T shirts. Good
stuff here, thank you. If you look around, we got
stock of things. This is one of the favorites. And
I like we call this shirt so mercy. It's still
(08:08):
standing today, just like this, Black men are still standing.
We were. We are still holding our hands up like this.
I've done it before where guns were drawn at me
and and and and it hurts my heart. I wish
I knew who this guy was. Nobody knows who he is.
He's just holding his hands up. That was back in
(08:32):
today in we're still holding our hands up. So we
will continue to tell our story through T shirts. And
of course that's a whole another area of doing T shirts.
When you look at this now, I purposely separated the
(08:53):
two because this is more screen printing wet over here.
This is more of DTG digital uh, direct to garment.
So you're dealing with some high dollar stuff over here
that can't be contaminated with this over here. Uh. This
(09:14):
right here is a uh so this is what you
call for stair and you don't use the same method
of drying ink over there with this. This is more
uh for stare to suck the salt in the water
up when you use this machine right here, which is
(09:34):
a VTG machine, and then you have a direct uh
treatment because the shirts have to have a special liquid
in order for the wet based ink to go on here.
And so yeah, this is this is an old we got.
(09:55):
We can do hats, we can do mugs, we can
do play, we can do this about anything. And it's
all right here on Black Wall Street, keeping the legacy going. Yes, ma'am,
thank you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience.
If you want more or a recap of this episode,
please go to the Bank Greenwood dot com and check
(10:17):
out the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an
I heart radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by
Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcasts on I heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts from
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