June 29, 2022 • 13 mins
In this deep dive, serial entrepreneur John Miller returns to talk about how he uses one business's income to support the next, listening to customers' suggestions and the value his restaurant has to the community.
Guest IG: @johnnytsbistroandblues
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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 Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey money Movers, I'm
Tanya Sam and welcome back to another episode of Money Moves,
(00:22):
the daily podcast determined to give you the keys to
the Kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance. On today's
deep Dive, we are joined by serial entrepreneur of Mississippi,
John Miller. Hi, John, and welcome back to the podcast.
For you, I am great. It's so excited to have
you back, so excited to hear more about the series
(00:44):
of businesses that you have founded over the years. And
if you guys missed the previous episode, tune in because
John Stacks as they call you, told us so much
about his journey through entrepreneurship and many of his latest
business ventures. But I want to start today because when
you recap the last episode, you've had barbershops, beauty supply shops.
You're now in the restaurant industry. If you had to
(01:06):
look back, tell us about which one was the hardest
to start. Probably the restaurant because there's so many moving parts.
It's a grander investment that maybe some of the other businesses,
and there's like we said, it's it's the marketing, it's
the management, it's the counting. And then you gotta surround
(01:28):
yourself with a good team food. I mean already, you
gotta have the right chef, you gotta have the cooks
in the kitchen. So I feel like I kind of
wieled it into existence because with the restaurant business, I
had no background. I love food, I love to eat, drink,
travel the world, but I've never been in the restaurant business.
And how I started was the extra capital that I
(01:50):
had made. I started buying restaurant equipment. Oh so you
started buying the equipment first. Our bought equipment first because
I knew I wouldn't let myself and once I make
this investment, we gotta make it work. So that's what
I was doing, maybe over eighteen months. And once I
accumulated all the equipment and kind of got a name
(02:10):
together and how we were gonna brand it, the Lord
sent me chef Bryan Myrie. No, I mean, and we've
been together the last ten years, but he was an
executive chef of one of the more popular restaurants here
in this market and we just failed. And we've been
together every ever since. But that definitely probably was the
hardest because, like we said, you know, creating quality control
(02:34):
and product consistency, and it was just so many things
that I didn't have and maybe some of the other businesses.
So yeah, but I was up for the challenge. But
still every day I'm a stupid in business. You know
what I mean by that, I'm always seeking knowledge. So
this was one of the industries that you know, you
have to continue each and every day to want to
(02:54):
get better and to you know, seek knowledge or if
it's a class so convention, whatever it need be, you
gotta be dedicated in on you know, hospitality. So when
you look back, I mean, such an interesting array from
you know, the beauty industry to you've had a T
shirt business. As you look forward into two and if
(03:15):
you had to start a new business, what are some
of the lessons that these past businesses would sort of
tempt you into starting a new business venture. Um, I'm
so heavily leaning into a real estate. I love commercial
real estate, and I think some of the woods in
the past taught me is to stay ready. I can't
(03:39):
explain to anybody that wants to be an entrepreneur or
wants to travel this lane to stay ready. And what
I mean by that is whether it's an opportunity that
comes to you being able to take advantage of it,
or maybe in this investment, making sure that you saved
up enough money or you have access to the capital
to execute perfect answer, And that actually leads me into
(04:02):
my next question because one of the topics that often
comes up on the podcast is access to capital, especially
for people of color. We know that sometimes it's difficult.
You told us a really heartwarming story about her Your
grandfather gave you, you know, a three thousand dollar investment
into one of your early early businesses. What are some
ways that you've been able to get access to capital
(04:23):
when you've been starting businesses. For me, I never borrowed
it on always. Yeah. I started with a shoestring budget
with the T shirt and ever since then I've been
you know, accumulating and reinvesting in the company and whatnot.
But I didn't go out and get the Bentley and
go out and get the mansion. I made sure that
(04:45):
I had enough capital on to reinvest in anything that
may come up. I gotta be able to have enough too,
because we all know that banks would not that they're
not too fine on learning the restaurants and ball and things.
It's hard, and you know, I really want our audience
(05:05):
to understand because you know, these are some of like
this is the grim truth of entrepreneurship. You know, there's
a lot of people say, well, I couldn't get the
money and I couldn't do this. But I mean you're
a perfect example of like I couldn't get the money,
it wasn't available to me, but I bootstrapped businesses. And
I think oftentimes people get really discouraged when they're like, well,
(05:26):
you know, I had this dream to open up a
five star restaurant overnight, and they you know, it's just
not possible. But if you actually look into the backstory
of a lot of these entrepreneurs are like I started
selling T shirts out of the back of my car.
That got me to the next level, and it's kind
of like, you know, it's a level up. It's like
Mario Brothers. Absolutely, and then the other thing is you
(05:47):
can have a bunch of capital and without the knowledge
and know how, you just lose it. Yep, yeah, absolutely,
you can have a bunch of capital and you can
lose it. So it's like you got to start there,
you just blow it past. Yeah. So I my journey,
I mean it may not be everyone's path to success,
but it definitely was one that you know, started with
(06:09):
very very little capital. Um. I'll give you an example.
When I opened Johnny t S. It's a two story
building and upstairs it is called the Unaissance from that's
where we do comedy shows, fundraisers. We danced the night
away on Fridays and Saturdays. It's the larger space. So
I opened the restaurant downstairs, not having enough money to
(06:29):
fully outfit upstairs. That means you're gonna be a light show,
sound show, furniture, the whole none. So we needed to
go ahead and open, gather a customer base, you know,
execute serving them to a t and then the money
that we make will reinvest it upstairs. And believe it
or not, your customer base likes that. They like to
(06:49):
know that if they're in, if they're investing into your vision,
that you're doing the right thing with it, or that
you're putting it back into the company. So our customers
were three real with the aspect. Every week when they
came in, they seem progress every week. I love this
because I also think, you know, especially in the restaurant industry,
you know, building and no matter what city, it's about
(07:10):
community and marketing. So how have you been able to
leverage you know, using marketing tools, whether it's social media,
you know, do you outsource your marketing? And how has
that informed like the success of your business? Oh wow, Well,
early on you called me Stacks, and Stacks was a
character that was created from a marketing standpoint. That was
(07:33):
the mascot for the T shirts. Stacks had braids and
the whole non so you might of didn't know that
Stacks had a bachelor's and a master's. So that character
was created to market that product, you know. And what
happened was when I started throwing parties in concerts, I
didn't have a whole lot of money to be paying
(07:53):
a voiceover from a you know, radio disc jockey and
not did on myself. So that put me in the
community and whatnot in a sense because now you're on
the radio, you're doing things where people are you know,
they're they're gravitating towards you. So we just utilize that
the whole way here we've been raising our customer base
(08:14):
to you know, now they're they're fine dying with us. Oh,
I love it. You know. It's just those small little
things that add up over the years. You're like I
was on the radio. I could go back and be like, hey,
let me get some time, you know. And it's almost
that power of networking. And when you build your community
or folks around you, they want to help you, they
want to see you succeed, and they remember you absolutely
(08:37):
and and that's something we firmly believe in. And we're here.
We have an open door policy. If there's anything going
on in the community, if there's any kind of fundraise
or a function, reach out to us. We'll do something.
And we try to encourage everybody else to do the same.
But we're definitely about that it's the church across the street,
or the girls and Boys club, or if it's a
(08:58):
fraternity or sorority. Uh just recently in the last few years,
you know, uh, me and Dion Sanders have been really
close and anything that we can do for the j
U football program, we're all in. So that's just kind
of we built ourselves on that. Yeah, And I think
that authenticity, like it shines through and people come back.
They want to patronize your restaurant, they want to do more.
(09:21):
I want to talk last, but not least, about the team.
You know, everyone talks about building a successful team around you.
What do you really look for in team members and
who is your go to role that you know you
would not be able to survive without. Well, I mean
we we definitely know we we got we gotta have
chef and uh and my main man is a Marcus fan.
(09:43):
That's my GM here at the restaurant here in Jackson, Mississippi.
And uh, he's been with us the last nine years.
And you know, it's just an amazing team that we
have and they're all hand picked. Uh. This is a
different kind of business, h Um. The hours are different.
You know, we propose that two and three in the
(10:04):
morning versus maybe your standard restaurant closes at nine or ten.
So every server might not it might not be conducive
for them. But the team honesty, UM, loyalty. I know
this may sound a little cliche, but that that's where
it is. Uh. And also we want people with a
(10:26):
bright smile, eager to learn, because there's lots of opportunity
for growth within the company, so I don't want you
to feel like you're hearing your stagnant. We have other
locations that were potentially opening up in other parts of
the country. You could go there to train. So there's
lots of opportunity within the company, and we try to
instill that in anybody coming on or joining the team. Um,
(10:48):
but definitely loyalty and uh, well, we will certainly look out.
I heard you say other locations. I hope there ends
up being one in Atlanta, but if no, we'll have
to come visit you in mississipp Be tell us what
other locations are on the road map so we can
keep our eyes peeled. We've been looking at Scottsdale, Houston, Dallas, uh,
(11:09):
of course, Atlanta, and even some smaller markets like the
Gulf Coast in Mississippi, maybe even Birmingham. But we are
are looking for larger markets so we can compete. We
have a great product. Um. I think we've shown by
proof of concept what can be done, so we're eager
to implement this in other cities. Great, well, thank you,
(11:31):
all right, John, Before we wrap up, I want to
sneak in one last question. You know a serial entrepreneur
like yourself always has some new business pursuits up his sleeve.
Anything else that we should keep our ears and eyes
peeled for, well, definitely commercial real estate, I mean that
just drives us right now. But also we have some
other concept that we want to do from a culinary standpoint.
(11:52):
I've been talking to Chef about doing our own chicken
spot so be similar to maybe like a Popeye's with
But I noticed as I travel around the country. You know,
Houston's has Frencheese, Dallas has Rudy's, and Harolds in Chicago,
and Gustin Memphis, this local market doesn't have their own
(12:12):
chicken spots, so it might be a void that could
be filled by Oh that sounds good, I'm all for it. Well,
thank you so much, John, and are definitely You've got
our stomachs already open and grumbling. So can you please
tell our audience where they can find you on social
media and where they can check out your restaurants? Absolutely, um,
we do have the flagship restaurant here in Jackson, Mississippi,
(12:34):
in the downtown and store district, and we recently opened Omaha,
Nebraska at North thirty Industreet and you can check us
out on social media at Johnny tes Be Strowing Blues
and on our website is Johnny Tees be Strong Blues
dot com. Oh well, that's fantastic, Thank you so much. Alright,
Money Movers, that's all the time we have for today,
(12:56):
but make sure to follow John Stacks on all his
social media handles and definitely swing by Johnny t S
for some destro and blues. And if we helped you
make your money move, please make sure to let us
know by sending us a like, sharing the knowledge, and
or leaving us a review on Apple podcast. Thank you
so much for tuning in Money Moves audience. If you
want more or a recap of this episode, please go
(13:18):
to the bank Greenwood dot com and check 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 podcast on I heart Radio, visit the i
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
(13:38):
podcasts from
Hey money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey money Movers, I'm
Tanya Sam and welcome back to another episode of Money Moves,
(00:22):
the daily podcast determined to give you the keys to
the Kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance. On today's
deep Dive, we are joined by serial entrepreneur of Mississippi,
John Miller. Hi, John, and welcome back to the podcast.
For you, I am great. It's so excited to have
you back, so excited to hear more about the series
(00:44):
of businesses that you have founded over the years. And
if you guys missed the previous episode, tune in because
John Stacks as they call you, told us so much
about his journey through entrepreneurship and many of his latest
business ventures. But I want to start today because when
you recap the last episode, you've had barbershops, beauty supply shops.
You're now in the restaurant industry. If you had to
(01:06):
look back, tell us about which one was the hardest
to start. Probably the restaurant because there's so many moving parts.
It's a grander investment that maybe some of the other businesses,
and there's like we said, it's it's the marketing, it's
the management, it's the counting. And then you gotta surround
(01:28):
yourself with a good team food. I mean already, you
gotta have the right chef, you gotta have the cooks
in the kitchen. So I feel like I kind of
wieled it into existence because with the restaurant business, I
had no background. I love food, I love to eat, drink,
travel the world, but I've never been in the restaurant business.
And how I started was the extra capital that I
(01:50):
had made. I started buying restaurant equipment. Oh so you
started buying the equipment first. Our bought equipment first because
I knew I wouldn't let myself and once I make
this investment, we gotta make it work. So that's what
I was doing, maybe over eighteen months. And once I
accumulated all the equipment and kind of got a name
(02:10):
together and how we were gonna brand it, the Lord
sent me chef Bryan Myrie. No, I mean, and we've
been together the last ten years, but he was an
executive chef of one of the more popular restaurants here
in this market and we just failed. And we've been
together every ever since. But that definitely probably was the
hardest because, like we said, you know, creating quality control
(02:34):
and product consistency, and it was just so many things
that I didn't have and maybe some of the other businesses.
So yeah, but I was up for the challenge. But
still every day I'm a stupid in business. You know
what I mean by that, I'm always seeking knowledge. So
this was one of the industries that you know, you
have to continue each and every day to want to
(02:54):
get better and to you know, seek knowledge or if
it's a class so convention, whatever it need be, you
gotta be dedicated in on you know, hospitality. So when
you look back, I mean, such an interesting array from
you know, the beauty industry to you've had a T
shirt business. As you look forward into two and if
(03:15):
you had to start a new business, what are some
of the lessons that these past businesses would sort of
tempt you into starting a new business venture. Um, I'm
so heavily leaning into a real estate. I love commercial
real estate, and I think some of the woods in
the past taught me is to stay ready. I can't
(03:39):
explain to anybody that wants to be an entrepreneur or
wants to travel this lane to stay ready. And what
I mean by that is whether it's an opportunity that
comes to you being able to take advantage of it,
or maybe in this investment, making sure that you saved
up enough money or you have access to the capital
to execute perfect answer, And that actually leads me into
(04:02):
my next question because one of the topics that often
comes up on the podcast is access to capital, especially
for people of color. We know that sometimes it's difficult.
You told us a really heartwarming story about her Your
grandfather gave you, you know, a three thousand dollar investment
into one of your early early businesses. What are some
ways that you've been able to get access to capital
(04:23):
when you've been starting businesses. For me, I never borrowed
it on always. Yeah. I started with a shoestring budget
with the T shirt and ever since then I've been
you know, accumulating and reinvesting in the company and whatnot.
But I didn't go out and get the Bentley and
go out and get the mansion. I made sure that
(04:45):
I had enough capital on to reinvest in anything that
may come up. I gotta be able to have enough too,
because we all know that banks would not that they're
not too fine on learning the restaurants and ball and things.
It's hard, and you know, I really want our audience
(05:05):
to understand because you know, these are some of like
this is the grim truth of entrepreneurship. You know, there's
a lot of people say, well, I couldn't get the
money and I couldn't do this. But I mean you're
a perfect example of like I couldn't get the money,
it wasn't available to me, but I bootstrapped businesses. And
I think oftentimes people get really discouraged when they're like, well,
(05:26):
you know, I had this dream to open up a
five star restaurant overnight, and they you know, it's just
not possible. But if you actually look into the backstory
of a lot of these entrepreneurs are like I started
selling T shirts out of the back of my car.
That got me to the next level, and it's kind
of like, you know, it's a level up. It's like
Mario Brothers. Absolutely, and then the other thing is you
(05:47):
can have a bunch of capital and without the knowledge
and know how, you just lose it. Yep, yeah, absolutely,
you can have a bunch of capital and you can
lose it. So it's like you got to start there,
you just blow it past. Yeah. So I my journey,
I mean it may not be everyone's path to success,
but it definitely was one that you know, started with
(06:09):
very very little capital. Um. I'll give you an example.
When I opened Johnny t S. It's a two story
building and upstairs it is called the Unaissance from that's
where we do comedy shows, fundraisers. We danced the night
away on Fridays and Saturdays. It's the larger space. So
I opened the restaurant downstairs, not having enough money to
(06:29):
fully outfit upstairs. That means you're gonna be a light show,
sound show, furniture, the whole none. So we needed to
go ahead and open, gather a customer base, you know,
execute serving them to a t and then the money
that we make will reinvest it upstairs. And believe it
or not, your customer base likes that. They like to
(06:49):
know that if they're in, if they're investing into your vision,
that you're doing the right thing with it, or that
you're putting it back into the company. So our customers
were three real with the aspect. Every week when they
came in, they seem progress every week. I love this
because I also think, you know, especially in the restaurant industry,
you know, building and no matter what city, it's about
(07:10):
community and marketing. So how have you been able to
leverage you know, using marketing tools, whether it's social media,
you know, do you outsource your marketing? And how has
that informed like the success of your business? Oh wow, Well,
early on you called me Stacks, and Stacks was a
character that was created from a marketing standpoint. That was
(07:33):
the mascot for the T shirts. Stacks had braids and
the whole non so you might of didn't know that
Stacks had a bachelor's and a master's. So that character
was created to market that product, you know. And what
happened was when I started throwing parties in concerts, I
didn't have a whole lot of money to be paying
(07:53):
a voiceover from a you know, radio disc jockey and
not did on myself. So that put me in the
community and whatnot in a sense because now you're on
the radio, you're doing things where people are you know,
they're they're gravitating towards you. So we just utilize that
the whole way here we've been raising our customer base
(08:14):
to you know, now they're they're fine dying with us. Oh,
I love it. You know. It's just those small little
things that add up over the years. You're like I
was on the radio. I could go back and be like, hey,
let me get some time, you know. And it's almost
that power of networking. And when you build your community
or folks around you, they want to help you, they
want to see you succeed, and they remember you absolutely
(08:37):
and and that's something we firmly believe in. And we're here.
We have an open door policy. If there's anything going
on in the community, if there's any kind of fundraise
or a function, reach out to us. We'll do something.
And we try to encourage everybody else to do the same.
But we're definitely about that it's the church across the street,
or the girls and Boys club, or if it's a
(08:58):
fraternity or sorority. Uh just recently in the last few years,
you know, uh, me and Dion Sanders have been really
close and anything that we can do for the j
U football program, we're all in. So that's just kind
of we built ourselves on that. Yeah, And I think
that authenticity, like it shines through and people come back.
They want to patronize your restaurant, they want to do more.
(09:21):
I want to talk last, but not least, about the team.
You know, everyone talks about building a successful team around you.
What do you really look for in team members and
who is your go to role that you know you
would not be able to survive without. Well, I mean
we we definitely know we we got we gotta have
chef and uh and my main man is a Marcus fan.
(09:43):
That's my GM here at the restaurant here in Jackson, Mississippi.
And uh, he's been with us the last nine years.
And you know, it's just an amazing team that we
have and they're all hand picked. Uh. This is a
different kind of business, h Um. The hours are different.
You know, we propose that two and three in the
(10:04):
morning versus maybe your standard restaurant closes at nine or ten.
So every server might not it might not be conducive
for them. But the team honesty, UM, loyalty. I know
this may sound a little cliche, but that that's where
it is. Uh. And also we want people with a
(10:26):
bright smile, eager to learn, because there's lots of opportunity
for growth within the company, so I don't want you
to feel like you're hearing your stagnant. We have other
locations that were potentially opening up in other parts of
the country. You could go there to train. So there's
lots of opportunity within the company, and we try to
instill that in anybody coming on or joining the team. Um,
(10:48):
but definitely loyalty and uh, well, we will certainly look out.
I heard you say other locations. I hope there ends
up being one in Atlanta, but if no, we'll have
to come visit you in mississipp Be tell us what
other locations are on the road map so we can
keep our eyes peeled. We've been looking at Scottsdale, Houston, Dallas, uh,
(11:09):
of course, Atlanta, and even some smaller markets like the
Gulf Coast in Mississippi, maybe even Birmingham. But we are
are looking for larger markets so we can compete. We
have a great product. Um. I think we've shown by
proof of concept what can be done, so we're eager
to implement this in other cities. Great, well, thank you,
(11:31):
all right, John, Before we wrap up, I want to
sneak in one last question. You know a serial entrepreneur
like yourself always has some new business pursuits up his sleeve.
Anything else that we should keep our ears and eyes
peeled for, well, definitely commercial real estate, I mean that
just drives us right now. But also we have some
other concept that we want to do from a culinary standpoint.
(11:52):
I've been talking to Chef about doing our own chicken
spot so be similar to maybe like a Popeye's with
But I noticed as I travel around the country. You know,
Houston's has Frencheese, Dallas has Rudy's, and Harolds in Chicago,
and Gustin Memphis, this local market doesn't have their own
(12:12):
chicken spots, so it might be a void that could
be filled by Oh that sounds good, I'm all for it. Well,
thank you so much, John, and are definitely You've got
our stomachs already open and grumbling. So can you please
tell our audience where they can find you on social
media and where they can check out your restaurants? Absolutely, um,
we do have the flagship restaurant here in Jackson, Mississippi,
(12:34):
in the downtown and store district, and we recently opened Omaha,
Nebraska at North thirty Industreet and you can check us
out on social media at Johnny tes Be Strowing Blues
and on our website is Johnny Tees be Strong Blues
dot com. Oh well, that's fantastic, Thank you so much. Alright,
Money Movers, that's all the time we have for today,
(12:56):
but make sure to follow John Stacks on all his
social media handles and definitely swing by Johnny t S
for some destro and blues. And if we helped you
make your money move, please make sure to let us
know by sending us a like, sharing the knowledge, and
or leaving us a review on Apple podcast. Thank you
so much for tuning in Money Moves audience. If you
want more or a recap of this episode, please go
(13:18):
to the bank Greenwood dot com and check 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 podcast on I heart Radio, visit the i
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
(13:38):
podcasts from
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