December 26, 2022 • 21 mins
Episode 204 - "The Culture Deserves It" Feat. Ferrari Simmons, Su Solo & You Know BT Produced by: @iHandlebars
with special guest: Founder and CEO Derrick Hayes
Topics include: Locations in Mercedes-Benz stadium, his journey to success and life with vegan fiancé Pinky Cole & more.
The Baller Alert Show
Featuring @FerrariSimmons @_SuSolo @iHandlebars
":The Culture Deserves It"
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hold on, hold on, and gentle show. Welcome to the
Ball Alert Show podcast available everywhere you get your podcast.
I go by the name for our Simmons. I have
your best tie, so you know, b take special guests
in the building. I love his cheese steaks. How's it going,
(00:23):
Mr Derek, how's it going, sir? What's up? Bro? Thanks
for having me? Thank you for coming. Mr Derrick Hayes
from West Philly, Philly? And how is the meat so
damn juicy? It's just like it's just juicy as hell.
I think it's my grandfather, to be honest. Like my grandfather,
he uh, he gave me all my skills, not even
(00:45):
knowing because when I was coming up, if I ain't
go to church with him on Sundays, I had to
finish the Sunday's dinner, you know what I'm saying. So
along the way, when I came to Atlanta, when I
wanted to go open my first business, which was Days
Philly Ward, I aced I I was just selling Italian
nice we call the warder. I nobody knew what it was.
So when I'm making the cheese steaks and I hired
to cook, it wasn't coming out the way I wanted to.
(01:05):
It wasn't authentic. And my grandfather, you know, he went
back to the roots and you know what I'm saying,
gave me the water oil mixed ratio. So that's what
helped out the stake to not dry out. I mean,
it never missed, like Mrs literally, no matter what day,
what time. I think it's at its best right now too,
because my company right now, we're about to scale a
whole lot of locations and I got the right people
(01:27):
right now following the right s op manual. So it's
it's like a real system to really doing the same
way every single time. So right now, man, I'm just
happy about all that because all the years of me
just ground in the kitchen, building all the fan base,
everybody coming to support the brand. If it wasn't me
making it or my two big guys that started with me,
they would say, ah, you know, we went them in
(01:49):
the kitchen, I went, you know, being the kitchen. Now
anybody can make it and it's the same product coming
out every single time. I feel like it's always hard
to manage multiple locations like Chick fil A for example.
I am honest, like, you go to Chick fil a anywhere,
and it's pretty much damn near, you know, consistent, Yeah,
every single time, every time. Is there any fear that,
you know, even though you're giving them the information and
(02:10):
you're showing them how to do, is there any fear
that you may grow so big that you can't really
manage what these locations are doing? Um? I used to
think like that until I got around the right people
and write people on my team that scaled locations before it.
Because when you got the systems in place, like it's
like when you hire somebody, they just ain't jumping right
in and cooking cheese steaks. So getting on the register,
they're actually learning the brand and learning the process and
(02:32):
the protocols, the procedures, everything you need to do. Tactually
scaled the business. So now it's just like a puzzle
was coming together every time you build a location. And
right now I got a good location about the coming
and like another month and a half and I think
that's gonna be my big work. Where you're putting one,
you're putting that come on this ball show. It's coming
out of a sap, all right, it's gonna be in
Jones bro. Yeah, So listen, how did you know that
(02:57):
like you was popping like you like man, all right
man a bit instance is just went from zero to
a hunting um. To be honest, it's when Eve ate
the sandwich. When she uh, you know, when I had
the gas station location and I can't coming and she
was shooting barbershop And the first day I heard she
was coming, I waited like a kid on Christmas because
(03:18):
I needed that pop. I'm like, yeah, she coming, and
then she didn't show up, so I got a lord
of discourage a little bit. But then the next day
she came, and to be honest, I just blew over.
You know seven Figures party in Atlanta that year. You
know what I'm saying, So why I'm making this chicken
cheese steak. I'm saying to myself, like, damn, this sandwich
is gonna save my life or what's gonna get rid
(03:39):
of me? So I'm just like, I gotta make this sandwich.
So I'm sitting there chopping it, and the people behind her,
that's where are she Like, they're not gonna order until
she eat the sandwich. So I never knew that a
cheese steak was gonna save my life, like like really
saved my life. So when she ate it, she posted
her social media networks and the next day I had
the biggest line I ever had at that time. From
(04:00):
there it just was it was just up. But over
the years of me growing the brand, as it grew
from year to year, I had the popularity. I had people,
you know, saying the food was good. But then I'm
trying to figure out, now, how do I open our
location it because you start getting like spoil to it,
to be honest, like you know, it's like a rapper
that come out with a song, what's the next hit? Like,
(04:20):
what's what's coming next? So that was my problem when
I was going through. And now you know, I got
three locations in the Mercedes Bend Stadium that's never been
done by honestly, it's three is on every level. But
I came in there, you know, telling them, like listen,
I'm going to change the culture in the stadium, give
me my shot. So sometimes we don't understand that we
(04:41):
gotta ask for what we want, just wait for it.
So I went in there and letting them know that
I was going to be the trend setter in the stadium.
I was going to be the culture change and We're
gonna change the whole dynamic away, this whole thing running
through the food system right now with the highest gross
in restaurant the stadium. I mean, you can't miss it.
Like it's literally on every floor. You cannot miss it.
And for me dedicate in the business to my father,
(05:01):
you know what saying watching him down in front of
my face is like that was my willpower to never quit,
to keep on going. What happened with your father? Yeah? Cancer.
So it's crazy because before I moved to Atlanta, I was, Um,
I was in Athens. I used to play basketball. Um,
you know, my dad moved me out of Philly when
I was in the ninth grade. I was getting in
trouble stuff like that. So I wind up going to
(05:23):
this lower town where you know it ain't the city life.
So you've kind of been in Georgia for a little minute. Yeah,
but I went back to Philly and oh five when
my aunt passed away, So ancer really hit. My family hired.
But the person that was helping raising me but my grandparents,
was my she had passed when oh five, So I
moved back to Philly oh nine. My dad just magically,
you know, he was coughing. He thought he had a cold,
(05:45):
went to a couple of hospitals, found out he had numonia.
He had cancer. So we came down to uh Emery University.
I'm driving back and forth from you know, from Philly,
trying to help him out. And then the mr of
all this, he wound up passing away in Emery. And
the rich day of my life was July six. And
then this year I had my son at Emory University.
(06:05):
On July six, I think my dad died, you know
what I'm saying, So like all this was a full
circle moment of my life right now. So I know
my story already written and I'm building up being out
the company right now and my father. Well, people be
able to get this in your book, because I know
you're happy what's coming. You got a book coming out
that I'm like two months out right now. Um, just
(06:26):
working on the last finishing touches of it. But um,
I'm really excited about that because this night, that's not
my memoir, but this is gonna be the book that
like take people like if you had a dream, you
had a kids, some alter you know your situation now
and you kind of took a pause on it, this
book on bring you back to life and everything you
want to do, because you're looking at somebody that got
over forty some tattoos on his body. I'm not your
(06:47):
every CEO. I come from the ghetto. I didn't had
a narcotics cases and then arrested all these things, and
I built the multimillion dollar company off for nothing, and
now I own multiple multi million dollar companies off of
believing and everything that I was. You know, my mission
on my dream. Now, we just interviewed your fiancee. She's
in love. You're in love? Oh yeah, definitely. When is
(07:10):
the wedding day? My brother Joe wave you guys excited? No, definitely.
I feel like we're already married though you know, it's
like we already talked about that because on paper, we
got too many assets together, so it's already. She told
us a story. I'm trying to verify some things now.
She said, uh, broken window, she slid in your d M.
(07:34):
The truth she told her. Okay, so I know that
that was accurate. Now, she she left out of detail
of how I got into y'all have them kids? So
did you make the first move because y'all had a
business relationship first. Correct, Yeah, yeah, we had a business relationship.
What did you how did you get personal? My brother? Um,
(07:56):
did you did you realize? No? I just you know,
you know, like you know how you you you're cool
with a chick, but you'd be like, damn, you can
see yourself dating. But like this was different. This was
like somebody that I've seen myself. It was like my shadow.
You know what I'm saying. So we was talking to
each other. It's like the first moment we we need
some clarity speaking to the mike, sir. What I was
saying is like the first initial meet up place that
(08:18):
we went to, it wasn't a date. It was just
for us to you know, get to know each other
and all that. When she reached out to me when
my windows got bust out from George Floyd were setting, um,
sunflower ahead. No, it's it's never had no vegan food
in my life. This vegan food and my cousin that
was there, he got murdered last year. He was the
only one that really She said the same thing. And
(08:40):
we're sitting there talking and he keeps like tapping my foot.
She don't notice. He like, when we're out of here,
I got him just chilling sitting here, but we're get
in the car and he told me he was like, Yo,
that ship person, like that's gonna be the person you're
gonna be with. And I'm like, man, no, what you're
talking about. We're just doing business together, trying to you know,
help these communities out. But when I realized she was
really the person, and for me, it's when we literally
(09:02):
said we was like one of the build the communities
out with different things. Like you know, usually when you
started talking to a woman in no shading the other woman,
but most of the ship you're talking about is like
some of the stuff like material or it's like what
club you're going to the night or whatever. That hers
was like more like let's be a hundred inmates out,
you know what I'm saying. Let's let's uh get some
let's get some community centers rolling stuff like that. So,
(09:23):
you know, sad to say in the situation for shop
Brooks was murdered, you know what I'm saying, And we
did our first initial gear back was you know, buying
his his wife of a vehicle, providing life insurance for
his kids. CEU partner at was six hundred thousands in
scholarship money, and I'm just like, damn, who else I
could have did this with in the world that would
(09:43):
have believed in what I believed in how to do it?
And from there they just started getting stronger and stronger.
Babies just don't pop up, sir. I want to know
what happened? Did you exactly one of the day that
you leave it for the kids? First? What happened? We'll
be right back with more of the Baller Alert, y'all
(10:04):
real listeak to a special edition up the ball Alert Show.
What's up that your boy d Hayes from Big Dave
Cheese stay chilling on the ball Alert Show? You did?
What happened? No? She can't. She I think it's her
fun what I wanted? Yeah, real life, I think um,
I think she went in for the kill. But kid,
(10:25):
I was ready. So you just probably didn't feel like, well,
I wanted to out of all the people that you
know me growing up and I've been around different females
and you know, this was something different from me. This
was like, this is like not even on those soft ship.
This was like, Damn, I really know what love is now,
(10:47):
because like you can like lust somebody for a long time.
You know what I'm saying, should get real then you
see who really love you? You know what I'm saying.
But this person was like, I don't got to go
through all these battles and you know what I'm saying,
see if this person and love me? Because we literally
set our ass out so as assets out on the table,
like when we start dating, like what do you got?
(11:07):
What you got? Like you're gonna meet me halfway on
this like and it was real because honestly, I don't
think nobody wants to jump in a relationship where they
got to take care of somebody or they can't meet
the you know, the other end of the stick. And
for us, you know, I had my ship together, she
had hers together, so it worked out. How do y'all
turn business off? Because you guys are partners, you know,
(11:29):
you are intimate partners. Like it's been like, how do
you turn that off? Or do you feel that your
relationship thrives because you guys are so much like in business? Yeah?
I think because like I said, you, I paid it
to you this way. When you when you wake up
four o'clock in the morning, you've got an idea and
you can wake the person about their sleep and they
can jump right into it with you. It's never hard,
it's never worked, it's it's a purpose, it's meant. You
(11:51):
know what I'm saying. We both do the same thing.
So like when people ask us, how do we leverage
out the business the personal life, all that ship mixed?
Then you know what I'm saying, like first before anything
is my friend. You know what I'm saying, everything else
fast in line of everything else, Like we don't have
the battle the love life because we could be talking
about some business ship and we can start making love
(12:11):
five minutes. Because it was like that's our stipulation. Stimulation
what I'm saying, like like mental stimulation. You know what
I'm saying, learning and learning where we went from each
other and how we're building and that's how we did it,
and that's how we had two kids and two years
along with your two daughters. It's a great extended family. Yeah.
(12:33):
I just had um all my kids together last night. UM,
and it was a beautiful thing. When you're watching you know,
three girls and then my young king. You know what
I'm saying, like he growing fast. But I'm actually sitting
looking at my kids and looking at my dynasty that
I'm going to build for them, So I'm gonna get
them all the resources and stuff I never had and
a real you know what I'm saying, a lot of
(12:54):
people use this word because it's popular. The whole I'm
breaking generational curses. A lot of people don't even know
what that means. So I'm gonna give it to y'all,
like it ain't just money because if I if I
leave you a bunch of money, you don't know how
to manage it, You're gonna blow all of the legacy
that I did. Work my ass off the bill. So
you got to actually teach financial literacy before you teach
the generational curse part because if you don't know how
(13:16):
to control the asset part of it, you're never going
to keep the asset. And the reason why they call
it generational you know what I'm saying, curses because they're
thinking like, oh, yeah, we're gonna now get to the
next generation ain't gonna be to carry it. But that's
what we go through. That ain't where a lot of
other generating no cultures go through. Because they're teaching their
kids that eighteen percent and what I'm saying of credit
(13:36):
card is already going over your limit before you pay
the bill, if you pay, you know, at the last minute,
or learning how to send your kids the college off
cash forwards money like you know, you got a credit
card and every every time you spend it, you can
transfer that money to a bank account. That's free money.
Imagine you did that for eighteen years, they could be
a kid of college fund. So that's the different ways
that you can control the financialiteracy part of it to
(13:56):
break the generational curses. So you know, I think we
all use that and interviews and everybody like, yeah, I'm
trying to break my family generational curses. But what are
you really breaking If you're the only person breaking it
when you leave it, they ain't going out of control it. Yeah,
if you're not sharing the information. And still now you
gotta share the information information. I mean they say that,
you know, by the third generation, the wealth tends to
(14:19):
deplete because that person wasn't taught or given the proper
resources and education. So I think it is really important
to make sure that you're instilling those key values because
that's all you know. Because think about it, some of
us in here right now, our families could have actually
had the bag early on, like we don't even know
you know what I'm saying, never carried on to us.
So whatever your last name is, back in the seventeen hundreds,
(14:41):
you might have been cool, you might have had all
the gold, you know what I'm saying, But it didn't
get carried on that way. So we can't just use
that thing and saying that we don't have a fair
shake when we know now we're getting tricked out our
spots to get the right spoon, you know what I'm
That's how I look at everything. Okay, all right, well
sir uh you had anything to talk about the founder Shaw,
What's what's some of the work that that we can
(15:03):
look forward to you accomplishing with the foundation? Um? Well,
right now, man, pinky Uh, we're doing this life insurance
initiative on on black men us UH make thirty thousand
dollars a lesson income, you get a life insurance policy,
pay for the fresh year and prudential partner with us UM.
I think that's big because me coming from Philly, I
lost a lot of my friends or people in my
(15:23):
neighborhood and then they got to go have go fund
mese or fish fries. You know what I'm saying. Now days,
we're trying to provide something that they don't have to
go through with that. But people don't understand that life
insurance is just not a life and the deaf thing,
you know what I'm saying. That's the real financial literacy
part of it. Because if I had life insurance and
me and you cousins, and I got mine policy for
like a year or two, I can add you onto
(15:44):
my policy and now you're gaining your own, you know
what I'm saying. So it's like you're passing on the sticks.
And I think a lot of us go through UM,
a lot of trauma. UM trauma is a memory inside
of your brain that stored until you learn how to
control that. And we take that up, you know what
I'm saying, from filthood, and then we try to you know,
when we get to adults, were still kids in our
minds because we're blaming all the things that happened in
(16:05):
our lives, and we gotta stop doing that. So this
initiative was solely for that and the other things that
I've been doing, like even in the pandemic, my foundation,
we've had forty hospitals every single day. Um, I've seen
a lot of people standing down. We wanted to stand
up because we know the community has built us. Without
the community, we was nothing. Um. I gave out probably
two hundred dollars throwing out throughout that year, two businesses
(16:29):
to help stay open. You know, a lot of things
that we did was to keep everybody around us going
because we was the only will rolling. You know, we
eventually was gonna go down. A lot of people scared
of get next to another popping thing because they think
it's gonna hurt them, But that's gonna help you because
that community gonna stand strong together. And that's what I
was trying to do with my foundations. And I named
it David and Derrik Cage Foundation after my father. So
(16:51):
this year, um, actually j what was like two weeks ago,
I was on Tamaran, so I just did Tamara hall. Um.
I gave a school twenty dollars from my foundation. They
named the hub athro me in the high school. So
I'm getting honored with that after the holiday. So I'm saying, like, damn,
I ain't from Atlanta, but now they naming schools after me. Yeah,
(17:13):
So that was that was the real special thing. So
it's it's showing that people appreciate, you know, all the
hard work that I'm playing out on the community because
we're community based. Like I already got the food popping,
already got the business popping. But what's that if you
got another young brother look like you struggling and you
can't give him information on what's really going on out there.
And I do a lot of talking to the community.
So that's basically what I do with the foundation. Your
(17:34):
fiancee is vegan, you are not? Uh do y'all use
the same you know? Uh, one side of hers one
side of yours? Now, Um, we got a flat top
so we got like burners just like stove and then
we got like um flat tops like using the restaurant.
(17:56):
But we do have um dishes that we we do cooking.
But we respect each other in the household. It ain't
like you know, what you eat ill or all that hand. Naturally,
by being around somebody that eats a little bit healthier,
you go Eventually, I was just gonna, yeah, it's a
certain things. So you know a lot of stuff I
(18:16):
eat now days. Um, No, I'm not vegan. I love seafood.
So I always just ate seafood anyway, So I still
eat chicken, and I eat a lot of seafood. Do
you see yourself leaning towards veganism one day? No? And
not and not and not even just because um, I
would say not because that I wouldn't want to or
(18:38):
I can't uphold or some thing, just that type of food.
I really love seafood, you know what I'm saying, Like,
I really like I gotta have like the blue crabs, shrimp,
I gotta have oysters, all of that stuff. Like yeah,
I really I grew up off of that, you know,
like Philly is like you know, it's it's right next
(18:59):
to bottom or it's so we get all of like
the blue crabs and all that. So like that's something
that I really like can shake. It's like a real dress.
You guys, um RaSE your kids, uh in the vegan
lifestyle or just they just you know, you just give
them free will No they vegan. The kids is vegan,
(19:20):
but my son he might be uh you know, he
might be a little pesketian like yeah, but I'm gonna
give him that option. If they want to be vegan
like their mom, they could be vegan. But it's it's
it's a it's a good thing for me because a
lot of my family died from cancering. A lot of
stuff they pain in foods. We don't really you know,
what we eat, and so you know, a lot of
(19:41):
that education, you know, you know, rubbed off on me
and I'm learning different things. But also where I'm learning
from her with the food, she's learning from me because
a lot of people don't know that, Like even in
Big Davis, we don't. We don't sell um steak that
has hormones in it or any any of that in it,
you know what I'm saying. So we have a healthier
choice of if that's what you know. I'm saying, if
(20:03):
that's what you want to eat. And I always wanted
to build my brand that way because I didn't want
to just you know, sell trash meat. Like a lot
of people don't understand that that steak that we sell
is expensive. We just set a lot of it to
me to uphold the profits. But we didn't have the
traffic that we had, I probably would have been buried,
you know what I'm saying, Because it cost a lot,
like one case of steak cost to twenty and we
(20:24):
and we're selling ten thousand pounds of steak almost every week.
Damn you know what I'm saying. You can definitely tell
this quality. Yeah, for sure, I gotta be. We'll be
right back with more of the baller Alert Show. What's
up y'alls? Your boy d Hayes. The motivation I'm gonna
(20:45):
get y'all right now on this show that I'm talking on.
Its life is not attracted me as a marathon is
all about how you and run your race. I can't
get enough of baller Alert. Follow us on all social
media platforms at baller Alert, go on to baller alert
dot com
Hold on, hold on, and gentle show. Welcome to the
Ball Alert Show podcast available everywhere you get your podcast.
I go by the name for our Simmons. I have
your best tie, so you know, b take special guests
in the building. I love his cheese steaks. How's it going,
(00:23):
Mr Derek, how's it going, sir? What's up? Bro? Thanks
for having me? Thank you for coming. Mr Derrick Hayes
from West Philly, Philly? And how is the meat so
damn juicy? It's just like it's just juicy as hell.
I think it's my grandfather, to be honest. Like my grandfather,
he uh, he gave me all my skills, not even
(00:45):
knowing because when I was coming up, if I ain't
go to church with him on Sundays, I had to
finish the Sunday's dinner, you know what I'm saying. So
along the way, when I came to Atlanta, when I
wanted to go open my first business, which was Days
Philly Ward, I aced I I was just selling Italian
nice we call the warder. I nobody knew what it was.
So when I'm making the cheese steaks and I hired
to cook, it wasn't coming out the way I wanted to.
(01:05):
It wasn't authentic. And my grandfather, you know, he went
back to the roots and you know what I'm saying,
gave me the water oil mixed ratio. So that's what
helped out the stake to not dry out. I mean,
it never missed, like Mrs literally, no matter what day,
what time. I think it's at its best right now too,
because my company right now, we're about to scale a
whole lot of locations and I got the right people
(01:27):
right now following the right s op manual. So it's
it's like a real system to really doing the same
way every single time. So right now, man, I'm just
happy about all that because all the years of me
just ground in the kitchen, building all the fan base,
everybody coming to support the brand. If it wasn't me
making it or my two big guys that started with me,
they would say, ah, you know, we went them in
(01:49):
the kitchen, I went, you know, being the kitchen. Now
anybody can make it and it's the same product coming
out every single time. I feel like it's always hard
to manage multiple locations like Chick fil A for example.
I am honest, like, you go to Chick fil a anywhere,
and it's pretty much damn near, you know, consistent, Yeah,
every single time, every time. Is there any fear that,
you know, even though you're giving them the information and
(02:10):
you're showing them how to do, is there any fear
that you may grow so big that you can't really
manage what these locations are doing? Um? I used to
think like that until I got around the right people
and write people on my team that scaled locations before it.
Because when you got the systems in place, like it's
like when you hire somebody, they just ain't jumping right
in and cooking cheese steaks. So getting on the register,
they're actually learning the brand and learning the process and
(02:32):
the protocols, the procedures, everything you need to do. Tactually
scaled the business. So now it's just like a puzzle
was coming together every time you build a location. And
right now I got a good location about the coming
and like another month and a half and I think
that's gonna be my big work. Where you're putting one,
you're putting that come on this ball show. It's coming
out of a sap, all right, it's gonna be in
Jones bro. Yeah, So listen, how did you know that
(02:57):
like you was popping like you like man, all right
man a bit instance is just went from zero to
a hunting um. To be honest, it's when Eve ate
the sandwich. When she uh, you know, when I had
the gas station location and I can't coming and she
was shooting barbershop And the first day I heard she
was coming, I waited like a kid on Christmas because
(03:18):
I needed that pop. I'm like, yeah, she coming, and
then she didn't show up, so I got a lord
of discourage a little bit. But then the next day
she came, and to be honest, I just blew over.
You know seven Figures party in Atlanta that year. You
know what I'm saying, So why I'm making this chicken
cheese steak. I'm saying to myself, like, damn, this sandwich
is gonna save my life or what's gonna get rid
(03:39):
of me? So I'm just like, I gotta make this sandwich.
So I'm sitting there chopping it, and the people behind her,
that's where are she Like, they're not gonna order until
she eat the sandwich. So I never knew that a
cheese steak was gonna save my life, like like really
saved my life. So when she ate it, she posted
her social media networks and the next day I had
the biggest line I ever had at that time. From
(04:00):
there it just was it was just up. But over
the years of me growing the brand, as it grew
from year to year, I had the popularity. I had people,
you know, saying the food was good. But then I'm
trying to figure out, now, how do I open our
location it because you start getting like spoil to it,
to be honest, like you know, it's like a rapper
that come out with a song, what's the next hit? Like,
(04:20):
what's what's coming next? So that was my problem when
I was going through. And now you know, I got
three locations in the Mercedes Bend Stadium that's never been
done by honestly, it's three is on every level. But
I came in there, you know, telling them, like listen,
I'm going to change the culture in the stadium, give
me my shot. So sometimes we don't understand that we
(04:41):
gotta ask for what we want, just wait for it.
So I went in there and letting them know that
I was going to be the trend setter in the stadium.
I was going to be the culture change and We're
gonna change the whole dynamic away, this whole thing running
through the food system right now with the highest gross
in restaurant the stadium. I mean, you can't miss it.
Like it's literally on every floor. You cannot miss it.
And for me dedicate in the business to my father,
(05:01):
you know what saying watching him down in front of
my face is like that was my willpower to never quit,
to keep on going. What happened with your father? Yeah? Cancer.
So it's crazy because before I moved to Atlanta, I was, Um,
I was in Athens. I used to play basketball. Um,
you know, my dad moved me out of Philly when
I was in the ninth grade. I was getting in
trouble stuff like that. So I wind up going to
(05:23):
this lower town where you know it ain't the city life.
So you've kind of been in Georgia for a little minute. Yeah,
but I went back to Philly and oh five when
my aunt passed away, So ancer really hit. My family hired.
But the person that was helping raising me but my grandparents,
was my she had passed when oh five, So I
moved back to Philly oh nine. My dad just magically,
you know, he was coughing. He thought he had a cold,
(05:45):
went to a couple of hospitals, found out he had numonia.
He had cancer. So we came down to uh Emery University.
I'm driving back and forth from you know, from Philly,
trying to help him out. And then the mr of
all this, he wound up passing away in Emery. And
the rich day of my life was July six. And
then this year I had my son at Emory University.
(06:05):
On July six, I think my dad died, you know
what I'm saying, So like all this was a full
circle moment of my life right now. So I know
my story already written and I'm building up being out
the company right now and my father. Well, people be
able to get this in your book, because I know
you're happy what's coming. You got a book coming out
that I'm like two months out right now. Um, just
(06:26):
working on the last finishing touches of it. But um,
I'm really excited about that because this night, that's not
my memoir, but this is gonna be the book that
like take people like if you had a dream, you
had a kids, some alter you know your situation now
and you kind of took a pause on it, this
book on bring you back to life and everything you
want to do, because you're looking at somebody that got
over forty some tattoos on his body. I'm not your
(06:47):
every CEO. I come from the ghetto. I didn't had
a narcotics cases and then arrested all these things, and
I built the multimillion dollar company off for nothing, and
now I own multiple multi million dollar companies off of
believing and everything that I was. You know, my mission
on my dream. Now, we just interviewed your fiancee. She's
in love. You're in love? Oh yeah, definitely. When is
(07:10):
the wedding day? My brother Joe wave you guys excited? No, definitely.
I feel like we're already married though you know, it's
like we already talked about that because on paper, we
got too many assets together, so it's already. She told
us a story. I'm trying to verify some things now.
She said, uh, broken window, she slid in your d M.
(07:34):
The truth she told her. Okay, so I know that
that was accurate. Now, she she left out of detail
of how I got into y'all have them kids? So
did you make the first move because y'all had a
business relationship first. Correct, Yeah, yeah, we had a business relationship.
What did you how did you get personal? My brother? Um,
(07:56):
did you did you realize? No? I just you know,
you know, like you know how you you you're cool
with a chick, but you'd be like, damn, you can
see yourself dating. But like this was different. This was
like somebody that I've seen myself. It was like my shadow.
You know what I'm saying. So we was talking to
each other. It's like the first moment we we need
some clarity speaking to the mike, sir. What I was
saying is like the first initial meet up place that
(08:18):
we went to, it wasn't a date. It was just
for us to you know, get to know each other
and all that. When she reached out to me when
my windows got bust out from George Floyd were setting, um,
sunflower ahead. No, it's it's never had no vegan food
in my life. This vegan food and my cousin that
was there, he got murdered last year. He was the
only one that really She said the same thing. And
(08:40):
we're sitting there talking and he keeps like tapping my foot.
She don't notice. He like, when we're out of here,
I got him just chilling sitting here, but we're get
in the car and he told me he was like, Yo,
that ship person, like that's gonna be the person you're
gonna be with. And I'm like, man, no, what you're
talking about. We're just doing business together, trying to you know,
help these communities out. But when I realized she was
really the person, and for me, it's when we literally
(09:02):
said we was like one of the build the communities
out with different things. Like you know, usually when you
started talking to a woman in no shading the other woman,
but most of the ship you're talking about is like
some of the stuff like material or it's like what
club you're going to the night or whatever. That hers
was like more like let's be a hundred inmates out,
you know what I'm saying. Let's let's uh get some
let's get some community centers rolling stuff like that. So,
(09:23):
you know, sad to say in the situation for shop
Brooks was murdered, you know what I'm saying, And we
did our first initial gear back was you know, buying
his his wife of a vehicle, providing life insurance for
his kids. CEU partner at was six hundred thousands in
scholarship money, and I'm just like, damn, who else I
could have did this with in the world that would
(09:43):
have believed in what I believed in how to do it?
And from there they just started getting stronger and stronger.
Babies just don't pop up, sir. I want to know
what happened? Did you exactly one of the day that
you leave it for the kids? First? What happened? We'll
be right back with more of the Baller Alert, y'all
(10:04):
real listeak to a special edition up the ball Alert Show.
What's up that your boy d Hayes from Big Dave
Cheese stay chilling on the ball Alert Show? You did?
What happened? No? She can't. She I think it's her
fun what I wanted? Yeah, real life, I think um,
I think she went in for the kill. But kid,
(10:25):
I was ready. So you just probably didn't feel like, well,
I wanted to out of all the people that you
know me growing up and I've been around different females
and you know, this was something different from me. This
was like, this is like not even on those soft ship.
This was like, Damn, I really know what love is now,
(10:47):
because like you can like lust somebody for a long time.
You know what I'm saying, should get real then you
see who really love you? You know what I'm saying.
But this person was like, I don't got to go
through all these battles and you know what I'm saying,
see if this person and love me? Because we literally
set our ass out so as assets out on the table,
like when we start dating, like what do you got?
(11:07):
What you got? Like you're gonna meet me halfway on
this like and it was real because honestly, I don't
think nobody wants to jump in a relationship where they
got to take care of somebody or they can't meet
the you know, the other end of the stick. And
for us, you know, I had my ship together, she
had hers together, so it worked out. How do y'all
turn business off? Because you guys are partners, you know,
(11:29):
you are intimate partners. Like it's been like, how do
you turn that off? Or do you feel that your
relationship thrives because you guys are so much like in business? Yeah?
I think because like I said, you, I paid it
to you this way. When you when you wake up
four o'clock in the morning, you've got an idea and
you can wake the person about their sleep and they
can jump right into it with you. It's never hard,
it's never worked, it's it's a purpose, it's meant. You
(11:51):
know what I'm saying. We both do the same thing.
So like when people ask us, how do we leverage
out the business the personal life, all that ship mixed?
Then you know what I'm saying, like first before anything
is my friend. You know what I'm saying, everything else
fast in line of everything else, Like we don't have
the battle the love life because we could be talking
about some business ship and we can start making love
(12:11):
five minutes. Because it was like that's our stipulation. Stimulation
what I'm saying, like like mental stimulation. You know what
I'm saying, learning and learning where we went from each
other and how we're building and that's how we did it,
and that's how we had two kids and two years
along with your two daughters. It's a great extended family. Yeah.
(12:33):
I just had um all my kids together last night. UM,
and it was a beautiful thing. When you're watching you know,
three girls and then my young king. You know what
I'm saying, like he growing fast. But I'm actually sitting
looking at my kids and looking at my dynasty that
I'm going to build for them, So I'm gonna get
them all the resources and stuff I never had and
a real you know what I'm saying, a lot of
(12:54):
people use this word because it's popular. The whole I'm
breaking generational curses. A lot of people don't even know
what that means. So I'm gonna give it to y'all,
like it ain't just money because if I if I
leave you a bunch of money, you don't know how
to manage it, You're gonna blow all of the legacy
that I did. Work my ass off the bill. So
you got to actually teach financial literacy before you teach
the generational curse part because if you don't know how
(13:16):
to control the asset part of it, you're never going
to keep the asset. And the reason why they call
it generational you know what I'm saying, curses because they're
thinking like, oh, yeah, we're gonna now get to the
next generation ain't gonna be to carry it. But that's
what we go through. That ain't where a lot of
other generating no cultures go through. Because they're teaching their
kids that eighteen percent and what I'm saying of credit
(13:36):
card is already going over your limit before you pay
the bill, if you pay, you know, at the last minute,
or learning how to send your kids the college off
cash forwards money like you know, you got a credit
card and every every time you spend it, you can
transfer that money to a bank account. That's free money.
Imagine you did that for eighteen years, they could be
a kid of college fund. So that's the different ways
that you can control the financialiteracy part of it to
(13:56):
break the generational curses. So you know, I think we
all use that and interviews and everybody like, yeah, I'm
trying to break my family generational curses. But what are
you really breaking If you're the only person breaking it
when you leave it, they ain't going out of control it. Yeah,
if you're not sharing the information. And still now you
gotta share the information information. I mean they say that,
you know, by the third generation, the wealth tends to
(14:19):
deplete because that person wasn't taught or given the proper
resources and education. So I think it is really important
to make sure that you're instilling those key values because
that's all you know. Because think about it, some of
us in here right now, our families could have actually
had the bag early on, like we don't even know
you know what I'm saying, never carried on to us.
So whatever your last name is, back in the seventeen hundreds,
(14:41):
you might have been cool, you might have had all
the gold, you know what I'm saying, But it didn't
get carried on that way. So we can't just use
that thing and saying that we don't have a fair
shake when we know now we're getting tricked out our
spots to get the right spoon, you know what I'm
That's how I look at everything. Okay, all right, well
sir uh you had anything to talk about the founder Shaw,
What's what's some of the work that that we can
(15:03):
look forward to you accomplishing with the foundation? Um? Well,
right now, man, pinky Uh, we're doing this life insurance
initiative on on black men us UH make thirty thousand
dollars a lesson income, you get a life insurance policy,
pay for the fresh year and prudential partner with us UM.
I think that's big because me coming from Philly, I
lost a lot of my friends or people in my
(15:23):
neighborhood and then they got to go have go fund
mese or fish fries. You know what I'm saying. Now days,
we're trying to provide something that they don't have to
go through with that. But people don't understand that life
insurance is just not a life and the deaf thing,
you know what I'm saying. That's the real financial literacy
part of it. Because if I had life insurance and
me and you cousins, and I got mine policy for
like a year or two, I can add you onto
(15:44):
my policy and now you're gaining your own, you know
what I'm saying. So it's like you're passing on the sticks.
And I think a lot of us go through UM,
a lot of trauma. UM trauma is a memory inside
of your brain that stored until you learn how to
control that. And we take that up, you know what
I'm saying, from filthood, and then we try to you know,
when we get to adults, were still kids in our
minds because we're blaming all the things that happened in
(16:05):
our lives, and we gotta stop doing that. So this
initiative was solely for that and the other things that
I've been doing, like even in the pandemic, my foundation,
we've had forty hospitals every single day. Um, I've seen
a lot of people standing down. We wanted to stand
up because we know the community has built us. Without
the community, we was nothing. Um. I gave out probably
two hundred dollars throwing out throughout that year, two businesses
(16:29):
to help stay open. You know, a lot of things
that we did was to keep everybody around us going
because we was the only will rolling. You know, we
eventually was gonna go down. A lot of people scared
of get next to another popping thing because they think
it's gonna hurt them, But that's gonna help you because
that community gonna stand strong together. And that's what I
was trying to do with my foundations. And I named
it David and Derrik Cage Foundation after my father. So
(16:51):
this year, um, actually j what was like two weeks ago,
I was on Tamaran, so I just did Tamara hall. Um.
I gave a school twenty dollars from my foundation. They
named the hub athro me in the high school. So
I'm getting honored with that after the holiday. So I'm saying, like, damn,
I ain't from Atlanta, but now they naming schools after me. Yeah,
(17:13):
So that was that was the real special thing. So
it's it's showing that people appreciate, you know, all the
hard work that I'm playing out on the community because
we're community based. Like I already got the food popping,
already got the business popping. But what's that if you
got another young brother look like you struggling and you
can't give him information on what's really going on out there.
And I do a lot of talking to the community.
So that's basically what I do with the foundation. Your
(17:34):
fiancee is vegan, you are not? Uh do y'all use
the same you know? Uh, one side of hers one
side of yours? Now, Um, we got a flat top
so we got like burners just like stove and then
we got like um flat tops like using the restaurant.
(17:56):
But we do have um dishes that we we do cooking.
But we respect each other in the household. It ain't
like you know, what you eat ill or all that hand. Naturally,
by being around somebody that eats a little bit healthier,
you go Eventually, I was just gonna, yeah, it's a
certain things. So you know a lot of stuff I
(18:16):
eat now days. Um, No, I'm not vegan. I love seafood.
So I always just ate seafood anyway, So I still
eat chicken, and I eat a lot of seafood. Do
you see yourself leaning towards veganism one day? No? And
not and not and not even just because um, I
would say not because that I wouldn't want to or
(18:38):
I can't uphold or some thing, just that type of food.
I really love seafood, you know what I'm saying, Like,
I really like I gotta have like the blue crabs, shrimp,
I gotta have oysters, all of that stuff. Like yeah,
I really I grew up off of that, you know,
like Philly is like you know, it's it's right next
(18:59):
to bottom or it's so we get all of like
the blue crabs and all that. So like that's something
that I really like can shake. It's like a real dress.
You guys, um RaSE your kids, uh in the vegan
lifestyle or just they just you know, you just give
them free will No they vegan. The kids is vegan,
(19:20):
but my son he might be uh you know, he
might be a little pesketian like yeah, but I'm gonna
give him that option. If they want to be vegan
like their mom, they could be vegan. But it's it's
it's a it's a good thing for me because a
lot of my family died from cancering. A lot of
stuff they pain in foods. We don't really you know,
what we eat, and so you know, a lot of
(19:41):
that education, you know, you know, rubbed off on me
and I'm learning different things. But also where I'm learning
from her with the food, she's learning from me because
a lot of people don't know that, Like even in
Big Davis, we don't. We don't sell um steak that
has hormones in it or any any of that in it,
you know what I'm saying. So we have a healthier
choice of if that's what you know. I'm saying, if
(20:03):
that's what you want to eat. And I always wanted
to build my brand that way because I didn't want
to just you know, sell trash meat. Like a lot
of people don't understand that that steak that we sell
is expensive. We just set a lot of it to
me to uphold the profits. But we didn't have the
traffic that we had, I probably would have been buried,
you know what I'm saying, Because it cost a lot,
like one case of steak cost to twenty and we
(20:24):
and we're selling ten thousand pounds of steak almost every week.
Damn you know what I'm saying. You can definitely tell
this quality. Yeah, for sure, I gotta be. We'll be
right back with more of the baller Alert Show. What's
up y'alls? Your boy d Hayes. The motivation I'm gonna
(20:45):
get y'all right now on this show that I'm talking on.
Its life is not attracted me as a marathon is
all about how you and run your race. I can't
get enough of baller Alert. Follow us on all social
media platforms at baller Alert, go on to baller alert
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