Slicing Bread with The Black Bread Company

Today Host Louis Carr speaks with Mark Edmond and Jamel Lewis, founders of The Black Bread Company.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Louis Carr post to the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Blueprint Men
selling where we have consistently given men a prescription fook
not just for themselves, but also for their families and
their communities. During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate
our listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness, and relationship.

(00:28):
And on today's episode, we have the privilege of having
the founders of the Black Bread Company, Mark Edmund and
Jamal Lewis. Thank you, thanks for having us. It's a
pleasure to be here. It's great to have you guys.
So you are the only black owned bread making company

(00:51):
in the US. That's correct. We are the only African
American all sliced bread company h in the country for sure. Um.
And it all started, you know, with a with a
dream and you know, really just being extremely intentional with uh,
you know, actions that we took. So what were you

(01:13):
doing guys before you started the bread company? Well, for me,
I'm pretty much been a serial entrepreneur. I had a
construction company build houses from the ground up, worked under
different developers in the city of Chicago. Um. I also

(01:34):
had a gourmet popcorn company that I started when I
was like twenty three years old with my younger brother
he was about eighteen years old. We was actually able
to get that to the market as well in the
Jewels oscos around the city. Walgreens was in conversation with
Walmart at that time. UM. And so for me, it's
just pretty much just been you know, entrepreneurship working uh.

(01:57):
And also had a job as a superintendent uh for
two different construction companies share in Chicago as well. And
Jama Yeah, working, working, working, Uh, we're working me in
fathers husbands. So for me, it was entertainment in my
background singer songwriter about nature and trade. Um. And also
I've gotten to marketing over the last year's actually, uh,

(02:21):
just in order to promote myself and to promote my brand.
So it seems like a lot of those efforts that
I was putting into my own endeavors and branding and
things of that nature, it all just kind of came
for a circle with this brand when Mark presented the opportunity,
uh to be the first or become the first African
American own slight Square company. So all things work together

(02:41):
and we're here just working me in uh with with
a vision in the mission and jamale you shouldn't have
told me he was a singer song right, and so amazing.
We we got jingle coming for the Black Brand Company. Yes,
we will, we will do that. Yeah, it's it's in
the making. It's in the works. I'm I'm spreading all
as creatively. So it's coming soon for sure. Alright, we're

(03:03):
gonna be looking for that. So you guys started the company,
was it in one? Uh? We we we founded the
company in We actually was after once we figured out
we was gonna do this bread company for a whole year.
It's just when we was doing our you know, a
strategic uh marketing plan, you know, right in our business plan,

(03:25):
getting all our ducks in a row, just really planning
and coordinating and really building the company up. And then
it took us a year to get to the point
where we was ready to launch to the public. Uh.
And around February is when actually it was like February
one is when we actually launched to the public and
let everyone know that we are here, that we exist,

(03:46):
and we are ready to compete. So Mark Jamale, as
you talked about yourselves. I didn't hear anybody say that
they were a former baker. Yeah, so so how why bread?
And where does the recipe come from? And either one
of your cooks right right exactly you can speak now.

(04:12):
I was gonna say, it's it's real simple, Lewis. We
know what we know and we know what we don't know.
We we brought ourselves and being men of research, so
we research research research. Originally, Mark, I can't tell the story.
You have to tell the story, all right for sure.
So so how I started starting in around the incident

(04:33):
of George Floyd. Uh So when the incident with George
Floyd was really my personal protests. Um, what I wanted
to do was support African American on products period. You know,
it was around the time where you know, we was
dealing with George Floyd incident, and you know, we also
at the same time dealing with this pandemic that's coming around.
Everybody's going in the house and shutting down. My wife

(04:56):
asked me to go to the grocery store. So she
wrote this list out and on the first thing that
was on that list was bread. I was extremely intentional
that everything I bring home was gonna be African American on.
So when I went to the grocer Star, I was
in this bread out for about forty five minutes because
it was the first thing on the list, and I
googled every single brand and bread in this out. I'm

(05:19):
looking for I'm giving I'm looking for an excuse to
buy the bread, Like, hey, give me a black executive,
you know, is it a black ceo? Oh, is it
a black ceo. It's just somebody that's in that's making
some decisions. Give me some reason to support this bread.
And I could not find any. We didn't have no
participation at all. So at that point I was really

(05:39):
just you know, emotionally charged, and I left. When I
left the grocery store in the parking lot, I gave
my best friend Jamal a call, and then we also
call our our friend Charles. And from there that's where
the black bread code actually began because when my game
a call, it was a call of action. It was like, Yo,
this is a problem and this is what we have
to do. So, Jama, when you get the call and

(06:03):
he's he's talking about bread, what was your first reaction? Right? Really? Um?
When I when I think about it, as quickly as
I can think now, is Mike Mark, like he said,
serial entrepreneur. He's a go getter, He's a doer more
than anything. So I knew in my mind by him
calling me saying that something didn't exist and he was

(06:25):
going to create it, he was gonna build it, I
knew what was going to happen. So um, instantly my
mind just just went into like he said, into action
of I used the phrase rocking and rolling. If he's rocking,
I'm rolling because I know what's gonna be I know
what's gonna be done. I know what's gonna come to pass.
And at the end of the day, for me, it's
just like, okay, what can I do to serve this

(06:45):
brand to make sure that that you know that the
mission is fulfilled and that it is done in excellence.
So for me, it was just it was it was
like he said, I call the action. It was let's rock,
let's roll, let's do it, let's go forward. So that
did either of you guys trying to make bread in
your own kitchens and you start that where you know,
a lot of the Haircure company started that way. They're like,

(07:08):
we had a problem. Let me see if I can
make my own my own grief. All right, did you
know o kitchen, we we we didn't. I knew for
a fact, we didn't know how to make no bread.
You know, we we we wasn't even to try. But
but like Jamel said earlier, we know, we know, we
know we don't know, and we're extremely going to We're resourceful.
So the first thing we did was find a few

(07:29):
different chefs. You know, we got chefs as friends, you know, um,
and we was asking for help, Hey, can you make
a bread for us? You know, we want this bread.
So then we we got the first sample of bread.
We didn't really necessarily like it, you know, we have to.
We tasted over thousands and thousands of loads of bread, yeah,
you know, and until we found what we wanted. You know,

(07:51):
we wanted certain things from from different types of bread.
Like we wanted this texture, We wanted this firmness. We
wanted it to be soft, wanted to be flo fee,
you know, we wanted to be sturdy. So if you're
making a peanut butter and jelly sounds with the peanuts
in it is not going to break through. And at
the same time, what we we knew we wanted to
give our people, our community a high quality bread, and

(08:15):
on top of that, to make things even harder for us,
we wanted to be as clean as possible for our community,
right We we wanted to be you know, as you know,
minimum as processed as possible for commercial bread. And that's
what we did. So it was extremely rewarding at the end,
but it was, man, it was it was a difficult
time for sure. We'll be right back with more of

(08:42):
my interview after this quick break. So after you got like,
this is the recipe for the bread, who's gonna manufacture?
How did you get back out? Yeah, so go ahead,

(09:02):
I'm gonna say you need to go for it. Bro No,
so really again, in the middle of in the midst
of the pandemic, it's just amazing how how much persistence
and perseverance can truly pay off. Um, if you can
imagine when the pandemic first began, offices were shut down,

(09:24):
every factions was shut down. Yeah, no one, no one
was really taking meetings at all. Obviously there wasn't anything
in person going on. But to be honest, just just
through perseverance and and taking action and making call after
call after call, Mark found us a manufacturer that was
willing to actually meet with us and actually um uh

(09:45):
literally put put their put their hands to work and
work towards the recipe that we had, you know, designed
in our minds and the things that we had tasted,
and all those things began that came come together, you know,
in a divine way for sure. And it's that in
Chicago here is it's it's actually manufactured in Wisconsin. Okay,
we's sit in Wisconsin, uh uh some prairie sometimes yeah. Yeah.

(10:12):
And so you decide you're gonna do sliced bread, yeah,
and did you get off into the different variations? So
it's there weed and all that raising bread and well,
what we want to do is it was really a
boat move for us. And you know that's that's that's
part of our tagline as well, Bolt and Fresh. And

(10:34):
one reason for that we wanted to we did not
want to niche ourselves out right, and we really just
wanted to compete with the standard bread in the in
the big guys, if you will. So we went for
the premium white bread and we went for a honey
wheat bread first. So we start off with just two
loads of bread because we had limited funds, you know,

(10:54):
limited knowledge of the industry, and we didn't want to
put too many, too many eggs and too many baskets.
We just focus on two staple types of bread, you know,
and we did not want to change what the consumer
is buying. We wanted to change just who they're spending
their money with, right what company they are already uh supporting.

(11:16):
So if you're already into a honeyweek, you know, now
you have a different option. It's a very good honeywheek.
So you're into one of the more popular brands. You're
not compromising taste, you're not compromising quality. You might even
get a better quality bread when you come to the
Black Bread Company. Okay, so you've got your manufacturer, your recipe.

(11:41):
Now how do you market the bread? How do you
people know you've got bread? You know, that's a very
very interesting question. So again, uh, one thing we haven't
having uh may known yet, uh lewis with you is
is for the first year, as we began to construct

(12:03):
our company and do our research on and so forth,
we didn't tell anybody, right, Um, that's one thing even
Mark challenged us to do, you know. Not. Um, of
course our wives knew and we're aware, of course, and
we're on board for the for the task that we
had a head, but we didn't tell anyone. So again,
as we gathered our resources and did our research and

(12:24):
began to actually get our samples, and now we have
tangible bread. We have a product now, right, okay, how
do we how do we market it to these people
that we never told that never knew we existed? Right,
it's the question. So, um, again, we had all our
we had all our you know, ducts lined up in
the road for the most part, and we began to
give our family samples of the bread. Now we were

(12:46):
you know, we were you know, we actually had something tangible,
gave our family the bread and actually Mark sister, uh
she's actually in marketing and branding things of that nature.
She actually posted it on social media. So now you know,
people can see whoa there, you know, there's an actual
loaf of bread that says Black Bread Company on it.
You know, what is this about? All right? So exactly,

(13:10):
So in essence, we didn't have any social media presence
or following before that, um, but we decided, you know,
since the public began to know, you know, that we existed,
we put together to live streams. We did a live
stream on Instagram and and a Facebook live stream as well.
No followers at the time, right, but again the moment
we went live, people began to just jump on and

(13:32):
share the posts and sold and so forth. We ended
up with ten thousand people on Instagram live and ten
thousand plus people on Facebook lives, so we had over
twenty thousand people watching us. Uh announced you know the
fact that that you know, Black Bread Company exists after
all of these years of it not being the case.
So sure enough, while we're on the live, we ended

(13:53):
up um uh introducing our website. Uh, just just giving
people a shout out that you know, uh, you guys
are interested interested in some boarding. It was people from
around the country, around the world watching if you were interested,
interested in supporting. We gave people the opportunity to pre
order our bread because now we actually had a product,
you know, we were able to take except preorder. So
people began to pre order the bread literally in that

(14:15):
moment while we while we were on the live, you know,
just thousands of people ordering the bread. So it actually
created um, part of our business model to you know,
actually selling bread online customarily. If you think about it.
You don't necessarily order your bread online, of course, you
go to the grocery store like Mark did. So we
actually found a niche in that just the fact that

(14:35):
you know, people began to order our products online and
it really really just took off from there. Even before
we began, you know, to get into retail and get
opportunities of that on. We we kind of actually stumbled
upon something that really really uh solidified our our company earlier.
So do you think that it was just the right timing? Uh?

(14:56):
Right after the traffic there for George Lloyd, the social
injustice movements throughout the country, So the timing was just
right for to launch a black owned business at that
particular time. I think the timing couldn't be better, uh,
because one thing Jael didn't mention was at that time,

(15:18):
all the money that we we pulled, we all saved
saved uh or poured from our savings for this company,
and we put literally everything that we had and by
the time we got to this point where we actually
had some bread and ready to go live, we only
had a dollar and eight seven center left in our
business account, you know, so things was like was not
looking great, right, and then all these pre orders start

(15:39):
coming in and that really transformed our business even up
to this day. Um, the support that we have, as
you can imagine, You've got ten thousand individuals on two
different platforms, and the comments was just showing nothing but
love and support. And it was just a real movement

(16:00):
that we created just in that moment. And I would
probably say if those tragic events did not take place
where a you know, everybody is already emotionally charged with
George Floyd situation, be everybody in a mama is at
home and not working, not being busy because we locked

(16:21):
down and during the pandemic, you know, so people have
time to be on their phones and on these social
media platforms and share and listen. You know, like everything
really just came to perfect timing, you know, so so
much so that even thirty days after that um initial life,
we ended up on Ellen de Generous Show, you know,

(16:44):
And that just shows like the power that that moment
had for us. And really it's been pushing us, you know,
like ever since. And uh, yeah, the time couldn't be
better for us, for sure. So you know the question
that a lot of people are gonna have when they
hear this and and and they read about this, it's like, Okay,
you spent your own money, all right, like every sort

(17:07):
of new business does. So then then you run out
of your own money. Then the next step is how
do you get other people to give you some of
their money to invest in the business. So, how did
you guys do your seed round? Did you go to
friends and family? Did you get somebody in banking? Did
you find a rich cousin? How did you guys get

(17:29):
that next uh round of money? Well, at that time,
the company was actually it's it's kind of rare for
a new business to kind of support itself, you know,
so early on, right, it's and and very early on
this company was doing just that. It was just supporting itself.
You know, it wasn't paying us yet, but it was
able to take care of the customers and take care

(17:52):
of itself and its bills and so much so that
people kept access. How can we invest? How can I
be a part of this? How what what cannot do
to to to be you know what I'm saying? To
support you guys? Even more so, we got this so
much that we really decided and one of our taglines
is always uh you know, saying this brand is for us.

(18:12):
So we decided, let's give ten percent of our company
to the community, right, And that's where we started with
the idea of going on start Engine and actually you know,
saying doing a crowdfunding platform. So we went on start
Engine and we actually got introduced to start Engine through
Isaac Hayes, uh the third you know, he introduced us

(18:35):
to start Engine. Uh. And then once we went through
the program form start Engine and they accepted us, you know,
and this is one time that we had a unanimous
decision from Start Engine. Uh. You know, employees who pick
who who's able to be allowed, which that doesn't normally
happen over there. Um. And immediately we just saw the

(18:56):
community support and we saw the need. You know, we
looked up probably the first thirty days were it's probably
all the way over you know, I'm saying three or
four hundred thousand dollars, and then within the sixty days,
you know, it's pretty much in a six or seven
hundred thousand dollar range. And we recently just closed out
at over a million dollars raised, you know, saying for
the first round, um, and it was really uh and

(19:21):
and and even right now still a wait list to
you know, saying for investments who kind of came in late,
but they still wanted an opportunity. So we even have
a wait list now with a couple of hundred people
in there that's looking for the opportunity right now to
go ahead on and invest in this company. You know,
and the demand for our community is there. Are people
are ready, they're ready to invest, they're ready to be

(19:44):
a part of you know, an amazing black company. And
so it's just our duty right now to just be
good store of the money, uh, to to put forth
the effort and continue to make this company sustainable and
you know, operating in the most excellent way that we can.
We'll be right back with more of my interview after

(20:08):
this quick break. So, guys, we're here at the waymaker community.
Believe every successful business person and endeavor has had a
waymaker who has been some of your waymakers. Uh. For me, uh, yeah,

(20:30):
it would definitely be. It's just a lot, I would
say Toy. You know, I recently met Toy. Yeah, and
she actually introduced me to you, right, and she's been
making phone calls. I mean from the moment that we
met her. You know, she just been are forced to
reckon with. I would say Kenny Johnson. Uh, He's has

(20:54):
been a way maker. You know, he just immediately seen
us and he was one of our big first seeds.
He just instantly just put money in and he really
did not want anything in return, you know, he just
wanted to help. He just wanted to keep us going.
And then outside of of of those two individuals, for
me personally, I would always rely obviously my my wife,

(21:14):
my uh, my mother, and my my sisters and my
brothers and my my entire family. Really, you know, they've
been extremely supportive so far, so you know, I'm extremely
blessed for that. Jamel, Yeah, yeah, absolutely with Echo Mark
his sentiments with uh, the Kinney Johnson's for sure, uh,

(21:35):
Toy Salters, even just the energy um surrounding those two
in general from a business perspective, from a life perspective,
have have been very very very key toward our success
in many ways. Um. And then I would say even
if I can think Isaac, if I can think of

(21:56):
the industry, uh, in general, when I think of people
of influence that I've reached for us just out of
out of their hearts, I would say Ricky Smiley for sure, Um,
the legendary Fred Hammond is is a is a very
key supporter of ours. Te Eric Thomas, the hip hop preacher,

(22:17):
of course, c J. The entire secret to success family,
so on and so forth. It's it's so there's so
many things, but again it also teaches us to actually
do that of the same. Uh. Even when we when
we first launched, it seemed like I had it in
my mind that it would take us a while to
get a certain amount of success and be able to
actually help people and and learn to be way makers ourselves.

(22:41):
But again almost instantly, I'm saying this because I feel
like this we all maybe can consider that there is
somebody that we are further along then perhaps along the way,
that maybe looking to us, that we can all or
you can always be a way maker for someone, no
matter what you have or don't have, or what you
think you are where you are. So shout out to
everybody that's been back for us. But also just uh,

(23:04):
it also makes us conscious to do our best to
be back for somebody else, to be you know, to
be that for someone else there. Like like our interns,
so we we every year we hired a difference set
of interns that they come in and we just teach
them and the operation of our business. You know, we
let them listen in on our meetings and conversations. When
we travel to different food shows around the country. We're

(23:26):
taken with us. You know, we allow them, you know
what I'm saying, to to get on the plane and
and and see the show and and you know, just
get that experience of what it really takes to you know,
it's saying, be the Black Bread Company, you know, and
you know, meet certain individuals that we met. So that's
that was That's pretty awesome as well. So what is

(23:47):
the unique quality of your breath? Could you know? A
guy like me? Could I could I tell if I
did a taste test, you know, if you tell me
what the qualities and I closed mine, guys, because I
do a taste test. And what I'm saying, oh, you
know that's market Jamale's bread on the right. So qualities

(24:08):
of your bread, I would say, But for me, Jamale
might have a different one. But for me, I would
say freshness, Like we get our bread to the store
is so quick, and we get it to the consumers
so fast, even like my Auntie was the first time
she ever tasted my bread ever. She said, Oh my god,
this is really fresh bread. And then she had like

(24:30):
a breakthrough. Mom. She's like, so, you mean to tell
me all these years, my entire life, you've been eating
stale bread, you know. She like, she like, she like,
this is my first time eating fresh bread. And it's because,
I mean, our bread is in the grocery stores within
twenty four to forty eight hours of it being baked,
you know, not a week out, not three days, not

(24:51):
four days, not while as soon as it's made, it's out.
And so a lot of people, you know, uh actually
says that I bought our bread is that Oh my god,
it's just so fresh. It's so it's such a clean taste,
and that's that's that's for me. Jamale might have something different,
you know what my mind is. Um, I would say

(25:11):
the premium and even uh rich quality of the bread
um at the at the end of the day, just
it's it's like it's fresh from the baker. Literally, it's
like like Mark said, it's it's coming from the bakery
and within twenty four hours it is on the shelves
or even honestly, if you order online, it is at

(25:34):
your door. You know what I mean fresh? So yeah,
so too. So to be able to Amazon Prime something
you can get it there within hours. That's our goals.
You know. It's funny as you said that, like like
one of our marketing things is every day I'm trying
to get closer to the consumer, right so in my head,

(25:55):
and what I'm trying to do is for our fulfillment
centers throughout the country, I'm trying to get closer to
your address so that when you do order some bread,
you can't get it within hours. Uh. It's certain places
in Chicago they get it almost right away, and it's
other places like California, Texas, New York that it takes
a little longer to get there. But you know, we're

(26:15):
working on that as well. But it's still gonna be
super fresh when I get it. Wow. So what's the
next iteration for the Black Bread Company? What are you
guys doing next? It's it's so much, so much to come,
so much to come. So so so we got bagels
coming out, Uh, next, we got English muffins, even wheat

(26:39):
English whole wheat English muffins coming out as well. Um,
and we have jams that's actually almost available right now.
It's just a few things that we we gotta do
with the jams. So we do got some specialty jams
and mustards that we got coming out to really complement
our breads um and so that's the more immediate, uh
side of things. Now wait a minute, waiting manute, guys,

(27:02):
Now where the biscuits that you know, you can't have
called the Black Bread You ain't got no biscuits when coming.
You know, we got some businuits coming, but the biscuits
taken a little longer because they gotta be Mama biscuits.
You know, they gotta be the right biscuits. You know
one thing we cannot do with our cultures play with it, right.
We can't call up the Black Bread Company and just
put anything out. When you bite that biscuit, you have

(27:24):
to feel like your grandmama made that biscuit with love
in the heart. And until we can get that where
we can be consistent with it, we're not dropping a biscuit.
But it's it's the top of our list, you know,
it's the extreme top. But I cannot just put anything.
I can't just put my name on any anything, right,
So we're working on it. I'll say that, and are

(27:47):
you Are you, guys distributed in any of the chain
retailers right now? So right here in Chicago we are
in the Mariano's chains and we will be in over
five hundred Targets stores in May Brown. Congratulation, Thank you,

(28:08):
thank you, thank you. So as we close, guys, for
those listening to this podcast, give us three things that
you've learned that you should do when you start a business. Yes, yes, yes, wow.
Three things you should do. One is believed. Believe in yourself,

(28:36):
Believe in what you know, that anything is possible, for
anything that you actually put your hands to and and
and that is divinely for you will come to pass.
So so one, I would say, believe and you know,
have faith and believe. Um too we say this as
a company. But I said, now, do the work. Do
you work? Uh? Yeah, do the work, realizing uh that

(29:00):
you may not even always understand what that includes. But
do the work. Be willing to do the work, show
up every day and do the work. If it's your business,
it is not a nine to five, it's not a job,
and it's not something that you pick up and put
down you it's it's it's seven you know, So I
would say, do the work, um and then be consistent,

(29:22):
be consistent, and trust the process because it will come
to pass. And I have three as well, if that's okay. Uh.
Number one, I would say, something that you extremely passionate
about and it's something that you want to start. Be
extremely extremely cautious and careful with who you tell your
your dreams too. Right. It's you've got a lot of

(29:44):
people that are afraid and they don't see your vision
and only you see your vision. When we first start this,
as Jamal mentioned, I was making extremely clear, like if
you want to talk about it, call me. If you
if it's if it's if it's two o'clock in the morning,
it's learning your your your your chest, and your wife
to sleep, call me. I'll be here. We can talk

(30:06):
about it. Right. Uh. So that's number one. Protect your dreams, man.
Don't tell everybody. Find you a person that you can trust,
your wife, your husband, your mate, and talk to that person.
Talk to your kids about it. But do not go
out and just tell everybody. You know what I'm saying,
what you got planned. Number two, I would say, don't
be afraid to compete. The brad industry is one of

(30:29):
the most saturated industries in the market period. It's too
many brands out as it is, but yet we have
a lot of success. One thing we have not mentioned
yet is that we recently was evaluated over fifty one
million dollars and we've been doing this for two years now,
you know. And with the fifty one million dollar evaluation,

(30:52):
that's off of a saturated area in the grocery stores.
But we're not afraid to compete. And I would say third,
and it's kind of like what Jamale was saying is
put everything that you have in it, believe in yourself,
put the work in it. People only want to help
those who help themselves. You know. People don't help people

(31:13):
that just got a dream and no action behind it.
So if you want people to get behind you and
to push you, you have to push yourself and carry
yourself across whatever finish lines that you can. You know,
and make sure that you you have your business plan,
you know, plan out what you wanna do. It's extreme.

(31:34):
A lot of people like to skip the business plan.
Don't skip the business plan, you know, write out of
business plan, take your time, get professional help with your
business plans. You have to and see it out and
then execute execute execute, well, Jamalemar, I want to thank
you for doing uh this interview and I'll see you

(31:56):
at the blueprint man something, yes you see see it
or thank you for having me mm hm