EYL #156: Shark Tank Winner Turned a Tennis Racket into a Comb

Last year we had the honor of having Mark Cuban as a guest. During his legendary episode, he referenced a company that he invested in on Shark Tank, called Twist It Up. Twist It Up is a hair grooming company that has a unique patent for a comb in the shape of a miniature tennis racket, which is designed to twist hair. He said the reason that he invested in the company was because of the passion of the founder and the upside potential of the product. 

On episode 156, we had the opportunity of sitting down with the founder of Twist It Up, Noel Durity and his partner Ace. They walked us through the process of starting their company, getting a patent, the legal world of patents and trademarks, their experience on Shark Tank, business lessons learned from Mark Cuban and Daymond John, and more. #twistitup #sharktank #blackhair 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (01:50):
Don't wait, don't hesitate it over there now my graduates
from my school being forced back.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Drop Thanks, drop, Mike, drop drop. All right, guys, welcome
back e y L. This is a special episode for us.

(02:18):
We are in lovely Los Angeles and yes, so anytime
we get a chance to connect with entrepreneurs is always
a and a pleasure. But this has backstory to it
and we love the backstory. So Mark Cuban shout out
to Mark.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yeah, the first of our billionaire editions.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
The first, the first billionaire to come on off platform.
And he when he came on ey L, he spoke
about a company that he invested in called Twisted Up,
and he gave the whole story, he talked about the founder,
the well and fast forward a year and some change,
we are interviewing the partners of that company, Twisted Up,

(03:05):
Noel and Ace. So not only are they the first
company that have been on Shark Tank, that have been
on E y L. Yeah, also I believe the first
company that we've had they have hair products right.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
In the hair industry.

Speaker 5 (03:28):
First company.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, we had Wade who had some products here, but
he's a bar is different.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Way the barber. Yeah you know bro, Yeah, man, you
know I met him when I was first starting the
Brown Brothers in at twenty seventeen. He was just starting
the hair units. Man. Yeah, I didn't get one. Just
for the record, Yeah, he's dope the way. Shout out
to Wait.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
But the hair industry is a billion dollar industry, especially
for black people, black women, black men, huge, huge industry. Unfortunately,
we don't own vast majority of hair products. The hair
industry even though we spend so much money on it.
So this is going to be a dope, dope conversation.
So first and foremost, thank you guys for joining us.
Appreciate it having us.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah yeah, but the introduction, man, So let's go. I'm
going to say this right now, eyo, Noble Peace Price
twenty four, Make it happen.

Speaker 5 (04:23):
Put it out there.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
You have it, ladies and gentlemen. So let's get into this.
I want to talk about Twisted Up. But before that,
I want to just go on too back. But I
just want to preface it. So twist it up. You
guys have like tennis rackets on your shirt. Oh I'm
glad you do.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
You have the fish in your pocket?

Speaker 4 (04:41):
So that all right. So before we get into the backstory,
tell me what this is.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
What is this? It was something that birthed out of
necessity to help me twist my hair right to wear
your hair natural. As you know, as a culture outside
of braids, cornos locks, there wasn't really anything that we
have that come to wearing my hair naturally. And I
was using the competitive product of Cross Bunch, and you know,
we get a lot of rap that we don't like.
Cross punches like I love cross punches, and if you're

(05:08):
going to use one, like I would give one a
shout out. Used New Drag because he's the founder, he's
the one that started it, the original, and he's been
knocked off and it's just sad. I just wanted something
that was a little bit better, more hygienics, and that
can clean, fits in your pocket. Then you go to
a club and they say, take off your hat.

Speaker 5 (05:23):
Still look good.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
My hair is maden. But I wanted to figure out
how to do my hair something.

Speaker 5 (05:27):
To go to the club with a sponge.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Don't it, don't do it. Don't gonna patch you down?
Like what is that? Bro? So I just wanted something
that was sleep, something that can be clean, fits in
your pocket, and I didn't have to replace it as much.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
So all right, how did you come up with the idea?
Because if you're listening order you can't see it. It
is a the best way I can describe it. It looks
like a tennis racket without without a handle.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, it's your shrinking man, it's a it's a small
tennis racket.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
So how what do you Yeah, it looks like it
could be like a badminton racket for table tennis.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah. Yeah, I was using a tennis racket for about
three years to do my hair. So you were walking
around with a tennis racket. I bought three of them.
I had one in my car, one in the gym,
and one of my girl's house. So no, this is
this is actually how we met. So how did you
get that?

Speaker 4 (06:21):
I love entrepreneurship because it's all about innovation and innovation
things that people. You got to have an imagination to
be an entrepreneur, right, yeah, so, oh I.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Can't take credit for that. Bro, My cousin. My cousin
came in with the tennis racket. Like, bro, it was
an after midnight conversation, probably had one too many, you know,
something gave me came in. It's like, bro, did you
know that you can get your hair twisted with a racket?
So can you can you show how do you do this? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (06:47):
Bro?

Speaker 2 (06:48):
You can you just pick out your hair or just
literally just go in a circle and it just makes
these twists. Man, Like it just twisted up. How your
hair twisted? Right now? Yeah? From an afro to a twist.
We got before and after shots. She can go on YouTube.
We got a bunch of videos that show about it,
and it's just it's just crazy, Like, uh, the story

(07:08):
is just man. I mean so like you're like a
real right.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
I used to teach for Yeah, I used a real
tennis racker, so like you're going to stores with the racket,
like you're going out at night, Like I'm gonna have
a racket in my car, and.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
So I had one in my car. So like when
when we first met, he was like, Yo, we were
playing basketball.

Speaker 7 (07:26):
I was giving them buckets. By the way, reference.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
He was like, Yo, how do you get your hair
this way? And at the time, I was toying with
the idea of drinking it. And I was like, bro,
like I'm going to tell you this because you're cool,
but you can't tell like nobody right because I'm trying
to figure this out. He's like, all right, what what
is it? You know, we went to the locker room.

Speaker 8 (07:47):
You put the like we was doing like some illegal
stuff locker room, real.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Quick tennis racker, bro. Because for me, it was a necessity, man,
Like I I wanted to wear my hair naturally and
I was tired of putting the texturizers in my hair
and I just I wanted my hair to be done,
and it worked, like in a minute, two minutes, my
hair was like done and for a culture without my
hair being short. I've never had that, Like even picking

(08:15):
out my hair hurts, right, I've never had a way
to just to take off my hair, take off my
hat and just so previously for you to get your
haird to that you have to do it yourself and
twist it. Oh no, I sponge used to sponge the
thing with the kids using Yeah, my only thing is
that when it's in the gym bag or it's everywhere,
like you ever just thought, like since the dawn of time, Like,

(08:35):
have you ever seen like a black sponge? Like the
reason why I Crows sponge is black is just because
of heides the dirt. And again I'm not talking like
messing the company, Like I love the product. Without it,
I never would have created it, right, But I just
needed a better mouse trap for me. I was replacing
it way too much. I was spending somewhere north of
like thirty to forty bucks on my haircut every two weeks,
and then I was spending anywhere between ten and fifteen

(08:57):
dollars on a sponge every ten days so in a month,
I'm spent one hundred bucks on my hair and it's
just crazy.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
When they do it in the barbershop, I'm not sure
if it's the you know, the most.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Hygienic thing to do, right, because it's like, you get
a cut, they put the sponge in my head.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
My son gets the cut, they put the sponge in
his clean the United States, every state has a fine
for reusing it. In the state of California, it's a
two hundred and fifty dollars five.

Speaker 5 (09:19):
So you can't use So if he gets a cut,
they have to use a new one for me.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Correct. If they get caught we using it, it's a
two hundred and fifty dollars fine in the state of California.
Every single state has a fine.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
So all right, yeah, because my son doesn't use this one,
he just picks his hair out use it before.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
No, So bro, I get you one so the house
appreciate it. So this is like the new afro pick.
It's the modern day afro pick. Afro pick, but it
gets you. The curls at the top gets you. That's
to look at everybody wants.

Speaker 8 (09:50):
That's kind of yeah, that's kind of I think it
was like a Nick Young like Swaggy pe when he
had it like that.

Speaker 7 (09:55):
And then I think Usher his album.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, yeah, the fade, all the all the ball players
have their hair like that. It's like, how big can
you have it? Now?

Speaker 4 (10:05):
Because I see some dudes ins like it.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Probably want to like they see.

Speaker 7 (10:14):
Some of them when they that long. No, you don't really.
When it's that long, you don't have to maintain it.

Speaker 8 (10:19):
But when you got hair like our size, Like if
I have an afro and I go to bed, I'm
gonna wake up and it's gonna be half my hair
gonna be.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
Put this long enough, you'll turn in the dreads.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
So starting point, all right, so let's get into this story.
So all right, you have the idea.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
You you realize that it's not the most efficient thing
to have a tennis racket. You have the idea to
shrink it into what.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
It is now.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
So what are the steps because a lot of entrepreneurs
have ideas, but getting it off the ground is the
hard part. What are the steps that you took to
take the idea from your head to a product?

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Ready? Ready? Your secret? Google? Okay? Google? And YouTube? That
is it? I am not I'm very good with numbers.
Anything that I would give myself that I'm like great at.
I'm not an engineer, gole. I googled a YouTube like
the hell out of it, and what happened was that
I was trying to figure out a way how to
shrink it. Nothing came up. And right after Shark Tank

(11:13):
this before I was on, I was just watching it.
This show came on, like how to Invent something and
it was talking about three D printing. I was like,
what the heck is three D printing? I go to
Google what is three D printing? It talks about you
need a cajar. I was like, all right, cool, go
to craclists cadars for hire. What is that? What's a
cad draw? A cadrew is? A cajar is like a

(11:36):
digital image that will give to the printer a three
D printer that were allowed to print whatever you're trying
to like do. So it's like the blueprint for the
three D printer. So I go to Craigslist and I
try to find a cad draw for hire and I
interviewed like maybe five or six. I vibe with one.
I tell him what I need. He tells me like, YO,
give me the dimensions. I give him the dimensions. I go,

(11:58):
I wanted to fit in my pocket, in my back pocket.
Can't be this big, has to be a little bit smaller.
Send it to him, paying his money. He sends me
the file. Then I go to google three D print
shop near me, and I find a print shop near me.
I go, we print it out, go to a tennis
racket store, get it handstrung, and then done. This was
made in a three D printer. Original original, the original, original,

(12:21):
the original one is this big bulky one. I still
have it. It was handstrung. They first like what two thousand,
the first like two three thousand cons were hand shrunk. Yeah,
so handstrung looks like actual tennis. Actually instead of having
the stainless still wire mesh, it was actually like handstrung
in a tennis shop.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
So like if anybody's ever played tennis, if you haven't,
that's like the wiring deck correct strings.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
And so you switched to standless steel why because I
couldn't scale and it was costing too much. So initially
I never wanted to turn twist it up into like
a business because I didn't know how big it could be.
And I wasn't going to leave like a six figure
job to start something that I thought was very niche right.

(13:06):
It was for African Americans, African Americans that have hair,
that want to wear their hair a certain way, like
how big is this market? And it wasn't until my
barber gave me a call and said, yo, I just
got fined. If you don't turn it into a business,
I'm going to So then January of twenty seventeen, I
did a hair show on Long Beach, sold out. Then
I went to Browner Brothers, sold out, did Barbican in March,

(13:29):
sold out, and then the Connecticut Barbara Expo in April
sold out. And after I sold out out four shows,
I just turned off the foust and Willis did the
mortgages and made this something. These are the top hair
shows in the country by far. For like, if you're
trying to do like any type of barbering show, I
would say the last three for sure. Definitely Barbican in
New York. It's a great platform. I love it, Connecticut

(13:52):
Barbara Expo, and Browner Brothers. If you're trying to do
anything for the culture.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
So the initial barber that you showed you had the
was it this prototype or were.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
You No, it was it was the actual action. Yeah,
I can send you a photo of it, bro, it's
or a video of me using it. And they knew, like,
this is it, this is gonna be Genie. Yeah. He
was like, yo, you you I just got fine. Bro,
you gotta you gotta sell this and if you don't
sell this, then we're going to have a problem.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
So I did it, so you had to you want
to go No, I was saying you had kind of
breezed over.

Speaker 5 (14:20):
But you had a six figure job, you work, you.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Had real estate, real estate, the mortgages. Yet a lot of.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
Times people think that, you know what, I'm gonna be
an entrepreneur. I'm gon quit my job and.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
I'm gonna start this journey. That wasn't your path whatever,
it was never my path.

Speaker 5 (14:34):
Why did you take that route?

Speaker 2 (14:36):
My mother? So god, hey mom, don't hate me. Yeah,
you know I'm a West Indian right, So, like, academics
are huge, it's very huge, and uh, you either go
to school or get out. So when I decided to
drop out of college, I did not know what I
wanted to do with my life. But I know I

(14:57):
didn't want to live out home with my mom because
I didn't want to be told with to do that.
Dynamic just didn't work out. I feel like every man
gets to a point where they it was like, stop
telling me what to do, right, So my fear of
going back home drove me. So I was a server.
I saved up enough money for me to move out
and never go back. And then I had a goal
and I was like, yo, before I hit twenty five,

(15:20):
I want to have one hundred thousand dollars in my
bank account. How can I do that? Work three serving jobs,
live off one save the other two. So I did
that more than I wanted a party. I did that
more than I wanted to buy Jordan's. I did that
more than I wanted to hang out. Like I had
no life for two and a half years, and I
saved one hundred thousand dollars. So by the time I
hit twenty five, I had it in my bank account.
And then I ventured off to real estate and that

(15:40):
was that was my principal, like I will always have
X amount of dollars in my account, but the rest
of the money is for me to experiment. And as
I started gaining this confidence that to try new things.
I just kept doing it, so I would never fully
quit anything. I must have cash flow coming in. So
it's the same thing with Twisted Up. Not until I
did four shows and sold out, I wasn't gonna just

(16:03):
go quit, but I had some money that I can
go figure out and test the waters and see how
did I can make this? So all right, when you
start the company, how much money did it take just
to get the company off the ground, and what was
your what was your first initial push as far as marketing,
I can tell you this, Without Ace, this is probably

(16:23):
gonna have been as big as it is because he
worked for me for free for a year. Like let's
talk about that.

Speaker 7 (16:30):
Yeah, I mean, we didn't know it was gonna be
this big.

Speaker 8 (16:32):
It was just one of them things where you know,
like you got a best friend and you got somebody
that got an idea, and every time he's just like, hey,
you know, I.

Speaker 7 (16:39):
Got this coming up, or I got a video, or at.

Speaker 8 (16:42):
One time we had no units. We was in a
warehouse till I am. We had to sneak in the
warehouse and work in the warehouse till like two am,
four am.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Like eight pm to two am shifts just to make
enough units just so we have enough for the shows.

Speaker 5 (16:54):
So you guys know each other since like childhood or.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Twenty seventeen, twenty sixteen, sixteen, twenty fifteen, Yeah, somewhere around there.

Speaker 8 (17:02):
So when I met him at the gym, that was
when like was was just getting started.

Speaker 5 (17:05):
When he was giving them buckets.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah. Yeah, we want to change this narrative right now.
All right, So but like north of a hunch k
one hundred k, north of hundre k.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
North of one hundred k, So all right, so you
start with six figures from your own personal savings. Yeah,
and that's to actually manufacture it in bulk.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
By the moves. The patent was expensive, say mark was expensive. Yeah,
all right, So what's the process of getting something pattern?
So when you when you apply for a patent, you
first obviously need a lawyer, and then you need to
know what lane you want to go down. There's a
design patent and then there's a utility patent, and both
of them have two different functionalities. So a design patent
just protects your design. A utility patent there's an actual use, right,

(17:55):
so it can be written vague and anything that falls
into that description regardless of what it looks like, it's
still is going to infringe on the utility of your
patent a design. If I had a design patent and
this will circle and you came out with a square,
you're not infringing. You change the whole design. I have
a patent on what the what it looks like. So
based on the education that was told to me by

(18:17):
a lawyer, I decided to go down the utility patent
because I wanted to make sure that no matter what
it looks like, that I am protected. And then once
you go down that path, then you have to do filing,
and it just it takes a while. It takes I
mean close to two years to get a utility patent published.
So you got to have patience and you got to
have a good lawyer because it's it's a lot of

(18:39):
back and forth with the examiner. So you're going to
get maybe after I say, like eight months or a year,
you get an examiner assigned to you, and then this
is like back and forth between your lawyer and the
examiner telling you, oh, this is too vague, or this
can't be done, or so forth. And I got a
lot of back and forth because my patent actually written

(19:02):
was a tennis racket fell underneath it? But my lawyer
was arguing saying that there's never been any proof that
a tennis racket can be used to twist your hair.
No one has ever used it, so you could still
be able to push this. So we had to change
some lingo just to get it granted. But when it did,
I was protected.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Yeah, I mean even from the parent standpoint, I'm looking
at it like what qualifies as a tennis recket?

Speaker 5 (19:24):
It needs needs a handle.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Correct, right, But also a tennis record is for the
play sports that correct, and it's it's a proof of concept.
So the examiner was saying, well, a tennis racket exists,
so therefore you can use it to twist your hair.
But a tennis record was never intended to twist your hair.
Utility for it was never to use to twist your hair.
So you take my comb and now all of a

(19:46):
sudden you use it for a strainer or a cheese
grater or whatever you want to use it for. You
know what I mean, Like, you're not infringing on my
patent because my patent is for hair. It's a completely
different utility.

Speaker 5 (19:57):
Very specific, correct.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
So like now you're protective.

Speaker 5 (20:01):
Somebody tries to make this design.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Any any any shape that encloses a woven material that
is usage twist hair, you are infringing on my patent.

Speaker 5 (20:11):
We come from New York.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Oh yeah, I know.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
You got a great story about the city of New York.
We got a lot of salons, a lot lot. Can
you tell us about your trip to New York?

Speaker 2 (20:25):
You know, I love I love New York. But again,
to any entrepreneur, you can probably relate to this. Uh
it's your baby. This is my first thing that I've
ever created from scratch, and to see it get knocked off,
it started to affect me. And as a man, I
couldn't just I couldn't look at myself in the mirror,

(20:46):
and I was having a conversation with face and uh,
what's the name of that movie taken? Taken? Yeah, I
will find you. Yeah that speech when it's darted and
I will kill you. You know, there's a certain skills
that you know when you wanna find you and like
you don't want to, so like I went on, I
went on a mission. Man, I went to New York.

(21:06):
Was the first stop. Shout out to every single person
from the bottom of my heart that DM the page
told us like, hey, you know, here's knockoffs here, here's
knockoffs hair. And when I landed in New York, I
just didn't know that. You guys just have a just
so many beauty supply stores in one area. I thought
I would be driving a lot, right, So when I
got a location, I would go to that location and

(21:28):
I'm like, Yo, there's like thirty other beauty supply let
me just let me just walk into these and see
if this store has it. Chances are maybe another ten
percent here has it. And I would just walk in
and walk out and try to find it, calmly, have
a conversation with the owners, let them know, hey, I'm
not after you. I'm just trying to figure out where
this is coming from. I had to collect the evidence,
and once I ended up collecting the evidence, I ended up,

(21:49):
you know, soon four main distributors for a non disclosed
amount that we won. So you're pulling up on people, Yeah,
I put I put up on I don't even know
how many.

Speaker 8 (21:58):
Shout out to the people out here in Cali too,
because there was some knockoffs down in my area too,
and people going to the store and Hey, you know
this store is coming, so you gave you the papers and.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, was over one hundred stories in New York City. No,
just in New York, New Jersey, in North and South Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Texas, Michigan, California.
I went to over one hundred stores in three weeks.

Speaker 5 (22:20):
And you're handing out ceasing desist letters.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
Ceasing ceasing assist letters, confiscating the knockoffs. Letting them know
what they're doing is violating a US trademark law as
well as a US utility patent law. Feel free to
contact your lawyers. I am going to be starting a
class action. I don't want you to be involved. Just
let me know where you got it from. So you
got a class action lawsuit. I wanted to start one

(22:42):
that was that was my thing. I wanted to start like, yo,
you're selling something that is you're infringing on the United
States trademark and patent. I wanted to start a class action,
but I don't want to involve you guys. So to
make this easier so you don't get sued, I would
just delist you guys. Just let me know where you
got it from.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Walking in the stores handling the season and desist letters,
hoping that everything goes well.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
No, we got cops called on me.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Cops called that's what I'm thinking. How I mean, you're
in New York, so like you're taking things off the shells. Like,
now y'all can't sell this same more. This obviously probably
wasn't always a smooth process.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
No, man, we got we got cops called on me,
uh maybe like ten twelve times, and it was and
the cops said, you know, you can either do it
or you know you can face the law. And when
the cops came, they still gave me the product because
you're breaking the law. Like I'm not trying to be
a bad person, like you did not know that you
will breaking the law. You now know. I can't normally

(23:36):
leave here and let you still sell it because you're
going to be breaking the law. You now are aware.
So give me the product, sign this letter you won't
be sued, and let me know where you got it from.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
And so you find that that part out right, You
find out who's manufacturing, who's the trip and it now
there's a lawsuit going towards them.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yes, so that's the beauty part. And I want everyone
to really understand this. A lot of people say that
I pending does not protect you, and that's only like
half truth because it does. So if I send you
a letter and I say, hey, my product is pending,
and you continue to sell, you're not breaking any laws

(24:15):
because it's not granted. But you have been informed that
I have a pride for a patent and it's pending.
If it does get published, I can come after you
for damages when that letter was sent to you while
I was in the pending process, because you were informed
that there was an application and you may be breaking
the law that gets granted. You chose to roll the dice.

(24:37):
So the beauty thing about it is that again you
have a great lawyer. The distributors that were bringing it
into the states, they all got ceased to assist letters
long before I did the tour, long before my patent
was granted. So because I had evidence and it was dated,
all of them had to pay. Where do you distribute
said it into the states? Where are they coming from?

(24:58):
Just so how well, yeah, so, how how the beauty
supply chain works. It's like lead distributors, distributors and beauty
supply stories. Right, So there's a big guy that we
sells to, like these distributors that sells to, like the
beauty supply stories. So all the knockofs were coming from
obviously Asia, you know, China and somewhere in Korea, and
they would just ship it out here.

Speaker 5 (25:20):
So you received damages.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yes, yes, yes, And a lot of people just think
entrepreneurship is like it's my life and it's there's a
lot of work, but that's part of it too. And
it's like, you know, you have to be able to
understand the law. Yeah, you have to have a good lawyer.
You have to you know, right, lawyer? Can I get

(25:42):
my lawyer? A shout up? Yeah, what's that? John? John D.
Tran Patent Law Group, John D. Tran shout out to
you man. I love you very much, thank you for
all you do. Was he based out of Irvine, California? Okay?
Yeah me my law group r H E m A.
He's going to be a lot of business. So but
not And that's it.

Speaker 4 (26:00):
That's another like revenue stream too, Like I'm saying you
can potentially can play running on that. So it's like
find entrepreneurs it's not just a matter of just loving
your product and selling your product and market it.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
You got to protect it and be willing to fight
protect it. You got to be educated. You got it.
That's all part of business as well. It's a lot
that goes into business. Yeah, that's It's a lot. So
we when do we start? What's the big moment?

Speaker 3 (26:25):
Obviously we got the shark tingm but you guys will
make the money for Yeah, so how do we start
making money? We go in the barbershops saying you got
to test the sell. Do we get a store, frond?
What are we doing?

Speaker 5 (26:34):
How are we getting into people's hands?

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Oh? Man, again, I don't know. I just I just
got to give shout outs to people because I can't
I can't take full credit for this. Right. I'm listening
to uh Gary Gary Vee, and I'm trying to figure
out my first year we did one hundred and fifteen
thousand and sells, but we didn't make much in the
price point on the actual with taxes and shipping is

(26:56):
twenty four ninety five straight to your house and you
never have to replace it. Come to a thirty day
manufacturer warranty. And you know that was all day bro.
Never got to replace it one time by all day
all day.

Speaker 5 (27:12):
Those are the sists.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
But I was trying to figure out, like yo, I
did a lot of traveling. I went to the East
Coast a lot, and we did a lot of hair shows.
And I was like, Yo, this is a lot of
work for a little bit of money. Like I gotta,
I gotta make a pivot. And I'm listening to Gary
Vee and he says a thing that like, yo, if
you are an entrepreneur and you're not doing Facebook or

(27:38):
Instagram marketing, you are creating career suicide. And I was like,
all right, let me, let me google and YouTube how
to do this? And I googled on YouTube how to
do this? And my first my trial run was like
one month, and then my first at back my first
two months. We did three hundred thousand dollars in two months. Wow,
just doing Facebook and Facebook, Instagram ass bro just it

(28:02):
blew it, blew the ceiling out of the water. And
then China shut down. Everything was made in the United
States except the wire mesh. It was coming from China.
And then China had a pollution and I couldn't get
product for like two months, and I decided, you know,
I want to go on Shark Tank. I want to
see if I can actually get a deal and get

(28:25):
the mentorship, and I got rejected. I once went back,
the second time, got rejected, went back the third time,
got rejected, and then the fourth time when I showed up,
I didn't even have to pitch because the person that
was interviewing me, her coworker, used my cone and he
knew exactly what it was, and he was like, you're

(28:46):
going through so what's the process to get on Shark Tank?
And there's so much that that we can't say, we're
not allowed to talk about it. You signed a lot
of like the nbas of the process, but I would
tell you this. I think there's like fifty thousand people
that apply and maybe like eight hundred get callbacks, and
then out of that maybe like three hundred gets to

(29:07):
actually pitch, and it's not called the deal show. I
thought this just like fully bs, Like like I thought
epould have got a deal, got the air, but like, no,
that's not the case, bro, Earners, what's up?

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Speaker 2 (32:07):
They have to air some people that don't get deals, right,
So you're not guaranteed to air just because you have
a deal. So even if you get a deal, you
still might not get on television, correct, Which again I
thought it was just total bs coming kyo. How how
are you going to have these these people that are
worth millions of dollars, invests hundreds and thousands of dollars
in the company, and they don't get the publicity. But

(32:28):
you have Shark Tank, which is a TV show, and
then you have the business side, which is two completely
different things.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
So boy, so going on Shark Tank, you can't talk
about the offer because that's public right, correct?

Speaker 2 (32:41):
So what was that? Anybody that didn't watch your episode?
It was two hundred and twenty five thousand for fifteen
percent two.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
Hundred a quarter million for fifteen percent of your company.
And that was damon John and Mark Cuban.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
That was the offer. That's not what I got. Yeah,
you give So what ended up being negotiated was two
hundred and twenty five thousand for twenty five percent, twelve
and a half to Damon, twelve and a half to Mark.
Oh you you wanted fifteen they wanted. Yeah, I value
my company just over a million. They gave me in
just I think nine hundred and something thousand valuation. But
I wanted the mentorship. And again I'm very big on culture.

(33:13):
To get Damon, to get Mark, I couldn't.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
Yeah, you like went into it with that those two
in mind.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
That's all I wanted because I knew Robert was going
to go with it because he wouldn't understand the product.
I knew Laurie may like it, but she wants things
for the masses. And regardless, no bad beef. But like
I believe you got to be able to have a conversation.
I don't feel like me and mister wonderfer where ever
get along. So yeah, I'm just being honest.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
I want to come to you for a second because
we spoke to in a while. He was doing real estate.
He's making six figures, but you worked for free. So
I'm interested in seeing what you were doing during this
time while you're not making any money from twitterelve to say,
you know what, I believe in my friend, I'm gonna
do this.

Speaker 5 (33:53):
I don't care what it takes.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Like.

Speaker 8 (33:56):
Like like job wise, what I was doing, Yeah, oh man,
I was doing. I was doing and everything kind of
just depends on the month or the year. But I
was coaching basketball. I model on the side too. I
was refing basketball and football, and then I was working
at the Boys and Girls Club, So I was kind
of just you know, bouncing all over the place really

(34:17):
and then the free part. You know, I never even
really asked for no money. He just kept he said, hey, man,
you know we after Shark Tank. You're gonna get a
pay raise, but you know I want I mean, when
you when you have a like an entrepreneurship, if you
can have like somebody by your side that can, you know,
do the dirty work and get you know, anything that
you need, you need that it's kind of like a

(34:37):
basketball team that start player that's gonna just get down
and dirty and not care about the lights and not
care about the fame. And that's kind of how it happened.
And then we just ended up here like I look
up like four years later, I'm like wow, Like we.

Speaker 7 (34:49):
Went on Shark Tank.

Speaker 8 (34:50):
Like it don't even feel it, don't even feel like
it because I'm just here just for the for the
you know, partnership, and just because that's my bro.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
So everybody has a part to play.

Speaker 4 (34:58):
It's like Ben Wallace like, you know, yeah, made it
to the Hall of Fame, rebounds like you know what
I mean, defense Dennis rob Dennis Robin. You know, everybody's
not a scorer, everybody's not gonna be a superstar player.
But you need people to do different things to win
a championship.

Speaker 7 (35:17):
Plus, when your mind is right, when you're doing it
for the sake of.

Speaker 8 (35:20):
You know, you you you really love your product, or
you believe in someone else's product that they're rocking with,
like the sky.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Is the limit.

Speaker 8 (35:28):
But if you're doing it in the sense of we're
gonna make X amount of money, or we're gonna go
on this TV show or we're going to do this podcast,
then you're probably in entrepreneurship for the wrong reasons.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Facts.

Speaker 4 (35:38):
So going back to this Shark ten conversation, all right,
you get the deal, a quarter million, twenty five percent
of your company, All right, Now what happens the next day,
like when you actually start working with the guys.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
So this is why I feel like I think Mark
really vised with me because when I got it right,
well we got the deal. It's stuff to do the
diligence right. So they go through your I don't know
if anyone's ever been audited, but like I don't advise
it like it's a it's a headache. They comb through
like your financials to make sure what you said, what

(36:12):
you represented was true. Oh, they can do the deal
and still not do the deal correct. They have to
do their due diligence. So it's just a handshake. So
then they go and they take your your twelve month
trailing you know ebit, of your p and os, your
cash flow statements, and they come through it and they
make sure that what you said was accurate before they
give you that money. So after we shook hands and
got the deal, the money didn't hit my account for

(36:33):
like maybe six or seven months later. But when it
hit my account, I like tear it up because it's
it's real, right. I tear it up for like about
a day, and then the next day I sent him
an email and I was like, yo, like I have
an obligation to pay this back to you, Like it's
not I haven't made it yet. There's no like whatever
y'all need to do, Like the mentorship starts now and

(36:56):
we have the conversation. Daymy and I have the conversation.
We talked about the strategy. We figured out what we
were going to do, how are we going to execute,
and where we're going to spend the money. How much
money is being allocated to marketing, which is very huge,
like cost of acquisition is. I don't care what product
you're selling. It could be a very good product or
it can be a horrible product. There's a lot of

(37:16):
people that have great products that make no money. There's
a lot of people that have horrible products that make
a gripload of money. And it's marketing. It's how are
you going to get customers onto your your product, how
people are going to see you? And if you have
the best product in the world and no eyes, you're
not selling nothing. So what was your marketing strategy? Uh,
you got to figure out how to have that conversation

(37:38):
with our with our customers. Right. So my demographic depending
where I'm selling, right, if it's barbers, if it's beauty
supply stores, or if it's to the culture, I have
to figure out what makes them click and buy, and
for the culture, it was providing something that was funny
but also educational. And when I did that, my best

(37:58):
performing ad your eight is me dressing up in a
lab coat Yeah yeah, and explaining the difference between a
sponge and a haircomb, right, and it does way better
than any influencer. It does way better than any celebrity
shout out, and it just works better. So that's me
listening to my audience. They want to understand the difference.

(38:19):
They wanted to be educated on the on the process,
and then they wanted to be funny. And once I
figured out that little snippet, I just kept pumping the ass.
That was like that and it just sky's wass a
limit find information.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
So after the first year that you've now got the investment,
how did did sales take off?

Speaker 2 (38:37):
Like he had no life? Yeah? Man, that was.

Speaker 7 (38:45):
Working.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, we were working.

Speaker 6 (38:47):
Man.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
We couldn't keep up with demand. So Ace and myself
and one of my other boys would be in the
manufacturer after the manufacturer ran our units and after hours
to run more units because we just needed to keep
up with Man, it was it was insane. We went
from three hundred and thirty thousand to like one point
two in a year, like a three hundred x growth,

(39:08):
and the next year double that, and it just keeps
on growing and growing and growing, and I'm just very
grateful to have this experience in the mentorship.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
What was the process of finding a manufacturer, I know
that was early on, but what was the process?

Speaker 2 (39:21):
Well? On YouTube, man, there's a university again. Yeah, man,
there's a there's a there's a website that I found
on Google called thomasinet dot com and it's a manufacturer craigslist.
It's pretty much just operates like Craigslist, but it's for manufacturers,
and you plug in the material, you plug in your
zip code, and it spits out in a thirty forty

(39:42):
mile radius, how many manufacturers are around you. And it
turns out where I lived, I live in a manufactured hub.
Never knew this, Santayana, Tustin. There's like forty different manufacturers
out there. So I was literally like a drive and
a skit to talk through these manufacturers. And I just
interviewed about ten to fifteen of them, vibe with one
and be figured out. They took the wheels, they figured

(40:02):
out what they were going to do and for me,
My biggest thing is communication that I don't I mean,
price points important, but it's not the all ends. Like
I have to be able to talk. I have to
be able to like when when things go sideways, that
guy got to be able to get you on the
phone and we need to have a conversation. I need
to know why you didn't meet that deadline and I
need you to have an open and honest conversation with that.

(40:23):
So as far as the mentorship, you know, what is
it riceless? What is it like?

Speaker 4 (40:28):
Because you know, obviously it's very rare to have a
billionaire as a mentor a business partner. So what is
some of the key Jim's jewels that you've taken away
from working with Mark?

Speaker 2 (40:38):
And what does that mentorship look like? I mean, there's
no secret sauce. He will always say, just work ethic right,
which I've always had. But watching how he moves and
no matter how much money he has, Mark stays humble,
like the fact that he still gets on the phone
or on an email and has conversations with me outside

(41:00):
out of twisted up about other venues. Now that I
have money to where to park it, what to do?
Like what are you looking into like it's it's crazy.
And the thing that I take away most from him
time is money like time, Like he has all these companies,
but yet he has like these people that you talk
to that represent him to help solve these problems. And

(41:22):
if you need him, he's always a phone call or
email away. But like, when you start to grow, you
want to start to have your money start working for you, right,
and when you are a billionaire, like you have so
many businesses, right, you have so many revenues of income,
like you want to make sure that you power other people, correct,
do different things to keep your time free, correct, like thanks,

(41:43):
Like there's there's no way that I could still do
real estate and mortgages, but I didn't have my boy
as because Twisted Up would take up way too much
of my time sending two or three hundred orders a day,
Like how am I supposed to do that? And then
still argue with an underwriter? So is it just you too?

Speaker 5 (42:00):
Is there a bigger team?

Speaker 2 (42:01):
So as far as that on every day operations, it's
me him and then my CPA, and that is it, bro,
that's it the Big three, the Big three, And it's
an online business. Bro, you run like a two million
dollar operation, and it's crazy because everything is automated. Fulfilment
center is automated right the whole soe he takes care

(42:22):
of that, right the orders that go out, he takes
care of Instagram, He runs the Instagram page. You keep
producting in the warehouse or it just goes from both.
So how we have it steppt out. I mean not
to just break down the business, but there's a wholesale side,
there's a retail distribution side, and then there's directed consumer side.
Directed consumer side is all automated, so all handled by

(42:44):
some type of f ffilment center depending on what location
you're ordering from. Whole seal is a little bit more personal,
is automated in the house, so he handles the bruntwork
of that. I handle the orders, I handle the cells,
and then he packs it and ships it.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
So scaling what is some for you moving forward and
scaling and kind of you know, taking into the next level.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Again. I was just say, getting the word out right
and understanding the customer and figuring out where the brand
needs to go. It's really sad, right, not to get
too deep in the subject, but like it's twenty twenty
one right, I believe too. What was it two years ago?
Three years ago? The guy that got.

Speaker 7 (43:22):
Uh yeah, that was that was two years ago.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Yeah, like two years ago. A guy that was wrestling
for a championship couldn't wrestle because he had to cut
off his dreads. And then yeah, and then there's a
there's a girl, a couple of African American womens that
lost their jobs because they refused to cut off the braids.
And South Africa too, they had a girl there.

Speaker 8 (43:40):
For a while, I was like actually like doing research
and like you know, posting on a page to like
spread awareness because I feel like that's our kind of
like niche like we you know, we're for the culture.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
So yeah, and it's sad that like it wasn't until
like twenty eighteen, like maybe a handful of states passed
a hair discrimination lifeeah yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:56):
But yeah, but like I said, even in black countries Jamaica,
there was okay with a kid got kicked out in
school because he had dreadlocks. South Africa, a girl had
an afro and she got kicked out of school having
an afro. So it's not even just in white countries,
it's in black countries as.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Well, and what I found out as I started traveling
to the East Coast, especially with the women that choose
to cut their hair and wear it short and wear
the short and natural, there's a journey behind that, Like
they they start to have like this self love discovery,
like and it's it kind of brings you like emotional right,
Like it's it's they find who they are, they accept

(44:34):
who they are, they love who they are, and they're
not going to change it for nobody, And all of
a sudden, they have this new found confidence and the
same thing with guys. And that's why I'm saying, like,
what you guys are doing, like this is why I
just look like what Eyola is doing. There's you're hosting
a show where you have people that look like us.
I have twisted hair, my hair is natural, and I'm

(44:55):
out here making money. I'm a CEO, and you having
people that like it's changed in the narrative of what
braves conroles African Americans, what that looks like, what that
means for us to make money?

Speaker 4 (45:06):
Like it it's empowerment as well, because it's like like
you said, people, it's a way to keep people marginalized
and to it's kind of like another form of oppression
to supremacy, where it's like, in order to be beautiful,
you have to have straight, straight hair. In order to

(45:26):
be professional, you have to have a low hit. Troy,
I'm holding on for their life, Troy.

Speaker 3 (45:36):
Yeah, dictate the man, stop it fall.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
Long time it was that the Michael Jordan man.

Speaker 5 (45:44):
You know what I'm saying, growing hands, grow up there,
you know.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Get the hoop airing.

Speaker 4 (45:51):
But yeah, for a long time, it's like for men,
you have to have a fade, you have to have
a low haircut, you know, in order to be quote
unquote a professional. And when you say about it, it's like,
why can't you be a professional with his natural hair
with an afro, with twists, with dreadlocks, with braids, Like
what makes that unprofessional?

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Correct? And you're you're dealing with a society where outside
of this culture, right, they can wear their hair however
they choose to. I have one style, low right until
this hairstyle came out low right, and again I just
started traveling to the East Coast. As a culture, our
style gets appropriated, right, the way we talk our music

(46:32):
all that. But the one thing that you can't appropriate
the one thing that you can't mimic is our hair.
It's our hair is unique to us. They've tried it.
See have you seen Have you seen the video? I've
seen a few videos, the one in the waves. No, no, no, no,
the Asian dude. Yeah, well he got he got the waves.
He got the waves.

Speaker 5 (46:51):
Even see your cone rolls, keep your scarecrows.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
Yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker 7 (46:55):
I wake up in the morning, I'm gonna go put
my hair on.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
Like Derek had the braids. It just became always so exotic,
you know, But that was just braids. Like you know
what I'm saying. It was like whenever somebody of a
different ethnicissity does that, now it just becomes such an
amazing look.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
But for us, it's a necessity. It's how we wake
up and go kiud without that. The coaching knows we
have like an hour before maintenance. Sleek cute right now.

Speaker 4 (47:21):
You mentioned the East coast. What do you mean by that?
You said you're traveling on the East coast, vib on
the West coast.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
I mean back when the when I was using the
tennis track and then using like the comb to twist
my hair like this hairstyle wasn't really like up and
coming on the West Coast. Okay, so when I started
the company for Fledge in twenty seventeen, like on the
East Coast, this was huge. The style was big.

Speaker 8 (47:41):
But you'll see it like when they are in the
comments when people would talk like, oh on the East Coast,
like we've been doing that way before.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Way before. The West coast coast. Get catch things late sometimes,
you know.

Speaker 5 (47:50):
I have my hair like that once upon it I
think it was high school Mike maybe.

Speaker 8 (47:55):
But it was weird because when you had an afro,
like you just had it again before the twisted upcomb.
If you had an hour thro you would just pick
it out. It wouldn't be messy because your mom won't
let you have it messy. Your mam would say, hey,
I need you to pick your hair out.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
But now is that also switched right between the older
generation and the younger generation when the older generation still
thinks that this is like a nappy messy look is unprofessional,
and the newer generation is saying no, like it's it's professional.
This is this is who we are. It's just how
my hair looks.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
Yeah, it's it's a broader conversation that we definitely have
to have because it's like even when Chris Rock did
that documentary Good Hair, Oh yeah, and you know it's
like I said, it's billions of dollars that's spent.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
But then the psychological is what to look like psychological.

Speaker 4 (48:35):
Aspect of it is and people destroying themselves, putting chemicals
in their hair and all kinds of stuff where you
don't even know that the long term effects of what
you're doing to yourself just to look a certain.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Way facts and black women have it the hardest. Man. Yeah,
they have it the hardest. And it's it's sad. And
I have a niece and it's just to like see here,
reach for like the other doll with straight hair versus
the doll that has the afro. Like it's it's like okay,
like why and it's just you just look at the
television really just try to sit down and like program
this and you turn on television. All the girls that

(49:09):
are on television got straight hair. Yeah? Are you do
market just to women? Also? I do. It's another market
that I'm getting into. It's I want to do it right.
That's my thing. Like I don't want to disrespect them.
I want to do it right. I don't want to
be the guy, the black guy that's speaking for women, right.
I want to make sure that whoever I get to

(49:30):
sponsor that side of the company, they do understand the journey.
They do understand the self empowerment, the movement that they're doing,
and like God bless them man.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
Like it's I'm thinking now, because like we've been to
curl Fest. Out to the team over that curl Fest.
I think this would be great. A lot of women
have natural hair, short hair, they want to have the
curls at the top.

Speaker 5 (49:48):
My sister in law has that haircut. So I'm just like,
this would be great.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Yes, And now I even did a movie. Yeah, yeah,
yeah she did. Yeah, she did Napoli. Ever after she
did in the movie, she cut her hair off and
grew it back.

Speaker 7 (50:00):
They call it like the big chop.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
Yeah, the big chop.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
Do you have plans in taking this international or do
you already have an international?

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Yeah? So we got we got some oh oh yeah,
all right. Shout out to the jumpers man. Man.

Speaker 8 (50:15):
So the similar way kind of how I jump with
no weel how he was doing this thing and I'm
helping him out, like we would get tons of supporters
on like I geology jumpers.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
That's your community, that's what you call. I just anyone
that has a vision and you jump, no question, know whatever.
Like you, I'm gonna ride.

Speaker 7 (50:30):
With you, like I know, like ride or die.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
Like That's why I call my entrepreneur spirit. Like I
have an idea, there's no like questioning if it's going
to work out, if it's not. What if this happens?
What if that? I just just jumped do it?

Speaker 8 (50:43):
So a guy he actually is in New York, Leon,
shout out Leon. He was just supporting us. He was
like taking pictures of the comb. He would, you know,
just just vouch for us, Say hey, I need some combs.
You know, he's taking into his barbershop. And you know,
like a year he went by and me and Leon
have a relationship, and I'm telling Noel, hey, you need
to look at this guy Leon. Like this dude, he's

(51:04):
taking pictures for us and stuff. So not only was
I employed, Noel ended up employing Leon as like our
professional photographer to do you know, product shots and stuff
like that. And then he took he took the comb
to Guyana and what and he's from there and he
got his own comb. So it's just like this, but
it's green and on the cover it has his own

(51:24):
face on it. But he took the comb there and
started talking about entrepreneurship there, started putting into the barbershops there,
and I thought that was like a real thing, because
you know they say, like Gez, I put on for
my city, like he really peeping on for his country.
So the fact that he jumped and was able to
get a sally from this and able to you know,
go back home and teach people about entrepreneurship, I think

(51:46):
they have it. And there's just one store. They just
built the store and like he was a partnership of
that store.

Speaker 7 (51:52):
I forgot the name of the store.

Speaker 8 (51:53):
Yeah, but he was a partnership of that store getting
built and the combs are being sold out of that store.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
Bro. Yes, we're in Canada, we're in Guyana, and we're
a little bit in Europe, not as big. I did
a hair shout there by myself, and the market's massive.
Where was the hair shot at In the United Kingdom,
it's called like Afo Beauty or something like that. In
the UK. That was another story for another time. And
but I flew out there by myself and.

Speaker 5 (52:19):
Going places by yourself.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Man.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
I mean, like I said, I'm a jumper bro. Like,
at the end of the day, what's worse than not
trying is regret.

Speaker 5 (52:27):
That's the drawing quote. I except not trying, I can
accept failure. I can't except not trying.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
I cannot look back at fifteen and be like, Yo,
I wish I would have done ABC. Like I can
accept losing everything. I can accept failing. Like what you
just said. What hurts me the worst. It's like, did
you try your hardest? It's like a game. I can
I'm okay losing the NBA Championship if I played it
because I tried. I tried my best. There's nothing I

(52:52):
can do. But like if you like yo, man, I
wish I would have practiced harder, maybe I would have won.
How many times you get these opportunities?

Speaker 5 (52:58):
Right?

Speaker 4 (53:00):
So going forward, do you have plans on expanding the
team and hiring more people.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah? Like I said, for the brand, I wanted to
embody the journey, what the women are going through. I
want the twisted up to similar to how Damon built
his brand for us by us right, this is a
product that allows our culture to twist their hair naturally
that was made by one of their own. And the

(53:27):
more of us that where our hair this way, and
the more of us that embrace just the natural look,
you are changing the narrative of how you see the culture.
You can have braves or chronos and be a doctor,
be a lawyer, be an entrepreneur, be a successful CEO.
And doesn't mean that you're a gangster, doesn't mean that
you're a hulem, doesn't mean that you come from the streets.
Like this is how I hear, is where naturally and

(53:47):
this is who we are, which is why I love
your podcasts man, your story or which you guys are
doing like your narrative. You're hosting a place where our
culture comes on and they see people that look like us,
all ages making money. Like there's no excuse, Man, there
is done. You can't use the excuse that I'm black

(54:10):
and I can't be successful anymore. I know some have
it harder than most. I understand that. But the Internet's
the great equalizer and I'm a firm believer in that. Like,
if you have access to the Internet, you can change
your life. Well, you need his wife, find a dream
is a fact, and you got a living proof of it. Brot,
you guys are hosting a new story and with a

(54:31):
new young person or an older person changing the life
on the internet. Avery, single day, Avery, single day, Wall
Street Trap came out of jail, look at him. Came
out of prison. Yeah, came out of prison.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
Yo, that's a common I mean, it goes to show
you that it doesn't matter where you start, it's about
what you do with your time and how you finished.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
You can't you can't change the cars that were doe
to you, but you can definitely figure out how you
go to play.

Speaker 7 (55:00):
Them, how you can have the best hand what you're
deal with.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
Facts, and it's about a community and that's what you
guys are building. And it's really dope, man. Like, I'm again,
I'm very humble to be on the show like you
guys are.

Speaker 5 (55:12):
You know, this officially makes you alumni.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
Bro. Whatever, let it be, bro, I don't even want
to give me like a small little life up. Man.
It's it's very powerful. I'm not kidding. I hope you
guys in the universe I'm putting out that. I hope
you guys really win the noble peace price for the culture.

Speaker 6 (55:31):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Like appreciate you guys are changing it. Appreciate it.

Speaker 8 (55:34):
It's just the beginning to like sometimes people catch on
the things later, you know, social media, sometimes one post
will blow up and or somebody will blow up. But
like you could blow up and have money or have followers.
But if what you're doing ain't really genuine impact, it's
gonna stop real quick.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
I'm telling you. If I have kids, they're gonna learn
about y'all. And if no one's riding your biography world,
get that done. I'm being dead bro, like for real.

Speaker 5 (56:00):
Wells traveling.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
For real. Man, appreciate that's greatly appreciate it, Humbler.

Speaker 4 (56:06):
Thank you, thank you guys for coming in. Man, I
really appreciate it. Man, what what would you like to
tell the people? How can they follow you? Social media?

Speaker 2 (56:14):
Website already above, Yeah, man at Twisted Up t W
I S t I t U P. It's our Instagram,
Twisted Up Combs on Facebook. You can find the comb
on Amazon or our website Twisted upcomb dot com. And
for anyone that is an entrepreneur that wants to grab
anything from this conversation, don't overthink it, just jump. I'm

(56:35):
a perfect example, man. I didn't know anything about stocks.
I jumped made some money in it because of you guys,
So thank you very much. Watch market one day, Yeah, man,
it's uh, it's dope. And at the end of the day,
like you can't be overwhelmed with what if when a
you're going to get yours astill to get paid for

(56:57):
a year now he's rent card, cell phone is paid
for by the company. Like, it's stay down until you
come up.

Speaker 8 (57:04):
Yeah. That's one thing we always talk about is a
effort is worth more than currency.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
You put.

Speaker 7 (57:10):
You put that effort and everything else will follow.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
But trademark that man, I see how you know, bro,
I'm seeing how you're not in your head broa that bro,
it's effort's worth way more than currency. Man. You can
take a million dollars now and not have the education.
But you ever see a thirty for thirty. That's why
people go broke. They don't know what to do with it. Honestly,
ask yourself that question. You want a million bucks right now,

(57:33):
tomorrow you got it, what would you do with it?
Go back to your habits, you spend it. Yeah, not
gonna change, nothing's gonna change. And then in two years
you're gonna ask for another million. You don't know what
to do? You do what you know?

Speaker 5 (57:45):
We just had that conversation.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
Facts, it's it's uh yeah, I was just stealing it
because you're gonna steal my quote. You know, facts, Man,
got anything to tell them? Man, any advice? Nah?

Speaker 7 (57:59):
Man, just just keep it sounds cliche, but just just
keep grinding. Man, Just just keep hustling.

Speaker 8 (58:05):
And if you feel like it's cliche, then living proof
is the guys right in front of us, yourself, and
it's the other people out there.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
That's all.

Speaker 7 (58:12):
We all in the same boat. We all in the
same struggle. But just keep your head up, just keep grinding.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Appreciate y'all, gentlemen.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
Man Troy, I'll do it for Noel since he didn't
say congratulations on your engagement.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
Oh, thank you very much. Man. Yeah, I'm gonna look
at man. Yeah, thought before you get mad. We got
a two and a half year engagement because she's in school,
so I'm just like you, I want to celebrate it too.

Speaker 5 (58:37):
So this is ours I'm gonna apologize for.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
He was a little nervous, so you might have forgot
about you. That's an engagement ring. Yeah, congrats, Yeah, I'm
being dead bro, Like, that's the first time I've ever
seen that. I'm telling I did not think I was
going to get married man, Like, I honestly did not
think that I was ever going to get married. By
my family, my friends can attest to this. Man like

(59:02):
I'm happy, Like I'm a better executor when I'm single,
Like I'm happy. And then you think you happy and
you find someone bro that like keeps the peace and
like it's what you need, Like I'm still in that
like happyly ever after a fairy fairy phase. Man, Shout
out to uh Mike, my fiance, Grace. I love you

(59:24):
so much, thank you so much for all that you do. Man,
I appreciate you wholeheartedly.

Speaker 3 (59:30):
Yeah, Grace, I make sure it's a big moment, the
biggest show. He almost forgot you. Yeah, shout everybody on.

Speaker 7 (59:38):
Edit edit that out.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Man.

Speaker 3 (59:41):
Shout out to everybody on fishy on dot com that
is our proud to pay program. Shout out to all
the earners there, and shout to all the earners in
e y L University. Over ten thousand of y'all just
taking information and applying and executing at a very high level.
So shout out to y'all. Shout to everybody that's been
supporting the merch. Shout out to the entire merch team.
Y'all are killing it. Yeah man, Love is love.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
Yes, thank you rock And what's we see next week? Peace? Peace.
My graduates from my school being forced back drop drop
Mike drotdrops.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States

(01:00:47):
Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
were here illegal, you're next. You will be fine nearly
one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported. You will
never return. But if you register using our CBP home

(01:01:10):
app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
Do what's right. Leave now under President Trump, America's laws,
border and families.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Will be protected. Sponsored by the United States Department of
Homeland Security,