Behind the brand with Zachary King: The hustle of a multi-industry boss.

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Dive into the mind of a multi-industry entrepreneur as Zachary King reveals how he built his business empire spanning fashion, restaurants, and candy. From getting Tom Brady to wear his Residency clothing line to managing a restaurant portfolio that includes concepts like Cubana and Earth Cafe, King demonstrates remarkable versatility while sharing the psychology behind his success.

What makes King's approach unique is his deep understanding of customer behavior and his emphasis on relationship-building over immediate profits. "Rich people love free stuff. Everybody likes to be thought of," he explains, detailing how he strategically positions his products with celebrities by first understanding their needs and preferences. This approach has garnered his clothing line endorsements from major names like Lil Wayne, Swiss Beats, and numerous professional athletes.

King offers candid insights about the entrepreneurial journey, likening it to the movie Jumanji—a never-ending series of challenges where "as soon as you beat the monkeys, here come the bees." He emphasizes the importance of starting early, finding your passion, and understanding the personal sacrifices required for success. Most valuably, he shares his concept of "ROR—Return on Relationship," explaining how sometimes giving without immediate expectation leads to the biggest opportunities.

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or an established business owner, King's story demonstrates how authentic connections, psychological insight, and relentless hustle can turn seemingly unrelated opportunities into a cohesive ecosystem of successful ventures. Follow King's journey on Instagram @KingSize and explore his brands at residency3.com and woormscandy.com.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts,
paki and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase people
in our city who are making ithappen.
And today's guest is just thatman.
This is my motivational speaker.
Man Today's guest is a truebuilder of brands, of culture,
of community and from gettingmajor names like Tom Brady,

(00:21):
swiss Beats, lil Wayne, rockinghis clothing line Residency,
he's the co-founder of a LasVegas Cuban restaurant called
Cubana.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Cubana.
I got my Spanish right here.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Basically it means everything, encompassing Cuban
Everything there.
It is right there, man, and hejust launched a candy line.
Correct, I understand too,we'll get into also.
But let's welcome to the circleentrepreneur and businessman,
mr Zachary King.
Appreciate y'all having me.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I appreciate you doing this.
It's truly a pleasure.
Great stuff, likewise, man.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
But let's jump right in, man.
So who is Zachary King?
Yeah, so I mean, honestly, man,it's one of those things like
it's kind of constantly evolves.
You and I talked offline lastweek.
I just have kind of a trackrecord of you know, door number
one leads to door number two, todoor number three, and it's not
that I'm trying to be a jack ofall trades, but that's just
like when you're solid and Ithink people understand, like

(01:08):
your authenticity as a person,then it kind of opens up
opportunities for you.
And it opens up things wherepeople say look like, even
though it's maybe a differentindustry or different entity,
it's the same intangibles, right.
And so that's kind of who I amas a professional, as a person,
man, I'm somebody who I'm notabove anything.
I don't mind getting my handsdirty, I don't mind anything.
I've kind of put my heart into,I'm going to give 100% and I'm

(01:31):
a person, I think, especially inthe last five years, who's
dealt with adversity andunderstands how to overcome that
and, quite frankly, just try tobe an inspiration man.
My favorite quote is like try tobe a fountain, not a drain,
right, just trying to reallypour into people, and that's a
lot of ways, how I've beenblessed.
So that's me in a nutshell, butyeah, I mean it's a lot of
different stories along the way,but yeah, if I had to sum it up
, that's pretty much it Did.

(01:52):
You used to rap back in the day, man.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
You sound like you used to rap, right?
I would tell you a story man.
I wanted like I'm.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I always want to be a ghost writer.
That was something.
I have a notepad with lyrics.
I have that type of stuff.
I grew up in a musical family.
I'm from my grandfather's ownnightclubs.
My uncle was, uh, a marvingaye's uh bodyguard and road.
One other uncle was a roadmanager.
So I grew up in a musicalfamily.
You know dead ass.
Yeah, my granddaddy's nightclubback in the day, um, you know,
during what they call like achitlin circuit, he was almost
like a financier for a lot ofthese entertainers.
And how he would do it.

(02:26):
He'd say well, if you didn'thave the money, I'll loan you
the money to record the recordor whatever.
But the trade is you just comeperform in my nightclub, right?
And so it's almost like, hey,instead of paying, that's
perfect, right.
So people like Percy Sledge,james Brown, tina Turner started
they would do that.
So I always had a musicalbackground.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Music was in my family and my passion is writing
lyrics and write rhymes, but Ican see you know I couldn't tell
my mom you got that voice.
Yeah, do you think you're aperson like you know, kind of
going back to the business, likeyou said, with jack of all
trades, a little bit like?
Are you a person that you know?
You say you follow what's goingon?
Is that you're following yourpassion or you following like
you know?

Speaker 1 (03:02):
so, so my is hustling my passion.
And when I say hustling, likejust the art of just the process
, like you have some of theseathletes right, like the Kobe
mentality, where, like they justlove the grind.
So I think that's my passion isthe hustle and the grind, and
it's not so much a financialgoal, it's just the fact that
it's inspirational, right.
It's like the zero to hero.

(03:22):
How do you do it again?
I have this saying I always sayyou know you do it once they're
going to call it luck.
You hit rock bottom and do itagain.
You're a real hustler.
And so, apart from the money,obviously there's a financial
goal, but it's just the mindsetof you know I did it again.
And even within I scale it.
So, like you know some of mybackground, so I have a lot of
football players in my stuff.

(03:43):
But then I say, well, hey, Ididn't play hockey.
How do I have a hockeycollaboration?
How did I get an F1 deal?
I mean, my big ass can't get ina race car.
How do I, if you're not a real,it can't be luck.
At what point?
At what point you're in allthese different industries, all
these different phases of life?
It really just speaks to theart of the hustle.
So that's what I'm passionateabout.

(04:03):
But as far as what we'reselling and what we're doing, I
think that's kind of can be.
I mean, obviously I want to beinterested in it and it's got to
be something that makes sense,but I'm kind of open to if it's
the right idea, if it's theright partnership.
Then that's kind of where myalmost my recipe to say my, my,

(04:25):
my, or the organicness of whatwe're trying to do down, but at
the same time, that's kind ofwhat.
What motivates me is thepassion of turning, you know,
zero to hero or something tonothing.
You know, that's what's up,yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Let's talk about the residency, the three.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Let's start first.
Start with that.
So how did residency start?
And I think maybe we'll startoff with the foundation of the
three, right, okay?

Speaker 2 (04:43):
for sure, we talked about it at your office, right?

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Okay, and we're going to do this a lot, just to warn
y'all, we're going to go backand forth because that's so much
of how it's built, because,like I said, everything is room
number one, door number two,door number three right, and as
you're going through it, throwin some sprinkles and I still am
, but at this point in time Iwas full.

(05:06):
You know, I was literally at theshop every day, or at different
stores every day, for cooking,training, hiring, basically, a
startup business.
People in the restaurantbusiness tell you it's hands on,
it's hard work, especially inthose early years.
So, long story short, this 2010, I had a chicken concept called
Chicken Now and at thisparticular time, in Vegas,
nationwide, we had a chickenconcept called Chicken Now and
at this particular time, inVegas.
In Vegas, okay, nationwide, wehad 56.

(05:27):
But in Vegas we had three atthis particular time.
So we started in 07.
2010, I'm at one of my stores,right, just you know, hey, paki,
I'm going to give you the dayoff.
Go out to dinner with your wife.
Here's a couple hundred dollars.
I'll run the store, I'm the CEOof the company, but let me just
give you a day off, surpriseday off.
So I gave one of my managers asurprise day off and I got a
surprise.
So, long story short, mymanager ended up stealing from

(05:49):
me right, I could check the safe.
you know, a whole nine caughthim stealing, but anyway, this
positioned me to have basicallybe the manager, so I'm the
co-founder of the company.
But now I got to go in here andact like the shift leader right
or whatever.
Right, whatever.
But I use it as almost like abeta test for me, to essentially
like a laboratory.
I could try a new product out,I could get good feedback with
customers and I'm veryunassuming, so people would have

(06:10):
no idea that I'm the owner orI'm the person who started this.
They would tell me the truth.
Hell, man, the coast laws isterrible today.
All the macaroni and cheese.
What happened Right?

Speaker 2 (06:19):
People just honest with me.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
I, I can make changes and also can try new stuff.
Or let's try a little spicy, orlet's try a little this or that
.
So, long story short, becauseof my personality, I started to
meet people who were in the mall, and the mall employees is
where all of my locations wereinside mall food courts and the
mall employees are the peoplethat keep the lights on.
Those are the people that, evenif they just buy Coke every day

(06:42):
in the course of 10 years, youknow they done paid your
mortgage.
They't bought a Coke every day.
For how many days, right?
So I had one dude.
He was, um, you know, I'mbasically a district manager at
Tommy Hill figure, and he wouldcome to my store every day.
Um, and we became, you know,customer relationship.
But then we became friends andwe just started chopping it up.
Um, so that's like 2010,.
I met him and I'm older.
He kind of always knew that Ihad a good business mind or at

(07:02):
least was entrepreneurial.
Um, so we meet in 2010, and wepretty much were friends from
2010 to 2017, just kept in touch, kind of like you and I.
And so fast track to 2017,we're in the Laker game and I'm
from Tampa and he was originallyfrom Vegas.
So anybody who's moved to Calihas obviously had dealt with
cost of living pricing.
Right, you know gas in SanDiego when I was there was six I

(07:24):
lived in california six yearsago.
Right so people right it's likeyou have to have, like it's just
an adjustment.
If you're from there, you'reused to it, but if you're not,
it's like man, like how do Ikeep my same lifestyle up,
obviously with the priceincrease?
So we're at a lake of gamechopping it up.
You know we're about 10 drinksin.
And he's like zach, you doingit, like how are you able to do

(07:45):
these things or this and that?
And I told him.
I said you know, I'm a littlebit older.
So I said look, man, you got tohave multiple streams of
revenue.
You just, even if you have agood paycheck, you just rely on
your paycheck.
You ain't going to make it.
You're, you got to havemultiple streams.
And so he was like man, well, Igot an idea.
You know everybody got an ideato spend my money or something

(08:05):
new.
I'm like all right, well, youknow, we 10 drinks in right now.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Talk to me about the idea tomorrow.
Right right, I caught thatRight.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
And so I said you know he had an idea I want to
sell baseball caps.
I know it'll work.
I said, all right, but tomorrow, if you're serious, like let's
have this conversation again,and then you're going to have to
come to me with a prototype,you're going to come to me with
something other than just aconversation.
That's the homework you got todo and I can't promise you
anything but what I can promiseyou, and if you come with a

(08:33):
prototype and it looks solid,then I'll see what I can do.
I'm going to wear it.
Let's see what.
We just start havingconversations.
So, unlike most, most peoplewho I give that pitch to, he
took me up.
He came you know it wasn't anegative.
We had a conversation the nextday, sober, but then after that
he said all right, here's thehat.
We started with the LA hat andI'm just wearing a hat, just
like, you know, anybody else.
It's 2017.
I'm just rocking a hat.

(08:54):
People start asking like damnZach, where you get that hat at.
I mean, that's a.
I'll give you like, all right,now I've got something.
I got something because I'm noteven trying to sell it and
people are already trying to buyit off my head, and then some
people I did you know how muchdo these little tests, so that's
just the average person.
And I got some homeboys thatare super picky or super bougie

(09:14):
or they want to be the first onewith it, so let me wear it
around now, you know, let me seewhat they say.
And they fell for the bait too.
Oh man, where you get this?
This is old, okay, perfect.
So now we got bougie, picky,rich people trying to buy it and
then we got random strangerswho I don't even know trying to
buy it.
So we got.
We got at least a market here,but at the same time we have a
product we don't have a brandright, so a lot of people sell

(09:36):
hats.
A lot of people, you know, arein clothing lines but they don't
know how.
The power of branding, and soI'm like, all right, now we
something, but we don't get tooexcited.
Now we got to find a way tobrand it.
So what are we doing?
We're selling hats, right,we're selling.
What are we really selling?
We're selling cities.
We're selling where people arefrom.
We're selling a feeling.
Right, it's not just a baseballcap or a hoodie or shirt.

(09:57):
You're proud to be from Chicago, you're proud to be from Las
Vegas, you're proud to be fromthese different areas.
So what's another synonym forcity Resident, residency,
residence.
So we start playing and youcome to my office.
We whiteboard everything toscale it.
It's like the restaurantanalogy.
I'm trying to sell you foodfive ways Cater, pick up, dine

(10:18):
in to go.
I'm trying to sell you thesandwich, right, so it's the
same thing we do.
So everybody has a house thatthey have to go to.
That's a residence, right?
So it's the same thing we do.
So you know, everybody has ahouse that they have to go to.
That's a residence.
Everybody's from a city, right?
Djs have a residency.
Doctors, before they have aresidency right.
Nurses, right, all thesedifferent things, um.
And then you're a resident as aperson, you're an individual
who's proud, right.
So we find all these ways toscale it um, and at that time

(10:39):
2019, you know, I got a musicalbackground.
So ross had that one song vegasresidency and I was just that
was just in my rotation um, youknow, just heavy.
And so I was like, all right,you know, this is, you got, you
got something here.
We got, we got a word play, um.
And then that's how weessentially started.
Um, so there was a total ofthree of us who kind of
co-founded or co-owned residencyin the beginning really two in

(11:00):
the beginning and my otherpartner came along from a tech
background to help us.
But, long story short, there'sthree individuals who are
essentially kind of the foundinggroup or founding fathers of
residency.
All of our birthdays kind ofmatch with three.
Um, three is my favorite number, I'm big and good or bad shit
gonna happen in threes, um.
So I'm just big on that and I'mjust big on, like, trying to
create these call itsuperstition, but just these

(11:21):
core values of a company.
And so that's how we started.
That was the initial pop andthat was kind of how we at least
branded the company.
To begin with, and I'll besuper transparent, we looked on
IG and somebody in India hadresidency, spelled the same way,
the normal way.
So like, all right, you know.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
IG is important, you know like.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Instagram is important.
You know you might have a dopename, but if you can't get
access to it, doesn't matter,even if we dm this guy.
He wasn't gonna sell it to us noway.
You know what you know.
So anyway, I was like, screw it, we're gonna change that second
e to and exactly.
So.
That's.
That was the birth of thecompany.
That's how we got started andhow we essentially came with
products and then created abrand.
Um, our first three cities werelas vegas, la and san francisco.

(12:01):
You know, we all had roots inVegas.
My co-founder partner, angelo,he lived in LA and still does,
and then we just kind of did atriangle offense right.
Like you know, san Fran isobviously a great market.
Let's just kind of figure thesethree.
Later on that year, my momworked for the census as a
national director and so we hitup mom and said hey, mom, give
me the demographics, give me thehow much you know, the annual

(12:23):
gross revenue for people to livein these areas, and we thought
that would get it to pop.
Let's pick in big cities.
Well, let's just pick Philly.
Let's pick Houston.
People got money in New York.
Let's do New York right, likeall these different, since we're
doing cities.
That's kind of what we want todo to expand, but what we

(12:45):
realized from a marketingstandpoint, just because you got
a cool logo or big city, youneed somebody to push that
needle.
It's from a high standpoint,especially with fashion, but
that was kind of the foundingstages of residency and that's
kind of from 2017.
That, that conversation at thatLaker game, which led to where
we're at.
So what I'm basically saying topeople out there you know,
customer who bought chickenwatched me the whole time.
You know he saw me be solid, hesaw me.
You know we was just nothingbut just a customer business
relationship.
He kind of, you know,befriended me or we became

(13:07):
friends and then now, look, thatled to something that's, quite
frankly, the biggest thing I gotgoing on.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
I mean that's a great story, yeah, so it's just one
of those things I think peopledon't realize like.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
I got one of my homeboys.
He's Taiwanese and I've knownhim since I was 13.
And I joke with his dad becausewe got in business together.
I was like I've been on a30-year interview.
You met me as a kid at 13 yearsold, did.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
I meet him at your office.
Yeah, you met him Okay.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Right, and this one time this dude had as many
stores as the owner of PandaExpress, like they were going
neck and neck.
But my mentor, he was in thefood court business and
obviously who goes to the mall,but the point I'm trying to make
at that time he and Andrew Tamwere going neck and neck from
stores, but I was on a 30-yearinterview and I didn't even know
that.

(13:48):
So I tell people like, look man, you never know.
This conversation may soundlike nothing, but it may lead to
something later on.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, 100%.
That's kind of a littlebackground about the residency.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
I'm glad you broke all in anything, that foundation
is crucial.
So, brandon, right, right, yougot something very special,
because I don't know how.
To just be honest how the?
Hell, you do it.
So, okay, yeah, you might havea Tom Brady, correct, you might
have I don't even know all thedifferent athletes, musicians
how are you able to find outthey are wearing your stuff?

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Okay, so, in the beginning, Because you get
pictures of everything For sure.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
And I'm going to give you all transparent answers.
That's just me.
I don't mean to be long-winded,but I give people the game
right.
So the first thing is this it'sso much psychology in it so
before we talk about a tom bradyor little wayne or whoever the
case, may be swiss or whoeverinsert name the.
The first thing is you reallyjust have to do the psyche of
people.

(14:49):
So much of it is just commonsense.
Um, so let's just take trentwilliams, for example.
It's kind of one of themarketing people that kind of
pushed this needle that's afootball football yep, highest
pager, so people don't write,and this needle that's a
football job Football yep,highest pager, so people don't
right.
We're going to talk about thisA lot of times.
People don't know footballplayers.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
If I say you know football, but very few.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
We call it the helmet syndrome.
I don't know football.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
We don't lie to you.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
But just for the people who do or do not know
Trent, he's the highest paidmoney than anybody in NFL
history other than thequarterback position.
And there's no offense.
You don't know him A lot ofpeople don't.
We call it the helmet syndrome.
In basketball you see theirface right, but football you
don't.
So the point I'm trying to makeis just the research in that.
So now that we know who Trentis, or we find out who Trent is,
well, trent went through braincancer, right, it's called

(15:37):
sarcoma.
he had that at the time when heand I connected or I was
reaching out, so we understand.
If you got brain cancer, whatare you going to have?
You're going to have a surgery,obviously in your head.
What are you?
Your vein?
You know, you know how I'msaying all these different
things you want to be thought of.
Cancer is a low moment right soI'm walking through the
psychology of we ain't justsending people random hats.
We're doing the research ofwhat they're going through, what

(16:00):
they like, what styles theylike, and then we break it down
even further.
Okay, well now let's justpretend Trent normal, he's
fashionable, he's a big dude,he's got a Ferrari collection,
he's not your average big guy.
He likes wearing custom stuff,he likes being exclusive and in
the locker room he's that alpha.
So a lot of stuff you'll seewith fashion is if you can

(16:21):
create the wave, or just withanything in life, it's monkey,
see, monkey do.
Very few people are visionariesand leaders and a lot of people
, unfortunately, follow us.
So if you can create that wave,that's what we do.
We're trying to create a wave.
We call it hype, but it'sreally a movement, um, as people
have to understand that, that'swhat we're trying to embrace.
So before, before we sendanybody anything, that's the
first thing we do.
You got to do the homework right.

(16:42):
If you got a fresh line up andyou just got a haircut, you
might not wear a hat today, butyou got a t-shirt.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
You see how he said that.
You see how he said that he'ssmart.
She offered you a hat.
Nah, I'm good, I got a cleancut.
I'm already.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
It's common sense, but so many people just overlook
, because what they're trying todo and it's nobody's fault, but
they're trying to push whatthey want on somebody.
They're like well, I got a hatcompany Pocky put on the hat,
well, is that really what hewants?
Some people don't rock hatsRight.
Some of the bosses don't thinklike customers.
So that's what we do before wedo anything.
And then now, after we do thatresearch, then we scale it and

(17:15):
we service the person, because alot of times when people get
what they want and they fall off, we're not just sending
somebody a hat one time, we'recontinuing that relationship
because we appreciate whatthey've done for us.
So that's kind of like myscouting report.
I call it ghetto marketing, butin a lot of ways it's genius,
right, because it's thatguerrilla marketing, it's that
hand-to-hand, it's thatcompoundedness of what we do.

(17:35):
And then this is important toobefore we go on.
The next question is I call itstrength in numbers.
So it's like a roman empirementality, that type of warfare
where trent needs to see youwork.
Trent is saying you know whatmemphis does, but jay-z, I'm
hove, I'm already rich, you'renot rich.
So I already got 400 milliondollars.
Zach, I put on your hat.

(17:56):
Now are you done, working likeI'm already where you want to be
?
I need to see you working.
I need to see that I'm not theonly person.
And it's not about being richor famous or rich or poor, it's
just strength in numbers.
If Trent goes to drive to thegame one day and he sees 100
people wearing my hat, he's likeall right, we working, we
working.
It's not just the superstardoing all the work.

(18:16):
And I think that's where a lotof people like, oh, I got you
know the Easter bunny in my hat.
Yeah Well, the Easter bunny needto see bugs bunny and everybody
else you know, becauseotherwise they're going to feel
like, well damn, you know I'mthe only person wearing this.
You know I need theconfirmation that you're not
just relying on me.
So when did y'all connect?
Like, what was your connection?
A lot of people, you know ourbirth was 2019.

(18:39):
So you got to think a lot ofthis was pandemic, right?
So I was.
The world was shut down.
A lot of this was cold callingand DMS.
A lot of this was just constant, you know, just relentless
communication.

(18:59):
I can't tell you, I used to.
I used to just scroll, like mymama would tell you.
I used to just sit there in thebusiness part.
I used to just scroll and lookfor content, literally just
spend hours praying somebodywould wear my hat.
Nowadays, you know, somebodywill text me something, right?

Speaker 2 (19:23):
no-transcript because the clothing business is one of
the hardest businesses.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
It's tough and you're in it's tough correct clothing,
which is very tough.
So that's that's how we findout who's posting and who's not.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
That's very interesting.
You talk about growing businessand building a brand.
That's very one thing.
A lot of people try to pushthat brand.
But what I'm seeing here inyour talk is that your insights
are very intuitive, correct Toyour point.
You see Pocky's face.
You see me wearing a hoodie.
You're just very insightful towhat's going on.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
It's right in front of you man, I credit that to
just how I was raised.
Right, my uncle had a barbecuerestaurant and you know,
literally anybody in the familyrestaurant business would tell
you you're pretty much slavelabor.
Right, my uncle maybe bought mea pair of Jordans once a year
but I didn't eat the tips hewould take during the night.
You know, I basically was freelabor.
So anyway, because of that,when you're serving people you
get to see well damn, did hefinish his food?

(20:15):
It's just food or you know whatthis and that you get to see
things and it's directlyinfluenced by your tip man.
You know, if I come around herethree more times, you know you
just start to pick the psyche ofpeople, especially in the
restaurant business.
You see how many customers aday I mean so many people just
sit there and just go throughthe motions.
But if you really pay attention, people will tell you, like I
used to tell my employees awoman comes with three kids,

(20:35):
offer them a kid's meal.
You know, pretty girl walks inwith a yoga outfit.
Lululemon offer a salad.
Hey, man, we have fresh saladwraps.
Big guy comes in there.
Hey, chicken wings.
It's common sense.
But people are just like when Iget off at five.
Let me just sit here, yeah,well, you can stay till five and
not get tipped.
Or you can listen andunderstand and meet somebody

(20:58):
who's a business owner and youknow they own a law firm and
they see me as a cashier butthey think I'd be a great, you
know a paralegal or somethingRight.
And so people just don'tunderstand.
Like I use the quote, like theharder I work, the luckier I get
.
But a lot of it is just myspirit when I'm, when I'm
working, I'm not like oh, goddamn, yeah, goddamn, yeah, like
I'm I'm really bringing it tothe table.
So that's how we, that's how weessentially scout the person

(21:20):
out.
Um, the tom brady example.
Or just to be super transparent, let's be honest, tom brady,
you know he you don't, eventhough he's the owner of the
raiders.
Now you know he he's not gonnawear that pirate.
Think about it.
think about you really sit downjust before we.
How, when, who you're?
Honest being real it's tombrady cut white guy.
You think he really going towear that pirate?
It's a Cholo logo, it's a Santa, it's very dark, it's Raiders

(21:46):
and I love the Raiders, but it'sone of those things where, like
, is he really going to put thatpirate on him, just from an
aesthetic.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
I don't think I've seen him wear it yet a little
further.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
He played 20-something years.
How many?
Times did he beat the damnRaiders?

Speaker 2 (22:00):
right 5,000 times, if you're really a.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Raider fan.
You really can't stand TomBrady as a player.
Now you're hoping he bringssomething to the table as an
owner, but as a fan player toplayer you really can't stand
Brady, and Brady knows that, soit's almost not authentic to him
, right?
You kicked a Raiders ass for 20years and now you're walking
around with the Pirates.
Might have been a friendforever.
You get what I'm saying.
So it's almost like he needs anexcuse.

(22:22):
He still wants to rep Las Vegas, he still wants to rep his
ownership, he's still proud.
But that's a businessconversation.
That's not who.
You know what I'm saying, whohe kind of is it's a mentality.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
There we go.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
So now we just give clean cut logo.
There's really no teamaffiliation, you can kind of
play neutral but you obviouslyare repping las vegas.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
You also have something with that.
You see, I'm saying it's apsychology, it's not just hey
tom, here's your package.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
And then, quite frankly, it's aesthetics.
When my patent, when mypackages arrive, they look like
they deserve, they supposed tobe here, even if you didn't
order it.
You know this.
This looks like okay.
Well, at least somebody you knowyeah, somebody sent something
yeah it's not just a brownpasted bag or something that
looks out of place, so it'sreally the whole branding of the
packaging, the product and thepsyche that goes into.

(23:07):
How do you, how do youbasically target these
individuals?
Um, and like I say, rich peoplelove free stuff.
Everybody likes to be thoughtof.
A millionaire wants you totreat him to lunch.
You know, a famous person wantsto be remembered.
You'd be surprised.
I mean, people got feelings too.
They got feelings too, and alot of times they feel like
they've not been a thought of orappreciated for whatever reason

(23:27):
.
By family, I mean, none of myfamily members buy a hat or a
Cuba sandwich, yet you know whatI'm saying.
So you know and that's just me.
I mean, imagine somebody onthat level with that kind of
coin.
They've got a lot of horrorstories of where they've been
let down by people close to them.
I know Chris has a question,but I want to add on one real
quick.
I remember when Steven Jacksonmentioned that with his original
clothing company he said theproblem that you have is family,

(23:48):
Correct Family and friends.
None of them buy that what's?

Speaker 2 (23:51):
the quote.
They tell you they want you togive them the stuff.
I know you got a question too.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah, but the quote is if you're waiting on family
or friends to support yourbusiness, you ain't going to
have one.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
We need a Zachary King post tolive by.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
I'm trying to tell you, I told you this game.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
When he come on, I'm just going to shut up and let
him talk, man, I love and to beable to make decisions and you
know target people.
But when you're building abrand, right, you have to
generalize statements a lot.
You have to be able to target abigger audience.
You know what case do you trynot to over-adjust, like, do you
ever think about, like, how doyou navigate?

(24:29):
Like building a business whereyou can't make a thousand
different types of hats, right,okay?

Speaker 1 (24:33):
So yeah, so it's a great question.
So yeah, it's a great question.
So it's almost like thisbalancing act of three or four
things, so just stay with it,right.
So it's an easy question, butit's complex.
So the first thing is, beforewe do it, we need the hype.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
The energy behind it.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Because people, we got to admit that.
You know.
Why do you like Versace?
Why do you wear Rolex?
Why do you like Mercedes?
Why do you want a Chanel bag?
Somebody has set the standardfrom a quality, branding hype
standpoint.
You use, you use.
You know the role is going totell the time, just like the
seiko right but you feeldifference with that role on
your own right.
You feel different with thatsomething.
Something in your mind,psychologically, has programmed

(25:09):
you to think that this is, thisis where I need to be right.
This is something that I strivefor.
Why do you want a g-wagon?
Well, I want to be part correct.
Yeah, that's first we got tocreate the standard of branding
or hype.
Then now, now we understandwell, everybody can't afford a
G-Wagon, everybody can't afforda Patek, right.
So now it's like, well, I'vegot to have some entry-level
products.
Even Bentley's got anentry-level.

(25:29):
You've got to have someentry-level products that don't
water down your brand but, toyour point, they make it
accessible.
Um, so we, just we havedifferent, what we call
entry-level products.
Our entry-level products willbe like our, our market or our
mission, or all our hats orproducts have names.
So it's almost like that's your, that's your bentley gtc,
that's your 35 dollar hat,that's your entry-level bentley.
But you ain't, you're in abentley, you feel good.

(25:52):
Same thing, you know, you got ahat on.
It's not the 200 hat trend hason, but hey, man trend, I'm
repping too.
So you don't want to be.
So, basically, be exclusive topeople.
Where you weed out people oryou make people feel that they
can't afford it or they're not.
More importantly, that they'renot wanted, it's not that they
can't afford it, becauseeventually, if there's enough
hype, they'll save up and theywill afford it.

(26:13):
They'll want it.
Bad enough, right, but you'vegot to make them feel inclusive,
right when they feel like Right, but you've got to make them
feel inclusive, right when theyfeel like man.
I'm a part of this movement.
I know I'm not Trent, I know Idon't have the $200 hat on, but
I got the $40 hat on and I stillfeel a part of this movement.
And I also think too, a lot ofit is the individual co-founder
or the person doing themarketing.
I don't big time anybody, soyou know you go to 49's facility

(26:34):
, the guard house.
The man in the guard gate isgoing to have on my hat.
Is it the $200 Fred WarnerTrent hat?
No, it's not.
But when Trent pulls up in thatFerrari, trent sees him.
He's got a hat on.
Trent has a hat on.
I still feel like I'm a part ofthis family, even though they
might be a big dog in the family.
That's my cousin, that's my bigbro.

(26:55):
It's that type of camaraderiewe're trying to build and, like
I told y'all in the beginning,strength in numbers.
At the end of the day, the $200hat, the $35 hat, still got 100
people wearing the hat, it'sstill 100 visuals of his body.
It's just like the club, Hisbody's doing it, where it's like

(27:16):
man, you know.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
do we really care If I turn the lights off in Dre's.
I can't tell if it's doing allthat.
No clue, Not at all.
And you still have that feeling.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
I feel like I'm a part of that and, more
importantly, we're striving tobe to the next person.
So you need entry level, butyou need hype.
I love when you talk about thepsychology side of it, because
people don't realize that's whatbrands do with Apple and
everything else.
It's all psychology.
After we do the second, we callit ecosystem.
So we talked about it at officewhen you came.
Their phone goes out right now.

(27:41):
Apple has done such a goodbranding job.
You will blame your phone man,my phone tripping.
It's not Apple.
My phone is tripping you ain'tnever going to blame Steve Jobs.
That phone going to break,you're going to go right back
and get another one and Godforbid, it's the Apple Watch.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
If it's the iPad, I got everything we call it.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
you basically are trapped in this ecosystem.
You don't even know it, or care, no, I know it.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
I know it because I pay it for it, you care but you
don't even care, because youenjoy it so much.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
I mean, you just do it.
I bet you got Apple too,because I'm in the ecosystem, he
wasn't.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, you weren't before.
Right, Tell them that sucked mein it.
You're like I don't even feellike talking.
Get this person on the groupchat.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
I don't even feel like talking to this person or
you know it's so hard to sendstuff or messages or whatever.
Right, and no offense toAndroid who's out there, but
that's the feeling, right,you're stuck in this ecosystem.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
That's what got me about talking shit because we
grew sex with him.
I'm like damn.
I caved and bought all the.
I got Apple Watch andeverything.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
That's interesting and you get an ecosystem.
Like I bought cars, I didn'teven test drive, I'm already in
ecosystem.
Just in case you love it, Ijust love it.
I'm already sold.
Before I pull up to the lot,I'm already sold on you're
already sold on the phone.
I got two of them all thesesides.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Please, yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
So you said we can talk about anything 100%.
Can you tell the public howmany restaurants that you own?

Speaker 2 (29:02):
Right, so he'll realize how many he owns.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
So let's start from the beginning.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Okay, I'm my family so we start 20 years in 20
seconds Right.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
So long story short.
My family was in the restaurantbusiness since the 1940s.
You pretty much have twohomeboys 40s my grandfather yeah
.
For nightclubs, restaurants.
Like my grandfather was aheadof his time.
His name was Moses White.
He's from Tampa.
They got a street named afterhim the whole time.
But long story short, you knowhe before integration, you know
he did all of that to kind ofstart off, start the base.
And so that's my, that's mybloodline, my mama's father, and

(29:32):
then you fast forward, you knowmy, you know, 40, 50 years
later, here I come around and mybest friend, who's Taiwanese?
His family was in the foodcourt.
Franchising of food courtrestaurants Started in the 80s,
both in Tampa.
So you got my grandfather here,you got my right.
Two different families, twodifferent backgrounds.
But long story short, when Iwent to University of Florida

(29:53):
knew I wasn't going pro and thisindividual his name is David Wu
, but he was almost.
He was like my father, right, Imean, that's who he was right.
And I was a person where Ididn't really grow up with a
father in my house.
So I call it like you know,make your own daddy, I take some
of Rocky's daddy I take some ofyour daddy.
I take some of her daddy.
You don't even know I'mstealing your daddy, I'm just
throwing my pockets and I'mmaking my.

(30:15):
I'm him my own daddy.
And he was one of thoseindividuals, right, I was always
like a sponge and he knew thatright, and people that kind of
come from nothing love peoplethat come from nothing.
It's almost like a hustlerspirit.
It's hard to you know.
He's never told me this.
We've never.
We've never chopped it up.
It's a vibe man.
You can just tell when somebodyis about that action.
So he knew I wasn wasn't goingpro all that stuff.

(30:35):
He's like man, what you gonnado.
I was like man, I really haveno idea.
He's like, well, I got an idea.
Um, let's take yourgrandfather's chicken recipe and
with my uncle's head, and let'slet's put it in a fast, casual
concept.
Um, he's like there's a conceptthat you don't know about.
But I want you to go to batonrouge at the time, um mall,
louisiana.
And he's like I want you to seewhat raising canes is doing.
I want you to see this was this, was 2006, 7.

(30:57):
I'm just leave tomorrow, go seewhat they're doing.
I just want you to see.
He's like I've been in the foodcourt game 30 years.
I never seen anybody giveChick-fil-A a run for their
money.
But in this mall in Louisianaat that particular time, let's
say, chick-fil-a was doing 1.3.
Raising Cane's was doing 1.7.
So he's like I want you to seethe concept, just so you can
understand what we're trying toaccomplish.
Now you'll take yourgrandfather's chicken recipe,

(31:20):
but we're going to add more of ahome style flavor.
We're going to have themacaroni cheese, we're going to
have the banana pudding, we'regoing to have the kool-aid,
we're going to have the seasonedsalt on the fries, and so that
was our essentially chicken.
Now was that concept that webirthed?
Um, that was 2007.
Um, and essentially I'll bestraight up with everybody
pretty was a gamble.
He basically bet on me, justlike he bet the store cost

(31:40):
$400,000.
He bet $400,000 just like a fewdays.
But the reason why he did itwas because in the food court
it's like Monopoly.
Let's say you go in the foodcourt and there's five, six
restaurants there.
Well, let's say you own four ofthem.
Well, if you don't put anotherconcept in there, chick-fil-a is
going to come in there, pandaExpress is going to come in
there, mcdonald's is going tocome in there.
So he basically and it's nohard feelings, he used me as a

(32:02):
pawn where it's like look, Ialready got four restaurants on
this block.
If I can put if I can put I goton four right, because I got the
Japanese, the Chinese house onthis block then Chick-fil-A
don't come in, because ifChick-fil-A comes in, they're
going to take $300,000, $400,000away from my Chinese restaurant
they're going to take.

(32:22):
It's just simple marketing.
Oh, that's Chick-fil-A.
You don't even look at theChinese place anymore, you don't
even look at the Japanese placeanymore.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
So he's like, at least if Zach goes in there.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
he might lose, but he's a Well, what happened was
when we opened, I went in andshowed my ass.
I first opened in Orlando PrimeOutlet Mall and we did 1.3.
So now you use me as a pawn,but really now I'm big dog.
So now he's like holy shit,this was a buffer, but he done
hit a home run.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
He had a home run.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
It was kind of a facade.
Why were we able to do that?
Orlando tourist market, highprice point, that's how we were
able to get there, but anyway itwas enough for us to
springboard that company.
So we opened up 20 stores inbasically a year and a half.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
I'm 23, hiring people A year and a half.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yeah, because he had so many contacts inside the mall
.
I think you've already got 400stores before you show up.
I got landlords.
I got people on every block whofeel the same pain.
Man, you need me.
There we go and, let's behonest, I would pay the rents
that Chick-fil-A wouldn't pay.
Chick-fil-a say, man, I ain'tpaying this, I'll go on the
street.
So the landlords liked us too.
We were paid exclusive rents.

(33:29):
We would open up on Sunday.
Chick-fil-a goes and say, nope,I'm paying percentage rent and
I ain't opening up on Sunday.
God bless you.
Malls don't want to hear that.
Like I had a store in Venetian,our rent was 30 Gs a month.
We would pay those aggressiverents, even if we knew it was a
gamble because, to be honestwith you, I didn't have the
overhead Chick-fil-A did.
Chick-fil-a needs to make amillion dollars to break even.

(33:50):
I didn't.
So I had a different bottomline.
But anyway, that's how we gotstarted.
That birthed my restaurantcareer.
So that group is HIG Managementand collectively.
Right now, like I said,pandemic wiped out a lot of our
stores, recession and, honestly,people just not going to the
mall anymore, not going to themall anymore, we still have
about 30 open.

(34:10):
But we've been very in the mallbusiness but we've been very
selective as to where we go,where we open, and a lot of
times we're still playing thatsame game.
So like, for example, I got acouple of stores in Santa Anita
Mall and Arcadia will have thechicken now and we also put our
crunchies inside the mall too.
So we can co-brand that labor,we can co-brand that training.
You get off at four at chickenhour, we'll go to crunchies at

(34:31):
five, you know.
So we can, we can basicallymake that, make it make a little
bit more sense.
Um, but at the same time it'sselective places where we know
there's foot traffic.
Um, people are still going tothe mall in certain instances,
but not to the level that isright now now, locally in town.
Um, that same group, higmanagement, which, which I'm a
part of, has Crunchies.
We don't have the one on SpringMountain but all the others in

(34:52):
town and we try to franchisethat concept nationwide.
Then we have Cubani Dodd, whichis our Cuban concept.
We have three locations of thatTotal B and Tiki which is at
Uncommon's.
That's some great drinks overthere too 100% yeah they do a
great job, man.
Our staff talk about how that'sbeen popping.
But then also earth cafe.
We don't have the one at thewin, but my brother, leon, was
able to kind of get the rightson commons and we opened up a

(35:13):
green valley.
Okay, and then, last but notleast, we just brought fat sows,
two more.
We brought fat sows to fremontstreet.
Uh, leon, his type of hismindset was a lot of fat sows.
Fat sows is a sandwich shop theyoriginated in la.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Oh yeah, that's right , the big fat sandwiches they
have all the type of stuff.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
It's kind of an la staple, okay, but his logic, my
brother's leon logic, was if Ican, you know a lot of people
are moving from cali here.
If I can bring the earth cafes,the, the fat sows people are
going to, it's going to resonateI love that cafe, by the way
yeah and then, the last but notleast, is our pokey concept,
which, uh, we've.
You know, we talked about it.
We used to be a mercadito whichwas our sandwich shop, but we
flipped it into a pokey pokeymart LV.

(35:48):
Is that uncommon?
I?

Speaker 2 (35:48):
was going to say, is that uncommon?
I don't think I'm missinganything here, but I can tell
you it's a lot.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
It's two different groups.
There's a hat group and thenthere's a restaurant group.
I have a great team.
We have great employees, chefsand, to be honest with you, man,
I'm not as hands-on as I usedto be from an operational
standpoint, more just like aninvestment standpoint.
But they do rely on me for alot of marketing, or you know
you got people pulling up thattype of relationship side, but
don't get it twisted.
I mean, if I got to go in thereand make a Cuba sandwich, I will

(36:19):
, but you know, it's one ofthose things, man, it's.
We've been blessed especiallythese last couple of years,
because a lot of restauranteursare catching hell, man to be
able to expand and, quitefrankly, be able to bring some
of these concepts to life, man.
So it's been a blessing.
But yeah, that's the restaurantside.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Good for you.
That's awesome yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Talk a little bit about, because I know Earth Cafe
gets a lot of the shine.
But just real quick on TotalBien.
Yes, sir, how hard is it to bea bar next to like, next to a
Durango.
You know what I mean.

(36:54):
Like, how are you guys able tomake that work?
True story right?
Um, you know it starts all withfriendships, man.
So my brother leon has a greatlike a track record where people
like maddie salazar occurred.
There's a couple other peoplethat that kind of handle the
day-to-day stuff with that, andwhy they've been so beneficial
is all these people have abackground in nightlife.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
I think I've met maddie before.
Yeah, he was at one for a while.
He yeah, he's out, I think he'snow some something to do with
live.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
I don't know his exact role, but, long story
short, he's got that lifestyle,that nightlife background.
And so we go back to brandon,right, you know the vodka soda
gonna be the vodka soda, even ifI drink it at the house.
But maddie's bringing some ofthe magic, he's bringing the djs
, he's bringing the differentspecialty drinks that you're
talking about, the theme drinks,right, and so that's the thing.
And, quite frankly, you knowthat area, even though there's a

(37:29):
lot of competition in that area, a lot of people live in that
area.
We'll talk about this.
I ain't scared of competition.
I'm scared of customerawareness.
If you don't even know who thehell I am, or know what I am,
probably I'm more scared of that.
I'll compete who has the bestchicken.
I'll compete who has the bestsandwich, but if you don't even
eat a sandwich, that's hard tochange mindset.
But anyway, they, the nightlifepeople, have been huge from an

(37:49):
industry standpoint becausethey're bringing friends.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
That they've been friends with for 20, 30 years.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
So they're bringing all that to life, but that's how
we've been able to do it andit's been a blessing man, I
think we just celebrated ourone-year anniversary over there.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
I like that spot.
Man, that's a cool spot.
We don't have food.
We don't have food, but thedrink's on point point, man, and
it's all.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
It's one of those things.
So, anyway, it's been ablessing.
That's awesome, man.
Oh, that's right, we went to j.
What's his name?
Jk, he was killing it, thoughhe plays all the like yep, yep,
yep, I'm piano no, he killed itone night.
Yeah, that's the thing toobringing acts right where it's
still like that local kind ofintimate vibe.
Of course it might be biggerspots and stuff like that, but

(38:26):
it's not the same.
It's not the same sauce.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
So they might just have a drink with your spouse or
whatever.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
It's a nice little spot, honestly just local.
You don't have to be on thestrip, just get in enjoy
yourself During the week.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
they're perfect.
You'll have a good drink afterwork.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Seriously, it's perfect.
A lot of people out here havebeen going on date nights,
that's the new thing.
Y'all been there.
I'm talking about a random,like it's the first date.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Oh, the first date.
Okay, I didn't know that.
I'm talking about the random.
That's a smart place to do it.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Yeah, they do it there because, god forbid, I
could pop the Durango if I don'tfeel like messing.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
It's an in and out spot that's a good to go up
there.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Let's talk about Worms a little bit.
So you got the candy company.
You in the hardest industry sowhat happens is.
What happens is like we meet,we vibe, and then you see, you
see Zero the Hero, you see GetRich or Die Trying and you're
like, damn, zach, this issomething I always wanted to do.
Damn, I always wanted, right, Idon't know, man, I'm not trying

(39:26):
to just constantly just dothese uphill battles, but like
that's, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
But you make them work, correct Right.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
So Worms was another business partner who saw what I
did with restaurants and sawwhat I did with residency,
especially residency becausehe's a huge 49er fan.
So when he saw that, he waslike my God and he was like Zach
.
I got this candy and this andthat the prototype.
Let me try to work, let's see.
It.
Can't promise you nothing.
Gotta sleep on it, gotta prayon it, gotta give it to a couple
people and we will see.
Um, but I said the first thingwe need with this we need a

(39:56):
branded package.
That's the first thing we needbecause it's candy, especially
people with food they're veryparticular, they want to see
right, so you got to think I'min a restaurant game, so a lot
of it's just presentation.
How many restaurants chargingarm and leg and the food ain't
even that good but it's thepresentation or it's the service
or something.
So what he did was he took me upon it.
We came with some prototypebags and you'll see this man A
lot of times.

(40:16):
I call it like Jay's got thisone line.
He's like I got that shit on arope, it's like a yo-yo.
I sell it.
I don't want to sell it back.
So what I did was I, you know,every 49er, before every big
game, a lot of times I go to 49locker room, um, and I use it as
my test market.
And before, let's say, nfcchampionship, I got 200 hats
laid out.
So I know my hats are up up.

(40:37):
That's a million dollar, baby.
Now let me just throw someother stuff from the table.
So I just one day, here we go,yeah, I got the hash laid out
and they're like damn big zach,what's this?
Oh, this is some candy.
Let me know what y'all think.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
I got the candy there .
It's all psychology Right.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
They take the candy before they take the hat.
Oh wow, that's crazy Peoplecoming back.
Big Zach, what's your Venmo?
I'm going to send you somemoney for the candy I said you
know, y'all know this.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
I said leave you know and keep the stoic face like no
, I don't know pressure that's,that's light and so when they
hit me like man, I'm like man.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
We got a winner, because I'm not even trying to
sell it.
I'm not even trying to sell it.
I'm talking about, you know,trent debo wanting a case of
candy.
Right, I'll give you a thousanddollars, send me, send me a
whole crate of candy all rightnow we got something.
And then what I also saw aboutthe candy is it's consumables,
that that t-shirt.
You know, if you're a fanaticyou might have 20 t-shirts in
your closet, but very few peopleare that type of shopper.
But with a food item it'sconsumable.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
You're going to have to buy more you don't have to
buy a new t-shirt you don't haveto buy a new hoodie.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
You don't have to buy a new hat.
Very seldom, chris, does it allthe time of the same one.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
That is true.
He'll do it if he likes it.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
That's it, if you don't want to be one.
You like it.
But let's be real.
If that's a black hoodie orwhatever, you could wear that
three or four times and peoplewouldn't even know it's the same
hoodie.
We see it a lot with hats.
People buy the black and whitehat and I got the hat and I'm.
But with food items, you'regoing to have to get another cup
of coffee.
You're going to have to getanother.

(42:08):
That's very true, that's what Isaw on the consumable side.
What I also saw that theydidn't know on the restaurant
side is people now shopping withtheir wallet or eating with
their wallet.
So what I mean is they get thatcandy.
Is it the healthiest thing?
Is it a full meal?
Of course not, but it's goingto handle that hunger right.
So a $3, $4 bag of candy isbetter than going to even

(42:31):
McDonald's right now andspending $20.
Is it a full meal?
Of course not, but you knowwhere we from.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Snacks, it gets me through.
Project Babies gets us through.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
It's something to hold me.
And then the craving.
And a lot of these athletesthey have sugar cravings, they
have those type of things.
So that's what I was able tosee, just from a branding
standpoint.
But yeah, now what happened?
The problem is they ate it sofast.
Man, zach, send some more.
Well, espn caught people with ahat.
Nobody, tom Brady didn't sendme a picture.
Espn caught Tom Brady.
Espn caught Derek Carr.

(43:00):
But if somebody eats a candythere's no footage of that.
So I was like well damn, fredWarner, like I'm giving you the
candy, like I, fred warner, likeI'm giving you the candy, like
I'm damn deep boat, like can youtake a bite?
I don't want to ask for apicture, but I'm sure yeah, come
on man.
You ate two cases of candy yeah,at least get something right,
but I didn't, couldn't get it,yeah.
So what we started to do andit's been done before, rap
snacks and other people havedone it we brand our product

(43:21):
with, with the essentially theplayers logo.
It's almost like a comic booktype approach, where trent has
his own logo or so-and-so wouldhave their own design, and that
design is on the actualpackaging, right.
You've seen dispensaries andpeople do it like that where
they branded, right, but that'show we do it from a candy
standpoint.
So, whether you give me a shoutout or not, hey, parker, you
know your name, your logo is onhere, so I don't care whether

(43:44):
you post or not.
And you want to done it, youknow, get, at least get it
popping.
Now everything has a differentthing, right?
So that's the thing people needto realize like it's the same
intangibles, but it's still alittle different flavor.
So I was even me, I was, I wasstuck man like damn, I'm gonna

(44:05):
pull this off to your point.
It's a very oversaturatedmarket.
I had one of my investors, youknow.
He came to me he's a local guyhere and he said man, zach, I
love you to death, but I don'tknow how you're going to do it.
Like you know, I've seen you dowater to wine, but I don't know
how you're going to do this.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
And he brought his baby to the office.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
I said let got my check, I'm sold.
I said now let him cry rightnow.
That's to shut him up as a kid.
But let him go and play AAUbasketball.
Let's have a daughter Now wefundraising.
So I hit him with let's stopthe tears as an infant.
But then when he starts to playfor Vegas Elite or other places
, let's create a fundraisingmodel.

(44:49):
Like Girl Scout cookies, likeBoy Scout the popcorn.
Let's make money off this right,because with my worm price it's
positioned as a premium candy.
So if you go online it's $9.
And the reason why it's $9 isbecause I got to pay for
shipping.
When you charge customers forshipping, you kill conversion.
But on the fundraising side, Ican wholesale it to you for $2,
$3, and you know you got $9, awiggle room, as long as you

(45:10):
don't go over my online price.
So that's the fundraising model.
So what we started to do withdifferent entities.
Right now we're in, I think,five Vegas schools, but it's
that fundraising type model.
Hey, I'm going to give you abox of candy for sixty dollars,
but you know you can make threehundred dollars off.
This got cookies it's the samething, but that was the kicker,
and what I'm really trying to dois just once again strengthen

(45:32):
numbers.
Yeah, I went to university offlorida 60 000 people at
university of florida.
I ain't seen 60 000 peoplesince I left university of
florida.
Schools have a bunch of people,so even if you're not even
making that much money on themargins on the candy- and the
alma mater liberty's got 4 4,000people.
Southwest got 2,500 people.
You know, clark, you know theygot how many kids are there that

(45:54):
are seeing your candy?
And eventually that fundraisingbox is going to run out.
And then that's when they'regoing to say well, I want to
order my own candy.
I want to wait on little Beckyto promote the candy, I want to
buy my own.
And then that's when you got topay the toll.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
I think I'm still like a fan of Cadbury, that same
model, when I was a kid Cadburythe chocolate, the caramel, the
fundraising model is what wedid there.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
So every entity has this different flavor, like, if
you put me on the spot, theCuban sandwiches.
Okay, insert concept.
Every flavor.
Every concept has a differentflavor, but it's the same
intangibles of how to hustle andhow to promote it to people,
and you explain it so well.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah, that's the hard thing to do, man, to be able to
explain it.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
It's tough, man, but if I can't talk it, as an owner,
then how the hell am I going toget you to buy into the
customer?
Yeah, that's real.
It's tough, and if I don'tbelieve it, you know if I
wouldn't have my son fundraisethis.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
So one last question on the business side.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
So because you're involved in so much stuff and I
know you're going to keep itreal, with everything.
What do you tell people thatwant to get into business for
themselves right now whetherit's small business or big
business or scaling, whateverthe situation is, because you're
involved in so many differentindustries what do you tell that
person that's listening, allright, so you, man, you have
some good ones.
I hate to be long.

(47:08):
It's not a yes or no, andthat's the thing people right,
it's not a yes or no.
So the first thing is I telllet's start from the beginning.
I tell people to start, startyoung.
So I knew I was this person at17 years old.
But my mom would say man, goget a job.
I was the same person, probablyyounger.

(47:29):
Why I say start early?
At that age you ain't got nocar insurance, you ain't got a
mortgage.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
You ain't got no kids .

Speaker 1 (47:35):
You ain't got, even if it doesn't work.
And I knew I wanted to hustleor be an entrepreneur before 17.
But let's just say 17.
Don't work.
Okay, I do two years.
I'm now 19.
I'm not 45.
I'm not 50.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
I don't have kids, a wife, a mortgage, a car note or,
quite frankly, a lifestyle thatI've been accustomed to, that I
don't want to swallow my pride.
Or my wife's been accustomed toCorrect 100%.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
Or kids or anybody.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
So that's one Start early.
If you feel it in your gut,your gut ain't going to change.
It's the same, this itch thatyou can't scratch.
That's one.
Two find something that youlove Now.
So for me, I love the wholeprocess.
Like I'm a person who I used tochange cleats at halftime.
I play offensive line.
I got a visor and gloves.
I'm like you know, Dion,offensive line I love you know.

(48:20):
I just I don't, I just love howI tackled you or how I did it.
So I'm just a different animalwhere I just love the process
and the grind.
But some people are like, no, Ionly love, you know, Japanese
restaurants.
I went to Japan, I only want todo that.
Oh, I only love tacos.
Like, some people are very,almost case by case driven.
They just love this entity andthat's what they want to do, or
that's something they always,you know, they went to comfort

(48:43):
zone.
And they're so passionate aboutone particular thing they always
wanted to open a winery.
But if you tell them to open aliquor store, they don't know
how to do it.
So it's different.
They wanted a winery, theydidn't want a liquor store,
right?
So you have hustlers like that.
Then you have certain peoplethat are basically what I call
buying a job.
That's the franchise model.
You buy a Subway.
If you only have one Subway,you're pretty much buying a job
and there's nothing wrong withthat.

(49:04):
But it's not a co-founder.
There's different levels tohustle.
You got to ask yourself that asa business person before you get
into this.
Do I want, you know, do I wantto be quincy jones or do I want
to just be?
You know, I got a coupledifferent locations and there's
nothing wrong with that.
But am I buying a corporate job?
You know I own one chick-fil-a.
You're gonna make it the samething you would make, kind of,
in a corporate salary.
And then the last thing isthere has to be either you love

(49:26):
the entity or you love the thingbecause it's going.
It's going to try you so manydifferent ways where you have to
just be understand, that'scorrect.
When you go into this, like thisis what I signed up for, like I
tell people, it's what you prayfor, like you know.
So you can't pray for somethingyou're like, well, damn, I damn
god he knows gonna be.
Like, well, this is what youasked for, so you got to come
with it.
So it's those things.
Start early, then decide whatdo you want to be?

(49:47):
I tell everybody five-year plan, work backwards, where do you
want to be?
And then now break that downeven more.
Is it just I'm passionate aboutthis, or am I?
You know the Jay-Z quote I'm abusinessman.
I'm not a businessman.
Like, am I trying to ownmultiple entities or do I just
want my little, one little thing?

Speaker 2 (50:03):
So that would be my advice Do that first.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
And then after that we off to the races, get some
people to think, to really think, man.
So when you're not eating atyour restaurant, I want to know
because?

Speaker 2 (50:12):
you know good food man, Correct.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
I always ask somebody about best restaurants in Vegas
.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
What's your favorite restaurant in?

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Vegas.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
So my favorite restaurant in Vegas man is
actually just an old spot calledPierio's.
And if I'm pronouncing it and Iwouldn't know, Italian food is
excellent.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
Yeah, so that's my spot, why I like it is intimate.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
They have good service there too.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Yeah, they do.
And I'm old school, like Itotally I respect Yelp and
obviously all our restaurantsand platforms are on Yelp.
But I'm big man, like if you bemad that day, I do.
Like you know, I'm from Florida, so I love the Miami effect,
the pull up you see the whip,the valet.

(50:54):
I like it's a little dark, soif you in there, you know if you
in there you're supposed to bein there ain't nobody going to
know.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
I just a lot you can share.
My kids love PO.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
You're always going to have a doggy bag and the
service is on point man.
And, like I said that garbage.
Caesar salad I love, that's mygo-to, and then obviously the
veal parmesan.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
That's what I'm saying.
That's two in a row.
I feel like that's a sign.
Yeah, that's what.
I'm saying I'm going there forgot a great mind.
Yeah, I mean from the businessstandpoint.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
I mean, I feel like the only other thing I probably
would recommend or just somedifferent things are like
tidbits or tips is, you know, Icall entrepreneurship Jumanji.
So anybody watches thatfavorite movie, the Robin
Williams movie, jumanji, andthat's basically what it is, man
, so just knowing what you signup for.
So why I laugh or smiling isyou know, jumanji?
As soon as they beat themonkeys, here go the bees.

(51:49):
As soon as they beat the bees,here go the snakes.
As soon as they beat the snakes, here goes the floods always
coming and that's and that's it.
And you have to stay even keel.
You got to be stoic and you gotto be prepared for it because
as a leader, especially thatco-founder level, you know if
you don't believe, if you, youknow if you, if you come up
short, right, you, you're just,you never know who's looking man
.
So you just have to understandthat.
That's the level to it.

(52:09):
But if you're dealing with thattype of pressure, then that
means you can handle it, or atleast you've been chosen to do
that.
So that's kind of what I like.
And then I think you know, youknow we talked about offline,
but, like you know, it's almostlike these, these three
different individuals kind ofdescribe me, you know, versus
the get rich or die, trying atthat famous movie with 50 cent,

(52:30):
like that's my mentality, right,like you know, like I'm
whatever it takes to get through.
And then the next person isQuincy Jones.
If it is different documentaries, I can watch, and it's
important for people to have amentor, even if you don't know
this person.
Have a road map of somebody tolook at a mentor from the shy.
I'm a big Jordan person, yeahRight, so you just have to.
Even if you don't know thesepeople personally, you have kind

(52:51):
of a benchmark that you want tostrive to.
But Quincy Jones is another oneman you know.
Michael would still recordmusic before Thriller, but
Quincy took Thriller to the nextlevel.
Oh yeah, and another person Ireally from a far look up to is
Clarence Avant or Avant, butsomebody who was just a
connector.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
He just passed away.
Right, he did.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
Yeah, yeah.
And why I love him, his storyor his mindset, is everything is
not transactional, Like I'mgoing to be blessed regardless.
Like people are like, damn,Zach, you get away with 300 free
hats and I did, but that's whyI'm on ESPN every day.
So that's the thing,Everybody's tit for tat, or like
they don't want to move unlessthey know you're going to move
and this and that, and like it'stoo short sighted and that's

(53:30):
fine.
There's nothing wrong withalways looking for an ROI, but I
call it ROR return onrelationship.
So you know the stuff I got,money came by, you know I got
people and stuff that right.
And so that's the key partwhere it will be a transaction,
it will be.
You will.
You will get an ROI.
But if you go into it so short,short-sighted, where everything

(53:52):
is tit for tat and I knowthat's tough for a lot of
entrepreneurs in the beginningbecause funding is an issue,
cash flow is an issue, so you'relike, damn, this hat costs 15
dollars.
Can I really send that tombrady?

Speaker 2 (54:00):
is it really gonna get it?

Speaker 1 (54:02):
you know what happens if you don't get it.
Well, what happens if he doesget it?
So that's the thing, man,you're gonna to know that.
So from the business side,that's what I want.
I mean personal.
We go a whole, nother show.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
But that's part two.
Part two, but from a personalstandpoint.
Yeah, from a businessstandpoint.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
That's it.
That's what's up.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Man, you got a great mind man Very business, yeah,
great business, mind the onlything I would say from a
personal standpoint, is so wesay in business, the cost of
doing business.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
That's the business analogy.
We say you know you pay foryour tuition Like I didn't go to
Wharton School of Business.
I paid.
Like you talk about Swiss paid.
What do you pay for Harvard?
Let me tell you what I paid.
You know what's Harvard?
150?
I don't even know what it is.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
Let's just say, let's just say it's 150.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
I know my son wants to go there.
The school of hard knocks.
I paid over $600,000 the lastcouple years just to get
residency popping.
So I've paid a hard of tuition.
I don't have the degree on thewall or this and that, but we
call it business, we pay forthese losses.
How did I meet my co-founder ofresidency?
I met him at a store where mymanager was stealing.
How much did he steal that day?
How much did that cost mebecause I couldn't go to my

(55:05):
other store?
Like quantify that.
So that's the thing, like youpay for your tuition Overpay, a
hundred percent Overpay.
And you're still paying.
That's on the money side, onthe business side, on the
personal side, you know it's oneof those things, boss, get paid
less.
You know that's just the money.
And then the time away, timeaway from your family, maybe not
having that they basis,especially in those early years.

(55:27):
Now, if you know you 15, 20years in the game.
Some of these things is kind oflevel set, or at least you
understand.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
System, yeah, the system in place.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Yeah, at least you understand this is what I got to
do.
You become better kind ofself-reflecting as to what to do
, not to do.
But in those early years, man,it's the total pay and a lot of
people that go along the roadwith you said you want to get
Richard out trying.
I said I wanted the Mercedes toget my nails done, like I ain't
signed up for.
You know, I ain't that crazy.
I'm not really a co-founder, I'mjust your wife or sister or

(55:55):
mama right, they want thelifestyle of it, but when it
really comes down to it, youknow, I don't want to really
have to sacrifice.
This ain't what I signed up for, and so many entrepreneurs are
constantly growing where thatspouse or that partner or that
mom or that child, you know, Imet you on day one, you know,
day 87.
I don't know this person.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
This ain't the person Right, right.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
And it's not their fault, because they don't have
the pressures to make them grow.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
you 100%.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
So that's the, that's the personal side.
Just understand those are somehard conversations.
That's the reality of it, man.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
You real with it?
Yeah, that's the reality.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
Man keep doing what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
We want to support everything you do, man.
What's the social handlespeople can reach out.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
So, yeah, obviously, king Size is my personal
Instagram and King Size even mylast name is King, but all I'm
trying to do is just uplift,like that, zero to hero.
Like you come in small, but I'mjust trying to maximize you.
I, with the three, obviouslyfor the hats I'll send a link
All the restaurants I'd be hereall day, but yeah, that's them.
And then obviously, worms is,you know, my candy company,
w-w-o-o-r-m-z.

(56:54):
So that's it on that side and,like I said, I appreciate what
y'all are doing.
Thank you, man.
Obviously, vegas, you know,putting on for the city,
spotlighting people of socialmedia now is a facade and if you
fall into that trap you reallywon't get the nitty gritty of
what it takes.
And I like how y'all areshowing both sides of it and,
quite frankly, different scales.
You know, everybody don't own acasino, everybody don't own,

(57:15):
you know, whatever it's,different levels of it and I
think that's the thing.

(57:40):
when you ask me about whatadvice, not his Spanish?

Speaker 2 (57:42):
He said yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo yo yo, yo, yo, yo
, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo yo yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo,
yo, yo want to sell three hats aday.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
You didn't get it.
You're crazy.
No shit, yeah, because you gotto be a little crazy to have
that type of vision.
So that's the thing.
People are so embarrassed Likedamn somebody going to see me
set peddling.
All right, they see it now.
And I had the same thing.
Well, my mama thought I wascrazy, but when Derek Carr put
that hat on mama's baby, when Iyou know what, I'm saying Like,

(58:08):
come on, mama, be real, I loveyou to death, mama but let's
call a spade a spade.
Like you know, you weren't thissupportive, you know, on day one
, but anyway it's.
You really just have thatundeniable faith.
You feel very good at bettingon yourself.
You have to dog.
That's things that you're goingbecause you just keep going,

(58:34):
because that's all you cancontrol, because, think about it
, if you, you, you know whatyou're going to do to you, you
know you can control thatvariable right, and it's not to
say it's easy, but you, you knowyou can control that.
And another thing too, and I'llleave you out with this, is the
infant stage of a business, andI call it like a baby right at
the beginning of a.
If you have a child, you'reobviously a father.
You're not going to leave yoursix-month-old son with somebody
who you don't know.
It's like an infancy.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
I still don't do it now.
You got to nurture, right, butwhen you get 26, all right bro.
Yeah, it's different, I'm onnow that's different.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
It's different.
So it's the same thing in thebusiness.
It's an infancy, we're callingthe baby, we the baby, but
that's how we get it, that's howthat foundation is so solid so
we can scale, and it's the samething in a business, and people
just have to understand that.
So, anyway, I'll leave you allwith that man.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
Check us out at thevegaslarkcom.
Man, that was powerful man.
I appreciate y'all man.