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April 17, 2026 39 mins

Keith Lee on Changing Careers, His Tendernism Collaboration & Being Intentional 

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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Keith Lee is in the building today, honored to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Man, food critic, creator, father.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Absolutely, a family man, God is amazing.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
What else? What are your other titles?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Entrepreneur, businessman, man of God, somebody who be chilling my
day business?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
So chilling minding your business that's in the caption chilling
minding your business of generating over seventeen million followers on TikTok.
What does that feel like to you?

Speaker 1 (00:44):
My immediate life hasn't changed because I just be around
my family and I'd be like I said, chilling and
every word, every sense of the word. But it means
that I'm blessed enough to do stuff like this, come
up here to talk to you, travel the world, eat food.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
No, but no, like I don't know, Like do you
ever envision because we say numbers, numbers are just numbers.
But in this room five six seven, there's eight of us.
Do you ever imagine or visualize what seventeen million people
looks like?

Speaker 1 (01:14):
It's a Daunton thing to think about. But absolutely, because
we just got into the business space and you know,
you start talking Rois and you start talking about business numbers,
and what can be brought to the table is definitely
a daunting thing to think about. But yeah, I've definitely stadium.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
How many people?

Speaker 1 (01:31):
What's that? Twenty seventy sixty thousand, seventy thousand. Yeah, I'm
with you. I'm with you. We throw on our first
festival and we seventy people.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
That's seventeen million, seventeen million people.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, that's the fact.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Watching your videos less.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Man, Yeah, it never freaks you out a little bit.
Like I said, it could be Dawnton, I mean to
freak you. No, No, it definitely could be a jarring.
Like if I post anything this many people may see it.
But that's why I just post myself because I don't
have the character to hold up. I don't have nothing
to try to be. Just be myself.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, but that's what I wondered about that number. Does
it sometimes because it's his power in that it's not
just cool, which is there's not a lot of power
in that. And sometimes when you're just doing something for
fun and it's chill and it's cool, that's one thing.
Absolutely when you add power to that, does it not
I don't know, does it change it for you a

(02:28):
little bit or no?

Speaker 1 (02:29):
I feel like it would be the same for you. You
are Angie Martinez, you are people me myself. I look
at you as a legend, so and I know a
lot of people will look at you the same. So
I feel like it's the same experience that you probably
would have if not Yours is way more established than mine,
so you've been dealing with it for a very long time.
I feel like mine is more or lefferent.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
It's not that many people gathered at once for me,
not that many people.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
You would be surprised. You just don't see the number.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
You're right, I don't have to think about whoever watching view.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Definitely touched way more than seventeen million people.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Oh, in my life, my career. Yeah, maybe maybe I
got prey ho.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
It's just a difference that the number isn't visible. But
I am blessed enough to have the access. But I
was extremely thankful when I had a thousand people, when
I had two thousand people. So for me, the numbers
stopped making a difference once I got to a goal,
and my goal at the time was like five thousand
and six thousand, and that's not trying.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
It was like, yo, when I hit five thousands.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, I'm going crazy. I'm good because I've never envisioned
social media being the thing that I was a professional
fighter for ten years, so I thought that's what I
would do for my entire life. So having ten even
being verified on any platform was enough because I'm at
the end of the day, I'm only doing it specifically
to get out of my social anxiety bubble, but also
as a professional fighter to maintain my professional career. I

(03:51):
never envisioned it it would end up here eating food
and talking to you.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, it's crazy, I will say though, even at my
level of my voice, so my microphe, I am mindful
about the power of how I use it. I'm mindful
to like, you know, sometimes I have an opinion, I'm like,
is that worth hurting somebody's feelings? Open? Probably not like you,
you kind of rap. You just have a bigger platform.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
My number one thing is if it's not constructive, I
don't say it. So if it's constructive and I'm genuinely
giving my opinion, if my opinion was asked, I'll give it.
But if it's not constructive and I feel like even
if my opinion was asked, if I can't give any
pointers that I personally see, I won't say anything.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Else. That's right. I saw. I saw that you do
that sometimes even recently, and you did a you went
to DC. I went to how many restaurants.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Of probably twenty, I think I only posted six.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Or seven because the other ones what you didn't really.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
I personally didn't have a great experience. But I also
I was just talking about this earlier. I know the
difference of my taste buzz and everybody else to say,
but everybody taste buzz is different, and nobody says whether
end all be all, And I didn't want the narrative
to be Keith doesn't like any of it's who when
some of it was food, some of it was experienced,
some of it was safety concerned when they come to
shellfish allergies, but the city as a whole and that

(05:06):
people as a whole. I love DC. DC was one
of my favorite places that we do.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
It's like you didn't want to hurt people without And
I also didn't want it to be misconstrued of my
experience there because my experience was deeper than the food.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
My experience was the people. My experience was the culture.
We were even able to go to Marseille Martin's cookout
there and it was amazing. Yeah, we had a ball.
We was around with all of the college kids, We
was around with the older people in the community. We
went to a lot of stables in the community. We
had a ball. So I didn't want that to be misconstrued,
so I just decided to keep it to myself. But

(05:40):
that alone took a life of his own.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Have you ever been wrong?

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Because I know this place because sometimes people would be like, yo,
you got to go eat at this place, and I go,
I'm like, it was cool. Let's see.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
I think it's hard to say right, right or wrong
in that situation because I might love it and you
might not like it.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Yeah, but sometimes you might not like it. You go
back a second.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Time and it's different. That's why I said, I I've
been wrong before for sure.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, like, oh shit, this is actually kind of I
didn't like it the.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Second time I went around, Yeah, for sure. But as
far as people going and not having the same experience,
I try to do my best to make sure that
the experience is the same. That's why I do send
my family in before. But like even what we're throwing
right now, the family Day in New Orleans, we bring
in were bringing food that we've been to before, and
we bringing food from New Orleans specifically, and we allow

(06:27):
it for the first time people to come and have
their own opinion right in the same moment. The places
that we've been to for the last four or five
years are going to be at the festival.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
So you're going to guarantee basically.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
So if you've been watching it and you're like, oh,
let me see if our taste buzzs are similar, this
is the chances.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
This is like you're going to be in a eating
friends this.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Event every day.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
This is like a dream event for yourself.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Absolutely, I'm excited.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
This is all your favorite food.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Every place that we've been to for the last four
or five years is gonna be there.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Amazing. Yeah, what a dope event. So it is, it's
a traveling event. Correct, This is the first, your first
of many the live performances. The lineup is amazing. You
have how many Kirk Franklin. First of all, I love
Toby and.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
I love that's my dog. That's like family to me.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Toby's He's gonna show up with that green on.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
It and he gonna throw a ball.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, I can't wait hundred day.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
That's also like family to be amazing. Most of these
people are like my true friends, Like these are people
that are legit king.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
How do you meet all these people.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
Throughout being blessed enough to do what we do, going
and traveling, going to different places. A lot of these
places are are people that we met when we were
in a city. Toby specifically, I think we played in
the flag football game together when we did the like
an NFL celebrity game for Super Bowl. Uh, and then
I met Andrew Day threw him at his wedding. So

(07:50):
a lot of people, a lot of people are just
like in the same space.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Same spaces and circles. Some mean, line up, who did
I forget the other people?

Speaker 1 (07:55):
So we got Andrew Day, we got Toby. We got
many Fresh of course, many fresh France to be specific
in New Orleans. Of course, in New Orleans we got Shamar.
We have people for every single generation. We just confirmed
flag Boy, which is a cultural staple in New Orleans. Yeah,
we got every literally every genre that you can think of.

(08:16):
It is gonna get hit.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
So what is the goal of this. I mean, obviously
it's a business, right and whatever you want it to
be successful. But like best case scenario. How does this
land in the community.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
So this year, specifically, this is our building year. So
this is the number one mission for me is to
continue doing what we're doing what we do with the
food Tour, which is be a marketing platform for small businesses. Specifically,
how we're doing that with this is that we're not
charging any vendor fees and we're not charging any fees
at all for the vendors. So this is a place

(08:48):
where they can come market their business for absolutely free
of them. All they got to do is get a
rental equipment and they take all their profit home. From
a long term perspective, I really want this to be
a food family music festival that people look forward to
every single year. I love that and I can't wait.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, I love that. When it has been like because
I know you've had so many great experiences right with
people giving stuff away and helping small businesses. What is
the thing though, that one moment that I don't know
what is just something that has stayed with you that
reminds you like that what you're doing what I do? Yeah,
that is important and this is damn that felt good.

(09:26):
You know that you know when you're doing when you're
in your bag and you're doing what you're supposed to
be doing something. Sometimes you have those moments.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
I'll give you two, so it's one that I always say,
and i'll give you one that I don't really say.
So the first one is a place that was in
Vegas called Dynamite Caorean Barbecue. They reached out to me
and the owner the second he got his restaurant. He
was trying to get it for twenty years. The week
he got it, he was diagnosed with his stage four
tongue cancer, and he reached out to me and he said,

(09:52):
my business is extremely slow. I just got diagnosed with
tongue cancer. I don't know how long I'm gonna be here.
I just want to see my business do well before
I leave. And we went and god willing, it went
from two customers to around the corner. And he passed
away very shortly after that, and we threw a memorial
service forum where over forty five hundred people showed up
on less than twenty four hours notice, and we pay

(10:14):
for everybody to come and eat. They unfortunately just closed
the last month, I believe because his wife was his
widow said that it was just too much for her
to continue even if it was being successful.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
I'm sure to have a break financially, I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
But now she was able to close it in a
good space versus being in the red and being in
a space where it was out of necessity. She was
able to actually rest and grieve with the situation that
she was put into. So for me, that's why I
do what I do.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
I want to know the other one. But do you
ever worry about in a situation like that where the
steaks are so high for someone? Absolutely what if you
would have went in there and didn't like the food.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
I wouldn't said nothing. It would absolutely wouldn't said anything
because it's deeper than the food, because my pain on
the food doesn't matter in a situation like that. Yeah,
I'm blessed of that I did like the food. I'm
thankful that I like the food. But like, yes, it's
one of that always the first thing that foll up
to me because I vividly remember after eating it being

(11:12):
like thank God, because I have no idea what's gonna
happen afterwards. I just love being in a position to
be able to do anything rather that as two people
show up or I said forty five hundred people show up.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Yeah' so dope, what's the other one?

Speaker 1 (11:26):
So I would say it's either the Puttery, which is
a small pudding shop that's in Perilan, Texas. She's actually
gonna be at the festival. When we went, she had
two customers. When we left, she had a line around
the corner. And now she was on the verge of
closing at first restaurant. She has three locations, and she's
also gonna be at the festival, and we're doing the

(11:47):
appearance while we're here, and she gonna be a part
of it.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
And what has she expressed to you about?

Speaker 1 (11:52):
Uh? She every time I call her, she started crying.
And I talked to her often and every time I
call her, she went out of her way. This is
something I haven't told anybody. For my wife's birthday last year,
she lives in Houston. We live in Dallas now and
that's like a four and a half hour drive. We
call her and we said, hey, I was going to
surprise with my wife because that's her favorite putting her

(12:12):
favorite dessert in general. And I'm thinking that we was
gonna be able to get like a recipe or she's
gonna ship it. She said, I'm on my way right now.
She jumped in a car with three big pounds of
banana pudding, every single flavor, came to my house, dropped
it off, said happy Birthday, and drove back home. And
I tried to pay her. She would legit, would not
let me pay her. She's one of the sweetest feo.

(12:35):
Her name is Janel the Puttery, the Putter. It'll be
at the festival here and May sixteenth in New Orleans.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
How exciting May sixteenth is the day? And then how
do people get tickets?

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Familyday dot com? So that's family f A M I
L E E Day dot com.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
You know family, you must have so many I don't know.
Just big plans like what is the what is the
what do you look like like in five years? What
is what is your slate?

Speaker 1 (13:01):
I just said this earlier, but if you were to
ask me a year ago, I would probably not have
an answer for you, because my whole last four years
have been focused specifically on going to small restaurants. This
year is like business for it for me. So if
it's not the festival being the best festival in the world,
which I believe it will be, but just really building

(13:21):
a portfolio and building IP for my family and building
something that I can pass along to my children. We're
doing investments now, We're investing in the restaurants I see
in five years, owning a full portfolio of different investments,
and also again having the best festival plane Earth. I
really want this to be a worldwide.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Thing Planet Earth.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, absolutely, I love that. I want this to be everywhere.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
It's gonna be. It's already happening, thank God. So this
career of yours, I know you've talked about how m
but like, was it a stumble up? Like it's kind
of a stumble right in.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
The end of it was a stumble to get here
for sure. Yeah, But to start it was intentional because
I've always had social anxiety, and I as a professional fighter.
I just got into Bellatur during the pandemic, and the
Bellatur is right before the UFC, So if you don't
watch fighting, it's like playing overseas versus the NBA. So

(14:19):
overseas is like getting you ready, or the G League
is getting you ready for the big leagues. And I
had just hit the big leagues. I was twenty three,
and my social anxiety was so bad. I couldn't even
do interviews, and in order to be a professional fighter,
that's like one of the most important things is to
get yourself out there.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Well, what was the just.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
I've always been a very quiet I'm an overthinker, So
I've always been a very in depth thinker to the
point where I overthink every analyze every situation, to the
point where it would make me uncomfortable to talk to
people because I would be overthinking what I'm about to
say ten times before I say it, and then once
I say it, I'm thinking about it the whole entire time,
and it stops me from being able to be president

(14:59):
the moment. It's a lot better now, but before I
literally wasn't talking about it.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
I know you've shared that before. Have you met people.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Who were like yo, oh A lot of people.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, I was gonna say because because I.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Literally set up the camera to get and comfortable with that,
and that led to this.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
So you face your demons.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Absolutely instead of just accepting it like, oh, I can't
do interviews now. I literally told myself during the pandemic,
like this's not gonna be if everything and I literally
just set the camera up act like I was.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Sometimes you want to throw yourself in the ocean.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
That's exactly what I can't swim.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Let me jump in the well, don't Maybe don't do that.
Maybe you also want to be saved.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Before I knew that, I was talking to sixty thousand people,
and that turned to one hundred thousand, was turned to
a million, which overnight turned from in November twenty twenty two,
I had one point four By December twenty twenty two,
I had like ten million. And what do you attribute
that to the drastic jump or because.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
People's I can fill this building with people who have
attempted that their content creators, and they do all the things,
and they read all the they take all the classes.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
I know people that's been doing it for ten years
and steal that. I'm with you. I think one. I
pray a lot. I think that's the base answer. But
I think from a strategic standpoint, I had no strategy,
And I think for me, that's the answer is once
I abandoned it what it is supposed to look like,
and I just start recording whatever I felt and in

(16:21):
a moment was supposed to be recorded, I feel like
that's when doorstart opening it.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
For me, that's a good lesson. I appreciate you because
everybody has an opinion about what people should be doing
the right way to get there, and then you're go
and then you're go on YouTube or TikTok in there
or Instagram or whatever, and they're they're telling everybody the
same plan.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
And I've tried that plan a million times. It didn't
work for me because everybody's doing the same the same thing. Yeah,
it did. It literally didn't start working until I said,
I'm gonna just post what I feel like i'm supposed
to post, and that's gonna be it. I had a
conversation with my wife, and crazy enough, I asked her
what should I post on our page that make people
not only come and follow us or come and watch us,
but actually follow us. And I said, I'm gonna do
one four review every day until I get on this

(17:00):
YouTube show. And it was people versus food. And it
was a month in between that, and within that month,
I gained, like, like said, nine million followers.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
You picked a good wife.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Hom that's my dog. Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Me and my wife been married since twenty twenty, but
we've known each other since twenty fifteen. That's my dog.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
It's amazing to be able to have success like this
and have started with somebody before your success.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
Right, we was working at a six together, A six.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Like, what do you mean the company or a store?

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Used at the store, at the store, shoe salesman. I've
worked at every job. You can take a A six
to Jimmy John's to Sweet Tomatoes, which is a soup kitchen.
I did door dash in twenty twenty three. Yeah, that
ain't Yeah, I've done every As a professional fighter, you
got to get it out the mud. Yeeah, it ain't no,
because you as an independent contractor, it's literally whatever you

(17:47):
do is what you you reap. And if you don't
put the work in and you not going to the
gym and you not putting money on the table, then
so be it.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
How disappointed when you were you when the professional fighter
part of the program didn't really pay out.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
It's crazy nobody asked me that's a great question. It
was so abrupt because at the end of twenty twenty two,
that's when everything took off in social media space where
I was actually start making money. In September of twenty
twenty two, I had my last fight. I didn't know
that was my last fight. I had no idea. I'm
thinking like, oh yeah, I'm about to get back at
the trainer, and by the time November come around, I'm

(18:21):
getting offers of six figures and fly here and go here,
and I'm like, I can't train under these circumstances, like
people in a gym fight for real that you can't
go in back into the gym halfway after you Yeah,
you can't go back after you just made it, even
if they don't know you made that that and put
it on me and I can't go back to the gym.
That goes out the window. And I didn't realize that

(18:43):
until I tried to go back to the gym and
I felt a huge target on my back and I said, oh,
I can't do this number. I said, okay, it's about
that time. And then eventually when I realized, I looked
up and I was traveling everywhere with my family and
it just eventually I just realized I hadn't been to
the gym in six months, and that's been the last
three years. For four years, you.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Didn't fight it though, you went with the flow.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
You went. What was at that point is one my
My wife was happy because my kids are starting to
get old enough to know what's going on. And two
the money good at gotta get punch in the face.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
I won't. I that's hard for a wife and for
kids to watch their their.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Husband and father, a three year old and a newborn.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
I remember one time, It's not it was boxing, but
I remember what I was at the pack yard fight
and his wife and kids started crying. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Yeah, he was.

Speaker 2 (19:33):
Getting pummeled that night and I and I was sitting
close enough to the to the wife to like feel
her pain, and I just was like, damn, that can't be.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
My older brother fights too, and I vivially remember us
being at one of his fights where he lost, and
it was like that, Like I really remember my mom
crying and my dad crying and everybody's emotion be real high.
Uh my. I think my wife was like, it's about
that time.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, we're gonna go We're gonna go through something. Were
gonna have some fun.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
If you're doing well in the other areas, it ain't
it's AIA at that point. Even it's my passion. That's
something that I truly thought I was gonna do for
the rest of my life. But everything happens for a reason.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
But you love this too, I do.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
I do. I genuinely enjoyed this.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
It's a good you eating good.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
I am people.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Showing you love you probably showing a restaurant. They probably
treat you like it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
You. Oh yeah, it's crazy. It's for sure. Like I'm
about to call Grandma and tell Grandma my life changed forever.
Even if I'm coming here just to get lunch, and
I'd be like, bro, I'm just coming to eat and
I'm not even recordinating.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
I was gonna say on a regular day, or you're
just hungry. Oh yeah, people think you're there.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
For every day. Immediately.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
You can't go to a regular restaurant and just have
a meal.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Just cuz Angie, I'm talking, My mom is getting called.
Auntie's getting caught on the phone screaming.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
All about to get chilled.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, it's over with, oh quick, Keith here right now?

Speaker 2 (20:47):
So do you not do it? Do you not just go?

Speaker 1 (20:49):
I just tell them, like I'm just eating, I just
tell them I'll have conversations with everybody and explain to
him I'm just today.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
We're going to try. We have DJ will here. He
has a kat He's not here now. But dj Will
who works with us, he has a catering service, and
we were gonna have They were like, no, he does
it everywhere. Like I get it.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
I wouldn't be shocked if y'all did. If that door
open right now is a platter of food, I wouldn't.
I would be lying even if I said I'd be
shocked everywhere you go right absolutely, But again, it's not
a bad thing to complain about, less enough to say
that when I go somewhere people want to feed me food.
I can't complain about that.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
That's pretty amazing.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Sw Yeah, I can explain.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Is there anything that everybody I'm sure it happens all
the time where people say something so good and then
you go and you're like, I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
We you are great at what you do. Uh. It
was one with mister Tenantism. We can talk about. I
thought the food was I thought the oils were amazing.
I thought the oils were incredible. But I had a
different experience than what I had been seeing. Uh, And
I was asking for my opinion. I gave my opinion,
and God willingly the situation turned out amazing for him.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Wait, let's I'm not I don't want to assume that
everybody knows what we're talking. Absolutely absolutely, So there's a restaurant.
It's in California, California. You'd been hearing about it. Tell
me the story.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
It's a spot in California. It was called Destination Smoke House.
It was very popularized on the internet for a guy
named Walter and he was at the time we all
believed he was either an owner or an ambassador of
the face of the face of the restaurant. And he
was known for grabbing the meat. It was a barbecue spot,
and he would grab it and he'd shake it and

(22:31):
it'd fall off the bone and he would go and
that's tendonism. And he had danced and he haud walk around.
He reminded you of somebody's uncle.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
So he was selling it.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
He was uncle and he was literally just an old
school uncle was the only word I could think of
to describe him.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Uncle's out there making he was making.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
He was making a shake, and a bunch of people
was going and I got over thirty thousand requests to
go and asked to go and try to food. We
ended up going over maybe like three months after we
got the request because that's how long it had been going,
and we went over. We had the food. I really
enjoyed the ox sale that he said with syndonism. I
truly believe it was synonism, because it did fall off

(23:10):
the moon for me. But then some of the other
items that I had, I wasn't as huge as of
a fan as I was of the Aux sale. And
it was a situation where we went to go tip
Punk and one thing led to another. They said that
he wasn't available. We couldn't tip on, So you asked
the We asked the security. He had security, and we.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Asked the security.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, we asked some security if we could leave him
a tip, just.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
As a four thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
It's four thousand dollars. And for me it was specifically
to say I admire what you do. I love the
fact that you are yourself, and as somebody who again
has social anxiety, I realized how important it is to
be yourself and I know how hard it is to
be yourself in the internet space. And he reminded me
of somebody who can't. You can't fake that. You can't
fake the funk when you that legit in that genuine

(23:58):
it's easy for people who are also genuine, like a
fan of absolutely you know kinda. I was a huge
fan of him, so immediately I went in as a
business owner and just went to go tip a fellow
business owner, and they told me it was overwhere for
the day. They said he wasn't available, It wasn't gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
They know who you were.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
No, I had no idea, and which I which I
don't mind at all.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
Because of his because he's like a local celebrity and.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
What it is. Because a lot of people and a
lot of streamers and a lot of content creators have
been going back and forth, which I tell people all
the time, I'm not a concentrator. I just happened to
be on the internet, and I treat myself in and
I carry myself in real life as a person who
just happens to be on the internet. So I didn't
walk up to him and say, hey, I'm a content
creator or hey I'm Keith Lee. I have seventeen million followers.
I just spoke to him like I was suposed to

(24:42):
speak to anybody else. I said, Hey, is there a
way that we could speak to water? We got four
thousand dollars for him.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
You said the amount.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah. I said, we want to leave a tip, just
as a thank you, and he said no. He said no,
he busy today. And I said, okay, is there a
way we can wait for him. He said no, it's
over with. So I said all right, and I left
a thousand dollars at the front to pay for anybody
who came in line. And I went outside and I
stood there for maybe three hours, and we passed out
the money to people who was walking around neighborhood. It

(25:10):
was a lady who was on a bike who had
a car seat attached to the back of it, who
was riding driving her nieces back and forth from school.
It was a lady who was the second she saw
she started crying because her dad had passed away that week,
and she said that she always wanted to meet us.
I gave her a thousand dollars. I gave the lady
on a bike one thousand dollars. We gave the it
was a bakery owner shop or a bakery shop that

(25:30):
would she was making cheesecake by hand. We gave her
a thousand dollars and we kind of just walked around
and passed out the money and we left, and a
full narrative got spun once we left that security said
that he tried to get Unk, or one thing led
to another where it was miscommunication. Unk is no longer there.
He's doing his own thing and we're actually announcing it soon.

(25:53):
But we're gonna do something together.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Wow wow wait wait wait you breathed, you breathed. By
the end of the story. The story is so good,
by the way, you can't breeze by the end of
the story, because there's.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Still a lot that we have under wraps that I
can't okay.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Okay, so hold on, hold on, please. So then after
you do that, by the way, you out here trying
to do a good thing, like.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
I just do what I feel like I'm supposed to
supposed to be doing, right.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
But then you know, you get pushed away, and you
still try to make the most of the moments and
bless people and have a joyous interaction with folks, and
so you do that, then you go about your business.
Then what is the narrative that is fun?

Speaker 1 (26:32):
The narrative is that I should have given the money
to almost everybody else in the business, not just Unk.
I shouldn't have singled unk out, I should have made
it a their is everybody.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Their issue was that you wanted to just find him. Yeah,
and this was the owner.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yes, huh, but I do that wherever we go. So
if it's a business owner, in which I viewed him
as a business owner. So if it's a business owner,
we go and we talk directly to the business owner
and we lead him a tip. You could do whatever
you want with it. Sometimes people use it to stock
up if it's gonna be super busy the next day.
By the way, some people take it for themselves.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
This is, by the way, this is your money. Yeah,
in your concept, you can do whatever you want.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Whatever I feel like I'm supposed to do, and that's
what I feel like I was supposed to do. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
And so then you found out he was not right
the owner or.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Allegedly I don't know the full details because it never
really came out. But he's no longer there, that's all
I do know for a fact.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
The word is or the rule murders are circling that
he was let go. No, you don't know.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
I have no idea. I just know he's not there.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
But you have connected with him since huh.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
Yeah, we've had a couple of conversations and we're working
on something really big together.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Is he a nice guy?

Speaker 1 (27:43):
He's amazing. It's exactly what I thought he was. Again,
you can't fake that. You can't fake the funk.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
And does he really make the OX sales?

Speaker 1 (27:51):
So from what I was told was that he it
was his one of his recipes. It could have been
co created. Correct me if I'm wrong. But he initially
was the person who brought barbecue to the table and
then got so big that they had to outsource people
to cook it at the time and have him as

(28:12):
like the marketer. But he he throw down in the kitchen.
He been telling me every time I talk to him,
and he talked just like you think he talked. He
get on the phone and he'll be like tendingism, that's
all he say. He don't really he talking catchphrases. He
don't really speak in full words sentences. And then when
you call him, he'll be like, I put it down,
I throw down whatever you need to be thrown down,

(28:32):
and I'd like you can make some food tended this
and that, and that'd be our whole conversation. He say
like three words and then we get out the phone.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
I can't wait. I can't wait to you. But hear
it now.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
From what I hear, he can cook. So I can't
wait for y'all to see what we got cooking together.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
I'm excited. Is she gonna be hanging around maybe at
the festival?

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Maybe God is amazing that announcement. It's coming out very soon.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
All right? I love that. Are we doing a game today?
The game before you go? If we do a little
game called check It or Let It Slide, we'll give
you a scenario. By the way, there's so many things
I do, so many fun facts, awards, accolades. Thank you
seventeen million followers. It's pretty great.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
We did just win our first NACP ward, which is crazy.
This year we were blessed enough to win annacport in
WACP Award and we won the very first inaugural TikTok
Creator of the Year Award. Again, I never did it
for that, so it's always amazing to get recognition from

(29:36):
your peers.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Beautiful. Okay, so this is check It or Let It Slide.
We'll tell you a scenario. You tell us if you're
gonna check that.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
I'm gonna be honest with you, Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Do you know any other way?

Speaker 1 (29:46):
I'm gonna be honest saying with you, let's do it.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
That's what I'm saying. You don't know any other way? Right?

Speaker 1 (29:50):
I can't cut it no other way.

Speaker 2 (29:51):
Or let it slide. Okay, you're gonna go first with me,
You go first. This is Ivy.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
You're with your family at a restaurant. I feel like we'
just talking about this on off night, chilling and someone
comes up to you asking for a picture.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
A picture, check it or let us slide, yeah, let
us slide, mean to take the picture, yeah, let us
slide yeah? And I get cuss out about it all
the time.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
What do you mean?

Speaker 1 (30:18):
My wife is very much so, the kids are here,
we here, it's time to disconnect, It's time to have fun,
be in a moment, and I'm very much so. Okay again,
y'all getting shit out of me that I will never
tell nobody. I have a goal of doing this for
maybe three or four years and then disappearing off the

(30:39):
face of the earth, meaning going to get a ranch somewhere.
We live in Texas now, wanting to get a ranch,
being behind a wall minded my business, get some cow,
get some cattle, teach my kids farm life, and you
never really see me. I'll only pop out when I
pop out. That's why we are doing business stuff, so
I have the luxury and the financials to be able

(31:00):
to do that.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
That's the north start for you.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
That's the Yeah, that's my big goal that I only
tell my family.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
So you really are not addicted to this.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
No, no, no, no no. That's why I live in
Texas because Texas is very secluded and quiet. And yeah,
we could have moved to Las Vegas or I mean
we lived in Vegas. We could have bought a house there.
We could have moved to La or somewhere, but I
want to go somewhere seclude it. So when we are
in public, if I'm eating dinner or something, I think
about the fact that I know I'm not gonna be
in this space for that long. So any moment that

(31:32):
somebody is willing to walk up, I'm willing to stay
there thinking VI shoal and I get cussed out about it.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
Facts, Okay, you cook a full meal, you cook too,
or you just eat you cook right. You cook a
fuall meal and you put your heart and soul into it,
and your kids say, can we have fast food tonight?
Do you check that or do you let it slide?

Speaker 1 (31:55):
I'm checking it and it happens way often than you really.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Yeah, your children don't have the respect for the food
that you do.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
Maybe be making me so mad, And I check it
every time. I'm blessed enough to have a chef.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Now.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
Our chef's just a former chef of the Dallas Mavericks.
Of course she throw down like real bad. I've had
her make four course meals for my kids and they'll
ask for chicken nuggets, full blown, like and everything, and
chicken nuggets is the only thing they want. Yeah, I'm
old school when it comes to that. You eat that broccoli,

(32:31):
or you don't get no dessert or no juice, or
we go to sleep. You're not hungry. It's time to
go to sleep, getting a shower and call it the Nike.
Oh yeah, eat the broccolia. At least get some vegetables,
get some carbs in you, and then a little bit
of protein. If you can't do that, it's time to
go to sleep.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
You're done.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
We're done. Here, be done.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Are you the strict the one who's the strict one?
You both both?

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Oh? Yeah, we we don't play. It's locked down at
my grip. My we my kids love me and my
grandparents with their grandparents, my parents and my mom in
law because they're a little looser, so they get to
eat the fast food. Yeah, we're gonna do none of.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
That chicken nuggets.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yah. Yeah they no, it's locked down when we come home.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
Tight shit around you go ivy okay, cool.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
I love this, by the way.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
Yeah, you buy snacks for the week for the kids
and they're gone in a day. Are we checking this
or we letting this slide?

Speaker 1 (33:29):
I let that slide. Only let it slide because I
come from the hood. I was worn and raised in Detroit,
and I come from a house of you can only
open one cereal box at a time, and I want
my kids to be able to open all whatever cereal
boxes they want. Eat whatever you want. If it's less
enough to be in there, it's gonna be blessed enough
to be restocked. Eat whatever you want.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Okay, you uh, you make a spot viral, you bigging
them up. Great service people are lovely here. They treat
you great kind and they go viral, and then they raise.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Their prices A couple of times.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
And they get Hollywood, do you check that or do
you let that slide?

Speaker 1 (34:14):
God damn, y'all good? You check it in private, you
let it slide and forward facing because you don't know
why they had to raise it. It could be from
a Hollywood perspective. I've had that happen before of like,
oh no, I'm famous now, so I only cater to celebrities.

(34:38):
I've had that happen for sure. Yeah, it's a conversation
that we had, But it's again, you don't know nobody
true intentions, and it still feeding their family at the
end of the day. So it's never something that I
would come out and say, hey, that's wrong because you
don't never know why people doing it, But it's a
call to be have.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
It's probably something you've seen too.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Yeah, oh yeah, I didn't. Made a couple of calls.
I had a couple of conversations.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Maybe you want to rethink that, Yeah, just just talk
about I just want to know why is you're checking
when you check somebody.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Is it firm or is it or is it likelarious
isn't gracious. I just got it today that I'm a
little too firm. Yeah, yeah, I'm very being on communications.
I said exactly how it's on my mind. I'm gonna
leave it. If that com of anything. If you know,
you know all my mind is second it coming, that's

(35:29):
coming out.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
That's good. Nobody else to ever guess.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
Know exactly how I'm feeling all the time. I wasn't
liking this, I would have left already. I'm having a ball.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
Okay, you have it more than I'll do one more.

Speaker 3 (35:43):
You're having a conversation with somebody and their breathe immediately
checking immediately.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
They tell you I'm not lying. My family tell you
I'm not high. Immediately, Yo, we gotta do something about that.
If I can smell it, I know you can. I
know it.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
You know you can't hold it.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
I don't smell it. I know you can taste it.
I know you ate this morning. Immediately, I got some gum. Hey,
you guys are going on you. He tell you I've
done it all you guys, go on you. Let's just
pass some guming around. Everybody, get a peace.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
The vibe. I have two here. I don't know what
you want to pick. Maybe I'll do both. Check it
or let it slide. So you're out with the fam
and your kids are a little excited to be there.
Someone else tries to discipline your kids in public.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Oh check it. You ain't even got to finish that.
Who you're talking two parents? What are you doing immediately? Again,
I'm from Detroit. We don't play that. I'm very old
school when it come to parenting in that sense, Like
I feel like I'm a little gen Z because I'm
about to be thirty, So I'm a little gen z.
But I'm on that cusp of like older millennial or

(36:58):
it's super young millennial and like older gen z.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Uh, you're not out here gentle parenting.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
No, Sometimes I communicate, We talk to our feelings. I
talked to my daughters the same way I talked to
an adult.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
But then also I said what I said, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
It's time to sit it down. Once we talked, and
once I explained myself after that, Oh yeah I didn't
already say it ain't nothing else to be said. And
if somebody else trying to say something to them, Oh yes, yeah,
that I don't play with.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Okay, here's one for you. You get a call from
a restaurant somebody you know, and they say, hey, we
just wan't even know your friend came in here and
was dropping your name, so we gave him a free meal.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
I don't even care free meals. I have everything.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
Your friend or your family member was here, drive up
your name, your cousin. Your cousin came in there and said,
I'm Keith Lee's cousin. Here's pictures of us.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
Had to happen you here.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
I am on his on his TikTok page.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Only reason I'm gonna say, let us slide, and it's lose.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
It's a lose.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Let us slide for anybody hearing that. Don't that don't
mean everybody, my cousin, I but it's a lose. Letting
slide only because just because I could. I don't take
a lot of resources that I'm blessed enough to have.
I don't use them. I be just frank. I'm blessed
enough that people will reach out NonStop and offer services,

(38:27):
and I'm a person who can't accept gifts. I don't
accept anything. For the most part. You don't, So I
feel bad when I put that on my family too.
And I always tell my family if there's like concerts
or stuff that you want to go to, or events
or food or whatnot, if I'm not gonna take part
of it, but you want to take part of it,
go ahead. I can't. I can't stop you from that.

(38:47):
Because my mom, my mom in law, she want to
go everywhere. She want to go to every concert. She
want to hang out with everybody she want to she
wants the free tickets VP anytime. And this is I'm
happy you ask that. Anytime I call to ask anybody
for anything, it is not for me, it is for somebody.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
In my family.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
And nine times out of ten is my mom in law.
And I know she listening to this, she'd be like,
I want to go. She just asked me to go
to Bruno Mars that's coming them in Dallas. I love
Bruno Mars. I wouldn't go to a Bruno Mars concert.
I don't go to concerts, but I'm gonna be at
Bruno Mars concert because my mom in law.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
I'm sure you're making her very half a show. You
make a lot of people.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
My brother want to go get food on my name here,
go ahead, don't get you so as long as you tip,
that's all I have.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
Oh there it is, that's Keith. Please check it out slide.
Thank you so much for today. Congrats on everything, Man,
what do people need to know before you go?

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Family Day dot Com f a m I l e
E Day dot Com May sixteenth as the first inaugural
traveling festival. The first location is New Orleans. Is a
family food music festival and I would love to see
everybody here there.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
It is app
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