August 10, 2025 • 69 mins
Legacy HSV is proud to present an in-depth conversation with Jonathan Hambrick — pastor, mentor, and founder of Big John’s BBQ & Company, MyKitchen HSV, and Sam & Taylor’s Icy Treats.
Hosted by Lance Brazelton, a national award-winning author and native son of Huntsville, this Legacy HSV feature captures the real voice and vision behind one of Alabama’s most recognized culinary legacies.
In this episode, you’ll hear Jonathan reflect on his faith, his family’s influence, and the values that shaped his journey from the pulpit to the restaurant kitchen. His words are more than memories, they’re a blueprint for building something that lasts for generations.
This is the official research interview for Jonathan’s professionally written Legacy HSV feature — a story that will be preserved in the official archive of Huntsville’s founders, business owners, and visionaries.
Legacy Preservation Date: August 4, 2025
Visit the Official Legacy HSV website
Hosted by Lance Brazelton, a national award-winning author and native son of Huntsville, this Legacy HSV feature captures the real voice and vision behind one of Alabama’s most recognized culinary legacies.
In this episode, you’ll hear Jonathan reflect on his faith, his family’s influence, and the values that shaped his journey from the pulpit to the restaurant kitchen. His words are more than memories, they’re a blueprint for building something that lasts for generations.
This is the official research interview for Jonathan’s professionally written Legacy HSV feature — a story that will be preserved in the official archive of Huntsville’s founders, business owners, and visionaries.
Legacy Preservation Date: August 4, 2025
Visit the Official Legacy HSV website
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Legacy HSV presents Legacy Restaurants featuring Jonathan Hambrick, founder, restaurant owner,
and visionary. In this special episode, Jonathan sits down with
Lance Brazleton, a national award winning author and native son
of Huntsville, for a research interview that will become his
professionally written legacy piece for the official Legacy HSV Archive.
(00:22):
From the smoky aroma of Big John's Barbecue and Company
to the creative kitchens of My Kitchen and the sweet
beginnings of Sam and Taylor's Icy Treats, this is the
story of faith, family, and food and the lasting legacy
Jonathan is building in Alabama's fastest growing city.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
If you could choose one word that captures your spirit,
not just your personality, but your spirit, what would it
be and why?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
One word? Ah? Humility.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
God resisted price and gives more grace than the humble.
It's not just a cliche of mantra in which I
live by. It's a principle that I apply to my
life and hold on to that principle with every fiber
of my being.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I've been at the bottom, I've been midway to the top.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Making that climb to try to get as close to
whatever my top is with God. But at the end
of the day, I feel like I've been as blessed
and successful as I am because I hold tight to
the spirit of humility, because I know nothing that I
(01:43):
have obtained or will obtain or even have is because
of Jonathan man because he's a mess, but because of
the grace of God and me humbly saying I give
glory to God for all these things and successes, and
you know, my journey feel like God continues to bless
me and my family.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Man, was there a specific situation, event or milestone that
occurred where your humility became a necessity the.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Way you speak to it, was there a specific tap.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Man, Like have you always been that way? Or was
it something that really highlighted it to you and to
where now you picked it up and walked with it forever.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah, I don't even think that it's a specific time.
I think it's just been a proven principle in my life.
Like when you give God the glory for all things,
and you know, you lift his name high at the
end of the day, in return, you put him in
a position or where he has no other choice but
to continue to do what he does for you. And
(02:54):
once I just saw that, man, my life is it's
his life being lived out, you know, in the earth,
Like this is as close to I could get to
here on the earth at this point, you know, I
just feel like this, this is my moment to prove
to him that I love him as much as I
do with the life that I live, because it ain't mine.
(03:17):
It's been given to me only by God. Yeah, my
parents play the party and it thank god they did.
But at the end of the day, my life is
not my own. Somebody used to say to him, I belong.
I give myself. I give myself, you know, to him,
it's my life is not my own. And I think,
(03:38):
once I realize that, So I guess, if we're searching
for a moment, it was that moment when I realized
that the hand of God is on my life and
my life is not my own, and whatever happens from
this point on, and I take it for it. And
(04:00):
I think, as we're talking it out, if we're looking
for a moment, I'm not going to say I have
always been like this, but I'll tell you the time
in which it probably started, and that was when I
was fifteen years old when when I got the call
to preach the gospel.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
It was then at that moment I started.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Having the dreams and having the visions and start praying
weird stuff, and weird stuff started happening in my mind.
At fifteen, you know, when when I started saying, you know,
I got a purpose in a plan and a vision
for your life.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
It was at that moment, at age fifteen, where I.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Realized, in the middle of high school that I wasn't
built like the rest of them, you know, while for
all the rest of them are. You know, I'm not
gonna say I didn't do my teenage dirt. But at
the same time, you know, saying at the same time
I was preaching revivals in high school while the rest
(05:00):
of my kids were going to club and doing all
this other kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
You know, I was in the I was in the
streets with my.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Dad driving me around, and you know, preach for Bibles
here and preach Bibles there, and youth days and you know,
so I think at that age, and I don't want
to ramble about it, but if we weren't to pinpoint
a day, it would be that the age of fifteen
when I really felt the hand of God all my life.
That was the moment when I realized my life is
(05:29):
not my own. I belonged to this man and I'm
at his leisure and not my own.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Wow, I didn't know you were fifteen.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Yeah, I started preaching that. I was sixteen when I
started preaching. Well, right at seventeen, I had just turned
from sixteen to seventeen because it was October, so I
had just yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
So you started seeing the visions at fifteen, got into
it learning more in depth at sixteen, and actually started
preaching at seventeen.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Yeah, So the backstory is I probably could have started
preaching at fifteen, to be honest. The pastor that I
had at the time that was pastoring the church. That's
crazy because now I'm there pastor that church now that
I'm talking about it.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
But the pastor that was there.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
At the time, you know, I had acknowledged my call
to preaching.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
He sends me to his wife. Go to his wife.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
His wife says, you know, I think he needs to
live a little more. Thank you too young to even
know what this entails. And they kind of just dusted it,
you know, under the rug, and kind.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Of just carried going gotcha.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
And then the senior pastor, Pastor Curtis, came in right after.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It was like he was at the tail end of whatever.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
And Pastor Curtis came in around when I was sixteen,
and I told him the same thing. I was like
a new lease on life. Like, man, we got a
new pastor. I'm gonna tell him the same thing because
it is on me. And I told him at sixteen,
and I told him what happened with the former pastor
and he was like, let's say the date. And it
(07:20):
was like, I believe that the hand of God is
on your life too. For me standing the date, man,
And we started preaching in October.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Wow, yeah, all right, all right, we're gonna steer in
the direction of the business on this one. What was
the moment or conviction that first planet to see for
a Big John's Barbecue and Company. I remember you telling
(07:51):
me that you know it started something as your father's recipes.
I remember that bar.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Well.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
The truth behind it is again it's hard for me
to separate the two this situation, so I'll have to
just say the way that it is. And I senior
pastor for seven years, and I.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Got burned out with.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Church from preaching from sixteen to my mid twenties thirties.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That time Robael was thirties, early thirties.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Those last like years. It's been seven years now since
I've passored, because Big John's brand is about six and
a half seven years ago. So realistically, I was trying
to find something else that I could do that was
outside of church. My trade is welding. I was a
(08:51):
welder and I worked in the plant from high school.
The first twelve to thirteen years of my life. After
high school, I worked as a welder.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I went to Tennessee Tech, learned how to will and
worked in the.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Automotive district for about, yes twelve was twelve or thirteen years.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So I didn't want to go back to the plant.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
I didn't want to do that because that's a whole
different type of lifestyle and a whole different type of
place to be. And it's like, I don't know what
I'm gonna do. My dad was like, you know, preach,
it is what you do, and what are you going
to do? And I said, give me your recipes and
let me just feel like. My dad was a great cook.
My mom is a great cook. But I said, Dad,
(09:32):
just give me your recipe and let me see whatever
I could do with it.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
And he says, I'm gonna say it to you one time,
one time only, And he says it, I writes it down.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
And after I wrote it down, I just started tweaking it,
making it my own. And I actually started nerving Big John's.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Out of the church kitchen.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Because I was getting to step down as pastor, needed
to land my feet because at this point I had
a family I need to provide for, steal My full
time job is the.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Church, and I'm burned out.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
So I started selling these chicken plates after church kitchen.
And uh, man, that was the birthen of Big Johns.
That's what That's really where it started.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Gotcha, what what was the name of that church?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
The Stone Christian Center, the Stone Christian Center.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yes, and uh and and what's the name of the
one you're at?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Nower Missionary Baptist Church?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Missionary Batist Church. Okay, guys, all right? Was there ever
a moment where quitting felt easier than continuing? And what
did you reach for in order to keep going?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
For me, is not an option.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
And the people around me kind of tell you that
there have been several times, several moments, several times that
I wanted to quit, but it ain't an option, so
I keep going. And I've kind of just kind of
made that in my mind, like it's.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Not an option. I mean, if it was up to me,
I quit doing some stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Right now, it's part of that oedience.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, it's like, you know, you got to keep going now.
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
One of the times where we had to pivot the
hardest my first year in the restaurant business was covid
M right right, So, so you know, I had to
learn a lot of stuff really really fast, bumped my
head and got ourselves and some stuff that we had
to get ourselves out of financially. And instead of still
(11:54):
at that point quitting, you know, I just I just
reinvented the wheel, you know, and that that's when we
kind of went off from BG John's to my kitchen
transition and that was kind of birthed out of I
want to help the people that wants to launch these
food service businesses, but at the same.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Time, I don't want them to bump their head the
way I did.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
And if I could keep them from making the same
mistakes I did with no mentorship, but learning the hard
way because the business is already difficult. Then I want
to put something in place and a platform in place
that's not so much so going to make me money,
but it is going to provide a service to the
(12:39):
people in the community. And hopefully this can kind of
be my place in the marketplace as a preacher to
still touch people and minister to people. What I will say, yeah,
you sometimes you do get top deal with people, but
it's like you love people so much, you know, So
it's it's just like, I know this is what I'm
(13:01):
called to. So in my mind it's like I'm always
going to have to deal with people, whether good, bad
or ugly. But for me, I wanted to deal with
him in a different way than to deal with them
from being in a senior pastor role, let's put it
that way. And this was my opportunity to say, hey,
I can mentor and coach you and guide you through business.
(13:23):
You know, but I don't have to dedicate your baby.
I don't have to cancel. You ain't got baptize your kids, you.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Know, I ain't got to bury your grandmama.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
And I appreciate you on Sunday. I don't have to
see you on Wednesday night. I don't have to have
a finance, you know, it's just my opportunity to say, hey,
these are all my bad experiences and if they will
make you more successful and keep you from bumping your
head a certain kind of way and bleed it out,
then this.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Is my opportunity for you.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
So that's how we get from, you know, the start
of Big John's quitting point for Big John's, but the
rebirth of something new for me kind of trans me.
Transitioned me over to my kitchen concept, and that's kind
of how we got there.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
I don't want to put too much of the car
before the horse, but.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Just for the record, how many people have you served
as a mentor through my kitchen up until this.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Point, I'll say about seventy five or eighty. In about
three years, it's been about seventy five or eighty. And
I got some really big wins with helping some people,
really proud of them. They're doing some phenomenal things in
the city. Some people didn't last the business. You know,
(14:50):
we've helped some people get out of the business. We've
helped some people kind of pivot and thrive, and you know,
even now we're still having conversations with people in as
long as they're trying to pivot and do what they do.
But yeah, I'm gonna say about seventy five to eighty
people over the course of about three years and actively
we're membership based. I call it the Sam's Club membership model.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Actually, got it.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
You know we still we still have about about fifty
seven to sixty active members that's there at the incubator.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Usually people would look at other people in the same
industry as competition. So, you know, to be living in
a society that has become so complex now that the
authenticity of who you are and what you're doing, and
(15:54):
when it comes to other people who are doing it,
instead of seeing people as competition, and you see them
as somebody you love and you don't want them to
make the same mistakes you made because you see them
choosing something that you know you also chose. So, you know,
(16:17):
just speak a little bit on what is it that
keeps that mindset of competition out of your peripheral vision
of anything.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Yeah, I think it could be the calling doing ministry
all my life, and you know, collaboration is better than
doing things as an individual, individualism or you know, collaboration
is better than anything. I got a mantra, and most
(16:50):
of my restaurant friends thought I was crazy when I
started talking it because I was gun on it. And
that is, there's no competition in the food service industry.
And I would say it all the time. There's no
competition in the food service in my case. In point
is this, you take all of us and put us
(17:10):
in one plaza, You take all of us and put
us in one mall food court.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
That there are.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Some people that cannot separate that they're doing this because
the biggest.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Thing is I gotta make this seal. I gotta make
this seal. I gotta make this seal.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
But the one thing that keeps me in that mindset
is this, what's for me is for me.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
What's for me is for me.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Put us all in the strip mall, Put us all
in the food court.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Put us and the person that wants to eat my
food's gonna eat it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Now, they may not eat my food every day, and
they may come next right next door and eat from
your restaurant tomorrow. But before it's all said alone, they're
not gonna continue to eat from your restaurant every day
either because they gonna get tired of eating the same food. Hey,
you ever got tired of eat the same food every day?
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Even if it's good, you don't want it.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
My food is great, and I go eat barbecue at
another restaurant, right, you know, I love my fish, but
I go to Captain d Still.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I see what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
There's no there's no competition. There's no competition in the
food industry. And what's for you is for you and
what God has for you and that customer that has
for you. And even with that being said, you know,
I teach people all the time, like cook to your liking,
not to meet the not to meet the taste of
someone else's taste buds.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
And if I cook and you like it, that's great.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
If I cook and you don't like it, I'll encourage
you to try something else, because that's more than one
thing on this menu.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Now, if you keep.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Coming and something just don't come out jump out at
you and become that one thing that you just absolutely say, hey,
I love it, then maybe I'm just not the restaurant
for you. Everybody don't like Big John's. You know, there's
a lot of people who do. And I say, my
customers are my customers. But just because they're my customers
(19:10):
don't mean they're not gonna go eat somewhere else. Because Man,
I can't eat what I cook every day, every day
all day.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
You can put us again, going back to that food
cort or that strip mall. Put us all in one place, man,
and we all can thrive, and we all can and
enjoy life because there's not enough food to feed all.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
The people in Huntsville.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Man.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
If everybody in Huntsville got in their car and they
could not cook in their house and they had to
go to a restaurant, a food truck, a caterer to
get their food as their food source, there wouldn't be
enough of.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Us in the business wow to feed Huntsville. Wow.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And it takes a lot of us doing a lot
of different things that meet the appetites of the people
that's here.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Though.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
It's just like ministry people say, we got all these
churches in Hustville.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
You know, you can put every church in Hunstfield and
a strip mall. Right.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Every everybody gonna go where they want to go. Everybody
gonna go. Hear that passes that they want to hear.
And if they get tired of hearing that man or
that woman, what they're gonna do, they gonna go somewhere
else and be something.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Else to eat from somewhere else that may be even
still in the same plaza.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Mm hmm. That's some that, that's some profound.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
But I learned I'm gonna tell you where I learned
this at though the church taught me to be this way.
The church is one of the most segregated places that
there is. When I senior pastor, it was hard to
get churches to come to just to do simple stuff
(21:10):
a block party. Right, it's five of us on one block.
Why are we doing five different block partiers? But if
we got churches. But the one thing that we do
and have it in common as a common denominator, is that.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
We all say we believe in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
And it don't really matter if you speak of tongue,
believe in women preaching, don't believe you know what I'm saying.
At the end of the day, Why can't we come
together now? Because we're gonna come together.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Again at some point, oh man. And the church taught
me not to be segregated.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
When it comes down to the food service industry, because
that was one of my biggest challenges. You couldn't get
churches to come together, to put that funds together, to
put that finances together, to put their together.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
To do anything together.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
So at that point, the te taught me that collaboration
is better than individualism, even.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
If that's a word.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
But you know, I would rather electively put our forces
together and see what we can do then be trying
to be out here doing it on my own.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
What's one decision that tested your character as a business
owner and how did making that choice sharpen you being
the man behind that brand? Because I can see something
that you experience would be interesting because you also understand ministry.
(22:49):
So that's so that's why I'm interested in and knowing.
You know, is there a decision that tested your character
as a business owner specifically?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I don't know. I think it's several things. You know,
one character wise is.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
You know, every business has its ups and every businesses
have every business has its downs. We're not always on
the mountaintop, you know. We don't always have customers, we
don't always have lines hanging out our doors, we don't
always have catering orders coming through. But for me, the
(23:32):
one thing that I think speaks louder to your character
and that I have learned that people are more willing
to assist, help and look out for you when you
have to have the difficult conversation that the humbling conversation
that my business is not doing as good as it
(23:53):
was maybe the last season. It was the character piece
of it that said, you know what you are who
you are, you can't ignore it, and it's the humbling
moment of I got to come face to face with
the reality that this is what this is and we
gotta deal with this. So for me, it was all
(24:15):
those times in business where business wasn't the eight, it
wasn't number ten, when it was like number five, and
we were.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Struggling trying to figure out how to get out of
some stuff.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
You know, Even now at seven years of business, you know,
I've still been learning lessons and still got some things
hanging over my head that we have to get out of.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you that
we're just rolling now. You get me about another year
or so. I think I've learned and love lessons now
to where when we get out of this rut, we'll
never come back to it, and we'll be on the
(24:46):
trajectory that we need to be on to thrive and
expand even the more.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
But it took me a while to learn that.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
For me, the character checking moment is being willing to
have the conversations good, bad, or ugly, even when they
make you uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
M have the conversation.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I can see where that humility continues to resurface itself.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
Yeah, the moment when you have to sell one of
your cars in the driveway to make sure that your
employees are paid.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
And actually doing it.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
You see what I'm saying. Yeah, it's those moments.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
For me, it's we can't comonate an option when you
start looking at your house and saying, man, what can
I get rid of? What can I sell real quick?
To get some of this cake so that I can
handle what it needs to be handled this week. You know,
it's the tough places of business that the consumer doesn't
really worry about too much because they just want the product.
(25:54):
They want to pay for it, and they want the
presentation to be good, and they want the customer service
to be on point, and they want the quality to
be there. And they want the consistency to be there.
And you know, you see them once a year. You're like,
we've been over twelve months this year, all this, saw
all this, saw you one time this year. I don't
(26:16):
think they even understand the importance of them to continue
to serve. And then when we as business people have
to make tough business decisions to say we're going to
pull a plug on that location, then that's what everybody said, Oh,
I don't want to see you go, Oh I wish
you know, da da da da da dah. But you
(26:37):
know it goes both ways. We need the customer and
the customer needs us. Yeah, And it's a tough places
of business that I think that is the reality of
business that us as business owners know amongst ourselves.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
But it was that piece of.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
The business that I wanted to make sure that I
mentored and coach people through gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Every business is gonna deal with that right.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
To lean into our next one. Who are you really
building for and why does it matter to you that
they are the ones being served.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
It's a cliche that everybody says I'm building for the
next generation.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Everybody says I'm building for the next generation, or.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
I'm building for my kids and you know I want
my kids to blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I'll tell you my story.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
My story is this I am and I would not
be after business man that I am if it wasn't
because one lady.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
You know, there are several people that have made up
this picture that have.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
Helped me along the way, but that was one lady
by the name of Baola Hides who helped me become
who I am as a businessman by investing and what
I saw and her coming along by me in partnership
(28:13):
to believe in what I saw and trusting to God
enough for me to have it. And one of the
things that she made me make a commitment to you
was if you had be opportunity to extend in arms
at the expense of somebody falling prevented.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
She said.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
People used to ask her quite often, why do you
do what you do for him? And she says, because
I don't want to see him fall? And why would
I allow someone that I love to fall? And I
have the ability to live the hand to extend it
(29:02):
to him to keep him from falling in an environment
where the next person will watch you fall and talk
about you falling. But that woman made sure that she
made sure that even if she did talk about it,
I'm pretty sure she did, she still extended the hand
(29:24):
and she made me make a commitment to say, if
you have that ability, so for.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Me, anybody that I love, if I have.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
The opportunity to extend a hand at their descent, I'm
going to do it now.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Who am I building for?
Speaker 4 (29:46):
My dad said, At some point, son, I stopped living
for me and start living for you.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
He said.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
At some point I had everything I needed to have
in life, and at some point I just started leaving
to make sure that you're good.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I started working and going to work.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
At one point, I gotta go to work because man,
I want this new car. I gotta go to work
because we need a bigger house. I want to go
do this because I want this so I want that.
What happens when you get all of that? The same
lady by Alla Hines, That was the same story. What
happens when you get all of it? I don't need this.
(30:23):
What happens when you got money coming through the door,
You don't even know what to do with it, and
you ain't even got a desire to go spend it
on nothing because you got what you want. At what
point do you start building for somebody else? At what
point do you start helping somebody else? Listen, when we
start building the restaurant businesses, I know this is the
overtone of what we're talking about. When we start building
(30:45):
the restaurant business, and we got to the point where
we didn't have room enough to receive some.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Of the opportunities that was coming my way.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
I started looking around the table at who had been
sitting there. The longs so prime example, the Big Johns
Barbecue as the open bottle. Takoya Randall is the lady
who runs that Big John's concept.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Now I don't have anything to do with it. I
don't take no loyalties, no royalties off of it.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
I even when I go to the restaurant and I
eat her food, and she'll be my witness.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
He may give me a discount, but I pay the food.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Even if they don't give it to me on the
discount prices, I pay full price for it. It's my concept,
it's my dad's recipes. It's a business that I had.
But when God opened up another room and another opportunity
for me to walk through a door, and I had
to make a decision to say, I'm either gonna have
to close this down because I don't have the capacity
(31:47):
to do this and that, and I want this next
opportunity more than this, or.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
You start blessing some people that's sitting at your table.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
And for Christmas, we said, instead of given this and that,
we said, here's a business, get off my payroll, go
do what you gotta do. Do your own thing. And
you know, she been holding it in the road for
over a year now, doing her own thing at the
open bottle like, still selling out years later. So for me,
(32:19):
anybody that I love, I'm trying to figure out a
way to do it.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Man, we just bought one of our new one of
our older ladies.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Uh she needed a car, man, And uh she really
needed She didn't really.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Need a car. She had a car, but it was
hot in the summertime.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
It was the band and was working and uh, we're
on the base, so they sell cars out there all
the time.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Man.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
I ran up on this Lincoln decent price. Man said,
I'll sell it to you, especially if you're gonna do
this for an employee. The woman hadn't eve been working
for us a good month yet, but I saw, I
saw a needs I need, and I met the need,
especially when we have the ability to meet the need.
(33:07):
So we bought her car and now she's riding around
and a plush, big old Lincoln down car with ac.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
And enjoying life.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
So for me, anybody that I love now and my
building for my.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Kids and my family, that's just natural.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Yes, And my goal is to make sure that I
build a legacy for myself, something that they can ride
on for the rest of their life and hopefully expand
it and build it or at least sell it to
the right person that can take it, because if they
don't want to do it, I'm going to you know,
(33:44):
you know, And that's another thing. A lot of people
kind of build for the next generation or the kids,
and then they want to force it a hand it
down to your kids. I want to prepare my kids
for it, So I'm gonna talk about it and let
them know what it entails and what it's about. But
if at some point they say they don't want it,
then I'm gonna teach them how to either sell it
or get you some people, you know what I'm saying.
But I'm building I want to build that well for
(34:06):
the kids because I don't want my kids, or my family,
even my brother, because I look at him as being
the son. I don't want them to struggle the way
that I did. That's what our.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Parents didn't want us to do.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
And so I just say, I saw my mom work
three jobs, working for somebody else and still couldn't make
ends meet, you know, So for me, it was all
the way I'm gonna live this lavish life that I'm
gonna live is that your boy gonna have to go
out here and hustle for itself. So even doing what
I'm doing now is just like, man, this is the
(34:40):
only way for me to leave that legacy because I
don't come from a family full of money, and no
job can pay me enough money to leave the type
of legacy I feel like I'm called to leave. I
could go get a job right now paying me one
hundred thousand plus dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
That ain't enough money me to leave the type of
legacy I know.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
I'm called the leaf that kind of leads me into
this next question. You kind of you kind of already
started speaking to it, but I'm gonna go ahead and
put it out there. What part of your legacy can't
be measured in dollars but will be felt for generations.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
What part of the legacy you know? Dutch King said
it like this. Man They was asked a question, what
would you do if you knew the world was going
in tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (35:33):
Man says, I plant an apple tree, alluding to I
would do today something that has the potential to outlive
me tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
So everything I do.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
At this point in my life, I'm trying to plant
those trees now so that when I'm loaned one, people
are still be able to grab apples.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
If they're hungry, they'll be.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
Able to still get shade, if they're hot from the sun,
They'll still be able to get wood from.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
The limb to keep warm in the winter.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
So for me, I want to do something today that's
gonna most definitely outlive me tomorrow. And everything I do
at this point I wanted to outlive me when I
go to my grade. I don't want any one of
my locations to close. I don't want my I don't
want my concepts to close, and I don't want to
(36:37):
do anything that's going to, you know, contradict all the
work that I'm in the efforts that I know that
I'm doing for the sake of.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
When you're great grandchildren speak your name, what do you
hope they feel when they say?
Speaker 3 (37:01):
I hope they feel proud to say. I hope my.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Kids, you know, I'm not for pride issues or anything
like that, but you know I want my daughter to say,
I'll make your last name because I'm always.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Going to be a hander, you know.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
I want my son to say, my dad's name was
Jonathan William, my name is Samuel and William. And I
want him, if he have a son, to freely say
and feel comfortable with saying, I want to call you
whatever your name is, David William Hambrick for the sake
of this is just the middle name and the last
(37:46):
name that has went down through generations, because this is just.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Who we are.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
And I want my kids to be able to tap
into the street and into the archives like this and
be able to hear or see or read.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
About me like this. Right here is an ideal way
of me leaving the legacy.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Right I started pastoring this church man that's one hundred
plus years old, and I go through the history books.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
And they ain't nowhere, no story, no history.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
No I can't tell you where it started, who started it,
me where it started? I don't know. Times were different then,
But now this is a piece of me leaving the legacy.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Talking about them knowing who I really am.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
Like, That's why I'm so excited about this, because one
day one of my kids, a grandkid is gonna pick
that book when they're still eating Big Johns. Because I
pray that even with my great grandkids, they can still
pull up to a Big Johns, but maybe still see
this hunts Fell archive situation hanging on the wall years
from now. Yeah, yeah, say that's that's my great granddaddy.
(39:03):
He started this years ago.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Mm hmmm. Wow.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
When I go to my grave, how do I want
them to feel? I want them to feel proud to
be a hambrick. Come on, not all of us, uh
uh you know, uh, you know, every family got they issue.
But what I will say is when my kids here
about me or think about me, or even my wife
(39:29):
or my family, I want them to be happy to
be a hander. I want them to be proud that
you know he was pastor. I want him them to
be had. He was entrepreneur, he was legacy, Leabal, he
was mentor, he was restaurant here.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
I want them to be happy about that. I'm proud
about it, but I'm proud.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
Of the achievements that we've been able to make with
god an effort.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Yeah, but I want them to feel proud man, not arrogant,
but prid difference, right, Yeah, yeah. I wan't want the
grandkids to be able to drive.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Granteddy Bugatti yourself, you know, you know, you know, I'm
just saying, like, I want to be able to leave
y'all something, man, and you you ain't got to work
as hard as our role to get it.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
I want to pass down some houses and some wealth.
I want to pass down some investments and some and
some stock. Like man, yeah, I want them to be
proud to say he made sure we were good.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
This this next question is kind of kind of more
geared toward your business being positioned specifically in Huntsville. So
this says, what has the city of Huntsville poured into
you and how have you poured it back?
Speaker 4 (40:51):
First of all, people knew me of being, you know,
the preacher. They didn't necessarily know I could cook m
I didn't even know that I could cook this good
and to be transparent, I learned how to cook some
of my stuff by watching some master classes and some
YouTube videos because I didn't know how to cook certain
things myself. But how I was willing to say, if
(41:12):
I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna teach myself on how
to do it. But Huntsville has supported us man since
the church kidding and they they have talked and they
have raised and they still do it to this day,
six and a half, almost seven years later, and I
appreciate Huntsville for doing what they have done over the
(41:35):
years by supporting the Big John's brand, and as much
as they have like been this year after seven years,
it because them supporting it so heavily and so much,
it made me lean back into it even more. I
got rid of three of my other brands to make
(41:56):
sure that as I'm going back to the past to
see the one thing that I don't let them down
on and making sure that the Big Guns brand is
stronger than ever so that they could live out there
and give them I want their great grandkids to be
able to eat Big Johns and experience the same good
food that they have, So I'll lean back in it.
(42:19):
And then when you say, what have I put back
into it? Man, I'm always trying to find a way,
always trying to find a way. Like we just started
a nonprofit called Eat Good on Purpose. Purpose of that
nonprofit is to ultimately be a free mentorship program for
(42:39):
people in the restaurant business, to provide food and need, a.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Food insecurity need and rule areas.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Partnerships with the Alabama Food Bank provide free counseling services
for the people in the restaurant business because man, they're
the drunkest, sometimes most source idol type of people I
have ever met in my life because of the amount
of stress that we deal with on a daily basis,
(43:10):
and some of the employees that work for us offering
them mentorship and counseling and things like that. And we
started to Eat Good on Purpose initiative, and eventually you'll
be able to give a counters of restaurants back or
around it up to give back to the initiative, to
help restaurant owners, to help solve food insecurities and little areas,
(43:36):
and to help restaurant owners just across the board be
better entrepreneurs and to be better bosses. But to also
offer the support to their people to talk about financial
literacy and everything else.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
It kind of goes on and on and on. But
the goal is to give back however I can.
Speaker 4 (43:55):
Man, we still I pulled up the food truck on
several occasions to the whole homeless camps and fed the people.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
You know, I don't mind doing stuff like that. I
don't mind. You know.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
I think we're gonna be at Madison. We just did
Hazel Green Football wing Fest. So that's a sponsorship type
of situation when you're you know, giving back to the community.
I'm doing Madison County High School. I think we're giving
back to them this weekend. Like we find ways to
go and support the local people because.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
They support us.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
You know, it's hard for me to tell a customer
that eats at my restaurant when she says, hey, I
eat it here three or four times a day, and
she says, hey, I'm helping out them raise some money
for the football team. Can you help, Man, I got
to move some stuff around to make sure I help you.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
You eating it here three times a week? Yeah, So
I try to give.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
I don't think I give enough sometimes sometimes you know,
it's only for so much. We can give as a
business person, but at every opportunity that I have to give,
I'm gonna try.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
To get Wow, I just got a few more here.
So if you could look your younger self and the
eye the day you first stepped into this dream, what
would you say, not as advice, but as a blessing.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
Not as advice, but as a blessing. Mm hm, give
me an example.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
So an example would be if I spoke back at
my younger self when I was a kid, I said
I wanted to be a rapper when I grew up.
The evolution is just the writing turn into something else.
So if I were to speak back to myself, not
as advice but as a blessing, I wouldn't try to
(45:52):
tell myself do not be a rapper, or don't try
to be a rapper, try to be a writer. I
wouldn't tell myself stop writing raps and start writing books.
I would tell myself try to find God in the writing,
because if you find God in the writing, you're gonna
end up writing the books. Yeah, that's an example how
(46:16):
I could give myself advice, but I give a blessing
to where my younger version would find God in that
blessing and do what I now do.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
Yeah, I think I would have to jump on that
bandwagon with you.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
The reason why I kind of jump on that bandwagon
which you is just trust God through the process. I would.
Speaker 4 (46:40):
You know, it's hard for me not to give the
advice piece of it, but you know, trust God through
the process and be open minded to be able to
receive what it is as the man it's going to
tell you to do next, right, because like you, Because
like you just said.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Man, I wouldn't be doing this.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
If I wasn't open minded enough, with ears open and
mind open to hear and receive what he said he
wanted me to do, I wouldn't be doing it. You
couldn't have told me that I would be in food surfaces.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
I didn't even know I could look like this.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
You couldn't have told me that I would be running
the smoke of feeding thousands of people every month. Literally, Yeah,
you couldn't have told me that. First of all, I
don't have a mind to even think like that. I
don't have a mind, nor did I even have a
desire to even do that. It was me being open
(47:44):
to the shift and the transitions, and you know, at
this point. It goes back to what we talked about
in the beginning of it other interview. My life is
not my own to him, I belong And I guess
if I were to tell myself the word that people
resonating and if you ask that question.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
Was will never to start wrapping with.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Gouver yeah es And this last question, I kind of
feel like I kind of feel like you might have
already answered it. But I'm a I'm a cast in
any way. Why does it matter to you that your
story is preserved not just as a business journey, but
as part of this generation's legacy.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Hopefully something that we've said, something that you would right about,
something that we've talked about, would be written on the
pages of something that somebody would pick it up and
be at the cross roads of making some major decisions
in business, and it offers them be encouragement to push,
(48:52):
the motivation, the confirmation.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
That they need to either continue to launch it, to
sustain it, and not quit, not to give up on it.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
It matters that our document these journeys so that it
can offer other people that are on journeys similar to mine.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
Or just like mine.
Speaker 4 (49:20):
The wisdom says, get wisdom, knowledge, and understanding and all things.
You know, even with this interview, I think we're just
kind of scratching the top of the surface. I know,
if we keep digging, you probably could write a serious
book on something that could be really beneficial to the
(49:42):
business owner outside of us just scratching the surface of
this archive.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
Note.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Oh yeah, of course, of course.
Speaker 4 (49:48):
You know, because you know, because I feel like there's
so much more even past this. But hopefully we can
let this be the start and the introduction of you know,
who he is as a business person, but hopefully get
a little bit deeper and write something that they can
maybe pull off of some shelves that that will help
(50:11):
them on their journeys as businessman, especially being all to
ministry in the marketplace, because yeah, that puts another whole
nother situation on top of just being a businessman.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
Correct, beautiful, beautiful. I'm gonna ask this question and then
and then go over Sam and Taylor. So is there
anything else you would like to add in regards to
Big John's barbecue? My kitchen eat good on purpose?
Speaker 3 (50:50):
No, those you know.
Speaker 4 (50:52):
Eat it supported, Yeah, you know, eat it supported, keep
it alive. And I tell people all the time, when
when you bless us by coming to our count our
countertops and patronize our business. Uh, you also are patronizing
other people because we're gonna be committed to giving back
(51:14):
in some kind of shape from the fashion.
Speaker 3 (51:16):
M hm. The much is given, much is required.
Speaker 4 (51:20):
I've translated that into uh, this one saying that I've
lived by stay all the time.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
Great power, great responsibility.
Speaker 4 (51:30):
Everybody wants the power, nobody wants the responsibility. But it's
the person who actually is willing to take on the responsibility.
It's the person that can really hang on to the
power situation of it. Right, great, great power, great responsibility.
(51:51):
The much is given, much as required. It's gonna be hard, man,
it ain't easy. It ain't no cakewalk.
Speaker 3 (51:56):
It comes with a lot of sacrifices.
Speaker 4 (51:59):
Right, I'm not life, but hey, God will give you
the capacity to do whatever it is that he tells
you to do. If we don't display anything back over
to them, just know when they're sitting there thinking about
when they're sitting there thinking about can I do it?
(52:20):
When they're sitting there thinking about how is it going
to be done? What I will say is God has
always provided provisions for every vision.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
He has given me.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
He's provided the strategy and the plan for every vision
he's given me. But he's also given me the capacity
to do everything that I know I need to do.
Speaker 3 (52:51):
He'll give it to you.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
Yeah, amazing. Now I just want to go over, you know,
a few, a few touch points on Sam and Taylor's,
just so just so I can write something to where
people can understand what's happening when they simply buy a popsicle.
(53:13):
You see what I'm saying. Yes, sir, well, you know,
just take some time to speak to first of all,
what is Sam and Taylor's and what is the history
behind the transition when you became involved with it.
Speaker 3 (53:31):
Sam and Taylor's was originally started from.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
A lady named Susie in the community, and our popsicle
business at the time was called Susie's pops And she
had a brick and mortar and she used to have pushcarts,
and because we were in the food truck business, I
used to see her around town.
Speaker 3 (53:53):
Never really saw her, but saw the people that worked for.
Speaker 4 (53:58):
She went out of business not because she really wanted to,
but because her husband got really sick and it was
time for her to be the wife and the caregiver
that she is, and she did that and she sacrificed,
you know, I gotta let this go because my husband
comes first. So when she closed down, that was a
(54:23):
customer just like me that really loved her popsicles, and
they decided that they wanted to try to open that
back up because they really enjoyed the popsiples. So out
of just a necessity, they said, Hey, I want to
open up Susan's pops And she says, okay, And I
don't mind being, you know, in partnership with you, but
(54:44):
you're going to have to person be basically the person
that runs this thing, because.
Speaker 3 (54:48):
You know, I can't do it.
Speaker 4 (54:51):
So the lady helps her, and they just so happened
they need a commissary because now they don't have them
breaking mortar anymore. They need a commissary space. And they
come to my kitchen and we carve out a space
for them. And I was happy to carve out a
space for her because I love Susie pops.
Speaker 3 (55:10):
Wow. Yeah, And so.
Speaker 4 (55:11):
She came over to the kitchen and we carved out
a room.
Speaker 3 (55:16):
For it so they could start making popsicles. I don't
know all of the backstory.
Speaker 4 (55:20):
But to my understanding, it kind of just fell back
into Susie's laps.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
But her husband is still sickly, and she was like,
I just can't do it.
Speaker 4 (55:29):
And instead of her moving out this time when she
said I was moving out and gonna close it back down,
I just said, hey, let me, you know, can we
talk about purchasing that because I would like to get
this and this could be something that I could use
as an opportunity to build something for my kids.
Speaker 3 (55:52):
And so we did the deal and we got it down.
Speaker 4 (55:56):
But basically Sam and Taylor's is the Susie Popsiple business,
and she really wanted to keep the Susie Popsicle name
and didn't want us to use it for whatever reason,
and I was okay with that, but we have all
of the Susie popsiples, recipes and machineries and all that
other kind of stuff to make that happen. We did
(56:20):
it and renamed it Sam and Taylor's so that the
kids would have a business, you know, because I'm all
about wealth, you know, and if my.
Speaker 3 (56:30):
Kids can get to age fifteen.
Speaker 4 (56:32):
And don't have to go work for somebody else, but
can work for their business, you know, my son is eleven,
so you know, fifteen sixteen that you say, another five
more years, he ain't got to go to Burger king.
Speaker 3 (56:47):
He can run his own business.
Speaker 4 (56:48):
But by that time his business is five years old, right,
you know, my daughter just turned six. So okay, in
the next nine to ten years, when it's time for
you to work, you hear me, you got a business
that's twenty years old, you know, so you're not going
to work for you know, Chick fil A, Not to
(57:09):
have to say anything against it. I work there, best
place I ever worked at. But they'll have a business
that's twenty years old for them, and it positions them
because you know, we're gonna start.
Speaker 3 (57:22):
Trust funds and put the money and the trust funds
for the kids.
Speaker 4 (57:27):
So not only do they have a business that's twenty
years old, they got a business with money exactly. So
maybe they get to twenty years and the business will
get to fifteen and they may run it twenty more years,
but at least they'll have the finances to invest in
any kind of entrepreneurship for business move that they want
(57:47):
to make. You know, they may even choose to go
to school. And you know, as much as my daughter
talking she may be a lawyer, but why can't we say,
go to law school. But remember, but you got that
Sam and Taylor money sitting there for you to open
up your next practice, to build your next office, to
buy your next piece of property.
Speaker 3 (58:08):
You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (58:10):
Yeah, so it's money that I don't And you say, hey,
you ain't gotta go no bank to go get it.
You ain't got to ask somebody to go get it. Daddy,
ain't even got to be allied for you to have it.
Just know that there's gonna be sitting there for you.
And the Sam and Taylor situation. If you don't get
a full ride scholarship, gonna pay for that college degree
(58:31):
and you can work the business while you're in college.
It's paying for your college degree. But then when it's
time for you to get married, what's gonna happen? You
got where about going to find no money for nowhere,
and that money gonna be there. You're helping me and
yourself at that point.
Speaker 3 (58:44):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (58:46):
So for me, it was like, this is gonna be
a way for us to create wealth for the kids
and to help them in their future endeavors. Because I'm
really thinking like it's gonna be hard for them kids
not to want to do business after being in a
household with two entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (59:03):
Yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 3 (59:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (59:05):
So I just want to make sure that they don't
have to start from the ground. By the time they
get a hope to it and able to stick their
heads to the clow, it's already something that's established. It's
already something that's got a name that you know. They
ain't starting with a low good No, you're not building
a website. All that stuff is going to be done
and be in placed. The infrastructure or whatever the concept
(59:25):
could be done there.
Speaker 3 (59:27):
They don't even have their own workers. You know what
I'm saying, right right, Yeah, me and.
Speaker 4 (59:33):
My my wife don't take any process from that business.
When you buy a popcycle from that business, you buy
a pop cycle to support the kids.
Speaker 2 (59:44):
I see, I see what you're saying. Got it.
Speaker 4 (59:47):
It ain't something that we go and we take their
money and we go. Do you know that money goes
into a trust fund. That money goes into a business
checking account, and it pays for payroll costs and then
it goes to investments for the kids. When you buy
a popsiple from Sam and Taylor's it ain't something that
we take.
Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
It's something that.
Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
Has been set up to really create generational wealth for them.
We got our own thing, man, We got three or
four food shrucks and breaking and bricking mortars and all
that kind of stuff. I don't need to That's why
I said. At some point I did said I had
to start doing stuff for you. So for him, he
was saying, I work work hard. He could have been
(01:00:30):
a really successful business man, but he didn't know how
to do it. Probably didn't have a support system or
the people around him to push him to do it.
But I took that what he said. He probably don't
even remember he said it, but I took what he
said to me in that moment and said to myself,
(01:00:50):
this is one of those moments where I have a
chance to do something for my kids, right, you know,
this is one of those this is my living for.
Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
You type of moments.
Speaker 4 (01:01:05):
Yeah, we set them up and once they get old
enough to, you know, take on the L L c's
and the E I N s and all that other
kind of stuff, when they are doing enough to handle
those things, make that they're they're in good hands with that, Yes, sir, Yeah,
You're gonna build them up some business credits so they
don't even have to try to figure it out, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Right, haven't done in advance? Is something that's that's ah,
you know, just a natural part.
Speaker 4 (01:01:34):
Hold on.
Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
I made a note. I'm gonna ask this last question
because I was curious about this. Is there a specific
scripture that you would say is your favorite scripture?
Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
I really struggle with that. Man. I love the world
of God, Word of God. You know, people.
Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
Ask me that all the time, and I don't need
I don't even have a favorite one in my pocket
God that I say, Hey, you know, this is just
my favorite scripture, one that I have said all the
time that probably needs to become my favorite scripture. Trusting
(01:02:18):
the Lord with all your heart and lean not to
your own understandings and all your ways.
Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
Acknowledge Him and.
Speaker 4 (01:02:28):
He shall direct your path. It's the essence of who
I am. It's the essence of what I do. And
again it goes back to if it hadn't been for him, I.
Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
Wouldn't even be where I am. Just I ain't smart
enough to even come up with this stuff.
Speaker 4 (01:02:51):
I will say this, Yeah, I'll say this A little
bit of about it in the book that we have
wrote that we're gonna finish up and do in the
first pie that talked about.
Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
Building with some of my A D eight D struggles
early on in life. Uh with a teacher, first grade.
Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
Teacher, remember her name, and I know she probably uh
gon on to see the Lord. Uh uh yeah, but
said that you know your son will probably never make
above an A and we'll probably never go to college,
so just be prepared for that. And uh sitting in
(01:03:32):
front of me to a mother who wasn't okay with
the floors.
Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
But at the same time, I caught her by surprise.
Speaker 4 (01:03:43):
Took that moment in elementary school, and I used that
as my motivation to do everything told me.
Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
I went to college, graduated with.
Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
A uh four point zero uh in biblical studies throughout
my whole entire bachelor's and master's program, even got an
associate's degree, but went to school for almost six and
a half seven years straight.
Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
Didn't stop until I, you know, have started my.
Speaker 4 (01:04:17):
Doctoral program at Hustle Bible College.
Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
Want to finish it.
Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
But trying to find the capacity and time to do
it so I can dedicate time to the studies. But
I have already passed at least two of my semesters
of a doctoral program at for Bible College. They said,
you wouldn't do it, You may not ever do it.
But I usual to drive it for us to say
(01:04:44):
I can do all things through Christ, who gives me
strength and wisdom and knowledge and understanding and everything else.
Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
I mean when I say your boy don't qualify for it.
Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
He may qualify for it because he got the wounds
and the scars and the wisdom and the knowledge and
understanding behind it.
Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
But man, no, if it was up to me, I
would have been a pediatrician.
Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
Because of love kids.
Speaker 4 (01:05:17):
So I would have been a pediatrician if I were
I wanted to be a doctor, And if I.
Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
Were to be a doctor, that's the type of doctor
that I.
Speaker 4 (01:05:24):
Would want to be because of the love and the
passion that I have for just seeing little kids kind
of grow up in that early stages of life. But
if you trust God and you don't about you what
you need to do, I will be a doctor before
my life spanning over.
Speaker 3 (01:05:42):
But it just won't be no pediatrician. Wow. You know
that's just like what you said. I thought I was
going to be a rapper.
Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
But yeah, it don't mean you know, it don't mean
I can't write no good song. It's just know that's
not the priority. You know. You know, I can clearly
see when God points out what is and is not
the priority, and the priority is always connected to what's
(01:06:15):
going to help the most people through the hardest things
based on something you have. Okay, Yeah, it doesn't mean.
It doesn't mean you can't write a song. It's just
you need to be writing books.
Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
Yeah, yeah, and and and and.
Speaker 4 (01:06:34):
Be okay with going back to what we talked about
last night and embracing the place.
Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
Yes, yes, embracing it. You know, just like just like
when we spoke about, you know, the impact of meeting
people where they are, there's impact in embracing where you
currently are and being honest and truthful about that. Yes,
there's so much blessing that God already has preserved in
(01:07:05):
that waiting for us to be honest with where we
are and embrace that. And then man, you start you
start to see. I know I'm preaching to the choir
when I say that, but then you know, I start
to see I start to see, you know, embracing where
I already am. You start to see how much God
(01:07:27):
has already given you. You might be praying for something
that's right there besides you. Yes, sir, God's just waiting
on you to be honest with where you really are.
Speaker 3 (01:07:40):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
And I can see people having a hard time with that,
being addicted to social media in today's time. But you know,
you know, along with fasting and being disciplined, you know,
it's all a part of it. You know, when you
embrace where you are, and then when you embrace where
you are, you're able to see where God is in
(01:08:02):
real time with you specifically, Thanks sir, Yes, sir, but
a man brother, So yeah, So I believe I have
what I need and and I know for a fact
this is going to be a phenomenal peace that's written
(01:08:26):
for this feature. Man, this is gonna be It's gonna
be off the chain. It's gonna be nice.
Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
That concludes this episode of Legacy HSV, preserving the stories
of Alabama's founders, business owners, and visionaries. Today we had
the honor of sharing the legacy of Jonathan Hambric, a
man who's learned to trust God with all his heart,
lean not on his own understanding, and embrace the place
He's been planted from Big John's Barbecueing Company to My
(01:08:55):
Kitchen HSV to Sam and Taylor's Icy treats. Every plate
in every scoop is more than food. Its faith in action,
its family in focus, and it's a legacy being built
one day at a time. Legacy Preservation Date August fourth,
twenty twenty five.
Legacy HSV presents Legacy Restaurants featuring Jonathan Hambrick, founder, restaurant owner,
and visionary. In this special episode, Jonathan sits down with
Lance Brazleton, a national award winning author and native son
of Huntsville, for a research interview that will become his
professionally written legacy piece for the official Legacy HSV Archive.
(00:22):
From the smoky aroma of Big John's Barbecue and Company
to the creative kitchens of My Kitchen and the sweet
beginnings of Sam and Taylor's Icy Treats, this is the
story of faith, family, and food and the lasting legacy
Jonathan is building in Alabama's fastest growing city.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
If you could choose one word that captures your spirit,
not just your personality, but your spirit, what would it
be and why?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
One word? Ah? Humility.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
God resisted price and gives more grace than the humble.
It's not just a cliche of mantra in which I
live by. It's a principle that I apply to my
life and hold on to that principle with every fiber
of my being.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I've been at the bottom, I've been midway to the top.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Making that climb to try to get as close to
whatever my top is with God. But at the end
of the day, I feel like I've been as blessed
and successful as I am because I hold tight to
the spirit of humility, because I know nothing that I
(01:43):
have obtained or will obtain or even have is because
of Jonathan man because he's a mess, but because of
the grace of God and me humbly saying I give
glory to God for all these things and successes, and
you know, my journey feel like God continues to bless
me and my family.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Man, was there a specific situation, event or milestone that
occurred where your humility became a necessity the.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Way you speak to it, was there a specific tap.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Man, Like have you always been that way? Or was
it something that really highlighted it to you and to
where now you picked it up and walked with it forever.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah, I don't even think that it's a specific time.
I think it's just been a proven principle in my life.
Like when you give God the glory for all things,
and you know, you lift his name high at the
end of the day, in return, you put him in
a position or where he has no other choice but
to continue to do what he does for you. And
(02:54):
once I just saw that, man, my life is it's
his life being lived out, you know, in the earth,
Like this is as close to I could get to
here on the earth at this point, you know, I
just feel like this, this is my moment to prove
to him that I love him as much as I
do with the life that I live, because it ain't mine.
(03:17):
It's been given to me only by God. Yeah, my
parents play the party and it thank god they did.
But at the end of the day, my life is
not my own. Somebody used to say to him, I belong.
I give myself. I give myself, you know, to him,
it's my life is not my own. And I think,
(03:38):
once I realize that, So I guess, if we're searching
for a moment, it was that moment when I realized
that the hand of God is on my life and
my life is not my own, and whatever happens from
this point on, and I take it for it. And
(04:00):
I think, as we're talking it out, if we're looking
for a moment, I'm not going to say I have
always been like this, but I'll tell you the time
in which it probably started, and that was when I
was fifteen years old when when I got the call
to preach the gospel.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
It was then at that moment I started.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Having the dreams and having the visions and start praying
weird stuff, and weird stuff started happening in my mind.
At fifteen, you know, when when I started saying, you know,
I got a purpose in a plan and a vision
for your life.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
It was at that moment, at age fifteen, where I.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Realized, in the middle of high school that I wasn't
built like the rest of them, you know, while for
all the rest of them are. You know, I'm not
gonna say I didn't do my teenage dirt. But at
the same time, you know, saying at the same time
I was preaching revivals in high school while the rest
(05:00):
of my kids were going to club and doing all
this other kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
You know, I was in the I was in the
streets with my.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Dad driving me around, and you know, preach for Bibles
here and preach Bibles there, and youth days and you know,
so I think at that age, and I don't want
to ramble about it, but if we weren't to pinpoint
a day, it would be that the age of fifteen
when I really felt the hand of God all my life.
That was the moment when I realized my life is
(05:29):
not my own. I belonged to this man and I'm
at his leisure and not my own.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Wow, I didn't know you were fifteen.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Yeah, I started preaching that. I was sixteen when I
started preaching. Well, right at seventeen, I had just turned
from sixteen to seventeen because it was October, so I
had just yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
So you started seeing the visions at fifteen, got into
it learning more in depth at sixteen, and actually started
preaching at seventeen.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Yeah, So the backstory is I probably could have started
preaching at fifteen, to be honest. The pastor that I
had at the time that was pastoring the church. That's
crazy because now I'm there pastor that church now that
I'm talking about it.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
But the pastor that was there.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
At the time, you know, I had acknowledged my call
to preaching.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
He sends me to his wife. Go to his wife.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
His wife says, you know, I think he needs to
live a little more. Thank you too young to even
know what this entails. And they kind of just dusted it,
you know, under the rug, and kind.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Of just carried going gotcha.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
And then the senior pastor, Pastor Curtis, came in right after.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It was like he was at the tail end of whatever.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
And Pastor Curtis came in around when I was sixteen,
and I told him the same thing. I was like
a new lease on life. Like, man, we got a
new pastor. I'm gonna tell him the same thing because
it is on me. And I told him at sixteen,
and I told him what happened with the former pastor
and he was like, let's say the date. And it
(07:20):
was like, I believe that the hand of God is
on your life too. For me standing the date, man,
And we started preaching in October.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Wow, yeah, all right, all right, we're gonna steer in
the direction of the business on this one. What was
the moment or conviction that first planet to see for
a Big John's Barbecue and Company. I remember you telling
(07:51):
me that you know it started something as your father's recipes.
I remember that bar.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Well.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
The truth behind it is again it's hard for me
to separate the two this situation, so I'll have to
just say the way that it is. And I senior
pastor for seven years, and I.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Got burned out with.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Church from preaching from sixteen to my mid twenties thirties.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That time Robael was thirties, early thirties.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Those last like years. It's been seven years now since
I've passored, because Big John's brand is about six and
a half seven years ago. So realistically, I was trying
to find something else that I could do that was
outside of church. My trade is welding. I was a
(08:51):
welder and I worked in the plant from high school.
The first twelve to thirteen years of my life. After
high school, I worked as a welder.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
I went to Tennessee Tech, learned how to will and
worked in the.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Automotive district for about, yes twelve was twelve or thirteen years.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So I didn't want to go back to the plant.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
I didn't want to do that because that's a whole
different type of lifestyle and a whole different type of
place to be. And it's like, I don't know what
I'm gonna do. My dad was like, you know, preach,
it is what you do, and what are you going
to do? And I said, give me your recipes and
let me just feel like. My dad was a great cook.
My mom is a great cook. But I said, Dad,
(09:32):
just give me your recipe and let me see whatever
I could do with it.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
And he says, I'm gonna say it to you one time,
one time only, And he says it, I writes it down.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
And after I wrote it down, I just started tweaking it,
making it my own. And I actually started nerving Big John's.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Out of the church kitchen.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Because I was getting to step down as pastor, needed
to land my feet because at this point I had
a family I need to provide for, steal My full
time job is the.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Church, and I'm burned out.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
So I started selling these chicken plates after church kitchen.
And uh, man, that was the birthen of Big Johns.
That's what That's really where it started.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Gotcha, what what was the name of that church?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
The Stone Christian Center, the Stone Christian Center.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yes, and uh and and what's the name of the
one you're at?
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Nower Missionary Baptist Church?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Missionary Batist Church. Okay, guys, all right? Was there ever
a moment where quitting felt easier than continuing? And what
did you reach for in order to keep going?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
For me, is not an option.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
And the people around me kind of tell you that
there have been several times, several moments, several times that
I wanted to quit, but it ain't an option, so
I keep going. And I've kind of just kind of
made that in my mind, like it's.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Not an option. I mean, if it was up to me,
I quit doing some stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Right now, it's part of that oedience.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, it's like, you know, you got to keep going now.
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
One of the times where we had to pivot the
hardest my first year in the restaurant business was covid
M right right, So, so you know, I had to
learn a lot of stuff really really fast, bumped my
head and got ourselves and some stuff that we had
to get ourselves out of financially. And instead of still
(11:54):
at that point quitting, you know, I just I just
reinvented the wheel, you know, and that that's when we
kind of went off from BG John's to my kitchen
transition and that was kind of birthed out of I
want to help the people that wants to launch these
food service businesses, but at the same.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Time, I don't want them to bump their head the
way I did.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
And if I could keep them from making the same
mistakes I did with no mentorship, but learning the hard
way because the business is already difficult. Then I want
to put something in place and a platform in place
that's not so much so going to make me money,
but it is going to provide a service to the
(12:39):
people in the community. And hopefully this can kind of
be my place in the marketplace as a preacher to
still touch people and minister to people. What I will say, yeah,
you sometimes you do get top deal with people, but
it's like you love people so much, you know, So
it's it's just like, I know this is what I'm
(13:01):
called to. So in my mind it's like I'm always
going to have to deal with people, whether good, bad
or ugly. But for me, I wanted to deal with
him in a different way than to deal with them
from being in a senior pastor role, let's put it
that way. And this was my opportunity to say, hey,
I can mentor and coach you and guide you through business.
(13:23):
You know, but I don't have to dedicate your baby.
I don't have to cancel. You ain't got baptize your kids, you.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Know, I ain't got to bury your grandmama.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
And I appreciate you on Sunday. I don't have to
see you on Wednesday night. I don't have to have
a finance, you know, it's just my opportunity to say, hey,
these are all my bad experiences and if they will
make you more successful and keep you from bumping your
head a certain kind of way and bleed it out,
then this.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Is my opportunity for you.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
So that's how we get from, you know, the start
of Big John's quitting point for Big John's, but the
rebirth of something new for me kind of trans me.
Transitioned me over to my kitchen concept, and that's kind
of how we got there.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
I don't want to put too much of the car
before the horse, but.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Just for the record, how many people have you served
as a mentor through my kitchen up until this.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Point, I'll say about seventy five or eighty. In about
three years, it's been about seventy five or eighty. And
I got some really big wins with helping some people,
really proud of them. They're doing some phenomenal things in
the city. Some people didn't last the business. You know,
(14:50):
we've helped some people get out of the business. We've
helped some people kind of pivot and thrive, and you know,
even now we're still having conversations with people in as
long as they're trying to pivot and do what they do.
But yeah, I'm gonna say about seventy five to eighty
people over the course of about three years and actively
we're membership based. I call it the Sam's Club membership model.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Actually, got it.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
You know we still we still have about about fifty
seven to sixty active members that's there at the incubator.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Usually people would look at other people in the same
industry as competition. So, you know, to be living in
a society that has become so complex now that the
authenticity of who you are and what you're doing, and
(15:54):
when it comes to other people who are doing it,
instead of seeing people as competition, and you see them
as somebody you love and you don't want them to
make the same mistakes you made because you see them
choosing something that you know you also chose. So, you know,
(16:17):
just speak a little bit on what is it that
keeps that mindset of competition out of your peripheral vision
of anything.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Yeah, I think it could be the calling doing ministry
all my life, and you know, collaboration is better than
doing things as an individual, individualism or you know, collaboration
is better than anything. I got a mantra, and most
(16:50):
of my restaurant friends thought I was crazy when I
started talking it because I was gun on it. And
that is, there's no competition in the food service industry.
And I would say it all the time. There's no
competition in the food service in my case. In point
is this, you take all of us and put us
(17:10):
in one plaza, You take all of us and put
us in one mall food court.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
That there are.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Some people that cannot separate that they're doing this because
the biggest.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Thing is I gotta make this seal. I gotta make
this seal. I gotta make this seal.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
But the one thing that keeps me in that mindset
is this, what's for me is for me.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
What's for me is for me.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Put us all in the strip mall, Put us all
in the food court.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Put us and the person that wants to eat my
food's gonna eat it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Now, they may not eat my food every day, and
they may come next right next door and eat from
your restaurant tomorrow. But before it's all said alone, they're
not gonna continue to eat from your restaurant every day
either because they gonna get tired of eating the same food. Hey,
you ever got tired of eat the same food every day?
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Even if it's good, you don't want it.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
My food is great, and I go eat barbecue at
another restaurant, right, you know, I love my fish, but
I go to Captain d Still.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I see what you're saying.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
There's no there's no competition. There's no competition in the
food industry. And what's for you is for you and
what God has for you and that customer that has
for you. And even with that being said, you know,
I teach people all the time, like cook to your liking,
not to meet the not to meet the taste of
someone else's taste buds.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
And if I cook and you like it, that's great.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
If I cook and you don't like it, I'll encourage
you to try something else, because that's more than one
thing on this menu.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Now, if you keep.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Coming and something just don't come out jump out at
you and become that one thing that you just absolutely say, hey,
I love it, then maybe I'm just not the restaurant
for you. Everybody don't like Big John's. You know, there's
a lot of people who do. And I say, my
customers are my customers. But just because they're my customers
(19:10):
don't mean they're not gonna go eat somewhere else. Because Man,
I can't eat what I cook every day, every day
all day.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
You can put us again, going back to that food
cort or that strip mall. Put us all in one place, man,
and we all can thrive, and we all can and
enjoy life because there's not enough food to feed all.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
The people in Huntsville.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Man.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
If everybody in Huntsville got in their car and they
could not cook in their house and they had to
go to a restaurant, a food truck, a caterer to
get their food as their food source, there wouldn't be
enough of.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Us in the business wow to feed Huntsville. Wow.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
And it takes a lot of us doing a lot
of different things that meet the appetites of the people
that's here.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Though.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
It's just like ministry people say, we got all these
churches in Hustville.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
You know, you can put every church in Hunstfield and
a strip mall. Right.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Every everybody gonna go where they want to go. Everybody
gonna go. Hear that passes that they want to hear.
And if they get tired of hearing that man or
that woman, what they're gonna do, they gonna go somewhere
else and be something.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Else to eat from somewhere else that may be even
still in the same plaza.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Mm hmm. That's some that, that's some profound.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
But I learned I'm gonna tell you where I learned
this at though the church taught me to be this way.
The church is one of the most segregated places that
there is. When I senior pastor, it was hard to
get churches to come to just to do simple stuff
(21:10):
a block party. Right, it's five of us on one block.
Why are we doing five different block partiers? But if
we got churches. But the one thing that we do
and have it in common as a common denominator, is that.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
We all say we believe in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
And it don't really matter if you speak of tongue,
believe in women preaching, don't believe you know what I'm saying.
At the end of the day, Why can't we come
together now? Because we're gonna come together.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Again at some point, oh man. And the church taught
me not to be segregated.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
When it comes down to the food service industry, because
that was one of my biggest challenges. You couldn't get
churches to come together, to put that funds together, to
put that finances together, to put their together.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
To do anything together.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
So at that point, the te taught me that collaboration
is better than individualism, even.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
If that's a word.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
But you know, I would rather electively put our forces
together and see what we can do then be trying
to be out here doing it on my own.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
What's one decision that tested your character as a business
owner and how did making that choice sharpen you being
the man behind that brand? Because I can see something
that you experience would be interesting because you also understand ministry.
(22:49):
So that's so that's why I'm interested in and knowing.
You know, is there a decision that tested your character
as a business owner specifically?
Speaker 3 (23:00):
I don't know. I think it's several things. You know,
one character wise is.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
You know, every business has its ups and every businesses
have every business has its downs. We're not always on
the mountaintop, you know. We don't always have customers, we
don't always have lines hanging out our doors, we don't
always have catering orders coming through. But for me, the
(23:32):
one thing that I think speaks louder to your character
and that I have learned that people are more willing
to assist, help and look out for you when you
have to have the difficult conversation that the humbling conversation
that my business is not doing as good as it
(23:53):
was maybe the last season. It was the character piece
of it that said, you know what you are who
you are, you can't ignore it, and it's the humbling
moment of I got to come face to face with
the reality that this is what this is and we
gotta deal with this. So for me, it was all
(24:15):
those times in business where business wasn't the eight, it
wasn't number ten, when it was like number five, and
we were.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Struggling trying to figure out how to get out of
some stuff.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
You know, Even now at seven years of business, you know,
I've still been learning lessons and still got some things
hanging over my head that we have to get out of.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you that
we're just rolling now. You get me about another year
or so. I think I've learned and love lessons now
to where when we get out of this rut, we'll
never come back to it, and we'll be on the
(24:46):
trajectory that we need to be on to thrive and
expand even the more.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
But it took me a while to learn that.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
For me, the character checking moment is being willing to
have the conversations good, bad, or ugly, even when they
make you uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
M have the conversation.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
I can see where that humility continues to resurface itself.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
Yeah, the moment when you have to sell one of
your cars in the driveway to make sure that your
employees are paid.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
And actually doing it.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
You see what I'm saying. Yeah, it's those moments.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
For me, it's we can't comonate an option when you
start looking at your house and saying, man, what can
I get rid of? What can I sell real quick?
To get some of this cake so that I can
handle what it needs to be handled this week. You know,
it's the tough places of business that the consumer doesn't
really worry about too much because they just want the product.
(25:54):
They want to pay for it, and they want the
presentation to be good, and they want the customer service
to be on point, and they want the quality to
be there. And they want the consistency to be there.
And you know, you see them once a year. You're like,
we've been over twelve months this year, all this, saw
all this, saw you one time this year. I don't
(26:16):
think they even understand the importance of them to continue
to serve. And then when we as business people have
to make tough business decisions to say we're going to
pull a plug on that location, then that's what everybody said, Oh,
I don't want to see you go, Oh I wish
you know, da da da da da dah. But you
(26:37):
know it goes both ways. We need the customer and
the customer needs us. Yeah, And it's a tough places
of business that I think that is the reality of
business that us as business owners know amongst ourselves.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
But it was that piece of.
Speaker 4 (26:55):
The business that I wanted to make sure that I
mentored and coach people through gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Every business is gonna deal with that right.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
To lean into our next one. Who are you really
building for and why does it matter to you that
they are the ones being served.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
It's a cliche that everybody says I'm building for the
next generation.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Everybody says I'm building for the next generation, or.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
I'm building for my kids and you know I want
my kids to blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
I'll tell you my story.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
My story is this I am and I would not
be after business man that I am if it wasn't
because one lady.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
You know, there are several people that have made up
this picture that have.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
Helped me along the way, but that was one lady
by the name of Baola Hides who helped me become
who I am as a businessman by investing and what
I saw and her coming along by me in partnership
(28:13):
to believe in what I saw and trusting to God
enough for me to have it. And one of the
things that she made me make a commitment to you
was if you had be opportunity to extend in arms
at the expense of somebody falling prevented.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
She said.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
People used to ask her quite often, why do you
do what you do for him? And she says, because
I don't want to see him fall? And why would
I allow someone that I love to fall? And I
have the ability to live the hand to extend it
(29:02):
to him to keep him from falling in an environment
where the next person will watch you fall and talk
about you falling. But that woman made sure that she
made sure that even if she did talk about it,
I'm pretty sure she did, she still extended the hand
(29:24):
and she made me make a commitment to say, if
you have that ability, so for.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Me, anybody that I love, if I have.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
The opportunity to extend a hand at their descent, I'm
going to do it now.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Who am I building for?
Speaker 4 (29:46):
My dad said, At some point, son, I stopped living
for me and start living for you.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
He said.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
At some point I had everything I needed to have
in life, and at some point I just started leaving
to make sure that you're good.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I started working and going to work.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
At one point, I gotta go to work because man,
I want this new car. I gotta go to work
because we need a bigger house. I want to go
do this because I want this so I want that.
What happens when you get all of that? The same
lady by Alla Hines, That was the same story. What
happens when you get all of it? I don't need this.
(30:23):
What happens when you got money coming through the door,
You don't even know what to do with it, and
you ain't even got a desire to go spend it
on nothing because you got what you want. At what
point do you start building for somebody else? At what
point do you start helping somebody else? Listen, when we
start building the restaurant businesses, I know this is the
overtone of what we're talking about. When we start building
(30:45):
the restaurant business, and we got to the point where
we didn't have room enough to receive some.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Of the opportunities that was coming my way.
Speaker 4 (30:56):
I started looking around the table at who had been
sitting there. The longs so prime example, the Big Johns
Barbecue as the open bottle. Takoya Randall is the lady
who runs that Big John's concept.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Now I don't have anything to do with it. I
don't take no loyalties, no royalties off of it.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
I even when I go to the restaurant and I
eat her food, and she'll be my witness.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
He may give me a discount, but I pay the food.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Even if they don't give it to me on the
discount prices, I pay full price for it. It's my concept,
it's my dad's recipes. It's a business that I had.
But when God opened up another room and another opportunity
for me to walk through a door, and I had
to make a decision to say, I'm either gonna have
to close this down because I don't have the capacity
(31:47):
to do this and that, and I want this next
opportunity more than this, or.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
You start blessing some people that's sitting at your table.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
And for Christmas, we said, instead of given this and that,
we said, here's a business, get off my payroll, go
do what you gotta do. Do your own thing. And
you know, she been holding it in the road for
over a year now, doing her own thing at the
open bottle like, still selling out years later. So for me,
(32:19):
anybody that I love, I'm trying to figure out a
way to do it.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Man, we just bought one of our new one of
our older ladies.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Uh she needed a car, man, And uh she really
needed She didn't really.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Need a car. She had a car, but it was
hot in the summertime.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
It was the band and was working and uh, we're
on the base, so they sell cars out there all
the time.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Man.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
I ran up on this Lincoln decent price. Man said,
I'll sell it to you, especially if you're gonna do
this for an employee. The woman hadn't eve been working
for us a good month yet, but I saw, I
saw a needs I need, and I met the need,
especially when we have the ability to meet the need.
(33:07):
So we bought her car and now she's riding around
and a plush, big old Lincoln down car with ac.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
And enjoying life.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
So for me, anybody that I love now and my
building for my.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
Kids and my family, that's just natural.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Yes, And my goal is to make sure that I
build a legacy for myself, something that they can ride
on for the rest of their life and hopefully expand
it and build it or at least sell it to
the right person that can take it, because if they
don't want to do it, I'm going to you know,
(33:44):
you know, And that's another thing. A lot of people
kind of build for the next generation or the kids,
and then they want to force it a hand it
down to your kids. I want to prepare my kids
for it, So I'm gonna talk about it and let
them know what it entails and what it's about. But
if at some point they say they don't want it,
then I'm gonna teach them how to either sell it
or get you some people, you know what I'm saying.
But I'm building I want to build that well for
(34:06):
the kids because I don't want my kids, or my family,
even my brother, because I look at him as being
the son. I don't want them to struggle the way
that I did. That's what our.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Parents didn't want us to do.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
And so I just say, I saw my mom work
three jobs, working for somebody else and still couldn't make
ends meet, you know, So for me, it was all
the way I'm gonna live this lavish life that I'm
gonna live is that your boy gonna have to go
out here and hustle for itself. So even doing what
I'm doing now is just like, man, this is the
(34:40):
only way for me to leave that legacy because I
don't come from a family full of money, and no
job can pay me enough money to leave the type
of legacy I feel like I'm called to leave. I
could go get a job right now paying me one
hundred thousand plus dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
That ain't enough money me to leave the type of
legacy I know.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
I'm called the leaf that kind of leads me into
this next question. You kind of you kind of already
started speaking to it, but I'm gonna go ahead and
put it out there. What part of your legacy can't
be measured in dollars but will be felt for generations.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
What part of the legacy you know? Dutch King said
it like this. Man They was asked a question, what
would you do if you knew the world was going
in tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (35:33):
Man says, I plant an apple tree, alluding to I
would do today something that has the potential to outlive
me tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
So everything I do.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
At this point in my life, I'm trying to plant
those trees now so that when I'm loaned one, people
are still be able to grab apples.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
If they're hungry, they'll be.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
Able to still get shade, if they're hot from the sun,
They'll still be able to get wood from.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
The limb to keep warm in the winter.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
So for me, I want to do something today that's
gonna most definitely outlive me tomorrow. And everything I do
at this point I wanted to outlive me when I
go to my grade. I don't want any one of
my locations to close. I don't want my I don't
want my concepts to close, and I don't want to
(36:37):
do anything that's going to, you know, contradict all the
work that I'm in the efforts that I know that
I'm doing for the sake of.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
When you're great grandchildren speak your name, what do you
hope they feel when they say?
Speaker 3 (37:01):
I hope they feel proud to say. I hope my.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Kids, you know, I'm not for pride issues or anything
like that, but you know I want my daughter to say,
I'll make your last name because I'm always.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
Going to be a hander, you know.
Speaker 4 (37:24):
I want my son to say, my dad's name was
Jonathan William, my name is Samuel and William. And I
want him, if he have a son, to freely say
and feel comfortable with saying, I want to call you
whatever your name is, David William Hambrick for the sake
of this is just the middle name and the last
(37:46):
name that has went down through generations, because this is just.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Who we are.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
And I want my kids to be able to tap
into the street and into the archives like this and
be able to hear or see or read.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
About me like this. Right here is an ideal way
of me leaving the legacy.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
Right I started pastoring this church man that's one hundred
plus years old, and I go through the history books.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
And they ain't nowhere, no story, no history.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
No I can't tell you where it started, who started it,
me where it started? I don't know. Times were different then,
But now this is a piece of me leaving the legacy.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Talking about them knowing who I really am.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
Like, That's why I'm so excited about this, because one
day one of my kids, a grandkid is gonna pick
that book when they're still eating Big Johns. Because I
pray that even with my great grandkids, they can still
pull up to a Big Johns, but maybe still see
this hunts Fell archive situation hanging on the wall years
from now. Yeah, yeah, say that's that's my great granddaddy.
(39:03):
He started this years ago.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Mm hmmm. Wow.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
When I go to my grave, how do I want
them to feel? I want them to feel proud to
be a hambrick. Come on, not all of us, uh
uh you know, uh, you know, every family got they issue.
But what I will say is when my kids here
about me or think about me, or even my wife
(39:29):
or my family, I want them to be happy to
be a hander. I want them to be proud that
you know he was pastor. I want him them to
be had. He was entrepreneur, he was legacy, Leabal, he
was mentor, he was restaurant here.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
I want them to be happy about that. I'm proud
about it, but I'm proud.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
Of the achievements that we've been able to make with
god an effort.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Yeah, but I want them to feel proud man, not arrogant,
but prid difference, right, Yeah, yeah. I wan't want the
grandkids to be able to drive.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Granteddy Bugatti yourself, you know, you know, you know, I'm
just saying, like, I want to be able to leave
y'all something, man, and you you ain't got to work
as hard as our role to get it.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
I want to pass down some houses and some wealth.
I want to pass down some investments and some and
some stock. Like man, yeah, I want them to be
proud to say he made sure we were good.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
This this next question is kind of kind of more
geared toward your business being positioned specifically in Huntsville. So
this says, what has the city of Huntsville poured into
you and how have you poured it back?
Speaker 4 (40:51):
First of all, people knew me of being, you know,
the preacher. They didn't necessarily know I could cook m
I didn't even know that I could cook this good
and to be transparent, I learned how to cook some
of my stuff by watching some master classes and some
YouTube videos because I didn't know how to cook certain
things myself. But how I was willing to say, if
(41:12):
I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna teach myself on how
to do it. But Huntsville has supported us man since
the church kidding and they they have talked and they
have raised and they still do it to this day,
six and a half, almost seven years later, and I
appreciate Huntsville for doing what they have done over the
(41:35):
years by supporting the Big John's brand, and as much
as they have like been this year after seven years,
it because them supporting it so heavily and so much,
it made me lean back into it even more. I
got rid of three of my other brands to make
(41:56):
sure that as I'm going back to the past to
see the one thing that I don't let them down
on and making sure that the Big Guns brand is
stronger than ever so that they could live out there
and give them I want their great grandkids to be
able to eat Big Johns and experience the same good
food that they have, So I'll lean back in it.
(42:19):
And then when you say, what have I put back
into it? Man, I'm always trying to find a way,
always trying to find a way. Like we just started
a nonprofit called Eat Good on Purpose. Purpose of that
nonprofit is to ultimately be a free mentorship program for
(42:39):
people in the restaurant business, to provide food and need, a.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Food insecurity need and rule areas.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Partnerships with the Alabama Food Bank provide free counseling services
for the people in the restaurant business because man, they're
the drunkest, sometimes most source idol type of people I
have ever met in my life because of the amount
of stress that we deal with on a daily basis,
(43:10):
and some of the employees that work for us offering
them mentorship and counseling and things like that. And we
started to Eat Good on Purpose initiative, and eventually you'll
be able to give a counters of restaurants back or
around it up to give back to the initiative, to
help restaurant owners, to help solve food insecurities and little areas,
(43:36):
and to help restaurant owners just across the board be
better entrepreneurs and to be better bosses. But to also
offer the support to their people to talk about financial
literacy and everything else.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
It kind of goes on and on and on. But
the goal is to give back however I can.
Speaker 4 (43:55):
Man, we still I pulled up the food truck on
several occasions to the whole homeless camps and fed the people.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
You know, I don't mind doing stuff like that. I
don't mind. You know.
Speaker 4 (44:06):
I think we're gonna be at Madison. We just did
Hazel Green Football wing Fest. So that's a sponsorship type
of situation when you're you know, giving back to the community.
I'm doing Madison County High School. I think we're giving
back to them this weekend. Like we find ways to
go and support the local people because.
Speaker 3 (44:25):
They support us.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
You know, it's hard for me to tell a customer
that eats at my restaurant when she says, hey, I
eat it here three or four times a day, and
she says, hey, I'm helping out them raise some money
for the football team. Can you help, Man, I got
to move some stuff around to make sure I help you.
Speaker 3 (44:44):
You eating it here three times a week? Yeah, So
I try to give.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
I don't think I give enough sometimes sometimes you know,
it's only for so much. We can give as a
business person, but at every opportunity that I have to give,
I'm gonna try.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
To get Wow, I just got a few more here.
So if you could look your younger self and the
eye the day you first stepped into this dream, what
would you say, not as advice, but as a blessing.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
Not as advice, but as a blessing. Mm hm, give
me an example.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
So an example would be if I spoke back at
my younger self when I was a kid, I said
I wanted to be a rapper when I grew up.
The evolution is just the writing turn into something else.
So if I were to speak back to myself, not
as advice but as a blessing, I wouldn't try to
(45:52):
tell myself do not be a rapper, or don't try
to be a rapper, try to be a writer. I
wouldn't tell myself stop writing raps and start writing books.
I would tell myself try to find God in the writing,
because if you find God in the writing, you're gonna
end up writing the books. Yeah, that's an example how
(46:16):
I could give myself advice, but I give a blessing
to where my younger version would find God in that
blessing and do what I now do.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
Yeah, I think I would have to jump on that
bandwagon with you.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
The reason why I kind of jump on that bandwagon
which you is just trust God through the process. I would.
Speaker 4 (46:40):
You know, it's hard for me not to give the
advice piece of it, but you know, trust God through
the process and be open minded to be able to
receive what it is as the man it's going to
tell you to do next, right, because like you, Because
like you just said.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
Man, I wouldn't be doing this.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
If I wasn't open minded enough, with ears open and
mind open to hear and receive what he said he
wanted me to do, I wouldn't be doing it. You
couldn't have told me that I would be in food surfaces.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
I didn't even know I could look like this.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
You couldn't have told me that I would be running
the smoke of feeding thousands of people every month. Literally, Yeah,
you couldn't have told me that. First of all, I
don't have a mind to even think like that. I
don't have a mind, nor did I even have a
desire to even do that. It was me being open
(47:44):
to the shift and the transitions, and you know, at
this point. It goes back to what we talked about
in the beginning of it other interview. My life is
not my own to him, I belong And I guess
if I were to tell myself the word that people
resonating and if you ask that question.
Speaker 3 (48:04):
Was will never to start wrapping with.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Gouver yeah es And this last question, I kind of
feel like I kind of feel like you might have
already answered it. But I'm a I'm a cast in
any way. Why does it matter to you that your
story is preserved not just as a business journey, but
as part of this generation's legacy.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Hopefully something that we've said, something that you would right about,
something that we've talked about, would be written on the
pages of something that somebody would pick it up and
be at the cross roads of making some major decisions
in business, and it offers them be encouragement to push,
(48:52):
the motivation, the confirmation.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
That they need to either continue to launch it, to
sustain it, and not quit, not to give up on it.
Speaker 4 (49:04):
It matters that our document these journeys so that it
can offer other people that are on journeys similar to mine.
Speaker 3 (49:16):
Or just like mine.
Speaker 4 (49:20):
The wisdom says, get wisdom, knowledge, and understanding and all things.
You know, even with this interview, I think we're just
kind of scratching the top of the surface. I know,
if we keep digging, you probably could write a serious
book on something that could be really beneficial to the
(49:42):
business owner outside of us just scratching the surface of
this archive.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
Note.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Oh yeah, of course, of course.
Speaker 4 (49:48):
You know, because you know, because I feel like there's
so much more even past this. But hopefully we can
let this be the start and the introduction of you know,
who he is as a business person, but hopefully get
a little bit deeper and write something that they can
maybe pull off of some shelves that that will help
(50:11):
them on their journeys as businessman, especially being all to
ministry in the marketplace, because yeah, that puts another whole
nother situation on top of just being a businessman.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
Correct, beautiful, beautiful. I'm gonna ask this question and then
and then go over Sam and Taylor. So is there
anything else you would like to add in regards to
Big John's barbecue? My kitchen eat good on purpose?
Speaker 3 (50:50):
No, those you know.
Speaker 4 (50:52):
Eat it supported, Yeah, you know, eat it supported, keep
it alive. And I tell people all the time, when
when you bless us by coming to our count our
countertops and patronize our business. Uh, you also are patronizing
other people because we're gonna be committed to giving back
(51:14):
in some kind of shape from the fashion.
Speaker 3 (51:16):
M hm. The much is given, much is required.
Speaker 4 (51:20):
I've translated that into uh, this one saying that I've
lived by stay all the time.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
Great power, great responsibility.
Speaker 4 (51:30):
Everybody wants the power, nobody wants the responsibility. But it's
the person who actually is willing to take on the responsibility.
It's the person that can really hang on to the
power situation of it. Right, great, great power, great responsibility.
(51:51):
The much is given, much as required. It's gonna be hard, man,
it ain't easy. It ain't no cakewalk.
Speaker 3 (51:56):
It comes with a lot of sacrifices.
Speaker 4 (51:59):
Right, I'm not life, but hey, God will give you
the capacity to do whatever it is that he tells
you to do. If we don't display anything back over
to them, just know when they're sitting there thinking about
when they're sitting there thinking about can I do it?
(52:20):
When they're sitting there thinking about how is it going
to be done? What I will say is God has
always provided provisions for every vision.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
He has given me.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
He's provided the strategy and the plan for every vision
he's given me. But he's also given me the capacity
to do everything that I know I need to do.
Speaker 3 (52:51):
He'll give it to you.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
Yeah, amazing. Now I just want to go over, you know,
a few, a few touch points on Sam and Taylor's,
just so just so I can write something to where
people can understand what's happening when they simply buy a popsicle.
(53:13):
You see what I'm saying. Yes, sir, well, you know,
just take some time to speak to first of all,
what is Sam and Taylor's and what is the history
behind the transition when you became involved with it.
Speaker 3 (53:31):
Sam and Taylor's was originally started from.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
A lady named Susie in the community, and our popsicle
business at the time was called Susie's pops And she
had a brick and mortar and she used to have pushcarts,
and because we were in the food truck business, I
used to see her around town.
Speaker 3 (53:53):
Never really saw her, but saw the people that worked for.
Speaker 4 (53:58):
She went out of business not because she really wanted to,
but because her husband got really sick and it was
time for her to be the wife and the caregiver
that she is, and she did that and she sacrificed,
you know, I gotta let this go because my husband
comes first. So when she closed down, that was a
(54:23):
customer just like me that really loved her popsicles, and
they decided that they wanted to try to open that
back up because they really enjoyed the popsiples. So out
of just a necessity, they said, Hey, I want to
open up Susan's pops And she says, okay, And I
don't mind being, you know, in partnership with you, but
(54:44):
you're going to have to person be basically the person
that runs this thing, because.
Speaker 3 (54:48):
You know, I can't do it.
Speaker 4 (54:51):
So the lady helps her, and they just so happened
they need a commissary because now they don't have them
breaking mortar anymore. They need a commissary space. And they
come to my kitchen and we carve out a space
for them. And I was happy to carve out a
space for her because I love Susie pops.
Speaker 3 (55:10):
Wow. Yeah, And so.
Speaker 4 (55:11):
She came over to the kitchen and we carved out
a room.
Speaker 3 (55:16):
For it so they could start making popsicles. I don't
know all of the backstory.
Speaker 4 (55:20):
But to my understanding, it kind of just fell back
into Susie's laps.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
But her husband is still sickly, and she was like,
I just can't do it.
Speaker 4 (55:29):
And instead of her moving out this time when she
said I was moving out and gonna close it back down,
I just said, hey, let me, you know, can we
talk about purchasing that because I would like to get
this and this could be something that I could use
as an opportunity to build something for my kids.
Speaker 3 (55:52):
And so we did the deal and we got it down.
Speaker 4 (55:56):
But basically Sam and Taylor's is the Susie Popsiple business,
and she really wanted to keep the Susie Popsicle name
and didn't want us to use it for whatever reason,
and I was okay with that, but we have all
of the Susie popsiples, recipes and machineries and all that
other kind of stuff to make that happen. We did
(56:20):
it and renamed it Sam and Taylor's so that the
kids would have a business, you know, because I'm all
about wealth, you know, and if my.
Speaker 3 (56:30):
Kids can get to age fifteen.
Speaker 4 (56:32):
And don't have to go work for somebody else, but
can work for their business, you know, my son is eleven,
so you know, fifteen sixteen that you say, another five
more years, he ain't got to go to Burger king.
Speaker 3 (56:47):
He can run his own business.
Speaker 4 (56:48):
But by that time his business is five years old, right,
you know, my daughter just turned six. So okay, in
the next nine to ten years, when it's time for
you to work, you hear me, you got a business
that's twenty years old, you know, so you're not going
to work for you know, Chick fil A, Not to
(57:09):
have to say anything against it. I work there, best
place I ever worked at. But they'll have a business
that's twenty years old for them, and it positions them
because you know, we're gonna start.
Speaker 3 (57:22):
Trust funds and put the money and the trust funds
for the kids.
Speaker 4 (57:27):
So not only do they have a business that's twenty
years old, they got a business with money exactly. So
maybe they get to twenty years and the business will
get to fifteen and they may run it twenty more years,
but at least they'll have the finances to invest in
any kind of entrepreneurship for business move that they want
(57:47):
to make. You know, they may even choose to go
to school. And you know, as much as my daughter
talking she may be a lawyer, but why can't we say,
go to law school. But remember, but you got that
Sam and Taylor money sitting there for you to open
up your next practice, to build your next office, to
buy your next piece of property.
Speaker 3 (58:08):
You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (58:10):
Yeah, so it's money that I don't And you say, hey,
you ain't gotta go no bank to go get it.
You ain't got to ask somebody to go get it. Daddy,
ain't even got to be allied for you to have it.
Just know that there's gonna be sitting there for you.
And the Sam and Taylor situation. If you don't get
a full ride scholarship, gonna pay for that college degree
(58:31):
and you can work the business while you're in college.
It's paying for your college degree. But then when it's
time for you to get married, what's gonna happen? You
got where about going to find no money for nowhere,
and that money gonna be there. You're helping me and
yourself at that point.
Speaker 3 (58:44):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (58:46):
So for me, it was like, this is gonna be
a way for us to create wealth for the kids
and to help them in their future endeavors. Because I'm
really thinking like it's gonna be hard for them kids
not to want to do business after being in a
household with two entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (59:03):
Yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 3 (59:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (59:05):
So I just want to make sure that they don't
have to start from the ground. By the time they
get a hope to it and able to stick their
heads to the clow, it's already something that's established. It's
already something that's got a name that you know. They
ain't starting with a low good No, you're not building
a website. All that stuff is going to be done
and be in placed. The infrastructure or whatever the concept
(59:25):
could be done there.
Speaker 3 (59:27):
They don't even have their own workers. You know what
I'm saying, right right, Yeah, me and.
Speaker 4 (59:33):
My my wife don't take any process from that business.
When you buy a popcycle from that business, you buy
a pop cycle to support the kids.
Speaker 2 (59:44):
I see, I see what you're saying. Got it.
Speaker 4 (59:47):
It ain't something that we go and we take their
money and we go. Do you know that money goes
into a trust fund. That money goes into a business
checking account, and it pays for payroll costs and then
it goes to investments for the kids. When you buy
a popsiple from Sam and Taylor's it ain't something that
we take.
Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
It's something that.
Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
Has been set up to really create generational wealth for them.
We got our own thing, man, We got three or
four food shrucks and breaking and bricking mortars and all
that kind of stuff. I don't need to That's why
I said. At some point I did said I had
to start doing stuff for you. So for him, he
was saying, I work work hard. He could have been
(01:00:30):
a really successful business man, but he didn't know how
to do it. Probably didn't have a support system or
the people around him to push him to do it.
But I took that what he said. He probably don't
even remember he said it, but I took what he
said to me in that moment and said to myself,
(01:00:50):
this is one of those moments where I have a
chance to do something for my kids, right, you know,
this is one of those this is my living for.
Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
You type of moments.
Speaker 4 (01:01:05):
Yeah, we set them up and once they get old
enough to, you know, take on the L L c's
and the E I N s and all that other
kind of stuff, when they are doing enough to handle
those things, make that they're they're in good hands with that, Yes, sir, Yeah,
You're gonna build them up some business credits so they
don't even have to try to figure it out, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Right, haven't done in advance? Is something that's that's ah,
you know, just a natural part.
Speaker 4 (01:01:34):
Hold on.
Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
I made a note. I'm gonna ask this last question
because I was curious about this. Is there a specific
scripture that you would say is your favorite scripture?
Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
I really struggle with that. Man. I love the world
of God, Word of God. You know, people.
Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
Ask me that all the time, and I don't need
I don't even have a favorite one in my pocket
God that I say, Hey, you know, this is just
my favorite scripture, one that I have said all the
time that probably needs to become my favorite scripture. Trusting
(01:02:18):
the Lord with all your heart and lean not to
your own understandings and all your ways.
Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
Acknowledge Him and.
Speaker 4 (01:02:28):
He shall direct your path. It's the essence of who
I am. It's the essence of what I do. And
again it goes back to if it hadn't been for him, I.
Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
Wouldn't even be where I am. Just I ain't smart
enough to even come up with this stuff.
Speaker 4 (01:02:51):
I will say this, Yeah, I'll say this A little
bit of about it in the book that we have
wrote that we're gonna finish up and do in the
first pie that talked about.
Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
Building with some of my A D eight D struggles
early on in life. Uh with a teacher, first grade.
Speaker 4 (01:03:10):
Teacher, remember her name, and I know she probably uh
gon on to see the Lord. Uh uh yeah, but
said that you know your son will probably never make
above an A and we'll probably never go to college,
so just be prepared for that. And uh sitting in
(01:03:32):
front of me to a mother who wasn't okay with
the floors.
Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
But at the same time, I caught her by surprise.
Speaker 4 (01:03:43):
Took that moment in elementary school, and I used that
as my motivation to do everything told me.
Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
I went to college, graduated with.
Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
A uh four point zero uh in biblical studies throughout
my whole entire bachelor's and master's program, even got an
associate's degree, but went to school for almost six and
a half seven years straight.
Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
Didn't stop until I, you know, have started my.
Speaker 4 (01:04:17):
Doctoral program at Hustle Bible College.
Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
Want to finish it.
Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
But trying to find the capacity and time to do
it so I can dedicate time to the studies. But
I have already passed at least two of my semesters
of a doctoral program at for Bible College. They said,
you wouldn't do it, You may not ever do it.
But I usual to drive it for us to say
(01:04:44):
I can do all things through Christ, who gives me
strength and wisdom and knowledge and understanding and everything else.
Speaker 3 (01:04:53):
I mean when I say your boy don't qualify for it.
Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
He may qualify for it because he got the wounds
and the scars and the wisdom and the knowledge and
understanding behind it.
Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
But man, no, if it was up to me, I
would have been a pediatrician.
Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
Because of love kids.
Speaker 4 (01:05:17):
So I would have been a pediatrician if I were
I wanted to be a doctor, And if I.
Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
Were to be a doctor, that's the type of doctor
that I.
Speaker 4 (01:05:24):
Would want to be because of the love and the
passion that I have for just seeing little kids kind
of grow up in that early stages of life. But
if you trust God and you don't about you what
you need to do, I will be a doctor before
my life spanning over.
Speaker 3 (01:05:42):
But it just won't be no pediatrician. Wow. You know
that's just like what you said. I thought I was
going to be a rapper.
Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
But yeah, it don't mean you know, it don't mean
I can't write no good song. It's just know that's
not the priority. You know. You know, I can clearly
see when God points out what is and is not
the priority, and the priority is always connected to what's
(01:06:15):
going to help the most people through the hardest things
based on something you have. Okay, Yeah, it doesn't mean.
It doesn't mean you can't write a song. It's just
you need to be writing books.
Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
Yeah, yeah, and and and and.
Speaker 4 (01:06:34):
Be okay with going back to what we talked about
last night and embracing the place.
Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
Yes, yes, embracing it. You know, just like just like
when we spoke about, you know, the impact of meeting
people where they are, there's impact in embracing where you
currently are and being honest and truthful about that. Yes,
there's so much blessing that God already has preserved in
(01:07:05):
that waiting for us to be honest with where we
are and embrace that. And then man, you start you
start to see. I know I'm preaching to the choir
when I say that, but then you know, I start
to see I start to see, you know, embracing where
I already am. You start to see how much God
(01:07:27):
has already given you. You might be praying for something
that's right there besides you. Yes, sir, God's just waiting
on you to be honest with where you really are.
Speaker 3 (01:07:40):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
And I can see people having a hard time with that,
being addicted to social media in today's time. But you know,
you know, along with fasting and being disciplined, you know,
it's all a part of it. You know, when you
embrace where you are, and then when you embrace where
you are, you're able to see where God is in
(01:08:02):
real time with you specifically, Thanks sir, Yes, sir, but
a man brother, So yeah, So I believe I have
what I need and and I know for a fact
this is going to be a phenomenal peace that's written
(01:08:26):
for this feature. Man, this is gonna be It's gonna
be off the chain. It's gonna be nice.
Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
That concludes this episode of Legacy HSV, preserving the stories
of Alabama's founders, business owners, and visionaries. Today we had
the honor of sharing the legacy of Jonathan Hambric, a
man who's learned to trust God with all his heart,
lean not on his own understanding, and embrace the place
He's been planted from Big John's Barbecueing Company to My
(01:08:55):
Kitchen HSV to Sam and Taylor's Icy treats. Every plate
in every scoop is more than food. Its faith in action,
its family in focus, and it's a legacy being built
one day at a time. Legacy Preservation Date August fourth,
twenty twenty five.
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