Episode 89 - From Drinking A Smoothie To Creating An Empire With Keon Davis

Nicky Saunders  
whats poppin whats poppin whats poppin. Welcome to Nicky And Moose. I'm Nicky, That's Moose What's up Moose?

Mostafa Ghonim  
What up y'all?

Nicky Saunders  
And we have a very special special episode today. Let me I'm now gonna start with the air horns like I normally do. Okay, I want to say one of the best smoothies I ever had. Period. Let's start with that air horn. Okay. My man has been on you may know you may do this network revolt he recently just got a key to the city. Okay. I'm talking about none other than CEO of smooth and groove. Qian Davis. Moose how we feeling?This is gonna be a great interview. I feel it.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Yeah, yeah, no, I'm excited about this one I remember. And the way I found out about him, like you told me was back in the day to the EBB cause those of you who are familiar with Breathe University, this was the brother who would be on asking questions and really just adamant about learning and I was like, oh, yeah, no, I can kind of connect the dots so I haven't met met officially I haven't had a smoothie. We're gonna have to fix that as well. But I'm excited for this moment. It's gonna be fun,

Nicky Saunders  
Man, let's just get into this intro

Jaymie Jordan  
Two kids from Queens cut from a different cloth now joining forces helping you to elevate your personal brand Yeah, I'm talking about Nicky and moose bringing you a never before seen perspective into the mindset the mentality the behaviors the driving force, more importantly the stories behind the people and brands that you know love the most

Nicky Saunders  
All right, we not gonna wait no longer let's bring the man of the hour Mr. Smooth and groove himself

Qian Davis  
what's up? What's up? How yall doing?

Nicky Saunders  
How you feeling?

Qian Davis  
Man, I feel amazing. I feel amazing. I feel good, man. I just to be on here with y'all to man. I know what the work yall doing the work yall done, you know, individually together. You know what I mean? And just everything that you guys are putting together, man, it's off the chain. So just being here, man. First and foremost. Just it feels amazing.

Nicky Saunders  
I love it. I love it. You like it? I love it. All right, you like it? I love it. But real quick, real quick. Um, for our people who don't know you who don't know you, you know, there may be like a few people right now that many you well known in the Atlanta area, for sure. Right? Even celebrities know you. But for the you know, the few people who don't give the people who you are.

Qian Davis  
Man, it's a it's a long list, but who I am. I'm Qian Davis, I'm the owner and CEO of smooth and groove. I was born and raised. While I was born in Florida, I was raised to Anderson, Indiana, the oldest of four boys, Bob had me and 15 the first the first the first the first the first, you know, the whole the whole story without the Pops growing up, you know, having to be the example having to create first go to college versus to do all those different things, man. But all in all, I had opportunity to go to Tuskegee University, where I play ball, I play football pledged Kappa, I got two degrees almost flunked out two times, you know, but finished up two degrees. And then I started my business from here. So now what I'm doing now is, you know, the smoothing Group company, we created a 2011, I had opportunity to work with, again, some of the largest brands in the world. I mean, anybody you can think of from target to Tyler Perry to wild N out to anybody that you can possibly think about probably working with them in some type of capacity or another. But when I first started when I started Auburn University, I was on campus every single day, and I'm talking about, but we was making bank, but it was making bank. You know what I mean, we was doing that selling smoothies. So it was just great to be able to kind of create something, you know, kind of create something on your own, and, and kind of be responsible for your own well being be responsible for like what you do what you eat, you know, the whole night because when I came out, you know, of course, I didn't graduate when I was supposed to, you know, as an athlete, you know, you I'm having a good time. I'm doing all the parties. You know, I'm playing football. And it took me a little longer to get out. Right. And so what I did was I had an opportunity to get a job but regions bank, you know, so I'm coming out mind you. I'm the first the first the first the first the first to do everything. So I had opportunity to get a job at Regent's bank. While I'm like wanting to help everybody right I'm at the bank, everybody gonna get a loan? Everybody's gonna get some money on me. And why didn't take a freshman course on my freshman, my freshman class second semester English. I didn't take it. So I got all the way up to graduation module with this job with regents. It was 1500 applicants, they take five out of those five come out, yeah, your own bank, and then you kick me rollin, right. So when I didn't graduate, I lost the job. You know, so I couldn't do it. And so I had to figure something out. So I started selling cars. So I took professional selling, you know, I was pretty good at selling. So I did pretty good at selling cars. But I realized that the money wasnt mine, right? I'm beating myself up at the morning, eight at night. And no matter what I do, like any moment, they can tell me hey, look, you gotta go. So, at that time, I was reading this book called The Alchemist. And we all heard about the book, The Alchemist, right. That was the first book I've ever read in my life. Yeah, it's the first book I've ever read in my life cover to cover, right, and I did it twice. And in that book, it really, you know, it talks about personal omens, and you know, your destinies and all that type of stuff. And I was like, Man, I could be doing something, I could do something else, right. So I first started looking into opening up a club. And so I go to look at these clubs and rent and all the stuff on these buildings. The first one I looked at was $12,000 a month, just for the rent. I was like, Well, I don't think I'm ready for the clubs yet. I don't think I'm ready for that yet. You know? Yeah. So it was it was tough. But then after that, you know, I still was working and being one of my friends was talking about how much excess money we spent. And so he was talking, he was like, bro, I spent, I told him, I spent like, 2000 dollars in the bar. You know, I'm still a party guy. I'm make sure everybody drink good. Having a good time, right? Well, he was like, brah spend two grand in the gym. And I'm like, how you spend 2000 hours in the gym, right? He was like, Dude, I got a smoothie bar in there. Right? He was like, he sells smoothies, or wraps and salads. And he was like bras before defeated. I was with him every day. So I worked out in a gym that had a spot like that, but they weren't doing a with it. So I was like, dang that seems like something I can do. So I inquired about it, like, Hey, what did it take to you know, get this spot, and it was like, well, we're really trying to get rid of it. And so when they told me that I was like, Well, what I need to do to get it right? And from there, it actually took me three months from that initial conversation. I went back to the car lot, and I was selling cars. And I told myself by this month, it's not September was gonna be my last month selling cars. So it took me three months from that initial conversation. Create a brand created me you create recipes test and trial stuff learn the market, learn the industry, you know, I'm saying like everything that I need to know about opening up in this smoothie sector. And three months later, I opened up. So September, the last September 12 2011, is what I opened up in the gym for the first time.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Wow, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. So So then, so then how does the brand expand from something that you're doing at the gym, to becoming its own independent thing? Right? Because like, I imagine at some point, you end up going on your own right, or are you still in that location as well?

Qian Davis  
So what happened was, you know, in that gym, it was I was in Auburn. So everybody that was anybody worked out in that gym, right? So we had all the coaches on the football teams on a, you know, a lot of athletes came in a lot of the people administration. So in the city of Auburn, if you was on campus, you was kind of like you can write your check, right, that's where everybody wanted to get to this campus. But everybody that worked on campus, everybody that made decisions came through the gym, right? So I had created relationships with people that I didn't even know I was creating relationships with, just by trying to sell them a smoothie when they came to work out, you know, so when I had an opportunity, six months later, I opened up another spot in another gym, which was in Columbus, Georgia. So it's like an hour away an hour time difference, right? So me just being me, like, I'm just gonna hustle, right? I can out hustle anything, I'm gonna just make this work. But I was opening up in Alabama, and I was closing in Georgia, right? Or I was opening in Georgia and closing in Alabama. So at the time, I didn't have no systems. I didn't have no processes. I aint have no connie falls at this time. Right, you know, no Connie at the time.

Nicky Saunders  
Shout out to Connie.

Qian Davis  
Tiny, I would just did you know, so I would just strictly just hustling. And so what happened was, it was kind of running me in the mud. Because, you know, of course, you're trying to maintain something, if something goes wrong with Georgia, and I'm in Alabama, it just wanted to be wrong, right. So I made the decision to just close down to Georgia location and just focus on my my spot in Agra and just focus all my attention to energy there. And so when I did that, and made that decision, I ended up being the guy that was responsible to bring people on campus, right all university. So when I met him, he like, hey, you know, we don't have a meeting, we'll sit down, we can bring you on campus. We love what you're doing. The people that are the decision makers was already fired from anyway, you know, so I didn't even know that. So he was like, Have you ever thought about putting your concept in a food truck? And at the time, I didn't know what food truck was, you know, so I was like, hey, now but if that's what it takes to get on campus, sign me up, right? So he's like, Alright, cool. We're gonna bring you on next semester. I signed the contract everything but I didn't have a food truck at all. I didn't even know what a food truck was, you know, so I went back. I researched it. I was like looking it up? I'm like, Dang this Bucha 6070 $80,000. Right, this back in 2013, you know, when it wasn't as big as it is now? And I'm like, bro, I don't have this like are my mind you? I'm the first first first first first. I don't have nobody that I can look to to be like, hey, look, I got this great opportunity. This is what it is, you know, I need a little help. You know, I don't have no investor. I didn't know nothing about any of that stuff. And so at the time, it was just like, I gotta figure this junk out. Right? I gotta do. I did the hard part was to get the deal, right. I got the deal. So I had to, I had to do what I had to do. And long story short, man, I ended up realizing I was at the gas station. And so I look, I was looking around, and I was like, Hey, that was like a, like a food truck. It was a Frito Lay truck to do deliver potato chips. Right. So I'm, that's the same type of truck. You know what I mean? So I started looking up those trucks. Are those a little cheaper, right? You can get over three $4,000 You know what I mean? So then I started go back to that to the drawing board. So we all seen the movie, the founder, right? So you remember the part in that movie when they were all on like the tennis courts. And they were drawn out how they wanted the equipment to be like this was in 2013. I had did that in a truck. Like I had already drew my truck out on piece of paper. I knew everything that I wanted, I did the front, you decide you to top up the back, you like everything that I wanted, or the whole thing I already had to set up. And so when I did that, man, I just had to find a potato chip truck. And so one of my lot of brothers actually worked for Frito Lay, and I bought my first food truck from him. I did I had to I had to build it out. You know what I mean? So when I got the truck, everybody, you know, everybody tell you all the time, like, Hey, look at what you get it by just hit me up. I'm gonna come through, I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna hold this, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna show you how to do this. And then when you get it, they ain't nobody there. Right? That's correct. You know, I mean, so man, I'm talking about literally, literally, I got a contract with the university to write my own check. I got the food truck. I bought the truck for $2,100 off off for auction, right? The truck sitting in front of my apartment and my house. I don't have no help to build this truck out, right. So I'm in the gym again, I'm going back and forth to the gym. I'm in the gym every single day, again, from 8am to 9pm. Every single day, I'm working that job. So there was a guy in there that you know, he was coming in, he always possible this from me. He was like, hey, like what's going on your energy down your energy different, you know, like, what's going on? He's like, Man, I got this truck, man. I got this contract with Auburn. Everybody's telling me to go help me. Ain't nobody coming through. He like, oh, just bring it by the house i gotchu, I'm like, there you go. Right. You know, I'm saying like somebody else said a wolf tickets, right? So a couple days go pass I see. And he was like, Hey, you got somebody to help? And I'm like, Nah, he was like, Well, I thought you're gonna bring it by the house. I'm like, man, let me go get this truck and bring it by the house. So what I did was inside my truck, like I was saying, I already have my drawings. I didn't even these weren't sketches. Like, now he's wearing blue friends. These are just drawings that I did with a ruler and a piece of paper that I still got in my notebook, right? Well, I went in my truck and did the same thing. So I knew all the measurements of the windows, I knew all that stuff that I was gonna say I knew where the sink and everything was gonna go. So I went into truck and I drew everything with a sharpie and a ruler. So I pretty much had a blueprint of everything that was gonna go in my truck that was already there. So when I dropped the truck off to him, he seen a spot for Windows, the first thing he did was cutting windows out, boom, first day Windows kind of I'm like, oh, yeah, it's on and popping Right? So in the gym, I was probably making 2- $300 a day. You know what I mean? That's what I was living off of, you know, and it was my money. It was it was money. I was making creative doing all that stuff. So I was saving like 100 $150 a week to put towards buying stuff for this food truck. Right? So when I think about it today, I'm like, Well, you was tripping. But this is what I had, you know what I mean? And I didn't wait to try to get a business loan or get somebody to give me something. It's like, I'm gonna use what I got. And I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go get it. Right, I'm gonna use what I got right now and figure out how to do the rest. So you gotta you know, the Habitat for Humanity spots. Yeah. You know, I'm saying the rehab where they they take old stuff, so I was buying stuff out of there. Right? So I'm buying plugs and wires and this and that. And I'm buying stuff and I'm putting it in the food truck. I'm buying it I go put in a truck. So now I'm at this point where we like hey, look, Sunday we're gonna come in and we're gonna bang this thing out right? So I don't spend all my bread by these little pieces of equipment that I thought was gonna work. Well, we get in there and it's eight o'clock in the morning. I'm excited. I'm like oh, we finna bang this junk out im finna have my truck we're gonna be ready to rock and roll right? But when I did that joint, he was like he's looking at all the stuff he going through it and he looking confused me I'm over I'm excited as well. I'm happy as of right he looking confused. And so what he said was he was like, Bro we can't use none of this I'm like what you mean he like bro we can't use none of this. Mind you i done spent all my bread on this junk Right right. So i spend all my bread so he was like bro you got used i bought used plugs about wires we didnt even know if this stuff worked. You know what im saying, I'm buying stuff that we didn't even know work right. So he like bro we can't use none of this. I was devastated. And this is the first time the reason I'm saying this. This is the first time Then I had to meet my own soul, right? So this is the very first time I had to meet my soul. So when I left it, I'm talking about I was crushed, right, I'm devastated. I'm thinking we finished just hit the ground running. And I'm one step closer to this contract, I'm gonna be able to take care of this, I won't be able to make this bread, you know, all these different things. But I went home. And like this the first time this ever happened to me, and I would just walk outside, I had a little patio in the back, you know, I can see the trees, I can see the streets and everything like that from the back. And so when I did that joint, it was like, Hey, I went outside, and I was like, dog, I just let it ride. I'm so mad. I was crying. Luke Roscoe nose snot bubbles. I mean, like, I was just crushed, right? Because I felt like I felt defeated. You know what I mean? I felt defeated. Like, I got that blow to the chest. But I hit the nose when you just like, the whole your whole stuff messed up, right? Yeah. So when I did that, I kind of cried it out. I got it out. That's what I said, met my soul. I cried it out. Then what ended up happening was the next day, I was like, You know what, let me get my stuff together. Let me figure this junk out. So then I took I got all the stuff that I bought from the store. I took it back, I actually bought some of you know, discount, I got a little bit more money back, you know, when I returned it, because I ain't really put discount on it. Like, you know, say, like when I bought it. I got a few dollars back, right. So then what I did was I, I asked him, I was like, Look, bro, let's go to the store together, and you show me what I need to buy, right? So he took me to the store, we went. And I didn't realize that the little cheap plugs that I was buying, I could have bought a whole pack for $10. And then been straight, you know what I mean? So I didn't, I didn't know what I didn't know at the time. And so he took me to the store. He showed me everything to do. Right. So that was one of the moments that really like really helped me to understand the value in actually utilizing the expert, right? And not trying to actually become an expert yourself in a space that you really don't know. Right? So we talk about coaches, and we talk about, you know, different people that teach you certain things that do what they do, right? That's not building wasn't what I did, you know, so he took me there. And he showed me everything. So when we went back to get the truck, it was like, you know, what, I want you to see, she showed me how to do everything from electrical, plumbing to the insulation, cutting the walls, the tools to use. So he didn't do any work for me at all. Like he showed me how to do it. And he made me do it right. So essentially, I built my whole food truck out for like myself, with his help and his teachings by having a coach that showed me how to do that junk. And that junk worked wonders for me. And from there, it will sky's the limit.

Nicky Saunders  
That's so good. That's, that's so good. Now, from a visual standpoint, right? Let's talk about the design as far as like the logo, the colors and everything like that. And especially since I know there's there's a rebrand coming. me there's a rebrand coming. So talk, talk to the people about the journey about figuring out your logo, figuring out your colors, but as well as that shift that you did with the rebrand, like why was there such because it went from colorful to like almost corporate kind of vibes, like we out here trying to get a big bag now. Right? So talk talk to the people about that, that first process of okay, I know I gotta get a logo. I know, I gotta figure out brand colors. I'm putting it all over the truck, like I'm putting it all over the cups and things like that. So talk to us about that process of the branding.

Qian Davis  
So for me, it was like i used to love the California Raisins, right. So you know, the heard it from the grapevine, you know, the claymation is with the white gloves and glasses. And like that was my joint right. So I used to I wanted a modern day version of the California Raisins. So when I first started it was like, yeah, let me let me recreate this California raisin pie. Right? They ended up doing a concert, everything like you, I don't even eat raisins. But I will watch all the cartoons and everything like that just based on the vibe and energy. So when I was coming up with my concept, I was like, You know what, I want to do a modern version of California Raisins. So all my fruit Gone have the Ray Bands on with the white gloves with the little swag on them a little bit, you know, so that was that was the initial thought. Right? So then I knew that I was doing smoothies. So smooth. I wanted to use the word smooth. I didn't want to use the word smoothie for some reason. And then I knew that like groove, I always think about timings, right. Everything I do, I want to think about timeless, everything has to be timeless for me, right? So when I thought about groove, I knew that at the time, that was the that was the older version of swag, right? Like we don't we don't groove you know me like lit like all that stuff that that was the that was the term that was the word back then. So when I say smooth in it was smooth and rude. So I was like, Oh, that's it right there. What's wrong with that? Originally did that. Nobody ever heard of me? Nobody knew what I was doing. Nobody knew the brand. Right? I was fresh, right? So I kept getting these questions like oh, what are your DJ like? You do music? You're an entertainer. I'm like nah, bruh i sell smooties. You know what I mean? So what I did from there was The first initial thing I did, because my first concept was you didn't know healthy could taste good, right? So it was like, Cool. That was the first tagline, which is cool. But then I had to make I had to create a seal. I had to create a something that I wanted to stamp, right. So I took the fruit and I put them in the inside and I put smoothies at the top that make you dance right so because all of this is named after dances, so I wanted something to be a little different. I didn't want like tropical passionate or mango Heaven or this. I wanted the Tootsie Roll, I wanted the nae nae, I wanted the oou kill em right. I wanted to give you a feel about you know, I'm saying when you came to the spot, so you got somebody Oh no, the Tootsie Roll is a Tootsie Roll. Right? It gives us two feelings right? So I always want to tap into people's feelings and emotions, when we're doing a transaction, right? So when I did that, I'm like, Alright, cool smoothies that make you dance point blank period. Right? So you know, you get that plate of food, you know, the first thing you do when you eat some good food? Well, you gone oh, you know, I'm saying you're gonna dance. I'm like, boy i put that in the cup. You know what I mean? So that was the whole like visual for that. So I created a seal that I could just stamp on everything. So I wrote that out for a long time. But then what happened was, from a distance, right, I looked at things from a distance from a distance, you couldn't really read it, right? From a distance, you knew the brand, just because of the look at the consistency of everything that I do with the brand. But you really couldn't read it if you didn't know the brand, right? So then I was like, Alright, cool. People know the brand. Now let me remove the seal. And so now it's just back to the fruit on top of the words and i have smooties that make you dance at the bottom. Now that that brand is what I roll with forever, you know what I mean? And that's what we just stuck with. And we kept pounding it. And so, you know, for me, I will always do things where I want to just like I believe in flooding the block, right? I believe in flooding the block, I believe in flooding, flooding, block flooding, black, no matter if you see it or don't see it, just keep flooding, and eventually you're gonna get tired of seeing it and you got to respond, right? That's how i used to do when i used to throw parties. We just gone flood everything. You know. So that's what I did. Everything that I wore was smoothe and groove, everything that I did was smoothe and groove. Everything that I drank out of any any cups, like I don't wear any brands. To this day, I don't wear a brand unless my brand is on it. Right? All the shirts that i own are blank, you know what im saying, like everything is blank until my brand is on it. You know, because I believe there's no brand that's paying me right? Until I got my own brain. I'm not gonna just rock Nike just because it's Nike, everybody like Nike? Well, me and Nike gonna partner I'm gonna rock Nike like that, right? So that's, that's the thing and the concept that I look at, because I got my own brand, why don't want people to wear my brand, right, just like everything else. So once we started doing that, I started wearing everything on my shirt, I got ties, and blazers and sweat suits, and, you know, anything that you can think of, I had my brand on, right. And so it worked. You know, I used to give out T shirts, just randomly, it'd be random one day, I'll get a t shirt, I'll just give them out. People were right. And so the transition happened was recently I got a divorce. And so I really wanted to like upgrade my whole life, right? I wanted to upgrade who I was as a person on the upgrade, you know, everything about my business, because we all know, like to this day, like your business is a representation of you. Right? The Nicky and Moose show is only going to go as far as Nicky and Moose. So as Nicky and moose rose, the Nicky and Moose oose show is going to grow, right? The brands that you represent being the face of the brand, you have to grow with the brand and the brands grow with you. Right. So as I grow, you know, as a certain in a certain timeframe. It was like, at a certain level with the with the fruit notice though, that's where I was mentally. Right. Those were my target mark, those would I was talking to that was my audience. That's how I thought right? And once I did this upgrading the switch and the change in my mentor, I really doubt that in my target market, right? I've grown if it weren't for the longest time I didn't drink wine. I drink wine now. You know what I mean? So it's like see now

Oh, you fancy now?

Nicky Saunders  
you know now because we're rebrand

Qian Davis  
Yeah, we gotta get right, we're gonna upgrade the palette, right? So what I did that though, I started to realize like, my customer has actually upgraded as well. So my same customer don't, they don't want the same things anymore. Right? So I can't even talk to them the same way. So what I did was, I'm talking about what I've done there. My avatar and we talked about avatars. We all know that avatar and target market or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, right. I dialed it all the way down to her name being killed. Right. I know what type of track Music Kim like, you know, I know where she traveled to. I know what she drink. I know what she eat. And how many times she workout a week. I know how much money she makes. Right? I know the things that she do consistently. What'd she do for fun? Where she Where does where is our transit going? Right. So when I started to dig into all of that stuff, it's like Alright, cool. Well, my brand right now doesn't talk to kim, my brand talk to her kids. See what I'm saying My brand talk to her kids. I'm trying to talk to Kim Kim, the decision maker. Kim gone bring em because she gonna pay for it. Right? You know what im saying. So now I got to talk to the decision maker. Now what I also did was I kept the fruit logo and everything for my kids line. Right. So one of the things that I know about McDonald's what really made me dumb successful wasn't the cheeseburger wasn't any of that stuff. It was the Happy Meal. Yep, you know what im saying, we all grew up on a happy meal. So we're going to get my mother happy meal because of the toy. It ain't even about the food. It's the toy. I want to go get the toy. Right? You go to happy meal to get the toy I guess we got to come with you. Momma aint Going to buy something else to eat she already gonna bring you over there she gone get her something to eat. Not only that its that as a kid you grow up, you grow up on McDonald's now it go from it go from you just getting a toy and a Happy Meal to let me get the double cheeseburger. Right. Now you go from the double cheeseburger to the quarter pounder, as you get a teenager, right? They grow up and you go from the cheese to the Big Mack. As you become an adult, you know, I'm saying until you understand your palate different to you understand your change, right. That's how they got you forever. They got you in a pipeline forever.

Nicky Saunders  
So you went from smooties to wine, you went from smoothies to wine, I get it now I get it.

Qian Davis  
Straight up. So what I'm doing is what I'm doing is I'm talking to kids early now. So you know, it's a it's a huge gap in child obesity. It's a huge gap, even under the educational and health and wellness space between kids and the disparity between kids, adults, teenagers, all that type of stuff, right? So what I did was I'm like, You know what, I'm gonna keep my fun, colorful brand for the kids because I can target those kids, right? But also, I'm gonna make this brand corporate, to where we're gonna go into retail, and I'm gonna target everybody else. You certainly you know what I mean? So now I can talk to both parties, right? Because I mean, think about what McDonald's did they call it McDonald cafe? No, no, I'm saying McDonald cafe. Because what Starbucks did, it wasn't about nobody else was Starbucks. So when he was supposed to jump down and start doing they thing,Mcdonalds was was like, Alright, cool. Let's turn this into a cafe. Right? That's what everybody want to do. They want to come to work, chill, kick it, get the Wi Fi do the whole nine. Right, let's take a little piece out of starbucks book and do the same thing. You know what I mean? So when you start making those adjustments like that, and understanding why, and where this is gonna take you, then now the reason I changed my brand, was that I'm trying to go retail, I'm trying to be the largest smoothie brand in the world, right? I don't, I don't care about just being a mom and pops brand. Right? I'm going to be the largest smoothie company in the world. Right? So I need to look as such, I need to I need to communicate a search. My messaging needs to be as such, my packaging needs to look as such, right. So now I can set my own standard because I'm coming to a space this is this is a $25 billion dollar space. Now. In that space, there's nobody that looks like me that's hitting this this market is hard. There's nobody that's trying to attack the market from all angles. You know what im saying, like I got I got smoothies now that I can send to your house, you can make your own smoothies in your own blender and drink them out of the cup that I sent it to you in. Know what i mean? there's nobody, say it again.

Mostafa Ghonim  
Was that a COVID? Like a COVID adjustment to be able to send someone the ingredients and have them pop them on at the house and just get their stuff rolling? Was that a COVID? adjustment? How did that come about?

Qian Davis  
That's a loss adjustment. That's a, that's a defeating adjustment. So I did a show where revolt was talked about earlier. It's called bet on black. And me I can pitch right, I can sell my business, I can sell my brand. I can pitch I know my numbers. I know I've been doing it for a long time. But this is a show that was on revolt with targeted revolt. And out of 12 contestants, the top grand prize was 200,002nd was 130 75/4 was 50. You know, I'm saying like everybody was getting some big bread. So everything that I'm going to do on my course, my interest in my career, I came into this day like, Hey, this is my opportunity to bounce back. Right? All I got to do is do what I do best is go up there and do my thing. It's 12 People I can't be I can't get the top 4 out of 12 people. You know what I mean? So each episode, what they did was they had three people pitch, they eliminate two and a one will go to the final round, right? And then the final round is where the big pitch big money is made. Well, what happened was, I mean, I'm talking about I was projected to win this whole thing, right? I'm talking about from contestants to producers to production. They Like, this boy here solid, right? He's solid so I'm like at least top three. Well, I got eliminated first

Nicky Saunders  
why?

Qian Davis  
I got eliminated first but I'm talking about they hit me hard. So what I always told myself was I got a governor on myself, right? I never tried to get too high or too low. Like I put a governor no matter what happens. I'm right here no matter what happens no matter what I accomplished no matter what I don't what I lose no matter what. I stay in that space right there right. Well, this I allowed myself to get super high. I expected to win this. You know I'm saying and one of my biggest kryptonite says disappointment. So this disappointment is a kryptonite for me. Right? So I'm also super high. Yeah. So, for me, I think that you're talking about disappointment like either I disappoint someone or someone disappoints me, right? That's what reason one of the things that I had to realize while I work alone a lot, right? I don't really take on partners, you know, but I will work night and day until I get this thing to Congress. You know what I mean? I will bet on myself at all costs, no matter what, you know, and the disappointment really came from childhood. I think, everybody, we all got childhood traumas, you know, I'm saying I'm not a therapist, or anything, but I've been through a lot of stuff now to work through a lot of stuff. And so I realized that childhood trauma and disappointment came from me not having my pops, you know, and expecting that and trying to, like, always be let down. By all like it, you know, that it's sad all the time. Like, Oh, it's okay. Right, that phrase, Oh, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay. I understand. You don't say, like that. Get you. Those phrases right there. They'll, they'll power they'll power on. And then eventually, it'd be one thing that probably don't have anything to do with anything. Right? That it makes you explode and blow up because of all the stuff that was piled on, on that. I'm good, right? I'm okay. It's fine. I'm good, right? But we're really not, you know, I'm saying so those are the things that I started to realize it like, do my own healing, both therapy, like all this type of stuff, just trying to be a better me, I realized that those were some of the things that I was doing. So me knowing that disappointment like this, this last disappointment, like was a jaw breaker. Like I'm talking about, I thought I was fighting Tyson mhow it, right, it shut me down for like, a couple of months, you know? And it had me in a space of like, confusion, right? It's like, Oh, how did I lose? You know, but the word that I kept hearing was update. Right? I kept hearing update, update, update. Update. I'm like, bro, what are you talking about? Update? Right.

Nicky Saunders  
So thats the feedback that they gave you like is that something, This is before that?

Qian Davis  
No, it was the voice that I kept hearing in my own head. 

Nicky Saunders  
Oh, cause im like it was what was the feedback? Because were you so overwhelmed with the disappointment that it the feedback didn't catch on? Or was that voice that you said of like update update took over whatever the feedback happened, so that

Qian Davis  
So they didn't even they didn't even really give you any feedback, because it was Schultz on the show here until like, we did the show in like, December. The show didn't pan until like January like January, you know what I mean? Early February. So I didn't know what the feedback was. They didn't they didn't show any of the deliberation. I just like what up their actions, a few questions that we went back to we came up together, it was eliminated, right? And I'll send you I'll send you the footage of the video to us on YouTube. I'll send you the footage of it as well, so you can kind of see it. But like, when that happened, I mean, you can see it on my face. I was like what I know, bro, you gotta be playing. You don't say like, Hey, no way you just keep me on first. Right? And but when I when I when it happened, like it was just a blow to the chest. Right? I went in a dark space for a while I came back. And I think I fired everybody at my store. And like, I mean, I just like went down a spiral. You know what I mean? But like, when I did that joint, I kept hearing there were updates. And so when I went back to like, all of my research that I've done, I'm a big research, like, I'll find anything out. I know all the details, like, I'm gonna find it out, right. I'm going back to my research and went all the way up to 2020. So from 2011, all the research that I did in this industry went up to 2020. And so when it when I realized that I'm like, oh, that's what that is, right? So when I started to look back at, like doing more research, I realized that Bolthouse Farms is the number one selling smoothie company in the United States. Right, okay. Bolthouse Farms, you never, you never seen a store, you've never seen an advertisement. You've never seen anything. Bolthouse Farms make smoothies in a bottle, and they put them on retail shelves, they sell more units. Anybody else? Right? So I'm like, oh, okay, so that was the first aha moment, right. So then I realized that when I did my research, I was looking at the subway effect, people want to see the ingredients you put in, they want to know that these are fresh, they want to know, you know, they want to watch you do everything. But then during the pandemic, and after the pandemic, people don't really care about that anymore. They want something as fast as they can get it. They want to get as many as often as they can get it. They just wanted to taste good. Alright. So then when I looked at Bolthouse Farms, they don't want smoothies in the bottom up, like, Oh, let me try this. I figured that play out, right, we can put the smoothies in the bottom. Now, it's said to me several months, Billy that you don't drink right here on the spot. You're gonna buy six or seven of them at a time because you don't take some back home and put them in a freezer, and you're gonna drink on him for the rest of the week. Right? So now my average ticket go from 12 $13 to 14 $50 Because I'm selling six, seven, you know, smoothies at a time opposed to selling one hand to hand combat right. Then on top of that, now back to what moose was saying. Is that now I can send these jokes out, I can ship the shocks out. Now I don't have to just sell to people that come into the store, or people that I'm actually going out on my food truck with. Right? I can you can order it, I can send it to your crib. I never got to see you got to see me. Right, but it's the same transaction. You know, I mean, so that's what I started to look at that space is like, man, it's a lot more that we can do in this space, if we just maximize the areas and opportunities that we have. So that's what I played came about.

Mostafa Ghonim  
I love that. I love that. I love that. Yeah. Now you can tell. Because I know like I was in the hospitality industry. And I would consider obviously, it's not necessarily restaurant, but food and beverage, all similar in an industry standpoint. And that industry is no joke. Like, that's a tough industry margins are very slim. So every mistake is very costly. That's why for me, it's always just interesting to know, like, how did the business knowledge come about? You know, so it seemed like there's some wins, paired with some losses that have brought together some of these ideas in terms of like, okay, here's how to do this. Here's how to not do that.

Qian Davis  
Yeah, so, for me, I had a lot of I had a lot of, I had a lot of hills, but I had a lot of wins, too, right. So when we first we first opened up on campus in a truck, my first, probably first couple of weeks there, we was averaging four or five hours a day, you know, we was we was cleaning easy, 14 $50 weeks, selling smoothies, you know, but at the same time, I didn't know money. I didn't know, you know, I didn't know what I was supposed to do with this much. But I didn't know why they made that much money, you know. And so as the course went on, you know, you kind of get stagnant you kind of get stale, you kind of get, you know, it's routine, like I'm gonna make it back, you know, that song blow blow to check and get it right back. You know what I mean? Like that type of do. So that's the mentality that I had at the time was like, Oh, I'm good, you know, and then I didn't go to the NFL. So I was I was doing things that the guys in the league was doing, right, I got a whole bunch of expensive watches and stuff like that. And I was buying that had no real value, you know, to me at the time, but it made me feel good, you know. So during the course of that time, I used to just like I was I was doing so much and I was opening up stores different, right? I was buying everything cash, I didn't build my credit. I didn't do any of that stuff. I just knew cash was king, and I was making a lot of it. Right? And that cash was was tied to my identity. So when I look at my bank account every morning, I'm looking at my account. It made me feel good, right? It's like, wait, what? Like you do or your day, right? But it was only until when I lost everything right? I got audited three times by the state of Alabama. And I took everything from me. And I looked at my account one time that thanks if you did not know negative and that hurt right? That hurt. And I see you I said you got to think you'd like. But what I tell you that account hit 50,000 dollars negative I didn't know what to do. I had I have four stores open I had two food trucks. I had stores like Walmart at the time. You know, and I all I can do is work on my cash. I can anything that anybody swipe a credit card that they go to. I'm also put it in the trash can. Right? So I just It took me three months to get down to zero. You know, and then so finally I just start shutting down my stores one by one. I got all my stuff packed all my stuff up. And we moved to Atlanta. Right. So that's when I first I think that's when we first met Nicky when uh when to win when he had that? That basketball tournament?

Nicky Saunders  
Yup, yup.

Qian Davis  
Right. When he had the best and Jalen did a basketball tournament. So true. This is this is I don't think I've ever told the story like live or anything. When I reached out to Jalen about the basketball tournament to feed the campers. I was dead broke, right? It was I was so fresh to Georgia, I had to go back to Alabama to get my food truck to do that event. Right. On top of that, I had to borrow about $220 to buy a product to give it away to the campus. It was at the event. So what I did was I was like, You know what, hey, I'm gonna come through, I just want the opportunity. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna feed on a campus, right? Because II Yeah, hit me up was like, bro, how much you gonna charge? You know, I'm like, No, we could I'm gonna do this for me. I make my money on the parents, right? So I met with the parents, I feed on a campus for free. So it was like 200 Some cameras there. I'll send them off for free or whatnot. But I had to borrow money two days in a row to go buy product to give it away for free, right. But what I always understood was, one is relationships destroyed. Right? Relationships destroyed rules. The other thing is the opportunity is never an opportunity. Right? So that opportunity, the opportunity is never an opportunity. So that opportunity to work with them was not the actual opportunity. Right? But I always wanted to build value and bring value to anywhere that I can and build real true genuine relationships right? So now I mean, we got to relationship see we got to lay like these relationships that you know are real they're not just you know, IG or just, you know, I'm saying something like that. So that was one The things that I did in that space and then what ended up happening from that was, again, he big time, right? Everybody knows he, he did the video like, Hey, bro, like, let me post a video if we got to show some love some type of way, right? You know, I mean, so he did a little video in front of the truck told everybody hey, if you need a smoothie truck in Atlanta pull up on em right and he posted it up. Well, about two weeks later, I get a phone call. Hey, you know, we was looking for a smoothie truck. We think et was talking about a smoothie truck. We wanted to see if he was available for this day. I'm like, Alright, cool. Who is this? This is Tyler Perry studio. The very first contact that I got in a big time space where I could really start making some money or making some rent like some, some traction in Atlanta was because I was willing to give away 400 smoothies to some campers to an event that I already wanted to build a relationship with people from anyway, right. So back to what I was saying before the relation, the opportunity is never an opportunity. Right? Because I know I remember, one time he was talking about somebody trying to charge him double for something because of what he who he was, you don't I mean, but it was like, No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this. And I'm gonna do this to the best of my ability. I'm here to top quality service, as if you paid me, right, but I'm gonna do this junk for free. I'm gonna show you what I do. And so from there, I always understood that the opportunity is never an opportunity.

Nicky Saunders  
That's, that's so good. That's it. Um, okay, so. So this is probably gonna be one of my my last questions. But I would say, um, talk about a story from like, the biggest lesson we already heard about EA, right. But you've worked wild N Out, you know, a whole bunch of celebrities, you've had so many different opportunities. But what was one thing based off a relationship or based off one of these opportunities that you will never do? Again? Mm hmm. Let's take

Qian Davis  
Nah Thats easy. You cant bring everybody with you. 

Nicky Saunders  
oh, break that down come on, come on, hold hold? Well, first of all your speed past and like you didn't just say what you just said, Come on.

Qian Davis  
So what I mean by that is, is that, like, you're preparing for opportunities, right? Everybody else is prepared for that opportunity. That's why you have that opportunity. Right. But what I did was, and what I used to always do was, I will try to put everybody on hold. So it's like brought in took all this time to build these relationships and put myself in this space to prepare myself for this opportunity. Now that you see me in this space, you want to just come along with me, right? But you're not even prepared for this. You know what I mean? So what ends up happening is I put my name behind somebody else, based on a relationship that I've already built by sort of work that I've already done. And I'll let you do your thing, and you come to it. Now you don't tarnish my name and your name, right, because I don't put you in front of my people to showcase what you can do. And you're not necessarily prepared for that. So what I started to do was like, it's nothing against anybody. Right? I gotta make sure that my opportunity to my opportunities, I work for this. I don't know nothing. That's not mine. Right? I don't want absolutely nothing that's not mine. Because I know what I work for. I know the work that I put in, I know the things that I've done, I know the sacrifices I've made, all those different things. So when, like, just recently, I just like I told you guys before we just did to deal with Clorox, you know, I'm saying we just did, we're going to do essence festival, like these are some of the biggest contracts that I've ever gotten, right? But I don't prepare for this job. I don't take enough else. I didn't mess up enough times to know how to make this thing work. I was on a conference call with them. We're going to do some cross branding with some big huge beauty brands, right? What my future they're gonna rent my food truck, we're gonna cross brand, we'll give out smoothies at the essence festival. You know what I mean? So it's like, I prepare myself for that. I've been in a space where I got to do enough L’s Ive been in the space, right I've done enough work. And I've been in a space where like, I don't prepare so much for this opportunity. That now is my time to shine. Now if I get somebody else like hey, you can bring my boy to right that may not have been as prepared has made I installed to the things that he's gone through to get to the space, they're not able to drop the ball. Now we both looking back, you know what I mean? So I just stopped eliminated that completely all the way out.

Mostafa Ghonim  
That's good. That's good. I like it. I like it. Good. So, being where it's at right now, one of the things I've been talking a lot about is like separating a person's self worth from the work that they're doing, right. And again, knowing the food and beverage, the hospitality industry, that's you gonna get you're gonna have to roll your sleeves up and get and get dirty a little bit, right. It's not like a luxury type of work. How are you able to still do that work and do it at the level that you're doing that and not necessary? take take the fuel of Oh, I'm just a smoothie guy, you know, like you're talking big business right now collaborations with big brands, and you know, these other companies, it doesn't seem like you have that, oh, but I'm just a smoothie guy mentality either talking about how you were able to kind of build that up so that when you do get those calls, you're able to handle them appropriately, and make some things work out?

Qian Davis  
That's a great question. I think for me, it's always been like, I've always bet on myself, right? So I mean, completely, I don't care what it is, I don't care what sport it I don't care what it is, I'm gonna bet on myself, right? I know how hard I'm gonna work for this choice. But like, I think throughout the course of the time, it's just always been and I felt like, ah, and I hate the word deserve, right. But I've earned this place. Right? I earned this key. You know, it's like, no matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter what accomplishments don't make them in. Right? Accomplishments don't make you write accomplishments are part of who you are. Right? They don't make you write what makes you It's who you are aside. Right. So like, for me, it's like everybody put their pants on the same way. Some people just got to their space a little faster than other people. That'll make them know better than me. Right? If you cut him a cut me from complete design anyway. Right? It may be some things that he researched a little bit more than I did, you know, some some situation that I had to overcome, and he may not have overcome, you know what I mean? So when I look at people that and all those different things, I'm starting to realize that and I'm just starting to realize this within like, the last few months, it's like me in the things that I've done, I want to I want to go I want to go to the biggest deals that I can possibly go to, because we started a million dollar deal. It takes the same effort of me signing $1,000 deal, right? It just finding out their needs, find out their needs and being able to fulfill those needs. Right? So why am I gonna keep running myself in circles? Trying to chase this $500 event? down all event? All this stuff? I'll just go to the head honcho. Right, let's go. Let's go up top and then trickle it down. If I can't get to me now, let me get to find out if I can do it. Right. So then now it's just about having that confidence within yourself to feel like hey, I can handle this. I can do this. Like you said before, I'm gonna roll up my own sleeves. If I gotta get into it, no pressure. I'll run circles around everybody anyway. Right? I have fun doing this job. But then just knowing that it's a whole completely different side to it, that I've never tapped into. Because for the longest like you said before, I would just smoothie guy, right? It was I was a smoothie guy. I was just hustling. You know, I was hustling. Now I'm doing business. Now it's time to do business. And that's the difference. So that's the separation factor where you start to understand like, Now look, we're not we're not just worried about what we make in a day, we got to forecast going on. This is what we make in this month. This what we plan on doing this year, is how many deals we want to do and understanding the Laurel turn, like we always talk about understanding the marathon right? Understanding it's not a sprint for the longest time while I was doing the sprint and trying to outrun everybody. You're trying to outrun everybody. Now it's like, let me take my time. Let me put these pieces into place. Because now once you put pieces in place, they lay that foundation, there's nothing that anybody can take from you because you don't did the work that she was supposed to do. You don't say. So now when you do that, your foundation is solid. Now you pick and choose who you want to work with. Let you pick and choose what you want to do now people banging your door down, you got to tell people No, I'm not available. Right. That was the that was the toughest thing that I had to do. When when everybody came down for the conference, I think it was the 20 was the 21st 21st it was for it was the 21st or something like that? I think so. Y'all can later there was in Atlanta for those conferences. Yeah. So Ross had a car and bike show. He had recently

Nicky Saunders  
Oh recently, 21st Absolutely.

Qian Davis  
Yeah, it was like 4 conferences that came on at the same time, plus Rick Ross's event And everybody reached out to me to bring the truck out, right. I had to tell everybody, no, because I was going home to get the key to the city. You know what im saying, so imagine, imagine telling these, imagine telling Rick Ross, no, you can't come here, because I'm going to get the key to the city, right? Imagine you don't say it being in the space of being okay, because normally what I would have done is I would have bent over backwards trying to figure out how I could get to these places or put somebody else in a position where they can do this, and then it still wouldn't be right you know what I mean? So I say you know what, I'm not chasing them what I'm attracting and what I've attracted was actually getting a proclamation from my hometown which one of the goals that I wanted to make when I was down you don't say it's often to embrace this moment, right? Has nothing to do with anybody else not taking anything away from anybody I would have loved to be there right? I'll go the first thing smoking, but this moment was about me and I had to be selfish in that moment to embrace that and that's what made me feel good

Nicky Saunders  
look, I'm speechless this was so fire. I don't even want it to end, but look, we just want Wanna give you your flowers that's why we wanted you on on the podcast because you have been killing it for a while I've been watching the whole journey, right? You even have courses and things like that of how to do exactly what you did with the with the mobile trucking and everything. It's just, it's so fire to and refreshing to just hear the grind and to hear the just the growth. And I told Moose the other day, when when we were on live, I was like, there's this fire bar that had nothing to do with nothing, nothing that we talked about. Right. But I've been on this journey of like, mental clarity and everything. And you were just like, Yeah, you know, prayer is talking and meditation is listening. And I was like, All right, I'm taking that I'm applying it. This is amazing, right? So, like, from from us to you. We just want to give you your flowers. I think my last last question that I asked all our guests, is what is your three favorite books that changed your life when it comes to a branding and business side of things?

Qian Davis  
Let's dig right in and business. One is contagious.

Nicky Saunders  
That's a good one contagious. That's a good one.

Qian Davis  
The other one is biology. Bui ology. Okay. Buiology, And I think the third would it be the power of habits. Hmm,

Nicky Saunders  
good one. That's a good one. I liked it.

Mostafa Ghonim  
That's what's up. That's what's up. Nah, man. This was, again, a real dope dialogue. I think it's the first time like we said that we've connected but it's cool to see someone like yourself who's really done the work and kind of accumulated all these lessons. I'm a research guy. So when you said, Oh, I had research between 2011 and 2020. I'm like, dang, that's a lot of research. I don't even know like that's, that's a lot of work. So Nah, man, much love to you. Before we close out, give us a little preview on what's coming out next.

Qian Davis  
Oh, man, this is fun. So we got we got a couple of things that we're doing. We got a couple of TV shows that we're working on that we're working with. We actually got to drop those those smoothie cups that I was talking about. We're about to do a real live push with those. I got a an event coming up with a gathering spot where we're going to teach the whole mobile business aspect, right? So you can come in and no matter if it's a boutique, if it's like, whatever it is that you do, we're going to show you how to take it mobile right and the impact that you can have and create your business model. Right. We got a couple of things that we're doing with Pinky, Dave and B, Simone. Right. Well, we're doing some weird revolt with that. And other than that, man, we've all you know, we've been opened up Decatur as well. So it's a store Nicky, this is gonna be the plug. I might be the plug right. Okay. Theres a shoe store, exclusive retail is called Soul play. Right? So they do exclusive retail and then they actually put an arcade on the other side. And we're actually putting our juice bar smoothie bar on the arcade side that will open up in Decatur end of this month. So we're gonna do that as well. So it's gonna be pretty dope. So I'll be the shoe plug if you need me. 

Nicky Saunders  
Hey, I'm saying Nicky and Moose need an official sneaker plug that we will just have talked about in every episode, just like how we talk about Ecamm live. All right, if y'all didn't know Ecamm live is how we powered this whole whole episodes. All in one. Live Streaming pre recording. You see how we shift everything from Qian to Moose to myself to the audio, everything is done based off Ecamm live. So shout out to Ecamm live and if you want to have a free trial of that it is WWW.NickyandMoose.com/ecamm Ecamm. Go check them out. But yeah, I mean, they could get the same slot. I'm just saying they can get the same slot if that's what they want. I clearly show some some some sneakers here and I clearly see I clearly show it but that's just you know, we could talk about that offline. We're gonna talk about that offline. Um, wait before we go because normally we leave the final words to Moose but because you are the guests tell the people where they can find you. And final words from from you. 

Qian Davis  
Uh, they can find me all everywhere on social media be smooth and groove. So smooth and groove across all social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, everything. Everything through LinkedIn, Pinterest, So anything that you can think of is going to be smooth and groove right? Also, I think for me, man, the last words that I would think about that I feel like everybody should, should understand is like, know your value, right? Know your worth, know who you are internally, right? And don't try to compare yourself to what you see on the outside of anybody because everybody's going to show you their best, everybody will do their best, right? So when you at your worst, who are you? Right? When you're at your weakest? Who are you? Right? So understand who that person is. So that when you represent yourself in the world, that there's nothing that can break you in that space, because you've already done the work right? You've already been to the bottom so there's nowhere to go but up, and there's nobody that can say or do anything to change your perspective on you. You know, I mean.