Episode 30 - Your Are The Priority Not Your Boss With Jeremy Joyce

Nicky Saunders: 0:00

What's poppin'? What's poppin'? What's poppin'? Welcome to Nicky and Moose! I'm Nicky! That's Moose! What's up Moose?

Mostafa Ghonim: 0:08

What up y'all?

Nicky Saunders: 0:09

And we are on episode 30! And today we're doing something really, really dope. We got a special guest that is going to make you hungry, that is going to connect with you because he's one of us, right? And he's done brand deals. He's traveled, he's left his nine to five. He's verified he's killing the game. Like I said, you're going to get hungry. Moose, how you feeling about this episode?

Mostafa Ghonim: 0:43

A tough time to record the episode because I'm still fasting but aye, an amazing brother, I got a chance to connect with him on Clubhouse. So I'm excited for this and it's gonna be great.

Nicky Saunders: 0:53

You got to find out who we talking about after that intro!

Jaymie Jordan: 0:58

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, but more importantly, the stories behind the people and brands that you know and love the most.

Nicky Saunders: 1:27

So wouldn't be right if we didn't do but we are, Review of the Week. So this one comes from YourGirl'sFavoriteSIGMA. Okay. Stay said "Killing it: I love this podcast. The flight assessment piece and how they go into the lives of people we know as celebrities helps to bring a fresh perspective. Straight fire." Alright messed up I got it. I got messed up though a little bit. Moose we're on 30! Moose we're on 30!

Mostafa Ghonim: 2:08

That's not bad. Yeah you been a streak though. I know. Three decades, a third of a way to a century. You know, saying? It's kind of a big deal. It's kind of a big deal.

Nicky Saunders: 2:18

It's a huge deal. It's a huge deal. But let's get into this guest because the reason why we The job everyone wants. Everyone wants to get paid to eat. brought him on is because yes, we go through all the celebrities and how to build the brand, how to build your business and everything. But we want to actually bring somebody who's doing it right now. And is just continuing to climb in a very dope way by following his assion and eating. Yo. But if you see...and I'm gonna get to him, I promise you, but if you see his videos, right, it's just look so happy. It's like every single...First off, and I'm gonna ask him, not everything can be good. We're gonna get into like the real like conversations, of is that smile even though it may not be good. You don't have to name the person or the restaurant, but my man is like "This is amazing. Yo", shout out to the YouTube listeners who are viewers who just saw that audio, y'all hear the passion that I have. But let me get into my man, Jeremy!

Mostafa Ghonim: 3:41

There he is!

Nicky Saunders: 3:43

What's up Jeremy?

Jeremy Joyce: 3:45

I'm officially hiring Nicky! I don't know what your fee is, but I need that introduction everywhere I go. What's up Nicky and Moose? Thank y'all for having me.

Nicky Saunders: 3:53

Yo thank you for being here. Thank you look. Um, first off, let's get... I'm

Mostafa Ghonim: 3:56

For real. gonna ask. I'm gonna ask cuz I already brought it up, right? Okay. No, no, no, no, I'm not gonna get into it.

Jeremy Joyce: 4:07

You sure?

Nicky Saunders: 4:07

Let the people know who you, oh no it's going to be the first question though. I'm gonna let people know who you are all that great stuff. Let the people know who you are. Just like quick little, I don't know, two three minutes, however you feel like it. I know you're a preacher, preacher sometimes. So however you feel like it. Aye, I already know.

Jeremy Joyce: 4:26

Well what's up Nicky and Moose? First of all, I want to say you guys, thank you for inviting me on. I feel very grateful. When I got the message I said,"ME?!" Oh, I'm excited. But what's up everybody, thank you guys for listening in. My name is Jeremy Joyce, I'm the founder of Black People Eats and pretty much its just a company that brings joy to the world. We do that by connecting y'all to black owned restaurants. But outside of that, you know, I really just like helping people find their purpose, discover their voice and change the world. Like that's really just who I am. And here's what I do and I try to do it every single day. That's my job to make people happy.

Mostafa Ghonim: 5:06

Love it! Love it!

Nicky Saunders: 5:08

Love that! Look. But okay, I got asked the question, I gottaask the question.

Jeremy Joyce: 5:13

Go ahead. Let's go. Let's go.

Nicky Saunders: 5:15

So, let's, let's do this, right. So for those people who haven't gone to black people eat Instagram, please go right now while you're watching or listening to this, right? But every video You look so like you enjoy every single bite, right? We're gonna get into all the really like special part and then the important part that people come here for. But has there been one that you didn't and you still did a video? Like it was the best thing in the world? How did you go through that? I want to know, let the people know. Don't say names. Unless you're that transparent. Go ahead. I am.

Jeremy Joyce: 6:03

Okay so here's the thing. If I try something, and I don't like, I don't post it.

Nicky Saunders: 6:11

There we go.

Jeremy Joyce: 6:13

Here's why, right? Y'all meet many people in the world, right?

Nicky Saunders: 6:17

Yeah.

Jeremy Joyce: 6:18

It's so many negative people. So why am I gonna be like, Yo, I love the Nicky and Moose podcast. You know, they do their intros really good. But the outros suck. Why am I gonna talk about the outros when you guys have amazing intro? Why don't I just highlight the amazing part. So if one of my strengths is positivity, right, celebrating achievements, and being the force behind optimism, I said, I am only going to highlight what I enjoy, which is what my personal preference is. And if I don't like it, then I won't post a video of me eating it. Because when you look at other cultures, when their doing this food stuff, they don't talk about what they don't like. So I was like, I want to eradicate pessimism in our community. I said, The way to do that is to only show what I enjoy. And that's it and leave it up to the world to decide. And that's it is so crazy, yo, um, that its people who be like, why you got to post on the positive I want to hear the bad stuff. Its people who like, actually say that, which actually shows me there's more work to do. So honestly, that's why I'm doing it. Yeah, I remember I was outside recording, and I was recording something. And I was like, yeah, we get ready to... I was like, oh, cut the camera off, no, cut the camera off. But I would never do that. Because, you know, if you know Nicky got some amazing mac and cheese and her greens is terrible, why am I going to everybody how bad this is instead of saying, This is how good this is? You know, that's the concept that I try to follow. I really got it from the Bible story of Noah. His son exposed his dad instead of covering him up. So it's like look at Jeremy, he do this he do that. And I think a lot of people do that now. They'll try to come to Nicky like Nicky and Moose, you see what that dude doing over there? He over there trippin' instead of going to Jeremy saying Hey, bro. I think maybe you should take a seat for a while. I've noticed you ain't doing too well. So I said if I can take this concept and cover negativity up instead of exposing it. I think it would really be a blessing to people in the world. So that's really like where I got it from.

Mostafa Ghonim: 8:31

Wow, I love that. I love that.

Nicky Saunders: 8:34

It was an early lesson people, early lesson. I know Moose is gonna bring it all the way back. I'm sorry for my spontaneous vibes.

Mostafa Ghonim: 8:42

No, I love it. I love it. Because it definitely like even the way you go about it. It stays true to who you are, you know, I'm saying like grounded in your book of faith and all that which I think is incredible. But tell other people how you got started, man, like I said, I think you probably got I wouldn't call it a job per se. Obviously you're you're you know your own brand. But who doesn't want to get paid to try different foods right, like amazing food and tell the people about it. That's like the most amazing job ever. But tell us how you got started. Man, I'm so intrigued about the concept. And also the business aspect of it. Because, you know, we're super passionate about of course, highlighting black and brown, you know, folks in their businesses as well. So in a very direct way, you're also doing that, but in a way that brings joy and happiness to you. So tell us about how you got started, man. I think that'll be something everyone wants to know.

Jeremy Joyce: 9:33

Yeah. Thanks Moose for that. I appreciate that man. So how I got started was this. There's a place in Chicago called Eataly. Imagine Whole Foods, times ten. This is what this place is, like premium meats, wines, cheese's all that. I went to something called the Septemberfest. It was September of 2017. And I went there and I was like, Hey, you know what? I'm gonna record myself I don't really see black people recording themselves eating. I'm gonna record myself eating to see what happens. Went to this festival, $100 a ticket, all you can eat. I had a smoked fish, a smoked blue fish tuna salad and I'm gonna just eat this. Black folks don't eat stuff like this. I'm just gonna eating. And I recorded my video, I did a cheesy voice over and I was like, I'm gonna just do this. And I noticed as I was recording, I only seen like five minorities there and I'm talking about like, all races.

Mostafa Ghonim: 10:32

Wow!

Jeremy Joyce: 10:33

Hmm. So I went home. I said I'm not going to sleep until I find a free editing app and create a video. Now my degree is in finance. So I was like, I'm not going to sleep until I find a free app. I stood up for like four hours finding an app. Downloaded different apps then I created like a little intro. It's funny because I started with voice overs then I stopped but now back doing them. I did a little voice over like, "yeah, guys, look at the blue fish bla bla bla bla tuna salad this" and then the video went from that to transitioning to me eating it. I sent it to all of my homies. And I was like, Yo, this is your calling, bro. This is hilarious. And I said this video is not gonna get no more than 200 views. You got like 350. So from September, I started just like I'm gonna just do a personal vlog. I'm gonna do food, faith, fashion, finance, right? You know, y'all know people who all over the place that was me. And I met this one girl Her name was Rockford Eats. I drove to Rockford about two hours away from Chicago. I just dm her. I didn't know her but something in me trust to her. And I drove and I hate drive and drove two hours away. This girl was at the time was 23. I was about 25. She had a presentation. She showed me what to do, how I could take pictures as far as like using light, how to post, things like that. She just showed me what she was doing. ...Her last her last piece of advice for me was you need to start a business and I said no. Came home, told my mentor, Mr. Thomas. Yo, just met this girl. Rockford Eats boom. He's like you need to make it a company. No. This is September, about a week later from our festival. From September to November of 2017, I spent the time traveling going to LA going to Memphis going to New York and going not New York. Going to LA going to Memphis going to some other cities. And I say I'm gonna just post and I would post pictures and none of the blogs would never tag me in Chicago, LA, New York. And I said Why do you not reposting my stuff, my stuff looked decent. Went to the pages. They didn't promote people of color. Then I said they did promote restaurants of color unless they were in certain neighborhoods, right? Like, where its mainly white people. After that I said, I'm gonna start a company. I said black people eat too. I'm gonna start a company. And I say that this doesn't work, I'm gonna quit. And I started it December 12, 2017. And I did not look back ever since then. And that's really and that's really the birth and the one thing I will say, Man, I think around October, I said, I think I'm gonna start a company. And I was like, but I gotta get all this camera. My mentor was like, No, you don't use your phone. I was like nah I need a camera. Bought a camera. Three months later, I made it to WGN on my phone. So and I get camera equipment now and I use my phone for everything. So it was really just that man seeing people doing wanted to do given me the seeds of motivation. Then having the discipline to water that seed was really how Black People East started and how it was born.

Mostafa Ghonim: 13:55

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Nicky Saunders: 14:00

But, why didn't you want to start it as a business when they told you? I wanted to stop you right there and I was lik nah let him rock but why were you hesitant to start your company and your business and all that great stuff when your mentors told you to?

Jeremy Joyce: 14:20

Oh, that's a good question, Nicky. That's because we can get good advice from people. But until we see it, we won't listen. And that's actually one of my biggest things. Somebody asked me What's one thing you wish you learned. I said I wish I would have listened earlier. So for me, I didn't want to just have a food page because I want it to be faith, fashion, food, and finance. I forgot the other "F". It was gonna be called the 5 "F's" house. I don't even remember the other one. And I was gonna do food on one day, something faith on one day, fashion on one day, finance on the other day, and oh flights flights was for travel then something else about travel. And my mentor said You just need to do food if you really like which one you care about the most? I love eating because I legit love food. I worked in restaurant industry for six years from 16 to 22. I started cooking, I was like 8. Had advanced food class when I was like 15. I just love food. He was, like, just post food, because you're forcing your followers to get all of this stuff over the pace. And then he hit me with the numbers. He said, How can you truly track your success if you're not just gonna do one thing? I challenge you to do it? And I was like, no. I still said no. And that's really what it was, it was me being stubborn. It was me thinking I knew it all. And it was me figuring out that I didn't really need to listen to you, even though you have four companies. You know, even though you some of your five companies have seven figure budgets, but I don't want to listen to you, because I'm a millenial and I think I know it all. So I'm just not gonna listen to you. And I'm gonna just rely on my own ego. And I actually called him the other day and said, Remember when I didn't even want to start this. So that's the real reason. I wanted to force my followers to like different things. But he said, I challenge you to measure your success from the ground up. Start from and I was like, Ooo. But its fearful to right because you don't really know what its like. Honestly, Nicky, my goal was to only have 100 followers at the end of the year. That's my goal. And then he said, what was success to you? He said, If you know success, then you know what to aim for. I was like 10,000 followers even for free. That's what success looks like. And I hit that in 10 months. So like... Nicky because I felt like I could do it my way. And I think that's a problem with a lot of people coming out now. How in the world am I gonna reject Nicky and Moose's wisdom when y'all have been doing this for years. And here, I'm gonna come feel like just because I'm smart or educated that I think I know what I'm doing. And that was my problem was.

Mostafa Ghonim: 17:07

Lot of gems J. Yeah it's a lot of gems. It's a lot of gems.

Nicky Saunders: 17:11

Oh my God. Go ahead Moose. I had another one. I was... I don't want to hog it. Go Moose.

Mostafa Ghonim: 17:17

Nah, tell us and I'm actually I want you to break down that part, right? Because I think what's unique about the story is that you notice the gap, right? You're like, okay, hold up. Why aren't the blogs reposting my stuff? And then number two, there is no black people here. Right? Like, like, that's a gap where most people would probably feel like, oh, man, like, I stick out like a sore thumb. Or maybe I don't belong here. Let me go, where I will fit in. for you that kind of encouraged you. And you actually talk about just that insight, you know, because I do feel like that's definitely one of the the key ingredients if we're going to talk, you know, food is like one of the key ingredients that, you know, determine success. Talk to us just about that insight of how you were able to see that and not allow it to push you out, but actually force you to go a little bit harder, you know, in doing it.

Jeremy Joyce: 18:07

Yeah, sure Moose. Honestly, man you know what I was thinking about Moose? I was like, man, all I see is white hands. Now, that I could have looked at it excuse me, and be like, I'm good. I'ma just chill. But for me, I said, You know what? I'm gonna create something that every single person on this earth, no matter who they are, can sit at the table and create a pair of legs that will raise black restaurants up to the main table because they're at the kiddie table. I said, because if these companies are not going to promote them, what they're essentially saying is, I am not going to bring economics to that community. I'm not going to bring economics to the group of people. I'm going to leave it to where my community is. And for me, it's like, man, Have y'all ever been somewhere and like, you feel uncomfortable? It's like, I want to go there. I want to eat but I'm uncomfortable because oh, well, because maybe I got on a jersey and a gold chain. They looking at me weird. Or maybe because now, yeah, Moose I wear a collared shirts and I got a nice shirts, but not today I want to put on a hoodie. And because you got on the hoodie they looking at you weird. I said, I want to find places where people can be accepted, where people can be loved, but where people can feel be have joy. And that's why I did it. I said, I'm not even going to try to be on their platform anymore. I'm done. I'm literally gonna pick up a hammer, go cut down this tree and go build my own table. And then they're gonna be coming to my table asking me questions on how did you build this because we've had this table for 50 years, but we see that yours has more stabilization. And that's what my key was. I said, I'm not gonna go to somebody else's platform. I'm about to just create my own and I'm gonna see why happens. And the goal was never to only just for black people, it was for all people to be united and connected through food. And I was gonna do that by showing them the black restaurants because if you look at the pillar of America, black women were in the kitchen. Black women were creating books. I wish I had my books upstairs. [Abby Fisher the oldest known cookbook authored by an African American.] Pound cakes was made. The reason it was called pound cake because you had a pound of butter...

Nicky Saunders: 20:41

I love pound cake.

Jeremy Joyce: 20:45

Check this out Nicky. The real pound cake has a pound of butter, pound of sugar, like a pound of flour, because they were making it for families. They weren't making it for us, it was making it for white people. So we black people always led the movement in food. Like it once I started to understand that, like we took scraps and made it scrumptious. So for me, I was like, they getting fat off our food anyway. Southern cuisine, we created it. Soul food we created it. I said, I'm gonna create something different. I'm gonna create my own. And watch this. Really, that's literally when I was like, Moose, I was like, I'm gonna just create this and watch this.

Mostafa Ghonim: 21:28

That's dope.

Nicky Saunders: 21:28

Look, I told you, this was gonna be good. I told y'all. Y'all didn't want to believe me. Maybe y'all did? I don't know. So I actually want to go a little bit back because you said you wanted to do like this four or five "F" thing, right? And then you narrowed it down to what you do right now. Did you ever try doing it and then realize this isn't going to work? Did you not want to do that one thing because you felt like it was going to like box you in? Like break down like hat beginning part. As far as I anted to do the four or five "F' ". I tried, it didn't happe . But mainly because this that, and I didn't want to be boxed i like break that down. Becaus when you said that I was like N , no, no, let's not pass. Let s not pass by that. Because the e's a lot of people who don't w nt to focus on one thing, becaus they feel boxed in and the fac that you then narrowed it down is is so crucial. And I want to ave a conversation abo

Jeremy Joyce: 22:44

Oh, yes. Thank you so much for asking that question. Honestly, I did not want to be boxed in, I'm going to be 100 with you. When you focus on something, what you're doing is saying like, I'm putting on these focus glasses, right. And when I put these on, I'm literally going to hone in on something, we're gonna focus on that one thing, I'm going to eliminate distractions and become quiet in my own mind, and we're going to mute the noise. And I'm going to find that lane and we're gonna just execute in it. I didn't want to do that. Because I literally felt like, well, if I'm going to do food, I'm going to dress nice. So I could just go take a picture. If I'm driving my car, just turn on my camera and just do a little video real quick. I'm like, I can just do all of this. But everybody has their own opinion. But for me, in my opinion, I believe this is what really set the tone off. Myles Monroe had a video, and he was talking about purpose. And I'll never forget this. He said, "Most people are a jack of all trades, but a master of nothing." And I was like oh snap. That makes sense. And then, I remember overviewing a book of a book called Mastery by Robert Greene. And I remember reading like a snippet of it and it said most people have not mastered anything and that's in the synopsis, and I was like, hmm. I feel boxed in but see the problem is when you try to be a jack of all trades, you're not gonna do everything well. It's literally like y'all both having me in the middle. And I got Nicky's rope, and then I got Moose's rope and I'm trying to do both, and I'm just getting pulled. If I'm getting pulled, I'm slowly coming down. You can't stand your ground if you get pulled from two directions. But now if me and Nicky started doing tug of war by ourselves, now I have more of a firm grasp to pull something towards me. And I think the real reason why some of us haven't been pulled into our full purpose is because we're trying to do more than one thing. And we're stressing ourselves out. And, but then again, it's like, well, I want I think people want to be known for doing all these things. Because it sounds good. It looks good. Like yo I got a podcast, yo I got a Instagram, yo I got anYouTube, yor I got a T shirt company, yo I got a consulting company, I also do private coaching. It sounds so good. But yet, you doing it by yourself, you burning yourself out. And that's what I realized for me Nicky, I was like, I feel boxed in doing one thing. But when I started doing the one thing, I blew the box up, and now I was like, Okay, well, what's the next box I want to try to do? Because now you blow something up. You create a system, you replace yourself and then you go do it, go do the same thing. And that's what it was for me, Nicky. And it's funny you said that because when I started to focus on food, a lot of people don't know this I'm finna drop this. I changed my name from Black People Eats to All People Eats a weekend. I allowed somebody to convince me that only focusing so when we talk about focusing, only focusing on black restaurants will not get you far. So you need to change it. I changed my name from Black People Eats to All People Eats. I was at my best friend Rob house and I was telling him what I was getting ready to do and the day I was showing him a video I saw a restaurant repost my video, but they tagged my old name. So after that, I was like crap, I gotta shave on a back. Because they not gonna find me, and ever since then I was like, I will never change my name. I'm gonna focus on this one thing. I'm going to eliminate the distractions. I'm going to just see what happens if I put all my energy and focus on this one thing. And I'm gonna see what happens. And ever since then, it's been taking off. So somebody's watching the real reason you can't build your box because you try to build 10 boxes in a windstorm. You can't do that. You got to focus on one. You don't I mean, you gotta focus on one and I think that's what a lot of people doing Nicky. They're trying to build houses in a sandstorm, 10 houses. You can't do that.

Nicky Saunders: 27:10

I would want you to repeat it. But I just want that to soak in for certain people. I just want that to soak in. Moose go. Moose go.

Mostafa Ghonim: 27:17

I like that. I like that. He said you can't do it. You can't do it. I like it. I like it. J talk, talk to us about what happens next now, right? Like you, you obviously kind of figured out the niche, you double down, you start building momentum. You said you got to 10,000 followers in 10 months. Were there some challenges maybe like at that point that you're like, oh, okay, this one hurt a little bit any adjustments that you had to make? You know what, what happened next after that?

Jeremy Joyce: 27:48

Okay, so now Oooh, I got my business. I'm excited. I'm an entrepreneur. Woo! All right. Let me give y'all the dark side. So now I'm having fun I'm posting. Okay, you gotta get an LLC, right? Because you want to be official, because I don't want you know, Nicky to go to a restaurant and maybe something don't be good. And maybe something happens and now she coming to me. So now...

Nicky Saunders: 28:11

Cuz I will blame you. I will. I will.

Jeremy Joyce: 28:14

Now I said I gotta be serious. Hey, I never filled out an LLC form Lamont. You, mind taking me down on my lunch break at work and go fill out LLC form? We did that in March. That was the first thing. And so what I did was I said, God, if this is something I'm supposed to be doing, send me people now that will help me build this. So once we start generating income, I know who to put on payroll. Because I did not want to just create something and it just to be fun. I wanted to create a systematic structure behind the fun, which makes something business because a lot of people just have hobbies. I don't think they have businesses. They just have exciting hobbies. But I wanted to add systematic structure plus exciting hobbies which equals business. The next day Moose, somebody called me said God told me to serve you. That girl became my assistant for like a year and a half. A week after that I got an accountant. A week after that, I got a marketing person from Pepsi. A week after that, I got a lawyer. And then I had a graphic designs person. So then what I said was okay, no matter what I do, I'm never going to give up. I'm going to post every single day. I don't care how many likes I get. I don't care how many comments I get. I'm just going to post every day. If people tell me this sucks, I'm gonna keep on going. If I don't get the results, I'm going to keep on going. So I literally just started posting. I didn't think about the money. I didn't care about the money because I had a job. So I was like the most I'll get is free food but I'm working so I don't need the money from these restaurants. I want to just post everyday right. So that's the first thing Moose. I said I'm just gonna post everyday. I don't care. I just want to add value people. People are gonna love coming to my page and they're going to see good food. I'm gonna keep doing it. Then I said, I'm gonna be authentic. I'm gonna show my freakin true self. I don't care no matter what. Then I'm a find restaurants that nobody go to and just be real about it. I'm not gonna bite the food. I'm gonna do it all camera, and I'm just gonna show people what it is, then I'm gonna be emotionally stable. I'm gonna be grounded in who I am. No matter what. So if Nicky comment like, Hey, you know, you're my homie. But that video was trash. I'm gonna keep going anyway, cuz I'm not gonna take it personal. Because in business, people gonna be led by emotions. I implemented those structures. In six months, we hit 1,000 followers in eight months, we hit 3,000 and in month 8 to month 10, we went from 3 to 10. So then I said Okay, and this is when the business came, Moose they called me one day and was like, hey, um, I know you did a video three weeks ago. But I want it up, like tomorrow, how much it cost? So now I have to figure out what does value look like? How much do I charge people to post? Right. That's how I was able to get money and I was able to meet somebody. His name is Jared, they call him Feast, Bobo, this man took me from here to above the screen. He gave me this is how you charge. This is how you do value. This is how you do monthly contracts with restaurant, this is what a contract looks like. This is what it means to literally add value to a restaurant where you can go to the next game. And he literally gave me the game and ended up becoming a food coach in the industry. So that's what happened. I started I was excited. Then I had to just figure out no money just give out content, skip all those other and this is before we know everything about now you got to push content. This is before all of this is like I gotta just push out stuff cuz I'm starting from zero. I'm starting from scratch. And honestly Moose, bro that's how it started man. And from there, everything just magnified. It just just grew. Well that's how it started because people think its sweet. Oh, man, I see y'all podcast y'all get all these listeners. No, in the beginning. I never cared about followers. I did not care. I only cared if Moose comes to Chicago, him and his homies, they're going to find this restaurant and they're going to love it. And they gonna say we saw this on Black People Eats. I didn't care about nothing else. And that's where my focus was in the beginning, bro.

Mostafa Ghonim: 32:44

Wow.

Nicky Saunders: 32:48

Okay, okay. All right. Man, I wish I could go deeper into certain parts.

Jeremy Joyce: 32:54

We can go deep.

Nicky Saunders: 32:54

But man, no, no, no. Well, yeah, we are. Okay. So talk talks to the people...there's two things I want to go over. Right? When you started charging for when people wanted you to post earlier, right? Like, what did that even look like in your head? Did you go through the whole undervaluing your platform? Did you charge too high? Because I know pricing is a problem for some entrepreneurs, right? I'm not gonna say all but some entrepreneurs, especially when it comes to social media, because that's such a like, a new vibe for them. They're like, wait, I do this for free. You're telling me you want me to charge you for this? Like, so talk out your process of like, how did you measure your value based off dollars?

Jeremy Joyce: 34:02

MmmHmm. Oh, yes. Thank you for that. So at first, I was like, oh, $50. That's cheap. People can pay me $50. That's nothing. This extra money. I'll be honest with you Nicky. I was like, just give me $50. Then I just started charging $50 and this is when I said okay, I got to change. I talk to my mentor, Mr. Thomas. And that man said how much you make an hour at your job? And I was like, maybe like, I can't remember the price, like $25 something like that. He's like, Okay, did you quit your job? I was like no. So okay, well you not worth more than what your job is paying you. How dare you charge me more than what you're willing to accept from a company? So to me, you should charge whatever they paying you. If your job paying you...you're gonna charge me $100 an hour but you're accepting 10? I was like, I ain't ready for this wisdom, I'm gonna just go ahead and reject this real quick... Let me let me look at what the industry standard is. I was like okay. The industry standard is, I believe is $10 for every 1000, I can't remember it's like $10 to $12 for every 1000, like something like that, but these are black restaurants. So like, right now, I can probably charge a white restaurant, $1500, $2000, $3000. I can't charge a black restaurant that, because they don't even understand marketing budgets, they don't even understand that two to 5...10% of your budget should be marketing and then 2 - 5% should be digital marketing. They don't even understand that component.

Nicky Saunders: 35:54

Wait! Bring that back, I need somebody to write that down. I need somebody write that down.

Jeremy Joyce: 36:03

Black businesses do not understand, and this is according to an article I had saw at the time, I believe 2019 or 2020, black businesses, 10% of your budget should go towards the marketing, 2 - 5% should be towards digital marketing. I'm pretty sure this number is higher now. So then I said to myself, man, I can't charge them what white foodies is charging because white foodies will go to a restaurant and get paid $800 just for one picture. I said, Man, me trying to explain it to a restaurant, I'm gonna stress myself out, even explaining that. So then I said, I want to be able to do this at an affordable price. So I was like, I'm gonna just charge $50. And then I remember my food coach at the time was like, you should charge about $50 - $75 per post, and you could do it for $250 a month. And then as I started to grow my following, I was I will change every like maybe 25 then 50. And then that's when I started to develop a price. But I did undervalue myself Nicky, because you be like, man do restaurants really want to pay? Are they really gonna do it, but then that's when I started to do some numbers. I said, Hold on. If I charge these dudes $100 and I'll post this and 30 people just came and the middle is $20 that's $600. But I only charged them $100, and they just came up five. And they let us say they at least get a 50% retention rate. Then that mean they gone get $300 and that's off them giving me $100. They just made potentially $1000, $900-$1,000 in a month off my $100? Hecky nah. I have to start. I was like nah. So that's when like now, I tell them my price. And they be like, that's too much, I be like, okay. I don't care no more because I know the value and experience that my platform bring. But I do feel like in the beginning, if you have value for real, don't devalue yourself because you need some money. Because people don't respect what you discount. They will not respect what you discount. You know what I'm saying?

Nicky Saunders: 38:08

Say that one more time.

Jeremy Joyce: 38:09

People do not respect what you discount. Like, there was a concept that I was watching. Um, what's the dude who do the angry bar? What's his name? Bar remake but the guy whatever his name is. I heard him say something and it stuck with me. He said people don't get addicted to free. People get addicted to discounts. Because if i'm used if Nicky charges $50,000 to speak, but she gives me a discount for 20 I'm never gonna want to pay 50 because I just got her for 20. And I think once we experienced something at a deal, we never want to pay the full value, because we've experienced something at a discounted price. So why now should I charge something at a higher price? You got to always remember, if you take that higher price, if you do that you got to expect people not to buy because they'd be like, well, these wings was $6 on Monday. Now you're telling me they $13? I'll just wait til Monday.

Mostafa Ghonim: 39:18

But I'm kind of still caught up in the last three things you said I don't even have a question. I'm still kind of processing right now. I'm not even gonna lie. I'm like shoot. I'm Nicky go back with another. You got another one Nicky? Please.

Nicky Saunders: 39:30

Don't worry about it. I got it. So okay. We didn't even go over what in the world was your job before? Like we speaking all about the process and the ups and downs of Black People Eats but we don't even know what you did before. And talk to us about the first day you thought about leaving but didn't,

Jeremy Joyce: 40:02

Okay, I'll just give you everybody what the job is Nicky, thanks for that question. I was in corporate finance, I was working in an investment sector. So let's say you know, Nicky and Moose has their money and Fidelity, like, which is an investment firm if you guys don't know what that is or for listeners who don't know, Nicky and Moose has their money in an investment firm a, let's say, an investment firm, it's like a cookie jar. So Nicky and Moose money is our cookies, the cookies are in the cookie jar, and the investment firm has access to the cookie jar to make sure cookies either come in, which means assets are coming in, or cookies are coming out to bring more cookies in later. So I worked with investment manager firms, the cookie holder, to make sure that the money was still growing for people's accounts. So I was dealing with a client whom I have one account 30 currencies, multi million dollars in all currencies. So I was working in the finance sector. It was, for whoever this is for, you need to check listen to this. I wanted to be in finance. I felt like my life would be nothing if I didn't get a job downtown Chicago in finance with the skinny suits with the nice leather shoes with the leather bag with the skinny ties with the pocket watches with the pocket squares with the watches all this stuff. I thought my life was nothing. So I strive for that. I chased that I got it and I was miserable. And I was empty. I want you guys to hear that. I literally, I remember people told me you can't get a job like that going to the school that you going to. And I was like, watch this. So I did it. I chased it. I got it. I received it. And I was miserable. I honestly knew the first day I walked in my job this was not it. I knew it. I could just sense it over me. So I continued to work anyway. I tried to get a job two years in a row Nicky. They told me no. I got to the highest ranking. I tried to get a job working over portfolios, like working with multimillion dollar clients. And then I remember they I got to the highest ranking interview in the same, they told me the same thing two years in a row. I'm sorry, but you're a good candidate. You're positive, you have great energy, you bring a lot to the table. But no. The second year this happened, it broke me. And I remember it broke me because a person that got selected was a guy who sat across from me at my job that was white that didn't dress nice as me. They didn't have the expensive shoes like me, that didn't have the nice suits like me. They didn't have the charisma like me, they didn't have the charm like me, that didn't treat people well like me. And it broke me. And at that moment when I did not when I got declined, I remember I looked at myself and said, am I dress like this because of the image that I want to give me to this job? Am I doing this because I just want to get over there is this all about my ego? And I had to redefine my image in that momen. I stopped dressing up, I started dressing down. And I said I'm just gonna treat people nice and see how people will respond to me, by me not dressing up all the time. And I started to notice shifts. And that year that they broke me was the same year I started Black People Eats. I called my mentor and I was like, man, I need to get the job. He was like, it wasn't meant for you to have it. And I wasn't trying to hear that. I was not trying to hear that I was I was hurt. Because I really wanted that job. But it was all my ego. So now Black People Eats start, now its going good. A year and a half in it, Eater, which is a big article company, I had launched a website for a black restaurant database for Atlanta and Chicago. It was getting all over the news, people start coming to me and my job was like, Hey, I saw your article boom. I was like, Okay, cool. That wasn't it. The moment I truly knew, was when...2020. This is the moment when I knew. We did a fundraiser for black restaurants... And I can remember this as clear as day. We did a fundraiser. And my goal was to raise $20,000 in two weeks to help 40 restaurants. 40 restaurants would ge 500. I woke up in a day and we had 25,000 in a day. We're at $50,000 in two days. I was like I was like I just raised my salary in 2 days. Then we did 60 in a week. Then we did 75 in two weeks and then two individual companies gave away like $10,000 separately. Then that's in two weeks, right? So day eight of that fundraiser I said, let's do a festival. $6.19 for Juneteenth and let's see what happenes. Man, I might start crying. This is crazy. The day of Juneteenth, I put it together in seven days with my team, the festival did 500 grand. Only only 73 restaurants, did 500 grand amongst all restaurants. So we raise 100. At the end of the fundraiser was the festival, the festival 500 grand, the same night of the festival, finalizing my deal with Discover. That was the moment. I was like. I called my mentor and he was like, why are you still working? And he said your name? He said you don't have enough faith. And I said yes I do. He's like your name is Half Faith. I said half? He's like, are you gonna quit tomorrow? Like No, he's like, okay, your nickname is Half Faith. I'm gonna call you Half Faith every time I see you, you leave. So he's like, have faith Half Faith. That's all he used to tell me. That was the moment I knew, but I didn't leave. This was the moment I left. Man, somebody needs to hear this because I know what it's like. In September, I was on a news alot. I think I was on the news like eight times within two weeks. In September of 2020. Like August, September, my boss called me in a meeting, it was random, we're just gonna meet and talking. And then randomly, at the end of the meeting, he was like, um, my boss called and said, We she saw you on the news. And she was a little irate because she saw you on the news, but she thought she thought you was on news during work hours. But I implored her, you don't start until 8:30. But I was on a new like 8. And I love what you're doing. I think everything you're doing is good. But I just want to let you know that keep in mind that this job is your top priority. And, um, make sure that if you're going to be on a news going forward that you let me know, so I can stay abreast. When I got out that meeting I was like, I'm leaving. I don't know when but I'm out. This my sign man I'm out. And then I actually ended up going to the head of PR. I found out that I don't need to tell them when I'm on the news. Because I'm not mentioning anything about my job. And that's when I said okay, I don't know when, but it's time. October, it was funny that all of a sudden I had a training scheduled the day that my festival started in October. Then I said it's funny that my boss's boss will bring up that she saw me in the Chicago Tribune article on Instagram. But wouldn't say congratulations, so I started paying attention. I said yeah it's time, and then I went from I'm gonna quit to I'm gonna leave to I'm gonna leave soon to January 4, when I come back, I'm sending them an email and I'm out. So Nicky that's June early Juneteenth, when I raised that money, that's when I knew but I stay. September of that when I had that meeting my boss when he told me that this job was my top priority, that's when I knew. I set the date. I was like yeah I'm about to bounce. October with the training was the final straw. I'm like yeah, I'm not even about to say nothing. I'm gone when I come back from vacation in January. And honestly, that's what was it for me.

Mostafa Ghonim: 48:48

Man, man, so dope, Jeremy. Honestly, let me just tell you now I don't even want to wait till we get to the end. Dude, I'm listening. And I'm just so amazed that just on so many levels, right? Like the story itself, the impact, the passion and the energy that you bring, I think is so dope. I'm literally like, having a tough time coming up with questions. I'm like I'm enjoying. I'm, I feel like a listener right now. I got early access to the listening party or something. But no that that's phenomenal. If I can at least ask this final question as we kind of get ready to wrap here. Talk about talk about the impact for the community now. You know, I think now more than ever, especially with the pandemic and you spoke on it a little bit. I have experience in the hospitality industry, I spent probably a decade in the hospitality industry myself. Yeah, so I know firsthand, you know, the love for the industry when you're when you know, when you grow up in it, and of course, how much people have been impacted as a result of the pandemic. So talk about now, you know, some of just the change that you've been able to create for some of these businesses from an impact standpoint, just by being able to highlight them when You know, like you said, you know, they not go the Michelin I don't even know review or whatnot is not necessarily gonna read some of these restaurants but you're able to so you know, show some love to them talk about the impact a little bit, you know, for for some of the people you feature.

Jeremy Joyce: 50:14

Yeah, thanks, Moose, honestly, man, last year was so life changing for me. And it was just like I remember Moose, a restaurant want to text me and said, Jeremy, I'm so glad you posted this. I didn't have enough money to make payroll. But when you posted this, we sold out. And I started to notice Moose like so many restaurants was generating income based on what we was posting. There's a restaurant I went to today, they sell out of their sandwiches by 11 o'clock, and they opened at 7am. Every day, they bought another cooker to cook more meat. And now is trying to get a machine to produce more, because people come in and order like four or five sandwiches because of the product. And for me, man the impact of the community was so dope, especially after Juneteenth when I started to see all cultures come up to me when I'm in the street. I love what you're doing. I love how we unified together. Oh, when I saw white couples on Juneteenth be genuine, coming to the Southside of Chicago going to these restaurants and saying, Yes, we saw what's going on Juneteenth. Or, you know, when we seen the when we gave away 54 checks of these restaurants, being able to get money from the grant from our burned building burned down. So we have to let 10 employees go to um, we have to cut employees down because of food costs. And we're not generating income, or because people was not coming, you know. To me, or when I signed the deal with Discover, when my team and I we signed the deal with Discover, we gave away 5 million dollars. Once I saw that immediate impact. I was like, This is what food does. Food brings people together. And I said, because of Black People Eats, because of the gift God gave me and the business, we're now able to unite the world, through meals, companies, with communities through meals, people of different races, through meals. And when I started ,and you know what's funny Moose? None of this never hit me when I was doing it, bro. I didn't think about the impact of Black People Eats until like, three in 2021, like three months ago, when I was on a phone with a restaurant owner. And she made me realize I did Juneteenth doing the restaurant relief fund then signed the deal with Discover. Like from June to December of 2020, we've helped bring in a million dollars to black restaurants. And here's even tripped out part Moose. The $100,000 that we raised, I didn't get a penny. All restaurants. People not really ready to do strong community impact. None of that money touched me. I've never even made six figures Moose. None of that money went to me. You know what I'm saying? I've helped black restaurants get seven figures. And none of it went to me. Because I said if I can just give, I'm telling you I'll be blessed. And because of that, bro, Discover, Kingsford, General Mills, you know, more on the way. But bro that all happened man because I literally cared about changing the world one meal at a time. And I said I guarantee you I'm going to change his world through food. And honestly, bro, that's really how it happened man. Just creating lasting things that's going to affect the community. And and that's really what shaped me, bro. When it comes to that community. Seeing lives changed, seeing money being brought into communities, seeing people unite themselves through food, seeing restaurant owners call me say we needed that we did an extra 300% in sales. Seeing people do $20,000 days on a one day and they never did that. That's what brought me joy. You know what I mean? And to be real with you, I was broken and a little depressed when I was doing all this but nobody knew. Because I was carrying the weight of what I was going through plus the stress in my job plus the stress of the community all on my back. But an entrepreneur has to be willing to sacrifice their own pain in order to carry the pain of others because we have to bring people to an ultimate vision. And I was doing all this I could have quit but I didn't break and honestly Moose, that's how I knew and that's what was joyful for me man to see the community have long lasting impact just because of food and through the platform that God has given me.

Mostafa Ghonim: 54:54

Hmm powerful. Powerful.

Nicky Saunders: 55:00

Yeah, this is this is leaving me almost speechless. Almost people. Almost. I'm still here. Almost. I got one more question before we wrap up. Um, let's do this. What's next? You you you left the job, you're full time into this. Like, what's what's next for you? What's next for Black People Eats? I heard you doing something in Atlanta. I don't know. Let the people know what you have coming up this quarter, this year, 10 months, 10 years I don't know, whatever you want to say.

Jeremy Joyce: 55:41

Thank you, Nicky. Our goal is to do for Juneteenth, I want Juneteenth to do a million dollars in one day, this year of 2021. So we're doing the festival $6.19 cent in Chicago and Atlanta. I want that to do a million in sales. And I want to do the restaurant relief fund again. I want to raise 100 grand, and let all that money go to restaurants. Outside of that, next, we're going to do a food festival in October, a month long Festival, where you get a specials every weekend, the month of October, because in other countries Black History of celebrated in October, not in February. So that's how I came up with the concept Blacktober. We did it last year. And we're going to looking to do that again. But my goal now is to really unite the world through eating and not just eating of food, eating of information, eating of the minds of people. So we will be launching a shout out to Nicky, you know what I'm saying? She the one who who told me all the crazy gems and was really putting it in my ear and other people outside of Nicky as well. But we're starting, launching a podcast and the podcast. The goal of the podcast is to eat from the minds of people food, life and business and to share information to you so you can eat it, digest it and have better lives. So that's what the goal is for me this year, focusing on those things. And who knows what's next. You know, we might have a TV show, you know. We getting ready to go back to traveling. So it's go time now.

Nicky Saunders: 57:12

Like when's when's the podcast break. First off, hold on. We we broke Inky's podcast on this podcast. We're breaking Jeremy's podcast on this podcast. I just want to point out, we break podcasts over here. I don't know many others. But we do it over here. We talk ab ut it before anybody really kno

Mostafa Ghonim: 57:35

We do premiers. We got premiers happening out s it's like not even out. S definitely keep that on you radar. But wait, when can w possibly expect it? What are w here. talking about

Jeremy Joyce: 57:49

So this is what our team and I are thinking. We're thinking to launch it in the fall of '21. Because what we're going to really start doing now is we're going to start brand plug out there who listening, we're gonna start batch recording, different restaurant owners, we're talking about the top of the top, the people who's really doing millions in sales, we're going to interview them. I've actually I'm going to have a host too. So it's not just me. And then we're going to just record record record, record record then release. so shameless plug out there for everybody who needs some branding tips, record then release, record multiples then release, because you want to have a arsenal of what I call an arsenal of content. And my concept is documentation conceives content. So if you could just document journeys and processes and stories, then you can conceive content out of the documentation. So and which will create an arsenal and then you can shoot at your targets because now you have a fully loaded weapon. So our goal is just to create content and at least have it out by the fall of 2021 and we dropping our first product. And another shameless branding plug, build your brand before you drop a product. We have over 100,000 followers were verified and we've never dropped a product. I want all you guys to let that sink in and some of y'all selling before you building but I'm gonna just leave it at that because you can't get all the free game but build before you sell so we dropping a product this year.

Nicky Saunders: 59:21

Listen Listen, let's not give too much. We working on something behind the scenes. Don't give it too much. Don't give too much. But um, we would love when your podcast comes out for we do a live show on YouTube for you to come promote your podcast live on on YouTube and we could possibly

Mostafa Ghonim: 59:40

Promo tour Jeremy. We got you with the show a clip of it. If you would like part of your little launch program kind of vibe. It could be instead of the you know The Breakfast Club be the Nicky and Moose kind of podcast launch kind of vibe. I'm just saying. I'm just saying we got a we got a dope little audience. Shoutout to our YouTube viewers. promo tour.

Nicky Saunders: 1:00:08

Yeah, we got the promo tour ready for you. I'm just saying.

Jeremy Joyce: 1:00:11

I would love that. And thank you so much. I would love love that. I really appreciate I would love that.

Nicky Saunders: 1:00:17

Look Moose, you got any you got anything to say?

Mostafa Ghonim: 1:00:21

Nope. I'm not even going to try. Jeremy, I'm gonna pass it back to you for final words.

Nicky Saunders: 1:00:27

Let me set it up. Let me set it up. Let me set it up. So first and foremost, like you heard YouTube live every Tuesday 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 5pm West Coast time. Go follow us at Nicky and Moose everywhere. Jeremy tell them where they can find you all that great food, that smile, all that great stuff. And then we normally let Moose, close it out with final words. But we got to hear another bar we got to hear another bar. I'm just saying. It got to happen. So let them know where they can find you. And then that last bar and mind you people he a preacher, preacher. So expect expect the word right now I'm just saying.

Jeremy Joyce: 1:01:20

Before I go, first of all I want to say I want to say thank you, Nicky and Moose. First of all, thank you, Nicky, for all the love that you share. Guys, I hope you guys are seeing this as an example of what it means to build somebody else up. They did not have to lead me on a platform. They also did not have to extend the courtesy of when I released a podcast, they're gonna promote it. This is what true love looks like, you know, Nicky gave me the camera equipment. She told me what to do how to do it. And she said, don't pay me back. You pay me back by creating good content. You know, shout out to Moose too, for just allow me to be on this platform because he could have been like, Man, I don't know, but the thing is, I hope you guys see...

Nicky Saunders: 1:02:00

Do that one more time. Do that one more time.

Jeremy Joyce: 1:02:07

Like this what it means. I want to thank both of you for allowing me to come on your platform, which is a wonderful platform to have amazing people. And I just feel honored to be on that. But you guys can catch me on Black People Eats that's on Instagram, Facebook. YouTube is Black People Eats TV. And TikTok is Black People Eats and on Twitter its Black People Eats, you can find me that on all platforms. You can catch me eating on my personal Instagram its @J.E.Joyce. I'm now starting to help other people teach them how to build their brands. So that's where you can find some personal stuff. And final words for me would be, um, create something that's remarkable. And when I say remarkable, I mean create something that's remarkable. Remarkable means to mark about which means to talk about, create something that people will be emotionally connected to, that when they speak of it. It just invokes joy and invokes for them to echo what you do until everybody has uttered your name, your brand and what you do. Find your purple cow your purple purple cow is something that when somebody sees it, they stop see it and speak about it. If you can find that thing. Create that remarkable thing and focus on that one thing. I guarantee you you will have a line of cars stop, taking pictur s, showing and people telling ab ut what you know who you a