Noadvisory Podcast
Welcome to Charlotte's 4x Award Winning "Noadvisory Podcast" the Number 1 podcast movement in the Queen city! We like to keep it real, local, and with NO FILTER! Make sure to tune in!
Noadvisory Podcast
Waffles So Good You’ll Forgive The Shrimp You Didn’t Order
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We jump from winter jokes and birthdays into sharp headlines about ICE raids, a wild car-resale scam, and a contraband-smuggling nurse, then settle into a deep, grounded talk on fear, intimacy, and how repetition rewires safety in the body. Mattie owner of The Wafflery shares the long road from an old-school diner to a Charlotte brunch staple and why grits, biscuits, and community matter more than hype.
• ICE detains staff after dining at a family-run restaurant
• Facebook Marketplace car-flip scam and spare-key thefts
• Jail nurse smuggling scheme, cash app trails, policy fallout
• What Would You Do: stolen heirloom ring proposal dilemma
• Fear as a learned pattern and why avoidance gets rewarded
• Vulnerability vs intimacy, and practicing repair over performance
• College vs trade pathways and real-world ROI
• Building The Wafflery CLT: diners, womels, and grit about grits
• Late-night restaurant realities, partnerships, and hiring A-players
• Organic marketing, creator collabs, and new locations
Please, please, as soon as you see it up there, I'm gonna post it maybe once or twice. Engage with that post. Tell me what you want to talk about so that we can have these conversations.
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Cold Open, Crew Intros, Guest Tease
SPEAKER_08Yay! Yeah, Charlotte's most dangerous, cool, nor Bozzi Podcast, your boy, C.O. McLean.
SPEAKER_12And it's fellow me of beautiful fucking soul. It's your girl, No Ladess. Hey, it's Lex rated the biggest fucking Aquarius. Hey. Don't cut me off. I just said, A, I was ad living you. Don't cut me off. AKA Big Al. AKA Mother Fat Cat. AKA Mother Fat Cat. And her birthday on Sunday. Period.
SPEAKER_08That's the first time I heard Lex like.
SPEAKER_12Don't worry about it. See, that's why I said don't cut me off. You're in the wrong lane.
SPEAKER_08Right, Swish? I'm still on Mother Fat Cat. Mother Fat Cat. Like, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_09Like what I mean. Yeah, that more. Swish AC though. Dishwash and they were more places in the sink. If I'm capping, I'm napping and I'm wide the fuck awake.
SPEAKER_10That part.
SPEAKER_08And we got a very special guest in the building with us, man. Today, we got my man Maddie from the owner of The Waffle Ring COT. He's gonna be with us. We're gonna interview later, but he's gonna be engaging with us while we do our topics. And in the morning, I'm making waffles.
unknownWaffles.
SPEAKER_08No, no, you're not making waffles, you're supposed to go to the waffle.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, you know, but Dunkey said.
SPEAKER_08Okay, that's okay.
SPEAKER_07Whatever you said.
SPEAKER_08Okay, yeah. I'm gonna just Yes.
SPEAKER_07Shout to my man Paul and the Buddha's already.
SPEAKER_08Shout out to my moon low. Shout out to my man K Digit on the camera. Yes, sir. My man second background. Yes. Unsurprisingly, we don't have a live studio audience today. What? Did you not post on Thursday? You ain't post on Thursday.
SPEAKER_09I did.
SPEAKER_08Usually we have a live studio audience. We have nobody today.
SPEAKER_09That's right.
SPEAKER_08Maybe because of the snowstorm, they probably got scared in my head. That's what the fuck is that. At the podcast.
SPEAKER_13I mean, it's not gonna be snow though. It's gonna be ice. Like they're all worried. They're really worried about the ice. I just hope.
SPEAKER_09Ice, baby. Whatever. I just hope. Ice twice?
SPEAKER_13Hey, yo. Ice twice.
unknownI got that.
SPEAKER_09I hope whatever, whatever beautiful woman I'm snowed in with is not on their period. That's all I'm saying.
SPEAKER_13I hope she's on her period. Twice.
SPEAKER_02That's crazy.
SPEAKER_08But y'all, man, we got a great show. Oh man, I want to shout out to um Facebook. Shout out to Facebook on the live man on chapter 1. Shout out to TikTok.
SPEAKER_07We love y'all tick tock. Shout out to Twitch. We love y'all, Twitch. Yes, every week I think that's a game. Well, I think it's every week. So we love y'all. Shout out to everybody. Shout out to Team Best Long. Shout out to all that. That's what we're never line.
SPEAKER_08All right now, we got those. What we got? Q up?
Shoutouts And Snow Day Banter
SPEAKER_13Yep, yep, nope. Shout out to my cousin. I gotta shout out every time. Alright, let's get into these birthdays. Yes, birthdays. Happy heavily birthday to Sam Cooker. He was a soul singer.
SPEAKER_08Sam Cook. RP.
SPEAKER_13Oh, shoot. My bad. My God.
SPEAKER_09Wait, hell no. You ain't saying that on purpose. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. No, no, no, you didn't.
SPEAKER_13Okay, look, I typed these up, so it must have added in an extra word. I thought it was somebody. That's not like two extra words. No, unless they added in an extra word. That's why one extra word.
SPEAKER_09That's extra letters.
SPEAKER_08Okay. The cooker. Excuse her. Uh oh, cooker. Sorry.
SPEAKER_13It added in an extra word.
SPEAKER_08Sorry for that. Part of Sam Cook.
SPEAKER_12I typed this shit up. It's okay. You know.
SPEAKER_08But it's her 95. Yeah, Sam Cook passed away. Yeah. Yeah, a long time ago.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, not 95 ago. That's good. Yeah, long time ago. Happy birthday to Caitlin Clark. Caitlin Clark.
SPEAKER_08Yes.
SPEAKER_12Shout out to Kaylee.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, shout out to Caitlin. She's nasty.
SPEAKER_12Caitlin is the proof. She turned 23. She a hoop. 23. I'm very talented. Yes.
SPEAKER_13Birthday to Salento. Salento? Rest in peace. Hey. Watch me, none day.
SPEAKER_09Rest in peace.
SPEAKER_13No, and he still isn't in jail. Rest in peace. I think he still is in jail.
SPEAKER_06So we're calling people cooperation. We killing people on here. Oh my goodness. I'm sorry, guys. Yo, I lit those.
SPEAKER_08That's why I said Any in jail, right?
SPEAKER_09He sleeping out.
SPEAKER_08He crashed out. Yeah, he crashed out.
SPEAKER_13What did he do? I'm watching him in jail instead of whipping.
SPEAKER_08Oh my goodness. How old did he turn today? 27. 27. Happy birthday, Celento. I'm not going to say free you, because what you did was some dumb shit, but you know.
SPEAKER_11Shit, I forgot what. Happy birthday. So what he did, elaborate.
SPEAKER_08Murder.
SPEAKER_11Oh, ooh. Keep that man in there.
SPEAKER_09It was somebody close to him, too. Yeah, it's crazy. Just Google it. Google your friend.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, Celento. So I ain't gonna say free you, bro. But free kales, though, but not free Celento. Kales.
SPEAKER_11How are you gonna keep kills?
SPEAKER_08Because I'm not gonna say it. Nope. I'm gonna stay out of it. Alright. Who else's birthday?
SPEAKER_13That's wild. No more birthdays. Oh, wait, we got let's on Sunday.
SPEAKER_08It's not her birthday yet, but we're gonna say that.
SPEAKER_13It's on Sunday. Thank you. Thank you. It's Sunday. Thank you.
SPEAKER_12In case you missed it at the beginning, because CEO. I said Sunday. I'm the biggest motherfucking aquarium. Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_08Big mother cat.
SPEAKER_12Happy to be here. Oh, you said it wrong. Mother fat cat.
SPEAKER_08That was it wrong. Too late now.
SPEAKER_12I'm not gonna be here. I'm gonna be in the Bahamas.
SPEAKER_02Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_12Yes, I'm gonna be eating brunch in Bahamas. And then you gotta come back, Daddy. And eat brunch.
SPEAKER_08Eating lunch in Bahamas with somebody, Daddy. With somebody, okay? Alright, let me do my thing.
SPEAKER_12Somebody else needs to take over. You're a little too happy.
SPEAKER_08You shut up.
SPEAKER_12See, now I'm now gonna give you that.
Birthday Roll Call And Chaos
SPEAKER_07I'm gonna give you that, Lexi.
SPEAKER_08Hey, Diamond just walked to the bag.
SPEAKER_11Looking like an American.
SPEAKER_09She's like, she's finna knock somebody's ass out. She did come here with the memes on her face, right? Who took your car, you bitch? Who took me? Bounce a diamond.
SPEAKER_08What do we got for those hot topics?
SPEAKER_12Alright, it's bounce breakdown. Bounce breakdown.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, not bounce breakdown topics. The name.
SPEAKER_13It definitely changed. Okay. So we got ice agents detains Mexican restaurant employees after eating there. So on January 14th, four ice agents ate lunch at El Tapatillo, a family-run Mexican restaurant in Wilmore, Minnesota. Witnesses say staff were visibly nervous during their meal. And later that evening, around 8 30 p.m. after the restaurant closed, those same agents followed employees' vehicles and detained three neigh three workers. Which is crazy, y'all. They ate there. That's so disrespectful. They ate their food and then detained them. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_12What's crazy is that they stayed to finish the shift knowing it was.
SPEAKER_08That's nasty work. My bad.
SPEAKER_12Ice ice agents eating food there. That's what's crazy.
SPEAKER_08I would have definitely I've been like, I oh wait, so the ice agents were actually eating it.
SPEAKER_13They ate food and then when the they stayed and then when they closed.
SPEAKER_08So they was observing them and okay.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_09That's what I'm saying. Now, for future reference, for all store owners, if you see ice in your store, put laxatives in their face. That's what I say. Put laxatives in their face.
SPEAKER_12That's definitely illegal. They won't know. Don't do that. They won't know. You can't do that. They won't know. Matty, please chime in. Tell these people you can't be putting uh laxatives in folks' food.
SPEAKER_05No, you can't. You definitely can't match that. Well, they won't know. Really? Oh man. Word gets out about that, you're done. Yeah. Thank you. But it was it was tough when I was here in Charlotte for two years. It definitely was. They made it slow business down. It slowed business down, yeah. It was tough to get the guys to come to work for sure. Damn, that's crazy. It was tough.
SPEAKER_08Shit. Bro, my business is gonna be out of order. But an out-of-order sound on the business. The toilet is out of order.
SPEAKER_07Ice messed up the toilet.
SPEAKER_13Well, they were sitting there because they were targeting Jose Rosaro Gomez Galorado and had surveilled on him, but he was with two other people inside the car and shut up. And they got detained with him. And the restaurant is now closed, but it remain open soon.
unknownShut up.
SPEAKER_12They closed the restaurant because the ICE agents took the uh the good work. Okay. Yeah, they were scared.
SPEAKER_06It is that Nola accent. It's the Nola accent. We're gonna blame it on that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_13Alright. Now this one's crazy, y'all. They got a Kansas man. He sold his car and stole it back.
SPEAKER_09Oh, yeah. He did it like nine times.
SPEAKER_13Hey, wait, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_09I just seen it. My bad. I just did it.
SPEAKER_13Oh my god. Alright, so the man is 24 years old.
SPEAKER_08That's why. Young man.
SPEAKER_13His name is Mama Dude Deliso. Mama Dude.
SPEAKER_08The African. Those Africans don't play. That's what it said.
SPEAKER_13Mama Dude Deliso.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_13He's accused of pulling off one of the wildest car scams. And authorities say he sold the same car to multiple people on Facebook Marketplace and then stole them back so he could sell them again. Police said at least eight victims were scanned out of more than$24,000. He sold them cars, gave them legit titles and paperwork, and then stole the car back with them 24 hours of the sale each time.
SPEAKER_09That's fucked up. How he do that though? Like he he had an extra key to the car and pulled up and got it in the middle of the night? Maybe. Yeah, had to. That's the only way I feel like you do. He had to do that. That's some New York shit. I ain't gonna lie. Niggas be thinking.
SPEAKER_06He ain't from New York. New Yorkers ain't doing none of that.
SPEAKER_12That shit is crazy. It's wild for you to sell it. I know that people are sick when they went outside and then steal it back. But like what's really throwing me off is that like he they said$24,000. How much was he selling this car for? Eight times.
SPEAKER_09He ain't doing no pay.
SPEAKER_12What's$24 divided by eight, y'all? Do quick maths. Quick maths. Like, come on now. Like that. It's obviously a scam. It's obviously a scam. I definitely would have been like people thought they was getting a good deal. Yeah, no, hell no. Nothing good is this shit.
SPEAKER_08That's a good deal. Okay. But I mean, he got caught anyway, so. Yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_12Did he say?
SPEAKER_13He got caught because police said that between May and June 2025, police noticed a pattern. So it was like it was a lot of people's calling saying their cars were getting stolen after like right after the car. They had purchased a car. So it was a pattern.
SPEAKER_12He set up a sting.
SPEAKER_13Yeah. Yeah. And he is now facing 14 felony charges, including motor vehicle tampering and forgery. And if convicted on all accounts, he could face up to 98 years to prison.
SPEAKER_0898 years?
SPEAKER_13In prison. 98 years.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, he's wild. What was his name again?
SPEAKER_09He gonna get off. He got a loyal money.
SPEAKER_13Mama Mama Doo. Mama Doo Delayo.
SPEAKER_08Mama Doo Delayo.
SPEAKER_09Mama Duke's Delala.
SPEAKER_12You live close to know.
SPEAKER_09He gave him a fake ID. That's not a real name. Right. Mama Doo. Mama Doo's not a real name. He tripped.
SPEAKER_12No, I mean he was African, I think. Oh, for real. Yeah, he's African.
SPEAKER_08Mama Doo? That's an African.
SPEAKER_09African niggas be scamming.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, he looked he looked African.
SPEAKER_08African.
SPEAKER_11Alright.
SPEAKER_13He did. He did it. I mean, you you you can tell someone looks African.
SPEAKER_12That's crazy. Sometimes. That is crazy work.
SPEAKER_13Alright, so now we got this nurse, an ATL, a jail nurse. She was hiding belongings in her private area.
SPEAKER_08Uh oh.
SPEAKER_13So on January 14th and 17th, Naomi Marie Anthony, who was 34, a contract nurse at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, was arrested and fired after an internal investigation discovered she had been smuggling contraband into the facility. She was taken into custody as she arrived for her work shift and put into the same jail where she worked. Investigators began after another investigation began after another nurse found a handwritten notes, bring in weed, food put in trash for inmate, set scene and nurse station. The food was from American Delhi into the jail for her inmate boyfriend named Antoine McRae.
SPEAKER_11You'll be surprised how many how much that happens. It happens.
SPEAKER_12Oh, they're trying to get in good with the inmates. No, that happens all the time.
SPEAKER_09Niggas is millionaires off of that right now.
SPEAKER_12That is a federal crime. You're gonna go to jail.
SPEAKER_08And my thing is, this happens a lot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, niggas is like millionaires.
SPEAKER_08Out of all the accounts that happens, I'm not gonna say nine out of ten. Let's say three out of ten times they get caught. But don't do it because there might be a chance you might get caught and you might lose your job and get roasted by us on this platform. So you're gonna go to jail.
SPEAKER_09You're making 50k a week for sticking drugs in your pussy. You ain't gonna risk going to jail.
SPEAKER_12No. No, I'm she got paid for it though. Listen, I'm not going to jail for nothing or nobody.
SPEAKER_09I ain't saying stick a hero up your pussy, but like if you're getting some real money, I don't see no problem with it.
SPEAKER_13I wouldn't say she got real money, but she got paid$1,300 on her cash app for bringing in the items. And with that money, she purchased matching rings for her and the inmate boyfriend.
SPEAKER_08Her and an inmate. And that's normally the story, right? The CEO was messing with an inmate.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, but she a nurse. But yeah.
SPEAKER_08Well, the nurse. Well, so it's a nurse. Okay.
SPEAKER_09I'm knocking staff down if I get locked up.
SPEAKER_05Telling you. I would think the food that you're sneaking in is better than American Delhi, though.
SPEAKER_12They're rings all over. I love American Delhi. And they'd be small as hell.
SPEAKER_11Not too much with American Delhi now. Bring them in Atlanta. It's better in Atlanta. I think that's in Atlanta.
SPEAKER_12Not too much. I feel you need to try in Atlanta.
SPEAKER_11But I'm telling you, American Delhi is strong.
SPEAKER_08I like American deli. I like that Pashrami uh sandwich. It's really good.
SPEAKER_12You would be a type, you know, white. Right. Pasrami. Oh no, that's demure too. It's a little lemon pepper with a peach tea. Yeah.
SPEAKER_09That demure ass cheese.
SPEAKER_12On a nice rye bread. Like on there. I love push. Oh my god. Who go to American Dolly for that?
SPEAKER_00Of all things. Me?
SPEAKER_11That's crazy. I didn't even know they sold sex.
SPEAKER_13But she had snuck she had stuck up marijuana in her private area to get past security. And she was seen on camera giving inmates items in restricted areas. She is charged with a felony for obtaining or giving an inmate tobacco products without authorization. And a filthy account in jail is now reportedly upgrading X-ray and security technology at jail entrances.
SPEAKER_08Fuck it up for everybody. She didn't show that.
SPEAKER_09Hey, fuck it up.
SPEAKER_12They've been doing it.
SPEAKER_08For a long time.
SPEAKER_12They had to make an example of her. That's all that was.
SPEAKER_09Right.
SPEAKER_12That is all.
SPEAKER_09You not talk about Gucci getting robbed by Pooh Shysteen? Right. You talk about niggas dying in the building? Like, where? Did you hear about that?
SPEAKER_08Nah, I ain't gonna front. That that like when you had put that in the group, allegedly. No, I don't think it's allegedly now. There's some truth to it. It's too much um going on. I mean, we we I mean we gotta keep it slow. I ain't gonna talk about it, but yeah, Pooh Shite.
SPEAKER_12What would you do? Every dance move.
Viral Scam: Car Sold, Then Stolen Back
SPEAKER_08So man, what would you do is y'all know if y'all familiar with Noah Vazi man, what would you do is all our accounts that by our that are by me, that somebody told me, or what I saw. This week is something that I saw on a Netflix movie. I was like, oh, I was watching it. I'm like, oh, that shit is crazy. What would you do? I'm gonna use that. Yeah, it's crazy. I forgot the name of the movie. I meant to put it on Netflix today and get the name of the movie, so I could put it. Alright, so what would you do? This is crazy. This is and again, my what would you do is are always role reversal. So I could go for male, female, role reversal. I see TikTok. It would be nice, right? I'm gonna get the movie before this is over. I get the movie anymore. Just go on Netflix, right there on Netflix. I think it's top ten movies or something on Netflix. You'll see once you once I once I go through this, you're gonna be like, oh, that's what we're talking about. Alright, what would you do? What would you do? You go to a cabin, you got your lady, your wife, your oh, you're not gonna say your wife. Your fiance. Bone Lake. Bone Lake? Bone Lake. That's the name of the movie. Bone Lake on Netflix. Go watch that movie. Bone Lake is crazy. So what would you do? What would you do? You going on a um excursion or just a getaway with your significant other? Uh you get there. You go, you put a code in, everything's good. While you in there, another couple comes and actually comes in an apartment, or I mean it's like a big old nice little mansion type shit. They come in there and then you like, they like, oh, you know, we was double booked or double booked it, whatever the case may be. So you got two strangers, yeah. Uh what's going on here, right? So during the duration of the stage, the guy got a ring. And he like, yo, you know, he just goes in the car. You well, you go in the car. I'm gonna in a first person. You go in the car, and uh, you got the ring, and you like, you just figuring out what you're gonna say to your lady to propose. And the guy that actually was the other resident of the house that came in here unexpectedly, sees you with the ring. And like, oh man, you about to propose to your wife, whatever. Yeah, yeah, but oh, can I ever see the ring? Showing the ring, you come to give him the whole spieler. What you gonna do? He gets that, you go to the table, and he already knows that you know you got the ring, you're gonna propose, he already knows the whole scenario. So, what would you do? You got the table, you're about to eat. And the man proposes to his girl with your ring. What would you do? The other guy proposes and he has the actual ring to his girlfriend. So the ring is your grandma's ring that she gave you to propose to your significant other. So what would you do? Fast forward, you're at a table, you're about to eat, and the guy has the actual ring, and he sits there and proposes to his girlfriend with your grandmother's ring. What would you do?
SPEAKER_05I mean, I don't I don't know anything clever, but but definitely ratting them out quick. Quick. Definitely ratting them out quick. Okay. No hesitation. None.
SPEAKER_12As soon as he pulled the ring out, and I realized it was. I think he might steal it.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, he stole a ring.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_09We ain't friends no more.
SPEAKER_12We thought they weren't friends.
SPEAKER_08It was never friends.
SPEAKER_12It was strangers. Um, yeah, I you know, I I'm flipping tables. It's a child. I'm flipping tables. Don't give him a friend that there's no way you're gonna steal my grandmother's ring from me and I don't turn up for my generations. But that's crazy.
SPEAKER_08That's nasty work.
SPEAKER_11That's Love and Grandma.
SPEAKER_12Yes, and then give it to another person, yeah. And propose and like do a whole thing with somebody else's ring, like the audacity.
SPEAKER_07The audacity.
SPEAKER_12I swear, that is crazy. I gotta go watch that movie. He didn't do that, did he? Did he do that? He stole that man's ring and proposed to Wow.
SPEAKER_04Does that turn into like a horror movie or something? No, no, it's a serious movie.
SPEAKER_08I'm gonna I'm gonna get I'm gonna get to the aftermath of it. I just wanna know what y'all are gonna do. Huh? That's it? Crash now. Diamond, what you gonna do, Diamond? Come on, Diamond. Give him a mic. What you mean you don't know? You're gonna do something.
SPEAKER_09Too nice. Diamond is a gangster. Do not let her confuse y'all. She is a cold-blooded gangster.
SPEAKER_08I mean, we gotta understand the scope of the situation. This is something that your grandmother gave you a ring. This is sacred. And you had this whole spiel that you're gonna do, and you told it to this man unwillingly or willingly, however you want to put it, and the man uses the same spiel to his girlfriend with your grandmother's ring. What are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_10So am I pretending I'm like the man in this situation? Yes. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_08Well, you could be it could be reversed. So reverse the role. You are the uh Well, well, women really don't know. Well, women propose to men sometimes. We're not we know.
SPEAKER_10That's okay. We're gonna be the man. We're gonna be the man.
SPEAKER_08Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08You the woman there that we posed to. But but see, the other lady don't she don't know. She not she don't know. She has no recollection of what's going on. She's sitting like, what the fuck's going on?
SPEAKER_09What would you do if you was at a cabin with random couples?
SPEAKER_08Hold on, let's hold on, diamonds.
SPEAKER_10Diamond first. But I wouldn't know. If I was the woman, I wouldn't know about the proposal though.
SPEAKER_08That's right. That's true. So say the man. Let me be the man.
SPEAKER_10Um I would, I think I would have called him out right there. I would have been like, so you just gonna take my proposal like that? After I just sat there and told you what I was about to do, you just gonna sit here and propose like that was your idea? That's too calm. Yeah.
SPEAKER_12Yeah. That's way too calm. Tell a no fix.
SPEAKER_10I mean, what I'm gonna turn up for? It's not time for that yet. What? It's not time for that yet. No.
SPEAKER_08Alright, just give it to the men. Give it to the man. Pass it to the man. What would you do? Seven. Pass it to seven. What would you do, seven? The question is, right quick, you are the guy that um have a wedding ring that your grandmother gave you, and there's another guy that was in the house with you. You confided in him about you were gonna propose to your fiance, and he steals the ring and proposes to his girl that is there with your ring that your grandmother gave you. What you gonna do?
SPEAKER_01She's not getting that ring.
SPEAKER_08She ain't getting that ring? Okay.
SPEAKER_01That's it? That's it's flat, like right there. I'm gonna take it that ring.
SPEAKER_12He ain't gonna tweak up.
SPEAKER_01He ain't gonna tweak up. Alright. I gotta from my um line.
SPEAKER_08Uh-huh. What was the question? They answered about me.
SPEAKER_12I ain't gonna mic.
SPEAKER_08Oh. What's the question?
SPEAKER_13Alright, she said, if you were the guy, would you be jealous?
SPEAKER_08If I was which guy?
Jail Nurse Caught Smuggling For Inmate
SPEAKER_13The guy that, you know, the the one that. Jealous. Yeah, would you be jealous of the other guy proposing what you're ranking? No, I'm mad. No, no, like if you was. No, like if you was proposing. No, okay, so like if you was proposing. If you was the one proposing, you know, is he jealous? That's why he did it. If he if he was he jealous.
SPEAKER_06No, no, no. He seemed to live. Who asked the question? Who asked that shit?
SPEAKER_13You don't know who asked the question. Who the next question is?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I'm going to be jealous.
SPEAKER_13So you being a dude. No, no, no, no. We're not gonna say no names. We're not gonna say no names. We're not gonna say no names. This is my friend. I'll tell you later. That's my friend. No.
SPEAKER_09Oh.
SPEAKER_13You know who I'm talking about, but I'm not gonna tell you right now. Uh shit. You wouldn't got him in trouble. She said, who the fuck is Lena? Don't bother me. I thought it was Lena when he said studio. I'm like, it's Lena. You wouldn't you wouldn't got him in trouble.
SPEAKER_07Don't touch, don't leave me alone.
SPEAKER_12We're not gonna say no. Give it to K. K.
SPEAKER_07What would you do?
SPEAKER_12Keep it. Hold on, you can open another mic? Do me justice, K.
SPEAKER_08Not that I'm gonna fucking infamous mic. B I? You sure? Okay. I'm sure K got a valid. Yeah, lower that shit.
unknownWhat?
SPEAKER_08You need a mic. K. What would you do, K? See? Fucking mic. God damn it. Oh, we're fighting on site.
SPEAKER_11Fighting on site? What? That part. On site? That's mine.
SPEAKER_03Like, are you for real?
SPEAKER_11Yep.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh. Come on, bruh.
SPEAKER_09Stole from me. You stole from me.
SPEAKER_03You feel me? And then you're gonna put it in my face. You stole my pussy. You think I'm a pussy.
SPEAKER_12That's my bitch. Well no. That's my granny's ring. You stole my granny's ring in front of my friends.
SPEAKER_08I think he's gonna kill me. Okay. Terry one on the aftermath. What was the name of the movie again?
SPEAKER_12Uh Bone Lake. Bone Lake.
SPEAKER_08Bone Late. Okay, cut the shit. Chicken legs. Bone Lake. So the aftermath was after the guy was at the table and he proposed to his girl, he gave the whole spiel. Like, I mean, the man told the guy his whole shit, how he's gonna do it with the sunset over the thing. He did the exact same shit. So the guy sat there and watched him propose to his wife and didn't say a thing. Oh my god. He waited until after he was, he was out, obviously he was irate and he got up. He's like so the the girl, the lady, his significant other looking like, what the fuck is going on? So he tells the guy, I need to talk to you right now. I need to talk to you right now. The guy says some sob stories like, oh, I'm gonna fix it now. I'm just I was just in the moment and uh da da da da da da. So he let the guy slide. You gotta watch the movie to see the outcome. What was the name of the movie again?
SPEAKER_13Bone leg. Yo, your memory is crazy.
SPEAKER_12That's not what happened in the movie. No, that's what happened in the last happening. She can't remember the name of the movie. Yeah, bone leg.
SPEAKER_08But you gotta watch the movie to see the full, full outcome. But that was.
SPEAKER_12I'm very disappointed. I'm very disappointed. Like, can I talk to you outside? What?
SPEAKER_08It's crazy, right? Like you just sat there.
SPEAKER_12Can you talk to you outside? Are you a crack?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_12My great, thank you. My grandmother's ring. It's my grandmother's ring. Ain't no way in hell. Ain't no way. No, it ain't no words. I'm snatching a ring off her finger. I might even push her over the sofa. You gotta watch the movie to find out the ending. That shit was crazy. I can't be calm about somebody like my grandma. Like, if it was a ring that I bought from Zill's or every kiss begun, you know, okay. Every kiss begun. I would have been like, hey, you know, can we talk real quick? You owe me some money, or I want my ring back. But it's the fact that it's like a family heirloom that I'm like, oh no.
SPEAKER_08That's passed down. And that ring was probably passed down from generation to generation. That's what I'm saying. No.
SPEAKER_12You can't react calmly to that.
SPEAKER_08Uh-huh. Can't.
SPEAKER_12A beautiful fucking soul.
SPEAKER_08So that's my boy, man. Listen, guys, what would you do if you had a wedding ring that your grandmama gave you, and you told the guy that was actually in your uh hotel, whatever, that came and said he got the code, whatever kiss it be. And you told him the whole spiel, how you can propose, and he takes your ring and proposes it to his girl with the same exact spirit that you told him with your grandmama wants with the ring. What would you do?
unknownBang.
SPEAKER_09You know, you know what's crazy about like rings getting passed down? Mm-hmm. The person that passed that ring down got fucked in that ring. So do you really want that ring? I knew. Like you think of the honeymoon. Let it out in the honeymoon in that ring. You doing all types of things with that hand that the ring is on. And you passing that shit down like that. Swish.
SPEAKER_08I never actually thought about that, but that is an actual thought.
SPEAKER_09That's a good point. That hand. Just think of the hand that the ring is gonna have to be.
SPEAKER_08Always niggas, man. I didn't think about that. That's tricky. Yo. Alright. So that's my what would you do? Lower.
SPEAKER_12I'm assuming they get rings clean, though. That's what you're supposed to do. I would've hoped. Oh, yeah.
unknownWhat?
SPEAKER_12Why would he be sticking her ring?
SPEAKER_09He's the his ring and her butt.
SPEAKER_12Her he gave her her ring.
SPEAKER_08Nasty work. Nasty work.
SPEAKER_13Very nasty. Her ring.
SPEAKER_08Not his ring.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08Let's move on. This is grandma's ring. Let's move with the grandma's ring. Keep the ring. This conversation is making me uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_12Is it gonna be me? Because Fellamy's sitting right next to you. She wanna go last. Listen, y'all. It's the end of the month. Well, it's not the end of the month. The 29th is right around the corner, but we will not be here. No. No. No. This is our last episode of the month. Really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Of January January.
SPEAKER_13This is why you need to be in the freaking group chat, bro. Like, what the hell?
SPEAKER_09Why don't I not gonna be here?
SPEAKER_13We're doing content in the streets. We're gonna be outside. Outside. Can you come in, K? You gonna be outside next Thursday? Yeah, it don't like it.
SPEAKER_09I mean, it depends on the weather.
SPEAKER_12I ain't gonna miss tonight.
SPEAKER_09I can't be out on the lot.
SPEAKER_12He said if it's cold outside, I ain't coming out. Oh, yeah, we not we're not coming out if it's cold. I'm not gonna hold you.
SPEAKER_11Definitely not coming out. Yeah, they're talking about it. They're gonna do some interviews. I like street interviews.
SPEAKER_09I always meet like four or five bitches when we be outside. You do no, but you still talk to the other girl.
SPEAKER_13I gotta send it to you.
SPEAKER_09Please, please, I'm gonna go to the house.
SPEAKER_13She followed me on Instagram. She is so pretty.
SPEAKER_09I love that bitch. Let's get back on track.
What Would You Do: Stolen Proposal Ring
SPEAKER_12Let's get back on track. Wait, leave a bitch word alone. I hate that word. She's with it. That's why I fuck with her. She's with that shit. She is. She was she was drunk, but she was pretty as fuck. Listen.
SPEAKER_09I love you, baby.
SPEAKER_12Listen. Listen. Please it. Let's close it out, y'all. So if you were not here for the last three weeks, you I'm gonna I'm gonna remind y'all, we were talking about vulnerability.
SPEAKER_08Yes.
SPEAKER_12We were talking about intimacy and we were talking about fear.
SPEAKER_08Yes.
SPEAKER_12Okay? And I'm gonna close it out, okay? The reason why I'm closing it out is because I got a lot of feedback. A lot of people were saying it was a little bit repetitive. And I can and I can tell you those of y'all who said it was a little bit repetitive need to go seek therapy. Because obviously, it's no shade. She's throwing shade. Obviously, any habit that is established has to be repeated. Okay? So how are you going to establish intimacy if you're not having the same information repeated to you so that you can learn? Isn't that what they do in school? In class.
SPEAKER_08Listen, you're gonna have to start writing their names down and calling them out.
SPEAKER_12Oh, yeah. Yeah, let's be direct. I'm sorry, y'all. I will be direct next time. I'm so sorry for y'all who I'm not being direct to. Because we stand on business. Yeah, I I you as you can see, I do stand on business. But he's saying I have to stand all the way on business with both feet. So I got y'all. Yeah. As you should.
SPEAKER_07All I'm out.
SPEAKER_12So I'm gonna tell y'all why I felt repetitive. I'm gonna start there. Some of this is possibly going to be repeated to you over a lifespan because it is intentional. Okay? Psychologically, repetition is not about learning information, it's about teaching the nervous system safety. Insight happens once regulation happens through a pattern. Meaning we learn through patterns. Okay? You don't change behavior because you heard something once. You change it when your body starts to train itself that it's not a threat. Okay? Because we were talking about vulnerability and how some people look at vulnerability, and their brain automatically sees past threats. We're trying to get you out of that mindset so you don't see fear and you process what's going on and you acknowledge how you feel about the situation. You have those conversations. Okay? I'm gonna dial it back. I'm not gonna be as aggressive with y'all because you didn't hurt me. It's not your fault. Okay?
SPEAKER_08Wait, hold on, Lex. Before you start, you always gotta remind motherfuckers how much degrees you got in psychology. So this way they know it's coming to the city. You know what?
SPEAKER_12That should be my part of my intro. Yes, when I start my episode.
SPEAKER_08Yes, because I had to define them like, yo, she has two site degrees. So what's she talking about?
SPEAKER_09Y'all niggas need to get the intro or you know, you're right, you're right, you're right, five degrees, double D.
SPEAKER_12I'm smart as fuck.
SPEAKER_09Good on the knees.
SPEAKER_12We smart as fuck. Yeah, don't put that on me. Don't put that on me. What's up, y'all? I'm Lex Rated. I got two psychology degrees. I have a master's in forensic psychology and a bachelor's in developmental psychology. And I am on here to talk my shit. Talk her shit. But I'm also on here to teach y'all something. I didn't just go to school to pay back student loans. I went to school to help people around me, okay? I didn't waste my time in class for the hell of it. I'm here for y'all. That's why I call myself the people's champ, okay? So we confuse understanding with healing. Just because you understand something doesn't mean that you're healing from what you understand. Okay? Intimacy, vulnerability, and fear don't live in just logic. They live in the nervous system. It's something that you have to train your brain to recognize and do something with it. Not just recognize it and be like, oh, okay, I see it. Do something with it based on either the coping skills or what you've learned from people in the past. Um, so that's why these conversations had to return to the same concept over and over again over this month, okay? Because safety is built slowly. It's not all of a sudden. It has to be something that's developed over time. Okay. So I want to say something that's gonna make somebody uncomfortable. That's why it's called triggered. Most people don't avoid intimacy because they don't want it, they avoid intimacy because they fear because it because fear has been working for them. So let me say that again. Most people don't avoid intimacy because they don't want it. They avoid it because fear has been working for them. It's easier to be fearful and set yourself aside and avoid situations or say, oh, nigga, everybody's gonna be the same. It's just like my ex, or it's just like this past situation, than it is to actually acknowledge that situation and put yourself in an uncomfortable position and move forward and past it. Okay. Avoidance lowers anxiety, okay? It's a little bit more comfortable to be avoidant than it is to be direct. Uh, distance brings relief, and silence feels calmer than confrontation. And I'm somebody that does not like confrontation. But every time there's a what would you do or anything like that, I'm standing on business. And it's because at the same time I don't like confrontation. I know that it's healthy for me to confront shit. It's healthy for me to address shit. It's healthy for me to get it out of my mind and speak it in front of people and have those conversations, okay? And whatever reduces anxiety gets reinforced psychology psychologically, excuse me. That's not a weakness, it's conditioning. Okay, you're conditioning yourself to get over those anxieties or those instances where you're feeling anxiety or uncomfortable from fear. You're telling yourself, uh, not this time. I'm going to step outside of my comfort zone and do something different this time. Because maybe this time isn't like past instances. Because that's all fear is. Fear is your brain telling yourself, this happened in the past, it might happen again, I don't want it to happen again. That's all it is. It's learned behavior.
SPEAKER_07Behavior, yeah.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, if you don't, if you've never experienced something for you to be fearful of, what do you have to fear? Except fear itself. Isn't that a quote? Except what do you have to fear except fear itself? Yes, look at that. Okay, so we live in a culture that praises vulnerability but avoids intimacy. Okay? We overshare, we vent, we post emotionally on social media all the time. 24-7 videos making fun of it. But when it's time to stay, repair, and be accountable, we disappear. A lot of people, once they start going through shit in life, they disappear off of social media and they cut themselves completely off. Why? It's because we don't like to be vulnerable with everybody else. We feel like vulnerability is only exclusive to certain people. And it could be, it could be exclusive for your therapist. But at the same time, if you can go on the internet and you can share your personal business and laugh about it and joke about it and talk about how you're growing, you should be able to talk about that actual growth and go through the processes that aren't as nice and kind and and lollipops and all that that you post on the internet. You can post the good, bad, and the ugly. Right? So that's not honesty, that's fear. And we're branding fear at this point, we brand avoidance. That's what we're posting online is to how to be healthy and how to grow, but not actually show the process behind that. And so if nobody knows the process and they don't understand how it happens, it's just a word. So I have a couple more things that I want to say, but I'm gonna close it out, okay, y'all? The public vulnerability feels brave, right? Everybody likes to feel like they're being vulnerable on the internet and and addressing certain things or stating their peace, but it offers an emotional release, but it doesn't address the emotional risk. Okay? So it gives you the opportunity to um get something off your chest, but it's not processing why it's on your chest in the first place, if that makes sense. Not processing why it's something that bothers you in the first place. A good example of this is a lot of people will be upset about um right now an a relationship that went wrong. And they'll get on the internet and they'll say, they did this to me, they did that to me, you know, I I I feel a way because of this, that, and the third, and they'll downplay that person, but that's just anger being expressed, and there's nothing being done about those emotions. So you're reinforcing those emotions, but you're not addressing the fact that you feel that way in the first place. Most of the time, you feel that way because you feel hurt, you feel that way because you feel betrayed, you feel that way because it's similar to an emotional response you experienced in the past. So it feels like deja vu a little bit, but we're unable to communicate that. We're unable to get to that point where we're able to address those feelings with people outside the one-on-one with your camera and crying in the camera. So, to close out this month's segment for fear, vulnerability, and intimacy. In order to be intimate with the people around you, you have to take a step back. You have to look at your life as what it is for what it is. You can't be upset, you can't run away from it, you have to acknowledge the fact that this is what it is. I tell people all the time if you want something to change, you either do something to change it, or you shut the fuck up. Okay. At the end of the day, we're all walking around afraid of something. And most of the time, the same thing that you're afraid of, there's somebody right next to you that's afraid of the exact same thing. So we're put here to be a community. I've said it multiple times before. Humans are supposed to be communal people. Come together and help each other get past these moments and have these intimate moments where you guys are able to learn, grow, and share with each other. Otherwise, you're gonna create another generation full of heartless people that don't know how to process their emotions, and that's what we're trying to avoid in 2026. So thank y'all. I appreciate you. My friend said we was talking that talk, she felt like she was in church. Thank you. I didn't want to preach too much. I had a couple other things to teach.
SPEAKER_11Church or therapy. Oh church. She felt like she was in church. It was like she was talking about me.
SPEAKER_12Because you know how like pastors be like, you know, preaching.
SPEAKER_05I didn't know you had all that in there. Thank you. That was amazing.
SPEAKER_13Thank you.
SPEAKER_05Thank you.
Programming Notes And Street Content Plans
SPEAKER_12I ask questions every week. I didn't ask a question this week, but last week, I think it was a question about um what does fear look like to you? What's a what's what's something that you have experienced in the past that pops up frequently when it comes to fear? And for me, one instance that happens to me a lot is when I was younger, I think I was in high school. I told a friend of mine a bunch of confidential information, and then as soon as we were no longer friends, they went and like told everybody and then insulted me, put me down.
SPEAKER_13That's not your friend.
SPEAKER_12And it yeah, it and it made me feel like, oh, I can't trust anybody with anything. So as an adult, and I I consciously do this, as an adult, I never tell anybody everything. I tell certain people small pieces of information, I tell certain people different pieces of information, and I do it so like if it comes out, you don't have the full story. Right. And I communicate that. Like I'm not gonna tell you the full story because I don't know, I don't know if you're here for me yet. And I think it's important for everybody to acknowledge when they experience something, when they experience that first initial fear, and how it's affecting them into adulthood. And once you do that and you understand how nine times out of ten childhood trauma is affecting you into adulthood, that's the first step to making a change because then you understand. And that's it.
SPEAKER_08Shit, let me get another round of applause for that. God damn it. Shit.
Deep Dive: Vulnerability, Fear, Intimacy
SPEAKER_12February's. I do not know what topics I want to choose, but I please, please, please, as soon as you see it up there, I'm gonna post it maybe once or twice. For that drink. Engage with that post. Tell me what you want to talk about so that we can have these conversations. I love to do the research on it, and I love to have triggering conversations with people because at the end of the day, if you don't address your fear, if you don't address what makes you uncomfortable, you're not gonna get anywhere.
SPEAKER_08Facts. That's facts. And that was triggered facts by Lex Well no rated the biggest Aquarius. Yes, yes. Let me get another round of applause for that, man. I tell you, man, every time her segment comes in, we always tuned in.
SPEAKER_09I'm in therapy all over again. I just gotta let her do her thing. It's like everybody just tuned in.
SPEAKER_12I already get it like that.
SPEAKER_09I'd be wanting to, but you just don't nobody else do it, so I don't want to be the only one to do it. I mean, listen, it would take a look. I know, it really would. It really would be.
SPEAKER_12Last time somebody chimed in, I turned around and boxed and had a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit. Shout out to Quani. Shout out to my brother Quanti. No, a whole conversation. And I I encourage y'all to come sit in on the audience. Challenge me. If you don't believe or you don't think anything that I say is accurate or you have an opposing opinion on it, I don't care. I'm gonna believe what I want. I'm gonna do the research on it. Let's have that conversation. Plock it.
SPEAKER_08Placket. What we what was it? Unapologetically Opinionated.
SPEAKER_11Opinionated. Yes.
SPEAKER_09She get the she get the people going.
SPEAKER_11Yeah.
SPEAKER_09She get the people going.
SPEAKER_12Yeah. Hey, no. Not EVF. Okay, so hey, hey. It's telling me a beautiful fucking soul in this. And this is unapologetically of any of you.
SPEAKER_11Argue with your mama.
SPEAKER_12I didn't change you, the fact is. So the first one is just because you had a shitty childhood does not mean you have to be a shitty adult. And I say this because I see a lot of times people be like, all right, so this happened to me and this happened to me, so this is why I act the way that I act. Okay, so your parents, they were still learning. And when they was raising you, they were still learning to be adults as they was raising you. So yes, uh sometimes the things that they did to you, it wasn't towards you, it wasn't personal. Now, when you are now 18 and up, which is what they say to you, but now you're 21 and up, okay. So now you can look get your little drinky drink on. Please answer this. When did you finish? You gotta finish drinking.
SPEAKER_13When did you finish?
SPEAKER_11I definitely will forget. I definitely will forget.
SPEAKER_12So just so you know, you got your little drinky drink on, you know. So you're still moving about meeting people, getting to know people, getting to know your your triggers, your boundaries, and things that you will accept and things that you will not accept. But moving through this world as a fucked up individual will only reflect on your children because the things that you do do affect your children. You reap what you sow. I know you heard that. So just be mindful. Just be nice. Like it's nothing, it's nothing to be nice. I don't know what it is nowadays that people just don't want to be nice, people just wanna do you something wrong and think that good things are gonna happen to you.
SPEAKER_11It's not.
SPEAKER_09Um, I hear you say your parents were still growing up, whenever they raised you, so the look people in my situation, you know, I was raised by my grandmother. You know, she had like two lives before she got to meet. Yeah, you feel me? So, what do you say about the people who are you know raised by their grandparents?
SPEAKER_11Nobody told her nothing different.
SPEAKER_12Everybody was just letting her go through life because I was raised with my grandmama too. So I was taught manners. I was like, we like you don't speak unless you spoke it too. Like that's how I was raised. So I just feel like a lot of times, like people not being told and they not being held accountable for their bullshit. Like they just going through life, just doing fuck shit to people, and just not being nice. So, but that that's that's that's I got one thing to say. Just one thing. I I tell I tell all the because I I got a lot of young ladies and young men in my family or in my you know family that I'm creating around me, and I tell them all the time, don't be an asshole to people if you don't want them to be an asshole to you back. You treat people how you want to be treated. And if you go through life being an asshole, the universe, God, whoever you believe in, is going to punish you for that because that's how balance works. The scales have to balance. So if you're gonna be out here treating people like shit, understand that it's gonna come back to you like a yo-yo.
SPEAKER_09You gotta treat people how you want to be treated, but what if all you know is being treated bad? So all you know is that's all you can express.
SPEAKER_12You're right. If all you know is being treated bad and all you know is um being evil or whatever, it's not even evil, it's just what you know and how you communicate. I would say surround yourself with people who have an opposing thought or an opposing mindset. Surround yourself with people that are not afraid to challenge you. Uh, because a lot of y'all don't know I'm an asshole. Like a legit, a legit asshole, and I'm I'm quick with it. Like a lot of the time, some of the shit I say, I don't even think about how it might affect the person that I'm saying it to. And somebody has to tell me, like, yo, wait a minute, or hey, that was a little rude. But and it's only because I don't have I don't have any hate in my heart. So it just comes from like a ha first thing that comes to that. Yeah, it's the first thing that comes to my mind. So one of my friends recently told me, like, you're an asshole. Like you, you, you know, you always you always making comments or always saying stuff. So I feel like if, you know, if I wasn't around you or if we were no longer friends, you you would do the same to me. And it made me like sit back and reflect, and I was like, okay, I I understand why you feel that way. And it's unfortunate that you feel that way because I felt that way in the past. But what I will say is, is by you challenging me and bringing that to my attention, I will make sure that I'm a little bit more aware of what I'm saying to you and how what I'm saying to you might affect you. Because at the end of the day, if you're my friend and I care about you, I don't want you to feel uncomfortable around me. I don't want you to feel like you can't say certain things around me or bring certain people around me. So I might be an asshole, but I need to acknowledge hey, this is the real world. You can't be an asshole to everybody and expect nobody to be affected or offended by it.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_12Facts.
SPEAKER_05I like what Swish said though, because that's all you know, but we should all look at it where if the opportunity ever presents itself and somebody like that comes into our lives to take that opportunity to mentor them, to talk to them, and not just turn the black and go, oh, that guy's an asshole, stay away from him, push him away. So we gotta try to accept when you talk about community, you just ability for your community.
SPEAKER_12So, okay, so like I said, like I said, it's not an excuse though. So, how much grace are you giving? Like, if you know that this is what you've been taught, this is what you've been you've been knowing, how much grace are you giving for them to, you know, get to that point where it's like, all right, you bugging now, you're being disrespectful now. So when you gonna tell them, like, alright, you being disrespectful now?
SPEAKER_13Right then and there.
SPEAKER_12No, but like, what if that's all he knows? Like, that that's what they mean you gotta say. That's what they say.
SPEAKER_05You just kind of feel it. I don't think there's a number. Three times in your route. It's not like you're playing baseball or anything. You just kind of kind of feel it, work with them a little bit, and you know, sometimes you do have to wash your hands of it, but I I think that's yeah, you can do is try.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, and it also depends on the thing. If you see progress, if they're a friend or a stranger, it depends on that. Because when I see strangers acting crazy and and bursting, like I give them the evil eye, like I give them the lie, like, you better not try that shit with me. But at the same time, I I am uh uh I tell y'all the time I'm on my business. I I'm not gonna say anything unless somebody speaks to me. But if it's a friend, I'm going to wait until the situation de-escalates. I'm going to pull them to the side or wait until we're quiet in the room and I'm be like, well, listen, let me tell you something about yourself, okay? Anybody that knows me knows that I hold people accountable to the utmost. You're not gonna act an ass, you're not gonna disrespect anybody, you're not gonna insult anybody around me, all while I'm being an asshole. Because I know that I'm an asshole and it's not intentional, but if you're intentionally going out here and like hurting people or not wanting to listen, and and you've been told once before that, hey, listen, don't act like that, or you've been brought it's been brought to your attention. I'm just gonna have a one-on-one conversation with you. And if you say, I don't know any better, I don't know how to change, I understand that. So let's work on that. Because somebody had to do that for me. Accountability accountability. That's Bishop's favorite word.
SPEAKER_02That's his favorite word. Accountability.
SPEAKER_11That's that's female. And I say that because I've made the most money from trades that I've done for 40 hours as an RBT than the degree that I have in psychology. You have to go further with your degree if you want it to, you know, make a difference. But your trade is you have your hands-on experience, you're not in a classroom all day. So you make more money when you and then did y'all not hear Donald Trump is like so nursing degrees are not degrees anymore. Oh yeah, I heard that. My friend um sent that too. And a bunch of other shit, probably psychology as well. Sociology, I never thought that that was a degree. I don't know. But psychology for sure is not a degree anymore. I feel like I wasted my time. Wow. But I hope y'all take that off my loans.
SPEAKER_02That's crazy. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_08No, but on a serious note, like quick, like, I always tell people, uh, like, you know, you don't have to go to college. Nope. Right? You don't have to. You could go and and and and adapt a trade like a plumber or something and make a lot of money by doing well.
SPEAKER_12Well, no. And I don't go to college.
SPEAKER_08I just, you know, because people think that, I mean, because society is bred into, especially our the schooling system, is like go to school, get a degree, get a good job, and live happy.
SPEAKER_09You ain't even gotta go to high school these days.
SPEAKER_08You know, that's not the the the B ol end all. Don't go don't go to high school. Then you're gonna move the whole goddamn thing. God damn, she must have a shit. Um you don't have to have a degree in order to be successful in life. You know, there's entrepreneurialship. You could go and get a trade, or some people go to school, right, and just take a course on business, learn business, and they fucking out of here and they start their business and they're millionaires. So it's different paths for different people because society breeds us into going to school doing four years. Oh, you gotta they have to do four years, they gotta do five, four more years, get a master's degree. So, you know, this is just for the people that just feels like they don't they have to go to school. No, you can do a trade and still get your money that way.
SPEAKER_09Open up a restaurant, yeah. Successful restaurant.
SPEAKER_05Yes. I'm a history major.
SPEAKER_13Did you go to college? Really? I love history.
SPEAKER_05I went to Ruggers and I and I enjoyed it, but I'm not doing anything with history that you can.
SPEAKER_12Well, wait, well, I mean, uh uh, because listen, I I uh okay. All right, okay, I agree. Because you went to college, huh? Yeah, but I'm cool. I didn't I didn't niggle.
SPEAKER_13I mean I did for a couple months.
SPEAKER_05I think there's there's if you have a purpose and a goal already, and college is the way to get to that goal, then you do it. But if you're just going for fun and just to waste$120,000, why are you doing it? That's why I ain't gonna waste another money.
SPEAKER_12It's not for everybody. For everybody, but it's it's all about some people. Yeah, and it's all it's all about like like he said, the reason why you're going to college. I did not go to college to get degrees in psychology for a job. I did not. I do not like I'm an empath. I do not like dealing with other people on a day-to-day basis because I feel what they feel. I feel their emotions. I'm an emotional person. So I don't like putting myself in that type of environment. So I didn't go to school for clinical reasons or anything like that. I literally went to school to learn what I learned so that I could give that information to the people around me so I can help the people that legitimately have problems. My issue is that growing up, my parents told me I have to go to college. Yeah. I did not get any other choice. And then as soon as my generation went. No.
SPEAKER_05Right, and that and that's it. Exactly.
SPEAKER_12Like they want you to break that generation.
SPEAKER_05Because my parents didn't. But even still, like my oldest daughter, she's 27. Um, she went to she went to hair school. You know, so she's um she's a hairstylist, owns her own business, but her grandparents gave her a lot of shit along the way.
SPEAKER_08By saying that's not the route.
SPEAKER_05You gotta you gotta go to college. Now she makes more money than me. Right. And loves it, and sets her schedule and travels and does everything and and you know, super. But I think that that is the point the whole way.
SPEAKER_08That's the point that 100% and consensus is what is being said here is that you don't like you know to Bella's point about doing trade, because she said she made more money in her trade than she actually made in her degree. Because society, you know, and schooling systems teaches us that we have to what, K? Go to school, go to college, get a good job.
SPEAKER_11No, not that.
SPEAKER_07You don't have to do that in order to be successful in life.
SPEAKER_12I mean, in especially in today's society, you can go to YouTube and get a degree in anything. Like you can learn anything on YouTube.
SPEAKER_06It's really more university.
SPEAKER_12And see, that's that's why I said I agree, but because I feel like my mindset, somebody that can go. To college and sit through four years of class and like do the work to sit through four years of class not only has determination but has work ethic, like has attention skills. Like it takes a lot, discipline, it takes a lot to go to college and get a degree. It takes a lot of patience to deal with these professors that you're literally paying to teach you, and they don't want to teach you. So I agree. I tell people all the time, I'm a I'm a hundred and like a hundred and something thousand dollars in debt from from going to college. Would I change it? No, because I love the knowledge that I have, but could I learn or gain the same knowledge throughout life and and educating myself a hundred and ten percent yes? But life experiences I gained, I went to an HBCU, I went to a commuter school, I like master's programs, people that I've met, experiences that I've had while engaging in college. I would say everybody, I don't I don't want to say everybody should have those experiences, but it's something that is enjoyable. I enjoyed college. I had fun in college, I enjoyed meeting people, I enjoyed what I learned from it. Um, but it was definitely a waste of money. No shit. It is, it is a waste of money.
Unapologetically Opinionated: Childhood Vs Adulthood
SPEAKER_11So I'm glad that you know you had your experience and stuff like that, but you can save your money. Save your money. And you can find all that. First of all, the books that the professors give to you, they love college.
SPEAKER_12They sell it on Amazon. Yeah, they do. You can find the ebook, you can find the PDF.
SPEAKER_11My degree, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna take away from it because, like I said, I like I love the experience. But for a fur, I could have gotten it during real world. I feel like I've gotten more experiences in the real world than I did in college. Period. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I think also when you're going to college, you're like 18. You don't know what you want to do.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, no, yeah, right. Everyone's gonna be having sex.
SPEAKER_09I would have had like seven kids about it.
SPEAKER_12Oh lord, she's sex is crazy. You ain't lying. College is crazy. And and and that's a lot, that's a huge point that people, Maddie, that people don't understand. You're like 18, 19, going to college, away from your parents, wanting to break every rule that you couldn't break while you were living in their house because you can't do this while you're in my house. So, like, and then being around people who have had different experiences. Like, I like I said, I went to a HBCU, so there were people that were like 20-something years old from New York, from Philly, from Africa, from all over the place. These people that were drinking there like for the last couple of years, doing all types of drugs. It was some stems, it was a lot of violence. And I am a person that was sheltered. My parents kept me on lockdown. So when I went to my school, I was like, ooh, what is this? This is crazy. But I had fun. And like she said, life, life lessons. It I definitely learned a lot from the life lessons. I went to Morgan, Morgan State University. And I didn't graduate. Let's make it clear. I am that is not my own, not at all. I graduated from the University of Baltimore, but I went to Morgan State University for two years, and I left because I felt like it was a waste of my money. Like, I had to argue with professors. I had to like I had to come to people as a woman. Like, I was like, no, yeah, like I'm paying you to teach me. You're gonna teach me. And I took it serious. So I had to go to people that took it serious. And that was just it. That was unapologetically opinionated, and I'm belling me, and I'm here to shake the fucking table. Shake the fucking table.
SPEAKER_09Shaking lemon.
SPEAKER_08How to do the round of applause? Listen, you're gonna stop telling me how to run this motherfucking booze.
SPEAKER_12Soundboard wars. Okay. I do the round of applause.
SPEAKER_08I do my block.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_08Don't don't don't talk to me when I'm on the board.
SPEAKER_11All right, that's fine. Will you know what? That's fine.
SPEAKER_08Okay, I do this here.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, I have real quick. I had a listen.
SPEAKER_12I have scoliosis, right? So my pelvis. You got scoliosis? Yes, so like my pelvis is tilted. So I do be having to use the bathroom, but then I fast like 16 hours ago.
SPEAKER_13You got scoliosis too.
SPEAKER_11Girl, my spine. My spine, my spine, girl. Yes, like a damn pretzel.
SPEAKER_12Our wombs are lower than like straight. Are you having to use the bathroom, dog? I swear to God. No, that's not me. Come into this interview.
SPEAKER_08This is a givearound. So listen, we got a very special guest in the day. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00It was so good.
SPEAKER_11No, no, no. You the only one.
SPEAKER_08So listen, Maddie Man, we got three simple questions that we ask all our no-visory guests. Okay. Three simple questions.
SPEAKER_07Who you are? Where you from?
SPEAKER_02What the fuck you do?
SPEAKER_05Alright, so who I am? So uh my name is Maddie King. And uh what was the second one? Where are you from? Where I'm from uh New Jersey. Big Jersey. Born in Jersey City, grew up in Lynnhurst, New Jersey, but uh been out of there for a while in Texas, Louisiana. Okay, Louisiana. Charlotte, yeah. So, and then what do I do? I um currently um I own the waffley, it's uh retinue uh brunch restaurant.
SPEAKER_12The best brunch spot in Charlotte. I haven't been yet. I'm sorry, Maddie. I wasn't invited.
SPEAKER_00We'll be here for a while.
SPEAKER_12I mean, don't do that. I mean, it wasn't open for inviting. Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't. You don't like grits, it's crazy. Like, like, like you don't like oatmeal or nothing. I don't like oatmeal, I don't like grits, it's the consistency. Okay. Okay, we'll get a waffle.
SPEAKER_05Where'd you grow up at?
SPEAKER_12In Virginia. That's why.
SPEAKER_08Hey, Matt, you got a question with the thicker. He wanna know where it is at so he could go.
SPEAKER_05Uh so uh we have we have three locations, but the the two in Charlotte, one is on 10th Street, just outside of Uptown, and then our newest one is at uh 2817 Rosal Spray Roads in the uh on the west side.
SPEAKER_09Turn West Side Westside So Naga come to Ralphy with a baddie and be like, you know, I know the almond. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05We get people dropping my name all the time. I've been in Charlotte uh for probably 20 years, and I had another restaurant before this one was called Maddie's Diner. Oh, okay. And uh so everybody wanted you know that I met there, wanted to drop Maddie's name, and Maddie wasn't there trying to get some shit for free and stuff.
SPEAKER_09I'm a hey, I'm gonna tip good. I just want to stun real quick.
SPEAKER_11I just gotta brag right quick because I ate good.
SPEAKER_05Most people think Maddie's a little old lady in the back in the kitchen. Anyway, my real name is Matthew, but up north everybody Maddie.
SPEAKER_08I'm not gonna lie, right? Because my mother's name is Maddie. Okay, right? So when Des hit me up for the collab, and she was like, Your own name is Maddie, over okay, I want to meet her. I know it's Guy. Like, oh yeah, let me meet him, you know? So it's great, but I didn't never know, I never knew your name was Matthew. So how did you get from Matthew to Maddie?
SPEAKER_05It's just up north growing up in Jersey. Everybody's like the senior is usually like Matthew, and then the next one is like Maddie, and or then the next one is Trey, like for the third, you know. Uh never James Jimmy just the way different.
SPEAKER_09It's not that off, though.
SPEAKER_08Huh?
SPEAKER_09It's not that off.
SPEAKER_08No, no, I mean it's a good nickname. Because Matthew and Maddie is like yin yin yang, is male female.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I get what you're saying. I see what you're saying.
SPEAKER_08You're saying Maddie. No, Maddie, M-A-T-T-I-E. Yeah, yeah. That's my mother's name. My mother's name is Matty. That's on her birthday.
SPEAKER_09M-A-T-T-Y is mad T though. Like, yeah. No, M-A-T-T-I-E. How you spell that Maddie? M-A-T-T I.
SPEAKER_08Mm-hmm. But I got buddy on the box. Shut up, bro. Maddie. Mm-hmm. Why, yeah. See, it's Maddie, Maddie, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh my God.
SPEAKER_08So take us back, right? Because you said you had the uh the Maddie's Diner. Oh, yeah, I love that spot. Oh, yeah. Like, take us back to Maddie's Diner and um, you know, transitioning into what we have here as the waffery.
SPEAKER_05So we had uh we had Maddie's Diner here in town um from 2010 up until probably about four months ago. I grew up in Jersey and and have been down here for a while, and I missed having diners around. You're up in Jersey, you got a diner on every corner. Every corner.
SPEAKER_08You're in New York as well? In New York, Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so you you guys know, and so uh having the entrepreneurial spirit, I I, you know, wanted to go out doing my own thing, just met so many people down here always saying, hey, where's a good diner? So there isn't one. You know, we don't have diners here. So I went up north, found one. Um it was the old Baumbrook Diner from Baumbrook, New Jersey. It was actually in a flood for a couple days, was underwater for a couple days. We uh we we found a used car parking lot just sitting up on blocks there, brought it down here, spent about five years renovating and opening in 2010. We were opening a music factory over by the filmmall. Blood money. 24 hours. Oh, it's hard. It was I mean, I was young, but it was fun.
SPEAKER_08Where? Exactly.
SPEAKER_05Right across from the filmmore, right across the film. You saying you opened it. You saying you opened the you opened it. Yeah, I I bought that building, moved it down here, renovated it, and we we had we put that building in the parking lot of the music factory.
SPEAKER_08Music factory.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. This was from uh we moved it there in 2005, opened up, took about five years to renovate it, opened up in 2010. And and we were open until 2016, and then they sold that land. And so we put it back in storage, and then we for another six years, and then we found a home for it on the plaza, which was where it was up until about three months ago. Well, it's still there, but we sold it. You know, we're out of it to focus on the waffle.
SPEAKER_09I I'm trying to let him get through, but I I'm finna be a nosy nigga because I've I'm not even gonna lie.
SPEAKER_05I love I love talking about it because without Maddie's, which which I love, we wouldn't have the waffle. Right? The wall we were at Maddie's um just just talking, shooting around some ideas. We had chicken, but we didn't have waffles. We had gravy, but we didn't have biscuits for various reasons, most having to do with the equipment that we could fit into that old diner. So we said, well, shit, let's just open up another restaurant, make it revolve around waffles and biscuits, and everybody loves our grits.
SPEAKER_10I love I love the grits. We gotta try them though.
SPEAKER_12You do the crab cake grits is busting. Like on their plate, and they give me some because I don't want to be like, I'll sit down next to the ball grits.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I'll feed you some grits. But that I have to stop y'all right there. The grits recipe is not mine. So it's no, it's it's it's not mine. Did you meet Teresa? Yeah, I did. So um Teresa's my general manager over at Rosal's Ferry. She worked for me at Maddie's, so she's she makes some good grits. Yeah, she she does. So I when again, being from Jersey, I don't know shit about grits. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I don't know the first grits. That's a downside.
SPEAKER_05I thought my first restaurant would be like spaghetti and meat's or something, you know, like an Italian jar. So I was not proud of the grits that we served at the first generation of Maddie's. So when we were hiring, once we were reopened on the plaza, I I um I said, I gotta get somebody who knows how to make grits. And Teresa came in for her interview once for a prepper interview, and I said, one question, how are your grits? She said, Oh, they're great, they're the best. All right, let's go make them. Made them, taste them. Oh my god, I love you. They were the best.
SPEAKER_09And this is without salt or pepper or anything, you just took it right out the.
SPEAKER_05Well, I mean, you don't have to put anything on it. You see somebody putting I always stop and like dead in the tracks. Like, stop, taste it before you do anything. Because there's so much butter and cream, the right amount of salt, love, everything. You name it. It's in there. It's in there. You gotta type in. But no lunch. When we going, so we're uh we're we're pretty proud. When are we going?
SPEAKER_12I don't know. You said brunch, so you gotta wait and try to. So how do you feel about Waffle House?
SPEAKER_05So have you read different not Waffle House now the fight, the overnight fights remind me of Matty's. Oh, really? I was I was uh five years, myself personally, 27 fights in five years over overnight.
SPEAKER_08That's with Calvin and Matt.
SPEAKER_05That's with my wife and I stood there and counting. That's with a cop and a bouncer in the city.
SPEAKER_09That's crazy.
SPEAKER_05Do y'all sell alcohol?
SPEAKER_09Or is the people coming after the clubs?
SPEAKER_05No, it was after the clubs. Okay, okay. But again, all I saw as a young guy was money, money, money. Yeah. After the clubs, you're gonna come in, everything's gonna be cool. It was the opposite of cool. Yeah, it's such a small place. You know, you're in a 16 by 40 foot building, you know, those old diners, and somebody thinks they're whispering, but they're really hammered. Talking about this guy's girl.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, yeah. We all got that walk, friend.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_11I'm waiting.
SPEAKER_05We we cook in front of you too, so I retrofitted the uh the kitchen right up front. So I mean, you can literally just reach out two feet away and you're like tugging on the shirt. Hey man, let me get some of this. Let me get some of that. It was tricky like that. Oh, yeah. No, it was it was wild. It was it was it was wild. I'd never do it again. We like I said, it's blood money.
SPEAKER_08Is that blood money? Okay, I get why you said that. You gotta go. Gotta go.
SPEAKER_11All right, you gotta go. You gotta go. First of all, we gotta invite it.
SPEAKER_13Why you gotta invite it? Okay, I know everybody wanna know because you know it's this whole lot of waffle versus pancakes things. So why why why waffles and not pancakes?
College, Trades, And Real-World Paths
SPEAKER_05Well, Maddie's was pancakes. We had killer pancakes at Maddie's. Oh and so we were trying to do something, do something different. And again, Teresa and I were just in the kitchen goofing off, and we said, we got this great chicken, but we don't have any waffles to go with it. So, you know, and and I'll be honest, before I opened this place, I had never had chicken and waffles before.
SPEAKER_11For real? Not once.
SPEAKER_05Really? I knew about it.
SPEAKER_11So did you try yours?
SPEAKER_09Did I try mine before we opened? When I was younger, it always sounded like a luxury meal to me, though.
SPEAKER_11You never had chicken and waffles?
SPEAKER_09It's one of the things that sounds so good. I don't want to try it and it not be good. I just want to always live off the fence.
SPEAKER_07Y'all's bugging.
SPEAKER_12I'm cool. Yes, bugging.
SPEAKER_09I don't want it to be doesn't sound like combo.
SPEAKER_12I've watched people eat chicken and waffles in front of me and be like, because like, why do you want the syrup with the chicken? Because it's good.
SPEAKER_13Like it's like adding honey to chicken.
SPEAKER_08I remember chicken and waffles either was high, drunk, or definitely. That shit good as combo. That's liquid. That's straight liquor. That's not liquor.
SPEAKER_09It was on liquor when they came with that.
SPEAKER_05Well, then what chicken and waffles was popularized. Well, it started in the 1600s, but it was more popularized in Harlem at the jazz clubs because you had jazz clubs, yeah. Yeah, it was like it was like the perfect breakfast, dinner meal. Guys were getting off of work and and and all it was three, four in the morning. You don't want something too heavy, but you don't want something too light. So that's just sort of what nothing like that.
SPEAKER_08The thing the only thing with chicken and waffles is because I went to uh when I went to Atlanta one time and I went to Gladys Knight's uh joint because she had the famous chicken and waffles. So I wanted to try it. So when I tried it, the only thing I prefer if to do chicken and waffles, I don't want chicken and waffles, I don't want the ones with the chicken with the bones. I feel like it takes away from the experience when you actually put the chicken and cut it. Yeah, I don't want the one with the bones. I would need a chicken breast.
SPEAKER_05We need chicken breast, chicken breast. We do chicken thighs, actually. I can't.
SPEAKER_11I prefer thighs.
SPEAKER_05Great. Yeah, because you can cook them longer without drying them out and get that bread in nice and crispy.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_13When y'all go get that railed velvet with the chicken, so good.
SPEAKER_09I feel like French toast is like a lost art. Like everybody focuses on waffles.
SPEAKER_05Again, that was that was something that we did and did really well at Maddie's. Okay, okay. We just again strictly waffle. Uh strict, yeah, you can't get toast even. No toast. You get biscuits though. The biscuits are amazing. We worked real hard. Like, she was a good thing. We worked real hard on those.
SPEAKER_08So you know what I want to do. What made you like say, listen, I'm going to do a diner? You could do anything else as far as entrepreneurship, opening businesses. What made you say, yo, I want to do Maddie's diner? I want to just feed people. What made you come up say I want to do it?
SPEAKER_05Oh, well, feeding, I mean, feeding people. I first I grew up in the restaurant business. My mom was a maider D at a fancy Italian restaurant up north. So we we just we just grew up around it. Anything good in life, think about it, it happens around food, right? Yeah, it's happy. I mean, hell, even bad things. Even bad things around food. You know, everything everything that you remember, all your memories center around food somewhere. Yeah. So I just I just love that aspect of it. You know, it it for me, the restaurant business, it doesn't matter what you're doing. You could be selling mugs, microphones, airplanes, food. It doesn't matter, it's about the people. It's about the connections. So that that's what I enjoy is being able to have connections with people, getting out to the tables, talking to everybody, you know, making regulars, making friends, and just making that connection and putting a smile on people's faces. I mean food's important, you know, and we're nourishing bodies and and doing all those good things, but on the same side of it, there's such a social aspect of it and a place where uh, you know, you're providing a place for people to come together and have these celebrations and have these moments and start their business and talk about their wedding and you know, do all sorts of stuff. So that that's what I like to provide most, more than the food itself. It's gotta be good food, but it's all about the people, man. It's all about the people.
SPEAKER_09How do you deal with those customers that you know we I got friends like this? Kaya, I love you to death. Oh, look. We all got those people that come to restaurants and the the service will be good, the food will be good, and they'll find that one thing and just hone in on it and just let it go. Oh, I want I I don't want to pay for this no more. I'll send this back. Send this back.
SPEAKER_05That probably accounted for probably 19 of those 27 fights. Okay, gotcha. But then as you grow, you learn, you can't you can't please everybody. You just gotta you gotta let that shit go. You have to. Because we I know in my heart, I show up every single day. And give it away. My crew shows up, gives it the all. If I can't please you, sorry. This isn't for you. Some some people you don't know what's going on in their lives either, you know.
SPEAKER_13That's a fact.
SPEAKER_05Sure. So we just you just gotta let the shit roll. Shut up. Shut up.
SPEAKER_13So I seen in your main. You that you have a mark womel. Can you tell us the story of the Mark Womelets?
SPEAKER_05What the fuck is a womel?
SPEAKER_08What the fuck is a womel?
SPEAKER_05And I'll tell you how that started. So I have a buddy, um, his name is Adam. He owns a company in town, Expo Food Safety. He he um certifies everybody in food handling in the city. Um so his dad's name is Mark. And when I was telling him about the restaurant, he goes, Oh, you gotta put a walnut on there. And I said, What the fuck is a walnut? So that's why the shirt started. Yeah. And uh a walnut is like uh scrambled eggs and like an omelet, really meat and cheese and eggs, and then you cut the center of the waffle out and you put all that stuff in the center and then put the top back on. Sort of like eggs in a basket if you're doing it with toast. Oh yeah. So it's like the same thing.
SPEAKER_09Stay making waffle sandwiches. Stay making waffle sandwiches. That's that sounds good.
SPEAKER_05So then we, you know, we had to give credit where it was due, so we put we put Mark's name on there.
SPEAKER_13I love that. I gotta get one of those one day.
SPEAKER_05It's good. It's good stuff.
SPEAKER_08I like because what what did we have when we went over there?
SPEAKER_12Um we had the crab cake, gritz bowl, and that was you like the crab chicken? I love that one.
SPEAKER_09And then you had the chicken bowl, the chicken gritz bowl. Is this nigga on tonight? And then like a demure is like my friend had the vegan dish.
SPEAKER_13Right, right.
SPEAKER_09That was exceptional.
SPEAKER_05I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_13What the fuck?
SPEAKER_05We had a um a huge vegan following at Maddie.
SPEAKER_13So when we left, yeah, she loves that.
SPEAKER_05We had to um make sure that we brought some vegan options up.
SPEAKER_08You're vegan and still go to Walmart. But that's very important. It is sometimes like when people go to these establishments or places of eat, right, and they say, you know, especially vegan people, they go to like, and look at this is the first thing to do. That'd be like, they got no vegan options, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so so often you're stuck eating french fries and a salad. Right. So to be able to get a Nashville chicken sandwich that's vegan, like a biscuit with vegan eggs and all, it's it's it's good. We want them to be able to provide options for vegans and their friends that they can eat the same thing, just different versions. But the crab cake is good because I love a crab. I'm telling the story. My ex-wife is um from Baltimore. Oh, so I didn't want to get out the Baltimore. I did not want to give her a reason to come in and bitch about anything when she comes in that the crab cake was no good. So we worked extra hard on that.
unknownI know.
SPEAKER_05To make sure it was good. And it is good.
SPEAKER_08And it is exceptional.
SPEAKER_05That's a true story.
SPEAKER_08Because that's what you who had the crab card. I had that on the crab cake.
SPEAKER_13I loved it. Yeah, that was a good one. So good. I get it. I got it both times every time I went.
SPEAKER_05Thank you.
SPEAKER_08I'm gonna tell you guys, right? Like, I'm gonna I'm I consider myself a 40. Uh-huh. And I consider myself somebody that's like can like if I'm hungry, I think a lot of us can attest. If we're hungry, we don't give a fuck about what it tastes like. We're hungry, we're gonna eat it. Nah, you're wildin'. You bugging. Yeah, nah. You wildin', you bugging out.
SPEAKER_04No, no.
SPEAKER_08You bugging out. Hell yeah. Okay, well, at least I got one person. Sometimes when I'm hungry, I don't give a fuck. It can taste nasty. If I'm hungry, I'm eating it. Never in life. Are you kidding me right now? Hold on. Okay, I hear you. That's your opinion. My bad. You obligated to your opinion. I'm wildin', my bad. But when I when I came in to the waffley and I was like, okay, I starved myself. I was, I'm gonna, I'm hungry. I want to eat, I want to see what this thing is about because I wanted to get the full gist of what the food tastes like because I'm hungry, right? Bruh, I ain't gonna front. He was waiting for that day. Oh my gosh. Like, I have a I I tasted a lot of food. Their food is so whoever the the who's behind in cooking? Who cooks the food? I mean, the one that we went to. Who's the who's the chef? The cook's name. What's the one that the the the no the new one that tried the grand opening for?
SPEAKER_04I mean, I've got five such guys in the kitchen with me.
SPEAKER_08Just name one.
SPEAKER_04Me, you?
SPEAKER_08Okay, we're gonna see that.
SPEAKER_13He was in the kitchen. He cooked the shit out that food. Y'all gotta see the end result of his plate. He finished before me and my friend. Like in five seconds. That shit was.
SPEAKER_08No, I tore it up. It was very, very, very good. Like, it was really good. And when I had again, I don't know what the fuck I did. You had shit.
SPEAKER_13What you had again?
SPEAKER_08What I had. It was whatever it was, it was fucking phenomenal.
SPEAKER_13No, no, he didn't have a waffle.
SPEAKER_08No, not that I didn't have a whole.
SPEAKER_13I know he had a waffle though.
SPEAKER_08Did I have a waffle? Well, listen, I don't give a fuck what it was, guys. The food was exceptional. And I was like, yo, this shit is really good. Because sometimes we could, it don't matter. I've been to five-star restaurants, I've been to a whole bunch of food and eatery spots. I'm just a foodie. If I'm on if I and I'm honest as fuck. Like, if this shit is nasty, I'm like, nah, this shit ain't it. Like, I don't like it. I don't give a fuck if I'm hungry. I'm like, nah, I don't like this shit. I swear to God. This shit was fucking good. And this and y'all know if it's coming from me.
SPEAKER_05There's nothing crazy about it.
SPEAKER_08Nothing crazy about it. Very good. You don't be like that shit. But that's a serious thing. I don't be like that shit. I don't keep it simple.
SPEAKER_12Keep it simple, stupid. You know. Maddie, how come do you have any restaurants up north?
SPEAKER_05No. I've I've been out of there since like 93.
SPEAKER_12Is it because of the market up there, or you just want it to do something different down here?
SPEAKER_05Um, I just love it down here more. I'm trying to get my whole family to move down here for years. Nobody's gonna be right. I know that's right, yeah. But I just I love it down here more. It's too much of a rat race up there. I know it really is.
SPEAKER_12Bucket. Bucket buckle.
SPEAKER_08We correct people here.
SPEAKER_11Crabs in a bucket mentality.
SPEAKER_12Yeah.
unknownExactly.
SPEAKER_12I love it. It it's pretty much if you your your wife's from Baltimore. Ex-wife. I'm so fast.
SPEAKER_09Don't get out of here. We do that up here. We get people in trouble.
SPEAKER_12You're from New Jersey. When did you guys or when did you decide to come down south? And what experience did you have to make you say, oh yeah, I'm done. I'm not going back up there.
SPEAKER_05Um, I I I've been out of the house since I was like 17. Okay. So even while I was living at college, you know, I wouldn't get home in the summers, just go down the shore, get to the beach.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And um, and then right after college, I moved out to Texas just to get away. Just to get away. Try something different, yeah. Yeah, and I hooked up with a company called Jason's Deli. And I worked for those guys for a lot of things. I love those guys. I hooked up with them when they were like uh 30 stores only. And so I traveled the country opened up restaurants for those guys for 10 years. Oh, that's how to open.
SPEAKER_09How you learned the business. That was also that's how I'm gonna ask you.
SPEAKER_05That foodie guy. I don't really like working for other people at all. But those are good guys.
SPEAKER_08You know what I want to know? Because uh with everything, right? With social media, everybody wanna glorify everything that they're doing, but nobody never glorifies the bad or the struggles. Like, what was like the most struggling, yeah, the struggle, what was the most struggling parts for you in this journey?
SPEAKER_05I mean you could probably name a hundred financial things, right? You know, the daily worries you you provided jobs for 20 people and make sure the perils there and all that is going on. But um for me, it I think the restaurant business took my first marriage. For sure. That was that's true. I would go to work on Thursday morning and spent 24 hours. I would get home Sunday sometimes. That's like sleeping in a chair in the back, yeah, washing off in the mob sink, that that kind of thing for real. So I think um that that's probably was the toughest part. But I I say that, but it also led me to the best, you know. I have a second marriage now.
SPEAKER_11Wait, she wasn't there helping you at the restaurant?
unknownLet's not get into that.
SPEAKER_02Right, right, right.
Guest Interview: Maddie And The Wafflery
SPEAKER_05She's messy, she's messy. She's messy, just keep talking, keep talking. We all good, just keep talking. No, I don't I don't mind. The answer is no. Don't engage. It wasn't for her. Right. She gotta support, relax for everybody, it's not for everybody. It's not for everybody, and but even on my side, I don't know that I would ever do that again. Like, I'm a hard worker. I think everybody gets their talents from God, right? God gave me the talent to work hard. I'm not the best cook, I'm not you know, good at a ton of things, but I can put my nose to the grindstone. I'm not gonna give up, you know, I'm just gonna keep keep going. So, you know, that wanting to succeed in the business, that's how I sort of as a young man judge my success. I'm a provider for my family, I gotta pay the bills, it doesn't matter what it takes. Think about how many lovely parties you have, how many dads you have you have, all that shit. You know, it's not the best sort of relationship with your wife. Um so that that was the big the struggle. But on the flip side, I am in a second marriage, I got two different kids from that marriage, and we're still together, and she runs the business with me. That's a supporter. That is a much better feeling, yeah. It's a lot easier.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, you got somebody in the field with you at Maddie's.
SPEAKER_05Oh, of course. After I got divorced. We love that. We love that.
SPEAKER_08I want to just I know I'm just I want to know like how was it how important is it to have your significant other to be on the same page with you? How important is it?
SPEAKER_05That helped a lot. My wife's name is Rossi. Shout out to Rossi. Shout out to Rossi. I'm just Rossi. With without God and without Rossi, I'm nothing. Here, here. I'm done.
SPEAKER_12So, Maddie, I hate to cut you off. Can we all agree that women women are what run this world? Women are what run this world, bro. Rossi has kept you stable and yes. Thank you, James.
SPEAKER_09I'm sure, I'm sure Miss Rossi would say the same about him. It's 50-50.
SPEAKER_08Rocket.
SPEAKER_09You know, no way. One hand wash the other.
SPEAKER_08I'm not I'm not gonna say women because I can't always. Yes, thank you. Because shout, um, you know, the LBGT community, there are people that have, you know, a man and have the man that support them, the women and women that support them. It don't matter the gender, it just the support.
SPEAKER_09What the fuck is he talking about? What is he talking about? How did we get here?
SPEAKER_08Okay, let's let's say that. Yeah, you know, because you say no, because you're talking about it. No, we wasn't talking about LGBTQ because niggas call themselves women. Because it could be a man that's in an entrepreneur.
SPEAKER_12And this man lead him for the space, we all came from a woman. We all came from a woman. I'm just talking about pointing out the fact that Rossi has been there to hold him down. And I wanted to acknowledge that women will help a man achieve their goal. That's all they're doing.
SPEAKER_08Yes, but on the flip side, they don't want to leave them. They had a man that was in a relationship and the man was supporting the man. Shout out to the men supporting it to be a good one.
SPEAKER_09They don't give a fuck about none of that. Like, what are you talking about? You're bugging the same. But what but uh but you what you missing a little bit of the point too. What women need to realize is stop stressing your man when he out working doing his thing, unless you're gonna get unless you're gonna get the field with him, whatever he's doing. He out here fixing houses, you're gonna get in there, fix the house, or set up the appointment. Set up the appointment to fix the house. They switched. And if you ain't working with him, say, bitch, you wasn't with me. Shoot him. Shooting in the gym. Damn, homies are P. Cody.
SPEAKER_12You gotta get that bag with your man. Yeah, shout out to Ms.
SPEAKER_09Rossi.
SPEAKER_12Right, because if it wasn't for Rossi, we wouldn't be here. Right, right. Yep. That's true.
SPEAKER_09Right. That's true.
SPEAKER_12And I'm gritzed. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_05All the behind the scenes stuff. Yes, I love that.
SPEAKER_12So is it a family business or your girls? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay, okay.
SPEAKER_08I love that. So you playing on. She was there when we did it. Oh, yeah, she was. She was talking to someone else. She was there.
SPEAKER_09You plan on giving the restaurants to them whenever you sit.
SPEAKER_05If they want it, but my older two, like I said, my 27-year-old, she's a hairstylist. She has her own business. My um my 22-year-old, she's up at App State where we have our second store up at up at Boone. And she's gonna be the occupational therapist, so she doesn't want it. That's it. My 18-year-old Lucia, she may or may not get in the business, but she really wants to go in the military and fly planes, so I'm not saying. Okay, I matter. The other two are little. I've got eight, uh well, now nine and eleven. So who knows what they want? Sure. But they're yeah, it's family business. They're all they're all in there and generational wealth. Yeah. That's dope. That was dope. People think you're that's funny you said that though, because people think you're loaded when you own restaurants and you're just four times as well.
SPEAKER_07Right, you four times.
SPEAKER_05More money, more problems. You're just trying to grow things and you're not trying to spend it. And it's just not like I you know and it's funny because some people come in to complain about prices, and I think we're we're yeah, I guess. That price is not that bad, though.
SPEAKER_13Yes, we're not breaking anybody.
SPEAKER_05We're not higher than anybody, we're probably not lower than anybody.
SPEAKER_13Now, catching the cocktails, yes.
SPEAKER_05So people people come in and complain, and I just want to say, you know, like I don't just show up and pick up my bag of money and go back to the yacht. You know, you you investing right back into your business.
SPEAKER_08You know, you investing back into the business. We didn't say that.
SPEAKER_11I should do have a yacht.
SPEAKER_08No, but I'm I'm glad you said that because uh when people think about people just see the surface, yeah, right? They don't see the groundwork that goes into that. And they don't understand the pricing that goes into a lot of things, right? They just say, oh, they just like I'm not I'm not gonna lie.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Like that up at 10th Street, the first location, you know, we have a we may have 50 people online, there's no doubt. And and we do make money there. But there's a lot of bills to be paid. To be paid. A lot of people working for you. You gotta pay your rent, the insurance, the government gets their hands and everything. State tax, bedroom tax. Like there's a lot of taxes. There's a lot to it. But we we do reinvest it back into the business, and we're we are growing. My plan was to open up four school and just chill out and make them as good as we possibly can, and then expand after that. See what we're gonna do for now.
SPEAKER_13You going to the east side?
SPEAKER_05Uh, where would you consider the east side? I'm uh east. No.
SPEAKER_09We might need to let her open up a restaurant out there. This sounds like Albemarle Road that's Albemar, I guess.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it's been in and out of it's been in and out of people in there. I forgot where it's at. Shout out to my man Nat B. Chef, he was there, he left.
SPEAKER_13Uh what's up?
SPEAKER_08Huh?
SPEAKER_13You ain't close to them? You gotta get there.
SPEAKER_05We're at 45. So that's almost two album. Oh, so we're halfway there. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go on the east side. So we're gonna relax and and then just not relax, but we're gonna stop opening restaurants and make these as good as we can. Because you grow up too fast. I mean, that's four restaurants in a year.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Damn. That's four in a year. That's crazy. That's why we four people are coming and go.
SPEAKER_05That's the way we find second generation space to mean that somebody else has gone out against us already. Not that we wish that on anybody.
SPEAKER_09Oh, that's awesome. You know, you can keep it. Is these like is these like buildings that you're building from ground up, or is these like bacon buildings that y'all take up?
SPEAKER_05Okay, oh, okay, that's it. And and we could save a ton of money because the electric's there, the the HVAC is there. Right, yeah. It's gotta have a 12-foot hood system over our grills. Because that's like 120 grand, just that alone. So we can, you know, my buddy and I get in there, most of the rest of it is cosmetic. We we put our touches on our left off, and you know, I order every spoon and put the oven together and in the middle of the street, unloading trucks and and everything. Yeah, Maddie.
SPEAKER_12When are you gonna step back? When are you gonna retire?
SPEAKER_05Well, that's the goal. Never mind. Shit, let me tell you, it's easier to step back. Facts, facts. I think, well, I'm 55 now.
SPEAKER_13Oh, well, he ain't got no time to retire. Stop rushing.
SPEAKER_05You look dirty.
SPEAKER_13You do look dirty. This name is I did not think he was 55.
SPEAKER_05No, I didn't think that either. Okay. We'll give another five or six years. But, you know, people are people are making offers to franchise this thing, alright? Yeah. Yes. And I don't know that I would ever stop working if we franchised it, because it's still got my name tied. Yeah. You know, so I don't think I can be out there fishing and not worrying about what somebody's doing to my name. Right.
SPEAKER_08I want to know, like, what is the what is your your your your go-to dish? If somebody walks into the water, what's your face? What'd you recommend?
SPEAKER_09This is a dish that you gonna recommend. What you recommend?
SPEAKER_10Crab cake and grits.
SPEAKER_13I just like number two. Oh, I do. That's what you're trying that.
SPEAKER_12No, that was that was the first time, the second time you had waffles.
SPEAKER_08No, we only went there once.
SPEAKER_13No, we went there twice.
SPEAKER_08Twice.
SPEAKER_13Meaning you went there the first time, then the third time it was meaning you in heaven.
SPEAKER_08The third, you skipped the second.
SPEAKER_13I mean the second time it was me. I was there. I was there. We're gonna go the third time. Wait.
SPEAKER_08I just remember going one time.
SPEAKER_13The first time was shrimping and grits. It was me and you. It was at the first location. Then the second location was when you met him.
SPEAKER_05When that other guy Anton was it?
SPEAKER_08Oh yeah. What other guy? Who the fuck is that, Matt? No, it's not Antoine. I don't know who it was. But listen, I'm gonna tell you what that shrimp and grits. Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_13It's a lot going on right now. It's a lot going on.
SPEAKER_08Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very good.
SPEAKER_11Flat roast. Put roast? Wait, pot roast what? I didn't see that one. Oh, that one.
SPEAKER_09It's all off the bone. It's all off the bone.
SPEAKER_13Okay. Hold on, though. Tendernism.
unknownThere is no tenderness.
SPEAKER_13Oh, wait, y'all. There's a story about the tendernism. There's a story. Tenderism. That's not his restaurant.
SPEAKER_09I seen that. Yeah, I picked that. Yeah. Somebody else. Now, what's the what's the hiring process for the wafflery? And are you hiring right now? For any positions.
SPEAKER_05We're always looking at people. Right now, my actual need is I'm looking for a badass egg grill cook.
SPEAKER_13Like I'm a badass daddy.
SPEAKER_09Oh my God. You're trying to mess up this man's relationship so bad.
SPEAKER_05We talk about food right now, dude. Eggs is horrible. It's not easy when there's a line out the door. And not everybody can cook them on a flat top.
SPEAKER_09Got you. Copy that. Like Jack in the Box. That's what we used to do at Jack in the Box, cooking on the flat top.
SPEAKER_12I was about to say you gotta get it. I used to be back there cracking them shit.
SPEAKER_05They don't work out because they're hire. I I was thinking the same thing. I hired probably six or seven waffle house guys over the clock.
SPEAKER_09You wildin'. Don't mess your business up now. Keep the Waffle House niggas up out of there. You heard them? You heard what he said.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_09But now uh they have never worked out. You need somebody that can make eggs good. I think their menu is so I know good egg, correct?
SPEAKER_05Limited. And you know, they they do that whole marketing system, like what they tick they put a jelly in a certain place and it they don't write tickets, right? So they they have a market system where they put jelly pack it here, turn the sugar upside down, and the mark tells them what they're doing. Uh yeah. All they do is they focus on that little thing.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_05They can't run the board and look at 20 tickets and scan a can gain eight, two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve screen. That makes sense. So that's that's the hardest thing to find. And I'm in the kitchen, one because I love it, but I do realize I gotta get out of there to get to the next one. So I'd love to get in there, train, set the tone, set the culture for everybody, set the standards, and then be able to move on to the next one. Um and I can't move on to the next one until I find that badass A guy. So if you're out there and you're watching and you're a badass egg guy, you don't need no dishwashers?
SPEAKER_11Inquire.
SPEAKER_08Hey, we're gonna find you a badass A guy.
SPEAKER_09Okay. Copy that. Copy that. Let me know. I'm the best in town.
SPEAKER_08Badass A guy's watching now, he's gonna be like, yo, link me up with Maddie and the rock.
SPEAKER_09He needs y'all finding a job. I'm looking for the egg cracker. Let me know.
SPEAKER_13Not the aircracker. I've been waiting. Can you describe waffle in three words?
SPEAKER_04In three words?
SPEAKER_06Wait, the waffle or waffle?
SPEAKER_08Waffery.
SPEAKER_06The waffery in three words.
SPEAKER_09It's hard for people to say.
SPEAKER_08The waffle.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, I've been I've been trying not to say it the whole time. I've been trying to say it on a little waffle. Waffery, waffle, waffle. Because I don't know if I'm saying it right. The L or the R my bank.
SPEAKER_05Spelled it wrong three times. If I got checked, he's tweaking and letterhead that has three different spellings on it. Wow, so I just say waffles, biscuits, and grits. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_10Oh, yeah, that is on our thing.
SPEAKER_05That's on our thing. Waffles, biscuits, and grits. It's just WBG. We're just um you know, it's just a good vibe, just a laid-back place, and you know. There's nothing crazy and fancy about it. Just, you know, it's just a good vibe, a good place to chill and have some.
SPEAKER_08They got a slogan, right? What was the slogan that they because they got shirts? It was the fuck is a woman?
SPEAKER_05No glory. It's the couple. No grits, no glory.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_13And then what the fuck is a woman?
SPEAKER_08What the fuck is a woman? Because when I first came in, I was like, yo, that shirt caught my my attention. I almost didn't let them print that shirt. Why? Because the cursing.
SPEAKER_10Because of the cursing, yeah.
SPEAKER_08But it's not a curse, it's an abbreviation. I get it.
SPEAKER_10I get it. Yeah, the what's the thing?
SPEAKER_08It don't have to be what the fuck. No, I know. I just picture grandma. What the freak? It can be why the fuck. Why the freak? Grandma probably cursed more than everybody else.
SPEAKER_05That shirt to the counter. And they go, what the fuck is a woman? Just like that.
SPEAKER_08But that's great marketing.
SPEAKER_05It is great marketing. And that's why we're talking about it.
SPEAKER_10Sometimes, but the kids.
SPEAKER_05I just worry about grandma coming up to the counter and somebody going, What the fuck is a womel? And I'm like, you know.
SPEAKER_08But what the fuck is a womel? Because y'all, I know you already said it, but since we only, what the fuck is a womel?
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_08Again?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_05Again, it's crazy. A womel is an omelette stuffed inside of a waffle, basically.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05That's buying it.
SPEAKER_13That's what you had.
SPEAKER_05That's what I think was like.
SPEAKER_04I had the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_08But I thought I had sugar drink. No, you had the drink.
SPEAKER_09But then I get the meal.
SPEAKER_06Remember twice, though. I ain't gonna front, man.
SPEAKER_09You did. You said it was exceptional.
SPEAKER_00It did say exceptional. Every time I went was exceptional.
SPEAKER_08You might have said that. Both times. Y'all got desserts. I don't remember.
SPEAKER_05I got desserts. Um yeah, we have a waffle sundae. So everything that we do, we try to put a waffle spin on it. So we have a waffle coom. I'm sorry, like a waffle bowl. Okay. And you make an ice cream sundae in it. Yeah, and we have an apple pie biscuit with apples and vanilla ice cream and caramel on a biscuit. Yeah.
SPEAKER_09Apple piece.
SPEAKER_08This is my end. Huh?
SPEAKER_13Yours is on the end. Yours is on the end. The womel.
SPEAKER_08The right or the left?
SPEAKER_13The womlet. The womel. Okay, which one is the woman? Okay, and then I want to see the womel.
SPEAKER_08None of them is in there's a womel, though.
SPEAKER_05None of them is the woman. Right.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, there it is.
SPEAKER_05I'm not wearing the glass.
SPEAKER_08Wait, wait. Which one?
SPEAKER_13I had that. That's what you did. No, you had the I had the shoving grits. That's what I had? You had the shrimp grits the first time.
unknownOh my goodness.
SPEAKER_05That's the fried shrimp and grits, too. Yeah, that's not a discrepancy going on.
SPEAKER_12I had that? Yes. You know you fat when you are doing the cleaning. You know you sat.
SPEAKER_09You play don't do it any like you play on duty commercials to promote the business or anything like that. I'm sorry, say again? You play a duty like commercials?
SPEAKER_05You know, we've been we've been growing organically. You know, again, we are a mom and pop place, man. It's a family business. I don't have a huge budget like that. So so my philosophy on on the marketing is just getting out into the community and and spreading her name that way.
SPEAKER_04You know, I mean, right when you came in and you said uh we have a podcast.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Can I be on it? Just write a playlist. Just want to go out and talk about it. That's dope.
SPEAKER_03That's dope. Would you let somebody come in there and do a movie if they're like disturbing?
SPEAKER_05Okay. Oh, absolutely. When I had the trainer, I probably did like four or five movies a year. Commercials, movies, videos, because of the old 1948 setting now. Yeah, I do have a lot of things. But if yeah, if anybody wanted to come in, we close at two or three o'clock so it makes it nice. In the morning? No. Oh, I'm about to do the ball. Late night breath. I don't do nights in the club. That's that's the nice thing about a bunch of things.
SPEAKER_12As a Whopper House, I don't do nights in the movie.
SPEAKER_05Nobody can call out on you. No, there's no problem. I don't get that phone call to three o'clock happens. That's it, we're done. I go home with my kids. That's a good skin.
SPEAKER_08Listen, I wanna play a quick game with Matt. Can I play a kick quick quick quick game with you? Real quick. Okay. Real quick. Maybe. I got listen. Because we used to like play a lot of games with our guests to change the mood up. So I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna do uh would you rather? Okay? So it's a game. Right?
SPEAKER_05Plays with my kids always.
SPEAKER_08Plays with your kids? Your kids know you pick up.
SPEAKER_05Oh dad, you shouldn't do that. Would you all right?
SPEAKER_08So Matt, and I want y'all to think, I want y'all to think of some questions from Would You Rathers before. So would you rather? Would you rather no knees or no kneecaps?
SPEAKER_12That's his favorite question.
SPEAKER_08Yes, because it's a generic question that we asked. Knees and kneecaps is the same. I mean, oh shit, my bad. You're right. Elbows. No knees or no no kneecaps? No knees or no elbows.
SPEAKER_11Oh yeah, what's my elbows?
SPEAKER_08My bad, Lex, good dog.
SPEAKER_04No elbows.
SPEAKER_08You rather no elbows?
SPEAKER_05These and kneecaps is the same thing.
SPEAKER_08No, we we off that. We're off that switch. Well, well, if you got no no no no elbows, you can grab the coffee. Look.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, but you look, I mean how you gonna drink it? No, I get that's a good point.
SPEAKER_12That's straw. How you gonna get the straw? Shit. No, you're gonna put your face down.
SPEAKER_08How you gonna get it? You can't bend your elbow. You can't bend your elbow.
SPEAKER_10You can't bend your elbows.
SPEAKER_04How are you gonna put your shoes on if you can't bend your legs? Your knees.
SPEAKER_05Walking down the street.
SPEAKER_12I got one for you, Maddie. Would you rather eat breakfast for the rest of your life or not be able to taste anything for the rest of your life?
SPEAKER_05Well, I lost my taste buds during COVID for a year.
SPEAKER_13For a year?
SPEAKER_05For a year.
SPEAKER_12Oh, that was a myth.
SPEAKER_13No, that's true. My friend actually lost some of my taste.
unknownWow.
Grits, Womels, And Building Community
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And the only the only thing I could taste was lemon. It was real lemon. And I'll tell you how disappointed I was. Because I had COVID pretty bad. It was, it was, it was not a good experience. And when I figured out that I could taste lemon, I sent my wife out to get some lemon ice. And came back and I couldn't taste it. I was like, what the fuck? Lemon ice is made with fake lemon. It's all chemicals. What's lemon ice? Italian ice.
SPEAKER_11Oh, oh, oh, okay, okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_05And it was all it's all fake chemicals. I couldn't taste it. That was the biggest letdown.
SPEAKER_12But no, I was you just informed me of something. I didn't know Italian ice was fake.
SPEAKER_05I mean, maybe not all it is, but for sure the ones that they got in the grocery store.
SPEAKER_12Grocery store, yeah, the Luigi's. The Luigi's. That's exactly what it was. It was the Oigan. I love these Italian. Definitely. So lemon was the only thing that you tasted. Was it miserable not having any taste bugs?
SPEAKER_05As a restaurant guy? Yes. As a cook? Absolutely. I couldn't smell and I and I couldn't taste. The only thing I could smell was it's funny, it was coffee and weed. And they both smelled the same. They smelled the same. They smelled exactly the same. Like the coffee be broom, I'd be looking around.
SPEAKER_08Thinking it's weed.
SPEAKER_05It was tough though. It took about a year to come back. Yeah. Yeah. You would do breakfast for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_12Okay.
SPEAKER_08So, Matt, would you rather a woman with Halotosha's breath?
SPEAKER_05What the f that's tough.
SPEAKER_08Or a woman that's ugly.
SPEAKER_05I'll take the ugly all day long. All day long.
SPEAKER_12I can't do no hot breath. No, no, I can't do no hot, bruh.
SPEAKER_05That's not even close.
SPEAKER_12Right. Because how are you gonna be able to sit there and look at them? You can't look at that pretty woman.
SPEAKER_08So you so a beautiful woman with a high touch of breath, you couldn't tolerate it? No.
SPEAKER_09No. I couldn't either.
SPEAKER_08Could you give a breath mint? Gotta go. Nope. No.
SPEAKER_09No. Would you rather a successful business by yourself or a struggling business with your partner?
SPEAKER_05I you know, I like that. Struggling doesn't mean failing. Just a challenge. So I do have partners in some of these as well. So um and and not all of them have gone easy. Like they they haven't, for sure. Um, but I'll take the partners all day long. I I grew up playing team sports. I like to be the leader within the team, but I like to be surrounded with people. So I'll take part, I'll take the partners.
SPEAKER_12Amen. Would you rather chase love or chase the sex?
SPEAKER_05Chase love or chase the sex?
SPEAKER_12So sex what? Get it out of good assets.
SPEAKER_09Mess up that beautiful strong marriage you got.
SPEAKER_10It's my accent.
SPEAKER_13So sexual.
SPEAKER_05It's my accent.
SPEAKER_10It's my accent, though.
SPEAKER_05Chase love or chase success. I mean it defines success, right? Success could be having a great love life.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_05Oh. Success ain't I figured that out. I like that. Success is finding out you know all the gifts that God gave you, gave me. Like all my success comes from God, and then it comes from my family, and then we can pay the bills, and someday I want to go on the beach and enjoy that a little bit more. Right. Yeah, and I can see myself love doing that. So you get all that, you get all that.
SPEAKER_12I like that answer.
SPEAKER_08I got a final question for you, man.
SPEAKER_05I really thought you said Jason's. She did. She did. Sorry.
SPEAKER_08No, I did not. What is my final question to you is like, what is a piece of advice that you can give to a young entrepreneur who is looking to get into the food business? Uh what is that piece of advice that you could give to them as far as the highs, the lows, and what they will have to do and uh, you know, attain and obtain to do this the proper way.
SPEAKER_05I would say get a mentor. More more than anything. Because I could tell you, you know, like look at the numbers, do this, do that. I'm a guy who's sort of um is what do they say, like experience the best teacher? Yeah, that's part of it. I did I did learn from Jason's those 10 years that I worked for somebody else. So yeah, that's the great point. Go work for somebody else for a while, and then um just get yourself a mentor and don't wait till everything is perfect. Because it's never gonna be perfect. You know it's gonna be missing something. Don't you don't need to plan every little last detail. Go get yourself some experience, get a mentor to help guide you through the times, and then just go after it. They say like ready, ready fire aim. Or ready aim fire ready, aim, fire, it's ready, fire, ready aim. Or fire, ready aim, I think it is. However you want to spin it. Yeah, you don't you don't have to have everything perfectly lined up because I'll tell you what, you think you have your plan. Tomorrow, somebody's gonna change that plan, you know. Um it thing you're gonna get thrown a curveball every day, so you're never gonna be ready. Just go out, go out and do it. You have the passion.
SPEAKER_08Absolutely.
SPEAKER_12You ready? What's it? So wait, hold on. Wait, I got one more. I got one more. I got no more. I got one more.
SPEAKER_08I got one more. What's next for waffery? What's next for waffery? Because listen, I'm hungry right now. I'm like I'm dead as I'm hungry. Okay, what if you got events going on?
SPEAKER_05Well, I'm hungry. That's true. Um the next is um at the end of February opening up at prosperity and 485.
SPEAKER_13Oh, I get to go to that one too. Oh, yeah. We're going for the third time.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, for sure. I'm coming. Wait, we should do it.
SPEAKER_08I'm not fucking clocking.
SPEAKER_11Get away from me. Hey, pockets. I can't wait.
SPEAKER_13No, I think we should do the next one.
SPEAKER_12Invitation as in the whole time. I definitely must come out.
SPEAKER_05You know, we we have we don't really spend a ton of money or a lot money at all, really, on marketing. We have grown through social media. We have just like how you found us, right? You came and you did a did a video. Um It went up too. We have every week I have different small influencers, collaborators, whatever, however you want to, yeah, where you want to stay, contact us and we do some trades, you know. Most of most of them are are you know for like three or four people and come on in, enjoy it. If you like it, put it up. If you don't like it, don't.
SPEAKER_11Oh, yeah, I missed, you missed. I already asked. If you're about to ask that.
SPEAKER_08No, and I got that, but I got I got a final question. But I wanted to touch on that, right? Because when um you do, well, in restaurants or anybody in whole in general, when they do collabs, right? Break that down because a lot of times, like, when you do a collab with somebody, the food that you dispense, like, how do you account for the food? Because a lot of times at the end of the night, right? A lot of times food is discarded. So, like, how do you say, okay, I'm gonna have this much of content creators that come in as opposed to the food that I'm going to allow these content creators to eat. Like, break that down because a lot of people don't understand that.
SPEAKER_05What they eat. I don't tell people, you know, um, most of the content and collaborators um they say, What do you want me to feature? I don't, whatever you want. Because if I'm telling you something and you don't, you know, you might you're not gonna be excited about it. If you're looking at the menu, you pick something, you're excited about it, you're gonna get it, you're gonna talk about it, it feels more natural. If I'm telling you what to get, it's script, it's all it's scripted.
SPEAKER_08But as a business, right? As a res how does that as a business for me how does it affect or doesn't affect you?
SPEAKER_05Well, I mean, again, I don't I don't go out and spend money on marketing, I don't put up billboards, I don't run newspaper ads. That's where I put my money. So influencers are your marketing? Yeah, influencers are the marketing. And and it it didn't start out. Like I didn't that wasn't my plan. It just started happening. You know, and it makes your Instagram, social media, TikTok look really good. Um, and sometimes there are collaborators, influencers who want to get paid. And I don't say that y'all don't deserve to get paid. I'm not one of those like you ain't doing shit. You don't get money just I'm not I'm not like that. It's just that's not in my budget.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_05Um So we we look, well, I don't have to look.
SPEAKER_11It it you guys feel like we yeah, yeah, I found you. I found you.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, no, and I think once you become popular, other smaller collaborators don't want to miss out on what's hot because we just keep getting people constantly.
SPEAKER_11Come on, I accept the gifted one a week.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, I accept the gift at collaborations, but like when people hit me up and they want to, you know, tr pay me and stuff, I definitely accept that to accept that too.
SPEAKER_05No, I'm I you know I I think I paid two people.
SPEAKER_08Are you happy now?
SPEAKER_11Don't ask me no fucking more, okay.
SPEAKER_08She can't fucking sit next to me in the moment.
SPEAKER_05Kimmer Shabbat is a huge influencers. One was 400 bucks and one was 300 bucks, and neither one of them produced anything like what y'all produce. For sure.
SPEAKER_13Well, I thought I'm not sure. It's organic. And I don't care how many followers.
SPEAKER_05Right. You know? Exactly. We want local people, and and I mean we get people all day long holding up their phone from TikTok saying, This is this is what I want, this is what I want. And we take the phone trying to figure out what the hell that is.
SPEAKER_08Right.
SPEAKER_05So often that we're we're gonna work on developing this AI technology that's recognizable.
SPEAKER_13Some type of AI.
SPEAKER_08I mean, AI is another way.
SPEAKER_13AI is annoying.
SPEAKER_08AI is the goat. Listen, Maddie, man. Listen to me. It is taking over the way, but it's annoying. I'm gonna give a round of applause for Matt Maddie.
SPEAKER_13The next point go to Wolferi. Oh, I got me a tattoo.
SPEAKER_08That's when the barter system works. It's a little restaurant.
SPEAKER_05Service for service. Amazing. Amazing for bars. Amazing for barters. You need a plumber, you need a contractor, you need a tattoo ours, whatever. You can trade them out with hamburgers.
SPEAKER_08Listen, before we you gonna stick around, we got we got we got one more segment, pot and bars, right? We got like a hip-hop segment. But before we go, let look let them know where they can find you on all social media platforms. Tell them to come out to all the locations with the Waffery. This is your time.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, okay. Um on Instagram, we are the Waffle CLT. And we have two locations, one on 10th Street, and uh just outside of Uptown, and one on the west side at 2817 Rossels Ferry Road. And uh soon to be at Prosperity in 485, and we have one up at App State and boom.
SPEAKER_13Yeah, and soon to come East Sound.
SPEAKER_08Make sure I go visit the waffrey. Paul, are you gonna go?
SPEAKER_12I'm gonna pull up and crab cake and grip prosperity.
SPEAKER_08Crab cake.
SPEAKER_12Are we going to next time? You open the next one. Prosperity, yeah. We're going to prosperity. Go to the prosperity one, the grand opening. Okay. February. Yeah. End of February.
SPEAKER_05You know where the Synergy Movie Theater is?
SPEAKER_08Are you building the Synergy? Yes.
SPEAKER_13Oh, that's new new.
SPEAKER_08That's new new. Yeah, yeah, right there.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, doing the cheese there. You know what? You know what Synergy at Bullet? What'd you say? No synergy at?
unknownYeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_13Everybody knows what synergy at. Yes. That's the best movie theater.
SPEAKER_05I like that area.
SPEAKER_11That's a good area. That's a good guy. Because everybody be at Synergy. We're going. What are he doing? We're going to the Grand Open. We are going in this in the Green.
SPEAKER_08He's in February. End of February. End of February.
SPEAKER_13Oh, we going!
SPEAKER_02All right, listen.
SPEAKER_08I'm gonna come dress to him. We got one more segment. This is this is the hip hop segment. You got bars, man. Got bars? Yes. Got bars?
SPEAKER_12I'm already hooked up to the blue too.
SPEAKER_08You already hooked up to the blue too. You got the beat, okay.
SPEAKER_13And now you rapping.
SPEAKER_08Switch number one.
SPEAKER_09Leo, how you feeling?
SPEAKER_08You good?
SPEAKER_09You can pull up too. You can pull up. Let's get it.
SPEAKER_08Let's pick that. You got that on.
SPEAKER_09My vocals are here. My vocals down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, wherever you wherever you pulling up at, man.
SPEAKER_13Oh, this is different.
SPEAKER_12I'm gonna let you live.
SPEAKER_09Shout out to the teleport. Damn. Betty in the building, how we livin'? Alright. Father first, my kid who I put my life for. Come between that, you mess, don't value life no more. Who am I being for sure? Spend so much money on my chick. You would think that I was on child support. Mind this war, common thoughts. I haven't commas on a check. In between a lot of zeros that I'm signing for. Stack of stars, I'm touching dope. Getting bills like Buffalo, channel, my inner Zelda. Conducting this flow, the butcher coming. Long serate the blade, like I'm from London. I grew up under OGs. The game they gave, I sponge it. Rollin' marijuana redundant, periodically puffing. Jazz rolled up one split. They had my lungs split. Smell potent and punching. This is poppin' bars, nigga. Welcome to the dungeon. Some MCs tried, some die. Then you destructive. Got me fucked up. I get on some fuck shit. Bullets rubbin' in your chest like Robert Tusset. K on the cam and polo on production. Heavy like hot shit. Scorpio stuck in my ways, bumping max speed, wide red bones, surfboard on my wave. Not beans, no pinto. Poppin' them shits like mentos, minto bing on somehow. I still build momentum. Dream of driven with visuals, pull up in the bingo. Blue and yellow like a blockbuster sample. Fuck twelve. No love for five volt, tenfold. Could take more pain. Never have never, never will fold. That's it, yo. I'm uh fire. Something's like a little bitch on my dick, and she bowed a clothes.
Growth, Partners, And Hiring Aces
SPEAKER_03My crap, she instantly violin. Soon as I peep, had a peek, I'm smiling. Roll up the zombie, have my mogul stars. Every Thursday night, you know the vibes. We lit his pot in bars. Switch through the lob, I do the job, got even if I'm left with odds, no cash can eat it. I'm still here to talk about my scars, be the mob. She came with no candies, not even a rod. Put my thumb on it, turn the clip into an analog, camera vlogs, just wanna talk about it. How just put my hoodie on and really walk around them. Yeah, cheers to the ones to hit even the lost ones, we was outside. Even when people had walk wins, 80 babies, crack era, but wasn't birth from a vibe. My birthday style got it wet like the river now. It's my number that she doubt. Swear I got her going wild. 36 with no seeds, so you can't have my child. Like that's positive balls, you know the fuck going on. Switch is trying to cook up this week, alright.
SPEAKER_08Listen, we'll give you a spectrum.
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