EYL #347: Cousins Turn Natural Spring Into the First Black-Owned Bottled Water Brand in Walmart

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3:16All right, guys, welcome back. EYL, we got a special episode. So we're going to be talking about the most essential thing in this world, which is water. That's a fact, man. You can't survive without water. You can survive without food for a certain period of time, but it's going to be difficult. Your body needs water. The world needs water. 70 % of the planet is water. For sure. It's an essential necessity. For sure. Brad Simmons and Terrence Walker, they have a company called Live Alkaline Water. This is actually it right here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you can see. Mm-hmm. Glass bottle. Be the glass.

3:49You sure are? So we're going to be talking about it. You know, it's an interesting journey as far as InvestFest. You guys were the water sponsor for VIP night this year. That was important. Yes, sir. Important. Man, look, we're going to talk about it. But no, that was an honor. We're grateful to even be brought into the fold because originally, matter of fact, I ran into y 'all in Charlotte. Y 'all did the event in Charlotte. And that's where y 'all from. Yeah, from Charlotte, right? We're from North Carolina. We're from down East Carolina, kind of close to Wilmington. We're from Wilmington. Oslo County.

4:26Okay. And I ended up at A &T, and that's how I ended up start playing the field in that region. So Charlotte, only an hour away, hour and a half away. So when I found out y 'all was coming, it was a no-brainer. Yeah. Pulled right up, pocket full of business cards, got me a couple waters in the tuck just in case I get to y 'all. And I ended up connecting with y 'all. y 'all was getting up out of there at the end and i just stopped you real quick yo we got the water we trying to be the water sponsor and we just trying to connect and see how we can bring our resource and value to the investments and then that next monday market mondays or something y 'all you know doing y 'all thing and then you get to uh everybody the event in charlotte was great and all of that we was making good connections and all that but certain people that was coming a little you know sideways a little but that was this one brother he came with the water with an offering and bringing value and that's how y 'all need to move i was like oh that's me talking about me okay respect and a lot of what we've been doing has been like trial and error we haven't necessarily seen no one build no multi-million dollar corporation so we just be following the soul that's our non-profit soul society but it's really the lifestyle we follow the soul so So that connection and to wrap that up, I'm sending the emails.

5:44I ended up getting the Zoom that year with one of the representatives. And it was an astronomical number that they asked for. And it was like, you can pay. And then I'm like, and give the water away. I'm like, nah, we ain't going to make it this time. But I ended up coming just to be a participant. matter of fact i got locked in with keys to do his um vip experience and whatnot okay and um ultimately fast forward the next year i was still this this past year i was still thinking about that astronomical number that i wasn't gonna have you feel me and it took a little bit of time but whatever time the stars aligned i came up on y 'all um website and i seen the email i'm like all right let me just shoot the shot again, see what it do.

6:34I'm going to shoot my shot. You feel me? And next thing I know, they was like, look, we in there. No astronomical number. Just bring the water. And I'm like, we got the water. Easy money. And this is the last thing. By the time I talked to, that was probably the brother AB. And they were saying like, okay, we need about 2 ,000 bottles of water. I'm like, we got that. Easy. Got off the phone. Started calculating. Ooh. Okay. That's how much? Okay. Nonetheless, we not stopping. And then as we was trying to get what we needed to fulfill, that 2 ,000 bottles and all of that, it was getting close. And we was like, I don't know how we going to do it.

7:21You feel me? And I put a couple call to actions out to our audience. But then the last one, matter of fact, I know the people that watch the pod know about net 30. So in net 30s, you get a chance to get your product with 30 days to pay. So I'm lining up everything to get the bottles and everything lined up. And they told me I had 30 days to pay. But then it was coming up like two days out. Like, oh, nah, you actually don't. It ain't all the way situated. You got to pay what you thought you had 30 days to pay. You got to pay that in like two days. I ain't know how I was gonna do it but I put the call to action out there defend I'm telling you I put a call to action I made it plain and straight vulnerable and within an hour I had like six hundred dollars in our crowdfund campaign by the end of the day we had like 800 and by the end of about three days we raised like fifteen hundred dollars and that is what made sure we could fulfill the duties and y 'all would never know you know it just everything happened smooth and presented smooth and it was a great experience you know but it was a great journey that you know we had to build some thicker skin and big it up real quick so much appreciated it was uh it was definitely a warm night yeah yeah for sure so i was actually under the weather so the only thing i did have was your water and i was like this is it i can't do anything else but you know a lot of times people underestimate that especially when you're having a good time and you obviously have alcohol they forget the most important component is this yeah it's something that he always walks around with like a bottle of water just in case and it was like as i got older i understood like i gotta hydrate i gotta hydrate most people don't even realize that even when you're drinking water sometimes you still can be dehydrated so this is going to be a powerful episode because i'm i'm starting to learn a lot about more about just my personal body how it reacts and the impact that water has on it yeah yeah but then Listen, I'm not going to go.

9:20Also, I wanted to just piggyback on that because it is a good story as far as how to network properly. And the reason why that was perfect timing when you came up to me was because that year before we ran out of water and it was like 100 degrees. It was a heat wave. So it was super hot. And that was a major like issue where we didn't have enough water. so going into the next year vip night that was one of the main things he's like we got to make sure we have enough water for sure so when you came and you like yo i got the water the value you had a value add it made sense i'm like all right yeah that that's a perfect alignment of what we actually needed so for people out there that's looking to network you didn't even know that but i'm just saying like see where you can add value that's why i always say see where you can add value, right?

10:09And don't necessarily make it about you. Like, the law of reciprocity, you're going to get your blessings later on. But it's like you came and you had a value add offer that made sense and we needed it. And now we're here. For sure. Now that's love. We got a chance to see how much it was needed. We pulled up to the VIP night and we were looking for where the water was placed. And we didn't see a place. So we'd be like, all right. And somebody was like, they got to go to the bar and ask for it. So we like, all right, you know. And nobody's going to the bar and asking for water because it's open bar.

10:42Everybody getting lit. So we like, all right, we gonna figure this out. And Bessie from Coco's Cookies, you know, she was one of y 'all's sponsors. That's the home girl. She from Carolina. She was there and she had a booth set up. And we were like, hmm, okay. So how are we gonna make sure people get this water? Cause they drinking, they ain't gonna ask for it. So bro was like, I think we about to go get the water and just start passing it out. Nah, look, so I hit my couple points of contact, like, won't really see the presence and activation in here. They like, nah, it's cool, we gonna get it together.

11:13Next thing I know, I seen like three girls taking handfuls of water, and I'm like, they must be going to the green room or something like that. So I fall right in line and follow them. Next thing I know, I see where we had all the water when we had brought it and loaded in the day before. and that joint was still stacked up and i'm like the event coming close to an end i'm like ain't no way we leaving here without people getting this water and knowing we was here and i just went back to the bar and like i get a phone call and bro like meet me at the front door right now i'm like all right bet after me being backstage for 45 minutes and whatnot i'm getting like the bartender i'm the water sponsor got the water shirt on let me get one of those boxes like all sure and i couldn't even get nowhere i'm passing out the water like oh thank you thank you i need it i needed it so it was so many people that were appreciative of that water it was so many people that was like lifted by that water that night you know so i know they felt the presence we already giving good love and energy so by the time i flooded the backstage look when i first went back there it was real scarce by the time i left it was live alkaline water all through the backstage And I got to the front and we flooded the front area too and ran through all that stack of water and the people really received it and appreciated it and needed it.

12:34That's fine. So how did we get here? You guys have a family water supply. Yeah. So how does this happen? We in connection with the family. So foundation is 2015. Me and my brother started our organization, Soul Society. initially the idea was soul academy because as i evolved i realized the importance of the education system when i left high school and went to college at a &t and i was going for computer technology but matter of fact in high school we'll do the career analysis test and they will spit out all your recommended jobs i just scroll down to the end at the salary so i see technology is a good bubbling field and you can maybe get an entry at 100k or something like that but i had that first semester in college i had like three computer classes and i realized i was not about to be at no computer desk for the next 20 30 years but i had this african-american experience class and it taught me all these deeper parts about our history and who we are what we overcame who we were before we were colonized before we were enslaved and i started to see more worth and value in myself during the time i was going through a depression not seeing no worth of value myself so I realized how that empowered me and then that second semester I had a sociology class and another class that I had to read the miseducation of a negro and at that point I realized this is by design our conditions are by design and I can't just free myself of these conditions and not turn back you know and another part of that depression was wanting to go back but I I realized I can't go back in time, but I can reach back and put the younger kids on the information that I wish I would have had when I was younger.

14:16But so it started at Soul Academy as the organization. And that evolved to Soul Society. The deeper we learn about knowledge and soul and the fact that we need our own community for these kids to dwell in. And then fast forward from 2015 to 2020 of us five years pushing the idea of one day we're going to have some land. in 2020 it was like we need that now and i promise you when the mentality shifted from one day till we need it now and like a month we found ourselves on this land because i just started to reach out to my network post on facebook who the local farmers all the essentials being brought off the shelves you can have a million dollars at that point in time it might not be able to buy no good clean water at the time so i just started to reach out to who the local farmers so it's not just about us getting our own one day it was about who has it now that we can help and learn from so we made the connection i went to the land we did the tour i tried the water for the first time and it was like i promise you this is spring water this is spring water okay so right outside of winston-salem in yakkinville it's a little town called yakkinville and this is an indigenous this family black indigenous family so they got records of having the land for over 400 years so it's like straight sacred land rich crystal mineral based land so it's naturally mineralizing and alkaline in the water so from there i took a couple months to study and figure out how to express the value of the water and by the time it was like i had like seven dollars in my name matter of fact i just hit a win maybe a month before just dealing with the uh stock options for the first time.

16:00I took that first pandemic check. I put some, pay some bills and the rest I put on some stocks and a couple options. And I was about to cash out my portfolio and I was like, all right, I just bought some food for the crib, got a roof over my head, got some gas. I don't need to like panic right immediately. And I promise you that next day after I was about to cash out my whole portfolio, my stock was up like 800%. You know, And then that next day, it was up like$1 ,000. And, man, I probably made like$2 ,500 off the stock options that week. So that bought me like another month. Fast forward, I'm back down to a few dollars in my name.

16:41And I spent some of my last money on gas, food. And I took some of that gas and went to the land to just give my labor. I ain't asked what I'm going to get. Nah, I just went and helped them. They had two 2 ,000-gallon orders that week. I just helped package up load up and by that second day they gave me 20 gallons and I'm on the way home thinking I got something like how I'm gonna get these 20 gallons off by the time I got home I took a couple news clips we had from being the first black on water company to get into the walmarts and I reposted them joints them 20 gallons was sold in like an hour all right so hold on real quick because the family that's on the land are they processing this mineral water Yeah, yeah, yeah.

17:28We got the bottling on the land, but then right 20 minutes from the land, we got a mass production factory. Got you, got you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when you got there, you saw that this was there. Right. Yeah. And you asked, how can I help be a part of it? Right. Got you, got you. So you're partners with them. Yeah. They had the water up and running already. Yes, yeah. And you came in, you said, I want to help out. I want to add value. Yep, yep, yep. And initially as well, me and him, we got our entity Heavy Energy. so we was coming with the water under that umbrella but it was like the certain processing that it was taking it was like i need to jump off now all right so y 'all had a water no we had an idea we actually we were before that we weren't when we were looking for the land yeah we had no idea or vision of water we were just thinking land somewhere where you can farm somewhere where you can teach young people to be self-sustaining because as adults you sometimes got so many more responsibilities that you don't have that time to put in get to the land there's water wasn't even thinking of water water appeared and it was like oh this is a whole nother lane and we began plotting and planning on how we was going to do this this and that and it's like we don't got time to really try to make it perfect we got but we got time to make it happen right now yeah we got to get it started right now and man it was so crazy because like he said he came back with those 20 gallons got those things off and in that process i think we were getting ready to move into a whole nother place so who was it um i think black dot has shouted the water out on his podcast or something like that well blue pill did first and that's how black dot found out about it so once once black dot i had literally so i built our website because before that i'm a hip-hop artist as well so before i went on tour and had money to pay nobody to build the website so i had to figure it out myself i just built the site so we already had a site up so once i realized like all right these orders about to go crazy we need to at least go ahead and have somewhere where we ain't trying to contact and communicate with people through the dms because they was killing my man in the dms trying to get the water and so i'm over here trying to figure out the shipping he communicating with people i'm like all right let's get this site up thank god we got the site up because by the time it got the blue pill and then the black dot we in the middle of moving and all i know is my man over here on the phone real heavy i'm like bro we got boxes that need to be moved in but the orders coming in so crazy that brother just locked in like yo and communicating with this person and sending them to the site so it just went crazy from there you know not even thinking about the water but the thing for me was that proper preparation prevents poor performance we had the site up we were ready so we had a space to be able to send people and capture all that and it was still a little overwhelming but if we didn't have that particular thing already in place So the family The family that owns the land Right Did they have the brand already Yeah They had the live alkaline water brand It just needed more promotion Yeah it needed some young legs behind it It was like a Not an elder But he's in his 50s He built the foundation And he constantly working on the actual land So all the ambassadorship Running around traveling Promoting the land work We were already used to doing that because right before the pandemic, before we got to the water, I was in the middle of a tour, a sold out tour at that.

20:50So we were already traveling the country while we were doing music. We had a program. What's his name? Chief. Yeah, Chief Robert McRae. So how do you approach him? Like, how does that work? Like, how do you approach him and say, look, I want to be a partner. I think I can add value. And how does what made him buy into that? He just gave his time. So like I said, initially I made a connection and he was kind of opening it up to some opportunity for some of the youth. And he went through a few iterations of young groups coming through. But ultimately, like I said, when I came back and just dedicated them two days, they gave me the 20 gallons and seen how fast it moved.

21:28And by the time, like I said, them 20 gallons were sold an hour away from that first post. You saw the work. By the time I got back to the land, I'm like, however much water I can fit in this car, little black Toyota Corolla, I need it. And we got 80 gallons in there. They were sold in three days and the rest was history. So you just seen the work and the results. Went to the plug, got the work off. That's what I said. You got the work. You came back. I need to re-up. I need everything I can fit. Yeah. So, I mean, how is Chief, and we're just going to call him Chief now, how is Chief, the first time you come back, like, what's his reaction, right?

22:02Because he's looking at it like, you know, this thing's kind of moved slow. Here come y 'all with this marketing plan, this grit, this hustle. You move that work quick. You need to re-up. How is he reacting to this? Well, to put respect on it, he was doing well for himself. But when it comes to community building and nation building, it's way more untapped potential. You know, so I was dealing with one of his partners that he had connected me with the run through. and from there it just went from connecting with him to like not directly connect with me and from there we just continued to build week in week out like we about action so it's like our work our energy always speak for itself so it just been an evolving relationship the further we got into our grind the more results we brought back the more leeway like we got hundreds of acres that at this point he like do y 'all you feel me it wasn't a matter of trying to sell ourselves earners what's up you ever walk into a small business and everything just works like the checkout is fast the receipts are digital tipping is a breeze and you're out the door before the line even builds odds are they're using square we love supporting businesses that run on square because it just feels seamless whether it's a local coffee shop a vendor at a pop-up market or even one of our merch partners square makes it easy for them to take payments manage inventory and run their business with confidence all from one simple system one of the things we love most is seeing neighborhood businesses level up there's this west indian spot right in our community that started with a small takeout counter now with square they've been able to expand into a full sit-down restaurant and even started catering events across the city that's the kind of growth that inspires us and it's powered by Square.

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24:31Don't wait. Don't hesitate. Let Square handle the back end so you can keep pushing your vision forward. It was a matter of action. When you see it, you don't got to try to believe it. You know it. So break this down. What's the science behind this? Alkaline. there's spring water there's tap water there's alkaline water i hear everybody's got their own opinion about what's the best what's not good for you so this is alkaline water yeah explain the different variations of water yeah so generally speaking even more important than it being alkaline water is the fact that it's coming from a living source so you got a lot of alkaline waters that a lot of times it's tap water that they run through an artificial induced process to make get alkaline this is from a natural living spring with rich crystal mineral based land so it's got that life source in it packed with living minerals versus synthetic or induced or brought in minerals you know you can't beat guys very young so like i said the first thing is from a living source so it's life in the bottle and then the second thing far as alkalinity goes uh for those who don't know is based on the p8 scale so seven is neutral anything under seven is acidic above seven is alkaline and at first i assume the higher the alkalinity the better but i come to find out that you can get it too high our bodies usually resonate around seven seven point one seven point two so you want something that's kind of close to your body levels so a lot of these waters you see in stores, 9, 9.5 and all of that, it's too high.

26:07And that's usually an indicator that it's artificially induced. So, ours resonates around 7.5, which is a good equalizer for your body. What's the difference between alkaline and spring water? Because spring is from a natural source too. It's from a spring, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, any water source, the alkalinity or the acidity is based on the pH. So, a well could be alkaline, it could be acidic. A spring could be alkaline, it could be acidic. The spring, though, the thing that's great about the spring is it's a moving water source. So it's got that kinetic energy. It's got that energetic flow, that electricity in it, you know, versus wells can be good depending on the quality of the land and the water.

26:49But it's still the spring is moving. So it's got that electric energy. When you said that the pH, if the pH is too high in the alkaline water, what are the effects? because I was noticing I'll drink some alkaline water and I've got to go to the bathroom all the time. It's like, there's no point even drinking it. This is what I realized was making me dehydrated because I would drink the water and my body wouldn't retain it. Then I'll drink other water and it's not the same effect. I'm actually retaining the water. I'm feeling better. Is it because the pH level was too high? Is that one of the effects?

27:21Well, part of it is it being too high. Batteries are alkaline. You know, so I mean, you know, you just electric shocking your body. So think of, you know what happened now it's got to expel you know what's not meant to be there whether it's the false minerals whether it's the ph being too high because i mean it's good for your hair your skin your eyes right but once you get too high same way with acidity it begins to eat those things up it begins to go backwards so your body is naturally going to begin to reject what isn't needed what isn't supposed to be there it's going to fight so it's going to force you to get it up out of there yeah um but some of it is going to still stay it's just going to eat up your insides it's going to eat up your organs over time so when you see something that's alkaline 9.5 i would leave it on the table i would well i got i'm going to anyway because we got live but the reason that's why it's called live because it's coming from a living source and it's moving and you want something like that so anything done with the machines like when people say they have them in their houses is cool because i mean it's better than your tap but to ingest it i just wouldn't suggest it because again you're gonna you're gonna reject it this dude is really an artist every line I'm hearing.

28:21I wouldn't suggest it to ingest it. Become natural. Yeah, living source, man. Does this have, all right, you have, do you just put the water from the spring to the bottle? Does it have to get purified? Like, is there a process that the FDA requires? Absolutely. Yeah, we do the basic FDA filtrations and all of that. But yeah, we definitely keep it to a minimum because the water is naturally, like you can drink it right out of the spring but we do go through the processing for the legalities and the corporate lanes that we push into as well so yeah and of course you got your people that are what they call themselves water snobs and things like that so to make sure you know what's good for everybody because you got some people that want to take it home and test it they self i encourage it i just want you to record it and send me that you know at the same time so yeah do that but we do that especially for that yeah the first thing we started the episode by saying was it'd be the glass so talk about the importance of having this in the glass i know we grew up it was like there's other water brands that came in those water bottles and you recycle those water bottles but water surely shouldn't be kept in plastic yeah talk about the importance and they were drinking out the hose and sink let's be real let's be honest what we talked about i just want to make sure we're from the same generation yeah some of the best water we had what you mean well when you get to those plastics so think about uh all right so there's the bpa-free plastic right you know i mean where it's um it's not as soft if you can crush your plastic if you can just get that thing in your hand and crush it like that it ain't no good for you because for one you got the microfibers that's going to be in your water too as the sun is penetrating that thing the plastic is also going to be able to begin to melt into your water so that's why you have that different type of taste we do also bottle in plastic but it's bpa-free you know which is a more cost affordable option you know for some of our audience glass is the way though you know i mean because you don't have those fibers you know being and there's other ways like we do also have like a can option as well um some people prefer like copper you know um as well for the energetic and magnetic feel of it but glass is really the way to go because you don't have those fibers being bled into your water now you do have to you know be specific with your glass too because you know there's the lead you know thing which i've just began to like get knowledge on as well but um always suggesting the glass especially for a living water source so you can keep that live-ness into it and and i would say as well even with the plastic it's freshly bottled weekly so like a lot of the other bigger corporations it might be sitting in a warehouse for three four five six months breaking down so i was just freshly bottled it's not sitting so what's some challenges as far as being like an independent water brand as opposed to most waters it's owned by like three companies right like and they kind of have a monopoly on it so being independent what's some of the challenges that you face i think one of the challenges that i can think of off top is um let's say some of these other companies who are million billion dollar companies they getting their bottles in mass quantities so the cost of the bottles is cheaper so we're not getting them in those quantities so we are paying a different you know price um and working our way into being able to get it in such a mass way that we are also able to bring the price down even for the customer you know because while the idea is to make money it isn't to charge astronomical numbers and things of that nature right so that's really one of the challenges at this moment which is becoming a good challenge because we are continuing to increase you know so it's like all right we got we need 2 000 bottles we got to figure out how we're going to get that 2 000 bottles quick and in mass but that was good to be able to call on community you know with that as well but that's that's one of the challenges that um i think of right off top what's the the most cost intensive part right if we have the water which is natural is it the bottling Is it the trying to manufacture and export?

32:22It balances out between the actual bottles, the labor force, and transportation. So initially at first, we was trying to go everywhere. We trying to be, you know, worldwide, nationwide. But the more we learned, the more it was like, no, we need to hone in on our backyard right here. And I'm doing certain numbers. Like I think it was like a study in 2019 said Americans spend an average of$10 per month on bottled water. And then I'm doing my, you know, looking up the census numbers and whatnot. And I'm seeing right here in the county we in, not even the state, the county we in is over a million people, just black people.

33:00It's over 200 ,000. So I'm like$10 per month. That's$2 million monthly right in this county. it's a million of us in the state that's 10 million dollars monthly that we just as a community value to the water company the water industry so at that point it was like rather than spending time and energy that we go in other places let's double down right here you know so we heavily concentrated on north carolina uh south carolina atlanta surrounding areas florida and virginia in D.C. So basically the Southeast America instead of trying to be everywhere we just trying to hone in on our backyard. With him saying that it makes me think of another one of our challenges which is shipping.

33:45So we good in our area but after something like this today or after other places we've been you're gonna have people in Cali, Portland, Maine and that shipping cost because I mean it's 34 pounds per case you know of the water. So to send that to Cali you know that's$50 in shipping if they want to pay it you know now of course we want to be able to you know get it to everybody um but just trying to figure out that you know in the same way that one of these other companies like amazon has a warehouse in these other places and figuring out how to warehouse in these other places so that we can set up distributors that can handle shipping and things like that in these other places but um it's a challenge but it's still one of those good challenges are like all they want it out there we really need to figure out how to get it out there at a cost efficient price.

34:33You said the logistics, that makes a lot of sense. I was thinking when you talked about this is a living product, right? Obviously. Is there a life expectancy of how long the spring will be running? Because I know we've had a water episode before and they were trying to tell how long that they expected that spring to be live and functioning. Is there a study on that one for y 'all? So generally we know it's like four major water veins that flow into this spring. So to be honest, like the whole state will probably be at a state of emergency for water before we would be you know as long as it's raining i like it would have to be a serious uh sahara desert drought or something like that but long as it's raining it's constant flow of this natural system that's refueling itself it's coming from what like 800 feet on the ground they did the sonic yeah yeah so yeah they'd have to drain the earth yeah it's on the foothills of the mountains of western north carolina so it's like a lot of water is being concentrated to where perfect that's perfect so how did how did he get how did the owner how did he originally acquire the land so uh i mean so far back we don't even really know but it was an indigenous family there so they literally got nobody ever took it like so he said it was originally like 6 000 acres that they were occupying and it's down to some few hundred or a thousand or something you know um so yeah it has been different chunks being taken out you But at this point, it's been this thousand that's been maintained.

36:02And there's been generations that it went dormant, but he came back, rebirthed a life into it. But yeah, at this point, this corner that we maintain and now they've had far back as they know, you know, over 400 years. Yeah. So one of the things with logistics is you got to get partnerships. You're the first black owned water company to be inside of Walmart. how did this relationship come about how did y 'all force it how y 'all maintaining that so that was right before we connected with the um actual land and the ceo running it but he said his actual goal was to use that as a launching pad for validation for certain people and for that promo but he kept it limited to a few in florida because his real goal was to keep it grassroots and deal directly with the people you know so we are real big on the direct the consumer although we do do deals and partnerships with stores and different businesses but just for example in the lane we in and what we're doing with it wouldn't even be needed if he went nationwide with walmart it would have just been him and walmart making all the money so true true salute to him but yeah he he's created a blessing of a lane for a lot of young entrepreneurs movers and shakers to be able to find our space in this and you find that you know sometimes our people need that validity.

37:23So even though, you know, we not in the Walmart anymore because of whatever type of clauses they had contractually, it's like you say that to somebody, like, let's say we've been somewhere and you say the first black on water company to enter a Walmart and they like, huh? And they stop right there. So sometimes you can still use that, you know, and then, you know, they get the rest of the story and everything from there. What's the process to actually make the war? Like how many people have to be employed? Is it like, like, as there's a plant, like from the spring to the bottle what's the process so it's like a big water tank truck come to the land plug up to the um system how often well they come so it's a few different lanes of distribution so on a mass scale that's probably once a week once every other week and it's like 6 000 gallons worth that uh you know come plug up and take it to the plant and then they're making all type of other stuff with it drinks juices we got a protein tea drink that we just released sparkling water with different flavors blood orange pineapple ginger cucumber mint and a limonada right and then there's other companies that white label because we got the source so you can put whatever name on it you know so y 'all out there you know let's partner up you feel me sure but nonetheless um so they got a few people on on the grounds at the factory that received the water once it comes in they plug it up to the factory run the bottles through the system um so i don't know exactly it's a few people in there but being that it's mainly machines you just got a few people doing a mass production and stacking up the boxes on pallets and things of that nature then we got the smaller operation on the land where we directly bottling on the land and that's a little more labor intensive where we because what equals the machinery at the factory we got an equal and manpower on the land when we doing our smaller scale thing so i actually started a young entrepreneurs and training program and i got uh three young brothers that been a monumental help that's been helping us label package like them 2 000 bottles we had to bring down there we have about four days to label by hand 2 000 bottles bottlers join up oh because we did a special um label to earn your yeah yeah yeah we did the invest fest labels on them and all of that so we had to do that by hand but yeah that was a grind we called in everybody just on that order alone we probably had a good eight to ten people on labeling bottling package storing and four of us um ran the booth all weekend as y 'all have i mean obviously turned up for the brand for sure Has your role inside the brand changed?

40:06It feels like you started out as like, hey, here's how I can add value almost on an internship basis. But now it feels like y 'all, what is the exact role that you have now since y 'all didn't turn this thing up? Yeah. So, again, another situation of us just lending our love and labor without really asking for, all right, what are we going to do? All right. We know we're doing the sales and we get our price point for the wholesale price and we get our profit off the sale. but we're doing more than just selling we promote in we ambassador in we doing a lot so he actually gave us some stake in the company uh you know so that was a beautiful blessing which gave us more motivation to go even that much further and harder you know so the equity play yeah but even with that it's um anything we want to do so we host festivals and retreats and everything on the property so it's some it's not a matter of overhead it's like um we are in full control of that as long as we just kick something back to the land which we have a you know percentage that we um discussed but um i tell people all the time like people waiting for god to come down with this magical voice and be like now is your time to do this i'm like nah sometimes he's speaking opportunity so it was the opportunity with the water and now it's a whole nother opportunity with the land all together you know from the festivals that we host to the farmer's market now that we have open because it's not just the water it's cucumbers uh mushrooms collard greens kale carrots beets so it started with the water and it bloomed into everything that the water actually you i mean helps produce you know so it's bigger than water how much is the water the glass bottles are uh four dollars you're doing by the case for 40 um our plastic bottles are three dollars each we do a case of 24 for 45 or on subscription we do it for 40 dollars and we ship and deliver all over the country we also do um gallons as well so the gallons are seven dollars each or four for 20.

42:02the gallons come in plastic they they come in plastic well and we're working on that glass you know we need more people that need it in glass you know um because that's a whole different type of logistical thing um and then we do the five gallon containers as well and We have a special right now called We Are The Gold, which is something we started. What was that? About 10? Yeah. Where we had David Banner host that experience and I was doing something with Miss Black America. But the We Are The Gold special is$20 for the five gallon container. And we bring it right to your doorstep. Currently, we only really doing that in the Southeast area because we drop off your new one and then replace your old one.

42:39And so it'll be hard for us to do that in Minnesota or Cali, you know, until we got the infrastructure set up, which is the future. That's part of our plan, you know, moving forward. But yeah, that We Are The Gold Special has been kicking off. What's the subscription? Just go to the website, $20 monthly. $20 a month? $20 a month for that five gallon. Now, $40 for the case of the 24 pack. And we ship and deliver that for the five gallon containers, either$25 or$20 on subscription for the We Are The Gold Special. Yep, you go to heavyenergyuniversity.com backslash live dash alkaline or you can go to our Instagram at Live Alkaline NC.

43:16Go to the link in bio. They said that the bottling water business is a$300 billion business. Growing every year. Billion. Every year it's growing. It might feel like it's a surprise to people, but it makes a lot of sense when you talk about these major corporations that do the bottling. I wonder, is the selling of the water as profitable or equally as profitable as potentially white labeling for other people in bottling? How does that vary? right now um because we don't do a lot of white labeling you know at this second i think um but white labeling is on the way and we encourage it because we like we're not in competition with whoever else got water all these other companies are literally right beside each other we the source so come bottle your water if you got a company somewhere come bottle it and put your name on it slap your name on it bottling in whatever bottle you want to come holler at the plug so yeah right Right now, our most profit is definitely coming from the bottling, you know, ourselves.

44:15But if you want your own water. See what I just did there? Holla. You see what I just did there? We need that. It's a trained professional. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you throw the oop, we got to dunk it from there. Yeah, facts. So the sky's the limit. We looking for big contracts. We can fulfill any level, you know, all levels. We do thousands of gallons in a day. So they say, like, it's a water crisis, scarcity in the world. and then some people say that that's not true it's just that how it's being monopolized by corporations is causing scarcity of water what's your thoughts on on this whole water scarcity crisis i think it's definitely a matter of you know the monopoly of it right and if you if you fear always makes people move in emotional ways right so if you talk about it's a water crisis Now you just got random people going out and buying as much water as they can possibly stock.