From Baltimore to Soho: The Rise of Cloudy Donuts

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0:31and everything in between. Celebrities, thinkers, everyday people, some have answers, most are still figuring it out. And if you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Over the last couple years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by Black people because of what happened in Alabama? After Montgomery Brawl. This Black History Month, the podcast Selective Ignorance with Mandy B unpacks Black history and culture with comedy, clarity, and conversations that shake the status quo.

1:06The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in Black American history that you'll never forget.

1:44I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to The A-Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The last time that we spoke on the episode, So you had the restaurant, homemade in Baltimore. The reason why the episode is so legendary, you guys should check it out, episode 11, is that you broke down your business model. You broke down the streams and it was very detailed as far as numbers and all that. And people wasn't really familiar with, I think it was kind of new. Yeah, it was something new. That wasn't something that people really did before, right?

2:15I think you kind of changed the game where you opened the door as far as transparency. But since then, a lot has changed. You moved from Baltimore to New York. Yeah, yeah. You switched from the restaurant to we had Cloudy Donuts. That's your new operation that you got running. So a lot has changed, right? So let's catch the audience up to speed. How did you transition from Baltimore, the restaurant, to Soho, the vegan donut spot? Yeah, you know, my thing is this. I always tell the person, when you go fast, you grow fast. You know what I'm saying? So nothing really educates you more than just living real life and doing it at a fast pace.

2:57So when y 'all saw me in the restaurant space, it was more about getting settled in and coming home. I had one goal when I came home and that was to be legit. I had an advantage with that because it was like I saw the world through the lens of a criminal. Somebody who just coming home and like, yo, shit, I can't believe I got a legit spot. I got people on payroll. My mother got to come see this. You know what I'm saying? Because I grew up. just straight immersed in the criminal lifestyle. So when I had the opportunity to come on the show, I had built out the brunch restaurant. I had the food trucks and it was really about the supper club and creating verticals within my business that would allow me to grow.

3:36Now, what I always encourage entrepreneurs to do is to focus on the main thing, keep the main thing the main thing. And for me, after I got legit, it was really about making some real money. So in the midst of the restaurant, you deal with a lot of nuances, whether it is dealing with staff coming in front of the house, back of the house, managers, and so on and so forth. So I was like, yo, let me do a little bit more history because once you're over the excitement of being legal, you got to deal with the excitement of ambition and wanting to get some money. And I always tell people, once you get over the good look, you get some good money, right?

4:08So I got to a place where where I was at was enough. And it was like, all right, what's next for me? So I began to focus on one singular product. And for me, it was a donut. And the reason why I focused on that is because if you get a donut, right, you don't need ketchup, hot sauce, mayonnaise, mustard. You're not looking for a refill. You're not looking for a waiter to give you your check. It reminds me of the game. It's straight product driven. If I got a quality product, it's over the counter service. You come in and out the space. It reminds me of like a trap house. I give you the product You don't even know who I am You gone And I'm able to scale that So it was a scalable model As opposed to a traditional restaurant Where you're dealing with so many elements and components And that's why I chose Donuts So the transition, right?

4:53Because Homemade Everybody remembers for that episode You had the Supper Club piece too We left all that, we came here What was the transition like From a business standpoint of Alright, this is a new city I may not be familiar with the ins and outs The demographics are different Talk about that piece It was all like hustling out of town It was all about It was so crazy because And I'm so excited for my partners Odito to talk because As any hustler know when you go out of town You get through a woman and you get to the community Right? So like for example my superpower was my partner And it was really about us strategizing Like alright here's this life that we gonna build Here's this brand we gonna build And how are we gonna be able to connect with the people In an unconventional way So when I came to New York, I knew a few things.

5:40I knew that I had to get familiar with the landscape, be respectful of the people, and provide them with a phenomenal product. So when we used to sell dope, we called it Drop Matisse. I don't know if they seen it on the wire, but Drop Matisse is basically like if you get a couple ounces of dope, you get some grams, you put them together with some quinine, and then you pass out testers. So on the wire, they would say Drop Matisse because now all the dope things would congregate to that because it's like, oh, all right, they giving out these tees. So my tease was complimentary donuts It was like yo I believe in my product It's phenomenal let's just give it away And that created word of mouth Along with her being behind me And in most cases beside me But also behind me doing additional work Like yo I'm going to make sure that I get your product To everybody who don't know you And turn this into a global phenomenon So it was really about the work that she put in With connecting with community And me just being in the lab making sure we had the best year going out So Soho How'd you end up in Soho?

6:36because most of the time, I mean, you start thinking you was in Brooklyn at first. Even that was a different type of area. But as a black entrepreneur, they would probably expect you to be in Harlem or Bestie or a black neighborhood. Why did you gravitate towards Soho? Yeah, everything that I do relates directly back to who I am as a man. It's no gimmicks. Nothing is fatty over here or trendy, right? So when I was trapping, I had some real money and I was living in good neighborhoods. But I always felt there wasn't a true place for me in the midst of white affluence. I mean, think about it. We drive down Rodeo Drive.

7:15We got our phone out. We take a bunch of pictures, but black people don't own nothing. Then we go on Madison Avenue. We got our phone out. We buy a bunch of purses and jackets, but black people don't own nothing. And I always lived in these particular spaces and I felt like, yo, where's the space for us? Where's the space for the black man who's successful? Everything doesn't have to be like a charity case, right? So I was like, yo, I'm going to put the donut shops in areas that I was specifically living. And it was the same thing in Baltimore. In Baltimore, we in white neighborhoods, that's a flowing as well, too.

7:44It's not intentionally trying to lean into white folks, but it's just really just following my own path of where I would live. And I felt like from what I've seen with other brands, whether it was Kith or ALD or Supreme, I felt like that for black people to get seen in a different light and it'd be global phenomenons you needed global retail positioning so it's like the only way I'm going to become successful is to position myself next to the other people so I was never comfortable being like the biggest lion on my block I want to get in a dent with the other lions and show you what I got we here now you can scroll the headlines all day and still feel empty I'm Ben Higgins and if you can hear me is where culture meets the soul.

8:23Honest conversations about identity, loss, purpose, peace, faith, and everything in between. Celebrities, thinkers, everyday people, some have answers, most are still figuring it out. And if you've ever felt like there has to be more to the story, this show is for you. Listen to If You Can Hear Me on my iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Over the last couple years, didn't we learn that the folding chair was invented by black people because of what happened in Alabama. This Black History Month, the podcast Selective Ignorance with Mandy B unpacks black history and culture with comedy, clarity, and conversations that shake the status quo.

9:02The Crown Act in New York was signed in July of 2019, and that is a bill that was passed to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles associated with race. To hear this and more, listen to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1969, Malcolm and Martin are gone. America is in crisis. And at Morehouse College, the students make their move. These students, including a young Samuel L. Jackson, locked up the members of the Board of Trustees, including Martin Luther King Sr. It's the true story of protest and rebellion in Black American history that you'll never forget.

9:40I'm Hans Charles. I'm Menelik Lumumba. Listen to The A Building on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. On a recent episode, I sat down with Nick Jonas, singer, songwriter, actor, and global superstar. I went blank. I hit a bad note, then I couldn't recover. And I built up this idea that music and being a musician was my whole identity. I had to sort of relearn who I was if you took this thing away. Who am I? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

10:19This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.