Burnt Hands Perspective
This is a raw and unfiltered look into the pu$$ification and state of the restaurant industry as a whole, powered by longtime friends Chef/Owner Antonio Caruana and former bartender turned News Anchor/TV Host Kristen Crowley.
Representing all aspects of the industry from the front to the back of the house we will dig into the juiciest stories and pull from decades of experience in one of the sexiest and most exciting industries in the world...the food and beverage industry.
From international chefs, sommeliers, industry pros, and so much more, this show will cover all of it without a filter. You turn up the volume; we'll turn up the heat.
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Burnt Hands Perspective
Ep 29 - One Entrepreneur's Mission to Elevate the 757 - From Nightclubs to Building Brands in Virginia
The path from nightclub owner at 19 to Wall Street trader to sake entrepreneur isn't exactly conventional, but Lynx proves that authentic hustle combined with unwavering purpose can create extraordinary outcomes.
Growing up in Norfolk, Virginia, Lynx always had an entrepreneurial spirit. When opportunity knocked in the form of club ownership at just 19 years old, he transformed a punk rock venue into an upscale 25+ establishment despite not being old enough to drink himself. This early experience in hospitality would prove foundational as his career took unexpected turns.
Without finishing college or knowing what stocks were, Lynx found himself on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, working his way from running tickets to becoming a specialist — the person traders would frantically shout orders to during hectic sessions. His hospitality background served him perfectly in this high-pressure environment. "Half of them were drunk and high anyway," he laughs, revealing the surprising parallels between nightlife and Wall Street culture.
The creation of Tyku Liqueur represents another fascinating chapter in Lynx's journey. After discovering the premium sake at P. Diddy's restaurant in New York, he recognized its potential and helped grow the brand through strategic networking with celebrities like 50 Cent and Floyd Mayweather. What makes the story compelling is that none of the founders had Japanese heritage, yet they slept in rice fields to prove their dedication to traditional production methods.
Throughout our conversation, Lynx emphasizes his philosophy of purpose-driven work and refusing to accept failure: "Excuses are just reasons not to succeed in life." Despite opportunities elsewhere, he deliberately returned to Virginia Beach, seeing untapped potential in the region he loves. His passion for elevating the 757 area code is infectious and might just inspire you to reconsider what's possible in your own backyard.
Ready to ditch the excuses and embrace the hustle? This episode will show you how purpose and determination can transform every aspect of your life and business.
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Tycoon, tycoon, baby Tycoon, you.
Speaker 2:Not Tyquando Tycoon. No, my man.
Speaker 1:Lynx is here from the bottom to the top. Now we're here.
Speaker 3:That's the story we're talking about right here. I'm with you on that one Right. That's the story we're talking about.
Speaker 1:So for all you who don't know this Lynx, he's going to introduce himself. We're going to talk about what he's got going on. You took a chance, rolled with it and here you are, yeah. So start out your little introduce yourself. Man, tell us how you came.
Speaker 3:First and foremost, going on, everybody, my name is Lynx. I'm originally from Virginia, from born and off of Raising Virginia Beach.
Speaker 1:VA baby, you already know.
Speaker 3:I've traveled all around this place, been in Toronto, LA. I went to LA for a weekend, stayed for nine months no exaggeration. That's what happened. No exaggeration. Wow. So I had a pretty interesting life, pretty interesting life, and now I'm back. I want to make Virginia get the recognition and just pretty much let it be what it should be.
Speaker 1:So you have a success rate amongst you. Everywhere you've gone, he's worked to the point where you're not satisfied unless there's a level of success there, absolutely.
Speaker 3:And the crazy part I was just saying this earlier today like God has made it that I've never failed. Yeah, and a lot of people can't say that, right, so I've had lessons, but I've never failed in anything that I've done and I agree with you on that, because I look back and everyone says in business you always get that hard lesson until you fail.
Speaker 1:Luckily if it's luck or what, I don't know but I haven't yet failed. Things might not have worked out like I wanted them to, but I haven't failed. And I think that's the failure. Part of it is someone's mindset. You have to rise out of that like a phoenix. It's because you allowed yourself to fail mentally.
Speaker 2:But I don't believe this.
Speaker 1:I believe failure comes with your mental mindset. Just talking to you knows I believe failure comes with your mental mindset Just talking to you knows you don't fail.
Speaker 3:I haven't learned this in a hard way, so pretty much I'm from Norfolk, from Diggs Park. I'm just in Norfolk, virginia, so my mother was a guidance counselor, school teacher in Norfolk Public School. Got me out of Norfolk, got us to Virginia Beach Public School and then from there, ironically, I ended up owning a club at the age of 19.
Speaker 1:Where was?
Speaker 3:that club, the Cave, some people remember it.
Speaker 1:My man, mike Robbie owned the Cave still the Cave.
Speaker 3:My man Interesting story. We're going to backtrack to that at the end of this conversation.
Speaker 1:And again burnt hands. Hospitality, bars, restaurants, all those here you are right, now right into the mix Shows you that most anybody who's anybody has worked in this industry.
Speaker 3:You learn a lot in this industry, you learn a lot about yourself. You learn a lot about people. If you do it the correct way, you learn a lot about life, Because there's not a chance that one day something's going to happen and you have to be prepared to handle it. So it's like that's just how life is. If something happens, you can't just sit around and say whoa, whoa, it's me. You can take the time to reflect on it, but you have to fix the problem. You have too many people depending on you to not fix the problem.
Speaker 1:Hospitality means to be hospitable, and when you're hospitable, you have to take on a lot of crap and almost put on a facade to be able to deal with it and work through it. So again, like you said, at a young age you're forced to deal with a lot 19.
Speaker 2:So how did that happen when they said, hey, here's a club at the oceanfront Like, yeah, you want to buy this at 19?
Speaker 3:Pretty much. I have a sister. You've met my sister I have a older sister. And we had friends, so I was always the young one trying to run around and learn from them. So growing up, my brother produced with Tim and Pharrell, and so I was always one trying to soak up knowledge. My brother had a Geo Metro, so I'm in the back of the Geo Metro and a hatchback in the trunk.
Speaker 2:Oh, what color was it? Hold on Blue. Oh, it was the blue one. Okay, because you know they had the fun colors. They did?
Speaker 3:He had a dark blue. He's regular, okay, so I'm in the backseat just trying to learn from him. So my sister had these guys. One guy was named Rico and he was just teaching me about I'm going to invest, so I'm going to purchase this club, I'm going to make you run it. So he made me a part owner of this club at the age of 19. So what I did was I made the club a 25 and up club.
Speaker 2:Can't even drink legally. You were 19.
Speaker 3:I'm 19, so I don't want nobody my age coming in.
Speaker 1:Your friends can't even get in. Yeah right, You're trying to set the standard.
Speaker 3:I'm like because due respect, when I when we looked at the club initially it was a punk rock club, yeah, it was like I saw where it was going. There's no disrespect to anybody of that nature, but I had a vision of what I wanted it to look like. So I wanted it to be a place where you came in there you had fun and it was a punk rock club.
Speaker 1:It was definitely. That was almost like the CBGB of the beach it was in your beach. I mean it was. It was a punk rock club. I used to go levels, okay, yeah, so I went through the steps of it. So yeah, you saw an evolution. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3:So it was that type of scenario and my mindset was like, okay, cool, if I make it this type of an establishment, these type of people will come and it will just enhance the oceanfront as a whole, like again, even back then. So by that time, when I was 19, I went to Miami, went to University of Miami, played basketball there. Every time somebody asked where I was from and I would say Virginia, they were like oh, y'all ride horses and y'all sleep with your cousins and y'all. I'm like, no, that's West Virginia.
Speaker 1:I'll sleep with your cousin, I don't know, not mine Exactly.
Speaker 3:So I was, like you know, I wanted to get that mindset of us being so, you know, slow and so against the times, that I wanted to do my part to make that happen. So the first thing I did was I had an opportunity to run a club and own a club at the age of 19.
Speaker 1:How'd it work? Everything went well. Everything went well.
Speaker 3:So this is the funny part. So I ended up leaving there. It was successful. I left there and I went to work on Wall Street. Why not? Why not? Why the fuck?
Speaker 2:not, that's a natural transition, yeah.
Speaker 3:Didn't finish college. Yeah, when I went to Wall Street, didn't even know what a stock was, were you on the floor and shit screaming or what? I will show you a picture. I ended up running tickets first. So I ran tickets, then I ended up being a backup clerk and then I ended up being a specialist. So when you see people yelling and screaming, I was the person who they're yelling and screaming at. Perfect. So again, you have to learn how to be hospitable.
Speaker 2:You're taking all the heat all the time you have to learn how to control your crowd.
Speaker 3:So it's like I took what I learned from the nightclub and the restaurant perspective and just applied it to now Wall Street. So now I'm on Wall.
Speaker 2:Street. Half of them were drunk and high anyways, absolutely or high. That's the crazy part.
Speaker 3:And not drunk, yet the first time they take me out. What people don't know is it's a bar on the ninth floor of the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. Ah so once I got to a certain level of talent on Wall Street, my specialists would leave, so they would open up the stocks at 9.30. 10 o'clock, they're gone Upstairs to the bar. 3.30, they're back. They close the stocks. Drunk, drunk, drunk. I'm like you know what you're doing, Linc?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know what I'm doing. I would just close the stocks. So again, you know what I'm saying, Like I don't know. On the trading floor, you have to fight for these traded IPOs. So I remember when Facebook came. Facebook came, so every company has to pretty much sell themselves to this company. I ended up going out with the people from Facebook. I took them on a night in town in New York and we won the stock, won the IPO, Perfect.
Speaker 1:That's all it takes. Hospitality. That's it hospitality. Wow, black and white.
Speaker 3:Just knowing what people like. Yep, then we get to the infamous Tycoon brand. So this is the funny part Tycoon brand we were friends through mutual friends.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we I mean been to dinner and did not know any of this Because, again, you're not super public with a lot of this stuff, so I'm dragging you out into it. But Taiku, the sake that they make I have drank for a long time and when you said the name, I immediately knew what it was. I was like, really Like, right here in Virginia, one degree of separation. This is something that I've been consuming and didn't even know that you were a part of this, part of it.
Speaker 3:So it's interesting. I just want to know how it happened. So this is the wild part. I have a best friend. Her name is Persia. We used to call her Diddy, not anymore.
Speaker 2:Can't call her that. No more Switch name, name switch. Now she's changing her name Identity.
Speaker 3:Identity change. The best friend, formerly known as Diddy, is what she calls herself, which is hilarious. So long story short. Ironically, I met this brand at Puff's restaurant Justin's. So I'm there. It's my best friend's birthday. It's really like five people invited but for some reason, 50 people show up. So a bunch of her friends played for the Giants and some of my friends played for the Knicks. So all these people out there, right, new York has a different set of rules, sure it's?
Speaker 1:called. There are none, pretty much.
Speaker 3:So it's a very popular tequila brand that I only drank the platinum version of it. So when they ran out of the platinum version they had the regular version. I'm like I hate this. So somebody randomly a friend of a friend I got invited. He's like I have something that takes away the burn when you take the shots of that liquor and I'm like, okay, cool, let's try it. Pulls the bottle out.
Speaker 1:This one. That one Tycoon liqueur Tycoon liqueur.
Speaker 3:Pulls the bottle out.
Speaker 1:Look at that Double cap for your pleasure.
Speaker 2:Oh, I know, yeah, we're safety first. Safety first here.
Speaker 1:Oh, triple cap. Come on now. What Russian doll of licorice Want to?
Speaker 3:protect all the kids All right. Go on. I'm listening. So he pulls it out, we take the shot and the burner's gone. I call all the boys over, I call my boys from the Giants, I call my boy from the Knicks. We order 50 shots. He does it to all 50 shots. All of them take the shot.
Speaker 1:They just put a little bit in there.
Speaker 3:A little bit in. Come to fast forward. Now it's the um all-star weekend in las vegas. But it's also fat, um, it's magic. So my cousin's heavy in the fashion industry. I do the dumbest thing in the world. I booked vegas for two weeks. For those listening, the max you should stay in vegas is probably three to four days. I've been two weeks in Vegas, so I go for Magic and then we roll over to the All-Star weekend. While we're there for All-Star weekend, the person that actually owns the liquor comes out. We go to Nobu Again. We go to Nobu and I have mutual friends that know 50 Cent, so me and 50 know people through mutual people. I had already told 50 about the liquor. So when we get to Nobu we go to the upstairs area 50's there with a whole bunch of people that I know.
Speaker 1:And Nobu, on itself, is in my world. Now we're talking my style, okay, so I pull.
Speaker 3:He again has a bottle on him. 50 takes a picture with the bottle, post it. Do whatever you have to to get people to follow it. Perfect, fast forward. We start seeing more people. We see Floyd Mayweather, we see a whole bunch of people and everybody I know I'm like hey, this is the lick I was telling you about At this point. I've told everybody about it.
Speaker 1:You're networking, you're doing your work. That's it. Yep, that's what you got to do.
Speaker 3:And then I didn't last two weeks in Vegas. I left the 10th day. 10th day I woke up I said y'all have my credit card on file. Get me a flight, Get me out of here ASAP. And that's what they did. Yeah, or else you ain't leaving.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So when he comes back to New York, he's like, look, I want to meet with you. I'm like, okay, cool. He's like, look, what I want to do is I want to take this mainstream, so I want you to have some involvement with it. So then from that, I ended up purchasing some small amount of shares into the company, so that's how I became a part owner of the brand.
Speaker 2:Perfect. There you have it. Describe it, because this is something that a lot of people aren't familiar with anyways, asian influence. Yeah, so obviously it's made in Japan, it's made in.
Speaker 3:Japan. It's made in Nara Nara, japan, which is where sake is made, and that's the thing. So the thing about the tradition, what I love, the Japanese culture is this brand in particular, and on all sake brands is about interaction. So, for instance, if we're all drinking, I will pour your shot. Instance, if we're all drinking, I will pour your shot you will pour his and you will pour mine, so it makes the engagement happen. Yeah, um so this brand itself. The funny part was two people that started a brand were jewish.
Speaker 2:One guy was mormon then you got the black guy so it's like nobody's mormon and a black guy walking to a bar with a bottle of sake with a bottle of sake.
Speaker 3:So nobody has any japanese or Asian descent in them whatsoever.
Speaker 1:That was my next question to you. So my question that I was wondering about this is how did you influence a genre or a culture? How did you breach that? How did you breach the walls of that culture? So, sake we think, sake we think. There's a lot of you sit here in my industry, my wine knowledge, and kick off sake, knowledge after knowledge, but it's not necessary. I know enough to know that, even at any level, to break that or to get into that level of being internationally competitive. Competitive, yeah, how did you go about breaking that?
Speaker 3:so I have to give them all the credit. And they told me the story, so they actually went out and in order for them to be produced in Japan, because they're very strict about their culture they had to sleep in the rice fields. They had to show that they were determined and they were focused to keep the tradition.
Speaker 1:So they slept outside in the rice fields. Yes, Mosquito bites malaria. Whatever's out there, they did Coming at you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, everything.
Speaker 1:Panthers.
Speaker 3:That part that showed their dedication to the brand and to keep it, and they also had to make sure they only produced it there.
Speaker 2:So you couldn't just take it and then just manufacture it, make it in the US or anywhere else, if you want to take their culture and you want to take their.
Speaker 1:Okay, so they're using their traditional and cultural rules and their regional rules and applying them to you. If you want to do it, you got to come here and do it our way, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So how is this made? What's the? What is this the like? How? How is this actually come together with the flavors?
Speaker 3:So this is soju based, so soju, which is my dog's name, ironically, hey.
Speaker 1:Branding when my soju's at.
Speaker 3:Where my soju's at. So soju and sake is rice based, so it's like grain, and then distilled and purified, so it's different grades of sake. So the one thing I want anybody to get from this conversation with two things one, of course, hard work over everything and relationships. And two, though, when it comes to sake, everybody wants to drink hot sake. What people don't understand is hot sake is what's called futsu, so that is like taking a bottle of the worst $2 liquor and just heating it up to hide the imperfections.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's exactly it. So whenever you want to warm up the sake or something, it's because it's more easy to drink. It's almost like dumping a little bit of this into that label you didn't want to mention. I know what you're talking about Exactly However it's almost like that.
Speaker 1:You're going to mask it, so it's acceptable and it made it good. So drinking hot sake is well, I do like it, but I don't like it on a really good sake because you lose the components and that's when I had to cheat someone, like one time, and not even trying to cross over.
Speaker 3:one time we were out and I had a bottle of Ace of Spades and somebody put orange juice and made a mimosa with the ace of spades and I looked at the person that invited this person and they knew what my face meant. If you don't get this person on our section, I'm going to kill somebody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're fired.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it, you're 86 it's like your ketchup on your steak yeah that part. So it's like god so yeah.
Speaker 3:So the thing about sake and what our brand is, they really it's different levels. So we have the first five-star rating for a daijinju Jumai daijinju sake. So that's the highest purification of sake you can get. And the thing I like about the brand is it's nothing but it's thought, it's a whole thought process. It's the people that hired. We were all athletes. Of course, people know athletes like to drink and you know you would go out and be like okay, look, so if I'm drinking and I got a game the next day, this is all natural no glutens, no tannins, no sulfites, no sugars. So there's no hangovers. I used to have a thing that I would tell people if you drink this and have a hangover, I will give you $10,000. But it's got to be just that. People just try to have every other drink. I drank 18 things of gin and I had typhoon and I got hungover. That had nothing to do with typhoon.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, you busted the rules there.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I mean, that's pretty much how the brand came to play. It's got hints of elderflower.
Speaker 1:I can smell it. Yeah, it's very herbaceous, very floral yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's not sugar, like it doesn't taste sweet, like if people are looking at that thinking. It's like hypnotic, or something that's like you know, or passion, the one that you know it's light.
Speaker 1:Like it's really light. It almost seems by the nose, more of a botanical liqueur than it is a sweet. You know, cordial it is, and that's the thing.
Speaker 3:It's funny you mentioned hypnotic, because that's actually how the brand kind of pushed on my side of it.
Speaker 3:So I was in charge of the urban activation of it. So the person that started Hypnotic is a close friend of mine. So when I kept trying to get into all these other events, they would not let us in and he was like, oh, that's Lynx. No, okay, go ahead. So at that point he was working with Ciroc. So what we ended up? That actually got us a lot of national attention. We ended up doing Puff's 40th birthday party.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:So we came up with the first illuminating bottle. So we couldn't keep the pattern on the bottle lighten up, period. But we do have the title of the world's first illuminating bottle.
Speaker 1:And Nice yes, plus, with that liquid right there, the color of that.
Speaker 2:You said that was a 750, though A 750. So a 750.
Speaker 3:And what we did was if I'm at a bar and I see you two and I'm like, ok, I'm trying to push my brand. I'm like, ok, let me get three shots of Tycoon. So when they pick up off the bar.
Speaker 2:It stands up. That's genius marketing and for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hell yeah.
Speaker 2:We're all friends, it's okay, it's easy to drink, right.
Speaker 1:It's actually delicious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's delicious.
Speaker 1:All that other stuff in there actually takes away from it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just made cocktails.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no viscosity to it.
Speaker 2:Why are you asking me that?
Speaker 1:question. It's almost got a. You said the botanicals, the herbs. I'm actually getting a little bit of a cucumber minty mix in there as well, so that's what I'm tasting.
Speaker 3:And then I can't legally say this, but it's the natural aphrodisiac as well.
Speaker 1:You can say that legally on this show.
Speaker 2:Fuck your oysters. Who's trying to fuck?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what I'm saying have a sip.
Speaker 3:That's it, hey girl.
Speaker 1:No, but that's good man.
Speaker 2:Really it is I like it when we let Tony write ads for different brands. Tycoon, fuck who I don't know we can come up with some.
Speaker 3:I don't know, are you with a whole tycoon? I don't know how I'm going to take that. It just sounds crazy.
Speaker 2:If we get going, we can come up with some shit.
Speaker 3:You know what? I want to come back and hear what y'all come up with, we'll create a list.
Speaker 2:We can create a list for you.
Speaker 1:The best thing about having our own show and our own channel is that we can do and say what we want. Nobody can fire us. We have no matter how big. They're all awesome people and they all want to hear what it is for real and that's what we give. We try and have a little bit of professionalism to us, because this life is professional. There are aspects of it that are professional, but in the hospitality world, in the restaurant world, especially in the bar world, there's a lot of shenanigans as well.
Speaker 1:And if we don't continue bringing on the shenanigans, then I feel that we're being fake and we're doing a disservice to the actual hospitality world, because for every professional person walking through it they had to go through all the shenanigans, and sometimes they get so high they forget about the shenanigans, they turn their back to it, and the shenanigans is what keeps us together. It keeps us going. You know what I mean and I'm all for the shenanigans, the fuckery and the tycooery.
Speaker 2:Well, and it built the industry. And it's funny because we look at these brands and we see, like you know, some that do start small but then they get colossal, like behind them, and then they get commercialized.
Speaker 2:And knowing that again, I was drinking the cucumber and the coconut of the sakes they make are amazing, just for you know, sipping at home, they're delicious. And so when he said it and I was just like God. I was like to make this hyper local and for people in the 7x7 to know. Like you know, there are parts of these things not just the distilleries here, but other brands that people actually still rep from this area. So I just like that it ties it all back together and brings you back in.
Speaker 3:And that's the great part with it, because it's like you said initially, when I was going to come here, I came in fun. I had on black slacks a black button-up. I was like you know what I want? To have a real interview.
Speaker 1:You got the holes in the water. Yeah, man, exactly. Look at us. We're chilling yeah.
Speaker 3:So she's always looking dapper, so it doesn't matter anyway, so that's comfortable for her.
Speaker 2:I'm always overdressed, that's comfortable.
Speaker 1:Yes, don't put that past me. I'm not doubting that you got to do what you got to do. Sometimes it just won't be.
Speaker 2:But no, I do love it and I know you had some questions just on, like you know, manufacturing. You're getting this stuff here, getting it into different states For people that are looking at you know, coming into brands. I mean how you know.
Speaker 3:I know they kind of had this in place when you came on board. But crazy part, because I'm gonna fold on to that twice um, so, like you said, we're made in japan, shipped over. They came up with the genius idea because, like I said, we had the first illuminating bottle, so they ended up giving a pump the company that made our bottles a percentage of ownership of the brand. So therefore, every time a bottle sells, they get a percentage of the sell of the bottle okay, so that's good to know.
Speaker 1:So I'm in the the process of making my sauces at a very high level a fine Italian sauce, not something that's going to be a—.
Speaker 2:Not Prego or whatever. Yeah right, I'm not trying to do anything to get quantity.
Speaker 1:I'm looking for quality, absolutely, and I want to put what I do in my restaurant, what I do as a chef, in a bottle. It took me a long time to perfect the recipe, but relating to what you're about to say, I hope, and where I'm going to get some knowledge, hopefully, out of this, is the biggest problem I had come across was A finding the proper production bottling plant. Who could do what I do, who can mimic what I do? And luckily I've come across that and found it. They hit my recipe right on the head. First try, sent it back, first test, everything was perfect.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going into the labeling. Now I'm going into the labeling. Now I'm looking into labeling and every time we create a label, um, we look at it again and say, shit, you know, you overthink it every time because it's your one chance and it's what it's going to be. This is perfect labeling. It hits the point right away. I have to do the same, right, yeah, so do you ever think about that when you're coming into your marketing of your labeling and stuff moving on into the future? Do these things happen or where do you go about that and how do you go about that?
Speaker 2:I guess what kristen was asking I mean brand development process, because you said you're kind of looking at a new venture now too. Yeah, yeah, this is a whole, another, another brand that's ironic.
Speaker 3:So once I leave here I'm going to meet with my other business partner, because that's the thing. Like I said, I want to bring it back to like you said. So, even though I had a bar called Tycoon Bar on the oceanfront, named after the liquor, just to kind of bring that exposure back, I now want to develop a sake in the States, in Virginia, back at home, and just try to see how that pans out.
Speaker 3:So, we're actually having a meeting to figure out marketing, so that brand is going to be called Shidoshi, shidoshi um shidoshi is pretty much just a your mentor, your master, exactly.
Speaker 3:So you know my favorite movie is blood sport, so so yeah, so we're actually um, we have some, we have some things about marketing that we feel like what we want to do is, when you look at it, anywhere, it stands out. So we we have some things in mind that are around that when you see it, even though it's not affiliated with shidoshi, you'll still be like shidoshi. So that's what you want to do. You want to actually always make sure you're on the forefront of somebody's mind to the fact that, for instance, kool-aid is not the only powdered product. When you see a powdered product, no matter what's is, you're going to call it Kool-Aid, that's because it hit hard with that market.
Speaker 1:It went inside you, inside your soul. So coming up with your new one, you have to come up with what's inside the bottle as well. That's a whole other thing. Is that a lab project, or is that something that you kind of just keep to yourself?
Speaker 3:Well, my thing is this, Even when I was at Tycoon meaning, um, I have flavors I wanted to try, but of course, like I said, I was, I was a shareholder, I wasn't the be all, I wasn't the end result of it so you know I had to get approved through other people. Um, fortunately for them, they actually expanded the brand to what's called Davos brand, and on the Davos brand they a couple other products.
Speaker 1:We're all familiar with Aviation Gym. Absolutely so you're dealing with some people. That has recognition. Yeah, you're not at the bottom anymore, you're working your way up. So by the time you get all this knowledge and all your gaining of education and you're going to put it into your own brand, you have a little bit of a head up on a normal person like myself who's starting to put my product out there.
Speaker 3:Yes, and then the person I'm actually doing a brand with actually owns a bottling company and he does this for all the brands. Oh, okay, so it's like you know, we actually met through our mayor of Virginia Beach and the relationship we sat down, I'm going to say within 10 minutes we automatically clicked, Forgot the mayor was there. He left. We just started talking about everything else. Yeah, sure, yeah, we just start talking about everything else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure, he's got to go get his votes, you're good.
Speaker 3:And then after that we just you know, he found out who I was and what I did. We conversed and I had these ideas in my head. I want to try out. He had some, so we sent samples out, came back my birthday party, probably two years ago, just did a silent tasting, not telling people what it was, what we were doing and people love the four brands we came up with. So, okay, that's what we want to initially start with um so a silent taste is a good idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and also market research. You already started.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and that's the thing because, with all due respect, what I'm learning is when people what's the best way to put this? When people know you, and especially if they depend on you in any financial circumstance whatsoever, they're going to say yes to anything. Sure, how's this taste? This is amazing, this is great, yeah, yeah. But if you do a blind testing, or if you do it with people that are your peers, don't know anything that's going on, just haven't tried it out, you'll get honest opinion. Sure, and that's what I wanted.
Speaker 1:I wanted a very honest opinion and that's the way to do whole thing with. My sauces are almost done and ready to put out there and and I'm excited about it and I know how they do I've made a living off of them and all the people that work with me as my teams have made a living off of them, so I already know they're tried and true. Now it's just getting it out to the consumer outside of my restaurant. So it's a matter of how do I take, like she said before, she mentioned prego or ragu or reo. So all these people who are mass producing these sauces that when you think let me get you know, people say I want spaghetti tonight, well, spaghetti is the noodle, what they're talking.
Speaker 1:That's the type of pasta they're thinking about. The whole spaghetti meal is spaghetti or spaghetti sauce. So how do you get, how do you breach that? How do I? That's my, in my thinking. I'm not necessarily asking so I so I'm literally asking myself how the hell am I going to take a more expensive, more quality, more high-end sauce and convince people that it's worth jarred sauce, when it absolutely is Two or three times the money.
Speaker 3:It's quality?
Speaker 2:It's not.
Speaker 3:I'm going to tell you where we all messed up. Initially, when we started with Tycoon, we hit every market besides the one that we already had already. So by that I mean we went to LA, we went to Toronto, we went to Miami. Sure, didn't hit New York. We had all the relationships in the world in New York. Didn't touch on any of them, right? So my thing with you is your sauces have already been approved by your base here.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:First of all, I would start by selling it in your restaurant.
Speaker 1:Ground zero and work out.
Speaker 3:And then, on top of that, I would start going to the local stores. What I realized once we started hitting the bases in New York City if you went to the places that were not as huge as the other ones, they were looking for partnerships. So it's like if you go to a.
Speaker 1:Taste Unlimited, something like that, something like a Local, local, busy sandwich shop.
Speaker 3:And then the thing is with your product. People understand quality, so don't ever get it confused, especially in this area. There's money out here, Sure. So it's like if somebody's willing to pay $75 for a shot that's gone in two seconds, they'll pay $20, $30, whatever your price point is for a meal, really good A meal, because that's the thing.
Speaker 3:Even if you go out, for instance, I'm sure your jar of sauce, which is going to be phenomenal, isn't the same as the cost to feed a family of four here in your restaurant. Of course, yeah right, exactly. So if I have a family and I don't want to come to the restaurant, but I still want to have that experience of eating here. Why would I not buy your sauce?
Speaker 1:Sure Restaurant, fine Italian sauce. Quality is how I'm going to push it, but talking to you inspires me because what you just said is a lot of the long lines I've already spoke to you about in our private conversations is starting local. Think globally and act locally.
Speaker 2:And that's kind of the approach I'm going to take. We always in the marketing world, we always say become the mayor of your own town before you start running for more offices.
Speaker 2:So you have to kind of conquer and it is the cheapest because you're not paying an extra ad spend. You already have connections, it's free, organic marketing, so that builds your street cred and then you use that and parlay it into development and being able to know okay, this is our feedback. We can do market research. We can say our ROAS on this is going to be because these people like it, so we're going to target this demographic and yeah, I mean it's. But yeah, becoming the mayor of your own town is one that I don't think. Yeah, I've used that for at least a decade.
Speaker 1:It's a great, it's a great analogy, because that's what you have to do. If you, like you said, if we're already focusing on on one specific group in one specific area, in one specific region, you might as well you have to cap that out before you can even move on to your next one, because you know you're going to move in, you're going to move in blocks. In a sense, you know you can't, like you said, maybe you went to toronto. I'm sure it worked out well for you, but you probably would have got a little bit more money to go to toronto if you focused the local sales there. And that's what I'm going to try and do is use my. I just honestly love doing what I'm doing and I honestly just don't think enough people have access to good quality food anymore and I want to put together something that somebody can go.
Speaker 1:Look if it costs $14 for a jar of sauce, where you typically pay eight or nine that's $14 of sauce that is going to make a meal at your house that is just as good as my restaurant, nutritious, okay, and we're talking about feeding four people in a high quality standard, right. So to me it makes sense. Now to the person looking for a budget sauce it's not gonna so marketing my local area to believe in that they're gonna send it to their friends that eventually it's gonna grow out Like like, like a, like a plague or something.
Speaker 3:Hopefully that's the goal right and that's my thing, like even with me. If I may, I want to volunteer my services. We still have connections because the sake was in certain grocery stores as well. So we still have connections with the Harris Teeters and things of that aspect and I know they're always going to or distribute, yeah.
Speaker 3:They're always looking for stuff to put on the shelves. And if you push the special, the local aspect of it, you know, I'm sure, because I've seen sauces in there for $14, $15. Oh yeah, I haven't touched because I've never heard of them, sure, but if I see your brand Right, I'm like, okay, cool, I don't have to. You know, I don't have to wait two hours to get a table. No-transcript, we're looking to expand on top of that. But yeah, that's the family business and we love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you have a full-time business. Yeah, you are doing this. Yeah, and everybody out there that says it's too hard what do you have to say to that?
Speaker 3:It's only too hard when, number one, you don't have a purpose, like I know for a fact. I have a purpose. We have a family business. I work with my sister. I love going to see her every single day. We have the best relationship. You've seen me and my sister. I love your sister. We have a great relationship. So, to the fact that if we're mad at each other as brother and sister which is very rare we still operate business. Well, if we're mad, have, but still like let's go out to eat as brother and sister. So I have, like you stated, I have the family business, I have that liquor, I have another liquor, I have everything I do for the city, and then I'm in the process of potentially opening up a restaurant as well ah, good for you, so let me know if you need that talk.
Speaker 1:We would definitely have that.
Speaker 3:I'll be here for you, um so it's like again I do everything because I know I have a purpose and I know it's more for me to do than what I've done now, and it's for the people. So I've come from a generation when my mom was a single mother. She had me and my older brother. We were not the easiest people to deal with.
Speaker 1:Sure, as a team even.
Speaker 3:Moves to Virginia Beach. I've seen this woman do everything and never complain. I have people that's in the industry now. One of my closest friends is a very well-known rap artist from this area. I've seen her be completely humble when I've seen her have to do 2,000 things in one day. You get it done. Excuses are just reasons to not succeed in life. So it's like if you want to make an excuse, you can. I'm sure all three of us right here can make an excuse to not be here, to not work, to not do anything. You can make an excuse, but why? The same amount of energy it takes to not do something is the same amount of energy it takes to do it Exactly.
Speaker 1:And the excuses is where people go wrong. Because I found out in my life that I don't make excuses anymore. For instance, I'm going to use just last night as a prime example. Last night I didn't want to do anymore. There was no excuse. I didn't need to tell anybody why. I just didn't want to do anymore. I've decided I want to go home.
Speaker 1:That's what I decided, and I executed that with as much precision as I do when I do the other 2,000 things you were talking about. When I'm ready to make a decision, there's no excuse. I don't need to owe anybody an explanation. So, no matter what it is, there is no exclusion and and I agree 100 with you that we can do and she's good at it, I'm good at, and you're good at it, we, we.
Speaker 1:Yes, there are a thousand things to do in a day, but when you wake up in the morning and accept that the only thing stopping you is you, that's it. Nothing else is stopping you. People will try and hinder you, situations will pop up that may you have to reroute your day, but that just means tomorrow you might have 1200 things to do because two things 200 things got held back today. It doesn't mean you're going to stop doing them. Yeah, it means you just got to do them more later. There's no stopping right. So I think that, like you said, I 100 agree with you. I don't think your excuses are the reason. You make excuses in your head, because you don't understand your path. You don't have a, you don't have a goal, you don't have an game. You're just running around in your head just as crazy as a dog chasing his tail.
Speaker 2:It's purpose. You're building a company for other people to enjoy. You're building things that you want to bring joy to people's lives, Let them have fun. There's a purpose behind it. When you always compare to you watch Shark Tank, whatever and you look at the guys sitting up there, they got the same amount of time in the day that you do and they're managing 300, 400 companies where they're touching probably a good majority of that daily, obviously through channels, but they're touching it. They know what's going on. You can ask them a question about their businesses. They're going to know. So why do you have so much trouble with one job and can't make something happen when these people are doing that much? And that's where you know. I mean, this industry teaches you to work hard because you have to.
Speaker 1:People ask me a lot of times. They ask me all the time I don't see how you do it. How do you do it? How do you do all the shit that you do? My only answer to them, and I honestly say this, is how do you not? I don't have an answer for why I do things, I just do them. I have a question for you how can you not, how can you sleep so long and go home early and take a break and worry about your next break? That's how you, how you understand how to do. That is how I understand how I do what I do. It's that simple. I don't know how you do it and you don't know how I do it, and I don't owe you an explanation. Just either strap in or get off the ride, man. That's it.
Speaker 3:That's all I can say and I'm with you, I'm all for it. So what I've learned to do in this part of my life is I do do what's called a Sabbath, I do take a day of rest.
Speaker 1:You have to. Me too, you have to my. Sabbath is Sunday. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Not.
Speaker 3:Saturday, because Sunday is just like. I already know what's had to tell me I was going nonstop. I was doing I legit remember at one point I was flying somewhere every third day and I'm going to wake up in the hotel to figure out what city I was in. Wow, no exaggeration. I'm going to look at the phone and be like, okay, I'm in Atlanta, okay, I'm in, and like my body one day was like okay, in this next flight and set me down. So from there I was like, all right, take care of your body. Definitely do that. Take care of yourself mentally.
Speaker 3:But my mom always told me she was like respect everybody's time, but if you make yourself important enough and you work hard enough, they'll wait for you. So I never wanted to be the one that didn't work hard enough or make myself that valuable that people would not want me in a meeting or in a situation or whatever so valuable that people would not want me in a meeting or in a situation or whatever. So I got that from my mom when I was sure shoot five. I remember she used to give me money to don't kill me. She used to give me ten dollars to cut grass. This movie did have grass. This is way down the line. Um, I would give the neighbor five and keep five, so you had a hustle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was like because 50 profit and I say that because the way I do my life now is every deal I do makes every party happy. So my mom was happy because the grass was cut, my neighbor was happy because he got five dollars and I was happy because I got five dollars. So it's like you know, I I never, I would never do a deal on agreement or anything in which it does not benefit all parties and I think that's the problem with a lot of people now.
Speaker 3:People are always looking for a shortcut, people are always trying to figure out how they can get over, and it's like if you do good business, you don't have to do any of that.
Speaker 1:The path of least resistance has traveled more now than it ever has ever, and people are on that highway and they need an easy password at this point because that thing is getting jammed up. But it makes it easier for you I and her and everybody else out there watching who understands what we're saying it makes us easier for us to succeed because the the does the pool has is so thin now of people who are actually striving out there that it's actually clearing a little bit more of a way for us and that and that right there is a purpose. Yeah, I know that if I I got to do this before people start waking up again, I got to start rocking and rolling before my competition starts. It's almost like Pearl Harbor. We don't want to wake the sleeping giant. Let them chill out and sleep.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of people out there with so much potential who don't even know they have it, because they'd rather just sit around, and I want them to sit around right now. I got shit to do and I'm not going to promote them or get them. I'm not going to try and pump them up to go do what they got to do.
Speaker 1:You sit right there, my man or lady, I'm going to take care of me and I'm going to take advantage of your sleep and nap.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean, because that's my thing. The thing about the whole state of Virginia, especially the seven cities, is so much opportunity when I say I could live anywhere. I lived in LA, miami, new York, atlanta, toronto. I came back here because, out of all those places I've traveled, I love this place the most believe it or not, me too, and that's exactly right, and I am a huge.
Speaker 1:I'm not a fan of the 757. I live here. Yeah, this is where I live. This is where I want to be I came back.
Speaker 1:I love the 757. For what reasons? I can't sit here and give you an exact reason why I could if I wanted to, but it's irrelevant, it doesn't matter. The bottom line is the opportunity and the people and the diversity and everything that's going on here. It's just so much opportunity and none of it's even capped at all, none of it has even come out of the water yet. We're not even breaching the opportunity If all the opportunity would actually collectively get together and work and rise up. What you were talking about at the beginning of this interview or this talk, this podcast, is, you said where was I going with this.
Speaker 2:With the city.
Speaker 1:No, as far as. Yeah, I lost my train of thought. That's how real this shit is.
Speaker 2:What did we say?
Speaker 1:No, but anyway. So what I'm saying is there's so much potential and opportunity for everybody to come up at once that if we would all just come up together at once that's what I'm waiting for, and I think that's the biggest thing that attracts me to this is that there's these little sub cells, or these little cell groups of people who are so powerful and they're all looking for the same thing here. One day it's all going to connect.
Speaker 2:I think it is. It's starting for sure.
Speaker 1:One day, all the stars will line up.
Speaker 2:We talked about competitions here, Michelin stars here, things that need to be here.
Speaker 1:I remember what I was saying. You said that when you were in Miami earlier okay, you were talking about how people were you would go there and it would be all live. It would be live and direct, right in your face, and they would be talking about how we were on horses yeah, slow. So what I'm getting at is what that starts from is where does everybody go? Hospitality Restaurants, bars, hospitality restaurants, bars, liquor entertainment um, that's where it kind, that's where, that's where you're seen. So you can have this huge foundation of greatness.
Speaker 1:But until that whole circle comes together with the hospitality groups and people like us, that's where people start noticing it. Yeah, you know what I mean. And until that whole group comes up together, you have the foundations of business. You have the structures of uh, all the structures of all your city's treasuries and all that stuff. But then you have why do the people from the outside notice it? The top of that iceberg is the hospitality, the entertainment, the look-see, the be here, be seen there, the draw, the draw, and we do. We have a lot to offer here and you do.
Speaker 2:You work with the city of virginia beach day in and day out trying to make shit happen here and it's, you know, it's always. There's always problems, we all know that. But overall, if you compare this area to anywhere else, I mean I had opportunities to go to miami too and stuff, like when in the restaurant business, and I never wanted to leave here, and I mean it. You know, I grew up outside of detroit, but I ain't going back to the cold.
Speaker 2:This is as far north as I'm going, but I never wanted to leave here and I think it's just a testament to everybody who's stayed in this area, and it is like I think we're on the precipice of like it's going to just like, just come out of the water like a full on.
Speaker 1:Exactly. We have a funnel. We have so much talent. And I'm not talking about local talent. Every city and every state and every region has their local talents. I'm talking about international talents. We have people on international platforms here that are very close to us and we're very close to them, and it's not because of starstruck or anything. That's because we're all in the same struggle and they are real people. They walk amongst us, they're in our streets, they're in our restaurants, they hang out with us and that gives us inspiration because now we're going to come up together, because someone's going to be leading the charge, of course, because they've done it first, but we're all going to come up together and rise up, man, and I think that goes for any big city. That's already known. That has happened. It may not be the case now, but it has happened. Las Vegas came from the desert sand. All because of entertainment Hospitality Restaurants, casinos, fuckery. All because of entertainment hospitality, restaurants, casinos, fuckery. Come get some you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:All that shit. We got all the fuckery we need every day.
Speaker 1:We have it all, man, and it's very inspiring talking to like-minded business people, especially in this fucking industry. I can't say it enough, you know, because that's where we're at.
Speaker 2:Well, I am excited about the new brand and you know I'm on board to help you. You want to brainstorm ideas and taglines? I've got you. I'm coming here.
Speaker 3:Trust me oh.
Speaker 2:I've got you.
Speaker 3:I need to hear your slogans too. I'm here for that. We will have some fun.
Speaker 2:We will have some fun with that, for sure.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I mean you know you got our support. When I first saw this place, it definitely reminds me of an out-of-state vibe, but it's what we should be doing here and where I get my inspiration from is people like you, man.
Speaker 1:I get it from going out of town and I don't necessarily try and emulate them. I want my vibe here. I know I can produce it, I know I'm on top of it, and when it comes to the cooking, the chefing, the entertainment, the wines, I want to make sure that I'm also bringing the same level that's expected in these cities. I want it here because why do I want to go somewhere else to do it? I don't have to move. Why do I have to move to Chicago to open up this place to be successful? There are people here who have the same palate. So many people from here go to Italy, they go to Chicago, they go to Miami to eat.
Speaker 1:So why do they have to spend so much money on a plane ticket? They can come right here, and I think a lot of chefs in the area are doing the same thing If you build it, they will come.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just like the whole trailer.
Speaker 3:We're going to start a revolution. Get everything started between here.
Speaker 2:We got this, I'm saying so all right.
Speaker 3:Well.
Speaker 2:Where can everybody find information on the brands?
Speaker 3:too. So Tycoon, wwwtrytycooncom. Davosbrandcom, of course, to find me. What's my Instagram?
Speaker 2:You don't even know. He's barely on his Instagram.
Speaker 3:It's so wild at lynxtycoon.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think that's it.
Speaker 3:L-Y-N-X-T-Y-K-U on Instagram.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we followed him from the burnt hands one. You can find him there too, so yeah.
Speaker 1:So it was a pleasure having you man.
Speaker 2:There's so much to talk about with you.
Speaker 1:I'm going to sit back off, set here and really talk to you again. Man, I want to get up together with you. Thank you everyone for following us. Thank you for subscribing. Please hit subscribe if you haven't Burnt Hands. Respect is here for it.
Speaker 3:Chefing cooking debauchery vlogging, whatever the fuck you do, we're here for it. Everything you need Cheers.
Speaker 1:Ciao for now.
