UNDERCOVER BILLIONAIRE - MONIQUE IDLETT FULL SEASON | HOW TO BECOME A MILLIONAIRE IN 90 DAYS

is the American dream still alive I'm Glenn Stearns approve it last year I made a bet that I could go undercover and build a million dollar business in 90 days what I need to know is are you with me it was the hardest thing that I've ever done in my life but there's more than one way to make a million dollars see when I started laughing it's because I'm really nervous now three successful entrepreneurs are stepping forward to take on the same challenge who has my money this sounds like I'm being greedy but I'm not greedy I'm a Hunter I'm all about relationships my strategy is I'm not building it without the community it can't happen I don't take no for an answer being a woman in a man's world there's no crying it can make other people cry but in a country caught in an economic hurricane the governor called the state of emergency holy hell they pull it off we need to be realistic about when you stop an economy can't nobody create a real business with cameras it's chaos to keep things Fair they're going undercover in cities they've never been to with only a hundred dollars a cell phone with no contacts and an old truck all they'll have are the business principles they use to become successful the work hasn't started yet you know what I'm saying at the end of 90 days all three businesses will be independently evaluated if it's a penny short of a million dollars I'll put in a million dollars win or lose the people who get me there will be rewarded but they don't know it in three different American cities with millions of dollars on the line these Trailblazers will try and prove the American dream is still alive and CEO of Mosley music group which I started with my ex-husband Timberland we were a full service label that had a joint venture with Interscope Records with Jimmy Ivey home to Nelly Furtado One Republic Keith Urban Chris Cornell we generated hundreds of millions of dollars in album sales and Publishing royalties debt.com is a partner now so there will be a press release about that too I made my first Million by creating an agency to partner the right talent and the entertainment and Sports World with the right corporations own rain Ventures a tech Capital fund that's focused on women and minority-led startups our portfolio company's worth hundreds of millions this can change a lot of households and the way young people interact with their credits I totally agree I'm excited it's gonna be good I'm going into Uncharted Territory but I'm definitely not afraid of adversity I think my whole life has been adversity and how to overcome something the American dream it hasn't been for everyone it applies to people who typically have generational wealth and generational Legacy and families that have been able to pass on I was raised in Perth Amboy New Jersey in income-based housing with a single mom my mother lived paycheck from paycheck didn't learn anything about savings or credit there were days when she wouldn't get a paycheck until Friday and the electricity bill was due on Thursday and they would cut it off like we'd be using candles I don't forget any of that and had a child at 18. I mean as a baby he was on campus with me or sometimes at work with me depending upon what job I was at went to your dad's going to your dance do I have anything to be worried about let's see how these typical teenagers the kids kept asking me like why am I doing this and I'm actually like I had to really really think about that because I was definitely overlooked in the industry especially once we got married people didn't understand that I was business I have since 18 years old done nothing but built relationships but I feel like it's a learning experience this challenge is a good cleansing for the soul but I wasn't enough you can't quit now unless you say yes you win it now I don't think I ever quit though I'm taking on this challenge for people of color for women women are c-suites at major major corporations and have continued to show statistically that they scaled the revenue model so why do we keep getting overlooked I love you baby this is my pass-through City so I have no idea where I'm going from here oh Glenn I'm just like all over the place you could give me one piece of advice going into this what would you tell me Glenn every time Joe myself no don't get discouraged that means a lot coming from you Glenn thank you so much and we'll check back in thank you bye-bye I've given myself the Alias of Monique Lanae as a tribute to my sister whose name is Shakira lynnae how you doing nice to meet you Monique heavy bag [Music] all right city of Tacoma [Music] we're over all of this water I'm literally about to be a fish [Music] see a beautiful Bridge almost like a Gateway so to speak oh here we go now I'm entering Tacoma Tacoma is 33 miles Southwest of Seattle on the banks of picturesque Puget Sound Tacoma's thriving economy was built around its vast Lumber industry and its crucial Northwestern Rail and seaports but in the late 1970s deforestation and the Outsourcing of the manufacturing sent the local economy into a tailspin leading to plant closures and staggering job losses but today locals are as determined as ever to fulfill Tacoma's Destiny as a beautiful prosperous City my first focus is shelter as a lady I'm not going to sleep in the car so I'm going to research to see if I can find one of the larger non-denominational churches I just need to go to somewhere that I feel like is a safe space to be honest that I'm look that I have to find shelter I think that the church is pretty much accustomed to hearing that it's late I have to find shelter for the night churches in downtown Tacoma Urban Grace here we go no matter what I'm going through in life I always turn to my faith first I also grew up in the church my mother's a pastor and so what I do know for these next 90 days I'm going to have to lean on my faith in a big way oh here we go Urban Grace okay this is where it gets so tricky because what I would normally do call one of my pastor friends I found a church a half a mile away hi yes ma'am are you guys open right now oh no the church is closed oh okay I'm new to Tacoma and I just was looking for a church to give me a little bit of information I just need about few minutes of someone's time okay uh is 1211 South I Street capital letter I okay I'm gonna put this in my phone hold on one moment please okay and what is your name Susie Q thank you Miss Susie Q okay and my name is Monique Lanae I'll be there soon yes ma'am thank you I'll be there shortly okay okay bye-bye oh yes okay that gives me a little bit of relief Miss Susie Q is nice she said the church is closed but come that's my type of person she doesn't know anything about this she didn't see cameras she didn't see anything that is what is is a Humanity to me we are in for a five minute drive someone just walked out so that's probably working good afternoon sir how are you good how are you and what's your name uh Pastor Christopher I'm Monique Lanae how are you I'm just moving here to Tacoma yes sir trying to build a small business and so they are they're filming a documentary about small business owners and entrepreneurs just trying to build right now during I guess this pandemic it feels so wrong to be lying to the pastor about my name and my situation however this challenge has rules and staying undercover is rule number one so I wanted to come to a church to kind of like try to get the understanding of Tacoma um and then start trying to get some of my initial needs met you know okay uh somewhere to stay for right now and try to get some work going and stuff so uh are you entrepreneur I am and well she's not about to build I know I'm literally about to build it here my my ex-husband and I we just got divorced and so we had a company together but I stepped down what type of company like advertising marketing things like that so who did the marketing piece me I did I did all the marketing and advertising oh okay okay cool that's my skill set uh a bunch of ministers purchase uh iconic business that uh we're getting ready to try to do some advertising maybe we'll just yeah I mean I'm in need of work so okay and then that's right up my alley so how long you been in Tacoma I just got here just got here you're my yes so I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and kind of out of my comfort zone okay I don't have family or friends here so what do you need to know uh the first thing is shelter like I'm just trying to figure out I have like I don't have a lot of money okay so so so you're in need of housing I am just some short-term temporary trying to somewhere I can sleep tonight so I can at least get to get my mind settled mm-hmm okay um it's getting late and I have to get some sleep well we're happy oh thank you Pastor thank you vulnerability is an asset it is not a weakness in business in fact most people are willing to help it's what we are as human beings we're kind uh I try to get you a room for three nights thank you guys and you may have to ask five people but do not be afraid to ask for what you need ask Susie to help me find a hotel yes sir yes and I just call it in with my card and you can just show your idea you're about to make me cry okay thank you so much sir thank you I appreciate that okay take care Pastor Christopher offered me from his own personal pocket three nights at a hotel he didn't ask me my last name he literally just heard what my problems were and he offered me Solutions hi Miss Susie how are you Pastor told me to come in here and talk to you do you mind if I sit down oh no go ahead I was telling him that I just moved here Miss Susie requested to not be on camera when she was meeting with me so he told me that he would offer like three nights for me to you know so I can figure my stuff out so I thought that was super amazing I'm super appreciative yeah you helped me I don't mind helping you with something yeah I'm in the NAACP so we're stuffing envelopes today oh really then look I'm gonna stay and help oh okay that's the least I can possibly do is volunteer today for inviting me into a closed Church to offering me somewhere to lay my head for the next three nights the NAACP Tacoma chapter has created a list of all the candidates for November and they're sending this out to all of their members so I'm a pure folding preparing for letters I'm volunteering oh they have some Senators up to one of nobles she is running for the senator for the 28th District and I'm actually going to keep this because this is actually a list of some of the most influential people in Tacoma and will be a great resource to learn about the community moving forward I was folding these papers so these are all the candidates that are up for office yeah majority of them right right right right I was looking at um how do you say her name Tawana yeah Tawana Nobles Nobles okay yeah yeah she's the is she is she likely to get that Senate Office we hope so is she amazing is she here she's amazing but she's lined up against an incumbent she's the president of the Tacoma Urban League oh okay I'm gonna have to go see her all right it's my last one I'm gonna go in and check into my room thank God cool for the day [Music] I'm really tired right now I have three nights paid for in this hotel [Applause] my goals for this first week are to find a safe and affordable place to live in researching Tacoma most basic studio apartments are at least eight hundred dollars I can't afford that yet and then I need to get a very strategic job that is going to allow me growth that I'm going to learn something for my future strategy and intent is how I try to move in every part of my life both personally and professionally day one I still have a hundred dollars left still got my phone still got my car and now I'm going to bed asleep and I haven't eaten in a day I've got two more nights at this hotel paid for but I have to keep working on my next plan for shelter I haven't eaten in over 24 hours I'm actually irritated because I am hungry I think it's not normal to not eat food and not to take care of yourself it's it's just a different feeling right now I have to stop and get a salad or something that's not french fries or fake food I got a baked potato [Music] I wanted a salad but they didn't have any salads under five dollars so I feel like I can't even think right now because I need to eat this is called Hard Knocks so I'm eating this baked potato and it's making me think maybe there's a business idea here based on the limited options for healthier choices with limited resources Wellness is a human right when I was a child we didn't have a lot of money but we absolutely had access to healthier food options because my mother made it a priority I feel so much better just a little bit of food oh my gosh if there's any opportunity in Tacoma to build a business that brings healthy food to all people who do not have access then that could be my million dollar idea I feel so much out of my element right now professionally I back home in Miami juice and wellness shots are everywhere I personally drink them and I make them for my kids I would love to gauge if this is something that restaurants are interested in selling so I'm headed to Hilltop I heard that this community is super inviting super um supportive black businesses Hilltop is seeing a lot of changes due to gentrification going into the challenge I had to focus on my instant needs which are survival needs right food shelter a job you know I think it's important to embrace the fact that every day you might change your mind on the direction and pivot yes I'm focusing on Survival but also at the same time I'm focusing on building my business model I I'm going to go in alone I do not want to scare them with the cameras I was looking at your menu and I noticed that you guys don't have like do fresh juices or Ginger shots and stuff and that's what I do so I didn't know if like you would be open to me selling them here let me think about it okay yes ma'am okay and what's your name I'm sorry okay Monique nice to meet you thank you I could see that Miss Gloria was swamped but she didn't say no which is a great start I will definitely be following up with her foreign [Music] even though my first attempt to sell juices at Southern Kitchen was a maybe I have faith that this idea will work so I've lined up three more restaurants and I'm confident I will get at least one yes hi hey how are you so like I'm making juices and do you guys partner with like local business owners yeah we've done it before but not really looking to do that now hello I'm making juices can I try your shots I don't have any right now are you considering adding like a juicing component do you have a sample I could be for my manager as of now I don't so it turns out that there's a market for my product but I can't sell people on it unless I provide samples I need to start with a juicer formulate a plan in order to make this product as quickly as possible and I have to do it with less than a hundred dollars what did I really sign up for so tonight is my last night in this hotel nobody works as hard as I've worked to then purposely put themselves in these type of conditions none of this is normal clever is unfortunately what people who have nothing have to always come up with how can you be productive and healthy if you don't have any like if you have to worry about basic needs what I'm up against is trying to balance myself to figure out why I'm doing this again I'm just feeling super overwhelmed right now I don't have any money I haven't not had more than a hundred dollars since probably high school the way I'm feeling right now I probably just shouldn't even be on camera [Music] hey daughter hey Mommy how you doing baby I'm ready to go home tonight it's just a lot what do you mean like Mom I'm literally having a breakdown right now [Music] you're doing honey okay I mean you're going to have a lot of different emotions no you know but what do you do tomorrow baby you know I have to turn this hundred dollars into a million dollar valuation so I gotta get to work praise God that you're not under somewhere in a cardboard box right yeah that's for sure okay and and just pray you know God says that he gives us strategies and Woody and so just pray ask God to lead you all right I love you I love you too babe I'll call you tomorrow all right sweetie okay love you bye I don't I don't want to film anymore please like I'm literally done never had to live out of my bag and be on the go so this is a new experience it's the morning of day four I am moving out of the hotel room that Pastor Christopher paid for and now I have to find somewhere else to live again I'm waiting to wash my laundry so I don't spend any money sleeping in my car is not an option as I'm a woman so I have to be super careful and conscious about that over the past few days I have been reaching out to people online hoping to find the lead on a new place see if anybody hit my social media back not yet okay I'm gonna enter my name Monique lynnae oh how easy this would be if I could use Monique idlit but I'm not done trying I'm gonna continue to DM everyone I can I am a new member of the Tacoma Community when it comes to making my own opportunity I have to talk to everyone I need to make friends here so I'm going to text Tawana Nobles now Tawana Nobles is who's running for the 28th district for Senate here in Washington state of Washington she does not know me I've never met her she's going to say who is this person with eight followers what can she say she doesn't respond so what you know the point is is to reach out to as many people as possible this is the most difficult challenge I have ever done in my life but it's so important I remind myself I'm here to represent women I'm here to represent people of color and because of that no matter how stressful the situation may look I have to keep moving forward [Music] day four feels like day 90. this morning I had to move out of the hotel that Pastor Christopher paid for truly being more focused on the solution is how I approached it versus focusing on the problem so I've been reaching out to various Tacoma online communities like the churches and I haven't heard from any of them quite yet when you're struggling for your basic necessities every day just seems like it's just long hold on I need to read this okay thanks this is crazy [Music] like for straight up Tawana Nobles said I could stay with her till I get on my feet even though she's in the middle of running for the state senate okay so I'm called Tawana right now hi Tawana it's Monique how are you I'm good honey I'm I'm so thankful and grateful and humbled that you've even opened your home to me I have never done this before like so if I saw me here I was like wait a minute what am I doing yeah [Music] oh she had sent me a message on Instagram and because I try to be nice to everyone I was like yes like totally email me and I double check what she was telling me with Pastor Christopher like did you meet someone and put them in a hotel and and he was like yeah I'm just super thankful we're here so we'll see you shortly okay thank you I don't know that I knew more than I have an extra bid so at least there's somewhere you could lay your head okay this is tawana's house the middle of a pandemic yo this is crazy like sometimes it's bigger than even what you can think of can you guys stay back while I go meet with her this just goes to show you you have nothing to lose by asking for help I feel so blessed that my faith led me to Pastor Christopher who then led me to Tawana hi hi guys are you Mommy I'm Monique in a safe place to stay especially when I needed it most as much as this is overwhelming now that I have a place to live temporarily I feel on top of the world even with not having much now I have to focus my attention on a few things I'll have to initiate the startup process for finding funding for my company but before I can do any of that I need a job that will pay me in cash every time I work and flexible with the hours so I can actually build the juice Shot company I want to actually confirm a paid job today like at least feel some type of stability so I did a search for farmers markets and I came across a place called Point resting Public Market I spoke with the lady by the name of Stacy who manages the market and I'm on my way to meet with her now are you Stacy yes I'm good so tell me about this area because like this is super amazing well so this area used to be it's all industrial it was a copper smelter it was one of the largest super fun sites in the United States and so when they got called out and had to clean this area up the developer really saw this as an opportunity to develop so this is the opportunity Zone okay it's an amazing because to have that insight to see something that really was so industrial to become this which is so incredibly beautiful I'm just taking notes I'm sorry yeah go ahead and this actually is their sort of the crown jewel for them the public market was their idea okay yeah do you mind if I go take a look no get on in there foreign [Music] [Laughter] Monique nice to meet you I'm new to Tacoma so yeah right now now kind of a micro farmer oh it's like stone fruit and Specialty fruits do you guys need any day help [Music] you do say like 11 to like maybe three elbows yes okay eleven to three yes so yeah we'll be rocking oh man you have no idea I'm so excited well I'm super happy I came in and I'm gonna get these because I definitely wouldn't stop and not get something I don't believe in coming into someone's place of business and not supporting them I'm gonna buy some fruit even though I don't have a lot of money 1880 oh perfect thank you don't worry about the change you can just keep it yeah no you've been so kind and you hired me like yeah yay I'm super excited thank you all right [Music] it's interesting because I do live in a very safe protected bubble right and even as much as I'm challenging systems as Monique idlett and I'm getting uncomfortable I'm always able to go home to my comfort zone and I can't do that here I've been vulnerable before but never vulnerable in this type of way not my real identity I can't use my network I can't you know I can't even tell the community that I've been accomplished in some fashion I'm super humbled and it makes me have even more of a fight in me to do this journey here today I'm back in the hilltop neighborhood it was important to me that I go to a community in a neighborhood where it's not far-fetched for a woman of color to be a business owner Hi how are you I'm Monique I'm David so my name is Monique okay I just moved here so I do like ginger shots and turmeric shots and stuff so I'm just trying to get to know the city a little bit is this yourself thank you nice to meet you guys my business philosophy is based on what I call the five C's conscious concerned caring Community contagious you do have to care and see how you're impacting a whole entire community and it should absolutely be a contagious model to be profitable in that way it truly does incorporate how I actually like to move through life as a businesswoman are you from this neighborhood so like what's going on over here oh sorry I'm a part of a documentary they're doing it around the United States but just like small business owners entrepreneurs I just moved here girl I'm trying to get my life together and start a business we're the people who care about like wellness and like juice shots and ginger shots and me you do see I mean I worry about those things I am on where do you buy them online that's the thing right now especially with the pandemic going on people are being more cautious she says she has to call people and get things shipped to her for juicing that's a problem so right now I'm on a community investment Council board that's working oh girl I'm Monique I'm Kenya nice to meet you Kenya see I know who to talk to do you have a card I don't have a car but I can give you my phone number I have a few people that I would actually want to connect you with every interaction is important my meeting with Kenya approves that point I've met someone who is connected in this community and wants to introduce me to key people which could lead to potential customers to potential investors and definitely potential supporters I'm Monique I'm gonna drop my car to you right now okay babe thank you thank you for stopping and talking work that's important I have to build a business everybody has to understand like this is like for real for me I'm doing this on behalf of women and people of color so this matters and I cannot fail foreign [Music] who is one of the owners of vardel farms I asked Alex for a job when I went to his booth at Point Reston Public Market I have no idea what I'm going to be doing he kind of sent me like a list of things like you know just making sure the tables were good greeting customers he said this is their busiest day of the week good morning I am I am I haven't worked for anyone else in a long time but I'm excited to build a relationship with Alex that's how it works right I've never sold fruits and vegetables but with my business background I can sell anything that's a state of mind if you believe you can do it you can do it hey ladies how are you guys doing today take this one tomato two eggplants so the green are two four three and then two for four this is it okay perfect that'll be four dollars oh that's eighteen sorry this one's good once ready thank you guys poof yeah what'd you think so far money I love it man this is my language like getting to tell people like how to be healthier and that's to me what life is about cool there's 80 bucks in cash yeah I appreciate it yay I appreciate the help hard work builds confidence growing up watching my mom work several jobs providing for me and my sister and brother she always took pride in her work today I made eighty dollars yeah of course of course while it's definitely not enough for long-term housing it at least covers my food and gas for the week I'm going to count every small victory Lords thank you after spending the day at the farmer's market I now get to head back to tawana's to show support to this amazing woman who's opened her home to me Tawana is running for Washington State Senate and the primary election is today they're sitting outside oh that must be her campaign manager the primary results are in [Music] and she did it Tawana has won her primary listen I was just like if I can just get like 47 51. I literally just met her a few days ago and I'm here for such a big moment this is really special and historical oh the mayor of Tacoma how are you good to see you too yes wow no one deserves this more than you like literally when you work hard it pays off since I've arrived in Tacoma I have been super scared but I meet people like Tawana mayor Victoria and you're like wait a second I'm supposed to be doing this Mike where are you from I moved here from California okay and um I moved here with the ambition of starting a small business and being a part of the Tacoma Community okay every time I have a moment of thinking that I'm like I remind myself that I absolutely am trying to solve a problem that exists in their city and that I actually care about the community of Tacoma because I I really do and literally can't believe how amazing Tacoma has been nice to meet you thank you [Music] Wellness has always been important to me I'm definitely not surprised to see interest from the community for my juice shots to create some butt the ginger they have some fresh mint y'all baby oh they got some turmeric man these are three for a dollar super good super happy spent ten dollars juicing can be a very lucrative business it costs about ten dollars to make 62 ounce wellness shots that's a cost of only 17 cents per shot and if I sell them for four dollars per shot that's a margin of 96 percent I definitely want to go into this market right here and see if they have any juicers Hi how are you I'm good thank you where are your like um the blenders and juicers and things okay thank you most professional juicers cost several hundred dollars or several thousand dollars and that's not in my budget right now so I'm looking for an inexpensive blender that I'm hoping can get the job done I have to make this work I'm looking for some type of like the same thing that like a Nutribullet would do right over here we have regular blenders you'll see them right here yeah I don't think I can do these because it needs to be more like a juice processors also have that same capacity where they can purify liquefy emulsify and you can put bigger things in like a bigger slice of apple okay yeah they like the smaller ones okay I'm doing juice shots oh yeah that would be perfect this would be perfect is there anything else I can help you with no that okay have a good day all right bye-bye let's go make some juice shots [Music] so I'll let you get set up and then I'll yeah girl this is super easy Monique she's fantastic she is incredibly smart I think the first day I was already putting aloe on my skin adding lime to my water she has you know helped us to in a short period of time just live a healthier life which is amazing I just peel the ginger I just want to support someone who is in our city and especially folks who are trying to do great things in the black community we want to make sure that we're a resource and that is actually what I get paid to do every day to support folks in my community I literally just do thin slices of them I'm making my juice shot samples to pass out at Hilltop and Tawana is interested in learning so I'm so happy to share my process with her now it is a little more complicated because this isn't a full juicer at home I have a thousand dollar juicer but that is definitely not in my budget so I have to go with this less expensive one Ginger turmeric cherry and a dash of mint what's the turmeric turmeric is this it's the orange a couple of years ago I was suffering from severe inflammation and I just felt unhealthy in general so I went to see my natural doctor and he said that it was an absolute necessity that I changed my diet these roots literally help eliminate any inflammation which then eliminates disease juicing became a key component of my personal wellness program I lost 30 pounds of inflammation in the first three months and it was life-changing I want all to have access to healthier options especially during this challenging time I probably used about a dollar fifty worth of products and you would sell to shop for like three fifty four dollars and I'll probably be able to make 10 samples out of this I'm gonna give out some samples today to see if people like my juice shots as much as I do and that's the process it's like the most action this kitchen has gotten yeah [Music] after not getting any absolute yeses from the local restaurants I'm returning to the hilltop area I know these shots are great and I have to prove it to the community there is definitely a market here and I'm going to find it knock knock I wanted to bring your samples it's a wellness shot Ginger and turmeric which are immunity Builders and anti-inflammatories like that's the best necks you're gonna get thanks you guys [Music] do I shoot it back yeah hey so is that the kind of thing you take every day yeah rad I have a sample you want to taste one sure so it's turmeric ginger and dark cherries samples lead to sales the more samples you give out the more buzz and more Buzz means more sales if I sell these for four dollars would you buy these shots yeah okay do need pictures and action shots for the company would you like be willing to do it at no cost at first and then I pay you later thank you Chris okay thank you babe last stop red Elm Cafe here you go ladies wow it's good all right all right I feel Vindicated we have to celebrate even the smallest of wins everyone in Hilltop seem to love my juice shots I know I am on to something I still need to formally get the businesses to agree to carry my product but I've got to keep the faith that it will happen [Music] [Music] hello again hi Kenya how are you that's what I was gonna say let's go get some today I am meeting with Kenya who's on the investment team in Tacoma specifically dealing with the small business owners black owned businesses and the hilltop area I brought some samples that I made this morning and when Kenya believes that something is good for the community what she does is she actually tells everyone and that starts creating the buzz that I actually need but in authentic organic way what's in them um Ginger turmeric dark cherries and a little bit of fresh mint if you take a shot in the morning in the evening it literally takes all the inflammation out of your body consistently isn't that good yeah it is good see to it solving problems creates demand once consumers fall in love and have access to a product they previously couldn't get demand for that product is created I believe bringing my wellness products to all communities of Tacoma will absolutely improve the quality of life for the city the result positive social impact increased demand that creates a massive positive cash flow for my business in this untapped Market the more I share my product with this community where nothing like it exists the greater the demand so far I have not found any local that produce their own wellness shots yeah I haven't heard of any either even though I grew up in an underserved Community my mother was super health conscious so I grew up natural everything but here's the thing when I became an adult and I realized it was super expensive I'm like how in the world did my mom do that as a single mom so that's why this is so important to me when it comes to health and wellness that something that does lack within the hilltop Community specifically so I think that Monique's business would be a great asset to this neighborhood you know we do have a lot of people in this neighbor who who don't have like a lot of money and they don't have access to a car or I don't know if you've noticed but there's only one grocery there's only one store over here and that store is very overpriced really yeah everyone deserves the right to have access to Affordable Wellness I have a lot of like uh people that I'm gonna connect you with yes oh my mask it's my second day working for Alex bardell at the farmer's market and it could not have come at a better time because I have to keep paying for my food and for my gas hey guys how about the Yellow Page okay I absolutely love getting healthy food options into people's hands these four okay but I'm not just selling fruit every minute I am here selling Monique lynnae to the city of Tacoma here you go first cherries happened at fardale farms is that the mayor that's mayor Victoria yes so the mayor who I met at tawana's house walks into the farmer's market and I'm like oh this is nice you can tell she absolutely cares about what is happening in her City and when you meet someone like that you want to align yourself with them because I'm here to build something positive for Tacoma hi create your own opportunities do not wait for opportunities to just fall into your lap you have to go out and make it happen whether it is meeting new people developing a new skill or taking a class these are all action steps that lead to personal growth and personal growth creates opportunities so then I didn't know you do this yeah so actually I contacted Stacy who runs this and then when I was just walking around I just walked around over here and then Alex happened to be here so he and I started talking he's like you can work here and I was like oh yeah I'm learning so much about just the produce just everything my whole life is health and wellness so I want to own a juice Shot company people need access to healthy food that's affordable just spending one minute talking to the mayor about my vision for my company potentially creates an opportunity for the future the food deserts that keep happening in our communities it's a shame and we have two we have a food desert on Hilltop and we have food desert on the east side which is predominantly where our people of calories I've went to every part of Tacoma yeah and for some reason I keep going back to I love the how the community supports each other there that's where I want to put my business I walk in faith not fear in a food desert people don't have access to the things that would make them healthy so if someone's not committed to make something happen here in Tacoma I want to see her be successful because if she's successful Tacoma success did I give you my number so we could talk yeah I would love to so that's my number put it in there and then yeah and I'm texting you mine right now okay good and then no comedy we'll get something on the calendar yes ma'am okay I can't wait thank you you guys have a great day I'm new to Tacoma already know the mayor and this chance meeting could be the beginning of my business shifting in a positive way I'm definitely going to get another meeting on the books with her for sure thank you bye [Music] the work hasn't even started yet after I ran into the mayor at the farmers market to want to help me set up a meeting with her I have to get my Wellness business off the ground in less than 90 days so every connection is important in the city that's something I have to accomplish to build a business here in Tacoma for the community stay in the community that's supported by the community and then some hey how are you doing oh my goodness I was over here looking at fishes because I run a venture capital fund I get to hear some of the most amazing brilliant ideas so I know how this meeting needs to go well you ready before it gets too hot yes let's go let's get our walk on the three key components of a strong pitch the wet the Y and the how what problem are you solving why is the market opportunity going to allow you to be in business and then the how how is your business model different than anything that already exists I'm starting a juice Shot company in Tacoma when I got here and I started thinking about the lack of access to Natural like fresh food fresh produce just talking to people and people were like we order our wellness shots from California we don't have anybody who makes them here no my big thing is I need to serve the community that I'm coming into even if it was mobile no mobile makes so much sense because we have so many food deserts in Tacoma if you notice when you're on Hilltop if you go to the east side there it's a food desert on the south and where I live food desert and so we've been talking about how do we get fresh fruits and vegetables into our neighborhoods and even if you do a pop-up seniors who can't walk that far but if you could have several stops in the neighborhood right like we have to get access still make it make sense for business Revenue but it's our human right to have access to fresh things like amazing yeah I think it's good I mean I was taking the same too that like tie into the necessity of paying more attention to Wellness when people do build companies even small businesses you need startup money right I need to make some more money right right right so my dream would be 10 or 12 people gave me like 500 a thousand dollars so that I can take the pressure off myself and actually build something special here in Tacoma foreign stage of investment the first round is known as the friends and family round entrepreneurs and Founders go to people in their Inner Circle who support them in their dream and ask them for small Investments to help get their businesses off the ground so ultimately the mayor Victoria Woodards and Tawana Nobles cannot financially invest but they absolutely both want to see it do amazing in their City so I'm hoping they see my vision for my new company and will introduce me to key business people in Tacoma so what do you all think um so what if between Tawana and I we got together a group of 10 or 12 women like you said and let you make your pitch to those women I mean I would and we could do it on Zoom like next weekend oh that would be it'd be kind of cool right yes so we could absolutely do that and give people an opportunity to invest and watch you grow and watch their investment grow yes that would be amazing this is a game changer it is such a huge relief to know that I now have people on board who believe in what I'm doing but the pressure is on because I still am in the development phase of my business and I have to prepare for my online investor pitch thank you ladies Hair Group Hug shoot sometimes good things happen to good people you better believe that one once you start sharing with people your vision and people start believing in the vision that's a whole nother type of work I must keep going forward let's keep going forward in the past couple of weeks I've learned that there are multiple food deserts in Tacoma where the community does not have access to healthy fresh food mayor Victorian Tawana Noble see the potential social impact of a mobile Wellness industry company and have provided me contacts with key business people in Tacoma how I'm feeling is that we're moving forward to the next phase and I'm excited about that I researched online and discovered Jennifer English who manages space Works a small business incubator in Tacoma incubator system can Fast Track the business model so that you can see if you're going in the right direction is super important that we all sit down and kind of flush out some of the ideas and Jennifer offered to meet with me so I invited Kenya to join us and we're going to have a creative think tank so I can properly prepare for my investors pitch how are you my goals for this week are to solidify my business plan I definitely need to nail down every aspect in order to land these investors I got some new samples for you guys second I need to come up with a strong pitch for my presentation that will engage these investors and finally I need to find an affordable office space because my business is going to grow fast and I will definitely need my own workspace we're gonna shoot our shot all right wow yeah you feel it working my virtual investor pitch is in five days and I have so much to accomplish the goal is to find the investors and to at least raise you know 10 to 15 000 to get us in a commercial kitchen and to start getting enough product to start selling to start bringing Revenue to the company you run an incubator so you know that most startup companies the way that they measure if they can scale or not is if it's a billion dollar industry Wellness is a trillion dollar industry and right now it makes up 5.3 percent of the entire global economy and it's not going anywhere it's literally slated to just keep scaling I wanted to feel like a luxurious experience but accessible to all affordable to all and I want to start breaking some of this classism that all of the great things in life only belong to wealthy people that's such a big mindset to get over it right I don't personally know of any trucks driving around different neighborhoods and like investing in the community by promoting good health yeah yeah ooh how about we did like the ice cream truck concept wouldn't it be great to have our mobile truck and the adults are running around like crazy and the kids are coming out because they're that excited about Wellness standing apart is a way to start in a competitive Marketplace separating yourself from everyone else will help your business stand out you need to create innovative ways for your business to connect with your customers in order to succeed you have to make a lasting impression that's a really cool idea but then how I'm thinking even bigger is that I want to package up a mobile truck franchise oh I like it already this is my Million Dollar business idea I'm gonna re-imagine the ice cream truck and make Wellness affordable and accessible in all communities then I'm going to franchise the model to create an attainable path to entrepreneurship for people all over the country how can I reach the hard-working families who don't have access to Wellness we're like doing one of our Urban workouts on Friday and it's kickball so we have with the kids yeah I want to come you can come getting my juice shots in front of kids at this kickball game is a great opportunity because if they like my shots it's going to help me establish proof of concept for my business model this is when change happens when when the market is ready for something new I'm excited to tackle the next phase of my business thank you time to get to work the job at fardale farms is so important to me right now I need to make as much cash as possible so I can afford to rent an office space before my first investor meeting also my business needs a produce partner and I'm wondering if Alex might be interested so before I start my shift I have a little surprise for him hey guys how are you doing today I brought you a ginger shot that I made look at this is ginger turmeric and cherries I don't add sweetener I don't do any of that just juice it and pour it I like it and that's that's essentially your business yeah yeah do you have a name for it right now it's just Monique Lynne Enterprises you're always welcome to be a partner Alexis and listen I know you're super busy it would be nice to be partnered with a local Farm you know like because this for me this is all about job employment for Tacoma a seed was definitely sewn and what I love about Alex the most is that he understands I want to be an entrepreneur I'm going to give them some time to think about it and then follow up with him down the line hi guys how are you doing today but it's so important that I secure a reliable produce partner and I'm hoping Alex will say yes you want a bag of cherries a pound of them okay having a local wholesale supplier will mean the ingredients for my juice shots will be as fresh as possible and also keeping it affordable to me and the customer they're super good I hope you enjoy these have a great day honey here you go thank you so much it's great to have some cash in my pocket thank you so much Alex have a great day but I don't know if this is going to be enough to rent an office space but I have to make this work to raise 10 to 15 000 to get my million dollar Wellness business my investor pitch is coming up in a few days my goal is to raise ten to fifteen thousand dollars to get my million dollar Wellness business off the ground and if I want these potential investors to believe in me and my vision for this company my pitch must be on point in every city there are Library resources either for students or for people who are working who need a computer device and they loan it out to you so I just called the Tacoma Library and due to this pandemic they have laptops now available and I'm going to pick one up oh this is the library right here growing up from me my mom made my sister and I go to the library almost every day and we had to read a book a week so we always were familiar with all of the amazing programming on the library site and most of the time it was all free well that was easy I got my computer and it cost me zero dollars next up gonna find some office space foreign I came across a place called The Pioneer collective in downtown Tacoma and they provide office space it's a small business and entrepreneurs I have four days to prepare for this investor Zoom pitch I've been working at parks in my car on the floor so to actually be able to have a place where I can have my own meetings that would be super amazing hi are you Sheila yeah I'm Monique nice to meet you let me show you let's go on the tour okay super dope place a community unlimited which would be access to this area five days a week Monday through Friday okay and what what does something like that cost and that is um 175 a month yeah does Pioneer Collective have any like specials going on right now um I'm a coupon person so I'm like I always ask about the discounts because I you ask somehow there's always a discount Yeah we actually just ended um the first three months but I'd be happy to extend it too yeah so I'm definitely gonna come back tomorrow but definitely feel like this is where I'm supposed to be perfect thanks thank you it's such a relief to finally have a computer and an office space to hold my investor pitch and now I have a limited amount of time to work on this actual pitch but first I need to get ready for this kickball game with Kenya where I'm committed to giving these juice shots to all of the kids I have a lot to accomplish in a short amount of time but I'm definitely going to find a way to make this happen [Music] Alex doesn't know this but he's in it for the Long Haul I have two main goals that I'm trying to accomplish today first I'm picking up supplies from Alex at the market so I can start prepping for the Juice shot sampling with the kids at Kenya's kickball game okay would you like a pound that would be so good yes I'm gonna buy some yes second since I'm gonna reimagine ice cream trucks and also have an investor pitch it dawned on me what if I combine the two tasks why don't I take advantage of the opportunity of having the children actually trying the samples and document it and turn it into a visual stimulation for my investor pitch I don't know when I'm going to be around a bunch of kids again so I'm like we have to capture this thank you hey babe how are you I'm good um I know you are super busy but I wanted to ask you I came up with this idea you know your friends who own the ice cream truck yes okay I could stage it as the Juice shot Wellness mobile truck when I'm with the kids and I'm giving them the healthy snacks and have someone shoot 60 second quote-unquote commercial to show the investors it really will make the difference honestly yeah we can get you the ice cream truck okay yeah okay I'm trying not to get too excited you know what let's see conversation okay honey thank you if I can get the ice cream truck so that when I'm pitching I can help these investors to reimagine with me not just verbally what I'm talking about I needed to emotionally connect so they can buy into my business concept [Music] how are you I'm good I already contacted Chris the hilltop Barber and photographer he's offered his Services thank you Chris in exchange for building his portfolio I want Chris to take product photos at the kickball game but I also want him to shoot a commercial for me I want to like create a short 60-second commercial or something do you know how to like make it a dope 60 second clip for me thank you so business principle Right Here If You Can Dream It you can ask for it the worst that can happen is enough this commercial of my juice Shot company will give my virtual investor pitch the energy that it needs to get some Financial commitments when I get this right I'll be counting my first investment dollars in the next few days first day of the office good day all right foreign [Music] after I learned that Tacoma is lacking some options for healthy Fresh Foods I came up with my million dollar idea of a wellness business and in just three days I'll be virtually pitching to investors for the first time I'm gonna juice I want them to see how I can make Wellness accessible to everyone so my goal is to shoot a commercial of this idea in action tomorrow I'm volunteering at Kenya's youth kickball game and I'm staging a reimagined ice cream truck as my Wellness mobile I'm gonna film passing out juice shots to the kids and use the footage to secure investors and raise ten thousand dollars for my startup business here at the Pioneer Collective they have a kitchen so they have some things that we have access to that we're allowed to use here what I want to do is introduce as a proof of concept would young people want this instead of Gatorade or or an energy shot or some soda strawberry is just a sweeter fruit most children and most young people like strawberries I'll just give them the juice shots and see how they respond one of the best ways to partner with investors is to have them see an idea in action this commercial is my chance to visually show how I can bring Wellness to the community and it could be the ticket in securing the startup money I need to get my business up and running with this pitch only three days away I have to pull it off foreign [Music] today will be an amazing day for me actually making a commercial for me to pitch to potential investors for this Wellness concept I'm trying to build out we're Imagining the ice cream truck but also I'm volunteering with Kenya Adams for her not-for-profit organization with the youth playing a kickball game with kids who just want to play coupon I will get them to run up to the ice cream truck but I'm giving them something that is way better than ice cream and that is a hundred percent natural products so the ice cream truck will be here at five o'clock I hope it works hey baby well then how you doing how you doing so I have a I have some work for you to do while we're here look what I'm gonna do I got the ice cream truck coming okay Chris is it is a photographer on the side we gonna green screen it just one side of it just and I asked him if he would shoot this commercial for me free of charge and he said absolutely he believes in collaboration so I'm so grateful to have his talents seeing how this Wellness truck would operate is what's going to help sell this idea to my potential investors my pitch is in two days so this footage is essential all right let's do this all right good morning everybody thanks for being here I just want to introduce you to someone who's here and so this is Monique after our first kickball game she'll talk a little bit more about her business and then at the end she has some samples for you all to try good Kenya thank you even though I know I have a goal to accomplish of building my business I believe in giving back to the community that you're trying to get from that is a principle in life both personal and professional give back to get back when a business owner helps their Community their Community will support them in return by being part of this kickball event I'm meeting new contacts I'm getting my name out there and I'm earning the respect of the community here by showing them that I'm invested in this city build a good authentic reputation of giving and receive a boost in your business I haven't played kickball since middle school Chris you're on our team awesome [Music] oh [Music] yeah that's what's up yes [Music] hmm I wonder where that truck is it was supposed to be here at five o'clock oh Lord the easy on me now can you give her a good pitch King there we go this is so cool I always am up for a community feel and a community Vibe the kids are having fun I'm having fun and I'm sure they'll be excited when the truck pulls up which is the kind of energy I need for this commercial yes it's mine for that same spot towards the third base [Music] oh no the truck is sitting on a flat tire no it's okay no no no no no no no okay thank you okay bye-bye shoes I'm super distracted right now like so disappointed the whole point of the commercial was to show investors the reinvention of the ice cream truck and the kids loving my product [Music] I don't have a second option right now and my pitch is in two days I only have 90 days to do this I don't have a year right so every second matters the guy the owner of the ice cream truck just called me they have a flat tire so I'm going to schedule it for the next when the next time they do a game as in any other thing in my life you know I have a principle of it doesn't matter what happens just keep moving forward the show must still go on I have some sample shots of fresh juice cold pressed anybody want one of those thank you and it's a shot so you you don't you just take the shot okay these are the only type of shots oh so they're all the same flavor it's strawberry Cherry Ginger mint you like that yes the kids you know the kids are happy they loved it and the fact that they said it tastes good like that is that's what you want to hear with healthy food and while my commercial idea didn't pan out this does prove my concept that this business will bring some much needed nutrition and healthier options to kids you want another one yeah my investor pitch is in two days and with no video I've got to come up with another option and fast [Music] I have to get this work done like this is a lot for one person since I had to scrap the whole idea of my plan to shoot a commercial for my investor pitch I'm gonna go ahead and create a visual presentation deck in order to grab the ladies attention a deck a presentation is simply a visual piece to go along with your your idea now it has to have enough information though that if you're not there someone can look at it and understand your business idea this is the first time that I personally have ever done this I usually get anywhere from 500 to a thousand presentations a week from Founders who are looking for Investments so actually I have a much better appreciation for the work and time and energy that they put into it for me this is about presenting rooted as a actual Juice shot company with the potential to be a franchise a mobile franchise the right business name puts you in the game naming a business is Monumental right at the start you can win or lose potential investors by the name that you're choosing I'm naming my company rooted because I want to make sure that the name represents strength that it represents power that it represents potential growth and I believe rooted says all of that so sometimes decks can take anywhere from four to eight weeks I don't have that type of time here time is not my friend right now and the stakes are so high as I'll be speaking to a group of all women and that is such a big deal for me this is how the board rooms are made this is how the executive side decisions are made for any startup company and as it grows the early investors are who help get to make decisions I want to really Empower these women to see the potential of this company and to take this journey with me I cannot do this alone [Music] I'm headed to my office because today due to covid I am doing a virtual pitch so that they could see if they would like to invest in the business that I'm building it's the first time I've actually pitched two investors it's day 20 70 more to go and I'm realizing this goes fast have to get the funds I need to get rooted off the ground I'm usually on the receiving end of the pitch so this is a total roll reversal for me the venture capitalist that funds companies and Founders has now become the founder looking for funding I don't have the commercial from the Kickball event like I had hoped so with my presentation deck it's crucial for me to show them how the company will grow and pivot and evolve from a long-term perspective so that they understand that their early investment will have some life and some legs of growth hi all these amazing women yes uh first thank you so much mayor and Tawana the two of you ladies have made my short time in Tacoma um feel like home already and one of the things I learned in my short time in Tacoma is that one of Tacoma's largest health issues is actually Health Equity it is our human right to have access to Affordable Wellness to healthy food straight from the farm when possible I have to tell you all that um I don't have it all figured out but I have a really great idea when you're thinking about business one idea leads to another idea I started my business plan with juice shots but the idea grew into a wellness company as there is such a big need for the people of Tacoma to have access to All Things Fresh So my pitch is simple create a mobile Wellness truck partner with a local farm and bring healthy options to everyone if you all don't mind I'm going to share my screen my idea is to scale through franchising and e-commerce so there is great potential on their return on investment Roi so what my idea is right now is taking wellness shots putting them on a mobile truck and going to the neighborhoods instead of waiting for people to come to the grocery store see this being the new ice cream truck I do Envision that this mobile Wellness truck can then be franchised and it will be so much cheaper than the storefronts it's going to take a lot of work it's going to take a lot of support and I need like-minded change agents to be on this journey with me it's basically betting on me as the founder how much are you looking to raise how much have you already raised I'd like to raise ten thousand dollars you would not think it but in this stage taking in more money than you need can negatively impact your company bigger Investments can cost you your ownership and control of your company so in the first round of funding only raise what you need to launch and no I haven't raced any more this is my very first pitch I love that franchise idea because it could expand and multiply and build relationships otherwise and say I'll be making a financial commitment yay thank you Sloane I feel amazing Sloan Hunter committed 12.50 I think you're on to this is fantastic because I mean just the mindset what you can do um schools change the world what I know of Sloan is that she's a top realtor here in Tacoma and she and her family have done very well for themselves and she loves the idea of women creating businesses and so she wants to support so what are the next steps I'm trying to move quickly so I really want to try to get some type of commitment in the next 48 hours for anyone else who is interested you know I'm actually super hyped to have Financial Resources allows me to really understand that it's starting to become real but the road ahead is no easier than the road I just came from thank you all ladies have an amazing Sunday thank you for your time bye-bye thanks everyone 12 50 is great but that's only the beginning as I still have a very long way to go to get to my ten thousand dollar goal getting startup money is what I need to really ship this business into high gear what these women don't know is that if they invest in rooted they will be part of a million dollar company that was so amazing I cannot and will not fail [Music] oh I wish I ate red meat because this meat looks so good it's been 24 hours since my virtual pitch with the potential investors for rooted and aside from Sloan Hunter investing 1 250 on the spot no one else has yet committed to invest it is definitely a bit stressful because every day that passes without enough funding makes it that much more difficult turning my Million Dollar business idea into a reality it's gonna get you some cash before you go you don't need any help like packing this stuff up I got it okay that's all basics thank you bye I'm looking to raise ten thousand dollars for rooted raising this money will allow me to do things like buy my food supplies for my juice shots get into that commercial kitchen so I can prove that rooted can be a profitable business I'm on my way to take some shots to Sloan it's really important to me that since Sloan is the first person who has agreed to financially invest in root it that I actually take her the product and that I show her gratitude [Music] this is such a cute house good morning here's this oh my oh my shots yeah now these are real that's a lot of cherries um Cherry Ginger carrot and a little bit of mint oh my goodness yeah so it's very rare for me to have this investment opportunity but when you have someone that's really putting their heart into something very passionate it's easy to to buy in on that I love it you love it good good yeah it's a it's a really really good Ginger I do the relationship between early investor and founder is super important especially as you're scaling they're the ones betting on you they're the ones sharing the story of your company and they're the ones trying to not just get in other potential investors but actual customers too this is a family friends round which makes you all Angel Investors which it's these are this is the difference of how people can grow their business and then this gives you awesome power too because you guys are actually investing in the city of Tacoma and that's going to be the story this is going to change Wellness for Tacoma I'm just praying I hear from more of the women before the 48-hour deadline I set passes I'm on my way to the office because without raising ten thousand dollars it's going to be very difficult for me to turn rooted into this million dollar business foreign [Music] I feel like I'm always in this car now the 48-hour deadline I set for the investors passed and no one else has committed for months I contemplated what was the why to do a project like this the idea of failure really terrified me and to be able to be at this moment right now now is where it gets really tricky because I have an idea that I am committed to and I believe in it but I don't have enough money to bring this into fruition so it's time for me to get a little more creative and do an in-person pitch hey Victoria how are you so I'm asking mayor Victoria Woodards if she knows of a space that I can hold this pitch you know I think we should talk to Kawaii about the room with therapy because you have the ability to put a table there with food on it people go get their food you can sit down at a table socially distance we can all be in the same room this in-person pitch is truly all about them having the opportunity to interact with me and to see that it went from a pitch to now I have the product and that this is real and then also for us to sign the paperwork in person because um you know not a lot of people are familiar with uh family and friends rounds and things like that and I just wanted to do that and it's not going to take a lot of time oh hey this is the glass bottle company I've been trying to reach them I'm gonna always safely assume if you're coming to a meeting to talk to me then you believe in me you don't talk to people you have to sell to I don't need a room of a thousand people I need a room of by people who believe in me [Music] tonight is about doing a family and friends round a very small you know family and friends round since I didn't raise everything that I needed in my virtual pitch Tawana is allowing me to hold an in-person pitch at the Tacoma Urban League where she is the CEO several of the women who were on the first pitch have agreed to come and bring some like-minded business friends sorry I have to hurry up I don't have a lot of money but I spent some to make some juice shots and put them in some cute glass bottles for sustainability of course I got a custom rooted t-shirt made and I bought a light dinner to serve all right so I'm hoping that this all pays off hello ladies I also invited Sloan Hunter who committed the first twelve hundred and fifty dollars so that she can show the ladies her support for rooted I'm hoping that this in-person pitch will be the key for me to raise the funds that I need so I can do things like get into a commercial kitchen and buy the inventory for the juice shots it is really important that I leave here with more commitment a very big thank you to everyone as I don't take for granted our personal time some of you haven't met me and I wanted you to be able to meet me and just ask me any questions I bought some shots for you all it's always a better thing for engagement to happen in person because people get to meet you they get to experience you in brief form rooted to Lifestyle that provides affordable and accessible healthy food options for all through mobile trucks and e-commerce one of the things that I kept getting pushback about is how are people of all types going to be able to afford this watch you create a brand that is fun and warm and inviting people are going to explore it and be curious so the way that I see the model going is rooted could be a franchisable model in each market a commercial kitchen that's owned by rooted to the corporation this is where every product is made and then we are partnered with a local farmer so it feels very Community focused and the more that we sell it as a lifestyle it becomes The Honest Company it becomes the Daily Harvest and that's the way I see this yeah this is a trillion dollar market this is a billion dollar concept and I want to change lives doing it and I want to create a company that is conscious we are all suffering the side effects of for-profit models with no conscience right now so that is my goal and I think if if not us who if not now when this is wonderful for Tacoma this is what Tacoma is about this is going to change the wellness for for Tacoma and they're going to love it women need to feel comfortable saying they want a billion dollar company and I wanted to give the opportunity for the women in Tacoma who were thought leaders change agents to come together and form an angel fund just say you know what we're creating history that's what rooted is so I'm gonna go get the shots so this is watermelon Ginger this one is the first pick of the Honeycrisp I like that when you have potential investors in the room I have so good it is so important to capitalize on their interests while you have it turn interest into investment on the virtual pitch I gave them 48 hours to think about it and I didn't have any additional investors but tonight I'm not giving them time I'm in their face now and now they have the product and now they get to have action item so this is a safe note I have the safe notes with me for them to sign it is a legal document that states what they are investing in for how much and what Equity they're getting in return all right you just fill out that part and we just do the investor portion yeah and then I'm going to sign them too okay I'm just hoping that by meeting me and having the opportunity to try my product that they'll commit to an investment tonight I'm going to give a thousand dollars I wish I could give more but I got a kid in college so okay got a budget I'm glad we get to be a part of this I'm supporting Monique and rooted the importance of putting your money behind it is you're showing that you actually believe in this cause and you can invest in a woman and believing that she's going to take it somewhere very far through Monique and you're rooted no to us it's going to take us ladies cheers thank you I ended up raising 7 500 in total which includes Sloan's twelve hundred and fifty and I did it proudly I feel like a huge release a hundred percent of the women are like I'm so glad we're meeting you in person and I think that is great as virtual is it takes away the human interaction every single woman here tonight they're part of the foundation and they're part of the original family members and while I didn't raise the full amount I was aiming for it is definitely enough to get rooted off the ground I'm like super excited thank you babe I thank you all for coming thank you hello how are you I just kind of wanted to get like half coffee half like hot almond milk or something yeah definitely okay perfect um are you the owner I am the director of the building oh you know what I actually have my office over here um yeah I like the energy here we do weddings meetings meetings all sorts of things here now that I have a group of investors for my wellness company it's such a huge relief I just text you my info thank you but the pressure is on because I don't have my own shelter I'm staying with Tawana since she and her children are working from home learning from home I'm interrupting their routine and so I don't want to be a nuisance to her I want to just leave graciously Pastor Christopher reached out to me about a possible job opportunity yes so I agreed to meet with him today it allows me to earn some extra money get my own place while at the same time continuing to build rooted I met Pastor Christopher the first hour I was in Tacoma I mean I'm in need of work are you entrepreneur I am my ex-husband and I we just got divorced and so we had a company together but I stepped down what type of company like advertising marketing things like that hello how you doing Pastor Christopher said you know I'm part of a Ministry Alliance and we need some marketing help hey Pastor hey the ministry Alliance bought a retail store and they really need to sell this inventory have you met Robert not officially that's my brother and he kind of run Mr Mack it's actually a nice break to just serve some people who keep serving people you know I met you the first day I was here and like your act of kindness set the tone for kind of how I would be received here in Tacoma so I'm like I know I said Thank you already but I truly am grateful and thankful for that I did bring y'all some shots this is ginger fresh ginger well thank you I am a health nut are you yeah Lord bless this in Jesus name amen just in case you know I'm gonna take one but yes Lord bless us I'll take your word on it so Monique so this is Mr Mack and and Mr Mac is really unique in the Northwest people travel from all over the state to come here and buy yeah so many owners passed and the Tacoma Ministry Alliance saw this as an opportunity to do on economic development and so we purchased that iconic business the construction and the covid-19 has really put us in a bad spot you know just like any other small business uh you know we're struggling to stay open and so we need to broaden our clientele as you can see the neighborhood changing okay yeah to survive that this is gonna have to change Mr Max Base has always been that person in their 40s 50s 60s and older you know it never catered to youth or young people probably actually uh in the business that my ex-husband and I that's actually what we did pivoting and evolving to whatever the market is calling for so and you saying that you you can help us yes because you know stuff like this can cost anywhere from like 10 to 25 to 30 thousand dollars right easy wow that's easy that's easy but if you give me a budget I can make that work I'm thinking about somewhere around eight to ten thousand dollars so how long will it take you to do that and then come back with um okay all right sounds good they're trying to understand what they should be doing during a pandemic he was really asking me how can I help them assemble some type of strategy to help their sales uh because they're a part of gentrification right in front of their business for over a year they've been doing stuff for a tram so that's before covet their business model was impacted because people can't get to their storefront all right sounds good well thank you tonight I'm gonna put together a budget and see what type of strategy plan I can do with eight to ten thousand dollars I'll also need to figure out how much I could pay myself and if this will be enough to cover my living expenses for the remainder of my time in Tacoma well thank you so much I'll call you sometime tomorrow foreign [Music] my goals right now are to secure the Mr Mac's job so I can move into my own place and once all that's done I can completely Focus I'm building my business rooted I'm looking for something affordable I have personally been leaving messages and I've yet to receive one phone call back from the different apartments what are all these flies man like they are aggressive too I am fully rented at this time okay in the apartment I'm gonna have to find a person that just likes to make money that will give me like a temporary rental rate the problem with rental properties here is that they're at capacity and now you have all the people who came here from Seattle they're building but they're all super overpriced it seems like a money thing buy up as much real estate that you can create it for a certain type of market and be very limited with the more affordable housing I think that's a problem everywhere I have to be persistent I have to find shelter again for the third time so it's actually kind of scary right now I gotta focus on this job reimagining Mr Max but I need the ministry Alliance to approve it Mr Max is a landmark brick and mortar business it's historical to Tacoma and it is in need of support because their sales are down it's coveted so they came to me with a job opportunity to expand their clientele I put my marketing background to use and today I'm pitching them on a rebranding event I'm really excited that this will turn this iconic business into an experience for the whole neighborhood I want to close this deal so I can actually cover the cost of my living how are you I'm doing great good to see you good to see you you look nice and Dapper everyone looks so nice what we're trying to do is create a whole experience in Hilltop from start to finish it has to be an experience or there's no reason to go into brick and mortars anymore I think it's important to keep the historical aspect of Mr Max but also welcome a new type of consumer for a new type of experience so we don't we don't really want to replace the the vendors the class that we have now we don't want to send that message out but certainly we want to send a message out that way well let's talk this is about growth only right so right so we can reward expand works whatever word makes you all feel comfortable the reality is is that you have to scale your business right like at the end of the day it's about the bottom line for us and it's just about showcasing the inventory in a different perspective my personal and professional advice would be to have an outdoor fashion show where people will see something visually that they didn't even know they could put together really merchandising it to create a sales flow and get the people in the store what I see is a tailor here on site that day for customers size them you know let them purchase a product so that they do have that experience that we're talking about foreign just really open to something different because what we've been doing it's not working it's just not working it's not pulling the people I would love to share with the pastor I've worked with A-list talent I can't expose and I've helped Founders scale their company from a marketing perspective so I have to find a real balance on actually letting them know I do know a little bit of what I'm talking about but I can't say everything I know I'm talking about so it is growth it's expanding yeah yeah that's good Monique she has given us wisdom and counseling as to how to move forward with many of our strategies and we're looking for even greater things as we move forward I just focus in one area but also think about the whole perspective of that this is just a celebratory experience yeah yeah look at me coming up in the world this project is super important to the heritage of Hilltop number two I need the money to find somewhere that I can actually rent to live so let's talk about the budget so we have eight thousand okay and that means about half of that I think today they have an eight thousand dollar budget you know this kind of event can easily run to the tens of thousands of dollars thank you I'm excited thank you thank you thank you you pay your ties yes yes I will pay my time but I'm definitely gonna find a way to blow them away with five thousand dollars and keep a fee of three thousand dollars for my services thank you all right know your worth and own it it's so important to help out your friends help out your family but to realize how much your time is worth you've got to find that number that balances the value of your work and your love for the client and do not take anything less know your worth and Own It know your worth and own it [Music] so I'd still live with Tawana it makes me feel like I'm not as alone in this it's just the most amazing kindness of her that she would you know open up her doors to me a complete stranger during a pandemic during her campaign but now that I'm on my feet financially I can finally get my own place but I must say that this is so much harder than I thought it would be it's been really frustrating finding somewhere to rent there's a housing shortage here and every apartment building is tapped up but when there's a no you just go and find the yes competition for affordable housing in Tacoma is insane but I think I found a solution to this I'm gonna view a sublet it's going to be furnished and I will also be helping out a resident of Tacoma financially oh lavender how about that oh and rosemary yes I'm already excited bye thank you how are you I'm good how are you I'm good thank you Monique so um just want to get some clarification as when the house will be you know ready for rental so um I'm actually leaving tomorrow morning oh yeah so like immediately yeah so when you call it up so this is like perfect timing that just perfect okay so it'll be for two months and 1200 a month I'm in 1200. my budget was more like a thousand um so I don't know how flexible you are on that um I could do like a thousand fifty okay I mean that's that sounds like a deal to me like as low as I can goes okay okay thank you Emily yes yes I one thing accomplished today yes I can pay for the next two months up front and I will not be overstaying my welcome at tiwanis [Music] there is nothing that will ever like take from my heart what your like one act of kindness actually did for me thank you you're welcome this is definitely a place where folks help each other take a chance on each other that's how I was able to be in the position that I'm in now by someone believing in in me and I think that's what I'm hopeful for for you oh yeah not to make me cry tawana's gonna forever be in my life the woman let me into her house with her and her three children thank you so that's already a forever debt right but I have to be in my own space so that I can start building out this business model and it will allow us to build a professional relationship where it's not me in her personal space all right start the latest part of my adventure [Music] foreign [Music] I've never lived on my own by myself that's the craziest thing is that I've been on my own since 18. but I've been a mom since I was 18. I have literally never been by myself before in a home and this is going to be a new experience for me hi Mommy I know you do I miss you more um I just moved into my own little temporary place for the next couple of months it's definitely a new territory for me okay I'm gonna give myself about five minutes and then I'm going straight into work mode boss I'm a big girl I'm building this million dollar business I can sleep alone in this house but I'm probably gonna sleep with the lights on for a couple of days [Music] ago I've spent most of the time being overwhelmed but I'm so grateful that I secured a place to live during a housing shortage made high level political and business connections and I raised seventy five hundred dollars from investors who believe I can bring Wellness to all but I also know I have to invest in my business model and that is the priority right now foreign so I'm building my Wellness business rooted and I've got 7 500 in investment funding from a group of amazing Tacoma women people are loving the healthy juice shots and I cannot wait to put everything I have into root it I secured a part-time marketing job and I was paid just enough money up front to rent a small house so now I have to deliver a spectacular rebranding event at Mr Max so I can bring new customers through their doors and double the sales for this historic Hilltop clothing store hey how are you pretty lady good excited to be talking to you so Jessica runs the courthouse Square we're in my co-working space is and she oversees the big events in the building she's known for working with models do you have some time to talk about this Mr Mac stuff I would love to professionally you go to the courtroom and chat yeah as long as I'm not on trial so I want to talk to Jessica about being my right hand for this event but I'm on a limited budget why not have some fun the judge is here Order in the Court you know the first person I met here was Pastor Christopher he helped me and he kept telling me about the ministry Alliance the ministry Alliance which is a group of pastors that actually believed in supporting small businesses the first day Pastor Christopher mentioned the ministry Alliance bought a retail store in Hilltop called Mr Max and they really needed some help he's like look we bought this place but we're not business people like that's not what we do but it was really important to Hilltop it was really important for the black community and we a need to get rid of some inventory and we also need just some support and letting people know that we're still here we're just you know now this makes sense yes so historically Mr Max was known to kind of service the pastor's funerals and this entire community of black and brown people and making sure that they had affordable suits so to be able to celebrate the community celebrate the ministry Alliance and Mr Mac all at the same time I just think is a great bonus how do we take the historical perspective right create an event and do it in a way that gives people like a Real Fashion experience with a lot of support and a lot of help and a lot of donation we can really really get it done the right way I'm trying to double their sales I love Tacoma Hilltop it's amazing like there's so many beautiful people trying to be entrepreneurs and what Monique is trying to bring in is very helpful when I first came here every day I was in Hilltop I want to bring some life back and some hope actually so I don't know I just feel like I mean you need to do it together though so it's like making me cheer up a little bit but it's true though it literally is the truth no it is I'm so thrilled that Jessica's on board I'm gonna pay her 1 000 out of the eight thousand dollars in the Mr Mac budget to help me crush this event I've done promotions and events all over the world but obviously not here in Tacoma so Jessica's experience planning events here as well as her local contacts are invaluable so I'm thinking like the parking lot area kind of draped tented you know that's where the the live fashion experience will be yeah so my plan is to put on an outdoor fashion experience with models in Mr Mac's clothing and inside I want to refresh the style of the shop to support their sales and bring in a tailor to customize the customers purchases I imagine like one of the models like in a big afro with like a sexy Blazer on like with her leg up reading a newspaper spinning around so we're on the same page yeah this kind of event would normally cost about twenty five thousand dollars and take months of planning thank you babe thank you I appreciate you I have 10 days and five thousand dollars to do it in the midst of chaos we'll still have fun yeah but we'll see a lot of smiles on people's faces that's what's going to matter [Music] I'm actually super excited for this event I need every aspect of this Mr Mac event to pop so Jessica and I are going to need to plan how we're going to dress this space to set the right mood for customers up the style and you up the sails I want to change the contents in here I definitely want to make this the visual since it's the point of entry oh yes girl that color is everything on you cute smooth up over here I think we should do dressing rooms back here you know as much as we're styling this we literally the goal is to push the inventory will these be covered too or do they have hats we do have to do something with that we need a lot of draping we need a lot of draping the more difficult part is if we can find stuff like this move the inventory up this way these are his original chairs oh that's great yeah so and he's been in a lot of photographs with them so keep this somehow as part of the historical moment correct thank you I just want you to know like that I literally don't take for granted you managing the building the coffee shop and like caring enough about this to like honestly if I didn't care about what you were doing and believe that you cared so much about the community I I wouldn't do it I got the rest of the eight thousand dollar Mr Mac budget from Pastor Christopher so now that we have an idea of what we want to do with this space we need to get the right dressing in here do we just go in this way I wonder so we're going to Tin Can Alley a furniture and prop house to rent pieces to complete this look Furniture props draping everything that will make the space explode with style and set the scene for the increased sales that we need hello I love your look yes thank you this is the most amazing space Oh My Goodness Jewel tone Oh we're doing a Mr Mac experience Mr Mac is on the corner right so that whole little parking lot area will be the fashion experience and we need great pieces to make the store and the outside come to life so this is a bolstered seating area isn't this awesome so what people like you can just sit around it yeah what well that'd be good for the live models yeah hello do you hear me I can hear you now can you hear me hello [Laughter] rolling around pretend like my hair is down with the wind could you imagine this if we had like super experiences like that where people can have fun I want people to hashtag hashtag correct oh perfect yes this is perfect I love this Tin Can Alley has incredible on style pieces that will help set the tone for the event it definitely will be worth the 900 I'm spending on rentals we only have eight days left to move mountains enjoy the rest of your day foreign the wonderful Wizard of Oz so tired right now I've got three days to finish planning and execute the Mr Mack event I'm trying to grow this business and I'm working for Alex vardel at fardell farms where I picked up a lot of shifts off and on for the last few weeks so I'm tired it's been a lot of work but today I have to keep moving forward I am in between the lines perfectly yes hello hi can I help you with anything you like these yes when you're starting a business you have to find balance I'm working for fardale farms for Mr Mac and on rooted can I help you guys it's definitely a challenge to serve their needs while sacrificing some of my own like sleep you have to sacrifice during the early stages but it's not sustainable forever you have to find your balance because you cannot have a healthy business without having a healthy you so once the Mr Mac event is successfully executed and off of my plate I can find my balance again I make ginger tea every day good for inflammation good for everything since I have to work at the market now I have my Mr Mac right hand a little bit of attitude I love it Miss Jessica auditioning the 10 models we need for the fashion show very good thank you money money money exactly I appreciate it yay Alex asked me to meet with him after my shift today I have no idea what it is but hopefully it's good news because I have a lot on my plate with Mr Mac and root it right now I think you're a good fit for what I'm doing and what I think our message that we are portraying and you know and I think there is opportunity so that there can be success for not only just myself and the company but also for essentially what you can bring on the specific task that yeah so talk to me about like what would be helpful for yeah well essentially what we'd be doing is updating customer email list the weekly billing okay and then kind of the marketing social media advertising aspect it's really hard to find great great employees and to have somebody that has some basic knowledge she's meeting the people in the community going out and doing the advertising and I think she's going to be really successful at it to be kind of giving more of that internet voice okay so I will be helping him with some advertising and marketing things and in exchange I'm going to be learning kind of the farming side of the business what are you thinking for pay um I've had you down for 16 an hour right okay in all transparency I don't know that I've ever made sixteen dollars an hour right so actually no however it's a mutual benefit right because the reality is is that I will learn what the tastes are here I will learn If people really are into Wellness like part-time or full-time but that's essentially to start yeah and then as we move forward and if we're able to I'd be more willing to pay more than that right no I appreciate that that means a lot that you said that thank you it's gratifying being promoted by Alex but I just don't know if I can handle Mr Mac rooted and more fardale Farms work all at once it's a lot [Music] how are you ladies doing this morning you're good good the big Mr Mack event is tomorrow we're one day away and I have a million details to attend to and definitely not enough time so there's going to be like an old school car right here and then over by where that green garbage can there's going to be another car the stage is like a u so there will be a tent where the models will be for me the most important thing is the details of the draping and things like that okay first I'm meeting with PJ and Ashley of Tin Can Alley to go over props and furniture for the Mr Mac Show dressing rooms back there Taylor Taylor couch area kind of like a little bench concept and then so back here in the back I would like to drink the wall we're going to create like a whole Mr Mac area back here of just his vintage things with this limited time I'm just trying to see what can I possibly do in Drake to still give that luxurious vibe next up I have a lot of work to do with my new promotion at fardale farms I'm going to go to Pioneer Collective and do a few hours of billing and invoicing I now have a better appreciation for my staff I'll tell you that then I'll be delivering shots to my investors to show my continued appreciation for their support don't you look nice oh I didn't know it was open how are you there's a lot on my plate and I definitely need to spend more time developing rooted to get it to a million dollar valuation by 90 days oh so I have to budget my time the best that I can and be strategic and intentional with it [Music] Infamous Mr max parking lot um number one uh a fashion show right so a fashion show Runway right in this area over here okay um and then on top of that we're gonna need a lot of lighting so projectors how are you guys doing there's a lot of planning for the outside part of the event so Jessica and our DJ for the night Kelvin are taking the lead on that what do we want it to look like do we want to do video screens do we want two big logos do we want just pipe and drape that's a really good idea um I mean we can pitch you a bunch of different items no that would be amazing to have like a pipe and drape here like something here yeah we need a backdrop we would either put a projector up shooting across yep or you know hidden behind one of those pipe and drapes then this is the backdrop right and then the models walk out and then they walk into Mr Max so yeah once we have the designs to go and we know that we're gonna talk to you know the family maybe get a little more history on it um I think that's the next step so very cool all right so let's go uh look back here [Music] thank you perfect today's the day for the big event and the passers are coming in just four hours to inspect our work and then the event kicks off in just 15 minutes after that this job is paying for my rent while I'm here in Tacoma building my business and I definitely need to make good on my obligation to revive Mr Mac look at that cute we have some of Jessica's contacts working as a favorite of Jessica as well as Mr MC employee's helping and we need every bit of help this is a 25 000 event we're doing for five thousand dollars and it would not be possible without Jessica pulling her favors one thousand dollars for a connected event manager is the best money I could ever spend like we're not done dressing it yet but this would be the Taylor area then I want to go around and like just cover up these like it should come it should spin around like this so that both sides are covered not just that side let's talk about outside and then I'll get to work okay all right we're going to divide and con I'm going to handle inside while Jessica supervises outside she'll be tonight's MC out there and I'll be on the inside doing sales so I really see just the smaller tables up front and then get higher in the back yeah yeah are you excited I am oh wait the stage looks a little different how about it than what I thought hey Kelvin since this isn't the u-shaped stage can we make sure that all the wires for the DJ are hidden since models have to still walk and use this as their Runway I want to keep it as clean as possible oh I'm so concerned about the weather during this outside event there's a chance it's going to rain and the wind is already crazy out here I'm praying that this wind comes all the way down before the fashion show but while they handle securing everything out here I have to be working on the inside to get these final touches ready so I'm thinking this one can be down here in the middle like that and then we put if we put this one the top should these I don't it can't fit baby the wit it's not I um yes now sales is about presentation and showing people something in a way that makes them want to buy so that's why I'm taking the time to get these displays right let's scrap the rugs maybe Monique can put them inside somewhere oh perfect so put that in the on the top in the middle bit because if I don't stage the clothes to sell then we're doing all this for nothing chairs out of the van in the linen so we can cover over that and those tables over there what what time is it does anybody have the time inside is almost ready and now I just need to see what Jessica has set up outside for the fashion experience I think you'll like it we have maroon tablecloth which will be great because it'll tie in the colors okay inside out here okay I scratched the rug because I feel like if it rains it's going to get dirty and gross ah okay I mean you can change your mind it's up to you so do you like this setup okay okay all right perfect thank you oh Monique I need to be putting an outfit as soon as you finish that I'll I'll do that I'm trying to get this door ready for the for the Bishop's uh walkthrough oh perfect thank you thank you but pastors have been very concerned about the Mr Mac brand and it's staying true to its history and the hilltop Community I really hope that they like it because I do not want to let them down thank you we have come so far since we started and the pastors are coming at any moment and I want them to see everything that's set up because we're down to the wire oh wow look at this red carpet yeah it's very carpentry wow I'm glad I got my Mr Mac suit on there so this section is so this is going to be like the Mr Mac Vintage Room we just took we built an area around his two original chairs oh okay wow so folks that come in and they want a photo op they yeah while they're waiting and shopping and stuff like that the whole concept is in order for people to come into brick and mortars now it has to be an experience yeah so if we redid the shoe walls so we have one of each style you don't have to have right a million shoes out here you need to present it to people fashion has to be presented so this is a Taylor Station this is where when people are shopping we have tailors on site this is where they'll stand we'll have a mirror right here so that they can see what they look like most people think that if an article of clothing does not fit off the rack they don't buy it but vintage clothes are different we need to show potential customers how great they can fit so they feel comfortable in the clothes and also purchasing the clothes so that's why we have a tailor on site it's kind of old school cool but it's also giving customers a fun experience that will help them buy now and help them keep buying in the future looks good now all the things you're talking about are things that we've had part of our strategy is just doing it doing it and find the right person to help us to do it so yeah that's you know that's where you come into thank you I am so glad that the pastors are happy and thankfully the weather is clearing up so now all I have to do is put on an incredible event and hit my goal of doubling their sales okay guys are you guys excited I know it's a little chilly outside but thank you the pastors are happy and there are 50 people on their way into this event so now it's time to get this thing started let's go just know that we really need people to like feel your Vibe so that they can come in here because they go from the fashion experience on the outside and then they walk through to come shop all the fun all the judge all the character and personality like Let It Fly I have not slept in two days working to make this event a success but we're almost there and now I have to get dressed super super duper you look fabulous give it work it give it work it because I really want to pull this off and double Mr Max sales and get back to focusing my efforts on rooted hello [Music] hello we are here at the Mr Mac experience are you excited please give a big round of applause the first day I moved to Tacoma I met Pastor Christopher and one of the things he shared with me is how important it was that he and the ministry Alliance rebuild Mr Max I encourage everyone to go in there and reimagine fashion there's tailors in there go in there and have fun my whole outfit is from Mr Max I'm gonna let the models come out so thank you have fun tonight [Applause] the event is getting started with the fashion experience outside yo you need to get one of those colors and inside I want to sell as much merchandise as possible for the ministry Alliance those are cute oh you need to do one like that oh those are good this is about getting Mr Mack on the best path moving forward oh that is it yeah oh this is small oh so people are shopping and people are buying one two three four five that'd be 75 dollars and these two twenty dollars but will it be enough I don't know [Music] these are actually really nice suits the quality of them are really good maybe I should go get that oh that'll wait for you will you amazing it's so updating I guess it's just nice to see the stuff come out it listens I just want to thank you both because you made it happen I got to play with a lot of stuff because of your pieces I found that chest in the back they helped me clean it out I have a good team yes no thank you thank you so much you both look you guys are color coordinated I swear I've been was awesome I was very amazed I didn't know it was going to go to this degree I left I was pretty well shocked I think it depicts a change which was what we were trying to do anyway to know that it could be Taylor that was the key thing I think I think will give us another opportunity to sell clothing not just men's apparel but also women's apparel as well I'm happy very happy like a song says I'm happy you know I'm happy the passes are happy with the event but I've got to double their sales I'm feeling some pressure I want people to be excited and I want them to shop shop hoodies oh yeah so what did y'all do today well this is where we are right now oh the sales are up 800 percent look at that so you're up 800 exactly that sounds like a good day to me yes my goal was to double sales we definitely blew that out the water in 800 increase yes now I heard about it through Facebook I immediately hit him up so you gotta go by that yeah this is outfit he got on he got all this from us Pastor Christopher did warn me in the very beginning that the budget was super tiny but how this event has really really happened is through the kindness of organization donating their services donating their time all right ladies [Music] I was able to take some of the money and pay myself and also pay others and pay for some rent so it just feels good it just feels really good but I'm so ready to get back to building rooted [Music] hi hi I like those pants Tacoma has been really welcoming to me at first I was a little unsure about being dropped into a new place but this feels like the perfect spot for my wellness company to grow and Thrive I did have just a couple of questions okay I hope I can answer them it's not my my best skill set that I'll do my best right now I'm looking at renting a commercial kitchen so that I can produce more of the wellness shots this is nice yeah all right so I have two more shelves I need to get in here this is like a dream the kitchen's pretty it's got good bones it's really easy to clean it's like a dream thank you bye I'm not ready to sign on the dotted line just yet I love how you can get everywhere in 20 minutes or less but it's good to see what's available especially since I have an idea for getting rooted's name out there in a big way I'm heading over to Wright Park to scout the location of an event that I registered for called bite of black business I like that pickup truck I'm excited from them it's a collective of business owners that was born out of the black lives matter protests against police brutality to help support black businesses here in Tacoma I don't want to miss out on the opportunity to raise brand awareness and sell my product for the first time to the larger Tacoma Community hi may I speak to Alex please Hi how are you doing this is Monique lynnea how are you I'm well thank you um I had a couple of questions about being a vendor there I you know I'm already registered et cetera for my juice Shot company rooted I was gonna I'm actually just do a visual drive-by and kind of see what the space is looking like okay how base do we get my business honestly there's no set space it's whatever you bring to set up main thing is just trying to keep enough people space out for Kobe that's my only right okay okay and then I'm trying to get an estimate of how many juice shots I should pre-make how many people do you think would be there throughout the day you go girl yes hopefully it's a huge turnout so I'm excited for the bite of black business because a the organizers are younger than my oldest son and to see their passion of wanting to make sure that small businesses in Tacoma are still thriving during a pandemic I think they are the solution and I like that type of environment well you should be proud of what you're doing it's great for us as black business owners so I'm actually super appreciative yeah and um I'm over here by Wright Park we're exactly do you all set up like okay I told her to where that trail starts usually those are the best spots okay I like to be what I call preventative I like to think of how every possible thing can happen so that I can prevent anything happening negative as much as I can possibly control I can't control everything but I'm definitely going to try to prevent and plan as much as possible I need to go and look at the location I want to know the way the foot traffic is happening I want to think about the design of the rooted brand experience right here looking now I would be facing and looking at the hospital right okay that's the best location because you got the street traffic you got the foot traffic yes yes so what I'd like to do is you know definitely I'll come early on Saturday okay okay thank you have a good day okay bye-bye okay I got this [Music] now that I have this huge opportunity to launch at the bite of black business event the seed money I received is going to go faster than I anticipated I need to look to the next round of investing which means jumping into my home turf The Venture Capital World hi Michael this is Monique how are you I'm good I'm good I'm reaching out to Michael Brown an investor that to want to put me in touch with I'm touching base with him to see if he'd be open to investing in rooted so I'm new to Tacoma and um I'm building a wellness company and I'm doing like a mobile truck concept that I will eventually uh franchise oh that's great yeah so you know traditional concept of a startup right I'm looking to build a team here but I want to do this lead right so I'm taking on strategic Investments and didn't know if that's something you're interested in Tawana spoke super highly of you type companies okay this is super exciting to me and the crazy thing is that this wellness company like it's affordable accessible to all instead of this concept that Wellness is just this luxurious concept because actually it's a human right to have natural food and products and trying to make sure we get back to the basics of natural fruit and vegetables straight from the farm Michael makes sense as a strategic investor for rooted because for 20 years he and his business partner built out a very successful company in Tacoma and they see value in overlooked Founders like women and people of color it's 5.3 percent of the global economy The Wellness Community is and it's just growing um and it is it's trillions of dollars worth of the industry so the market opportunity is really there and more importantly I'm trying to help our community in particular so that we stop this cycle of no Generation Well no Legacy you know so this is super important to me I would love to like kind of you know go do the whole pitch for you yeah okay perfect thank you I want rooted to be a Lifestyle brand that grows and grows for years way after this 90 Day Challenge is over securing an investment from Michael would help do just that okay bye-bye I'm halfway through my 90 days and I have to secure an investment now so I can get a commercial kitchen and take this company to the next level I'm super excited foreign black business event is just days away but right now I'm going to meet with Michael Brown we spoke over the phone the other day and I gave him a soft pitch which then led to this in-person meeting with him and his business partner Don Hume their local Tacoma investors who fund businesses owned by women and minorities hey Monique hey how are you good how you been it's gonna be so strange to be on the opposite side of this table but to get rooted going nice to meet you I will absolutely need additional Investments and I am hoping they buy into my vision this is beautiful yeah thanks yeah so our office is kind of below here we have a little Boathouse we work out of and then oh nice out of the place though cheers you gotta let Don know what this is okay a carrot what's yours cheers for me Wellness came into my life a few years ago when I just wasn't feeling well and so I started cold pressing Ginger and turmeric and it literally changed my life um so I want to share that you know I came from LA to Tacoma and one of the biggest issues in Tacoma is Health Equity and considering now that we are just as a nation at the most unhealthy we've ever been it's you know my goal is to try to bring us as close as you know to consuming as close to harvest as possible starting with the juice shots grocery stores coffee houses and the second phase of it would be trying to reimagine the ice cream trucks along like that's the long-term goal and then you know the third phase would be franchising it from my perspective retail model space is competitive so the fact she's kind of going after it from a different angle is good it's covered right now so I actually have other people in our Network who have taken product that they used to do the traditional route and now it's like home delivery and they've increased their revenues to 3x and so the fact that she's already thinking down those lines kind of circumvent some of the competitive landscape I think is is great have you had uh conversations with some of the potential clients and they've tried it and oh everyone's had it oh yeah yeah oh yeah yeah right I did that the first week so if you had like a thousand of these today they would be gone yes and if I sell these for five dollars a shot my margin is 52 okay so for us um we invest in underrepresented population that's a place where we feel passionate about and and so we've invested in several businesses that are either ran by women or minority-owned ownership so we're willing to offer 25k investment for 25 percent of the business well wait a second how do you come up with the formula that you came up with the 25 for 25. so this 25 for 25 idea is like here's 25k it's enough to move the needle it's also enough for us to get a feel for each other and and see if you're serious and you're moving down the path yeah I have been struggling with like the numbers right now especially since I struggle with you know teaching women in particular to give over 25 percent of their company because what I'm saying is that my company's only worth a hundred thousand dollars clearly I do need an investment but it's twenty five thousand dollars for 25 percent of my company that's not an option the biggest thing in business especially women in business is we have to be okay with knowing our worth charging our worth and being comfortable with that we have to ask for the money women black women in particular still only make 62 cents on the dollar men can walk in a room with a T-shirt and flip-flops on and they're getting evaluated at millions of dollars and so as a woman I'm already undervalued I'm already you know just underserved and it's like do I take money right now or don't I like I'm really struggling with that right what percentage of the company for how much or what's the best evaluation is definitely more than a hundred thousand and so in order for us to start changing these narratives our companies have to be valued higher and better if it means I have to struggle a little bit more then I'll then I'll have to do that I actually respect what the two of you are doing and so I wanted to make sure I had the conversation lightly not offensively no no I mean it seems like you have a Clear Vision you communicate it really clearly you know you give off the sense of leadership like it just you in the room there's a confidence right okay hey great like you're probably going to make something work you know like you know definitely going to make something worse not probably yeah I'm definitely going to make something work then now that's a fact it was so nice to meet you do you want me to leave this here okay as excited as I was about the offer I said no to the 25 000 for 25 this is a billion dollar industry with a trillion dollar economic input so I wasn't willing to bet a hundred thousand dollars of that no way in real life me and my business partner Erica we do checks of 250 000 and we still don't get 25 of someone's company you know I'm not willing to do such a large Equity stake for anybody just not going to happen so rooted's debut is this weekend at the bite of black business it's my first opportunity to show that this is absolutely 100 percent a conscious Capital business model I need sales I need buzz and I need traffic this has to be a proof of concept for potential investors proving that this is more than a hundred thousand dollar company I'm building a billion dollar brand [Music] foreign [Music] making handwritten note cards for all the amazing people have been so kind to me since I've been here to let them know how much I appreciate it hello yes speaking hey Erin how are you my plan is to give rooted a huge debut to the public at the bite of black business event in just five days I'm doing the bite of black business at Wright Park on Sunday and you know everyone else is going to have like basic tables and I wanted to like kind of create a modern Farmhouse Vibe as I'm selling the juice shots I have in my shop uh a old cupboard right um oh I like how you're thinking Aaron already you are inspiring me right now you're more than welcome to swing down I was gonna say can I stop by in about 30 minutes okay thank you so much okay bye-bye hi oh you look looks pretty I think that's very nice of you because I wasn't really funny I don't look like you but Sloan is one of my investors and advisors she's helping me gather materials for my rooted pop-up at the bite of black business event this weekend I want to maximize foot traffic around this pop-up so we can increase sales of our wellness shots this brand route it has to be a fun brand and that's what will be new for people and feel different and so that's what I was telling them like I can't just show up at the table I'm not doing that right that's not going to work for me there's going to be a ton of other businesses and vendors at this bite of black business event so rooted needs to stand out wait is Jessica still here I have something for you have you met Sloane you have to meet Sloan is one of my investors I think you look familiar nice to see you sure babe thank you I'm just so grateful to you and just so humbled like from day one instantly she took me around introduced me to like she's just been so important to this process so I'm just appreciative thank you thank you to have such a supportive group of women not just support financially but help me in resources and network thank you I'll let you know how it goes nice to meet you and help me align myself with the different things that I need is really important it's Priceless there is no price tag for it I love this these small business owners are so nice here it has warmed my heart to meet people that put Humanity first and he's after hours right oh yeah exactly I'm hoping that Aaron will create some cool pieces that draw attention to my pop-up on Saturday and become part of my rooted brand experience oh man this is so amazing thank you for having us yeah welcome I'm so excited right now so my shop is really messy Stella [Music] in here yes okay yeah yes opens in the back you know it's it's dusty but uh you know visually you could build uh a simple stand for it she get it you get it yeah he's also um something we could work with oh wow this is a cool toolbox chest wow oh this is so amazing we we use them at farmers markets and you know this is like this is perfect how much would this stuff cost to rent uh it would cost you nothing what what yeah no it's been sitting here guys people starting up their businesses uh need a lot of assistance for other business owners to offer that I think is really important I appreciate that man thank you yeah I'm so excited that Aaron is loaning me three panels an antique dresser and a large display case thank you I'm gonna give you a hug this kind of support is so amazing proving more and more people in Tacoma are believing in me and my vision for rooted your shop is beautiful yeah thanks for saying thank you thank you for having me you're welcome thanks for coming foreign [Music] so this is what I'm going to borrow from Aaron so I want to create like a fake bars kind of concept with a modern Farmhouse tomorrow is the bite of black business event at Wright Park and this is going to be rooted's coming out party there's a lot to do to properly present rooted for all of the people that are expected to show up Jessica is a friend of errands so she's here today to support me while I work out the details for the bite of black business event I would do like so people could see into you and be strong in and attracted to whatever you're doing in here and see your cute self and I'm so excited right now thank you for helping me with this you're welcome I still have so much more to do [Music] okay the pop-up is handled and now it's on to the wellness shots to make the hundreds I must have for tomorrow I need a bigger better commercial juicer and luckily I found a used one online it's only two hundred dollars which is a steal I'm driving 90 minutes away to Issaquah to pick it up now hey Alex how are you good I'm good I'm actually getting ready for tomorrow Alex Pardo is the provider of the produce for the rooted yeah so all of my produce is three hours away apologize [Music] okay let me think about this because I actually have to have all the juice shots made tonight plus I have to pick up a new juicer okay thanks Alex so now I don't have my order this is a huge step back not getting produce from Alex means paying 36 to 40 percent more for it at a grocery store I need to make hundreds of juice shots for the thousands coming to the bite of black business foreign [Music] I literally have to problem solve right now like I have so much to work out so many things are not happening right right now I don't have my product I don't have the juicer like the last thing I care to talk about is the problems I have to actually solve them right now but I have a solution and that's what I've got to do I'm literally gonna have to go out here tonight find a store in Issaquah and buy up every watermelon ginger root and blueberry that they've got but my immediate plan is to get the decorations because time is ticking hey Alex you are amazing the good news is Alex says he can get me my produce [Music] yeah and I'm going we're going there anyway so I can get him when I come up okay thanks Alex the better news he was coming back towards Tacoma from Antioch and can meet me in the same spot in Issaquah which is where I was going to meet the lady with the juicer oh man I'm just gonna go grab this from this lady and then I'll be right back she's sitting over she's parked over here somewhere oh I see her Alex is literally going the extra mile to fix his company's mistake it shows that he's an honorable business person who truly cares about his customers and clients those are exactly the kind of people and companies I like aligning myself with well let me thank you so essentially this is your mint 60 count okay this was the 11 count watermelon okay I got some cash for you too so I can pay you okay so there's more 40 you can just apply the other 10 to the other stuff okay perfect thank you I'm so appreciative I bought my juicer you know what I thought about is getting another cheaper one God forbid something were to happen to this one or you know just anything then I just can't not have juice shots made geez look at this rainbow this is why I don't stress in life like I mean I get overwhelmed that's different but I don't give up look at that it just stopped raining the sun is out big old beautiful rainbow just like no matter what this is about to happen gonna make the best of it that's just what the reality is that when you're a small business owner as much as you want things to go exactly how you think they should they don't it's got to go with the flow [Music] this is so weird it was a mad rush to get everything I need for the event tomorrow and now I'm getting started juicing later than I wanted to thousands will be at Wright Park but my strategy is to only make 200 shots so that I sell out now I just have to figure out how to use this new commercial juicer I'm so confused okay this is not straight tomorrow is about selling some shots right it's about introducing the brand it's about people seeing me now as rooted what it feels like to me is that after tomorrow we can then move on to like the real phase I actually feel like tomorrow I will meet some people who like do want to take some time to be a part of a startup company in a major way I don't know about this one so let's see how this one works [Music] it doesn't work yo I huh no it doesn't work for real I'm being so serious right now can we just cut for a second so I can I wanted to test it and now I did so I'm learning all types of things tonight oh my God are y'all serious right now business lesson like leave me alone with this right now I'm literally I'm trying to figure this stuff out his business lessons y'all sound crazy right now just too much right now you all understand I have a lot of steak tomorrow all this production stuff is too much for me to consume and and like I literally have no help right now you all have no idea I'm so tired it doesn't work it doesn't work that's frustrating this is what I wanted to do huh I wanted to make damn juice shots for the world I have to make 200 juice Shots tonight but my juicer isn't working oh baby Jesus I can't not right now wait no oh there we go there we go ah thank God finally the juicer is juicing and I'm back on track tomorrow is a huge day for rooted it's the bite of black business event and it's the first time that I'm selling to the public it's going to be a long night tonight there's so much riding on the event tomorrow and it really is the first time that people in Tacoma get a good understanding of what Ruda is all about we'll see how I feel by shot 100. it's really important that I sell a ton of our shots so I can further prove that rooted is a real viable business and start infusing my startup with another round of funding from some more potential new investors I'm trying to make this initial seed money go the full distance and so far I've spent it on produce juicer bottles labels merch art supplies and the entire setup for our pop-up tomorrow and I have an investor who is volunteering and has set up some volunteers I'll tell you what I'll have a better appreciation for people who make food items that's why I do need to get into a commercial kitchen though [Music] one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen fifteen down and 185 more to go I am pulling an all-nighter thank you this is heavy so now I'm heading to toolbox to pick up furniture and panels for my pop-up Magic [Music] good morning and in my case good day because I have right at some point I'll say good night what can I grab Sloan nothing I'm so grateful to Aaron the owner of toolbox because he's loaning me the backdrop and furniture that I need to make my pop-up amazing does this need to go in thank you so much I'm gonna go to the park now oh God please let today go well [Music] right now I'm running on pure adrenaline and definitely a fair amount of caffeine all I need to do is get the red card out and get this custom on it at a minimum okay that's what we can do let's do that I cannot wait to get all set up and make my introduction to rooted to Tacoma and more than that my potential investor Don Yoon has promised to stop by today so this is definitely my chance to prove that rooted is worth more than he initially calculated Sloan is absolutely amazing she recruited some help from her friend Samantha and Peter and Tawana has sent her two children RJ and Alea to support and help out today this is going to be so cute okay now we're going to set up yep there we go oh there we go oh this is heavy the panels were supposed to be in the back I love it perfect excuse me oh look at the sign this is about putting rooted on the map perfect thank you John so we're gonna put cardboard in and put the juice shots in here okay awesome I have been going non-stop since yesterday but my pop-up is all set up oh this is so cool and rooted is finally open for business yes okay how are you hello how you doing today [Music] how are you doing today oh you made me think you were stopping to come get some shots you was putting up your umbrella shot shot shot shot shot shot the healthy ones though the first sale is usually the hardest and I know that once we get that things will start rolling but right now we have to just get that first one you gotta get a shot you come on you don't even have to drink it now you can save it for later you can't keep walking by here not buying no Juice shot girl hello how are you what kind of cat it cannot taste nasty okay so this one is Apple mint Ginger so you know what I would go with either the blueberry watermelon I mean they're all good but if but well you're gonna taste it it's Ginger and there is a shot so it's meant to like you know but but CMOS is tasteless so you're not gonna taste that I'm gonna go ahead and try the blueberry watermelon the blueberry watermelon one okay let me get one for you babe we got our first half we got our first half I'm so happy right now thank you you gotta shake it I will okay babe my first sale for rooted I'm so excited my first sale yeah so this one is Apple mint Ginger they all have ginger and sea moss in it before you take them you just shake them okay thank you you're welcome in 90 minutes we have already sold 75 shots so rooted is on track to sell out for today and at five dollars per shot if we can sell all 200 that were made we will recoup one thousand dollars but this isn't about making money as much as it is about getting healthier options out to the community I have to show Don Hume that I'm on to something really big here if and when he shows up today yeah this is telling you he from the courthouse square that I was looking for someone to produce a jingle for my reimagined ice cream truck tell me about what you're doing so I'm here to help whenever I can yeah what I'm doing is I want to reimagine ice cream trucks and instead of this stuff that's not good for us especially since most of our communities have food deserts so the same way that kids hear that Sonic sound of the ice cream truck I want to create a song it is super historical I definitely want to mimic it but in a new 2020 cool way oh that's good yeah give business a sound adding the element of music to a brand it helps to create an emotional connection before I started rain Ventures I was the CEO of Mosley music group and helped to build it into a major player in the music industry I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here but I am just trying to reimagine it and so now I just need the right song and the right person to help me produce it I got three contact information yeah I can airdrop you okay oh yes thank you I appreciate that they're five dollars they're all good they're all ones that I personally love okay you both want an apples okay okay so 30. thank you I'm feeling at home right now I will be able to give Quentin Direction and feedback on the song that we're creating together I'm super excited that we have connected and these new relationships are going to be key in every single facet of my business we just sold out of blueberry we have shots healthy shot I hope Don shows up soon or we are going to be sold out what flavor do you guys want to try foreign four shots that'll be twenty dollars please ma'am yes ma'am would you prefer card or cash cash is always good okay I'm always thinking about marketing stuff this is about branding it's so exciting that we're finally getting the rooted name out here and seeing the people really responding to it proof of concept baby this is so great Don one of my potential investors showed up and a few days ago he and his partner Michael offered me 25 000 for a 25 stake in the company but even though I want the capital to grow the company I think that that is a big under evaluation of rooted so I'm glad that he's here today to see rooted rocking it and he has a chance to reconsider his initial offer oh nice to meet you thank you I'm so sorry we've been selling out and we're selling T-shirts I know that you're putting up the filled out trying to come cheer you on thank you I love it it's so cute thank you thank you my favorite thing about the booth was the sold out signs that was fantastic and I mean in some ways I guess it's kind of experiment number one to see you know if you're out there in the real world is there a real market for this are people going to even be interested it made me feel like okay I can see this happening I could see a website I could see a feeling that it creates with consumers I thought it was fantastic I mean she's been impressive right from the start I'm really proud of what we did out here today we sold 179 shots and most importantly we had an amazing response to our rooted brand experience this concept is super dope it's amazing when things can happen when you come together and do it this was the best day like unbelievable big plans for this company I'm telling you this is about putting rooted on the map [Music] rooted's launch at bite of black business was amazing Don and Michael are considering a new offer to invest in the company while they're doing their due diligence rooted has to continue to push forward good to see you oh good to see you too I've been in the music all my life just grew up in church playing the drums and you know at an early age but an actual producer probably the last like 15 years when I started really taking this serious so had you been able to put any thought into what I was talking about I just need some more probably some more detailed information company is supposed to be like super inviting a company that has a conscious that cares and is concerned about the community and what I'm doing is reimagining ice cream trucks and I'm going to create a mobile franchise for it okay my first thought was what it did to me as a kid like when I heard that I knew I was going to try to get my mom to give me a dollar or 50 cents or whatever the cost was to get something off the truck apparently that ice cream truck sound is actually something that came from a white supremacy really yes the original ice cream truck jingle turkey in the straw has a really disgusting racist pass you know the old lyrics just aren't worth repeating but now knowing the history of the song I say we just do a new one yeah there's a history behind the original ice cream truck song that's that's racist so kind of doing some more details behind have to figure out okay what's how how did this all come about to get the you know the history on that and how could we spin this to make it you know our own to put a positive spin on what you know and what we're doing have a good ear I don't I like heavy I like layered accounts I don't like so much Hollow where it just leaves a lot of room for interpretation yeah an emotional experience that's what I really fall in love with I didn't even realize that um you were like literally down right across the street right that's so crazy can I see your studio I'm just for sure yeah okay I'm so excited so yeah this is where it all goes down yeah yeah I'm excited I get projects all the time but not all of them I'm it's equally excited about but when you have something like this that's kind of when I think of rooted I think of like the family tree and that's why this is so important to me like the roots of something it's going to be like a theme song for rooted I'll give a couple different I guess versions so that way you can hear you know what the possibilities are like oh from that point once we have our I guess our Baseline if you will it's just a matter of adding or taking away to really customize it what's your fee um like I don't have to make money off of music because of everything else so I like to get involved with projects and work with people within their budget oh thank you that means a lot I'm so grateful that Quentin's going to give me a deal and when this is over and I can reveal who I really am I will absolutely make sure that he's rewarded properly if you could send over like what your schedule will be okay I'm looking for it like sooner than later I'm counting on Quentin to crush it with this song the sooner I get our rooted truck on the road and generating some Revenue the closer I will be to a million dollar evaluation and more importantly a self-sustaining business model you too talk soon foreign he is the music producer who is rethinking the ice cream truck song for rooted hey how's it going it feels so good to be back in the music studio again I have been out of my comfort zone a lot while building rooted but creating this song to represent the brand is absolutely familiar territory for me chance to start get started at least an idea a rough idea I just want to give you a point of reference and we haven't worked together I'm a person who has to sit with something okay like so I listen to things at a minimum six times but in different like at different moments to see if I get the same emotion emotional react reaction so this will only be my one time listening to it so I won't have like a full response you're creative and so we kind of getting our feelings we are very sensitive about our work yes but super important because for me this right here will be The Branding song for rooted it's for the mobile units it will also be used for digital media and marketing and advertising it's going to be something that helps rooted stand apart from all other brands this was a Melody idea [Music] well you know what I like about this is that let's just say we wanted to add like like vocals that it actually has us even though it's cords it has soul to it yep [Music] yes yes Quinn [Laughter] yes this that right yes all those layers yes yes I'm so excited he nailed it he understood when I was saying to him I need layers I told him I needed to emotionally connect he understood all of my language that right there that's I'm a layers because so I'm a details person and so for me when you add the layers it's a yours connected the whole like the whole time yeah because there's it's a heart rate thing it is like that's what I don't think people you know if you're a great producer you understand the VPN and so you like that's perfect you should be a musical do you got it it was funny today when he said you should be a producer I was laughing and I'm so happy right now yes yes yes yes yes could you imagine rooted trucks all over city of Tacoma with that plane people buying positive things for their body we settled for fifteen hundred dollars for a complete buyout of the song but what Quentin doesn't know is that when this is all over I'm actually gonna give him back his part of the song and I'm so excited it's about to be a movement I'm trying to do a movement oh yeah I believe it yeah it's so exciting you're sending me off in a really good mood [Laughter] foreign [Music] Don stopped by a bite of black business he got a first-hand look at the kind of demand that rooted is creating in our last meeting I turned down Don and Michael's offer of 25 000 for 25 of the company they've had time to vet root it now and they have requested another meeting this is when they will give me their final decision hey Monique how are you doing good how are you doing come in I know how much this company is worth because of the success at bite of black business and this is just the beginning the very scalable beginning the first offer is rarely the best offer good business includes good negotiation the key to a good negotiation is knowing your value before accepting any offer if an offer doesn't meet your realistic assessment of your value it's best to take a step back knowing you didn't give your company away sure that's for you that's for you oh thank you of course you do that but thank you I'm taking my food handlers test today after this meeting so and I'll have it today too great um I do have custom orders starting on Sunday so immediately after that on Sunday I will be delivering some orders to different customers I do need a person who's working with me right now to like get this out massively who can also sell got the business license oh congratulations congratulations it's real there it is fantastic nice generally Michael and I don't look at businesses that are just starting up they don't have any Revenue as an angel investor you run the risk of your investment just completely going away Holland Cohen is her and her husband built out and own Point Reston oh yeah she's one of she's one of my investors I think you've met almost almost all the leaders in Tacoma you can't just know your value you have to show you your value having already onboarded investors that are excited about what we're doing at root it it gets the new potential investors even more interested create that buzz baby you're selling you shots um are you also capturing some of these early customers and getting feedback and some of that kind of stuff yeah so yeah the most important thing for me oh absolutely I'd rather have a hundred customers that I'm communicating with than a thousand sales yeah I can grow the 100 customers and build relationships with them I can't reach the Thousand customers but I don't know who they are right yeah have you all been able to talk about the um Safe Note yeah yeah we've had some discussion on our side we've actually gone back based on the conversation we had we looked at the model a bit and we've almost just said hey we're going to scrap the you know you're out there just doing like little stuff and like hey let's look at the bigger model right so if you're going down the Wholesale route the franchise route like what would the financials actually look like I do plan on making sure that this makes it all the way to the billion dollar status like that is my you're laughing it would be a billion dollar company and I believe it can be you know it will take a lot of work it won't happen tomorrow but it it will be on that route I don't know this is very early lots of risks here I am called The Dream killer sometimes because I will look at the numbers so what do you think um you know when I look at the spreadsheet it's like there's a lot of questions here and I can this really happen oh okay okay when we initially talked we were like okay so you're gonna go around and sell juices on the streets in a tent like I were like all right all right and then the more we talk the more like we really saw you know what you're trying to do uh truth is you're still very early right but I would say it's very rare for us at least our experience is someone you know you obviously have entrepreneurial background right we just love everything about you we love like your hustle your communication style the way you're networking um and the people you're surrounding yourself with so from our perspective um we want to make a bet on you we were thinking we would do the same 25 that we offered before but we would do that for two percent of the business so oh yeah so that'll budget range that you're so happy right now I I'm ready to MPS left to continue to build rooted these investment dollars are going to be key to achieving this goal and the best part is I didn't have to give up 25 of my company to do it we're investing partially in that we're betting our Monique and the way she operates and the way she does things when we initially talked to Monique it was very early seed investment that we were looking at but what Monique's done is she spent time kind of moving further down the line getting customers adding value and making relationships and lining up channels and so now she's further down the line so even in our mind the business is worth a lot more so we're willing to say okay well we'll do 25 for two percent they came into this building saw where she's at all the Partnerships that she's lining up you know it just really started resonating with me more and more I'd be a fool not to invest in you I'm actually getting emotional thank you no I just think that all the things that you're gonna do thank you can I give you thank you to hear what Don said who he doesn't care about visions and dreams he's like what do the numbers say and what I know and what they both know is that sometimes you have to go with the flow and bet on somebody I just assume you're running the city at this point I will one day [Music] foreign black business has proved the public loves my wellness shots but now I have to take this show on the road I want to test my reimagined ice cream truck idea this is critical to my business because it allows rooted to bring healthier options to all like people living in food deserts and communities that are underserved I would love yeah if that's a new buddy of yours I'd love to see if he'd be willing to talk us through it and let me see what some options could be the mobile concept sets us apart from other potential competitors that's why I'm so excited to make this happen Hey Stephen how are you I have a question for you yeah what's his what's the name of the company I need to rent an ice cream truck to sell my shots and I need to park it in a health-centric location if people see a rooted truck out and around Tacoma will they buy something right I'm gonna find out hey Tim this is Monique I've sent a couple emails uh give me a call back rooted is getting bigger and I need to make hundreds of shots and if we're gonna pull this off we need a commercial kitchen hello Mr Tim how you doing oh just getting over here trying to work out my calendar just work stuff just work stuff information now Pastor Christopher put me in touch with the Oasis of Hope church and I'm hearing that they have an incredible commercial kitchen after three o'clock that that goes throughout the work week okay so can I just pay for it when I get there okay that works I'll call you when I need to schedule a day perfect I so appreciate you and thank you for getting back to me I can rent the kitchen hourly and flexibility is key right now this goes to show that you can find what you need especially when you maintain good relationships now I need to find an ice cream truck in the right place to park it [Music] foreign I have to get my stuff done I have a brand I have to keep building out so I did some online research for performance gyms and found on site 253 Fitness I called ahead and talked to the owner Lewis I told him all about rooted he wants to hear more about me holding a proof of concept at his gym what's going on how are you what's happening how are you doing I'm good I'm good this is yours hey this is the best watermelon Ginger I'll cold pressed nothing at it it's good I can definitely taste the ginger watermelon and ginger are like a great recovery shot thank you yeah that's good a huge part of my business model is that rooted is mobile I want to rent an ice cream truck I want to decorate it and park it outside and I want to sell our shots to prove that rooted it works on the go what do you think about this great that would make perfect sense I'm super appreciative I think the I think the best idea would be kind of set up shop like at a busier time of that and have like when everybody's finishing their workout I would want to do it when it's going to make the most impact yeah it's super busy in the morning and then it kind of pans out when I take my break around like one and two and then it starts picking up again from like three to okay eight or whatever okay yeah let's look at account you have a calendar I got my phone right there okay so what are you thinking okay so you want to do it this week looking at Lewis's gym schedule his most popular class is in six days and the class is from 4 30 to 5 30 p.m so I will need everything to be ready by 5 30 that day to greet the crowd as they walk out bye-bye there's about 30 people in a typical workout class so a huge success would be selling one shot to each of them and I'm gonna hope for the best and prepare for the best foreign I'll be doing a proof of concept event at on-site 253 Fitness so I'm going to meet my friend John who owns all City ice cream trucks who has different variations of mobile truck units for ice cream deliveries and gonna go look at a few different options of what I could rent for a day at least I will start giving the visual side of what I want to imagine hey John happy Monday oh are you on the phone I'm sorry no it's all right that's all right how are you today I'm pretty good how are you doing John is super nice I rented his cooler on wheels for bite of black business I'm doing another proof of concept event okay they gave me a space inside but I don't want to be in there I actually want to dress up ice cream truck and be still and let them come to the brand okay I can't afford to buy a truck right now so I'm renting of our own trucks but for now we've got to start smaller these are all your trucks out here too yeah so I'm just trying to like make it super fun to the eye give it that Farmhouse Vibe you know that kind of stuff so you know you got a lot of options oh what's this in terms of what your your color scheme this is the truck that I yeah this one goes the best it goes the best yeah okay all right yeah I like this one the most call it the camo cow John had a lot of choices but only one was in my color palette I'm not the biggest fan of the camo cow thing but I'm definitely gonna find a way to work with it like I didn't see camouflage when I saw this I saw a green and brown cow so I'm glad you called it a couch that's it the caramel cows so there's a lot of this stuff that I'm doing right now is more for like the proof of concept so how much would this one be to rent for a day um 400. ah you know me shots off the show yeah but right now it's just I'm trying to be as lean as possible I can understand that I can understand that or even if you could give me a delayed payment that would be good I have to always remind people that literally this company is two months old literally how many hours did you did you were you looking to use it again I know that you want to use it for a full day but periods of use actual use like six hours but it's spread out you know the day how about we do this how about we do this all right um because again I I have to remind myself that there was a point when I was starting up a business you know you know how it is the startup days I do I remember how about we just say um how about we just cut that that number in half yes all right always up for a good bargain that works so we'll just say 200. thank you yeah I am so appreciate that John remembers the struggles of starting your own business I need to stretch every dime that we have and I won't forget that he was willing to help us out today thank you and thank you for um like working with me on the pricing I need that type of help build strong bonds bonding with other small business owners is one of the more important things that you can do when starting your company camo cow okay existing small business owners can relate to The Growing Pains of a new startup owner they may be able to provide you with valuable resources and advice once you're successful Pay It Forward by helping out a new business owner bye-bye I believe in Monique she has the Drive that's that's necessary to get her projects accomplished what I can offer you is a truck and an opportunity and then what you do with that is up to you [Music] oh cucumber Farm oh look that is the one thing I do appreciate about this community they really do appreciate fresh food so my first mobile event is in just four days I've secured the ice cream truck and I made an appointment tomorrow with the fabricator to design some signage for it so right now I really want to work on another angle for rooted I know firsthand that these Wellness juice shots can change a person's entire life they did it for me so I've been thinking about how to show the world that the benefits of my products aren't just anecdotal they are supported by hard numbers facts and science so I'm gonna find a way to test it and to prove it and that'll be a great competitive Advantage for rooted hello Hi how are you Monique nice to meet you I'm Dr Marconi oh therefore Marconi Chiropractic and Wellness okay yes where do you want to sit and talk babe we can go over there okay so I set up a meeting with an expert at Marconi Chiropractic and Wellness okay so tell me about what you're you're going to show this to you with all my stuff oh no of course so my thing is that I want to make Wellness affordable and accessible to all to me it's our human right to have access to as close to harvest as possible absolutely for anything we consume no matter what it is okay what I'm excited about is that I'm a Believer in being a solution based and that instead of keep waiting for systems to tell you what to do in life let's just do it ourselves yeah so what are you wanting and hoping for me what I'm trying to figure out is how do I measure out like what makes the perfect two ounce shot and how we can prove that they have real health benefits so everybody's different you know this whole thing about we should be drinking eight cups of water a day yeah I I don't know where that came from right it's you take your body weight divide in half that's my house is what I'm gonna drink a day so that question is pretty like it's pretty in-depth right every individual is different what we could do is we could take some people like we can I don't know 10 people or something and we could do their blood work before blood work after okay and show people okay and we can show people hey if you're on the anti-inflammatory juicing portion and you do it three times a day for 21 days we can show what happens right different shots have different benefits Ginger is an anti-inflammatory CMOS it improves your energy levels and immune system watermelon it is heart healthy and lowers our blood pressure and it's such a great natural hydration for our body apples and berries are all high fiber and great for weight loss not to mention great antioxidants because then maybe it's 10 clients that you have already that agree to it we could yeah we could figure out because the blood work does cost money right my cost for all of that is 81.10 per person per test it's a lot right it is a lot this trial is going to be 21 days and it's really expensive for my budget right now but I'm entering a trillion dollar industry and I only have a few weeks left to prove I have a million dollar business so I need every tool at my disposal right now to achieve my goal so 10 volunteers two tests each comes out to sixteen hundred twenty two dollars in blood work alone and that's before adding in the cost of 630 juice shots it's very critical to me that rooted is separated from the competition and hard data is definitely one of the ways to do it um it makes sense because you understand this world let's do it oh I'm so excited I'm actually excited too um and I'm more excited that you're excited because I'm like I need some team members and some people to like I gotta girl help me flush through all this stuff okay I'm gonna reach out to some people about the juicing stuff okay and I'm gonna work on my stuff I'm going to work on the cost okay um I'm also going to get this schedule together with the commercial kitchen to see what days I'm coming in for a couple hours okay cool and I'll get back to you and let you know when I'll give you a couple times and see if that works for you okay now I will have to find a way to make an extra 30 shots a day for 21 days my days are already super packed so I'm absolutely gonna need to bring on some help okay all right bye guys thank you we are heading to Fab Lab I haven't been there yet but I'm super excited researching online I found a fabrication company I want to get some unique signage made for the mobile truck but I don't want the typical canvas printing so I'm meeting the owner of Fab Lab his name is Steve I'm Monique how are you nice to meet you thank you for coming in and meeting with me this is so cool I'm hoping for a fast turnaround because my first mobile event is in just four days so this is a laser cutter and it can cut acrylic and you know thin plywoods cardboard paper so a lot of the stuff that you see is made on this machine I'm trying to design like some type of signage okay just want to be super inviting and get some brand loyalty going see what happens and the data's coming in right now wow look how cute what do I need to do so that you can tell me like what this is approximately going to cost and well it's going to be a little bit of an investment like how much do you think that would be so do you have let me get the dimension yes I was going to say let me let me call John and get the actual measurements and then I'll get back to you I would just be grateful for whatever you could possibly do sounds good thank you so much while Steve and his team make the signage to fit the truck I'm going to go deliver some shots so right now I am getting ready to go meet um one of the young ladies who is part of the study Dr Marconi hustled and got 10 participants for our 21 day juice shot trial they're taking a minimum of three shots a day they got their blood work done today and then in 21 days they're going to have their blood work done again so I made their first 30 shots last night and I'm personally delivering their first round hello so this is four days worth take three shots a day Dr Marconi wanted you all to do a minimum of three shots aren't these so cute Hey Joe this is the first five days oh that tastes really good the ginger is strong that tastes good I I love getting to meet rooted family members and this trial is expensive and definitely time consuming but all in all it'll be worth it to separate my brand from any competitor all right here's this there's some mandarin orange and some um some fresh honey crisp and then tomorrow morning I'm gonna have some watermelon I'm trying some pomegranate some pineapple and some uh some more watermelons thank you thank you don't forget to shake them [Music] foreign the reality is is that this is literally the most difficult thing that I have personally ever done in just trying to manage a fake identity I mean I knew I was going to be uncomfortable I don't think I knew how uncomfortable I would be but what has been rewarding though is I've met some amazing people here and I have such a better appreciation for small business owners um and just the process of small business especially in like the food and like prep industry because like making those juice shots out that kitchen is hard so I'm ecstatic to finally be working out of a commercial kitchen today I'm making my shots out of oasis of Hope's commercial kitchen for my mobile proof of concept event with their space and professional grade equipment it's going to be so much easier to mass produce my shots I've recruited Sloan her daughter Avery and Avery's friend monaea to help me out hi Tim how are you it's fun quite the Entourage nice to finally meet you yes you have to make perishable items in a commercial kitchen if you're going to sell them from a truck they're certified by the health department my kitchen at home wouldn't be but not only that I can use this commercial kitchen to mass-produce shots for any other big event I have and that should get to you as well perfect yes all right this is for the three hours today awesome awesome well we can head downstairs perfect this is a nice kitchen well thank you it's a really good commercial kitchen but fortunately it wasn't available until 4 pm today we need to make 80 shots for the proof of concept tomorrow it's going to take us several hours to pull that off we have to prep all the ingredients do the juicing bottle it up and then clean the commercial kitchen it is so crucial that we get this right I have to prove that rooted works as a mobile business so just slide it all the way back well what can we do to help can we start cutting or do something yes wipe this down so you have to chop it so the goal is is just to cut like slice it like you're about to cut it for eating okay it's a lifestyle that we're about to sell and then I just do like that gotcha and then with the ginger just like do it like that you don't have to take the skin or anything off but you definitely have to like put it like that oh no you got it yes this is why it takes more than one person I thought Monique was the nicest sweetest lady I've ever met she was charismatic she had great vision for her future Teamwork Makes the Dream Work she really cares about what people put in their body and she wants to make people healthier and she wants to provide this not to just you know a certain crowd she wants to provide this to everyone in the community this group is worth impressing tomorrow the good thing about tomorrow is that it's a specialized gym but will people come over to the truck right how many people typically attend he said anywhere between 30 and 50 people a day okay oh that's actually really good okay oh perfect one yes [Music] so we have 80 shots we have just the right amount for just tomorrow thank you so much yep thank you [Music] so I'm headed over to Fab Lab to pick up my signs for my Wellness truck I also called John at all City ice cream and he agreed to drop off my truck here before I try to sell my shots I absolutely need to cover this camo cow look and turn it into my vision for rooted I'm hoping these signs will accomplish just that okay there hey you're back I'm back so we have two signs completed oh my goodness these look amazing the signs are a hundred and fifty dollars each for three signs Plus 450 dollars for the laser printer time that is a total expense of nine hundred dollars you know we have we have some options okay for covering up the side of the truck so there's cardboard you know obviously the plywood which I don't think we get enough contrast but we also found this piece of Masonite which is oh I like that I like it too but it doesn't have the exactly the right tone I don't think in other words it's a color color class it's fighting this one Blends a lot more is it possible to like attach cardboard and make it not look like cardboard it's hard to make cardboard not look that looks like a word but it's easy to try we can try the cardboard we can put it on there okay it's so important to me that the rooted branding looks both natural and tasteful I want to convey affordable Wellness but affordable Wellness does not mean cheap oh lucky likey hold it and I'll get one of the signs make sure you like it oh yeah yeah I am really happy to work he's gonna drill the holes so I can attach the signs to the truck tomorrow morning you want to do one come on okay let's go [Music] ow right perfect okay thank you so much all right you're welcome Steve and his team did such an amazing job with my signs thank you this truck is going to be the perfect mobile test vehicle and I'm also excited to sell my shots tomorrow [Music] I'm super excited about sharing my sample shots today because if they like my shots it will absolutely help me establish proof of concept for reimagining the ice cream truck for a wellness model oh man my juice shots I left them in the freezer last night and now they're frozen ah some of them are broken not all of them though one two three four five six seven this really is horrific man we worked late into the night to get those 80 shots made and we lost nine of them so I only have 71 left I don't have the time to make more shots and I have to go get the ice cream truck ready and I need to be open for business by 5 30. I just hope that we don't run out of product too early because man this is just not a good way to start the day [Music] thank you so I'm on my way to on-site 253 Fitness the owners are amazing and are allowing me to hold my first rooted mobile event what makes this different from the bite of black business event is that this will prove people will embrace my reimagined ice cream truck Vision this is the first time we're actually testing the mobile piece of this business model so I have Avery who is Sloane's daughter helping me set up and sell the rooted wellness shots at the event today [Music] I'm so excited how you doing today one of the Gym's biggest Fitness classes gets out at 5 30. so we're hoping to capitalize on that foot traffic big knees big knees big knees good good good good good um all right let's go see what we can do with these part on this side seeing this in the light I don't see how we make this look good it really like in the daylight this really looks like cardboard I don't like this and even when you don't have money there's still classy ways to do things I just don't like this this is not my vision yeah I don't like the cow look to me that is opposite of what this brand stands for yeah this is about two shots and flavors and fruits and vegetables not about meat I don't feel comfortable presenting the brand like that cover it no I don't like it [Music] let me take a moment to think for a second I really really care about how rude it is presented to Consumers and more importantly I care about what they think rooted feels about them so I had to get it together and start getting creative oh you know what I have an idea now what if we cut like cut it all the way down and then roll it and do it like bamboo stocks they won't be green but that could look a lot more natural protect your brand your brand is an extension of you and your vision for your business always present your brand in the way you want it to be seen and experienced so you're always sending the right message if something fills off with your branding take the time to get it back on point you must you need to protect your brand at all costs we are going to need a lot more of these roles so I'm going to give your mom a call now a lot of rolls of like brown paper that looks like trees yes so I what I'm thinking is is that I'll make fake bamboo sticks just not green ones and if you could bring me some flowers and then that way if you bring fresh flowers like the green and the I can stick them inside the when I roll it like a bamboo and then hang the rooted sign over it and then that gives us some texture and that would make me feel more comfortable about presenting the brand and I have an hour to do this away there thank you babe Sloan is amazing and I really am grateful to Sloan there's mom I have some tablecloths and the table here because I know I cannot do this alone thank you for coming I'll take all this yeah [Applause] she wasn't able to get fresh flowers she has to run to work if your mom is going back to work yeah your mom is the best okay now I'm gonna show you what I mean now imagine a bunch of these like rolled up all the way down now we at least have like some type of texture I see what you mean you see what I'm saying we'll just do a bunch of these rolls like this yeah I like that [Music] okay because we're gonna need a good 12 of these [Applause] oh it might be kind of cute to go above the like I've had like a cool a cool little layer yeah okay okay we need a lot more forgive me for ruining plants I feel so bad right now that I'm destroying people's plants we're falling behind so I asked Avery to call her friend monaea so she can come help now you didn't bring us coffee most three of us now let's get okay let's get this done oh my God this tape it's not sticking oh my God this is tape man ah I need you guys to roll tape so measure it measure so we need to do we need one right here and then roll a bunch yeah and then roll whatever we have left what time is it time check it is 4 57. it's some it's three minutes till five okay we we have to get this show on the road we just don't have time anymore okay ladies let's hurry because it's almost time [Music] oh my gosh it's 5 30 and we're ready just in time great job ladies I know you want some oh perfect okay are you drinking this right now uh we're drinking now girl yeah give you some energy what I'm actually doing is trying to reimagine ice cream trucks an apple Ginger Mint one so this one's the Apple thank you so just watermelon you said yeah two of them okay that oh this is so lit this bamboo makeover is making all the difference in drawing customers thank you I'm gonna try all of the flavors because people aren't just buying one they want to get every flavor yes we literally only have nine left because people have been buying like three and four at a time so we are selling out of our juice shots which tells me that our proof of concept is a solid one people will buy wellness shots from an ice cream truck give me your favorite one so all I have left is watermelon yeah we sold out of everything else how much is it five dollars oh thank you hey Sloane we just sold out of our juice shots if we put these things out in the street and we go into the communities that keep getting overlooked I came from those communities I know that we will buy things that are fun Brands and we do care about what we consume we just have to make it easy and accessible like you do it for everybody else there was absolutely a moment where I thought we might not make it but we pulled it off I wouldn't have been able to do this without them today today was a huge day there's a huge Market opportunity here foreign [Music] I've heard people say to me Monique you need to like take a moment and just appreciate how far you've come and in my mind I'm like how far I've come I actually have so much further to go since arriving in Tacoma we've proved that there's a market here for our wellness shots and our truck is a hit yay but multiple revenue streams are what will make rooted worth a million dollars in the next 17 days [Music] [Applause] my goal is to start finding local vendors to sell my shots on the regular so that I can cast a wider net of customers and bring in more money I also need to lock in a local farmer that will exclusively Supply produce to root it at a discounted rate so far I've been buying wholesale from Alex vardel but I'll need to make an official partnership with him if I want to turn this into a long-term deal here in Tacoma there's still so much more to do but before my wellness shots are in stores and franchises around the country I bought some produce and I'm heading to the Oasis of Hope to fine-tune my product I need a consistent recipe to ensure every bottle tastes the same no matter where you buy it so Peter who I met at the bite of black business event along with Tawana Noble's children and Avery's friend monaea have all graciously offered to help me I can't wait till the day where a root has their own commercial kitchen but until then I'm super grateful for this see I never use recipes but in order for other people to be able to make this we have to have an exact recipe of the exact consistent taste consistency is key anyone making your products needs to make them to your standards to ensure that customers are having the same brand experience no matter where they are we have a real assembly line here guys actually I'll do a half a pound of apples and see how that goes first we'll try a half a pound first and a quarter pound of ginger and now you and I are going to start playing to see how what that tastes like the Leia we're gonna taste this right because if this is it then now we at least know for every pound of apples then we can do a half a pound of Ginger okay so we'll see [Music] smells good okay oh wow so attempt number one has way too much Ginger I mean I liked it it woke me up but apparently too much of a kick for the average consumer I think we could actually go another half pound of apples yeah just pour a little bit just to taste it you ready this is still way too gingery let's try this again we'll do a pound and a half and then we need how much Ginger did you use the last time a quarter pound okay this has to be the recipe now [Music] delicious we got it guys I'm so happy we were able to nail down the formula today now that my recipe is solid and the shots will always taste exactly the same I have to start searching for local vendors to sell them [Music] thank you didn't know I was gonna be lifting weights we've done the groundwork on selling our wellness shots from a truck but now it's time to see if places around town will actually carry them I'm making good on what I tried earlier during this Challenge and pitching vendors to sell our shots in their stores since the clock is ticking and I've only got 16 days left I'm sticking to the relationships that I already have and I'm heading to meet Jessica at the courthouse Square she wears many hats over there including director events producer and manager and because of kovit she's now overseeing the lift bridge coffee shop a lot of work goes into this this journey has just reminded me just how special small businesses really are when I first got to Tacoma I went around to the small local stores to see if they'd be interested in my juice shots I noticed that you guys don't have like ginger shots and stuff so I didn't know if like you would be open to me selling them here right now but um can I try your shots I don't have any right now now I'm revisiting the business owners but this time with my branded product ready for sale I have ginger all over me at least they know I'm gonna that I'm really hands on let's see I'm handsome baby hey babe hello how are you I made it I made a special one for you so I literally put a whole bunch of love in here I want you to try that um it's delicious isn't that good so I wanted to see if you'd sell my rooted shots in lift bridge I am selling them just direct to Consumer for five dollars but if you turn all the bottles in then I'll give them to you for four dollars once a week since they're good for seven days then I'll just pick up right and then what you sold is what you can pay me out and then it's going to be different flavors every week with Bridge coffee is the Hub of Courthouse Square it's very important that all the products I sell here are also within my brand so it's all based on what is easily accessible right from Harvest from the farm I won't bring in anything to the shop that I don't fully believe in how can I display it we're still working those details out I just haven't had time but since I'm a one-person show but I'll get back to you on that part so asking vendors and business owners to carry and sell the rooted products it's really important to me that our refrigerators be a continuation and extension of our brand experience so it's important to see where is the most strategic placement for our product and our refrigerators every place of business is going to be different I wanted to be the first thing they experience as they're walking in I would love to sell them are you my first one am I really are you serious yep first Bender this is so amazing lift bridge coffee is on the main floor of the courthouse Square so there's always people buzzing around selling rooted here will surely expand our customer base and bring in additional sales but now I need to come up with a way to display our shots and fast so we can start rolling in a profit thank you [Music] [Music] good morning it's another day it is another day I always feel excited to wake up to another day I want to get rooted into the local stores all over town so I spent some time stopping in to ask more business owners to sell my shots will you sell rooted juices at your gym no I'm not gonna say no so you're not no so everything's around the five six dollar price point okay per product I'm gonna cut it right by the front desk okay perfect okay yeah yeah for them to carry my product though I need a display that looks good and keeps our shots cold it can't just be any old thing though to attract sales I'm going to create a signature rooted refrigerator that stands out from other products that are sitting on the shelves so nice of you to take time out of your day to go with us Steve at Fab Lab has recommended that I look into a place called rapjack they specialize in designing and installing custom branded Exteriors and since Steve happens to know the owners he's offered to come along for the visit thank you oh this is so cool oh wow oh wow hi how's it going good how are you Hi how are you are you money yeah I am hi nice to meet you do you want to take a quick tour yes I would love to so these are show car that's fully wrapped okay and has paint protection film on it and then this bike has like stealth paint protection versus gloss just to give the two and then we have a hidden door over here this is unbelievable and these are just some of our other show cars seeing all of the creative work that's going on here at wrap Jacks is incredible and it makes me feel like rap Jacks is the perfect place to make an eye-catching brand design for our refrigerators so Quentin would be your designer he would send you a rendering uh what are you thinking for Branding purposes from us for the retailers and wholesalers I'm doing mini refrigerators that can have our two ounce shots in there and all the different colors and you know just be super inviting to them sure I'm looking for like the modern Farmhouse concept I can see like a rustic wood or anything like a white wood or a white wash oh I never thought about a whitewash wood that would be nice and then stainless I would do a white wash with some stainless and really get that modern and you know vintage feel we could even do it on a matte laminate so it's not super glossy yeah do you have colors for your branding just black and white it just looks really good clean and fresh Yeah clean sure if we worked in some like Browns and some warm colors I like your logo it makes your logo look warm and inviting never leave a canvas blink good branding it increases the value of a company by attracting your customers to what you're actually selling a mini fridge has plenty of space to feature rooted branding do you have any other no I'm excited to get started on some designs yeah what's so incredible is branding has become a lot easier I don't have to spend ERS because there's so much advanced technology I can buy them in bulk get them wrapped in the rooted refrigerator is born I have to find some countertop mini fridges and get them over here as soon as possible the sooner we can get these fridges wrapped the sooner we can start making additional sales I'm so excited thank you yes this means a lot thank you thanks for coming in [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] he's super behind nothing is packed Alex vardel who owns Pardo Farms is not only selling at the farmers markets he's also offering delivery subscriptions I haven't worked with him in a while but he's been getting a lot of orders and asked if I could lend a hand oh you're here just doing the two ears of corn Alex might be a potential business partner so it's really important that I continue to build our relationship and you what do you do you knock yeah I'll knock and or ring the doorbell here we'll both get to do this one yeah okay is that what's going on this is the star I put on these oh that's for the oh yeah I came to Tacoma and I did not know anyone just set it right on the doorstep forum and then that essentially ensures their uh six foot distance yep and that's it yeah all good yeah perfect and from the jump Alex welcomed me he gave me a job upon first meeting me you got this yeah I got it okay he trusted me in representing the farto Farm's name and he's treated me with so much kindness these are the qualities I really look for in a partner I'm really appreciative I actually love this concept too though going directly to the consumer like you have a high level mindset and I came here to start a business I feel like our real relationship will be in some type of partnership concept 100 driving around with Alex has sparked a new idea for me I need to create a delivery option for rooted I want people to be able to pick up the phone or click a button to get our products delivered right to their doorstep they can even set up a subscription but thank you of course anytime it's another way to get my product all over the city and it's one more Revenue stream that gets me to a million dollar valuation foreign [Music] it's day 76 and man I'm really exhausted it's been a long day it's late and these are the times that just make me miss home the most hey Mom hey babe how was your game yeah oh man I'm so happy baby it's twofold right I really miss my family I miss my kids um and I I felt guilty well that's what you're supposed to do baby everything should be fun but then at the same time there's so many people out here who don't have a voice and I feel like rooted is gonna you know serve those people so for me this bigger purpose I'm I'm willing to sacrifice some things right now love you baby okay all right bye-bye so my day isn't over quite yet Steve has called and asked me to stop by Fab Lab apparently he has a surprise for me well hey there I have something to show you so little wait what okay I'm literally about to cry listen this is what I'm talking about this is amazing could you imagine like the Milkman oh thank you you're welcome at the heart I'm I'm about Grassroots entrepreneurship bootstrapping companies and growing things from the bottom up I feel good helping her and knowing that she's on a path to success oh my goodness I think Steve is amazing a lot of a lot about curiosity and both of us believing that anything is possible even when it doesn't exist the fact that he took it upon himself to come up with these caddies to carry our shots it really shows me how he supports my vision and wants to see our business succeed so this one is just the outlines right this one is all raster and this one was actually cut through but it looks kind of cool it looks really cool he also offers a level of intellect that I don't have he's someone who can stand next to me and Lead me in some of the areas of the company yes oh yes and then I could actually put the labels like I can move the labels let's put in an order of 50 of these oh my goodness look at that let's have a full crate these caddies will be a great way for me to deliver subscription orders to our customers and they'll fit inside the rooted fridges to make our brand even more unique see when you imagine the things you can do when you imagine look at that going to pick up my juice shots it's yours oh man this is really cold going to meet with uh JD who's a retail Advocate with the downtown Tacoma partnership and he's going to show me some spaces that could potentially be a flagship corporate office air quotes it could be the base where the commercial kitchen is and allow for the creation of the products and also the distribution of the products but then also get a rooted experience for anyone who wanted to be able to come to like a flagship place oh it's freezing it's cold huh hey I love this street by the way I know it's one of my favorite streets here oh it feels so good in here the way this this still goes is they're willing to redo the floor but as far as like the rest of the space goes you're going to be kind of on your own with any kind of TI upgrades things like that you'd want to do okay you have the coffee shop across the street a donut shop that hasn't been opened in I don't know how long because of covid but as far as like what you're doing there's like there's literally no other options and a multiple block radius from this location so like to do a commercial space in here like a commercial okay let's look at the back here okay um so you have the existing Plumbing which is good it doesn't look like that was my concern yeah it could have the plumbing for because the the good thing is that I'm not cooking food okay I'm just juicing yeah so it's just about the Prep Station the sanitization and the storage totally but what I wanted was a space where it could serve as our kind of like our Flagship right and you could come in and get a rooted experience but most importantly it was focused around the fact that we could create our products here for sure how much do you think to renovate this space outside of what they're willing to do with the floor yeah like what do you think we're looking at I think you could do it for less than 10. right everything that you want to do is you're able to do inside just keep in mind because of the historical nature of the property you can't do anything to the exterior of the building so you're not going to have no signage hanging on the side of the building like this space is nice but if I wanted to put up rooted signage I wouldn't be able to because this is a historic building so I don't think that this is the right spot for rooted all right wanna do the next one yep cool and I would also have to build out from scratch a whole new commercial kitchen go ahead thank you yep completely different feeling yeah yeah I think this is more like retail friendly than this like restaurant I mean it's cool but it's a lot of money that would have to go into this to make it feel like rooted yep totally okay well thank you yeah let me think about some things perfect and then I'll give you a call all right thank you good to see you appreciate you absolutely yeah as much as I love both of these spaces they both have pros and cons I'm super concerned because coma has still pretty much shut down like it really really is right now it's just not the best time to open up a brick and mortar but it is definitely best to just keep focusing on making root It Mobile for now and getting it in the stores that are local time to make the donuts [Music] foreign [Music] for this region of rooted I'm ready to solidify an official partnership with Alex and fardell farms for them to be the exclusive supplier for a discounted rate it takes a lot for me to get excited about like Brands but this I like how people feel a part of it yeah and that's why that local Vibe is so important to me because so many people seek out brands that are made with local resources establishing this deal with Alex carries much more weight than just being the Tacoma supplier him saying yes will set the tone of rooted exclusively partnering with local farmers all across the country so I really really want him to sign on to this well and I like just the concept you brought over getting it into the communities that need it yeah and uh you know like specifically the urban communities the people that need that Outreach so what I want to do is see how we can get the cost all the way down what is the name of the fruit that isn't as desirable like by a grocery store imperfect produce and obviously the standardized commercial grading will kind of be based on what's going on there and they'll do like you know perfect Apple no blemishes and then you go to the next one that is essentially perfect but then just doesn't have the color scheme and that's the one we rooted wants the one that you want to be discounted because it's not the first choice in my perfect world Alex is a great partner to get my costs down as low as possible when it comes to purchasing the produce for my juice shots so everything about Alex fardell makes strategic sense when it comes to my business model I believe doing the number twos keeps us all the way down so for rooted how I Envision it is every Market partner exclusively with a local farmer and you have just the most amazing produce so I would love for Washington to be your territory for exclusivity for local farming so will you sign on to be root its produce partner I think that's great no okay good glad to hear that my meeting with Alex was amazing I'm so excited to be partners on this my first exclusive farmer partnership with Alex's expertise and supply of imperfect fruit root it will get the produce at 50 percent off this is a significant savings and in return fardell Farms gets a weekly payment from us for the fruit that grocery stores just won't take so it's a perfect marriage allowing both businesses to succeed this is exciting Monique's has been an incredible person being her exclusive fruit partner it means continuing to operate and provide jobs for my employees and an opportunity to continue to grow no thank you yes thank you thank you this partnership is going to pave the way for rooted to franchise and pair up with local farms all across the country and it's going to keep our costs down yes brisk jeez right now I'm heading to wrap Jacks and I'm excited to see the Prototype Bridge wrapped with the rooted branding for the very first time who's that hey oh it's cold it's cold outside I wasn't ready for this type of weather I'm gonna get chilly it's gonna get chilly fast I'm like colder than this my goodness oh yeah oh I love this I am so in love with this fridge oh my goodness this is better than I even imagined wow seeing it with the rooted logo on the sides is incredible and it just makes me super excited to get them into the stores around town with the Frosted logo on the inside and then I plugged it in so you can see like I can see when it's backlit what that looks like we brought the wrap over the edges so it just looks complete around and on the back and then we capped the tops here to give the whole shiplap kind of look I love this and then I had all of these and it looked a little it looked really clean but I thought man what about making it look like the logo was embossed on the side right so I added that and it's something that can be removed if you like but I thought it added a little flare without being obnoxious I'm so in love with it and then I'm just like it's all just starting to feel like it's coming together it looks good and I know we're running into a huge time constraint uh when do you think we'll see the other refrigerators tracking says they'll be here later today okay great this looks amazing and I love this I am thrilled with how this looks so I'm giving Quentin the design approval and I'm placing an order for the rest of the countertop fridges to get wrapped when they get here so I told Jessica that I would get a display over to the coffee shop tomorrow so I'm hoping these arrive soon I love this logo this looks good great thank you so much this looks amazing thank you you're welcome [Music] foreign [Music] I'm more excited to see these the refrigerator that got delivered I cannot wait I'm meeting with Jessica to close our deal and officially make lift Rich coffee root its first Bender the countertop mini fridges arrive at wrap Jacks last night and Quentin and his team hustled to get one finished before dropping it off here between him and Steve who quickly finished the carrying caddies this was definitely a group effort yeah so it's so cute oh look in a light well it has your shabby chic kind of vibe here the whole Vintage Modern Family houses if there's such a thing I think that you have created that Vintage Modern Farmhouse well listen there's nothing wrong with disrupting right with so many products for consumers to choose from the way that we present rooted it's really important to me well people are all about The Branding and the package everything for me is about like bringing people into the rooted Lifestyle brand I think it'll definitely help sell it'll definitely stick you out of my other products the signature fridge and the unique carrying caddies are gonna help our brand to get noticed and hopefully boost our sales first let me just tell you how thankful and grateful I am to you from the moment we've met you've been super supportive so I thank you thank you and you're my first vendor yes you go girl you're welcome Tacoma so I'm very excited to sell her shots and it's just important to me to support people who are passionate about what they're doing that are knowledgeable about what they're doing and I love her products and what we'll do is we'll fill the refrigerator up once a week because these are good for seven days so we'll come in every Monday and re-up you perfect I love it so we have partnership vendors that are carrying our shots and to attract even more rooted customers we're putting sign up sheets with every rooted fridge we're introducing and building a subscription and delivery aspect to our business and we're hoping to get lots of subscribers this is going to show the valuator that our business is profitable in multiple ways so I'm down to 10 days left I still have to work on the rooted truck figure out franchising and get everything squared away for my mobile valuations it's beautiful one shot at a time one shot at a time to some it's crunch time but to me it's go time [Music] since arriving in Tacoma my main goal was to raise the minimum funds needed to build a wellness Empire the 32 500 of investment dollars I raised has allowed me to show that there really is a market for wellness products right here in Tacoma all right how was your weekend um it was busy it was your weekend man I've been in overdrive man I only have seven days left till the valuation so when you're doing everything by yourself it's super hard but every day I'm just like you just you know what Monique just keep going just keep going rooted has to be experienced to fully be appreciated so in one week I'm taking the valuator on a rooted tour I want them to meet our vendors and our subscribers my entire business has to be set up and running including the ice cream truck so we can do the full rooted experience you're the one to do it though oh that's so nice of you I feel the same way about you I still need to figure out a franchising model I need to get rooted some subscribers and to handle a booming business we have to get an industrial juicer and biggest of all branding and ice cream truck it's a lot to pull off in a week but it is crucial to prove that rooted is a million dollar business should have turned right there Aaron Googe and I are heading to meet with John Gore he rented me a truck for my first mobile event good morning John happy Monday this is Aaron nice to meet you all right yeah you as well eventually rooted will have its own custom Fleet but until then I'm hoping John has a truck that Aaron can Remodel and that route it can rent long term which one is the one that Aaron would be able to like design inside of for these two trucks are the ones that um are available okay so what this looks like is there a way that there can be this a display right here yeah it's a door up there's a panel here a serving station so yeah we'll make that look nice Monique came to me and told me that we had a week to design build and install and deliver the interior of this ice cream truck I like that idea of that being open and so that you can see like Aaron's design and be a part of the rooted brand because luckily I didn't have any other major projects lined up so I was able to situate my schedule to help her out well cool oh sounds like you have a good vision of what this is going to all look like yeah John it's a great vision it's a complex vision and it's exhausting me right now yeah this truck is perfect for rooted Aaron has graciously volunteered to do all of the labor for free as long as I'm willing to pay for the materials for the job and even though it's hot pink right now I can hire wrap Jacks who wrap my mini fridges to design the exterior look everyday dollar matters right now so I'm just hoping that John can give me a good rate how much is something like this um how about 750 a month what Sean you are man you guys show me so much love like oh my gosh we all got dreams right gotta support them well let's let's make this dream happen here I absolutely cannot believe he's letting me rent this truck for 750 a month if I use this truck for six months that will allow us to continue to get rooted out to Tacoma so I don't have to rush into scaling I'm I'm actually very humbled by all the support I really appreciate it yeah it was really clear to me that John wasn't just a businessman he gives that real supportive nurturing father type of perspective that is the type of person I want to be in friendship with it's the type of person I want to be in partnership with let me grab the keys okay I'm gonna need that right there's still so much to do before my valuation so we need to get this truck out of here so Aaron can begin the interior renovation while I work with wrap jacks on the exterior because rooted's first official truck needs to absolutely look perfect I'm on my way to the Pioneer Collective to grab Peter there are so many things left to do in barely any time you have no idea how grateful I am for you Peter and I need to deliver juice shots to Mary and to Molly all right we got a pedal to the metal because they are participating in the 21 day trial that I'm conducting with Dr Marconi she's doing before and after blood work to prove whether or not taking three rooted juice shots daily has a positive impact on the body Mary and Molly started their program two weeks ago and Peter has been so kind and doing the deliveries I am so excited to learn how they're doing right now I absolutely appreciate you being like willing to believe in this that's why I haven't been worried about any of the Lakes funny stuff or anything because it's like we'll get Peter has been an amazing volunteer since bite of black business he thinks I'm just launching a new business and having it evaluated but he has no idea who I really am since he believes in what I'm doing and what rooted represents he is helping with numbers he's helping with deliveries making shots anything and everything no one I mean no one can build a business by themselves it requires a team foreign [Music] taking these to her let's see one two three four five okay hello happy Wednesday we're good here's all that how are you doing how's everything going do you good yay okay oh that's the Apple yeah she likes okay tell her I'll make her some more tonight okay I'm good I feel I'm blessed I'm excited listen it's this is a tough Journey you know the startup world is not easy this Vision that I have is not an easy it's a very complex business model but I believe in it and I'm just grateful for people like yourself and Mary and Dr Mark like everyone is making this so exciting for me like I feel obligated to it you know I want everyone to experience what I experienced when I was doing this you know so oh good thank you so you just have to put them in the refrigerator now okay thank you it is a little nerve-wracking that I won't know any of the 21 Day participants blood work results until the valuation day and since I've been selling rooted as life-changing I just hope that the study actually bats me up now I need to focus on getting the exterior of the truck wrapped because my valuation is in less than a week and having a branded truck open for business is absolutely key thank you [Music] how are you doing today uh fantastic and yourself woke up that's half the battle Yeah Quentin and the team at wrap Jacks designed the wraps for our custom rooted refrigerators so I sent them photos of the ice cream truck and my Jeep and they put together some mock-ups all right let's see here for the ice cream truck yeah we could do something like this it's hard to see the detail in these planks okay um oh so it does have the washed look in it oh definitely okay and it has just a little bit of a brown tone to it okay kind of warm it up okay good but I have them set up so that they're beveled so they actually have some texture so they actually look like flanks of wood oh nice and the Jeep I was just taking the logo itself right um plotting it out of like a white or like a silver and putting it over the green um and just keep it really Simple and Clean okay for the back of the Jeep I was thinking you've got the most real estate on your back window and I thought it would be kind of fun for the roots to actually cut off the glass and they'll go on to the Jeep too okay the detail of that R just you know it just brings a lot of you know possibility because it just looks fun it is fun turn any surface into your billboard when you're launching your business it's so important to get your name out there as much as possible you have to become a household name some people paint the town in Flyers others do email blasts but I'm going to get my Jeep wrap because I'm always driving around Tacoma so do you think you can have this done in three days let me check with our production guy okay um if he has the time to put something together within your timeline okay um I will go from there okay perfect Quentin's designs look fantastic but I really need these wraps done in 72 hours because Aaron needs as much time as possible with the truck so he can redesign the interior everything has to line up perfectly for us to pull this off looks great thank you for everything absolutely foreign because I got a call from Quentin at wrap Jacks and they can't do the job but we have to turn the truck over to wrap Jacks today and so trying to get as much of the um inside done so his text to me was I'm welding this does any of that interest you the challenging part about trying to create our rooted truck in less than a week is that it cannot be in two places at once and if rapjacks does not start working on the exterior today they're saying they won't finish it in time I'm hoping that Aaron has made a lot of progress on the interior because my valuation is in just four days the truck is the most crucial component they have to see it fully branded and operating to understand why rooted is absolutely a million dollar business good morning [Music] hey Monique how are you I'm good good so how is everything coming along so I'm thinking I'm going to build a piece of wood it's going to be hinged and then these two frames the wood paneling is going to go in right outside there okay so imagine our bar is here I think it's going to hide most of right that the ice cream truck is an older repurposed uh United States Postal vehicle and now we redesigned it to serve out of the back spanning the opening we'll have a small bar on the interior there's going to be a bright green shag carpeting on the floor and then the walls will be lined with reclaimed wood so she can hang and display her goods from it what can I help with uh you know what I'm going to show you how to template the carpet okay oh perfect volunteer will be meeting me here to transport the truck to wrap Jacks and until he arrives I need to start helping Aaron out I'm a venture capitalist not a carpenter but in four days I have a valuator coming to see our mobile business so hey A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to help get this truck done I've used a handsaw before no now that's a piece of equipment what's going through my head as we get to this 90 days is literally exhaustion physical and mental exhaustion what we're going to do is we're going to outline the floor with the pieces of wood we're working on restricted restricted timeline I can't sleep all I'm thinking about is what's going to be the next steps how are we going to handle that oh my goodness what is this going to look like for us all right nice nice we didn't do this in wood shop I think Monique is one of the most driven people I've ever met and I'm trying to match that just to keep her successes and uh make her happy professional look at that I don't know about that should be afraid of a woman with uh what is this called a handsaw such a good fit yeah in order to cut the carp up this should be out I know Peter's gonna come and drive the truck Peter is finally here so even though Aaron still has so much more work to do he'll need to keep Building without the truck on site because we have to get it over to wrap Jacks right away all right Peter so I'm good to go huh so um this window uh this was this helped me I slid it all the way down so I could actually look outside and see the lane because it is it's a really odd feeling driving on the side oh yeah that does not steer laughs [Laughter] [Music] thank God we made it here and in one piece now wrap Jacks can get started but we're going to spend some extra money to get my Jeep wrapped because it will serve as a mobile billboard Everywhere I Go do you have a garbage sure I can handle it oh thank you thank you and while they're doing that we can finally focus on the franchise model and getting an industrial juicer because in a few days I'm hosting a mobile event to prove that rooted is a million dollar business model thank you so much if you need anything just call myself thank you absolutely thanks Winnie oh I don't have to drive [Music] thank you foreign hi Natalie how are you good come in don't you look fabulous yes I've been selling rooted as a possible mobile franchise but I haven't had any time to actually look into what it would take to get that model going I'm Michael nice to meet you Michael is actually one of my investors and advisors yeah okay my valuation is in just three days so today Michael Brown his daughter and I are meeting with Natalie Barnes who is the president of the franchise Alliance so I'm hoping she can guide me on how to franchise root it there are several Financial models to rooted the local delivery the e-commerce side and it's basically subscription based okay I love subscriptions because that's the highest profit margin and then there's the markets like Point Ruston and then off the last one is the um the franchise model the opportunity in franchising is huge some people start franchising from day one a healthier way is to do franchising like word be the next stage because not only the costs people are really always shocked with the cost it takes to launch a franchise brand it's very expensive right so because you want the ability to understand the market how to support you want manuals in place then it's how you develop it's very common you see a franchise that the company started and this year and they started franchising three or five years late I have a big Vision I get that but I'm not in a rush to do this I actually want to do this the right way because I think it's that important I also need to figure out the franchise fee which is what someone pays to be the operator of a franchise location for rooted it's more about making sure that it's profitable to the corporation but I also want to make it fair and I want to be fair to the potential partner who wants to franchise root it so this is a national mobile franchise ice cream brand interesting great and so all in for this particular type of style is 65 000 and that's 50 000 for the build out and then 15 000 for per exclusive territory yeah too low for the for if you have the 50 000 for the truck and 15 000 for the you know territory you have you know training and you have support that right now what I know would be right in that eighty five thousand dollar range or so okay and that would make more sense make more sense Monique as a person is driven she's focused she's passionate she has you know what it takes to actually make this work I mean she's really a go-getter you do most of your new business owners have the energy of Monique oh no she's she's unique [Laughter] was super helpful it's really important that we build rooted the right way so I'm going to focus on building out the rooted model for the next couple of years before focusing on a national franchise model so I'm hoping that whoever this valuator is they still see the value in the other revenue streams that I'm able to show in year one thank you Natalie I so appreciate you absolutely I like your boots yes I see that young young on you thank you okay [Music] there's only two days until my evaluation and while Aaron and rapjacks continue working on the rooted truck I need to keep moving my business forward so I left some sign up sheets for my subscription and delivery services with the partner vendors who are carrying our rooted shots and last night someone left me a voicemail hey Jazz it's Monique how are you I'm good I'm good so I want to get you guys down on a on a schedule and a regimen for being a customer of rooted I have a watermelon flavor that I that I can do yeah I have a it's a watermelon Ginger mint um one okay okay Thanks Jazz finally feel better about that okay it's super exciting that we have our first delivery client who is paying and if he likes the shots enough then I'm hoping he'll commit to a monthly subscription so now it's time to get focused on getting an industrial juicer and it won't be a lifesaver for the several hundred shots we still need to prepare for my mobile valuation foreign [Music] yes I'm down to less than 24 hours until rooted needs to be open for full business I'm not gonna tell the valuator about my business I'm going to show them my business I'll be debuting rooted's first official truck at a mobile event we still need to make 200 Shots by tomorrow on top of all the final touches that I need to do I'm still waiting to get my car back from being wrapped so I have to take a ride share this morning I found an industrial juicer online that I ordered but unfortunately it won't arrive until next week so I reached out to a local Juice company and they're allowing me to rent their spare juicer for 300 a day so I'm heading to gather juice right now so I can pick it up apparently this thing smashes forty thousand pounds together so juicing let's just say Peter is excited to choose today Peter is dropping off shots this morning to our first delivery customer and then he's going to meet me at gather juice he has a van and he's going to help me transport this juicer to Oasis of Hope good morning how are you babe good okay I've got a new juice bag for you and it happens to have cleaning instructions on it which is so convenient I'm feeling so official right now can I just say yeah this is such a relief to have this industrial juicer to help me prepare for my valuation there is no way we could have juice shots quickly enough with our current juicer so this juicer will cut the process in half I'll pull from this side with you it weighs like seven holy wow okay you're set thank you yeah thank you so much thank you for coming in when you guys weren't open I really appreciate that that's the job oh hey Peter so this thing has hydraulic fluid in it so if you guys are going to lay it down in the car I'm gonna get you a towel to put under it oh okay oh yeah we can absolutely stand it up foreign how you doing this morning oh I'm fine this sucker is heavy oh I'm sure it is thank you Gretchen have fun at yoga thank you okay so this is super heavy yes I've noticed that you know what we can do is lay it down to get it in and then we can stand it up once we okay once we get it there oh that makes sense okay yeah [Music] okay my hand is underneath oh wait wait wait are you okay no oh oh this thing is We're not gonna do this no oh my God I'm freaking out because how are we going to get this out of here and two Oasis of Hope this cannot be happening right now good god well that was one of my worst ideas [Music] oh my goodness [Music] this sucker is heavy oh I'm sure it is I rented an industrial juicer to ramp up production so that we can make our 200 shots for the big rooted mobile event tomorrow I'm taking the evaluator there so I have to have everything perfect oh wait wait wait oh this thing is We're not gonna do this no good we're learning valuable lessons about what to do when I have an idea it wouldn't have mattered how we would have tried to do it it wasn't going to work would you know that's true yeah let's not do anything that we can't come back from um I was trying to load a juicer and dropped it and it's just smashed my hand we can't lift it by ourselves yeah can somebody help thank you so much okay I have always said Tacoma is kind strong but to see it on the street literally this is just one more piece of proof that I was supposed to be in Tacoma oh my goodness I so appreciate you all I am supposed to create this company and I am supposed to have my business principles of humanity first should have got a pickup truck I'm going to call ahead to have someone help us unload it really sorry about your hands it's okay honestly it's the least of my worries today this can't be my life oh okay you're amazing thank you so much my volunteer teammate Peter will have to start juicing on his own because we need 200 shots for tomorrow's rooted mobile event in Wright Park it's going to be the last stop on the rooted experience tour that I'm going to give the valuator my entire business has to be set up running including my ice cream truck which is being completely transformed by Aaron and rapjacks I believe in lean companies and so everyone on my team is working so hard and Aaron has a really difficult job right now so a good boss goes where she's needed and most importantly brings the coffee Monique I'm entering into a market that I haven't played in before and the reimagined ice cream truck is definitely what sets rooted apart and makes it a million dollar business concept I have to help Aaron get this done listen this was a hot mess today so Monique came to me four days ago and told me that we had to design build and install and deliver the interior of this ice cream truck it's a tight time frame you're just being so kind to me that I just want to like anything that I can manually physically do so that it's not left on you is what I you know I just want to support thank you Monique of course I appreciate you I really enjoy creative projects and I really liked her ideas so I was able to situate my schedule to help her out re-visualizing the ice cream truck thank you yeah thank you from the moment I met Aaron I was like oh he's like my type of business partner he's a hard worker by any means this year we're going to get it done all right so the idea is this we're using steel still wool okay steel wool and we're just rubbing it into the grain okay so not against just you can go uh any way you want under normal circumstances I take a lot of time to prepare all of the details just right but I am working with a limited budget a limited time schedule but that's not going to stop us if this is not what you do you just don't even think about all the things that have to like go into it I believe that even though I'm the CEO there is no job that's beneath me titles don't mean anything in business how's it look look great I will never ask anyone to do something that I wouldn't do myself what means something is collaborative effort you know that looks really good all right I'm gonna get this out of here okay look at Stella you like that Green carpet huh she's so beautiful she likes some stacks of things she likes sitting she likes layers sitting on Stacks he's your queen you are the queen Aaron's got this under control and I need to keep moving I have to get back to making 200 juice shots for tomorrow's event at Wright park it gets a little sticky in the cold yes there you go I didn't sell it okay [Music] hey Julia it's Monique how does everything look yeah it's really great and is it done no but they're they're tag team in it so there's one on each side oh I love it okay I'll try to see who I can have bring it out there so now that the panels for the ice cream truck are done I need to make sure that the truck gets from wrap Jacks back to Aaron's shop John has been key to making the ice cream truck a reality I know I can rely on him and I cannot be in more than one place at a time right now hey John it's Monique how are you I'm good question would you maybe pick up a wrapped rooted truck then go to Aaron's and drop everything off okay yeah thank you so much John okay from the moment I met John I was very attracted to the way that he dealt with his community I just knew that when I needed some support I called him because he really does care and it truly reminded me of my father who is no longer with me all right oh look look at you guys look at you all yes let's get these 200 shots done and out of here [Music] look at that oh wow that juice looks amazing tomorrow is the first day all three branches of the rooted business will be up and running retail fridges subscription deliveries and our mobile truck sales we need to make sure we have enough product to make a good impression on both our rooted family members and the valuator oh here we go now foreign ER around Tacoma to give a personal rooted experience hopefully this will allow rooted to hit the million dollar goal the wrap Jacks team dropped off my Jeep last night and they did an amazing job my rooted branding is perfection and I love it [Music] foreign I did this for us as women I did this for all the underdogs I did this challenge as a woman and a woman of color a black woman so that people will know that we are more than what Society keeps saying about everyone we are business people we are intellectual we are Community Driven and most importantly it's okay to create for-profit business models right now my priority is go to church just take a moment to myself I always turn to my faith when I need guidance or support faith is the essence of myself it is so important to who I am no matter what the challenge is or the obstacles it's so me that I would start such an important day by going to church because that's where I began my journey literally I met Pastor Christopher he helped me the first hour I was in Tacoma how long you been in Tacoma I just got here just got here you're my yes so I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and kind of out of my comfort zone I don't have family or friends here so what do you need to know he literally just heard what my problems were and he offered me Solutions so it started with Pastor Christopher [Music] I need to Center myself because I'm starting to get nervous three months of No Sleep of missing my kids and my family it's coming all down to today at this point all I can do is show a stranger all we've accomplished and put my faith and trust in God [Music] foreign [Music] super stuffy in here right now I'm like why do I act like I don't know my company I built in 90 days this is too much this is too much so it all comes down to this and I truly can't believe the amazing business that we've built in just 90 days I'm confident with the business plan that I've created but I definitely have some serious butterflies because so much is riding on this today if I can show the valuator that rooted is absolutely worth one million dollars yes I will hit my personal goal for the challenge but it will mean so much more to the community of Tacoma and to my investors that have believed in me and my vision for a mobile Wellness business and I don't want to let anyone down with no mouse yeah yeah okay all right thank you okay [Laughter] let's see what am I doing wrong the top stayed on oh did it oh it did here let me go get you another one that's weird let me see oh I see yes it definitely okay let me go get you another one thank you oh my God are you kidding me my name is Shelly Drury and I'm a CPA with a specialty in business valuation and forensic accounting there you go ultimately my job is to provide my opinion and not to tell people what they want to hear all right I'm going to pull this up well one of the obvious challenges with rooted is that it's a brand new business and it's a new business model that's good so the risk to Monique and rooted being successful is that she's starting the business during a pandemic and that she doesn't have a proven track record this is a startup and it's a business unlike any other business I have seen the reason it's a shot is so that you can get all the positive nutrients from the ginger and then everything else is built around the ginger we are definitely more than just G shots so rooted to me is the Milkman meets the reimagined ice cream truck meets kind of like the affiliate marketing of Mary Kay meets the Consciousness and fun of Ben and Jerry's does that yeah no it's fascinating I'm and you know there isn't a company like this and so I know it is kind of a lot of different layers to it but the reality is this is a mobile concept so that it could be accessibility for all because that's really important to me right first three to five years this is all about rooted as a national brand we we will not see the franchise model anytime soon okay so I got your business plan last night and thank you for preparing it and the forecast and so I did read a little bit but I I mean you know you're at your gross profit margin is quite high so I was wondering about how you're getting the fruit so that's such a we buy one it's called the ugly fruit so it's it's straight from the Harvest but they can't sell it to the grocery store but I also have an exclusivity deal with fartell Farms the difference I know there are multiple different revenue streams so I want to get a better understanding of what those look like we're gonna go do the whole rooted experience so fantastic it's a very disruptive model it's Innovative and when people who have to make decisions and evaluate something they have to base it on Research and then the numbers black and white paper is not enough in this case you know to be able to see someone's Vision especially if it's a startup and the rooted experience her coming with us to me it will be the difference of the million dollars or not first stop is one of our rooted vendors lift bridge coffee this is Miss Shelley hi how are you good good to meet you the way my mind thinks is how can I keep the cost of acquisition for customers down all the way you're not spread Tuesday this is so weird to me to not know anything about this lady I've never seen her resume but she's a professional and I knew that from the moment I met her I also take what I do very serious thank you Jess thank you she's going to be evaluating my company is she going to like this is she not you know tell her I said thank you [Music] what type of flavor do you like I'll make some for you I love lemon I love lemon okay Citrus I love that you love Citrus I've hit the road with Shelly the valuator to give her the first hand rooted experience so far she has seen our business plan and she's met one of our partnership vendors but you know she's really all business so I'm definitely not sure how this is all going to pan out my whole strategy with Shelly is to show her how rooted can positively impact people's lives and become a profitable business model right now I'm on my way to introduce her to two of my rooted subscribers who have been a part of Dr Marconi's 21 day research study so I could do a really good blood orange it's a little time consuming just because the pulp is a little thick so the risk to Monique and rooted being successful is one that she's starting the business during a pandemic secondly that she doesn't have a proven track record this is a startup and it's a business unlike any other business I have seen and so those are just those are just built-in risk factors that makes me doubtful I'm an unbiased third party coming in and at the end of the day it's always about the numbers it has to be we are going to deliver shots to Molly and Mary who are having some health issues and so they wanted to be a part of a study Dr Marconi who will meet later did a deep dive in their blood work and then for 21 days they've done three shots a day you know the way I feel about Molly and Mary and anyone else is we all have people that we care about that have these stories and the fact that they want this I just want to keep growing it the home delivery model it's a super important concept here in Tacoma especially when covet happened that people are not out and about there's a huge Market opportunity here because right now we need our immunity systems to be good so I'm bringing Wellness to every Hi how are you oh welcome back again yeah come on I got some new flavors for you all nice yeah I did a um a kale honey crisp Ginger so and this one's carrot Apple this one's pumpkin how are you all feeling great if I did two a day the first week but I noticed energy level went up and then I went to three a day because I can handle it so your body gets used to that spice because I have osteoarthritis severe knee and hip and they both need to be replaced at some time I was able to mow the front and the back without any issues or any pain and I yeah but I felt great fantastic this makes me so happy yeah and you just keep consistent with it okay thank you thank you I appreciate you both okay take care every week I pick up their bottles this is the first time ever that Mary walked and came outside it's the difference yeah so now we're going to see Dr Marconi so we can get the results of the 21 Day study but this is Dr Marconi's right here even though we're not a medical company I did think it was super important to be able to continue to show that it does impact positively it doesn't make me happy that I'm getting these results in front of Shelley but they literally just came in in my real life I would absolutely know this information before bringing in a valuator but this 90-day challenge does not permit that I'm praying that the changes we saw in Mary and Molly are visible in the science for them and all the participants I'm Shelly Drury nice to meet you a positive result from this study will not only give rooted a crucial competitive advantage in the marketplace but it will also go a long way towards getting this million dollar valuation okay have you talked to Molly and Mary I brought them in yesterday to get blood work done to see where their health is was Priceless yes so that's what I'm going to share with you guys today okay cool let's do this we do the 21 Day study specifically on this one we did the heart because all cardiovascular issues is inflammation of the arteries and I wanted to show you um what they were before and then what they were after and you can see both of them decreased and that's just three weeks this is three weeks glucose wow a drop substantially so we all know our good cholesterol our bad cholesterol triglycerides this we want this to go up and they both increased which is awesome pretty significant significantly yeah oh this is just the beginning thank you so much for putting this together it wasn't that was really you went above and beyond yes I am beyond excited at Dr Marconi's results I can use this study to distinguish rooted from our competitors okay bye ladies thank you babe I think Shelly's actually warming up to root it and I think she's impressed so I'm hoping that she sees that while we may be a startup we have absolutely done the work to ensure that this company expands and goes beyond a million dollar valuation our last stop is right park Aaron has just finished the new rooted truck and I haven't seen the final product yet our teammates volunteering have stocked the truck for our mobile event and this will be my last chance to prove to Shelley to prove to Tacoma that this company is rooted in success for the Long Haul thank you so what else is happening what are we doing next so we're gonna go to Wright Park and we'll see the rooted ice cream truck in action we're at the last stop for the valuation the rooted truck this is the moment of truth I need Shelly to see how profitable Rudy can be but also and most importantly how impactful rude it can be to the city of Tacoma I still have no idea what Shelly is thinking she has a poker face and there's just no way to tell if root it resonates with her or not red carpet yeah baby one of my primary questions from Monique is how can you do this and make money step right up how can I get you from rooted oh this looks so good oh my gosh this is the first time I'm seeing the completed rooted truck unbelievable this is so amazing shot shot shot shot shot shot shot rap Jacks gave the outside some rooted branding that looks super amazing while Aaron created a custom interior oh wait so John is this is John John and I don't have a formal partnership at the moment but I am very interested in having him part of the rooted team he has almost two decades of experience of owning the largest Fleet of ice cream trucks in the state of Washington he has a way with people and that makes him really approachable and I want Shelly to hear from someone that is from the community who believes in what we're doing here at rooted that one's pineapple this one's pumpkin for children buying their first popsicle is their first experience in spending their own money with an ice cream truck so that so it starts at an early age for people what's it taste like doing it this way with two shots a powerful thing you know most of the businesses I value have a history and so it is difficult to value a business that's in startup mode that has no proof of concept my experience today has helped me marry the financials with the experience of this business and some of the questions that I had about the projection were answered by this process and where she wants to see this company go and in the Strategic partners that she has brought along the way thank you for coming over appreciate it bye sweetie bye you're welcome we sold so many shots and I could not be prouder of the team everyone pitched in to make today happen I'm hoping that Shelley's rooted experience was positive and informative enough to give us that million dollar valuation how ever there's still one big step in the process I'm going to gather everyone together and tell them I'm not who they actually think I am and trust me I'm more worried about that than I am about this final valuation [Music] the valuation day is finally over Shelly has our business plan and has been through the entire rooted experience and whether the company gets valued at over a million dollars or not it is completely out of my hands I've invited everyone who's helped me build rooted to a dinner at Point Rustin whoa tonight I'm about to do my reveal to people and tell them who I really am I have anxiety about it because like are people gonna be mad because like they feel like I wasn't honest with them or like I wasn't trustworthy what I was worried about in the beginning was losing a challenge then it became more about I want to make Tacoma proud I want the people of Tacoma to know that they're valuable and I know this is about the valuation but the top of the mountain for me was the Alex's the tawanas the Victoria's the Johns every person and that's what I was fighting for [Music] oh I'm so tired thank you for being so patient today was quite the day with Rudy thank you Tacoma thank you to all of you I have I have truly been here for 90 days but I feel like I just have like a whole family here the people in this room and a couple people who couldn't make it rooted exists because of all of you I was so happy that these cameras were there to follow because day after day after day it was literally nothing but kindness John when I first went to go look at his ice cream truck he was just like what is this little girl over here asking me about and he saw I really just have this dream thank you thank you Jess to this day you've never said what is Rudy gonna do for me like you literally are always just giving and thank you because I know you work really hard so when I first came here 90 days ago Tawana let me stay at her house you literally opened up your home to me you and your your children like I'm about to cry I'm trying okay I like I missed my I had missed my children and and it was hard but when I was at her house I actually didn't want to leave her house was like a comfort for me um Alex I ate food because you gave me cash you would bag up fruit and without trying to make me feel bad you would like make I'm sorry okay it's okay let it out yeah so I just want to thank you for that um okay stop you're about to make me cry again this is really really difficult because I didn't want to lie to anyone and I was lying every single day you all should know [Music] um I my name is not Monique Lanae what I'm sorry just I wasn't planning for hold on [Music] um my my name is not Monique lynnea what I'm sorry account I wasn't planning for that hold on a tissue is there tissue okay so I got a girl I got it and I'm tired I haven't slept in two days I'll blame it on that where are you you here's the truth my real name is Monique idlett Mosley that's my real name I was the first woman and the youngest executive ever at USA Today that's how I started my career when I met my now ex-husband he and I built one of the more successful music labels that's still around I'm home to like Timberland Nelly Furtado Chris Cornell OneRepublic Carrie Hilson that goes on and on and on wow I was the executive music producer in fashion and the fashion consultant for Empire for three seasons right I knew there was something extra special about you I knew it I knew it I knew it and then three years ago I started my own Tech fund for 25 million dollars in which we have a lens on women and people of color and this room is so diverse it's so inclusive and the companies that I want to see being built literally it looks it's this and so that's the reason why I took this challenge of build a million dollar business in 90 days I had to give up my identity I could not use my own personal Network and I don't have access to my money that was a challenge but you know what it's the 90th day and here we go here we are and I didn't give up because you all supported me I want women and in particular people of color to know that we're valuable our ideas are valuable and you all truly truly gave me that opportunity and Michael and Don thank you so much for truly being the example your money literally made the difference of what we were able to do I want everyone to know this though who I am who you all know that's just who I am only thing that's not me is the name I gave you off and they're going to continue yeah this is our business no this rooted is real rooted is for Tacoma by Tacoma root is not going anywhere I just hope no one's offended none of this was about offending anyone well I know you were suspect the first day I met you right figure out though I'm very shocked I I am very proud because he's like no but your heart thank you babe well I used to say that I never knew who was going to walk through the door and it was a lot of surprises this has been this this whole experience has been a a pleasant journey on how to believe in someone else's dream because we've all had dreams and we need people to to support them and it doesn't really matter where you're coming from where you've been grown still people that's right I think I'm just trying to say that that thank you foreign I mean it's it's in true Tacoma fashion that you would actually thank me when fruit it's only here because of all of you all thank you [Applause] I think I've always wanted to know someone that has that type of power and that actually does something with it that's meaningful like she did I had a selfish moment like I got to be a part of something that's way bigger that will hopefully Inspire and make sure that people know that their ideas aren't going to be dismissed I love you I love you too I'm kind of excited there is a transition in this journey I don't know that anyone can't say this hasn't been at a very intense time oh there she is thank you we learned a lot in a really short period of time that's surprising and we're feeling pretty good about our investment I guess well but I was not planning on getting so emotional I was like oh my gosh you know I was really worried about people being mad and not trusting me but I don't feel like that happened tonight it meant a lot to me to like know that I forever have like this extended family now I still have rooted team members to meet with and a launch party to plan and most importantly I have to find out if rooted has hit the million dollar valuation so as much as I wanted to enjoy the huh exhale the challenge itself was create a company from a hundred dollars to a million dollar evaluation and if I don't then I had to personally put it the million dollars into the company my personal money is at stake that's a big deal I'm headed to Aaron's he has found out about what happened at the reveal and um he really really isn't too happy Aaron was invited and he couldn't make it but he hasn't spoken to me you know I haven't talked to him yet so I wish he would have been there last night because I don't think anyone was offended once I was able to explain everything I'm saying like I just didn't want people to think that I wasn't trustworthy I guess I wasn't prepared for this I have a lot of anxiety right now because it's just like you know this is what I was like this is what I was afraid of you ready for the Stella I don't know all the details but what I found out was Monique is not starting a juice business called rooted but is uh a a wealthy individual and um is a part of a TV show the the premise is uh more of a gotcha idea rather than helping an individual start a small business I'm Monique how are you I'm okay how are you I'm good I'm very emotional yeah yeah last night was a lot oh but I really wish you would have been there last night yeah I don't know if I would have handled that well really I think we're I think we're gonna have a seat over here oh okay I feel like my my time and my skills were abused uh outright I found out yeah a little bit about the um the announcement and um I do work in the community um I really care about it I'm disappointed and I'm hurt my initial heartbreak was um well who you know what kind of person would take you know someone's someone's energy and their skill and their their heart um for for no for nothing foreign I did not come here with malice but I do understand that you feel like you've been lied to you feel manipulated your stress levels how difficult it was to be on camera every day yeah no all that time and energy going to something that didn't mean anything and um and I didn't you know I understand that I didn't come here and then like we're ending and then I'm not keeping rooted here rooted is here I'm going to employ people I wanted people to be inspired it was never to offend anyone it was only to be an example but more importantly to actually create an ecosystem here for Tacoma I appreciate your um explanation um I I care about the same things you care about um I I want to find out why this would be a motivating thing to do uh in lieu of just helping the community you're right could I have helped out Tacoma without the cameras for sure the only reason I actually got to know about Tacoma is because of this show because I didn't I didn't even know where I was going they really only gave me a hundred dollars I literally could not use my connections my I didn't even have my phone I took my credit card like they took everything so I said you know this is an opportunity for me to show and inspire people that no matter what is going on no matter where you come from that you can still ask people and tell people what you need that is the premise of the show and you happen to be one of the people who literally became the person who was like I'm gonna help you and that is the kindness is what I had to rely on and for me that's what this show is about the show is about showcasing even in tough times when someone has nothing even when people don't know this person we all have the same value system I'm glad rooted is is something that exists in the community it is real and I and the reason I created it is real too like that's to me that's the most important thing and in fact you know ever since I've met you you know I've been like how does Aaron fit into like the rooted like on a permanent like you know basis I want to make sure that exclusively you have the right to build out every truck and do a profit share Revenue based on each truck's profits I would love like to be able to like say you're my CMO my chief manufacturing officer you know doing build the exclusive build outs and I definitely want to compensate you for um everything you did for me hopefully this is enough you know what I'm saying I wanted to give you the five thousand dollars to um that's really generous no you no you've been generous uh this morning I was uh never going to trust a Juice Maker again um but uh I know it wasn't easy to deceive so many people all those little uh details of that conversation give me a lot a lot of Hope and it makes me proud of her do you feel better I feel a lot of relief right now okay I can breathe because I'm not gonna lie I was super scared to come in here I like was like oh my God but I knew I had to do it I'm glad you did I appreciate your spirit I appreciate also our conversations and who you are as a person all right and and thank you because I really do I really really love who you are and I want you to know that those conversations were all genuine oh I feel so much better that was that was tough I don't like conflict so you got me man I'm not going nowhere like you got to deal with me now that's great the whole goal is for this impact to last in this community there is an entire group of people who helped make this happen that I'm super appreciative to and they will beat all the top Executives here at rooted and that's how I believe that company should be built [Music] Jessica of all the people in the room she was happy but she's also still feeling like um can I trust you no one wants to be lied to no one wants to be in a position where they feel like they're being taken advantage of and for me that's why it's so important that each person understands what the plan is for the future and why this is so important to me and why they've become so important to me so how do you feel um when I found out and I googled you I mean I just wanted to see what you were about and then it really did solidify what I already thought I don't like deception and I know that that was like the goal but it it was just hard to process listen I think that even though I knew the premise of the show yeah I didn't understand it until I was in it but the reason I kept doing it is not because of the challenge but because of Tacoma and because of how great everyone was to me so for that I'm just super proud I'm actually really amazing like I'm excited to keep it here I'm very proud of your shots you know I've been selling them they've been selling great thank you um the refrigerator makes a big deal it makes a big difference you gave so much help and support I want to just like pay you for do I get another thank you card I just want to give you a five thousand dollar check just for all your support and you were the first person to like go out here trying to tell people about rooted like I really appreciate that that's very nice tiny token though I really do appreciate you and so one of the things that I actually would love for you to do if you would be willing is I'm creating a Tacoma fund wow and I'm gonna put 50 000 of my own money into it it's for small business um support I love it it's just an opportunity for people to to get their dreams met yeah that's what I like to do introduce people to people that would mean a lot to me would it yes mostly women yeah Tony gave me a check give me a five thousand dollar check for participating and believing in her which is extremely appreciated but I think that the biggest thing that she gave to me what means the most to me is being part of the board and creating a leadership group for Tacoma and for the entrepreneurs here to keep that going thank you I'm glad you're not mad I appreciate this I'm not mad soon I will find out the value of rooted and whether I made my million dollar goal I'm dying to know that number not so much for me anymore but because I want the people in this community to know the magnitude of what we've built I knew we had a thing we did we have a thing foreign [Music] so I mean the challenge was can you take a hundred dollars in a town you don't know where you're going to and turn it into a million dollar business we'll we'll find out what a professional evaluator thinks of the business I'm actually so tired that I actually thought I would be a lot more energized for this but I'm actually that tired I'm just like at this point I'm just like go root it go root it I was worried day one when I met Shelly I was nervous she's a very nice woman she really is but her face is like um so I don't know that she understood the rooted experience honestly I really didn't know the celebrator of employees only I hope Shelly gives the rooted a great valuation if not I had to personally put the million dollars into the company I'm just oh pull it together energy okay of course I would want money to go into the company but because I wanted it to not because I lost something something or because someone felt like there wasn't value there so everything's at stake because at the end of the day who wants to be told how to spend their dollar so I'm going to bring you into our conference room [Music] so you can have a seat right there oh thank you you're welcome we'll start with some of the challenges I think that the business faces is of course starting a new business in the environment that we're in now I think a challenge is a temptation to grow too quickly or to franchise potentially too early but we made it very clear that that was not your intention your intention is to grow slowly methodically and get it right get a lean model right before you think about expanding but not closing the doors to those opportunities one of the obvious challenges is that you're a brand new business with no track record so you're a startup that you know has some has a lot to figure out but what I first thought was a red flag uh is your gross profit margin and so I initially thought you know maybe there's something I'm missing here or maybe there's something wrong and then I got to meet you and I got to ask those tough questions and say you know how are you projecting 84 gross profit and that's when I really started to understand the business because you were so transparent with me right another thing that I think is is a real strength of your business is that you have multiple revenue streams and I think a huge strength is your strategic team I spent some time researching you have been thank you in my opinion incredibly strategic on the partners that you've brought in which I think is really the key to the success of your business I truly enjoyed my time with you I really did I felt like we had such a great rapport [Laughter] and so you really were able to communicate to me and help me understand what your business is all about what your mission is and where you want to see this company going right but at the end of the day it's about the numbers right absolutely I only projected growth at three percent okay it's important for me to be objective and it's important for me to be conservative right if you're able to sustain this model and meet your projections it's my opinion that this business today I would put a value on this business today of one million one hundred and fifty two thousand dollars really give me a hug can I hug you oh my God congratulations thank you one million 152 000. I'm going to take a second just just like digest because I'm I'm so tired right now this has been such a difficult 90 days that I'm just so mentally and physically like in I I transitioned my mind from like worrying about what the value of the company was and more about what value am I bringing to Tacoma that I on the way here I literally was like I don't whatever it is it just is and then we'll just keep building so I'm about to get emotional but I'm sorry so to actually have that valuation and I'm sorry I'm just do you have tissue I'm sorry uh right here right here think of yourself and and like I am a competitive person and so you know I was so worried about the revenue model but I do care about people first and so if you you care about people first and how you're impacting them then you can you really can build a profitable business model I think we get to redefine the American dream I can sleep peacefully tonight thank you I need a good night's rest oh my goodness I slept so good last night honestly this is the first night that I've slept uninterrupted peacefully and I'm finally rested I'm looking forward to the rooted launch party but first I need to meet with some of the special people who have helped me on this journey I'm heading to Shiloh Baptist Church to thank Pastor Christopher he keeps saying I've already thanked him but I just wanted to let him know how much I actually have appreciated his support hey Pastor how are you I'm well it was a bit nippy out there I'm good do you remember what you said to me when I stopped I just remember discussing like being new here and needing somewhere to stay oh yeah you know use much more blunt than that I'm divorced I'm from California and I'm homeless [Laughter] and some just told me to roll with it roll with it yeah Susan Okay help her out I do want to just um give you back you know the money that you spent on the hotel and then also just give you a five thousand dollar check to I know you help the community out a lot wow but I just definitely appreciate you Pastor thank you wow I can't believe that this is crazy yeah this is sermon material believe me she gave me five thousand dollars yeah thank you I appreciate you thank you hopefully God will let me bump into another Monique [Music] so I'm heading to Tawana Nobles you know her children have been working for rooted and supporting rooted and um she's the reason I met Sloan she's the reason I met Victoria I mean he goes on and on and on and on the fourth most sweater it's really cool thank you I got this from um don't say Mr mags [Laughter] twana Nobles is a super qualified CEO and for rooted she is the key to remaining competitive and increasing the bottom line I would be so honored to be able to like give you a point of the company um have you be co-ceo with me because I know you can't commit to a full-time and then a competitive salary you know to make sure that you have your needs met and then some you know hmm you'll be emotional right now what what listen you know they don't want to because you're like me we don't show a lot of emotions right I don't want oh gosh I think I just have a whole lot like going on right now I love you though I am very surprised with the offer it is a welcome surprise because I love rooted and the potential for rooted but also it helps me to solidify necessary plans you know for my future and for my family hello I've been so appreciative how supportive the two of you have been it's rooted so I wanted to give you each a thousand dollars to add to your savings to foreign that's how I felt all the help you give me now you have two thousand dollars yes yes I don't know this kind of sad it's over now it's not over though how are you gonna run it like how this route is gonna keep going I you know we have to run it very late meaning as low cost as possible from an operating side and definitely both of you have jobs at rooted oh nice [Music] I'm ready whenever yes this experience with Monique and rooted has taught them you stick with it I mean they're I'm sure blown away just like I am at what one person can do in a brand new place when they set their mind to it I stay a boss that's right bossity bossity box to me it's the best thing if you can build a successful business with your family and friends that's like the dream we're family now we root it we are literally rooted [Music] foreign [Music] launch party is tonight but first I have to meet with John who owns all City ice cream trucks no matter what I call John with and no matter how last minute sometimes it would be he always made a way to support us from the day we met I really you know John and I really just clicked and I I think he saw something of me and I I saw something special in him John yeah there's espresso there's no sugar no cream in it thank you cheers like maybe cheers when I came here the first time when I met you and I think it might have been the morning and now I've learned you're just not that light lets you have your coffee first right yeah yeah coffee is a big part of my day for sure yep mine too but you were like that gentle giant you know what I'm saying like there really truly is no rooted without your support and that has definitely meant the most to me I like to provide people with opportunities you're the one who actually shared with me listen popsicles and I was like oh bet I'm about to start making them yeah you remind me of my father actually yes you do you know you're just the master of operation and Rudy would be so happy for you to come on as like a CEO and get a vested interest you know get one percent in the company and let us keep scaling it scaling it scaling it okay and you know I would be so happy to have you a part of rooted it just would mean the world to me that's awesome thank you John thank you thank you um I'm experiencing a happiness that my bet on you to succeed wow worked out wow that means a lot that means a lot she offered to make me a partner you know in the rooted as the CEO which is I'm super honored for that yeah yeah you were very important to my journey here thank you China is very special he said I bet on you like and I appreciate that because he really did you bet on me there is no rooted there is no uh reimagining ice cream trucks without John he is the distribution and the logistics side he's been driving through these streets Pierce King County for 15 years logistically the communities that's absolutely one of the most important things [Music] foreign it's finally here I'm throwing a party for the whole rooted team and the community that has helped to thank them for their hard work you look super Dapper as per usual good to see you this is my white family over there Hello nice to meet you I'm a little nervous the mayor of Tacoma is coming tonight and she still doesn't know who I really am how are you I'm good how are you I'm good Hi how are you Monique nice to meet you can we go talk please ma'am yes ma'am that sounded serious we missed you the other night you know how hurt I was that I couldn't be there I know you were so no I'm really sad I missed it so now I like I want to know what happened I kind of went through the room and said to everyone like a big thank you and so I also shared with them pretty much everything I said to you is true okay with the exception of my last name okay not Monique Lanae no technically no I'm not okay um my last name is idlit Mosley okay and my ex-husband is Timberland the music producer I have heard that name before like I am spent almost a little over two decades in the music industry and about eight years ago I started Angel Investing and then about three years ago I started my own Tech fund I started a 25 million dollar fund to invest in women and people of color so then who are all of so this is a production company that works with Discovery Channel that's who's been in my city all these months and the show itself is called undercover billionaire are you serious very serious but but rooted is real for Tacoma and you're a real person yes absolutely okay okay okay okay I'm I'm okay okay so I'm like as this is unfolding okay which means you are I am a part of this fabric now okay so that makes me happy yes that makes me super happy like it's all kind of sinking in the fact that you would leave your family that was I'm telling you that was to take this journey not for you because you didn't have to do this it speaks more volumes than anything you said because I believe you can talk a lot but it's what you do and from day one you said you were gonna make this happen and we are sitting here today and it has happened I love you thank you I love you you really were the difference oh my God I'm at a loss for words it doesn't happen very often but I'm just I'm honored be able to have the world see my city in this way and what you can become what you can do and she did it here it doesn't get any better than that [Music] now we're seeing all of our hard work off we go come to realization the rooted truck has been out for Community engagement and for us it's all about the food deserts we have also now implemented for every product purchase we donate a product to an underserved community and family and we are working on a partnership with the local nine Anthem coffee shops my idea is to scale through franchise and e-commerce and then extend out to King County and then five ten years from now I expect this to be a very large Global brand [Music] I see human beings and I see myself in them as women leaders we have to make sure intentionally to grow businesses together I did it proudly and I learned and I was willing to kind of kick those doors open for us to me that is my most amazing success and I'm so glad that I did it

Channel: Finance, Business and Investing

Views: 613,311

Keywords: undercover billionaire, grant cardone, get rich, undercover billionaire season 2, undercover billionaire glenn stearns, undercover billionaire grant cardone, glenn stearns, discovery channel, how to become a millionaire, monique idlett undercover billionaire, monique idlett-mosley undercover billionaire, undercover billionaire monique idlett valuation, monique idlett

Id: PVBCgwZ2MCs

Length: 343min 11sec (20591 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 30 2022