SPEAKER_01 1:48

Welcome to the Hilltop Glove Podcast, where we bring you interviews with inspiring individuals making a positive difference in their communities. Our guest today is Marcus Hammond, co-founder and COO of the Movers and Shakers Mix and founder of the Black Food Black Food Truck Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. After being recruited to play basketball at the College of Charleston in 2004, Hammond fell in love with the city's vibrant food scene and culture and decided to stay after graduating with a degree in business administration. Hammond's passion for community engagement and showcasing the contribution of Black culture and food led him to create the Black Food Truck Festival, a semi-annual event that highlights local Black owned businesses and offers a variety of cuisines, live music, and family-friendly activities. The festival has been a huge success and has inspired Hammond to expand to other cities with prominent black food scenes. Join us as we discuss Hammond's journey and the impact of the Black Food Truck Festival on the community. Thank you for joining us today. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

I'm good, man. How you doing?

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Man, I'm excellent, y'all. This is my brother right here. This is what y'all know, man. I can't even lie. This is my partner right here, y'all. Yes. DJ. Man, y'all better know we did business for years in Charleston. Yep. Um, working those that bar scene, making life happen, making people have a good time. Yeah. I like hearing people talk about it on Facebook. It'd be funny to hear people talk about it. They enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

They talk about that still, too. Because you know, you talk about it. They were college students and we were like just graduating. And so they were able to have somewhere to go.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

That's really what it was. It's about providing a safe alternative to some of these ratchet places that they could go to, even though we would be in some of them ratchet places that time. All the time.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

And listen, yeah, yeah, listen, this is really my brother. This is 2000. First time I did an event was 2010. Uh in college, I I went to a, I think it was a probate.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

And I saw our brother just had the crowd rocking, DJing. I said, man, if I ever throw a party, that's who I'm rocking with. And so, man, I had the idea to throw an event and I went and found him. I was like, yo, on wire, we rocking. I was like, I ain't got no money, but like as soon as I get some money, man, like I give it to you. Like, we're just gonna go in here, we're gonna make it work. It was just us two. You know, we just I put out a lot of flowers. That time you could write on everybody's Facebook wall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No problems. Holler at everybody, man. So I always appreciate you for that, brother.

unknown 4:09

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Solid, man, not a problem, solid. Because I tell most folks I don't do business with a lot of people because you can't trust everybody that you do business with, but always knew you were solid, never an issue. I would always even ask Skip Skip until y'all call him, be like, yo, does this make sense? We do this? This makes right. This is you say, Yeah, that's no idea. We had no idea what we were doing. I remember like the first time we had to have security. Yep. And we actually were lucky enough. Shouts out to Big Josh. Yep. Um looked out for us, and then we even had a marine. Yep. And I remember the serious about it. That's what I'm trying to tell people. We were official. A while ago. We did everything properly. And Danny, man. Come on, man. Shouts out Danny, but they held us down. Um, we had a really good time, we had a really good time of opening up Charleston downtown to a black urban lifestyle, like nightlife. It hadn't existed before. It was actually kind of strange when we first started doing it. I remember, um, and this is side stuff, we're gonna jump into this, but we started seeing a lot of the DJs and folks from North Charleston, et cetera, coming downtown. And it used to blow my mind. I was like, what y'all doing here?

SPEAKER_00 5:18

And you know what was so crazy about is because you know, you and I live, we lived on the east side.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

And so we would put in work and finding these venues. And I think what the thing was, was they didn't know that like it was accessible. So it was like they weren't coming downtown at all. Then when they saw that these venues were accessible, you know, you had a few people here and there. They started saying, Oh, I can do business at Taste Tie or O'Malley's or King Street Grill. King Street Grill or the Hippodrome. Yep, Hippodrome. From a whole different dynamic, it was seriously, it's not like we were at the Hippodrome.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

I remember this era. I know you had to watch them, but I remember that it was and you know the thing was it for for people that are not familiar with like how this DJ thing works, most bars, the key is to rotate people on and off the dance floor. Yeah. So in South Carolina, that means what they call the bah hop. Yeah. So you start playing, you know, what's what's whatever's hot, hot, hot at the time, yeah, and everybody gets really hype on it, and all of a sudden, pour some sugar on me, or the devil come down a gorgeous, come on, and half the dance floor leaves and goes to get a drink. That's intentional. But you were consistently running it. And people knew that.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

And they were like, yo, you gotta go to this thing. That's not like purpose, the whole thing to describe, like, and it's every was every bar downtown. Yeah, I think everybody's kind of like a little bit more modernized now.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Yeah, which is good. So I mean it still does kind of work away.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

They opening up a little bit, you know, downtown, but you know, we're trying to head towards ownership. But we ain't gonna dive too much into the colour.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

We didn't know we didn't give y'all that we can get into that a little bit later. Just so when we're talking, y'all understand, okay, why does it sound like they know each other? That's why. Yeah. So um, just to start off, we always start off our episodes with a little background history of each guest so that that way the audience can get to know who you are, what you do, et cetera, where you come from. Because um, specifically for this episode, it's important that they know where you came from. If you could just tell them about your childhood and what it was like growing up in Tennessee.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Well, I grew up in Memphis. Some people in Memphis will tell you I didn't grow up in Tennessee.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

I grew up in Memphis.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Uh and Memphis is different from the rest of Tennessee. It's Memphis, it's David Ruffin, and the temptation is Memphis, and then it's the rest of Tennessee. So I grew up in Memphis, man. Uh, my mom, dad, sister, uh, traditional household, man. We had a good time, big on family. I always tell people my mom is one of 10 and my dad is one of six. So it's a lot of a lot of family, it's a big family, a real big family, uh, a real tight-knit family. Uh, that's how I grew up. I grew up in a black neighborhood. Uh, high school was 99% black. Um, it wasn't lost on me to see black excellence in Memphis. Yeah. Black mayor, you know, I had a black dentist. And so, you know, that was normal to me.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

I remember when you told me that, I was like, yo, you're crazy.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Yeah, it was that was that was normal. So when I came here, it was a little bit different. Uh it was definitely a culture shock. Um, but I grew up in Memphis, man. I love it. Memphis is that's always gonna be home. Charleston is home, but Memphis is also home. Always.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Excellent. And can you tell people what it was like um specifically for you? Because you you a ball player and you were playing ball there, and then coming here, what the culture was like being a black ball player athlete, coming from from Memphis to Charleston, your experience that changed. Because we used to we used to discuss this a lot with a lot of the folks who were coming in, because you would look out for the for the young folk coming into um the College of Charleston, specifically the the basketball players, to make sure they had a good understanding of where they were coming to in the city that day.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Right. So for me, um So I I did what they did a prep year, they call it a postgrad year um up in New Hampshire at a prep school called um Brewster Academy, Wolfburgh, New Hampshire. So when I made that transition from being in Memphis to going to a predominantly white school, white, Asian, it was only like 15 or 20 black kids out of 500 students. For me, I knew that that was temporary. It was only gonna be a year. So then coming to the College of Charleston to play basketball, knowing I was gonna be there for the next four or five years, that was a big culture shock. I always said that I'm going back to Memphis as soon as I graduate. And it's ironic because 20 years later I'm still here. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, the best thing that happened, especially for the students at the time, especially basketball players, you had to go to Spectra. I don't know if you remember. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Yeah, Spectra. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

So you so and what Spectra is, is it's a way for minority students to all know each other before they step foot on campus.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

So you have group cohesion community, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

So you have a community. So, you know, you take a summer class, you take two classes, and they have you do a bunch of stuff to learn a camp campus, learn a bunch of other students and where they come from. And then that way, when school starts in the fall, you already kind of acclimated, you already kind of got a tribe.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Boom.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

And we hated it at the time because you know, other friends, the summer before their freshman year, they're doing whatever they want to do. Chilling. And we have all these rules and this, that, and the third. But did it help me from a community standpoint as a student? But as an athlete, we got a chance to really get to know a lot of the black kids on campus that we would have never met.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

True.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

In that regard, it was easy to kind of come in and already, you know, have somewhat of a tribe. But then when you get to class, as you know, going to college of Charleston, it's just different. It's a real culture shot going to a PWI. But after a couple years, man, I I had some I had a real good time um being an athlete, getting to know a lot of people, kind of settling in and like learning about Charleston. Because for so long you stay on the peninsula, you don't leave. You know, really getting out of the city and going to different games and like really learning the community. I'm so happy I came here.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Man, that's that's good to hear too, because I I when I first got here, um one of the things that I understood was that you have to know the locals. And I remember Kevin explained that to me. He was like, Yeah, there's locals and then there's other people. I said, What's the what's that mean? What do you mean the locals and other people? He said, When you're on that campus and you're downtown, the campus is not what the rest of the city is like. And I remember having to uh um learned that through Spectre because you know how they give you those boundaries and stuff. So places to go where you can't go. Look, they used to scare us. I'm not gonna lie, you can't go over here. Yeah, man. They go there trying to scare us saying we were gonna get raped and everything, men and women included. I said, What are y'all talking about? These regular people live here like that. So um when when I when I came here, I had to understand, okay, I need to get and understand who the people are here that are living here. Because the funny thing is, and as well, you already know, I have family from Charleston. I got I have folks um in Charleston that are my family members. I have family members in Georgetown, South Carolina, between the two cities, that's where our people were dropped off on the boat. That's where we're from. So um I couldn't be ignorant of the fact that the culture that was on the campus is not the culture of the city. Right. So to get to learn that culture and be a part of it, be in the community, work in the community, etc. Um, it was it was something that I think that I always cherished. And I I was always happy to do it because um anything that was happening in the community, any work in the community, I do it for free. And that was the big thing. Um people knew that about it. They were like, yo, if you need something, give my work, blah, blah, blah, he'll come and he'll make it happen. Um, and that was just coming from that's something that Kevin and I growing up, that's how we were always raised. You go out and you you serve in your community, you make sure you're a part of your community. Um, and that does lead us into asking, and this is funny. So I don't have to moderate this question. So you seem to have a niche for bringing people together, right? Would you consider yourself an event planner or just a facilitator or man?

SPEAKER_00 12:48

That's a good question. Right. Um funny, like, you know, I can create events for myself, but I think an event planner, they they they pretty much do it all. They they curate everything. I think I have a goal and I see where uh something is missing, and then I go and try to fulfill that void. So for me, I don't I I couldn't even really answer that question to be honest. Like maybe an event planner. Um, I guess that's what people would call it when you when you put the level of to kind of box it in. But um, I love events, man. I love seeing people have a good time. Um, so I don't know, man. Maybe a facilitator, maybe a get it doneer. Like, I don't I couldn't, I couldn't even really box myself in like that. I know that I'll be doing events probably for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah, you can't get out of it now. I can't get no branded as it is. I'm in it. I'm in it.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

You know, um, it's something that when I look back on my history, it's something that my family has always done. And I'll know that part. Yeah, yeah. And and and and not in a monetized way. So, you ever seen Soul Food? Y'all seen Soul Food, Big Mama House every Sunday? Well, my mama was that person. She cooked every single Sunday. So, you know, there was no less than eight to ten people at my house on a Sunday. Makes sense. Yeah, every summer, like to this day, you know, the summer holidays, your Memorial Day, Labor Day, Fourth of July.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Oh, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

My dad barbecues and he cooks, and we have people over. Anybody can come over, get a plate. You know, all the kids are over, all the families over. Like, it's been like that since I was a kid. And so when I think about how I got into this and pretty much serving and hosting, because they weren't doing it for money or asking people to bring food. But you knew every every summer, every year, if it's Labor Day, if it's especially Fourth of July, my pops is gonna throw something on the grill. Everybody's gonna come over to the house, even to this day. So I kind of grew up with that in mind, and now that hospitality is booming the way it is in Charleston, it's like, why not monetize it and do it not only for the love, but get paid to do it as well.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Yes, yeah. And it makes it makes a lot of sense. I'm not even gonna lie, I remember when when we first started um working and you were doing um events and et cetera. The one thing I always would notice is like, yo, Mark's like, yo, man, just come over to the house.

unknown 14:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, man, just come over and have some shit. I got such and such come over, but whatever. We got some food on the thing, so just kick that. I said, what?

SPEAKER_02 15:02

Yeah, I said, what?

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Because I'm not used to hearing other people say that outside of outside of my brother. Like, there ain't nobody else doing that. And I said, he's used to doing this. And I remember when you explained he explained to being in your family and your mother and stuff. I said, Oh, this is normal for him.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yeah, it's community, man. That's community, man. The way you build people eat and drink together. That's like one of the most intimate things you can do as community, like eat together. You know what I'm saying? Like, let's break bread together, let's talk, let's have a good time. And that's how you build. So we're always my doors are usually always open, trying to throw something on the grill. My family's gonna always close. I'm gonna always do events. I love to see people get together and have a great time, man.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

You're not lying about that. I I can tell you from firsthand experience, this is something that I thought was so cool because um I'll I'll tell them this too. This is this is hilarious, but you know how you have um I say you could say you have factions and et cetera, normally at schools and et cetera. And so certain people don't talk to certain people, whatever it may be. The cool thing about being in Charleston and being at the College of Charleston was that the black community was so small, you ain't got no choice.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

You have no choice.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

You ain't got no choice.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

You post up on the block say it. Everybody in the cloud, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

You gotta get you gotta get taught. It doesn't even matter. Like you could be you could be the quote unquote the outside person, right? When you walk by that, we're gonna grab you, pull you over there, you're gonna sit and talk to everybody. We're gonna know who you are, know your name. Just in case you need something.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

We're gonna post up on Calhoun and St. Philip, and we're gonna sit there. We'll sit there, everybody orb the block, and the block starts growing. Yep, that's how it happens. Everybody talks, so and you need that. You you really do need that. I think College of Charleston maybe has what 10, 11,000 students, and you gotta you know, you got a percentage of black kids that's two to three percent. So you really need that community, man. And the best way to do it, man, break bread together, listen to the music together, have the DJs come through, throw on the vibes.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Come on, yeah, so y'all can actually sit and learn each other. And I always thought that was cool because for a lot of folks, they'd be like, hey, Marcus is nice, he's not like these other people out here. Tell me, what y'all expecting to do? Like, what are y'all expecting? How y'all expecting them to act? I thought he was be like mean and not want to not not want to hang out with us.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

I'm like, gosh don't get that big black man stereotype.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Nah, give me a big dude, man. So when people see you, they're like, I'm gonna stay over here, ain't gonna mess with nobody. Yeah, but I always thought it was funny, and if you could speak to this, what is it? Because especially in your position, you're organizing events, trying to bring people together. What things have you seen, you being a tall black man, etc., has it has it been an issue? Has it kept you out of certain doors? Have you had to sell yourself differently in order to be able to throw events and et cetera?

SPEAKER_00 17:36

I've I've been fortunate enough to not have to. I think because of the name, we have to sell it a little bit more. The blessing for me and my team is that we have um the numbers and the videos and pictures to show the excellence that of the Black Food Truck Festival. Numbers. Um, the only thing that we typically, man, run into is man, we get trolls on Facebook when we run ads. Really? Yeah, we get a lot of trolls. That's that's it was the yeah, it was the thing that I didn't anticipate, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

So I knew the name, the Black Food Truck Festival, like I knew it would catch people and people would want to come.

unknown 18:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

And the people who get it would get it. I expected to maybe be in an interview on the news, and maybe someday somebody asked me a crazy question, like, why the black food truck festival? But what I didn't anticipate was that when we paid for Facebook ads, that people would literally get up under our posts and go nuts. Why is it the black food truck festival? What if we had a white food truck festival? Um, are the food trucks actually black or is it just for black people? Um I bet there's gonna be a bunch of fried chicken and overseas and food out there.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

It is a whole lot of food, it'll be a typical jackass.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

I don't you know I'm not good on the social media, but it's wild, man.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Like it that's even when like you know, the post and career features or ABC News of features, like anytime we get one of those big platforms to be like, come out to the festival, it's just a bunch of trolls. It's it's it's crazy. It's craziness. And you know, I'm human, I don't typically respond, but sometimes after a couple of drinks, two or three in the morning, I'm seeing people. All right, let me repeat. You know, I get caught up in it, but for the most part, we know we haven't had. I don't, I wouldn't, I would, I don't like to think that we've had problems because of the name.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Um I don't like to put that limit on us. Um, maybe, maybe there have been, because you know, we are trying to raise a lot of money and get a lot of sponsorship dollars, but I would hate to think that that's the reason. Um, mostly our our feedback has been from the community. It's been pretty positive, yeah. Yeah, it's been it's been very positive. You know, you get the trolls, you know, you get people, you know, upset about this, that, or the third. But you know, our goal is to please everybody, but you know, we can't. We just can't. When you have, you know, 12 to 15,000 people coming out, no, no, that's impossible. So we try to do the best we can and keep on growing, man. But for the most part, that's about the only thing that I just did not anticipate it. I blindsided by seeing a lot of trolls online. And you know, then it gets it gets the community of an uproar because they want to be able to do that. Because they're worried that yeah, they want to defend it. Yeah, they want to defend it.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

Well, you know what the other thing is a lot most of these trolls are not people either. This is just an algorithm.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Yeah, I read an article about that that like more than 60% of online users were like trolls, like they were like bots. Yeah, they don't exist in real.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

And I remember very specific that I believe about the moon. And then Obi-Wan Kenobi replies back, that's not a moon, it's a space station. I was like, oh my god, and then I found out that it's a bot. It's a bot. And it's just anytime somebody tweeted about a moon, it was just responding to the crazy, you know. And if that's now been amplified a thousand facts that's trying to do it.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

You know, that's really the that's man, it gets you, man. Sometimes I don't know how celebrities do it because sometimes, you know, I read them, and uh, you know, like the first couple of days, I might not say anything, but then you see four or five hundred comments, and you're like, let me go read what they're saying, right? And they are saying some crazy stuff, and it's like the most common stuff. Like, what if we had a white food choice? It's annoying. It's annoying.

SPEAKER_03 21:15

Okay, so here's the thing annoying, right? You are eating food in the state of South Carolina that is that is the state food, yeah. Um things that we love to eat. Guess what? That is black food, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Easy all of this southern cooking, all of this stuff, the stuff you love, it's the the jokes about the overseas and food is what you come to the black food.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

I mean, the British Empire with the world trying to steal season some food. That's all what it was about.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

They wanted seasoned food. Yep. Yeah, man. Yeah, other than that, man, we we we rocking and rolling, man. Like the image the videography, the photography, man. I'll shout out to you know, Katrina Cold.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Shout them out, shout them out.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

And uh shout out to Daniel Green, man. They do a great job of capturing the festival. And so when we put those images in front of people, I don't care who you are, it's pictures of family, it's pictures of the time, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Yeah, man, it's inviting, it's a fun, safe time. And and at the same time, you're giving a platform to a lot of businesses that don't normally have that range to be able to hit everybody. And that's what makes it extra dope. My wife, she's a big foodie, and so she's been checking out your stuff all the time. You know, she keeps beating me overhead. No, Marcus, don't you?

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Why are you coming out here yet? I was like, don't attack me, don't attack me, don't attack me.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

So now I'm like, all right, I gotta, I gotta go. I gotta go make a plan. I gotta make a trade. It's almost like uh um, it's almost like making a hodge.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Man, you gotta come.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

No, I gotta. I have to.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

It's um the fourth weekend in April every year. You know that's my birthday, it's April 1st. Yeah, so the fourth weekend, we're gonna be at the fairgrounds April 26th through the 28th. And man, it's it's it's even if it wasn't my event, I'd be like, man, I gotta go every year. Like, it's it's dope.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

I mean, I've been getting hungry just sitting.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Yeah, it's crazy. Man, it's it's it's it's a it's a really dope vibe.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Could you um and this is gonna be for those folks because our our podcast is about learning as well. Could you explain to some of these folks on our podcast um just in the beginning, how did you start the process of putting it together?

SPEAKER_00 23:25

So I I I spoke about this recently at uh Petra Kutra presentation probably a month or so ago. Um, for me, I had the idea in 2018. Um I guess you can kind of say it was a blessing in disguise. Uh I lost my mom in 2020 to breast cancer. She left me some. Insurance money. And so then a year later, I was working at a bank as a banker. I was a relationship manager. And I got laid off and it gave me a severe check. So I was able to take that severance check and dump all of it into the Black Food Chore Festival. And so with that, I took that severance check. I took a gamble, which was crazy. Don't try this at home. I've done plenty of this promotion before. Yes, it's not his first time. And I and I, you know, I do have to credit myself with that too because I tell people like, no, don't do what I did. You know what I'm saying? Because I took a big gamble.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

I didn't have a wife. I didn't have, I don't have kids, I don't have a wife, so I was able to just bet on myself. Did that. And the first time I did it by myself, and I didn't do a press run. I didn't do any interviews. May have done one Instagram live. Um, but I just wanted people to see the event and come for the event and not because of me. I didn't want them to come and see. That's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

That's a good point. I didn't even know that you were the um event person when I first started.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Nobody knew that it was me. I created it. Um, you know, and I I had my experience in events, so I knew to get the graphic design, I knew to get my social media right. Yep, and I knew it was an event for everyone. So that's what made me go to the radio as well. And so I did a bunch of marketing and I did a bunch of stuff free, paid for. I did everything you could from behind the scenes. And um, crazy enough, I gave away 500 tickets to the first event. Like I just flooded the market with 500 tickets.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

I will say this again. We gotta say this so people know, just so y'all realize this because I know what he's talking about. I know, I know this guy. Yeah, what he's talking about. This guy is not afraid to invest in himself. Yes. Um, and I go, especially for our podcast, we always tell the people tell people this is advice that you need to take with you as you're going elsewhere. You have to invest in yourself, man.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

And people have to see it first. You know, I can't jump out there and charge people for a product they don't know about.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

If you know, if you've got all your food trucks there and 100 people show up and they don't make money, then it doesn't happen again.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Right.

SPEAKER_03 25:42

500 people show up and everybody's like, holy crap.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

Yeah, so so so what I did was, and I I do this every event that I have, you know, we're gonna have a guest list and we're gonna have people at the event. So no matter what, if nobody buys a ticket, there's gonna be some people at the event to have a good time. Now he ain't never looked seriously, but we're never having a use that recipe ever since I worked with Anwar, my first event. We are going to have a guest list of people that can come in because you want people inside your event. You don't want them outside. And so what I did was I gave everybody a glimpse of the product. You know, I created it, put the concept together. It was the end of COVID, so everybody wanted to come out. Ready to go outside. Perfect timing. Perfect timing. I had a good venue that we work with over in Mount Pleasant. Um, shout out to the soccer stadium.

SPEAKER_02 26:29

Really?

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Patriots Point, yeah, Charleston Battery. Um, they were real good tours, man. We had eight food trucks. I wanted something, I wanted to oversell the event. Um, and so what I did was I had probably eight food trucks. Uh I knew that 500 people could very much come to a food truck for free. And if nobody else bought a ticket, and we'd be able to help them make money. And then I got some of the local bands to do their thing. And man, that first one, we just it just took off from there. You know, people saw the product, they saw how organized it was ran.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

And this is a foodie town.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

This is a foodie town. This is what people want. You come to Charleston to eat, and you talk about filling voids, you know, you go to us. We're making the fill out. There's a lot of festivals in Charleston where you go and there's not a lot of black people. Nah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Like, but they're in the kitchens.

SPEAKER_00 27:15

And I don't think a lot of time white people understand the sacrifice and the kind of resilience it takes to be on an everyday basis to go places and you don't see anybody that looks like you. Right. And so instead of complaining about that, I say, you know what, man, we're just gonna make it happen and we're gonna create it, and whatever happens, we're gonna build for from it in year three, four, and five, we'll be able to grow to 15,000.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

Wait, wait, wait. Say that again. Again, for you're three. You see how it has a plan. It's a plan, it does not just coming out of the ass.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Yeah, my my biggest thing for the first festival was um, I originally wanted to do it for free because I was comparing it to another food truck festival in town. I said, I want everybody to be able to come to the event for free. And when they come to the event for free, we'll be able to collect a ton of data. Smart. We'll be able to take that data for the next festival and sell it, package it up and sell it. Well, I had a couple people telling me they were like, you cannot do it for free. And I was like, that's the goal. They were like, Well, you're comparing yourself to another food truck festival. You're not the same as the other food truck festival, you're giving them something different. And so we charged $10, gave away 500 tickets for free. People came out, they loved it. Not only did I get the data, we knew that we had a market of people that wanted to come. And if I had gone free, I would have bellied up. So we charged people and they came in, and that's when I said, like, okay, we got something special. Yeah, three, four, and five, getting to 12 to 15,000 people. I said, you know what, we're gonna do it twice a year. And Jabari thought I was crazy. I'm like, nah, we're gonna run it back in the spring. Yeah. Springtime, we had triple the amount of attendance. We had 15,000 people. And we've been rocking since then. And you know, a lot of that, you know, you talk about people getting to see the product, not just the people that came, but getting a dope photographer and a videographer to get those images of people having a good time and putting them out there in the public. And you know, we've been going since then. We're not, you know, quite where we want to be yet, but a lot of moves all over the nation. And so that's that's that's big for me. And you're making noise, making noise, fastest growing black owned festival in the country, if not the fastest growing festival. Wow, two over 240 percent since that first festival in 2021. And we're only this month, well, November, we'll be only in our second year. We're our two-year anniversary in a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Man, take a shout out, y'all. Take out celebration, y'all. Libations, libations, celebrations, celebrations, right on the corner, celebrations. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_03 29:34

But um, so how many food trucks you put in on this next one?

SPEAKER_00 29:39

We have 45 this year in April. Holy crap. That's a disappointment. It's not small. It's not small. So we have 45 in April. So the baseline right now, we have 45 vendors and probably 39, 40 food trucks. So we'll probably start off at 40 this year. And then we'll pair, we'll track the numbers um as they go over the next 60 to 90 days and see how many more we need to add. Um, we had about 12,000 people this year. I'm projecting that we'll have over 20,000 people. Uh, we're not having a fall festival, and we usually sell tickets 60 days out. Um, well, we're planning on starting to sell tickets in November or December this year. Smart. And then we'll start.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

Some people plan their vacation a long time ago. They do.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

And then what happens is, you know, every every year we go viral once or twice. And so this time, you know, whenever we catch a lot of traction or get go viral, we really have tickets on sale. Smart. And so we're packaging it up. This year we had our first time doing an opening event. So we had an opening event called Rhythms and Booze, which is a party at that time. That was nice. I saw that was cool. That was dope. That was dope. Now we're also at Trapioke Saturday night, which is another party. So the entire weekend, we're just gonna dominate the whole weekend. So you can buy a package and you can come to the the food, the food truck festival, or you can come to the parties at night and you can find the five. But he looked at the destination event.

SPEAKER_03 30:58

People coming down for this specific like how people do food weekend festivals instead of a food weekend festival. Absolutely. When if you wanted to come to Charleston and try, like, you know, everything you want to try like 10 shrimp and gritses while you was down here, like I mean, you'd be dropping hundreds of things.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

And you would have to bounce from place to place, poor parking, unable to get in for whatever. When you can come, you know what this reminds me of what you're doing, but it's it's doper because first of all, you're putting the music in the events in it.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

And that's why I like you know, that's the reason for the this is funny.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

I'm I'm gonna bring my wife back into this because my wife, um, one of the she actually one of the first events that she went to in Charleston, and she said, I enjoyed myself, I had a great time. Black event was one of your events when they were doing Trappy Hour. Oh, yeah, this is back, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

So that was that wasn't me. That was um This was good to Nick and Johnny. Nick and Johnny, yeah, trappy hour.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Yeah, but of course, partners, partners, we always always gonna support each other.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

But the um the the cocktail bandits. Um shout out to them. Yeah, shouts out, shouts out. Um, and especially Mullins in the house, Mullins in the house. No one don't know about no Mullers, but you know we know. Um, but yeah, that's one of the first events that she went to, and the thing that she told me was like, it was cool going in and knowing that the event was ran by people that look like me. I was like, well, you know what else is going on? And that's when I first told her about your thing. And after that, now that I'm messed up because I got to go. I gotta bring my ass down there. But it's cool how you're setting that up because it reminds me of the taste of Chicago. And what I'm saying, why I'm saying that is because Taste of Chicago set up in the summer in Chicago, it's just every piece of food from Chicago that's popping available on the pier. So you don't have to go.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

And it's funny you said that because I had a woman like, because I've been traveling all summer, yeah, like trying to learn the festival business. And she was she brought up Taste of Chicago and she was like, how everybody's just set up and they go out there and they just eat. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

And it's smart, and you do it over the over a period. It's over a period. It's usually over um either over a week or the weekend. Yeah. Depending on what's going on, Chicago weather. Yeah, that's always the issue is the weather. That's why they always try to hold it in like the summertime. But um, depending on what's going on, it'll be held over a couple of days. I've been to it once, and I'm telling you, what you're doing is almost like a better version of it.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

So that's the and that's the thing because the point the music is the music is the heartbeat of the festival. Um, and that's what's dope. That's what's really dope about it.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Can you explain that to the art? Why is that so important?

SPEAKER_00 33:21

So so you know, we want when I do an event and free game for me. Um, one of my theories is to be able to touch all the senses. Okay. What are you seeing? What are you hearing? What are you touching, tasting, how do you feel? So if I can can embody that inside of the festival, I can get you to come in, I can get you stay all day. And if you stay all day, you're gonna spend more money. Which is so you know, it's all you know, the customer's not always um uh right, but the customer's always first. And so if I put my onus on making sure you have a good experience by feeding all your senses, then it's gonna help our business to be able to grow. One of the biggest things that everybody loves, you know, of course black people love it, but everybody wants to hear good music, good food. And so when you're there, if you if you don't want to eat, we got live music all day. Live bands all day long, cover bands all day long. The fairgrounds has more than one stage, so we're thinking about working at a music festival. And we want to grow. We always want to you know really invest in local talent. What we found is a lot of artists don't even have YouTube videos and stuff that we can go and find them. So we invest in our videographer, being able to record these performances and put them on content. And give them content. So now you can go and watch all of the performances ever from the Black Food Truck Festival on YouTube.

SPEAKER_03 34:42

So now I go and Google them and the only video of them performing is the Black Food Truck Festival.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

And not only that, so not only are we invested in that and investing in the artists as a part of our marketing too. Because if you're a DJ Unwar and you don't really care about all you care about is the art. Yeah, you're just gonna send them a video from the Black Food Truck Festival. That person sees that, they're gonna say, What is the Black Food Truck Festival? Exactly. It's just like it's like a funnel that we try to really keep people in. So we really want that music to be popping. We have a bowl of. Y'all don't have horrible acts and great acts. All great acts. And so we're looking at expanding on that. We got a mobile bowling alley. Um, we have three bars, looking at trying to add a skating rink. That's that's a little mobile skating rink. I mean, we're trying to really like grow it to where people are coming in and saying, I have to go to the black food truck.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

That's gonna be my birthday present every year. Y'all can decide. Y'all gonna decide. Where are you doing? Down to the Black Food. It's my birthday. Let's roll.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Music all day long. These on Friday night, Saturday night. Um, working out a deal with the International African American Museum, working out a deal with, you know, I've been talking to Crab and With Tia, and these are different things to have for people to do outside if they don't want to go to the festival both days. They can go do an event like Crab and With Tia. They can go on a tour, they can go to the International African American Museum, they can experience black culture in Charleston, South Carolina, because when you see Travel and Leisure and Conde Nas, you know, we've been number one in the country the past 10, 11 years. But you know, we have to also show them that there's also a different side. Everything we love Charleston. The food is great, we love downtown, yeah, but there's a different side, there's a vibe to it that you're not even seeing.

SPEAKER_03 36:17

It's not just North Broad. No, it's not.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

It's not, it's not, it's not just Market Street, it's not just King Street, like it's so much more to Charleston. Man, that's why I love the community. They've really been out and supported, and that's what I keep in mind when I see the trolls online or people complaining. Like, that's just that's a small percentage of it. Most people have a really, really good time.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

And that's why I I always love dialogue when it comes back to the beginning. But that's the importance of Charleston, like how to learn. Being one with the locals.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Like you can't keep yourself away from your local community and what that community has to offer. Even in a place like Charleston, which is a big transplant and travel town, you got to realize that you have a community that you have to develop. And I think that's one of the dopest things, Marcus, about what you've been doing is that you implanted yourself in the community and you serve the community. You didn't just extract and take away from the community. And I I I honor you on that, bro.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

I appreciate that, man. That's that's big. You know, like, you know, we always have to think about I don't want just a bunch of food trucks, have a hundred food trucks come out to the festival and not make any money. Like, we also invest in in businesses around the area. Um, we also have a nonprofit where we're trying to figure out how to invest in in the children and and kids and and and and in the community to really tap into this multi-billion dollar hospitality industry. Like it's a multi-billion dollar industry. Um, it's not a subservient position. It takes a lot of humility, um, it takes a lot of skill to be able to serve others. Oh, it does. Oh, it does. Food and bear is not just an afterthought, like it's what drives the economy in Charleston. And why not be a part of it?

SPEAKER_03 37:52

And I had interesting that experience. Yeah, people are coming here because they want that feeling.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Yeah, and people coming out and smiling and having a good time. Like, yeah, that's what you're there for. Dancing, vibing, you know what I'm saying? Like seeing people they haven't seen in years.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

That's another thing. That's that's what's cool too about it, is because it is a nexus for a lot of individuals that know each other, and you get them in one location at the same time, like, wow, I haven't seen you in a while, man. But you doing him back, blah, blah, blah. And everybody gets to keep building and bringing that community back.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Absolutely, brother.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

I have uh a question for you. This is a great question. Um, thank Tamar Allen for these great questions that we have today. Um, this one is important because this is something, again, for the audience to understand when it comes to behind the scenes. But on the day of the event, can you tell us what it's like behind the scenes and what are some last-minute hardships that you might encounter when executing a successful event?

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Hectic, man. That's fine. It's hectic. You know, I talked about that first festival. I did that one pretty much alone. I think Jabbar, you know, he tapped in to help me out. My family came down and tapped in, but after that event, I was really like, you know what? I need a team. Yep. Delegate. You know what I'm saying? Like a team. So I got a team, and now I'm still working on how to delegate to my team. Because of course, everybody here is that founder of the festival, um, a lot of times on the face of it, so they want to talk to me. And that's cool and all, but a lot of things happen on the day of the festival. And what it really is, man, is just really making sure that everybody is in their role and managing their teams correctly. It's like a corporation, it's not just an event. If this person is over um, like entertainment, we have an entertainment director who is Le Faye. How is her system running? She has a flawless system to where the entertainment is taken care of. Nice. This year, we didn't have the best setup VIP. We didn't like the re real, we didn't really like the decor that was set up. Um, and then it rained like two hours before the event. And it didn't rain, it was a torrential downpour.

SPEAKER_01 39:55

Everybody knows Charles and it'll just rain.

SPEAKER_00 39:56

Everybody's frustrated, everybody's frustrated. Yeah, you know, that was a big, big thing this year. We didn't have the VIP bags filled, and a lot of it is a learning curve of learning like setting dates, setting deadlines, so that come time for the event, if something doesn't work, it's not because of a lack of preparation. It's just something essential or external that happened. That's beyond your control, outside of your control. Um, most times, though, man, we it's it's just more so of managing time and who you're gonna talk to and making sure everybody is set up in the right place. Other than that, man, it's you're just rocking and rolling. You're just trying to manage your time because people calling you, trying everybody wants to talk to you. I figure that. Everybody connect with you.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

Become a point man, even though you technically are not a point man for those specific things they're calling about.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

My team is on me hard about that. They they they get on me tough about that. Don't answer that. Send that to me. Make sure you ain't doing it because I already know how you're gonna do. Yeah, so so what I'm naturally trying to do and what we're putting in right in place right now is you know, we have different people and they have teams up under them so that everything is not coming straight to me. I trust my team to be able to handle a lot of the confusion or anything that may arise. Um, you know, it's it's stuff that when you do events that you just don't even think about that's gonna happen. Um, case in point, our first event last year in April, I picked a date, I did the 10-year review on the date, it's like between 70 and 75 degrees on that particular date, right? Yeah. So I'm like, okay, that's beautiful weather. Last year, it's 83 degrees. We sold, I set a limit of 5,000 tickets before the event, those tickets were sold out. So I had to open up the tickets again. We sold 6,000 tickets the weekend of the event. So naturally, there's a long line outside. I only had four scanners to scan people in, right?

SPEAKER_03 41:38

Your numbers doubled like in a weekend.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

So something that happened, right? We had iPad, or it was iPhone scanners. It was 83 degrees. They all went down. Or hot. Or heated. So now everybody's in line all the way out to the street. We're blindsided because now everybody showed up at one time to purchase tickets. We don't have the other gate open because we don't think it's that many people coming. And so now we're like, man, what do we do? We had good volunteers that jumped in. We put event bright on everybody's phone. We we everybody just kind of tapped in and tried to get people moving and getting them in as fast as possible. So a lot of times you just have to know that you have a team that's like work under stress and can really like think just off the cuff, like, okay, what are we gonna do? We gotta figure it out because you don't know what you just don't know what's gonna happen. In that case, we were able to get everybody in. We're like, we're not gonna check kids, we're not gonna check women's, or we're just gonna get everybody in. Get the bodies in. Yeah, because we have to make sure that their experiences, you know, although it may be our first time dealing with an event this big. What did you say? What did you say about customers are always right? Always first. Yeah, always first, always first, not always right. That's a really good way to look at it. Yeah, so so you know, I'm out there with my phone out, scanning people in because they have to know that they see me out there as the founder. Like, I don't want y'all sitting out here in the heat. You know, it's not good for y'all, it's not good for me. So, you know, really just having a team to be able to handle all those problems is probably the best thing you can do on the day of the event.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

So making sure you have a great team in place to assist you with anything that could go wrong. Everything will go wrong at sometimes. It's just how it goes. It's just how it goes.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

You're dealing with that that that many people that much. Something's reliable to happen. You just gotta be able to figure it out, man. Like, you always gotta do your best. Like it's it's always about the people that's attending your event, it's always about your customers, always about their experience. And sometimes, you know, they're not gonna have the best experience, and what you provide might not be for them. But you gotta make sure that you put them first, and so that's what we do, and that's that's at the helm of what we do at every festival and at every event.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

Man, that is dope, man. I always like to hear people um talk positively about customers um and customer service because I know living in Charleston, seeing food and bev and actually living in a life up front and seeing what it looks like up close. One thing I remember this gentleman telling me this, it was an older fella from New York City. He was in his 70s, he had to be in his 70s, been all over the world, traveled, um, been to Asia, Africa, et cetera. He was telling me this, right? I was taking care of him one day because I was working at a restaurant at this time. And he was like, Hey man, um, I just gotta stop you real quick. Um He was like, Man, you've given me the best service I've ever had in my life. And he was like, I've been everywhere, I paid the most money to eat the worst food that I've ever had. And one thing I always noticed the services sucks. He was like, Man, I came here, he said, food's good, great, no problem. But he said, Man, your service is the what I should have been paying for when I was paying for that $5,000 meal. Right. And I was like, when he said it, that's why when you keep saying that, I keep putting the they are not always right, but they are first. And so um, a big Claude Anderson thing is for black businesses, make sure your customer service is up to standard.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

Yes, and I and you know that that's like a double-edged sword to me, right? Because we get such a bad stigma for bad customer service, especially Jamaican restaurants, Jamaican and to be honest, sometimes rightfully so. Yeah. Um, I have my own personal thing where I don't trash black businesses online.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

Uh only because there's only but so many of us. That's true. And if we continue to feed that stigma, it's okay to tell the truth. It's okay to want you know these businesses to do better. Um, but when you go online and you trash them, we don't have that many of them. You know, case in point, like a lot of people were really upset last April about standing in line for 45 minutes to get into the festival. Um, but you gotta be honest and be like, hey man, like I'm trying my best. Like this is what this is what happened.

SPEAKER_01 45:31

This is what the circumstances are.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

This is what the circumstances are. It won't be like this again. You know, and I think that's the real problem with some businesses, not just black businesses, all businesses is when they mess up, they don't face it. You know what I'm saying? They just try to, they keep, and then you go back and it's the same. thing they didn't they didn't leave us this time yeah yeah they we must be doing something right that seems to be like the the the like the theme after covet it's like oh well yeah it's fine with the ketchup bottles and plastic civil range just i'm i'm i'm big on i'm big on that like black businesses they do we do have to do better with our customer service we do but a lot of times man like you know if it's a white business or we can talk about asian restaurants or any other restaurants that have bad customer service we continue to go and to support those why and not only if we talk about them they have so many other ones we just go to a the next one yeah we don't have that many black businesses to be talking bad and talking down about all the time and we also on our end as black business owners and entrepreneurs we have to do better so it goes hand in hand I always like to say you don't have to criticize them out front know when you're there.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

That's what I tell people don't leave without giving your concerns because I work at an orthopedic office right now a manage the office right and here's one of the interesting things I always tell patients when they come in my office and they have issues when I say hey did you tell the doctor they go no I didn't I was like that was your chance to be your best advocate to get the care that you wanted. That person at that front desk that you're cursing out right now, you know there ain't no doctor right you know that's not a medical provider. They can't give you no clinical information nothing to assist you you you know the person at the front desk is about to go take the doctor back and tell them all of these notes are not no they are not and they're like huh like people don't tell me these are grown ups too I always like to tease people these are people over the age of 50 right and I'm like you've been around you know better than this you know how this game runs right and they and they talked to me and I had this one lady I asked I said so were you all sugar plums and fairies out there when you were cursing this person out and they said no I wouldn't this is a grown woman she crying I'm giving her and she's like you're right I should have been better out there I could have acted proper I could explain and that's how I think for our businesses when we go to one of our businesses and say they didn't keep it clean over here or this food didn't come out in the right time or wasn't hot enough to don't don't be ignorant about it.

SPEAKER_00 47:47

Just pull them to the side next time I come through make sure you do this this how to communicate man like that's how that's how this this ecosystem grows we have to communicate on both ends like you know if if I'm providing a service I have to receive some of your criticism boom and and and some of it I read I'm like you're right you stood in line too long I mentioned earlier we didn't do the best with VIP it was our first time doing VIP so now we're we're we're super focused. Adrena Nelson is our creative director now we're like we're gonna create the ultimate VIP VIP experience because we got to fix this. Yep you know you know we're trying to like be the best we're studying the other festivals we're trying to be the best that we can be so we ask people to have some grace with us please communicate with us fill out our survey tell us what we did wrong see look they're giving you a survey for a reason yeah like fill it out tell us you know I'm saying like we we don't mind like if you just didn't like it you just didn't like it. You know like maybe it's not for you just go through 40 food trucks and not like that's where that's that point that comes in where you say come on now y'all are just it's the line it's the line sometimes you know sometimes you know you gotta know that if you go into a food truck festival you got to have lines it's a food truck and we're we're finding that balance like I said we're we're almost two years in and you know we're finding that balance of trying to figure out what is that number that sweet spot of okay we got 45 food trucks how many people can we have can we have six thousand people this day can we have eight to ten thousand people how many food trucks we're gonna need who's really coming for the music who's coming who that's doing the investigative research I know you're doing the research you know the reason I know you're doing the research is because you are not giving the same product that you have been given every time you are upgrading updating the product to make sure that it meets the needs of the customers absolutely so obviously you're out here making that change and trying to make those services better for the um participants. Security like we added security to our team that we opened up a different gate. Nice because we want people to be able to if you're not in there having fun with us then that takes away from your customer experience. So yeah we we're working man we're working day and night we're not here for for three to five years we're trying to be here for 15 to 20 years. That's what I'm talking about. You know when you talk about essence when you talk about you know Coachella when you talk about um I love I love what Coachella does in their YouTube presence. Make sure you follow us on YouTube. Oh you ready you ready yeah let's see you ready wait we're gonna move on because this is what we do man watch watch this watch this watch this we're planning such a huge event for the city how do you stay grounded in balance oh man that's a tricky one that is isn't it especially in this city um I got a little cousin man he does beats shout out to Goliath beats at Memphis Tennessee yo that's your cousin that's my cousin yeah yeah he's he's dope I know your cousin but I didn't know that was your cousin that's my cousin yeah it's my little cousin he talked about how a lot of producers you know talk about getting stagnant and I said well how do you fight that and he was like man you gotta travel so for me finding that balance is like I've been this is the first summer I've traveled as much as I've traveled uh and I say it's for business and most of it is like I go and research but man I just get to get new ideas and be around people and like really figure that out I think that's what really helps me to stay balanced is going to all of those different events and watching seeing what people do and just kind of figuring it out like keeps you fresh yeah it keeps me fresh I think about my own customer experience like I went to Afro Nation in Detroit I'm like all right how how is their VIP system like what do they give me like what how did I get into the line like where is their VIP bar like is this free is that free what kind of swag do they give out like how big is their stage who are their sponsors like who are their sponsors who's your who are their sponsors like you know what I mean like who's really tapped in like yeah where can I find all of this at like and then if I get stuck you know go to chat GPT type it in figure it out like thank you. Yes nothing wrong with automation there's ways there's ways to to figure this thing out so I think the thing that really keeps me balanced is really like staying honed in on the craft and I know it's kind of like hypocritical to say the answer for keeping you balanced but going back into work but it's allowed me to travel and be in spaces that I've never been in before and I've been enjoying it man I've been I've been having fun with this festival man a lot a lot just you know sometimes I sit back and I look at the stuff that we've created and you know I'm like man that's dope you know I I tell um Katrina Daniel our uh photographer and videographer like we're gonna be in museums one day people gonna look back and see all of this like man that's dope see what they were doing these pictures these videos like a look weird it's gonna look like them like the subject we would look at from the 70s and 80s like tooty ass film it's like you know even the the bands like there might be you know some guy when he's 75 he's gonna be he's gonna tell his grandchild I was at yeah I played at the Black Food truck festival this was our first real game real talk you're gonna be those people so we create those experiences man so the Black Food truck festival is just so much bigger than me now um and that's the fun part like do you understand it is that something for you that you're still trying to grasp I'm still trying to grasp it yeah I figured yeah I haven't fully grasped it yet you know I it's outside of you yeah it is it's it's so this summer I think I grasp it because you know I see other events that um they do really well they get a lot of sponsorship dollars um but they don't even have like a quarter of the attendance that we have um and so now and so then I started to realize I'm like oh you know 15 000 people is a lot of people or I had somebody tell me you know yeah yeah it is there's do you know this is there are teams that don't stadiums with 15 yeah teams with sponsorships yeah but the with sponsorships and this is year three coming up yeah we'll be year two year two year two yeah that's the thing we had the first one in November 2021 yep oh but you did you were doubling up I was doing double up so we've done four of them which really helped yes yeah that was working really really helped yeah because we learned a lot of stuff during those four festivals really really helped us um but attendance man you know the way my mind works i i heard about the uh it was a fried chicken festival in news they had a hundred and ninety thousand people over two days that much i mean you gotta take half a city to do that and it's a city that's 90 what's the the population uh charleston peninsula is a hundred hundred thousand it might be right yeah it's a hundred thousand so yeah the whole hundred and twenty crazy going to one total that's what I was told I've been trying to verify that number but even if it's half of that that's why that's a lot of people and I looked at the videos that's a lot of people and so then I kind of go back to mine I'm like all right 25,000 is not that not that far fetched yeah but the key is how can we make the customer experience still dope with 2500 people like that because we want people to come and have a good time so how can we make that experience dope and that's what my team and myself we keep on working on how can we make this the overall I came I got in easy yep the food truck I wanted to I bowled I dropped my kid off at the game truck you know they were fine everybody was watched security was the little skate I'm working on that I'm I'm you know they like that I'm trying to get that mobile skating part yeah yeah and I didn't talk about this we have a hookah lounge and a cigar lounge in the back like with a DJ in the back so it's like how can we keep on like developing this experience to where it's seamless but we still have a lot of trucks and we still make make money yo when when uh Vegas comes man the Bellagia with somebody like that is like hey why don't you come out and do this in Vegas don't forget about us young I got I got you mentioned I can ride that I'm gonna have to figure out if I'm really in the Vegas that's when you figure it out like oh like oh I got to do it for somebody else and I'm gonna do I'm gonna tell you like this with what you're doing because I I mean watch trends with Charleston is kind of a big big deal because we I mean we watch trends we follow trends this is something that we have to do and I'm telling you more than likely what's going to happen is one of these folks is going to say hey we have they're gonna offer this gameplay we have everything you need to make this work easy.

SPEAKER_01 56:08

Would you be able to bring it here?

SPEAKER_00 56:10

And you're gonna start being asked that you if you haven't already been seeing that with the events that you've been people been asking us and so I was I I was in a multi-level marketing company I was one of those people for like a year like you want to turn a hundred dollars and right DJ and they'd be like we don't really think that you're into this and I was like I absolutely want to do this I did that you you you you want to retire your mom in six months I can help you but they gave us a lot of education on sales and they gave us a lot of education on overcoming objections it was I it was like school like you didn't make any money it's definitely a pyramid yeah very pyramid scheme and we we we learned we learned so much and one of the biggest things I learned was system beast genius and so what we've been trying to figure out is we've really been honing in on building the system for if somebody calls you know and they they say you know we got 10 million dollars to buy the Black Food festival what's your system look like you got the process we got the system we want to really create that process and so we're still working on it to where it's a system this is done on this date this is done on this date this is done like we got everything done and falling in line. So if a Bellaggio calls or if somebody else because now I've put myself as an SME as a subject matter expert so now when they ask me you know can you do this can you replicate this because we want to do it in different cities can you replicate this in DC I say team we got the system that's what we need to do.

SPEAKER_01 57:46

Because like you could easily fall into line with the Essence Festival and go down there and provide a certain experience you could go out to um oh man I mean you could what's the one out in Texas?

SPEAKER_00 57:57

That's what I was about to um the Austin in um oh you're talking about south by southwest by southwest you could go out there and you could technically provide the services that they need food wise etc on the road no seriously that's the goal we want to um we're doing this one in April and I really want to look at other cities next year like going to different cities um but you got one of the best home bases in the world so you're always fine always here you're always fine and you know like when when black people hear Charleston they think racist they think racism in South Carolina and like a lot of what we do is changing the narrative like come down we got beaches we got the best food you know I'm saying we got the best people we got culture we have everything you need like come down and have it and enjoy a good time and you got freedoms yes like these people you don't everything ain't perfect but it's dope weather is dope like it's like this is a it's a I you know even when I heard South Carolina when I left Memphis to come to College of Charleston like I had never been to Charleston they told me the weather was good they told me we were 15 minutes to the beach yup they said college of Charleston ain't got no football team so y'all know girls they know we came in town so we came through man like and so I I I've been rocking since but we creating a system and Coachella is like I bring them up because they're my muse yeah I love how they they they we want to do the same thing from a culture aspect on the YouTube channel like how they do their interviews and how they have the music stage set up and just how they celebrate like what they created and we really want to like build that. So everything we've ever done at the Black Food truck festival is on YouTube. You can catch it you can see the music you can see the interviews we you know we had headcrack come down last year like and host the festival um really he hosted it last year but he should be back in April so he hosted it he even rapped man shout out to headcrack y'all sleep on his food truck festival if y'all want to go ahead and just get my ticket for my I don't need no free tickets I got you the media yeah come on come through I got you I'm gonna tell my way to go ahead and put that in the tablecrack came down man like and man I loved how he came down and just killed it yo like headcrack was like yo like he was like he just he was everything he said in his interviews it was all us and it was like we doing this and like he was interviewing he was interviewing the vendors he was interviewing attendees like we love having people like see what we do from you know a social media standpoint like seeing our images and want to come out of rock with us dope dope and now the time we've all been waiting for you're gonna start seeing me do these too because if I don't skip my brother Know my ass shameless plug time so we want to know what current projects are you working on and what can we expect from you in the future also make sure that you do all of your drops all my drops all your drops you need all the drops all right um right now man Black Food Truck Festival April 26th 27th and 28th you can find us you listen we own the SEO type us in on Google Black Food Truck Festival you're gonna find us LinkedIn Instagram Facebook uh you name it YouTube make sure you subscribe to YouTube we're almost at 500 followers we're trying to get to a thousand soon um we're really killing it on YouTube like we have some amazing content you you cleaning up you washing dishes you're making your bed you can play some of our live music um also man we got coming up our next event January 14th Martin Luther King weekend okay battle of the bands this year if you were at Battle of the Bands in 2023 you already know it's gonna be a phenomenal time keep that date it's January 14th Martin Luther King weekend so that's gonna be a Sunday night okay we're gonna have three of the dopest bands in the region they're gonna all come out set the stage on fire we almost sold out in January we had over 400 people at Battle of the bands at the music forum downtown this year we're expecting an even bigger crowd. Also man make sure you sign up subscribe to our email newsletter uh blackfoodtruckfestival dot com um we listen sign up to the newsletter check us out next week November 1st we're opening up vendor spots uh so if you want to be a vendor at the Black Food Truck Festival go to blackfoodtruckfestival.com sign up to the newsletter we kick out a newsletter every week at least once or twice a week and you'll be able to uh find us we do most of our activity on YouTube and Facebook uh and listen man it's up we we we constantly bringing out events at least once a quarter to the city of Charleston man doing big things you ain't lying you ain't lying I'm gonna tell y'all man um straight up because of course I know what he's talking about I'm a co-sign I'm gonna tell you man he ain't bullshitting yeah so um if you want to have a good experience if you want to go to a great event if you want to see some good food some good culture you want to see good people if you ever see something attached to Marcus Hammond's name bring ass bring ass also man also we are welcoming sponsors right so if you want to be a sponsor of the Black Food truck festival make sure you go to blackfoodtruckfestival.com we're about to get us up in there join the team listen we're not asking for anything free because we provide a ton of value and we would love to partner with you and work with you so if you want to be a sponsor of the Black Food truck festival send us a message on Instagram subscribe to our newsletter reach out to us you can always find us blackfoodtruff festival.com excellent excellent man couldn't do better than that man yeah I'm gonna tell you like this man from the Hill Talk Glove Podcast this is DJing what a Mike this is Marcus Hammond founder and CEO of the Black Food Truck Festival see you guys in April thank you for joining us today on the Hill Talk Glove Podcast until next time make sure you tell somebody next to them that you love them that you cherish them peace peace