SPEAKER_03 1:45

Welcome to the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today we had the pleasure of speaking with Amore L., a Brooklyn native who relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2006. Amore is a devoted wife, mother, and a proud GG to her grandchild. With over 30 years of experience as an administrative assistant, she ventured into entrepreneurship in 2017, launching her brand, Conversation with Amore. Her journey into wellness took off in 2018 when she joined It Works Global, allowing her to pursue her passion for health and personal growth. This September, Amore released her first digital project, a plant-based cooking guide, marking a full transition into entrepreneurship. Today she joins us to share her insights on healthy living, entrepreneurship, and the realities behind direct sales. Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. Sorry we ran a little bit late today, but we're always on time. So excellent.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Amen. Thank you for that. That introduction. I'm like, I want to meet her. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

She's real dope. She's real dope. She's real dope. And I'll go ahead and say we always like to throw out our little um edit just so people know. We've actually um interviewed your husband and your son already. So we're completing the family circle here. Making sure we get everybody into the broadcast. Right. Because you got a dope family, man. Dope family. They're cool. They're cool people. They hired. They hi. They're hi. So we're really glad to have you here today. Uh, I know for from some of the interviews that we've had in the past, we've had people come in and talk to us about some of the things we're gonna focus on today. But today I think we're gonna take more of an introspective look on what some of these things really are. Because we've had some folks on here, we've talked and discussed certain things, and certain topics always pop up.

SPEAKER_05 3:38

Right.

SPEAKER_03 3:39

And we're gonna try to see if we can get some clarity on it. But first things first, if you could just um share with us just a little bit about yourself. Of course, we've talked to your husband and your child, but just with you, could you just tell us a little bit about where you're from and how you ended up here? Um, outside of our, of course, our excellent bio.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Right. So, yeah, I mean the bio kind of synopsis. So um I've been an administrative since I was 17, 16 years old. So I worked in high school, I did co-op. So you work one week and you went to high school, you went to school one week. And so that was kind of a crazy experience. Yeah, I loved it. It was so you get to have this taste of what corporate would look like and still have your high school experience. So some weeks I'd be, you know, I'd have suits on, and then some days I'd have jeans and a ponytail. We're talking about the 80s. Um, you know, so that was a great experience. But I remember working for Department of General Services, which is like one of the top city buildings in New York. And so it did all the city servicing. We worked directly with the mayor's office. Um, and so I had this experience as a 16, 17-year-old, and I loved it. I loved that whole corporate concept. Um, so that was my first introduction into being an assistant or just kind of being that that secondhand person. And so when for some reason I got into my head and thought they didn't offer me enough money, um right out of high school, like, how dare you offer me $14,000? That's not enough. Looking back on that was a lot of doggone money. Back to the yellow. So fast forward, I worked, um, I didn't go to college because I didn't think college was uh afforded to me because I had life happen, right? So I had to, I was sole proprietor, I was taking care of self. And so um my mom passed when I was 14.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

And so from 14, I basically became the adult of myself. And then my grandmother passed the year I graduated from high school. So three years later, by 1989, I was literally my own adult. Wow. And so at the time, college was like, you gotta have a family, you need a structure.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

You want me to pay for four years of not making money.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Yeah, even not even the payment part. I didn't even know that you could go to college because my family structure was so disturbed, right? And so I was like, oh no, we're gonna get a job. And fast forward from 89 to 90, literally, it felt like a two-year span. I I don't know, the 80s and the 90s just felt really stretched.

SPEAKER_05 6:05

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Like the years just lasted a long time. Um, so I started working for the department um for the Catholic Church. So we're talking about the Archdiocese of New York.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

The real Catholic Church.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Yeah, so like the church with the cardinals and the priests. And so everyone thought I walked worked in a church. It's like, no, I work for the church. And so the church is the money and operations. Literally, because there's departments that run all the churches, that run all the schools.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Um, oh, there's a huge corporate structure behind not just the Catholic Church, any church.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Any church, any organized religion, there's a corporation behind it. And so here I am, fast forward 18 years old. I'm a Baptist. Hello. Let's talk about it, right? Baptist working in a predominantly white organization that is predominantly Catholic. And so I had an amazing growth spurt there. 13 years, I've met some amazing people. I've worked with some controversial priests and some that was dope as you know, dope. Like one of my last bosses, he's actually became an archbishop. And so I recently reached reached out to him and congratulated him on his him moving on. And so that was like the beginning, beginning. Like, so now I'm in this business 13 years, and I'm working for a most controversial organization, the pro-life office, and we're getting phone calls. And again, I'm 18, 19, and they're cursing and screaming and all these things. What is like, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Remember that when you decide to curse somebody out about your issues, they might just be a kid working a job.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

They might be a kid working a job, and you're like, you gotta take it, right? And so I learned some amazing skills from some amazing people, and I kind of put that armor on and I fast-forwarded, and I only I've only had three actual jobs in my entire life.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Really?

SPEAKER_00 7:58

13 years with the Archdiocese. I worked about four years with R.R. Donnelly, which is a financial printing company. Okay. So when I left the Catholic Church, I went to R.R. Donnelly. So this is after 9-11, and we did five, so all the like um um financial reporting. So when you do your year-in financials, my brain is really foggy right now. I can't think of another. Well, the annual reports. The annual reports, there you go. Absolutely. I've made them before, they're great. Right. Yeah, exactly. I work for the sales department who go out and try to get those deals. So we had we we actually printed the Google deal. So when Google went public, I remember us printing those perspectives.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Oh, right, because I gotta send them out to shareholders, and you're talking tons of people.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

So I had seven sales reps that I support. So I went from supporting priests and working with nuns to now I'm supporting sales guys and like living the life of Riley. My kids had the best life ever. We had tickets to all the amazing uh we had supporting events and stuff like that. Like we lived in Madison Square Garden. And my daughter had, I think, her eighth grade, her eighth birthday at um the Liberty Game. So we had the entire Madison Square Garden. So it's yeah, we like fun stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Like, you know, a little bit. So perks, perks. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't sound like you had any issues with the corporate world being an employee. What kind of motivated you to try something different?

SPEAKER_00 9:17

I when I when I got to Charlotte, and so I spent 13 years with Bank of America, right?

SPEAKER_03 9:23

Oh, that makes sense now. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

So I've had, again, three jobs.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

And so you see the ins and outs. So I tell the great story. I had some life moments, like I healed a lot at the Catholic Church, just kind of accepting my mother's death and all those things and putting things in perspective. I had one of my bosses tell me at the time he was just Father John, and he he he said, You're more Catholic than most of the brothers that I went to. And I remember him saying that, and I was just kind of on this because I understood the value of the sanctity. Okay, right, right, of whatever that meant, right? It's just the the just the value of it and kind of like living through it, like just being honorable and I don't know, just just really kind of honing in because I was I'm hurting, I'm still a kid. Remember my mom passed away when I was 14 years old, and here I come and and I was I just asked the right questions, right? And so we can go in, not knowing fast forward 20 plus years I would be a Moorish American woman and understanding that the black Madonna is you know creeps, yeah, you know, so full circle. So when that knowledge came in, that so I was like, why am I here? Yeah, but it wasn't for then, it was for for now. And so full circle. I enjoyed being a part of the corporate corporate space. I saw a lot of foolishness.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Don't get it wrong. Like I I had capped out at the church, I couldn't go any higher. The office manager wasn't leaving. I was like, that's the next role. I went from the paper person to like the the assistant to kind of do a little, then I'm answering the big boss phone and you see 4,000, and you're like, everyone stops. 4,000 is the cardinal's office. And he's calling directly. You're like, they all freaking out. I'm like, it's the phone. The person picked the phone.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Yeah, did I see some?

SPEAKER_00 11:07

How did you know? That's how we answered the phone. But I had I had that calmness, like, and here I am. I'm again predominantly black, I mean, predominantly white organization. Here's this young, vibrant. I'm from Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

I got to say the style.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

I got the Harlem here, dude.

SPEAKER_03 11:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

My stockings got designs on them. You know, I'm cute. Yeah. I'm 1990 cute. It's it's different. And it's just like we don't wear pants. Like, these aren't pants. These are slacks. The slacks. These are a slack. You wear a blade. You know, this it was it was a culture. This is very professional, and I and I I kind of grew them up.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

So you had to learn it in on the job.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Hands-on.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

On the job. Learning professionalism. Hands-on. Was there anything that you couldn't grasp immediately and you had to keep bumping your head before you got it? In terms of professionalism?

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Politics.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

The politics part. Like I it no matter where I worked, it didn't make sense.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

If you You mean like corporate politics. Corporate politics.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

People just like, why you fire that person? Like this person just did 25 years or just honored them, and the next thing you know, you're cutting them. You know, that kind of thing. But this person, when I was in the sales space, um, they just brought in like uh some heavy hitters. But there's some back end behind it. Like I remember when before I left R R Donnelly, so a lot of the we so it's like seven sales reps, probably like five admin pool and like 14 to 20 sales reps. And they kind of partitioned. So if you're really, really good, then you had the high-end heavy hitters, the guys that make a lot of money. And then they had their preference too. So they kind of got who they wanted to work with, but they were messy. They were messy, meaning they didn't, the perks was like they would always have their friends at the suites, giving their friends the Yankee tickets, yeah. You know, those kind of things. And so at some point, you know, management came to us from a man from an admin perspective. It's like, I need you guys to start going to the concerts. Tell me who's in the concert. Like, you know, so we started to like dig deep.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Yeah, need you to be a spy basically, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Like, but but that also elevated our value.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Sure, yeah. Well, and you get into the concert. You get into the concert.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Madonna, I saw, I mean, I've had some amazing, yeah. She didn't, she Madison Square Garden with no air conditioner for two days. Horrible. It was horrible. It was horrible.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

Lights and everything on full performance, no air conditioning. Yeah, it's hot.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

No air conditioner because it affected her voice. I think she heard Luther Vandros or Aretha Franklin say that, and now that was her thing. And it was, it was, it was it was insane. Full permission.

SPEAKER_03 13:48

So wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So you're telling me she requested no air conditioning. It's not that it was broken.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Oh no, Madison's, it wasn't broken, she requested it. It's the Skittle thing.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Test of your diviness.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah, with Skittles. Yeah, it's a Skittle thing.

SPEAKER_03 14:00

It's a Skittle thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

So, I mean, I've had some amazing, like we had some, we had some perks, but it was it was work, though. We wanted to know who was in, um, who was coming in because those perks are to lure your potential customers in, right? And so you want to show people a good time. You take them to a good dinner.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

New people. Every now and then you remind an old client that you still love them.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

Every now and again, those that keep you know repeating their business and their services. So, yeah, those people, but you want new blood. And so I remember when you asked, How did I get here? And then I say here in North Carolina, I remember um I was pregnant with my son, and we already have have three daughters, um, four, one I didn't birth. And I remember telling my my manager, I was like, Don't put me on the schedule. Because you know, the Madison Square Garden, all the tickets come out, and we kind of started signing assistance, who's gonna be at what, whatever, what event. And they was like, What? What are you talking about? And I was like, Don't put me on moving forward. I'm moving to Charlotte.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

They were like, You didn't even have your baby yet.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

What are you talking about? I'm like, no, seriously, I'm not. Um it's not a gay. Like, I'm I'm doing a couple of months, like I'm not, I'm not gonna come back. So, like, August on, don't put me on. And they were like, Yeah, yeah. My daughter graduated from elementary school on June 28th. We were on the road July 5th. We were signing our lease August 1st. My son was eight months old. Amir was eight months old, so he was Charlotte homegrown.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

He was eight months, he was born December 30th, and we were out of here by August 1st. Um, so I had a vision that it was time. Um, I I just New York was just, it became, I couldn't see myself in the politics. I I didn't like where my car was parked, like we couldn't know where the car was parked. Yeah, this is a lot of people. It's a real thing. Like we had a blizzard in 2005, the year my son was born, and a kill parked the car like four blocks, five blocks away. I'm walking through the street like with the car while because I don't know. That became, I'm over it. Like I'm over it.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

So the the stress of living in the the city.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Have it wasn't this like if we didn't have any children, I would ride it out. Oh it was it was having three kids. You know, it was our our daughter moved to Jersey. Um, so we were going back and forth to pick her up on our weekends, and then we still had these three kids, and we laundry's not inside the apartment, so we're going and you know, we're doing laundry services and we gotta walk two slices in the car, this and the grocery, and then that, and there's no parking. It was just like, you know what? No, I don't want to raise my son in this. Like we need trees and we need lots of grass, and it's time to go.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

See, it matters.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Everybody thinks that.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Like it matters, it mat it matters, it matters when it matters, right? So if you I'm Brooklyn all day, like you're saying BK comes out like I love my borough, I'm a native, yeah, but you couldn't pay me to move back.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

Question. So, did you have any family members here?

SPEAKER_00 16:57

He had one friend that he grew up with, childhood friend. They have the same born date. We came down to visit him after we had reconnected, we came down for our anniversary. Him and I just drove down and I was like, I could live. Spectrum wasn't even built yet. Spectrum was framed out, like it hadn't even like, they just broke ground. And that was in 2000, I want to say, um, say three. And I was like, give me a year. Yeah. 2003, 2004. However, the place in the plan, I got pregnant with him, and I was like, all right, all right, well, let's have this last baby here, and then let's literally ride this out. And so um, the vision was I want grass, I wanted trees. We were looking to purchase homes, and then New Jersey is like it wasn't worth the the like we're not fixing up with people. Like, I'm I'm gonna need ready to go. I'm gonna need ready to go. I'm gonna need the pipes to not be rusted. Like, we're not we're we're still young. We're a young Brooklyn couple, and we're not handy. Him and I are corporate people.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

So yeah, I was like, yeah, this ain't gonna work, but I can see myself living here. I can see the vision and I can see where my kids can really flourish. And just a quick backstory because we made those choices, we were able to homeschool our kids for 14 years. We just graduated this past June. So we had 14 years of being hands-on parents with our kids. We got one that's got a master's degree in sports management, and one is a serial entrepreneur, and so those I don't think those stories, and you guys have met this guy Jack of all trades.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

You know, he's he's just phenomenal, phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Yeah, and it's because I believe the the the corporate background from his mother, right, and understanding the structure and how to feed that to them, like touch all the things. Yeah, and you did it by hand, by hand, like touch all whatever you want to touch. It's basketball, then we're doing basketball. My daughter was doing tennis, and then the other one was teaching ballet, and like uh like she went to Alvin Ailey, like you yeah, wow. We're doing all the things, but I don't think in New York, because it's such a rat race, yeah, and you don't know where your car is parked, and you gotta walk.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

Like how you keep saying that.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Yo, okay, that's a real story.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

I know, I I yeah, I've heard that story. I heard it's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Ultimate side of the street parking is it's not fun.

SPEAKER_03 19:14

I heard it's not fun.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

They want to come and clean the streets, yes, and they'll move that car on that street. Like you, it's I've had friends tell me I can't give you my car. I gotta go to the grocery store, I got three kids. Yeah, no, I got a good park today, so I'm not moving my car. Wow. Like it's a real thing. Yeah, it's a real thing, and so that got that guy real quick. And he's just like, yeah, we're moving. I'm like, I was a mission on a mission, full year, focus, where's schools, what zone, where we want to be. Like, I was doing all the things, and I just needed his friend, just one person. We spent about two, three months with them. Like, we moved into our apartment, but like they showed us where things were.

SPEAKER_03 19:53

Gave you the lay the land.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

And that's really it. Like, after that, like we off to races. Like, we didn't, we didn't we still don't see each other that much. As big as Charlotte is and as small as it can be, we never really run into them anymore. Like, I just needed the seat. I just needed one person to just kind of show me where things are. We got our own set of friends, we got our own set of family. Like we stayed on our own side of town, and and we've never looked back. We've never looked back. Like the best decision that I could have made to come to the south. Absolutely. I'm from Georgia. My family's born and raised in the world.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

This is why I asked. You ready? Always ask folks who are from the northeast, because I mean, like history, right? I know about the migratory patterns. I'm like, you gotta have somebody in your family that's from the south.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

Unless you came direct from Phyllis Wheatley's lineage. I doubt people ain't never been to the South.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

My dad's mom, born and raised in Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

Okay. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

She was born and raised in Brooklyn, but her her parents were not.

SPEAKER_05 20:50

Ah.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Um, they're from the Caribbean. So my dad, my dad, my grandmother might have babysitted Jay-Z on a low. Like she she was from Marcy Projects. Seriously? I promise you. I promise you.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

She says she probably I believe it. I believe I ain't a mess with you. Yeah, my dad.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

My dad is 76 years old. He spent his first half of his life in Marcy.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

Wow. Do they tell you? And this is we'll get to this next question, but I said that since she said that.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

I think I did I answer the question. I think I didn't know. Oh, yeah, you did.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

Oh no, you did. You just exactly suppose you. Hey, you're on point. Um, was there any did they tell you anything about growing up since he was in Marcy? Like, was it different then than it is now, than it turned out to be in the 90s and the early 2000s? And how did it change?

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Well, you know the obvious, right? So my dad's born in 1948, where men still wore shoes and jeans. Like not jeans, like slacks. We had this conversation literally the other day, him and I. He's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. My dad's a drummer. Oh. Right? So my mom fell in love with a drummer.

SPEAKER_03 21:52

Oh man. Okay, come on, get a drummer. Yeah, really. Seriously, seriously.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Um, but he he um and it the the streets was not fun in the 50s, 60s. My uncle was murdered in the 70s, um, probably like right before I was born, and it was bad. Like it was bad. The streets was bad, but they had pushed so much drugs in the community. And when my grandmother and my great-grandmother moved into Marcy, this was a new project.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

It was literally that's why I asked, because they moved out.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

So it was new, and so it was, it wasn't what projects was not for people that were already from here, from from the borough.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

Thank you. All right, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Projects was never for the natives, basically. It was for the migrants, it was for the immigrants that were coming over um so they could have a community. So you think about Little Italy, you think about Chinatown, yeah, you know, you got the Russian communities. Those were that's what those projects was for. But because they had to integrate and make make some fun noise, and they allowed us, the black people, to come into the community, and then it kind of shifted and went to a different space. But those were never we were. I always thought people I grew up in the brownstone. Like, let's just be real.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

Oh, go ahead, girl. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Yeah, like I'm I'm I my neighborhood where I grew up, Quincy Street between Reed and Starvison, was literally right around the corner where um Spike Lee um filmed Do the Right Thing.

SPEAKER_04 23:18

Oh God.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

I'm that best guy. Okay, like he came outside from Clinton Hills and came right into the hood. He filmed right on Starvison in Lexington, and we watched him build the whole community up. And it was bandit buildings that he painted, and you watch him do his thing at night. We watched it the other night, and I was like, wow, that's like that's my neighborhood. Like that's my block. That's your block. That's my block. You know, or or there about the cross streets of it. And so what shifted and changed was the drugs that infiltrated into the Into the community because the young men at the time, you were if you look at any 60s, 50s, 60s, you go back 40, obviously, 40s, but when you think about the 60s and the 70s, men were like you got dressed.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Yeah. You should I know what you mean. Men were men.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

I was trying to.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

I know you were trying not to say that, but I knew what you go ahead and say it.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

It's a photography book we were looking at the other day. It was shwanky. Before crack.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Yeah. Before not before crack, before heroin. Heroin. So before crack smack, you know, heroin. Before the dope era, before the drugs got pushed into the community to destroy and blow them up. That's when it happened. And then, you know, unfortunately, that was the story that my uncle unfortunately lost his life because of drugs. My dad. Like is it like put five black people in a room and tell me one person they haven't been experienced because that's a program. My dad remembers telling me some stuff that he was coming out the he was in the service and they asked him where he lived. I think he was about to come home or something like that. And he gave the area and the sergeant I probably shouldn't say this. It's exclusive. Go ahead, exclusive, exclusive. And I think he he don't I don't think he realized he said it out loud. He was like, How did you survive that? Right. Because he there was a plant to flood the community. It was organized.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Yeah, oh, this yeah. It was organized.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

He was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's not, it's it's not like and he and he he recalls that. We talk about that often. He goes, I remember him telling me that. We were trying to kill y'all.

SPEAKER_04 25:20

Basically, that's what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

You laid a raid out, yeah, and that the roaches are still in. Boom. You're like, what? Not to call us roaches. But that was the whole analogy, yeah. Personally, to answer your question, what's the difference? Well, men were men. And women allowed men to be men. This is not the topic we can have that conversation. I can come back on that.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

Oh, we will. And I'll get into the next question, but I like that.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

But men, women allowed men to be men, right? Um, we all knew our place.

SPEAKER_04 25:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

And so and this will go to that probably that next question is women were gentler. And there was some hard, there were some hard women. Yeah. Sure, there was some no-nonsense. Yeah. But we knew our place. And knowing our place is that I'm feminine.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

This is my seat.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

And this is your seat.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Right now.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Uh-oh. Sitting on both of them.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

We're sitting on both seats.

SPEAKER_03 26:17

It's uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

It does. And then there's no room for him to sit. So he's standing. And then what happens when a man is bored? He gets into trouble.

SPEAKER_04 26:27

Get in trouble.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Right? Because if I don't have a sense of identity, a sense of purpose, a sense of reason why I'm here, place, I'm going to get into trouble. I'm getting into drugs. I'm going to get into other women. I'm going to get into all kinds of things. And so that's what broke the communities up when you start doing that.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

That is that was dope. Go all right. So that no that was all the top, but that was dope. You will come back and we're going to have to discuss that. We're going to have to discuss that with the good.

SPEAKER_02 26:52

That's a very because you know, we're not. It's not attacking anybody being the way they need to be. It's simply saying that culturally, um, where we are now is a little bit difficult to be a dude. It is.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

It is. Oh, we're called toxic.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

But uh, you know, there's a there's plenty of there's plenty of guys shouting on the internet about how hard it is to be a guy. And I ain't saying that. Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Yeah, we are yeah, yeah, that's not what we're saying. We're saying that's not what we're saying is it's the construct of the construct of the stripping. And first and foremost, our I'm gonna speak for my community first because that's my home base, right? But as a whole, as a whole, women have lost their mind.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Ain't only ones.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

I say that. I say that because I'm the nurturer, right? And so the moment we start making more as much and or more money, we start, you know. But James Brown said it's a man's world, but if you listen to the rest of the song, he said it's nothing without women. So we we all we stuck on the first bar.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

Didn't listen to the complete, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

He said, Yeah, it's a man's world, but let's be really clear, I'ma need this feminine energy. And we've the roles are reversed. But there's men are mad feminine, yeah, yeah. And it comes source, and I know with your long hair and all that. Right. But but and that's and there's a moment for that.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

Yeah, sure. There's balance.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

It's every day where all the signs and in moments you need to be masculine and feminine. It's but let's just be clear, we can't stay in one too long.

SPEAKER_04 28:27

Very true. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

And we can't, oh, I don't need a man. Yeah, you do. Because remember, I spent 13 years at the Catholic Church, right? The Bible made us in pairs. Oh, good point. Good point. To be matched up, and so there's a whole that whole sexual identity. I'm not gonna touch that. Yeah, we worry about that. Just saying, like, when we stop thinking that we need the other, one doesn't exist without the other. Man doesn't have a name of man until woman was existing.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Right? Drop the mic again on that one.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

Right? Because we the it's the opposites, right? So we don't water does not have like so air and water doesn't exist without the other because it doesn't have an identity. You need the opposite to justify your identification.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

That's how we identify evils with good and good. With you got it. Hot and cold.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

We just had hot, it just it just be. It's it's just it's just it doesn't have anything to compare itself to. So, oh, I'm not that. Oh, so then I must be this, right? And so that whole dynamics of like, you know, living in Best Star. Well, there's there's there's Best Star, there's East New York Brownsville Best Star. It's Dyferton Heights where my daughter was born, like, you know, it's I grew up in the room. Go ahead. This is the nice area, right? Excuse me. I thought I was born in Clinton Hill, you know, like it's an apartment complex, it's not a project. There you go. You know, it's a pre-war building that you know, it's not 500 families in a little spot.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

One elevator. Whoa, like it's different.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

I was like, oh, I grew up in a all my family lives in houses. Like all of like bougie. And that will be a capital B, please. Oh, wow. Yes, my mother was the bougiest. I learned from the master in my 14 years. I learned she was she was a ladies' lady. And it's funny to hear that. Like my stepdad used to always tell me that um your mother's uh such a woman, yeah, she's such a lady. He used to drill that into me and my sister. And now to reminisce that with my father, um, my stepdad is gone now, but to hear him talk about their little short relationship, and he goes, Your mother was, man, she was so classy.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

I hear that from older folks talking about like they were just I'm like, what do y'all mean by that? They were serious, like there's a different way that they were kicked out.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

You don't come outside, there's no bonnets and pajamas. Oh no, that's we gotta get shut down.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

So you're not so you're not a fan of the lounge style of the uh of the bonnets.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

As my son goes, the perpetual hoodie. Yeah, where are you going? Yeah, I'm going to a birthday party. Whose birthday party? Like is it a pajama party?

SPEAKER_03 30:59

Yeah, because pajamas on little I'm I'm that woman. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

I have locks, but I comb my hair every day. Yeah. Like I like it's not I can I say comb, I groom my hair. Groom yourself, yeah. This is 18 years of growth.

SPEAKER_03 31:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

I started my hair when he was three months. Um, so nevertheless, my mother was immaculate. Her nails were always done, everything was always laid and fit and tight. So I learned all the women in my family were like that.

SPEAKER_04 31:27

And so that's part of it.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

And then because we lived in the bougie part of Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_03 31:33

Well, I'll get to the second question. We're gonna have to come back. We're gonna focus on what you were talking about, that relationship and the dynamics. Um, I always like talking about binomial disposition and certain subjects because it that's how we understand.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

It's these left and right brains as well. It gotta we're saying either or.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Either or you can have it all, but you're not supposed to.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

You're not supposed to. It can crack you.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

There is a balance to everything. Amen. Even if your balance ain't the same as everybody else's balance, it's still balanced. It's gotta be balanced. Gotta happen.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Can't be too far left or too far right. Right, left. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:06

So the reason for being today, especially is talk, we wanted to talk to you about direct sales, um, specifically misconceptions around it. Because we've had many people come on our podcast and talk about direct sales things they do, and the the word that always comes up is um scamming. And so you you specifically wearing a bonnet.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

Like, ah, well, sometimes sometimes. Oh I mean, sometimes the motivation to be self-employed is that you want to be quite casual and lounge. And I my experience with self-employment has been quite the opposite. You yeah, you've I might be able to make sure I can make school pickups, but right you gotta be on point. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

Like there's not that relax in there. So um, specifically, you took uh a step into wellness by joining It Works Global in 2018. Um there can be a lot of skepticism, misconceptions surrounding direct sales. How do you address these concerns and what do you wish people understood about the potential in this field?

SPEAKER_00 33:05

One I think you should need to. That's a great question. That's a really great loaded question. Um because I think certain communities understand it, and I think certain communities think it's a scam because of the the education piece. Some communities raise their children uh with knowledge of wealth out the gate at five years old. You understand how money works, you understand how to save, you understand how to get it back, how to make it work for how to make it work for you, and all the things and the structure of their lifestyle. And then there's some families where everything is hand foot to mouth, right? So everything is like we're just getting by. We're surviving. So surviving is not living. And so if you have generations of survival mechanisms, it's really hard to teach wealth education because I've never seen it. It doesn't, it doesn't exist. It's not on my it's not in my neighborhood, it's not in my house. Yeah, and so if it's not in your house, at least the conversation. So this makes sense. So when we started to homeschool our kids, the biggest thing, my grandmother will be 95 years old on the 5th of November. Blessing. She texts and she's on Facebook. She's um, but I remember her saying to me, Well, how are your kids gonna be socialized? Like their kids need to have their socials. And I was just like, they learn that from me.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

I teach them, I take them to restaurants and how to be quiet, and we go to libraries and how to behave in certain environments, and their dad's bringing them to the studio around people and this and that. Like, we teach school is not where you teach your children social skills.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

Ooh, yeah. This I think there was like this idea in generations past that like you kind of had to be bullied at school so that it would toughen you up.

SPEAKER_03 34:56

Yeah, no, no, it's real sleep. That's real.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

Like, no.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

No, that's I mean, exposure to other kids is important. Sure, yeah. Right, and working things out with kids. Working things out, having you don't get into kids' conversations, like when kids are fighting, they're gonna be friends in five minutes. Yeah, yeah. Let them figure out, okay, we don't hit when we're angry, we don't throw rocks and that kind of thing. And yeah, there's a moment where you feel like having those tough moments at school toughens you up. But if you're not psychologically ready prepared to deal with that, that can crush a child. Yeah. Because it all starts at home. So the strength muscle of learning to do, if you can't take your dad's criticism or your mother, I don't mean abuse, I mean criticism. Yeah, like that shirt ain't cute.

SPEAKER_03 35:39

Like, all right, I'm trying to give you a heads up.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

Like my mom used to call it like that. I'm I'm cute. Maybe not. You couldn't tell me that wasn't like that was the this is a cute outfit, you know. But your parents are like, no, that really doesn't match. Or you might need to iron it. And so if you can't take the criticism at home, then the bully in the street ain't got a chance. Like, man, my mom ain't let me leave outside. What you got to say ain't nothing. Like, I'm good, you know, that kind of thing. And so the same thing goes with financial literacy and understanding direct sales and what it means. Because it's direct to the consumer. Hello, we need education, we need to understand what that means. And so our community, I I get what kind of treatment are you getting out here in this in the screen? It's you know, I gotta I gotta research that. Oh. Let me let me check. Can you send me the ingredient? And I love that. I love that for you. Yeah. But are you questioning what that doctor just prescribed you? Holy.

SPEAKER_04 36:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

You know, every time you order something off of Amazon or Postmates, have you checked the ingredients to McDonald's?

SPEAKER_02 36:46

Like I'm just Yeah, that's a good point. Who do you trust? Do you trust the corporation you know is out to screw you over? You know it. It's been proven the pharmaceutical company that you know is doing something shady all the time.

SPEAKER_03 36:59

Right. This product may cause this the one that gets me ready. A lot maybe cause it anal bleeding. Part of my my language. Yeah. It's multiple descriptions.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

They advertise regular television. Yeah, my fault. That's weird to have to say that like a bleeding.

SPEAKER_00 37:15

But like, did you hear the commercial? Like, did you not hear so the the misnomer is really education? So I go into an education space of first and foremost, I don't sell anything.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

I share.

SPEAKER_03 37:27

Explain. Explain what you mean by that.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

I share information. So before I started with the business, I was a customer first. I saw my friend post on social media, and I love all my friends. I was like, oh, this is gonna be the year. I'm gonna buy whatever they're selling, I'm supporting. And I was like, What was she? Just had a baby, she's talking about these raps, she's tightening her stomach. I was like, Oh, she gets her postpartum body back. This is interesting. She's doing this cleanse. My sister's about to turn 50. We're about to go to DR. I think I might need to do this cleanse too. Let me do this cleansing, just get my body right. And I'm just like, I'm in in my late 40s. I know that's hard to believe, right? Good in my mid 40s, and I'm like, I need to start doing more for me. Because now the kids are like growing and I'm not so hands-on mommy, and yeah, Kill's got the homeschool thing on auto when we and I was like, you know what?

SPEAKER_04 38:14

It's time to take care of myself.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

I felt like it was it was time for me to support, and I supported my friend, and I said, first thing I said to her, don't ask me to sell nothing.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

That's part of it too, right? Everybody's scared that they're gonna get roped in to do.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

As the layers go back in the years, I'm six years in now. Um I think the fear is the responsibility that you have to do. Yeah, it's like you're gonna ask me to do something that I don't think I'm capable of doing. So I don't want to jump past the next question, but the misnomer, the misconception is the miseducation.

SPEAKER_04 38:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Is it's a job. Treat it like a business and not a hobby, and it'll pay you like such. Right? And so people don't realize they do a lot of hustles. People that sell cakes on the side, or they wear on the side, or they, you know, oh my husband paints. You want him to come paint your like that's not his job, but that's just something that he does. And so because there's no construct for him to have people buy into him painting houses or painting, you know, rooms, it's they don't they understand that. Well, that's just hard work. Uh the salesman used to knock on the door. Yeah, the insurance. Hit the pavement. Hit the pavement, and like I know you need health insurance, you need life insurance. Like, no, I don't.

SPEAKER_05 39:34

Yeah, you do, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:35

And the vacuum cleaner guy, like all these things that we got away because now we have these brick and mortar mega stores, and you can go and get everything. Before it was direct sales, was the name of the game.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

That's a great point. That is a great point. That was what it was. That's how you did get an orc vacuum.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

That's how you did it. That's how you didn't. Like the blender, all the new appliances of the new.

SPEAKER_03 39:57

They came to your house.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

I got a set of pots that I promise you, if I'm gonna say, why are you telling your age? Because I'm proud. If I'm 53, these pots might be 60. Like I always remember these pots being in my family. And they are copper bottom, uh-huh, wood handles, wood top, they have engraves, and they cook amazingly. And so I remember my grandmother and them talking about this man coming, and so it was my grandmother and her sister-in-law's. They were the the two sisters, so it was the three of them, and they all had the same pots because the guy that sold one that he done sold, you know what I'm saying? And that's what you did. Yeah, that's a nice pot. That's a good pot. Let me get that pot.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

Nobody did any research. They didn't see if it was them, they they saw the product. Well, how would you?

SPEAKER_00 40:48

How would you? Well then, well, then you could the research would be called how you tried these pots. Yeah, how they were how did you like them? How did you like them? But word of mouth was the name of the game. And so direct sales is really word of the mouth. Word of mouth. And so direct sales versus brick and mortar business.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

Yeah, right. Or scrolling reviews on Amazon. Because that's the other thing, is you actually know the products. If I ask you about them, you're telling me because you've looked at them, you've experimented with them, you've heard other people like.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

I tried them first. So I was a customer first, so it was it was a no-brainer for me because I couldn't stop talking about it. I kept like, oh my God, I feel amazing. These super greens, like seriously, like no, uh, my husband's like, shut up. Like, no, you don't understand. Like, my body feels nourished. I feel I think I didn't know I needed what I got. Like, this is he's like, all right. And I was like, no. I called my friend. I was like, okay, I know you said I had to do this for like three months. Because in the three months, that's the whole big the this miseducation, too. It's like, oh, how long do I have to buy this? It's like, how long do you want to live? Like, this is this is a good one. That's a good point. How often you buy milk? Yeah, all yeah, how much you buy foods? Like, this is this is drink water. But the 90 days is because it takes the body 126, I think, or 27 days to start and or break a habit. Yeah. So if you do 90 days, your body starts to like, okay. It starts to click. This is what we're doing, and it starts to regenerate and restart, and whatever you're lacking, it starts to kind of re-restart yourself, and and you see better results the longer you're on it, right? So think about a crackhead the first time you smoke crack. Oh, like that example. Two years later, he he got it.

SPEAKER_03 42:28

He got that down.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

He mastering it.

SPEAKER_03 42:30

Matter of fact, the body don't even like they I don't know what crack does. I guess it preserves the body so you can get more crack.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

But that was a good example. That's a great example. The first time you have a drink, you're not an alcoholic. No, it takes repetitive of doing the same thing, right? And so that's the other thing. It's like, well, how long? Like, how long do you think you need for your body? Like, because if you 200 pounds overweight, good point. And you think if you take one, two pills in a week, hit yourself one.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

We're looking for quick fixes. We're looking for that pharmaceutical fix.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

I tell all the postpartum moms that it took you nine months to almost a year, ten months technically, to develop this child.

SPEAKER_02 43:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

You're not gonna lose this weight in six months. Right. Give yourself grace. Allow your body to reset. It has to go, oh, wait, we're not we're not making babies anymore. Right, and it's gonna take a year to a year and a half to really reset back to zero. That's the this whole microwave world we're in now. Everything is not, and even if you had surgery, even if you had weight loss surgery, you still gotta heal. Yeah, the swelling still has to come down, right? Your body still has to go, wait a minute. It takes the body at least 90 days to stop thinking that it's as heavy as it used to be.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

Right, right. How it's storing fat processes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

Like, I mean, so there's a process.

SPEAKER_02 43:48

We change that whole thing. We change it with the seasons, we change how we break down stuff. You gotta, yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 43:53

That's why you eat seasonally.

SPEAKER_03 43:55

That's why speak matter of fact, if we could jump into that, you're right on the money. Of course, I'm gonna congratulate you on launching your plant-based cooking guide. Um, specifically with that, and we're talking about health and wellness right now as well. Could you just explain to people your inspiration behind that project, um, what you hope people will gain from that? Um, and then of course, we're talking about misconceptions. We're discussing that already. Just if you could build on some of those misconceptions that you have been dealing with as you've been trying to get that out.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

So I mean, it's I'm a loaded person. Like, I got a lot of topics. I've experienced a lot, right? And so um, this particular this came because God put it on me.

SPEAKER_04 44:40

Like, okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

I thought I would write a book about my life first, you know. God, they say make a plan. Yeah, show you where it goes. Yeah, like, yeah, that's cute. But uh this is what we're doing. This is what we're doing, and that and it was heavy. I did this book in less than 45 days. Wow. Wow. So it's 16 plant-based recipes. Um, and I had to, and I'm a cook that like from my heart and my head, my grandmother, God bless her, Naomi Stewart, she was born November 2nd, and then my dad's mom was born November 5th. And I never knew them. I never knew my father's mom until I was in my 20s. Wow. So, but I had grandmothers that came from the same cloth at the same around the same time. So um, but my grandmother Naomi and I dedicate this book to her. And so this is a I did an ebook, and so this is like a mock up of the cover. Okay, and um it is why plant based. This is this is the reason why. Um, this is the cover. So I did an e book because I just wanted to test the waters. I told you God said you're gonna make this book, and I was like, I'm not making a book, like we we're not doing that, like I don't know how to write. What are you talking about? And then it's like, no, you're gonna. Write your recipes. It's like I don't have recipes. I write them down. I cook from my heart. And so it's you know, a play on my name, cooking with the more. So it's cooking with love. And so my grandmother, Naomi, she had six kids and she could make everything take up taste amazing. Like she would make nothing, and we would have a whole spread. And everyone, the family, the friends, the neighbors, they all knew she could bake. She would make homemade biscuits coming home from work. I mean, you just see, and then she used jelly jars. Like she didn't, she didn't want the fancy cutlery, she didn't want fancy baking dishes. She made bread putting in a cast iron skillet. And none of those recipes she wrote down. Everything was from right.

SPEAKER_02 46:28

That's how you had to do it back then. You didn't know it if it wasn't in your head.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

If you that's a good point, I like that. And so this was a labor of love because my son, you guys know, he cooks. And so a lot of times he goes, Ma, what's this? What's the recipe? And I'm like, son, we've done this like seven times. Like he's like, Well, like, just do it.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

The way we think has changed because we're used to looking it up all the time, and we just don't, we don't like Google. I don't need to remember, so I won't. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

Exactly. And that part of the brain is like, nope, we don't do that. And so I he kept asking, and I'm like, son, like just he's like, well, you should write it down. I was like, that's not how I cook. So you know, so we go back and forth with that. And so my grandmother's spirit was heavy on me, and I was just like, I really would love to have seen her handwriting, like right now in this moment. And so to see what she wrote, like in like the scratch marks, and you know, you see the cookbooks and then in the note cards and something.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

You change the recipe two years later. Better this way, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

And so I'm like debating with God. I'm like, uh, like like are we really doing this? And then I thought about my grandson, right? And I thought about, you know, thought about Booma, and I was just like, you know what, I'm not going anywhere, longevity, amen. Yeah, but I want to leave a legacy so that they can go back and because the memories that I have, if I don't keep sharing with them, they will die. And so they never met my mom and they never met my grandmother, but I talk about them all the time. So this ring on my finger is my mother's. Oh. And so this might be 60. Like, I don't ever remember a time it was never on her hand. And so I need to be able to leave something behind that's not necessarily like you know, jewelry or anything like that, but just write written notes of what how we ate and why we ate. So I can tell them the stories, but now this book is now a part of that. And so the homage is to like my grandmother never wrote anything down, and then the reasoning is because my husband went plant-based in 2000.

SPEAKER_05 48:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 48:23

And so my husband, as you know, kills my husband.

SPEAKER_05 48:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

My husband, my husband. You know what I'm saying? My man, my man, my man, that meme all over the place. And so in 2000, he was having, like '99, he was having some issues with his prostate. And the doctor told him, you know, let's just let's just lay off the meat for a little bit. And so at the time, we were eating everything. I was doing perineal, we were doing short ribs, doing pot rolls. Like I cook cook.

SPEAKER_05 48:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

Right. And he's like, just lay off all the meat. Because his body, he was eating steak and eggs and no greens before I met him. So he wasn't a high fiber diet. And so greens, maybe on the holidays, he might have some collard greens. Yeah. But throughout the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_02 49:06

Right. It was on their own. And back to the 90 days thing. If you're having it once in a while, your body doesn't know what to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 49:11

Body doesn't know what to do with it. And so he had an Indian doctor, and he he told him, He's like, you know, unfortunately, your community, men are low in fiber. They don't have to be able to do that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 49:20

I'm happy he said it to them like that.

SPEAKER_00 49:22

To put in their system to help go to the bathroom. And you may think, well, I go to the bathroom, I'm good. But if you're eating three meals, you should be going to the bathroom three times. Three times. And so think about a baby. The moment that baby drinks that bottle, instantly it boops. The second time they have that next bottle, they go right to the bathroom because their digestive system is clean and it knows this. I take what I need and I remove the rest. Our body's like, I'm not even taking what I need, I'm just gonna hold on to it. And so we become constipated and stagnant and all that. That's the disease starts in the stomach. The gut health is the most important thing. And so when he started to detox from meat, it wasn't hard. It was like a tran, it was a in the beginning, it was like, oh, okay, so you we we we stopped eating pork, we just won't do short ribs and beef. So I was still doing chicken and turkey. And then one day I made a pot of turkey spaghetti and he ate it during this time of not eating meat. And he's like, Oh, I thought that was for me. And I was like, No, because they didn't have all these substitutes.

SPEAKER_04 50:21

Oh, yeah, that was the day.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

No, no, no. I mean, it was barely. You had to do it yourself.

SPEAKER_01 50:25

Right. It was, I mean. You had to really dig. You had to go to the health food.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

Really, the health food store, you had to go to the roster community.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:31

Where I mean you had to really search, and I'm I'm from this, like I'm from Brooklyn, but I'm south home. I'm like, that's earthy crunchy. I'm not making my own. Um, we're not, we're doing a whole lot.

SPEAKER_03 50:44

No jackfruit in rolling oats.

SPEAKER_00 50:46

Like, nobody's doing that. Roll oats. Rolling literally your own oats. Like, and so this book was an homage again. So the the transition of the recipes was I wish I had me in 2000.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

In 2001. Point you in that direction.

SPEAKER_00 51:03

How to be like, okay, look, let me show you this is easy. And so this is why this guy was super easy.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

Dude, I need one then. It's 16 recipes.

SPEAKER_00 51:13

So there's a there's a so this the transition came out of I have to figure out how to feed this man.

SPEAKER_04 51:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:21

Right? I have to figure out how to give him and a kill, like now he'll eat a he'll eat a salad and it's amazing. Yeah. Back then it was like, this is rabbit food, right? Like I'm not, I'm a football player. He's playing semi-profile.

SPEAKER_03 51:35

That's what I was about to say too. Yeah, that could be difficult.

SPEAKER_00 51:38

He needs to eat, eat. And so even when we would go out to family events, they would go, oh, there's there's um, there's some salad a kill can have. And it's like, nobody wants to eat a salad, Thanksgiving. Like, why you gotta put meat in everything? It's meat and the sweet potato. Yeah, and don't play around.

SPEAKER_03 51:55

Sprinkle it with some little fat bag, sprinkle it over the top. You must start get the crunch in there too.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

Well, that was a hard, I mean, I I was like, but I didn't go plant-based, and that wasn't even the name then. It was vegetarian, vegetarian, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:08

It wasn't even vegan in there.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

We're still eating chicken. Like this was uh this was a ministry in our marriage that was, and there was no resources. My grandmother's not here because she could have probably told me, like, okay, girl, let's whip up, da da da da da, and like I had to figure these things out. And so 24 years later, we eat well. We eat very, very well. Thanksgiving is, you know, and I use that, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but the holiday season, like we eat, I don't make stuffing, and I made my I don't know if you watch y'all, y'all follow me. So yeah, this Sunday I did barbecue mushrooms, I did saute kale, like I cooked it like holler greens, and I did mac and cheese and sweet potatoes. And so that's a Sunday dinner.

SPEAKER_03 52:49

That's an awesome Sunday dinner.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

And so all the memories of there, because you got the the creaminess from the mac and cheese, you got the sweetness from the sweet potatoes. You got I wanted barbecue because I just I like the barbecue combination, and they I think they just had the mushrooms just fried, and then that satisfied me because you got that meat component, I guess. And so those recipes have come from trial and error, like trying things out. There's some things they do not, they like no mess on that. They're not jackfruit fans. I haven't mastered jackfruit.

SPEAKER_03 53:20

Jackfruit's hard.

SPEAKER_00 53:21

Jackfruit, you gotta like be angry and burn it. Like you gotta be like, you I don't give it off. You gotta just turn it on fire and that's what they do. Cook and when you do, it's it changes the flavor, yeah. It changes the flavor, it changes the texture. Um, you just gotta you you gotta overcook it. And if you're a precise cook, then jackfruit answer. If you're like, oh, I've been cooking it for 10 minutes. No, you might want to go longer 30. Higher heat. I need I need charcoal. I need the pot to start smoking. Um, so yeah, I I wish I wish there was a me 20 years ago, and there wasn't someone to say, no, girl, let's look, let's get some chickpeas. Yeah, like one of the recipes is chickpea salad. I love chickpeas, and I make like a chicken salad. Um, and it's so addicting.

SPEAKER_03 54:05

Matter of fact, yeah. Chicken salad. Yo, it is very good. It's very good.

SPEAKER_00 54:10

Season it with your poultry seasoning.

SPEAKER_03 54:12

That's what I was gonna say. I I think a lot of people don't realize that the food it's seasoning. If you can season it, it will make it make it work.

SPEAKER_00 54:20

The kale tastes like collard greens, and it's also because I didn't like the way the collard greens looked.

SPEAKER_03 54:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:24

Um, and I was like, well, I'll just make the kale. And you saw you cook them just like greens, and you use do the same things besides putting a ham hock in there.

SPEAKER_03 54:32

Yeah. Oh so I know we gotta wrap up, but before we wrap up, I want you to make sure that you do drop where people can find this, and then any other. Um, of course, drop your Instagram and stuff, um, all the socials, and then if you have anything upcoming that people should know about.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

Um, I do want to fill this in right quick. So we'll add to the um direct sales thing. Um, I just specifically I wanted to let my community know that there's money for you, right? There's support for you. There is, if you're open and coachable to change that mindset from employee to em to business owner, if you take that same support, that same um thought process, that same commitment that you get up to a job every day, but you're not late, and you're present for your manager, and when your manager disciplines you or try to coach you into a new learning space, you receive it, this is direct sales, right? So I have a mentor who is 34 years old. She's been doing this 13 years in the business. She has a husband, she's got four kids, she's made over two million dollars in a she's uh debt-free with her wedding, built and brought that home, put her son through private school, and now she has three littles in private school. Not only did the private school was a big factor for her to start the business, she had um infertility issues, and so this business funded her fertility treatment. So she has three beautiful children with her husband. And so that every time I see her, I'm just like, if she could do it, I could do it.

SPEAKER_04 56:07

You could do it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:07

And I say that because meaning there's space for us. Um, it's just the education part. You gotta have a big why. What's your why? Why do you get up and go to work every day? To pay your bills, right? So a business is more than that. What else? And what else do you want? We are we're afraid to ask for what else? What else looks like um the comfort? What's your why? How do you want to raise your kids? Certain schools, you want to drive a certain car, you want to live in a certain house, you want to pay off certain debt. That why is what you bring to your direct sales business. And it won't, you won't be the nosy, annoying person, like, hey, cause your body, could your body, catch your body. You, especially if there's products that actually work.

SPEAKER_03 56:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:46

Right. And you find your own reason why. My biggest thing, I was carrying some weight. I was home now and I needed to lose some weight, and I need to do things for myself and really take this lifespan of health and wellness to the next level. And so that was why. So finding your why and feeding that will drive you every day. I think if you're into makeup and if you're a makeup artist, I think you should be selling Mary Kay because that's your wheelhouse. Right. It's like know the seasons, know the industry, and find what fits for yourself and your personality, and just be open. I think just be open. And so this book worked well because I'm a wellness coach, right? So I'm trying to tell you how to share you, how to help you and support you, how to be healthy and well. What well she's gonna eat. And and and I this wasn't even about like make a couple of dollars. Like, so it was released on 920, which is a kill's birthday.

SPEAKER_05 57:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 57:39

Um, so it was definitely an homage to him because of his choice to one be here for our our family. Yeah, long time. Um, and he's never wavered 24 years. He was a hot wing, buffalo wing guy.

SPEAKER_05 57:52

That's what's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 57:53

And he is not backslide, and I think he's wanted to. I don't, he's never even like licked it, like licked, like take his finger, like, oops. He's never, he's just the discipline. The discipline, I'm inspired by the biggest.

SPEAKER_03 58:04

So he talks to us about no, he talks to us about that yes.

SPEAKER_00 58:06

Discipline is is bar none, it's infectious. Like, and so I've gotten to be uh I could be better, but you know, we all's right. It's always room for growth. So yeah, so my Instagram is amore l um831, and then the one specifically for health and wellness is Noble Health.

SPEAKER_05 58:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 58:26

At um Instagram, and I'm at Facebook, which is my favorite. Like I'm old school, right? Facebook is at Amore L831. And I'm on TikTok, I got 2,000 followers already. Yo, with the TikTok. I've been um accepted in the um affiliate program. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm excited. So I'm excited. But um, I'm you know, cooking with amor. There's more to come. Hard copies are coming. You can find it right now. My website is weird with the this digital product, so you can message me directly. Okay, and I can tell you how to make the payment. It's uh, like I said, $9.20, and I can send you the link to download it. And so there's 16 plant-based recipes in there. There's a there's a mushroom pole boy in there, which is absolutely amazing. And so I connected with the lady that you guys recently, um, the purple elephant. I want to connect with her and get some of her mushrooms and and and do some demonstrations and do some content around um with the recipes. So the the mushroom, the mushroom mushrooms is my jam. I know.

SPEAKER_02 59:30

I know how good they are. And I used to I used to hate the little white button mushrooms. Yeah, and that was just all I knew. Yeah, yeah. There's there's grape.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

There's so many.

SPEAKER_02 59:39

Mushrooms got flavor and stuff. They got flavor.

SPEAKER_03 59:41

You can deep fried oyster mushrooms.

SPEAKER_00 59:42

Oh my gosh. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 59:43

You don't need chicken, no chicken fingers, no more.

SPEAKER_00 59:47

The first time I fried the mushrooms, he was the kill was very, very, very, very impressed. He's just like, that's not gonna taste good. Where could you make more?

SPEAKER_05 59:57

Deep and so more?

SPEAKER_00 59:59

And that's I mean, that's what I did when I did the barbecue, but the the my favorite is probably oh, I do a Philly no-steak cheesesteak with Portobello mushrooms. And so it's like a Philly, it but it's a Philly cheesesteak pasta. So it's no bread, it's literally penny pasta, mushrooms, peppers, onions, vegan cheese. Cracking a pot. Like so good. The recipes in the mid, it's in the um, and you can play with it. So my whole idea with creating these were these were meals that we cook every day. Yeah. And I wanted to show you how easy and simple they are to take meat out of your diet and add more plants in and treat them how you would normally treat them.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:37

Which is the seasoning, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:39

And the preparation. So it matters. It's it matters. I make a curry chickpea. Um, so like you like curry chicken. So I use chickpeas as the meat, and I do I add sometimes I add mushrooms because why not?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:51

Um, and you cook it the same way. You do coconut milk, and you do your potatoes, and you do your carrots, and you steam it down in the oval rice, like you don't even miss it. You don't even miss it. That's in the volume too.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:03

You make me hungry. Um I man, it's it's been a man. All right, so what we we're gonna make sure to have you back so we can discuss what we were jumping in at the front. It had nothing to do with what we're supposed to talk about today. No, so we can discuss that because I think that's gonna be something. I mean, this is something that my brother and I we would discuss on arbitrary conversations. Um, but I want to dig into that. Um, but I know wrapping up today, I just want to let everybody know this is DJing what? Mike. Skip. And our esteemed guests, Amore. Excellent. We want to thank you so much for joining us today. We will have you back. We gotta have that discussion. But for the Hilltop Glove podcast, signing off till next time. Make sure you tell somebody next time that you love them and you appreciate them. Peace.

unknown 1:01:46

Peace.