SPEAKER_01 1:45

Welcome back to the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today we have the opportunity to speak to Eddie Long, the owner of Genesis, a fair trade coffee shop and shopping center located in Newberry, South Carolina. Eddie and his wife are holistically combating poverty by offering a hand up instead of a hand out through the use of direct trade products. They are passionate about educating others on the current realities of slave lay slave labor, human trafficking, and global poverty, as well as the importance of mindful consumption and environmental protection. Genesis is more than just a coffee shop. It's a hub for creativity and community engagement. Genesis also has a community space for art classes, guitar lessons, coding classes, Bible studies, and book clubs fostering a vibrant and supportive community. Stay tuned while we uncover more ways to become sustainable and make a positive impact. How are you doing today? Yeah, I'm doing good. Thanks for having me. Oh, thank you. Thanks for being here. Thank you for being here. And first of all, before we jump into it, I'm always very honest. Y'all, we were running behind a little bit today. We're at an awesome art gallery here in Newberry, uh, South Carolina, Mr. Robert Matheson's Art Gallery.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

And we 1213 Main Street, Newberry, South Carolina, 29108.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yes, please make sure to stop by here. Um come in here and see what art that's going on. Make sure you bring some patronage, buy some things while you're in here. If you can't, if you can get it, if you can't afford an arm, well, that's fine. There's some nice stuff that he has over here for you to buy out of the shelves, uh, t-shirts, stickers, and etc., different types of memorabilia. But um, he has been a um guest on our show and has reached out to us to allow us to use this beautiful space today. So that's why we're here. It's this beautiful art behind us, and et cetera. This is awesome. And this is one of our first times actually being out of our normal area. Yeah, first time here in Newberry to do this. So um beautiful community, yeah, beautiful Main Street. We're walking up and down it on this Sunday morning, and um, I will tell you, it's a good vibe.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

It's a good vibe. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Peaceful vibe. I'll be back. I will be back. Um, and it's not far from Columbia, especially for our um audience who's in Columbia, or if you may be in Charlotte as well, or in Greenville and upstate, Spartanburg, even from Charleston, because I've seen people drive all the way up. It is not far. It is literally a 30-minute drive from Columbia. So it's worth the trip. Very worth the trip. Very worth the trip. Um, but as we dive in today, one thing we always like to do with our audience is allow the guests to explain who they are, their background, where they came from, their schooling, upraising, and all this on their upbringing, rather, because we are not barn animals. Um, and did you have I'll speak for everybody Born in a Barn?

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Born in a barn, we're not raising you.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Um, but um, could you just tell us a little bit about what your childhood was like and where you grew up?

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I grew up right down the road in uh prosperity, um, so like 15 minutes away. Uh grew up in a good home. Um, good both parents, uh, good parents, good grandparents. Um, my my granddad was probably a big influence on me. He loved people, and um he he opened a store, a little store, probably 65 years ago uh in Prosperity. And he would just tell me all the time, like, people, it's about the people, you know. Um, and he was just a fixture in the community. So um, but uh yeah, I was telling you earlier that uh my faith story is a big part of my story. Yeah, yeah. So I'm gonna jump into that a little bit. I grew up, um, I grew up in a like a Christian home, um, a Lutheran church. Uh, but it was like one of those you go to church every Sunday deals, and that's pretty much it. Yeah, it was it. Yeah, you know. Um, probably about ninth or tenth grade, I started seeing some inconsistencies in my church people, you know. Um, it'd be like Sunday, you're this way, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you're a different way. Yeah. Um, there was like some just all this hypocrisy, there was some racism in my church. Um, I remember we just we had a mixed couple that came to my church, and I remember hearing people say they weren't gonna come back if they came back. So for me, I was like, this is not real. Yeah, there's no way this is real. Yeah. Um, so I kind of figured like God must be like Santa Claus. He knows who's naughty and nice. Naughty people go to hell, nice people go to heaven. Yeah, that's probably something that some government or something created somewhere to keep people in check. Yeah, um, probably a good thing for most of society, not for me. I just I don't need that. Exactly. So I kind of tossed it. Um, yeah, like I said, about 10th grade. Um Man, you came you came you came around quick. How old were you?

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Like that's wow. Yeah. Did you notice that?

SPEAKER_00 6:25

You know, I noticed it, and then I started asking questions from people, like I started getting logical in my thinking and like scientific. Like, okay, if God created everything, how how do you go back in time before who created God? Like, how do you keep going? You know, yeah, and I could not make sense of it. Um, so yeah, I was I called myself agnostic, um, but that's just because I knew the stigma, the atheists. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and most people didn't know what the word agnostic meant. So I just was like, yeah, I'm just I'm agnostic. Break it down.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

What does the word mean?

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Well, it's kind of like um there could be you know more, there could be a God, but we couldn't, we can't know what it is or if there's the most boring thing is because it's old Latin, ah a without Gnostic, meaning knowing.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

So without knowing. Okay. So it means I don't know. So therefore, I can't make a decision. So until I get better information. Basically, check back at me later. Check back at me later once I get more information. Yeah. And so I'm not gonna lie, especially depending on where you're at, from certain areas, it's actually better to say that than say atheist because it will keep you from being ostracized. That's right. That's that's how it felt for me, too.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

You know, um, I didn't really even I didn't talk to my parents about it. Like I didn't talk to most people about it. I just kind of lived that way from their own, you know. Wow. I was actually pretty, I was pretty antagonistic toward people of faith for a while. Um, I tell the story, I used to ride around because I didn't believe any of this stuff. I used to ride around town with my friends and I'd ride by churches and I'd flip off the church and say, F you God, just to get laughs because they would be like, Oh my gosh, you're going to hell. I was like, ha ha, there's no hell. So like that's how that's how like antagonistic I was toward kind of faith stuff.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Do you think that was like, do you think it was because of things that happened to you or just the things that you witnessed?

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, I think it was the things I witnessed because you know, before that, I think I I used to call myself a Christian. Like I remember like I wore the cross necklace and stuff, and like, you know, going to VBS and stuff like that. Um, I I like was attracted to some of that stuff. Yeah. But then when I started witnessing some of that hypocrisy and that like yeah, dualistic mindset, I thought like this, I don't think this is real. And also I I found like an old Bible and I started reading some old testament stuff. Oh, gosh, and I was like, this is crazy, guys. Yeah, and so yeah, um, I was uh when I was in high school, I was I was kind of a loser up until about 10th grade, and I remember making a conscious decision like if I make fun of myself, people can't make fun of me. And so I became the class clown. Um, and I don't know if you're familiar with the Enneagram at all. Any ever heard of the Enneagram? No, it's kind of a personality typing thing, but it's it's way deeper than that. It's like what's underneath why do you act the way you act? I was a type seven, which is just like all out energy ideas.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

That's gonna make me Google some more about it. Yeah, yeah, we can talk about that later.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

It gets real deep. Um, but that I kind of leaned into that to survive high school, and so I was a class clown, just making fun of everything. I didn't take anything serious, did not go deep with with stuff at all, you know. Um, so that was kind of me through college. Uh college did you go to, yeah. USC. Uh I went to Piedmont for two years, transferred to USC, majored in media arts. Okay. Um, yeah, I was telling you earlier I did a radio show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was uh I would have been canceled immediately. Like I'm telling you, it it happened at the right time in history because I I'd be gone if it hadn't. Uh the radio show was it started off uh called the Happy Fun Time show, then it turned into obsessive compulsive comedy. My DJ name was specially canceled right out of the gate.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

See, you're a DJ?

SPEAKER_00 10:15

I wanted to listen to that show. That's why I want to listen to that. Canceled right, just introduce myself, canceled. That's that's how that's how bad it was. Yeah. Uh but I did it was almost like uh like Chappelle's show for radio. Oh, Dad's comedy. Yeah, yeah, skits, all that stuff. Um yeah, so so did that in college. Um yeah, it turned it into a podcast, was on uh WXRY in Columbia after that. Um and uh yeah, until uh fast forward, I meet my wife uh right down the road here at the Ritz Theater. Um her my friend said, Hey, you're married in this play, but your wife's hot, but she's a Bible thumper. I was like, not interested, like not even not interested, you know. So I did this play. Uh her first words to me were, Hey, I'm I'm your wife. My name's Cindy. Um that's a full circle movie.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

I'm not even lying. That is full circle.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Okay. Um, okay. We were real drawn to each other. Um, couldn't really understand why we were drawn to each other. She had this deep faith that was not just a Sunday thing, it was like an everyday thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

She was the real deep faith.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Yeah, I had never seen that before. You know, she said things like, I experienced God and I have a relationship with God, and I was like, I I don't even know what that means. Like that didn't even make sense to me. Um, but I could tell like it was authentic to her. And she had been through a bunch of things that it didn't make sense for it to not be real. Like, you are not you're getting the short end of the straw if this is not real. Yeah, you know, yeah. So it made me ask questions again, you know. So I started searching for myself. I started um asking some of my friends, like, why do you believe what you believe? And like honestly, most people didn't have good answers. It was like, better be safe than sorry. It was that whole heaven hell thing, and the heaven hell thing just did not interest me. Right, I just wasn't interested in that. Forced compliance, yeah, right, right. That's what it felt like. That's what it felt like. Um, so that I I was interested in truth, you know, like I want to know truth. Um, and so I just started searching. Uh, long story short, I I couldn't really figure I was asking for signs. Like I started, um, I prayed for the first time in a long time, and I felt like I had a wall up in my heart. And I was like, okay, this might be a me thing, you know. Um, so that made me search more. I just couldn't find the answers that I was looking for. So I started asking for a sign, like, God give me a sign. Yeah. Um, had had some kind of crazy stuff happen that I wrote off. Um, long story short, I finally asked, like, why haven't you invited me to church? Um, to Cindy. And she had she had been through this kind of part of her life where she was like, I'm not dating anyone unless they seriously have a relationship with God. So we were like, We're friends, but we want to be more than friends, but like just kept playing that game, like, okay, this isn't my work. Yeah, that's exactly right. So finally she was like, Okay, I didn't invite you because this is your journey, and I don't want you to fake it, and I've had other people, and that's not me. I'm gonna be who I'm gonna be. Yeah, so like I went into this thing, like if somebody's gonna accept me, they're accepting me for me. I was like, like, that's a hard line in the sand for me. But she was giving you space, yeah. She gave me plenty of space, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Again, something that you were not used to experiencing when it came to religious.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

That's right, that's right. So I said, Well, you should invite me to church. So she invited me to this church in Columbia. Um, it was called Tommy's Interactive. I don't think it's there anymore, but it she had never been, somebody had invited her. She was like, come with me so I don't feel alone. Right. So I went with her. It was like, it was kind of like this room here. It wasn't in a church building. They had tables set up with candles, and they were like singing some, you know, like doing doing some guitar, some acoustic. Right there. Well, for me, I walked in, I looked around, I was like, This is a cult. What am I doing, y'all? You know, so like it's interactive, though. It was called Tommy's interactive. That's what it was. Yeah. So like before the service started, they gave you time to pray. They said, you know, have a moment of prayer or whatever. So I was like, okay, God, this is it. This is crazy. I don't know what I'm doing. If you're real, I need you to show me now. I need you to take control. I can't figure this out on my own. I can't do this on my own. The end. Amen. The guy gets up to talk that day. He says, Hey, God is real. You can't do this on your own. You can't figure this out on your own. Exactly. You gotta let him take control, like word for word, what I pray for. Oh, wow. Exactly. And I was like, Okay, hold on, that's weird, you know. So, like we left there. I told, I told Cindy about it. I was like, this happened, this is weird. She said, It sounds like God's trying to talk to you, you know. I said, Okay, I want to read the Bible. She said, Okay, start in the New Testament. I was like, Nope. If I'm gonna know who God is, I'm going cover to cover. She said, Well, the old testament can be confusing. Probably start in Matthew or John. I was like, nope, starting in Genesis, starting in Genesis, okay? Starting in Genesis. Okay, got it. So got it. So I started in Genesis. I start reading, I get to this story about Sodom and Gomorrah, where God destroys, turns people into pillars of salt, like destroys this whole place. I'm like, how is this a good God? If this is God, I don't want to have anything to do with him. Like, why would you turn people into pillars of salt? Like all this stuff, you know. I go ask Cindy these questions. She said, I told you to start in the New Testament. Like, I don't know what to tell you. That's wild. So I go back to the same church and they give you time to pray again. I say, Okay, God, if the Bible's real, if it's legit, tell me, and I'll do my best to figure it out. If it's not, tell me so I can help people who believe in it to stop believing in it. Amen. God gets up to talk. Today we're gonna talk about Sodom and Gomorrah. Um, they come a feed.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

This is a page and a thousands of page book. The whole sermon was about that. This was this was 19 years ago. I haven't heard a whole sermon on Sodom and Gomorrah except for that day. Um that was like a David Blaine magic trick. It really was. That's what it was blowing my mind, and I was like, this is crazy. Um, and the way he explained it was more like God's protection was over this town and they didn't want God there and God moved himself, and then this stuff happened. But honestly, the only the only thing that mattered was like, God, okay, there's no way God is talking to me. Like, this is weird. Yeah, yeah. Uh, so then the next thing was like, okay, but the Jesus stuff. Like, I don't understand somebody having to die. That doesn't make sense. Um, she gave me this book that told some stories that made it make sense a little bit more. Um, that I'll skip over for time. But um went back to the same service. Okay, God. Yo, this service got you three times. Three times.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Know what's about to happen now.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

This is the third time. Okay. If Jesus is real and legit, tell me. I'll do my best to know him and follow him and all the stuff. But if not, tell me so I can help people that believe in him to stop believing in him. God gets up. Today we're gonna talk about Jesus. Uh, it's all about learning who he is, knowing who he is, following him, word for word. So I was like, okay, that's it. Like, I'm I'm in. Yeah. Because I I felt like if God is real and God loves us, the only thing that makes sense is to be all in. So this was like a big decision for me. This is like, I'm either all in or I'm all out. Right, you know. Um, so I was like, I'm all in. And uh probably about a week later, I just got full in places I didn't know were empty. And then I started looking back at my life, thinking about all the places I was trying to fill that void with. Yeah. And I just didn't even realize it, you know. Um, but that I tell you all that to say my world was so small. Um, I just had me in mind, you know. And so like that ego that was being built through high school and college, um, it just didn't it didn't look out a lot, you know. So like when God broke my pride, because I thought I knew something, you know. Oh, yeah. And then I realized like everything I thought I knew, I didn't know. Yeah. It just opened, it it blew my whole world open, you know. Um and set facade all the way clear down. Right, right. So then that started to open me up to like the needs in the world and the poverty that was in the world, and the, you know, it was just past my bubble, my little American bubble, you know. Um, because when I started reading the teachings of Jesus for myself, I was like, Jesus was on my side, like he coined the term hypocrite to talk about religious leaders. Yep. So I'm like, wait, this I've been saying no to you, but really I've been saying no to them. Yeah, I've been saying what you've been saying, exactly. Fighting beside them without paying attention. Yep, exactly. Yeah. So like that that Sermon on the Mount, I was like, man, if we all live like this, yeah, the world would be what it's supposed to be, you know. Um, so then I just started trying to do that with my life. I started trying to look out for the marginalized and the people, you know, who didn't have and the people who were oppressed, and the people, you know. Um, so it just opened my eyes to a new way of life.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Yeah. I'm happy you said that because as you were saying this, it was making me think about this. It's kept hitting me in the head because I've read this. So Cornell Wesley always talks about radical Christianity, right? And it seems like you were really on that boat of understanding radical Christianity and what it means to actually be Christ-like in your behaviors and your actions, and it leads right into what you got on your shirt, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

I was just about to talk about talk about the shirt.

SPEAKER_00 19:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. All right, so uh, so that life led me to do ministry. Okay. Um, I did Young Life, which was uh it's an outreach for high schoolers. Yeah, um, I did that for a while on staff, and then I started a uh a college ministry in town. Um we did a worship service. We took some college students to a conference in Atlanta um called the Passion Conference. Oh, okay. At the Passion Conference, they had something called the End It Movement. Um you ever seen the big red S that's the End It Movement. So the End It Movement was about modern day slavery, and they said at the conference that there were 28 million people in slavery today on planet Earth. And I was like, 28 million people? Um that's actually since been updated. They think it's more like 64 million. Wow, yeah, real numbers, yeah. Um, but then we heard stories from people who have been rescued out of slavery, so it wasn't just a number, like it was it was a person, these are people, right? You know, um so that just I mean, that wrecked me, you know. Um, I got back home and they gave you this website called slaveryfootprint.org. And you can put like things that are in your pantry, things that are in your bathroom, stuff like that, and at the end of it, it said, You own 11 slaves. And I was like, wait, hold on. I just went from being like complicit in a thing to active in a thing, you know. And I was like, This is not okay. How is this okay? Uh, long story short, I I started doing research, started trying to figure out like what do I do about this? We started giving to some organizations like International Justice Mission and A21 that helped you've heard of them?

SPEAKER_01 21:28

I actually worked with them. My wife, she actually works with them and has done some coordination for um marches, and I've actually compete uh participated in a march for the last two years. Yeah. Oh wow, that's so cool. Yeah, I got my little A21 shirt out here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very dope. Because as you were talking about it, I was like, he must know about it.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah, yeah. Christine Kane, she's awesome. Um yeah, so we were giving on that end. But for me, I was like, okay, but this is the this is the end product. Yeah, how do you get to the root? Right. Like what where's the problem at, you know? Um, so after doing some research, I used to think like I I grew up in small business. My my granddad, like I said, my granddad owned a little business. I thought, okay, you get a Hershey bar off the shelf. The Hershey bar came from a distributor, the distributor got it from the Hershey plant, the end. I didn't think about well, the Hershey plant sources is cacao from West Africa and it's sugar from Indonesia and it's vanilla from Asia, you know, like all these places. Um, and so come to find out, like most of those places do not have labor laws or justice systems like we do. And so these big companies take advantage of that. Surprise, surprise, right? And uh, and there is slave labor in a lot of products we consume every day. Um, so like I started, okay, this isn't okay. What do I do about it? Like, the only thing I could really find online was like you can write the companies, you can write petition sign petitions and all that stuff. Um I kind of gave up. I was like, okay, God, if you want me to do more, like you gotta show me. And this was before Facebook knew what you were thinking before you thought it.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

This is real Facebook.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Yeah, this was back, yeah. This is like college Facebook, you know, when it was yeah, yeah. Uh I I got on Facebook to just kind of de decompress, and something popped up about fair trade. And I was like, okay, I've heard of fair trade, but I kind of went down the rabbit hole. Yeah. And uh and fair trade is a it's a third party organization that goes in and certifies the supply chain to make sure there's no slave labor or child labor, and there's a minimum amount that farmers have to get paid. Um, yeah, so it's even better. And not only that, but they have a they call it a premium to get the label on your product, you have to pay this premium. Then the farmers democratically elect leaders. And decide what to do with that money. So they can reinvest it in their own products or they can like build schools or roads or hospitals in their towns and things like that. So for me, it felt like, oh, this is this isn't just a way that I can make sure I'm not contributing to slave labor. Yeah. It's helping heal the root cause, which is poverty. Right. Because uh global poverty was the that's the main issue. That's why people end up preach in slavery. Preach, say it again. Say it one more time. One more time. Yes, yes. Global poverty is the reason uh that's it.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

I gotta people need to know that. It's it's because I need money to survive.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

So I will sell my child. I will.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

It's either I sell my child or all my children die. I sell one or the rest of my children die. Exactly. That's a hard decision to have to make. And it's not just that, like people get manipulated into that too. Like there's job, there's a job for your child, right? Right. We have a job, it's a good job, it's a great job.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

And they're just like, well, I gotta take the risk. That was one of the stories that was on the walk of freedom to listen to as we were walking this year. It's literally a story about somebody being offered a job off-site.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

When they go to that job, they never come home.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

No, they don't come out. Never come out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

Can you talk about the type of products that we source that we're not even thinking about as everyday people?

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Yeah. I'm sorry to say it's pretty much all of them. Like I was about to say, he's about to hurt our feelings with this shit. Yeah, but look, this is a it's a journey. It took it took me some time. So that's what I did. I started looking at products. I was like, okay, what's what's obvious? Yeah. So um fair trade was was primarily started in coffee. Yeah. So that's the that was the big place. Like people knew about Fair Trade coffee. And that that's probably the only thing I had heard of was Fair Trade Coffee. But I started this, um, there was a subscription service that sends you a quarterly box of Fair Trade products. Okay. So I got exposed to a bunch of different things. But I started in my pantry. I was like, okay, coffee. I'll I'll change my coffee. Um, chocolate, chocolate. This is hard. This is hard, y'all. Chocolate is it's one of the biggest places. Like it is widely known that the big chocolate companies, Hershey's, Nestle, Mars, MM's, like all those chocolate bars that we love. Yeah. Child labor, slave labor.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

You know what's so crazy? I went to the Hershey Park amusement park. Yeah. And it was just, I'm just thinking about all the chocolate and everything. It was just everywhere. You don't even think about that. That's just so sad.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

Yeah. Yeah. Let me give you, let me give you a statistic that I found. This is this is outdated, so it's not the same, but it's a good parody. So uh the average uh cacao farmer in Cote d'Ivoire, where they grow a lot of cacao, makes 64 cents a day. The family that owns MM's MM MRs, 64 billion dollars. That's the that's the disparity we're talking about, you know. Spectrum. And so like when so people talk about things like supply and demand or things like are like, well, we can't afford it because the price would have to like, no, no, no, no, no. No, the the the profits are going somewhere. And we can see them. Well, like we can see them, you know. Um, so yeah, so I started with coffee, then I went to chocolate. I went to other things in my pantry, like rice and uh things like that, tea. Staples. Wow, yeah, just kind of everyday staples. Um, then I then I was like, I wonder, I wonder if soap. Like, I wonder if I can find fair trade soap. And I'm like, yeah, I found soap and shampoo and oh toothpaste. I I got fair trade toothpaste deodorant. Like I got fair trade deodorant. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like you, it's just it's everywhere. You I just didn't know, you know. Yeah. Um clothes, yeah, you know, these are these are fair trade. I'm gonna imagine cotton. I'm down to my fair for fair trade underwear. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

So like that's about okay, okay. I'm happy you bought that up. Yeah. So at your store, yes, beautiful store, beautiful shop. Thank you. Yeah. How do you so obviously you're doing this investigation, this research, and you're finding these things. First of all, you gotta tell us so how did you open the store? How do you get the process to having a store? And how do you source the products that are in your store? Because literally, while he is not lying, he has all these things in his store. You can get yourself your deodorant, your soap, your chocolate, your coffee, tea, you can get bags, you can get earrings, you could get, and you don't have to feel bad about any of it.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Right, right, right. Which was that's that was the most rewarding part. I I don't think I realized the low grade guilt that I had from being a consumer. Like Americans are known as consumers. Yeah, you know, and so I just I didn't even pick up on it until I started consuming fair trade stuff. And like every time I would eat something, I was like, I feel good about this. Feel better about it. Yeah, I just felt good about it. So um it's a lot of work uh sourcing. Like that's what I found. Like you have to you have to do a lot of research, you have to search uh it's it's not just what the website says. Like you have to start asking questions. So I had to start like sending emails because every look, slavery is illegal everywhere, yeah. Right. It doesn't matter, right? Yeah, but and all these companies have all they all have the statements we do not allow slavery in our supply chain. Okay, but how do you know how do you know right who's auditing your supply chain? Right, and they're like, we are like, nah. Nah, I don't trust that it needs a third-party audit, you know? Um, so yeah, it takes a lot of a lot of work, a lot of research. Um intentional about it. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Because their their job, and this is what you were saying earlier, and I hope people understand this with businesses. Their job is to get the cheapest market rate on anything, to maximize profits so that their board is happy. There is a literal law that states that if they are not doing that, right, the people at the top of the board, you can actually fire these people. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

What's the return on my investment?

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Return on investment. Even if it just means we have to do debauchery in order to achieve it. There's no law that stops them from that. And so, like you said, you have to research it, you have to be diligent, and you have to hold it to the fire because eventually I feel that we'll get to a place where there'll be so much understanding about it that it won't be profitable anymore for them to do that. That's right. And you're seeing it even in places like with a Walmart, right? Yeah, Walmart has even outside said, gosh, we gotta start sourcing this other stuff because people don't like these other products we sell. So, yeah, I'll still sell the slave products, but I'm gonna put them next to the non-slave product and we'll give them an option. If they start buying this other one, we'll start phasing out the slave products because we realize we're making money, right?

SPEAKER_02 30:06

What's going on with this DEI stuff?

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Oh my lord. Yeah, changing the rules. Yeah, we'll ask you about we'll ask you about that. But back to to how you bring the products into your store because you have awesome products.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

The store looks great, guys.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

No, you made a you made a good point too, because I think I I have to watch myself because I I find myself demonizing these companies and the CEOs and stuff, and it's not really even their fault, right? The system's just kind of set up this way, yeah. But we, and this is what attracted me so much about Fair Trade, like we have more power than we think. Yes, that's a good point. And exactly. So if we decide to consume differently, the companies will have to decide to source. They will become moral along with the change in the culture. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Yeah, but they have no problem with it. That's good. That's good because it's a business. I remember exactly. I had a um she was my AP uh US history uh teacher in high school. I'm gonna mess her name, Caroline. Um, I'm gonna mess her name up, her last name, but she was awesome. One thing she taught me, and this is funny, because you're white male, you're a black female, I'm a black male, and one thing she told me was this, she said, because I used to be like reading my Malcolm X books in school and walking around real tight. I always had my little sweatshirts and my little sweaters on and my slacks. I didn't dress like no regular child at school. I looked like a grown man, real about my business. I guess. And she was like, she was like, Um, you seem really bothered about the inequalities in the world. She said, I'm gonna teach you something really quick so you can learn this. Because she said, This is coming from a white woman. She said, What you gotta realize is for a lot of these corporate entities out here and a lot of these folks who are white men in power, shit, if you really want to touch them, she says, violence is not gonna work. She said, They don't really care about that too much. Pocket book. Say it, that's what she told me. You gotta hit them in the pocketbook. She said, if you start touching that pocketbook, you'll start seeing change. And she said, it will start coming quickly because they'll they'll quickly switch and change their needs to fix fit the economic goals. She said, You don't have to beat them, you don't have to um yell at them. All you gotta do is make sure that the money's not flowing to them and it will change.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

They worried about the return on their investment. They're worried about the market.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

Oh, that makes sense. She said, Yeah, everybody's not racist. She said they're marketed. Yeah, exactly. And I had to think about this, and I was like, everybody isn't racist. They're trying to make money. Yeah, they're actually trying to get resources. And that's what I'm learning this year, specifically from what's happened politically too, is that it's not about me not liking something or actually being against it. It's how does it serve me? How does it bring resources into my community? Yeah. And what's cool about fair trade is you're talking about everybody getting a piece of resource pile.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

So talk about how you oh since opening the store, how has the community grown and how they have responded to you?

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Yeah, that's good. Because when we when we started um dreaming about this place, we thought, like, what if we had a place where we could educate? Because education is key. Yeah. True. Um, that's the that's the problem. The big companies don't have to put made with slave labor on their labels. So, like we talk about the market will decide. Yeah. The market will decide if they had all the information. Right. So if you had made with slave labor, not made with slave labor, I think people would choose the one without the slave labor. But the market can't decide because the market doesn't know. Man, punch that. Punch that in. That's a marker right there. That's a marker, yep. Uh so like Mark that, mark that. In fact, uh probably 15, maybe 20 years ago, um, it came like public knowledge, Nestle, Hershey's was using slave labor. Yeah, and there was like a push for some legislation to make them put it on their label. So what Hershey's and Nestle's and all those guys did was they said, we'll get it out of our supply chain. Um, and so they said, Okay, well, you have 10 years to do that. Because they said it's gonna take time. You know, they hit the 10-year mark, hasn't happened. They said, give us give us a five-year extension. They hit the five year, still hasn't happened. They're still like still breaking the money 30%. Yeah. Uh which is like you're you're saying it's you're admitting it's acceptable to have 70% of my supplies, yeah, slave labor, you know, whatever. Um it's wild. This is wild. Yeah. So um, so anyway, education is key. So we said, like, what if we could educate our community about slave labor, modern-day slave labor, and give them a place to do something about it. Um, and so we started dreaming about Genesis. Um, a lot of people told me, like, hey, that sounds like a great idea for a business, but not Newberry. Like, Newberry is not it's too small, the it's not progressive enough, like all those kind of things. Like just maybe maybe Charlotte would be good, you know, stuff like that. Maybe Columbia, I don't know, but they were like, just Newberry probably won't do it, you know. But like I'm from here, you know your people. Yeah, and I've I said I want to bring change, you know. And for me, like money is not like I just I don't I don't care about money. It's not about making money. If I can, if I can eat, that's that's all. Yeah. So I'm gonna put myself fully into it. And uh, and I think that's what it that's what it took, you know. Um, so so when we opened, um, I was actually pretty surprised at how fast we were able to kind of grow into like it being sustainable. Like, oh, this is gonna work, you know. The community did come out. Um, we knew there wasn't a lot of coffee culture here either. Um, but there were some, there was some people that like cared about coffee, like good coffee. Yeah, because that's what we kind of tried to do too. We um I had some friends that had went to the conference with me that they they poured themselves into this with me and my wife. Um, they were like, we don't we don't have money, but we have our labor. That's it. And so they helped us with the renovations and they helped um one of them, she's the one that she started learning about coffee. How do you make good coffee and and teaching us, you know?

SPEAKER_03 35:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Um so we didn't, I didn't know. I I thought like all coffee is coffee's coffee. You know, I didn't know there's different levels. You know there's different levels. Oh, I know there's different levels, but I didn't know that. Um, so we kind of started trying to be specialty coffee. Yeah, and um, and yeah, there were people that that noticed that. And even today, yeah. Even when y'all aren't open, they come in. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

I learned today, he's not lying.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

They like it, they like it, yeah. My biggest concern was gonna was the price because I knew that fair trade stuff costs more, yeah. Like uh, which is what Nestle literally said this. They said, You guys don't really want us to eliminate the slave labor out of our supply chain because it's gonna make our bars go up in price. They literally said that. Are y'all sure you want this? It's gonna make the price go up. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

That's messed up.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

They basically said these people have no morals, they want cheaper bars. Right, right. So that's what I was worried about. I was like, is somebody gonna buy a four or five dollar chocolate bar? Like I in Newberry, I don't know. Like with what it was just a Walmart culture here. Yeah. Which uh we've been conditioned to buy the cheapest, yeah. Uh, you know, to be too right, right, to save up as much money and eat as much as you can. And like uh so the the thing I I tell people is like the two questions that we the it's a paradigm shift. Yeah, the two questions you need to ask is what's in this and where did it come from? And we we don't ask those questions, you know. And and when you start when you change the way you think about that, like when you change uh a big can of folders at Walmart that costs four dollars, and you're like three pounds of coffee for four dollars, yeah. How much did a farmer get paid for that? Like, oh, that's different, you know, that's a different way of looking at it. Um so yeah, so we just started, and I I'll be honest, the education part has been challenging. Um, we had to start learning how to say the right the right combination of words at the right time. Yeah, you know, there's trigger words, yeah. Um, especially in the south. You know, you say slavery, and you automatically get some something is going on in here. The war of northern aggression.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

No, listen, I try to put the information in the AI to generate the bio, and it would not. It was like we don't accept these words. And I was like, what? This is the first time AI ever said that to me. I was like, okay, whatever. I'm just gonna write it myself.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

You must be on Gemini. Gemini does that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nah, we won't not. Chat GPT usually it'll it'll tell you something.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

It'll be world.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

Yeah, it's wild. So yeah, we had to start customizing, like, okay, how do we let's set it up first with the positive stuff, and then we'll get to the slavery realities and you know that kind of thing. But the community has has responded well now. We've we just continue to grow year after year. We're about to be year seven.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

So we saw the growth from your first store. If you could explain how you went from that store to expanding it more into the shop and how you got the look, everything about the shop has been just like God opening doors for us.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Um, I'll tell you a quick story. When we first started thinking about we didn't we didn't have any money, we're like, we don't know what we're doing, you know. Um, a guy tried to open a coffee shop in Prosperity right up the road, and he opened for a day and then decided, I want to be a shipboat captain in Louisiana. And so he closed his shop. Can't make this up. He closed his shop. I went and looked at his equipment. I was like, we've been dreaming about a coffee shop, but I don't like I don't have any money. But this is where we think God's calling us, you know. And he said, you know what? If that's what you think God's calling you to, you can have that espresso machine and those giraffes, and so like thousands of dollars worth of equipment that he did not take with him our reselling, resell it and just gave it to us. So, like, those are the kind of things, and that just happened over and over again journey, and that's that's you were obedient, yeah. Being obedient to what, you know. Um, so so we opened uh and six six months in the front the uh bigger space opened up, and we were like, I don't know, and they were like, you got a week to decide. And so it was just is a leap of faith, too. You know, you just had to take a leap of faith. And honestly, I still don't know what I'm doing, guys.

SPEAKER_02 39:45

No, but I'm glad you're honest about it because a lot of people think like being an entrepreneur, you have to have everything figured out, and you're saying that you're walking in fear, but God is leading you and He He has you, He's guiding your steps.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

So I I've learned that with just talking to other small business owners who nobody knows what they're doing. We don't know what we're doing, we're just doing it. You just you just have to keep going and try and figure it out and fail and do another thing. We're all sucking in the rug rats. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 40:12

Yeah, I'm afraid, I'm scared. Have you come across any problems? Like I want to know, like any hardship or any milestones where you were just like, we have to pivot.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

Uh yeah, COVID. I mean I mean, we opened, we're you know, a year two and COVID hits, you know. Um actually before that, like we opened and six months later, another coffee shop was gonna open and Starbucks was gonna open in town. Down downtown? No, they opened right out, but I mean that's not far. So we didn't we didn't have a Starbucks, and we were like, oh no, you know, but honestly, it didn't really affect our business that much. Um I think we just we do something different, you know. I was about to say, yeah, what you do is not what you and here's another little here's the corporate tricks, okay? Starbucks. And I I'm not gonna like I'm not dishing them. They they've they've Starbucks has done a lot of good for coffee culture. Yeah, but am I gonna get sued? I don't know. You're gonna get sued, you're gonna get sued. Yeah, yeah. Well here's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

But it's not defamatory, there's no way they can see.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

Yeah, yeah. So Starbucks is the largest fair trade um con buyer of coffee in the world. Yeah, obviously. But it's only like one of their coffees. Yeah. They're just that large. So, like, so like you go on their website and it's like, oh, they're fair trade. Nah, they're not. Just one out of they got a little sliver of fair trade. They're just so big that they get to say we're the largest in the world, you know. So statistics lie. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

So that's another thing that you could, you know, educate people on. Like you really have to look at every single product and ask those questions. Yeah, you have to ask a question. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

Yeah, yeah, you have to ask a question.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

Because a lot of people wouldn't put that together, just thinking about volume volume being considered when it comes to put your own.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

And look, we're quick to justify, right? We want to justify our behavior. So, like, we we'll look for those little loopholes to, you know, not just subconsciously.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

It's not that we're, you know, we just I'm gonna bring this up just to make the conversation difficult and tough. D discipline. See, what you're talking about right now is something called discipline. Yeah. And it's American consumers, we are not, we are very, we were very easily programmed into being consumers, especially uh in the 80s and the 90s. But the discipline of getting ourselves out of that consumer idea ideology and into a consumer ideology where we're thinking about what we're buying before we jump into it is gonna be very hard to do. Yeah, but it's possible. And when you have that discipline, I think that's what you're talking about. Like when you're now consuming things, you're like, oh, it feels good to consume this. Cause I know I haven't I haven't harmed anybody, actually made sure to pay somebody a fair wage for what they're doing, what they're producing. Yeah, um, I can actually go out and tell other people to get this, but knowing it's not gonna harm them. And what's really cool about fair trade stuff, and I know we're moving with the community stuff, but with the fair trade things, it allows you to think about how to positively affect change in your own community too. You start thinking about okay, so when I go out to buy fruits and vegetables, am I buying stuff that's local? Right. And this is where it comes into the using the selfishness for good.

SPEAKER_02 43:16

Not feeling convicted, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

Like, hey man, is this local South Carolina grown? Right. Am I making sure that a farmer down here is getting something from it as well? Because now I understand this. I don't need all my stuff to come from an agricultural corporation in the middle of Nebraska.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

Yep, that's right. Yeah, yeah, but like we source our milk, our our milk is local milk. We don't source. Right, right. So now I have to drive 45 minutes one way to get it, and 45 minutes back, and I pay five dollars a gallon, which is a lot more than you. You pick your own milk up. I have I go pick it up because you can't all the dairy South Carolina used to be huge dairy. Yeah, that's what I'm confused about. Local dairies. Yeah. They all got bought up. They all got and they all closed all the small ones closed down. And so we used to get it from right here in town. I was delivering it now. Yeah, yeah. And then after COVID, and like he had a a part go down on a machine, he's like, it's just not, I can't afford it anymore. I'd have to charge $8 a gallon, you know, or something like that. So I'm like, okay, you say you would have to charge that much a gallon to stay in business, and yet I can go get it for $350 at Walmart. So then who somebody's losing out? Right. Someone's losing out, someone's hurting from that, you know.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

So yeah. You will drive a further distance to go get that, bring that to cut the cost.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

That goes back to that discipline, though.

SPEAKER_01 44:29

Yeah, yeah. Discipline, yeah. Being disciplined, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:31

That's how you do it. And that's a that's one of the obstacles. Like just uh everything costs more for us, so our profits are are less than a big corporation, you know, like that.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

So it it's taking more time to but you see the bigger picture, so you know it's serving a higher purpose.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

It's worth it. Yeah, you're sleeping good at night.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

That's right. That's it. You know your soul's where it needs to be at all week.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

I was trying not to eat this Hershey little Hershey kiss. And listen, I just kept seeing it. I was like, my body's saying I want chocolate, but I something's telling me don't eat that Hershey kiss. And I don't know why. Come Sunday, here we are talking about fair trade. I'm like mind blown. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

Thank you, God. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:11

Keep me on point.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

There it is. I think that's one thing that we all deal with um difficulties, especially as becoming an adult. And with our show being focused around millennials, trying to figure out how to adult, specifically, like we're dealing with people who use creativity to create entrepreneurship. The one thing that is really hard, especially for a lot of creatives and people who are creative in their mind thought, is discipline. Because your mind is not geared to work that way. And so for a lot of the folks who listen to our show, they're trying to figure out ways of hey, how can I be more successful at adulting? Like doing the boring things that make the ship move, right? So it's interesting to hear what you're telling us today and how this has affected you and your business because for a lot of us you would think or a lot of us people they would think all right my job is to make the most money to be the biggest, the baddest, have all this right around, be you know, seen everywhere, all this money and stuff. And and I in my mind, I'm like, no, I want to be comfortable, I want to be healthy, I want to participate well in my community. I don't need to have it all. Right?

SPEAKER_02 46:14

It's not necessary.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

Yeah, it's not necessary. That's right. And do you think that's a mindset that would be and this is something do you think that's something that we're literally fighting to reprogram into the world?

SPEAKER_00 46:26

I do. I think we're shifting there. I think that's why so many fast food places are having a hard time hiring people, getting people to work for them, you know. Good point. Because I think people are just realizing, and I mean, I see that in my business. Like, I I get a list of people trying to apply for jobs, they want to work here. Wow. And I think it's because they're like, I will sacrifice, I don't I can't pay that well yet. Yeah. Um, but they're like, I will sacrifice money for a healthy work environment. Yep. You know, and I I just think I think we're moving that direction. And yeah, so which means they'll have a chain to come out. They're gonna have to change. Breaking the chains, breaking the chains, yeah, breaking the chains, you're right, you're right.

SPEAKER_02 47:05

So going back to community, um, what are some ways that people can invest into the community more to make it more sustainable?

SPEAKER_00 47:12

And yeah, I think I think those questions that I talked about, like where where is this from and what's in it, you know? Uh the less ingredients the better, and and the where is really important. So, like we don't we don't eat seasonally anymore, you know. We just we can get it anytime. Right. And it's got all this pesticides, all the stuff. So yeah, local farmers sourcing local where you can, and then fair trade where you can't. That's that's kind of the the model, I think. Um, and yeah, you you might have to pay a little more for local and fair trade, but that just means you need to consume a little less. Yeah, and that's okay. Yeah, that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:50

Discipline, discipline, back to discipline. And I tell folks too, when you're when you're eating seasonally and sourcing locally and you're getting your free trade, the increase in cost pays out when it comes to health care later on.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's always it's always uh a healthier problem. Almost all fair trade stuff's organic, almost all of it. If it's not, that's they're trying to move farmers that way, not just because of the health benefits, but because it's environmentally better. And not just that it's environmentally better for all of us, it's environmentally better for them because they're counting on this land over and over again. So if they destroy it, they're not gonna have crops the next year. So the you know, fair trade, most organizations are working with those farmers to give them better practices, organic, regenerative farming, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 48:35

You know, and then now they aren't like I'll tell you this, I'm gonna tell y'all this uh this story, just so y'all hear this, because jumping into this, the reason why it's so important for people to understand this is just like mining minerals, right? Uh when you're talking about like fair trade and proper mineral practices, there are a lot of countries where people they mine they mine these minerals with and with no shoes, no protective gear, just shorts on.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

No face covering.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

No face covering. Yep. They're involved, they're tucking all these toxins and et cetera. So then give us stuff that we use to make computers, laptops, cell phones, etc. Right. And when they go in to change the practices and they explain to the people what it is they were like like put these people, mine they realize so I've just been out here exposing myself to toxins for the day. Yes, and like I'm no, you didn't know this. So then they go in and they try to treat these people for help because these health conditions are now gonna pop up 20, 30 years later, you're gonna see cancer, you're gonna see different things pop up. But the the good thing is this, it is now known. They can change these practices. But we're talking 20 years ago, they weren't doing it stuff, they were just doing these things all the time.

SPEAKER_00 49:40

But we're also talking about like I said, Hershey's and Nestle, and those guys knew 25 years ago, and they still continue to do that. And they still continue to do that. So like just gonna brush it under the road. So it takes us, it takes us keep keep making noise. You gotta keep making noise. You know, you gotta do it.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Let's talk about that making noise. What how would what how would you send an email or a letter to a company addressing these issues?

SPEAKER_00 50:03

Yeah, I I do this all the time because, like I said, it's a lot of work. I do a lot of research for all of our products that we carry. And sometimes you'll get a product that used to have the Ferris Rade certificate and now they don't anymore. And so then I'll email a company like, hey, what's up? It looks like you took the label off. A lot of times that company will be like, Yeah, it's because we didn't want to pay, we still source from the same place and pay the same wages, but we didn't want to pay that extra premium because we're doing our own thing in that community. Yeah, yeah. So, like that, so they used to use that premium for schools. We already had a school program, and so we just saw, and I usually say, like, that's if it's a smaller company, I I can trust that. Yeah, you can if it's a bigger company, I don't trust that. I'm sorry, I just don't like double barge. You have profit money, exactly, yeah, exactly. Yeah, but I do tell them, I'm I'm like, I the label's important because it helps communicate trust to consumers. Um, yeah, that's right. But yeah, I usually write a company and I say, like, hey, I saw that you have these um labor practices that you support on your website. Can you tell me about uh how that's audited? Do you have a third party that that looks into your supply chain? Or can you tell me how how we know that your supply chain is ethical or you know that kind of thing? Um, and sometimes you'll get well thought out answers, and other times you'll get like nobody's ever asked that before, and they they don't even know how to answer it, you know. Um so I I I try to start conversations, I try to not be judgmental toward the company or antagonistic, and I try to say, here's what's important to me. And I try to use my leverage. Like I own a business, I want to use you, I want to use your products in my business, but I can't unless I'm sure that this is you know ethically sourced. Where are you sending the email to? Just so I yeah, I'll just go on a website and I'll find a contact us type place. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. I know folks like to ask that. That doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

What kind of advice would you give someone interested in starting their own business in a rural area?

SPEAKER_00 52:09

Yeah, you just gotta start somewhere. Uh I I was so me and my wife kind of balance each other out. I'm I'm the kind of guy that just jumps and just like, let's just do it. Let's just try it. Let's, you know. And she's like, Yeah, but have you thought about this and that and this, you know? Yeah. So um what she told me was she said, you need to just start putting some of this on paper.

SPEAKER_03 52:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:28

And I was like, okay. And I I really was just like, I'm just gonna check off your boxes for you, you know? Yeah, make sure you're happy. Right, right. But it was uh it was really helpful. I just started putting stuff on paper. I just started writing down, like, okay, how much would rent cost? How much would equipment cost? Where would I get equipment from? Where would I source this from like my my products?

SPEAKER_01 52:48

And yeah, yeah. Download, downloading.

SPEAKER_00 52:53

Downloading. Oh but yeah. So you just gotta start so you start somewhere. You start putting it on paper. Um, I also say like relational capital is was the biggest thing for me. Yeah, um, I didn't have a lot of money, but I had a lot of friends. Social capital. And so yeah, so I just start in and ask other business owners. I started asking questions. I'd just, you know, people even that I didn't even know well, I'd be like, hey, can I sit down and talk to you about your business and how you It's like the hardest thing to do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:19

Yeah, but it's so worth it.

SPEAKER_00 53:20

But it was worth it. It was it was good. We got a lot of it was a lot of shaping that happened in that time, you know. Um then once we opened, like you then you just gotta take the leap. Yeah, like you don't, you're not gonna know until you do it. Yeah, you're just how was it?

SPEAKER_01 53:34

How was your first day opening? How was your first like your opening day? How did it be?

SPEAKER_00 53:37

Oh man, it was it was wild. I mean, so many people came out, it was so much bigger and better than I ever thought it would be, you know. Um, yeah, it was amazing. Overwhelming or right right where it needed to be? Uh a little bit of both, yeah. A little overwhelming, but like I yeah, you I just knew. I was like, oh, we're doing what we're supposed to do. This is perfect, yeah. This is where I'm at. Yeah. Calling. But you're right about the downloading part too. Like prayer is super like thank you. Knowing that you're like doing what you're called to do, yeah is I mean, that's everything. You know, it's it doesn't, I I'll say this too. Um, just because God calls you to something doesn't mean that thing's gonna be successful. Yep. Like God doesn't always call you to things for them to just grow and blow up and be huge, you know. Sometimes it's gonna fail. Yeah, and then a lot of people usually like they question like, maybe I didn't hear from God, or like maybe this wasn't right, or why did you why did you do this to me, God? You know, but I I think you learn. Like we learn in the failures more than we do in the successes a lot of times. And so like the only thing for me, the only thing that matters is that I'm doing what I'm called to do. Yeah, um, all the rest is that's up to God. Like he'll he'll handle it. He'll handle that, yeah. Right? I mean you have to be shoulders. You should always be focused on the journey. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Don't miss, don't miss along the way.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

It's happening for you.

SPEAKER_00 54:53

Hands, hands open. There you go. Don't don't grab onto the rope. Just you let it go and you, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:00

And that's a that's a pride thing, too. A lot of people have pride and ego, and they don't realize how big it is until you actually have to do something that God is asking you to do.

SPEAKER_00 55:09

But you're like, I don't know about that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:11

Like, that's not your job. It's like your job. Act accordingly. Yeah, yeah. Man, I I will say this, man. You're very impressed. Yes, very impressed.

SPEAKER_02 55:19

I enjoyed today.

SPEAKER_01 55:20

Very impressed. I did. I really enjoyed our conversation. I did too. I enjoyed your hospitality, the coffee, your patience. Yeah, seriously, seriously. Y'all, really great, really good espresso. Beans are good, cold brews off the point. I'm telling you, um, I didn't have the um what did what did I have?

SPEAKER_02 55:33

The blueberry.

SPEAKER_01 55:35

Yeah, blonde blueberry basil. It's a nitro.

SPEAKER_02 55:37

Yeah. That was really amazing, guys. Get that.

SPEAKER_01 55:40

And um, if I was, if I was if I was eating my chocolate, I would have gotten me some chocolate. It would be good today because I had had strong coffee. So I'm not gonna do any chocolate today. But man, I'm just saying the energy that you're giving out, just like being around you, hanging at you for a while, and we had Savannah running around and crazy and stuff in the store. Man, you are who you say you are. Yeah, yeah. But you are who you say you are.

SPEAKER_00 56:01

Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

Do you know how cool that is to see nowadays?

SPEAKER_00 56:04

Yeah, I think I mean, I think that's the biggest thing too that we don't we're walking around inconsistent in our own selves, you know. And so that that was a process. Like God just has to rip out those parts that are inconsistent, like with who you really are, who you really are at your core and who he created you to be. Yeah, you know. Um it's a painful process.

SPEAKER_02 56:25

And then you'll find your purpose.

SPEAKER_00 56:26

But that's that's it. That's it. I want to say one more thing about chocolate too. Okay, and this is gonna this is gonna be triggering because this is this gets pretty dark. Um, so maybe just disclaimer here. The dark side of chocolate chocolate. Uh so a few years ago, um, there was a case uh that came to the Supreme Court, and uh there had been, I think it was three men who had been rescued off of uh chocolate, a cacao farm. And uh it was one that Nestle and Cargill and a bunch of big companies owned. Yeah. And so these guys got rescued off and a lawyer found them and said, Hey, let's um let's sue Nestle because they knowingly let's and it wasn't just Nestle, it was a bunch of together, yeah. Yeah, so let's sue them because they knowingly benefited from slave labor. So the guys agreed and they took them to court and they won. They proved that these big companies knowingly benefited from slave labor. But that wasn't it. The company said, We're gonna take this to the Supreme Court. So they appealed, took it to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court of the United States said because the slavery did not happen on American soil, they're not liable for it. And so they got off uh scotch free.

SPEAKER_02 57:43

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 57:45

That's the reason why they do business overseas.

SPEAKER_00 57:48

Yep. I've read some of the testimonies from that trial, and one of the men said that when he tried to escape from the farm, that they caught him, brought him back, and cut his feet with machetes uh so that he couldn't run away again. He said there was another kid that tried to escape from the farm. They caught him, made him drink his own urine. Uh so this is the kind of stuff like when I'm talking when I'm talking about slave labor, I know a lot of people think like, well, it's a different culture. Yeah, and like the kids have to work there. Like, no, that's not what we're talking about. Forced labor. We're talking about forced labor, we're talking about you know, 16 hours a day, we're talking about slavery. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Uh so that case is actually, I think they're gonna try a different route and they're gonna try to retry that case. So I'm a little bit hopeful for that. But that's kind of the state we're in. Um, so it really, I know we want to point our finger, and I do too. We want to point our fingers at the politicians and at the systems and all that stuff. Um, and that's fine. I think we need to like we need to make noise about those things, yeah. But ultimately, we do have more power than we know as consumers. And so we just have to stop plugging our ears and refocus, refocus, and we've got to just be intense about see no evil speaker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because look, and I I said this about being canceled earlier, jumping. Like, we're good at this kind of thing now. This new generation is good about it. Yeah, we gotta do it where it matters, like we gotta do it where there's actual, not just things that are being said that are offensive, that hurt, but things that are being done, you know, and we got we gotta cancel those companies, we gotta cancel them, you know.

SPEAKER_02 59:29

That's the power we have.

SPEAKER_00 59:30

Yeah, that is what we do have to cancel. Yes, yeah. There it is.

SPEAKER_02 59:37

So if anybody wanted to partner with you, how can they get in contact with you or become a vendor or just had any questions?

SPEAKER_00 59:43

Yeah. So uh we have a website, it's uh thegenesishub.com. Um and we're GenesisHub on Instagram and on Facebook. Um contact us through any of those places. Um one of the products that I'm passionate about that I love that I'm gonna talk about is our chocolate box. We do a chocolate box subscription. I saw that. So yeah, you can pay, you can uh get you pay a monthly fee and you get a different I curate the box of different chocolates from all around the world, and I put something educational in each box that helps you know, like, oh, and it helps you feel good about it. Um so so that's one of those things where I'm trying to help like people consume better and get educated at the same time. And it's monthly, so it's always in your mind, like every every month you get it and you read a new story, and you know, so it kind of helps you shift that paradigm. You can also do like coffee subscriptions on our website as well. Um, so that's that's good. But um if you if you can't make it here to Newberry, we ship, um, so you can do that for our website. But if you can't make it to Newberry, then research on your own, do fair trade where you're at, uh, buy local where you're at, you know. Um, yeah, you you got the power. So and tell them your address, the location, so if they want to yeah, 1110 Main Street in Newberry.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:59

Yeah. And then one other thing, is there any um social media that they should be aware of?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:05

Yeah, yeah. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram. Uh also I'll say this because I I know you guys are out of Columbia. Like, drive down to Newberry. It's a cool, you guys sit at the top of the tent. Right. Just drive down. It's a great place to just come hang out, come do your Christmas shopping with us, fair trade, Christmas shopping, or any any kind of holidays. Like, I never I used to be like, man, this isn't the reason for the season. And now I'm like, buy stuff, buy stuff for Christmas, but buy stuff that matters. Yeah, buy stuff that makes the world better, not stuff that you're just gonna put in a drawer somewhere that like collects does. And even if you do, you made the world better.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:43

Make sure you're circulating your dollar with policy in mind. Right. That's I'm big on that. Yeah, with policy in mind, because that money is a tool and it will be used to either positively affect change or to negatively affect us um assist in the destruction.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:58

Look where that journey took me. Like, I I ended up being going in like, oh, I got a retirement account. Okay, my a retirement account, that means it's invested in companies. Yeah. What companies is it invested in? Yes. So I had to go and like meet with a and I hate that kind of stuff, but I had to go meet with an advisor and be like, look, yeah, like look, can you put this in better? Like, I don't want to be invested in these companies that are destroyed.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:21

Do you know they have direct portfolios for that? That's right. And you know what they say? They say socially responsible. Yep, they have it, and they say, well, no one asked, so we're not gonna put your money there. That's right. And they could literally force money into those stocks, and it would literally cause shifts in the economy positively.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:38

So we have so much power. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:39

We could buy, especially as millennium, we put all our money into them to the quite as much return on those usually, but it's like it's worth it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:47

It's worth it, especially if you start early, and what will happen, I tell folks, is you can always have stuff, you know, sitting in regular normal stuff like bonds and stuff like that. But to get a little bit of money flowing there matters. It matters tremendously.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:59

Yeah. And you do the best you can because honestly, even though even those socially responsible companies, if they're on the market, you said it. Yeah, they're legally obligated to be the, you know. So a lot of the companies we work with, they're not on, they're not traded on so that they can be free to do what, you know. And they're some of them are employee owned and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:19

That's why you some sometimes you don't want to have publicly available stock. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:22

My mind has been blown this episode. I'm I'm it's so much information. Like on the ride back, I'm gonna be thinking about everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:30

Yeah, yeah. Well, y'all got my contact info. So you can yeah, yeah, yeah. So and uh if anybody wants to email me, that's that's cool too. Fairtradegenesis at gmail.com. I love answering questions. Like, I'm passionate about this stuff. So I love answering. If if I can point you in a direction, like if you're like, yeah, but I love butterfingers. Like, can I is there a fair trade butterfinger? I'll point you. There is, yes, I can help you.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:54

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:55

We greatly appreciate it. We always love to have good discussions like this on our podcast. And um, just so people know, just putting back out again, Genesis Um Hub Coffee Shop, all fair trade products. Uh, consume and create with a purpose. Monday through Friday, hours 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. close on Sundays, unless it's the first to the third Sunday. It's a weird spot. Yeah, you nailed it. 1110 Main Street, Newbury, South Carolina. This is what we do. Yeah. We love to shout our folks out. Yeah. Yeah. And then also um Robert Madison's art studio.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:27

It's 1213 Main Street, Newberry, South Carolina. Literally right up the block from Genesis.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:33

They can come here and then step down the street. And also on the corner, there's this cool little store. There's a gentleman you were speaking to that was coming out of the store. We were coming down the little general store. Can you shout out the general store?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:42

Yeah, yeah. There's um Figaro, uh Figaro Market there, cool little store. Yeah, and they're open a lot too, yeah. So and then we got a Newberry Arts Center on the corner. Right over here. This little spot is so dope. Y'all gotta go. Layla's Place right up the road. See, we missed them.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:57

We'll catch them next time. We're gonna catch them next time. Yeah. We'll ride up here and get that done. But um, I like donuts, just so y'all know. Big boy, the big boy.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:05

You gotta have a fritter, a blueberry fritter from Layla's place.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:08

Fresh. Fritter. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:10

Y'all about to mess me up.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:11

All right. So um without further delay, we're gonna wrap up for the Hilltop Glove podcast. I always like to tell people before we go, this is DJ and what?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:19

Tamaya.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:20

And our esteemed guest, Eddie Long. Thank you guys for having me. Thank you, thank you for being with us. Until the next time, make sure you tell somebody next to them that you love them, that you appreciate them because love is free. Until next time, peace from the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Uh matter of fact, after this one, y'all see us soon. We'll have a little wrap up of the season. We had a great season. This was a good one. We appreciate it. Yeah, this is a good place to end the season on. So um, until the next time. In the meantime, everybody be easy out there. Peace. Bye.