God, Gumbo, and Growth: Aisha’s Journey of Multiple Businesses and One Mission
00:00:00 so what was the out of all I think three of your businesses which one was the hardest to open and which one is the most fulfilling to you that’s it really just depends on the day because I would say the hardest to open would be Crea a space because I was creating something that I’ve never seen before and God told me to do it so I wasn’t doing something that I had a blueprint I was doing something where I had to listen closely to God like God how am I doing this like they’re talking about this I don’t even
00:00:35 know what I’m doing and I don’t have a background in podcasting or music that’s not me so I gotta trust you like how I know what kind of equipment to get how do I know what music stuff to get how do I know you know how the kitchen is going to be like God how am I doing this you know what I’m saying like what license do I have to apply for What policies do I what am I doing you know what I’m saying so I had to constantly stay so close to God that I hear exactly the moves that he is telling me to make and it’s their strategy and then fulfilling it just really
00:01:02 depends on who said something that day because I can walk into the day I walk like I can walk to daycare I see that kid oh Miss Asia and like oh my God I need I love you like I’m so happy I got these kids around me um but it could be a bad day I’m like I’m over it I sell it I don’t want it no more you know what I’m saying I can go into the restaurant and walk in so like oh I love I come here all the time I be seeing your things like you doing your thing girl we appreciate you and I’m like oh thank you girl I was just about to quit yesterday like thank you that help me
00:01:29 you know and going to credit space and then the people who are building their business in there and they’re like you don’t understand this is such a blessing to me I didn’t know was going to do I was able to catch up on my bills and I’m like yes God like they fixing their credit I’m like yes we’re making movement like we’re moving people lives are being changed so I think that I have just created businesses that created an ecosystem for people lives to be transformed and changed and to be elevated so I think I would just have to say that they’re all like a blessing to my life
00:02:00 this is strategic moves hey what’s up everybody you tuned in to another episode of strategic moves I’m your host Kendal this is a place where we bring art culture politics and business all together and we do it every week right here on this channel but when I’m not shooting this podcast I am the owner of strategic resources but we specialize in political campaigns government and public relations I’ve been doing it for over 25 years right here in this state and met some interesting people along the way and we want to make your next move a strategic move and this program gives me
00:02:33 an opportunity to do just that I get to bring on some of the people I met we come on we talk about some of our experiences and maybe just maybe it’s something out of it you can get that will help you in your business or your personal life if this is something you think you’ll be interested in all I need you to do is hit the like button hit the Subscribe button and the notification Bell as well so that you would know the next time this program is coming up so without further Ado we going to get started today today We are continuing our re our little series we’re doing
00:03:04 on local entrepreneurs in our community and some of the stuff that they’re doing in businesses and things of that nature we want to use our platform as a vehicle for business owners and folks to be able to come on and sit down and talk about what they’re doing and we found some interesting people right here in Cleveland and around so we’re g to have them on our program from time to time so that you’ll get a chance to meet them so before we get started in our program I was about to go somewhere
00:03:29 else but I thought about it but before I go into that I got to give a shout out to the best podcast producer in podcast history I’m gonna go history how about that L DJ true what’s happening Brother hey what’s going on every day is a holiday as they say and today is one as well gonna keep this thing moving what’s going on what’s happening in your world it’s definitely not a holiday for my Cleveland Cavaliers they got gentlemen swept yesterday but I’m I’mma shout them out I’m proud of them got past the first round yeah I know they scrambling to figure out how they going to keep
00:04:06 Donovan Mitchell MH but they did really good I think it was game three we went down 02 and Donovan Mitchell had a a crazy game like 40o game or whatever but then everybody was banged up like yesterday we watched the game they tried to keep it close but without Donovan Mitchell Jared Levert and all yeah and other guy’s name lever can’t remember his first name but they all three of them was out you gotta have a team in order to win so knew that only one of the four that was in was Donovan no Darius Garland and it’s car Caris LeVert I think Caris lever so he was hurt
00:04:53 so we had three major players out they did what they could do and Boston been the better team all year m so I guess they move on and we come Shaq and my boy Chuck they we G fishing how about the fact that LeBron was in town you think he’s thinking about coming back to play here like they were saying LeBron is very strategic for one I guess the official story was he was in town for mother’s day savan was seeing her mother in akan and he was seeing his mother in akan and they just decided to come to the game which the game was on Monday but I think there’s a lot of
00:05:36 talks going on that LeBron wants to own a a team so could it be the Cavs and plus bronnie just got cleared to be drafted in the NBA so I’m I’m pretty sure rich is talking to teams seeing what they feel about bronnie on getting drafted that’s going to be a whole another show we going to talk about that one that’s a whole another show that’s a whole another show man bronnie getting drafted LeBron Mr strategic King James he always got his mind on the next move I’m with you today the guest we got in the house today been having her mind on a
00:06:13 lot of moves she has quite a few businesses here in Cleveland and she’s coming on today to talk a little bit about some of them one of her business is we door Dash quite a bit at our house and she has a restaurant called B Creole here in Cleveland she’s an entrepreneur she has a daycare center that she owns and she has a place on in wickliff called creative space and we’re going to talk a little bit with Miss Aisha we gonna talk a little bit with Asia chowers and I want everybody in the place to welcome Miss Asia chowers to our thank you for coming than you for
00:06:53 it’s probably be easier for me to just call you miss Childers man because I’m G he put you in that first name I you think so hey don’t look at how spell I think that’s what throws people off because it’s they say Aisha because the H is in there so just think of Asia like the continent like the continent there we go there go you’re good so Miss Asia tell me a little bit about you the way our program goes we always get in your business a little bit we want to find out where you from where you grew up at and all of that then we gonna break it down to this business
00:07:19 stuff you’re doing so tell us a little bit about your background where you from I from Shaker I grew up in Shaker yeah with Shaker Heist graduated from there I moved away for one year moved to live to Arizona was able to get get some exposure to business People Like Us build business came back I was a little wait you we you were way too fast for us man we going back to Shaker okay so you grew up in Shaker mom dad brothers sisters yep I have two younger sisters and then my mom and my dad mom your dad so you grew up with your mom and your dad what your mom do for a living right
00:07:49 now my mother she passed away but before she had a degree in marketing she struggled to find like consistent work but before she passed away she worked for the government really and what your dad do he works in the service industry so he actually works at Zanzibar he’s a server really so that’s what he did all your lives he always served yeah he always a Ser he was always in the restaurant industry and we your sisters and brothers you got two sisters two sisters yeah they’re younger than you yeah they’re younger than me so you was always the oldest I’m always the oldest yeah how
00:08:14 was high school growing up over there you like it a Shaker is a big school you had a lot going on did you involved in school and all that so I was a cheerleader okay I was I to to be honest school was okay but it wasn’t something I really was focused on I more focused on my social life just being honest no that’s what we here to talk about Focus everybody’s journey is different so you know to get there yeah but Shaker did provide me exposure um to different things they had a lot of different things to offer so of course I did take advantage of some of the things they had to
00:08:45 offer but I wasn’t that student was like I have a 4.0 GPA and I’m going to yell that wasn’t me was that wasn’t me oh okay so you went we took a little different path did you go to college I did go to college y I graduated I graduated from University of Aran with a degree in child and family development so you did go to college I did go to college I did know but I wasn’t like oh my God I got to take my SATs my acts that wasn’t me I was for I worked during while I was in school too so I was focusing on getting money how can I get more money what is this going to look like to
00:09:14 be honest understand what year did you come out of Shaker H I came out in 2008 did you know somebody named Ashley Hughes Ashley y I know Ashley okay my sister that’s your sister y I know Ashley y she’s a sweetheart okay yeah yeah oh you know that is your sister huh Ashley Hugh that’s ltif Hughes okay excellent excellent so when you how was college at when what made you pick akan um when I came back I wanted to still finish i s I did School in Arizona um but I wanted to go back but I didn’t know I didn’t really want to go to tr um I wanted to go get a fouryear
00:09:50 degree so I was like okay akan is cool it’s not that far it’s not that expensive and I can start off and get an associates degree and then I can get my bachelor’s degree and I was a university that had that and I did want a little bit of that college life but I really didn’t get too much I didn’t have time to focus on like partying and like that you wanted to really Buckle a little bit yeah get serious serious about and so you graduated with what kind of degree child and family development child and family development what made you go into that field like I said I
00:10:16 wanted to get money so what I was going to do was open up a child care center which I did but in order to do that you have to have at least a degree in early childhood education so I got the Associates in that and then I was like okay I want to go back and get more information because I really like this field of study and and I feel like it will be um very impactful for what I’m trying to do long term in the community and just understanding like how the family Dynamics play a part in success in different cultures so in order to um open up a child care center you got to
00:10:43 have a degree got to have a degree or you have to have somebody who’s going to be your director or administrator to have a degree but it only makes sense when you’re for me when you build a business you want to have some insight into the world so that when you are operating you’re operating at a quality level because you know what the expectations are and you know how to move that capacity where you’ll be profitable and you’ll be sustainable and you’ll also be quality so what was it like when you got your degree you got out of school you say I’m coming back home
00:11:09 and so what did you do then so I worked at I so for one year I stayed there on campus the other three years I commuted so I worked at University Hospital I worked in child and child psychiatry unit so I was exposed to a lot of our youth having either behavior problems or attempted suicide or having homicidal ideations and in that unit it was a great place but it was a revolving door for our youth so I had to figure out a different way where we could provide services so that our kids are not coming back and they’re actually being healed and it’s not just a Band-Aid being applied
00:11:37 to their life so so let’s talk a little let’s St on that point just for a moment when you say a revolving dur give me more of what you meant by patient you they’ll be discharged and they’ll come back three or four months later because what is happening in their life is not really being identified and really taken seriously as to how we can really help this child and I’m not going to lie yes of course medication helps in a lot of circumstances but a lot of things just fixed by appeal you have to get down and that work and you’re going to different suppor services in to do
00:12:07 that work and it’s want to look like a village so I said how can we create different opportunities so that we can really help impact Our Youth and help them not coming back because they’re feeling depressed and they’re feeling anxious and they don’t have the true coping skills they have them when they’re here but when they go back in home in their environment they still don’t have it or they don’t have it in the schools or in some of their Community Partners as well interesting so how long
00:12:27 you do that h I was there for I want to say five years really yeah five years so I ended up writing a book I’m sorry we record we got record that’s why we record we can get get you all together don’t sweat it yeah so working there I ended up writing a book and my my staff my leadership they were very supportive of everything I was doing they supported me while I was in school and when I wrote my book I decided to put some things that I experienced as a teen because I was able to identify with some of the kids that were in that unit and then I was able my the unit purchased
00:13:02 books for me and was allow me to get the students books when they were being discharged and I had so many youth say like how this book helped them and they were able to see somebody that looked like them who went through the same things but suicide was not an option there’s different things out here that you can do to help you in your life so that was a piece of it and then I began doing different fundraisers within the city so I started doing like book bag giveaway school supply giveaway feedings in East Cleveland and partner with different people just different
00:13:27 things I can do to help impact our community but doing that just self-funded wasn’t enough because I had to figure out different fundraisers in order to raise the money in order to purchase the supplies so my idea was okay if I open up an Enrichment Center I can provide services on site then I can take part of those profits and continue to do more so that’s how now I have the pull up and pop your truck event that we do every year where families can pull up pop their trunk we load them with different supplies household supplies toys coats and then we also give them a hot meal
00:13:55 we have a family Festival in the summertime where it’s free for the community come out get food play bouncy houses all kind of just coming together as a collective and understanding like we have to be more Community centered in order to really build and do anything so what community you doing this so I do it and I do the central area so I work with cmsd and I work with the students at Vish and I provide services to them and then I also do the South uet East Cleveland Heights area and then I’ll also do the homeless population so what you do for the homeless I feed them every third Sunday
00:14:24 go down there talk to them see if they need a job tell them we’re hiring and you just feel the meals y just give them meals good nice meals though not like the baloney sandwi or anything last we have our beef po boy so we did I do stuff off the menu too yeah yeah because they’re going to get great food even though you’re in an uncir unfortunate circumstance that doesn’t mean you can’t eat good and a a meal can turn somebody life around I’m about to go apply for this job right now or I’m about to go call this person I’ve been neglecting so just giving them good quality food letting them
00:14:50 know their love I also allow my students to get in on it as well so I’ll have them write like different notes on like the boxes to encourage them so when they get their box it says something nice and incorporating them and teaching them how to serve as well so we’re gonna um take a few steps back because we jumped in a little bit so you have a few businesses because you talked about all of them so we’re gonna break them down yeah the first business was the Enrichment Center correct now tell me what is the enrichment center and where it is give us the location
00:15:21 and what you do there yeah so we’re located at 4266 Monella Boulevard right in South uket and we provide a preschool and a school Ager program our preschool program is also funded by upk which is the University of pre kindergarten yeah so we have that yeah so we just provide quality programming we do a lot of family engagement activities so we allow our parents to come in and partner with us and we include them on different things last month we’re planting a garden and the parents came in and working on plan a garden we do summer programming for our youths and we also take them
00:15:50 different places and expose them to different things and one of my partners we’ll talk about that too is kids coaching so she took my the kids took Niagara Falls so that they could see the a lot of them never been out of town out of the state lines we took them camping in Michigan two years ago and exposed them to outdoors and canoeing and things of that sort but we also focus on social emotional development inside and just building a relationship with the youth to know just being honest with you that one you have support and two we’re going to hold you
00:16:17 accountable and then we also I feel as if our parents are very supportive of the services we give so they understand if we have to redirect their behavior or hold them accountable for their behavior we will do that because we want nothing but the best for the kids now again stages for the year so our preschool program is 3 to five and then our school Ager program is 12 6 to 12 really how many students you got in there I have 30 school agers and I have believe 17 preschoolers really then we have a youth culinary program as well that’s for our middle school program that’s
00:16:51 interesting that’s why you made the program see you’re interesting okay all right well that’s very interesting to know all right so tell me more about the program if you wanted to go there what do you do yep you could just call and set up an appointment to have a tour we give you a tour to space show you what we have going on talk about our curriculum and things of that sort and then we enroll the families interesting tell me about some of your partners then you get yeah so for our youth culinary program we partner with Tina sweet tooth which does a baking program within
00:17:20 our facility so she comes and bakes with the tolers our preschoolers her name is Tina sweet Tina sweet Toth and she has a butter let say about this butter PE I’m G to get off the topic a but PE caramel cake it is so good we sell it at bik and then we also sell it at creative space because that’s what we do we create spaces for people to build but so she’s one of our partners we have kids coaching with Beyond barriers which is a Christian life coaching company so she comes in and she teach teaches faith-based programs to our students so like really we focus on the fruit of
00:17:47 the spirits because that’s what they need at their young age learning how to have peace and joy and love and things like that and then we have Diane who is Big Zen little Zen which is a yoga studio so she comes in and does yoga with our children as well excellent I I hope you can get you some brothers in there to do something because I think it would be nice for them to see some guys do yeah for sure so sometimes I do have it’s raber Sparks he’ll come in over the summer sometimes and he do
00:18:12 something with my kids more of a social emotional also what is it da he came in he does things with our program and it was another one he does rugby I can’t think of his name right now but he started introducing rugby to the city of Cleveland so he came in over the summer as well and did different things excellent excellent so you have the Enrichment Center cuz you don’t call it a daycare it’s not a dayare it’s not a dayare no and tell me the difference I think sometimes daycare can look it can just be more so like a babysitting services or it’s just that it’s we’re bringing our
00:18:43 kids here they’re watching our kids while I’m at work and it’s no we’re not watching your children we are giving them it skills we’re teaching them right from wrong we’re giving them opportunities to grow we’re not just sitting here and just letting them go and do whatever and just being honest the the I’m still young but a lot of our kids now days are different than they than we were um one because of social media two because of the exposure level that they have so we have to do a lot of redirecting we have to do a lot of planning new seeds to uproot some of the things they have
00:19:10 been exposed to in order to keep them on the right track just with media alone they’re exposed to so many different ways of how a woman is supposed to show up or a young man is supposed to show up so teaching them about respect teaching them and then providing them the opportunity to be in a environment where you have to practice respect is super important so that helps to cultivate that child I was going to ask you my next question was some of your what are some of your biggest challenges you found in opening that Center and working in that industry now yeah I would say
00:19:38 granted I feel like the state is doing a little better as far as providing additional funds but funding especially for the school Ager program we don’t receive extra funds for our license in order to fund School Ager programs and that is where we need a lot of services yes early childhood education is important when it comes to preschool but those kids in heading into middle school or right before Middle School they need that because they’re entering into pover puberty they’re being exposed to drugs and substance so that’s when you really need to tackle in on them and provide
00:20:08 additional resources like I said I’m very grateful now I’m in a space where my parents are supportive I will feel in the past they weren’t as supportive as to understanding the development of their child and granted a lot of the families we serve can be single parents so I understand how hard it can be to try to work clean the house get your kids ready but we have to figure out how we can find balance in order to still um show up for your child in a way that still enables a positive growth for
00:20:35 them mentally physically emotionally spiritually yeah that’s always a challenge especially with young parents and new parents and now the parents are much younger coming in the door so I know you have a lot of challenges in dealing with that let me ask you as it relates to um summer and and now that the summer coming up you gonna have a summer camp yeah we have summer camp and how old and what’s the summer camp all about yeah so I don’t know all of I will not tell a story because I have a great team so my team goes ahead and put everything together I did glance over it
00:21:05 so they’re going to be setting up for different themes each month so say for instance they’re doing a a solar theme and they’re going to the Science Center and they’re going to go outside and look at the moon and the stars they was telling me all this stuff that they’re doing so we have different things each two every two weeks and then within that two weeks they go on a field trip in regards to that how long is summer program gonna be one to say because we take them capping the second week of August so up until the that so the first week of August at the end and will’ll take
00:21:29 them out of town to Michigan that second week so it’s going up till August June 3rd until August yes what I’m saying so June 3rd to August okay and how many kids you gonna get in so I’m just trying to let people know you better come early right you better come early because I want to say we are full because I yesterday we had 31 kids and so we like and we like to keep it quality too so keep low ratios and things like that so excellent so summer program going you have your Wellness not it’s not a wellness center it’s called a creative space creative no we didn’t get I’m still on your
00:21:59 C so we have the Enrichment Center along with the day camp yep correct that you’re going to be doing and in that day camp you’re going to be doing lots and lots of various different things yes all right so you have the you’ve been doing that so that was your first business correct that was my first all right so you got that going you like that so what was the second one the second was bites now I’m a foodie so I was just waiting for us to get down that road what made you want to cook okay what happened was my mother passed away and I love to serve I just love to throw
00:22:29 parties and cook for my friends and have them come over and let’s do a game night or vision board so that was fun to me so my mother passed my I ended up being pregnant and having my daughter and I was at home long maternally bored like I’m just bored I want to open up a restaurant I want to cook I want to do that yeah Richmond Center wasn’t enough no so like literally I said that in December because my daughter was almost six months and then I opened in March and it was nothing a guy but opened in March and it was that let’s talk about that because everybody who who’s
00:23:03 into business like that and entrepreneurs that’s usually how it go okay so the first step is what you’re saying is I had a vision of what I wanted to do and I implemented correct so now you’re gonna tell us all of those steps to implementing that because that’s not easy and we’re not gonna let everybody think just open a restaurant like that so you had to really go through some stuff together you had to get a permit you had to find a location so take us through that process so looking back got it so good but with having a daycare you have to go through everything
00:23:32 so opening a wring round wasn’t as hard because it’s your license because daycare you have to have every license Food Service license fire license uh state license every license you could think of so with the restaurant it was like I only have to get two licenses okay so you one you have to find a location but it’s right next door to my daycare so was that open already open it just it came open I want to say that month or something you know what it’s already a system in here so I can open up
00:23:56 right here and I didn’t want to do the traditional so food I’m like I want to do something different I want to do trio food so I have a home girl she is from New Orleans so I C her up I’m like I’m about to open up a restaurant I need you to help me come up with a great menu and how I should do it so she told me like you got to have pboy and I’m like okay cool but you got to have a big bread I said perfect you got to throw Gumball on there I’m like okay never made Gumble in my life so I’m sitting here yeah I hear you saying this now she’s not a chef she’s not a chef she’s from New Orleans
00:24:21 and you’re not a chef I’m not a chef but you have to do your research no I did I didn’t want to just look on the internet I wanted to talk to somebody who is from there in there they know the what supposed to have so even when people come in from out of to they like do you have this I’m like y I got it I got it so so you actually went in CUA let’s talk about your culinary exp was you a cooker a person who cooked a lot you said you there’s people who like to cook and then there’s people who can cook can you cook well I think I can cook do you like my food so I told you
00:24:51 we there all the time so I guess I mean I think I can cook I just think it’s I I think it’s fun it was a coping skill I lost my mom I got my daughter so I’m about to cook and then even now so I don’t really cook in the kitchen too much I just opened a second location so now I am but I’m about to retire out cause what I’m getting at with that is like what you telling me is I talked to her and she we gonna do if she would have said we going Asian was you learned how to cook Asian food yeah no serious I would have called somebody who is in that who is still got cook I still got to cook it
00:25:22 but once you tell me what I need to do I’m going to figure it out you fig out so I figured it out I had her come over I did a I’m like come over I made gumb I made jumbalaya I made a pizza I made all this food and I had her taste it and she was like it’s good like she like add a littleit I had to add more gumbo fet to my gumbo what is filet I don’t know I don’t know a cook I know because I hear people say some people say they want it and some people say don’t put it in I got you say it got to be INB it’s so crazy to get gumbo F it’s like everybody is buying it off the shelves
00:25:53 or something it’s crazy wow yeah I don’t know what it is I be hearing them say put it in there or don’t put it in there yeah so she came over she tasted everything and you got down she said it was good yeah and then so then but my homeboy so my child’s father and I we are in Partnership at the restaurant and he’s a great support system when it comes to building but his best friend both of our friends he was a chef so he also came in and he helped set us up showed us how to do everything how to execute because you got to have a system in place like do this research okay how we going who
00:26:22 are you going to pull in order to build and you have to bring in certain people of expertise so he was he came in he showed us how to run a line how to set up a line things of that sort so that was a blessing and I was the food the food is pretty good I’m not gonna lie on that I we go it’s one of those spots where we be sitting around what you guys want to eat and you definitely are in the top I think five or six restaurants that every time they say oh you w how about bite got got the text
00:26:48 go around all right all right all right that’s what we end up doing but I didn’t and didn’t quite know that’s who you were until a little while ago okay I was doing all this other stuff and my not bite was on there got you got you got you and I said that’s who she is okay excellent so I’m glad to hear about that so in that what was your biggest challenge though you think man doing it was it trying to get was business going right off the ri when you opened up and did your grand open or is it it was that was a blessing business was good the first day we made a light
00:27:18 decent amount of money to never ever be in the industry marketing is key when it comes to restant say now what did you do to get that off the ground social media you just went straight social we had to go straight social media and social media was relatively new at that time when it came to like advertising for your business in that capacity so we did that we opened in 2018 and then 20 Y and then 2020 came it was the pandemic so that was a a period when everybody was scared about like shutting down everybody oh we gonna I’m like I’m not doing that we’re gonna turn it up a notch
00:27:47 so we really went hard when it came to social media and it came to marketing and things of that sort and how did y’all get through the social media what was some of your things you did yeah I became the face of the business so I began doing commercials talking about the space and making it fun and that’s what we like to do when we create content is to make it fun make an engagement get engaging and go from there let’s talk about covid again because entrepreneur with business one side it sound was doing okay but did the daycare suffer during the co not we gonna call it en did it did
00:28:19 it um it didn’t like I said got it so good to me it did not and that’s why I said state did do a good job as far as making sure we had suppored funds in order to keep operating my parents didn’t want to pull any of their kids yeah so most of my kids I did so what happened was I used to service infants and todders fulltime that was an opportunity for me to cut out that age group which I wanted to do anyway so I just CL changed my classroom I closed a couple classrooms but we continued to allow things to flow we provided we had sleepovers for the kids so that they could
00:28:48 still have different things going on and they didn’t feel super affected because they were on site doing school with us so it it was challenging but we were able to work through it for sure okay and you say as a result the restaurant you was booming with that we were booming yeah that was a blessing because people were door dashing all the time and people didn’t have anything to do but eat so they were ordering new customers and everything were coming in so it was really great honestly how you decide if you want to put something new on your menu what what the customers may say so
00:29:15 like people has been asking about shrimp at so I’m thinking about doing a popup special for shrimp at and if how I’m feeling like I said I like to do it some I like to cook sometimes most of the time off of my feelings I did a popup for shrimping grits with salmon croats on top and I was like you know what I just feel like making some shrimping grit right now let me just throw it on here do a video and then go from there and see what happens so after you got your food how you wanted to taste
00:29:37 and everything then your next step did you hire you a chef or you bought in people and you had to train them to cook the way you wanted to cook y so my partner and I he handles backend I handle the front end so I handle business operations flow and things of that sort he makes sure everything is coming out with quality recipes our seasonings on our Point our our sauces are on point and then he was was in the kitchen cooking for a little bit for about two years then but we still did have two
00:30:02 other people in the kitchen because we are a cook to order so we don’t have anything like we don’t cook chicken in advance and then just drop it to reheat when you come in here and place your order we have to cook your raw chicken in the grease so it can cook so that’s why it takes 15 to 20 minutes and then we were like okay now it’s time for us to scale in order to scale we have to pull back and we have to bring somebody else in so then we began hiring and then teaching them everything and then going from there that’s wow and so now you got the restaurant and it’s doing well I know
00:30:27 it’s doing good cuz we go there so we know the restaurant doing good the wellness center is so a ghost kitchen is where you have multiple different kitchen operators operating out of one space okay and then they operate their own individual business so they’re there during different times yeah me and tast are there together on Fridays and Saturdays I’m there on Tuesday she’s there today on Thursdays Carter’s there on Sundays okay Tina’s there Tuesdays Thursdays Fridays and Saturdays and then truly rooted she sells I Believe on Wednesdays and Thursdays but she also produced
00:31:00 a go sell at the farmers market for Saturdays okay so they come in there they cook all their food and it looks like they’re restaurant for that day yep and you get to come in and order what they got order and if they want to sit down and eat they can y now what else is in your creative space so we also have a podcast Studio we have a full service music studio and then we have a Content creative Studio where you can just go in there and do different things so photographers use it we have small intimate events like Sip and paints book signing yoga classes dance classes things
00:31:28 like that that’s interesting and so you said God spoke to you and wanted you to open up that space why that location so honestly I had a different location of mine I wanted it to be in Cleveland because my goal is always to really build up our community and I Tred so hard to purchase a building on 72nd and Superior and it just was not going well so yeah it just didn’t go well and long story short the building ended up being it’s being it’s built on Lake Eerie so it floods like Cony so even if I wor cuz I had somebody go out there and check about pumping it so even if I pump
00:32:02 the water the way the building is built it’s going to flood regardless so it was like a disaster and I kept trying to purchase this build and like I literally was just like fighting against what guy was telling me no I was like yes yes so it didn’t work out so I got discouraged and it’s so good to have good people around you because if you don’t that’s how a dream could be lost or your vision could be lost so I that happened I would say in September August probably August in October one of
00:32:25 my team members which is one of my partners which is one of my friends she came up okay it’s time now it’s time to go find another building I’m like no I don’t want to do it anymore I’m done like it is what it is no we’re done you had your moment it’s time to go find a building and sure enough that evening somebody emailed me they had the same name as my daughter and I was like okay let me just see so I reach out and I Saw the space and I was just like I don’t know this looks bigger than what I was trying to do as far as the capacity of having to build it out and everything and it
00:32:51 just flow it would it flowed for it to work and to just do how it’s supposed to do so it makes sense and it’s making sense for you it’s sense for me yes and it’s working wow and so if you want to use the podcast Studio how did that work so you can either go online and just book your time or you can contact us directly because sometimes people have questions about how the podcast work and it’s really self-service so you go in you push the power button you put your headphones on there’s also a camera and multiple cameras if you need it you put your sim your SD card in the in the
00:33:21 camera and you push recording your sound bar and then you’re good to go and then there’s different like sound effects on the board and things like that interesting so do somebody work that for you or do you do all it yourself so you can do it yourself but I always initially come in with the client first just to show them how to work the equipment just so they can have a idea so is it set up where they can do multiple guests in there yeah for sure really excellent yeah and how much does something like that cost so it’s $125 an hour or for 325 that’s not bad it’s not bad and what
00:33:52 else you have in the space um I said the music studio and then we have our open event co-working space well let’s talk about about the music space what’s that so it’s a full service recorded music studio with Pro Tools and Luna and all the stuff that you need to go in there and to mix and master and record your music really so if you want to go in there and make you a song or a rap song or whatever it is you can go on in there and do that y for sure wow yeah how big is that it’s just a studio little it’s a studio multiple people can go in there and do it too yeah for sure you can bring
00:34:23 instruments and stuff and everything is soundproof oh you bring your instruments and everything yeah how much is something like that that one I have a special and we gonna quote you I know we gonna go to your you’re fine you’re fine you go to the website so right now that one is $95 an hour or you could do a singer songwriter package for 750 so that would include your stuff being mixed mastered Auto recorded don’t matter how many hours it may take to put it together really that’s a hell of a deal especially people in the industry that ain’t bad so you got the co-working space
00:34:52 yeah yeah what’s that all about so you could just come in and co-work my idea for the space is like I said to create spaces for us to be because we have a lot of bars we got enough of that we need to start creating spaces where we can come and learn something where and we can take tangible information and we can do that over a cocktail or we can do that over a meal but let’s come in here and really talk with one another about how we can build and get to the next level and not just stay complacent so just allowing people to come in and co-work so somebody has a meeting
00:35:18 they can come in the space have their meeting there if they want to host like a seminar or a panel they can do that it’s the space to build up our mind our emotions our physical things of that sort financial literacy that’s excellent that’s excellent oh know I think that’s good and that’s open what the hours that usually open when you so we’re open because of the restaurants we’re open Tuesday Thursday Friday Saturdays but if you want to book a like a table to come in and work you can just do it at any time anytime between 8 AM and midnight you can book your time
00:35:47 you just book everything online oh so you can be in there to midnight if you want to yeah because some people work late I know a lot of creatives like get their juices flowing like after eight or nine but you just have to go ahead and book everything online inter you got a lot of stuff good stuff going on over there and everything is contained over there off of monacell with the restaurant and the um Center you have there as well as now the business I’m very interested in what you’re doing out there in wi cliff and love to get come out there one day and see some
00:36:15 of the stuff that you guys doing we’ll advertise that a little bit for for sure yeah we have two do dope events so tomorrow we have the men’s panel it’s called redefining manhood with my pastor yeah Pastor Ray so he’s going to be on the panel and it’s just for men to come out share we need to create that space for them to do that as well like it’s super important definely yeah so if you are available definitely come out tomorrow it’s going to be dope the restaurants will be open and things
00:36:38 like that then Saturday we have a super dope art show so we’ll be showcasing art in every capacity you can think of so we’ll have photography we’ll have live art going on we have music is Art we’ll have clothes we’ll have a small fashion show a DJ set two different DJs are going to come in I don’t want to say battle but they’re going to play off of one another they’re going to play off of one another starting in the ’90s bring it all the way up until now so just really showcasing people that look like us and things that we have to offer because we have so many dope things to offer but
00:37:06 a lot of times it’s not showcased especially in media it’s portrayed a lot of times just in one way and we have to be able to Showcase especially for the younger generation like we are great we are powerful we have so many different things now let’s showcase it and let’s collaborate together to do it it’s a shame you couldn’t get your 70 second spot because something in the city is so needed like that but people go where they want to go you know and they can make it to will will willowwick isn’t that far it’s just right outside of and so you can get there it’s not a big deal
00:37:36 but I really wish it would have been in the inner city because that’s the kind of energy we need yeah so it’s coming I’ve been asking God to allow me to do something in the Midtown area for so long like four years so I know it’s coming I really want to be in the Midtown area because I can just see how we can pull our community by being in this central location and then the way that they’re building it up is only going to make sense to have something that I create in that area so that’s correct well you keep us posted on all that so I’m gonna give you some of my closing questions okay
00:38:05 and then we’re gonna let you get up out here so one of the questions I ask my guest all the along because you answer I had a bunch of questions for you but you answered all of them without me having to go to my P see you did a very good job if there were one person that you could trade places with for a day who would it be one person I can trade places with one person you can trade places or if you can talk to I ain’t gonna say he had to trade places but it was one person you can come back and or just here they can be living or dead that you can talk to spend a day with who would it
00:38:43 be that is a good question I would have to say Jesus I would have to say Jesus because the way that he walked the way that he communicated with people the way that he saw people without judgment was very admirable and I feel as if in order to build in order to leave something behind you have being in relationship with somebody like that being able to speak to somebody like that will add so a layer on me that I I feel like will be able to really touch people I really when I leave this place I want to make sure I leave an impact not an impact of money cars closed but of people
00:39:31 lives being changed and also allowing them to see exactly what their true calling and Destiny and purpose is I see a lot of times so many people sometimes they they fail because of the people they had around them and they people around them saw them failing and they never said anything so being able to talk to Jesus and just seeing how he moved and he just had so much compassion would just teach me so much more than what I can read about in the word so I say excellent that’s good what’s your guilty pleasure oh guilty pleasure um I probably have to say heavy whipping cream let
00:40:06 me tell you I cannot eat I cannot eat dairy and I’m telling you if I can get a shrimp Alfredo and it’ll mess me up like I’m talk about mess me up like I just can’t do or ice cream but I can’t even do ice cream no more so I will say heavy whipping cream but you can eat heavy whipping cream I really can but I do it I’m just do it real quick just a second just a second I’m just gonna do it you just can’t help it wow that’s a good one yeah what’s the best compliment you ever got the best compliment I ever got oh is that time oh we gonna finish these question this question be by time um
00:40:43 probably something around I can’t remember exactly how it was worded but something around the fact that PE they understand exactly what I’m trying to do they see me they see that I’m not doing this for myself I’m doing it because I see other people and I just am genu want other people to win and I genu want other people that look like me to win despite the things that we have went through in our life or we’ve been exposed to in our childhood that doesn’t really stop anything so I think something within that realm excellent something you wish you were better at oh releaseing
00:41:13 control not all the way though God just little bit you control I’m not a control freak but I like stuff a certain way and then I like it my way and sometimes that can get in the way of you receiving when somebody trying to tell you something but I’m also the boss so I can’t I got to have that healthy balance because I still just because I’m the boss doesn’t mean I can’t learn or listen or be directed as to how I can be better or do better so and you got to provide leadership exactly exactly and sometimes leadership is making the bad cause yeah and that’s part of the
00:41:48 leadership for sure what’s the worst Pit of advice you ever got like being selfish no you don’t have to worry about them do what you want to do don’t trust people yeah it is hard to trust people but we can’t go into things with that mindset you know what I’m saying yes people are going to burn you that’s just part of the game no matter if you’re entrepreneur if you’re just regular doing 9 of5 that’s going to happen so I think people saying those things like automatically just don’t trust people you don’t be careful don’t be giving them everything because they not g to do the
00:42:19 same for you that kind of stuff that mentality what’s the one thing that either you think about or you do to help you real relax and help you laugh about it when you having like a bad day and you just like man but you can sit back on the couch and you think of a memory or something that makes you laugh every time you think about yeah I honestly say I would it would have to be like me like worshiping or talking to God because then once I do that God creates clarity as to exactly what I’m sitting in so then I start thinking like I’m tripping right now like why am I
00:42:57 going in like going crazy first of all you have brought me all the way from here to where I am now so if I’m tripping about this like this is Goofy you’ve done so you know what I’m saying so when I’m able to like really reflect and see exactly what’s going on and sometimes we just need to release something we’ll be so upset about how we feel about something is just because we didn’t verbalize out our mouth and then we say it out our mouth we’re able to start reflecting like hold on wait am I really seeing this clearly so
00:43:19 when I like release it give it to God even if it comes out funky cuz it does it comes out I’m irritated right now God this person is getting on my nerves I’m about to cuss them out we doing right now and then God is hold on wait a second like I’mma take care of and then he does so it’s like dang I was tripping I wasted all this energy and angry and frustration on nothing like chill you’re good and then just being able to sit back and see like I said where I’ve come from I even though I grew up in Shaker it wasn’t like a silver spoon in my mouth or anything like that it
00:43:46 wasn’t like I didn’t have adversity it wasn’t like I didn’t have to be resilient it wasn’t like I wasn’t exposed some of the things that even the kids in the inner city was exposed to because I was so to be able to come from that and to be able to sit where I’m s that now is amazing I tell my daughter all the time and she I know y’all didn’t have a car all the time when you were growing up I know and I was like I’m just letting you know because having a car is a privilege being living in a nice area is a privilege being to go on vacations and travel she wants to go on a
00:44:12 vacation every other month I literally just took her to Phoenix last month when are we going on vacation when are you going to get some money and you take me on vacation stop but being able like God thank you like I can do this for my child and understanding that I’m breaking these generational curses I’m receiving these generational blessing so I think that’s what I would have to say DJ you have a question oh you want to remember me I I was about to give the oh heho brother I say you you got a question I want to make sure I get you in so what was the out of all I think three
00:44:47 of your businesses which one was the hardest to open and which one is the most fulfilling to you that’s it really just depends on the day because I would say the hardest to open would be Crea a space because I was creating something that I’ve never seen before and God told me to do it so I wasn’t doing something that I had a blueprint I was doing something where I had to listen closely to God like God how am I doing this like they’re talking about this I don’t even know what I’m doing and I don’t have a background in podcasting or music that’s not me so I got to trust you like
00:45:24 how I know what kind of equipment to get how do I know what music stuff to get how I know you know how the kitchen is going to be like God how am I doing this you know what I’m saying like what license do I have to apply for What policies do I what am I doing you know what I’m saying so I had to constantly stay so close to God that I hear exactly the moves that he is telling me to make and it’s their strategy and then fulfilling it just really depends on who said something that day because I can walk into the day I walk like I can walk into daycare I see that kid oh Miss Asia and
00:45:52 like oh my God need I needed that I love you like I’m so happy I got kids around me but it could be a bad day like I’m over it I sell it I don’t want it no more you know what I’m saying I can go into the restaurant and walk in like oh I love I come here all the time I be seeing your things like you doing your thing girl we appreciate you and I’m like oh thank you girl I was just about to quit yesterday like thank you that help me you know and I going the credit space and then the people who
00:46:14 are building their business in there and they’re like you don’t understand this is such a blessing to me I didn’t know was going to do I was able to catch up on my bills and I’m like yes God like they fixing that credit I’m like yes we’re making movement like we’re moving people lives are being changed so I think that I have just created businesses that created an ecosystem for people lives to be transformed and changed and to be elevated so I think I would just have to say that they’re all like a blessing to my life I think you did excellent today I think you did a great
00:46:43 job I think much success wish you much success in all your endeavors you’re doing very well and you listening to everybody you listening to your inner self you listening to people that’s talking to you you listening to your Spiritual Beings that’s coming to you so you’re G to do well thank you just keep doing what you’re doing keep moving forward anything we can do to help we will We GNA definitely be out there you said that’s tomorrow right tomorrow is the redefining man and Saturday is the our show it’s gonna be super dope what time is it tomorrow tomorrow 7:30 Saturday 5:30
00:47:12 yeah I’m gonna come out there tomorrow check your place I want to see your place and we may even do a event out there and just to help make sure we help you out in that regard apprciate so what we do when we close most of our programs we let you look at this camera belongs to you and you get to say whatever’s on your heart man you can say what ever you want to say to your audience make sure before you finish that though make sure you give them all the locations and how they can reach you on those locations if they need in any of that and we will put everything in the descriptions where
00:47:42 you’ll be able to get that but I’m gonna turn it over you take your time like I said it’s edible so we edit it if you want to start over whatever take your time and that camera belongs to you all right so first we’ll go in I’m Asia Childers owner and operator of Let’s Make A Change located at 4266 monacell Boulevard also the owner of B Creo Kitchen located at 4262 monacell Boulevard and then create a space which is located at 3048 Lakeshore Boulevard in willowwick Ohio I am here to let you know whatever dreams goals and passions you have to continue to push forward believe in
00:48:18 yourself don’t give up understand everything is a journey it won’t happen overnight but once you consistent and you stay close to God you can do anything and I just wish the for everybody that’s all honestly excellent that’s it hey we gonna give you every Link in the description on how you can reach Miss Asia Childers with all her build businesses that she has out here plenty plenty that she got going very good spirit and it’s somebody you need to know so again check it out you’ll see us on our next podcast and peace good job thank you thank you moves
00:48:52 with this is m