Mark:
Like, when you go back and study really successful people, you'll see that a lot of what made them who they are, who they became, were just a bunch of different things that happened in their. In their childhood. And I think that played a huge role in where we're at today. Close. This is Secrets for success.
Greg :
Welcome to the Secrets for Success Podcast. I'm your host, Greg Tod. Thank you, as always, for joining me. My friends, today I have an extremely special guest. The reason why I am an entrepreneur is mainly because of this individual. So this is my brother, Mark. He's my older brother. And, Mark, I want to thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Mark:
Absolutely. My pleasure and my honor to be here.
Greg :
Thanks, bro. I appreciate it. So, just to give you guys a little backstory, and many of you that have followed my work, you know that I am the anti entrepreneur entrepreneur, right. I did not want to do this. So I know a lot of people ask me, hey, so what's the reason why you went into entrepreneurship? Well, the reason was primarily because I did get to this sticking point in my life where I needed time because that's what my wife wanted, and I couldn't get it through my job. But there was a lot of things going on behind the scenes for many, many years that the person that is sitting in front of me was responsible for. So I feel like what we should do, bro, is I feel like we should go back to the beginning and us growing up, we are two and a half years apart in age. He is the older brother, and he lets me know of it every day.
Greg :
But me and you have talked about this before, we have both become millionaires. We were not born in this country. And we have asked ourselves, and by the way, and we have another brother as well, who has become. He's not an entrepreneur, but he's been very successful in his own right. And we've always said, how did this happen for us? And I think it's important for people to know a little bit about our environment and our upbringing and the craziness that came with it. And I just figured, let's talk about this on the episode. So why don't we start with us growing up and the sibling rivalry and all the different things that kind of came with it. So I'll let you kind of just take it away for a little bit.
Mark:
No, definitely. We were extremely competitive in everything that we did. I mean, everything was a competition. I don't care what it was. Everything was just a competition between us. And I think that we got that from our father because he was extremely competitive. And I think all of those factors, like, when you go back and study really successful people, you'll see that a lot of what made them who they are, who they became, were just a bunch of different things that happened in their childhood. And I think that played a huge role in where we're at today.
Greg :
I agree. I think we got certain things from our father. I think we got certain things from our mother, and then I think we had each other.
Mark:
Yeah.
Greg :
So I do agree with you that what we got from our father was intensity, competitiveness, and a drive to want to win and almost to win at all cost, right?
Mark:
Absolutely.
Greg :
I feel like we got that from him. I feel like what we got from mom was a bit more of being empathetic, and she has a nurturing side. And even for us, I believe that we both have that. The way that you give to other people, the amount of times you have conversations with people, you're just giving them of your time, which I don't do it like how you do it, but, you know, I'm a giver as well in other areas. I feel like we got that from Mom. I also believe that we got exposed to nice things without having the nice things.
Mark:
Yeah, absolutely.
Greg :
Okay, let's talk about that a little bit.
Mark:
Yeah. So probably one of the first things was, when I was about eight, I was going into the third grade and you were going into the first grade, and we moved neighborhoods, and the neighborhood that we had lived in before that was a mixed neighborhood. Very mixed neighborhood. Now, I'd probably say it's probably, like, 99% African American.
Greg :
Right.
Mark:
But we ended up moving into a neighborhood where we were probably one of very few black kids in that neighborhood. I remember even, like, in elementary school, if there were 30 kids in the class, it'd probably be either I'm the only black kid or maybe one or two other ones. Our parents wanted us to live in a good neighborhood that had really good schools and whatnot. So we were able to see and not really be in certain elements and be able to see people that were doing really well. Another instance is we had an aunt, and it was our grandfather's sister.
Greg :
Aunt Sissy.
Mark:
Yeah. Aunt Sissy, yeah. And I remember one day we went to church in downtown Miami, and then one day after church, our dad took us to. She was, I guess, like a nanny or a housekeeper. She was a housekeeper. But I think she had a really great relationship with this family, and they lived on, I don't know, I think it was Star island, was it?
Greg :
I just. I remember the house and I remember. You remember the show Silver Spoons.
Mark:
Yeah.
Greg :
And it felt like it was like Schroeder's house.
Mark:
Right?
Greg :
Like, oh, my. Like, these are rich. It was the first time I've ever been exposed to. Just remember. I remember that that was first grade. Third grade.
Mark:
For know, it probably was a little bit before. It was probably like, maybe I was about like six or seven, I think. And you're like two years younger than me. I just remember going to the house and I remember walking in. I could remember a little glimpse of it, but it was a very grand house. And I remember we went into the kids room. She must have been showing us around. And all I remember is that they had the little tabletop versions of Pac man and Mrs.
Mark:
Pac Man. And just thought we thought we were in know because they had these little Pac man games. And I remember it was just an amazing. And that for whatever that did a whole lot because we were able to see that there is a whole lot more out there. And I think that for a lot of people, they never ever get exposed to more. So they only just see what they see. So they can't even envision that there's a bigger world out there or there's more out there.
Greg :
Right.
Mark:
And I think we got that.
Greg :
Yeah. So I think that's a huge part. Just our environment.
Mark:
And then also, too, not to cut you off, but I remember when we were, um. We would get in the car on Sundays and drive around to different neighborhoods, like the Moors.
Greg :
You remember the Moors? Yeah, it's like a neighborhood like Miami Lakes or something like that.
Mark:
Yeah.
Greg :
And that's one thing that mom and Dad really did for us is they exposed us to things that were not where we currently were.
Mark:
Right.
Greg :
But they gave us that ability to see other things. And it wasn't like no crazy levels, but it was enough to where it's like, wow, there is more than what we currently have. And we would do that on a Sunday and then go to like, Haagendas at night.
Mark:
Right. Wow.
Greg :
Yeah. So I think that's huge, man. I don't think a lot of people have ever gotten that they have been in their same spot. They've never been exposed to anything else and that there is anything beyond what their current reality is.
Mark:
No, absolutely. I think that plays a huge role. Like I said, I read a lot of biographies and autobiographies. And what mostly fascinates me when I'm reading this is paying attention to all the little things that were going on that most people would overlook, for instance, like Steve Jobs, the reason why Apple is so clean, like, the design and everything is just so really clean. His father that he grew up with was like that. He paid attention to detail. He was very. All the work that he did was very clean.
Mark:
And that's kind of what made Apple that way. That's why he had the vision for Apple, where it wasn't like Apple. You don't see a whole lot of stuff. Everything is, like, white and very clean and professional looking. And it came from things that he observed from his father growing up at a very young age, right?
Greg :
Yeah, 100%. So we talk about this all the time, our competitiveness with each other, the environment that we were in to where we were. I'm not going to say the poorest kids in a middle class neighborhood, but basically, there were a lot of our neighbors and our friends. They had more than us.
Mark:
Absolutely.
Greg :
And we saw it, but we didn't have it. Like, you remember, like John Clark and Andy Garcia and Alex Posono and these guys where they would get, like, for Christmas, they would get the awesome radio control car or the go kart. And we were never going to necessarily get those things, but we found ways to get those things.
Mark:
And that's the problem that I have with. I don't want to say problem, but issue, I think, with a lot of parents now, whereas we didn't get all of those things, so we had to figure out ways to get so all of those toys and whatnot. We literally had experience, everything, and our parents didn't buy it for us. So we would trade. From an early age, I was a hustler, and I would figure out how to get these. I see these kids with a go cart. Like, if you really think about it, I had a mini bike. I had a go cart.
Mark:
I had so many different radio control cars. I had a radio control boat. Literally. There wasn't anything that those kids had that I didn't have, and our parents didn't buy them for us.
Greg :
You had to find a way to get it.
Mark:
Yeah, we had to figure it out.
Greg :
I feel like we had everything they had. A lot of times we had it after they had it. They exposed us to it.
Mark:
Right.
Greg :
And we're like, okay, well, crap, we don't have parents that have the money to get these things. So you would trade. We would wash cars. We would go and do lawns a lot.
Mark:
Gift wrapping paper. Like, at the back of the Boy Scout magazine, they would have this advertisement. Like, you could win these prizes if you sell the gift wrapping paper. And we would go knock on doors, go around the neighborhood, and sell gift wrapping paper so that we could try to win whatever prizes or whatever. So, I mean, there wasn't nothing that we didn't do. And we were just taught from an early age that if you wanted something, you couldn't depend on anybody else. You had to go out there and figure it out. You had to get it yourself.
Greg :
Right.
Mark:
And I think that that's probably the greatest lesson that. Especially me and you, I would say, because we weren't given everything.
Greg :
Right, but we were exposed to things, and then it created a unique desire for us to get those things right. And then we understood that, okay, how do I get those things? But I don't have the money.
Mark:
Right.
Greg :
What we had to do is we had to be creative, we had to take action. We had to be persistent, and we had to find a way.
Mark:
Yeah.
Greg :
And we basically got everything that those kids had.
Mark:
Yeah. I can't think of, like, one thing that any of the other kids in the neighborhood had that we didn't have.
Greg :
The only difference is that it wasn't given to us.
Mark:
Yeah, absolutely.
Greg :
That was the only difference.
Mark:
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So we had to figure it out. At the end of the day, we had to figure it out.
Greg :
Right?
Mark:
Yeah.
Greg :
So let's talk about a couple of those things. The one that sticks in my mind the most is our candy selling experiences. So, just to give you all some context, my brother has always been the hustler. I have always just been a product of my environment. I modeled what I saw. So my brother's always been kind of the kingpin. Right. And we would have these different times throughout our middle school days and even high school for you, where the school forbid you for selling candy.
Greg :
But if it was for their benefit, they would have, like, two to three weeks a year where if you were part of a club or you're a part of something and there was, like, a fundraiser, you could sell candy, but it's on behalf of the institution.
Mark:
Right. It's on behalf of the school.
Greg :
So what we did is we used that as an opportunity to basically sell our own. And you were kind of the kingpin, so why don't you kind of build on that? Because I have a really good story based off of that.
Mark:
So really, how I even got into the candy, I can't even take all the credit for it. Our cousin Brian, it was like, my best friend, I remember he would go to Costco's or Sam's and he would buy a big box of chocolate bars, and he would bring them and start selling them at school. Then I was like, I saw him doing. He didn't tell me he was going to do it. I just saw him doing it. And I was like, hey, the next time you go, can I go with you? I want to buy some candy, too. And he let me come with him. And I remember buying.
Mark:
So I bought a couple of chocolate bars, but I don't even know why I ended up buying Jolly Ranchers. So I bought some chocolate bars, but I didn't think that the amount of money that I could make versus. So, for instance, if the box was, I don't know, say it was like $25 for the box, I think the most that I could make was, like, maybe $50 or whatever. So I don't know, that just wasn't as appealing to me as buying a big bag of Jolly Ranchers. And I remember buying this huge bag of jolly Ranchers, and it was $8, right? I was just actually telling somebody this story a couple of days ago, how the way that my mind was wired, the way that I bought that bag and broke it down, I did it exactly how a drug dealer would have broke down a big, like a pound of marijuana or whatever, and I'd never, ever been exposed to that. I'd never seen that. I never heard that or anything like that. It's just instinctually, I got this big bag, and I remember coming home and going to the front room, and I remember opening the bag up and pouring all the Jolly Ranchers out.
Mark:
Then I went into the kitchen and got a bunch of Ziploc bags. And I would sit there and it's like hundreds of Jolly Ranchers. And I would count and put, like, 100 in each bag. And then I would say to myself, I had priced it out like, okay, I could sell these for $0.10 apiece or three for 25. So I would bag them out. And then what I did was, I would give some to you, I'd give you a couple of bags. Then I had other friends that didn't have the opportunity to go and pick up candy, and I would give it to them, and I would calculate in my head, like, what's the most they can make up the bag and what's the least they can make off the bag? And then I would say, all right, bring me back this. So let's say I knew that that bag could make back, I don't know, $15.
Mark:
I would say, bring me back ten or I don't remember what, bro?
Greg :
We were dealing. Yeah, we were dealing.
Mark:
Yeah. Wow.
Greg :
It's so wild, you guys. I hope what you're taking from this episode so far, my brother, he has a really clear memory of the past. I don't. And I lean on him to remind me of my past because it makes so much sense on how and why I operate the way that I do now. I hope you all are getting from this episode so far. The fact that it doesn't take money to make money, primarily it takes creativity.
Mark:
Creativity.
Greg :
It takes creativity. And you got to take action. You have to be perseverant and persistent. Just think about what he did. He wasn't exposed. We weren't exposed to drug dealers in our family.
Mark:
Not at all.
Greg :
No, we weren't. But what he did is he said, wait a minute. How can I make this work for us and also make this work for the potential client and make this work for the person that's selling on my behalf? So you leverage everything. You leverage everything. And it's so wild. It's so wild. $15 is what I needed. Okay.
Greg :
That's what it's going to cost you. Give me back ten. Take whatever else. So you allowed, I've just realized this. You allowed us to be entrepreneurs even though you were the head entrepreneur, right? We could sell for whatever we wanted. By the way, I got to tell you this. In 6th grade, when we were doing this, word was getting around that people were selling candy. And in one of my classes, you.
Mark:
Were probably in the 8th grade.
Greg :
No, I was in the 6th grade. I was in the 6th grade because it was Mr. Robinson.
Mark:
You had to been in the 8th grade. And let me tell you why.
Greg :
Okay?
Mark:
Because I was in the 10th grade.
Greg :
Okay, well, I just know this. I know that I had a situation in 6th grade where it was my science teacher, it was Mr. Robinson. And Mr. Robinson said there was someone in the class that is selling candy. And he says, I need you to stand up.
Mark:
Right?
Greg :
Like, I was so scared, but, you know, I. And I did not stand up because they were going to expel me or suspend me or whatever. I Was so scared of what would happen, not from what would happen at a school, what would happen when I got home and the ass whooping that I would not. The killing, the slaughteration that I would get from our parents. So anyways, I didn't stand up. And the whole class was silent. And I just was looking around like, just like, who is this gUy? And he just Said, you know who YOu are. And all I'm going to tell you is this, it's just a matter of time before you are in jail or.
Mark:
You'Re dead selling candy.
Greg :
No, he Said, he Said you're on the Path. You're on the path to death or being in jail for the rest of your life. And I'm just wondering today in that class, I wonder if Mr. Robinson has done better than me and anybody.
Mark:
PrObably not.
Greg :
PrObably not.
Mark:
PrObably not.
Greg :
And anybody in that class has done. Okay. So anyways, it's just kind of funny because we learned all of that from an early age and we were taking action on all These things. And I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur, even at that time, but I didn't realize that I was doing activities that we do today.
Mark:
This is how we've been able to.
Greg :
Earn an amazing living and a life for ourselves. But I still didn't think of myself as an entrepreneur. And so I remember now, I don't.
Mark:
Even think we knew that term. We didn't even know the term entrepreneur.
Greg :
Yeah, I saw, like, business, and I thought of, like, I want to tell you this. My fear and the reason why I went into, like, I'm not going to do business or I'm not going to do something where it's not guaranteed money is because of what I saw happen in our lives with our parents. And I always felt as though a lot of the problems that mom and Dad had, I don't know how comfortable you were talking about this, but I felt as though a lot of it was because of, we had ups in the then in the late 80s, early 90s, dad took a massive dip. And I always felt like a lot of the problems were because of not having stability. So in my mind, I always took it as though lack of stability creates problems. I know today that that wasn't the whole story, but the story I told myself was that. And so that's what led me into saying, whatever I do, I want to make sure that I have stability. And that's why I chose physical therapy.
Mark:
You know, so funny that I never thought that. And I think that you were probably more aware of the issues that they had versus me. Or maybe it was that I was just in my own world and I was kind of concerned about what was going on in my own world, that I didn't necessarily think that. I definitely didn't correlate any of their issues to entrepreneurship or business. So it's just interesting how you could have two kids in the same household, but they observe two different things, and you probably were right. To a degree. You were definitely right to a degree. But I just didn't see it like that at the time.
Mark:
I remember the turning moment for me was we were living in Norwood at the time. I probably was about six or seven years old. I think it was about seven years old. And there was this guy. I don't even remember the name of the guy, and he was a friend of our grandmothers. I probably didn't even realize that at the time, but I never forget the guy came to the house, because I remember standing outside, and my dad was talking with him, and he had one of those checker cars, so. A checker. They use them for taxis in London.
Mark:
So it was this big car, you.
Greg :
Know what I'm talking about?
Mark:
And I remember the guy came to the house, and I was just in awe looking at the guy's car, and in my mind, I thought it was a limousine. And I remember when the guy left, we were outside, and the guy got in his car and was driving off, and I said, what does he do to my dad? And then my dad said, he has his own business, and if you want to be rich, you got to have your own business. And I remember that I could even see the vision of that right now. Yeah. And the guy was driving off, and I think that's where the seed planted inside my head, that you got to have your own business if you want to be rich. Wow. And I wanted to be like that guy, and the guy was probably broke. Actually, I think the guy was broke for real.
Mark:
But as a kid, I just saw that this guy had this big old car. In my mind, it was a limousine, for whatever reason. And if I wanted to be rich and drive a car like that, I had to have my own business. Wow.
Greg :
Isn't it amazing how just these little snippets and moments.
Mark:
Absolutely.
Greg :
And how it could totally just change the trajectory of how you think and what your path is going to be? Well, I think one of the interesting things is that you've always thought that, and I didn't know that you've told me this before, that that was one of the moments that made you go in that direction. For me. I was the total opposite. Yes, I did sell candy for you. Yes, I did do those things. Yes, I was creative and found different ways to be able to make money, even though we didn't have it, because we were exposed to things but didn't have it handed to us. But I felt as though the narrative that I had was, stability is the key. Stability is the key.
Greg :
In it all. And I remember at this point you went to college, you were going to FaMU. I think you had come back for was after your first year. I believe it was your first year. And we went to this place called Beverly Hills Cafe in Cooper City. And I remember we had a massive argument that day because I thought that you and dad were reckless and stupid, and it was because you believed, and dad believed that the only way you were ever going to attain wealth was through having a business. And I felt like that was risky and that was reckless. And do you remember that argument at Beverly Hills Cafe?
Mark:
Yeah, I do remember little bits and pieces of it. I don't know how it started, but I remember I was talking about business or something like that. And you were like, no, I'm never going to have a business. You were very anti. Anti business. Yeah, absolutely. I do remember that. I do remember that.
Greg :
And I remember saying, oh, I'm going to show you. Watch what happens to you and watch what happens to me. And I knew at that point I was a senior. I was either a junior or senior in high school. And I knew that I was going to have, I just knew that I was going to have a profession to where I was going to have stable money and work my nine to five, and that was it. And I knew that I was going to be better than all of you by doing that. And by the way, I did that. I did that.
Greg :
I went to school and I said, I'm going to find the most stable job out there. And that's what made me decide on physical therapy. Like, I looked and I remember researching and things like top 20, most in demand jobs and da da da. And I chose that path.
Mark:
It's so funny because I did the opposite. I remember when I was starting college, they're saying, okay, what are you going to be? I remember at a young age when people asked me, what are you going to be when you grew up? I always said a millionaire. I was like, a millionaire. And I remember even one time I said that to our Uncle Lincoln and he was like, he said something basically, it was like wishful thinking. He just said something like that or whatever. And I ain't get what he said. People ask like, what are you going to be when you grow up? Like a millionaire? That was it, right? And I remember, so I went to school to become an engineer because I was like, because I was really always into cars and I was like, you know what? I would love to design cars. And my first semester to go to the engineering school, you had to take all these math classes, like calculus or whatever.
Mark:
So I remember I didn't feel like I was ready for calculus, so I took precalculus. And really, you were supposed to start with calculus. And that precalculus kicked my butt so bad. I think I failed. I got an F that first year. I got, like, all A's and an F. And so I had to retake that calculus precalculus over because they allowed you to retake a class. I remember the next semester, I retook it and I got a C.
Mark:
And then at that point in time, I was like, nah, I can't do this engineering thing. So I looked for the easiest profession that I Get because my whole thing was like, you know what? I'm going to start a business. So you know what? I'm going to become a teacher. I'm going to go to school. I'm going to become a teacher, a history teacher. Because I had this African American history teacher in my first year that made a big influence on me. And I was like, all right, I'm going to become a teacher. So that if I don't have my own business by the time I finish college, I could teach during the year and then I could take the summers off to build my business.
Greg :
I never knew this. Yeah, I never knew that was the reason why you chose history. I figure you were like, just whatever I thought it was, you just wanted to appease mom and Dad and just get a degree.
Mark:
Yeah. Growing up in our household, there was absolutely no way that you could have not gone to college, right? If you would have not gone to college, you would have to get out and go figure it out. You go live in the street, whatever, it didn't matter because the parents were very hardcore on us, right? So I knew I couldn't just leave school or anything like that. That wasn't even an option in my head. But I wanted to get whatever, the easiest thing that I possibly get. And I was interested in history because of that history teacher. His name was Dr. Hemingway, and I took his class during the summer and during the regular year.
Mark:
And I remember just saying, like, you know what? I would love to teach history until I could get my business going. But after I failed that math class, I just knew that, okay, I'm going to have to have my own business.
Greg :
Why don't you talk about some of the businesses that you started, and let's start from the business that you had in high school and then what you had in college and the good, the bad, the ugly of.
Mark:
Yeah. So, of course I sold candy during high school, and then I had regular job. My first job was at McDonald's. I worked there for a good little while. Then a buddy of mine hooked me up. I think I was making like three something an hour McDonald's. And a friend of Mine, he had worked at this fish market, and I ended up getting a job. He left to go get a job somewhere else.
Mark:
So I got a job there at the fish market, and I would clean up all the fish guts and everything. That was the worst. I worked there for a little bit. I worked at a telemarketing place.
Greg :
Is that called PRC?
Mark:
I don't even remember what it was called, but I remember we'd have to call out people for the Police Benevolent association, the PBA, and at that place, I learned how to disguise my voice to sound like a older country white guy. My name is Mark Tod, and I'm calling from the Police Benevolent Association. And we would sit there all day and just call people and try to get people to donate some money or whatever. I worked at Little Caesars for a little while. I love that job because I get to take on the beach. And then after that, I started working at TJ Max. That was the last job I had before I went away to college. Okay, yeah.
Greg :
And then now you're in college, and you had multiple jobs there.
Mark:
So I remember after my first year of college, so the first year of college, my dad wouldn't let me work. He was like, no, I'm going to pay all your bills. And he gave me a little money, but whatever he gave me per month was really like, no, I mean, it probably was for him. So I don't even want to sound ungrateful, but I think it was maybe like, he paid my. No. So I had a scholarship that paid for my school, so I paid for my school through my scholarship. And then I had rented this room out at a house down the street from the college, and it was like $200. Like, the first semester I stayed on campus, but then I wanted to get off campus, and then I had some sort of heart condition, something.
Mark:
We went to doctor. So I got an excuse to move off of campus, and I stayed down the street in this little room in house. And I remember that was like $200 a month. So he would pay that. I think he would send me $250 a month. $200 to pay for the room and then $50 to pay for my food. Just $50 just to pay for my food and whatever little expenses I had, and I couldn't work. So that was all the money that I had.
Mark:
So at the end of my first year, I went back home for the summer. And then I remember starting up this little business. What happened was the girl that I was dating at the time, she was from the Virgin Islands, right? And I remember getting these wholesale catalogs for these record companies because I was trying to get back into DJing. So I became a wholesaler for VP Records, which is like the major reggae record label VP and Penthouse. And so she would get these order. So she knew a bunch of DJs back home, and she went back home for the summer, and I came back home. So she would call me up and then say, okay, I would send her maybe the catalogs or whatever, and then she would get all the DJs on her island to order records through me, and I would mark it up and then get the records and sell it to her. So I was doing that.
Mark:
And then also, too, I started a little import export business where I had some uncles that was in Jamaica. One of them owned a rental car agency. And so he always needed parts. So he would call me, I would find the know, I would call different junkyards or wherever, find the parts, locate the parts for him, and then sell it to him.
Greg :
You guys, I hope as you're hearing this, all of the different ways that my brother has made money, there's been no way where he's had to invent anything yet. He basically just saw a need and saw a problem, said, wait a minute, let me see if I can almost be like a middleman here, right? And I just think so many people get it mixed up on how they can make money and how they can bring value. Ironically, it's so funny, because if we fast forward to when you got into the online world, the first thing you did was very similar to the entire path that you, at least from what you've told us so far in that you became an affiliate marketer. You guys, there are so many different ways for you to be able to make and earn money and create value for people. And you don't have to create everything from scraTch. You can just say, you know what? I see a need here. Whether it's the import export, it's the wholesaling business, it's, hey, somebody's else has already created something. Let me see if I can go and bring value to somebody else.
Greg :
There's just so many different ways that you have shown that you can do it, and I find that amazing. You did that and then you went into the DJ business, right?
Mark:
Yeah.
Greg :
And that was a huge thing for you back then.
Mark:
I was always into music, so me and my cousin started a DJ crew in Jamaica. We call it sound systems. And so we started our own little sound system. So we would DJ, and then there were a lack of venues or lack of places where we could play at. So what we would do is we would go around, drive around the city, Tallahassee, and find our own venues and then book our own events. Because we were in control then. We didn't have to wait on a club promoter to offer us $50 to come out. We could go and make our own money.
Mark:
So I did that for a while. At the colleges, at FAMU, every Friday, they had this thing called the set that was like, where everybody hung out or whatever. And on Fridays, they would have kind of like a flea market or something like that. You could rent a stand, you could rent a boot for like $10, bring your table out there. And then what I would do is I would get the cassette tapes from other DJs from Jamaica that was very popular that you couldn't. We didn't have MP3 s or whatever back then, so I would pay someone to ship them to me, and when I would go home to Miami, I would go to the store and buy them for like $10 or whatever it was. And then I would just duplicate them all week. I would just duplicate a bunch of CDs.
Mark:
I would go to Kinko's, I would make a cover for it, make a cover for the tapes. CDs wasn't even out at that time. This is about 95, 96. And then we would bring, like, a speaker and a little tape player and play the music on the set and then sell the CDs, and we make pretty. At the time, it was pretty good money. I remember, like, some weeks we might be out there four or 5 hours. We would make, like, I don't know, like 100 and 5200, $250 for a couple of hours worth of work. And then keep in mind, though, at that time, I was probably getting paid like $5 an hour from my.
Mark:
Because I had a regular job as well, right? So I would make in a couple of hours the same amount of money I would have made by working my full time job the entire week. And then we also used to use that as a way to promote us because we would be out there. So all the Caribbean people, they would come by our booth, you know what I'm saying? So we kind of got more popular. So when we did have parties, we used that to promote our parties as well.
Greg :
You guys, are you hearing this? Is the theme that I really just want to continue to hit is, are you hearing the creativity that is needed in order for you to make money? There are so many people, Mark, right now that are saying, I can't get started in my business or the business I want to do because I don't have the money. But the reality is that they just don't have creativity.
Mark:
They don't have the, you know, everyone always thinks that they need the money. And I always say to people, the money is the last thing that you need. And as a matter of fact, money is probably the worst thing that you could have when you're starting a business because it doesn't allow you to be creative. You rely on the money, and you think that the money is going to carry you through. Almost every single business. That I started with a lot of money never, ever became successful, and I would end up blowing the money because when you don't have any money, it forces you to figure out ways around it. And if you could figure it out without money, then when you do start to make money, then it becomes way easier to scale up. Right?
Greg :
Yeah, that right there is huge. Before we get into, I want to bring this to what happened when I decided to get into entrepreneurship. But before we do that, can we talk about some of the lows, some of the tough times when you started business? Or maybe you could even just give us, like, two to three of your toughest moments in business. And I think this is important for people to hear because people can take the snapshots of what we're talking about and be like, wow, those guys just kind of have it, and everything they touch is gold. But can you talk about some of the low points that you've had, maybe the two to three biggest low points you've had in business?
Mark:
Yes. So definitely one was while I was. A lot of people complain that when they were in college, it was such a struggle and whatnot. And to me, college was, I was working, so I always went to school full time, so I was going to school full time. I was doing the little thing that I told you on Fridays. So at FAMU, it was Fridays, and at FSU it was Wednesdays. We would be there every Friday and most Wednesdays at FSU and sell our stuff. Then I had a full time job, and then we would DJ, usually, like on a Friday, Friday or Saturday night, and sometimes during the week.
Mark:
So I had about four different jobs during college, and I don't even know how I did it all, but I maintained it all. And even throughout college, I maintained the 3.0 grade pointer. I actually graduated with honors. I graduated with a 3.2 in college. So I was just getting everything done, but I was just always hustling, hustling, hustling. So for me, college was great because I had money. But me and my cousin, we reinvested all our money in buying like big speaker boxes and speakers and records and all that stuff or whatever. And then what happened was in my last year of college, we got tired of not having places to be able to DJ at.
Mark:
So we ended up, me and a friend of mine ended up getting our own building and starting our own business. And it was all great while I was in college. And then I remember graduating and then my dad saying, okay, you graduated, now you got to take over your car payments. And I was like, yeah, okay, whatever, I don't have any monies. I'm not paying it. And the club business was. I remember I did this thing that I think a lot of people do and I called it like doing the math. And I sat there and I said to myself like, man, we got this club.
Mark:
If we charge $3 to get in and we get 1000 people every night, that's $3,000 times four nights a week, that's $12,000 a week times four weeks in a month, that's 48,000 a month times twelve months in a year. Oh, man, we're going to make a half million dollars a year. We're going to be rich. And anyone that's ever been a business realized that that's not how it works. And it got really rough because we thought we're going to make all this money. And we're constantly sinking money into this nightclub. It was really like a hole in the wall or whatever. And we just weren't making any money.
Mark:
We would rent out the place sometimes and make money like that. But when we were promoting, because we were so busy trying to run the club, we really didn't have the time and energy to actually promote the club or promote the different nights that we had. And that was definitely my first major rough patch. I remember my car got like literally in the same week. My cousin that I talked that put me onto the candy, he got killed. He moved to Kentucky. He got a job with IBM and he moved to Lexington, Kentucky. And I remember one night he went out to a nightclub during the know.
Mark:
One of his flaws was that he was the type that always wanted to be out. He wanted to be doing something. And he went to a club one night and it was like in the middle of the week, and I almost feel like he had called me that night, and maybe I didn't talk to him or whatever, and he just like, I'm going out. So he went out that night, and he went into the club, and as he was walking into the club, it was a little younger kid that was like 16 that tried to get in the club, and they wouldn't let him in the club. So he was mad. So he was walking, and when he walked by, my cousin's, like, walking in and he's walking out, and he brushed against my cousin, brushed against him. But if anybody knows him, knows that he's very non confrontational. HE's not going to try to fight anybody.
Mark:
He probably just said, my bad, my bad. And the kid turned around and shot him in the head and killed him. I never forget the week. So I was going through that, and that was the first time that anybody that close to me, because I was closer to him than I was to my real brothers, you and my other brother, everybody, they would call us twins because we were always around each other. And I remember going home by this time. Now I graduated college, and I'm running the club, man, it was just so rough because we just didn't have any money. And I remember I didn't even have money to fly home. I think my parents bought my plane ticket to come to the funeral.
Mark:
And then the day that I got back from the funeral, the bank came and repoed my car. The bank came and repoed my car. So then I lost my car. So we didn't have no car. And I remember things had gotten so rough, and we owed the landlord so much money because it took us a long time. I didn't negotiate the. Because I just didn't know any better. So we're paying for this club.
Mark:
I think I negotiated a lower rent while we were trying to fix the club up, getting ready for it to open, but we didn't have any money coming in. And I underestimated how long it was going to take us to get the club ready. So we were always owing the landlord. I remember her calling us every Monday morning, like, what do you guys have for me? You guys have any money? And it was just so rough, man, because we didn't have any money. So whatever little money we had, we had to just give it to her. And at that time, me and my partner were living together because I was living with my cousin. And then when he graduated, my partner moved in, and, man, we just did not have any money at all. His car broke down, so he didn't have a car.
Mark:
My car got repoed, and we needed some help at the club. And he knew a little young dude that got kicked out of his house, so we let the dude come and live with us. He slept on the floor in a little makeshift bed, and his job was like, yeah, you come and live with us, and we'll take care of you. You could eat from, but you had to clean the club. His name was Duke, and I remember, so Duke was, like, our cleaner, and, man, we just didn't have. I mean, there were so many nights that we went to the club. I remember we would make. And no exaggeration, we made, like, $5 or ten.
Mark:
Like, we'd make $10 because we might have had, like, three people pay to cover the club. Can you imagine, like, you're passing out flyers the entire week, hoping to get a big crowd, and you get, like, three people. Probably a couple more people came, but we let them in for free. Those are, like, our friends. So we would make $10 for the night. And I remember giving the DJ $5 because I had to give him something, right? He probably was charging $50 or whatever, but we give him, like, all we got left is $10, bro. And we would give him, like, $5 for gas, and then we would have $5 left. And that $5 is what we're supposed to pay our landlord, pay for our rent for where we.
Mark:
Our landlord for the building, pay our landlord for where we lived and buy food. And we would go to Windixie, and I remember it was Windixie on. I forget the name of the street, but I could see it in my head. I know exactly where it is in Tallahassee. And we would go in there, and we would have to steal know. And we had a little system. So my partner, Ozzy, he would always steal a big bag of M M's, and that was our dessert. And then we would go over to the frozen section, and we would still eat.
Mark:
Still, like, two hot pockets. So one, we would eat that night, and then one we could eat the next day. And then the money that we had, the little $5 that was left, that we'd usually buy maybe a loaf of bread at that time, was, like, $0.69 for a loaf of bread. And we'd probably steal a bunch of Koolaid packets, and we would just buy the things that were too big for us to steal. So we'd stuff the two hot pockets in our pocket. My partner would steal a big bag of Eminem. We'd buy a loaf of bread and maybe a pound of sugar. That was like, time.
Mark:
We would steal the packets of Koolaid and whatever other, and that's how we survived.
Greg :
All right, so thanks for listening to the first part of my in depth combo with my brother Mark. Part two is going to be coming out, and you are going to hear the lows that he went through that led him to building a multimillion dollar business. I can't wait for you guys to listen in.
Mark:
That was easy.
