00:00I'm smiling because I remember when Kenny worked with us, we had to tell Kenny, he said,
00:06Kenny, now, we do more than the music people. We got to do these community people. He was like,
00:13for what? Let's just move on. I like community. No, no, but you have always been very,
00:22very outgoing with community. Where does that come from with you, especially working with us,
00:29because we did the gamut of different people, yet you were perfect for us, because you had to go get
00:36them, greet them, meet them, seat them. Kind of like Diet Kenny just did.
00:45Just like Devon. You know, shout out to my mom. She's no longer with us, but I carry her with
00:51me
00:52every day. She used to work at MishCon. I don't know if y'all remember MishCon. It was before DTE
00:57had the gas and electric. It was MishCon. And one of her responsibilities, she went into the
01:04schools and did all of the education. So I feel like she instilled that into me at a young age.
01:09And I really didn't know, you know what I'm saying? She would just bring the books home and always talk
01:14about the kids that she spoke with that day at the different schools and whatnot. So I feel like she
01:20was kind of massaging that into me on the low. And it just really stuck with me.
01:25Yeah. What's the funnest thing about what you do in business?
01:29Uh, no day is like the day before. Like you really, at the end of the day, I always was
01:35like,
01:36that was not on my bingo card for the day. The good, the bad, or the ugly.
01:39Yeah. Um, you, uh, you, you are what is now known, which is the newer title as a serial
01:49business entrepreneur. Um, do you like that title? Um, when the first of the month arrives,
01:59if I have a lot of money in my account, yes. You know, when it's again, you know, when my
02:07wife
02:08comes asking for the mortgage and trust me, I know this past weekend, it was my daughter's
02:14birthday and mother's day fell on the same day and car insurance was due on Monday. So it's kind of
02:19like, and you're here and you're still standing. Amen. You work with charity. Why did you connect
02:26with their organization? So I had an idea to throw an event. Um, it was, uh, I wanted to do
02:34a
02:34Juneteenth event. Um, I felt like there was not enough attention around Juneteenth. Um,
02:40and I went to, uh, shout out to Patty Kukula. She works for the Detroit Public Safety Foundation
02:47and I used to, she owned a business called Del Mar. I, I opened it, um, five, six, seven,
02:53eight years ago. Wow. Um, I reached out to her. I said, Hey, I want to do this Juneteenth event.
02:57Who do you think, you know, I should deal with it? I was like, well, you know, there's this,
03:00there's this lady Charity Dean and I had known Charity. I think we had met, but we had never
03:05really connected. Okay. So I sent her an email and a text message like, Hey, I would love to sit
03:09down and do lunch with you. And she was like, no, let's go to happy hour. I'm like, fine with
03:17you.
03:18At the block. Shout out to the block. Um, another black owned gym. Um, and you know,
03:25we dreamed of this, this event, which turned into the Juneteenth Freedom Fest. Um, and we ran it for
03:32three years, the Black Business Alliance. Yep. And the first year, I think our goal was one or
03:37two thousand people. And I think the first year we have 5,000. Yeah. Wow. Second year, 8,000,
03:42third year, 10,000. And ultimately we stopped doing it because one of the missions of the Black
03:46Business Alliance is to solve problems. So that Juneteenth issue was now solved. Right.
03:51Because if you look around the city, there's 26 Juneteenth events. Um, and I like to say,
03:57we may have not done it first, but we for sure did it the best. Yeah. Yeah. I think the
04:01Juneteenth
04:02was awesome too, because it allowed us to, it was a fundraiser for the organization, but it also allowed
04:06many of our entrepreneurs to be out there. We had vendor tables and they got to experience and,
04:13you know, show their, their wares and things like that. So it was an opportunity for Black businesses
04:17to again, get opportunity and make money and all that. You work with Kenny Valentino. What was the
04:22Black Business Alliance able to offer him to aid him? Yeah. In what he does? A lot. Uh, so she
04:29spoke
04:29on Hardy Hospitality. So I was a member of that. Uh, or I am a member of the Hardy Hospitality
04:35Club,
04:35but it was also a... It's a program. Yeah, it's a program. Kenny joined, what year? You joined probably
04:41right when we started. We're only a five years old, but our hospitality program is named after Max Hardy.
04:47Who passed away in 2023. Um, he was a food entrepreneur, Black business owner. He was a
04:53member of the Alliance. And so that program takes, you know, food trucks or restaurants or cafes.
04:58And you, you go through sort of an eight week cohort and you're learning about growing and
05:02scaling your business. So Kenny's been a part of that. He's been a part of our Biz Whiz program,
05:07which is like one-on-one business assistance. Hey, I need marketing or I need legal. And, um,
05:12um, did you do Capital Connect? I did not do Capital Connect. I'm currently doing the, uh...
05:16You did Up Next? No. Up Next is our summer internship program. We take summer interns and
05:22place them with black businesses. Oh, nice. We're doing that this year though. We're doing that this year.
05:25That's gotta go with him. I mean, that's, that's a natural glove for him. Yeah.
05:30Kenny, have you ever thought about a food truck before we go? Um, soon to come. Okay.
05:36Soon to come. Come on, breaking news. Yeah. Yeah. He's gonna, he's gonna try it all. Yeah.
05:42Yeah, exactly. And he's gonna, he's gonna jump full forward. Yeah.
05:46I'll never forget that guy saying, what do you do? Yeah. He said, I run the show for them.
05:53Kenny, always the leader. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Angie knew him, but I didn't know him. I said,
05:57Angie, who is this man?
05:59Who is this man touching our stuff? Kept coming back every day too. And telling, and telling the most important
06:05person in the building, I run that show for them. Exactly. I loved it though. I loved it. I was
06:11like, oh,
06:11this guy's going to be awesome. Yeah. When you started running businesses, me and Angie used to
06:16try to follow him to all of his businesses. Angie said, he's did it. We went to a few of
06:21his businesses.
06:21He wasn't there, but we, we, we would, we would always keep up with him. Yeah. Um, Kenny, you, you've,
06:30uh,
06:30now been a radio broadcaster. You've had your own show. You program radio, you've run shows.
06:38You've been a mobile DJ. You've opened businesses. If there was one thing that you could tell people
06:48outside of what you initially told them, don't get in it. If the passion isn't real,
06:54what's the one business piece of advice? Is it marketing? Is it hiring? What would that be?
07:04Um, I would tell them a gem that I got from Charity's Facebook page and it came via her father.
07:14Oh wow. People, specifically in my case, your employees, they do what you inspect,
07:23not what you expect. Bingo. Say that one more time. People always do what you inspect,
07:34not what you expect. So as an entrepreneur, you always have to keep your eye on all facets of your
07:40business because especially when you run in a small business, we, you know, we don't have all of the
07:44same resources as the big dogs, right? You know, you look at, um, the outbacks and restaurants like
07:54that, you know, they have all these checks and balances in place because they have these big
07:57systems where I don't necessarily have all of those resources. So I'm, you know, I'm up last night
08:04after the game. I'm looking at the cameras and the reports for the day. I see, I got employees
08:09still on the clock. Like we've been closed for two hours. What y'all doing? Clock out. Y'all can
08:12sit
08:13here as long as y'all want. Just clock out. Why am I paying you to sit here and talk?
08:17Beautiful, man. Thank you. I appreciate, um, of course we're, we're just delighted.
08:23Yeah. I have to say, Kenny, I'm just so proud of you. I can't stop smiling.
08:26And you gotta come hang out with me.
08:28Yeah, I do.
08:29Going on this outfit on Tuesdays. We do live music tonight. We got the good man tonight.
08:33Wednesdays, I got Charles Hicks over there. We do ballroom hustles. So you can come
08:37do your thing. Wait, not the Charles Hicks you thinking about. So it's two Charles Hicks. There
08:44are two Charles Hicks that are significant to Metro Detroit. Yes. There's a Charles Hicks on
08:49the Southfield city council. I thought he was ballroom man and I was ballroom man. Oh, it's not
08:53the same guy. No. You know, he got votes because people thought it was the same guy. That's hilarious.
08:59It's true. Charles Hicks, the DJ and promoter has also told me that. That is true. That's hilarious.
09:07Yes. Shout out to Councilman Hicks. Charity, before we go. And thank you, Charity, for bringing
09:13Kenny. Of course, of course, of course. I'm coming back too. You better, Kenny.
09:17So I was going to bring y'all some food today, but we opened last night to do a watch
09:22party
09:22for the Pistons and everything. I sold out everything because I'm not usually open on
09:26Monday. So I'm going to come back another Tuesday with Charity, but just to bring y'all some food.
09:31I ain't going to talk. Come on. Anytime. No, no, no. You going to talk.
09:33There's always lots to talk about. Charity, before we go, because Kenny brought up an interesting
09:36point. Tell me about your dad. My father is my hero. I mean, this is the second week he got
09:42a shout out. I'm having lunch with him today. So I think he's going to be. Oh, beautiful. He's still
09:46living. That's great. Yeah. He, remember I was saying he was a teacher for like 30 years,
09:50Detroit public schools. And I get most of my leadership lessons from him. And one of those,
09:55that's my favorite, one of my favorite ones. He's still teaching. Yeah. People do what you inspect and not
10:00what you expect. You can't, you know, you cannot manage anything. You're not measuring. You got to be on it.
10:05You got to check it. You got to check it twice. So yeah, my, my daddy is, uh, he's my
10:11leadership
10:11inspiration for sure. Oscar Jones. Hey, dad. Beautiful. Yes. Beautiful. Attorney, Charity.
10:17Yes. And serial entrepreneur, Kenny Valentino. Mason, I think we need like a jingle for the
10:25Blackbeard segment. Like, you know how you did the last one. Cause she going to make me,
10:29cause what's going to happen is they're going to make me make a jingle. I need a jingle. Cause I'm
10:33bringing somebody cool next week and I need a whole like Mason, you know how you make them off the
10:37dome. He do them off the dome. We need a little jingle. We will do it. It's always a pleasure.
10:44And thank you very much. Thank you.
Comments