Ever met someone who excelled despite uncertainty? Join us as we recount an extraordinary encounter at a Dallas Red Lobster, where a server’s remarkable attitude during the restaurant's unexpected bankruptcy led to viral fame and a job offer. This story highlights the importance of always giving your best.
We also compare the success journeys of children’s entertainers Miss Rachel and Blippi. Miss Rachel, a former teacher, started her YouTube channel to help her son and maintains an educational approach. Blippi, meanwhile, grew his brand into a multi-billion-dollar empire, including a Disney acquisition. We explore why Miss Rachel hasn’t matched Blippi’s commercial success and her future potential.
Finally, we share eight crucial business lessons we've learned. Tune in for insights and inspiration!
Ever met someone who excelled despite uncertainty? Join us as we recount an extraordinary encounter at a Dallas Red Lobster, where a server’s remarkable attitude during the restaurant's unexpected bankruptcy led to viral fame and a job offer. This story highlights the importance of always giving your best.
We also compare the success journeys of children’s entertainers Miss Rachel and Blippi. Miss Rachel, a former teacher, started her YouTube channel to help her son and maintains an educational approach. Blippi, meanwhile, grew his brand into a multi-billion-dollar empire, including a Disney acquisition. We explore why Miss Rachel hasn’t matched Blippi’s commercial success and her future potential.
Finally, we share eight crucial business lessons we've learned. Tune in for insights and inspiration!
Podcast Sponsor: If you are interested in a spot shoot us an email at info@thehartrimony.com
Speaker 1:
Red Lobster has filed bankruptcy and started closing down locations Like they just one day one day, they announced it the next day. They're like we closing locations. So, our crew here in Dallas decided to go out to Red Lobster to make sure our kids at least has experienced some Cheddar Bay biscuits to say that they've had it. I wasn't in town to celebrate there, but Anthony said while there they met someone really interesting.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah. So this is about just finding good people in unlikely places. So imagine this. Let me give you guys a scenario. So imagine you go to your job and your boss is like, yeah, we're going to close down in a couple weeks, right, and you still show up to work because you still want to get paid. Did this location say they were closing soon? We didn't.
Speaker 1:
They didn't, we didn't, they didn't know.
Speaker 2:
They didn't have any idea.
Speaker 1:
They didn't know.
Speaker 2:
We asked the people that was there, like when you guys are going to close, and I was like we don't, we don't know yet. Oh, okay, so imagine actually, you know what. Imagine you don't want to be here, you're not happy to be here, you know you're losing your job, you don't know what's next. There's so much uncertainty in your life where you need this job to maintain, and this server that we had had the complete opposite of that. He was friendly, he was cheerful, he was cracking jokes, he was exciting, he was accommodating, he was everything that you would have wanted in a server.
Speaker 2:
And we were sitting there and y'all had four kids with y'all, we had four kids there was. How many adults? Five adults, five adults.
Speaker 2:
Four kids we had a full table, kids was making noise, whatever, and he was just coming over. He was also serving multiple tables at a time. It wasn't just us. Our table could have been two, three tables. He was serving these other tables. He came back, checked on us, let us know. Hey, just let you guys know we're low on staff for obvious reasons that I can't talk about. Obviously they're closing and he's like we're just. You know, we're trying to make it work.
Speaker 2:
Just please be patient, I'll do what I can. Oh was, he was like yeah, I'm just, you know. So he came aboard the salad. I was like, hey guys, I'm going to give you guys this free salad because your food is going to take some time. I'm like, oh, we're getting free salads. He's like it's on the house. He's like we won't be here too much longer.
Speaker 2:
But it's on the house, right, he's cracking jokes and we were just like, damn this guy out, I could, right, and I would. So at the end of the conversation we were all checking out, we gave him an amazing tip. He was super flexible with everything and at the end of the night I'm like yo, you know what. I don't know if I got a role for you or not, but check us out on social media. Here's my phone number. Shoot me a text and maybe we can figure something out. Maybe there's a role for you in our company, right? And I have no idea. He's like what are you doing? I own a cleaning business. I own some um. I also own an education business where we help people, you know, start their own cleaning businesses. Check out cleaningbusinessuniversity commercial break.
Speaker 2:
But I was like I don't know what you could do, but you have a great personality, we might be able to figure something out. And now I say all that to say I don't know where that's going to go. Right, he might never hit me up or he might, and then I still might not be able to know where he's going to go, but I'm like he was a great person, great personality when you're thinking about business and business is all around us sometimes you might be looking for people online. It might make sense to get offline and find good people online I mean in person. So that was the moral of that. So you might find good people in unlikely places. So always show up and do your best, because you never know who's going to be watching you.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, in any capacity.
Speaker 1:
I agree, so now.
Speaker 2:
I tweeted about this guy. The tweet went fake viral. I posted it on our social viral page on tweets. Yeah, my teeth be going off. Um, I posted on our social media page too, like yo, that's great idea. Blah, blah, blah. And now we're talking about it on a podcast, right? You never know who's gonna be watching you, so maybe I'll run into andrew. I might go run on him like yo, you hit me up. Yeah, what's good up yet what's good Like you trying to work or not?
Speaker 1:
Like we can figure this out.
Speaker 2:
But you never know who's watching you. You never know what opportunities may be out there for you. So always show up in your best capacity when you can. Yes, that's the moral of that story.
Speaker 1:
All right, and our last lesson learned in our weeks of existing, I guess last couple weeks, last couple weeks, number eight is businesses everywhere. So we have a child and if you have a child, you probably know who miss Rachel is. So we just there is a whole thing. We constantly have conversations about miss Rachel and there's also somebody named Blippi and Mika and the reason why we're talking about this? Because we recently went to a Blippi and Mika show locally and so we always like why Miss Rachel don't got, why Miss Rachel don't got? And even before then, during Christmas, I saw Amazon sent the book Blippi has like merchandise, so tons of merch, like actual toys and books and all these things. Miss Rachel does not have this. So we were like the comparison of the two, like trying to figure that out.
Speaker 1:
And then we went down a rabbit hole with him, went down a rabbit hole with him, went down a rabbit hole with him and for her miss rachel is a was a school teacher that started doing videos online because she couldn't find. I think her, her son had like a speech issue. She couldn't find those type of videos, so she started doing it on her own. Husband is a musician musician on broadway, composer, something like that he's done. So he does the music, she does the videos. If you look at her older videos, it's very like, very baseline in her apartment just getting it done. So that's who she is and that's how she has started. To my knowledge, she still owns this. Um, miss Rachel I think it's called songs for littittles or whatever. She still owns this YouTube or whatever.
Speaker 1:
Now, blippi, on this other side, he also has somebody named Mika and he goes to different locations, which is a bigger difference from Miss Rachel. Once again, she was a teacher, so their lessons are a little different, and so we're like why doesn't Miss Rachel have A, b and C? Because any parent that you speak to would say Miss Rachel is a third parent or someone that they love in the household. Maybe your kid watches Blippi, maybe not, but everyone knows Miss Rachel, so she could be bigger, if you will, doing tours of shows and having merchandise if you will, but she doesn't. She's finally coming out with her first book this year I think it's September, finally and so we were talking about the differences of the two of them. Like she still owns it, he has sold it. It is actually her doing it, all those other things. So what else did we learn about the differences?
Speaker 2:
Number one he started his YouTube. It was just a YouTube page that he started and just him dressing up which is blippy Him dressing up. This is 2000.
Speaker 1:
And I don't know how long she's been around a while too.
Speaker 2:
You can look it up or something, but we found out that he sold the rights to his show for ten million dollars. Was it ten or a hundred? Was it a hundred? It was ten, it wasn't a hundred. Ten, was it 10 or 100? Was?
Speaker 1:
it 100? It was 10. It wasn't 100. I don't think it was 100.
Speaker 2:
$10 million. It was a YouTube channel that he just started.
Speaker 1:
She started in 2019.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so in a couple years she'll be where he is, and if not further. So you got somebody who's done the thing that you want to do, and the problem is is that a lot of times we like what was it? I forgot what the? Was it Disney or Sony or something, Some studio or something like that for $10 million and he sold the rights, he sold you know whatever, and he's just living his life. We were on his Instagram page and he was just in his car doing a video or something like that. But could you imagine starting something on YouTube that you didn't even know was going to take off the way it did and being able to sell it for, I think, 10 years later for $10 million or something like that?
Speaker 1:
I told million dollars or something like that. I told you it was something big. He was acquired for 120 million by moonbug entertainment, which then was acquired from by disney.
Speaker 2:
So disney bought it from he, so it was acquired for 120 million. Wow, it wasn't 10, 120 120 million dollars. I don't know if he got 120 million.
Speaker 1:
We got to look that up it says steven john John sold Blippi and Adele valued Okay, maybe it's not that Valued at $120 million in December 2023.
Speaker 2:
And then they sold it to Disney for $3 billion. $3 billion with a B. So you're like well, how does this even apply to business?
Speaker 1:
I don't know, but business is-. Well, this is a business.
Speaker 2:
This is a full business. Business is everywhere and we're having this conversation Like how did they even start? Right? This is one of the things we do in our household. Like you guys may not Like we would be sitting there watching something.
Speaker 1:
I'm like damn, what is he Like it was just a random who is he, Because you're always like who the hell is he? Why are we going to his show.
Speaker 2:
It was like $70 a person.
Speaker 1:
I don't remember $60 a person.
Speaker 2:
I'm like this show is expensive and I know who he is, because we watched the show.
Speaker 1:
Oh no, it was like 40 something, but after the fees On Ticketmaster.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we were watching the show and I'm like why are we going there in person? There's so many people that that's what kind of Made me trigger.
Speaker 1:
To go back and the merchandise. And the glasses and the kids that show because he's not as big for us in our household as it was for the people at this show. They clearly knew songs that we didn't know, and we were like we're so far behind I mean two years in, but we came.
Speaker 2:
I came back and I was just so baffled by how do all these people know who this guy is, how big is he? Because we watched a little 10 15 minute video and we came back and went down a rabbit hole and we were like it was $120 million. And then we saw that Disney bought it from them for $3 billion.
Speaker 1:
And I was like, could you imagine? And then it became why doesn't Ms Rachel have this? That's why it was that. And then we went down a rabbit hole of Ms Rachel.
Speaker 2:
Was Ms Rachel going to be able to sell her. So, if you think about it like this, he started 10 years before Ms Rachel. He was able to sell his for $120 million. Ms Rachel is where she is today, and she has the information that he had, plus the information that she has today, but she doesn't operate that way still, though, but it's not yet, because she's.
Speaker 1:
You think she hasn't sold yet, because think about it.
Speaker 2:
When he started he was where she is now, so he's still. She's still trying to navigate where he was eight years ago. Her navigate where he was eight years ago. Her first video is trying to figure this out. Now she has the understanding that he was able to sell his for 120 million. If you're able to take the information that somebody already has, they started in 2014 2014. She started in 2020 she started 2019. Yeah 2019, so she's five years behind him, but she also has information that he didn't have when he started.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so he started in 2014. He joined the moonbud net entertainment in 2020, so six years after starting, and then he sold to them three years after. So within eight years, he was able to sell his company at 120 million dollars. So, like our um, our business coach, she's at five years she was.
Speaker 2:
She had this lady on the podcast and it was someone, madam cj walker right, madam cj walker was the first black millionaire, like our business coach Donnie. She had this lady on the podcast and it was someone Madam CJ Walker. Right, madam CJ Walker was the first black millionaire first black woman millionaire, first black millionaire in general.
Speaker 2:
I don't remember which one it is, but she was saying. The lady on the episode was just saying, hey, I mimicked her model and I knew that if she was able to do a million dollars back then I should be able to do $ million dollars back. Then I should be able to do 100 million dollars in my business today. And donnie was just saying that I can't fathom doing a hundred million dollars. She's like no, you need to fathom doing 500 million. She's like if I'm able to do 100 million and she was able to do a million, you should be able to do 500 million. And now it just makes you think differently.
Speaker 1:
So if miss rachel saw that, he's so for you, miss rachel, he sold his company for 120 million.
Speaker 2:
I have the information that D he didn't have. I have the tools that he didn't have in technology. I have the AI, I have the graphics, I have the team, I have the marketing the audience. I have the branding. I have the audience that he didn't have. I should be able to sell my company for 500 million and get acquired for maybe 8 billion, 10 billion.
Speaker 2:
So sometimes it just takes us having that, having that head start and just seeing what somebody else was doing, so that we can know what we need to do for ourselves. Agreed, so we went off on a tangent on that. No, that was the whole thing.
Speaker 1:
Well, you, I'm like 10 million, I'm like no, I think it was bigger than that. 10 million is a lot, don't?
Speaker 2:
get me wrong, but everywhere. But you gotta be able to look at what other people are doing and be able to say, if they could do that, I should be able to do this.
Speaker 1:
And I know Miss Rachel can. Okay, if you don't, if you, okay, if you're listening, miss Rachel, I know that you can and I want to see merch People will wear the jumper and the pink headband suit as well, cause that's how she dresses. And, yes, we know that you can be you yourself touring in every city.
Speaker 2:
So another concept that could be applicable to this. Think about Tyler Perry.
Speaker 1:
When he started and he was doing the tours, he was doing everything himself.
Speaker 2:
So now people come into the game and they see what Tyler Perry is doing, like Kevin Hart is like I'm seeing what Tyler Perry has done with his production studio, now I'm building it. So Tyler Perry was able to hit a billion. Kevin Hart is like y'all got the same infrastructure and I've learned from him, so I should be able to do more than that and faster so just like our students, just like our students.
Speaker 2:
So we got students who were doing a hundred thousand in their first year we only did 80. And then we got students hitting a million dollars in half the time that we did. It's like if we had the, if we had the coaching, the infrastructure, the blueprint that you guys had and I was like you could have got, you should be able to do that in half the time that we did. It's all about taking that information and taking it to that next level. So business is everywhere. Consume what you have and use what the reason. Use the resources that people have given you yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:
So thank you for listening to our eight lessons. We didn't think of two more. It's eight, yeah, eight business lessons we learned over the past few weeks. Make sure you are commenting with us and let us know what your takeaway.
