Hello everyone and welcome to the Within Range Coaching podcast. I'm Ranger, certified holistic
success coach. And in this podcast, I'm breaking down the journey that entrepreneurs face as
they start their organization, find solutions to the roadblocks in their way and create
an impact that lasts. So if you're an entrepreneur, nonprofit leader or purpose driven community
member that wants to learn how to grow your impact and develop yourself as the person
behind the mission, then this podcast is for you. I know you're just as eager to get started
as I am. So let's jump right in. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, everybody.
And welcome to today's episode of the Within Range Coaching podcast. And I have a treat
for you guys, literally and figuratively, I guess. Continuing on with my walk across America
journey, again, highlighting entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and amazing community members
that are making a difference in their areas and just kind of showcasing that talent can
come from anywhere and that anybody can do amazing things. And today's story, it's one
of those, again, making a connection with people that I never would have had I not been
walking across the country. So on one of my very last days of being in Little Rock in
Arkansas, I was trying to brave the elements, it was raining a little bit outside. And I
crossed the road and ended up next to a little shopping center. And there were two little
businesses that caught my eye. The first one is called Cheesecake on Point. I was like,
oh, a little cheesecake shop. How neat. And as I turned to start walking in, I saw that
there was another business right next door, a little pizza joint. And I said, no way,
I'm going to get some pizza, I'm going to get some cheesecake, I'm going to build up
those calories and try something good as I make my way to my hotel for the night. And
as I was walking up, one of the gentlemen in the pizza shop stopped me and said, wait
a second, are you the guy I saw on the news earlier? I was like, I sure hope so. I hope
there's nobody else walking across the country that was on the news recently. And I struck
up a conversation with them. And we are able to chat with them even more today. The pizza
joint that I was stopped by is called Certified Pies over in Little Rock, Arkansas. And today
we're joined by Craig Stewart, Samantha Stewart and Harlam Wilson, the owners of the pizza
joint. Guys, thank you so much for joining me today and taking time out of your schedule
to hang out. Hey, thanks for having us. Thanks for having us, Ranger. Of course. Yeah. Would
you guys mind? And right now it's just Craig and Samantha. It sounds like Harlam's doing
some inventory and he'll pop in from time to time. But could you guys share a little
bit about yourselves and what your intention for today's episode is? Yeah. So my name is
Samantha Stewart and next to me is my husband, Craig Stewart. We are obviously married and
we own Certified Pies. We're located in West Little Rock. Our address is 9807 West Markham.
We started our business in 2020 during the pandemic. We built that up. We just operated
on weekends at first and tried to build up a following and a clientele and perfect our
product. And then in September of 2023, we opened our brick and mortar. So we were able
to grow our business from just weekends and deliveries and pickups into a full service
restaurant, brick and mortar that we're now open seven days a week. So I think our intentions
is just to be able to share maybe a little bit more about our story and inspire the next
person that is interested in creating the business. I love that. And I feel like that's
really what I kind of want to hone in on for a second is I feel like a lot of people, I
just got off of another, I was guessing on a different podcast and that was something
that we talked about a little bit is the like excuses or reasons that people come up with
as to why they can't do certain things. What I think right there is so valuable is what
I've heard from other people is, oh, I want to start a restaurant or I want to start a
business, but I can't go into it full time. I can't do 40 hours a week. I can't do Monday
through Friday. And we guys just kind of said there was you're you're kind of bootstrapping
it. You're doing it just on weekends, just doing what you can. And I did a couple of
Google searches, like looking into you guys a little bit more. And it looks like you guys
started out of I don't know how to pronounce like Arkansas kitchen or art kitchen. Can
you talk a little bit about that that business incubator, which it's a communal kitchen for
small businesses to use? Right. Can you talk about your experience there?
Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, we basically started our well, our intentions really were to do
meal prep out of that space. We had no plans on doing pizza at first, believe it or not.
I really we really shifted our whole goal or business idea to pizza in the summer of
2020. On my birthday, actually, Harlem actually made me a pizza, a birthday pizza, basically,
I had been begging him for years to make me any of his versions of pizza, because he was
just making pizzas, sub sandwiches, pastas, just all kind of good food over the internet,
and I could never get any. And finally, one day he took pity on me. He said, You know
what, I'm gonna make you a pizza for your birthday. So believe it or not, we were
actually podcasting that day. So we did our podcast. He made the dough from scratch. Let
it sit and we went and recorded our podcast for a second, about an hour or two came back.
And I just watched him make it. And I tell everybody when I tell this story, like when
I bit into that pizza, it was like a light bulb went off in my head and something was
just telling me like, Hey, you need to switch to doing this pizza. And it was really great
pizza. It was like something that I had I hadn't tasted in Arkansas. Like I was in, I
would say we are avid pizza eaters, you know, and we try pizza from around the area. And
it's all good. It's not that it's not bad or good or anything. It was just this was
different. And I just looked at Sam and I looked at Harlem. I was like, y'all I don't
know, man. I was like, do y'all I think we should partner up and do something with this
pizza. And we all sat on it and talked about it over the weekend and came back together.
And literally that Monday, we sat on the couch and started naming pizzas and what we
wanted. And it just grew from there literally from the couch to now we're in our brick
and mortar three years later. I mean, AR kitchen was definitely the incubator for
everything that we had to get started. I will say it definitely gave us the the trial
and error phase as far as being able to see if your product is sustainable. Do people
want it? Is it their demand for it? And we just did it on the weekends and we stayed
consistent with it. And people kept showing up. I always tell them every time I get if
y'all keep coming, we'll keep going. And every weekend we showed up and more and more
people just started spreading the word and spreading the word. And it was just it was
nice to start in a space where it wasn't so much overhead. You don't have the
electricity, the water, everything's not on you per se to get started. But it
definitely helped us and to prepare for our full service restaurant for sure.
Yeah, Arkansas is a little different. We don't have cottage laws that allow people
to cook hot food like out of their homes. So when when we got with our kitchen, we
that was like a commercial kitchen space that we could get license in and rent out
versus us having again, the overhead, trying to find a space and also, you know,
knowing that if we had a more of a brick and mortar, especially during the
pandemic time where you couldn't dine in, that was just a lot of extra expense that
we didn't necessarily need, especially if we were like, I was still working full
time. Harlem was still working full time. He was still working. So like the
weekends was our chance to, you know, get that done. And so it, it did kind of give
us a little bit of a cushion where we could do work, support ourselves, and
then create the business on the weekend. And, you know, put our efforts and energy
into into that, you know, solely solely on the weekends. And so yeah, it was it
was great for us at the time. And we grew out of it. And, you know, it, but it did
allow us to, you know, perfect our product, you know, really, you know, make
sure like what we were offering was something worth paying for. allowed us to
build up that customer base because this was something new. So, you know,
everybody wants to try out when it's new, but like, do they come back? Like we
want to make sure that people, you know, come back for the product. And just
figuring out all the things with, you know, business ownership. So it was good
for us to use that as a stepping stone.
Yeah, and I think that's so important, like these entrepreneur support
organizations, these ESOs, like our kitchen, which I saw you guys did a
little bit of work with the venture center in Little Rock too recently, or
you're partnering with them, you're one of your wing days, I think
organizations like that, that kind of help you limit risk early on, like you
said, so you can take that initial step, figure out if it's a good product,
figure out if people want it, like you said, is this just new and exciting? Or
is this something that's sustainable, that's going to have that following in
that community behind it. And what I've noticed about you guys on your social
media, you have like what 16, 17,000 people or so that follow on socials. How
are you guys able to build that following like through COVID, like one
survive COVID, starting during the pandemic, it sounds like, and kind of
build that following to the point that you have so much interaction, you have
this following on social media that's from, I don't know, from the outside
looking in looks extremely supportive.
I've always been an advocate about I want people to see our story from the
beginning, like to the end. So I will always take videos, go live, Samantha
and Harlan get tired of me because I go live and I take videos off somebody
because I just, it's an experience not only for us, but for our customers as
well that do spend their hard earned money, they do come from out of state or
in state or wherever they come from to come here. And it's because of those
stories that I feel like when I go live and I'm transparent with our customers
about, hey, we went through, we're going through this today, not just talking
about what we're serving, but literally telling them, hey, I had a bad day, like
today was not a good day. We didn't make that bunch of a lot of money. Hey, we're
going to keep going, we're going to be, we're going to get better, we're going
to keep focusing on the positive versus just always just showing product. I try
to show ourselves and make people fall in love with not only our product, but
us as well as people and know that, hey, I'm just a guy that had a goal and a
dream just like anybody else. And I really want to try to see us from the
beginning to where we are now with where we're at and how far we've come. And
that's when my goal this whole time is to just be as open as possible about just
the whole entire situation, everything that we go through on a day to day
basis. So I think that really touches people in a different way versus them
just seeing a product, a pizza, because you can get a pizza from anywhere, you
know what I'm saying? You can get a, you can't. But what makes a difference is I
think people know that like we're married, that we know that they see our
son in here sometimes and they'll speak and say, hey, KJ, you know, because
they'll see him on video and it'll shock him because they're like, how do they
know my name? I'm telling you, son, they saw you on live, you know. So it's just
little stuff like that that you probably don't get to see from those big
franchises like McDonald's or, you know, those bigger companies that don't let
you in through the back door. And I just try to get people to inside peak on who
we are as people and how we operate.
Yeah, because I was going to say you're you're as his personalities or whoever
manages social media account, like your personality is in the page. Even just
scrolling through it, like you're posting like memes and jokes and you're like
playing with customers like in your customers play back. Like, you know,
play back like there's like, what is it? There's one was like, oh, like this
pizza needs to come with a nutrition label or something for like, I was like,
I don't think I've ever seen somebody make silly jokes like that with like
Domino's like, you know, like, nobody's going to see these other cut these big
chain corporations, which again, they're still good. They're still pizza, like
pizzas, pizzas, right. But like your guys is personality and what you guys be able
to cultivate online, I think is very unique. And I think it's a lesson that a
lot of people can learn from what you guys are doing kind of replicate that
almost.
Yeah, I think most you know, people that are even interested in business
ownership, like we said, they just see a business pop up like out of nowhere,
you know. And, you know, we've been real vocal as far as like, even when we were
looking for spaces outside of the space that we're in right now, like we would
go and we would talk about that process of going to a empty, you know, space and
then trying to figure out whether this was going to work or not for us. You know,
is the location good? Is it, you know, is it going to have enough parking? Is it,
you know, just all of those small minor details? You know, we was, you know,
communicating and we would even have people send us like places like, Hey, did
you see this this spot? Or Hey, did you see that, you know, this this business is
moving or closing? Um, I mean, because during that time, there was a lot of a
lot of restaurants were, you know, closing down. Um, and so, you know,
people felt empowered to be able to give us this information or connect us with,
you know, with with different different people. But, um, you know, sharing that
journey does build a bond with your with your customer and your your clientele.
And you want loyalty, like you want loyal followers. So we had people, but
there was a short period from when we stopped serving out of the kitchen until
we opened this space because we we had to really focus on the new space versus
operating. And, you know, we had people tell us like, I didn't eat no pizza
from, you know, when y'all stopped until y'all opened back up because I just
felt like I was cheating like or it just wasn't the same, you know. And I
mean, and then we've had people that say, well, I did, you know, I had I went
out and it just it just wasn't right. You know, so much like, you know, you
see these people leave, you know, reviews or, you know, like I said,
they'll tag us in random stuff. But that's, that's part of it. Like we enjoy
we enjoy that interaction with the customer just as much as we enjoy, you
know, seeing them come into the store and other people telling our story. So
because they have their version of how they found us. Like I remember when we
was pulling around to the back of the building, and, you know, where I could
only get it through DoorDash, or I could only get it, you know, through
delivery and only during these certain times, but I would tell everybody about
it. So, you know, everybody has their their version of either how they got
the how they found us. And you know, how they share our business to their
friends and family. And I think we enjoy we enjoy those stories just as much as
you know, we enjoy sharing how we actually did it.
And that's what I've noticed even with my journey of you know, my with my walk
is it's one thing to share, you know, all the good things are, oh, here's the
sights and the pretty things I see in this and that. But sharing the
struggles sharing the issues that come up, the worries, the concerns, I think
that's what kind of creates that what the difference between like a follower
and a supporter, or maybe it's vice versa, I don't know how to describe it
just yet. But there, when other people that aren't directly doing the thing
you're doing feel like they're a part of that community, it's a literal
game changer in how they interact with you how they tell people about you. And
I think that's that's the difference between having what a million followers
and like 50,000 supporters, right? Like they're invested in it in some way.
So yeah, I try to tell all my restaurant friends to get on social media, engage
with the people, let them know that you're out here, post all the photos
that you're scared to post. They don't have to be perfect. My mom wasn't
perfect or they still aren't perfect as me. But I just you just continue to
post and you continue to just reach your customer base, find out, you'll find the
people that really want to support you, you just got to be able to be willing to
put yourself out there. That's really it.
Yeah, be willing to like what imperfect action is, I don't know, better than
nothing. No action. You're right. Yeah, for sure.
Okay, people like human like, yes, people, people, social media makes you, you
know, it, I don't know, it has that kind of
unreal expectation. Sometimes people are faking or whatever. But people really do
want that human humanness out of what they see, you know, on social media. So
like, they know we're real people in the community. People tag us and they see our
vehicle because we have our logos on our on our vehicles. And I mean, we could be
dropping the kids off and they're like, I've seen certified five struts. Oh my
god, you know, and I'm like, I'm just, I'm going to get coffee, guys. Like, you
know, it's just like, I'm doing regular stuff. And people are excited to see that
driving down the same street that I'm driving down, like it's, it's, it's fun.
It's fun for people to, you know, interact with us interact with us that
way, just because they know that will respond.
Yeah. And I think that's a funny thing, too, is what I've noticed is, people are
very forgiving of individuals making mistakes or not being perfect. And then as
soon as it's like a business page or something like there's like that
expectation, like you're that unrealistic innovation to everything has to be
perfect. And if there's one thing that's wrong, they're going to get slammed,
they're going to do whatever. And what I think, basically, what I'm hearing from
you guys is highlight the people behind what's going on, like, hey, we're humans
too. We're people too. We're in the community. We're basically the same thing,
right? We just so happen to have really good pizza at this location. So I think
that's, again, injecting that personality and sharing the humanness behind the
journey is what connects people the most.
You know, I guess in the restaurant industry, especially like we see so many
people that come in that, you know, obviously, they don't look like us. And
that's perfectly fine. Like, it's, it's, it's a joy to see my dining room full of
a variety of people, families, kids, older, you know, couples, groups, we
have, we've had schools come and bring buses of kids. And, you know, each, each,
each day is different and filled with different people, different types of
people. But I think our goal to have that diamond is to is to bring that together.
Like everybody can come sit at a table and enjoy food. That is a commonality
that no matter what you look like, no matter what your background is, or what
you did, everybody likes good food. And everybody's going to come in and have a
good time or enjoy themselves at least while they're here.
Yeah, kind of the concept of like, don't build with success, don't build a wall,
build a longer table. Like, everybody's welcome. Everybody can come, everybody
can hang out. Like, if you like pizza and community, this is this is where you want
to go.
It's a commonality. Yeah.
Yeah.
Hey, listeners, if you're finding this episode thought provoking, and you're
wondering how to take what you've learned and your own experiences to help others,
I'd love to chat with you. Let's dive into a coaching call. And your first one
is on me. Just head over to the link in the show notes labeled coaching call
interest form, and we'll set up a time that works for both of us. I can't wait
to connect.
There's something I want to ask you guys. So you guys have mentioned before in
other interviews, and I think even the first time that we met that you guys are
the first black owned pizza joint in Arkansas. As far as I know. And can you
just explain I guess I what is the significance of that for you guys? Why is
that something to be proud of? Why is that something that you talk about? Like
what's what's the significance of that for you guys?
Um, I think for us, I mean, the statistics, you know, really show that
minorities don't really own businesses. And even me growing up, we weren't
really we were taught to just be workforces, right? Like just to, you know,
you want to get a job and, you know, work a nine to five so you can, you
know, do all these things. Um, like entrepreneurship wasn't really taught in
in our generation, at least for me. And it's something that we want to
showcase, like that you don't have to, you know, just play the status quo. If
you have an idea and you want to see it executed, you can do it like, you know,
and, and also just changing, changing in your business pivoting, we, you know,
again, like Craig said, originally, like our idea was like a meal prep business.
And then we started to really like dive into how much that was going to cost and
all the food and all the things. And we're like, man, that's gonna be a really
tough journey. But then Harlem came in, and that light bulb went off for all of
us, like, this is the direction we need to take this. And then look at us now.
So it just, you know, took that dedication. So I think we want to be that
visual representation is why it's really important for us. And, you know, we said
that, yes, we are the first, you know, black owned pizza company that we built.
There's other, there have been other black business owners that have gone
through a franchise or may have owned a business, you know, whether they sold
pizza or other things, there's more than one way to own a business or to be that
in the community. So our purpose in saying that we are the first is that we
built it like we built our brand, we built our products, we built our menu
items, and everything, you know, that we are we share, and in hopes that one day
we decide to maybe, you know, do be that franchisor where, you know, we have other
buildings or other people that want to replicate what we're doing.
Yeah. So a lot of it is really being like that, that mentor that I guess ideation
of like, hey, like it is possible. Here's the proof. We did it started from
literally the ground up. I think just I think that's the other good thing to
highlight too, is that this wasn't even the original idea that you were able to
take an idea that came from another idea and something you were already taking
action on and able to make that pivot into something that has all these
followers that has a brick and mortar that has this community in this, I guess,
I guess a mission that really stands for something more than just the pies in
front of you.
I'll tell you a story, Ranger. Back, I would say 2017. Was it 2017? Yes, a lady
messaged me and she was saw my food on Instagram. And she was like, do you
offer meal prep services? And I was like, No, I've never even thought about
cooking food for anybody. She was
set the stage. So he was a truck driver at the time, on the road all the time.
I was working, we had just had our son. And we were trying to eat better, cook
healthier, because like we are just, we were going nonstop. And so it was like,
we've got to do something. So, you know, we were crafting these healthier meals
so he could take on the road with him. And I would have something at the house.
And it was just like that was, we were just cooking for ourselves. It was
in, you know, he got to posting it on Instagram, and then this lady reached
out. So
he messaged me and she was willing to pay me $200. And I was like, I was
shocked at the time. I was like, let me talk to my wife and I'll let you know,
if this is something I want to do. And I was like, baby, she's willing to pay me
$200 to make her some food. Do you think I should do it? She's like, Yeah, I
mean, why not? Let's try it out and see. So I was like, do you mind if I
was like, do my literally my first customer. And from there, it just
sparked this fire in me to be like, I found something that I was passionate
about for one, but then I found something where I was like, I feel like
I'm finding myself, you know, a little bit outside of my regular norm of being
the truck driver. And I've always had this, I don't know, learning to be an
entrepreneur in my life. And I just never knew how to get there. Or the
path. And it's in with cooking, it gave me the opportunity to be able to
showcase my, my talent outside of what everybody I guess knew me for, which
was just a truck driver. And that passion really just fuel our spark into
all I would say we went for three years just doing meal prep out of our home
until we graduated to the AR kitchen. And our total intention was to go in a
our kitchen doing meal prep all the way up until my birthday when I tasted that
pizza. And it was just like I said, a light bulb went off and I'm very, very
uh, thankful that Harlem and Samantha really supported the my vision as far as
because I'm the one that really pushed the idea onto them to be like, Hey,
y'all, I think this might be where we want to go. Harlem wasn't even a part of
the company. He was just my friend. My brother, he's just my friend from the
outside making me a pizza. And he just from day one never, never was never
denied the idea of certified pies just always have been supportive of the
journey. And just having my back, I will say and each other's back during this
whole time, the transition to AR kitchen to now and without that support,
without their support, I definitely couldn't, we couldn't be where we are
today without that. But everything, I'm definitely thankful for them to
Yeah, no, I think that's I always think those are so cool. Like how that one
message changed so much very much like the butterfly effect, the ripple effect,
whatever you want to call it. And it led us to where we are now with the three of
you brick and mortar shop serving people, you know, having these different
experiences for folks. And the question I want to ask you is about that the
partnership that the three of you have, like there's a there's a couple
different dynamics here. And I tell me if I'm accurately there's the married
couple, the friends, the partner, the business partners, like I want to know
how that works. But then it also kind of sounds like there's kind of what the
the visionary, the operator and the talent is kind of how I'm seeing it
almost. Like, is that is that accurate that there's like, you all bring
something different to the table? Yeah, it's not just that's my wife, or that's
my husband, obviously, we're going to go into it together. It's like you all
bring different talents and different aspects to the business. Like, can you
talk a little bit about that? What I'm curious about is the dynamic that all
three of you have. Because I feel like something that a lot of entrepreneurs or
business owners, nonprofit, whatever, they think, oh, I'm going to start this
business with my husband, just because he's my husband, or I'm going to start
it with my best friend just because they're my best friend. And it sounds
like what you guys have is more so everybody brings something different to
the table. And just from what the conversation I've had so far with Craig
and Samantha, is it's like the visionary, the operator and the talent, and you all
bring something different. So what I was curious about is how that dynamic has
worked for you guys, how it's evolved over time, if you guys can just kind of
speak to everything that everybody brings to the table to make certified
pies a success.
I'll tell you this is better to have three heads working in one. Sam is real
good at numbers, Craig is real good at the physical thing, I'm real good at
doing the thing and it all mesh as well. Um, it's it's kind of that's a loaded
question. It's a good question.
I threw a lot at you guys right there. Yeah, it's hard to explain on my I
don't sell mine in because you know, before this I was actually like I worked
in the library for 15 years. And yeah, linked up with him. He was like, we
should be selling this, you know, and doing it. And I never I never thought to
put into a plan of action like that. It took them having the speed like foods to
be able to, okay, this can be a thing. If they answer the question, I'm sorry for
doing this.
Yeah, it sounds like all the ingredients were there. Right. I mean, ingredients
pun intended for sure. Right. Everybody had like, I don't know, but the basics
of a pizza like the the the dough was in one spot, the sauce was in another the
cheese was over here. But it wasn't until you started kind of putting them
together that they all really started to match like second to third place.
So it's like a mesh like separately, you don't really have that vision for what
it could be all together. But once you know, when when that woman reached out
to you, Craig about doing the meal prep and being a business, right. And then I'm
sure once Samantha saw that and was like, Oh, wait a second, let's look at the
numbers. I don't know, I'm just making things up, obviously. And then bringing
you in and saying, Hey, like, this is amazing. Like one, the birthday pizza
sounds fantastic. What a what a friend there. It's just so interesting how all
of you are working together in a way that nobody saw before or even like it
doesn't sound like any of you worked in food service before this, right? Like the
library, the truck, the I miss what Samantha did. I was in sales. I was in
business. My first job was at a pizza joint. Oh, okay. So you had some
experience in it, but I'm sure the library for 15 years was very different
than most of them. Working at a pizza restaurant, like as your first job is
working at a pizza restaurant, it was creating it, owning it. Yeah, sorry, I
guess being the 16 year old truck delivery driver is very different than
the man behind the stove or behind the oven or flipping the dough. So I guess
from your guy, like the on the talent side of what each everybody brings, like
can you guys speak to that a little bit more like from Craig and Samantha and you
Harlem? Like what what has that dynamic been like? I would say if I'm if I'm a
compliment these two, I would say for Harlem, for me, he is like the the glue
that keeps everything on. Don't let everybody get too high. Don't let
everybody get too low. He kind of balances me and Sam out as far as like
I'm this whole visionary guy. I want to do a stuffed pizza with the cheese. Uh,
and cut it in an octagon and serve it to people and they'll be like, well, let's
talk about that. Let's talk about that first.
And, you know, to me, I have to very much the detail. Like I need the detail
in order to make it make sense. Like, you know, having the idea of one thing,
but but like going from here to the end, like you're missing, like I'm missing
all of this in the middle. But Craig don't see it that way. He's like, no,
this is it's in my head and we're going to do it this way. So when we're at odds,
then Harlem comes in, he's like, all right, guys, I see. Here's where Craig is.
And here's here's where you are. I'm going to insert and he's as we are now.
He's in the middle. So he definitely, Harlem definitely balances out the
dynamics between my strong suit of operations and so that's my background
and and the how everything works.
And, you know, I always tell him, like, Harlem, you have to pick a side.
He will never pick a side. Very even keel.
So we have to work it out like like he's he's not going to let us
leave the room without us figuring it out. Like, it's just not going to happen.
Yeah. And we sometimes when they come to a vote, we all we put some stuff to a vote.
Sometimes I get outvoted. So.
Yeah, I think that's also important.
I mean, that's something that I've experienced even with my walk, right,
is I came up with the idea.
I was going to do this whole crazy thing and my fiance is like, have you thought
about this? Like, what about this or what about that?
So I think it's so important to have like, again, that the big words, right,
like visionary that says what things can be or has those ideas, but also the other
person that kind of say, hey, let's slow it down.
Let's think about how we can make this happen.
And it doesn't sound like it's a no, that's a terrible idea or no, that's dumb.
It's like, OK, that's great.
Put a pin in it. How do we get from right here where we are now to what you're
saying? What about this whole gap in between?
And then we can make that intentional decision.
Do we want to fill this gap or do we want to do something else with that information?
Oh, the other question I want to ask you guys, the name Certified Pies.
How did you even come up with like, what is that?
Yeah. What are you certifying?
Yeah. Oh, wow.
We were not. We were not.
We were originally thinking about this.
Yeah, we said we wanted some legit.
I said, this is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very
nice. We said we wanted some legit. I said, this is different pizza.
So this is the best pizza we got to have.
And the name has to be.
Legit has to be certified.
I was like certified pizza.
I was like, I think that's the name that certified pizza.
And we sat down, I told Harlem and he was like certified pies.
And I was like, you know what, it has a better ring to it.
It's certified pizzas, certified pies.
It's a you're guaranteed to get a great tasting pizza.
All right. That's basically behind our product.
We want to make sure that we stand behind everything that we serve from the wings,
the pizzas, the salads.
It's all going to be a quality, great experience for you to enjoy.
That's why we named the certified products.
I think a lot of them too are very into like their their music lovers.
So I and I mean, I'm not like many people, but when we were thinking about names
and everything, like we were like, you know, you think about a record, like, you
know, you have a product that comes out, you have a song that comes out.
Right. And then people want to come back.
So people want to like, re listen to it.
So that's what certifies like a song is they get a stamp of, you know, so many records
played, you know, so we got to base it off of that.
And then we took we took it from the certified pies.
And then we that's kind of where some of our names of our pizzas come from is all
referencing a great artist or a song of some sort, maybe some lyrics, like just
something that was unique to to be certified.
Yeah, and that's something I also noticed that you guys have very unique names for
your items on your on your menu.
Like, what can you explain a couple of those?
In my in my spare time, I'm a DJ.
So I'm a real big music lover, this man, a real big music lover, Sam Love Music.
So a lot of our items are based on either artists or songs that we know, such as the
Al Green, we eat Al Green because it's a smoother piece.
So, you know, it's Alfredo based spinach lettuce with spinach, tomato and chicken.
We got the 400 degrees, which is a classic rap album, which is a classic rap album.
And that is one of our both.
That's our Buffalo pieces.
So that's a Buffalo based chicken and ranch.
You know, we got the Smooth Operator, you know, which is a very classic good
Sade song. You haven't heard it.
Who hasn't heard it? But, you know, it's like our chicken bacon ranch.
It's just we want people to be able to look at the titles.
And if you know, you know, and get the same experience from the food, you know.
So when you buy into some smooth operator, we want you to have a smooth experience.
Like, this ain't something to really take you fast.
There's something to ease you into it and then you open up, you know.
I love that. And again, that's just all like personality of the owners,
of the people that are operating the business shining through.
And like it's an extension of yourselves rather than just this
come over time like this clean cut, like the meat lovers, the whole.
Like it adds that level of like you said, if you know, you know, if you don't.
It's still a good pizza. It's still great.
But I think that's so interesting.
A lot of this conversation sounds like injecting your personality
into the business that you have.
And that's what's really going to shine through and create that following in that,
I guess, long term sustainable success rather than just new exciting pizza place.
And then you forget about it a month later.
But I guess with all that being said, like what is there anything else
you would want listeners to know about certified pies or where you guys
are going in the future? Like, what does that look like in the next several years?
I just say for me, I just want people to understand that
when you see me, Harlem and Sam, we are just
regular people that decided to take a chance on.
Trying to live out a dream of being
self-employed and being entrepreneurs and actually just
trying to take advantage of life and all that it brings with you.
And just being able to live life to the fullest, man, you can say
we can say that we actually own the pizza company, that
we can take this memory with us forever, however long we are here on this earth.
And to be in the midst of it, to be making the pizzas
and to be owning the business and all that stuff is it's amazing.
It's an amazing feeling that I don't take for granted.
I know that they don't take it for granted and
just very passionate about making sure
if you do hear this podcast or you do listen, that you just go
go for what you know. Life is very short.
And I never want to spend a lot of time saying that
I didn't get to pursue my dreams of owning
a pizza company or whatever it is you choose to do in life.
I say go for it. Walk across America.
Open up the pizza place, start, take the first step.
Really just, you know, again, take the first step.
Everything is a metaphor, right?
Like just jump into it, see what happens, take risks.
And it sounds like even with your guys' story, take risks,
but find resources to mitigate as much of it as possible
so you can see what's actually going on and what it will take.
I'll say Samantha played a big part in
getting us to that next level.
Believe it or not, I mean, I'm sure you know, but she
she really has taken her talents from being a business salesperson.
And I've always told her she attracts people like she literally
attracts people with her.
The way that she can just talk to people, she can talk to a stranger out of nowhere
and become best friends with you within like two to three minutes.
And I always told her when she was selling stuff, like that's a skill, babe.
Like everybody can't just attract people
like the way that you attract strangers to you.
And she's really taken all of that and brought it all here.
And it's just crazy to see like literally the stuff that you learn
and the stuff that you learn too from working at the library.
And how that has all transitioned into where we are.
And now we're actually putting the stuff that we did from our jobs
and lives to use and making it work and to our advantage.
I'll say. Man, take a chance on yourself.
In my spirit, well, in my past life, I was very conservative.
I had a job. Everything was mapped out.
And it's cool. But after 15 years.
What else is there to do?
You can always be an employee is rare that you get to be an owner.
And if people take a chance on you, learn to take a chance on yourself.
That's what I like.
I've always been very conservative. I don't do too much.
I'm going to do too little.
I'll be right there in the middle.
So to so to be like, OK, I'm going to leave this spot and go over here
and do this like it was a big fake.
But I had people that believe it really took.
It took Craig and Sam to take a chance for me to even be like,
OK, this product can sail
and no matter what you do, whether you sell pizza or you.
You know, Nick, whatever.
Take a chance on yourself and take a chance with people.
And it'll work out.
It's really been the happiest I've been in a long, long time.
That's all I.
I mean, I think.
You know, I don't know, that's hard to follow up with them to.
I know I'm a corporate, so I was very much that.
Like I said, you know, talk to you, get a job, do your nine to five,
you know, work your way up the ladder to, you know, work for
make somebody else money.
And, you know, although my brain was very, very operational.
So even just, you know, his vision, his products,
you know, Craig's vision, Harlem's product, you know, I still was was very leery,
you know, very I was not the risk taker.
I didn't I didn't know that I wanted to take the risk.
But doing that has really like it's really opened up,
you know, opened up my eyes and also knowing, you know, I guess,
seeing that, you know, you do learn, you know, these skills,
you know, working for a job is not a bad thing.
I don't want anybody to get off of this, you know, lesson of that you
absolutely shouldn't, shouldn't, you know, work for somebody.
But every one of us took skills that we learned on a job and then turned it
into this. So, you know, and sometimes sometimes that pivot happens
whether you want it to or not.
And you just have to believe in yourself and believe that you do have the skills
to, you know, to to do the thing, like to, you know, invest in yourself
and, you know, that something may, you know, something may come out of it.
I think that's again, one of the joys for us is that we built our business
and then we built it off of collaboration, which is something
that you don't see in the business world because everybody thinks you have to
have competition or you have to compete with somebody else in order to have
a business. And we knew that, you know, having and building this business
as a Black owned company and just in Arkansas was was going to set that bar
like really high already. But we wanted to bring other others along with us
in our journey. So for us, we also partnered with other small minority
businesses to fill in some gaps. And we've said we in return seen their
businesses grow as well, which is something I think that we're all proud
of, not just for our business, but for others and other, you know, businesses
to be able to see that, you know, you can collaborate and bring something
good and everybody wins. So that's that's what I think all that's fantastic.
There's so many different little lessons and nuggets, I think listeners can take
away from there. So thank you guys for sharing all of that. If people want to
follow you on your journey and learn more about you whenever you guys decide
to go live or Craig forces you guys to be online.
Keep up with you.
Certified pie is literally on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, wherever
you can find is we're literally on our social media platform. Just check in
what is there.
Perfect.
And get you a good piece.
Yes.
We did.
Yeah, pizza, wings, salad, whatever you guys want.
Yeah, they may be. That's for sure.
But awesome.
And while we have you, Ranger, what was your review?
Because you have one of our pizzas.
I thought it was one of the best pizzas I've had in a while.
I mean, I feel like I eat a lot of like the chain stuff, which again, pizzas,
pizza. But I don't know, you could just tell that it was I think you guys like
you make everything fresh, right?
Like everything.
Yeah, you can tell.
It was it was solid.
It was solid.
It wasn't like, I know, like you feel like pizza is like usually gross or greasy
or something. I didn't feel gross eating it also.
But maybe I just eat really bad pizza.
I don't know.
It was it was solid.
It was I don't know.
I also needed that good little little bump.
So thank you guys.
That was it was cool for us.
It was cool.
I mean, it was amazing.
I think that you came into the park and like that day.
Yeah, our staff was super excited to meet you.
Yeah, I thought it was awesome.
Meet you. Yeah, I think that was a highlight.
So we appreciate you for taking this journey and walking and walking down the street
off of Markham.
All right.
Let me get some pizza.
If I walk a thousand miles, get your guys's pizza.
Nobody has. If you're in Little Rock, you have no excuse not to try it.
Awesome. Thank you, guys.
I appreciate it. All of your info will be down in the show notes.
But thank you again for hanging out with me for a little bit.
Thank you, Dave.
And as always, thank you to the listeners for spending some time with us today and hearing
the story of Craig, Samantha and Harlem and Certified Pies.
I think that my biggest takeaways from today's episode are to take the risk you've been
wanting to take, but find ways to mitigate it as much as possible.
Just like they were able to work in a kitchen to really hone in on their idea and figure
out whether or not this product that they were working so hard to create was actually
worth it or not.
I think that we can take that and apply that to other areas or risks that we want to take
in our life to make it as safe as we possibly can.
The other main thing is to take the experiences that you have from your past, whether it's
an old job, an old volunteer opportunity or just a passion or hobby that you have.
And be willing to let that blossom into something different, just like they're able to take
their experiences working in corporate America, working as a truck driver or even working
in the library.
Every single experience that you have is useful in some other facet of your life.
And the third is to build relationships with folks to go into business with them.
That actually makes sense.
As we kind of talked about, there was the visionary, the operator and the talent.
And you can see how each one of these players with Craig, Samantha and Harlem were able
to really interact and play off of each other to create something amazing.
They didn't just go into business together because they're best friends or because they're
married. I'm sure that helps, of course, but it's because they all brought something
different to the table to make it a success.
What were your big takeaways from today?
Let me know in the comments of the post that I make on social media.
Send me an email or on Spotify.
Leave a comment and let me know what you thought of today's episode.
Was there something that you'll be taking away into your business, something that you'll
be taking away into your life?
I want to know. Let me know.
Share it on social media.
Tag me in it.
Let me know your thoughts.
I would really love to hear the feedback that you guys have about the show so that I can
help facilitate these conversations in a way that is better for everyone.
Thank you again to today's episode sponsor.
All their information will be in the show notes below right above where we have all
the information for Certified Pies.
And as always, please be sure to share the show.
If you share it on social media and you tag us in it within range coaching, I'll be sure
to share it on my socials as well.
I'd love to see that.
And I would be eternally grateful so that we can help more people help more people.
Just as the way that we end every episode, I hope you have fun.
Stay safe and be yourself.
I'll see you guys next week.