(chains creaking)
I was the black sheep of the family growing up,
and my mother was always concerned.
We're going to channel that hustle
and we're going to make sure
that you do something positive with it.
I'm a stock analyst.
I was interviewing a CEO of a publicly traded company.
Three days later, I'm hopping around
on the rooftop in Union Market
pretending to be a DJ fitness instructor rapper. (laughs)
(upbeat music)
I'm actually a native of Washington,
grew up right outside of DC.
And I run Boombox
as kind of my passion project slash retirement plan.
There are a million people in the world
with business plans, sitting on a hard drive.
One thing I've learned in corporate America
is how to put together a project plan.
Making sure that everyone understands their role
and exactly what they're responsible for.
The basics,
what needs to happen from an equipment perspective,
what needs to change.
What up, let's go y'all,
let's work let's do this,
Jordan what you waiting on?
Let's go let's go let's go let's go!
It really took us about two,
two and a half years to narrow down the concept,
write the business plan
go back and forth, debate the business plan.
Before we opened, we had to do a lot of like, recon work.
And, one of the things I was really good at
is going into a gym,
almost like a secret shopper.
"Okay how many members do you have?
Like if I, if I joined here, like, will it be crowded?"
They given me all types of insights.
What you don't realize
is all the work that goes into putting on a class,
training the coaches to the operations of cleaning up.
Generating interest and or revenue.
And for us, it's getting bodies in the door.
There's so many elements to it
when you've got a consumer-facing company.
But when it comes to business and operations,
okay we have to do this, this, this, this, and this.
We actually started looking for locations for Boombox
while we were writing the business plan.
(soft music)
This was, you know my stomping grounds for,
you know years in the late nineties.
Obviously none of these apartment buildings were here.
I remember I used to get my hair cut over here.
Since then, we've got this waterfront
and you've got obviously the baseball stadium,
you got the soccer stadium on the other side.
As a business owner,
you want to be around other, other businesses like that.
We got a broker.
I started looking for locations.
I came back and really decided it's time to go to work.`
For first time entrepreneurs, going that franchise route.
It's huge.
Like it gives you a roadmap.
It gives you a formula.
I'm looking at the numbers and I'm like, well wait,
you know, why would I pay
this company 50,000, 70,000 bucks for a franchise fee
and then give them a residual?
I'd rather take that 50 grand
and build our own brand, you know.
Entrepreneurship was something that completely scared me.
It's something I never wanted or expected for myself.
I didn't even want to sell candy in high school.
I have to have general structure.
I have to know what I'm going for.
Like I'm super tactical, and I-
Like she's more of the rational,
you know like logical and I'm kinda-
He operates in big ideas.
I mean, I've made a project plan for everything.
I made a script for everything.
That ain't me
It ain't and it drives me absolutely bananas.
You'll hear stories and there'll be different,
and you pick the one that's more entertaining,
you know what I'm saying?
So, Reggie and I met in a very millennial way.
We met on Tinder.
But how do we get to talking every everyday though?
Because I think right after that point-
Because I'm charming.
Couldn't, couldn't get enough of me.
And I'm not really sure if that's what happened.
I think that was it.
It wasn't flirty, we really just kind of had this banter
that was really cool back and forth,
challenging each other.
We were cracking jokes all the time.
We just kind of settled into this platonic relationship.
I tell them, I said if we ain't gotten together-
Then we wouldn't be friends right now
We wouldn't be able to do this right now.
Everybody who hates me afterwards, like.
Reggie actually introduced me to boxing.
I had no interest in it.
Didn't want to do it.
I'd say my first memories of boxing
would be Sugar Ray Leonard.
And that was cool, right.
But like, it was really when Mike Tyson
kinda hit the scene,
like he's my Muhammad Ali, you know?
All right, so can we go over quickly the coaches?
I think you talked to all the people.
Do we look like we have viable candidates-
I think so. versus not.
Yeah.
One thing that's really important as well
is our digital marketing.
How are we engaging online?
How are we being seen?
Are we being seen, right?
It feels good, like to have people
identify us as a brand and say, "Hey I want to do this."
Right, and then want to come and be part of it, yeah.
How to kind of navigate somebody through a sale.
So somebody comes in the first time,
like what do you say to them after that class?
Like how do we keep them on the hook?
You want to take all of the randomness
and potential for mistakes out of it.
Having to pivot as it relates to COVID.
I mean, I think at one point this summer
I called every high school in DC trying to see
what we could work out on their football field,
because we didn't have a place to work out outside.
We've had to rearrange the bags in the classroom,
we've had to do even additional cleaning between classes.
And like, there's a ton of things to, to think about.
It keeps, it keeps it interesting, you know, for sure.
At the end of the day I think
long as the members are happy, it all came together.
Shake it out, good work team.
Yeah y'all came y'all saw y'all conquered,
I love it I love it I love it.
I think about what it took for us to get our lease here.
And it's just, the barriers to opening something like
you gotta have good credit,
you gotta have assets
but I think that's the roadblock that keeps,
you know a lot of minority owned businesses
out of areas like this.
If I were to give some advice to someone else
that doesn't have the capital, may not have the means,
like there's nothing wrong with kind of starting small.
Everybody encounters like budget, budget issues.
And it's like trying to do the most
with what you have available to you,
and filling in the gaps kind of where you can.
You know, despite the setbacks that,
you know 2020 has given us,
like we haven't lost vision of our broader goal.
Boombox two, three, and four in DC, outside of DC.
We'll be better positioned for location two and three.
Like we we're kind of battle-tested,
war-tested tested now, so.
I'm, I'm so humbled by just the support that we have.
You know, a little bit of hope, hard work for sure.
For years, I'd come to work
with boxing gloves on my backpack.
You know, here we are today, and now,
you know, we've got a full gym man.
Even though we drive each other crazy at times,
I don't really know if I could have done it
with anybody else. Oh yeah
If I could do it over again I wouldn't do with anybody else.
No experience necessary.
Like if you want to do it, do it.
It's not going to be easy.
Don't let the fact that you've never done something before
keep you from doing something.
Like we're proof of that.