Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - I Hope Your Business Burns Down with Pinky Cole

Episode Date: September 19, 2023

Pinky Cole wants your life to go up in flames. But not literally. Pinky is the owner of the popular restaurant brand Slutty Vegan, but before that, she had a devastating grease fire that destroyed her first business. And you know what? She’s glad it happened. Today she gives Nicole advice for anyone who is wondering whether the challenge facing them is insurmountable, the story behind how $17,000 of her wages was taken away, the unusual talent pool she’s used for hiring (if you’re job-searching, don’t miss this tip), and a whole lot more. Order Pinky's book, I Hope You Fail, here: https://www.iampinkycole.com/ihopeyoufail

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apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to Chime.com slash disclosures for details. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. Pinky Cole wants your life to go up in flames, but not literally. Pinky is the owner of a restaurant chain called Slutty Vegan, but before that, she had a devastating grease fire that burned her first business to the ground. And you know what? She's glad it happened. Today, she shares advice for anyone who's wondering whether the challenge they're facing is insurmountable. The story behind how $17,000 of her wages was taken away.

The unusual talent pool she's used for hiring. And if you're job searching, you don't want to miss that one and a whole lot more. Here's my conversation with Pinky. Pinky Cole, welcome to Money Rehab. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. I want to dive right into the first tip that you give in your new book, I Hope You Fail, which is get damn fire insurance. So you put this before even chapter one. This tip is so, so important because you did not get damn fire insurance and you lost your restaurant, Piggy's American, and Jamaican restaurant to a grease fire. So first of all, can you paint the picture of your life

right before the fire? This was pre-Sleddy Vegan, of course. Absolutely. Okay. So for the people who don't know, I was a producer for the Maury Show. And I was there for almost three years. One of my friends told me that there was a restaurant that was available if I wanted to rent it out and sublet it from the previous owner. And I'm like, I don't know anything about the restaurant industry, but I'm like, okay, I'll do it because I'm going to take a challenge. So I started doing all of my research and I opened up Pinky's Jamaican and American

restaurant. And mind you, I'm not a chef. I did not go to culinary school. I have no formal training in cooking. I have a lot of formal training in eating because I like to eat. You and me both. But I just knew that entrepreneurship was something that I wanted to get into again. So I did it. I opened up my first restaurant and I'm talking about like eating, breathing, sleeping in that business. I wake up in the morning and I'm going to the restaurant. I'm serving, I'm cleaning,

I'm cashiering, I'm doing everything. And to me at that time, I thought that that was success. So if you could imagine a 28 year old who was supposed to be at the bar in the clubs with her friends, right? And just the eligible bachelorette is stuck inside of a business, but also just really trying to make a name for herself. And at the time, you know, I did fairly well, but what I didn't realize is I was missing some of the core ingredients to have a successful establishment. And one of those things was having fire insurance. So there's two meanings to this in the book.

There's a literal and a figurative. The literal meaning here is that I wasn't required at the time to get fire insurance. So I didn't do it. You know, sometimes when you buy something from the store and they're like, okay, do you want to get the warranty? And you're like, well, I'm not paying $40 for the warranty. Yeah. And like, what's the possibility that something's going to happen as a waste of money? Right. Exactly. So that's what happened to me. And I didn't get the fire insurance because I was trying to cut a corner, but cutting that corner was the biggest lesson I ever learned in my life

because one day I got the phone call from the fire department that my restaurant was on fire. So at the time I wasn't thinking about it. I'm like, OK, cool. I have insurance. I can figure it out. And I didn't have fire insurance, so I was not protected. And when I tell you that was like the biggest stinger to my core, because I'm like, OK, wait a minute. What do I do? Do I stick this out and have to pay all of these bills? Do I walk away and go into a whole bunch of debt? So it put me in a really tough position. But the biggest lesson that I learned is to make sure that you have your resources in order. Make sure that you have all the things that you need. Because if you don't have what you need, the things that you really need will come back to bite you in the ass.

And that's literally what happened to me. Because you don't expect that, obviously. You're not going into this business thinking, hmm, you know, here's a bunch of variables. You're thinking people aren't going to show up. Some other crazy shit's going to happen. But a grease fire? I'm sure that was like not in the top 100 variables you accounted for. It was not in my cards. But I want to tell you about the literal meaning of, I hope you don't get fire insurance and I hope it catches fire because when you are an entrepreneur, you want to go through highs, you can go through lows. There are going to be happy moments where you got money in the bank and they're going to be moments that feels like

your world is on fire. okay? Figurative fire. And when those things happen, you gotta know how to navigate through those things. And because I've experienced it, now I know how to navigate through a fire. So fires aren't always bad. People think when you see a speed bump or a hurdle, it's just like the world is over.

It might feel like it's over, but that's really gearing you up for the best thing that ever happened to your life. And because of that, I was able to open up Sleaty Vegan and now have a multi-million dollar company. Yeah, because there's not gonna be a time where you don't get fire insurance again. And by the way, like if you had a fire now,

like it could have been bigger and more devastating. So like you went through that and you got a bigger lesson. Yeah, I needed it to happen early because can you imagine having 13 locations, no fire insurance, something happened at my business, God forbid somebody gets hurt, I'm done with. But I needed to earn that early lesson so that I could do things differently

and I'm glad it happened when it did. So you didn't have actual fire insurance, not because you didn't think it was a good idea at the time, but it wasn't required in the state of New York. Because, of course, when it rains, it pours. This fire, the actual literal fire, also happened at a time when the state of New York garnished your wages, right? You had to pay back 17 grand. What was the story there? So this is a word to the wise for anybody listening to this.

So after my restaurant caught on fire, I completely walked away from everything in the business. Now, at the time, remember what I said in the beginning, I sublet it from the previous tenant. So the business was in transition. The building was in transition. So there were new owners anyway. So this was a perfect opportunity for them to get me out of the space. Right. So I completely walked away from my business.

Nobody told me that you had to like really go in there, call and shut down the business and let them know that you are no longer operating. So I moved on with my life and I thought that I was scot-free. But guess what was happening? Interest was still accruing. The sales and use tax that I needed to pay still needed to get paid. And it didn't get paid. I'm like, okay, the business is closed, so I don't owe it. Wrong. You still have to pay your debt and your obligations

because that was sales that you were using in the business. So I went off to be a casting director. I'm doing good. I'm making $5,000 a week. I'm back. I'm coming back to myself. I'm being healed again. I'm on a healing show. I'm like, thank you, God, because I almost lost my goddamn mind. Like I'm being healed again. I'm on a healing show. I'm like, thank you, God, because I almost lost my goddamn mind. But when it came back and I was doing well, I woke up one morning and $17,000 was out of my account. Now, my first thought, I'm like, OK, a scammer that got me like who didn't got to my email

and took my bank account. And like I was devastated because that was my first time really like building myself back up. And I was saving up my money and I was just about to get in the stocks and I was just doing so well. And then all of my money was taken. Now, I don't know if your wages have ever been garnished, but you know, you could pick up the phone and say, Hey, give me my money back. It's not that simple, right? They will hold onto your money until you pay them their money. And I lost that $17,000. And that was a hard pill to swallow because what do you do when you owe somebody money and they take their money. And I lost that $17,000. And that was a hard pill to swallow because

what do you do when you owe somebody money and they take their money? You can't say, give it back and then I'll pay you back in increments. They don't care. They want their money. And I realized then, one, I'm not playing with the state. One, I will not play with the IRS. I'm going to make sure that I have a good accountant to pay all my taxes, to do all my bookkeeping, to do everything that I need to do so that I'll never run into this problem. And here's another lesson that I learned through all of this. And you'll read about this in the book.

I needed my wages to get garnished so that when I started a company like Slutty Vegan, I started with an accountant. I made $4 million my first year. And that wasn't even a full year. So can you imagine making $4 million and not paying yourselves a use tax? I'd have been screwed. But because I got an accountant in the very beginning, because of what happened to me previously, I knew that I got to do things differently so this doesn't happen again. And I'm so glad it happened early on

because guess what? I paid $17,000 for tuition to be able to learn the lessons that I did. And now I've never had a tax issue, never had a sales and use issue with Sleddy Vegan since the inception of my business in 2018. Yes. I love the way you put that, that it was tuition. It was like at the school of hard knocks. Absolutely. In reflecting in these fires, you recommend, which I love to entrepreneurs, to have an A-team assembled for moments like this, the AAA battery. So the attorney, the accountant, and the assistant. Talk to me about why you need this AAA battery. So let's start with the accountant, obviously. The accountant will make sure that your books are aligned at where they need to be.

Because it's just so important to be financially responsible and to have somebody that knows numbers. Because let me tell you what I learned. A lot of entrepreneurs really don't know numbers like we think because most entrepreneurs are creatives first. And I'll be the first to say, I'm a creator first. I'm the creative brand. I'm the creative genius.

I'm coming up with all the ideas. Like when it comes down to the numbers and crunching the numbers, I know that part is necessary, but I'm like, oh, I'm going to do this again. So the accountant is so necessary for so many reasons because it's my safe space. So things that I still don't understand to this day,

my accountant can go in and say, hey, no, this is not right. Hey, take a look at this. What is going on? And it really is like my screen door to the front door, right? So that's the first person. Then you got my attorney. And if you are an entrepreneur, it is imperative to have an attorney, not just for the level of just to say you have one, right? You need somebody to look over your contracts and make sure that your business is protected because we live in a world where everybody wants to sue.

OK, people get sue happy. And unless you are fully protected in your business, somebody will sue your ass. OK, so you need to make sure that you're protected. OK, for many lawsuits. And I will be the first person to say that, you know, a lawsuit was pulled on me for a reason in the business that happens in most restaurants. But having the proper attorney will be able to protect you from things like that. So when they do happen, no matter what it looks like on the internet, you're still safe. And then the

attorney also is really just a safety net for you to make sure that you have all the legitimate documents that you need, like the NDAs, the confidentiality agreements, making sure that you're not signing your life away because there's a lot of fine print when you sign a lot of paperwork. And most people really aren't reading everything unless you have an attorney that really understands that language. The last piece is the assistant. I never knew how important an assistant was until I could afford one. And everybody might not be able to afford an assistant in the beginning. But what an assistant does for me is an assistant allows me to do research in the moments that I cannot. My assistant does my schedule so that I don't have

to focus on, okay, what do I have to do today? All I got to do is show up so that my conscious is clear. My mindset is open so that I can do interviews like this and have clear conversations with you and not be thinking about what I got to do at 530 and 630. So an assistant is that person that really is like a clone of you to be able to like support you in getting to the goal, whatever that goal is. If the goal is getting to a billion dollar brand, if the goal is to make sure that you have a successful company, if the goal is to make sure that all of your affairs are in order, an assistant is necessary and not just a regular assistant. It has to be an assistant who has experience in dealing with the busy schedule because my schedule is so very busy. I literally

have like six to seven events that I do all day, every day. And I can probably get half of it done without somebody really staying on top of that for me. So that AAA battery is so necessary. And making sure that you always keep the juice in those batteries is the recipe for success. When you couldn't afford an assistant, did you make one up? I did. I invented a fake assistant. When I couldn't afford an assistant, I had like friends and family helping me. But I was fortunate enough that Slutty Deacon hit so fast that I had no choice but to get

help early. Right. So like even if I didn't want to get an assistant, I'm like, I need the help. So I had my first assistant came on as an intern. So she was being my assistant. She was doing my social media. And, you know, five years later, this woman is now the business manager for Slutty Deacon. She has been with me for the last five years. How'd you guys connect? Instagram, my favorite place. Are you serious? Yes.

So did you put out that you were hiring? No, she was a super fan, which I love. Oh, she slipped into your DM. She was a super fan. She wouldn't leave me alone. She would come to all of the food truck events. And I'm like, this is the kind of dedication I need. That's something else for the people who are listening to this.

You want to have people around you that have the same ethos as you, the same energy and passion that you do. Because she was just as passionate as me and it wasn't her business. I'm like, oh, she's somebody I need to have in the mix. And now she has equity in my company, right? She's a vital asset to me and my personal life. And she does the business management for the business and my personal

because we've built a level of trust over the years because she's maintained that level of energy and passion for the brand and for Pinky Cole. And you can't pay for that. It's invaluable, for sure. So would you suggest to other entrepreneurs to hire from Instagram? It's something our team talks about a lot too, because like they know the brand, they know your voice already. So let me tell you, this is a catch

22, right? I've hired a lot of people on Instagram by way of Instagram. And the reason why is because we're all in our phone. We live in a day and age of technology, right? And like, that is our number one form of communication. I grew up in a MySpace era, okay? So like, we would log in and check the top five and then log out and go outside. AOL, answer messenger, dial up. Like, that was my era.

So I know what it feels like not to have to be consumed by the internet. And then I also know what it feels like to be consumed by the internet, right? I also know what it feels like to be consumed by the Internet. Right. So what I realize is when you're looking for quality people, why would you look anywhere else outside of the place that everybody is at? So when I'm looking for something specific, if you've ever looked at my page, I always

go online and say, hey, I'm looking for a director of this. I'm looking for so-and-so. And I get a pool of candidates, right, I'm looking for a director of this. I'm looking for so-and-so. And I get a pool of candidates, right, that are interested. I mean, do I have to go through like a whole book of people who are interested? Absolutely. But there are some diamonds in that pile that have come on board with my company that are still with me till this day. That's the plus to it. Now, there's a downside to it, I'll be honest, right? The downside is, is some of the time, the people that you find on Instagram,

they want something fast. And sometimes they probably don't have the level of expertise that you need because the people who have that kind of expertise, they're not always just sitting in front of their camera or their phone all day, every day. So it's a blessing and a curse. I would say try it if you're an entrepreneur,

especially if you're starting out. try it if you're an entrepreneur, especially if you're starting out. And then when you're starting out, you don't always have to pay first, right? Like barter up, offer some phantom equity, some sweat equity, some phantom equity for people to help you grow your brand. Hey, I can't pay you today, but if you help me grow this company, I'll give you 2% that'll invest after a year and a half. And then you own some equity in the company and we can build together. People like those sort of things because if you are dedicated and willing to grow with a brand that you see is exploding right in front of your face, it may be worthwhile to you to take an offer like that. So that's interesting. The Catch-22, basically the downside is that the Instagram fans, I guess, see this big, sparkly, fast growing company. They

want to be part of it. They want to get on the rocket ship. But you said you also hired friends and family who I guess knew you pre slutty vegan, knew you during the dark days of the grease fire and the wage garnishment. So have having those people around been helpful too so they understand Pinky Cole before Pinky Cole? Well, I will never hire a family member again. Oh, tell me more. Been there, done that. And it might work for some people. It just doesn't work for me. I've always been the youngest. I've always been the baby in the family. And, you know, family and close friends still look at you as the baby in the family, no matter what, like, you know, the psyche of it all. Like you grew up with somebody,

you know, y'all getting your pampers changed together, taking showers and baths together. And then when you grow up, you still have that picture in your mind. But now I'm running a business and I've learned my lesson in the hallway. I love my family very much, but we do not do business together. We can play together. We can have fun together. But I realized that if it's not done right, you can really destroy some valuable relationships. And I know people that are successful in having their family members work for them. But as for me and my house, it does not work. And I like to keep it that way and just setting a different set of boundaries. There is no friends in business for me,

right? Like I'm not your friend when it's time to work. I'm a grizzly bear. Like I'm the type of person, Nicole, where like when it's time to get to work, like I'm not laughing with you. I'm not playing with you. We're going to get it done and then we can play later. Everybody doesn't always have that mindset. But when you have the people who have that mindset, they understand the bigger picture and the mission. And the mission is to grow a sustainable and scalable company that people can appreciate, that they will take seriously, that you can one day package up and sell to the highest bidder or whatever it is that you want to do with it. I'd love to zoom into the moment where you are like, I am going to keep going. I'm not going to be done. I'm not going to quit this entrepreneurial journey. This is not where this ends.

Failure is going to happen, right? Bad things are going to happen. Bean bumps and hurdles are going to happen. You're going to go broke sometimes when you're an entrepreneur. Sometimes you're going to try to figure out how you're going to pay these bills or how you'll pay these employees. So that's the inevitable. I think that that is the art of the business, right? And if you don't go through those things

in business, good for you. But I feel like there's a level of integrity that you build when you go through some challenges in business. And I'm not saying that you've got to struggle, right? Like you've got to go through the hustle and bustle because you don't have to. But if you do as an entrepreneur, just know that that is an opportunity for you to get better. So for the entrepreneurs that are trying to navigate through entrepreneurship and trying to figure out like, what do I do next? Like, why isn't this working for me? Just understand that the bigger picture is that it's working. You just have to understand and identify the lesson that you're learning along the way. And I've learned so many lessons.

So like I can proudly say these things like I go do a damn hurdle every day. But my mindset has shifted. My mindset used to be like, oh, why me? Why is this happening to me? To, OK, this is happening. What do I learn from this? How can I navigate through this tribulation and get past this? And how is this going to make

me better? So I believe it's all about your mindset and just embracing the fact that things are going to happen. But when things happen to you, just know that they're happening for you just to make you better. Well, hold on. So after the whole fire debacle, you went, it sounds like you went back into casting and back into TV. So there was a moment where you're like, I can't take the heat. I'm going to step out of this business. Well, it wasn't like I couldn't take it. What happened is, I'm telling you, that's why divinity, being in alignment, when I say things happen for you, because while I was depressed and my car got repoed and I got

kicked out of my business and everything was crumbling right in front of me, I got a call from a TV show acting if I wanted to be a supervising producer for a show on their own network, right? So that happened for me while I was in the midst of this uncomfortableness. And when that happened for me, it just naturally just took me away from the restaurant temporarily for two years. And then I got back in it, but I needed that to happen because it was almost like I was going back in the gym. You know, when you start the gym and it's hard at first and it's like tough, like, oh, I'm tired. Like I'm on a treadmill and I can't do these five miles today. But like eventually once you

condition your mind, you'll be able to do it. And that's what happened to me. So when those two years from working in TV came to an end and I started Slutty Vegan, I'm like, okay, I'm ready to do this. And I didn't realize that I had the mental fortitude to do it, but I was ready. And my favorite line is like, when you stay ready, you ain't never got to get ready. At that time, I was running every day. I was reading a book a day. I was getting my mind right. And I think that the universe did that on purpose so that when Slutty Vegan came along, I was mentally prepared. I was physically prepared. And I just had the energy and the drive to be able to do it again, despite of what happened to me a couple of years ago in New York City. Did you know that you wanted to get back into it then? Or did you look at this

opportunity as, OK, I'm going to take this money. I'm going to take this gig. I'm going to get back on my feet. I'm going to get it together. I'm going to feel good. And then who knows what's going to happen next? Or did you have that mission and that vision in your mind that you were going to start a restaurant empire? So I'm not a loser, right? And I don't like to start things that I cannot finish. So when that happened, I'm like, oh, this can't be it. Like, I'm the person that everything that I touch is going to turn to gold, whether you like it or not. And when that restaurant fell apart, I felt like a quitter. I felt like, why me?

Like, I'm telling you, honestly, at that moment, I'm like, why did this happen to me? Like, I always put my mind to something and I achieve it. Like, I'm 28. I got a 401k. I got all these big things. And it didn't happen the way that I wanted to. So I knew that I had some unfinished business. So although I jumped back in TV, I knew there was some business that needed to be completed. I didn't know it was going to be a restaurant again. Because when I came up with Study Vegan, even my mother was like, you sure you want to do that? Like my friends were

like, okay. Like, you know what happened? That level of stress that you dealt with, you sure you want to do that? Like my friends were like, okay, like, you know, what happened? That level of stress that you dealt with, you sure you want to go through that stress? And I must be insane because the restaurant industry is one of the hardest industries to be in, but I knew I had unfinished business and I'm glad that I pushed forward because it really changed my entire life, Nicole. I'm talking about like, I went from working as a casting director to now having 13 locations, to having one of the most popular companies in the country, to being in the forefront of the vegan community and movement and making people, whether you are black, white, yellow, blue, be interested in veganism. But once upon a time, universally, people weren't

talking about going vegan. So to be able to be a change agent in that way, this is bigger than money. To be able to do that, I knew that there was unfinished business. And when it came in the vessel of a restaurant, now when I have my full picture moment, I'm like, thank you, God. Thank you for what you did. When you told your mom about it, was she like, because it was a restaurant, because it was another business or because of the name? She just saw how stressed I was. And, you know, there weren't many people around me that could actually help. I got did GoFundMe and stuff, but like the kind of money that I needed, like the people around me couldn't really afford to help me in a way that they wanted to. So, you know, she was just doing what a mother did, just being concerned.

My mother worked the same job for 37 years, plus she was an entrepreneur. So although she has the entrepreneur age, she also plays it very safe. I've always been a risk taker. So I'm like, nothing beats trial, but a failure. I'm going to try this thing and I'm going to throw it on the wall and then something got to stick. And if it don't stick, I'll just start over and do it again. But she was fine with the name. She loved the name. And now she's the most proudest. My mother's biggest fan. She's over the moon. So you had unfinished entrepreneurial business. That's what it sounds like. Like you were like, this is not how my entrepreneur story is going to end. Absolutely. I'm like, this ain't my story. I am going to leave a mark on this world.

I just didn't know that it was going to come in the form of vegan burgers and fries and fries. Hold on to your wallets. Money Rehab will be right back. I love hosting on Airbnb. It's a great way to bring in some extra cash, but I totally get it that it might sound overwhelming to start or even too complicated if, say, you want to put your summer home in Maine on Airbnb, but you live full time in San Francisco and you can't go to Maine every time you need to change sheets for your guests or something like that. If thoughts like these have been holding you back, I have great news for you. Airbnb has launched a co-host network, which is a network of high quality local co-hosts with Airbnb experience that can take care of your home and your guests. Co-hosts can do what

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and also for my mental health. We've all hit a point where we've realized it was time to make some serious money moves. So take control of your finances by using a Chime checking account with features like no maintenance fees, fee-free overdraft up to $200, or getting paid up to two days early with direct deposit. Learn more at Chime.com slash MNN. When you check out Chime, you'll see that you can overdraft up to 200 with no fees if you're an og listener you know about my infamous 35 overdraft fee that i got from buying a seven dollar latte and how i am still very fired up about it if i had chime back then that wouldn't even be a story make your fall finances a little greener by working towards your

financial goals with chime open your account in just two minutes at Chime.com slash MNN. That's Chime.com slash MNN. Chime feels like progress. Banking services and debit card provided by the Bancorp Bank N.A. or Stride Bank N.A., members FDIC. SpotMe eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Boosts are available to eligible Chime members enrolled in SpotMe and are subject to monthly limits. Terms and conditions apply. Go to chime.com slash disclosures for details. And now for some more money rehab. You have many awesome quotes in your book. One that I really love is because many of us weren't trained in the world of entrepreneurship. We often take the losses personally because nobody told us that it's just business. So how do you not take loss personally? I used to take it very personal.

And I still have my moments, right? You know, I'm an honest entrepreneur. But then I got to check myself, look in the mirror sometimes and be like, OK, get it together and snap out of it. Like, I don't have my snap out of it moments because I realize at the end of the day, nobody cares. Nobody cares about the fact that you're crying in business. Nobody cares about the fact that like you're emotional because somebody did or said something you didn't like. Don't nobody give a damn. You just got to keep going. And as long as you keep going and understand that mental fortitude

will strengthen your mindset all the way around, then you can be able to pour your cup into other people's cup. You can pour into other people, but you can't pour from an empty cup if you're emotional, right? You can't be a good leader if you're emotional. And I had to learn that the hard way because I'm talking about, I used to be emotional, okay? I'm like, it's not about the money, it's my business. And then I realized, I'm like, it is about the money because you got to pay your bills. You got to be able to pay employees. You got to be able to keep the doors open. And if you listen to my earlier interviews, I probably didn't say that. But as I'm evolving as an entrepreneur and elevation and growth and

building new relationships, I realized that in business, you got to keep your poker face on because you got to have that strategy. And if you don't have that strategy, then your emotions will take over. And there's no way that you can have a successful business that way. Well, listen, if you don't make money, it's not a business. It's a charity. It's a hobby. Hobby, right? And I don't want no hobby. Right. I have enough hobbies. My hobby is the Pinky Cole Foundation. I don't need another hobby. I'm good. My hobby is my kids. I love my babies. Okay. Like I hang out with my kids, but business is business. And as long as we identify that business is not personal,

there are no friends in business. There should be no emotions in business. Then we'll be a lot better off. Well, I'm not sure if I agree with those, but I do know that for business, you must optimize for money because otherwise you actually textbook do not have a business. I'd love to dig into some of the financials since the disasters happened with the first restaurant. Did that affect how you budgeted for Slutty Vegan? Did you have a more robust break in case of emergency fund when you were starting? I'm assuming you had all the insurances, like you optimized for all the

lessons you learned, but did you overcompensate for the oh shit fund? I'm very frugal to a fault. People will be like, Pinky, all right, come on, give it up. I'll give you an example, totally transparent. We did a $25 million raise. I'll give you an example. Totally transparent. We did a $25 million raise. I saw my bank account, like $25 million at one time. Oh, my God. And I got cheaper, right? While everybody around me, my team was like, okay, so we're going to do this fund and everybody gets a gas card.

I'm like, no, I got cheaper because, and there was a little fear there, I'll be honest, because I'm like, I don't want to lose this. Eminem, a wise philosopher once said, you only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow because opportunity comes once in a lifetime. And that was like in the back. That's one of my favorite songs, my favorite artist. That was in the back of my mind. I'm like, you only get this one shot to get it right. And if you fumble this bag, then nobody is ever going to believe in you again to do it again. And I mean, I don't know what like traumatizing thought process that was, but it was my thought process. things. When it comes to my business, I like to squeeze the lemon because I believe that if you can do it without all this money, you should be able to still do it the same way with the money. And obviously you've got added resources, but like you ain't got to go wide and you ain't got to like do all of these things where you just run it through money. That is how businesses fall apart. And I didn't want to be one of those businesses. Yeah. But you're also now prioritizing the things that used to be nice to haves as need to haves like the AAA battery. My need to haves is getting C-suite executives, right? I just brought on a COO. I just brought on a CFO. I promoted my chief revenue officer to president of the company.

I just hired a new HR director. Those are necessities. That is what I want to do with the money. And then opening locations, it costs over $800,000 to open up a slutty vegan location. That shit is not cheap, right? So those things have to get paid for. But just really prioritizing what's most important in business as you grow and scale. I have never scaled a business in my life. So when I said earlier in this program that I'm like, I still

don't know everything half the time. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I wasn't lying because there's so many things that I still need to learn. But now I utilize that funding to be able to bring in the proper expertise to be able to help me along the way. Now ideas, I'm coming up with ideas all day long, right? Like I'm coming up with creative ways to market my brand to get people to love it. But now I got the money people on this side, that's my dream team, just making sure that all the bills are paid, that all the taxes are paid, that our cogs and our goods are like, that we aren't spending too much money on products and that we're getting our labor down. Like I didn't always know that. If any entrepreneur tells you they know

all the things you should run the other way because they're lying. Yes. I still get to learn along the way. And and that's what keeps me in love with the business, because every day is something new, like every day, even if it's a challenge, it's something new, even down to like making sure that like my best practices are always in place. And I used to be the CEO where like I would talk to the employees and like tell them personal things about like, how are you doing? Like, and get into their personal life. And that backfired on me before. Right. So like now I just make sure that we operate in best practices and everything that we do and like nobody gives you a rule book on how to do that I mean you can read a couple of books and like learn some of this stuff like you really got to get in the trenches to really understand it

especially in a restaurant business especially during the pandemic like the height of my business was during the pandemic and what I'm so fortunate about, Nicole, is that my husband is also a restaurateur. The cutest little power couple I ever saw. This is my baby. You know, I just got married, by the way. I know. Mazel tov. So he has his business and like he's taking the franchising route and I'm taking the corporate route, but we get to learn from each other in business and we just learn new things every single day okay but hold on back to like why not asking people how they are what backfired more fires I'm a professional firefighter damn

okay so I have a problem I'll be honest okay so like I don't do it anymore because like I can't do it anymore but I would be the person that I'd be cash apping my employees like cash. Like, hey, you know, if they give me like a story on like how, you know, it's hard for them to like pay the bills and blah, blah, blah. So obviously I got a heart and like it's beyond the business for me at the time. And I'm like, OK, I'll cash app you. And one of the employees that I cash app tried to sue me when I was trying to make money in their pocket. And that was when I was super emotional. I'm like, I was trying to help you. And I realized that I couldn't do that anymore. And that my foundation all day long, right? Like I'll push all those

things over to the foundation and keep a super structure, but like, I can't be taking money out my personal pocket and like putting it in the pocket of an employee just because of the liability purposes and to protect them, to protect me. And I've learned that lesson along the way, too. So many lessons that I get to learn. So you have a mantra that you recommend for entrepreneurs when disaster strikes. You say, I overflow with possibilities and I will dream again. What does that mean to you? I'm a big dreamer. And just because bad things happen does not mean you should dim your light. And transparency moment again, the New Yorker did a nine pager on me. Right. So that was probably like one of the biggest

moments in my career. And then the very next day I had the cover of Jet Magazine and I'm on the cover. It's in Target. I'm just like, oh, my gosh, I'm having a super run, girl. I'm like, I'm on fire. You know, that's on this girl. So I'm just like, whoa. And the very next day was really a fire because I'm all over the news everywhere after the Golden Globes.

Pinky Cole, a slutty vegan, is getting sued for unpaid wages. And I'm like, what? So like, I'm hearing it for the first time. Like, they're hearing it for the first time. I'm like, what? Like, I'm checking my books. Like, how is this even possible? And when I tell you, it dimmed my light for a second. And it dimmed my light because I'm so very passionate and I love my business so very much. And for a second, a millisecond, I felt like I was falling out of love with my business. And a true entrepreneur will tell you the truth that we go through these in and outs, right? Like you love your business, but then there's moments that you just get tired, that you want to throw the towel in sometimes. get tired. Did you want to throw the towel in sometimes? And that was the first time that ever happened to me because I was angry about it. I'm like, my business, that's so good for the community. We have so many people. But remember what I told you, don't nobody care. But guess what that meant for me? That meant things are going to happen, but you can never stop dreaming. And I just got back to a place, I'll be honest. I just got back to a place

where I started falling back in love with my business. And I had to practice what I preached. And what I preached was in the midst of everything else, just never stop dreaming. And it may look bad. It may hurt sometimes, but you just got to keep dreaming because guess what? As long as you keep dreaming, your imagination will keep going and you'll be able to manifest all the things that you think about. So hopefully that testimony just now that I shared really blessed somebody because like in real time, I'm coming back to a place where like it's the honeymoon phase all over again. Like I love my business all over again. And like we did eight and again, and it's just like, we talking on the phone till four in the morning again. Like I love my business all over again. And like we did it again. And it's

just like we talking on the phone till four in the morning again. Like if you know what I mean, you're making out hot and heavy now like butterflies, butterflies. We under episodes with a tip listeners can take straight to the bank. I'm sure you have so many, but you have just one of your main money tips that listeners can use to save, invest or invest in themselves or to help with financial anxiety. Create a reserves account. I like to call the reserves account like the rainy day fund, like we talked about. So if you have a business and you're making a certain amount of money, find a percentage to put in that reserves. And that reserves account can be like a stock account as well. So anytime you put money in there, it automatically invests

into a portfolio. So your money is making money for you while you put your money in these reserves. And that was the best thing that I could have ever done. Because if I ever have a rainy day, I can always pull out against it. Like I could sell off some of the shares and pull out against it, but it's always accruing interest and it's always accruing money within that portfolio. So get you a reserves account, get you a financial advisor that can do it. And if you don't really understand how to do it, a financial advisor, do one of the brokerage firms can help you. Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Lavoie. Our researcher is Emily Holmes.

Do you need some money rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions, moneyrehab at moneynewsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram at Money News and TikTok at Money News Network for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make. Thank you.