The Business Millennials Podcast

Why Your Small Business Matters

• Ashley Dreager & Safa Harris • Season 1 • Episode 18

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In this episode of the Business Millennials Podcast, founders Safa Harris and Ashley Dreager discuss the underlying reasons behind Red Lobster's downfall and broader issues in business strategies that prioritize quick cash grabs over long-term sustainability. They delve into the impact of venture capitalists on established brands and the broader macroeconomic implications. Safa and Ashley emphasize the importance of building sustainable, mission-driven businesses that prioritize social impact and ethical practices. They highlight the ripple effects of every small action taken by businesses and individuals, comparing it to larger actions taken by public figures like Macklemore in advocating for social justice. The episode concludes with a call to action for entrepreneurs to find their unique ways to make a positive difference in society while maintaining profitable, long-lasting businesses.

Key Takeaways:

  1. The bankruptcy of Red Lobster serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of prioritizing short-term gains over long-term sustainability and the impact on employees and communities when businesses fail.
  2. Businesses should strive for profitability and sustainability from the start, rather than relying on investor money and gambling with people's livelihoods.
  3. Even small businesses that may not appear to have a grand mission can still make a significant impact by creating jobs, supporting local communities, and making ethical choices in their operations.
  4. Every individual has the power to create positive change, regardless of the size of their platform or business, by taking small actions that can have a ripple effect on society.
  5. Building a sustainable, mission-driven business is crucial for creating long-lasting positive impact and avoiding negative consequences associated with quick cash grabs.

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction to the Business Millennials Podcast
00:58 Red Lobster's Rise and Fall
06:28 The Tech Industry's Profitability Dilemma
13:21 The Power of Small Actions and Social Impact
36:37 Conclusion and Call to Action

Referenced Links:
Hinds Hall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgDQyFeBBIo&rco=1
Free Audit: https://scaleandthriveco.com/strategy-assessment/

Is your business just not the vibe right now and you can't seem to get it going, even though you feel like you're doing #AllTheThings? Fill out the linked audit form to give us the inside scoop on your current situation, challenges, and goals. That way we can spot your strengths, opportunities, and outline next steps, keeping a sustainable & scalable business in mind.

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https://scaleandthriveco.com/strategy-assessment/

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Safa Harris:

Welcome to the business millennials podcast. This show brings you strategic insights through raw and unfiltered real world advice to accelerate your business growth for longterm success. I'm Safa Harris,

Ashley Dreager:

and I'm Ashley Drager. We're the founders of scale and thrive co a full service marketing and business development firm, helping visionary companies scale sustainably.

Safa Harris:

Expect us to have the uncomfortable conversations that no one else is having. We'll break down what it really takes to grow and scale your business beyond six Seven, or even eight figures as well as inspiring interviews with diverse leaders across marketing, product development, sales, and more.

Ashley Dreager:

Be a fly on the wall as we conduct strategy sessions with business owners, experiencing issues, such as plateaued income, burnout, and generally dropping the ball, giving you the tools and resources to break through your own roadblocks, but also personal development methods to grow you as a balanced, conscious leader amidst business growth. Let's jump into this week's episode. So a new business story has been coming up for me in TikTok. Red Lobster.

Safa Harris:

Hmm.

Ashley Dreager:

you heard

Safa Harris:

that's a

Ashley Dreager:

about what's happening with Red Lobster?

Safa Harris:

Oh my gosh. So much. And I have so many feelings and thoughts about it

Ashley Dreager:

Please share.

Safa Harris:

there's so many, so there's like the micro level of like the business management aspect of it, but there's macro economic things as to why this even happened.

Ashley Dreager:

When I,

Safa Harris:

I don't know. Mm

Ashley Dreager:

when, when I was listening to some of the commentary on this, I'm seeing a lot of parallels in a lot of different big name brands and chains, which we can get into in a little bit, but it's almost to the point where. When a new piece of marketing comes out for something, for a very well established business that's like, Oh, this seems like a really great deal. It's like a red flag for me. I'm like, hmm. I wonder if they're having sales issues right now. Because why would they need to be giving all of this for free to bring people in the door?

Safa Harris:

Like, Kellogg's cereal deal, it was like, buy one, get three free or something insane.

Ashley Dreager:

Well, oh my gosh.

Safa Harris:

in the middle of a boycott.

Ashley Dreager:

Mm hmm. Yeah.

Safa Harris:

Yeah. So background context on Red Lobster. So originally when Red Lobster was founded, and I'm going to do broad strokes, strokes on this story, I'm not getting into the specifics. So when it was founded, the guy that did it, he wanted. Like casual dining restaurants weren't a thing. This was one of those first restaurants that was casual family dining. It was before it was like fine dining. It was higher ticket. It was for like an upper class situation and he wanted to make it more accessible. So then he came in with this fast casual dining concept with Red Lobster to make it more accessible. And actually, he was one of the first restaurants, that didn't segregate within the restaurant.

Ashley Dreager:

Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Safa Harris:

So, you know, we love some social impact and social justice businesses, though. So, anyways, um, don't know if he, like, died or what, what happened, but anyways, over time, um, Someone came in to the CEO suite, uh, CEO seat. Um, they did eventually get investment and things like that from like venture capitalists and things like that. They came in macroeconomic function on this is a lot of times these investors and venture capitalists will come in and change the functioning of a business. So they're kind of breaking it down from the inside out and then they will have some kind of partnership on the stock market where they're doing short selling on that brand to be able to increase their profits while killing the business because that's how When a business does poorly that's when people that are short selling on stocks. That's how they make money So if you're playing both sides of that and you're going in and making the investment and like killing the business from the inside out Short sellers are going to make money off of that. Essentially, that's kind of what happened with Red Lobsters that brought it, its downfall. But the story at large is like, oh, they did that crazy promotion and they lost so many profit margins. why they shut down. Well, yeah, that's probably an aspect of it. how that happened was actually very intentional. And we know this because there's a whole nother aspect of it, because when the venture capitalists came in and, um, bought up stocks and shares and all of that, they also sold the property. Red Lobster, it wasn't on leased restaurants, they owned the land, they owned the properties. And then, um, They were like, Oh, you need a cash injection. Let's sell all your land and your property to other company we own. then this will give you this much cash to do it. And then, but now you have to pay for a lease. And then that helped financial statements. And then they did, Oh, let's do another cash injection. Like I love a good cash injection, but there's like, You, your cash injection still needs to be profitable

Ashley Dreager:

And strategic.

Safa Harris:

longterm and strategic. They're like, Oh, let's do another cash injection. It was right after COVID. Oh, people aren't going to restaurants. Let's bring them in with a great deal. And then they lost money on it. And then dominoes, dominoes, nominoes, and then the investors and the short sellers. Essentially got what they wanted and Red Lobster went bankrupt and shut down and they still made a ton of money. Red Lobster is no longer. And it had such great beginnings with a social justice mission.

Ashley Dreager:

I know, which I, I just find this type of business strategy and business growth so frustrating. And we're seeing similar sit, well, I guess not necessarily similar situations, but, uh, it's come to my attention that with, with the tech industry, that they often run at a loss. for a long time and then do what basically what Netflix is doing now, where now there's tiers and there's commercials and they do all of these things, which is the total opposite of what they started with, how they built their loyalty with their customers. And now they've completely changed it for profitability. And

Safa Harris:

Well,

Ashley Dreager:

wrong, which is obviously necessary. You need to be profitable, but I think that it's really important that you establish those expectations and maintain them from the beginning.

Safa Harris:

so the reason that happens is that they will get a ton of money from investors and set out like, Hey, this is what our projection valuation is based on just like arbitrary things. Like you just make that stuff up really. And they get investment based on that valuation. And then they get to a point where it's like, Oh, we're not hitting our margins in our profits, like we need to find a way to get this payout done. So then they're like, okay, well, how do we do that? How we do we spend all of that, whatever. And then now it's getting to a point where like the streaming industry is like in a bubble that's going to burst just the same way the coaching online businesses. But that is, they get to a point where like, Oh, we need to pay our investors back. And we didn't hit our numbers and that's where it needs to be. But this also happened with, um, I think it was Uber. And I don't know like how it all ended up playing out, but with Uber, they got a whole bunch of like seed money. They went through a few rounds. They got a ton of money. They went public. The business itself is not actually profitable. got paid out and paid back because they went public and then they got paid out from that, um, initial holding. The initial, what is it called? The IPO.

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah. I

Safa Harris:

So they're able to get the sales in whatever they're not operating. But the way they got into the positive, got everybody paid out is because they went public and that was the goal, not actually a profitable business. So is it all shell game? Yeah.

Ashley Dreager:

I don't like it. I, I'm very much of the mindset that it, and I know that we're very aligned in this way, as far as like, you know, profitability and sustainability, but it just, I know that it is a successful business model. A lot of businesses do well with that type of approach with growing in that way, but I just, I think that it would be better to establish the profitability and the sustainability from day one, rather than taking that risk, taking that gamble, because with, if, you know, with Red Lobster, if they're going to go bankrupt, they're going to close. Think about all those jobs. Think about all those people that are going to get affected. Like this isn't just a, Oh, that was my, one of my favorite restaurants. What are we going to do about Cheddar Bay biscuits? Right? Like these are, this, these are people's lives, you know, like it, you can really make a significant impact with your business. You can make a positive change in the world with your business. And to me, going through that process and, you know, going into loss and then, you know, playing all these money games with investors and venture capitalists and all that. Like to me, that's just gambling with people's livelihoods is what it looks like from my perspective, rather than going in to make a true difference and an impact with your services.

Safa Harris:

I think that's why we work with who we work with. One, you and I, in the ways we are able to, that our finances allow, we will always do what we can to support smaller businesses that may be more expensive because they're not playing a volume game and they're profitable. So they're going to be more expensive. But we are going to do what we can personally to support those businesses to feed money in there. To the extent that we are able to and like that's part of the reason we're like we want to make a ton of Money with and we can do more of that then to we work with people that are very Mission aligned they have an impact focus on there and like a lot of them are social impact Driven business that they want to use to make some kind of difference I think that's where it comes from for us and a lot of our content is about that We're not here to play the money game. We are here to create something sustainable and long term that is better for you, the business owner, and society as a whole. And we much believe you can do that. And that's where all of our content and our strategies, that's where they come from. Because we really, really believe that that's the important part versus just making money.

Ashley Dreager:

Mhm.

Safa Harris:

And yeah, for some people it might be like, I just need to make some money, which I think that is why a lot of the, um, non sustainable marketing messaging comes from like, Oh, make 600 in two days. And we're like, yeah, like make 600 and have something really sustainable. That's going to create jobs and pay people really well. And you're going to have it for a really long time. And it's going to be a lot of work, but it's going to be really great because you're also making the social impact and we can get your mission. And it's forever versus. We're going to get quick cash today.

Ashley Dreager:

Mhm.

Safa Harris:

I think that speaks to our values and what's important to us and why we promote business the way we promote, because for us, it's the bigger picture and it's the social impact and it's the social justice and it's the responsibility and being an ethical business owner versus being like, get cash quick and it's

Ashley Dreager:

Mm hmm.

Safa Harris:

So I think that's where. We are structured the way we are for that reason. And yeah, there's that way to do business and it's just not the fit for us and what we believe and we agree with, and we really hope our audience is there because if not, we definitely push away the people that are there for quick cash.

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah. When something that I want to emphasize is, and I, I've always tried to work this into my content, but it's a very complex, topic or way of explaining, of explaining what I'm trying to convey with it. So to get specific, cause I know you're like, what are you talking about? Where are you going with this? Uh, that when, you know, your business may at face value or just like surface level, looking at it may not be, This huge, big, you know, mission driven business. It may just be selling nail oil, right? I don't want to, I don't mean it in just selling nail oil, but to the, you know, face value to the consumer, you're not here to solve world hunger or, you know, world peace or anything like that. But within your business of selling nail oil, you can have such a large ripple effect, such a domino effect. that does ultimately reach these larger missions that you are passionate about as a business owner. So to kind of like make a little bit of a parallel about this to the entertainment industry, I was talking to Justin about this when we were on our way to Forks, we were playing Spotify and we kind of do this thing where you pick a song and then I'll pick a song and then Addison will pick a song and you know, we just kind of like have this like rotating playlist and I put on Macklemore's Hinds Hall. And we were, we were just listening to the words and, you know, I'm, I'm a very big music person. Like, Justin and I, we regularly will just sit down and like, read lyrics on a song and like, look at the message behind music versus just like, oh, it just has really good pop melody, right? Like, it's like, I'm very much a music person. Um. I know we could spend hours just like reading lyrics. I'm like really like diving into the message of, of whatever the, the song is, the lyrics. Um, but we were talking to him about it and Macklemore's, you know, his, that he's donating the profits from this and how easy it is to, for people to support this cause when he's living into his passion. And wanting to make a difference with his art. And I said, I told him, I said, you know, just thinking about how much of an impact he's making with just one song. I mean, he's, he's had, he, he's used his platform the entire time to, you know, for this cause, but he, this song is very new that he's released. And I said, you know, if someone like Taylor Swift. Did the same thing and used her platform to make an impact in the world. Just imagine how much of a difference this could make, right? Like you are passionate about whatever you are passionate about, but that doesn't mean that you are incapable of making a difference of making a difference. Changing the way that the systems are, what the structures are bringing, even just bringing awareness to something is making a difference, is making a change. And so that's my long winded way of, you know, bringing something to people, listen to music every single day. But as an artist, you could still use your business for positive impacts. For whatever cause you are passionate about. And I think business is very much the exact same way. The dominoes may look different that fall. Sorry, I'm just like,

Safa Harris:

no,

Ashley Dreager:

it's

Safa Harris:

No,

Ashley Dreager:

about this.

Safa Harris:

no, it's good. I have a lot to add, but I was going to say like for someone like Macklemore or Taylor Swift, it's like a, it's a bigger domino effect. So them just posting about an issue brings awareness to people that don't have that in their algorithm that aren't learning and educating. And it might be like. You're going to start that domino effect of more people learning more exposure, which is going to add more pressure. That's going to do a lot more and push that across. And that is why people are like, Y'all are out of touch celebrities like you have this platform We don't care if you don't know what you're talking about Just like tell people that this is going on for them to go learn and find out about it You have the ability to do that to set off dominoes So Macklemore, a couple of days ago, whatever, he posted on his stories, uh, thanking Kaylani. So Kaylani was one of the first bigger artists and bigger names that spoke out for Palestine. And he posted on his stories saying, thank you Kaylani for posting. Cause he was like one of the second, um, bigger names that came out. And he was like, you gave me the courage. To speak out and put it all on the line and lose everything because I knew I needed to do something more and if you hadn't I don't know if I would have had the courage to make it happen and that was like the catalyst for him to speak out in the way he did and now it's like he's one of the biggest names that is saying something so so crazy to think about just so that's what I mean one person just simply bringing awareness to something you Is having an impact that can truly make a big difference because if if Macklemore hadn't been using his platform for the last, has it been eight months now?

Ashley Dreager:

Is that for the last eight months? I mean, he's, he really has been able to make a very big impact. And I, I, especially with the song, uh, there's a lot of people in the, in the comments saying, I didn't even know who you were until this audio came out on TikTok for me. I'm like, how do you, how have you not heard of Macklemore?

Safa Harris:

Which, have you seen the footage out of his concert in Australia? Those things were still packed. He did not lose money standing on business. He did not, for standing up for humanity and human lives. He did not lose that. business, and he probably grew his fan base, and he probably has like a huge, like, Muslim Palestinian Middle Eastern cult following now. And I just want to say, like, we ride hard for people that are like social justice. Like if you say, I'm gonna feed little babies, we're like, take all of my life earnings to feed more babies. And it's intimidating to be like I will stand up for what's right and I will put everything on the line to stand up for what's right. We spoke about this before, it's like he had to be a little bit unhinged to be able to do that. because it's definitely a moment of like cognitive dissonance where you're like this is a risk I am putting my livelihood, my business on, to do. The right thing and it always works out and provides and just like on a spiritual front to bring this in like as a Muslim one. Islam is synonymous with social justice. You cannot separate the two. If you are a good Muslim, you practice social justice. This is like. the, that's the teachings. And one of the biggest teachings on that is in this, especially a Muslim in the West, there were a lot of sheikhs and scholars coming out and being like, guys, don't worry if you lose your job for speaking out, like, who cares? Because Your, your, uh, the word is rizq in Arabic, it would translate to like provision. Your provision comes from God, and if you are standing up for what's right, if you're standing up for social justice, He, who cares if you lose it all? Because He will provide for you, because you did what you were supposed to do for His creation, for His sake, and you stood up for people, and you stood up for social justice, and you And people are leaning into that faith and that trust into God to be able to do it. And it is definitely from an outside perspective if you don't have that faith and you're saying that's like that person's insane for just like putting it all on the line. Like he had to, And I don't know if Macklemore is religious or anything like that or what it is, but it like it looks unhinged and this actually does speak a lot to why there's so much anti Muslim propaganda because it's like those people aren't unhinged. They will give up anything to save other people. Yeah, he's, I could go on a whole, whole episode just talking about Macklemore. He's very inspirational to me, but I just felt like this was a really, really good example that we're seeing play out in real time right now with the entertainment industry and with impact and what, that you may just be one person, but that doesn't mean that you can't make a difference in whatever way your passions are showing up. Oh, wow. Yeah. You can use your passions to do more and no matter how small it is, it is going to make a difference. and on like a smaller Micro level for smaller businesses like you or me or anything like that. We've talked about this in a Decisions we've made. We've been, we've said, okay, well, we have this amount of funds available. We are able to do XYZ with it. And we've made decisions being like, okay, well, this is all we can do. But if we put it with, we allocate this money to X versus Z. will, our business is going to get the same thing essentially, but it's going to make a bigger impact if we do X. So let's make that work.

Ashley Dreager:

Mm hmm.

Safa Harris:

And so you're, it's able to be at like a very, very small level. So just back to your example for the nail oil, it could be like, okay, well I'm sourcing my nail oil from this one sustainable way. And you are doing that. you're Unique value. It's like, Oh, I have this really great product. And it's like the best nail oil you're ever going to get. It's a little bit more expensive, but it's not killing the rainforest.

Ashley Dreager:

Mm hmm.

Safa Harris:

And people are going to buy from you for that because they're like, Oh, I don't want to kill the rain forest.

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah.

Safa Harris:

Or it could even be like, Hey, I have this nail oil. It's doing all these things, but I am also helping pay for our community to have the best nail oil. Ballet lessons for little girls

Ashley Dreager:

Mm hmm.

Safa Harris:

and people will support that and it's not you didn't create Nail being like nail oil is gonna be the solution to the arts or it's gonna be the solution to the rainforest You're doing your part and finding a way that you can make your impact and even the smallest thing of what? You're able to do in your ability makes a difference And even on, okay, yeah, I'm going to create a business and just sticking with nail oil. Like it doesn't have, I'm going to turn around and do this or do that. But you're like, I'm going to grow my business. It's going to be sustainable. It's going to be for the longterm. And I'm going to create jobs.

Ashley Dreager:

Mm hmm.

Safa Harris:

help people pay their bills because you gave them a job. You're going to help them pay for their little girls ballet lessons.

Ashley Dreager:

Mm hmm.

Safa Harris:

People buying from you is going to help you pay for your little girl's ballet lessons. And that is all social impact. That is all creating, a community impact. Even if you don't feel like, oh, well, it's just, it's just some nail oil. It's so much bigger than that. if things, I don't, I literally can't think of, I just don't surround people with like, who doesn't want to care about those things about other humans? Like, I know they don't because I like see it on my algorithm all the time. People are awful, but like, I just like, like, who doesn't want to like, help someone put food on the table? Like who doesn't want people to starve?

Ashley Dreager:

and

Safa Harris:

I know they exist. Like clearly we're living in that dystopian

Ashley Dreager:

Mm-Hmm.

Safa Harris:

I'm choosing to ignore it in this moment. Like. And if you want to do that, like your business needs to be sustainable, you need to not go for the quick cash grabs. And it's a bigger picture there than just your bank account and you're all of those things and how you're going to make that work. So that's why that's more. important and don't think just because you're small or you don't make that much money or it's like a small business that you're not making an impact. Any small action works. Any small action makes a difference. Um, earlier today I saw some criticism that I wholly did not agree with on with the level of activism people were doing. Um, it was, So I don't know if you've seen it on Instagram stories where it's like, add yours now and it's like the all eyes on Rafa,

Ashley Dreager:

Mm-Hmm. Mm-Hmm.

Safa Harris:

like AI generated thing. And it's like super quick and easy to post it and put it onto your stories. It's a very low bar action. And people were like, Oh, like, you're just going to do that low bar action. Like, that's all you're going to do. Like, what's the point? Like it's X, Y, Z. They had all the reasons, but like someone that may not have posted anything because they feel like it's, they honestly, it's kind of ableist. It's like, what if they don't, one, they don't know how to create content. They don't know how to post it. They, Don't have the mental capacity to do it and figure it out and put all that work in and put the effort in and find all of that or they Yes, it's very easy to reshare some of the images that are coming out But you know people are going to look away if you share it in that story because you know your audience or anything like that You see this and you're like I am so burnt out so depleted that I can't Figure out the best strategic way to do this, but I can click this button make this happen You don't know if you're racist uncle Bob is going to see that and be like, Susie talking about with this? And then like, ask questions, like any effort matters. And like, even the lowest, smallest bar does something. It sets something off. It sets off a domino. So your domino might not look like Taylor Swift's or it might not look like Macklemore's, but it's going to make a difference to someone. And we've seen this with the GoFundMe. Um, pages for personal families that are being shared. People are donating dollars, 50 cents, 5 dollars, and they're raising 20, 30, 100 thousand dollars off of it.

Ashley Dreager:

So something that I

Safa Harris:

Mm hmm. Mm

Ashley Dreager:

mentioned to Justin when we were having this conversation, um, is talking about how little of an effort. That was for Macklemore. I mean, I don't want to discredit like how much effort it takes to produce a song, right? But he put that song out so fast. I mean, if you listen to the lyrics, this was not something that he had necessarily like been working on that one piece for the last eight months, right? So this was a very small effort for him, his life, his platform, his platform. And if you just, if you take that and take that scale on an individual level, it's that reshare, it's that making sure that your business has the profit margins to pay a livable wage. It's, yeah, it's a small effort for you and me, and it may not feel like a big difference today, but if everybody did that, That adds up and it doesn't have to be, well, I can't, yeah, I can't make the same impact that Macklemore can. Obviously I cannot, but as a collective we can and your business could very much be a vehicle for that. And the other thing that I wanted to add was just imagine and taking it one ripple effect beyond You paying your invoices, you paying payroll. Now your employees, your contractors, the people that you are paying and employing, now they have disposable income to donate, to volunteer. They aren't stressed out in survival mode and can think, how hit, maybe I'm going to go spend two hours volunteering at a food bank. Maybe I'm going to donate the extra 35 at the grocery store. For a food bank bag, you know, they are able to, because you did, and then they, that person has a ripple effect that what they donate to can impact more, like, it just goes out further and further and further and further. It doesn't have to be, well, I can't change the world today. You don't have to do what you can

Safa Harris:

hmm.

Ashley Dreager:

the right intentions that, you know, thinking five steps ahead and it's going to have a domino effect. It's going to ripple out.

Safa Harris:

And if we all did it, and I think that's why it's so frustrating. People are so upset at celebrities and influencers that have this account being like, your smallest action is going to 10x my huge lift that I'm doing. And you can't even do that because whoever the billionaire is that's paying you is going to stop paying you. That wouldn't even make a dent in your life. I think that's really where the frustration's going for, but just taking that and reorienting it to yourself, like your impact and your actions make a difference. I don't care if you have 10 followers, it's

Ashley Dreager:

It's still 10 people.

Safa Harris:

but it would be real conversation. And what if you were able to hire those 10 people and they were able to talk to 10 people and they were able to talk to 10 people or they were able to support 10 other small businesses.

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah, it's all because, I mean, it doesn't just end with you. Like you could just be the, the first rock that goes into the lake. And then think about how far out those ripples go, right? Like, And if everybody did that, like, it just compounds.

Safa Harris:

Yep, and that is why We say build a sustainable business build something that's long term because you want to keep Being able to do those ripples and it will make a difference and it is going to come together and don't go for the quick cash grabs Because that can also have like a negative ripple

Ashley Dreager:

Mm hmm.

Safa Harris:

on everyone so everything you do has an impact and we can make a difference Over time with small actions, even if it doesn't seem that huge.

Ashley Dreager:

Mm hmm. And so just to, kind of like, get a little vulnerable with you guys, this is a conversation that we have in, in between, you know, in our, in our WhatsApp. Chat all the time. I mean, I saw a video the other day on Tik TOK where she's like, you know what, what, what does all this matter? Like, does anybody going through life and just feeling like this, why does this matter? Who cares? We have that conversation about our business too. Like the tasks that we have to do to keep the business going. It's like, what does, what is the point? And we have to take that step back and say like, we aren't just a marketing agency. We aren't just here to make more money for people. Like we're here to help small businesses grow to make a bigger impact. Right? Like it's not, it's not just so that we can one day afford a luxury lifestyle and live in these really beautiful mansions and drive these nice cars. Like if that's, if that's what your goal is, if that's what drives you, that's awesome, but we're not just looking at. Uh, what is a consumer, consumerism, what is commodities,

Safa Harris:

I

Ashley Dreager:

what is the word, what is the word I'm looking for?

Safa Harris:

I guess consumerism? I don't know.

Ashley Dreager:

We're not, like, we're not just looking to be able to buy things with the money that our, that our business makes or, you know, so that you can buy things with the money that your business. We want you to have the means to do what you want.

Safa Harris:

and cause that ripple effect.

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah.

Safa Harris:

know for a fact, like for both of us, Even if we made a million dollars today, we're not going to go buy a huge bigger house or new cars or anything like that. That's like, that's definitely not what we would do with the money. For one, we would be like, okay, so like, are we going to donate some of this? Like, what are we going to do? It would have been that conversation and then we would be like, okay, like, spend it on XYZ or whatever. Like, I know for a fact that that would be our conversation. It's like, oh, well, how can we make the biggest difference with what we got? And it's not going to be like, oh, well, I'm going to go buy a bigger house with this down payment now,

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah.

Safa Harris:

because that's

Ashley Dreager:

was,

Safa Harris:

where we're at.

Ashley Dreager:

really wasn't kidding when I said that I wish that I was a millionaire so I could go support all the small businesses at farmer's markets. Like, I would love to take down Megacorps! Like, just support all the small businesses. Because

Safa Harris:

is good.

Ashley Dreager:

you know, if they can produce like products very cheaply, you know, Great Value brand, Kroger brand, relative to, you know, the, the mom and pop shop making those crackers. I mean, obviously the price points can be different, but. But yeah, so, but that would also mean that I need a probably 500 a week grocery budget

Safa Harris:

Yeah.

Ashley Dreager:

to do that.

Safa Harris:

We'll get there.

Ashley Dreager:

But do what you can is this, and don't think that just because it feels like a small action that doesn't have any effect, doesn't mean that that's actually what the impact of it will be. Yeah.

Safa Harris:

And that wraps up another episode of the business millennials podcast. We hope you found this conversation, thought provoking, inspirational, and helps you make a larger impact with your business. Growth is not just about profits or revenue. It's a journey of personal development, contribution, and bettering ourselves in society.

Ashley Dreager:

Our challenge for you take at least one key lesson from our time together today that you can apply, not just to your business. But your relationships, creative expression, wellbeing, and personal evolution to,

Safa Harris:

we appreciate you tuning in. If you enjoyed this show, we invite you to pay it forward, share it with an entrepreneur, creative student, or community leader who needs an infusion of insight or inspiration right now.

Ashley Dreager:

And make sure to subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. So you never miss a single episode. And if you like what you heard, leave us a five star review. See you next week.