Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host with Sean McDonald. I recognize that we all have different definitions of success. For you, it may be the size of your paycheck. Mine is helping people and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and live their very best life. It's time to stop reading other people's success stories. I tell that people, I tell it every episode, and start writing your own. People always talking about purpose and gifts. If you have a gift or purpose, lead with your gift and don't let your friends, family, or co worker stop you from planning or living your dream. As always, I'm excited about about my guests of Money Making Conversation Masterclass, and today I'm even more excited when you sit down and watch a guy do things that you go I think I can do that. Not really, not really. His name is Adam Richmond. He is He made his name on TV as the start of Man Business few that I can't tell you how many episodes I've seen that this guy. He was willing to eat large amounts of food in short periods of time, taking these challenges from various restaurants across the country. To me, it was the world and alas now promoting this new series Adam the eighties, like if you're a video, I got the big old box right here, they sit down here for marketing, and I got all the little goodies that they put in that box. The popular series also another populiceies that he holds on the History Talent called The Food That Built America, which is really really a cool show, is also airing in season three. Both shows us like I said that earlier or on Sunday nights on the History Channel. Now, let's get back to the eighties. That was a decade, you know, when food was all about the flavor. And this ten episode series follows Richmond as he digs into the most nostalgic and you said nostalgic because some of the foods is out today and I'm still eating this. So we're gonna talk about that. So I may I may be a bit of nostalgic and still just don't want to let go, just don't want to let go. But his views were relieved the decade by joining Richmond and journey back to where these brands all began. That's the really cool part about it. We're gonna talk about that during the interview learned about their majing secrets. Never reveal and watch this. Richmond tries versions of products that were never intended for public use. Please Walk with the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. The host of two History Channel shows, My man, Adam Richmond. How are you doing? Adam? Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor. And I'll tell some Adam, I would just go back to a little history. Uh, just becoming a fan of yours. And uh, you know, as a younger guy, you know, people always say, man, you can eat, you can eat, you can eat. Okay, now now know on you. I can't eat. I can't eat. I I consume a nice amount of food. But I would tell you this. I'm gonna tell you this. I okay, how much money I make, I'll still go to buffet's, man, I go to the corral. I'll still roll up in there, man, and in child out. So I enjoy variety, and I still I understand the value of a great steakhouse. But boy, I want to go by our buffet is still enjoy that? What got you into the business, Adam? Well, uh, yeah, I don't eat like that normally. I don't think I don't be here if I. UM. I started acting when I was about nine, and I loved food and I love the language, the story of food, the shared communications through food and stuff like this. But it was always a hobby and advocation. And UM I was told like, I guess many Jews from the Northeast are told like, you're going to become a doctor. And that was the path I was on. And then UM slowly became a little disenchanted with science, fell more in love with languages. I speak French, I speak Hebrew, speak some Japanese. UM. And then UM I but began acting just on my own. I started came out of Emory University in Atlanta. I worked for the Olympics in nineties six and then Atlanta is a great town for a non union actor to start, at least it was in the mid nineties. And so food became a way to support my acting habits. So working at restaurants, working in kitchens, and UM, you end up with two education and simultaneous in arts education in the culinary one and uh, flashing very far forward. I came out of Yale Drama School, UM because I decided that if I got a master's from a good school. At very least I could teach in the arts at the university level and make at least a six figure income and provide for a family and so and so forth. And Mom would get the sticker for the back of her car that said Yale to get the Yale Mom coffee mug. I'm straight. So basically what ended up happening was, UM, I came out of Yale, I was blessed to be signed with the agents, started working, and again the food stuff sort of augmented and supported all the acting stuff. And UM, I read three books in very short succession. But I personally, UM, I consider to be the lynchpins of me achieving a mode of him of success. And I don't get any kind of kick back. I want to make that clear. These are just genuine books I read that helped me. I read a book called The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and then I read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Louise, and then I read a book called The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Loebanstein. Life Design for People. Uh, it's it's called life Design for people with too many passions to pick just one. And UM. In that book There was one particular exercise called the reverse flow chart where you sort of took your passions and your abilities and it helped you kind of ascertain what you are career, couldn't should be. And I knew I had this entertainment skill set and you know, knowledge base and work experience resume, and then I had a culinary one, and I knew that it was the merging of the two that was the thing. And then I just launched myself at every opportunity and opportunity UH came my way, um through one of the agents that I signed with out of graduate school, and I launched myself at it like a juggernaut, Like I just was like, if this is what you want and this is the opportunity. Um. You know, I had studied international studies, so I knew travel was a thing. I had cut formal training as a sushi chef, so I knew that was a thing. And I had a masters from Yell Drama, so a new performance was my thing. So I needed to find a way to fuse travel, food and performance. And when the opportunity came, you just have to come at it, no let up. You just have to put everything you have into those opportunities. And that's that's kind of what I did. Audition, so man versus food? Did you have to like eat food from him? That the rep part of the audition, believe it was. There was no five pound burrito audition. But but the first audition actually you did have to bring some food, but they wanted to see how you could describe flavor and how you made it look when you ate um. Then there were subsequent auditions, interviews, they check your references, and then the final screen test was at CATS's Deli and it was on Balantine's Day of two thousand and eight. And uh, it was me in the final six dudes. And I had a very good mentor when I worked at Actors Theater of Louisville, Kentucky, John Jordy said, an audition is not some kind of new age experience. It's competition. It's a competition. You're there to get a job. There there to get a job, and whether or not you pay your bills in a meaningful manner for the next however long, depends upon how well you fare in this competition. So you can make nice nice with everybody else, but you're there to lock it down and get a damn job. So uh uh. I auditioned and that that final screen test, I had to eat a gigantic double Ruben cries and I'll tell you what. The sandwiches and cats as you're not cheap and I was pretty broke and so being able to get a cat's and sandwich for free, it was pretty dope. That was what Those fries, those fries, and I've been there. That's awesome place. So good. We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. You know the beauty of you as a as a talent, because that explains now how the Indian of the man versus food. Because you always had those little fake press conferences you had to say so and I'm gonna tell you some that that made me a fan of yours because you could you know, you have a siste humor. You know, you didn't take it for real, but it was that it was that personality to the next level. And you always had a nice, charming all and you did they they let's tell you they hired the right person because all those things when you ate. It was a journey, and when you talk to people, you look comfortable, you look like a regular guy. In the end, it was a spoof having people I could like ask you questions and things like that. So really that was the pasona that you built out and you became this connoisseur, this star of consuming food. But really you was an entertainer to me, you know, because I could see you being a game show host easily, and I'm pretty sure you've done that in your lifetime. But the thing about it, but right now, and you're in this food industry. And then so a little background on me is that when I when I heard about the show, you know, out of each the eighties, in six I was working for IBM and had my math degree. Everybody thought I was gonna stay at IBM, but I wanted to pursue a career as a stand up comedian, and so I left IBM and so shocked everybody to pursue a career and stand up comedian. Well, I was a road comedian. So when you start talking about at the eighties, I was out. They're consuming Roy Rogers. I was there, brother, I was there, you know. So so this this is the fun journey for me, and just interviewing you was kind of like, wow, I did that. Oh yeah, I remember that. But when when I saw Roy Rogers, that really hit home for me. So just just talk about being involved in this series. You know, you got this serious about the Food That Built America. But just talk about a little about this show. And I'm gonna throwing my little comments here in there because I kind of like experienced this because I was on the road in the eighties and stuff. I love it. Yeah, Roy Rogers owned the car for sure. That's that was there. That was their domain for sure. Well, so the two shows are so fascinating because they sort of compliment each other just you do. Um and so Food That Built America it's one of the most inspiring ones for me personally. And I'm not saying that because a minute or minute, um, these men and women bet on themselves, bet on themselves when the world bet against them, when common sense met against them, And I think there's a lesson in that. But also Bill Maher once said, we live in a guitar hero culture where everybody wants to play the solo, but nobody wants to learn the chords. And I think that these are people that spend time in the trenches and you don't realize how much sweat equity. You know, people hear about the success, but they don't really pay attention to what it took to get there. And I think that that's that's the coolest part. And so for me the other aspects, I love those little bits of nickel knowledge where you uh know, that little factoid about that cookie or that symbol or that company and it's something interesting. So to look at the new Wendy's logo and see the word Mom hidden in the ruffles of Wendy's shirt because they want to evoke Mom's home cooking. Or the fact that the Oreo cookie came after the Hydros and the symbol on that cookie actually comes from this medieval guild symbol. Or even the fact that whilely Amos, a famous Amos was an agent at William Morris, discovered Simon and Garf uncle and got one of the first loans to start his business from Marvin Gay. All those cool little facts, I just think you get a deeper appreciation of the culinary world around us. It's beautifully shot, and whether it's this season, whether it's beer, whether it's bread, whether it's sweets, whether it's um, casual dining. I think that there is something for everyone. There is something will connect with everyone, male entrepreneurs, female, black, white, Asian. I think that it's remarkable. The other thing that And then again for me, I was born in seventy four, so the these were my decade. And uh, you know, you remember stuff from when you're six years old, So I remember where this eighty and Reagan was in the White House. Let me slap because I want to get off that the show The Food that Built America that that was because you know, because of the fact that you know, I'm I'm a fan of like those ripley believe it in the nots and this is kind of like that, but for food, you know, because you don't believe that this actually happened this way, Like he was talking about uh, famous aimers, and like several years ago he had contacted these people, contacted me about doing a documentary and and so like I said, the whole Marvin Ya, he told me that whole story and the fact that you know, his cookies don't look like cookies, they like really like like a quarter of a cookie. And he said that was right like a little you know, it's like, you know, if you the way we consume cookies nowadays, he almost looked like chips. And the fact that he was able to pull that off. He was talking about going from car to car. The whole back story read like you say, it is really compelling because you go as an entrepreneur, there was before social media, before the internet. These are just people sometimes going from you know, store to store or person to person to to get their word out. And then the brand just took off of all those stories. Because there's a lot it's the third season. What's the most compelling is that the individual or is the product that they have to come up question? I think it's the effort of the individual. I think you have to have a product that you believe in that goes without saying. And I'm very impressed by when you look at everyone from Campbell's soup to the lady that founded Pepage Farm, there was an uncompromising level of standards that, um, both inspires me, it makes me feel a little bit of corners sometimes I'll be honest with you, but um, I think that every single it's like what's that old line from the old old song they all after Christopher Columbus. But I feel that this is very much the case. So I feel that it's the individual. I feel that um, hard work and determinational loan or omnipotent as it seems. And and I'll say, you know, because that's the thing. Right. While he amos had an original cookie, a good cookie, a great personality, but by his own admission a businessman, he was none. And he's scaled up, uh, devoid of a business plan to match that scale. Decisions were made, fiscal decisions were made, um that were ill advised, you know, to be in a difficult location at a walking ball in Arizona with no air conditioning, Like it's just poor forethought. And you know, you have an entrepreneur. And let's also be honest, an African American entrepreneur in the eighties who who sadly can now no longer even use his own face and name on a hot he created with his aunt as a child. And that's profoundly tragic. But uh, there's a playwright named Stephen Diets and he wrote an essay called an audience Manifesto, and he said, if the artist trips, we know to jump. If the artist hits their head. We know two duck. And I think that that's where Wally Amos is worth his weight in gold, is that he is such a warm, wonderful Zen's type of individual that despite the slings and arrows. I mean, my god, who would think Whally Amos could go on Shark Tank and not get a deal and that happened. And yet um, he's very forthcoming because you know he got that deal with I believe it was Bloomingdale's and he was in all these stores and didn't have a production fills. He couldn't scale to meet the demand. And then the flip side, you know, we juxtaposed this in food that built America is Debbie Field. And we could also acknowledge that the eighties and I say this as you know, the son of a very strong stepmom and mom who hit their head on that glass ceiling several times. Is straight up like for women as entrepreneurs in the eighties, it was not a warm, welcoming time. And Debbie Field, I think, if I'm not mistaken, she had something like a twenty one percent interest rate on her first loan and she said it was the best money she could ever get because it was the only money she Her husband leveraged his house, but Debbie Field kept it small till it was a proven concept. She actually walked the streets of Paolo Alto. She wasn't selling as much as she felt she could. And you know what I said about betting on yourself. Someone made a really harsh comment to her at a dinner party, saying how she had this stupid pipe dreams. She was a beautiful woman, still is, but a beautiful woman, and so they thought she was just this pretty housewife. And she locked up the shop, took samples on a tray, pounded the pavement, built the ground swell, built the demand, and her husband was At the time of the eighties, they called it an economic futurist. What we call today is I t He realized that she could exert quality control, maintained proprietary UM recipes, UM track, you know, losses and gains and whatever through a computer, and it changed the game. And I feel that's why I talk about the individual. They both had great cookies. One of them had a better business plan. Absolutely in Subway had great Both have decent sandwiches. Subway you scientific method and blew them off the bat. Absolutely We'll be right back with more money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. You know the fun part about the eighties show, you know, because was on the road out there doing my thing, and even when I go in the airport, you know, I said, Annie end, you know, I will stop and give me that lemonade. That's what I do. I get, I get a plane one and give me a lemonade. And brother, I am happy. I'm walking down. I'll take it on the plane. I don't care. From the first class. I got my Auntie Auntie ms into that, and I'm excited the same thing with Center Bons and when they came out with the minis, but we all started with the Center Bonds and then the Mr T s. It was just it was just a flood of just stuff coming to me. Go oh YEA forgot about that Mr T And then and then and then they said, just package about the bubble gum that you too at one time. All the sweet goes away. It was just it was just a fun stuff. But the point that really got to me that when I was doing a background on this was the fact that I didn't know that the McDonald's flies were prepared a different way and then and then they changed the syrup on the coat. Talk about that type of information that you're getting out of that show that right, there's a lot of hot moments in that or oh I didn't know absolutely absolutely so yes, So moving to the other show out of meets the eighties, we look at this incredibly dynamic, energetic, wild wildly innovative decade through the prism of food, right, and like you said, we will basically go to the origin story for these brands that came out in the eighties and became national and global icons like Cinnabon and Anti Ann's, you know, and and so on and so forth. Um, and then look at things that appeared in the eighties and maybe disappear so un those breakfast right, exactly exactly right. And obviously, because you know, you're incredibly you know, brilliant man with the head for numbers, you understand that. Um, you know, when Reagan switched to supply side economics, economics floods the economy with money until the recessions in the nineties, and uh, and then everyone wears flannel and gets tribal tattoos. But until then it was big shoulder pads, big hair jay ones, you know, Bo Jackson Cross traders. Right in the eighties was unlike today. You didn't necessarily have to have nutritional info on your food. You did not have to have calories at fast food restaurants. There was no real concentration unless it was medically ordained or religiously specified. I think you needed to be vegan, vegetarian, paleo, keto, whole thirty five to you know all these other atkins not a thing. A diet culture emerged in the eighties, but it was fat, fat fat. It was Jane Fonda's work out, the grapefruit diet in the Beverly Hills. Because I was a Jane Fonda, I had to. I had. I had the VHS taps and the beata my step my stepmom, and I was a little chovy kid my stepmom. No leg warmers though, because you know that's child abuse. But I was just gonna tell you because I was, I had to leg warmers because I was, I was an instructor. Adam you talk to in the world here, I love you probably look good at that. I would look I want I want to look like a little decorated hippo. And then then the other thing is if you were called there was that show for broadcast TV, Richard Simmons had Healthy Eating. There was a guy Captain Kangaroo and other shows called Slim Goodbody who would wear a suit where you could see organs stuff. And so there was this this effort because by the eighties people were watching roughly eight hours of television. Today, Um, you had a whole generation of latch key kids. As two parent families, two parent working families became the norm. Women had room in the workplace that they never did before. Um, there was a one third increase of white collar workers. You had parents gone. Plus you had the invention of the microwave, which allows children the ability to cook, parents to prepare meals incredibly quickly, gives company is a new avenue for revenue, allows a whole other market for leftovers and home delivery because it doesn't take a whole production to reheat something or remake something or reconstitute something. And um, you know, and then with all the fluctuating economic stuff, there was a new pivot. So bringing it to what you said about Coca Cola and McDonald's French fries. So and well, this is so cool because we went to this food lab called Mats and Labs in northern California, just south of San Francisco, and it's just's relatively close to San Jose and it's um just spectacular and quite frankly. I mean, these guys have developed everything from like the frappuccino, some of the nut milks you've seen. But it's a food lab. These are two food scientists. And what happened was in the eighties there was a millionaire who had had a heart attack and his doctors cautioned him about fast food. He spent his money on this crusade to health if I fast food And one of the things they talked about was how McDonald's would fry their french fries and beef tallow, which is solidified beef fat. And it's still done in England. If you've ever had a roast dinner anywhere at a pub or at a restaurant in England, Uh, they use duck fat um every gastro pub and their mama that serves Brussels sprouts, said Patte or whatever they do a duck fat fry. So frying in suet or tallow is very, very common, but it's way more saturated fat. Remember, if any animal product has cholesterol, any plant product doesn't. So you could eat a pound of vegan cheese, you may have, you know, taken in quite a bit of fat, but you will have taken in no cholesterol. And basically he started this crusade. And strangely enough, all the restaurants, both McDonald's Burger King pivoted on the same day away from beef tallo and began frying in a beef flavored vegetable oil. Um. The other thing is, as you mentioned Coca Cola. Now, being a former Atlanta boy myself and having gone to Emery, my father may rest in peace with my pop right here. Uh, I'll never forget. Um I was down to I was deciding between three schools. I was deciding between University Chicago, Washington, University St. Louis, actually four schools, Union College and Schenectady and Emery and I UM. I it was pretty gung ho about Emery because by then I knew that if I were there in nine six, I was at least going to be there for the Olympics. And I'm an Olympics junkie, and as it turned out, in nine six, I had a Super Bowl, a World Series, and an Olympics. Deltas, Xerox, and Coke all had headquarters there, so I thought it increased the likelihood of employment opportunities very least internship opportunities, because those companies are big enough that if I decided marketing, they all have a big marketing. I decided pr they all had a big pr wing. Anyway, without getting too far up my own butt hole and that stuff, you know, so my pop may rest in piece. I remember Emery and this proud What a great school. Oh my gosh, if he wants to be a doctor, he could Emory University Hospital system is brilliant. They doing these things and so and so forth. And then my pop calls me. It's like we need to talk. I said why, He said, why do they call it coke? You? I was like, that's nothing to do with scar phase, dad, CoA like my dorm is called dobbs. Like this dog can't wonder if like, nothing nothing to do with cocaine, I promised you at all. Like ever, I'm like seven up with that, dad. I've never had it, never will, like no, no, and uh, but that's so uh as anyone in Atlanta knows, there's ever gone to the world of coca cola. Um, it's a recipe. The actual recipe for coca cola dates back to a Civil War veteran named Do Pemberton Um. And much like all the great sodas were right there were medicine topics like dr pepper and pepsi gets its name because they thought it cured pepsis or just pepsia and um. So coca cola had always been sweet with sugar with sucros um. What happened was and this is what's so cool about doing a show about the eighties and the eighties, between sugar prices, rising hurricanes decimating huge swaths of the sugar crops in Caribbean and so and so forth, even limiting beet sugars that we had at home. Robert Gizutta, who is a chemist, pivots to high fructost corn syrup, realizes he could achieve the same bricks b r i X sweetness le hole, but spend a fraction of what sucros costs. So make a cola that tastes the same, just the sweet for a fraction of the price. Shareholders saw profits like they've never seen. Goy's wedding, gets made CEO of the business school at every named after the dude, and uh where I took financial accounting and man, let me tell you, I was so bad at that. But so that's what Coca Cola did. And that was, um, the first pivot, and then we began to see, uh, the the rise of the artificial sweetener incorporated in this series, in the storytelling and things like that, you know, some Adam and sinking to Adam Richmond here, Adam. The amazing thing about it you can you can produce these shows and is who is telling the story. You are a great storyteller, my friends. I want to make sure you get that out of this interview. Uh, you just engage you man, and I I feel fortunately this is like you know, I I ain't if you're a lot of people. And my wife was here, she tell you, yeah, he watches him. That's that's you know, because in the fact I enjoy you and uh, you're doing something I can never do, but it's entertainment and you do it from an entertainment perspective, and and really interviewing you on the show today. That allows me to understand you a lot more. Not saying I was confused by you, but you know your background, your intellect, you know your worldliness. It all shows across on the screen and it comes across as effortless. And so because of that, that comes from the person who's comfortable with himself, has been around and done the things that are fun for him. And my big take away is, you know when I look at people in life, and I tell people all the time, do what makes you happy? And and and like I said, I left a math degree or IBM career and wanted to tell jokes. And I've been rolling down that direction all my life. And you have two shows on television now. You can't go wrong with that. Adam each Stades. I got my little box. I got it in my cap. You know I got my I will tell you what I'm I got. I got two Emmis, I got three N Double A C Image Awards, and I got this right next to them. Okay, that's how much I think of your brother. The only thing I'm missing, the only thing I'm missing, Adam, is your autograph. So I'm hoping one day you come through Atlanta, I find out and it's gonna be a six ft black man in the suit back there holding this box. Adam, Adam. I need your signature, brother, I need your signature. Listen, you got that, no problem, man. I would just for the base of it, at me what I would do the screw of the name. Play That's Coming band is a lifetime goodness brother. On the History chapter every Sunday, Adam each eighties and The Food That Built America hosted by my man Adam Richmond. Thank you, Adam,

Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host with Sean McDonald. I recognize that we all have different definitions of success. For you, it may be the size of your paycheck. Mine is helping people and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and live their very best life. It's time to stop reading other people's success stories. I tell that people, I tell it every episode, and start writing your own. People always talking about purpose and gifts. If you have a gift or purpose, lead with your gift and don't let your friends, family, or co worker stop you from planning or living your dream. As always, I'm excited about about my guests of Money Making Conversation Masterclass, and today I'm even more excited when you sit down and watch a guy do things that you go I think I can do that. Not really, not really. His name is Adam Richmond. He is He made his name on TV as the start of Man Business few that I can't tell you how many episodes I've seen that this guy. He was willing to eat large amounts of food in short periods of time, taking these challenges from various restaurants across the country. To me, it was the world and alas now promoting this new series Adam the eighties, like if you're a video, I got the big old box right here, they sit down here for marketing, and I got all the little goodies that they put in that box. The popular series also another populiceies that he holds on the History Talent called The Food That Built America, which is really really a cool show, is also airing in season three. Both shows us like I said that earlier or on Sunday nights on the History Channel. Now, let's get back to the eighties. That was a decade, you know, when food was all about the flavor. And this ten episode series follows Richmond as he digs into the most nostalgic and you said nostalgic because some of the foods is out today and I'm still eating this. So we're gonna talk about that. So I may I may be a bit of nostalgic and still just don't want to let go, just don't want to let go. But his views were relieved the decade by joining Richmond and journey back to where these brands all began. That's the really cool part about it. We're gonna talk about that during the interview learned about their majing secrets. Never reveal and watch this. Richmond tries versions of products that were never intended for public use. Please Walk with the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. The host of two History Channel shows, My man, Adam Richmond. How are you doing? Adam? Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor. And I'll tell some Adam, I would just go back to a little history. Uh, just becoming a fan of yours. And uh, you know, as a younger guy, you know, people always say, man, you can eat, you can eat, you can eat. Okay, now now know on you. I can't eat. I can't eat. I I consume a nice amount of food. But I would tell you this. I'm gonna tell you this. I okay, how much money I make, I'll still go to buffet's, man, I go to the corral. I'll still roll up in there, man, and in child out. So I enjoy variety, and I still I understand the value of a great steakhouse. But boy, I want to go by our buffet is still enjoy that? What got you into the business, Adam? Well, uh, yeah, I don't eat like that normally. I don't think I don't be here if I. UM. I started acting when I was about nine, and I loved food and I love the language, the story of food, the shared communications through food and stuff like this. But it was always a hobby and advocation. And UM I was told like, I guess many Jews from the Northeast are told like, you're going to become a doctor. And that was the path I was on. And then UM slowly became a little disenchanted with science, fell more in love with languages. I speak French, I speak Hebrew, speak some Japanese. UM. And then UM I but began acting just on my own. I started came out of Emory University in Atlanta. I worked for the Olympics in nineties six and then Atlanta is a great town for a non union actor to start, at least it was in the mid nineties. And so food became a way to support my acting habits. So working at restaurants, working in kitchens, and UM, you end up with two education and simultaneous in arts education in the culinary one and uh, flashing very far forward. I came out of Yale Drama School, UM because I decided that if I got a master's from a good school. At very least I could teach in the arts at the university level and make at least a six figure income and provide for a family and so and so forth. And Mom would get the sticker for the back of her car that said Yale to get the Yale Mom coffee mug. I'm straight. So basically what ended up happening was, UM, I came out of Yale, I was blessed to be signed with the agents, started working, and again the food stuff sort of augmented and supported all the acting stuff. And UM, I read three books in very short succession. But I personally, UM, I consider to be the lynchpins of me achieving a mode of him of success. And I don't get any kind of kick back. I want to make that clear. These are just genuine books I read that helped me. I read a book called The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and then I read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Louise, and then I read a book called The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Loebanstein. Life Design for People. Uh, it's it's called life Design for people with too many passions to pick just one. And UM. In that book There was one particular exercise called the reverse flow chart where you sort of took your passions and your abilities and it helped you kind of ascertain what you are career, couldn't should be. And I knew I had this entertainment skill set and you know, knowledge base and work experience resume, and then I had a culinary one, and I knew that it was the merging of the two that was the thing. And then I just launched myself at every opportunity and opportunity UH came my way, um through one of the agents that I signed with out of graduate school, and I launched myself at it like a juggernaut, Like I just was like, if this is what you want and this is the opportunity. Um. You know, I had studied international studies, so I knew travel was a thing. I had cut formal training as a sushi chef, so I knew that was a thing. And I had a masters from Yell Drama, so a new performance was my thing. So I needed to find a way to fuse travel, food and performance. And when the opportunity came, you just have to come at it, no let up. You just have to put everything you have into those opportunities. And that's that's kind of what I did. Audition, so man versus food? Did you have to like eat food from him? That the rep part of the audition, believe it was. There was no five pound burrito audition. But but the first audition actually you did have to bring some food, but they wanted to see how you could describe flavor and how you made it look when you ate um. Then there were subsequent auditions, interviews, they check your references, and then the final screen test was at CATS's Deli and it was on Balantine's Day of two thousand and eight. And uh, it was me in the final six dudes. And I had a very good mentor when I worked at Actors Theater of Louisville, Kentucky, John Jordy said, an audition is not some kind of new age experience. It's competition. It's a competition. You're there to get a job. There there to get a job, and whether or not you pay your bills in a meaningful manner for the next however long, depends upon how well you fare in this competition. So you can make nice nice with everybody else, but you're there to lock it down and get a damn job. So uh uh. I auditioned and that that final screen test, I had to eat a gigantic double Ruben cries and I'll tell you what. The sandwiches and cats as you're not cheap and I was pretty broke and so being able to get a cat's and sandwich for free, it was pretty dope. That was what Those fries, those fries, and I've been there. That's awesome place. So good. We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. You know the beauty of you as a as a talent, because that explains now how the Indian of the man versus food. Because you always had those little fake press conferences you had to say so and I'm gonna tell you some that that made me a fan of yours because you could you know, you have a siste humor. You know, you didn't take it for real, but it was that it was that personality to the next level. And you always had a nice, charming all and you did they they let's tell you they hired the right person because all those things when you ate. It was a journey, and when you talk to people, you look comfortable, you look like a regular guy. In the end, it was a spoof having people I could like ask you questions and things like that. So really that was the pasona that you built out and you became this connoisseur, this star of consuming food. But really you was an entertainer to me, you know, because I could see you being a game show host easily, and I'm pretty sure you've done that in your lifetime. But the thing about it, but right now, and you're in this food industry. And then so a little background on me is that when I when I heard about the show, you know, out of each the eighties, in six I was working for IBM and had my math degree. Everybody thought I was gonna stay at IBM, but I wanted to pursue a career as a stand up comedian, and so I left IBM and so shocked everybody to pursue a career and stand up comedian. Well, I was a road comedian. So when you start talking about at the eighties, I was out. They're consuming Roy Rogers. I was there, brother, I was there, you know. So so this this is the fun journey for me, and just interviewing you was kind of like, wow, I did that. Oh yeah, I remember that. But when when I saw Roy Rogers, that really hit home for me. So just just talk about being involved in this series. You know, you got this serious about the Food That Built America. But just talk about a little about this show. And I'm gonna throwing my little comments here in there because I kind of like experienced this because I was on the road in the eighties and stuff. I love it. Yeah, Roy Rogers owned the car for sure. That's that was there. That was their domain for sure. Well, so the two shows are so fascinating because they sort of compliment each other just you do. Um and so Food That Built America it's one of the most inspiring ones for me personally. And I'm not saying that because a minute or minute, um, these men and women bet on themselves, bet on themselves when the world bet against them, when common sense met against them, And I think there's a lesson in that. But also Bill Maher once said, we live in a guitar hero culture where everybody wants to play the solo, but nobody wants to learn the chords. And I think that these are people that spend time in the trenches and you don't realize how much sweat equity. You know, people hear about the success, but they don't really pay attention to what it took to get there. And I think that that's that's the coolest part. And so for me the other aspects, I love those little bits of nickel knowledge where you uh know, that little factoid about that cookie or that symbol or that company and it's something interesting. So to look at the new Wendy's logo and see the word Mom hidden in the ruffles of Wendy's shirt because they want to evoke Mom's home cooking. Or the fact that the Oreo cookie came after the Hydros and the symbol on that cookie actually comes from this medieval guild symbol. Or even the fact that whilely Amos, a famous Amos was an agent at William Morris, discovered Simon and Garf uncle and got one of the first loans to start his business from Marvin Gay. All those cool little facts, I just think you get a deeper appreciation of the culinary world around us. It's beautifully shot, and whether it's this season, whether it's beer, whether it's bread, whether it's sweets, whether it's um, casual dining. I think that there is something for everyone. There is something will connect with everyone, male entrepreneurs, female, black, white, Asian. I think that it's remarkable. The other thing that And then again for me, I was born in seventy four, so the these were my decade. And uh, you know, you remember stuff from when you're six years old, So I remember where this eighty and Reagan was in the White House. Let me slap because I want to get off that the show The Food that Built America that that was because you know, because of the fact that you know, I'm I'm a fan of like those ripley believe it in the nots and this is kind of like that, but for food, you know, because you don't believe that this actually happened this way, Like he was talking about uh, famous aimers, and like several years ago he had contacted these people, contacted me about doing a documentary and and so like I said, the whole Marvin Ya, he told me that whole story and the fact that you know, his cookies don't look like cookies, they like really like like a quarter of a cookie. And he said that was right like a little you know, it's like, you know, if you the way we consume cookies nowadays, he almost looked like chips. And the fact that he was able to pull that off. He was talking about going from car to car. The whole back story read like you say, it is really compelling because you go as an entrepreneur, there was before social media, before the internet. These are just people sometimes going from you know, store to store or person to person to to get their word out. And then the brand just took off of all those stories. Because there's a lot it's the third season. What's the most compelling is that the individual or is the product that they have to come up question? I think it's the effort of the individual. I think you have to have a product that you believe in that goes without saying. And I'm very impressed by when you look at everyone from Campbell's soup to the lady that founded Pepage Farm, there was an uncompromising level of standards that, um, both inspires me, it makes me feel a little bit of corners sometimes I'll be honest with you, but um, I think that every single it's like what's that old line from the old old song they all after Christopher Columbus. But I feel that this is very much the case. So I feel that it's the individual. I feel that um, hard work and determinational loan or omnipotent as it seems. And and I'll say, you know, because that's the thing. Right. While he amos had an original cookie, a good cookie, a great personality, but by his own admission a businessman, he was none. And he's scaled up, uh, devoid of a business plan to match that scale. Decisions were made, fiscal decisions were made, um that were ill advised, you know, to be in a difficult location at a walking ball in Arizona with no air conditioning, Like it's just poor forethought. And you know, you have an entrepreneur. And let's also be honest, an African American entrepreneur in the eighties who who sadly can now no longer even use his own face and name on a hot he created with his aunt as a child. And that's profoundly tragic. But uh, there's a playwright named Stephen Diets and he wrote an essay called an audience Manifesto, and he said, if the artist trips, we know to jump. If the artist hits their head. We know two duck. And I think that that's where Wally Amos is worth his weight in gold, is that he is such a warm, wonderful Zen's type of individual that despite the slings and arrows. I mean, my god, who would think Whally Amos could go on Shark Tank and not get a deal and that happened. And yet um, he's very forthcoming because you know he got that deal with I believe it was Bloomingdale's and he was in all these stores and didn't have a production fills. He couldn't scale to meet the demand. And then the flip side, you know, we juxtaposed this in food that built America is Debbie Field. And we could also acknowledge that the eighties and I say this as you know, the son of a very strong stepmom and mom who hit their head on that glass ceiling several times. Is straight up like for women as entrepreneurs in the eighties, it was not a warm, welcoming time. And Debbie Field, I think, if I'm not mistaken, she had something like a twenty one percent interest rate on her first loan and she said it was the best money she could ever get because it was the only money she Her husband leveraged his house, but Debbie Field kept it small till it was a proven concept. She actually walked the streets of Paolo Alto. She wasn't selling as much as she felt she could. And you know what I said about betting on yourself. Someone made a really harsh comment to her at a dinner party, saying how she had this stupid pipe dreams. She was a beautiful woman, still is, but a beautiful woman, and so they thought she was just this pretty housewife. And she locked up the shop, took samples on a tray, pounded the pavement, built the ground swell, built the demand, and her husband was At the time of the eighties, they called it an economic futurist. What we call today is I t He realized that she could exert quality control, maintained proprietary UM recipes, UM track, you know, losses and gains and whatever through a computer, and it changed the game. And I feel that's why I talk about the individual. They both had great cookies. One of them had a better business plan. Absolutely in Subway had great Both have decent sandwiches. Subway you scientific method and blew them off the bat. Absolutely We'll be right back with more money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. You know the fun part about the eighties show, you know, because was on the road out there doing my thing, and even when I go in the airport, you know, I said, Annie end, you know, I will stop and give me that lemonade. That's what I do. I get, I get a plane one and give me a lemonade. And brother, I am happy. I'm walking down. I'll take it on the plane. I don't care. From the first class. I got my Auntie Auntie ms into that, and I'm excited the same thing with Center Bons and when they came out with the minis, but we all started with the Center Bonds and then the Mr T s. It was just it was just a flood of just stuff coming to me. Go oh YEA forgot about that Mr T And then and then and then they said, just package about the bubble gum that you too at one time. All the sweet goes away. It was just it was just a fun stuff. But the point that really got to me that when I was doing a background on this was the fact that I didn't know that the McDonald's flies were prepared a different way and then and then they changed the syrup on the coat. Talk about that type of information that you're getting out of that show that right, there's a lot of hot moments in that or oh I didn't know absolutely absolutely so yes, So moving to the other show out of meets the eighties, we look at this incredibly dynamic, energetic, wild wildly innovative decade through the prism of food, right, and like you said, we will basically go to the origin story for these brands that came out in the eighties and became national and global icons like Cinnabon and Anti Ann's, you know, and and so on and so forth. Um, and then look at things that appeared in the eighties and maybe disappear so un those breakfast right, exactly exactly right. And obviously, because you know, you're incredibly you know, brilliant man with the head for numbers, you understand that. Um, you know, when Reagan switched to supply side economics, economics floods the economy with money until the recessions in the nineties, and uh, and then everyone wears flannel and gets tribal tattoos. But until then it was big shoulder pads, big hair jay ones, you know, Bo Jackson Cross traders. Right in the eighties was unlike today. You didn't necessarily have to have nutritional info on your food. You did not have to have calories at fast food restaurants. There was no real concentration unless it was medically ordained or religiously specified. I think you needed to be vegan, vegetarian, paleo, keto, whole thirty five to you know all these other atkins not a thing. A diet culture emerged in the eighties, but it was fat, fat fat. It was Jane Fonda's work out, the grapefruit diet in the Beverly Hills. Because I was a Jane Fonda, I had to. I had. I had the VHS taps and the beata my step my stepmom, and I was a little chovy kid my stepmom. No leg warmers though, because you know that's child abuse. But I was just gonna tell you because I was, I had to leg warmers because I was, I was an instructor. Adam you talk to in the world here, I love you probably look good at that. I would look I want I want to look like a little decorated hippo. And then then the other thing is if you were called there was that show for broadcast TV, Richard Simmons had Healthy Eating. There was a guy Captain Kangaroo and other shows called Slim Goodbody who would wear a suit where you could see organs stuff. And so there was this this effort because by the eighties people were watching roughly eight hours of television. Today, Um, you had a whole generation of latch key kids. As two parent families, two parent working families became the norm. Women had room in the workplace that they never did before. Um, there was a one third increase of white collar workers. You had parents gone. Plus you had the invention of the microwave, which allows children the ability to cook, parents to prepare meals incredibly quickly, gives company is a new avenue for revenue, allows a whole other market for leftovers and home delivery because it doesn't take a whole production to reheat something or remake something or reconstitute something. And um, you know, and then with all the fluctuating economic stuff, there was a new pivot. So bringing it to what you said about Coca Cola and McDonald's French fries. So and well, this is so cool because we went to this food lab called Mats and Labs in northern California, just south of San Francisco, and it's just's relatively close to San Jose and it's um just spectacular and quite frankly. I mean, these guys have developed everything from like the frappuccino, some of the nut milks you've seen. But it's a food lab. These are two food scientists. And what happened was in the eighties there was a millionaire who had had a heart attack and his doctors cautioned him about fast food. He spent his money on this crusade to health if I fast food And one of the things they talked about was how McDonald's would fry their french fries and beef tallow, which is solidified beef fat. And it's still done in England. If you've ever had a roast dinner anywhere at a pub or at a restaurant in England, Uh, they use duck fat um every gastro pub and their mama that serves Brussels sprouts, said Patte or whatever they do a duck fat fry. So frying in suet or tallow is very, very common, but it's way more saturated fat. Remember, if any animal product has cholesterol, any plant product doesn't. So you could eat a pound of vegan cheese, you may have, you know, taken in quite a bit of fat, but you will have taken in no cholesterol. And basically he started this crusade. And strangely enough, all the restaurants, both McDonald's Burger King pivoted on the same day away from beef tallo and began frying in a beef flavored vegetable oil. Um. The other thing is, as you mentioned Coca Cola. Now, being a former Atlanta boy myself and having gone to Emery, my father may rest in peace with my pop right here. Uh, I'll never forget. Um I was down to I was deciding between three schools. I was deciding between University Chicago, Washington, University St. Louis, actually four schools, Union College and Schenectady and Emery and I UM. I it was pretty gung ho about Emery because by then I knew that if I were there in nine six, I was at least going to be there for the Olympics. And I'm an Olympics junkie, and as it turned out, in nine six, I had a Super Bowl, a World Series, and an Olympics. Deltas, Xerox, and Coke all had headquarters there, so I thought it increased the likelihood of employment opportunities very least internship opportunities, because those companies are big enough that if I decided marketing, they all have a big marketing. I decided pr they all had a big pr wing. Anyway, without getting too far up my own butt hole and that stuff, you know, so my pop may rest in piece. I remember Emery and this proud What a great school. Oh my gosh, if he wants to be a doctor, he could Emory University Hospital system is brilliant. They doing these things and so and so forth. And then my pop calls me. It's like we need to talk. I said why, He said, why do they call it coke? You? I was like, that's nothing to do with scar phase, dad, CoA like my dorm is called dobbs. Like this dog can't wonder if like, nothing nothing to do with cocaine, I promised you at all. Like ever, I'm like seven up with that, dad. I've never had it, never will, like no, no, and uh, but that's so uh as anyone in Atlanta knows, there's ever gone to the world of coca cola. Um, it's a recipe. The actual recipe for coca cola dates back to a Civil War veteran named Do Pemberton Um. And much like all the great sodas were right there were medicine topics like dr pepper and pepsi gets its name because they thought it cured pepsis or just pepsia and um. So coca cola had always been sweet with sugar with sucros um. What happened was and this is what's so cool about doing a show about the eighties and the eighties, between sugar prices, rising hurricanes decimating huge swaths of the sugar crops in Caribbean and so and so forth, even limiting beet sugars that we had at home. Robert Gizutta, who is a chemist, pivots to high fructost corn syrup, realizes he could achieve the same bricks b r i X sweetness le hole, but spend a fraction of what sucros costs. So make a cola that tastes the same, just the sweet for a fraction of the price. Shareholders saw profits like they've never seen. Goy's wedding, gets made CEO of the business school at every named after the dude, and uh where I took financial accounting and man, let me tell you, I was so bad at that. But so that's what Coca Cola did. And that was, um, the first pivot, and then we began to see, uh, the the rise of the artificial sweetener incorporated in this series, in the storytelling and things like that, you know, some Adam and sinking to Adam Richmond here, Adam. The amazing thing about it you can you can produce these shows and is who is telling the story. You are a great storyteller, my friends. I want to make sure you get that out of this interview. Uh, you just engage you man, and I I feel fortunately this is like you know, I I ain't if you're a lot of people. And my wife was here, she tell you, yeah, he watches him. That's that's you know, because in the fact I enjoy you and uh, you're doing something I can never do, but it's entertainment and you do it from an entertainment perspective, and and really interviewing you on the show today. That allows me to understand you a lot more. Not saying I was confused by you, but you know your background, your intellect, you know your worldliness. It all shows across on the screen and it comes across as effortless. And so because of that, that comes from the person who's comfortable with himself, has been around and done the things that are fun for him. And my big take away is, you know when I look at people in life, and I tell people all the time, do what makes you happy? And and and like I said, I left a math degree or IBM career and wanted to tell jokes. And I've been rolling down that direction all my life. And you have two shows on television now. You can't go wrong with that. Adam each Stades. I got my little box. I got it in my cap. You know I got my I will tell you what I'm I got. I got two Emmis, I got three N Double A C Image Awards, and I got this right next to them. Okay, that's how much I think of your brother. The only thing I'm missing, the only thing I'm missing, Adam, is your autograph. So I'm hoping one day you come through Atlanta, I find out and it's gonna be a six ft black man in the suit back there holding this box. Adam, Adam. I need your signature, brother, I need your signature. Listen, you got that, no problem, man. I would just for the base of it, at me what I would do the screw of the name. Play That's Coming band is a lifetime goodness brother. On the History chapter every Sunday, Adam each eighties and The Food That Built America hosted by my man Adam Richmond. Thank you, Adam,