Business advice for women, cherry stem trick

Hello world, this is the Sydney Silver Show. This is a show designed to piss y'all off, to make y'all love each other. That's right, friends. Time to duke it out and then have lots of great makeup, sex, and loads of kisses. This is my co-hostess, Tiffany Toney. Whatever I say she disagrees with, she's going to sit there and fight with me. And we did have a big fight the other night, didn't we? Oh my God. Oh, it was bad. It was bad. But we're friends again, see? And that's the point. So go ahead and introduce yourself, Tiffany. I'm Tiffany Toney, the co-hostess with the mostess. I might be brown sugar, but sugar ain't always sweet. That's right. Sometimes it's spicy. We have an amazing guest here today and an amazing featured guest. I am here with a business, a veteran female business guru woman. Her name is Debra Audrey. Did I say that right? Yes, you did. Okay, awesome. So welcome. Yeah, welcome to the show. We can't wait to have our business advice for girls and women. First of all, we just want to start out with the good news. So the good news is something that I've designed to tell the good news and also to, I try to reverse what's formerly seen as bad news and turn it into good news. So who has some good news here? Anyone? Go ahead, Tiff. My grandmother sent me this purse. It's a handmade handbag. And I just think it's really cool that she made this by hand. It's waterproof. Wow. Alcohol proof. Awesome. Anything proof. And I just thought it was cool. So it kind of inspired me to be more artistic and creative. Alcohol proof. So you mean you'll never lose this when you're drunk, right? Nothing bad can happen to you. It might get lost, but it'll be in good shape. It's supposed to be alcohol proof. I heard that. All right, go ahead, Deborah. Well, I like that waterproof. My good news, it's somewhat of an inspiration. That's okay. This is an inspiration. My mother is 98. Mm. And she still drives. And in fact, we're getting her a new car. Oh, my God. Yay! And she is just in, she lives alone in a two-story home. And last year, she fell off a treadmill, broke both of her arms, and is back on the treadmill. Oh, my God. Wow. 100% better. And you know, there's a lot of places in the world I've heard that women aren't even allowed to drive, right? That's correct. And she's just out there, driving around. She's driving around. She's driving around. 98 years old. That's awesome. Yeah. That's amazing. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Were you done? No. Yeah, I'm done. Yeah, okay. Ryan, go ahead. Oh, good news for me? Mm-hmm. Let's see. The good news for me is my dad actually had blood clots in his arm. Mm-hmm. And it was a little scary because he's, you know, strong-minded. And no, I don't need to go to the hospital. I'll be fine. I'll just put some ice on it, some heat. It's fine. And, but no, he, we actually convinced him saying, you need to go and found out it was blood clots, which can be hugely dangerous. And so now he's doing much better. Awesome. He's in good health. Yay. That's amazing. Okay. So that's fantastic. That is good news. Yay. Very good news. I had formerly reversed, I like to reverse things, right? So my idea was, Debra owns a clothing store. That's how I found her. I was driving around in Van Nuys. One day. And I'm like, what's this thing going out of? It's like, it was on a sale for inventory going out of stock for 2014. Exactly. Right. Holiday liquidation. And I got this dress actually for three bucks, $3. Oh my God. Check it out. Is that the dress you were telling me about? I should have given you $3 to get me something. It's one of them. I couldn't believe it. I loved the clothing there. It went crazy. Anyways, we're going to get to that in a second. You're looking good. You do look amazing. I was thinking about clothing around the world and I thought, you know, see Tiffany, Tony and I had a little bit different opinion on this before. She said it would be sexy to stay in a burka for your guy. Do you remember saying that? Yeah, because it's like there's still a mystery about you and unless you have really bad eyes or something. I do not agree with that. I ain't saving, know nothing about me unless my man saves everything for me too. But anyways, I was thinking about it and I was like, I personally disagree with being forced into wearing a burka. If you want to wear a burka, that's a different story. And I couldn't think of anything good. I could not think of any good news about being forced into wearing a burka. I know it was killing me. I was like, I finally found something. I can't find any good news in it. And then I found something and here it is. If you're being forced into wearing a burka, there is some good news in it. Okay. The good news is that at least you don't have to worry about what you're going to wear outdoors. Okay. It's like going to private school. Yeah. And you can't be judged on what you're wearing because you're not like ranked and judged like we are here in America by what you're wearing, your economic status and if people think you're good or bad just by what you're wearing. So that's the good news for you. But even still, because I feel really bad about it, I'm going to wear a little bit of a burka here. Okay. For a few minutes in the show, just a solidarity. All right. While we interview with Debra and then we'll get back out of my burka. And I'll just put on some glasses because I don't have one. I would have brought one had I realized. You would have brought a burka with me? Oh, thank you. Debra is willing to do it. She's willing to wear a burka to have solidarity with those women. And you are wearing the glasses. Okay. So yeah, if you're in the Middle East and that's the case. Actually, I don't even know if it's true or not. If people are still forced into wearing burkas, how would I know? But I've heard that that's the case. I've heard a little bit different. Yeah? They're not forced into it? No, the ladies in the United States, especially in Beverly Hills, they're decked out in high designer clothing underneath the burka. Oh, yeah. I've heard that too. Yeah. As soon as you get out of the outdoors, you can go indoors and take off your burka and you have nice clothes on. But to me, the idea that I couldn't just run around in a fresh stream, roll around outside in a park with my dog, feel the wind blowing on my air in my car as I'm driving around, tragedy. It's a tragedy to me. You're right. I know other people feel differently. So I'm not saying anything about other people. I'm just saying how I feel. Well, at least you won't get sunburned. That's true too. There's some good news. At least you ain't getting sunburned. There you go. Skin cancer over here, people. Okay. So let's get to Debra. Debra actually started, you can kind of tell us your story, but you started out, it says here you were selling shoes and swap meets and then you turned it into this huge superstore. It was like the 10th largest in the nation. 10th largest independent shoe store in the United States. That is amazing. That's really amazing. It's really amazing. So can we ask you some questions like advice? How would we, like how would you advise a woman, who wanted to start up her business? What, like what should she do? And how should she start? And how should she get her funding? Like how should she get going? I think. And how old do you have to be as a girl? Any age. Any age. I started out in the flea markets. My background is nutrition. And I was going to school for dietetics. And then I met my ex-husband and we just started going in. He's not from here. So I wanted to help him. So we started out in the swap meets. And that's the best way. These little markets because you don't have to invest in a store. Oh, right. You have as a table and you rent the space and it's very low. What a great idea. And you don't have to have a lot of inventory so you don't need a lot of money. No, and you just, you know, I would write a check on a Friday, cover it on Monday. Oh my gosh. Wow. That's so cool. That's what I would do. I always work with other people's money. And then, okay, we're going to talk about that later. So after you were in these swap meets, which is just a little, little market where you can sell as many of yours, you know, a few things as you want. What did you do? You saved your money from that? One thing led to another and actually I had a small tragedy. We were, I had a van. I'd go downtown and buy merchandise. And it was during the holiday time. This one time. And people would follow you around where you were going. I was selling electronics at the time. Okay. And somebody stole a van full of merchandise. Oh, no. So I thought, that's it. I'm not going to do this anymore. I want a store. So you installed machine guns on your truck, right? Somebody stole my car on Christmas once. So I imagine it felt similar. I got to get out of the burka. I got to get out of the burka. It's killing me. Do it. Do it. Yay! Freedom! All right. Much freedom. And then, so you had all your stuff stolen. So you've been through good things and bad things. And when I met Debra, I was shopping in the store all excitedly, trying on all these different things. There's no dressing room, by the way. Yeah, there's no dressing room. I was doing it right out in public. What's the address of the store? Fair question. Yeah, you will see. Actually, where is it? Where can we find your store? It's on the corner, the northwest corner of Van Nuys and Van Nuys. It's called Van Victory in Van Nuys. And the name? Valley Girls. Oh, my gosh. I've seen that before. I had no idea what it was. That's so cute. Yeah, I got all kinds of clothes there. I'm going back for some jeans, by the way. Oh, great. Yeah. How are you going to try those on over your other jeans? I'm going to wear tights just so you know. Yeah. Yeah, body suits are best. You just, in that way, you can try those. Right, bring a body suit when you go to her store. And I'm trying on all these clothes. I'm all excited. I'm sweating and everything. And out comes tromping this blonde woman, obviously the owner. Like, I just don't know how I knew. She was just like, exuded, I'm the owner of this establishment. Because big things come in small packages. Yeah, and I just looked at you and I thought, how do you deal with a retail store? Like, how do you deal with all those problems? Like, the person that stole from me from the van, don't people steal from your store? And then you've got all those taxes and you've got China. And how do you do that? Well, first of all, you've got China to compete with. It's true. It's true. The key is the buying, number one. Number two, the, I have really good employees and they help me a tremendous amount. I did notice your employees seem happy. They're really happy. They're wonderful. How do you keep them happy? You just treat them right. We're all there, we're in there together, you know, and they help me, I help them. So it's like a family feeling. So that, treating your employees good helps stop theft? Yeah, well, they're aware. They care about the store. They care like, almost, sometimes more than I care. They really care about it. It's tough to find people like that. It's very difficult. Yeah. Very difficult. I used to have 35 employees at my shoe store. Wow. I never had two people like this. And how did you learn how to have employees? Because I know that's one thing that hindered me was I could come up with an idea but I didn't know all of, it seems like there's all this paperwork and all these things you have to go through and I just didn't even know. There is. There is. There is. There is. You don't even know how to have an employee. It's difficult. It'd be easy just to give them some money but it's not that way. No, it's not that way and you have to be careful because, you know, you can't just give them money but there's laws and you don't want to be vulnerable. Right. So how did you end up learning how to have an actual employee that was, you know, where you give them a regular real paycheck and all that kind of stuff? Did you go to a class or? When I went from the swap meet which is very, very loose into having a real store, there's a lot more regulations and it took me a long time, especially coming out of nutrition where I worked in the hospital kitchen. You've done it all, lady. I've done it all. So it took me a while to get used to all the regulations and all the personal responsibility. It's much easier to work for someone else. Right. But on the other hand, you don't have the freedom of determining what you want to do. So all the choices, and letting your choices guide you to where you want to be. Right. And also, you are one of the other keys of being an entrepreneur. You're constantly reinventing yourself. You have to move with the trends. You have to. You can't stay stuck. How long has your store been in business? Well, I was out of retail for many years, for about 15 years. And I went into real estate business and I started investing. And I had five shopping centers. Yeah, you started buying up shopping centers, right? I was so amazed when I realized that. I know, I was like, she's buying shopping centers and owning big old shoe stores. And I just met her in Van Nuys. No, what you do is you buy underperforming shop. I bought underperforming shopping centers. Okay. Because I knew the areas. I generally buy in, would buy in heavy Latino areas. And I knew the vendors who wanted to be there. The companies that wanted to be there. And so I buy underperforming shopping centers and turn them around. But can I just get really fast the answer to my question? Did you take a class or did someone teach you how to have employees? Or you just learned through? You just learned. You do what you got to do. It's basic survival. Trial and error. You don't go to the city? Oh, okay. Well, there are laws. Yeah, you can look at them up on the internet now. You go to City Hall or something and start asking? You have to get a business license. If you have employees, you have to get a, if you want to get a business license, you have to get a bank account under the business name. You have to have a federal ID number. So you basically go to City Hall, call City Hall, start asking, what's the permit I need? How do I get these employees? You can. Or you'll just be guided. You have to have this. I guess now with the internet, it helps too. You can Google things online. Exactly. Right? Okay, so start Googling girls. If you have employees, girls that Google. If you have employees, you have to, many people don't, but really, if you don't want to be vulnerable, you pay payroll taxes. And it's a trust, like sales taxes also. You have to have a sales tax permit, which is 9% of every sale. You have to turn, it's these taxes, the payroll taxes that you take from a, from a employee and the sales taxes that you take from your customers. Those are trust taxes. You don't mess around with them. You put, you give, you give, you give them away to give to the government later, right? You have to give them to the government. That's one of the things I learned about being a business owner that a lot of people don't know is that you get taxed to death. There's so many fees, fines, taxes, things you got to do. And it's not so easy. And I know a lot of people out there hate their bosses, but I don't think they really realize what their boss is going through. Absolutely. It's a lot. And how hard their boss is working. Absolutely. If they knew, there'd be a lot more grateful employees. I think so. Fair enough so. But there's a lot of resources that I know business owners don't utilize, especially smaller businesses. The city, I know I think Santa Monica, city of LA, a lot of the cities have offices dedicated to help businesses start off and get those permits and the Chamber of Commerce. Yeah, that's where I met Ryan, Chamber of Commerce. Ryan is actually also an entrepreneur, but that's not really what I'm interested in right now. I think we got to have Ryan do his trick. Ryan is here to tie a cherry stem with his tongue. Hey. We go from business owning to cherry stem tying. Business to pleasure. Yeah, so why don't you come. You're lucky I love you. Why don't you bring a stem over here? Get right between us and do it for us in this camera. But it all takes place like undercover. How are you going to? Well, we'll see your mouth moving. We just want to see your mouth moving. We just want to know what you're doing. We want to see your lips wiggling. But it's a trade secret. I can't. We just want to know that you're doing it, Ryan. Just come right here. Come right. Get right in this camera. We want to see your lips wiggling around. And that cherry stem is going to come out tied. All right. Double knot it. I don't know if he can really do this. I'm just kidding. He told me he could do this when I was at a silent disco and I was just like, wow. All right. So we're going to have Ryan tie the cherry stem right here. I just like where I am right now. He's so happy. Cherry stem time. Okay. In your mouth. All right. So show us the up close cherry stem. Cherry stem. Not tied. Not tied. Eating the cherry. Okay. So much pressure. I know. It's a lot of pressure. I didn't know if he was actually going to be able to do this. Well, while he's doing this, we'll ask Debra another question, but everybody else needs to be watching Ryan. Yep. And make sure that he doesn't put his fingers in his mouth or anything like that. Are we timing him? Yeah, kind of. I'm kind of looking up there. So just pull it out whenever you can and just show us, Ryan. So I wanted to ask Debra, like, what's your... Do you have anything specific? Yeah. What's something specific you wanted to tell women and girls out there that are starting businesses about pitfalls or just anything or any... There are going to be pitfalls. You have to... A lot of it is trial and error and you have to be willing to take risk. Wow. That was fast. Congratulations, Ryan. Ryan Gales can actually tie a cherry stem with his tongue only. What the heck are you wearing a shirt under there for? It's not that kind of shirt. I'll put it on. I'll put it on. I'll put it on. I'll put it on. I'll put it on. I'll put it on. I'll put it on. I'll put it on. I'll put it on. I'll put it on. It's not that kind of show. All right, ladies, get in touch with this one. That's all I'm going to say. That's your seat, right? And he's cute, too. My phone's going off the charts here. Okay. Let's see. Oh, that's nice. My ex is calling in the middle of the show just to interrupt everything. All right. So he's going to stalker call me, too. All right. So, yeah, do you have any, after all that, do you have anything? Yes. Okay. You follow your passion. What do you mean? Like, do a business you really enjoy? Yeah, like I adore clothing. And that's probably why you seem so happy. A lot of people hate their jobs. Yeah. It's stressful, but I love it. I have to agree because I realized that what I love is doing television, media, movies, and stuff like that. And so it's something I'm going to keep working on. Whereas before, when Ryan met me, I was selling electronics and toner and ink and stuff. And I know. I know a lot about cell phones. I can put one together. I can give you a SIM card. I can hook you up. Get that battery in there, girl. You know, I can get in the settings, but it's just not something that was my passion. And so I wasn't going to really keep on doing it and putting all the force I needed to make it a success. Absolutely. When I'm in a nine to five, when I'm in a cubicle, I just feel like a hamster in a cage. I'm the exact same way. Yeah. I just, I can't do it. I start daydreaming, looking out the window. Now, what do you think about women in other countries? Should they be starting businesses? Absolutely. I think the internet has opened up a huge, just amazing world for everybody. You're right. Because they could be selling to the United States. Absolutely. In secret. Even if they're not supposed to be. They're coming to get you. Oh, they're going to come and get me. Let's face it. It's not available to every woman in the world, unfortunately. Every person in the world. You're right. It's a secret. An online business could be started somewhere where somebody, even in the U.S., when, let's just say there's a man or a woman in an abusive situation or kept in a house or something, you know, they could start a secret little business and get themselves out. Absolutely. Right? That's really, it's a good point. And you need a P.O. box or, you know, just, there's many ways. Many ways to get around. To get a business. Online money collection thing for yourself or something. So you're ready to fly out there. Yeah, there you go. Fly out of there. You're definitely an inspiration, though. Thank you for sharing all of your advice with us. Yeah, that's awesome. Do you have anything else you want to add or Tiffany, you want to ask any questions? I just was wondering, I guess, what was the biggest challenge that you did face making the transition from, you know, being at the swap meet to actually having your own store? What was the biggest challenge for you and how did you adjust? Other than my ex-husband. We can talk about him if you want to talk about him, girl. Well, I just like to take the battery out of my phone. So there you go. I nicknamed him. You nicknamed him? I gave him an American name. What is it? Dick. Can you tie a cherry stem with his tongue? I cannot. Oh, well, there you have it. The main thing is following your passion. That's why she dropped him. Main reason number one. Taking risks. And you have to be able to accept the responsibility and know that, you know, with freedom comes a lot of responsibility because it's your own destiny now. Right. And you're taking the chances. You're taking the risks. And that's what you have to do. Mm-hmm. So, and it pays off. It really does. Mm-hmm. The hard work pays off. The hard work pays off. Yeah, because it's really a lot of hard work to start a business, be a business owner. And I recommend anybody out there to do that, to go ahead and do that. Because you know what? Even if it doesn't work out and you go back to being an employee, you'll be a happier person. I promise. Because you'll just be like so happy that your check is coming in and somebody else is worrying about the sales and everything else. I think that people just don't really go back so much. They don't go back? I don't think so. I really don't. Oh, so you think once somebody starts down the business path, they don't go back? I mean, I'm sure that they do. Right. But I think it's very exciting. Yeah. Liberating. You get up in the morning and it's like, you know, you want to do things. I met one guy who did. He was one of my old high school mates from high school and he had started a business like a pizza company or something. He said it was so horrifying because he slaved so hard over it. He slaved over these pizzas. He made them all special for the customers. And then when they wouldn't come in, he ended up shutting down his business. And he went back to a job. He said it was so easy compared to owning a business. He did twice the work with his eyes closed. He was all happy. So he still got something out of it. You know what? He's like, I'm so happy now. Let me put an exemption, an exclusion, excuse me. Restaurant business is tough. And I have worked in the pizza business. Oh, you have? Oh, my God. I think that was the most. It was right on Redondo Beach. Redondo Beach. Yeah. And right on the beach. And it was hell. It was tough. It was the hardest job I've ever had. Have you ever gone through exhaustion moments where you're dehydrated, exhausted, overworked? I just went through one. So. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You too, Ryan? Yesterday. Yesterday. So you can overwork yourself to death. I do. But why do you do this? Why do you try struggle so hard to do this? Like, what is it that drives you? Yeah. Like she said, she loves her job just like I love mine. When I, there's times I have deadlines. There's times where I need to be maybe working on a proposal or some presentation that I have to get done. And I'll go to bed at maybe two in the morning, take pretty much a power nap, wake up at four and keep working. All right. I'm going to Facebook you at 2 a.m. A lot of times I actually won't be up. But it's, I love what I do. Cool. I love the business development. Like I say, I'm not in the office every day. I get to meet with interesting people. You do a lot of your work. Awesome. Well. Occasionally. Nice. Yeah. I think it's a challenge too. It's the challenge for you? It is. Yeah. You like challenge. I like the challenge. And it's also a lot of instant gratification. Cool. Yeah. I like that. I brought something for you. Oh. Awesome. You brought something for? I can't wait. Oh my gosh. This is actually from the girls. Oh. Your employees? Yes. They brought a present. That is so sweet. This is from Valley Girls, the store. Oh my gosh. That is so cute. Thank you. Is it pink? Pink makes us happy. That is so cool. Oh my gosh. I love this. This is so cool. So cool. Look at this. This is from her store. She has the coolest store. I swear. It's really cute stuff. I love, love, love this. Thank you so much. Tell the girls. And if it doesn't fit, just, you know. Bring it back. Okay. Oh my gosh. Yay. Thank you. It's so cute. That's really pretty. Wow. All right. Everybody, you got to go to her store now. I'm going to kick your butt if you don't. But yeah, seriously, if you are out there and you want to start a business, male or female, it doesn't matter. This is business advice for girls, but for everyone, right? Yes. I say go for it. Go for it. Go for your passion. She said, go for something you really like and enjoy or you're not going to stick with it. Learn as you go. And even if you're going to just be an employee, you can appreciate that too, because there's a lot of perks to being an employee. Yes. And somebody else doing all that really hard, dirty work for you. And you can learn. I mean, as an employee, you can learn from business owners. And grow. And do it differently. Absolutely. That's so nice. All right. Before we go really fast, I wanted to say one thing. I had to bring this up. One of my friends from high school told me about. This is an article that says vaginal microbe yields novel antibiotics. So basically, what this means is that pussy is very strong and pussy is going to save the world. Yay. It already rules the world. I mean, duh. So yeah, in this article, they tell us about how the vaginal microbes are actually yielding antibiotics that are killing viruses and everything. So I just thought that was pretty. So we don't even need medicine, basically. You can just. You just need women. You just need women. Yeah. Very strong. The vagina is a very strong thing. And it is, you know, fighting all of those nasty things that nothing else can kill. So does that mean if your guy is sick? Yeah. Yep. Send him down there. Get down on your knees, MF. All right. Really fast before we go. No wonder I haven't had a cold in 15 years. I don't know. Okay. It's the cherry stem time. It's the cherry stem time. So Debra, really fast before we go. We only have about a minute. But I just want to say. I just wanted to know. Who do you think is the hottest man in the world? Oh, gosh. That's a tough one. Dun-da-da-da. Oh, I love Jeff Bridges. He's older. But I still love him. And, oh, gosh. There's a ton of them. A ton of them? There's so many, right? That was the one I'm supposed to pick. Sorry. Yeah, there's a lot of hot guys out there, right? There's a lot. Okay. So Jeff Bridges. We got Denzel Washington last time. Yes. All right. Sorry, man. I like David Beckham, too. It's okay. It's the woman's show. We can't ask you what you think. So, yeah. It's all about how you look. It's all about how you look, Ryan. Hey, I'm confident. I can say what the most debonair guys. You are confident. Come on our show and tie a cherry stem. I'm very impressed. Very happy. We appreciate that. Yeah. We don't know if Jeff Bridges can do that. We don't. We need to ask him. We should. Jeff, if you're out there. Probably in his younger day. If Jeff or Denzel is out there, you better start tying cherry stems for us, sending us your videos. Absolutely. Because otherwise, you're getting outdone by Ryan Gales here. All right, everybody. I'm trying to take that title. For the rest of our show, go to Sydney. SydneySilverShow.com to find Debra's website. And Debra, website again. Do you have your website ready? It's ValleyGirls.com. ValleyGirls.com. I'll link it on SydneySilverShow.com as soon as it's up. All right, everybody. We are out of time. Go to SydneySilverShow.com for more information. Bye-bye, y'all. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.