Justin Brown: I Do Not Have Followers, I Have My People

That wasn't my goal. My goal was to let people know the places that I like. And that was my only goal, and then it turned into what it is now, where people have fans. People have followers. I have neither. I have my people. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of Nick I'm Plugged, and today we're here with a guy who doesn't know it. But he's actually the one that got me into content on Instagram.

We're talking to none other than Justin, the real food stalker of Proud. How you doing today brother? Hey man, I'm doing a great man. I'm just glad to be here, man. I appreciate you even giving me the opportunity to be here, man. Well, I had to give you a try, right?

“I would be real. I'm going to be honest with you. When I started the podcast two and a half years ago, I was a LinkedIn guy, right?”

So for me, social media, like the business side of me, everything was LinkedIn. And I looked at every other thing is like, I don't need to be there. Just a whole bunch of kids on Instagram or TikTok or whatever. But my business manager was like, hey, Nick, you at least got to go on Instagram. So I said, let me see what it's about.

I followed you my very first day on Instagram and you changed my life to you because I loved how authentic you were. I loved how positive you were.

And it was just amazing to see the work you were putting in.

And I was like, all right, I can go on Instagram. And I'm just going to be me. I'm not trying to please the whole world.

“I'm not trying to be silly or funny or anything like that.”

I can be me. And it was because of you bro. Oh man, see, that's the power of the internet is there. You can motivate somebody without even knowing that you're motivated. And I get, I got lucky that I got to just be me. And so it's not like when I'm done, I got to hit a switch and go back to, I get to be me.

So the on switch is on at all times. So even when I'm not eating or I'm not doing nerd stuff, people know that's me. It's like, all my friends know it's me. And they're like, you got to stay true to yourself. And I did. I got to. So that's the fun part of it is that I don't have to change. The hardest part of it is that I don't really care about pleasing people.

“So that's, and people are always like, hey man, you need to show us where you eat this bad.”

And I'm like, why? Like, if you ask for directions. If you say, how do I get the Linux mall and I give you the directions, do you want me to tell you the wrong direction? Like, why would you want that? So people want me to be negative about certain stuff and they're like, no, you can.

People are always trying to make it seem like you're not being negative when you are being negative.

It's not negative you're being honest, but sometimes honesty is negative. It's going to have a negative reflect regardless if you are being honest. So I'm not saying you shouldn't be honest, but I'm saying if you can go around it and not post what I dislike and just show you what I like. And this is what I'm going to do. No, I love it, man. It's all positive vibes. And, you know, I always start my show by asking my guest what's there be cause. Right, that thing that's deeper than your wife. How to ask just in your wife's probably your children and food, right?

But if I were to say, why is that your wife? Like, what's, what's the deeper reason that sentence usually starts with well, because, and I care about that. So if I were to say just all the amazing things that you do, the impact that you're making, not just here in Atlanta, but all over the East Coast and flying out of the Phoenix and California to do these reviews and inspire people, which are because.

I mean, my because it's simple. It's like, I love to eat. And since I've been younger high school people always ask me like where to go eat, where to go eat.

And really, I just enjoy. So it's not really a because it's not like I'm doing it like to make. I'm giving up people a journey of a foodie like this is just what I enjoy. And if you go to a couple places that I like and you enjoy it, your taste buds probably send similar to mine. And then I have people who don't go out to eat much and they just started going out of the eat. And their taste buds are similar to mine. So it's making it easy for them to go on a date night.

So for me, my because was just because I was looking at stuff and I didn't, not that I don't like the way other people do their content. I just always felt like I got to see people eat food and that's really what made me in cameras because I couldn't tell for a picture. If a picture's a thousand words, then a video got to be a million words because now you can see the texture. You can when I bite something you can tell that it's tender and like a picture, a picture could trick you and so I'm not much I look at pictures.

I can say it might be good, but if I see it a video of it breaking, I can tell.

Oh, your face is like, he really likes that one. When did this journey start for you, man? Like, okay, when did you say, I'm going to do this. All right, so I had food stalker where I was just taking pictures of food and I wasn't.

“I wasn't doing, because I wanted to do a magazine myself, like I really, that's what I wanted to do when I was like in 2010.”

I was already had food stalker because in the food stalker came about because I used to watch people like I'm sitting in the food would come by and I would always ask the waiter.

And what did they just get? And then my wife was like, man, stalking people. And I'm like, yeah, I'm a food stalker. I can't help it. So, so for me, what was the question I'm sorry? I'm sorry. When did the journey begin for you? It really began 2010, but I wasn't eating on camera. When I started eating around COVID, I started eating on camera. And then we couldn't go out and my kids were like, you should eat on camera, you make food look good. Because funny thing is, I have to get them sometimes. I'll tell you something that I hate, but I can hold it in long enough to make them want to taste it.

And then it was like, you need to eat on camera because you make stuff look good. Because anytime I got something that's super good, I can't hide that it was super good. And they always want to bite it. And I can't tell my girls, no, because I got all girls. I was like, I accidentally was done. So that's why I get caught eating in my car. And that's why on my eating in the car, because I do it a lot. So before I get home, I'm like, I got to eat.

I started 2021, 2021. Okay. First video may have been 2021. 2021. Yeah. And so I'm going to move us to what I call the unplug truth with that statement right there.

“Because I think the key to what you do and why I followed you was because you're very consistent, right? Like, there's been a lot of folks on social media, a lot of food reviewers that pop up.”

And then after six, seven little takes they're done, right? You've been very consistent with what you do talk about the power consistency. Everything, it no matter what it is, you can win with just that. Like, I'm talking about, you can win in all parts of life where this, your job, whether it's social media, whether you chasing some girl that you want, if you consistent, you might win over it. Like, I'm telling you, you can win the biggest battle with just consistency. That's, that's what football players basketball players, if you consistent, you're going to work out every day.

It's going to make something positive going to happen eventually. So, consistency is the biggest thing. You don't have to be, I'm not the most talented. I'm not. It's just not. I'm not the most handsome. So it's people out here that is taking stuff for granted. Like, you got something. And if you were consistent, you would be even bigger than you are. Whatever you're doing, you could be bigger. But you have people who got real talent and it just not is consistent. So I think consistency is one thing.

But I tell you this, like you said, you might have some people who start food blogging in six, seven videos and they're done. And they're done because I'm telling you, I spent a lot of money eating out started because nobody wanted to say, "Hey, come eat for free or let me pay you." They wasn't doing that.

And I spent, and if you look at the first videos from 2021, I was eating every day.

And when people were like, you don't eat at home. I literally do eat at home because my wife was cooking. But my daughter's cooking. So it's like, I could get home cooking meals every day. But that's not what I want to do because my kids, my wife and I've been at cook for y'all. So if we do a video for that, it's not going to help y'all. I was spending every day, my wife was like, "You're spending too much eating."

We could go on vacation. We're still going vacation, chill. Like, but it's funny that that's the reason or a lot of people probably stop because when you start, you got to pay for your own food. And then maybe you won't get to go to some of the best restaurants because some of them are high. So that could stop somebody with for me. I had a goal, not a real goal. But I was just like, I'm just going to keep doing that. I didn't have a goal. I'm a get 500 k followers. I'm a make it to me.

That wasn't my goal. My goal was to let people know the places that I like. And that was my only goal. And then it turned into what it is now where people see me. And then it's not people have fans, people have followers. I have neither. I have my people. So anytime I meet people and they're like, "I want to be a fan of like, not you my people."

“So that's what they're my people. That's just what's going on.”

I love that man. For the person that's watching or listening right now, talk to us about the world of content. Like, what equipment does Justin use? Like, how do you do the editing? Because again, even that part is consistency.

But you still need the right stuff every once in a while.

“I'm going to tell you. I'm not like, when I say this, people are going to say, "Man, I can do it."”

Because this is all I got phones. These are all phones that I probably use the camera at some point on. And that's it. That's all I ever had in me. And my wife, she was editing. And then she got tired of it. And she showed me how to edit. So one of my phones, I got too many phones I found. We're going to talk about Justin's side business. You got our pages if you follow me.

I was in the air. I had pages flip phones on there. What were we saying? Because my phone just threw me off. No, you were talking about the editing and your body. Okay, so my wife was editing. And she still do it here and there.

“They helped me out because I worked a lot. She worked so like, and she still do it.”

And she told me how to edit it. Like, we were using just cap cut. And we didn't even pay for cap cut. We was just using the free stuff. Right. So that's all I ever use. And that's the good thing about me. Like, you have some people I see why they overlooked me because I don't do the filming where it's just aesthetically pleasing. I do the, you know, about let you know if I like the food.

Right. And then there's some restaurants there. And then there's a restaurant that I like. So I couldn't even post them. And then there's, I look, you've got 30 items on there. Maybe I can find two or three items that I like. That I can be good with showing. But that is what helped me. Like, is that it's not hard for me because I don't do all that.

I just eat the food. I do one take. I don't go back and try to redo it. If I food dropped, you know, it's going to be on film. And so that made it easy for us to edit. Like, I got friends who edit and they say, Take me six hours at it. That's it. What if I had to do something for six hours? It's not going to be edited. I'm going to work right. I'm doing that right. Yeah, so I just use phones, man. I got about a thing in about a $3,000 black camera black magic pocket camera. That's what I'm all never used it never used it. Somebody came by my own. My cousin husband. He shoots a lot of videos and he's all right. You got to change the shutter. You got to check.

“I said, man, I'm not going to remember that. I'm the phone. I can just press record.”

Yeah, so he put it on a stable. He like put everything and he's like, what just shoot at this all the time. Then I realized when I shoot on that, I have to export it. I have to do this. Then it comes in a big file. I say, okay, this is not for me. So I'm sitting on a $3,000 camera in. It's just sitting around, man. Sitting around. I just used them phones, man. You could get away with the phones. Just get whatever the newest Samsung or iPhone. This album in the camera is going to be good enough to go. That's absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So you also aside from doing the food blogging video style, right? You also do some writing too, man. Talk to us about that a little bit. Yeah, this just started this year. I was lucky enough to

wear people like me. It's just, my mom always said, people like you. I don't understand why.

I guess she around me all day. So my team, she gave me an opportunity that nobody's ever gave me. She reached out saying, I might have something for you. She told me three months early. And I thought she meant like, we're going to collaborate because she's big on she sells books instead of cooking. So I'm thinking, oh, we're going to do a video. She's going to cook something, I'm going to eat it. Cool. Yeah. Three months go by and she call me back and she's like, you think you could be right. I say,

all right, right. I'm not going to never turn anything down on the track. And then she's telling me, oh, you ain't good at it. Yeah. So it was with AJC and then put together some article, some of the restaurants I like and I put together the article. Of course, you can't make everybody happy. So you got people putting in their favorite restaurants and it should be this restaurant, but not for me. Right. You know, this is my list. You could create a list. Yeah. And I tell people

that every day. You don't get mad at me. But she gave me that opportunity and I wrote and people like it. Yeah. You got some people that don't. But then I try to tell people this while I'm writing, which is very fun. It's fun. It's fun. It's fun. And I thought it would be. Mm-hmm. And people

look, if you put down another business to pick up another one, I'll never go eat there.

I'll never. I will never go eat there. If it takes, you tell me that a spot that I like, I shouldn't or this spot is so much better. Mm-hmm. I'm not going to try it. I'm just going to be like, that's not, that's not how I am. So I'm not going to do that. And that's what I appreciate

my family, like, they all love everything you do. Because you are being honest in a positive way.

And what I mean by that is this, when it comes to food, everybody says about it. Different. Yeah, you might say something is horrible and I love it. Well, now you're out there giving a perception just because our taste buds are different. And I love the fact that you were just like, hey, this is good. Right? Like, you ain't talking about, oh, when when I tasted our taste paprika and garlic powder, like you just like, my the food is good. Yeah, it's just, it's good.

It's not, I'm not, I'm not, people get so mad. You didn't say this. You didn't let when I write. Mm-hmm. I have to say what the season is, right? Because because when you're writing now,

“you have to make someone want to go and it's going to take that. It's not just, you can't just say,”

good, and that's something I had to learn. Because I'm just a teller of, "Man, if the food was good, if I believe that it's worth the money." Yeah. And that's another thing. So I'll tell you if I think it's worth like the amount like, and everything that I've been eating that I pose, I feel like you're not wasting your money.

Yeah. But you have people who are very picky eaters. I got a friend that always sends food back.

Like I never liked to eat with him because I know he's got to send something back. Yeah. Like, bro. You must have a whole thing to do. I'm ready. You must have enough for the whole time. I don't even want to order dessert when I go out to eat when I'm like, oh, they're going to get me on this dessert. I always tell them, man, you order less. Like, you order your food. Let me get mine. Because if I don't like something, I'm not going to tell you,

“I'm not sending it back for you to redo it. Don't want to risk it. So like, hey, cool. I'm going to try”

you again another time. I get everybody to try. Because I do feel like you can have a bad day. Because we are new. Yeah. You may have a different chef in that day. You may have a different waiter or waitress in it. And each one of these people play a major role in the food part. Like, it's not just the chef. It's not just if the food's good. Because it's my waiter or waitress, dish respects me. I'm not going to like your food. Well, I'm not even, I'm out of the mood.

Yeah. My taste buds out of the mood. They work with me. My taste buds is with me. Yes. They have never

crossed me. So they know if we can some bad service. Hey, yeah. We ain't liking the food. We out. So yeah. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. All right. I'm going to move us to what I call the hot takes. And I got this hot take right here. Because I love you on so many levels. But I saw you do something the other day. And I was like, I don't know if I could do that. Okay.

“Well, isn't it? What is the quick and eat? The quick and eat? So for all you that are watching”

listening, I'm going to have a clip to this Instagram post right here. Like, and don't take it for me, just to love it. But it is their burgers that are already fried flam broiled and you heat them in the microwave, right? Wait. Time out now. Time out now. You can. They have directions on the doing in the oven are on the stove. Okay. The only reason I did it in the microwave was to show the part of if you're a parent that doesn't have time to cook and you want to give something good

to your child that you don't trust them enough to be around that oven on that stove while you're gone. They can microwave it. Even though I know a lot of people don't want to microwave, but I just want to show that you can if you need it to. If you wasn't there and they were hungry and they like, can I can I make some eggs? And you like, don't want to risk my house burning down. No, just don't worry. It's only for ingredients in there. And that's the beef and the season

is. So it's only for ingredients. It's not like you're getting something that got all this crazy stuff in it. No. Okay. I was messing around. Okay. I was just like, oh, that's red meat. We just going to throw it in the microwave. But, but it looked as if you just got it out of Burger King or whatever when it came out of the microwave and you gave some tips, right? Like, some minute and a half, but we're going to do it for 115 and we don't throw the cheese on at the end. Yeah, you got to melt

that cheese on there. Absolutely. You don't want cold cheese on there. But I'm going to tell you some, that burger was actually good. I'm not saying that burger is better than, like an NFA burger or over here in Plain City Market, H&F. No, no, we're not saying that. I'm saying, it's good where your kid is not going to say, I'm not going to eat this. They're going to say, hey, I like this and they'll repeat it. And if you got that in there, you got a quick meal for them that you don't

have to prepare to can get them the independence, the star. Maybe you working them to get into the star over the oven. Yeah, it's a good chicken. It's Costco, right? Costco, quick and it's quick and it's quick and it's some good eat. So it was it. I know a lot of people

to get like, I don't microwave nothing. When I read you up with the microwave, so guess what? Hey, the microwave is still part of my life. I'm going to tell you no line. Oh, this is a part of my

“two like read me. No, like, I can't do. So I'm going to let y'all in a little secret. I can't do protein”

reheated, right? If it's the next day or what, like, I just can't do it. So okay, so so then that means

you never went to a steakhouse had your favorite steak. Eight half of it brought it home and just

put it back in the steakhouse and then you don't do that? No. Oh, man, if you go to the right steakhouse, that steak is better the next day. Something about protein, especially red meat and grilled chicken tastes so different the next day. Man, man, you got to go to Frankie's steakhouse. Okay. We're going to get a steak. You're going to do it for one time for me. That's only one time. You're going to leave half of it and you're going to warm it up and you're going to eat your

favorite way with a fried egg or scrambled egg. And you're going to try it and I promise you, Frankie's steak tastes sometime. I just want to go get your steak. It's just bringing it over to

“it over to the right. I got to take you there, man. We're going to go there and we're going to do that,”

right? Frankie's steakhouse. Yeah. We're sure. Sure, good love. There it is. So here's another hot

steak too, man. You eat, you said you love food or eat all the time. I don't eat a lot and you and much better shape than me. I'm just small. I'll just small. I'll just small. I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you one thing I do because everybody asked how you stay small. My mom was 4/11 90 pounds. My dad was taller in skinny. skinny. So I just can't eat all the time. I'm a cutting gain away. I'm out of shape. I just raced my wife's nephew and I saw I had all these

head and then we're going to say this. I had all some heavy, heavy crocs. Stop. He got beat. I got beat by his six year old nephew. No, not six year. No, no, no. He's 26. He is he is prime. So for those that don't know, Justin told me he used to run a 4 3 5 40 back every day. And so if you go, I want you to go

“look at a lot of his clips because you'll see him like, you know, especially holidays. He's out”

there running in the neighborhood, spraying, trying to compete. But just a couple of weeks ago, he took an L. I took a big L. Capital L. Not lower case. It was capital. It was very city because I'm going to be honest. I'm a 1983 cutlist with a small block. He was a 2000 something with fuel and injects it all there. I didn't stretch. So I did. And his turbo keep in mind, yeah, kick in and impact that gas. I wasn't ready. Yeah. And yeah, he blew the doors off me. I ain't going to tell

you know, like when I, when I, when I could see the back of his shoulder blade, I knew it was over with it. I was like, all right. But we're going, what we're going to run it back where I got on proper clothes. I felt like I had on some skinny jeans shorts. So it couldn't get my couldn't get it all out. Then I had them heavy crocks on. But he won. He meant he, if you watched this, we're going to race again. And it's going to be soon. We was going to race on the beach. But he said, he was heavier

than me. And he said, you're like, running on the sand on top of the sand. And he's like, if I run on the sand, I go in. So he ain't want to race me on the sand. You see the difference? He, he knew the setup. He was like, no, you could have easily said, no, you could have easily said, no, but put it on film. And you saw shoulder blades. Yeah. I saw shoulder blades. But I'm telling you, I'm going to be him the next time we run, because I am about to get in shape. How people like

man, you look like you in shape. It ain't going to be no more. I look like I'm in shape. I'm going to be in shape. When are we doing this? Man, I really want to be among Christmas. I really want to, I really want to be him on Christmas day, because we go over there. Every Christmas we swap out gifts. I want to race him on Christmas. And that be a gift to myself and him. Oh, he's getting the gift too. Oh, yeah. I'm about like a big old ill, because I know I'm going to win. And I'm going to put it

in a box. And I'm going to put it in full boxes. When he opened he's going to think he gets. I'm good. It's going to be a big old ill. Peanut, man. Like we're going, we're going to make sure I'm available Instagram Live on Christmas morning. Yeah, because I'm going to have the W for you forever. I'm ready for you. I'm going to have it ready for you. I'm going to have it ready for you. I'm going to have it ready for you. I'm going to tell you I'm going to lose again. Okay. I can take the stress that it lost. My kids

saw me lose. All right. So here's what we're going to do. If you win, if you beat Peanut, peanut, I

got my money on you just so you know. But if for whatever reason you pull your hamstring, you're peanut and he and he steps on your toes or something. The final. Yeah. I'm going to host it at my crib. Greenville, South Carolina. We're going to get a track at Clemson University. Y'all don't

right now because I'm going to tell you the age I'm at now. I reach my top speed at 15 yards. It's

“yard. It did. I'm not even racing him a 40 because I'm telling you what I know. A top speed. I'm”

top speed quick. So what you're on the 25. I've run in 30. We run in a 30. No, I can keep my, when I'm top speed, I can hold it the 30. The extra 10. He's going to be going blow by me. I'm going to tell you. 30 and be me in the 30. Well, he's got to go 35. No, I can't give him that much. I'm saying when he opened up, he opened up because he was like, oh, it felt good. He just said it. And I was hurt. I was sore. I didn't. I mean, when I tell you my legs, I felt it. It was so tight when

I was done. I said, and he talking about just getting ready. This field, we need to, we need to make it longer. I said in my head. I was like, all right. Well, I'm not doing that. I don't think we need to burger. I mean, peanut, I got something for you. I'm hiring you a coach. Good friend of mine, multi Olympian, Sonia Riches Ross will train you air and Ross will train you for me. I'm going to get him a train. I guess you, you're saying 30 was it. I got to get him to bow past you at 15. If you're,

if you hit it at 15, I got to help peanut get there. I don't like the thought of that. I don't like, I used to tell me you just told me you love me. When somebody told me they love me and then they go against me like, I don't know what the love real. Hey, money is money, bro. I put my money on two nights. I'm a bit, no money. I'm a bit push-up because I ain't guaranteeing nothing. I bet it's a push-up. I call the room. And I know that food blogging isn't all that you do, but it's a true passion

of yours. Was there a room? Was there a moment? Was there a dinner that like changed your life

“that motivated you to do this? I think I just started enjoying different foods because of my sister.”

She probably don't even notice, so she ever seen it. She's going to be like, I knew this all the time, but so we didn't grow up like where we just had money. We weren't going out to eat. My mom was cooking. And she had my mom learned how to cook because she said, I ain't know how to cook. She just learned, so she would be able to feed us. And she got really good at it. And then she got older. She got bad at it. I don't know what happened. I moved out of season like, all right, all right, cooking. I did that for y'all.

So growing up, my sister, she ended up, she was dating someone and they would go out to eat. And I'd be at home. And the first time she brought home, some wings one time. And this was when wings was just hot lemon pepper. That was it. That's all you was eating. She came back with some teriyaki wings. It's the first time. My taste buds went crazy. So then she might come home with something as you always, she went never eat all her food. So she always come home with something. And she always

put me on a something new. So it was she gave me my first peach crush, the soda. And I always was

drinking with Coca-Cola. And then peach crush, I'm like, what's this, right? Then, what does this she brought me a Canadian clear? I don't know if you ever had one of those. Yes, so the first time ever, this is like when Canadian clear first was in Georgia, wherever she brought one at a time. But she just used to always bring food. I used to always love when she went out of the app. I felt like I was going on a date. There you go. So like, you make one of those date. You want to,

with your big, you know, wow. So, but she ain't going with it. Never seen one out. She brought food back. And like, it was just always good. She had never bring nothing bad that wasn't good. So, and it kind of, to me, it kind of feels like she was food blogging then without knowing it because she wouldn't bring me nothing bad that was nasty. So, if it was nasty, I'm assuming she didn't tell me it was nasty, but she didn't put it on the plate when she brought it back. And I was eating

seconds. So, I was eating more. I was eating my sister leftovers and I, man. And then that just, I guess, that just grew my taste was my taste was just like, sometimes she'd go out,

“my mom would be cooking them like, so, yeah. Right. Right. But yeah, that's what really”

probably kick started to hold that whole thing. My mom's cooking and her bringing home just different stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And I also love the fact that again, you're much bolder than me, where you'll try almost anything. But here's where you got me and I started doing it at home, vegan mac and cheese, bro. Like, you've done it. You've done several of them now. But I remember

the first one I saw when I was like, I don't want to like that, but that looks amazing. And I trust

Justin. So, I went and made some vegan mac and jeans and I almost can't go back. Man, listen,

but that's the first vegan chef that I tried that a viral video came about it. Like, the video

“did maybe like 10 million on Instagram or something or something crazy on TikTok. It went crazy everywhere.”

And he was like, man, it changed his life. But the food changed my life to know that you can get mac and cheese without it being actual cheese. And I'm like, I don't know. I'm like, man, vegan, the vegan chefs have come a long way because it was like vegan food used here in the other way. I'm not trying that. But now it's like, if I want some, I try it like my kids like vegan food, maybe they may later and I go vegan who knows why she loves it. So, you know,

but me, he always tells me like, man, anytime you want someone just call me because you did

something for me that nobody else ever done. And I'm like, wow, you know, and you know, I don't think about it like that because I'm old school, so a video to me is just a video. Yeah. Like, a lot of people treat the videos like it's gold, which it can't be gold, because you can make a lot of money. But I'm still nuts to it because I guess I just grew up in the time when we had social media. So I'm not, I'm figuring it out a little bit now. Money can

be made. I just got to figure out how to connect the dots and make it where that's all I do. No, you got it. You're on the path now. Like, when you're in Atlanta,

too, you're just great at what you do. So I'm going to talk to Coca-Cola right there, uh,

uh, and then Coca-Cola. Hey, it's out of the code. It's out of the code. It's out of the code. It's out of the code. It's out of the deal. It's out of the deal. It's out of the deal. It's out to the end because another thing I see, I don't think it might be a little off topic with, I see brands you hear things. You hear like, man, they paid 400,000 for three videos. All right, man, you give me 500,000. You got me all. Yeah, I'm talking about three four videos, right? Like,

come and get somebody who's going to be loyal to you to get the three, the three videos for 400, right? You get that every man can't nobody talk bad about you. You, you're my brother. No, no, I got a fight for you. Right. You're talking bad about what? No, you can talk bad about them. But yeah, you get somebody that's on your team. Yeah. But it's, I mean,

“no, life is, man. Stuff stuff happens when it's supposed to happen. Like, not. So when did you start?”

No, no, you asked me, went, went to this start for you to hold. Oh, not podcast. You know, I'm getting interviewed. Yeah. Yeah. If you were just a tad, it was a tad. So it was March of 24, man. And here was what's crazy. I didn't want to start a podcast. I just wanted to do YouTube content. Like, at the end of the day, I wanted to do YouTube content on why you should focus on your because and not your wife. And so then I've got mentors. So like, let's brown new lives here in

Atlanta now, Damon, John, Robert Irvine. You say, let's brown, let's brown. He might be worth 'cause of my last name brown. Anytime I hear a brown. There you go, family, you might be. But all of them were like, mate, you should do a podcast and we'll be guessing. I was like, okay, I can come out of the gate with some names. And then it just spawned into its own world, man. It's crazy because all of my episodes are about my guess. Like, I love hearing stories. I love hearing the things people

“are doing to inspire others and to make impact. And the world needs that. And so that's what”

the show is about. So started in 24 and just been rolling ever since. When I first started, I didn't know clips. I didn't put anything on Instagram. And now it's like three, four, five clips a day. I do some talking here stuff. And it's just going good. When did you get your first like video that was like, viral where? Because I, I'm, I'm gonna tell you mine. But when did you get your first viral video that made you be like? People like it for like the wise. So the one that went viral the most was I was talking

about the 10-year-old me making a promise to my mom to change her life. And it was actually just a clip out of a 10-minute segment. But they took 45 seconds of it. And that is like, you know, over two

million views now. Wow. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not big time, like, Justin. No, you get two million,

two million, two million for me was like, oh, okay, I'm not big time like that. You know, I don't know, because because Instagram, it's a, I'll play with you. So I, yeah. But mine's came. We did this one where I had a pen. It was two different ones. I had a pancake stack like this. And my daughter, I was, you know, I was doing a neuralizer from the men in black. And I was getting ready to eat it. And she was like, whatcha doing with all the pancakes? Because they had

10 pancakes, a pound of bacon and a pound of potatoes. And she was like, you're not the rock,

you have then, after that, the next video was, I want to say it was steamhouse lounge and then they

had all these oysters right here in the lab. And then that video went crazy. And I was like,

“oh, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is like, like, because we, I remember sitting around”

in my kids like, people still liking your video because they just lick it and then like, I'm in crazy. I'm like, when you talking about it, and then my phone was on rain. I just keep hearing. Yeah. I just had to turn it off. I was like, I look up in the morning. It's still going. I say, oh, I didn't like the video. And that was crazy. And then, years later, blew up. And I'm so mad because me and my mom used to go out to eat so much.

Like, used to go out to eat so much. It's like some restaurants that I go to now.

They remember my mom and she passed away. And I met that she didn't ever get to go out to eat with me and somebody say, Hey, man, your bills taking care of. Because that would have been the wildest thing in the world. I heard because she didn't like to take pictures. She wouldn't know social media. Like, that would have been wild for her. So yeah, I hate that that it happened after her. But my youngest daughter lives just like my mom. So okay.

And she asked like, and so it's kind of gives me that. All right, you're still, you're still here. Yeah, I love that brother. I love that man. I'm going to get you out of here on my unplug fire. Rapid fire five questions. All right. It's ready. Yeah. Best cooking my household is the oldest daughter. Oh, okay. She's still in people recipes. My wife might cook something and it'd be super good. It'd be the best. She might

can't recreate it because she don't know what she used in it. So okay. Yeah. Okay. I did that. I did that.

“What's been one of the top three memorable bites you've ever had?”

Kingston Caribbean's beef pet cocoa bread, beef patty, mac and cheese, hot-stale sandwich. That was, that was amazing. Okay. Mr. Villains. So full vegan plate. Mm-hmm. And it's gonna be weird. I'm gonna say this. The only reason I'm saying this one of my biggest bites was because it was a side that I didn't think I was going to like it now every time I go there,

I have to have it. I ain't but from Frankie's stay counts. Okay. And they were so good. Like,

you can be this good. Yeah. But I never had a thing like that. And that changed my life as far as

I mean, it's like, now I just, I don't like people are probably like, man. I ain't, yeah. That means good. Okay. Yeah. I dig that. I dig that. So people that aren't from Atlanta don't understand Atlanta's a whole bunch of different communities and sections that make up at Atlanta. You turn me on to McDonald. I'm like, I know, but don't I have a big food, so you're like that. Like, what do you think is one of the best food areas of Atlanta? Underrated. Let me say that

with one of the most underrated ones. It's also different because you have an Asian scene like in the Louvre and all that and I love that area. And then you have Caribbean food everywhere. This is what I love about it. Georgia. It's stuff that's so good. So I don't think there's a particular scene. McDonald, not only reason because I stay in McDonald's. So I had to find places that we could eat because years ago, I wouldn't even ride through McDonald's. It was a rural area.

It was just like, it just wasn't somewhere we were riding through midnight and trying to find food, but now it's so many restaurants that's popping up out there. They have Pandora on the Square, which is cool. You don't get fine dining like that anywhere else on the south side. You get inso that's in Fayetteville though. It's fine dining. Curiosity fine dining. So we got like I feel like three really good fine dining spots on the south side. But I can't name one area because every

because what I do every weekend, we'll pick an area to go to for a particular food. So it's so many different places that. So just go anywhere. You can't find something. People come down here and say Atlanta's not like the best of food, but in reality we are because we have like every type of food and there's not like somebody who's not from there making the food. Like

“everyone in these cultures got a really good restaurant somewhere in the city. And that's what I love”

about us is that you don't have to stop just eating one type of food. Yeah. And you but the thing is,

I was going to say it might take you two and a half hours. Yeah, you're going to get an Atlanta

“traffic and I don't like that Atlanta traffic. And that's why my kids get mad with me because I'm up.”

I'm like, man, we're going to be this traffic. I want to go eat. We're going to go in this area. We can go to the mall in this area. We can go to something. But we need to get out here before that traffic. But then me and my taste buds start being like, you know what? I just want some fast. Like I'll just tell you how my mind thinks if I get caught in traffic, I don't want to eat no more. I'm not. I get frustrated. And I'm out because I got frustrated in New York like that.

They, I thought my navigation was messing up. He said, when my 30 minutes, we was in a Uber and I said, no, that can't be right. Oh, yeah, you could have won't. Eight minutes went by. We had moved the inch. Yeah, I said, let's get out of this and walk. I told you, go ahead and tell you what you're going to travel. We get now. We walk in sure enough. We got down in that mile before that car get to where we were at. It's not like, okay. So I don't

like traffic like that. But we're the same right there where the same right there. We might be the same right here. Who's your favorite NFL team? I got love for two teams. And I do them evenly, but I was born in Jacksonville. So Jacksonville and Atlanta. Not said football. Football. Yeah, yeah, Jacksonville. Jacksonville, Jacksonville. Yeah, Jacksonville. Yeah, Jacksonville. Yeah, yeah, Jacksonville. Yeah. And then Atlanta Falcons. Not said football. The Falcons play football.

They play football. They play football. They almost almost through these coaches. They just threw me for a loop. Man, I got Jacksonville. I used to live down there too. Listen, and learn, we, hey, hey, I'm a patriot fan. So I appreciate you. I appreciate you got running the ball. But guess what? Guess what? That was the last time I ever bedded with my heart.

That was the last time I gambled with my heart. I told you before the show I never do.

But my team's never seen my money. Yeah, I've never, I've never, I've never, I've been bed on the

“Falcons sense. Yeah, smart because they don't play football. Man, they play football, man.”

- Yeah, we got it. - We got it. - Yeah, yeah, you can stop that. You don't stop that, you don't stop. Hey y'all, I'll tell y'all right now.

- Uh-oh. - Five 'cause we gonna have a good season this year. - Yeah, we gonna have a good season. - Six games is a great season. - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

- No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. - Six games. - We gonna have a real good season. - Six games. - Six games. - We gonna be a buff 500.

- So you got them winning nine games? - I got us winning nine games. - Hey, we're recording this live. Nine games is what he said. I will take the under of nine for the Falcons.

- All right, you bet you a couple. - Okay, so look, so look, so look. We win nine games, you wear a soccer jersey. We don't wear a Patriot jersey, you know, you're a perfect. - I got you covered.

- Cool, I got you covered. - Yeah, that's what's up. Last question for you, Jay. As the story of Justin, the real food stalker Brown has been told,

what's something you wanna make sure the world knows about you? - I just love my people, and when I say my people, I just mean people who are positive. People who push for others, 'cause like anybody who knows

me knows, even if I'm losing, I'm still rooting for other people.

Like, I'm gonna always root for people.

So it doesn't bother me when people make nasty comments. - No, nothing. You can't bother me on the internet, 'cause I come from where, you don't, when people say something bad about you, they used to have to just say it to you in your face.

And that was, so saying it to me on the internet is nothing. Like, yeah.

“That's why I kind of like talking to my kids like,”

there's no way you should let somebody get under your skin, talking to you over the internet. Like, 'cause there's nothing but words, really. And I just want people to know, I don't care about that, but I do hope that that same energy,

negative energy that you all use on me. I hope that you do something positive and support somebody with that same energy. As long as you do that, I don't care about you being negative to me.

As long as you're supporting someone, like you're showing someone that you want them to make it. But don't be just trolling everybody and not trying to push somebody. Plus somebody to be great,

because you trolling me don't matter. Like, I don't care. I got to be great. I got to try my best to be great where I become great or I don't.

I got to try so I can at least look back and say, 'Hey, at this point in my life, I really try to be great.' So I just want people to know, I don't care about that.

And anybody who's pushing to do something, I'm with you on it. I'm with you, like, I see food bloggers pop up every day. And I like, they content.

I don't scroll by and don't like it. I like it. I don't care, like I do a lot of collaboration with people, other food bloggers, because I want you all to see too.

Like, everybody, the more people that can, to see, maybe you're better than me. And if you see, maybe you a bit company picture up and realize that, like, okay, these food reviewers are needed.

And because we are the new commercials. So you don't gotta pay $34,000 for a commercial,

People watch Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,

and more every day on this TV. Absolutely. Like, so you're getting the commercial out of people. I just want people to win. 'Cause the more people to win, the less hate it is,

like, and that's just the way it goes. People who are winning don't have time to hate. Even when I'm losing, I'm not feeling hate. 'Cause I want you to make it. I just want people to know, I love you all.

Like, honestly, like, I see people out. And when I see other good people, I love that. Like, I don't know what it is,

“but that's why all my friendships are tight.”

Like, 'cause they know, I really care about the winning. I don't care. If you're winning, my best friends are winning. I don't want nothing for you. I'm happy that you're winning. I'm happy that you're happy.

And most people don't understand that aspect of it. That's why my friends are still my friends for like years and years, and they still joke on me, no matter how big I could be a being, and they still gonna roast me about my hair.

Whatever is gonna be, but they know I love them,

so they're gonna always do that.

So just always know, it's always love, nothing but love for me.

“It is, ladies and gentlemen, this has been the real food stock.”

Just somewhere can people find a father tonight. Man, every day in the real food stock I'm gonna take a tight Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. They all subscribe to that YouTube, so I can start trying to make some money,

so I can give back. It's hard for me to give back y'all without no money. Let me get the money. And matter fact, this shirt right here. Yeah, we don't have, we don't have this shirt.

This gonna be for sale soon. And we don't figure out some stuff, man. I'm telling y'all, I'm gonna give back, when I get to that point, to do the give back. I'm gonna give back in a different way.

I'm gonna, a lot of people give back on camera. I'm not gonna do that. Y'all not even gonna know. Only people gonna know I gave back is that people who got gave to me.

And it's just gonna be fun. I promise it's gonna be fun. That's what's up, everybody. Make sure you follow and we will have links to the show notes and the descriptions

to everything, the real food stocker. Support my guy.

He's an amazing follow, nothing but positivity.

And you're gonna learn some things about food that you didn't know before. And man, y'all follow him. He gives me the opportunity. Make a plug, y'all got to follow him.

'Cause he's giving people the opportunity to tell the story. A lot of people don't ever get to tell the story. And then people don't want some people don't understand that person and they don't understand why they dislike it. Or they like, you know, so you're doing something really good

for the community and for socials. Like, this gives people just that opportunity. I appreciate you. And appreciate you to all the viewers on this

“and to remember your because is your super power.”

Go on, Lisa.