Welcome to the Unchained TV podcast with me, your host, Jane Velez Mitchell. What an exciting show we have for you. Mr. Charlie’s is the up-and-coming plant-based fast food chain, sometimes dubbed the vegan McDonald’s.

 

Now it made headlines recently when, huh, guess who showed up? Mike Tyson did a media event at Mr. Charlie’s in Los Angeles to celebrate the brand’s three year anniversary. And I gotta tell you, the crowd went wild. Turns out Tyson, who is famously plant forward, is an investor in Mr. Charlie’s.

 

This innovative company loves to riff on popular culture in a humorous way, making any visit a very entertaining experience. And great news, Mr. Charlie’s is now offering franchise opportunities. So could you be the next new franchisee of Mr. Charlie’s? Now, Unchained TV brings you the inside scoop on their super popular potato ice cream, and so much more with founder Taylor MacKinnon and Karma Hold Company CEO, Adam Wilkes.

 

Now, Adam, you have said that Mr. Charlie’s isn’t just a restaurant, it is a movement. So tell us, sir, what did you mean by that? So first of all, thanks for having us here today. I greatly appreciate it.

 

I’m excited to be talking about Mr. Charlie’s and Karma Hold Co. But this all falls into just the story behind Karma Hold Co. and the authenticity of connecting Mike to plant-based products.

 

Everything we do is about authenticity, and Mr. Charlie’s is as authentic as it gets. Focused on bringing plant-based products to the masses as we had with Karma Hold Co. So for us, it was love at first sight.

 

The bold, grand identity, the scalability. There was so much that went into just the excitement to myself and Mike and the whole team over at Karma Hold Co. that drew us to Mr. Charlie’s.

 

And I mean, just working with Taylor has just been unbelievable. And being able to work again on such a exciting concept and scaling this to our goals as we have with Karma, scaling to 19 countries, we hope to bring Mr. Charlie’s to people all over the world and really just push forward on that plant-based movement. It’s so exciting because it is, looks very much like McDonald’s-ish, the products, the design, but it’s vegan.

 

So Taylor, what I thought was so fascinating about this is that this was your brainchild. And when you arrived in Los Angeles from Australia, you were in crisis, really. Is it true that you were actually out on the streets? Yeah, yeah, that’s what past mistakes will do to you.

 

You don’t look at your pain and want to move forward. So I was just stuck in a never-ending cycle of never being able to get out of my own way until I received some help. You know, that’s what we all need sometimes, right? It’s a bit of help.

 

So a little bit of help goes a long way. How did you go from being an unhoused person on the streets of Los Angeles to creating this incredible brand that now has the backing of one of the most famous men in the world? You know, good people, actually. I think it took a lot of people to see it, a lot of people to support it.

 

To answer your question, I received an opportunity. I met a team of people at the Dream Centre that were helping people get back on their feet. The Dream Centre is a rehabilitation centre in LA that has about 500 rooms.

 

It’s founded by Matthew Barnett, one of my favourite people in the world, naturally, these days. And he saw something in me and gave me an opportunity, which was a bed in the shelter. I was there for many months, trying to recover from addiction and pain and just a lot of mistakes.

 

You know, it’s just, it all stemmed from my childhood, really, not being able to grow past anything that was too hard. And I finally met a team of people that were willing to give me a second chance at life and show me that I’m not my mistakes and that we’re all more than the hardest and worst thing that we’ve ever done. So I moved in, supported them back by chores and things.

 

And then one afternoon after service on a Sunday, Matthew Barnett called me into his office and gave me a check for $1,000 and said, I need you to leave. And I was like, okay, what did I do? And he said, nothing. And he said that God had told him that I was gonna leave and come back one day with an idea that was gonna change things at the Dream Centre.

 

So I did that, I left. At the time, I was seeing a girl who was volunteering and I later married her, had some kids. It’s been an amazing journey.

 

And I got to a point in my life after a lot of plant medicine, which is why I’m connected to Adam and Tyson and many others. And thank you, Jean, that’s very kind of you. But I realised that it was time to do something back, give something back.

 

So in a crazy plant medicine journey, I asked the universe the one question that I was scared to ask myself for so long. Why was I homeless? What’s that about? And then I heard it. How do you say it without getting too emotional? Because it’s hard to talk about it, but it’s beautiful at the same time.

 

But how do you help them if you don’t know what it feels like? So then I became an example of change because I’d been supported by so many people to get back on my feet. I met Aaron, my business partner at Charlie’s, our co-founder, and he gave me a shot. We built a brand together.

 

We had a creative agency helping people find their voice and just making the world a better place. So it was the love from the Dream Centre. It was the team over there, the outreach team that are constantly on the streets of LA looking for people that want help.

 

I think I got to a point where I wanted to help. I think we’re all scared to look under the carpet of what we create in our life, good or bad sometimes. And I needed a place to rest and find solitude, and I did.

 

And it was enough for me to shift my perspective, my direction, and connect me to my heart. So when the opportunity came up to build Charlie’s, I’ve been a chef my whole life. I love cooking.

 

I love plants. I’ve been on a very strict diet for a long time because of health and I’m kind of borderline bipolar a little bit, so I’m a bit quirky. So I have to maintain myself.

 

I have to work out. I have to eat good. I have to nourish my mind.

 

I have to meditate. I have to, you know, I spend a lot of time healing with plants. So it seemed like the right thing to do to create a concept for food that people put in their bellies that was made of plants, that was plant healing.

 

But with a twist, what would happen if, you know, I said to Aaron, what would happen if we did this but didn’t hire conventionally? What if we went to the Dream Centre and got a load of people that were ready to rehabilitate like I was but just needed a second chance where they could come to an interview and not be judged by their past? Oh, you’ve been in jail? Yeah, we’re gonna turn you down. That’s what we were finding everywhere. You know, an example, Andrew, you know, our store manager in LA, took him out of jail three years ago, came straight out of jail, lost his kids, alcohol abuse.

 

He had a couple of dreams. One, get his kids back. And two, his mom was dying of stage four cancer.

 

I’ll never forget this conversation. And he said to me, Taylor, I just wanna get my mom with me and let me be with her for the last moments of our life. And they gave her six months to live.

 

She passed away three years later, actually, not too long ago. And, you know, that’s what Mr. Charlie’s does. It creates an opportunity for people to do better, you know, without judging you.

 

There’s no judgement. Like, we’re all broken. Like, none of us are perfect.

 

in progress.

 

And it’s about being kind to yourself and realising that every hard thing that you ever do, it shapes you to be better in some way. So that’s really kind of the story of how I got at the Dream Centre and back out. Unconditional love.

 

But I had to work at it. I have to ask you these questions. Fascinating story.

 

And congratulations on your sobriety and your success. By the way, on April 1st, I’ll be 30 years sober. Knock on wood.

 

Oh, wow. Congratulations. So- It’s nice up here.

 

Beg your pardon? It’s nice up here. It is. It’s a- Yes, we’re happy.

 

Yes. I like to say I thought alcohol was my solution, but it was my problem. And so one day at a time, I’m 30 years sober.

 

April 1st, knock on wood, that’s a few days away. So yes, I totally relate to what you’re saying. So your whole mission is to use the unhoused and the recently incarcerated, hire them, get them to work at your stores, and now you’re creating franchise opportunities.

 

My question is, if somebody wants to be a franchise owner, do they have to follow that process? Do they have to hire people who are unhoused and or recently incarcerated? Or just give us a sense of how that would work. Well, we don’t try and reinvent the wheel. So we’re just trying to be a spoke on the wheel to help it turn a bit better, a bit smoother.

 

So there’s a lot of great places like the Dream Centre. So I’ll give you an example. We just did another rehire from the Dream Centre yesterday, and we took on some new people, but they’ve been on the programme for many years.

 

They found where they needed to be. They are just now ready to get back into work and settle down. For a lot of people, it’s very hard to find jobs once you’ve gone through so much.

 

So we don’t specialise in anything other than not overlooking anybody. Everyone’s got an opportunity here. So we have lots of people that work for us that haven’t been through anything.

 

They just want to be a part of the team because they want to be a blessing to other people. They feel they’ve got something to offer. And then we have people that have been working for us, with us, since day one, three years now, that are still living in shelters, some of them.

 

So it’s just, it’s a work in progress. But it’s not about any stigma or any type of category. It’s open to everybody that wants to just do more for their life.

 

Charlie’s is a stepping stone. I don’t want it to get confused about a long-term kind of career. Maybe that is the case for some people, but it’s a kind stepping stone where you can come in, be a part of something, rework who you are, if that’s what you’re looking to do, and just find a way to give back.

 

Healing, and internally is great, but I’ll tell you what, there’s no better feeling than helping somebody else. Not for me, anyway. Absolutely.

 

Taylor, this is such a fascinating story and it’s so inspiring. Getting back to Adams, you’re the CEO of the holding company, and Mike Tyson is a big investor in that holding company and in, therefore, Mr. Charlie’s, and he was there recently. I wanna play that video again, because honestly, we were there live.

 

Unchained TV went and was live, and it was a wild scene. If the video looks a little bumpy, it’s because there were so many people there crushing into the place. And that’s a good mob scene.

 

You want that. Oh, what an exciting day. So how are you changing the dynamics of making money? Because what Taylor said was so much about giving and about compassion.

 

And I also read that you have days where you do 99 cent hamburgers. How are you able to make money and still do all those wonderful things for the community? So there’s two parts to it. I mean, yes, it’s in the end, we’d all love to make money at it, but what attracted Mike himself, just knowing his background, his story, and the life that he’s lived, is the whole story of giving back, doing our part, having the opportunity to scale this brand globally and bring this opportunity and plant-based products to the masses, but also give back at the same time, whether that’s donating to charities or as Taylor mentioned, hiring from the Dream Centre.

 

There’s two parts to this, right? It’s the extremely innovative and crave-worthy menu and bringing vegan products to the consumers, as well as being able to give back. And in turn, as we create days like having Mike there where the lineup was around the building and we had a very successful day, great turnout, launching new products, the interest in opening new stores has just skyrocketed, right, from a dozen new states lined up to multiple countries. So we feel you give back, you do your part, and the rest kind of follows.

 

It’s part of the business model, and again, it’s working for us. So we’re excited about the whole process. So how many stores do you have now, Adam? And where are these, let’s say I want to be a franchise owner.

 

I’m not saying I could. I’m not saying I could at all, but let’s say hypothetically. Anyone could be.

 

Yeah, but I mean, is it California? Tell us about the details and how much it would cost. Yeah, so we already have two stores opening in California, one in San Francisco and one in LA. We have additional stores coming online in California, in the LA area.

 

We have some new stores coming online in the East Coast. We launched Australia, which we’re all super excited about with some more stores coming online there. And then with our network, and again, my past experience in the QSR space, we have dozens of countries we’re in talks with around the globe on bringing Mr. Charlie.

 

So the excitement since bringing Tyson and Carmen has really just hockey stick, really blown up the interest in Mr. Charlie’s. And we’ll continue to build the awareness of this movement we’ve created. Well, Taylor’s created that we’re helping with and bring more doors to consumers all over the world.

 

We have people wanting it everywhere. So we vet our franchisees, looking for people with obviously the financial ability to open one, and we’ll continue to vet them and open stores all over the place. Well, what is that? And yes, we hope to come to Dallas too.

 

Yes, people are asking, when are you coming here? When are you coming there? What is the bottom line? What’s the bottom line investment? And people could maybe group together and gather the investment, but I think people will wanna know, if let’s say somebody says, I wanna do this, how much money do they have to come up with? Let me do this. Let me take you back a step to a question that you asked a second ago about making money and being profitable and giving. So in life, if you go through some hard stuff, you’re gonna get to a point in your evolution where you’re gonna continue to keep banging your head against the wall, or you’re gonna lean into some change.

 

You’re gonna lean into your faith. You’re gonna lean into people. You’re gonna start listening.

 

I became two ears, one mouth in my life. When you create a dream, when you create something meaningful, and you’re passionate about it, and you’ve got a story like I have, like many have, no different to anybody else. I’m just another example.

 

And you create a plan. All I did was go to some of the best people in the industry, people like Tyndall, who make all of our chicken product directly with us. And I went to Tyndall and said, this is a dream, but we need help to be able to achieve past the status quo, where it has to be about profit.

 

It has to be about penny pinching. It has to be about that. I’m not interested in any of that stuff, because it sorts itself out if you’re doing the right thing.

 

If you’re love in everything you’re doing, you’re gonna find love back. So we created a foundation that was scalable through the support of great brand partners. We get unique pricing on certain products, and then the ability to distribute globally to different places like Australia.

 

There’s so much support from marketing, from product, to just everything that we could ever need. So this isn’t about a brand that’s just open and done really well. This is about a brand that connected with great people to form a mission, to go out and do something that’s never been done before, to treat people with so much respect that you don’t take advantage of anything or anyone in the situation.

 

You just trust. So what does it cost to become a franchise partner? That’s gonna vary on how many stores you want. Our email for franchise- Let’s say one.

 

Adam, do you know more about- I can’t say exact numbers, but I can tell you, with my decade in the QSR space, working with dozens of different QSR brands, it’s an extremely affordable investment and a great entry point for someone who wants to get into the food space and really be a part of the vegan movement. I think it’s super exciting. And I’ve been saying for years, we need to have a vegan McDonald’s and you’ve created it.

 

Who makes your hamburger patties? That I’m very curious about. Do you use a variety of companies or is there one company that makes your patties? Well, we work with Tindle as our main point. We’re currently working with the Impossible Light Burger, which is a lot cleaner than what you can get in a supermarket or anywhere else.

 

We’ve been working with them for a long time, but we’ve been R&Ding, working on new concepts, new things, ice cream with clips. That was amazing. Having an ice cream made of cassava, it’s nuts.

 

Never in a million years thought I would ever eat anything like that that would resemble ice cream. Blows my mind. So it’s just, you know, it’s fun.

 

The ice cream, I gotta say, I gotta say with, again, almost a decade in the dairy space, working with yoghurt and ice cream brands, I was blown away with the flavour, the texture, everything about the ice cream. Mike loved it so much. I think he had three of them when we first came through for the testing.

 

It’s just been a home run. So I can’t wait for everyone to try them. If you haven’t, get in the store and try it.

 

It’s unbelievable. You can also get the fun little Mike bite on it too, the chocolate ear. It’s funny.

 

It’s reminiscing on the 1987 break with Holyfield. Yes, I’ll never forget. It’s really funny, that chocolate ear, because I have a personal story on that.

 

I’m not a personally a fan of boxing and I didn’t want to go to the event and the person I was with was like, come, it’s a big event, it’s a big event. So we went into this bar where they had the screen and literally within 30 seconds of me walking in, the infamous ear bite occurred. And I was like, see? It’s 1987, right? Yep, yep.

 

That was so funny, but you’ve turned it on its head and now you have this. Now my understanding was it’s potato ice cream, which is absolutely fascinating. How did you arrive? And again, if you see the chocolate ear, it’s the infamous bite that, well, you can, again, not being the boxing expert, you can, I don’t want to mess it up.

 

Adam, what was the moment? Mike Tyson fighting Evander Holyfield, 1997. And it was a very viral moment. 25 years after the fight, we released the Mike Bites product line, which has now evolved into so many new products.

 

One that we’re extremely excited about is the vegan ice cream with Mr. Charlie’s. And this is potato ice cream? Originally it started out as potato based and we moved to a cassava base with Eclipse, which is a lot healthier, has no GMOs, no artificial flavours or colours, just really clean, really great actually. Very proud of it.

 

We’ve been open for three years and people have requested ice cream for three years. But I’m never going to put anything out that’s not mad, mad special. And again, it comes back to the point of scalability, like need a brand partner, need somebody that we can work with that can help us scale.

 

Back to your franchise question, we have made it very affordable. Not to dodge the question about how much does it cost, it varies on different people and size, but our model is scalable with not just our support, but the support from all of our vendors, all of our support. Everyone’s there to help it thrive.

 

So when you get involved with Mr. Chutley’s, you kind of, it’s almost like a marriage in a way. That’s what it is, where we can all do good together. We all want to see the world be better.

 

It starts with us. We all spend so much time worrying about the world ending and this happening and that happening, but the truth is you can only focus on what you can control. And if that means that you want to see the world better, then you’ve got to do better with you.

 

You’ve got to wake up in the morning, make better decisions and choose self-love, choose to meditate, choose to eat good. We created this brand, not for vegan people. We created it for everybody.

 

It’s a vegan people already vegan. So we’re gonna need converting. They already made the decision, really good decision.

 

Like we wanted everybody else. Those that are confused. There’ve been so many people that have come to the store that have just been like, what does it taste like? How good is it? We get the same questions all the time.

 

I’m gonna stand up and say our menu is absolutely fantastic. You know why? Because I have owned multiple restaurants. I’ve worked in multiple kitchens and I’ve failed many times, more than I can remember.

 

And the more you fail, the more you get good at it. And then you meet someone like Adam, who’s been in the QSR space forever, who really knows how to scale a brand. And so him coming in wasn’t just about money or anything like that.

 

It was really just about how do we have the best guys, the best people in our team to help drive it? Well, he understands the market, but he’s also a beautiful human being. Like even Mike Tyson, I’m from London. I grew up on a council estate with no money.

 

And then all of a sudden, this little kid from London is now teaming up with Mike Tyson. It was a pinch yourself moment for me. And then you wonder, what’s he gonna be like? You’ve seen all the trials and everything he’s been through in his life.

 

But when you meet him, you realise that the guy’s got a heart bigger than his punch. And he cares more than most people understand. And he’s so smart, like so intellectual.

 

Like your conversations have been profound. And his kindness towards this brand, his support, like literally jumping on a plane and flying across one side of the world to the other, just to be at our event, which is what happened. That means everything.

 

He’s a champion of people. He’s a champion of his own life. Because you see, the thing that Mike Tyson did and the example to all of us, I believe, it’s that he never gave up.

 

It got sticky, it got tough, it got very heavy. I’m sure many times you’ve read about it in his life, all the trials and tribulations. Same with me, but we never gave up in the end.

 

We decided just to choose self-love, to keep pushing forward. And we are a product of great people. We both shared plant medicine.

 

We’ve both done very similar plant medicines, which are one of the reasons why I believe we’re all together. It’s in those teachings where you can really let go of everything and all attachment and remove the ego from your life and your mind for a minute. We realise that actually we’re all really, really special.

 

I always say this to our team, everyone, look at your fingerprint. I encourage everyone watching this right now, look at your fingerprint. It’s the only one.

 

There’s not another one. What does that mean? It means you’re so special. And that if you’ve been through hard things, if you’re going through something hard right now, it’s because you chose it before you came here.

 

It helps you evolve. It helps you spiritually grow. And what we’ve got to get good at doing is learning how to be more honest with ourself.

 

We’ve got to learn how to ask for help because we’re so proud of that that we don’t want to seem to be a failure in front of the world. So it’s not okay to ask for help. Yes, it is.

 

It’s bloody great to ask for help. I ask for help all the time these days. And my life’s a great, happy place because of that.

 

It’s when I try to do it all myself. That’s why I went wrong in my life, overcompensating on the love that I never had as a kid. And then what you try to do is you become a people pleaser like I did, trying to give everyone everything and then falling short on everything and then creating a bad picture about yourself.

 

And then- You know, I’m gonna jump in because there are so many questions that people have, but I agree with you. In fact, I’m listening to this great book right now called Let Them, which is a bestseller. And it’s basically, if you’re having problems with people, just let them.

 

And it’s like a weight off your shoulders. I love it. Okay, so many questions.

 

Everybody’s asking, the ice cream is now made out of something else, but they didn’t catch the word. I didn’t really catch it either. It’s not potatoes anymore.

 

What- It’s cassava. So it’s still- What is it? It defies from a root vegetable. It’s very similar.

 

We work with Eclipse. Eclipse are a profound company that have been making vegan ice cream products for a long time. Their original base had potato in it.

 

They moved to a more sustainable option. Less in it, it’s cleaner. And it has- Cassava.

 

It has more of a fluff to it as well, cassava. Okay. It’s a little bit more fluffy.

 

So it’s been clutch. Again, like- You have gluten-free options. Yes.

 

Yeah. Yeah, of course. We just, actually, we’re just working on a new gluten-free bun right now.

 

I feel bad for people that are gluten intolerant. It’s like, I love bread. I can’t imagine not being able to eat bread.

 

Like, it’d be devastating. So we think about that when we’re planning menus, when we’re doing drops. You know, we want to accommodate for everybody.

 

So we have just introduced a new gluten-free bun that’s absolutely fantastic. I’m very proud of it. So yeah.

 

All right. Here’s a question. Is there a story behind the name and the various names? Okay.

 

Gene wants to know. Okay. Gene, I’m a deadhead.

 

The only band I would ever tattoo on my arm. There you go. I went to, when I was going through my healing stages, I ended up somehow, ended up at a Grateful Dead concert, a Dead & Company concert in Utah.

 

And I decided that that was the night that I was going to experiment with my life and broaden my horizons a little bit. As you do within the dead, if you know anything about the scene, you kind of know what goes with it. And I had an out-of-body experience where I got to hear music for the first time, but I got to witness a family of people dancing in front of me that were just loving each other, having a great time.

 

So when we first started putting this concept together, I was in a brainstorming session with Aaron, my co-creator, my co-founder, my man-wife, as my wife calls him. And I remember meditating and I saw Bob Weir from the dead standing in front of me on the stage going, I’m going to roll you over and shoot you because Mr. Charlie told me so. And I was like, ah, Mr. Charlie told me so.

 

So it’s really about cosmic Charlie, who is a dead character. And really what the brand represents, other than the obvious of creating jobs for people in need, supporting our voiceless animals, but that’s huge. But it’s really, it’s a proof of concept for every single person looking at it, which is you can be really brave and succeed.

 

You can choose to put people over profit and succeed. And the real concept is to make you feel like a child. I’ll share a quick story.

 

I had a, we used to have these little yellow stalls outside the building when we first opened. From Ikea, we had no money. So it was like, you know, that’s the other thing too.

 

We didn’t borrow any money to build this. Everything that it cost to create it, me and Aaron personally paid for it with everything that we’ve ever made. It was a real sacrifice.

 

But on that day, this gentleman came in and he says to me, why do you have these stupid little kids’ stalls outside? Why don’t you have some proper seating? And I said to him, can you do me a favour? And he went, sure. I went, I’m going to buy you lunch today and I want you to sit on that stupid little yellow stall and I want you to eat your lunch and tell me what you think. And I gave him his food.

 

He sat on the stall and I came back and I asked him, how are you feeling? And he was cheek to cheek with a smile. And he told me in that moment that I helped him feel like a kid again, that I recreated a childlike experience that he once remembered. And that’s really what it’s about also is that inside of us, all of us, is a beautiful, enlightened, kind, glorious little child.

 

That’s your real self. And we get conditioned at a very young age through schooling, people’s emotions, pressures of life, money, whatever you want to call it, to start to shift into a place of fear and everything else. And then you start to lose track of who you are.

 

Well, where I went wrong in my life, I had no connection to my inner child and where I went right in my life is when I connected with him. So I am a seven-year-old Taylor who creates Mr. Charlies. I am seven in my mind, you know? I love it.

 

And we all have to work on that inner child, myself included. I want to talk about the branding a little bit because this is very interesting to me. And I love on your website, you say we are sarcastic disruptors, community, love, change.

 

And this is one of your logos. So what does it mean? To me, it was sort of the opposite of the Happy Meal, which obviously involves a dead animal. So to me, it’s not a Happy Meal.

 

I invite McDonald’s on anytime, but is that a direct reference to the Happy Meal or what is it? I’ll tell you exactly where it came from. I was, when I left the Dream Centre, I didn’t have anywhere to go. So my girlfriend, now my wife Amanda, at the time gave me her couch.

 

So I lived on her couch for the first couple months. And I remember being, she went to work every day and I stayed back, didn’t have a job or anything. And I’d watch Netflix and eat Lucky Charms at that time.

 

I was like, I needed a Lucky Charms sponsor at that point, actually. I was that good at it. But I was so depressed because I couldn’t get out of my own head.

 

And then one day before my wife went to work, she looked at me and she said, Taylor, can I share something with you? And I went, sure. She said, it’s okay to be sad sometimes. Through your sadness is your complete happiness.

 

I was like, wow. I never forgot that and I never will. So what that logo represents that it’s okay to be sad sometimes.

 

And the Xs are, it’s death to what we once knew that overextends this planet. That’s not gonna allow it to be here for our children’s children. So we’re gonna do something about that.

 

We’re already doing something about that because we can. And we’ve caught the eye of great people, sponsors, Adam, Mike Tyson. When you bring people like that into the equation, people start to take you a little bit more seriously.

 

And it’s, thank you, LULAC. So many great comments. You guys are so nice.

 

Thank you. Everybody’s super excited about it. And just when we saw that Mike Tyson event, it was just, people are swarming.

 

What percentage of your clientele is vegan and what percentage is just going in for a fast food meal? And then what do they discover? Is there any kind of eye-opening aha moment that you hope your customers have about animals, about climate change, about nonviolence? Because it looks just like, quick glance, it looks like the fast food that many people grew up on, but it’s not because no animals die. It’s a great question. You know, for us, it’s really about just creating opportunities for people to do better.

 

Like we can’t force anyone to do anything. Well, nor do we want to. Everyone’s so individual.

 

We want to respect everybody with where they’re at. But all we did was make plant options more accessible in a unique, fun way that felt nostalgic, that really made us laugh. Like we enjoy it.

 

Like, you know, red and yellow are the most dominant food colours to make you feel more hungry. Aaron and I love the circus. We are clowns.

 

Like the brand makes me feel like the circus. Like it sparked my own curiosity, my own need to make the world a better place, you know? And after everything I’ve been through to be in a position to be able to help people on this level, it just, it’s inspiring. So again, like we’re nothing without the customers that come in.

 

We’re just an idea. For years, people have poured in, supported, purchased, loved, told their friends, you know? And back to your question, I would say 20, 25% of our audience are actually vegan. Everybody else is curious, very curious.

 

So a couple of hard questions. You know, Hard House recently reportedly shut down. There was, it had opened with much fanfare and also had a famous person behind it.

 

How do you hope to avoid that given that the plant-based movement is under attack right now? It’s widely reported that the meat industry has launched a massive campaign against plant-based restaurants and food and products. Let Adam take that, if you would. Yeah, I don’t think it has to do with the actual product being sold.

 

I think it was just mismanaged, to be honest. Don’t wanna talk negatively about anybody, but I’ve been in the restaurant space long enough understanding running lean is the only way to go when operating these businesses. We’ve acquired dozens of fast food brands in the past that went through a very similar situation as the Hard House individuals, overspending and just not being able to maintain their staying power.

 

And again, just pair that with the quality and craveability of the food. I mean, I can tell you, I crave Mr. Charlie’s all the time. My kids who, again, my kids were not vegan.

 

I mean, when I brought them into Mr. Charlie’s, they fell in love at their first sitting. It’s incredible to taste, incredible to experience. And again, you feel the love as you eat and enjoy your experience at any of the Mr. Charlie’s that you visit.

 

So it’s just, it’s different. I don’t put us on the same playing field as anybody else. It’s one of a kind and I don’t think anybody else is doing what we’re doing.

 

So, I don’t- And so let me ask a follow-up. In terms of achieving economies of scale, what I’m hearing is that as you open these franchises and you’re using the vegan companies, whether it’s Tindle or Impossible Burger to supply you, you’re able to reach the economies of scale that some smaller vegan restaurants cannot because they’re obviously not franchised across the globe. How many franchise restaurants do you foresee? In other words, maybe, where do you see yourself, let’s say, in five years? Globally, every country, all over the world.

 

And again, how we’re able to scale is through collaboration. You think about it, like we’ll use Tindle as an example. Like, Timo is an amazing CEO who has supported us since the beginning.

 

We help them with marketing. We are the perfect serve for that burger. If you’re an investor trying to invest into Tindle or you’re interested in working with Tindle or you see them in a supermarket and you wanna try it and you go to Charlie’s, you’re gonna get a great experience.

 

We strive to be that for the brands. We are here to bring these brands up at the same time and we will only work with somebody who values the same things as we do and that’s where we’re at. We pass on all of our savings, all of our discounts at volume because it will get easier directly to our franchise partners.

 

We don’t mark up anything. That’s not what it’s about. It has to scale.

 

This model needs to be scaled. So what we need at that point is people that are like-minded, have some experience and wanna do something with their life and change it up a little bit. And Charlie’s is a fantastic opportunity that one, is incredibly affordable to get involved in.

 

One, is very scalable but two, three, comes with so much support that I don’t believe any franchise partnership has ever received before in the world. Like what we’re giving, it’s like we’re holding your hand. We’re with you, making sure that we deliver on something that’s really ethical and kind, that’s long lasting.

 

And again, we are only here doing as good as we are because of great customers, people supporting us but the brands that are supplying us, they’re giving us everything to make it more affordable. And that’s what we’ve been doing. So where do you see yourself in, let’s say five years in terms of the number of franchise restaurants? I’ll say this and hold me to it.

 

You are looking at the biggest fast food, plant-based company on planet earth in the making. That is not an entity, energy, frequency on this planet that is going to stop us from achieving that goal which is a Mr. Charlie’s in every major city in every country in the world, doing good, changing the narrative, creating options for people to get more involved in plants and helping people start a plant journey because it’s just one thing. You know, you look at Tyson 2.0, they make great products that improve your quality of life.

 

That’s the real. So for us, it’s all rounded and it’s not just about where we’re at right now. It’s about where we’re gonna meet other people in this space in the future and be an ambassador.

 

You know, we spend a lot of time coaching other plant-based restaurants. Now you mentioned Hart House. I’m very good friends with Andy Hooper, the CEO of Hart House and back to Adam’s situation, it’s nothing to do with the product.

 

It’s just sometimes the market share isn’t there and sometimes you can grow too quick. You know, we could have easily have opened five, six, seven Mr. Charlie’s stores in the last two years, but we probably would have closed them all within a year or two because we wouldn’t have been ready. We decided to go completely backwards, going unorthodox and learn how to really master this, learn how to do it, go through the growing pains, learn how to build, learn how to grow.

 

And we’ve done that. And then we were in a position of expansion. And then when it came up to talk to Adam and Mike and everybody, it’s a no brainer.

 

Like I was just, I never forget the conversation with our team when they told me, hey, we’ve got someone who is interested in coming in. And I was like, oh, okay, who? Mike Tyson. And I was like, yeah, right.

 

Like Mike Tyson? They’re like, yeah, he loves it. He wants to meet you. And I’m like, holy shit, Mike Tyson.

 

Okay. So then I remember going to meet Mike for the first time and I was like, scared shitless. Like he’s 50% terrifying and 50% beautiful, but when you meet him, he’s all beautiful.

 

He’s just, I love him. I just want to eat him up, put him in my pocket. Like he’s uncle Mike these days.

 

A man who’s never given up on himself. A man who’s constantly pushed forward. A great husband, an incredible father.

 

Like, oh my God. But a great friend, good human being. Like I love him.

 

I’m so grateful for him. So grateful for Adam. I want to jump in and ask, I think you raised a very good point because I think overexpansion is a danger.

 

And I’ve seen it actually, I’m no business expert, but I’ve seen what I consider to be overexpansion and saying, why are they opening another one? Just in general, I’m not talking about any specific restaurant. How do you find that balance, Adam? You know, how do you decide, well, I’m working too slow or I’m working too fast? Because you’re talking about world domination. So that requires expansion.

 

How are you going to mitigate the dangers of expanding too fast? How do you do it? Yeah, with our experience, it’s all about doing your due diligence, spending the proper time and reevaluating each market as you launch, ensuring you’re not overlapping. Again, ensuring what competition is around, what the demographic is in each area and ensuring that again, you’re not cannibalising your own business, right? Not opening too close to any of your existing locations. There’s benefits to opening to near other vegan concepts as we create a one of a kind product.

 

But again, there’s a whole process of due diligence that we run through before selecting new regions, territories, cities, and so on. I like that because I’ve noticed just in the LA area where I live, a lot of times vegan restaurants seem to be in a cluster. I’m like, wait a second.

 

You know, there’s not that many over here. Put them over here, not just all in this area. So I think it’s very wise that you do that.

 

We’ve got a whole bunch of questions from people who are watching. Can’t wait for you to come over to the UK. Are you there? Oh, it’s great, bring it on.

 

I had a great conversation with somebody huge in the UK recently who sparked a lot of interest. I’ve gotta take it. I was born there, it’s the motherland.

 

I’m taking it home for sure. That’s happening, I can’t wait. I need, all my family are there, so it actually gets me more time with my family as well who I miss dearly.

 

So it’s been a journey, you know? But yes, UK, definitely, for sure. There was another comment here, somebody asking, are you going to adjust your menu depending on what country you’re in? For example, if you were in India, would you adjust your menu? Now, I noticed that, well, maybe I’m wrong, but the big fast food companies seem to just export the, you know, what I would call the bad fast food across the world, but- It’s a great question. It’s very, very important.

 

Like one of my favourite things that I’ve been able to do and been so blessed to have done over the last few years is travel the world a little bit. You know, this brand, Stephanie, helped us kind of go some places, but I’ve travelled a lot. And one of my favourite things is really appreciating different cultures.

 

Like it’s what makes the world so great. Like we’re all so individual, but so when we go to different countries, you know, we’ll use India as an example. I’m going to team up with the best Indian vegan restaurants and the best vegan chefs to come in and do limited runs and core things and adjust flavour profiles and just keep it really exciting.

 

Like that’s, I’m a chef. I’m not a one trick pony. I can do anything.

 

And I’m, cause I love it. You know, I’ve been doing it my whole life. So it will vary from different places.

 

You know, some terminology may change as well as menu items, but as a base, we’re pretty much there. We want people to experience what we’ve done in LA everywhere, you know, and that’s the goal. Now we hear you’re coming to Brentwood.

 

Yeah. Yeah. Woo baby.

 

We found the most amazing store that has been vacant for years. And the amount of people that are businesses that have tried to rent this particular store have all come up short. And the reason why is because the owners of the building have owned it forever.

 

It was their previous business and one of them passed on. And when I went to meet them to talk about it, the first question I asked was, why did you do this? Why did you build this? And I got to hear the whole life story of the brand. And that’s how I can connect with people.

 

You know, I want to take the legacy of that feeling because it’s really all about feelings. You know, it’s like, even when I’m manifesting these days, I’m not really manifesting a particular outcome. If you think about it, like it’s your best feeling in everything you’re doing, that’s what you want.

 

You want to feel your best self in everything you’re doing. So in that moment, I wanted to feel like that would be our store. And the only way I could do that was by showing the owners how beautiful this brand is and how authentic we are.

 

And because of that, she fell in love with us. And she’s like 96 years old. She’s a little girl.

 

And you know, she’s like three foot, like tiny. And I remember the first time I ever met her, like she was struggling looking up at me in the meet and I sat on the dusty floor so she could look down, like little things, showing the respect. So when that store came up and we got the approval to go in, oh man, I was so excited.

 

And it’s a great store. It’s the first store that we’ve ever opened that actually has some internal seating with a bathroom, which is nice. More event space.

 

And you know, it’s just, it’s really exciting for us. And again, like, you know, you think about what we’ve gone through in LA with the fires and everything recently. You know, we almost lost that store.

 

And then it was, it was the brave work of the firefighters putting out the fire on the hill that stopped it from leaning into Brentwood. So we’re so grateful for everybody. Let me jump in with a question.

 

And that is how many Mr. Charlies do you have now? How many are, I don’t even really know how many are in the Southern California or Los Angeles area. Do you have any in New York? Funny you should say that. We’re working on something in the Big Apple right now.

 

I’m gonna take a big bite of that with some really special people. When we announced that, I think it’s gonna shock the world a little bit. So I’m excited for that.

 

We have one in Hollywood. We did a pop-up in Venice for six months just to test that area, which is why we ended up taking a store in Brentwood, which is technically Santa Monica. We have a store at Union Square in San Francisco, right in the centre.

 

And then we also just opened one in Australia. So Brentwood will be our third California store with many more coming. So we’re in good conversations right now with many people.

 

Now, is this a turnkey operation? Like when, let’s say somebody decides to become a franchise owner, do you design everything? Do you keep it? Because apparently one of the reasons why the mainstream meat and dairy fast food restaurants have had so much success in their franchises is that they keep to a very strict formula. People cannot sort of personalise it that much. Well, we want personality in the mix.

 

We’re gonna definitely be a little bit cautious about who’s coming in. Well, we have been. So we want you to feel like you can add a little bit of your personality in.

 

But the question you have to ask yourself is why are you getting involved in it? Why are you buying? Why are you buying into Mr. Charlie’s? If you’re buying into it because you love it. So therefore we have created a system that’s so scalable, that’s so easy to maintain. Again, like our team, we’ve had the same team at core since the day we’ve opened.

 

Think about that. Since day one, most of them haven’t left, they’ve stayed. And they’ve now been trained into regional managers.

 

So an example, like when we opened Australia, we flew out our store GM from LA to Australia to open that store so the consistency was there. So it’s very much a hand-holding process with great internals of how to deliver. But it’s so organised that we take kind of the hard part out of it for you.

 

We’ve created that consistency. And then that gives you an opportunity to be completely 100% yourself in making it work and sharing the message. Which also a lot of what it is, it’s getting people excited about it.

 

That’s what I do on the daily, get people motivated and in love with the brand by understanding it. Like most people don’t know that we employ homeless people. Most people don’t know that, I was homeless 11 years ago, they don’t know.

 

We’ve talked about it a little bit, but it’s not about any one individual or certainly not me. I’m just an example. I think it’s a great story and I’d love to see it as a New York Times piece profiling you.

 

It’s a good story. And I’m excited to be able to cover it because it’s not your regular business story. It’s a unique story.

 

And so many aspects of this is unique. Do you see what you’ve created here as a template for let’s say capitalism 2.3, 4.0? 100%, it’s just an example of how to do better. We’ve already gone into multiple plant-based businesses, businesses that you’ve all eaten at and I’ve gone in and I’ve helped them already.

 

I’ve already given support and love. I want everyone to come up. It’s not about Mr. Charlie’s at all, it’s about everybody doing better, winning together.

 

We’re all gonna win together. It’s way more cool if we can get to the top of change and then go, oh, look what we did together, guys, and actually share it instead of just this solo battle of, you know, it doesn’t work, so. Well, I have to say, we’ve only got a minute or so.

 

This has been such a fascinating conversation and I do feel it’s an evolved business approach. So final 30 seconds, Adam, what would you like to say and how can people get in touch if they wanna have a franchise, a Mr. Charlie’s franchise? Absolutely, check us out online, go to our website, send in your request and we’ll happy to lead you to success. As Taylor stated, it is a turnkey operation.

 

We come out, we train you, set your store up with you, again, and lead you to success to ensure everything goes smoothly. Providing you with all your SOPs, menu items, everything you need, again, for a turnkey operation and excited to continue to grow the brand together. And last 30 seconds, Taylor.

 

Just gratitude for everybody that’s put their hand on this brand in any way. And then, you know, if I’ve got 20 seconds of that left, I’m gonna say to everybody that’s watching this that’s having a hard time, I know that’s had a hard time, keep going. Keep going.

 

Yeah, that’s it. I love it. I love your enthusiasm and I really love this model of making money.

 

It doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. It can be a win-win for everybody. And to that end, I would also love to encourage everybody watching to download Unchained TV.

 

We are the world’s only vegan streaming television network and you can download it on your phone, any phone, just go to the app store, and any TV with streaming devices. And we’re also on all Samsung TVs, soon to be on all LG TVs. So it’s a vegan Netflix.

 

Okay, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. I love Unchained TV. Unchained, Unchained TV.

 

Your life will change, it’s just that easy. Unchained TV has all sorts of content for everybody. Unchained TV changed my life.

 

Unchained TV is crushing it. I love Unchained TV. Unchained TV is my go-to.

 

Unchained TV. Who knew? Unchained, baby, yay! This episode was brought to you by Unchained TV. Unchained TV is a nonprofit organisation producing plant-based content filled with tips and tricks to spice up those healthy veggies, grains, and legumes.

 

For more information on Unchained TV productions, just visit unchainedtv.com. That’s unchainedtv.com.