We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dewayne Hollyfield. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dewayne below.

Dewayne, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Growing up I was around a lot of hustlers and business minded individuals. My mom for example enjoyed taking care of the elderly. She genuinely enjoyed making sure that they were being properly cared for. Many times she would express her concerns that she had about how other care takers misused their positions. So one day my mom decided to open her own very own home care business . I can remember her asking me to help her think of a name for it. The one I came up with was the one she ultimately chose. We called it “The Right Home Care”. Within a few weeks she had the office space with a extra room. My mom decided that the extra room will be rented out to her friend who specialized in Physical therapy. However after a few months her plans fell through and her ideas fizzled out. Unforeseen circumstances took place and my mother never capitalized on the one thing we all Americans have. Opportunity.

Then there’s my older cousin. I looked up to him. He was a hard worker and very talented at his craft. He worked at an Auto body shop specializing in rebuilding imported vehicles Porsches in particular. He was all about improving the car and making it even better. At that time in the mid 90’s l Porsches were the hottest thing out. They pride themselves on consistency, quality and hard work. I admire that about my cousin to this day.

So what did I learn from my two examples when starting or running a business?
Well first and foremost, COMMITMENT to yourself wether it works or not is without a doubt one of the most important things to understand when starting off. I knew I needed to create a system for myself. I couldn’t just rely on the local farmers markets, festivals, fairs and word of mouth to get my marketing done for GYC. I needed to take advantage of all the different social media platforms out there. I had to no choice people had to understand and taste for themselves just how good GYC- Getyocheesecakes is.
So I got to work. I made an Instagram, a tick tok and Facebook, Twitter and Snap chat. I also Joined community business forums on Facebook to connect with local small business owners in my area.
I then started to upload all my testimonials on the platforms of individuals actually eating the cheesecake. One of our mottos is “Taste buds don’t lie.”
You can definitely tell by the facial expressions on a person’s face after taking their first bite of our cheesecake.
Each cheesecake comes in its own 8oz styrofoam cup with a lid. The cups didn’t look appealing until we started dressing them up. I remember as a kid eating cereal I’d always read the back of the cereal box. The boxes always had something that got my eye. So I started putting pictures of my dad with all the bake goods he’s infamous for on the cups. I added a QR codes with scan me stickers on top of the lids. Every snap of your camera takes you to Getyocheesecake.com.

I then met an individual who has a podcast called Wins&Losses. I brought him a few cheesecakes and he was so impressed with the flavor that on his following podcast he presented it to his guests and ate it live on air. Everyone loved the cheesecakes.
I also met a satellite radio Dj from Power 98.9. Who had his own channel on ROKU
in which I was able to upload my GYC Getyocheesecakes testimonials onto his channel DNR tv found on ROKU. This avenue allows me to advertise my cheesecakes on Roku and Fire-stick.

After establishing these platforms I thought..,
how and where can people go to purchase my cheesecakes? I knew I only had a limited amount of extra time outside of working a full time job, being a husband and a father. I wanted, I needed to maximize my time. And bam! Happy Hour cheesecakes was born. I was able to lock down a commercial
Kitchen very close to my place of residence which made it easier to run back and forth due to to my limited time. I kept BUSY. I researched and contacted UBER eats, DoorDash, and Grub-hub.I added my product to their platforms. So now I have people ordering through their app and their drivers will come to my pickup location in Chandler. Everything seems to be working out well so far. But most importantly the public gets to finally have their HAPPY HOUR CHEESECAKES!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Growing up, My dad would tell me, as I’m washing dishes; “ You just don’t know yet, I’m giving you a million dollar recipe.” At the moment I had no idea what he was talking about. All I was focused on was getting the all the dishes clean. And there was a lot! And at that age nothing was more annoying than having to wash a ton of dishes. But boy do I understand now. I still remember the time I was in the 10th grade. I ask my father for some money. G.Y.C Sr said “ I don’t have no money, however I got some of these cheesecakes.” I thought he was joking… FYI: growing up, my mom and G.Y.C. Sr never where married, or lived in the same home. So I visited G.Y.C. Sr on the weekend. “ I’m not about to bring no cheesecakes to school dad.” As I was saying that I thought to myself… Pop’s did have Getyocheesecakes back then when it was called H&M cheesecakes. I also remember my dad’s interview on the Steve Harvey radio show back in the day. As well as my dad canceling a meeting with Ervin Magic Johnson. At that time Mr Johnson was a owner of Starbucks and was showing interest in our product.
So even though I didn’t want to go to school with a bag of cheesecakes. I also knew I wanted some money. Don’t get me wrong, I knew the cheesecakes where FIRE‼️ I just didn’t want to sell the cheesecakes. I’m so thankful that I took that step and did bring that bag of cheesecakes to school not only did I make some money but I got to experience my first sale .
A few years later I found myself in similar situation while I was in college at ASU. I played football on scholarship which means I broke all the time so when I need extra cash or just cash in general I would ask my dad for that “ million dollar recipe” and I would make cheesecakes for my teammates and that is when I experienced my 2nd sale.
So fast forward to
20 years later, Im back at it again with a freezer full of cheesecakes a huge smile on my face in our very own establishment now called G.Y.C located in Chandler.
Our product will change your whole concept of what a cheesecake is.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

One of the few obstacles I’ve experienced is not able to get food items what I need to fulfill my ingredients list. Due to the pandemic which caused a lack of truck drivers throughout the country. Store shelves where empty almost every where. Fortunately we where able to make it happen. I say we because my wife and my daughter are a huge part of the Getyocheesecakes team. Another challenge was the right marketing and promotion team. Getting the product out there so people can taste it wasn’t a problem at all. But finding the people was, due to the pandemic. Weather can sometimes be an issue especially when we’re participating in local outdoor events. Particularly during monsoon season and the hot summer months.
However there’s nothing a good generator and a durable and stable canopy cant handle. Just be mindful of the Arizona weather, as well as making sure your canopy is weighed down.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Getyocheesecakes is and always will be a family owned, family operated business with recipes that are over 100 years old. What sets us apart from any other cheesecake is the time and consistency we put into producing our cheesecakes. Everything is made from scratch. I always thought to appreciate an Original of any type of food product, it starts with the Original you know?.How good is your product with nothing on it. I think G.Y.C definitely stands apart from the rest in having a product that doesn’t necessarily need any toppings. However we do offer 3 toppings to add to your taste buds explosion. Getyocheesecakes texture is creamy like ice cream and just melts in your mouth. Getyocheesecakes has to be frozen, this product taste best when it’s kept frozen then eaten. You can definitely find us on Twitter, tic tok, snap chat and Instagram. If you’d like to place an order please follow us @getyocheesecakes on Instagram. DM your order. Or email at [email protected]

Contact Info:

• Website: Getyocheesecake.com
• Instagram: Getyocheesecakes
• Facebook: @Getyocheesecake
• Twitter: @Getyocheesecake
• Youtube: G.Y.C. Getyocheesecakes