We were lucky to catch up with Terrell Grier recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Terrell, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
It all started five years ago when I lost my wife of 13 years in my 4 month old unborn baby. I found them both deceased at that time in my home due to the fact, my wife caught sepsis in the hospital in with her having a rare blood type the medication they gave her didn’t help as much. Now prior to this two weeks before that actually happened. Me and my wife lost full custody of our three children due to poor decision on both are parts, so within two weeks my whole life was turned upside down. I went to a deep, dark place for four years where I was totally lost, confused, broken and miss guided. I was at a point in my life to where I didn’t care if I lived or if I died, I went through depression, anxiety, loneliness, feeling abandoned, and feeling miss treated by a unjust system. I had to fight with every ounce of my soul, heart and body, to refined myself and regain control of my life, now while I was in this dark place for four years, I found my higher spiritual calling that allowed me to believe in myself again, and believe in the world around me. Once I came out of this all five years had passed by. I had to come up with a solution to get my children back and to get my life back on track. So I started back doing my music after 20 years of not doing it. During this time I made my artist name Casino Cuz’O a LLC. From that point I was fully invested with everything I had left in me and was producing one music video every two weeks on YouTube for four months straight as well as having 27 songs on every platform. Actually one of my songs is in a motion picture that’s on Amazon and Tubi card He Played me. Once I get comfortable enough with my music career again and building up my artist catalog. I ventured off to other areas that I felt would be profitable for the path that I was on which was to creating generational wealth for me and my family so by doing so I started making merchandise as far as T-shirts and hoodies that went very in my community and around the world. Then I started a mobile detailing company. So with these three business ventures , I finally began to see the better light at the end of the tunnel. Now being a business owner, and an entrepreneur is not an easy path especially when there is no guarantee where your next dollar is going to come from. But as long as you have faith in the process, faith in God, and patience with yourself anything is possible. Now I was able to created a space for not Just me as a music artist but I also I have a detailing shop on Piedmont right by Piedmont elementary school that allows me to detail boats, bikes, and cars no matter what the weather is like outside. I walk in faith every day with the guidance of God in the guidance of my own inner strength. See coming up I was always taught you have to have multiple streams of income. So it didn’t matter if I had to cut grass, shovel snow, help a old lady with her groceries, paint a house, dig up a yard or even pass out brochures from local businesses door to door I did growing up. I always stayed busy in trying to find different ways on how to make money. So even as a kid and I took those ways of teachings and brought those into my adult life and incorporated those with the things that I enjoy doing. I decided to simply take the path that was lease travel and had to believe in myself and in my progress.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Well, my name is Terell grier and I go by my artist name Casino Cuz’O LLC, I was born and raised in Detroit Michigan in a time where drugs and crime ran heavy in my neighborhood. I was exposed to the foster care system at an early age, I have see. death on many occasions and poverty all around me everyday of my life growing up. During this time I had to sleep in my car, sleep in a abandoned house and I also spent a little time in juvenile. Growing up in a hostile environment like this, I decided to move away to Minnesota to create something better for myself but it didn’t start off that way. I made some bad choices that landed me in prison for 4 years. While in there I was able to be the first one in my immediate family to go to college and I graduated with honors for auto technician at this time. Then I went back to college fir build airplanes for cirrus aircraft. I’ve been in Duluth for over the last 20 years and have seen a lot of changes in my community dealing with racism. No equal opportunities for people of ethnic background, and the fears of hate in other peoples hearts because of this. I’ve experienced the good side and the bad side of Minnesota as a black man in the community and I just felt like it was time to build something For people that look like me, people that think like me, and people that want to grow above the democracy of a tainted system and all other individuals that support equality among all. So while making a few bad choices in Duluth, and paying for the choices I have made, I have accepted the path that I was giving. I, ultimately wanted to change the narrative of how people viewed other individuals they don’t understand, and while doing so create a better future for me and my family for generations to come. So I went around and I looked at my community and realized there was a need for improvement for the music industry. a need for improvement for the car detailing industry and also improvements with more vibrant clothing apparels, seeing how Duluth is so outdated in all of these areas and anyone who’s been around and living in Duluth knows what I mean especially when it comes to food, culture, and diversity within the community. So I wanted to spice it up a little bit, save people some money while providing a better future for all with high quality services and bring a little culture back into my city of Duluth. I am proud of the fact. I have never give up on myself or my faith and belief in God because without him I wouldn’t be here today. I have a company called Rells mobile detail which is a mobile detailing company that specialize in boats, bikes and car detailing as well as a 2nd business called mind-body sole which is a shoe restoration company that will allow the cobbler industry to stay alive in the entire Minnesota area seeing that there isn’t to many people doing this type of work anymore in general.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
The best source of finding new clients to me is word of mouth. I believe that your work will speak for itself and if you do good work, people will be proud of your work and proud to show it off and others will come in due time. So just like that one movie A Field Of Dreams say “if you build it, they will come”.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I had to learn in life that I can create my own reality based off of my own thoughts. How I view my life and view myself that would be my reality. I had to retrain myself with my negative thinking patterns, as far as saying, I can accomplish something or something is too hard or I don’t know if I can do that. These are things that will never get you where you want to be at in life. For a long time in life, I was taught growing up that if I didn’t go to college, I wouldn’t be successful and when I look at my life, I know a lot of college graduates that are not in the field that they went to school for so that was a lesson for me. Meaning that even if you put the hard work in there is no guarantees that you will be on the path that you want to be on, I had to free myself of thinking I have control of my life and allow God to guide me in my life. You can put all the work in day in and day out and still not get ahead in life. I learn to live in the moment, and just let life teach me Instead of chasing the things that I want to get out of life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/Casinocuzo
- Instagram: https://linktr.ee/Casinocuzo
- Facebook: https://linktr.ee/Casinocuzo
- Linkedin: https://linktr.ee/Casinocuzo
- Twitter: https://linktr.ee/Casinocuzo
- Youtube: https://linktr.ee/Casinocuzo
- Yelp: https://linktr.ee/Casinocuzo
Image Credits
Blaze media