 Homecoming season is upon us and one of the great vendors here in the Baltimore, Washington metropolitan area that will be popping up at homecoming across your yard is player here to join us today to talk about the roots of their business and their outreach specifically to the Divine Knot community. David and Jennifer Mercer are the owners of Divine Fitness. Brother and sister, it is a pleasure to have you today. Thanks for having us, we appreciate it. So Dave, you are, you're an alumnus of Coppin and you and your lovely wife Jennifer are brothers and sisters of mine so let me get that ethical part of that out of the way. Tell us about the roots of Divine Fitness and because it's interesting we see a lot of companies that specialize in Greek paraphernalia and we see a lot of companies that specialize in fitness paraphernalia separate. You kind of bridged it to so tell us about the roots of putting those together and how you try to build that culture among the organization. Well it's kind of started with the idea I had a long time ago. I've been in the fitness space for quite some time. My major is in sports management in my background. I'm a trainer, a personal trainer and I've just kind of been, I've worked with several gyms and I've been in that space for a while and after I actually crossed into Alpha it was one of the things I noticed that was kind of missing. I noticed that there wasn't a lot of, there wasn't a space for you know Greeks that kind of come into the fitness or be comfortable with fitness and you know have something to kind of rep the organization at the same time and during this pandemic it kind of opened up the door with some of these ideas that was flipping my head and it kind of led to the maturation of Divine Fitness. So as as we came into this pandemic and we kind of looked around we saw that you know that there was a need there. That's when we started to work on launching Divine Fitness and kind of what we wanted to do is bring like you said merge the two, bring our organizations to the fitness world and promote that healthy life lifestyle and living all while you know you know looking good and feeling good at the same time. Let's talk about that Jim because you I know you specifically you know kind of offline we've always had conversations over the course of the pandemic of like adjusting to professional life at home right. So how did fitness obviously a lot of folks will cop and pellet on bikes and trying to get the body right while we're at home. How does that that incorporate with designing considering you know options for what makes people look good and feel good while they're working out. That's a good question. So I think for for us you know working from home obviously was an adjustment and when the gyms closed I think that it really it opened up people's mindset around fitness you know fitness could be outside and so we were going up to the schools nearby our house and running on the track and things like that. So we bring the kids with us a lot of times and then we ended up buying some bikes and we hadn't liked some years. But you know it opened our eyes that fitness is all around us. You know you can work out at home. You can work outside. You know we didn't have to rely on the gym. And you know those cove of pounds. Those are real. You know so you know it was nice and comfy in the beginning of the pandemic. But towards you know like the middle but summer of last year you know we realized that we need to stay active and being active not only helped us I think physically but also helped us mentally. It was it was a lot trying to navigate and trying to remain healthy and stay health conscious while being home and trying to be parents and business owners and professionals. It was a lot and on your mental health you know it was I don't know how to explain it. I think it was an eye opening experience for us where we realized putting our health needs first was a requirement. And so we wanted to bring that part of the business to the forefront even is that you know your health is just beyond the physical part of your body. Feel good. And I think you know sometimes when you put on that those clothes and you put on a nice outfit just like when you you know do your hair or anything else it changes your mindset. It helps a little bit better. And and then once you feel better you end up doing a little bit better. And so that was kind of the idea behind creating the fitness line is that we want people to be comfortable. But we also want you to be conscious of like your health and your mental health as well. Let's talk about let's talk a little bit about that because I think the interesting part about creating a fitness line specifically for the demand nine is that it gives you a venue for some really huge networks of professional black folks to promote healthy living. Was that was that a conscious part of you guys conceptualizing the business and how have the organizations I guess embraced the opportunity to take to say hey think about fitness think about working out think about encouraging brothers and sisters in doing this. Yeah I think that's a great question. So I think for us finding a niche market was important. You know we already know there's a lot of health disparities in the black community. You know where the highest when it comes to heart disease when it comes to cardiovascular issues when it comes to diabetes and obesity. And so all of these kind of health disparities that exist among the black community are just ones that exist because lack of resources and the lack of education. And so for us it made a lot of sense to promote it within the black community and made a lot of sense for us to connect it with our own passion. You know our own passionate areas. And so being a part of black Greek organizations it gave us something to attach our mission to and gave us a space to promote health within communities that needed the most. And so that's where we're starting. How central has though that relationship been in helping you to establish it like the infrastructure of the business. Has it been networking that you would have expected. Has it been avenues that open to get you on different campuses to get you in different places for people to see the apparel. How is that how is how is that network worked out in that way. I think they've been really receptive of everyone who's kind of heard the mission understands kind of what we're trying to get accomplished has welcomed us with open arms. I mean I don't think we ran into anybody who was like negative or saying that you know you can't do it or this shouldn't be done. Everyone sees the need like she said there's a lot of as all the things in the black community that we just don't talk about and we don't promote and we don't we just push by the wayside. So come into this space we wanted to make sure that it's you know we obviously wanted to put out nice things but we wanted to make sure that we was attaching messages behind it. And to your question I mean the networking has been good like you know brothers and you know and sisters you know have been really welcome and supporting the brand you know help pushing us advertising everything. So I feel like you know it is a big community. So it's not just us in it. But like everybody is like it's rooting for us and like helping pushing us forward. So it's been really good. Yeah. Yeah. Just another disclosure. I had on the shirt the other day interviewing the president on the low. So I was going to say yeah to David's point I think finding that niche market working within the divine organizations you know you already have the networking there. There's already tons of vendors that you can work with and which has been helpful for us like we currently are doing a promotion this weekend. There's a little plug with a rogue Emma Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated and with us you know being an official vendor we get to work with different chapters within different organizations. We also get to network and work with other vendors as well. And so it gives us an opportunity to kind of cross market as well as promote some of the internal initiatives that different chapters and organizations are promoting. And so you know it's really it has layers to it but it's allowed us to connect with so many people and to partner and get different business opportunities kind of really early on or only what less than six months officially launched. So you know it's pretty great that we have already a network that we can you know do some business with and to you know kind of lean on one each one another. Let me drill down on the part that where you said official vendor. Now a lot of people want to start you know companies that that specifically cater to Greek organizations. You guys are officially licensed with organizations and not to talk you know dollar signs or anything but how what is the process like how intricate is it to get set up in such a way that you can do business with these large fraternities and sororities because I would imagine it's not an easy thing to do. So if anybody's out there looking to you to say how do I get started what would be you know the top one or two things that you would say here's what you need to do or you need to think about if you want to do this. So the the journey for applying for these licenses to become official vendor with different fraternities and sororities it's pretty intricate you know there is an evaluation process in which they look to see what your store is already selling and if it is kind of on par with their own mission their own brand and you know if it's not then those are things that you have to adjust that you might actually not be able to become an official vendor. So for us we were very intentional about the type of products that we created how we marketed our products what our mission was and making sure everything aligned so that when we did apply to become an official vendor that we already looked appealing in the beginning and then there's a lot of rules actually you know when you become an official vendor there's certain products that you cannot sell there's certain ways that you cannot brand you know the official names of the companies or the businesses and so you know we can't put a shield on certain items we can't wear you know we can't provide items that have official logos or trademarks in certain areas of a of a peril and so there's a lot of things to keep in mind and so you know the application process is pretty lengthy and you know they do kind of go through your background with the fine-teenth cone because you're representing them so it's it's very important that you do your research and that you make sure that you're aligned with what that brand represents Dave when we go to convention or boule or things like that you know we see a lot of vendors and there are some brands that we I guess commonly associate with I'm going to get a shirt from such and such when I'm there or I'm going to order something from blank fill in the blank store what is the what is the grind like to participate in a lot of these events that can be all over the region all over the country how difficult is that you guys are married you got a young family what is that what is that like and how do you kind of balance the the road work you have to put in with building a brand like that I mean to your point it is the competitive market and it is something that you have to be very strategic about and so for us that we since we do have a family and we do have schedules that we have to you know keep like we can't stop you know the kids going to school and things like that so you would prefer to stop them from going to school but we have to be very strategic in where we're going and picking locations and does it really fit the brand and does it really work and doesn't make sense so as we like you know at anytime we're you know we're attaching ourselves to it we we know all that goes into account because like you said I mean there are certain things that we just can't do even though we want to do and there are certain things that like make more sense for us to be attached to or be at um than other so it is this um strategic process that we have to go through yeah it is nice though right now we can do a lot of things virtually so yeah huge fans of virtual what is the best part of owning a fitness brand because one of the dynamic things about divine fitness is that you guys are all over social media the artistic campaigns are high quality great looking models many of whom we know um what so what what is the best part of being able to showcase a really high quality brand even so early in the game um that people have really taken to good question yeah that's good I mean just quick you know knee jerk um I guess the reaction would be I mean for me I think the the best part is to see our growth because from from the time we started to now I mean anybody who's been attached and seen us we changed tremendously and we're constantly growing and learning and you know you know getting anything we can like filling our brains with knowledge that will help us propel us in the right direction so I would say for me that is the biggest and most rewarding thing is to watch us grow and watch us be successful because I know it's a family business and like you like so we're like we're entrenched in it like we're you know full speed ahead in it and like you know it's like our baby and everything we do um you know for our business and like the little success we celebrate everything so eyes and lows so like that journey has been very rewarding like anyone who's owned a business or been attached to it I mean like they understand what I'm saying like it's it's really rewarding for those little victories and then the final thing I would ask um when you look ahead and say what what does growth or what does the ultimate success look like um is it that you're you're you're being pursued to be at every home coming at every city event and events in cities all over the country what does what does the biggest form of success look like you guys that's a great question I feel like um to be honest we redefine what success looks like for us constantly um you know I think as we as we grow and as we add you know months and years on to how long we've been kind of in existence I think it's going to continue to evolve right now for us you know we really want to be a household name we want people who are part of divide nine the minute they're about to go to the gym to think about us first you know to go to our website grab a piece of you know apparel or clothing they can toss on you know so you're repping your orb while you're doing your reps you know we want we want people to to know who we are you know and I think that that's that would be success for us right now you know and of course as we grow we would like to be the ones called upon for our homecoming events like you said or any real events that are going on um definitely being a part of being immersed in this culture of being immersed in the different organizations you know we have a few more organizations that we're applying to be licensed for and so success for us right now is getting licensed for all the organizations so that we can continue to reach out because we're getting messages all the time as someone reach out to me like where's the zeta stuff I'm like it's coming we had to get licensed but um yeah the zeta is in the who else the sygmin is eating need to act right is that what you're saying I didn't say that see this is petty ass podcast kind of so drop drop the drop the url so we know where to shop and let us know some of the places that you'll be in the next coming weeks and months so you can follow us everywhere um at divine fitness um our website is www.divinefitness.com and that's spelled d-i-v-9-n-e fitness dot com again at divine fitness across all social media platforms website again is www.divinefitness.com uh some places that we are going to be at uh we're going to be at norfolk state university for homecoming we're looking to secure um homecoming for top of state as well as morgan state as soon as we hear back from them and we have a few more um places that you have to be announced copy the morgan act right please act right please they're in the backyard divine fitness in baltimore out of baltimore so don't don't don't act don't act brand new morgan and don't act brand new yes i got roots in morgan too my family you know my mom was a secretary there my dad taught there for years so and i went there for one semester oh i'm uh i'm about to cut that i'm about to cut that out my sister graduated it and my dad granted me use that use that for me transcript i paid my money i'm sorry morgan i'm sorry focus on me my mom my dad and my sister i've all went through there just so you know