Starting out inside the decrepit ghost of a mall, payment was slim. I had some money saved up from previous employers, so I was okay with the small $100 a week cash during the early days. After all, [[Ernest]] was just getting started with the custom screen print side of the business, and on top of that, less than a week after I started, Millionaire Grind (the brand side) had been completely cleaned out, robbed over the weekend. Later on, I felt as if all of this was a lie, an inside job to make me feel pity and stay for pennies. Pay slightly increased over the year or so, around $250 at most from what I remember. It wasn't much but it covered the necessities and let my wife pay for most everything else. I truly believed I was helping the black community in Memphis. I look back and realize that I was such an idiot. After the move to a single location, Millionaire Grind, a combination store of the brand and Ernest Fields Screen Print and Apparel custom clothing, my pay increased to $500 a week through Cash App. Compared to previous jobs, this was poor pay, but here it was an unbelievable increase here. I made this pay work for years without any benefits and my wife was supportive. We did have 2 children after all, so taking care of the family was important for both of us. In reality, during these times, she was taking care of me. After I began to discover more about what Ernest was actually doing: drug dealing, money laundering and God only knows what else, he approached me one day to talk to me about pay. He told me he was increasing my pay to $1000 a week, which was surprising considering the actual business wasn't bringing in much money at all. I suspected this was hush money at the time, but I was already watching and trying to mentally record what was actually going on, knowing I wouldn't be there much longer. After all, by now, and after the creation of Grind Global LLC, I'd discovered how much of a fantastic liar he had become, or maybe always was... Either way, at this point, he only benefit was some occasional weed. Lovely... Just what my family needs for support (not). At least it helped with my own anxiety, until he started lacing it. Before I left he began to promise even more money for the following year, but business was as dead as ever and he hadn't invested a dime of his loan money into new equipment that we desperately needed. His new veneers, however, were clearly an investment for himself. Nothing sells a lie like pearly whites.