0:02 This food truck pulls in
0:05 $22,000 a week and this guy started it
0:07 just seven months ago. Yeah. So I
0:08 remember just seeing my first customer
0:10 and I was in the truck like shaking like
0:11 I don't even know how to cook. So
0:13 roughly how much did it take to get
0:14 started? So we spent a,000 for the
0:16 trailer. Get out of here. $1,000 for the
0:18 trailer. Yeah. Yeah. We actually um used
0:20 a platform called So open at night we
0:22 had about 120 people and your viewers
0:24 can copy my playbook if they need to.
0:26 Let me get this straight. You're only
0:28 spending 10 hours a week on this
0:30 business? Yeah. How? Wait, so if you're
0:33 working 10 hours a week and the truck's
0:35 making $22,000 a week, right? Mhm.
0:38 That's like $2,200 an hour. Oh, I never
0:40 thought of it that way. Who else is in
0:42 the wrong business right now? I'm out
0:44 here in Texas to uncover the secrets of
0:46 one of America's fastest growing food
0:47 trucks. So, we just come from a lot of
0:49 poverty and honestly, I was just never
0:50 hit anything. I couldn't get a job due
0:52 to my past, so I was kind of forced into entrepreneurship.
0:55 entrepreneurship.
0:56 Tell us a little bit about Goody Soul
0:58 Kitchen and what makes you guys special.
1:00 Okay. So, Goody Soul Kitchen, we are the
1:02 only late night soul food spot in
1:03 America. So, nobody else sells lamb
1:05 chops, fried chicken, fried catfish
1:07 after 12 a.m. Gotcha. And how long ago
1:10 did you start? 7 months. No background
1:11 in food. Never worked in the kitchen. I
1:12 mean, your menu is pretty
1:14 straightforward. Give us a quick snap. I
1:15 know we'll dive into that a little bit
1:17 later. So, it consists of four proteins,
1:20 four sides, a cornbread. We kind of
1:21 dissected the business and we walked
1:22 around to a bunch of food trucks and
1:24 we're like, "Nobody wants to wait 20
1:25 minutes for food." So, what we kind of
1:26 did, we were like, we're going to figure
1:28 out how to get you guys soul food in a
1:30 wispan of 5 minutes and it's fresh food.
1:31 Awesome. Tell us where we are. What's
1:33 the plan for today? So, right now we're
1:35 at Restaurant Depot. We usually do our
1:36 shopping on Mondays and Tuesdays and we
1:38 usually go in here, spend our money,
1:40 take our food to the prep, and then we
1:41 prep our food out on Tuesdays and
1:43 Wednesdays and get ready for the work
1:44 week on Thursday. Tell us a little bit
1:46 about the shopping experience. You don't
1:47 often do what the chefs do. What's kind
1:49 of the funky quirky part about that? So,
1:51 when I'm doing it, you know, I'm like
1:53 real strategic, real strict on it. Like
1:55 I'll look at our numbers. I'll sometimes
1:56 cut that. But when your chef goes in
1:58 there, they're just like, I'm getting
2:00 what I need for the next eight days.
2:01 We're not even open eight days, right?
2:02 But I don't blame them. Like I said,
2:04 these guys are good at what they do. So
2:05 I kind of let them, you know, do their
2:06 thing and stuff like that. But I just
2:07 try to really keep the budget where it
2:08 is, but sometimes you can't get around
2:11 that with them. So why this place? I'm
2:12 just curious. Give us a couple snippets.
2:14 You've got everything you need here to
2:16 run the food truck. Yeah, everything. So
2:17 most likely except for the lamb. That's
2:19 the only thing that we don't get here.
2:20 But um I love restaurant. Like I said,
2:22 it's one of those places where the
2:23 pricing is not that bad. Coming here,
2:24 the people help you. People make sure
2:26 things are like put together for you and
2:27 stuff like that. And I just love it.
2:29 Like you get everything here. We
2:30 literally source everything from here.
2:32 That's awesome. How much are we spending
2:35 on a typical, you know, week before
2:37 opening hours? We started out back in
2:39 September was spending only like 800
2:40 bucks and we were like, "All right, we
2:42 thought that was a lot." But now we're
2:44 up to that 3,000 to 4,000 uh dollar
2:46 range. How many people does that feed
2:48 day one? Uh approximately probably a
2:50 thousand cuz we do three a night. Oh,
2:51 you're right. You're talking about the
2:53 whole week. So, um yeah, around 300
2:54 people a night. Let's talk about your
2:56 experience. Do you come from an
2:58 entrepreneurial background? So, I didn't
2:59 come from an entrepreneurial background.
3:00 I've seen a lot of people doing their
3:02 own business and stuff like that, but I
3:03 never understood what was going on
3:04 growing up. So, you know, I was just
3:06 like, okay, I thought that they were
3:07 either inherited or somebody gave it to
3:09 them. Yeah. So, as far as building
3:10 anything, I never had any experience or
3:12 anything like that doing it. What did
3:14 you learn? What what resources of
3:16 getting into it not knowing anything?
3:17 It's no plan B. You know,
3:18 entrepreneurship is you jump out a plane
3:19 and you build a parachute on the way
3:21 down. Yeah. Especially when it came to
3:23 the food industry. Like, I know nothing
3:24 about it. All right. Well, let's head
3:26 out to the prep kitchen and show you
3:28 guys how everything's done. Yep. Cool.
3:34 All right. So, this is the prep kitchen.
3:36 Yeah. Curious a little bit about food
3:37 prep in general. How much is done here
3:39 as opposed to the trailer? Okay. And
3:40 what do you pay for the kitchen? Just
3:43 curious. So about 90% of the business
3:45 starts here and then the next 10% is
3:46 just being at the truck preparing the
3:47 food and stuff like that, handing it
3:50 out. We did start out at 25 an hour and
3:52 we're typically here probably about 15
3:55 to 20 hours a week. Mhm. And then we pay
3:56 a monthly fee just for like storage and
3:58 stuff like that, too. So it averages to
4:00 be around like 3,000 a month. All right,
4:01 let's do some fried chicken prep. Yep.
4:02 Here are the things that we kind of put
4:04 in there. We got a lemon pepper. We got
4:07 a Cajun seasoning, a mantra chicken. We
4:08 going to go again with some hot sauce.
4:09 And then we going to go with some
4:11 mustard. So later on uh day one, we're
4:13 going to talk about ask you for like a
4:14 step-by-step blueprint on getting
4:16 started, right? But before we get into
4:18 that, give us just a quick breakdown on
4:19 startup costs and how do you how you
4:21 spent the money and where. Okay, so our
4:24 $1,000 was spent on just basically
4:25 closing docks and stuff like that on the
4:27 Clickly thing once we which is the
4:28 trailer purchase. Yeah, the financing
4:30 side of things. Tell us in 30 seconds
4:32 what is that? Cuz $1,000 for a trailer.
4:33 I mean typically they're what 80 60
4:35 grand sometimes for around that. Our
4:37 first one was it came out to be 43.
4:40 Okay. and then they financed 100% of it
4:41 and we have to pay a thousand for basic
4:43 closing costs and stuff like that. Click
4:45 lease is a like a really good tool that
4:46 like entrepreneurs should take advantage
4:48 of. You got good credit. If you had 680
4:49 credit score, they'll give you the
4:51 trailer for as little as, you know, $0
4:53 down. And then after that, we went on to
4:55 financing the food with a uh Gordon
4:57 credit card. We filled out that credit
4:58 card application. We got that on the
5:01 net30 and they gave us a $5,000 line of
5:03 credit for the food also. So, we took
5:05 the money that we did have saved up. We
5:06 spent a lot of our money on marketing in
5:09 a roll out. Take me back to day one.
5:11 First day of opening. How much did you
5:12 guys make? What what what was going
5:14 through your head at that point? It was
5:16 It's always exciting when you um when
5:17 you see something come, you know, the
5:20 light. But um our first day was about at
5:22 2,600 almost three grand, huh? Yeah.
5:24 Yeah. Yeah. We had a really good line of
5:26 stuff like that. Soft opening type
5:28 crowd, family, friends thing. It was
5:30 cool. And you did sort of a trial before
5:31 the opening date. Oh, that was our
5:33 tasting. Just tasting. That was the
5:34 first thing you've ever done, right?
5:36 Yeah, it was a nice event. Um, we we we
5:37 invited a bunch of content creators to
5:38 get a bunch of eyes on the business.
5:39 That's something that contribute that
5:41 contribute to a lot of our success.
5:42 People seeing it, people asking
5:44 questions, people thinking like, hey,
5:45 what is this? And then just having like
5:47 late night soul food, you know, people
5:48 seeing that's coming, you know, so
5:49 they're like, I just want to try this
5:51 and try it. That's awesome. Guys, if you
5:53 want to hear incredible insights from
5:55 entrepreneurs like Dewan here, make sure
5:57 to like and subscribe. You know, we
5:58 greatly appreciate it. All right, so
6:00 chicken's done. This is usually what
6:02 marinates at least a day. Yep. And you
6:03 guys do this on a Monday, Tuesday. a
6:05 Tuesday. So, we're going to marinate for
6:06 Wednesday, then open up on Thursday. For
6:08 sure. All right. What's next? Show us uh
6:10 the sauces, maybe. Yeah. Our famous
6:11 honey jerk sauce. Cool. Let's go check
6:18 Take us through your month overmonth
6:20 revenue. Okay. So, when we first
6:22 started, we were seeing anywhere between
6:24 that 4,000 a month range. No, just
6:25 barely breaking even. Yeah. But again,
6:27 we were just starting. We were trying to
6:28 figure out, you know, flowing flows and
6:29 things like that. Mhm. And then going
6:31 into around like December, that's when
6:33 we start seeing that 7 to 6,000 a month,
6:35 I mean, a week, I'm sorry, range. And
6:37 then, um, after that, now we're anywhere
6:38 between like 80,000 a month right now.
6:40 Wow. Incredible. I mean, profit margins
6:42 that you guys have been able to achieve
6:44 are absolutely phenomenal. So, stay
6:46 tuned to hear more about that. Let's
6:48 talk about bringing in new customers.
6:49 What did you do? Share with us some of
6:51 the experiences you learned. I would say
6:53 just to tell people to do a roll out. A
6:54 lot of people don't understand what a
6:56 rollout is, but I'm like, you know, get
6:57 on social media, start posting. This is
6:58 coming. Start building that
7:00 anticipation. Throw a taste in. And even
7:02 if you in a community to where you're
7:03 saying, "Hey, I don't feel like people's
7:04 going to taste this food." Get on there
7:06 and get on your Facebook group and put
7:07 together a taste and a free tasting and
7:09 have people try the food. After that,
7:11 the next thing I would do is get on
7:12 social media and start posting the food,
7:13 right? So, what we do is for every
7:16 single truck that we do roll out, we do
7:17 a food shoot. We cook all the food, then
7:19 we basically take pictures of the food,
7:20 and then we post it on social media.
7:22 another gym is to where it doesn't cost
7:24 a lot of money, but run run ads behind
7:26 your uh food to where you can get on
7:28 Instagram and spend about five bucks uh
7:30 five bucks a day and just run some ads
7:31 on just basically getting people to see
7:33 your food. All right, take us through
7:34 the first couple months, right? What was
7:36 life like? What where was your head at
7:38 as an entrepreneur, as a business owner?
7:39 What were some of the biggest challenges
7:41 you were faced with? Month one of three,
7:43 it was us just figuring everything out,
7:45 like failing, failing, failing, failing,
7:47 failing. We had to take a step back and
7:48 look at what we were kind of doing,
7:49 right? right? Cuz we were just running
7:50 like chickens with our head cut off just
7:53 to get open. And I remember being in it
7:54 just like soon as we would close, I
7:56 would be I would have so much relief
7:57 like I just got through another day.
7:58 When I hired that consultant and once I
8:00 did that, everything just streamlined.
8:02 So the consultant came in after 3 months
8:04 of chaos essentially after 3 months of
8:06 chaos and fixed our recipe books, fixed
8:08 our staffing, told our staff how to
8:09 actually clean things and stuff like
8:11 that. And then from there everything
8:14 just kind of like took off. Another odd
8:15 thing was we never had a problem getting
8:17 customers. Like we always had customers.
8:19 We just needed to figure out how to feed
8:21 the customers. So, at that point, I was
8:22 like, "Okay, I got to figure something
8:24 out." Yeah. All right. Day one, you
8:26 ready for some blitz? Yeah, let's do it.
8:27 All right. So, what's a successful food
8:29 truck concept you wish you had come up
8:31 with? Pizza. What's the best part of
8:33 owning a food truck business? Freedom.
8:35 What's the worst part of owning a food
8:36 truck business? People. If you could
8:38 serve any entrepreneur at your truck,
8:40 who would it be and why? Keith Lee.
8:42 What's the most expensive quote unquote
8:43 fun thing you've ever bought and how
8:46 much? expensive fun quote fun thing I
8:48 ever bought. Is that the car? Yeah. Is
8:50 that the Bentley outside? Yeah. Yeah. I
8:53 hate that car, but All right. What's one
8:56 co quote you live by? John 13:7. For
8:57 what you do not know now. Later on, you
9:01 understand? Amen to that. [Music]
9:07 Oh, hey, sorry. Uh, you got the chicken,
9:17 Running a food truck like Taiwan's might
9:19 look like fun, and it is, but behind
9:22 every $22,000 week, there's a mountain of
9:23 of
9:25 problems. We're talking chaos during
9:27 rush hours, long wait times, missed
9:29 pickups, and not to mention hungry
9:32 employees. That's why if owning a food
9:34 truck, you have to have a customuilt app
9:36 from Order Up Apps makes all the
9:38 difference. I'm Charles Evansson,
9:40 founder of Smart Drink Franchising.
9:42 Using OrderUp app ads has completely
9:44 transformed my business. Orderup gives
9:46 you your very own branded mobile app.
9:49 Your food, your brand, your way. As an
9:51 official Square partner, it streamlines
9:53 ordering by sending tickets straight to
9:55 the kitchen, stacks pickups to handle
9:57 rushes, and automatically sends text
9:59 messages when the order is ready. You
10:01 can even run loyalty programs all in one
10:03 place. Best part, you don't ever give up
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10:08 transaction or delivery fees ever. And
10:10 this doesn't take months. Your branded
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10:15 and their team will help you with every
10:16 step of the setup process. Feeding
10:18 hungry customers starts with feeding
10:20 your business. So click the link in the
10:23 description below and let Order Up apps
10:25 take your food truck to the next level.
10:26 What other systems you want to mention
10:28 that you've implemented here in this
10:30 kitchen that streamline everything in
10:32 the business? Um outside of, you know,
10:34 the PAR system that we have in place to
10:35 make sure that, you know, it's it's
10:37 easier for our chef to transport things
10:38 onto the truck. I will say the prepping
10:40 process. Mhm. We typically prep
10:43 everything on one day. So now it's not
10:45 hindering on the staff and like burning
10:46 them out during the week too. So that's
10:47 um something that we kind of put in
10:49 place too to where all of our stuff is
10:51 prepped down and situated in all in one
10:53 day. How long does the prep take for the
10:54 chef? Maybe that's a question for him.
10:57 But Tuesday, Wednesday prep, Thursday
10:59 open, please say. No, we prep on one
11:01 day. So they're probably here 8 hours, 9
11:03 hours. Not bad. I mean, just give it a
11:04 full day and then you're ready to rock
11:06 and roll. Yeah. For the weekend. Mhm.
11:07 Well, I'm excited to go check out the
11:09 food truck, make some food. Let's head
11:11 out there.
11:12 How long did it take you to go from
11:15 idea, actual food truck, and do you need
11:17 to be a chef to get into this industry?
11:18 Honestly, you don't need to be a chef,
11:21 right? I did a food truck. It took me
11:23 about 2 weeks to come up with the idea.
11:24 It was at the point to where I was like,
11:25 I told you I was done with tacos, bro. I
11:26 was done with tacos and I'm like, we
11:28 need some type of food where I can eat
11:29 on a late night. I can go get something
11:31 that's good. Brought the idea to my
11:32 friend. He said, let's do it. And from
11:34 there, we rode. That's awesome. Yeah. I
11:35 hope you guys are inspired by what he's
11:38 saying because it's obvious that anybody
11:40 and everybody can get started. Yep. For
11:42 those that want to go from idea to food
11:45 truck with minimal capital. Mhm. Give us
11:47 a step-by-step blueprint. What would you
11:48 do? Oh, first, like I said, I would look
11:51 at a deficit in basically the area that
11:53 you in as far as food deficit. Our niche
11:55 was, you know, late night soul food. It
11:56 was something where we like, okay, we
11:57 need food at this certain amount of
11:58 time, right? The next thing I would do
12:00 is I will find the capital. That's kind
12:01 of like the easy part if you understand
12:04 it. If your credit is good over at 680
12:06 or that 700 mark, go out to your local
12:07 banks, find the capital, go out to the
12:08 guys who build the trailers and ask
12:10 them, do they do in-house financing? A
12:11 lot of these guys actually will rent
12:13 these trucks out for you, too. If you're
12:14 somebody who can't find the financing or
12:15 don't have the credit, they'll rent the
12:17 truck out to you as also. Okay. Um,
12:19 after that, you know, I will source a
12:21 chef, have that chef source out my menu,
12:22 and then have that chef also source out
12:24 my employees. And once I'm done there,
12:26 then my job is just to get the marketing
12:27 side done and then go from there. Why
12:28 did you actually go with a trailer as
12:30 opposed to a food truck? My thought
12:32 process was this, right? I never like to
12:33 connect two things to where my business
12:35 can actually shut down. So, when you
12:37 have a food truck, if anything breaks on
12:38 that truck, you're shut down for that
12:39 day. And I was like, I didn't want to
12:40 get involved with that. Now, the trailer
12:42 is a little bit more work cuz you do
12:44 have to hook this thing up, empty
12:45 everything, and move it, take it to the
12:47 commissary when you need to take it.
12:49 But, however, it's more suitable for the
12:50 long run. If my truck does break down,
12:52 just go get a U-Haul, still pull this
12:54 thing, it'll still operate. Well, on
12:55 that note, what is your maintenance cost
12:57 then for the trailer as opposed to what
12:58 the truck could have been? Well,
13:00 honestly, these these propanes, they run
13:02 me $170 a week. They come out and, you
13:04 know, they change it for that. But
13:05 again, we really never have a lot of
13:07 breakdowns. So, no maintenance besides
13:08 the re, you know, the propane that you
13:10 besides the propane. Yeah. Anything else
13:11 is like kind of small maintenance stuff
13:13 out there. A maintenance company does
13:15 charge us $125 every time they come out
13:16 just so they can make their money, but
13:17 half of the time it's not even a big
13:19 problem. Whether you've got an idea or
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13:45 businesses.
13:47 All right, let's order. I think we're
13:48 all hungry. What's the bestselling item,
13:50 by the way, here? Um, we're pretty much
13:52 known for our crack fried chicken.
13:54 That's like the huge jumbo wings. The
13:56 macaroni and cheese is really uh also
13:58 good. I like the southern fried cabbage,
14:00 but the collar greens kind of get
14:02 everybody too sometimes. All right. Um
14:04 so if I'm you, I'm getting the chicken,
14:05 man. All right. We get one chicken,
14:07 please. Fried fried chicken. You got it,
14:08 my friend. With two sides. What would
14:09 you like with that, my friend? Collard
14:12 greens and then uh camera guy. What do
14:13 you want? Mac and cheese. Mac and
14:15 cheese. All right. Let's do mac and
14:18 cheese for the camera guys.
14:20 Perfect. And uh can I add a good goodies
14:22 juice onto your tip? Yeah. No, I'd love
14:23 to try. Do you guys actually make this
14:25 yourself? Yeah. Yeah. Yep. It's all in
14:26 house. What is it? So, this is going to
14:28 be our house lemonade today. It's kind
14:31 of got like an orange kick to it.
14:33 We like to vary the flavors. So, come
14:34 back and check us out for sure. Well,
14:36 yeah. Especially like what 95° out here
14:38 right now. This just goes down so well.
14:41 For this heat. Yeah. Question for you as
14:42 far as what's the average ticket price
14:44 then when people order? I mean, people
14:47 it's usually around that 28 to $30 mark.
14:48 So, you're definitely on the more
14:50 expensive side for food trucks, right?
14:51 That's that's pretty obvious. Talk to us
14:53 about the pricing strategy. It was on
14:54 the expensive side when I first started,
14:56 but then as you kind of run the model
14:58 and you see things like that, you notice
14:59 that you're not getting food like this
15:01 at the 12:00, right? So, you got to pay
15:02 a little bit more. And then outside of
15:04 it, we also look at our location and we
15:06 did studies of basically the average
15:07 income around here, too. So, we are
15:10 downtown. We are like near like a lot of
15:12 uh clubs and stuff like that too. So, we
15:13 do understand that, you know, these
15:14 people tend to have a little bit more of
15:16 a higher income. Any pricing strategies
15:18 for others in other markets? Maybe
15:20 serving different kinds of food? What's
15:21 the best way? Definitely location,
15:23 definitely time. Always look at your
15:24 timing. Like if you're someone who's
15:26 basically open 7 days a week and you're
15:28 open between that the healthy hours of
15:30 11 to like 9:00, then you can't really
15:31 price that much cuz everybody else is
15:32 open during that time. But if you're
15:34 someone who's looking for, you know, how
15:35 to get the prices up a little bit more,
15:37 I would looking at that midnight crowd,
15:39 you know, from 12 a.m. to probably that
15:41 3:00 a.m. crowd, and that's when you're
15:42 able to, you know, hike your prices a
15:44 little bit. But also checking out your
15:45 location. Like, well, before we got
15:47 here, we studied this location. So, we
15:48 not we didn't also just look at it and
15:49 say, "Oh, we want to move here." We also
15:51 look at and look at the medium income
15:52 and look at the income of the residents
15:53 and stuff around her too. How much are
15:55 you spending on marketing today month
15:57 seven and how has it evolved compared to
15:58 day one? We really don't spend a lot of
16:00 money on marketing like outside of our
16:02 roll out and outside of that plan right
16:03 there that we had in you know we just
16:05 really strategically understand how to
16:07 work social media to our best advantage
16:09 and we also cross utilize you know
16:11 services between other influences and
16:12 stuff like that. So our marketing budget
16:14 right now is set at 200 a week but that
16:16 200 a week could be put in between new
16:18 uniforms for employees. Let's just say
16:20 we we got some yard signs out making
16:21 sure that you know we got some posters
16:22 and stuff like that out. But you know
16:24 the way we try to strategize on social
16:27 media is our marketing department is you
16:29 required to post four times a day. The
16:31 next thing we do is we work on that reel
16:32 that one master reel a day. Right. And
16:34 that master reel usually go out on our
16:36 Thursdays which will bring that crowd in
16:38 if we go viral on that uh that Friday,
16:39 Saturday and Sunday. Gotcha. Right. So
16:41 we focus on that and we also watch our
16:43 professional dashboard on our Instagram.
16:45 We make sure that it stays over half a
16:46 million people viewing the page at all
16:48 times. Mhm. When it starts to drop below
16:49 that, that's when we know we got to
16:51 start to do some other things. Yep. And
16:53 so, no Facebook. You haven't mentioned
16:55 that once. No Google PPC, no Yelp, none
16:57 of that stuff. No, just Insta. Instagram
16:59 and Tik Tok. Gotcha. All right. Well, it
17:00 sounds like the chicken's done. Let's go
17:02 give it a shot. Gotcha. Yeah. You're
17:04 like, where you get a doll from? We got
17:06 an order ready for up flip. That's right
17:07 here. All righty, my man. Check this
17:09 out. What do we got? Come close. We got
17:11 We got that crack fried chicken, mac and
17:13 cheese, and collard greens. Our staple
17:14 right here. We're going to finish it
17:15 with that crack seasoning. Okay, let's
17:16 do it.
17:19 Yeah, look at all that love. Half of
17:21 it's going on the floor, but that's part
17:23 of the seasoning
17:25 process. Everything gets seasoned your
17:26 goodies. We finish off with a little
17:28 parsley. Okay, absolutely
17:30 perfect. Love myself some fried chicken,
17:32 my friends. Thank you so much. Here you
17:34 are. All right, here's a closeup. Look
17:36 at that mac and cheese. Looks bomb.
17:38 Yeah. Damn. I wish you gave me a bite.
17:40 What kind of cheese are we using here?
17:42 Oh, that's a smoked Luna. That's a
17:44 cheddar. That's a shark cheddar. Oh,
17:45 yeah. One of the cheesiest mac and
17:47 cheese I've ever had. Yeah. But you you
17:49 can't have too much cheese in mac and
17:51 cheese. Yeah. Yeah. What's the rent at
17:52 this location? What's the story? How did
17:54 you get this place if you're willing to
17:55 share? Okay. We paid 1,500 a month and
17:58 then our security deposit was $3,000. So
18:00 that gets us uh free electricity and
18:02 then we also get water too. I get I got
18:03 this location in a weird situation,
18:05 right? Um, I used to rent this building
18:07 out. Like I used to have a a sports bar
18:08 where I got into a bad business deal and
18:10 then I end up having a relationship with
18:11 a landlord and told her I was starting a
18:13 food truck and she was sketchy at first
18:14 like you already failed on that
18:15 business. So why would you do another
18:17 one? I'm like I'll be back to start
18:19 entrepreneur man. Exactly. And then
18:20 that's how that's how I got this
18:22 location. I think it's a very, you know,
18:23 lucrative location especially on a
18:25 Friday night on a Saturday night. It
18:26 gets really packed around here. On that
18:28 note, talk to us about what you look for
18:30 in new locations. Now, from the things
18:32 that I look for now is like free rent
18:33 because a lot of these guys will give
18:35 you free rent. A lot of these uh bars uh
18:37 sport I mean sports bars, beer gardens
18:38 and stuff like that, they will give you
18:40 free rent and give you free electricity
18:41 as long as you bring the food. So, I
18:43 kind of didn't know that, but now that
18:44 I'm shopping around my next food truck,
18:46 a lot of these guys are offering just
18:47 completely free rent and they're just
18:48 saying, "Hey, just pull up, cook good
18:50 food, handle a large volume of people,
18:51 and you guys can stay here for free."
18:52 So, you're looking for busy places,
18:55 open, super laid, uh beer gardens, more
18:57 of just like bars and stuff like that. I
18:59 stay away from food truck parks. The
19:00 reason why I stay away from those
19:01 because it's too saturated. I don't want
19:03 to be where near anybody else or doing
19:05 anything with anybody else. Makes sense.
19:06 So, I kind of stay away from those guys.
19:09 Talk to us about how childhood shaped
19:10 your mindset today as an entrepreneur.
19:12 My childhood growing up was like pretty
19:13 rough and stuff like that. So, it was
19:14 like a little different than like the
19:16 normal child, you know, when it came to
19:18 growing up. As far as like I was just
19:20 speak on like the support system like I
19:21 didn't have a lot of support when I did
19:23 a lot of great things. So, it's shifting
19:25 that over to entrepreneur. I don't need
19:26 a bunch of people clapping for me to get
19:28 something going, right? I'm typically
19:30 able to build a business from the ground
19:32 up and get it going and get it to, you
19:33 know, where I need to get it to without
19:34 a bunch of support and a bunch of help
19:36 doing it. Yeah. You're not afraid of
19:37 failure. I'm not afraid of any of that.
19:39 I mean, growing up, how often did that
19:41 happened that kind of shaped your
19:42 resilience today? You're like, whatever
19:43 happens, whatever, I'll get through.
19:45 Yeah. I mean, ideally, as weird as it
19:47 kind of sounds, I never really failed at
19:48 anything. Like, I was clear in
19:50 basketball 2011. I was really good at
19:51 football. My parents just never seen me
19:54 play sports. So I wasn't as other kids
19:55 would have their parents walk them out
19:56 on senior day and stuff like that. I
19:58 never kind of had that, right? So my
19:59 coaches would kind of be that support
20:01 system and stuff like that for me. So it
20:02 wasn't to the fact that I'm not scared
20:04 to fail. It was just to the fact that I
20:06 always operated at excellent, you know,
20:07 and did big things. I just never really
20:09 had support in doing it. So I'm able to
20:10 do a lot of things behind closed doors,
20:12 too, and not showcase it to the world
20:14 and stuff like that and take my
20:15 accomplishes and still be humble and
20:16 stuff like that, too. All right. With
20:17 all your success today, do you think
20:20 money buys happiness? No. What does it
20:23 buy for you? Convenience. freedom. My
20:25 happiness sits in, you know, the being
20:27 able to impact others to do bigger
20:28 things and stuff like that. Seeing
20:30 people grow and just, you know, seeing
20:32 more of my kids just grow up and not
20:33 have to worry about a bunch of stuff,
20:35 too. So, true. Effort, my happiness lies
20:37 in that. Talk about your leadership
20:38 style and how it's evolved over the last
20:40 couple years. Anything you want to
20:41 highlight? This business has definitely
20:42 grown me a lot, you know, as an
20:43 entrepreneur. Um, you're dealing with
20:45 people. I'm dealing with a team of five.
20:46 I'm dealing with people who work really
20:48 long hours, you know, so I got to have a
20:49 sensitive subject to where, you know,
20:51 sometimes they're tired. I try to be
20:53 more of an ease guy. Hey, if there's a
20:55 problem, come to me. Try to be solution
20:56 based to when, you know, when I first
20:57 came in this thing, I'm just like
20:59 either, you know, you're doing a job or
21:01 you're not, you're getting fired, right?
21:02 But you you start you start to realize
21:04 you can't fire everybody, right? Because
21:05 you need people to run this business.
21:07 So, understand the delegation side of
21:08 things, too, right? If you got somebody
21:09 good, you need to pay them. A lot of
21:10 people get in the industry and they say,
21:12 "Hey, well, you know, they want to put
21:14 their ego aside and say they want to use
21:15 their ego and say, "Well, I can just
21:16 find another chef." It it doesn't happen
21:18 that way because once you get another
21:20 chef, your food cost uh fluctuates and
21:22 then your food tasting fluctuates too.
21:24 So, you want to keep the same exact prep
21:25 guide and the same chef as long as you
21:27 can and that's the secret to keeping
21:29 consistency in your food. Mhm. How was
21:31 the learning curve for you? We were like
21:32 thrown in the fire. Like I said, when we
21:34 started this business, we started with a
21:35 chef and he kind of like walked out on
21:38 us. So, it was me and my partner Jessica
21:39 and you know, we kind of just were
21:40 thrown in the fire and we kind of just
21:41 fell forward. You know, people don't
21:43 understand what it takes to go into this
21:44 business model. Even though it's a food
21:46 truck is way harder than a restaurant.
21:47 And I don't think people understand
21:48 that. It's a lot of moving pieces here,
21:50 right? You go from here, you go to a
21:52 prep kitchen and then you go to a truck
21:53 and then you got to work on storage.
21:55 When in a restaurant, you go from here
21:57 to a restaurant, everything's there. You
21:58 can cook it and get it out like that.
22:00 So, I was invested in it. So, I had to
22:01 really keep it the flow or I was going
22:03 to lose the money. But ideally, I
22:06 understand it. If you could change one
22:08 or two things about your journey, what
22:10 would it be and why? If I could change
22:11 one thing, it would be, you know, more
22:14 of hiring like the chef, understanding
22:16 the industry to where chefs do come in
22:18 and consult you. Like this guy I got
22:19 behind me, Aaron, he basically will come
22:22 in, build out a menu, hire your staff,
22:24 train your staff, go to your prep
22:26 kitchen, sex your prep up, and do all
22:28 those things for you for a small price.
22:29 Right. When in the beginning, I was just
22:31 failing and just failing, just failing,
22:32 just failing. So, I finally figured out,
22:33 wait, I can hire somebody to come and do
22:34 this part. And after that, everything is
22:36 streamlined. Can you score a jackpot
22:38 from the get-go as far as hiring the
22:39 right chef or you going to go through a
22:41 couple hires and find go through a
22:43 couple hires? But the thing is I think
22:44 that a lot of people should understand
22:46 the consulting part of it cuz even when
22:48 I did hire him to come in and do
22:49 consulting, you know, he still trained
22:50 my staff and everything like that. So I
22:52 was just able to just go in there and
22:54 just manage them at that point. He he
22:55 was our consultant chef in the
22:56 beginning. Then he came back and was
22:57 like, "You know what? I like the way you
22:58 guys are I like what you guys are doing.
23:00 I like how your journey is going. I want
23:01 to come and join and join forces with
23:04 you guys." So, why are you open only a
23:05 few days a week? And then also
23:07 location-wise, you're stationary. I
23:09 always thought of food trucks being all
23:10 over town. Yeah, the four days a week
23:11 thing, like I said, it came in the
23:13 beginning of where we had to only stay
23:14 open four days a week cuz we couldn't
23:15 kind of figure out to get open 7. But
23:17 outside of seen anticipation, it keeps
23:19 building up and the phone rings. It
23:20 starts ringing probably on Tuesday like,
23:22 "Hey, can I put in an order for Thursday
23:24 or this?" And we get like the pre-work.
23:26 I'm like, "Let's not open up more days.
23:27 Let's keep it that way, you know, and
23:29 then keep every uh body like just
23:30 basically waiting." So, the key word is
23:33 anticipation. Yep, I like that.
23:35 Anticipation and then um why we don't
23:36 move our location because first and
23:39 foremost is way too much work. But then
23:41 also building that consistency in this
23:43 location and that that consistency in
23:45 the crowd actually coming out like once
23:46 you type something in after a certain
23:48 amount of times in Google, it links that
23:50 address to your food truck. And it's
23:51 convenience like you know people love
23:52 convenience. Cool. I'm excited to find
23:54 out kind of how you capture that
23:55 location. But we'll talk about it when
23:57 we get there. A little challenge for
23:59 you. Imagine you have to start a new
24:01 food truck. New concept, new everything.
24:03 Marketing is the question. What would be
24:06 your approach? Give us a step by step.
24:07 What you would do with a hundred bucks
24:08 to your name? I have my iPhone. The
24:10 first thing I'm going to do is get on my
24:12 product, take pictures, get those
24:13 pictures out. I'm going to spend
24:16 probably 25 on just ads probably to get
24:17 it rolling for the first two to three
24:19 weeks on Insta. On Insta, I'm going to
24:23 spend another 30. I'm going to take that
24:25 30 and get uh yard signs. Yard signs.
24:26 And then I'm going to probably, you
24:28 know, work my magic of what I do know
24:30 behind, you know, social media and stuff
24:31 like that to get myself on a schedule.
24:33 And what that roll out schedule looks
24:34 like is I'll start out with the first
24:36 two weeks getting each product photo
24:37 taken at least posting two times a day
24:39 and then getting that one reel a day for
24:40 each thing that's going out. What
24:41 that'll do is I want to make sure that
24:42 I'm getting my product in front of
24:44 people's faces and I'm rolling this
24:45 thing out the right way. That's what I
24:46 would do with 100 bucks. That'll get you
24:49 four. You have amazing reviews on Google
24:50 by the way. And so what's your
24:52 philosophy on customer experience? The
24:54 customers always right. There's a
24:55 million places in the world they can
24:56 eat, but they sit up here and eat with
24:58 us every single weekend. So, it's like I
25:00 appreciate that more than anything. You
25:01 have their trust. Yep. And they're
25:03 always right. If they tell me that this
25:04 chicken didn't come out this way, we'll
25:06 refund you. And we do a model where we
25:08 refund and we give them a free meal. So,
25:09 we don't make them pay for their next
25:10 meal. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, it's stuff like
25:12 that. And then, you know, we just always
25:13 they're right. We're catering to them
25:14 and that's what we're here to do. That's
25:16 cool. You have high expectations.
25:17 Doesn't seem like you do that very often
25:19 because the food is delicious. Yeah. As
25:21 far as the remake. Yeah. Yeah. Right.
25:23 But it happens. How do you ensure
25:25 consistency and quality service
25:26 especially when you're not there? Yeah.
25:28 So, we operations, like I said, like a
25:30 lot of our components in our business do
25:31 come from a restaurant staff. So, we
25:33 have like a real head chef. We have a
25:35 recipe books that everybody follows. The
25:36 training part of it, I'm not too
25:38 hands-on with that. Like I said, I
25:39 delegate that out to my chef instead,
25:41 things like that. But he just makes sure
25:42 that everybody follows the recipe book
25:44 to ensure the consistency in the food.
25:45 The customer service aspect is something
25:47 that I am that I am involved in. So,
25:49 basically, that's a um intense twoe
25:51 training. We get them on there, we train
25:52 them for two weeks, then we leave them
25:54 on there by oursel for a week just to
25:56 see if they can uh handle everything and
25:57 stuff like that. And then from there,
25:58 that's how we pick our that's how we
25:59 pick our people. That part is very
26:01 important because that's the first guy
26:03 and the last guy that the customer sees,
26:05 right? And so that guy in the front,
26:06 he's the person that we really spend the
26:08 most time on to make sure that he's
26:09 compensated well and stuff like that,
26:11 too. Mhm. What's the most common mistake
26:13 you see new food truck owners make all
26:15 the time? I mean, honestly, starting a
26:17 business and not looking at it from the
26:19 bird eye view of you're not supposed to
26:20 work in the business, right? A lot of
26:22 these guys come in it come in the
26:23 industry and they think that, you know,
26:25 they're supposed to cook there every
26:26 single day and be there every single day
26:28 and just stay there all the time, right?
26:30 And what what happens is you'll see them
26:31 six or seven months later and they're
26:32 still in the same exact uh position
26:34 because they don't start the business
26:35 from the outside. You always want to
26:37 work inside the business. So, at first
26:39 is understanding that why are you doing
26:40 this? Do you want to cook or do you want
26:42 to become a business owner? The next
26:44 thing is is um marketing. Like a lot of
26:45 people don't spend a lot of money on
26:47 marketing, presentation, and
26:49 understanding that what your brand looks
26:50 like is probably what your food will
26:52 taste like. Understanding your audience,
26:54 understanding your location,
26:55 understanding that you don't have to
26:57 jump around in all these places to
26:59 actually make money. Our our biggest
27:01 thing was, you know, branding out that
27:03 location, staying in that location, and
27:05 using that location, right? But if you
27:06 Google another truck that keep on
27:08 moving, your customer base doesn't know
27:10 where you are. So they end up you end up
27:12 getting lost like everybody else. I'm I
27:13 remember there were times where I ate
27:15 food and I'm like where's that truck at?
27:17 Never found it again. So you fired and
27:19 hired a lot of people. Yeah. Uh what
27:21 kind of traits characteristics do you
27:23 look for now? First of all, we run like
27:25 a family atmosphere. So we try to keep
27:27 eagles out the way. A lot of chefs that
27:28 do come in this industry, they are
27:31 really ego driven and sometimes they
27:33 want to do things their way, right? When
27:35 in reality it it doesn't work that way.
27:37 It's like we have a recipe book, we have
27:38 something that we put together and this
27:40 is what we got to do. So the people that
27:41 we kind of look for is is the ones that
27:43 are hungry, people who don't have a big
27:44 following and stuff like that, but
27:46 they're still in their upbringing in
27:47 their career cuz we believe in, you
27:48 know, investing in them and pushing them
27:50 to the next phase and the next level and
27:52 stuff like that. I always say, you know,
27:53 the only qualified person on your team
27:55 needs to be the chef. Everybody else can
27:57 just be people that you can build on.
27:58 The team that we got now is a solid team
28:00 that I think can run a restaurant.
28:03 That's awesome. So your plan is to open
28:05 more food trucks, which is pretty cool.
28:07 How are you doing things differently now
28:09 with all the mistakes you made, the
28:10 things that you know, can you give us a
28:12 quick snapshot? Yeah, I mean, honestly,
28:14 this time around, you know, since we
28:15 have the financials to go out there and
28:16 go get the consultant and stuff like
28:18 that, we brought in a whole consulting
28:20 team in the beginning. Um, and they
28:21 basically built the the business out
28:24 start to finish as far as cooking the
28:26 recipes, letting us know, you know,
28:27 hiring the staff and everything. So,
28:28 they basically did all that in the
28:29 beginning for us. Sounds pretty easy, I
28:31 guess, when you've built up the capital
28:33 to kind of expand in other ways. Yep.
28:35 So, once we did that, then we're doing a
28:37 whole new concept, too. So, we decided,
28:38 okay, uh burned buns. So, it's more of
28:41 like ogis and um brisket, cheese steaks,
28:43 and things like that. You know, kind of
28:44 an easier option to get food out
28:45 quicker. That's cool. We didn't we
28:47 didn't want to put no more soul food on
28:49 the food truck. Wait, so that's going
28:51 away from food truck and becoming a
28:53 restaurant. Yeah, goodies are being a
28:55 restaurant by this December. Gotcha. So,
28:57 for those visiting Houston Yeah. towards
28:58 the end of the year. Don't look for the
29:01 food truck.
29:04 Cool. As a serial entrepreneur, what are
29:05 some traits that you've noticed that
29:07 really make serial entrepreneurs stand
29:09 out? First, I want would like to say
29:11 they're insane, right? Insane. Insane
29:13 people, right? They're insane. They're
29:15 very delusional to these ideas. When I
29:16 first started RNR Junko, I started that
29:18 thing with a pickup truck. People
29:20 thought I was insane going around
29:21 picking up all this stuff and putting on
29:22 a little dump truck and just rolling
29:23 like that. Right. The same thing with
29:24 the food thing. They're like, "You're
29:25 going to start this thing. You have no
29:27 idea what you're doing." Sometimes you
29:29 got to be that delusional, right? So,
29:33 um, delusional, insane, um, very, very,
29:35 very, very strategic, very strategic and
29:37 very opportunist. You know, they're
29:38 always looking at the glass half full.
29:39 Then you got the guys, you know, who
29:41 come in the industry who just try to
29:42 calculate everything, but you can't
29:43 calculate something that you don't know.
29:45 So, we I kind of learned to never plan
29:47 for the things I don't know and kind of
29:49 just figure things out as I as I go.
29:50 Hey, before you go, if you have a
29:52 business idea or are still searching for
29:53 one, this is a quick reminder. We have
29:55 partnered with Brandon Vaughn, who's
29:57 built 12 multi-million dollar businesses
29:59 to give you his exact blueprint for
30:00 free. So, if you want to claim free
30:02 access to that, make sure to click the
30:04 link in the description below. And if
30:05 you're interested in more food truck
30:07 episodes, make sure to check out episode
30:10 225. Like and subscribe and we'll see
