Show Notes
In today’s episode we have the crew from Momoshack, a Dallas based pop-up brand specializing in Nepali/Himalayan dumplings, AKA momos. If you love origin stories, food, and unconventional wisdom, this is a must listen for you.
We talk about:
- LeBron vs Kobe
- How Momo Shack started and how you can learn from them
- Zain Gaziani and how he introduced us to the crew at Momo Shack
- What the future looks like for this pop-up shop start-up
- How to win at your morning routine with Hal Elrod
- How to overcome mistakes and turn it into massive success
All of this and more!
To find out more about Momo Shack
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Transcript
Christian [00:00:00] Today, we've achieved a milestone on this show by having a total of six microphones in the house, and we're actually really proud to introduce you to Leezen, Thang, Minu, Danielle. They are the family and group of friends, owners of Momo Shack, a pop up brand specializing in Nepali. Yeah. Yeah. And Himalayan dumplings a.k.a. Momos. Let's Go.
[00:00:28] This is the marketing matrix providing actual ways to grow, improve and succeed in your business.
[00:00:35] And now your host, Christian and Aaron.
Aaron [00:00:41] Welcome to the show, guys. So this is let's give some backstory, because I think that we all met through Zain.
Aaron [00:00:48] Correct. Zain, if you guys have listened to the podcast before or watched, Zain was on probably a month or so ago, maybe two months ago.
Aaron [00:00:56] He's the story. If you don't remember, Zain, he's the guy who got his dream job with Gary Vaynerchuk. So super cool. And then I think he e-mailed the or something. I don't. Yes, exactly. We all connect. What do we connect?
Aaron [00:01:08] First guy. He just connected us. Be e-mail us. Yeah. Very cool. It's a shout out to Zain. Yeah, I know. The guy has his eye on me for sure.
Aaron [00:01:17] Isn't right.
Aaron [00:01:19] How did you guys know how you guys meet, though?
Leezen [00:01:21] So I'm pretty sure he was my Otem during orientation in Dallas. What is it? Oh, time is kind of like your orientation lead. So they'll kind of show you around the campus, do some fun activities with you and things like that. So like I was saying, he's he's our all time. Pretty sure I met him. It was just briefly at that time. Well, he was maybe two years older than us at that time, too. So it was you know, it was kind of through social media where we really connected. So he was in Seattle, I'm pretty sure, working. And he was posting my Gary V a lot. And that's way back when we first got introduced to Gary V. And I would just hit him up on, you know, IGDM, essentially. And we connected that way. And then when he moved here, I was like, dude looks at finally catch up and, you know, get to know each other. So a little bit of backstory on that.
Aaron [00:02:10] Cool. And obviously, he's a fan of the dumplings.
Leezen [00:02:13] Yeah, man. Big fan. Yeah. Shout out to the homie. For sure. Big supporter.
Aaron [00:02:18] All right. So can you guys who wants to explain? I mean, we get four different people here who wants to explain the origin story here? Like, how did you guys get started? I think that's a good place to.
Leezen [00:02:28] I can take that. So. I grew up in Nepal, moved here when I was 10 years old and growing up like momos was the food, right? It was like my favorite food. And when we moved here, obviously there's a lack of it in the area that we were at. So we moved to Allen and anytime we wanted it, we essentially had to go buy all their ingredients. And it's a long process, very labor intensive. And it requires, you know, I always say all hands on deck. It's not just like a one person thing cooking. It literally requires somebody rolling. Somebody mixing all somebody's steaming. It's just like very labor intensive. So when we wanted it, it was far. So it's something that kind of came out from my own pain point. Just being selfish, I. I mean, I really want to do this. And I believe it was our junior year at UT Dallas, and we kind of got together and said, OK, what can we do? Right. So we had a lot of brainstorming sessions. But at that time we're just focused on graduating. So it kind of slipped off and which is totally fine. Then three years ago, I made my first trip back to Nepal by myself just to visit family and things like that. And when I went. It was more of like a spiritual trip for me. I just really reconnected with the country, reconnected with my family, which I haven't seen or talked to in a really long time. You know, I had tons of momos while I was there. Like the O.G. momos, you know. So it was an awesome experience in general. And when I came back, I immediately I just had that, like, urge that best scratch to do something. I I got to do something here to put Nepal on the map and also share this food with people that no one knows about in this area. Right. So we got together again. It was like, yo. All right. Let's finally do this. You know, let's just let's just go for it. So then we applied at the Dallas Farmer's Market. That was what when we first got our star. And maybe Daniel can expand a bit, but essentially we got together, take some pictures, get you out. This an online application. I remember taking the picture of the momos on the steamer. And Daniel and I were like, you know, this is a DOPE picture. Like, it's definitely going to get us in. And we submitted the application a couple of weeks go by when we don't hear from anybody. So I'm like following I'm chasing up, just trying to hustle my way in. And finally I get a hold of somebody and they're like, yeah, it's just there's a lot of electricity issues at the market. I was like, all right. No worries. I will try again next year. We regroup and we're like, hmm, let's just try to go meet them in person, you know, like we're gonna make it happen. So we schedule some time with the lady, takes a moment for her because it's hard to explain what it is, especially with food that's new to people. You just gotta try it. Right. Right. So it takes a moment for her. She took a bite and she's just like, start this weekend.
Leezen [00:05:03] Like, hello, hello. Give us two weeks at least. Like we hadn't done anything right. We didn't even know we're gonna get in.
Leezen [00:05:08] So that was kind of a back story. And then we did ask, you know, what what what was in the application that kind of deterred you guys from saying yes or whatever? She's like, yeah, the picture wasn't that great. Yeah. Funny story, man. But, you know, the visuals matter. Visuals matter. Especially with food, you know, like presentation is key with IG, with social media, things like that. Yeah. Tastes obviously is the ultimate factor. But presentation is also key.
Christian [00:05:34] Yes. So from the get go, what has been your guys role? You started the business and then kind of like going forward besides being test taste testers.
Thang [00:05:45] I would say everything from like marketing to getting people influencers come out to our event to rolling the momos, tax accounting, everything in between. Like anything you name. Yeah.
Leezen [00:06:01] I would say like she's obviously the head chef. Right. It's her recipe. Yeah. Executive chef. For those that don't know, she's my mom. So she made it in Nepal, brought it over here. And one of the key challenges was she just knows how to cook. Right. She knows her way around the kitchen. So whenever she's making stuff, she knows exactly how much to put it, just based off muscle memory. All right. Just that knowledge. So one of the challenges like you, we gotta make it consistent every single time. Because as a as a consumer, you don't want to try something. And it's amazing. And the next time it's like almost there. But something's missing, you know, I mean, you want the same thing. So that was one of the hardest things is like sitting down with her and just be like, all right, I need to know exactly how most tumor egg you put in this thing.
Leezen [00:06:45] She's like, I don't know. Like, I just I just do my thing. Yeah, but now.
Leezen [00:06:50] Now we have our our code, you know, like we have our code and we just followed that process.
Aaron [00:06:55] Anybody. So either one or any one of you guys can make.
Leezen [00:06:57] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I just got the recipe.
Thang [00:07:00] I think the whole process too, because like at the beginning when we try to recreate her recipe it was I wouldn't even know how to cook. Yeah. Right. So like be able to like translate one cup into how many ounces.
Thang [00:07:16] Yes. We didn't know the measurements. Thank you. Yeah there is.
Thang [00:07:20] And I turned out terrible and I think it took us maybe like a year and a half to really learn the basic fundamentals like perfect it. Exactly. Exactly. So many trials, so many different runs. And I would say like were OK at it now I'm pretty good at it, but not not as good as her we do in our life. We'd like to get there one day. Yeah. Yeah.
Daniel [00:07:42] And the cool thing is that we're at a point where we're going to start doing classes. Momo. Yeah, Momo classes. So, you know, we're we're learning and then we're also going to teach other people how to do it.
Leezen [00:07:53] So and I think that's how you learn by teaching other people to think through child. Exactly.
Christian [00:07:58] And speaking of culture, I want to ask because you're from Nepal. Yeah. Where is your degree, guys, as a heritage background? I know. I think Mexican.
Daniel [00:08:08] Yes. I'm from Mexico City. I moved to Texas when I was 10 and then that's when I met Thang. We were both 10 years old at an ESL class. And now, yeah, we met Willie's in in college. So that's UTD. But yes. My my background is from Mexico and I'm from Vietnam.
Thang [00:08:27] You know, I moved here in 2004, 10 years old as well. Yeah.
Thang [00:08:30] We met in the same class, same school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you guys are all the same age. Yeah, we are. Yes. It's great. A month apart.
Christian [00:08:38] So has Vietnamese or Mexican influence any of the food or dumped or is it just straight up?
Leezen [00:08:45] Yeah. Right now it's definitely just authentic like a Nepali. But like with her twist. Right. Well, we are definitely going to venture out once we like nail this down. Our plan is to venture out and start doing some like our indie and in kind of do a fusion of different flavors and see how that works out. Oh, yeah.
Aaron [00:09:02] What you guys is the most popular flavor right now. So I was looking at the Instagram and it's like the presentations, obviously.
Aaron [00:09:07] I mean, I'm assuming after that they told you like, hey, the picture that you like. OK, time we're taking that to heart. Yeah.
Aaron [00:09:14] We're gonna make the pictures on here. Amazing what your Instagram is. Very appetizing. I was kind of kidding with Christian. I was like, man, I really hope they bring.
Leezen [00:09:21] I do. Yeah, we will. Sure. We'll drop some it for the second episode. This is the teaser.
Aaron [00:09:29] So what's the most popular like flavor that you guys had? Like it hands down? Is there like one plate flavor that everybody should get or are portraying?
Thang [00:09:38] I think pork is the most popular one.
Thang [00:09:40] Yeah, because it has just the perfect amount of fat, juicy juice. It just really craves that flavor. You know, and I would say like chicken and veggies are kind of on the same level. Yeah. Well, yeah. Pork is the most it sells out. The quick is every event.
Aaron [00:09:59] Yeah, ok. From that I want you to do something very hard to do on on audio or video which is to describe. Like is there something similar to like tasting this. Because I don't think I've ever.
Aaron [00:10:09] I mean I feel like I have it. We don't that we've had dumplings with me. Yeah. Me. I don't know. Yeah.
Aaron [00:10:15] Can you describe the experience or the flavor? Like what is is a similar it's like combination.
Leezen [00:10:22] So I can try to explain the flavor. I know as I'm explaining I'll try to think of something similar and you'll help me out too. I think the flavor is it's really like an explosion of different flavors. So to give you an idea of what that means. So we put ginger garlic paste in there. Cuban coriander, turmeric, salt and pepper. Right. So it's very savory. Yeah, I would say for sure. And it has this almost like an indian seasoning type of taste or like curry ish. OK. I would say. But in Nepal, we also eat a lot of the similar stuff obviously within a poly twist, but it's very similar to India's flavors. So it's just like an explosion of flavor, man. And on top of that, we have the two secret sauces, the tomato based one, which is has a nice kick to it. And then the cilantro, which is milder, is a green one. So that's where you see the two sources combo and it kills the presentation of it, you know? Yeah, it pops out. He pops off for sure.
Thang [00:11:22] OK. Because for me, I grew up eating like Chinese style dumplings. Right. So it's just like wheat wrapper, you know, with me and salt and pepper, a little bit of green onions and they wrap it up, eat it with soy sauce. So just like dumplings. Dumplings for me growing up. But whenever I met him and he showed me like the Momo. Right. Like I was like, what is this green and orange sauce on it? I tasted it. And this is just a completely different food. You know, even though I was a kid, dumpling. Like the taste the pay profiles is completely different. It's not soy. It's not as salty as the other Asian dumplings. It's more aromatic. Yeah. Because like ginger and garlic and cilantro, like, really gives it that pop. Yeah.
Christian [00:12:10] All right. So you guys, you have some pressure when, you know, when when's the next event?
Daniel [00:12:17] So again, today, today, today. We're going there right after this.
Leezen [00:12:20] Yeah, we're at it's at a bluff for you Growler. I think they're located somewhere by low field. So it's one of the growler spots where they have like 50 beers on tap from different places. We're going to be there. Do some beer and Momo pairings. I get to kick it off.
Christian [00:12:33] Let's go back to then the pop up aspect of your brand. How did that come up? And is that something that you plan to keep pursuing or are there other plans? I mean, you mentioned the classes. What's the the strategy there?
Leezen [00:12:51] Yeah. So the pop up came up. If I backtrack. So farmers market is where we first started. Right. And then we were kind of hitting that every weekend, Saturdays. Only a few people do it Saturday and Sunday. And it's a long it's like eight hours day, our actual event.
Leezen [00:13:07] But then you got to be there like two hours before, you know, set up and all that stuff. And like at least an hour after you sat down. So it's a long day. But we that's where we kicked it off and, you know, got a lot of traction. A lot of people don't know it in farmer's market is like a perfect place to bring something new to the table. So shout out to Dallas Farmer's Market for hooking and hooking that up, but hit one of his coworkers, Tim. Tim hes IG is Tim versus food. So he's like a food influencer in Dallas. Connected us with Ray, who owns Sandwich hag down in Dallas as well. It's up on me being a meat shop. And after that, do you kind of just took off in the pop up direction because she's been in the game like she knows it. She's super helpful, lady. You know, like always looking out for us and just the community in general. So she gave us some tips and tricks and she's like, yo, you should come to my first pop up. All right. She tried the food. She liked it, thankfully. And then she's like, yeah, come through. So then we did that first pop up, which is one was that I think it was February 2018.
Daniel [00:14:05] So it was like a market that celebrates Chinese Lunar New Year. OK. So she had a maybe five or six food vendors, you know, ranging from my Korean, Chinese, Himalayan, Vietnamese, all come into a pop up one morning to celebrate New Year. And that was. Yeah, our first pop up. You know, you don't have to be there from like 8:00 to 5:00, like the farmer's market, you know, there for like two hours. And you sell the same amount that you would do in a full day of work at the farmer's market.
Leezen [00:14:36] Really? Yeah, that's super, super efficient. You know, in terms of just selling the them, I was like the same amount and such less time, which helps big time. Yeah. That's when we first started. And after that we're like two. This is great. Like let's try to do more pop ups. And then slowly we started kind of out like doing our outreach with different businesses. But more it was it was them just kind of hitting us operate like breweries and, you know, growler places and stuff.
Daniel [00:15:04] So I think I think at the beginning, like we we try to reach out to like breweries because we're all talking about like, what do we like to do? Like to drink and eat.
Daniel [00:15:13] Right.
Daniel [00:15:14] So we want to reach out to that market in terms like the people who are similar minded to us. So it started out with breweries and then we picked up with other local businesses as well. And ever since then, like they would reach out, you know, and have us be at their pop up to bring in business.
Christian [00:15:33] That's awesome.
Christian [00:15:34] So the beginning stages of marketing was a lot of our business development getting on Instagram and just sending DM's. And now we saw that from a video that Gary V posted as far as eye reaching out to people, you know, let the hashtags, you know, he always says, yeah. Once we started doing that, then we started to realize that people were reaching out to us and that's when it got pretty crazy or like, oh, this is awesome.
Aaron [00:15:59] You know, it's like, so can people place orders from you guys as well? Or yeah.
Leezen [00:16:05] So for the holla pilot, I was in the Halloween holiday season.
Aaron [00:16:10] Gasoline mean you're. You ready? Yeah.
Leezen [00:16:13] Yeah. We're going to try to do some deliveries and try to kind of go the package out just to kind of test that out because we haven't done it yet. So in terms of strategy as well, that's one of the things we're trying pop up for sure, because that's when we get the most face time with customers and also just get our name out there right in different location. That's the best thing about pop up. You're literally popping up wherever you want to. Well, we're going to continue that, but also test out some different things like the CPG's aspect of it.
Aaron [00:16:39] I was, I guess, with the with the dumplings. Is there a I don't know, like all day always come in three or you always get like, what's the if I'm eating this like I'm going to that brewery. Okay, I'm gonna get a beer or something like that. I'm just again I'm going back to that Instagram because I think it looks really good. Thank you. Appreciate that. Somebody just gets three and that's like this is just more like a snack kind of thing. Or is this like people eat this is like a meal or what? How exactly is this kind of categorize?
Leezen [00:17:11] Yeah. So initially when we started we had three option and then the six option. Right. So the whole intent. When we first started was testing the market. So that's the reason we wanted to if people just want to try a bit and the three option is there.
Leezen [00:17:26] We were thinking since it's brand new. No one knows what it is. They're gonna want to just try it before they kind of test drive it before they go for the stakes. So that's when we that's when we had the three option. But then when we looked at our numbers, we noticed that a lot of people just got to six. It was maybe.
Daniel [00:17:42] I think it's 80, 20. So 80 percent of the people will get to 6.
Aaron [00:17:46] Yeah, sure. Go big. I'm not gonna give me 50 cents off because of that.
Leezen [00:17:55] Yeah. So now we just do sixes comes in a standard. You pick your filling essentially chicken burger or veggie. And sometimes all the chef's special is like just meeting her as her special home where last time we rolled out curry memos. So it is like a curry base that she made and we mix it in with the momos, which was a big hit. And then we also randomly we'll do like beef momos, which is what we're rolling out today. So we'll try our different fillings as well. So that's kind of the standard. But then we have our chef's special as well.
Aaron [00:18:23] And when you were starting out like it's a farmer's market. Were you guys giving away samples at that point or like a multitude?
Aaron [00:18:28] Yeah, big time. Just trying to get it in front of as many people.
Leezen [00:18:33] Yeah.
Leezen [00:18:33] Like when we first started, you know, our pitch was, hey, free samples and samples and a whole crew would be coming. Right.
Leezen [00:18:40] And then once we had that conversation with Ray going back to sandwich hag, she just asked a specific question because she's been in the game and she just knows it. And then right off the bat, she was like, y'all need to stop sampling. So to give you a bit more context. I was gonna go meet her during the farmer's market. So we had the whole crew at the farmer's market and I was like, yo, I'm a go drop. Some momo's off. I'll be back in an hour. I think I showed up like towards the end of the market or something because I just stayed there and had a conversation with her. And when I came back out, I was like, Yo, we need to stop sampling.
Leezen [00:19:11] Everybody, stop sampling, you know, as we were here. And I'll say yes.
Leezen [00:19:17] And the reason for that is. Like I said, it's so labor intensive. So we're literally giving away the product that we're trying to sell, you know? So it was killing our margins at that point. And she also gave us that confidence to just believe in ourselves and to believe in our product. Mm hmm. Like it is good.
Leezen [00:19:34] It's gonna take time for people to warm up to it because it's something that's brand new to a lot of folks. But she was like, yo, believe in it like it's good and sell it, you know, like you you guys can do it.
Aaron [00:19:44] So, OK. So talking business now, my brain is working because I've always I mean, I'm a firm believer in sample sell, meaning like if it's really good, people are gonna more than likely come back. Yeah. Those dips or whatever. So were you guys able to track like, OK, we sampled 100 people today and 50 of those people buy it? Or like, do you know, like roughly what percentage of people that you sampled for actually purchased or does it just curious, man?
Leezen [00:20:13] I think it might be the farmer's market.
Aaron [00:20:15] But I think people go there and they're like, we're there for a sample, just samples.
Leezen [00:20:21] So I would say like the conversion rate would be about 30 or 40 percent at a time. If we get samples and people actually want to buy it the rest of the time, just like, you know, they like. Yeah. I'll be right back.
Aaron [00:20:34] You know, it's like going to Sam's Club every hour at Costco. Yeah. Oh, this is really nice. Deb, I'll be back later. And like that I will actually us back. Stay on the other side of the store. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Aaron [00:20:47] Interesting. So yeah. I mean I'm bet that's very similar to. Like people go to Costco or Sam's Club or whatever. I mean I did it in college when I was taking care of a lady we went to. I can remember what it was, but something similar. And we could basically get like a free meal by just go in there grocery shopping.
Aaron [00:21:02] So it's like, oh, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I did. Yes.
Leezen [00:21:06] Like it's it's a great way to. Like I said, get your name out there. You know, like when you do samples, like to your point, people will flock and they want to try it. And the folks that really because when you first try and I'm excited. See you guys's reaction. But when you first try it, it's just like you've never had it before. And you know that universal like you nod your head, you're like, oh, this is so good. You know, that that. And then it turns into a sale for sure, you know. So we did have a mix, but it was like a great starting point to sample and get our name out there. But it was also a great learning opportunity for us to just be like, yeah, we can do this without sampling, like without giving everything exactly right. The cool thing about the Dallas Farmer's market is that the people that go there are willing to try different things for the most part.
Daniel [00:21:52] That's what we know. They're open minded and open minded. Yes, I was a really good way to test the market.
Aaron [00:21:58] And you guys are still doing the farmer's market now, too, or we haven't been back in.
Leezen [00:22:01] A while, actually. So we've just been doing pop ups, I'll just pop up with local businesses, partnering up with them and stuff, just like I said. Now it's more of just like we just have this backlog of events lined up. So it's hard to do a lot of events back to back. First of all, inventory like labor sensitive. And also, we're working full time as well. So we're doing this balancing both worlds. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's tough. I'm sure you guys know like.
Aaron [00:22:25] Yeah, we know that world very well. Yeah.
Christian [00:22:28] So is there a plan to go full time into it?
Leezen [00:22:32] Yeah, for me for sure. I think it's just, you know, it's going to come in our own time. And once we all realize, like, you know, this is really what we want to do and we're in for it, then for sure it's going to happen.
Christian [00:22:41] Yeah. Is there such thing as a pop up resident where you're actually sort of go consistently to this place every weekend or something like that? Or I don't know how that world works.
Leezen [00:22:55] Not not at the moment. We are thinking about doing some partnerships where we're like at this spot every month just to drive drive more people there and drive it because it's hard for our our fans or customers to follow us all throughout Dallas. You know, I was thinking. Yeah, but they do show out, man, like it's crazy. We have some regulars, which is crazy to think about as a pop up.
Aaron [00:23:16] Oh, yeah. If they like it and like nobody else is doing that. I mean, it's what I mean. Is there anybody now that you guys have done that you've like, oh, somebody else is doing something similar. Like is there.
Leezen [00:23:24] Yeah. So not not in the Dallas area per say, but there's tons of Nepali restaurants in Irving and there. I mean they're all great. No one knows about them except like the Nepali population. So we're really trying to just get the word out for everybody, you know. But Irving has tons. I know there's one in Fort Worth. How did he show it to two person partnership? And they do pop ups in Fort Worth.
Aaron [00:23:48] So with these, do you have to cook them like fresh?
Aaron [00:23:52] Like if you're having this pop up later year and go make them right now for the pop up or if you guys already prepped them all and then you just need to cook them or how exactly does that.
Leezen [00:24:01] Yeah. So we problem again. Problem first and then we steam them on site.
Aaron [00:24:05] So like you could potentially sell them in those Nepali restaurants. Right. Yeah. The other Nepali restaurants sell these kind of thing.
Leezen [00:24:11] They do. They did. Yeah. Actually they're there. There's one that just opened up here. We went to Everest. Yeah. So they're right here and often McDermott. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that's it.
Leezen [00:24:20] And I think them out there. We went there actually. Their food is good.
Aaron [00:24:25] Yeah. Yeah. I mean I I think that's I mean just exposure alone is probably good like somebody else is like okay I know where I like chicken strips so because I like chicken strips I'll try to other places. Right. Having more people try, you know, momos is probably good for you guys in Indiana. Yeah. Yeah. That was a good point though. Ever since like your backyard. Right. Or was the backyard.
Leezen [00:24:47] Yeah. I'm gonna do for the culture. Right. Yeah.
Aaron [00:24:50] Dang. So did you know any family. Just side note, completely unrelated to momos. But did you ever have family members or anybody who ever tried to climb Everest or do you not?
Leezen [00:24:59] So we were we were in the valley. So I called, mind you, is the capital okay? So we're in the valley, but we were surrounded by the mountains and like we could wake up in the morning and just see it off in the distance because there's I think maybe seven of the 13 tallest peaks are there. And so, yeah, it's just we're surrounded by we're actually going there this year as it has been.
Christian [00:25:22] Are you taking them?
Leezen [00:25:23] So my mom went she just came back, got back from Nepal. So, yeah, she just came back d she came back like tide it.
Aaron [00:25:31] Yeah. Yeah. Whatever you want to do. Liza.
Aaron [00:25:36] Yeah. What does it mean. What does the tattoo mean.
Minu [00:25:38] That means parents, father and mother. Oh actually mother and father. Fancy. Fancy. It's in Nepal. Yeah. Yeah. Nepali and English. Both combined.
Leezen [00:25:48] It's like Spanglish by land or it going to happen. It's not planned but.
Aaron [00:25:57] Too many momos and you were like. Now Daniel's only one left. We'll get him. Tell us the momo.
Aaron [00:26:06] Log on and get it on your face.
Daniel [00:26:11] So we have a customer that has a tattoo of Momo Shack. That the logo. So Yeah.
Leezen [00:26:16] Insane. That's crazy. Legit! Yeah. I think I have a picture if I want to see it. Yes, I'll pull it up. But we.
Daniel [00:26:22] We were doing an event with a last last weekend, you know, and he came in and supported. So I think two hours in. You know who's hanging out. And he kind of just left. Came back an hour later. Say, hey, guys, check this out. I saw his arm and is literally like momo shack right here, like the logo.
Aaron [00:26:43] Yeah, I had some brand loyalty, whereas, you know, he's just been mobile for life and I haven't seen the dude, man.
Leezen [00:26:50] His name is Brian. Yeah. And he comes in not just our pop ups, but like a lot of people's pop ups, like he's always supporting great guy, like he has our TS and stuff, you know, like he's always out there. Whatever pop up there is. So cool guy. Yeah. When I saw the tattoo, dude, I was just like, is that real?
Daniel [00:27:06] Hey, you want to watch us all?
Leezen [00:27:09] And I'm like, guys really is like rubbing it. Oh, my God. Breathless. Jazzy.
Christian [00:27:15] So does he have like other pop up tattoo or ask him?
Aaron [00:27:20] Like a walk sign, my real dad is.
Aaron [00:27:25] That's crazy. I heard people playing Looney Tunes on their body, you know? Yeah.
Leezen [00:27:29] Wow. Momo Shack Tattoo, man. Yeah.
Aaron [00:27:33] That's when you hit a pinnacle. I feel like that's a that's a whole another level right there. That's some brand. You don't have fans like bitbranding. Yeah.
Aaron [00:27:37] I've been branding. I've no idea. Yeah. Are you saying it? All right. Daniel. Some of that. Yeah, it's crazy.
Christian [00:27:53] OK, that's I wanna go back to the pictures then.
Christian [00:27:57] You're you're as its logo actually has, I guess the shape of. Right. Of the which actually wasn't that in a Pixar short doing this.
Leezen [00:28:07] Yeah. It was in front. It was in I forget the movie. My girlfriend she was who. I think it's The Incredibles. That's right.
Leezen [00:28:14] I guess it might. Yeah.
Christian [00:28:15] Yeah. Cause everyone was like freaked out about it because it actually came out alive anyway. Anyway, that shape is sort of like the original because I saw some where Kong looks like maybe like an empanada. And then others that look like a pyramid or like a paper airplane almost. Yeah. What's up with the different shapes and layout?
Leezen [00:28:33] So ours is the what you see on our logos. I got the circle. Sorry. This article, it kind of looks like a rose at the top. But yeah. Did dumpling is like there's dumplings everywhere. You know, tortellini is a dumpling.
Aaron [00:28:46] Maybe a dumpling that I have. Yeah.
Leezen [00:28:48] I'm an pinata, as you know. Like sumo says, there's dumplings all over the world. So essentially anything that you put in a filling and you close it like that's a that's a dumpling, you know? Gotcha. So there's a whole different types of shapes. The reason you saw those pictures as well. When we do our cooking class, we want to not just show our shape, but we want to show that empanada as a dumpling. So Jolene is a dumpling one time like they're all dumplings. So trying to show different styles. And it's not easy to fall like Tirana at all, you know. So you want to start out with like something easier and the kind of e work up to the rows and things like that. Yeah.
Christian [00:29:22] So as a rose more complicated than the other versions, I think somewhat I would think I would say so.
Daniel [00:29:27] Yeah, I know. So whatever you do like you know, like the pinata style and kind of like triangles and one times like those are easier but with the round ones like you have to go pleat by pleat and turning it in a circular motion and then the twist at the end. Said, I still can't get it.
Daniel [00:29:46] She starts, well here. It's wrong. It's wrong.
Leezen [00:29:50] Like I said, we'll have our momos all lined up. Right. Because as we're wrapping them. And then she'll look at it and be like, all right.
Leezen [00:29:56] That's things that's now, you know, that's Lee's ends. These are samples.
Minu [00:30:04] I mean, all of these stuff, they make it sample this sample that it's for a little bit longer.
Aaron [00:30:13] So, OK, if you how many years, how many you guys or how many are you preparing for the event this afternoon?
Leezen [00:30:21] I think we're gonna take probably we have we'll have to look at our layout past event. So the company, the business, we're going to have two locations where they want our Lakewood Growler, which is the first one we did with him, and that we sold out in like two hours. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we took close to 900 at that point. So sounds like you take more. I. So we're probably gonna either take like 900 or take a bit more for sure. And for that you're there. For how long. Like how long was your. Yeah. This one's two hours. Okay.
Daniel [00:30:52] Cause things like when we first started at the farmer's market we would take about like six hundred.
Daniel [00:30:57] Mm hmm. And it would take us literally from nine to five to sell about like 500 like 400 those because like two hundred we gave away free samples. Right. Literally like nine hours of work for that amount. And now we're bringing maybe double. And we sell it in two hours doing so much more or less setup time.
Aaron [00:31:20] Very much. Yeah, exactly. So you saw him in six. What is six of your guys? This may may change by the time this comes out. You know, Amish represses, but what is six most cost right now are like the standard order right now.
Leezen [00:31:33] So the center orders six momos for nine dollars.
Leezen [00:31:36] Well, that's not bad. Yeah. That's yeah. It's actually pretty filling. Like the great part about dumplings is you can kind of snack as you go rising, purchase it and kind of do whatever. And we usually wear either I like a market or like a big pop up market or if it's on at the brewery, you know, you can just grab some beers and stuff. So it's almost like finger foods. I would say, but it's filling at the same time because of the. Filling inside of it might cause a lot of it in there.
Aaron [00:32:04] Would you guys ever do anything like that? Yeah. Like catering kind of stuff like where you'd show up to an event, like a catering, like a holiday Christmas party or stuff like that.
Daniel [00:32:13] I mean, we've done it before. Like we've had like birthday parties where we catered.
Aaron [00:32:18] Yeah, I don't think it because like when you said it's like more like a finger food thing. So it's like we there's always it into the year party. And I may be able to connect you guys with with them, but there's like an end year party for the businesses around here. And it's like, you know, they may get like two rows or they may get The Cheesecake Factory or whatever else. And everybody just brings their own little table. Nice. And they offer samples or whatever to samples and cards and whatever else. But but that's like that part of event.
Aaron [00:32:46] But then those open up the door for like the actual companies to do like catering events and stuff. Yeah. There we go. Yeah. Thanks, man. Yeah, absolutely. So let's make sure we can make that connection. I was thinking like that would be perfect because you guys could just be right there. Can you talk about it? And you always do. You guys all live in. You said you moved to Allen, right?
Leezen [00:33:07] So I was an Allen. My mom's still there. I'm in Plano now in West Plano area.
Aaron [00:33:11] OK. So, I mean, you guys are in this area. Yeah, I have an honestly until Zane, which is what's crazy is I mean, even for us too is like there's so many different businesses, so many different things out there.
Aaron [00:33:24] So it's just hard to always know what's going on. But you guys, we're like in our backyard kind of.
Leezen [00:33:28] Yeah, yeah. It's pretty cool, man. Small world, you know.
Aaron [00:33:33] I was going to ask you. So one of our employees you had. Well, I think this is about a year now. November 7th. I don't know. I know you said it was a year ago.
Aaron [00:33:43] This was the competition you guys did and you guys had a tan France on there or whatever. You're just ready. Yes. Yeah. What was it? So he. I don't want to play the video out loud. But what did he say in this video, dude?
Leezen [00:33:59] I don't know to the audience because I was just like in shock, you know, like I just I a smile and like, look, I don't know. It was insane. But I think he said something like, what's up gala? Like.
Leezen [00:34:11] I'm here, UTD. I got. I think he said, like I got.
Leezen [00:34:15] And then we just jumped in and we're almost done.
Leezen [00:34:19] And then he was like, Momos Shack, I get you over here. Like, check him out, OK? It's dumplings or something. Something like that. Yes.
Aaron [00:34:25] I mean, it's very. Yes. That's kind of what I didn't listen to the video yesterday and then I forgot about until just now. But Ryan was like and he's like, hey, I know that guy. I was like, oh, who is this guy? And it's like, oh, he's got 3 million followers.
Aaron [00:34:37] I remember where he's like, I don't know what show he was on, but I was like, it seems clear I or I.
Aaron [00:34:43] Yeah. OK. So that's Zynga. Tunnel. Do so go.
Leezen [00:34:46] Crazy story about that. Couple months before that, my girlfriend introduced me to cry and I was like, OK, I'll, I'll, I'll watch it. And then I was like, oh my God, this is actually like really good show. And then it was like our secret thing that we watched together, you know?
Leezen [00:35:03] And then I like, oh, it's so good that I introduced it like all my friends. And I would literally be like, yo, we're watching this. He's coming over. And we all would watch and is like, wow, this is really good.
Leezen [00:35:13] Fast forward to the BIC. Like, he is our celebrity judge. And he gives us a freaking shot. Like we get to meet him and have a conversation with him. She's crazy. My life is life is crazy. That's so awesome. Yeah.
Aaron [00:35:26] Little fame. Boyd out a little bit, too.
Leezen [00:35:28] Yeah, for sure.
Leezen [00:35:29] I was so happy because my girlfriend is like a big, bigger fan than I am. You know, so she got to meet him too. And he's awesome.
Christian [00:35:37] So Zain, when he was here we asked, oh yeah. What was his Netflix been? Yeah. And he told her, I really, really like, you know, it all. Also, you need to watch every episode is emotional.
Aaron [00:35:49] Yeah, I have. I had heard of it. And then it's on Netflix or something like that. Now, obviously, you know, but I had heard of it and never watched an episode or anything like that. He's like, no, you must watch this.
Leezen [00:35:59] You know, it's it's awesome show. I like it.
Aaron [00:36:02] All right. What do you what do you guys I mean, we talked a little bit about your future and we talked about you potentially wanting to go full time. What is what needs to happen? Do you guys want to get like there's no like there's no vision to get a physical story. You want to do more pop ups or what has to happen or to like where you say because for us, I guess we talked about that a little bit before. We were like, all right, if we make a certain amount of money, like, let's quit our jobs and then we quit our jobs. Are you guys looking for that or are you looking for more like. If we lay in like a really big client that needs us each each month? Or like what would take you to that next level to say, all right, we're going out full time, we're quitting on jobs. This is a we're all in kind of thing?
Leezen [00:36:44] That's a good question. I think for me personally, it's I have these like internal checkmarks. Right.
Leezen [00:36:51] Like, I want to like get to this thing are like no test to God.
Leezen [00:36:59] That's on my list for Jerry. By guys. You know, just kind of like once I have that mental check and I don't know if it's just a scapegoat for me because I don't know if I'll ever have that mental child, but that's kind of what the point that I'm at right now. Should I want to be sure, like obviously financially secure at first and also just mentally be ready to be like, all right. I'm doing this. You know, I can always go back. But for now, I'm dropping everything and doing this. So it's more for me like internal. And I'm sure, like everyone here has something different. But that's kind of where I'm at right now. And I think it's coming soon, though, like it's happening soon.
Aaron [00:37:36] So have you guys talked about that like, oh, hey, guys, we're doing we're doing well.
Aaron [00:37:41] Like, should we quit in? Like, Hey, Mom, can I come stay at your place for six months or.
Aaron [00:37:45] Yeah. Did you. She's like, you come back. Yeah.
Minu [00:37:52] Yeah. I'm always ready to do. Yeah. It. I always tell them. Let's go. Let's go do.
Aaron [00:37:57] Yeah. Yeah. So you hear them entrepreneurial push. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Okay.
Leezen [00:38:02] So I think like in terms of like the brand, like the image of the brand being I guess like more recognizable by the Dallas market. I think when it gets to the point where we have enough clients in terms like catering gigs or pop ups lined up for the whole entire week for it to replace our full time job. Mm hmm. You know, I think that's when we could finally say, hey, let's quit our job into this full time.
Aaron [00:38:28] OK. So for you, it's more about bookings and making sure that there's like that heavy stream. Yeah, exactly. What about for you?
Daniel [00:38:36] I would say that right now we're still testing. So once we have that vision, like as a team, I think that would make the most sense because like we're doing package, the memo is in the next two weeks. So I'd like to see the feedback that we get. You know, that might be the route or maybe, you know, physical location, like people, you know, asking us, hey, do you want to open a restaurant? So once we have that, I guess, North Star, where we are all together looking at it, I think that's when I would be like, yeah, you know, let's make it happen.
Christian [00:39:10] You guys a flexible enough daytime jobs that you can't lay if you have the full week lined up. Do you guys take a step back from the other job?
Leezen [00:39:19] And that's the balance aspect here. It's like I think we could make it happen. It would just you have to give and take certain things. You know, luckily, my boss is pretty cool. He's good. He's really flexible understanding. Yeah. You know, we we get hit up with weekday events and it's always like, all right. Who can make it? You know what? How do we work? How do you make this work? So that's a challenge for sure. But I think one of the things that would happen naturally is if we did quit our jobs and these events started flooding in like we would be there more and more. Those events like we would just have a healthier backlog at that point, you know?
Aaron [00:39:57] Yeah. So background then for this is where do you guys work out currently or what's the what's the daytime?
Leezen [00:40:04] Yes, I work in a digital team at a bank. And I'm doing business management stuff. OK. So I've been there for about like a year and a half now, almost two years, actually. So that's why the money stuff makes sense for you.
Daniel [00:40:16] OK, yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, I work as a processing manager at a software company called Blackboard, which is when we pretty much do.
Thang [00:40:30] So we work with companies like Big, Small, medium sized and get their employees to donate to charity organizations. So like we're the middleman platform that allows people to volunteer, donate to employees.
Aaron [00:40:45] Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Cool. Never heard of that.
Aaron [00:40:49] For your full time. Yeah. Yeah. For me, it's really hard. You know, working my job fulltime and and making momos this lot of managing us. And I'm lucky. What am I doing? Yeah. Yeah. So. I love that job to take care of 3P. Okay.
Thang [00:41:13] I mean, sales at a technology company, I.T. company selling hardware. Really? Yeah. What kind of hardware? I'm curious too. So servers, storage.
Aaron [00:41:25] Yes. We got a question for you. Thank you.
Aaron [00:41:32] Absolutely. We have it. We have a storage question for you. Jack's over here smiling for me. Yes.
Aaron [00:41:39] We've been meaning to talk about storage for a while.
Christian [00:41:44] I think that's this question. But we bastard, actually. But has owning your own business always sort of been your guys is like, you know, eventually I think I want to I would want to own my own business. Or has it?
Leezen [00:41:58] Yeah, I think, Daniel, you should start off on that one. I would say for me.
Aaron [00:42:01] Percent, I can tell that without everybody's answer, he has like stability.
Aaron [00:42:07] If everybody else can do it and we all feel good about it in your leg. All right, look, let's make sure that they're all on the same page. And I want to drive like this ship of like this is the entrepreneurial kind of dream, for sure.
Daniel [00:42:19] Yeah, absolutely.
Daniel [00:42:21] That's something that I want to do eventually. So you're right. You know, once everybody's on the same page, I'm doing that. You know, I mean.
Leezen [00:42:29] Well, you know, for me personally, like when I first started, you know, moving from Nepal, I was kind of like in that social path of a societal path of graduate college. You get a job, right? That's like the American dream. And in my view, and I got the job and I was, you know, doing corporate and and it was fine. It was a good gig and everything. But then I really started to listen to a podcast by Gary V. Man, I think he really did change my life. You know, I'm not like an avid Gary V listener, but I do listen to him. And when I do listen, I take tips and stuff like that. And that got me into listening to Side Hustle School as well, which is like it's a great podcast because eight minutes and it gives you that key bullet points of each pie, each episode, essentially. So I started listening to that. And then and then we just kind of started brainstorming idea. Then I got the edge to, like, do something and we started brainstorming ideas. And a lot of it was kind of like, you know, you try something and you're not fully in it because it's not your passion. So I kind of just falls off. But then I went to that Nepal trip and had that like spiritual, like you got to do something to bring you know, I always say, like, do it for the culture. Like, literally, you know. So that's kind of how it started out. Now I'm like, yo, let's do this, right? Yeah.
Aaron [00:43:42] Well, you've had success, too. I also kind of like feels a little bit of a fire like for sure. We've gotten this far and we were doing it, you know, part time on the weekend rides and stuff like that. So what happens if we really go all in?
Leezen [00:43:53] Yeah. Yeah, the opportunities are endless, you know.
Aaron [00:43:56] Right. And I guess the way that I would look at it for you guys, too, is like, what's the absolute worst that could happen? You have to go back and get a job, which is always gonna be there. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. What about you? What's the. Have you always wanted to or.
Daniel [00:44:09] I mean it's like moving here from Vietnam. You know, my parents would want me to do like big corporate gigs like move up and be like a manager at sea level. Exactly. And then I guess like our junior year at UTD, you know, we all like sat down and were like, hey, we all really like food. And and he likes business. You know, we would love to start like a food business one day, but like leaves and said earlier, you know, we had to, like, catch up on graduating and just kind of fell off.
Daniel [00:44:41] And then, yeah, like when I first started my first job as a financial analyst over in Irving, a sensor, you know, listen to podcasts while I'm working. And the biggest one I was since it was Joe Rogan I saw on his show, he was like, yeah, man, like, I don't want to be like those corporate guys working 9:00 to 5:00.
Leezen [00:45:01] And I'm like, sitting in a none of my. Yeah, I know.
Daniel [00:45:07] Like he's kind of right. In a way, like, you know, kind of like sparked my interest in our conversation that we had in doing it. You know? So I think that's where it took off from there.
Aaron [00:45:18] Since you were mentioned podcast, you guys should listen to Achieve Your Goals podcast by How L Read. He has a podcast recently with a guy cannot remember his name, but so the thing that he's most famous for is called the Miracle Morning, which you should check out. It's it's basically like you pick like on a one or two things that you want to do that day or you start your day this exact same way every day just to start you off on the right foot, whether it's just like being grateful, whether it's quiet time, whether it's praying, whether it's, you know, drinking a glass of water, it's just like two simple tasks. And you just like to set you up to have success with your day because so many people are about a morning routine. Everybody has a morning routine. But he's just like, be very simple. Do these two things that are gonna make you super happy, do it everyday and you already start off with like an amazing day. It's like, oh, just make your bed, drink a glass of water. It takes five minutes. So you should check out the miracle morning, which I don't know by his story is amazing, too. It's a really good, really good podcast. We'll take a break. Yeah. So hopefully next time we interview, you guys can be like, hey, we quit our job a year from now.
Aaron [00:46:24] And who knows, in a year, you guys could have quit your job. Yeah. Yeah. Twelve months is a you know, anything can happen. That's a long time. It is. It's a long time. But it comes quickly. And then we're like getting by.
Leezen [00:46:37] You're about to hit two years. No.
Aaron [00:46:39] Just in saying really when you guys officially, like, say, moments like this is the day, December 20, 30, 2017.
Leezen [00:46:48] Nice to see, you know, the day you should get that tattooed on you.
Aaron [00:46:52] Right. Yeah.
Leezen [00:46:53] And then like a cold Lena winter morning, man. I like everything. Murphy's Law. Right. Yeah. I can go wrong. Will go wrong. Yeah, so our burner was not a commercial grade burner. It was like just from Walmart or Target or something. And in that weather, was I going to do what he thought? Do you remember this like it was yesterday? We had cylinder blocks to hold down our tank. We shot. We'll show you guys the pictures, you know, like we did before and after college. And when we did our one year last year, I think it was like you versus the guy.
Leezen [00:47:26] She tells you.
Leezen [00:47:29] Yeah, it was a crazy event. But, you know, we made it there and I took off from there.
Aaron [00:47:34] Sometimes the really bad starts are always like a good place to just kind of see, like it's been two years. This is where we started. Like everywhere is up from here.
Leezen [00:47:43] Yeah. So that's cool. Yeah. The night before we were up for eight hours making memos. And I remember my mom saying, I don't want to do this because it's a lot of work and I'm only used to eating the memos. Right. Like I'm not used to making it or seeing the property behind it. And I was just like, Mom, it's OK. It's just mom was like, we can do this. And it was like a big slap in the face. Right. Like we were up till 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning at the commercial kitchen making it and all this stuff. And then I'd even think about having to freeze it because because it's memos you have, you can't stack them on top. Right. Because they're dumplings all flatten. And when you transport it, you have to stack. And my job. I mean, we don't have like a flatbed or whatever. So a lot of key lessons learned that night and that first day. Logistics, like everything. Like I was just like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Aaron [00:48:36] Where are you guys all there at that time or. Yeah. Like trying to make those you so those early days and you really didn't know how to make them and I don't know anything about it.
Leezen [00:48:43] I just, just knew what they looked like when they decided. She's like I remember that day more vivid.
[00:48:50] Yeah. I was hoping I didn't even sleep at all. I was just walking on and momos looking at momos you know, stressing out, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Frozen, freezing. Dad, momos everything. You know, I was just doing it and they went to bed for maybe two hours. Two hours.
Leezen [00:49:07] The next morning. But the cool part about it was if we're talking quality and we're being honest like it was in the utmost quality because of all these issues, logistical issues, but people still really liked it. So it was a lightbulb that went off in our head. You know, like, wow, we're out here trying to test the market. And just based off the day, one reaction. I think we've got something here.
Aaron [00:49:27] Yeah. So we were 80 percent or 70 percent and it was good. It's like I didn't even increase it. All right.
Aaron [00:49:33] See, made like how many did you guys make for that first event?
Leezen [00:49:38] Five hundred maybe. Question.
Leezen [00:49:39] Yes, I was five.
Minu [00:49:46] Five to six.
Aaron [00:49:46] Yeah, I was a hundred. Yeah. Just to clarify. Like. Video here you may find.
Aaron [00:49:55] Awesome. All right. So we have a couple of fun questions and quite one of the questions we always ask and this is actually a new part because normally we would ask about Netflix, but now we can ask about Disney plus to anybody.
Leezen [00:50:08] And if you guys have Disney plus, I don't, I don't. But I've seen it like nothing happened. So before we asked the Netflix question, do you guys have Netflix? Yeah. OK. So, yeah, this may not have jumped today. Has anybody thought about getting Disney? Plus, I'm on the thinking about getting it. I think Christians are to God. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Day one. Yeah. Yeah. So some people have signed up for like three years, like day one or like in Moscow. How they. You can choose your plan. I guess you can do a year in advance. But yeah, there is a friend of mine this morning who is running said her husband got a deal where he signed up for three years in advance and got like a crazy deal like that. I'll raise a deal.
Christian [00:50:43] I think it might have been there like a Disney, like a twenty three member. So you're like a Disney member.
Christian [00:50:50] And with that membership you get some sort of discount without like one hundred twenty bucks for three years or something like that. Wow. I'm lying when I say it's only 60 bucks if you pay for the year right now. Right. I think some such as logging.
Aaron [00:51:06] Yeah. And I like that. I didn't know you could get Hulu and ESPN Plus on the same deal. Yeah, well I think it's like twelve dollars or something, but it's like five dollars more to get those other two and it's like, OK, let me do the math here because I need ESPN plus and a nice bit have to do that on the whole package. Yeah. All right. So I'm an affiliate for Disney.
Aaron [00:51:26] Plus, I just came out of the way.
Aaron [00:51:29] All right. So what kind of let's start down here with Daniel. What do you guys watch on Netflix? What are you bingeing on Netflix? What's your go to show? It can't be queer. Because we already had that. And so it can't have the same ending.
Aaron [00:51:42] Yeah, I think that's why I started that.
Daniel [00:51:46] Great question. So I don't have Netflix. OK. I don't have that Disney plus. But I remember watching Mad Men and I was pretty cool. I just loved this story of this guy. Was selling and I was like, man, I can relate to that. And it was just a different type of show. So I would say that that's my go to whenever I do watch it levitating. Yeah. So it's cool advertising.
Aaron [00:52:09] Yeah. Cool. What about you? You watch Netflix at all.
Minu [00:52:12] Yeah. But I was this one of the indie movies and nipali movies on that. OK. That I love it. Yes. That's awesome. On it. Culture.
Aaron [00:52:23] Yes. Do you ever culture?
Aaron [00:52:26] That's how you get more inspiration for more momos.
Minu [00:52:29] Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Daniel [00:52:32] For me I haven't really watched Netflix lately because a person who was mooching off of change amounts, but when I did watch it, it was a chef's table. So yeah, just watching it. And you know, Dems tell you a story about the chef that's featured on the episode and like that their videographer is and that storytelling is just so captivating that just just binge all the way through. So gives you your inspiration and turns you out.
Aaron [00:53:03] That's kind of like your world now. Yeah.
Leezen [00:53:06] Yeah. For me right now I don't really have one. I kind of just like jumping around depending on my mood. Well my go to if there's nothing that I find is always the office and I know they're taking it off, which is a bummer. Yeah, but why.
Christian [00:53:20] I think NBC wants their own.
Aaron [00:53:22] They want to create their own, too.
Leezen [00:53:25] It's always like a feel good show, you know, always putting in a good mood. And it's just hilarious.
Aaron [00:53:30] And so everybody who watches the office always ask if they've seen Parks and Rec.
Leezen [00:53:33] I'll do Yellow Parks and Rec to make sure we know there's usually like it's like it's like Kobe or LeBron.
Aaron [00:53:40] Yeah, it's like they definitely Kobe. I'm like, oh, can we have both? That's a whole nother debate. You. Real quick, Kobe. LeBron. Oh, gee, I'm a Kobe fan. Yeah. I knew I liked you. Oh, man. Kobe all the way. But LeBron is you all right?
Leezen [00:53:54] Yeah, you can. You're 17. Yeah.
Aaron [00:53:56] I mean, these guys in saying, yeah, he is. And his kids are insane, too. I was watching a video of Kobe's kids. Like she's got the same exact fadeaway side. I saw that video. I'm like, oh my gosh, these kids are gonna be so good.
Aaron [00:54:09] And like, your dad is world class. You're on. He's already dunking mags like 16 or something. Yeah. I'm not even I don't think now he's like 14, 14. Yeah. And he's throwing it down hard. Yeah.
Aaron [00:54:20] Yeah. That's a whole another. Yeah. Yeah.
Christian [00:54:23] A whole other world I actually want to go back to because we didn't ask anything about social media. I do want to know. Actually I guess two part is what each of you whose favorite social media platform. So if it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, whatever or where do you spend the most time? And then what has been the strategy for the business as well? As far as social media, yeah.
Daniel [00:54:46] So my favorite is definitely Instagram, just because like we have to post on things that's like the way to post for food. So I'm like, I get lost in there sometimes, you know, like you just like from one thing to another. But definitely Instagram. I don't take talk as big as well. So we're trying to kind of figure out how do we maneuver our way and to take talk. For me personally, it seems like I've never had a that feeling where I feel so out of touch with my generation. So you feel like that would all do it for sure. I got hop on there. I'm like, well, how do you do any of this stuff? You know, I have no idea. Usually when you when I download the app, I know how to maneuver around it like it is straightforward, but ticktock. I'm just like, oh, my guys are a whole different beast mode.
Aaron [00:55:27] I think it's like I think it's intuitive to move or maneuver. But as you like to you, I think like to your point, it is like it's also like coming up with certain dances or coming out with certain things. Yeah, I can't. I like I come up with ideas by not watching next. I'm like, oh, if I do that, then I'm like, I don't want to copy them. I want to come up with my own stuff. Yeah.
Aaron [00:55:44] And you're like, take these people are so create the transition. And like everything that they use on there is it's always editing for that.
Aaron [00:55:51] Those videos are while they make them look like they're amazing. Yeah, the editing software is like awesome.
Daniel [00:55:57] Yeah. I'll follow Will Smith on there. Yeah. Dude, he has an amazing video even on Instagram. He has amazing video.
Aaron [00:56:02] Yeah. He's guy like for a videographer. Yeah. I mean video. I followed you guys earlier. Yeah. It's he's got some he's also got millions of dollars to pay those videos. Yeah. It's kind of unfair. Yeah. Whatever inspiration I guess you know.
Aaron [00:56:17] Yeah. It's like OK. Well this guy. I mean this guy literally tried to put a video together for like, you know, a whole week. Yeah. It's like stop motion animation, like everything your effects kind of stuff sounds like. Yeah. It definitely took you 30 hours to create this little 15 second. Yeah. Yeah, it's killing it. We need somebody like that.
Leezen [00:56:37] Well you got one. What do we do?
Aaron [00:56:41] We get that indicate 30 hours of Jack's time to making a funny video.
Christian [00:56:46] You know, I feel like because the demographic is so young, obviously they don't have work that I have anything else to do besides being on and spending all the time creating those videos. Yeah. And I actually like being very meticulous about that. Take wasn't good.
Daniel [00:56:59] Again, that dude explore page. When I run into people who are like my age or older, I always follow them because I'm like, okay, I can relate to them for sure. Yeah. And I try to figure out like how are they actually doing it? So I purposefully follow like older people on ticks. I just kind of see how they're doing.
Aaron [00:57:15] Yeah. More and more malign. I was looking at it trending was last week or the other day earlier this week. And more and more millennials are getting on there now and they are blowing up like crazy because there's there's actually one lady who blew up like 50000 followers in like three days because she's like she did some kind of dance or whatever, just like, yeah, I'm a millennial, but I still got it or whatever, like shout out to all the millennials. And then it was just like, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, organic growth. So I think Chris Christian, I talked about this before is like, just be you on the platform and that will do well, like athletes be athletes. Are you guys making food? You could just put music and make your food or do it, you know, just be yourselves. And it's like, all right, I'm going to follow you because of that. And it's it's kind of like Twitter. People will follow a lot easier there than they would on Instagram. People are very coveted on Instagram. It's like, oh, no, no, no, I have to have 5000 followers and I can only have 500 people that I'm following because I don't want those numbers. And people on ticktock are very much like, well, whatever. I'll follow them. Got em. So it's kind of a mix between kind of. Different, I guess, to see the follower accounts and like what people don't really care about. Yeah. Yeah.
Thang [00:58:25] Thing. Favorite. I think for me, Instagram is like you said before, they explore pages. I think the algorithm really sets you up to see things that you're interested in. So yeah, I spend all my time on Instagram.
Christian [00:58:41] Let me ask you this. How do you feel about Instagram hiding the like the likes?
Leezen [00:58:47] It's tough because I understand that, you know, the psychology side of it like it would. I think it would help people in terms of managing their depression or anxiety when it comes to how much likes you're getting or how many comments you're getting. So I understand it. I just don't know how it will play out in scale because that's what makes the app right.
Aaron [00:59:19] So and you can still see him. It's just still kind of like. But people like to say like, look at me kind of thing. Right. Exactly. Interesting. I guess we will by the time it comes out. I'm pretty sure everybody will want more have likes so we can talk about that.
Leezen [00:59:35] I think for me, I think I'm all for it. Actually, I think it's a cool concept. You know, I find a lot of people will like kind of obsess over the likes. Oh, yeah. You know, so. I mean, you should be able to just post stuff depending on what you want to post and then not worry about what other people think about it, I guess. I think it's cool. We'll see how it plays out to your point in scale.
Aaron [00:59:57] And I guess it's it's interesting because like so many people think that how many followers you have equals how much business you're gonna get. Like for the business owner side of it. And it's like that hasn't nothing to do with it at all. He has three hundred followers and somebody could have thirty thousand. You could be killing it way more than them with just one better relationships with those people. Better engagement. So it's not like I guess it's a vanity metric that we've like not really cared about. But some of our clients like no, I need to have my computer has 5000 followers. Like if they bought them and they're fake and they don't have any engagement like you may have, you know, a thousand, but you're way better off and these are way more engaged people. So, yeah, you know, some of it's just vanity anyway. Yeah.
Daniel [01:00:40] Yeah. What's your favorite social media account platform?
Leezen [01:00:49] You can say Instagram, but we know it's sincere out dude with the with the mummy shag stuff, you know, like she's turning into a little bit influenced her as she is. I posted all about it all the time. You know, stories, jazz, you name it. She's getting into it. Nice. Yeah, it's good for me to see. And like all my life, they follow her. You know, my girlfriend follows her. Some of my other buddies follow her and they're like, do your mom's always boasting like it's like a lifestyle.
Thang [01:01:13] Yes, I'm a king because she, like, takes picture. Oh, yes. Nice story. Is like, OK, she's kicking somebody like you little like two weeks ago.
Daniel [01:01:21] Like, I would wake up and she was in Nepal at that time. So I wake up and see like a tag from her.
Daniel [01:01:28] And I opened it and it was her getting tattooed like a video of her getting tattooed on his hand. She's gonna laugh. She's like, sharp your hand. It's like Instagram handle. I let my story speak for themselves.
Aaron [01:01:42] Thanks. Follow me, chef. Me too. For anyone who's interested. Yeah. OK. We'll link that up. And everybody.
Leezen [01:01:50] Yeah, I would say IG as well. Just to learn new workouts, you know, just see where the cool places are at 4:00 for food just to take pictures. So, yeah, big fan of IAG.
Christian [01:02:01] Interesting. All I do. Yeah. Well, thank you, guys. I think I mean, definitely take stock recently. I got I think everyone the office sort of hooked on it. But I think where I live the most is probably a combination of Instagram and Twitter. I like the the the thing about Twitter is I like the the real time.
Christian [01:02:22] If something's happening and I don't know any game or something's happening and constantly you just find out about it, you can just quickly follow. It has to be like just redefining comments. And so it's very real time.
Christian [01:02:34] I also like kind of part of news as well, which you can do with Instagram, but I'm definitely more I guess more on on Twitter than Instagram for sure.
Aaron [01:02:43] I would say.
Aaron [01:02:45] It's something I've gotten away from, but I do like Instagram and I do like ticktock. But I love like the story part of Instagram stories like I could probably just spend the whole time. They're like not just consuming but like creating and just coming out with different ideas and stuff like that, which is why I'm like, I really want to dedicate some time. I have so many different cool ideas for stuff for take talked to my thing. I really want to just dedicate like three hours to do this. But that's the thing is like all these other little kids, not little kids, all these younger people look like you're not doing anything in school. Like what the heck's your teacher? And it's like six hours you're just playing around in the classroom like.
Aaron [01:03:21] I'm sure you've familiar like with the OC Boomer.
Aaron [01:03:25] So like they were they.
Aaron [01:03:29] That's been going on for probably like a month now. And one of our management tours, I went over to his house and he was like they did a video and went viral. It's like, oh, no. One hundred and two eighty one hundred ninety thousand views on this video of them in a classroom doing OK. Boomer and the teachers up there, too. I'm like, how like does your tape teacher play along with you guys on this or what the heck he's he to build up as ticktock followers. Yeah, it's like everybody goes through there and then like the basketball coaches for the payphone song. Have you seen that? No, I haven't. So they like. They sing number and 5 like payphone or whatever. And then they stop it in the middle and then they jump side to side. Yeah. Which is fine during practice.
Aaron [01:04:11] But I saw there's this team do it in the middle of the game and their coach was here cause he did it and he was like going up for a layup and he had a wide open layup and just started side to side. No team followed him and their coach is like, what are you calling like streaming souls? Like Yo anything for the. Yeah, I say you better. They said something like, I don't want this drop or whatever. Don't let this fail because. Yeah. Don't just flop because you know, I need to be famous. I'm about to get kicked off my basketball team. Like what? He was my NBA dream. Yes. Or people jumping off of cliffs like me, like somebody to die, like, OK. Oh, yes. Some people take it a little too far.
Aaron [01:04:52] I'm like, all right. So, yeah, I would definitely say Instagram stories and then. The tick tock videos. It's my favorite combination of Instagram and Vine. Which was. Yeah. Yeah. Mine was good. Well it while it lasted. Yes it was. It was funny. I would watch certain vines like a thousand times like this is six seconds but is this so funny.
Leezen [01:05:10] Yeah. A lot of those top buying people like really transition into Instagram easily. Yeah. I killed it on Instagram too. Yeah.
Aaron [01:05:16] And now they're on tiktok. I mean the the good ones are gonna definitely you to think about them and started doing. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. YouTube actually.
Aaron [01:05:24] So I'll say that. Yeah. YouTube's probably up for me in town to as far as like a cool platform. It's kind of stood the test of time. Yeah. True. You guys do you guys do much in video.
Leezen [01:05:37] We do record our events, not every single event, but we'll try to get one of our buddies. His name is said he'll come out in like record some really cool videos and know videos for us. And as a. As a pop up like yo are like a food industry, whatever you want to call it like it, you don't really see that too much. It will kind of make it like a sports highlight video. You know what we're having like some rap music or whatever. And then there's like us like slo mo doing this. You know, it's pretty cool. Like it's like a highlight reel. So we've been doing that. We're gonna try to do that for our cooking class for our first one just to kind of record it. People's reactions. Yeah, we actually did a first time ever trying memo reaction and one of our videos, which is that went over pretty well.
Aaron [01:06:22] Yes. I like the way. Yes. Dang. OK. I now realize what we've been talking for so long. This is like awesome actually.
Aaron [01:06:30] Definitely do a part to do. Great. Yes. Yeah.
Aaron [01:06:35] That's that's the other reason. Or same part to promote the other episode. Give me 10 minutes on Kerry just being a mom. You guys, you're awesome. All right. Thank you guys so much for coming on the episode.
Aaron [01:06:47] If this is your first time listening to podcasts, please make sure to subscribe. You can do that over on iTunes. If you've been listening for a while, make sure that you leave an honest reading and review that helps us reach more people. And every. We are a once a month. Rather, we always have guests just like the guys over here at Momma's Shack. But every other episode or the other three times of the month, we do topical tips to help your local or online business grow. So make sure you guys subscribes. You don't miss out on anything. And we will see you guys next week.
[01:07:17] The marketing native's podcast is a production of BitBranding.
