Hey, it's Shalaysia Harris, your host of Buzzworthy.
Join me as I sit down with entrepreneurs to talk
about their innovative businesses and their unique
stories. Remember to follow us on social at Hamilton
Hive on all platforms, and don't forget to rate
our podcast. Let's jump into today's story. Hello,
everyone. Today, we have Kerry Sobers in the
studio with us. Kerry is really interested and
has dropped a few nuggets to me a few minutes
ago. And Kerry wasn't a chef, but now he's the
owner of a restaurant called Bring Me Some Vegan.
And he's designed all the recipes and is now
building this business that the food is amazing.
And Kerry's going to tell us about his story
and how he started Bring Me Some Vegan. So Kerry,
thanks for being here. I'm glad I could be here.
Awesome. So one of the things we like to ask
entrepreneurs is, you know, what do you think
set you up to be an entrepreneur? The truth is
that I was raised in such a household where like
education meant a good job. So you go to school,
you do well and you get a good job. That's my
Caribbean mother speaking, you know, so I never
had any type of inkling or any type of thought
process towards owning a business for my own.
My thought of success was making. you know 60
to 100k a year at a job that i can go to maybe
get some time off from you know for holidays
or whatever but um i never had any idea that
uh entrepreneur entrepreneurship or business
owning is is anything in my future yeah and what's
an option for you it wasn't it was not even an
option um it was actually um my wife's Her family
is what sort of coached me to that mindset. Her
dad pretty much, I mean, he runs the city with
all his, he does videos, like video editing and
so on. And he has, since he's been here in Canada,
specifically in Hamilton, he's been an entrepreneur
for himself. And he's done, he... just takes
uh takes an idea and runs with it um and it's
always been a scary inspiration for me to watch
him kind of like just you know spend you know
how much ever like all of his money on one project
and sort of hoping that uh it pays out and he
does that often and you know he would do his
entrepreneurship work with the same hours and
the same effort he puts into his current business,
which is doing videos and so on, video editing
and things like that. And I was always perplexed
because, I mean, how how do you how do you do
that? Like, why would you do that? Just, you
know, settle down, do the one thing that's working
and and be happy. Selena also had that type of
drive. She always knew that she would do something
for herself one day, and even that mindset sort
of caught me off guard. I was like, well, what
if it fails? And a lot of fears is what kind
of made me just think, okay, stick to school,
stick to a good job, and one day I'll just be
happy. And that's it. They are the ones that
sort of instilled into me the entrepreneur mindset.
Because before that, I didn't even know that
was really a thing. And it was, like I said,
an option for you. And I think that happens to
a lot of people. And unlike you, who didn't think
it was an option for you, my... dad is an entrepreneur
he's always been that way even though he's always
had his nine to five as a teacher but just that
exposure of being able to think in that capacity
really allows you to overcome the fears even
when you're still terrified absolutely yeah so
there must be something even in your nine to
five that you feel like you know prepared you
in some way to say i'm gonna do this regardless
of the fear attached to it it was the truth is
it's all based on being very desperate um as
i tried to you know i went to school And I could
never figure out what it is that I want to do.
So I'll get to a certain point in college or
university and taking a course in behavioral
psychology or power engineering. And I'll just
get bored and I'll just stop. And so all that
money for school is gone, all that time wasted.
And there came a point where, and at the time,
sorry, I was working for this. phone sorry a
call center as a supervisor there and I thought
okay well I'm making decent money thinking what
I was making was decent money at the time and
I was there for so long that when I finally left
the only thing on my resume was things like treasurer
at cathedral high school or um you know so basically
it was it was such a waste of time and when i
look back now it was like i had nothing to even
show on a resume to take to another job so now
my only uh so now i had um nothing on my resume
and so no prospects and i also had uh nothing
that any other employer would want including
school i kept dropping out over and over again
and so I'm kind of sitting there and I'm thinking,
no one's going to hire me. I tried. I tried everything
that I could to the point where I copied and
pasted other people's resumes that looked really
cool. And I thought, okay, well, maybe I can
just get in the door and learn what I got to
learn if they get me the job. Maybe I can get
an interview. So I was bouncing around in temp
agencies, in fact. And they had me at this one,
it was a factory, like a bakery factory style.
And the work there was, it was the worst thing
I've ever done in my life, you know, to make
a minimum wage. And I remember being disrespected
extremely by one of the managers there. And from
that point on, I kind of broke and I didn't,
I just kind of just kept looking. I was desperate.
So I did things like everyone else did. I went
to Shopify. I went to Upwork. I went to Fiverr.
I went to all these websites that you can sort
of... do something for yourself to make money
and nothing was making me any kind of substantial
income so that's when this was that's when i
had to like figure something out wow it's really
interesting your determination your journey um
to see that you spent and invested all of your
time in one thing and it still didn't pay out
in the end and here you are desperate trying
to make a living and making a decent living for
yourself and it just wasn't coming around because
you weren't able to find your passion you know
employment environments weren't great for you
And then how did Bring Me Some Vegan start? What
was the opportunity or what was the problem that
you saw that said, I'm going to open a restaurant?
It's I guess who you surround yourself with.
That was what it was for me because I was sort
of in like, I don't want to say depression. I
don't think I was depressed, but I was sort of
out of options and I didn't know what option
to now take advantage of. Selena's dad, amazing
dude. And every time he creates something, everyone
was sort of like, oh my God, you're at it again.
You're at it again. But he's tenacious. So it
doesn't matter if you don't like it. If he sees
this vision, he'll go after it. So this was during
COVID. And at this time, I was working still
with the temp agency. at this one place where
you build scaffolds and so on. During that time,
he was working on a project called Squeezy Band.
He had this idea where you have something like
a wristwatch, but it dispenses Santa hand sanitizer
on the go. So as long as you have it on, you'll
never leave home without something to protect
you from germs and so on. again this was a great
idea you know it was peak covid and so he just
kept working at it he invested in a he found
the finance he worked for it found the money
he created he uh bought a um a 3d printer and
like just a basic one just one that can get started
giving him a prototype and so he he talked to
people on fiverr talked to his son -in -law um
Selena's sister's husband. And he was able to
create a 3D printout of his watch, this squeezy
band. Eventually, you know, fast forward a little
bit, maybe a month or two, he has the product
now. And he spoke to the right people, got to
the right hands, and he was able to create his
product. He went on, he had like this news feature
on CHCH. and it ran through his ad because again
he does videos like that so it ran through his
ad and i was there it was airing it was the first
time doing something like this we're all kind
of sitting around the computer watching this
happen and then all of a sudden once the once
the the ad stopped the orders that started to
come in on his computer was it was like a flood
it was just I've never seen anything like it.
And so that moment, like he told me, he proved
to me that you can do something for yourself
and make real money, make real, you can do something
tangible. You can put your name out there. You
can become something that you probably never
thought yourself to becoming, you know? So at
that moment, he proved that it does, it works.
And it's, and all I know him to do is be tenacious.
He never stopped, you know? and so from that
point on i was determined even if i'm working
at a temp agency i'll take whatever funds i make
there and i'll put it into a project that i that
i um whatever project i'm thinking about i would
put it into work so i started again i went back
on shopify and i started to research businesses
and what uh what makes money and what you know
all these things but none of these were my passion
but i just knew that i i can do something now
i knew that it's possible and um again uh selena's
father being kind of this we always call him
he's a head by a century because he always has
a thought always has an idea and he was at the
time because we stopped eating meat I was cooking
more. And the food I was cooking was vegan. And
I like to veganize the products that I used to
enjoy. The first thing that came to mind was
a lasagna. And Selena made lasagna. And she used
cashews and all these other things to kind of
make it taste similar as possible to a real lasagna.
And it tasted good, but it didn't... you know
it's not lasagna you didn't taste like that you
know that nostalgic flavor that you're looking
for but i looked at it and i said you know what
give me a try let me see if i can do this again
so um i enjoy cooking in general i saw my mom
cook my grandmother cook and um so i took the
the concept of making lasagna and i didn't want
to spend all that money on cashews soaking it
overnight and all this other stuff so i use the
products that i that i have ready available things
like mushrooms or whatever, whatever else to
kind of create textures that I wanted. And I
did it. And the family was gassed, you know,
and they don't, they're pretty honest, you know,
so they'll tell me if something didn't taste
good or, and they'll be, yeah, they'll, they'll
be brutal about it. So that's what happened.
So they, they, he specifically, Salim's father
was like, wow, the moment he says that word,
it's something, it means something because he's
the one that will say no. I can't. Ew, gross.
But then when he says that word, you know that,
all right, so this is good. You have something
here. So he started pushing. He's like, this
is it. Do this. You should go to the market.
I know this place. And he's talking about the
Hamilton Farmer's Market. He had friends there.
And he says, come on, let's go. He'll take you
right now. And he takes us to friends that has.
um a spot in the hamilton farmers market and
we're just talking and i'm sitting there like
man come on i'm not gonna i can't cook i mean
i cook for you guys but i can't like what am
i supposed to run a business cooking food and
so he was again to nate like he saw something
that i definitely didn't i mean i knew i wanted
a business now i knew i i know no one was gonna
hire me so this is what i completely believed
and so he made it he pushed and he pushed and
he pushed And then I was let go of the temp agency
at that point. It was again, peak COVID. So like
things like the truckers weren't like the shipping,
something about that was happening. And the material,
the supply chains were exactly. So they liked
me there, but like, I mean, they pay me to stand
around. So, all right, I got let go. And so now
almost not to, sorry, not to shut them up, but
like, All right, I'll do this. I'll I'll I'll
start working on it. So immediately I start working
on the concept and we start working on the concept.
The concept was like, you know, do kind of like
gourmet sandwiches or. And so we eventually went
to the board. We like I made a sandwich. It was
like a pulled pork made out of mushrooms and
took it to the board at the market. They accepted
it and. okay here we go this is something the
day that we went to the market now to kind of
sign the papers you know and make sure everything's
official um we in the meantime we actually figured
out like okay we don't want to do that kind of
sandwiches let's do i've been working in the
kitchen more and more and i kind of came across
this idea to do not the idea but i kind of uh
stumbled on a recipe where, like, I was just
trying something else, and it tasted like chicken.
So I was trying to do something. I can't remember
what I was doing, but the product turned out
like a chicken. Like, that's what it gave me,
like, the texture, the toughness, the way that
it rips apart. And I was like, whoa, this is
good. If I work on this, I can, you know, make
it really efficient and make it really chicken
-like, and I want to really create that. And
so I started playing around with that idea. I
fried it like regular. I treated it like regular
chicken. So I pan fried it. I steamed it. I did
everything to cook it the way I wanted to cook
it. And, you know, I fried it. So when I fried
it, it was like amazing. So the concept changed
now from doing just the standard sandwich shop.
to doing something like a vegan Popeyes. So now
we're going to the market and trying to sign.
And we're like, you know what? We want to fry
here. We want to do this. And the market manager
was like, fry? What are you talking about? You
can't do that because there's no hood. And so
instantly my heart sunk because that means the
business idea is gone. You were so invested.
I was so invested at that point because I was
working tirelessly. I mean, day and night. I
was obsessed with getting this right, obsessed
with getting... Because again, this is my last
hope. It would have felt like it. It's like,
okay, here's a prospect. I got to make it work.
So all my time was spent on cultivating this
product and making sure it was exactly how I
wanted it. And how I wanted it was to be like
you cannot... a non -vegan can still use it and
and not realize you know like oh my god i'm eating
plants but it tastes like chicken anyway that's
what i was working on and to be told sorry we
can't do that because you need a hood i don't
know about a hood i mean i'm just trying to cook
but like in the restaurant game yeah you need
when you're frying legally you need a hood and
a and like a an extinguisher and all these other
things and i was just gonna set up a table at
a boot with a pot you know and cook my food um
so i'm sunk but selena's again she's like her
dad she's extremely tenacious no doesn't mean
no no means okay what's the next step another
solution and i'm but i'm sitting there and i'm
like kind of like what with me sort of thing
and i'm feeling like defeated again but she never
really uh like faltered she was pretty like okay
so we can't fry here where can we fry and the
market manager at the time was he's he's a good
guy but he was uh you know saying i don't know
nothing else nothing else and then one second
he was like wait i can show you the spot and
at the time the spot that he's showing us it
was so invisible to like because it was kind
of like in the back area away from where the
um The stalls that cook food are or the food
court in the market is so we're in the opposite
side And he goes and shows us this room and it's
it's storage. You know, there's chairs benches
this that the other and Turns out that it was
a test kitchen for the market. So what they did
was like They would use the produce from the
market and they would show like host classes
and stuff like that how it's cooked and how prepared
and so Weird. So here we are. This is like this.
He's showing us a space and basically it's a
kitchen. And immediately I was like, this is
it. I couldn't like I could like if I was buying
a car, he would up the charge, you know, because
like I did not have a poker face on. I was like
ecstatic. Like, this is it. It didn't tell us
the price of rent. And my heart sinks again because
I don't got no money. Again, Selena being who
she is was like, yeah, we'll take it. All right,
we'll look into it. We'll talk. I was like, Selena,
what are you talking about? I have no money.
I took the bus here. What are you talking about?
She was calm. She was cool. She was like, it's
okay. We'll figure it out. That's all that she
always says. We jump off the bridge and then...
all right we'll figure out how to land on our
feet i'm like all right so i'm just kind of her
little sidekick and um it and then all of a sudden
where we get the space we lock it down we pull
money together from every every crevice of my
bank account of her bank account and uh we got
the first we got the first and last ramp paid
so now we own the spot and From there, we said,
OK, well, once the spot was put together, eventually,
again, through friends and family helping as
best as they can, all we said was like, all right,
it's here. You know, we have we made like a pittance
worth of a product to sell. But everything that
we worked on was was really well done and we
were happy to serve it. But we didn't do any
marketing, any advertising. We literally just
opened the door. And one person came in. He was
a local artist, actually. His name was Dope Chief,
I think. Dope Chief, sorry. And he came in. He
was our first guy. As soon as he came in, I didn't
know how to serve the guy. I was just like, oh,
my God, I'm going to have to make a burger now.
So I make it, and he was happy. He left. And
God bless him because as soon as he took that
out, he posted it. And once he posted it, we
had a flood of customers the first day and the
second day and the third day. And they were out
of inventory. And it was incredible. So that
was the start of it all. And you had that moment
when you first saw... you know selena's dad with
the wrist watches and having those orders come
in was that a similar moment for you it was it
was something i because it's not something i
expected we said to ourselves like okay if customers
don't come in we said all right we need this
amount of money to pay the to just keep the keep
the business open just the doors open we need
to make this amount every day So if we have to
go car to car, door to door, if we have to sit
on the street and we have to hand out flyers,
we will do whatever it takes to make sure that
we get five customers. Oh, we need five customers.
We kept talking like that to each other. This
is before the door opened. And when it opened,
the type of love that the city showed us was
unexpected. appreciated beyond i don't know because
it stopped being about money after like after
that it became like they want like oh my god
these guys are liking my food and like my food
is is unorthodox you know it's it's it's it's
something it's a soy and pea protein based product
and i don't know how like you guys like it like
oh my god that's that's cool appreciate that
thank you for enjoying my product you know thank
you for enjoying the time that i put into these
things um even when i did like my i started to
make biscuits for the for the for bring me some
um the first biscuits that i've ever baked ever
and i gave it to my give it to my mom selena
And they tried it and they spit it out because
it was vinegary and weird. And like, I was like,
all right. So at that point, I didn't know. Like,
that's how far I've come because I have no training
in cooking. I have no background. I just love
to eat and I love to cook and I love to see people
happy. So incidentally, this is what became my,
like, I realized this is my. This is my passion
all of a sudden. And from there, to be making
a living, it was a different goal. It wasn't
about the money anymore. It wasn't about me being
broke. It was like, I'm really happy to serve
people and have them enjoy my food. It was humbling.
And if you were to look back on the Carrie who
had... Just walked away from, you know, managing
a call center. What would you say to that carry?
That's a good question. But I don't know, that
carry, he was lost, you know, like he was lost
in a lot of different ways. So I don't know that
even this carry today would have been able to
get through to him because he was like, he was
stuck. Again, I don't want to say the word depressed,
but he was definitely sad and defeated, especially
when you look back. The moment I saw my resume
and that it had stuff when I was in high school,
and I was long past high school, and my resume
had high school jobs, high school tasks, and
nothing else. So at that point, you're stuck,
and I didn't have school, and I didn't have...
any type of experience, work experience. So I
was stuck. And so he was, to convince him otherwise,
or start a business, that would not happen. I
think that's what makes every journey so important
is, and your answer obviously isn't a typical
answer that, you know, I would have expected
and most people wouldn't have given is, you know,
you can always say something great hindsight,
but I like your insight that, you know, that
Carrie just wasn't. ready to receive it. All
of these things he had to go through all of that
pivotal moment when Selena's dad started this
business, no one thought was going to go anywhere.
Those things had to happen for you to really,
you know, take that leap and believe in yourself
even when you're like halfway through it already
and you have your new kitchen location and you're
ready to open up and you're still going. am i
am i crazy why am i still doing this but you
push through that never ends like you will the
restaurant game is i love it i love it but it
is the hardest thing that i've ever done in my
life and that's because that's me maybe it's
because like everything i have to do is learned
on the spot everything um you know the effort
that i have to put forward is you know, to start
because we, again, I'm not trying to say that
other people's journey isn't different, but I
know, or isn't difficult, but like where we started,
we had nothing. We just had a wish and we had
a dream and we just left. And then it was almost
like, come what may, because if we failed, the
only way that we decided that we would fail is
if we don't get back up. You know, if we stop,
then we fail. So as long as we... keep that tenacious
attitude, and then keep pushing, then, okay,
who cares if I don't know what a thermometer
does for, you know, for chicken, I could learn
that, but who cares if, like, I don't know the
bonding heat of, you know, it doesn't matter,
like, if you want something, it's possible, but
this is, this has been, like, this is a continuous
journey, continuous learning experience, it never
ends, but it's like, I literally wouldn't have
it any other way. Last night I was up, I worked
from, what was it, like 6 till 4 .30, 6 p .m.,
6 a .m. to 4 a .m. last night. And it's because
we were, you know, we had a busy Valentine's
Day, which, again, the universe blessed us with
that, with customers coming in the door every
time. I ran out of inventory. And the only way
to make sure that we have inventory for today
is if I stayed up and did all the prep last night.
And I wouldn't have it any other way. You know,
I'll do that again tonight if I have to. I'd
love it. But it's hard work. But, like, everything,
when I see the customers, you know, they are
what make it so worth it, to be honest with you.
the kid like it's so wild to see like a family
coming into my restaurant and eating with their
kids and like that's such a surreal moment to
see that you know because i mean carrie was working
in a call center just like not four years ago
or he was temp agency you know hammering you
know bricks for a living you know and all of
a sudden he created a product where people are
sitting in his restaurant, like a family sitting
in his restaurant, eating their food. And like,
I don't know if many people understand how big
that is, but like, it's huge for me because that's
never something that I expected ever in my life,
you know, but there they are. There you are.
This is something you built and you had an incredible
support system around you. And I think that.
is something a lot of people don't often see
and you you started this conversation with them
and it's incredible to see where your inspiration
came from and ultimately how they still support
you today in every way to a 22 hour day um just
last night and here you are recording this podcast
it's lovable that's all it is my mom has been
like like she's a trainee so she's again she
doesn't know she doesn't she again she always
believed initially that the only way to make
a living realistically is to go to school get
a good job so for her seeing where we started
and we started in like her kitchen learning everything
and then we had to get a test kitchen to learn
everything and to make it legal and all this
other stuff that we had to learn and all through
the way all through it all she was Kind of holding
her breath because, like, what are you doing?
You're trying to do a business. It's so risky.
Yeah, it's, like, so risky. It's not what I taught
you. But she was backing me with her breath held
every time, you know. So she was in the kitchen,
like. helping me learn the recipe and and giving
me all her tidbits of what she knows and and
she'd be at the restaurant folding the the boxes
with us so we have enough boxes to serve or she'll
be you know mixing something or she'll be right
there with me all throughout with her breath
held you know my uh my mother -in -law like like
consistent she's there every day she's there
every day helping us clean up after a shift she's
there all the time uh giving us advice and and
putting us in touch with the right people or
you know helping she's she's a kind of a can't
do woman so she you know she'll grab a hammer
and wrench and she'll fix our sink if it's broken
um you know some of the sister she she came in
and she we didn't have any staff but we were
busy and She was there. She helped. She helped
all the way through. She helped until we got
on our feet. The support that we had with this
was... We couldn't have done it alone. But it's...
I feel... It's just blessed. All through it all,
it's blessed. Whether it's the hard work that
needed to be done in order for it to happen.
But... To have customers that are super polite,
super kind. They leave us amazing reviews, which
grows any business. Google reviews are something
that businesses depend on. They take the time
and they go on and they write something about
us that's nice. That gives me energy. That gives
me reason to keep going. It's the same for everyone,
our staff, our team that we're building. I hear
it all the time that it's almost like the manipulation
tactic where some businesses talk about their
employees and say, oh, you guys are like family.
And that's supposed to manipulate them to be,
you know, okay, well, okay. Buy in to be better
employees. Exactly. I hear that. I, like these
guys, we have, we have, we built such a team
so far and it's, it's only a, they're like, we're
building a team still. So we're hiring a lot
of people, but there are two members specifically
that's been with us for a long time and thick
through thin, they've been there and it's, I
would be. When I call them family or I think
of them that way, it's the truth. It's genuine
because they were there. They were there from
the ground up. They were there through our hardest
times. They were there when we were crying and
we were at a festival and something happened.
There have been so many ups and downs that these
guys were there with us. They held us up. You
know, they held us down. So, like, I don't know.
So, it's this support system all through it all
that makes this worth it. Yeah. And helped you
grow and help you become more successful. Absolutely.
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So, when, you know, hindsight
looking back, I know your father -in -law just
took you to the farmer's market. But did you
look at what were the offerings for vegan things
in Hamilton? You know, was there a market for
you? Did this make any sense? No, all we did
was cook. That's it. We didn't know any logistics.
We don't know if we're correctly pricing the
foods. We didn't know. We were dumber and dumber
going into this. We did not have any idea. Probably
still don't have any idea what we're doing right
now, but I mean, we just keep going. But the
fact is, we didn't know if there was going to
be a demand for it. I did actually notice, though,
during COVID that fast food was the only businesses
that were staying afloat. In fact, they were
thriving. It was the bigger names like McDonald's
and Popeyes and all those other guys. They showed
record numbers, whereas some eateries like Wolfgang
Puck's restaurants and so on, those guys had
to close down and all the dine -in places were
really getting hit. They were struggling. But
the fast food, they were not only surviving,
but they were thriving. So that would be probably
the only research that we did in respect to...
open but we just said okay well our food tastes
good the food looks good let's let's try to sell
it that's that's a big part of any business though
is the product is the product good and you identify
that there was you know something that kind of
worked against you because like you said it was
only big guys really succeeding and hitting record
numbers during the pandemic and how do you think
you managed through all of that and still able
to grow the business the honestly like i mean
this sounds weird but like i don't know how this
business is growing i don't it's because like
we we have just worked every day and In spite
of McDonald's doing well and so on, we just said,
okay, well, our product tastes really good. And
the way that we presented, we believed it was
really good. If we were to look at our food and
judge it honestly, we were just assuming, okay,
this is a good thing. It was also a unique product
within... probably Ontario in general, maybe
further than that. I know there are other places
that do something similar, and they're good,
but nothing quite like what we were trying to
do. So that's all we went on. We went off of
the fact that if I like the food, someone else
might like the food. At that time, I was still
under the meat -eater construct. The only reason
why I decided to become vegan at the time was
literally out of respect for my wife and my family,
you know, like my extended family. You know,
and that's the only reason why I decided to do
it initially. being vegan you appreciate every
other nuance that it is that comes with being
vegan you know the suffering of animals and and
and you know the concept of why eat meat when
there is a viable other option so things like
that started to to sort of awaken in my thoughts
because I was already eating vegan anyway so
you know that's the segue but anything else about
this business I have no idea as to to how people
still hear about us or how they, they come in
and they find us. And we have people coming from
like the States and coming from places deep within
Ontario, you know, just to come find us and that
every day we see it. And it's like, it's been
a two year journey so far from the market to
where we are now in concession. And. Every day
it feels like the first day a customer comes
in and I kind of peek out while I'm cooking.
I peek out and I see people eating and enjoying
and taking pictures. You're taking pictures?
That's so cool. How are you doing that? But that's
still what drives me. That's what fuels me to
continue. I have no idea why they come. I don't
know what makes them like the food the way that
they eat. They do, but I'm grateful. But I don't
have a strategy, unfortunately. You have to figure
it out. We need a strategy. I do need a strategy.
I do need to figure it out. Selena is the strategist.
She's the one that looks at logistics and numbers.
She just lets me enjoy what I do, which is create
now. When I'm in the kitchen, it's me creating.
Even the work that it takes to prepare the food,
I love it all. I enjoy it all. I don't know what's
going on. She might. She may have a better idea,
but she was here to kind of shed light on it.
But definitely, I just look at it as a blessing
because we didn't do anything to deserve this.
The customers, the... The media that kind of,
you know, Urbanist City and, you know, all these.
We have vegan and a whole bunch of different
people that's really just spread our name because
they liked our food. I mean, I can't express,
literally cannot express more how grateful I
am for that. You know, we were helped. People
and the customers, I mean, luckily they truly
enjoyed the food. I put a lot of work into hope
and into making sure that that's a possibility
that they will possibly like the food that I
make. I mean, it wasn't just hope, right? It
was a lot of work and you're doing a lot of things
right, right? You differentiate yourself. No
one else has food like you do. You have customers
that speak on your behalf. That's the best marketing
you can ever. get absolutely right it's important
for you to be online but if your customers are
gonna be online with you then they're gonna talk
about you that's why you have people coming in
from so far um to taste your product and talking
about that what's your favorite thing on the
menu that everyone should come to bring me some
so they can try it um It's the big man never
mind. It's a take on a popular product, you know,
in a popular restaurant. Is it chicken? No, this
is a beef one. It's a beef product. It's our
only burger on the menu, our beef burger on the
menu. Okay. And that's the one that I would,
I'm really proud of that one because it's such
a clone of the original. In fact, I've heard
rumors that it's better than the original, but
I don't want to toot my own horn. We'll leave
that to the customer. Exactly. I'll leave that
to the customer to try out. But that's my favorite.
Because one of the things that I missed when
I was a non -vegan is to go to this place and
check it out. That's what I used to get. It's
my order. So to veganize the way that I've done.
It was kind of painstaking to kind of get the
right flavor palette there. But I think I did
pretty good on it. So hopefully they'll enjoy
it. So what's it called again? The Big Ma. Never
mind. It's the Big Ma. Never mind. All right.
So we'll put that in the episode description
and all of your contacts. But if people want
to follow you right now on social media. Where
can they find you? How can they follow you to
see what you're up to? Instagram is definitely
the best. We post a lot of the new foods that
are coming up. We have a lot of new things that
are on the, that's going to be on the menu soon.
I'm working on a lot of cool things. I think
it's pretty cool. But they can just go on Instagram.
Bring me some vegan and check us out. Amazing.
Well, guys. Carrie's story really took me back
because I really didn't speak much today. But
I really hope you enjoyed it, especially because
it's so inspiring. And to see, you know, your
face and how you told me your journey, there
was such an evident. progression in terms of
the emotion that came out as you were telling
me you know Carrie from four years ago to Carrie
that started you know bring me some vegan it's
it's incredible to watch your progress just even
in this room And I'm really excited for some
of the things you're going to do in the future.
And we know you have an incredible support system.
I'll definitely be following you on social media.
I'm gluten -free, but I can't have a lot of your
products. But hopefully one day. We're working
on it. One day I'll come by and try something
special. And, yeah, I hope everyone else gets
a chance to come by, try, bring me some, and
support you. I would appreciate it. But everyone's
been so amazing already. Just keep coming. You
heard it. Just keep coming. Thanks so much for
joining us on Buzzworthy, Kerry. It's been such
a pleasure. And your story is going to hit home
to a lot of people. And I'm really excited for
that. I hope it helps. Because for anything to
take away from what I've learned, it's just honestly
that whole concept. normalized saying of never
give up it's actually a fact like you work hard
and you don't stop and eventually something's
gonna happen something good's gonna happen yeah
well keep working hard guys talk to you later
bye a huge thank you to you our listeners for
tuning in every week to hear about our buzzworthy
businesses Don't forget to rate us on whatever
platform you're listening and following us at
at Hamilton Hive on all of the social media platforms.
But most importantly, we want to thank our team
of dedicated volunteers who make this podcast
possible on a weekly basis. So here we go. Harsh
Kumar Patel, Fernando Rodriguez, Yvette R., and
yours truly, Shalacia Harris. Don't forget to
tune in next Monday for a new episode of Buzzworthy.