- 4 minutes ago
Josh Kim, co-founder of Softies Burger in Los Angeles, is building a restaurant brand in public. A former OpenTable employee, Kim shares the real process of opening and running a restaurant through storytelling and social media.
Watch now to learn how a burger popup took off, why Josh Kim chose to build in public, and the reality of opening a restaurant.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn how a burger popup took off, why Josh Kim chose to build in public, and the reality of opening a restaurant.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We are fully in what I call like restaurant boot camp, experiencing all of the muscles tearing
00:06and the minds wanting to break. I think I'm still working now. We're 18 years in.
00:20Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur. I'm your host, Sean Walcheff. This
00:25is a Cali BBQ Media production in life, in the restaurant business, and in the new creator
00:31economy. We learn through lessons and stories. I am so excited for today's guest because he and
00:38his business partner are living the thesis of this show. We started this show as restauranteurs.
00:44I own Cali BBQ in San Diego. We've been in business for 18 years, still running the restaurant,
00:49still smoking meats, still playing the long game, but we built a media company on top of
00:54our restaurant because running a restaurant wasn't hard enough. And Joshua Kim, he's running
01:00Softies Burger at USC Village. I learned about the brand where we all learn about things, which
01:06is the internet, the World Wide Web on Instagram. But I saw content, storytelling, vertical storytelling,
01:14the truth taking place online. That wasn't B2C content. It was B2B content and more importantly,
01:21B2H, which is business to heart. Josh, I'm so excited, man, to have you on the show. Thank
01:28you for taking the time. I know you're outside of your restaurant. I know that Sam would be
01:32on the show if he wasn't home taking care of six loved ones. So thank you for taking the
01:37time and thank you for sharing your thesis with us.
01:41Yeah. Thank you for having me and us. I'm speaking on behalf of Sam today. He wishes he
01:47to be here. But anytime someone finds our story or brand worth talking about, it's always funny
01:56to me because it was never supposed to be what it is today. So we're just humbled and thankful
02:02that you're taking the time to chat with us.
02:04Of course. So we'll start with my favorite random question, which is where in the world
02:09is your favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
02:14Ooh, I need to cheat and just say Dodger Stadium. It's five minutes from where I live.
02:20But I will say like I grew up going to games at Staples Center back when it was still called
02:25Staples Center. My first game was in the nosebleeds with my dad playing the Blazers. And I was like,
02:31why can't we just watch it from the TV at home if I'm going to watch the screen anyway? So
02:35that carries a special place in my heart. Well, let's I'm a diehard Lakers fan, Kobe fan.
02:41Staples Center always will have a special place in my heart. Shaquille O'Neal has been a guest on
02:46this podcast for his big chicken brand. So let's go to Staples. We'll talk to Toast. We'll talk to
02:52Entrepreneur. We'll talk to some other brand sponsors. We'll fill the stadium just with
02:56entrepreneurs and business owners that believe in storytelling. And I'm going to take you to center
03:01court, give you the mic and say, Joshua, I need the thesis. If you could go back and talk to
03:08the
03:09Joshua before the pop up, knowing what you know now, what would you tell yourself?
03:16That is a huge question. I would say
03:23no matter what you do, do not consider or draw up a plan B. Follow plan A, even if it
03:37looks
03:38really, really daunting and financially unattainable and kind of unsustainable.
03:50Just follow plan A and don't even, you know, kind of read into the temptation of plan B or C.
03:58That is, I think, what I would say.
04:02Burn the boats.
04:03Yeah.
04:04Take the island.
04:06Yeah.
04:07Let's let's get into the story. Bring us bring us back to the the idea that was only a pop
04:12up before
04:12it became what it is today, the brick and mortar. Let's give context to the audience. Where are you
04:18today? As we're recording this right now, where are you and where do you want to be going?
04:25Yeah, I am in front of well, literally, I'm in front of USC Village, Southeast where they're
04:31our first location. As far as context, you want me to start like way in the beginning?
04:37Yeah. Well, let's start. Let's start where you are today. So we're recording this right now. It's
04:41February 11th, 2026. How many employees do you have? What's the revenue? You guys share all this
04:48information publicly, which I applaud you for. And I hope that this audience, we have restauranteurs
04:53from all over the world. Please watch what Softies Burger is doing as a case study, sharing the highs,
05:02the lows, the margins, the tough nights, the call outs, like it is a masterclass in storytelling.
05:07I'm so proud of you guys. But yeah, bring it bring us high level. Where are you? Where are you
05:12today?
05:12And then we'll go back. Yeah, Quentin Tarantino. Yeah, Wednesday, February 11, four o'clock, we just
05:18finished lunch rush. We're doing our transition right now. I'm outside of our restaurant. We are seven
05:24months in to opening Softies first location ever after being a pop up for two and a half years.
05:32We are currently sitting at projected revenue for our first year of 1.8 to $2 million, depending on how
05:40the next four months go. And we are fully in what I call like restaurant bootcamp, just experiencing
05:50all of the muscles tearing and the minds wanting to break. So we are, I would say halfway through that
05:58workout, metaphorically speaking. Halfway through, I think I'm still working out and we're 18 years in.
06:06I just mean, I don't know if that's good news or bad news.
06:10Being the first year, I'll call it the warm up. You know, I did my stretches. I just finished the
06:16bicep curls and now the chest press is, is kind of pushing against my sternum right here.
06:20It feels like, uh, tell, bring, bring us back to the dream. Bring us back to the entrepreneurial.
06:26You had a corporate job. You were working in restaurant tech. Um, why, why, why'd you leave
06:32restaurant tech? Yeah. So before that, uh, my parents immigrated from South Korea. My dad was a
06:39pastor. Um, and what that means is he was broke and our family had no money. Um, so mom, who
06:46was a
06:46great student back in Korea. She had a great career ahead of her. Um, she needed to figure out a
06:52way to
06:52make money. So she did whatever it took. And she happened upon a sandwich shop at the bottom of a
06:59Verizon corporate building. It was called lunch stop. And she took it on with zero experience other than
07:05being a fantastic cook at home and to our members of, uh, the church that my dad was, was running.
07:11Um,
07:12and I grew up there. So age probably seven to 12, I was going with her to Costco or restaurant
07:22depot.
07:23I was her Coke carrier. So you're going through the aisles. She's a feeble Korean lady. She's asking
07:30me to carry two cases of Coke, a case of eggs, take it to the back, store it in the
07:35walk-in. So I grew up
07:36in that environment. Um, and then my dad later, once he retired as a pastor, also ran a boat, uh,
07:42a Boba tea shop. So that was my technical first job ran everything. You know, if Yelp calls for,
07:49you know, advertising on the phone, I was the owner cause dad didn't want to deal with that.
07:54Um, so I grew up in service and in retail, not just at the two spots that I just mentioned,
08:00but also
08:01at the church, just constantly going to our members houses and hosting dinners. So I grew up in
08:08hospitality. I feel like, um, now my dream as a second generation Asian American was to retire mom
08:16and dad. And the answer to that is obviously go into corporate, make, you know, a six figure job,
08:23the priority and just start sending them money. And that was really what I was headed towards.
08:29Um, but I kept inching towards food. So working at door dash or working at open table, which were my
08:36last two jobs before I started softies. Um, it was like my midpoint of, I want to scratch the itch,
08:43but I can't afford to not send mom and dad some money every month. Um, so let me find that
08:49middle
08:49ground. Um, and Sam was kind of the same way he was, uh, he had worked in coffee shops. He
08:56had opened
08:56a bunch down in San Diego. Um, but he had started a family and he had a young boy. Um,
09:02so he worked in
09:03tech also to kind of graduate from the dream of working in hospitality, if you will. Um, so he, uh,
09:11took a tech job. We kind of met at that point where we were both not really enjoying what we're
09:16doing
09:16and needing to scratch an itch. Uh, he called me up one day and he said, Hey, would you want
09:21to do
09:21this thing on the side for quote diaper money is what he calls it. And I'll always remember that
09:27conversation like echoes in my head to this day. Um, but it was always supposed to be a very low
09:32risk,
09:33uh, low reward pop up for friends and family in coffee shops and breweries around Orange County.
09:40So we dropped a few thousand dollars on the credit card to buy a couple of griddles. Um,
09:45asked a friend if we could pop up outside his coffee shop and I can show you the receipts that
09:51couple of days before we're like, I think we're going to do 50 burgers. So let's just buy, you know,
09:56whatever, 10 pounds of beef. Um, and then the day before I'm like, actually the post that we posted
10:02was kind of getting some traction. Maybe we'll do a hundred. Um, and then the day of we're setting up,
10:08that's our first time ever cooking together other than trying stuff out at the apartment. Um,
10:14and 30 minutes before service, we see a queue of like 20, 30 people, none of whom we know. And
10:20we're
10:20like, I think they're at the wrong event. Um, but that night we ended up selling 300 burgers.
10:25And three hours, no way. And the rest is kind of history as they say from there.
10:31Well, it's not history. And that's why, that's why we do this show because you go from a successful
10:37pop-up and then the next day you don't open up a brick and mortar. You don't have a lease.
10:42So fill in the gaps. How did we get from 300 burgers? We're going to be the next Dave's hot
10:48chicken and sell, sell a billion dollar brand and walk off into the sunset. Yeah. So that first event
10:55it was, you know, as you know, you black out when you're that busy. Um, Sam almost got like smoked
11:02out from being in front of the griddle for three hours. So he was outside of the pickup truck,
11:07like about to puke. And I'm just finding this whole thing so comical and absurd. Cause I'm like,
11:12two weeks ago, this was just an idea. And now we are, we look like we just came out of
11:18world war two. Like we were really spent. Um, and I'm like crying and I don't know why I'm crying.
11:24I'm like, this was so hard. Um, so we took a couple of weeks off and we told ourselves,
11:30let's do an event every three to four weeks because that seems sustainable. We can keep
11:35our full-time jobs. Um, but we can also kind of AB test and see if that was a fluke.
11:40Um, so the next
11:40six months of our business was really pushing the joke as we like to call it, like seeing if the
11:47prank will keep going. See how many diapers you can actually buy. Yeah. Like maybe we'll do 150
11:55burgers. Okay. That seems arrogance. Um, and we would do 250. And then the next one we'd be like,
12:00surely no one's going to come to this one. We're in the middle of nowhere. No one knows this coffee
12:05shop. They're not going to come and they would come. Um, so it took about six months for us to
12:11really start taking it seriously. And, uh, at the six month mark Smorgasburg, which is the biggest
12:17outdoor market, um, in Los Angeles, they reached out to us and asked if we would be part of their
12:22burger day. Um, and at that time we still had no name. Like we were pretty brandless at the time.
12:29Um, so for them to reach out to us was a big deal. And that day we killed it. Um,
12:34and I think being in front of a crowd that large and seeing that we can sell burgers for six
12:39hours
12:40straight, um, kind of put in our minds, okay, maybe we should start taking it seriously.
12:44And then by the end of that year, a year and a half into our business, um, we were at
12:49Smorgasburg
12:50every week, uh, every Sunday. So at that point I quit my job full time, um, and just went full
12:57in and
12:57softies. And, uh, that was a year of Smorgasburg year and a half of Smorgasburg. And then
13:04we signed the lease for the restaurant. Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000
13:10restaurants across the United States, Canada, and UK? It's an incredible company. I am on
13:16the Toast customer advisory board. They are proud sponsors of this show, restaurant influencers.
13:20We couldn't do it without their support. They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.
13:25If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your
13:30primary technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to me. I'm happy to get a local
13:35Toast representative to take care of you. You can reach me at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram. Once
13:41again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling,
13:46the power of hospitality. Back to the show. You say you were at, at one point you said you
13:52were brand lists and I would argue for someone in your journey, you actually have one of the
13:57strongest brands that we've ever seen because of storytelling. The fact that the amount of reach
14:04out, the press that you've gotten, the accolades, the people showing up. How'd you come up with the
14:11name? Softies. Yeah. It was our first quote R and D session before that coffee shop event that I've
14:19spoken of. We're sitting outside of my friend Steven's backyard. There's a bonfire going and
14:27we were like, I guess we need a name for this thing that we're about to do. And we had
14:31some of
14:32the worst ideas, Sean, honestly, of names. There was like smoosh burger. There was say less burger.
14:40Yeah. Yeah. It kind of sounded like so much farther. Um, and we were like, these are horrible
14:45names. And all I knew I wanted was a name that was really absurd. Uh, and that one that you
14:52wouldn't
14:52forget as soon as you heard once. Um, and I wanted it a surprise factor of not having the word
14:58burger
14:59in there. Um, so he looked at us and he said, well, you're going to use Martin's potato rolls.
15:04Those are really soft. Um, you Josh and Sam are the biggest mama's boys I've ever seen.
15:12You should call it softies. And we laughed. And then immediately I knew that that was the name,
15:18but I was kind of resistant to it at first, but it was just a cool name that I was
15:23like,
15:23I don't think a burger shop has ever been called softies. So it's wrong with it.
15:27Um, so do you remember getting the lease signed? Like what, why USC village?
15:35Yeah, the, the village was, I guess to take a couple of steps back by the time we really
15:44agreed to open a restaurant, uh, that was a really big conversation for us because again,
15:49this was always supposed to be a joke or a prank. Um, I mean, I, I laugh because I,
15:59I, I can't believe that we still own restaurants like that. We're still like, I, I, I had the same,
16:04I had one of my best friends from college. We opened up Cali barbecue in 2008. It wasn't a joke,
16:10but we were just like, it's a breakfast concept. Let's add a liquor license. We'll add a sports bar
16:14in a part of town that nobody comes. It'll be great. Like what, what's the big deal? It's a huge
16:20deal. It was truly that we were like, we're in Los Angeles. There are way too many burger shops out
16:26here. They don't need another one. Um, so we always started from a place of joking. And I don't mean
16:33that as we took it lightly, but we wanted to keep it fun and pure. Um, and we knew that
16:39opening a
16:40restaurant would make it real in a sense that we couldn't kind of, again, have a plan B after that.
16:47Um, so by the time we came around to really looking for a space seriously, um, the first temptation I
16:54would say was to look, if you're familiar with Los Angeles on sunset Boulevard or Fairfax or a place
17:01that you would traditionally see as quote high traffic. Um, but we also knew, and maybe a bit of
17:09imposter syndrome, we were like, I don't think anyone's going to go out of their way to come to
17:13soft ease. So then our strategy pivoted to, well, can we be in a place where there is a guaranteed
17:19number of feet traveling by our store every single day? Um, and one of our friends operates the anchor
17:27tenant here at cafe Dulce. And there was a burger shop that had just gone out. Um, so we kind
17:32of had
17:33it on our radar, but we also felt like USC village would not even look at us or consider us.
17:38Um,
17:38but he put in a good word for us and USC came to soft ease at our smorgasburg pop-up
17:45incognito.
17:46They didn't tell us that they were coming. Um, they tried our food and then the next week they
17:51reached out and said, Hey, we have the space. Would you love to come see it? Um, so that kind
17:57of
17:57checked all of our boxes in the sense of, we were already familiar with the village from cafe
18:02Dulce and being friends with him. Um, and also with a college campus, it's not sunset. It's not
18:09really cool. You're not going to be in, in, you know, a lot of lists because no one's going to
18:14come
18:14to campus. Um, but you have tens of thousands of new students every single year and you get a new
18:22opportunity every semester, frankly, with new admits coming in. So we really felt like it was the best
18:28insurance policy against, uh, the fears we had, which is we're going to fall flat on our face if
18:34we don't have foot traffic coming in every single day. Bring me into the series, the Instagram made
18:41for Instagram, vertical video, 12 part season. One was 12 episodes. Is that right? Season one was 12
18:48episodes. Season two, we're going to end at eight episodes. Uh, but season one was pre signing lease.
18:58Uh, and knowing that we were going to open sometime in the summer of that year. So we started the
19:03series in February when we were still a pop-up at Smorgasburg. Um, my roommate and best friend,
19:10his name is David Rowe, had a production company and we've loved their work. And I've been seeing his
19:16work for the past few years. And I really felt like he was the best in the game. Um, just
19:21no one knew it
19:22yet. So I pitched him the idea, Hey, there are podcasts, there are, um, TV shows about restaurants.
19:30Um, there isn't an Instagram series that uses short format, 90 second videos to take, uh, a viewer into
19:39what it's like to open a restaurant. Cause you only read about opening a restaurant in hindsight and in
19:46retrospect. And I felt like that, that perspective is always kind of filtered and kind of think of
19:53an oil filter, like it's double filtered a little bit and you only leave the pretty parts of that.
19:57Um, and I wanted it to be unfiltered and I think in hindsight, I wanted it to be catharsis for
20:04Sam
20:04and myself. Um, because I knew that what we were about to embark on was going to be incredibly
20:10difficult and probably traumatic. Um, selfishly part of me wanted to remember what it felt like.
20:17Um, so I wanted these little time capsules. Um, so when I think about, did I have an audience,
20:22which a lot of people ask me, like, I didn't really, I knew that putting out the content would
20:27reach, like you said, different businesses. It would reach people who just want to accomplish
20:32something in their lives and it would reach hopefully the hearts as you so kindly say. Um,
20:37but I didn't have this grand plan of that series will do incredibly well and it will get a bunch
20:42of eyes on softies. It was really just, I want it for my own nostalgia and I want it for
20:48my own
20:49self therapy. Um, so that's kind of how the series came about. And obviously I think you'll notice
20:54as the episodes came out and the response started growing, our, our sense of responsibility and taking
21:03care of our voice and treating it seriously, kind of you see the evolution of that, um, into season
21:10two where I feel like now we're fully embracing. Okay. Um, we are kind of, uh, the voice for a
21:17lot
21:17of businesses who maybe don't have the resources to put out videos like this.
21:21So my media mentor, one of the things he says that I repeat all the time is that the truth
21:27vibrates the
21:28fastest. And I think that's the hardest thing as an entrepreneur and a business owner is that we
21:34want to show the grand opening ribbon cutting. We want to show people waiting and the, you know, the,
21:41the, the VIPs coming to the event and our family and how great it is and the cash register ringing
21:46all of those things. But the truth is really what people want. The truth will connect through whether
21:52it's on Instagram or YouTube or Tik TOK, or you name the platform or podcast. But it's like,
21:57when somebody speaks the truth, we pay attention. We know that they're not bullshitting us and
22:02the truth and the numbers and the pain that you guys get to. I mean, you're recording episodes where,
22:10I mean, your best friend walks in because he's supposed to walk in with the camera and you're like,
22:15really? We're filming today. Like, yeah, we're filming today. This is a production day.
22:20I bought it out. You, you told me, Josh, you wanted all of it, the good, the bad,
22:25and the ugly. This might be the ugly time, but like get mic'd up. We got to do this.
22:30Yep. Yep. It's, it's, um, you know, Sam and myself, we see ourselves as outsiders to this
22:37industry. Again, we were never supposed to have a restaurant. So when it came time to market the
22:41restaurant and this goes back to my time at open table and door dash, I think I was subconsciously
22:45taking notes of the things that I wouldn't do if I ever owned my own business. And it goes to
22:52your
22:52point of, you know, you want to show the ribbon cutting. You want to show only the good sides.
22:57And I didn't care, frankly. And I felt like it was disingenuous. And I would always tell Sam,
23:05no one cares about our burgers. No one cares to see a photo of our burgers six times a week.
23:11Uh,
23:12but people selfishly care when a story reminds them of their own. Yep. So that is our job with
23:17our Instagram is not to promote our food. It's to promote who we are. And hopefully out of that,
23:23will it bring people in? Sure. If it does great, but if not, like we need to just be proud
23:28of what
23:29we're putting out regardless of whatever tangible sales it brings in. So that was kind of the strategy.
23:35Um, and hopefully it's worked out for us. Yeah. I have a close friend, Mike Angaro. He has an
23:41Amazon prime show called Kings of fish. Um, he believes in storytelling. He built a media
23:45company on top of his restaurant, just like we did. Um, but as I was working with him,
23:51watching their episodes, he did such a good job documenting the pandemic and, you know,
23:57having lived through the pandemic as a restaurant tour and all the things that we had to go through
24:00and all the, all, all the changes we had to make. It reminded me to your point, like,
24:06I actually want, I, I, I need to remember the blackout, not only for me, but maybe there's
24:12another restaurant owner or small business owner out there that it might be beneficial to,
24:17to see the pain, to see the struggle, to figure out how are we going to pay our payroll? How
24:23are we
24:23going to do all of these things? In one of your videos, you talk specifically that we're dying.
24:28Like we don't get to see our family, like it's busy and there's tickets and you know,
24:34the cash register is ringing and sales are coming in. But like, you guys don't see the fact that like,
24:39I don't get to see my family. I don't get to see my friends. I'm here every I'm, you're here
24:43there
24:44now. Like you're here doing an entrepreneur interview, but you're literally at the shop
24:49because your business partners, you know, finally, the fact that he's even able to go home is a
24:53testament that you have a great partnership, you know, because that's how partnerships break.
24:57It's like, Hey, listen, my, my, my kid's sick. I got to go home. I got to take care of
25:01them.
25:01Yeah, exactly. Um, yeah, I, I, I want to show all of that and it's in a way like
25:08anti-imposter syndrome. I think it's my way of fighting whatever imposter syndrome comes up.
25:14Yeah. Because if someone says, Hey, softies is a great business. I can literally point them to that
25:19video or a different one and say, no, watch this. Um, now that's why it's a little funny when people
25:25recognize us for the videos. Um, it's like, well, that was not the point of it, but I'll,
25:30you know, I'm very appreciative of it. Um, but it is our kind of foot in the ground to say,
25:35Hey,
25:35we don't care for the accolades or being the best burger in LA or whatever it is. We just want
25:41to
25:43really understand what entrepreneurship is, uh, at face value, experience it, and then share that.
25:49Um, and whoever will respond to it will, um, if people think it's cheesy or kind of
25:54too on the nose, that's fine too. But, um, I think we feel super convicted that this is
26:01the type of branding and marketing that feels honest to us. Um, and that we could be proud of
26:07versus here's another carousel of our burgers. Can you bring me into the response now that you
26:14have done it, you have put it out, you made it for Instagram. Um, I'm can't wait for it to
26:20go
26:20up on YouTube. I can't wait for it to go up on Tik TOK and Facebook. And those are all,
26:25you know,
26:25media production allocation of resources, you know, burning the candle on both ends, but
26:30knowing what you know now of the response from the business side of the storytelling, um,
26:36does it compel you to want to do more?
26:39Yeah. I think this goes into now thinking about a second location or do we bottle sauces? It's
26:48now becoming a part of that equation, right? You and I both know if you open 10 stores, your,
26:54your expenses go up 10 X too. So how much are you really going to, you know, move forward?
27:00Let's get it this way. I'm, I'm, I'm starting new shows. I'm not opening up new locations.
27:04Exactly. If you want to know an economics lesson in 18 years, what I've learned is start more
27:10podcasts, more YouTube channels and just let the locations be the locations. Yeah. I truly can't
27:17fathom and Sam will second this. I can't fathom having more than five softies burgers. Um, I don't
27:23want them, nor do I think it would be good for anyone. Um, I think that temptation of growing would
27:29be our demise to, to be frank. Um, so it's now becoming this video series. Well, is that something
27:37that we can do to increase our brands, uh, value? Um, so that's a bit uncomfortable for us to think
27:44about kind of like going from pop-up to restaurant. If this Instagram video series becomes more,
27:49I worry that the purity of it will be compromised, but, um, the response kind of forces us to think
27:56about that. Um, I think we're forced to accept that we have a voice. Uh, we're forced to accept
28:04that people want to see more of what we're doing. Um, and that means we have to take that seriously
28:11and kind of step into that responsibility. Um, so whether that's, I mean, a dream would be,
28:17you know, a Netflix show, we get comments all the time. Like this feels like the bear,
28:21or this feels like a show. Um, I I'm open, right? I I'm open to whatever that looks like.
28:27I don't have a set goal yet, but I definitely think a longer form would be compelling, uh,
28:36whether that's on YouTube or, uh, some sort of streaming service. So, um, I I'm very green and kind
28:41of naive to what that looks like, but, uh, I think we have the team to do it from production
28:48to writing
28:49the scripts. Um, I do, I can confidently humbly say, I think we do something that not a lot of
28:55people. I couldn't agree more. And I hope that people watching that's listening to this, um,
29:01that connect, they learn, uh, every business has a story. You, you literally cannot open a business
29:08without laying a story down and convincing someone of your crazy idea, whether it's a landlord,
29:14a significant other, an investor, all of those things have to happen. Just when it comes to
29:19telling that story on the internet, we just don't think we're worthy. You know,
29:23we don't think that it's like the right place. Like we just, we only can do B2C content. Like
29:27as a burger shop, you can only post videos of you making the burger. Like that's ridiculous.
29:32It's absolutely ridiculous. And I, you know, I, I challenged that fact because in the beginning,
29:37we made barbecue videos, we made brisket videos and rib videos when it's like,
29:41can we do other stuff? Can we tell other stories? Like maybe we can go a little bit deeper here.
29:45And I think, you know, part of this project, this restaurant influencer show is to, to highlight
29:49people like you that are actually doing the work that are inspiring others, um, all around you to
29:54do great stuff. Because I mean, let, let's be honest. You, you talk about how difficult it is to
29:59grow your team. You talk about the turnover and like, that's a, a real truth in the restaurant space is
30:05like, I mean, you, you say that team members said, Hey, you guys aren't the same. You're not the
30:10same as when you're a pop. You can't, you literally cannot be the same. Yeah. You're not
30:14allowed to be the same. Yeah. And those painful moments and stressful moments, I would much rather
30:21put that out than, Hey, everything's flowery up here. Um, come check out softies burger or do a
30:27trendy video on Tik TOK. Like that means so much more to me because if I resonate with one person
30:34who
30:35is going through the same thing, um, or to speak more broadly, if I tap into the mental health issue
30:42in restaurants that is so underspoken of, um, but so prevalent and really what causes so many
30:52restaurant operators to leave the industry. Um, I will do it. I don't care if I am the spokesperson for
31:02anxiety. I would much rather be that than the spokesperson for here's how to get the perfect
31:07Maillard reaction on this burger. I just, I don't care. Um, so that, that truly is, you know, um, kind
31:14of the, the, the motivation behind sharing those things, which maybe otherwise, you know, this is what
31:19I wouldn't share. Recently, you had a chef Roy Choi on your show. Um, a podcast, you guys essentially
31:27did a podcast and you're, uh, you launched a show without knowing that you're launching a show now,
31:32now a lot more is expected of you in your interview series. But, um, what, what does it mean to
31:37have
31:37someone like that come share their stories, share their wisdom? Uh, I know for me, we started a
31:43podcast and it was just for me selfishly to learn from people way smarter than me. So like just the
31:48fact that I got to sit down and learn from people, the fact that I recorded it so that other
31:53people could
31:53hear, no one was listening in the beginning. I mean, we've been doing this for nine years and
31:56in the beginning, no one gave a shit that we had a podcast or put it on Facebook or put
32:00it on
32:01Instagram. But like, if you do it for long enough and you get better at doing it and you truly
32:06care
32:06about the wisdom coming from someone that you respect and admire, that wisdom can get shared to
32:11another generation or another restaurant owner or business owner that needs to hear it.
32:16Absolutely. Um, Roy Choi coming on to be part of our video series is truly like the cherry on top
32:23of
32:24what has been, what was a wild year in 2025. Um, same thing. I, I reached out kind of out
32:31of the
32:31blue, um, DM him. We had met a couple of times at Smorgasburg. I woke up at 4 AM thinking,
32:37I think I need to have Roy Choi on the, on the series. Um, so I messaged him twice like
32:43a crazy
32:43person. Um, he got back to me and said, you have to go through my people. So I emailed this
32:48people
32:48twice like a crazy person. Um, and I was like, I'm going to go out swinging. If he says no,
32:54that's for anyone listening. And that, that's how it happens. You think Shaq came on my podcast
32:59just because I was like, Hey, I want Shaq on my podcast. No, it was a lot of work.
33:03I used to be in sales and the, my favorite email subject that I would always use is politely
33:08persistent. And that is exactly what I was. I was incredibly, yeah, that would be our last
33:15email. Yeah. If you're going to reject me, do it to my face when I'm telling you that I'm being
33:21polite. Um, so that's what I did to Roy Choi and he came on. Um, what it meant to us
33:27was,
33:28oh God, it was so many things. I think personally for Sam and myself, he is a hero, right? He
33:36is
33:36Korean American. He literally changed the game and, and changed how the worlds or, you know,
33:43people look at foods, right? He, he broke the barrier of what it means to put Korean and Mexican
33:50on the same plate. Um, so that was from a personal standpoint, just the biggest honor, um, that he
33:59kind of took us under his wing and, and, and spoke of us so highly, um, from a business standpoint,
34:05I think it really was that moment where we said, okay, this is something, um, the fact that his team
34:12and he felt like this was an avenue where he can share his story, um, was a pat on our
34:19back moment.
34:20Um, so we congratulated the good object team, our production team, we congratulated ourselves.
34:26Um, we celebrated with our families. Um, it was just a special moment of saying, wow, that same idea
34:35that we joked about in our friends' backyards, um, has become a place where Roy Choi shared, uh, his
34:43story. So, um, again, I use the word absurd a lot, but it's because it's true. It was truly absurd
34:49in the best way.
34:51It's amazing. If somebody is watching this, listening to this and they own a restaurant,
34:56they own a business, sell them on the idea of creating a show on social, a structured show,
35:05a truth show. Yeah. Um, the first thing we need to acknowledge and admit is that no one cares about
35:15us. Um, no one cares about our little business. And I, and I mean this with the most love ever.
35:22I respect all small businesses around the world, but the truth is no one cares. Uh, no one cares
35:28that a new burger shop opened up. No one cares about the new coffee shop. Uh, but people care
35:33once they see themselves in what they are watching. Um, that goes for every single show that we love
35:41fiction or nonfiction documentary or movie. Uh, we have to see ourselves in what we are watching.
35:47Um, so if you have the mental bandwidth and the willingness to connect the dots between
35:55what is going on in here to what is going on in your business, to what that might mean to
36:02a broader
36:03audience, and you're willing to put in that work to verbalize that or put that into picture, uh,
36:11you know, or put that into numbers. Um, that is worthwhile because the same people who
36:19watch our videos, uh, are the same people who are going to one day open their own restaurants
36:25or their own businesses. And if we can be part of that story, that is true hospitality, right? That is
36:34bigger than I have the biggest smile when I serve a Cali double and fries. That is me, uh, kind
36:43of
36:43putting my resources to use so that other people can be elevated one day. Um, so if that is what
36:50we
36:51are all in this for, which is a love for hospitality and a love for serving others, uh, don't see
36:56your,
36:56your Instagram or your marketing as a selfish thing, right? Uh, sure. It should be about bringing
37:03customers in, but there needs to be a two pronged approach where it also has to be about, well,
37:09how does this further our mission of serving? Um, so that, that is my sales pitch. Um, I love it.
37:16If you guys are watching, if you're listening, uh, we do a live show every Wednesday at 10 a.m.
37:21Pacific and every Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific, it's called rising tides live. So we want you,
37:26if you're a restaurant owner, a small business owner, a storyteller, if you believe in technology,
37:30we've been doing that show for six years now, we've got an incredible community. So please
37:34go to be the show dot media slash rising tides. You can sign up for free, join the community,
37:41come up on stage, um, talk about the topics. Uh, I'm grateful to toast. Thank you toast. Um,
37:47our storytelling partner, our technology partner for giving me the opportunity to have conversations
37:51like this. I believe so deeply in the restaurant business. I believe so deeply in technology,
37:56enabling us to run more profitable, sustainable, impactful businesses. But more importantly,
38:01I believe in storytelling. I know that there's a restaurant owner on the other side of the world,
38:04um, that I'll connect with. Hopefully in my travels, I'm going to London this summer. I'm
38:09going to Dublin, um, to go meet with storytellers. I'm going to Bulgaria, um, restaurants. We're all
38:14the same. We all have the same inventory issues. We all have the same marketing issues. We have the same
38:19product issues, people issues. We love what we do. We love giving back. We're not doing this for money.
38:24Um, as we all have all clearly stated in all of our content. Um, but Joshua, before I let you
38:33go,
38:33um, I'd love to learn quickly about your personal tech stack. Are you iPhone or Android?
38:39I'm iPhone. Uh, what's your carrier? Which carrier do you use?
38:43Verizon. Can you hear me now? Do you like Verizon?
38:46I, I can hear you loud and clear. Yes.
38:49Loud and clear. Fair enough. Uh, do you prefer phone calls or text messages?
38:54I prefer text messages, but I don't get back to them. So you don't get back. So you,
38:58how many do you leave text read unread? You know, sometimes I'll post like text screenshots
39:03and people will always comment that the number on the top left is 400. Um, right now you don't
39:10have 400 unread texts. Do you, I'm at four 30 right now. Yeah. 300 of them are from my mom.
39:17You're giving me anxiety. Why don't you text your mom back?
39:20You know, it's always the same thing. You need to sleep more and eat more. Um,
39:24and you know, it's, that's not going to happen. So
39:33go ahead. I was going to say, I prefer texts, but if you really need to reach me,
39:38you should probably call me. Do you like voice texts?
39:41I love voice messages, actually. Really voice messages, like messages in the text.
39:47Yes. You don't, you don't get it transcribed. You listen to the voice.
39:50I will listen to the voice text and then I will send a voice text back.
39:54Really? And then it'll be a war of who breaks that and becomes a text messenger first.
39:59Um, it's a weird thing. Maybe I just like hearing my own voice. Do you FaceTime anyone?
40:05I FaceTime a lot. I think I FaceTime more than I phone call. Really? Um, yeah. So whether it's my
40:11niece or my mom, my girlfriends, uh, I prefer seeing faces. Okay. Um, how many emails do you get a
40:20day?
40:21Ooh, 20, 20. That's low. How many of those, how many of those do you enjoy? You had a good
40:29filter.
40:30That's impressive. 20 emails. Yeah, we have, uh, two emails actually. So one's kind of a burner email
40:36at this point. There's our pop-up email. And then now we have the proper business one. Um,
40:41so people who still, that's, that's kind of our filters. If you don't know the new email,
40:46you probably are not in the, no, you're not getting a response. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
40:50Politely persistent. Yeah, exactly. I will open a politely persistent, but if it's to the first
40:55email, I'm a little, I respect it for the rest. Um, Oh my God. Fantastic. Uh, how do you listen
41:01to
41:01music? Uh, Spotify. Uh, though I will say Apple music's lossless is, uh, superior. Um, the interface
41:09is just a little difficult for me. Okay. Do you listen to podcasts? Which platform? All the time.
41:14Uh, Conan O'Brien needs a friend. Um, if Conan ever comes to the restaurant, I'll probably faint.
41:20Uh, Conan O'Brien, let's get, let's get to softies. Okay.
41:25If you're listening, I know exactly what you would like, and I will make it for you. Um, I love,
41:32um, how I built this. That's a great one. Um, and now, uh, your podcast restaurant. Fantastic.
41:39Um, let's see, Apple maps or Google maps, Google maps, a hundred percent, Google maps,
41:47a hundred percent. And what's your notification management system? Do you already told me about
41:51text? Do you have the same problem with email? Like, do you just have notifications all over your
41:55phone? Yeah, I do the schedules, uh, 3 PM and 9 PM. So they'll just, uh, so I can schedule
42:03all my
42:03notifications to pop up at once. So I'll kind of stack them and then show me all of them at
42:083 PM.
42:09When I have a little bit of downtime, um, that might exacerbate the problem because I'll then
42:14look at what I should answer and what I shouldn't. Um, so mom takes the brunt of that at 3
42:20PM.
42:20Uh, do you prefer taking photos or videos,
42:26videos, videos, and what's your favorite social platform?
42:31Instagram. Instagram. And if anyone is listening to this, what is the best piece of advice
42:39that you can give to an entrepreneur that's looking for diaper money?
42:47Oh God. What I give advice is the first question. Um, no, I, on a serious note, I think Sam
42:55and I
42:55started softies out of fun, but also out of a search for something within us. Um, and I would say,
43:03you know, go down that rabbit hole and search whatever is down there to its fullest. Um, because
43:11that's scary, but from there comes true purpose and true fulfillment. Um, so once you start that search,
43:21don't stop, um, and, and go wherever that, that rabbit hole takes you to.
43:26I love it. If you guys are watching, if you're listening, I'm weirdly available. You can follow
43:31me. You can reach out to me, DM me at Sean P Welchef on Instagram is the fastest, but LinkedIn,
43:36TikTok, YouTube, all the platforms we respond, we care about you. We're looking for the greatest
43:42hospitality storytellers on earth. I don't care where they are on earth. If they own a restaurant,
43:46if they're phenomenal at storytelling, it doesn't matter the platform, please reach out to me. We
43:51would love to feature them on the show. Josh, I can't wait to come visit you and Sam. The next
43:56time
43:56I'm in LA, I will, uh, I will be there 100% to come support you guys. Um, thank you
44:01for taking the
44:02time, man. Seriously. This was, uh, you're, you're the reason why we started the show. I have a deep
44:07belief in storytelling in our business. Um, not just for restaurants, but for all business owners and
44:14the people that are speaking the truth, the ones that are telling, not just the flower moments,
44:18but the truth, the heartfelt, the anxiety, the depression, the tough times, like,
44:23man, I wish more and more people had that when I first opened up my restaurant. And like, that's
44:28my goal is to just keep finding people that are willing to put in the work and connect the dots.
44:32So, uh, so, so people can learn. It means a ton, uh, again, that you, you would find softies
44:39worth discussing. And, um, thank you for taking our joke seriously. Uh, that means a ton. We
44:47really appreciate it. Amazing. Uh, thank you, Josh. As always guys, stay curious,
44:52get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you next episode.
44:58Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. If you've made it this long,
45:01you are part of the community. You're part of the tribe. We can't do this alone. We started,
45:06no one was listening. Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
45:11Please check out our new series called restaurant technology, sub stack. It's a sub stack newsletter.
45:16It's free. It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants. Also go to YouTube
45:22and subscribe to Cali barbecue media, Cali BBQ media on YouTube. We've been putting out a lot of
45:28new original content. Hopefully you guys like that content. If you want to work with us, go to
45:32the show dot media. We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
45:37We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
45:41You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Walchef on Instagram. I'm weirdly available.
45:46Stay curious, get involved. Don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you next episode.
Comments