Sales Rep Seasons the Day with “Bad Spanish Tacos”

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Starting a restaurant is expensive and risky. We've only talked about it a couple of times on the program for more than 1,000 episodes because it is expensive and risky. Now starting a food truck is less expensive and risky, at least relatively, but it's not exactly $100 startup. There are still real costs and risks involved. So if you love to cook and you have an idea that you'd like to try selling in-person to hungry diners, what could be even easier and more affordable?

What might be a better first step? Welcome to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Enter the pop-up kitchen. When a soft drink sales rep starts bringing cooked lunches to work, his coworkers fall in love with his food, so much that he seasons the moment.

And then he goes and tacos a chance on his own pop-up kitchen. We're calling it sales rep seasons of the day with bad Spanish tacos. And yes, I will explain why it's called Bad Spanish Tacos. All the details are coming up in this episode after the shout-out to our sponsor. [Music]

It took Billy Flores a long time to discover his passion in life.

All he knew was that he wasn't finding it at his day job, working in sales for a large beverage company. Still, he believed it's best to be grateful for what you have, so he never complained. He was a husband and father, so while the job wasn't fulfilling, provided a place to live and put food on the table. But that didn't mean he couldn't explore possibilities and look for fun outside that day job. Over the years, he spent a lot of time doing that through various hobbies and hustles.

The one that appealed to him the most was cooking. He loved it, and it helped that he liked eating. Best of all, he could indulge in his favorite activity up to three times a day, sometimes even four. He put particular effort into his work lunches. Far from the standard sandwich, Billy often brought himself smoked brisket or ribs.

His coworkers would salivate over the food and started asking him to bring in extra to share, which he was happy to do. He soon became a regular Gordon Ramsay at his workplace, their own celebrity chef. He used those lunches as an opportunity to try new flavors, herbs, and spices. He debuted recipes and see what worked and what didn't. After a while, he began to receive requests and prepare meals for parties and functions.

And of course, those parties and functions paid him for the privilege. The real benefit though, was that Billy felt his love for cooking bubbling over. So much so that he decided to take a second job working in a local restaurant, a barbecue joint. He says now that working there was a great experience. Beyond learning more about cooking and preparing food, he was able to gain exposure to the restaurant industry.

He realized you could do well by offering simple food well-made. He also saw firsthand the value of hard work because success in the food business comes to those who hustle. As the months went by, Billy kept learning more until eventually he had the opportunity to impress his extended family in his own home. They asked him to make some tacos with a new tortilla press he'd acquired. They were dazzled by the flavors and encouraged him to have a red hot go at venturing out on his own.

And Billy didn't burrito around the bush. Then in there, he decided to start a taco side hustle. Now to be clear, he didn't want to take the risk of opening a restaurant or building out a food truck. Billy envisioned that he would first offer a pop-up taco store, the kind you might see out in front of a bar or a club late at night. He could try his idea with minimal risk and expense, but of course he needed permission to set up outside someone's business.

So that was the next step. Luckily, Billy frequented a local brewery and was friendly with the staff. He convinced them to let him set up his shop on the sidewalk by promising that every patron would be well-fed if they wanted to be. On the first night, he didn't offer anything flashy. He kept a standard Mexican fare, well-made and tasty.

And it worked. That first night, Billy was swamped by customers. By the time he got home, was totally beat. All he could do was crash on his bed and pass out for the rest of the night. Although he was exhausted, the oven of interest had been warmed up.

Selling tacos would become an official sidekick. So of course he needed a name. After brainstorming, he landed on bad Spanish tacos because even though Billy Flores had Mexican roots, his Spanish language skills were terrible. Next, he spent $800 on some cooking equipment, which he set up in the back of his car. From then on, multiple nights a month, Billy would be outside the local brewery, slinging tacos to hungry beer drinkers and loving every minute of it.

As word spread and he improved his recipes, however, he realized he was doing too much. He was still working his day job in sales, part-time at the restaurant and selling tacos at night. Something had to give. He decided it was time to give up the main day job and make bad Spanish tacos his full-time guacubation. You heard that right, his new guacubation.

By then, he was earning a solid $1,000 a month from the venture. Not bad at all for a sidekick, but not nearly enough to live on with the family. Still, he was confident if he dedicated his days to prepping and nights to cooking, he could increase that number many times over. And he was right in the end. But it took some time.

It was hard to convince more breweries to let Billy talk over their sidewalk. Yes, most of them liked the idea of food trucks, but were wary of a guy selling tacos from the back of his car. To convince them, he came up with a simple promise as a pitch. "Listen, if you give me a corner of your taproom or sidewalk "in a few hours, every hungry person in there "is gonna eat a quick meal that was made in person "by someone who cares about them." Gradually, he got more and more places on board. The bad Spanish tacos pop-up shop has kept growing.

He's now making more than enough to afford him and his family a humble but enjoyable lifestyle. Which he is totally comfortable with. And for now, he enjoys that pop-up life. A bigger operation means a bigger kitchen, more money, and thus, more risk. While he isn't sure if he'll go down that path or not, for now, he's happy seasoning the moment.

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Bad Spanish tacos. These are located in the Dallas, Fort Worth area, mainly at breweries. As you heard, it's probably the next island in Dallas. I can go and check them out, at least if there is a vegetarian version. Now, I've got some advice here from Billy.

I thought this was fun. I just wanted to pull it out for you. He says, "Immersion is key. "If you wanna sell tacos, it needs to be your life. "Get to know the people who eat like you "and like what you like.

"Avoid people who don't get it "and think it's just a product. "You better love what makes you hungry "or you're just chasing money. "Just imagine immersing yourself in something." Okay, it might not be tacos. Personally, I like tacos, but they aren't my life. And that's okay, though, because out of all these stories, more than a thousand stories so far, you've heard about all kinds of people being immersed in all kinds of topics.

Sometimes things that are even much more quirky or unusual are far out than tacos. And I really do believe that immersion in a neuro-specialty, being interested in something, so interested that you're just willing to dive in and learn everything there is about it, even if you think there's not a lot of other people out there who might care about it, so often that is key to side hustle success. So often that is key to something that goes on and becomes a much bigger business or project, charity cause, you know, whatever it is. Now, I was reminded of that recently when I was reading an article. I'm gonna link this up for you in the show notes.

It's an article by Paul Graham, who's an investor/advisor, founder, et cetera. He also writes a lot of really good stuff. And he has this theory about genius. And he says, "One of the underappreciated qualities "of genius is exactly what I just mentioned, "like this narrow focus in something "that not a lot of other people understand, "at least at the time." And he talks about bus ticket collectors, as an example. And there's a lot more in the article, so I'll link it up for those who are interested.

But the main point is, I think, ask yourself, what do you want to immerse yourself in? What are you so interested in that you're like, man, I wanna be the expert on, you know, pop-up tacos in Dallas-Fort Worth, or collecting bus tickets, or, you know, whatever it is for me for a long time. It was frequent flyer miles. Kind of lubed on from that a bit. But, you know, I really delved into that world for a long time.

So lots of options and possibilities there. I will leave you with that today. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes, including links to everything I mentioned, are at sidehustleschool.com/1081. Episode 1081.

Thanks so much, my friends. The new year is coming up soon. We've got episodes every single day until then. Do come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School.

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From the Onward Project.