Chad Franzen 7:57
Yeah, that is amazing. I think if I had heard the same thing from the same guy, I probably would have reached to my wallet and seen what kind of cash I had and then called it good. But you guys, you guys are amazing. So tell me a little bit a little bit about how Pitza 42 morphed into Tacos 4 Life.
Austin Samuelson 8:15
Yeah, so we, we opened Pitza 42. And it was a it was a restaurant opened by people who had never worked in a restaurant before. Does that make sense? You know, stories? Yeah, exactly. And, you know, you know, this, this restaurant business thing. There’s a high success rate. And I say that jokingly, there’s not right. So um, so it was it was a challenge. We, it was a struggle, we struggled through we grinded for, you know, three years with it. And we learned a lot and a lot of a lot of a lot of late nights, a lot of always working and we’re donating meals, and we’re donating about 300 meals a day. And so that kept us going. But we did QUESTION Okay, is this the right the right thing? And we we just had this burning desire ash and I did to try to figure out how to make this work. And we had a few different people that we really respected pose the question of, Hey, we love the mission. We love the concept behind that. But if you tried it with a different style of food, if you if you started over, could we get it going? Can we get some more traction with it? And so that’s really where Tacos 4 Life really kind of morphed out of was we, we we we just really said okay, we’re going to start over what would we do differently? What type of food would we serve and started kind of, we went to the whiteboard and brainstormed all that out and and that’s where Tacos 4 Life grew out of. And we’ve always loved Mexican food. It’s kind of ironic, we didn’t start there. And talk has always been our favorite style of food. So but we’re here now and so that’s what brought us to
Chad Franzen 9:55
So what made you confident as as somebody who’s never worked in a restaurant that you can Just come up with food that people would find craveable
Austin Samuelson 10:02
Well, that’s a, we love to eat, you know, and we, you know, everybody’s a self-proclaimed foodie nowadays, and we’re definitely one of those, you know, we’re in that camp, we just, we just love eat. And so the thought being, if, if we love to eat it, I think other people will, you know, and maybe that’s a maybe we’re overly confident in that, but, but that was, that was the mindset. And we, of course, Ashton would cook for everybody, we’d have friends over, we’d have family over and, and going back to like the pizza restaurant, we had no idea how to cook pizzas, you know, in a commercial setting, and conveyor style oven, never done that, right. And so we, we moved in with my parents, we started this journey. And that was a humbling experience going from living on, you know, walking distance to the beach, and Santa Monica, California to, you know, living in the basement of my parents house. But we, we did that we, we bought a pizza oven. And we just started making pizzas. And we would just have friends over family over and we were just every night cooking pizzas and getting feedback. And that’s what we started with that. And then when we did Tacos 4 Life, we did the exact same thing. We just started cooking. And we would go, we’d go a couple couple times a week down our food distributor, and they had a test kitchen down there. And we would cook and it ended up being one of those things where, you know, all the folks all the support staff, they would cycle through and they would make suggestions and hey, what about this and, you know, ideas, and it was very much just a collective effort on both restaurants from the food standpoint, and it really still is, you know,
Chad Franzen 11:34
so no, no, no formal culinary training, you guys just this is just something you guys like cooking. You like eating and these tacos are something that else something else that people like eating.
Austin Samuelson 11:44
Exactly, yeah.
Chad Franzen 11:45
Wow, that that is absolutely amazing. Was there ever a time during the period, you know, maybe the initial struggles of breaking into the restaurant industry that you were asking yourself? What am I doing?
Austin Samuelson 11:58
Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so um, yeah, you know, really, we really reached a point of burnout, I would say, and just that asking that question, Chad, during the Pitza 42 days, and really to the point of thinking man is this, you know, this is too hard, we need to do something else. Let’s throw in the towel. And really, you know, life has a funny way of messing with you. But we were kind of at this point. And Ashton and I had got invited to go on a food distribution trip with the organization we work with Feed My Starving Children. And then the one on the ground in the area we went to was Children’s Cup. And they were working in Swaziland, Africa, which is in the southern portion of Africa. And we got invited to go and we were we were so tired, weird. You know, the business wasn’t making money is the last thing that we could afford to do as the last thing we could do is be away from the business and I didn’t want to go, but you know, few people in our, you know, in our lives, they were like, You guys need to go and get on that plane, go to Africa and see what you’re doing. And God really use that to really remind us that, okay, what we’re doing has a bigger purpose. And keep going keep fighting. And I remember the first day we were there, we were helping scoop up bowls of rice at this feeding center. Okay, and there’s about 150 kids there. And very impoverished area. For a lot of these kids. That was the only meal they were getting in that day. I mean, it this is this is critical, right? And we’re scooping up this food. And you know, I remember thinking we started like, Okay, this is this is what this is why we’ve been doing what we’re doing. This is great. felt so good, you know, invigorated, and I’m the one scooping ashes handed down, we got this big pot of rice, okay, and looking down the line, and I’m, I’m a planner, right? I’m looking down the line. I’m thinking man, this, this rice mill is going down faster than the line is going down. And we got about halfway down in the pie. And we told the ladies that that helped prepare it was you know, hey, where’s the rest of the we need more food? And they said, That’s it. That’s all we have for today. And it’s still hard for me to even retell the story. But we ran out of food. You know, we ran out of food with about 12 Kids still left in line and they’re those they these kids were incredible. They line up youngest to oldest girls first than boys and supply. So thankful that we ran out with about 1210 to 14 year old boys. And I have four boys myself and just to think about we’re telling these kids now we’re out of food, you know, and we were able to scrounge around we there’s a banana hut style place down the road local grassroots brews that sold Coca Cola and bananas and bread and that sort of stuff. We went and grabbed some stuff and were able to get the kids food, but that’s where I remember are in that moment, you know, Ash and I looking at each other saying, okay, we can get over ourselves, we’re gonna, we’re gonna, we’re gonna, we gotta we gotta push through. And we gotta keep fighting until, you know, God tells us to stop, you know, until we die, because there’s kids that that need to be fed. And so that’s really was kind of the, we’re kind of at this breaking point. But that’s, that’s what pushed us into, okay. It really led the transition with trying to figure out targets for life and push us into that.
Chad Franzen 15:28
Did you when you got back? Did you, you know, did you have like adjustments in mind to kind of improve things? Or did you just kind of pray? Yeah.
Austin Samuelson 15:38
Both absolutely, you know, I mean, the reality of it is, you know, we knew almost immediately after we opened the pizza restaurant, okay, there’s some things if we could do over, we would do it, do it over and do it differently. You know, so we had that list of things. And, you know, one of them just being the food side of it, just making a product. When we first started with the pizza restaurant, we lean so heavily on the mission. And our guests were all about the mission. And they were there because of the mission. But the food, the food was okay, you know, but we learned it. And we realized, Okay, well we do the next concept, we do the next thing and being tacos, like the food has got to be at this, this craveable place where even if the guest doesn’t know about the mission, which which I don’t want to happen, but even if that were to be the case, they would still want to eat with us on a regular basis, because it’s so good, you know. And so that’s that’s really was one of the big kind of pivots for us of like, okay, the mission is there. And that’s why we exist, but we can’t rely on that to run the business. You know, the product has got to be the best. It’s got to be the best tacos in town.
Chad Franzen 16:44
So tell me about Tacos 4 Life. We’ll get into the whole donation situation in the moment, but I described your atmosphere is quirky. What can a customer expect when they go in there? In terms of both food and experience?
Austin Samuelson 16:59
Yeah, I love this question. Because we, we work really hard to create an experience for the guests. You know, we have over 14 Different tacos on the menu. We say they’re Chef inspired, although we don’t have a chef, but they’re, you know, they’re they’re very carefully put together. And like I’ve already said to have this flavor pack craveable you know, unique profile. And so so they’re gonna see anything from you know, your your classic fajita chicken taco or steak taco to my personal favorite, the Korean barbecue and fried chicken tacos. The fried chicken is Ashton’s grandma’s Southern, you know old school fried chicken recipe with a chipotle aioli on it and honey. So it’s got this sweet and spicy flavor. That’s just out of this world good. Korean barbecue tacos, phenomenal as well. But but we have this broad spectrum of you, you have some traditional stuff. And then we have some more adventurous items that we love. And I think that’s what makes tacos fun. We also have salads, and rice bowls, and case study is and we have great kids meals. So we have a you know, we’re not just tacos, we have a pretty well rounded menu, but but the bulk of our businesses and tacos, and we work really hard at creating some fun flavor profiles there.
Chad Franzen 18:16
So tell me a little bit more about the donation program, then you you guys donate to this organization. And you’ve already been to kind of where they serve mainly, can you tell me about that process and everything that goes into it?
Austin Samuelson 18:26
Yeah, so it’s really modeled off of TOMS Shoes. And you know, they do more than shoes now, but it’s modeled off of that one for one. And because we want it to be very clear. So every time you buy a taco salad rice bowl or a quesadilla, we donate 24 cents off of that meal. And so we think about that no different than the price that we pay for the tortilla, you know, it is going to happen, whether we, you know, you come in and we discount your taco or whatever, whether we’re making money this month, or we’re not, we’re donating that that meal, it’s one for one, it’s not based off of percentages or profits or any of that. So it makes us as a business, we have to operate very efficiently because of that, we just added this extra line in our cost of goods. So we do that we worked with an organization since the beginning still work with them phenomenal organization called Feed My Starving Children. They’re based out of Minneapolis, incredibly great organization. They can be trusted, you know, 90 cents on every dollar that you send them goes directly to feeding. They’re highly, highly, highly recommended, highly rated in the nonprofit world. So they, they provide food to places all over the world. They work with over 70 Different organizations all around the world. Everything from really big organizations like Compassion International to a, you know, a family that runs an orphanage, you know, in the middle of, you know, Central Africa or something. So they’re there. They they’ve really reached the whole gamut as far as that goes, but they’re they’re a great organization. And so every time you come in and buy a meal, we send a I checked them every week, and they ensure that these mills get to the places that they say they’re gonna get to and to places that need them the most. And the cool thing is, we had our experience, we went to Africa, I’ve since been back for other times with them that are pre-COVID. We’ll look forward to the day, once we get past COVID, we can start this again. But pre COVID, you know, our managers and franchisees, they would join us on trips as well and get to see firsthand the food and action and the impact that it has in the communities that it’s going to.
Chad Franzen 20:32
So you you switch from pizza to tacos, you’ve got a quirky atmosphere, you’ve got this this incredible donation program. When you open your first taco restaurant, what gave you the most traction and results? Do you feel like? Hmm,
Austin Samuelson 20:46
I think, I think a couple things we eat. So we use a crowdfunding campaign to fund the first Tacos 4 Life here in Conway, you know, because, you know, coming out of a not successful pizza restaurant into another restaurant is not a very bankable business proposition, right. And so we use crowd funding. And fortunately, we had over 350 people around Arkansas and around the really around the country that helped participate and heard about it. And so I think that really drove a lot of the early excitement, because it was a it was a community effort. You know, people were excited about a new concept and one were, it’s, it had a purpose behind it. And so I really think that drove a lot of our early success. And then I think since then it’s just been executing on the food and the service and the mission. And those three elements really working well together.
Chad Franzen 21:37
At what point did you know that? Okay, we’re doing well with one location that it’s time to, you know, start to grow like you have?
Austin Samuelson 21:44
Well, I think, honestly, I think after the very first day, we opened Tacos 4 Life, because it was unlike anything, we’d experienced that pizza for two, it rained thunderstorms all day long, like the sideways rain, and we had a line out the door still. And when we finally closed at nine o’clock exhausted, I remember looking at Ashton and our manager, and I was like, I think this is gonna work. And they were like, yeah, no joke, you know? And that was really kind of what what led us thinking, Okay, we might have, we might have something here that we can, we can do some more locations and raise more meals.
Chad Franzen 22:15
So you guys, you guys, franchise locations? Does the typical franchisee for tacos for life maybe have to be wired a little differently than maybe other franchisees?
Austin Samuelson 22:26
Yeah, absolutely. So we’ve been franchising since 2017. But we’ve taken it very slow. And now we’re really starting to hit that point where we’re franchises becoming the focal point of what we’re doing. And I can share more about that. But to answer your question, specifically, yeah, we look for in a prospective franchisee they have to be all about the mission, they have to be they have to be here because of the mission. But they equally have to be all about running a profitable, excellent restaurant. And one can’t go above the other. It’s if if profits go above the mission than the mission fails, and the whole thing crumbles down. If the mission goes about of running a profitable, excellent restaurant, then ultimately, you know, the restaurant fails and the mission falls behind. Right? So. So we’re really looking for that individual or group of individuals that that have that equal drive and passion for both.
Chad Franzen 23:21
So what are your goals for the future? You talked about franchising become kind of your, your primary focus at this point.
Austin Samuelson 23:25
Yeah. So, you know, we opened the first Tacos in 2014. We started franchising in 2017. And really, our goal has been, let’s build out the state of Arkansas. So we have, we have 11 locations here within the state of Arkansas, that are company restaurants and really working and have worked to prove out the model and provide systems and processes and, and something that a franchisee can come to and say, okay, you’ve been down this road more than a few days, you know, this is a something that is worthy of investing in and participating in and so, so we’ve worked really hard at that. And now now that we’ve got the state built out, for the most part, we’re really looking at okay, as we go outside of the state, we’re in six, six states right now. We wanted to be franchising because I really feel that’s the other side of our mission. As we go outside of the state, we just opened one in St. Louis, Missouri two weeks ago, and the franchisees there, Matt, JC there in the community, they’ve been telling all their friends and family about the mission. They’re all about the mission. They’re all about running a great restaurant, and when they’re able to do that they’re in their community of O’Fallon, Missouri. It just something special happens in the same thing and all the other locations and I think I think that’s why franchising is so attractive to us because we see that it can really put a little extra juice on the mission and get a lot of excitement out there. More so than what we could do here in Central Arkansas, you know, three states over
Chad Franzen 24:54
How satisfying is it to know that you can I mean, you you have this mission. I mean 21 million meals. That’s that’s pretty, pretty good. How satisfying is that for you?
Unknown Speaker 25:04
Well, we’re blown away. I mean, just absolutely blown away. It’s, uh, I mean, it, we have a phenomenal team. And we have an incredible guests base here in Arkansas, Atlanta, or other locations, and the guests are the ones that raised the meals. So we’re just, we’re just feel very, very blessed. You know,
Chad Franzen 25:24
I have I have one final question for you. But first, just let me know where can people find more information about Tacos 4 Life?
Austin Samuelson 25:31
Yeah, so we, we have a great website you can all the information you want to know about the mission. Learn everything you want to know about food, learn about franchising and franchise opportunities and what it looks like to be a franchisee.
Chad Franzen 25:44
All that’s on our website, great re website tacos4life.com. So yeah, I really encourage people to go check us out there was question for you. What are some books or podcasts that you have particularly found valuable for you or that you’ve enjoyed?
Austin Samuelson 25:58
Yeah, so our team, that’s a good question. Our team is all about the Patrick Lencioni his books. So the advantage and we’re going through the truth about employee engagement right now, the ideal team player, his books, we really love, love, love all of his books, and they have a podcast as well called the table group. And it’s all about organizational health and how to how to work better as a team so that you can be effective in your business. And that’s really our, our go to my mind personally, that our teams as well we really lean into that pretty heavily here.
Chad Franzen 26:35
Okay. Hey, I really appreciate your time. Austin, you’ve got an incredible story, and I wish you the very best in the future. Thank you so much for joining me and for sharing your insights. Yeah, thanks.
Austin Samuelson 26:44
Thanks so much Chad.
Chad Franzen 26:45
So long, everybody.
Outro 26:47
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