We were lucky to catch up with Rayshun Parkman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rayshun, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?

There was a woman who came to my booth. She was homeless, which she was perceived to be at least and no one will give her anything. She came to my booth and she asked for five dollar worth meal, and I gave it to her for free plus more and she said thank you. God bless she then came back to me and said, thank you so much. I was able to feed my family with this and I really appreciate you and stories like these that make me feel wonderful. You never know who you’re talking to and you never know who you’re feeding.

Rayshun, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m up in the city of New Orleans a place that is magical, a place that has Soul, music and great food group in a household full of women and I was the only boy they all taught me how to cook. My grandmother was stern and strong, but yet soft, she taught me the significance on how to stand my Ground how to love what I do and how to get back, I moved to Los Angeles, California when I was 19 years old actually came here to study music, but that didn’t work out for me when I was 22 years old I was homeless I like to call myself a professional couch surfer because for eight years of my life, I slept on other peoples couches I worked at a job making $9.25 an hour and I knew there was something different out there for me in November 2019 I started my food business. I tried everything to get out I got into the insurance business I got into selling cars were at least try to sell cars but that just didn’t work out and my friend said to me why are you going into all those businesses and you already cook for people for free why don’t you just charge them and for some reason the bell rang in my head so that’s what I did I charge them I found out by the local farmers market I let them sample my food they loved it, and the rest was history to be successful. It takes a changing of the mind. If you want to be something greater than yourself, you must let go of the old habits that you had acquired in your life that was not servicing you in the way it needed to be. I’m going to my success by changing my mindset by being kind by being true to who I am, and also serving a good bowl of gumbo.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

See I remember when I was 22 years old and I was homeless and I was asking all of my family members to help me but nobody had any money to help. I remember my grandma telling me grandson I can buy you a ticket to come home and I will tell her grandma there was something more there was something better from here and she said well grandson you want to stick it out I know you can do it when I tell you I’ve had my things thrown out on the street. I’ve slept in cars I was a professional couch surfer for eight out of the 12 years. I’ve been living here in Los Angeles when I think back on all I’ve been through and I would’ve excepted my grandmother‘s offer to give me a plane ticket back home I would have never reached the journey, or the end of where my success was lying. Success can get dirty it can get messy it can get hard you can give headaches you can feel like you’re battling a pride of lions but I’ll tell you this if you stay in the fight if you work hard, you will get to the end of this road.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A great lesson I had to unlearn was not to overspend because that can turn into a very bad habit. The very first day at the farmers market I had made $500 in four hours. It was the first time that I don’t have to wait five days in to make $500 in what I made $1000 in one day and four hours I was just amazed I thought I was rich I didn’t pay attention to my finances and I spent and I spent and I spent and then I started to realize I was spinning so much that I was going back to the same place that I was before I started this business be frugal with your money, learn investments, learn compound interest, learn things I can help your money grow

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Rays@trolleystop