We were lucky to catch up with Brandon Rachel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brandon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I’ve wanted to be my own boss since I was 20. Since that realization I’ve been whittling away at a viable business plan. I quickly realized a brick and mortar had too much overhead so I went the mobile route. I didn’t originally want to deal with food but I also like to work with my passion and as a chunky monkey of course it ended up being food lol. I am a big fan of cereal as my go to snack and on the indulgent side my choice is ice cream. So I combined the two and the idea was born. I use vanilla ice cream for public events because of the visual of the white ice cream being the literal frozen milk. I had no startup funds and have had to use savings, tax returns, etc and grow with baby steps. I started with a pop up canopy and have graduated to a ready to go trailer. Next year I hope to really grow my brand and awareness with my increased mobility.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

To say my business is ice cream is the last way that I ever describe it to anyone. I have never viewed myself as an ice cream vendor. My goal was to create a unique sense of nostalgia in a bowl for customers. I took my own childhood love of Saturday mornings where I would wake up, run to the living room to take over the tv for morning cartoons and then pour a bowl of cereal and combined that with my favorite summer afternoons where I would enjoy a cold treat. Frozen cereal is meant to initiate feelings of playfulness that we don’t often experience as adults…and it is meant to excite children of today. I like to have fun and that is what I mean to provide with my brand and my product. Life is too short to take everything too seriously! We owe it to our inner child.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I first started my journey of becoming a business owner, I thought I knew what it would take. I had taken the business classes done some research and decided on what I thought was going to be a successful concept. I quickly learned that what I thought I knew was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to real life. I went into this adventure of being a business owner, thinking that it was going to be easy. I laugh at that thought now, and how naïve I was, but I think that initial experience of trying some thing that I thought would work and having it fail and then trying some thing again and having that fail is what I needed to change my mindset and walk into numbskull with a sense of “I’m not going to give up “. I have had to take my initial design for the business and reshape it more times than I care to admit because I found out that the first idea that comes to mind is rarely the best idea. And that’s OK. There were moments when I was tempted to throw in the towel thinking I had chosen the wrong path for myself and then I wouldn’t be successful all because those first iterations of my business we’re not working out. What I can say now is that I am incredibly grateful to myself and those around me for not letting me give up on my dream. Yes I had to suffer a couple of falls and learn a few lessons, but I am coming out on the other side so much stronger. And this is a constant process! I may fall again, but I will absolutely get up!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I will admit that I have never been a fan of social media. And, I know that is crazy considering the day and age we are in. Everyone is on some sort of social media platform. But, I resisted my whole life, digging my feet into this idea that I would somehow be a better person by avoiding the pull and influence of others. I had to quickly learn how to balance that idealism with reality once I started my business. Social media is, in a lot of ways, the life blood of what I do. It is how I am able to reach my audience efficiently and effectively. At first, I didn’t really take that seriously. Now, I am dedicated. Even if I don’t engage on a personal level with social media (I.e. my personal life is not out there), I know that social media is a sure way to connect with my community and gauge interest in my product. And it can be fun! I have learned to seek the input and advise if those much more skilled in the world of marketing on internet platforms and am leveraging their knowledge. Letting go of my bias against social media has been critical to being able to market my business. So for anyone else out there struggling with this, I say that it is possible to keep your business separate from your personal online and don’t hesitate to utilize the help of those skilled in the platforms. It will truly take so much stress off your shoulders and help open your eyes to all the possibilities.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.numbskullfrozencereal.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/numbskullfrozencereal
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/numbskullfrozencereal
• Youtube: @Numbskull_FC182
• Yelp: Numbskull Frozen Cereal
• Other: tiktok.com/@numbskull182