We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joshua Lurie a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Joshua, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

My father and “bonus mom” Jane were visiting Portland, Oregon, in the archaic time before smart phones. Since I had just visited Portland, and they knew I’d be at the office, Jane called me. Using my desktop, I guided them to Ken’s Artisan Bakery, which was one of my favorite Portland food stops at the time. Jane said, “You’re like my food GPS.” It was late 2004, I was planning to start a food blog, and the name was a natural fit. l’ve used Food GPS for my business name ever since.

Joshua, 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?

Food GPS sprung from my compulsive desire to explore and better understand regional and global cuisines, which started as a teenager in New Jersey. Being based in L.A. has been a big help, since people from so many different cultures live here.

I worked on “NCIS” as the writers’ assistant and researcher for the TV show’s first three years. I had a lot of late nights, waiting to proofread scripts, and would run out to Thai Town or Little Armenia to grab an interesting dinner to eat at my desk. I also had time to write. At first, I wrote spec scripts. “NCIS” used one of my stories and I co-wrote a Bollywood action movie called “Blue” with my friend Bryan Sullivan. However, I gradually started carving out more time to write about my restaurant experiences.

I initially started Food GPS as a blog to showcase restaurants I’d recommend or repeat. Blogs were in their infancy. The writing and research skills I developed in TV helped my blog stand out. Interviews with prominent people from the food and drink world distinguished my coverage. I’ve also been fortunate to have diverse food and drink experiences around the world that also inform my perspectives and fuel handy travel guides. I started finding freelance writing gigs for publications like The Los Angeles Times, Gayot, and 944 magazine. I left TV in 2007 to focus on food writing full-time. I still love TV, but food has always been my biggest passion (other than my family).

Food GPS has evolved over the years since freelancing can be inconsistent. I produced or co-produced big culinary events like the L.A. Sriracha Festival, Food GPS Fried Chicken Festival and Food GPS Rib Festival. I’ve led both public and corporate food tours. I’ve consulted and taken photos for different food businesses. Freelancing is fluid. I’ve also had to add and hone new skills to stay relevant. For instance, I improved my photos dramatically over the years, helping to build an audience on social media.

I still post guides to different destinations, foods, and drinks on FoodGPS.com, but most of my efforts under theFood GPS umbrella involve writing, content strategy and communications for companies. To help drive business, I guide messaging for websites, newsletters, blogs, and social media. These businesses are mostly food and drink related, but it’s an interesting mix.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Just because you’ve done something one way doesn’t necessarily mean that you should continue down that thorny path. It may not be worth the effort. Many times I’ve been stubborn about changing my approach, sometimes to my detriment. It’s worth trying different methods in business and life, but stay open to alternatives. Three valuable lessons stand out.

In 2014, I produced or co-produced four big culinary events back-to-back-to-back-to-back: the Food GPS Rib Festival, Food GPS Fried Chicken Festival, San Diego Sriracha Festival and L.A. Sriracha Festival. I made some money on the three L.A. events, but lost money on the San Diego event. I immediately started discussing another slate of events for 2015 with the L.A. venue. My fiancée (now my wife) Stacey jumped in and convinced me to step back and take a big picture view. For the most part, these events were positive experiences for participating chefs and attendees, but all the time and effort wasn’t worth the money and the risks were too big. I haven’t produced another culinary event since then, which I quickly saw was a smart move.

When I interviewed Moonlight Brewing Company founder Brian Hunt over the phone, I started asking him questions. He pointed out that those were the same questions I previously asked other brewmasters. I said that while that’s true, he’s a different person with different experiences and would have different answers. Also true, but it was a reminder that getting richer interviews and deeper conversations requires more research and custom questions. That’s what I appreciate about interviewers like Marc Maron from “WTF” and Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley from “Fresh Air.”

I got another wake-up call from chef Geoffrey Zakarian at Pebble Beach Food & Wine. I just drove from L.A. to Pebble Beach and immediately started interviewing chefs at the opening night tasting event. He reminded me to take a breath. I was clearly flustered. At that point in my career, I was focused on maximizing coverage from culinary events like these. My days were non-stop. Pacing myself, enjoying the events, and getting less coverage would have been a better approach.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The amount of time I’ve spent transcribing interviews I recorded is staggering. Otter is the best service I’ve found so far, which saves a lot of time and drudgery. I know this technology didn’t exist for the first decade or so I ran Food GPS, but I sure wish it did. What more would have I been able to accomplish? What should I have done instead?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://foodgps.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foodgps
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foodgps
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-lurie-9a41305