We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Raul Rodriguez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Raul, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?
There is a saying that goes: “if all you got is a hammer, then all things look like a nail to you”. Corporate America is too focused on capitalism and many times other important values are ignored.
One thing that pops in my head is the fact that if you have a business that brings about tangible negative consequences, for example: cigarettes, nicotine, plastics, pollution, etc. Government agencies impose fines, or higher tax rates to try to make up for the negative impacts created.
On the other hand, if you have a company that offers good things, for example, healthy juice bars, gyms, tutoring, etc. there is no “credit” of “help” for the goodness created in the communities by these concepts.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Sure, I was a small business consultant for over 15 years until one day I decided to open my own concept. Very interesting how I came to that decision…
On one trip I made to visit my mother in my hometown, my mother asked me what I did for a living. I said I was a business consultant. She replied, in simple terms, what is that you do? I replied, I help business owners to make more money. After a moment of silence, she said: “maybe you should consider helping yourself as well. Boom! I did not learn that in college. After that, I could not stop thinking about opening my own business.
So I started looking for business ideas that can do good and do well.
The food industry has gone through great transformations that ended up impacting the health of the communities. The economics of processed unhealthy foods are predominant and therefore the majority of people fall under this tsunami of unhealthy food .
A healthy juice bar that offers great options and alternatives can help a bit. I feel that just like there is a Starbucks and McDonald’s on every corner of America, we also need a healthy juice bar to balance out and counteract the health toll that the communities have to pay.
Think about it, if America was a person, would you say that it has a balanced diet? Most likely not, America needs more healthy options.
(No attack intended, I do like and consume both Starbucks and McDonald’s but I do it with moderation).
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
A college degree is just a paper that you show off but it guarantees no success…
Hmm… This might cause some frowns… One powerful lesson I had to unlearn is the “guaranteed” success that a college degree brings about. For many many years, all roads to success according to my friends and family led to getting a college degree. The idea was presented as if, once you get your degree, the world is going to be waiting, open-armed, with lots of opportunities to choose from. When you get your degree, you’ve made it!
Not really!
Early on, I realized that a degree is only a ticket to the party. It gets you an invitation but there is no guarantee that they will let you in or that you will have fun once you are in.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
This might sound like a cliche…
When you really want something and you are fully committed, you start building and growing.
I had very limited financial resources like most entrepreneurs. I simply kept going and surviving one day at a time… my savings, my friends and family, my credit card, hard-money loans, and then once I made a little bit of money I started reversing this same process. The most in debt I was, the more I felt that failing was not an option.
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