We were lucky to catch up with Richard Arguelles recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Richard thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Risks aint nothing new to me and to be honest I wouldn’t even know where to begin on how to “properly take a risk”. Lemme put it like this, from the moment we wake up in the morning to the time we go to bed, we’re constantly faced with day to day choices that could change our lives forever. Some are small risks that we can live with if we mess up, while others are those life changing ones. It’s up to us to decide whether to take the risk or to play it safe. That’s just life bruh. And through the smoke it’s usually the uncertainty of not knowing how it will play out which makes people really fearful of taking risks.

So here’s my take on it….

Taking risks is one of the most courageous things a person can do, because I believe a well lived life should fall within these these two ideas: The experiences you live in life & the intensity of those experiences. Nobody ever brags about the easy shit they’ve been through in life or the kid who was fed with a golden spoon. Risks are the molders in life because they shape you either for the better or worse. Like for the more meaningful/deeper risks say a persons goal or for fulfilling their purpose; Initiallly they’re literally standing their ground first in their mind then reinforcing it with their actions not really giving a F- about the uncertainties that may come but holding on to this vision that is theirs alone to why they wanted to take that risk. How can you not respect that? But the game gon test you, especially if you’re thinking BIG. That’s when those failures come, problems arise, and gut-checks you if you if you have the will/dedication to push through. It’s easy to play it safe, to stick with what we know and avoid the unknown. But the truth is, we can’t grow and evolve without taking risks.
Some of the people I admire the most: E-40, Nipsey Hussle, The Tate Brothers, Steve Harvey, etc, all of them took these insurmountable risks in their life and became huge successes. They faced their fears, overcame obstacles, and pushed themselves to be the best they could be with their cards they they were dealt.

IF you ask me, I think when taking on risks try to talk yourself into a win-win situation out of it. Kinda lightens the stress too…….kind of. But think of it from this angle, even if you fail while striving for it, you learn and grow from those failures. When we take risks, we open ourselves up to the possibility of failure, but we also give ourselves the opportunity to learn from our mistakes and become stronger and more resilient. It’s scary and overwhelming and id be lying if I said with every major move I’ve made in my life I was scared. But I realized it’s natural to feel hesitant and unsure, it is what it is. But imagine this….. what your life could be like if you never took risks. You live a completely SAFE life, you live cautiously, only make decisions you know FOR SURE the outcome, and all that sappy soft shit. Sure you might live to be 100 but were those 100 years of living REALLY worthwhile? Me, id rather live a fulfilling 50 years of life doing everything I sought out to do, having the highest wins and highest losses and accepting those risks because at the end of the day im always chasing GROWTH. Like right now im in the midst of trying to open a restaurant in Hawaii and im taking all my f*ckups I learned when I first tried too and applying it now. I got hella love for Hawaii: the people, the food, the culture and It seemed the perfect place to do it for me so wait on that. And then after that, im going to be chasing something else, taking on a bigger risk and continuously building myself up till the day I die. You only lose in life the moment you accept that shit. But where im getting at with all of this, is that you might NEVER have that dream job, that amazing relationship, or that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So buck the f*ck up and have this fire in you and trust with yourself to be capable of taking on any risks you may encounter in life. You might never know what you’re truly capable of.

So, if you’re feeling stuck or unsure about whether to take a risk, just remember this: Life is f*ckin short man and there’s nothing admirable from always playing it safe. Take risks, fail often, push forward, win big, and repeat.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

So most people know me from the food videos that I make and it’s funny how that all started out.

It all started around 2019 me and my brother Freddie were watching mukbang videos and I said “these people get paid a lot just to eat” then he said “I bet you cant do that” and one thing about me is my hardheadedness and ego will always want to prove someone wrong when someone tells me I cant. At that time food was just a hobby to me and my main passion was videography. So I started brainstorming ideas saving up for equipment and two months later I came out with my first video which was a curry eating challenge video I did in Bangkok, Thailand. I ate like 4 pounds of it. My stomach was hurting bruh after that. But I spent a month editing it, learning premiere pro along the way, and I posted it on Youtube. I thought I was going to kill it and tell my brother I told him I could but that video flopped man! I left on there for a month and it only got like 200 views. I was kind of embarassed and dropped the food thing even though it I had a fun time throughout the process of it. It wasn’t until 6 months at my previous job they needed help with marketing and one of my supervisors asked me, “what are you good at?” I told him taking pictures and editing videos. So I started doing that for that company and making videos on TikTok and that shit blew up. I built up an audience in a short amount of time but It wasn’t until long I was told the company doesn’t support TikTok anymore.

With everything I built up from there, I thought it was stupid to just abandon it. So I deleted all the previous content and started trying everything that came to my mind. I did those TikTok trends, advice videos, workout videos, stories of my life, and even skits (except those corny dances). And through all of that shit, me making food videos came back into play because one of the skits I did was my first time getting boba. And I responded to one of the questions which was “what’s your favorite boba place” and then from that it began me trying hella food places, putting people on to places all over Socal, back home in the bay, even places outside of the US from my travels.

But on a deeper level when I realized I was gaining this much attention and I wanted to start to put on for shit that mattered to me, which was my home in The Bay, my people, my culture and make my mama proud. And to be honest I feel that I’ve reached these goals and now im just solidifying them and stacking new ones on top of it. I would never have thought that I would open up a restaurant in honor of my mama, worked with so many big brands and companies, or had the opportunity to work with my hometown football team, The San Francisco 49ers.

One thing I want to make clear is that im all about growth and now that I have this platform I want to use it as a foundation to build other people up, pursue other ventures, tell my story and feed my creative hunger.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yeah, well like I said before my main goals before were to put The Bay on, put my people on, my culture on, and make my mama proud right? Now im just stacking on top of those. To keep it real with y’all my ultimate goal/mission is that I want to take on bigger problems and as crazy as this sounds I want to find a problem in this world that I can make a HUGE positive impact in. And im glad I get to do it through this creative journey because it will show other people who’s in my shoes that it’s possible to make an impact this way. You know what im saying? I think for me it’s coming down on to an individual level because im heavy on being better 1% everyday. So with that mindset maybe you’ll advice videos coming back, lessons I’ve learned, or vlogs of me starting new ventures from the ground up. I’ll still have my hand in the food world but I don’t want to be known as “that TikTok food guy”. I know I want to sustain making videos because to me just the process of it alone is fun to me. Finding better ways to shoot or incorporating new editing styles in your videos. That ambiguity is makes this shit fun. And in all honestly me being the videos helps me work on my public speaking, interpersonal skills, and being even more confident with myself. I don’t care about the clout or superficial stuff that has a chain on people in that field. I never did. Sorry if im being hella redundant but Im just really heavy on growth.

How did you build your audience on social media?

There’s no secret. It was literally just consistency and wanting to create more enjoyable videos for my followers by stepping shit up. Before all of that though, I guess the real reason is why do you want to build an audience? If it’s to build your brand, support a cause, to entertain, or anything else with some substance at least know why you’re doing it first. I found my goals through it because I thought making videos was fun and a challenge. Then everything else came too. Once that shit was settled I first starting out I was on schedule of shooting Monday through Thursday and editing Friday through Sunday. Posting at least 5x a week. Along the way I upgraded my gear and software and the homies started supporting me by helping shoot my videos. So it was more professional. OH and I was doing everything live too at all the events and whenever I shot in public. So I was just going off top when the homies were shooting me. Im not saying you gotta do it that way to thrive but that’s just how I wanted to move with it. But I think the hardest thing is not settling for the same old style that you’re used to shooting/posting. A lot of these content creators stick to one style and sure if it works for them then great…….but I think it’s just them being comfortable and limiting their growth on it.

So if you want to start “building a presence” on social media: have a goal/reason in mind, stay consistent, volume initially will be your greatest asset, once you start building up you should pay more attention to the quality, incorporate one thing that makes you unique, and staying on top of trends doesn’t hurt too.      

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beacons.ai/richyraw_
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richyraw/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdCjLoEZBsY7DkHibxF5n0g
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@richyraw

Image Credits
Ron Khy Andrew Arcaina