Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tony Scherber. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tony, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?

Be sure to put yourself first and make you happy. It’s about work-life balance and if you only focus on the increase in merits/annual reviews to make you happy, you won’t be able to fully feel satisfied with your accomplishments. Be sure to take the time to disconnect yourself from work when you aren’t there.

Tony, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hi! My name is Tony and I am currently a social media manager for a company in Minneapolis, MN. While social media is my profession, my main hobby and interest is cooking and pursuing my side hustle; making hot chili oil and oil-infused products. This is where I allow my creativity to shine and share my passion and story with others. I am adopted from South Korea and have had to really learn on my own as I’ve gotten older, what it means to be a Korean Adoptee (or KAD). Living in a country where I am not like others who are from here, I learned that through food, I am most connected to my heritage and culture. Through food, I branched and learned more about my identity and how I love to share my story to connect with other KADs and adoptees in general. My brand, TonzKitchen is symbolic of my heritage and it also allows me to create delicious products like Hot Chili Oil, Garlic-Shallot Oil and KBBQ Spice blends. Flavors that Minnesotans and the US are becoming more aware of, but still have yet to reach the potential. I started my side business during the beginning of Covid and since then I’ve expanded my product line from 1 to 4 and continue to increase sales and relationships along the way.

Have you ever had to pivot?

For nearly a decade, I was working in college athletics/sports industry. Worked 60-70 hours/week- not much time off or holidays off. Not to mention horrible pay. This made me go into a spiral because of the competitive nature of the industry i was in, I felt I had to stay around and work my way up to make a difference. It wasn’t until near the tale end of my career in college athletics that I made the conscious decision to leave and switch fields completely.

Haven’t looked back since then. Been fairly compensated for my work as well as feel more happy and fulfilled with what Im doing.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Be sure to keep on trends, video content is key to use vs still graphics, keeping things short and concise but also information-relevant.

Social platforms become more like SEOs, it’s important to make sure your content is either educational or humor related to be able to make significant impacts in the industry.

It’s quality, not quantity and be sure to look into budgeting money to grow beyond organically.

Contact Info:

• Website: tonzkitchen.com
• Instagram: @tonzkitchen
• Facebook: /tonzkitchen-1
• Twitter: @tonzkitchen