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

Towfu, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

As cliche as it sounds, I’m going to have to say my parents. They left Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge genocide to come to America for a better life. Being a first generation Cambodian American, I saw first hand the struggles they went through just to make ends meet in America. My mother ran a video store in the 90s in Chicago before moving to Boston to open up her own. My pops opened up a super market in 2007 and I’m still amazed at how they made it work. With English being their second language the fact that I saw them grind 7 days a week was just inspiring. Not only that, but they allowed me to tap into my creative side and didn’t give me the slack most foreign parents would give their children in a creative field. They showed me that being a kind person and working hard will take you further than you can imagine. But the most important thing they’ve taught me is to enjoy the JOURNEY. A lot of us tend to forget the amazing moments we have while chasing our dreams, when that itself is the dream.

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.

For those of you who don’t know, I go by Towfu. I’m a DJ, a creative, and I own a consulting agency called AllYouCanEat. We provide services for brands or companies who are looking to create an experience or event. We specialize in artist curation, marketing, and project management. I got into this field by being a DJ first and realizing that the standard club industry didn’t fit my needs. As an entrepreneur who looked forward to being stimulated, doing other people’s parties weren’t enough. I needed more, I wanted to play in front of individuals who were open minded and had an appreciation for curation and world music. In order to that, I put together a team and we threw our own events. During the process of starting that, AllYouCanEat was born. We sold out of every event we threw our first year and partnered with brands such as Redbull, Converse, New Balance, and more. We learned that we were the cultural architects that brands needed to tap into in order to reach a specific demographic. The thing I’d say I’m most proud of when it comes to AllYouCanEat is giving other creatives the opportunity to make money off of their work when big projects come along. It’s a sense of fulfillment to put other creative freelancers on to the opportunity that’s available in the corporate world. “Everybody eats” is a simple slogan we say proudly.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

This is an amazing question. I want everybody to understand the importance of building presentation decks. A successful deck/presentation will get brands to put up money for you to use as long as your mission aligns with theirs. There’s always a budget for something, and it’s up to you to go get it. Our first party was funded by Redbull, and I’ll forever be grateful for them opening their doors to us for that.

Any advice for managing a team?

Understand each person on the team and how to handle each situation separately. Not everybody copes the same, so your job is to get them on the same page. Once everybody has the same mission, things will flow smoother than ever. Not everybody will agree at all times, but it’s up to you to lead them to an understanding.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.allyoucaneatllc.com
• Instagram: @Allyoucaneatllc or @towfu