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

Toyin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

In order to be successful at anything, you have to start doing that thing. A lot of people seem to get stuck at the start. Whether they are overthinking their idea or just procrastinating, you have to start. I count myself as successful because I’ve met some of the goals I’ve wanted to achieve but in no way have I arrived at “successful” because there are so many more goals still meant to be reached. I celebrate my successes and learn from my mistakes and keep going. I take comfort in knowing that as long as I continue to learn, stay passionate about my craft, look for opportunities and keep at it, I will be successful.

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?

Toyin Alli, the Owner of Puddin’ got her start in 2010 as a street food vendor at DC’s historic Eastern Market on Capitol Hill.  Since her start, Puddin’ has grown to include various local markets, including Union Market and two food trucks. At Puddin’, Toyin specializes in divine southern comfort food including Chicken ‘n Beef Sausage Gumbo, Shrimp ‘n Grits, Etouffee, Red Beans ’n Rice, Shrimp, Rapahannock Oyster and Wild Blue Catfish po’boys and of course, her signature dish and the company’s namesake, Brown Butter Bourbon Bread Puddin’.   Puddin’ serves local, sustainable and great tasting Wild Blue Catfish from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and local Rappahannock Oysters!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

In undergrad I sold soul food dinners and sweet potato pies to students to help supplement my income. After undergrad, living in DC and working at the House of Representatives, I started taking on small catering jobs but decided to further my education at NYU. In 2010 I had just graduated from NYU with a Master’s in Public Finance and snagged a job working for the Inspector General’s office for Amtrak. It was a great job with a clear path for upward mobility. It was truly one of the few desk jobs that I didn’t mind doing. The staff was comprised mainly of retirees that reentered the workforce and they all had a laid back air to them that was incredibly refreshing to me. No matter how great the job was, I always had a tickle or itch to start my own business. So I applied to Eastern Market as an outdoor vendor and was accepted. I used to use my lunch breaks at work to buy all my ingredients and I spent nights prepping and weekends working at the market. I’m risk adverse, so quitting my job before I knew Puddin’ would work was not an option for me. I waited until I saw that the business could be viable with metrics like; number of transactions and profits. Once I quit my job, I was very measured on my growth. I felt more comfortable growing from a farmer’s market stall to a food truck and a food truck to a brick and mortar. I never let my desire to restaurant dictate my next business move because I wanted to make sure the business was sustainable.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Consistency has always been my strategy for growing my clientele. I am always disappointed when I visit a restaurant, have a great meal, tell my Mom about the meal and then when we go together to try it again, and disappointingly, it’s not the same. I’ve been through this so many times and I hear anecdotes about inconsistencies so much that consistency has become an absolutely effective strategy for growing clientele. A lot of customers come to us because of word of mouth (and review sites like Yelp and Google) and we gain these positive reviews by having a consistent, quality product. Even if it means minimizing what you sell and specializing in what you do best, it’s worth it to gain consistency.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dcpuddin.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/dcpuddin
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/dcpuddin
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/dcpuddin
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@dcpuddin
• Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/puddin-washington