 One of the most, I would say wackiest yet most entertaining brands, food brands that I've seen in a long, long time. Big Stick Willys. Can you tell us a little bit more about what it is and kind of like what you guys have done so far? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So Big Stick Willys is a completely original institution that was built from scratch in New York City during the global pandemic of 2020. And each and everything that we do is completely unique from our marketing down to the product. This is something that not a lot of people have seen anywhere and we've managed to bring it to market. What do you sell? What is it? So it is a flavored mozzarella stick. So we basically took the traditional mozzarella stick and we put our own unique spin on it and we twisted it and we created a whole new product line. We sell cheeses such as Pepper Jack, we do a cheddar stick, we do goat cheese, and we do a Gouda stick. It's really interesting because like cheesesteaks, you know what, my daughter eats that all the time. So it's like how do you make a business out of cheesesteaks and like what have you guys done so far? Like what's your last month of sales so far? So last month we did about 3,800 in sales and that was our fourth month in business. So the past 90 days we're at $5,100 in sales and all just through delivery and pickup through the ordering app such as DoorDash and UberEats and people have really taken to this concept because it is completely brand new. And originally I had thought that my focus was going to be to corner the late night snack market. You know those people who are you know hungry from 8 till midnight but you know we've been getting orders Saturday morning like 9.30 a.m. people ordering 12 cheesesteaks. So I mean there is really no rhyme or reason so when people are ordering it's just kind of people are taking to this new concept and ordering it all hours of the day which is really interesting to see. So tell me more about like kind of what your vision is about this and this brand and kind of like how you operate this. Are you operating out of your own home or is it going to is out of a ghost kitchen? Like what's the what's the premise like? So initially my thought was to operate out of a ghost kitchen and so during the pandemic the problem with that was there was no ghost kitchens available in New York City. There's a lot of companies that were trying to get up and running but it is relatively new concept here in New York. So there was none that were open for business. So I had to go literally from Delhi to Delhi to you know small restaurant here in Manhattan. I had to go door to door and pitch them my idea and what I was trying to do and see if they were willing to partner and to fulfill my orders. Because that's the way it's set up right now is I work with a neighborhood Delhi and I you know I purchased storage from them they store all the product for me and they fill all of the orders. And the really cool thing is that Grubhub and seamless they provide the delivery service. So it is really automated and they make the technology just makes things so much easier. And I think that's one thing that a lot of entrepreneurs they underestimate is that the technology we have at our fingertips is so superior to what it was even five years ago. So there there is a way to get everything done. Okay, so let me dive in a little bit deeper on that. So basically, do you go and produce it at the Delhi or you produce it off site, and then you bring it to the Delhi. Yeah, exactly. So we produce off site in a shared commercial kitchen space. Okay, so you produce a bunch and then you bring it to the Delhi and you're like, hey, guys, if someone orders, you see this tablet, you help us fulfill and you get a percentage. Is that right? Exactly right. We pay them a small percentage from our monthly sales. And that's that's the really cool thing is it's you know it's a lot of people working together to make this work. Do you mind me ask and you don't have to share I know everyone has their trade secrets. Do you mind me sharing like what percentage do you pay them. So we pay them $500 a month and we pay them 10% of our monthly sales. Top or profits off the top yes. Wow, you must be super profitable it's like high margins. Yeah, that's the really unique thing is that this this item it's it's very I mean it the margins are terrific on it. And we're it's kind of a unique item that nobody has ever seen so we have that perceived value, and especially if you take a look at our branding, and the way we market the product. Yeah, I think that it's it's a very luxurious item. So we're able to get that good margin just from all the perceived value that we have around it. Do you mind if I break down some of the numbers for our viewers or do you think we shouldn't do that. No no sure sure. So and this is my estimation right so for example you pay 10% for someone to fulfill for you in terms of the production, and then you also pay let's say 25% for grubhub for them to take on the orders to do the delivery costs of good souls we're talking about 30%. So all in all you're taking home around 20% margins is that fair to say or am I completely off. I would say it's much higher than that so right now we make our sticks for right around 50 cents and we sell them for 250 and others we sell for $3. So we have a very good margin and even after the take home with grubhub and the percentage that I pay for the fulfillment we're still looking at a pretty decent chunk of change. Wow good for you will like actually that's that's freaking crazy so you know what let me illustrate this for the people that are getting thrown off with all these numbers. First like so what you do once again is that you produce these things out of your own commercial kitchen and then you bring it to the deli deli gets the orders from the tablets and they fulfill for you so basically you don't do anything. Yeah exactly and that's that's the really unique parties. So I'm not a foodie like I'm not a chef by any means like my background is in technology sales. So that is what I'm responsible for is I'm just responsible for pushing this product and basically getting it known that that's my sole responsibility is getting as many eyes as possible on the brand and just making sure that the images is well known. Technology sales what yeah talking about your background so tell me more about that like technology sales so you were you did you have a lot of digital experience in terms of digital marketing it seems like you're pretty savvy with it. Yeah so small amount of experience but the bulk of it was cold calling decision makers and business owners, and a lot of these tech companies so in 2008, the technology industry was right around 5 billion, and from 2008 to 2012. It's just absolutely grown exponentially. And it's due and partly because they're using a unique type of sales strategy. So what I'm doing is I've accumulated so many different types of sales skills and different ways to close business over the past, you know, nine years that I've been working in this office. So I decided that I want to take this same sales strategy these same sales tactics and just apply it to a new industry. It's insane, like the fact that you got in hold of Mark Cuban to give you insight and give you feedback on your startup business, which is selling cheese steaks. It's insane. How tell me how story, how that story came about. So whenever I think about emailing someone like Mark Cuban that the most important thing to me is just making sure that I cut through all the noise because I can't even imagine how crowded his inbox must be. So that is really the key to getting in front of somebody that is that busy that's getting so many different people reaching out is cutting through the noise like a machete. But that means you have to have a really eye catching subject line. And whenever they, whenever they click on the subject line and get into that email, you need to be quick and straight to the point. And you need to express exactly what it is that you want him to answer for you. And if you're not doing that, you know, you're just going to be like everyone else, he's just going to move on to the to the next email. That's really the most important thing. And having a catchy subject line is, you know, that's how you win because the content of your email, no matter how special it is, if it doesn't get opened, it's worthless. I love that. That is so crazy. Actually, not diving to diving a little bit more about that subject line. What was that subject line that you used just to give an example to our viewers. Yeah, so it all it said was, it said Mark quick cue would like your advice on something and just nice short and sweet and to the point. I think really not trying to invent the wheel with the subject line is most important. I think as as an entrepreneur and we're trying to get her hold of someone like, Oh, you know, Mark Cuban, this awesome guy, we tried to just over complicate things and I think just keeping it nice and simple, you know, making it stand out a little bit and making it so corporate is a big thing, you know, making sure that he understands well, you know, this is just, you know, somebody, a regular guy who's got to catch a subject line. I don't like to make things too corporate, or you know, to, I guess whenever there's a certain stigma, especially if you've worked in an office. And, you know, you understand like a lot of things are off limits to some people and there's just a lot of that going back and forth so I try to make sure that I try to be as less corporate as possible and just come across as another human. And really, I'm just looking at, you know, your feed, your, your Instagram, your website, it is the opposite polar end of being corporate, you know, you playing on the memes, the cultural, everything very cultural, you're very smart with exactly what you do. And it's something that that's the reason why I was super intrigued by by you when you reached out I'm like wow this guy knows his stuff like it's so different. And like you said, you're applying something that that is working in an industry that is so forefront to an industry that's really behind like in the food industry, it's super behind and it's an old school industry. So, actually speaking of which, why food like I think like with your skill set you can actually do really well back in tech, why food. Yeah, so I, you know, I didn't really think to myself, you know, anything about food like I'm not a foodie and I'm not a chef. And I think, you know, the passion really finds you. So I think that's how I came about this this product and especially because living here in New York City I was holed up in my apartment through the entire pandemic and every single person I knew had left the city so I was all by myself. So I had to go out for walks, and I kept finding myself gravitating towards the East Village. And if you're familiar with that it's it's a very popular neighborhood there's a lot of great places to eat and a lot of really good nightlife. And there's this one place there that everyone loves it's called palm frets. And they serve these big Belgium French fries but the kicker is they serve about 20 to 25 different types of unique dipping sauces which is what the people love that is why everyone ordered from there. So I thought to myself wow that was such a legendary place in New York City. I bet you I can do something similar I just would need to interchange the product. So that's where I came up with mozzarella sticks and from there. I really didn't really know how to get started so I jumped on Craigslist and I put out an ad looking for a chef to help me make prototypes. And that's really where the timing came into play because there were so many good people in this food service industry that were out of work due to COVID. So I was inundated with requests of chefs that wanted to help me. So, you know, we I found some that were willing to get their hands dirty and we did about five to six different rounds of taste testing and tinkering with the recipes until aha like we thought we had a finished product. That's how it came about. I wish I could take the credit and you know say I came up with it on my own but you know I'm not a foodie by any means I think it really I think the mozzarella stick really just found me. This is so freaking fabulous you should so many nuggets okay so to unwrap that a little bit like for a lot of people you know what the biggest pain points are I get flooded with emails all the time about people not being a. Okay, there's many ideas here that you did that is so brilliant first is identifying a product. A lot of people are trying to go out there reinvent the wheel like you said. But then the thing is, they don't look and they're not observing in the marketplace where they see a product market fit. They don't see that. And for you you see pomfrets and you like you know what there's already a product market fit all I have to do is just repackage it and bring it back to market. Exactly know for a fact it'll fit and that people love it because there is a proven demand already, and a lot of people miss that mark they're trying to be like, oh let's work on this let's work on that and let's make on, make a variation that's just like completely left field hoping people like it that's not how it works. People coming back down to the basics is critical so brilliant on you on doing that and second of all for you to actually go on craigslist to find a professional. A lot of times a people get really shunt off by not knowing how to cook not knowing how to create a recipe, or all these kind of excuses that prevents them from taking action but for you, you went on craigslist which is the easiest way to find what you want done. And once you're able to do that you're like hey you know what let's let's let's let's get to work. Yeah, I love how smart you are in your approach with everything there's always leverage you go about it in a very systematic way, and which is why I'm saying you're such a smart guy and for those of you that don't know, or haven't checked out wills website definitely big willies big stick willies calm and I'm going to put it in the link below. Study his website this guy knows what he's talking about he is making sure that he stays relevant because at the end of the day if you're not relevant you're out of date and the ones wants to talk about you. And that's the reason why he uses a lot of cultural memes, Bernie on his thing. You are like on the ball with your marketing with your approach with development. And it's something that I really want to be able to share with my audience because I think that a lot of people will be able to find inspiration with what you are doing a tech guy, which has nothing to do with food, getting down in the industry and being able to hit the success that you're able to hit. Are you now are you working on this full time or part time. Yeah, so I'm doing this full time. I, there was a time in the beginning where I was still at my day job, and kind of just doing this on the weekends and doing this on the evenings, but it really came to a point. I was at a fork in the road where I really needed to find something to commit to. So the only way to do this was to fully commit to it and to just go all in. So in order to do that, I had to drop my day job. I put in my two weeks and I spoke to my manager and told them that I was going to try something else. And so, and I really think there's too many people out there who are struggling with making that jump, who a lot of people are very, very scared to just kind of take off the parachute and to dive right in. And that is really the only way that you can do it. That's the only way you can make it possible is if you fully commit to it. Wow, Will, that is, that's really inspiring. Is this your first time doing a business? Yeah, well, I think I've always kind of had some entrepreneurial tendencies, but I never really actually put them into play until now. I love that because a lot of people don't understand that when you always have a plan B, your planning will never work. It just doesn't work, right? Is that a good way of putting it? Yeah, exactly. I love how that you recognize that you had a decision to make and that you know for a fact that if you were to see this whole thing through, you have to take the risk and take the plunge. Now, I want to share a story with you, but then before I share that story with you, I do want to know a little bit more about when was that pivotal moment where you felt like that that question came about, where you had to make the decision, when was that moment? And then next is, what made you realize that it is time to make that plunge? Is there a specific moment or is there a specific reason why? Yeah, so I actually, I had spoken with a friend who's been very successful in life and has done a lot of things at a high level. And so, and I know there was a point in time where he had to fully commit to his craft. And so I was kind of struggling with how to do that and when to do it. So I just called him up and I told him what I was doing and I said, Hey, I know there was there's a point in time in your life where you need to pick one or the other and you needed to commit to it. What did you do? Like, how did you decide on that? And he gave me great advice. He, he referred me to read a book called The One Thing and it completely changed my perspective. It just completely put things into light for me. And it made me realize that there, there are other things out there besides a nine to five job and there is so much money out there in the world that you can make money so many different ways. All it has to do is just dedicate to the craft and commit to it. And you'll be able to figure it out. Wow. And is there a sign in your business where you feel like that it made you feel that it's worth it now? Yeah, so I really like whenever I get customer reviews on, especially on my seamless page. I love reading people's reviews and I interact with my customer base quite often. I have about 200 SMS tech subscribers and a lot of them respond to the messages and you know, they ask me, Hey, you know, you should try out this cheese or, you know, this stick was awesome. It was such a really new idea and that's what I, that's where I get the most gratitude is just whenever somebody takes a time out of their day to, you know, to, to compliment the product and to let me know they had a great experience is, is where I get the gratitude because for, for a restaurant, that's the name of the game is you want to make sure that your customers have a five star experience and you want to put a smile on them at the end of the day. And if you're able to do that, you're going to keep the doors open. Wow, it seems like that you have been in the industry for a long time you're speaking dropping so many words of wisdom for us. Well, it's crazy to share with you how brilliant and I think it really helps coming from your professional trade and to apply it in this industry. There's so many different overlaps of what truly makes it successful. And I think what you're really sharing is your ability to actually get your customer feedback to reiterate and to keep changing. And I think that itself is so, so, so valuable when it comes down to it getting real life customer feedback is huge right and especially in the tech world that you always need to have the focus group always have like people tell you what's good what's not good have an MVP and then continue to reiterate reiterate and to make it better and better until you find that product market fit and I think like it's so brilliant the fact that you are touching people on their phones SMS and actually communicating with them seeing what they like what they don't like you share a little bit about our story with her on 20 sweets ice cream shop. We actually collected more than 2000 surveys from from people who are just shopping walking by and just asking them like hey you know what what flavors do you like is the size okay is the pricing okay and really trying to get an understanding of who are real client tells are so then that way we can really cater our marketing we can cater our product we can cater the price point specifically to them. And I think that people within the food industry, a lot of people lack this business fundamentals, they lack this element of understanding the fact that it all comes back down to the basics which is our customer avatar. And yeah so it's brilliant that you are actually able to do that take the plunge when you see the signs that hey you know what you get a satisfaction from your customers, which is a byproduct as well. And to really focus and go straight into this and I'm going to leave also the link the one thing it's a brilliant book I love it and it's funny that you mentioned that because that's how I break down my life goals as well. Totally I agree with you 100% and I think the the principles are so simple, yet the execution of it the mastery of it is so difficult to do, you know it's it takes cautious intent full decision making all the time for us to actually live by that and so and correct me if I'm wrong to say a little bit about the principle with people is the fact that you have this one big goal that you have, break it down into a one year goal of what needs to happen in order for you to hit that five year goal, break it down to the monthly of what you need to achieve in order for you to hit that one year goal, break it down into weekly, daily, hourly, and then that's how you're going to be able to make sure and audit your stuff and audit your work by the by the day by the hour. Everything you do rolls up to the hour to the day to the week to the year and to finally what you want to achieve is that right. Yeah, I'm a big proponent of daily daily goals and writing them out as well. I write every single morning when I write when I wake up I write down my daily goals what I need to get done. I'm not getting back into bed until they're all checked off. And I write out my weekly goals and my monthly goals and it has been an absolute game changer just visually seeing out what you need to do. It just, you know, it's something just clicks and it's like okay I should just get this done and get out of the way and move on to the next task. So it has been a game changer for me as well. How long have you been practicing this for? I would say since maybe June, maybe April or May, like I would say probably around April or May is whenever I fully committed and said hey I need to write these down every single day. You're such an inspiration and it's so cool to see someone actually you know what being able to implement these things and it's something that I personally do as well. So there's a common that a lot of commonality between us aside from our name being wills. And I actually want to share something with you too like when I first started my business I took the plunge 10 years ago. My first business was a tutoring academy and we tutor people, we write papers, we edit papers, and at that time actually I had that idea of a business back in when I was in university. And the reason why I had that idea was because I needed the service like my English is poor, okay, like I hate writing. I send it to my friends and I know them they're going to parties I'm like yo man you really have to help me edit the paper otherwise I'm going to fail. That's the type of student that I am. And because of the fact that I'm like yo man like I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only immigrant in Vancouver that a lot of people need this kind of help. And which is the reason why I went about to have this idea to edit people's papers and my company is called acemytermpaper.com. So I had that idea I ran that for two years after I graduated that there's an overlap period, and I was working a full time job at Shaw Communications. And while I was working there I was still running this but never really took off my sales annual sales doesn't even top $10,000. That's how shitty it was. And I'm just like oh it's kind of it's kind of sucks, but then the thing is I, I'm like oh I'm gaining traction, I had high hopes for it I felt like I was a smart dude, but it's not really doing well and that's kind of like my plan B and then you know what plan A is working at that Shaw Communications and I'm like, I'll be picking up people's calls, and now put them on hold and I'll be working on my on my tutoring thing, right that's how I was building up that business. And I was working at that company for two years until a point where I'm like oh I applied for a promotion I didn't get it. And so I'm like you know what, I have to take that plunge I have to quit and have no plan Bs whatsoever and really give it a chance for my business to succeed. So I gave myself six months period of timeframe, I saved up that much money, and I'm like it's a make it or break it moment for me. At the end of the day, I told myself at that time I'm like, hey, I was making good money at that time when I first graduated, and I'm like, if I can get this job right now and I'm doing well in it. What stops me from coming back to this, if I failed on my business. Yeah. Nothing stops me from doing that. And which is the reason why I'm like you know what, take the plunge, six months of time, and then within three months, we made over $100,000. Wow, Wilson that's awesome. That's that's incredible. And that's that's a byproduct of just fully committing to what you have to do and just not stopping at anything to get it done. And that's where I think a lot of people miss the step is whenever you think about taking a plunge like that. I like to think about the different things that we have like friends, like friends if we leave a friend you know by the time we come back, they might not be there anymore, you know, same with significant others. And so those are things that we always have to keep in our lives, but a job is, you know, a rubber ball if we drop a job, it will always bounce back especially our job market is tremendous there there's a ton of great places that will give you an opportunity. So that's that's a terrific story and I love how you went all in after you know struggling with your $10,000 sales and that's you know it's that shows the power of just believing you can achieve it. Totally. And I think that's what our viewers need to see is the fact that sometimes the scariest thing that is right in front of us if we take that step right through that. Really, that's where everything opens up, because at the end they were just scared of the unknown. And once we take that step past our comfort zone. That's when beautiful things can happen. So I like, I love your story because I know for a fact that you're going to make it so so big with big willies and like I mean what are the big plans for big stick willies like what do you want people to know about you guys. Oh man so we have some really big growth plans. So I originally envisioned this as just staying you know a singular ghost kitchen. And with the traction we've got and with the customer base, we were just going to continue to open up additional ghost kitchens throughout New York City. We want to open up six in Manhattan we want to do one in Queens and two in Brooklyn. And from there we want to really just develop the concept and add something like a hamburger to the menu so that way we can reach the lunch crowd and the dinner crowd, and we want to build up a brand as a restaurant that serves mouth watering hamburgers and the most unique in the world really quite frankly. And from there I want to be able to use my sales skills that I've accumulated and I want to pitch this as a ghost kitchen franchise concept. And I want to basically see how many I can open up around the country. And this goes back to technology, especially with door dash. And those cities where you know it's not a walking city like it is in New York, you still have door dash who who hires delivery drivers and makes that makes that thought accessible. So that's I want to take it as possibly as far as I can. I love that and you know what we'll see on the call after this because you know I can have a lot more that I can share with you especially with my background in franchising. And yeah, and I love the fact that you're one of the few ones that are embracing food delivery. Because believe it or not, I have a lot of consultation clients, and majority of them, they hate the 25% 30% delivery fee they hate that they're always blaming and victimizing themselves because of the fees because of the commission because of the high costs. In reality, it is because of these food apps that a lot of them are still in existence today. Exactly. And then if you take into consideration of the marketing costs, the logistics and the technology behind and the value that they provide, really, it is a blessing that there are these food apps and the sooner that we as entrepreneurs, that we can embrace these companies and be able to leverage them like what you are, the sooner that these people can start to win. And that's really something I want to be able to educate and really push forward is like, yo, leverage these food apps for your business because the later that you do that, the less you're going to be able to win. And that's just the way the industry is trending. And it seems like literally every time I read the new section, there is more and more publicity on ghost kitchens. There are more and more companies investing their time into it. There's more and more bigger franchise brands that are opening up their own smaller ghost kitchen. And I think that's just the way the market is trending. So to me, that was my first thought was, okay, I've seen a few brands who have already done it well with chilies being one, they had a smaller wing ghost kitchen that was a massive success. And to me, I wanted to build something to answer that. And I mean, I feel like if they were able to do it and leverage the apps properly, then it is possible. So they've already laid the groundwork for other people like myself to follow. Totally. And you know what? For the people that I know you're a super busy guy, you need to go and find Mark Cuban again. But for the people that want to follow you, follow your journey, what are some of your handles? Yeah, so you can find us on Instagram at big stick willies with an underscore in between. So big underscore stick underscore willies. And our website is big stick willies.com. And right now we're running a contest to win free sticks for a year. So if you sign up, submit your information, you'll be entered into the drawing. I love that. That is awesome. Thank you guys. Make sure you guys go give will a follow so in that way you can see what he's doing and apply it to your own business. And I'm pretty sure that we will going to be seeing you very, very soon again will awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me. All right, awesome. Take care. Right.