Rising Star #1: Austin Patry, Will YOU be the next Rising Star?

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Hi, I'm Joni Petrie, and welcome to my YouTube channel. Well, today I want to start a new series I'm very excited about. It's called Rising Stars. What it's about is I want to interview individuals who have had difficult times during this coronavirus, but have turned it around into something very positive. So, in other words, taking these challenges and turning it into an opportunity. And I know there's a lot of you out here that have done that. I want to bring you on the show, so I want to make sure that you all understand. Put your stories down below in the comment section here. And what I plan on doing is bringing you on the show and pretty much telling the world about your mission, how you've changed your life and turned something negative into something positive. And this will help inspire everyone else to do the same thing, because it's when things get tough that really the tough get going. And I know that it's so important to find inspiration during difficult times. So we're here to inspire all of you to. To turn this into a blessing in disguise. I know that's not so easy, but when we hear other people's stories on how they were able to do this, I think this is going to better inspire you out there. So don't forget, put your stories down below, and I'm going to arrange a time to interview you and even promote what you're doing out there for the world. So. So with that, I want to start with my son, Austin, because he has really taken this opportunity and changed his business into something dynamic and interesting. And that's what we have to do. We gotta change with the times. It's the people that look back at their losses that never come to a place of success. So we gotta look forward. How can we change and make our life and our world better? So, Austin, tell everybody about what you were able to do through these difficult times, what your business is and how you changed it to make it an opportunity for growth.

Absolutely. So a little bit about my business. I own restaurants, and we started in a food truck after we graduated from college, me and my business partner. And we went from a food truck specializing in health foods. So we would serve acai bowls, smoothies, avocado toast, different kind of toast. And then we graduated into an actual brick and mortar store, and we found our niche within college campuses. So our first storefront was on TCU Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, where we had our first storefront. And then we opened another one in Tulane University in New Orleans. And now we have two more in Chicago at University of Chicago and Loyola Chicago. And so when this pandemic came, we were really, we had a lot of momentum going for us with opening new universities. We were talking with a lot of new universities about potential new openings, and we were really excited. And then, of course, Covid happened and everything came to a complete halt. And as with everyone in the hospitality industry, this has been an incredibly difficult time, especially for us, because we were on college campuses where they closed a lot earlier than a lot of restaurants did. And we don't even have the option of doing a takeout or a delivery. So what we landed on doing is our team is we're an optimistic bunch. And as a health food focused company, you can see right here on our shirt, it says spread healthy vibes. That's our vision. And so immediately, instead of, you know, looking at the negatives and kind of pouting about everything that's happening, we said, let's take advantage of this time right now and find a new opportunity. So immediately after everything closed down, we met and we figured out that we wanted to do a direct to consumer online subscription service with our acai bowls and smoothies so that you, the consumer, can get our acai bowls or our smoothies at home delivered straight to your doorstep.

And.

And it would become packaged with dry ice and fresh and frozen. And with that, you can make your own acai bowls and smoothies again using our recipes at your house. And we included a lot of toppings, our special toppings, such as our granola, which is locally sourced cacao nibs, goji berries, stuff like that. So I actually brought in a couple just right here. This is what they look like. We're working on some custom packaging right now, but this is our Coco Loco. This has acai and mixed berries and peanut butter. This is the Train youn Dragon. It has Pattaya, which is dragon fruit and pineapple and strawberries. And then my mom's favorite name, the Let that Mango or Let that Mango. But little play on words there with Pattaya, mango and peach. And so we launched this after Covid happened. We launched this within a month. And so we built the whole online component. We built this, the packaging, the labeling, the measurements, everything there is to it.

Yeah. Said he didn't sleep too much during that week and he lost a lot of weight because he was so focused into getting this done. And you, you're. It was amazing. You did it. I mean, it's a beautiful product. I actually have one every morning. They're delicious. And they're healthy, nutritious, and you. You feel cleansed after you eat, after you drink one for breakfast in the morning. Let me have a little sip here.

Okay.

Mmm.

You're drinking the Super Monkey.

Super Monkey. Delicious. I mean, it's so creative, too, you know, I want to inspire people to be more creative during these times. That's what we have to do to overcome these obstacles. And here's a prime example of somebody who, you know, just stepped right in and did what he had to do to take advantage of the new opportunities. Because when things like this happen, there's a big change and there's a whole set of new opportunities that come out of difficulties. So maybe you can't keep doing what you were doing, but you got to see how I can change to adapt to the new times. And this is definitely what you did. So, Austin, tell me, what exactly inspired you to do this? How did this all. I mean, how did you kick into gear like you did? Tell me about that.

Well, I personally have a very internal locus of control, meaning that I control my own destiny in my mind. So when something comes to a halt like this, I think it's up to me and my team to take immediate action into evolving our business into something great. And so immediately, we had a meeting right when this all hit, like I said, and we decided on this. And one thing I would like to say, just from a business and entrepreneurial perspective as well, is this is not what we envisioned from the start. We were going to put it in cups. We were going to have a completely different idea. And then as you just kind of start, that's all you have to do is start. And as you flesh out that idea, it completely evolves and completely changes. So when our back's up against the wall, that's when really creativity and opportunity arises. And to be honest, I don't know if we would have ever done this if it wasn't for a time like this. So now we have. Now we have a whole new business that can be in addition to our storefront locations on college campuses. And then this goes from. We're even thinking about getting these into grocery stores once we get our custom packaging. So it really is an amazing opportunity that we're really grateful. Now looking back at it.

Well, I just see this as you found solutions during these difficult times. And I have to say this as well. When he was growing up, he would always correct me when. When I was negative. He goes, you're not walking your talk, Mom. You can't be a victim anymore. You've got to change. So he helped me grow, and I helped you grow, because these were all the teachings I taught him to always be positive, look at the opportunities for growth, and don't be a victim, because victims are the ones who always look at their losses, and therefore they never grow. So you got to take challenges and turn them into your opportunities for growth. And that's the power of successful people. And, you know, not everyone's successful every time, but when you keep trying, one of the times you're successful, if you look at the lives of so many successful people, you'll find that they had a few losses. But you know what they do when they have losses? They look at it as an opportunity to understand, to grow from their losses. What. What caused this to be a loss, and it become gain. So Austin always taught me there's no such thing as a bad day, because whenever I would. I would say, oh, I had a bad day. He goes, what did you learn? I thought that was profound. As a kid, you used to tell me that he's always been like that. So he is an inspiration to us all. And Austin, tell us, how can they get the. Get this delivered to their house? How can they get your product?

Yeah, well, real quick, I'd like to backtrack on what you were saying about the challenges, because that is something. Sometimes you see this successful company and you think, wow, it must be absolutely great for them, and they must have had an easy road. What a great idea that they had and how successful they are. But there are so many bumps in the road that you don't see that are behind the door and behind the curtain. I mean, we have. Currently, we have four locations around the country, but we've opened two locations that we had to close. And so we've. When. When we fail at something, we try and really fail fast, as Facebook always says as well. And so once immediately, within, you know, a few months, we really know if it's going to work or not. So we have had our handful of challenges. I never wish this upon anyone of you, of having a food truck behind you that is towed to the back of your truck and it coming unhinged, which happened to me, and I didn't know anything about trucks or anything, but you just dive in and you learn. So you have to embrace those challenges and embrace new opportunities. And to answer your question now about where you can get some of these things, it's basically, you can go on our website. It's an online subscription service, and you can sign up if you want six of these delivered to your homes per week. If you want 12 per week, 12 per month, 24 per month. It's already pre portioned out for you for a nice 16 to 20 ounce smoothie. But you can go to rolandandbolin.com names right here. It's R O L L I n n b o w l-I n.com and you can click the R and B at home subscription tab at the top. And it'll kind of go through just signing up for that subscription and customizing your box as well. Cause you can, you really like this Coco Loco. You can get 12 of these or you can get one of these. And we have nine other eight other flavors. So it's really up to you how you want to customize it.

Yeah. Did you tell them about the toppings with Gordiola? So delicious.

Absolutely. Yeah. That's important to say. I think for those of you who don't know what an acai bowl is, it's the same thing as a smoothie. It uses the acai berry, which comes from the Amazon. And essentially it's the same thing as a smoothie, but just uses less liquid. So you put this bowl, you put the product, the smoothie product, into an actual bowl and then you can put toppings on it such as granola or cacao nibs or goji berries. And you actually eat it with a spoon so it's really thick. And so with our product, you can simply just fill it up all the way to the top with liquid and you can pour it in your blender and it'll make a smoothie, or you fill it halfway and it'll make a thicker bowl. And you can additionally buy our toppings online and customize it however you want. If you're feeling a bowl one day and you're feeling a smoothie the other day, you can do whatever you want.

So I hope this has inspired everyone to look at these difficult times in a different light and in a different way. And I wanted to add one more thing. Austin, as an entrepreneur, you know, he definitely loves business and wants creative ways. And one thing that he did to better learn about business and how other people were successful is he did an Entire series on YouTube about how businesses started in a matter of what two to three minute video you did. And it tells you about a lot of the losses and difficulties that most businesses go through to get to where they are today. It's very inspirational. So those of you that are interested in business and learning more about how you can improve yourself. Check out his YouTube channel on businesses and startup companies and how they've grown to be some of the best, most successful businesses in the world. And he learned how to better succeed and how to get through the hard times to get to this place where he's happy and success is in his future. So for all of you rising stars out there, please send in your stories. Let's see how we can help make this change into something better. So this is our opportunity to change our life. And I want to promote all of you out there that can inspire other people with this. So with that, I'd like to close. If you would like more information on me, you can always go to my website, which is Galactic Center.org and don't forget to sign up for my free newsletter. Thank you.